Liquid metal shouldn't be anyone's best friend

[goestoextremes]

So uh. Hi. [How do you start a post here? Weird, especially without any telepathic skills, that many others seem to have. ]

I'm Korra... I've been on this jaunt since the beginning, but I was busy during the check-in post... Anyway, this is my second jaunt, Rome was the first and I arrived during the cruiser liminal from a world, where we also have our own version of Spirit World and elementalism and empowered alike skills, that we call bending back there. No idea if it's normal for a world to remind someone so much of their home, but this one sure does in some ways...

[ Spirit World, spirits, mercury, superpowers. ...the list could go on and on. At least she doesn't need to hide her skills here like had to back in Rome. ]

But that's enough about me for the moment. I'm actually here for something that's actually important... [ So don't push your imaginary MUTE buttons yet, even if that first part's just her rambling! ]

If you run into Jean -- light-brown eyes, brown hair with darker hue on the back and sides, average height of 175cm or 5'9" whichever makes more sense to you, long face, wears black clothes with lots of pockets and stuff this jaunt... [ Seriously, if any of you can share a picture somehow, please do! ]

His infiltrator name is John King, he is a Manticore Squire as far as I know from our first day here... His empowered ability is manipulating mercury / quicksilver. Now, I'm talking from experience, when I say this; that stuff can be seriously really horrible for health.

So...! If you happen to fight against him while they are chasing people there, or whatever, but if he gets that liquid metal anywhere on your skin or body? You should tell me and I'll make sure you stay healthy! Unless you can heal yourself or know other healers, of course, but for those of you, who don't... I can check if there's any of it in your body and metalbend it out of you. It doesn't hurt, it requires no touching and I swear it's a lot better than chances of walking around with even a little pieces of that metal in your body.

Ohh, and my waterbending has healing abilities if anyone needs those for any injuries, that you might get here or wherever we go while I'm myself.

Comments

[goestoextremes]

[ . . . ]



. . . What do you mean?

[leftbehindagain]

I talked to him last week. His hands were shaking and he said he'd just taken some sick leave from work, but... he didn't elaborate.

[goestoextremes]

That could definitely be from the mercury, yeah. ...I guess it means that his health is getting worse.

[leftbehindagain]

No one deserves to be killed by their own superpower. That's just ridiculous.

Maybe I can come up with something to stop it.

[goestoextremes]

It is ridiculous and really shouldn't happen. [ although ow, that kind of hits her really hard considering her situation a few years ago. ]

Hey, if you're going to do something like that, I want in on your plan.

[leftbehindagain]

Unless you know much about the chemistry side of things, I don't know how much you'd be able to help. [It's not that he's against help, but the whole alchemy thing makes it difficult.]

[goestoextremes]

Ohhh, well. I know nothing about that side of things... Does it help if I test whether or not he's able to make his own mercury?

[leftbehindagain]

Maybe, though if he's doing this badly I don't think it matters whether he's making it himself or not.

[goestoextremes]

At least he's still walking... for now. And if he's used to carrying all that mercury around and no one taking it away from him, it might take him a while to get more of it. ...Well, unless he knows where to get it and walks there as soon as he runs out of it. Anyway, the more information we have about his condition and limits of his powers the better for Jean and us too, right?

[leftbehindagain]

Right.

I mean, I don't expect him to stop using the power in this world either way. But I really, really hope he doesn't keep it.

[God he wishes Helena-san were still here. Not that he'd necessarily be able to ask at this moment anyway, but... well.]

[goestoextremes]

Hey, I'm not expecting him to stop either, no matter what it's doing to him physically and mentally until it's too late... Or at least that's what it sounds like. But -- slowing him down a bit with it doesn't sound like a bad idea. It could backfire, really horribly, but it could work for a while too. [ Decisions, decisions and she's not liking this kind of decisions much if at all.] ...I really, really hope he doesn't keep them. If he does, I'll see if I can talk Jean into lettimg me try to seal them away.

[ Watching his infiltrator use that poison and hearing him suffer from it is bad enough. ]

[leftbehindagain]

If he does keep it, he's smart enough to only use it as a last resort. But I don't think he'd like having the option very much.

[goestoextremes]

I know, it's not like he's stupid at all. [Except when he fights with Eren.] I just -- really don't want it to mess him up more than it will from having those powers here. Which, who even knows how much that will be after all the time he spends using it while we're stuck in this world.

[leftbehindagain]

[Yeah, well, when you have the kind of friends where you show friendship by yelling a lot, dumb can happen.]

I'll be able to negate stuff from this jaunt as soon as I can work something out. That at least won't be a problem.

We should try to find out if there's anyone particularly close in John's circle who might also need help. If he doesn't have immunity to his own powers, it's unlikely anyone else around him does either.

[goestoextremes]

[ She has one friend like that herself, she gets it. ]

With the chemistry stuff? Great! We'll make sure he'll be just fine and gets some rest.

[ Because she's going to check-up on Jean with her healing powers either way, doubling a good effect isn't a bad idea. ]

Yeah, I agree. Maybe finding John would mean finding a person like that too if they stay close enough to at least keep an eye on each other most of the time.

[leftbehindagain]

Better than chemistry, actually, though that underpinning would help me with figuring this kind of thing out. Maybe I should go looking for a textbook while we're here. [The alchemy is better than chemistry for stuff like this, though. The only limits on what he can do with it are his imagination.

There's a reason the list of people he'd even attempt to explain it to, if he thought it worth the bother, is very short.]

It might, depending on how close they re or how often they work together.

[goestoextremes]

Alchemy then? You wouldn't be the first one to mention it here, though I'm not familiar with it.

[ Welcome to the technically limitless club as imagination is the only real limit to her own powers too. ]

It might be worth a shot. Unless we happen to see him with someone, but that could also be anyone... Well, at least it's one way to start, I want to talk with him again anyway.

[leftbehindagain]

I can't speak for anyone who brought it from home, but mine is worlds different from the stuff people could pick up in Nova Venezia. Essentially, the only limit on it is what I can think of doing.

[Sometimes that kind of power is goddamn scary, see also: he's pretty sure he could make a Philosopher's Stone if he really wanted.]

Exactly. It's at least a good icebreaker.

[goestoextremes]

...Freedom to do whatever you want with the power you have. That sounds familiar.

[ she knows a lot about that kind of power being goddamn scary, yup ... also where were you, when Ed was looking for that stone for his brother...? ]

We'll see how far I get by talking... Whenever I find him.

[heartofmetal]

You can use Alchemy? Although that sounds a highly advanced version of it.

[leftbehindagain]

It's a jaunt holdover. Technically two jaunts had something the locals called alchemy, but I'm the only one who left Purgatory with it, and the stuff in Nova Venezia is... essentially just a variation on chemistry. A lot of trappings sound the same between the two, but you get two completely different results.

[heartofmetal]

To think that Alchemy can be learned in jaunts when everyone in my world studied it for years. Of course, it makes sense. Worlds are different. Yet it somehow makes me uneasy.

[leftbehindagain]

Your world's version might be something else again.

[It makes Naoki uneasy too - there's a reason he has such a short list of people he'd even consider explaining it to.]

[heartofmetal]

Yes.

I would be interested in discussing differences between our Alchemy. I don't wish to learn it again and I doubt I Eden could.

[leftbehindagain]

That could be interesting, sometime. I mostly avoided the Nova Venezia stuff, the differences gave me a headache, so you'd have to see if someone else remembers that.