crystal.

[achievable]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Howard Stark
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: Nah

[ A snappy American (or dwarven or Qunari) accent, familiar only to anyone Howard has bothered in person over the last couple of weeks while finding his way around and becoming slowly convinced this isn’t a fever dream, breaks the mid-afternoon doldrums with, ]

You people really live like this, huh?

[ The time for acclimation is over. ]

You have kids who can throw electricity out of their fingers. And you’re walking up ten flights of stairs, in this heat? It’s interesting, but I hate it.

[ The time for being an ass has begun. ]

Someone explain lyrium to me. Only the dwarves and the wizards without feelings can handle it—I assume everyone else has tried gloves.

[ But, like, he’s not sure. Please confirm. ]

Comments

[aventuriere]

Oh no, he went quite mad.

There was some debate, I recall, about whether perhaps his later experiments were tainted by madness caused by earlier iterations and if in fact some of them might have been viable had he still had his wits. But another fellow, a former student of his, attempted to prove this theory and began with the later designs but he ended up thoroughly mad as well.

[achievable]

What kind of madness are we talking about? Nonstop screaming, thinking your shoes are a hat, having ideas other people don't think are possible—it's a wide spectrum.

[aventuriere]

I can't say firsthand, but the unpleasant kind, certainly. Nonstop screaming, as you said, hallucinations, loss of memory, general incoherence, babbling nonsense, and--of course--death.

[achievable]

So grinning and bearing it is out of the question.

Has anyone tried anything else that comes to mind?