You stagger ouf of the hospital, vowing to identify prior to licking wild rocks.
You head to the Arizona deserts yo bask and recover. In an arid cave, #YouFindARock.
It’s very blue. So blue. Electric blue?
📷 Michael C. Roarke
🎶 I'm blue, da ba dee da ba di🎶 you sing to yourself, picking up your latest gorgeous friend.
>
Learning absolutely nothing from recently EATING URANIUM, you lunge tongue-first at the strange rock.
“Bright colours are only a warning in animals,” you reason, utterly ignoring the close association between vibrancy and heavy metals in minerals.
>
> Reconsider
Your guts still aching from your recent encounter with EATING URANIUM, you decide to not be hospitalized twice in two days and keep your tongue to yourself.
At least, until you have some idea who your pretty blue fren is...
>
> Douse
“If I’m not going to lick you, I’m still giving you a bath” you reason, dunking the mineral in water.
It starts to dissolve.
>
> Dry
“Eek!” you exclaim. “I had no idea you were such a water-soluble mineral. Sorry about that.”
Your nail catches the mineral, just barely scratching it. “Oh! Mohs hardness 2.5?” you ask, then coo “You’re just a lil softie, aren’t you?”
>
> Heft & sniff
“Huh,” you marvel after weighing the mineral carefully in your hand. “You’re not so heavy, are you? You can’t have THAT much metal...”
You lean close, inhaling deeply. It smells sweetly metallic. “Oh!” your eyes flutter open in realization. “Chalcanthite!!”
>
> Take
Armed with appropriate prospecting permits, you collect the chalcanthite. You’re coming with me, sweet thing,” you whisper, tucking the mineral into your pocket.
> Focus on blue goo
You switch your attention to goo created by partially-dissolving your sample in water.
>
> zap
“Ooh, this means I have copper sulfate solution!” you cackle wildly before pouring goo into unglazed ceramic pots. “It’s time for GEOPHYSICS!!!”
You drop copper electrodes into the pots & wire them together. “Shhh! We’re hunting self potentials!” you hiss sharply.
>
> wait
You twiddle your thumbs & fidget, but soon have a clear read on how natural telluric currents are flowing through the ground.
“I’ve got you now!” you crow victoriously, creating a map of likely shallow metallic sulfide deposits to hunt for yet more chalcanthite.
>
> Shepherd
You find the local flock of wooly creatures & strike a deal with their human.
Your new partner uses copper sulfate as a dye fixative tinting yellow to green; a fungicide for unhappy feets & mouldy grapes; and more.
“We done good,” you whisper to your chalcanthite.
> Bask
You stretch out on a hillside overlooking a valley of well-loved fluffy critters, wrinkling your nose slightly as a gentle breeze carries the stench of a copper mordant vat.
“Not every rock is best licked,” you remind yourself, sipping organic wine. “Just some of them.”
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