You head to southeastern France, wandering between local farms, vineyards, and olive groves.
You slip into an abandoned mine where red sandstone transitions to hydrothetmally-altered conglomerates.
#YouFindARock splayed like hard candy tablets.
📷 Stephan Wolfsried
The fan of pale green translucent tabs calls to you.
You reach out, although you’re not yet certain of your approach with this strange mineral:
>
> Scritch & scratch
“Who’s a good lil mineral!” you coo, giving a few good pats before scritching around the smooth crystal faces.
With a bit of experimenting, you determine it’s Mohs hardness 3.5, exactly the same as copper.
“D’aww, you’re a softy!” you tease.
>
> Sniff
With the mineral already comfortably resting in your hand, you nestle your nose in close for a deep inhale.
“Garlic?!” you exclaim. “Fiddlesticks. You looked so luscious, but arsenic puts you firmly on the Do Not Lick list.”
>
> Bath time!
You dunk the mineral in water.
It starts to dissolve.
“Oops!” you yelp, pulling it back out to pat dry. “So... water soluble. Good to know.”
Piecing together clues so far, you give the adamite another fond pet just because you can.
>
> zap zap zap
You bust out your collection of diverse light sources. The adamite fluoresces a crisp lemon yellow.
“It’s a pity you’re so soft,” you inform it. “You’d make cool jewellery if only you were durable. And didn’t dissolve. And weren’t poisonous.”
“...maybe not.”
>
> SMASHY-SMASHY
“Fooled you!” you exclaim with an evil grin, slamming your rock hammer on the adamite.
The very brittle soft mineral shatters, tabs splitting diagonally with very good {101} cleavage, but a jagged coincoidal mess in other directions.
You inhale fine powder.
>
> Gasp in horror
“What have I done?!” you cry, sinking to your knees in regret. “It’s almost like I haven’t learned SMASHING beautiful minerals destroys them, even if I learn cleavage & fracture.”
Your wailing inhales more fine powder. Your breath take on a garlicky stench.
>
> Hospital
Realizing you’ve given yourself low-key arsenic poisoning, you shamefully abandon your shattered mineral and retreat to the nearest hospital.
...the same hospital where you were treated for eating uranium.
The doctors are not impressed.
> Recover
You rest, recooperate, and dream of rocks that came before.
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