Hello everyone, intern Ash here, writing to you from Shade academy. The last few days had been affected by an intense heat wave, so most people are stuck in, well, the shade or a cooled off place inside. Some wisecracks have attempted to make “homemade Dust coolers”, which resulted in several accidents, though luckily nobody was hurt too much. So I’ve decided to write a short article reminding about Dust safety during this intense weather. I’ll include some tips on what you actually can do with the Dust you have on hand to cool off and some basic pointers on general Dust handling.
WHAT NOT TO DO
DO NOT SHATER YOUR ICE DUST TO COOL YOUR HOME!
The family of one student in the school, Butterscotch, decided to crack a chunk of ice Dust in their home. Several houses have already been found iced over from the inside, with pointy icicles poking out of every window and door, and Butterscotch’s was no different. Luckily, thanks to people looking for places to cool off in the day, these accidents are quickly found and authorities are alerted. Frozen families are eventually thawed out and brought to warm up in the sunlight. Sadly a few of these geniuses (mainly the ones doing the Dust crystal cracking) lost some fingers in the ensuing ice explosions. Hopefully if they’re rich enough to afford Dust, they’re rich enough to get bionic replacements!
DO NOT INGEST ICE DUST!
Some individuals were desperate enough to cool off, that they resorted to infusing ice Dust directly into their bodies. The lucky ones had only a large Dust crystal on hand and decided to take a bite out of it. At best this resulted in chipped teeth, at worst – the crystal partially detonated, covering their face in ice. Nothing life threatening, but extremely uncomfortable for a long while. Unfortunately, the ones that had ice Dust in powder or tiny easy-to-swallow crystal forms are currently in intense care. They came down with severe cases of indigestion, as the content in their stomachs kept freezing up. Currently, the doctors have to handle them with care to avoid loss of live. Not every bit of Dust that was ingested had been activated yet, so doctors can’t risk simply placing a heat pack on their belies. That could trigger the remaining Dust and cause an internal and most likely lethal ice eruption. For now, all the doctors can do is slowly warm the patients’ bellies and, once the contents start to melt, give them warm water so they throw up right away, hopefully alongside any remaining ice Dust.
WHAT CAN YOU DO
Ok, now that we covered what not to do, here is a list of things that you can do to stay cool with Dust:
- Fill a big pot or any other open container with water and place the ice Dust in it. The water will begin to cool, but won’t freeze from just passively staying with the Dust, slowly causing your room to cool down.
- If you have a fan, attach the ice Dust crystal behind it, so it would blow the ambient cold from it. However, do not attach it to the propeller itself – our teammate Gray Nevermore did this and while it did help cool off our room, the ice crystal slipped off due to it not being affixed correctly. Luckily, our team leader Bailey Lupis was able to catch it using her semblance before it shattered on the floor.
GENERAL DUST HANDLING INFORMATION:
- Dust is best used and handled through devices specifically made for them. It is safer and easier to start a campfire with a fire Dust lighter, than by bashing a fire crystal into a rock. Not to mention such devices had been fine-tuned to be as efficient as possible – way more than you can be.
- When dividing or grinding Dust, your best bet would be to do that at your local Dust store. You need proper tools and experience to avoid causing an explosion, while the friendly Shopkeep is always there to help you. It’s in their best interest to not have the store blow up, you see.
- Do not use Dust directly. Yes, there are huntsmen that love showing off like they’re some elemental magicians from a fantasy video game. But these posers are few and far in between for a reason. Without proper tools, some special huntsmen and huntresses stab themselves with Dust crystals, so that the energy can flow directly into their bloodstream. Ever get shocked when charging the battery in your scroll? Well, it’s like that but lasting for hours and thousand times more painful. So, while cool, this can only be done by those with specific semblances – pain nullification, extra limb creation. internal barriers… For example, my teammate Nicolle Metaphys has infinitely regrowing teeth that have no nerves. So, she can use Dust directly through them – and only through them.
I hope this article will prove useful to everyone who’s suffering from this extreme heatwave. Take care and stay safe! Till next time, this is intern Ash signing off.
Editor’s note: During this time, Atlas is also suffering from an intense snowstorm, that left many people, including our friends, family and colleagues, without water, electricity or heat. If possible, consider donating to the fund organized by our friends in the community. Thank you.