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--donation bonus (day #24, post 2/5)--
‘You can’t make your element magically float or fly around with your mind,’ said Garovel. ‘And to my knowledge, that will never change, no matter how much you develop your ability. But that’s not what Andres was doing. He was manipulating his sulfur BEFORE creating it.’

Hector tilted his brow. ‘Uh...?’

‘That’s the trick of it. You change the “state” in which your element is created. What Andres was doing wasn’t technically “launching” the crystals. Rather, the crystals were ALREADY moving when he created them, because he manipulated their “position state,” so to speak, adding an aspect of velocity to them. Which, as I mentioned, is not an easy thing to do.’

‘Hmm...’

‘You’ll also be able to change the physical state that your iron appears in. As it is now, you’re only making iron as it forms naturally in the world, but you’ll eventually be able to create it in liquid or gas form. Especially strong materialization users can even eliminate impurities in their elements. Though, as far as iron is concerned, the impurities are actually what give it its strength, so that might not be terrifically useful for you personally. A lot of elements decay too quickly in non-natural states to serve much purpose outside of a laboratory.’

‘Er, okay...’

‘I should also clarify that we’re not completely certain yet that your element really IS iron.’

‘Wait, really? I thought that was settled a long time ago.’

‘Nope. Even now, we’re still operating under that initial assumption we made.’

‘What else would it be?’

‘Beats me. My knowledge of metals is general, at best. I do believe it is iron, but I’d like to confirm that with an expert when we get the opportunity.’

‘Eesh... and when do you think that’ll be?’

‘Next week, I’d wager.’

‘What? Why would you--?’

‘That was a joke. I don’t have any fucking clue. The way things have been going, we’ll be dead before we get the chance to find out.’

Hector scratched his forehead. ‘You... you do know that jokes are supposed to “lighten” the mood, right?’

‘Let me try again. Why’d the chicken cross the road? It didn’t. It got hit by a car and died.’

‘Ugh...’