[SUBMITTED] Drops of Mercury

[Jutsa]

I don't know, sometimes the strangest things come to mind.
But then again, I love writing issues, and I love this song. And I love Freddie Mercury.

Title: Drops of Mercury
The Issue: The issue of limiting the use of products containing mercury has been put back in the atmosphere as yet another public panic on recalled tuna fish took news outlets by storm.
Validity: Probably must not be vegetarian; Lower 50% environmental protection

Validity: Otherwise-not-too-terrible environment
Option 1a: "Mercury is a serious problem, as it's extremely toxic and doesn't go anywhere but up the food chain," says your environmental minister @@RANDOMNAME@@, tracing @@HIS@@ way through @@HIS@@ own memories of consultations. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it."
[effect] lighting fixtures and blood pressure gauges are frowned upon

Validity: just awful environment
Option 1b: "Mercury is a serious problem, as it's extremely toxic and doesn't go anywhere but up the food chain," says your mostly powerless environmental minister, trying to wipe crude oil off his moustache. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow, and not just financially. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it, if you want to keep your workforce healthy."
[effect] lighting fixtures and blood pressure gauges are frowned upon

Option 2: "There's a time to change, and the time is now! We don't want to live in a world with a permanent scar," cries one of your more environmentally sensitive MPs 'Old' Jane Stein. "We must ban the sale of all common mercury-based products, and push an international treaty for others to do the same, before our nation's life's all faded!"
[effect] thermometers are confiscated for being a public safety hazard

Option 3: "Oh please, next thing you know, there'll be no five-hour phone conversations, save me!" belts mercury dealer Freddie @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, back from his vacation and enjoying a soy latte. "How come Dàguó can use cinnabar to dye things red, but we can't make gas stoves, batteries, car engines, house paint, or makeup from it without it being a national crime? You must see the light of day and put a clean slate to the restrictions on mercury, for sale or rent."
[effect] recent makeover trends are making faces a lot more pale

Option 4: "Quicksilver, as I call it, can be very dangerous when placed in the wrong hands. However, it is also completely harmless if you know how to use it correctly," says alchemist Ostanes Flamel, drops of mercury visible in his hair. "Send me some money and a boat load of lead, and I'll make your waters crystal clean! Hey, now tell me, did I just blow your mind?"
[effect] silverware is blamed for causing people to dance uncontrollably

Title: Drops of Mercury
The Issue: The issue of limiting the use of products containing mercury has been put back in the atmosphere as yet another public panic on recalled tuna fish took news outlets by storm.
Validity: Probably must not be vegetarian; Lower 50% environmental protection

Validity: Otherwise-not-too-terrible environment
Option 1a: "Mercury is a serious problem, as it's extremely toxic and doesn't go anywhere but up the food chain," says your environmental minister @@RANDOMNAME@@, tracing @@HIS@@ way through @@HIS@@ own memories of consultations. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it."
[effect] critical electrical components and fluorescent lights are overrated

Validity: just awful environment
Option 1b: "Mercury is a serious problem, as it's extremely toxic and doesn't go anywhere but up the food chain," says your mostly powerless environmental minister, trying to wipe crude oil off his moustache. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow, and not just financially. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it, if you want to keep your workforce healthy."
[effect] critical electrical components and fluorescent lights are overrated

Option 2: "There's a time to change, and the time is now! We don't want to live in a world with a permanent scar," cries one of your more environmentally sensitive MPs 'Old' Jane Stein. "We must ban the sale of all common mercury-based products, and push an international treaty for others to do the same, before our nation's life's all faded!"
[effect] citizens' thermometers are confiscated from under their noses and behind their backs

Option 3: "Preposterous! No mercury? Next thing you know, there'll be no five-hour phone conversations, Violet save me!" belts mercury dealer Freddie @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, back from his vacation and enjoying a soy latte. "We're making a big deal about this stuff, even though nations like Dàguó will still gladly use it in their red dye. What happened to the times where we could use it for gas stoves, batteries, car engines, house paint, and makeup without it being a national crime? If you trust your people, you must see the light of day and put a clean slate to the restrictions on mercury, for sale or rent."
[effect] people look like silver and walk in pain

Option 4: "Quicksilver, as I call it, can be very dangerous when placed in the wrong hands. However, it is also completely harmless if you know how to use it correctly," says alchemist Ostanes Flamel, drops of mercury visible in his hair. "Send me some money and a boat load of lead, and I'll make your waters crystal clean! Hey, now tell me, did I just blow your mind?"
[effect] silverware is blamed for causing people to dance uncontrollably

Title: Drops of Mercury
The Issue: The issue of limiting the use of products containing mercury has been put back in the atmosphere as yet another public panic on recalled tuna fish took news outlets by storm.
Validity: Probably must not be vegetarian

Option 1: "Mercury poisoning is an increasing risk as it doesn't degrade, and the only place it can go is into the food chain," says your environmental minister @@RANDOMNAME@@, tracing @@HIS@@ way through @@HIS@@ own memories of consultations. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it."
[effect] critical electrical components and fluorescent lights are overrated

Option 2: "There's a time to change, and the time is now! We don't want to live in a world with a permanent scar," cries one of your more environmentally sensitive MPs 'Old' Jane Stein. "We must ban the sale of all common mercury-based products, and push an international treaty for others to do the same, before our nation's life's all faded!"
[effect] citizens' thermometers are confiscated from under their noses and behind their backs

Option 3: "Preposterous! No mercury? Next thing you know, there'll be no five-hour phone conversations, save me!" belts mercury dealer Freddie @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, back from his vacation and enjoying a soy latte. "We've already been griping about mercury in our nation, even though nations like Dàguó will still gladly use it. What happened to the times where we could use it for gas stoves, batteries, car engines, house paint, and makeup without it being a national crime? If you trust your people, you must see the light of day and put a clean slate to the restrictions on mercury, for sale or rent."
[effect] people look like silver and walk in pain

Option 4: "Quicksilver, as I call it, can be very dangerous if in the wrong hands. However, it is also totally harmless if you know how to use it correctly," says alchemist Ostanes Flamel, drops of mercury visible in his hair. "In fact, send me some money and a boat load of lead, and I'll make your waters crystal clean! Hey, now tell me, did I just blow your mind?"
[effect] silverware is blamed for causing people to dance uncontrollably

Title: Drops of Mercury
The Issue: The issue of limiting the use of products containing mercury has been put back in the atmosphere as yet another public panic on recalled tuna fish took news outlets by storm.
Validity: Probably must not be vegetarian

Option 1: "Mercury poisoning is an increasing risk as it doesn't degrade, and the only place it can go is into the food chain," says your environmental minister @@RANDOMNAME@@, tracing @@HIS@@ way through @@HIS@@ own memories of consultations. "But I'm reminded that there's room to grow. We must encourage the public to use less mercury-based products, as well as recycle anything that contains it."
[effect] critical electrical components are overrated

Option 2: "There's a time to change, and the time is now! We don't want to live in a world with a permanent scar," cries one of your more environmentally sensitive MPs 'Old' Jane Stein. "We must ban the sale of all common mercury-based products, before our nation's life's all faded!"
[effect] citizens' thermometers are confiscated from behind their backs

Option 3: "Preposterous! No mercury? Next thing you know, there'll be no five-hour phone conversations, save me!" belts mercury dealer Freddie @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, back from his vacation and enjoying a soy latte. "We've already been griping about mercury in our nation, even though other nations will still gladly use it. What happened to the times where we could use it for gas stoves, batteries, car engines, house paint, and makeup without it being a national crime? If you trust your people, you must see the light of day and put a clean slate to the restrictions on mercury, for sale or rent."
[effect] people look like silver and walk in pain

Option 4: "Quicksilver, as I call it, can be very dangerous if in the wrong hands. However, it is also totally harmless if you know how to use it correctly," says alchemist Ostanes Flamel, drops of mercury visible in his hair. "In fact, send me some money and a boat load of lead, and I'll make your waters crystal clean! Hey, now tell me, did I just blow your mind?"
[effect] silverware is blamed for causing medical conditions

[Socio Polor]

This is good Jutsa. Though as a suggestion, have you considered adding an option that proposes using the mercury say as a weapon. I feel @@name@@'s armed forces would love to weaponize it due to it's known lethal and dangerous effects

[Lelscrep]

This is good Jutsa. Though as a suggestion, have you considered adding an option that proposes using the mercury say as a weapon. I feel @@name@@'s armed forces would love to weaponize it due to it's known lethal and dangerous effects

+1 to the idea of using mercury maliciously. I was thinking more along the lines of a eugenicist putting mercury into the food of convicted criminals, or something like that? Mercury warfare could be good for sci-fi puns though.

[Jutsa]

Eh, maybe. Here's the thing though.
1) Several of my issue ideas could probably have an option like that,
2) Many, many issues already exist with an option similar to that, and
3) I already have so many options

It's kinda why I didn't add a "use toxic river water to carpetbomb" option to my river fire draft.
That said, I'll still definitely think about it, especially with some of the suggestions you both've given.

[Lelscrep]

Eh, maybe. Here's the thing though.
1) Several of my issue ideas could probably have an option like that,
2) Many, many issues already exist with an option similar to that, and
3) I already have so many options

It's kinda why I didn't add a "use toxic river water to carpetbomb" option to my river fire draft.
That said, I'll still definitely think about it, especially with some of the suggestions you both've given.

All up to you, of course, and this issue is really enjoyable to read, good job!

[Jutsa]

All up to you, of course, and this issue is really enjoyable to read, good job!

Thanks. I think I've gotten just a bit better over the years. And it's reassuring since this was a really fun one to write.

[Socio Polor]

All up to you, of course, and this issue is really enjoyable to read, good job!

Thanks. I think I've gotten just a bit better over the years. And it's reassuring since this was a really fun one to write.

Good luck Jutsa! You did really well here.

[Trotterdam]

...Haven't we already done this?

The toxic nature of mercury has been known for ages, and use of mercury has indeed gone down drastically since the days we didn't realize its hazards. The story feels a little flat without an explanation of why it's still a problem even though we should have already figured out the appropiate safety measures long ago.

[Australian rePublic]

Does this mean a return to incandescent light bulbs?

[Jutsa]

Does this mean a return to incandescent light bulbs?

Yes.

@Trot: Oh wow I didn't realize there was a convention on this in 2013; in fact it's gonna be banned in 2020 so...

heck yes

Just looking on wikipedia (Minamata Convention), it looks like it wasn't ratified until 2017 though,
so... wouldn't exactly call that long ago, but it's good to know.

Dunno if that makes this draft not work, or if I've gotta change it to reference that convention a bit more.
Option 2 could probably use a bit more bulk anyway...

ed: So, Aussie, looks like we won't have fluorescent lights either.

[Jutsa]

Bump~ Added text to option 2 about making an international treaty.

Still a bit uncertain about this one though, since it seems like mercury, which at first I wasn't even certain would be a national issue,
turned out to be a global issue, but uh... yeah, not sure.

[Jutsa]

Welp, now that the contest is going on I have some incentive to bump this now instead of a few months down the road.

Made a couple tiny changes. Got any ideas on what could be changed?
I'm pretty sure this'll be one of my three submissions, lest this be completely obliterated.

edit: added a very environmentally-poor variant to option 1 just because.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I don't get the first three effect lines. Feels like there's jokes attempted, but I can't place them.

[Jutsa]

The first and third are references (which tbh I get why they shouldn't be in effect lines, I'll think of something but as you know I'm awful with these things),
while the second... in hindsight, I'm not certain what I was thinking.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

References can work in effect lines, though I guess a good rule of thumb is that they should still make sense if you don't get the reference.

"Look like silver" doesn't mean much to me.

[Jutsa]

was meant to be a reference to "acts like summer and walks like rain", also a reference to using mercury as makeup.

But I get that's pretty obscure.

Shortened/adjusted that option and modified another effect line, struggling to think of anything for the other two effect lines though.
No way I'd win this contest if I can't do this though, so I'll take this 50-minute battle as a sign that I should go to bed rather than defeat. :u
not that I'm intending to win, mind you, but I've gotta at least try in the name of good sportsmanship and as justification for not doing other things.

[Jutsa]

Tried for hours last time and couldn't come up with a darned thing. Tried for no more than five minutes this time and immediately came up with two new effect lines.

Guess that just happens sometimes. That, and it's a sign I really gotta not try writing late at night >.>

Gonna put this on last call, I think. I'm not sure if I want to keep the main issue about tuna or not, but at the moment I'm thinking it's simple and relatable.
Also, I think I'm going to submit my fiddler on a roof draft as my last contest submission, and submit this one separately on premise grounds.

[Jutsa]

Submitted. Didn't plan for this to be an issue contest submission, but
a) was gonna submit this anyways,
b) I don't think I'm gonna be finishing any other drafts for a while between work and other projects, and
c) there's not a terribly large amount of time left anyways. Sure, two weeks, but at my rate that's nowhere near enough time lol.

As stated in point b, I have a feeling drafting will be on the wayside for now.
My end goal is to hit like 25 issues, but I think you can expect a lot less drafts from me, at least for a while.