Elemental Slide of Fire

One of the four elemental slides of air, earth, water, and fire. These virtually indestructible objects interact with the world in uniquely peculiar ways. Despite their names and appearances, the elemental slides function more like eldritch mechanisms than playground equipment, with each warranting different preventative measures and/or containment techniques.

## Appearance and Habitat

The elemental slide of fire is hard, unpleasantly hot, and metallic. Unlike the other slides, it has no visible anomalous quality and looks exactly like a regular piece of playground equipment. Like the elemental slide of water, it is indestructible by human hands. However, unlike its brother, its pegs are normal length and it can be manually moved from place to place. It functions the same at any environmental temperature, but "deactivates" in heavy rain.

The elemental slide of fire travels all over the world as research is conducted on its effects and it is widely sought by the intellectual and eccentric alike.

## Power

Despite being the least dangerous elemental slide, the abilities of this entity have caused it to claim perhaps the highest amount of victims. The elemental slide of fire may be more benign than other slides, but has access to eerie amounts of human knowledge. By tapping in to the collective brainwaves of those in a many-mile radius, it formulates an elastic framework of morality and ethical policy always consistent with the "average" of such readings. It does not attempt to convince others to use it, but will judge those who do based on its averages. Those who fall on the higher end of the sample moral spectrum are deemed acceptable, while those below are not.

When an unacceptable person uses the slide, its surface heats up to match the severity of their wickedness. Even being slightly below average warrants temperatures that cook flesh, resulting in serious second or even third degree burns if one gets stuck to the slide. Truly contemptuous beings, however, will warrant temperatures so extreme that they can vaporize organic flesh, leaving little more than white ash. The line between "slightly askew" and "horribly villainous" also seems determined by those it reads from, meaning it is trained to be forgiving or strict in its assessments.

These traits have made the slide a useful tool with revolutionaries and rebels, who would frequently judge (or execute) their prisoners with it. Its traits also made it popular with those seeking to consolidate power, affording an easy way to clean out a population of dissenters. Though it is currently under lock and key at the pigeonhole foundation, the slide is not without a long, complicated, and bloody history.

## Avoidance Protocol

Since the slide does not motivate its use, it is only as dangerous as the people around it decide for it to be. Any situations where the slide of fire is in a position to take victims is likely already dangerous for other reasons, so one should be careful where they are in general, and be sensitive to the political climate of their environment.

It is not possible to overwrite the slide's general average with singular but powerful feelings. It is not swayed by desperate affirmations of the fearful or the intense thoughts of a zealot; all of these will be calculated as the feelings of one person, no matter how extreme.

## Trivia:

* Technically, the slide of fire looks no different than any other metal slide, but this has not been a problem due to careful scrutiny: no one wants to lose such a coveted object, and no one would place it in the open as just another piece of playground equipment.
* The slide's heat will last as long as the person is both alive and sitting on its smooth portion. If either of these conditions are not met, it cools down. At rest, all matter seems to have trouble sticking to the slide, and even caked and burnt flesh will slide off to the ground below.