Felix Schelling believes he's figured out how to make his business partner disappear completely. Part of the problem is that Felix is insane. Another problem is, he's addicted to ether. He's probably not the right type of person to be messing around with piranha solution. One of the key inspirations for this video is Nile Red's fascinating chicken leg video, which can be found here:
As explained in the video, I almost made this stuff by accident, so it's lucky I happened upon Nile Red's demonstration. I probably wouldn't want to deal with piranha solution in a residental apartment.
Incidentally, that's the route in to my actual current apartment at the start of the video. The rest of the video was filmed around Trieste. The cafe near the beginning is the Cafe San Marco where James Joyce used to hang out with Italo Svevo. Shortly after that I briefly turn to look at Italo Svevo's birthplace.
Of course, real life murderers have often attempted hide corpses by dissolving them in acid, as have many fictional murderers notably in the "Breaking Bad" TV series. That's probably not a very accurate depiction, because in reality I think they'd be dealing with more danger to themselves than is shown.
Another flaw with acid as a tool for concealing murders is that it usually won't dissolve clothing or jewellery. Piranha solution would probably do a fair job, from what I can gather, although note that Nile Red is using hot piranha. I don't think anyone in the right mind would really want to deal with hot piranha solution on a large scale.
That's partly why I decided my protagonist should be a drug addict. His brain has to be addled to even try such a thing. There are several videos on YouTube about ether as a drug.
For many of us, our only point of reference to ether being consumed for pleasure is in Hunter S. Thompsons's classic comic work, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". This is one of the few modern novels that I really rate highly. Thompson says the ether is the only drug in his huge collection that worries him. It turns out that ether has previously been widely consumed, particularly in Poland.
Its effects are described as being similar to alcohol, but slightly psychedelic. It wears off rapidly and completely. Many Poles consumed ether because the church apparently disapproved of them drinking alcohol. This led to entire villages reeking of ether or its metabolic products, and the smell is said to be quite unpleasant.
Addicts describe it as having very nasty effects on the brain in the long term. It's also dangerously flammable, forming layers of invisible flammable vapour, and can lead to ulcers and other problems. My protagonist, however, is arrogant enough to feel he and he alone has found a superior alternative to alcohol, while being crazy enough to have latched onto something really quite unpleasant.
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