Headscratchers / Don't Escape

• How do you brick the window without using any trovel or other masonry tools? You don't even require the shovel (the mortar can be mixed using the axe). And how come the mortar solidifies so quickly once the job's done but can remain wet in the basin for hours?
• The plastic wraps are thin enough that they'll break if attacked by mutant locusts but are strong enough to resist an acidic cloud that can burn through a hazmat suit. WHAT kind of plastic are we talking about here that can resist a chemical assault but can't even resist the application of physical force?
  • Acids dissolve things by reacting with them to break them apart. Maybe it's just a really chemically stable plastic that the acid can't react with, but can still be torn apart just fine.
  • Because physical force and chemical assaults are very different things. For comparison: Gold is a very soft metal; easily dented, bent or broken with physical force. At the same time, however, it is much more resistant to ALL acids (bar one) than most comparable metals - including pure sulfuric acid (the stuff professional criminals infamously use to completely dissolve corpses, including bones - which are less susceptible to physical force than gold is).
  • Given that David can use one of those same hazmat suits against the gas and be just fine, combined with the fact that the weather drone can indicate that the gas isn't particularly acidic, it's safe to assume that the gas you're dealing with is more toxic than it is reactive, and the hazmat suits were taken out by something else.
• How come Sidereal doesn't consider using generic living beings as means to grow more of the crystal instead of researching a way to artificially synthetize it?

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