#And what it can do is infect living cells on organics

[nintendoni-art]

Bumblekast Thumbnail for February 5th, 2024!

New Month, New Excuse to Draw Starline Thumbnail! In order to get the vibe of this right, I spent like 3 days watching G Gundam, and I still feel like I haven't scratched the surface of this entire franchise.

#starline #dr. starline #Gundam #G Gundam #Bumblekast #I thought the DG Cells on the side of his face would be cool to add #DG cells as a whole are super fascinating! They're these cells made by this thing called the Devil/Dark Gundam #And what it can do is infect living cells on organics #coating them in a metallic sheen and making them super agressive #and is strong enough to revive dead cells #making quite...a few...zombies in the #... #hey wait a fuckin second

[youngks-smile]

What I Want You To Know About Long COVID

Well lads, I've been suffering from Long COVID for over a year now. My life is at a complete standstill. I'm 25 years old and I'm too sick to go back to school, I can't work, I had to move back in with my parents and I'm still stuck here.

Here are just a few things I wish people knew about Long COVID, including things I didn't know myself until I got it.

COVID destroys your immune system. Yes, even if you don't have Long COVID. Are you getting sick more often now? When you get sick, does it last longer? There are many studies showing that COVID causes t cell depletion, even in mild COVID cases! T cells are how your body remembers how to fight off infections you've had before so losing those cells? Bad news.

Your initial infection can be mild and you can still get Long COVID. Right from Yale Medicine, "Most people with Long COVID had mild acute COVID." (This is also a good link for a basic Long COVID overview).

There can be a gap of time between when you "get better" from the initial COVID infection to the onset of Long COVID symptoms. Some people get sick with an initial COVID infection and never get better. Some get better and then weeks or months later start developing Long COVID symptoms. Long COVID symptoms can even fluctuate over time, can go away for months and then suddenly come back.

So many people have Long COVID and don't realize it. Do you feel more tired lately but no matter how much you sleep, nothing helps? Is it harder to concentrate at work or school? Can you just not think like you used to? You could have Long COVID and not even know it. Even mild post-COVID symptoms are still Long COVID.

COVID can do anything to your body. Long COVID has over 200 recognized symptoms and can affect basically any part or system of your body. There is no one mechanism or cause of Long COVID which unfortunately also means there's no one cure either.

The effects of COVID are cumulative. Each COVID reinfection increases your chances of developing Long COVID. COVID is also affecting your body in other ways, yes, even if you're otherwise young and healthy! "Repeat COVID-19 infections increase risk of organ failure, death".

Once you have Long COVID, repeat COVID infections will make your symptoms worse. "80% [of Long COVID patients] saw their symptoms worsen [from reinfection]. In 60% of people who were in recovery or remission from Long COVID, reinfection caused a recurrence of Long COVID."

There is a lot more I want to say about Long COVID but I want to keep this post at least somewhat manageable to read. Like how when COVID is contracted during pregnancy, those COVID-exposed fetuses have a 6.3-fold increased risk of motor developmental delays, or that another study found 50% of babies exposed to COVID in utero had developmental delays.

You need to keep caring about COVID, for others around you and also for yourself even if you're "healthy". Everyone is at risk. And don't forget 40-60% of COVID infections are asymptomatic, which is why masking even if you feel fine is crucial. The only way right now to not get Long COVID is to not get COVID in the first place. It's not too late, if you've stopped masking it's never too late to start again! I know it's easy to get distracted by things in your life that seem more real than the possibility of getting sick some time in the future, and the peer pressure to not mask can be intense. But it only feels less real or less important until your entire life is having Long COVID. Trust me.

I know this is a complicated issue, many people can't afford to stay home when sick even if they want to because of their jobs, there are disgusting policies trying to ban wearing masks, but please if you can. Keep masking. Masking works, masking saves lives.

This post got a bit longer than I wanted so below the cut is a non-exhaustive list of my Long COVID symptoms and some of my experiences as one of the "healthy young people" who got "unlucky". cw brief mention of suicidal ideation.

Welcome to the Thunderdome that is my body with Long COVID. Keep in mind these are just my experiences and symptoms, Long COVID can cause any range of symptoms at varying severities.

Dysautonomia: Exercise intolerance, Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM), fatigue, and heat intolerance. What do those things mean? Here's some specific examples. Absolutely terrible circulation I am so cold all the time but also, if I get a little too warm I will pass out. Eating hot food makes my heart rate spike, I sweat, my body feels heavy. Blood pooling and pins and needles in my feet when I walk. Don't even think about exercising past walking, it's impossible. I used to work out an hour a day 4 times a week and now walking up one flight of stairs makes my heart pound and I can't breathe. Can't take even just warm showers anymore or I will pass out. Heat rashes from being in the sun for 10 minutes.

Digestive issues: Honestly too many to name but: constant bloating, extreme nausea, constipation, slow motility, lack of appetite, just so much cramping and pain. I lost 18 pounds from Long COVID, as someone who was already considered underweight their entire life, and almost had to get a shunt put into my chest to deliver nutrients because I was nearly completely unable to eat. For the first 6 months of Long COVID, if I could manage 600 calories a day, that was a good day.

Histamine intolerance: Oh boy. My worst symptoms, I don't even know where to start with it. If you know Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) it's very similar. I can only eat 19 foods. If i eat a single bite of something not on that list, it's 48 hours of absolute hell. Coughing, migraines, itchy eyes, such extreme nausea I cannot even describe it, panic/feeling of doom, racing heart rate, derealization, rash, uncontrollable muscle tremors. I only learned about histamine intolerance 5 months into having Long COVID so before that, I was experiencing these symptoms nearly every single day. Terrifying isn't even a strong enough word to describe how it felt to experience all this and have no idea what it was, how to stop it, or if it would ever stop. Really dark times.

Neurological issues: More of that derealization. Inability to concentrate. Anxiety. OCD-like symptoms such as thoughts getting "stuck" in my head, repeating 24/7 completely unable to stop them, genuinely felt like my brain had cracked open and I had lost my mind. Constant dizziness like I'm on a boat.

Sleep issues: I sleep like garbage. I have insomnia, I wake up dozens of times every night and every single time I sleep I have intensely vivid dreams. I can't sleep longer than 7 hours total no matter how exhausted I am. It is exhausting. I'm exhausted, I'm so so tired.

And finally. Just. Really intense suicidal ideation. My body, my health, my entire life has been stolen from me because someone else decided my life was worth less to them than wearing a mask or staying home if they feel sick. Before I got Long COVID, I was preparing to go to South Korea to teach English, then on to a PhD in neurolinguistics, I was supposed to meet my long distance partner and had already booked plane tickets when I got sick. All of that has been destroyed.

Most of us with Long COVID are stuck in a cycle of being extremely sick, then if you're lucky you'll slowly get better over months, just to get reinfected and go right back where you started or worse. Honestly, I'm not scared of dying from COVID. I'm scared of living for a long time, suffering from Long COVID the entire time. This isn't living.

I don't know how to end this now. I'm still fighting, I'm trying experimental treatments, I'm not giving up yet. I hope everyone reading this stays healthy and well.

#long covid #covid 19 #covid isn't over #pandemic

[bogleech]

I'm curious Mr Leech, what animal do you consider to be the WEIRDEST?

idk I guess the seahorse? from what I've read at least.

The seahorse has arguably the weirdest physical shape of a vertebrate, but just shape alone isn't the only way an animal can be weird, and I think maybe the weirdest animals are myxozoa??

The pustules on this fish are full of an organism similar in composition to a slime mold, a parasitic infection we considered a type of "protozoan" for generations

But myxozoa begin as a drifting spore, which ranges from a simple ball to these "anchor like" objects and even cube-shaped frames like in the top right here. These spores inject the slime stage into fish through a harpoon-like cell identical to the stingers of Cnidarians, like jellyfish, corals, anemones and man o' war. So eventually it was suspected that this wasn't just convergent evolution, and once we could genetically sequence living things, it was proven that this parasitic saltwater "slime mold" was an cnidarian after all, a jellyfish relative that reduced itself to nothing but bare cells. But it still gets weirder, because there also existed these weird "parasitic worms," Buddenbrockia, that ALSO came out of a spore stage, and also had stinging cells.

Finally it was proven that this isn't just another weird jellyfish relative, but specifically a species of Myxozoa. This isn't just slime anymore; it has multiple tissue layers and even muscle. So this is a sea creature skin disease, but it's also an animal that dissolved into a single celled form and then re-evolved a different multicellular animal body from scratch.

#biology #animals

[afeelgoodblog]

1. Girl with incurable cancer recovers after pioneering treatment

A girl’s incurable cancer has been cleared from her body after what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date. Alyssa, whose family do not wish to give their surname, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May 2021.

Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London gave her pre-manufactured cells edited using new technology to allow them to hunt down and destroy cancerous T-cells without attacking each other. Less than a month after being given the treatment, she was in remission, and was able to have a second bone marrow transplant.

Can I get a fuck cancer?

2. The UK has made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

Updated regulations require new properties to be built with gigabit broadband connections and make it easier to install into existing blocks of flats across the UK. Connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per home, and developers must still install gigabit-ready infrastructure (including ducts, chambers, and termination points) and the fastest-available connection if they’re unable to secure a gigabit connection within the cost cap

3. US cancer death rate falls 33% since 1991

The rate of people dying from cancer in the United States has continuously declined over the past three decades, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.

The US cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991, which corresponds to an estimated 3.8 million deaths averted, according to the report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Partly due to advances in treatment, early detection and less smoking, report says

. . .

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4. Lab-grown retinal eye cells make successful connections, open door for clinical trials to treat blindness

Retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, according to a new study, completing a “handshake” that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.

Over a decade ago, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison developed a way to grow organized clusters of cells, called organoids, that resemble the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. They coaxed human skin cells reprogrammed to act as stem cells to develop into layers of several types of retinal cells that sense light and ultimately transmit what we see to the brain.

5. The ozone layer is on track to recover in the next 40 years, the United Nations says

The Earth's ozone layer is on its way to recovering, thanks to decades of work to get rid of ozone-damaging chemicals, a panel of international experts backed by the United Nations has found.

The ozone layer serves an important function for living things on Earth. This shield in the stratosphere protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. In the latest report on the progress of the Montreal Protocol, the U.N.-backed panel confirmed that nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances have been phased out.

6. Uganda declares an end to Ebola outbreak

The Ugandan government has declared an end to its Ebola outbreak, less than four months after cases were first reported. Since 20 September, 56 people have died from the virus, which is spread through body fluids, and there have been 142 confirmed infections.

The country has reported no new infections in more than 42 days – twice the maximum incubation period of the virus, a World Health Organization benchmark for a country to be declared Ebola-free.

7. Doggy ‘daycare’ bus in Alaska goes viral on TikTok

Check them out here:

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#best news of last week

[woah-uhuh-uhuh-uhuh]

Squip Contagion Theory

A theory about what squips really “want” and how they reproduce! I’m sure people have already looked at every angle of this stuff back in The Olden Days of bmc fandom, but what the heck, I had fun putting it into words anyway. Forewarning that a decent amount of it is based in speculation rather than evidence. 

As usual, I bolded all the major stuff + tldr at the start because I talk too much lmao

tl;dr

Like most other organisms on this planet, a squip’s primary goal is to reproduce. (Which makes sense - things that reproduce more are just going to outnumber things that don’t. Especially when squip reproduction directly translates to human monetary profit).

As a potential host, you’re made to feel worthless in some area of your life (what I term the “axis of torment”) by a current host, until you’re psychologically ready to buy and obey a squip. 

The squip then compels you to make other people worthless in the same area of life, until the squip (as it has been marketed to you) seems like a natural solution to their problems. 

You might then offer the squip to your victims because your own squip encourages you to (as Rich does to Jeremy) and/or you come to believe that it just… really is the natural solution to their problems. (Jeremy to Michael: “I think you’re pissed I have one and you don’t!”)

This produces a chain of people who all (A) have squips, (B) produce more squip-hosts by ‘infecting’ (squipping) the particularly susceptible people around them (creating more squip demand → more squip production, yada yada yada), and (C) hold similar beliefs about the purpose of squips (cool pills, smart pills — and ostensibly anything else a brain pill could do, like “fixing” speech impediments as they mention in the book).

(cont)

Squips as symbiotes

The question I started with: Why does Rich’s squip decide that Jeremy needs a squip? And why now instead of earlier?

I mean, it’s odd, right? The squip’s primary goal is to improve people’s lives. Using Rich as a host/avatar, the squip makes choices that improve Rich’s life, and then essentially recommends itself to Jeremy in order to improve his life, too. That all makes sense!  …Except wait, if that was always the point, then why did it also decide to beat the crap out of Jeremy for over a year in the interim?

I’ve been rolling around the theory that squips don’t actually have a strong directive to improve people’s social standing or intelligence or anything like that — like most other organisms, all they really want to do is reproduce. 

If you think about it, they’re not that dissimilar to a virus in terms of their reproductive cycle. The only way a virus can reproduce is by taking over the cells of other organisms and forcing them to manufacture more viruses.* Squips need humans — not only to produce more squips, but also to provide their habitat (i.e. the human brain) and possibly their power source, and grant them physical presence in the world (if you’ve read Animorphs, you probably know what I’m talking about here). Squips are obligate parasites,** and humans are their host species. 

*[I’m not a virologist. This is probably an egregious generalization.] **[i.e. parasites that can’t survive outside of a host. Also, parasite is a loaded word here but I can’t get into that.]

Obviously, the easiest way to ensure the future of squipkind would be to “poison the water supply” (a la The Play), or at least squip a lot of people who are able to manufacture squips. Why they don’t just do that is definitely relevant (my personal theory is actually just the same explanation they use in — you guessed it — Animorphs, which posits that voluntary hosts are easier to control).

But I don’t really have time to dive into that here, so I just want to talk about the more subtle, deliberate tactic they use instead. Under squip contagion theory, squips prefer to select specific people and individually prepare them to become hosts.

Chain of torment: Rich → Jeremy

Rich’s squip torments Jeremy until he’s completely lost all sense of self worth, and then when he finally hits rock bottom — look at that, I’ve got just the thing! Just the thing to fix exactly the problem that I personally gave you! Crazy how that works out. 

…And it’s weird that it’s marketed like that to Jeremy, right? As a coolness pill? At least according to Michael, other people have been using it for intelligence/academics — and that’s just on top of his other amazing argument that didn’t get enough credit in the script honestly: (“You really think its primary function is to get you LAID? … of all possible applications for such a mind-blowingly advanced technology, you ever wonder what it’s doing inside of YOU?”) Certainly, it could be a catch-all “pill that fixes your life.” But for what it’s worth, scary stock boy seems to believe it’s specifically a coolness pill, too. (J: “How did you know why I’m here?” / SSB: “Just look at you, kid.”) 

I actually think the squips are just creating chains of customers, each tormenting the next on some axis of jealousy (like coolness or success) and then offering the squip as a solution to that jealousy. So by necessity, the next customer has to want the squip for the same reason you did, because that’s the only axis you can torment them on — the same one the squip has improved for you. This creates different “strains” of marketing. 

WOW friend’s brother has specifically been told that he’s an idiot (ostensibly by society, since they invoke grades, but obviously I like to imagine a squip was involved lol), and he thinks he’s buying a “pill that makes you smarter.” 

Rich(‘s squip) makes him popular, which makes Jeremy feel unpopular, so he must market the squip as a “popularity pill.” 

Axis of torment: Jeremy → Michael & Brooke

But not just a popularity pill. Rich SPECIFICALLY markets the squip as a pill that makes you feel seen — not just a blip, or a guy nobody even remembers going to their school. And then, well, what does Jeremy(‘s squip) proceed to do to Michael and Brooke…?

I’ll admit, it’s not the strongest theory, but I do think it’s an interesting framework in light of how Jeremy’s squip went “fuck this guy in particular” and decided to bring Michael to his absolute breaking point, to make him “wish [he] was never born.”* For just this brief moment, he’s finally reached Jeremy levels of disregard for his own identity. Because like Jeremy and pre-squip Rich, Michael has quite LITERALLY become invisible.

*[And yeah, I know this was partially unsquipped Jeremy’s doing, but I can’t even pretend to believe that this isn’t exactly what the squip would want him to do anyway.]

(Also, I know this is debatably to separate Jeremy from the Red? I won’t pretend I have a brilliant argument against that, because it’s a really fair point. But just as a thought, I also don’t think that was the most surefire way to eliminate Red from the equation.)

But hey, you know what’d actually be great for that? What could really turn things around for you, Michael? Hey, you know what could help you not be a loner and a stoner and a loser who drives a PT Cruiser? It’s like, this crazy thing you’ve probably never even heard of. Really obscure stuff. Yeah, it’s from Japan actually?

On Brooke: there was actually… no coolness-related reason to specifically target this girl who got cheated on, and then try to make Jeremy “cheat” on her. Is that really supposed to make him look cool? Even if it had gone as planned, it would’ve still just gotten half the cool kids in school to absolutely fucking hate him!

(Oh yeah, and also make Brooke feel completely worthless. But I’m sure that’s just collateral damage. I mean, it’s not like we have anything to gain from making some kid feel unseen and undesirable. Especially not when she lives in such close emotional proximity to two different squip hosts who are actively doing better in that department. Just a shame, really.)

And a final bit of anecdotal evidence, this time for Jenna: (JH: “That’s sad, what should I do?” SQ: “You should ignore her.”) Much like Michael and Brooke, here’s another kid on the margins of the social sphere. Why not make her feel just a little more invisible?

end note

// If you want a conclusion paragraph go read the TLDR again :P

Tysm for reading!!!! I know at heart the squip is just a total plot device, but it’s fun to get into the scifi lol. If you have your own theories feel free to share!! I know this is not the most solid interpretation out there :P

(Now excuse me while I try very hard to not write an Animorphs AU. Can’t believe K.A. Applegate single-handedly invented the idea of organisms that enlist down-on-their-luck people to take them into their brains and control what they do. Good for her.)

#sorry for 2 huge metas in one day. i just remembered i had this sitting in my google doc from like 4 days ago lmao #bmc #be more chill #rich goranski #jeremy heere #be more chill musical #my posts #posts #text #meta #my meta #fan theory #rich #jeremy #brooke #squip #michael #jenna #like a little #id put this in the ani tag but id feel bad for the fans with better taste than me sjdlkf #obviously though michael would be jake berenson and jeremy would be a version of tom berenson that is not related to michael #and chloe would be rachel and brooke would be cassie #and rich would be tobias and jake dillinger would be marco or david #idk who jenna would be but ax is the only one left so him ig #except if jeremy was in the plot then hed be ax and jenna could be aftran or ket #guys i promise im not going to write an animorphs au pinky swear

[svturn-exe]

text taken from: loeb classical library: amores | wikipedia: virus, schrödinger's cat, infection, infection (disambiguation), life, volcano

i wanted to do one of these fuckin things :3 insp by @b0nkcreat's wikipedia poems (those are what these are called right. i don't . Know)

edit: plain text version under cut bc i should probably do that

Virus

A virus is a submicroscopic Parasite that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.

Viruses infect all life forms, defined descriptively by the capacity to preserve, further or reinforce its existence in the given environment.

Despite possessing these traits, Whether or not viruses should be considered as alive is controversial.

Life properties

Scientific opinions differ on whether viruses are a form of life

or organic structures that interact with living organisms.

They have been described as "organisms at the edge of life", considered simultaneously both alive and dead

This poses the question of when exactly the conceptual lines between life, and the parasitic colonization of a host organism by a foreign organism is drawn.

Accepted forms of life use cell division to reproduce, whereas viruses assemble withing cells, and cannot naturally reproduce outside a host cell - This I can live neither with you nor without.

the rapid buildup of pressure results in the breaking open and subsequent death of the cell.

Fundamentally, the question of whether a virus is alive asks how long This can last

and when (or whether) it will collapse.

Your actions merit hate, if enough cells die, both parasite and host will suffer the effects.

your face pleads winningly for love -

but a parasite cannot live without causing harm.

#ressieposting #svturn's writing #technically? whatever #not maintagging this but :3 this is about chrisker

[fantomette22]

Brain fluid, Great ones, Blood and parasites.

I am replaying Bloodborne and I'm noticing a few new things.

I finally get to the research hall and read the brain fluids description again (in French & English)

Greyish amoeba-shaped brain fluid. Wobbles and bounces.

Extracted from a patient whose head expanded until that was all that they were.

In the early days of the Healing Church, the Great Ones were linked to the ocean, and so the cerebral patients would imbibe water, and listen for the howl of the sea. Brain fluid writhed inside the head, the initial makings of internal eyes. (…)

So… was i supposed to found out myself they actually have parasite inside ??

So one thing you need to know is that "brain fluid" or cerebrospinal fluid (liquide céphalo-rachidien/cérébrospinal en VF) is a transparent liquid where you have your brain and inside your spine for your nerves. It doesn't quite fit what we have in game right ?

But they did add water in it, right ? It also said (but it's more clear in French that it have an amoeba (amibe) shape.

What's an amoeba ? from wikipedia : "(...) is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape (...) Amoeboid cells occur not only among the protozoa, but also in fungi, algae, and animals. Microbiologists often use the terms "amoeboid" and "amoeba" interchangeably for any organism that exhibits amoeboid movement."

It's an eucaryote (membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus like our cells) and unicellular organism that can lived without and host in the earth or water for example (unlike our cells who need to be a part of a pluricellulaires organism).

But, there's some type of amoeba who act as parasite and actually can "eat" a brain💀 (actually it attacked the nervous system & cells from the cavity between the nose and brain ) do you see where I'm trying to get ?

The water they put inside the patients head... probably had microorganism inside it. If it's not the Kos parasites then others things really similar.

It will take too long to develop everything, maybe another day so really short : we know about the Kos parasite right ? And that Kos probably had parasites who infected and transformed the inhabitants of the Hamlet.

For the blood we literally have vermin, the loran silver beasts (+ the maggots), the bloodletting beast with the giant worms and the blood dregs. (the eyes that turned blind some parasite do that in real life too)

I thought at first that what caused the beast plague was "infected cells' like cancerous cells that created more organic materials, mutated their host and boom. And not just some bacteria or viruses (that is possible too XD but also vermin are those arthropods like parasites so I was a bit confused.

But now ! If we need to have a more scientifically and realistically approach about what happened in Bloodborne (and not just boom great ones dream magic) I think it can be caused by unicellular beings who composed the great ones and mess with everyone 👍

I mean diseases and organism disfunction (of the neural system for ex) are caused on a cellular if not molecular level after all (how molecules and drugs act in the neurons and synapses of the brain is really fascinating ! But it’s not easy to learn)

Also why are great ones so close to the first protozoan cells organism for some reason ?! There's multicellular organism I guess but exist on different planes of existence (if they're not aliens or smt) but bc of the parasites blood and all (odeon is kinda blood/ what we have in the blood) so they're probably really really old forms of life you (like unicellular organisms).I guess we could say that great ones are parasites of the mind !👈 👈 (ok enough of today)

Little bonus : the first unicellular appear between 3,5 and 3,8 billion years. The multicellular appeared 2 billions years ago, our Earth have 4,5 billions years, our solar system just a bit more and the universe is 13,8 billions years old. Homo sapiens sapiens (us) is like 200 000 years old 💀 but don't worry the homininae line appeared 10 million years ago!

Hey you know we're closer to the dinosaurs who lived at the end of the cretaceous (64Ma) than between the Dino of the cretaceous and the beginning to the triassic (first Dino : 230/250 Ma)? CRAZY HMMM ??????

Anyway I do believe Bloodborne universe is actually as fantastic as dark souls or Elden Ring and not super ultra realistic like our own world. Some things just doesn't make sense realistically and maybe don't have a possible realistic and scientific explanation (the dreams, great ones etc) but it's cool to try to used sciences to explain things in the universe ! That make its own world more coherent in its own logic I believe ! (it's like you know sci fi movies, Frankenstein and all. it's not possible in real life but based on true sciences stuff).

#bloodborne #bloodborne analysis #bloodborne theory #research hall #thank you my 1y in biology at uni a few years ago! #if it's that it's crazy all the research they put into this wow! #sorry I lost it at the end XD #let's explain fantastic and unrealistic worlds with fantastic sciences from it's own universe! #is this RE4?! the parallels are making me insane

[lets-try-some-writing]

I evedently forgot how to draw using the pad, so have this terrible sketch instead for now.

anyway lore:

I imagine the blood mold would have five growth stages.

dormant spore. Its just a small dark red growth, looking vaguley like a seastar with too many arms. its very unoticeble in this stage and only syphons a minimal amount of energy from its host.

young mould. It progresses to this stage if its either attached to a optimal host species or a dormant spore attached to a suboptimal host species detects its host being invaded by another parasite. It gains basic sentience during this stage and acts agressivley towards any potential treats.

adolecent growth. As it grows it splits into many interconected pieces, each having its own set of eyes and operating on a kind of hivemind if disconected from the original pice. at this stage it tends to focus on the habits and behaviors of its host species, adapting as well as it can to its host body structure and abilitys, integrading as smoothly as possible. If attached to a more inteligend species, it tends to get sassy at this point, it also starts picking up on its hosts emotions, wich can overwhelm it at times.

adult colonie. A large growth fully encompassing the space provided by the host species, this is generally as big as it can get if attached to a suboptimal host. It has now fully adapted to its hosts body and can make the best use of it when it comes to defending itself. it syphons as much energy from its host as it is able to do without causing harm, as well as begining to use photo- and chemosynthesis to produce and store extra energie wherever it can, both to sustain itself and its host if nesessary. it mellows out quite abit at this stage, leaving more of the general movement and activities up to its host, as well as exhibiting some of their personallity trates.

Mother colonie. A large colonie grown beond what its host can support. At this point the blood mold gives up its own live in favor of turning into a ticking time bomb, any energie stored is used to produce as many spores as possible before the mother colonie bursts, hurteling its contents into the atmosphere. if sutible hosts are nearby small pieces of the mother colonie may latch onto them and persist. it can not reach this stage if attached to a suboptimal host species.

I imagine it originating from a mostly organic planet and having adapted to infect cybernetic species later on, leaving cybertronians like ratchet as the aformentioned suboptimal host species.

It would adapt to the cybertronian ability to transform by ceperating the outer armor from the internals, leaving the mold as the only conection point, and creating a cell type that can harden on command. this would not inhibit the cybertronians ability to transform, but would allow the blood mold to open up the armor and expand in size along the transformation seams, protecting any newly exposes inner circutry with a thick layer of hardened gel, while streching out the limps and creating more spaces to observe and lash out from. its very sturdy like this and can use its stored energy to rapidly regrow lost tissue.

I think it would most likley remain compliant with optimus up until it reaches the adult colonie stage, at wich point it would pick up on ratchets personallity and become defiant. it now packs enough of a punch to hold its own against optimus and bumblebee, provided it has stored enough energie to shrug off any damage dealt to it.

Though i could also see it get hit with ratchets fear and worrie during the adolecent growth stage and decide that optimus is too much of a threat to remain around, instead taking its chances at fighting the smaller bumblebee after making a run for it.

i could also see it forefitting its control over ratchet entirely, in favor of hiding so its host could be accepted by a more protective force such as megatron and his army. this has great angst potential when sooner or later somebody finds out.

i also love the way you made it speak. it would absolutley only comunicate in broken statements and incomplete scentences. also alot of hissing in displeasure. it would be completley apathetic to anything that doesnt concern its host or the rival parasite species. but it would absolutley try to compfort ratchet once it can sense his emotions, stress isn´t good for its host after all.

thats all i got for now, enjoy! :3

This is FABULOUS lore. I will apply this in your request friend :)

I love the idea of the blood mold as a whole. I have a thousand and one ways this could be incorporated into the Pretender au. Such a fun concept, especially when pitted against its arguably more successful counterparts.

#transformers #maccadam #transformers prime #ratchet #moldy ratchet au #pretender au #world building

[beakers-and-telescopes]

What are Viruses?

With cold and flu (and COVID) season upon us, people are sure to be talking a lot more about viruses.  But what are viruses, exactly?  They make us sick, but how does it work?  Are they living organisms like bacteria?  And how do vaccines prevent them?  Skip to the end for a tl;dr, but I’m going to take these questions one at a time.

What is a virus?

Simply put- viruses are tiny particles that can infect a host cell in order to replicate themselves.  Viruses are not made out of cells.  They are much, much smaller than a cell- this diagram compares 3 different viruses to a red blood cell, an E. Coli bacterium, and a lysosome, which is an organelle that can be found within cells.

Viruses are fairly simple particles.  Though they can be very diverse in structure, they share the same few basic features.  The base “shell” of a virus is called the capsid, and is made out of protein units called capsomers.  Inside this shell is the genome.  This can consist of DNA, like our own genome, or strictly RNA.  It contains instructions for replicating the virus.  Some viruses also have envelopes, a membrane that surrounds the entire capsid, but this is not a universal feature.

Notably, viruses do not contain any sort of organelles, such as ribosomes.  Ribosomes are what a cell uses to build the proteins that it needs to grow and replicate.  So viruses contain the instructions on how to replicate, but they don’t have the machinery to do so.  That is where the host cell comes in.

How do viruses infect us?

A virus’s singular goal is to replicate- to make copies of itself.  But, as I discussed, they need access to ribosomes in order to build their protein capsids.  Since they don’t have ribosomes of their own, a virus will enter a host cell and hijack its ribosomes, turning the cell into sort of a virus-producing factory.

Sometimes, a virus may simply inject its genetic material into a cell, rather than entering the cell entirely.  If a virus has an envelope, the envelope can merge with the host cell’s membrane in order to let the virus inside.  When the newly created viruses are leaving, they will steal a patch of membrane to use as their own envelopes and “bud off”.  Otherwise, (at least in the case of human and animal viruses), the virus copies will build up inside the cell and keep replicating and replicating until the cell bursts open and they can escape.  Kind of a creepy imagery if you think about it.

Are viruses alive?

…not really?  Kind of?  Viruses exist in a sort of gray area between alive and not alive.  There are some criteria that scientists look at to determine if something is alive or not.  One is that it can maintain homeostasis- the ability to control its temperature or internal contents.  The general consensus is that viruses are not able to do that.  Another criteria is that living things have different levels of organization- cells organize to form tissues to form organs and so on.  Viruses do have that sort of organization, like the protein subunits that come together to form the capsid.  Viruses can adapt to their environment, but they don’t grow.  There is some debate if viruses can be said to reproduce.  They certainly replicate, but since they can’t do so without commandeering a host cell it doesn’t really count.  Finally, living things use energy.  While a virus by itself doesn’t use energy, it will use the host cell’s energy in order to replicate.  So to summarize, most biologists do not consider viruses to be alive, since they do not meet all of these criteria.  There is some debate, though.  Some biologists consider viruses to be alive, or alive when interacting with a host cell and not otherwise.

How do vaccines work?

Your body is not completely helpless against viruses.  Your immune system has cells called B-cells and T-cells whose job is to kill any foreign substance, or any cells that have been hijacked by viruses.  A vaccine basically shows these cells a dead or weak version of the virus so that when the real thing happens, they know what to look for and can respond much more quickly.  You’re basically training them to fight the virus better.

To prevent the length of this post from getting out of hand I’m going to end it here, but if you want to know more you should check out Khan Academy’s series on viruses.  It is presented in a very clear and easy to understand sort of way, and it is very informative.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/biology-of-viruses/virus-biology/a/intro-to-viruses

Tl;dr: Viruses are little protein bubbles filled with genetic information, and they hijack your cells to turn them into virus producing machines.  Though there is some debate, most biologists don’t consider viruses to be alive.  Vaccines help your immune cells recognize the signs of a viral infection so that they can respond quickly and keep you from becoming sick.

#science #stem #stemblr #biology #biochemistry #medicine #health #virology

[peachpearsnook]

Living In Ruin (Dead Donatello AU)

Chapter One

Warnings: This AU contains character death, terminal illness, grief and mourning, and horrible coping mechanisms

After his possession of the technodrome, Donatello swore that he would never let another thing infect him like that. But the invasion attempt was months ago, and he wasn’t able to hold onto that oath to himself.

It was during a routine check-in, when Donnie discovered something off with himself. He was checking the different parts of his blood, such as platelet count, etc, and found one reading, regarding his white blood cell count, to be odd. So, he did some digging and tried a few more tests on the down low. He had an excess amount of abnormal white blood cells. 

The information was startling to say the least and he didn’t want to alarm Leo with it by asking him what it meant. That was part of the reason he did these tests himself anyway. So, he looked it up himself and confirmed it with more tests. He had cancer. An aggressive form of leukemia, to be more exact.

He sat back in his chair and took in the information. An aggressive form of blood cancer was ravaging through his body. That’s where the dizzy spells and the nosebleeds were coming from. The symptoms he waved off as nothing more than his body telling him to take a break from working was actually cancer. 

Against his better judgment, he kept the news to himself. 

He did the math after getting his results from the test, his survival rate was 23.4%. He waited long enough for it to spread because he was stupid enough to ignore symptoms like fainting and excessive bloody noses, and now he had a month and a half left to live. In more exact terms, he was given forty-five days to get everything in order since diagnosis. 

Donnie knew his siblings would panic the second they got the news, and yet there was nothing anyone could do for him. He couldn’t go to a regular hospital for radiation therapy or anything of the sort, not to mention it was already too late with how he had let it go for so long.

Despite the diagnosis, he could still work and prepare for the worst to come. 

As the days ticked without a word being said to his brothers or April, he found himself bruising easily and every cut seemed to bleed to no end. He would wake up covered in blood and sweat from a random nose bleed and excessive sweating. He lost weight and looked like he was shrinking compared to his twin. Everything ached, everything hurt. Some days he had fevers, others painful headaches.

Still, Donnie managed to get his affairs in order. He began working on gifts for his siblings, cleaned and organized his laboratory, and tried to be around his family as much as possible. Some days, he found himself dozing off in Mikey’s room as he drew or humming to himself in Raph’s room as he trained. He gave April a box of forever unfinished projects and still never told her.

Then his battle shell stopped fitting and eventually his purple hoodie was too large to be considered oversized, even to his tastes. He started leaning on his tech bō whenever he stood because his legs and head would always scream in protest of it.

Donnie had just finished the second of his gifts to his siblings. It was for Mikey, his creative, adoring, little brother. He made him a custom street art kit in the form of a high tech duffel bag. It would sort new paint cans and dispense needed colors. It also had spots to hang painters masks and other needed equipment. Donnie added his tag to the corner of the bag for his ‘genius built tech’ and embroidered an added message for his little brother. He put the bag in a box labeled “for my family,” next to the gift he had already made for April. 

Glancing at the calendar, it seemed he had a month left before the inevitable. It seemed too soon. As they say, “those who burn the brightest, often burn the fastest.” He hoped that saying was right, and that he was able to make something of the short sixteen years he was given. By now he was far too exhausted to even cry at the grim reality he was facing. 

He got up, leaving the box hidden in the corner of the lab to be found after his demise. He had thirty-one days to finish Leo and Raph’s gifts. He kept his space clean and removed the locking mechanism from his door in case the illness took him sooner than calculated. He leaned against his bō staff and used it to hobble from his room. 

Donnie found a spot to settle down in the corner of Leo’s room as his brother played a strategist video game on his laptop.

Leo was mostly focused on the game, muttering a quick greeting as Donatello staggered in with not much more. He tapped away at his game, the tides of which began to turn in his favor.

Donnie closed his eyes and leaned into his position up against Leo’s wall. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the keyboard tapping and the mouse clicking. A wave of calm washed over him, and for a moment he felt as though he might fall asleep.

“Hey, Don,” Leo’s voice suddenly cut into his calming sounds. He opened his eyes and blinked. His brother had turned around in his chair to look at him.

“Hey, Leo,” he croaked back, a flimsy smile crossing his features. 

“You okay, Donnie? You don’t look so good,” Leo asked, concerned, getting up from his chair and sitting down beside Donnie. 

There was about an inch of space between them, before Donnie leaned into him at least. He buried his face into the space between Leo’s jaw and his shoulder, letting go of an exhausted sigh. 

Leo wrapped an arm around him and grimaced. “You feel really boney, man, are you sure you’re eating right?”

“I’m eating fine,” Donnie hummed.

Leo waited a moment, rubbing Donnie’s arm with the one that was around his shoulders. His arm was thin, deprived of all the muscle it once had before the illness struck.

Donnie made an undignified, squeaking noise as another brush of shivers hit him.

Leo hugged him through the tremors. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”

He was silent, clinging onto his twin, who was only younger than him by two minutes.

“Raph said it might be true, but I didn’t want to believe it. He told me you fainted trying to stand up after hanging out in his room.”

“I did the test fourteen days ago, but I was too scared to say it to anyone. That would make it too real,” Donnie whispered into the crook of Leo’s neck.

“How long?”

“A month by my calculations.”

A harsh sob cut out of Leo’s throat and he held onto Donnie harder until Donnie swore he was going to be bruised from the grip, but he didn’t care. That was one bruise he would be happy to hold.

Donnie was still too exhausted to cry.

“Are you—“ Leo had to pause to sniff away his tears, “—are you going to tell the others?”

He nodded. “They should know.”

He didn’t want anything official. At first, he didn’t want to tell them at all, but he knew he would have to. So, he waited until someone found out. He wasn’t surprised when it was Leo, his medically inclined brother, who found him out first. But as he mentioned, he didn’t want to have this big official sit-down.

They had it anyway, as official as Donnie allowed. With his family all gathered in the projector room when he limped in with most of his weight being supported by his tech bō. His tech bō was basically a glorified walking stick now. He was even forced to deactivate it so he didn’t activate anything from leaning on it. 

It was his siblings, blood and not. Just Raph, Mikey, Leo, and April, all gathered in the room waiting for something Donnie had to tell them. They all looked somewhat excited, except Leo who still seemed on the verge of tears.

Dad wasn’t there. He was already gone thanks to the invasion. It was hard to believe Splinter managed to make it all the way through the invasion, only to die a day later because of his injuries. At least Donnie would see him again in a month.

Everyone, except for Leo, who already knew the cause for the meeting, looked up at him, expectant of great news. Donnie prepared himself to disappoint.

“So,” Mikey chirped, “what did you need to tell us?”

Donnie still looked dead on his feet, gripping his tech bō for dear life knowing it was the only thing keeping him from ungracefully meeting the floor. Everything still hurt. He held a grimace on his face, both at the various aches and pains which now plagued him on a day to day basis, and at the news he had to break.

“I need to tell you all something very important,” he began, “and I’m sorry I waited this long to say as such . . .”

Leo looked away. Donnie understood why, he would have to hear the news all over again. It wasn’t fun to hear your brother admit to having cancer the first time, let alone all the times after.

“Donnie?” April now asked concerned. 

If Donnie wasn’t so exhausted he would be broken down, crying already, but he didn’t have it in him. “Brothers, sister . . . I—I got sick a, a uh few days ago.”

Raph suddenly caught on very fast, his pleasant smile turning to concern, then to fear. “How sick?”

Donnie’s lip quivered as he tried to say it out loud again.

“It’s cancer.” Leo answered for him, his voice quiet. 

Mikey started crying immediately, Raph and April looked too stunned to cry. Leo still looked drained from the moment in his room earlier.

“But-but, there’s still hope right?” Raph stammered, standing up. His thrashing tail neary knocked into Mikey and April. 

“If you call a 23.4% chance of survival hope, though I’ve broken down the numbers and even that chance is likely inaccurate by now.”

“What?” All the hope drained from Raph’s eyes.

Mikey sobbed harder. 

“It was correct when I found out fourteen days ago,” Donnie clarified.

“You found out two weeks ago and you didn’t tell us?” April exclaimed, standing up too.

“There’s nothing to be done about it either way, terminal is terminal.”

April ran over to him and hugged him. Pain shot down his spine from the impact but he didn’t care. He hugged her back, leaning his weight off his bō staff and onto her. Mikey and Raph soon followed until he didn’t need to hold himself up at all.

Raph scooped them all onto his lap and they spent the rest of the night watching movies. Donnie tried to hold onto every second that went by with them all, even as his mind raced with all there was still left for him to do and with how tired he felt, it would be easy to fall asleep right where he sat.

The family festivities didn’t last forever. Donnie was back in his lab, alone by the following week. His siblings were trying to avoid how sickly he looked so they could remain in their little ‘my brother’s not dying’ bubble.

Donnie finished Leo’s gift that day. He had nothing else to focus on to ignore the pain eating away at his rapidly deteriorating body, so he started Raph’s too.

Early that day he’d only seen Mikey briefly. He told Donnie that he was making him something and would show it to him that night. Donnie smiled and told him he couldn’t wait to see it. 

Raph’s project was harder to work on than he thought, and was scrapped and restarted more than he would like to admit. He couldn’t seem to get it right, and the constant haze lingering in the back of his mind wasn’t helping. He documented the process of all his gifts on his computer, of which he turned the passcode feature off on for the event of his death. Raph’s files dragged on much longer than the others, and each one seemed to be more of a clouded rant about what he should make. 

He ended the last log and moved it into the ‘Raph’s last gift’ folder. Donnie felt tired and worn through. He continued to struggle with drawing up a good design for Raph late into the afternoon.

His eyes started to droop and he must not have realized how tired he was. He felt like he was sleeping all day and despite it was still tired. He could hardly keep track of the short periods of time he could force himself to stay awake, and those short bits were agonizing as it was.

He couldn’t stay awake this time. He closed his eyes and gave in, slumping over his workstation on top of all the barely comprehensible scribbled drawings for Raph’s gift. The last thing he thought about before his head completely clouded, was that he hoped he would wake back up before Mikey came in with his surprise.

He didn’t get to see Mikey’s surprise. He had passed still thinking he still had three weeks left. He never told his stepfather, he never told his friends. He had certainly planned to after finishing the gifts, but in the end, he didn’t get to finish his last gift. 

---

[masterpost] | [next]

#rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #writing #rise donatello #rise leonardo #rise michelangelo #rise raphael #dead donnie au

[glowstone23b]

warden/ancient city thoughts …

Anicent cities aren’t actually cities, they’re actually massive temples instead that devoted themselves to a certain god (im not sure what god the old builders would worship akandk)

They laid many people to rest in those underground crypts, that a bit of their souls leaked out of the bodies and infected the glowing cave vines, resulting in a strange mutation of sculk

and as more people died and got places in those tombs,,, the more sculk spread

Eventually some worshippers caught notice of this and assumed it to be some gift from the gods, so they continued to add fuel to it, experimenting with it, etc, finding out that when a creature dies— instead of the soul ascending to an afterlife, it is instead pulled down by the sculk and merged into what was like a sentient hivemind of connected souls working together to become something akin to an organism

At some point, as evolution of the sculk furthered and sculk sensors formed, it eventually led to a sculk shrieker

and after worshippers activated it a couple times in a row,

It summoned the massive, blind hulking beast known as the warden. It harvested as many souls as it could from the worshippers as it chased after them, leaving no one in it’s wake, before retreating back into the biomass until the next time there is a significant amount of soul that alerts the shriekers once more

Ok mini rant story thing over. i like to think that sculk works in a weird sort of method

Catalyst farm and form the extra sculk needed to begin an infection —> sensors pick up on sounds made by noises that supposedly could be creatures with a soul —> shriekers sound a scream that helps determine if a warden should form —> warden harvests any nearby creatures to help the sculk spread. if killed, the warden drops a catalyst, so it can all begin again

The warden itself is a weird amalgamation of human souls stuck together fused with the sculk. the main reasoning for it being blind (other than cave animals usually being blind since low to zero light requires little need for eyes) is because detecting sound means a very high chance of something w soul

Sculk sickness …. Possibly a rare disease only picked up by deep miners. nasty no good and probably hurts as the sculk eats you from the inside out

Illagers came across the ancient cities and set up camp for a short amount of time to try and study the sculk . you can imagine what happened to them

[ i like to think every ‘living’ creature in minecraft has a soul. that keeps them alive and thinking and breathing and stuff. and undead mobs have soul residue which leaves them with very basic instincts or things they subconsciously remember how to do ITS A FUN THOUGHT ]

[ in my little au illagers love experimenting w souls . because the more you experiment the more messed up results you get (vexes being the fused collective of 2-3 allays, or creating abominations via sticking two different mob souls together… possibly how ravagers came to be since they look a bit like villagers that got turned into beasts . fun theorizing ]

Hey invention? Phanon? I love your mind, it's wonderful. Have a drawing!

I've never drawn a warden before, mostly because it's been very daunting, but I think I got it out the way I wanted it to!! Sculk itself is kind of like... a fungus-y tentacle-y mixture, and i got some inspiration from the devil's fingers fungus irl! Really cool, I suggest giving it a look-see.

In my head, sculk would start off kind of like little eggs or pips or... whatever those things are... there's a name for it, when a plant or a cell decides to split off to make a new plant or cell? Mitosis? Bulbs? Plantlets? There's a word I'm looking for. Anyways. They'd probably grow mini sculk bits off of more mature ones so they can drop off and spread on their own, kind of like some types of succulent if that makes sense? Which explains the little sticky-outy bits on the wardens' horn things. Man, there's gotta be proper terminology for this, my brain is not finding the right words today.

They'd release some sort of bioluminescence when disturbed, and have an almost tar-like substance produced to trap smaller mobs (spiders, bats, etc.) that happen to wander too close, akin to fly traps. It wouldn't work as well for humans, but it's not uncommon to have your foot tugged on by some sculk in the hopes it can digest you.

I went off "The warden itself is a weird amalgamation of human souls stuck together fused with the sculk" because it's FREAKING COOL, so !!! Yeah!! I've got some of the larger/longer sculk tendrils used as arms and 'fingers' in a sense, though they're not all that precise in use. It just opts to smack the heck out of people usually. The bones in the shoulders and feet I thought were really cool on the in-game design, so I feel that the sculk would grow around any sorts of bones it had access to to keep a more stable structure. Keeping yourself upright if you're a soft mass of plantiness/fungus-yness would be a little tough, I think. Also, keeping bones close to the sculk might make it easier to tether souls together? Who knows!

It'd be neat to see what types of matter the sculk would attach to to form a warden-- it could be enderman bones, for all we know! Big and long and short and stubby, and all of the bones are in the wrong places. Using femurs for toes, or ribs for arms... it'd definitely not be fun to see in person.

Sculk sickness sounds SO NEAT TOO!!! I imagine you might be able to inhale it, like spores? Since it feeds off of xp or souls, you just keep fueling it once you're infected whether you like it or not. Does it have any cure, or would you have to have some sort of surgery to try to remove the existing sculk from your body? That'd cause a heck of a lot of complications, if it were to block anything internally. Wild, but neat to theorize about.

And YES on the experimenting with souls thing! Especially with the update so vexes look a lot more like allays-- definitely experiment material. I wonder how many more mobs are out there that we haven't seen because they haven't been made yet? Just mish mashes of any sort of soul they could get their hands on, inhabiting a body that doesn't feel quite right. Kinda interesting!

Thank you for sharing as always ily you rule. Your theories slap, may your inventory be full of diamonds or something. May the Nether's fire guide your way, idk. More piglin-y, as per my blog, lol.

#minecraft #glowstone23b asks #glowstone23b art #minecraft worldbuilding #phanon #brandnewinvention #minecraft warden #minecraft sculk #minecraft deep dark #that should be enough tags #idk #not nether #also that #anyways. apologies for the late reply also but i wanted to make art for it #and i was out volunteering with animals so life is good :) #expect delayed replies from me unfortunately #but i wanna sit down to read your stuff when i have the time to respond to it because it's lovely #phanon-menal if you will #ok that's it for now you never cease to amaze!! stay fed and hydrated bud!!

[tabletopmonsteroftheweek]

Could you do The Thing from The Thing (1982)? If you don’t know what it is, I don’t recommend looking it up if you’re sensitive to gore.

Okay so funny thing, I actually ran something like that in my last big motw campaign, but instead of it being an alien it was a science experiment. However, while trying to find it I seem to have lost it :(. I'll update this later if i find it, so here's just the movie version.

-------------

Monster: The Thing

Type: Parasite (motive: to infect & assimilate)

An alien mass of single cell organisms, each cell acting independently on its own. Rarely to never showing its true form, the creature subsumes other living matter nearby and takes their shape. It's unsure whether it crashed into our planet via spacecraft or meteorite. Whatever its intentions, it seems to only have assimilation and self-preservation in mind.

Powers:

Rapid Regeneration

Assimilation

Near-identical shape-shifting

Vocal Mimicry (when shifted into a person)

Weakness:

The Thing cannot assimilate non-organic components on living beings, such as teeth fillings or prosthetics.

Anything that can damage or kill cells will work well against it, such as: electricity, explosives, and incineration. It seems to react negatively to intense heat.

Harm: 20 harm

Atracks:

Touch (0 harm hand assimilation)

Veiny-whip (1 harm close assimilation)

Grapple (2 harm hand assimilation)

Custom Moves:

Touch & Assimilation: If the Thing touches someone, either making contact with skin or injuring them, it will leave behind some of its cells to slowly assimilate the individual. If a hunter gets touched, they too will also get infected. Mark them unstable no matter their health- they must seek out medical attention immediately, specifically magic or amputation depending on where they were touched. If they die while assimilation is in progress, they become one with The Thing.

Those wishing to cure the assimilation that's taking place on someone or on another hunter, they must use any healing moves they have and roll whatever it asks.

#monster of the week #motw #motw rpg #monster of the week rpg #monster idea #monster stat block #mystery concept #motw mystery concept #monster of the week mystery concept

[sheepkebby]

Finally making fandom ocs after all these years, and I'm gripping my head trying to figure out how non-feral(?) special infected would live. These things weren't built to last.

Oh for sure! Without treatment, most special infected won't last more than a month. Tanks, for example, have such high blood pressure that there's a very likely chance they'll get intense internal bleeding if they do something as simple as lying down. This will cause them to slowly bleed to death from the inside out.

I feel like, when creating characters based around special infected, you have to take a few artistic liberties.

First and foremost, you have to omit any brain damage that every infected almost definitely has. If you wanted to explain this in a way that almost makes sense, you can say "Their immune system was just strong enough to suppress the infection to protect their brain, but it couldn't protect their whole body." This also gives you the freedom to have your zombie characters retain a certain amount of sentience or intelligence.

Secondly, you have to think about the symptoms of the disease, and how they'd affect the character. Not just in matters of appearance, but how they live their lives, and their chances of survival. If you wanted to create an infected character you'd have to keep these symptoms in mind, and play with how severe they are.

Several months ago I did a little brain exercise where I considered the survival chances of each special infected. Hypothetically, if a cure of some kind was created, and ignoring the brain damage aspect:

Commons - High chance of survival. Since there are no crazy mutations in their bodies, I think if we were able to force-feed them a fucking meal they'd be just fine. Most of them are probably blind, and would have to deal with the effects of malnutrition/starvation, but I think that would be the worst of it.

Tanks - NO chance of survival. I hate to say it but I think a tank's heart would give out within a month at the LATEST. That poor little pump is working overtime to keep that unnaturally huge body running. And with the amount of exercise tanks get, I think it's only a matter of time before their organs completely shut down. I doubt there are any surgeries we could possibly do to give them a normal-shaped body again either. I don't think there's anything we can do to save a tank. If the conditions are right and supplies are plentiful, medical professionals could hypothetically keep a tank alive in a comatose state, but nobody wants to live like that.

Witches - High/moderate chance of survival. A home-cooked meal and therapy. IMMEDIATELY. She needs to be treated for starvation. Maybe her fucked up fingers can be surgically shortened as well.

Hunters - Moderate chance of survival. If they haven't already broken all their joints from jumping around, I say they'd have a chance. The duct tape around their limbs puts them at serious risk of cutting off blood circulation to their limbs though. We might have to amputate some of their limbs, de-claw them, teach them how to walk around blind, and give them a lollipop. If those procedures are successful then they'll be fine.

Smokers - Low/moderate chance of survival. This one's complicated. Smokers have a lot going on. I'm going off the assumption that the lumps growing out of them are cancerous, and the cancer cells regenerating is what keeps their tongue growing even after it snaps. If we were able to surgically remove the tumours, blast them with chemotherapy so their tongues stop regenerating, surgically shorten their tongue and stitch it up, maybe they'd have a chance. Plus they would probably need skin grafts to re-construct their face. They'd also need surgery to rearrange/replace any organs that were damaged by their tongue or the smoke in their bodies. They'd also need physical therapy to learn how to eat properly again, maybe even speech therapy if their tongue had given them a lisp. It would be an extremely lengthy process, and that's why I'd say it's a low/moderate survival rate. You'd have to be one tough bitch to recover from being a smoker, but I believe it's possible at least.

Spitters - EXTREMELY LOW chance of survival. If her jaw is completely eroded from her stomach acid, imagine how her insides look. Based on how her body looks, it's safe to assume all her organs are mush. Fun fact; Whenever you throw up, your body lines your mouth/all your insides with saliva to protect yourself from the stomach acid about to burst out of you. No amount of saliva is gonna save a spitter... However, some medications reduce the amount of acid the stomach produces, and some surgeries tighten the esophagus muscles to prevent acid reflux. I think if the flu symptoms were caught early on, and the right precautions were taken, a spitter could survive the infection. This is tricky, though, as there will be a moment when this poor patient passes a point of no return if a cure isn't administered soon enough.

Boomers - EXTREMELY LOW chance of survival. Reread everything I just said about the spitter. They're basically in the same predicament.

Chargers - NO chance of survival. Look at it. It's basically a smaller tank. Maybe chargers would have a slightly longer lifespan than a tank since they're not AS big, but still, it's big enough that its body is going to shut down eventually. Based on how shrivelled up their small arm looks, and how deformed their head looks, I'm fairly certain their body is neglecting to give nutrients to the less useful parts of the body, forcing all the Meats into that Big Meaty Arm. Even if you amputated that giant arm, I don't think there's any saving a charger. The rest of it would just be skin and bone. The poor creature's head looks caved in.

Jockeys - Moderate chance of survival. They'd need facial reconstruction and spinal reconstruction surgeries, as well as skin grafts for their hands and feet. Some medical procedures for any organ damage from the hump, too. Finally, they'd need an insane amount of therapy. The idea of recovery for a jockey seems absurd but this is very doable. They have a better chance of surviving than a tank, charger, spitter, or boomer, as their organs would be less damaged.

NOTE: I am not a medical professional, so some of my speculations may be wildly inaccurate, but these are the headcanons that I stick with.

ALRIGHT. Now that we've thought long and hard about the flu symptoms, we can get to work making a character! I'm going to be using my beloved little freak Carter as an example.

Looking at Carter compared to other smokers in L4D2, it's clear I took plenty of artistic liberties. Most noticeably, his cancerous growths are a lot less severe. His tumours are smaller and fewer, and he only has one tongue. This is a design choice that a lot of artists in the L4D2 community hold near and dear. It's why smoker OCs are so popular. The cancerous symptoms were the only symptoms I pulled back on, though, as you can still see he's got fucked up eyes, smoke rising off him, and excess sweat.

It's important to remember that immunity to the infection always comes down to genetics. Ellis, Nick, Rochelle, Coach, Louis, Bill, Francis, and Zoey can get zombie germs all over them and be perfectly fine! They have the right genetics that make them immune to the disease. It doesn't matter how healthy/unhealthy they are.

On the flip side, unlucky souls with the wrong genetics will get infected no matter how strong their immune system is. HOWEVER, people with stronger immune systems and healthier lifestyles will be able to fight off diseases better than other people. Think about covid, and how young, healthy people could handle the virus better than people with lung conditions or compromised immune systems. I like to imagine a similar predicament with the green flu. Carter was young, healthy, ate well, exercised, and had a strong immune system. He just had the wrong genetics, so he got infected. Because of his strong immune system, though, his body was able to suppress the infection juuuust enough to protect him from deadly mutations and major brain damage.

Some other side effects of Carter's infection include a speech impediment, partial blindness, and low stamina. It's hard to talk with that tongue in the way, he's only got one eye (which is damaged), and the smoke in his lungs makes it difficult to breathe and thus difficult to run for extended periods. These symptoms, while painful, are interesting to think about and give Carter a lot of charm! His speech impediment makes him unique compared to all my other characters.

Once you consider all the symptoms your character will have, reel in some of the more deadly ones, and consider medical procedures they can endure to become human again, you're all set! And hell, you don't even have to put as much thought into this as I did. If you make a witch OC and say "This is my witch, the virus won't kill her and she retains sentience because I said so." That's perfectly valid! Just have fun with it!

So there you have it, all my thoughts that go into creating infected L4D fan characters!

Shoutout to my friend @determined-goop-blog who's a huge nerd when it comes to researching medical procedures. Their speculations helped me write how the virus affects the jockey and the spitter, and how they might recover.

#long post #very long post #l4d2 #left 4 dead 2 #l4d #left 4 dead #zombies #kebby rambles #kebby asks #body horror #Carter

[ludrii]

My Enderman headcanons

They evolved from humans - their ancestors fled to the End where they were forced to adapt to the harsh environment once stuck there (thanks Ender Dragon)

Due to End being quite waterless, they evolved to absorb moisture from the air. But for such, if there's "too much moisture" (direct contact with water, for example) their cells can't hold that much and explode.

Another notable change is how they see the world - they see in inverted colours to help them navigate in the darkness

Endermen are biologically immortal (cannot die of old age)

They are taller with long arms to better reach the Chorus fruit, their main (and usually only) diet

They are born albino as there is no sunlight in the End

But Ludrii, the Endermen aren't albino when we see them?? Do they change colours while they grow up or what?

Well- yeah, basically. Buckle up, here's where things get funky. I mentioned the Chorus fruit, aye? So, in short, through the consuption of the fruit (which teleports them around randomly, taking them through the higher dimension where Endermites live) they can get infected by the Endermites (pretty much borrowed from Wifies' theory - but I expanded 👁️). Here's a handy illustration with some info bits to which I will get momentarily

The info bits under the cut (cause I don't want this to hog dashboards lmao)

So, as I've said, all Endermen are born albino little Shy Guys

Thanks to the veins underneath the skin though, they are not pure white, but lean into the pinkish or purplish

Eyes are completely white and slightly glowy

Hereditary dark patches may appear on skin

As the Endermen begin to eat the Chorus fruit, literally the only food accessible in the End (thanks Ender Dragon for not letting us out) changes begin to appear

The eyes go from white into a warm colour, usually red, orange or yellow. This is completely harmless.

This next thing that can happen, tho, not so much.

Since the Chorus fruit teleports them a bit each time they eat one, there's a chance they might get.. infected. You see, teleportation happens through a higher dimension of sorts (kinda like using Nether to access distant parts of Overworld quicker), and this dimension just so happens to be the home of Endermites. And those just so happen to be parasites - interdimensional parasites.

For such risk, the eating of Chorus fruit is often regarded as Phase/Stage 0

Stage 0 of what, you may ask? This-

The infection

Stage 1 - Endermite settles in

Permanent discoloration of the skin and organs, spreading from the chest. It often picks a side to start with to disable one hemisphere of the brain faster and take control over more effectively.

As the brain gets attacked, it causes severe memory problems, weakening of will, emotional dysregulation and later on first signs of "aggravating" via eye contact.

Eyes get affected as well, turning bright green at the start

Ender Pearl begins to form around the Endermite as a defence mechanism. If taken out, it could kill the parasite and stop the infection. It is risky at this stage however, as it could leave remnants. Remnants bad.

Stage 2 - fully infected

Loss of memory and identity

The stripes (inherited from humans - yes, humans have stripes! They just happen to be "invisible") become fully visible. These stripes are unique for each Enderman, although a common occurance is a star shaped patch on the chest (caused by the Endermite - it is not in the original genetic code of an uninfected Enderman)

Particles start to appear, gray in appearance, akin to smoke clouds

Stage 3 -final

Endermite's reign is in full power. For such, the Enderman "gains" the Endermite's ability to teleport.

Also, the eyes and particles turn purple

Endermen now get aggravated via eye contact

Now, after all that's been said, it is not impossible to save the Endermen. Ender Pearl is now fully formed, and thus it is safe to rip it out surgically remove it. This will get rid of the Endermite, and while most changes are permanent (colour of eyes and skin, for example, though it may fade with age), the Enderman will have a free will again. At the cost of teleportation, though.

Other bits! - Common mutations (often combined)

Human remnants - physical ears, nose, hair

New - horns, tusks Human mutations^2 (humans have these too, tho not as often) - heterochromia, tails, fur

#yes I'm writing this down at 1 am lolz #good times #part 2 may happen someday #minecraft #enderman #enderman art #my art #signed ludrii

[invested-in-your-future]

The Nature of The Grimm

While it's common to refer to the apparitions as The Grimm, the the word itself refers to a substance or energy rather than a creature. The exact classification of its form is currently unknown, as The Grimm can't be detected or directly observed. It's impossible to touch, interact with, or perceive it, but heightened levels of it are considered lethal to all known life.

The unknown element can't be photographed or observed in any way, shape or form.

Prolonged exposure to elevated levels of The Grimm can lead to fatigue, altered perception of time, paranoia, permanent aura collapse, organ failure, rapid cell decomposition, deteriorating cognitive functions and, likely, other undetermined psychological and physiological effects.

The only known effective way of detecting The Grimm is by observing other environmental factors in the target area. A substantial change in environmental conditions might often indicate rising levels of The Grimm (Ex: Rising temperatures in cold climate locales or falling temperatures in warmer, a drop in humidity(due to rapid evaporation of water), fluctuating oxygen levels, sudden and drastic animal migration, or area-wide extinction of specific types of flora ).

However, those changes can also be attributed to other factors (Ex: The environmental change caused by the Scarring of Vacuo during the Great War has nothing to do with The Grimm).

The hard-to-define characteristics of The Grimm have forced the Kingdoms to rely on monitoring the Creatures as a warning sign instead.

The spread of the unknown element is directly tied to the Creatures of the Grimm, as these apparitions, by just existing within the area seem to cause the background levels of The Grimm to spike substantially. Thus, eradicating The Creatures in the area is one of the most common approaches in combatting spread.

The more long-lived the Grimm, the stronger the Grimm spike it elicits. The quantity of the creatures in the area also affects the spread.

The Grimm is thought responsible for multiple extinct types of flora and fauna of Remnant. All known cases are detailed within the Extinction Record, an encyclopedia of extinct species and Kingdoms that is being kept within Eternal City.

According to the information available, if Remnant were to be treated as a continuous living system, it's fair to view The Creatures of the Grimm as a sign of infection. Any Creatures of Grimm detected are a direct threat to the well-being and long-term survival of the entire ecosystem and thus need to be eradicated on sight.

In turn, that makes the existence of the Huntsmen all the more crucial. 

The Environmental Effects & Accumulation of The Grimm

The increasing background levels of Grimm don't just lead to the appearance of the apparitions but also have significant negative effects on the local ecosystem. Since The Grimm in higher doses is lethal to living beings, it's not uncommon for plant and animal life to die out - the eventual result is a barren area incompatible with life itself.

The Neverlands

When a specific threshold is crossed, the area in the vicinity is damaged, turning into what is most often referred to as The Neverlands. Beyond mere damage to flora and fauna, the Grimm begins to affect other aspects of the environment and even laws of physics.

The areas have tendency to expand reacting to outside stimuli because it's not uncommon for the Creatures of Grimm of to rush from these zones and into surrounding areas.

As of 797 E.A there are detected areas of The Neverlands within each of major continents.

The current observable spread of the Neverlands.

Common factors of the Neverlands include:

Highly Lethal levels of The Grimm - The deeper layers of The Neverlands contain levels of The Grimm that can lead to instant death. Most subjects tend to expire within 48 hours since exposure.

Presence of the more ancient Grimm types like The Goliaths.

Altered sensory functions - Auditory and visual hallucinations are common. As is the possibility of complete loss of taste and smell. The notes from the few conducted expeditions to the outer layers of The Neverlands territories also describe vivid hallucinations and whispers. Reigning theory suggests a link to the Grimm's effects on the human brain.

Gravity Anomalies - The Observation of the deeper layers indicates the existence of a phenomenon where gravity seems to stop working or significantly weakens. How that correlates to the spread of The Grimm is unknown.

Laws of Physics - A single expedition to the Neverlands depths conducted on the Continent of Solitas has revealed a more exotic effect upon reality. From the data of an Observational Device sent into the deeper layers, the influence of the Grimm goes deeper than thought before. The Device seems to have inconsistencies in the essential location, temperature, movement, and gravity data. The Device damage also defies conventional logic. The effects altogether seem to suggest an impossible idea of The Grimm affecting basic concepts like space or even laws of physics. The effect possibly indicates concepts like space, the passage of time, energy, gravity, and others being affected. See the full report for a more detailed presentation of data.

Known recent expansions of The Neverlands zones:

The Third Crusade, 430 E.A

The Great War, 714 - 717 E.A

The Fall of Beacon, 796 E.A

The Grimm, (Creatures of)

Commonly known as the Creatures of the Grimm, these beings are hostile apparitions that defy common sense, going against principles of both behavior and physiology.

The Creatures of Grimm, contrary to living beings, don't need sustenance to survive, which indicates that they consume their victims solely to kill them.

The Creatures of Grimm don't sleep, although some types can imitate animal sleep cycles - the reason behind that is unknown.

From the available data, The Creatures of the Grimm have three driving factors:

Continuous survival and spread - The Creatures of Grimm, at base level, function like an instinctual hivemind, with the primary goal being spreading over a location, prioritizing continuous existence of the whole. A more long-lived Creature of Grimm will prioritize survival, adaptation and evolution over its other driving factors. Whether a concept of individual self exists among the apparitions is currently unknown.

Annihilation of humans - The Creatures of Grimm primarily target only Humans and the Faunus. Environment might suffer from their presence, but that's more due to it overlapping with their primary driving factors, as well as the destructive nature of The Grimm.

Negative Emotions - Alongside the five senses, The Grimm function on an empathic level as the Creatures can detect strong surges of emotion, specifically negative emotion, from their targets. The attraction to negative emotion might be more akin to compulsory instinct than an intentional action being taken.

The body of a Grimm is actually made up out of concentrated element of the Grimm, held together into a specific form by yet undetermined force. The Creatures of Grimm don't have conventional biological organs, nervous system or anything else tied to the concept of a living being, yet they seem to be capable of using most of their senses (or at least capable of imitating the process).

Since it's not a living being, the apparition can't be killed. A Creature of Grimm "dies" when sufficient damage is dealt to its form - doing which breaks down it's coherence, making the element that the form consists of fall apart.

The Grimm, in small quantities, doesn't seem to accumulate. In fact the detectable environmental factors seem to decrease after the apparition falls apart, meaning the material dissipates. As further research into the nature of the Grimm is impossible, it's currently unclear why disrupting it's form makes the substance dissipate rather than persist.

Further research into the apparition composition is made impossible due to the fact that the Grimm tend to dissolve after death or even when under prolonged captivity.

Adaptation and Evolution

According to the analysis of the available data, The Creatures of Grimm display an extraordinary degree of adaptability as well as innate survival instinct. The apparitions exhibit unparalleled ability to process information and learn, exceeding that of human beings several times.

An average apparition can significantly increase its efficiency within a few survived encounters. For example an apparition that continuously faces ranged attacks will have honed its ability to dodge projectiles within one or two encounters.

The level of proficiency the apparitions can develop in repeated combat encounters is one of the reasons why Huntsmen weaponry is encouraged to be flexible, allowing them to switch up tactics on the go, which expands the range of actions a Huntsman can take as well as minimizes the risk of the targets surviving the encounter. It's highly recommended to ensure none escape.

The cycle of the apparitions is thus defined by their accumulation of experience.

Regular Grimm

The default beginning stage of the Creatures of Grimm. The Regular Grimm can be classified in different ways:

According to form: Preternaturalistic-type (the apparitions that mimic birds, animals or plants) or Fabulistic-type (reminiscent of mythology, folklore, concepts and ideas)

According to function: Predator-type (the apparition types that follow more destructive patterns following their basic instinct of killing humans) or Instigator-type (the apparition types that prioritize survival and that cause emotional disbalance and attract other apparitions),

Alpha Variants

If to exclude the Irregular Grimm, as the apparition accumulates experience through the years, its form might experience slight alterations - an indication of the shift towards the Alpha status. An Alpha is merely a term used to describe a long-lived form of the specific apparition type that has developed a more refined approach to combat and poses a significantly higher level of threat. Alpha encounters are rare, as one of the common reasons for an apparition's survival is its ability to remain undetected for longer periods.

It's not uncommon for an Alpha to defy the logic and patterns of its original form - for example, animal apparitions might develop into Alpha versions with mythological features. The exact nature of this alteration is unknown.

The Alphas also commonly hostile to their own kind.

On the grander scale of things, an Alpha is merely an intermediary stage lasting centuries that likely leads to the final known step in the apparition's existence - the Ancient Grimm.

The Ancient Grimm

The Ancient Grimm is the theoretical final stage of the apparition lifespan.

Details are unclear on how the Ancient Grimm came to be, but it is a generally accepted fact that these instances of apparitions are likely hundreds, if not thousands of years old.

The Ancient Grimm are generally only observed residing within the Neverlands areas. They don't seem to respond to most of the more common stimuli the apparitions react to and instead follow their logic, which is, for now, incomprehensible to modern science.

It is a commonly accepted fact that the Ancient Grimm seems to have some level of intelligence, being able to judge their chances of survival and engage in some degree of planning.

A significant surge in negative emotions, however, has been shown to cause them to move, as displayed by the Fall of Beacon, as well as the Breach of Mantle.

The commonly discovered strains of the Ancient Grimm are:

The Goliaths - the land-based Ancient Grimm that have been sighted on the continents of Solitas and Sanus.

The Leviathans - the sea-based Ancient Grimm. Last known recorded sighting in 790 E.A within the ocean region of The Depths. Multiple unconfirmed sailor sightings since then.

The Behemoths- the land-based reptile-esque Ancient Grimm that can be seen roaming the Neverlands areas of Vacuo.

There are likely other undiscovered types of the Ancient Grimm, like the unconfirmed reports of spider-like Ancient Grimm in the Menagerie area. The nature of the Neverlands makes it near impossible to detect any of the types possibly existing in the deeper layers.

All known types of the Ancient Grimm seem to share multiple common traits:

Extreme Durability - It is generally accepted fact that the Ancient Grimm are highly resilient. The last known confrontation with The Goliath happened during Breach of Mantle. As per data available, 126 individuals laid down their lives to kill one of The Goliath.

Intelligence - It's unknown how intelligent the Ancient Grimm are, but the fact that they don't act on instinct and seem to be able to judge their survival chances indicates it's there. The Leviathans also seem to be able to avoid research and military vessels, if the sailor sightings are to be taken as fact.

High-density of The Grimm - An Ancient Grimm accelerates the accumulation of The Grimm exponentially, poisoning the land with each step.

Hard-to-define behavioral patterns - Most of the Ancient Grimm seem to stay within The Neverlands, but their behavior is a mystery. Some have been observed to move between specific locations for no apparent reason, while others will actively hunt down regular Grimm in the area. The behavior of the Ancient Grimm has puzzled most scientists for ages.

In more than one way, the Ancient Grimm remain a mystery. The common course of action when encountering one of the Ancient Grimm is to avoid confrontation unless necessary firepower and manpower is available.

The Unknown & The Myth

Due to the elusive nature of The Grimm, the exact specifics of the threat are still unknown, despite humanity having faced it since the dawn of Ever After.

The unknown nature of the apparitions has caused many rumors and folk tales to spread, whether unscientific rumors, conspiracy theories, or cryptozoological fakes.

The Creatures of Grimm do feature in multiple ancient myths, but the validity of the said mythos is impossible to determine. Each region has its own tales of unconfirmed sightings (collectively called Fables) as well as legends. However, there's no scientific basis in the mythological concepts like the Evergrimm. And the cryptozoological sightings like the Kingdom of Mistral's The Wanderer almost always turn out to be elaborate hoaxes. The majority of the tales like that should, by all accounts, be taken with a grain of salt.

#rwby #rwbyr stuff mine #rwby au #rwby rewrite #just one loredump of the many with some plot teases alongside for good measure #rwbyr lore

[swampgallows]

i dont want to violate the privacy of the covid cautious groups im in but man sometimes i really wish i could cross post to force people to face the tragedy and suffering everyone else in the world is conveniently ignoring. one user today mentioned during work they “burst into deep sobbing and talked about the genocide of Disabled people... I’m tired of being told to respect other people’s opinions not to mask. I don’t respect it. You’re committing passive genocide.” i really do think people have forgotten that a “personal preference” to not mask or test or to attend gatherings and then refuse to isolate is another day added onto the genocide of vulnerable people. another day that it isnt safe to go outside, another day of shutting down our entire lives so that you can live on OUR time. “well if disabled people are gonna just stay inside forever then im gonna do what i want!! LOL!!!” you are the reason we are stuck inside. you are the person keeping us inside. we are staying inside because otherwise you will kill us. you are killing us. you are killing us. you are killing us.

why should i deserve to die? because i lost a genetic lottery and ended up with a blood disorder? because i have a mental illness and so i’m inherently flawed? because i’ve already “wasted” so much of my life trying to survive?

you are suppressing disabled and vulnerable voices. you are barring us from the public sphere. we are being barred from taking certain jobs and therefore from maintaining positions of power in society. we are being ignored on a social, familial, communal, and federal level. our government brags that “we have the tools” and then immediately defunds them, makes them inaccessible, renders them useless by promoting conditions in which the virus can further mutate and spread. 

have you learned about xbb 1.16, arcturus? how the virus is evolving toward targeting the suppression of t-cells? have you talked to anyone with “long covid”, or new or preexisting pots, me/cfs, or other chronic fatigue or immune disorders? do you know that covid has proven over and over to do permanent organ damage to millions of people? and you are okay with this? if you flippantly go see someone, unmasked, while carrying covid and infect them, putting them at risk for lifelong disability, how can you live with yourself? when your previously abled friend now needs an inhaler, a litany of medications, a mobility aid, or has to shut down their entire life and live out of their bed, how can you go on knowing you and your apathy did that to them?

i lost the lottery before i was born, yet everyone who’s gone “back to normal” is choosing to play it every day. how much longer can you keep winning on someone else’s odds?

#covid #blathering