#my immune system is actually pretty ok

[smilesrobotlover]

*bonks your immune system* nope none of that, do your job and no making Smiles sick -Sky Floor

Ugh, gotta depend on my immune system to get me sick as SOON as the weather starts warming up

[infiniteglitterfall]

know someone who enjoys horror stories? share this one! it's true!

hahahahahahahahahaha aarrggghhhhhhhhhh 3,000,000 deaths due to COVID-19 last year. Globally. Three million. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. The reason people are still worried about COVID is because it has a way of quietly fucking up your body. And the risk is cumulative.

I'm going to say that again: the risk is cumulative.

It's not just that a lot of people get bad long-term effects from it. One in seven or so? Enough that it's kind of the Russian Roulette of diseases. It's also that the more times you get it, the higher that risk becomes. Like if each time you survived Russian Roulette, the empty chamber was removed from the gun entirely. The worst part is that, psychologically, we have the absolute opposite reaction. If we survive something with no ill effects, we assume it's pretty safe. It is really, really hard to override that sense of, "Ok, well, I got it and now I probably have a lot of immunity and also it wasn't that bad." It is not a respiratory disease. Airborne, yes. Respiratory disease, no: not a cold, not a flu, not RSV.

Like measles (or maybe chickenpox?), it starts with respiratory symptoms. And then it moves to other parts of your body. It seems to target the lungs, the digestive system, the heart, and the brain the most.

It also hits the immune system really hard - a lot of people are suddenly more susceptible to completely unrelated viruses. People get brain fog, migraines, forget things they used to know.

(I really, really hate that it can cross the blood-brain barrier. NOTHING SHOULD EVER CROSS THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER IT IS THERE FOR A REASON.) Anecdotal examples of this shit are horrifying. I've seen people talk about coworkers who've had COVID five or more times, and now their work... just often doesn't make sense? They send emails that say things like, "Sorry, I didn't mean Los Angeles, I meant Los Angeles."

Or they insist they've never heard of some project that they were actually in charge of a year or two before.

Or their work is just kind of falling apart, and they don't seem to be aware of it.

People talk about how they don't want to get the person in trouble, so their team just works around it. Or they describe neighbors and relatives who had COVID repeatedly, were nearly hospitalized, talked about how incredibly sick they felt at the time... and now swear they've only had it once and it wasn't bad, they barely even noticed it.

(As someone who lived with severe dissociation for most of my life, this is a genuinely terrifying idea to me. I've already spent my whole life being like, "but what if I told them that already? but what if I did do that? what if that did happen to me and I just don't remember?") One of its known effects in the brain is to increase impulsivity and risk-taking, which is real fucking convenient honestly. What a fantastic fucking mutation. So happy for it on that one. Yes, please make it seem less important to wear a mask and get vaccinated. I'm not screaming internally at all now.

I saw a tweet from someone last year whose family hadn't had COVID yet, who were still masking in public, including school.

She said that her son was no kind of an athlete. Solidly bottom middle of the pack in gym.

And suddenly, this year, he was absolutely blowing past all the other kids who had to run the mile. He wasn't running any faster. His times weren't fantastic or anything. It's just that the rest of the kids were worse than him now. For some reason. I think about that a lot. (Like my incredibly active six-year-old getting a cold, and suddenly developing post-viral asthma that looked like pneumonia.

He went back to school the day before yesterday, after being home for a month and using preventative inhalers for almost week.

He told me that it was GREAT - except that he couldn't run as much at recess, because he immediately got really tired. Like how I went outside with him to do some yard work and felt like my body couldn't figure out how to increase breathing and heart rate.

I wasn't physically out of breath, but I felt like I was out of breath. That COVID feeling people describe, of "I'm not getting enough air." Except that I didn't have that problem when I had COVID.) Some people don't observe any long (or medium) term side effects after they have it.

But researchers have found viral reservoirs of COVID-19 in everyone they've studied who had it.

It just seems to hang out, dormant, for... well, longer than we've had an opportunity to observe it, so far.

(I definitely watched that literal horror movie. I think that's an entire genre. The alien dormant under ice in the Arctic.)

(oh hey I don't like that either!!!!!!!!!) All of which is to explain why we should still care about avoiding it, and how it manages to still cause excess deaths. Measuring excess deaths has been a standard tool in public health for a long time.

We know how many people usually die from all different causes, every year. So we can tell if, for example, deaths from heart disease have gone way up in the past three years, and look for reasons. Those are excess deaths: deaths that, four years ago, would not have happened. During the pandemic, excess death rates have been a really important tool. For all sorts of reasons. Like, sometimes people die from COVID without ever getting tested, and the official cause is listed as something else because nobody knows they had COVID. But also, people are dying from cardiovascular illness much younger now.

People are having strokes and heart attacks younger, and more often, than they did before the pandemic started. COVID causes a lot of problems. And some of those problems kill people. And some of them make it easier for other things to kill us. Lung damage from COVID leading to lungs collapsing, or to pneumonia, or to a pulmonary embolism, for example. The Economist built a machine-learning model with a 95% confidence interval that gauges excess death statistics around the world, to tell them what the true toll of the ongoing COVID pandemic has been so far.

Total excess deaths globally in 2023: Three million.

3,000,000.

Official COVID-19 deaths globally so far: Seven million. 7,000,000. Total excess deaths during COVID so far: Thirty-five point two million. 35,200,000.

Five times as many.

That's bad. I don't like that at all. I'm glad last year was less than a tenth of that. I'm not particularly confident about that continuing, though, because last year we started a period of really high COVID transmission. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. Here's their data, and charts you can play with, and links to detailed information on how they did all of this:

Here's a non-paywalled link to it:

https://archive.vn/2024.01.26-012536/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

Oh: here's a link to where you can buy comfy, effective N95 masks in all sizes:

Those ones are about a buck each after shipping - about $30 for a box of 30. They also have sample packs for a dollar, so you can try a couple of different sizes and styles.

You can wear an N95 mask for about 40 total hours before the effectiveness really drops, so that's like a dollar for a week of wear.

They're also family-owned and have cat-shaped masks and I really love them. These ones are cuter and in a much wider range of colors, prints, and styles, but they're also more expensive; they range from $1.80 to $3 for a mask. ($18-$30 for a box of ten.)

[feyburner]

I loved LOVED a word, a look, will be enough. I’m obsessed with the way you write jason and tim. No pressure to answer this at all, but I was curious if you have a headcanon about how the missing spleen reveal eventually goes

Jay »

Good afternoon Timothy.

« tim

uh oh

Jay »

I just had a fascinating conversation with Doc thompson

Care to hazard a guess about what?

« tim

pollen season

Jay »

No.

« tim

bird flu

Jay »

Is there a reason you havent told anyone in your life that you dont have a fucking spleen?

« tim

okay first of all

i’m not sure why doc thompson felt the need to tell you my private medical information

pretty sure they have a rule about that

Jay »

It’s not her fault.

I mentioned that you got whammied with that stupid germ bomb from Typhoid Tony or whatever the fuck his name was

« tim

vik vyral

Jay »

And she got all serious and told me I should get you into the clinic asap, and I was like no he’s fine now, it was basically a 24 hour bug, and she was like no, theres no such thing as a 24 hour bug for him, he needs to come get his blood tested yesterday

And then she clearly realized I had no fucking clue what she was talking about and clammed up. Wouldn’t say a thing. Told me to ask you myself.

Jay »

The look she gave me when I said you slept it off and went back to work. Like I should know better. like I was letting you be careless and shit bc thats just how I am or something.

« tim

“letting” me?

Jay »

yeah. Letting you. I know you know what I mean

« tim

i’m not sure i do.

Jay »

When youre with someone you take care of them.

I dont pretend to know much about this shit but I know that.

I’m not talking about handcuffing you to the radiator. Im talking about knowing whats going on with you and knowing that sometimes you let shit slide that I wouldn’t. When it comes to you

You do that for me and the others all the time. Thats how it works.

« tim

doc thompson doesn’t know you’re “with” me

Jay »

If you think everyone doesn’t know exactly what’s going on then your detective skills need work

Jay »

Also, Jesus, Tim.

« tim

ok sorry, i didn’t mean the scare quotes part

but did you pause to consider maybe there’s a reason i haven’t told everyone other than whatever shortsighted masochistic bs you’re assuming

Jay »

I dont need you to tell everyone. I’m not asking you to write a report on it.

Just like. if there’s any other major medical shit can you maybe tell me

Before you fucking die of a sinus infection or whatever bc the asshole who lives with you didn’t know your immune system has the horsepower of a bicycle

« tim

did you know you curse more when you’re fronting like you’re not worried about me

Jay »

I’m actually not fronting! in this moment!

« tim

okay

well. i am sorry

that sounded sarcastic bc of who i am as a person

but it’s not. i mean it.

Jay »

Sorry for yelling at you

« tim

i dont wanna go into it over text but i’ll tell you tonight. okay?

about what happened.

also there’s nothing else. it’s just the spleen thing

ok?

Jay »

Okay.

« tim

well and the mango allergy

well. and i’m double jointed specifically bc i have joint-hypermobility syndrome

which is why im so flexible :)

but also why i dislocate things a lot :(

um and im mildly allergic to carrots, bananas, pineapples, and most legumes, but it’s fine they just make my tongue itch

i think that’s all

Jay »

Tim can you be honest with me for a second

« tim

yeah…

Jay »

Are you inbred

« tim

NSJDN/&2&jdj?!_£_??

Jay »

Like are you that type of rich person

You can tell me. We are not going to procreate so I dont mind either way

« tim

just scared the living shit out of an intern who had never seen me laugh before. i think she thought i was choking

jesus CHRIST

i will see you at home.

Jay »

You

didn’t answer the question….

[nerdykorgi]

GRIMWALKER BIOLOGY & ANATOMY STUDIES [pt 1 / ?? ]

(aka, my ideas and thoughts on how these bad but sad boys work!)

with pictures :D !

ok for starters! I tried my best to make real life connections with actual biological stuff and yeah but there are some things ima have to bullshit lol

i hope yall like rambling

[ ^ Basic ideas ]

Lets talk about anatomy!

From what i can tell from the grim walker ingredient book they have some pretty ... interesting ingredients...

GALDORSTONE:

Heart and Power apparently. What i can make of this is that the Galderstone not only powers and animates the non-organic materials but acts as a circulatory system, flowing blood and nutrients to keep the body stable by creating magical pulses of pressure that makes the blood flow. Blood is kind of ideal for homeostasis and living and om pretty sure we've seen hunter bleed at least once... Perhaps the Galderston can create an artificial vascular system to carry oxygen, magic, and nutrients throughout the growing body instead of just making veins from scratch. I want to say the Galderstone can generate energy for the grimwalker but that would mean they wouldn't need to eat, and I don't think that's true. I think its main purpose is just activate the magic materials and is like the generator to a car, keeping it running. If the Galderstone were to break or fail, the grimwalker probably come unglued and fall apart to its components (which would be pretty horrifying)

ORTET BONE:

Very key component! The ortet bone kind of helps form the blueprint for the species of the grimwalker, as well as supplying blood, a skeletal system, and components of DNA. The most basic definition of the word ORTET is as follows: the original plant from which the members of a clone have descended. Fun fact: since were using cloning terms, Hunter is to Caleb as Ramet is to Ortet (Ramet is an individual clone) I did research for cloning and as it turns out you kinda need a complete genome for cloning but for bullshitting reasons (which will be explained) we can clone with incomplete DNA and make synthetic dna from scratch! I hypothesis that the reason grims can look different from the ortet instead of just straight carbon copies is due to the bone that is used and how much of i there is. Like example a grimwalker made using just a toe phalange is going to look A LOT less like the ortet compared to a grimwalker made from something like the cranium and bigger bones and such. Basically smaller bones dont carry as much dna info and leads for room to fill in the blanks. Sadly this means alot of Grimwalkers had A LOT of health problems (this can range anywhere from immune system problems to liver failure which is quiet typical in clones, that and it is often that clones appear different from the ortet due to enviromental factors and influences)

[ As the image above shows, subject #103 has a very close resemblance to the ortet due to the bones that are used ] There are pros and cons to using bones! Pros being that they can hold DNA for much longer than tissue, but the thing is bones can degrade really easy if not preserved, and i don't think belos had a bottle of hydrogen peroxide laying around that he could dunk Caleb in, so let's just assume he made sure his brother's corpse was well cleaned and kept. Biggest con is the human body only has so many bones (about 206) I believe that the reason Grimwalker can generate organs is by using the ortet and making the stem cells created from bone marrow. Stem cells are very important because they can turn into different types of cells like blood and tissue cells as well as repair tissue. I believe the process of growing grimwalkers is kind of like "Self-renewal" the process in which stem cells divide and make more of the body

STONESLEEPER LUNGS:

Im just gonna assume stone sleeper had very small lungs because aint no way those t rex lungs fit in a teenage boy. I originally thought The reason that Grimwalkers can stay underground for so long is because the lungs, similar to how a stonesleeper hibernates for centuries (kind of like how wood frogs can basically cryo-hibernate) by petrifying but a grimwalker IS growing and therefore needs resources to grow, like how a baby does in the womb. So it has to be actively getting said resources so it cant be petrified. I now think the reason that grimwalkers have these lungs is because theyre easily compatible to the galderstone, which needs oxygen for the blood and that they can be easily harvested and stored in stone form. But that does give room for cool adaptations like self-petrification! (which i will get into next time :D )

PALISTROM WOOD:

Ok its says that the wood is used for keratin, which is a fiberous protein which can make all kinds of things like scales, hair, nails, feathers, horns, claws, hooves, and skin! And since its also a plant means it can grow 4 times as fast as normal keratin can! This explains why hunters hair grew so ridiculously fast in season 3, was because his hair can produce its own carbohydrates and nutrients on its own... This means his skin and surface wounds can heal quite fast! (down side is it might give him something similar to PSS (Peeling Skin Syndrome ) ...) I think Palisman is very important becasue of several reason! 1 Like palisman, it can "animate" if you will, more or less help pull off the illusion that he is alive. 2 Like mentioned before, Grimwalkers need nutrients to grow and I believe the palistrom wood aids in that! Using a process called cellular diffusion, the grimwalker can take in nutrients from the ground around them (which i theorize to be highly fertilized) through THEIR SKIN! and into the veins and flesh of the grims 3 I believe that in the process of forming, the galderstone "activates" the palistrom wood, forming into skin or hair but this process of rapid growth leaves the skin all undone and fragile because a proper cutaneous barrier was not formed yet (which is useful for being malleable. This is why Hunter's ears are so 1 .god blessed big because they are fake and molded to look like that. Its also why The grimwalker Belos possessed fell apart so easily, like he said "It wasnt ready")

SELKIEDOMUS SCALES:

This one kind of confused me because... well why do we need the seal flesh when the ortet can just regenerate it?? I think its kind of like the stuffing if you will, it also speeds up the process of producing flesh by a lot! Especially if you want to make grown grimwalkers! Im thinking that Grimwalkers don't have a set "age" theyre just as big as however many materials they are given to work with. Even though the book says they can start as babies, if you look closely there is a check mark towards the more adolescent figure, so im thinking that they are not ready to be unearthed until they reach a certain growth ima guess around the age of over 10-ish?? We don't know how young Hunter was pulled out of the floor but it seems like he was fairly young, or atleast younger. This means while Hunter appears to be 16, he might have only been living for around 5 years or so.

Now typically normal seals have a lot of blubber which is a thick layer of fat, also called adipose tissue, directly under the skin of a marine mammals. Its used for insulation. The thing is tho, it says Selkiedomus Scales, not flesh... Dont worry there are mammals that have scales like Pangolins but i dont know if these scales are like thick plated or small and stretchy. Magic bullshitting time, Im goin to assume Selkiedomus scales refers to a layer of scale-like flesh that protect the creature from boiling but is also highly malleable and easy to work with. Maybe the reason they can withstand such heat is due to unsaturated bonds of butadiene molecules mixed into the blubber that are highly heat resistant Selkie domus flesh is molded and into the relative shape of desired body and using the DNA of the ortet the flesh is reshaped and reused into the desired muscles shapes. The vascular system created by the galderstone spreads throughout the flesh and binds with it. healing together and becoming flesh, kind of like a speed up version of skin graft maturation! This is useful for growing them quickly because they don't have to grow an entire adult body from scratch so this speed up the process by eeeerrm 20 years or so lol

Thats only the basics for now, sooner or later i shall get into the more fun stuff, like adaptaions of Grim walker, the growing process, ad more!

Hope you guys enjoyed my ideas, if i got anything incorrect let me know, my research isnt exremly searched through.

last question ill leave you all with, it kind of stumped me while i was working...

i have a theory but i wanna know your thoughts...

(i worked hard on all this btw, i really hope people read it lol /lh.)

[writerblue275]

How the Heartsteel members would take care of a sick/injured S/O.

Inspiration: Extremely self-serving, but I don’t care. I’m currently in the midst of a chronic illness episode. For me that involves an ungodly headache that can last for straight days, if not weeks, and other bs. All because my body can’t handle sodium 😭. If I don’t do something to distract myself, I’m going to cry, and I’d rather not do that, so here we gooooo.

Genre: Headcanon

Type: Fluff (very very slight angst in the concept [if you squint] just because you don’t feel good).

Gender: Gender Neutral Reader

Tw: None! This is pure fluff. 🥰

Aphelios

Aphelios would actually be a great caretaker.

I think a lot of this comes from an excellent example. We know Alune took care of Aphelios when he was injured/after his surgeries. Since he was the recipient of her wonderful care, he knows what to do.

Extremely prepared. He’ll work from your place as much as possible so he can be close by (he has that little mobile keyboard set up shown in his “what’s in my bag” pic). Excellent at running out to grab supplies/medication (I feel like he has an excellent memory so you just need to tell/show him something once). Also phenomenal at making sure you take your meds on schedule and changing any dressings/wraps.

If for some reason an extra set of hands is needed or Phel needs further advice on how to best care for you, you know who he’s texting? Alune! She is happy to help however she can because you’re her friend too and she hates knowing you’re sick/in pain.

I feel like Phel’s immune system is pretty strong so even if you were contagious, he’d cuddle you. If he was really worried, there’s always his mask. (Makes my public health heart sing.) He has many extras so you can snag one too in order to be doubly safe. You get those healing cuddles!

Ezreal

This is where Ezreal’s typical golden retriever energy is extra useful!!

Like genuinely I think Ez is a really really sweet “nurse” and will do an excellent job of taking care of you. Or at the very least, he’s great at distracting you and making you smile so you don’t feel as shitty/in pain.

I can’t see Ez cooking tbh (mood), but he is more than happy to order delivery/run to grab whatever carry out whenever you want it. If he can’t do it because he needs to stay with you for some reason, he’s texting Alune and the boys and practically begging them to help him out. (One of them always does. They love you and want you to heal.)

Also happy to run out to grab whatever supplies you need. This sweet green bean is so eager to help you heal that not only will he grab what you ask for, he’ll also grab other things that you might not need. He’s of the mindset it’s better to be overprepared rather than underprepared.

I can’t see Ezreal wanting to cuddle if you’re contagious, tbh, which is fair, but he’ll definitely make sure you have all the blankets and pillows you need. He will sit near-ish to you though and hold your hand. And if you’re not contagious? Oh he’s clinging to you as much as you want him to.

Kayn

Ok…so…this isn’t Kayn’s specialty as a partner, let’s be honest here.

Kayn is an amazing partner in so many other ways, but he’s not exactly...naturally nurturing? BUT that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try. He knows you need him, so he’s really going to put in a lot of effort to try and take care of you as best he can. (This secretly sweet rockstar!)

Kayn might fake grumble about it, but he will definitely go out and get whatever supplies you need. You may need to take a picture of a label/find one on the internet but he’s got you! (“Baby, there are so many CHOICES. How do I know which is the right one? I don’t want to get something you don’t need!”)

The first time you were sick/injured and he was with you, he texted the HS group chat for advice on how to take care of you and shocked everyone. (That was the moment the rest of HS knew Kayn was really head over heels for you. 🥹 <- Their faces as they read the texts.)

One thing I cannot see him doing is cuddling you when you’re sick (unless you’re not contagious). He doesn’t want to get sick himself. He will tuck you in and give you surprisingly soft forehead kisses though. He says they’re to check your temp but you know they’re to show he cares.

K’Sante

K’Sante is another member who just gives off such excellent and caring vibes. He has to come from a big, close-knit family, because he gives eldest brother vibes through and through.

Because of this, he’s perfect at taking care of you when you’re sick or injured. He’s done the same thing for his siblings/cousins many times.

Even though Sett is officially the best cook, I still fully believe K’Sante can throw down in the kitchen. Whenever possible, he’s making everything from scratch for you. You deserve it, after all. His meals alone will have you starting to feel way better.

He is fully stocked on OTC meds, ice packs, bandages, whatever you need. As a gym bro, K’Sante can get pretty sore, so he’s already got that stuff around for himself. Also, anything you need picked up, he’s got that taken care of.

As the eldest who took care of his younger family members, K’Sante’s immune system is PREPARED. Unless it is before a really big event, he would be fine cuddling you, even if you’re contagious. If it is close to a big event then he’s understandably a little more hesitant (he does have obligations to HS) but he’ll still be nearish to you and hold your hand so you know he’s there.

Sett

Ooooooh baby this is Sett’s time to fucking SHINE.

He was raised by his incredible Ma! Like of course Sett’s going to be really fucking good at taking care of you. (He already does an excellent job of doing that when you’re not sick/injured.)

We know he’s the best cook in the group so homemade soup/whatever comfort food you want/need you will have and it will be delicious. Really good about reminding you to take any meds you need to (he sets a reminder in his phone). Also fully stocked on OTC meds, medical wraps, ice packs, etc. Like he is PREPARED. (Perks of loving a gym bro.)

Happy to give you cuddles if that will help. I feel like Sett is another member that has an immune system of steel, so even if you’re sick, he’s still cuddling you if you want him to. (You definitely do like 95% of the time because how could you not?? Sett cuddles sound fucking elite!)

Worst-case scenario and you get sick while he’s traveling? He makes sure you are in the very best hands possible and sends in the big guns. That’s right, he has Ma come over to check on you/stay with you if need be (which she is happy to do because she adores you and loves how happy you make her son).

Yone

I think Yone would be a phenomenal “nurse!”

He might come across as cold/intimidating to those who don’t know him, but you always bring the soft side of him out. That’s totally applicable when you’re sick. Sweet Yone incoming!!

He cared for his younger brother Yasuo when he was sick or injured, so he is well versed in what supplies are useful for a multitude of ailments. Is well stocked on all of it too. If for some reason you need something and he doesn’t have it, he’s remedying that ASAP.

I’ve been thinking about whether or not Yone cooks. My gut says not really besides breakfast food. While he’s not going to make you homemade soup/your comfort food, you bet he’s asking Sett or K’Sante to make some for you. (They’re happy to do so. You keep your their producer sane. Helping you is self-preservation 😂.)

While he’s likely been injured many times, I feel like this beautiful motherfucker (affectionate!!) has never been ill a day in his life. His immune system is just that strong. Whatever the issue, he is down to give you whatever cuddles you desire. (I’m bringing back my headcanon of cuddly Yone and NO ONE CAN STOP ME 😋.) Enjoy the forehead kisses and sweet little verbal check-ins.

[scientia-rex]

Hysteria isn't a fucking thing

ok fun fact: I'm rapidly becoming a cult favorite doctor among our local privileged elderly white ladies, which I have mixed feelings about, but the #1 reason is that I just don't leap to "anxiety" as an explanation for symptoms unless the patient tells me "I am anxious, and then I feel these symptoms, and when I am not anxious, I don't feel these symptoms."

The sheer number of women I've seen who've been told for years to decades that the only thing wrong with them is anxiety is fucking staggering, in this Year Of Our Lord 2023, and I just keep digging. We checked a basic lab panel, sure. CBC. No anemia. CMP. Kidneys are fine. (Electrolytes are basically always going to be fine if someone is well enough to walk into my office under their own power to talk to me. Exception is mild chronic hyponatremia.) And we check thyroid. TSH and free T4. We check blood sugar. A1c, if the fasting is a little weird. Fasting insulin, if I'm still suspicious. We check cortisol. Inflammatory markers--ESR and CRP.

And eventually, if the symptoms support it, or right away, depending on my level of suspicion, we check rheumatological labs for abnormal autoimmune function. Anti-nuclear antibody. Rheumatoid factor. There's at least a dozen you can check, and which ones you should check is always a matter of debate and also of expertise that I 100% lack. We are out in the sticks. There are no "local" rheumatologists for me to send people to.

But a couple of weeks ago I found a woman--she has bipolar disorder and has been told for decades that's all that's wrong with her--who has an anti-centromere antibody titer that's fucking through the roof. I found an anxious 19-year-old with an ANA of 1:1380. And yesterday I found out why a sweet elderly woman I've seen for a year or two now started feeling crappy months ago: her rheumatoid factor is over 90.

Rheumatological disorders are always difficult. Our understanding of them varies from "pretty good, actually, and here are useful treatments" to "Well I Guess That Exists." Labs aren't always a slam-dunk and even labs plus symptoms can give you misleading impressions. Your immune system can decide that virtually any short chunk of protein is an enemy, and the problem with that is that your body is made up of many, many, many short chunks of proteins, so the odds that you'll develop some kind of antibody against yourself just keeps going up over your lifetime. Immune disorders tend to travel in packs; there's a clear genetic element to it, so the more first-degree relatives (parent, sibling, child) you have with any kind of autoimmune disorder (including Type 1 diabetes), the higher your risk of any kind of autoimmune disorder is, and if you already have one autoimmune disorder, you're at higher risk for developing another one.

But I think it's precisely because they're difficult that a lot of mainstream primary care prefers to pretend they don't exist, rather than try to sift through the utter fucking mess that is Mixed Connective Tissue Disorders, a title that has fallen out of favor since I learned it in my third year of med school. And women are at higher risk for autoimmune disorders than men. And older women are at higher risk than younger women.

So if I, as a family doc, just keep digging, just keep poking at the tangled knot of symptoms, there's a decent chance I will uncover something interesting. Hopefully something treatable. Sometimes we have nothing to treat with, and I just get to offer someone more understanding of their disorder, which feels pretty paltry but is better than the casual dismissal of "You're just anxious."

Never, ever, ever take anxiety as a diagnosis for a symptom other than anxiety. Not even as a rule-out. Keep those symptoms as an open question mark on the patient. Don't say "anxiety" just so you can close the door. And damn sure don't do it to women.

I'm actively working on learning more so I can be more helpful, in our Rheum-less community, so if you have good lectures or books, please drop me a lead.

[66sharkteeth]

Weekly thoughts Ep 173-

Well i said last week that I'd definitely have more thoughts this week, but here I am again, kind of just empty headed as I start this. I was actually pretty excited for this episode, just because it's the first time we see Jericho undeniably as the villain, as well as his scion's first canon lines technically.

But I dunno, feedback lately is kind of killing my enthusiasm. I know the majority of readers are still enjoying the comic, but it's exhausting to see the negative comments increase, ranging from people just being disappointingly moronic about there being LGBT themes in the story, to people telling me the story is going down hill. To which... I'm sorry! But! How?! Like I'm trying to wrap my brain around it. I'm not immune to criticism, there are plenty of points in the story that I agree were not the best writing, but this is not one of them. I've seen comments ranging from "not enough is happening" to "things are only happening for the sake of conflict" and both of those points baffle me. How is everything that's transpired in the past 10 episodes alone nothing? Sorry, do I have to kill off ALL of the cast for it to be "something"? And as for conflict only happening for the sake of conflict???? I literally don't know how to respond to that. Conflict is how a story progresses. Should Rex and Jericho just have...hugged it out?? Should Jericho just have been like "Actually, you know what Claude, I think I do just need therapy. This world domination thing was a bad idea." Should Rex have, back when everyone was betraying him and joined the bad guys, been like "Actually, the systemic treatment of me is fair. I guess I'm just gonna go to jail now instead of going into hiding with these guys. See ya!"

I dunno. I've been SO sad and down the past two weeks, but typing this out I've progressed to angry haha. Mad at homophobes and media illiteracy taking away the pleasure I get from sharing this comic. In a venty way, to be clear. I definitely don't think I'll post this one anywhere else because I can see people saying I don't take criticism or something, but man. No. I can and I have. But the points made this week would make for a flat out bad and BORING story. And I'm so mad people just want my story to be so BORING because they just don't like facing negative emotions in a story. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel of this story eventually, but we're just in the tunnel currently. I'm not gonna hurry up the tour for everyone else just because you're afraid of the dark.

Raugh ok, I guess this wasn't actually much about the actual episode, was it? Ironic that the big villain monologue episode is where I finally kind of lose it and monologue myself. I guess for the sake of actually commenting on the ep...

Yes, I had lots of fun drawing this ep. I've been waiting a long time to have Jericho's scion finally "speak." There's also a lot of cracks showing in Claude that I'm glad people are taking note of. I've said it before, but Claude's development has been some of my favorite to write in the entire story, and we're still in his arc. Excited for things coming up for him.

[love-toxin]

I’d have so goddamn many of Luis’ babies istg. Resident evil is just zombies with a generous ✨sprinkling✨ of bisexual propaganda

ok ur so right!!!!! but you just put baby fever luis in my brain and now ur gonna have to deal with the consequences also </3

(cws: fem!reader, baby fever luis, pregnancy, mentions of childbirth, breeding kink)

Clearly Luis likes to paint himself as a ladies' man, but unlike the typical charismatic bachelor, he's definitely got one thing holding him back from that luxuriously free lifestyle: when he's with the right person he's got baby fever like you wouldn't believe, and it never really goes away.

It always starts slow with that initial conversation of "so how do you feel about kids?" and a positive answer may as well be a proposal to Luis when it comes to you. He starts making offhand comments about seeing the cutest baby in the park the other day or mentioning that the schools are enrolling for kindergarten this month, and "wouldn't it be nice if we had our own..." like the hints he was dropping before just weren't enough. Because then he's fantasizing about what your kids would look like and even busts out all that research on genetics he's done just for fun, illustrating what kind of genes your children might get from each of you and how adorable they would look with your features put together.

And obviously you get to hold it over him if he's being a menace on occasion. Luis might be bothering you about something or disappearing at random to go play hero again, and all it takes to rein him in is you wondering aloud about whether or not you could really trust him to be a good father. And he'll come racing in with reassurances that he is! He will be! Just give him a chance, mi amor, and he'll show you he can be the best father you've ever seen--if he could figure out how, he would even carry the baby for you just to save you the physical toll of childbirth and postpartum. He wants one so badly but at the same time, he understands the trials and tribulations of carrying a child to term better than most men, so it's definitely not a small ask from him and he certainly acknowledges that.

If and when it finally comes time for you to let him have a crack at knocking you up, Luis is downright methodical about it right up until you actually conceive. He keeps a calendar of your cycle and maps out your ovulation days to figure out the best time to try, starts giving you vitamins and other supplements to take to help boost your immune system ("healthy body, healthy baby, mi vida!"), and Luis even looks into different positions he can try in the bedroom to help the fertilization process. He's almost too scientific about it but it's so cute to watch him pore over those documents and baby books in his reading glasses, making notes and comparing information so he can make it as easy for you as possible throughout the process. He'll do all the work for you that he can--all your job includes is sitting around, being comfortable, and growing your baby until you're ready to pop. You don't have to work, or travel, or stress at all, all Luis wants you to do as your lover and in-home doctor (kinda) is to relax, indulge in your hobbies, and let your body direct you towards whatever it needs. You can do that for him, right, love?

That's not to say he's completely, ahem, sterile about the whole process. Luis doesn't mind being a little messy--and god knows he has no qualms about getting all sloppy and rough when it's time to actually make the baby. He's got a theory that his seed will take easier if you're completely relaxed, so he always starts out with the gentlest, most loving head he can manage between those sweet, pretty thighs. But it never ends that way because before long, Luis' mind clouds with lust as he gets that feverish taste of you on his tongue, and by then he's leaving finger-shaped bruises in your hips and moaning with his lips totally sealed around your clit, totally mindless as he makes your world spin. The scrape of his stubble against your skin and the pressure of his nose grinding into you when he has you ride his face is hypnotic, it's tantalizing, and Luis knows that well enough that he never skips out on going down on you even if he's got limited time. Fingers, tongue, or face, he's going to have you falling apart in his lap no matter what time of the month or how sensitive you might be about exposing yourself--Luis would never judge nor condemn you for anything because no matter what it is, it almost always turns him on more than you could ever realize. He likes his women real, we'll say that much.

And when he's got baby fever, he's just on you like a wildcat on a wounded gazelle, fierce and frisky and so loud and handsy you might just have to tie him up to keep him quiet. It's his time to show you how passionate he can really be and lord does he really show it; he doesn't stop even when both of you have already reached your end, he just hikes your legs up higher on his waist, adjusts the pillow propping up your hips, and groans out a string of babbled praises as he humps your poor, overstimulated body to coax out those last spurts of cum he's got left. He's gotta give it his all, no? No sense leaving such a pretty lady empty when he can fill you all up, and give you everything you need to make a baby for him. He can't really get over the fact that it's just that easy for him to be a part of something so beautiful, nor that someone as gorgeous as you would ever let some worthless fiend like him father your children--the feeling is just indescribable, but he knows that it's pure love. And he knows that he wouldn't ever want it with anyone else besides you.

Who knows, maybe once you have the baby you'll be the one begging him for another--but even with one, Luis will be cherishing that sweet little bundle of life and he'll be hardcore protective over them with every ounce of energy he's got. Well, maybe not every ounce....he's got to save enough to keep an eye out for his precious wife too, doesn't he?

[mxrp-official-steve]

Welcome back campers, to this weeks episode of TOTAL, DRAMA, HELLSITE! On this weeks episode, me and my handy Chef Hex will be cooking up a delicious meal of parpy goodness! But the campers will have to roll a single... WITH A PROMPT! The first one to get a proper Roleplay going gets the immunity marshmallow. Now watch out, cuz this ones gonna be a doozy, dudes!

Your September 2nd PARPdate: "Remember that time on TDI where they called god to make it rain? That happened" Edition.

News this month is sorta slow- those of you In The Know already know this, but Hex is being forced to move again. This hasn't impacted Dev TOO much, honestly, and I'm gonna break down WHY in this wonderful little post!

Ok so if you remember the August update, you likely recall us showing off our shiny new mod features and how we can now play funny roleplay police state in order to nail rulebreakers and bandodgers.

If you're also a huge Bubblehead (which is what you're called), you're also likely familiar with this bastard:

(Image description: The red miles, basically. Its a message failed message repeated like ninety times in a row in red font. Thanks to Alienoid from the server for posting this screenshot for me to steal!)

This is because, somehow, these new mod features almost completely broke Dreambubble in ways that make no sense (the new features use Redis, but for some reason their introduction is making PostGres, a completely different system, go absolutely haywire)

So, Hex decided to move forward with their pet project to rewrite Dreambubble. Normally, this would mean a development delay on Parp2 and I'd feel pretty bad about laying this on yalls feet after two years of parplessness.

But hey wait isn't this literally just how they made parp last time.

The answer is yes! The previous Msparp version was built using what is now Dreambubble as a skeleton, evolving on itself into the rickety but lovable RP site we knew before she tragically passed away last February after choking to death on fresh air. As such, Dev is actually going pretty good! Hex has been COOKING through the bones for Dreambubble 2, getting a ton of barebones stuff working right off the bat:

(Image description: A barebones but functional chat window using Felt theme; complete with system connection messages, text preview, and quirking)

Along with our first new feature preview in a while: PUSH NOTIFICATIONS!

(Image description: A felt-theme settings menu showing the ability to turn on and off push notifications, as well as a browser popup in the bottom corner showing that it's been activated)

These are also working on Android! What this does is it pings you when the chat you're in gets a new message, operating on a system level instead of a site level so you don't even need to have the tab, or the browser, open to keep up with your chats! This is gonna be especially useful for mobile users, since this means they can navigate away and use their phone for other things, and their phone'll just ping them when their partners' next message comes through. (These are gonna be off by default, btw. You'll have to turn them on yourself on a per-chat basis in the final release)

It should also be noted that we've Snagged Ourselves A UI Guy recently from the userbase, so we've got a dedicated Make It Look Good person for when things get closer to launch!

That's all for this update, though. Absolutely thrilled to be showing off some progress after the restart. Hopefully we'll have even more to show off next month!

Until then, cheers!

[kiyomi-uchiha777]

sick little uchiha sister head canon

words: 758

Gere: FLUFFFF.i guess.

Warnings: if someone is scared of grammar errors any of my work is completely off limit for you. Say if I miss any

request:

you were sick because of the last mission ⁃

⁃ The mission was in Amegakure ⁃

⁃ And it looks like you’re immune system don’t like the rain ⁃

⁃ It wasn’t that bad tbh it was just a cold ⁃

⁃ Or that’s what you tried to explain you’re family at least ⁃

⁃ Because for them it was like you were on the very verge of death ⁃

⁃ Itachi was the most calm one out of them all ⁃

⁃ It really was just a little cold and he knew that ⁃

⁃ But SOMEHOW didn’t bother to try and explain it the Rest because they aren’t listing to you ⁃

⁃ That put him one place lower on you’re list ⁃

⁃ Ok fair enough you once nearly lost an arm on a mission and shrugged it off ⁃

⁃ I mean literally. You shrugged and then the stitches Teared up ⁃

⁃ So them thinking you play you’re sickness down wasn’t out of character for you ⁃

⁃ BUT COME ON THAT WAS ONE TIME ⁃ ⁃ Anyway back to itachi ⁃

⁃ He buys Medicine, looks how you are and basically is you’re doctor ⁃

⁃ God forbid You’re big bro ever goes on a mission when you’re sick ⁃

⁃ But now let’s go down the rope of „is actually responsible whit you“ ⁃

⁃ So the next one on the list is ofc Shisui ⁃

⁃ Tbh Shisui actually is also a very good doctor ⁃

⁃ He even took a free day to take care of you ⁃

⁃ (He faked an injury so he could stay home) ⁃

⁃ But there needs to be a reason why he is in second place ⁃

⁃ And this is while Itachi is actually pretty strict whit you Shisui try’s to be strict but fails the second you use you’re puppy eyes ⁃

⁃ It got so bad that when it’s time to take you medicine and itachi isn’t home he needs to wear a blindfold ⁃

⁃ Just so he can bring himself to give you you’re medicine ⁃

⁃ And even then it isn’t even guaranteed ⁃

⁃ To say it in Sasuke‘s words „Damm you and you’re cuteness“ ⁃

⁃ And the 3rd place on the rope is drum roll please……… Sasuke ⁃

⁃ Yes a 16 Year old overthrown 2 adults in responsibility. ⁃

⁃ No I don’t make the rules ⁃

⁃ I technically do but my point stands ⁃

⁃ So anyway back to the Head canon so I stop fighting whit myself ⁃

⁃ The reason he is on the 3rd place also is pretty justified ⁃

⁃ Look he is your twin of course he isn’t as responsible like itachi or try’s to be like Shisui. ⁃

⁃ But he also isn’t no help at all ⁃ He is just in the (unspecial) middle (A/N: LOSER) ⁃

⁃ Also sasuke had the same Mission as you. No Idea why he didn’t get sick. ⁃

⁃ But he did annoy you about it. Stating that his immune system is stronger then yours. Just like the rest of him. ⁃

⁃ You did to punch him for that. ⁃

⁃ But because you were sick it wasn’t a really strong punch ⁃

⁃ wich led to more annoying on you’re being even more angry ⁃

⁃ You’re totally gonna hide all tomatoes in the house the second you’re healthy again ⁃

⁃ Sasuke knows quite a bit about medicine because of Sakura

⁃ Not enough to be a doctor but to help you. ⁃

⁃ (He only uses his knowledge to later on brag to you) ⁃

⁃ Time for our 4th place. Obito. ⁃

⁃ Ok ok listen. This man is a HORRIBLE doctor by any means. ⁃

⁃ But he has rin who is one of the best Medi-Nin‘s in konoha ⁃

⁃ But sadly being one of the best doctors in the villageshe is needed like all the time at the hospital ⁃

⁃ When he heard that you were sick This man RUN to you in sonic speed ⁃

⁃ And dragged everything whit him. ⁃

⁃ Kakashi,rin and his ramen included ⁃

⁃ Didn’t even notice he did ⁃

⁃ oh and he gives Kakashi 100% the fault in you being sick. ⁃

⁃ Like I said HORRIBLE DOCTOR ⁃

⁃ Most of the time fights whit kakashi

⁃ About EVERYTHING! ⁃

⁃ The only reason he isn’t on the last place ? ⁃

⁃ Rin is an awesome doctor. ⁃

⁃ And madara is WAAAAAYYYYY worse ⁃ Ok in his defense he grew up in war ⁃

⁃ In his time the only thing that allowed someone to take a break from training or fighting was death. ⁃

⁃ BUT GOD FRICKING DAMIT ⁃

⁃ remember when I mentioned that you nearly lost an arm ? ⁃

⁃ Well may I show you the exact conversation that happened ⁃

⁃ “So can you still hold a kunai whit that other arm?” ⁃

⁃ “I guess I could try” ⁃

⁃ “then why are you being so that lazy and aren’t training ?” ⁃

⁃ Safe to say he isn’t allowed in you’re room when you’re in any way sick or injured ⁃

⁃ He still goes In your room tho.

⁃ He is madara. Ghost of the uchiha ! Rival of the 1st Hokage ! Nobody forbids him from seeing his favorite Grandchild ⁃

⁃ Expect itachi…………………………. ⁃

TAG: @midnightfoxglove

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

eleven weeks down, four to go… i am Really Feeling It ngl… but we are in fact in the home stretch and i will in fact make it through and then i will take twelve days allll the way off and it will rule. december historically has involved a pretty rapid winnowing of my schedule but this year i have a bunch of lil perfectionists who have pushed their test dates to right before winter break, including one who is switching to twice a week for this month -__- also not sure what’s going to be happening with my two high schoolers, one of whom will nearly definitely be retesting and the other of whom may or may not be…. but on the bright side the kid who truly nailed it is in fact no longer retaking (or pooooossibly retaking with minimal additional prep) because of other advice they’ve received. lol. (the mom asked me about my experience with retakes for kids in his position and i was like “tbh i’ve literally never had a kid do this well and choose to retake” and she thanked me for my “unimpeachable integrity” which was very sweet lol.)

this week i came in at just under 37 hours, which was more than i planned largely because today i was between locations for a while and just chilled and hung out with a practice test. i’m not sure how i feel about 35 hours as a more long term goal (it feels like it shouldn’t be an amount that makes it feel hard to do anything else, but that is how i felt this week…), which is a thing i’m contemplating because of various goals i have relating to continuing to digitize everything and making more short drill sets because i have a pathology about feeling like if i can imagine that something would be helpful to students i feel bad not doing it, but i feel like it feels doable for these four weeks where i don’t have a ton of mental energy anyway, and where also i’m now close enough to the end that i can actually wrap my brain around, like, ok, 3 more upper level tests, 3 more lower level, 3.5 more ACTs, such and such number of workbook pages/chapters…. etc. but i’m gonna try again not to stress out about it in general but especially this week because (1) i don’t have big thanksgiving plans but i do have family plans and i do want to at least spend the day relaxing and (2) i do in fact have another cold i am hoping to rest off in the next day or so. the last one retreated to just some post nasal drip very quickly!!!

i got four workouts in this week (+ my Steps) largely because i was so sore i needed an extra rest day and after actually SLEEPING OKAY last night i woke up the day after a pretty tough full body workout with minimal soreness! further data points re cottage cheese snooze helper. very upset that i likely need to wait on gathering more data because i am prooobably not going to be up to HIIT day tomorrow (although thus far this cold, like its predecessor, is Quite Mild, knock wood…). i am downing zinc and emergen-c as permitted and in accordance with my cold rituals which i think are scientifically valid because even if the concoctions are fake science the placebo effect is very well attested to in the literature. (do you know about zinc in the early stages of a cold to make it less bad? i got this tip from a first grade teacher i associate taught for and i swear it works. if you know science explaining it doesn’t please do NOT tell me and let my immune system continue reaping the benefits of my delusion this is the one thing on which i do NOT wish to be fact checked 🙏🏼)

today i woke up, did work, tutored, did more work chilling in a salad place, got dinner at a french restaurant with v. good salmon (i say like i know anything about fine dining beyond “i like salmon”), agreed to a reschedule of the sunday night zoom session, & watched the first half of gladiator because i’ve seen approximately 700 people on the internet this week say something to the effect of “gladiator ii really makes you appreciate russell crowe” (he is so far great as promised playing a guy literally named Best Guy). one month left! technically less! i will in fact have a day off this week although i will also need to spend some of it working a bit! onwards! (to bed)

[wazzappp]

Resident Evil 7 Mold discussion / Theory

Ok so this is going to be split into a few pieces:

What IS the mold

Infection process details as well as details about why Ethan didn't fall under her control

Hivemind hiarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things.

What IS The Mold:

Ok so first things first the Mold isn't actually a mold. We know from part one of the R and D report page 3, the mold is actually a fungus that a shadowy organization called The Connections had been manipulating for their own bioweapon purposes. This fungus is called the Mutamycite and is derived from the Megamycite (which we learn about from resident evil 8). They just DECIDED to call it mold because IDK WHY FUCK YOU YOU FUCKERS MOLD AND FUNGI ARENT THE SAME YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE SCIENTISTS YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE ACCURATE AUGHHHHHHHH anyway for the sake of general understanding I'm mostly just gonna keep calling it 'the mold'

The Connections created Eveline through trial and error of exposing an embryo to this fungus. The various body parts we collect throughout the game for both the cure and the E-Necrotoxin are actually from her failed 'siblings'.

Infection Process:

We know from part 2 of the R and D report found in the labs/mines that Eveline's 'Molded' creatures can be created through her mycelium which she secretes through her tissue which is AWESOME FUCK YEA FUCK YES MY FRIEND MY BEST FRIEND MYCELIUM LETS GOOOOO.

Wer'e coming back to details about the mycelium in a minute because WHOOP WHOOP HIVEMIND MOMENT but the actual infection process needs more examination. The way it's described in part 2 R and D report, it sounds like Eveline can either spawn these molded or turn them from people (coming back to the spawning in a sec don't forget about it)

We know they can be turned because of both the note at the beginning of the game keeping track of those turned and dead, the deputy's half turned severed head in the fridge, and the pre release 'Opening Hour' teaser where we SEE someones body be taken over in real time.

The details of the infection process are in Infection Report 1. So here is what the actual report says and then what my reasoning of it is.

"Initial Infection The mold ingests nutrients from the subject's body to propagate itself, and slowly takes over cells within the body.

As a side effect of this, the infected subject gains remarkable regenerative abilities.

During experiments, we removed arms and legs from test subjects and found that they were able to coapt the amputated limbs in a matter of minutes."

Its my theory that the reason the Mold is able to both sidestep the immune system and to cause this regenerative effect is because the mold itself is mimicking the biological structures it runs into. As it works its way through the body, it's replacing everything that exists, so naturally if any damage occurs it can just regrow since replacing that tissue is what it was doing any way.

This gets interesting when you start including more than one species during this initial infection process. Like the Dimitrescu daughters. After death and insertion of the cadou parasite they were swarmed with flies until they covered their entire bodies. The mold was able to assimilate their DNA as well as the human DNA of the daughters themselves, allowing them to transition between the two.

It is ALSO very important to note that Ethan is under this level of infection for the majority of the game. He has an amazing degree of regeneration without the side effect of Eveline's control because he hasn't reached the mid stage infection, which is described next. Its pretty interesting how the time periods of how long it takes for Evelines control to take hold changes from person to person. 3 years after infection and Mia is still resisting, but the Bakers fell under her influence almost IMMEDIATLY based off of the 'Daughters' DLC. It looks like things kind of went?? back to normal?? for a second there but its pretty ambigous. This could rely on a variaty of factors ranging from Eveline's strength (she seems kind of tired at the end of the game. maybe less powerful than when she wasn't over extending herself) and the state of the tissue she's infecting.

I think it would make sense that the mold can infect Dead tissue faster than Living tissue because theres no immune response whatsoever. Maybe thats why Ethan was experiencing stage 2 symptoms after only 12 hours even with Eveline's weakened state taken into consideration.

"Mid-stage Infection Once the mold reaches the brain, the subject's thoughts become "in tune" with those of the E-Series asset.

If this state continues, the host will lose all sense of ego."

It is VERY interesting that apparently we can see this fungal structure in x rays, which we know because of Margurite Bakers doctors note. This is really awesome because that means the mycelium structures are spreading into the brain and maybe starting to integrate the host into the hive-mind even BEFORE complete integration/assimilation. I wonder what would happen if you killed someone mid integration? Would only the memories/functions of the part of the brain thats been integrated be shared or would it just not go through at all? Also this hive-mind component is going to come back later so don't forget this either.

"Complete Infection After every cell in the body has been taken over by the mold, the subject begins to lose their human form. Physical mutations differ from case to case, but all result in him or her acquiring incredible physical strength.

Containing a subject at this stage would be extremely difficult."

PHYSICAL MUTATIONS BABY LETS FUCKING GO. Ok so if the mold is just replicating itself in a way where its trying to mimic the structure of the original host, why do mutations happen? Because with increased replication there also comes an increased chance of mutation. Jack Baker gets more and more fucked up as the bossfights go on, finally appearing as a barely human monster for the final boathouse fight. THAT IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO HIS BEING CUT IN HALF. The mold has a LOT to fix after that much damage has been done and with it comes an increased chance for mutation, plus when you take into account he's been 'killed' throughout the night, the mold making up his body has been put through a TREMENDOUS amount of strain.

We can also see after his death, while Ethan is chillin in a mold pillar, that his real consciousness is kept in the hive-mind Eveline has constructed for the area, which leads me to the next point.

Hive-mind hierarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things:

Ok remember the mycelium from earlier? I told you to remember them because it's coming back now. If you hadn't heard of this amazing part of fungi you're leaving fully educated now.

Mycelium are essentially the nervous system of a fungal colony. Just one spore can result in a network like this. Mushrooms are actually the fruiting part of a mycelium network, this is what goes on underneath the surface. You may have heard that clusters of mushrooms communicate with each other through their networks and this is true! In fact theres a colony of Armillara that spreads for over 2,000 acres (or 10 square kilometers) in Oregon. The uh. way they phrased it in the article was pretty disturbing tbh; "This was kind of a side project," Smith recalls. "We were looking at the boundaries of [fungal] individuals using genetic tests and the first year we didn't find the edge."

Mycelium communicate with their colony by exchanging information, sharing resources, and even hijacking other plants in the area as an early warning system for danger.

This is AWESOME because it means that Eveline's infection has indeed spread across the entirety of the Baker estate. Its assimilated all of the local plant life, all of the local wildlife (punching molded alligators into submission is badass) and appears to be able to spread through water as well (dead fish when re entering the boathouse after the ship section). Eveline has turned the entire area into her own fungal colony thats directly under her control.

So now we get to the nitty gritty about how this relates to the hive-mind hierarchy in the game. There appears to be not one but TWO hive-mind functions operating in this hellhole. Obviously we have the main hive-mind that Ethan Winters sees when he's stuck in that mold column. Because we see Eveline has been stored in the megamycite in the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC. it appears that this is like. a smaller hive-mind thats attached to the main one. If the megamycite's hive-mind was a house, this would be the shed; Separate but still connected. but I also propose that Marguerite has her own smaller, less complicated hive-mind for controlling her bug enemies.

During Marguerite's "Bug-pit" boss-fight, we can see that the bug enemies aren't just attacking at random, she's conducting them. This is just another one of Eveline's 'gifts'. I think she prioritizes mothers above most other family members. I think it would make sense because she was LITERALLY CREATED AS A VESSEL FOR MOTHER MIRANDA TO RESURRECT HER DEAD KID and theres further evidence in that she directly gifted Marguerite her dead siblings arm that can be used to make a cure that stops her from influencing someones mind (at least for a little while) for safekeeping (run on sentences my beloved).

Ok so back to the 'shed' analogy that I mentioned before. Theres a problem I noticed with the amount of people that go missing vs the amount of enemies Ethan fights throughout the game. We can see newspaper articles in the kitchen saying things like 'Over 20 missing in two years'. ETHAN FIGHTS. WAY MORE THAN 20 MOLDED. Even being generous that the news was wrong Ethans gotta be fighting what at least 90 Molded over the course of the game?? (im. so tempted to rewatch the whole thing and keep track of how many spawn. so tempted). Theres a simple answer to this problem. We know from the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC that grunt minds are stored in the hive as well as the more developed boss minds. I propose that these aren't new molded consciousnesses that Ethans fighting, its the same ones over and over again. Getting killed and sent back and respawned and killed and sent back and respawned over and over stuck in a rotating door of present in the real world and stuck in the 'shed'. The shed is the molded's own personal HELL they're just not mentally present enough to recognize it.

[convxction]

HELLO!!! Been following your blog since like I was in 6th grade? Just now made a tumblr account so HELLO YOUR CHROM GIVES ME HAPPIES!! 💙💙

Anyway question for Chrom and the muse, does Chrom ever get sick? Colds or anything? Headaches? Stomach issues? I know he hates rhubarb but I was wondering if he had a immune system/stomach of *steel* besides that. The nurse in me wants to know!

Okay thank you have a lovely day ^o^

*insert x files music*

sINCE 6TH GRADE!?! UM! HOW OLD ARE YOU!?!?! NOW??????? LIKE..SINCE WHEN DID YOU SEE MY CHAOTIC DISPLAY OF WRITING ON THIS SILLY GOOFY BLOG THAT I TRY TO KEEP AS 'PROPER' RP BLOG AND FAMILY FRIEND????and like fails...because life truck san lol

ok um i'm glad my rambling here makes someone happy haha. lives to serve the crumbiest of the scrumbtious of mister fayre embrumbu, krumb. honestly, this is my crazy zone where i can rant about this silly man and have fun and feel happy when people like you say that they are happy to read my chaotic thoughts nyehehehe~

and a question!? heck yeah my favorite kind of support hoho~

you got that right! and i think i might have mentioned this before here or on discord about him wolfing down literally anything because you know there was a time when ylisse was not doing great after le papa did that 'let's go to za war~' ylisse lost most of its farmers and able hands so basically agriculture and economy took a dive in the plegian sea. so in short, they had to survive on what they already had or managed to acquire from Ferox (ofc not charity) and ofc that means c/hrom had to eat what was given to him. so for his stomach, it is almost a black hole unless you are talking about sully, kjelle, lucina and vaike's food--he is still pretty much human and will keel over because of their mystery food x LOL

as for getting sick hmmm not really but the downside of him not getting sick that often is that when he actually gets sick, it is severe. and it does not help that he tries to act cool and tough and obviously anti-sleeping-on-bed. you literally have to strap him to the bed or put frederick on watch lmao. i mentioned before that his physical health is top notch but when it comes to mental health is questionable teehe~ you need naga's mercy and the power of tough love to shake dem demons out of him lololol.

i hope the nurse in you is satisfied with this answer ~ if you got any thoughts share them! it would be interesting to know more practical and medical side of things since i know zero about them hoho. thanks uncle gloglgoglo for answering some questions i have at times lol

thanks lovely! your ask made me so happy, too! honestly i had to stare at it for a couple of hours and wait for the 'syke' but turns out a nice message ;u; <3

[oodlyenough]

alright I'm finally playing turnabout succession and despite how many big reveals i'd already been spoiled for the case is still surprising me in parts and clearly going to be quite long so i thought i'd put some thoughts together now

I'm not-quite-finished the MASON system chapter so no spoilers plz

some general notes:

I knew Vera Misham existed but not really anything about her or her father so that whole first trial was fun

I can't believe the glass hand statue I've seen in fanart a million times is the world's least ergonomic nail polish bottle ?!?!? lmfaoo ... nothing like the feeling of sharp crystal fingertips digging into your palms while you apply a... clear topcoat ... okay

Ema popping up in court with a Kristoph impression just to fuck with Klavier is the funniest thing in the world I love her so much. #1 hater

extremely generous of the judicial system to let disbarred lawyer phoenix wright design and run the new thing lmfaoooo

god willing they'll give me a chance to say 'i've spent the last seven years building up an immunity to atroquinine'

troupe gramarye is fucked up man LMAO i mean i kind-of guessed but i didn't anticipate the levels of it and i think we've only scratched the surface so far

i knew the names 'zak gramarye' and 'shadi enigmar' from fandom and never in a million years would i have guessed which was the magician stage name and which was his birth certificate name

i'm not sure what i'm meant to be thinking of zak so far. they alternate a bit between him seeming to be at least something of a concerned father, popping back up to will stuff to trucy and wearing her locket etc ...and him being physically violent, abandoning her in the first place and scheming to ruin phoenix's life a second time for no reason. I was pretty sure the victim from 4-1 was trucy's dad, and at the time I wondered if his plan was to undermine Phoenix in order to take custody of Trucy again, but so far it seems like he was just ... being a dick? lmao. I dunno; case isn't over so presumably more of that will come to light

still a big fan of valant, he cracks me up idc if he shot that old man. the game is telling me there was friction bc he was in love with thalassa but it's too little too late when i've already decided he has a weird gay thing with zak and also canonically he is capable of impeccable thalassa drag, so

drew misham being like "i left my reclusive 12 year old alone with a strange adult to discuss crime. it's ok though bc she felt an immediate affinity for a man she describes as the devil and agrees to keep secrets for" sir what the fuck do you mean !!!!! rest in pieces honestly

actually when we hit the bit about 'well vera doesn't like many people but she liked him', i was like "she liked KRISTOPH???" and @nowwheresmynut was like "maybe it was one of the gramaryes since she's a stan" and i was like "oh that makes sense". but it doesn't. it was kristoph. Lmfao. child whisperer

the MASON system is so ??? lmao... why does my inventory carry over from past to present lmaooo. phoenix invented time travel (real) (not clickbait)

I was going to write a whole thing about the disbarment trial and the investigation portion but this post is already enormous so it might be its own thing. I have deeper thoughts about that stuff from like a... broader game/storytelling pov. I will say I knew there was a flashback trial but I did NOT know you got so many investigation portions as Phoenix what a nice surprise 😭😭😭 I miss him

[c---crow]

the descriptors "accidental and kind of complicated" have me intensely curious. 😳 if that's ok and/or something you could explain in a post

this is gonna be a long one!

cw: talking about weight, unhealthy food habits

ok so i'm on medication that reduces my appetite and i've been on it since high school. as a teenager life was very hectic so i neglected to feed myself most of the time and didn't realize how much weight i had dropped and literally just didn't notice/ignored it. i became underweight, not on purpose, but because there was so much going on in my life that i didn't pay any attention to my own health and because my medication suppressed my appetite.

my weight stayed pretty low until like 2 years into college, well after i had started T. i would try to work out and gain some muscle but because i wasn't eating nearly enough, it didn't do much in terms of muscle mass. i also had a massive fear of public gyms because of some bad social anxiety. i also didn't have the mental energy or appetite signals to think about my diet.

fast forward to first semester of my third year of college, i started dating my partner. he powerlifts and noticed pretty fast how terrible my diet was, so he helped me get on track to eating more and eating better

unfortunately i got horribly sick with bacterial bronchitis. like terribly sick. hospitalized multiple times. doctors kept trying to treat me for VIRAL bronchitis because it's more common than bacterial, but the corticosteroids for viral bronchitis treatment can suppress the immune system and actually ended up worsening my condition. i was sick for over a month before someone gave me antibiotics. in total i was completely out of commission for 2+ months, and even after i was no longer infected, my body was Fucked

during those 2+ months of illness and recovery after, i gained A Lot of weight because given enough food, i gain fat very quickly if i am sedentary. luckily my body also converts fat to muscle very quickly, so i've bulked up quite a bit. im recovered now, my immune system has also recovered, i eat better, and i work out. i'm on a schedule now for eating so the lack of hunger signals doesn't make me forget

tldr medication made me underweight until i got really fucking sick and gained a lot of weight which then converted to muscle pretty fast bc of genetics and i have better habits now to maintain my weight

[runner5anna]

Christmas Cactus

Heyo @kodessa ! I am your ZR secret Santa. Here is a festive fic for you.

Thank you @notforconsumption and @delucadarling for organising this !

It's Christmas day in Able township. It's icey, it's cold, it's not very festive. But, Sam is quite determined to at least make something warm out of the bad day.

There is no spoilers, its SFW but there is discussions of grief and cussing. Also cringe pick up lines.

"Shit!" Bellowed Sam, along with a cacophony of clattering coming from downstairs. Five sucked a lungful of cold air in, kicking the many layers of blankets off of her, grabbed the knife from under the bedside table and ran downstairs. She shoved open the door, shouting “who the hell is there?” and slashing at the air. Her chest heaved with adrenaline and fatigue. The cold air pressed on her bare feet, and her pyjama trousers were halfway up her legs. 

‘Uh - just me?” Answered Sam. He was hunched over the side, which was covered in cocoa powder and parts of a mug. The forest green hoodie he wore to bed was covered in water. “Wait - is that another knife, 5? I thought we talked about this. You don’t need to keep knives under the bed side table.” 

5 grinned and placed it down on the side. “I don’t know what you mean.” She slid it into the drawer, intending to pick it up later. “Need a hand?”

“No - I think I’m ok.” he sighed. He picked up his foot, inspecting it closely. “I stubbed my toe and dropped the pink mug. I found the cocoa powder at the bottom of the drawer in the comms shack. Happy Christmas, I guess?” he sighed, dusted the reminisce of the brown powder off the base of his foot, and placed it down - deciding that it wasn’t broken, just sore. “I wanted to surprise you.” 

“Oh shit - that day already?” 5 ran her hands up her face, pressing her palms into her eyes. She really needed a shower. Her face felt slick with sweat and grime from the night. Maybe she’d treat herself later to a lukewarm one. 

“Yeah. Snuck up on me too. I looked at the clock on the computer last night and it was the 24th! I wanted to surprise you with some hot cocoa but I pigged that one up pretty badly.” He sniffled, and the tears welled like little gems in the corner of his large brown eyes.  

“Oh - bless your heart, Sammy. You’re too kind for this world.” 5 opened her arms, inviting him in for a hug. He placed his bristled chin on her head and sighed, relaxing into her touch. “You didn’t have to do that for me.” 

“I know. I’m the best.” He grinned. “But - I wanted to. So I did.” He pulled away from 5 and picked up the brush from the side. “I need to clean up. Snow isn’t brown. Unless it's mixed with mud. Or zombie parts. But I suppose I’d quite like chocolate snow.” 

“How’s about I make us hot chocolate with what we have left over? And we can do…” Five pressed her tongue against her teeth in thought. “...festive things.” 

“What can we do? Really?” 

5 lent down to scoop up some more powder back into the pot. If she grabbed a collider, she could at least filter out some of the dust. It was salvageable at least - and there wasn’t much of this stuff left in the world so they should at least treasure it. Somewhat disgusting, yes, but it was the apocalypse. If you could be disgusting, it was now. It would be good for her immune system development, her mother would say. “I’m not actually sure. It’s not like we have a big dinner we can make or gifts.”

“Janine has given us the day off - for those that want it.” 

“I might head out eventually, then.” 

Sam slowly turned around, and pleaded. “Please don’t. It’s -6. It’s freezing. The ground is solid. You’ll slip. Plus it’s Christmas. Let’s just have a day together - It’s been too long.” 

5 pulled a hair from the powder. It was short, brown and blunt - one of Janine’s. Her hair managed to get everywhere. It was a nice reminder that she was there somewhere - a dependable figure even in the hardest of times. “I don’t know what we can do, really.” she tutted. “We don’t even have a tree.” 

Sam gave a little gasp, and quickly shuffled over to the window where he held up Cedrick the Cactus. He was a medium sized fluffy plant - whose fuzz were actually tiny spines which Sam found out rather painfully. 5 wasn’t quite sure why she grabbed it off of the shelf, but she didn’t regret it. He kept 5 and Sam entertained, and it gave them something to talk about outside of the insanity of work, how tired they were and whoever had died recently. 

“Let’s decorate Cedrick!” 

“Won’t I be pulling spines out of your hand for the next week again?” 

“No.” He pouted. “Get your crochet, I’ll get a pen and paper. Let’s make some Christmas clothes for him. It will be fun!” 

5 felt her belly rise with giggles that Sam could only bring from her. He was a ray of sunshine - everything good in the world. When 5 was with Sam, she felt like the best version of herself, like the world was lighter and the breeze was fresher. Her heart fluttered and her cheeks began to flush with how much she realised she was smiling. 

“Let me go get dressed and I’ll be with you.” 

“Ah ah ah!” Sam grabbed her hand, gently pulling her back and wrapping his arms around her waist. “Absolutely not. No one gets dressed before midday on Christmas.” 

“If you say so. But I need a shower later. I’ll get dressed then.” 

“I’ll give you one of my shower tokens. My treat.” 

“Don’t you need them?” 

“Nah. I’m clean enough. And I don’t go running multiple times a week. They’re upstairs, I think in my jeans pocket.”

“My crochet is upstairs as well - I’ll grab them on the way. And who knows. If I’m feeling generous later I’ll let you share the shower later.” 5 purred as she slunk out of the room, leaving Sam blushing a deep shade of beetroot red. 

*

5 plodded down the stairs, still in their faded plaid pyjamas as promised, crochet hooks and wool in hand. She turned into the kitchen to see Sam was doodling, colouring and shading. He held the paper happily up - on it was a bundle of red berries and green leaves. “Mistletoe!” he announced proudly. “You know what that means?” 

“No.” Five teased, leaning across the table. She softly held his gaze. Usually, Sam’s eyes darted everywhere, like he was avoiding eye contact with everyone while gaining as much information around him as possible. In moments like this, his eyes - beautiful pools of watercolour brown - held steady and calm. 

“It means you-” he poked 5 on the nose with the paper. “-have to give me a kiss.” 

“Ugh. If you insist.” 5 joked. She placed her hand on the base of Sam’s neck, pulling him across the table and into a kiss. It was deep and long, as the two relaxed into each other. 5 inhaled a smell she’d grown to love so much of marmite, washing powder and ink. Before he pulled away, Sam nuzzled their noses together, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Thank you.” He whispered.

“You’re welcome.” 

“I love you.” 

“I love you too.” Five sat down, pulling up a chair and setting her crochet on the table. “What do you think I should make?” 

“A little scarf, or a hat maybe. I think a tiny scarf will be easier. If your hand starts to hurt you can help me with the decorations.” 

“All right.” Five started with a quick slip not, starting to make the first chain. “I always feel a little startled when I need to relax. I’m always so on edge that when I set time aside to be quiet and have time to myself I’m always waiting for the proverbial hat to drop.” 

Sam hummed in agreement. “It is hard to relax now isn’t it? With the grey wandering outside the walls and regularly staring death in the ugly maw.” He finished colouring in a little robbin and began to cut around it with the scissors. 

“I thought you were banned from using scissors by Maxine after the great finger slice event.” 

“For your information, that ban was temporary. How was I supposed to know that Maxine had just sharpened her scissors? Who has scissors that sharp anyway?” he subconsciously ran his thumb over the scar on his finger. 

“Who uses massive scissors on such a tiny thing?” 

“Oh, be quiet!” He threw the roll of string at 5’s head. “Can I have that back please.” 

5 leaned down to grab it, and spoke while she slid it across the table. “Events always feel so odd now. And I never quite know how to feel. I’m happy I survived another year I suppose.” She finished off a row and started another. “It’s such a tiny scarf, I’ll be done soon.” 

Sam stood up and boiled the kettle. “I’m just letting the glue set - I won’t spill the hot chocolate powder. Close your mouth runner 5 I can tell exactly what you’ll tease me about.” 

“What do you mean?” She scoffed mockingly. 

“You were going to make fun of me for sticking my hand to my head with aeroplane glue.” 

“I was not.” 

“Yes you were.” 

The two went back and forth, squabbling in good spirits while Sam made the hot chocolate.  

“Oh - Sam look! Cedrick has a little flower. He's bloomed.” 

“He reminds me of you in a way. You thrive in the harshest times, and you are very pretty.” He passed a mug over to 5, giving her a gentle kiss on the head. “You’re my little pretty flower.”

“Thank you, darling.” 5 pulled the final thread through, finishing off the tiny scarf. It wasn’t great, considering she’d not spent long on the thing, and the colours didn’t quite match the decor that Sam made. “It looks so bad.” 

“What? I think it looks good. Christmas trees are not supposed to look good.” 

“Cedrick is a Christmas cactus, and we made this in about 45 minutes. It's more ironic than anything - I don’t think they’re supposed to look good. But, y’know, I like him more because we raised him together, and we decorated him as well.” Sam wrapped an arm around 5’s shoulders, squeezing them comfortingly. “I want to make another one next year. I think it would be a good tradition.”

“I think…I’d like that. Christmas is so traditional - and now for the first time in ages we can’t do all of them. I’m so used to being with everyone at Christmas that it feels almost positive to create new traditions.” 

“I don’t think Christmas will ever not be hard.” Sam mused between sips of hot chocolate and blowing on too hot marshmallows. “I cried one year because I put out 6 sets of cutlery for dinner even though It had been 2 years since my grandad died. No - three.” 

“It will be hard - but with you I feel I can handle it. Thank you, for being there for me Sam. I appreciate you.” 

“I appreciate you too, 5.” He placed his head on top of 

“I think it’s just all been a lot. Even if we are a few years into the apocalypse, Christmas will always feel different. But I am happy I can spend it with you.” 

“You know what I really want to do?” 

“What? Remember it’s not midday yet, so there's no getting dressed. It’s the Christmas law.” 

“No - I follow Christmas law. I want to cuddle and watch the Doctor Who Christmas specials in bed. Do you have them on your laptop?” 

“Do I ever! I thought you’d never ask. That is a new and old Christmas tradition I can get behind.”