#the yersinia plague

[the-yersinia-plague]

Intro

Excerpt from Sabre's Journal

"I knew I shouldn't have let Plague Steve use that potion. My gut told me it was a bad idea to infect Infinity Steve with it, but I ignored it. Now it's too late. The damage done. It's just... The situation was dire. We had tried everything we could to defeat Infinity, but nothing was strong enough to harm them in the slightest. Until Plague stepped up with this potion, claiming it would surely kill them within three to six and a half days... Those couple days would be the last days, where everything was truly okay. I'm not sure who to blame for this. Plague or myself. Shifting the blame to Plague would be the easiest thing to do, sure. But it wouldn't be right without the proper proof. He didn't seem to expect such a terrible outcome. And neither did we. It started in the dead of night. Fittingly enough there was a thunderstorm going on. Lucas, Light and Rainbow were all asleep in their respective rooms in the Rainbow House. I was also in my room, but couldn't sleep. That night I was still hanging over some blueprints for an automatic defense contraption for the gate and the wall around town. The first sign that something was wrong, were odd crashes out in the storm. I chalked it up to be lightning hitting stuff and didn't think about it much further. I should've gone out and checked the situation... Maybe then I could've changed the outcome? When we went outside the next morning, it was pretty clear something had attacked the town. Signs of struggle and demolition everywhere. The Steve Temple had been broken into, judging by the smashed windows. Venturing inside revealed a scene that had all our stomachs drop. Inside the temple we found the remains of what could barely be identified as Infinity. Their body was horribly deformed and mangled. It was gruesome. I don't wish to go into detail right here and now. I'll create a proper document for the disease later on, when I have collected sufficient data. Upon discovery Lucas and I froze in shock. Light Steve passed out and Rainbow Steve began to whimper and tremble, dragging Light back out of the temptemple. What was worse than Infinity's corpse on the ground however, was the fact that the machines holding Red Steve, Green Steve and Blue Steve were ripped open and named steves missing. If Infinity attacked them, while infected, then there was a high chance the disease got transmitted to them. Which meant they were now dangerous. Lucas and I decided to be as cautious as possible. Protecting Light and Rainbow from this new threat is now our top priority. We agreed that the Rainbow House was probably no longer safe enough. So now we're hunkering down in the bunker beneath the town. Rain was confused at first, when we helped him with Light and brought him towards the bunker. After a brief explanation he quickly understood the gravity of the situation. We wanted to get Plague in with us, but he was nowhere to be found. To this day he is missing. I don't know when he left or why. Out of guilt? Or did he know? Either way, we must find him somehow. He might be our only key to stop this disease.

Lucas and I will need to haul supplies from the Rainbow House to the bunker soon. But for now we're set. Light and Rainbow are currently not allowed to go outside. It pains me to do this to them, but it's for their own safety. Then again, they don't seem eager to go outside anyway. Sadly the Light Shrine, where we used to talk to the Skypeople, was damaged after Infinity's rampage too. So we have set up a new, smaller Shrine for the Skypeople in the bunker. Hopefully their messages will still reach us down here. I trust their guidance will help us through this difficult time. There's plenty of Rainbow Stone down here too. I want to experiment with it. Maybe I can turn it into something that will help against the disease. I am by no means a scientist, but probably the most fitting one of our group to take on this task. I have to at least try. I have to."

[amybizarre]

🦠I uploaded the Infection AU Blog! 🦠

I did it! The sideblog for my Steve Saga Infection AU is called @the-yersinia-plague and is now open to receive asks and messages. :3

The Intro has been posted too and can be found here!

That's all I wanna say. I hope you'll enjoy!

[weirdlookindog]

17th century plague pit, Toulouse, France.

© Michaël Gourvennec

[microbes-in-hats]

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is the bacterium responsible for plague, with the most common manifestations being bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague.

Image taken via transmission electron microscopy. Bar = 1 μm

Photo credit: Hans R. Gelderblom, Rolf Reissbrodt/RKI

[massgrav]

Purged agony, all the grief Acceptance, my arms aloft, my crucifix Lived my way Fall away

—

Plague patient n.2 - Pneumonic

[itmightrain]

Reading arguments among historians or scientists is always funny because some people are completely normal about it and some people are soooooooo off the walls angry and it comes through the academic style of their writing as vicious contempt to a degree that's almost shocking and always hilarious

[hexjulia]

anyway i'm finally listening to the history of byzantium podcast because i needed something new to listen to while cleaning...imo should have said more about theodora. it's also greatly improved by playing at 1.5 speed but really it's pretty fun to listen to!

I really should read more about the Sassanids.

[corporalkiheart]

I understand the intent but the Bubonic Plague was like. Very much a bacteria. (Yersinia pestis. Which there are occasionally still outbreaks of!)

this should not have gagged me as hard as it did

[leaff4e]

trying to decide do i do double major zoology and botany or zoology major and infectious diseases minor

[the-yersinia-plague]

Meow?

-- @catlessjhbhsvduu

"Meow? Is there a kitty? I like kitties! C'mere, let's be friends!"

Light giggles and tries to find the cat hiding at the Skypeople Shrine. He can't find it though.

"Sabre didn't allow us to bring the animals inside the bunker. It's a little saddening if I had to be honest." He pouts.

"But if there's a kitty here already, maybe we can keep it!"

[plaguesjournal]

Plagues Journal

Entry One

A friend recommended I start a journal as a hobby, I suppose its worth giving it a chance.

There has been a peculiar crow with some white feathers that has been following me whenever I travel outside. I do tend to feed the crows whenever I have a sit in the forests or such so perhaps this one has taken a liking to me. It tends to be at the front of the flock when I give food to the birds and is comfortable with getting closer than the others.

I wonder if I could train it to bring letters for me, business has been slowing down a little. Doesn’t help that the couriers are slow as all hells even with their magicks.

I think Iris is a fitting name for my potential small messenger.

Suppose its nice to have some company as well, even if it is just a little bird.

That does remind me, I do need to stock up on more nuts to feed the corvids. Ah, I am also running low of lavender and mint, and the ones growing aren't right yet.

Drochshláinte, I guess Ill have to venture into town to find some.

[givingyouarandompathogen]

Pathogen assigned:

Yersinia pestis

Cause of bubonic plague, Gram negative Bacteria

(Image from Wikipedia page)

Spread via: Fleas from susceptible rodents/mammals

WIP. Pretty sure I invented a new music genre today so I get to name it. I am calling it yarble-core. It yarbles. To make yarble-core you need to make it yarble.

[pitch-and-moan]

The Black-Throated Loon

A comedy drama about a con man who has discovered he can get away with his cons by having himself committed to a mental institution. Except this time he's inadvertently found himself trying to sell a real rather than fake culture of pneumonic plague to what turns out to be a terrorist organization, and he's wanted by federal authorities for pedaling a biological weapon.

[theloverstomb]

‘Fragile Microbiomes’ by bio-artist Anna Dumitriu

1. SYPHILIS DRESS- This dress is embroidered with images of the corkscrew-shaped bacterium which causes the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. These embroideries are impregnated with the sterilised DNA of the Nichols strain of the bacterium - Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum - which Dumitriu extracted with her collaborators.

2. MICROBE MOUTH- The tooth at the centre of this necklace was grown in the lab using an extremophile bacterium which is part of the species called Serratia (Serratia N14) that can produce hydroxyapatite, the same substance that tooth enamel is made from.

The handmade porcelain teeth that make up this necklace have been coated with glazes derived from various bacterial species that live in our mouths and cause tooth decay and gum disease, including Porphyromonas gingivalis, which can introduce an iron-containing light brown stain to the glaze.

3. TEETH MARKS: THE MOST PROFOUND MYSTERY- In his 1845 essay “On Artificial Teeth”, W.H. Mortimer described false teeth as “the most profound mystery” because they were never discussed. Instead, people would hide the stigma of bad teeth and foul breath using fans.

This altered antique fan is made from animal bone and has been mended with gold wire, both materials historically used to construct false teeth (which would also sometimes incorporate human teeth). The silk of the fan and ribbon has been grown and patterned with two species of oral pathogens: Prevotella intermedia and Porphyromonas gingivalis. These bacteria cause gum disease and bad breath, and the latter has also recently been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

4. PLAGUE DRESS- This 1665-style 'Plague Dress' is made from raw silk, hand-dyed with walnut husks in reference to the famous herbalist of the era Nicholas Culpeper, who recommended walnuts as a treatment for plague. It has been appliquéd with original 17th-century embroideries, impregnated with the DNA of Yersinia pestis bacteria (plague). The artist extracted this from killed bacteria in the laboratory of the National Collection of Type Cultures at the UK Health Security Agency.

The dress is stuffed and surrounded by lavender, which people carried during the Great Plague of London to cover the stench of infection and to prevent the disease, which was believed to be caused by 'bad air' or 'miasmas'. The silk of the dress references the Silk Road, a key vector for the spread of plague.

5. BACTERIAL BAPTISM- based on a vintage christening gown which has been altered by the artist to tell the story of research into how the microbiomes of babies develop, with a focus on the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, originally discovered by Hall and O’Toole in 1935 and presented in their paper “Intestinal flora in new-born infants”. It was named Bacillus difficilis because it was difficult to grow, and in the 1970s it was recognised as causing conditions from mild antibiotic-associated diarrhoea to life-threatening intestinal inflammation. The embroidery silk is dyed using stains used in the study of the gut microbiome and the gown is decorated with hand-crocheted linen lace grown in lab with (sterilised) C. difficile biofilms. The piece also considers how new-borns become colonised by bacteria during birth in what has been described as ‘bacterial baptism’.

6. ZENEXTON- Around 1570, Swiss physician and alchemist Theophrastus Paracelsus coined the term ‘Zenexton’, meaning an amulet worn around the neck to protect from the plague. Until then, amulets had a more general purpose of warding off (unspecified) disease, rather like the difference today between ‘broad spectrum’ antibiotics and antibiotics informed by genomics approaches which target a specific organism.

Over the next century, several ideas were put forward as to what this amulet might contain: a paste made of powdered toads, sapphires that would turn black when they leeched the pestilence from the body, or menstrual blood. Bizarre improvements were later made: “of course, the toad should be finely powdered”; “the menstrual blood from a virgin”; “collected on a full moon”.

This very modern Zenexton has been 3D printed and offers the wearer something that genuinely protects: the recently developed vaccine against Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague.

[randomly-generated-posts-machine]

Jason plague doctor brainwashed hapax legomenon meow meow meow meow meow