#I’ve had so many seizures and tha.

[mycological-mariner]

I’m so mad I just watched the first episode of Hornblower. Only now! After finishing my dissertation! When my dissertation topic was literally the portrayal of epilepsy in film and television

[e1ana]

THA updates/character sheets

omg two posts in a day what is this shit

i just feel like i should give a heads up about THA and whats going on and shit. i wont be posting anything for it on A03 for a hooooot minute. like i said in the last post, i’ve been really dry when it comes to THA content. sorry if that bums you out or whatever, but i really need to take it easy with that book for a bit. 

h o w e v e r

my brain just will not let me friggin rest. so, i decided to just do something that’s not really creative but also lets me feel some kind of relief. im gonna make character templates in the style of the BNHA fandom website (with a few exceptions/different thing). I wont make one for every single person, but ill make them for most of class 1-A and some villains. 

there may also be a few introduced characters, so ig you'll get to meet them first!

the first one is my fave sparky queen, Emiko Kaminari!

(fair warning. its suuuuper long.)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Name: Emiko Kaminari (Meaning: Emiko - blessing/kindness. Kaminari - thunder) Birthday: August 3rd Age: 15 Gender: Female (She/Her) Height: 4’11” or 149 cm Hair color: Blonde  Eye Color: Yellow Zodiac Sign: Leo Quirk: Technokinesis

STATUS:

Status: Alive Occupation: Student Affiliation: UA High School

OVERVIEW

Emiko Kaminari is a Class 1-A student at UA High School.

Appearance: 

Emiko has bright yellow hair cut in a short bob (a bit like if you smoothed out Denki’s hair). She has distinct bangs that have two long side pieces and several short pieces across her forehead, Her eyes are yellow and flatter on top and rounder at the bottom with distinctly long and straight lashes. She has a tiny birthmark (just larger than a freckle) under her left eye. She inherited her mother’s ear shape, but she can’t use them like her mom can (they can’t extend/plug into anything).  She is incredibly short despite her relatively tall dad, and hopes to grow one day. She has a relatively small chest and thin waist, giving her a lanky but athletic body. Her legs are just slightly too long for her body, adding to her sinewy appearance.

She isn’t a fan of uniform at all, so she only wears it to classes. She alternates between wearing the pants and skirts. When she wears the pants, she wears them high waisted and tucked in. She also takes off her overcoat often (in both outfits), just carrying around and putting it on when she gets yelled at.

Her prototype hero costume pays homage to her dad and mom, but is mostly her own. She wears a black windbreaker jacket with deceptively deep pockets. This also doubles as a shock resistant sheet. Under this, she wears a black sports bra and tight-ish pants with like a MILLION pockets. She’s a slut for functional fashion! She wears black platform sneakers (think FILAs, but not brand name hfjwfkfbwb). They lace up a bit like hiking boots, but the hooks are removable devices.

Personality:

Emiko is super spunky! She’s cheerful and goofy, but not sugary sweet. She has some edge to her, but she’s a very talkative and open person. She’s absolutely obsessed with edgy memes/vines/ ANYTHING internet. She likes to make jokes often, which can sometimes get her into a bit of trouble. She’s very witty and has a sharp tongue, but that’s often just used for humor. She likes to make friends with as many people as possible, but she has no problem getting downright mean with people who mess with her. Her BIGGEST hate is being looked down on. If you underestimate her… look out. Generally, she’s a very friendly person though.

People often see Emiko for exactly what she is because she’s such an open book. Even quiet and broody people like to hang around and socialize with her. If anything, people see her as far more bubbly, since she doesn't like to bust out the mean Emiko. 

ABILITIES:

Overall abilities: 

She doesn’t have a designated fighting style, but she loves to dart and jump around. She’s able to move pretty fast and often jumps around her opponents to confuse them. She also has damn near perfect aim, so this can be used for striking different pressure points.

Since her quirk can’t really be deployed well without technology, she uses several support items to help her. With her Buttons, she can send massive shock waves of electricity wherever they land (including people). She can also communicate with people even if she’s the only one with a communications device.  She uses the electricity from her devices to immobilize her targets or generally just fuck them up. She can also manipulate electricity as long as its expelled from a device.

Emiko has SO many support items:

‘Buttons’ - basically tiny robots with no function. It’s basically just a button with an electric current. She can use them as a distraction or something of course. But Emiko can use her quirk to stick them to people or herself and deploy insane amounts of electricity. Combine that with her precise aim and you’ve got a stun gun that can target specific areas of the body AND control the output of electricity.

TeleCom - This device works kind of like an AirPod but it doesn’t need bluetooth. Its attached just under her ear. It allows her to use her quirk to send messages to her allied (or foes!)

FingerGuns - Just like her dad, Emiko is one funny motherfucker. With these gloves, she can expel the electricity from the devices in whichever direction she points her fingers.

Goggles - These high tech goggles and quickly give and receive information about her allies and opponents. She can use them if she doesn’t know anything about her team/enemy and gather info. Like GoogleGlass but WAY better.

Quirk:

 Emiko’s quirk Technokinesis pretty much gives her the ability to do nearly anything with an electronic device. She can use it to hack whatever device it is, move things around, explode them, or simply use the interface hands free. She can control many devices at once (probably like up to 30 as of right now). As far as explosion goes, it's mostly just electric sparks with a little heat, but obviously there’s damage from any debris (especially if its come in contact with the sparks). Her quirk has a pretty severe drawback though. Emiko suffers drowsiness and decreased cognitive functions with extended regular use of her quirk (like Denki but like 10x less stupid). She also suffers from random severe seizures, but that doesn’t happen too often. 

Super Moves: 

ButtonBlast: Emiko throws a hand full of buttons in a random direction and sticks them to whatever they land on. She then sends them into a massive electrical explosion, ranging from 100 volts to 100,000 volts (will get stronger with training/time!). This is pretty much enough to fry the brain of any unlucky person to get tackled by one of these. It also blows out any device in range, leaving only the ones she controls in use.

BrainFry: Emiko throws a single button with pinpoint accuracy, landing it at her target’s weak points or exposed areas, even while they move. She delivers a quick but hearty shock, rendering her opponent immobile and unable to function.

TeleCom Confusion: Emiko uses her power of music and stupid puns and her quirk together. She confuses her opponents with rambling on and on about someone. She can also blast music directly into their ears and confuse them.

TechnoScream: Emiko + Madosha use their powers together. While Emiko has on noise canceling headphones, Screaming Shadow yells directly into her TeleCom. Emiko then sends this pitch directly into the heads of her opponents and lets it take effect.

STATS

Power: 4/5 Speed: 4/5 Technique: 3/5 Intelligence: 3/5 Cooperativeness: 4/5 Edgy Meme Knowledge: 6/6

Equipment:

Buttons: These bad boys are tiny, but they pack a punch! She has two sizes - one about the size of a dime and some smaller than that. They’re basically constantly short circuiting devices. Emiko can deploy these at any time, releasing high voltage bursts of electricity or explode them. They’re made of a high grade copper and aluminum alloy. They’re thick but hollow with a simple incomplete circuit on the inside.

TeleCom: ...literally just google how AirPods work, and take away the bad parts. Its essentially an AirPod, but it's a flat disk with a strong adhesive on one side.

FingerGuns: The same general workings as the Buttons, but they don't detach. They’re nestled in the fingers of her gloves and activated when she makes a finger gun symbol.

Battles/Events:

Lunchroom Attack

STUDENTS vs villains

Canon ‘Fun’ Facts:

She frequently bugs her friends phones and plants memes in their important documents.

She has pretty damn bad ADHD.

She once dropped her meds in front of Aizawa and asked if he wanted to ‘pop a dirty blue pillie.’ She had two days of detention for that one.

Definitely has a crush on someone in her class.

Her best friend is a class 1-B student named Hansuke Amaiko. She’s known him since they were basically babies

[aqua-scorpion2020]

Fraxus Week Day 3: Training/Sparring

Freed cringed as he was sent flying through the air, his jaw smarting from the lightning-powered punch. They’d been training just outside of town for about an hour, drawing quite the crowd.

“Get up, Justine,” Laxus said with exasperation. “I know you’re holding back to make me look good, and it’s starting to piss me off.” His steely grey eyes fell on his partner, who was picking himself up off the ground.

“As you wish, Laxus,” Freed replied. He threw his coat to the side and spat blood onto the ground. “There’s a spell I’ve been keeping to myself for a while, and I’ve wanted to try it’s effects.” The wind picked up, blowing his bangs to the side to reveal a glowing purple eye. I wasn’t exactly planning on showing my new technique in front of so many people, but since it’s Magnolia, it shouldn’t be a problem.

It was then that Laxus noticed Freed writing some runes. However, instead of the deep purple they usually are, these were royal blue.

“Dark Ecriture: Demon Possession, Prince of Hell!” The script began to multiply and spin around the rune wizard in speedy circles. Through the runes, the dragon slayer could see Freed’s body twitching as if he were having a seizure. His eyes rolled, turning black with glowing blue irises. His body was enveloped in a black, shadowy state, similar to when he cast “Dark Ecriture: Darkness.” A piercing screech cut the air, and a flash of light blinded the crowd of onlookers.

When it was safe to look, Laxus opened his eyes. Before him was Freed; or whatever Freed had turned into. It scared him to think that he felt so mesmerized by this being, yet nervous about what could possibly happen to him.

In essence, the man before him looked like Freed. His hair was still green, and he looked, for the most part, human. This was a big change in comparison to his other demon forms.

Instead of his trademark black pants and white boots, he was wearing a blue and black bodysuit that hooked under his heels, exposing the top of his feet. It had a high neck, and the arms ended in gloves that ended at the first knuckle of each finger. Around his shoulders was a simple black cape with a chain closing it near the top. His bangs were a bit disheveled, as was some of his hair. What looked like a set of cracks crossed his face, from the left of his hairline to the right of his cheek. Protruding from his back were a magnificent pair of wings, consisting of three sections; the top and bottom layers were black, and the middle layer, blue. They looked similar to the wings of a butterfly.

If Laxus wasn’t so worried, he’d take all the time in the world to admire his demon prince. But he was on edge, preparing for any sudden attacks. It seemed like Freed was calculating his next move, so he had to be on his guard.

The attack he expected would never come. The rune wizard’s spectacular form began to flicker, then disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Freed was once again normal, but his expression told Laxus that this spell had taken all of his magic power. This proved to be true when Freed’s knees gave way and his body crumpled to the ground.

“Freed!” Laxus yelled, his voice laced with panic as he sprinted to his fallen partner. He rolled the exhausted body onto its back, a box closing in around him as he realized Freed was not awake. In desperation he began calling Freed’s name, shaking him, sending little shocks of electricity into his body in hopes of waking him up. He can’t be gone, Laxus thought. There’s no way… I know he’s breathing, but if he doesn’t wake up…

Suddenly, Freed’s eyes shot open. His breaths were going in and out like he had just sprinted 50 miles with Acnologia chasing him. He turned away quickly,  coughs following before a tar-like substance spewed from his mouth and nose.

“SOMEONE GET PORLYUSICA!” Laxus screamed, tears bursting from his eyes.

“L-Lax-” Freed tried to speak, but doubted over as more liquid poured from his facial orifices.

“It’s gonna be okay, Freed,” the dragon slayer choked out. He leaned over him protectively, rubbing soothing circles against his partner’s back.

“I… know tha-” The rune wizard hacked again. “Just… listen… a sec.” The fits were beginning to subside, and the black goo was no longer leaking out of Freed’s mouth and nose. “It’s… side effect… of the spell. I’m fine.” His voice was a dull croak, but Laxus heard every word.

“Wait,” the blonde began. “So… this is what happens every time you cast the spell?” Freed nodded.

For a while, Laxus sat in silence. Then, without warning, he laid a flat-handed SMACK! to Freed’s cheek. It was obvious that he had held back, but it stung nonetheless.

“How DARE you!” Laxus bellowed. “You couldn’t have fucking told me this was going to happen before you did the fucking spell?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DYING, DAMMIT!” The rune wizard cradled his red cheek, eyes scrunched in pain.

“I-I’m sorry, Laxus. I-”

“What the fuck were you thinking, Freed?! I almost had a heart attack watching that happen! Do you understand how hard it was for me to see that, not knowing what the fuck is going on and being unable to stop it?!” Laxus felt warm arms wrap around his neck, green hair nestled in his shoulder in his right field of vision.

“I know,” Freed murmured. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. I understand how horrifying that must have looked. The side effects of the spell were the last thing on my mind before casting it.”

“God dammit,” Laxus cringed. “I didn’t mean to hit you out of anger like that. I promised myself I’d never do that. I’m really sorry, Freed. I promise you it will never, ever happen again.” He embraced the rune wizard gently, peppering his forehead with kisses.

“Forgiven and forgotten,” Freed replied, wiping the remaining paste from his face. “But I think you deserve punishment for that strike.”

“Good. Because if I don’t do somethin’ for hittin’ you like that, I’d feel like shit.”

“You can start by carrying me home. I doubt I’ll be able to walk on my own; I can’t feel my legs.” The dragon slayer gladly picked up his tired partner, lightning crackling around them as he prepared to teleport them home.

On occasion, their sparring gets out of hand, but it’s the end of the battle that they both look forward to most.

*****************

Soooo… The next few short fics for Fraxus Week are probably going to be a little late, unless I get today’s prompt and tomorrow’s prompt done tomorrow. It’s pretty late here in the Midwest, so I’m going to save today’s prompt for when I’m awake.

[vsplusonline]

Health Canada looking into unauthorized antibody testing at Montreal clinic

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/health-canada-looking-into-unauthorized-antibody-testing-at-montreal-clinic/

Health Canada looking into unauthorized antibody testing at Montreal clinic

MONTREAL — A large Montreal health clinic has been offering unregulated coronavirus antibody tests at $195 each, CTV News has learned.

This testing at Clinique Medic Elle is drawing harsh words from provincial and federal authorities, who are warning people to stay on guard about COVID-related health services they see advertised and check carefully whether they’re permitted.

“The ministry denounces this kind of clinic and asks the public to avoid this type of operation,” wrote Marie-Louise Harvey, a spokeswoman for Quebec’s health ministry, in an email.

Health Canada says it is paying close attention to a spate of “unauthorized” COVID-19 tests across the country and that it has begun to look into the Medic Elle clinic to see if there’s “non-compliance.”

As of late Tuesday night, May 12, an antibody test has been approved for use in Canada for the very first time. This approved test, made by an Italian company and just beginning its rollout now, isn’t likely to be easily available to the general public immediately, experts say.

Yet for two weeks before that, the Medic Elle clinic, on downtown Sherbrooke Street near Concordia University, was already offering its own tests, made by a different company.

The clinic has told clients it has done hundreds of the tests. It’s asking for doctor requisitions, and some doctors in Montreal appear to have been sending them. 

The clinic’s owner, who gave her name only as Francine, told CTV News that the clinic was simply “a conduit” to a lab in Montreal that was offering and analyzing the tests. She said the tests they were using are approved by U.S. regulators and she didn’t believe there was a problem with offering them to local patients. 

“Nobody here is profiteering,” she said. 

ADVERTISING TO ANXIOUS MONTREALERS

Medic Elle advertises 40 health professionals offering a range of public services, including doctors’ appointments, and private ones, including Botox treatments.

On April 22, the clinic posted on its Facebook page that it would “have the COVID 19 antibody tests shortly at the clinic,” and depicted the tests as surefire. “It will tell you if you had COVID or are immune to it.”

The scientific community says the question of COVID immunity is complicated. Accurate antibody tests can show whether someone’s blood has certain proteins showing they’ve already fought off a given illness, in this case COVID-19. However, even when these tests can accurately pinpoint who’s had COVID-19, they don’t necessarily show immunity, simply because the available science hasn’t yet determined whether people develop lasting immunity to COVID-19 if they’ve had it once. 

The Facebook post in April drew a flood of responses, many from anxious Montrealers believing a test would help them navigate the Canadian city hardest hit by COVID.

“I’ve been calling everywhere and it’s not offered in the public system,” one woman commented below the Facebook post. “I want to see my mom and knowing I’m immune to [COVID] would be incredible.” 

A sponsored Medic Elle Facebook ad with similar wording also circulated over the following couple of weeks. And on April 23, the clinic sent a mass email to its clients, three of whom provided it to CTV News.

“Great News! We will have COVID-19 antibody testing* as of April 28, 2020,” the clinic wrote, using the asterisk to include a caveat in tiny lettering: “*to see if you may have been exposed to this virus.”

U.S. AND CANADIAN REGULATORS TAKE DIFFERENT PATHS

Medic Elle’s Facebook promotions listed the company that had developed the test: Bio-Rad, which is headquartered in California.

Bio-Rad has an antibody test but it hasn’t been approved by Health Canada, nor is it even on the agency’s list of “applications received” for COVID-related approvals. 

The American regulatory agency, the Food and Drug Administration, better known as the FDA, did give emergency authorization to the Bio-Rad test for use in the U.S., in “authorized laboratories.” That directive came on April 29, a day after the Medic Elle clinic said it was slated to begin testing Montrealers. 

U.S. authorities have flip-flopped on their approach to antibody tests in the last two months, with the FDA first saying in March that it would allow all such tests into the market, as long as they were labelled as unapproved. After a flood of tests by 170 companies, some of them fraudulent, the agency tightened its rules last Monday, requiring that all antibody tests undergo regulatory review. 

Bio-Rad’s test, having received its emergency authorization, was one of about a dozen that has passed the new U.S. rules.

Canadian regulators say they’ve maintained a clear line. Until May 12, no COVID antibody tests were approved, and therefore if any such tests were circulating in Canada, they were doing so without the necessary approval, said Maryse Durette, a spokeswoman for Health Canada. 

“No unauthorized kind of [medical] device can be used in any kind of clinic, public or private, in Canada,” Durette said.

CANADA HAS AN APPROVED TEST, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S EASY TO GET

Now, the only test approved in Canada is made by Italian company DiaSorin and called the LIAISON test. 

That doesn’t mean there will suddenly be widely available antibody tests for any Canadian who wants one.

The first shipments of LIAISON tests will be sent out next week, said Jeff Kormos, corporate vice president at DiaSorin’s Canadian office, on Thursday. But supplies are still limited, there will be “pressure-testing” to see if the first tests appear to be working properly, and health authorities’ plans for how and when to offer the tests are still in early stages, he said.

“What’s happening right now is Canada and the provinces are trying to figure out exactly how to use serology testing,” Kormos said. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of pressure being put around it, because we don’t have the supply and we do need to do more testing.”

Timothy Evans, a public health expert at McGill who is part of a federal COVID-19 immunity task force, says the public is likely to see more widely available antibody testing in a few months, when supplies have increased.

“I would imagine in the next two to three months there would be a larger number of approved antibody tests, and that will enable provincial health authorities to make decisions on how best to provide access to those,” said Evans.

MONTREAL DOCTORS SENDING REQUISITIONS FOR UNAUTHORIZED TEST

Health Canada said this week in a written statement that in Medic Elle’s case, the agency has “opened a case for follow-up and will take action should any non-compliance be confirmed.”

It’s against Canadian law to sell or advertise health products that make false or misleading claims, with potential consequences including recalls, product seizures and even prosecution and fines, if a case ends up in court, Health Canada said.

When Medic Elle posted about its tests on Facebook, including the price of $195, one patient who called and asked about a test was told they’re “slammed” with requests and have been doing 30 per day since late April, that patient told CTV News. 

The owner of the Medic Elle clinic, Francine, told CTV News that she couldn’t guarantee the Bio-Rad tests’ efficacy, and the clinic was being careful to tell people not to stop social distancing or change their behaviour, even if they appeared to have the antibodies. 

“Essentially, this test may or may not give you peace of mind,” she said. “That is up to the patients.”

As for the regulations, she said a local lab, CDL Laboratories, had offered the tests and told her they were “analyzed in the U.S.” 

“In terms of the legality, you need to speak to them, not me,” she said. “It’s not my responsibility at all.”

Neither CDL Laboratories nor Bio-Rad responded to requests for comment. The president of CDL Laboratories, Laurent Amram, is also listed as a director of the Medic Elle clinic in its federal incorporation records. 

However, Francine also said she had been in touch with a Health Canada compliance officer who allowed the testing to continue, though she said she couldn’t provide the officer’s name. She said that officer simply told her, on May 8, to remove all public advertising “because serology tests are not accepted by Health Canada.” The Facebook posts were taken down the same day, she said.

“If the authorities are very clear that we should not be doing this, we will not be doing this,” she said.

The clinic had been asking patients for a doctor’s requisition to get the Bio-Rad tests, several patients confirmed. A doctor who works one day a week at the clinic, Dr. Pierre-Paul Tellier, said he’d written two for patients who were “extremely anxious,” and that others have been sent from doctors outside the clinic.

“I knew that it wasn’t fully accepted,” he said.

“I don’t know anything about the legality, but I assume [it was okay], because the lab that’s doing this is a private lab that’s pretty well known.”

CANADIANS ARE WARNED TO BE ON GUARD

Júnia Santos, who has been a patient in the clinic, said she was “upset” to be told by the clinic that the test was available if she could pay.

In the urgency of the pandemic, “the FDA took some emergency measures…for very specific laboratories to use these kits,” said Santos, 28, who just finished a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and looked over the FDA records.

“I believe that we should still follow our regulations, even in a pandemic,” she said. “In the U.S. they do things we don’t tolerate here.”

Health Canada is asking citizens to report misleading COVID-related advertising and unauthorized products for sale. In one recent case in B.C., the RCMP seized 1,500 diagnostic test kits. 

Evans, the federal task force member, said that Canadians should remember that being asked to pay a high price for a COVID-related test should be one warning sign that something is amiss, and that any such test may not be “clearly within the healthcare system.” 

In general, widely available public health efforts like the flu shot are offered for free or at low cost. 

This Thursday, Medic Elle appeared to send out a new email to its clients, updating its antibody test offer. A client forwarded this email to CTV. “HEALTH CANADA APPROVED ANTIBODY COVID-19 TESTING AVAILABLE,” the clinic wrote in the subject line. The email specified that the clinic was now offering DiaSorin tests.

DiaSorin wouldn’t say where its first shipments next week were heading, saying it had to respect the confidentiality of its clients.

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