#about pharmaceutical engineering

[pinacoladamatata]

Retail Rifts meetcute in the juice aisle.....

[headspace-hotel]

I went down the internet rabbit hole trying to figure out wtf vegan cheese is made of and I found articles like this one speaking praises of new food tech startups creating vegan alternatives to cheese that Actually work like cheese in cooking so I was like huh that's neat and I looked up more stuff about 'precision fermentation' and. This is not good.

Basically these new biotech companies are pressuring governments to let them build a ton of new factories and pushing for governments to pay for them or to provide tax breaks and subsidies, and the factories are gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require energy sources. Like, these things will have to be expensive and HUGE

I feel like I've just uncovered the tip of the "lab grown meat" iceberg. There are a bajillion of these companies (the one mentioned in the first article a $750 MILLION tech startup) that are trying to create "animal-free" animal products using biotech and want to build large factories to do it on a large scale

I'm trying to use google to find out about the energy requirements of such facilities and everything is really vague and hand-wavey about it like this article that's like "weeeeeell electricity can be produced using renewables" but it does take a lot of electricity, sugars, and human labor. Most of the claims about its sustainability appear to assume that we switch over to renewable electricity sources and/or use processes that don't fully exist yet.

I finally tracked down the source of some of the more radical claims about precision fermentation, and it comes from a think tank RethinkX that released a report claiming that the livestock industry will collapse by 2030, and be replaced by a system they're calling...

Food-as-Software, in which individual molecules engineered by scientists are uploaded to databases – molecular cookbooks that food engineers anywhere in the world can use to design products in the same way that software developers design apps.

I'm finding it hard to be excited about this for some odd reason

Where's the evidence for lower environmental impacts. That's literally what we're here for.

There will be an increase in the amount of electricity used in the new food system as the production facilities that underpin it rely on electricity to operate.

well that doesn't sound good.

This will, however, be offset by reductions in energy use elsewhere along the value chain. For example, since modern meat and dairy products will be produced in a sterile environment where the risk of contamination by pathogens is low, the need for refrigeration in storage and retail will decrease significantly.

Oh, so it will be better for the Earth because...we won't need to refrigerate. ????????

Oh Lord Jesus give me some numerical values.

Modern foods will be about 10 times more efficient than a cow at converting feed into end products because a cow needs energy via feed to maintain and build its body over time. Less feed consumed means less land required to grow it, which means less water is used and less waste is produced. The savings are dramatic – more than 10-25 times less feedstock, 10 times less water, five times less energy and 100 times less land.

There is nothing else in this report that I can find that provides evidence for a lower carbon footprint. Supposedly, an egg white protein produced through a similar process has been found to reduce environmental impacts, but mostly everything seems very speculative.

And crucially none of these estimations are taking into account the enormous cost and resource investment of constructing large factories that use this technology in the first place (existing use is mostly for pharmaceutical purposes)

It seems like there are more tech startups attempting to use this technology to create food than individual scientific papers investigating whether it's a good idea. Seriously, Google Scholar and JSTOR have almost nothing. The tech of the sort that RethinkX is describing barely exists.

Apparently Liberation Labs is planning to build the first large-scale precision fermentation facility in Richmond, Indiana come 2024 because of the presence of "a workforce experienced in manufacturing"

And I just looked up Richmond, Indiana and apparently, as of RIGHT NOW, the town is in the aftermath of a huge fire at a plastics recycling plant and is full of toxic debris containing asbestos and the air is full of toxic VOCs and hydrogen cyanide. ???????????? So that's how having a robust industrial sector is working out for them so far.

[xuchiya]

streets [c.san]

₊˚.༄ || filth valentines m.list || hongjoong || seonghwa || yunho || yeosang || san || mingi || wooyoung || jongho || ₊˚.༄

₊˚.༄ We real life made for each other And it's hard to keep my cool ₊˚.༄

"it's getting late, do you have someone to pick you up?" your head turn towards san, still in his uniform. his face mask were pulled down just below his bottom lip, emphasizing his cheeks; it made you want to squish his cheeks from being so innocent.

san was one of your fellow nurses. The crisp navy-blue scrubs fit him perfectly, the name tag reading "San Choi, RN" gleaming under the fluorescent lights. you cleared your throat; your heart was beating too loud for you that it hurts to taint this uncorrupted soul. you have hint after hint of crush on this man, this huge ass man that his face does not match his enormous body that you totally found yourself completely hidden.

proved when you stood behind him once and when you say, disappeared.

abracadabra, bitch not even a strand of hair can be seen.

"ah well i actually have somewhere to be ... what about you?" san looks at his watch, sighing, brushing his hair off his eyes, "my friend said he'll pick me up but he had an emergency call from his dad's company so now I have to wait for a bus..."

you frown looking at your watch too, its 10pm. Usually buses don't take this route anymore, "buses aren't available in this hour, san."

his heart fell on his stomach, double checking his watch, "damn it!" your eyes widen at his sudden burst of profanity. his eyes widen too and apologizing to you, "i'm sorry didn't mean to."

your lips curled up in a teasing smile, "your patient would not like it if she heard that one." San shakes his head laughing lightly. the small silence engulfs you both before you had an idea which will be a torture for you.

probably a torture for him too.

San was already an intern at a prestigious hospital near his family's home; owned by his grandfather though he is expecting him that he will continue his service even after his internship.

but when San came by a hospital that one of his friends were admitted after being confined. He found himself stuck on the reception area as his eyes were glued to your figure, up on hospital trolley, shouting dose of pharmaceutical. Your determine look and perseverance on your career what intrigued him to know you more.

so he left his family hospital.

San is pediatrician and so do you, the amount of love he gives on these children what also intrigued you in getting to know the man that suddenly left the hospital that you were trying to apply.

"hey i can give you a ride?" you mention, his ear perk up and reddens. his heart thumps inside his chest all of a sudden, "i-i .."

upon realizing what you said, your eyes once again widen and stutter out excuses, "oh my gosh! i - this is embarrassing, God take me!" you groan, covering your face.

for a while San chuckles at your reaction, composing himself, "I know you don't mean any harm but if you're going to drop me off then i hope i'm not delaying any of your plans."

When San agrees about you giving him a ride, he meant to be able to relax on the passenger seat.

He stares at the glaring matte black with gold flames on the Kawasaki Ninja 400R. That is one of the motorbikes he wishes to own and drive but because of his independence, San is still saving up.

"Holy .." You look at San as you place the glove tightly on your hand, "hmm?" Clueless on his reaction, you swing your leg over the bike, reviving the engine on and tune in the smoky sound of the engine of your bike.

San stares in awe as you hand him (set of embarrassment hue on your cheeks) a customized helmet. It has kitty ear with soft peach color as parallel of the inside of the ear.

"this is so cute." when he puts in the helmet, it dawned on him. You, arch back, hunch forward and him behind you, holding on tightly. His ears were once again red, frozen in place; his mind racing the same speed as your bike with filthy thoughts.

Like how could he not? Your ass is probably close to his (now) stiffening cock in his scrubs when he jumps in. the way it would keep brushing on his cock would probably have him cumming there.

"San? you okay?" You haven't feel the pressure or the weight on your back, so you turn your attention on San; standing with an incredible thickening boner in his scrubs, if it weren't for the eye shield of your helmet, he would seen you checking him out.

Or worse, staring at his firm boner.

San snap out of his thoughts and hurriedly swing his legs over the other side of the bike, after settling down on the leather seat. "You okay? Do you need-"

"Let's just go." San spoke clearing his throat and immediatly feels bad for brushing your concerns off, you understood why.

Without speaking much, you note that San would not hold on to you because of his hard situation so you did the initiative to grab his hands, in which he was taken back, and wrap them around your waist; patting his hand, "Mind you that it's night and I'll be taking advantage of the road."

You look over at San, "don't worry, I'll slow down if its too much." So without delaying much of your guys time, you kick off the stand and off both of you on the streets. San calling whatever can answer them make this ride, a comfortable one.

to say the least, no one grant his calls.

"u-Ugh f-ufuck chakaman!" San gasp, holding on to the mop of hair on the level of his hips while gripping his scrub up on his chest in his other hand—exposing his toned stomach, his scrub pants pooled on the floor. Your tousled hair, lips wrapped around his aching cock left him gripping the leather seat of your motorbike as you continued swirling your tongue on his red tip. San cried, bucking his hips when you took all of him; fitting him in your mouth up til’ his tip hitting the back of your throat.

 You hum to accumulate more of his climax, which in your satisfaction made San whimper thrusting his hips in your mouth, “f-fuck …” Shamelessly, he started fucking your throat as his climax were nearing and sooner, his cum spurted on your tongue and down your throat. You pull away from him, opening your mouth and sticking your tongue out to let him see that you have collected some of his cum before swallowing them.

  You gave him a smile before licking your salty lips, standing up proceeding to remove your leather pants; letting them rest on your knees along with your undies. You turn your head over to look at him with a smirk on your lips, bending moderately for him to see your puckered glistening hole with a small help of one of your hands to spread your cheek.

 “I know you want to get your dick wet, come on baby.” San’s eye twitch the moment you provoke him and have to look around the cleared parking spot you parked on and had him spitting his fingers and run them up and down your puffy cunt before grabbing his semi-hard dick and tap his tip on your hole; wiggling your asscheeks for him to provoke him more which he took the cue and slam his hips on yours.

You were quite taken back, his hips pace was something you were wondering if he has his dick wet a few times or he has this speed that you were looking for; nevertheless it had you moaning his name as his tip kept nudging. You rolled your hips each time he pulls away, leaving the tip then slamming back inside, “Fu-fuck Sannie— that’s so good! Right there!”

San’s hand crept down towards your clit, circling them rapidly and increasing the pleasure and the coil on your stomach, “You like that? You dirty dirty girl.” San stops circling his fingers around your clit and let you bend over your motorcycle as his hips snaps swiftly, placing the hem of his scrubs between his teeth as his hands knead the flesh of your hips then to your plump ass, spreading them as he watch his dick disappear inside your hole; a ring of your slick making him moan in his scrubs.

“Shit shit!” You cursed, lewd noises echoing the silent parking lot increase the arousal on your stomach, the fire of desire as San rapidly ram himself until you feel your thighs shake, “I’m g-gonna cum!” San drops the cloth and bent over to your ear, “Then make yourself a mess on my dick baby.” 

That it all took before you had a long string of ‘fuck’ leaving your lips as your orgasm washed over you, eyes fluterring close hips moving to chase your high. You felt San’s hand clasp around your hips and his broken moans reach your ears, “I don’t care if you’re on the pill or not but me? Get you knocked up? It’s been a fantasy of mine.”

His seeds spurted your walls, bucking a deeper part of your pussy. His hips halted as he let every drop of his cum stay inside you before pulling out, a whine left your lips but soon replaced by a yelp as San smacked your ass in his palm before placing your panties and your pants back on, “It’s cold and besides …” You turn around, he brushes hair away from your sweaty face, “I don’t want you wasting what we work hard on.”

Your cheeks flared, “You must have thought of this ‘fantasy of yours for a while now eh?” San shakes his head, a smile on his lips; securing his boxers and scrub pants back on before leaning on your motorcycle, shrugging, “Maybe but I should have taken you on a date first before I knock you up.”

You whine, smacking his arms, “Stop using that term.” San’s head threw back as he laughed at your reddened face, you groaned turning your head to the side. He stops laughing little by little before sighing, grabbing your hand; pulling you between his legs, “But it’s true. I had it all planned and there’s a step by step to it … but it looks like I skipped a step.”

You look at him, pouty lips, “a lot you mean.” He chuckles heartedly, grabbing your cheeks in his large palms, caressing them, “Okay a lot but it doesn’t mean I ain’t gonna take care of you. Let me praise you, love you, worship you and let me do those things because it is my duty to make you feel special and I want you to feel you are the only girl in this damn world. You’re my girl.”

You were left speechless and San saw in your eyes the appreciation, pulling you in his arms, “I’ll kiss you after our fourth date.”

“Why not now? You already got me knocked up and we are not even on our first date.” He chuckles and this is one of the reasons why he likes you; nonchalant or straightforward. He nodded, “Okay.” He pulls you in near his warmth, his lips landing gently on yours. He took the lead to make you feel special, make you feel the most important person to him.

[mallgothyamaguchi]

what haikyuu characters would major in at My College™ -secondary characters edition!-

i’m having a lot of fun with this :) i’m kind of just doing main side characters and ones i have a good idea for, but if you have a request, feel free to send a reply or ask!

oikawa - …spanish major with latin american & caribbean studies minor. sue me

iwaizumi - easy easy easy mr. iwaizumi hajime (27) athletic trainer is pre-med track biology major and i stand by that

kenma - easy this kid is computer science to a t, but he also minors in business administration (influence of kuroo)

kuroo - business administration with minors in chemistry (can’t disappoint everyone’s fanon career for him as a chemist) and media & communications (he is a sports promoter after all)

fukunaga - look did i just put him in here to say that he’d be part of one of the many comedy groups on my campus? yes absolutely. theater major.

bokuto - not even furudate knows what he went to college for, so i get to go a little crazy with this one. i like to believe he’s on the education track and majoring in english & creative writing. he’d be everyone’s favorite english teacher in high school.

akaashi - similar path as bokuto major in english & creative writing, with the complementary english literatures major or minor

konoha - hehe public health and chemistry major, looking to get his graduate degree in medical leadership (my pharmaceutical boy) he will also most likely go to pharmacology school post-grad

ushijima - he’s the rare student with only one major and one major only: environmental science.

tendou - hot take, but a chemistry major with a theater minor

semi - he is a musician, so i will give him our music major, but he is also a civil servant (yall ignore that a lot), so i give him political science or political economy & public policy

aone - physical science major with either a project management or supply chain management accelerated program worked in

futakuchi - there’s definitely sustainability studies in there, but interestingly, i’d also add physics

koganegawa - i’d say physical science major as part of the dual degree engineering program, adding in the innovation and entrepreneurship minor

kita - most definitely an environmental science and sustainability studies major with a religion studies minor :) (yes i know he specifically says he doesn’t really believe in the gods, but i can’t help but associate him with religion…) i think he’d also be interested in my college’s abroad trip to japan, which focuses on ecology and religion in japan (i really want to go on this trip…)

osamu - easy. business administration.

atsumu - maybe an interesting take, but i’d say psychology. the amount of psychological warfare he tries to use i think is enough explanation.

that’s all for now! let me know if there are more characters you’d like to know about ! i’m having a lot of fun with this so please send in requests 🙏

[sexhaver]

you with your engineering degree is like me with my biochemistry degree re: suggesting that all national medication shortages could be solved by letting people homebrew the drugs in their basement. like maybe it is just easier to standardize and track stuff on an industrial scale, unrelated to anyone in big pharma lining their pockets off it?

let alone the research that goes into discovering and trialling the drugs in the first place. bonus points if they also suggest that animal trials are inhumane anyway lol. it's like they're suggesting, what if our entire pharmaceutical sector was run by r/researchchemicals, but worse?

oh man you must have this so much worse than i do, at least with mechanical engineering issues the problems are rooted in physics that the average person has at least some familiarity with (on account of existing in the physical world and using physics to do, like, literally anything). but chemistry mostly happens at a level too small for people to actually see, which means that people either 1. treat it like magic or 2. pull some Four Thieves Vinegar Collective shit and start brewing insulin in bathtubs and tut-tutting anyone raising concerns about petty things like "contaminants" and "purity" and "consistent dosage". actually now that i think about it this is mostly an anarchist thing where they assume they can just abolish the entire pharmaceuticals industry and replace it with, like, horse-piss-derived estrogen distilleries in every commune. to quote @exeggcute 's reply on my last post: "chesterton's fence babyyyyyy"

[hidingoutbackstage]

Resident Evil Tumblr Simulator

☸️ biohazheard Follow

Friendly reminder that Tricell was found guilty of dealing with bio organic weapons so if you buy from them you’re a piece of shit

💊 raccooncitywasfaked Follow

oh sure it’s all “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism and people who are poorer might sometimes buy from unethical companies in order to stay alive” but the line is drawn when it comes to companies that sell medical supplies i just can’t with this hellsite today

📷 terrasavedd Follow

there are multiple posts going around this site of alternatives to tricell for buying medical supplies but all you wanna do is bitch on other people’s posts i see how it is

📷 terrasavedd Follow

Update: apparently @raccooncitywasfaked is literally a former Tricell employee lmaooo no wonder you’re so butthurt

5.8k notes

👩‍🦰 sarahjp Follow

Girl help why the fuck am I seeing blacklisted posts with the tags “#sex and the city spoilers” AND “#umbrella pharmaceuticals” in the same posts hello???

🍒 carryingbradshaw Follow

The Sex and the City finale aired tonight, and like five minutes later the official ruling of the Umbrella Trials was closed with a guilty conviction

💕 regenblue Follow

only on tumblr would we be finding out about world events like this

15.6k notes

💖 biowesbian Follow

the media is so fake sometimes i swear there’ll be a whole live debate on “should we call them z*mbies or ‘infected individuals’?” bro people are dying this is not the time for semantics

2 notes

🐻 don-kinxoite Follow

every time i think “the kinning community isn’t THAT toxic” i get hit over the head by some new out of this world discourse. today it’s people trying to kin actual real world fucking viruses

🐶 stolenface Follow

i’m sorry…REAL VIRUSES??? like ignoring the irl implications of that aside how would you even fucking do that?

🐻 don-kinxiote Follow

yeah real viruses. someone tried to claim they were the t virus and said to someone who tried kinning t veronica that they were copying them. what has this community come to

🌡️ engineered-kinning Follow

y'all are JUST now seeing this discourse? damn. i was mutuals w/ someone who claimed they kinned a (made up) virus that gave them all of the symptoms of alphas in the omegaverse

🐻 don-kinxiote Follow

horrible information, thank you

145 notes

💙 grahamscracker Follow

Look ik we're all "fuck the government and the dogs that work for em" but like come onnn look at Ashley Graham's new bodyguard he is fineeee

27 notes

🧬 bowliving Follow

important confession

i lied about my BOW status and all aspects of my identity (marital status, science experiment past, family, etc.) on this blog and i truly apologize

☎️ brbabow Follow

a) why is this tagged breaking bad

b) what the fuck is going on

63.7k notes

[accord-vn]

Major Players in the War Against the Firmament

The Republic of Stauros

The Republic of Stauros is a global superpower that controls the Americas and much of eastern and southern Africa, its imperialist agenda funded by the exploitation of abundant natural resources. This influx of resources means that they have been able to rapidly advance technology, particularly in bio-science, engineering, and materials science fields, and their advanced technology in turn makes for political capital with which they can bully nations into being subsumed by the Republic.

Stauros is a meritocratic oligarchy with republican structures, and presents itself as being a place where the best can rise to the top. It is centrally governed in its capital of Etorios, by a council of (what were originally) six departments that oversee facets of government such as treasury, military, agriculture, etc. These department heads are chosen from among a democratically elected parliament that makes up the upper levels of each department by the previous council. In short, the system rejects change very stubbornly as those who are eligible to lead have been entrenched in the system for a very long time. This entrenchment means that the Republic, while founded on progressive ideals, has now fully embraced the authoritarian streak that has haunted it since its inception.

Most prominent in Stauros's war against the Firmament is the ExoCorps, the executive arm of the Department of the Exterior. The Dept of the Exterior was created in order to protect Stauros's offplanet interests, however in the decades since they have come to rival the power of the Dept of Military, even surpassing it in many instances. The most notable example of this power imbalance is in the ExoCorps' development of Synaptic Transfer technology and the resulting Janissary program.

The Sophic Church

The Sophic Church originated as part of the Third Awakening, a reactionary revival in religiosity coupled with anti-Christian sentiment and strong undercurrents of paranoia brought about by a sharp rise in conspiratorial thought. What were several grassroots Gnostic revival movements came together to form a single ecclesiastical society, united in their desire to dismantle current institutions and build something new. These movements, originally different sects, syncretized their beliefs, though after several decades of transformation, their doctrine has evolved into a largely ahistorical conflation of Valentinianism and Sethianism alongside some entirely new ideas.

The Sophic Church played a key role in the formation of the Republic and rose alongside it, shaping it in the process, and as a result, within Stauros there is a strong presumption that most residents of the Republic are a part of the church.

Naturally, due to this relationship the Church has amassed a large amount of wealth and influence, and has invested this wealth into a number of corporate assets. The most prominent among these is Ascension, a corporation with child companies for mining, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and many other industries.

As a result, the Sophic Church has control over a substantial amount of the economy not just of Stauros, but the rest of the world as well.

The Stereomatos

In 2068, Olympia, Stauros's first permanent Martian research base, collapsed due to mismanagement. Due to the nature of the Stauros Dept of Research's control over the research base, while researchers lived permanent lives on base and even raised families there, leadership was not only appointed from a bureaucracy located on Earth, but also frequently rotated. As a result, most Directors of Operations viewed the position only as a temporary station, and ultimately failed to carry out their duties.

This culminated in 2067, when a failure in the water system caused dozens of people to become ill and 14 deaths. Civil unrest had already started to stir, but now was in full swing.

A nearby ExoCorps detachment was then stationed inside the colony to dissuade uprising, but the additional strain on resources that they caused served only to exacerbate discontentment. Before any violence broke out, the base was declared no longer fit for human habitation and disbanded, its residents either returned to earth or stationed in other colonies. The base was leveled shortly thereafter.

A mere two years later, Synesia was founded on Olympia's ruins. Synesia was intended to serve as a colony and an experiment in autonomous government, as well as a center for Stauros' civic operations offplanet. This quickly expanded into a semi-autonomous satellite state, granted nominal independence by Stauros in return for serving as the governing body for bases and offplanet stations too large and too distant from Earth in order to be effectively managed by a planetary bureaucracy.

In practice, the Stereomatos is a puppet state. Most of its leadership is either beholden or sympathetic to Stauros, and lives under constant threat of dismantlement. Stauros maintains exclusive trading rights with the Stereomatos, and uses the leverage of their monopoly on space infrastructure as means of controlling the nation.

The Firmament

The Firmament is a revolutionary movement across the Stereomatos with the ultimate goal of eliminating Stauros control over space.

The movement is comprised of several cells across both inner sphere and outer sphere colonies and stations, which frequently work together to improve the living conditions of Stereomatos citizens, smuggle goods and resources across planetary boundaries, and wage asymmetric warfare against Stauros.

The Firmament's immediate strategy is to hold Stauros at resource-point through piracy and targeted attacks on military installations so that they'll agree to several key conditions:

The right to self-govern independent of Stauros control, including reforming the government from a parliamentary republic into a syndical state.

Better access to tertiary industry, including the means to utilize synaptic transfer tech

Access to Stauros trade networks in order to carry out trade with other nations with minimal interference

The Stereomatos as a whole may be generally divided in their opinion on the Firmament's methods, however it is an unspoken rule to side with them whenever possible, because the Firmament represents hope for a freer future and an end to overcrowding and military police actions. Even those ideologically opposed tend to avoid speaking out, because the members of the Firmament are ultimately members of their community. A number of Stereomatos politicians have direct connections to Firmament leadership, and work to achieve the movement's aims through diplomatic means.

On Earth, however, the opinion is generally much more divided. Typically the details of their actions are largely reduced to the effect that they've had on Stauros, and are branded terrorists due to civilian casualties from their attacks. Within Stauros, media is sufficiently skewed that those who are aware of them despise them. Outside of Stauros, the Stereomatos is shown more sympathy, and even those who skew more conservative are open to the idea of free trade with the Stereomatos.

Federated Oceania

As climate change ravaged the global south, Aotearoa (formerly New Zealand) successfully pushed back the encroaching ocean with a sea wall, reclaiming additional land in the process. Having secured their new position as a safe haven for climate refugees, they pushed Australia into adopting a similar strategy. As a means of allowing displaced people to retain their sovereignty as well as protect against the threat of a subjugation-hungry Stauros on the horizon, the bloc of Federated Oceania was formed.

With a vested interest in environmental sciences and sustainable energy, Oceania rose to prominence by implementing the first viable fusion reactor and selling off excess energy from successive plants. This paved the way to further successes until it became the non-Stauros leader in technology on a global stage, and served as the first country to challenge Stauros's self-proclaimed "monopoly on space".

As a staunch rival of Stauros, Oceania is one of the few terrestrial nations to openly provide support the Firmament.

The Archon Program

The disappearance of the Caesarea is a mainstay of conspiracy circles system-wide. From independent blogs hosted on the clearnet to chatrooms on planetside LITEs to forums and message boards maintained on Firmnet servers in the belt, no hushed whisper passes through the internet's lips without mentioning its name, and the Caesarea is rarely mentioned without the words "Archon program" in its wake.

However, there is little consensus on what those words mean.  

They say that Archon Program is run by the Dept of the Exterior— no, by the Sophic Church— no, it's the secret Dept of Suppression— as a psyop— actually, it's in order to crush unions (the IPU has NEVER been able to touch Ascension)— no, to serve as a counter to the Firmament's dark matter bomb— and eventually, to dominate the world— utilizing heinous machines that are larger than any Cataphract, that bleed, that drive their enemies and pilots to madness.

When asked for proof, however, the stories converge. A would-be whistleblower from Ascension Aerospace, killed when lightning struck her complex as she was uploading the leak, severing the connection and her life at once. All that was uploaded was the first gigabyte of a single file, titled Archon Program, completely blank except for the image of an A with an ouroboros divided into seven pieces.

Nothing more is known by the public.

[orquidborgo]

Well, I'm getting a fever and with a lot of ideas, so I'm going to write them here because I don't have anything better to do!

This are concepts/writing ideas I got that I have more or less the story made in my head but I never wrote it down because I don't have the confidence to publish anything (haha self esteem issues are so funny), so here they are:

Jake Muller, professional B.O.Wsitter

* I got this idea while reading a modern fantasy resident evil fanfic (where the wound drips venom from your soul), basically:

After the events of resident evil VI, Jake only accepted jobs that allowed him to fight B.O.W and protect people BUT that didn't get him a lot of money, with Sherry's birthday approaching he is thinking about taking a mercenary jobs that pays very well until he receives a call from Chris Redfield, go to the middle of nowhere in Nebraska(? I'm thinking about changing the location) on a mansion with everything paid to take care of 5 B.O.Ws, just not the way he though he would.

Perfect paintings

* I got this idea from reading a really short story from space marine husbandry (I think it was from @kit-williams, is a story about a custodes, idk I forgot, it was so long ago) but I never got the confidence to write it because I don't think I will write a good mystery piece that'll comply with my expectations:

Detective Arad Yilmaz approached the scene, this is the 4th murder this month, the murders follow a pattern: All of them were strangled to death, had long black hair, honey/light brown eyes, middle eastern heritage and where last seen interacting with a really tall astartes.

The location of the corpses leave a trail as if the murderer have been moving constantly, following the same movement as the chaos warbands path, now with this corpse being found by a Dark Angel the astartes want to take this matter in their own hands.

Will Arad be able to find the murderer, bring them to justice and avoid an all out war between astartes before is too late? The clock is ticking.

There is no home like the one your bonded is:

* After reading Cedric's story in space marine husbandry (I also forgot to say that Cedric belongs to @sleepyfan-blog, sorry) and watching the movie "Bolt" I got thinking, what happens when a space marine grows a bond with a human that lives in another country and is only visiting? So here it is:

Guillermo Testarossa is visiting the U.S.A for his winter vacation, following his aunt's advice to stave off boredom he ventures into the local astartes hospital with his aunt's bonded apothecary. There he meets an injured space wolf, the rest of his vacation he spends it talking and having fun with this astartes but not everything last forever and he has to comeback to his home country Argentina, saying his goodbyes and promising to comeback next year.

Unbeknownst to him, this space wolf will not wait an entire year, using a joke his brother-captain made as motivation, with a camera, a notepad and supplies on his back he embarks on a adventure walking from the U.S to Buenos Aires - Argentina to find his bonded, taking photos and recording everything he encounters in his journey. The only thing he knows is that his bonded lives in San Telmo, works in a coffee shop with private tango shows and studies electronic engineering.

Save us from ourselves

* I seriously need to read Magnus primarch novel because there is no way you are telling me a whole planet of highly trained psykers (this mfs have magic, mind you) with space travel technology didn't have a plan B to evacuate civilians in case of a invasion, and I also like Arknights a LOT so, this is kind of a crossover between 40k and arknights:

Rhode Island is an humanitarian/pharmaceutical organization that travels across space with the mission of saving psykers, protecting those infected with flesh change and find the cure of said illness, right know they have treatment and have developed technology to protect/stabilize psykers with it so they can live a normal life.

Marckus Ahriman is a young 16 year old field operator with signs of mutation and a big heart who wishes for a world where all psykers are free and flesh change is finally cured. In a fateful operation battling against a chaos incursion he finds a soul shard that "calls" to him, upon touching it he remembers: he Magnus the Red, primarch of the Thousand Sons and son of the Emperor of Mankind, or well... A shard of him.

My big... Primarch?: Friendship is Magic (this is a temporary title)

* I watched a few episodes of my little pony so this is a crack fic, don't mind it that much:

During her fight against Starlight Glimmer through timelines; Twilight Sparkle gets "knocked out", but when she wakes up again to try and stop Starlight, she ends up in Magnus's body as a baby. So is basically her dealing with 40k insanity, family issues and trying to go back to her home.

She would try to understand why the other primarchs are so apprehensive of magic and would try to befriend them: She would try and not use magic in front of Mortarion after knowing his trauma and help him through it the best she can, would cure Angron of his nails, Leman would finally like her because she gets tired of his bullshit and start throwing hands and things like that.

Magnus's regular day

* With how pridefull is Magnus about magic, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten in a lot of psychic shenanigans in "regular show" style, every chapter would be Magnus getting into a crazy adventure, sometimes pulling his brothers, any of his sons or a unfortunate custodes along the ride.

The Emperor, Malcador and Constantin are just... Done with his magical bullshit at some point and just let him be because they know that he'll somehow fix it at the end.

So... Yep. This is all I got.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

diasomnia, 1 — 19

***Spoilers ahead!!!***

Note: this is just a general summary of what has happened so far and my initial reactions to those major events. I focused my comments on whatever interests me the most (ie lore and funny character interactions), so there are definitely details that were overlooked and lines that were simplified to make a joke; please do not rely on this as a translation.

Big thanks to @shuuenmei and @curekibouka-writing for clarifying the more confusing tracks of the story (some parts were difficult to follow the sequence of events for) and the details of the✨ deep lore ✨ It was fun screaming with the both of you—

Ah yes, Yuu’s Sleeping Beauty dream right on cue. Finally starting to put together the puzzle pieces, huh (Yuu goes to check on the Great Seven statues to confirm they saw the Fairy of Thorns in their dreams)? About time—

As expected, Sebek loses his mind and tells Yuu to not abuse Malleus’s kindness. He’s also super pissed that Malleus and Yuu act familiar with each other (and over the nickname). Yup, that interaction went about as well as we all predicted…

Not Lilia being the “I’m an anime boy late for anime school (the internship meeting)!” trope 😂 All he needs is some toast in his mouth!

Crowley talks about boring things how the internships will work and we hear more about the areas of interest for the third years.

Lore ✨ Each internship “semester” is 3 months and you can only take certain internships if you qualify for them via your grades, credits, and electives. You can choose to do 3 separate internships (again, 3 months each) or do 1 internship (for all 9 months). A B or higher is needed on two of the “semesters” to graduate. Students must also submit reports each semester. Some places additionally require interviews and/or special tests to be passed before a student is accepted as an intern. Placements are not first-come, first-serve; you need to earn that spot.

Trey says he wants to do something related to pastries or agriculture; basically, things close to food production 🌾 He wants to take advantage of his opportunities as an NRC student while he still can!! Trey said he wants to work right after school rather than go to university.

Cater is interested in the entertainment industry; he mentions magazines and videos?? It seems he isn’t interested in higher education.

HELP they randomly mention that Ace’s older brother interned in the entertainment industry too (it gets brought up when Cater was considering a theme park for his own internship)??? TRAPPOLA NII ALSO CURRENTLY WORKS IN ENTERTAINMENT????? When do we get to meet him, Ace—

Vil is continuing to advance his own career in film. He already picked out a studio to apply for, and expresses an interest in magical pharmaceuticals (though he doesn’t intend on going to college). Very fitting specialties for everyone, I must say!

Rook is interested in archeology so he can learn more about the world! After learning about S.T.Y.X., he realizes there’s so much more he doesn’t yet know. According to Trey, Rook does appear to intend to pursue college/higher level studies.

LMAO at Trey constantly having to translate Rook-isms for everyone 😂 Classic Science Club…

Unca Weona is cwanky cuz the talking is disturbing his nappy—

Leona’s going to a mining and energy facility in his home country. It’s an option offered only to those with high grades. Leona wants to be a lazy ass 🦁 “They won’t fail their prince, lmao”

Idia is doing an software engineering internship at Olympus Corp (ie TWST Google) 👀 This is huge because back at the end of episode 5 (ie the episode 6 preview), Idia was actively rejecting offers from Olympus Corp, claiming that he wasn’t welcome anywhere. Character growth… Idia isn’t welcome back at S.T.Y.X. because of the Overblotting and how it nearly exposed the organization to the public eye LOL 😂 Absentee Shroud parents upset with him cksbskwbkcnfke

Malleus doesn’t seem to be interested in picking an internship; he says that, to him, 3 months is too short a time to really learn anything (temporal dissonance strikes again). In the end, he is going to research historical ruins?? He can hang out with the Gargoyles 😎 and Rollo/j

BRO WHAT ???? Lilia is dropping out of NRC??? THE FUQ,,,,!.’sveksbskebkzvczbvvv?$$$&85inmw I had to hard stop at this scene because it caught me by surprise.

The first years are talking about Mickey (like if there are certain conditions to get him to appear??). Oh god, they're planning a Mickey Mouse stakeout????? AND ORTHO IS INCLUDED IN THE GROUP AWWWW 🥺 He searches his databases and uses his cool robot tech to look for more information about Mickey but finds nothing.

GRIM MAKES A SUS COMMENT ABOUT HOW ORTHO IS MORE HELPFUL WITH THIS (Mickey and Yuu's worlds perhaps being tied or related to one another) THAN CROWLEY IS.

They overhear Sebek shouting in the cafeteria; he’s in disbelief that Lilia is dropping out of school.

So anyway, Lilia’s magic has, in fact, weakened significantly (he was almost late for the internship meeting because he woke up and found that he couldn't teleport). He plans on retiring in the Land of the Crimson Dragon (Mushu???? IS THAT YOU).

Interesting??? It seems that Lilia has been progressively losing his powers since even before Sebek and Silver were born… It’s not a super recent occurrence.

Sebek and Silver are understandably upset and mention that while it would be easy for either of them to visit Lilia, it would be almost impossible for Malleus because he will be so inundated with his royal duties after graduation. Malleus is distraught as well, but he insists that they respect Lilia's decision. AND HE’S LEAVING IN LIKE A WEEK? That’s barely enough time to mourn or to emotionally prepare for the fallout…

Malleus pitches an idea to talk to his grandma to not overwork Lilia (vice dorm leaders being overworked? What? In this game? Nooooooo/s).

Malleus's grandma is name-dropped (Maleficia)??? Is everyone in the Draconia family just Mal-something????

LOTS OF OMINOUS DIALOGUE ("Time is running out", "Fate cannot be defied", etc.)

After that whole conversation it’s clear that something isn’t right (despite Malleus maintaining his calm in front of Diasomnia). As soon as he’s away from them, the weather instantly turns stormy AND we see Malleus's blot accumulating as early as 7-13 in what I assume will be a very meaty episode.

Sebek and Silver help Lilia pack; Silver finds this tin in Lilia’s room. There is an old bracelet of acorns and thread inside.

Lilia shows up and says that it’s the most precious item he’s ever been gifted??? But it’s not clear who it’s from.

There's another item in the tin (the ring on a chain)! It has a weird effect on Silver?? I think it makes him sleepy???

The gem in the ring is the same color as Silver’s eyes; Lilia thinks its because his parents wanted his eyes to be forever unclouded and pure 🤨 That’s cute and all, but it makes me really suspicious that something super bad will happen later and I’m living for that—

This ring was tied to baby Silver when Lilia found him. He planned on gifting it to Silver when he's finally an adult... and now is that time 😭 Ain’t no way they’re giving us these heartfelt moments only to not tear it down later with something devastating… And?? With the ring being so fancy, there’s no way Silver isn’t descended from some rich family (or even royalty/nobility) himself??? Prince Silver real????/j cuz that ring sure does look like Princess Aurora’s crown…

Sebek pulls up with THIS fucking monstrosity?? It’s a weapon (axe???) Lilia used from back in the day (like, in war). However, nowadays he uses it to chop regular shit like wood. The weapon looks very similar to one that Maleficent’s minions use.

It's made out of a special magical ore! It’s called Mystium, and it changes shape according to the wielder’s magic.

Back to Yuu and co. staking out Mickey! Grim is finally realizing that if Yuu goes home, he’ll be alone 😔 Noooo, fur baby… Don’t be sad..

They wait for a while but get sleepy because Mickey is taking forever to appear. When Yuu wakes up, they see Malleus’s green lights and they go outside to find it’s snowing (again, because of his weird mood). He apologizes and makes the snow vanish, then confides in Yuu about his insecurities.

Malleus tells a story about how he froze the castle and some people when he was a little kid (omg Elsa core???) because because his grandma had promised to eat with him and was late or didn’t show up due to her royal duties keeping her busy. It sounds like even the palace servants were afraid of his power because of incidents like this. Like. It’s kind of implied Malleus almost killed them (Lilia says Malleus almost “lost” those people) with his magic.

Lilia was the only one who came for Malleus to check on him when he was upset, dried his tears, and tried to understand him. He comes over and frees the people that Malleus froze, then everyone starts preparing and eating shaved ice made from the ice encasing the castle (not randomly, I think it was Lilia’s suggestion).

Malleus gets jealous because he saw everyone enjoying food without him and/or he thought Lilia was angry at him. (This is the point when Lilia tells him he has great power so he has to be careful how he uses it, ie the “you almost lost the people that you’re now happily eating with at the hands of your own magic” talk.)

Lilia uses his weapon to make some shaved ice for Malleus and invited him to join in (I think this may be the same weapon Sebek finds in his room in the present???); this helped Malleus “connect” with other people, or at least invited him to join and do the same thing the others were) It’s because of Lilia that Malleus is okay with eating cold things. UM???? HELLO???? Is that why Malleus’s favorite food is ice-cream??? Or at least a part of it?

BTW LONG HAir PONYtAIL LILiA CANON yes I’m way more excited about this than I was about that entire ice story

Yuu calls Malleus lonely 💀 and Malleus is shocked because he’s so used to being alone that the thought never occurred to him…

Oh no, Malleus learned that Yuu has “found a way home” (ie Rickey Rat hunting) 🙃 he’s like. “You are leaving me as well?” AND RIGHT AFTER HE JUST LEARNED ABOUT LILIA GOING… Lilia, who has been with Malleus ever since he hatched from his egg…

Friends, family… everything and everyone he cherishes is leaving Malleus. “Even if I have great power, I have nothing. I gain nothing, I always lose. No one will invite me, not anymore.” No Lilia, No Yuu 😞 Malleus, your abandonment issues are showing—

NAUUUR not more ominous shit 😭 Not the “man, I sure do wish everyone wouldn’t go :(((( if only there was a way for me to have everything I want…” coming from the mouth of a super insanely powerful magician…

NOOOOO not Yuu unintentionally enabling Malleus… He asks if there was a way to be with your loved ones forever, would Yuu take it?????? YUU DOnT SAy YES YOU FUQQinG IDIOT… ENABLER Yuu didn’t learn from Trey/j

MaLLEUS MY duDE 😔 DOn’T PULL ANY STUPID ShIT PLEASE (ie we all know he probably will)

Aaaand that’s all for now, folks!! Lots of sketchy lines and lore centering around grandpappy Lilia 🤡

Overall, I like the direction episode 7 is going so far! I was really worried that it would focus too much on Yuu and Malleus’s relationship rather than elaborating on Malleus’s relationships with the rest of Diasomnia, but I’m glad that the main story actually touches upon how integral Lilia is to his found family—and to Malleus, of course. A lot of interesting plot points have been set up (especially surrounding Mickey and Lilia), and I’m really looking forward to seeing how those conclude 👀 I feel like we also got spoiled with character lore; I love that time is a Real Thing in TWST and the the boys are aging and thinking hard about their futures. Can’t wait for the angst to hit me full force like a truck 💕

[lotustechnicals]

[razorsadness]

SORRY I DON'T FEEL LIKE TALKING ABOUT GOLF TODAY

We announce the world first existed in the form of a human body without mouth or eyes / without limbs or lungs / without glands or genitalia / without necessity of food / without motion / without empathy / without virus or vaccine / poison or antidote / so we became the first virus / & we became our own vaccine // We became open mouths & closed eyes // We became legions of cold compassion thrumming in a spacious forever / / flailing architects constructing intricately engineered endings // Over & over // For everyone / everything // More monstrous / more energetic / more insensate / more infernal // Bodies like sword-wielding skeletons slashed apart then reforming again & again until a fire-greased weapon unfurls them for good / bodies like drainage canals / bodies like drain cleaner / bodies like ant poison / bodies like battleground states / bodies like badlands / bodies like butterfly knives / bodies like broken touchscreens / bodies like breathtaking vistas of bodily hell / bodies like empty penthouses / bodies like empty infinity pools / bodies like empty stomachs / bodies like empty eye sockets / bodies like empty food courts / bodies like empty milk cartons / bodies like empty playgrounds / bodies like empty classrooms // Where you expect to find ocean you only find whalefall / recycling / crumbling forests of bleached coral // Where you expect to find clarity & awe you find cosmetic & pharmaceutical pollutants // You can’t stop listening for sounds that will never be made again / because the listening comforts you / but the listening hurts & the comfort hurts / grinding your teeth to the rhythm of the dead refrigerator’s hum // Our sweat is cold & culpable // We toss & turn & braid with the sheets / put our ears to each other’s chests expecting to hear heartbeats / instead finding dial tones / yearning for blues & greens you’ve never found in the flesh // So many bright rooms with no people inside // So many tangles of rain molding our homes from the inside // So easy to hide the profane from the sacred / to pretend the sirens surrounding us are nothing more than silence // Your cadaver lies supine in a tranquil field of lavender //

—Adam Fell, from Strange Horizons (November 2022)

[cool-jpgs-of-wizards-with-swords]

every day the earth trembles under the weight of my potential. I have a 6 hour video essay about arknights and its ludonarrative in me and you motherfuckers are so lucky. So the thing about it thats the most interesting to me, right, is that there's a Magic Material in the worldbuilding. It's called Oriron. It grows in large, crystalline formations, which disperse a harmful dust which causes infection. Individuals infected with Oripathy die. All that medicine is able to do is slow it down. When they near death and after, those who are infected with oripathy start releasing that same dust that causes infection in others. When enough dust is released, it creates a "Catastrophe;" which can take various shapes, but invariably creates MASSIVE deposits of Oriron which fall like comets from the clouds of dust. Cities in the world of arknights have had to be built on moving platforms that roam across the countryside in order to avoid these catastrophes. (Mortal engines vibes btw.)

This material is also how technology, industry, and magic, all function in this world. Utilizing tools with Oriron, you can utilize it to do literal magic. It's also destroying the entire fucking world. Infected get to use the oriron inside them to do magic instead. neat! This kills them. Slowly, but it does.

Arknights is a gacha game. It's built on the same addictive spending models that have ruined so many fucking lives.

The premium currency of the game is. Oriron. Well. Orundum. There's like 60 different kinds of oriron which are all different upgrade materials because again, Gacha game. It's.

In Arknights, you play as "The Doctor", a figure working for a Pharmaceutical Company that is trying to cure oripathy. Amiya is the idealistic leader of said company. I haven't gotten to all the details about her past with the doctor or much of the lore. But her entire goal is to not betray her ideals of being able to be a force of good in a world that's utterly fucked. Because of. The Premium Currency Of The Game.

Anyway the arknights true ending is a free-to-play fangame because the structure of arknights as a media property WILL not allow it to end. And whether it was intentional or not, the fact that the premium currency of the game is also Magic Supercancer DOES make this a more poignant point for me.

In the end, to give Amiya the future she wants to see, we, the players, as doctors, need to see the real cure for Oripathy. We cannot accept the continued use of Oriron for industry. There are hundreds of thousands of disenfranchized Infected, who might be able to help us transition from a society that depends on oriron to a society that does not.

[stevenbasic]

GITJ Post 310: Back to the Study Clinics, p2

Karina Katasova, APRN, CANS, known around the office as “Karen” (but AKA Agent KLCTVxx0038цч/0FHMA007 or Subj F000025a-KK depending on to whom you’re talking) put on her mask and readied herself to step in and see her first subject of the morning. Bates, Thalia: nineteen years of age, the daughter of an American senator from the US state of Minnesota. Karina had worked with this girl before, at this clinical site once and several times in the Department of Psychosocial Engineering at Evolution Pharmaceuticals. She’d been taking to treatment nicely, and was weaponizing well.

Stupid man is in there by himself already, she spoke to herself, frustrated and exasperated as she adjusted her bra, settling her full bosom in her newly too-tight blouse, alone. What’s worse is that she heard them interacting, through the door, slightly ajar. “I’ve put on another 20 pounds doctor,” Karina heard the girl’s voice speaking, “can you tell me where it’s all going?”

‘Karen’ knocked once, waited a brief moment, then opened the door to the exam room.  “Doctor, sorry I’m late b-…” she intoned before trailing off, the sight of her erstwhile “boss's” head being absolutely swallowed, engulfed by their mutual patient’s enormous bosom, taking Karina momentarily by surprise. 

I warn him, we all warn him many times - need mask! she immediately thought, protective in her own way of him, one of her assets on this assignment. She stepped hurriedly in towards the supply cabinet over the sink. But he is stupid man. Should follow protocol if he know what good for him. 

This girl, Thalia, Product Study #F8-021-TB, was typical of the several teenagers enrolled in this pre-rollout of Product: imprudent, incautious, impetuous. Perhaps because of their active, still-pubescent hormone profiles, girls of this age were taking very strongly to treatment, seeing fast, dramatic results that outpaced others. Pheromone levels were invariably off the charts, which excited the executives and other movement leaders. But these girls also tended to be reckless and soon after starting treatment they all began to follow similar patterns of impulsive behavior. They needed handling, sometimes closely. They were a handful but Karina, and others from the Department of Psychosocial Engineering, found them fascinating. And, most thrilling, they were certainly powerful. In what was already being called the Battle of the Sexes by some (while many remained oblivious to what was happening right in front of their faces) the teens would make great weapons.

Karina knew that Study Subject #F8-021-TB was no exception.

Exasperated again, Karen found that, when she opened the cabinet, all the masks embedded with synthetic Patient 0 pheromones were gone. “These rooms need stocking every morning…” she muttered to herself, shutting the cabinet in new frustration and knowing neither of the other two people in the room with her were listening. The Bates patient had intentionally flooded the room with pheromones and was now too busy blithely embosoming the middle-aged man kneeling on the ground in front of her, and Dr. J was, well, too busy being embosomed. Karen had heard the doctor say, at one point last week, that he had ‘concerns about how young some of these study subjects are,’ but he was not looking very concerned at the moment, buried to the ears. In fact, he looked ready to pass out. 

Karina placed her hands on her shapely hips and, with a wry look of disapproval, addressed her young patient. “Thalia…” she began, “you know we’ve talked about this….”

“What..?” the girl answered, looking up from her seat but not releasing her arms from around the poor man’s head. His face was absolutely disappeared between her inflated breasts, the thin tee that this place used as gowns for some of these patients the only thing separating him from skin that was currently releasing pheromones of apocalyptic levels. “He’s just listening to my heartbeat…”

The doctor, who was necessary for the particular governmental requirements of this sham of a study, mostly for his signature, did not move. His arms laid limply at his sides. Karen took the moment to regard him, regard the room - which some of the silly young girls who worked here had taken to decorating like a teenager’s bedroom, complete with hanging plastic vines. She had to admit that seeing a small man like the doctor being overwhelmed and enveloped so effortlessly by a young female was thrilling.

She looked now again at her patient. Thalia had taken to smiling beatifically again, down at her little charge with a delicate smirk. She held him firmly to her breasts, his face caught between twin pillows that were easily larger than his head, and was trying to push him deeper, to completely hide him from sight. It was almost like Thalia wanted to engulf him, to make him disappear completely into her curves. Peklo, I would like to smother man too, Karen thought, momentarily overcome by desires that seemed, recently, to be building in frequency and potency. She understood where they came from, these prion-mediated impulses, but was still sometimes surprised by them. 

Thalia, for her part, was looking down at the precious little doctor, held fast to her chest.  She marveled at her own size, the way her tits just devoured his head.  Karina heard her speaking, softly, almost to herself. “I’m so much bigger than I was when this whole trial started…” Thalia was saying, “Isn’t that right, my little boob-monkey? Bigger, bigger, bigger. Mmmm…boob-monkeys…all of you… gonna love losing yourselves in these…nnnn…”

And the doctor, for his part, seemed completely overcome, not putting forth even a ghost of a struggle despite the frankly life-threatening predicament he was in.  Karina was tempted, so very tempted to do nothing, to watch this young, budding queen exercise her control and authority over this little man.  But, she couldn’t ignore how purple the tips of his ears were becoming, and if he was actually harmed there would be a lot of paperwork to do. With a sigh, she cleared her throat, perhaps a little too loudly.

“Do I really need to let him go?” Thalia whined, sounding suddenly younger than her eighteen years. 

“Yes, Thalia, for now,” Karen replied, evenly, hands still on hips. 

With a petulant little “hmph” Thalia released the doctor, who fell back on his knees, catching himself with one hand to the ground. He was breathing hard, gasping for air, his face rapidly shifting from purple to a deep, embarrassed crimson. 

“You okay, doc?” Karen asked, fighting to keep the amusement from her voice as he looked up at her in surprise, shocked to see her in the room with them, “Do you need a minute?”

The doctor muttered something, obviously confused and bewildered. 

“Why don’t you step out, go get the cup of the coffee?” Karen suggested, dropping her voice naturally into the deeper, richer timbre she used with her patients, activating her laryngeal implant. She watched his face change, become both entirely focused on her and transfixed on another level. After years of training and some help from her own arcanely supplemented physiology, her suggestions could be nigh impossible to refuse, if she so desired. “In the breakroom? Down the hall?” she purred, “Wouldn’t that be the nice?”

“Y-yeah…just n-need to…er…coffee, breakroom…” he stammered, standing. Karen helped him, steadying him with a sure hand before sending him on his way on wobbly legs. He was compromised, and would be useless for a while.

“Go,” Karen commanded, and he immediately complied. The playful giggle of Thalia’s sing-song laughter chased him from the room.

The two women shared a silent moment, each in their own thoughts. “You’re about to use those Jedi-mind tricks on me, now, aren’t you?” Thalia eventually asked, looking up at Karen with an expectant smile. 

Karina Katasova, APRN, smiled herself and pulled over the room’s rolling exam stool. “Yes, is that okay?” she asked. 

“Omigod I can’t wait…” the young patient exclaimed, sitting up straight and leaning forward, ready for her treatment…

==============================================

Thanks to CaptainAmbiguous for his help/co-writing on this scene, and to model Tally Berry for allowing us to use her image; support her on OnlyFans if you can.

My Patreon

[ettawritesnstudies]

in the tags on a recent post you said your day job is "mind numbingly simple" do you know if that's common of chemical engineering jobs?

(i am currently pursuing a chemical engineering degree and honestly don't know that much about chemical engineering jobs. but i would not mind a simple job that gives me mental capacity left to write at the end of the day)

So it strongly depends on the kind of engineering work you end up going into and any job will vary in complexity on a day to day basis but with a chemical engineering job you have a lot of different options!

Specifically I'm a R&D Applications Engineer/Technical Customer Service in a polymer science role for a big international corporation so I'm working with existing products in a company and figuring out how to make them work for customers who are having issues.

What this looks like on a project to project basis is that we get an email from the customer or the plant outlining the problem and what kind of material they're sending us to test, I design the experiments we need to do to validate all the variables and properties, and then I spend a few weeks in the lab churning out data, then plug it into an Excel spreadsheet, crunch the numbers, throw that in a PowerPoint, and send it off to the relevant personnel.

The mind numbingly simple part is the standing in lab running through tests because it's hands-on labor that requires very little thinking once you've established your parameters. I usually just put on an audiobook or a podcast to kill time. The design of experiment can get somewhat complex and you have to be very good at time management if you have multiple projects with time sensitive lab components going on at once, but the number crunching has never required anything more complicated than 10th grade algebra. I'm not doing much chemical formulation either, just following established recipes and procedures within my company, but I'm learning more specific stuff as I go.

Now I'm only a year out of college and I've never had an internship or anything that WASN'T in a non-lab setting, so I can't speak to how something like a Process Engineer spends their time. I knew I didn't like being out on the plant floor because it's often Loud and Dirty and Sensory Overload so I tried to avoid applying for those roles. You learn a lot more about the production that way though, just not my cup of tea. You also have chemical engineers who design entire chemical plants and control systems (which is very very cool and important but I was bad at those classes lmao). Some also go the biochemical angle and get into pharmaceuticals but medicine scares me.

That's just my personal take but I encourage you to talk to your professors and upperclassman and see what they have to say! Career fairs >>>>>>> linked in for getting anywhere in this hell of a job market if your school has them and I hope you have a better time of it than I did during the COVID times. 🫡

[wordycheeseblob]

Ikerpi OC

Sigfrit Brant, 27, obsidianite defector

(Old) name: Sigfrit Ritter von der Marwitz

Mind you, an obsidianite defector who's still alive is no joke

In the early days slipped into Rhodelite to assassinate Cyran but was caught in one of Clavis's schemes and could not return. Didn't die but couldn't live either. So she's hanging out with those two weirdos now /aff

Many wanted to kill her at first. Some still do. She's pretty smug about it.

Likes: the smell of orange trees in bloom. Good bread. White asparagus. Garlic.

Dislikes: sarcasm and self-deprecation jokes are the bane of her existence.

Characteristics: thick accent. Pragmatic.

Weaknesses:

(cease resistance, your joke is about to be explained),

subtle in intentions but not socially.

Incredible foresight but terrible luck.

Little alcohol tolerance (oh the SHAME) but the trick is consuming some yeast before the night out.

Creative outlet: engineering.

Unintentionally finds Clavis' traps and feels compelled to comment on their faultiness. Clavis takes mental notes to improve later. (Much to Sariel's chagrin) not often but sometimes dismantles parts or tinkers with the occasional trap (much to Clavis' chagrin)

Hobbies:

finding blind spots and hidden passages, oversights and generally observing people and everything that's happening 'under the table' and on the surface.

Used to be Propaganda back in Obsidian.

Reading Obsidian's grim fairy tales to kids in Rhodelite.

Telling Cyran he's let his guard down

Yes, she witnessed whatever mishap you need to know so badly about (bad luck & timing) will she tell you? Depends.

Picking nettle or mint at the cemetery for pharmaceutical usage.

But she won't tell you any of that because it's somewhat shady.

Her 'hobby' is taking long walks and drinking with the soldiers