Lol I parodied Blueberry here when I noticed how nicely I'd done by contour/blush/highlight today, lol Blueberry can say it abput his natural features but I'm not so blessed.
This is the second in a series of posts meant to explore both real-life cases of radiation sickness and the sci-fi concept of ghoulification in some depth. Graphic descriptions of the physical deterioration of the body are included for informative purposes; reader discretion is advised.
For this second case study, I examine the effects on the human body of exposure to moderate levels of radiation over a long period of time, with a focus on the real case of the Radium Girls, in particular Mollie Maggia.
Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898, launching the Radium Craze. Radium was believed to have numerous health benefits and restorative properties and was used to treat arthritis, hypertension, schizophrenia, and even stomach cancer. It was also used in tonic water, toothpaste, and cosmetics, among many other products.
After William J. Hammer created a glowing green paint made from radium and zinc sulfide, radioluminescent paint became popular in use on watches and clock dials. Three factories that used radioluminescent paint on watches and clock dials saw incidents of severe radium poisoning in workers, in Orange, New Jersey, Ottawa, Illinois, and Waterbury, Connecticut.
Dial painters working for the U.S. Radium Corporation, most of whom were between ages 14 and 20, were assured they were safe and were not given appropriate personal protective equipment while exposed to the radium dust they used to mix the paint for the dials. Managers encouraged them to use their lips to create a fine point on their paintbrushes, necessary in the precision work they did, which caused them to ingest small amounts of radium during their shifts. In addition, the radium dust coated their hair and dresses, and some women, believing the radium to be harmless, even deliberately painted their teeth and nails to make them glow. Dial painters ingested about 76 microcuries of radium per year.
In addition to consuming radium in the paint, the dial painters were exposed to the radon gas that resulted from the decaying radium, increasing their exposure to around 13000% more than the maximum annual dose. For comparison, standing next to the Chernobyl meltdown would result in about 30 rem of radiation exposure. 10 rem is the lowest annual dose linked to an increased risk of developing cancer. 200 rem is enough to cause severe radiation sickness and death, and between 300-400 rem is regarded as a lethal dose.
When ingested along with food or water, roughly 80% of radium is excreted, but the remaining 20% travels throughout the body where it is deposited in the bones, emitting alpha particles as it decays and irradiating the cells on the surface of the bones. New bone growth results in radium being deposited deep into the bone where it remains.
The typical period of exposure among the dial painters was two years. Some developed mouth sores after only a month of working at the factories, but for others, symptoms took longer to appear. First, the women would have felt fatigued and anemic as their damaged bones could no longer replace their red blood cells.
Because they were primarily ingesting the radium, their mouths were often the most affected. By October of 1921, Mollie Maggia—who'd already had to have a tooth removed—returned to the dentist's chair to have even more of her teeth extracted. The radiation damage to her bones inhibited blood cell production, which in turn prevented the wounds from healing. The ulcers became necrotic and constantly oozed blood and pus.
Throughout that November, Mollie's condition grew steadily worse, and in addition to the pain in her teeth and jaw, her hips and feet became sore.
As the painters' radiation sickness progressed, their joints would become stiff and severe pain in their limbs limited their mobility. The radium ate through their bones, leaving them perforated in a honeycomb pattern and prone to spontaneous fractures. The women's spines and long bones fractured and shortened.
Some of the women’s skin became so thin that even a fingernail scratch could cause it to split open.
Tumors the size of grapefruits or footballs developed on their bodies, and they suffered from blood disorders, menstruation issues, and sterility.
By January of 1922, Mollie was in constant, unbearable agony. Her teeth were rotting in her mouth and falling out before they could be extracted. In May, Mollie’s dentist was horrified when her jaw crumbled at a gentle touch. He proceeded to remove her jaw, not by an operation, but simply by pulling the disintegrating pieces out by hand. That summer, Mollie’s throat became painfully sore, and she experienced spontaneous bleeding from the jaw. By September, the radiation had eaten through the tissue of her jugular vein to the point of hemorrhage. Mollie's mouth and throat flooded with blood, and she died.
Mollie Maggia was the first from the U.S. Radium Corporation to die, just short of her 25th birthday, in 1922. 12 more women died the following year and another 50 fell severely ill.
i made a miku keychain for my lethal company cosmetic mod/addon and i decided to redo it because i felt like i could do a lot better, i’m really glad i did though because she looks sooooo cute
What are like some good furry cosmetics for lethal company. There’s a ton that straightforwardly add character faces and i don’t want that, i want a furry accomodating helmet
I summon the monsterfuckers, monsterlovers and monsters of the world to rate my creation. Here are four so far established.
Sigitiru, once inspired by Time Lords of Doctor Who series, but now mangled and smashed around as was my will. All of them are in some way ancient, cryptic and wise, as much as they are primal, modern and hopelessly maladapted for normal interaction. Any individual will be incorporated with some kind of technology, have some sort of weird genetic trade or cosmetic modification. Note, if you wish to court them - they are on average more on graysexual side, as after the deed their bodies are rocked by hormonal surges, that could be lethal. Communication and high trust is key here.
Sutviprra worldbuilding project is currently ongoing and I don’t want to be prescriptive. From what I’m getting now, they are on average more communal, short tempered when under stress and very interested in shifted states of conscience. Their romantic and sensual feelings are associated with intoxication and hormonal changes. Their spermatophore’s edible part is psychoactive for them, adding to their experience of shift of perception while in love.
Strikell come from the same planet as Sutviprra, they manage to get distinct. They have more familiar to people gender dimorphism, with males more colorful, bigger and territorial. Their “hands” - structure inherited from wings, freakishly flexible and scarily strong. This is part of their climbing and running adaptation, in tow with long legs and great stamina.
Zxer name is Zurrow, I wanted to make a joke about how big they get. Their size and appearance, their thunderous calls and scarily long memory, invoke images of elephants and spiders. And, yeah, if you love and know those animals, that good enough. They know about their visage, and play into it when under stress. While friendly, they are incomparable in their ability to be gentle and care. They have inbuilt brushes to groom hair, their forearms have claws, but also cushions to gently pluck.
Been playing a lot of LC with a couple of discord server pals and predictably this generated two OCs.
Remember my first Blender sculpt? Yeah, with a lot of help from @egg-exe it became a custom cosmetic for our group's collective modpack, and it is the main gimmick of my Employee character.
The story behind it is that The Company decided to use alien creatures to scout hostile moons and planets via mind-melding with "volunteers". Basically an organic ROVER program of sorts.
The experiments didn't yield very positive results, with Frogsilon being the worst possible outcome (the Frog was not an animal, rather, a sentient species of alien who completely took over the subject).
Leon, on the other hand, is part of an offshoot project (same sort of base concept, different end result sorta scenario) where eyeless dogs were captured and slowly domesticated via a lot of selective breeding. Their purpose is to collect bodies from failed full wipe-out missions where no one survives. Because obviously The Company doesn't believe in wasted resources and would use the bodies of the Employees for whatever purpose they deem fit.
That's enough exposition for now. Enjoy these character concepts and fun doodles (Buddy the Masked and its Crew belong to @pangolin-404, check out their fics about this oddball group! They're fantastic!)
I wish we had some kind of roadmap for Larian’s plans with their updates/patches/dlc for bg3. I want to go nuts with mods but I’m restraining myself because I don’t want my saves to get completely broken halfway thru my game. I had ONE non cosmetic mod installed before the last patch, and I now have several saves that won’t load anymore. 😭
I deleted Ox’s save because i messed up Minthara’s recruitment on his campaign and I reeeeally wanted him to have her. But I want to mod in some new armors and clothing and other fun stuff before going thru act 1 again 😞
I also think I’m retooling a little bit of his character. While his pacifism is still a big part of his story, I as the player of the game have no patience to non lethally knock out everyone he fights, I like murder so I can take their stuff. Killing will still make him sad and he has to bury/perform rites for all the deaths he causes.
So since he is the Tav in this timeline my idea with him will be that Morgan’s death changed him drastically, gave him a crisis of faith and philosophy, and he hardens a bit. His pacifism is the cause of her death and he vows not to let it happen again. I think this will lead to some interesting storylines when he meets and falls for Lae’zel 😌