#pharmaceutical companies updates

[pharmafocusasiamagazine]

Why the need to launch a biomarker research arm?

Menarini Biomarkers (A. Menarini Biomarkers Singapore Pte Ltd) was founded with the mission of identifying, developing, and validating new biomarkers on circulating human cells for applications in diagnostics.

There is a current healthcare gap in precision medicine surrounding the fields of early disease prediction and disease control, particularly related to precision rare-cell isolation, analysis, and disease diagnosis. Menarini Biomarkers uses single-cell analysis to provide clinicians with new tools for early detection, tracking disease progression, and the measurement of real-time responses to innovative therapies.

The R&D team specialises in pathogenic single-cell isolation that enables scientists to pinpoint specific disease markers, also known as biomarkers. The identification and selection of pathogenic single cells from blood samples is incredibly useful in disease treatment, as it helps healthcare practitioners narrow therapies down to target cells.

Read More : https://www.pharmafocusasia.com/research-development/building-biomedical-diagnostic-research

[deadsetobsessions]

Danny always knew tax evasion ran in his veins. His parents hadn’t been the most… morally sound of people, and less so as ecto-scientists.

He just didn’t think their lessons would ever result in a criminal empire that spanned the entire city and then some. Danny hadn’t seen it coming. His parents definitely wouldn’t have.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Wayne. Mr. Fox.”

Danny ‘the Phantom’ Fenton sat down across from a rather tense looking (to Danny’s enhanced senses, anyways) Brucie Wayne and his right hand, Lucius Fox. He smiled pleasantly, matching Brucie’s vacant smile with that touch of Midwest suburban mother smile.

With his acquisition of multiple Gotham companies, his rather newly established Fentom Co. became one of the largest holding companies in Gotham, the first being Wayne Enterprises and the second being Drake Industries. After months of constantly working his butt off while fending off assassins, reforming Gotham’s slums and cleaning up some of the streets, and taking care of his nest of street kids, Danny garnered enough power to even stand close to Wayne Enterprises in terms of financial powers.

The topic of this meeting was, of course, the proposed merger of Wayne Enterprises’ Medical R&D division with Fentom Co.’s pharmaceutical department. Usually, Wayne Enterprises wouldn’t even consider such an offer, as their Medical R&D division was the most well funded and least likely to be part of a Rogue’s scheme- and therefore most beloved- department of the same nature in Gotham. However, Danny had something the other offers didn’t.

Blackmail.

His overly polite smile widened as Bruce’s mask twitched. His eyes slid over to Lucius Fox.

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I’ve heard much about your genius in… research and development.”

By that, Danny meant that he knew Lucius Fox helped develop Batman’s tech.

He did a lot of stalking that week. It felt rather… invasive, even if he did get a bunch of juicy secrets.

You know what they say: dead men tell no tales… but halfas are generally blabbermouths.

“Is that so? It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Fenton.” The man quickly glanced between the youngsters, accurately predicting that this might have something to do with Bruce’s active nightlife.

“Yes, it is such a pleasure to meet you.”

Wow, Danny didn’t think he’d ever heard anyone sound both so perky and dead inside at the same time, except for Susan at Gotham High’s bake sale.

Bruce wishes he could be a Susan. He’s at best a Becky.

“Will you be staying, Mr. Fox? You’re the head of the R&D department, correct?”

“Ah, yes-”

“Oh, Lucius! I think you had an appointment with the finance department right now! I heard Sally talk about it, you know!”

Lucius Fox sent an unreadable look at Bruce before rallying.

“Oh, it must have slipped my mind. My apologies, Mr. Fenton, it seems as though I can not skip this appointment.”

“That’s alright. I suppose it gives you… plausible deniability… should things go wrong, haha!” Danny allowed his smile to widen a little further than natural. Bruce tensed but Lucius Fox simply politely smiled and left the room.

Ignorance is bliss and all that, Danny amusedly thought.

As the door shut with a click, Bruce dropped the vacant Brucie smile and sighed.

“What do you want,” he gritted out. Danny wasn’t about to let that slide, not after he spent the better part of this month wrangling Bruce’s problem children.

“Ah, it must be because I’m from the Midwest, Brucie, but where I come from, we value these things called manners.”

You uneducated jerk, he doesn’t say.

Danny leaned back in his chair, loosening his smile into something relaxed and sharp.

“…” Oh, boy, Danny could just hear the other man’s blood pressure rising. “What is the purpose of your visit, Mr. Fenton?”

“Relax, Brucie,” Danny sing-songed in a non-relaxing way. “I’m just here to discuss a possible merger that I’m sure you’ll agree to, and give you a couple of updates on your… wayward bird.”

He heard Bruce take a slow, controlled breath. “Very well. Where. Would. You. Like. To. Start.”

Danny ignored the gritted out sentence. He passed a contract to Bruce, who took it like he was handling a live bomb.

“Here’s the proposal, Mr. Wayne. Please, look it over.”

He watched as Bruce looked over the contract with an eagle eye before lowering it, scrutinizing Danny.

“This is… very fair.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. Of course it was fair. Danny wasn’t interested in exploiting the Waynes, despite them being very able to afford it.

He’d brought fifty manufacturing sites for pharmaceuticals, and offered up a building where both companies could send their workers. He provided top notch security- that definitely didn’t have any talons on staff, what were they talking about?- that came from his own security division. Granted, most of them were reformed and trained goons, but hey, creating jobs can only help Gotham’s economy and help break the cycle of poverty, right? Guaranteed by the Wayne name and, most importantly, uncompromised medicine that was accessible to everyone would be a damn good start. He’d also have Penguin’s empire to distribute it to those who couldn’t make it to a clinic or a store, and there were plans in there to work with and establish contracts with Gotham’s welfare department. Well… once Danny finished replacing them with people who wouldn’t try to take a cut of the funds and actually cared about the people. He was thinking… the multitudes of poor grad students and parents that need income. He’s in the process of building childcare centers and…

It’s a good thing he managed to save money from the taxes (thank you, Gotham’s morally ambiguous tax experts that were in desperate need for clients! He could do it himself but having a team of accountants at the ready was seriously so helpful.) because ancients knows the government weren’t about to step into Gotham and help the people here. He needs so much money to pull all of this shit off and a lot of it has to be clean.

Danny inwardly sighed and marked another thing onto his to do list.

Make money laundering fronts.



“Of course, Mr. Wayne. You didn’t think I’d come in here demanding money, did you?”

“I considered it.”

“I am, in fact, trying to help Gotham. You might not agree with my methods, but I’d rather not damage Wayne Enterprises when it’s doing so much to help the people.”

Ugh, he was doing too much work. Danny just wanted to- hah- chill at home and read bed time stories to his kids.

Bruce Wayne, the specific blend between Brucie and Batman, regarded him silently. Danny felt like he went up a few notches in the respect ladder.

Nice.

“You’re a criminal.”

“Says the man in the bat-suit breaking into places and assaulting people.”

Bruce’s hands spasmed around the contract. Danny smiled at him, taking a sip of the coffee they’d prepared. Oo, nice!

“Ah, I heard you’re adopting- pardon, fostering- Tim Drake. Getting empty nest syndrome, Brucie?” He slipped back into using Bruce’s first name. The proposal was formal. This… was very much not.

“What about it?”

“That’s very kind of you. Speaking of which, well, of your birds, I was wondering if you remembered what I asked you to do.” Danny continued, not giving Bruce a chance to reply. “Didn’t I ask for you to keep your birds in line, Brucie?”

The CEO straightened even further, form filling out to be Batman’s imposing figure. “I did.”

“No, you didn’t. Do you know where your charge is, right now? No, not the formerly dead one,” Danny tilted his head, smile shrinking.

“Don’t you dare do anything to Tim. I swear, if you even lay a hand on a strand of his hair, I’ll-”

“Sit your Armani clad ass down, Bruce.” Danny snapped. “Your son’s in your office. I don’t harm children, and your assumptions are deeply insulting. Threaten me again, Bruce, and I’ll make sure you know exactly how much I know about your birds, your cousin, and the commissioner’s daughter.”

Bruce snarled but leashed his anger just enough to sit back down. He itched to go check on Tim, but leaving a threat like Phantom unwatched felt inherently wrong.

“Your other son,” Danny continued. “Is doing quite well. He’s learning that he has hobbies again. He’s actually working under me, you know.”

“He’s what.”

Oh, yeah, that tracks. It figured that Jason wouldn’t tell Bruce about anything. He’s still conflicted about his death. Danny got it.

“Ah, that’s precious information. You’ll have to offer something of equal value if you want to know. There is, on the other hand, a piece of information I’ll give you for free.”

Danny paused for the dramatic effect. It was lost on Bruce, the ultimate drama queen of this world.

“The League of Assassins are hanging around Hotham lately. It’s getting tedious, getting rid of them. I suggest talking to your old flame, you know, with words and what little communication skill you’ve got rattling around in your noggin to get them to pull back. Her interest is… unnaturally focused on Jason.”

Danny read the dark agreement swimming about Bruce’s face and inclined his head. “Should negotiations fail, rest assured that Jason will be protected.”

“…Thank you.”

“You are most welcome. Go ahead and discuss the contract with Mr. Fox, I am sure you’ll find little problems with it. Ah,” Danny stood up, fixing his suit jacket. “And you should probably check up on Timothy. He’s probably having a great time in your office, Mr. Wayne.”

“I’ll see you out.”

“Of course.”

Having Batman escorting him out should probably be more intimidating.

Danny stood in the elevator, waiting for Bruce’s contemplative silence to put itself into words.

Sure enough, “What… what kind of hobbies does Jason have now?”

“I’d tell you to ask him, but you two aren’t on speaking terms, are you? He likes books, of course, but recently, he’s found an interest in glass blowing. He made quite a bit of progress on his attempts at sun catchers.”

“I see.”

Well, Danny’s not about to step on that landmine any more than he has to.

——

“Danny.”

“Oh, hey, Jason. Sit down, we were about to have dinner.”

Jason clambered into the window. Danny sighed. He had a door, but by the way Jason never used it, it was like the door didn’t exist.

“Mind telling me why the old bastard showed up on my rooftops with a bunch of glass and glassblowing tools?”

Danny smiled. “No idea.”

“Uh huh.”

Danny placed a hand on his chest and put on his best woe-is-me expression. The teen’s face twitched in annoyance. “Doubt? At me? Why, I never!”

A bread roll thwacked him in the face.

[boldlygoing-nowhere]

Boycotts are definitely worthwhile forms of protest but I’m really begging some people to actually look at the BDS list and focus on the companies listed there.

I think a lot of people have latched on to Starbucks because it’s easy for them to actually boycott but this is a reminder that it’s not listed. It doesn’t have stores in Israel and it doesn’t send money to the IDF. The reason it got drug in is that Starbucks corporate sued the union to take down a pro-Palestine post. Shitty and BDS has supported the union, but it’s not as actively complicit in genocide as HP, Puma, Re/Max, Sodastream, Siemens, Chevron, etc.

Don’t buy HP computers or printers, or sodastreams, or Puma shoes, or gas from Chevron, or Hyundais or Volvos. Avoid Siemens and Intel products when you can (this is harder to avoid).

Amazon, Google, AirBNB, Disney, Expedia, Booking.com, Teva (pharmaceutical), etc are pressure targets. Not necessarily a boycott but that can be included.

Organic boycotts are included, so yes boycott Starbucks if you feel you need to. But make sure you’re putting that energy into the BDS targets.

[olive-fics]

-BOYCOTTS ARE NOT A TREND-

If you can ACTIVELY post and scroll on Tumblr, You can ACTIVELY Inform other users about how to SAVE the children and families in Palestine.

WAYS TO STAY UPDATED/HELP.

LIST OF BOYCOTTS: KFC, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Kit Kat, Burger King, Häagen-Dazs, Costa Coffee, Aroma, Subway, Nestle, Walmart, Hardees, Mars, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Minute Maid, Fanta, Carnation, Smarties, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, SweeTarts, Alpo, Lipton, Tropicana, Dasani, Perrier, Sprite, Twix, Nike, Addidas, Puma, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, HP, American Eagle, The Body Shop, Tommy Hilfiger, Lancôme, Ralph Lauren, Johnson and Johnson, Chanel, Kyle Cosmetics, Garnier, Olay, Clinique, Urban Decay, Neutrogena, LifeBuoy, Wix, Motorola, Nido, Giorgio Armani, Victoria Secret, Maybelline, NYX, Revlon, Siemens, Skims, Goop, Marks & Spencer, Smartwater, Aveda, Tom Ford, Covergirl, Nesquik, Papa Johns, MAC, The Ordinary, Disney, Bobbi Brown, Honest, Sabra, Nokia, Nido, Walls, Tom Ford Beauty, Summer Fridays, Soda Stream, Ahava, Keter, Strauss, Danone, Tivall, AXA, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Airbnb, TripAdviser…

If you are one that has been purchasing from these companies WHILE KNOWING about the boycott, you are actively supporting Israel.

[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

[darkmaga-retard]

 Throughout her mystifying, skyrocketing political career, Kamala Harris has repeatedly demonstrated her fealty to the pharmaceutical, abortion, and transgender industries, using her position of authority to feed their unquenchable thirst for profit by promoting their manufactured demands for dangerous experimental vaccines, for their monstrous so-called “sex-changing” medical and surgical treatments for young people and kids, and for the devaluing and destruction of human life through abortion.

Harris, along with her newly picked vice-presidential running mate Tim Walz, are dangerous radical extremists, more beholden to lining the pockets of demonic so-called “healthcare” industries than they are to protecting the dignity and flourishing of American lives.

Harris: Fighting for Big Pharma profits, not public health

Harris has promoted the COVID-19 (C19) vaccine from the start and continues to do so as evidenced by an “up to date” vaccination requirement for all who seek employment at her campaign headquarters. 

Harris currently demands that those she employ continually update their C19 vaccination status, despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have admitted since August 2021 that the C19 jab does nothing to stop the transmission of COVID.

“Harris has steadfastly stood by Biden’s federal vaccine mandates, federal mask mandates, as well as lockdowns of businesses, schools, and places of worship all across America during COVID,” noted Nikos Biggs-Chiropolos of the Honest Media Project. “As someone who has spent her entire career trying to please Democratic Party elites and donors, rather than regular people, it is clear that her top priority is propping up powerful companies rather than fighting for better public health.”

[dislyteshack]

Dislyte personal timeline/ will be pinned

*if you feel my interpretation is wrong THAT IS FINE

This is how I interpret this fucked up timeline

I'm going to be constantly updating this and if anyone wants me to add something or I got something wrong please tell me

*I took a lot of creative liberties with this and added false dates so I will be bolding the ones where the dates are completely correct

*I can promise that the years are correct other than when Yun chuan has his transformation because that is extremely unclear

timeline (to fit canon):

2010- narmer and cang ji unearth the Raya/rhea legand that compiles deities and powers and whatnot

*I genuinely have no idea where I got the 2010 date it's either I gaslit myself or I saw it on Twitter / Facebook

1/6/2012- a big half buried purple rock is dug up. Experts find that it's glowing and unlike anything they've ever seen

3/8/2012- funny purple rock is studied and a research expedition is planned

21/10/2012 2:00 am utc- the miracle rises and the first miramon appear

*revealed by multiple times stated by how everything started in 2012

13/3/2014- Abigail girl bosses Jin yuyao's family

*revealed by a flashback in rulers law

10/4/2014- fu shi meets his big titty goth gf

*revealed by fushi in dream of redemption

12/5/2014- Joseph dies , Leon L

*revealed in Hilda's event

9/6/2014- LIAN WTF WAS THAT/cube miracle appears

9/6/2014- Hannah dies lol take the L hyde

*revealed in Lian's event

?/?/2015- founding of the esper union

*line in inescapable fate

2016- embla doesn't have a very good time/ Jiang man doesn't have a very good time

7/12/2016- Hyde seemingly starts a pharmaceutical company and generally is doing better (plot twist he started the shadow decree LOL)

* in Fu shis careers he joined in 2017 and at the end of dream of redemption Hyde said he was in the process of founding the SD*

1/1/2017- su jue gets tf out of tangton

*line in yu ran event

?/?/2017- chaos miracle spawns

*line in yu ran event

?/?/2017- Lü Shang becomes an esper and also becomes a teacher

?/?/2017- Jin Qiu commits murder

*line in cell block chaos

?/4/2017-yun chuan goes to jail :(((

*it can be seen in Yun chuans signed confessional

13/10/2017 - Yun chuan death sentence

*it can be seen in Yun chuan's file in truth unveiled where he is confirmed to be dead likely on the same day his death sentence was put

?/?/2018- rip Archibald

*offhand line in Mavis event

?/?/2019- chunhui academy students become mercenaries

2020- shadow over oreville happens

11/2/ 2021 - beginning of Mateo's bullshit

*line in immortal fire

10/5/2021- ollies mom dies in a lab accident (massive skill issue tbh)

?/?/2021- chunhui academy becomes deserted

*offhand line in lonestar

1/6/2021 - Mateo fucking kills a man

*based on the different time skips that happened which I calculated from the beginning time of February 2021 that was specifically given to us in immortal fire

10/10/2021- Ollie's dad takes a massive L and dies (w to Leon)

2022- su jue girlbossing event (and yu rans bullshit ig)

*because of line that states that the chaos Miracle appeared 5 years ago I'm choosing to believe that everything here is taking place in 2022 despite the comment about yu ran's age

6/10/2022- Chuans esper transformation

*offhand line in truth unveiled

27/3/2023- burning of the union, marks the shadow decrees official independence

*offhand line in burning glimmer

2023- garrison incident (rip ikkis dad:( )

15/5/2023- javid causes the death of hundreds of people and gets arrested I shit you not this is what happens

*offhand line in javid's event

2/1/2024- espers become more common due to the shackled miracle

*offhand line in desparado

5/6/2026- Liam escapes from the union like the chad he is

*offhand line in devouring beast

6/10/2026 - Lu yi makes biggest mistake of his life by meeting Brewster

*offhand line in desparado

2026- idk what fumis doing BUT SLAY IKKI

19/12/2026- Ollie's bullshit

1/2/2027- brynns bullshit ig idfc

6/5/2027 - qius bullshit

24/12/2027 - truth unveiled

Onwards:

Event stuff vaguely taking pace after Brynn but also somehow in 2027

Sigh

2028-

-Fumi again with Fu shi

-Chu Yao's massive L

-Amir and Fatimah's shit

-oh shit elif's shit

[covid-safer-hotties]

Pediatricians scale back on COVID shots amid declining interest from families - Published Sept 7, 2024

By: Jackie Fortiér

Unlike other vaccinations, COVID shots aren’t required for kids to attend school.

When pediatrician Eric Ball opened a refrigerator full of childhood vaccines, all the expected shots were there — DTaP, polio, pneumococcal vaccine — except one.

“This is where we usually store our COVID vaccines, but we don’t have any right now because they all expired at the end of last year and we had to dispose of them,” said Ball, who is part of a pediatric practice in Orange County, California.

“We thought demand would be way higher than it was.”

Pediatricians across the country are pre-ordering the updated and reformulated COVID-19 vaccine for the fall and winter respiratory virus season, but some doctors said they’re struggling to predict whether parents will be interested. Providers like Ball don’t want to waste money ordering doses that won’t be used, but they need enough on hand to vaccinate vulnerable children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone 6 months or older get the updated COVID vaccination, but in the 2023-24 vaccination season, only about 15% of eligible children in the U.S. got a shot.

Ball said it was difficult to let vaccines go to waste last year. It was the first time the federal government was no longer picking up the tab for the shots, and providers had to pay upfront for the vaccines. Parents would often skip the COVID shot, which can have a short shelf life compared with other vaccines.

“Watching it sitting on our shelves expiring every 30 days, that’s like throwing away $150 repeatedly every day, multiple times a month,” Ball said.

This year, Ball slashed his fall vaccine order to the bare minimum to avoid another costly mistake.

“We took the number of flu vaccines that we order, and then we ordered 5% of that in COVID vaccines,” Ball said. “It’s a guess.”

That small vaccine order cost more than $63,000, he said.

Pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and techs are allowed to give COVID vaccines only to children age 3 and up, meaning babies and toddlers would need to visit a doctor’s office for inoculation.

It’s difficult to predict how parents will feel about the shots this fall, said Chicago pediatrician Scott Goldstein. Unlike other vaccinations, COVID shots aren’t required for kids to attend school, and parental interest seems to wane with each new formulation, he said. For a physician-owned practice such as Goldstein’s, the upfront cost of the vaccine can be a gamble.

“The cost of vaccines, that’s far and away our biggest expense. But it’s also the most important thing we do, you could argue, is vaccinating kids,” Goldstein said.

Insurance doesn’t necessarily cover vaccine storage accidents, which can put the practice at risk of financial ruin.

“We’ve had things happen like a refrigerator gets unplugged. And then we’re all of a sudden out $80,000 overnight,” Goldstein said.

South Carolina pediatrician Deborah Greenhouse said she would order more COVID vaccines for older children if the pharmaceutical companies she buys from had a more forgiving return policy.

“Pfizer is creating that situation. If you’re only going to let us return 30%, we’re not going to buy much,” she said. “We can’t.”

Greenhouse owns her practice, so the remaining 70% of leftover shots would come out of her pocket.

Vaccine maker Pfizer will take back all unused COVID shots for young children, but only 30% of doses for people 12 and older.

Pfizer said in an Aug. 20 emailed statement, “The return policy was instituted as we recognize both the importance and the complexity of pediatric vaccination and wanted to ensure that pediatric offices did not have hurdles to providing vaccine to their young patients.”

Pfizer’s return policy is similar to policies from other drugmakers for pediatric flu vaccines, also recommended during the fall season. Physicians who are worried about unwanted COVID vaccines expiring on the shelves said flu shots cost them about $20 per dose, while COVID shots cost around $150 per dose.

“We run on a very thin margin. If we get stuck holding a ton of vaccine that we cannot return, we can’t absorb that kind of cost,” Greenhouse said.

Vaccine maker Moderna will accept COVID vaccine returns, but the amount depends on the individual contract with a provider. Novavax will accept the return of only unopened vaccines and doesn’t specify the amount they’ll accept.

Greenhouse wants to vaccinate as many children as possible but said she can’t afford to stock shots with a short shelf life. Once she runs out of the doses she’s ordered, Greenhouse said, she plans to tell families to go to a pharmacy to get older children vaccinated. If pediatricians around the country are making the same calculations, doses for small children could be harder to find at doctors’ offices.

“Frankly, it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s what we have to do to stay in business,” she said.

Ball, the California pediatrician, worries that parents’ limited interest has caused pediatricians to minimize their vaccine orders, in turn making the newest COVID shots difficult to find once they become available.

“I think there’s just a misperception that it’s less of a big deal to get COVID, but I’m still sending babies to the hospital with COVID,” Ball said. “We’re still seeing kids with long COVID. This is with us forever.”

[insane-control-room]

Aegis of Red and White

We have obtained a sample of a virus from a researcher.

An activating agent is being created.

ink demonth - umbrella

Rated: G Warnings: None AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57956284 Length: 500

Umbrella Corporation can not let this get out. We cannot have another virus scandal under our belts, even if this one is different from the… other mistakes. 

Even if it was not synthesized by us. 

But rather, found in one of our scientists. 

It was a dormant thing, quiet and insidious, and that makes it all the more valuable. 

We obtained this sample when the researcher had voluntarily submitted his DNA profile for the purposes of the corporation’s specialized lock system; as he is assigned to work in the secret space that the dangerous viruses and diseases that are studied. Of course, we would not like for those diseases to end up in the wrong hands, now, would we? Either way, in that sample, there were two anomalous patterns. 

One aligned with pure tardigrade DNA, which obviously does not fit a human, and the other was a peculiar form of RNA. 

Now, as we are a bio-pharmaceutical company that specializes in virology, this was of particular interest to our C-Suite. So, we quietly assigned the researcher to the RNA virus strand found in his own system- without telling him where it was sourced, of course. He was one of those who believed that his contract said exactly what he was signing up for, that being medical research for preventing illnesses from spreading, and synthesizing viruses into beneficial things. 

With J. Drew’s studying, it became apparent that the RNA was a dormant virus. What it did was yet to be discovered, as his current assignment is figuring out how to activate it. 

We are confident in his ability to do so- he is one of our best virologists, right up there with L. Benton and T. Connor. If Benton and Connor would spend less time bickering and more time working together, then they may surpass Drew in their work- though, as it stands, he is the superior researcher. Not that we will tell him that. On his performance reports, we generally rate him lower than he actually is, as it is a strong motivator. 

With the Umbrella Corporation’s ‘umbrella exchange’ program, we have partnered Drew with a H. Stein, of the Manhattan Beach free clinic. They appear to get on marvelously, and have a sort of rivalry similar to Connor and Benton, though this one promotes more research rather than reduces it. 

Recently, the pair had discovered a breakthrough. An activating protein had been synthesized for the new pathogen. 

Testing had been approved, and as of now, the disease, which turns liquids in the body to a substance not unlike ink, has proven an effective bioweapon. 

Drew’s compliance likelihood levels have been dropping; therefore, human testing has been approved on patient 0. He is in the lab right now, and two agents with the activating protein, codenamed Scythe, have been dispatched.

We have just received notification that several viruses have been stolen from the lab.

Update: Drew has shut down the camera systems.

Patient 0 has escaped the building. 

Dispatching Tyrant. 

[brynwrites]

Your favorite gay cinnamon roll vampires are getting audiobooks!

Pre-orders are popping up slowly for the August 8th and August 22nd releases! (Thereafter, we'll hopefully be getting audiobooks released alongside the digital and physical copies for the main series novels.)

Keep an eye out for future updates—the Sell Your Blood audiobook cover will be a sneak peak at the extra steamy version of the cover

The Guides for Dating Vampires books are a series of cute and steamy slow-burn MM vampire x human romances with an evil pharmaceutical company as the overarching villain. Books one and two are out now, with a prequel novella coming September 15th, and book three later this year or early next!

[pharmafocusasiamagazine]

Operational excellence (OPEX) is the philosophy summarising numerous technical and social practices aiming at improving operations. However, the complexity of the practices and multiplicity of the initiatives hinders to always identify and set the most promising priorities. Being able to take decisions based on data and measured situations can improve the efficacy of the strategic initiatives. The St. Gallen manufacturing and quality control (QC) benchmarking programmes support pharmaceutical companies with a rich base of information needed to inform their decision making processes.

This article discusses two practical examples of how data driven improvements can be initiated and derived from a benchmarking. Firstly, an example from the manufacturing and OPEX benchmarking is presented. Secondly, a project that emerged based on QC lab benchmarking results is illustrated and discussed. Finally, the benefits of data driven decision are highlighted.

Authors: Matteo Bernasconi, Research Associate, University of St.Gallen

Gian-Andri Steiger, Research Associate, University of St.Gallen

Marten Ritz, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of St.Gallen

Thomas Friedli, Director, Institute of Technology Management

For more info visit: https://www.pharmafocusasia.com/manufacturing/learn-from-metrics .

[meret118]

It is difficult to read this thorough history of the bleached white shoe consulting firm McKinsey & Company and not wonder if the company’s continued, unreformed existence constitutes a public policy failure. The two New York Times’ reporters establish the company as a Forest Gump-like figure of American industry malfeasance; in the biggest moments of the domestic economy and industry buckling over the last century, McKinsey is frequently sitting somewhere in the background of the shot. The spread of Oxycontin? McKinsey advised Purdue Pharmaceutical. Deaths at Disney parks? McKinsey was brought in as an advisor. The astronomical explosion of CEO compensation packages, which has played a role in historic American wealth inequality? Yes, McKinsey was stalking in the background of this as well. 

McKinsey is not the sole force for all that is bad in a modern economy that has produced more for those at the top of the economy at the expense of those below. But Forsyth and Bogdanich show us how “The Firm” can be thought of as an elite, special forces commando unit spearheading these trends before the corporate foot soldiers of the Fortune 500 follow closely behind. Things that companies maybe would have liked to do, but could not bring themselves to do, like launching mass layoffs in service of better bottom lines for shareholders, were shuffled along by McKinsey for a handsome fee initially fronted by C-suites, but paid, in the end, by the rest of us. —Ali Breland

Reading nonfiction books published before 2000 can be a numbing experience. They always seem to accurately predict our future and warn us of the dark path we’re on, and we seem to mostly ignore those warnings. I’ll look up from the page about worsening trends in inequality, or the troubling resurgence of white supremacists, and think about how I’m living in an inferno that was predicted 20 or 30 years ago. Barbara Ehrenreich’s entire corpus probably works like this, especially Fear of Falling, her 1989 history of the middle class and prophecy of its fall that deftly straddles the lines of academic thoroughness and readability. Even after 33 years, the book remains elucidating as it tracks how the avarice of the 1980s gutted the lower class and was starting to chip away at a then-solid middle class, and contextualizes the anxiety of a bourgeoisie that could already sense its fate. Ehrenreich, who passed away last year, helped show us that our reality is a constructed one, and that we are capable of constructing alternatives. Fear of Falling pairs well with her best-seller Nickel and Dimed, a first-person ethnography of the working poor, and her 2013 essay, “Death of A Yuppie Dream,” which updates her 1989 observations. —Ali Brelan

From Mother Jones

[polarisbibliotheque]

Survivor's Blood (Leon x Reader) - Chapter 2

Survivor's Blood

Pairing: Leon x Reader

Word Count: 7.2k (I didn't know how to chop this one in 2 parts)

Summary: After Raccoon City, Leon became the only Government agent with that kind of expertise. With relentless training, he was now a Special Agent - again, on his first day in the job. He just didn’t expect to live Raccoon City all over again… Maybe Leon was fated to always have the worst first-days-at-work ever.

Age Restriction: 18+. It's horror, so expect a lot of graphic violence and blood dripping from this. I mean, VERY GRAPHICAL VIOLENCE. Nothing we haven't seen on RE, but still. Yee been warned

TRIGGER WARNINGS: The reader character kills a person and a zombie, and has a sort of panic attack in this chapter that freezes them in a situation, but Leon calms them down and grounds them back. Also, Leon deals with his PTSD through the whole fic.

Author's Notes: C'mon. Pet names between the reader and Leon so they can keep things at least a ~bit~ light in this situation is a must. I've been watching the RE4 remake and damn, Leon did go from sweet naïve babyboy to gloomy short tempered brick house badass - still a goof at heart though. I love it.

And yes, I was supposed to have updated Nemesis before, but I haven't finished the 2nd chapter yet - so Survivor's Blood update it is, then Nemesis on friday ;) Thanks for understanding! ^^

Chapter 2

New Setosa Broadcast Station – Channel 8, April 29th, 2001 – 19h37

Of all the things you wanted to do, leaving the room was the last.

You had remained hidden at least two hours under the Director’s desk, waiting for some sign of rescue. You were literally locked in there, with no way out: the studio was invaded by those creatures and those who weren’t killed in horrific ways, now were part of the undead army that roamed slowly through the corridors in search for flesh and blood.

That was the reason why you tied the Director up in the window right at the end of the corridor. It was fresh meat, with blood flowing from the recent death. With him exposed, the zombies would ignore the room and wouldn’t even notice there was a live person inside that mausoleum of dead people.

You had killed him, in a matter of fact. But the man didn’t give you a choice: while you ran, being the last two survivors in the studio, he proved to be even worse than the facts and words that roamed around the studio.

“There are too many of them. We won’t manage to get out of here alive, it’s a dead end!” You tried to make the man turn around and give up the stupid idea to get a gun he said he had in his own room. You had to get out of there. As soon as possible.

“Listen here, this is the best chance at survival you have as well!” He almost spat the words in your face, barely giving you attention. You wanted him to die, but you wouldn’t leave him behind. It wasn’t in you to do that. “How do you expect to cross the entrance hall? It’s filled with these… Those…”

“Zombies…?” As you suggested the word you could see him holding the urge to spit in you as an answer.

“it’s so ridiculous to call that a zombie! Zombies aren’t real!” The man found the door of his room wide open and you could still hear some noises behind you, even if you didn’t see anything. “These CRAZY people infected by this… That… Disease! I don’t know! This disease makin’ everyone lose their heads! I bet that shit is from China!”

“You are a horrible person.” You finally had to state that, sighing while holding a letter opener as a provisory weapon. If anything tried to attack you, you’d stick that little dagger in the thing’s eyes and run faster than it would be able to take a chunk out of your neck with a bite. You saw that happening before. “If it’s a corporation thing, I bet it’s from here. Let’s remember Raccoon City was an Umbrella city, a ‘pharmaceutical’ company here from the USA. Stop being a racist asshole.”

“Do you know who you’re talkin’ to?” The man stopped right in front of the door, slowly turning towards you.

“Yeah, I know. Does it matter now? Take a look at where we are.” You shrugged, opening your arms to show the corridor engulfed in blood and destruction. “Do you think your title matters in a situation like this?”

The man didn’t answer. He raised his hand to point at your face and scream, but he was stopped by a noise in the stairs. And steps. And dragging. And moaning, a sound that couldn’t even be called human. Those things had caught up and you were in a dead end.

“We need to run! Quick!” You tried to search for escape routes, but the options were close to none.

“And how do you want to do that? Jumpin’ out the window?! We’re on the second floor, stupid little shit!” The man rolled his eyes. “I really don’t know where people see so much intelligence in you. I hired you ‘cause you’re cute and if we’re gonna talk about war and all that shit, let at least be a hot correspondent. You’re useless!”

You were already at your limit – but upon hearing that, you lost your temper. You’d answer, scream, slap that disgusting face, but you were suddenly grabbed by him. When you finally realized what was going on, he tried to take the letter opener from your hands.

“Gimme that! If it’s gonna be you or me, then it’s gonna be YOU!” He growled between his teeth as the zombies slowly approached through the stairs. “With you dead, bleeding on the floor, I’ll have a shot!”

Your survival mode kicked in. You were a correspondent in war zones, you made TV broadcasts and also wrote articles. You had studied Human Rights. You put yourself in conflict zones. Therefore, you also had studied martial arts for self-defense, you knew your way around weapons and combat knives – that wouldn’t be your first time and, doing what you did, also meant protecting yourself and surviving.

It was good that he thought you were just a pretty face – for he didn’t expect you to know how to turn the situation around, overpower him and bury the letter opener in his neck. Kneeling on the floor and choking on his own blood in front of you, you remained glued to the wall on the other side of the corridor; your head spinning, unable to believe what just had happened.

Taking a deep breath, you saw as the life slowly faded from his eyes.

“Good riddance, piece of crap.” You made sure those were the last words he would ever hear.

The living dead, in the other hand, already appeared on top of the stairs. In a moment of despair, you took the letter opener from his neck and quickly dragged him to the window in the end of the corridor, finding a way to tie him up his feet so he would grab all the attention. Without thinking too much about what you were doing, you slashed the rest of his throat so the blood would flow and then ran to his room – hearing as the zombies screamed and desperately stumbled their way to the Director, guided by the smell of fresh blood. That was enough for you to barricade the door with shelves, hiding under the desk right after and observing what was going on at the door through the reflex on the big window in front of you.

With your heart beating normally again, you slowly calmed yourself down, thinking about what had just passed – and how you found courage to do what you had to do. Indeed, adrenaline and survival instinct gave people unthinkable strength. You observed the zombies passing through the room, some unconsciously hitting the door, but always with their attention on the Director, hanging from the window.

Christ had died to save humanity. Very well, that piece of trash of a human being that one day had been your boss died to give you a chance to survive. It hadn’t been willingly, as Jesus Christ, but unwillingly. And, as weird as that sounded, you felt no remorse.

And you would never feel it.

After so many things you had been through your life, you had a philosophy of wanting to die without regretting your own choices. Even if it was a horrible choice, you had chosen to kill the Director – so you could survive – and you would never regret that.

What had to happen, had happened – that’s what you used to say. Now the objective was always to keep moving forward.

You carried the letter opener in the front pocket of your jeans. You didn’t think it would actually be useful – but, just like you had thought before, you could protect yourself in an emergency situation.

Getting out of the room, though, would be impossible: there was a horde of zombies outside feasting on that creature even more disgusting than they were. If you opened the door and made a single mistake, you would have to outrun all that – and you weren’t so sure you would be able to do so.

Taking the radio once more, you took a deep breath for a while. Jill and Claire had told you about Leon – specially Claire. Apparently, he was a good person and a great survivor. He had been through unimaginable things, just like both of them did, and he could give you a reasonable way out of there.

Honestly, just having someone else’s voice alongside you would already be comforting. You had spent too much time locked inside that room thinking you would die – you had the feeling you remained in there for days.

“Leon…?” You called, a little uncertain, still speaking in a low tone.

“Y/n? Hi! I’m here!” His answer came right away. Nakai gave him a room to work and talk to you in private, so he was alone: Grace was tempted to help, but she would probably just panic and be useless. It would be better if she helped writing the emergency broadcast text. “Everything ok in there?”

“Define ok.” You had a bitter taste in your remark, making him let out a humorless laugh.

“Stupid question, sorry.” Leon sighed. “Look, I get it. My stay at the RPD wasn’t the best too.”

“I can only imagine…” You sighed back, running your hand through your hair. “If I’m being a jerk with you, I’m sorry from the start. Today definitely isn’t the best day in my life.”

“Makes sense. Don’t worry.” Leon could dismiss that type of comment: after all, the very last thing he would ask of you in that situation was politeness. “Well, let’s go. Are you ready? Can you get out of the room?”

“So, we’ll start with the very first obstacle: no.” You crawled to the window right by the door, taking a peek at the situation in the corridor. “There’s at least ten of those things eating the Director. Some of them are just roaming around the corridor or thrown on the floor. There’s too many, even if I try to be stealthy.”

“Hmmm… That already makes things really difficult.” Leon furrowed his brows, trying to think of something. “Are the windows a viable option?”

“I’m on the second floor.” You threw those words out as if it was enough of an answer, but, nevertheless, you walked towards the window. After observing a bit, you closed your eyes, already regretting what you would have to report. “There’s a wider part in the wall, connecting all the windows of the building. It isn’t even as large as my foot.”

Both you and Leon remained in silence. That was madness. He knew it was madness, you knew it was madness – but there you were.

“I think I can hold on to the windows and maybe cross to the other side.” Your voice was practically inaudible, small and clearly controlling itself so it wouldn’t tremble. “Unless I fall and die midway.”

“We can try something else. Maybe if you go through the door and remain low, without making any noises…” Leon tried to find another solution, knowing it would be too much to ask of you to try to climb through the windows of the building so you could leave the room. “Or I can go there. I can go with a gun, and we get rid of those things…”

“How long would it take? I don’t think the rescue team will be eternally available, right?” You sounded frustrated, furrowing your brows, trying to calculate the fall from the second floor. It was a considerable distance from there to the ground: if you didn’t die, you had a great risk to become paraplegic or at least with lots of broken bones. It wasn’t a good prospect.

“But it’s still an option. If I get out of here now…”

“You’ll take too long. Let’s go. No time for being a coward.” You took a deep breath and Leon almost pouted as soon as he was interrupted.

“That’s not being a coward, that’s having common sense.” It was the first time that day Leon had an extremely serious expression covering his face and eyes. It took a while, even, considering it all. “No one can call you a coward for being afraid to die."

“It’s not like I have too many options, right…?” You were a little uncertain, but Leon heard some noises around the room. “I’m finding a way to tape the radio to my tank top so I can use both of my hands for climbing.

“Are you sure…?” Not even Leon was too sure of that. It was risky, even if it seemed like the best option at the moment. He would ask you a thousand times to make sure you wouldn’t give up midway.

“Well… No.” There was no way you could be more sincere than that, as you wrapped the radio around your tank top with a silver tape you found laying around the mess in that room. Your flannel shirt had to be wrapped around your waist. “But if I think about it for too long, I’ll loose my will to do it. So let’s go.”

Leon was about to say something else, but you opened the window right away. The stuffy air of the room left to the night that had just started taking over the city. As always, you enjoyed watching New Setosa in the calm silence of the evening – but, at that moment, there was nothing of calm or silent. Zombies roamed the streets as lost creatures, eating what was left of those who didn’t have the luck to survive.

“Ok, let’s go… One step at a time.” You took a deep breath and put one leg out of the window, remaining a few seconds sitting with one foot outside and another inside. “Leon? Can you talk to me while I do this…? I’m a little afraid of heights.”

“This is a horrible idea…” Leon ran one of his hands over his face, taking a deep breath and trying to control himself. It would be even worse if he was mister pessimistic on the other side of the line. “Ok. Don’t look down. At most, look at your feet.”

“Great… For the record, I also think this is a horrible idea.” You finally found the courage you needed to hop outside and grab at the window, stepping on the wall detail as best as you could. You could only touch it with the tips of your feet and you’d have to focus a lot not to panic. “When all of this is over, remind me to sue the one responsible for all this bullshit in the city.”

“Remind me to sue Umbrella as well, then.” Leon let out a quick laugh, making you smile nervously in response. “How is the crossing going?”

“Slow. But we’re making some progress.” And, indeed, you glided your feet calmly, barely lifting them to be able to walk around. Your hands always tried to hold on to the details above you with certainty, but it hurt more than you thought it would. “You know… I have a friend who likes to go out to do mountain climbing. I always climb half of it and freeze at the very same spot, I can’t go higher.”

“You just have to think you’re not at a high place.” His answer was immediate, noticing that your voice seemed too nervous, even starting to tremble. “Do you like ice cream?”

“Hmmm… Ice cream?” You took a deep breath, laughing a little once you realized he was trying to distract you in order to calm you down. “Yeah. I do. Banana ice cream. And you?”

“Banana ice cream?” Leon raised one eyebrow, making you laugh – probably out of nervousness rather than anything else – given the confusion in his voice. “I didn’t see that coming. I like chocolate.”

“It goes well with banana.” You considered and suddenly turned completely silent. Leon couldn’t even hear the sound of your feet dragging through the wall.

“Y/n? What happened? Talk to me.”

“This part of the wall is broken. I’ll have to… Reach out a little… To the other side?” Your voice sounded even more nervous than before. You spoke too fast, stuttering and trembling. You had to grab on the detail on the wall right above your head with a little more strength, or your hands would probably slip from trembling. “I’ll have to… Let go? What…? How am I gonna do that…?”

“Hey, banana ice cream, take it easy. Is it ok if I call you like that?” Leon tried to grab your attention as much as he could. That situation was awful and a lot of things could go wrong. He would probably never forgive himself if it all went south: it would be another nightmare to haunt him every night, unrelenting.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s okay. Choco chip.” You tried to calm down, taking a few deep breaths. Your legs didn’t move and seemed frozen in place. Something seemed to appear at the bottom of your stomach, weighing your legs like led. You couldn’t look around, you couldn’t take your hands from their place, you couldn’t move your feet.

“Take it easy, ok? Take a deep breath and take your time too. But you gotta cross to the other side.”

“I can’t do it.”

“You can. If you take it easy you can…”

“No, I can’t.” Your answer was certain as you huffed and closed your eyes. You tried not to cry uncontrollably – that would only make things worse. “I can’t move. I’m trying but… Ah, shit. Why did I put myself through this…?”

“Because you have more guts than a lot of people out there.” Leon didn’t even think before saying that. And it wasn’t just to be nice: you forced yourself to cross from one window to another, walk through the studio on your own and do all the setup they needed to a broadcast. Not all people would accept doing that; most would probably demand to be rescued and leave the rest to die. “I know how fear can make us freeze in place. There were times at the police station I didn’t want to move, that I just wanted to sit alone in a corner and wait for someone to come rescue me. But I also knew that wasn’t going to happen and if I didn’t get up with a bit of courage, I’d die in there.”

“Oh great, I can die here.” You weren’t motivated at all and that triggered a little despair in Leon. He honestly wanted to get up and go all the way to the broadcast station to get you out of there. In a matter of fact, he should’ve gone there to extract you from the room and now he regretted having agreed to that insane idea. “How did you manage to get out of there?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know...” Actually, Leon had never really thought of that. Suddenly, he found himself  thinking about everything that happened in Raccoon City, clearly remembering the moments he felt too frozen in place to do something. But, somehow, his legs kept running. His body kept moving. He was probably one of the people with the least survival rate, but he managed to get himself out of there. Somehow, he kept on going. “I think it was survival instinct.”

He seemed a little too absent, too lost in thought even. The truth was, in all that time, Leon avoided to think about that day – for every time he thought about it too much, he had a panic attack and it wasn’t something pretty to see.

“Hmmm…” He heard your voice on the other side, waking him up from his own thoughts. You didn’t even notice your hands started trembling again. “What kind of chocolate do you like…? Dark…?”

“Milk chocolate.” Leon sighed, resting his head on one of his hands, keeping the conversation going to help you stop trembling. “Bitter is good, but I prefer milk chocolate. There’s an ice cream place near my apartment that puts pieces of chocolate in the ice cream, that’s my favorite.”

“Ok. So when we leave this place, you’ll take me there to try it. I knew I could call you choco chip.” Your voice was steady and calmer, taking deep breaths even faster as if to harness courage. “I’m going to cross this damn thing, that ice cream better be really good.”

“You won’t regret it.” You could hear the smile on his face, proud and nervous at the same time. He held his breath in order to hear everything going on your side of the call. “Take it easy, y/n. You won’t regret it.”

And none of you knew if he was still talking about the ice cream or about crossing to the other side.

Leon got up in a jump, though, when he heard a loud noise with a muffled scream on his radio. You seemed desperate and, even if he asked you what was going on, you couldn’t give him enough attention at the moment. He could only be sure that you were crying and trying not to scream too loud so you wouldn’t draw attention – or, at least, not too much attention.

“Y/n?! Talk to me! What happened?! Stay calm! Whatever happened, stay calm! Hold on wherever you can! Anywhere!” Leon checked Matilda in his leg harness, instinctively holding his gun. “If you need me to, I’ll get out of here right now and I’ll get there to help you!”

“No…!” You murmured your answer between your efforts as he heard dragging noises. Leon remained frozen, his hand on the gun while the other had the radio close to his mouth. His heartbeat was frantic and the expectation would certainly kill him.

With a few mumbles and more dragging sounds, finally came the silence – the only sound was the accelerated breaths from each other chirping through the radio. The sound from the walkie talkie really wasn’t the best.

“I slipped, my foot…” You took a deep breath, closing your eyes, now holding onto the details of the wall as hard as you could. “My foot slipped, I almost fell, I was dangling. Damn, I thought I was going to die!” You took another deep breath, your hands and legs trembling like jelly. “I thought I was going to die… Damn, I hate heights… But I got through. I got through, Leon. I walked. I left my place. I built up some courage, now let’s get this over with…!”

“You almost killed me here too.” He let out a nervous laugh, hearing the same sound from your side of the line. As he sat down, Leon looked like a piece of jelly spreading on a plate. If he needed an adrenaline shock to get into the mission, that was it. “How are you over there?”

“I got to the other window…” Your voice was silent as you looked inside as you could. It was a waiting room and you couldn’t see any of the undead who roamed the station. “I’m lucky, the room is empty. But I’ll have to break the window to come in, they’ll definitely hear it.”

“Do you have a coat or something like that?” Leon took a deep breath, going back to focusing and being logical. He knew quite well that being on the field made the person not think quite clearly, so he had to be the most logical of you at the moment.

“Uhum. My flannel shirt, does it work?”

“Yeah, it works. If you roll it around your elbow and use it to break the glass, you’ll avoid getting hurt and you’ll make less noise.”

“Oh, wow. Do they teach that in the police academy?” You raised an eyebrow, already working on your shirt. Leon giggled a bit.

“Actually, that one I learned from watching a guy stealing a car in Raccoon before being approved in the Academy.” He had a distant look, as if remembering something from a lifetime long ago.

It was a normal night: he had just turned 21 and went out with some friends to drink. They were going back home and Leon saw precisely that: a guy, silently breaking the window of a car, opening it from inside and taking it away. He would’ve done something, but it was the dreadful day of his very first hangover and he couldn’t even take a single step without thinking the entire world was spinning around, viciously. The result was a terrible headache and the typical ‘I’m never drinking again’ motto – that would never become true.

That street didn’t exist anymore, neither the bar where Leon had his first hangover. His simple apartment he had rented to start his new adult life was also gone – as were the friends who kept him company in that adventure and helped him walk in a straight line as the whole world seemed to dance frantically as if in a rave. There was nothing left. Raccoon City didn’t exist anymore – it was just a part of Leon’s memories.

Memories of 21 years that were wiped out because of corporate greed, of a company that screwed up and was powerful enough to cover up their crimes by simply killing a whole town.

“Hey… It’s a good technique. It works.” And Leon focused again on the present as he heard your voice on the radio, seeming a little calmer. You broke the glass just like he told you to and now you were safe and sound in the building once more, putting on the shirt but still leaving the radio taped to your tank top. It was a lot easier to deal with it. “I didn’t think I’d say something like this, but I’m feeling a lot safer inside than outside.”

“And you probably are. Always remain with your back to a wall; how are you right now?” His sigh carried all the relief that washed through his body. He could feel he would sigh a lot more that day.

“Glued to a wall so nothing will jump behind me.” You took a deep breath, tangling your fingers around the letter opener. “I need to cross a corridor to go down to the first floor. The broadcasting studio is down there.”

“Hmmm…. Corridors aren’t good.” Leon furrowed his brows. He had to think quickly, for you. “Can you block the way behind you? Or at least put something that makes some noise and warns you if there’s something coming from behind?”

“Hmmm…” You took a look around, trying to find something. You saw a couch, but it was too heavy for you at the moment. Right after, you found a vending machine. “Oh, please tell me I’ve some change…” You checked your pockets, making Leon wonder what the hell you were talking about. With a few coins, you bought some packets of chips in the machine. “Chips. I’m gonna spread them on the floor behind me and if one of those things appears, I’m gonna hear when they step on the chips.

“Will you look at that. A lot more intelligent than me walking around the RPD.” He was genuinely impressed by your thinking. And also thinking with himself how he didn’t think of something like that before. He could’ve saved himself from a lot of scares if he had a system like that to identify a silent zombie approaching him from behind.

Even if the steps from that Tyrant in a fedora were enough to warn him from the other side of the town that it was approaching.

“I don’t know if they told you, but I’m a correspondent in conflict zones.” You murmured in the lowest tone you could, trying not to draw attention. Meanwhile, you walked carefully through the corridor, spreading the chips on the ground. You couldn’t stop yourself from feeling like Gretl talking to Hensel through a walkie talkie. “One of my colleagues in one of the trips suggested we did this when we were sleeping in a high conflict area. We left some chips and broke beer bottles outside of the room to make sure that, if someone tried anything during the night, we would wake up.”

“Wow, you and your team have a light sleep then.” He couldn’t deny it was a good idea, nevertheless.

“We had sleeping turns. It’s not like you can properly fall asleep in a conflict zone.” You sighed, almost at the end of the corridor. There, you would find another waiting room and the big staircase to the entrance hall on the first floor. Your problems were just about to begin. “Can you imagine spending the night there at the NSPD, like it is right now? Or if you had some sleep in Raccoon City? It’s basically like that.”

Leon had no answer to that – the only thing that he could think about was that you, the one who talked to him through a radio amidst all that chaos, were no ordinary thing. Maybe it was a survival instinct that wasn’t being tested just on that day. And, maybe, that thing would help you get out of New Setosa alive.

“Oops, wait a second…!” You stopped on your tracks, remaining in silence. Leon did the same so he wouldn’t cause you trouble. And, indeed, the chips worked: one of the creatures had left a room in the corridor and slowly dragged itself towards you, hands crawling on the floor. “Damn! One of those things is already after me…!”

“You’re a lot faster than they are. Is it dangerous ahead?”

“I’m almost at the staircase, it’s like a tiny internal balcony and you can see the entrance hall. I know my issues will start there.” You walked a little faster, stuffing the chip packet in your back pocket and completely ignoring the zombie dragging itself behind you.

Maybe if you ignored it long enough, it would go away.

Or at least that’s what you expected.

“Stay down and try not to make too much noise. I think you can hide behind the balcony…?” He did his best to understand the descriptions of the places you gave him.

“I can, yeah, just a minute.” You did exactly what he had suggested: keeping yourself down, you walked towards the guardrail and peeked over to take a look at the entrance hall status. You were right by the staircase, observing everything you would find down there. “Ok. I can count eight… Ten… Twelve… Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Fifteen things down there.”

“Hmmm and how are they? Scattered around, gathered in a group…? You’ll have to be my eyes so I can help you, banana ice cream.” Leon didn’t want to admit, but there was something of wholesome in calling you like that.

“Right, ok, ok… Let’s see, three are eating a guy near the entrance, I think he was running away. There’s about five roaming around, banging on the walls or just staring at nothing, almost in the middle of the hall. There are three more at the end of the other staircase, with people who died trying to go down. Two are on the floor near the reception desk and two more eating someone near my staircase.” You furrowed your brows, taking a look back only to find out that zombie still hadn’t given up on reaching you. It was already almost at the later half of the corridor and that wasn’t good.

“The two near the staircase. Are their backs towards it?”

“Yeah, they are. If I go down without making any noises, they won’t see me.” With that, you went back to watching the entrance hall. “The problem is: there’s nothing to give me cover until I get to the broadcast studio. Behind the reception, there’s a passage to a big waiting room, that I think it’ll be swarming with those things, and then I have to take a corridor to the right until I get to the studio. I don’t know how things are going to look like in there.”

“Well, baby steps. Let’s think about the rest when you have already crossed the entrance hall.” But even Leon had to admit the prospects weren’t really great.

“Whatever I have to do, I’ve to do it fast, choco chip. That spook is crawling over the chips and will soon get to me.” You calculated the risk of kicking that zombie in the face if it got too close.

“How is it behind the reception desk? Is it a good idea to go there?”

“Maybe. It’s better than nothing.” You shrugged, taking a last peak at the hall. Apparently, there was no one else there and it was the best thing to try: the kick could risk an inconvenient bite. “I’ll go there as soon as there’s a chance of not being seen, then I’ll run to the passage and go to the main waiting room. I’ll need you to be quiet.”

“Got it. When you can talk again, I’m here.”

You nodded, forgetting that Leon couldn’t see you. Keeping low, you went down the stairs without making any noises, sneaking behind the two zombies distracted with human flesh. You almost ran towards the reception desk, holding your breath as you walked behind them. From afar, the distance of almost a meter between you seemed big. But, to you, it was as if they could bite you with a stretch of their necks.

You hid under the desk, keeping yourself as safe as you could. Taking a few deep breaths, you were careful enough not to make unnecessary noises. You were afraid they would hear you, but breathing uncontrollably could make it worse – therefore, you needed to calm yourself down, both your breath and your heart rate that was harder than a samba school crossing the Sapucaí.

Your hands felt like ice cubes, trying their best not to tremble with the expectation building up in your stomach. That didn’t help with the breathing, but you would do the best you could at the moment. You closed your eyes for long seconds, took another deep breath and, upon opening them, you dared to peek over the wooden desk.

You just needed a few more seconds. You’d have a quick opportunity to run as you could to the passage when one of the zombies in the hall turned around. It was slow, as you prepared your legs to run. You hoped you could still run with light feet without making too much noise – that would be crucial at the moment.

And you also hoped you could hide behind one of the waiting room sofas without being seen. You had no idea what you’d find in there and you might have to improvise.

But you couldn’t think for too long: as you finished tracing your plan, the zombie turned around and there was the window of opportunity you were waiting for. You didn’t think, didn’t prepare and didn’t even pay attention to the noise: you just ran.

As silently as you could, you arrived at the waiting room, trying to keep to the corner so you wouldn’t draw too much attention. What you didn’t expect, though, was to find at least eight of those creatures, roaming around and eating victims who didn’t manage to get away. When around three of them turned their gaze at you, you knew your stealth tactics was over.

“Ok, Leon. The plan now is to run as if there is no tomorrow!” You finally got back to the radio and Leon started to hear the creatures screaming behind you, as well as your frantic steps running against the hard floor. “The silverlining is that I’ll get to the studio in a couple of seconds!”

“Ok, when you get there, lock the door and barricade it! Use whatever you can find; those things aren’t strong on their own, but together they can destroy a lot of stuff!”

“Ok! Will do!” You didn’t even think twice before turning at the corridor and keep on going to the studio. Behind you, a trail of creatures screamed and moaned, chasing you as ants running after a sugar cube. The door of the studio was half opened and that wasn’t a good sign. “What if there’s something in there?”

“Do you have any weapons?”

“Does a letter opener count?” As you answered, Leon considered quickly: it wasn’t the ideal but, honestly, it was better than nothing.

“Yeah, it does. Go for the eyes, the throat or the mouth if something attacks you. Not on the lateral of the neck, on the carotid.” He furrowed his brows, shaking his head right after. Yes, in survival situations people did whatever they had to in order to stay alive. But, even then, he didn’t think it was the kind of orientation you would easily follow.

“Ok.” But your answer was too secure, having too much faith on yourself, too focused for the situation. Something he definitely didn’t expect. “I’m almost there!”

And, indeed, you were close. You kicked the door like a hurricane, already slipping on your own feet to turn around and closing the door with all the strength on your body. As soon as you did that, you locked the door and got pushed back with the impact of the zombies on the other side.

Adrenaline and despair ran through your body and, when you came to pay attention to the sounds inside the room, you realized you were not alone. Still trying to get your balance back, you turned around almost tripping, finding a zombie with its arms extended towards you, ready to grab you; the mouth, dripping blood, was gaping open and half of its head was missing.

“Shit! Lemme go!” It was your first reaction, as you grabbed the letter opener properly. It was a lot stronger than you expected at first, making you grab its hair to keep its face away from you, trying to bite you like a rabid animal.

“Anywhere in the face, y/n!” Leon didn’t know what was going on, but he could listen to you being attacked. The only thing he could do was to scream all the combat instructions he knew; after all, he was sitting on a desk, a lot safer than you.

Hearing the screams on the other side of the line, Leon suddenly felt sick. He was an agent sent to save people, not to sit there, safe and sound, while everyone died. In Raccoon City he was an inexperienced rookie who had no idea what to do, and he had been a lot more useful than he was being at the moment. Was that the job of a Special Agent? To give orders and wait?

Leon should have had gone to the broadcast station to get you and do all of that by your side. If he was in Raccoon, two years prior, that’s exactly what he would’ve done.

You dropped the zombie on the floor, pulling its head back and stabbing it on the first eye you could find – the one that looked more steady. That was enough to make it crumble on the floor, definitely dead. Once again, your head spun like a carousel, with no intention to stop. You tried to go back to breathing normally, or you thought you would faint.

“Y/n? How are things at your end?! Talk to me!”

“It’s alright...” Your voice was a little drunk, while you kept yourself stable by holding on a chair. “Too much adrenaline at once…”

“Are you safe? Is there anything else in there?” As Leon asked, you immediately took a look around the room, without noticing any more menaces. The only elements that weren’t normal, were blood and a dead person in one of the chairs; the mouth open and a horrified expression forever frozen on their face.

“No. There’s nothing else in here.”

“So sit down somewhere. Keep your head low and keep like that for a moment.” As Leon oriented, you didn’t even argue: you sat at the nearest chair, not even checking if it was bloodied or not, and kept your head low enough until you couldn’t see anything but the ground and your own legs. “Try to breath slowly, or else you’ll get in shock and might pass out. Slower, y/n… That’s it…” He tried to keep his own voice calmer so you would follow it. He could do more for you if he was there. “How are you feeling?”

“Well… The world is still spinnin’… But a little slower.” You sighed back, running your hands through your face and your hair. “And I lost my only weapon. That makes me sad.”

Leon would say you could take the letter opener from the zombie you had just killed but, depending on how you killed it, the eye could come alongside it. Not even he was excited to do that in Raccoon City, so he wouldn’t dare to suggest you something like that.

And you thought of that possibility, but you didn’t even want to touch the subject. If Leon didn’t mention it, you wouldn’t mention it.

“I killed the Director.” You blurted out suddenly, making him furrow his brows. “He attacked me. He wanted to kill me and use me as bait to run from the zombies. I fought back and when I realized it, I had already hit him on the side of his neck with the letter opener. The same way you told me not to do.”

Leon remained silent, even more stoic than before. It was one thing to kill the undead who couldn’t even be considered people anymore. Another thing was to kill a human being – specially on a situation like the one you described. He understood the difference and how you should be feeling about it – even though, apparently, the man was universally hated in that town.

And it was probably suffocating you for you to blurt it out of nowhere to Leon.

“It was self-defense, then.” That was his final assessment, noticing you seemed calmer, breathing a little slower. “And when it’s self-defense, we can’t plan it, it just happens. You did good.”

“Hmmm…” You murmured back, running your hands trough your hair a couple of times. It made you calmer and brought you back to reality, making the world stop spinning and ground yourself again. “It isn’t exactly the sort of thing everyone will understand, right?”

“Yeah.” Leon nodded immediately, even if he had a souless smile on his lips. “But some will; and that’s something already.”

He heard a faint laugh from your side of the call, as you took another deep breath. Leon waited patiently as you got back to your feet again and folded the sleeves of your shirt to your elbows, already observing all the equipment in front of you.

“Very well, Leon Kennedy. I’m at your broadcast room.” You rested your hands on your waist, taking at look around. It was going to be one hell of a lot of work to understand how all of that worked. “Is Grace ready?”

“I think she is. Can I call the team so we can start?”

“Hell yeah. The sooner we finish things here, the earlier I can go to the NSPD and end this nightmare.”

Leon smiled. He completely agreed with you.

**

To be continued...

[meditating-dog-lover]

Skin update

My skin is looking so much better recently it's so impressive.

It al started when I began following an anti-inflammatory diet and drinking aloe juice in the morning. I'm going to keep this habit up.

I'm still working on stress relief of course. I might consider the cortisol reducing supplement and finding ways to ease my tension and stress. This has generally been a happy week for me, so I'm not going to be on edge.

I know my hands get dry and itchy and develop cuts when I wash my hands. I do have the tendency to overwash my hands. But I didn't today. My hands were dry yesterday, but I applied some Vaseline on them and went to bed. Maybe I can reduce my handwashing frequency. But that's definitely not the root cause of eczema. It makes skin dry out, but it doesn't cause flaring and cuts.

I am getting some allergies at home and my skin is itchy. Especially my face and neck area.

I just want to be healthy and have control over my health. I know doctors will always fear monger and recommend stuff I don't need or give a very narrow approach to recovering. Not all of course, but they're there to give recommendations. I'm ultimately the one who gets to make the decisions. I definitely want to be more proactive in making these decisions. But under the circumstance that I take my health seriously and put in the effort myself. I also don't want this condition to consume me because I want to live and not suffer.

I don't follow most articles and association sites on eczema because they don't know what they're talking about. They are funded by pharmaceutical companies so of course they're going to be pushing for those over personal wellness. I'm doing my own trial and error and seeing what works for me.

[stele3]