#pharmakeus

"In five words or less? The Celestials cook very slowly."

Hank gave the newest addition to the X-Men a smile, dismissing the holographic projection of his latest project with a wave of a paw and bringing up a painstakingly mapped model of the mutant genome as casually as normal people showed off their Candy Crush scores.

"The potential for radical mutation was added to the human genome some one million years ago, through careful seeding and experimentation with a tribe of Homo erectus by the Celestials. One of these experiments resulted in the nascent form of what we now know as the X-gene, which survived through Homo neanderthalis, Homo sapiens, and then came to fruition in Homo . . ."

He cleared his throat, looking somewhat upset.

"Well, the most widely known term is Homo superior, a term I soundly reject and refuse. I prefer Homo mutantis. But, at any rate, the X-gene has been cooking very slowly for thousands upon thousands of years, interacting with a billion other chromosomes, alleles - every bit of junk in the human genetic code, every leftover strand from every evolutionary step, interacts with it on some level."

"When it manifests, most of the time in puberty but sometimes at birth, that individual, unique combination of genetic material working in concert with the spark that is the X-gene results in that wide variation of mutant powers and abilities that you remarked upon. It's almost never the same for any two individuals, even in the same family."

He waved his paw, the genome map suddenly changing, large blue spots now appearing all over it.

"The blue spots you see are what is known, simplistically, as Mutant Growth Hormone. It's a very potent cocktail that includes simple hormones like adrenaline, neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, and a great many other ingredients. It forms naturally in the mutant body when the mutation process is about to begin, and catalyses the genetic process when the X-gene 'fires'.

So.

You have a young mutant walking around, a pressure cooker of biological processes. Something happens. Stress, pain, frustration, an emotional peak, all very common at puberty. And - snap!"

He snapped his fingers, the genome erupting in jagged spikes and strange shapes, mutating before their eyes.

"Humans grow fur, they begin to shoot fireworks out of their fingertips, they walk through walls. The X-gene is the spark - but MGH is rocket fuel. If you thought normal human hormones were a trip, well, they're nothing compared to what mutant teenagers have firing off in their bodies."

He gestured at Adrian.

"Does that go some of the way towards answering your question?"

❛  i just hope it’s enough to buy a miracle, that’s all.  ❜

Lost Meme -- @pharmakeus

Nico doesn't want to say it, but he's pretty sure $20 and a couple drachma is not going to be enough money to buy a miracle, even in the massive Bass Pro Shop. They don't have much choice though, and Nico follows the other's lead into the store.

Automatic doors slide soundless open to deposit them in the middle of the fishing boat section, Nico immediately feeling nervous around even the thought of so much water, when the light burbling of said water catches his ears, drawing his eyes over to the nearby fish tanks. As if hoping to display what the eager fisherman might catch, soulless-eyed fish, a few almost as tall as him, lazily swim around the tank the size of a swimming pool. Above the tank, even larger taxidermy-ed fish 'swim' in the air, frozen forever above the water.

But there's no way an average fisherman could catch creatures likes this--marlin, rays, sharks and-- why is there a half leopard-half fish up there? Ketea, his mind supplies, pulling the Mythomagic card from his memory, one of many half-fish creatures that the Greeks thought came from India but who knows where they actually live.

Hmm! I guess it depends on what you mean by genre?

I guess I prefer third person roleplay, canon divergent. I like pretty much all media genres? I'll write Hank in screwball comedy, in erotica, in horror settings, superhero (shock, horror!), whatever feels appropriate for the characters involved and the situation that's agreed upon beforehand. I guess if I had to pick a genre within that. Hmm.

Does drama count? I love the pingpong of emotional revelation, catharsis, confrontation, argument, growth, realisation - the shattering of illusions, the restoration of self. It's juicy as hell, especially with a character who can be as emotionally variable as Hank and who has such a long history of sins and sins done against him. There's always something to dig into and develop further.

"Did you know, I recently had a conversation with Spider-Man about something like this point?"

"Did man invent God, or did he just give God a face so he could understand him better? Probably the most salient point to the conversation you wish to have. My, I certainly can wax lyrical when I wish to, can't I?"

"In the end, it all comes down to definition and identity, doesn't it? Alien has several meanings, after all - anything from merely belonging to a foreign country; to simply being unfamiliar and disturbing, or distasteful; and then, of course, belonging to another world entirely.

So, consider."

"To a majority of the inhabitants of this planet, I am alien on two counts, and even in my own home country, I am alien on one count, on account of being unfamiliar and disturbing or unfamiliar in my countenance. With me so far?"

"Then, to follow on with my conversation with Mr. Man, first name Spider, I could also be classified as a god - perhaps of knowledge, perhaps of time, of hubris, medicine, science, the colour blue, whatever concept you wish to ascribe to me, perhaps all of the above. I embody some of these concepts, I am, in some ways, the ultimate authority on them. Does this make me a god? If so, by some definitions, to some, I'm an alien god . . ."

"Except, I'm not either, am I? I'm a human mutant born 37 years ago in Dunfee, Illinois, to Edna and Norton McCoy. I like Star Trek, long walks on the beach, and talking about thermodynamics. Not quite an alien god, by most definitions. As with all things theistic, it all depends on what you choose to believe, to what you ascribe value, and what you choose to say, and how you choose to say it. "

"That's the fun part of religion. That's why science has always been my preferred field - usually, you come to a much more concrete answer that you can be sure is correct. Usually."

❛ no offense, but you look terrible. ❜

Lost Meme -- @pharmakeus

Nico nodded once, eyebrows bouncing to indicate he heard the other but didn’t have enough energy to respond. He had not been sleeping well recently, to put it mildly. A couple ghosts had been especially persistent, trying to contact him through his dreams to get him to help with one problem or another.  Nico thought about talking to the Hypnos cabin, but he didn’t necessarily need sleep, he just needed someone to keep the ghosts away while he slept, at least for a little while.

@pharmakeus

Despite being quite accustomed to the typical chaos of the emergency room, even Kiara had to agree that today was exceptionally busy. Usually so calm under pressure, the stress of the morning was just beginning to show; her cheeks were flushing a faint pink, and a few strands of her carefully pinned ponytail were falling free around her face.

"Hmm," she agreed, with a tired chuckle, as she quickly reached for the file for her next patient. "Bit inconvenient that they couldn't spread out their injuries a little, take turns over the week. Yesterday it was so quiet I was almost bored," she joked, grabbing a fresh pair of gloves.

"Guess it could be." Logan mused. He knew too many wizards and sorcerers to discredit that as a suggestion. And too many gods. Too many prophets... Too many weirdoes in general. Suppose it came with the territory. That's gotta be it, right, Mr. Kettle? He shakes his head to dispel the thoughts.

"Question is, who left it for us?" He walks a slow circle around the sigil that had been scorched into the grass. He doesn't recognize it - not at first glance, anyway. And this is the problem with knowing so many weirdoes. Somehow, they had to narrow this down.

@pharmakeus | accepting!

" is it that obvious? " after what he'd seen in manhattan, any inkling of magic made the son of ares nervous. well, more magic than the Mist doing its usual normal thing at any rate. he preferred the physicality of the world, and things that he can't actually touch or control are hard to trust. the idea of magic being used anywhere near him? in all honesty made him feel almost sick.