Paranoid Cosmologist

ive been holding back on saying much since id love to do that after jcc chapter 1 is out but basically parastation is a little story idea rix and ive been having fun with recently!

to summarize the basic premise uhhh:

in the world of parastation, various forms/types of parasites have evolved to an extreme degree- parasites who could only effect objects, plants or animals are now life-threatening and can also take over humans.

hosts who are infested with a parasite are drastically changed both physically and mentally, how greatly theyre effected by it depends on the person and the parasite but they generally have some kind of grotesque body horror elements. for most parasites there is no cure once you get infested.

then there is an occupation in this world called exterminators. they are in charge of preventing infestations and exterminating any hosts in sight- no matter what stage of infestation they are in, no matter how conscious they seem.

hirudo is one of the very rare cases of a conscious host infested with a leech variant! he's being blackmailed by junaid, an exterminator who specializes in leeches, to help him with his work/exterminate other hosts in exchange for not killing him. shenanigans ensue as hirudo tries surviving from both the other hosts and the exterminators.

Definitely in my top five favorite books of all time. Never before have I gotten so much second hand stress from a book but it was amazing. Absolutely amazing.

It goes into the (realistic) hypothetical of what if Arizona and Nevada cut off the Colorado River, needing the water for themselves, leaving Southern California with abruptly no water. It starts with panic buying water or any other liquid, then after a few days without supplies people begin dying of dehydration and literally fighting for survival while of the brink of death. It follows the different perspectives of the main characters who are all from different walks of life but are banded together to survive and has snapshots of other people throughout California. Overall it’s about climate change and how this sort of stuff is ignored on so many different levels by those in power, as well as human desperation and compassion.