phoenixdominant: <user name=sheme> (pic#16608290)
Joshua πŸ”₯ Rosfield ([personal profile] phoenixdominant) wrote in [community profile] shellphones2025-09-01 05:43 pm

[open] πŸ”₯ a research project of sorts

Type: Text
Sender ID: phoenixdominant (Joshua Rosfield)
To: Open
Subject: Research into medical conditions, sicknesses and diseases.
Warnings: Tba.

Hello, I am Joshua Rosfield. I fly under the corsair's banner with The Hideaway.

Of late, I have set myself to the task of compiling a reference, a compendium, if you will, of the many maladies, curses, afflictions, and fevers known to manifest upon this star. My concern lies not with ailments familiar to our home worlds, but rather with those that are native to this star alone. Born of its soil, sky, and magics.

This work will encompass all that is known. Recorded symptoms, confirmed cases, and such cures or countermeasures devised by learned minds or discovered through hard-won experience.

Here are a few of those examples that I've gathered:
The Drowning Sickness:
πŸ“Œ A rare and insidious illness, marked first by the appearance of a deep black bruise upon the skin. Often on the hands, at the base of the neck, spine, or over the heart. The bruise is tender to the touch and slowly grows in size and intensity, becoming inflamed as the affliction progresses.

While waking symptoms are troubling, it is during sleep that the sickness reveals its true nature. Those afflicted are haunted by vivid, suffocating dreams. Visions of drowning in dark, endless seas. With each sleep, the dreams deepen. Patients note the sensation of lungs filling with water, of being pulled under by unseen hands, or of sinking into deep, endless water.

Upon waking, the sufferer experiences acute breathlessness, as though having truly emerged from drowning. Over time, rousing from sleep becomes increasingly difficult, and some fall into a slumber from which they never wake. Death comes quietly, the body showing signs of asphyxiation. Lungs filled not with water, but with nothing at all.

If untreated, it is always fatal. The interval from first bruise to death varies. Between three to nine nights, depending on the patient's strength and resistance.

πŸ“Œ Treatment: While no universal cure is known, skilled healers have reported partial success through use of aetheric purgatives combined with dreambinding incantations. Removal or destruction of the bruise by mundane means (burning, lancing) has no effect and may hasten decline. Smelling salts or ingesting powerful angelic jellyfish have shown some success in staving off deeper stages of the dreams, though their effect is temporary, offering only reprieve rather than remedy. What appears to be definitive is surviving the drowning dream, itself.


The Crystal Affliction:
πŸ“Œ A rare condition said to be contracted by those who venture too deep into the forgotten caverns and shadowed mountains of remote, uncharted isles. Victims first notice sharp, painful growths erupting upon the skin. Jagged shards of crystal or glass-like rock, as though the land itself seeks to reclaim their flesh.

Left untreated, the affliction progresses. The crystalline formations spread, encumbering movement, disrupting vital functions, and slowly petrifying the body from within. In time, the victim is left encased in a gleaming, translucent prison. A statue of living crystal, robbed of will and warmth.

Those in the later stages suffer from extreme lethargy, dulled senses, and an emotional emptiness that renders them pliable, easily manipulated and easily controlled.

πŸ“Œ Treatment: Healers across all the Leviathans have developed a method to remove the crystalline growths through careful surgery, thanks to a local riftfarer’s extensive knowledge of crystal. The procedure is long and taxing, requiring potent sedatives or enchantments to ease the pain. Even so, few emerge unscarred and this procedure has yet to be mastered.


The Thornbind Curse:
πŸ“Œ A highly contagious, creeping ailment marked by vine-like growths that first appear upon the hand. Over time, these thorned tendrils thicken and climb the body, binding tighter with each passing day. The afflicted are left with painful welts, bruises, and skin pierced by sharp thorns.

Evidently, the vines seem to grow faster in those weighed down by deep, unmet desires, as if the affliction feeds upon longing that is left to fester.

πŸ“Œ Treatment: A medicinal cure was created that can be taken topically to cure the affliction completely. Trials have proved extremely successful. A full entry on the cure can be found here.

While there remains much yet to study regarding the myriad of ailments afflicting this realm, I pen these entries in hopes they may one day form the foundation of a true medical compendium, for the benefit of others.

On that note, my current inquiries lie with the nature of petrification in all its varied and vexing forms. I seek not only to understand its onset, but to uncover means by which to slow its advance, or better yet, reverse it. Should you possess notes, I would be most grateful for your shared insight.

And, as I am aware, this is hardly the most uplifting or interesting fare for one's morning coffee ... do share instead tales of your most recent voyages across the seas? I love a tale.


[And that concludes this giant nerd post.]
beshackled: (pic#16057095)

[personal profile] beshackled 2025-09-03 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
...I am Erichthonios.

[He pauses, unsure if he should comment further, but eventually ventures:]

I know not of the situation to which you refer... but I think I understand.

[He doesn't want to be a burden, either.]
astudyinviolet: Sherlock facing forward with arms crossed (Love Death and Cordona)

[personal profile] astudyinviolet 2025-09-03 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, I can personally confirm the removal of the Thornbind Curse in that fashion. It was performed on me with the help of another. Thus believe me when I say that it should be a treatment of last resort.
madeofmirrors: (pic#13335771)

[personal profile] madeofmirrors 2025-09-03 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
Shall it?

[He was unaware he was speaking with a Victorian scholar, though given the archaic nature of the writings here, he shouldn't be surprised.]

Surely there's more standard fare: colds, fevers, the odd case of measles given the lack of vaccine.

The the mention of it does make me realize the studies of virology and microbiology are likely alien to this place. Do those terms mean anything to you? Please tell me you at least know about inoculation.
Edited 2025-09-03 07:09 (UTC)
haveaflare: by <user name="messala"> (-095-)

[personal profile] haveaflare 2025-09-03 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
An impressive amount, truly. You've been working on this for some time, I wager.

[A pause here, while he smiles at the screen of his shellphone and breathes deep to still the warmth that spreads in his breast.]

It would be my honor, Joshua.
haveaflare: by <user name="messala"> (-063-)

[personal profile] haveaflare 2025-09-04 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
Why not this evening? With Elah returned, the land is much more stable and lends itself far better to study rather than survival. I admit I've neglected visiting overmuch in my time here. Mayhap we can take a meal together?
reindered: (If the world)

text: un: reindered

[personal profile] reindered 2025-09-04 10:28 am (UTC)(link)
this is a lot! i've been trying to look into things too. i mean. illnesses here that i might not have been familiar with back home. so i can help more, if one of my crew here gets sick. i can also let you know if i figure anything out as well. but even this much is helpful. i'm still going through records and books from what has been happening before i got here.
pinksidekicking: (55)

text; un: pinksidekicking

[personal profile] pinksidekicking 2025-09-04 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Too much reading. Is there a cliff notes version? Maybe a video recording for those who want to know but aren't very good at getting through a lotta text?

Since I'm guessing this compendium is gonna get bigger eventually.
haveaflare: <user name="vikael"> (-132-)

[personal profile] haveaflare 2025-09-05 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Indeed, and mayhap you can point out the changes to one who has not known them. Shall I meet you there or shall we travel together?

[Someone might be excited and thankful this is a conversation lacking visuals.]
haveaflare: by <user name="messala"> (-004-)

[personal profile] haveaflare 2025-09-07 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
Excellent. Then I shall meet you at the pier anon.
hellofishies: (pic#13627867)

[personal profile] hellofishies 2025-09-07 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
But I may start introducing myself the other way...

That's sweet of you to be so concerned about what a stranger might do. But you shouldn't be. I'll be okay whatever I try.
reindered: (Won't take)

[personal profile] reindered 2025-09-07 10:07 am (UTC)(link)
no, that's okay. i mean, the more information we have, the better! the better people can be aware of these. and how to treat them. that's important!

i'm not sure i've come across much myself that you hadn't already covered. at least, for things that seem more specific to this place. there still seems to be things like the cold, i guess some things are the same regardless of where you might be.
beshackled: (pic#16081911)

[personal profile] beshackled 2025-09-07 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
The conductive properties of gold allow it, in theory, to serve as a sort of makeshift aetherial pathway, such as those naturally present in one's body. In the case of petrification born of aetherial depletion or an imbalance favoring light, the aim of applying these needles would be to reinvigorate those natural pathways so that they could resume circulating aether throughout the body. And if this hardening of the body were instead an imbalance favoring earth, 'twould still help to rebalance the aether in specific areas.

Page 2 of 8