Have you heard about Meningeal worms (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis), also known as the deer brainworm?
Warning: Talking about a real-life internal parasite, will probably be a disgusting read. I tried to go light on the details, but still (Probably) not for the squeamish. I was planning on making it more fandom-centered than it ended up being, I blame my field of study.
You read that first sentence right, these parasitic worms spend their adult lives in various veins and veinous sinuses on the surface of the brain in their definitive host, the white-tailed deer. The larvae escape the host's body through the digestive system before finding their way into the body of an intermediate host (a snail or a slug), which is then usually consumed by the definitive host accidentally while it consumes vegetation where the larvae grow to reach adulthood; completing their life cycle.
Shockingly, these parasites do not appear to bother the deer much, and few cases of sickness related to said parasitic infection have been reported. In fact, it is actually rather common for a deer to be infected with these parasites, though no one usually would be able to tell whether or not a deer is infected by appearance and behavior (unless it was a case of a deer infected with many worms, especially a fawn). The issues begin to arise when the infected mollusks get eaten by other animals...
Within any other animal besides the definitive host, this parasite cannot grow to adulthood making these other animals "dead-end hosts," and furthermore, has been known to burrow into the brain and spinal cord, causing severe neurological issues and usually resulting in death
These unfortunate species include the likes of Moose, Elk, Mule Deer, Black-tailed deer, Reindeer, Pronghorns, Llamas, Alpacas, Camels, Cattle, Horses.... Sheep...... Goats........
The best thing to do for an afflicted dead-end host would be to be it out of its misery; there's no fixing the damage done.
I was planning on going somewhere with this, but I have no idea where. Perhaps making some kind of remark about how a certain deer can make it through dangerous situations keeping a relatively calm mind where others would panic? Or maybe how he is better able to resist/work with corrosive beings that pose a much greater risk to his companions?
...
If I wanted to get more exact with my references, well... This parasite is mostly found in North America, while the Goral and Roe Deer are Native to the Eurasian Continent, so they'd realistically never have an unfortunate encounter. The Goat, however... ;)
...Before you accuse me of preventing you from sleeping well ever again, I feel like I ought to let you know that transmission of this parasite to humans has not been reported.
I have, in fact, heard of Prions. I decided to go and do an entire (short) paper on CWD. It's (not) great. Highly infective, easy to spread, hangs around for forever (so high area contamination risk, especially with all the surfaces it can survive on, including but not limited to grass, dirt, and concrete), and an almost guaranteed fatality rate (it also causes neurological issues). What makes it worse is that it's infective long before the deer shows any signs or symptoms. Gives another meaning to "You are already dead, you just don't know it yet." White tail deer are the main victims, but a lot of other hoofed ungulates are susceptible as well.
Humans haven't been known to get it from eating contaminated meat or extended exposure to an afflicted deer or contaminated site... Yet. But people are for sure being cautious around it.
Humans may have not been able to contract it by eating infected meat but we do have Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Which seems to be caused by similar things, the PrP protein converting into another variant of it. From PrPc (normal prion) to PrPres (infectious & resistant to proteases).[1] I think? But i've seen it refered to as different things like PrPsc.
The protein essentially just keeps replicating uncontrollably until it turns into a problem. In humans it seems to manifest mostly sporadicly (87% of cases in a study done in europe [2]), kind of like how cancer works. So to contract a prion disease you don't really need to be in contact with contaminated meat or surfaces, it does increases the chances of getting it, but your body can also just spontaniously decide to kill itself. As it always does, just worse than normal.
We don't have a cure for it yet but research is ongoing. Apparently with gene editing in mice?[3] but that only works for genetic cases, if it works. It's still progress though!
‘redditors need to know this’, ‘twitterinas need to know that’… no. you need to know one thing and that is that you are not allowed to complain about werewolf fuckers. this is the werewolf fucking website. grow up and go fuck a werewolf.
This is like someone just informed the newcomers about the devils sacrament taking place every full moon and the devil itself popped up asking “what sacrament?” with a cheshire grin.
mind palace that was formerly a palace until the ruling family was killed mercilessly for its crimes. and now it's the thinking woman's socialist republic.
I enjoy a joke about fucked up German fairy tales as much as the next nerd, but it's genuinely striking how often the source for the really fucked up stuff turns out to be "yeah, this is only in the Brothers Grimm version and doesn't appear in any extant oral tradition, and we're like 80% sure they added it themselves". To a large extent it's not German fairy tales that are fucked up, it's two specific German dudes.
i don't think i'll ever forget when the boys' PE teacher so casually prompted me to join the other lads. there were no bells and whistles or some big grand gesture making a massive deal. he tret me like he would any other young lad. school was rough for me (like with most queer kids), so moments like these really shine. cheers, sir 🫡
Did anyone else notice Simon turns his facial expressions "off" while he's talking to other people? But when he thinks he's alone, he's extremely expressive.
Look at his face when Ava can't see him. You can clearly see hope twisting into distrust and fear, looking behind him in paranoia. It's dark and he keeps shoving his whole body closer to the light of the porthole:
Compare that to when they are talking face-to-face, his eyes go almost completely dead, he's baring his teeth, the light in his eye is red instead of that sparkle we saw in the first photo:
Forced To Look Tough All The Time my beloved. </3
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