Sepsis: A New Heroine who Will Infect Your Mind

SUPERHERO

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EMILY SCHOMP

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WEEK 1THE SECRET ORIGIN OF COMIC BOOKS

THE RISE OF SUPERHEROES AND THEIR IMPACT ON POP CULTURE // SUPERHERO SKETCHPAD

WEEK 1CREATE YOUR SUPERHERO’S MYTHIC INSPIRATION

NAME OF GOD:

Kundalini

GENDER: Divine

feminine creative force

CULTURE OF ORIGIN:

India (Hindu)

PERSONALITY TRAITS:

Dormant inner power of

completeness, inner

peace, and union of the

spirit (intellect), heart

(balance), will (feeling),

and body (vehicle of

expression)

3

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

WEEK 1

RATIONALEMy super hero will be able to heal a victim's wholeness of being. By infiltrating both their biological and neurological systems she eradicate pathogens and toxins, heal tissues, enhances synapse, and alters neural pathways and consciousness to bring balance to the body and clear mind. She can stimulate systems to “shock” a person into action or even return them to life. She resets brain malfunctioning and restores neuro-endocrine imbalances.


WEEK 1CREATE YOUR SUPERHERO’S MYTHIC INSPIRATION

NAME OF GOD: Kali

GENDER: Female

CULTURE OF ORIGIN:

India (Hindu)

PERSONALITY TRAITS:

Ferocious goddess of

time and the

transformation of

death: paralyzes fear

of death and

ignorance, destroys

attachment to the

body and the ego,

promotes self-

awareness and

renunciation 4

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

WEEK 1

RATIONALEKali can create or remove fear of the unknown. My superhero will also be able to infiltrate the consciousness and subconciousness of the body's neural network to alter one’s emotions, transplant information, and evoke fear or calm. Both Kali and my hero will alter perceptions. My hero also rejects immortality against natural mechanisms of death and the universe. She believes that the spirit and our link with the natural progression of time and cycles must not be altercated by science. My hero would rather allow someone to die naturally than pervert the nature of their being.


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FIND A CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL INFLUENCE

WEEK 1

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:

LINK TO RELEVANT ARTICLE:Jisun, Miriam. “The Maitreya and the Cyborg: Connecting East and West for Enriching Transhumanist Philosophy.” Institute

for Ethics & Emerging Technologies. IEET. 20 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 May 2015.

Knapton, Sarah. “Humans 'will become God-like cyborgs within 200 years’.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 25 May 2015. Web. 28 May 2015.

Cyborgs and TranshumanismIn 200 years humans are predicted to fully merge with technology to become cyborgs, the “biggest evolution in biology.” We have been rapidly “evolving” to overcome disease, mortality, rapidly sharing and integration information, leading lives of luxury and pleasure. We’ll divine beings who can’t resist the urge to upgrade. Superior and inferior beings could emerge, and enhancements would be given to economically advantaged. (Knapton)

As cybernetic technology evolves will society be improved or degraded? Logical western enlightenment must be balanced with the eastern concept of spiritual enlightenment. Biological superior beings could serve destructive means if not guided by wisdom and the desire to seek truth and eliminate suffering. The ego must be deemphasized as it leads to “greed, desire, and ignorance.” Would eternal life be desirable in a corrupt, unfair, morally ambiguous society? Can society spiritually develop as fast as the technologically evolve to ensure a pro-social future? (Jisun)

The Validity of Spirituality/ Religion, and Universal Rights/ Purpose Modern theorists believe that humans used imagination and creative thought to create concepts of God, universal rights, ethics, afterlife, and conduct. “Fictitious” concepts of money, religion, and human rights were created to hold society together and ultimately make humans the dominant species. Higher level scientific and technological thinking remove “God crutches” technology is what will create a better society. (Knapton)

Transcendence of the spirit and rejection of earthly needs and desires toward universal truth, duty, and purpose is what guides altruistic behavior and fulfils the soul and spiritual dimension of a person. Are these concepts constructed or true manifestation of creation, life, and existence? Is death and natural evolution according to nature. Should we fear death and suffering as natural results of existence? Why need we concern ourselves with others welfare? What truly defines wellness and happiness? Should we seek to lik ourselves with a greater spirit? (Jisun)

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/leis20110920





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/11627386/Humans-will-become-God-like-cyborgs-within-200-years.html


CREATE YOUR SUPERHERO’S SUPERPOWERS

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IONIC, METABOLIC, AND SYNAPTIC MANIPULATION

WEEK 1

PSYCHIC LINK AND CONTROL

My hero is able to control the metabolic functioning of cells and tissue, as well as control the functioning of ions and membrane potential both on herself, and other organic matter. Thus my hero will have the ability to:• Heal herself and others• Heighten functioning of beings• Stimulate bodily responses whether it be causing feelings of pain

or pleasure, hallucinations, autoimmune response, system failure, paralysis, etc.

• Be aware of physiologic alterations, be empathic

My hero can share in the psychological experience of another. Establishing a psychic link is difficult, but once established my hero can retrieve and create memories, read minds, and alter dreams and perceptions. The effects are short lived, depending on how much the victim is under control of his or her own mind. Thus my hero could implant and retrieve memories from an unconscious victim much longer than she could establish a psychic link with someone fully conscious and far away who is trying to shut her out.


CREATE YOUR SUPERHERO’S SUPERPOWERS

7

LIMITED SCOPE AND PHYSICAL VUNERABILITY

WEEK 1

FEAR OF HER OF POWER AND ETHICS SURRONDING IT

My hero can only operate on one physical being at a time, so she will be almost unbeatable at one to one combat but useless facing hoard of beings. She also can only manipulate organic matter. Machines or inorganic matter is beyond her manipulation. Physically she is of average strength and can perform basic combat, but she must be stationary and completely focus her metal powers to wreak havoc on a body; during the process she’s vulnerable to be attacked.

Because she can heal, enhance or destroy living beings on a whim she grapples with the struggles of playing god. Should she preserve the lives of those she cares about? Alter physical appearances and the aging process? She has the power to heal anyone she chooses, but it goes against the natural process and fate. Also tapping into others’ psyche is invasion of privacy and alters other’s natural right to free will. If corrupted or threatened, she is a powerful weapon authorities could use. In personal relationships she feels alone as well as feels responsible for everyone and want to both protect and respect the wishes of ones she loves.

WEEK 2The Golden Age of SuperheroesWEEK 2The Golden Age of Superheroes


YOUR SUPERHERO BIOGRAPHY

9

WEEK 2

ORIGIN STORY

SEPSIS SUPERPOWERS AND WEAKNESSESIonic, metabolic, and synaptic manipulation: Healing, enhancing, and impairing tissue functioning. Disrupting sensory and neurological functioning. Detecting physiological changes. Only works on living / organic tissue. Physically vulnerable in combat. Ethical limitations on altering another’s physical form and controlling their fate. Psychic link and control: Psychic communication between herself and others. Reading and creating memories, retrieving subconscious information. Psychic link effectiveness varies based on victim factors. Ethical questions of autonomy and privacy. One night, neural psychiatry student Tamia Tripathi is up late running tests on Sol. 108, a compound Tamia’s research lab had acquired from NASA officials after meteorite fragments, glowing bluish black, had mysteriously altered their trajectory and hit surveillance equipment on the ISS. The scientists that had handled these specimen experienced rapid alterations in neuroendocrine functioning, lasting for several days. Tamia hopes to develop a treatment for her best friend Mesha, a severely depressed codeine addict, who’s also suffered abuse at the hands of her ex boyfriend. Believing that Sol. 108 could alter basic molecular bonding, Tamia hookes herself up to the fMRI machine and observes how dilute injections of the substance affect her cognition. Out of nowhere, the building’s foundation experiences a shock wave, causing Tamia to fall and knock several bottles of lab chemicals on the floor. Among the chemicals are radioactive isotope solutions, serums Tamia wass developing to regulated the levels of various hormones and neurotransmitters, chemicals that Tamia’s boss, Dr. Mitsuo Mashin, warned her to not handle, and Sol. 108. Tamia lands face first into the chemical cocktail and her eyes burn with pain before she passes out. Once unconscious, the Hindu goddess Kali the Destroyer appears to her. Kali bemoans how the earthly sphere has become embroiled in the suffering caused by of the bondages of the flesh and ego. She fear that humanity shall move to eliminate death altogether and thus never achieve Moksha. She plansto use Tamia as her earthly avatar and grant her with the abilities to eliminate suffering of the modern world’s collective consciousness which glorifies the body and earthly pleasure. Kali causes the Kundalini to be released from Tamia spine, uniting her body, heart, and spirit. She reveals that releasing others’ Kundalini is Tamia’s dharma, her sacred duty. Upon awakening, Tamia discovers that when she recites the Kali Matra: “Om Klim Kalika-Yei Namaha,” she is transformed into Sepsis, a being that manipulates the body and the consciousness, with the ultimate goal of bringing it to peace.


YOUR SUPERHERO’S ALTER EGO

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WEEK 2

OCCUPATION

TAMIA TRIPATHIPERSONALITY TRAITS

BACK STORYTamia was born by her mother Tapa, a female prostitute, at age 15. Tapa was able to fly to America from Uttar Pradesh after pawning the wedding ring of a client whom she stabbed in self defense after he beat her and threatened to attack Tamia. Arriving in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tapa is taken in by Asha, an RN at Mass General Hospital. Asha’s granddaughter Mesha, who’s mother died in childbirth, is Tamia’s age. The two girls become inseparable and grow up together like sisters. Tapa find work as a waitress for Mr Nico Cristiano at Feed the Soul, a nonprofit meal center and book exchange made by the those in need of a meal, that exchanges meals for art, stories, poems, etc. Tapa later dies , slowly and painfully , going blind and lame, from untreated syphilis because shefeared modern medicine. She tells Tamia that she needn't fear the natural process of death. It reunites the spirit and ends life’s cycle of suffering. Tamia is then raised by Asha and is motivated to persue medicine. She hopes to understand how to heal psychological and physical pain brought on by human behavior motivated by perversion. Asha develops early onset Alzheimer's, whereas Mesha is drawn into the drug culture. Tamia takes up Behavioral Neurology in hopes to develop cures for them. She also develops a close friendship with Nicolo Cristiano, Nico’s son. Nicolo is a hopeless romantic. He is a writer and musician who plays guitar left-handed after getting some of his left finger cut off by the mob.

Behavioral Neurology and Neural Psychiatry student granted full scholarship at MIT. Assistant to Dr. Mitsuo Mashin.

Thoughtful, empathetic, and meditative, Tamia cares deeply about the welfare of others and struggles to understand the meaningfulness of existence. Depressed and occasionally suicidal after the death of her mother, she seeks to provide care and comfort to the devalued and disadvantaged. She abhors superficiality, materialism, greed, and narrow-mindedness. She is hardworking and extremely cleaver. She earned her an MIT scholarship to fuel her curiosity into physiological roots of thought, feeling, and behavior. Deeply moral, she hopes to right ethical wrongs in societal structure and medical advancements in the ever-growing era of post humanism. She also is extremely awkward, klutzy, goofy, and prone to babbling. She enjoys art, books, spicy food, and instrument-based music. She cannot sit still or meditate.

WEEK 2The Golden Age of SuperheroesWEEK 3After The Golden Age


WEEK 1CREATE YOUR SUPERVILLAIN’S INSPIRATION

NAME : Borg, Cybermen, 6 Million Dollar Man, Bionic

Woman

GENDER: No Gender, sterilized, no need for

reproduction

NATIONALITY: Nationality removed, all made of the

same cybernetic race

PERSONALITY TRAITS: Rich enough to become

enhanced. Dependent on machinery for life source.

Individuality removed. Assimilate species by force.

Access to collective conscious controlled b leader.

Enhanced strength, speed, vison, knowledge, etc. All

needs taken care of. Cannot die, no desire for life and

uniqueness.

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KEY CHARACTERISTICS

WEEK 3

RATIONALEIf Sepsis is able to damage any sort of organic or cellular based being, it stand to reason that her greatest enemy must be mostly machine. Someone driven be greed to be upgraded, fear of death and life's inevitability, fear of vulnerability and imperfection, and desire to feed the ego, satisfying the needs of all while simultaneously allowing uniqueness to be squashed and subjection of the entire population to bring about order.


YOUR SUPERVILLAIN’S BIOGRAPHY

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WEEK 3

ORIGIN STORY

THE OPIODRON / DR. MITSUO MASHIN

SUPERPOWERS AND WEAKNESSESEnhanced cybernetic functioning: Super strength, enhanced vision (electromagnetic spectrum, night vision, instant data acquisition), speed, flight, laser, ability to transmit shockwaveControl of intelligence base, population media coercion and mass hypnosisArray of weaponry and genetically altered lab rats bite from rat causes pain and nightmarish hallucinations

Mitsuo Mashin was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, a disease that causes damage to the body’s peripheral nervous system, after contracting Lyme Disease as a boy when his humanitarian parents were providing medical care in Mozambique. The disease plagued his childhood with pain and strife at the mercy of his body: sharp cramps, twitching, uncontrolled sweating, vomiting, dizziness, bladder control, and most of all, constant, severe, burning pain. Blaming his parents’ lack of attention for allowing him to contract Lyme and progress to permanent damage because they were preoccupied with their malaria patients, Mashin cut off ties with them, and enrolled himself in boarding school back in the states. Believing that (1) no one could be depended on, (2) that little things could destroy our lives because humans were too fragile , and (3) that caring for others was a sign of weakness, he avowed that life is all about self-preservation and gratification and began searching for a way to render himself invulnerable. Extremely intelligent and charismatic, Mashin excelled in his neurology and biomechanical studies, though his constant pain caused him to become a frequent abuser of cannabis and opioids. He crafted a cybernetic body for himself, implanting his central nervous system into the machine. The suit also allowed for his body to receive constant stimulation of his brain’s pleasure centers. Believing an afterlife does not exist, this state of being was humanity’s best way of achieving “heaven.” Mashin wishes to use his government and corporate alliances to develop more cybernetic bodies for the world’s elite. Additionally, he plans to wipe out disease and social evils by killing the masses, who he believes suck away rescores and cause society problems. Mashin hopes to usher in a new utopia under his master control of the cyborgs. Unknowingly, the night he implanted his brain into the Opiodron, the shockwave was what triggered Tamia’s transformation into Sepsis.


WEEK 4The Silver Age


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WEEK 1CONSTRUCT YOUR STORY

BUILD UP

WEEK 4

CONFLICT

RESOLUTION

This episode opens to Tamia and Mesha meeting for breakfast at local diner. Mesha tells Tamia that withdrawal has caused her to experience cramps and vomiting and trouble sleeping the past couple of nights. She is determined to “get clean” however, so that she can be re-granted permission to visit Asha at the Alzheimer's care facility. Last time she was there she experienced an aggressive episode when Asha forgot who she was. Meanwhile, the local news is debating the character of a new street vigilante, Sepsis, in the background. Why she is not making public appearances to help cure the sick at the Boston hospitals? Tamia’s powers are still new to her, especially the psychic ones. She is overwhelmed by the diner’s stimulation, being psychically aware of the waitress's back pain, someone's heartburn, another’s chills, and still another’s changing heartbeat when he lies to his girlfriend about where he was the night before. Mesha accuses Tamia of shutting herself away from her for the past week. “Look at me!” Mesha commands, but when Tamia makes eye contact she acutely feels Mesha’s anger and uncontrollable cravings. Tamia runs out of the diner into a nearby ally. Burdened by the pain, she wants to help all her loved ones, but morally, she knows she must only intervene in emergencies, allowing nature and fee will govern people’s lives. Environments have become overstimulation. The guilt she feels watching people suffer has been taking it’s toll; she wonders if this is how the creator feels all the time, watching the children of earth . Suddenly, she gets a vision of the Opiodron breaking into a drug manufacturing plant in Billerica and she hurries to the site. Opiodron is in need of more drugs to power his cyborg skeletons. The Opiodron has already set his rats on the workers at the plant. They are writhing on the ground and screaming in pain. Tamia quickly chants, Om Klim Kalika-Yei Namaha, and transforms into Sepsis. She repairs their nervous systems' functioning and puts them in a state of peaceful sleep. Next she goes into the manufacturing room, rupturing the rat’s heats as they fall chase her trying to bite. Opiodron mocks her and tries to shoot at her, saying that he has killed a band of dirty children playing outside the factory. Sepsis repairs her tissue and causes a nearby plant to entrap him. Before he can break free, she grabs a nearby water cooler and with modified muscle strength she douses him with it. It renders him motionless, allowing her enough time to drag him outside and alert the authorities. Knowing that there is footage of Sepsis on the security cameras, she quickly destroy footage of her transformation and slips away before she’s discovered.

One of the officers who respons is in league with the Opiodron and helps him escape. The Opiodron promises him that he and others like him will be rewarded when “heaven arrives on earth,” when his cybernetic body can be reproduced on a massive scale. In the meantime, the brain implant that the Opidron gave him (hidden at the base of their skull) allows him and the other followers to pull up any data intelligence and follow Opiodron’s commands, as he programs them behavior procedures. Tamia comes across the corpses of the murdered children and becomes enraged that they were struck down in their innocence. Reinvigorated by revenge to destroy all those who threaten the innocent, she turns her attention to the newspaper, where she hopes to uncover who’s behind a child-slavery ring operating in the city. No longer will she merely fix the symptoms, but root out the causes of the city’s pain and suffering, and eradicate them.


YOUR SUPERVILLAIN’S BIOGRAPHY

16

WEEK 4

OPIODRON: Ah, so here’s the sneaky little gray voodoo snake! Did you enjoy my rats? You shall not thwart me again, I intend to obtain mind stimulants for my chosen people’s cybernetic deliverance! This compound has a massive supply of neuro-stimulating drugs I’ll use to fuel my angelically perfect bodies. No more, will the brilliant, riotous, responsible, and respectable people of this world be burdened and oppressed! I will offer them pure bliss! Superhuman functioning! Freedom from responsibly! From NEED!

SEPSIS: You offer them nothing but tyranny. You can’t cage people into a pre-programed bubble. You can’t take away their ability to make choices, make mistakes. We must have insight, wisdom, thrill, love, joy… the vary fabric of life! We feel pain in order to feel triumph, suffer in order to witness grace! Without death there’s no prerogative to live! So you and your people plan to wipe out the natural world and tickle your revolting pleasure sensors until the sun runs out? Well, I will not let you destroy the beautiful mystery of life and its complexities!

OPIODRON: Spare me your tirade, you mutated, hippy-dippy freak! What is it they you and your street pee-ons in your curry-muncher language? Untouchables? The fact is honey, you can’t stop me, because the entire world is becoming like me! Look around you, cybernetics are the next upgrade. Homo sapiens are old fashioned…get with the times! It’s all about the upgrade, baby! Sleeker, chic-er, cleaner, more efficient…I plan on wiping out all the dirty, broken, grimy, screw ups who are wasting my air, my pocket money, and my time. I’m done trying to find a world solution for poverty, crime, and sickness. Here’s the solution: WIPE THEM OUT AND MOVE ON!

SEPSIS: I know my powers can home in on you. You’ve become mostly machine. But I have a feeling I know a way to wipe YOU out. I’ll use one of earth’s most miraculous gifts, WATER!


WEEK 5The Age of Relevancy


WEEK 1FINALIZE YOUR SCENE: TAMIA’S TRANSFORMATION

18

WEEK 5

These people are writhing in pain, and

who knows what sort of danger material Mashin

is stealing! I have to trigger my nervous system to morph. I must invoke THE

DESTRYER!

Om Klim Kalika-Yei Namaha


WEEK 1FINALIZE YOUR SCENE: THE BATTLE

19

WEEK 5 It’s no use Sepsis! The body is weak, the common mind is a slave of greed, violence, and ignorance! There is no future except to destroy the filth of the world and upgrade!

Your fear of manipulation and your false gods will

be your undoing!

You’ve lost touch with you human nature,

Mashin…if there’s any part of Mashin left in

there! But you’re in the grips of Nature now!

For those like you there is not future…just like there was no future for the

street scum I killed outside!

How dare you, you demonic

teletubby! You’re nothing but a tin

shell of laboratory

lubricant! That “street scum” knows more

about life than you ever will!

We will hang on to every little good moment and have faith.

in a life of infinite

possibilities. Try to calculate

THAT!

Maybe you need to take the time to hydrate and

realize how short-circuited you really are!

ZAP!

BLOP!


WEEK 1FINALIZE YOUR SCENE: TAMIA’S VOW

20

WEEK 5

They were just playing, just walking down the street…he decided that their beautiful, young, virtually limitless

existences were not of value! No one can or should claim the power to calculate the outcomes and worth of another’s existence. We ourselves can't even fully

understand the meaning of our existence!

Gasp NO!

Up until now I’ve been afraid to use my powers, afraid to interfere in the

perception and wellbeing of others’

lives. I thought I had no right, no place in altering the very

substance of who we are so easily.But now…I realize that

interfering with my powers isn’t manipulative and unnatural…

the world we built for ourselves, this physical world is! This is a world where we

abuse , oppresses, demean and torment the lives of the

innocent, the suffering, the naive, and the fearful.

They need a savor. No one who crosses me will suffer if I have any say…I’ve been given the ability to save them! I am a

force of nature, THE DESTRYER! The vile body of humanity

doesn’t know it’s been infected…

SEPSIS has set in!

Entertainment & Humor

Sepsis: A New Heroine who Will Infect Your Mind