[Character Biography: Ashley Ashpaw]

Basic Information

First Name: Ashley

Last Name: Ashpaw

Employee ID: #75659066

Title: First Lieutenant, Nanotrasen Medical Corps

Gender: Female

Nicknames/Alias: Has also been called 'Ash', 'Ashpaw'

Picture: [File not found.]

Age/D.O.B: January 27, 2538

Place Of Birth: Tantalsi Island, North Atlantic Ocean, Terra

Species: Vulpkanin

Blood Type: AB+

Alignment: Neutral Good...with wobbles towards Lawful or Chaotic sometimes.

Affiliation: Registered civilian in the Trans-Solar Federation. Nanotrasen employee.

Religious Beliefs: Inherited a respect for 'Racht' as an understanding of a superior divine will suffusing the universe and living through it. As a matter of practice she tends to consider herself agnostic, uncertain that mortals can come to certainty one way or another about the divine. Has hope for an afterlife, but would admit that she isn't sure it's more than wishful speculation due to the lack of strong proof backing arguments for or against the metaphysical. Has expressed openness to the possibility that bluespace is a shadow of an immortal realm and needs more investigation.

 

Life History

Spoiler

Childhood:

Ashley was born on the artificial island Tantalsi in the northern Atlantic Ocean on Terra. This island largely operated as a research center for ongoing eco-revitalization studies and efforts in the early 26th century. Both her parents were employed here in the mid-to-late stages of the project, having been invited due to their experience as ecologists studying Altam and in the hope that any unclassified results could be sent back to help the dead homeworld of their kind.

As such she grew up around her parents' work and in a multiracial (though predominantly human) environment. She also grew up with strict cleanliness policies hanging over her head. The primary, largest city on the artificial landmass, Minora, was home to less than half a million souls - largely isolating her experience from the highly crowded cities extant for centuries or millennia on Terra's natural land.

She displayed a curiosity about the natural sciences and generally performed admirably in her primary education. However, at age 14 Ashley was at the center of an incident in her chemistry class. Her interest in the subject and subsequent boredom from the course's slow pace led her to work on her own initiative. She added carbon tetrachloride (a common firefighting compound) to a glycerol compound with phosphorous and potassium (which together burst into a smoky haze) and caused a panic when the foam spewed everywhere in the room.

It is worth noting that later on, during Ashley's somewhat prestigious if tumultuous employment, NT's Records Accuracy Division has accessed readily approached records of the event (such as news archives, the school's incident logs, and other data sources) and removed the records with the aim of removing a potential Syndicate influence vector against her.

After this incident, with the possibility of suspension in the air, her parents took up the responsibility of being her instructors. With the Terra eco-revitalization project nearing its completion, this became a mixture of onsite experience, self-directed study, and still some formal education. At the conclusion of her primary studies, she scored in the 97th percentile on standardized tests and would go on to the University of Minora for secondary education.

She speaks Canilzunt and Common fluently, having learned both from a young age. Though a Terran native, her grasp of Sol Common is only surface level enough to recognize it, having had minimal exposure and no education in it at home or in her schooling. When she had time in her teen years, she also picked up Tradeband for better communicating with occasional suppliers and guests visiting the island.

 

Adulthood:

Moving into her secondary education at the University of Minora, Ashley spent most of her time immersed in her own work and studies. She annually met the qualifications for the Board of Directives' scholarship, covering the majority of her collegiate expenses, and covered the remainder through work. Initially this work was in hydroponics to help supply the facility, and later taking part in pharmaceutical internships for work experience.

In her limited free time, she started researching other subjects and trying to keep up on a variety of topics at the frontiers of science - taking a special interest in bluespace and its presently inexplicable properties.

Ashley completed her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 2559 and her master's in organic chemistry in 2561. While an intern, she met Nanotrasen recruiter K. Din (#67290390) and signed on with the company to begin in July 2561.

She spent the next several months on the Nanotrasen Training Station Galakiir, earning internal certifications in emergency preparedness, horticulture, and xenobiology. As of March 2562, she has been a somewhat regular staff member on board the Nanotrasen Space Station Cyberiad and Nanotrasen Space Station Cerebron, both in Epsilon Eridani. In May 2562, Ashley was formally inducted into the Nanotrasen Medical Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant and pharmacological specialist.

While it would be inaccurate to say her time onboard has been uneventful, this section will not concern itself with the particulars of her on-station work. The vixen has distinguished herself as a chemist, with a number of mishaps that are within risk tolerances. She was recommended for promotion and received it in November 2563. As a 1st Lieutenant in the NTMC, she is qualified to serve as a vessel's Chief Medical Officer.

The stress of being a CMO for a number of months following led to health complications originating from severe anxiety, followed by an extended leave of absence.

The company diverted her expertise to a research position at Site TR-14, a blackout research facility on [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] system. She completed sufficient publishable research into retroviral engineering as to compose a thesis and be awarded a doctorate in late 2555. Many of the results, however, remain highly confidential company information and were not publishable, with Ms. Ashpaw sworn to secrecy under penalty of termination. While she complied in researching viral interspecies gene splicing and testing potential bioweapon agents on EOC subjects, this project appears to have severely strained her emotionally. She has been recommended for low-stress positions on the Cyberiad and been on repeated leaves of absence.

 

Family:

- Relatives:

Mother: Kestral Ashpaw

Father: Dk'mafh Ashpaw

Siblings: Fenrix Ashpaw, Zefan Ashpaw, Kenti Ashpaw. All younger.

No known descendants.

- Lineage: There is only sufficient data to establish one generation of biological history. Ashley's parents were both immigrants to the TSF, and neither SolGov nor the Assembly has an agreement in place with NT to share genealogical records - if they even exist for this family. Current company cross-comparison of employee DNA profiles is of limited utility for vulpkanin employees due to the population bottleneck the species experienced in recent centuries.

According to Ashley, 'Ashpaw' appears to be a constructed Common name legally taken by both her parents upon marriage for documentation purposes, their original Canilzunt family names having no equivalent that could be communicated practically.

- Family Relationships: She doesn't speak much about her family in her work context. Both Fenrix and Zefan are also Nanotrasen employees (hyperlinks pending) and she seems to maintain good relations with both as well as sending messages back home.

 

Detailed Information:

Spoiler

Appearance:

Ashley is somewhat tall for her kind at approximately 5'9"/1.75m. Due to an uncommon mutation (~15-20% of vulpkanin) her fur contains additional chemical markers that taken as a whole lead to unusual pigmentation. Presently most of her coat is a soft blue color with the exception of her hands and feet (or 'forepaws' and 'hindpaws', as she would usually call them). She wears her hair long, draped back below her shoulders, and has taken to dyeing it a gradient to a deeper blue.

Like other members of her family, her extremities are a light gray hue. Despite her ashy paws standing out against the rest of her coat, they're often concealed within medical gloves.

While her uniform depends on her present assignment, she most commonly wears a jumpskirt of the relevant rank and occupation with a yellow-blue armband on the left sleeve. More often than not she'll be wearing the orange-hemmed white uniform of a medical chemist beneath a lab coat, keeping a sterile mask on her person or on her muzzle.

She's rarely seen without a headset tucked against one ear and a pen light against the other. Further, it's actually a pretty rare occurrence to see her deep violet eyes exposed to the air - most of the time when on shift she insists on wearing similarly purple scanning goggles that help her pick out and analyze the contents of a container at a glance while not directly exposing her eyes.

Her lithe frame is often marked by twitchiness and snapping response to stimuli. Perhaps this is a marker of acute, alert senses. Perhaps it is a sign of paranoia. At the least, she is generally quite attentive when someone or something has her focus.

Perhaps one of the strangest components of Ashley's anatomy is found behind her, as she sports a pair of nearly identical tails. This is not a chance occurrence, but an alteration she actively sought recently through modern medical and genetic technology, and is fairly well integrated at this point. Both are more on the fuzzy side than those of some vulpkanin, though she tries to keep them respectably cleaned. This has repeatedly caused confusion to other Canilzunt speakers, but Ashley claims she has no regrets especially when the appendages serve as a source of comfort.

 

Personality:

So long as she is not overly stressed, Ashley tends to keep a level head and narrow focus on doing what she knows and doing it well. While polite and sometimes even cheerful around friends, there's always a certain level of tension in her demeanor - often focused first and primarily on herself. She holds herself to a high standard and her work is generally appreciated by those who know her, yet several of her less positive qualities flow from this high standard.

Her respect is difficult to earn and easy to lose. Those she does not respect she has few qualms insulting, whether to their faces or (more often) privately to coworkers or friends. She is also likely to snap at people or situations earning particular ire at a given moment.

Having high and firm expectations also has tended to make Ashley anxious when things don't go according to plan. She tries to hide the anxiety, such as by hiding her expression (goggles and sterile mask), but chronic fatigue, shaking paws, and a tendency to take even minor slights or inconveniences as personal affronts all speak to high-strung tendencies.

She is generally confident in her competence, having either the skills to back it up or the humility to admit a coworker knows more. In the latter case, she seeks to discover what's being done more effectively so she can improve - though if she can't find out, doubt of her own abilities starts to poison her thoughts. A desire to prove herself and let the results speak for her drives much of her skill, making her effective in the areas she knows well but potentially limiting her social outlets. While she's been encouraged to take steps to spend more time outside her lab, thoughts of the work she could be doing still follow her and it remains to be seen if she can reclaim a healthier work and social life.

 

Medical Record:

Spoiler

There are no noteworthy severe or chronic conditions recorded from her early life. The colorblindness common in many vulpkanin was treated in Ashley at an early age at her parents' discretion.

Ashley has sustained several workplace injuries over time, predominantly involving the compounds she works with as a medical chemist. When focused on her work and her methodology, she displays an alarmingly cavalier disregard for her personal safety. Specific workplace injuries include:

Spoiler

- Donating blood for use in Medical, either by itself or by integration into synthflesh tissue...and drawing so much of her own blood that she suffers exsanguination symptoms.

- Not wearing a provided gas mask due to displeasure with its tendency to become hot and the difficulty fitting it over her muzzle...which on occasion has led to inhalation of toxic fumes.

- Ashley has been rescued from fires or pressure vacuums in the chemistry lab on occasion. She recognizes that certain volatile materials are needed for her work but stresses that they need better containment mechanisms than "storing two liquid bombs in the lab walls".

She has also occasionally been the victim of specific threats to the station. Unless stated otherwise, she doesn't clearly remember these.

Spoiler

- Early in her career, when xenomorph entities were more common in this region of space, she was infected by one but returned to Medical otherwise unharmed. The surgeons were indisposed at the time; she was placed into a cryotube in the hope of sustaining her vital processes while slowing the parasitic organism within. Due to the evacuation shuttle being already en route, she was left in the cryotube while vital supplies were carried out...and then she was left behind, by intent or accident. The healing properties of the cryotube kept her alive while a waking xenomorph larva tore at her insides, unsuccessful at continuing its lifecycle. Ashley was recovered by the cleanup response crew sent to the station and promptly freed from the parasite, but does not appear to recall the experience aside from occasional flareups of stomach pain.

- Abductors have visited the Cyberiad on occasion. Ashley has been captured at least twice, not that she is capable of recalling these abductions. The first one claimed her original heart, while the second claimed her cybernetic replacement. She is presently on her third heart, also cybernetic, which has led to other repeat injuries when in proximity to electromagnetic shocks or pulses. References to abductors or questions of how she ended up with a cybernetic heart appear to cause sharp reactions of panic and adrenaline in Ashley though she cannot place why. Per psychological review and recommendation, other medical staff are not to discuss the specifics of this medical history with her. Exception is made if an NT-licensed psychologist is needed to calm her down.

- One of Ashley's longest-term fears is related to the understandably horrifying creatures known colloquially as terror spiders. She was narrowly rescued from one once, including an emergency surgery to remove implanted eggs. Subliminal therapy and hypnopedia have worked with the mental haziness of shock she physically underwent and convinced her that this experience was a dream - but the deep-seated fear lingers.

- In more recent history, she was assigned to the NSS Cerebron for a time in an effort to remove her from trauma she'd been exposed to on the Cyberiad. During a sudden meteor shower while she was on-site, her lab was directly impacted with her in it. While Ashley was not directly hit, volatile materials in the lab combusted immediately after followed by the room rapidly beginning to decompress. She moved quickly to flee the room with what strength she had - and was very shaken, but survived. The incident is still fresh in her memory.

Psychological scars and chronic anxiety flare up in response to substantial stress, producing physiological responses in her such as unsteadiness, muscle cramping, and phantom pain. Mentally, she may disconnect and disassociate from reality under severe personal stress, becoming unfocused and unresponsive.

Small stresses may help her remain focused, but a long-term plan for behavioral therapy or medication to keep her sedate enough to function without breaking in the face of danger has not yet been decided. There are unfortunately few NT psychologists with sufficient clearance for her to be completely open with. In the meantime, it's a fine edge that she's walking - she tends to work quite competently, but can eventually just break under sufficient pressure as it mounts on top of her high expectations for herself.

While Ashley has never cared for smoking to deal with stress - in fact, she can barely stand the scent - alcohol has been a much more attractive option for her. To date she's passed out from drinking too much on station on two occasions, and though she's sustained no permanent liver damage she is considered to be at risk for alcoholism.

Though she is not known for regular cosmetic surgeries, the mixture of genetic engineering, neural repathing, and surgical procedure needed to graft her second tail was rather extensive. She has reported no complications thus far. Due to the level of alteration, potential complications very well may begin manifesting eventually.

Finally, Ashley has been the recipient of the Nanotrasen Medical Corps' second highest award, the Cryostar, on three separate occasions to recognize her devotion to duty, dedication, and high degree of skill. The validation seems to have cheered her significantly, though she remains in Class 2 quarterly psychological monitoring for further unhealthy obsessive work habits.

 

Security Record

Spoiler

At least six unauthorized explosions in the chemistry lab have been positively attributed to Ashley, all of which she claimed were accidents. These incidents have dropped off in more recent times and may be attributable to growth in experience.

While cross-disciplinary skills are normal and encouraged by NT, it is worth noting that Ashley has displayed proficiency with and interest in pyrotechnics. Though she has no known experience with the on-station toxins lab, she still is practiced in the creation of improvised explosives. These have not to date contained any harmful chemicals or caused notable station damage.

Displays paranoid behaviors, ranging from mild to severe. Prone to snapping at peers (predominantly fellow chemists) for opening restricted airlocks without promptly shutting them. Has a history of filing complaints against clowns and visitors who barged into the lab through unclosed doors. Leans towards mistrusting requests for chemicals that she doesn't already know are useful for the job of the requestor. Lastly on the topic of paranoia, has barricaded herself in the lab and hid in complete stillness on past occasions, especially in proximity to announcements of Level 5 or Level 3 biohazards.

On the positive side of skepticism, she is disinclined to create or hand out suspicious chemicals. Frequently Ash demands proof of prescription or CMO approval before dispensing anything falling outside the narrow range of occupation-related chemicals of which she is aware. Additionally, she has no history of creating narcotics or toxins as anything other than precursors unless duly requested and approved. Allegedly she considers the reputation of both classes of compounds as beneath her professional standards.

Ashley has had concerning contact with enemies of the corporation. Early in her medical career, while still learning related work skills, she surgically healed the wounds of a member of the Wizard Federation. Her claim afterwards was that she had no idea she was treating an EoC but simply fulfilling her duties as a medical professional. Even if her motivation for this incident is truly innocent, she has displayed undue sympathies for the Federation.

She does not appear to harbor any particular affection for the Syndicate, but her contact with its agents has occasionally eroded her respect for the company. One incident of particular note was when she was partnered with a Syndicate agent named [EXPUNGED] to run the chem lab. The two spent the shift talking and working together, but the human chemist eventually admitted to her that there was a lot hanging over his head but he didn't think he could go through with his assassination orders. Taking his own route out, he drew a firearm and took his own life in front of Ashley.

She was badly shaken by the experience - while she despises the Syndicate as an organization, this humanized its individual agents in her perception and she has not responded positively to company education efforts to the contrary. More recent comments suggest that she doesn't care for the role both the Syndicate and Nanotrasen play in "toying with people's lives". Currently she is on our Syndicate Risk Watchlist under the classification Medium Concern.

 

Personal Relationships

Spoiler

Romantically Involved | Romantic Interest | Admire | Respected | Close Friend | Good Friend | Friend | Acquaintance | Neutral/Unsure | Dislike | Hate | Despise | Death Wish | Fear

Schrodinger - <translated from Canilzunt> "We are kin. Not that we can point to a shared lineage, but we are of the same people and share a close bond."

Peyton Berkmiller - "Peyton is generally a joy to talk to and have around. She owes me a drink and a bottle broken over her head, though."

Kincaid Reynard - "She always seems so carefree. I guess you can get away with that when you're just visiting. Always feel like I'm getting just a glimpse of a massive social circle when I see her."

To Sleep Beneath Nightfall - "SBN and I have a good working relationship. We don't have to say anything - which is good since he can't - but I know what he needs and he knows what I need."

Chikitita - "Reasonably competent nurse. I still can't fathom what the whole 'two rum bottles of soy latte' thing is about, but maybe it's just because I don't like either one all that much and it's just a matter of taste."

N'Tari Ianni - "First time I saw her, I thought I was seeing a chain smoking, half-drunk, foul-mouthed feline who had no right to be on staff. On Medical staff no less. Nowadays, I still see a chain smoking, half-drunk, foul-mouthed feline but at least I can recognize her competence and she can recognize mine. However, I cannot in good faith recommend her as a CMO."

Berf Akmin - "Nice enough guy who I helped teach. He really needs to close the lab door behind him though."

Tihihi - "A cargo vox I met once when stationed as a virologist. Invited me to spend time with some cargo friends to just take a breather once my work was in a lull. It was a good experience, and we've met again since then."

Tuin Dashru - "Met through Tihihi, he's another cargonian who also helped me slow down. I don't know, there's just something calming about those two."

Mahjun Hrar - "Met in conjunction with Tihihi and Tuin. Knows plants reasonably well. Pretty well-spoken, though maybe a touch subversive."

Aleister Burnwood - "Probably the fastest chemist I know, and honestly I'm a little jealous. But I'm also a little annoyed. Not only do I not like being shown up, but there's no soul in how he does things. Stuff goes flying everywhere and the chems get made at the end of the day...but I've barely ever heard him speak, and every time I see him he makes a bunch of stuff before a quarter of the shift's gone by and then he runs off, never to return."

Jazzy - "I helped teach her about the chem lab too. Seems a little excitable, but she knows when to pull her claws out and she's covered for me a couple times."

Orrim, Healer of Clan Krzzk - "The handsome Kidan rogue who helped me remember that I don't know everything while being charming enough to not tick me off in the process. A real gem."

Scumzo - "I wouldn't call Scumzo a close friend, but definitely has more respect from me than most clowns. Mixes comedy with enough common sense to actually benefit the station. We still need to finish a game of...what was it called? Not 'Grob', but something like that."

Seneca Whitetail - "Seneca is...uh...it's complicated, okay? At least, she's one of the few friends I've had a chance to visit on her homeworld."

Canis Lupus - "Definitely has the air of knowing what he's doing. More of a friend of my brother's, though."

James Auchwulf - "I don't know. I get that not everyone speaks Common perfectly, even some of my closest friends don't, but with James it's always felt like it was more...awkward, if that makes sense. Very recognizable name, if for no other reason than its owner using it in third-person."

Kslozsoh Szeki - "When he's on your side, everything's great. But I swear that 90% of the time he's up to something sketchy. Though I hear he's left Epsilon Eridani for uncharted space, so I wish him good luck."

(Unknown) - "I'm not always good with names. Though that one time that there were two vox on board almost everyone (including me) called 'Chiki' and all the other vox said I was rude for confusing the two of them when I heard one perished and had no other details. I agree, the death was tragic, but also I feel like the confusion wasn't entirely unfounded."

{If I missed anyone who's had ongoing interaction with Ashley, feel free to tell me. Memory isn't always the strongest.}

 

Faction Relations:

Spoiler

Allied | Love | Like | Neutral | Dislike | Hate | Enemy

Nanotrasen - "Is this on the record? Are you sure it's not? Well...the pay and benefits are some of the best in the field, but there are terrible truths behind NT doors that I can only hope and drink to forget. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better off working planetside for a research corp, but the cynic in me says it wouldn't be better."

The Syndicate - "Not so different from my employers, just less official legitimacy. At least it's better about not favoring humans so much. Most contact I've had with them involves agents for whom the Syndicate has something hanging over their heads...which is virtually identical to how NT keeps its own secrets. The people, by and large, aren't bad people. For the organization, the water is muddier. I've known a lot of good people get hurt because of NT-Syndicate relations, and I'm pretty sure both sides are at least partly at fault but individuals far below the decisionmakers of either pay the price of the conflict."

Trans-Solar Federation - "Terra is home, at least when I'm not on NT vessels, but I always get mixed signals when it comes to belonging. Zefan is the only member of my family who's technically a citizen. And it's not like people are vocally rude about it or anything, but it almost feels like I have more of a stake in NT. ...that's a scary thought."

Union of Soviet Socialist Planets - "I have good friends from worlds either in or aligned with the USSP. The bloody history is regrettable and they sound pretty disorganized, but I don't begrudge them doing their own thing. Sure, they splintered from SolGov, but I always saw it as more of a human versus human conflict."

Elysium Republic - "A bunch of idiots. If we're lucky they'll take their purity movement too seriously and die of inbreeding before they can actually cause problems. If they don't just die off, they will cause problems eventually."

The Assembly - "All the respect for those of my kin trying to make the best of a bad situation. Terra got better, so I think the homeworlds eventually will too. Being that the TSF is...how it is, when it comes to residency versus citizenship, I've been contemplating applying for provisional citizenship back in Vazzend. Just need to make the time to actually make the trip and visit."

Wizard Federation - "Yes, I know, bluespace is said to contain untold horrors. I'm not trying to downplay that. But it can also be used for so much good. It's like the principles of fission and fusion in chemistry and physics - can be used for either virtually limitless energy or for mass destruction. All I'm saying is, the line's not so distinct between experimental technology and magic, and these guys have a better understanding than we do even if they use gestures and funny-sounding words to make it work. Isn't that worth something?"

 

Other Information:

{Reserved for future use!}

[Chemistry Tips]

Hello!

This guide assumes you already have a fair grasp on the Guide to Chemistry provided at the wiki.
Here I mostly aim to share things that maybe aren't as common knowledge, tools of the trade that I've learned from and handed on to other chemists.

These might range from simple steps to more complex ones, but center around a theme that came up in a Discord discussion I had recently:
Most of chemistry is about taking shortcuts.

I'll be mostly coming from a MedChem perspective since that's what I tend to play, but I am quite well aware that I don't know everything. I'll try to make this list approachable for relatively new chemists. Suggestions to add to the list are welcome as long as they are working, general-purpose advice for chemistry that's not immediately apparent.

 

So, let's begin.

1) Buckets are your friends.
You start with two sizes of beakers. Small ones hold 50u, large ones hold 100u. You can essentially print small beakers by bottling and dumping liquids from the ChemMaster, while large ones are a little limited in supply among your roundstart equipment. However, from the start of the round you can get access to buckets, 120u containers, with a little bit of legwork or a little bit of luck. If Botany comes to you asking for unstable mutagen, you may be able to swing a deal for one of their starting buckets as compensation for helping. Otherwise you'll have to leave the lab for a bit and go hunting for supplies.

Your closest option is normally to go ask Cargo to print you some buckets from their autolathe. (Four is a good number, for reasons we'll get to in a bit.) If for some reason Cargo can't or won't do that, in a pinch you can walk a little further to the Garden near Arrivals and steal borrow the two buckets from there, though that deprives any would-be gardeners of their tools to water plants.

Why buckets? It's partly due to the expanded capacity being good in general, but also because the specific capacity of buckets makes the chemistry math work out nicer. The highest number of reagents to a chemical reaction I know about (Sarin) takes 8 reagents, and medicines use no more than 6 (Pentetic Acid, Epinephrine). In brief, 50u and 100u containers both divide evenly into 2, 5, and 10 - which means that you can use the full capacity of the container for any chemical recipe with 2, 5, or 10 reagents (or 'parts', for recipes where it's not an even amount of each). 100u containers also divide by 4 and 20, though making or measuring exactly the corresponding 25 or 5 units is often not convenient except for pure chemicals. If the recipe calls for a different number and combination of reagents that don't divide nicely, you're wasting some of the volume in the container by not utilizing it.

120u containers, on the other hand, divide evenly into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 20. (20 is the largest number of required parts in a single reaction, Soapification.) Therefore, you can use the bucket's entire volume for recipes that use any of those numbers of parts. Almost every recipe listed in the Chemistry guide falls under this umbrella, meaning that if you want to complete a recipe in a single container and get the most you can out of it, the bucket is handily superior to beakers for most use cases.

2) Bulk chemical mixing with multiple containers.
Alternatively, let's say you want to make large quantities of a particular chemical as rapidly as possible. One solution is to have four equally-sized containers. (This is why I recommend four buckets, above.) Set three of them on the ground or a table nearby where you can reach them easily; these are now your mixing containers. The remaining one becomes your working container.

Now, you dispense or mix one chemical at a time in your working container. Evenly pour it into two or all three of your mixing containers depending on the recipe. If you fill the mixing containers completely and successfully mix all of them, then congratulations! You've roughly doubled or tripled your production with very little added effort!

(Note: This will burn out unupgraded chem dispensers very rapidly.)

3) Simple machinery knowledge can make the chem lab better.
Let's say that your chemical dispenser hasn't been upgraded and you've run out of machine charge despite a greenlit APC, or your use of buckets leads to an annoying situation where you constantly have 20 units that don't fit in the ChemMaster's buffer.

With a little bit of elbow grease and some supplies, you can resolve both of these problems!

You will need:
- 1x Screwdriver
- 1x Crowbar
- 1x 100u container (e.g., large beaker) [optional; improve ChemMaster]
- 1x High-Capacity Power Cell [optional; improve Chem Dispenser]

The first two you can more than likely find within your department (Science has toolboxes and tools scattered around, Medical has a screwdriver in the break room and crowbars in the oxygen cabinets in the lobby) - though please do put them back when you're done so they're not just missing. Failing that, Cargo can print these and other standard tools in the autolathe. Next, you'll almost certainly have a spare 100u container at hand near the chemistry setup, especially if you upgraded to buckets. (If not you can make one, more on that later.)

For the power cell, go check with R&D. More than likely they'll have the capability to make it, as the requirements to do so are not a high bar to meet. If you can't get it for whatever reason, don't worry - the purpose of the cell is to help refill the dispenser, and taking the time to visit R&D has let it recharge at least a little so long as the power's on.

Once you have the tools and relevant components, head back to the lab. If you're not familiar with how machines are constructed, don't worry about it - I won't go into detail here beyond what's necessary to this explanation. Using the screwdriver then the crowbar on the ChemMaster will disassemble the machine into its components: a machine frame with some wires, a circuit board, a micro-manipulator, a sheet of glass, and two small beakers. Starting with the circuit board, add all these pieces back to the machine frame except for one of the small beakers. Replace this with your 100u container of choice. Once everything has been added back in, use the screwdriver on the frame again to reassemble the machine. If you did this correctly, your ChemMaster's buffer is now 150 units, more than enough to buffer an entire bucket and enough to buffer half a bluespace beaker! It's possible to use any two fluid containers in this process, but one small beaker and one large beaker tend to suffice.

The process is similar for the chem dispenser, but the components are the machine frame, the circuit board, two matter bins, one capacitor, one micro-manipulator, one glass, and one high-capacity power cell. Swapping the power cell with a fresh one and reassembling the machine can let you keep on using the dispenser rather than waiting on potentially slow recharge times. This is usually less of an issue since if mining and R&D are on top of things the machines will eventually be upgraded, but if you're just racing through the machine's onboard charge then replacing the battery is the easiest do-it-yourself method to get a full charge back.

4) Fire makes things hot. Who knew?
Aside from blowing up the chemistry lab (please don't), fire has a place in chemical mixing. You could use the provided heater, and if you want to I certainly won't fault you since you can let things heat while working on other matters. Alternatively, you can bring along a lighter. These can be found in vendors around the station, but consider adding it to your roundstart loadout. An active lighter, applied to a container, heats up the container and its contents. This heating can be done as fast as you can click and rapidly reach the necessary temperature for most reactions.

5) Making your own containers with chemistry.
The reaction for plastic polymers makes several plastic sheets! These can be crafted into large plastic bottles to make additional 100u containers for whatever uses you might require. One of my favorites is making replacement containers for the cryotubes when I get around to making a chemical mix for them.

Do everyone a favor and get the ash you need to make the plastic from burning paper rather than trying to boil oil. It doesn't require much ash and your life expectancy is higher with the paper option. Also, it's another reason to bring a lighter.

6) Automation allows processes to run in parallel.
Certain tools at your disposal can be set up to run without further input from you. Two in particular are the chemical heaters and IV bags. While waiting on a container to heat to reaction temperature (if you're using the heaters and not a lighter), work on something else! You should have multiple beakers or buckets at your disposal, and time that your chem dispenser is fully charged is time wasted because it's not refilling while you do something useful.

IV bags set to draw blood, predominantly useful for biomass (in cloning) and synthflesh (for medicines) are very much fire-and-forget processes. 200 units, the capacity of an IV bag, is roughly 36% of the blood in an organism...if you're willing and able to be a donor, you can set the bag to draw, stick it in your arm, and carry it around in your pocket until it fills. If using an animal, grab a chair and buckle it in so it doesn't wander off from the bag. When you're not drawing blood from yourself or a lab animal, giving the donor iron and saline-glucose solution allows the blood to passively replenish. (Side note, try to let those two reagents metabolize before drawing blood again, otherwise iron and saline-glucose end up in the IV.) Both of these take very little manual work for a regular quantity of blood.

In cloning specifically, filling an IV most of the way with cryoxadone and getting a lab animal from Genetics is a quick roundstart task that pays dividends into the future. Pull one of the body bags from the table in Cloning, place the animal inside, draw blood into the mostly-cryoxadone IV bag, and zip both the IV and the animal into the body bag next to the cloning pod. This setup will produce synthmeat biomass for the cloner while effectively taking up no space since the closed body bag doesn't collide with passerby.

 

More to be added!

Credits for Additional Tips

Thanks to the chemists who've helped teach me these, though I've forgotten many of the names since I was away for a while.
Thanks to Woj recently for pointing out #2 to me.

 

 

Thank you for reading! I hope this has been helpful.

[fears that barely anyone else relates to]

I don't really handle dogs well. The story, as far as I know, is that at some point when I was younger than I can distinctly remember I got bowled over by a large and very excitable one. I can't personally verify that, but I do know that when most people hear that I'm afraid of dogs they either look at me strangely or tell me to put up with it. Doesn't really help matters that several family members also have large and easily excitable canines.

Yes, I play a Vulpkanin. Moreso as a fox. ...I'm not a hypocrite!

[Pursuing Perfect Pharmacology]

I know that MedChem, close to my heart, generally isn't the most exciting job on board, but I find enjoyment in trying to optimize my work. Figured I'd start a chronicle here of noteworthy occasions in my efforts towards going from relatively unknown around the server to legendary chemist robust veteran in the lab.

 

At round start, I found that I was Chemist 2 (at least, for convenience that's what I'll call the one who spawns outside the lab), which was a bit disappointing as I prefer the 'southern' workstation which Chemist 1 starts at. When I arrived, my partner didn't seem to be doing much, took a while to respond in talking, and only walked slowly. I figured that SSD might be on the horizon, but he left the lab less than ten minutes in and I didn't see or hear from him again. I was trying to avoid stepping on his toes even while starting to handle the set of medicines I usually stock and handle requests at both desks (Botany, Virology, the rest of Medical). Word of a meth lab being run in SciChem was trickling over comms along with news of narcotics pills being left on the floor in several areas for those foolish enough to take them. Patients started trickling in before long. I was asked to analyze a recovered pill (learning about the handheld chemical analyzer in the process) and found that it contained five narcotics and toxic compounds, then disposed of it by grinding down and voiding the individual components. Other than trying to deal with a spike of overdoses, it seemed like it would be a usual day of making medicine.

While making a trip to Cargo, once I'd made most of the general-purpose medicines I usually make a few of before obtaining a bucket, I heard about a gateway exploration which involved spiders and venom and in general hadn't been going so well. I had to make a second trip almost immediately after getting back to the lab for strange reagent components, but once the reagent was made I realized that something might be needed to clean out narcotics and possibly also venom from patients' systems. I started making calomel, which is intended to rapidly purge all other chemicals. Just after I turned on the heater to finish the recipe a doctor came by and said that antivenom was needed urgently. Since the calomel finished during our dialogue I was able to hand it off almost immediately. A minute or two later the same doctor returned and credited me with saving the patient's life by my forethought; this was the first moment of feeling like I'd done something awesome during the round.

Once that particular incident had settled (I did have to chase after someone dragging the unconscious detective to the cryotubes, who was also suffering from more than 50u of venom) I settled into my usual work in Chemistry. I made backlogs of usual medicines and occasionally dealt with requests from both the front desk and the rest of the department, getting to run my show solo. At about forty minutes in, I thought about how much synthflesh I should backlog. For reference, my method regarding synthflesh is to make 20u patches en masse, ignoring styptic powder (brute damage) and silver sulfadiazine (burn) since synthflesh heals both with little efficiency lost (though I'll make civilian-grade patches for the public fridge if medical expects an overflow of patients). In the past, I've gotten up to 50 of my 20u synthflesh patches and called it good, since the odds of that many being used in the remainder of the round is fairly slim. Further, making them from my own blood was generally a nuisance though one I accepted as efficient enough.

Today would be different. This round, I decided to also improve on my practical abilities by trying the blood-collecting capabilities of an IV drip and a monkey (the geneticist handed me a farwa cube, but I just shrugged and called it good enough). I had seen chemistry partners do this before, including a few whose abilities I admired. The simplicity of setting up the blood draw surprised me. The efficacy of this method surprised me more. Knowing that I would have a intermittent reliable source of blood so long as I kept the farwa supplied with iron and saline-glucose, I set out to make more synthflesh than I originally intended. The process was very much a grind, probably one I wouldn't carry out again. However, since I had relatively few distractions (a few bottles to botany, a few to virology, eventually a request for 'milk patches' in an apparent quest to reanimate a skeleton) and two chemical dispensers, I set out to work at this self-imposed challenge. I ran both chemical dispensers dry, eventually having little choice but to take a break. It was a good opportunity to get hot chocolate, considering that 70 minutes into the round I had made one trip to cargo (buckets, radio), one trip to the bar (wine for strange reagent), grabbed an IV and morphine (for hydrocodone) from medical, and spent the rest of the time in the lab starving while pursuing this project in a maddened frenzy of overachieving.

Somehow I managed to find time to make oculine for a fellow Vulpkanin who had apparently been blinded as an eventual result of eating the narcotics pills earlier. As other chemists reading this are probably aware, oculine is relatively involved to manufacture and its components do have to be mixed in a certain order to prevent incorrect compounds from forming. I also watched the doctor who'd asked for milk patches go by a few times with a corpse. While I wouldn't say that he had a true skeleton, the corpse he was trying to bring back certainly was pretty nearly stripped to the bone from all the damage taken. To my chagrin, that doctor ended up using around 20 of my precious synthflesh patches in an effort to restore the body. (Amazingly, eventually he did succeed with strange reagent.) I know that our dear paramedic also picked up a number of patches; in total I'm going to estimate that another 20 patches were used for general medical purposes during the round.

Why do I tell all this? Well, my initial goal was to exceed the 'high bar' of 50 synthflesh patches I would usually make. Perhaps I'd even shoot for over 100 if I didn't get too distracted. I reached a hundred somewhere around 80 minutes in and my mania grew even while handling the other requests I've mentioned above. My friend Cath, frequent virologist but this shift's bartender, came through medical around 100 minutes in (I was providing her with certain drink components) and I showed her the fridge, telling her to make special note of the 150+ patches in the first slot. She told me I was mad; I told her that I was brilliant. I was hoping to scrape 200 patches before the inevitable crew transfer shuttle call at 120 minutes, but the skeleton doctor kept using them. Still, by pushing ahead with both the farwa's blood and my own, I eventually got where I wanted to be by the time I unbolted the medical fridge from the floor and dragged it to the shuttle. This is the top of the fridge menu at the end of the round:

The moral of this story is that with an IV blood draw on a small creature, the resources of an entire chemistry lab, and a manic desire to overachieve hard work ethic it is very possible to make around 5000u of synthflesh (including the patches that were used up) while still carrying on normal chemist duties and saving someone's life by listening closely to comms.

Why would you do this? Unless you're slightly deranged when it comes to self-imposed challenge like me, I have no idea. Also, if you're still reading this, thanks for sitting through my narration.

Peace!

[Crew Record: Ashpaw, Ashley (#75659066)]

Nanotrasen Employee ID: #75659066
Name: Ashley Ashpaw

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Race: Vulpkanin

Blood Type: AB+

General Occupational Role(s):

Medical Supplier/Chemist, high candidacy match
Malady Manager/Virologist, high candidacy match
Floral Caretaker/Botanist, moderate candidacy match
Slime Rancher/Xenobiologist, moderate candidacy match
Queen of Medbay/Chief Medical Officer, moderate candidacy match
Genome Tinkerer/Geneticist, low candidacy match
Underpaid Practitioner/Medical Doctor, low candidacy match

 

Biography:

Much of the following is derived from Ms. Ashpaw's own narration.

Born Ashley Lys Ashpaw to Kestrel and Dk'mafh 'Ashpaw' on January 27, 2538, a second-generation Terran (first generation Terran-born) Vulpkanin. She grew up nearby on the artificial island Tantalsi in the north Atlantic, not far from the island capital Minora. Though she knew faces from many different races from a young age, her sense of a 'big city' came from Minora, which taken together with the rest of the population of Tantalsi barely exceeded half a million. Also from a young age she observed her parents, both involved in ecological sciences as advisors in Earth's revitalization project, and displayed a curiosity about the various natural sciences.

Ashley was taught by her parents starting at age 14 [Clearance: CentComm] after her boredom in a chemistry class lab started a panic over a jury-rigged incendiary container of firefighting foam and smoke powder. The incident has since been removed from local public record. Though her interests didn't exactly follow their broad ecological scope, she went on to shine in a variety of local academic events and later completed a master's degree in Organic Chemistry. Her thesis, 'Comparison of Thermodynamic Properties of Sapient Derived Hair and Fur', is publicly available via the University of Minora. Shortly before degree completion she met with Nanotrasen Recruiter K. Din (#67290390) and signed on to begin after completing her studies.

Departing from Earth for the Nanotrasen Training Station Galakiir, she left her parents, two younger brothers (Fenrix & Zefan), one younger sister (Kenti), and few but close friends. In her months at Galakiir, she completed a number of certification courses. [Clearance: Security] She was also warned after using hydroponics materials to grow and distribute glowing watermelons and tomato smoke bombs. In the time since, she has been assigned to various duties aboard the NSS Cyberiad.

During breaks in her employment, Ashley has been furthering her academic pursuits. She expects to begin the review process for her doctoral thesis sometime in 2564, pursuing NT-funded research into retroviral engineering. [Clearance: CentComm] Cut from the publicly reviewed and available part of this thesis are her notes on viral interspecies gene splicing and bioweapon research. This research was conducted at the behest of her superiors, taking place at Site TR-14 with experimentation carried out upon captured EOCs. It should be noted that while Ms. Ashpaw complied and remains loyal, this appears to have severely strained her emotionally. More thorough investigation of her loyalties is recommended. In light of her efforts, competence, and hopefully upcoming doctorate, she was promoted to First Lieutenant in the NT Medical Corps in late 2563. Though this title is often only honorary, it recognizes her regular qualification to serve as Chief Medical Officer or stand in for the position, whereas she only held the position provisionally in the past.

 

Awarded Qualifications:

- Board of Directives' Scholarship, University of Minora (awarded annually, 2555-2561)
- Master's Degree, Organic Chemistry (University of Minora, Terra/Earth, Class of 2561)
- Cleanest Employee of the Month (NT Training Station Galakiir, July 2561)
- Nanotrasen Emergency Preparedness Certification (NTS Galakiir, August 2561)
- Nanotrasen Horticulture Certification (NTS Galakiir, November 2561)
- Nanotrasen Xenobiology Certification (NTS Galakiir, February 2562)
- Rank #1 in Nanotrasen Employment Diversity Training out of all Employees with ID #75659066
- 2nd Lieutenant, Nanotrasen Medical Corps (NSS Cyberiad, May 2562)
- 1st Lieutenant, Nanotrasen Medical Corps (NSS Cyberiad, November 2563)
- Cryostar Medal, Nanotrasen Medical Corps (NSS Cyberiad, April 2566)

 

Observed Qualifications:

- Capacity to memorize information
- Capacity to home in on relevant information across wide communication traffic
- Respect for departmental authority
- Gracious to those she asks something from
- Display of forethought
- Paranoia(?)
- Moderately responsible
- Allergic to failure (qualification pending further testing)
- Positive attitude
- Displays more focus in roles which require reduced sapient interaction
- Competent instructor for new or recently reassigned employees

 

Employment Records:

Notable points include -
- Various pharmaceutical internships during college
- Formally began employment with Nanotrasen on July 1, 2561
- Completed additional training in emergency preparedness, horticulture, and xenobiology by February 28, 2562
- After psychological review, stationed to the NSS Cyberiad, predominantly to serve as a pharmaceutical chemist
- Has spent time in various roles as noted in General Occupational Roles
- Occasionally gets assigned to unrelated job due to clerical errors, at which point it might be added here if she displays aptitude
- Once synthesized 5000 units of synthflesh in one shift
- Once also synthesized over 3000u of cryoxadone in one shift
- Took part in a demographic/cultural study run by station psychologist
- As a chemist in a severely understaffed medical department, performed brain surgery based off prior rudimentary experience. Narrowly managed to not kill patient in the process
- Participated in chaplain-run seminar on recognizing and dealing with vampires, which ended halfway through when the engine broke loose and had to be neutralized by CC
- Has trialed as Chief Medical Officer. Fully qualified as CMO. By necessity, learned quite a bit about surgery along the way. Exhibits levelheadedness under pressure, but may not be qualified to handle the stress for long periods of time
- Has made highly beneficial symbiotic synthetic virus in the span of approximately ten minutes since shift start, claiming that her record is just under eleven minutes
- Received assistance from station therapist after recurring nightmares about terror spiders. Has gained some therapeutic tools to help cope, but still having regular appointments between shifts to help deal with stress and paranoia
- Took break from station service to work on doctorate, review of which is still pending as of writing
- Awarded the NTMC Cryostar on April 7, 2566 in recognition of medical professionalism and strongly developed pharmaceutical skills

 

Security Records:

- Has accidentally blown up Medical Chemistry at least six times during course of employment; claims to now know the location of flammable substances in workplace
- Penchant for crafting homemade grenades as a chemist; as of late these have contained cleaning foam or quick-set metal insulation
- Unverified reports of using xenobiological engineering to create mice scouts, uplift command staff pets to sapience, and warp space-time
- Tendency to carry a station bounced radio at all times if permitted - possibly afraid of the station's communication network going out?
- Sometimes yells at crewmates for not closing authenticating doors after passing through
- Has seen a Syndicate agent chem-lab partner kill himself over regret that his loyalty had to be so divided; this may have led to uncertainty in her own loyalties
- Repaired internal bleeding and several fractures for a member of the Wizard Federation without knowing the patient was an EoC; claims that healing was her responsibility under oath as a medical professional
- Has previously barricaded herself in her own lab and welded all the vents shut after terror spider nightmares led to paranoid behavior; currently getting counseling for this
- Regularly refuses to make narcotics or other potentially harmful products when asked to do so, despite threats from outside parties. Only does so with express permission from the CMO
- Undergoing substantial stress leads her to increasingly erratic behavior
- NT Loyalty: Skeptic-leaning
- Adherence to SOP: Slightly Above Average

 

Medical Records:

- Gets her job done quickly and efficiently in front of chemical dispenser (While this is likely true to some degree, it should be noted that Medical employees are not to frivolously alter their own records)
- Occasional ordinary workplace injuries
- Occasionally rescued from pressure vacuums in both MedChem and SciChem
- Once recovered by station reclamation team from suspension inside a functional cryotube while a parasitic entity in stomach counteracted mending; does not directly recall event but has mentioned likely related nightmares
- Requires treatment for fatigue during extended shifts
- Mild nyctophobia, which seems to be getting worse
- Possible referral to station psychiatrist due to presence of both lonely nature and interest in pyrotechnics
- Possible referral to station psychiatrist after having seen a chemistry lab partner suicide due to his regrets for his Syndicate involvement
- Ever since being assigned to CMO position, gray is slowly creeping further into her fur. Low-stress positions recommended after protracted shifts
- Sought help from station psychiatrist after recurring nightmares about terror spiders
- Ms. Ashpaw has had a cybernetic heart since an on-station accident. [Clearance: CC] She fell victim to abductors but has no memory of the incident, only its fallout. References to the event and her forgotten time appear to cause her additional anxiety. Addendum: This has happened twice now.
- She has shown increasing unease, concerned about the perils of space, becoming high-strung and easily distracted when thrown off the routine of her work

 

Personnel Photo (Appearance text):

A 5'9"/1.75m Vulpkanin, predominantly furred in shades of light blue. Her forepaws and hindpaws both display a transition to an ashy gray hue, slightly darker near claws. She has a fairly lithe build,  though her confident stance is disturbed by minor twitchiness. This may be an extension of her alert senses (tall blue ears, slightly glowing violet eyes, sharp muzzle, among others) or may be a sign of paranoia.

 

Commendations [admin editing only]:

 

 

Reprimands [admin editing only]:

 

Other Notes:

Ashley has known a version of Poly which repeatedly suggested the genocide of Tajaran, Unathi, and Vulpkanin. She harbors at best a cold suspicion against the bird.

[A Stitch In Time]

Greetings, reader(s)!

I'm Silver. You could call me Ashpaw as well if you'd like, though that would be mixing up IC and OOC a bit. Been interested in SS13 for quite some time, but so far I only seem to have time every once in a while. Though when that 'while' comes around then I manage to pull off several shifts in a weekend. Maybe I'll be able to change that somewhat going forward.

Still a rookie by most standards, though I would consider myself a reasonably proficient chemist and a not terrible botanist or scientist. Still trying to learn all the time, still trying to ease into new jobs.

Does anything else belong in an introduction? It's been so long since I was last on a forum...I suppose if there is, the viewer(s) can let me know.

Good fun, have luck, don't die!

- Silver