Why was I accursed with this black stubble?

Originium, as it was dubbed, simultaneously gives me my livelihood while draining my life away. It is the cause of a rampant disease affecting all of Terra, and due to an "incident" while I was visiting Trimounts, I became Infected.

I became one of them.

Once I was confirmed to be Infected, my family turned their back to me. Businesses refused to open their doors for me. Some people even-

Sorry, I shouldn't lose my temper like that. I should have some of this tea you've brewed for me. Thank you.

Ironically enough, I ended up finding a job at the very place that caused me so much trouble. I don't care to share with you the details, but I ended up working at Origin Semiconductors. They're one of the few firms in the world that actually seek out Infected to hire since they're working directly with originium. Since you don't want the healthy to get infected and all. Thank goodness there's at least one good firm in the world willing to look past the little black stubble on my elbow to hire me. It's not like they have a choice, anyway. Even though they built a lab in Trimounts due to the recent deregulation wave in Colombia as of late, they still have some laws to abide by. It's all in the name of science, I guess. It's cool what they're doing with originium, too, especially since it's somewhat abundant and it has a direct band gap and processes quite nicely in the fab, almost as easily as silicon, so it's really nice for general applications and optical interconnects and photonics and even, more recently, in Arts magnification. Since that relies on originium and all that.

Sorry, was I rambling? I need to stop doing that.

Anyways, thank goodness I found that job. I finally have something to throw my life towards, even if I have nobody covering my back. I have medical treatment through my job now- thank goodness, since my originium growths are causing me a lot of pain recently. I don't know how much time I have left on Terra.

I was taking to my work buddy the other day, and I'm jealous that he found a family for himself. He settled down with a nice girl, and now he has a nice family. I guess it helps in starting a family if you know each other in college from Victoria before moving to Columbia. Whatever.

Anyways, because of the wave of deregulation lately in Col-
What, I already said that? My, my memory is failing me.

Where was I? Whatever, if I forgot, it couldn't have been that important.

I just hope that there's a future out there for me. I mean, I was told by my supavisrr tha I wush prformng abov-

My fashe's drooping? Dial un-un-nayn!

[END OF RECORDING]

---

BREAKING

Norman Davisson, 33, has passed away from a stoke. The once-famous pioneer who invented the Arts magnetron, a device widely adopted by the Arts community, disappeared from his tenured position at the newly-founded University of Kjerag a decade ago. Some sources say the cause of his disappearance and death was oripathy-related, since he was rumored to have been Infected. We will keep you updated.