7 Debuff Items for the Cosmic Era

1. Somex

Somex is a brand loyalty additive that is added to a variety of solid food substances. Chemically similar to nicotine, Somex causes a very mild sense of wellness and relaxation. This is not its purpose. The real purpose of Somex is that once a person is deprived of it, they go into a withdrawal phase, including anxiety, paranoia, heightened heart rate, sweating, and even delirium tremens.

Why would you add this to someone's food? To keep them coming back for more. This is the basic concept behind Brand Loyalty Additives, to create a biochemical addiction to the product. Turn customers into junkies and you'll never lack for money. Th difference is that Somex isn't distributed by an iRestaurant or franchise chain, it is added to government-funded food dispensary operations. The regular consumption of welfare sustenance creates a biochemical addiction to the govt extruded food pastes and proteins, and when someone manages to get themselves out of poverty, they are no longer eligible for free food from the dispensary.

But if you cash out, give up, and go back on the feedlot, all the stress and anxiety go away as you get your daily fix. And hey, keep voting for us, the other guys want to cut the funding for the dispensaries and other public assistance.

2. Calmex

Calmex is a simple anti-stimulant that clouds dopamine and serotonin transfer. The more a person remains calm and relaxed, the happier they stay. When they become active, worked up, and emotionally engaged, their ability to manage their hormone levels diminishes.

This debuff is simple and straightforward, if someone consumes it, they become compliant and non-reactive, docile, and accepting. This isn't a regular additive but is brought in when conditions warrant it, such as when there is public unrest, potential riots or protests, or the general mayhem of a food riot. Emergency rations laced with Calmex can be air-dropped over an affected area, the hungry residents eat and then calm the fuck down long enough for law enforcement, private security, or corp guard forces to move in and pacify the area. Criminals and school populations can be given regular metered doses of Calmex to make sure they don't get out of line and remain in positive respect and submission to authority figures.

3. Simplex

Simplex is a complex chemical that is a neuron inhibitor. Interfering with how nerve cells work makes whoever takes it dumb. Mental reaction times are slowed, the ability to maintain complex thoughts is interrupted, and the ability to think in abstract terms is compromised. The downside of being a large complex molecule is that Simplex cannot survive being cooked, or prolonged exposure to the natural environment. The most common vector for Simplex is make-up and personal hygiene products. While it loses efficacy in sunlight, and exposure to oxygen, the direct skin contact is enough for the drug to work its brain-throttling magic.

Dumb people make bad choices, dumb people don't organize, and dumb people don't self-education, question, or challenge actual authority systems. Dumb men attack things, dumb women make poor choices, and dumb kids do dumb shit. How does this benefit the distributors of Simplex? Dumb people are easier to manipulate en masse, especially towards large specific goals, like reproduce, obey, consume.

4. Antisex

Antisex is a venerable compound dating well back into the Petroleum Era and functions as an erection inhibitor. It also technically has a similar effect on female biological responses, meaning that neither men nor women are particularly interested in having sex, and if they were, the machinery is either inoperable or if they can get it to work, it is in a compromised fashion.

The purpose of Antisex is pretty simple, men without a sex drive are much more docile and less violently reactive. When used in prison settings, it drastically reduces internal violence and assault, and the general increase in obesity, depression and suicidal thoughts is easily remedied through other drug regimes. 

5. Immunex

One of the more insidious and sinister debuffs concocted in the Cosmic Era, Immunex causes immunodeficiency in people who take it. Created in the late period of the Petroleum Era, Immunex was described as a chemical appetizer to be served before a pandemic buffet. Records indicate that this might have been used in this very fashion, with targeted populations being sabotaged with Immunex before a weaponized virus was released. The groups to be protected were not compromised with Immunex, and likely had anti-viral treatments and vaccines handy. When the various cases of flu, fevers, and viral firestorms were unleashed, entire cities and ethnic groups faded away in piles of tissue and bathroom collapses.

In the Cosmic Era, Immunex is considered a sort of broad-spectrum social deterrent. Protests and occupation movements can be shut down quickly with a few drones spraying this chemical, and as the protestors or rioters are quickly overwhelmed by basic diseases like colds, and minor injuries becoming infected very quickly, they don't stay.

6. Lethex

Lethex is a synthetic variant of heroin, but with greatly reduced side effects, and no euphoria. When taken, it induces a forgetful, lethargic state in the victim. Prolonged use of Lethex is dangerous because while under the influence of the debuff, people will do things like not eat, not shower, and not care for themselves, and if they do things, they are in a haphazard manner. A man deciding to cook some noodles might burn his unit out because halfway through boiling water and dry noodles he decided to go take a seven-hour quick nap.

Lethex is commonly used as a door knocker, being deployed into an area before paramilitary or security forces enter it to occupy and pacify. It is a very heavy-handed tool, its use is regulated, and evidence of its use is classified. The criminal use of Lethex is a major issue because it is one of the most effective human control drugs ever made.

7. Neurotex

How and where Neurotex came from is unknown, it was rather sort of just found. It is believed that the drug was created by accident when dealing with the plethora of mental illnesses that bloomed in the Petroleum Era. Most, if not all, of those social neuroses faded with the dark days that followed the end of fossil fuels. Neurotex has the fun ability to temporarily interrupt brain chemistry and functionally give people ADHD.