Etiologic Pathology (OOC / Planning)

I am tentatively claiming EDS, because pain-noodle inflictor is like. My jam.

 

hello yes please i am An Interested. i will sleep on this and post again tomorrow...

EDIT: wait no i lied. what's the call on mental illnesses? too cliché for the setting? not necessarily thinking of making a mental illness character, mostly curious about the worldbuilding...

 

@Mendacity is saying it's a "no" on the mental illness front. Physical ailments with mental components (a la the shit rabies does to your brain) is fine, but most/all mental illness is off the table otherwise. Also the implications could get weird-bad.

edit: Though I think partly it'd be hard to find one that fatal for non-suicide reasons. Degenerative mental illness maybe, but even that's not like, brutal fatal you know?

 

It's mostly due to the not-technically-fatal bit. Genetic diseases are a bit of a secondary addition, as most of the original idea focuses on diseases brought on by things like bacteria and viruses and prions ect. I added genetic diseases due to them sometimes not even showing in carriers of the genes, implying that they 'spread' in a way.

 

Incidentally, EDS can kill you in some pretty brutal ways. All of your organs failing and detaching, anyone?

 

yikes.
Rubella is unlikely to kill with modern medicine, but there is like a shitton of complications that can kill people still so~

 

Yeah see, that's fine because it COULD and would probably kill someone in a shitty situation (No access to medicine).

 

totally cool! i figured as much, given the spreading idea etc. was just curious :)

now to thinking...

 

So would SCA infect people she touches with SCA, or make them carriers? Either way works but the first is much more likely for people to detect as abnormal.

 

Infect, and it would be like near-instantaneous worst-stage-worst-situation level of the disease leading to death pretty quickly kind of thing.

And the abnormality is the fun part! Part of why they have to be super careful

 

I'm gonna do a quick chara profile here now:

Spoiler: Rabies, The Character Profile

Name: Rainer 'Rabies' Wyght
Current Body Age: 189 (Looks: Early / Mid 30's)
Body gained by: Bitten by a rabid raccoon, he nearly died before some strange man came to his home and passed the 'gift' on.
History: Was a mountaineer of sorts, gathered wood and furs / meats. He lived in the woods all alone only traveling down to the city to trade and get things he couldn't gather on his own. He wasn't anyone important, really, and was in the first wave of people trying to settle the Rocky Mountains. No real family to speak of, all had died of disease by the point he'd been living out in the middle of nowhere, and no real friends due to his rather particular personality.
After being turned into Rabies he initially had no idea who or what he was. He had thoughts, and vague memories that didn't make sense, but the him who he was at that moment didn't get it. He went to town to go to church, thought it must have been a demon, and begged the preacher to help him. Of course, this ended poorly and soon he'd infected a multitude of people while begging for help. Their deaths haunt him even today.
He ran after that, went and spent quite a long time in the mountains and woods. He started trading again sort-of recently, finding the markets completely different from what he'd seen before. Slowly he's tried to re-integrate himself, even building (with his own two hands) a shelter for other diseases. He built it because he felt that no one should have to go through what he did, and thus uses it to house and feed any disease that needs it.
Personality: Look at this asshole. He's an old angry man, even older and angrier with the fact that he has accepted that he's just one in an endless cycle of 'forms' of Rabies. He's protective, caring, and absolutely refuses to show that he is either of those things. He is utterly baffled by technology as well. He nearly never tells people his real name, always insisting that he's 'only Rabies'. If you know his name, you know he trusts you completely.
Appearance: Large, bearded, buff, and covered in body hair. He looks like he could wrestle a bear and win. His hair is shaved on the sides of his head and what is left is pulled back into a pony tail that falls a little past his neck. His beard can go from 'large-and-well-trimmed' to 'large-and-consuming-the-world' in less than half a day, thus most mornings he looks rather well put together and most afternoons his beard is a scruffy mess. His hair is reddish brown, and his eyes are vividly green. His skin is quite clearly white, but tanned from him working in the outdoors. He wears a mixture of plaid, jeans, and nothing in various times and situations. Shoes? Those are always boots of a various sort.

 

Spoiler: Rubella character profile~

Name: "Jo", "Rubella", alternatively "Jo Rubella" on forged documents, [Real name currently unknown]
Current Body Age: 24
Body gained by: Tried to save the last incarnation of Rubella who stepped in front of a train. This did not end well, but the previous incarnation realized what would happen barely in time to pass on a tip: "Untouchable". Jo survived barely and got the gift.
History: Jo was working on a degree as a pediatric nurse straight out of highschool when they went on a roadtrip through most of the U.S. over the semester break. This is how they got into the situation where they got the gift. While they had been out, they had accidentally set a Rubella epidemic free in the hospital and most of the surrounding area and when they caught on with what was happening ran the fuck away. So they were now on their own, with only a few changes of clothes, a bit of spare cash and a mile wide cynical streak. Over the following 2 years they acquired a new wardrobe (mostly through stealing and modding, knowing your own symptoms well helps with choosing things), forged documents and never kept to a single place long. While wandering a road near Rabies' clinics late at night they got hit by a car (nothing life threatening but annoying enough) and haven't left the place since.
Personality: Secretive, cynical with a tendency towards gallows humor, snarky, tries to hide that they are incredibly caring and fussy. Tends to carry snacks and water, bandaids, small mending kits, tissues and other necessities and offers them to others without comment. Calling attention to this is not allowed unless you are under the age of eight and will get you glares. Children are Jo's not-so-secret weakness but baby animals are a close second. Once Jo cares about you it's hard to get rid of them. Loves to give people nicknames, especially those that are puns, jokes in bad taste or just generally annoying.
Appearance: young, skinny and androgynous. Shaved head, but strong, dark eyebrows. Pale skin, but not entirely white, hints of turkish descent. Prefers clothes that are somewhat in the direction of cyberpunk, printed t-shirts, hoodies and hooded jackets, skinny jeans and boots or high sneakers. Generally wears clothes that cover as much exposed skin as possible whenever they are out in public: A face-mask or a gasmask of some kind, often shades as well, gloves (preferably leather or pleather).
Two piercings in the left eyebrow, spiderbite piercings on the right side, and three more piercings on each ear, all jewelry black stainless steel.
Polyvore Collection (WiP)

 

Spoiler: Hep C charater profile

Name: Colin. He doesn't say his last name because he's paranoid about retribution to his family. He hates being called Hepatitis C or variants.
Current Body Age: 16
Body gained by: Got hit by the same semi cab as previous incarnation.
History: Hepatitis C is a fairly new disease, introduced in the early 80s. Its first incarnation was an IV drug user who died of liver failure caused by the disease, Sarah. Normally she would have lived longer - but a drunk semi driver was barreling down a major road both she and Colin were trying to walk down late at night, and that was that. Colin was sixteen when he became the incarnation, about three months ago. He was trying to walk back home from a party and sneak back in, when the semi cab jumped up on the sidewalk and hit him and Sarah, killing them both. He was very unhappy when he woke up. He had to leave his family, because his littlest sister - around five, she was a surprise - is too young to understand that she can't touch him. After a few scares, he left. They still talk to him on the phone and love him, but he hates being separated from them. The only thing that's a positive about all this, as far as Colin is concerned, is that no one he sees on a daily basis is aware that he's AFAB (he IDs as a demiboy but would rather be clocked as masculine from day to day). His parents are still trying to be accepting of that, but it's hard for them. As Hepatitis C is a fairly new disease, becoming a problem in the 80s, he's not even completely sure what he can do if he touched someone - Sarah wasn't very sure either.
Personality: Typical sulky teenager. Very upset about his circumstances, very sarcastic. Prickly and confused if anyone is nice to him. Loves his family a lot, and has some of his few sweet moments when he talks to them. Likes to watch animal movies, and inevitably cries when he does. Used to like going to concerts. Now he exercises a lot - mostly body weight stuff, since he doesn't have a lot of money of his own.
Appearance: Short - 5'4" - with dark hair in the typical skater cut. Brown eyes. Likes to insist he just hasn't gotten his growth spurt yet. Skinny. Dresses like this.

 

i have a character, but i need a disease.

 

What sort of disease would you like, in terms of, idk, symptoms? We can work from there.

 

something that can be spread through skin-to-skin contact, and kills relatively quickly if left untreated.

 

As a note all of the Embodiments spread skin-to-skin.

All I can think is leprosy? But I don't think it's quick.

 

ah, okay, i must have misunderstood something somewhere

 

if you can think of some symptoms that would thematically work with your character maybe we could find something?

 

nodnod. i'm thinking about what else would work well.