Angel's Disease
Angel's Disease is a disease that can be found across many Stories in the Storyverse. Its most striking characteristic is the sprouting of angel wings, usually with red eyes on said wings, from the infected victim's skin during its advanced stages. If not treated before that point, this disease will be fatal.
The origins of Angel's Disease are unknown. It is known that the disease has a higher chance of spreading in groups and closed spaces, but exactly how the spread works (air, fluids, mnemonics, curses, etc.) is still not understood.
Symptoms
There are various symptoms of Angel's Disease, divided into early, late, and advanced stages. Any cures and treatments will only work when applied to the early and late stages of the disease, and even then a guarantee of recovery can only be assured in the early stages.
Note that a person infected with this disease will still experience at least some early stage symptoms in the later stages as well. For example, a person may still act overly polite and apologetic when they've already progressed into the advanced final stages.
Early Stage
Due to the "mildness" of the early stage symptoms, patients often take a blood test or other medical test to confirm whether or not they actually have Angel's Disease. On that note, blood tests are one of the few ways of confirming whether or not someone is infected. Depending on the level of technology or magic (or other equivalent power) in a Story, the accuracy of these tests can vary.
Also note, at this point the disease is progressing, but still not yet infectious to others.
- Lightheadedness that cannot be explained by other sources
- Blurry vision that cannot be explained by other sources
- Lower body temperature, but without chills or otherwise discomfort
- Some loss of feeling in extremities
- Over-politeness, more than usual
- Overly apologetic, more than usual
- Being less talkative than usual
- Aversion to staying in dark or poorly lit locations
- Ringing in ears, more specifically sounding like bells
Late Stage
At this stage, the disease starts becoming more infectious to others, though further infection can be prevented through various (and sometimes random) means. This can include, but is not limited to, the following: social distancing, handwashing, proper exercise, magical protection charms, and having a strong will.
- Memory loss
- Loss of balance
- Lack of sleep or difficulty falling asleep
- Loss of feeling has spread from the extremities to most of the limbs
- Speaking more in whispers
- Insistence on staying in well-lit areas, even for sleeping quarters
- Smiling more than usual
- Iris of the victim's eyes take on a more red hue
- Small pustules on the skin, on various locations of the body. Larger ones will look like they have something moving inside of them.
Advanced Stage
These are the most striking set of symptoms associated with Angel's Disease, and a clear sign that the disease will certainly kill the victim. At this point, the disease is highly infectious without proper precautions, such as medical masks and gloves, hazmat suits, prayers, rituals, and advanced magical protection.
- Constant smiling, unable to change expression
- Unable to speak above a whisper
- Complete loss of feeling throughout the entire body
- In a state of apparent blissfulness
- Often staring up at the sky. If indoors, the victim will insist on staying near a window.
- Staring at other living beings. When doing so, the victim never blinks.
- Iris of the victim's eyes turn some shade of red
- Wings with red eyes sprouting from the pustules on the victim's skin
- Having conversations with someone who is not there yet
In the final stage of the disease, more and more wings will erupt from the victim's skin, until they are effective just a mass of wings and eyes. Eventually, the feathery mass will begin to decay, a sign that the victim has finally died. The decaying mass is the most infectious point of the disease, and extreme precautions, both technological and magical, must be taken to quarantine it.
Once the mass has decayed, often what's left behind are feathers, loose eyeballs, and eyeball fluid. No bones, blood, clothing, or other things from the victim will remain. At this point, what's left of the disease is no longer infectious, but should still be carefully disposed of as a precaution.
Cures and Treatments
The ability to treat and cure this disease can vary depending on the Story in which the disease manifests. The Janitor Menagerie have protocols in place for infections of Angel's Disease found in a Story. The main focus on providing knowledge and resources for helping with the disease, without interfering too much with the overall Story.
One of the main methods of outright curing the disease is to subject the victim to a sort of "magic surgery", in this case to remove the holy energy seemingly influencing the disease. Another method is to use a darkness-aligned ritual to effectively "exorcise" the disease from the victim.
For more technological cures, cancer treatments tend to be more effective against Angel's Disease (acting as an outright cure) than against actual cancer. However, note that the same serious side-effects can still occur. Yet another method is to isolate the victim in a completely dark chamber for at least a month, though this is incredibly inhumane and should only be taken as a last resort.
Various methods of treatment can be used to both slow down the disease and boost the victim's own wellbeing (physical health, magic energy, willpower, etc) in order to be able to fight off the disease themselves with time and rest. These are typically far less expensive in most Stories than actual cures, though unfortunately they are not 100% guaranteed to help stop the disease.
Treatments can include taking medicine that has been treated with darkness magical energy, light therapy using "dark lights" (i.e. sort of like a black light, but attuned to counteracting Angel's Disease in particular), and spending more time awake at night (with as little light as possible) and sleeping during the day. Sometimes simply helping the victim be more confident and giving them an ego boost is enough to help them fight off the disease, at least in the early stages.
Note than, as mentioned previously, once the disease has reached the advanced stages, no cures nor treatments will work on the victim. At that point, it is best to put time and effort towards settling the victim's affairs and ensuring that other people will not also be infected.
If a person has been infected with Angel's Disease and survives, even if they only progressed into the early stages, they will be immune from all further infections. This indicates that the disease does not adapt and evolve, or at least not like most "normal" diseases. Blood transfusion from a survivor to others will also grant the same permanent immunity to others. As a result, Janitors are often directed to influence survivors into donating blood, thus providing more immunity to everyone else in the Story.
More standard vaccines can be made available in a Story as well. These tend to be infused with darkness magic/energy, and must be taken on a schedule of one every 5 years to guarantee full immunity. Depending on the Story, these tend to be combined with other vaccines in order to hide the actual "magic" aspect of the Angel's Disease vaccine.
The Disease's Angel
On rare occasions, when the disease progresses into its final stage, the feathery mass of the infected victim will not decay. Instead, it will grow. It will eventually "bloom" (i.e. explode into blood and viscera), producing what is known as the Disease's Angel.
This is apparently an Interloper who claims that the disease itself is sapient, and the Disease's Angel is simply a final manifestation of it. It will often refer to itself as "The Angel Quing" as well, with 'quing' being a combination of queen and king. The entity itself is said to have an "annoyingly quirky" personality, according to Menagerie records. Once it has fully manifested, its main goal is to carry out a "game" for its own amusement.
The Disease's Angel will thus hijack other infected victims in the same Story, regardless of what stage of the disease they are at, and turn them into its own army of monstrous angels. It will then use them to wreak havoc and death on the Story, destroying anything and everything. Thus, the Disease's Angel must be killed if it gets this far. Doing so will not only eliminate all other infections in the Story (even across Storylines), but help prevent the overall Story from being destroyed.
The Janitor Menagerie has protocols in place to monitor and help Stories with active Angel's Disease infections, especially in order to prevent the Disease's Angel from manifesting at all. According to Menagerie records, the Disease's Angel has been killed hundreds of millions of times, and yet it still manages to pop up again in other Stories. Like with its origins and its methods of spreading, how it is able to survive and keep manifesting is still unknown.
Gallery
The following is a gallery of major images related to Angel's Disease, including examples of progression of the disease.
Example of a patient with an advanced stage of Angel's Disease.
Trivia
- The overall concept of Angel's Disease was inspired by White Chlorination Syndrome from the Nier game series.
- The ringing sound described in the early stages is often said to resemble church bells. The inspiration for this aspect of the disease comes from the true final boss music for the game Drakengard.