Finder: Sorry

Sorry for not updating this past week on my progress. I sort of came down with a cold and then had a bout of paranoia where I thought the Plague Doctor was killing me. But no, just an ordinary cold.

Man, I'm an adrenaline junkie, but sometimes I wonder. These things I try to find can kill with a glance, can rip you apart with ease, can dig inside your head and eat your memories like candies. I try to act fine; I like my job. I like traveling places I've never been. I've gotten use to the smell of motels and the continental breakfasts and long drives, but sometimes. Sometimes I just have to sit down and stop.

Sorry. I still have a bit of the cold. I didn't get much work done because of it and because of my onset of paranoia, but now that's passed, I'll start tracking the movements of the victims. I'm going to see if they intersected anywhere and if they did...well, that's probably where they met the Plague Doctor.

Thanks.

Signs & Seals: The Stick and the Serpent

The Plague Doctor doesn't like to announce his presence, but oftentimes after he leaves a place, someone will put up this symbol:

Looks like some sort of mathematical symbol, right? Well, nope, it's called the Stick and the Serpent. Sort of similar to the rod of Asclepius, except where the rod of Asclepius represents medecine and healing, this symbol represents the fucking Plague Doctor.

Nobody knows who, exactly, puts up this symbol. It just seems to appear, chalk-drawn on the sidewalk or spray-painted on a wall. If you see it, go the other fucking way.

Them 4: The Plague Doctor

Since Finder might be investigating him at the moment, let's take a look at the abomination known as the Plague Doctor.

Yeah, he's a quack.

So: the Plague Doctor. Looks like a, well, plague doctor. Robe, stick, beak-nosed mask. There are some reports that the mask isn't, well, a mask at all.

This guy doesn't show up that often -- that's not to say he isn't creepy as fuck, but you most often won't see him before he gives you the fucking Black Death. Yeah, he spreads disease. That's one reason why he's so fucking creepy: even once he leaves, you'll still die from whatever horrible fucking sickness he has given you.

And even if you do see him coming, you may not even realize it. He likes to show up at places where his appearance won't be noticed. Costume parties, carnival, Mardi Gras. Then he goes Masque of the Red Death on people.

I've never seen the Plague Doctor, but I have what he's done to certain Runners. When I tell you that you don't want to know what happened to them, you should believe me.

Finder: Inconclusive

The bodies at the morgue were...definitely dead bodies. They died of some sort of influenza according to the reports, but one that acted much faster than normal. Is this just a normal variation of the virus, though, or did the movie Contagion piss off the Plague Doctor? (Wait, TFR hasn't gotten to the Plague Doctor yet. Well, he will.)

Anyway, I'll stay in a motel here for another week or so to see if there are any more deaths. There were three in the surrounding counties, which counts as a pattern, but I'm not sure of there were any connections between the dead. I'll check that out next.

Thanks.