Gannet

Gannet is a character in The Relentless Slaughter.

Weapon
Self.

Abilities
The virus that inhabits Gannet possesses a bizarre ability to warp both its surroundings and its hosts beyond the limits of what should be physically possible, and, given the constantly mutating nature of viruses, its effects are largely unpredictable except for a few core attributes. The disease constantly extends its influence beyond the reach of Gannet’s body, seeking new hosts and mediums to spread itself- fortunately, the chance for the virus to accept a new host is extremely low, and once an individual is out of range the effects of the virus quickly wear off.

Unfortunately, this means that no organic being can come within several feet of Gannet without being partially infected by the Oracle Virus. The symptoms are gradual but can become severe extremely quickly if contact is not broken. A few minutes in Gannet’s proximity produces a slight headache, an hour results in mild confusion and a dulled sense of awareness; past that time, the virus induces a full delirium matching Gannet’s own as well as a strong sense of attachment to him as the virus attempts to realign with itself. All of these effects are temporary, though whatever happens to an infected person while under the virus’ delirium may not be.

Gannet also possesses a last resort attack that the virus will activate if it feels threatened enough, though it is only capable of performing it rarely due to the strain it places on Gannet’s body. Referred to by him as the “blessing of the Oracle”, it consists of delivering an overdose of the virus to a given target via direct physical contact. This drives the unlucky target completely and horrifically insane as the disease tries to bind to an unsuitable host and overcompensates for its effects on the victim’s body and mind. The results are barely recognizable as human (or whatever the victim's species may be) and lose all sense of their previous selves, except perhaps for an endless screaming terror at what they’ve become.

Description
An “Eye of the Oracle”, Gannet functions as a scout for the larger organism that is the Oracle Virus. The part of the virus that controls him is a “seeker” strain, and manipulates its hosts’ instincts and senses so that they become unusually curious about everything around them and gain an irrepressible urge to explore their surroundings, gathering new information for the central host. To assist with this, the virus alters its hosts’ bodies to be able to handle the physical effort necessary for this type of reconnaissance, giving them unnaturally high stamina and strength as well as quick, nervous bursts of speed.

Physically, Gannet’s body has lengthened to the point of appearing eerily spider-like, and he doesn’t seem to have much of a problem clinging to surfaces that a normal human couldn’t. His virus-altered eyes are a disturbingly bright blue and seem to be the only part of him with any human expression other than his permanent enthusiastic grin. He wears whatever clothes he happens to find, though by now they’ve all been bleached to a light grey. Gannet is often seen shaking as his body fights against the virus’ “modifications” and constantly appears to be on the verge of collapse, though if startled all signs of weakness vanish as he prepares to address this new stimuli. Due to the degree to which his body has been altered, the removal of the virus would likely prove crippling to him, if not outright fatal.

Mentally, Gannet is happy. Always happy. The virus overloads its hosts’ brains with dopamine and other chemicals to keep them obedient to its subconscious commands, even as it sinks them deeper and deeper into a disease-induced delirium. Gannet’s perception of the world is extremely warped and therefore open to whatever suggestions the virus gives him. He regards nearly everything as something to be explored, fulfilling his purpose as an “Eye”. Lacking a specific command from the virus, he’ll simply attempt to gather as much information as he can about his current whereabouts and be on good terms with everyone around him. Given his perpetual delirium, this last part is somewhat more difficult than it sounds.

Biography
Among the black rocks of the cold northern sea, lurking between the rotted hulls of ancient iron ships and the crumbling walls of civilizations long since forgotten, there exists a curious phenomenon: the resurgence of Oracles, humans brought to divine madness and speaking the words of gods given to insanity and bloodlust. The origin of these figures is unknown, though it seems they can or will not exist outside this specific climate: the cold mist that shrouds their broken forms seems to carry some essence of the madness that gives them their prescience, and legend holds that occasionally a visitor to these oracles will not emerge from the sea caves they inhabit, having been chosen by the gods to serve their mouthpiece for the rest of their lives.

The actual nature of these Oracles is somewhat less divine than is generally assumed, however. The poor souls referred to as “Oracles” are simply victims of a highly anomalous mutagenic virus, one whose symptoms and methods of infection frequently defy logical explanation. Fittingly called the “Oracle Virus” by the extremely few people aware of its true nature, the disease grants a sense-heightening delirium to its central hosts, causing them to speak in a jumbled mixture of words and languages- terrifyingly, the main hosts are reportedly able to do this in more than voice simultaneously, and their observations frequently mention information about their visitors that was never revealed to them. The Oracle’s fondness for dens near cold oceans stems from the virus’ ability to travel through salt water and its vulnerability to warm temperatures; likewise, its aversion to open air means that the central host is always protected against outside threats. Its unnerving ability to alter its environment and hosts has never been explained, let alone the fact that the “predictions” delivered by its Oracles are, more and more often, seen to be disturbingly accurate.

Gannet’s life before becoming infected by the Oracle Virus is a mystery even to him; if pressed about he might dimly recall something about a ship and a long journey over the water, though it’s not something he’s terribly worried about. His earliest memory as a servant of the Oracle is crawling out into the sea air from deep underground, gasping and painfully aware of the brightness of the sun; the first living thing he remembers seeing was a gannet, a seabird that he arbitrarily named himself after to distinguish himself from the Oracle’s other acolytes. Having subsequently lost all sense of time, it’s impossible for him to measure how long it then was until the Oracle named him an Eye and sent him on a journey to gather as much information as possible about the areas of the planet the virus had yet to explore. At any rate, the virus as a whole did not have particularly high expectations for him to return alive, and when he vanished it simply assumed that particular host had been destroyed and appointed another in his place.

Fears
Whenever Gannet encounters anything the virus dislikes it forces him to fear it: in particular, it distrusts doctors and medical facilities in general. Coming across any will cause the virus to make Gannet panic and attempt to flee through whatever means possible. It also dislikes warm, dry areas and being too far from a source of water. Open spaces seem to cause it some discomfort, and if given a choice Gannet will almost always prefer to be surrounded by walls of some sort, mimicking the caves the virus incubates in.

The Oracle Virus
The Oracle (not to be confused with the disease named after it, or the title given to its victims) is a god or god-like entity that manifests itself through a highly mutagenic, fast-spreading virus. Its hosts are divided according to class: Eyes, spiderlike scouts, of which Gannet is an example, who spread the virus to new colonies; Teeth, near-rabid victims who protect existing colonies; Hands, the least mutated class and the most common; and Mouths: the central hosts of the virus, horrifyingly disfigured and generally really gross former-humans who relay the thoughts of the Oracle and run the colonies. The power of the Oracle as well as the prophetic ability of a Mouth and the dedication of its followers correlates directly to the number of members in a colony, so expansion is the main goal of most if not all incidents of the infection. Any victim can switch classes per the Oracle's will, but it's rare in cases other than to provide an emergency backup Mouth.

New colonies are relatively uncommon, with only 1-2% of a given human population being fully susceptible to the virus, eg. capable of going full Slenderman; most existing ones rely on skimming from the Oracle's visitors or other stragglers. Nearly all uninfected get a residual dose by being in close promiximity to a pre-existing host and will experience temporary effects of the virus, mostly by going balls-out crazy. Do not question the logic of this. The Oracle is sentient and sort of a petty bitch and can manipulate infections at will, but it usually doesn't care. It hates friendship and sharing. It did not do well in preschool.