i recently had to consult my colleague who is a historian of epidemiology in the plantationocene/capitalocene era. while researching #536c, her frequent encounters with enforcer-resarchers piqued my curiosity. my colleague told me that the enforcer-researchers were the saddest prisoners around. they were ill with a disease that can only be contracted within their own castle walls. the disease etiology is unquestionably in the fragmentation of one's mindbodyspirit, caused by a bacteria which is now extinct. the incubation period of this bacteria is debated, but emerging evidence seems to point to a positive correlation between time spent within certain castle walls and the speed of deterioration in the patient.
once the patient was symptomatic, the disease process proceeded as follows: symptoms started with dissociation and subsequent delusions and paranoia. without appropriate interventions at this stage, the patient quickly succumbed to blindness, deafness, and compulsive logorrhea in the form of unsolicited monologues (more like diatribes) sprinkled with an alarming number of neologisms. eventually, they either became immobile or had severe ataxia. their delusions and paranoia, at this point, would've been so severe that they've been reported to feverishly chant the phrase, "i must prove myself. you must prove yourself. it's coming for us." they also were frequently defensive and resistant to attention from healers and caretakers. it was almost as if the bacteria rewired their brain and immune system to launch allergic reactions at the slightest hint of anything that might remotely make them well again.
their disease made them very difficult to be around, and they often experienced social isolation as a result. the affected tended to congregate together (we don't know if this was by necessity, if it was inevitable due to living within those same castle walls, or if the disease actually attracted them to each other). in any case, it is baffling because they also greatly disliked each other.
my colleague reported that we don't believe the disease was necessarily transmitted from person to person, but if an unaffected individual interacted with symptomatic individuals within castle walls for an extended period, the likelihood of contracting it increased exponentially.
this data made me all the more interested in #536c and others like her. how did they avoid this illness? did something make them immune?
(several days later, my colleague realized that attributing the disease etiology to castle walls was perhaps a spurious association. it was beyond the castle walls, too. maybe the bacteria proliferated in castle walls was a special strain, but it turns out it was rampant everywhere. there's a reason it was called the capitalocene, after all.)