Eveline (E-001)
Eveline was the first successful E-Series bioweapon created via successful application of the superorganism Mold. Designated E-001, Eveline was the first and only one of her type, having successfully bonded with the Mold more effectively than her defected D-Series predecessors. She was created by a notorious crime syndicate called The Connections, although the project’s origins also have links to H.C.F. and the rival company.
The Mold was a new fungal species of anomalous bacterium believed to have been discovered sometime in the late 1990s and became more commonly known as Mutamycete. Thanks to the psychotropic compounds contained within the bacterium, the potential was high for mental influence and mind control of an infected subject – up to an including inducement to violence. The ultimate goal was creation of a product that could chemically transfer these psychotropic compounds via skin to skin contact between the product and the subject, inducing a mentally suggestive state in the subject responsive only to the product. This makes it unique for a B.O.W. because its origins don’t lie with viral infection.
It’s also highly lucrative because it negates regular problems such as intelligence degradation and a reluctance or inability to follow complex commands. It also bypasses the risk that comes with parasite-based bioweapons such as Las Plagas where the Dominant Plaga carrier puts themselves at risk of extreme mutation just to control the Subordinate Plaga infectants.
Following extensive research, the Mold was further strengthened via application of an unknown virus and a project was launched with the objective of being able to pacify enemy forces without the need for combat. What made this project different from conventional weapons development was the potential to turn enemy combatants into allies and converting hostile elements into willing servants. Such a concept would theoretically reduce the cost of combat and handling prisoners of war, whilst simultaneously increasing the user’s allies. The potential of such a weapon could have profound effects on military and political applications as well as complete economic destabilisation. Several national organisations voiced admiration for such a product and during the early stages of research The Connections received technical assistance from the rival company via H.C.F.
The Mold genome was injected into a pre-stage 4 human embryo which was cultivated in a controlled environment for 38-40 weeks until the embryo reached full term. The foetus was artificially altered to be female as for unspecified reasons the Mutamycete genome was shown to be more adaptable to female biology. Following birth, the subject’s growth cycle was artificially accelerated until the subject had the appearance of being approximately 10 years of age. This was purposefully done to maximise infiltration opportunities into urban and refugee areas. This growth period was conducted in isolation meaning the subjects lacked the basic concepts of friendship and family, and this led to unexpected side effects of the subjects craving love, companionship and a secure family environment to keep them happy. The Mold also targeted the host’s somatic cells, which over a prolonged period of time caused mutation to the body’s physical structure.
A number of manufactured test subjects were created, categorised between A-D depending on their compatibility success with the Mutamycete. The A-C series were complete failures, but later eight D-Series prototypes were successfully created. The D-Series were able to control the thoughts of others by making them ingest a Mold-like secretion. The initial symptoms caused by this secretion were visual and auditory hallucinations. The secretion also eroded the target’s cerebral lobe and as the infection progressed, the target developed strong feelings of friendship towards the girls and would actively seek to serve them.
But despite some potential, the D-Series lacked in practicality and most were disposed of due to poor performance. D-005 Dolores went insane and killed two of her sisters before committing suicide. D-002 Dahlia had a side effect of rapid aging and was deemed decrepit at just 319 days old. Others simply did not survive the full effects of the Mold.
Eventually the entire D-Series line was deceased after developing faults and being rendered unstable, but their development data was used to help create Eveline. She followed the same development process but the compiled data from the D-Series allowed for enough improvements to be made for Eveline to bond with the Mold at a higher level than that of her predecessors, resulting in her becoming the first of the E-Series line. Now designated E-001, Eveline was kept under observation whilst held in isolation. It was soon discovered she could secrete the E-type Mutamycete from her body tissues at will. This bacterium represented the most potent form of the Mold to date and imposed a profound control over body and mind when introduced into a host organism. The process behind how Eveline accessed her targets is still unclear, but it is believed she transmitted pheromones known as auto inducers, like the ‘quorum sensing’ used by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and luminescent bacteria. Eveline infected her victims through physical contact with her own body or introducing the E-Type Mutamycete directly into the subject via skin contact or lacing food with Mycelia filaments. Eveline could completely control the Mold and could change its shape and structure by the power of her will, meaning biohazard and protective clothing could be easily penetrated and fungal filaments would seep through flesh and reach the bloodstream instantly. But in order to make it easier for Eveline to control the minds of her subjects, oral or mucosal membrane infection was desirable. In light of this, Eveline would often make her willing subjects infect others by forcing captives to ingest food laced with mycelia filaments. This special fungus proliferates using body tissue as nutrients, eventually forming a colony of Mold in the brainstem of the infected person, causing intense visual and auditory hallucinations. Eveline would then choose to either add this person to her family unit or discard them and turn them into a Molded instead. The subject’s individual personality seemed to be a key component in her decision making.
Eveline assumed control over her subjects via three distinct phases:
Stage 1 (Initial Infection) – Almost immediately after infection, the Mold spreads inside the subject, absorbing the nutrients and propagating further throughout the body. During this time the subject will begin to see images of Eveline (although she is not really present) and hear her voice (which is inaudible to anyone else). The hallucinatory Eveline appears to be a normal young girl, sometimes desiring companionship or assistance. As time progresses, she begins making more and more extreme demands, including self-mutilation and attacks on other people. The psychological shock this induces helps to break down the mind’s natural barriers to Eveline’s brainwashing effect. Side effects to the subject whilst in this stage of infection include development of remarkable regenerative abilities as the cells of the host begin to be replaced by the Mold. During experiments, researchers removed arms and legs from test subjects and found that they were able to coapt the amputated limbs in a matter of minutes. This ability was commonplace in all infected subjects, but its range of effectiveness seems to vary dependant on the infected individual’s unique DNA. In the case of the infected Baker family, the patriarch Jack displayed heightened regenerative powers over the other family members. The E-type Mutamycete secreted an enzyme similar to telomerase and abnormally activated the ERK pathway. But as regeneration repeated following physical trauma, cellular tissue gradually weakened, resulting in defective functional activity. Researchers have theorised this is a result of cells reaching their Hayflick limit and for unspecified reasons, Jack Baker had a larger tolerance compared to the others.
Although Eveline can ascertain control over those most susceptible, this control is not absolute as infection is too recent at this initial stage and the Mold has not yet spread far enough throughout the body. This means resistance to Eveline is possible and an example is Marguerite Baker being able to resist long enough to pass Zoe Baker car keys to try and escape not long after her initial exposure. Also, when Eveline releases her control, the subjects have no memory of being influenced. Other symptoms in stage 1 include ringing ears, lack of sleep, hearing noises, and nausea.
Following initial skin to skin contact, the Mold takes up to one to five days to reach the brain dependant on the individual subject and the initial point of infection. This represents the beginnings of the mid-stage infection.
Stage 2 (Mid-Infection) – By now the Mold has reached the brain stem and the cranial nerves, meaning the infected subjects are completely in tune with Eveline, ensuring they will always do her absolute bidding and obey her orders. They gradually lose their old personality and all morality and reason is stripped away, leaving them a violent puppeteer able to carry out cruel acts without hesitation. In the case of Eveline this relates to building a family, which explains her demands to capture innocent people and all the missing person’s reports in the Dulvey area. Each infected subject assumes the role of a family member to Eveline. In terms of the Baker’s, Jack was the father, Marguerite the mother, and Lucas and Zoe were the siblings. Eveline’s demands and orders in mid-infection also become more radical and the subject’s sense of self is completely lost if this state persists. As she continues to mentally attack and brainwash her subjects, she gradually replaces the entire body’s cells, including the brain, with the Mold, until finally the body is overrun, which leads to the final stage of infection.
Stage 3 (Terminal Infection) – This is representative of every cell in the body being taken over by the Mold. Once this occurs the subject begins to lose their human form. Physical mutations differ from case to case, but all result in him or her acquiring incredible physical strength. Because Eveline has total control over the Mold, she had the ability to restrict the infection and keep her favoured family members at Stage 2, meaning they retain their human form and keep doing her absolute bidding as loyal servants. But should circumstances change and one family member is discarded for another, she allows the exiled subject to reach stage 3. This happens to both Jack and Marguerite Baker after Eveline replaces them with Ethan and Mia Winters in the Daddy and Mommy roles respectively. Containing an infected subject at Stage 3 of the infection would be extremely difficult.
Because Eveline can secrete the E-Series Mutamycete at will she has the ability to form organisms from the mycelia. These are typically humanoid in appearance and are so-called superorganisms in which countless mycelia have gathered and are able to attack like a large carnivore from aggressiveness directly linked to a survival instinct inherent in the original fungus. These superorganisms are known as ‘Molded’. The bacterium produced by Eveline is also said to be able to revive the dead, though further research needed to be carried out to verify this.
Eveline’s personality is stable when she is content in a secure family environment, but when something threatens that harmony, she can quickly become angry, violent and vindictive. When she is in a stressed state, she tends to vomit more Mutamycete than usual. Her obsession with family is derived from a combination of instinctively perceiving family as a convenient motif for making the groups she controls blend into society and growing up in an isolated environment starved for affection.
Because Eveline was an artificial life form created as a weapon, huge strain is placed on her metabolism which supported her immortality. If these serious abnormalities in her cell division were not compensated for, or if she missed her regular treatments of special drugs, she would begin to age rapidly. While natural organisms lost their cell reproduction accuracy little by little with age, Eveline’s cell deterioration was 25x faster than normal. If her treatments were missed she would eventually become insane and extremely dangerous. Researchers never let Eveline be deprived of maintenance chemicals for more than six months as the situation becomes too dangerous for observation. If she loses control and her vomiting of Mycelia intensifies, it will affect the surrounding environment and mutate plants, promoting the growth of more psychotropic Mold and infecting insects and animals. She could also use the Mold to spread across buildings, vehicles and hardened structures, meaning she could manipulate and destroy them at will. In order to maintain control over Eveline, she was assigned two handlers immunised to her control who could administer stabilising compounds. Handlers were also given specialised tracking equipment turned to Eveline’s biochemistry. They also imprinted themselves as a leading family figure to facilitate further control over Eveline when on field operations.
Eveline was due for a field test in 2014 and upon successful completion of said test would presumably be cloned and available for purchase to exclusive parties as a viable bioweapon. However, The Connections received intelligence that Eveline was at risk of theft by rival organisations, potentially even by the remnants of the rival company that now hid behind the surface of the recently revived Umbrella Co., better known as ‘Blue Umbrella PMC’. In order to counteract this threat, The Connections made arrangements for her to be smuggled onto an LNG tanker and shipped to their Central American headquarters. But during a storm and thanks to carelessness by one of her handlers, Eveline escaped confinement and ran amok, killing the crew and destroying the ship.
She was later found in a plantation farm in Dulvey, Louisiana, where she roamed unchecked for over three years. Jack Baker discovered the LNG Tanker that had drifted into the wetlands and rescued the surviving Eveline and Mia. But before contacting the authorities, Eveline infected the Baker family with the Mold and were placed under her control. Since then, all four members of the Baker family have been confined to their sprawling estate and residents in the surrounding area believe them to have disappeared. Eveline ordered them to act as her ‘family’ and in order to increase their number, had Jack abduct travellers and vagrants who approached close to the Baker estate and infected them with the Mold. However, all but the Bakers themselves were deemed ineligible as family members, and after being killed they were converted into Molded creatures. Because Eveline had been associated with Mia back to the days when she was confined by the organisation, she really wanted her as a family member. However, her control over Mia was unstable and it was no surprise she was locked up for three years. Eveline eventually came up with an idea to lure her husband Ethan, who’s existence Mia had divulged. If she could place him in the role of a new father, she believed Mia would stop resisting her and become her mother. But Eveline underestimated Ethan’s abilities and she was killed alongside assistance from Blue Umbrella and the Special Cases and Disposal Team.
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