Wasting Fall
“Is he still losing weight?” Hunter asked in a quiet voice and Musiel winced. “I wish I could say no,” the dark angel sighed and leaned on the railing beside Hunter. It wasn’t unusual for angels without mates to start losing weight, eventually becoming too weak to fly. No amount of sunshine and restorative tea seemed to help, nor any of the caloric supplements the healers had tried. Tabbris said it looked like what human neonatal doctors called ‘failure to thrive.’
Causes
Wasting Fall is caused by a nutritional deficiency. Angels require a certain amount of chlorophyll ingested in their diet in order to properly metabolize sunlight. This chlorophyll is found in a certain kind of algae which then bonds with the angelic cells and forms a support network for the mitochondria, allowing for greater oxygen use and efficiency.
Live cultures of algae can be used in place of direct consumption of the algae itself.
Wasting Fall does not affect the angelic population at the same rate due to differences in the gut microbiome. Some angels can spend decades without ingesting algae without ever showing symptoms of Wasting Fall while others become sick and rapidly decline within days of their arrival. The duration of the disease and its progression differ due to diet and gut microbes, as well.
Wasting Fall has no connection whatsoever to "nefilim corruption" as described by the archangels in 1995.
Symptoms
Without treatment, angels cannot process sunlight through photosynthesis. Early symptoms include migraine, dizziness, fatigue, shedding of hair and feathers, and eventually develop into muscle pain and atrophy, ataxia, nausea, and death.
Treatment
The only known treatment is consumption of the necessary chlorophyll via direct algae ingestion or live cultures of algae, similar to probiotic use in humans.
Prognosis
Symptoms frequently begin 6-8 months after arrival on Earth. Untreated, death usually follows in 12-36 months.
Sequela
Those angels who have experienced long-term Wasting Fall symptoms often experience loss of feathers and hair which results in difficulty regulating body temperature and the inability to fly. Flight is usually lost long before this stage due to muscle atrophy and joint pain.
Muscle and joint pain associated with Wasting Fall has been compared to human fibromyalgia in its intensity and tendency for flare-ups. This stage is the longest-lasting and causes the most intense discomfort and pain.
History
In early 1940, the first cases of Wasting Fall were recorded in four angels under examination in Provence, France. The angels complained of headaches and dizziness which made it difficult for them to fly. French doctors were unable to diagnose the problem and the angels wasted away over the course of the following six months until they had all died. Other cases appeared throughout the angel population in the following years, always ending in the death of the angel after several years of horrible suffering and pain.
Cultural Reception
Wasting Fall came to be identified as a cultural boogeyman in human society. As the disease was misunderstood, angels diagnosed with it were considered dirty or contagious in spite of multiple studies which showed that it could not jump species between angels and humans. Angels became unpopular in human social circles, eventually driving them to the outskirts of society as lepers or pariahs. Angels are frequently turned away from social support services like food kitchens and homeless shelters due to fears of Wasting Fall.
In the 1980s, during the discovery and epidemic of the AIDS virus, humans associated the autoimmune deficiency with the known autoimmune symptoms of Wasting Fall and assumed angels to be the cause. Wasting Fall was believed to have jumped the angel/human species barrier at this time to develop into HIV/AIDS and caused further stigma in the angelic population.
Type
Physiological
Parent
Origin
Natural
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Common
Affected Species
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