Damien Bramble, the Shifter, the Infected God (Patreon)

Damien Bramble had always struggled with the line between insanity and genius, but when his husband flat-lined before he could even inject the lynx with his “miracle cure”, he effectively went mad. In manic fashion, he injected what remained of his husband with the viral agent he had created in an attempt to bring him back from the brink, and when his husband’s remains instead turned into a pool of fluids he started to laugh hysterically, and was still giggling madly when it took form and launched itself directly at him, whispering foolish incomprehensible things that only madmen would understand.

Having consumed what was had been left of Harrison’s mind and body, Strain Zero had gained a sense of self-awareness and mild sentience. There was a strong magnetism to Damien, likely due to remnants of Harrison’s absorbed mind, that pushed it towards immediately infecting the coyote, and it launched itself at him locating any opening that would allow it access to his systems.

By thoroughly implanting itself inside of the coyote, it wired into the psyche of the broken mind of Damien, and tethered his sanity back together by forcing him to believe the infection that was now flowing through his veins was Harrison’s essence, and the lynx was now apart of him. It explored his desires, motivations, fantasies, and fused its essence with Damien’s, reforging him into a whole new being, the Shifter.

As the Shifter, Damien gained God-like abilities, able to use any of his fluids to create new strains of the virus. Each strain able to manipulate 5 easily classified traits (Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, and Infectiousness), however there were limitations and these biological alterations only seemed to extend to those with very specific chromosomes, specifically the XY chromosomes of males, which seemingly granted immunity to females...for the most part anyway... Not that Damien really cared, women had no place in his gay paradise.

Troubled’s Growing Pandemic (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)