And now for something completely different...
Hiii again. XD You're all going to be sick of me by the time I get the Horsepersons out of my system.
Ahem. <<; Anyway.
This here is a little essay I've written about the ideas behind my version of Pestilence. Hopefully it's not too boring. ^^; If this breaks any mod rules or anything, just let me know and I'll move it to my journal. Otherwise, comments are appreciated. Thanks.
The Fifth Horseman
The impressive growth of the Good Omens fandom - hereafter referred to as The Book - seems to have expanded fandom focus to include more of the characters than ever before. Still, there are a few areas that still lack development, which is why I present this character sketch of the one Horseman who does not appear in The Book, but who I believe deserves proper attention all the same - Pestilence.
...on his appearance...
While
blue_phlox's depiction in the Egypt comic[1] and Chernobyl picture[2] will forever be my mental image of Pestilence, I also have reasoning behind my idea of how he would present himself. In order to gain access to a lot of medical places, I imagine him looking much like a favourite doctor, which perhaps makes him even more sinister and disturbing. In his ‘off time’ I expect he would go out clubbing a lot, or at least out in general, and would basically be sex incarnate in order to seduce someone into being a carrier for his work. In a general sense, I imagine him to have white hair like Pollution (though it’s cropped shorter), be somewhere between White and Raven in height, and well-built but not stocky. (His frame would of course fluctuate depending on what he’s working on, ranging anywhere from slightly tired to gaunt to hunched-over-and-half-dead.)
...on his work...
Many people portray Pestilence as showing symptoms of his own diseases but never falling to them. I do think he would use his own body to ‘harvest’ his diseases and then spread them to the populace, but I also think he would be able to turn off the more disgusting illnesses once in awhile in order to have a good time. He’s not going to snag a bed partner if he’s obviously sick, and while some would argue that he doesn’t need to participate in order to spread STI’s, I say, where’s the fun in that?
Another point to keep in mind is that before penicillin and modern sanitation laws, most infections and diseases were spread in hospitals. Pestilence wouldn’t even get into a hospital unless he looked like he belonged there, and I assume he would have a few different methods of getting in - either as a patient or as a doctor.
He’s also got an MD and a PhD in medicine and biochemistry that he never went to school for, for obvious reasons. (They didn’t have universities in those days.)
...on his relationship with Famine...
These two have an interesting dynamic. Famine is clearly one of the more powerful Horsepersons, if you consider that there are more ways to starve a person than simply with food. He is also extremely influential, a businessman through and through. Death is obviously the leader, but as War reflects, “...there might one day be an end to War, an end to Famine, possibly even an end to Pollution, and perhaps this was why the fourth and greatest horseman was never exactly what you might call one of the lads” (page 330). In this respect, I find Famine to be the obvious choice for ‘leader’ in lieu of Death’s position as an angel as well as a Horseperson. He’s responsible - this much is shown by his management of his business - and he seems to be the sort who would be on good terms with everybody. In short, Famine is the one that the other Horsepersons would look to in a pinch if Death were not present. I may be completely off the mark here, but that is how I observe him and how I write him, in a general sense.
This take on Famine led me to consider how he and Pestilence would get along, and it occurred to me that if Famine is the responsible one, then of the original Four, Death would be the stoic one, War would be the feisty one and Pestilence would be the fun-loving, slightly psychotic one. (By psychotic I mean prone to mood swings and drunken partying.) Pestilence wants to draw Famine out a little, try to convince him to have fun and not be so serious all the time. Conversely, Famine might expect Pestilence to act a little more rationally and behave himself (which Pestilence of course ignores, unless it’s in his best interests.)
...on his relationship with Pollution...
The Book has exactly one mention of Pestilence, but from that one short paragraph a lot of supposition can be gleaned. The paragraph reads as such:
“Pollution removed his helmet and shook out his long white hair. He’d taken over when Pestilence, muttering about penicillin, had retired in 1936. If only the old boy had known what opportunities the future had held....” (page 263)
Now, from the style of writing for this particular paragraph, one can assume that the point of view is Pollution’s. His reference to Pestilence as ‘the old boy’ - surely an informal, almost fond manner of speaking - shows a definite connection between he and his predecessor, leading me to believe they spent some time together either during or before Pollution’s reign as the White Rider. My own assumption is that Pestilence tutored Pollution in a way, in order to make sure that the boy knew how to handle things before passing the reins over. Again, this is pure speculation, but it seems to me that the best way to go about teaching Pollution would be to have him live with Pestilence for a time, essentially immersing him in Pestilence’s daily life so that he can see how things have been done before and thereby decide how they are going to be done from now on. (I also suspect that they worked on cigarettes together, the possibilities being endless for both of them in that regard.)
...on his mannerisms...
The manner in which Pestilence retreats ‘muttering about penicillin’ stuck in my mind and from those three words an entire personality was born. The fact that he was muttering about it in a supposedly belligerent fashion tells me that he wasn’t prepared to retire, that he is still very much active (as certain SARS epidemics and the widespread AIDS crisis clearly show) and that he was being forced to retreat by circumstances beyond his control. However, that he retreated at all also tells me that he knows how to pick his battles and in that regard I take him to be a very cunning, devious personality. He chose to back off, reassess his goals and allow Pollution to take over while he takes a so-called ‘retirement break’.
Following from that, the act of retiring itself puts me in mind of an older man, but since Pestilence is technically ageless, I had to modify this idea quite a bit. I came to the conclusion that the retirement is what unhinged him. (You’ll see why in my upcoming fic, but for now I’ll just touch on it superfluously.) As stated above, Pestilence was nowhere NEAR ready for his retirement. The discovery of penicillin was, in fact, a complete accident, and therefore was as much of a surprise to him as it was to Fleming. If you look at medical records it’s obvious that Pestilence just stopped making headway and humankind killed off a lot of his work, but of course there is never any mention of what it would do to him psychologically. (He is, after all, a barely-mentioned character in one book, but that’s what makes him so much fun to work with.) Needless to say, losing his work is like losing his life’s purpose, so he would naturally go through all the mental stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Now, Pestilence being Pestilence, I’m not entirely sure if his realm of expertise includes mental disorders, but it would seem natural that he has some measure of influence over them. That’s why I think he’d have gone through the stages in a different order than normal: depression first, because the loss hit him so suddenly; bargaining second - that’s how he negotiated his retirement and how Pollution came into the picture; denial and anger in tandem, once he realised that he may not get the chance to make a comeback, what with Pollution stepping into his place; and acceptance last, once he reconciled himself to the fact that Pollution will probably always have his job, but he can still have some semblance of an existence. It’s not like he’d ever completely lose touch with the Horsepersons - they’re really the only ‘friends/colleagues’ he has.
...on his name...
Quite frankly, I chose the name Allan because when I looked at
blue_phlox's work, he just looked like an Allan to me. His last name, Gelb, has already been used by
dreya_uberwald and I wanted to keep things consistent. I have also seen a version of his name[3] that twists a scientific term for it. (I thought it was rather clever and the story is well-written too.) Of course I’m certain he has other aliases, but for the purpose of my stories he will most likely remain Allan Gelb. Nice and simple; it’s the only thing about him that is.
Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil, and Terry Pratchett. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. William Morrow, 2006.
[1]http://blue-phlox.livejournal.com/5428.html#cutid1
[2]http://blue-phlox.livejournal.com/9423.html#cutid1
[3] http://community.livejournal.com/go_exchange/6803.html : Courtesy of lady_oneiros. That fic is hers.