{"id":20804,"date":"2022-10-20T08:30:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T12:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=20804"},"modified":"2022-10-19T19:39:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T23:39:41","slug":"sagas-among-the-arcana-the-plague-doctor-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2022\/10\/20\/sagas-among-the-arcana-the-plague-doctor-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Sagas Among the Arcana: The Plague Doctor, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part I<\/a>, II<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMy medicine works especially well on women.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What a strange claim to make. The thought makes Robert hesitate. It feels like such a lie.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Yet, sacrificing caution, Robert believes it.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

He opens the door.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n

The Devil is drawn \u2014 domination . . . giving into the shadow<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The crow-like creature examines his mother. Its beak hovers over her, looking ready to pierce through her sweating skin at any moment. Robert suddenly feels himself ready to tackle the thing out through the window.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, he sees his mother\u2019s nose twitch with the barest hint of life, and he fools himself into believing it is a result of some plague doctor magic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The creature straightens to its full (albeit tiny) height. It turns its menacing beak toward Robert. For a few moments, it simply stares, and Robert wonders if it wants him to break in some way \u2014 down to his core and pull his stomach out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His grotesque fantasies, however, are halted when the doctor begins feeling for something beneath its robes. It pulls out a leather pouch lined with metal studs on the bottom. Robert blinks for a second making sure his eyes aren\u2019t deceiving him. He would expect such an accessory from a teenage girl looking for something to keep her makeup in. It shocks him to see it being held by the strange doctor. Sure, the black fits the creature\u2019s aesthetic, but the object in itself is so <\/span>mundane.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Robert expresses his observation out of curiosity. \u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor pauses in the middle of taking out some simple-looking tweezers. \u201cWhere someone would normally get such a thing \u2014 a <\/span>store.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Robert refuses to let himself feel stupid. This pouch, for some reason, makes him suspicious of the doctor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He feels childish with the question he\u2019s about to ask, but he pushes on as it feels necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have expected a plague doctor to have such a bag.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t expect a plague doctor in the first place. So how would you <\/span>expect<\/span><\/i> to expect anything from me at all?\u201d It snaps at him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The creature quirks its head to the side, like the bird it imitates. The action threatens Robert to silence. It steps toward him. He takes a step back.<\/span><\/p>\n

It continues in a commanding murmur. \u201cSo what do you expect of me?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The blank black eyes bore into him. He wants to walk back further \u2014 <\/span>run, <\/span><\/i>anywhere away from here. But he remains in his spot, locked by invisible chains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI expect you to help my mother.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span> \u201cAnd <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> is what I <\/span>will<\/span><\/i> do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Devil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To be continued . . . <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part I, II \u201cMy medicine works especially well on women.\u201d What a strange claim to make. The thought makes Robert hesitate. It feels like such a lie. Yet, sacrificing caution, Robert believes it.\u00a0 He opens the door. The Devil is drawn \u2014 domination . . . giving into the shadow The crow-like creature examines his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2257,"featured_media":19691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1257,778,1382],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20807,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20804\/revisions\/20807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}