Luis Sera

[Screened to Leon as hard as he can... still not unhackable]
Hey, Leon, give me a call on the encrypted channel on the radio. I have to talk to you about something.

[Screened to Maria, same]
Hey baby, when do I get to see your beautiful face again?

[/Screened]

So, allow a curious man his little investigations. Has anybody actually been bitten by one of those crabs and lived to tell about it without exploding any buildings in the process?

[HEAVILY SCREENED to all specified parties]

[Raccoon Survivors, Team Science & Friends of Luis only]

Amigos! It breaks my heart to mention it, but you've seen the last of me around the bar for a while. Circumstances have forced me to lay low. You know how it goes, big mess, have to cancel a few dates and arrangements, things get ugly. If you need to get a hold of me, use the network.

Securely, por favor.

[Unhackable: Maria only]

Hey baby, sorry about the date. I need to talk to you about something.

[Unhackable: Ada only]

I've been meaning to have a few words with you too, amiga.

[Seriously, pretend he read a book about hacking and put every lock on this he could find.]

VENOM ELECTROLYSIS RESULTS

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FURTHER NOTES ON NUTRIENT GEL

A. Thick gelatin-based formula saturated with nutrients including sodium, glucose, starches.
Yesterday's data provided reactions when applied to iodine-based solution.
Underreaction to iodine solution suggested to be result of contamination/other
Debris fallen into petri dish midway through
Afternoon's testing, resulting samples discarded after no reactions were found.
More results required before conclusions can be properly
Examined as final results.

[/end of screening]

Maria, que una noche! If you're ever free another evening I'd love to have another stimulating conversation with you.

Kind of hard to miss all the noise about people "disappearing" around here. You people sure can raise an uproar, you know?

So, uh- perhaps it would be helpful to mention that there's a guy... by the name of Bill... Night? Nye? I think it was? I was supposed to pick something up from him today but no sign of him.

Just to help the investigation.

[Private to Self/Medium Security]

Caray caray caray mierda mierda mierda fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK they can take you right in the middle of the night?! Right out of your bed?!

There's no need to panic! You've been perfectly good at keeping it under wraps. It's not going to happen!

Hijo de puta you fall out of one hole and into another, always, always, always!

[/Private]

[Private to Leon]

Hey Leon, uh. This kind of stuff happen a lot?

[Private to Self, Medium Security]

This doesn't make any sense.

I've picked through at least four specimens and I can't find any trace of something that causes the same antibodies in the blood samples. There's no kind of venom sacs or anything of the sort. Their blood, their saliva traces, nothing creates the same reaction. It can't be just... disappearing.

If it's a virus, perhaps it has a rapid rate of decline when the host dies-- but even then, I've been working with some real fresh ones and I'm still not getting what I want. I can't isolate it out of the infected blood samples, and the older ones have stopped getting any results either. Nothing in there but antibodies and sick human cells.

Vete al carajo, it's a little difficult to find a vaccine for a virus you can't even get your hands on.

[/Private]

Is it spring yet? There isn't enough sun around here. I'm starting to get too pale.

So say a gentleman was looking for a lady interested in having a few drinks with him some night this week. Might there be any such bored ladies in all of Manhattan? Everybody says it's a party town, you know.

Ay yi yi, por la nombre de Santa Maria-

The hell is that thing?!

[Private to Self, medium security]

12/24/2008

Examination of another specimen is going well. Have most likely established the creatures' existence as its own occurring species-- none such on record, but naturally occurring to be certain. No parasitic entity or obvious signs of other species' genetic material overtly present.

(Note: In the case of a man-made organism such as a B.O.W., there are obvious differences in genetic structure indicative of a crossbred/laboratory origin. EX: Examining a Novistador specimen reveals both human and insect genetic material separate from that of the Plaga parasite infecting it. No such obvious differences here.)

Slight differences in size and color compared to specimen #1. Specimen #2 is larger and seems to have a more developed exoskeleton in parts, larger mandibles and a few differences in the internal organs. Death caused once again by gunshot-- one high-caliber rifle round removed from the thoracic area, wedged between organs E and F (a "heart" and some sort of digestive organ, purpose and function unknown, further study req'd)

My equipment isn't sophisticated enough in a simple medical office to perform advanced bloodwork and other tests. The only way I'll be able to find out more will be to find more advanced equipment or to put my head together with other researchers.

NEXT TASK:
- Identify function of major organs
- In-depth bloodwork and chemical analysis

[/Private]

Any nerds out there? Does anybody know more about those... crab things, other than that they're mean and they bite? I'm not looking for a full biology lesson or anything, but maybe somebody can enlighten a curious mind.

In the meantime, Feliz Navidad, amigos. Didn't think I'd be seeing another Christmas, but you never know the cards Lady Luck's going to throw at you. She's one tricky dealer, if you know what I mean.

Hey Leon, you guys over there at the bar doing anything for the holiday? And anybody mind if I tag along?

Or perhaps there's a lady out there who'd like a little warm company this holiest of evenings?

Ay yi yi, this place looks worse than my residencia on graduation night. You guys have some kind of miniature apocalypse or something?

I'm no designer but I thought heaven was supposed to look more... I don't know. White and cloudy. Unless, of course, I ended up going the other direction. In which case I'm not terribly surprised, but it's not nearly on fire enough. Your inferno needs to be a little more impressive, you know? Some fire and brimstone.

Well wherever I am, I've got only one very important question.

Anybody got a smoke?