| Marie Laveau's Voodoo Doll | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
Marie Laveau |
|
Type |
Voodoo Doll |
|
Effects |
Causes living death in the person the user hates the most |
|
Downsides |
User loses sense of right and wrong after some time |
|
Activation |
Feeling angry, and then touching the doll |
|
Collected by |
Arthur Neilson and James MacPherson |
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
Romero-637B |
|
Shelf |
394099-1283-509 |
|
Date of Collection |
April 19, 1990 through January 12, 1993 |
| [Source] | |
Origins[]
Marie Catherine Laveau (September 10, 1794 – June 15, 1881) was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo renowned in New Orleans. She and her daughter of the same name became popular and drew spectators in large crowds. Very few facts about have been able to be sustained, and even her year of birth is a little unclear (some records indicate she was born in 1801). Her other occupations are believed to have been a hairdresser, owner of a brothel, and liquor importer.
Of Laveau's magical career, there is little that can be substantiated, including whether she had a snake she named Zombi after an African god, whether the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic saints with African spirits, or whether her divinations were supported by a network of informants she developed while working as a hairdresser in prominent white households and in a brothel she ran. She appeared to excel at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments.
Effects[]
Negative emotions draw people towards the artifact, in particular anger. The user's anger grows to hatred quickly, causing the user to desire the person they hate the most at that time to experience "living death". Anything done to the doll occurs to the victim. However, the victim will never die, even if stabbed in the heart or beheaded. The victim will feel immense pain and feel the brink of death without dying, and theoretically could cause eternal pain. The user will start to lose their sense of right and wrong the longer they go through with the doll.
The doll can be neutralized only when all of the pieces are together. Once together, it takes time for the parts to get reacquainted. Once they are, the pieces start to stitch themselves together. Once the doll is back together, the doll can be neutralized. Neutralizing the doll releases the victim from the doll's effects.
It also appears that the doll can only affect one person at a time, and the effects can last long lengths of time, keeping a victim of the artifact "alive" the entire time.
Collection[]
The artifact was rumored to have existed in 1900, but Warehouse agents were unable to find any information on it. Nine decades later, the Warehouse received a ping about a living, talking human head found in [REDACTED]. Agents Arthur Neilson and James MacPherson were sent to investigate, and after some time talking to the head realized that it was quite real and that, somehow, the person was alive. He claimed to have been torn to pieces by someone who he had once loved dearly, who had become angry at him when she thought he was cheating on her. She obtained a doll believed to have come from Marie Laveau, and tore it to shreds. After the task was done, she took his body parts and the parts of the doll and spread them across the country.
Seeing that the man was suffering what they called "living death", Agents Neilson and MacPherson set about trying to find the parts of the doll. The process was not easy, and it took almost three years to find all of the pieces of the doll. When they finally found the last piece (the head, found in Portland, Oregon), they brought all of the pieces back to the place of the human head. The doll, after about five minutes, began stitching itself back together, and once that was done, the agents neutralized the doll. The neutralizing of the doll brought an end to the man's ninety years of living death. The two agents buried the head where it had been found.
Storage and Handling[]
Neutralizer gloves are mandatory. Negative emotions must be kept in check while handling this artifact. If an agent appears to be falling under the effects of this artifact, make sure to douse the agent with neutralizer.
This artifact must go through the "neutralizer scrubber" before spring each year. Bad things occur if the Warehouse goes through its Spring Cleaning phase before the artifact gets scrubbed.