[guide for writers]

The cold that the main character has makes changes in the physiology of those who get it. Since his body is somehow different from the rest of the people he encounters, he goes through the changes a bit differently. Specifically, he takes longer to change and each change only occurs after he has passed the infection on to enough people. Those people that John changes also do not move on to the next change until they have changed enough people. For John, "enough people" is determined by dramatic effect. For others, it is usually five people.

The changes due to the "cold" follow a pattern. That pattern never deviates. The pattern is as follows:

1. loss of potty training - In other words, the person begins to pee and shit wherever and whenever the need arises with no awareness. They essentially revert to a pre-potty training state. The person might, if they become aware of the problem, start wearing diapers. This will change when the next stage occurs.
2. loss of clothing - The person no longer wears anything. This could be scaled from complete nudity to only wearing one item such as a low cut bra or sheer panties, but the item of clothing would never do anything to cover the person's modesty. If the person hits this stage while wearing clothes, they will subconsciously feel an irresistible urge to remove every item of clothing they are wearing.
3. never bathing - The person now no longer bathes. This means they never shower or take baths. Indirectly, it is also possible that they may begin to neglect other cleaning tasks such as dishes. Given that they no longer wear clothes as per the previous change, laundry would definitely not occur.
4. gender shift - The person shifts away from their original birth gender towards "hermaphrodite", aka duel gender. This means that they could become bisexual. At the very least, the person would no longer technically be heterosexual or homosexual since they now possess the parts of both males and females.
5. bisexuality - The person will now, if they weren't before, become bisexual. The infection is able to alter the person on a very fundamental level. This means that it can alter their sexuality completely.
6. age regression - The person begins to get younger. This means that they will eventually pass through...
7. reverse puberty - The person begins to go through puberty in reverse. In other words, all the changes that result from puberty reverse. Since the previous stage of the process gives the person the features of both genders, the person has no facial hair, no breasts, and no body hair. They no longer can attain an erection, impregnate, or get pregnant. Their voice goes back up to where it was before puberty. It is at this stage that they completely lose their sexuality since puberty is roughly when most people "discover" sex and their own sexuality.
8. mental regression - This is where the person's mind begins to match their younger body. This includes losing anything they may have learned after whatever age they have currently reached. In other words, when they hit 15, the person no longer knows anything they learned after the age of 15.
9. cannot read/write - Normally, this would occur when the person reaches an age at which they have not yet learned to read or write, but if they have passed the infection on to enough people, they reach this stage.
10. cannot walk - The person forgets how to walk. Same as stage 8.
11. cannot talk - The person forgets how to talk. Same as stage 8.
12. infection goes dormant - The final stage of the "cold" is that it goes dormant until the person reaches the age at which they were first infected. While dormant, the infected are carriers. The infected also begin to age normally again. As carriers, they can pass the dormant infection to the uninfected, but it does not manifest itself in the newly infected for a period of 5-10 years, depending on the age of the newly infected person.