Well of course I was cuter, girls are way cuter than boys at that age.
[Luckily Lavi will get to see, since the memory on display shifts over to a new one! All the smugness from Tuuri's expression vanishes as she watches this memory play.]
---
[The video opens up on a sight kind of like the bottom panel here. Several small rooms in a row, with all glass walls, with men and women in full-body plastic suits walking the halls around them. Three of the little rooms in a row are taken up by three children: a teenage boy, a young girl, and a young boy. All three look enough alike that it's obvious they're related. Siblings, cousins, or a mix of the two. And each one of them is in their own room, isolated from everyone else.
The girl in the middle is laying on her cot and kicking her feet.]
"Ughhhh, this is so boring! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"
[She sits up and looks to one side, where the older boy is.]
"Onni, when do we get out?"
[The boy answers, but his voice sounds nearly as tired as he looks.]
"Eight more days."
[The girl makes a frustrated noise and flops back down on her bed. There really is a lack of things to do here, they didn't even give her any books to read! This is an absolute tragedy.
Soon one of the people in plastic suits walks by, pushing a large machine with several nozzles sticking out of it. The girl rolls over onto her stomach to watch it roll past her wall, around a corner, and down another hall. Then she looks to the other, younger boy, who is wide-eyed and awake and is sitting on top of his narrow desk.]
"What do you think that's for?"
[The younger boy answers her right away:]
"Cleaning."
"Yeah, but for cleaning up what?"
[The young boy opens up his mouth and starts to say 'bodies', but he's interrupted mid-word by the older boy, whose words attract the attention of both kids.]
"It's a boat, there's plenty to clean here. Now go to bed."
[The girl makes a pouting face.]
"But I'm not tiiiiired!"
[The older boy's voice sounds a little raw when he speaks again.]
"Go to bed, Tuuri."
[The video becomes a blur as time skips forward several days. After two weeks of being in quarantine, the three children are finally let out of the glass rooms. The three are led to the gangplank, which lets them out at the docks at a decently-sized town. The oldest boy looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but the two younger ones are staring wide-eyed at everything here like it's the first time they've seen anything like this. The girl in particular is humming happily as she practically skips down the gangplank, setting foot on the docks before the two boys. She has the wrapping paper from a piece of candy in her hand too, but she ends up shoving that in her pocket so she can run further down the dock.]
"Look at all of this! I bet Dad and Uncle Jukka will think it's cool! And mom too, she'll love to have some fresh bread after all the yucky food we had in quarantine. Bread should help with seasickness, right? All the old ladies might need some too before they-"
"Tuuri!"
[The voice is sharp, and it's enough to make the girl stop and look back to the older boy. His hands are balled up in fists, and he's biting his lip. He's clearly trying to force himself to be strong, but it's a struggle. The younger boy seems to have put the pieces together quicker too, and he's now looking around anxiously as he grabs for the older boy's sleeve.
The older boy speaks up again:]
"Come on. We have to go."
"But..."
[The girl's sentence trails off, as she finally takes in what the boys realized first.
The Rash had swept through the town unexpectedly, going undetected for days while it slowly spread through everyone in the town. Over 75 people got onto that quarantine ship. Men, women, and children, all residents of the same town. Tuuri's family, friends, and acquaintances.
The ones to leave that same ship were the one immune child from that island and his two cousins, who he had managed to warn away from everyone else before they had a chance to be exposed to the deadly virus that had swept through town.
[wow, tuuri was right... she was a way cuter kid than lavi???
Except he's not thinking of that, he's not thinking of that at all. He just watches this memory play out, feels the slowly looming sense of dread so very clearly even while Tuuri maintains her innocence throughout. That's the terrifying part of it, to see a tragedy through a child's eyes. At least Lavi had always known they would be, even as a child. At least he'd been trained to see.
He lifts his hand to touch Tuuri's, at first tentative, then more firmly.]
...Where did you go?
[Where did they live? How did these three children survive? Were they swept up into the pages of history like all innocents, defined by the tragedy they suffered?]
[It's a past that is very familiar to Tuuri. She's had a lot of time to replay it in her mind, to wonder what went wrong back then. The answers come easy, even now.]
Onni was old enough to join the military, so the three of us moved to a base in the far north. I started working in the repair shop once I was 13, and Lalli started scouting when he turned 13 too. Onni and Lalli are mages, so there was plenty of work for them to do there. And once we realized I have a talent for learning languages, I started working as a skald in addition to my mechanic work.
It wasn't easy. But we had to do what we could. If Onni hadn't taken responsibility for us, then me and Lalli would have ended up in an orphanage.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2023-03-30 03:59 am (UTC)Well of course I was cuter, girls are way cuter than boys at that age.
[Luckily Lavi will get to see, since the memory on display shifts over to a new one! All the smugness from Tuuri's expression vanishes as she watches this memory play.]
---
[The video opens up on a sight kind of like the bottom panel here. Several small rooms in a row, with all glass walls, with men and women in full-body plastic suits walking the halls around them. Three of the little rooms in a row are taken up by three children: a teenage boy, a young girl, and a young boy. All three look enough alike that it's obvious they're related. Siblings, cousins, or a mix of the two. And each one of them is in their own room, isolated from everyone else.
The girl in the middle is laying on her cot and kicking her feet.]
"Ughhhh, this is so boring! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"
[She sits up and looks to one side, where the older boy is.]
"Onni, when do we get out?"
[The boy answers, but his voice sounds nearly as tired as he looks.]
"Eight more days."
[The girl makes a frustrated noise and flops back down on her bed. There really is a lack of things to do here, they didn't even give her any books to read! This is an absolute tragedy.
Soon one of the people in plastic suits walks by, pushing a large machine with several nozzles sticking out of it. The girl rolls over onto her stomach to watch it roll past her wall, around a corner, and down another hall. Then she looks to the other, younger boy, who is wide-eyed and awake and is sitting on top of his narrow desk.]
"What do you think that's for?"
[The younger boy answers her right away:]
"Cleaning."
"Yeah, but for cleaning up what?"
[The young boy opens up his mouth and starts to say 'bodies', but he's interrupted mid-word by the older boy, whose words attract the attention of both kids.]
"It's a boat, there's plenty to clean here. Now go to bed."
[The girl makes a pouting face.]
"But I'm not tiiiiired!"
[The older boy's voice sounds a little raw when he speaks again.]
"Go to bed, Tuuri."
[The video becomes a blur as time skips forward several days. After two weeks of being in quarantine, the three children are finally let out of the glass rooms. The three are led to the gangplank, which lets them out at the docks at a decently-sized town. The oldest boy looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but the two younger ones are staring wide-eyed at everything here like it's the first time they've seen anything like this. The girl in particular is humming happily as she practically skips down the gangplank, setting foot on the docks before the two boys. She has the wrapping paper from a piece of candy in her hand too, but she ends up shoving that in her pocket so she can run further down the dock.]
"Look at all of this! I bet Dad and Uncle Jukka will think it's cool! And mom too, she'll love to have some fresh bread after all the yucky food we had in quarantine. Bread should help with seasickness, right? All the old ladies might need some too before they-"
"Tuuri!"
[The voice is sharp, and it's enough to make the girl stop and look back to the older boy. His hands are balled up in fists, and he's biting his lip. He's clearly trying to force himself to be strong, but it's a struggle. The younger boy seems to have put the pieces together quicker too, and he's now looking around anxiously as he grabs for the older boy's sleeve.
The older boy speaks up again:]
"Come on. We have to go."
"But..."
[The girl's sentence trails off, as she finally takes in what the boys realized first.
The Rash had swept through the town unexpectedly, going undetected for days while it slowly spread through everyone in the town. Over 75 people got onto that quarantine ship. Men, women, and children, all residents of the same town. Tuuri's family, friends, and acquaintances.
The ones to leave that same ship were the one immune child from that island and his two cousins, who he had managed to warn away from everyone else before they had a chance to be exposed to the deadly virus that had swept through town.
Onni, Lalli, and Tuuri.
ONLY them.
No.
One.
Else.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-01 02:28 am (UTC)Except he's not thinking of that, he's not thinking of that at all. He just watches this memory play out, feels the slowly looming sense of dread so very clearly even while Tuuri maintains her innocence throughout. That's the terrifying part of it, to see a tragedy through a child's eyes. At least Lavi had always known they would be, even as a child. At least he'd been trained to see.
He lifts his hand to touch Tuuri's, at first tentative, then more firmly.]
...Where did you go?
[Where did they live? How did these three children survive? Were they swept up into the pages of history like all innocents, defined by the tragedy they suffered?]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-01 02:46 am (UTC)Onni was old enough to join the military, so the three of us moved to a base in the far north. I started working in the repair shop once I was 13, and Lalli started scouting when he turned 13 too. Onni and Lalli are mages, so there was plenty of work for them to do there. And once we realized I have a talent for learning languages, I started working as a skald in addition to my mechanic work.
It wasn't easy. But we had to do what we could. If Onni hadn't taken responsibility for us, then me and Lalli would have ended up in an orphanage.