[...... well, it might save her if the wall tries to eat her hand (a thing that is totally possible and more likely than you'd think), so he nods cautiously.
his hand's still ready to draw his sword at a moment's notice, however.]
[It's fine, she won't lose a hand or anything! She focuses for a moment to make sure she hits the button, and she presses it with the pen. Then the tv flips to life, so she'll take a step back to see what it shows.]
---
[A young girl dressed in clothing of a style that might be familiar, given how much Tuuri and Zel talk, is smiling widely as she runs through the streets of a very small town. She's heading towards the docks at the edge of town, full of all the energy you would expect from a 10-year-old. She comes up on two sets of adults and practically jumps into the canoe near one of the men.]
"Okay Dad, I'm ready! let's go!"
[The man there chuckles as he drops a bag into the canoe.]
"Wait for your brother, he's not here yet."
[A teenage boy, still young but clearly resembling a younger version of...well, both men, they're identical twins, but only one of them is his dad. Anyway, the teenager looks a little grumpy as he walks down the dock and climbs into the canoe. He sits next to his younger sister, who just goes 'ehe' as he sits down.
The dad sees the sullen look on the boy's face, and he lets out a small huff of a laugh.]
"Come on now, it's only a week of caring for sheep and then two weeks of quarantine. We'll be back before you know it."
[The girl chips up with a sing-song voice.]
"He's just scared of getting headbutted by a sheep again!"
[That gets the boy to grit his teeth.]
"I am not!"
"You shouldn't be teasing him too much, Tuuri." [the woman with braids in her hair gently chastises the girl as she climbs into the canoe, sitting more towards the front.] "You'll have to shear sheep soon too."
"Maybe, but I won't run away like a scardey-cat!"
[The girl's teasing gets the boy to give her a look, but she just giggles. Meanwhile, the man unties the canoe from the dock before climbing in himself. He waves to his twin and his sister-in-law, who wave back before climbing into their own canoe.]
"That's enough, Tuuri. Onni, think you can steer the canoe?"
[The boy goes to the back of the boat and picks up a small oar, which he uses to steer the boat while his dad rows while sitting backwards in the front.
The memory blurs here, becoming less distinct as it skips ahead a few weeks.]
---
[This is only the halfway point in the memory btw, I just wanted to point out that Tuuri absolutely recognizes what's happening, even before her name is said by her mother.]
But how... We didn't have cameras or anything back home.
Yeah. Lalli and Grandma were off doing mage things, but...
[And the memory is still going, so her eyes are glued to the screen. Even though she thinks she knows what's going to come next.]
---
[The small girl is now sitting on a bench outside of one of the small wooden homes in the village. She has a book in her hands, and she's reading it happily, up until a small boy runs over. She waves to him and greets him, though he doesn't have good news to share. The two little ones get into the boat, and the oldest one throws a few bags in and hurries to navigate the boat out of the little private dock and away from the village.
The girl is crying the entire way, while the oldest boy rows the three of them to a nearby island with a small cave for shelter.
The night passes, with the oldest boy holding onto his sister, while their small cousin sits nearby.
Day becomes night, and night becomes day. The three kids stay on that island, waiting. Sometimes smoke can be seen coming from their home island.
One time, the girl wanders close to the edge of their safety island, watching a pillar of smoke trail up from what should be the center of town. The air on the lake is still, quiet enough for the girl to hear a series of screams, followed by gunshots. Then silence once more. A few minutes later, another pillar of smoke rises from the town.
The girl is clutching on to a nearby tree so tightly that her fingers are digging into the bark. That's when the oldest boy comes over and places a hand on her shoulder.
The girl looks up to her brother.]
"Mom and Dad are okay, right? We'll see them on the quarantine boats?"
[The boy's stoic look falters, and his eyes get a little misty. He blinks a few times and looks away rather quickly.]
"Don't worry about the grown-ups. We have to take care of ourselves over here."
[The girl is clearly dissatisfied with that answer, but she still gives a sullen answer.]
"Okay..."
[Then the older boy nudges her back towards the cave.]
[She honestly is looking a little misty-eyed herself now, and she sniffles a bit as the footage of her life ends. But when Zel speaks up, Tuuri is quick to wipe at her nose and smile.]
I can't believe how much smaller I was back then. And Lalli too! He outgrew me by the time he was seventeen.
[Maybe if she smiles enough the tight, twisting pain in her chest will go away.]
[Listen. Sometimes you try to find the positives in everything, because it's really sad otherwise.]
It's alright. It's...it is what it is, yeah? That's as much a part of my past as anything else is. It was hard, growing up after all of that. But I had Onni and Lalli with me, so it was alright.
It was people transforming into trolls when they reached the end of their infection with the Rash. The gunshots were people protecting themselves from their neighbors as they turned into trolls.
That's why they burned down the houses too. There's ways of cleansing a house that don't involve burning it down, but when you're dealing with a mass outbreak in a small village there just isn't the time or resources for that.
That's what the Rash does. It mutates people into trolls.
...I should specify that we just call them 'trolls', they're not like the trolls of legend or anything. Trolls didn't exist in my world until the Rash appeared.
They're really dangerous too! Some of them can move unnaturally fast, and all they do is bite people and spread the virus. And, er, eat people too, sometimes.
It's one of the ways. But an infected person who hasn't changed yet can also spread it through the air, by coughing or just breathing without a mask on.
Onni and I were lucky. We had just returned from taking care of the sheep, and we hadn't gone to town yet. Lalli came and warned us, and we were able to get away without coming in contact with anyone else. We didn't have very many immune people on the island, Grandma and Lalli were two of the very few. Everyone else...
[Well. Zel can guess what happened to everyone else.]
[He won't believe she's completely fine, but it's probably best to leave it at that. He turns to look over his shoulder -- it's time they looked for a way out of here. But when he does, the screen suddenly flickers to life once again, this time, with a scene familiar to him.]
MEMORY: HEROICS
You find it before long -- a bandit camp just outside the village. They clearly weren't expecting anyone to retaliate after their raid. With a swift slash of your sword, you take out the man standing guard. The others climb to their feet and whirl around to see you and your men.
You point your sword at them. "You shall return what you stole from the villagers!"
"Wh-who the hell're you!?"
"Get 'em!"
You lunge forward, striking two of them down with your sword. Your allies, an axe-wielding warrior and sword-carrying sorcerer follow your lead and take down a few more.
The remaining bandits turn to flee... right into your ambush. A fishman waits in the bushes, hurling balls of mucus at the last few men. It's all over in just a couple minutes.
You gather all of the ill-gotten goods: food, medicine, and valuables, and carry them back to town, where the great sage waits. You see him in his red robes, surrounded by villagers, working his healing miracles for them.
Upon seeing you, the children of the village shout and laugh with joy. The red-robed sage stands to face you with a look of approval. You can think of nothing more rewarding than the pride you feel in this moment.
[Tuuri isn't stupid, she can figure out that the man there is Zelgadis. It raises questions, ones which pique her curiosity, but the thing she takes away from that memory is that Zelgadis is an honorable person who takes care of those who need help. Which says a lot about his character, though Tuuri had already suspected he was like that. Still, she finds herself smiling.]
[Zelgadis stares at the face of the bright-eyed youth, his hand clenching into a fist at his side. It takes considerable effort not to react too intensely.
He shakes his head.]
No... I had no home. We were travellers.
[The display continues, showing the youth speaking excitedly with the red-robed priest while the other men distribute food to the villagers.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Then she pulls out a gel pen and holds it up.]
How about I use this?
[Like it would save them from a trap.]
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I can at least turn it on without touching it.
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his hand's still ready to draw his sword at a moment's notice, however.]
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---
[A young girl dressed in clothing of a style that might be familiar, given how much Tuuri and Zel talk, is smiling widely as she runs through the streets of a very small town. She's heading towards the docks at the edge of town, full of all the energy you would expect from a 10-year-old. She comes up on two sets of adults and practically jumps into the canoe near one of the men.]
"Okay Dad, I'm ready! let's go!"
[The man there chuckles as he drops a bag into the canoe.]
"Wait for your brother, he's not here yet."
[A teenage boy, still young but clearly resembling a younger version of...well, both men, they're identical twins, but only one of them is his dad. Anyway, the teenager looks a little grumpy as he walks down the dock and climbs into the canoe. He sits next to his younger sister, who just goes 'ehe' as he sits down.
The dad sees the sullen look on the boy's face, and he lets out a small huff of a laugh.]
"Come on now, it's only a week of caring for sheep and then two weeks of quarantine. We'll be back before you know it."
[The girl chips up with a sing-song voice.]
"He's just scared of getting headbutted by a sheep again!"
[That gets the boy to grit his teeth.]
"I am not!"
"You shouldn't be teasing him too much, Tuuri." [the woman with braids in her hair gently chastises the girl as she climbs into the canoe, sitting more towards the front.] "You'll have to shear sheep soon too."
"Maybe, but I won't run away like a scardey-cat!"
[The girl's teasing gets the boy to give her a look, but she just giggles. Meanwhile, the man unties the canoe from the dock before climbing in himself. He waves to his twin and his sister-in-law, who wave back before climbing into their own canoe.]
"That's enough, Tuuri. Onni, think you can steer the canoe?"
[The boy goes to the back of the boat and picks up a small oar, which he uses to steer the boat while his dad rows while sitting backwards in the front.
The memory blurs here, becoming less distinct as it skips ahead a few weeks.]
---
[This is only the halfway point in the memory btw, I just wanted to point out that Tuuri absolutely recognizes what's happening, even before her name is said by her mother.]
But how... We didn't have cameras or anything back home.
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[His hand stays on the sword hilt... but it doesn't look like anything's jumping out at them. He watches the screen.]
Is that... your family?
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[And the memory is still going, so her eyes are glued to the screen. Even though she thinks she knows what's going to come next.]
---
[The small girl is now sitting on a bench outside of one of the small wooden homes in the village. She has a book in her hands, and she's reading it happily, up until a small boy runs over. She waves to him and greets him, though he doesn't have good news to share. The two little ones get into the boat, and the oldest one throws a few bags in and hurries to navigate the boat out of the little private dock and away from the village.
The girl is crying the entire way, while the oldest boy rows the three of them to a nearby island with a small cave for shelter.
The night passes, with the oldest boy holding onto his sister, while their small cousin sits nearby.
Day becomes night, and night becomes day. The three kids stay on that island, waiting. Sometimes smoke can be seen coming from their home island.
One time, the girl wanders close to the edge of their safety island, watching a pillar of smoke trail up from what should be the center of town. The air on the lake is still, quiet enough for the girl to hear a series of screams, followed by gunshots. Then silence once more. A few minutes later, another pillar of smoke rises from the town.
The girl is clutching on to a nearby tree so tightly that her fingers are digging into the bark. That's when the oldest boy comes over and places a hand on her shoulder.
The girl looks up to her brother.]
"Mom and Dad are okay, right? We'll see them on the quarantine boats?"
[The boy's stoic look falters, and his eyes get a little misty. He blinks a few times and looks away rather quickly.]
"Don't worry about the grown-ups. We have to take care of ourselves over here."
[The girl is clearly dissatisfied with that answer, but she still gives a sullen answer.]
"Okay..."
[Then the older boy nudges her back towards the cave.]
"Come on. Let's get something to eat."
---
[That's when the show finally ends.]
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He may not know what exactly happened on the other side of the shore, but... he understands enough of it.
Before saying anything, he's looking at Tuuri, to see how she's handling seeing all of that play out in front of her.]
Hey...
[He reaches out a hand to put on her shoulder.]
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I can't believe how much smaller I was back then. And Lalli too! He outgrew me by the time he was seventeen.
[Maybe if she smiles enough the tight, twisting pain in her chest will go away.]
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[... He's not sure if he should go along with that happier take on things, or...
Well, he's not really good at that, so.]
Sorry you had to see that.
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It's alright. It's...it is what it is, yeah? That's as much a part of my past as anything else is. It was hard, growing up after all of that. But I had Onni and Lalli with me, so it was alright.
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... It's hard to completely refrain from asking, though...]
Those were gunshots... What were they -- raiders?
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[She pauses here. Did she really never tell him?]
It was people transforming into trolls when they reached the end of their infection with the Rash. The gunshots were people protecting themselves from their neighbors as they turned into trolls.
That's why they burned down the houses too. There's ways of cleansing a house that don't involve burning it down, but when you're dealing with a mass outbreak in a small village there just isn't the time or resources for that.
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[He is most certainly imagining a different kind of troll.]
cw: zombies
...I should specify that we just call them 'trolls', they're not like the trolls of legend or anything. Trolls didn't exist in my world until the Rash appeared.
They're really dangerous too! Some of them can move unnaturally fast, and all they do is bite people and spread the virus. And, er, eat people too, sometimes.
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Considering all of that, it's impressive you survived as long as you did.
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[Well. Zel can guess what happened to everyone else.]
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... It's a good thing they were there.
[She may have already expressed at much, but it's really sinking in now for Zelgadis. It could have been so much worse without Lalli and Onni.]
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[They might argue sometimes, but she really loves her family.]
But it's really alright! This all happened a long time ago, I've already accepted it. So don't worry, okay? I'm fine.
[She does not explain that it had been so long and she didn't have pictures of her family, so she had been starting to forget what they looked like.]
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[He won't believe she's completely fine, but it's probably best to leave it at that. He turns to look over his shoulder -- it's time they looked for a way out of here. But when he does, the screen suddenly flickers to life once again, this time, with a scene familiar to him.]
You point your sword at them. "You shall return what you stole from the villagers!"
"Wh-who the hell're you!?"
"Get 'em!"
You lunge forward, striking two of them down with your sword. Your allies, an axe-wielding warrior and sword-carrying sorcerer follow your lead and take down a few more.
The remaining bandits turn to flee... right into your ambush. A fishman waits in the bushes, hurling balls of mucus at the last few men. It's all over in just a couple minutes.
You gather all of the ill-gotten goods: food, medicine, and valuables, and carry them back to town, where the great sage waits. You see him in his red robes, surrounded by villagers, working his healing miracles for them.
Upon seeing you, the children of the village shout and laugh with joy. The red-robed sage stands to face you with a look of approval. You can think of nothing more rewarding than the pride you feel in this moment.
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Was that your home village?
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He shakes his head.]
No... I had no home. We were travellers.
[The display continues, showing the youth speaking excitedly with the red-robed priest while the other men distribute food to the villagers.]
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hey maybe the notifs won't break this one
it worked! No notif breaking!
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