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.]
[It takes a moment for him to tear his gaze away from the moving pictures, that vision of a younger, more foolish self. He faces Tuuri.]
I... It was he who--
[His voice is quiet, and it's drowned out by the sounds coming from that screen as it continues.]
MEMORY: STRONGER
No matter how hard you try, it's useless.
Every day, you train with the sword. Every night, you study the magic arts.
And yet, you're still so much weaker than the men you're supposed to be leading. You have no talent for magic. No strength or stamina to stand up against a seasoned warrior. For years, you've tried to get stronger, and failed. You slip up, get wounded, and start to fall behind. Why are you the leader, anyway? You only fail them, time and time again.
And not just them. The villagers who rely on you for protection. The children, waiting for you to return with food and supplies in hand. And most of all... that man. The great sage you've devoted your life to serving. You're failing him.
"I have to be stronger...! Stronger...!"
Today, like many other days, you sneak away to train in secret. It's futile, but you won't stop trying. You swing your sword again and again, using a tree for a target, adding to its hundreds of scars -- all of them pathetically shallow. Desperation growing, you swing and you swing until at last, you collapse. Your muscles ache. Your lungs burn. Is this all you're capable of?
... A familiar chime pulls you from your thoughts. The sound of his staff.
"Allow me to grant that wish."
You can barely stand, but you just manage to turn to see him. The great sage, clad in red, extending his staff towards you.
In that moment, it's as if everything around you is bathed in crimson. Dark tendrils extend from him to you, binding you in place as the magic fills your body. There's a horrible crawling feeling, a feeling of things shifting in unnatural ways underneath your skin, a feeling so strange and terrifying that you can only scream. Your skin hardens, uneven rock protrusions forming in various places. Your sense of feeling dulls, and all that's left is a lingering sense of wrongness... and the bitter taste of betrayal.
[Tuuri doesn't even need to see the end of that memory to guess what's going to happen. By the time the Zelgadis in the video is screaming, Tuuri is already turning away to grab for Zel to pull him into a tight hug.]
[Zelgadis's jaw is tightly clenched, his fists even moreso, as he braces himself for what he knows is coming. A scene that's replayed itself endlessly in his head, in his nightmares, again and again.
But the hug is unexpected. Unfamiliar.
He doesn't know how to react to it. So he just stands there like a statue as the screen finally goes dark...
Then finally, he lets out a short breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and takes another. His hands relax, and the tension lifts.]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:27 am (UTC)... It's hard to completely refrain from asking, though...]
Those were gunshots... What were they -- raiders?
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:30 am (UTC)[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.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:36 am (UTC)[He is most certainly imagining a different kind of troll.]
cw: zombies
Date: 2023-02-28 03:43 am (UTC)...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.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 04:27 am (UTC)Considering all of that, it's impressive you survived as long as you did.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 05:01 am (UTC)[Well. Zel can guess what happened to everyone else.]
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 05:38 am (UTC)... 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.]
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 12:33 pm (UTC)[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.]
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:14 pm (UTC)[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.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 03:28 pm (UTC)Was that your home village?
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 05:50 pm (UTC)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.]
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 11:08 pm (UTC)That speaks even more highly of you, that you would do that for relative strangers.
[She watches it continue, though eventually she speaks up again.]
Who's that man in the robes?
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 11:33 pm (UTC)[And despite those accolades, there's no warmth in his tone. The tension in his body doesn't let up, either.]
no subject
Date: 2023-02-28 11:58 pm (UTC)[Hm. She sees the tension in Zel's body. Something tells her that this isn't going to be a happy story.]
Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to if you don't want to, I won't push or anything. But I'm here if you want to.
hey maybe the notifs won't break this one
Date: 2023-03-01 12:16 am (UTC)I... It was he who--
[His voice is quiet, and it's drowned out by the sounds coming from that screen as it continues.]
Every day, you train with the sword. Every night, you study the magic arts.
And yet, you're still so much weaker than the men you're supposed to be leading. You have no talent for magic. No strength or stamina to stand up against a seasoned warrior. For years, you've tried to get stronger, and failed. You slip up, get wounded, and start to fall behind. Why are you the leader, anyway? You only fail them, time and time again.
And not just them. The villagers who rely on you for protection. The children, waiting for you to return with food and supplies in hand. And most of all... that man. The great sage you've devoted your life to serving. You're failing him.
"I have to be stronger...! Stronger...!"
Today, like many other days, you sneak away to train in secret. It's futile, but you won't stop trying. You swing your sword again and again, using a tree for a target, adding to its hundreds of scars -- all of them pathetically shallow. Desperation growing, you swing and you swing until at last, you collapse. Your muscles ache. Your lungs burn. Is this all you're capable of?
... A familiar chime pulls you from your thoughts. The sound of his staff.
"Allow me to grant that wish."
You can barely stand, but you just manage to turn to see him. The great sage, clad in red, extending his staff towards you.
In that moment, it's as if everything around you is bathed in crimson. Dark tendrils extend from him to you, binding you in place as the magic fills your body. There's a horrible crawling feeling, a feeling of things shifting in unnatural ways underneath your skin, a feeling so strange and terrifying that you can only scream. Your skin hardens, uneven rock protrusions forming in various places. Your sense of feeling dulls, and all that's left is a lingering sense of wrongness... and the bitter taste of betrayal.
it worked! No notif breaking!
Date: 2023-03-01 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 12:51 am (UTC)But the hug is unexpected. Unfamiliar.
He doesn't know how to react to it. So he just stands there like a statue as the screen finally goes dark...
Then finally, he lets out a short breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and takes another. His hands relax, and the tension lifts.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 01:41 am (UTC)She doesn't pull away until she feels him start to breathe again. But when she does, she offers him an encouraging smile.]
It's alright. It's over now.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 02:44 am (UTC)[He looks down at her, his expression softening.]
... It's fine. It's something I have to face every day.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 02:55 am (UTC)With the way you reacted... It's got to be tough, huh?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 03:23 am (UTC)In the blink of an eye, my life as a human was over.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 04:04 am (UTC)But...you're still you, regardless of if you're human or not. You know that, right?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-01 05:13 am (UTC)I...
[He hesitates.]
... I just have to find a way to reverse it.
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