001 ❅ home sick?

[scowlish]

[At first, there is only a blur of sensation - dappled sunlight filtered through tree branches on soft grass, the feeling of a cat's warm belly under the hand, the scent of petrichor and fresh-baked bread, the vague taste of blueberries at the back of the throat, a soft female voice saying 'love you' in such a cheerful tone.

The tonal shift is abrupt and jarring, all that pleasantness drowned out by fear and loss and pain and aching loneliness. Just for a few moments.

And then a voice coalesces from the combination of sensations and emotions, and it sounds exhausted beyond reason, a little husky, breathy.]

This is very important. Please pay attention.

[A pause, and the feeling of fear is back, the sharpness of immediate anxiety overlaid on the background thrum of existential dread.]

Has anyone come down with a rash that wasn't there before? It'll be itchy and sore. Might be combined with vomiting and spells of fever.

If anyone is out there and has symptoms like that, isolate yourself immediately and please call me.

[A pause, and a little 'hmph' noise.]

I'm Onni Hotakainen.

Comments

[scowlish]

[The sensation of a deep sigh, and the blooming of a headache behind the temples.]

They turn into things called Trolls, lose their sense of self, and live to hunt and infect others.

[snaggletooth]

[ just like him fr

There are already living things that do that, aren't there? ]

So I guess it's serious for someone seeing these signs, hm! What will calling you do?

[scowlish]

[The sensation of a very deep sigh, and then a heavy sort of sadness that lingers in the back of his voice.]

If someone calls me, I'll talk them through their options, explain the process, and come later to put them out of their misery and guide their soul to the afterlife.

cw: skin gore

[snaggletooth]

[ There's a pause, probably of a disconcerting length for someone listening on in the middle of a discussion of this nature. This person is thinking, an act that tickles the link between them like the buzzing of insects.

Then, there is a flicker of an open lesion, although the top layers of skin fold away from an odd oily blackness instead of red. ]

Would you please explain, then? I'm curious. Just don't take this as though I'm offering myself up to die.

[scowlish]

[Onni is simply quiet while the person he's talking to thinks. He can hear it, the way the other person's mind is working, a low humming buzz that starts to make his ear tickle after a few moments.

Then he sees that lesion, just a flicker, and Onni's brow furrows as he focuses on what he could make out of it.]

That doesn't look like the Rash to me. But we can't rule it out either.

[A pause, as he considers what else he might need to explain.]

It's pretty simple. You get a rash, red and sore and itchy. Then you start vomiting, have a fever, and other signs of being sick. You're bedridden for several weeks, and then your body starts to mutate into a Troll. The disease eats your skin away in some places, in others it creates pustules and tumors, and you stop resembling a human, lose your sense of will. We've never been able to bring back someone who's progressed that far.

[A hum, deep in his throat. There's the sensation of him crossing his arms against his chest.]

But like I said, that doesn't look like the Rash, really.

[snaggletooth]

[ Where other minds are reactive, Ivan's side of the connection remains still and silent while Onni explains, like speaking into a vacuum void. There's no rush of relief when he's done, in spite of those twinfold reassurances. That would've required having truly been worried to begin with. ]

Thank you.

That was a lot of information! I can't say I've experienced any of those things so far, so let us hope that doesn't change. To tell you the truth, it stings only slightly. I can almost forget that it's there, if it wasn't for the bleeding.

[ Perhaps the fact that it doesn't hurt is stranger. ]

Where was it you learned all of this? The biology curriculum at Anakt Garden wasn't this extensive.