The Super-Peasants of Gluten, Syphilis

[SquishyMath]

Markus sighed at Pieter's response, "That's not quite what I meant," he said silently. Now that he mentioned it, he hadn't seen Aug, and he still needed to get some meat. "I'll go look for him, I need to get something from him anyway." The old parson walked down the street away from the commotion towards the butcher's shop. Markus walked up to the door and knocked, "August? You alright in there?" No answer came, so he walked in, not sure why he hadn't in the first place, it was a shop after all. Markus looked around for a while, the room was pretty empty, the only thing out-of-place was the fresh meat sitting on the counter. "Aug?" he called out, hoping for a response, Aug was strange alright, and quite a bit younger than the old parson, but he was still a friend. This was strange, August was usually an early riser, Markus walked around the counter and was about to go upstairs to look for him, when he saw the butcher's body on the floor by the counter. "August!" he cried out, and went over to wake the butcher. Markus kneeled down and began to shake the body, looking around for some water.

[Rufus]

Tybalt wiped a bead of sweat from his face as he pulled his bread and sweets out of their ovens, letting the fires burn out and end today- he didn't think their would be a big demand for baked goods today.

And with that though, he sat down in a corner and cried.

After a few minutes of crying though, he wiped his tears away and got up, made himself presentable, and walked outside. He looked over the others, who were all busy and talking to one another. He spoke loudly, in a voice that was filled with quiet resignation.

"My father is dead." He said, his voice coated in defeat. He put his head down, standing there in the street, but eventually he had to get over it, others would suffer more then him because of that 'blast'. He stepped closer to the others, listening in on their conversation.

[Vocalia]

Looking around nervously, Vocalia gathered what little courage she had and stepped forward. Just when she was about to say something, the baker stepped out and announced his father's sudden death. "H-He's dead?" She murmured with disbelief in her voice. Things seemed to be going downhill since the blast, with someone turning blue and another dying under unknown circumstances.

The raven-haired girl walked up towards Tybalt, looking very worried and sad, but her confusion and worry meant that she wasn't watching where she was going. Just as she was about to approach the grieving baker, she clumsily tripped on the uneven path and hit the ground. Wincing softly, she felt a strong, tingling sensation on her right hand that she assumed came from the fall.

She picked herself up and dusted her dress, only to see her right hand missing a thumb. In its place was a stump with bones and flesh visible, but it didn't hurt at all. Said thumb was now on the ground, completely amputated from her hand and gradually transforming in an outlandishly creepy fashion as it wriggled around autonomously and the muscles, joints and bones under the skin started growing and crawling out from the open end of the finger. As soon as the thumb completed its transformation into a mouse, Vocalia let out a terrified shriek as she watched the animal running up onto her dress while she, paralyzed by shock and fear, sat on the ground, fearfully wondering what was happening to her.

[Vorpe]

Reuias started forward when Vocalia had fallen, but came to a stop when her finger fell off. He stood rooted for a second, but remembered he had seen just as weird things on his travels and started forward while the finger was writhing and transforming. The mouse scurried up the girls arm as he reached her. Putting his hand on her shoulder he spoke softly, "It's ok, whatever's going on it's ok." he considered stomping on the mouse, but since the mouse had come from Vocalia he feared if he hurt the mouse he might hurt the girl. He looked her right in the eye, a message of repressed-wariness, offered strength, and support*shown in his eyes.*

Realizing that the villagers might react to this turn of events much differently Reuias scratched his side and ran his hand through his hair. Satisfied that all his hardware was still in place he prepared for the worst.*

[Enochlord]

Jacoby saw the commotion all around the town, the chaos. He saw his chance to escape with the white stallion, and cursed his conscious for not letting him. People were dying, he had to do something. Correction, they were dead, he could do nothing. A sigh escaped his parting lips. Even if he had run off, what would become of Wolf? Likely it would be shot because of its seeming rabid ways. Something had occurred... he had to study the facts. First, he knew the majority of people dead were elderly. There was one outlier for age, considering his occupation, the outlier could have been blessed. Old age was a possible cause. Second, He knew that everybody alive had a business or was part of one. Nobody in town was capable of magic so it had to be a conspiracy from the government to make their civilians cost efficient, reasonable possibility. That was all the possibilities of facts he could muster. What could be another possibility is where they were. Maybe all the survivors had been near buildings or on the first floor, which added protection from something devastating. He realized he was gnawing on his wrist as he thought... "Ow..."

[AAB]

The parson walked up the street. Pieter's eyes followed him as he passes by the two strangers and headed into the butcher's shop. The baker exited his shop, but there seemed to be something wrong; Tybalt seemed distressed. Pieter walked toward his friend then heard the news: Tybalt's father had died. First the old woman, then the baker's dad. Were they all to succumb to some strange disease these strangers had brought to town?

Pieter looked toward the blacksmith, who he had been worried about earlier. The big fellow was still blue and leaned against the smithy wall, as if to rest. He usually didn't behave like that...did he still feel well?

Suddenly the female stranger shrieked! Pieter's eyes darted back toward her. For an instant he feared she may be a which and was about to cast a spell that would kill even more of them. Then Pieter glanced to the ground and he realized she was only a simple girl, frightened by a harmless mouse. Obviously a town girl, too. Most women saw mice on a regular basis and wouldn't react so strongly to one. "It won't hurt you," Pieter said, showing a bit of kindness to the stranger.

Remembering Tybalt's sad news, Pieter turned toward the stable and called, "Jacoby, could he make two?" Then he turned back to Tybalt and asked quietly, "Do you know how he died?"

[Rufus]

The Baker looked over at Vocalia as she walked over, sighing and putting on a strong face, but she fell. Looking down, he saw the mice run near the poor girl. He heard Pieter console her, nodding gently his head to agree with him. Smiling at the girl a bit.

"Country rats are nice and gentle. It's the city rats you gotta worry about." He said, the old proverb coming to mind and bringing some normality to the crazy situation. But his face went back to drooping again as Pieter asked him about his father. He shook his head a little, the scene coming back to his mind.

"He died in his room... It looked like he was looking at the window when it happened. His eyes... were open..." Tybalt cried, his voice choking up slightly at the memory. He quickly raised his hand to his head and shook his head, shaking the tears and sadness away. He spoke to himself next, under his breath.

"Gotta be strong... for the women..." He murmured, before looking back at the others with a neutral expression. He then glanced over to the blacksmith, and saw he was blue. This horrified him, more then even the death of his father! He stared for a moment, before turning away, and then turning back to hope it was a trick of his eyes.

"What sorcery is this!?" Tybalt yelled, pointing at the blacksmith. He held his hand high and waved it around, before looking to Markus. "What devilry has befallen us!?" He shook his head in disbelief, his natural superstitious attitude coming through. He just hoped that this was all a dream, and soon he would wake up and start making some bread! This day was beyond anything he could ever imagine, it was like his life had become one of those tall tales spread by traveling merchants to entertain children! He looked towards the others, his hands opened and pointing upwards like claws, his wild eyed expression almost begging for the others to confirm that what he was experiencing was, in fact, happening.

[Wolverbells]

Grace stood near the blacksmith, worried for his health, when she heard the shriek of the girl made her turn around. She couldn't see what the girl was frightened about, but it scared Grace. She began to walk away slowly. Two deaths, and the strange happenings made her fear something bad was coming. She looked over to the baker, giving him a sympathetic glance. Her parents were once good friends with his, and it was sad to see his father go.

She was now a ways from everyone. Even though she would've liked to try and help, she still had a shop. Grace turned and made her way up the steps and through the door. It was hard trying to process the events of the day. She went behind the counter and sat down on her chair, her arms on top of the counter. 'What is going on?' she thought to herself, before letting her head rest on her arms.

[Vocalia]

Thanks to the kind support from Reuias and the villagers, Vocalia gradually composed herself and gathered enough courage to have a look at the thumb-turned-mouse. It looked, moved and behaved just like a normal mouse and it seemed docile. She timidly moved one finger to touch it and the rodent stood still as she stroke the animal on the back. Despite its origin, Vocalia found herself calming down and actually enjoying its presence, but she still wanted her thumb back. As she was wondering how to turn the adorable mouse back into a human thumb, she picked the small rodent on her palm, only to have it wriggle around as if it was having a seizure and turn back into a human thumb, which then reattached itself back onto the stump it left behind. "I-I don't think even the kindest country mice could do that..." She uneasily looked around, wondering if she could do that again.