You evil gods! Think turning me into a virus will get rid of me?!
Reincarnated as a Virus
, written by Zero300
Made for the Adventum Contest: Chosen Theme: Reincarnated as an X (Virus)
Associated Tropes:
- Acceptable Break from Reality: It isn't just Moss that's sentient. All the viruses encountered are sentient, and behave like humans, with premeditation and active malice, looking out only for their own best interests.
- Appeal to Authority: Deconstructed. Moss appeals to the gods to vouch for his innocence. They defy him by blasting a nearby tree with a lightning bolt. Only after he is executed and in the afterlife does he realize that the gods are in on the conspiracy to frame him, with even the god of death judging him guilty without evidence.
- Artistic License – Biology: As noted by the author's note, the reader should not expect the behavior of viruses listed nor plant physiology be scientifically accurate:Author's Note: I am not well versed in biology and plant physiology so don't expect the story to be scientifically correct. Thanks for understanding.
- Fantasy Pantheon: The entire pantheon is entirely fictional.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Moss spent his life serving his country faithfully, fought plagues and famines, tended the wounded, and did many, many other acts of charity, gaining the [Saint] title. The moment somebody came and accused him, not only was he convicted without any trial, without even any evidence presented on-screen, for countless atrocities he couldn't possibly have committed, but he was stoned, lynched, executed, and an angry mob ransacked his home, taking everything of value, and destroying the rest.
- Jerkass Gods: All the gods, save the God of Life, are a bunch of greedy bastards willing to murder their fellow gods over a vial of elixir, and see nothing wrong with framing an innocent human for horrific atrocities, and condemning him to eternal torment for crimes they know he didn't commit. Even the final arbiter calls Moss's protests of his innocence "ridiculous", dubs Moss an unrepentant liar who refuses to admit his guilt, and upon finding out that he can't be made Deader than Dead because Moss consumed said elixir as his soul was being destroyed, instead shoves his consciousness into a viral particle and forgot all about him.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Because the "heroes" had a hand in executing Moss, they've hamstrung themselves by destroying the source of their most powerful healing agents. Now they're almost completely reliant on Farmer Hero's vastly inferior herbal remedies.
- Reincarnated as a Non-Humanoid: The story was written for a contest which had a theme that was this, specifically one about being reincarnated as a virus.
- The Scapegoat: To hide their crimes, the Jerkass Gods condemn Moss with a Frame-Up, decry him to the god of death, and when the god of death, ignoring his protests, realizes he can't just blast Moss to oblivion, instead gets the "brilliant" idea to force Moss to "repent" by turning him into a virus to fight other viruses.
- Stupid Evil: Even if Moss was guilty of the crimes of which he's accused, like unleashing a plague, fusing his consciousness with a viral particle and setting it loose upon the world, filled with malice and thoughts of vengeance, is a particularly bone-headed thing to do, especially considering that with the consumption of "Elixir" now has Resurrective Immortality and can keep reviving over and over again, learning from his mistakes and getting nastier each time.
- World of Jerkass: Up to eleven and breaking the knob trying to turn it higher:
- The only being who took heed of Moss's cries of innocence is Moss's patron, the God of Life, who is then literally torn to pieces soon after by the rest of the pantheon who wanted to steal his vial of elixir. For the "crime" of witnessing this, one of said gods blasts Moss's soul to nothingness, but Moss consumes the elixir instead out of spite, just so the greedy bastards can't get at it. Then when he's reincarnated as a virus infecting a blade of grass, he encounters other viruses, and rather than being mindless microbes, they act with premeditation and malice.
- Even the sun is a royal jerk. The only reason there's life on Moss's world is that the flaming ball of malice at the center of the solar system is too apathetic to bother going after the world Moss lives on over 99% of the time. The one time it did notice the planet, The God of Life got it to back off by winning a staring contest, and even then that was just barely and at extreme pain to the eyes with serious risk of permanent blindness...
