A world full of stories: Coni the virus




When mom woke him up that day, it was clear to Coni that it was not going to be an easy one. He tried to extend the beginning of the struggle for five minutes more, but his mom's screams were just too loud. He knew what was coming: everything had been packed for weeks, as they had to leave their long time hosts, the bats, to find a new home. The bats had been a great place to live in, if you'd ask Coni. They were somewhat fluffy and stank of mystery. They could stand still for long times, in which he almost lost the senses of what his purpose in life was, falling himself in the warmth of hibernation, and, then, like on a roller coaster, when you wouldn't have expect it at all, bats would start flying and rotating at high speed. It was such an adrenaline boost, that Coni and the other virus became at most productive in those moments, reproducing, transferring genetic materials and infecting. It was not the moment to dig into memories now, though; Mom and Coni had already waited to long to leave: voices coming from other viruses of different sequences and conformation were telling the bats population was no more good for them, if they wanted to survive on. It was time for Coni to go his own way and find his own place in the world. He left mom, he left his bat and started looking around for a new host, like we do when we have just moved from far away to a new country.

The first host he found resembled a bird, but it was bigger, more beautiful and didn't seem to be keen on flying much. As Coni entered its body, he felt a bit inadequate in all that fancy and shining blue plumage. Judging from the luxury, hygiene and conduct of the other cells and organisms, he grew aware he could not afford even a night there and, so, he silently left by the back door the beautiful peacock. Not long after, Coni saw a small dirtish and loud green animal jumping around in the mud and, since his mom had thought him to not have prejudice and to be respectful of all creatures, as they might be all potential hosts, he decided to approach the frog. He said with a confident voice :"may I be your guest?". One single "CROAK CROAK" and Coni was spit outside of his to-be house. Nobody said finding a host would have been easy. Already exhausted by the refusals, he decided to take a rest on the pavement. Unexpectedly a mosquito dropped by. Awoken by the distressing noise and frightened by the sight of the buzzing animal, he left running away. "There is one host you should never visit, Coni" had said his mom one afternoon, "mosquitos! They are simply always fully booked by other visitors and the last thing we want to happen is a conflict between virus".

He decided to stop the search for the day and slowly fell asleep on a cold surface, thinking whether his mom might have already found somewhere comfortable to stay. When he woke up the next morning he felt extremely rested, as if he had slept on 10 mattresses: all around him was fat.
He had entered the famous pig candy land. Golden days shining ahead, pleasure, relaxation and dreamless night filled Coni's mind: he decided to stay in his new house and to get comfortable as fast as he could, no doubt that would be the best holiday of his life. Days passed, months passed and Coni started to become lazy, and the less he worked the more vulnerable he became. For one week straight, he didn't transform, he didn't infect. When he was on the verge of losing his status of virus, one very cold winter day, his fatty host was killed and as Coni woke up, he suddenly was in an entirely new world. At first sight, the new host looked challenging, like a labyrinth, and extremely complex and,in addition, that complexity of configuration was framed into an intricate cacophony produced in a very deep part of itself, most likely the soul. Trying not to be distracted by the thinking sound of his new host, Coni slowly underwent many changes. It was as if he was evolving into a super saiyan version of himself and, although he didn't really know why he was doing it, he put so much energy into the process and succeeded in his transformation.

With the recovery, came the recognition that he had indeed done something incredible: many Coni's were now ready to spread around stronger and more beautiful than he himself had ever been. From the bedtime storytelling of his mom and old legends, he could with certainty state that his new host was a human. According to the myths, some humans were more hospitable than others and although many virus heroes had tried to conquer them, only few had passed in history as victorious. Once occupied, humans were perfect: they seemed to have everything  a virus needed in its life. Coni, though, was personally troubled by something: the continuous thinking sound of the human's mind. The thoughts were going so fast, spiraling in a never ending loop, they were scary thoughts, dark, without hope. Only sometimes the human would light up, when other humans came to visit him. Coni really didn't know how the human could live so long, with all those bad thoughts, for sure, he, as a virus, couldn't. As the first thinking host he had ever visited, Coni decided to try and communicate with it. Sending some sound waves at the limit of perception, he told the human:"If you let me, I would like to go back to the bats. I really loved it there, much more then I like you. To do so, I need you to keep wildlife where it belongs and to care of the forest, the seas and of the delicate balance of the ecosystem". As he did just end a UN speech representing the will of the virus population, Coni the ambassador left his host once and for all and went on looking back for the one and only place he ever called home: the bat.

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