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“Now peasant, you need to sit still if this is all going to work,” Lord Nisovin said, not unkindly, to the very excited dwarf that sat down in the chair in front of him. Despite the peasant's best attempts at being still, he failed, bouncing up and down in the seat out of excitement. Lord Nisovin sighed slightly, snapping his fingers causing several ropes to appear and wrap around the peasant and chair, binding him up tightly. “Better.”
“What are we going to do, Nisovin? I mean Lord Nisovin. Because you're a Lord. But you're a gnome. That seems weird. A gnome Lord, instead of a dwarf Lord. But you have magic, so maybe not odd. You're going to use needles on me? Are you going to turn me into a superhero, like in the comics? How they all get injected with like, chemical X? Man that would be so cool, I can't...” the peasant continued to yammer as Nisovin carefully set out a tray of needles and potion bottles. Nisovin tuned the hyperactive peasant out, let him continue to talk about whatever it was he was saying, inserting mhms every so often.
“And then everyone was all like, “Jimmy! You can't jump off that tree!” but I showed them and jumped and ohhh...that feels weird...” the peasant said, eyes fluttering as Nisovin poked him with a needle filled with a sparkly red substance. The peasant started to giggle, eyes skittering around as Nisovin continued to jab him with different needles, watching the peasants reaction.
When Nisovin seemed pleased with the results, he pulled out a heavily modified diamond helmet. Where the open visor part would normally be, a lucid crystalline display was, shimmering with reality changing potentials. Heavy metal clad cables ran from the back of the helmet into a machine, which itself was connected to a larger display panel hanging on the wall.
“Ohhh so shiny!” the peasant said with a giggle, mouth hanging slack as Nisovin carefully placed the helmet on his head, adjusting it so it fit tightly.
Nisovin then flipped a switch on the helmet, looking up at the display behind the peasant.
The display flickered on, showing a first person view of what appeared to be a rather dangerous reality, old dwarven keep discarded and ruined, hazy reflections of other dwarves visible nearby, toiling to repair the wall.
“So what's all this? Oh! There's a horn. Wait, zombies?” the peasant slurred, twitching in his restraints as zombies appeared on the screen. He continued to mumble and whine as he attacked the zombies in his mind, the battle playing out on the screen.
The peasant did quite well in the battle, at least according to the checklist Nisovin seemed to be ticking off as he watched.
“How do we win?” the peasant said, panting as he struggled against the ropes as he struggled against the horde of zombies.
“You don't,” Nisovin said calmly, watching as the zombies finally overwhelmed him, killing him, and knocking the peasant out, body going slump in his chair.
“Mmm. Unfortunate side effect. Or maybe fortunate. Will have to adjust the dosage of medicine so he's more focused on the game and talks less. Possibly get it to be an automatic drip solution. That would be very good. Also, still need to get all the displays and panels to sync up so I can pit them against each other...”
Nisovin murmured as he pulled out several more empty chairs, complete with their own display helmets.
The peasant drooled on himself, limbs twitching as he dreamed of forgotten battles.