#vcps

I think for the "I'm no snail" revelation to work better there should have been some other behavior altering affects from the parasites beforehand. Something mild so the twist still works but isn't out of the blue.

SO hear me out. A VCP (vocal chord parasite) infection is reverse rabies.

Rabies spreads by migrating into the salivary glands, then triggering salivation and causing disorientation and extreme anxiety to the host. Since it's hosts are wild animals, their reaction to this anxiety is to become fearfully aggressive and erratic, making them likely to bite, spreading the infection. But this strategy doesn't work with humans. We don't use our mouths as weapons, we use them to connect with each other, to talk.

Codetalker speculates that VCPs co-evolved alongside us and aided early humans in socialization and finding mates. It makes sense. The parasites lay dormant until they are awoken by speech, which indicates that another human is nearby, and start reproducing. Perhaps the eggs of these early parasites couldn't float in airborne particles and had to be transferred directly via kissing. This could explain why they don't affect prepubescent humans. Reproducing in a host that won't be spreading them is a waste of the parasite's resources. Perhaps even though these modern parasites can spread through airborne droplets, they still have this evolutionary holdover.

So back to the reverse rabies thing. What if instead of anxiety, the VCPs had a mood boosting effect, relaxing the host and encouraging them to seek out socialization. People talking, laughing, just hanging out and breathing next to eachother, especially indoors, would spread those infected moisture particles. This would allow VCPs to infect new hosts more effectively than other airborne viruses. So what if there was a boost in morale ahead of every outbreak? Everything seems to be going exceptionally well until suddenly people start dying.