I̝̻̣̱͖͚͗̈̆̕T̤̞̠͎̘̜̤ͬͭ̋ͬ͂̃̇́ ̣̱̳̗̋̾̑ͥͥ̀B̮̺͇̝̼̺ͯ͌̾͗̿͋Ē̝̞̼̣̻͙̙̒ͭG͓̜̅͐̽̐͞Ï̜̳̥ͯN̯͙̮ͧ̀Sͫ͐̂͏͖

[strangerpeople]

I͔T̫͉̄ͮͮͪͧ ̲̜̪̥̓̈́͂̚̚B̫̲̼͕̦͓͕ͩ̏̊͆E̥̱͚̦͓̍G̠̬͓̟̥ͪͣ͆ͬ̓I̅ͯͣ̿N͐̉̎̂ͫͧS͑͆̒ͣ̆


[There is a blight in the vineyard.

It started without warning, deep into the crop. No one noticed. The blight was an insidious little thing, cultivating itself in the weaker vines over the long winter. Then, when summer came, it struck, and there was no stopping it.

The farmers could only watch the blight ravage their gardens. Grapes shriveled up by the bunch, day by day. Sometimes, it would be hours between the time a perfectly healthy vine caught it, and the time when the fruit was little more than black ash and slag. The problem was so serious that it threatened the very future of the business. It was all the farmers could do to try and isolate the sections of the vineyard still healthy, and the parts that were as good as dead.

Then, one day, it happened. The business recieved a phone call.

The blight was no longer just in their vineyard. It had spread to neighboring farms, and everyone was demanding answers. Yours could not have been where it started. It just couldn't have been.

Where did this pestilence come from? Could it be stopped?

You do not know, and you fear what the answer may be.



-



Good morning, Strangers.

Wake up. Look around. Do you feel like this might be familiar? Not your surroundings, but the circumstances. Do you feel the fear in your stomach? Do you sense the wrongness that permeates the air?

You should. Because your gut is right. You are exactly in what you think you are. Right now, there is no other explanation. There is only the sureness of experience informing you that you have been plunged into a game, once more without your consent. A game where blood will be spilled, and death will happen.

The only other thing you are sure of are the thoughts that pop up when you think of your circumstances. No matter what you do, you cannot shake the finality, the truth of what you are thinking. You cannot deny your own beliefs, after all, when they are so embedded, so imprinted on you, that they are as a part of you as anything else, like your face, or fingers, or hair.

And so perhaps you remind yourself, as you ready yourself to leave the house, of the truths you know to be real.



So steel yourselves, Strangers. You know what to expect; there will be others like you, trapped here. Maybe it will, this time, be for forever.

So welcome, one and all. Welcome to the City at the very End, in the eye, the center. A City that gave in long before the code distorted and collapsed and unleashed a virus on reality. Make yourselves comfortable.

You are not going


an̛͡y͠҉w̸h̢ȩ͢r̸͝e̸.]

Comments

[incendiarize]

That's why you teach people exactly how many things will go bad if they're used! And then if they screw up anyway you get to say "told you so"!

[He has very strong feelings about knowledge, information, and books.]

[katzenpfote]

Eh... many archmages do not much care for teaching. Some... do...

[There's a long pause.]

But many people are stupid.

[incendiarize]

Really? I feel like most everyone I've met is at least kind of smart. ....but I did grow up in a library.

[katzenpfote]

... You are not with the Cobalt Soul, are you?

[He's not wearing blue where Caleb can see, but some have to be sneaky.]

[incendiarize]

Nope. Yggdrasil Library.

[Cobalt Soul...? The innocent souls were blue....hm.]

[katzenpfote]

I'm not familiar with that... it's not on Wildmount, correct? Or Tal'Dorei?

[incendiarize]

Uhh.... Nope? Never heard of either of those.

[Don't make make up country and continent names canon DOESN'T PROVIDE]

[katzenpfote]

All right. Another world, then. I was just making sure.

[incendiarize]

Must be....dammit. I thought we were done with this stuff!

[But at least there is food, and the books aren't chained.]

[katzenpfote]

Nein, apparently not. I was looking at the profiles... you are Arthur, ja?

[incendiarize]

...we have those right off the bat this time? Yeah, that's me.

[katzenpfote]

[He turns his wrist up and pulls some bandages down, revealing the strange little display. He taps it and it pulls up profiles.]

I have a good memory... so I took some time to memorize them.

[incendiarize]

We didn't get those right away last time, kinda figured we wouldn't this time either...

[He repeats what he saw Caleb do, pulling up the profiles and quickly skimming them.]

....and your name is Caleb. Got it.

[katzenpfote]

[Well no, but also yes.]

I've had to get used to new technology quickly... given the places we went to. Even just the street outside is far smoother than what I am used to.

[incendiarize]

Yeah, this stuff's way advanced compared to home. It's got nothing on the Old World, though... The mansion was pretty close to the level of tech I'm used to....except without plumbing.

[Nose wrinkle. Latrines bad.]

[katzenpfote]

"Old World"?

[Excuse you he smells Lore.]

[incendiarize]

The nutshell version is about a thousand years ago, my world's people learned all there was to know about everything, but pretty much destroyed the world in the process. They enacted a plan to clean up their mess and their civilization fell. A lot of technology and knowledge was lost, but their relics are everywhere. Some of them still work.

[katzenpfote]

I see... there was a cataclysm in my world that we call the Calamity. There are many items lost from that time and they keep finding new ones. It ended with the Divergence which is when the gods sealed themselves off from our world, and we count time from there. It was... well, no one's quite sure when the Calamity started, but in my world it's currently 836 Post Divergence.

[incendiarize]

Yeah, nothing that fancy... No gods or whatever. The Old World didn't need any.

[katzenpfote]

... They are a fact of life in my world, but I know they don't exist in others. I don't worship any, but only a fool would deny they exist where I am from.

[incendiarize]

I mean....some people think Yggdrasil is a God, and the Forest Folk had their god, but I haven't seen proof of any.

[katzenpfote]

Well, there's many different beliefs in my world as well. It's... difficult to sort out at times. But different worlds need different levels of deities I think.

[incendiarize]

Huh.... I'm way more of a science guy. I don't really get a lot of that stuff, you know?

[katzenpfote]

Eh... I don't tend to dabble in it much. Divine and arcane magic do not mix very well.

[incendiarize]

There's a difference? I thought magic was magic.