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

[backuphero]

You -

[He swallows hard, and stares directly at "Hiyori", ignoring the reference to Yurick's pet tiger for the moment.]

You didn't strike me as the type to be that much of a company man. Making distinctions - you're an athlete, or... or you were, how can you give up wanting to distinguish yourself from the rest of us?

[mermaidkin]

It's not like we don't get to exercise!! But you get it now, don't you? I was a carefree college student. I was headed to the All-Japan Invitational. But I wasn't happy.

Then things... happened! Now I am. And you can be too.

[backuphero]

[Jonathan flinches as though he's been hit on a bruise, and for some reason grips his right wrist. This is going to be a cheap shot among cheap shots, but... hell with it, he'll bring out the Hollywood Version Quincy Morris drawl - ]

Pretty sure there's a fella with green hair left unhappy by you up and disappearin' on him, back in Japan. You're that happy here, no stars in the sky and a skyline as looks like a kid drew it?

[mermaidkin]

[Interesting to specify Hollywood, because the following display is so precise, tight in the gestures and carefully enunciated in the measured tones of voice, as to appear literally rehearsed.]

The location and welfare of Ikuya Kirishima is exactly... [He makes a puckered face and then mimes using a mid-20th-century accountant's calculator before "showing" Jonathan the result.] Zero percent of your business.

[backuphero]

Interestin' choice of answer....

[For more reasons than one, but paramount among them as far as Jonathan's concerned is that a reaction like that was a flicker of the man he'd met if it was anything! Maybe this really is Hiyori!

Wait, no, that's worse, not better....]

Setting aside Mister Kirishima's whereabouts, et-cet-era, then... how are you happy with this situation?

[mermaidkin]

...?

[Hiyori smiles blankly at first, then shakes his head and smirks.]

I just am. I really, truly am. I'd love to tell you how - and it's not exactly a secret, either, I'd be grateful for the opportunity to tell you - but such an open-ended question... No, existential, even, really... Isn't it too personal? We can always talk about it later, since we have all the time in the world to become even better friends now. For today, I want to make sure you're all situated in. "All" of you, and situated "completely".

and because chronology is fake time is a lie yadda yadda

[backuphero]

Is fighting us supposed to help with that? I mean, you didn't start it, but... listen, I want to trust you.

[Which is why he's walking forward, cautiously, as nonthreateningly as possible, making sure his hands are visible...]

I can't do that with something in my head deep enough that my eyesight was going screwy. Can you shut it off?

[mermaidkin]

McBurn's circumstances are McBurn's circumstances... [Hiyori doesn't seem entirely comfortable with this line of inquiry, this pacifism.] He asked a question, I answered it. With concrete evidence. I assume you want the same thing.

Permission and possibility are two separate questions in your current matter of concern. I—we need to think more before addressing either right now.

[backuphero]

Forget about permission for now, then - I don't like being afraid, I don't like thinking I can't trust anyone, and normally it's not this bad, not all at once!

[He... probably shouldn't have admitted that, but oh well. Too late.]

Forget about permission. Is it possible or not?

[mermaidkin]

Oh! That! So that's how you experience it! In that case... When this is... That would be... Uhm... It's...

[Hiyori breaks eye contact for a second, in the way that clearly helps mental processing a moment later.]

Not on schedule.

[Yes. He understands now. And he hates it. This... fear. That even draws him away from his friends, from the idea he has his own friends..]

Not on schedule, not on schedule, not on schedule, not on schedule, NOT ON SCHEDULE-!!!

[backuphero]

[Oh. Great. He just broke him. This is just fantastic. Jonathan looks around for a moment, almost in the manner of a boy hoping a real adult will intervene now that the game has gone too far, and then makes a decision he hopes he won't regret -

There are two of him, abruptly, and one closes the distance between himself and Hiyori, seizing his shoulders. He doesn't shake him - not yet, anyway - but leans close, staring into those frightening eyes and speaking urgently, but softly enough that it won't be overheard - ]

Did I ask too early, or was I not supposed to?

[mermaidkin]

For me... From our point of view... I...

[Thousands of enemies might as well be swarming Hiyori for the effect it's having, his eyes darting between the two figures. Finally, under the mantle of this approach, still stammering these awkward first-person-isms, Hiyori brings up a trembling hand. With two fingers raised.

That takes the rest out of him, especially his arms that fall down, and he looks broken, almost small in the way everything sinks, including his voice. It's flat and not perky yet fundamentally customer service.]

Please, do not physically touch me. Thank you very much.

[backuphero]

[Jonathan - and does it really matter if this is a double or not? - lifts his hands up and away, and steps back.]

No problem. Thanks for the answer....

[He doesn't know what else to do except back off. For a moment there, he'd thought - no, he did see something change.

He just doesn't know what it means.]