W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

[strangerpeople]

W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

[The national council just announced the blight to the country.

There was no sugarcoating it anymore. This was a critical time. Saving all of the vines is paramount, but what does one do when the blight hits? It keeps encroaching on the grapes, day by day. Entire clusters, entire bunches, dead and rotting, while allowing the blight to spread, and the leading botanists and viticulturists cannot identify the origin or the cause. They can't even successfully isolate the culprit in their labs; it seems to disappear like air no matter the precautions taken.

It is a catastrophe that seems to be beyond science, and it will result in the complete collapse of the entire country's wine industry. Already, embargoes on this year's crop have forced other grape-growers to close shop for the year after they'd sold their previous stock; it is all too possible that no grapes might ever be grown here again if a cure cannot be found. The tourists have stopped coming. The towns have grown silent.

You, meanwhile, are devastated. With the way your business is going, it will be on the brink of bankruptcy within the year. You will soon have no choice but to close shop and let every grapevine die, let the land go fallow. There must be a cure for this, there must be. Yet everything that can go wrong is.

Then, as you watch the news, it happens. Breaking news. The blight has been found in another country.

It is a pandemic-and it is only getting worse.


-

Well. This is...what else can can anyone say? You all know the deal. You all know what situation you're in. All that is left is to figure out what you can do about it. If there's anything that can be done.

You still feel that compulsion to distrust. To know you cannot win. To know that only the hosts have your best interests in mind. It would be easy to just do all that. But would it be the right thing to do? You can't be completely sure. Indeed, nothing is certain here, except for that damned ticking sound. If only you could stop it.

But you can't stop it. It is inevitable.


There are 15 strangers in this place.]

Comments

MONDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

[backuphero]

[Well, Jonathan's staying with his wife, in her less messed up house. The layout is the same as the one he woke up in, pretty much. (Don't think it's identical, don't, that is a fast train to crazy -) Walking through, looking closely at the way the building is constructed... do the dimensions of House 12's interior actually add up?]

Library

[beguiledcard]

[ He's hitting the library today, but not to read.

Instead, he's here to very thoroughly examine the walls, first.

. . . Also, any chance he can do something like Scanning? ]

Barrier

[illusionarymelody]

[Vita will be looking into the barriers some more. Since she's familiar with a few different sorts she wants to get some more information and see if there is anything that can be done to break them. Even without her powers she has experience working with both magical and technologically sourced barriers and first wants to get an idea of what may be powering this one. Anything she can figure out?]

MEETING TIME

[katzenpfote]

[After all of... that... Caleb had just tried to focus. Everyone seemed to have had a similar experience, so they might as well get questions out of the way now.]

[Especially for those who seemed to recognize their ‘hosts’.]

[So after consulting Nanaki, everyone wakes up to a small scrap of paper shoved under their door, written in a careful hand.]

‘Meet at noon in house 14.

[Caleb sits there near the sleepy bird man and gestures for everyone to shuffle in and close the door.]

TUESDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

[unwittingking]

[A Tuesday where a motive isn’t released. King feels like he should celebrate that, since he hasn’t had one of those in too long, but the looming dread of what’s to come kinda makes that a moot point.

For the most part, he’s just exploring today. Looking around the library in an attempt to find a good book, checking out the shower stalls to see if he can actually use them, trying to find something that might fit him in the dressing room, and maybe sneaking into the weapon storage room to do...something.

Today is just going to be a simple day, hopefully.]

WEDNESDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

We Apologize For Anyone Given The Wrong Impression (not really)

[byanyother_name]

[There's really nowhere with enough open space here yet except for Actually Outside. Not for Kurama and Karma, at least. So outside it is, on the street where literally anyone could walk by. Please let literally anyone walk by.

Anyone could be forgiven for thinking they are actually trying to kill each other as they flick between weapons (blade-whip vs daggers), hand to hand, and their Titled powers. Kurama backflips away from a knife strike and back far enough to lash out for Karma's ankles with the whip.]

[relieable]

[today, Osomatsu has decided to do some more exploring, either on his own, or with a friend! ...not that he has many friends here, but that's Fine. it's not like it's incredibly lonely here, or anything, gosh.

after a quick (and weird) shower, he goes to the kitchen to see if he can get food. well, not sand-flavored food, but food in pill form. the food will be delivered to his house, right? is it possible to press all the buttons? to buy everything and stock up? HM. you may see him debating with this idea right now.

or maybe you'll see him later poking around the all too familiar dining room. he shudders, thinking about this place brings back bad memories.

later still, in the evening, he returns to his house and emerges with the tunic that he got from the dressing room the day before. he's carrying it over his arm, looking for Arthur, in particular, though if anyone else wants to ask about it, they are welcome to]

[illusionarymelody]

[After obtaining a few socks and exchanging them for items and checking out the dressing room, Vita can be seen in the dining room with a very colorful bird on her shoulder.

She'll place the following items except the whip and the christmas lights onto a table and stick around for a bit to see if anyone wants to claim them. She'll probably hang up the lights in her house because she's sure Jonathan would like some color there.

A few times she is seen having to keep the bird away from the food items, especially the gummies. Her familiar has quite the soft spot for sweets now. But feel free to come over, or say hi to the pretty bird or Vita.]

[narcoolepsysensei]

[Today, as with most days, Nanaki can mostly be found in his house, napping in the chair by the doorway. He doesn't seem to be quite sleeping, more just dozed, so it's probably safe enough to wake him up.

He does do a bit of exploring today, though, and he can also be found at Cat Nya-Land, squatted down almost as if to perch in this human body just inside.

He is not reaching out to touch the cats, instead just letting them roam and watching them with a sort of curiosity and abject horror.

...well, he IS a bird. Supposedly...]

THURSDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

Meeting 2: Electric Boogaloo

[byanyother_name]

[Well, it worked last time for Caleb so Kurama is going to follow his lead of leaving notes under doors. His handwriting is very pretty?]

Please meet at 7pm at house 13. I doubt I'm the only one that's been finding things out the past few days.

[It might be noticeable when people arrive that the house's TV is nowhere to be seen.]

[unwittingking]

[Another day in the not-50's/60's. Everything probably normal, same as usual murdergame stuff, right?]

HEY! HEY!

[It's not so, apparently. Outside of all the houses, King's yelling, which may not be that unusual, but it's what he's yelling at...]

GIVE THAT BACK YOU STUPID BIRD!

[He's...he's chasing a goose.

A goose with a rainbow-colored feather in its mouth, and running away in that smug goose way they do sometimes.

…you wanna help or do you just wanna laugh at this?]

cw: animal guts

[katzenpfote]

[Caleb sits outside of his house, number 10, and works at a dead snake with a knife. It seems to be sitting on top of a... hatbox? Weird.]

[Either way, there's a bunch of other shit sitting around him. Maybe it's yours? Either way it's set aside so it doesn't get snake guts on it.]

FRIDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

[backuphero]

[House 7, once again. Jonathan must have gotten over here pretty early, because he's got the front door propped open, and anyone peering inside can see he's moved most of the living room furniture up against one wall.

If you're not just wandering past, he's going to end up knocking at your door.]

I'm here to haul off the TV and the radio, if you want them gone.

[After that's all dealt with, he'll be in The Central Building for a while - grabbing a change of clothes and a shower, and then at least trying to get some food from the kitchen. He's familiar enough with the concept of an automat, he's been to New York City before, but...]

Seriously? Even the soup tastes like this?!

[...if you happen to meet him in the Dining Room, whether or not he's already slumped down against the table in despair, it's pretty plain this one's no Horn & Hardart.]

SATURDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]