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

[illusionarymelody]

I'd be interested in hearing it. I think everyone here has potential insights to share about all the common threads between groups. If you want to know more about who had which I'll give what I know.

[unwittingking]

…just to make sure, that world wouldn't be the one with that coworker that actively tries to kill himself, right?

[He's pretty sure he would've mentioned world hopping if it was the same Atsushi, so maybe this is another alternate version? Hopefully?]

[poorlovefool]

Agh, that again... [well, he supposes people are into this whole necromancy business so he shouldn't make waves, but he'll follow his train of thought anyway.]

I MIGHT know how to destroy it. I'll let you know how if that's what you decide to do.

[illusionarymelody]

Fie Claussel? Yes, she's from my original world and so are McBurn and Estelle. I live in Jonathan's now, but still go back to visit at times.

[byanyother_name]

...Reapers and Composers have some power to repair or destroy souls. It won't be any help while we're stuck here, but something could probably be arranged once we're free.

[incendiarize]

We should probably try and find out if the powers are consistent....so, if the Noodles can turn her hair into bladed whips, or something. Then we'd know, right?

[illusionarymelody]

It's Jonathan's world. So that Atsushi would know Charlotte.

[poorlovefool]

Thanks, but I'm not sure the people involved have much to do with my idea.

So, anyway, there was this thing going on in the Depths where stuff would appear in random places. Like a bee statue covered in blood that suddenly appeared in my room and freaked the shit out of me... We learned these were coming from a group of people who were going through a version of the same murdergame, in the same place, but with a completely different group of Titled. ... Titled are what they called all of us, I'm not sure if that's the same in your death games or not.

But, so then, in the end they appeared in our world and they helped us out in the last trial. That's how I met Linkara, my friend who also helped everyone in the space house. Akane's brother was there too, and a woman named Camilla. All of these guys had titles that matched people in our group too. Like, Futaba Sakura was the Balanced, and so was Aoi Kurashiki. What we came to understand was there were a shit ton of parallel universes of the death game.

So, what I'm getting at is... Maybe that's what happened to all of you guys too? It'd mean you forgot about being there, but, we all had some pretty huge memory losses in the Depths too. And losing your original power could be because everyone always loses their powers in these things if they had some.

[unwittingking]

Okay, cool, cool...just wanted to make sure he wasn't the Atsushi I knew.

[The last thing he needed to do was be the one to announce another dead friend of her's.]

[poorlovefool]

[Eric's not commenting, but this just made him a bit scarier seeming..........]

[illusionarymelody]

Jonathan's definitely is the same as Richard's, that we both can confirm. Link's is indeed the same as Rosenkreuz's. However, unlike at the Base, the powers weren't in our profiles on the plane so I only know the ones I saw personally on the plane. The only other one I saw was Akira's double's power, which was teleportation.

If mine matches up with someone from another group I'll tell what it is. Just please don't make me show it.

[incendiarize]

This guy was the force actively driving everyone in the mansion insane - the whole time we were there, our hallucinations got worse and worse, and we got more aggressive and...the lack of food other than souls wasn't helping, but this guy was the main thing. I think it's inert like this, but I'm not totally sure. So, the sooner the better.

[We were on the subject of things that mess with minds anyway, he may as well fully disclose what the hell this thing is.]

[incendiarize]

Again? ....Anyway, Vita suggested if we try to contact the dead, we could try to talk to Emma.... This thing ripped her soul out of her chest, right when we thought she'd be okay. And if it works at all, it'll use up the soul.

[So, it'd be spiteful and poetic. But also he just....really, really needs to tell Emma he's sorry. That he should've focused on saving her, not on killing Asura. That he misses her.]

[poorlovefool]

Sorry, it keeps coming up and I just can't get used to it. But as long as it doesn't hurt anyone...

[well. he's still not sure he'd come to the seance because it seems like Bad Mojo, but if they can get rid of the creepy soul and also get another thing accomplished, that's probably better than outright destroying it. probably.]

[byanyother_name]

[#reasons Kurama hasn't mentioned he's a Reaper]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama eyes the soul in the jar with distaste.]

Ah. Someone that might deserve Yotsuyu happening to him.

[illusionarymelody]

That's definitely interesting. Were all the titles in the parallel universes the same then, or just some like we have here?

However, I did regain my powers after the plane and then lost them again coming here and gained back the same power from the plane. The same was true with Jonathan, he lost that power and got it back.

We did have memory loss at the Base, but we regained them in the end other than our supposed willing agreement to being involved in the mission that led to it. We lost no memories on the plane other than not knowing how we ended up there to begin with.

[incendiarize]

I dunno what a Yotsuyu is, but probably. I can't think of much he wouldn't deserve.

[Arthur remembers, all too well, what Asura did to him - the girl - to them. Remembers why. He can still feel it like fire under his skin.]

The Stewards wanted to turn us into things like him, so good riddance to all three.

[katzenpfote]

Maybe one of the others have seen a sort of... subsuming of will like this before. We could ask.

[katzenpfote]

That is good. I would prefer to get along with him if possible, if only for Charlotte's sake.

[He frowns as he thinks of something.]

He really does sound like me if I did not have a Zemnian accent.

[touchsensors]

Maybe it's supposed to be for Kyuu-lun.

[One creature everyone thinks is evil and messes with souls. One evil soul. Obviously there's a connection.]

[touchsensors]

I don't remember being in anything like this other than the space house, but I guess if I had a memory loss that would be expected-lun.

[strangerpeople]

[Just Grianos and the goose. And the cats in the cafe.]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

Library

[illusionarymelody]

[So thanks to the meeting and them realizing there are a lot of common threads between games here and a lot of items from the previous locations are showing up, Vita decides to check out the library today.

She's looking for two things. First is any books she recognizes from the Base. The second is looking for spell books to see if she can find the magic that uses the soul to communicate with the dead that Arthur spoke of.]