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

[unwittingking]

...okay, I would like to clarify, I am not saying it like that. [His own wife would kill him if he did.] I mean more like, “You kind of caused a big scene at the meeting, maybe tell me about the things you brought up unless you think you can control yourself around Akira” or something like that.

[Seriously, please don’t mistake him of being that kind of person.]

And that sounds like a good idea. Since I’m pretty sure she also hates me too now, I’ll make sure not to bother her.

And...it’s no problem. Just wanna make sure things go better this time.

[He’d prefer all of them getting out of here, however unlikely that may be.]

[backuphero]

Pretty sure we all got that same hope, at least. And... I don't think she hates that easy, but with the pressure this place has us under who the hell knows....

[His voice trails off, and the smile on his face a moment later is both wry and bitter, somehow.]

I'm a real piece of work if I can't even trust my knowledge of my own wife, goddamn.

[unwittingking]

Eh, you probably know her well. Maybe I'm just assuming things. I'm just sure that she doesn't like me after our chat after the meeting.

[Sympathizing with a someone's killer kind of does that to people, King. Even if the motive was sympathetic, in this case.]