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

TUESDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

DRESSING ROOM

[relieable]

[okay, so Osomatsu has decided to come up to this... store? whatever it is. he's going to start checking through the men's clothing. for starters, he just does a general sweep of the room. anything aside from clothing in here?]

[strangerpeople]

[Well, he might notice that, among the 50s and 60s clothing, there are other suits of clothing that don't remotely fit the aesthetic of the City. He might even find some clothing that reminds him of the Mansion!]

[relieable]

[really! intriguing. as he rifles through the clothing, he's also... checking pockets, and taking note of other things that are out of place]

[strangerpeople]

[Yup. He'll find spacesuits, jammin' 2010s fashions, a Wabuu costume, a clothing-shaped piece of static, a very elaborate set of what looks like medieval armor, a very spiffy Victorian dress...not much in the pockets though.]

[relieable]

[too bad about the lack of things in pockets. he was looking for keys, or papers that had information on them.

oh well! let us further inspect that static clothing! neat! can he touch it? will that injure him?]

REVENGE OF THE NAMEPLATE FROM BEYOND THE ABYSS

[backuphero]

[...or something like that.

Anyway, with the intel from yesterday's meeting fresh in his mind, Jonathan's got plans. He could've done this yesterday, true, but after all that he honestly wasn't in the best place to be anywhere besides right next to Vita. Now, though, he's back at House 7, grabbing what food he had in the fridge there. Once it's all tidily wrapped up somehow - wait, did the house come with a picnic basket?, he'll head back out, and stop after closing the door.

Does the nameplate here have the same weirdness going on as at Number 12?]

[strangerpeople]

[Yup.]

[backuphero]

[All right, then! He's gonna touch it. And... focus, thinking about it settling down so he can see.]

[strangerpeople]

[It takes some time. The static and darkness is clearly not willing to give it up so easily. But eventually, it sputters, flickers, and gives way, revealing the nameplate beneath it at last.]

[backuphero]

[So, whose house is this, then, according to the door?]

[byanyother_name]

[No motive? Kurama isn't sure whether to be relieved or anxious. But he sets both aside for later.

After the talk he and Jonathan had, he's checking House 13's nameplate for static.

[strangerpeople]

[Yup. Static there.]

[byanyother_name]

[Time to touch it and focus until it goes away, then.]

[strangerpeople]

[It takes time, but eventually, the static does flicker, and the darkness dissipates.]

[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.]

Weapon Storage

[backuphero]

[Jonathan's let himself get complacent. He's now unused to looking low in a room to check if anyone's there; between that and the shelves and racks and the layout of the room in general, it takes him an awkward amount of time to realize that King is, in fact, also present. (In his defense, having a variety of whips to choose between is pretty distracting.) It takes a moment for him to figure out what to say, but after a false start or two...]

So. Can't blame you if you think I'm an idiot kid myself, but... trusting somebody just because they're young enough to make mistakes doesn't make any sense to me.

[unwittingking]

[He actually jumps a bit in surprise. Apparently he, too, thought he was alone in here.

He turns to face Jonathan, keeping a paw behind his back as he takes in what he has to say.

He sighs.]

Look, I’m not saying we have to trust him automatically, but the automatic distrust for him just seems ridiculous at best.

[And outright childish at worst, but he won’t say that...yet.]

CW - vigilantism dismissed as ridiculous but phrased in a way that is Bad coming from a Southern boy

[backuphero]

When you've met two versions of the same guy and they both cracked under pressure in the same way... I'm not sayin' we oughta string him up or something, hell no, but the way everyone's acting you'd think Vita said that already holding a rope....

[He sounds petulant and whiny and he hates that. Not quite as much as being vulnerable in public, the meeting was mortifying, but it's close. Still, when he turns to properly look at King, he's not exactly scowling - he's too visibly anxious for that.]

You paused when you answered me, about Charlotte. If she didn't kill anyone, what did she do?

[unwittingking]

Is it really that surprising that two versions of the same person would be willing to kill for the people they care about, especially when you saw it once before?

[This...actually a genuine question. He wouldn't be surprised if another version of Eliza killed for her family, or another version of Beatrice killing for her husband. Why should that be a reason to get upset?]

And, I don't know about the others, but for me, it's kind of concerning that, at best, this is something she should've talked about with those other versions of Akira before one of them came here with you guys, and at worse, she's taking out her anger on a kid that doesn't even know her.

[Then...he pauses, again. Yeah, that wasn't the best way to go about it, was it?]

It was nothing, really. There was this...creature, thing. Wanted to make deals with the girls in our group that, in the short term, would benefit us, but would eventually they'd get turned into monsters that killed people. The thing was immortal or something, and most of us took a turn...letting out our frustration.

[Caleb froze it, RGB kicked it, King crushed it against a pillar, and McBurn stabbed it while Charlotte fried it, if he remembers correctly.]

weapon storage

[narcoolepsysensei]

[Well, he's welcome to sneak in! Unfortunately, there's someone else in here already.

Fortunately, he either hasn't noticed King or does not care, because he's holding a laser bat with slight interest.]

How would someone even wield something like this? Humans sure are strange. ...I bet Miss Tosaka would find some fun with it, although I wonder what she'd do to the furniture...

[He yawns. ...He might just be talking to himself to keep himself up, honestly.]

[unwittingking]

[Okay, at least he's not getting followed in here or something, but this is...questionable?]

You, uh...you doing okay there...Nanashi?

[…he didn't look at this guys profile for that long, okay?]

[narcoolepsysensei]

Hmm...?

[It takes Nanaki a few seconds to look over at King. He certainly does do things at his own pace...]

Oh, yes, I'm fine. I decided I'd like to do some exploring today, so I'm trying to sustain some kind of conversation in hopes it helps me stay awake.

[...Given that he's fallen asleep mid-conversation before, it's unknown how he thinks that's gonna work out, but, you know.]

Kazuaki Nanaki, by the way. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but, well. Not the best of circumstances, is it?

[unwittingking]

[Okay, staying awake, what was that one called...]

Right, narcolepsy. The one where you might fall asleep at bad times. So...yeah, that’s a fair thing to do.

[At least he’s pretty sure it is. The last time he heard about narcolepsy was some game spun-off about being a lawyer.]

King. Last name’s technically Milton, but I don’t use it really. And yeah, the feeling’s mutual.