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

[strangerpeople]

[At first, there is nothing.

As the moments pass by, however, he will start to notice forms within the static.]

[beguiledcard]

[ Oh that's... uhhhh...

What - if any - distinguishing features can be made out about these forms? How many are there? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Oh, Akira will be able to recognize them very well. One word: stencil-like. And there are dozens within the static.

More than that, the longer he stares, the more the static becomes darker, and darker...and the ticking sound that is everywhere gets louder.]

[beguiledcard]

[ Recognize them... as in these are somethings from the game he was just in?

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being unbearable, how loud is the ticking going to get if he just ignores common sense? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Yes.

The tick is getting up to 3 right now.]

[beguiledcard]

[ OH BOY - so, basically, we have a Noise problem? Or at least what looks to be a Noise problem, to him? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Looks like it, yup. And a pretty bad one at that-the area looks saturated. It seems it would be impossible to clear them all out, even if one pacted.]

[beguiledcard]

[ Ugh, yeah, this is definitely a problem. He's going to get right on with talking to Kurama and Karma as soon as they're done here.

For now, he'll be putting the rest of this investigation on hold. There's still a lot to talk about and plan. ]