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]

No, it's quite unpleasant. The barriers definitely seem magical though, and there likely is a condition to make them come down that we'll have to meet.

[touchsensors]

[Lala again slightly raises her right hand, then stops.]

I guess we'll have to work out what it is on our own somehow-lun.

[illusionarymelody]

I just hope it's not someone dying.

[touchsensors]

Why would it be someone dying-lun?

[She's only been in a mock week, she isn't familiar with murdergame progression.]

[illusionarymelody]

Can't say I experienced it for myself, but I recall the others mentioning about new locations appearing later after a murder happened. No barriers were present, but there was an elevator that could later go to new floors.

[She doesn't know since she died and all, but definitely remembered Rosie and Naoya telling her about the ice cream waterfall and the bath.]

[touchsensors]

[thanks, she hates it]

...there is an elevator here-lun.

[illusionarymelody]

So that could lead to more floors later, or the barriers may fall. Though I'd rather not go the route of kill the hosts since they appear to be victims as much as we are.

[touchsensors]

I'd rather not kill anyone-lun.

[Quietly avoiding the topic of how avoidable that's been for her recently.]

[illusionarymelody]

In the previous places I was in, our captors ended up being killed. But our current hosts were also among the group on the plane. Jonathan and I actually suspect that a woman who suddenly called all of us as we were landing may be a part of whatever group is behind this.