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

[incendiarize]

Literally no one said to trust him. But treating him like he's already a criminal, when this particular one might not've done anything, is just being mean. Watch your back, sure, but don't make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I'm sick of people being at eachother's throats all the time, trust or no trust.

[illusionarymelody]

That's what you don't understand. To me the Akira from the mall already is a criminal who was executed for his crime of my murder. The best I can do is agree to stay away from him and if I need to be in his presence to make sure we're not alone ever again.

But would you mind if we change the subject? I did have a question I wanted to ask you.

[incendiarize]

[He tries to hold in an eyeroll, unhappy with that response. She's not getting his point. It's like talking to a brick wall. ....or someone who's deliberately trying to sow discord.

In either case, that's going to just go in circles. So he lets it go.]

Yeah, sure. What's up?

[illusionarymelody]

[That's why the change in subject, it's clear they won't see eye to eye on this and she can't really be neutral towards something so traumatic.]

Your profile mentioned liking an Emma. What's her last name?

[incendiarize]

[Emma.




Ah.

He's never been one to hide his feelings, and the shift in his expression is swift. From annoyed and grumpy to....upset, and vulnerable.]

Milstein. Emma Milstein.

[illusionarymelody]

Did she mention having a sister then?

[incendiarize]

[He blinks, digging through memories...]

She mentioned family a couple of times, that she was raised by her grandmother and-- [How did he not notice sooner.]

...."Vita did something the clan deemed unforgivable".

[illusionarymelody]

That would indeed be me, except unforgivable is a bit of an exaggeration. I learned a forbidden spell. Our grandmother is more forgiving than one may think and we have made amends.

[incendiarize]

Emma didn't mention that.

[He can't trust anyone here? Maybe, maybe not. But he can absolutely trust Emma's words. Even if all he has now are the memory of them.]

[illusionarymelody]

It happened after the events at the Base. Did she speak at all of events from our world?

[incendiarize]

She did, a bit? She said some stuff about a guy named Rean, and they needed him to operate a thing, to do a thing? Um... [That part's more unfamiliar terms so it didn't stick in his head as well, give him a minute.]

[illusionarymelody]

Did she mention the term Divine Knight or Ashen Knight? Or maybe even mention him by his name Valimar?

[incendiarize]

Yeah, Valimar, I think that the thing they needed the dude for. Except she wasn't sure he was okay, if I remember right?

[illusionarymelody]

Valimar is a being called a Divine Knight. If you know what a mecha is, it's like that, but sentient. Rean was safe, just exhausted from what he did because he didn't have experience using mana like Emma and I do. Emma's friends are also safe. However, that was five months before I was captured and taken to the Base and it's been seven months since we left the Base.

[unwittingking]

[Dog ears, as usual, seem to lead to him getting involved with other people’s business. At least this time no one’s life is at steak or something, but he’s still going to head over here, with a question now coming to mind.]

And why exactly did he kill you?

[Sorry if this comes as a surprise, his appearance. He doesn’t mean to be stealthy or anything, he’s just shorter and therefore harder to notice.]

[illusionarymelody]

A motive involving reviving the dead. I'd really prefer not to dig further into it since it is obviously a very unpleasant experience to remember.

[unwittingking]

...who’d he kill for?

[Yeah, sorry Vita, but he kinda has to ask this question, at least he thinks he does. From what he’s heard, things went well after the mall murders. Unless it was someone from his home (which is a possibility, he’ll admit) he doesn’t see too much of a reason behind it.]

[illusionarymelody]

Everyone in the mall. It was a trick where his memories were tampered with that led him to believe they were all dead. I know the reasoning is sound, but that doesn't do anything to stop me from being scared he'll do it again and that doesn't stop Jonathan from having nightmares of seeing me dead.

[unwittingking]

[Okay, yeah, that sounds reasonable. He thought others were wrong when they said he was on another train before The Eventide, and instead he was. Doesn’t sound impossible.

However...]

He’s still a kid, though. It’s not the best excuse, but...kids are willing to do a lot if it’s for the people they care most about.

[He understands that concept very well, now.]

[illusionarymelody]

Please don't try to make excuses for him. We already have enough trying to convince us to not trust and more reasons just makes it harder for me to resist. You'd be better off pretending you never heard this and never speaking of it again.

[unwittingking]

[…well, that just gets him to narrow his eyes at you, Vita.]

Wouldn't this just make more distrust? Keeping secrets and not listening to people that are trying to reason with you?

[Seems like the opposite of what they should be doing, tbh...]

[illusionarymelody]

Your excuses for his actions that are very wrong not only are a poor attempt at sympathy but make it sound like you think it was right and just serve to upset me further. In my world, someone his age is a young adult and treated as such.

[unwittingking]

Hey. I'm not saying he was right in what he did. I'm saying that he's a kid. They do dumb things sometimes, especially if they're feeling desperate. Just try to think of it from his point of view.

[Not even commenting on the "He's a young adult in my world" thing because he's pretty sure, even if she's from 1945, she should know people become adults legally.]

[illusionarymelody]

[She's also originally from McBurn's world. 1945 is just frame of reference for pop culture and Zemuria didn't even have movies.]

I'm sorry, but I don't care to understand the point of view of a murderer. You saw I'm sowing distrust? Making excuses for him is doing the same. I'd recommend to stay out of this because it is a very sore issue for me and not something I like talking about to strangers. Unfortunately, few living people can understand what it feels like to die and what it means to have knowledge no one should have. When I get home, I'm going to ask my family to remove that knowledge like I should have months ago.

[unwittingking]

[Jeez, and he was thinking this woman was actually alright. Instead, she's letting her emotions take control. Who is she, him?]

Fine. I'll stay out of it, for now. But two thing.

One, if this starts a fight, I'm getting involved. Since someone has to be the adult here, I can at least try to be it.

Two, when this comes back to bite you in the rear, don't try to act like you weren't expecting it. With the way your acting, I'd be more surprised if it didn't.

[Yes, he said when. Because he knows better to believe this tension will die down. He can only hope that Akira kid doesn't do anything to rile her up even more.]