15strangers | W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

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[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

...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.]

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.

[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.]

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.

[…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...]

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.

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.]

[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.

[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.]

My husband and brother in law insisted I learn how to defend myself without magic and I'm glad they did. However, I can assure you that if we get out of this alive, Jonathan and I already have agreed we're removing our memories of my death. It's not knowledge we are better for having and I think it would be better if I could get a fresh start with Akira instead of seeing him through a lens of distrust because I've seen two versions of him kill. For now I'll stay away from him unless we're forced to be together and I will have Jonathan with me when that occurs.

…whatever floats your boat, lady.

[He's pretty sure removing memories like that could just lead to a repeat a la "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." But. He'll just keep that opinion to himself.]

Just...try to be the adult if you have to be near him again, instead of sounding like the high school bully character from TV that has no reason to exist other than to pick on the main character.

[Did he use terms that Vita most likely didn't understand? Yes, probably. But he feels valid in that description considering that whole meeting debacle.]

You may want to give him a warning about throwing gasoline onto a lit fire. His rudeness made things far worse and he was just as much of a bully as I was.

Do you really not expect a teenager to be snarky to you when you were essentially calling him out for killing you, when he didn't even know you before he came here?

[Half genuine question, half rhetorical question.]

I get it, so you're just going to defend a murderer. Well, hopefully you don't get to learn firsthand how unworthy of trust he is.

[And with that, she's leaving. Her house is right there and she's going inside. She's done with this and has been done since the start.]

[He's about to say something back, only for her to leave. So instead, he'll just let out a low growl.]

Real mature, lady.

[Whatever. He'll just go back to his own house as well, making a mental note not to judge people too quickly from now on.]

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