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

[necroyalty]

...I have a question to ask.

Has anyone noticed any significant physical changes upon finding themselves here?

[narcoolepsysensei]

[It is at this point that the actual resident of House 14 wakes up, and chirps his way into the conversation.]

...Oh!

Yes, actually.

[Yaaaawn...]

You see, I was a button quail before I arrived here...

[relieable]

[hold up]

You were... a quail? Like, the bird?

[narcoolepsysensei]

Yes, precisely.

[Like it's the most natural thing in the whole damn world.]

[relieable]

[you know what? that's not the weirdest thing he's heard in these past few months]

Okay. [blink] That's sure a significant physical change. You must be, uh... Pretty surprised.

[narcoolepsysensei]

Mmhm. I've been like this for over a week now, and fingers are still somewhat of a mystery to me. Never mind the size difference. It's incredible to me, having lived in both bodies now, how humans remained the dominant species for so long...

[He's... kinda just talking to himself, now. And he sure doesn't sound that upset by all of this.

Then again, he mostly just sounds kind of out of it in general, so. Who knows.]

[relieable]

Yeah, humans are pretty stupid.

[Osomatsu...]

If you ever need help, though, you can always ask me! I've been human my whole life.

[narcoolepsysensei]

Haha. I wouldn't go that far, but... it truly is a marvel, sometimes. Just food for thought, I suppose.

[Well, that's... promising...???]

Oh, thank you... I think I mostly have the hang of it by now, though. Although, it is much harder to fall asleep on your feet in a body like this...

[relieable]

[what a laid-back guy, here... a real bird-brain]

You sleep standing up?

[poorlovefool]

[sorry, WHAT. Eric blinks upon hearing this. There's a hesitant, then mildly terrified hush to his voice]

If you're supposed to be a bird then... Who's body is that?

[narcoolepsysensei]

I have no idea.

[...this player swears, every time she writes a tag, she just wishes her character would at least TRY to be even remotely upset about anything.]

I should like to think this is what my lone human student sees through the ICPSS, though...

[poorlovefool]

Uh...

[he's a bird? with a human student? and an unknown acronym??]

...Huh? I didn't understand any of that.

[explain to him if you don't want him to sit here theorizing you're inhabiting a clone]

[narcoolepsysensei]

Oh! That's right, this does seem to be strange to people from other worlds... I'll do my best.

[He clears his throat a little.]

In the world I come from, an avian flu decimated the human population a little under forty years ago. In an attempt to destroy the source of the virus, the remaining humans tried to unleash a countervirus onto the bird population... but all they did was mutate us, so we became just as intelligent as they are.

So, where I'm from, birds are the dominant species. I'm a teacher at St. Pigeonation's, a prestigious academy for young birdies everywhere.

Miss Tosaka is my lone human student. She's there as a human ambassador. She has an implant known as the ICPSS - the Intra-Cerebral Playback Synchro System. It allows her to see us birds as if we were human, just like her. She can turn it off, of course, so I've no idea if she actually uses it. But if she does, I'd hope that something like this body is what she would see.

[That's a lot of talking for someone who was out like a light fewer than five minutes ago. Damn.]

[necroyalty]

...right. I'm not even going to question that.

[narcoolepsysensei]

[Smile~!]

[beguiledcard]

Oh.

[ That's all he has to say, apparently. ]

[narcoolepsysensei]

[Nanaki smiles, pleasantly.]

[backuphero]

[While he's still being all clingy, Jonathan does hear the question.]

Nothing besides the glowy future-phone screen in my wrist. Definitely didn't have that thing before.

[poorlovefool]

That's all I noticed too, but.... it's pretty fucking creepy.

[and uh, if Jonathan's attempt made a scar, he might be glumly making note of it if he still has a screen there.]

[backuphero]

Thank you, I thought it was just me that didn't want it bad enough to... well.

[He raises his right arm, wiggles his hand so his coat sleeve falls down, and the bandages are obvious. So, too, the glow from underneath them.]

You can shut it off by thinking "go away" at it, at least?

[And sure enough - no more glow, after a moment.]

[poorlovefool]

You can't really call that disabling it, though... it's more like a sleep mode.

[so it doesn't comfort him much. but it will help him sleep at night, in the literal, light-not-shining-in-your-face sense.]

You didn't mess up your hand doing that, did you?

[there's some sensitive nerves in there. he thinks. he's not a doctor]

[backuphero]

Nah, I didn't really get that far... down. In? I'm fine!

[As if to prove it, he wiggles his fingers, and doesn't wince or anything.]

[beguiledcard]

No... why?

[necroyalty]

For the lack of a better word, something was taken from me. I'm not comfortable getting into specifics, but...

It was obvious from the start, really.

[beguiledcard]

[ He's quiet, at that, simply nodding. ]

Sometimes, they just... do that. Whatever will make it easier to keep you here - or even just more entertaining, for them, I'm guessing.