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

[katzenpfote]

... I am glad that you were able to escape. That whole place sounds... horrendous. Far worse than our situation, even though there were still deaths.

[He hesitates a moment. He doesn't know this boy, but if everyone is out to get him then it doesn't matter who he trusts. He leans in slightly.]

If you have trouble with nightmares you are... welcome to sleep in my house. I can set up one of the couches for you.

[incendiarize]

[There's hesitance. He can't completely trust anyone here, right? He can't. But...

More than that, he hates being alone. After growing up in the Library with the other orphans, after sharing rooms with the guild, after all fifteen of them stuffed into close quarters in the mansion....the house he's been given here feels too big for him. He doesn't like small, cramped spaces at all, but he hates being alone. And even if he hasn't actually slept since that last vision yet, he knows sleep will come eventually whether he likes it or not.]

I'd like that. Thanks.

[katzenpfote]

[He nods and stands, rolling his shoulders.]

We'll get people out of here. That's a promise, ja?

[The number of people though... he's not sure.]

[incendiarize]

Yeah. Hopefully without everyone being at eachother's throats the whole time.

[Though Vita and Akira aren't giving him a lot of hope right now.]