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]

[Is he trying to get her to follow? Well, it can't hurt, can it? She'll go ahead and follow the little one.]

[strangerpeople]

[Maybe.

When she turns the corner at the door, though, the creature is gone.]

[illusionarymelody]

[Any chance Grianos can find it if he flies around or did the creature just up and vanish?]

[strangerpeople]

[The latter, it seems.




Well, while Grianos is at it, is there anywhere it wants to go next?]

[illusionarymelody]

[Grianos probably wouldn't fly away too far, but being an animal he'd definitely be lured away by food and would love some not gross food.]

[strangerpeople]

[Sad to say there is no Not Gross Food here at the moment, so he will have to content himself with exploring different rooms and stuff.

Sorry birb. :(]

[illusionarymelody]

[Actually, Vita has an idea. A bird like him is obviously going to be best suited for going up high. Would it be possible for Grianos to figure out if the barrier extends upwards without touching it?]

[strangerpeople]

[Grianos can figure out pretty quickly that the barrier does go pretty high, all things considered. But there is a barrier there. Grianos can feel it the closer he gets to the limit of how high he can fly, as it starts to get a bit darker as the moments pass.]

[illusionarymelody]

[She'll signal him to come back then. She doesn't want him getting hurt or anything and knows the little guy has his limits. Outside of that she'd just let him freely fly around a bit and to let her know if he sees anything. If there are any rooms with high ceilings and ratfters, he'd definitely want to check those out and just chill a bit up in the rafters.

Also, another question, is there any wildlife here or are Grianos and the goose the only ones at the moment?]

[strangerpeople]

[Just Grianos and the goose. And the cats in the cafe.]