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

Creature + Dressing room

[illusionarymelody]

[Vita is there and Grianos is also sitting on her shoulder.]

I did notice some strange things in the clothing area. There were two outfits that came from the Base. One was a costume Halley had been wearing, the other was the spacesuit we all woke up in. That was all I could recognize from the Base and plane. Others may want to see if they recognize anything.

Then in the dining room I found a strange creature under the table. It was white and had ears like a cat, but also looked like it had floppy ears like a rabbit. It was quite friendly and even came right up to me. It eventually ran away and I couldn't find it again. I even had Grianos look around from above for it.

[otherworldlyking]

[ Wait, what. ]

...Did it have red eyes?

[illusionarymelody]

It did. It seemed to be a strange cross between a cat and rabbit. It also made a sound like "~kyuu". [Vita tries her best to imitate the sound, and it's actually not terrible.] Grianos was actually the first one to spot it.

[otherworldlyking]

[ Kudos for the attempt, Vita. ]

What a giant pain in the ass. Can't believe they're here too.

[illusionarymelody]

[She's a singer, not a skilled imitator.]

What do you mean by "them"?

[otherworldlyking]

That bunny thing you met.

[ And Kurama uttered it's name so McBurn didn't have to bother remembering. ]

It's some kind of magical being that wants people to makes wishes so that it can twist the nature of whoever falls for their trick beyond recognition.

[illusionarymelody]

[And Vita knows McBurn is likely glad for needing to exert less effort when he'd rather be napping.]

I think you know I know to be wary of any magical creature that can talk and isn't a familiar I know of. Does it actually convince to make wishes, or would even uttering a wish out loud be enough?

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama goes stiff for a second at Vita's description. He doesn't especially want to talk to her but this is important and he can be professional. So he sounds stressed and urgent but polite.]

This creature. Did it have rings around the longer ears and pink markings?

[illusionarymelody]

It did. It also made a sound. [And he'll get a similar imitation as McBurn got.]

[byanyother_name]

Kyuubey.

[He does not sound happy about this.]

That could be a problem. Don't let it fool you, it's sentient and capable of speech.

[illusionarymelody]

Is it a familiar then? [Yeah, talking animals don't faze her and Celine would pretend to be a regular cat around non-witches.]

[comesaround]

Not one you want to associate with, unless you have a death wish.

[ He looks about as happy about this as Kurama does, really not too pleased to hear that thing is here. ]

[illusionarymelody]

I certainly do not. Dying once was bad enough.

[katzenpfote]

It is not a familiar, not as far as I can tell.

[touchsensors]

Oh, you found Kyuu-lun. It probably went back to my house-lun.

[illusionarymelody]

Did it show up at your house yesterday? It definitely vanished into thin air and can clearly teleport itself. Grianos looked around from above and it didn't appear to be hiding.

[touchsensors]

Kyuu was with me when I first woke up here-lun. I didn't know it could teleport, but I guess that explains how it got into the other house-lun.

[unwittingking]

They gave one of those things to you?!?

[Yeah, hi, he upsetti]

[touchsensors]

Oyo?

[She confuzzle! It's fine.]

[unwittingking]

[He...tries to control the panic setting in. This is a kid, he shouldn’t yell, he shouldn’t get loud, he needs to calm down.]

Those...things aren’t good. They make deals with people, and it benefits them in the short term, but it’ll eventually turn you into giant monster that kills people.

[If Jonathan is there, he’s glancing at him for a second before continuing.]

They’re not to be trusted.

[backuphero]

[Jonathan's standing beside Vita, ready to put himself physically in the middle of an argument if need be. He's trying his best to look nonthreatening, almost laid-back... and it's not really at all convincing.

Mostly, he just looks like he feels - worried and out of his element.]

So they grabbed some reminders from there, too, somehow. I hope Halley's okay, that... it seems directed.

[poorlovefool]

Friend of yours? [He's just going to focus on this instead of the Kyuubey talk, because he doesn't know what the hell everyone else is going on about with that.]

[backuphero]

Yeah, though, uh... technically at first she wanted us all dead? But then we got her aunt - out of the picture and she saved the woman we'd been sent to, so it all worked out.

[He smiles, simultaneously sheepish and tense.]

It's, uh, it's a long story.

[illusionarymelody]

Maybe I should start since those of us at the Temple met her first?

[poorlovefool]

Sure, if you don't mind! It's just... they're bringing back all this shit from the places we were trapped, probably to confuse us. But it's gotta make sense eventually... I hope.