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

[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.

[illusionarymelody]

I don't mind. The Temple was actually a nice place. First, I should explain that it's the place where all the dead ended up. We were brought back due to the water in a nearby river having healing properties and the priestess pulling us out of the river.

One day an army showed up and surrounded the place. There weren't many of us there, so we didn't want to start a fight and tried to speak with the commander of the army.

It was a young girl in a costume she called a "Wabuu" It looks like the costume you can find among the clothing. That's Halley and she was actually the one who ordered all of us to be executed. So when she saw all of us, she was shocked that we were alive and convinced that we must be illusions.

Due to her confusion, she ended up leaving the army to hold the area, but they didn't attack. She left for the Base. All of us at the Temple finished repairs on a mecha and finally went to rescue the people at the base. When we arrived we found that those at the base had persuaded Halley to not kill us and to help us escape the Base.

[poorlovefool]

So she helped you then... but her costume's still here. Any chance she's working with whoever's behind this?

[illusionarymelody]

I doubt it. There seem to be many things related to the places we were at. The furnace and weapon storage were from the base. The space suits were given to us captives at the base. Halley also would have no motive to willingly work with them and she's a child in appearance.

Also, Jonathan and I have a suspicion about a person behind this. He and I have been in two of these places, the more recent was on an airplane. As we were landing the plane, we all received a phone call that was very suspicious. It was from a strange woman who was trying to convince us to let her teleport us off the plane and back home so the plane would land safely. Jonathan and I refused her offer. If I am remembering right, our hosts were the first two to accept it.

[poorlovefool]

But Lala just said she found kid's clothes in the spare house. AND she must have had a reason she wanted to kill you all in the first place, right?

[he will listen to this though, he's not completely stubborn]

Well, that does make sense. So either the teleport was a trap... or they recruited them to their company with contacts at home.

[backuphero]

She called herself "Rachel". Seemed kinda on the nose, to me, the whole "mother lamenting her children who can't come home" bit... and, uh, well. Halley was... she'd been a kid for a long subjective time. To her, we were invaders.

[He sighs, hanging his head.]

This is going to sound crazy no matter how I try and cushion it, so I might as well just say it, right? The base was inside a woman's body. We were shrunk down like mido - mito - midichlorians? Tiny little cell things, but that's not the point. So time seemed to be passing a lot different from how it actually was, and that's not the point either - the kid was only half human, but she wasn't a bad person. She wouldn't do something like this, she told Red - Marie, her aunt - to kill us and the crazy lady decided to try and make us kill each other instead. She realized she'd messed up and escaped with all of us.

[poorlovefool]

[midichlorians is fine with him, as a star wars cosplayer who probably got a C in bio, but he does snicker a little at it, at least until this explanation comes crashing in like a truck. He appreciates the honesty at least.]

You're right, that does sound crazy. But I'm guessing you have enough people to back you up on it, so fine. This is fine...

[Eric takes a breath, and then another, before continuing.]

S-So, what else do we know about Rachel? Was she behind the whole plane mess?

[incendiarize]

Maybe she's the same woman who busted the math demon out of his trial?

[Arthur only the R2s know what you're talking about.]

[backuphero]

I've got no idea. There had to be somebody besides Eddie involved, but...

[And then to Arthur - ]

I - pardon? "Math demon"?!

[incendiarize]

[...Oh right, he was gonna ask Vita about Eddie. Jonathan will do just as well.]

Eddie....Kim? He's like super duper dead.

[As for math demon.] Yeah, his name's Shoe Minamimoto and he never shuts up about math, and the guys from the mall hate him because he's terrible, and they caught him but he got busted out by some lady.

[illusionarymelody]

Of course Eddie is dead. We killed him and took back the plane.

[Of course Vita is listening still.]

[incendiarize]

Uh, he was in the mansion with us though. He died in the first week and the Stewards didn't bother with a trial.

[illusionarymelody]

Do we know if he's even the same person? His name isn't exactly unusual, but his personality was definitely... unique. Maybe you could start by telling us more of the one in the mansion?

[illusionarymelody]

[Yeah, R3's are a bit protective of Halley and how things worked in the Base were quite unique.]

Her reason ceased to exist once she saved Ivy. However, I'd say the teleport was a trap. The plane had many hostages who were all our loved ones and each person who took the offer was sent home before their hostages.

I know it makes me worry about Kokoro, Beatrice, and the others we befriended. It was a short time, but we all had planned to find ways to see each other again.

[katzenpfote]

[Excuse me hello -]

Did you say Beatrice?

[poorlovefool]

Here we go again....

[illusionarymelody]

I did. She and I hit it off right away because we're both witches and married to men who are rather similar, except her husband wasn't on the plane like mine was.

[katzenpfote]

[Well.]

[unwittingking]

…Beatrice as in...The Gold and Endless Witch, or something like that?

[If his skin wasn't hidden by fur, people might've noticed him going pale. As it stands, people still might notice the slight bit of worry in his voice.]

[illusionarymelody]

That's her.

[And she's keeping it short and sweet and her tone is definitely less pleasant than with the others so far.]

[unwittingking]

[He opens his mouth to say more...but closes it not long after.

Caleb can take this one. Announcing her friend died is not gonna earn him any points.]

[katzenpfote]

She... ah... well. There is no good way to say this. She was caught after committing a murder.

[illusionarymelody]

[Well, keep in mind that the plane was actually quite short, just an overnight flight and Beatrice herself even all but admitted she'd commit a murder.]

And your group was not one of the ones where the dead came back, right?

[katzenpfote]

... Nein, it was not. I am... sorry.

[illusionarymelody]

It's probably best I hear no more so as not to defile my good opinion of her. May she and her victim rest in peace.