15strangers | W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

Entry tags:

*round 6,
*week 1

W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's her.

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

[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.]

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

[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?

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

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.

... I did speak to her after she died. She seems to be doing all right. She didn't mention being pursued by her victim despite them being in the same place, so hopefully things worked out.

She mentioned others there as well. I believe she said they were victims of the mansion events.

Edited 2020-01-31 08:43 (UTC)

[Vita nods, at least her victim was a bit more forgiving than she is of Akira. Either that or they decided on a truce like she did despite being less inclined to trust.]

Then she's with my little sister. I'm sure the two would get along well. [No they probably wouldn't, but Beatrice and Vita have enough in common that maybe it's possible. Still, the thought of it being possible is enough to give Vita a reason to smile.] So that's three groups then that could communicate with their dead. Arthur said they could at the mansion and I know they could at the Mall. We couldn't at the Base, though we sure tried some silly ideas on both sides.

We couldn't do that in the Depths either... as far as I know, our dead only came back because we could manipulate reality at the tower.

[and well. it's not that he doesn't believe any afterlife is possible after everything else, but it's still a shock.]

So what does it mean if you can talk to the dead? It's kind of creeping me out.

Ours came back due to a river having water with incredible healing properties, including healing fatal wounds and restoring the dead. I don't exactly recommend trying it as a way to escape though.

I know a bit about the methods of communication, but I'll leave that to someone who was there to explain. My group tried to find a way because we knew that it had been possible before.

Right, I'll just... ask one of them, then. [possibly at a later time since he's still made note of the hostilities between the Base Dwellers and the Mall Rats]

God. It's so fucked up how all of these situations are basically random other than the really specific murder setup. I thought my lot was crazy, but meeting everyone here... it almost feels like some cosmic joke. Or a trick, or some other bullshit like that.

I think there may be more in common than just the specific murder setup. Each group seems to have some threads in common whether it be what worlds people are from, specifics about the location, what happened to the dead, and so on. There are many factors that 2-3 groups have in common, even if not all do. One thing that keeps coming up is us finding out people we knew from home were among other groups.

Oh... I guess that's like how Akane's brother showed up in the version of the Depths that Linkara was in... Sorry, you don't know any of those people, right?

If anyone knows Mira though, please let me know. I'm sure it'd be another Mira, since my angel was with me the entire time, but it's still my job to protect her if we're both involved in this!

[there's glittering white light in the air around him as he makes this declaration. it's very bright]

[Vita is a bit confused and trying not to giggle. Well, there are all sorts.]

Sorry, all of my mira was missing when I woke up on the plane.

[Whoops, she mistook it for mira as in money. She's just not heard of that being a name before so her first thought is her world's currency.]

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poorlovefool - 2020-02-01 07:49 (UTC) - Expand

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illusionarymelody - 2020-02-01 09:02 (UTC) - Expand

I do not know. They appeared to us as ghosts at one of our stops.

Oh, right... I remember hearing about that stop. So it was just that particular place where you could talk to them?

Yes, just the one, unfortunately. I'm not sure who King or McBurn might have talked to.

Your... sister? Ah. I am... sorry to hear that...

It's nothing anyone can help. I'm glad to hear she's with others, at least. I'm also not fully convinced it's hopeless for the Mansion and Train's dead.

... Well, I don't know that we have a cleric among us.

I have ideas, but I'd need my powers back and to be able to get to my world. At the very least, I'm not giving up on them.

Of course not. As long as they are willing to return, it should work.

[Probably. He's not totally certain how divne magic works.]

[Vita knows that is one part, the hard part for her is accessing the soul. What she can do pretty much amounts to direct soul to healthy body.]

It is certainly my hope that they would, but I'd not force anyone who is at peace with it to return.

Should we be able to make it back to our own worlds, I can certainly pull a few strings for whoever needs it.

You also have access to clerics or something similar?