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

[unwittingking]

A machine that can gives you things after you give it some form of payment. Usually they let you choose, but not the one in the empty house.

[At this point he's not even annoyed?? He's just used to explaining stuff now.

And he...seems to understand???]

Okay, so, to get this straight, your power makes it so you can turn into glasses, you wanted to check if that was still possible, and after you did, the goose decided to steal you?

[incendiarize]

Ohhh, like the skeleton wheel from the mansion, but without the dead kid.

[In. Case King wasn't convinced of how terrible the mansion was yet.]

Yeah, pretty much!

[unwittingking]

…I'm sorry the WHAT?

[Just. Completely horrified, to the point that he's not even acknowledging that he actually guessed right.]

[incendiarize]

The skeleton wheel. The rotator. Krone called him Mr. Skeleton. He was the partner of the girl with the angel soul... I think he was around my age when the Stewards killed him?

[unwittingking]

[…what the FUCK]

Your getting therapy after this. I know a therapy dog, probably already dealing with a lot of other people, but I'm sure he'd be willing to help you.

[Dad Mode's kicking in full time. Arthur is not getting out of this. You will talk out your feelings with another dog.]

[incendiarize]

Would he even believe me, though...?

[It's not like Arthur's been through anything remotely close to what most people who need therapy have. Especially because most people only die once.]

[unwittingking]

Considering I managed to get him to come with me and try to help a universe that's having all sorts of different problems, not to mention we were only in that universe because a chunk of land randomly got teleported from my world to that one? Plus the fact that Tarot and Sabrina-magic Pomeranian and black cat respectively-have let him know about some magic stuff?

I think it'd be more surprising if he didn't believe you.

[And that's not even going into the fact that he's probably helping several survivors from the train, who now have powers of their own, with varying levels of reasonability. Arthur won't exactly be a cake walk, but Mungo should be able to help him.]

[incendiarize]

Probably a better chance than any of the experts at the Library, then. Thanks.

[He knows he's far from the typical kid-who's-been-through-hell, at this point. Considering his earliest memory would be best described as Hell. But the Library's scholars and experts probably aren't equipped to handle his new ability to die over and over again.]

[unwittingking]

It's no problem.

Now...do I need to put you down or something for you to change back or...?

[He's not all sure how this works.]

i thought i got this

[incendiarize]

Nah...I just didn't wanna risk it, with the goose.

[It is safe to turn back from King's paws, he's pretty sure. So in a flash, he's back to human shape.]

[unwittingking]

[Well, too bad that corgi isn’t stronger, because now both of them will be falling to the ground.

R.I.P.]