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]

[She's not too pleased either, and especially when she's not going to be able to avoid a certain topic because The Future was Akira's double.]

The Future I know was a teleportation power for us on the plane. It belonged to your friend's double. In our case, The Puppet was the one working with the game runners.

[And she's just going to try to attempt to evade speaking of what her power does. She'll do better speaking of it to someone more neutral than someone she is actively just trying to be civil towards.]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama strips a fair amount of pointed sarcasm out for the sake of civility. There's still some pointed, but it's well within the boundaries of civil.]

Akira is my boyfriend.

[Moving on!]

Teleportation was the evolved form of Yuuri's power.

[illusionarymelody]

Your poor taste is duly noted.

[And look, she's actually being civil. Her tone is pretty dry though like she's just noting it for the record.]

[backuphero]

[That may be civil but it ain't nice, and that's not going to help either of them live through this and just diverting things by distracting her is so going to come off badly and saying something is going to sound like a controlling bastard -

And he's got no other options but to try and catch her hand and say something in an undertone.]

You know anybody here could say the same to you about me, right?

[illusionarymelody]

[And she's going to get close enough to ensure only Jonathan can hear this.]

I'm sure most of them are already thinking it. You and I are the only ones who know how much of a monster he was, however and that makes your taste in women infinitely better.

[And then she'll give him a quick kiss and go back to where she was.]

[backuphero]

[He's frozen for a moment, but follows her, though what exactly he can do to stop this from becoming a disaster if someone snaps and turns violent escapes him at the moment.

He starts to say something, but stops, settling for just taking her hand again.]

[illusionarymelody]

[Well, it looks like it won't. If anything for her this is a better reaction than she could be having and both sides said their thing and let it go. She's trying to be civil, she even talked with Kurama and King rather than telling them to shut up and leave her alone. She'll take Jonathan's hand though because it's nice this time to have her husabnd's support and know that at least someone gets her side of this.]

[beguiledcard]

[ Just letting out a snort. ]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama reaches out quietly to take Akira's hand and twine their fingers together. (As much for himself as to show support for Akira; the events of the week have his temper chancy.)]

[beguiledcard]

[ He takes a deep breath and turns to rest his forehead against Kurama's shoulder, muttering under his breath as he does. ]

It's like I'm the new kid in Tokyo all over again - only this time I genuinely didn't fucking do anything. What's the point in even trying...?

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama presses a gentle kiss into Akira's hair. Excuse for the PDA. His voice is quiet, just for them.]

Vita's behavior reflects poorly on her, not on you. The others don't share her sentiment, treasure. And you are not alone.

[A small, deliberately arch sniff.]

Jonathan could do much better.

[beguiledcard]

[ He's wrapping Kurama into a pretty firm embrace. ]

... If I really am the one who did it, she has every right to feel this way. Besides, if...

[ . . . shaky breath, hands trembling. ]

Someone like Masayoshi Shido was here? I doubt I'd care about what he remembers.

[byanyother_name]

I don't dispute her right to her feelings. In that, she is perfectly valid. It's the part where she takes them out on you that I take issue with.

[Kurama returns that tight hold, silently protective.]

[beguiledcard]

[ He just lets out a dry, quiet laugh. ]

Who else could she take it out on?