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

[incendiarize]

Maybe. But there's no way to know, now. They messed up our memories when they tried to affect our sense of morals, probably trying to make us more desperate or willing to kill one way or another... I still don't know if all I'm gonna go back to is a crater or not.

[illusionarymelody]

You also could go to someone else's world instead of your own. I went to live in Jonathan's and am not the only person who came home with him. It's a hard adjustment, but if your world is that bad it may be worth considering.

[incendiarize]

If Etria is just a crater, then I'm the only one who can warn the rest of the world about the other Cores. I need to go back to the Library and report....and then try to find a way to save Thanatos's world.

I can't abandon my world, no way.

[illusionarymelody]

[She nods and does understand. Even if it may seem she did abandon her world, she's pursuing a plan B in case the Orpheus Final Plan fails in the end.]

I understand. I just want to be sure all of Emma's friends are safe, even if your Emma isn't the one from my timeline.

[incendiarize]

...On the other hand, Jonathan's from Eric's world, right? And Eric made it sound like he's from what I call the Old World, which was destroyed a thousand years ago.... So maybe I could keep things from ever getting that bad in the first place....

I dunno, it's all really confusing! And time's stupid anyway so how're we supposed to know if anything's gonna stay put or work like we think it should?

[illusionarymelody]

Yes, Jonathan is from Eric's world but from the sounds of what you described, at least 20 years in the future. It's 1945 for us in his world if that makes any sense to you.

However, I have figured out a means to travel between worlds and it may be possible to expand upon the places we can reach and allow people to go home and visit us later.