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

[katzenpfote]

Ah - yes, yes, there you go.

[Down the cat goes, and up goes one of the remaining two. This is reminding him of when he was taming the original Frumpkin.]

[strangerpeople]

[This cat is quite violent. Whatever is controlling them is becoming more desperate to keep the remaining cats in control. Claws and teeth are out, and if Caleb isn't careful, it will hurt.

But eventually-it takes longer for this one as a result-this cat, too, slumps, letting out meows as its eyes goes back to normal.]

[katzenpfote]

[He hisses in pain, winces at the effort it takes to keep it contained... but finally it calms down. He sighs and ignores his wounds as he sets it down and dives for the last one.]

Come here, you.

[strangerpeople]

[The last one tries to go for the eyes. Its the last gasp and the cat goes full-throttle to try and stop Caleb.]

[katzenpfote]

[He attemts to dodge out of the way but doesn't quite manage it, so he at least gets his eyes closed before the cat rakes claws across his face. He hisses in pain but hugs it to his chest, ignoring the very painful claws against his chest.]

[He'll... he'll clean up later.]

[strangerpeople]

[It takes effort, but finally, finally, the cat stops, and its eyes return to normal.

Well, almost normal. Their eyes are crossed, and it starts to contentedly lick the blood on Caleb's face.]

[katzenpfote]

[He pets it gently, noting the weird eyes. As long as it's happy and seems to be doing okay, things are just fine.]

There you go. Go and play with your friends, all right?

[He sets it down near one of the cat beds and pulls some bandages out from his coat pocket.]

I'll have to rebind them when I can clean it up... Eric, it's fine now.

[poorlovefool]

Oh jeez... good thing you already had some of those. Are you okay?

[katzenpfote]

I always keep them on me.

[See? His arms were already wrapped.]

They're useful for multiple things, too.

[Wrapping the fingers...]

I wonder what caused them to act like that?

[poorlovefool]

Whatever it was, it was fighting you harder the more you did it... didn't even think a cat had that much strength in its body.

[katzenpfote]

And I've fought with angry cats before... they weren't as bad as these. Unfortunately I have little ability to check right now if it was magical in nature or some other thing I do not yet understand.