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]

Oh no, it is fine. I will remember it now that I know how it is pronounced properly, though I make no promises for the accent.

[He taps the side of his head.]

I have a very good memory. It comes in handy.

... But yes. I know that we have all been through a lot, but I have no room to judge for many things. I have no intention of hurting anyone here, but I know what it is like both to hurt and to be hurt. So I do not mind listening to whatever you might need someone to hear.

[relieable]

[Osomatsu beams at him, feeling... safe, for some reason. that's probably naive of him, but he's always been rather carefree]

I'll keep that in mind. Franciscus and I were pretty close. So I'd like to keep taking care of Gerard, if that's okay.

[the pokémon squawks again]

[katzenpfote]

That's all right. I still need to find my cat. He should be in the machine, just as he was last time. Even if he has no magical properties here, I still want him back.

[relieable]

[how do they put these animals into the machine? ...maybe he doesn't want to know]

What's your cat's name?

[he picks up the pokéball to return Gerard to it]

[katzenpfote]

His name is Frumpkin. He is a sort of brownish orange with black stripes, pointed ears, and yellow eyes. He is very smart, and hopefully he will quickly catch on to what the situation is here. He is my familiar, actually.

[relieable]

[ooh! he knows what familiars are, thanks to Ambrosine]

Neat! I'll make sure to keep an eye out for him.

[what a cute name, too]

[katzenpfote]

I appreciate it. It's not as if I have the materials here to re-summon him, or that it would even work if I did.

[relieable]

[heh... interesting]

So... do you use magic, then?

[katzenpfote]

I do. I specialize in transmutation magic, though I am skilled in evocation as well.

[relieable]

[he has no idea what those words mean, but he nods anyway. now that he recalls, Caleb's profile did say he liked magic]

Do you know how to make gold?

[oh............]

[katzenpfote]

Not gold, but I can transmute things to silver. Unfortunately, the magic is not permanent, so you cannot make infinite money. It is good for scamming people by turning copper pieces into silver for a bit, though. Nott and I got by doing that more than once.

Believe me, I would have had a much easier time if I could do it permanently.

[relieable]

..........

That is the greatest trick I ever heard.

[as a scammer himself, he appreciates this greatly]

[katzenpfote]

We'd also sell someone a small bowl and show them a copper piece turning to silver so they'd pay a lot for it, and tell them they needed a unique focus word that they had to think about all day. Then we'd take the money and use it and leave town before they realized it didn't work.

Nott and I had a number of scams and tricks like that. Some code words, too. 'Modern literature' means she's to shoot me in the chest where I keep one of my books, usually as a distraction.

[relieable]

Whoa.

[this guy... Osomatsu could learn a lot from him]

My brothers and I used to try to scam people out of cash when we were kids. Don't do it so often now, though.

[now, Osomatsu just "borrows" money from his brothers, but he'd never think of stealing from his parents. ...maybe]

[katzenpfote]

Ah, there will always be those kids who do that. It just shows you're clever and have initiative. Not always the best way to go about things in a civilized society, but some would say I don't really stick to civilized society these days, anyway.

... How many brothers do you have?

[relieable]

[HEH]

I have five brothers. We're sextuplets, and it's pretty difficult to tell us apart. Made the scams easy.

[katzenpfote]

Aha, I see. Very smart thinking, especially if your mark doesn't know that. Your house must have been very loud and busy while growing up.

[relieable]

Oh, man! You have no idea. It was like a wild animal den.

[he laughs... and then has a thought. those aren't his memories, of course. but it's better than saying the alternative]

It was a lot of fun.

[katzenpfote]

It sounds like it. I have no siblings, I only had a cat. And ja, I named and shaped my familiar after him. It was one of the first proper spells I mastered.

[relieable]

You were able to create the familiar to look like your cat?

[that's adorable]

Man, I'd really like to have my own familiar! I dunno what animal I'd pick, though.

[probably a red panda]

[katzenpfote]

Of course. You can make it look like any small creature. Cat, sparrow, octopus, falcon, spider... all are some of the things he has been. You simply have to redo the ritual every time you want to change your familiar's shape, which takes about an hour and a comparatively low cost of materials. ... Though not so low that it is easy to do all of the time, nor is it easy to consistently make that kind of money for most people.

Not to mention the high quality parchment and ink that is needed for copying sells, and materials that are not as easy to find as guano or cocoons. Being a wizard can get very expensive very quickly.

[relieable]

[NO NO SPIDERS]

Yeah, well, that's still pretty neat. Magic, and stuff. I don't know too much about it, but it seems to be different from world to world. I like learning about it!

[katzenpfote]

Ah, it's fascinating. There were a number of magic-users on the train with me, or at least some who used things that look like magic from my perspective. It's a shame that we didn't have a library on the train but I suppose it would not have fit...

[relieable]

Speaking of the library... have you been in this one?

[katzenpfote]

I have. There are a lot of books, and they seem to be from a lot of different worlds... there is much to research.

[He actually looks... happy at the idea. The lines on his face seem to lessen somewhat as he smiles a little.]