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

[beguiledcard]

[ He lets out a tense breath, quietly talking - mostly to himself for this part. ]

... So she was alone in that sense.

[ After that, he nods. ]

Thanks for telling me. Were the deaths where you're from... ... Did they... 'stick'?

[incendiarize]

[Something in Akira's tone makes Arthur feel a little better about catching Felicity. At least they got one.]

Yeah? The dead don't come back. Only six of us got out of there.

[And now half of those six are here and it's just dandy. But hm. Vita seemed to default to thinking everyone got out safely, too.]

[beguiledcard]

... In our case, being dead means having more power to fight Sho. So we all 'came back' - in some ways, they were never gone. The living just... couldn't see or feel the dead. Like a barrier was between us, even though the dead were apparently able to see and feel us just fine.

[incendiarize]

We had a spell to contact them briefly, but it cost a soul to use and wasn't reliable. That was it, though. The dead are dead. No takebacks or do-overs.

[beguiledcard]

... Some of the people I know can bring them back. That's part of what a Composer does - giving people second chances at life.

If you help us find where they are, we can help make it happen, I think.

[incendiarize]

[He looks up in surprise, and his eyes are briefly so hopeful. But that light quickly find.]

But....is there a time limit on that...? Like, does it stop working if they died too long ago?

[beguiledcard]

[ He shakes his head. ]

Not at all. It'll get more difficult, I think, if it's been a super long time. But, even if it's been centuries, I still say it's worth trying.

Only one way to find out, either way.

[incendiarize]

Centuries is right, I think around eight of 'em. Excalibur took us to some other time, way more advanced than whatever "twelfth century" we were in.... I dunno the exact timeline, things were weird.

[Time is fake, and it wasn't yet so far in the future that he didn't still have more relevant future to see. Or maybe it was and he only saw a few days ahead? He isn't sure. The point stands, R4's dead have been dead for around 800 years.]

....I dunno if Felicity's soul is still around though, or if it got used up. Zelda's and Emma's should be okay - Ambrosine might still have Emma's... Thanatos's should be somewhere, too. As far as I know, Eddie, Akko, Franciscus, Bermuda, and Jun didn't leave souls behind, though...

[beguiledcard]

[ He's quiet as he listens, and then he gives a small nod. ]

If there's any soul to find... I'm sure we can figure something out. We won't know until we're there, though. [ soft breath ] So... I'll talk to Kurama later. See what he has to say about this. Then, once we're out, maybe Seven can help.

Kurama, Karma, and I have his contact info... wherever our phones got put.

[incendiarize]

It's probably fine if you just leave Eddie, Felicity, and Budapest, but the rest...

[But he listens. Nods. There are things to try. No giving up until everything has been tried.]

...what's a phone?

[beguiledcard]

[ Oh... well, this isn't super surprising, given he's encountered some people clearly from earlier time periods. ]

Uhhh... A device that lets you communicate instantly over long distances.

[incendiarize]

Ohh... Man, that would be useful. Sounds like Old World tech.

[beguiledcard]

'Old World', huh?

[ He's lifting his eyebrows. ]

What does your time have, then?

[incendiarize]

The Old World was really advanced, apparently solved all the mysteries of the universe through science.....but in the process screwed itself over, and it fell a thousand years ago.

So we've got, you know, letters? And people to carry them, and trained birds.

[beguiledcard]

Oh... Your Old World sounds a lot like my Current World.

[ He gives a dim kind of smile. ]

[incendiarize]

You're not the first... Uh, is there a huge metropolis called Tokyo in your world? 'Cause there was in the Old World.

[beguiledcard]

[ He takes a slow breath... and then nods. ]

That's where I was just before getting stolen for this game. And the last one I was in.

[incendiarize]

[Oh. Arthur goes quiet. Eric knew of Tokyo, but that was different, he hadn't been there...]

I've been to Tokyo's ruins.

[beguiledcard]

[ He looks down. ]

... That doesn't surprise me. Even with everything my team and I did, I was never sure it'd be enough to help in the long run.

[incendiarize]

I dunno that it had much to do with you? We know....sorta what happened, and it was a way bigger problem than one person or one team could fix.

[beguiledcard]

I didn't think it did, in the end, no. Just... we managed to stop a false god from ruining things, is all. From... taking away willpower, to put it simply. I just never assumed that would be enough to stop the world as we knew it at the time from ending.

Nothing lasts forever.

[incendiarize]

....yeah, that. That is way deeper stuff than I'm talking about. I dunno all the details - no one does - but the Old World got got by total ecological collapse.

It's basically recovered for the moment.....sort of. But humanity's still kicking and doing just fine.