The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15strangers2020-02-01 11:51 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2020-02-01 11:51 pm
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(no subject)
The world's leading experts have been trying to find a cure, to no avail. Th blight keeps changing, keeps foiling all attempts at being fully understood. It's almost sentient, or at least more sentient than any disease that's been encountered before. People fear the disease jumping from what's left of the grapes into other plants, into animals, or even humans.
You can only watch as entire economies and ecosystems collapse. You can only bury your head in your hands as your own business comes to its end. The destruction of the clusters of grapes has not simply destroyed the wine industry, either-other businesses are being destroyed by the plague. Food, transport, retail, nothing is untouched.
You look on your own vineyard, its yield almost entirely blackened and dead.
This can't keep going on.
-
A week has passed since everyone's arrival. No one has died, yet. But surely no one is holding their breath to see if they would survive this unscathed. They are veterans of the game, and they must know that whoever it is that is in charge demands their pound of flesh. The question is when it will happen.
It is the second week, after all-and when the second week of the game comes, death is not far behind. Not even when you wake up, feeling something different in your mind as you remember the truths you originally woke up with, deep in your mind. You feel...lighter, somehow, when you realize there is a change.
Even so, there are 15 strangers left in this place.]
roof...
... How's it hanging?
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Fine. Just waiting for a rope.
[the one that vita is bringing him, he doesn't mean to come off morbid. Kurusu's interest in Spike is noted.]
That's not your cat, is it?
tw: just playing it safe with suicide hint warning and whatnot...
Uh... Feeling okay, or...?
[ LOOK... look. ]
And, no... Not mine. It seems to like you, though.
that is ok
[the moon shoes are on the lawn where he kicked them off earlier, by the way.]
His name's Spike, and I saved him. Who puts a cat in a damn vending machine?
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What did they do?
[ He'll walk over and get a better look at them before glancing back up at the guy... and then over to the cat again. ]
That's... a good question. I was wondering that about the birds in the last game I was in. My boyfriend got a magpie while I got... a carrier pigeon. [ sigh ] I just count it as part of the weird shit we have to deal with and leave it at that, these days.
[ . . . ]
More importantly, I'm glad you saved him. You probably made a friend for life, assuming you can take him with you - whenever we get out of here.
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Getting animals back was a thing in the Depths too, but it wasn't automated or anything. There was just this guy who got stuff for us...
[well, oops, now he's sparkling a bit because he's getting validated]
Probably, yeah. As long as there's a way back to Mundus, I can do whatever I want from there.
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[ He lifts his eyebrows. ]
The... Depths? Sounds intense.
[ Like a place that threatens ~no return for the weak~ and all that. ]
Well, now we've got one more reason to fight to get the hell out of here. [ kneeling down next to the cat now with a tiny smile ] We've just got to figure out whose ass to kick.
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But I like the sound of that! Huh... You're more confident than I realized.
[his profile just emphasizes how T I R E D he is so he didn't expect that]
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I'm used to pushing forward in spite of the bullshit?
[ A small shrug! ]
Letting this place win isn't an option for me.
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I can't afford to lose myself either... besides, I'm the only one who doesn't have allies from another game, so joining them would just put the target on me faster.
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Moving forward means less time looking back and focusing on mistakes. And, in situations like this, I've found there can be a lot of those.
[ To the next part, he just gives a dim smile. ]
In a way, I'm jealous. As messed up as it probably sounds, I'd rather be alone here.
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[case in point - eric is literally on a rooftop right now, and if he took a step forward in this moment, he would fall off of it.]
Not being alone means you've still got something to lose. I'm married to someone I went through a death game with, I get it.
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Yeah... I have. But, I've found that, usually, people remember the mistakes more than they remember the successes.
[ And the last part has him releasing a sigh as he nods. ]
It sucks. [ looking to the side ]
Who's bringing the rope?
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[that's DEFINITELY awkward to answer after what he said just previously.]
Rope? Haha... that was... just a joke! I'm not ACTUALLY stuck up here, you know. I like high up places!! Don't you?
[flawless deception!!!]
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[ That's said with an absolutely calm, casual "bullshit, but I'll let it slide" expression. Though a small smile appears as he shrugs and looks away. ]
I do, actually. It'd be a problem for me, if I didn't - professional thievery requires being able to scale walls and parkour all over the place.
[ There's a tiny grin flashed as he says that. ]
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[he is slightly math ladying at this bit of flexing but he... really doesn't think he's in a position to judge people who do crimes, even if he's also paranoid enough that the admission worries him.]
Well thanks for letting me know. No one tells someone they're a thief if they're planning to steal from them... unless they're one of those phantom thieves or something.
[he had the vaguest recollection that there were a couple of those in the depths]
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That'd be pretty terrible, huh?
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[slightly fretting as he thinks about her even so]
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Yeah? You've met others?
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