(no subject)

[strangerpeople]

W̡͜E̶EK ̵̕2̕͠


[The blight would not stop.

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.]

Comments

[mermaidkin]

It's going quite well!

[Hiyori winces at himself? In Japanese it's obvious: he's conflicted over grammatical formality.]

Did you come here for a meal yourself? What a coincidence! We could eat together!

[relieable]

That sounds nice. If you're not too busy.

[doing your weird things in sync]

[mermaidkin]

Oh, not at all! If anything it's a shame we couldn't get a break from work earlier this week!

[Hiyori watches with tentative excitement for where Osomatsu sits.]

[relieable]

[oh. he'll, uh... take a seat near the head of the table]

Work, huh? What do you guys do?

[mermaidkin]

Well...

[He's... not used to getting this far!]

They put us on lots of rotations and stuff. But if you're curious about the most recent? Observational reports, actually.

[relieable]

What does that mean?

[he's interested, at least. it beats just sitting alone]

[mermaidkin]

We were watching, well... you guys!

[Ahahahahahahahaha,,??]

Not everything. Especially not every private rendezvous. But in the case of meetings or something like that, almost definitely.

[champion_link]

You didn't think we'd just leave that kind of plotting unsupervised, did you?

[relieable]

[!]

How are you able to watch us?

[mermaidkin]

[EVEN HIYORI IS POORLY MASKING HIS SURPRISE, HE THOUGHT LINK WAS JUST VIBING, ends up having to "pfft" into his fist]

That's classified, but I'll say for sure our group is always watching in some way. That's pretty typical in these situations, isn't it...?

[relieable]

Y-yeah, but... [he certainly didn't see any cameras around. maybe he wasn't looking hard enough.

though there are other options, ones that make him sick to think about, but he knows it must be true. his gut tells him. or, rather, past experiences, do?

Osomatsu shakes his head, trying to clear it]

Your group. There are more of you, then?

[champion_link]

You didn't think we set all of this up on your own, did you? But you can meet them if you join us. They're all very nice.

[mermaidkin]

Anyway, we're the ones to work on these reports because of our advantages in analyzing you all. Like how we've met some of you Strangers before and so on.

[relieable]

[he had a hunch, about there being a mastermind, but...]

I see. That must be a lot of work with such a boisterous group.

[champion_link]

It is, but we manage. We are efficient and don't waste time like people who don't have a schedule set for them.

[He shudders, as if that's one of the worst things he could even think of.]

We are able to complete our tasks with utmost precision and excellence, thanks to what we've been able to learn here.

[relieable]

[ w o w ]

Oh, yeah? And what have you been able to learn?

[is it brainwashing]

[champion_link]

New ways of organizing with tools I had never even heard of in my time. They're very useful. Though some of them would be too difficult for people like you to use right now.

[relieable]

["people like you."

HM]

...You're probably right. [he links his fingers behind his head] I only recently learned how to use a smartphone.

[champion_link]

Oh, those sorts of things will look like child's play once you've joined us.

[relieable]

[this again... the hosts wanting the strangers to join them must be a running theme here]

Look, I'm not saying this place is bad, or anything. I'm just having trouble believing that you guys abandoned everything to stay here. Why would ya do that?

[mermaidkin]

Because "everything" didn't make us happy.

[Wow, Hiyori had been letting them do their thing for a good minute or two there. He must be pretty serious about this.]

[relieable]

[well. Osomatsu can understand that. he's not very happy, either. even in Cartesio, he wasn't satisfied. he ended the "game" realizing that he was not who he thought he was. none of them were. what kind of happy ending was that supposed to be?

so Osomatsu understands. at the same time, he doesn't know if living here will make him any happier. he's lost everything, he's at rock bottom, but he's still pushing through, believing that something good will come out of this if he survives]

Don't you think about the families and friends you left behind?

[mermaidkin]

[Hiyori looks Osomatsu straight in the eyes. His shoulders are like rocks.]

What we left behind could not make us happy.

[relieable]

Ooooh. I see.

[a pause as he tilts his head, never breaking eye contact]

A real world, with real friends and real family couldn't make you happy.

[mermaidkin]

[Hiyori's brow furrows much harder.]

Tell me, Osomatsu Matsuno. Do you think people in this "real world" are all happy? Most or even some of the time?