15strangers | (no subject)

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[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alright. I'm willing to try them if you want to see what they do. Just...please don't put them on yourself, okay?

[He's a bit worried as he says that. Again, teenagers and there apparent need to hurt themselves still makes him that way...]

..............Okay. But I wanna keep 'em, in the end.

[He'll offer them over. This seems like a good compromise between trusting and not trusting.]

Don't worry. I'm not one for collecting pairs of glasses.

[And with that, he'll place the glasses on his face, hoping they don't explode or mind control him or something.

…please tell me they won't do just that.]

[No, nothing like that.

He will feel like maybe he should take the glasses off and save them for something more important, though. It's more like a gut feeling, a hunch, and besides, they don't seem to do anything at that moment anyways.]

[He'll wait for a second before taking them off with a disappointed sigh.]

Nothing but a feeling like they might come in handy later.

[He'll offer them back to Arthur, careful not to mess them up in any way.]

Nothing, huh.... Well, okay.

[He takes them back, folding them and tucking them into a pocket.]

Hey, maybe it actually will be useful. We just don't know how to use them yet.

Gotta ask, though, do you do anything when you're in your weapon form?

[Just curious.]

I dunno, actually. Other than I can share stuff I've seen with whoever's wearing me. [God that sounds weird.] Emma wasn't too keen on trying a lot more, since we saw something as soon as we tried.

[Indeed it does sound weird! But we're not going to think about that for too long.]

So just anything from the future? Or is it super vague most of the time?

[Because he doubts that the powers that be would be kind enough to give out such a useful ability.]

[Ah, we are back to our regularly-scheduled being vague and secretive about powers.]

I don't have great control over it. Like, I can try to look at the near future, but I might get 'in like five minutes' or 'in about eight hundred years'. And I don't always get a place I can identify, or people I recognize. ...And sometimes they come out of the blue.

[He nods.]

Yeah, figures.

You haven't had to see anything too bad, right? Like...no big tragedies or anything?

[Please don't tell him he saw a future massacre or something...please]

[He's quiet for a moment, weighing how to answer that. He's seen more terrible things in the past than the future. Then again, time isn't exactly linear. It loops back on itself and shifts.]

I've seen some pretty bad stuff, yeah. But it's not like there's only one future.

That's...true, yeah.

[He rubs one arm with a paw, in the universal "I'm Uncomfortable" look, before looking down and sighing.]

Well, next time you actively try to get one of these visions, do you think you could...come get me?

You don't have to, but I just don't think you shouldn't have to go through those things alone, you know?

["How can you stand to do this every week?" Thanatos had asked. It's not easy. Arthur knows probably not everyone could, and maybe he's lucky he'd already seen a lot because this could be crushing otherwise. But, he's an explorer - sometimes, buckling down and taking one more step is the only way to survive. If you don't endure, you may never see the sky again.]

If you really want me to, I can. [Maybe.]

I'd like you to, but only if you're okay with it. I don't want to force you into doing something you don't want to do.

[He's just worried. The kid's already had to have seen some horrible stuff, coming from the murder mansion. If he has to see more, he should at least get some support through it.]

I....will. [It is true that some of what he's seen, he couldn't have gotten through alone. Like the last one from the mansion. He might not have been coherent at the trial if Eric hadn't shown up to help him.]

Alright.

Now, should we be keeping those glasses a secret, or are you fine with people knowing about them? I'm fine either way with it.

We dunno what they're for, so I'm gonna keep quiet for now. I don't wanna just say "hey I found these, they're probably important" without more than a gut feeling.

[They're a surprise tool that will help us later!]

Fair enough.

And I'm also assuming you'd prefer I keep quiet about your power?

[Since you were so quiet when talking about it before.]

For now, yeah... I'll tell everyone eventually, probably, but for now I'd rather not die 'cause someone's worried about what I might know.

[It'll probably come out that he can see the past, too, if anyone goes for the motive. If someone dies. He won't be able to do his thing without revealing that, and he doubts everyone will let him just mysteriously know things in-detail forever.]

Again, fair enough.

[He can understand that sentiment just fine.]

I think I'm going to get some sand-flavored crab. You want to join me, or are you fine here?

Sandcrab sounds pretty good, actually.

[Arthur has put on some weight since he's been here! He's looking less bone-thin.]

Alright, let's get some sand crab then.

[And with that, he'll start walking in the direction of Crab-o-Licious.]