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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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.
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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.]
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[Hiyori retreats to something more like footwork.]
We might get to have a meeting with you Strangers on the weekend, but we'll be busy, so the terms of a fight can't be set so freely.
Today is the oooooooone day we get to come out and play. Oops, I mean work on public relations. Our last attempt to convince you to convert before our announcement at 9:04 AM on Tuesday.
[He rushes back in, striking down towards Link's shoulders. A certain degree of eagerness in his posture that matches the words.]
I can totally put in a request for early next week, though. You seem confident you'll live that long!
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Wouldn't want it to be a waste of my time, after all.
[ McBurn smirks, words demanding but all the same not so much as a challenge that lied hidden within them. Which he didn't doubt Hiyori would be able to see. ]
Not about to just die before we get our second real round, either way. That'd be a massive disappointment.
[ For better or worse, his interest in the brunet still remained high. He was curious about him, and what else he might have to offer.
...It was probably also incentive for him to give a shit about what could happen this week, anyway. Which was a pain, but it was what it was (if his hunch about what could happen 'Tuesday' was correct, anyway, considering his previous murdergame experience.) ]
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[With that experience tho, what do you think is planned for the weekend, fam?]
I have [He swings the cudgel with one hand.] - a request. [He puts up an index finger with his free hand.] We know we're not exactly in a position to be making requests.
[He footworks backwards in several minute bursts, getting a clearer view of the world-weary man.]
The first time, I really had permission to entertain you. [It seriously worked if McBurn's smile is that wide. Hiyori's mask is so persistent that it's arguably harder to gauge.] But I can't willingly set up a situation where I kill you, let alone invite you to kill me... So I wondered how you would feel about this.
[He raises his empty hand, smooth, showing the truth in his words.]
I never actually worked a day in my life before this! My programming can carry me through anything, but we knew the chance of relying on weapons was really high. Where a lot of times you wouldn't have anything on you... So? [Blinking, eye contact, eager. Even if there's no pupil to cast a clear reflection.] Mano a mano, how about it?
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He certainly didn't quite expect them—or rather Hiyori—to request anything of him. It was a little amusing, but...he didn't interrupt, seeming willing to listen to the brunet's proposal while he kept an eye on his movements.
And indeed, it seemed difficult to crack the other's mask. Though, McBurn didn't forget the awkward due to their interrupted bout, and there was an interesting thing said in all of that besides the offer of challenge. The part about 'programming', that is. ]
You're right in that you hardly have any right to make any requests of me.
[ But given the way that smirk remained, his words were more bark than bite this time. He's making eye contact, and he's eager, drawn in once again. ]
But...you've made it well worth my time before, so why wouldn't I bother to rise up to your challenge? Weapons or no weapons, I'll be ready.
Don't expect it to be easy, and we'll do just fine.
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[All this dramatic mysterious sly gazing leads Hiyori to feel conscious about the fact that he's wearing glasses, take them off and stow them in a solid case from his khaki pocket. In a serious fight, those could get in the way. He's quick to completely roll his shoulders back when the motion is done, not losing McBurn's attention with dawdling. How to make the time they have count? That's on his mind as he talks.]
I guess it'd inconvenience the others trying to get weapons if there were as many as three of us active in the room with sharp objects near the walls and all. Why not move this to the furnace? Take a second to both get ready. It's a pretty wide, open space by comparison. As long as the kiln door's shut, there aren't any cheap shots.
[Oh, one more thing occurs to him at the last minute! His lips quirk.]
Unless the fire's an annoying memory for you somehow...
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[ McBurn...please. He knew the likelihood of that was abysmal, but he saw a chance to say that nonetheless.
Rest assured, however, that the brunet hadn't even come close to losing his attention whatsoever. He's more or less caught the other's undivided attention, and he didn't even look a little bored in the slightest.
Hiyori had been more than helpful in providing a challenge before, after all.
...Though, at the little quip there, there was a shift—not into disinterest, though. No one had even dared to even suggest before he'd be incapable of fighting somewhere just based on location or his current powers. ]
Heheh...isn't someone feeling bold today? I could care less about where we're fighting. Just don't expect me to pull any punches just because you're one of our Hosts, and it'd be for the best if you didn't underestimate me either.
[ He'll turn and begin to head to the Furnace, expecting the other to either follow or meet him there. ]
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[Because in the case of that assumption, there are bold assumptions on both sides of this conversation!! But Hiyori will leave it at that cheeky and mysterious pace.]
I didn't come out here into the open today expecting to get no kind of lashing. We'll see what's hurt me more by the end: You, or the barbed tongue of Vita Clotilde-Morris.
[That witch has never pulled a punch a day in either of her lives... Really it's a better way to think about it, maybe the fierce oneupmanship that Hiyori always brings to those verbal battles is actually another form of what McBurn has so keenly wanted to see. At any rate, he's cool with McBurn heading over there. Hiyori doesn't follow right at his back, instead taking a moment to exchange a couple more words with Link. He shows up in the Furnace Room basically the same time, setting his glasses case on the ledge around the kiln before stepping back.]
So, to finish... a three count? [There's this. Huge ticking. Pretty neutral and handy, though you could argue that Hiyori's affection for this clockwork is itself an advantage.] And to start, how about you count down how you want, and then I come at you?
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Good thing you don't have to deal with both of us at once.
[ Jokes aside, he's going to wait, and of course he's patient, but the best part is he's hardly even waiting in the first place. Is it bad he's gotten used to the usual ticking sound? Or maybe it's just because he didn't really care too much about it. ]
I'm not about to make it all that complicated. Come at me when I've finished counting down to one.
[ He'll ready himself for the other's first strike. ]
3, 2...1.
Trails??? Spoilers???
So, the countdown occurs. Hiyori wastes no time launching into a sprint; an ordinary enough one, but one he's putting everything into, as he lunges to the right and then loops around to reach for McBurn's right arm, aiming to pin it behind his back.]
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At the very least, McBurn's not taking the brunet as some kind of joke. He'll move just in time, to step out of the way of the other male's reach, and then move to swing a kick towards the other's left side. ]
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[ He hasn't become a good fighter just by virtue of his powers, though they've certainly helped!
As the brunet moved back quickly, the older man followed, this time using the momentum to get low and try to slide one foot underneath one of the other's. It was, of course an attempt to sweep Hiyori off his feet or unbalance him. ]
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He realized he was in a bad position to avoid the attack too late, because he's hit with the roundhouse kick, and he didn't have anything to block it. He'll grunt at the impact to his side, but soldier through it, his stance allowing him not to become completely unbalanced, even if it did stop him from attacking immediately or dodging.
That was, realistically speaking, going to leave a bruise.
He'll move around the brunet before he'll attempt to land a fist down below, towards the lower part of his stomach. ]