(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

[unwittingking]

…not sure if it's yours, then. Didn't look at it for long, but I think it was made of normal wood. A bo staff, I think it's called?

Might be a nice thing to have while you're waiting for yours to show up, at least.

[incendiarize]

Hmm....well, it might work. It's kinda a last resort. I'm really not strong enough to be much of a threat, without my alchemy.

[Arthur has no idea how to use a bo staff properly or effectively....this will go well.]

[unwittingking]

…worse comes to worse, aim for someone's knees with it. It's not fatal and could probably knock them down if you hit them hard enough.

[The corgi is totally not speaking from experience. No way, nuh-uh, that's crazy talk.]

[incendiarize]

Knees, got it. I usually go for the head, but....the Labyrinth is pretty strictly kill-or-be-killed.

[I'm sorry his world is like this, King.]

[unwittingking]

[…King just...tries to think of something to say, and he's able to, but-]

You...can't just say that and not explain. At least a little bit.

[Can one kid PLEASE not make him worried about their life back home? PLEASE?!?]

[incendiarize]

Oh, uh, the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. I'm an explorer! The Labyrinth is this huge maze that goes way deep underground, and it's full of super-tough monsters and FOEs and all kinds of other hazards. But it's also full of mysteries, treasure, valuable materials, and rare ingredients for medicine. Most people who go in don't come out, but I'm the best and my guild's the best, so there's nothing to worry about!

[He takes a lot of pride in this. He is very comfortable with marching into near-certain death on a regular basis. He is hiding all the backstory and issues and there's that whole time limit thing he brought up before.]

1/2

[unwittingking]

[That is...what the...

King's head is just kind of...he is internally screaming because kids shouldn't be doing this kid of stuff why do kids keep going through deadly stuff like this is he going to have to worry about every kid he meets from now on, and this is so much to take in all at once, and he's about to say something-]

2/2

[unwittingking]

[And then there's just this loud PLOP! as something hits the floor behind King. He goes deathly still right after it, staring forward in horror, not sure what he should say anymore.]

…gross.

[The hat, on the other hand...]