15strangers | (no subject)

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How so? It seems pretty logical from where I'm standing.

[ If Hiyori thinks he can intimidate him, he's got something else coming. Having that little bit of height means shit to him and he's back to smiling as he usually does, keeping in mind what was said regarding Sho. ]

...You mean Kurama, but yeah.

[ Almost spoken like a reprimand, Karma then exhales a soft sigh as some of the friendliness dissipates from his expression entirely. Something doesn't sit right with him in that statement but he can't put a finger on it. ]

Except I think I much better prefer his way of doing it than yours. No offense. [ A laugh escaped him at that. ] Besides, what's the point in eliminating all unhappiness? If you wanted that, your bosses shouldn't have brought us all here again.

Eliminating unhappiness isn't as simple as avoiding it, is it? [After all, Karma is looking at him so strongly, when Hiyori is obviously making him feel less than friendly. Hiyori's smile hardly wavers at all. Maybe it does persist even when he can't avoid unhappiness.] You're on that trip to find Sho Minamimoto, after all, not run away from him. The negative elements of this situation are like that.

[What a euphemism... Hiyori spreads his hands to weigh the ideas.] It's my understanding that Noise are - a natural frequency, as Chariot du Nord put it. For you and Kurama to call Noise universally bad - fascinates me, truly. Perhaps I should ask the man himself more about his perspective on his upcoming game...?

[ That first part doesn't quite get an answer out of him, but more of a slightly pointed glare for a second or two, deepening just a touch afterwards. ]

Ah. You mean like what happened to you? Being like this makes me think you joined this corporation to avoid being unhappy.

[ Why yes that was a pointed jab at you directly, Hiyori. Sorry about that. ]

Don't you dare compare that to the situation your bosses put us all in.

[ If that look from before had been something, the utterly downright vicious look he shot the taller teen was almost harsh enough to kill someone if it were a physically possible thing. However it's just for a fleeting second, almost hard to miss as he laughs and his whole cheerful demeanor seems like it's back without a single pause. ]

I doubt he'd give you a straight answer or want to talk about it with you. As for us calling Noise bad? Well... we have our reasons and we also aren't the ones using them against people, either.