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

[Caleb's eyes go wide, and he inhales sharply.]

Ah. Well.

[He grins slightly at Karma, looking him over.]

Good thing for the cipher then, ja? No secret list of -

[No that joke is bad to use here.]

Of people whose houses I am going to throw eggs at. No list that you can read, anyway.

[ Oh how he loves it when he can manage to do something to throw people off a little. It's absolutely satisfying in a weird way. ]

Yup. It's all completely safe and for your eyes only.

[ A pause and he looks like he's having a bit too much fun with this now. ]

Hope my name isn't on that list, though.

I don't know, it depends. If I find out you're plotting to kill one of us, it might be.

[ He waved a hand dismissively and shook his head. ]

You don't have to worry about that. That's not very likely to happen anytime soon.

[ A hum, an then as an afterthought: ]

I'm not exactly the 'plotting murder' type.

I'm not either, not anymore, unless something has gone horribly wrong and you must be taken out for the safety of others.

That's one way to look at it. A 'Do what needs to be done to ensure there's less casualties' kind of thing.

It is what I was trained to do, though I go about it in a much different way and with much different priorities, now.

Trained? It sounds like you have probably quite the story behind that, but I won't pry into that unless you just feel like sharing.

[ He could be a brat at times but even he knew when not to press things. ]

... Maybe another time. It's not a happy story.

... Unlike you, who apparently likes it according to your profile.

[ Oh. Now that was an interesting little tidbit. ]

Ah, yes. Assuming you're talking about Assassination, that was because of what I spent the last year of my middle school learning, and my teacher.

[ He shrugged, smiling as casually as ever. ]

It isn't like i've ever actually killed anyone.

... I was about your age during my training. Ours was more... hands on.