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.]

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What, you think he's not watching you as we speak...?

[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?

[ He'll snort at that. Well, that was sure mysterious, but the fact 'their leader was watching them' was always another possibility, he supposed. ]

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.

[That's a funny mental image... McBurn and Vita going at Link and Hiyori, perhaps? Who would survive. Would the lack of synchronization on that side lead to greater unpredictability. Maybe they'll see how that goes some other time, since Vita was right up at the front of the plane riot and everything, not to mention McBurn in the Depths. But for now it's McBurn and Hiyori.

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.]

[ What made it funny was that he had been joking. Though if Vita had access to her spells, it'd have been less than a joke.

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. ]

[That was a good direction for McBurn to take despite not having a clear view at first! Hiyori is impressed! To avoid the kick, he takes two big steps backwards - which leaves his legs in a dangerously loose, wide stance. He raises his hands so his forearms cover his body in an alive stance a bit like a boxer, looking forward for McBurn's next approach.]

Not bad.

[ 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. ]

[His blank eyes don't precisely see that foot coming, yet Hiyori tucks in his knee to bring his shin up, that might perhaps even impact back against McBurn's leg. The motion is too quick; he's "cheating" for the first time today, and his clicking tongue indicates he doesn't like doing it. When his feet are both steady on the ground again, he gives a more deliberate roundhouse type of kick with his other leg.]

[ Given where McBurn had been at in the midst of the fight, he hadn't quite anticipated such a quick backlash when he was already in motion. Though, he had been aware that the brunet was certainly much quicker than most.

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. ]

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Trails??? Spoilers???

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