15strangers | W̧E̷E̡̕K ͡3̴

W̛E̷͞E̶̵K͏͘͠ 3̸̡

[You got a phone call that morning. It wasn't the realtor for the vineyard, like you had thought. Instead, it was a scientist.

She offered you something you hadn't ever expected: hope.

"I think I've pinpointed where this blight has come from, and how it became so virulent. You were among the first whose crop was infected-I wish to speak to you personally about it."

You meet in a car, and drive to an isolated road. She will not take any chance to speak publicly about it-not yet. She doesn't want to release the information until she is certain. But she felt honor-bound to explain to you, given your own importance in her research. You hadn't known she had sampled your dead and dying grapes, but she did.

"This blight..." She opens a folder, showing you the photos. "Started with a gopher, several years ago. I know, it sounds insane. This disease should only affect certain animal species. But one day, it jumped into vines...the original gopher died a long time ago. But not before it had eaten an entire cluster of grapes in one swallow. It ended up scratching itself on the trellis of the grapevine as it choked to death. Its blood, its body decayed, and helped to water and fertilize that strain of grapes the next year or so, and...well, the seeds from those buds that resulted were sent out to every farm in the area. Then, to every farm in the country, different regions..."

That sounded insane. This woman's theory sounded utterly bonkers. But you can't dismiss it out of hand-you have no better answer.

Before you can say anything more, the woman's phone rings. She answers, and you see her face turn white. You don't have to guess why.

Before, the theoretical gopher had infected the grapes with the blight.

Now, the blight had claimed its first human victim.

-

[The morning hurts. It hurts to know that, even dead, there was that final, terrible moment for the Embarrassing and the Nagging. It must hurt more to know that this will continue, and that there is something out there that is invested in ensuring each and every last one of the Strangers are, if not dead, than broken.

And then, there is IT. IT is the enemy, it seems. But...what is IT? Is IT the one truly responsible? How?

As you try to think on it, you remember your truths, and suddenly, you realize, another has changed:

[That you would. Can you? You know that, whatever your answer, you must find a way to the truth. The alternative is too horrible to even contemplate-if it is even possible to be comprehended. After all-if what you saw is what happens to the dead and condemned, what will become of the living at the hands of the terrible, unknown IT who is your jailer?

Hope that you do not have to find out. Hope there is an answer in the new floor that has opened up in the Building. Otherwise...otherwise you really are doomed.

There are 13 strangers in this place.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Prevention vs. care, huh.]

I dunno anything about magic, but....a Light Formula would've saved Akira. A Light Tincture would've protected Nanaki. Neither last long, but...

Oh...

[Oh, Arthur.]

I do not think even that would have stopped them... and you were not there. And you cannot blame yourself for not being there, because you did not know.

Some things can be changed. I do not think that this can be.

I could bottle them up and hand them out... People would have more of a chance that way. But I guess I won't be making much of anything now. [He looks at his still-smoking gauntlet. He'll have to repair it...]

I know I can't change what's already happened. But I thought I could at least keep it from happening again. Like Etria and Gotham...

[He gently holds on to Arthur's hand, putting his other hand over it.]

I... well, I think we both know how bloodthirsty people can be when they're pushed. I can't say I didn't fall for the same.

But we've all been through this before, right? We all know what's gonna happen! Why are people still falling for it?

Part of it is mental compulsion. Some of it is hoping that maybe one time they'll have a real reward. There are things that would tempt all of us, given the chance. I don't know.

[He'd go darker with this, but he's pretty sure no one here is that bad.]

.......I know what's be the most tempting for me, and the mansion already offered it.

The first train already offered it, I tried for it, and I got nothing but get someone hurt. No prize, just another train with some new and some old people, and some who remembered and some who didn't - and also the person I hurt. It didn't go well with the ones who remembered.

And then we came across a place that might have offered it... but there was too much go give up.

[And he's not ready for that. Not yet.]

I think the Stewards really did give Eric what they promised, when he got away with it. I dunno if it lasted after we killed them.

[But Caleb killed and got away with it too, huh? And someone got hurt. Arthur knows what it is to have blood you don't want on your hands.]

It's harder to live with it. Right?

Always.

... They didn't give me what I wanted. And as much as I want to destroy him utterly... Millicent was not really in charge. The Empress was, but even she has things that dictate what she can and can't do. I wouldn't be surprised if they just gave me a Trent Ikithon from a version of my world other than mine.

[Arthur mentioned during the trial that he's killed before. He gets it.]

I don't think the Stewards had any rules really. They probably would've done basically whatever. But I guess that also means their incentives couldn't be relied on - they had their own goal and we were just tools. So maybe Eric's partner didn't get any protection at all.

It's impossible to say at this point. ... I'm glad we talked the Empress down, but some of the things we saw were horrific, and it sounds like they were for you as well.

[It didn't affect him as much, but he's already hit peak trauma before.]

We just killed the Stewards. Left the whole stupid conflict behind, 'cause none of us cared.

[There was more details, and Arthur's willing to relay them, but...]

The mansion....wasn't the worst place I've ever been, just the longest I've ever been stuck there.

Given the forces at work there, I think that would be unwise. One or more of us would likely go mad, from the sounds of things.

Who was the conflict between, exactly?

Death and Arachnophobia. ...Death is a person, Arachnophobia is an organization. Arachnophobia is led by a witch named Arachne, and she's dead, except she found a way to not completely die, and the whole thing in the mansion was an attempt to resurrect her and prevent a future where Death is the world's leader. Except the future they were making was even worse.

Like a lich?

[Anyway.]

Did you... see that future?

Maybe? [What a lich?] Her soul got stuck in a golem, but her consciousness got spread all over the entire world, because she dissolved into spiders.

And yeah. I did. That's probably the future I saw the most of.

... How about neither? A world ruled by death seems fairly awful.

It looked way happier, but it sounded pretty bad. Krone says Death would send kids on deadly missions. [Arthur you're a kid the Midgard Library sent on a potentially-deadly mission?] Like, sending them to the past to prevent the Arachnophobia future, but they.....got killed. Brutally.

[His breath hitches just once. Nope, cutting that topic short before he thinks about it too hard, that won't do any good. New topic. New future.]

Yeah, 'neither' is the future we made. Excalibur's about as annoying a guy as you can think of and probably even more annoying than that, but he didn't seem like a bad dude. And that future was beautiful!

I'm glad it... worked out? It sounds like it did, in any case.

W̧E̷E̡̕K ͡3̴

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I forget if r4 used Death or Shinigami, so let's blame magic translation

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