The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15strangers2020-02-09 12:08 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2020-02-09 12:08 pm
W̧E̷E̡̕K ͡3̴
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.]
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So do I but given that it absorbs anything put into it, trying to find out could be fatal.
It's also possible there is simply nothing down there, albeit unlikely.
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Have we tried only putting something partway in and then pulling it out? Or only dropping things in?
cw: suicide, self-loathing, Things Letty And Azrael Enjoy
[Oh, it's definitely unhealthy, just not physically. But as Arthur thinks about Kurama being dead...
"Akira, don't do this. Not for me."
This is what it feels like to shatter. The emotions are thick, suffocating. Pain, guilt, regret, fear, heartbreak. Love. Love, love, love. The unstoppable force, his love for his mother, has finally found an immovable object. His love for Akira Kurusu. Arthur (Kurama) is destroyed by the collision, foundations crumbling.
He hears his own voice distantly, unnaturally calm as he argues with the people he betrayed. The people trying to save him. As more of them agree to Akira's plan to not vote, the fear grows. The oldest, darkest part of himself can only laugh, morbidly amused. They are trying to hand him his win on a silver platter and he can't let them. They'll all die. He thought he could bear it but he can't, the price is too high.
He's not worth it, how can he be worth it to them?
"I meant it when I said I cared for you all. Akira... I meant...everything. I do want you to know that. I'm sorry."
Even if he hadn't been able to tell Akira he loves him, loves Goro, he'd meant it, there between the lines of what he could let himself say.
"I knew I might die again here today."
For just a moment, Arthur is thrown back even further as Kurama remembers the first time. Running on four legs, tails bristling with his anger, too prideful to be afraid. How dare this upstart hunter think to catch him? The pain of being shot, shock, defiance, sacrificing body and power to cheat death-
"I also knew I would never make poor Nyaf-ya do it."
He's a monster but not the sort that can make that sweet child kill a friend. He presses a hand over his heart and uses the power they gave him. It burns as the arrow pierces all the way through him but he's used to pain.
The look on Akira's face just before the darkness takes him hurts so much more.]
Arthur's power is very useful and very cruel
[The force of it throws him backward.
Arthur had thought he'd gotten used to chest wounds. To Eric's spear, Thanatos's arrow, the knife and the shot that found their homes in Akira's chest... But Arthur was wrong. So very, very wrong. It's not the kind of wound - it's the intensity of the vision, how sucked into emotion and moment he gets. And for this, he was no longer Arthur - he was fully Kurama.
The past within the past is new to him, too. To die twice in one go... For the moment following the vision, he's the one of the pair who isn't breathing. It takes too long for his vision to clear. His back stings. When did he hit the floor? What happened? He's gone walking mid-trance before...
The line of conversation has been forgotten for the moment, as he tries to get his metaphorical systems back online.]
I think you mean Arthur's power is very useful and the players are very cruel.
[Kurama is kneeling next to him, one hand already reaching for Arthur's wrist to check his heart rate. He assumes this has something to do with his visions but what had he seen to do this to him?]
Arthur, can you hear me? Just tap my hand if you can't speak yet.
Touché.
...He taps at Kurama's hand. Doesn't feel like he has enough air. His thoughts are more coherent than with Eric, after Maka's death. He must have hit the ground pretty hard.]
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His tone turns measured and calm (though very carefully and deliberately not in beat with the ticking).]
You need to breathe, Arthur. In and out. Whatever happened, it's over now and you're as safe as any of us can currently get.
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It's....been a while. Since I got one that intense...
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[Kurama will let of Arthur once he seems steady enough.]
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[It had to be. He doesn't specify Kurama's past, not yet, but he does rub at his chest.]
Probably the most emotionally-painful one I've had.
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[Kurama tries very hard not to pay attention to that chest-rubbing, actually.]
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But, also, screw the compulsion to distrust? So he decides to be honest instead.]
...Not right away. Maybe not ever. But I can keep going - it's not like dwelling on the past ever fixed anything.
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[Kurama offers Arthur a hand if he's ready to try for standing up again.]
Was it anything relevant to our situation?
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[Arthur is, after all, still an amnesiac. Even if he has more memories than he lost, at this point. He's casual about it, having long since accepted it (and honestly he forgets he's even missing memories a lot of the time). It'll get even less evident as he gets older. He takes the offered hand....he's still too light.]
I don't think so. Nothing you don't already know, anyway.