WEE͠K ̸́4͝

[strangerpeople]

W҉͘E͜͠͝E̕K̡̛͡ ̡͟4̸

[The blight is all-consuming.

Within days dozens are confirmed infected, and you and your unexpected new scientist friend find yourselves trying to work on a cure. If not a cure, a stopgap of some kind. Anything to prevent this thing from destroying everything. It's hard work. It's not going very well. Really, it feels like with every step forward, you're taking ten steps back. Discouraging is an understatement, to say the least.

A week passes, and the death toll rises. It's really starting to look bleak. You constantly second-guess yourself, and even get into a fistfight with your new ally one night. It's getting to the point where you are working on fumes.

Then, unexpectedly, you get a phone call. It's been a long night, and the sun is beginning to rise above the mountains, when it happens.

You and the scientist are not the only ones looking for a cure. In fact, there are at least a dozen others-and they think they may be close to a breakthrough.

But-and you can't believe you're hearing this, after all of the failure you'd experienced throughout this blight-they need your help.]


---


[To say that the end of last week sucked would be an understatement. To say that no one knows what this week will bring is not even in question. Yet even as you wake, you feel a cloud lift from your mind, as one of the truths you've been living with since the beginning has suddenly changed.]




[But is it possible to abide by this new truth? The Hosts, and IT beyond, seem intent on making that impossible. And the rat...well. Obviously the rat's not an ally. Let's not kid ourselves.

There's only one way to find out if more deaths can truly be prevented-and that's to keep going, and hoping that the new floor that has opened up will offer something in the way of an opportunity.

In the meantime.


There are 11 strangers left in this place.]

Comments

KEYWORDS... also freaky tube things.

[backuphero]

You found a prayer in a meatball.

[Why is this his life now?]

Was it on a card? "Tara" - that's in Ireland, right, the old capital or something?

[This is more Charlotte's gig than his, obviously. Jonathan shakes his head.]

Anyway, uh... Caleb and I found things that looked like people but definitely aren't anymore if they ever were in that room with all the tubes. The computer in there called them clones?

[otherworldlyking]

'Aren't anymore'?

[ On a scale of 1 to 10 he idly wondered how bad they looked. Not that he cared to go and look himself. ]

[backuphero]

The machine called it a Taboo Clone. Was human-shaped, but it tried to attack Caleb through the glass, and its eyes... it was shaped like a human, but it didn't react like one.

[He's visibly disturbed by thinking back on this.]

There was something about a lifespan of five months, too.

[otherworldlyking]

Didn't try to lash out at you? Just Caleb?

[ Or he supposed that Jonathan could've not gotten all that close to it. ]

[katzenpfote]

Just me.

[otherworldlyking]

Then, it could've recognized you?

[katzenpfote]

... Definitely possible.

[backuphero]

I was across the room. He tried - there was a tank of static, like the door nameplates, and he tried to clear it, then the thing woke up.

[If he doesn't let himself think that was a person, he can talk about it.]

"Cutting off life support will release the subject" or something really close to that... there was a "subdue" option and I hit that instead and then "output is back to normal" or something came up.

[poorlovefool]

Doesn't sound like there are any good options for this...

[It's a very good thing Eric doesn't retain any memories from other timelines. A person in a tube........... potentially a horrible thing to be reminded of.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ Well. Between this and the red fog apparently being a constant in not only their lives, but these things... ]

Makes you wonder if that Leader of theirs might try to turn us into those things.

[illusionarymelody]

Have you been to the Black Workshop, McBurn?

[She may as well chime in with this since it's something McBurn may well have seen before.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ ...

Well. She's not wrong in making the assumption. ]

I have.

[illusionarymelody]

[Well, she wasn't sure if McBurn would have cared enough to bother going there.]

What they found is similar to the devices used to make Altina and Millium, but instead it had a creature that was black with red eyes in it.

[relieable]

[just going to... not interrupt, but perk up at the name Millium]

[otherworldlyking]

Then they're making more of those things.

[ At the very least, that's his presumption. ]

[poorlovefool]

Can't say I know much about Ireland, but yeah, a card sounds about right for what it was on. It was just sticking out of it. I don't even... [He shrugs widely, he doesn't get it at all]

Do you think the clone was anyone we know?

[he knows a guy that knows some clones.]

[katzenpfote]

... Taboo... do you think that's where they make the things for the execution, perhaps? We saw one shaped like Akira and one like Lala during the last execution...

Do you think they are tailored to be people we know?

[poorlovefool]

...That's right! Hiyori practically told me Akira and Nanaki's were people they knew.

But if they're clones then it could be anyone, couldn't they? Oh my god...

[He looks like he's about to start bolting off to the tubes from the thought of it.]

[katzenpfote]

Hey!

[His voice is sharp and commanding.]

You do not go to that place alone! There was a tank filled with static I tried to push away and it nearly gave me a knockout headache, that thing probably would have broken the glass without someone to shut it down, and it is generally a bad idea to go around poking at things a high level mage or... something... has created. You stay put.

[poorlovefool]

Eric's already at the door, but he turns back.]

Hey! Quit trying to order me around, damn it!

[He's already on his way back to a desk, though.]

[backuphero]

[Jonathan actually pales at that.]

It - not as I could tell, but you don't think they're copying the dead or something, do you!?

[poorlovefool]

C-Copying them?! What do you mean? That's not what I meant exactly... I was just wondering.

I mean... why would anyone want to clone someone random, you know? So between all of us we might know whoever it is.

[backuphero]

I mean what I said - who else -

[Abruptly, he smacks a hand over his eyes, and drags it down his face.]

It said five months. "Lifespan: five months". We haven't been here five months!

[poorlovefool]

Oh that's fucked up. I have NO idea what it means, but it's fucked up.

...It could also mean the clone only has five months to live in that tube.

[unwittingking]

If it means anything? During the first...“execution,” one of those things-a bird-looked really similar to one Nanaki knew. From the photo I gave him.

[Whether that means it’s a clone or they corrupted the original guy he doesn’t know, but it should probably be out there.]