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

[poorlovefool]

Oh, alright... then... at least you're back, for now.

Have you... have you been alright? Over there with Kurama too... How mad should I be at him in the end?

[Eric IS mad but he doesn't want to make things awkward if they made up or something. He's pretty iffy on the whole mercy kill aspect.]

[touchsensors]

Don't be mad at him-lun. All of us were just trying to help-lun.

[Something that hasn't been going well for her, recently.]

--but I found something out before I died-lun.

[poorlovefool]

[disappointing but alright. He can respect that and move on to this change of subject.]

Oh... right! You did, didn't you... [Arthur probably mentioned that in his vision.]

S-So what is it?

[touchsensors]

Kyuu has a higher clearance level than us-lun. When I brought them to the elevator, we went to a much higher floor than usual-lun.

[poorlovefool]

Oh... that's useful, maybe. I don't know if they'll go with us now that they're not pretending to be pets anymore, but still! Did you see any clues while you were up there?

[touchsensors]

I don't know if any of it is really clues-lun. There was a big office area where the machines were running themselves-lun. And there was a big room with a throne and a dinner table-lun. It looked like three people were having dinner there a long time ago, but left in the middle-lun.

[poorlovefool]

That's pretty weird... how long ago, do you think? Hours, days? Was there gross food?

[touchsensors]

I think it was a really long time, but I don't really know how long-lun. It was definitely rotten-lun.

[poorlovefool]

How odd. It doesn't seem like the brass here to leave a mess....

[Someone else, maybe? Definitely seems worth a second glance.]

Well, if it's something automatic, it shouldn't be too hard to catch another Kyuu. Maybe we'll learn some more.

[touchsensors]

[Hm, something about that phrasing...]

Oyo? Did something happen to Kyuu-lun?

[poorlovefool]

[Eric just looks really annoyed to remember this, so he grumbles.]

King happened.

[he'll explain if she wants to, but just... give him a minute. It still bothers him a lot.]

[touchsensors]

Oyo.

[That's pretty vague, but okay.]

I did some searching in the void too-lun. I haven't really found much though-lun.

[poorlovefool]

[He'll take the change of subject.]

Is there anything we can do to help each other?

[touchsensors]

...I don't know-lun. I still don't really understand what's going on-lun.

[poorlovefool]

Oh... sorry. Well, then...

Um, what did you search in the void?

[touchsensors]

A school-lun. Someone had drawn a lot of grapevines on one of the chalkboards-lun. It went past the borders onto the walls-lun.

[poorlovefool]

We found some bullshit about grapes too... on a chalkboard in the winery. We think it's kind of metaphor for the multiverse.

[touchsensors]

Did yours go past the board too-lun?

[poorlovefool]

Uh... not sure but probably not. Ours was writing, not a drawing. Something about a ... mutation? A blight? The grapes in our thing were spreading diseases, that's the point.

[touchsensors]

So the grapes went too far and spread the disease past...

...where it was supposed to be-lun?

[Lala rests her forehead in both hands.]

I thought that was going to make sense-lun.