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

[unwittingking]

You do?

[Well that's news to him too! Spill the details, Arthur!]

[incendiarize]

Yeah.... Charles told me. IT is part of a greater enemy, I think? And their "proper" name is the Echthroi.

[unwittingking]

Echthroi...

[He'd feel a shred of sympathy for the thing for having that as a name, if not for the obvious.]

Good to hear Charles is okay, but I have to ask, what about Meg? And...is there really more than IT?

[This is some good news, but it's also some concerning stuff to hear, and it raises some questions.]

[incendiarize]

I dunno, about Meg. I didn't get a chance to ask, and I didn't get a whole lot more information about IT. He had to send me back.

[Alas, he could only get so much.]

[unwittingking]

Alright. Get what you can, and don't get killed.

[Weird to steal that from a Cars movie, but it works here.]

You did what you could, so don't feel bad, okay?

[incendiarize]

He doesn't want me trying to reach him again, because it's not safe. But he said he'd try to send something.

[unwittingking]

Please...don't, then. It's better to wait for a message from him than risk someone getting hurt.

[Especially you getting hurt, Arthur.]

[incendiarize]

[........little bit late to not risk that. Sweats......]

I'd think this was it, but.....I don't think he could reach the dead.

[unwittingking]

Maybe. I've heard of weirder things in my life at this point. Including a cat and a dog that could communicate with the dead.

[Though that may not be the case here, it's still reassuring to see the dead again, and have the chance to talk with them.]