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

[beguiledcard]

I can't say what it was like on the other side there... This was my first time- dying. [ looking to Kurama actually... since he could probably give better comparisons here ] We were only on the same side of things after the big fight.

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama takes Akira's hand and also takes a steadying breath before speaking.]

It was different in the Mall. We were in the same physical space as the living but on a different frequency.

We could see and hear them normally, but we couldn't affect the living outside of very limited ways. They couldn't see us, hear us, feel us... anything.

[Maybe squeezing Akira's hand a bit harder now.]

[poorlovefool]

[oh... that's... sad. He would hate that, it sounds like being a regular ghost. Nothing like this, but maybe he should zero in on something more easy to talk about AND more relevant to his interests.]

Frequency? That sounds kinda familiar.... what do you mean?

[byanyother_name]

It's... This would be easier with paper and a pen.

[Kurama draws three invisible lines in the air with one finger.]

As I understand it, it's all vibratory frequencies to an extent. There were three in play at the Mall.

The Realground, where the normal people not involved in the game were at a supposedly normal mall and could only see effects we had on the physical objects there.

The Underground, where the dead played the Reaper's Game. We could see the living and the civilians but couldn't interact with either, though we could affect the physical mall. We picked a few locks for the living, and fought the Noise.

The Strangerground, where the killing game was played. The living could not see or touch the people on either of the other frequencies but they could be affected by the Noise or Imprinting.

[poorlovefool]

[.........He understands maybe half of this.]

S-So basically, if you're on a different frequency, you can be in the same place but hidden?

[that's the important part right? The rest is whatever.]

How do you change frequencies?

[touchsensors]

That almost sounds like quantum signatures-lun.

[lala here with your daily dose of useless technobabble taken directly from star trek]

[byanyother_name]

[Um. Guess who really likes Star Trek? Kurama outright brightens a little.]

In some ways it does but I think frequency is less immutable than a quantum signature. Reapers and Composers can normally adjust their frequencies at will to interact with them, or even bridge multiple frequencies to interact with both at once.

[touchsensors]

I guess that would mean some kind of resonance-lun. I should talk to mom about it when I get...

[...oh, right, she's dead.]

[poorlovefool]

[Eric is just staring at that because he's the dumbest Zero Escape character. OH NO. QUANTUM MECHANICS, HIS NEMESIS]

[touchsensors]

[beguiledcard]

[ He squeezes Kurama's hand in return, and then leans to whisper into his ear. ]

But we're together now. That's what matters most.

[byanyother_name]

[For just a second, Kurama's breathing pattern falters, slides a little too close to a too-familiar rhythm, but it steadies again as he focuses on his boyfriend's words. On the hand holding his.

On the fact that they are together again, instead of on the fact that they were parted.]

It is. I love you.

[beguiledcard]

[ If he had a heartbeat, it probably would have started racing...

But he gives a relieved smile at the words. ]

I love you, too. Let's fight our way back to Goro - together.