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

[mermaidkin]

I—have different priorities from you. My main point is that you've been forthcoming at quite a personal cost, and some of the others have not. Really, it was an unfortunate slip to imply you were still hiding actively.

[katzenpfote]

Ah. Well. They have their reasons. Everyone has secrets. Even you, little mermaid.

[mermaidkin]

[stares into the distance with DEEP exasperation]

I guess I'll have to read the book again to explain just how hurtful that was... Get a hobby.

[katzenpfote]

...

[Hm. Did he go too far?]

I guess that was... ah... uncalled for.

... You claimed that only one person saved you, Hiyori. Maybe if you'd give someone a chance they could do it again. You know what I went through, and it's not the same as what you're dealing with now, but I don't think it's impossible to leave IT.

[mermaidkin]

A chance? Like you gave Chaesun Moon? Because that worked out so well...

[The tightness in his shoulders isn't as subtle as he'd like to think.]

Denying that IT has been left in the past, would be just as foolish as denying that IT has been entered in the present. But at the same time... I don't think you've taken every chance you could get. Be very careful how much you assume works because it did on that little boy. At least, that's what I'd do if I were in your shoes.