F̎̋̀͝I͋ͦ̿ͦ̇̈́N̷̏́̊̽̔̍͒A̶ͧ̂͒̍L̛ͧ̃͜ ̶̛̐̀́ͪ̈́̐ͤT̒͘͠R̨͐͊̀̕ĬA̢͊̓͌͗͢Ļ̋͞

[strangerpeople]

F̶̡̯̻̠̤̻͔͋͊ͬͦͤ̊ͯ̆Ḭ͙̜̺͇̽͟ͅN̷̰̥̥̹̱̐͛̎͞A̮͋̎͛͊L̛͚̱̯͈̄ͧ̿̂̋́͡ ̵͓̜͑͊͐ͨ̎̀̚͡Ț̸̢̥̥̲̼͔̻̟̣͂R̦̭̥͇̓ͧͣ̉͠Į̮̻̪͙̺̘͈̰͉̋ͮ̆ͩ́̔̉͌Aͩ̒ͤ͏̖̼̣L̫̥̰͉ͥ̂̐͐̓͑̑̚͢

[It is time.

Though there was no timer, the time was clearly nearing its end. The darkness that encompasses this place becomes even darker as the hours dragged forward, until even the lights of the City's skyline seems to darken along with it. You can almost feel the Noise watching, an infinity set of eyes in the void beyond staring back, as everyone pulls together again to proceed down the street.

The brightest building in the sky is the dome, now. There's no barrier preventing you from going beyond the Central Building now. There's no need for it-the City is completely empty, its streets devoid of life, as everyone inevitably finds their feet bringing them to the dome.







There's no turning back now. Whatever you have, that is what you will bring on this final journey. Not just in items, but in mind, in spirit, and in soul. IT, the avatar of the Thing and orchestrator of your game, will not relent. IT knows it has bent you, but not broken you. Now IT intends to finish the job.

As you round the corner to the dome, you feel the rhythm suddenly take control of you. You feel a sucking sensation grab onto you, and try as you might you cannot fight. You are pulled in. And when you manage to clear your head and eyes, you are inside the building. It is massive, domed, and-





you are only in one corner of it. There is a small table with chairs, with everyone's name on little dot matrix displays in front of chairs. Not all of them, of course. There are 15 chairs, and where the survivors' chairs are white, the chairs of the dead are black, their dot matrixes empty and lifeless.

A glass panel separates this little set up from the rest of the building, which is concealed in red fog. Despite this, a worryingly slack-jawed Link and Hiyori are sitting in chairs on a raised step just behind the glass, their suits still impeccable and their irises swirling more intensely than before. They do not react when everyone comes in; they do not respond if someone tries to greet them. Next to Hiyori is a briefcase and a boombox, which even through the glass it is quite clear the static, pulsing rhythm coming from it is very, very loud. Kyuubey sits in its own chair, meanwhile, its eyes watching and its expression unchanging; a fourth chair sits empty next to them.

There is no visible sign of IT. But IT is there, just beyond the glass, just waiting to unleash ITs full might. It's almost mocking the Strangers, as if to say go ahead, draw your conclusions. You won't win. You can't escape.

Fifteen Strangers, from scattered multiverses. They were brought together once more to kill. Now, they must solve the final riddle. All of the knowledge and experiences they've had have led to this, and their newest evidence may help as well. The survivors have one chance to make this right and stop IT for good. Failure cannot be an option. If it is...no. Don't think about it. Just do it.


The trial for the future of all existence has now begun.]







[It's time!! The Strangers' objective here is simple, but all-important: they must pull all of the evidence you have together, unlock the answers they seek in full, and at last confront IT, the Mastermind.

This is it. There is no turning back. The blight curls ever-further from the darkness between the clusters. Can there be a cure?

Have fun, good luck, and may the right prevail.]

Comments

[comesaround]

[ Just going to be staring blankly for a second before he grins proudly and claps his hands. ]

Hell yeah! Good to see you fighting back!!

[champion_link]

Just biding our time... sorry. Couldn't do it too early...

[comesaround]

Fair enough. Had to find the right moment to do it and all, yeah?

[ Oh man he is so pumped now. Grinning as wildly as ever. ]

No need to apologize. It's just good to see you back to yourselves properly.

[champion_link]

[He smiles slightly.]

You had to figure some things out yourselves, first.

[comesaround]

Of course! I think we did a pretty damn good job of that if I say so myself.

[ A chuckle escaped him and then gave Link's attire a once over before nodding a bit. ]

I really wouldn't mind trying my hand at facing off against you sometime after this mess. You seem like a pretty good fighter.

[champion_link]

Better than me.

[...]

Later, maybe. If I can find a bow we can make it an even better fight.

[comesaround]

Sounds good to me. I love a challenge, after all.

[ A pause and something just comes up he has to ask before things get insane. ]

Though I gotta ask real quick. Y'know when I put the plushies up on the houses with both yours and Hiyori's clothes on them. There's no hard feelings about that, is there?

[champion_link]

... I can't speak for Hiyori but I think he didn't like it as much... I thought it was cute, though.

[mermaidkin]

The real battle. For your hearts and minds. It's way bigger than a single negative frequency, but... this side is nice.

[He wipes the back of his hand over his mouth.]

Ugh. Already stings to have my body feeling normal again without some coffee first thing in the morning...

[comesaround]

Of course it is. Either way, you have good timing and I ain't complaining one bit.

[ That gets a laugh out of him and he nods in agreement. ]

Well. Guess we'll have to fix that by getting out of here so we can have that cup of coffee. Sound good?

[mermaidkin]

It wasn't a lie, Akabane-kun. [If anything he told too many truths but he can process that later...]

Oh, man, you were right, that's much less time to say.

[comesaround]

Hm? [ It takes a second before he realizes what Hiyori was talking about, but then chuckled as he nodded. ] Figured as much, but it's nice hearing you say it out loud.

[ He kind of saw through things from the start, after all. ]

Exactly. It's always easier when you're more upfront about things instead of taking the long way around, Tono-kun.