Ethnis Eats, Season 1, Chapter 7
Forced out of home, the party recruits some of the loyal fans who heard the message. One particular pizza delivery fan offers his van as a mobile shelter. They hit the road, Dartesi’s condition begins to worsen. And so does the populace as a whole. As they drive they notice underweight people gathering in groups, looting and rioting and noticeably stuffing their faces with whatever food they can find.
Anton theorizes that the Somnolent has activated the disease, in order to hopefully wipe out Dartesi and the truth the party holds. Anton receives science equipment from a fan, and begins to work on a cure, using the ingredients in the pizza van as a test.
"Oh Gods, I feel so empty
"Messages are coming in," Dancer remarked. "People are asking what's going on."
"How are they getting in, everything is being monitored?"
"They're overwhelming the filter right now. Staggered messages from multiple users forming whole sentences. Old tactic but the filters must be too dumb to catch it."
They were in Tejas' van again, drifting through the streets so as to not look like they might be up to anything in particular.
"Can we do the same back?"
"Already on it," She said, navigating the ironClad interface to make dupe accounts. "I'm telling them what's going on. It's time to loud with this and turn over the truth. We need to fix this, pronto."
"Mmmmhhh...." Dartesi said, hand rubbing his belly.
"Looks like it's starting to get messy already, guys," Tejas called back. "Look out the window."
They did, and what they saw was a grotesque display of gluttonous starvation. Storefronts with broken glass and people climbing over the counters to steal food from the stores. Food carts overturned. Some marched in the streets, yelling angrily.
"FOOD," Dartesi growled, stumbling to his feet and over to the cooking. He fired it up.
"Dartesi, no, we're moving!" Anton yelled, nearly being thrown from one side of the van to the other as Tejas took a corner. They heard thudding on the outside of the van as people outside chanted, demanding food, demanding that the van stop.
"When we were in there we saw a chem release trigger. I think they've deployed it now that they know we know," Anton said.
"That, would make sense..." Dancer said, sending a fresh slew of messages out.
"We need equipment," Anton said. "It's the only way we're going to he able to get any sort of progress on a cure."
Meanwhile, Dartesi had the friars active and was getting close to finishing the first round of tacos.
"I'll see what the fans have,"
"Dartesi, can you describe how you feel?" Anton asked, placing his hand on Dartesi's shoulder and watching him cook. Helping him cook. "No don't burn that,"
"Empty," Dartesi said, turning to look at Anton with a somber expression. "Like I've never eaten in my life. It's awful...."
And with that he turned back to his cooking.
Twenty minutes later and they had found the fan who was willing to help—though in return she wanted to be in on it. So the four of them were crammed in the back as Dartesi jammed his face full of tacos and the Fan stared in a cross of wide-eyed wonder and abject horror. Here was her idol and god, cramming tacos down his throat as fast as he could cook them. "Is that... healthy? Should be be doing that?" "Yeah he's got a big stomach. He bought a large one. He can look like he's about to give birth and still eat more. But I would like to cure him before his stomach explodes," Cander said. "I heard about that," she said. "That's crazy! Why are they doing this to us?" "Some sort of plot to make someone look bad? Hedon, as far as we can tell." "Back up," Anton said, "I need room to cook."
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