Morning: 06:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: February 18th - February 25th, 2019 ]

The day begins quietly, with no indications that anything strange could occur today. The Princess and the Knights have all arrived on the island. Maybe you arrived a few days ago or maybe you just got off your red-eye flight before the sun came up. Everyone's on Harsen Island and so is the Wizard.

Things start simpler for Luka Eutychia, Olivia Walkyr, and Rory Honeycomb. The instant they set foot on the island, Olivia and Rory will both get an image of Luka in their heads and realize that they are the good-allured knights and he's the Princess. Luka, meanwhile, will see both Olivia and Rory in his thoughts and realize they're the good allured knights.

The Weather

Sunny.

72°F / 22°C

Slightly breezy, makes the trees wave.

Prompts:

6:00am: It's the early morning celebration van! In all three towns, someone's driving around a vehicle playing blaring music and shouting "Let's go Knights! Let's go Princess! Beat that Wizard!". Seems like someone wants the heroes to succeed, hopefully your characters weren't sleeping. If you confront them, maybe they'll have something to say?

8:00am: Far Haven: All Knights and the Princess are invited to a big breakfast banquet. Come one, come all! Maybe meet some of the locals? Maybe chat with your fellow heroes? All knights are given lanyards, but the princess gets a lanyard and a crown if he's here, and they're all seated at the big hero table.

9:30am: Bamborough: All Knights and the Princess are invited to an oceanside brunch! Wether they live in Bamborough or they live elsewhere and visited here, they're welcome to eat the brunch and participate in waterfront games. Thank the resort owner for this welcome! Or chat it up with your fellow heroes by the water. By now everyone should be full.

11:00am: Craydon: Craydon's welcome is much more modest, the locals have invited the Princess and his knights to the local Multipurpose Center. They've set out a spread of light appetizers, chips and dips, vegetables and spreads, fresh breads and cheeses, modest drinks. It's the least extravagant of the welcomes but the locals are still here to meet and greet everyone. With a smile and a handshake they wish everyone the best of luck. How are you and your fellow heroes holding up with all this attention? Did you skip all these events? Attend all of them?

11:30am: The Wizard (Year 40 She/Her/Hers) strides in to the Craydon Multipurpose Center with her hands in her pockets and casually looks around the room with a gentle smile on her face and huge bags under her eyes. Her eyes are black with cyan sparkles in them, looking very much like outer space itself as she scans the room and everyone in it. Good luck for anyone here, they get first dibs on seeing the Wizard. She'll be shuffling around the multipurpose center in her light blue pajamas and bunny slippers, occasionally adjusting her tiny glasses as she looks around. At least she's got her wizard hat on so no one could miss what she looks like this year. It's a shocking difference from the big muscled dude (Year 39 He/Him/His) she was last year or the slick suit-wearing smooth talker (Year 38 They/Them/Theirs) they were the year before but it's still absolutely the same wizard.

Procedure::

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around. Several simultaneous wizard conversations can exist in the replies, she's going to stick around to talk to everyone. Feel free to OOCly decide what order they spoke in or leave it a mystery.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Joanna's been long enough in the Craydon gathering to have at least seen everyone, even if she hasn't yet managed polite greetings and handshakes around her plate of fingerfoods with each and every one of them. The colorful shape of a blue hat to the side draws her eye, and the new face under it...

Well. There's not much mistaking who that is, for all that the sleepy face beneath the hat looks so drastically different than the last year. It's hard to imagine anyone on this island would be wearing a hat like that, this time of year.

"Oh, is that... Excuse me," Joanna says to the person she's talking with, smiling an apologetic excuse, and moves through the crowd. She circles gently around clusters, letting her height pressure people into shifting aside, without moving in so straight a line that it's obvious where she's going. "Excuse me," she says again, "Miss Wizard?"

If anyone else dared to wear a wizard hat today, of all days, on this island she'd be tempted to smite them herself.

That was a lie. She'd turn anyone else's hat into chocolate syrup and enjoy the sight of it melting down onto them.

"Hello, polite knight." She answers as Joanna moves close enough that she can look at her. Sure, she knew she was the goat knight, but that wasn't the point. What could she be up to coming up to the big bad wizard like this?

"Ah, I thought it must be you..." She shifts a step to the side, enough to subtly glance back toward the milling welcome crowd, and confirm they're not all staring at her or listening in. Once she feels comfortable, she looks more intently at the wizard.

If Joanna spent longer thinking on it, she might imagine some particularly resentful jokester playing around with identity theft. Maybe there's even been knights in years past, doing such things; certainly a couple of this year's knights seem hostile enough to the wizard for it. But a hat turned to chocolate syrup would probably never come to mind.

"I... Well, I never thought I would have the opportunity to meet you," Joanna says, fidgeting a finger in her lower curls. Standing before cameras was alarming, smiling and shaking hands and reassuring people was its own kind of nerve-wracking... but there's a special kind of stage fright, in talking one-on-one with a personal hero. "Not in person like this. But, since I'm here... I wanted to thank you."

Gratitude, that was rare. It was, honestly, one of the more fascinating reactions she'd ever received from humankind. Even more fascinating when it came from knights even before the evil allured pair had been revealed. She tilts her head slightly as her hot-chocolate-filled-coffee-mug floats down into her hand.

"How strange." she starts, taking a sip from her mug. She gives it a longer-than-normal pause before she responds, letting her comment sink in before she clarifies.

"What for? Almost everyone would disagree about thanking me, wouldn't they?"

That long pause is long enough for a terrible awkwardness to set in, regret at saying anything and fear of being judged. She forces her hands down to cling her fingers tightly together, to keep herself from playing with her hair or otherwise moving in ways that might be taken as coquettish. By the time the wizard does answer, with a question, a cold sweat is plaguing Joanna.

"I don't, uh, disagree. You're not wrong, most people... wouldn't thank you," she agrees, and swallows. "But... You probably saved my life, even if it was a little... indirectly."

Joanna stares at the wizard's hat rather than her face, and talks with a tone like she's reciting what others have told her. "We haven't had war, the same way, as we did before you came. The large nations just don't bother, not with outright war, when they can't hold their stolen territory. Where I grew up... it was a border, within frontlines, and we lost... so many. We would have lost more, when another war started. And... it would have started, sooner or later."

Ah, she's heard tales of the world at war before. Surprisingly, her expression softens into a gentle smile. Dear Joanna, her reality is so, so much worse than the small one she distracted the world from. But if she wants to thank her for sparing her from one reality just to be alive for the end? Well, she can't fault her for that.

"How fortunate for me." Her smile, uh, gets worse. It's curving at the edges and clearly radiating an unsettling serial-killer-esque vibe here.

"I'll make sure it's twelve that gets you." And just as quickly as the smile had come, her face fades back into the persistently tired look she's been sporting this whole time. It's time for a sip of hot chocolate, anyway. Sorry, Joanna, this isn't the kind of villain who feels any kind of pity for anyone.

It's an entirely different kind of cold sweat, at that curved smile, and Joanna stares like a deer in headlights for a few seconds. Even when the smile fades away, the image echoes in her mind, and she swallows slowly.

But. Well. No one ever said the wizard was merciful. The sword dangling over them all isn't kind or pitying, it's just... doing its job. The wizard, is just doing her job.

"Umm... If I may, I don't--" Joanna cuts herself off from outright stating her wishes in disagreement with the wizard about what to do, stares down at her hands, and changes tacks. "I'm not looking for, uh, special treatment?"

That's what she has to assume this sudden promise about the twelfth is, letting her live until the end of the knights' defense of the world.

If she had any idea, if any of these knights had any idea, of what it was to be doing her job the situation in the world might be different. On the flipside, it might've been exactly the same. There was no telling what the world would do with reality when it had to come face to face with it, but that was an event for a future day.

Joanna's reaction may be based in logic or perhaps it's based in fear, but perhaps it's just a humble response. There were too many possibilities, but one thing was certain: Joanna'd assumed the Wizard was being honest about saving her for the twelfth.

"Is that so." She doesn't give much of a tell for her thoughts.

"Thanks." The smirk's back as she looks over the top of her mug. "Polite knight."

"You're... welcome?" Joanna replies, uncertain. It's hard to read the wizard, of course, but she's not even certain what the wizard's thanking her for, and less and less willing to cross a line by asking. It's easier to accept this quiet non-response, push herself back into place...

Just as it's comforting to believe there's purpose behind all this. Far more comforting than acknowledging the possibility that the wizard is simply toying with them. The wizard's plainly powerful enough to end it all, and if there's no earnesty behind her promises beyond curiosity how people will respond... Well, it's all a little too hopeless to consider.

"I should... let you get back to your drink, but... I was asked to bring you some letters, from... fans? They're in my bag, could I... give them to you?" It would be so much more comfortable to simply put them in a mailbox, or something, but she promised.

Day 1 - Morning

Morning: 06:00am - 12:00noon

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure::

hey wizard heyyy

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