Day 1 - Morning

[wizardseason]

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.

Comments

[fop_lop]

You bet your magical ass the bunny knight is going to every one of these celebrations!

Again he sticks mostly to the tables despite eating very little, declining any games. He's more than happy to watch said games, however, and even bet on them with anyone willing.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea approaches him with a grin and a wave.

"I hear you're taking bets?" She runs the gambling industry back in Farida, she's gotta get in on this.

[fop_lop]

Oho, one of the other knights is interested? It's good to know they're not all business or hiding-in-corners. Terrence returns the wave, "Just for fun, nothing too serious, but yes!" He indicates four locals just about to start a match of volleyball with a nod of his head, holding a couple hundreds between the index and middle fingers of one hand. "I'm going with the pair on the right. They took their shirts off immediately and were joking around beforehand. Better teamwork and they're taking it seriously while having fun."

[tropicalstorm]

She fishes around in her back pocket and pulls out a money clip with a fair amount of cash in it and pulls out enough to match his bet.

"I'll go with the pair on the left then, just to keep things interesting." She looks at them and their less willing to go shirtless forms and decides this will not do. "Hey lefties!" she calls out, waving them down. "If you guys win, you'll get a special prize from me, the dragon knight!"

She seems satisfied with their cheers in response and grins back at Terrence. "Sometimes good motivation is all you need."

[fop_lop]

How sneaky! Terrence is growing to like Haizea already.

"Ahem," he fakes clearing his throat into a fist loudly before giving his own team a solo finger gun. "Likewise for you all. I believe you can guess which knight I am." She took the initiative, but Terrence's followup seems to rally the rightos as well.

Terrence places his bills on a nearby side table, replacing them with a drink that had been sitting there. One of those fancy numbers with a fruit slice and a little umbrella.

"Of course! Otherwise it's essentially just luck, and there's no sport."

[tropicalstorm]

She's pleased that he's matched her efforts, and idly wonders what he's planning to give as a prize if the rightos defeat the lefties.

"I always prefer a bet on somethin' skill based, even if it ain't my skill on display. Bets on luck alone are really only good for the house, not the person bettin'," she says, and settles in to watch the game. She gives a sidelong glance at his fancy drink and kinda wants one too.

[fop_lop]

"Certainly. Not to mention it's more personal that way, which makes it a real bet," he pauses to sip at his drink again and seemingly ponder his own words before continuing, "You've got to risk a bit of your self alongside the material risk or it's just lifeless, you know..?" Flowery nonsense, but he's obviously just being silly. What exactly is in that glass?

The competition looks surprisingly fierce even from the get-go! Mystery knight prizes are quite the motivator, evidently. Haizea gets an eyebrow waggle from behind the rims of Terrence's sunglasses as his team scores their first point.

[tropicalstorm]

She grins at that. “Oh yeah, agreed. If you don’t got skin in the game then what’s the point in playin’?”

When Terrence waggles his eyebrows at her after his team scores first, she looks unconcerned and just leans back. “First blood just makes a fighter cocky,” she says lightly, and soon after one of players on her team manages to execute a very nice spike, bringing the score even.

[fop_lop]

"Of course I've got skin in the game - your team are the shirts!" Terrence laughs at his own dad joke until the lefties extend their lead. Ah well, it's just a game after all! He sips his drink again to avoid further comment, simply enjoying watching for now.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea laughs too but then also turns her attention back to the game. She doesn’t keep silent though, she stays on her feet throughout, cheering enthusiastically whenever her side scores.

“Yeah, go lefties!!” she calls out to them. “Dragon knight believes in you!” Haizea is a big believer in positive reinforcement when feasible.

[fop_lop]

As Haizea keeps up the cheering, Terrence feels compelled to join back in even as it becomes clear that the other knight picked the winning team. It's just a friendly bet, after all, and he's much more interested in getting to know everyone else than winning silly games. At least she seems fun!

"Good show, chaps, good show! Maybe next time, eh..?" he encourages as the game wraps up, snatching the bills off of the table to hand over to the dragon knight. "To be honest, I'm more interested in what your 'special prize' is..."

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea hoots and hollers when her side wins and happily takes the accumulated bills from Terrence, snapping them neatly into her money clip and slipping the whole bundle into her back pocket.

“Great job everyone!” She calls to her side, before tilting her head to one side and then the other, removing one of her eight (8) pairs of piercings as she goes. She holds her hand out to Terrence so he can see. “This is the ‘special prize’; they’re just simple silver earings, but everyone here will see that they came from me so that’s what’ll make them special!”

[fop_lop]

So simple... Terrence is silent for a moment before laughing loudly and clapping his hands together twice in approval, "Haha, excellent! I suppose we can't take our own celebrity for granted, can we? I suspect most of those around here are in attendance more for the spectacle and sentiment than anything else, after all!"

Yes, she'll be one of the knights to keep things fun here.

[silentwords]

Having gained a bit of courage and recovered some energy from talking with Zafika, Seth braves the crowd once more.

Hesitantly approaching Terrence, with how the people were crowding around him there was no way he wasn't a Knight, he holds out a Sycamore flower and a Marvel of Peru for him.

[fop_lop]

"Oh, why thank you! Lovely," he takes the flowers with genuine appreciation, though any deeper meaning behind them is unfortunately lost entirely. "I'm afraid I've nothing to give you in return, ah... Seth, yes..?" Terrence made sure to at least recognize all of the other knights by sight (well, those that didn't hide anyway). Though he has nothing to offer, he still extends his free hand for a shake.

[silentwords]

Seth is taken a back that the other already knew his name, so much so it took him a bit to realize Terrence had extended his free hand for a handshake.

Kind of rushing when he recovers and realizes this he nods as he nervously shakes Terrence's hand, reaching for his phone in his bag with the other.

[fop_lop]

However delicate his appearance may be, Terrence's grip is surprisingly firm, though not uncomfortably so.

With as shocked as Seth looks, it occurs to Terrence that he may need to introduce himself, "Terrence Torrence; charmed. All of our interviews were broadcast, though I suppose not everyone keeps up with the media." With a patient smile he releases the rat knight's hand to free it up. Again, from watching the interview he was made aware of Seth's alternative communication.

[silentwords]

Seth makes a sheepish shrug as he pulls his phone out of his bag, kind of absentmindedly signing with his free hand before typing to properly converse.

"Yeah I uh, well I've kind of been actually avoiding them, not to mention all the hassle of getting here and what not, though I might take a look at them later."

Honestly the hassle was a minor part why, really he'd been avoiding looking at the interviews and TV shows out of anxiety.

[fop_lop]

"I guess you'll meet everyone soon enough," he nods. "Not as if any of us will have much choice in a few more hours!" Ah, hrm... Maybe shouldn't remind Seth of the impending conflict. Poor guy looks mortified enough as-is.

Subject change? "Oh, did they send a party van by your place this morning as well?"

[silentwords]

More like anxious as is, and his desire to NOT think about his likely impending death must have been kind of obvious by how quickly he jumped on the change in subject, a bit of annoyance just barely showing on his face, which seemed to be weirdly blank even when his choice of words clearly gave hints of emotion even throught the monotone robotic voice.

"Oh! They did, the gal of it really, I was thankfully awake because I only got here at 3AM today, but seriously, who goes around blaring music and shouting at 6AM?! You'd almost think they're on the wizard's side!"

He may or may not have written a several tweets long rant about it on twitter.

[fop_lop]

Initially Seth's comment gets a light chuckle out of Terrence, but then he rereads a bit and places one hand over his mouth in shock!

"Wait, 3AM? Goodness, so you didn't sleep at all?!"

Terrence had only gotten here the day before, but at least it was early enough that he'd still gotten a full night's rest! No wonder...

[silentwords]

Seth gives and awkward shrug and the barest momentary twitch of the corner of his mouth before typing a reply.

"Well, yeah I ended up leaving things really last minute. I'm pretty used to not sleeping for long periods of time though. I think the longest I've ever been awake in one go was...60 hours? I slept for a day straight after that though. So being awake for 24 hours or so isn't really a big deal..."

[fop_lop]

Oh dear.

"Oh dear... I'm certain you've heard this before, but you need to take care of yourself! If you'd like, try and sneak a powernap in and I promise to wake you before anything important happens!" As he speaks, Terrence instinctively extends a hand shoulderward, but stops himself - Seth doesn't exactly strike him as the touching type, at least not with relative strangers.

[silentwords]

Terrence was absolutely correct about him not being the touching type with relative strangers, as the moment he'd noticed him extending a hand towards him he'd visibly tensed, his heart pretty much leaping to his throat. It wasn't that he didn't want to be touched, the opposite really he supposed, he could admit to himself he was quite touch starved. But a stranger reaching to touch him well...it brought up bad memories and immediately had him on the edge. He could remember a time this wasn't so but...well since the, incident...things had been like this.

"I don't think I could in this environment I'm afraid, but...I...uh...appreciate the offer."

Because yeah there was no way he was going to be able to fall asleep anywhere else but his own apartment, or where he was staying now if it was firmly locked up, especially with so many strangers around.

[fop_lop]

Trying to make his faux pas into a more smooth motion, Terrence simply folds his hands in front of himself, continuing to smile warmly.

"Certainly can't blame you for that," he concedes. Really he was only half serious, but it was the thought of the offer, right? "If you can think of anything that might help the rest of the nights, do let me know! I'm personally a fan of ASMR, myself. Have quite the collection if you're interested!"

It's some of that weird shit, too, like the personalized ones you can only get from being someone's Patreon donor and junk. He's rich, it's whatevs.