Day 1: Monster Arrival

[wizardseason]

Afternoon: 12:00pm - Onward

[ IRL Timeframe: February 24th - March 10th, 2019 ]

Everything changes when the Wizard wishes it to. In an instant, every non-knight, non-princess person in attendance at the Craydon welcoming party disappears. She knows where they went, she teleported them, but that doesn't mean she's telling the knights. The only indication she gives that she did anything is that she walks towards the door to leave. If anyone moves to get in her way, she'll just teleport to the other side of them. If anyone tries to attack her, their weapon'll just turn to sparkles.

If this were a video game, the stressful music would be playing now. The Princess, Luka, is treated to something to add to the stress. The protector finally makes his appearance but only to him and only in his head. He's the same height as Luka with dark skin and vivid blue eyes that match the color of the sky. He has wicked winged white eyeliner to accent his eyes and curly black hair with white tips piled on top of his head, it's a wonder how it stays up there. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, he's wearing a pajama robe that looks either blue or silver depending how it's touched or how it moves. Most importantly is that he's got brass knuckles on both his hands, like he's ready to fight. But he's not here to fight, he's here to give a whisper about what comes next.

"The monster is here." Comes his voice, pointing Luka to just outside the Craydon multipurpose center. The pull towards the monster is persistent and it won't let up until it's defeated.

Outside is, to everyone's surprise (except perhaps Luka), the first monster. It looks like a yellow ball with an eye in the middle, standing four feet high and four feet wide with an eye that's almost that big too. It's standing on two feet and appears to have no arms whatsoever. It blinks curiously at the approaching princess-knight team and then blinks up at the Wizard beside it...

The Wizard is standing beside the first monster, holding her hand out as her massive hammer manifests in her hand. The hammer's handle flickers into existence and ends up beind close to seven feet long before the head of the hammer pops into existence. It's a massive beast of a weapon, easily the size of a refrigerator attached to the end of the pole with slightly bigger ends for where she hits things with it. Just below where the handle connects is a pair of flowing wings that seem to be extended out to support the head of the hammer, the end tip has a single metal feather dangling off of it. The head of the hammer curves slightly inward away from the ends but mostly it's just a giant rectangular block of bashing.

"Fore." The Wizard says with this awful amusement before she swings her hammer like a golf club down at the monster, acting like she's going to send it flying into the princess-knight team like a cannonball. When her hammer impacts the monster, it flickers slightly and pops like fireworks. Within sight but still rather far away, the first monster flickers and blips back into existence on the road, blinks, and then runs off into the woods. Catch this little buddy if you can!

Monster Kill Opportunity: Craydon: Everyone.

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The Weather

• Sunny.
• 70°F / 21°C
• Quite breezy, all the trees are rustling.

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Prompts:

• The monster!! GET IT: Who needs a plan? You run off immediately, sprinting after the monster as it bounds off into the woods. Characters who choose this option are free to catch the monster numerous times and deal attacks to it. However they will be unable to defeat the monster in any of these prompts. The monster's priority in this is to escape and it will not attack back. But what were those sparkles? What's going on? Feel free to do team-threads together in pursuit of the monster.


• The monster!! We need a PLAN!: Since you didn't run off, you and your fellow knights, the princess, and the Wizard are now standing outside of the Craydon multipurpose center. Though the Wizard is just going to go back inside to get crackers with cheese and meat on top. What will you do with your companions? Will you confront the Wizard? What kind of plan will you come up with for what just happened?


• The gear train: Wether you saw the locals posting pictures on social media or you worked with Luka's new ability to find the monster, it's taken up sitting on top of the gear train as it makes its way up and down the mountain town of Craydon. It doesn't move very fast but it is a hazard and, perhaps, even more of one because the Monster is involved. The first monster is contentedly sitting on top of the train car, staring up towards the sky. What will you do about that? The monster can be severely injured in this thread but cannot be killed.


• The showdown: There are trails of, and pools of, yellow ?blood? trailing throughout Craydon from the injuries that the first monster has sustained. The knights have been relentless in pursuing it through the forest and on the train and now it's come to a stop in the center of the train station at the base of Craydon. This train station is home to the last stop on the gear train upstairs and the transfer point for the Harsen Island train station downstairs. The first monster clearly isn't getting on board to go to Bamborough or Far Haven, but it's absolutely standing on the platform waiting for a fight. It's the final showdown!

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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.

IMPORTANT: When making an attack against the Monster, please add a short summary such as the following to the bottom of your comment in brackets. This will help show at-a-glance what's going on and will show me that I need to reply with the Monster:

• [Rory stabs the Monster in the leg]
• [Seth pours acid on the Monster's face]
• [Web throws a big rock at the Monster from behind]

Comments

[eutychia]

Luka barely has time to process what just happened. He finds himself outside the multipurpose center, but can't remember how he got there in all the commotion.

The presence and voice of the Protector are still fresh in his mind, but Luka can only find himself bemoaning the fact that the first monster showed up before he even had time to get in a costume change. Not that many people would be seeing him, but it's the thought that counts.

"Why did it have to be NOW?", he says, exasperation evident in his voice.

[disguiseself]

[Olivia's first instinct upon seeing the monster was to exclaim "that's fucking AWESOME!"

Her second instinct had been to stand between it and Luka, producing two daggers seemingly out of nowhere. She watched as the Wizard golf-ed it away and as the monster made its escape, but she didn't relax her protective stance.]

No rest for the wicked, huh? [She says, assuming that he's annoyed that they have to fight so early on. She licks her lips, her slit pupils trying to catch any movement from the monster.] It's some kind of ball. With an eye. An eyeball. With legs. Real ugly. What's the plan?

[eutychia]

He squints. "It ran off... I think. Some of the Knights with it, too. Where did all the locals go? This is a mess."

[disguiseself]

The people just - disappeared, I don't know. The Wizard did something.

[She looks around the room, quickly counting heads.] Ah... looks like blondie went after it.

[eutychia]

"Are you going to follow?" He asks, a bit frantic.

"We have no idea where this thing is going, or what it's capable of yet."

[disguiseself]

[She lets out a nervous laugh.] I don't intend to get myself killed on the first day, no.

We're in this together, you and I, yeah? I'll stick with you. [His team that famous people have, whatever they're called, seemed to have poofed out too, so... congratulations, you have one (1) new bodyguard. You don't even have to pay this one! Although she might pickpocket you.]

[eutychia]

"Thanks..." he says with a certain reluctance in his voice.

"We need to form a plan quick. It's still on the move." Luka announces in a voice louder than his normal volume. "Maybe I can make contact with the Protector again."

[sustainer]

Well he didn't intend to be standing next to the princess while all this went down, but hey, he's here now. The gears in his head are turning as he takes this whole scene in, and it's only Luka's voice that pulls him suddenly out of it.

"Had to happen sometime," he says back, his voice utterly neutral. He's not snarking. He's just talking, and he turns more fully towards Luka.

"Do you know where the other people went?" The princess is supposed to have specialized knowledge about this game or something, right? He has no idea how this is supposed to work.

[eutychia]

He shakes his head. He doesn't recognize this voice, but decides the exact identity of who he's speaking to at the moment isn't as pressing as forming a plan.

"I just stopped hearing them. But I know where that thing's going," he says, confidently pointing in the direction the monster (and pursuant knights) scrambled off in. "I can feel it moving."

[sustainer]

"Oh." Oh hey, that's useful too. He nods quickly, having not quite looked at Luka long enough to realize he's blind.

"That's useful, too. How well can you feel it? Could you track it if you went with someone?"

[eutychia]

"Strongly. But less now that the thing's got some distance on us. I know I could track it with someone or even on my own."

[sustainer]

"Mm, can you fight?" This good information to have in general, but he's very quickly following that question up with his actual thoughts, "Even if you can, the princess probably shouldn't go out on his own."

[eutychia]

Luka was loathe to admit there were things he couldn't do, even if it made logical sense that he wouldn't be able to. So he hesitates to reply.

"I can't say I've ever really tried. I've been in a mosh pit or two before, but that's hardly the same type of fighting."

[sustainer]

He has no idea what that is, and his confusion is completely unguarded, "What's a mosh?"

[eutychia]

"You know, when you're in the crowd at a show and everyone in the pit starts slamming each other? It can get pretty brutal quick."

It didn't occur to Luka that this explanation might not be helpful at all, considering Gyre had never even heard the term 'mosh'.

"But... it's not really like this. So, maybe I do need protection." He admits, reluctantly.

[sustainer]

That sure is a lot of words he knows that individual meanings of, put together in a way that makes no sense at all.

"A pit...?" he murmurs to himself, eyes falling down to his feet as he wonders what the hell that could be. Is it a metaphor? Is this person--

He shakes his head quickly, clearing his thoughts. He can ask about it later. For now, there are other things that are far more important to deal with.

"Okay." There isn't any judgement in his voice. He's just taking the news in and trying to incorporate it into his thoughts. Sometimes people need protecting and that's okay.

"Are you willing to run directly into a dangerous situation? Or do you want to hang back?"

[eutychia]

"I'm willing, in this case," Luka says. "So long as there's someone there to bail me out if things go south."

[sustainer]

He nods, pursing his lips for a moment. The princess is supposed to have people he trusts, right? He doesn't know if he ought to offer... but he will, just in case.

"I will, if ever you're in trouble and I'm there."

[eutychia]

"Good to know. I'm... not sure I ever caught your name, actually?"

[sustainer]

"Gyre," he says, trying to keep his usual reservation out of his voice. The princess, at least, has to know his name, and he knows that.

"You?"

[eutychia]

Luka blinks for a moment in surprise. Was he really asking his name? Was it just to be polite, or were all these knights really so out of touch with pop culture? Where did they even get so many people who didn't even recognize him, he wondered.

"Luka... Eutychia," he says, confusion evident in his tone. "Maybe you've heard of me?"

[sustainer]

"Uh..." There is equal confusion in Gyre's voice, a heavy silence filling the space between them for a moment. He doesn't understand that reaction whatsoever, and he's immediately a little defensive. These people and their hierarchies, honestly. This dude is important enough as the princess. Why does he expect anyone to know his name!

"No. Should I have?"

[eutychia]

"Well, you should have if you're any sort of a fan of music. They play me on the airwaves every day, and even more at night!"

"If we both survive the day I'll introduce you properly," he adds with a wink.

[sustainer]

"Mm, I don't have a radio." The wink catches him off guard for a moment, honestly, but he finds himself smiling despite himself. This dude is charming, even if Gyre generally doesn't care for famous people.

"I'd like to listen though, yeah."