Day 1: Monster Arrival

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.

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

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!

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The first monster is, surprisingly, quick on its two feet. It dodges and weaves in and out of the trees, always moving ahead. It dares a glance back to see what's following--

Three knights!! Bunny! Monkey! Tiger! One of those was chasing it last year too! There's the briefest moment of delay as its eye opens a little wider in surprise as it sees something glinting towards it.

Fast moving thing that seems shiny is dangerous?

It considers this for the briefest of moments before it turns to resume running-

And Rory's spear grazes right along its side, sailing forward and clattering against the ground. There's instantly a light-show of fireworks and sparkles as the Monster crackles and pops out of existence. Further ahead in the forest, much further ahead than it was before, the monster pops back into existence and resumes running away.

[ The monster has sustained a cut from the Tiger Knight's spear. ]

Rory does a little victory hop while running and cheers loudly. "WooooOOOOowie! Did you see that Garrot, I hit it! I think I have super throwing? Or something?!"

She thinks she might have to make herself a First Hit On Monster medal when she and Zafika go out to find ribbons for their Rory's First Friend medal. Wait, is that too braggy? Oh well, she'll have time to think about that later, now is chase time! "Good tip about the legs! Hey, Sefaq, let's pick this spear up fast so we can try again!"

She then turns to acknowledge the rabbit knight and realizes they hadn't had a chance to talk before. New friend! Unfortunately this is not the situation for friendly introductions so she just flashes a grin. "Hi Bunny! Can you keep up? Need help?"

"I'll certainly try," he offers, though both his face and tone of voice betray a lack of confidence. Look, bedroom stamina =/= marathon stamina! "Excellent work, though, I'd say this is a good beginning!" He means it, too. It's been all of, what, 45 seconds and they've drawn first (metaphorical) blood? Nice.

The poncy rabbit actually isn't doing too bad. He's in shape, just not particularly used to spontaneous sprinting, not to mention in a suit and wingtips! Still, he's obviously nowhere near the speed of these two between the size disadvantage and difference in lifestyles.

"I can, ah, enhance your strength if you need it! Something like that, anyway... Do let me know if you need it!"

Out of nowhere the three running knights see something approach. Fast. Very, very fast. A figure runs past them to the left, and they can barely tell it has somewhat of a horse like figure. It might have neighd in distress, panic or something equilevant. But as soon as it approached them, it's gone.

Web, of course, is not the brains of the operation, and has opted to follow the chase crew. Now that they're watching this, it's become obvious that they're in over their head again...

Oh well, they're in this now, no point in running away.

They look over at the rooster, then back at the monster, then back at Aq. "Hey, Aq, mind giving me a spiky helmet or something?! I'm gonna try to do the thing!"

'The thing,' of course, being headbutting the monster if they can close with it. Or possibly asking someone to throw them at the monster.

Things just got a lot busier. That blurred, neighing mass was, well, a lot to take in mentally. And then another Knight shows up, keeping pace easily enough. The first monster took a hit, and teleported further away. But honestly, his attention is on Terrence. All signs point to him not being able to keep up, and they can't afford to leave anyone behind.

"I've got a bad feeling about this, it just got farther when it got hit!" The first monster is always rather simple, but this still feels like a trap. So he slows his pace a bit to the Rabbit Knight, and then wraps an arm around his shoulders. As he goes to pull Terrence in, a second Garrot appears, partially transparent and made of quite a few sparkles. The doppelganger, while keeping pace with the slight slowdown caused by Garrot's shock, helps bend Terrence at the knees so he's held in something akin to a one-armed bridal carry. And then it disappears in a cloud of sparkles.

"Was I the only one who saw that?!" He shouts these words, absurdly loud. "There was a second me! And now he's gone, in a cloud of glitter!" He does not comprehend this, and he's going to spend a moment scanning his and his passenger's clothes for sparkly stuff. On the bright side, considering Garrot's mostly muscle and Terrence is on the rather slim side, big guy doesn't seem too worried about his endurance. Yet. "Someone else saw that, right?!"

The fuck was that?

The fuck is this?

The fuck is happening?

Just as he's pondering this and many more questions, Terrence finds himself lifting off of the ground, legs still flailing mid-air for a second or two like a Scooby Doo sketch before he realizes what's happening. As acknowledgement settles in he shifts from western animation to eastern, staring up at Garrot with wide eyes and a fresh dusting of bishounen sparkles.

"Y-Yes..?!"

"Huh, what?"

Between the vaguely horse-shaped blur, the teleporting monster, the second Garrot and the bridal carry, not to forget keeping track of where her weapon went, there is a lot to pay attention to. Rory doesn't want to miss any of it just in case it's something crucial.

Unfortunately this causes her to miss another, unseen crucial detail, namely a large root sticking out of the ground beneath her feet.

A pang of anxiety hits her mere seconds before her foot gets caught and she falls down. Ouch!

Garrot stares back at Terrence for a moment, their eyes connecting through a field of sparkling dust. It'd be poignant if they weren't both so very confused. If nothing else, his fellow businessman saw the same exact insane nonsense that he did. "Great, that means I wasn't hallucina-" WHAM!

The doctor stops mid-word as his head snaps to the side, because Rory's gone face-down into the dirt. He didn't see anything come from ahead, so he's hoping she just tripped. No shout, no blood, so she should be fine, right? Because as much as he wants to stop dead in his tracks and check on her, they are on a chase.

"You said you can make me stronger, but can you make me faster?" He shoots a grin at his passenger, and just winks. There might've been some sparkles in his eyelashes. "We can't let this thing just get away!"

Someone tripped, oh boy. That's not good. Web's gonna skid to a halt (easy with those hooves) and crouch down to offer Rory a hand up.

"Need some help gettin' back up?" they chirp.

Their Brilliant Plan(TM) can wait for now. They can become the amazing flying/charging goat faun later. (They're probably gonna need that helmet, at this rate...)

Rory is, all things considered, pretty okay despite her fall. A bit scraped here and there, sure, and the foot that got tangled in the roots isn't going to be as good to run with, but it's not enough to stop her. And yeah, there's ought to be dirt and leaves all over her now, but that isn't even a concern currently.

She's starting to push herself up when she hears the chirp and looks up.

"Oh! Thanks!" she says and flashes a grin as she reaches to take the helping hand.

There's... Still a lot happening here and it's gonna take the bun a moment or five to process. Should they check o Rory? They should certainly try to check in with the rest of the team, but it's also important not to let this monster shake them...

Garrot's question pulls Terrence's attention away from the fallen troll just in time to catch the glitterwink. His brow furrows, "I believe so, yes... Here, let's give this an attempt..."

Terrence rubs his black-furred hands together for a few moments like he's rosining them up for a sport before closing his eyes and placing both open palms on Garrot's upper chest. Uh. How does this work exactly..? For several seconds, nothing happens save for an annoyed vein popping on Terrence's otherwise flawlessly smooth forehead. Just as he's about to give up, a soft glow begins to emanate between the two. It starts faint and slow, but gradually grows more and more visible, until a pattern of concentric circles formed from pure yellowish tan light emerges. The circles start from the rabbit knight's forearms and are slowly rolling along his form, 'flowing' first to his hands and then to the monkey knight's body, where they disperse out along his entire form before stretching out and fading, as if sinking into the larger man's body.

Garrot will find that the lights are not simply for show, as they feel cool. Not cold or even uncomfortable, but more akin to sinking into a lake on a sweltering day. The feeling spreads throughout before concentrating in both legs where the coolness is joined by a gentle pressure, giving the sensation of several pairs of hands massaging the muscles. At the same time, Garrot's considerable mass seems... Lighter? Just as with the refreshing sensation of water, his form almost seems to be held up by an invisible buoyancy with none of the awkwardness or resistance of actually being submerged.

"Er... Did that actually accomplish anything..?"

Garrot wasn't prepared for any of this bullshit today. Not for wakeup vans or wizard-induced meltdowns or this giant one-eyed monster or people tripping in the middle of a woodlands chase. Definitely not prepared for some dainty little bunny boy like half his age to try and cop some kind of feel on his pecs. It's awkward, and the doctor can't help but go wide-eyed and blush at the personal space invasion. He teaches people to defend themselves, and this is making him uncomfortable? Shameful!

"Oooh..." Garrot can't help but smile at the cool energy washing over him- chasing a world-ending monster works up quite the sweat, so it's a welcome change even though he's fully unaware of the reaction he's in the middle of. He thinks about the pace of his running, the fact that his entire body seems lighter as a result of those little circles. The doctor pushes his body a little harder, and he's going a bit faster!

"I... I think so? H-Hold on, let's see what we can do with this!" And then he laughs, sporting a devious little grin. Garrot's strides veer closer to leaps than steps, and he raises his spiked shield with one arm, holding it so it protects as much of Mr. Torrence's body as possible before bull-rushing the monster as forcefully as he can.

[ A speed-boosted Garrot tries to spiked-shield-charge the monster. ]

The knights are mostly falling over themselves which, fortunately for the first monster, tended to be the norm. There was a considerable chance that the knights would injure themselves and be easy pickings for the second monster and beyond. Its proudest moment was still dodging a knight's tackle and watching him tumble down the hill. Knights were still largely breakable, and that knight broke both his legs on the way down. It wasn't hard to finish him off after that.

So when it turns back and sees Rory fall, it's very tempted to reverse course and sprint over to finish her off.

But you know what else it sees? A fucking blur called "Garrot with Terrence equipped to him".

The impact happens faster than it can react and its body, much like a dodgeball deforming into a sad, squished state, is sent hurtling airborne in a pretty pathetic arc towards... The Wizard.

For some reason, she's manifested casually floating in midair. She's right in the way of the monster's perfect arc that would've sent it sailing all the way down to the shore and into the ocean. She gives this horrible smile when the first monster reaches her and all at once she's pulling forth her massive hammer. She says something to it, inaudible to the knights below, before swinging as if to spike it like a volleyball.

The air fills with sparkles, a glittering explosion taking the place of the monster as it teleports back to the ground. It's far off in the forest again, further than before, and right back to running. Farewell, knights, it's time to run! It's a little too far out to tell if it was injured by Garrot's attack, but...

[ The monster has sustained a puncture wound (moderate) from Garrot's shield attack. ]

"W-Wait, you could at least put me-" Terrence begins to protest before realizing that This Is Happening. Resigned to it, he then covers his head and hunkers down into the most approximate fetal position possible while still being awkwardly carried.

Only after the impact does he dare to look up, just in time to barely see the Wizard smash attacking the monster away. Now it's... Even further away?! Damn! Just chasing this thing forever isn't going to work, especially if the Wizard interferes again...

"Ah! W-We really should try to keep in contact with the others," he sputters, fishing out his island-issue phone and nearly dropping it. "I obtained a few of their numbers..." Haizea's, namely. She seemed like she Gets Shit Done while being a kindred funloving spirit.

Garrot just sputters a few half-syllables in disbelief as the Wizard smashes the Monster away. Come on, dammit! But rather than vocalize his frustrations, he just growls. At least it felt real good to slam a spiky shield into that ambulatory shitstain. But Terrence's suggestion snaps him out of his violent fervor.

"O-oh! Uh..." He sounds surprised at the idea, honestly. "Go for it, Mr. Torrence!" But he's quickly adjusted, back to gregarious smiling. "My phone's an eye in the sky, so..." He gestures half-heartedly to Xaljim flying nearby, and the smartphone he's still carrying. But then he picks up speed again, turning broadly so he's looping back to Rory and Web.

"Heeeeeey!!" He's shouting, Terrence. Garrot is not really registering that he's carrying someone with rabbit ears. "Are you guys okay?! We're on our way!" And then he breaks into an enhanced sprint before he all of a sudden looks nervous.

"So, uh, how long you think this'll last for?" He's talking about the speed, of course, but given that he's not slowing his strides, Garrot mustn't be that worried...

"I suspect as long as I wish," he replies, wincing slightly at Garrot's volume. If not for the phone in his hands, he'd be covering up said rabbit ears. "My companion wasn't terribly clear on the details. I'm not definitely certain, but I just sort of... Feel it if that makes sense?" It occurs to Terrence that he hasn't actually seen Sucecq since earlier this morning. Thank goodness he'd requested that shortsword before things went pearshaped, concealing it inside of his suit jacket until tearing off after the monster.

Terrence fumbles with his phone a bit; bugbears don't exactly make the smoothest mounts. As they double back, he manages to ring Haizea, cupping one hand over his mouth and the receiver to block the ambiance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 1: Monster Arrival

Afternoon: 12:00pm - Onward

The Weather

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