Day 1: Evening

[wizardseason]

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: March 11th - March 18th, 2019 ]

The first day has come to a close, the only things left to do are get some food and get some rest. Fortunately the residents of Bamborough are hosting a party to congratulate the heroes on their first victory, unfortunately it's running for several hours this evening. There's only so much time for sleep. What kind of balance will your hero try to strike?

Unfortunately for everyone, the evil-allured knights will be treated to a rude wake-up surprise when they finally go to sleep. No matter when they finally set their head down to rest, they all wake up at the same time, in the same place. Only the evil-allured knights will have access to this post, click to see if you've been chosen.

The good-allured knights, meanwhile, are free of a visit tonight with the Princess and the Protector. The two of them, however, are due to have a chat. Questions have to be answered, after all! He's dressed in his usual attire:

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.

First Night Event: Bamborough: Everyone invited.

---

The Weather

• Starry Night.
• 64°F / 18°C
• Quite breezy, all the trees are rustling.

---

Prompts:

• Bamborough Party: To celebrate the defeat of the first monster, a full banquet is being held near the beach in Bamborough. Unlimited food, unlimited drinks, and most importantly of all was a small stockpile of blankets, sheets, pillows, and toiletries to offer any knight who might've forgotten something on the way out here. Naturally, every item is sponsored.


• You're all over Social Media!: Videos were successfully taken of all twelve knights and the princess during the first battle, and now the world is abuzz about what happened! What are they saying about your hero? How did they even get this footage? Or worst of all, how bad are they dissing your camera skills for those that recorded themselves?


• A late night walk: The first day is over, the first monster is dead. How's your character holding up? Do they seek out support from a fellow hero? Do they spend it alone? What kind of night are they having now that it's all real?


• A late night meal: Anyone leaving the Bamborough party late enough will be able to spot that a local late night ramen shop is open for business. If your hero hasn't quite eaten enough, they can drop by for a bite. But be warned, a certain sleepy villain is getting a bite to eat herself. Care to share a ramen bar meal with the enemy?

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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.

Comments

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea matches her level of decorum and also picks up a dumpling, shoving it in her mouth while the Wizard speaks. It's a good dumpling, damn.

"A bakers dozen, then," she says, after swallowing her mouthful of dumpling. "You plannin' on gettin' to know all of us knights? Or do you maybe already know everythin' about us?" She muses, and picks up another dumpling, but doesn't immediately shove it in her mouth this time.

"Honestly, I never followed this game you play every year, I know you're stupid powerful but do you do your research? How much do you know about me, for example?" She takes a bite out of the dumpling now, and stares over it at the Wizard sharply.

[wizardseason]

Of course it's a good dumpling, this chef knows exactly what he's doing. He's mastered everything on his menu and he's here for twelve hours every day doing what he loves. What a rad dude!

"Nothing." She answers, flatly, taking her second dumpling. She's still holding the first as she does, but if Haizea notices two and blinks... there'll be one. When did she eat that first one...?

"Why would I take your chance to tell me yourself?" The slightest smirk appearing again, she recognizes the irony of the voices she's silenced over time and she's not commenting on it in this context.

[tropicalstorm]

This chef has got it all figured out, huh.

Haizea takes another bite and then finishes off her dumpling and leans back. "That's good to know, looks like no one on this island knows everything I'd like to keep on the down low." Well, almost no one. But even if Zafika knows about her less than legal exploits, they don't know everything.

She decides to go for one more dumpling then smirks a bit at the Wizard. "Guess you'll have to give me a reason to tell you anything. If you're curious, that is," and she shrugs.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard's own second dumpling vanishes, seemingly gone without her even taking a bite. She's leaning in for a third as she decides to see which of Haizea's buttons she can press here.

"Just join me." She says, as if it's the simplest choice in the world.

"I can make it so no one ever knows. Bury it." Like all the knights she'd killed. Buried. Gone.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea almost falters when the Wizard makes her offer, but manages to keep her cool. She’s dealt with a lot of scary people in her time that have said a lot of unexpected things. She rolled with the punches then and she’ll roll with the punches now.

“You’ll have to make me a better offer than that. Why would I join someone who’s trying to kill my fellow knights (most of whom are pretty cool) and end the world? I like the world, I live there. Nah, I don’t think I’d even consider that unless you give me a damn good reason.” Haizea knows she’s pressing her luck here, but part of her is wondering if maybe she can play her cards right and come out ahead after this impromptu ramen date is over.

[wizardseason]

As always, the knights were complex and strange to talk to. They had worldly attachments and strong feelings about so many things. It wasn't possible to reason them into accepting the end of the world, they were just too set on staying here.

"You can only save so many." Her expression, for the first time, softens. Concern sets in for the briefest of moments before it slips away as quickly as it had appeared.

"A baker's dozen isn't a bad start." Implying, presumably, that Haizea could save all the knights and probably the princess rather than the protector.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea scoffs when the Wizard speaks of only saving so many.

“Says who? You’re the Wizard, I thought your powers were limitless. If you wanted to save more I bet you could. Even if you can’t, well. I’m greedy. I can’t accept an offer that’s less than the whole population. Or at least-“ she cuts herself off before she can finish her thought. ‘At least everyone that all the knights and the Princess consider family’ was what she almost said, and she had meant it too. But that’s not something she should admit just yet.

“At least- let me think about it. Or make me a better offer,” she finishes, trying to cover for her earlier falter.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard's observant enough to pick up on a sentence left hanging like that. There was more to it, more that she could play around with, but now wasn't the time to do it. She'd save tugging on that thread

"As much ramen as you can eat." She answers, what better offer could she make here? She brings up her little smirk again, seemingly pleased with her joking answer. She decides not to answer or address the limitless power comment.

[tropicalstorm]

Hm, they were back to jokes. That’s fine, Haizea supposes. It’s only the first day. Sometimes you had to be patient. It took her over a year of playing bocce ball at the old folks home with the former kingpin of the docks to get her blessing to take over the smuggling operation, but she got it. She’s not sure exactly where this negotiating with the Wizard will get her, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll get her any deader than she would’ve been otherwise.

“Looks like you played yourself on that one, this ⌬20 will get me more than enough ramen for now!” she says, picking up the bill from it’s spot next to her and fluttering it at the Wizard playfully. Where was the ramen they ordered, anyway? Not like Haizea will complain though, she knows that anything good is worth waiting for.

[wizardseason]

Haizea's ramen senses were right on time, because as she wonders where the ramen is there's the ramen bar owner setting down two bowls. One in front of Haizea, one in front of the Wizard. Their preferences in the savory noodle soup couldn't have been more different.

"Did I?" She asks, casually holding up two ⌬20s that she hadn't been holding before.

"I feel... not played." Slightly wider smirk just before a yawn hits her and she's forced to oblige it. She covers her mouth with the ⌬20s until it passes, resuming her overly tired look. At least there's ramen now.

[tropicalstorm]

This show off! This sleepy show off!!! She can probably just make money. With magic.

“Hm,” is all Haizea allows herself to respond with. No sense revealing her frustration. She snaps a pair of wooden chopsticks in half with maybe a little more force than necessary and fishes out a few strands of noodles, slurping as she goes.

“Mmm!” she exclaims as she chews, then swallows. “Holy shit, these noodles are incredible. No wonder you come here.”

[wizardseason]

She can, in fact, make money with magic. Magic money.

If the Wizard picks up on Haizea's frustration she doesn't reveal it, instead turning down to look at her own bowl. She casually settles one elbow on the counter, resting her cheek against it as she looks over the bowl. To the side, her chopsticks gently split apart, floating into the air a moment later. The noodles float up out of the bowl, some onions sitting impossibly atop them as they wrap around the end of the chopsticks hovering in the air in front of her.

"Instant can't compare to these." She answers, agreeing with Haizea. She came here for a very important reason and this was it. A moment later, the ramen bar owner is setting a third bowl of ramen down on the other side of the Wizard. Was there anyone actually sitting there...?

[tropicalstorm]

"Instant ramen will keep your belly full but this is the stuff that's good for your soul," Haizea says seriously before stuffing her mouth with all the fish cakes on her ramen. She notices the second bowl of ramen at this point and gestures at it with her chopsticks.

"You plannin' on round 2 already or are you expectin' someone?"

[wizardseason]

The Wizard doesn't answer the question, instead she leaves it to the recipient of the second bowl of ramen. Without revealing itself, only a set of hands that look like they belong to a child (somewhere around 12 years old) reach out to grasp the ramen bowl and bring it back into the space Haizea can't see. The hands have a yellow tint that look shockingly like the first monster's yellow had. But if Haizea moves to see what's behind the Wizard, both whoever it was and the ramen will be gone.

"Oh no, I should only eat one." She smirks, knowing full well what had just happened beside her.

[tropicalstorm]

"What the fuck?" Haizea exclaims, not fully processing what's going on here. "Where did- who was that? Hey, hey buddy?" She says, this time trying to get the ramen bar owner's attention.

"Who did you make that bowl for?" She's on edge now; she thought she understood what was going on here, but the presence of some invisible third party and wrest the situation completely out of her control.

[wizardseason]

Clever of Haizea to not confide in the Wizard for a clear answer to that question. The ramen bar owner, however, isn't going to be much more helpful.

"Monster." He answers, simply, before going back to making another bowl. There's a table of patrons that have arrived by the window that need to be fed.

"You didn't see?" The Wizard teases, smirk widening. If she hadn't been so passive this whole time, the look on her face would be nearly manic. Instead it's just this dulled excitement.

[tropicalstorm]

When the owner says 'monster', she starts fishing out her brass knuckles from her pocket. If there's a monster here, she's gotta fight it, right? That's how this works?

"I saw hands. Yellow hands. Then they disappeared with the ramen." She's very guarded now. "Is there an invisible monster here?"

[wizardseason]

The Wizard's all amusement as she looks over Haizea's battle pose. She decides to answer the question with a non-answer, keeping the wool over Haizea's eyes because it's funny.

"There isn't a monster here." She stays smirking, leaving out any details about invisibility or not.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea refuses to relax. She threads the brass knuckles onto her right hand and flexes her fingers against them gingerly.

"There was a monster here a moment ago," she states. "Is it the second monster here early?"

[wizardseason]

Honesty couldn't hurt, the Wizard liked the knights enough to not lie to them. She shakes her head as she pushes her empty bowl away from her. Was she even eating? When did she eat? Where did the ramen go? Where did all the broth go??

"It wasn't the second monster." She turns away from Haizea, looking to the ramen bar owner.

"One more order of dumplings."

[tropicalstorm]

She flexes her fingers against her brass knuckles again, almost for a sense of comfort than anything else. At least she knows they're real.

"Then... was it the first? I can't imagine it survived, I saw it burst like an overfilled garbage bag." She tries to sound confident, but she's questioning everything. Did it die?

[wizardseason]

The Wizard could make Haizea's brass knuckles vanish if she wanted to really mess with her, but she's not one to kick someone while they're down. She knows she has the upper hand here with what she knows.

"Not that one either." She answers, turning back to Haizea as the smirk returns to her face.

"Though that one will be back, later." She adds, cryptically. Presumably meaning next year.

[tropicalstorm]

Slowly, she decides to sit back down. Whatever is up with these monsters, it doesn't seem like she's gonna have to fight immediately at least. She pulls off the brass knuckles but just sets them down on the counter next to her.

"Why'd you have that monster show up, then? Just wanted to scare me?" she says and defiantly fishes out a bunch of noodles from her ramen, slurping while glaring at the Wizard.

[wizardseason]

Oh, Haizea, the answer to that question is incredibly simple. The Wizard gives a little chuckle as she lifts up a dumpling from nowhere. The plate had been empty, so where had she gotten a fifth dumpling? Oh well.

"It was hungry." She answers, bringing the dumpling up to take a bite of it. For the first time, she's eating and not just being weird magic.

"You assumed I was alone."

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea is finding herself somehow getting used to the Wizard making food appear and disappear, but then is surprised to see her eat like a normal goddamn person.

"Yeah I assumed that cause it looked like you were, can't blame me for not noticing the invisible fuckin' monster here too," she says and chomps down on a bunch of menma she's gathered with her chopsticks.