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.

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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

[partyhorse]

Those teeth make Gail very uncomfortable. Oh dear. He's doing bit of an awkward weight shifting on his legs.

"Uh, yeah! I was only there for the very end... Getting that monster gunk off was, not fun. I think I can still smell it..."

[sustainer]

...

"Oh, I missed you then." He looks totally surprised as he says it! He definitely didn't see this giant horse man around at all, and he purses his lips in thought.

"Did one of them call you?"

[partyhorse]

Wait was this the one person who DIDN'T know he killed the monster? Oh thank the heavens. Thank. The. Heavens. Maybe there was a god after all.

"Uhh, no. I just, arrived on the train station on a good time. I'm very glad I could be of help though!"

[sustainer]

He is, yep. He didn't see it and he's never on social media, so he immediately accepts Gail's words, nodding sagely.

"I'm glad you could offer a hand. It's lucky you were on the train."

...now that he thinks about that, it does seem wildly convenient. Maybe he'll press for answers later, he supposes.

[partyhorse]

"Well I wasn't In the train. I uh, ran to the station." Gail said, hoping he wouldn't have to elaborate at least too much. He liked the fact that there was at least one person who didn't know he killed the monster and he liked that.

[sustainer]

"Oh." He purses his lips, running his eyes over Gail's body thoughtfully. He hasn't met that many centaurs. Maybe any, actually.

"I guess you probably would run pretty fast." Wouldn't he have seen him? But why would this dude lie to him about this? What the hell.

[partyhorse]

"Yeah! I do! Well, uh, it seems like my knight power is super speed or something? I run very, very fast. Apparently. Not as useful as you'd think though!" Gail kind of just rambled on. Could just be the stress of the day unwinding a little.

[sustainer]

Oh, this guy is cute when he's excited, even if it's stress excitement. Gyre can't help but smile at him as he rambles along, nodding in understanding.

"I don't know. Speed can by very useful sometimes. What if we need to get to a monster that's far away?" he asks, trying to gently encourage him. You're gonna be useful Gail!

[partyhorse]

Was that, a compliment? He feels that Might have been a compliment and he gets bit flustered. Actually a lot flustered.

"Uh, oh, well. Sure! Of course! But it's um, it's difficult when you can't stop! I mean, I have four legs and when you run that fast, stopping is very hard or potentially injuring! It's something I need to figure a solution! Soon hopefully, if I'm to be of help. Of course." And now this boy was rambling more. Oh dear.

[sustainer]

"Oh, uh." Wow this dude is incredibly cute. What the heck. He clears his throat to hopefully stop the rambling, before he gestures along the sand.

"Beach is empty right now. You could practice running from one end to the other?" He tilts his head, smirking very slightly. "I'll help you stop if you need me to."

[partyhorse]

Gail stops his rambling when he hears that throat clearing and blushes a little. God he was embarrassing himself, he wished for the ground to swallow him.

And then he suggested he'd, train there? "Oh. That's... That's very kind of you but uh, well... I'm big? I uh, I'm afraid I'd just trample over you and I don't want to hurt you. I could probably actually kill you on accident and that would be, the worst thing I could do right now." Training sounded good but he was going to stress about this.

[sustainer]

He smiles softly, tilting his head at him. Dude is anxious about everything, huh? Probably going to be a wreck during monster fights. Or maybe not, since he showed up to the last one? Weird.

"Just run in a straight line. I'll stay on my rock, and you won't hit me." His smile becomes a slow smirk, and he winks suddenly. "Or I can ride you, and give you a little more personal help."

[partyhorse]

Gail's face turns redder than a tomato. Did. Did that just happen? Oh my god his soul just left his mortal flesh body behind. He's positive he just died. Right now.

"I mean if you want to I wont mind!" Wait did that come out weirdly? His face was still burning. "I mean! Uh! If you're sure you want, it's fine it's not a big deal and you know I could use some help and then I wont accidentally trample over you!"

[sustainer]

Holy shit, Gail actually blushed! He was trying to flirt a little bit, but to get him to turn that color so easily fills him with this delighted pride. His grin spreads even wider as he sits up, and nods.

"Yeah, just come on over here," he says, turning to face Gail and gesturing with his hand to bring him closer. He props his feet up on the rock, knees bent so he can lounge easily over his legs. Come let him get a look at you, Gail.

[partyhorse]

The grin doesn't help Gails current situation, actually it just makes it worse. God his face was burning so bright! Just, ignore it! Yeah that's what he's going to do as he walks next to the rock where Gyre is lounging.

"Uh, okay, so it's been a while since I've had someone on my back. Just be careful getting on there? It's uh, well, a drop if you slid down."

[sustainer]

"I'll be careful," he says, standing up on the rock so he's quite a bit taller then he normally is. It gives him an easier step up, even if it's still a bit of a hop. He sets his hands carefully just behind Gail's hips, and jumps, just enough to swing a leg over him. And I mean, it's not the most graceful thing in the world, but he didn't fall at least.

He doesn't move into riding position immediately though, petting curiously at the hair along Gail's flank. "I've never ridden," a horse, "a, uh, centaur before. You're so tall," he says, and he sounds delighted and awed.

[partyhorse]

Gail does his best to stand still so Gyre can get to his back without problems. It wasn't the smoothest get up maybe, but he had handled drunk people getting on his back who had way less coordination, so this wasn't bad at all.

"Haha yeah, it's a centaur thing! We're pretty big in general, I'm not even the biggest there is!" Gail says lot more confidentally that earlier. "You good up there? You can hold onto me if the ride gets unstable. Which uh, it probably will if I'm going to run!"

[sustainer]

"Yeah, uh... I think I'm good," he says, though he doesn't sound very sure. He pats Gail's side thoughtfully, and then slides himself forward. There's a dip in Gail's back right... here, that feels decent to straddle. He imagines this is where he's supposed to sit, but he still doesn't feel totally sure of himself.

Which is to say, he grins to himself and wraps his arms fully around Gail's waist, pressing himself as close against his back as he can.

"Ready when you are," he says with a little purr in his throat, setting his chin on Gail's shoulder. Take him away, buddy.

[partyhorse]

Gyre doesn't sound sure which makes Gail frown a little, because if he were to fall that could be very bad. But then Gyre presses himself close to his back and has his chin on his shoulder and his face is heating up again. God. He didn't think this through at all!!! Gyre can most likely feel it if he can't see it.

But they have things to do, so Gail trots near the other end of the beach, mindful of Gyre in his back. Soon they're at the end and Gail turns to face the long beach line, she should be able to run this just fine. He was getting nervous though, what if he couldn't stop?

"Well... Here goes nothing I guess. Uh, please, hold on tight." He says, before taking few breaths, thinking about running Really Fast. And then the horse is loose and they're going fast.

[sustainer]

He can both feel and see the blush, and he's definitely grinning wickedly here behind him. He's going to comment about it too, but then they're moving. He realizes pretty quickly that he bounces just enough that he can't keep his chin on Gail's shoulder, and he does grip Gail's shirt tightly for those first few steps.

He finds the rhythm of it relatively quickly though, letting his hands loosen again as they come to a stop at the end of the beach.

"I will. You can do it," he says, sounding utterly calm, which he hopes will help soothe Gail's nerves a little. Because suddenly they are moving very fast, and his mind goes blank for a second. He didn't think that this was possible, and he supposes it's not normally. His eyes widen and dry out almost instantly, making him squint against the wind, and he finally remembers what he's even here for, calling out suddenly, "Remember to stop!"

[partyhorse]

Gail was only focused on running. Now that he wasn't panic running he could recognize just how fast he was going, it was, kind of amazing actually? But also kind of really scary.

And then Gyre called out for him to stop and oh my god they were almost at the end of the beach. How. How was he supposed to stop?? If he just quit running he'd definetely fall on the ground taking Gyre with him. So he did the best thing he could think of and slammed his front legs on the ground, causing sand to fly everywhere as slowly his movement stopped. In the end he was buried in the sand slightly and there were clear tracks behind him. Oops.

"Oh no are you okay!?"

[sustainer]

Oh god the sand. THE SAND.

Gyre was not expecting Gail to stop like that, and he yelps as sand is thrown over Gail's head and directly into his face, down the back of his shirt, up into his boots. Fuck.

By the time Gail has fully stopped, he's gripping the other like a vice, and his face is tucked firmly behind his back. It takes him a second to realize the sand has stopped, but when he does, he releases Gail and starts to cough roughly into his elbow.

"I'm fine," he manages after a second, but his eyes are watering and he's still wiping sand out of his nose, sticking his tongue out to get the grains out of his mouth. Yuck!!

[partyhorse]

Gail turns to look at Gyre when he starts coughing and oh god. He didn't sound fine, he sounded everything BUT fine. And there was sand everywhere, he knew he had sand in his hair and under his shirt, and Gyre probably had too. Aside from the, visible sand on him. This was a disaster.

He did dig out a water bottle from his fanny pack. "Uh, you want some? You sound like you could use some. Uh, sorry about all the sand. This really didn't go as expected..."

[sustainer]

"Y-yeah," he says, taking the offered water bottle and unscrewing it. He takes a long drink from it, draining nearly half of it before he takes a breath. Coughs again. He sounds a little better this time at least, and he offers the bottle back to him.

"Thanks, uh... No, not exactly as expected," he murmurs, reaching up to start dusting sand out of his hair, squinting so he doesn't get any of it in his eyes. It takes him a beat, but then he's grinning at Gail. Despite all the sand, he seems quite proud of him.

"You did it though! You stopped. You'll get better as it as you go."

[partyhorse]

Gail takes the bottle back, glad that Gyre sounds at least a little better. He tries to dust his hair out of some sand as well but it seems like a lost cause. He needs a shower.

"Yeah uh, I'm really sorry about that. I got you covered in sand..." Gail said with a slight frown, before he blushed again. Gyre looked really proud of him?? And was encouraging?? He was going to die.

"I um, uh, thank you!! It's well, it wasn't supposed to go like this but, uh, I guess I did stop? Just, this isn't probably the best way to do that..."