Day 2: Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: March 17th - March 25th March 31st, 2019 (Buffer week added) ]

It's a bright new morning and the first monster has been defeated, the first hurdle has been cleared and everything is going great. The heroes should be feeling good, everything should be going according to plan. Especially because when the heroes wake up this morning, they'll be treated to a set of kigurumi pajamas themed after their animal companion sitting right beside them. Each set has a little note on it that says "From me to you" with a stylized "Wizard" signature beside it.

The morning should prove fairly uneventful. In striking comparison to the first day, the island is much quieter than it was before. Instead, the day's celebration is centralized on the train that circles the island. One eight-car train is circling the entire island, taking a little over an hour and a half to make its circles. It's 30 minutes between each city and the train isn't stopping. Each car on the train is open and any hero can board it free of charge. There are party cars, food cars, and lounge cars to enjoy on the trip around the island. There are also some commemorative prints and products available near the caboose of the train, some sellers having already gotten hard at work to create products to sell. They're seeking to get a seal of approval from the heroes themselves on them!

For the Princess and the Protector as well as the Wizard and her evil-allured knights, their dream threads will go on until the Second Monster arrives.

Most importantly, a certain knight has a message for the rest of his allies at the bright and early hour of 6:30am.

Second Morning Event: All Cities: The Celebration Train.

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The Weather

• Slightly Windy.
• 64°F / 18°C
• The trees are rustling, flower petals in the air.

---

Prompts:

• 6:30am Punch Club, Bamborough: A message reaches the group with... an attached video? Opening the file shows Garrot staring straight at his phone's camera with a big smile. "Rise and shine, team!"


• x:xxam Train Ride: The party train is available for any hero who finds it. It'll be rolling through Far Haven at 6am, 7:45am, 9:30am, and 11:15am. It'll be rolling through Bamborough at 6:35am, 8:20am, 10:05am, and 11:50am. It'll be rolling through Craydon at 7:10am, 8:55am, 10:40am, and... well, this post only goes until noon. The next stop in Craydon is out at 12:25pm which is in monster arrival territory. While on the train, your hero can get up to anything. Will they discuss with the others what they think of the first line of hero products? Does this action figure look funny? Do these stickers look okay? Discuss and deal with vendors or just party it up elsewhere on the train!


• 10:30am, Power Plant, Far Haven: Social Media is abuzz that the Wizard has made an appearance in the power plant in Far Haven. She could wipe power out to the whole island if she wanted to, she could turn the connections to chocolate, or she could just be standing around. She hasn't done anything as far as the cell phone videos show, but is that going to last?


• 11:30am, Relaxing Time, Craydon: The residents of craydon, with the assistance of some of their kids, sent out invitation videos to ask the Princess and knights if they wanted to drop by Craydon and join in a meditation session. They're going to meditate outside, in the woods, and relax as much as possible before the next monster arrives. The residents of Craydon are emphasizing how important it is to keep mentally healthy above all else. Which of your fellow heroes have joined in on this session?

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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

[silentwords]

Seth scratches his cheek awkwardly. Now that Zafika actually pointed that out, it made sense, and he even vaguely recalled 'learning' that that was one of the rules of social interaction. He gave a rather heavy if silent sigh, blushing a little.

"Ah...that...makes sense. Sorry I just...I kind of figure you should know since it...had to do with me flincing at everything and being so scared in general but...you're right in that...I should have at least...asked if I could share it even though it's kind of heavy stuff.......I've gotten too used to just running my mouth on twitter."

[zafika]

Alright, now Zafika is starting to be both concerned and uncomfortable, because how is Seth somehow even worse than they are with social interaction? "Maybe, but my job is to teach you to stay alive... I can't help you work on mental health issues, I'm not qualified enough for that, and this is not the moment for that either, when we're supposed to survive against eleven more monsters and the Wizard."

[silentwords]

Seth blushed even more.

"Yeah you're....right of course...let's...just forget I ever said any of that? Or something and...get...back to working on my flinching habit?"

[zafika]

"I don't honestly think I can just, forget that and ignore it completely, I might be an ex assassin but I'm not heartless. But... we should focus on your actual training, yes..."

Zafika hopes that if Seth survives this, he could finally try to get some help with his issues. Which, the more they found out about him, seem very, very major.

[silentwords]

Right. Of course. Forgetting someone had something like that would obviously be really difficult...god Seth really wanted to just sink into the ground.
That's not what he was here to do unfortunately. Letting out a long, silent sigh he nodded.

"So...what do you think I should do first? Or...try to do at least?"

[zafika]

Zafika humms quietly, actually having to take a bit to think about what they could have Seth do. They never had similar problem with flinching, so they're bit unsure on how to deal with it.

"Well, I think the best would be for you to get used to something coming at you at a high speed but, I'm bit unsure how I could teach that to you..." Then, they pause for a moment, and glance at Seth's hands. "Actually, say... how much can you control those wires of yours again? Because, if you could form a safety net for yourself, I could keep throwing this ball at you so you'll be safe but you'll grow used to something coming at you, without being allowed to move out of the way."

[silentwords]

Seth pondered this suggestion a bit based on what he had discovered when working on his powers with Zafika, before nodding slightly. It could work.

"If I had something to wrap the wires around for support I think it could work. The wires still generally obey gravity and so while I COULD just make them into a net in front of me, if you hit the net without it being attatched to anything it'll likely just follow the momentum and come at me WITH the ball. You....", a hesitant sigh, "You should probably also make sure there...isn't really a rhytm to when you're throwing the ball. Otherwise I'll just get used to it constantly coming at me...you should pick a sturdy ball too. The wires are actually pretty sharp. I managed to slice a basketball in half when I actually tried to use force with them..."

[zafika]

Zafika nods at Seth's explanation and look around for something they could use. If they have volleyball nets then they could have him wrap his wires around the posts for the net...

And then he tells them to make sure there isn't a rhythm to when they throw the ball, and they turn back to look at him, one brow raised. "Seth, I appreciate the advice, but you're talking to an assassin. What do you think I was taught during my training?" They could almost be offended, but no, not really. "I know what I'm doing, trust me, I have years of training and experience. So, how about you help me find volleyball posts so we can wrap your wires around that. They shouldn't be able to cut through metal that easily."

[silentwords]

Seth blushes, giving a sheepish shrug. He had...kind of forgotten about the fact Zafika used to be an assasin? It didn't really matter that much to him after all.

He scurries over to Zafika though to help them look for some volleyball posts.

[zafika]

Zafika notices both the blush and a sheepish shrug and, huh. Well, they aren't exactly acting like an assassin, but still, they're clearly a pro still at these things. But for now that doesn't matter, because they indeed do find some volleyball posts, and manage to set them up securely with Seth's help so they won't fall over.

"Okay, now just wrap your wires around them horizontally, and then wrap some more wires around the first ones vertically. Make sure the strain from the hits goes to the posts instead of your hands, it'll be best if you don't have to actively keep the wires tightened up, the more relaxed and unassuming you can be, the better."

[silentwords]

Seth nodded absentmindedly at Zafika's explanation, he knew how to make a net at least.
Sprouting the wires from his fingertips, he controls them in the air with his mind, the wires seemingly just moving on their own acord and not really obeying the laws of physics at the moment, as Seth took a bit to properly make the net, wrapping the 'ends' of the net several times around the poles, and tugging on them lightly to make sure they were secure, before, smiling a little nervously at Zafika and nodding.

Here goes nothing.

[zafika]

Zafika watches curiously as Seth manipulates the wires, their eyes like a cat's that has found something interesting, following closely as the wires weave around the posts and each other.

And then they get the nod and a nervous smile, but instead of getting right to it they grab a basketball and bounce it against the net few times. Alright, sturdy enough, and the posts won't just tip over and fall either. They return Seth's nod with one of their own, and walk away to get to a bit better distance.

Except, without even turning to look behind themselves, the ball is suddenly held in their tail, and they practically hurl it at the net, right at Seth's face too.

[silentwords]

Seth was already nervous about when the first ball would come at him...
And then he's absolutely flinching and freezing in place when it suddenly comes right at his face!

...only for the wires to stop the ball, scratching it a bit at that speed but not slashing it thankfully, bounching it off and back towards Zafika, though at a much slower speed.
His poor heart is just hammering in his chest as he takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. Easy now. He didn't get hit.

[zafika]

Zafika feels a little bit bad for making Seth flinch like that, but he needs to get more accustomed to something coming at him like this, only then can they start working on his dodging some more when he's not flinching and freezing in place.

So, they go retrieve the ball, and continue throwing it at Seth, never letting him be able to guess when or where it's coming from. And considering that they're an ex assassin, they're very good at surprise attacks.

[silentwords]

For the first 15 minutes or so, Seth pretty much just keeps flinching every single time, but after that, he starts slowly flinching less, first still flinching but still being able to move, and from there slowly being able to keep from flinching every single time. He still flinched at some very surprising throws, but he seemed to slowly start to calm down a little...even able to start predicting a little in the sense of eliminating when or where the ball wouldn't be coming from, even though it still left a very wide spectrum for it to do come from.

[zafika]

Unfortunately for Seth, this is where Zafika can rival even Garrot in being ruthless, and they're not giving him any mercy. Their tail gives them extra reach, and their speed helps with keeping their throws unpredictable. They keep it up for around ten more minutes, before they let the scratched up ball just, roll on the floor after bouncing off from the net.

"Alright, not too bad. Of course, it'll be harder to keep that up against a monster, but good thing is that you won't have to fight them immediately, not until you can handle some proper sparring, that'd be just risking your life recklessly."

[silentwords]

Seth lets the wires disconnect from his fingers, the wires staying in place for a while, before dissappearing into sparkly dust.
He kind of instinctively put a hand over his heart that was still hammering like he'd just run a marathon. That...had been pretty scary. Useful, but scary.

After a moment of recovering he typed out: "We should...probably continue this later on then?"

[zafika]

Zafika tilts their head to the side when the wires disappear into sparkly dust, their tail instinctively swishing through some of that dust. Huh. Interesting.

"Yeah, later on. For now, you need a break, and I need to see if anyone else needs some training, I can't unfortunately just teach you the entire time..."

[silentwords]

Seth nodded understandingly. "Yeah, just...let me know when we could continue this I guess?"

[zafika]

"I will, I mean, I have a feeling we'll be repeating this training thing every day until we win, so I can teach you some more every morning. But, do get some instructions from Haizea and Garrot too, okay? The more people you have teaching you to fight, the better you can adapt." Zafika spares Seth a tiny smile, and they're pretty proud of him, considering how skittish he tends to be all the time. He did good.

[silentwords]

Seth nodded. He was kind of nervous about talking to Garrot after last morning at the breakfast banquet but, we'll he'd just have to suck it up he supposed.
He gave a small, proud smile though as he typed: "I actually got some help from Haizea in regards to my powers...she's pretty cool."

[zafika]

"Ah, yeah, you mentioned that, right. But I was talking more about physical, no powers fighting. But it's good you got help from her." However, after that, Zafika turns to look at the volleyball posts still up. "For now though, we should return these back to their places so there won't be any accidents."

[silentwords]

Oh, right duh. He forgot in the stress of things, whoops.
Seth still nods though, giving Zafika a small smile as he put the phone away so he could help carry the poles to their proper places.