Day 3: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: April 22nd - ~~April 29th~~ May 8th, 2019 ]

It's the third day and, in striking comparison to day two, it is not a bright and sunny morning. The day begins for every hero with an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar time.

When your characters check their phones, clocks, calendars, or any other timekeeping implement they'll find that the year is 00 AW, forty years before the present day. The year before the Wizard's first game was held, the year before it came down to only two knights and the Princess facing off against the Wizard. It was before all of it.

Everywhere your characters go, there are no people. Their devices will not connect to the internet outside of the island, their companions will not appear, the Protector will not answer, but they can text each other without difficulty. If groups in the same city try to find each other, they will find that some kind of mystical plot barrier is keeping them from finding each other. A wrong turn, a locked door, a lost connection. Somehow, they're kept apart. All the support they have is who they woke up with. Oddly, everyone wakes up in their normal day-to-day clothing rather than pajamas.

There have to be answers somewhere, but where?

Third Morning Event: All Cities: The Past.

The Weather
Eerily still.
64°F / 18°C
The trees are unmoving, there is no wind.

Prompts:

6:30am Spa Hotel, Bamborough: Two sets of heroes wake up in the Spa Hotel in Bamborough. Garrot wakes up in the same room as Olivia. On the far side of the Spa hotel, in one of the waterfront cabins, Haizea and Joanna wake up in the same room. The hotel is empty, but every room is unlocked. Food's still in the dining areas, too. Oddly, things look like they were in use around the Hotel. Carts in the middle of hallways, half-eaten meals on tables, bags halfway up staircases. Odd.

6:30am Lodge Cots, Craydon: The Craydon lodge isn't much, but it's a spanning complex of cabins that maximize occupancy by filling them with cots for that "outdoor camping" experience. Rory and Gail will wake up in one of the cabins near the base of the mountain. On the furthest edge of the lodge, Gyre and Seth will wake up in their top-level cots higher up the mountain. There are a few campfires going with meat roasting over them, piles of raw meat to the side ready to cook, and various festivities left laying around. It's almost like everyone up and left all at once, but where did they go?

6:30am Cozy Inn, Far Haven: Far Haven's 'Cozy Inn' promises the 'small town feeling' in the middle of the big city. The inside is exactly that, a very cozy little hotel with three floors of rooms and a covered walkway with a glass floor over a garden into another section of the hotel. Zafika and Web will wake up in a room on the first floor nearest the train station exit of the cozy inn. No doors are locked here and it looks as if things were left strewn about like the people just teleported out of here. Terrence, Matilda, and Luka wake up in the glass walkway above, in sleeping bags. They'll find that the only way out goes to the cozy inn's far building, they'll have to go through a spanning cafeteria space with tons of empty tables that, strangely, look like they were just in use. Plates with half-full, or even untouched plates sit around on every table and there are even jackets draped over some chairs, purses on the ground. The city outside is much the same, vehicles just stopped in the middle of the street with no drivers, things dropped on the ground. What happened...?

9:30am, Exploration, Bamborough, Craydon, Far Haven: The scene is much the same in all three cities. When the heroes make their way outside, they'll notice that the sky above Harsen Island is a massive vortex centered over the mountain in the middle of the island. Heroes in Craydon will get to see it a little closer, the massive clouds occasionally crackling with blue lightning. All three cities have glowing cracks in the ground in various places, the cracks lead all around, some larger, some smaller, maybe there's something to be found? There are large glowing obelisks that are floating over each city and outside of them, they occasionally float down near the ground enough to touch or look closer at. Once the heroes make their way out into the streets, they might start seeing glimpses of a Wizard hat in the distance but each time it passes behind a wall or into shadow and is gone. Maybe they can catch up? Maybe your hero takes a moment to search through local news, the paper, letters, a television station. What's going on in the city right now?

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: 'Exploration' toplevels will unlock additional information as items in their descriptions are explored. If your character explores a feature, write [Character explores ____] at the end of your tag and send a ping on Discord to get a reply with further details regarding that item.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Things have been weird enough for Gyre already. He's doing his best to not have a complete out of body experience, but every time he looks at one of these cracks in the ground, he can feel his chest tightening. Everything is wrong.

Everything is wrong and the one familiar thing that isn't deeply painful to him here is the flash of the wizard's hat in the corner of his vision. Suddenly, that's all he wants to focus on. He can process the rest of this later. She'll have more answers then the newspapers do, he's sure, and he darts suddenly after her.

"Hey! Wizard, stop!!" he shouts after her the best he can, his voice catching in his throat before he can call again. Hopefully that was enough to get her attention.

The Wizard hat that Gyre starts to follow stays just out of his reach. Each time he makes it to the corner he'd seen the Wizard vanishing behind, he turns the corner to see the hat already at the next corner, disappearing beyond sight once again. The path of pursuit leads Gyre over some of the cracks in the ground again and again, making it impossible for him to miss the state that Craydon is in.

However, it shouldn't be long before Gyre picks up on something being wrong.

The first part of the pursuit had left turns, right turns, stairs, and alleyways. Now, though, every corner the hat is disappearing behind is a right turn. It's a right after a right after a right after a right. Gyre's being led in a square, around the same building over and over again. It's nothing special, just a three-story bank and apartment setup. What will he do? Continue the pursuit? Change it up? Something else?

He continues calling after the hat as they move through the city, though his voice gets weaker and weaker each time. He actually stops halfway into the second loop around the bank to cough, hacking into his hand for several seconds. He rubs his throat, considering how he can catch the wizard when she keeps just enough ahead of him. He doesn't understand what she's doing honestly, and it's as he wonders at what she wants here that he realizes they've just been circling.

Immediately, he looks up at the building, trying to see if it's anything special. It doesn't look like it. Just a bank, right? He glances up towards the last place he saw the hat, and then behind him. If they're just circling, then the wizard should come back around this way any second now, right?

He's going to wait and see, watching expectantly in the direction he came, refusing to move until he's sure she's not coming.

If she isn't, then he'll head into the building instead to see if there's anything here he ought to be paying attention to.

Gyre's theory is proven false when no one turns the other corner. Wherever the Wizard is, it's not continuing to circle the building. The Wizard hat is nowhere in sight until he goes into the building. It's a standard bank layout with a set of elevators at the back of the area. Gyre'll hear a 'ding' as an elevator opens and a wizard hat makes its way around the corner and into the elevator. Even if he moves fast, he'll get to the elevator just as the doors close in front of him.

It goes up 1, 2, 3, and then stops at "R".

The directory to the side of the elevator says:

1: Craydon Local Bank
2: Lodge Apartments 1-1
3: Lodge Apartments 2-1
R: Roof Garden

He does move fast! He doesn't shout again, his throat starting to ache already, but he does run through the lobby, almost slamming into the closing doors when he finally gets there. Just a second too late.

"Dammit." He takes a deep breath, steadying himself before he taps the elevator and waits. He'd take the stairs, but he knows she came this way, so this is the way he's following, and he considers the directory for just a moment before he hits R. He doesn't want to walk through these dreary apartment hallways if he doesn't have to.

But if there's nothing on the roof, then he'll go down to 2 next, and start testing to see if any of the apartments are open.

When the elevator doors open to the "R" floor, he'll be greeted by a wide-open roof access door in the little roof service room. Outside of it, the rooftop has a few large magitech heat and cooling systems propped up above garden areas. There are clear walkways across the area, though, and the Wizard is standing on the edge of the rooftop at the far side.

But the body is wrong. It isn't the usual small, petite form of the current year's Wizard. There's muscle and height but the view is from the back; if Gyre's looking for it, the butt's pretty good. While the defining feature, the hat, is present... the pajamas are absent. Instead they're wearing black robes decorated with deep purple clouds and blue stars. They turn at Gyre's arrival, revealing that they're wearing what can only be compared to a plague doctor's mask. Not a single inch of skin is showing and their eyes are hidden behind tinted glass. Instead of a long beak on the front of their mask, the mouth section is a maw of sharp teeth that, even parted, shows nothing behind it.

They stand silently, watching Gyre.

Edited 2019-05-02 02:16 (UTC)

He can feel his skin beginning to crawl only a few seconds into the elevator trip. He can't believe people ride these things willingly and on purpose. The air feels wrong. Too tight. He's tensing up horribly as the directory counts upwards, clenching his hands and releasing them in turn, and then the door dings.

"You better be up here," he grumbles as he steps out, scanning the roof. He's speaking just loud enough that she could hear if she was close. He wants her to know she's being annoying trailing him around like this, and he sighs through his nose when he sees her silhouette.

"Why are y-you-- ah-- haa??" He jerks back a step when she turns, losing his voice in his throat. He sees the teeth first, lizard brain telling him to run right now. He holds there for just a moment, just long enough to register the eerie wrongness of her body and her mask, before he retreats back inside the service room, hiding behind the wall beside the door.

It's only once he's there that he manages to take a deep breath. To reconsider. Maybe it's just a different person? Why are they dressed like that? He grits his teeth, runs his fingers through his hair to reassure himself... and then pokes just his face out from behind the wall. Just enough to see them over there, watching them warily in return.

"Wizard?"

When Gyre pokes his face out, this Wizard is standing right there in front of him. A mere six inches away from his face. Their body is leaned forward to bring them down to his level so they're looking in his eyes.

And a puff of glowing, sparkling breath puffs out from the toothy maw as they meet his gaze. They say nothing, just watching, but their breath is floating in the air as if it were cold out.

"FUCK," he barks, ducking back behind the wall for a moment. He can't believe the wizard? this person? has surprised him twice now, and he grits his teeth hard. They haven't attacked him yet though. He doesn't have a reason to think they're dangerous once he gets over the teeth. Right? Hopefully.

He's ducked down lower when he pokes his head out again, squinting up at them. Way way up at them. Fuck, they're tall.

"Why did you change how you look? We're only three days in."

When Gyre ducks away, they take the opportunity to stand upright and move slightly closer to the door. He doesn't see them move, they're just closer when he looks.

At his question, though, they say nothing.

But when he blinks, he'll be back inside the elevator with them standing beside him. Their head is tilted quite a bit so their Wizard hat isn't crushed against the ceiling, and the button for "G" has been pressed. The elevator is slowly going down.

And when it arrives and Gyre blinks again, they're standing in the lobby area just outside the elevator while he's left inside of it as the doors open.

What the fuck. What the fuck! He hasn't been this tense in a long time, his shoulders bunched up, his hands clenched hard. He stiffly waits in silence as the elevator sinks back down. He was feeling claustrophobic before, but now with this giant person in here, this space is unbearable. He feels like he's about to have a fucking meltdown here, and suddenly he's alone.

He's about to shout in frustration when he sees them there in the lobby. So he hasn't been abandoned but they want to show off? Why? He takes a slow, deep breath, trying to steady himself, not even beginning to move until the doors start to shut on him.

"You don't have to jump around. I've seen your magic before," he grumbles, stepping out after them and moving to their side. Or well. Close to their side. He's keeping a few feet between them because he has no idea what they're thinking. They could still be dangerous. He has no idea. Ugh, this is weird and sucks.

"Can you talk?" he asks, switching to sign after that, "I know sign if you need?"

They watch him approach them, turning only once he's taken up a place by their side. Once again they blip, this time reappearing in the door of the building with another long exhale. The cloud of steam stays floating in front of them for longer, electrical crackles starting to radiate out from it.

They turn when he approaches them, stepping out into the street. They only take a few steps before they stop, their gaze turning down to the glowing cracks in the ground. They turn again to look at Gyre, watching him for several moments to make sure he's watching.

And then they lift up a leg and slam their foot down on the crack.

There's a boom sound as the two make contact and the Wizard's form is sent rocketing in this horrible airborn arc. They're spinning horribly in the air, like an injured bird, and they sail through the air until they strike the ground in a not-close but not-far wooded area.

The crack on the ground is left glowing brighter, crackling horribly like it's charged with electricity.

WELL once again, he's startled by them, ducking down in surprise at the sound. It's uh a little too close to a gunshot and he ends up freezing in place for several seconds, just breathing quickly and shaking.

He doesn't move for almost a full minute, and when he finally does, it's only to look at the crack in the ground. He doesn't understand why it's brighter. He doesn't understand what they were even doing. He hates this, shakily standing after another minute. Brushing himself off. Taking a deep breath.

And jogging off in the direction he saw them flying before he covered his eyes. He won't start calling for the wizard again until he's past the line of trees, looking around for broken branches, turned up dirt, any sign of where they've fallen.

Gyre finds them almost immediately. There's a clear sign that someone fell through the trees, broken pieces still moving where they're precariously dangling above. But on the ground, there's no sign of an impact. Instead they're standing there, eyes locked with Gyre as he finds them.

And even while he's jogging closer, he blinks and they're right in front of him. They're too close for him to stop but he could probably leap aside.

Or he could run right into them.

And if he runs into them, he'll find that they're ice cold even under all those robes. Enjoy, dead boy.

They appear in front of him and his hands go up to defend himself against a sudden threat. His fists ball up before he registers that they're not attacking him? They're just standing there, and he has too much momentum to stop.

He smashes into their chest, grabbing a handful of their robes and gasping in surprise. It takes him a second to fully register what happened, and by the time he does, his fingers are beginning to tingle in the sudden chill.

"F-fuck, you're cold," he mutters, taking a step back and releasing their robe, rubbing his hands together to warm them again. He's not as warm as a living person by any means, but he's definitely not cold like that.

If they're surprised, they don't show it. They watch him step away after acknowledging the cold, eyes and expression a mystery behind the mask. They watch him, seemingly curious that he'd followed along this far. But now when he blinks, they're holding a notepad and writing something on it. They pause at the end before turning it out towards Gyre.

And it's just gibberish. It's like nothing he's ever seen and it's unclear if it's writing or a picture.

But still they hold it out, waiting for him to acknowledge it.

He stares at the gibberish writing for several seconds, blinking slowly as if that'll help the words resolve for him. Words or pictures? The longer he looks at it, the less sure he is of what it is.

"Do you... want me to take this? I can't read it," he says, reaching out to take the notepad from them. He wants to understand what they're doing. If this is the wizard, then they're going to understand this better then anyone else out there.

Except maybe the Protector? Is the Protector around? He needs to look for him once he's figured out what this person needs or wants, he decides.

When Gyre takes the notepad, it crackles slightly in his hand as if it's electric. The gibberish on the pad starts to shift, moving like it's alive. The text continues moving, starting to shape itself into words on the page. The handwriting is utterly atrocious once it settles into its final question but it's actually legible?

"save this world?"

His expression shifts steadily from an unhappy confusion to slowly dawning realization. He grins all at once, nodding quickly.

"Yes! Yes, I want to very much," he says, shifting the board back towards them so they could maybe keep writing if they need to.

"What are you trying to do?"

They take the notepad back and, when Gyre blinks, they're gone. When he blinks a second time, he's back on the rooftop he'd found them on initially. Except this time, they're not there. The roof is empty now, with no sign of them and no sign of anything else. The elevator behind him slides shut, slowly descending to a lower floor without him.

Whatever that was, he probably has more questions now than before.

He blinks, startled yet again by this weird person. It takes him a second to realize he's alone in the roof and he swears angrily, stomping one foot against the roof. He's certain he's lost them, that he said the wrong thing and they abandoned him for some reason, and he's about to continue grousing about it up here when he hears the elevator moving behind him.

"What are you doing!" he shouts in definite, unguarded frustration, running to the staircase this time instead of waiting for the elevator. He takes the stairs four and five at a time, trying to beat a teleporting wizard to the bottom floor so he can keep following them? Good luck, Gyre.

Unfortunately, Gyre's been abandoned.

When he reaches the bottom floor to see what's inside the elevator, he finds nothing but emptiness. No sign of the toothy Wizard, no sign of their hat, no nothing.

Looks like he's run this lead dry!

Well that sucks. That sucks a lot. He growls to himself, looking around the bank with this bitter irritation. Why couldn't things be easy honestly.

He's biting his lip as he steps back out into the air, taking a deep breath. He can smell the electricity in the air, and he watches the clouds for several moments, waiting to see what comes to him. He doesn't know what to do honestly, eventually settling for checking out the crack in the ground that had made the wizard explode.

He crouches down low, reaching into the crack. He intends to press his hand against the dirt at the bottom, but hell pull away if it hurts him.

Gyre gets a much better feeling for the electricity when he sticks his fingers into the crack. The glow is still there, but when his hand gets close the electricity leaps up his arm. As if it's living vines, it trails up him and wraps around him. Every inch of his body crackles for a moment before the electricity flees back into the ground.

And if he touches the crack again, it'll do it again.

He does do it again, yeah. He can't figure out what's happening honestly, but he at least takes note of the way the electricity retreats eventually.

"What the fuck," he murmurs, looking at his hand. Looking over his body. This is baffling, but hey more information is always good, right? He picks himself up and goes to a different crack, one that hasn't been exploded, and does the same thing to this one, sticking his hand in down to the ground.

The Weather

Prompts:

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