Day 3: Evening

[wizardseason]

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: June 16th to June 26th July 3rd, 2019 ]

No matter when the heroes defeated their monsters, or when the sixth monster was defeated and there were none left, everyone will be treated to an unfortunately familiar feeling. The world of the past will fade, slowly at first but gradually increasing in pace until they pass out to blackness.

Everyone will wake up on a beach, and not a beach in the town their residence is in. Looks like everyone will need to take the train back home or go for a really, really long walk.

More unsettling than that is that every hero will either have a decent suntan or a mild sunburn. Social media is abuzz with comments about the island "going still" and the knights "dead on the beaches". There are reports that all twelve knights and the princess were all defeated at the same time and left on the beaches as an advertisement that the world was over this year.

Naturally, the heroes will realize that they are not, in fact, dead. Better do some damage control, there. Anyone who tried to make any recordings in the past will find that the files are corrupted and unavailable. Looks like whatever happened is going to... stay in the past.

The heroes who are due for an evening visit in the Princess' Dream Citadel or in The Wizard's House will arrive there the moment they sleep.

---

The Weather

• Warmer than yesterday.
• 77°F / 25°C
• Everyone's in a bit of a panic!

---

Prompts:

• 05:00pm Beach Wake-up Call: Every hero will wake up laying on the wet sand of the beach. There's waves gently lapping at them, waking them up slowly from their abrupt return from the past. Everyone will feel a little groggy and their clothes will be uncomfortably crusted in sand. Here's to hoping that saltwater and sand will wash out? Make sure to remove the little crabs that have started crawling over you!


• 5:00pm, Craydon: The residents of Craydon are all safely at home up the mountain by now. The only people still lingering around the Craydon beaches are fishermen working to prepare for their sunset runs. The offshore cages aren't going to empty themselves, after all! Fortunately this means they have, and can offer, blankets and hot drinks while they're heading out. It's not much, but they're here to help. At least the heroes are hopefully not alone?


• 5:00pm, Bamborough: The residents of Bamborough are really just the locals, concerned for the future of the world and of the heroes. Instead of waking up alone, they'll find little boxes of dry towels and bottled water beside them. Looks like the residents were pretty sure they were going to wake up at some point because they've left little kits to help them wake up with. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. The boardwalks of Bamborough are empty, with not a single soul out and about. The local shops, though, are pretty much business as usual. They'll immediately bustle in excitement when the heroes show themselves. Also: Free showers near the beach boardwalks! Better get all that crusty sand cleaned off.


• 5:00pm, Far Haven: The city of Far Haven is simultaneously the most cold and impersonal and the most immediately helpful. Each hero in Far Haven will wake up with a little walkie talkie beside them. If they pick it up and reach out, they'll be immediately told to come to the Far Haven hospital for immediate medical assistance. Once there, they'll be offered a free shower, water, hydration, a medical checkup, and a free coupon for the Craydon hot springs. There are even little kits set out for the knights in other towns. But... there's no one to bring them to the other towns, whoops. Guess they're carry-out only?


• 5:35pm onward, Train station(s): The train has a pretty reliable schedule for the evening, ending in Far Haven at 11:25pm. One way or another, the train is going to be how your hero makes their way back home to sleep for the night. Will the ride be uneventful, or will it be spent with others?
  
  • Bamborough: 6:45pm, 8:30pm, 10:15pm.
  • Craydon: 7:20pm, 9:05pm, 10:50pm.
  • Far Haven: 6:10pm, 7:55pm, 9:40pm, 11:25pm.


• 6:00pm, Bamborough: In the outdoor seating area of Slyder's Wizard Sliders, a Wizard-themed burger restaurant in the most touristy area of Bamborough near the waterfront, the Wizard herself is seated at one of the tables under a big umbrella. Despite the big umbrella, she's still wearing her massive hat: Double shade from the setting sun. Sitting on the table is a small wizard-themed drink with little lightning bolts sticking out of the blue liquid.


• 8:00pm, Far Haven: Social media is quick to add the #wizardsighting hashtag to posts made by officers at the police station in Far Haven. The Wizard is seated up on the rooftop ledge of the police station, legs dangling over the third floor edge, surrounded by fireflies sparkling in the night. All a hero has to do is tell an officer they'd like to go up to talk to the Wizard and they'll be escorted to the elevator to the roof. Up you go, heroes!
  

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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

8:00pm, Far Haven:

[wizardseason]

Social media is quick to add the #wizardsighting hashtag to posts made by officers at the police station in Far Haven. The Wizard is seated up on the rooftop ledge of the police station, legs dangling over the third floor edge, surrounded by fireflies sparkling in the night. All a hero has to do is tell an officer they'd like to go up to talk to the Wizard and they'll be escorted to the elevator to the roof. Up you go, heroes!

[sustainer]

He doesn't see the hashtags, but he does see the wizard as he walks by the police station on the way to the train. He means to leave town, to make it back to his camp as soon as possible, but he comes to a flat halt when his eyes land on her feet swinging up there above him.

He turns thoughtlessly to head into the building to climb up to her, and he only stops when he notices the heading over the door. Police. He wrinkles his nose in distaste, stepping back from the door. It's not his preference but he can figure out a different way. He crosses the road, standing on the opposite sidewalk and looking up at her. He gives her a moment to notice him, before cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting up at her, "WIZARD! Come down here!"

[wizardseason]

Ah, hello pig knight.

The Wizard turns her attention down towards him, giving a gentle and sleepy smile. She doesn't try to answer him, though, he's just too far away. But he's down there, shouting, and...

There's a tap at his arm, someone poking at him to get his attention. When he looks, he'll be treated to a visitor that someone else experienced. Just like before, the tenth monster is a three foot tall humanoid, almost-all-yellow, featureless body. It's practically human in its shape, with two arms and two legs. Its only bodily feature is ten eyes placed all over where a face would be, and they all blink strangely.

And then it grabs him.

A moment later, Gyre is thrown like a sack of potatoes. Either by a total miracle or by the interception of the Wizard's magic, he lands on a stack of four dusty mattresses about six feet behind the Wizard up on the roof. Tenth monster's got good aim.

But if he tries looking back down off the roof, it'll be gone.

"Hello, pig knight."

[sustainer]

WHAT THE FUCK.

He doesn't really have time to understand what's going on here before it happens. He turns at the tap on his arm, looking down at the tenth monster. He blinks. His mind registers that this is a monster and not just a small, strange looking child, and then he's in the air, screaming.

He hits the stack of mattresses and rolls, flopping over in a loose conglomeration of limbs. It takes him a second to realize he's still alive, and he tries to scramble back up to his feet, but he's dizzy, his guts still churning from being flung through the air. Oh, and his head starts to fall out of his collar.

He manages to catch it before it falls, taking a handful of his own hair so he can hold himself in place. He makes a deeply frustrated noise, settling onto his knees and crumpling forward as he tries to tie his collar back into place. This takes a bit, and when he's finally done, he glares at her through this nasty glare.

"Don't call me that."

[wizardseason]

The Wizard doesn't rush him, she doesn't try to engage him before he's ready. She's well aware that his head nearly popped off, and she'd apologize for Ten if he brought it up.

But as it stands, he's here with her and she has to make a joke.

"Still want me to come down?" She asks him even while her eyes are locked firmly on the police staring up at her. They've got their arms folded, clearly a little frustrated that the Wizard brought her antics here. Meanwhile her little smirk is right where it should be, amused and tired as she looks on at the humans just trying to do their jobs.

[sustainer]

"Obviously not," he grumbles, clearly still irritated. He slowly shifts after that, moving to stand and take a few steps towards her. He has a lot of questions after today, and he wants answers. His determined curiosity is written all over his face, his eyes bright as he watches her.

"How'd you get that one to do that?" he asks, starting with what he hopes is the easy thing. He's also trying to gauge if she even realizes something weird happened today honestly, watching every little detail he can take in about her.

[wizardseason]

"Thought so" She answers, continuing to not address his irritation.

"Ten can do many things, he is the most curious of the dozen." She finally turns to him as she answers, watching his face and expression. Of course, her watching him means that he won't get any of the hints or cues he's watching for.

"Do you want me to call Ten over?" She teases, before she asks the real question: "Or is that small talk."

[sustainer]

"Can you call it... them? Over?" he asks automatically, tilting his head. He's going to pluck at every single thing she offers him here at this point. If he can actually meet a monster before it shows up, then that's useful and might tell him more then Fen ever has.

Still, that's not exactly the reason he came up here, so he'll clarify, "I didn't intend it as small talk if you want to answer the question. But uh, I do have other questions. About today. Do you know what happened?"

[wizardseason]

"I can call him, though he doesn't have to answer." She offers, curiously watching Gyre as she shares that. But he brings up the day, and she can offer details about that.

"We were given a reminder. Everyone was shown something that someone doesn't want us to forget."

[sustainer]

"Can I talk to him if he comes?" he asks, before falling utterly silent. What a vague and useless sentence!! He raises his eyebrows significantly, giving her a chance to maybe elaborate on what the fuck she just said.

She doesn't. Of course she doesn't. He grumbles to himself, reaching up to rub his brow. "Who is the someone? And who is us? What was the reminder?" he drones, listing the questions off just to see how far he'll get. By the end of it, he's frustrated himself all over again to the point that he snaps, "Was any of that real??"

[wizardseason]

"You can." She offers, watching him silently as he considers her words. He reacts exactly as she expected him to, and he asks the important questions followed by a silly philosophical one.

"I hope you find out when they arrive. Us is everyone. The monsters, the companions, the knights, the princess, me." She casually answers, settling her hands behind her to recline in place to answer the last two.

"The reminder of the first year, and is anything real?" Her smirk widens just slightly as she cracks the joke, watching for when he inevitably loses his mind about it. She waits just long enough to add:

"Was it real to you?"

[sustainer]

"Why don't you just say who it is if you know? What is the point of keeping it secret. Is it the Protector?" he asks, noting that he's the one person she left out of the list of us. And then she springs that philosophy 101 question on him, and he could not roll his eyes any harder then he does right now. He almost turns around at the automatic motion of it. He can't stand this kind of attitude, like she has so much distance on him and can't be bothered to close it.

"Do you remember me? I met someone in a hat like that," he gestures at her big hat, "and they asked me if I wanted to help the world. That was you?"

[wizardseason]

"I can't." She answers, curious if he'll take that answer as-is or ask for more details. But he does ask something she can answer, and she shakes her head. Not the protector.

But then he brings up a very important memory, a fun interaction from forty years ago.

"An iteration of me, yes. Less refined, less experienced, more optimistic." She watches him, curious how he'll take the news. "But I remember you."

[eutychia]

Luka approaches the police station, an indignant look on his face. After arriving at his lodgings in Craydon, he'd been keen to check the headlines and the worldwide trending #wizardsighting hashtag was impossible to ignore. The audacity of it all, he thought.

So here he was, eager to have a word with her. He's donned an outfit typical of him, but one carefully planned for this confrontation: one (1) flouncy, open shirted blouse adorned with ruffles; a long, pleated skirt of gold lamé that reached the floor (secured with a white, genuine dragon-leather belt), and an intricately crocheted neck piece worn from the throat and reaching down to mid-torso. He refused to be outshone by the Wizard.

He taps his foot impatiently in the elevator ride, arms crossed, not completely sure what he was going to say. He had a lot of grievances with her and didn't particularly know where to start with them.

"What the FUCK was today?" is all he's come up with, shouted loudly in her general direction as he exits the elevator.

[wizardseason]

If the Wizard were one for social media, she would've responded to the #wizardsighting hashtag with a #yesitsme and a selfie.

But that isn't this Wizard. This is the Wizard that wears pajamas in broad daylight and looks like she hasn't slept in about seventy years, she's easy to outshine even on her best day.

Every officer in the police station dodges out of Luka's way, intimidated by the fact that he looks like the Winter Soldier on his way to kill Captain America. They're quite certain there's going to be a fight on top of the building and they have to get citizens away from here, uh, now.

The Wizard, meanwhile, isn't moving an inch from her position on the edge of the building. Though she doesn't move, she does turn to look over her shoulder so she's not speaking away from Luka. She'll wait for him to be closer for a conversation.

"Good evening, Princess."

In the back of Luka's mind, there's the feeling of the Protector trying to insist he not be here and run and, all of a sudden, the Protector's presence is just gone.

[eutychia]

The Protector's strange vibes and sudden disappearance give Luka pause. There were few things that could make Luka stop in his tracks in that moment, and this was one of them. But he shakes the doubt out of his mind. Obviously the two weren't on good terms. Maybe it was just an awkward situation The Protector would rather not be present for, Luka concluded.

He comes to a stop a couple feet behind her and folds his arms.

"Lets skip the formalities, yeah? I want to talk about what happened today. I can only assume you were responsible."

[wizardseason]

If the Wizard is thinking anything in this moment, she doesn't show it on her face. She's as stoic, and sleepy, as ever and she still has that tiny little smirk on her face as she answers.

"I wasn't." But she can't just give him that, she wanted to see him struggle through it.

"Though it was fun, wasn't it?"

[eutychia]

"Fun was not the word I'd choose to describe all that," Luka says, tersely.

He invites himself to sit on the ledge near her, but still keeping a relative distance. Unlike the Wizard though, his feet are staying firmly planted on the roof.

"Don't bullshit me. There's no one else who could have been responsible."

[wizardseason]

A part of her wonders if she should diffuse that tense aura of his, this is their first interaction after all, but on the other hand she's curious how he'll handle himself in this moment.

Nah, she has to mess with him. When she speaks again, she's standing behind him. She isn't moving, but she's absolutely right there.

"Why would I lie? Do you want to meet the one who's responsible?"

[eutychia]

Luka's unnerved by her sudden closeness, but attempts to keep his surprise under wraps.

"Not without a little explanation first." Luka crosses his arms. "You really think I'd accept an offer like that without the fine print?"

He wants to turn around and face her, but frankly, he's not even sure she's still there and Luka isn't about to risk looking like a fool in front of the Wizard.

"So, if you're not the one responsible, tell me who is. Maybe I'll meet them."

[wizardseason]

Well, she's impressed. She lets a little of that emotion slip into her voice, the slightest uptick in her tone as she speaks again. His show of confidence, even when he was initially unnerved, is quite something.

"You will meet them." She starts, taking a step so she can move around to his front. She's absolutely looking him over.

"Tomorrow morning, Princess. May I know your name?" She asks, sounding quite curious. She's never met him, after all.

[eutychia]

Luka sighs at her non-answer. If the gesture meant anything to him he might have rolled his eyes, too.

"Hmh," Luka grunts. "You didn't even do your research before the Wizard Season this year? I'm Luka Eutychia. 5 seconds online would have told you as much."

He notes what she says about the responsible party as something to ask the Protector tonight, and Luka hopes he'll be a little more forthcoming than she's been about it. He wasn't getting his hopes up, though --- these entity types were big fans of vague answers.

[wizardseason]

"I prefer meeting you face to face." She offers, first, and then follows up with a slight note of what she intends as a gentle reminder.

"Do you think I spend time online, Luka?" She knows full well that he's likely seen the pinstagram page that's exclusively pictures of ramen and actually posted pictures of a ramen bowl-shaped slider no more than two hours earlier.

That slider had tasted really good, actually.

[eutychia]

"I just thought you were the type to come fully prepared." He corrects her. "I know this is more than just a game to you. Or, at least it was at some point."

[wizardseason]

Clever wording, Luka. She makes a little "Hm" after he counters her pretty effectively, but then he says something that's so far off base that it's ridiculous and she can't just let it slide now can she?

"It was never a game, even in the hopeless stretches where nothing went to plan."