Day 3: Evening

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!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Garrot sees this pair of messages slide into his notifications, and he has to double-take. They all had each other's numbers and were in group chats, so... he has to take advantage of this. The whole thing.

TELL THEM TO SAVE ME ONE! 【ノ*✧ω✧】ノ*:･ﾟ✧

How much effort did Garrot put into that one message? Too much. So then he sends a direct text message to Gyre, trusting him to know what to do.

I'll owe you one if you can steal me two. I'm big and hungry.

He is woefully oblivious to Gyre's lack of phone skills. Oops.

Well he's going to learn because Gyre spends a good twenty minutes trying to figure out why his phone just made such a weird sound. Twice. He actually goes up and asks the receptionist about it eventually, and she gives him a deeply concerned stare before telling him he probably got a text.

Then there's the struggle to remember how to open the screen again. And a further struggle to even figure out how to pull other messages up. By the time he's found the second message, he's halfway to the train station, and he stops in the middle of the sidewalk in frustration.

There's onely 1 for eahc person you can hvae my food

He stares at this message for a moment, before realizing something important: Who is this

Unluckily for them both, Garrot ended up taking a quick leap into the ocean during those twenty minutes. This means that when he gets back to his phone, it doesn't seem like it took that long for Gyre to respond. And who looks at timestamps?

Please pig out on the food if you need to, I'll be fine. And I'm you from the future.

Couldn't you tell?

He doesn't want Gyre to go hungry after a day like this! He should eat!!! Garrot has some food in the fridge at his temp house anyway...

So someone annoying. He glances off to the side, sighing heavily. If it's Garrot, he doesn't really want to talk to him. There's a chance it's one of the others though. Maybe Olivia? She seems like the type to maybe tease in this way? Maybe? If only he wasn't so technology blind he doesn't think to check the top of the screen.

I cnat eat most of it so no your not

He thinks about just putting the phone away after that. But he sure does have a box of stuff he can't eat. It would make his life easier if he could offload it onto whoever this is.

I can mete you somehwre im going tworads teh train now

He took the time travel joke seriously? Really??? Garrot sighs, loudly and obnoxiously, though nobody is around to hear it.

I'm in Craydon, the train won't be here for a while.

That means you're stuck with him, Gyre. That said...

Do you know what talk-to-text is?

May as well be helpful before he gets hangry.

Ill keepe it with me you cna ask for it hwne wecorss paths agian

He puts his phone away after that, pretty sure that the conversation is over. He makes it all the way down the road, getting lost along the way to the train station before he thinks to check it again.

He blinks at the question, thinking back to what Olivia told him. Do they mean like talking and having the phone record it? The opposite of what Seth does?

what is it?

The idea that Garrot gets to teach Gyre something about functioning in organized society fills him with glee. Sure there was a wait between replies, but it means Garrot has something else to do while he plans some calls with his family. It means he can ignore them freaking out at him, too.

If the box where you type the words is empty, you should see a little squiggling line instead of the send button. Press that, and it'll beep and start transcribing your words until you stop talking. It doesn't get punctuation though, so you'll have to say QUESTION MARK or PERIOD if you want those. Then hit send when you're done.

Does that make sense?

And now he waits. Gyre might need a while to figure this out.

It does take him awhile, yes. He finds the button relatively quickly, but then he spends some time experimenting and being slightly awed by technology for once. It's a useful tool! He's amazed at how well it senses when he starts and stops, and while it takes him a bit to remember what periods are used for in Common grammar, he's actually feeling very slightly excited about this. Talking is easier then trying to find his way around the keyboard, that's for damn sure.

This is about the moment he actually goes back to read what he's recorded and realizes that it is nonsense. Talk-to-text is iffy even on a good day but it doesn't recognize wild elf language and records it as Common word salad, and only gets about one in ten words of his heavily accented Common. This is immediately frustrating, and more so then usual because he doesn't understand why it's happening.

He gives up on the conversation at this point, putting the phone away and continuing on his train quest for awhile. It's only when he can't let the thought go that he pulls it back out and finally responds. At least he's remembered periods this time around.

Its not litsning to me. It writs nnosnense. Howsit supopsed to work

Nonsense?? 【・ヘ・?】

Honestly, Garrot just made the little emoji to buy himself some Time while he tried to figure out what the actual fuck Gyre had done. If they were hanging out in person, it'd be fine! But they aren't, and he's hellbent on not revealing his identity.

Wait.

A lightbulb moment! If it's getting words and not what he wants, it could be a language problem! Garrot has to be careful not to show his hand, but...

You might need to tell it to recognize more languages. I can tell it to listen for Amarosian, and it'll pay attention when I want to call someone a 《scum-sucking swamp shit》 or whatever else doesn't translate easily.

If you tap the globe on the keyboard, you should be able to select whatever language you want.

And now he waits again. Lucky for him, his loved ones that are, uh, grown adults are more context to text him so they aren't literally fighting with his children over screentime. So he's busy.

It's another wait, but not quite as long this time. It takes him awhile to look at the keyboard and recognize what Garrot means by "the globe". His eyes read the symbol as a flat criss-cross of lines inside a circle rather then a 3D object, but once he gets the language menu, he knows exactly what to do.

《Thank you. Who are you? I didn't know any of the other knights were Amarosian.》

Honestly, the shorter wait is surprising, but Garrot is impressed. There's even proper capitalization and grammar! That said, Gyre's being direct, and while he won't end the little game he'll give him a hint.

《Sorry. I'm not Amarosian, I just know the language. But I think we're in similar circumstances. I don't know if anyone knows my language.》

He's almost there. He almost knows who this is, and it's only pure irritated denial that makes him hold out hope that this is not freakin Garrot. He wonders who else could know another language. Any of them, he supposes. He certainly knew two by the time he was some of these peoples' age. Zafika seemed metropolitan enough, but they would have told him who they were. Maybe the older woman? The tone didn't fit her though.

He grimaces at his phone unhappily, but he continues the conversation all the same.

《What's your language? I know a couple.》

[...]

《You know, I think I can only talk to other knights on this phone. It's pretty weird to me that you won't just say who you are.》

《Sorry! I actually forgot.》

Garrot absolutely did not forget. If they got talking about the languages they knew, he probably would though. So a moment later, an image is sent- it's Garrot, looking a bit brooding and pensive and soggy, hoodie covering most of his face. With a Craydon sunset as the backdrop.

《I know the Common tongue, Koskenkorvan, Amarosian, and Faridan, and I can manage with the others. Perks of getting to travel the world to help people. And swears in every language and a lot of regional dialects.》

A beat.

《What languages do you know?》

"《Damn,》" he mutters when his growing suspicions are confirmed. He thinks very hard about abandoning the conversation here, but there's something almost freeing about this texting thing? He knows he can abandon it any time Garrot gets too annoying, and not having the man here means he'll be less likely to consider actually hitting him.

It's just after he's decided to continue that the question comes in, and he takes a breath, settling in. They can have a nice conversation. He knows they can.

《The language my mothers taught me, Koskenkorvan, Amarosian. Common. Common and Amarosian sign, most recently. I haven't traveled much, but when I did, I picked up as much as I could. You're Koskenkorvan? Or Faridan?》

《Koskenkorvan, born and raised! My oldest is Amarosian though, so I tried to get better with the language years ago to connect with her when she was younger. She didn't care.》

Of course, they get along fine enough now, duh.

《Have you ever even been to Koskenkorva? You don't seem like you'd like the cold much.》

Garrot has his days where he hates the cold up in the north, and he lives there! He also doesn't think Gyre would like wearing a bunch of layers, funny as the idea is to imagine.

Whoops, he didn't expect the conversation to go here. He should've, he's realizing, but now they're here. It takes him a second to figure out how to say he's been there without admitting he was sent there to kill Koskenkorvans. That he died there.

《I didn't. I was stationed there for a few years. The weather is bad.》

He tilts his head, scrolling up to the previous comment. Maybe he can get Garrot talking about his kids instead.

《Is it the same for your other children? You learned their languages for them?》

《Not really. Miri made me want to get BETTER at Amarosian, the boys are Koskenkorvan like me, and Ursula was real young when I got her.》

But of course, he has to pivot back around to that other topic, the one that got dangled by a single word.

《Stationed? You were a soldier?》

Garrot cannot imagine any other thing that would involve being stationed anywhere, and it never explicitly came up before. Probably because they spend a lot of time bickering.

Fuck. Well, he'll have to remember that for future phrasing purposes. For now though, he chews his lip and wonders how to change the subject again.

《I was. It's one of the ways I learned to fight.》

《Are your kids okay? I heard they announced we were all dead.》

《I messaged everyone after I got my bearings, and I'm gonna call them on the train. They're fine now.》

The fact that the heroes ended up on beaches, all together, made it hard for his kids to believe he was seriously hurt. Not exactly the sort of death anyone would expect Garrot to have. But, as much as Gyre wants to change the subject, Garrot... does not.

《That explains why you don't like being ordered around. My mom was in the military, so I can almost relate.》

You absolutely can not relate, Garrot, these are two separate environments. Points for effort, maybe?

Yeah, Gyre eyes the message for several beats trying not to boil over in frothing rage at the idea that this man has any idea what it's like to be a soldier. He grits his teeth, holds his breath for a second, and gives up on trying to change the subject for now.

《I was disgusted by the violence of your institutions long before I was a soldier. A parent's chastising is nothing in comparison.》

Hierarchies are inherently violent to him, and he truly despises every single one he's had to deal with in his time, from school to the military.

《An old soldier taught me military combat, too!》 Can you hear Garrot whining like a kicked puppy that wants to be interesting and relevant, Gyre? 《But okay fine they're not the same, I was just trying to relate.》

There's a few moments of pause from the otherwise text-chatty Garrot, and then a message pings back up on the screen.

《Is there anything you actually like about life outside wild elf lands?》

He can hear the whine, yes, and in that moment of pause, he begins to text back.

《Our lives are very different. We don't need to relate to work together.》

And right as he hits send the other text comes in. It startles him a little, and he sighs faintly. He does give it some thought at least? He really wracks his brain for something, and finally responds after a minute or two.

《Not much. I've met a few people who are decent enough. I read a good book or two. Everything else just makes me want to go back where it's quiet. Doesn't all this ever just exhaust you?》

Garrot is. Not happy with this response. In fact, it makes him sad. Very sad.

《Of course it does. That's when I go home, or just take my family to our cabin way up north for a break.》 It's not until after he hits send that he remembers Gyre's got some kind of sore spot about his own relatives.

《My "partner" is kinda the same way. Sometimes he's just gone for a week, alone in nature SOMEWHERE. Then he comes back with a new trophy for his wall and a ton of meat.》

Yeah, he definitely eyes that first message for a bit. He could believe that any one of these people would try to rub his nose in his family situation once they learned of it, but it seems just a tad too cruel for Garrot. The man is an insensitive idiot often, but he seems to mean well most of the time. He gives the message the most charitable read he can, but he's ready to snag this partner gossip as soon as it's offered.

《That sounds right. I often wonder if you all only like this because you've built up a tolerance for it. Sounds like he doesn't have quite the callus for it that you do.》

He rereads the message and this time his eyes land on a word he missed the first time. He tilts his head, curious.

《What do you mean by trophy?》

《I mean, I definitely don't have much of a tolerance for nature. I'd go crazy if I had to spend more than a few days in the woods!》

Garrot has absolutely gone stir-crazy in the woods before. Not his proudest moments. Now he just brings a few books. And a backup phone battery.

《You know like heads mounted on walls, taxidermy, rugs, keychains...

He made me a fuzzy cloak once!》

A few moments later, Garrot's sent over a picture someone took of him, easily over a decade younger. Naturally, he's wearing a cloak made of a heavily furred, slightly blood-spattered mammal. The upper jaw and neck serve as the hood, and the forepaws have strings installed so he can tighten it around him like a hug.

Knight Garrot has never looked close to as happy as he does in this single photo. There might even be a tear in his eye.

Edited 2019-07-09 20:36 (UTC)

The Weather

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