Day 4: Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: July 3rd - July 10th July 17th, 2019 ]

If any hero was expecting day four to be anything but absolutely bananas, they'd been living in a dream bubble. Fortunately for everyone, they wake up where they fell asleep the previous night. Unfortunately, though, everyone receives a decidely rude awakening at 6:06am.

An earthquake.

No part of the island is safe, everywhere and everything starts shaking and rumbling. Roads split, the train tracks bend, buildings fracture, buildings collapse...

...and bright, glowing blue fissures open up in the ground.

No city is safe from their new feature, but in every single city it's clear that the cracks are coming from a specific source. In Far Haven, the cracks lead west to Craydon. In Bamborough, the cracks lead east to Craydon. In Craydon, though, the cracks lead directly north up the mountain. They gradually narrow the further up the mountain you go, where do they end?

Heroes will, of course, not be able to immediately see this pattern. How are they going to find out about it? Social Media won't be buzzing about it until noon at the earliest!

But that won't be the only thing social media is buzzing about by noon. It looks like Web is nowhere to be found. A concerned local not a stalker reports the missing knight and there's quickly a deep discussion about it. Death? Ran away? Kidnapped? Abducted by aliens? No one knows. There's no body. There's nothing. Where'd Web go?

Fourth Morning Event: All Cities: The Quake.

---

The Weather

• Eerily still.
• 64°F / 18°C
• Despite the quake, there's a nice breeze.

---

Prompts:

• 6:06am Earthquake, Everywhere: Every town has fallen victim to an earthquake. The damage is unthinkable. Cars aren't moving anymore, roads and paths are obstacle courses, and everything inside has fallen over. It was a big one! Fortunately the citizens are out almost immediately to begin rescue and repair efforts. No matter where the heroes go, there'll be someone to help, something to do, or help to be offered. Do you need saving, or will you be saving others?


• 7:45am Train Station, Far Haven: Social media is going absolutely crazy. There's a MONSTER here! There's a monster in the train station!! Numerous pictures are posted of a Child-shaped monster with ten eyes instead of a face. Today, however, he's wearing a pair of black athletic shorts, some flip-flops, and a T-Shirt that says "I'm with Stupid" on the front and an arrow that trails around to the back of the shirt where it says "You're Stupid". At the train tracks, he's going one rail tie at a time repairing them to get the tracks straightened and fixed again. What's the deal???


• 08:00am International Cabin of Crepes, Bamborough: As if Social Media wasn't buzzing enough about the monster in Far Haven, it explodes again when the Wizard arrives at ICoC for breakfast. Several servers post that she asked for "the family table" and she invited all the knights and the princess to join her. Breakfast. Her treat. Anyone who comes to visit will find her sitting at the head of the biggest table, sipping a mug of coffee.


• 11:00am Mountain Base, Craydon: [Exploration] Several hikers have returned from up the mountain, reporting that they'd found "strange doors" blocking their path. According to the description they gave, it sounds like the doors can only be opened if one, or more, of the heroes make the climb up the mountain. The cracks go up past the doors, but there's an invisible wall all around the area that stops them from ascending any further. Whatever's going on up the mountain will need some heroic intervention to figure out. Good luck, 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.

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.

Comments

[wizardseason]

"Hm." Her tone loses the amused spin it had before. She sounds more resigned now as she speaks.

"Probably not."

[daddykong]

The smirky remark gets a moment of pause from Garrot, as if he's about to interject, but he actually holds his tongue and lets Zafika keep going! He can totally be polite sometimes.

"Works for me!" Suddenly he's pivoted into a boisterous laugh, as if intentionally drowning out the fact that they're hoping to talk about personally compromising disaster stories. But then there's a flash of realization, as if that repressed impulse to cut into the flow of conversation came back with the force of an oncoming train.

"Hey, I only call someone a kid if they're young enough to be my kid!" Garrot huffs a bit, more offended that he just called himself old than at Zafika's remark. It's not exactly a subtle fact that he's older than most of their allies by a... pretty wide margin.

At least he's not trying to be hip.

[eutychia]

"That was mostly a joke," Luka chuckles nervously. "In fact, I'm so confident we'll win that I promise you I'll buy you a drink afterward."

His second comment seems to mostly be a reassurance to himself, and he neglects to think on the fact that should they succeed, the Wizard would be defeated and likely not hanging around to celebrate.

[zafika]

Zafika nods when Garrot agrees to their suggestion, and the plan of them telling each other disaster stories is... it has them conflicted. But they've decided to do this, and Garrot is for once helpful with making them less nervous and hesitant, actually.

"Hm... fair enough... I guess it's just little weird to have someone call me a kid... I mean, I know I'm not old, I'm barely a proper adult but-" They suddenly pause mid sentence, and almost pause on their tracks, but that only shows as them sort of, doing this twitchy lag with continuing to move, for a split second as they realise something. "Wait, do you even know how old I am?"

"I mean... as a doctor you could technically access my... or, well, Zafika the Assassin's medical records, but even those have just an approximate age, since I never told them my actual name..." Now they're nervous, not because of the conversation the two of them will have, but because they're wondering if Garrot knows who they actually are. There should be no way for that, but they can't be sure of it. So, while their expression doesn't change, their tail does try to curl around their leg, before they forcibly swish it behind their back.

[wizardseason]

"Ha." She answers by just saying the word 'ha'. But she's said it with no laughter, no amusement, no nothing. It's the flattest possible not-laugh in the world.

She gets the mostly joke.

[sustainer]

He glances down at the new mug, leaning forward to take a sniff of it. It smells good but the steam also hits his cheeks and he recoils slightly, wrinkling his nose.

"How do we stop him from doing that?" he murmurs before turning his eyes up to her, and uh changing the subject entirely. "You eat stew in the summer?"

[sustainer]

He follows Olivia's gaze to Luka, tilting his head very slightly at what he says. Is the Protector not giving them good information? Or maybe different information then what the Wizard is. He really wishes he knew the conversations the two of them have been privy to.

"The breeze is nice at least. And we're making good progress. We'll get there soon," he says with as much confidence as he can. They're further up now then he's traveled these past few days, and that has to count for something.

[wizardseason]

The mug stew will cool down fairly quickly, but those spices are sure to delight his senses.

"I don't, and we can't." She answers out of order, looking him over.

"But the restaurant next door serves stew year-round because they can."

[sustainer]

He wrinkles his nose even deeper at that response, staring down at the stew again. Everything she's put in front of him has been good. Maybe he should try it while he has the chance? There has to be a reason they eat this kind of thing when it's already hot out, right?

"We can't, or you haven't figured out a way?" he returns, still staring into the soup. He's working himself up to it.

[wizardseason]

Everything she's put in front of him has been stolen from elsewhere, there's so much good food to indulge in, she's just urging him on to expand his boundaries.

"A little of both." She answers, watching him curiously.

[sustainer]

Then she'll get to see him bring the mug to his lips and take a long, deep sip. He chews a couple times, swallowing the meat mostly whole, and his brow furrows in thought as he considers the taste. It is intensely spiced, in a way he associates with this world. It's familiar and brings up decidedly unpleasant memories. He sets the mug down after a moment, deciding not to comment on it.

"So there's a chance I could stop him," he says with this calm, clear confidence. It's a wonder how daring no fear of death can make a person.

[wizardseason]

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a shopkeeper with the voice of an orange cat offers him a bad trade while he's tasting the stew. How strange.

"There's a chance." She confirms, nodding as she takes a sip from her own mug. As she lowers it from her lips, there's now a mug-sized marshmallow filling the mug and protruding out the top of it. How did she sip out of that? Where did the marshmallow come from?

"I hope you can stop him."

[sustainer]

"I will," he says. "I won't let any of us die."

He takes a slow, deep breath after that, nodding to himself. He's not sure what else to say now, and he returns to his salmon, eating it thoughtfully as he considers where the hell that marshmallow came from. Why is she so weird?

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately, Gyre doesn't get an answer because the curtains close on the scene with the words "and then time passes".

[disguiseself]

I mean, it would be lovely if it weren't for the world-ending fissures. They kind of ruin the postcard. [She says as she helps Luka hop over one.

She agrees with his sentiment about wanting more answers - she even tried getting them from a monster a few hours ago. Hopefully whoever they find at the top will be able to help them.]

[disguiseself]

[It's just phrasing bro, no xeno. Unless...?

She's surprised that he's from this world.] So... hm. Are you... from an ancient civilization then? Or... did the Wizard... create you here? [She grimaces a little at her own question, hoping it's not offensive. She thinks the world knows too little about the monsters, herself included.]

Do you like this world?

[wizardseason]

[ Unless... surprise! Dating Start!! ]

[ Just kidding. He's just answering questions. ]

[ He shrugs at the ancient civilization question, he's only 40 so probably not. He adds a shake of his head, making it a pretty obviously uncertain 'no'. ]

[ He shakes his head at first about the Wizard creating him, but then holds up a finger like "wait." and then shrugs, making an even more uncertain answer here. Two for two weird answers, Olivia. ]

[ The third question, though, is easy and he nods and gives a thumbs up. Yeah this world's pretty cool. ]

[disguiseself]

Oh... so you're not sure where you came from. [She figures the Wizard creation theory is true then... still, that's weird! The Wizard can make living creatures? Or is she actually talking to a part of the Wizard right now?] I guess that's just life though, huh?

[She continues to hammer the spike as she thinks about his answers, when she's done, she's thought of more questions too.] You like this world. But you're helping the Wizard destroy it? Are you trapped here?

[She thinks she knows the answer to that one based on her conversation with the Protector. She takes a moment to look for the next spike before she lets out a hum in thought.] Have you met the Protector? Do you like him?

[wizardseason]

[ Ten nods and shrugs. That is, in fact, just life. There was so much that was unknown, but he wasn't really going to stress it. When she finishes hammering in the latest spike, he leans back and starts to slowly stand. He stretches his yellow arms over his head. ]

[ But she asks five questions and he holds up fingers to correspond to them as he reacts:
1. Like this world. Yes. Nod!
2. Helping the Wizard destroy it. Shrug. Complex answer!
3. Trapped here. Yes. Nod. Correct.
4. Met the protector. Shrug, hard to answer.
5. Like the protector. Shake head, no man, fuck that guy. ]

[disguiseself]

[Ah, shit, she wishes she could ask why he doesn't like the Protector. And he's not sure about helping destroy the planet? Hmm.

She stands up as well, cracking her fingers.] So... okay. I've kind of run out of yes or no questions... Wait, what about the people of this world? Do you think of us as enemies or...?

[wizardseason]

[ He has a long, long list of reasons why he doesn't like the Protector. Number one on that list is that the dude's an asshole. He'd gladly spend time talking about that one. ]

[ But she asks a very important question and he immediately shakes his head. Nah, the people of this world aren't enemies. ]

[ Except the jerks. Or people who didn't like ramen. But he wasn't in a place to say that. ]

[disguiseself]

[Hmmmmmm. Okay, so the people aren't the enemy, but the monsters and the Wizard still want to destroy their world.] What, then? Are we pray? [She crosses her arms.] Your victims?

[wizardseason]

[ He shakes his head again, no, that's also wrong. They're not victims. But then he holds up a finger to wait a moment as he grabs his etch-a-sketch and prepares a proper answer: ]

innocents

[disguiseself]

[She wasn't expecting that answer at all! She frowns a little, watching him with concern.] What does that make you, then?

[wizardseason]

[ He takes a moment to think before shaking his etch-a-sketch to write up the next response. ]

victims