Day 4: Morning

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!

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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Anyone else would've responded to Gyre's bacon-slurping shenanigans with a "Gyre, manners please." Whereas here, now, the Wizard just has her little smirk as she watches him. Apparently noodle bacon doesn't phase her.

"Fishing is fun." She answers, curious if he'll agree. "And, of course, rewarding."

"Not figuratively." She corrects him, watching him as she debates how much of this next bit to share or not. Ultimately, she decides to share a big chunk of it.

"It has to be broken or they can't get out." She offers, leaning back in her seat.

"Maybe it won't all crumble when it's without them."

He wouldn't expect it to phase her. He actually doesn't expect it to phase anyone because he's always eaten like this and it's only recently that he's been around people who don't. He had manners forced on him as a kid, but it's been forty years of his own whole thing since then.

"Sure," he says, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Fun, sure. Rewarding sometimes. I have an easier time hunting."

"I can't," he says immediately, waving a hand to refuse the shake. He cocks his head curiously after that though, letting his gaze shift between her face and her drink and then back again.

"I think she'll get you whatever you want," he says, gesturing loosely towards the wizard.

Garrot is not an artist. Like. At all. Big hands with clawed fingers and a lot of strength means it's just... not for him. He can handle scalpels just fine, but the flow of an artist's movements just happen for him. He'd rather move his entire body, anyway. So he's absolutely enamored when Ten starts drawing a train with insane amounts of detail.

"Woah, you're really good at that!" He's surprised, but still very proud. "How'd you learn to draw so well?" Of course, Garrot recognizes the train. "Do you like trains?"

Just respond to him Ten. Please. He's needy.

"Wait... literally, in a casket?" He stops idly playing with his food, the berry now likely suspiciously large. "Are they what's behind that door I found? Are they trying to get out... is that why the ground is cracking?"

Luka's face is intense as he tries to theory-craft on the spot. "If they're causing all of this, why would the Protector wanted to have locked them up in the first place?"

This is all so much better than awkward tension. Garrot's more than happy to just idly follow Zafika's lead, because the less effort he has to spend on pathfinding, the more he can spend on keeping his senses alert for bullshit. Monster Ten is running around and yesterday they were back in the past, so it's entirely possible as far as he knows that Four could come early.

"Yeah, we'll be fi-"

Then Zafika touches a crack and apparently breaks their ~~back~~ entire corporeal form or something?! It's all just a lot to comprehend. See, the light rushing out from the crack is clearly bad, but when the Snake Knight's body starts to glow and they explode into water, Garrot gasps as something short-circuits in his brain.

For half a second Garrot is drenched and slowly blinking as his gaze arcs upward. Mountains have geysers, right? And bodies aren't made entirely of bloodless water. So maybe the crack in the ground just shot a bunch of water and Zafika got thrown through the air a bit. Yeah. So his eyes search the mist instead of the trees and they find nothing other than errant water particles dancing through the sky. A coherent fragment of consciousness is able to force his body to mutter out a few faint, whispers of "no."

See, as a trauma surgeon, Garrot's used to things going horribly wrong while he's in Doctor Mode. He's been covered in blood plenty of times. Decades of medical training and experience can't really prepare anyone to watch someone they care about explode into water, some of which got in his mouth.

"No- nonono no you-" His body moves on its own, determined and serious as it runs towards the crack in the ground, towards the stump. Garrot takes a knee, looking at the space around the stump, trying to find any sign of the obvious not being the truth, because it's all just water anyway, and-

"You can't be gone, dammit!" His voice has raised to a shout, and it cracks into a sob. Garrot takes a shaky breath, and lets out a short little yell before crack, a fist impacts against that stump and cracks it almost right in half.

Seth is more than fine working in silence, not even thinking about talking, not that he really could with his hands occupied with the debris.

The way Gyre takes on the role of knight, calms down the distressed, formerly trapped person down merely by talking...

Seth admires Gyre for that. He knew far to well he likely wouldn't be able to do that even if he tried. So he leaves that to Gyre, so he won't mess up and make things worse.

Instead he surveys the area for anyone else trapped.

"Literally in a casket" She confirms after he asks. But then he's asking the important questions, and she nods to confirm his first two questions. Except he can't see those, so she voices it too.

"They are, and they are. He expects them to go back to sleep. But you can't keep something contained forever if it was already ready to get out."

Ten is uh, absolutely not stopping. But at Garrot's question of 'do you like trains', he snaps his eyes up to him and holds up a hand in an immediate and undeniable thumbs up. Yes. He absolutely likes trains.

And then he's back to drawing and while he's getting close to finishing, he's not quite there. The guy behind the fourth wall says he'll be finished up by the next tag and then Garrot can get the conversation he so desperately craves.

"Hunting." She repeats, looking him over. There's a soft 'pop' on Gyre's plate as an absurdly tiny knife appears on it and, beside it, is a little meatball that looks like it's made of a pureed meat of some variety. He probably doesn't recognize it as a liver Pâté, but that's absolutely what it is.

"That will be necessary if this world ends" She offers, twirling a finger over her mug to stir the coffee in it.

Garrot got a thumbs-up, which is more than he honestly expected! So he's placated for about... five seconds until he's talking again. See, if they stop their little conversation, it'll be easier for him to resort to violence, and this... seems like a risky time for that. As much as he wants to.

"So, wait, you've only ever been on this island." There's a flash of realization in his demeanor, and now Garrot is getting a little excited. "Instead of fighting us, why don't you just travel the world and look at trains?"

They both know that's not how this works, clearly. A little bit of what-ifs never hurt though, right?

[Olivia moves to hammer the next spike as soon as she's done with the first, feeling secretly pleased with herself that she's doing a Strength Thing without relying on Iv, like she'd been doing the past few days. The monster's very obvious squinting doesn't escape her though, so she considers her words carefully before speaking up again. She's been curious about monsters all her life, and even admired them during her childhood! Things may be a little different now that she has to fight them, but they are still very, very interesting creatures to her.]

So... do you have a name? Mine's Olivia.

[She nods as Gyre explains, giving Luka a brief glance to watch his reaction when the voice is mentioned; she's aware that he'll know more about that subject than she does.

She had stuck an arm and dug around in one of the cracks the day before, too, but the situation between then and now was different - somehow this being the present made them seem more dangerous to her.] It was like electricity but it didn't hurt, right? Did it hurt this time? I mean... besides you being uh, dropped from the air.

[She thinks to herself for a moment, her eyes moving to the crack on the ground. Maybe the energy in them had gotten stronger over time. But she didn't know if that was good or bad.] Garrot and I found roots inside the cracks, pulsing with energy... leading to a source up the mountain. [She says, as her gaze follows the path they'd been walking. They should keep moving. She gently takes Luka's arm again, beckoning Gyre to keep guiding them with a nod.]

He blinks down at his plate, tilting his head very slightly at this little meatball? The texture looks completely wrong and he leans closer to try to figure out what the hell it is. He's just about to try it when she makes that statement and he looks up quickly.

"Will there be... things to hunt?" he asks skeptically. He always assumed ending the world meant a destruction of civilization, but he's been around these people for nearly a week at this point and all of them seem to think she's going to just completely destroy the entire planet.

When the person seems calmed, he helps them back over the debris and watches them as they retreat down the streets, going to one of the shelters that have already been set up. The moment they're gone, his face clouds over again, a shiver running down his spine.

He keeps himself well-contained, but he clearly needs the distraction again as he turns to join Seth in looking for the next person. He moves steadily at this point. Now that he has someone to work with, he doesn't take breaks to calm himself like before, and as the morning goes along, his faked confidence and certainty become more and more real.

The work is quiet, the two of them not saying much more then needed as they move rubble and climb up to high places and reunite lost kids with their parents. Around 8, a little note appears in front of Gyre, right about when Seth starts getting messages about the breakfast invitation. He takes the note out of the air and slips it into his pocket, but he ignores it until late into the morning when things seem to be finally calming. It's only then that he takes his leave from Seth, thanking him for the help before he makes his way out of the city. He's got a wizard to visit.

"There will be" She answers, simply, watching the way he's examining the new food in front of him.

"You will not know many of the creatures, though." Because a lot of them are, well, not of this world.

Zafika barely has time to realise they've stepped into one of the cracks, never mind that the light is shooting up their leg, but during that short moment they realise that something's wrong, this isn't like when they started glowing blue on the third day. So they try to jerk their body away from the crack, but they don't even get to twitch and their senses all fade to white.

It doesn't last long, because there's a soft, but annoying ringing in their ears, and they groan as the rest of their senses return and---

Are they they up in a tree!? They are. They absolutely are up in a tree, at least 10 feet off the ground when they look down. But then they hear Garrot's voice shout and... break into a sob? They turn to look in the direction his voice is coming from, only to see him nearly crack the tree stump they had just a moment ago been standing on in half. And for some reason he's soaking wet.

But uh, that's not the focus here, the focus is that he's very much shaken. They let go of the tree trunk, their tail going around it for support so they can turn around and actually face Garrot properly. "Garrot..! I'm okay..! I, I don't know what happened but I got, teleported? Up here?" They have no idea what went down after their senses faded to white, but they'll save the questions for once they've hopefully helped Garrot calm down. And after they're down from this tree.

Ten suddenly holds up the now-completed Train art directly in front of Garrot to answer the question. He waits for Garrot to reclaim the phone before he pulls his etch-a-sketch out again and starts scritching a message on it.

"cant
thats fine"

Thankfully for Olivia. Her helping and just existing near him means he snaps out of his annoyance pretty quickly here when she speaks again. He rises up to stand and considers, for a moment, if he wants to break out the etch a sketch again. He decides, ultimately, that he can get the point across with his highly goopy hands.

His hands blob into vague shapes for a moment before forming the number "10" in front of himself. He'll wait for Olivia to get it, but for now he's holding it up. But if it looks like she's not going to say "Ten" then he'll quickly pull the etch-a-sketch out and write "Ten" for her to see. But hopefully she'll get it.

Luka's quiet as the two exchange words, thinking on the Wizard's revelations that morning.

"The Wizard told me last night that we'd be meeting the person responsible for sending us back in time today." He speaks up at the lull in their conversation.

"And this morning, she confirmed that this... person... is locked up somewhere, causing those cracks, trying to escape. I think if they escape, the world's going to end. Maybe that strange voice was them."

He doesn't know how much either of them know about the situation, but Luka figures it couldn't hurt to tell them what he's learned.

"So, say they did get out. I'd imagine that would cause the end of the world, considering the Protector wants to keep them inside. But you said it might not?" Luka gestures with his spoon to emphasize his words. "Why do you think that?"

Thank you again

Joanna repeats herself in a quick, simple reply, then holds the phone to her forehead as she takes a few shuddering breaths. See that, the knights look out for each other. Whatever's happened through the city hasn't damaged every building the same, and there'll be rescues for those in need.

Despite Matilda's message, it doesn't really occur to Joanna that it'll only be a few minutes. She's halfway through typing up another message explaining the situation when that voice calls out nearby.

"Matilda!" Joanna calls back, surprised, and pockets her phone. "Uh, be careful where you step, the building is... Everything is a little unstable." To say the least. But it's not too unstable for her to push her way up onto her hooves, carefully stepping out of the tub. Even as she moves to the doorway, she says in an apologetic way, "I didn't dare take the stairs, if I could avoid it..."

And who could argue with that? Trains are cool. Railroad infrastructure is what makes them cool. Too bad Two's dead, or they could all have started a Trainspotting In The Apocalypse club.

Being dead - practically at her hands - pretty much kills that option, though.

"Then, I suppose... I can leave you to it?"

Joanna fidgets with her phone in her hands, with another glance around. There really don't seem to be any signs of danger here, no forceful pulling or sense of doom. It's hard for her to know how much of any of this monster's sketched claims to take seriously... Whether there's a deeper meaning to this monster's presence that she just isn't asking after the right way... But there's at least one other question she can simply ask.

"We aren't going to need to... fight - today - are we?"

If this monster is today's monster, she's going to have a difficult time fighting, even after so short a conversation as this.

Matilda shrugs her shoulders, her eyes flickering to The Wizard as he gestures- before her gaze wanders back to him, a pout transfixed on her face. "Yeah. Probably. It feels like a waste though. And... A Lady always eats what's in front of her." Here she crinkles her nose in a most unladylike fashion and... takes a sip of the milkshake.

And then sits immediately back in her seat, pouting more.

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Page 8 of 15

Day 4: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

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