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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Olivia doesn't pay much attention to social media, really, so when she stumbles upon the monster its because she's trying to catch a train to Craydon. She'd been using the place Gyre gave her as somewhere to stash her things, but she figured she'd actually move in there now that her Far Haven place had broken glass and cracks on the walls. It's good to move around, anyway, right?

Upon seeing the monster, her first instinct is to reach for her Knight weapon, which is currently a dagger. She's learned from yesterday to have it on her at all times, besides her normal ones. She hesitates when she sees his stupid outfit though, briefly wondering if this is a real monster at all.]

Uh. Isn't it a bit early for this?

Ten turns his multitude of eyes towards Olivia when she arrives. They blink in a rippling pattern from the bottom right of his face towards the top left. He's in the middle of lifting a rail tie and shoving it to the left to match up with the ones behind it. Unfortunately, this jerks the next one in line at a strange angle. That's going to be tougher to get up and moved, but there's plenty of time.

But he shakes his head slowly when she asks if it's too early and, a moment later, he holds up a hand in the air and--

An Etch-a-Sketch board pops into existence, its red plastic frame glinting in the light for a moment. He brings it near his face, gripping it with both hands as he starts manipulating the two knobs to put some kind of message on the display. A few moments pass as he scritches out the message but, once he's done, he carefully turns it and holds it up towards her.

Unfortunately he's standing a little far away, so she'll have to come closer to be able to read the message that says:

not early
dont sleep

[She watches him blink, kind of mesmerized by it. When he holds up the etch-a-sketch, she carefully takes a few step closer to read it. She doesn't let her guard down, however, with a hand still on her concealed weapon.] Huh... okay.

[She looks at the rails, then back at the monster.] So... what were you up to?

Ten watches her reactions, hesitant because he's been attacked in the past by knights who had seemed totally cool. He didn't know if she was going to be one of the ones that just destroyed him when he wasn't suspecting it, or one of the ones that would chat.

When she asks what he's up to, he watches her for a moment before shaking the etch-a-sketch and scritching a new message into it. This one goes much faster and, when he reveals it, is just a single hastily-scribbled word.

fixing

You are? [She blinks. It sure seemed like he was but like...] Why?

[Granted, she did Not know much about previous years' monsters, but she didn't think they'd be... helpful. If it helps because it wants to then that means it cares and isn't caring just so human? Her trains of thought all keep circling back to her daily monster-existential questions. Do! Monsters! Have! Rights!] Did the Wizard tell you to do this or something?

He watches her confusion, watches her work through it, and then she asks an existential question followed by an easier question. If he'd known she was wondering if he had rights he'd sit down and discuss that matter too, but as it stood he had to answer 'why' after if he was told to. He scritches away on the etch-a-sketch again and flips it out towards her with his new answer:

"not told
helping
are you?

[This is gonna be one of those days, she thinks. A confusing day, just like every other day here so far. She sighs, runs a hand through her hair.] So you don't want to fight?

If... you promise not to try any shit I'll... help. [She says this very reluctantly, like she knows she's gonna regret it and expects him to attack at any second.]

When she asks if he doesn't want to fight, he immediately shakes his head. Nah man, fighting ain't what he's all about right now. He waits for her to follow it up and then she says she's going to help and uh... well, hm, that could work.

He nods at her and pockets his etch-a-sketch, turning back to the rails on the ground. He starts shifting the metal into place with one hand and, with the other, offering a hammer out to Olivia. Beside the rail is a big metal railroad spike that toppled out of the hole to go down into the wooden railroad tie. The two are gonna shift again if that spike isn't hammered in to hold them together.

Please understand what the hammer is for, Olivia, or else he'll have to get the etch-a-sketch out again.

[Olivia hesitates before taking the hammer, confused for a moment before she spots the spike. She takes it and squats down to hammer it in it's hole once the monster has finished moving the metal.

She realizes people might think its weird that a Knight and a monster are working together, and that any onlookers will probably snap pictures of them, so she changes her appearance to... match his! She gives herself ten eyes and puts her hoodie up before continuing to hammer the spike.] This is just a precaution. [She explains to him. Now that they look alike, it's like the monster is calling itself stupid with his shirt. Haha, gottem.]

I'd like to, uh... ask you some questions, if you don't mind? Either while we do this or when we're done.

Oh thank goodness she figures out what he's planned here. When the spike goes in, he gives the rail and tie a little shove to make sure they're solid before he looks at her and--

WHAT.

All ten of Ten's eyes go wide as Olivia is now a ten-eyed monster too. Excuse! You! He isn't available for plagiarization!! He hasn't even realized that his shirt is now playing him yet because he's absolutely floored by the fact that Olivia is yellow and eyed and SPEAKING.

He can't speak! Excuse you!

He rummages in his pocket immediately to pull out the etch-a-sketch and he holds up a frantically written:

"HOW"

[Her ten eyes blink at the monster in confusion. But they all do it at the same time, because she's not gonna completely steal his thunder.] What? This? [She points at her face, eyebrows raising and a smirk forming on her lips.] Just a little trick I was born with.

Wouldn't be fair if only you guys and the Wizard got to have powers, would it?

Extremely rude!! Since Olivia still has the hammer he's going to deliberately squint at her, stuff the etch-a-sketch back in his pocket, and start moving another railroad tie into place.

He grips the rail with both hands first, giving the track a hard pull to get it into place. Then he lines up the tie with the hole, grabbing a nearby spike and putting it into position. Hammer away, Olivia!

Also probably lead the conversation because Ten's in a huff about being plagiarized, at least for now.

[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.

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.

[She watches his hands move, head tilted to the side. When he forms the 10 it takes her a second before she lets out an "oh!"] Your name is Ten? That's... hm. [She considers, pausing her hammering to pat some dirt off of her leggings.]

We've fought three... of you... so far. I don't suppose your name means you'll be number ten? [She doesn't call him and his friends "monsters", just in case. Maybe they don't know they're monsters, and she'd seem super rude! How would she know? Spoilers: she's probably going to ask.]

[ Oh thank goodness she gets it. He nods immediately when she asks if that's his name, and then he nods again when she asks if he'll be number ten. Immediately he pulls out the etch-a-sketch and starts writing an answer to her to hold up in front of her face. ]

"am number 10
call me Ten"

Ah... so we are gonna have to fight. [She says, raising an eyebrow. She resumes her hammering soon enough, giving herself a moment to think about this.]

Why do you fight us, though? Is it because the Wizard tells you to? Or, do you have something against our world? [If they truly did, though, why help fix things? She wants to understand the monsters so badly - hopefully her questions won't be too much for Ten.]

[ 'Having' to fight is certainly a way to look at it. They could wax philosophical about Olivia's free will versus the perceived necessity of fighting in the future, perhaps, when Ten wasn't locked into using an etch-a-sketch for this conversation. ]

[ But there's an answer here that he can give. He's been a part of this from the beginning, and he has his own approach to it. He scritches an answer on the etch-a-sketch before holding it up. ]

"most follow
blindly
others see truth
and see lies"

[She finishes hammering the second spike before looking up at his etch-a-sketch, and her eyes dilate with interest. She inches just a little bit closer to Ten.] What does that mean? What truth? Whose truth?

[She doesn't bother looking for another spike to hammer in yet, finding the conversation way more interesting than manual work.]

[ Ten gives the etch-a-sketch another shake as he reaches for another spike. Olivia may be trying to get distracted, but Ten's trying to stay productive. He writes the next answer with one hand while lining up the next spike. ]

"big truth
big picture
full of lies"

That doesn't really answer my questions. [She smiles, playfully rolling her ten eyes.] Am I not supposed to know this truth?

[She watches him line up the spike and sighs before starting to work on hammering it.]

[ Thank you for continuing to work on the spikes, Olivia. Ten's a hard worker. But he scritches up an answer with his free hand before holding it up. ]

"need to know
but many words"

[She hums in thought as she hammers the spike. It's definitely hard to have a conversation about the mysteries of the world and Ten's entire existence through an etch-a-sketch. She briefly wonders if the Wizard could just give him a mouth or something, but then again, is that how it works??]

We need to get you a whiteboard or something, huh. I could ask you yes or no questions if that's easier? We could also meet up some other day and find an easier way for you to speak if you want to.

[ Well, Ten will have a phone with texting tomorrow. But that's tomorrow and this is now. He watches Olivia and then nods when she offers to ask yes or no questions. Those would work easily, but also... He scritches a quick response on the etch-a-sketch. ]

"will get better speak thing"

Oh? Good! We can have a little interrogation date when you do, then. Before the tenth day, I assume.

[She gives herself a moment to think about what she wants to ask first.] Are you from this world? [A beat. She figures he can write more than one reply in the etch-n-sketch.] Did you choose to work for the Wizard? Do you like her?

The Weather

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