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

Garrot's eyes go a little wide at the message he receives, and he scoots in next to Ten. Like a proud parent, he's looming over the lil buddy's shoulder, watching as the monster is going through... every app. That's. That's terrifying.

"So..." The Monkey Knight still feels weird talking to a being who will one day try to murder him and many others. He could absolutely kill him, but... that's like killing a kid, which is super fucked up when they're not trying to kill you first. "What do you want to learn about? Yanno, like what do you think is cool?"

Maybe then he can recommend some stuff, or at least keep him from reading about every app ever. Most of them are so boring!

Unfortunately for Garrot, Ten doesn't stop looking through the apps even as he's asked that question. He makes it to a painting app and starts immediately sketching on it. It takes him a few moments to get the shape right, but Garrot will be able to recognize it as a train almost immediately.

Except he's not stopping with the details as he keeps drawing. With the stylus in his hand, he just keeps getting more and more detailed with the train on the screen. Uh. He's not stopping, Garrot, this train is gonna be a masterpiece.

Except it looks identical to the train that runs on the rails around the island.

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.

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.

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?

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"

There's a gasp from Garrot as he takes the phone back. This is a really well-done train! But the next message from the etch-a-sketch is about as annoying as expected. So he just sighs.

"Yeah, okay, you can't leave." That would cause mass hysteria. "But if you could do anything you want, all the time in the world, what would you do?"

Just the fact that Ten can and is willing to communicate is enough to keep Garrot's very prying interest. It's such a weird situation.

It's a really well done train that now belongs to Garrot. It's one of a kind and also completely unremarkable except that it's well done. It's the kind of still life painting that just about everyone could learn to do.

But it's still neat.

At Garrot's prying, he watches him for several moments before tilting his head and then turning back to the etch a sketch. Sure, he has a response for this. It takes him a little bit to write it, but when he does he holds up a pretty surprising answer.

"open restaurant
no menu
no money
only food"

"Huh."

This answer was pretty worth the wait! It turns out Ten likes trains, art, and cooking. Who'd have thought?

"What kind of food would you make? Would it be the same thing all the time?" Ten doesn't even have an obvious mouth, how does he eat and taste anything?! Truly baffling.

But maybe they can use all this information against Ten later?

Excuse you. Ten likes art but loves trains and cooking. Get it right, Garrot. But then Garrot's asking two questions at once and Ten narrows his eyes at him for a moment before shaking the etch-a-sketch rapidly and then writing an immediate response. He not only holds up the response, but he urges the etch-a-sketch right into Garrot's facial personal space.

"everything
!"

There's a high-pitched little "Eep!" as the etch-a-sketch is shoved in Garrot's face. He did not expect this!!! But it's cute, very endearing. But he looks contemplative for a moment, and then decides to escalate things a bit.

"What if you opened a restaurant on a train?" The way he says it, he's excited like Ten's mind will blow out and it'll be one less monster to deal with. But he's definitely keeping food filed away for later use...

Ten stares, and stares, and stares at Garrot. He's unmoving, clearly processing what Garrot said. After a time, though, he takes a step back and shakes the etch-a-sketch. Afterward, he writes a much calmer message before holding it up.

"must be a space train
havent built one yet"

Edited 2019-07-30 12:46 (UTC)

It takes a moment for Garrot to process space train, because wow, what? But he knows magitek, engineering, and science, so it's too good of a topic for him to pass up.

"Well yeah, we'd have to get to space first." He chuckles, not even sure what that would look like beyond what's shown in the movies. "And where would the stations be?" That remark, however, sounds a bit more like a hypothetical question. This is all just a what-if, anyway.

"Do you even have time for hobbies?" A beat. "You know, when you're not... working." Awkward. So awkward. "Like do you get to do things for the rest of the year?" When you're... dead? Ten wouldn't be able to grasp trains and cooking and whatnot if each year was a crop of new, unique monsters, right? And if Twelve has things they like too, it sounds like all the monsters might come back each year. Maybe.

There was a confirmation for the heroes that the animal companions came back every year and were the same ones in different forms. How long would it take Garrot to realize the monsters were the same?

Ten idly scritches a response, choosing what bits to respond to and what to let go unanswered.

"only if i die
skip that sometimes"

That's really all the confirmation Garrot needs, because most people only die once. It's weird and crazy and goes against basic medical concepts. People die when they are dead! But magic sure is weird and nonsense.

"You get to skip dying?!" He's incredulous, clearly shocked and with as wide as his eyes get, Garrot is also intrigued. "Are you the only one who can do that? How does it work?!"

Frankly, if he can not have to kill this weird, social, artistic locomotive enthusiast, that'd be great. The fact that at least one of them is more than willing to communicate is... uh... kind of troubling from an ethical front. Especially if they've been dying every year for the last forty. And it's skippable.

Remember Garrot, you can't die if you don't die.

Ten nods, watching Garrot's expression as he works through the new revelation. Yes. Skipping dying is a thing he can do, and there's that other bit that he'd said that needs to be addressed. There's some immediate scritching to prepare an answer, but then he holds it up with a level expression, all ten eyes aimed at Garrot to catch however he'll react.

"anyone can
must choose
ice cream?"

And as he holds it up, one of his ten eyes is aimed off in the distance at an ice cream truck that's starting to make the rounds.

Things do not die if they are alive.

His eyes scan the text effortlessly, first widening at the notion that anyone can choose not to die, and then just... sputtering out at the mention of ice cream. Ten can probably see his synapses short-circuiting because of how hilariously unconnected those two things are. But Garrot's been plenty stressed this morning what with the earthquake and all, so some ice cream would actually be pretty great! He's got a cheeky little grin, akin to a parent who's about to drive a hard bargain with their child.

"If you tell me what kind of ice cream you want, I'll get you some. But you're gonna have to tell me what you mean by choosing not to die." Bargain aside, Garrot's looking plenty amused, and ready enough to burst out into a sprint at that ice cream truck that he's clearly only waiting for Ten's input to be polite.

Nevermind that Ten doesn't have a mouth and couldn't feasibly eat ice cream. Garrot's not even trying to think about that right now, he's got a bribe to make for information.

Buy him ice cream Garrot!

There's a scritching of an answer before he holds it up. It doesn't have the answer that Garrot's looking for, but it's still an answer.

"vanilla
just choose not to"

Garrot is displeased with this response! It's vague and useless. So he just sighs, and walks off towards the ice cream truck.

A few minutes later, he's back with Two(2) Vanilla Ice Cream Cones in one hand, and One(1) Chocolate-Vanilla Ice Cream Cone in the other. Any bribe can be made easier if you overpay!

"I feel like fixing train tracks is worth two ice cream cones." He's a bit smug with that declaration, sounding as if he's sneakily cheating at being a responsible adult figure. "It'll be our little secret." But then he pivots the conversation back to what's important:

"So when you choose not to, does that mean you just... don't fight us?" Please? Please?

It's a perfectly good answer, it's exactly what Ten does every year. But Ten tilts his head as he holds out a hand for one of the ice cream cones and tries to read him for a moment before one-handedly scritching up his response.

"only need one
depends on nine"

"So are you and Nine, like, a team?" Garrot raises an eyebrow with that question, and then takes a chomp out of his two-flavor ice cream cone. There's a slight wince because oh no, he's never prepared for this. He's still holding the other vanilla cone, in case Ten gets greedy. That'd be fine by him. It's a bribe.

"I mean, if you know any ways that we don't have to fight the monsters without them trying to kill us, I'm all ears. Most of us would be." Avoid the risk of unnecessary harm whenever possible. "None of us want to die, monster or otherwise."

If Garrot can convince a Monster to go fully non-hostile, he will. Saving everyone has been updated to include saving the monsters if they want, since they're capable of thought and communication and... liking trains.

Ten shakes his head when Garrot asks if they're a team. No, he and Nine are absolutely not a team. That is definitely not what he meant when he said that. But he watches Garrot make a show out of taking a full-chomp of his cone and.

Well.

He's not much better.

In one swift movement, Ten raises his arm and the ice cream up to his face and just casually presses it into his head as if he were putting a coin into a slot. It slides in somewhere around the lower cheek and is just... gone. He doesn't even chew, the ice cream is just gone. He lowers his hand to prepare an answer a moment later.

"have to fight
or fake fight
pretend"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 4: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

The Weather

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