Day 4: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: August 14th - August 28th, 2019 ]

As the sun sets on Harsen Island and the curtains close on Four's games that abducted all the heroes up into hours of entertainment, things absolutely refuse to wind down.

When the knights return, they'll be placed right where they were when they were added into the game show. The Princess, unfortunately, is the one that doesn't wind up where he was taken from. For everyone else, whether they were climbing up the mountain or existing elsewhere, it looks like all they lost is time.

And maybe a bit of patience.

Every hero that participated in Four's game show reeived a personalized 'Thank you!' card at the end of it, apparently the monster was excited about everyone participating! (Disclaimer: One knight did not receive a thank you card because he refused to participate like a big ole' jerk).

The bright, glowing blue fissures are still open throughout the ground, they haven't gone anywhere while the game show happened. All the cracks originate from the mountain up the slope from Craydon! Social media has finally confirmed that all the cracks converge on one location up the mountain: At a big glowing stone door. It's absolutely not a manmade door and it's definitely magic in some way, but why is it there now?

The Weather
Insects chirping all over.
66°F / 19°C
A surprisingly cool sea breeze.

Prompts:

??:00pm Mountain Door, Craydon: Any heroes still climbing the mountain, or who choose to climb the mountain, can reach the glowing door. As they ascend, they'll have to endure unrelenting wind blowing right in their face the whole way. When they reach the top, send a ping saying "they've reached the door" to receive a description.

6:00pm Rock Sugar Tea Cafe, Bamborough: Not wanting to spend the entire evening in Craydon, the Protector has made his way via train out to Bamborough to find a cafe that serves tea. Three Princesses had come here during previous years and the experiences had been good enough that he sought to try it for himself. He'll be found sitting under an umbrella-covered table outside the cafe, sipping carefully at a nuclear-hot cup of spiced apple tea.

6:30pm Sushi, Far Haven: Of all the places for Ten to end up in all this, he's arrived at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Far Haven. Situated off to the side from the lobby of the Crossroads Hotel, the restaurant is simply named 'Sushi' and is filled with numerous tables wedged up against a slowly-progressing conveyor belt filled with plates of sushi. The entire path is in a refrigerated tube to keep the sushi safe to eat, and when a hero arrives they'll see Ten reaching in to obtain a new set of rolls. There are already ten empty plates in front of him: How many more will he eat? Social media is already taking bets on the final count!

7:00pm Door Crater, Craydon: It's the end. Any heroes still lingering at the door on the mountain will be treated to the biggest nightmare of all time: The door starts to emit a high-pitched tone moments before it explodes outwards. Pieces of solid stone go flying outward from the blast, and when the dust clears from the event there's still smoke billowing out from inside of the cave entrance and rising up off of the small crater that the explosion made.

Just inside of the cave entrance is the figure of a child, laying slumped facedown on the ground. They're wearing nothing but tatters over their translucent cyan skin. They look as if they're made of colored glass, their hair looking very much like solid, shiny obsidian but moving as if it wasn't stone at all. Their eyes are closed where they're laying, but there's an unmistakable glow even through their closed eyelids.

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

You know what...fuck it why not, this might as well happen.
So Seth sat down, and promtly took a long drink from his tea as he digged out his phone to communicate with.

"I thought you were supposed to exist on...some other plane or something and not, well, here."

The Protector moves to take another sip from his spiced apple tea while Seth settles in and drinks. He responds after taking a moment to be sure Seth isn't going to continue again.

"I am not meant to be here. The monsters moved in a way I did not anticipate."

Seth raised an eyebrow at that.
The monsters could do that??? I mean sure they had so far pulled up some ridiculous stunts but he hadn't thought they could pull the protector out like that.

Well, it did give him the chance to chat with him, something he wouldn't have normally been able to, not directly anyway.

And while some other questions might technically be important...this he just really had to ask first.
"So what the heck is up with the whole nightwear theme?"

If the Protector had known the monsters could do that, he would have made moves to ensure he didn't fall victim to it.

"It is what was chosen when we arrived. And it is comfortable."

Seth's face morphs into confusion at that answer. 'When we arrived'???
'Chosen'???

"Riiigght...sure, let's go with that. And by 'we' I'm guessing you mean you and the Wizard?"

The Protector narrows his eyes at Seth as he clarifies.

"Correct, though it is with regret that I did not change before the choice became permanent." He lifts his mug to his lips again, taking another sip of tea.

Seth raises an eyebrow in response to the narrowed eyes.
He ends up going silent for the moment, taking to sipping his own tea.

At least Seth didn't press on the pajama issue. It's clear that the Protector's not a fan of the Wizard.

But he isn't going to continue the conversation if Seth doesn't. He came here to enjoy his tea, and he doesn't feel awkward about letting things go silent while he enjoys the ever-present fragrance of apples.

After a moment Seth pipes up with another question.

"So you know everyone's alingments?"

"I will know with absolute certainty before long." He answers, blowing gently on his still-steaming tea.

"But it was not difficult to find out."

Seth can't help but shake his head.

"You know sometimes you're just as cryptic as the Wizard."

The Protector's gaze grows cold as he looks at Seth after that accusation.

"She and I are nothing alike. What will you do if I openly accused other knights? If I told you the Pig and Rabbit knights were aligned with her? The Dragon and Snake knights? The Dog and Sheep knights?" He poses the question with absolute seriousness. What would Seth do if he knew?

Seth had expected the cold reaction. He still thought the Protector could be just as cryptid as the Wizard though, even if the two were very different otherwise. For one the Protector didn't go around messing with his head.

The question he was a little surprised by though.
"...That's a tough question. I don't really know about Terrence but even if Gyre were aligned with the wizard...I...don't think I'd be that worried. He just, doesn't seem the type to help her even if he was aligned with her. Same for both Haizea and Zafika, really...I trust them. I don't think Matilda would be the type to do anything bad either, though I don't know enough about Joanna. And if any of them were and kept quiet about it, I think that would honestly just have been a reasonable decision. I mean...suppose both evil aligned knight had come forward about it, even if they did people would still be suspicious of them."

He followed the long typing with a shrug. He was honestly kind of apathetic about it.

Edited 2019-09-20 23:22 (UTC)

"I did not ask if you would be worried." He returns, watching Seth and how he's empathizing openly with those that he just said might be bad.

"I asked what you would do." He says flatly, fairly positive that the answer in this case will be 'nothing at all.'

"I'm quite aware. But answering really is difficult. There's so many variables. But most likely I wouldn't do more than maybe keep an eye out. Like I told you, since I wouldn't be too worried there'd be no reason for me to do much about it. It's not like I can change their alingment after all."

"The answer." He clarifies, after Seth has wavered before finally answering exactly how the Protector imagined he'd answer.

"Is to lock them up, where they can do no harm, until the threat has passed. To let them walk free is to risk a knife in your own back. Any one of them could kill you in your sleep."

Seth frowns before sneering in disgust.

"So your solution is to lock up anyone possibly threatening even if they haven't done anything wrong yet? What, should everyone who has even thought of shoplifting be sent to jail as well? What about anyone whose ever though a single mean thought, should they be chasticed? Fined? For how long? Until it's certain they'll never even think a single mean though in their life ever again?"

He gave a quiet snort, taking a long drink from his tea. "Besides dying in my sleep would be merciful, at least then I wouldn't have to suffer for long, or fear how long the pain will last until I die. I doubt anyone would come rescue me after all. I used to have my own nieche but now I don't think I'll be able to return to that eater thanks to fucking day 3. Might you offer a less cryptic answer than the Wizard about what the fuck was up with that by the way? In any case, I don't exactly have much hope for surviving this whole thing."

The Protector's cold gaze on Seth doesn't waver, even as the knight goes on his tirade.

"Under your watch, your allies would all be corpses and you wouldn't lift a finger." He accuses, absolutely certain of what he's saying.

"Your unwillingness to make the hard choice is why it will be made for you."

But there was that one bit that Seth threw in at the end, something that the Protector could answer to force the topic to move on. He'd said exactly what he thought of this situation, and he looks absolutely calm and unbothered at delivering the heavy decision as he changes the topic:

"You and all others were subjected to world-altering magic. Likely with the purpose of unsettling you, and if that was the case: it was successful. Your fatalistic thoughts are counterproductive."

Seth listens quietly at the Protector speaking, not really batting an eye. He was too tired to really be frightened right now. Besides...the Protector was right with the accusation as far as he was concerned. Or at least 90% right. Seeing as he doubted anything he could do would be able to really be of help to the rest of the guys. The one time he'd managed to pretty much save Haizea had been a fluke.

...And then he lets out a choked, barely there laughter.

"No shit, way to state the obvious! Unsettled to the point of not having been able to properly sleep since then, to the point I'm now terrified of one of the few things I used to love, that used to comfort me. Yeah, unsettled is an understatement. Newsflash, I'm not ignorant to the fact I'm not exactly right in the head."

The Protector, as before, seems entirely unfazed by Seth's confession and confirmation. He hadn't made any attempt to hide that he'd been directly affected by the monster. Which meant there was only one question to ask:

"And what are you going to do about that, rat knight?"

Seth let out a silent sigh at that, taking a long drink from his tea, which was almost gone now.

"First I'm going to try and get some actual proper sleep, regardless of what I need to resort to do it. No way am I going to be able to deal with any of this shit as sleep deprived as I am. After that though...well I don't know how yet but...try and deal with it I guess. Somehow. Dunno about how successful it's all gonna be but, I'll at least try. Kinda funny how after being terrified out of my mind for the past several days I got tired of running from everything I used to be afraid of. They just seem so insignificant now. It's not like I suddenly trust everyone or something...but being terrified of every single person just feels pointless right about now."

*Congratulatory music* Character growth has occurred? (Or has it?)

"You have learned to face it." He answers, watching Seth for several moments before nodding.

"Go get the rest you have earned. Do not deprive yourself a moment longer."

Seth let out a quiet snort.

"Dramatic wording much? But yeah, I'll get going."

He drank up the rest of the tea, before getting up and casually waving a good-bye as he left.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 4: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

The Weather

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