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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Any heroes still climbing the mountain, or who choose to climb the mountain, can reach the glowing door. As new climbers 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.

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.

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!

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.

Well this is not where he expected to be. He was on the beach, walking away from Four, and then he blinked and now he's on the mountain. Back on the mountain. The first thing he does is look around to see if the cracks on the ground are still there. Check. Next is to see if Olivia and Luka are still with him.

Either way, catch him continuing up the mountain before too long, leaning into the wind with an arm tucked over his forehead and eyes. He came here to see where the cracks lead, and that's what he's going to do. A little weather isn't going to stop him.

"So this is going to be terribly silly if you're simply a thirsty local," Terrence prefaces while taking a seat at the same table, "but would you happen to be the Protector?" He certainly hopes so, at any rate. While there aren't many specific questions the rabbit knight has, it'll still be nice to get some straight answers for a change. Sucecq is certainly helpful enough, but there's only so much he knows, and multiple perspectives are always useful...

Garrot isn't going to climb a mountain and deal with Four and not try and figure out this door for a while. But that high-pitched noise? Bad news bugbears. So anyone within about twenty feet of Garrot is treated to daisy-chains of clones to body-block his allies from whatever happens.

Then it fucking explodes. The force behind the blast, the flying rocks impacting into the clones' bodies, and the inevitable disconnects between clones mean that when the dust and smoke begin to settle, the original Garrot is the only one still standing. He's staggered, and his body has a bit of a wobble to it. The Monkey Knight's never felt the consequences of losing a clone instead of dismissing it, so he's... not all there. In fact, he seems to have forgotten that he was protecting people with his clones, or that those people even exist! Even if they're in his field of vision. Yikes.

There's a moment of lackadaisical mawp-ing to deal with the ringing in his ears, and a shift into a fighting stance to instinctively deal with his shaky balance. But Garrot's brain doesn't stay on that train of thought for long, because as soon as his eyes pick up on a blue child he, uh, starts clumsily walking over to them. To provide medical treatment. Except he can't really walk in a straight line. Or very quickly. And he's ignoring literally everyone else.

Maybe someone should beat him there? Or beat some sense into him.

Terrence picked one of the few moments that Luka had stepped away from the table to get another drink, take a phone call, or use the bathroom otherwise he would've been a glaring giveaway that this was, in fact, the Protector. Social media's been surprisingly off-point with only posting pictures of Luka and omitting the Protector sitting nearby.

It's almost like they didn't realize who he was, either.

"I am." He answers, looking up from over the edge of his clear glass tea mug. The scent of spiced apples is wafting in the air, leaving no mystery to what he's drinking.

"And you're Terrence Torrence, the unaligned rabbit knight." He says it, narrowing his eyes at him to test for a reaction. Does he know Terrence isn't wizard aligned? Is he making a bold statement to catch this actually-wizard-aligned knight in a trap? His expression doesn't give away what purpose he has behind the statement, but he sure did say it.

Luka sits at the table with the Protector, arms folded -- his expression a mix of frustration and exhaustion as a cup of jasmine tea slowly cools untouched in front of him. He's been quiet for awhile, reflecting on the chaos of the day and mourning the dramatic defeat of Four he'd planned out in his mind.

After awhile, he speaks up.

"Sooo... is this whole 'existing in the physical realm' thing new to you?"

Luka had scrolled upon the buzz surrounding Ten's sushi binge-ing escapades and had decided to seek him out. He had thought that Ten might be able to provide some insight into the Wizard, or perhaps Four's current location -- but admittedly, he was also just really craving some sushi.

As he enters the restaurant he asks a host for a seat next to Ten, and, upon being seated, orders a drink.

"Ten," he starts, reaching hesitantly toward the conveyor of sushi going by. Luka was more accustomed to upscale establishments with 5 star credentials and world renowned chefs. Of course, there was something animalistically appealing about grabbing your own food as you pleased and maybe that's what brought Ten here. Luka, however, found this method... complicated. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Luka Eutychia, you know, the Princess this year."

He takes the first plate his hand reaches, committing himself to eating whatever he'd happened to get.

Edited 2019-08-21 03:55 (UTC)

The wafting scents of Luka's jasmine tea mixing with the Protector's apple tea make for a simultaneously delicious and overwhelming cloud around the two of them. The servers of the restaurant are used to it, though, and don't seem to mind. The Protector has been similarly quiet, lost in his thoughts, and it's only Luka's question that finally snaps him back to reality.

"It has been many years since I have walked this world." He answers, slowly lifting his tea to blow gently on it.

"I remember now why I avoided it."

Ten watches Luka as he approaches, watches him order, and watches him hesitantly reach and obtain a plate of two salmon nigiri. Nice pick!

But he's smart enough to know Luka didn't intentionally pick it. He pulls forth his phone as he nudges his own plate of eel to the side. After a few moments the voice of good ole' Microsoft Sam chimes in with his answer:

"Hello Luka nice to meet you
Which sushi do you want"

Luka can't help but laugh a bit. "Is it really so bad? I'd imagine spending all your time alone in that tower gets awfully lonely."

Luka startles at the monster's robotic voice -- it hadn't been what he'd expected, though he figured Ten must be using some kind of text to speech app.

"Oh! Uh, this one, of course." Luka gestures to the salmon nigiri he'd randomly chosen. "But... I wouldn't say no to some ahi tuna..."

He's reluctant to admit he might need assistance, especially from one of the Wizard's monsters of all things.

"I didn't know you were a fan of sushi, or that you even got hungry. At least you have good taste."

The Protector first answers with a low "Mmn" sound in the affirmative as he sips at his tea. He'll elaborate in a moment, but for now there's just the soft sound of him taking a careful sip of the nuclear-hot liquid.

"I have always preferred solitude." He answers as he lowers the mug, careful to not make it impact the plate on the table with much more than a soft 'clink'.

"It is simpler."

Unfortunately Microsoft Sam is the only one that, despite sounding overall less fluid, is the most consistent for how Ten wants to sound. Though he wishes he could just get someone to speak for him, that would be the simplest solution around. There's a soft rattling and tapping as Ten obtains an ahi tuna almost immediately after Luka says it, and then it repeats as he sets one in front of himself.

"It's fresh here
And tastes good
Not my favorite
But easy"

His response comes after a few moments of typing it and it's followed by a strange 'slurp' sound as one of the pieces of eel he'd picked up just disappears into the hand he'd picked it up with. If the staff here are surprised by this, they aren't showing it. They've already made it past the shock of it, now it's just year 40 of a hungry monster.

Seth, after the disaster that was the previous day, the calamity that was this morning, the absolute nightmare that was the Game Show...
Had only managed to fall asleep for a few hours, after a mental breakdown, due to well, actual nightmares. So he honestly looked absolutely haggard.

And considering he was already sleep deprieved as all hell, he needed something to wake him up, stat. But since he hated the scent of coffee, he had to find a place that had a good selection of teas to choose from, in the end having bought a spiced black tea. He needed the caffeine in it.

And then as he's looking for a place to sit down...he spots the Protector as he passes by the table the Protector is sitting at. It takes him a while to process what he sees, but considering the attire, he's already pretty damn sure that he is in fact THE Protector. What was up with the sleep wear theme btw?

And for love of, what were the odds of running into the Protector? Why was he here in the real world anyway??? Seth thought the Protector was supposed to stay on, their own plane or whatever, which is why they communicated through the Princess.

And thus you have Seth staring at the Protector, as if he had just seen someone jump from a 10-story building's roof and survive it without a scratch.

"But... all the time? That's so boring." Luka frowns. "What do you do for fun?"

The clinking of the Protector's teacup reminds him of his own, and he finally picks it up. He sips the lukewarm tea while waiting for the Protector's response.

Ten's disturbing method of sushi consumption is, perhaps thankfully, lost on Luka. If he had been able to see it he might have been put off on his own food, especially considering that Ten had just retrieved Luka's dish with those same hands.

"Sometimes these little hole-in-the-wall places are just what you need." He says, noticing the new dish that had appeared in front of him. "Is this all you've been doing today?"

Zafika leaps up when they realise that they can't see Garrot anywhere, and they make their weapon disappear before looking around and wandering just a little, in case he's somewhere nearby, but they don't dare to go too far from where they'd appeared once more. "Garrot...? Hey, Garrot...!"

Where the fuck was he, there was no way they could just, lose the Monkey Knight like this in the middle of the mountain! How could they even lose someone his size who was as loud as he was!?

They actually even climb up to a tree to get a better view, because with how tiny they are, they're not going to be able to see really that far here, especially since there are plenty of trees blocking their field of vision. "Garrot where the fuck are you..!?" they hiss to themselves, getting little bit anxious. Suddenly they can relate to what Garrot went through when he saw them explode into water, even if not fully.

"No.
Fixed train tracks."

The answer is followed by another soft slurp as the second eel disappears into Ten's hand. Then there's the soft clatter of a plate being lifted and put in front of him.

"Relaxing now."

When Gyre finally reaches the top of the mountain, he gets teleported back to the bottom.

Wouldn't that be terrible?

No, what Gyre really finds is the glowing door that the news reports have been producing news reports about in the news (say that ten times fast I dare you). But Gyre's definitely not the type to eat breakfast and read a newspaper in the morning filled with the news about this incredibly news-worthy glowing door.

So when he gets there, he'll be surprised to find that its a nine-foot tall stone door with glowing seams and no visible hinges. More importantly, there are no visible handles. The line down the center that would normally show that it's a door that'll open by swinging open into two doors is there, sometimes, and gone at other times. Is it a single giant piece of stone? Is it two pieces of stone? Or is there no actual door here and it's just glowing lines that someone painted on the rocks?

And yes, if Gyre licks it, it'll taste like rock.

"Sounds like a lot of work. You didn't happen to... catch any footage of the battle today, did you?"

Definitely drink, Luka, tea is better when it's fresh and hot.

"Fun only comes when the work is done." He answers, simply, looking down at his steaming tea.

"There is no time for it, especially now."

"Saved videos.
Will watch soon.
Four is making signed copies.
Don't know why."

And then there's a soft clink as a plate of two fatty tuna are placed in front of Luka.

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Day 4: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

??:00pm Mountain Door, Craydon:

6:00pm Rock Sugar Tea Cafe, Bamborough

6:30pm Sushi, Far Haven

7:00pm Door Crater, Craydon

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Re: 6:00pm Rock Sugar Tea Cafe, Bamborough

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