Day 5 Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: August 28th - September 11th 25th, 2019 ]

The strangest part about the morning of the fifth day is the silence. There's no earthquake like day four started with, there are no horrible hero-kidnapping shenanigans, and there are no glowing cracks in the ground. The cracks from before are, unfortunately, still there. But there's no glow now, no sign that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

At least until after sunrise.

The morning is shaken up by three significant events of varying intensities: The Wizard, Four, and the unknown child that had appeared on the mountain. The heroes could've easily guessed that things wouldn't go smoothly for anyone. With impressive teamwork the previous evening, they'd brought that unknown child to Harsen Island's only actual hospital in Far Haven.

Unfortunately for everyone, the doctors really can't tell much of anything. None of their machines can get a reading of... anything. There doesn't seem to be a pulse, the child doesn't even appear to be breathing. The only thing that anyone's been able to comment for certain is that the child's eye glow matches the glow that everyone had seen coming out of the cracks in the ground. That's not a good sign at all!

Fifth Morning Event: Far Haven: The Hospital.

---

The Weather

• Eerily still.
• 72°F / 22°C
• A little hotter today.

---

Prompts:

• 06:00am Train Station, Craydon: Anyone going for a walk in the Craydon area is going to be in for a surprise: There's a new crater. Laying sprawled at the center of the crater is the Wizard, unmoving and unresponsive. Standing on the defensive is Ten, and he's already urged several locals away from the scene. Despite wearing a pair of shorts and an "I love the beach" T-Shirt, he's looking surprisingly intimidating with all of his fingers turned sharp as needles. Looks like he's not letting anyone close to the body of the Wizard! For anyone who gets a look, there's a very clear scorch mark like she'd been blasted by something... and whatever that something is, it isn't here anymore. By the time social media has started buzzing about it, the hashtags of #heroeswin and #goodprevails are almost instantly coined to celebrate. Better go make sure the Wizard is dead, heroes!


• 07:00am Train Station Video Stand, Bamborough: Apparently unfazed by the events transpiring in Crayon, Four has arrived at the train station in Bamborough to capitalize on sales in the tourist region of the island. Fortunately for everyone, they're offering the full 9-hero-set of videos for every one of the heroes that had participated in their game shows the day before. There's a special discount for participants: It's free! For tourists it still costs money, but no one's buying it. They'll be visibly losing their optimism about sales opportunities by 8am. And to think, they even put out a tablecloth and designed their own poster to go above them to advertise! Their handwriting isn't the worst!! (They think that, but they're wrong.)


• 08:00am Harsen Island Regional Hospital, Far Haven: When the child wakes up, it happens abruptly and without warning. They sit upright, eyes snapping open to look at the room they're in. Unfortunately for everyone inside, they turn to the window in their room and detonate it. For anyone watching, a visible blue glowing circle appears on the wall a second before it explodes outward. The child hops to the ground a moment later, their feet clacking like glass strikes stone, and they move to leave. If anyone's in the room, now's the opportunity to stop them. If no one moves to stop them, they'll be jumping out of the window.

---

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: 'Child' toplevels will unlock additional information as the story progresses. Send a ping on Discord to get a reply with further details regarding this thread.

Comments

06:00am Train Station, Craydon:

[wizardseason]

Anyone going for a walk in the Craydon area is going to be in for a surprise: There's a new crater. Laying sprawled at the center of the crater is the Wizard, unmoving and unresponsive. Standing on the defensive is Ten, and he's already urged several locals away from the scene. Despite wearing a pair of shorts and an "I love the beach" T-Shirt, he's looking surprisingly intimidating with all of his fingers turned sharp as needles. Looks like he's not letting anyone close to the body of the Wizard! For anyone who gets a look, there's a very clear scorch mark like she'd been blasted by something... and whatever that something is, it isn't here anymore. By the time social media has started buzzing about it, the hashtags of #heroeswin and #goodprevails are almost instantly coined to celebrate. Better go make sure the Wizard is dead, heroes!

[zafika]

Zafika hears murmurs and mumbling about a sudden new crater, and the Wizard in the middle of it, with a tiny monster -Ten?- guarding her. Obviously, they have to go take a look, they haven't met the Wizard yet themselves, and knowing at least something about the enemy is better than nothing. And besides, they need to head to the train station anyway.

Soon enough, they arrive at the crater, looking over the scene. They can't help but to wonder if the Protector, if he's still around, is somehow involved, but they shake those thoughts away. Instead, they approach Ten directly, instead of darting past him. "What's up with her?" They motion at the Wizard, watching her for a moment longer before they turn their attention fully to Ten. "Awfully dramatic of her don't you think?"

[wizardseason]

Ten watches Zafika's almost nonchalant approach and he's ready to fight if they show any aggression. Fortunately they don't show any aggression, they just seem to be here to get answers. So after a moment of looking them over, he pulls out his phone in one hand to type something to get voiced with text-to-speech. It takes a moment, but the loud sound of Microsoft Sam narrates Ten's voice:

"Not dramatic. Injured. Do not approach."

[zafika]

Zafika has caught out the thing with the monsters and their eyes, and Ten is far more than what they can handle on their own, so... not risking it. Besides, it's only day five. No way the Wizard and Ten can be defeated yet.

They do look surprised to hear that the Wizard is injured, and quickly look towards her. That... doesn't look like it could have been caused by any of the Knights. Unless someone has abilities the rest don't know of, yet. "Injured? Huh..... was it the Protector who got her like this?" They have to ask, and since Ten seems willing to talk, they're asking him. They assume he was present when this happened. If not, they might have to risk approaching the Wizard.

[wizardseason]

Zafika's assumption is correct: That was absolutely not damage caused by the Knights, or by the Protector. And he's going to answer accordingly, typing out the answer with one hand. One of his eyes is looking down at the phone while the other nine stay on Zafika to watch for any surprise attacks.

"Not the Protector. Someone new."

0?:00am Craydon General:

[wizardseason]

Is your character in Craydon but not interacting with the Wizard/Ten crater nonsense? Anyone in Craydon goes here.

07:00am Train Station Video Stand, Bamborough:

[wizardseason]

Apparently unfazed by the events transpiring in Crayon, Four has arrived at the train station in Bamborough to capitalize on sales in the tourist region of the island. Fortunately for everyone, they're offering the full 9-hero-set of videos for every one of the heroes that had participated in their game shows the day before. There's a special discount for participants: It's free!

For tourists it still costs money, but no one's buying it. They'll be visibly losing their optimism about sales opportunities by 8am. And to think, they even put out a tablecloth and designed their own poster to go above them to advertise! Their handwriting isn't the worst!! (They think that, but they're wrong.)

[scandeled]

Matilda sulks around the train station- very much not doing a good job at hiding the fact that she's leering at Four suspiciously. After her failed attempt at vanquishing Ten on the beach, she's not feeling very confident in any monster fighting. And maybe-- maybe a tiny bit of her is feeling outrageously left out and discouraged by that for participants deal. She could pay of course-- but why should she have to?

She can be found looming behind newsstands, phonebooths, and pillars of all kinds- suspiciously leering for a long time.

Then, at the opportune moment (right about when Four starts to lose their optimism) she bursts out from behind the newspaper stand she'd been 'hiding' behind. "Very suspicious!" she declares, pointing dramatically at Four.

[wizardseason]

About 0.2 seconds after Matilda speaks, Four is immediately in salesman mode. They clap their hands together, standing upright and greeting Matilda with an overly enthusiastic voice.

"Why hello dear customer-- oh no, how could I be so inconsiderate? Welcome, dear knight!" They lean forward, smiling from ear to ear.

"Did you know I've set aside a set of videos just for you?" They ask, clearly trying to dress this up like it's a great VIP opportunity and not like the 'they haven't sold a single set of videos' reality that it is.

[scandeled]

The smile, and the promise of a special set of videos set aside just for her is enough to sway Matilda's suspicions away just so, the lifting of her ego powerful enough to potentially earn Four an entire lifetime of devotion. It's as if she's forgotten that they are a monster, the ones she's sworn to fight, and she teleports right up to the very edge of the table, leaning over energetically with a beam.

"For real? For me?!"

[eutychia]

Luka arrives on the scene as soon as word reaches him of Four's reappearance. He's got the Protector's sword at his side, secured in a handmade sheath that he had one of his people scramble to acquire overnight.

"Well well well!" Luka says as he approaches the table. "Wasn't very nice of you to ghost me like that."

[wizardseason]

Four makes an excitable squeak of a sound as the Princess arrives. There's an immediate clap of their hands as they welcome the new arrival.

"Why hello dear contestant, oh-- my mistake, our game has come to an end hasn't it? Dear Princess Luka, you ended it with a fatal strike through my fragile heart!" They exaggerate, an unmissable fondness in their voice.

"Are you here to play again?"

[eutychia]

"Wasn't quite fatal, unfortunately." He quips. "Look, you're still here in one whole piece."

His fingers drum over the hilt of the sword as he speaks, but he doesn't make a move to draw it.

"I'm not here to play again, exactly. I heard you were selling-- wait." It fully dawns on Luka that Four is here selling video of the gameshows, including his-- which, in Luka's opinion, is better left forgotten. He reaches to his back pocket to produce his wallet.

"Give me all the copies you have of my show."

0?:00am Bamborough General:

[wizardseason]

Is your character in Bamborough but not interacting with the Four video nonsense? Anyone in Bamborough goes here.

7am

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea had spent most of the day yesterday helping to dig people out from the destruction caused by the earthquakes, and the time she wasn't doing that was spent on Four's little gameshow. Her own hotel had been partially collapsed and she'd lost the contents of her room entirely. This didn't really bother her, nothing she'd brought along that she cared about was lost since it was all on her person at the time, but last night when she'd finally been ready to sleep she realized that there wasn't really anywhere to go. Or at least, no where that seemed obvious to her at the time.

And so, in her exhaustion, she'd reverted to some very old habits indeed and just slept on the street, in an alleyway. Sleeping literally anywhere has always been one of her talents. She stumbles out of the alleyway now, just having woken up, and looks like absolute shit. In desperate need of a shower and breakfast, she's thinking to head towards the boardwalk, where there will be public showers for swimmers and cafes for tourists.

Come see her on the way?

[scandeled]

Matilda's taken to roaming the streets this early morning, aggressively on the hunt for her fellow knights and breakfast. It's on this valiant roam that she spots Haizea stumbling out of an alleyway- and boy, does she look rough. Thank goodness Matilda's learned manners- and also is familiar with that kind of look, or she might just have told Haizea just that-- but instead, she teleports right into the space beside Haizea, beaming like nothing's up. "Good Morning!"

[tropicalstorm]

She doesn't jump when Matilda teleports next to her, even though she's quite surprised, simply because she's too exhausted to react. She yawns and runs a hand through her hair nonchalantly, pulling out a few tangles as she does, but internally is cursing the fact that someone has to see her like this.

"Mornin' to you too. You headin' out to breakfast?"

08:00am Harsen Island Regional Hospital, Far Haven: [Child]

[wizardseason]

When the child wakes up, it happens abruptly and without warning. They sit upright, eyes snapping open to look at the room they're in. Unfortunately for everyone inside, they turn to the window in their room and detonate it. For anyone watching, a visible blue glowing circle appears on the wall a second before it explodes outward. The child hops to the ground a moment later, their feet clacking like glass strikes stone, and they move to leave. If anyone's in the room, now's the opportunity to stop them. If no one moves to stop them, they'll be jumping out of the window.

[NOTICE: This is a linear progression chase thread and it will not branch out. All tags will be treated as the latest action. If you need to establish something earlier in the thread, add it to your current tag as a clarification (i.e. "It was a good thing X prepared Y before leaving this morning" or "Z had sent F a text shortly after the explosion, but now they were sending another" etc). Send a ping on Discord to get a reply with further details regarding the chase in this thread, otherwise it is driven by characters in pursuit.]

[zafika]

After their encounter with Ten and the Wizard, Zafika has arrived at the hospital. They're aware that the child is here, but right now, they're here just to see Garrot, because thanks to what happened yesterday at the top of the mountain, they want to check up on him and... possibly talk, if he's in that condition.

Except apparently the universe keeps thinking that the two of them absolutely shouldn't get a private moment for talking, because before they get to the room where Garrot is, they both hear an explosion going off. Very close. In the room where the child is, actually. Screw the original plan then.

They rush into the room, just in time to see the child hopping onto the ground, and okay yeah they're not a fan of this one, but there's no time to think because the kid is clearly planning to jump out of the god damn window!!! They bolt towards the child, grabbing at their shoulders with their arms, their tail going to wrap around their stomach, immediately trying to pull them away from the blown up window. "Hey...! What the hell are you doing!?"

[sustainer]

He knew this was going to happen. It's why, even after the nurses crowded him out into the waiting room last night, he eventually snuck back in and fell uncomfortably asleep in the chair in the corner.

This is to say, he's jolted awake by a fucking explosion and he just barely makes it to his feet as Zafika runs into the room. It takes him a second after that to really wake up and understand what's happening, and while they grab at the kid, he turns his attention to the window, throwing a shield over the hole in the wall.

"Wait wait, it's okay. Everything's okay," he says, trying to sound as soothing as he can after all this noise.

[wizardseason]

Of all the things the child wanted in this moment, being stopped was not one of them. Unfortunately for Gyre's attempts to calm the child down, the fact that Zafika has grabbed them means they're not going to calm down even slightly.

They whirl around, even in Zafika's grasp, and raise their arms up to get their hands off their shoulders. What Zafika will see, and feel, is a soft blue glow over their arms and tail that pulls and forces them away from the child. Something magical has taken over here to get them away.

They take several steps back from Zafika, glancing over their shoulder to the shield that Gyre's placed over the window hole they'd made... and they whip their gaze back towards the two of them. They look like a cornered animal, glass-like teeth bared at the two heroes. They exhale a puff of blue mist a moment before they hiss out a warning:

"Raxal giqxal ivaj iv!"

0?:00am Far Haven General:

[wizardseason]

Is your character in Far Haven but not participating in the chase? Or perhaps they're waiting for the chase to come to them, or perhaps they just fell behind and out of the chase. Anyone in Far Haven goes here.

After hospital collapse

[sustainer]

The floor falls in, and Gyre shouts as he begins to plummet down. His first impulse is to throw his shield up around Zafika so they're safe. It's only a moment later that he realizes he probably ought to do the same for himself, and it's only a moment after that that a ceiling tile knocked loose by the destruction of the room smashes against his head.

His cheek is split open by the corner but, more importantly for him, it's also just enough force to pop the snap on his collar and send his whole ass head directly into the rubble below him. His vision goes black and he hits the ground hard enough to knock all the air out of his body.

He can hear the people in the lobby immediately begin to panic at the wreckage, and he can hear it get worse as they notice the headless body of a knight. The hole of his neck begins to pour an alarmingly green smoke that billows and rises towards the newly opened roof, and his body twitches. He's in pain, but he's not going to be able to help when he can't see and can barely hear.

Which is to say uh there's a smoking corpse beginning to slowly, achingly push itself up out of the rubble while that weird glass kid runs in the opposite direction.

[eutychia]

Luka arrives at the scene in time to bear witness to the immediate aftermath. He'd heard about the child in the hospital, but this wasn't what he expected to find. The atmosphere is overwhelming -- smoke in the air, alarms, frantic crowds-- and it's hard to navigate the chaos.

He overhears mumbles among the dust-covered bystanders: weren't the Knights in there? and the idea sends him toward the rubble with barely a second thought.

"Hey!" he calls out. It's all he can think to say in the moment, but all he hopes to hear is some kind of response.

[sustainer]

Fuck. He hears Luka's voice, or a voice he thinks is Luka's anyway, and he immediately dreads it. He's in the worst possible place to communicate with him right now. He actually thinks about ignoring him until he's recovered his head, but he can't just leave the Princess there, wondering what's happening.

And so he shifts himself down the pile, sliding down and getting his feet underneath him. The cement and metal rattles over itself as he moves, and he reaches out blindly. He's pretty sure Luka was... here? Or here...? Or--

His hand hits the other's shoulder all at once and he snags hold of him, quickly moving his hand down to Luka's wrist and turning his hand palm up. Assuming Luka doesn't try to yank free, he'll try to spell his name in his palm: G - Y - R - E.