Day 5: Afternoon

Afternoon: 12:00noon - Evening

[ IRL Timeframe: September 25th - October 9th, 2019 ]

It's monster time for four heroes!

When Five appears, it's in the form of a one-on-one fight. Not everyone will get the chance to raise their weapon and fight. Everyone else will be left to handle the goings-ons of the island in general. Harsen Island isn't a quiet place, and there's plenty happening on day five to keep everyone occupied. Now that the dust has settled on the mountain, anyone can go up to look at where the Child emerged from.

Or they can go see the Child themselves, social media is doing a good job tracking their path down to the piers in Far Haven. It's easy to track a glowing magic entity! If the Child isn't who they're interested in, they can find the Wizard, Ten, and the Protector in the hospital in Far Haven. What a popular city! It's the biggest place on Harsen Island, so that makes sense.

But all over the island, things are happening and events are unfolding... at this point, the heroes know more than anyone else does. They'd better be ready to work together!

Monster Arrival: Far Haven: The Duels: Gyre, Zafika, Luka, Olivia.

The Weather
Eerily still.
61°F / 16°C
Brrr, where'd that cool wind come from?

Prompts:

12:00pm The Child, Far Haven: [Continuation of the previous thread.]

Anyone who had interacted with the child, or chased them, is in for an unfortunate surprise. They've been targeted by Five and are about to have to deal with her. Olivia is the first to go toe to toe with her, and the encounter ends up allowing the Child to escape.

When Five appears, she's walking with the confidence of a killer who's sighted their mark. She's the most human-like by far, but there are still dead giveaways as to what she really is. For one, her bright yellow skin is a mark that she can't do away with. That aside, she looks like an assassin right out of a video game. Her head is obscured under a black hood, her mouth masked behind fabric, and her five amber eyes (two on the left and right, one vertically on her forehead) glint as she approaches. Her outfit is all black, pants, shoes, shirt, all leaving no sign of the skin beneath. Dangling from her neck is a circular metallic necklace. Instead of weapons grasped in each hand, she's dragging along two black bags. The sound of the fabric scratching along the ground announces her arrival.

"I challenge you to a duel." She says, her voice sounding all too much like a young child's. As she says it, the world around the two of them disappears. The ground at their feet lies under an inch of water, reflecting the cloudy sky above. There are dead trees sparsly jutting up from the ground and fractured pieces of buildings laying around. This is clearly a battlefield, a wide, lifeless expanse that exists solely to fight.

Anyone in Far Haven will be able to find the child at the end of the Far haven pier, staring out at the ocean. Social media isn't quiet about where they are. But the four who face off against Five won't be able to get there until they've dealt with her.

12:30pm Train Derailment, Bamborough: Unfortunately for anyone who gets the news about anything in Craydon or Far Haven, there's no way to get there. On its way into the train station, the train rolled over a handful of stray acorns and one of the sets of wheels hopped off of the tracks. It'll take a few hours at a minimum to get it back in place. Is your character stranded at the train station? Do they spy a fellow hero also stranded? Will they decide to take a long 4-5 hour power-walk along the tracks out to either of the other cities? Will they just wait for the train? Do they go rent a car to get out there? Roadtrip?! Or do they just go somewhere in Bamborough to kill time?

12:45pm Bed & Breakfast Helping Hand, Craydon: The owner of the Helping Hand Bed & Breakfast needs a helping hand! They threw their back out after carrying a large stack of firewood in for the wood oven. Looks like they're down for the count for at least the rest of the day. Care to lend a hand, perhaps with your fellow heroes, to get things taken care of? The laundry needs to be done, more firewood has to be cut, the food has to be cooked, the guests have to be checked in and out... Who's going to do all this if they can't even get up off the ground? They're in a rough spot! Social media was kind enough to report on what happened, but the one who reported it had to catch a flight and needed to head off. Good luck, heroes!

2:00pm Hospital Visit, Far Haven: Despite being the Wizard, the doctors at the Far Haven hospital insisted that there would be no visitors until at least 2pm. They'd rarely had an opportunity to speak to the Wizard in previous years and they weren't going to pass up an opportunity like this especially not after Ten arrived carrying the Wizard. Anyone who tried following after was left in the waiting room, forced to read bad magazines and sit in uncomfortable chairs. When the doctors finally allow visitors, they look pale. Like they've been told something awful, but they're unwilling to talk about what they talked about. Inside the hospital room, the Wizard is reclined back in a hospital bed with Ten at her side. She's looking conscious, at least, but she still looks pretty roughed up. Ten is playing defense against anyone who tries to get close.

Worse than that, the Protector arrives at the Hospital not long after the doctors allow people into the room. Though the doctors won't speak to the heroes, the Protector can be found tracking them down throughout the hospital. In the waiting room, in the lobby, in the halls, in the elevators. Whatever they were told, it looks like the Protector is making his way around the hospital to undo it. Anyone who sees him will notice that he has a sword scabbard dangling from his belt. Looks like he's ready to defend himself.

2:00pm Unlimited Tacos, Bamborough: One restaurant noticed that there were more people wandering aimlessly around Bamborough than normal because of the train being derailed. As a result, they put out signs advertising free tacos for the rest of the day! Any hero may show up and sit down to dine on tacos of all types and flavors. Unfortunately this taco shop only specializes in flour-shell options, but their flavors are on point! Dine in with your fellow heroes and discuss all the nonsense that's been happening... and it's only day five.

4:00pm Free Drinks, Far Haven: If your hero is just tired of everything having to be So Much All The Time, they can drop by one of Far Haven's brightest night life bars called "Reach". They're offering free drinks all night to celebrate the Wizard getting put in the hospital. Things are looking pretty easy for the team this year! The special drink being offered is the "Wizard Bomb" which drops a blue shot into a bubbly red drink. It's pretty tasty and, best of all, free! Which heroes will find each other here before the night crowd shows up? Sun's still out for now!

4:00pm Free Admission Meditation, Craydon: Heroes need to take a moment to breathe, and one of the locals in Craydon has realized that. They've offered any hero a free meditation session in their garden room. Incense will be lit, hot towels will be offered, and the gentle serene environment of their garden room (complete with the carefully-combed and designed zen sand pit) will make sure any stress just melts away. Does your hero run across someone else while walking in or leaving?

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.

Activity Check: October 2019

[ IRL Timeframe: October 1st - October 31st, 2019 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The club slams off his shield as well, though he flinches away automatically, gasping as he expects to be hit and releasing her arm. He retreats back from her after that, taking a deep breath and slowly, slowly exhaling. With his breath, his shield begins to shimmer like a dragonfly's wings, glittering in the air to show her exactly how far out he's holding that shield. He's not going to just let her hit him.

"No we won't! The last one survived just fine. They let me go and I didn't even have to hit them!" he says quickly, trying to figure out her fear. Why would she have to fight and die, when Four didn't? It doesn't make sense!

She hesitates when he shows off how far out his shield is. Since he's been so kind as to move away from her, she's already kneeling to get a second weapon out of the bag. Hopefully something that she can deal with that shield with.

"What are you talking about?!" Her face scrunches up, clearly upset by his insinuation.

"Four is dead! Killed by that murderer you call a Princess!" She stands again, dropping the spiked club into the water by her feet as she pulls forth a massive longbow and a quiver of arrows. She's already notching one, taking aim at Gyre as tears well in her eyes.

What now?

Well. She found a way to deal with his shield at least? She drops her weapon and pulls the next, and he stands utterly firm, shield unwavering, right up until she says that Four is dead.

His eyes widen in genuine shock, his breath catching for a moment. And then the shield drops and he turns as if to run out of this fight, only halting when he remembers he's in some fight dimension. Fuck. He has somewhere else he wants to be, fuck this, fuck this--

But he's wide open for her shot. Have fun.

Gyre, that's the stupidest reaction you could've ever had. Literally ever. When someone's aiming a longbow at you, especially someone who's upset, never turn your back on them.

Her first arrow whistles by him as she fires at where she thinks he's about to run. It goes wide, disappearing into the foggy nowhere that lies beyond. If he'd started to run, that arrow was at neck-length. That would've sucked.

But he didn't block it, and she hesitates as she grabs another arrow. He isn't looking at her anymore. It's like he's left the fight, and she takes a moment to rub at her eyes with the back of her hand before she notches the next arrow and takes aim. If he's not going to run, and he's not going to fight...?

"What are you doing?" She asks, a mix of confusion and exasperation in her tone. This was supposed to be kill or be killed. What was this?

The arrow whistles past him and that returns his attention to her, returns him to the moment. He's looks incredibly uncomfortable, mixtures of rage and sadness and exasperation all warring for a place in his expression. He doesn't know what to do with himself, but he puts the shield back up a second later, fixing his attention on her.

"Trying to figure out what's going on! What do you mean, the princess killed them? Did they fight him?" He doesn't understand why Four would've tried a gameshow with him, but not with Luka? They didn't seem like the fighting type at all??

Fortunately he doesn't need the shield, because the look on his face makes her hesitate. She searches him for a moment, relaxing the bow just slightly in her grasp.

"Not yesterday. Today. This morning. While I was getting ready. But now they're dead so now I just have to kill one of you! Before you do!" She hisses out the words before suddenly drawing back the bow, biting back the urge to cry in this moment.

"They didn't deserve to die!" She shouts as she lets an arrow fly. Good thing Gyre has that shield up.

The world spins a little at that revelation. The princess killed them this morning? Why! He feels like he would've heard if the monster had attacked again, but he can't imagine Luka just walking up to someone and killing them out of nowhere. He shakes his head, and the shield flickers, and it's pure battle experience that makes him look up when they release the arrow. It bounces off the shield, and in it's wake, he holds his hands up, looking miserably angry now as he tries to find the right words.

"No, they didn't," he says softly, leaving a space here for them to realize he's agreeing with them before he says anything else. "Do you need to kill one of us to do what you all need to do? Or is it just revenge, kit'a?"

Again, he leaves a long space for them to think, and when he speaks his voice is so soft, but it is flint hard. He means it. "I'll keep you safe. After this. If you have nowhere to hide."

Gyre's words make her hesitate, make her narrow her eyes at him as she's gripping another arrow. She doesn't notch it yet, watching him. It has to be a trick. It has to be.

"Revenge." She answers, at last, and then when he makes that offer, her face scrunches up in anger and she notches the arrow.

"You should've protected Four!" And as she fires the arrow, the path of it arcing wide and not even impacting Gyre's shiel, it's clear that she's broken down into tears. She can't even bring herself to draw another arrow.

"You can't keep any of us safe." She mutters, turning away from him. The edges of the battle arena she's placed them in start to fizzle, going to static at the outer boundaries. If this keeps up, Gyre's going to be dumped back into reality. Will Five vanish with the battle arena? Who knows.

"I-I didn't know--! I--" he says, cutting himself off as he realizes he's making excuses. She doesn't need excuses when she's in pain, and he takes a step forward when the arena begins to shimmer around them. He doesn't want to get tossed out of this early. He needs to make sure he knows how to find her again, how to keep the Princess away from her.

He doesn't even know how to get her to engage with him, and so he goes for the best he can. Pure honesty. There is an almost pleading note in his voice as he says, "There was a child. A little crystal child. I think you're related? I was with them to, to keep them safe. I didn't even know your friend could come back. Please talk to me."

The shimmering of the arena stops, and Five stops like a record screeching. She turns just slightly, looking at Gyre like he's just stabbed her. She looks like she's been told she's free of all of this. A surprise so vivid on her face that it could be chopped with a knife.

"You couldn't. They're trapped." She says quietly, disbelieving as she stands at the edge of the space.

"You're lying."

"A... about the child?" he asks, surprised by her surprise. She's been so completely closed off from him this entire time that he almost fumbles this single moment of openness from her.

"I'm not! I promise. They were in a cave in the mountain. The wall exploded and they were unconscious. We took them to the hospital, and I stayed with them, but they ran away from me this morning," he speaks quickly, trying to prove he's telling the truth by added detail. "I was going to find them again when you pulled me... here."

He takes a slow, deep breath after that, focusing entirely on her. "Do you know them?"

"He's going to kill them. You're going to kill them." She says, watching him with a steadily more worried expression. The surprise is disappearing, replaced by panic.

"Don't you dare kill them. There's no one more important." She says, turning away.

And then the space begins to fade again. She's going to close him out. Unless he has any other bombshells.

He doesn't. He has nothing he can offer her, except reassurance and his own confusion. He runs towards her, trying to grab her as if grabbing her will convince her to stay.

"I won't! Please stay. Please talk to me!" he's shouting as he runs towards her. Please let this work!

See, the thing is: Why would she ever expect him to run towards her now that she's leaving? She's pretty certain he's disarmed, and this is an anime. So when she hears the splish-splashing of his footsteps running up behind her, she turns slightly to see what that sound is--

And in a panic, accelerates the closure of the space. Unfortunately, she's left tumbling backwards out of it and he's too close.

The momentum of his run sends him toppling forward, gravity turning the flat ground into a hill behind him. He collides with Five, sending her toppling through the narrowing exit from the battle space. They both land badly, in a clump, atop several cushions laid out beside the most impeccable garden space that Gyre has probably ever seen. Every space is perfectly laid out with stones surrounded by sand, bordered by rocks or water, and featuring flawlessly trimmed bushes and shrubs. There are flowers in several places, bringing a pop of color to the space. The sound of rushing water is obvious at the edges of the space. The edges are absolutely cliffs, where was this? Instead of being surrounded and hidden in a secluded forest, the low clouds just above them reveal that this place is at a high altitude. On the mountain?

At the very edge of the space, seated atop a massive boulder with their legs folded and numerous arms resting, is a truly massive yellow monster wearing what looks like multicolored robes draped over or wrapped around far more than just two arms. They're facing away, meditating? Their gaze out off of the cliff, out into the space beyond.

Who was that?

Where is this?

"Ow- Get- off! You! Why!" Five exclaims, struggling to kick Gyre away from her. She smells vaguely like sage, nutmeg, and freshly made noodles.

Well good news is, he does exactly what she wants. She doesn't need to kick him more then once before he starts moving, and she only needed to kick him because he was still a little stunned from the fall. He scrambles off her, shoving himself across the ground until there's several feet between them, and only then does he pause, looking her over, holding his hands up in a pacifying gesture.

"A-are you okay? What happened?" he asks quickly, automatically, like they've been at least acquaintances for a long time. He sounds completely genuine at least, his eyes on her.

At least, they're on her until they're not. The bad news here is that he suddenly realizes he has no idea where he is. The moment he notices the garden stones and the soft pops of color where the flowers are blooming, he starts looking around, turning his back on her once again as he looks for some landmark.

He finds one of course, but it doesn't help him, his eyes catching on that giant boulder and its giant monster. His whole body tenses a little, but he doesn't move, waiting to see what happens next.

"Where are we...?"

Oh my god, Gyre, you are NOT her friend! He can try to pacify her all he wants, but he's followed her here and that meant she was going to give him a hard time because he was a jerk! She sees his gaze drift away from her and, immediately, she's grabbing her longbow that's laying clattered at her side. She leans to grab an arrow and--

"You can't be here!" She shouts, rising to stand as she's notching the arrow and taking aim at him. At this range, there's no way she'll miss. She's aiming for his face.

"Just-- don't move! I have... ugh, I have to call eight. Just. Sit there!" She commands, waiting for him to disobey to give her a reason to shoot him in the face.

He returns his attention to her when she starts screaming at him, and immediately puts his hands up as his eyes meet the tip of her arrow. He looks up the length of it, gaze settling nervously, confusedly, on her face. He doesn't understand what's going on at all, and that's clear in the twist of his brow.

"O-okay," he says quickly, shifting very slightly so he can sit cross legged on the stones. He briefly glances towards the big meditating monster, wondering if that's 'Eight', before returning to her. She seems overwhelmed, and he's not interested in finding out if she has the guts to actually let that arrow fly. Whether she does or not, he's put his shield up between them and he lets her see the shimmer of it even as he stays still. Waiting for her to do what she needs to do.

Overwhelmed is an understatement! She's on a hair trigger of panicked reactions as she's trying to figure out what to do next. He messed it all up, he ruined every bit of it, and now he was sitting here with her. Ugh ugh ugh! She waits a moment to see if he reacts, then she just throws her longbow against him. Shield or not, she rummages in a pocket to pull out a cell phone. Not just any phone, a flip phone.

Five has a fucking Nokia-tier flip phone. 1990 called and confirmed: It's still functional now, even after 30 years.

All at once she's typing rapidly, sending a text to someone. She's gripping it hard, bringing it closer to her eyes and squinting like that'll help this not be terrible.

Way off at the edge of the garden, a butterfly lands on the looming meditating monster.

Edited 2019-10-09 01:36 (UTC)

He watches her, surprised when he recognizes her technology. He's been so confused by these touch screens and big square things that he's almost relieved to see a phone he knows. Not that he can really say much about it, not wanting to disrupt her thoughts. She clearly has something he needs to do, and he watches her for several beats.

But he can only wait for word just like her, and so his eyes wander away from her again, settling on the big monster. He has never thought about a monster meditating before, but there's something delightful and peaceful about it right now. He lets his gaze linger, trying to pick out details despite the cloak surrounding them, and he waits for an update.

"And- there. Should be any moment-- good! Bye!" She exclaims, pointing at the ground beneath where Gyre's seated. He'll notice a doctor strange-tier spinning portal manifesting into existence beneath him. The space beyond is clearly the courtyard at the hospital, except it's at a perpendicular angle. Heck!

"You weren't supposed to be here anywAOHNO-" She panics as the portal on the floor extends too far outward and ends up under her feet, too. All at once, gravity for both of them kicks in and sends them falling downward into the portal. When they go flying out the side of the hospital courtyard portal, they're in the air and gravity reminds them that down is down. They both land with a completely impolite 'thud' in the dirt.

"Why!" She shouts up at the air, clearly frustrated as the portal closes behind them both.

"Wait--!" he shouts the moment he sees the portal opening up, beginning to force himself to his feet. He needs to stop her. He needs to know more about this place, but he's just too slow. He didn't expect this at all, and then gravity asserts itself.

He slams into the ground for the second time in a few minutes, groaning softly. He rolls over eventually, bringing a hand to his face to rub at his eyes, looking around and... seeing her. He looks shocked! And then confused.

"What happened?" he asks, beginning to sit up. He can't imagine she wanted to be out here with him? She's been nothing but angry with him, and he had assumed the portal was a way to get rid of him. It dawns on him all at once that there are probably people around, and they might not react well to her presence, his face twisting in sudden anxiety.

"Should we get you out of here?"

She groans where she's laying on the ground, bringing both hands up to her face to drag her fingers down over her eyes, nose, mouth, and finally stopping at her chin. She accents the move with a very annoyed "uggggh!"

Within the hospital, news is spreading fast that a knight is fighting a monster in the courtyard. But she really, really couldn't care less.

"Why would that help anything." She answers him, exasperated, not moving from where she's laying. She's here, with no weapons, with no way back for at least an hour.

U
G
H

"Are people going to try to hurt you?" he asks utterly earnestly. He only wants help. He really does just want her and all the rest of them to live if possible, especially now that he knows Four died even after being bloodlessly defeated as far as he knows. He's on his feet a moment later, going to her side and offering his hand to help her up.

"I said I'd keep you safe if you don't have someplace to hide," he says again, reaffirming it. He's trying so hard to calm her, to earn her trust despite what's been done to her.

"You could... help me find the child again...?" He doesn't know if she can even help with that, or if that appeals to her at all, but he knows she reacted pretty strongly to the idea of them being around. Maybe this will give her the motivation to at least get up off the ground before people start gathering.

She doesn't move from her spot on the ground. She keeps her eyes on the sky above even as he offers his hand.

"None of them can hurt me. Only people like you can hurt me." She sounds so utterly done, but when he says 'the child' she scrunches up her eyebrows and looks up at him.

"Why do you keep calling them a child?" She asks, utterly incredulously.

He sighs and leans back when she rejects his help, setting his hand on his hip and waiting for her to stop grumping. The position means he's perfectly framed against the sky when she asks that absurd question and his face twists in absolute confusion. He looks just as incredulous as she sounds, waving a hand as if to dismiss her entirely.

"Because they look like a child," he says, arching an eyebrow down at her. "And they were acting like a child, scared and... running." And yelling at him in a language he didn't know. Would she know that language? He wants to get them near each other so badly, but he doesn't want to force her when she's having such an unpleasant time.

The Weather

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