Day 5: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm until Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: October 15th - ~~October 23rd~~ October 31st, 2019 ]

Evening is calm, evening is serene, evening is-- a time for everyone to catch up with all the nonsense that just happened today. For anyone checking social media, there are a number of significant events that went down to catch up on:

Gyre's head straight-up fell fucking off. Somehow he's not dead.
Gyre and Luka fought each other.
Gyre punched Luka in the face.
Terrence posted a Photoshop Phriday contest on the Hopeful Hearts homepage in the morning, when the Wizard was KO'd. It's finally gone viral.
Two hospital rooms are out of commission due to the floor collapsing.
The hospital's main lobby is inaccessible via the main doors, good thing the side doors work.
Rory is missing. Where did the Tiger knight go? Social media fears the worst.
The child teleported off of the pier, leaving anyone with them behind as they boarded a tourist boat. If the side is to be believed, it's headed back to Bamborough, but with the child at the helm where would it be going?

That's... quite a bit of bad stuff. Thankfully most of the afternoon events are still ongoing, so there's plenty of opportunities for the heroes to unwind in each others' company. The evil-allured knights get their own chance once they fall asleep for the night.

The Weather
Birds are chirping again.
59°F / 15°C
It shouldn't be this chilly?

Prompts:

5:00pm Onward: Hospital, Far Haven: After the rooms were destroyed and the lobby floor was ripped up, the Hospital is hardly in tip-top shape. Any heroes can drop by to try to gather clues with others, to try to help pick up the place, or of course drop by to get medical attention.

Most Evening Times: Gyre's Camp, Forest between Craydon and Bamborough: Gyre can be found in his camp for most of the evening. It's taking up a little clearing in the trees and it's extremely nicely kept even at first glance. There's a fire pit dug into the ground, and lined with rows of gently polished rocks. There are three delicately carved wooden figures sitting on the rocks, one per rock. There's a little boar, a curved antler that very nearly looks real and uh a wizard hat.

Off to the side, there's a canvas tent that's just barely big enough for a Gyre-sized bedroll and his emptied backpack. It's been zipped shut except for a couple inches opening left at the top. There's a little pile of chopped wood beside the tent, and a bowl filled with a dark purple dye and a few folds of leather. In front of the tent is a boot with the sole coming off, partially unsewn.

Across from the fire, there's a rack set up with one cleaned rabbit? skin, and a deer skin hung on a pole to dry. The deer's skull has been set on a pike up high to bleach the bones.

At least one person has promised to visit, but will he even after their fight? But perhaps he won't be the only one to drop by tonight.

5:00pm Onward: Unlimited Tacos, Bamborough: Even after the rails are fixed in Bamborough, the unlimited taco deal didn't come to an end. If the princess or any knight drops by, they won't even have to ask because there are 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.

5:00pm Onward: 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 going down fast!

5:00pm Onward: 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? The Wizard can be found sitting outside, staring up at the sky, for the rest of the evening.

7:00pm 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 now that night's falling, things have to be closed up for the night. After the events of the day, Ten can be found here helping out. Looks like he's doing a little bit of everything!

8:30pm Protector Meeting, Far Haven: After the events of the day, the Protector sought out Olivia and spoke with Luka before he handled his own evening tasks. They both received a card from him with an address on it and a request to bring one knight that they trusted along with them. The address, not strangely at all, will take them to the center of a small local park in the middle of the business district. When they arrive, the Protector will be sitting on a bench overlooking a fountain. All around him are screens that are showing the events of the day, and he appears to be reviewing what happened.

Of course, this isn't his dream space so he can be found by just about anyone at this point. But will anyone else find him? Before or during the meeting? Will they spy on the meeting or make themselves known?

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.

Activity Check: October 2019

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He lets out a heavy sigh, practically sinking into his chair along with it.

"That did certainly happen." He gestures to his face. "Kind of wish it wasn't all over the internet, but I'm not surprised. He was defending a monster that I was trying to finish off."

A waitress bustles over to their table and slides another tray of tacos between the two.

"And those are my thoughts exactly: what the fuck." He repeats. "I haven't heard word of much of anyone in days, and the Protector hits me with this 'hey bring someone you trust enough to bestow with the power to kill you instantly' thing out of nowhere. I'm still reeling from, well, everything."

[She gives the waitress a smile and a nod, not reacting to the news of Gyre defending a monster in any way Luka can hear. She assumes it was Five, and she's not all that surprised if that's the case.]

He told me to bring somebody, too. [She groans, leaning back on her chair.] I don't trust... I have no fucking clue of who to take with me. What kind of power is he even gonna give them?

"He said they'll become stronger than any of the other knights. That they could defeat the next few monsters entirely on their own." Luka explains, reaching for a taco. "That's a lot of power to give someone. I don't know who deserves it."

Edited 2019-10-23 00:25 (UTC)

[She stays silent for a moment before letting out a thoughtful hum.] I mean... before today, I might've said Gyre. I haven't seen Garrot in a while, but he's... [She reaches for a taco, taking a few seconds before continuing her thought.] He seems trustworthy.

Although... I know I've brought this up before but... are we sure? About the monsters? [She scrunches her nose, her tone getting higher when she asks her questions.]

"About what?" Luka's demeanor changes at her question. "If you mean to consider Gyre's stance... killing them has worked. It's worked for forty years. It's all that we know works. Trying anything else is a deathwish."

There's an underlying tone to Luka's voice that seems to be desperately trying to convince himself that he's not wrong.

"Unless you know something I don't."

Listen, I haven't read Gyre's manifesto or whatever. [She waves her taco-free hand dismissively.] I haven't even talked shop with him since we went hiking. But I did talk to Five today.

[She pauses to take a bite out of her taco. It's delicious and I still wish I was having tacos right now.] She didn't want to fight me, you know? Sure, killing them has always worked but like... don't they say history is always written by the victors? I know that there's a lot that we don't know yet.

The "monsters" just want this game to end... they've been bound here somehow, to this island. As I understand it they were here long before the other two came along, and they only side with the Wizard because the Protector doesn't think they're alive, which he basically told us himself. [She won't tell Luka Five practically said the Protector is a lying scumbag yet, because she doesn't want him to feel like everyone's ganging up on him. You know, after getting punched in the face and all.]

“You’re going to believe a monster?” He says with suspicion. “They’re liars. Five is a liar. She certainly wanted to fight me.”

He plucks a taco from the plate in front of them.

“They’ll say or do anything to change our minds. The Protector has said as much.” Luka says, between bites. “Five made me think she was dead. But she’s not. It’s just proof she’s deceptive and manipulative. Where’s their proof they’re not bullshitting us?

Luka... [She sighs. Her hands are all messy with food, so its her tail that swings up to give his free hand two reassuring pats. As reassuring as the tip of a Tiefling tail can be, anyway.] Don't think of this as taking sides. I'm in your corner, no matter what, yeah?

I'm just not sure that it has to be "us versus them". [She says, lowering her tone.] I've had my doubts since the beginning, you've heard as much. I don't know that they're telling the truth, but we don't know that the Protector is, either. What if he's manipulating us? [She shrugs.] We have no way to know, because things have always gone his way, right?

That was new. Luka was sure he had never been patted comfortingly by a tail before. It was surprisingly effective, for what it was.

"I just don't know what he stands to gain from manipulating us. The monsters, the Wizard -- they'll end the world if we misstep and trust them...." He sighs, probably more audibly than one would normally. "If you're right about them, and we could all work together or something..."

Luka pauses. It sounds stupid and naive. Things just didn't work out like this in real life, and he knew it. There's always someone willing to throw everyone under the bus if it meant they could get something out of it.

"The Protector will never accept it. To him this might as well be us kissing the Wizard's proverbial ring, you know?" Luka shakes his head. "He's really powerful, and he won't be chill with us backstabbing him."

Questioning him isn't betraying him, and that's all we're doing. [She says in between bites. She hopes she sounds confident, even if the fact that the Protector could be watching them as they speak is still in the back of her mind.]

I'm not sure if I believe it either, but according to Five the Wizard isn't trying to destroy the world. And apparently that should've been obvious. [She rolls her eyes.] She's fucking sassy, that one. You might've liked her if you'd tried to chat her up. [She clears her throat.] Anyway, I also spent some time with Ten, because I found him trying to fix the damage left by the earthquake and, like... why would he be helping out if they're the bad guys, right? If they act solely on killer instinct, like the Protector made it sound like?

"I know that, but I don't think he sees it that way." Luka ignores that the seed of this idea was planted in him by the Wizard. He believed it, even so.

Luka scoffs at Olivia's suggestion that he might have liked Five. But when she brings up Ten, he thinks back to his meeting with the monster fondly.

"I don't think Ten is evil. I never felt like he was being deceptive to me, and he warned me about monster seven..." He lets of a sigh of frustration with his admission.

"Look." Luka leans close to her over the table and lowers his voice. "If we're going to entertain this idea, we have to be extremely fucking cautious about it. We can do some... investigation into it. But he can't catch on. How good of a liar are you?"

[It's a good thing Luka can't see Olivia's smug grin when he asks how good of a liar she is. She's earned the right to be smug about it, she thinks, after having made a living out of thieving and swindling with no repercussions whatsoever.] Well... it's a little embarrassing to talk about it with you of all people, but I'm actually a bit of an actress. [She lies, leaning in to talk to him about it as if it genuinely was a hobby she was excited about.] I've worked at a small theater in my city for a few years now, and I'm quite good at it. I'm sure the commercials you get signed up for are way more exciting than any plays I've done but, you know. [She throws in a sheepish chuckle there.] I can act, and doing my own stunts has paid off here so far, don't you think?

We'll just have to hope I'm good enough to fool him, too. [She says in a more serious tone.] And... what was that about Seven? What did Ten say?

Luka seems to brighten as Olivia launches into her story. An actress? Really? How did he not know about this?

"I suppose a knack for acting comes along naturally with your abilities." He muses. He's a few too many drinks in to even think to doubt her. "It's one thing to change your appearance, but the real talent is changing your whole personality. As long as we can keep our stories straight, we can probably pass well enough that he doesn't try to murder us, at least."

"Oh, right, Seven." He continues. "What did Ten say about them? They're like an animal, and they'll want to fight. Ten didn't seem terribly fond of them either."

[She feels a little bit guilty about her lie as she watches the excitement in his face. Just a little bit.] Oh yeah, I'd love to not get murdered. Let's definitively avoid that.

Like an animal... [She repeats as she puts an almost excessive amount of guacamole onto her next taco.] I thought that at this point all of them would be, like... intelligent? Well, I mean... I suppose maybe Seven could be intelligent and just murderous. Hm. There's certainly a lot of people in the world like that.

Although... even if Ten doesn't like them, if Seven left us no choice, I wonder if we'd get in "trouble" with someone else. Five was kind of trying to avenge Four, you know? [Her eyes lock on his face as she mentions this, trying to read his expression. She didn't hear what happened to Four from him, so...]

"Yeah, we probably would." Luka scoffs. "We can't think like that though. If something is trying to kill me I'm going to fight back, regardless of if my self-defense might hurt another monsters feelings."

Obviously, the killing of Four wasn't self-defense, but it's beside the point.

"Ten didn't make it seem very intelligent. I'd be surprised if it turned out to be."

Yeah, of course, self-preservation is the most important thing here. [She agrees, taking a moment to enjoy her meal as she thinks of how to phrase her next question. Killing Four seemed to be the root of everything that'd happen with Five and Gyre afterwards, so she wanted to be able to see the full picture.]

I was pretty surprised to hear you'd killed one of them all on your own. [She says, making it sound as casual as she can.] Sounds like you don't need Rory and I as bodyguards after all, huh? [She sounds like she's smiling as she says that, but her face is quite serious as she watches for Luka's reactions.] All he did to me was drag me into this... weird game show. Did he attack you?

Oof. This was not the topic Luka really wanted to deep dive into, but it was probably unavoidable considering recent events. He takes a long, drawn out sip of his drink while he tries to think of the best way to explain how the killing of Four came to be.

"They weren't expecting it." He admits. "I wasn't even being particularly subtle, but they weren't expecting it at all."

He stirs his drink with a straw idly, distracting himself.

"It was the first monster to just walk away from a battle. I came back later with a sword. They were acting like a fan of mine."

He feels a twinge of guilt inside himself when he says those words, but tries to shake it off. Four wasn't a fan, they were a monster, and it was good that they were dead.

Oh... [She grimaces. Should she say that there's a high chance that Four wasn't acting like a fan? She takes a moment to watch his face before speaking again.] You don't feel good about it. [She almost phrases it like a question, but it does end as a statement.]

You know, I still don't fully understand how their deaths work, considering there's twelve every year. Maybe it's not permanent, yeah? [She sighs.] I wish you'd come to me or Rory about it, honestly. I mean, I don't blame you, you were doing... our "job", I guess. [She clicks her tongue.] I've been thinking about One, too. It didn't really attack anyone, yeah? We just trapped and killed it?

[She rests her chin on her hand, pausing for a moment. She sounds sad when she says,] I think it was just watching the clouds.

"You're right, though, they don't really die. They come back every year, so it's not a real death, right? I tried to tell Gyre that and well, you know what happened next." He sighs, pausing for a long moment before he continues. "But yeah, I don't feel good about it."

He didn't like to admit it. Saying it aloud made it too real.

"I thought killing the monsters would be this grand moment. I thought killing Four would heal my wounded pride, but I didn't feel anything at all when I did it. Nothing about anything is even close to how I thought it would be. How stupid."

He breathes in sharply, and if Olivia's observant, she'll notice that Luka is trying to hold back tears. He quickly gathers himself and raises a hand in the air to summon the waitress.

"I think I need another drink."

[She carefully wipes her fingers with a napkin, as she makes sure the waitress gets the order, before gently placing a hand over one of Luka's. After all, if this were a D&D game her passive perception would be off the charts.]

None of us knew any better. You thought you were doing the right thing. [She may not know the first thing about being a friend or comforting others but, for Luka, she'll try. There's not much else she can say, really, so she just keeps holding his hand until the waitress comes back.

When she does, Olivia gives him a light squeeze before letting go.] Hopefully we can... fix all of this. It's really sounding like we're going to have to con a conman.

Luka clenches his teeth, a last ditch effort not to break down when he feels Olivia's comforting touch. This was not an opportune place to be seen losing his composure, and he'd be ashamed to do so in front of Olivia. She was a Protector's Knight, and he was the Princess - he should be looked to as leader, and crying in a taqueria was not a very good look.

"Maybe." He mutters, but he can't believe it. He'd sought Four out unnecessarily to kill them. It was far from a heroic thing to do, not like slaying a monster in a battle.

"We will fix this. We need to fix this." He emphasizes, turning his hand under hers to take hold of it. "No matter what fixing it ends up requiring."

[Olivia's face betrays her surprise when Luka takes hold of her hand just as she's letting go. Although just so, so unused to displays of affection, she keeps her hand on his even as the waitress delivers the drinks, trying to at least force her mask to hide the color in her cheeks.] Right. We got this. We might need a little help, but... we got this.

[Hopefully "no matter what" didn't mean either of them would end up on the Protector's bad side, she thinks with a sigh.] So we pretend it's all good with him but we keep investigating on the low, yeah? I don't think questioning him directly is a good idea anymore.

"Yeah, that's the plan." Luka says, regaining his lapsed composure. It helps when the waitress brings that drink over. "If you think he might start questioning your loyalties, don't be alone. He doesn't tolerate hints of wayward knights."

Luka keeps his hand on hers, making no effort to move it.

"We'll need his trust for as long as we can keep it. I don't want to think about what might happen if he turns against us all."

You shouldn't be alone with him anymore either, honestly. [She's not sure that the Protector would harm the Princess himself, but... it's still better to be safe than sorry.

She uses her free hand to rub circles along the rim of her glass, thinking to herself for a moment. Her mind can fill in the blanks to what would happen if the Protector turned against them pretty easily, and none of these threads end with her going back home to her cat.] Fuck, should we even take a Knight for him to power up? I mean, I guess we have to but, is it... I don't know, safe?

"Our reluctance might tip him off." Luka says, taking a generous swig from his glass. "I don't think pumping one of us full of his magic is a great idea, necessarily. I have no idea what that magic can do. But I'm already tied to him so what's one more, right?"

He laughs a defeated sort of chuckle.

"We just have to make sure whoever we choose isn't also at risk of turning against us as well."

Day 5: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm until Midnight

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

Activity Check: October 2019

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