Day 6: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: October 31st - November ~~7th~~ 13th, 2019 ]

In the typically quiet town of Craydon, most residents know that the beach is only a short walk away from the train station at the base of the mountainous region they live in. They've constructed a long wooden path out to the edge of the sandy area, with a number of benches available for any residents. Typically there are a handful of locals either walking, relaxing, fishing, or ocean watching on this normally quiet and uneventful beach. But today, at sunrise, the Wizard and the Protector are on the beach. The Wizard has made short work of sending everyone away but a few have remained to post it to social media.

It's a stalemate, for the most part. For every blow one flings, the other parries it. For every shout, there's one in return. Most unsettling, however, is that they're arguing in a language that isn't native to this world.

Far Haven isn't having an uneventful morning but it is having a quiet morning. The Hospital is looking better after the events of Day 5, the front doors are now available for use and a construction team is hard at work undoing the damage that had been done the previous day. It's definitely not fixed yet, but it's clearly on the way.

That isn't the big event that's drawing people's attention, though. Six, today's monster, has borrowed a chair from inside the hospital's lobby and placed it in the courtyard right outside the front doors. He can be found sitting, one leg propped up over the other and showing off one of the cowboy boots he's wearing, with a clipboard leaned up on his leg. Two of his arms are sitting on the armrests, casually drumming like he's impatient. Two more arms are folded across his front, and the last two arms are holding and writing on the clipboard. His yellow skin is bright as the sunlight hits him, but he's clearly ready for the sun with a pair of aviator sunglasses covering his eyes. Are there multiple eyes under there? He's wearing a cowboy hat with a white bandana around his neck and thick hair(?) bound up in a ponytail dangling off the back of the chair. This monster's a cowboy!

Oh, and there's a huge double-headed axe propped up against his chair. Can't forget that, that's scary.

Bamborough is a strange blend of eventful and not. The Child's boat is back and social media has made no secret of where they headed: Breakfast. The Bamborough Diner, a staple location in the tourist town, has been serving them meal after meal all morning. They're on their sixth meal, stuffing pancake after pancake into their mouth. They've been using the diner's picture-filled menu to order item after item and they haven't repeated one yet. It's time to EAT!

But with all this happening, surely the heroes won't be up to anything else? There's definitely no reason why the Wizard has suddenly chose to go toe-to-toe with the Protector this morning, right? No way, no how.

There's definitely a reason.

Sixth Morning Event:: The Fight.

The Weather
A little foggy.
55°F / 13°C
Uh, grab a jacket, it's actually chilly.

Prompts:

06:00am The Beach, Craydon: Today, at sunrise, the Wizard and the Protector are on the beach. The Wizard has made short work of sending everyone away but a few have remained to post it to social media.

It's a stalemate, for the most part. For every blow one flings, the other parries it. For every shout, there's one in return. Most unsettling, however, is that they're arguing in a language that isn't native to this world.

The heroes can try to get close, but they'll eventually find a barrier in their way. Is your hero here? Are they talking to others? Is there anything they can do? Or do they know more about what's happening than they've told others?

07:00am Harsen Island Regional Hospital, Far Haven: Far Haven isn't having an uneventful morning but it is having a quiet morning. The Hospital is looking better after the events of Day 5, the front doors are now available for use and a construction team is hard at work undoing the damage that had been done the previous day. It's definitely not fixed yet, but it's clearly on the way.

That isn't the big event that's drawing people's attention, though. Six, today's monster, has borrowed a chair from inside the hospital's lobby and placed it in the courtyard right outside the front doors. He can be found sitting, one leg propped up over the other and showing off one of the cowboy boots he's wearing, with a clipboard leaned up on his leg. Two of his arms are sitting on the armrests, casually drumming like he's impatient. Two more arms are folded across his front, and the last two arms are holding and writing on the clipboard. His yellow skin is bright as the sunlight hits him, but he's clearly ready for the sun with a pair of aviator sunglasses covering his eyes. Are there multiple eyes under there? He's wearing a cowboy hat with a white bandana around his neck and thick hair(?) bound up in a ponytail dangling off the back of the chair. This monster's a cowboy!

Oh, and there's a huge double-headed axe propped up against his chair. Can't forget that, that's scary.

08:00am Bamborough Diner, Bamborough: Bamborough is a strange blend of eventful and not. The Child's boat is back and social media has made no secret of where they headed: Breakfast. The Bamborough Diner, a staple location in the tourist town, has been serving them meal after meal all morning. They're on their sixth meal, stuffing pancake after pancake into their mouth. They've been using the diner's picture-filled menu to order item after item and they haven't repeated one yet. It's time to EAT!

0?:00am General Post, Anywhere: Are your characters interacting elsewhere? Are they texting everyone? Put any threads here that don't fit elsewhere with the time and location in the subject.

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

All the air is knocked out of him as they slam into him, and he is completely helpless as they slam through the portal and roll across the grass. Then through the air. Then through the grass again. He grunts as he hits the ground the second time, trying to catch himself and only succeeding after he rolls a few more times. It takes a long time after that for his head to stop spinning, for him to will himself to push up onto all fours.

His hand goes to his chest first, feeling the amethyst underneath his shirt. He takes brief comfort in this as he pushes himself up, only for his thoughts to scatter again as his head starts to tip off. Sxicq will get to see his head slide forward and split from his neck, smoke pouring from the sudden gap opened up. He catches himself by the hair, slumping forward over his knees as he pulls his choker off and carefully reattaches his head. How annoying! This fucking kid is pissing him off!

He's just barely wobbling to his feet, moving towards Fen when he sees their little legs flapping around above the grass, when they translate that for him. Immediately he stops in place, his eyes widening. His blood uh boils.

"Misbeha--?!" he begins, and his brain completely shorts out. He just starts screeching in his own tongue, utterly forgetting every word of Common he's ever known, "《Fucking child!! 'f you wanna destroy things like you own everything you ever touch, fuck you, people aren't toys you can run ragged just 'cause you've had something bad happen to you! That whole place was terrified of you, and you destroyed their house, you selfish brat.》

He has their full attention as he has his head problems, but then he goes off on shouting, and--

Their answer is eerily calm, no giveaway of how they're feeling as they speak to him. They stay standing several strides away from him, an utterly neutral pose as they speak.

"Qu aqci' iv fiiv. Qu' fenra."

"They said they shouldn't be here, and that they're leaving." Fen chimes in from their upside-down position in the grass.

"Ci ivfi qu iv ci quiv."

"And that your temper is gonna get you killed?" Fen adds a question mark at the end of it, not understanding apparently.

Holy shit, he is steaming. He exhales hard, his hands tightening into fists. He wants to hit this person but they're too far away, and they look like a child. Ugh, he jerks his eyes off them, remembering Fen's little feet.

He forces himself to move, his body relaxing slowly as he goes to their side and helps them to flip over. "Are you okay?" he murmurs to them, keeping his attention on them until he's sure they're alright.

It's only once they're feeling better that he stands and glancing at Sxicq over his shoulder. "Shut up. You're going to get killed if you don't start taking a little more care," he grumbles, almost to himself.

"Why did you bring us here anyway? Is this a real place?" He honestly thought this was just a weird dream space this whole time.

"Wah!" Fen exclaims, surprised, as Gyre helps them flip over. "Thanks!"

Sxicq, meanwhile, watches for a moment before answering the second question.

"Ciqu qu quecq ecq ajcifi sefiv qu ecqra, ecq sefiv ciecq ra ivfi fen."

"Oh, um, they said 'This is what the other one is making, the one that dies every year'!" Fen chimes in.

"I think they mean the Wizard! Right?" They ask, looking at Sxicq hopefully. When they get a nod in response, there's an immediate radiating flower aura behind Fen's head in glee that they got it. They got it right!!

...gods Fen is so cute. How can they be so happy after all that? That whole building got wrecked!! Despite how confused he is by them, their happiness is a nice injection in his mood. He smiles softly at them, taking a deeper breath. Stay calm. He needs to be able to work with this kid, even if they're a snot. Okay.

"She's making it?" he asks, more to himself then either of them. It makes sense. It was entirely too perfect, almost a refuge to him when he slept every night at this point. He frowns to himself, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

"Why shouldn't you be here? How... how'd we get here if it's not real?"

It's because they're the type to live in this exact moment right here, right now. The building wasn't getting wrecked right now so everything was alright in the world. They're still excited as the run translation along with Sxicq.

"Ciqu qu fi, Qu' fenra ciqu ivfum, ciqu quf' fenra ecq ecq"
"They said 'This is hers, I'm leaving this behind, this isn't leaving the shell'!"

Fen sounds just a little too happy about all of this, honestly.

He glances in Fen's direction, noting just how happy they sound. Why are they so excited about that. More important, he sighs roughly at them just ignoring what he's saying. Why is every single one of these people incapable of answering question?

"What shell?" he asks, beginning to move towards them. If they're leaving, he's assuming he's going with them. He doesn't have another way out of here except uh waking up from a dream.

"Ecq ecq" They explain, holding their arms out at their sides.

As they do, the grass beneath them and Gyre fades away. The entire space shifts, going from a field, to space itself. They're both left standing on the stars, looking down on a bright blue and green world... one that has unmistakable glowing blue cracks in the green landmasses. But they don't look ready to burst, they look like they'd been there for some time and now they've finally shrunken back down.

"Qu' fiiv us"
"They said 'it's useless now', hi Gyre!" Fen chimes in, now floating idly in the air near him. Zero gravity is fun!

Okay so Gyre doesn't know anything about space. Honestly, space is not a concept that he has ever thought about. The sky has always been the sky, and the idea that he could ever be amongst the stars was an idea for birds up until this precise second.

This is to say, his mind goes completely blank. He fails his existential horror check, and he exhales a single, long whining note as he stares down at the world below him. He does not understand what he's seeing. He can't feel the ground below him, or the air on his skin, and his entire being reels away from the empty black around them.

He's a thing of the world, Sxicq, get your weird cosmic stage out of his eyeballs. He's having a panic attack now.

Well the Protector and the Wizard knew about space, so naturally they assumed that the rest of this world knew about space. How were they supposed to know this wasn't familiar with it?

But they notice him absolutely fucking losing his marbles.

So the cosmic stage of space starts fading out, returning them both to the ground. Gravity kicks in when Gyre is horizontal, about two feet above the ground, and he falls like a sack of potatoes into the grass.

He hits the ground with a grunt, and his body responds immediately. He rolls onto all fours and his whole body heaves, trying to throw up even though he's got no stomach. He remembers the feeling at least, and it's all he think of to help the sick twist in his stomach.

He's got stars in his eyes now. He got the briefest, tiniest idea of just how small the world is, and he retches again, bending to press his forehead into the grass. His fingers grip into the dirt, and he pulls some it up by the roots, a restless, frantic energy running through him that he doesn't know how to handle.

"Wh-what--?" he says in this tiny voice, his brain reeling too much to come up with a more coherent question then that.

They squint down at him.

They watch him retch, they watch him struggle with reality, and... really, what can they even do? They don't understand what he's thinking, so instead they turn their gaze to the stars.

It's Fen that's helpful. They come hopping up to Gyre's side, a cup of water floating by their head to offer him.

"You're okay! It's okay! Drink some water! You'll feel better!" They exclaim, offering the cup right near his face.

Thank you Fen. You're the only good soul in the entire world. He was completely wrong about you.

He grabs the cup from them, and drinks like he's been stuck in a desert for years. He drinks like he thinks he's never going to get to drink again. This... helps? It calms his nerves certainly, but it also puts something in his body for it to try to retch up. He looks utterly sick as he rolls over and sits down hard, breathing roughly, running his fingers through his hair again and again as if to reassure himself he's an actual person in the actual world again.

"Thank you," is all he manages, his voice strained nearly to breaking as he glances at Fen. Don't worry Sxicq, he is just as lost about what they're thinking. He has no idea where to even go from here, his vision still spinning whenever he shuts his eyes.

Well then tell them that Gyre!! Wow!! Love your companion and all they do for you!

Fen stays right near him, ready and attentive if he looks rough again. They bubble in excitement when he thanks them, glad they could help!

"You're okay!" They exclaim.

In the background, Sxicq is just waiting for Gyre to return to some level of stability.

"I'm okay," he mumbles in agreement, nodding very slightly. He reaches out to rub their head, trying to calm himself by petting an animal. Even if their fur is pretty coarse, the contact is nice.

He shifts his eyes up to Sxicq after another second, peering up at them with this wary squint.

"What was that?"

Fen makes a delighted little sound when Gyre rubs their head. Hurray! They lean into the contact.

Sxicq, meanwhile, turns back to Gyre to answer that question.

"Ecq ecq."
"They said 'the shell'!"

Come on, Sxicq, he just freaked the fuck out about space. Be more informative then that!!

"The shell of what?" he asks blearily, still shivering a little as he pets Fen's head.

Well last time they tried to be more informative, Gyre had a breakdown.

So they fold their arms for a moment, making sure he's looking at them, before they just point right down at the planet itself. This. Beneath them. This planet. It's the shell.

He is looking at them, but he does not understand when they point at the ground. He looks down after a second, blinking several times as he tries to process what this means.

It's only once he remembers the very first day, the very first conversation he had with the wizard. The world is an egg. There's something inside it. And that's... Sxicq.

"O-okay, so... this is what you're trying to leave? The entire... world?"

They wait for him to get it, and then when he follows with exactly the answer they've been getting to, they finally answer in the one way that confirms his question:

They nod.

Yes. They're trying to leave this entire world.

"Okay," he says, going quiet for a few moments. He nods eventually, looking a little more certain now that he's back in this familiar territory. He knows the big picture but he doesn't understand the details at all.

"Where will you go? What will happen to the uh, the shell when you leave?"

There were no other little details to Sxicq so long as they could leave. But he asks two questions and the answers are very simple:

"Fi aqhecq. Ci ci iqg icqqufinh qunirnhilz quuzh iqgilz."
"Far away. The shell will probably crumble over time."

And if it crumbles, they'll be far, far away from here when it does.

His face darkens, and he thinks back to what the wizard said. They'll have to escape eventually, go someplace completely new. He has to figure out a way to get everyone out if he can.

"How much time?" he asks, and then, after a moment, "What about us?" He gets the feeling Sxicq might not care about them at all honestly, but he has to ask. More information is better then less.

What a strange set of questions. How are they supposed to know?

" Iqg zir' azh. Qu quizh uzheqg fi alz. Eqh nireqh fi nirus alzilz. Zir' riruzh."
"Oh, um, they said they don't know, probably a year? And they said everyone should just leave! Um, and not linger?"

It's clear that Fen didn't match their tone at all. They didn't get all excited or question their statement but Fen sure did.

The tone discrepancy is making him nervous. His own language is more reliant on grammar for tone, and getting over that hump in Common had been an absolute nightmare. His attention flicks between the two of them, but he honestly not even sure Fen would understand if he tried to explain what he's worried about.

He sighs roughly, shaking his head at Sxicq. Come on, kid, work with him.

"How? We can't fly, you know?"

The Weather

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