Day 6: Evening Monster

[wizardseason]

Evening: Evening - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: December 4th - December 18th, 2019 ]

Three significant things happen when the heroes have finished their venture into the mountain.

First: Just outside the mountain cave entrance are four doors just... freely standing there. The heroes will be able to walk around them, walk past them, and generally inspect them. But they just look like normal doors. Three are marked "Bamborough", "Craydon", and "Far Haven" and sure enough if the heroes open them they'll find the marked city just past the door.

What?

The fourth door is marked "Guest List" and has the names of all the heroes scrawled down below it. Six had said everyone was invited, after all.

Second: The Wizard and Protector's fight has ended, but social media is losing their collective mind over the crater the two had left behind. A significant part of the beach is now gone, filled in with water in the empty space the battle left behind. How did it end? Who won? Is it all over?

Third: Six's show has started. Luka's princess senses will point him straight to the door with the guest list on it, and he'll know he's meant to enter. Courtesy of some time nonsense, even if the heroes take their time entering from the mountain-side of the door... they'll all arrive at the same time in the monster space. They won't all arrive back on the mountain at the same time, though, instead they'll go back at the end in the order they went through in. First in, first out, after a shared same-time-Six-showdown fight.

But is it a fight?

Monster Arrival: ???: Where is this?

---

The Weather

• Cloudy.
• 52°F / 11°C
• Still chilly!

---

Prompts:

• 5:00pm Mountain, General Post: Any character interactions atop the mountain or in any of the towns before the heroes go to face Six can be added here. Five and Ten both say they won't be joining the heroes to watch the show, they weren't invited.


• 5:30pm Onward: Monster Theatre: When the heroes arrive in Six's space, they'll be surprised to see that it's set up very much like a movie theatre. There are exactly enough plush, reclining chairs for all the heroes to have one each. At the front of the room is a big red curtain that's down, with a sign over it stating "Take your seats, the show will be starting soon!"

---

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: December 2019

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

Comments

[sustainer]

"I don't care if it was all true! Why did you tie me down!" he shouts back, beginning to march towards Six. If he can't throw something at him, he's going to go up there and shake him or something honestly. He's furious right now.

[wizardseason]

Six immediately uncrosses his arms and takes a step back. Woah now.

"Isn't that normal for fun rides? Amusement shows? I saw it on the television." He pauses as he says it, getting distracted as he looks thoughtful.

"Maybe I should have made them colorful like those?"

...

Is...

Is he talking about roller coaster seats???

[sustainer]

Gyre is still stomping towards him, coming to the edge of the stage and slamming his hand down to climb up onto it. And then that question hits him, and he goes completely still, confusion halting all his momentum.

"What are you talking about..."

[wizardseason]

Six pauses as Gyre pauses, watching him at the edge of the stage.

"It showed colorful restraints with people in them. There was someone saying it was 'fun for the whole family'. Was this not fun?" He pauses, looking like he's just confused himself as he adds:

"What is a family, anyway?" He's always assumed it was just a group, but why would they have a different word for it?

[sustainer]

Gyre looks like he's been punched in the guts. His face falls immediately when Six asks him what a family is, something in his chest twisting itself into knots. He sighs roughly, half angry, half uh miserable. This is the worst week of his life god damn. His ability to empathize is being tested again and again.

"No, this was not fun," he says first, emphasizing it before his posture droops noticeably. "A family is... the people you're closest to. Parents, kids, siblings. Lovers. All those people are your family."

[wizardseason]

Six folds his arms again now that he sees that Gyre isn't approaching anymore. He's looking the man over for any clue that he might be lying.

"Oh." He looks thoughtful.

"And that's a... good? Thing? Isn't that just a group?" He adds, curious to get this distinction down in his head. Had he accidentally written a 'family' in his stories but called it a group?

[sustainer]

"It can be. It's important to have people you can turn to and trust," he muses almost to himself. His mind is on his own family, of course, and it makes his voice drift lightly. He definitely has more thoughts about this then they have time to get into right now.

"Groups are different. This," he gestures around at the room, " is a group, but we're not family. I didn't meet you until today. We can't be close enough to be family yet."

[wizardseason]

Six listens and nods, glancing around. He rummages in a pocket, pulling out a small notebook to start jotting things down.

"But if I left, would this become a family, not a group?" He asks, scribbling away.

...

What a strange conversation.

[sustainer]

It's an extremely bizarre conversation, yeah. Gyre is entirely unsure how to explain what family feels like for him, but he's doing his best. He shakes his head, running his fingers through his hair as he ponders this.

"No, no. None of us are close either. Family is... someone you trust, like I said. You feel more comfortable with some people then others, right? Five or Ten, maybe?"

[wizardseason]

Six considers Gyre's words again, pausing in his note-taking before he nods.

"They're okay. But Twelve is better." He gives a slight shrug.

"At least I think so."

[sustainer]

This is... surprising.

"You... like the one who likes fighting?" he asks, trying to make sure he has the right person. "Do you trust her? With your life?"

[wizardseason]

Six is confused by Gyre's question.

"She doesn't just like fighting." He scrunches his face up again, but for that second question...

"Absolutely."

[sustainer]

"Oh," he says, nodding slightly. "I haven't met her. Five said she likes fighting. That's all I know."

He tips his head to one side, smiling up at Six gently. "Sounds like she's your family though."

[wizardseason]

The range of emotions on Six's face goes through a full swing from questioning, to understanding, to confusion, to agreement in about ten seconds as he works through what Gyre said. Then, with a big smile, he nods and declares his conclusion:

"So she's a hero!" He states, happily writing something down in his notebook.

"This is good, thank you."

[sustainer]

Gyre goes through a very similar range of emotion, wrapping back around to a steady confusion. That's not the reaction he expected at all??

"What do you mean, she's a hero?"

[wizardseason]

Six pauses in his note-taking to blink at Gyre. What part had he missed? He taps the pen against the paper and clarifies:

"She's important to me, like a role model, heroes are role models, so she's a hero."

...

Wherever that logic came from, it wasn't... completely wrong? Just kinda out there.

[sustainer]

"Oh..." he says, turning this train of thought over in his head a few times. It's not exactly how he would think about things, but it certainly wasn't wrong.

"A personal hero, perhaps. I don't think heroes are supposed to like fighting people who haven't done anything wrong though."

[wizardseason]

Six immediately makes a face.

"Yeah. That's why the knights aren't heroes." He states, folding his arms.

"They're usually just a bunch of bullies."

[sustainer]

He glances upwards, storing this news away. It's not exactly surprising, but he's not sure how to handle explaining this dynamic to him. The more he talks to Six, the more Six seems like a child to him honestly. He's definitely a person with barely any real world experience apparently.

"The entire world has been lied to about you. I won't make excuses for them, but I want to do something different this year. Will you help me?"

[wizardseason]

Well that's actually a relief that Gyre says that? It's the first thing he's said that makes sense. But also:

"I helped you already." He says, motioning at the show.

"I've been working on this help for years!"

1/2

[sustainer]

He glances towards the stage, his expression mellowing out for a second. He has words about this help, Six.

[sustainer]

But he won't address it for now, shrugging lightly.

"It's not over yet. I need your help until we've figured out how to break this cycle. We all need to work together."

[wizardseason]

Six blinks at Gyre and then blinks as he looks towards the stage. Um.

"Okay. But uh." He looks worried for a moment.

"You're going to fight Seven tomorrow." He puts his hands together and--

"How do I say this... Uh. Don't try to not fight? You'll die." And he doesn't want to see Gyre die.

[sustainer]

Gyre......... tilts his head, utterly confused by the flip flop in his sentence. Don't try to not fight??? Is he supposed to fight or not?

"You think so? Can you tell me about them?"

[wizardseason]

It makes perfect sense, Gyre! Don't do that thing you do where you go "hey can we maybe not fight" because somewhere around the 'maybe' in that question, Seven's going to rip your face off!

And Six doesn't want Gyre's face ripped off. Seven's the most dangerous, after all. Because Seven ate Nine.

"Uh." He looks thoughtful.

"Imagine... a chainsaw?" He offers, hoping Gyre will understand.

"With legs."