Day 7: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: December 18th, 2019 - January ~~1st~~ 8th, 2020 ]

After the events of Day 6, every single one of the heroes will know that five of their fellow heroes are no longer with them. Six of the monsters have been dealt with(?). The world is halfway to being saved(?). The unknown child, Sxicq, walks the island now. The Protector and the Wizard are--

The Wizard is missing. Courtesy of the #WheresTheWizard hashtag, it's clear that even social media can't get tabs on her. They've located Sxicq, Ten, Five, Six, and even the Protector. But the Wizard's location is a mystery. Maybe the Wizard-aligned knights were able to meet with her overnight? But no one knows who they are (well, clever heroes may have identified one), so it's anyone's guess.

It's a remarkably quiet morning, though, serving as an opportunity for the heroes to collect themselves.

Seventh Morning Event: Craydon: The Funeral.

The Weather
Solemn.
64°F / 18°C
The air is still.

Prompts:

6:00am The Funeral, Craydon: Five and Ten are the easiest to find this morning. They're in Craydon's small cemetary, holding a quiet conversation over an urn surrounded by flowers. Six is nearby, seated beneath a willow tree, hat and sunglasses obscuring his eyes. Locals are, for the most part, keeping their distance. But every so often, someone approaches to add a flower to the pile around the urn. Monster or not, no one is cruel enough to disrupt anyone in mourning.

8:30am Hospital, Far Haven: Sxicq is easy to find, not that they could be anything but easy to spot, in the hospital lobby. Social media is abuzz as doctors, nurses, and patients all start complaining that the hospital has seen enough this year. They don't need the lobby detonated again. But Sxicq is just sitting, cross-legged, in the center of the hospital lobby. Their eyes are closed and they're glowing softly. To anyone who stays for more than a few moments, they'll see the damage from previous days starting to glow as it mends itself. It's not fast, but it's progress.

9:00am International Cabin of Crepes, Bamborough: The Protector is slightly harder to find, but he's made it known that he's meeting with Luka, Olivia, and the knight they've chosen to invite. He has a private room in the breakfast establishment, a table in a room where the doors can be closed. Others can find him and talk to him here, but he's here on business. Anyone who spots him, though, won't be able to miss that he looks rough. He has a black eye, a busted lip, numerous cuts and burns over the visible parts of his skin, and it looks like some of his hair was ripped out. But it looks like he's done his best to clean up a little, it just looks like he's recovering from some kind of an accident. How did that happen?

10:00am Everywhere, All Cities: The welcome van from the first night is back, and this time it's received a fresh coat of paint on the sides: It's now the funnel cake van. Throughout the morning, the drivers are speeding around all three towns and pulling up beside any and every hero they can. If they see two heroes together? Free funnel cakes for both! Does your hero get caught funnel-handed with another hero this morning? Hope you both have a sweet tooth!

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 ]

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Five and Ten are the easiest to find this morning. They're in Craydon's small cemetary, holding a quiet conversation over an urn surrounded by flowers. Six is nearby, seated beneath a willow tree, hat and sunglasses obscuring his eyes. Locals are, for the most part, keeping their distance. But every so often, someone approaches to add a flower to the pile around the urn. Monster or not, no one is cruel enough to disrupt anyone in mourning.

Sxicq is easy to find, not that they could be anything but easy to spot, in the hospital lobby. Social media is abuzz as doctors, nurses, and patients all start complaining that the hospital has seen enough this year. They don't need the lobby detonated again. But Sxicq is just sitting, cross-legged, in the center of the hospital lobby. Their eyes are closed and they're glowing softly. To anyone who stays for more than a few moments, they'll see the damage from previous days starting to glow as it mends itself. It's not fast, but it's progress.

The Protector is slightly harder to find, but he's made it known that he's meeting with Luka, Olivia, and the knight they've chosen to invite. He has a private room in the breakfast establishment, a table in a room where the doors can be closed. Others can find him and talk to him here, but he's here on business. Anyone who spots him, though, won't be able to miss that he looks rough. He has a black eye, a busted lip, numerous cuts and burns over the visible parts of his skin, and it looks like some of his hair was ripped out. But it looks like he's done his best to clean up a little, it just looks like he's recovering from some kind of an accident. How did that happen?

The welcome van from the first night is back, and this time it's received a fresh coat of paint on the sides: It's now the funnel cake van. Throughout the morning, the drivers are speeding around all three towns and pulling up beside any and every hero they can. If they see two heroes together? Free funnel cakes for both! Does your hero get caught funnel-handed with another hero this morning? Hope you both have a sweet tooth!

Luka arrives early to this meeting. He's not looking particularly enthused to be awake, but his appearance is in a much better state than the Protector's.

"I meant to meet with you last night." He says after being seated and waiting for the escorting host to leave. "Things came up. Multiple things. Not the things I was hoping for."

He sighs, raising one hand to summon a waitress to bring him a coffee with milk and sugar.

"I heard you were in a bit of a scrap with the Wizard. Everyone was talking about it."

Edited 2019-12-19 03:02 (UTC)

The Protector was expecting Luka to arrive, and he greets him accordingly. He's already been sipping on a mug of some kind of herbal tea. It smells exotic, like something this restaurant doesn't stock, which means he brought it himself.

"She sought me out to keep me distracted." He answers Luka's open question about the 'bit of a scrap'.

"And more knights are dead because of it." He sighs openly, clinking his spoon against the mug of his tea.

"I made her pay."

"We saw them. What the hell happened?" Luka gets straight to the point. "Their bodies in the cave like that... it really fucked everyone up."

He picks up a spoon and stirs his coffee before taking a cautious sip.

"I don't suppose you know anything about her whereabouts, then? There's another trending hashtag about her. She better slow down or I might get jealous."

While not quite first thing in the morning, Terrence arrives to the funeral rather early for someone who wasn't aware it would be happening until a few minutes ago. Most days the CEO can be seen in black suits anyway, but he's gone the extra mile for this somber occasion with a black shirt, tie, and even matching gloves. He lacks any offering because, well, he's not entirely sure what exactly they're grieving here.

...What the monsters are grieving, at least. He's here for his own reasons and is certain they won't mind. It's strange just how confidently and carelessly he approaches them. His weapon is still safely stowed away beneath his jacket as always, of course, but aside from that there's not even a hint in the air that he should be on guard.

"May I?" he quietly intrudes upon none of the numbers in particular once within a few feet of them.

Last night's 'performance' from Six had shifted the tone dramatically, but even before that Terrence felt he'd been a bit insensitive. Even as the others were mourning or ready to leave the mountain cave, he'd treated things more academically. He hadn't shown any intense emotion, he'd stuck around for a while even as Luka tried to usher them all out, and he'd paid pretty much equal attention to the 'corpses' of his fellow knights, the monsters, and the room itself. It was disrespectful.

None of the knights are stupid, of course - hell, Garrot is demonstrably more booksmart than Terrence himself - but the doctor and Haizea were generally more 'act first' types. Of the others, all of them were understandably emotional. The rabbit was determined to be useful to the team and provide some sort of assistance to prevent any further deaths. Fortunately, there was a niche he'd tried to fill a few times now already: someone who thinks entirely too much and yet tries to do so impartially and pragmatically.

Unfortunately, that approach had left him feeling a bit heartless for most of the night afterward. He'd learned things, and he was certain it was worth it, but...

If the monsters will allow it, he'd simply like to properly mourn the passed knights, however belatedly.

Both Five and Ten nod at Terrence as he asks if he can approach. They're fine with that. They look him over for a moment, wary briefly in case he's up to anything, but they settle back into their mourning afterward.

Six, on seeing Terrence approach, starts sketching out the scene he's seeing: A knight in mourning with two monsters. A moment of complete and total understanding.

"Do you remember his name?" Five asks Ten. She's still being hushed in her conversation, but unfortunately for her she said it loud enough for Terrence to hear.

Ten types up a response, showing it to her without the voice-to-text, and she goes "Oh! Right." quietly after a moment.

"She's dead." He answers immediately, but calmly. As he says it, he's lifting his tea to take a sip.

"The place you saw. With the bodies." He follows up with, sounding much more serious.

"Were the monsters there?"

Gyre missed this van the first time around, which is to say he doesn't recognize it at all as he's making his way into Bamborough this morning. He doesn't even look up at it until it stops beside him, and the hair rises on the back of his neck. He doesn't like to be watched, and he ends up staring at the funnel cake people like they're aliens as they slap a cake into his hands.

He's left in the dust, looking completely stunned as he glances between the van and the fried dough in his hand. After a moment, he murmurs to himself, "Is this food?"

"You're shitting me." He says in disbelief. As stoic as The Protector could be, there's no way he would be this casual about finally slaying his nemesis, right? "If she's dead, doesn't that mean we, like, win?"

Luka finds the coffee creamer and pours a generous amount into his mug.

"And yeah, the monsters were there. All the ones we've killed so far." He isn't sure if the Protector is actually asking about the dead monsters, but decides to keep the presence of the living ones at the cave on the downlow for now.

The Protector puts down his cup a little harsher than he does normally, the mug clattering against the plate.

"The only shit is the mess she's left behind." He counters, sounding annoyed.

"Six monsters remain, and now they have nothing left to limit them. They will be vicious. All twelve must be sent to that place."

He doesn't seem suspicious of Luka's answer, at least?

“So she’s really dead? How did you manage that? I thought she was only able to be killed in very specific circumstances.” Luka isn’t buying it, at least not with such little information.

“What about the one who didn’t really die? Five. What do we do about her?”

"I am not normally in the world." He answers, sighing, remembering what Four had done to bring him here. This year was so abnormal.

"It is typically the twelfth that brings me forward. Instead, she sought me out and I cut her down. They took her body." He picks his tea up again, blowing on it before shifting to Luka's other question.

"And she has placed a fake body, she must not be allowed to walk free." He takes a sip.

"All twelve must die, lest they leave this island to kill others."

Gyre doesn't understand graveyards. He's walking around town, lost in his own thoughts, and it's only the flash of yellow in the corner of his eye that makes him look into this weird garden of stones. What are the monsters doing? What is the rabbit man doing? His thoughts flick briefly to their conversation early yesterday, and while he certainly doesn't feel in the mood to hunt this guy right now, he does feel some obligation to follow up on it.

And he wants to know what he's doing surrounded by monsters.

This is to say, awhile after Terrence arrived, Gyre comes up through the gate towards him. He raises a hand hesitantly, trying to catch his attention without calling out to him. Something in the air here feels heavy and weird, and he feels like he shouldn't speak. Weird.

"Hm." He nods, taking a long sip of his coffee. "I just thought you'd be more... excited? To have finally killed her."

Luka wonders at the back of his mind if the others were on their way, and how long it'd be until they'd be here. This seemed like important information and he'd prefer to have some back up as he broached certain topics.

"Speaking of. Are we still on for that crossbow?"

Sure, he might be running a little late, but his family-mandated check-ups to maybe safeguard against magical cognitive hindrances took a bit more of a priority over what he wanted to do this morning. That sucks, and hopefully the Protector will understand the value of keeping the doctor in good physical health if he's a few minutes late to their meeting. But poor ol' Garrot is really starting to associate this hospital with Bad Times and Worse Stress, between ending up here, the shitshow he was asleep for, Six, and now... this??

"Welp, I guess this is Knight Business now, or something." The words come out of his mouth almost unbidden at the sight of more Magic Bullshit, though his volume raises as if to loudly declare that people should start getting the fuck out of the lobby. The hospital might not be cursed, but he doesn't want anyone to risk someone getting hurt if something goes wrong. Sxicq is a bit jumpy, so based off what he's deduced, he stops a couple steps short of The Child.

"Hey Sxicq..." His voice still carries some volume, but Garrot's trying to keep his voice soothing despite it. Bedside manner at work? Then there's three rhythmic, dull taps upon the floor, and should Sxicq open their eyes they'll see Garrot casually balancing his weight on a cane he's manifested- it looks as harmless as could be. It's almost like he's trying not to startle them! "I love what you're doing here, but people are staring. They seem scared." He chuckles, as nonchalant and conversational as could be. "Do you have to do this here, or could we find a nice, quiet spot in the yard?" People were complaining, after all, and as the crown prince of hospitals he can't not intervene.

Although, Sxicq can teleport, so maybe he won't be late after all...

"It was not cathartic." He answers as he takes another sip of his drink. "She was inscrutable, even in death."

But then Luka asks about the crossbow and the Protector doesn't answer, instead there's a soft 'thud' of a weapon settling onto the floor at Luka's side and against the chair he's in. The requested crossbow, a beast of a weapon made of a silvery metal, sits in wait for him to grasp it. Even with the lightweight metal used, it's a hefty thing with all of its components so it's impossible to ignore the weight of it.

And the Protector sips his tea again.

Garrot gets close enough to see that it's not just Sxicq's outline that's glowing, it's their entire body. Coarsing energy pulses beneath their crystalline skin, radiating outwards from where they're sitting. What he'll notice, though, is that the closer he gets the more he'll feel what's happening. His skin glows, his hair stands up on end, and he can feel the very air prickling at him like it's moving.

Most obvious, though, is that Sxicq doesn't react at all to Garrot's statements. He can interpret that however he wants, but they're doing something right now. And they make a point to focus on the broken tile beneath his foot.

There's a soft scraping sound as a floor tile slides over and bumps against Garrot's foot. It's glowing and trying to put itself back where it belongs: Right beneath Garrot's foot.

"Ah, but doesn't that make it more --" Luka stops mid-sentence when the crossbow suddenly appears. He drops a hand down to feel it, but hesitates to pick the thing up, as much fun as that would be.

"I wonder what this place's policy is on weapons?" He laughs. "Oh well, they'll make an exception for this. It's perfect. I'm sure it will do a fine job taking down monsters or whoever else."

"If there is one, they will make an exception." He answers, because they don't have a choice.

"Use it without hesitation, it will strike true." He offers, knowing that the crossbow will link with Luka's monster-senses. He'll know how close he is to a bulls-eye in the center of a monster's face.

Shoot 'em up, Luka.

"Of course I will." But Luka can't imagine himself slaying any more monsters at this point. Still, it was a nice thing to have should the need ever arise.

"What will you do now that she's dead?" Luka asks with a curious tilt of his head. One hand is still on the shiny new crossbow at his side.

"I will ensure the remaining six are killed, and that the ones still lingering draw their last breath before the final day." He answers flatly, like it's the simplest answer in the world. As he does, he lifts the cup to his lips and finishes the last of his tea.

"Have you discovered the identity of her knights?" He asks, surprisingly coldly.

"Eh? Her knights?" Luka feels his stomach drop. Obviously, he'd just learned of Gyre's alignment the other night, and obviously, he couldn't just tell that to the Protector. He drums his fingers against the stock of the crossbow nervously.

"Well, there's a bunch in that cave now that I'll never get to interrogate, so..." He explains, trying to perhaps change the subject or buy some time for this companions to come along. "The others, well, they're particularly hard to get a good chat in with. Especially with all of the chaos going on lately. Garrot's been in the hospital, you know."

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Page 1 of 6

Day 7: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

Activity Check: December 2019

6:00am The Funeral, Craydon:

8:30am Hospital, Far Haven:

9:00am International Cabin of Crepes, Bamborough:

10:00am Everywhere, All Cities:

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