Day 7: Monster Arrival

[wizardseason]

Afternoon: 12:00noon - 5:00pm

[ IRL Timeframe: January 8th, 2020 - January 22nd, 2020 ]

If the heroes were desperate for a break...

They weren't going to get one.

The seventh day is shaken up under an hour after Luka, Olivia, and Garrot finish their meeting with the Protector. Every single hero is pinged with an urgent notification on social media. Not only are all of them pinged with "#heroes" but they're also directly tagged, detonating their inboxes with panic and confusion.

To make matters worse, several tags are trending: #seth, #murder, #monster?, #protectorfight, #whatjusthappened, and two more.

The post that triggered it all was uploaded by none other than the rat knight, Seth, and... it's a lot. The video opens with Seth glancing down at the camera, giving a little thumbs up before he swipes at the screen to pull up a different app while it records. There's blurry motion as he enters a room, but then the camera focuses in on two figures in the room. The first is the Protector, a pipe in his hand that's slowly smoking and a sword in the other that's extended out and pierced just slightly into the other figure.

The other figure is something bestial, a mass with multiple different legs jutting out of it. Some legs appear reptilian, with big claws, others look like mammal feet with texturing on the outside, one is even avian with claws breaking the tiles beneath it. The skin of the creature is yellow, obscured beneath a slow cascade of some kind of black or metallic fluid dripping off of the monster's(?) body. The central mass doesn't seem to match up with what a body should be, but there's very clearly a neck and a head jutting out towards the Protector. Though the Protector's blade appears to have pierced the neck in the back, it certainly couldn't be deep with how thick it was. And the monster's(?) head is a nightmare filled with two, perhaps three, rows of sharp teeth that are gaped just slightly as they breathe out a horrible black steam on the ground.

"Rat knight." The Protector states, the slightest note of surprise in his voice, before all hell breaks loose.

The video blurs, presumably as Seth tries to run, and there's a clattering as he slides on something and hits the floor. His phone, still recording, can't keep up with all the movement in the room. Social media is kind enough to provide still-frames of the three clearest moments:

1. The Monster rearing its head back, an arc of yellow in the air as it turns towards Seth. The Protector's blade at the other end of the yellow, ripped free of the monster's neck by the movement.
2. Seth's face, panicked as he attempts to get to his feet but very clearly losing control of his phone. The Protector and monster are squared off to fight each other in the background. The monster has multiple limbs outstretched, apparently leaping towards the Protector from somewhere near Seth.
3. A very controversial image, with numerous individuals stating it should be deleted. Seth's body laying prone, the camera recording from the side as blood is spreading from an unseen wound. In the background, the Protector has stuck his blade back into the monster's neck and is pressing them down with force.

But the video doesn't end there, and those aren't the only stills provided.

The final scene that unfolds begins with Seth's body disappearing.

Right in frame of the camera, someone's foot settles down onto the floor. There is no soul that would see the crocs on that foot and not know that it belonged to the Wizard. But the Wizard's dead. There's a crackling flash from above the camera as something magic goes off and the Protector, who had barely started to raise his hand to react and defend himself, gets blown through the far wall. Sunlight streams in from the hole and, without hesitation, the monster thrashes on the ground and leaps out after him.

The final still taken in the last moments of motion in the video spurs on the last two trending hashtags. The croc-wearing arrival reaches down to take the phone, lifting it up to her face and swiping to post the video. It's mostly just her hand, but at the end the camera catches sight of her. Social media has a lot to say about the last still: The final image is of the Wizard's face, very much alive, but very, very rough. The entire left side of her face is bandaged diagonally, up across her forehead and down over her left cheek. Jutting out of the bandages on the left side of her face are thick, black cables that appear to disappear under the bandages. What are they? Where are they going? There's no mistake that she's still injured, numerous cuts scabbed over with strange alien colorations on her skin, but considering that she was supposed to be dead: She looks very much not dead.

So the last two hashtags that are taking social media by storm? #wizardfound and #robotwizard

Monster Arrival: Train Tracks: Seven.

---

The Weather

• Overcast.
• 66°F / 19°C
• There's a slow breeze.

---

Prompts:

• 12:30pm Everywhere, All Cities: "Did you see the video?!": The heroes are probably as unsettled as social media is. What did that video mean? Did Seth really just die? Did the Protector just die? Was that Seven? Was that the Wizard?! What does any of this mean? Wether by text or in person, surely the heroes need to take a moment to discuss this with each other!


• 12:45pm After the Funeral, Craydon: Why would anything be chill today? As the funeral comes to a close, Five, Six, and Ten have stayed nearby. But their departure is forced as Sxicq arrives, their blue eyes locked on the three of them as they advance. Ten nudges at Five, who pulls out her phone. She quickly, and loudly, announces "Okaywe'redoneherebye!" to anyone still there, and the three of them vanish through a portal. Sxicq walks all the way to where they vanished and stands on the spot, staring down at the ground. Uh. Congratulations, funeral-goers? Sxicq is here now and examining... dirt. Those monsters sure did leave in a hurry.


• 1:00pm Train Tracks, Bamborough: It's the monster. The initial reports are of a "rampaging beast" ripping through the woods on its way down to the city. The first picture taken reveals that it's the horrid leg-mass with teeth that Seven apparently is. Buildings in the path are evacuated of any possible citizens, but the route changes all of a sudden and Seven makes their way right to the train tracks. They're running along them, in the direction of Craydon, and there is absolutely a train coming. Every part of this is bad, and to make matters even worse: Every hero can feel a strange pulling, a strange tug telling them exactly where Seven is in this moment. Before, it was just the Princess. Now, it was everyone? What changed?
  
  Unbeknownst to the heroes, Seven is going to break away from the tracks when they reach Craydon. They're going to seek out every knight. They're going to fight everyone.

---

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: January 2020

[ IRL Timeframe: January 1st - January 31st, 2020 ]

Comments

12:30pm Everywhere, All Cities: "Did you see the video?!"

[wizardseason]

The heroes are probably as unsettled as social media is. What did that video mean? Did Seth really just die? Did the Protector just die? Was that Seven? Was that the Wizard?! What does any of this mean? Wether by text or in person, surely the heroes need to take a moment to discuss this with each other!

Bamborough: Luka, Olivia, Garrot

[daddykong]

One of the perks of Garrot's kids volunteering to be his mission control is that he has to put zero effort into monitoring social media. They track all the hash browns and trendy tags and he just has to click the links they send him. Not only does it give them a way to help him, but it's really convenient! So naturally, he's got separate, volume-bypassing messaging tones for when something needs his attention. They knew he was meeting with the Protector today, getting a power boost that should all but guarantee his survival. Nothing they'd send him would compare.

But this?

"Fuck!" Garrot yells the word, completely disregarding that Luka and Olivia are right there, and that yelling is utterly rude. In a moment, he's shifted from coping with meeting his hero to rage. His grip tightens around his phone and his claws scrape into the protective coating. Those scratches won't buff out.

"He... Seth is dead." Garrot's gritting his teeth, somber in spite of all his other emotions. He knows Luka can't see it, so it's not like he stops there, but he's courteous enough to use his Doctor's Bad News voice as the video continues. Even, restrained, clinical. "He walked in on the Protector stabbing Seven in the neck. Deliberately. But they noticed him and Seven attacked and-"

Garrot goes silent. His jaw hangs open, his eyes blink slowly, his hand shakes and his ears droop and there's just this awkward pause and-

"The Wizard's alive. Seven ran with the Protector."

[eutychia]

Luka's phone blowing up was nothing out of the ordinary for him. His manager and stylist were near constantly flooding his inbox with messages whenever he was out of their sight, so the persistent buzzing of Luka's phone in his breast pocket went ignored. He was wrapping up a very important meeting with his trusted Knights, and whatever anyone else had to say could wait.

It's only Garrot's exclamation that alerts him to the fact that something is extremely wrong.

"What? Seth?" Luka asks in disbelief. "But just yesterday, he..."

He pulls out his phone, as if it would have any more answers. The screen reader rattles off the trending tags, and the controversial video's audio plays out again. And again, and again, as Luka repeats the video, just trying to figure out what the hell actually happened.

"We were just with him. The Protector, I mean, but... Seth too. This can't be real. He was so sure she was dead."

[disguiseself]

[Olivia would much rather trust in Garrot's description than watch the video herself. Just listening to it from Luka's phone is bad enough.

She wants to say that the Wizard being alive could potentially be a good thing??? But she doesn't even know if that's true. It certainly sounds bad. She chews at the tip of her fingers as her mind races for what the Fuck to do next.

They'll have to kill Seven, right? What was the Protector even doing there, trying to take matters into his own hands? And should they go, what, check if he's okay? Should he be to blame for this? Should they try to find Seth's body? Should they find the Wizard and demand an explanation?]

Fuck. [She quietly says, staring into space.] Fuck, I... Fuck, what do we do?

group text & text to Ten

[sustainer]

He stares blankly at his screen after the video ends. His whole body feels cold and wrong, and the only coherent thought he has is worry for the others.

Group text
Seven is here. Where is everyone? I am in Craydon if you need help finding some place safe.

He's left to stare once again after he finishes the text, waiting for news to come in. It's only after a full minute of trying to process what that video was that he remembers what Six said the previous night.

Text to Ten
Six told me to talk to you when Seven showed up. I just saw them in a video

[eutychia]

Luka's phone is still in his hand and the text from Gyre opens upon receipt. He's immediately tapping a response away.

Bamborough. Olivia and Garrot too.
You need backup?

Ten -> Gyre

[wizardseason]

The response to Gyre is immediate, several messages popping up within seconds of each other:

What
Saw but lost Seven
Who is this
Where are you

12:45pm After the Funeral, Craydon

[wizardseason]

Why would anything be chill today? As the funeral comes to a close, Five, Six, and Ten have stayed nearby. But their departure is forced as Sxicq arrives, their blue eyes locked on the three of them as they advance. Ten nudges at Five, who pulls out her phone. She quickly, and loudly, announces "Okaywe'redoneherebye!" to anyone still there, and the three of them vanish through a portal. Sxicq walks all the way to where they vanished and stands on the spot, staring down at the ground. Uh. Congratulations, funeral-goers? Sxicq is here now and examining... dirt. Those monsters sure did leave in a hurry.

[sustainer]

From a little ways away, Gyre watches as all the monsters make a sudden retreat, blinking a few times. Why did they leave so quickly? What did they see? He walks up the hill, pausing a few yards away from Sxicq. He observes them observing the ground, looking down at it as well. He wants to see what they're seeing, but he's fairly hesitant to approach them after they uh threw him into space last time they talked.

"What are you looking for?" he asks cautiously, waving a hand just slightly in their periphery so they notice him hopefully.

[wizardseason]

Hopefully Gyre wasn't expecting an answer he could understand.

Sxicq doesn't look up from the ground, instead holding a hand out to motion a circle in the air towards the ground. As if that explains what they're looking at here. Then they add:

"Fiiqg."

1:00pm Train Tracks, Bamborough:

[wizardseason]

It's the monster. The initial reports are of a "rampaging beast" ripping through the woods on its way down to the city. The first picture taken reveals that it's the horrid leg-mass with teeth that Seven apparently is. Buildings in the path are evacuated of any possible citizens, but the route changes all of a sudden and Seven makes their way right to the train tracks. They're running along them, in the direction of Craydon, and there is absolutely a train coming. Every part of this is bad, and to make matters even worse: Every hero can feel a strange pulling, a strange tug telling them exactly where Seven is in this moment. Before, it was just the Princess. Now, it was everyone? What changed?

Unbeknownst to the heroes, Seven is going to break away from the tracks when they reach Craydon. They're going to seek out every knight. They're going to fight everyone.

[ Procedure: Decide OOCly which hero(es) will encounter Seven first. After that thread has proceeded, Seven will move on to the next hero(es). Heroes can be encountered individually or in groups. IC planning or IC post-Seven encounter threads can be added to the last toplevel in this post. ]

[tropicalstorm]

When Haizea had finally seen the video, after first ignoring the initial pings from her phone, and only responding when her crew back home pinged her personal phone, she at first had a hard time parsing what she'd seen. So she'd watched it again, and again, and by the end she was quite certain that she'd just watched monster #7 kill Seth.

As her anger began to build, the clouds above her start to gather and darken, and all at once she realizes that the strange tugging sensation she'd been feeling was Seven's location. And that location was getting closer and closer.

The rain begins as she takes off running towards where she feels that the monster is, and by the time she comes upon the mess of limbs and teeth that is Seven, the downpour is quite heavy and she is absolutely soaked.

"Alright, then, Seven," she says coldly as she advances on the monster, throwing her drenched jacket aside and gripping her knight weapon, currently in the form of a bat. "I was gonna try to be nice to y'all, but after Six's warnin' yesterday and what you did to Seth, I'm ready to tear you apart."

And she swings at Seven with her bat, gale force winds springing up along with it to both propel the bat faster and with more force than she could muster on her own, and to push against Seven so that they will be unable to easily advance.

[wizardseason]

When Haizea finds Seven, the downpour that she brings with her is making this scene even more grim than it was. Every drop of rain that strikes Seven's mass immediately evaporates, turning to steam on contact. But the liquid pouring off of Seven's body seems to infect the steam, making it a horrible black cloud rising off of their body.

"k̭͢i̮͡l̝l͙̖͚ ̰̩͎͓̝̹͞K͚̥͔ͅI̬̰̕ḻ̡͈L̤̤ ̵̫͕̲̫k̠̟͟I͡L̯l͔̭͈̟̱ ̻̞̫̲͉͡K̰̺ì͙̠̱̩̟͎ͅl̶̫̠L" Their voice booms from within their body, sounding like a ragged old man muttering inside of a bass drum.

If they acknowledge Haizea's words, they don't show it. All seven of their limbs dig into the ground where they are as the wind reaches them, and their body starts to fly off into the wind like it's paper being ripped apart. Huge, wet chunks of their body go airborne and--

They teleport.

What's still left of their body in the wind attack flickers like it's a digital existence, distorting and shimmering, until they vanish. Their reappearance is in the worst place possible.

Behind Haizea, there's a loud, squishy thud as the mass that makes up Seven lands on three legs. The other four rise up high, like a Bear rearing its limbs to attack, and multiple sharp claws and teeth jut out from the ends of the ?legs? that they're about to attack with. Their horrible mouth, now jutting out of their side, stretches open wide into what looks like a frown born of effort as they swing downward.

They don't seem too focused on accuracy. They're aiming to slice Haizea up, but they'll also be content to just crush her.

1:?0pm Onward: Anywhere, All Cities

[wizardseason]

[ Are your heroes preparing to intercept Seven? They need to have a plan. Wherever they are, thread them out here as they get ready.

Or have your characters just finished intercepting Seven and are recovering from the experience? Thread that out here as well. Simply put "Pre-Seven" or "Post-Seven" in your subject line when you first reply. ]

1:?0pm Outside Craydon: Post-Seven Gyre

[wizardseason]

[ Continued from Gyre's encounter with Seven. ]

There's a soft step behind Gyre and an outstretched yellow hand just before the voice of Microsoft Sam announces Ten, who's standing just beside him. Gyre may notice the 'In my defense: I was left unsupervised' shirt he's wearing.

"Are you okay? Can you get up?"

[sustainer]

"Wait--!" he says to... well, the air now that Seven and Five have disappeared. He wanted to stay with them, but now they're gone, and as he steps forward, his knee gives out. He collapses down, catching himself with the staff right in front of Ten's offered hand.

It takes him a second to catch his breath and actually hear what that robotic voice says. He nods quickly, grimacing as the motion pulls apart a few of the long cuts on his face and neck.

"I'm fine," he says, even as he collapses onto his butt. The pain hasn't quite hit him fully, but there are these strange tremors rushing down his spine again and again. "Is... are you... is she going to be okay?"

Post Seven, Group text

[sustainer]

After sitting in recovery for a minutes after Ten leaves him, Gyre realizes that he has to at least try to warn people. The more information the other's have, the better. He doesn't know how long it'll take for him to be able to join the fight again, much as he hates to admit it.

Seven can teleport. Their blood burns to the touch. They are easily injured but they recover quickly. They are very very aggressive. Be careful.
The other monsters are trying to catch them and trap them. They can help if you are able to stall long enough

[eutychia]

Luka grimaces at the text. Seven sounds like a pain to do battle with, and it sounds like however Gyre learned these details must not have been very pleasant.

No worries. We won't need to stall it or trap it.
That monster's going to die.

If any monster was okay to kill, Luka figures its this one. Six practically told them to, and well, it had killed Seth. It clearly wasn't up for any diplomatic negotiations.

Where the Camera wasn't looking [Terrence only]

[wizardseason]

The spotlight of the day's events, the death of a knight on camera, the revival of an assumed-dead being, and the suspicion that the 'good guy' might not be as advertised were more than enough to shake people to their core. Especially because the evening was going to bring so many things to light. Five knights would face off against the Protector later on this very day...

But none of them, later, knew that one knight would get to face off against the Protector before any of them.

And it was all because that knight had decided to go back up the mountain by himself.

First [Protector]

[wizardseason]

He arrives with an explosion.

The Protector and the Wizard manifest into the air over the mountainous terrain, a hammer made of near-obsidian stone clashing against a rapier that looked as if it was made out of a tear in the fabric of reality. The blade hurt to look at and felt as if it harmed all of existence around it. He'd used it against the Wizard so far, but it would be brought to bear against the other knights later.

With a swing of his arm, he sends the Wizard crashing bodily into a nearby hill: A hill right near the rabbit knight. He would get to see her in pretty rough shape. It's as if the areas where she'd been harmed have been replaced or repaired with robotics. The left side of her face is no longer bandaged, instead revealing that she now has a robotic eye with a glowing yellow ring. The cables that were visible in the video before are very clearly plugged in just behind her ear, trailing down over her shoulder and down her back beneath the robes. She wasn't getting up just yet.

The Protector lands, walking forward towards where the Wizard's body lay prone. His arm is out slightly to one side, holding the rapier just enough to stop the tip from dragging through dirt.

What do, Terrence?

[fop_lop]

Oh. Well that's certainly a thing that just happened.

Much like his designation, the Rabbit Knight is frozen in place for a moment, honestly uncertain how to react to this exactly. Terrence has had his suspicions about a few things, but he can't see the future. What he can see is the present, and it doesn't make a lot of sense!

It looks like the Protector is doing his best to make sure the Wizard isn't any later to the funeral than she already is... Without knowing what's to come later on, this actually seems like a positive scenario to him so far, if a surprising one! He produces his own short sword from his jacket more out of precaution than anything, standing on guard suddenly but not in any particular panic. Given that he'd tried to assassinate the Wizard on his own a few days ago and been spared, he's not terribly concerned about being harmed outside of a monster battle.

"...I'd offer my help, but you hardly seem to need it," he notes, still a bit too surprised by the sudden appearance of the two most powerful beings on the planet to really register the metal-y bits on the Wizard beyond a quick observation that something isn't right with their nemesis. "Still, I'm at your service, Protector. Er... I suppose, anyhow..? I'm actually not really certain what's going on here."

Second [Ten]

[wizardseason]

The combined physical efforts of Ten and Twelve to hold back the Protector until the Wizard could get back in the fight and Eight's magical assistance to teleport Terrence out of the line of danger meant that the rabbit knight was left sitting on a couch in the Monster House, sitting across from Ten.

This made Terrence the second of this years' knights to visit the Garden:
- Gyre had been first.
- Luka was second.
- Terrence would now be third.
- Haizea, Gyre, and Garrot would be here in a few hours.
- Gyre would be back the next day.
- Then everyone together.

With a soft sigh, Ten flops back in his chair, nine of his eyes pointed up at the ceiling with one left on Terrence. He looks exhausted after squaring off with the Protector. But his hand idly taps out a text that gets read as text-to-voice.

"Are you hungry."

[fop_lop]

Still at a bit of a loss, himself, Terrence can only reasonably reply with a blank face, "...Yes. Yes, I am."

He'd skipped breakfast before the funeral, after all, and he'd been planning to grab lunch after investigating the mountain. Planning to.

Third [Eleven]

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for Terrence, Ten can't stick around forever. He has other obligations to take care of.

Fortunately, Eleven has plenty of spare time between projects especially since it would be a full day before they went to escort Luka and meet with the others.

They arrive, leaning against the staircase banister, looking very much like they would a day later. They're wearing a suit (or is it religious clothing?) consisting of a lot of black with white accents. There's a glowing white necklace dangling around their neck. Their skin isn't the normal bright yellow of the other monsters, instead it's a slightly tanned human complexion. They've got hair, too, black that's short and well-kept.

They settle their intense yellow eyes on him and speak in their deep, gravelly voice to announce their arrival to Terrence.

"Keeping busy?"

[fop_lop]

"In my mind, at least," the Rabbit Knight admits, not missing a beat despite the arrival of another new... Monster, he guesses? The friendlier form of one, at least. "It's remarkable how unproductive one can feel when they're not physically doing something, even when simply thinking can be just as important." And boy howdy does he have a lot to think about right now!

But now he's rambling. Even if he is technically a guest, manners still go both ways! "...Sorry, I'm Terrence, by the way. I take it you're another of the numbered ones that live here?" Referring to them as a 'monster' seems a bit rude, even if it seems to be the terminology almost everyone uses. It's still quite surreal to think he's directly in their home, but he's getting used to it.