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pajamabox2020-01-07 07:47 pm
wizardseason) wrote in pajamabox2020-01-07 07:47 pm
Day 7: Monster Arrival
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:
But the video doesn't end there, and those aren't the only stills provided.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
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.
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It's only when Luka pulls himself away from his phone, intending to catch Garrot and Olivia up on what he'd learned that he suddenly feels Seven's presence re-emerge all at once.
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There's a wet, splattering 'thud' as their body manifests into the world behind Luka. Seven's body tumbles out of midair, the portal that had delivered them here closing only moments afterward. But they don't land on all of their limbs, instead they hit the ground like they've never stood before. Wet and thrashing, with blobs of the black goop that had been pouring off of them splattering in every direction. The air fills with the scent of oil and phosphorous, with an undercurrent of rendered chicken fat.
It doesn't sound like they're getting ready to attack.
But that might not be the most pressing thing on Luka's mind, because he'll feel the hair on his arms and neck rising up as a gentle crackle of static electricity fills the air around him. It's like the air itself is electric. And with the monster only being a few feet away from Luka, he might be a little too close for comfort.
So uh: What now, Luka? Seven's here. In a pile. On the ground. Gurgling.
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"It's here!" He announces, superfluously. There's no way his company could somehow not have noticed the big, wet, thrashing monster yet. But Luka's too panicked to think logically. His previous conversations with Garrot about not killing the monster are completely forgotten as he readies his crossbow to fire into its direction.
His grip is unsteady, made worse by his nerves and the splattering of whatever substance is coming off of Seven. In this moment Luka realizes he doesn't know how to actually get the bolts to fire with this thing. He holds one hand up in the air, hoping one will just magically appear in his hand. That's how it works for the knights, right?
no subject
Except that there's a sloshing sort of sound as Seven's remaining limbs finally start to work and they rise up off of the ground. The sound of the goop still spilling off of them is like yogurt or pudding splattering out of someone's as they stand. Messy, awful.
But Luka's occupied with the weapon that the Protector gave him. His intuition proves correct when he wills a bolt into existence in his hand. The metal of it feels cold, harsh. The crossbow in his hand makes a soft 'shunk' sound as it prepares to accept the ammunition.
But he won't get the opportunity to use it. As he brandishes the weapon, Seven makes a horrible sound, a horrible deep voice that shakes the earth as it radiates out from their body. Even the air shakes with the intensity of it.
"t̶H̵a̷t̷ ̷k̷i̶L̵l̶ ̴K̷i̷L̷L̷ ̸T̵h̴A̷t̴"
As if that weren't bad enough, there's a strange movement of warm air all around Luka, warm air that doesn't belong. A moment later, gravity is gone and he's falling. Seven's opened up one of their portals beneath him, and beneath themselves, and they're both falling. The new location turns out to be the center of an intersection in Bamborough, just beside the train station. There's a soft rattling as a train departs in the near distance.
Fortunately no one was driving, but now everyone is quickly finding alternative routes to not have their car near where the Princess and a monster have just been deposited themselves. The landing isn't particularly nice, just a landing onto hard asphalt. Nothing bad could possibly happen here!
Especially not when Luka's monster sense is still telling him that Seven is right there. Mere feet away, just a mess of splattering pudding sounds... and water?
It's not raining, so what's that other dripping?
no subject
But he doesn't have time to focus on that as the monster's presence next to him sends pulses through his body. Luka quickly scrambles to his knees, feeling the asphalt for wherever his weapon dropped beside him.
"Fuuuck!" He exclaims, retracting his hand quickly after he haphazardly placed it into a small puddle of the liquid splashing and seeping from the monster. Stupid, he thought. Gyre even warned him about it. Luka keeps searching as quickly as he can, despite the substance burning his skin, until his hand passes over the crossbow again.
At that, he jumps away, putting distance between himself and the monster as much as he can. He readies his weapon, summoning a bolt as he had before, and fires a shot in the direction of the monster.
no subject
As his finger pulls around the trigger, he'll remember the Protector's words as clear as day. The bolt will strike true. And it does.
Seven is in the middle of rising up on their legs, bringing themselves up to some level of stability again. They're preparing for... well, what does it matter what they're preparing for? Luka's bolt whistles through the air, promising pain and injury.
And it delivers.
Seven's voice booms, a horrible echoing rumble that shakes the air as they scream in pain. It's a gutteral roar of a sound that shakes the windows of the nearby buildings, and it's all they can do as they're sent spiraling backwards by the force of the impact. Goop splatters in every direction as they tumble back into a slump on the ground, a horrible hissing anywhere it lands in puddles near the edge of the road.
They're shuddering in pain, writhing as the bolt stays lodged in their body. Their monstrous voice shudders with the effort of taking breaths.
That bolt nearly killed them.
Somewhere down a nearby street, there's a commotion coming closer. People panicking and clearing the street. Why would they be clearing over there? Seven is over here.
no subject
For a moment he's frozen where he stands, unsure of what to do. He knows it recovers quickly, and hes not sure he's in any position here alone to take it on again. Naturally, nothing was playing out to Luka's expectations.
So he turns and moves as quickly as he can away from Seven, toward the sounds of ... something. Hopefully something less threatening than the monster he'd just wounded.
no subject
Why would he be crying?
Seven's body writhes on the asphalt, twitching as they react in pain to the bolt lodged in their organs. They eventually slump, only moving to take their long, shuddering breaths over and over again.
From behind Luka, the first to arrive is Ten and they announce their arrival with their phone.
"Princess. Stop." The monotone voice of Microsoft Sam announces as Ten takes a few steps towards Luka, standing on the center of the street with some of their gaze locked on his crossbow. Unknown to them, Luka's monster sense doesn't change. It's still pointed right at Seven.
"We will handle this." They type quickly to add, glancing around at the scene around the area.
...
It certainly wasn't ideal.
no subject
He hears Seven's ragged breathing in the distance and his hand tightens its grip on the crossbow's stock, sending a jolt of pain up his forearm. He thinks about how much of a pathetic mess he must look like now, sobbing in the street.
As Luka grits his teeth and turns to retreat, Ten announces themselves and he feels his stomach drop.
"Handle this?" He snaps, still crying. "How are you going to handle this?!"
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Ten is the one handling Luka, and they're going to make a point of their intentions here. There's the soft sound of the haptic vibrations on their phone as they rapidly type their next response.
"We are going to end this game Seven is being used in." They allow the phone to finish speaking before they bring it up to their face and push it in where their mouth really should've been, but wasn't. The phone vanishes into their mass and, in its place, a few small holes open up.
A few moments later, the very-much-still-Microsoft-Sam voice comes out from their newly created artificial mouth. They're definitely typing inside their mass now, they don't need to waste a hand on this. Social media, however, is going to go wild about Ten's dietary habit of apparently eating phones.
"Do not shoot them again."
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"Yeah? I've heard that one before." He retorts, tears trickling. "A lot of talk and not a lot of action. And more people keep on dying."
He digs his nails into his palm and wishes he was anywhere else.
"Who's here with you?"
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Anger at the powerlessness.
Something more had to change.
"A friend." They answer his second question first, before moving back to the more complicated one.
"Come with us if you want the answers and plan now, or we'll find you later." They offer. Maybe this could work. Maybe the gamble on hope wasn't a lost cause.
Or maybe Luka would kill them all when their backs were turned.
Hopefully not that.
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He pauses, reflecting on Ten's proposition. Luka is in no rush to face Seven again, or to face what he'd done to them. Especially not when he may have to answer to the other monsters for it. But the promise of answers was something he couldn't pass up, and he agrees.
"Where are you going? I'll come." Luka says, picking up his weapon again. It was always better to be armed, he figures.
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It's some kind of miracle that Five hasn't snarked up by now.
"To the Garden." Ten's response comes just before Luka picks up the crossbow. He stares at it for a moment before deciding to add:
"Leave the weapon or Twelve will kill you when we get there." He would really rather not have a Princess-Twelve one-sided murder match behind closed doors.
On the ground where Seven is, there's a soft shuffling sound like cloth being wrapped around something. After a few moments, the sound gets squishier presumably as it's wrapped around their body and the goop gets involved.
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The garden where Twelve is. He recalls that being mentioned before. It sounded like a lovely place, but not somewhere the Princess would be welcome.
“Why there?”
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"Nine's machine is there, we have to put Seven in it." He answers, three of his eyes still locked on Luka's crossbow.
"We're teleporting there, where are you leaving the crossbow?"
Behind Luka, there's a click of a phone opening followed by the not-so-subtle booping of a flip phone's keyboard being used to send a text.
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“I’ve never been teleported anywhere nice.” He states, matter-of-factly. Luka’s fingers trace over the crossbow as he contemplates his options. It was looking more and more like his only option would be to leave it, but that would mean walking unarmed into monster territory.
He sets it down again, hesitantly. He hopes that maybe he can retrieve it on their return.
“What’s Nine’s machine?”
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It was also one of the few places they could hide, even if Twelve wasn't overly pleased about their current plan.
When Luka puts the crossbow down, Ten takes a step forward and offers out a hand.
"Don't know. It's supposed to work if we put Seven in it. Take my hand?" He answers honestly, offering a hand because--
"I'll make sure you don't fall."
This would be a terrible moment for anyone else to come along and see this. Ten offering a hand out to Luka, Five kneeling over the wounded body of Seven with a cloth wrapped around them, and the flickering of portals threatening to open beneath all of them.
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"I don't think my body could take another fall right now." He says, his tone lightening. "My face certainly couldn't."
Luka is wary of whatever he's heading into, but decides to at least place his trust in Ten if no one else. He could do that much. It felt as if Ten and the others had risked trusting him a few times in the past now, so it would only be fair.
"Do we really have to fall? Can't we just walk through?" He asks, bracing himself.
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When he breaks through the bodies, he nearly collapses onto his knees, his body giving an unsteady tremor as pain and exhaustion roll over him. He's nearly dizzy with it, but he's not so dizzy that he doesn't immediately comprehend what he's seeing here. Five tending to Seven, who looks injured. Or well... more injured? Luka taking Ten's hand. Portals opening.
He has to take a couple shaky breaths to find his voice again, shouting over to them, "Ten! Princess! Where are you going?"