Day 7: Evening

Aftern-Evening: 3pm - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: January 22 - January 29, 2020. ]

After all of Seven's fights, ending in Luka taking Ten's hand as the other heroes arrive. The knights will be treated to the sight of something entirely unexplainable: Seven is wounded, laying on the asphalt with a bright white crossbow bolt sticking out of their body. They're still pouring black goop off of their body, but they appear to be wrapped in some kind of cloth tarp. Five is kneeling over them, dressed in a skin-covering assassin outfit that only reveals her five eyes peering out. In her hand is a phone, and that's really all that can be seen before she and Seven disappear into a portal in the ground.

Luka, meanwhile, is standing with Ten's hand in his and his crossbow laid on the ground and not in his hand. No matter what the arriving heroes cry out in order to get his attention, it's too late to stop him. Abruptly, the portal opens and both the Princess and Ten disappear into the ground.

Naturally, the hashtag #princessnapped is forged.

That doesn't prove to be the only hashtag to get some heavy use this evening. The #wizardfound and #robotwizard hashtags find a sudden, new reason to actively discuss what's going on.

The remaining heroes: Garrot, Gyre, Haizea, Matilda, Olivia, (and... where's Terrence?) will find that the events from earlier in the day have caught up to them. There's a crack like thunder as both the Wizard and the Protector flicker into existence and both land in the superhero pose in the center of the intersection that Luka just disappeared from.

The Protector, if possible, is looking even worse than before. He's sporting a black eye and numerous cuts on his forehead, cheeks, and arms. It looks like he's been lit on fire at least once, but even so he's holding his rapier out in anticipation of the next strike.

The Wizard, meanwhile, is finally openly visible to everyone after her absence. She looks rough. 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.

And of course she's still wearing pajamas. But they look like they've seen better days, charred and ripped and shredded at every edge. In her hand, though, is a massive axe. One side of its head is a giant half-circle axe head while the other side is a heavy weight like a hammer. The entire weapon is jet black, but it has a glossy shine.

What's the worst that could happen?

The Weather
Cloudy, breezy.
48°F / 9°C
Brrr.

Prompts:

3:00pm The Garden, Unknown Location: When Luka falls through the portal with Ten, he'll become immediately aware that the monster has slipped himself closer and snuck his feet beneath Luka's to stabilize him. Despite the falling, he seems surprisingly stable in the air.

And then there's the soft crunch of grass beneath his feet and he shifts slightly, waiting for Luka to step back on his own. Wherever they are, the air is filled with the scents of wildflowers and scents that are both beautiful and entrancing in their complexity. It's clear that there are dozens, if not hundreds of flowers and plants in the immediate vicinity. There's the gentle warmth of sunlight on Luka's skin, clearly advertising that they're outside (or in a very clever indoor garden). But most calming is the gentle sounds of moving water. If Luka focuses, he'll be able to pick out that there's a small waterfall, several waterways, and multiple water features with water tumbling down over rocks. And, of course, a pool or a pond with fish gently swimming about beneath the surface.

But he'll be interrupted twice before he can lose himself. The first is Ten.

"We're here." He says, but if Luka's not shaken enough he'll realize that he doesn't hear Seven and his Seven sense isn't going wild. But the second distraction happens as Luka's phone bloops from an unknown sender with a text:

"Welcome to the Garden, Princess." The text reads... with no explanation of who or how they sent him the text. That's totally normal!

3:00pm Street Intersection, Bamborough: With the arrival of the Wizard and the Protector, it's very clear that shit is about to go down. But that absolutely isn't what the Wizard has in mind for this situation. She's the one running this game, and she isn't about to get five heroes wrapped up in her duel with the Protector. Before anyone can take an opportunity to make any attacks, and especially not the Protector, she snaps the fingers of her free hand five times.

And reality fractures. The way that the cracks in midair begin to fold and reflect the area and people around them, it's like the world is folding up into a trick mirror house. It's... actually exactly that. Reality twists and folds, forming reflections and containers out of the air itself until every single hero is enclosed in one. The hero in the middle of their own box, reflected on two opposite walls. But on the opposite two walls, the Wizard is visible beyond in one of them and the Protector is visible beyond in the other room. Uh. This conversation might get awkward. Worse is that they can't get distracted by their Seven senses, because no one can feel them anymore.

3:15pm To Everyone: In the middle of the earlier events, every hero in Bamborough receives a text from an unknown sender. The only one who's spared this text is Luka, because he got a text earlier. The text reads: "I can give you one teleport to anywhere today. Tell me when and to where. Don't be unreasonable!"

8:00pm Onward, Everywhere: The day is done, the events are finished. How does your character get home? Do they go home alone? Do they seek the company of their fellow heroes? Do they stay alone, or do they get a room together? Either way, it's a rough night for 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 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's an incredibly bad idea for Gyre to have looked in the Protector's direction, because the man's intense look directly at Gyre practically advertises that he wants the knight dead. He can see the fear in Gyre's eyes and he's entirely certain he knows what he's thinking. But he knows this trick house and he isn't going to embarrass himself with futile attacks that will get him nowhere.

So he stands, rapier out and ready, glaring daggers down into the cowering knight.

"Give me that." He says, coldly.

Behind Gyre, he'll hear the faint sound of movement as the Wizard kneels behind the wall he's backed up against. There's a distinctly electrical hum that makes it through as she moves, and her voice sounds even more tired than it ever had in the past.

"He can't get you here." She offers, pointedly ignoring the Protector's words as she speaks softly to Gyre through the wall.

It's not great for the Protector to look at him like that either. It only takes a few moments of staring into that kind of hatred before he knows exactly the kind of man the Protector is. He's still clearly afraid, but something behind that hardens up and goes cold, whatever empathy he might have had for this man being locked away. He might die to that rapier, but he'll die knowing what a nasty little weasel this man is.

And then there's gears humming beside his head and he snaps his attention over his shoulder to the Wizard. He means to only glance at her, but his gaze gets caught on the new metal prosthetics, his eyes tracing the cords back under her pajamas. She looks like shit. All that steeled disgust fades out of his expression when he looks at her, a gentle worry taking its place.

"Are you okay?" he asks first, finally tugging his attention back onto the Protector. He trusts her, of course, and he lets the shield fade away, but he still wants to keep this pathetic little coward where he can see him.

"Where are we?"

The Protector wants nothing more than to watch the lights leave the eyes of the one outed Wizard knight. One less evil in the world.

"I'm alive." She answers, not really answering his question while also answering it by choosing 'alive' of all things as the lowest bar she could've possibly cleared in this moment. She still sounds tired, like she's on the twentieth hour of driving all night and the sun still hasn't come up.

"You didn't move. We're just hidden."

That's exactly why Gyre knows he's a nasty little fuck. He hates the guy, but if he doesn't have to see the Protector die, he doesn't want to.

He can't help glancing towards her when she gives such a noncommittal answer, looking her over worriedly. She needs to not be fighting, but he doesn't know how to get her out of here and away from the Protector long enough for her to recover.

"Did we have to hide with him?" he asks, returning to eyeing the Protector.

She's been fighting almost nonstop for almost an entire day, it's fine. Minus the time she was apparently dead, but that's water under the bridge.

"He's trapped with us. He can't kill anyone in here." She answers, one eye glancing over towards him.

"The only one who will get anyone killed is the two of you." He interjects, coldly.

Fair. He nods very slightly, wrinkling his nose as the Protector just... lies? Who does he think he's going to convince?

"What happened to Seth?" he asks, staring the Protector down for a moment before glancing back to the Wizard. He's asking them both really, trying to see where the holes are.

The Protector is as quick as a bolt of a lightning with his response, speaking as he slides a foot backwards and takes up a striking pose with his sword held perfectly horizontal towards the wall in front of him. It's like he intends to pierce it.

"Seth is dead. Murdered by the one whispering lies in your ear; and the monsters she lets loose every year." He says the words calmly but it's clear they're dripping with ice. If Gyre's watching closely, he'll realize that the rapier in his grip is starting to glow a harsh white.

"You know who didn't kill Seth, which means you know who did." The Wizard adds, quieter, beside Gyre. She leans a little closer to the wall between them.

"I can't tell you more than that." She adds, quieter, sounding somehow even more tired than she had before. With the weariness of a human who'd been stranded on an island eating nothing but coconuts and fish for ten years being rescued at last only to be offered coconut-crusted cod as the main dish of the 'welcome back' party and having to say 'thank you'.

Once again he glances back over his shoulder at the Wizard, his brow creasing just slightly. He knows she's limited in the way she can answer their questions, but it is still frustrating and utterly off-putting to have her deflect while her counterpart lies so calmly. He doesn't waver, but he does make a note to ask her about it later.

"What were you doing to Seven? Why not just kill them while you had them?" he returns, as if it's an interview. He's noted the Protector's response and he's making no further comment on it for now. He does start pushing himself back to his feet though, his gaze locked on the handle of the sword as it begins to glow. He doesn't pull his shield up yet, but he does ready himself to block the titanic force he's pretty sure is coming if the Protector gets his way.

Edited 2020-01-22 21:23 (UTC)

"Still you listen to her." He says, annoyed as Gyre continues his line of questioning. The blade in his hand is bright enough to be uncomfortable to look at, and he begins pushing it forward against the wall. Small white cracks begin to form where they touch, growing out from where his blade is pressed.

"Killing the monster, permanently. Not just this year. Every year. A process that was interrupted." He answers, coldly.

"Something no one else can do." Something no one else would do.

Behind Gyre, behind the wall, the Wizard slumps down to sit on the ground. Something that Gyre may pick up on is, despite how tired she looks, she isn't breathing.

Was she ever breathing?

He squints and looks up from the blade, bringing a hand up warily in front himself as if expecting the wall to shatter like glass. He's tense, his whole core focused down onto what magic he has left. If he's to defend himself, he knows he's going to have to make it stronger then anything he's had to do before. He doubts even Seven hit him as hard as this man wants to.

A chill runs up his spine as the Protector explains what he was doing, and the fury that he's been forcibly swallowing down bubbles up into his throat for a moment. He snarls at him, a low animal growl, baring his teeth. He shifts a step forward and sideways in a single motion, putting himself between the Protector and the Wizard where she's collapsed on the ground.

"They're people, 《you miserable coward.》" He can't think of a word strong enough for how he feels right now, so he dips briefly into his own language, pulling out the nastiest thing he's ever heard someone say with intent before. "Have you ever spoken to them! Have you spent forty years plotting how to torture one of them to death??"

The wall isn't that far off from shattering. The white cracks are spreading out, slowly forming a growing web of damage centered around the Protector's blade. When Gyre shouts, the entire reflective structure shudders as the Protector sends a bolt of magic right into the glass separating them. The magic hits with a 'thud' against the wall, but small fragments of the barrier land in the room with Gyre. That's probably bad.

"They are imitations, fragments of a spell that produced twelve poor facsimiles of life. Your misplaced empathy serves to further her cause." He grunts out with effort and anger, forcing his attack's full energy into the wall in front of him.

From behind Gyre, there's a soft 'thump'. Clutched in the Wizard's hand is her massive hammer-axe. The length of it is laid across her lap where she's sat down, but it's clear she's getting ready to use it. Even so, her remaining non-robot eye looks like she's barely there. She's staring, unfocused, at a spot on the ground somewhere in the cell Gyre's trapped in.

The barrier cracks towards him and he jerks a step back, pressing himself to the wall again. He's still furious, of course, but there's a shiny fear returned to his eyes. He doesn't know what to do.

"Have you talked to any of them! There is no difference!" he insists, wrinkling his nose as he looks at the sword. What can he do--

The axe thumps behind him and he looks backwards at her. He can see the weapon, and the way her eye is so completely dulled out. He can't let her fight. That's the one thing he knows in this moment, and he bends down closer to her, taking half an eye off the Protector.

"Give me that. You need to rest," he says as gently as he can, a nervous tremor hovering in his throat.

"Things are not people." The Protector counters, coldly.

Thank god Gyre's phone bloops to lighten that mood up a little, yeesh. He has a text!

The wall behind Gyre cracks again as he turns towards the Wizard, and her hands remain gripped around the weapon's handle. She raises her eye, locking her gaze on him.

"You can't fight him." She says, giving him a slight smirk.

"I won't die."

There's another crack behind Gyre. That wall isn't long for this world.

Edited 2020-01-23 01:17 (UTC)

He grits his teeth when she smirks at him like that, furious for a moment that she won't let him help. He opens his mouth to insist, but before he can say anything, his phone goes off. He glances towards his pocket, then up to the Protector and the crumbling wall, and for a moment, he's going to ignore it.

It strikes him all at once that the knights were all here. She put them all into boxes. Who could be texting him? He jerks to his feet and yanks his phone out of his pocket, looking at it and well... speaking in quick Amarosian, "《Take the Wizard to Twelve's garden. Right now.》"

He shoves the phone back into his pocket, and immediately he reaches out for a weapons he's... at least fifty percent sure will be there. "Fen, give me a spear that will break a sword."

Edited 2020-01-23 01:35 (UTC)

Gyre's spear manifests in his grasp, exactly the type he'd asked for, conjured out of a black metal. Almost immediately, though, his phone bloops again with a notification. That was fast!

Behind Gyre, he can hear the Wizard rising up to stand. She's definitely using her hammer-axe to stabilize herself.

In front, the Protector finally pulls his rapier free of the wall. There are pieces crumbling from it, one after another, until the wall begins to dissolve into dust in the air.

"At last, an evil will be snuffed out." The Protector says, sounding surprisingly relieved, as he raises his blade up high over his head.

...

And Gyre will suddenly be aware of a bright red dot glowing on the center of his chest.

This dramatic motherfucker. He twitches a little when his phone goes off again, hoping beyond hope that it's a confirmation and she'll be gone soon. He doesn't have time to check it though, watching the wall begin to crumble, watching the Protector take up that position.

He takes a deep breath, and his expression goes dark and flat. If he's going to strike this man, it has to be with killing intent. Anything less will get them both hurt, and then there's the flash of red on his chest.

He strikes immediately, shifting his weight to one side so the bead isn't on him any longer, and he thrusts the spear through the broken hole that's been steadily growing in the wall. If he can just put it into this man's chest, that's step one.

It all goes to hell in a handbasket fast enough to break the sound barrier.

There's the sound of screaming as whatever that red beam was misses Gyre by millimeters. He'll feel a frigid cold on his chest and he'll smell smoke from where whatever it was burned and froze the cloth it barely passed.

But the mirror reality immediately begins to crumble as the Wizard rushes forward from her cell, breaking through by using the hole that the Protector's attack had created in her own wall. She's beside Gyre, rushing forward to strike with him.

The chaos of the mirror space collapsing, the chaotic shrapnel in the air, and the power of two attacks together are more than enough.

Or not.

Gyre's spear and the Wizard's axe are pressed together with the Protector's rapier pinned between them and he's gone. Sort of.

There's a trail of multicolored blood on the ground where he was, but it seems to go off in multiple directions before disappearing.

...

What?

Also, the Wizard slumps forward and barely catches herself by using her weapon as a crutch. She looks like she's ready to pass out, the same blank look returning to her eye. But her robot eye is awake and attentive, and it's looking at Gyre as she mutters out:

"Phone."

Everything is over too quickly for him to really understand what happened. He blinks a few times, breathing hard, his eyes moving from their locked weapons to the blood? on the ground. He holds there for a moment too long, only coming back to himself when the Wizard begins to collapse.

The rapier clatters to the ground, and he shifts to her side to take her shoulder carefully. There is a gentle concern on his face, his brow furrowing as he bends down to meet her eyes.

"Oh... sure," he says, reaching into his pocket and offering it to her. "What do you need me to do?"

Gyre will quickly realize that he can't take her shoulder or even support her. She weighs several hundred pounds too much for someone of her size. She keeps herself up, though, hands gripping her axe handle tightly.

When he offers her the phone, she shakes her head.

"You have a text." She answers, robot eye watching him even as her other eyelid flutters, barely staying open.

"Oh," he says, hesitating back for a moment as he feels how heavy she is under his hand. He wants to help her, but something tells him he won't be able to by lifting her.

He checks his phone at that thought, and makes an immediately frustrated noise, locking the phone and putting it back into his pocket.

"What's your plan? You look like you're going to collapse!"

"I'm going to leave." She answers, keeping her half-gaze on him.

"After all five of you." She follows-up.

So get out of here, Gyre.

Several emotions flicker across his face, worry and frustration, anger to fear, then determination settles into place.

"Then I'll be the fifth," he says, straightening himself up beside her and casting his gaze around. Gods know where the Protector could be coming from, if he's coming again.

"You can't die."

Unfortunately for Gyre, she knows enough to know how to tempt him away from here. When he insists that he stay until last, she straightens slightly and finally starts standing on her own.

"I won't die. You should go talk to Twelve."

He shakes his head immediately. He does want to talk to Twelve, of course. He wants to talk to all of them, but they're the ones who told him the Wizard has to live, or it gets that much harder. Even if he didn't care about keeping her safe, he'd stay here to protect their plan.

"How can you be so certain you won't die?" he asks calmly. "She'll be there later. Once you're safer."

"I'm safe." She follows, sounding like she's drifting off to sleep.

"And he can't dodge me right now." She adds, amused, looking Gyre over. She has a theory...

"The Princess is there, with the monsters."

Day 7: Evening

Aftern-Evening: 3pm - Midnight

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

Activity Check: January 2020

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