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

Five would be offended by Luka being offended about her hating him. He's the jerk here!!

There's another pause as Ten decides how to answer, this one a little longer.

"Sometimes she doesn't talk. You could ask her." he offers, he just sort of assumed that Twelve wouldn't talk to the Princess today but maybe he'd be proven wrong.

“Interesting... I can’t say I blame her. Some days you just don’t want to answer any questions.” He shrugs. “Well, in that case, which one is your favorite place? Because I’ll probably end up talking with you.”

Luka waits, listening for the response. He’s curious to find out which, of any, would be Ten’s preferred location. Maybe he would learn something about Ten from it.

That was a decent enough explanation for Ten, so he goes with that. But then Luka asks where Ten's favorite place here is and he thinks for a moment before answering:

"The Lake."

It was a surprising response, at least not the one Luka had pegged Ten to choose. Ten really seemed like a Veggies type of person to him! But he quickly navigates himself in the direction that the sign indicated, reaching out to feel for any guiding lines along that path. He motions for Ten to come along, though he might already be doing so.

“Ten, can you read braille?” He asks, curiously. “I didn’t expect to find it here of all places... unless... did you know I was coming?”

It was one of the many questions that were presently stirring around in Luka’s mind. Perhaps not the most urgent issue at hand, but one that begged asking.

Ten is exclusively a veggies person when he's preparing to cook, but as it stands he's more into the idea of having a conversation at the lake. It's calmer. He moves along with Luka as he starts off in the direction of the lake.

Luka will handily find the guide to the side of the lake path, and once again he'll be able to follow along on the rocky path out towards (presumably) the lake. The more he walks, the stronger the scent of the water will be and the louder the sounds of things moving in the water will get. It'll take them a moment to get there, though.

"No and no. The braille is for Eight." He answers, blinking his eyes in a pattern as he looks over Luka. It made sense that Luka could read it, but he hadn't wanted to assume.

"Eight! Hm." Luka exclaims, breathing deep as the scent of the lake washes over him. It was a nostalgic smell, one that brought back some of Luka's favorite memories, and he instantly relaxes. "I'd like to meet Eight. Is he blind too?"

It's a moment before he picks up on the sound of moving water. It was an unusual sound for a lake, normally they were quite still. He imagines there might be boats on the lake but... it didn't seem like anyone was around the area except for the monsters themselves.

"He is. There is a bench ahead if you want to sit." Ten answers and offers.

Sure enough, the wire guide at the side is momentarily interrupted by another small circular signpost. This one has an arrow pointing to the side with "Bench" in braille. Convenient! Now that they're closer, Luka will pick up on the gentle bubbling of water over rocks, presumably from a small waterway or stream that empties here into the lake.

If someone were to map this entire garden out, they'd find that the waterways formed a massive circle through the entire garden space. Water exited the lake and made its way all the way over to the veggie gardens, running through them like irrigation, and the drained water out from the veggies went all the way around the other side, past water wheels and plants and all sorts of inhabited shallows until draining back into the lake. One big ecosystem.

"Someone else fed the fish already." Ten adds, turning slightly as he looks out at the lake they've arrived at.

"Fish? They sounded big for fish." He notes as he takes a seat on the bench, leaving ample room for Ten to sit if he chooses to.

"Soooo, about this plan. What do you know about it?" Luka wastes no time getting to the point. He had dozens of other questions, but these are the answers he came here for specifically. "You said the Wizard and Eleven came up with it, right?"

The fish were not small, that was... a true statement. Ten's gaze lingers on the water for several moments considering what Luka had said. But he decides to let it rest, gaze turning back to Luka now that he's sat down. He doesn't join the Princess on the bench, instead staying on his feet.

"They did. The plan is for this to be the last year. Then we all get to go free. It has a lot of moving parts." He starts to explain, pausing for a moment.

"The Protector can't hear us here, so we can say anything we want."

"Could... he hear us everywhere else?" Luka's heart sinks at the prospect, and he hopes it's just him misinterpreting Ten's words. He knew the Protector could see almost anything he wanted to, which was risky enough, but if he could hear too...

Luka shakes his head. "Uh, right, the plan... well, how does it work? Does it have something to do with that cave in the mountain that Gyre led us to?"

"Almost. Sometimes we can block him. But it's safer to assume he can hear you." He answers, honestly. That just always seemed the safer bet, not risking being heard by never speaking when there could be the ears of the enemy out there.

Of course, there were other pieces in play that Ten didn't know about that someone else had prepared to keep Luka safe. How nice! But since Ten didn't know that, Luka wouldn't know that... Wack.

"It ends there. We have five more days to get it ready. It would be easier if everyone was working together." He answers, pausing again to make sure it sounds more natural and less like Microsoft Sam belting out words as fast as possible.

"I think we're going to lose our magic when we're all together."

Not exactly the most reassuring answer, and not the one Luka would have ideally liked to hear. He presses a palm to his still bloodied forehead, remembering all his illicit conversations and, then, imagining the Protector being privy to them. If Ten was correct, Luka might be much more of a fool than he'd ever care to imagine.

"Why do you think that?" He asks, eventually, his words soft. He's looking straight ahead, catching the brief flickers of light that reflect off the movement in the lake.

"That you'll lose all your magic." He clarifies. "Gyre and I were working on bringing the group together, kind of... and then Seth got killed. We're not working hard enough."

There's a soft shuffling and then the scent of a little hankerchief as Ten offers one out.

"For your head." Since Luka's sitting now, it was a chance to get cleaned up at least a little. It's just slightly wet enough to help get any dried blood off.

"We think the magic is part of why this happens every year. If this is the last year. The magic won't stay. But this has to end." He explains, but then Luka says that other thing and--

"The Protector killed Seth. He wants everyone to believe it was Seven."

He takes the offered handkerchief, startled a bit at its slight ... wetness? But at least, whatever liquid this was, it didn't burn. He makes use of it and wipes the drying blood from his face. It's a small improvement, but it's something.

"Thanks." He says, though he keeps the handkerchief in his hand for the moment, idly moving it between his fingers.

"Will you be okay when you lose your magic? It's not keeping you alive or anything, right?" It's kind of an odd question, he realizes, when not even hours beforehand he had been trying to murder one of them, technically. And now he asks this as if he's concerned for their well being.

But Ten's next statement is a heavy one, and he sits up straight in the bench, his expression serious.

"Why would he kill Seth? Why would he do that when Seth was recording him?"

"Probably." Ten answers, shifting slightly as he shrugs. He didn't know the answer to that. Would he just fade out of existence without magic? That would suck.

"But we'll do it anyway, it has to be done."

And then Luka asks the heavy question, and... well. Heavy in, heavy out.

"Seth saw him with Seven, we don't think he knew Seth was recording because he always had his phone out." He answers. They had all talked about it at length after seeing the video, it just confirmed that they had to get their plan in motion now. Time was up.

"Hmm." He's still fiddling with the bloody handkerchief, now focusing solely on that. He's quiet until all of the sudden he isn't, and several questions come out all at once. "Do you know what he was trying to accomplish with Seven? Why not just wait for us to kill it? Isn't the Protector killing Seven like, against the rules? And, he said the Wizard died, but she was in that video... did she really die?"

He pauses after he's finished, almost to catch his breath. "Sorry. That's a lot of questions. But you're the first person who's given me answers in awhile."

Ten takes a small step closer to Luka to offer out a dry tissue to him. But then the barrage of questions happens and--

"He was trying to transform them into a puppet. He was probably going to blame the Wizard and us for how deadly they would be. He wanted them alive for himself. And she didn't die." He answers, realizing at the end that he really should've added some breaks in there.

Also please give him the bloody, used handkerchief, Luka.

“A puppet, huh?” He asks with a humorless laugh. Ironic that it was Seth, of all the Knights, to have stumbled into that scene. “Is that something he’s ever done before?”

Luka wonders if the Protector was perhaps taking drastic measures to achieve his goals. Was he aware of the Wizard and monsters planning to end the game? Did he have any suspicions about the Princess’s allegiance? It seemed somehow wrong to imagine the Protector being desperate. It didn’t suit him.

Luka, thankfully, accepts Ten’s newer, cleaner handkerchief, though most of the blood has already been wiped away.

“Is Seven not normally like that? I mean... why are they like that, anyway?”

"He has been doing it every year, he started almost from the beginning." He answers, shifting his hand to take the bloody handkerchief and ball it up so he could throw it away later.

"We will find out what they are really like soon, if Nine's machine works. The Protector hid Seven from us until now." He shakes his head, he wishes he could make the Microsoft Sam phone voice sound disappointed. Seven was always hidden until the moment they were released and started killing people. Usually, by that point, it was too late and there were too few monsters available to help stop them.

It was surprising that they hadn't needed to fight this year.

Nearby, footsteps start approaching from down the path. Who's that?

"Every year?!" That certainly answered Luka's question - the Protector wasn't getting desperate, this was just par for the course. "But why? Why Seven?"

His stomach drops. He wished he could go back to the simplicity of believing that the monsters were just liars, trying to tempt him to their side. But the more he found out about their situation, the more unlikely that seemed. And the Protector - as much as Luka wanted to believe him - had offered little in the way of reassurances.

"I don't understand." He says, dropping his voice to a whisper instinctively when he hears the approaching footsteps. "Why would he need to rig the game from the start?"

"He wants to control the story. He has succeeded a lot until now. Seven was who he got to first." Ten answers, not able to make microsoft sam any quieter than he was for his voice-to-text. But that was fine, because he knew who was walking up.

"And because he's a jerk!" Five exclaims, coming to a heavy boot-stomp stop a few feet away from where Luka's sitting on the bench. The Protector sucked, dude.

"Hi Five." Ten greets her, five of his eyes on her and five of his eyes on Luka.

Ah... Five.

Luka straightens up and quickly wipes his eyes with the new handkerchief. It's not like he'd been crying or anything!

"What are you doing here?" He asks, turning in her direction. He's trying not to be rude, but the question comes out bluntly. He ignores her comment about the Protector: he is in no position to deny it given everything he'd just heard, anyway.

Ten keeps watch as Five responds. She's already putting her hands on her hips as she looks at Luka after what he'd said.

"Well I was living my life away from you." She starts with an unmissable annoyance in her voice.

"But since you asked so nicely--" She continues, the word 'nicely' practically dripping with sarcasm.

"I came to tell Ten that Seven is doing okay and I think Nine's machine is working... when I got to eavesdrop about someone I hate more than you. Love that!" She rolls all five of her eyes, glancing over at Ten.

"Thanks. You don't have to stay." Ten follows, offering Five an out. He really didn't want these two to fight here.

"It's not like I had much of a choice." Luka says flatly. "You're the one that came over here anyway."

He remembers Ten's presence and backs off for his sake.

"I'm... glad about Seven." He says, hesitantly. It was true, but Luka felt like a hypocrite saying it. It was him who put the Protector's bolt in Seven, after all.

Ten holds up a hand in Five's direction begging her to stop from advancing on Luka and throwing him into the lake. He knows she wants to.

At the same time, she rolls her eyes and turns to walk away. Now that he'd brought up Seven she can't yell at him. She stomps her way down the path as she goes. Before she's out of earshot, though, she calls back:

"Don't tell me to fix the path. I'll fix it when he's gone!" She says, annoyed, before continuing to walk away with the soft crunch of boots on the rocky path.

"Sorry." Ten eventually says after a pause, after Five's left. That probably could've gone better.

The Weather

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