Day 7: Evening

[wizardseason]

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 ]

Comments

[wizardseason]

"Not me. Wizard." He answers, first, unmoving even as he hears Haizea get up. She hasn't armed herself, and he's comfortable, so it's fine.

As Haizea looks out the window, she'll realize she can't see anything out of this window. There's just the leaf-covered branches right up against the window. They tap gently as the breeze blows. The leaf shapes and colors are pretty, but this view is garbage.

But Eight doesn't have this window for the view.

"Twelve's Garden." He answers.

[tropicalstorm]

"The Wizard?" Haizea repeats, surprised. "Did she ask you to teleport me out of there, then? Guess I oughta thank her, too." She starts to mosey on over to the window, reflecting that the wizard really must be spreading herself too thin indeed. What's left of her, at least. She'll have to ask about the cyborg parts later.

"Twelve? I haven't heard much 'bout Twelve yet, or 'bout any garden," She says as she peers out the window, appreciating the garbage view. "Either way, I guess I was really just tryin' to figure out how far away I got teleported this time. Are we even still on Harsen Island?"

And if not, then how? Wasn't it supposed to be impossible for knights to leave?

[wizardseason]

Eight gives a small nod as Haizea asks if she asked him to teleport the knights out of there. Correct, dragon knight.

"Not on. In." He answers, offering her the simplest explanation for the things she was wondering about.

[tropicalstorm]

"In. . . side the island? Like, underground?" Haizea puzzles, crossing her arms across her chest. It sure seemed to be too bright outside to be underground, but it's not like anything else lately has been following the laws of nature.

She pulls out one of her phones from her pocket to see if she has reception. If they're underground, then the phones shouldn't work well, right?

[wizardseason]

One of the cool parts about the place they were was how easy it was to make it all look real. Of course, some of it was real. Eight listens to Haizea rummage around to get her phone out. He can't see it, but she does have reception.

He has reception too, after all.

"Yes." He answers her. He would've blinked oddly at her if his eyes weren't closed.

[tropicalstorm]

"Huh, well. I'll be damned," she says, pockets her phone and crosses her arms again, looking at Eight. She supposes he could be lying about being underground, but it's not like she's got any reason to assume that.

"You're a man of few words, aren't you, Eight?" She states. Her tone isn't judgmental, but inquisitive.

[wizardseason]

Haizea could've predicted the response that Eight was about to give from about eight miles away. She asks if he's a man of few words and, well, there's only one answer to that question isn't there?

"Yes."

[tropicalstorm]

"Fair 'nough," she shrugs, and moves to sort of half sit, half lean against the nearby desk and regards Eight thoughtfully for a moment.

"So," she starts, after a moment, "tomorrow's the eighth day, and you're Eight. Should I be preppin' to fight you tomorrow, or d'you got a different game? Somethin' tells me you're not a performer like Four or Six," she finishes with a grin, and the mental image of this quiet monster suddenly belting out an opera solo.

[wizardseason]

Hey.

If he wanted to, he could sing Opera.

...

That was a lie, who wanted to sing Opera? He takes a moment to consider her actual question before he answers as simply as he can.

"Fight? Yes. Me? No." He shifts slightly as he says it, letting his blind gaze drift from the window to somewhere vaguely above him. Really he's just keeping his head comfortable against the wall he's leaning on.

[tropicalstorm]

"So, you won't be involved in whatever tomorrow's fight is, then?" she asks, tilting her head to one side. "That'd be good, fighting you lot is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth." She says with a grimace.

A part of her wishes that this whole situation really had been as simple as it seemed, that she'd just have to fight 12 monsters and then go home. But situations are rarely as simple as they appear, in her experience.

[wizardseason]

Haizea asks the easy question. No details. No specifics. Just the way Eight liked to answer questions. Was he going to be involved tomorrow?

"Not directly." He states, very simply. It was the truth, after all.

[tropicalstorm]

While Haizea's been sick of the vague answers she so often gets on this island, at least Eight doesn't drag them out.

"Not directly? What, you got a substitute? Someone to do the fightin' for you?"

[wizardseason]

Eight prefers his conversations to the point. If Haizea wanted a conversation, she'd have to cut this short and find one of the others. Otherwise she was in store for nothing but the bullet notes of Eight's experiences.

"Convincing fighting dummy." He answers, wrapping about a dozen answers into a three-word explanation. Convincing to who? Protector? The world? One of those, probably. Fighting? Fighting how? With a weapon? Fists? Dummy sandbags? How vague. Dummy? What, did he take it out of a clothing store?

Good luck interpreting that one, Haizea, he knows what he means so she should too.

[tropicalstorm]

"A dummy..." She trails off, running through the possibilities. There's a couple of options she can think of for what exactly they'll be fighting tomorrow, but she's pretty sure of at least one thing. Well, moderately sure. Best try and find out.

"Does this mean that if we fight it, we won't be hurtin' you?"

[wizardseason]

Eight starts to slowly shift off of the window sill, one leg sliding down to step against the ground.

"No. Pretend it's real." He adds, his other leg slipping off the sill so he can get both his feet flat against the ground. Is he going somewhere?

[tropicalstorm]

"So fightin' the dummy WILL hurt you. Guess I oughta pull my punches, then, if I gotta fight it at all." When Eight starts to get up, she raises an eyebrow.

"Want a hand?" She's guessed at this point that he might be blind, figures it's only polite to offer help if he wants it.

[wizardseason]

This is what Eight gets for not using enough words. He'd said "No" as in "No it won't hurt me" but he'd just left it as "No" which could've been interpreted either way. Ugh now he has to waste time re-explaining what he'd meant. Why was language like this.

"No hurt. Fight all out." He clarifies, still uh... roughly. Whatever, he got his point across. But then she offers to help him and-

"No." He answers as just 'no' again, hoping this one won't be misunderstood. He settles onto his feet, adjusting his shirt slightly before turning his "gaze" to Haizea. Which really means he just turns in her direction so she knows he's still talking to her.

"Hungry."

[tropicalstorm]

"Oh, I see, I got it twisted," Haizea shrugs. Wouldn't it just be easier for Eight if he explained more? Everyone's got their quirks, she supposes. "We'll kick that dummy's ass then. Or whatever it's got in place of an ass," she finishes with a grin.

"Did I drop in just when you were 'bout to get dinner? Sorry 'bout that, I'll clear out." And go... where? She's still not entirely sure where she is or how she can get out of her.

[wizardseason]

Haizea, why would he just start doing something that he would never do? Explaining more was the single most exhausting idea in the entire universe and he wouldn't even consider that idea for the briefest of milliseconds. Unthinkable, that thought. It's a good thing she didn't recommend it. He's thankful she's on the same page.

He nods when she agrees to the dummy beating, and then shakes his head. He's not getting dinner, but also if she wants to leave... Ugh how does he ask such a complicated question in the fewest words possible.

"Teleporting. Destination?"

...

Nailed it? (He didn't, but he thinks he did.)

[tropicalstorm]

"Hmm..." she trails off, thinking. "Would it be alright if I got a rain check on that teleport? I'd like to look around here a bit." Plus, she's still a bit disoriented from the last one.

And who knows when the next time she'll be here is?

[wizardseason]

"Sure." He answers.

And that's really all the warning she gets before there's a gust of outdoor air from below as Eight drops through a portal he'd opened in the floor. Haizea will be able to see down through it, down into the woods. She can jump in after him, otherwise she'll be left alone in this room.

And if she stays, she'll find that she's in a bedroom on the third floor of a big wooden house. The floor she's on has two locked doors and the one door with the room she's inside. The floor below has four doors, marked "Seven", "Nine", "Ten", and "Twelve". If she goes all the way to the base floor, there's the exit door as well as rooms for "Four", "Five", and "Six". Lots to explore if she goes looking, or a whole world outside the doors.

Where on earth is she? Someone's sure to find her if she goes exploring.