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

"Oh. That sounds... bad."

He collapses back onto the bench, exhaling a deep sigh. Luka briefly wishes that maybe he could stay here forever instead? There's a vegetable garden and a soft breeze and the warm sun and absolutely not the burning pile that is everything waiting for him on Harsen Island.

"The Protector attacked them." He says aloud, more to himself than Ten. "I think it might be my fault. I shouldn't have come here."

Ten watches as Luka comes to the stupidest conclusion:

"This would have happened with or without you." He comments, deliberately pausing before adding:

"No one is dead if you are all here."

"Why did he attack everyone then?" He sits up, a skeptical expression crossing his face. "It doesn't make sense, even if you don't believe him. What does he gain from attacking all the Knights, unless he thinks they've all betrayed him?"

He rolls his phone around in his hands nervously, desperate for something to distract himself with.

"It happened after I went with you. What other reason could he have to do that?"

Ten lets Luka work through his thoughts, watching him carefully and quietly, seeing him reach some dramatic conclusions and--

"If he can't trust the knights, he kills them. She forced his hand early this year." He begins to explain, before glancing to the side at a portal that's starting to flicker and crackle into existence nearby,

"He would kill you too if he knew you suspected anything."

"I know. The Wizard told me so the first time we spoke, actually." He thinks back to his first encounter with her on that rooftop and how cocksure he'd been despite how little he'd truly understood at the time. "If he tries to kill me, though, he's going to regret it. I'm not going to die."

Luka hears the portal beginning to form and, now familiar with the sound, he braces himself for whatever or whoever is about to come through it.

"Who is it?" He preemptively asks Ten. Maybe he can tell?

"I did tell you that." The Wizard's voice arrives before she does, responding to Luka's first statement from the other side of the portal after a moment. She lands on the grass nearby, surprisingly softly for someone seemingly made of metal now.

Ten blinks at the Wizard, then at Luka, and decides that 'who is it' has already been answered before he could even chime in so he shrugs and adds:

"You're back late."

While the Wizard, meanwhile, glances back at the now-closed portal before summoning a mug of coffee a few inches from Luka's hand on his bench.

Despite Luka bracing himself for whatever came through the portal, he certainly wasn't prepared for this.

He tenses when he hears the voice of none other than the Wizard herself, still conditioned to view her as threat.

"For me?" Is all he manages to spit out, noting the radiating heat and the muted *clunk* of the mug appearing on the bench. His unburnt hand moves toward it instinctively anyway, lifting the mug and settling it in his lap. "... do you have any milk? Sugar?"

Abruptly there's the soft sound of sugar being poured into Luka's mug, followed by the sound of liquid pouring into his coffee, too. The distinct sugary smell wafts up towards Luka's face after it's been added. Looks like milk and sugar were available!

"It's quite hot." She explains, looking him over as she takes several slow, relaxed steps over to the edge of the water.

"The others are safe."

Ten, meanwhile, has just taken up observing quietly. He's... also a little surprised.

Edited 2020-01-29 01:30 (UTC)

"I'm glad." He says, still dumbfounded at her sudden appearance. Luka passes the mug back to the bench. It was, in fact, quite hot. Too hot to hold on his lap.

"How'd you make him think you were dead?" He asks, after a moment of silence passes. "He has eyes everywhere and he's not easy to fool."

He hopes this isn't a sensitive subject. Luka has found he doesn't quote approach the concept of death well, lately.

Fortunately for Luka, she's pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. She pops a mug of coffee into existence for herself, first.

"Getting shot in the head is an effective way of fooling almost anyone." She drops that nightmarish statement out like it's just a well-known fact.

"But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone." She adds, glancing over at Ten who is giving her just the most frustrated look.

What a statement to return to. He can't help perking up a little when he hears the cadence of the Wizard's voice, hurrying down the path away from Twelve and bringing himself to their little group just in time to hear her joking about the means of her own death. ?Death? Did she die? She certainly doesn't look incredible.

"Dying isn't exactly fun no matter how you do it," he says by way of announcing himself, opening his arms to let Fen go floating around them again. He goes to the Wizard's side, reaching up to tug at her sleeve. He wants to fuss but he's not sure how when she looks awful from head to toe basically.

On the other hand, he's looking better. Or well. All his cuts are sealed up anyway. He's definitely still coated in sticky goop, the smell of basil hanging around him.

"Are you alright? Does this mean everyone escaped?" he asks softly, making sure the knights are safe before he deals with either the Wizard or Luka.

Edited 2020-01-29 02:49 (UTC)

Luka is surprised and relieved to hear Gyre return. His presence relaxed the lingering tension of dealing with the Wizard one on one.

"They're all alive." Luka confirms, before taking a sip from the coffee mug. Surprisingly, the added sugar and milk were the perfect ratio to suit his tastes. "Or, so I hear."

It felt intrusive, somehow, inserting himself into a conversation between Gyre and the Wizard. It still felt like a place that he intrinsically didn't belong.

"Not everyone can get shot in the head and just bounce back like it's nothing." He adds. "A mortal wound is a mortal wound... in most cases."

The Wizard has a little smirk of a smile as Luka shares what she'd shared with him. She nods in confirmation when he says they're all alive, because they are. Also it's her secret how she got the perfect milk/sugar combination for Luka.

"Everyone should be here somewhere, or safe away from him. I sent him on a little trip for a while." She answers, vaguely, first. But after a sip of her coffee, she continues her story as Ten regurgitates his phone before holding up a news broadcast.

"I hit him like a baseball." She states, not elaborating that she got the idea from Sxicq. The news broadcast has two announcers analyzing how the Wizard managed to hit the Protector with a giant hammer-axe and send him straight out into the ocean. No one knew if he drowned, if he made it to safety, or what. All they knew is there was a visible blood path from where his body had been sent hurtling from the strike.

"Is all hope lost?" One of the announcers elaborates on, while the other talks about how the stock markets and economical predictions were in limbo with how grim the stakes were looking.

"He is barely injured." Ten chimes in, referring to the Protector, glancing towards the Wizard.

"He'll bounce back like it was nothing on his own, I had help." She finishes, agreeing with Ten, before glancing back at him with a little nod.

Edited 2020-01-29 03:17 (UTC)

Gyre turns to look at Luka, listening as he answers the question. He sighs as he hears, relaxing even if only slightly at the new that they're all safe. That's all that matters now. They got Seven out, and no one else died. That's enough.

Or well, it would be enough if Ten didn't go an show them that broadcast. His chest tightens awfully as he suddenly realizes what this must look like to the rest of the world. He doesn't doubt what they're doing at all, but he's more then aware of the power of a crowd when it's turned against you. His eyes flick over the faces of the newscasters, trying to find something in it to cling onto. The second they flip to economic predictions though, he's utterly lost, turning to the four of them again.

"Who helped?" he asks almost automatically, falling into the familiar rhythm he has with the Wizard. "How long will it take him to get back?"

He realizes something about halfway through that question, and his attention snaps to Luka, taking a nervous step towards him instead. "Does he know you're here?"

"I don't know." Luka admits. "I thought it must be why he attacked all the Knights after I'd gone, but Ten said that it wasn't."

He drums his fingers nervously against the mug in his hand, the sound of his rings making a satisfying clink with every tap.

"He miiiight have at least seen me go through the portal with Ten. They're calling it a 'hashtag kidnapping' online, but I know it looked very consensual. I even abandoned my weapon." Luka takes a moment to drink, not out of any real desire for coffee, but to settle his nerves with something warm and comforting.

"He can't... get to us here, can he?"

"Eight and Nine, and he'll be back tomorrow afternoon." She answers Gyre first, before answering Luka next.

"He can't get us here, and don't let him find out any of you were here." She adds, dropping some fish food into the lake she's standing at the edge of. But she pauses before glancing back towards Luka to add a reassurance.

"He thinks I kidnapped you." She says with her typical detached, calm tone. Five, however, scoffs right behind her.

"That idiot is denser than a diamond." She rolls her eyes-- which means she spots Fen floating right above her head and she reaches up to obtain the floating boar.

Edited 2020-01-29 13:46 (UTC)

"That's good," he says immediately in response to the Wizard. Keeping Luka out of the Protector's hit list is the most important thing in the world, especially after today. Things are going to change. He gets the feeling everything is going to get more dangerous from here.

He watches Five grab Fen out of the air, chewing his lip anxiously. It's a lot. He had a little fun with Twelve, but now that he's in this group again, he can feel the stress settling onto him all over again.

"Are you going to be able to keep hiding him?" he asks the Wizard, turning to watch Luka as he drums on his mug. Given how rough the Wizard looks, he's sure he even wants her to keep hiding the princess, but he's also not sure what the alternative is.

He sighs roughly, running fingers through his hair and... pausing there. His hand comes back slimy, of course, but more importantly, he knows that it healed him.

"Oh, ah, princess, I might be able to fix your hand if you like?"

“Fix it?” Luka questions, mindlessly running his thumb over his damaged fingertips. The pain isn’t severe, but it stings to the touch. “Fix it how, exactly?”

He hesitates to present his hand to Gyre a second time, considering their earlier interaction. He instead turns his attention to the Wizard while he waits for Gyre’s explanation.

“You’ve been hiding me? Outside of ... wherever this is?” If the Wizard has been using magic to hide him before today, it’s the first Luka recalls hearing about it.

The Wizard is enjoying watching the fish in the water 'blip'ing at the surface of the water to eat the food presented to them. They're all too excited to gobble down every single morsel that made it into the water.

"That sounds like something I would do and might continue doing." She answers vaguely, sounding amused.

Meanwhile Five's barely containing her amusement. She looks at Gyre, looking utterly mischievous, before she turns to Luka and--

"He wants to put Twelve's vomit on your hand." She declares, elated that she's about to see Luka inevitably be disgusted.

Gyre is halfway to trying to push the Wizard to be more direct when Five just goes and blurts that out?? God dammit, Five, that makes it sound way fucking worse then it is!!!

"I--" he starts, only to immediately fluster and lose his voice. "I was hurt b-badly, and it healed me! I was just offering!" He sounds utterly embarrassed, like he got caught trying to do something completely awkward for a crush, and he only just realized how awkward it would be when someone else said it out loud.

He makes this truly pathetic little noise, whipping around and putting his back to the both of them. "I'll just wash it off," he declares suddenly as if this was his plan all along.

Edited 2020-01-30 01:03 (UTC)

There's hardly a moment to acknowledge the Wizard's downright odd response before Five drops that particular bombshell. Luka had been ready to roll his eyes and assume Five was just messing with him, but then Gyre doesn't even deny it? He recoils his hand further, clutching it to his chest with his other hand defensively.

"Twelve's... vomit." He repeats, incredulous. "Healed you?"

He blinks, waiting for clarification that will maybe never come. There's a dozen more questions he could ask about the concept, but he lets the first one hang in the air as he feels the burn again and weighs his options.

"Does it work instantly?"

Thankfully Ten arrives to the rescue and walks over to Five and holds up an "X" with his hands in front of her.

"I'm just having fun-- okay fine!" She rolls her eyes, folding her arms. The Wizard, meanwhile, just observes the interaction as Ten takes the reins. But he doesn't get to comment yet because Fen grabs the metaphorical microphone to speak.

"Does twelve throw up bandages?" Fen questions, looking between Gyre and Luka.

Gyre pauses beside the Wizard, his shirt halfway unbuttoned, and his eyes go up to Fen. There is this sad little hesitation in his chest and despite his embarrassment, he answers Fen's question first.

"No, ki'ta, it's just this stuff. You were there, just a moment ago?" he asks them, hoping to jog their memory. He makes another faint little noise, tugging his clothes down awkwardly. Time to explain now that Ten has given him a chance.

"Almost instantly, yes. It took a few seconds for the worst of it." He clears his throat, waving his hands as if that will help him with the explanation. "It's not really like vomit. It's just, uh..." What is a good word that won't immediately disgust Luka, and also himself.

"Slimey?" That's probably not it.

Luka's face twists appropriately at the description. Slimey monster vomit. There were likely much worse descriptors that could have been applied, but none of them were particularly pleasant either way.

"Do you still... have it?" He asks, in spite of his better judgment. "I need my hands in full working order."

It was true. There were actual insurance policies taken out on his hands, but beyond that, having one injured was just really inconvenient. As Luka continues to weigh the pros and cons of touching the healing vomit, he suddenly rises from the bench.

"Wait." He says, an idea dawning on him. "Can this completely heal my face too? The broken nose?"

The Wizard is more than happy to let Gyre stumble through explaining slimey monster vomit to Luka. Neither of them have asked for her input, so she's casually sipping on her coffee as they work through it.

Fen, meanwhile, just gives Gyre a confused look before Five pats them on the head and waves Gyre off. She'll go tell this little boar a story.

Ten, at least, provides answers while not bringing up that Gyre is stripping in front of Luka. He stuffs his phone back into his face before he responds:

"It can." He answers Luka's nose question. It'll be quick and relatively painless minus the crunchy sounds. Enjoy.

The Weather

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