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

"Yeah... I could talk to them." Luka explains. "Not directly, though - hearing them speak was painful, like a really bad headache or something, but I could understand what they were saying in a weird way."

He turns to the Wizard when she mentions that her home planet is gone.

"They didn't seem too pressed about it, to be honest." He says, shrugging, his mouth falling into a slight frown. "They're just leaving the planet for somewhere else. I don't know how dead-set they are on that one in particular."

The news that her planet is gone draws his attention away from the Definitely Real sky, and he shifts over towards her side. He touches her arm, grabbing her shoulder as long as she doesn't shrug him away.

"Why are they afraid?" he asks, sounding deeply unsure as he begins to uh try to guide the Wizard to Luka's bench. She looks awful and he wants her to rest for tonight, even if she can't actually sleep.

"Do you or... him, ah, know anywhere we can go? We could follow Sxicq if they'll let us and they know where they're going..." His voice is a little shaky as he speaks, a pure existential anxiety rising up in his throat as he imagines traveling through the black expanse Sxicq had shown him earlier. This sucks!

The Wizard nods slightly at Luka's explanation. Space was vast, there was more than enough out there, so:

"I'm sure they'll find somewhere out there." She answers, pausing to glance at Gyre as he tries to urge her to the bench. She shakes her head, not moving from her spot. It helps that she's still heavy due to being metal so he can't even really force her. But he'd asked about Five and Six and the ship, so...

"They're afraid because they know they might go back. And there are some directions still left, but time has passed so what could be going on out there?" She inquires casually, smirking just a little before she adds:

"It would be nice if you didn't have to leave."

Edited 2020-02-02 15:38 (UTC)

If Luka had ever thought he was following what Gyre and the Wizard were discussing, that delusion had now vanished within the last few minutes.

"What?" He cuts in. "Back in the mountain? Directions? Why does Gyre have to leave?"

He is completely lost.

Don't worry Luka, you're not alone. Gyre stares blankly down at her as she starts mentioning directions and going back and... what?

"Go back where? Who left directions?" he stumbles over his own words, speaking at almost the exact same moment as the Princess. He can't believe she'd just drop all of that as if either of them have any idea what she's talking about. This is the first time he's even heard about having directions!! He thought they were just going to have to run around in a ship looking for some place to land!

Well, if anyone had ever claimed the Wizard was good at communication they'd just been proven dead wrong.

"Not either of you. 'You' the people of this world." She clarifies, glancing between the two of them.

"You can use the directions left on the ship to find your way." She clarifies. They can go somewhere, anywhere, wherever they want. But hopefully they won't have to leave. Hopefully they can stay. Who knew what would happen?

"It would be nice, wouldn't it?" Luka says, dryly. "But Sxicq is leaving, and without them they said the planet would essentially crumble apart."

The idea of leaving the planet for a new one was terrifying to Luka, and he'd love nothing more for the world they were on now to be saved. But Sxicq had been pretty clear in their discussion - at least insofar as a strange entity like themselves can be clear.

"I'm not sticking around for that and I'm not into the concept of putting Sxicq back into a cage."

His words are firm and decisive, but he still hopes the Wizard knows something he doesn't.

He's surprised at how firmly the Princess says uh exactly the thing he was thinking. This world is not more important then Sxicq's freedom, especially not if there are other places for them to go. It's scary, but he knows people are more resilient then they think they are. They'll be able to find their place regardless of where they end up.

"Wouldn't the directions just take us back to your planet...? Were you going someplace else after this?" he asks softly. He's more interested in the answers to Luka's question, but his mind is caught on the idea of this. What would have happened if the Wizard and the Protector just came here and left? Is that what they had always planned?

The Wizard gives a soft 'hm' in response to Luka's determination on the matter. Especially since the Protector was so firmly entrenched in the opposite idea.

"As far as I know, they've never done what they're doing this year. What if they're wrong?" She counters, curious. What if Sxicq was wrong about what they were saying?

"There's no science to back up what they're saying. There's no information at all." She continues, swirling her coffee for a moment before taking a sip. How can she still drink when her face is half robot? Guess she's mostly alright?

"We kept information from where we'd been. All the worlds before this one. And our own." She answers, looking the two over.

"We didn't plan the next one, we hadn't even started looking for it."

"Well, you're right. There's no precedent, is there?" Luka says, pausing to set his coffee aside before rising to meet the Wizard. "But am I wrong to be here right now? I mean, in forty years the Protector has always won, and the world's always gone on. Siding with him is statistically safer, isn't it? If we're just going to do whats safe and proven I'll have to go back to slaying monsters for him indiscriminately."

It was surprising to him to hear this question coming from the Wizard, as Luka grappled with the same dilemma regarding her.

"Sxicq isn't a scientist, yeah - but I'd think they know well enough about what's happening to this planet. Aren't they like, connected to it?" Luka shrugs. "I trust their judgment."

"You're not the first Princess to disagree with the Protector." She answers, matter-of-factly as she swirls her coffee again. If Luka paid attention to the media coverage over the years, he'd remember there were some princesses that just didn't get talked about anymore.

Why would that be?

"Do you want them to be right?" She asks, curious.

"I know that. You told me that." He says, bringing one hand to massage his temple. "I just meant, I mean - I was surprised that you'd be so hesitant to go along with Sxicq's plan just because it hasn't been done before. There's a lot of things that haven't been done before, but we try them anyways, because otherwise you just do the same thing forever. Right?"

He turns to Gyre, expecting affirmation.

"I want them to be right because I haven't heard of any other possibility for saving everyone short of throwing Sxicq back into their prison. And even that isn't a permanent solution, right? It would just prolong their suffering and the planet dies anyway."

"Mmhm," Gyre responds automatically when Luka looks to him. "We have to do something different."

He continues to nod along to what the Princess is saying, adding, "People will be able to adapt to someplace new. There is no reason not to leave if we have the option, and it's safer then here."

He pauses for a moment here, trying to nudge the Wizard towards the bench again. He can't force her, and he wouldn't even if he could, but he clearly wants her to freakin sit down!!

"What do you think we should do?" She's been watching the game for forty years, and she also knows more then they ever could. She must have some opinion, right?

"I don't want to lead everyone down a path they don't survive." She answers, looking the two of them over past the rim of her coffee mug.

"I think you should do what you think is right. But you can't bring the Protector with you when you leave." She adds, focusing on what's most important to her as she looks Gyre over as he keeps attempting to move her. She shakes her head at him.

"And you can't bring me."

"Why not?" Luka asks immediately. "We can't just... leave you here on a planet that's falling apart."

He folds his arms, sighing. It was a ridiculous idea. What were they going to do on some space ruins forever? Fight? That would have to get old eventually.

"It's not you and him that are the catalysts for the destruction, right?"

"I'm not going to leave you here. Him either if we can take him without him hurting people," he says automatically. He wants to know the answer to Luka's question, but he's also incredibly quick to say he's not going to let her just uhhh die??

Does she think she's being some kind of hero or something? Going down with the ship? There's no point to it at all.

Edited 2020-02-03 03:00 (UTC)

"No. But he'll be dead, and then I can rest." She answers, matter-of-factly.

"I'm tired." She says, this time with the weight of not only the past day, but this whole week so far, and the forty years of this whole situation behind it.

To say that it's a heavy weight was an understatement.

Oof. This is subject matter Luka was not well equipped to address.

"But..." He starts, then stops several times to rethink what to say. He couldn't even begin to put himself in the Wizard's shoes and imagine all of what she's been through.

"Does it have to be... like that? Can't you come with us to the new planet and rest there?"

Gyre is, perhaps, better equipped to handle this emotionally, but he doesn't have half the tact he should probably take with it. He's actually a little frustrated that she just completely ignored him, sighing roughly through his nose as he takes a step back and looks down at her. Looks her over.

She looks awful. But while he might not be able to relate to dying forty times (forty-one times?), he did die once. While he can't relate to not being able to sleep at all, he does have near constant insomnia. She's not the only one stuck in a miserable purgatory because of choices they made, and while her choices and her purgatory are both far worse then his that only makes him more insistent.

"Too many people have died already. All you'll do with this is remove the only two people we have who have gone, ah... wherever we're going and know what to expect," he says tersely. "If what you want is to apologize to people for these decades, then help. Rest wherever we end up, and then do the work, with all of us, to rebuild."

He pauses there, and then goes back to what he said before, repeating himself, "I'm not going to leave you behind." This time it's less automatic and there's this heavy, desperate sympathy in it. He cares about her, a lot. More then he might admit to himself. Even if most of what he said was couched in the simple practicality of how much more she knows then them, he also needs her to see the other side of this.

The Wizard's gaze meets Gyres as he looks her over, he was the one to confront the situation she'd brought up. Luka had played it safe and stayed silent, rather than confront the topic head-on like Gyre had.

Fortunately the Wizard isn't going to throw him out a window or anything, but she does give a thoughtful 'hm' in response as he speaks his mind.

And then. Well?

Slowly she shifts, from where she's standing and makes her way over to the bench. She shifts and lowers onto it, sitting back beside Luka. He'll be close enough to hear the hissing of the mechanical parts that are exposed from her left side. The soft hum of robotic engines is quiet but persistent. It's easy to ignore if there were other sounds, but constantly there. And now that she's settled in, she leans back on the bench even as the wood of it creaks under the weight. But it isn't the sound of wood struggling to hold the weight, instead it seems like it was made for this weight.

"You should go to the bridge and see for yourself." She offers to either of them, out in the open.

"Bring the others, if they want."

He straightens a little when she goes silent, worried she's going to get mad at him? He's never seen her actually mad, and the thought frightens him for just a moment. But then she goes and sits herself down, and he nods just slightly, looking about as unsure as he feels.

"Thank you," is all he manages after a moment, letting himself be pleased that she's finally sat her butt down. It's not the same as sleeping, but it's something. He can't imagine how much pain she must be in, if she's in pain at all anyway.

Then she's bringing up a bridge, and he follows the topic change with about as much grace as you might expect from someone who only learned there was another meaning for bridge about twenty minutes ago.

"Why would we go to a bridge? Where is it?" It must be near the water here, right? He looks around in confusion.

The Wizard reclines where she's seated, letting her hat slip forward over her face. Despite the slight obstruction, the glow of her robot eye is clear as day.

"The bridge is a part of the ship." She offers, wondering what further questions they'll have.

"The directions are there."

"Ohh!" Luka exclaims, his fist meeting his palm as he realizes it's that kind of bridge. "Like, the place where you drive the ship? How do we get there?"

It seems to Luka that something like that would have to be pretty far away, and thus, probably not easy to find. They'd likely need a guide of some kind, but then again, they did seem to be in a place full of magic so it might be simpler than that?

"Will we be able to read the directions when we find it, too? We might need to drag along someone to translate..."

"Exactly" she confirms Luka's realization, smirking so very slightly beneath her hat and letting a hint of amusement sneak into her voice.

"Nine knows it best, but she might not be willing to go with you alone." She pauses after she's said it, thinking for a moment.

"I think Twelve keeps the key. Eight can probably teleport you there if you say 'please'." She offers the three options, leaving it up to the two what they'd prefer to pursue.

"You should be able to understand it easily if you remember to breathe. You'll see what I mean when you get there."

"We wouldn't be alone! Gyre's coming too." Luka says as if its the most obvious thing in the world. "Or, wait... does she not trust him, either?"

He had kind of assumed Gyre was on good terms with all of the monsters. At least the ones that weren't Seven.

"It sounds like we'll be running all over this place either way." He half-says to Gyre, looking for his input. "We definitely need to go to Twelve for the key... but then Eight, too, because how else do we get there?"

The Weather

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