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 may be for the best that they aren't talking to each other's faces yet. Garrot spends that eight second gap just sputtering, and then, well.

"Not yet!!!
Not until my friend gets back!!!!
And my pants stay on!! I need the pockets!!!"

There's about three seconds of pause, and then the messaging continues.

"Thank you for being a helpful and cool monster and not killing us send message oops wait"

Edited 2020-02-05 19:16 (UTC)

Eight's next reply is delayed, about sixteen seconds, before all of a sudden two texts hit immediately after each other:

"What friend."

"I'm a Pacifist."

"flying little monkey guy and so fucking what!!!!

There's a long moment or ten of pause. Dictating texts is exhausting and Garrot needs some more water. And then, well...

"my dad was a pacifist and he fought the monsters probably

you arent some coward who doesn't want to carry your weight your doing things and helping people like me who you havent even met and for all you know could try to kill you later

when do we get to fake fight you"

What a strange text. The next three replies come instantly. As if he'd sent them at the same time.

"Xaljim."
"You won't."
"Tomorrow."

It's almost like anything that makes Garrot think of his dad right now throws him way off-balance! But he does notice the immediacy of the messages. Plural.

"are you and xaljim friends and ate how did you do that"

He does it again, two at once.

"No."
"Skills™"

Garrot's response is to just talk louder and faster, like this is a competition.

"kids these days

are you not friends because you haven't met or because you don't like each other because he can be kind of difficult sometimes so like I'd understand"

Garrot is left without a single response for exactly 64 seconds. That's as many as eight eights. ~~And that's terrible.~~ But when the response finally comes, it's a single text with a single word.

"Neither."

Garrot is high and invested in this conversation so you better believe those eight eights go by so slowly that he actually starts standing up and sorta stretching his legs a bit. He even starts to move toward the gate for this little area, impatience taking over before he finally notices the reply.

"So then why aren't you friends you seem like your on the same team?"

Edited 2020-02-09 19:05 (UTC)

Time for a fast response again. It's like he already had the text written up when Garrot sent his. The reply arrives almost instantly:

"Too talkative."

Oh. Oh no. Too talkative? His purest desire to be Nice and Friendly is in full, clumsy force.

"Am i bothering you should i stop your provably really busy should i let you know when im ready"

Edited 2020-02-09 20:30 (UTC)

Garrot. Never offer that. Especially when asking three questions when the answers to all of them is the exact same word. Because then it enables Eight to just grab the opportunity placed on the table and immediately text back:

"Yes."

Harsh.

Ouch.

Well, Garrot is being pushy and intrusive to someone he's never met. And he's high enough to be in nice enough spirits that he can notice that. But he can't apologize, because then he'd be bothering again. A conundrum!

"Where'd you get off to, Xaljim?" The words are mumbled, and he starts making his unsteady way towards the gate. Two steps and he realizes that's not the wisest choice. So after a few moments of absent-minded rummaging, he finds and extends that collapsible quarterstaff he's had but never needed.

Now he's off to find Xaljim himself.

Unfortunately for Garrot, he'd said the magic words but he'd also started to make a fool of himself by walking and getting his staff out and--

"You should probably lay down." He chimes in, floating vaguely behind Garrot.

"But you're probably not going to listen to me." He adds, folding his arms where he's floating in the air.

Medically, Garrot absolutely agrees. On both counts. So he sighs, his upper body relaxing as he leans into the pole. Lucky for him, Xaljim's presence is one of the few calming things he can access right now.

"I'll fall apart tonight. I can't be out of commission right now, especially when he wants to kill me." But he does turn his entire body around to face the little monkey.

"Who's here? Are the others okay?"

At least Garrot doesn't pull a fool move.

Xaljim watches as Garrot decides he doesn't have time for dying. He looks the man over, an eyebrow quirking as he decides he just can't not do stuff. But then he asks that question, and, well:

"The Princess, Boar knight, and Dragon knight are all here. I think the Dog knight and Ox knights are here. I can't spot the Rabbit knight anywhere." He answers, before adding:

"And there are a lot of monsters here."

He takes long, deep breaths as Xaljim gives him the rundown. Three sure-things, two probablies, and an unknown. No confirmed deaths, which is good! But, well, he's kind of assuming anyone who's here made an enemy of the Protector, too.

Shit.

"Makes sense, I saw Ten and I've been texting Eight..." Truth be told, he's not exactly in the best state to mental-map the monsters and who he'd want to talk to. He's only met Four and Six and Ten; one is great, one is infuriating and the other's dead. Besides, Ten seemed busy with the Princess.

"What about the, uh..." He trails off, entirely unsure how to apply a blanket statement. "The not-monster ones?" Garrot nods, deciding that's good enough. Alas, drugs. "Sxicq and the Wizard and-" His eyes go wide, he gasps, and looks ready to run. Instead, he just sort of wraps himself around his pole, like he could use it to hide.

"C-can the Protector find us here?" He squints his eyes towards Xaljim a bit. "We're... we're still on Harsen if monsters are here, right? Are we safe?"

Edited 2020-02-10 03:05 (UTC)

Well at least Garrot wasn't drugged so far that he was immune to fear and anxiety. The moment he starts putting the pieces together and panicking about it, though, Xaljim holds up his hands in an "X" shape in an attempt to immediately placate the knight.

"Protector can't, Wizard can and is here, who even knows about Sxicq, and we're still on Harsen. Chill." He delivers them all in rapidfire, aiming to neutralize Garrot's freakout by dumping the answers on him all at once.

The x-shaped gesture prompts Garrot to expect a loud noise like in the game shows, so he visibly recoils, taking a step back and dragging his walking stick as he struggles to keep his balance. But then... Xaljim just gives him all the information, at once.

So he just bursts out laughing. He's safe, he's actually safe in this beautiful place? Most of the others are here, and they're safe too, for the most part. That's great! And he's also high, so...

"Great! Good! Perfect!" The words are cackled out as the laughter dies down, eventually replaced by a long, emphatic sigh. He'll be fine, he's got this. So he pulls out his phone, turns on voice-to-text, and-

"Please take me and sall Jim to the wizard eight thanks"

Edited 2020-02-10 18:17 (UTC)

Talk about a series of bad decisions. Xaljim makes a face at Garrot like he's gone mad, and then Garrot's pulling out his phone and--

"Wai-"

Garrot falls through a portal and lands facefirst on the hard ground of a rocky path directly beside the lake where Luka had been earlier.

And where he had been earlier, too. The bench on the rocky path by the lake filled with disturbingly large fish.

Sitting on the bench, with a cup of coffee in her hands, is the Wizard.

She'll give him a sec to get his bearings before she comments, sounding utterly exhausted:

"Welcome back."

Garrot might be high, but he trusts Xaljim, and he saw that look. Unfortunately for them both, the teleport happens without any delay whatsoever, which is super fucking weird!

And he lands right on his stupid fucking face on a rocky fucking path. He shouts, in pain and shock of course... or at least his brain being primed to do so. The sedative was such that he couldn't really feel it. But he knew it was supposed to hurt.

"Ah, fuck, gimme a minute..." The words come tumbling out, muffled by his face being right in the dirt. But he sits up, putting his back to the Wizard and the words he barely registered due to the impact. He even raises a finger into the air to emphasize that he is Not Ready. In fact, were it not for the drugs dulling his anxiety and nerves, he'd feel a lot more Not Ready.

But he looks at Xaljim, taking deep breaths to try and center himself... but that look in his eyes is plenty concerned. Is he good, Xaljim?

You know what else is unfortunate? Xaljim is on the other side of the portal. He gets left behind.

Which just means he has to teleport himself over, but it's still annoying.

And he gets a look at the recently-faceplanted Garrot and--

"You really should rest, you look worse."

For the record, Garrot still has blood smeared on his forehead, and now his face has a light, spotty layer of dirt. His hair has a bit of both. And he's still high, so he looks both worse and ridiculous. But he just laughs and sighs at the remark, ignoring the detritus on his face that he can't even feel and... taking a few scoots towards the Wizard.

"So... Iron Maiden..." He chuckles a bit at the joke before fixing his unsteady gaze on her and turning on his Analysis Eyes. "Are you really dead? Because you seem plenty alive to me."

At least he's not trying to stand, Xaljim.

Floating in the air, Xaljim facepalms. Yes, Garrot's not trying to stand, but he's also not trying to rest. What a baffling man.

The Wizard, meanwhile, somehow looks worse off than Gyre. All of her clothing looks like it'd been rolled down a rocky hill several times and then not washed. Her one remaining eye looks like she hadn't slept in years, and the wounds all up against the robotic parts of her body jutting out looked uh... hastily handled.

"I think I am." She answers him, a slight smirk as she gives a slow exhale--

... How was she exhaling? She wasn't breathing in the first place. What?

"But that's subjective." She adds, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. On the ground near one of Garrot's hands, a coffee mug filled to the brim with steaming bean water settles onto the rocky ground. There you go, Garrot, drink up.

The Weather

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