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

Gyre grunts as he's tugged up under Garrot's arm, scowling at the air for a beat until he realizes just how much more stable the man feels now. He wraps an arm loosely around his back, holding his side gently as he waits for them to finish talking about grabbing each other's pants sticks.

"I don't think we'll be getting much of anywhere if that's what you two are interested it," he says dryly, down into the cave as if he wouldn't uh actually drop everything to do that instead. The more he thinks about looking at a dead body, the less he actually wants to do it. But the information is important. Ugh.

"I'm just trying to help. We gotta get in there." He shrugs a bit, letting his compact quarterstaff rest in the pocket it ended up hiding in. Garrot is utterly unbothered by their additional jokes as a memory bubbles up to the forefront of his addled mind. "But if Luka really wants something primitive, I could give him a ride." There's a beat of silence from Garrot as he keeps walking, but then he starts stifling a laugh. "Hehehehehe, the Princess could ride me."

The laughter, deep and gentle, continues. This is who the Monkey Knight has decided to be right now. It's that or make jokes about the dead bodies of their allies that they're gonna see. And that's both difficult and in bad taste.

Edited 2020-02-06 20:26 (UTC)

"I wouldn't say no, but you're in no condition to be ridden right now." He can't help but laugh along with Garrot - the Monkey Knight's giggling was rather infectious. "Maybe later."

Luka quickens his steps, hoping that the two in front of him would be enough warning for any undetectable obstacles or hazards in the path ahead. He was fine with the flippant joking, to be honest, he wasn't particularly eager to face what he knew was awaiting them deeper in the mountain anyway.

Gyre listens to the two of them and despite himself, he smiles faintly, making a low amused noise as he helps Garrot down a particularly steep bit of the cave floor.

"Oh, will you be bringing a new act for my next show, princess?" he murmurs teasingly. He's not speaking very loudly, and his heart isn't in it, but he's really trying to keep the mood up before they get where they're going.

"Sounds fun."

Unfortunately, Garrot is right there, and descending down part of the cave meant he was basically clinging to Gyre for dear life. They get back on stable ground, and he gives Gyre a gentle little squeeze as he looks to him and smiles. And then, well, he hears that. His grip tightens to keep steady as his head whirls around, glaring at Luka as he huffs.

"He gets shows?! I want a show, give me a show!" Seven-foot, grown-ass man having a melodramatic, whining tantrum. The rest of his body spins around as he lets go of his cane, his other arm bringing Gyre along for the ride. "That's the chance of a lifetime. I'll get on my knees and beg if you want. Right now!" He can't help but laugh as he says it, plenty loud as he squats down a little, clearly feeding into the collective act. That said, his free hand still reaches out towards Luka, ready to snatch him up if that steep bit causes any problems.

This is hardly the first time he's been on drugs.

Luka's stopped in his tracks, alerted by Garrot's sudden and very physical reaction. After a fleeting moment of stunned silence, Luka starts laughing again.

"Oh yeah, Gyre gets private shows." His voice is dripping with innuendo, if only to tease Garrot a little more.

Luka attempts to ease down the steep part of the path, his arms feeling for something to stabilize him. In the moment, he regrets declining that stick. He's so focused on not slipping and falling on his ass here that there's a notable pause in the conversation while he makes his way through it.

"They're reaaaallly exclusive though. I can tell you understand that much." He continues when he feels the ground beneath him leveling out. "But since you're a knight maybe I can make an exception for you... only a little begging required."

Gyre realizes he has made a mistake about a millisecond before Garrot whips around. He clings to him, first to keep the other stable while he swings his head around, and then because he's being yanked around. He stumbles over himself, yelping as he's dragged into the cane which catches his feet so that he's nearly collapsed by the time Garrot has stopped.

He struggles back up to his feet, hovering beside this drugged man who's decided to stoop down low like that. He honestly doubts Garrot could get back up if he actually started begging on his knees.

"You can beg later, when you're not about to fall over," he says, fully in parent mode despite the teasing just a moment ago.

"I dunno, man..." Garrot takes a moment to awkwardly return to a standing position. Except he's high so one moment became like ten, a similar amount of uncomfortable shuffling as the others have had to do. Standing is hard, okay?

"I'll beg, but like..." He squeezes Gyre in close again, becoming more aware of how the poor guy got slapped into that cane. "Gyre would never beg." Is this??? A double standard??? There's a fake little huff as Garrot gently rotates himself and Gyre so they're facing forward again. Luka seems like he's got this.

"So, uh..." He trails off as his free hand grasps for the cane again. It's too far and he doesn't want to stretch. But when he keeps talking, there's a judging, husky sort of tone to his voice. "What'd he have to do to impress you?"

It is abundantly clear that he thinks these two have had some kind of sexcapade. In fact, it's so captivating he's almost forgotten where they're going.

"Hey, what makes you think I couldn't make Gyre beg if I wanted to?" His tone is playfully indignant, and he's wearing an expression that shows just how much he's enjoying this. Luka is in absolutely no hurry to clarify the exact details of that camp visit just yet. It would spoil the fun.

"I learned a lot of impressive things about him that day. Didn't I, Gyre?" It was the same day he'd pulled Gyre's head from the rubble of the hospital, and the same day Gyre would later knock him unconscious. "Maybe you saw some of those things. They weren't as private as they should have been. But I don't recommend trying to replicate his methods, they just wouldn't work for you."

He lets himself get dragged around again, rolling his eyes a little that Garrot is so insistently forcing him around. If the guy wasn't relying on him to stay upright, he might protest a little more. Instead, he reaches out and grabs the cane when Garrot gives up on it, setting it into front of him so he can take it when he's ready.

Or when he's done being petty, he supposes. It's very strange to be the center of a conversation that's being had around you, instead of to you, and he's tensely silent when Garrot asks for an explanation like that. He glances over his shoulder as Luka responds, noting that he seems to be enjoying himself at least. That makes him relax very slightly at least.

"Mmmhm," he agrees to the question directed at him. He did indeed reveal quite a bit of himself that day, though perhaps not as much as Luka is letting Garrot think.

"I'm sure you'll find your own way in," he teases Garrot gently, playing along with Luka even if he's keeping his focus mostly on moving forward. They can banter. He's still pretty in his own head about where they're going.

Being Excluded reminds him of hiding his love life from his kids. It's a good and wholesome reminder, and it makes him... sigh and smile, warm and calm.

"I mean obviously I will." He's peak lazy self-assured, and reaches up with his free hand to ruffle Gyre's hair a little bit, taking extra care to let his claws gently caress the elf's scalp here and there.

"I'm just glad you two have found your way into each other's hearts and minds..." Garrot stifles a laugh, the spare hand now grabbing that cane again. "...and butts." He made the joke, he can't just stand around now! "It means I don't have to worry about either of you as much."

And then he starts pressing onward once more. If he doesn't need to worry about them, he can worry about, well his own needs. Like... the truth.

"Very presumptuous, Garrot!" Luka chimes in, not clarifying if he means Garrot's confidence about winning him over or his conclusion that he and Gyre had already hooked up. Spoiler: it's both.

"But if thinking about Gyre and I together helps you sleep at night..." He winks for emphasis though the gesture probably goes unnoticed. "Well, I wouldn't want to take that away from you."

Well. He's briefly disabled by being scritched on the head, his eyes fluttering closed, his breath rumbling in his chest in some weird elven purr. He can't help pushing his head forcefully up into Garrot's palm, grunting in something like surprise when he's released again.

This is to say, he basically misses the last chunk of the conversation, blinking unevenly as he tries to figure out where they are and what he's doing again. Right. The cave. Seth's body. He takes the next few steps in fuzzy silence, too embarrassed to admit he didn't hear the last bit of teasing. Instead, he shifts as they emerge out into the high walkway above the platform below, deciding to change the subject while he has the chance.

"We're here," he says back to Luka, "Be careful of the edge. We're going to keep going down, but it should be smoother." He glances up at Garrot after that, looking him over, looking his cane over.

"How are you doing?"

Edited 2020-02-09 20:42 (UTC)

Just like last time, the corridor suddenly opens up at the bottom into a wide-open cavern, the walls spreading out too far in every direction and disappearing into the darkness of the cavern. The walkway into the space narrows as it crosses over a massive pit that surrounds a central circular platform. There aren’t any other walkways leading to the middle.

The circular platform in the center has twenty-seven metal rings that make up the floor, smaller ones in the middle surrounded by one massive ring around the outside. It'd take a lot of counting to see the 27 rings but, believe me, they're there. What the heroes will be able to spot, though, is that a few of the rings on the floor are rotating very, very slowly. It would be easy to miss, but once noticed it’s clear that there are exactly thirteen rings moving and fourteen that are not.

Surrounding the center platform are twenty-seven raised platforms in a big circle around the center.

On the monster side: Floating above three in a row are bright yellow blobs with one, two, and three eyes respectively. The fourth and fifth have the slain bodies of Four and Five. Four is wearing the game show garb they’d worn on the day of their games. Five is wearing a set of heavy black robes, not the assassin garb she’d worn on her day. In the sixth and seventh, though, are black metallic boxes. If the heroes pay enough attention, they'll recognize that they're the same black metal that the Wizard's left side was now made of. If they get close enough, they'll hear a familiar metallic hum coming from them. If they look real close, they'll see that they each have eyes drawn onto them: Six and Seven.

On the hero side: There are six occupied platforms each with knights floating in them. Web, with Aqrisqi floating above them. Rory, with Sefaq floating above her. Gail, with Giqra floating above him. Joanna, with Fius floating above her. Zafika, with Muraj floating above them. Seth, with Qus floating above him.

Most startling of all, here, is that Seth has a single red mark above where his heart is like he’d been stabbed with a blade. The mark matches the wound on both Joanna and Zafika. Worst of all is that the wound doesn't look like something that the terrifying beast Seven was could've inflicted.

So that's great.

Garrot sighs, his drug-addled mind making him seem more wistful than exhausted. Truth be told, he doesn't want to be here. But he needs to keep them safe.

"I'm fine." Though he still sounds chipper, there's a sharp edge to his words. There's a pit, a thin walkway, no guardrails, Luka's blind, and he's high... with poor balance. "I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight." The words are surprisingly... dry given his mood.

But suddenly, he lets go of Gyre and recalls his cane. And a moment later, he's... dropped down on all fours?

"I'm not walking that!" There's a snarky little laugh as he says it; he's not stupid. Then, a long spool of fine rope, a mockup of his favorite brand for the bedroom, appears in one hand. "And neither are you, Princess! Your steed awaits!" For emphasis, he slaps his own behind and then locks his eyes onto Gyre's.

"Your other Knight will get you nice and safe, and then he'll watch our asses the whole way across in case something goes wrong." Finally, Garrot tosses some of the rope towards Gyre. Wild elf hermit better be able to tie good knots...

Luka waits hesitantly behind the two knights. He presumes by Garrot's reaction that they've arrived to the strange ritual room they'd visited last time. Luka recalls Ten helping him across the precarious bridge, and cringes thinking of doing that again with these two as his only hope.

"Wait, you want to carry me?" Luka asks, incredulous. Garrot had done an alright job carrying him up the mountain the previous day, but there was a lot more at risk here. Not to mention Garrot being pumped full of sedative. "Why do I feel like it would be safer just to walk on my own?"

Luka is unaware of the details of Garrot's plan that make it slightly less of a bad idea: the rope, and the fact that Garrot's dropped on all fours. At the moment he's imagining being princess-carried by a massive, doped up half-bugbear across what amounts to a highwire over certain death.

Gyre watches this idiot man drop down onto all fours, staring at his ass as he slaps it with this utterly incredulous look. He, of course, catches the rope as it's tossed to him, glancing towards Luka to get his impression before he uh acts as the parent of this unruly group.

"I believe he wants you to ride him, princess. He gave me a rope to tie the two of you together," he says dryly, describing the situation with an obvious distaste. This seems dangerous to him!! Maybe more dangerous then the two of them just uh walking across with a little help.

"What happens if you slip Garrot? Then we lose two people instead of just one. I can walk you both across, one at a time."

Garrot groans in what is now a characteristically overdramatic fashion. Someone get this man a fainting couch. Between Luka's trepidation and Gyre's flat-out logic, it doesn't seem like a fight he's going to win. As fun as it would've been.

"Fine, fine, you two can just walk across together." Honestly, that's totally fine by him, it means they'll be okay! He's lucky Gyre has good ideas sometimes. In a definitive moment of relenting, the rope... disappears. Holy shit? He's not sticking to his guns on this like he does literally everything else?

"I'm just trying to get this done with before the drugs wear off, okay?" It's a moment of actual (but still medically cheery) vulnerability and genuine emotion that's been... difficult for him to access. When Garrot's full emotional range comes back, it's not going to be pretty... for him or anyone around him. For all he knows he may be too grief-stricken to function until everything's over, so he needs to be helpful now.

And so he hunkers down and starts army crawling (idiot wriggling?) his way across the walkway, his center of balance low and his chance of slipping basically zero. There's still the occasional giggle at how silly he must look, but it looks like he's not waiting for anyone.

"Gyre?" Luka holds out an arm, half feeling for where the other is and half expecting him to just take it. "This path isn't big enough for us both to walk together, right? If you go in front, I can just hold onto you and follow behind just fine."

This was a much simpler idea than strapping himself onto a crawling Garrot, and much cleaner than Luka crawling along the path himself.

"Can you see the end of the path from here?" He remembers that the Protector had planned to visit the mountain that day, and wonders if anything seems to be disturbed. "Is anything different?"

He hesitates at the edge of the path, watching Garrot like he's absolutely certain the dude is going to fall and die at any second. He doesn't even think to look back until Luka calls for him, turning and taking his arm automatically.

"Okay, ah, here. Grab... here," he says, turning to face the path and bringing Luka's hand to his hip as he talks. He reaches back for his other hand, setting that on his hip as well, and then he just holds on to his wrists. It might keep him pinned in place, but he'd rather the reassurance that he could grab the man if he slipped than not.

"I can see the end of the path. Nothing's different, er, well. There something weird where Six and Seven's bodies should go. And Seth is here." He knows that last bit is obvious, but he wants the man to know as much as possible before they start.

"Let me know when you're ready. I'll go slow," he says, waiting for Luka's signal before he begins.

"Pffffft, if you two wanna hang back and rip each others' clothes off, be my guest!" Focus on bad jokes, Garrot, and not on the infinite void beneath you or the dead bodies ahead. He doesn't want to look closer at the dead Knights, to see how many had wounds that could be from the Protector's rapier. Part of him, deep down, knows the answer already.

He needs to put off his anger for as long as possible. Garrot's embracing the effects of the sedative completely, in hopes his body just... forgets it needs to grieve all over again.

"But seriously, how's my ass look from over there? Should I wiggle it a bit?" Garrot is completely and utterly serious about that, and he's even hooked his legs from the knees down under the walkway. Sure, it's to help stabilize him and let his lower half do scooting motions while the upper half keeps crawling, but it also shows off his butt. (Un)luckily, he's already about two thirds of the way across.

Plus, he's more than willing to distract those two from the same inky death pit and dead bodies he's trying to ignore.

"Now, Garrot, don't be jealous. It's unbecoming." Luka will indulge Garrot for as long as he needs it. He understood the desire to distract from the grim nature of their task and was happy to play along with it until the absolute last minute until they'd be forced to confront reality again.

Luka places his hands at Gyre's waist where he'd directed them, settling into a firm and steady grip.

"The Protector's been here recently. He must have done something." Luka explains, before giving Gyre confirmation that he's ready to proceed.

"Garrot, you know I can't see that." Luka hops seamlessly back into the banter. "Either Gyre will have to describe the view to me in tremendous detail or I'll have to come over there and feel it myself."

It's good they're able to keep the mood light. Gyre is here between them, trying not to explode with anxiety as he watches Garrot scootch along in front of him. He wishes the man hadn't moved quite so fast so he could be there to help if he did somehow slip. The mention of the Protector visiting also doesn't do much to settle his mood. He's all jangly nerves as he hears Luka's go ahead, and starts taking them over the bridge.

He's moving slowly, and in a rhythm, one step then the next then the next. He doesn't want there to be any surprises, forcing himself to breathe slowly and not rush. Much as he wants to be across the bridge now, he knows it won't do him any good to force it.

In all his focus, he's only half listening to the banter, his own response decidedly delayed, "It's a nice ass. Ask me what I want you to do with it when we're out of here again."

Garrot will remember that.

Luckily for Garrot's ass and its audience, the owner does not manage to slip or stumble or anything else. If anything, the fact that both of them are even paying attention is enough to embolden the bugbear to hustle through the remainder of the crawl. When he's in the clear, Garrot just bodily hurls himself towards the center of the platform, rolling twice while... laughing.

"Haaa, that was fun!" He takes a few deep breaths if only to cope with the physical exertion. "You two really made the dumb ch-" Garrot was content to badger the both of them... until he saw that they weren't right behind him. So he switches to a loud, scandalous gasp!

"My ass is a reward, hurry up, boys!" See, now Garrot is in an awkward spot. He's rolled back over and is now sitting up, facing the walkway, facing Gyre and Luka. If they fall, he'll see it and be unable to do a thing. So he'll distract himself!

By having Xaljim make a block of stairs for him to climb up onto. At least he's closer to standing?

It sounds like Garrot made it safely across, which was good! He was half worried something might actually happen there. Luka, though, is in no rush to hurry across himself despite Garrot's incentive.

When Gyre and Luka finally arrive at the platform, Luka relaxes and exhales with visible relief - he hadn't quite realized just how tense he'd been until then.

He moves closer to Garrot's voice and away from the ledge as much as possible, though his steps are still slow and cautious. Luka hadn't explored much the last time they'd been here and most of the surroundings were still a complete mystery to him.

"This is it, right?" He asks the both of him. There was no use putting it off any longer. "You can see Seth?"

The Weather

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