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

If only Luka knew that Eight had one of his shirts in a drawer.

"A few." He agrees with Luka's assessment, letting one leg slip off the side of the window sill so he can start shifting off of it to stand.

"Foam padded copy. Accurate, not dangerous." He answers both of their questions. Both 'what's with that' and 'make sure people aren't hurt'. Easy answers.

After he says it, he settles his other foot on the ground and starts to shift off of the ledge. As he does, the air in the room starts to shift and change. The walls start to flicker, the sounds start to get muted. It's like they're being put into a glass jar, the air around them starting to shift and change and--

And then they're standing in the vegetable garden. The smells of fresh produce and the heat of the sun are immediately present. Six and his big cowboy hat are visible at the far corner, rummaging in the dirt to get something planted.

Great!

To meet someone of fewer words than the Protector was not something Luka had expected, but here he was. He wasn't sure why he had expected anything at all from Eight, given what Ten had said.

Luka has no time to dwell on that as his surroundings start to fade out and muffle. He thinks he must be about to pass out - it wasn't an entirely unfamiliar sensation - and so he stumbles looking for a place to sit before he inevitably falls on his face.

But instantly he's somewhere else. He catches himself in his stumble as he's suddenly aware he's outside.

"What... just happened?" Luka takes a moment to orient himself. The smell is enough to tell him he must be in the vegetables area, but he has no idea why or how. "We didn't ask him to do this yet! And this is the total wrong place."

Luka realizes he might very well be all alone right now. "Wait, Gyre? You're here too, right?"

Gyre is similarly confused, watching Eight stand up and not realizing he should warn Luka about it until after things have already started changing. He jolts when the princess starts stumbling, reaching out to catch him if he actually does fall.

Instead, they're just in the garden, and Gyre looks around with steadily deepening confusion. Why are they here? Did Eight have something to say to Six? He doesn't even think to explain himself until Luka speaks up again, immediately reaching out to grab his arm reassuringly. He only holds it for a moment, but it's enough to let the man know he's nearby.

"I'm here. He is too. He came with us, uh," he turns to Eight, tilting his head. "Why'd you bring us here?"

Eight's going to give both of them the answer to their confusion by his actions alone. He moves over to one of the plants right by where they've arrived and he reaches out for an oddly spherical tomato-looking vegetable. He plucks it from the vine and pauses as the smell of cinnamon fills the air.

He brings a hand up to it, piercing a finger just barely into the side and-- His finger draws the side off of it, peeling it like the outer layer of an onion. The flesh beneath is a bright, vivid green... and just a bunch of grape-shaped orbs. He keeps his grip on the outer red layer as he reaches in to grab a bright green orb and pop it into his mouth. There's a scent of peppers that joins with the cinnamon.

"Hungry." He answers after swallowing, just a moment before popping another one into his mouth.

Luka breathes in deep, taking in the rather uncommon scents for a vegetable garden. He only wonders what they're growing that smells so strongly of cinnamon. Is it actual cinnamon? Kind of an unusual choice for a garden like this, but nothing was very usual about these monsters at all.

He's suddenly very aware that he hasn't eaten a thing all day. Coffee in the morning at the Bamborough Cafe and two more cups when the Wizard appearified them at the lake, but nothing solid. Luka stands there salivating at the enticing smells while his stomach cries out for appeasement.

"Eight... can humans eat these vegetables too?" He asks, sheepishly.

Gyre is having a similar realization to Luka in this moment. The smells don't do a damn thing for him, but watching Eight peel into something and start chewing gets him thinking. He at least at something real in the morning, but he's been running nonstop since then.

Unfortunately, he's also realizing in this moment that he hasn't seen a single animal since he got here. Maybe Five has something? She seemed to have similar enough tastes to his. He makes a note to talk to her whenever he sees her next.

For now, he starts looking around the garden, wondering if he'll see anything that looks even remotely familiar. He's not a vegetable expert, but he's never seen anything like the nightmare orb Eight is holding right now.

"What is that?" he offers in the background, sounding distracted as he peeks around at the plants.

What Gyre will see as he's looking around the vegetable garden is that, at first glance, every single vegetable looks familiar. But if he peers closer, he'll realize that none of these are normal vegetables. They're a little too round, a little too long, a little off color, a little strangely curved. There's always something about them that's... off. With the exception of one fruit that's growing in the shape of a donut. With a hole in the middle. That one is totally alien to everyone.

But Eight, without missing a beat, plucks another of the round veggies off of the tree and shifts a little closer to reach over and press it against Luka's chest. That's enough of an answer, because he also has to answer what they are.

"Cabolini." He answers like it explains everything, a moment before he lifts his up to his mouth and just cronches juicily into it through the hole he'd ripped with his finger. Why eat it one bit at a time the whole time? That was slow. Immediately the air is filled with a stronger scent of peppers to go with the cinnamon.

Have fun eating that, Luka. If he tries biting into it, the outer layer is waxy and pliable and doesn't easily give way. The force of a bite would likely make it spray juices out everywhere. Fingertip or knife, Luka! A single puncture!

...

Eight should probably have warned him.

Luka blinks as Eight presses what he presumes to be some kind of garden vegetable to his chest, though he doesn’t recognize the name given. He reaches to hold it, feeling it’s uncomfortably spherical form. He thinks it must be tomato-like, based on its feel and size. As much as biting into a raw tomato seemed foul to him, he was very hungry.

“Do you cook anything? Or eat it all raw?” If that were the case it’s no wonder Ten ate so much back on the island. He rolls the veggie curiously in his hands, still hesitant to take a bite.

His stomach quickly wins over his hesitation, and Luka goes for the bite. He soon discovers what Eight failed to warn him of as it’s form collapses and bursts with a surprising amount of juice, leaving him standing there perplexed, disappointed and messy. If Luka wanted to seem cool for Eight that ship had decidedly sailed by now.

He blinks when Eight puts the vegetable into Luka's chest, tilting his head. The name isn't familiar to him either.

"What's cabolini? Is it from here--!" Whatever he was trying to figure out falls out of his head as Luka squirts himself in the face. He gasps in surprise, and barely a second later, he pulls a kerchief out of his vest. The corner of it is torn after Seven, but there's enough of a usable area, and he drapes the cloth over Luka's arm so he can uh clean himself off a little.

"Are you alright?"

Eight considers how to answer Luka's question for several moments. It turns out to be several seconds too long because Luka takes a bite and makes a total mess. Eight pauses as he hears Gyre shuffling around and then he decides to answer unhelpfully a few more moments later.

"Edible. Messy. Tasty." He starts, before getting a very slight smile.

"Twelve uses a spoon." He offers, as if that answers the 'how do you eat this'. But he feels like he answered Gyre's 'what' pretty solidly. It's tasty is what it is.

Luka quickly finds the offered cloth and uses it to clean his face, hands, and the juice that's now running down his sleeves too. He makes a disgusted sound because that feeling is the worst, and he hopes whatever this is doesn't have some vibrant color that's going to stain his outfit, despite it already being in pretty bad condition from his fight with Seven earlier in the day.

But he can't be all mad, because the flavor of the thing is pretty good. He actually moves to take another bite, much more carefully this time.

"Cabolini...? You said?" He asks for clarification. "Using a spoon isn't really cooking. But I bet this would be an amazing ingredient for some curry."

Gyre watches Luka take a bite, wincing as if he expects even more juice to come flying out of it. It's only once it seems safe that he turns back to Eight again, tilting his head very slightly.

"Is it from here? I've never seen anything like it..." he murmurs curiously, glancing between the two of them. The more he watches them eat, the more he wants to join them, and he looks around the garden again as if some meat fruit will come magically into existence nearby.

His eyes land briefly on Six off in the distance, and he makes a sudden note, letting Luka know, "Six is here too if you have questions for him."

Eight makes a soft sound of confirmation mid-bite as Luka asks if that was the name. He mentions curry and uh. Deliberately doesn't answer that because he hasn't had curry. But he pauses after another bite because of Gyre's question.

"From space." He answers, straightforward, before glancing off in the distance at Six.

Six seems to notice something and perks up before standing, looking over at everyone and-- Waving.

"Hey!" He exclaims, tipping his cowboy hat rim up a little to see everyone better. But he doesn't move closer yet, rummaging a moment later to get his stuff together.

"Oh, Six is here?" Luka's not sure he has any burning questions for Six, but he's happy to hear the monster is around. He would perhaps ask him if he was a fan of cooked meals, because it didn't appear that many of these monsters were and Luka thought they were definitely missing out.

"Hey, Gyre, you should try this." He offers up what remains of the produce he now knew was called cabolini. "It's not every day you get to eat something from space, right?"

"Hey Six. How are you?" he asks as the other monster comes up, waving at him as well. They're the only two who can see the gesture, so they might as well enjoy the secret between the two of them. Then he turns his attention to the cabolini as it's offered to him, hesitating for an extremely long time.

"Uh..." He doesn't know what to say? Luka is right that he's never eaten a space thing, but also the whole concept of space scares him. Will all those stars fill up his insides if he eats this vegetable? Can he even eat the vegetable without getting sick?

He glances in the monsters' direction for just a second, before reaching over and plucking one of the little beads free from inside of it. He holds it up to look at it, examining his food in a way he normally never does.

"Is this going to make me sick?" he asks, almost entirely to himself. He certainly doesn't expect anyone here to know the answer, and before anyone can even say anything, he pops the weird green nodule onto his tongue, crushing it against the roof of his mouth almost immediately. Hopefully he doesn't throw up!

Six arrives with a wave at the same time that Gyre takes a bite of the cabolini that will definitely not make him sick. Eight shakes his head when Gyre asks that. Much to his surprise later, he'll be completely fine. What kind of odd space meat-vegetable-fruit was that? Why could Gyre eat it? Why was Eight casually munching a second one now that Six had arrived?

"I'm good! Did you both get to see everyone?" He glances between the two of them, curious.

"Is Five still with Seven?"

"Not everyone." Luka replies, distracted from Gyre's cabolini dilemma by the arrival of Six. "Just Eight, and Ten, and Five, and... well, Gyre's met Twelve, too."

He finishes off the rest of the mysterious vegetable in his hand, even going so far as to lick the remnants of its juice from his fingers.

"I'd guess so." He replies. "I don't hear her stomping around and making a fuss. How is Seven, anyway? Are there updates?"

Gyre watches Luka lick his fingers for a few beats, decidedly thankful that the dude can't see him for once. His mind is wandering too much for what they need to be doing!

At least mentioning Seven makes him sober up a little, dragging his eyes off the princess to meet Six's instead.

"We were going to talk to Eight about going to Twelve. And Nine after that," he offers, hoping Eight catches him finally announcing why they went into his room in the first place. "The Wizard said you and her were going to stay with Seven tomorrow?"

"Nine said it might take hours." Six answers, sadly, about Seven. He glances at Eight as Gyre announces their plan. And then follows it with the Wizard's plan? He blinks his eyes in a circle before making a sound of surprise.

"Oh, you both know the plan!" He says, sounding pleased. "So I don't have to explain it! Great!" He gives a little laugh, before looking at Eight.

"You're going to send them to Twelve next?" He asks his fellow monster-- only for Eight to shake his head.

"Already there." Eight answers, and as he does Luka will feel a soft feeling of something landing on his shoulder.

It's...

... A tiny bird. No more than four inches tall. With twelve eyes making up its face around a jet black beak. The wings look feathered but she's all yellow?

And she makes a soft chirp of a sound.

The feeling of a bird that tiny landing on you is less obvious than the fluttering of it's wings before it alights. Luka is still and wide-eyed, unsure of how to react without scaring the little thing away.

"A bird?" He says, his voice as soft as he can make it. He's yet unaware this bird is Twelve herself, instead he assumes it's some kind of monster-realm bird, maybe even one from space!

"Sorry, I don't have anything to offer you..." He says to it, sounding genuinely disappointed. If he hadn't finished off that cabolini moments ago he'd have presented that to her.

Gyre tilts his head at Eight's response, frowning slightly as he tries to figure out what it means. Then uh I mean he's a predator and he's hungry. The little bird wings so close to him make his attention snap to them, and he pauses for a moment in surprise.

"It's Twelve," he says, half to inform Luka, and half to inform himself. Despite trying to remind himself that monsters are friends, his white pupils have shrunk into tiny pinpoint of blazing light, his hand slowly rising. He could probably grab this bird without Luka noticing, right? This is what his lizard brain is saying anyway, and he draws a slow breath through his nose to steady himself. His hand is still moving, but slower now.

"Nice to see you again, Twelve," he manages after another second, through grit teeth.

Eight of Twelve's eyes are locked on Gyre as he works through his own hangups about eating wild birds. She waits until she's certain he's not going to try to eat her before she gives another soft peep.

And then her voice whispers again in their ears, that same whispered sound that Gyre experienced before. It won't be as strange for Luka, because he knows that she's sitting on his shoulder as a tiny bird, but it will definitely be strange for Gyre still.

"Princess, tell Boar Knight Gyre to fight me." She demands.

To the side, Six mutters an "Uh" of concern and confusion. At the same time, Eight just pulls out his phone and softly taps away at either a game, a website, or a text. Who knew?

"Twelve?!" Luka gasps, amused, surprised and intimidated all at once. "I thought you'd be ...bigger."

He turns his head slightly toward the shoulder she's perched on.

"Oh! Thanks for healing my face. Even if it was indirectly, and maybe unintentional." Luka sounds earnest and grateful. That broken nose was no joke.

When she whispers that she wants to fight Gyre, Luka's mostly confused. He had heard she liked to fight, but why ask through him? Could Gyre not understand Twelve directly?

"Gyre, she wants to fight you." Luka says, dutifully. "Something tells me you're not exactly in the same weight class though."

"She was bigger when I met her," Gyre notes as he looks down at the little bird. Then he falls silent, smiling faintly as the Princess thanks her. He's content to just let them interact for a bit here, happy to see that Twelve is focused on fighting him and not the Princess.

The whisper in his ear makes his attention snap to her again though and he uh laughs? It's a weird, unpracticed sound that only Luka has gotten to hear before! He sounds like he doesn't laugh very often, and he really doesn't. Something about her challenging him to a fight in that form is hilarious to him though.

"If we fight, will you give me the key to the uh... the bridge?" he asks, reaching out his hand for Twelve to hop on over to him. "We'll have to leave the garden though so we don't break anything."

Twelve gives another peep of affirmation in response to Luka's gratitude. And a pleased trill when he tells Gyre about the fight request. Yesssss. And then Gyre says they'll have to leave and uh--

All at once there's a heavier weight for the briefest of moments on Luka's shoulder as Twelve shifts and steps off of Luka. She takes up the form of a massive yellow boar, twelve tusks stretching out in front of her twelve-eyed face. Her tail gives a swish back at Luka and then she charges Gyre.

But it lasts for maybe two or three seconds. A charge that just shrinks the space between her and Gyre. And then she pops back into being a little bird, fluttering right in front of Gyre's face.

And Six just laughs, adding: "That was good!"

The Weather

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