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

"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!"

His eyes widen as Twelve begins to shift shape, taking a sharp step back and yanking his hand away. He didn't expect her to just go for it, even though he probably should at this point.

"Wait!" he barks, but she starts rushing him down, and he retreats another couple steps, grabbing Six's arm and pushing him backwards so he's out of the way. Right at the last moment, he throws a shield up in front of her.

And he ends up just yelping when she's suddenly a bird right in front of his face. He frowns at her, looking disappointed?

"You're going to hurt people charging like that. Two of them can't see you, you know?" he says, reaching up to put his hand directly under her little body. "Come on, there's a space over there we can wrestle in." And he starts walking towards it, assuming she'll either let him carry her or follow him.

The all at once motion of Twelve transforming and rushing Gyre leaves Luka momentarily stunned. When the dust settles he claps his hands together in delight.

"You're really going to fight her for the key?" It sounded like a fun spectacle, provided it didn't end in any serious injury.

"Can Six and Eight and I be judges?" Luka takes a few steps in the direction people seem to be heading in. He had been a guest judge on television shows and at events before, but never ones that involved combat. Luka wasn't sure how well he'd actually be in the role, but it was irrelevant regardless. He was just there to have fun.

Six stumbles slightly as he's pushed away, but doesn't fall. Not smooth, Gyre! Off to the side, Eight makes a softly muttered "Wrong" in response to Gyre's assumption that he, at any point here, didn't know what was going on just because he couldn't see.

Twelve, meanwhile, lands on Gyre's hands and--

She turns immediately, locking ten eyes on Luka with glee. Judges for a fight. Perfect.

"Princess Judge. Yes." She confirms, hopping back before flapping off of Gyre's hands and flying off in the direction of the space Gyre was heading to--

And then she lands. Her little bird form does a flip in the air and, instead of her little bird form landing, a massive centaur lands with enough force to send rocks in every direction. Except she's got six legs and six arms. Her massive body looms easily twelve feet (ha!) in the air, and every hand is gripping a three-foot-long blade at the ready. Her upper body is definitely humanoid... until the head, where it's just a massive spiked maw surrounded by eleven eyes. When it opens: There's an eye inside, watching. The twelfth eye. She has hair, spiked back, but it's hidden behind a yellow hankerchief tying it all back. Her upper torso has the remnants of a tattered yellow cloth... isn't that just all a part of her? Wild.

And she takes up a pose, all six blades at the ready, as two things happen:

One: Luka is treated to a brief glimpse of this Twelve in his head. Gyre is, too, an advertisement of the monster before them.

Two: She whispers again, in both their ears: "Strike me, once."

Edited 2020-02-18 18:43 (UTC)

"I'm going to try," he says to Luka, determination clear in his voice. He had a half a fight with her already that's got him a little nervous about this one, but he's not going to let that show. He takes a deep breath, glancing in Eight's direction when he mutters. He'll have to ask what he meant later, he supposes.

For now, he's briefly stunned as that image appears in his mind, confusion making him pause in place. He doesn't understand what happened there, but he also doesn't want to make Twelve wait. Who knows how long it'd take her to change her mind and disappear again.

He comes to the same clearing as her, pausing as he looks over her giant form. His mind flicks briefly to Gail, his expression darkening slightly. It means that when she presents him with the same challenge as before, he huffs softly.

"Wrestling would be more fun. You'd have to be more my size though," he grumbles to himself as he draws his retracted metal bow out of his vest. The bow catches briefly on a few of the holes in his clothes along the way, and he growls to himself. A second later, he has shrugged the vest off, dropping it off to the side for now.

He starts approaching Twelve with this calm tension a moment later. "Alright, ready. 《Let's go.》"

That last bit is said in his own language, and it's the only warning he gives her before he snaps suddenly forward. He swings the bow, and the force of the swing extends it automatically so that the tip of it will whip against her flank if she doesn't move away.

"Yes!" Luka declares, excited, both when Twelve agrees to have him judge and when Gyre confirms his intention to spar with her.

"Good luck, Gyre. I think you will need it." There is a playful, teasing tone to his voice, but Luka genuinely wants Gyre to succeed in the fight. "Go win us that key, okay?"

Luka is about to turn to Six and begin to ask a question when he's hit, again, with the magic vision of Twelve. It's still a wholly unpleasant and disruptive sensation to suddenly have so much information inserted into your mind. It's especially jarring when that mental information is the bizarre, monstrous appearance Twelve's currently taken.

Luka snaps his eyes shut tight and clenches his jaw when it happens. "They have got to stop doing that."

Luka could certainly ask them to stop doing that, but he was about to be privy to a particularly unpleasant sequence of events all at once. He'd never been in the position he was about to be in, and his previous experiences were too mild and tame to really give him a picture of how intertwined with things he actually was.

The fire he'd been able to pull up from the ground, for example, wasn't a fluke.

As Gyre rushes Twelve, three of her eyes snap down to his advancing strike. The first locks on his extended bow, mere inches from her body, and it stops. Like a hand grabbing hold of the tip of it, it's held firmly in place in midair. Luka will be treated to a flash of exactly what that eye is focusing on, just for a moment.

But that isn't all, because the second eye is locked on Gyre's shoulder. Like an invisible hand grabbing him and stopping him like an adult does to a child, he's held. A second after the first image, Luka is assaulted by this one.

The same happens a second later as the third eye locks on Gyre's torso and he gets held in place. Three massive holds on his body, three flashes in Luka's brain, three impossible actions of magic.

And if they remember previous years, they'll remember tales from the previous heroes trying to describe Twelve as a "monster playing chess with everyone and everything on the field" but never really explaining what they'd meant.

Being here, now? This is what they meant.

Off to the side, Six is watching wide-eyed with fascination. He wishes he could do that! Eight, meanwhile, has nothing to contribute to this nonsense taking place.

Well. Gyre is running at her so he doesn't notice which particular direction she's looking, especially not when she's got twelve individual sight lines to follow.

Instead, he's left to slam up against her magic, snarling with effort as he tries to force the bow past whatever is stopping him. The grip at his shoulder makes him pause for a moment, and when she wraps that invisible hand around his chest, he grunts softly, winded. His thoughts spin for a second, an instantaneous panic rising up in him. He hates feeling trapped and this is doing exactly that.

"Stop!" he barks at her, squirming in place, trying to back off to see if that will get him unstuck. Does she have some kind of barrier around her? He doesn't understand what's caught him, so he does the next best thing, and tries to smack her in the chest with one of his shields.

Every bit of lighthearted fun Luka had expected to have has vanished as he's nearly doubled over trying to cope with Twelve's barrage of visions. He didn't ask to see this. He doesn't know why she's showing it to him. It's invasive, it's overwhelming, and Luka hates it.

"Eight, why is she doing that?!" Luka's face is set into a pitiful frown as he asks the question. He expects Eight to understand what he's referring to and to have the answer, since he'd used a similar technique just before. That's how things work, right?

Gyre will succeed at toppling backwards, but will fail at his attempt with the shield. The instant it manifests, four of Twelve's eyes lock on the shield and hold it in place. Did she have to use four eyes, or was she doing it for another reason? It isn't certain.

What is certain is that Eight has no idea what Luka is talking about. And he has no idea that Luka is getting flashed with another four-perspectived vision of Gyre's shield being stopped in midair.

He takes a step closer to the princess, focusing on what exactly is happening in this moment before he realizes what Twelve is up to. He's put enough of his pieces together that he has some semblance of a plan to act on.

All at once, eight portals open up in a sphere around Twelve. They go to all kinds of locations around the garden: The lake, Eight's room, the path, Twelve's rock, and others. The perspective of seeing eight flat discs rip open in reality to reveal different locations beyond is jarring. More jarring is the barrage of scents and sounds that flood through all eight.

But it's enough that Twelve stops. All of her eyes look not aggressively, but curiously towards Eight...

...and Luka. Hopefully Gyre will notice that Twelve is not looking at him at all as the eight portals disappear around her massive body.

"Explain, Princess." Comes the whisper.

Edited 2020-02-18 21:33 (UTC)

"Explain what?!" Luka shouts back, a stark departure from the monster's whispering. "No, you explain!"

One of his arms is stretched forward, an index finger pointed directly at Twelve. His other hand has reached to take hold of Eight's arm.

"Why do you keep doing that to me? You can't do things like that without permission!"

This is a lot of stuff happening very quickly, most of which he can't see or understand. He stumbles backwards, throwing his shield away the moment he notices she's stopped it. He's winding up to try again, to test her weird barrier, and then the sky opens up.

He looks up at each of the portals, his eyes darting from one to the other. He doesn't understand what they are, but for a moment, it feels apocalyptic. It's not until Luka starts yelling at Twelve that he yanks his eyes off the sky. He sees the way the man grabs Eight, and he at least realizes where the portals came from in that moment.

Why Luka sounds so distressed escapes him, of course, but the distress is enough. He retreats backwards, putting himself between Twelve and Luka and setting a shield up between them. He won't say anything here, but he's clearly on edge, his eyes darting from Twelve to Luka and back. If Twelve tries to come at the princess, he will intervene, his whole body tensed to do exactly that.

If either Gyre or Luka would like to get off of Twelve's Wild Ride, they'll find that unfortunately: No one gets off of Twelve's Wild Ride. Gyre's made an interesting choice to move to Luka's defense, but it doesn't matter because what comes next is so overwhelming that even Six answers with a quiet "woah."

Twelve's upper body leans forward, starting to spill out of the form she was in, huge chunks of liquid pouring down onto the ground. Except the liquid doesn't reach the ground. It seems to land inside of something and, after not too long, the entire centaur body has sloshed forward like a tidal wave into her new form that's already advancing on Gyre and Luka. Once again, he'll be treated to a momentary glimpse of the form she's taken.

Unfortunately for Gyre, he's seen it before.

Her body is a like a massive centipede now, twelve legs(?) jutting out all along the tree-trunk sized body. The head, though, is a set of twelve pincers surrounded by twelve eyes, and the last four of her limbs are reared up and back as she looks down at Eight, Luka, and Gyre. Even just the four limbs, her body is up easily ten feet in the air with the remaining twenty feet of body and limbs on the ground. She's made a big circle to surround them in, offering no escape, and ten of her eyes are looking down at Luka as if to pull him apart and understand him in this moment. One single eye is on Gyre, watching, wary.

"Explain "doing that", Princess." She whispers, this time with more of a hiss to the words.

"That!" He barks back, unsure how she couldn't be following. "Making me see you, making me see things through your eyes! I didn't ask for that!"

Luka breathes heavily, trying to calm himself. He knows that its very possible that Twelve just didn't understand boundaries and that she'd have no concept of why the experience was so agitating to him.

His hand is still on Eight, though his hold has significantly loosened.

"Why are you doing it?" He repeats again, hoping for an answer this time.

As Twelve changes shape, he recoils slightly in surprise. He hasn't seen her just uh fall apart like that before, and he wonders if she's in pain.

Not that this breaks his concentration, and as she surrounds them, he wraps his shield full around them as well, making a thick, shimmering dome between her coils and them. He retreats a few more steps as he puts the shield up, ending up beside Luka. He lightly touches his elbow, just for a moment, to let him know he's nearby.

"There's a shield around us," he murmurs to him, hoping that at least being physically safe will help him confront her with this. His mind goes to the brief flash he'd gotten of her, and he wrinkles his nose, glaring up at the monster. But he doesn't say anything else. He's got the princess' back here, angry for him that she'd be forcing visions into his mind without permission, but he won't interfere unless it seems like Luka needs his help.

Gyre may have put the shield up, but Twelve leans in quite close to it and-- she ends up pressing her face up against the barrier to look as close as possible at these two. A second eye clicks over to Gyre as he tells Luka about the shield. Quietly, she whispers an answer.

"I am not. Your eyes are open." She answers.

Eight, meanwhile, raises a hand up to lightly touch beside one of Luka's eyes as he chimes in and adds:

"Not these."

Off to the side, outside of Twelve's body-ring, Six dejectedly shrugs and goes back to gardening. Okay guys. Have fun in the Twelve ring.

The presence of Gyre's shield does serve to ease Luka's tension, though he hasn't felt in danger despite Twelve's nightmarish form and posturing. It was nonetheless a reassurance to know that Gyre would defend him should she decide to strike.

Her answer was frustrating. Eight's addition helped - a little - but both the monsters words were vague and borderline nonsensical.

"I only have these." He says, furrowing his brow. "And these don't work. I don't want them to work."

Eight pulls his hand away after Luka acknowledges the addition. He goes back to doing something on his phone.

...

What on earth is he doing on his phone without eyes and without voice-to-speech? What kind of blind monster nonsense...

Twelve, at least, makes a little more sense. She shifts slightly, staying right against the shield, watching Luka like he's the most interesting thing she's ever seen. She sounds captivated as she whispers again:

"Opened by the Protector. To spy. Shut them." Their whisper comes hissed, a definite edge to the words that wasn't there before. That same edge that the other monsters had when they referred to the Protector.

Luka's mouth hangs open slightly at the revelation.

It shouldn't surprise him - it was not out of character and he already knew that the Protector was adept at spying with all those screens and what not. Hell, the Protector had started this whole thing hitching a ride in his mind. But knowing that he was possibly still using Luka as a vector for spying, unbeknowst to him, felt like a another violation upon the many he'd experienced today.

"H-how do I shut them?" He sputters out, a cold bead of sweat running down his spine. "If they're not my normal eyes, then how do I shut them?"

Luka was all too happy to immediately close whatever backdoor these monsters and other entities were using to implant visions into his mind. He just... needed to know how to do that first.

Gyre has not felt this useless in a long time. His eyes jump from one person to the next, lingering on Luka when they reveal the Protector might be spying through him. He feels his body go tense at the idea, and he has to resist the urge to just reach out and cover the princess' face. The monsters just said it wasn't those eyes he needed to worry about.

He has no idea how to help in this situation! He drops the shield finally, letting Twelve get close if she wants to, and if that will even help in this situation?? She doesn't seem especially magically inclined, but she's supposed to be the most powerful of them. He glances in Eight's direction, watching the blind monster fiddle on his phone. What could he possibly be doing? There's nothing reading the screen out as far as he can tell, so what is the dude getting out of it?

"Is he able to see us here?" he asks suddenly to the blind monster, the worst possible option leaping suddenly into his thoughts. Hopefully Twelve can help Luka while he gets this answer?

Gyre gets his answer first, because it's easier, and it doesn't involve getting eaten.

"No." Eight answers Gyre simply, not lowering his phone. If Gyre looks, the screen is off. Black. Nothing on it at all. But he's typing on the buttons. What?

Twelve, meanwhile, immediately begins looming closer as the shield drops. She leans in close, her coils shrinking around the group, until she's mere inches from Luka and--

"Be still." She whispers the demand before her face begins to split, revealing a gaping goopy maw--

And she just fucking messily bites Luka's head. Fortunately for Luka, there are no teeth. Unfortunately for Luka, it's like having his head wrapped in a mop that had been dipped in yogurt. Yogurt that smells intensely like thyme, turmeric, fresh bread, and matcha.

She doesn't stay for long, instead pulling back from Luka after just a few moments so his head blorps out of her terrifying monster maw. As she separates, she's also pulling a sword... right out of Luka's forehead. A long, bright white sword.

...

What.

Luka can feel her looming over the group.

The closeness of her coiling body is palpable now, and he can see the way her form blocks out the sun (?) as she leans in closer. The next thing he hears is the odd, indefinable sound of her jaw opening and -

Darkness.

Wetness?

He might scream if he didn't already realize just how much worse it would make his situation. For now, all the screaming will have to remain internal.

Much to Luka's relief it's only seconds until she pulls away, leaving him a shaken, goopy mess. There's little time to process any of that before Luka picks up on the strange feeling of something still tethering him to Twelve - a strong pulling sensation from the front of his head as she retracts away.

His instinct is to reach up to feel what exactly is happening to him, but before he can reach whatever that thing is, his eyes pick up on its unmistakable, familiar glow.

"That's... my sword?" He sounds positively astonished and deeply confused.

UM??

This is also a lot. He's watching Twelve as she descends on Luka, feeling more and more wary about it as she goes. And then her mouth is open and around the princess' head, and his whole world tips over.

"H-hey! HEY! Stop that!" he shouts immediately, bringing shields up on either side of her head and trying to press up and away on her. Turns out, that's the direction she wanted to go anyway, and he's left to watch in impotent horror as she pulls a sword out of this man's forehead.

His whole body goes limp, his limbs losing all tension in them as he stares. The sword just keeps coming, an absolutely absurd length. It should've been in Luka's guts. There's no way it could actually be there, and he just gapes mutely at this entire scene. What the actual fuck is happening.

The Weather

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