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 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.

After voring the Princess, there's really not much that anyone has to say in the situation. Twelve is plenty occupied pulling the sword free and shifting just slightly away from Gyre's attempts to defend the Princess from nothing.

It takes a few more moments, but eventually the sword pops free of Luka's forehead. Gravity rudely re-asserts itself over the blade the moment the tip is free and the entire metal weapon drops to the ground with a clatter. A few rocks bounce in several directions from the weight, but the blade lays there... very much looking like the blade Luka had used previously. How?

"Not yours. His. Break it." Twelve adds, hissing again as she shifts her body. Her coils move away, finally allowing Eight to shuffle away and allow Six to shuffle closer.

Eight is making his way... where?

To a bench, actually, off at the side of the garden. He wants to sit away from all this bustle. Six, meanwhile, is back with another vegetable in his hand that he's idly taking flakes off of and eating like it's an edible flower. Don't mind him, he's here for the show.

The sound of that sword hitting the ground was now familiar to Luka, and he recognizes the distinct clamor as it happens again.

He might take offense to Twelve claiming that sword wasn't actually his, in another time and place. Though it was entirely created by the Protector and likely imbued with his magic, Luka did feel a sense of ownership over the dreadful thing. But Luka could only associate it now with Four, Five, and Gyre breaking his nose.

Yet when she instructs him to break it, he still hesitates. He senses his own reluctance and feels a wave of guilt wash over him for it. Luka feels that he should be eager to break it, to stomp it into pieces and never wield it again but ... he isn't.

"Can I do that?" He reaches down to take its hilt, and it feels as natural in his grip as it ever did before. "It's a sword. It's strong. I don't have that kind of power."

Edited 2020-02-21 21:58 (UTC)

Gyre's attention darts from Eight wandering away to Six returning to watch the party and then down to the sword as it hits the ground. He bends to reach for it almost immediately, only backing off once Luka gets a hold of it. He feels so completely out of control here, stress making his pupils narrow anxiously as he tries to decide where to be.

He ends up settling beside the princess, reaching over to touch the pommel of the sword. There's distaste all over his face, and in his voice as he finally speaks up.

"I broke his rapier earlier. I think we could do it together." He pauses after he says that though, glancing up at Twelve questioningly. Right, Twelve? He doesn't imagine she'd tell him to break it if he couldn't after all.

Six takes a step back once Luka picks up the blade, eyeing it with a slight unease. Twelve, meanwhile, leans a little closer.

"You can. Destroy it." She answers, all twelve eyes locked on Luka now. The hiss is gone, now replaced with a whispered curiosity. How will he do it? Will he do it?

If he does, it will break... like a normal sword. No glamorous fanfare, no huge explosion. Just a completely normal break like a completely normal sword.

You know, a totally normal sword that was in a totally normal place only a few normal minutes ago.

Everything was normal.

Yep.

Luka waves the sword slightly left and right, deliberating both how he could break it and if he could break it. He's admiring how gently it cuts the air when Gyre speaks up and brings him back to the issue at hand.

"How did you do that? With your weapon?" Twelve's words implied Luka could break it unarmed, but he can't imagine simply snapping it in half with his bare hands. That was, however, his current plan if Gyre didn't have something more effective in mind.

Gyre ducks away as Luka starts waving uh A SWORD?? around in the air, putting a little space between them.

"Here, ah, put the tip on the ground," he moves around behind Luka, setting a hand on his shoulder as if to reassure him in this, "And set your foot in the middle of it. Step down, and pull up on the pommel. Your weight should be enough to make it snap. If not, I'll help."

There was no backing out of it now. Luka positions the sword as Gyre instructed, and readies one foot near the middle of its blade. It felt like a precarious position, and if it worked Luka was not entirely sure he wouldn't end up falling forward into the dirt alongside the sword's pieces.

He presses down, and is surprised when the blade does indeed snap under the weight of his boot. Were swords usually this easy to break? It had never been something he had ever had to consider before.

Luka releases the remaining half still in his hand, letting its glorious opalescent hilt fall sadly to the ground with the remnants of its blade.

"There." He says, to both Twelve and Gyre.

Twelve keeps leaning closer the entire time that Luka and Gyre decide and, eventually, act on breaking the sword. It's only once the sword has been broken that she shifts again and--

She changes forms once again. She leans forward, once again spilling forward into the form of a small child. It's a form that she's taken before and that Gyre will recognize. No more than four feet tall, with a face covered in twelve eyes. Her body is obscured beneath a tattered black cloak, a look that will feel eerily familiar to the third day. This time she has some kind of fake hair on her head that seems to shift constantly and never settle into any form. This time, her voice comes in both Luka and Gyre's thoughts rather than their ears though still just a whisper.

"You're free." She answers, before there's a weight in Luka's hand as she reaches forward and sneaks it into his grasp.

It feels like some kind of heavy skeleton key. If he feels around it, he'll realize that it has an elaborate set of teeth at the end in some kind of design that probably has meaning to someone. Who? Who knew.

Hopefully he doesn't drop it.

Edited 2020-02-23 02:26 (UTC)

"Thank you." A bewildered Luka replies. He feels the key in his hand and quickly recognizes its distinctive form. "I'm... sorry for interrupting your fight, Twelve. I'd be happy to judge again if you have a rematch sometime."

He did feel guilty for interrupting, though his reasons for doing so were justifiable. Twelve was excited to battle and Luka himself was looking forward to it, too, until everything that happened... happened.

"The key." Luka holds his palm out toward Gyre. His voice is lacking its usual energy - Luka is still feeling unsettled by everything that just transpired.

"Eight can take us to the bridge, right?" Luka follows up, turning in the direction he'd last recognized Eight to be in.

His brow furrows at the declaration that he's free. A declaration that's in his thoughts?? He doesn't like that at all, and he watches this little girl warily as she hands the princess something. Is this how she appeared back then? What was she angling at with all this? Was fighting him just an excuse to make Luka realize he... had a sword in him???

He sighs softly, glancing down at the key as Luka offers it to him. He reaches down, running his thumb thoughtfully over the teeth of it. The design is strange. He's never seen a key like this before.

More importantly though, the princess is right. They should keep moving. He eyes Twelve for a beat, before looking over to Eight.

"He left. He's sitting on a bench over there," he clarifies to Luka. "It's about ten paces, uh, this way." He takes the other's shoulder and aims him more or less in the correct direction as he speaks. "I'll join you in just a moment."

First though, he turns to Six, raising a hand to catch his attention. "Can I ask you something about Sxicq before we go?" And once he has the affirmative, he asks, "Are you afraid of them?"

Twelve takes a step back once the key's been taken. She has something else in mind than what Luka's asking, though, and her whisper comes only to him as she answers:

"You fight me next time."

Six, meanwhile, blinks several times at Gyre's question but then nods: Sure he'll answer but: "Uh." He stammers for a moment, bringing his hands together to wring them briefly before lowering them to his sides again.

"You can't really be afraid of something you don't know right? I just don't know what they want. Eleven said they knew 'a little' about what they want? But I don't." He shrugs, sounding utterly uncertain about all of this.

Meanwhile, at the far bench, Eight sends Luka a text: "Ready?"

... Impatient much?

"Me?!" Luka can't help but laugh at the suggestion. "Sure, I'll do my best. Maybe I'll surprise you."

He has no idea how he'd manage fighting Twelve. Those glimpses of her subduing Gyre so effortlessly proved enough that Luka wouldn't last a moment, but the idea of trying to take her on had lifted Luka's spirits. He wouldn't want to disappoint her again, so he'd try his best.

It's then that he feels his phone buzz in his pocket, and Eight's message reads out when he opens it. Luka figures he was as ready as he'd ever be, so he types out a response.

"Ready."

Gyre glances in confusion at Luka when he responds to something that he can't hear, before his attention is tugged back to Six. His eyes widen a little at the mention of Eleven, and he nods slightly.

"I'll keep you safe. You should-- wait--" He cuts himself off as he hears Luka's phone ask if he's ready, glancing at him again, then over at Eight. Are they just going to leave?? He asked for the princess to wait, god dang it! He suddenly feels rushed, making a slight flustered noise.

"If you can, you should ask them about it. I'll ask too, if I see them," he says as quickly as he can manage in this language he's only mostly comfortable with, reaching out to squeeze Six' arm reassuringly. If Six pulls away from him, he won't, of course, but he wants to help the poor monster feel a little less nervous in the few seconds he has before being teleported.

"Eight seconds."

Unfortunately for Gyre's plans, Eight got the answer he was after and that means that a teleport is coming. It's good that he makes use of the remaining seconds to reassure Six, because he is reassured. He's about to say something in response when--

Gravity assets itself over both Gyre and Luka as portals open directly beneath their feet. As usual, they're left to fall directly through... and they just sort of keep going? They're both left floating in the air as they enter the new space. It's bright white. A large round space, with no edges, no details, just rounded walls all made of white. In the center of the room is a glowing white orb with geometrical shapes raised up out of it with seemingly no pattern to them at all. Though if they manage to get to the center and grab hold of the shapes, they're stable. There's a keyhole for that key they got in the center orb, but naturally they don't know that just yet.

Because Gyre and Luka are just sort of floating through the air, in zero gravity, like they're in space.

That's.

Great?

Edited 2020-02-23 23:34 (UTC)

While Luka was expecting the teleport, he wasn't quite prepared for one that involved falling straight down. He yelps as he begins to free fall, clutching the key tightly to his chest. He hopes wherever they land is forgiving - he'd been thrown around enough today.

But he doesn't land anywhere? He notices suddenly that his body is suspended, just hanging in the air. The bright whiteness of the area floods his eyes as he opens them again, having instinctively clenched them shut in preparation for a hard fall.

Its unsettling. Luka flails an arm searching for something to grab onto - anything to give him insight into his surroundings, to ground him - but he finds nothing and feels a spike of anxiety in his chest.

Against the brightness he can perceive the vague silhouette of another - Gyre? Eight, maybe?

"This doesn't seem right. Did something go wrong with the teleport?" He asks, a rising panic in his voice.

Gyre is not going to be any help at all unfortunately! He yelps as he falls, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the sudden light, and uh going completely still as they end up in this floating, white nothing.

He's immediately reminded of Sxicq sending him to space. He can't feel his body. Or rather, his body can't feel anything else. He has no grounding, and that makes him freeze up. He doesn't even open his eyes until Luka's flailing arm start disrupting the light a little bit.

Even then, he doesn't say anything, letting himself slowly fall and fall as he stares up at the weird geometric mass in the center of the orb. He's in hell, he decides. He doesn't believe in hell, but falling forever feels like what it must be.

It's not until their backs tap against the floor of the place that Gyre moves even the tiniest little bit, bringing his hands down with a slap to cling to the wall. Even if he has to cling with his fingertips, it's something, some hint of solid ground. He also breathes for the first time since they started falling, gasping like a fish for several breaths.

"I don't know. I don't know--! There's s-something up there, I don't know--" he says, all in an unorganized tumble. He is a dead dirt elf. He never should have come to the bridge of a spaceship.

“Something up there. Okay.” Luka repeats, trying to stay as calm as he can despite everything about this environment feeling wrong. “Okay... can you tell what it is? Can you reach it?”

Gyre’s alarm is doing nothing to quell his own unease. Luka continues to feel for anything he can, and eventually an errant foot kicks off the rounded wall giving Luka a very slight sense for what his surroundings might be.

“This is nothing like any bridge I’ve heard about.” He stresses. “There should be windows, or panels or seats. How could anyone pilot from here?!”

The Weather

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