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

Luka slides one hand behind Gyre, closing the door behind him and flipping the deadbolt until he hears that satisfying click sound, ensuring the outside world could no longer interfere.

The interior beyond the entryway is dark, until Luka reaches to flip a light switch and the room flickers into view. It's small, unsurprisingly, like a cheap, empty studio apartment that had been hastily furnished to house the Princess for this year's wizard season.

Luka had made it his home in this past week, in the sense that it looks as if one of Farida's notorious hurricanes had run through the place. Every seating area is strewn with errant articles of clothing - piles of vibrant silks, flashes of sequins and chiffon in an array bright colors. A surprisingly pristine desk sits in the far corner, a laptop carefully placed on its surface. Against the adjacent wall lean several guitar cases, and Gyre may recognize the one Luka had brought to his camp there as well.

The center of the room houses a well-kept bed, though the bedding is unmade. Above it is a large window with the curtains drawn shut except to allow the smallest sliver of natural light to cut through.

Luka immediately returns his attention to Gyre, draping an arm over each of his shoulders.

"Do you still want that bath, or have your priorities changed?"

Edited 2020-02-26 23:04 (UTC)

Gyre glances back when he hears the deadbolt slide into place, an unconscious anxiety rising up in him at the sound. The dark room also isn't helping his nerves, and he reaches out to hold Luka's side as he waits for the lights.

Once they come on, his unease isn't helped at all. He actually jumps as he looks around the room, and he suddenly feels very deeply that he should not be here. This is all so personal. He can't help but imagine Luka coming in and seeing the particular ways that he leaves his own things around. To be clear, he's not judging Luka for having a messy room. Rather, the particular way the room is messy feels like secret knowledge that he shouldn't know, like Luka's revealed a little piece of his soul to him with this.

He's still looking around the room and thinking about how he's going to get out of it, since the princess clearly doesn't understand what he's revealing here, when those arms settle over his shoulders. His attention snaps up to his face and he uh suddenly, completely forgets about this weird feeling in his stomach. He's just absolutely absorbed by this man, caught up in his beauty so quickly it leaves him a little breathless once again.

"My... priorities," he muses, his hands wandering to his sides and then up along his ribs, exploring for a moment. One hand winds slowly around his back then slipping downwards to finger the waist of his pants, and he makes a low, thoughtful noise. He catches the hem of his shirt between his fingers, touching his bare skin for a moment, lifting the shirt just slightly.

"Let me get this off you, and I'll decide then?" he purrs, pulling the cloth up even higher so he might see the edge of Luka's stomach in a moment. He'll stop if the other wants him to, of course, but if he lets him, he's going to pull this off over the princess' head.

"Hmmmmm~" Luka's hum is drawn out as he takes an agonizingly long moment to think over Gyre's proposition. He knows that allowing Gyre to undress him first is relinquishing that first bit of control to him, and debates whether to allow his foot in the door so easily.

"If it will really help you decide," he relents, sliding one hand down to rest at Gyre's elbow. Luka figures he had plenty of opportunity to turn the tables should he change his mind. "Then who am I to hold things up?"

Gyre smirks as Luka takes his time deciding, flipping the hem of his shirt up every few seconds as if to remind him what he's supposed to be thinking about. His other hand meanders over him, touching his arm, his neck for a moment, pressing fingertips against the bare skin under his shirt in teasing little brushes. He wants the princess to think about his hands on him.

The moment he makes his decision, Gyre moves to tug his shirt up and over his head, tossing it almost absentmindedly into one of the piles near the bed. He's caught for just a second there, remembering where they are, before he tugs his gaze back to Luka. It's a gaze that becomes this hungry stare almost immediately, looking him over. He loops his arms around his waist, hooking his fingers into the band of his pants and tugging their hips together suddenly.

"Well now I know what I'd prefer," he murmurs, leaning up to press a series of kiss from his jaw down his neck. "How about you?"

If Gyre wanted Luka to think of his touch, he need not worry - Luka had been thinking of it since that gentle brush of his cheek in the garden. He had been thinking of touching Gyre, too, since the two of them had first coyly discussed it on the fifth day. And so he can't help but bristle with anticipation with every one of those fleeting touches.

He moves down from Gyre's shoulders, over his chest, feeling for any way to unfasten his clothes and pull them from his body. What he finds is, um, a lot of fastening. And though Luka is used to being laced and buttoned and cinched into all kinds of outfits, he can't focus long enough to decipher whatever his hands are currently fumbling with.

"I think... the bath can wait." Luka sighs contentedly, craning his neck to allow easier access as he takes both of Gyre's hands in his. "Let's move to my bed."

Gyre sighs against his skin when he tilts his neck like that, unable to resist the urge to nip him suddenly. His teeth are uh very sharp! He's careful though, clearly in control enough to not make him bleed out of nowhere.

He pulls back very slightly after that though, glancing towards the bed first... then down to Luka's hands fumbling at his clothes. He slips his hands out of the other's, slipping a hand around his back and nudging him towards the bed.

"Let's go!" he chirps, absolutely delighted at this. First though, he pauses for a beat, pulling apart the buckles on his vest, and shrugging this top layer off at least. The torn shirt underneath is fastened with a series of soft leather straps tied into loose knots. He's fiddling one of them apart as he drifts towards the bed, moving eagerly to... well, set a hand on the soft surface at least. He doesn't quite sit yet, but he's over here, reaching out to take Luka's arms again and pull him into a quick, deep kiss.

"Want me to get this off first?" he murmurs, untying a second knot with a familiar ease before moving to pull his soul gem up and over his head. He doesn't mention it, but the chain jangles softly against itself as he wraps it around the amethyst and moves to set it onto the princess' neat computer desk. He's hoping to just get it out of the way quick before returning to undoing his shirt, utterly accustomed to the jewel making his lovers intensely uncomfortable.

Luka inhales sharply when he feels Gyre's teeth press to his neck. He had noted their sharpness when they'd kissed on the mountain - and now the restraint of that near bite causes a thrill to stir within him.

He nearly falls into Gyre when he's pulled into the kiss, and Luka is more than happy to move himself onto the bed in anticipation.

"Of course I do." He says as he kicks his boots into a corner. He's in the process of unbuckling his belt when the sound of Gyre removing that chain and setting it down grabs his attention, and when he says nothing about it, Luka reaches toward the table to investigate it himself.

He sweeps his hand over the table, stopping when he feels its chain and lifting it delicately in front of him. Luka is trying to see if any part of it is catching on or reflecting the dim light, and when he's satisfied that curiosity he takes the pendant between his fingers to gently feel its shape.

"What's this? Did you make it?" He asks softly, tilting his head.

The gem is cut absolutely perfectly, glittering even in the dim light, and the intricate gold cage wound around it shines with an unnatural brightness even after forty years. There's magic pulsing through it, a faint hum against the skin. It's also uh quite large, a horrifically gaudy little bauble if he was to wear it outside his shirt ever.

Beside him, Gyre pauses the second he moves to pick it up, an instinctive wariness rising up in him. He watches him carefully, keeping his hands busy with another leather knot so he doesn't get too anxious. He trusts this man. He trusts him a lot, but this is not a conversation he normally has to have. And it's always strange to have another person's hands on his soul. He can feel the princess' fingers shifting across it and his skin prickles.

"No, it was made for me," he answers with the kind of finality that says he's not going to answer the first question. He wouldn't, in different circumstances, but these feelings are really making his usual secrecy difficult.

"It's me," he offers after a beat. There's another pause here, another knot undone, and he takes a deep breath. "It was made by the same person who made this. This body."

His face brightens when he catches the bits of light reflecting from the gem - it was a rare glimpse of visual stimulation he could experience, and he looked for it wherever he could.

He turns toward Gyre when he explains it was made for him. Whoever made it must be important to him, he thinks - important enough for him to carry something like this so closely. A past lover? Luka's still wondering about this person when Gyre offers more information.

"Ah," He says, suddenly realizing the gravity of what he held between his fingers. He turns back to admire it, though his touch is more delicate than before. "It's magic?"

His eyes flutter a little as that touch gets more delicate. It had been a strange sensation before, Luka's fingers pressing against the gem, but now it's this ghost of the man's hands. He wants those on his body, not the gem, and he shrugs his shirt off over his head, tossing it aside and stepping closer.

"It's, yes. More or less," he says, thinking back to what that woman had said at him at the time. It's been awhile and he was in a state at the time so his memory of her long monologues are a little fuzzy.

"The gem is, it's a, ah, conduit. The magic is in... the pattern of the metal, or... She said something like that," he explains vaguely, waving a hand generically in the air. He pauses for a moment, reaching up to touch one of Luka's hands as he explores the magitech construct.

"I can feel you, you know."

Luka nods, though he doesn't process much of what Gyre is explaining, simple as it is. He'd never been much for the details of magic or technology, having been turned off from it by his family's business and his accident.

His focus is pulled away when Gyre moves closer and places a hand on his.

"Oh?" He asks, the corner of his mouth curling into a smirk. "Well, how do I feel?"

Gyre, similarly, doesn't have much of a head for magic. He knows eventually he'll have to learn it, but that's potentially centuries down the line. He has time. Or well. He will have time, if they're able to live through this.

What a morbid thought to have in the middle of this. He shakes his head a little, working his fingers slowly in between Luka's and pulling them towards him instead. He won't ask him to put the gem down, but he would rather take both of their minds off of it in this moment.

"Mysterious," he murmurs, and he presses the princess' hand to his chest. "I'd rather feel you here," and he slides that hand downwards just a little, just enough that his warm touch makes him draw his stomach in in a soft gasp.

"'Mysterious', huh? Is that good?" Luka's more than happy to bring his touch back to Gyre's physical body, and he places the pendant on the table carefully before turning his full attention back to him.

He leans in greedily to kiss Gyre again as his hands move over his body, feeling for every detectable detail. Luka pauses, letting his fingers linger over a noticeable spot of scar tissue. He knows well enough that one's scars are not a particularly sexy topic to discuss, and recounting how they came to be is nothing short of mood-killing. So Luka buries that curiosity, for now, hoping his contemplation of them had gone unnoticed.

"You're right, this is much better." Luka says, hands moving to find the waist of his pants.

Edited 2020-03-01 03:50 (UTC)

"It's different. Most people don't touch it," he says, clearly amused at Luka's curiosity. He watches him as he sets the gem down, taking an extra moment to make sure it's not going to tip off the edge of the desk, and then he's caught up suddenly in that kiss. It's the perfect distraction, his hands coming up to circle around the back of the other's neck and pull him closer. His fingers wind up into his hair, and he settles back, letting another person explore his body with a low groan.

If he notices Luka lingering on his scars, he doesn't indicate it. Maybe because there are a lot of them? Some are more distinct then others, clearly from worse wounds, but each new plane of his body has at least one nick, one little bit where he didn't heal quite perfectly. Instead of acknowledging any of that though, he deepens the kiss, pressing in close to him. One of his hands slips from his hair and wanders over his shoulder, down across his chest, and he makes his amused noise when Luka discovers the obvious.

"Told you," he says, his wandering hand going to the front of the other's pants. He fingers the button there without popping it, looking down at the princess' hand instead. He could push things along, but he's curious what he's going to do with him.

"Where do you want me?"

Luka's pleased upon hearing an audible reaction to his touch, and the noise tempts him to return to feeling out Gyre's body in order to elicit more from him.

He instead is distracted by the question, unmoving as he considers how to answer.

"I want you..." Luka starts, deliberating dragging out his reply. He moves on hand to unfasten Gyre's pants before continuing. "On your back. I want you to never take your hands off of me, and I want you to say my name. Can you do that?"

While Luka ponders and drags this out, Gyre gets more and more impatient, more eager, more uh desperate. Sure desperation is a bad look, but they've lingered here for awhile. He has wanted this man to touch him now and more for days if he's honest with himself. He leans in close as he waits for what Luka wants, kissing his throat again and again. He nips at his jaw and his collar, and he lets out another pleased breath as his pants are opened.

"Yes, Luka~" he purrs against his skin, a simple answer for a request he was planning on fulfilling even before it was asked. He takes a hand off him just long enough to nudge his pants over his hips, stepping back towards the bed, and his hands do not leave him again.

Time passes, and finds them again still twined up on the bed, their legs tangled. In the moment, Gyre hadn't really thought about where he'd ended up exactly, but now that things have quieted down again, his thoughts linger idly on just how soft this dang cushion is under his back. He winds a finger around a loose curl of Luka's hair, and shifts just slightly, his heel brushing against his calf as he considers getting up for the briefest of seconds.

He's way too content here though, and his leg collapses back into place. At some point, he's not going to be able to stand this softness, but he's not there yet, sighing to himself.

Luka's propped himself up on one elbow, sighing contentedly and idly running his fingers over Gyre's body. He's relaxed, eyes heavy and half-lidded as the exhaustion of a long day finally catches up on him. Though he knows its inevitable, the thought of Gyre leaving is far from his mind.

"You have a lot of scars." He says, finally. It would be immediately apparent to a sighted person, but Luka only now picks up on just how many there as he has he has this moment to reflect. "Are they from hunting?"

Wow, he really went right for it, huh? Gyre makes a low noise, patting the bed a couple times in amusement. He thought he might be able to get away with this because Luka is blind, but it seems his fingers have found him out anyway. Not that he has ever done a lot to hide them.

"Some," he says after a beat, reaching down to take his hand and guide him to a couple spots on his body. "This one, I got impatient tracking ah, something, and fell out of a tree. I was pretty young. Here... a moose caught me when I wasn't careful enough."

He is definitely deliberately avoiding the worst of the scars, the big knots of skin where he didn't heal quite right. Mostly it's to keep the mood up, both his and Luka's, but there is some distant bit of him that's curious to see how much he'll ask. He'd certainly been nosy enough about his head a few days ago, but things were different now. He wouldn't mind answering a few more questions potentially, if the princess cared to ask, and he brings that hand up to his face now, kissing his palm, nipping lightly at his fingertips to tease him. Even after this evening, he still wants to explore every inch of him with his lips.

What can he say - Luka was a fan of going right for it as much as he was a fan of teasing the suggestion of it.

"A moose? Aren't they really big?" He feels the scar with extra consideration, trying to figure its size and what kind of wound it must have been. "And you took it down with just a bow?"

He's distracted then by Gyre kissing his hand, momentarily forgetting all about the scars. He laughs softly, leaning in to collapse onto the other's shoulder. He finds that its extremely comfortable there, and sinks into him with a relaxed moan.

It's a long rough scar up his right side. He nearly dodged the animal's charge, but it definitely broke his ribs and put him down for awhile at the time. He'd learned a few important lessons though, and he makes a soft, amused noise. He's happy to linger here, on this memory.

"No, no. Ah, I was the bait while my spouses flanked it. They got a little too close, I got a little too confident. It charged me, and got away," he explains, sounding pleased with himself despite this being obviously a mistake? He clearly isn't worried about sounding like a doofus to Luka. He even loops a hand around his shoulder as he sinks against him, and mimes the moose rushing towards him by running his fingers down Luka's arm. He makes this soft, playful squawk of a noise as his moose!hand slams into him and goes racing off into the forest again.

Despite all the dangerous battles the Knights had been through up to this point, Luka is still amused by the story - and he's equally amused by how much Gyre seems to enjoy recalling it.

"Your spouses? You were married?" Luka doesn't bother to lift his head, though his wandering hand pauses in place. It's more of a curious question than a troubled one - though most people Luka had been with didn't bring up their exes in bed, Gyre also wasn't anything like the others.

"I..." he starts, trailing off almost immediately. He's still married by his own cultural rules. He still trusts his spouses with his children. He'd give his life to them if he could. That's marriage to him.

But he also knows that's not how it is for these people. Luka's hands pause on his body, and he suddenly remembers the mutual confusion that happened the last time he said he had a husband to a lover and they freaked out about cheating of all things. For a moment, he feels like an alien in this world again, and he becomes very aware of the walls of this room. He shouldn't be here.

"Ah, not... in a ceremony or anything," he murmurs, his voice a little strained as he works through his thoughts. He ends up going quiet again, looking down at the top of Luka's head and running his hand lightly over his side. Despite himself, he can feel himself relaxing as he watches this lovely man. The spike of anxiety fades out, and he sighs faintly.

"We worked well together, you know?" He takes a deep breath, bringing the other's hand up again so he can lay kisses lazily down his arm. "Do you have anyone like that, Luka?"

"Hmm." Luka sighs lightly, a soft exhaled breath into Gyre's neck. It wasn't exactly the answer he was hoping to hear. It sounded suspiciously like what someone hiding a marriage from their illicit lover would say. His mind would have gone to cheating next, had Gyre explained that he is in fact still married, but Luka is under the impression that Gyre's family had died along with him.

Luckily, Luka is easily distracted. Once again by the kisses, but particularly by the sound of his own name in Gyre's voice.

"I don't know.... we work well together, don't we?" It was a silly thought. The two of them were quite different, and they'd clashed dramatically a handful of times in the short week they'd known each other.

Luka giggles to himself imagining living in the woods like Gyre, sleeping in a tent, trying to hunt moose. The thought of Gyre in the city felt equally absurd. Their two lifestyles couldn't be further apart.

Oh gods, this is too much. Gyre flusters immediately, actually squeaking a little when the princess starts giggling like that. Those extremely pesky feelings rise up in his throat, his chest tightening into a knot. He feels like he can't speak at all suddenly, and he leans his forehead almost helplessly against the other's wrist.

It's been a long time since he felt like this. He's been practicing detachment for such a long time. He's supposed to be a ghost, but this whole week has grounded him in the world in such a disarming way.

There's a long, stunned silence here before he finally murmurs, "We do. I... Do you mean it?" He takes a breath, suddenly feeling like he's been keeping secrets. Luka's not a wild elf. He can't really know what he's saying, right?

"I'm not, alive," he says after another pause, as if to emphasize this fact. As if the princess doesn't know this already. As if he could impart the full weight of what that means culturally to him with just that one word.

"Yes, I mean it. Though I never could have predicted it." It's true - if you had asked Luka seven days ago where he thought he'd be now, he would have never guessed it would be here.

"I know that. Why should it change anything?" There's a sudden concern in his voice, and Luka brings his focus up to Gyre again, moving a hand to gently find his cheek. "You feel every bit as alive as anyone else to me. If I had a problem with it, I wouldn't be here."

The Weather

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