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

"Maybe back in the garden?" he muses, watching Luka put his phone away and pull the key out.

"Let's experiment." He sounds almost delighted at the chance to play around with this, even if there's really only two options. "I'll hold your other hand, and you can hold the key?" And if that doesn't work then they'll have their answer.

"Do you have your phone?" Luka asks, his hand settling on the key. "In case it doesn't work, you'll need to text Eight. Or... I can do it, if not."

He turns the key in the opposite direction to deactivate the bridge before pulling it from its slot. Luka's fingers find their way to the teeth, pausing on them to make sure he's got a firm hold on Gyre.

And then he twists them, keeping them held in that position. Hopefully this works...?

Fortunately the two of them are touching, and that's enough! When the key gets twisted, reality twists around them. Rather than Eight's method of teleportation that was like dropping them through a hole in reality, this kind of teleport is more like being in a droplet of water. It's very clear that they're moving, falling through some wild world, but they just sort of fall as the world reflects around them and then--

They're standing on the arrival platform that Luka had arrived on originally, the one that the braille-poles pointed back to with the label "Portal on it. It hadn't made sense, before, why it was named portal. But now?

This is where the ship's teleport landed. This is where twisting that key sent people back to.

And now both Gyre and Luka are left standing there, back in the garden, where they'd started.

Gyre nods to the question about his phone, reaching into his pocket to touch it just to make sure.

"I'll be okay," he reassures him, just a moment before uh they're falling? Not falling exactly but the world is dissolving around him. He tenses up beside Luka, squeezing his hand tight as he tries to take a breath. Tries to settle.

And then they're there. He looks around the garden in surprise, then down towards the platform. He's not sure why he surprised by this, but he is, remarking softly, "Oh, they knew where we'd show up."

He pulls his hand out from Luka's, taking a few steps off the platform to keep looking around. It's a bit of a pause here before he thinks to let the princess know, "We're back in the garden."

Luka figures they're back in the garden before Gyre's confirmation - it had a very distinct feel, one starkly different from the sterile vibe of the bridge room. He's relieved to once again be in a location that observes normal gravity, though he feels unsteady on his feet after so much time spent afloat.

"What do we do?" He blinks, thumbing the key still in his hands. "Maybe Twelve needs this back. I'd like to ask the Wizard some questions, too."

"Let's try to find them," he says, returning to Luka's side and offering his arm with a touch to his elbow.

"Before it gets too dark, I want to go to that cave. I hope we can find them before that," he muses. It wouldn't be the worst if Luka stayed behind and kept looking, he supposes, but the princess isn't the only one with questions for the Wizard as soon as possible.

"Any idea where they'd go? Maybe the Wizard's still on that bench?" It was only a half-serious suggestion, though she might very well be sitting there.

"She probably has more answers for us than Twelve would..." Luka says as he feels for the braille sign, searching out the direction of the lake. "But we can check the vegetable garden, too. I'm still kind of hungry, you know?"

Gyre pauses to let Luka feel out the sign, watching the way his hands move over the letters curiously. He wonders for a beat if maybe he'd have an easier time reading Common if he did it through his hands. This thought only lasts for a moment though before he's pulled back into the conversation.

"Their house would be a good place to start," he offers, glancing out in the direction of the garden. "I'm hungry too, but I don't think there's anything for me in the garden. Five might know where I can go though."

"You're right." Luka nods. He's trying to imagine Twelve's chaos being confined to something as mundane as a house, and the concept makes him smile. "Even if its not the Wizard or Twelve, we're bound to find someone there who can point us in the right direction."

So Luka feels out for the direction of the house instead. When he finds it, he'll start heading that way.

"Is there more food here than just what they're growing?" Luka inquires as he starts to move. "Raw vegetables from space aren't exactly a balanced meal."

Gyre moves easily with him, setting onto the path as soon as Luka decides where they're going.

"I haven't seen anything else. Just the gardens." He glances around as if an animal will suddenly pop up that has enough meat on it to be edible. He doesn't find anything, of course, and he sighs faintly.

"They've had forty years to prepare though. There must be other food somewhere."

"There's big fish in the lake!" Luka suddenly remembers the fish Ten had talked about feeding, and how large they'd sounded splashing around in that lake. "But they might be pets... so you should probably ask before eating them."

Eating Ten's pets would certainly be a bad look. But Luka can't help his mind wandering to the thought of some nice grilled salmon - he can practically smell it then and there, and he has to shake the thought away before he starts to salivate.

"They could all just be vegetarians. It would explain the garden."

"Mmn, Five ate with me. She's not a vegetarian at least," he says quickly, mostly to reassure himself. He has no idea how traveling to a new world would work if there was nothing for wild elves to eat. Assuming they'll even come at all anyway. He shakes his head slightly, banishing the thought.

"I don't know if I could catch one, but fish sounds..." He trails off for a beat, and then fully realizes what Luka just said about these fish he's currently fantasizing about. These people are the weirdest!! "They're pets?? You keep fish a-as companions??"

“Not me! But some people do.” Luka laughs. “Usually in a tank, or a pond. I guess they’re nice to look at.” Fish weren’t a very tactile pet to keep, so Luka didn’t have much firsthand knowledge about the topic.

“Ten said something about feeding them when we first went to the lake, so he might be fond of them.” He adds. “They do sound delicious right about now, though.”

Gyre tries to imagine being fond of fish, and his mind breaks almost immediately. He knows some people who have worked with wolves and vultures and crows, and he knows that sometimes they're very fond of those animals. He knows that these people keep cats and dogs in their houses for whatever reason. All fluffy, companionable, useful animals.

Fish though??? "I..." he starts, trying to think of a time he'd want to just sit by the water and watch them move around instead of trying to catch them.

"I'll... ask him," he finally concludes. He doesn't need to understand it to respect Ten's feelings if they are his. His fish. "Or one of them. They'll know if he uh, likes them, I think."

"What did you eat with Five? Something from here?" Luka quirks an eyebrow curiously. He actually wasn't sure if the monsters needed to eat, or they just did because they liked it. It might be rude to ask, but Luka puts a pin in that concept for later.

"If nothing else, I think the Wizard can just make food with magic."

"Venison. She came to my camp after Ten took me from the Protector. The same day you visited," he says, a smile in his voice despite the grim reminder of the Protector's violence. He had had a good time with her. Of all the monsters, she's the one who feels most familiar to him.

He shakes his head to that second bit, making a noise of denial. "She can't. She can teleport it from someplace else, but she can't make it from nothing." It's an important bit of trivia now that they're talking about the logistics of moving a planet. He wonders briefly if she could teleport food that they left on earth, but that seems too powerful even for her.

"Oh..." Luka trails off, recalling all the food and drink that the Wizard had seemingly made before in light of this revelation. It was kind of disappointing that she couldn't just make it out of thin air, but understandable. "So all the coffee, and the hot chocolate, and the breakfast food she made was stolen?"

He laughs thinking about some poor person sitting down for breakfast and having it all just poof out of existence right before their eyes.

"No wonder it tasted so real. I wonder where it comes from."

"I don't know if it was stolen," he murmurs, thinking back to breakfast a few days ago. This has the unfortunate effect of reminding him how hungry he is, and he winces slightly.

"She told me she warned the uh, the cooking people before she took anything," he can't help smiling slightly, "Maybe she has a deal with a coffee place."

"Huh." Somehow it felt even stranger knowing that the people she got the food from were warned beforehand? "How does she warn them? Does she leave a note?"

Luka's amused - again - by his own idea before he hops on another thought train.

"If I could ask the Wizard for any food I wanted right now..." He starts, clearly drifting into another dangerous food daydream. "Tempura udon. I bet Ten would like it, too. What about you?"

"I don't know. I think she talks to them... She's known them for years, right?" he muses, reaching up to tap his chin lightly. He can't imagine the Wizard talking to regular people honestly, but he supposes she must if she's been here for so long.

These thoughts are set aside though the second Luka starts fantasizing about food. Immediately, his mouth starts watering, and he licks his lips. He feels like he could eat a whole ass moose right now. Everything sounds good to him.

"Ah... one of those. Fat, city pigeons," he murmurs dreamily. "Or more of the salmon she gave me. A lot more." Gods, he's hungry.

"She gave you salmon?! I was just thinking about it! We should ask her for some, for sure." Luka's pumped just thinking about it. Hopefully they can get the hook up instead of only eating weird space veggies.

"Pigeons... hm, I don't know about that one though. Do they even have much meat?" There seemed like plenty better animals you could hunt than a fat city pigeon. "Or... maybe they taste particularly good?"

"When she invited us to breakfast, yeah. It was so good." If he sounds like he's drooling, it's because he's just about to. Thank god they're nearly at the house. "I think she set it aside for me."

He makes his amused sound, clapping his hands together once, when Luka asks about pigeon. Most people react with distaste to the idea. The curiosity almost makes him want to figure out how to make some in a way he could eat it. Or find someone who knows how to cook for him. Either way.

"They're delicious. Not a lot of meat, but the breast is the most amazing couple bites, and the bones are so delicate." He's so hungry.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, for the two of them, Ten is following them--

Wait, when the hell?

They'll both pick up on footsteps behind them as he apparently just freakin' appears behind them. He's got a brown sack under one arm and a mug with the words "I pretend I work here" printed on it. He's wearing a shirt that has a fake printed new employee label on it that says "Hello, my name is: _10_" and around his neck are a pair of headphones that sound like they're playing soft thunderstorm sounds? They're not super loud, but they're loud enough to pick up on as he approaches.

"Hey." He greets them from behind with the phone in his ?mouth? as usual.

Edited 2020-03-08 04:36 (UTC)

Luka's imagining biting into pigeon breast, bone included, when suddenly Ten's familiar text to speech voice speaks up from behind them. It's then that he also notices the thunderstorm sounds, clearly playing out of a device and not naturally above them.

"Ten! Hi!" Luka turns in his direction, surprised to run into the little monster again so soon. "We're heading to the house. You too?"

Gyre jumps as he hears Ten's mechanical voice, turning to look at the little monster in surprise. That is definitely a look he's got there, and Gyre spends a few moments trying to read the various bits of text. It's way too hard though, and he ends up just frowning deeply.

"Do you know where Five is?" he asks more directly. He doesn't really care about the house as long as he can find her and get food advice. He's definitely assuming Ten uh doesn't know how to keep carnivores fed whoops.

The Weather

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