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 smiles, leaning in and making a pleased noise in response to the praise and the kiss.

"People would think I'd lost my mind if they saw me chasing a bird around trying to catch it." He laughs, letting his hands idly wander over Gyre's body once again. "But I'd still do it. It's none of their business anyway, right?"

He sighs softly as Luka's hands start wandering again, glancing down to watch them for a moment. He shifts himself slightly, moving his arm out of the way so the other can just uh go wherever he pleases basically.

"That's right. If they're truly curious, they'll ask you. The rest have their own lives to attend to." This is advice his parents gave him over and over again as he hit that awkward tween phase where it feels like everyone is watching you. It's how he thinks the world should work in general, the idea of gossip magazines and paparazzi completely foreign to the way he thinks.

"Now if we could just get them to be polite about it. They love to talk and take things out of context." He laughs. "One time, I had to make a public statement telling everyone I didn't have a secret lovechild when someone leaked some private pictures of me."

He laughs at the absurdity of the memory, though it had been annoying at the time. Luka always tried to keep his loved ones' privacy, and strangers found a way to pry into it anyway.

"Sometimes I think I understand perfectly why you'd want to live deep in the forest." He says, one hand finding Gyre's, interlacing their fingers. "Doesn't it get lonely, though?"

Gyre goes very quiet when Luka describes this experience, trying to reconcile it against the world he's grown up in. Why would people lie about a thing like that? Is it bad for Luka to have a child? Why would the princess then have to explain that that was a wrong assumption to make? Who is so curious about another person's life that they'd pry in that deep?

He purses his lips against his skin as he winds through these questions and more, only looking up when their fingers are laced so neatly together. He absentmindedly rubs a thumb along his hand, sighing softly.

"Sometimes. But that's okay. How can I know myself if I'm never alone, you know?" he murmurs, trying to explain a thing that feels perfectly normal to him. Besides. "Besides, I've felt just as lonely in an overfull barracks, but with no privacy to try to understand it. It's worse, to feel that way and be surrounded by people."

"No, I know what you mean." He says softly. "Being the only blind person in a room can be very isolating."

He hated to admit it, but it was reality. He'd always thought becoming famous or being extroverted would change things, and it did - but not in the ways that Luka had hoped it would when he was young.

"Barracks." He repeats after a moment of thinking. "You were a soldier?"

Luka knew embarrassingly little about military service as it had never been something to touch his life personally, nor something he'd had interest in researching. The idea of Gyre as a soldier surprises him a little - it seemed like serving ones country was something he'd have no desire to do.

Gyre squeezes his hand gently when he admits to feeling isolated in that way. He wants to comfort him in some way, to offer his own isolation as the one wild elf in a room. But it doesn't feel quite right. He can't imagine being in a crowd of strangers and not being able to see a single one, not even the friendly faces that might be there.

And then Luka has moved on, and he presses a kiss to his shoulder then his chest as if this will help him at all. "Mm," he murmurs softly, affirming that he was a soldier. There's a beat here where he settles back onto the bed, and it seems like he might not say anything else about it.

He doesn't want to, truthfully, but Luka is... too important for that. He can't bear to be completely silent on this.

"I was drafted. For the war." The one that was forty years ago?

"Hmm? There hasn't been a war since the Wizard showed up..." Luka blinks, unsure if he understood Gyre correctly. Maybe he meant a different war? An elf war that Luka wouldn't know about?

"You don't sound old enough to have fought in that war." He laughs, not realizing how wrong he is. Luka somehow hasn't put all the pieces together to realize, hey, Gyre's technically pretty damn old.

"Or..." He pauses. "You're an elf, so... you were old enough already then to fight?" He suddenly feels embarrassed by his awkward questions, like he's committing a social faux pas prying about Gyre's age and past. "That makes sense."

Gyre glances off to the side, beginning to smile slowly as he listens to Luka work through what his age must mean. He opens his mouth for just a second to explain the actual truth of it, that he died then and hasn't aged since, but then the other comes to a less... upsetting answer. He pauses there, wondering if he should just let him think that's all it was.

"Mm, I was old enough to fight," he says, lingering here for a moment. He starts to lightly draw shapes along Luka's chest, switching between his fingertips and the one claw he's got as it strikes his fancy.

"This body doesn't get older either. Which also helps, ah, with the voice." And the face, but that's not exactly relevant here.

"Some of these scars must be from then." Luka muses quietly. He realizes now that Gyre very well might have died back then, too, and doesn't press any further. He recognizes the precarious and sensitive topic he's talked his way into.

"You've been through so much already. And now you're here, risking your life again?" He sighs as he squeezes Gyre's hand in his. "That doesn't seem fair."

"They are," he confirms softly, pressing his fingertips deep into his skin for a moment. His body is tensing up as they come up to this topic, his teeth grit as he feels the familiar urge to change the subject as soon as possible.

Luckily, Luka catches on before he has to say anything, and he sighs deeply, sinking against him.

"None of this has been fair," he murmurs. "It's not fair for you or Matilda or the others to be here. You weren't prepared for this. Neither were the monsters." He sighs again, harder this time taking his hand off Luka's body and running it through his hair instead, unhappily. "If anything, maybe I should have come here sooner. Maybe it wouldn't have lasted so long if I had..."

"No, it had to be now." He says with certainty in his voice. "The other Knights in the past probably did everything they could then too, you know? It's this year that's different."

It was hard not to constantly lapse into discussing the extremely pressing matters weighing on their shoulders, but Luka sighs as he realizes they'd ended up there yet again.

"Whatever happens, we'll be the last to ever have to go through this." Luka sighs softly. "But I know we're going to save everyone."

Gyre realizes in the same moment that they've come back around here. He wishes they could just... rest. Just for a day. Set everything aside and not think about it for awhile. He sighs in time with the princess, leaning up to kiss him softly, a reminder to himself to stay in the moment with him.

"We will." He takes a breath, taking real physical effort to change the subject. It's just easier to flirt sometimes when the conversation keeps drifting back to more serious subjects.

"How else will I get the chance to see you like this again~"

"The next time you see me," Luka starts, moving his arms around Gyre's back and pulling himself closer. "Everything will be one hundred times better. You won't be ready."

This is a promise Luka intends to keep. Looking to the future was about all they had left, and so Luka is going to plan for that future to be as amazing as possible.

"Maybe that will come sooner than you think."

He purrs softly when Luka says he won't be ready for it, his eyes fluttering as he immediately starts imagining what that could mean. As the other pulls himself closer, Gyre can't help but close the distance with a sudden desire, kissing him, his jaw, nipping lightly at his throat.

"I want nothing more," he murmurs against his skin, grinning at the way his mind is wandering. He can't help but tease him gently as his hands start wandering again, "You've outdone yourself already, Luka. A hundred times this may exhaust you~"

"You're already underestimating me? That's a mistake." He laughs, leaning in fully toward Gyre's affection. This was probably not a mistake, but a fair assessment given Luka's physical performance over the past week. Not to mention his current exhaustion. But that's all beside the point!

"You should be more worried about yourself." He insists, running a hand down Gyre's spine to rest at the small of his back. "Or, is your stamina higher than most?"

Gyre presses in as Luka leans in, kissing and biting at his throat. He's working his way around and down, trying to cover every inch of him one kiss at a time.

"I can," kiss, "give," kiss, "as good as I get," and then a sharper bite then before. He curves his body towards him, getting as close as he can as he continues exploring.

"I can keep up with you, Luka. No problem," he says, that last bit an absolute tease, egging him on even though he can tell the man is tired after everything today.

"Oh? I'll hold you to that, you know." Luka says, his voice a low whisper. He wants to continue to indulge himself here, and naturally Gyre's teasing is only encouraging him further.

"Don't think you've seen the best of me tonight..." He explains, a hint of reluctant sleepiness in his voice. "Today felt like an eternity. But it ended so well, I can't complain."

"Please do," he purrs, finally retreating away from those hungry kisses. There are bits of him that want more, that want to keep going down this road, but he can hear that sleepiness. He's tired as well, Luka commenting on the length of the day making the weight of it settle onto his shoulders again.

"If this isn't the best of you, then I can't wait to see what is." He reaches up, giving Luka's face a gentle stroke, looking him over for a moment. And then he sits up in bed beside him, letting one foot slide off the edge and settle on the floor. He doesn't really want to leave, but if the princess is tired, he can't even begin to imagine staying here much longer. Who ever stays in a person's room when they're unconscious!!

Luka smiles a satisfied smile, reaching up to gently hold Gyre's wrist. He moves his hand down slowly, over his palm, until their fingers meet.

"Hm, are you leaving so soon?" He asks, his smile unfaltering. "Where do you have to be that's more important than this?"

Gyre pauses in his slow retreat when Luka grabs his wrist, his eyes drifting between that and that smile. He's such a lovely man, and as their fingers meet, he shifts to intertwine his with Luka's.

"You sound tired. I shouldn't..." He pauses a beat, trying to figure out the easiest way to express his discomfort without sounding like he's rejecting him in some way. "Do you want me to be... here?"

"Yes?" He says. "I thought that much was obvious. I don't usually invite people I don't want here inside."

Luka can't seem to figure out where Gyre is in such a rush to be. His camp? Surely it can't be more enticing than simply staying the night here, but he knows that Gyre's tastes are much different than his own.

"Are you worried about being seen leaving in the morning? I can make sure you don't get spotted."

"Oh, ah, no," he answers bluntly, a touch of confusion in his voice. It hadn't even occurred to him that people might care about seeing him leave, and he pauses a moment here to consider whether he should care about that. If Luka's sure he can hide him, then he supposes he shouldn't worry, right?

"I don't, uh... usually..." he starts, getting decidedly flustered and falling silent. The last time he tried to explain this is had been nightmarish for him, and he dreads ruining the mood when it's been so good after the busyness of the day.

"It feels weird. For me. To be in someone's, uh, space while they're asleep?" Or in general, actually, but he doesn't want to bring that up after the night they've spent together so far.

"Well," Luka starts, making no effort to move from the comfortable spot he's sunken into. "If you're asleep too, is it still weird? Because that's the idea."

He's quiet for a minute as he reflects of Gyre's flustered state. How could someone who'd been married feel so uncomfortable with the thought of sharing a bed? Luka finds the situation both perplexing and somewhat endearing at the same time.

"I won't stop you from leaving if you're more comfortable with that. I just think it would be more enjoyable if you stayed."

"It's... still weird," he affirms softly, trying to find the right words to explain how he feels about this. It's difficult, and made more so by the fact he does want to spend the night with him. It's only being in this bed in this room that's making him anxious.

But Luka has also said he wants him here, over and over again. And he knows, logically, that it must be completely normal for him to have a lover stay in bed all night. He sighs pensively, looking down to the princess where he's settled.

"You are comfortable? With my being here?"

"Of course. Do you need me to put it in writing? I'll sign it and everything, so you know it's really official." Luka says, immediately followed by shameless giggling at his own teasing.

"Yes, Gyre, I'm more than comfortable with you being here." He confirms, though he feels it need not be said. His calm smile fades after a moment of contemplation. "But... you're not, and I want you to be comfortable too."

The Weather

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