Day 8: Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: February 10th, 2020 - February 19th 26th, 2020 ]

After the events of Day 7 and the chaos that it brought, the heroes have learned a number of things that most of them still aren't sure they're ready to know. What will they do with their knowledge? How will they share it with each other? How will--

At about 6AM, everyone receives a text from Garrot. Anyone who saw him the evening before may be surprised to see him forming complete sentences and, uh, threatening everyone? Is he okay? Anyone brave enough to want to text him back?

What a great start to the day, an early text. But that's... surprisingly the only shake-up? It's eerily calm.

The Protector had been knocked out to sea by the Wizard, spawning a number of serious worried conversations on social media. Is he okay? Was he dead? Is it time to panic? There were plenty of memes, too. Like the wizard in the foreground with sunglasses, a golf club, and a wide smile with the protector in the background and the words "time to go golfing" memed accross the image. At least some people were still in a joking mood.

The Wizard, too, had a collection of social media posts about her current circumstances. The overall opinion was that she was way scarier than before, was she a terminator? Wizardinator?

To make matters worse, Sxicq was missing. The hashtag #childlookout was trending with almost hourly updates of the island. Sxicq didn't make themselves difficult to find, which meant that spotting them even from distant photos or drone snaps was pretty straightforward. But there was no sign of their characteristic glow or disruptions anywhere. No bigfoot-esque sightings in the back of other photos. No panic that they were eating entire restaurants' stocks of food.

Nothing.

Talk about a calm before the storm, especially since Eight had alluded to several of the heroes that there was still going to be a fight today.

It turns out to be another opportunity for the heroes to collect themselves, gather information, and get themselves on stable ground. It's warmer today, and there are passing waves of light rain all over the island. Little drizzle showers that stick around just long enough to make you seek shelter, but not so long that you wonder when it'll let up. The sun dares to peek through every now and then, occasionally at the same time as the drizzling rain.

Eighth Morning Event: None.

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The Weather

• Light rain.
• 68°F / 20°C
• A gentle breeze.

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Prompts:

• 6:00am The Text, All Cities: "Mandatory medical exams today at 8AM at Far Haven General. The front desk will see you're escorted. You will be frisked, multiple times. Hospital staff says no weapons, no chaos. We can't piss them off.
  
  That means nobody gets their animal companions, since some of you are idiots. They'll be left at the front door before going off on a guided tour. If you or yours don't cooperate, it will be assumed that you want to harm the Princess and you will die.
  
  See you then!"
  
  At about 6AM, everyone receives that text from Garrot. Anyone who saw him the evening before may be surprised to see him forming complete sentences and, uh, threatening everyone? Is he okay? Anyone brave enough to want to text him back?


• 8:08am Eight, All Cities: Anyone who decides they're going to text Eight to make a plan will find that he doesn't answer any of his texts until 8:08am. He replies to everyone all at once, at exactly 8:08 and 8 seconds. Whether your hero sent one text at 6am, or eight texts between 6 and 8am, all the answers come at exactly the same time. If anyone asks to go to the garden, they'll be deposited on the landing pad in the garden... at 8:08am. Predictable.


• 9:00am The Wizard, The Garden: The Wizard can be found in the vegetable section of the garden for any heroes who go looking for her. She's tending to the plants, picking weeds, watering the beds, and preparing new sprouts to grow in the empty spaces.


• ?:00am Anywhere, All Cities: Surely your character has to be getting up to something this morning, somewhere. This is a general catchall post for any threads among heroes that occurs. Whatever your character is getting up to, however they're preparing, or however they're coping. This is the place for it. Eight said there was going to be a fight this afternoon, after all, so there's something on the horizon at least!

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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.

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Activity Check: February 2020

[ IRL Timeframe: February 1st - February 29th, 2020 ]

Comments

[eutychia]

A signal. It wasn't a bad idea, but as Luka tries to think of one, he finds its proving more difficult than it should be. If Garrot won't be able to hear his conversation with the Protector, then the signal couldn't be verbal. But a purely visual signal would require Garrot to looking at the right time, and Luka couldn't guarantee that.

"It would need to be something you could notice immediately. If you can't hear us, it can't just be a phrase." Luka strokes his chin in thought. "But not something so bizarre as to put him on guard. I could pretend to take a phone call. I could call you?"

[daddykong]

"Hm," Garrot offers a little grunt at the idea. It's not bad, but... it's not great. Not yet. So he squints at Luka before pantomiming phone-taking motions himself. After a moment of that...

"Keep your phone on your leg, under the table... assuming he does tea again." Garrot saw the Protector do tea the time they met in public. "You call me, and I'll come over or- or just shout that it's time to do autographs." He pauses for a beat, trying to figure out what kind of asshole the Protector actually is.

"Do you think he'd want to stick around for autographs, or would an offer make him want to leave?" Sure, they met in a completely isolated place before, but... he's the Protector. The hero. Who care about appearances.

[eutychia]

"That's more subtle. I like it." The plan would probably work fine that way, and Luka approves. No need to worry about the possibility of being caught in an act.

Luka lets out a little laugh when he imagines the Protector signing autographs. Something about it felt so wrong. The Protector felt to Luka to be above something so... mortal.

"I... don't know, honestly. He's never come off as someone who craved fame or attention, despite what I've been told. If I had to guess, I think he'd leave."

[daddykong]

"And if you're wrong?" The words come without hesitation. The idea of playing bodyguard while the Protector is signing autographs from feet away is... absolutely disgusting. It makes Garrot groan just thinking about it! But he shrugs it off, sliding right into... asserting authority.

"Just tell him it'd be asking for the Wizard to try something if the Protector, the Princess, and his hand-selected Knight were all surrounded by civilians." He's the Protector, he has to care about collateral damage... or at least getting into another fight with a dead-but-only-technically Wizard.

[eutychia]

"Maybe..." Luka ponders, trying to conjure up everything he knew about the Protector to properly assess the risks. "Or maybe he's itching to finish her off. She did just throw him into the ocean. People were making a mockery of that online. It couldn't be good for his pride."

He pauses to sip his coffee as a thought comes to him.

"That is, assuming he's gone to check the latest memes after crawling to shore." Luka finishes with a short laugh. "It sounds absurd but he's on the pulse of everything. He could have."

[daddykong]

Garrot's seen the memes. He's been sent the memes from his kids, forced to vaguely tell them it's all going to be okay because the Protector isn't dead yet. Even though he almost wishes that homicidal asshole was dead.

"Then it'd make sense if the crowd wanted to talk to him just as much as the Princess." There's a tiny little chuckle as he thinks back to his first meeting with the guy. "What'd you think he'd do if tens of anxious fans wanted to ask him questions about what happened?"

After he asks the question, Garrot finds himself grunting in... confusion. He's not sure if the Protector would shut down the questions, or shoot the questioners. Maybe both.

[eutychia]

"In that case, he might try to do some reputation damage control. He'll give them some story about how wicked the Wizard was and how she launched him into the sea to keep stealing candy from babies or something." Luka imagines Six's over the top puppet caricature of the Protector in that moment. It sounds like something right out of his performance.

"If not that, then some vague answer. One that still implies he's got everything in control and that emphasizes how evil she is, at least." Luka's not worried that the Protector might harm civilians. He wouldn't have suggested calling his fans to the scene if that were even the slightest risk.

[daddykong]

Luka's responses, both comical and not, were enough to get a little chuckle out of Garrot. It looks like the Princess isn't quite as headstrong as he'd begun to think. For the best, all things considered. His prior confusion seems to have vanished with Luka's confidence.

"Sounds like we've got this figured out. Let me know when you wanna do this and I'll be there." And then there's... a little smile at the corner of his lips. They'll be fine. They've got this.