Day 8: Morning

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.

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

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!

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: February 2020

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

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"It's all just a precaution." Garrot's voice is hushed and soothing as he sees how uncomfortable Luka is. And in a few quick steps, the Knight's hand is no longer on the Princess's shoulder, he's undeniably a few feet away, and there's a mean little chuckle. "We both know you can't hurt me, Princess." Garrot's big and tough and they're not using real weapons, so...

"Straighten your body, and punch me in the chest." And then Garrot... scoots forward an inch or two, to make sure that the Princess's fist can make the connection. "No leaning, no shoulder. Just your arm." Learn by doing, Luka. In this case, learn by doing something utterly unrealistic.

Luka nods, following instruction and straightening up his posture. He swings his arm and makes contact with Garrot's chest with as much force as he can muster without actually putting the entire motion of his body into it. Admittedly, it's a pretty soft punch considering the limitations.

"Like that?" He asks expectantly once the deed is done.

Naturally, Garrot does not flinch.

"Perfect. Didn't feel good, did it? Now relax, and let me move you into something more comfortable." He waits a beat for Luka to to just that, and suddenly there are more Garrots, one to Luka's left and right, and they get to work. One pulls his right leg back, so his weight is on the ball of his foot, while the other pulls the left leg forward. They coerce his body to curl in on itself into a boxer's stance, and his fists are brought up into position near his face.

"Good job! Now-" One of the clones slaps Luka's ass gently for encouragement, and they both disappear. "Push off with your right foot. Turn your hips and torso and shoulder to put your body into it. And punch me in the chest, just like before." Half a moment passes before he feels compelled to follow up: "You still won't hurt me."

"It felt weak." Luka agrees as he allows the Garrots to adjust his position. He's still not entirely accustomed to there suddenly being multiple Garrots, despite everything.

He nearly jumps when he's suddenly smacked on the ass, almost undoing all the work they'd put into positioning him that way. Luka's thinking about how that was going to inevitably be a picture being passed around online when Garrot's already giving him more instruction.

He thinks over the moves before putting them into action as best he can, resulting in one (1) more punch directly to Garrot's chest as requested.

The punch thuds directly into Garrot's chest again. And then... he gasps??

"Oh no." He's utterly monotone, almost robotic. "Your punch was so strong, it broke my rib and ruptured my lung. I am going to die now." And then he just starts making this overly dramatic, raspy gurgling noise.

Except, well, any time he takes a breath, there's a little giggle before he continues the longest death rattle ever. He'll do this all day to make you laugh, please stop him Luka.

"Hey!" Luka huffs. Is Garrot... making fun of him? He's not entirely sure, but that's how Luka's interpreting the man's sarcastic joking. "I was following your instructions perfectly! If it wasn't good, that's on you."

Luka gets back into the position Garrot had previously put him in, nearly hopping in place with energy, eager to prove himself.

"Let me try again! I'll really get you this time."

"It was okay..." This cheeky disaster man is absolutely egging Luka on. His voice is undeniably taunting, and as Luka readies to go again, Garrot's stance loosens up and he... leans back.

"But practice makes perfect!" He's suddenly enthused, and the faint rustling of sand from under his feet starts to echo as he begins bouncing.

"So punch with your left. Then your right. Back and forth. And keep moving forward, keep putting your body into it." Then there's the loud, dull sound of Garrot punching into his open hand. "And every punch, think about something or someone you're mad at."

Stress relief and combat training? At once? Garrot's pretty sure he's the most successful Knight ever.

Luka nods, a determined look on his face as he raises his fists and readies himself to punch again. He thinks for a moment on what or who to direct this anger at - if he only knew what was in store he'd surely have no trouble deciding, but in the moment he's only consumed by his own mistakes.

"Okay, you ready?" He asks. As soon as he gets the affirmative from Garrot, Luka starts swinging. One, two. Left, right. The punches steadily get stronger and more precise as he goes further, making grunts of effort as he puts more of his body into it. After a few solid rounds of punches, he steps back.

"Better?" He asks through heavy breaths.

It'll be abundantly clear to Luka that after the first like three punches, Garrot stops playing around. The first few punches impact against squishy fat and inactive muscle, but once he gets going the Princess will probably notice Garrot taking tiny little breaths out as each punch connects. As each fist connects, it'll hit tensed muscles; is fightmaster Garrot bracing himself?! Yes, absolutely, but he'd never admit it.

"Definitely." Garrot can't really stop himself as a proud little chuckle radiates from his entire body. "I'm pretty sure you've done this before." Sure, that's an exaggeration, but Luka clearly needs encouragement and support right now. And speaking of support...

"Wanna talk about what's got you so angry?" He'll close the distance a bit, and put one giant hand on the Princess's shoulder. "I doubt that was all about me being alone."

"Maybe I wound up in a few rowdy pits before." He says, relaxing his stance. He makes it sound cooler than it actually was - Luka was never throwing fists in mosh pits as a kid, but he'd drifted dangerously close to a few before being reeled in by friends. Still, Luka revels in the praise from Garrot.

"You called me a coward when I came here to help you." Luka says plainly, skeptical that he's the one whose anger needs to be examined. "I'm not the one who sounded like I was about to throw fists at the meeting this morning."

Garrot cannot help but grin ear-to-ear at the idea of Luka in a place where a rowdy mosh pit would happen. What a cool guy! In fact, one could even say the warmth and quiet praise is radiating off the bugbear.

And then Luka goes and ruins it. He brings up their present struggle and that temper, and suddenly Garrot's closing off a bit. The warmth turns not quite cold, but sterile. As if the Monkey Knight had surgically removed whatever got him that angry.

"I called you a coward because you were being indirect." The correction is forceful, but closer to that of parental admonishing than anything aggressive. "But if we're both gonna talk about it..." Then suddenly there's a loud, dull thud as all of Garrot flops ass-first into the sand.

"We should probably be sitting down." Mostly because Garrot knows he'll want to hug someone, and hugging his clones isn't the same as a real person. And vulnerable hugs are easier when you're sitting.

"It's not cowardly." He says as he folds his arms. "A direct approach isn't always the best one. Not everyone responds well to directness."

He flops similarly beside Garrot, though its done with more caution. Once sitting, Luka stretches his legs forward and buries his toes in the dampened sand.

"It's too late for us to be arguing about how to do things. We don't have nearly enough control to be so arrogant as to think we can make all the decisions."

You hear that, Luka? That's a loud, brutish scoff at the assertion that directness isn't always the best. Garrot knows that, deep down, but part of him is still plenty defensive about the way he's been acting the past day or two. It's not his best, and it's why he's cloistering himself away in the beaches and garden. He needs to do better.

So he doesn't push back on anything else. Instead, well...

"Can we even make any decisions?" There's a bit of noise as he leans back, trying to make himself more comfortable while still giving the conversation the gravitas it demands. "We're trapped between three incredibly powerful beings. One can take our magic powers. One's come back from the dead. And one's literally the living battery for the planet." Though Luka can't see it, Garrot throws his hands up into the air at the last one, and there's an aggravated little sigh.

"Are we even going to be making any decisions in the end?" Someone who's so used to having and exerting control on people and circumstances is suddenly coming to terms with how little control he's had ever since Xaljim showed up. And it absolutely sucks.

"I... doubt it." Luka laughs in defeat. His answer applies to both of Garrot's inquiries equally. They all really were at the mercy of the more powerful players, fruitlessly attempting to sway them in whatever direction results in the least amount of suffering.

"But those two are going to hear my voice whether or not they listen at all." He says, mustering confidence. "This is our planet and our people. We're not irrelevant in all this."

"Don't go hoarse for them." There's a condemnation to the emphasis. "If they want to listen, they will. If they don't?" Garrot sighs in that arrogant, confident kind of way he's so used to.

"Well, it's already a two-on-one situation. It'd be reckless for a guy so outnumbered to push people away." It is abundantly obvious that he is talking about the Protector. In fact, there's a bit of a sneer of contempt in his voice.

Garrot sounds like he has an enemy.

Luka is silent for a moment, only providing a quiet hum in response to Garrot's reply. For a minute there's only the sound of the waves and a few gulls cawing away in the distance.

"It would be reckless." He agrees. "But this is the Protector - I wouldn't put it past him. He's incredibly determined, to say the least, and he's been at this for forty years and never caved to the Wizard's methods."

He pauses again. "He sure didn't seem willing to reexamine his position yesterday."

Were they not so troubled, Garrot would be inclined to bask in the silence together. Alas, he and the Princess have far too many dark and twisted emotions. He waits a few moments in silence after Luka finishes, trying to temper his emotions.

"I wonder if he's aware that Sxicq's a real, talking, person." The child is the biggest unknown in this two-on-one disaster. And it prompts an ornery little grumble from big, exasperated Garrot. "This is all about them anyway, fuck the Wizard." There's a little sigh, and he just keeps going.

"He probably knows, it's been forty years." Garrot sighs, slumping his shoulders a bit. "...Do you think he even cares?" And now, all of a sudden, he's so very sad.

"I don't know if he knows." Luka says solemnly. "Ten didn't even know - not until this year."

"I don't think he would care though, not at all." He shakes his head, his fingers tightening in the sand. "He didn't care about the Knights and Princesses that he'd let die in the past being real people. I don't know if something as simple as empathy would be able to convince him."

Garrot's interest is piqued at Ten not knowing something so important. He seemed like the sort to know a lot of things! So then it's a matter of whether that information was withheld, and why. Questions for later and someone else entirely.

"Yeah, you're right." The words come out in a bit of a snarl, and he just sighs, trying to relieve tension and keep his cool. "He didn't just kill my father, you know." Another sigh, and his body starts to relax into the sand more, his legs stretching out further into the sand in front of him.

"The Protector's the reason I'm a father at all." Garrot whines a bit at that, like a kicked puppy. He needs to be very clear about this, but the strain and the way his voice begins to crack, well... "He broke their families, he orphaned them. Him and Seven."

And then there's just a long, shuddering sigh. Acknowledging it is hard enough, Garrot can't even try and process it. That's why he's so damn angry.

"I know." Luka sighs, a fraction of Garrot's anguish reflected in his voice. "How many lives has this whole affair ruined?"

He doesn't expect an answer, but he lets the rhetorical question linger in the air for a moment.

"That's why we have to end it this year, so no more children have to lose their parents. Whatever it takes, if we can actually end this cycle it would be the best thing we could do for the future. That's why we can't just throw Sxicq back in their cage. It won't end."

That's one hell of a question, Luka! Sure, you didn't expect an answer, but Garrot's done plenty of deep thinking about it, just... for a different outsider. So he just sits silently, letting the Princess's declarations wash over him. He waits a few moments, trying to shape his thoughts and emotions into anything other than impotent, violent rage.

"To answer your question, anyone who's been alive on this planet for the last forty years has had their life ruined." There's a short, curt sigh because Garrot sure has found some resolve, and it's fierce. "If you remember your history classes, our planet had a thing for wars." The statement is harsh, but not condescending; he actually remembers life before the Wizard and Protector.

"Now instead of bombs, we're scared of talking animals out of cartoons, and schoolkids learn to swing swords." You know that back in my day kind of crotchety old man tone? Yeah, combine that with restrained, molten rage. "Now we're fighting their war. His war." There's a short, forceful breath from his nose, a conscious release of pressure.

"This cycle isn't about our planet, our people. It never was." Garrot scoffs, and then exhales loud and deep, venting all the warmth and fire from his body. His entire demeanor shifts towards absolute zero, a chilled and measured departure from the explosions he'd been riding until now. "Or he'd be building ships to save us all if he lost."

"Maybe it was, at some point." Luka comments, trying to muster any positivity that he can in the moment. "Something happened. I don't know what or when, but I don't think they came here with bad intentions. The Protector... lost sight of things along the way."

He sighs, reflecting on the mess and ruin that this one person wrought by simply losing his way. All the deaths in the name of his ego, or his pettiness, whichever made him this way.

"But that might mean he can be brought back around, right?" He says, his tone lifting hopefully as he turns to Garrot. Oh Luka, if only you knew what was in store for you all. "Maybe there's still time to build those ships."

"Maybe?" Garrot sighs, forceful and harsh at Luka's optimism. Clearly he disagrees. "Gyre said it'll take about a year for the planet to die after Sxicq leaves." He's matter-of-fact, aggressively blunt about it. The doctor wants to be optimistic, but it's hard looking at forty years of missed opportunities.

"Unless government black-sites across the world have been hiding decades of work..." Garrot's voice has turned stern, uncompromising, lecturing. He is a brilliant mind when he wants to be. "...Our greatest minds would have to decipher space travel and then mass produce it. That means gathering supplies, making what we don't have, and preparing an entire world to uproot their lives." There's another gruff little scoff, though it's clear he's not aiming any of this at Luka.

"And what if we need some chemical compound that's rare or that we can't recreate in that time?" But he sighs, staring down at the sand. Being the buzzkill sucks, but... "Even if we can convince him, it might be too late for him to help."

Damn, dude.

"Yeah..." Luka blinks. He has nothing to offer in the way of the logistics of constructing ships suited for traveling through space, but he knows Garrot's correct. They didn't have that tech or the resources to pull it off in a year's time.

"The Wizard mentioned she was making some kind of... realm, or something, right?" He proposes, recalling a tidbit she'd told him awhile ago. "She said it was a duplicate of this island. It's nowhere near planet capacity, but it might be possible to have some people live there for awhile if it comes down to it."

As luck would have it, Garrot already asked the Wizard about her separate little world. So the idea gets a melancholy sigh from the doctor.

"She told me it's on the island somewhere, and that she took the Protector there when they fought." A moment of silence for the haven that could have been. "So that idea's dead in the water."

Perfect choice of words as they sit on the beach, really.

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