Day 8: Monster Arrival

[wizardseason]

Afternoon: 12:00noon - 5:00pm

[ IRL Timeframe: February 26th - March 11th, 2020 ]

Just like the seventh day, if the heroes were hoping that this was going to ease up at all and give them a break:

It was all getting so much worse.

The light rain from the morning hasn't let up, still coming in brief waves over the island. It's not so much that you wish you had an umbrella, but also a little more than anyone's comfortable staying outside in for too long. The sun is still trying to peek through every now and then, occasionally at the same time as the drizzling rain.

- [1] -

At noon on the dot, the emergency broadcasting system goes off on every device on Harsen Island. Actually, it goes off across the entire planet. Before anyone can begin to wonder who it's from, the broadcast flickers on to show the Protector's face. He looks... rough. There's sand caked on to his robes, he still looks completely drenched from being in the ocean, and there are numerous cuts over his body from the fights he's been in. Careful eyes will note that his scabs don't look quite right, are those rainbow colors?

"People of the world, I am the Protector." He begins, reaching a hand up to his hair to pull some stray aquatic greenery off of himself.

"It is with no satisfaction that I am reaching out to you in this manner. But I must sow hope before the last flickers of survival are snuffed out." He does his best to finish getting himself at least somewhat decent for the camera before continuing. Who's recording this...?

"The Wizard has set not two, but four knights against the world. The monkey, dragon, boar, and dog knights all stand together. Worse still, they have enticed the ox knight and the Princess to believe their lies." He shakes his head, sighing like someone who's been betrayed.

"They have killed the others, the rabbit, sheep, and snake knights were all cut down for trying to save this world." He lets out a deep exhale, either holding back tears or very believably pretending to.

"The last hope of the world lies in your hands. In four days: Midnight, on the last day: Blow up Harsen Island. Reduce it to ash and the world will spin on. They must not win. They will not. ... I will do what I can to turn the tide back, but do not mourn me if I am lost. The world is more important."

The feed cuts abruptly as a yellow fist comes into frame, aimed directly at the Protector's head. He barely sidesteps it, but then the video is gone. Anyone who has kept up with where the monsters planned to be will be able to assume it's Ten. Some may even know that for sure. Who has the better odds?

- [2] -

"Eight" arrives out of the Far Haven train depot almost immediately after the Protector's noon broadcast. How can anyone be sure?

It's streamed to the internet.

Social media somehow immediately picks up on the "#EightFightLive" stream with numerous accounts sharing it dozens of times (are... those fake accounts...?) in minutes. The stream begins, attached to the side of whoever this is' head, is this being filmed on a GoPro or something? No one has to wonder for long, because the movement slows to a stop as the video feed aims at a big mirror on a nearby wall.

The reflection shows two massive sets of train wheels with a platform and what looks like a big yellow snowman perched on it. The snowman's midsection, however, has eight giant arms sticking out of it. Each set of arms is holding, from bottom to top: Swords, Hammers, Axes, and the top set of arms are actually a huge set of yellow wings. The head of the snowman doesn't have a face, but it does have eight eyes painted on. The center of each eye looks like it's flickering and on fire? And hastily wrapped around where a "neck" would be between the top snowman orb and the body is, in fact, a GoPro.

Nice.

The whole body shudders slightly and the distorted voice of an automated subway announcer gurgls out the words: "Next stop: Far Haven. Stand clear of the closing doors. One coin per trip. Next stop: Far Haven."

Anyone watching the stream will realize that if "Eight" is on the rails and heading to Far Haven... then the next stop would be Bamborough. And then Craydon after that. Was he just going to ride the rails around the island until he was defeated? The stream shudders as "Eight" starts rolling along on the rails, in the direction of the train station.

Loyal viewers of the stream will also get treated to a cameo on the way: While rolling through Far Haven, the GoPro centers on the big yellow mass that is Ten fighting against a glowing-white-weapon armed Protector. Suddenly the stream shows nothing but bright orange flames in their direction, and the two scatter apart. Whatever results from the flamethrower isn't seen, because "Eight" is too busy rolling on the rails towards the next destination! Far Haven, toot toot!

- [3] -

#childfound

Sxicq is too damn easy to find on the island, especially when they're spotted standing side-by-side with a monster in one of Luka's fan T-shirts at the top of the mountain (hi Eight!). The two of them are knelt by the door that had exploded several days earlier, hands pressed into the ground. Whoever has a drone taking the pictures of them, it's good enough to show that there are blue cracks radiating out from whatever they're doing. That can't be bad!

- [4] -

It's bad.

At 2:00pm, the island is wracked with earthquakes. Well, not actual quakes, more like the whole island just starts vibrating. It's the kind of low vibration that makes everything rattle just a little bit and fills the air with a white noise that never really goes away, but nothing cracks and breaks. It's like someone turned the island into putty and started wiggling it into a new shape.

And social media confirms that as observers of the island check in with hashtags like: #mountainsinking #shrinkingmountain #deflatedharsen

Because the mountain is flattening out, shrinking down and disappearing. Everything on the island is weirdly adjusting, like the buildings are just sort of floating on top of this solid-ground-now-melting-but-still-solid situation. It makes absolutely no sense. Science can't explain it. Mountains don't melt. You can't just shrink a mountain into the earth. You can't flatten an island.

But that's what's happening. Slowly, but surely. It'll be done by Evening, and then the Island will have a new shape.

- [5] -

At this point, Eight has left a text with all the heroes again that if they want to go to the garden, he can help make that happen. All it takes is a text. Five and Six are staying there, with Seven, in the monster house. If anyone goes there, they'll get to find the most interesting tidbit of information: It's not rumbling there.

- [=] -

Social media is pretty much evenly split on today's news: #endoftheworld? #whatjusthappened.


Monster Arrival: Far Haven: "Eight".

---

The Weather

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

---

Prompts:

• 12:00pm Emergency Broadcast, Everywhere: Immediately following the Protector's emergency broadcast, all of the phones and tech on the island and in the world become accessible again. The discussion is immediate and unrelenting and, to make matters worse, the social media accounts of all the heroes... have been disabled. They've only got phone calls and texts to rely on. Do they text each other? Or someone back home? Who could have disabled their social media accounts? That's... really fucking bad, holy shit.


• 12:15pm Train Station, Far Haven: "Eight" finally rolls into the Far Haven train station at about 12:15pm, ready to fight. Any hero, at any train station, will find that they all have a new feature: Instead of the "upcoming arrivals" screens above the tracks advertising regular trains, they're advertising "Eight"'s arrival times? Anyone in Bamborough will see "12:45pm" and anyone in Craydon will see "1:15pm". Even more strange is that there's a hastily-added black pole with a coin slot on it. Someone has hand-written "Eight request" in yellow ink beside the coin slot. Someone's gotta fight "Eight" first at Far Haven... or make a request at another station! The fight is on!


• 12:30pm Mountain Door, Mountain: Does your character go to interrupt Sxicq and Eight on top of the mountain? That's a pretty rude thing to go do. They're busy, why would your character do that? Don't they have more important things to do, like, you know, killing "Eight"? Either way, if your character ends up atop the mountain, thread it here!


• 2:00pm Earthquakes, Harsen Island: Everything is shaking! This is probably the worst possible thing that could happen! What's up with this shaking?! Does your hero get up to anything during all this? Do they try to find out what's happening? Do they... geez, how do you even react to an hours-long earthquake everywhere?!


• ?:00pm The Garden: Did your hero ask to go to the Garden? What do they do there? Any garden threads go here!

---

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.

OOC Mortality Warning: Any hero who actively seeks out the Protector IC will be at a high risk of death in some manner. He is on the move, tread carefully!

---

Activity Check: February 2020

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

Comments

12:00pm Emergency Broadcast, Everywhere:

[wizardseason]

Immediately following the Protector's emergency broadcast, all of the phones and tech on the island and in the world become accessible again. The discussion is immediate and unrelenting and, to make matters worse, the social media accounts of all the heroes... have been disabled. They've only got phone calls and texts to rely on. Do they text each other? Or someone back home? Who could have disabled their social media accounts? That's... really fucking bad, holy shit.

GROUP TEXT

[daddykong]

After forcibly taking charge this morning, Garrot has no intention of letting the Protector's bullshit brand of chaos reign over the group. The moment they stop working together is the moment the Protector starts picking them off one by one. And he's not letting that happen. He needs to destroy this motherfucker.

So he sends out a group text to everyone's Knight phones. As you do.

"That dirty bastard! Don't go anywhere alone, don't fight him, don't die. We need to trust Ten. Two of you should get to the mountain and take pictures of the dead Knights as evidence. Two of you need to tell Sxicq to find us later and ask Eight if he can help us leave ASAP. One of you's helping me fight this fucking train. Unless there are any better ideas?

I'm gonna make some calls. Make your choices before I'm done."

Let's make it very clear that Garrot hasn't threatened or browbeat or barreled over anyone. Is he... okay?

[eutychia]

Luka knows immediately where he's going to be, and his reply comes quickly. It's straight to the point despite the millions of questions and emotions storming in Luka's mind.

I'm going to Sxicq.

[sustainer]

Gyre is still stunned by the video that just played, staring off into the middle distance when Garrot texts him. And Garrot of all people is not the people he wants to talk to right now. He wrinkles his nose as he pulls the text up, and sigh has to resign himself to the fact the man is right for once. They do need to coordinate, quickly, even if he disagrees with what needs doing.

The mountain is going to change today. I do not think that we should send anyone to that cave right now. The Protector might also expect us to go there because there is evidence of what he has done there. It may be dangerous in multiple ways

I can also fight but I will go wherever I am most needed.

Garrot Phone Home

[daddykong]

The moment he learned he was a Knight, Garrot began discussing plans with his mother and his boyfriend better half fiance inspiration. It all boiled down to one approach: use compassion, money, connections, and whatever means necessary to gain his allies' trust and meet their needs so the Wizard couldn't tempt them. Sure the uncertain nature of this year meant he was mostly keeping them in the dark, but Garrot thought he was doing a pretty good job as a Knight!

And then all the plans fell apart. Hearing that father-murdering bastard call him a planet-dooming piece of shit on both of his phones was pretty terrible. So he does the rational adult thing, and he tries to go to social media to defend himself! Except there's nothing, not even their group chats. It's like he never even existed. So he does the next best thing: kicking it old school with a phone call or twenty.

First he calls his oldest daughter, she's good in a crisis, she can tell him what to do to fix all this! One ring, straight to voicemail, just like a blocked number. So he calls the twins, even though they're probably triggered because their father was a Wizard Knight. Again, one ring and to voicemail. Sly's his fiance, he's like legally obligated to pick up the phone, right? Especially when he could talk about the weather and it'd make Garrot think everything would turn out fine. But apparently not, because one ring and straight to voicemail.

So Garrot decides to call his mother. He's been keeping her at arm's length since this all started, to keep her from re-experiencing the grief of losing her husband. Admittedly not the most humane choice, but the doctor isn't one to make good decisions. He dials her number. It rings... and rings... and rings... and then... silence?

"M-mom?" In that moment he was a child again, terrified of the unknown. "Mom, I- I-" The fear shakes his voice, the despair has him sounding on the brink of tears. There's a sharp inhale on the other line, and-

"Hruggarrot." Normally, he'd be shitting himself when his mother used his full name, her tone colder and harsher than the Koskenkorvan mountaintops. Right now, he's just happy to hear her voice, to not be abandoned by everyone he loves! "Make your father proud." And then she hangs up. Given what Garrot's learned about his father's interactions with the Wizard and subsequent murder, Mama Murtakhor's advice is... confusing.

12:15pm Train Station, Far Haven:

[wizardseason]

"Eight" finally rolls into the Far Haven train station at about 12:15pm, ready to fight. Any hero, at any train station, will find that they all have a new feature: Instead of the "upcoming arrivals" screens above the tracks advertising regular trains, they're advertising "Eight"'s arrival times? Anyone in Bamborough will see "12:45pm" and anyone in Craydon will see "1:15pm".

Even more strange is that there's a hastily-added black pole with a coin slot on it. Someone has hand-written "Eight request" in yellow ink beside the coin slot. Someone's gotta fight "Eight" first at Far Haven... or make a request at another station!

The fight is on!

Garrot + Olivia

[daddykong]

The Monkey Knight was in Craydon when everything, uh, went down. After trying to rally the troops and call his family, he set his sights on the one thing he knows how to do really well. No, not medicine, but that's a good guess. COMBAT.

Garrot's found himself loitering at the Craydon train station waiting for Olivia to show up. While before he was wearing an entire suit he has since removed the jacket, slinging it over his shoulder with a hand protected by a golden-bronze gauntlet. His other hand is holding a similarly golden-bronze spear, one absolutely taller than he is, with two smaller sharp tips flaring out on either side of the pointy end. He looks ready to kick some ass, and more than a little impatient.

Good luck, Olivia.

[disguiseself]

[Despite Eight having let her know that his plan entailed swords, axes, hammers, fire, spinning, and wings among other things, Olivia was still surprised when she saw the Death Machine on the news. How was she supposed to fight against that? She'd asked Iv for a shield for now, which was strapped safely on her arm as she made her way to Garrot.

She wasn't sure which she dreaded the most, the live streamed fight or having to deal with Garrot's very-angry-and-stressed-dad energy alone. Hopefully he'd direct it at "Eight" and not herself.

She ran up to him when she spotted him at the train station all the same, trying to look as relaxed as one could after the very bad, not good events of the day so far.]

Ready to kick some ass, Garbear? [She says, as her free hand moves to retrieve a small bag from some hidden pocket in her dark clothes. She jiggles it slightly.] I brought coins.

[daddykong]

[ Garrot is almost always ready for a fight. But of course, he was waiting around for Olivia and saw her run up... no disguise at all. And with a shield. He's absolutely seen her freak out before, so this? It's a little weird.

And then Garbear. ]

Oh- yeah- uh- [ Honestly, with everything and everyone so on edge, he wasn't expecting this. At all. So his eyes go wide and he's slipped into a little grin and he's blushing. Someone isn't awkward around him! ] I'm think I'm ready.

[ But then he sighs, sternly looking the woman over. His gaze turns cold, and his tone takes on that force again. ]

But you're not. [ And he moves quickly, gauntlet hand flinging the suit jacket over his other arm as the armor suddenly disappears, and then the hand is holding a gnarly swordbreaker blade And he's offering the grip to her. And glaring. ]

Take it. [ Bossing people around like he's done is meaningless if he doesn't back it up. Garrot won't let her get hurt here. ]

Far Haven

[sustainer]

Gyre does not get here when "Eight" first arrives. He's busy in the mountain at the time, but as soon as he's done, he races towards Far Haven. Much as Ten had assured him he'd be safe, he still desperately wants to check on him.

He comes to the train station first only because it's the most familiar landmark, the easiest place to start his search for their battle. It's only when he first steps inside that the coin slot and the pole catch his eye. If it's still here... He wonders if Garrot and Olivia have been able to come here yet. He should help them if they haven't.

He looks out into the city, and then back to the pole. And he makes his decision, moving forwards to the out of place structure. He glances down below the sign requesting a coin and takes one out of the penny jar sitting there, rolling it into the slot. He has no idea what to expect, but this seems like the place to start.

[wizardseason]

Gyre gets his answer in the form of far-off metallic clanging sounds. Anyone who had been dealing with "Eight" in Craydon gets to watch the monster-on-a-cart speed away. Here in Far Haven, the screeching of train wheels gets louder and louder and within five minutes, the distorted voice of an automated subway announcer gurgles out the words:

"Now arriving: Far Haven. Stand clear of the train. Next stop: Bamborough."

"Eight" arrives on a rolling train platform, very much looking like a slightly-wobbly big yellow snowman. The snowman's midsection, however, has eight giant arms sticking out of it and a gash across the front with yellow oozing out. Each set of arms is holding, from bottom to top: Swords, Hammers, Axes, and the top set of arms are actually a huge set of yellow wings. At least, one wing. The other looks like it was torn off. The arms look pretty rough too, some look broken but are still moving. The head of the snowman doesn't have a face, but it does have eight eyes painted on. The center of each eye looks like it's flickering and on fire? A few of them look melted. And hastily wrapped around where a "neck" would be between the top snowman orb and the body is, in fact, a GoPro.

The whole body shudders slightly as the train car rolls and slides to a halt, and then the left sword and right axe rear back, getting ready to strike:

"Destroy. Destroy!" The garbled subway voice declares.

[sustainer]

Gyre stands up straighter as "Eight" comes rolling into the station, staring at it with widened eyes. Looks like the other two were able to get at least a few good hits on it before it came to him.

He notes the damage, and then summons a long spear, jerking suddenly towards the doll. He watches those weapons pull back, wrapping himself in a shield.

He waits, approaching quickly, and once the weapons slam against the shield in front of him, he drops it and moves to slam his spear tip into that long gash across "Eight"'s chest. It's a good start. He can rip the doll apart from here.

12:30pm Mountain Door, Mountain:

[wizardseason]

Does your character go to interrupt Sxicq and Eight on top of the mountain? That's a pretty rude thing to go do. They're busy, why would your character do that? Don't they have more important things to do, like, you know, killing "Eight"? Either way, if your character ends up atop the mountain, thread it here!

Matilda & Gyre

[sustainer]

Gyre was already at the mountain when all of this started happening. Once he knows what's going on, all it takes is climbing down to the base of it to wait for Matilda. He leans against a tree, his knee bouncing, his fingers tapping nervously on his arm. He's ready to move, his whole body nearly vibrating with how much he needs to do something about all this.

This is to say that when Matilda appears, whether it's by teleporting or walking, he practically jumps off the tree, moving towards her.

"Are you okay? Did anyone try to hurt you?"

[scandeled]

When she teleports before him, she’s frowning at her phone, as if teleporting to meet a grumpy, sometimes headless elf isn’t exciting or dramatic. While his quick movement may have earned a wail or a shriek a day ago, she barley reacts— drawing her eyes from the phone, her lips pursed into half a pout.

“I’m okay. Nothing so far.” She glances down, once more— then tucks it away. “With everything going on, no one should care about being here, right?”

[sustainer]

He watches her and her phone, the way she seems to see something that makes her miserable. He's never seen her so muted, and he tilts his head slightly.

"Regular people, no. The Protector might come for us though," he repeats his concern from the earlier conversation. But he's been convinced they could do this, and so he wants to do it fast.

"How far can you go in one uh, teleport?" he asks, holding his hand out for her to take if she needs to.

Haizea & Luka

[eutychia]

Luka falls hard on the ground where the portal dumps him. The smell of the mountain air was familiar now, and he knows at least that they ended up in the ballpark of the correct area.

"Haizea?" He asks as he climbs to his feet. Luka had heard another portal open and dump someone else along with him, but he asks just to be sure. "You okay? Do you see them anywhere?"

[tropicalstorm]

Teleporting never gets easier, it's disorienting to her every single time. She lurches to her feet and slaps her face lightly to get her bearings before she responds.

"I'm fine, you alright?" She says, squinting as she looks around. "I don't see Eight or Sxicq..." she trails off briefly as she notices the blue glow and a sudden arc of electricity over the hill, "...But I got an idea of where they might be."

2:00pm Earthquakes, Harsen Island:

[wizardseason]

Everything is shaking! This is probably the worst possible thing that could happen! What's up with this shaking?! Does your hero get up to anything during all this? Do they try to find out what's happening? Do they... geez, how do you even react to an hours-long earthquake everywhere?!

?:00pm The Garden:

[wizardseason]

Did your hero ask to go to the Garden? What do they do there? Any garden threads go here!

late afternoon, open to everyone + five/six/seven

[sustainer]

After the events of the day, Gyre finally retreats from the shaking island. He needs to go someplace quieter, someplace where everyone he sees doesn't run from him in fear. He's so utterly frustrated, the Protector's revelation weighing constantly on his mind.

Which is to say, he ends up in the garden later in the day, wandering vaguely through the beds themselves. He pauses frequently, smelling the weird plants, picking leaves occasionally off the stalks so he can look at them closer. He can't wipe the nervous grimace off his face the entire time, chewing his lip, fiddling with the cuff of his coat as he moves. Clearly he needs someone to come break him out of his thoughts.


Eventually he realizes he does have something he can do while he's here, and he brings himself to the door of the monster's house. He needs to check on Seven. Ten said they were still recovering, but he hates that all he can think of when he thinks of them is their melting body and their claws.

Not that knocking on a door gets any easier. He's at least ready to go inside after a little practice with Luka yesterday, but he is just sort of standing out front for now, staring at the wood as if willing a monster to come to the door and find him.

[wizardseason]

Uh.

Gyre.

You're an idiot?

He's left standing there for several long, long minutes before there's a rummage from above as a window on the right on the second floor slides open. A familiar hooded face peeks out, five eyes peering over a face mask before she pulls it down to reveal a set of sharp teeth that immediately drop a rude comment his way:

"Why are you just standing there like a big dummy?" Five asks, utterly incredulously. If Gyre'd been focusing on the room patterns from before, he'll be able to put together that they're in Seven's room on the second floor on the right side of the house.

??:00pm Other Locations, General Post

[wizardseason]

Is your hero getting up to some kind of nonsense somewhere on the island? Threads go here! Place the time and the location in the Subject line of the first comment.

Text to Eight

[eutychia]

Luka's hands are sweaty as he types his next text, to Eight. He's trying to stay on course with their plans despite how insignificant they seemed now, in light of everything that's happened this afternoon. But its the only way Luka knows to press forward without shutting down.

Hi Eight.
You're with Sxicq today, right?
Can you teleport Haizea and I to them?

[wizardseason]

There's nothing to panic about, Luka. It's all gonna be alright. Unfortunately, the text from Eight doesn't come back immediately.

Maybe.
Now or later?