Day 8: Monster Arrival

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 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a soft 'blp' sound as a large marshmallow lands in her drink. It starts immediately foaming in the hot liquid. Five rolls her eyes at everything that's happening. Of course the Protector is a stubborn idiot who would disagree with the obvious.

"He would definitely disagree with that as well." She answers, sipping from her drink. Off to the side, Five is practically vibrating before she makes an outburst:

"Yeah because he's a stupid idiot who's stupid and doesn't know anything!" She harumphs, folding her arms again.

"He is... cruel. And a coward," he says, nodding softly to what Five has to say. He agrees with her for the most part. He has no fondness for that man at all, but the idea of trying to take some revenge on him or to kill him before every other option has been exhausted is entirely foreign to him. He continues slowly, picking his words carefully, "But he knows enough to be useful. And he is a person, who deserves the opportunity to make the world better."

He sighs softly, rubbing his cheek for a moment as he considers what to even continue with here. There's so much he doesn't know, especially about that man. Especially about the two of them together. He shakes his head a little, looking up between the two of them.

"What happened to him? To make him act like this?"

The Wizard watches Gyre work himself through his thoughts and watches Five work herself up while she takes a sip of her drink. They're both on the same page, though, so she waits until Gyre asks a question to join in again.

"He made a mistake, one that was logged permanently." She answers, fairly simply as she takes another sip.

"He's trying to undo it and prove he wasn't wrong."

"One that was logged...?" he asks, clearly lacking the context to make that use of "log" make sense to him. He blinks at her, and then shakes his head. There's something way more important here.

"What mistake?"

"When you go back to the bridge, ask about DC-I-13: Event One." She answers, moving her mug to the side and popping it out of existence.

"That will give you the answer to that." She adds, glancing towards Five.

"You can go too, if you want." She offers, resulting in five eyes squinting back at her.

"I know most of it already geez. But I guess I could. Maybe."

His mouth thins into a line and he gives her an irritated glance. "You can't just tell me now?" he asks dryly, already knowing that she probably can't. It's so frustrating trying to get any information from this group of people.

"Is there anything else I should ask about while I'm there?" he adds after a moment, moving to stand and shifts to Five's side. Sounds like they have another quest on top of finding Nine and Eleven.

The Wizard shakes her head at Gyre when he asks for the impossible. She can't just tell him now, no. But then he asks if there's anything else he should ask and she nods slightly.

"You could ask about time travel." She offers, curious what he'll make of that suggestion.

"What." Five chimes in, sounding more baffled than ever.

Edited 2020-04-15 01:17 (UTC)

Hey Five, you're not alone there. Gyre waits a little longer then Five, his eyebrows slowly rising and rising until he uh can't hold it back anymore.

"What!"

"What?" She answers, joining the 'what' chorus a moment before she gives her actual answer.

"You wanted something you could ask about. I assumed you wanted something you didn't know about." She turns slightly towards Five.

"Wh- Stop looking at me, I can't time travel!"

Gyre's mouth opens and closes a few times before he firmly shakes his head.

"I'll ask, but... we can't change anything, right? Even if we do time travel?" he asks, thinking back to the third day and the strange events on the island. It would change every part of their plan if they could actually prevent this entire forty year cycle from happening in the first place.

"No, everything in the past is set in stone." She answers, watching him as he works through the logistics of it in his head.

"It's only an opportunity to learn for the future." She goes on, manifesting a cocoa in the air near Five. She watches the way those five eyes try to disregard the mug until, after a few moments, she takes the mug.

"I would've pushed that jerk out a window year one if we could've." Five replies, annoyed that she can't change the past.

Gyre's shoulders slump slightly when she confirms that he can't change anything. He was pretty sure that was the case, but it's still deeply disappointing to hear. The world could be so much different and, maybe, so much better then this if they could stop it all from happening.

"Okay. That's... that's good," he says softly, nodding very slightly. He watches Five try to resist the mug before taking it, and he smiles fondly at her. She's a sweetheart underneath all the guff, and he knows that.

"Can I do it? I need Sxicq's help for it, don't I?"

Five would punch Gyre if she knew he'd associated the word "sweetheart" with her literally at all. She's a steel-heart, thank you, tough and unbreakable.

"There are other ways." The Wizard answers as Five retreats into drinking the cocoa as quickly as she can so she can go back to being tough. She was also being tough by drinking it hot. Take that, Gyre.

"You'll learn when you ask." The Wizard adds.

He sighs faintly when she deflects him again. He understands she can't speak, but it is irritating as shit to have a wall thrown up in front of him at every question.

"Is there a way that I..." he glances up at Five, drinking her drink like she's very tough, "That we could break... or undo whatever it is that keeps you from talking?"

It's not "like" she's very tough, Gyre, Five is the most tough!

The Wizard, meanwhile waits for a few moments, seemingly contemplating Gyre's question before she looks towards Five. Five is mid-drink when she pauses and makes a face.

"--Oh, right, uh--" Five stammers, just straight up dropping the mug and turning to Gyre. As she does, the mug disappears in midair.

"She can't answer that, we've tried."

Gyre watches this exchange of looks curiously, letting his eyes wander from the Wizard to Five and back. And then the mug is falling, and he jerks a hand forward to catch it before it shatters on the ground.

Instead, it disappears in midair, and he's left in stunned silence, trying to absorb what Five just said.

"Uh... okay." He purses his lips, straightening himself up and returning his attention to the Wizard. "What would... hm, who would you advise I talk to? About that?" he starts, sounding utterly unsure of himself, before looking to Five again, "Have you tried to ask questions to get any hints?"

Well, Five would've told Gyre he didn't need to grab that falling mug if she'd thought about it for more than a moment. Unfortunately that opportunity comes and goes.

"The bridge has answers." The Wizard offers in response to Gyre's question, before Five jumps in with her answer. She looks eager to answer but also frustrated.

"Of course we have! We've asked so many questions and learned some stuff but-- uh." She pauses, her face bunching up.

"I never asked about undoing whatever it is." She admits, looking away.

He tilts his head slightly as she admits that, giving her a soft, curious smile. He begins to reach a hand out to squeeze her shoulder, but when she eyes him uncomfortably, he drops it instead, giving a slight shrug.

"That's alright. It's never too late to start asking questions, right?" he says with the sort of tone of encouragement one might give a very angsty teenager who doesn't like to be told what to do. But then he turns his attention back to the Wizard.

"Is there an event or... topic that we should ask about?" he asks, picking his words carefully to hopefully get around the block. If she can just offer them a place to start, he's pretty sure he can get to the answer given enough time.

"... Uh, I think it's pretty late? Like, especially if we all might die. That's too late. Like. Way too late." Five answers, watching Gyre suspiciously at least until he turns to the Wizard. They're on a time limit here!

"Ask about mission precautions." She answers, watching him with her characteristic little smirk. At the same time, Five makes a face and immediately interrupts:

"There should've been more of those, huh!" Or else all of this wouldn't have gone so wrong!

"Well sure, but we're not there yet, right? You've still got a week to start asking. Maybe longer if we can convince Sxicq to help us out," he says, giving her a teasing little wink. He's not taking the conversation too seriously, just trying to give her a little boost of confidence. It's okay to start now, Five!

"Mission precautions for this mission, or for all of them?" he asks, trying to narrow it down as much as he can while staying vague enough to get around her blocks. "And uh, should I be... hopeful?"

This second question is one he hopes she can answer, but isn't expecting much for. If he could lift the blocks on her, then he might need to take a day off to just throw a party for her honestly, but he's trying not to hope for too much.

"Ugh fine sure a whole week that's tons of time." Five answers, rolling her eyes at Gyre. She clearly understands that they're being sarcastic and joking around here.

"All of them, and it couldn't hurt to be hopeful." The Wizard answers, watching Gyre to see how he takes that news. It never hurt anyone to have hope for things. Have fun with that knowledge, Gyre!

He smiles over at Five, making a low, amused sound as she continues to bristle in his general direction. She's adorable, and he's looking forward to seeing what she does now. Hopefully she starts asking all those questions she might have missed out on!

More importantly though, the Wizard says he should be hopeful and he actually grins broadly. A little hope is all he needs, especially after the events of the day. The Protector may be after them, but he may be able to help take off her restrictions. The less restricted they are, the easier it'll be to do what they need to do.

"Okay. I'll ask," he says and he gives her a short, firm nod, turning to Five. "Do you want to keep looking for Nine?"

The Wizard gives a nod in response to Gyre, hoping that he can get the information he wants to get. There's only so much she can offer in this moment. Five, meanwhile, makes a face when Gyre turns back to her.

"Oh-- Yeah sure, we can do that. Let's go." She gives a little look of confidence because this is something she can do.

"You didn't check her room did you?"

He smiles at her confidence, taking a half step closer to her, ready to follow where she seems so confident she can lead. And uh, his face goes a little blank when she asks that question.

"No," he says, hesitating, "I was following you. Do you think she's there?"

Five is uh... practically dragging Gyre through the garden? She's on her way to reunite Gyre with the upcoming evening plot, but that doesn't mean they can't chat on the way there.

"Sometimes she is, but since she hasn't been there all day she's probably there now?" She half-asks, half-tells in response to Gyre's question. She... doesn't really track the other monsters much so she doesn't know where they are a lot of the time.

Day 8: Monster Arrival

Afternoon: 12:00noon - 5:00pm

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

Activity Check: February 2020

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