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

She'd slap his hand away if he did actually touch her. As it stands, she stays looking out the window. She doesn't want to consider the conversation she almost had.

"She's probably not there. She was on the bridge earlier, getting ready." She answers, shaking her head.

He thinks back to the bridge, wondering what it'd be like with a guide there. He might have to go back sometime. Not right now though. Right now, he wants a boombox.

"You all... live together right? Would she mind if you went into her room...?" he asks, sounding like he truly has no idea. The suggestion would be horrific to him normally, but since they're all under the same roof anyway, it's all the same right? Everything belongs to everyone else?

She turns back to him after a moment now that he's basically asking to ransack Nine's room.

"Yeah, she's next door to this one. I don't think she'd care." Five answers, lying. She has no idea how Nine feels about her room literally at all. She's never gone in there, actually.

She's just assuming, she'd deal with it later if it wasn't okay.

Or Gyre would deal with it.

"Oh," he says, looking slightly heartened by the news. He smiles at her softly, moving towards the door.

"I'll uh, I'll check then." Five seems like she needs to brood, he supposes, so he gives her a nod and heads back out into the hallway. He's going to uhhh go to Nine's door, pausing at it for a beat. He knocks gently on it first, still not really sure about the etiquette of this, but assuming there's no answer, he'll just let himself in like an absolute asshole.

She stays put in her seat, determined to brew in her own brain for a little bit here. There's no one home nextdoor, so Gyre can take his time.

When he barges into Nine's room like the fucking nightmare he is, he'll find a room that looks nothing like Eight or Seven's spaces that he's been in. There is no furniture. There are various metallic holes in the walls and ceiling, all the exact same diameter. Some have a few dots placed around them in different patterns. Some have nothing at all.

Besides those, there are black cubes stacked up in all four corners of the room. Some are smaller, some are bigger. But by one of the piles of cubes, there's a boombox sitting beside what looks like an all black laptop and some kind of controller. It's all leaned neatly against the wall, as if this is exactly where it belongs.

There really ain't much in here, huh...?

Not even a bed.

Gyre does not take his time. He enters into the room, and immediately gets that sharp chill that hit him when he went into Seth's house. It's weird. It's wrong. It doesn't feel like a place where a person lives, and he feels like he's made a mistake by coming here.

He creeps forward a few steps, shoulders hunched as if he expects to get caught and get in trouble at literally any point. He pauses in the center of the room for this exact reason, looking slowly, slowly around himself for threats. There are none, of course, and he moves a little faster as he goes to the boombox and plucks it up off the ground.

For just a second, he thinks about messing with the weird features of this room. What's in the black boxes? What are the holes in all the walls? Is there a bed stored in her wall instead of sitting out all the time? He resists the urge though, exiting the room and hurrying back to Seven's with the boombox tucked under his arm.

"Got it," he says to Five as he enters the room, lifting the box up in front of him. "I want to put it near the tank."

Five looks up when he enters again, eyes locked on the boombox. She's silent for several moments before she motions at the tank.

"Okay, go ahead." She answers, hoping he isn't going to ask her what kind of music--

Actually.

"I'm not helping you pick a song."

He blinks, looking a little confused. She must've been really shook by talking about Four, even just for that moment.

"Okay. I'll uh, try to get the radio," he says, chewing his lip as he crosses the room. It's been awhile since he messed with one of these, but he's pretty sure he remembers how to arrange the antenna and which buttons to press. He crouches down and sets the boombox on the floor near the tank, tapping each of the buttons on top until it turns on.

"They can hear us, ki'ta. I want to play something they'll like. It's probably boring in their by themself." He offers this in case she hasn't realized what he's doing, and also to hopefully get her something else to think about. Also because uh he wants her to come help him while he fiddles with the knobs trying to find a signal.

...

Gyre how do you not know how a boombox works. What kind of dirty wood elf are you if you don't know music? She watches him for a moment before springing to her feet and walking over to him. She reaches down and jerks the antennas slightly around before nudging him a little so she can get to the knobs.

"Only a few of these work down here, pick this one--" She states, more of a command, just before some sort of instrumental orchestra music comes through the speakers faintly.

Guess the volume's down.

He was getting there! He had the antenna up, and he was in the vicinity of valid radio stations! She just knows better what's available down here, and he shifts to the side to let her find a good station. He watches her, taking note of the number she picks so he can go to it again in the future.

"Ah, thank you. It's quiet," he murmurs, half to himself, and he reaches down to turn the volume up, raising it until it fills the room pleasantly. Not too loud, not too soft, and hopefully enough to penetrate into the tank.

"Oh, I like this one," he says as he notes the orchestral sound, grinning over in Five's direction.

She needs to have some measure of control over this situation or she's going to throw someone out a window, and since it won't be herself it would be Gyre. So her choice is to throw Gyre out a window or take control of the situation.

"Ugh, it's fine, just don't let Eight hear it. He'll change it to his dumb music." She answers, looking Gyre over.

"I hope Seven doesn't like Eight's dumb music better."

"We won't know until they come out," he says, looking up at the tank curiously. He wonders what they're thinking, trying to see if the goop inside has chance now that the music is going.

"Maybe Eight should play some of his music too, later on. Then we can ask them." He pushes himself to his feet, brushing his knees off, straightening his vest out. "What's wrong with his music?"

Five rolls her eyes super hard when Gyre recommends playing some of Eight's music.

"It's just dumb and bad and I don't like it." She answers, simply, before waving her hand in midair.

"We should leave them for a bit to sleep with Six, they're fine and now they have music, and. They're fine. I want to not be here." She concludes, already making her way towards the door.

Gyre makes an amused noise, watching her as she waves him off. He makes a note to listen to Eight's music sometime later. For now though, he shifts to his feet again, turning to follow after her.

"Where do you want to go?" he asks, still sounding amused as he slips out the door and closes it softly behind himself.

When Gyre finds Eight's music, he'll find that a lot of it is Luka's music or music similar to Luka's. Have fun with that news! For now, Five is already making her way around to the staircase so she can start going down and out of the house. She pauses at the corner of the stairs to look back at Gyre and answer:

"Out. Maybe to Nine. Or Twelve. Or the Wizard. Wherever they are that isn't here." She answers before she hops on the railing--

And just slides all the way down to the first floor. She lands light on her feet and glances back up at Gyre for him to follow.

If he takes too long, she'll call him a slowpoke when he gets to the bottom of the stairs.

His eyes widen as she jumps onto the railing, and he watches her descend with just the most awed expression in the world. When she hops off, he gives her an excited little clap, grinning enormously down at her. He uh doesn't follow on the banister though, going down the stairs one by one like a normal person. He will probably be called a slowpoke.

But that doesn't matter to him as he hops off the stairs and starts heading towards the door. He's eager to leave this building, honestly.

"Oh, I haven't met Nine yet. Can we go to her?" he asks quickly, pausing for a beat. He really should probably prioritize the Wizard though, after his trip through the engine room. He's got a lot to talk to her about, and he sighs softly.

"Or the Wizard. I need to ask her about some things that person in the uh, bridge said yesterday."

"Slowpoke." She does, in fact, call him a slowpoke.

"Yeah one of them, they're out here somewhere I think. Or they said they'd be. But finding Nine is like finding a drop of water in a lake, she could be anywhere." She shrugs big, leaving the house behind to make her way towards the crossroads between the veggie garden and the lake.

"Wizard's probably at the lake though."

He shrugs at her name calling, stepping out into the fresh air and stretching his arms up over his head happily. He looks instantly more relaxed now that he's outside.

"What do you mean, one of them?" he asks once he's shaken himself out, taking a few quick steps to catch up with her and walk beside her.

Language was stupid! Five pauses for a moment as she rewinds the conversation in her head and:

"Nine or the Wizard. We'll find one of them. Out here. I don't know which, is what I mean." She clarifies.

"Oh," he says, understanding immediately where the confusion came from. He nods slightly.

"We can go towards the lake, and look for Nine along the way?"

"Yeah, what else can we do?" She shrugs big and exaggerated as she makes it to the crossroads and hangs a right, starting to head down the path towards the lake.

"Well, at least we can eat. You hungry?" She asks, looking him over with one of her eyes glancing at him to the side.

As they approach the lake, there's no sign of Nine. There is, however, the Wizard sitting on the bench by the lake. She's got a cup of steaming something in her hands, settled in her lap, and she looks like she's staring into the lake. Probably at the fish?

"Give up," he answers her teasingly, giving her a smirk as she eyes him with just the one eye. He nods after that though, his eyes settling onto the Wizard as he spots her.

"I am hungry. It's been a busy day." First that talk with everyone that had ended so poorly, and then the Protector threatening the entire island. He still hasn't fully thought through what to do about that, the prospect completely overwhelming to him.

"How hard is it to catch one of the fish?"

Five gives him a look with all of her eyes when he says 'give up'. What the heck! She's tempted to shove him into a bush in response to that, what the heck. The Wizard gives them both a small wave as Five makes her way over to the water.

She just reaches right in, grabbing one by the tail, and hoists a whole damn fish out of the water. It's bright purple and fat looking, wiggling slightly in her grasp.

"It's this easy. Get ready to catch." She tells him, reaching a finger up to the side just below where she's dangling the fish in her other hand. Her finger seems to squish in and then she pulls down and-- peels the entire side of the fish right off????

Except when the huge filet of meat is removed, there's just a leftover neon yellow side of the fish left and it looks utterly unfazed by this action? She turns slightly, tossing the filet of meat over at Gyre. It immediately fills the air with the smell of ginger, peppers, and almonds.

A moment later, she rotates the fish in her grasp and does the same to the other side before carefully dipping the fish back into the lake and releasing it. She stands again, turning back to Gyre as she takes an utterly shameless bite out of the side of her newly obtained fish filet.

Edited 2020-03-07 19:37 (UTC)

Holy fuck. Nothing could have prepared him for this. He offers the Wizard a little wave in return, his eyes widening in surprise when she just uh plucks a fish out of the water like that?? What the actual fuck.

"How did-----???" he begins, only to cut himself off when she just rips an entire half of a fish off. His eyes widen into dinner plates, and then a little wider as he realizes that the fish is still? alive?? If he didn't already have a dead palor, he'd be white as a goddamn sheet, feeling horrified and sick to his stomach as she repeats the process with the other side and dips the still living fish back into the water.

He stares at it as it swims away, swaying slightly as if dizzy. Sufficed to say, the fish slab she threw at him has gone completely unnoticed, laying wetly on the ground as he tries to process what just happened.

With her mouthful of fish, Five idly chews on the bite and glances down at the fish on the ground... and then up to Gyre looking like his whole worldview had just been shattered. Then she looks back down at the fish-- And then she looks at the Wizard.

"Did he just let that drop on the ground." She more tells than asks. When the Wizard nods in response, Five's expression snaps up to Gyre again and--

"What the fuck! Don't just waste it! You said you were hungry!!" She exclaims, sounding annoyed.

The Weather

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