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

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.

He brings his eyes off the lake, glancing down at the fish on the ground. His brain is running so slowly, but all of a sudden his attention snaps to her.

"What the fuck was that?? You just ripped its body apart!"

"Yeah! You said you were hungry! So eat!" She answers, exasperated as she holds up her own fish in the air.

"You've eaten fish, haven't you? It's edible!" She continues, reassuring him about the wrong thing because she didn't parse his concern as 'you did that to a living thing and it's still living!' and instead she parsed it as 'what is this foreign water meat!'

If she'd taken, you know, more than 0.2 seconds to actually consider what he'd said she would've understood. Instead she's jumping to conclusions while the Wizard continues relaxing and sipping from her mug.

This is a bewildering way to answer his question! To the point where he feels like he's going insane for a second. Have fish always been able to live if you ripped all the flesh off them? Has he been killing them beforehand for no reason?? That can't possibly be true!! His gaze flicks from Five to the Wizard and back again, his certainty faltering because the Wizard hasn't said anything to correct Five. This is a baffling experience, and he forces himself to bend down and collect the fish off the ground before he says anything else.

The meat certainly feels like fish, even if it doesn't smell quite right. He starts to brush some of the dirt off, trying to figure out what else to even say. Does she not understand how weird this is? Maybe that's it...

"How is it still... alive? All the fish I've eaten... die when you... eat them," he says slowly, staring down at the fish slab as if it will answer his questions somehow. It'll probably do a better job then Five has so far anyway.

The Wizard's been quiet because she's been asked to be, which she'll reveal if he actually talks to her, but for now she's taking another sip from her mug as she watches Five take control again.

"What-- Then those are just bad fish! You just pull off the extra meat and eat it, they make so much." Five answers, sounding utterly baffled by this entire conversation.

"It goes to waste if we don't eat it." She adds, taking another bite.

Edited 2020-03-09 02:11 (UTC)

He glances at the Wizard again when she still doesn't add anything to the conversation? It's really starting to become noticeable, and he's eyeing her even as he talks to Five.

"They make... What?" he starts, shaking his head in confusion. "Where does it go if we don't eat it?"

Gyre will eventually be unsurprised to hear exactly why the Wizard's being silent but for now it's a big ole' mystery just waiting to be unwrapped and discovered.

"They make meat. It just falls off in the water. So we grab it before that happens." She shrugs, because that's just what they do?

"And it tastes great. So eat yours." She adds, emphasized as she takes a chomp out of hers again. There's barely any left.

"That's..." he begins, and he just doesn't know where to go from there. Convenient? Not like anything he's ever heard of before? Absolutely disgusting? He's not sure, but he is hungry. She's making hers look delicious, so he takes a breath, accepts that this is what they have in this place, and takes a huge bite out of the fish slab.

Like most things he eats, he barely chews it before he swallows it down, taking another bite and another. He needs a minute to fill up before he can think to address the Wizard. He has a lot to ask her, but eating is more important for the first little bit here.

It's only once he feels a little less like he's about to collapse from hunger that he finally looks up again, watching the Wizard as he sucks a bit of weird fish out from between his teeth.

"How are you doing?" he murmurs, clearly worried about her, clearly hoping she's had a chance to rest, if not actually sleep.

Five watches Gyre with all the intensity of a hawk until he actually picks up his fish and eats it. If he'd thrown it away she was going to throw it like a baseball directly into his face multiple times until he ate it. Don't waste food!

But she doesn't have to go that far, because he munches it down quick and then-- Just ignores her. She makes the facial equivalent of a :| as he talks to the Wizard instead of, you know, saying thanks for the fish or something.

The Wizard, meanwhile, lets her gaze drift up to Gyre. If he's being particularly observant, he'll pick up on the soft humming of motors and engines running as she turns to him and gives him her characteristic soft smirk.

"Something close to 'alive', what about you?" She answers, curious how he'll take that as her first answer.

Gyre would never waste food!! He's also not done with it though so he doesn't think to say anything about it to Five yet. He's still diligently picking away at it as he watches the Wizard, trying to examine everything he can about her.

"I'm... nervous. Did you see what the Protector did?" he murmurs, just uh being completely honest with her. Now that there's potentially a bomb in play, there isn't time to be anything but honest.

It's then that he notices Five's face, and he watches her for a curious moment before offering the fish to her. "Did you want more?" He doesn't know why else she'd be staring at him like that.

"I did. He's getting desperate." She answers him, lifting her mug to her lips to take a sip.

"Which makes him less dangerous." She adds just before Gyre turns to Five and make her explode at him.

"No! Finish your own food!" Five explodes, as expected, and throws her hands up in the air.

Edited 2020-03-09 14:22 (UTC)

He blinks at Five's exasperation, bringing the food back to his mouth and taking a bite pointedly. He is eating! What is that face for!!! Now he's watching her even as he talks to the Wizard. See, daughter, he can give you attention to.

"Less dangerous? The entire island is turned against us," he says, frowning deeply down at his fish for a moment. "We have to convince the people of this world to leave, but he's trying to convince them to fear us."

Gyre's lucky that Five isn't telepathic in any capacity otherwise he'd be getting thrown in the lake. She makes a grumpy sound and waves Gyre in the direction of the Wizard before turning away to fold her arms and watch the fish.

Gyre's words give the Wizard pause, before she nods her head slightly.

"Do you think you can change their minds? You, and the others, together?" She asks, curious, looking him over.

He smirks a little as she turns away from him, very nearly chuckling at her. She's so feisty. It's so confusing and charming to him honestly.

Unfortunately for Five, the Wizard brings him back to this uh pretty serious conversation. He takes a breath, and nods firmly, as if he's never been more certain of something.

"We have to try. The world will die around them either way. The more people we can convince, the more we can potentially save." He pauses a moment there, looking down at her again. "There isn't another option, right?"

Five's listening in the whole time Gyre and the Wizard are talking, at least.

"You should try." She agrees, her yellow robot eye unwavering on him.

"You'll have to figure out how. They're unlikely to listen to me." She adds, matter-of-factly.

He stares at that robotic eye for a moment, his mind flicking back to his time on the bridge yesterday. He has questions for her, but they just seem remarkably less important in the face of the Protector's threats.

"They might listen to Luka. He's... the princess. And has fans," he says softly, trying to consider what the world might think of a princess standing up so clearly to the Protector. "How did he do that uh, thing? Where he was on everyone's phone at the same time? Could we do that?"

The robotic eye watches him still, unblinking, focused, intense.

"Nine might know how. But if you do, he'll know where you are." She warns, curious how he'll handle this news.

"I think we both know what he'll try to do."

"He knows where we are already. We can't leave the island," he answers back, grim but absolutely certain. There will be danger in everything they do going forward.

"Is there a way to stop him for a little while? Long enough to get our own message out?"

The Weather

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