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 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?"

He's more right than he knows about there being danger in everything they do. Every single plan they have has a chance of getting any one of them, hero or monster, killed. Beyond today, there are only four days left.

Four days to determine the fate of the world.

"I can't fight him again this soon. Twelve can't fight until her day." She answers first, looking him over.

"And we have to fight him on the last day. Nine might be ready by tomorrow."

He shakes his head immediately, stating, "No. None of you." None of them can fight him. It's not right. They're already working way too hard. He takes a breath, moving to just uh sit on the ground beside her bench with a sigh.

"Is he uh, a unit? Do you have a way we can contact an uh, um, director? A, e, s, s director?" he asks hesitantly, trying to remember the very proper names of everything from last night. It had been a lot of information but he's trying to put as many pieces as possible into place here.

"If you fight him alone, you'll die. He's stronger than all of us alone." She counters him, giving him something more to think about here. But then he asks those specific questions and:

"How was the bridge?" She starts by asking, before getting on to his inquiries.

"The only director there ever was is dead. And no, he's not a unit in any definition of that word."

"Strange. Bright," he murmurs, shaking his head slightly before he admits, "I... I didn't understand a lot of it. Is that person trapped in there? Is that their body?"

He makes a low noise when she answers his second question, looking at her for a long beat as if he'll understand something more about her now that she's said that.

"Do you... prefer to be called the Wizard? Instead of um, Cas-Caster?" He'll return to what he wants to do with the Protector later. This feels important to him now as he looks up at her with worried eyes.

"It's not a real person." She clarifies, pausing for a moment before she elaborates.

"It were created to help run everything, but that's all it is." She adds. It was basically a fancy directory system hooked up to a big honkin' ship. And then Gyre goes on to ask about names and she gives the smallest shrug in response.

"Either one is fine." If she's acknowledged his worry, she doesn't show it.

Gyre sits here in silence, first at the news that that voice wasn't a person, and then when she says she doesn't have a preference. He just uh watches her, turning his gaze from her to Five and then back. He wants to understand this so much more then he does, but all the questions he can think to ask seem too personal.

"Okay," he finally murmurs, folding his knees up to his chest and setting his chin on top. He sighs faintly, trying to decide where he wants to go from here. The Protector is more urgent, much as his curiosity wants him to ask about her instead.

"I don't need to fight him. I have a shield. If I can make it stronger, I can hold him back until the others are safe," he explains his thoughts, the puzzle that he's been picking at since Seven. "Ten said I might be able to talk to the uh, the other magic for help?"

"You could try, but it wouldn't have much to say." She answers, first, holding out a hand.

"Shield?" She asks, apparently expecting him to provide her one of his.

"You want one that he can't break?" She continues, curious. By the Lake, Five is turning slightly to peek at what this interaction is turning into.

"Yeah, my knight magic. You've said he can take it, but maybe if it's fortified by another s... source, he can't," he says, talking through his thoughts as he reaches up and automatically puts his hand in hers. He'll hold her hand if that's what she wants, squeezing it gently.

"I need one that he can't break, and that I can hold for longer," he says, pausing and glancing at Five where he can feel her pretending not to watch them. "More control would be nice too, but... the first two are the most important. Even if it doesn't talk much, do you think I could convince it to give me that?"

Gyre she wanted your shield, not your hand. She gives his hand a cold, firm pat before moving it away from his but keeping her palm open as if expecting something.

"Can you give me one of your shields?" She asks, curious what he'll do now that she's made it clear what she meant.

"What kind of control?"

"Oh," he says, taking his hand away when she nudges him off. He feels deeply awkward for a moment, glancing at Five. She's probably going to laugh at him, he thinks.

Oh well. He sighs and shifts his hand, setting an orb of his shield into her palm. "I can make uh, basic shapes. If I could form fit it, he'd be easier to hold still for long." Half the trouble he'd had with Seven was that they were scrabbling and struggling against his shield. If he could keep the Protector completely still, he'd have more of a chance.

"Why do you want one?"

Five is resisting the urge to laugh, this is true. But she's also not interrupting just yet.

Once he's given her the shield orb, she lifts it up slightly and brings her other hand over to it. With a swift movement, she slides her hands in opposite directions and suddenly the shield is elongated into a long spear shape that's maybe an inch thick, tops. It only lasts a moment before the shape bursts, but then she gives a soft "hm."

"Experimenting." She answers, smirking so very slightly.

"Eleven might be able to help with that, if Nine's done already."

He watches, fascinated as she manipulates the shape. It reminds him of Sxicq playing around with it, though they had seemed quite a bit more effective at it then this initial attempt. Maybe it came easier to them then her?

"Do you want another one?" he asks, floating another shield near her hand if she wants it. "What is Nine done with? Is Eleven around today?"

Unfortunately, Sxicq was far, far better at playing around with it. But that was fine, because Sxicq was more powerful in this realm of "playing with magical nonsense". Not everyone could be incredible at playing with magical nonsense and that was fine.

"That was enough." She shakes her head very slightly before continuing.

"Nine made something for Eleven that they asked for, and..." She pauses to take a sip from her mug.

"Eleven is somewhere, though I'm not sure where."

He nods when she says it was enough, letting go of the shield. Then he purses his lips very slightly, trying to understand what the Wizard is saying. Why did she bring Nine and Eleven up if she wasn't going to actually explain what Nine had done. Is this some part of her restriction?

"So... I should look for them? For uh, Eleven? Is that what you're saying?" he tilts his head at her, looking decidedly sad. This feels like a way to step in and ask her more about what the bridge had said, but first he looks to Five.

"Do you know where Eleven is?"

"You can look for them." She confirms his question, nodding, waiting for a moment as Gyre turns to Five and-- actually that's going to turn out to be more than a moment.

"Uh-" Five starts, face scrunching up as she prepares not to just yell at Gyre.

"Yes, I know exactly where Eleven is even though I've been in the garden literally all morning, you got me, you found out my plan! To secretly know where Eleven is when literally no one else does." She delivers the line absolutely deadpan, her entire face back into a :| face at him, and then just stays staring at him.

He stares back for a long beat, raising his eyebrows at that little display. She must really be holding stuff back, he thinks to himself, clicking his tongue softly.

"Do you feel better now?" he asks dryly, waving a hand to indicate the world around them, "Would you rather I assume you don't know anything in the future? Or can I keep asking you things I don't know about?" He's definitely just ribbing her here, his tone light and teasing. He really just wants her to think about why she lashed out at him in particular about that particular question.

Gyre.

Poking a beehive is probably not the best idea.

Five stomps forward towards him, getting right up in his personal space and staring with intensity with her five eyes right into his. She makes a scowl, showing her teeth, and gives a brief "Grr." at him.

And then she punches Gyre and he's dead.

...

Okay no, actually, she rolls all five of her eyes at him and gives him a little push with two hands on his chest.

"Do whatever you want." She follows, as she folds her arms at him and shifts her weight to one leg. There's one thing she has to make abundantly clear here, and that's:

"But I'm gonna call you a dummy if you ask dumb questions."

He doesn't give any space to her at all, his smirk widening just slightly as she gets up in his face. She bares her teeth in a growl, and he bares his in a teasing smile. He's waiting to see what she does.

At least he leans back when she pushes at him, a single little give to accommodate her bad mood. It's not like she can really shove him much of anywhere when he's sat on the ground here.

"That's fine," he says blithely, waving a hand very slightly off to the side. It doesn't bother him what she calls him. However, "Is it a dumb question to ask a monster if she knows where another monster is? You live right on top of each other." He can't imagine living inside the same dang house with someone and not knowing literally every move they ever make. It's part of what freaks him out about living like that.

She would've been satisfied if he'd just flopped over like a sack of potatoes, really. But at Gyre's follow-up...

"Eleven doesn't live with us." She counters, tapping a foot. Didn't Gyre notice the lack of an Eleven door? Four, Five, Six on the first floor. Seven, Nine, Ten, Twelve on the middle floor. Eight up in the attic.

Because that's totally normal.

"They never have."

"They..." His eyes widen, and he sits up very, very straight all of a sudden. The last monster who didn't live with them was Seven, and god knows what that kid has been through in the last forty years. He's suddenly horrified at the idea that the Protector has Eleven too, his whole body tensing up.

"A-are they like Seven? Have you ever even spoken to them?" He speaks very quickly, shifting to push himself to his feet. Someone is about to go run off and challenge the Protector to a duel for a monster. He cannot deal with the idea of another one of them suffering like that.

Seven at least has a room in the house, Eleven doesn't even have a room. But when Gyre jumps to assumptions, Five facepalms.

"We've talked, but they're almost always working with Nine, Twelve, and her." She adds, motioning at the Wizard who gives a little tip of her mug before taking a sip.

"Especially Nine, lately. They're getting ready for the last day."

Well. The facepalm at least calms his nerves. She'd be more cagey about it if it was anything like Seven, he's pretty sure. He glances towards the Wizard as she tips her coffee, nodding very slightly.

"Do they sleep somewhere else? Why not stay in that room beside Eight?" he asks... skeptically. He certainly can't blame them for not wanting to live in that house with everyone, but also all the other monsters are there. Why wouldn't they be there too?

"That's the attic, all storage. No one wants to live in there." She answers, narrowing her eyes for just a moment before--

"At least none of us would want to live in there. It's cramped and stuffy and bad." She adds, letting one of her hands fall off to the side, palm-up, while her other arm remains folded over her front.

"Ask them why they don't live with us, I never asked, I just assumed they were kind of a jerk."

"Ah," he hums a soft affirmation, folding his own arms in thought. This feels like a dead end currently, but he's making a note to look for them at some point.

"Okay. I will when I find them," he murmurs, and then snaps his fingers in a sudden thought! "Do you think they might come to the dinner we're having for Sxicq?"

The Weather

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