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 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?"

"What." She pauses, holding up a hand in a 'stop' gesture.

"You're doing a what for them? Uh. You. Have you thought that through? Do you have, I don't know, a plan?" She continues, flabbergasted at what he'd just told her.

He stops when she puts that hand up, blinking in surprise at her.

"Do we... need a plan? We're going to make food for them and uh... I guess be together for awhile. I want to get to know them better." He tilts his head, glancing off to the side as he remembers the Protector. The state of the world out there.

"We'll have to do it here, I think, since he's out there."

"Ha... haha... you've seen how much they eat, right? They'd eat everything in here, like, all of it!" She motions around her and then points abruptly into the lake, at the fish.

"Including them!" And she waits just a moment before she points directly at Gyre's face.

"You need a plan to not let them eat everything!"

He... actually laughs at this?! It's an abrupt little noise, ha!, before he's left to just grin up at her.

"They haven't eaten everything yet. They've got some self control," he says, waving a hand to gently dismiss her concerns. "And I'm going to bring a whole deer just for them. That's a lot of food."

Five bristles when he laughs, balling up her hands into fists. Gyre, if you aren't taking this seriously...

"Bring two! We don't have enough food for their appetite, not by a long shot, and especially not before they're done with Eight and Eleven!" She adds, folding her arms and tapping her foot.

"I'm blaming you when they go for the fish."

He tilts his head, still smiling at her but now wondering if he's missing something. He knows they eat a lot, but she seems almost nervous about it? She'd been nervous about them earlier too.

"Okay, I'll bring two. Are you alright?" he transition easily into concern for her, reaching up a hand as if to offer some kind of reassurance.

"When they're done with Eight and Eleven... at the mountain, you mean?"

"Yeah. They're probably working up an appetite or something. I don't know how they work." She shakes her head, make this easier Gyre!

"And I'm fine! I just don't want to die of starvation! Being hungry sucks!" She declares, rummaging in a pocket so she can angrily take a chomp out of some jerky to prove a point.

Gyre smiles softly up at her, the expression decidedly fond. Maybe a little protective. He cares very much for this girl honestly.

"I'll make sure you don't starve. I'll bring you something in private if I have to, so they don't see." He offers her this slightly silly opportunity to hopefully reassure her a little bit. "Or I can teach how to hunt on your own, if you don't know?"

She watches him warily over her jerky, deciding whether or not she should take another bite before answering or not. She settles on letting it hover by her mouth as she answers.

"I can hunt, ugh, how do you think I got this! But yeah, bring me something, I wanna snack." She looks at him, determined, before taking another munch of the jerky.

"And bring some for you, too."

"Oh really?" He grins enormously at her. "We should go together sometime. We could take down something really big~"

He glances teasingly at the Wizard here, trying to pull her back into the conversation finally. "Don't tell anyone about our plans though, alright? We might keep it all to ourselves."

"Yeah, like the Protector." She answers immediately, munching down on the last of her jerky before taking up a defiant pose with both arms folded.

The Wizard, meanwhile, gives a tilt of her mug in Gyre's direction.

"Your secrets are safe with me."

He tilts his head curiously, honestly feeling fairly surprised that she'd say something like that. He pauses a beat here, glancing at the Wizard and nodding just slightly in acknowledgement.

"Yours too," he says, as if this will help her speak more openly to him. He's sure that's not how it works, but hey he can try. Then he returns to Five, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"You think we could take him down, just the two of us?"

The Weather

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