Day 8: Evening

Evening: 5:00pm - Midnight

[ IRL Timeframe: April 1st - April 15th, 2020 ]

The light rain has changed into a downpour, coating the island, its forests, and its people in a constant barrage of water. After the events of the afternoon, it's like it's all being washed away.

Except it isn't, because the events of the day all happened. They're all real. And social media is abuzz about the loss of Harsen Island's mountain. Now, it's all just flat. There are forests, but Craydon is no longer a mountain-side town. Instead, they have a cog train that rolls horizontally across the flat ground from the main train station and over into their very flat town in the woods. Bamborough's hillside hotels with dozens of floors higher up for an ocean view are now down with the rest of the buildings, and only the highest floors can see out over the touristy area to the water. Far Haven, in contrast, has barely changed. You can't flatten something that's already flat. The only textures left on the island are the silver humps of two ships, one near Far Haven and the other near Bamborough. There's also a hump at the center, the cave entrance, leading down into the cave where the bodies were. For anyone who goes to look, there's a new body there now.

- [1] -

The participants in the fight against "Eight" put up a valiant fight, eventually defeating it in a show of heroic justice somewhere along the tracks. In all the rain, its yellowed body is disappearing away into the ground as it washes away.

- [2] -

#childlost

Sxicq is... somewhere. The internet lost them again. Wherever they're at, it's not out on the surface of the island.

- [3] -

The monsters, meanwhile, have returned back to their home in the garden. At least, the ones who seem to live there.

Five and Six are in their rooms on the main floor with the doors open. Five is laying on her bed, tacking away on her flip phone. Six is in his room, sitting on the edge of the bed, also on his phone. If there's anyone in Four's room, it's unknown due to the closed door. Also on the main floor is the Wizard. She's casually sitting in one of the more plain of the thirteen chairs, reading an unnamed book. There's a steaming mug of cocoa on the coffee table in front of her.

On the second floor, Ten's room is the only one open. The doors for Seven, Nine, and Twelve are all shut. If anyone heads in to look for Ten, they'll find him writing in a small notebook with the title "Chef Notes" on the front.

On the top floor, Eight's door is shut but has a small "Text me" sign dangling off of the handle.

- [4] -

If anyone goes looking for the newly surfaced space ships, all they'll find is the smooth metallic surfaces of them rounding out of the terrain. If there's a way in, it's not obvious to others

The Weather
Heavy rain.
59°F / 15°C
A constant wind.

Prompts:

5:00pm Onward: Monster House, The Garden: For any heroes who are up for meeting any of the monsters, this is their opportunity. Some closed doors will have no one behind them, but the open doors are a guaranteed someone to talk to. Will they talk to the monsters, each other, or the Wizard downstairs in the sitting area?

5:00pm Train Station, All cities: All trains have been suspended, citing the "unknown conditions of the island's tracks" after the events of the day. No one is allowed to ride the rails, no one is allowed to go anywhere. Is your hero trapped at a train station waiting for an uber? Does another hero come to their rescue? What's the deal?

?:00pm General Post, Anywhere: Does your character go to investigate things around the island? Do they meet with other heroes somewhere over coffee? How are they handling being cut off from the world? Their family? Their loved ones? How do they feel seemingly being made the enemy of all people of the world?

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: April 2020

[ IRL Timeframe: April 1st - April 30th, 2020 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, unfortunately for Gyre, his words just encourage Seven to break away from him. Like an overeager dog, they double over themselves and drop onto all fours at the top of the final staircase. Luka's asking if they're willing to share and, well--

"Mine first." They declare, their claws digging into the wood of the stairs as they sprint down them.

The air fills with the sounds of scraping claws against wood, scrambling limbs, and speed as Seven disappears down the stairs. They skid at the landing, slowing their body so they can sprint to the back of the house to the kitchen. They're going to be there first.

When Gyre and Luka make their way back there, they'll find Seven hunched in a corner with a bowl of stew gripped in their hands and held right up to their face. They're waiting for the bubbles. They know.

... Who told them?

Oh my god?? So much for a monster in recovery!! He makes a truly undignified noise as Seven escapes around him and throws themself down the stairs.

"Seven!" he shouts as they start to skid at the bottom floor, anxiety spiking up in his chest. He thinks they're going to collapse or hurt themself. But they don't. They just get up and dart around the corner, disappearing from his view. He's starting to feel a little foolish for offering to help them at all when they seem to know exactly where they're going.

"Ah, let's hurry. They ran down the stairs. I... I think they're fine, but..." he trails off there, hurrying down the steps and heading in towards the kitchen. Luka said he knew the way, so he's hoping the man follows close behind!

Either way, he takes a few steps into the kitchen, looking down at their hunched body. They're waiting, and he doesn't interrupt for a moment, right up until he realizes that they seem to be waiting for the bubbles?? They've only been awake for an hour maybe?? How could they know!!

"Are you looking for bubbles, ki'ta? Have you had this soup before?"

"Of course, I'm-" Luka barely manages to answer before Seven's clambering down the staircase ahead. He blinks in surprise and quickens his pace as Gyre heads after them, arriving to the kitchen only moments after the other reaches it.

Luka lingers in the doorway a moment before stepping in, the familiar scent of the stew already wafting over.

"Unless the Protector stole the recipe, I doubt it..." He comments, casually taking a seat at the table and wondering how Seven had served themselves so quickly. He turns, addressing Seven directly. "Could you hear and see a lot from that tank?"

Unfortunately for both Gyre and Luka, their questions come right as the first bubble appears. They're so intently waiting for it that they don't respond until they've munched it out of midair. But once they have, two of their eyes settle on Gyre while two more settle on Luka. Then they answer.

"Yes. Tomorrow. It's good." They answer Gyre first before shifting to Luka's question.

"No food with monster. Tank quiet, dark, peaceful." They answer, still seeming like they're forcing out every word. Fortunately they get a break from speaking as two bubbles appear on the surface of the soup and they munch them down.

If Gyre and Luka recall back, their bowls filled automatically from the orbven without any intervention. So all they should have to do is grab bowls and then they'll have soup, right? (Right, that's all that was needed!)

Gyre glances over his shoulder to see Luka sitting down at the table, and he casts an eye around the room, trying to remember where Ten had gotten the bowls from. As Seven answers their questions, he winds his way around the kitchen, opening and closing cupboard doors until he finds them.

He's about halfway to pulling a couple bowls down for him and the Princess when the thing Seven actually said settles into his brain. Tomorrow?

"Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?" he repeats in confusion, turning to watch Seven as if he'll get an explanation just from watching them eat. He's stuck there for a couple moments before he remembers what he was doing and at least returns to the table, setting a bowl down for Luka and himself. Whether they fill with soup or not though, his attention is entirely on the monster for now.

"Make stew." Seven answers almost immediately just before munching on another bubble.

Their eyes are watching Gyre as he's shuffling about to get stew for both himself and Luka. They see the steam rising off of the bowls as they fill with stew, and then they chime in with a very important comment about that:

"Less good today. Better tomorrow."

Luka's just utterly confused about what Seven's implying and his expression is reflective of that. He barely notices when Gyre sets the bowls down, except when the smell and heat from the bowl becomes unmistakably apparent.

"Five said... it gets better every time, yeah. It'll be great tomorrow if Ten makes a new batch." Luka says, feeling for a spoon on the table. He's hoping Gyre might have a better understanding of whats actually going on, somehow. They knew about the bubbles because they've had the soup tomorrow?

"So, what else is happening tomorrow?" He asks, testing the waters.

"Past" They answer immediately as they catch a bubble in their tongue, popping it softly inside their mouth. They pause for a little bit as they consider Luka's question.

"History. Permanent." They add, clarifying a moment before their body makes a slight lurching sound. It's like the one from upstairs, but this doesn't result in anything. They clearly have more to throw up, but it isn't coming yet.

It's not like someone put something awful inside of them for years. Nope. No way.

Gyre does not understand a single sentence that Seven has said since they got into this kitchen. He's just standing here, staring at them, as if watching them will make him understand.

"The past is... happening tomorrow?" he asks slowly, carefully. He sounds exactly as confused as he feels honestly. Explain pls.

Luka is... equally confused by these answers, though it's hard not to be. Out of all the vague, confusing responses he's heard this past week, Seven seems to be aiming to top them all.

"Wait, are we going back in time again?" He asks, tensing up at the sounds Seven starts making. Are they going to vomit again? Hopefully not on the table, the thinks.

Seven nods in response to Gyre's question. Yes, the past is happening tomorrow. Then Luka asks it more directly and they eat a bubble before they respond.

"To the beginning." They confirm before they do something... uh... gross...?

They tilt the entire bowl of soup back against their mouth, gulping it down in two abrupt swallows. And, a moment later, they're holding the bowl level again so it can refill.

Gyre continues to stare for several moment, his brown furrowing just slightly when they gulp all that stew down like that. It's good they don't have lungs, he supposes, or... maybe they do have lungs and Seven was just that hungry? He doesn't know.

More importantly, all the pieces click into place in his mind, and he raises his head up in surprise. "And you'll be there? Er... you were there? In the past? Before uh, before the Protector found you?"

"It sounds like we won't be able to change anything." Luka guesses, raising a spoon up and listening for bubbles carefully in a way that starkly contrasts Seven swallowing their entire bowl.

"Right? It might mess something up and make it so I was never born, or something." A terrifying concept, for sure. "But we can learn what went wrong and maybe fix that."

Seven definitely has lungs, they just know how to not drown in soup. But now they have a new bowl to wait for bubbles out of so they're back to focusing almost exclusively on that with their eyes.

"Am there. But past before. The beginning." They reiterate, pausing for a moment as their body makes another forceful gurgle. They'll... probably be throwing up another black blob soon, that sound seems higher in their body. As if timed perfectly, there's an audible bubbling from Luka's bowl as a bubble rises and attaches itself to his spoon.

"Yes, permanent." They agree with Luka, confirming his suspicions. This would, indeed, be a mission of learning. Though the heroes didn't know it yet, they would have a lot of freedom to gather information.

Gyre falls into a pensive silence, glancing down at the table and then finally taking a seat across from Luka. He looks into his own bowl, considering what that means. He had learned a lot from the first trip back, though there were still questions left over from then even now. He wonders if he'll see that little child he had met the first time, if he could try to warn them about the crystal they were going to get trapped in.

He sighs faintly, taking a moment to sip from his bowl. Much as the bubbles are interesting, he's still traumatized from busting one on his fangs yesterday.

"Is there anything we should look out for? While we're there?" he asks hesitantly. If this had already happened, then he supposes there wasn't a lot of point in asking this. But maybe they could change things, if only subtly? He's really not sure. He'd rather know as much as he can before it starts, rather then fumbling through it like last time.

Luka's carefully consuming a bubble, making an effort not to explode it all over himself and the table as he thinks back to the previous experience of being thrown into the past. It was... terrifying and overwhelming, he recalls. But he knows so much more now than he did then, and he's at least been told its going to happen ahead of time.

"Can you remember all the way back to the beginning? Weren't you just a baby, then?" He asks after swallowing.

"Watch protector. See his lies." They answer, one of their eyes flicking over Gyre as they consider his question here. That was enough of an answer, because Luka is asking a very revealing question and they need to answer it before they gift this room a new black blob.

"Not baby, before me. The beginning." They reiterate, the last word gurgling into a truly awful sound as they vomit out another black tar blob onto the floor. Like the previous one, it sits there and prickles in place. It looks... awful. What a monstrous little thing.

Gyre nods, watching Seven as they eye him. He's clearly taking this directive very seriously, promising to keep an eye on that dude with his expression even if he doesn't speak up.

"When you were still with Sxicq-- gh?!" he begins his question, his voice cutting short when they vomit up another horrible little blob. He stands up suddenly, nearly knocking his chair over as if he expects this particular blob to attack him.

"You... are you alright?" he asks quickly, moving to the cupboards to grab a clear bowl and uh tip it over on top of the blob. It's not a bottle like Five had, but hopefully it'll keep it contained until he can tell someone.

"He was already lying back then, huh?" Luka asks, his tone unimpressed as he lifts another spoonful of stew carefully from his bowl. He pauses, of course, when Seven begins to expel another round of horrible sounding vomit - thankfully onto the floor and not the table, at the very least.

"It's... good, to get that all out right?" Luka's expression fades into a concerned frown at the noise. Hopefully that was the last, or close to the last, bit of Protector toxins the monster had in them? "Like a really bad hangover, or something."

Fortunately the little black blob doesn't make any moves to attack. It sits beneath the glass bowl, prickling gently, not even acknowledging that it's been trapped. Seven seems to pay it no mind, but nods in response to Gyre's inquiry if they're alright.

"Needs to be out. All of it." They answer both heroes' concerns. But then there's the other question--

"Always lying. Always." They answer, not yet returning to eating any of their soup.

Seven's not paying attention to it, but Gyre can't help but watch it, his brow furrowing. It's so disconcerting. He reaches forward with his foot and taps the bowl with the toe of his boot.

"What is it? Do you know?" he murmurs, glancing towards Seven. His eyes widen slightly after a beat as he realizes, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want."

Luka, too, is curious how much Seven knows about what exactly the Protector was doing to them over all these years. He doubts they know much, considering how little the Protector shared in general - but it's possible they learned something just by the horrible of experience of it all.

"Yeah..." He agrees, soured on tasting any more of his soup in the moment. He places the spoon in the bowl carefully and sets it aside for now. "The more we find out the more it seems like he's a lost cause. I used to think he was actually good, can you believe that?"

Gyre's little toe push moves the bowl up against the side of the black blob and immediately it latches onto the underside of the bowl. In a matter of moments it's covering the entire internal surface of the bowl, still seemingly prickling and shifting underneath. The bowl doesn't seem to move, but there's definitely movement if the gentle rattling is any indication.

"Not talking. Ask Eleven." They answer Gyre first, two eyes turning to Luka to watch him.

"Maybe good before, never here." The add, tossing another log into the fire of evidence.

Gyre wrinkles his nose unpleasantly as the blob covers the surface, wondering if that's going to ruin the bowl or something. Hopefully it's okay in there for now, but he does take a step back just to keep himself from messing with it any more.

"Alright, I will," he says, giving them a slight, apologetic smile. He's absolutely not going to force them to talk about this, and he retreats to the table again, picking his bowl up and taking another sip or two of it.

He has thoughts and feelings about the Protector here, but he's not going to argue for the man's redemption in front of Seven. If that man is to be redeemed at all, he needs to make sure it's as far away from them as possible.

"Eleven knows? Not Nine?" Luka inquires, moving one hand to idly drum its fingers along the side of the table. "I thought Nine was the one studying that stuff. Studying you."

It didn't matter to him which monster it actually was - they both seemed equally elusive - but the distinction caught him off guard.

"Before as in... before he even made it to the planet?" He asks with a sigh. Luka had always imagined the Protector's fall to be a slow descent, where his priorities shifted gradually over time. But Seven was making it sound not so much like a slow descent as much as a instant plummet. "In any case he doesn't seem to have any regard for bodily autonomy. Monster or human."

Edited 2020-05-10 00:17 (UTC)

The Weather

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