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

Gyre gets about ten seconds to be impressed with the way Garrot is handling this. He doesn't know what chaos the man was wrecking that made Ten yell at them, but he seems surprisingly calm here. Surprisingly protective. Surprisingly invested in helping Seven out into the world.

And then said world flips. He yelps as his stomach drops in the wrong direction?? and he pinwheels his arms, trying to get himself in a better position to fall. His body twists, like a cat's, setting himself up to land on his shoulder if not his hands and feet, and then Ten collides with him, knocking him more fully onto his side. Which is good. It's less good that the shove forces his hands away from his head where he was trying to uh keep it attached to his body.

This is to say, he slams into the ceiling and his head flies the fuck off. His body goes through the very strange pantomime of being winded, arching and curling as if trying to gasp despite having no mouth to actually breathe through. Shining green smoke begins to pour out of the hole of his neck, and he scrambles to grab his own head by the hair and yank it closer again.

He curls in on himself here in the corner, trying to hide as he tugs his collar off and moves to replace himself in the least disturbing way possible. Sufficed to say, he's going to miss the chance for a pleasant greeting with Seven as he tries right himself. His eyes stay strained to the corners as he spins around by his hair, trying to keep his gaze on the new monster even as his body wrangles his head back into place. Give him a second.

Garrot has had to deal with many a baffling circumstance in his life, but the inversion of gravity is not one of them. In fact, as a man of science, he didn't even think that was possible.

But magic sure is fuckin' weird.

Garrot is a hefty man, and so the notion of him falling, head-first, is terrible. There's a shout of "Fuck!" as he falls, but it's cut short by Ten's hand. Timely intervention, that. He takes a moment to compose himself as he looks around. Five and Ten are fine, Nine seems out cold, Seven is perched, and Gyre is-

Oh shit, he's headless. Garrot knows it can happen, but seeing it in person is still plenty upsetting! Heads just don't do that! He also knows that Gyre was plenty stressed already, and that Seven doesn't need to be on edge and seeing a decapitation.

So he conjures a clone that's standing on the new floor. Garrot takes a similarly pacifying gesture as Five, but he's standing such that Gyre's little uh problem isn't obvious. Gotta give him some privacy, y'know?

"How are you feeling?" Garrot's tone is far less hopeful, and more... medical. More calm and compassionate and authoritative, as opposed to a sack of grumpy potatoes. In fact, as long as he framed this as him being a doctor checking on a confused patient, it was much easier to do the right thing. "How can we help you?"

Because despite the laws of physics getting funky, they're all here to help. And as long as he focuses on that, Garrot can't give emotional space to outbursts or revenge.

Fortunately for Gyre and unfortunately for Garrot's efforts, Seven doesn't care about the head rolling around. In the time it's taken Garrot to get up off the ground from the fall, Seven's gaze is on Nine's body. Then it's on Five. Then Ten. Really it just seems like they're scanning the room, gaze shifting one by one to touch on everyone here.

From where Nine is laying on the floor, several of her tendrils start slowly moving again. They shift at first, like snakes, before seeming to find their way. That way, for anyone paying attention, is towards where Seven is perched.

But Seven is observant, and three of their eyes lock on the approaching tendrils. Their remaining four eyes keep one each on the others in the room, one each on Garrot, Gyre, Five, and Ten. One each was enough, three were checking the other monster's actions, seemingly wary of the threat they might pose.

And then their eyes bulge slightly as something abruptly surprises them. A moment later they hunch forward and vomit all over the ground. It's a horrible mess of black liquid, metallic goop, and chunks of what could only be described as thick caltrops. Truly awful things that shouldn't be inside of anyone, much less a monster. All of their limbs grip hard into the lid of the tank that they're perched on, holding them in place as their body forcefully expels that awful liquid again and again. If anyone's keeping tabs, they could've easily filled a twenty gallon fish tank with what comes out of them by the time they're finished with those heaving convulsions.

But the benefit was that Nine's tendrils have reached the tank lid and are plugging into it while Seven is distracted. What's she doing?

Ten, being the good monster he is, is grabbing a towel after making sure to check on Gyre and give him a "do you need help?" question that he gets a denial from. It's one of those fluffy towels that feels great to use, and he's moving over to offer it to Seven. Five, meanwhile, looks absolutely stunned. She can't believe what Seven's throwing up and god damn does it show on her face? That's so gross?? Fuck that???

What a horrific sound to have to listen to while he adjusts his head, balancing it in place while he ties his collar back on. He notes Garrot's double blocking his body from view, and he's utterly grateful even if he can't say so. Same for Ten getting close to him and quietly checking his status. He dismisses the concern because there's more important things going on in this room, and he winces as he hears those last ragged notes of Seven purging whatever awful thing was in their body.

By the time he's standing again, Nine is nearly to the tank and Ten is offering the towel out. He scans the scene, taking in as much as he can. The glint of metal in all that black goop. Five's horrified face. How nice that towel looks. Garrot standing there like a hero.

He makes a slight gesture to catch Five's attention, miming breathing in and out in a calming way. Breathe, little monster, it's going to be okay. The tension from her is palpable and Seven doesn't need it.

And then he turns to another thing Seven doesn't need at this exact second, grabbing Garrot by the back of his shirt and murmuring quickly and softly, "Don't approach. They'll need space." He says this like a person who knows this is the case, and he lets go of the other's shirt a moment later. He's not forcing him to do anything, but it is clearly a strong opinion he has.

As Seven starts vomiting caltrops profusely, Garrot makes the executive decision to go back to basics. That means the Garrot that tumbled to the floor is gone in a gentle puff of golden-bronze dust, and if he's still got that gauntlet or crowbar at all, they're definitely gone too. Just in time for Gyre's incredible vote of confidence. If he didn't know any better, it'd be like another day of surgeries.

"Ugh, shut up and catch your breath. I know what I'm doing." The bugbear's disdain is impossible to ignore, especially with the dirty look he shoots Gyre. Garrot Murtakhor is a world-renowned trauma surgeon, he won't take orders from this hermit. He will tell the elf to take care of himself though, which is in stark contrast to his tone.

And then he takes a big step away from both Seven and Gyre. Can't give the impression that two Knights, people who kill Seven, are being secretive. So he goes back to being authoritative.

"Xaljim, get me two big buckets of drinking water for Seven." If the monkey could do it the day before, he could do it today. And even if Seven isn't thirsty, it'll help with cleanup.

"Ten," he calls out, firmly emphasized to cut through the vomit chaos, "is this normal? Any ideas?" Seven's in distress, Nine is busy, and if Ten can't come up with anything, Garrot'll have to ask Five. Even though he'd much rather laugh at the face she was making until his own turned blue.

If Five knew what Garrot was thinking about, she'd throw him out of the house. Right out the window. Don't be a jerk, Garrot. Fortunately she doesn't know about his rude thoughts and instead gets Gyre's look urging her to calm down. The squint she gives him is almost palpable, and she turns her gaze slightly towards Seven like "don't you SEE this?"

Gyre and Garrot's little moment isn't lost on Ten or Seven, both get the full show right in front of their eyes. A moment later, Garrot's stepping back. Another moment later, three wooden buckets filled with water appear. Two splash into the sloshy mess of liquid on the ground, the third is upside-down and dropping onto Garrot's head. It dumps its water contents all over him (unless he somehow predicts the third bucket, but it appears only a foot above his head so good luck).

It happens a moment after he asks Ten if this is normal, so Ten waits for Garrot to Deal With That before he answers.

"No ideas." He admits, seven of his eyes locked on Seven.

Seven, meanwhile, is still keeping their gaze on everyone. The towel is there, and they know it's an option, but the sudden commotion means that they're about to react and-- A bubble forms around them attached to the metal of the tank disc. The bubble is bright yellow and seems to have the consistency of pudding. All of seven's eyes snap open in surprise, they look down at the pudding bubble-- and then they disappear into it.

"Oh." Ten adds immediately, staring at the new pudding orb. Uh. He turns slightly, looking at Garrot and Gyre.

"Problem solved."

Well. Whatever specks of good will Garrot had begun to get back are immediately extinguished by that tone and that look. Being told to shut up doesn't help much either. Gyre's eyes widen in immediate fury, and he forces a breath out through his nose, pointedly retreating across the room towards Five instead of engaging.

Seven doesn't need the first thing they see be two Knights fighting each other, much as he would like to smack this dude across the face right now. Instead he folds his arms over his stomach, his eyes darting from person to person, watching the buckets appear, watching Ten admit he doesn't know what to do and then--

"Ah--" He takes a step forward, raising his hands as if he has any idea how to help with a yellow ball consuming Seven? He doesn't! He has no idea what to do here, and feeling useless in this situation sucks!!

"What should..." he starts, trailing off as he notices just how unconcerned Ten seems to be. He glances back to check Five's mood as well. "Are they okay in there? Is... is Nine okay?" he adds, glancing pointedly towards Nine's uh limp body?

As much as Garrot wanted to make snarky remarks about how he totally got Gyre to take breaths and now they're definitely not looking conspiratorial, Xaljim had other plans. Bucket-shaped plans. A third bucket. Garrot's bucket. On his head. Water-side down. There's a low yelp from Garrot since he was more concerned with the gross liquid-adjacent substance on the floor, and his entire body visibly tenses up. And then there's a loud groaning sigh and the tension releases, his shoulders relax, and he casually removes the skull-bucket and tosses it into an empty corner, out of the way of anyone else.

And that all took just long enough for the first thing he consciously sees to be Seven getting eaten by some weird, yellow bubble. It's just too weird for him to parse in this state!

"Solved?!" He does not believe you, Ten. "Why is- What is-" The sputtering betrays his surprise more than any actual frustration though. Garrot just sighs, again, as he trudges towards a wall nearish to Five and Gyre to lean against it, but not enough to be all intrusive and nosy, because Gyre's mad at him again. Big guy seems a little defeated!

"Y'know, I figured I'd give Seven some medical attention, but..." Another sigh. "I can't even act like I know how your bodies work." Garrot would be far more enthused about medical discourse and scientific discovery if being doctorly wasn't his main distraction from demanding answers from Seven. "Is there any logic to this, or is it just weird magic?"

And given that he doesn't say or do anything else, it's not rhetorical.

"That isn't solved at all. And--" Five chimes in, voicing literally everyone's thoughts in this moment. She's looking at Gyre as he's asking about Nine and finally she looks down at the smaller monster's prone form.

"Uh. She's fine. Probably. Maybe? Actually, I don't really know. We don't talk." As she answers, her face is scrunching up as she works through her own brain on this situation.

"They're fine in there. It's weird magic, all weird magic. They'll be hungry. Can you go downstairs and get them some food?" Ten chimes in, answering nothing but also answering at least something? At the same time, Five is looking awkwardly at Gyre, Garrot, and Ten before abruptly adding--

"I'll make sure Nine is alright and stay right here making sure she's alright and not going downstairs for food at all because I'll be right here." She says it all a little too fast, shuffling over to where Nine's laying.

Edited 2020-04-18 23:21 (UTC)

It's a little alarming to hear that Five also has no idea what's going on. He figured Garrot probably wouldn't have any more ideas then him, especially when the man comes and stands at the wall there, but another monster?? Did Nine and Ten really not explain a single thing about how this was supposed to work?? The idea frustrates him tremendously, and he makes a note to ask about it later.

For now though, Ten gives him a task to do and he... wants to accomplish it. He even turns towards the door the second he's told what to do, only to remember that uh they're on the ceiling.

"How do we get down?" he asks, turning towards Ten once again and giving him a dry look. "And what do they eat?"

Garrot, on the other hand, is very comforted by the fact that at least one of the monsters doesn't know what's going on. It makes him feel less out of the loop, less useless. And as he watches things unfold, the most he can contribute seems to be just getting food. They've survived eight days of this, and all he can do is walk to the kitchen. It makes him want to scowl and scream, but as soon as he hears Five say she wants to make sure Nine is alright, his bodies move almost automatically. Two Garrot clones extend towards where he'd thrown that bucket, and they disappear as it's tossed back to the original. Then, the now-singular Garrot grabs the empty bucket in one hand, a filled bucket in the other, and walks over to Five and Nine.

"You can sit her on this and clean that crap off her, if you want." And then Garrot sets down the filled bucket and flips the other before it thuds into the floor, a makeshift stool. His head gestures towards that towel, because it is just right there, before smiling at Five. "I'll check her out when I get back, okay?" But then he turns to the door, putting his back to the wall below (above?) it. And then there's another Garrot standing on his shoulders, trying to open the door. It's uh a lot harder to do that when you're upside-down and standing on yourself.

"And we climb, obviously." And then the bottom Garrot links his hands together to make a little platform for Gyre to step on.

Five sloshes over to where Nine's laying on the watery floor and scoops her out of the water. The smaller monster's form is completely limp, like she's a ragdoll, and Five stabilizes the offered bucket from where Garrot placed it. A moment later she's hoisting Nine's body atop it with one hand while grabbing the filled bucket with the other. Another second later she's dumping the bucket of clean water all over Nine to wash away the black and metallic muck.

Nine doesn't respond at all, and actually starts tilting like she's gonna fall again. Fortunately Five's quick to hold her steady. None of those tendrils have come unhooked from the tank top that caused the yellow pudding balloon yet. But Five's quick to take a jab at Garrot:

"She doesn't need to be checked out."

Ten, on the other hand, is shuffling over to Five to place the towel around her neck so she can use it on Nine when snaps out of it.

"They probably eat fish. But bring a little of everything. There's a cupcake serving tray under the counter, fill each cup with something different." He explains as he turns his attention to Gyre, then turns towards Garrot as he makes an impromptu climbing machine. The two will be able to get up to the door that way, but they're also going to enjoy gravity re-asserting itself the moment they get through the door.

Honestly Garrot didn't even need to self-stack, the door wasn't too far away. Ten foot ceilings, but getting it open meant it probably didn't hurt to get up there. But what higher-Garrot does get, when he gets the door open, is gravity slurping him off of lower-Garrot's shoulders and dropping him onto the hallway floor above (below?). Have fun with that vertigo, buddy!

"No rush, they need about thirty minutes." He clarifies, giving Gyre and Garrot a thumbs-up each.

"I'd like my jerky too if you see it!" Five adds abruptly, two eyes snapping towards the departing heroes.

Gyre watches Garrot helping with Nine, smirking slightly at the way Five rebuffs him. The expression falls when she just uh dumps water all over Nine though, his hands jolting up as if he'll be able to appear at their side to help as well. It takes him a moment to realize that no one seems concerned about it, and Five is still keeping Nine up and out of the goop. That's probably enough, right? Especially if a check up from a doctor isn't going to help at all.

His attention is split after that, between Ten describing what foods to grab and how to bring it up, and Garrot coming over and stacking himself up. He glances down at the offered, cupped hands, frowning slightly at the idea of taking the man's help.

It's a frown that gets turned upwards in surprise as the top Garrot just uhhh falls off?? He blinks once, standing up a little straighter. "That's easy enough," he murmurs, turning to give Five a thumbs up about her jerky. Then he bends down slightly and jumps the couple feet up to the door frame. He grabs hold of it and swings, and as gravity reasserts itself, he manages a very nice little twist in the air and lands firmly on his feet beside the fallen Garrot.

"Are you okay?" he asks him, bending down to offer a hand to help him up if he needs it.

Garrot should've expected Five to shoot down his support and just drench Nine, because nothing about this situation has been calm or reasonable. But, well, oops. There's a bit of a wobble from the climbable Garrot when the other just drops in reaction to normal gravity. The clone lands flat on his back, legs in the air, making it just annoying enough for both bugbears to stay within the distance limits of his power. And hoo boy does it suck, because Garrot's experiencing reality from two different gravities!

Naturally, Gyre follows up with the sheer audacity to bypass his human ladder altogether and just parkour through the doorway like some kind of fucking cat before being polite. Ugh.

"My brain feels like it's being pulled in opposite directions, but..." Garrot trails off for a moment, willing the clone in the room away and probably covering Nine in soggy, golden-bronze magic particles. As much as he wants to try and save face and do something cool to get back on his feet, Gyre is right there, and these hallways are pretty small, so...

"I'll be fine." He does actually take Gyre's hand to pull himself up, but the way he braces himself from the waist down shows that Garrot's trying to do as much of it himself as he can, without tossing the elf around. But when he comes up, his face is... redder than before. "Th-thanks. Do you know where the food is?"

He'll still pick a random direction and charge onward, if needed...

Gyre raises a skeptical eyebrow at him when he feels the way he's moving his body, squeezing his hand and giving him a hard tug at the end as if to prove he's not some delicate waif who can't hold himself up. He won't say anything about it though, releasing his hand as soon as he's up and turning slightly.

"Good," he says, giving a slight nod to that first bit. He's pleased the man didn't hurt himself in the fall, if only because he doesn't want to see anyone in particular suffer.

"Yeah, it's down here," he adds after that, heading towards the stairs. The kitchen is on the first floor, behind the stairs, and he's hoping the """cupcake tray""" is fairly obvious once he gets there so they can make the trip quick. He's not trying to pick a fight with Garrot, but he's definitely pretty lukewarm on the idea of spending a whole lot of time with him here.

Garrot offers an affirmative grunt once Gyre starts in the right direction. That hard tug moments ago was pretty curious, but not enough to ask about. He's a big bugbear, so maybe he was trying a little too hard? But as they walk there's the unmistakable, almost rhythmic clack of the doctor's claws as he places a hand against the wall with every step. That gravity switch did a number on him in the moment, and residual effects would be entirely unsurprising.

"So..." Garrot does not want to sit in awkward silence with Gyre. As long as he forces a conversation, he doesn't have to confront his behavior over the last 24 hours, right? "You want to save the monsters, and Seven's fine. Going to be." They absolutely have to talk about the vomiting gargoyle in the metaphorical room, though. "I figured you'd be more excited."

Gyre glances back with each clack of Garrot's claws, slowing down each time it happens until finally he stops beside the stairs.

"I am excited," he says dryly, gesturing back towards the room. "I think it was a mistake for all of us to be there. It's probably overwhelming for them after what they've been through. I'm trying to be... careful."

He runs his eyes slowly over Garrot, glancing down the stairs for a moment. "Do you need a second? I can go get the food myself."

"I'm fine!" The admission is quick, almost as if he was waiting for the question. "I wasn't sure if being in two kinds of gravity would mess with me. But I'm fine." He sounds more confident when he says it the second time, and he even pulls his hand from the wall, standing without any balance issues at all!

"I was trying to be careful too. I was treating it as urgently as I thought Seven needed, but..." The doctor sighs, glancing back towards the room. "I think I just got in the way. If I'd have known everything would've been fine because of weird magic, I'd have waited in the hallway..."

Garrot sighs again, and now he's just looking down at the floor, visibly sulky and defeated. Sure it's a win that Seven didn't attack and that nobody got hurt (hopefully?) and that the Monkey Knight didn't give into his angriest impulses. But how much of an improvement was that chaos?

Gyre looks up at him as he straightens up, watching a moment just to make sure he's not going to wobble. But he sounds confident and Gyre can't ask for anything more then that so he turns and continues down the stairs, expecting Garrot to follow. They have to go to the same place after all.

"Me too. I only wanted to change their music when I knocked," he admits, sighing at how useless he feels right now. He was just an extra body in the way through all that, and now he's just fetching food. He didn't even really get Nine there. She dragged him down the hallway after Garrot woke her up, and he grits his teeth as another wave of frustration washes through him.

He forces himself to exhale. Forces himself to say something positive in all this. "I'm glad they're free now, but... I wanted to meet them after they'd recovered with their family. This is. Messy."

As Gyre began down the stairs, Garrot followed suit fast enough that he clearly must not have been worried about his balance anymore. Maybe he was fine, maybe Gyre's similar feelings have made him overeager.

"Let it go." Despite the words being dismissive, his tone is soft and gentle. "I've been doing this sort of work for years, and it's messy without weird magic." A sigh drifts into a chuckle, and Garrot's shaking his head. "I'm just glad nobody got seriously hurt from all that, you know?"

Garrot was more than ready for a fight, but he's undeniably glad there wasn't one.

Unfortunately, Garrot has gotten his last benefit of the doubt about the disparity between his tone and his words. He tells Gyre to let it go as if he's holding on to some angst and not just worried about a very current situation, and the elf's whole body tenses up, his shoulders going straight and tight.

"Don't tell me how to feel," he says, his voice iced completely over. And apparently that's all he thinks needs to be said there as he drops the rest of the conversation on the ground behind him. He steps off the stairs, and circles around it, heading back towards the kitchen without another word. Garrot might not want to hang around him in awkward silence, but Gyre has no interest at all in potentially getting into a fight with him again. They've got a more important task then talking to do anyway, and he pushes the door to the kitchen open.

Edited 2020-04-20 21:49 (UTC)

Gyre's return to the kitchen rewards him with a similar sight to the one he had before. The kitchen is maybe big enough for five or six people, with wooden countertops spanning two of the walls and cabinets above and below. The most striking feature of the room is the huge black metallic orb sitting against the wall directly beside the door they enter through. Is it an oven? It's probably an oven. It's definitely an oven. But how does it work? It's not hooked up to anything, there's no heat source that seems to be connected, it's just a metal orb about the size of a person. The door on the oven is hanging open, revealing that there's a massive stew pot sitting inside of it.

The countertops are coated with an array of meats and vegetables. Directly beside the orbven is a pile of what looks like reddish jerky (if either of them sneak a bite, it's tender and tastes like honey, cardamom, worchestershire sauce, and broccoli. Beside it is a pile of bright green fish slabs. Further down the countertop are piles of various vegetables.

Gyre will recognize all of them, actually, it's almost like they're all from the garden and they're what's in season right now: There's a pile of lumpy root vegetables that look like purple ginger, about two dozen garlic bulbs that are a pale blue, a pile of what looks like orange asparagus, a collection of purple leafy "greens", and lastly a pile of multicolored potatoes(?).

Guess he'll get to either explain to Garrot what they are, or he could make him guess. Either way they'll both be subjected to the wafting scents that rise off of the vegetable pile. It's making the room smell utterly incredible. They were all so potent. The strongest scents are lemongrass, orange citrus, and vinegar.

Gyre goes into the cupboards like he owns the place the moment he walks in, searching through the shelves until he finds a large tray with a few indentations in it. He doesn't know if this is what Ten meant, but he dumps some of the vegetables into each bowl before uh piling the other half of the platter with fish. Seven's teeth had looked more like his and Five's so he's not about to starve the kid with these weird nonmeat things.

Once the platter is full, he steps out of the kitchen and pauses a beat to look around. He had expected Garrot to follow him but the knight is nowhere to be seen. A little prickle runs up his spine, but he squashes it down. If the man found something else to do instead, then he'll just have to handle this by himself.

And so, about fifteen minutes after heading down, he reappears in the door to Seven's room, pausing a moment there to take the scene in before he enters. If Seven is out of the marshmallow fluff, he'll move closer to off the platter to them. Otherwise, he'll stand here holding the plate and waiting.

When Gyre returns to the room, the most important thing he'll find is that the room has un-flipped and the majority of the mess on the floor has been cleaned up. There are still some dark stains, but there's no standing water. He'll find that Seven has been freed from the marshmallow fluff and both Nine and Five are gone. He'd passed their rooms and the doors were closed, though, so maybe that's where they went? But Ten is still here and he gives a little wave upon Gyre's return. He's in the middle of... fiddling with something? Seven is uh... back to their gargoyle pose with all four limbs perched on the floor. They look ready to pounce, all of their fingers look sharper than knives and are dug into the floor.

Their messy ferrofluid-like hair shifts and bobs in the air away from their head, most of the metallic mass staying draped down their back. Gyre's timing couldn't be better, because the moment they see the platter of food all of their eyes are on it... When he offers it closer, they reach one hand out to be given the platter. They won't abruptly take it, but they are clearly moving to get it--

And then Luka arrives, too, escorted from somewhere else with a new face at his side. To Luka's right is a figure who's exactly the same height as the Princess.

They're wearing a suit (or is it religious clothing?) consisting of a lot of black with white accents. There's a glowing white necklace dangling around their neck. Their skin isn't the normal bright yellow of the other monsters, instead it's a slightly tanned human complexion. They've got hair, too, black that's short and well-kept. They're in the middle of explaining to Luka in their deep, gravelly voice as they turn the corner to see Gyre, Seven, and Ten.

"We're here. The floor is slippery and Seven is watching you." They explain to Luka before turning to look at Gyre. With their arrival comes a waft of scents: bergamot, cedar, melon, and thyme.

"I think you brought some of their favorite food." They comment with a slight smile appearing on their face. They look happy, proud? Just unmistakably pleased at this turn of events.

If Luka takes a look past Gyre, he might be able to pick up on Seven's body being a deep yellow with swirls of black running through it like scars. Actually, they are scars. They're almost perfectly precise, lined up in sets of five all over their body, all the same length. The only scar that's any different is the circular one right on the back of their neck. Their eyes form a crescent moon all the way around their face, one on their forehead with three on each side, ending on both sides of their mouth. Fortunately right now they're not baring their bright orange fangs like they were when they first came out. Rough! The air around them has the same notes of oil and phosphorous, with an undercurrent of rendered chicken fat. But there's also a side scent of... roses?

Edited 2020-04-28 04:49 (UTC)

Gyre is very careful as he approaches Seven, waiting until they've seen the platter before he even begins to get closer. Even when he's moving, it's always carefully, quietly, pausing if ever Seven starts to get nervous again. Finally he offers the platter out to them, going still when they do to look at the door.

He's uh pretty startled to see Luka, and even more so the person beside him. He tilts his head, and begins to straighten slightly, pulling the food away from Seven as he considers this newbie. Is this Eleven? After everyone saying they had no idea where they were, they just showed up in the same room as him?? There's a part of him that's certain that it can't be that easy.

And then he remembers what he was actually here for, and he turns suddenly back to Seven. "Sorry, ki'ta, here you go," he says, putting the platter of food into their hand and taking a step away once they have it. He pauses a beat there, and then shifts to lower himself onto the ground near them, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

The Weather

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