Day 8: Evening

[wizardseason]

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 ]

Comments

Luka + Olivia, Text

[eutychia]

A lot has happened since the tumultuous meeting this morning, and now Luka realizes just how long its been since he's really got to touch base with Olivia. It seemed even more pressing now that the Protector had officially turned on them both.

And so Luka finds his phone and types a message out to the last remaining Protector knight.

Hey Liv.
You're in Twelve's Garden right?
Wanna meet up?

[disguiseself]

[A minute later, Luka's phone buzzes with Olivia's reply.]

yes. where are you? i'll go to you.

[eutychia]

Despite already being told Olivia was safely in the garden, the solid confirmation of it is a welcome relief to Luka - especially after having learned the Protector was on the hunt.


You know where the portal usually dumps you?
And there are those signs?
Let's meet there. I'm not far.

[disguiseself]

[Olivia texts him a quick omw and starts heading to the entrance. It doesn't take her too long as she'd been outside anyway, continuing the exploration she'd started as soon as she'd been portal-ed in.

When she sees Luka, it feels as if some tension she was holding in her body dissipates, replaced by relief. She quickens her pace the last few meters towards him, stopping short of giving him a hug.]

Hey. [She greets him, and the genuine smile on her face is apparent in her voice.] How... are you doing? [It had been an... unusual day, to say the least. She regrets she and Luka weren't together when the Protector declared them traitors - who knows that kind of danger he could've been in out there.]

[eutychia]

Luka's demeanor echoes a similar sense of relief when Olivia approaches. He puts his phone away, satisfied now that they were able to meet up.

"I've certainly been better." He says with a laugh - a weak attempt to downplay his anxiety. He takes her arm a moment after she draws close. "How much of this place have you seen? It's pretty wild, isn't it?"

Luka's bursting with desire to vent about the absolute chaos of the day - the meeting, the Protector, the monster fight and Sxicq - but he starts small and casual in spite of it.

[disguiseself]

[She's glad that he reaches out for her and she happily lets him take her arm, briefly placing her hand over his in an attempt to be comforting.] It's beautiful here. I've been taking my time exploring everything... there's a lot to experience. I almost feel like I won't have enough time to appreciate it all, and I wish I'd come here sooner, but... [Well, despite her sympathy for the monsters, she didn't have a concrete reason to trust the Wizard before today.] Um, anyway, the wildflowers are my favorite part.

Uh, you've been here before so... is there any place you have in mind that we should go to have a chat? Or would you rather just walk around?

[eutychia]

Luka takes a few steps forward, pausing where the signpost detailing the main areas of the garden area.

"Have you seen the vegetables? They're... different. Not like ours exactly." He explains. "They taste pretty good, though. The Wizard brought them here from planets they failed to save."

It was a stark reminder of their predicament, but reminders of the state of the world were fairly difficult to avoid. It loomed over everything like a particularly bad storm cloud.

"I like the lake, too. You can hear the fish."

[disguiseself]

[Olivia wonders what the Wizard would choose to keep of all that their planet has to offer. She almost asks it, too, but then it dawns upon her that they'll probably know soon enough.]

Uh, farm sounds nice, then. [She says, taking a quick look at the signpost for directions before starting to guide Luka that way.] I'm a bit of a city girl so I can't say I've ever been to a, uh, normal farm, so. This'll be a learning experience. [Who knows, they both might need to learn how to farm if they start over in a new planet.

The thought is... actually terrifying. She doesn't want to start over. If she thinks about it too much, she might cry.

She takes a deep breath and steels her expression.] Anyway, do you know if everyone else is here? It seems like the only safe place to be at this point, right?

[eutychia]

"Yeah. I've never been to one either." Luka laughs. His home wasn't rife with traditional farmland, and it wasn't a place he'd have any reason to be even if it were. Luka will be equally as inexperienced with farming, should they end up needing to learn. "The garden here is nice to visit. I don't think there's any livestock, though."

He keeps in step with Olivia as they head in the vegetable garden's direction. Her question recalls his meeting with the Wizard earlier, an unpleasant sensation boiling within him.

"Most of us." He says grimly. "Matilda is missing. The Wizard says the Protector is hunting for us."

[disguiseself]

[She stares at him, eyes wide.] Hunting us? Fuck. That sounds fucking... [She bites her lip, worry written all over her face. If Matilda hasn't made it here yet, chances are she won't make it at all.

She keeps walking with him, her tail seeming to drag sadly behind them. She knows there's nothing either of them can do to help right now. Her voice is soft as she speaks again,] I guess we're staying here, then. There's... worse places to be hiding from an alien maniac in.

And I suppose we should all be sticking together from now on, too. No more splitting up the gang. [She glances at Luka, brows furrowed despite her light attempts at humor. She worries that he's the biggest target no matter what side they're on.]

[eutychia]

"Yeah." He says, his voice low with worry. "If this morning's meeting was any indication though, keeping us all accounted for is going to be like herding cats."

He sighs again, thinking back on the discord of the meeting. It shouldn't be this difficult to keep six adults together, but it was.

"Hey." He says, shifting the subject suddenly after his moment of reflection. "Did you know the Wizard is a robot?"

[disguiseself]

[She lets out a breath at his herding cats comment, half amusement and half annoyance. Her mind wanders to the events of the morning and afternoon once more, a disapproving grimace having settled on her face before Luka spoke up again.

Her eyebrows raise at the new information, and she almost stumbles over something on the path as her full attention shifts towards him. She's quiet for a moment, wondering if she misheard.] I thought she was an alien. [She says, racking her brain for conversations with the Protector about their nature - although she figures he's not really a reliable source of information, anyway.] Wait, do you mean like a cyborg or, like... full on artificial intelligence or whatever?

[eutychia]

"Full on AI!" Luka exclaims, still not quite over the revelation himself. "I heard those robotic sounds she was making before... but I figured it was cybernetics since she got injured, but, nope - we found out she's been a robot this whole time."

There was a lot to be learned from the voice in the ship's bridge, and still so much of it that wasn't sorted out yet, Luka thinks as he tries to remember everything they'd been told there.

"She's still an alien, too. It seems like she was sent to protect... The Protector, as weird as it sounds." He continues. "It makes sense for why she can't seem to say certain things. Like she's programmed to keep them a secret, or something."

[disguiseself]

Yeah, I assumed that like... she was kind of a cyborg now because of whatever the monsters had done to save her. But she's... huh. [She furrows her brow, trying to process this.] Was she programmed to be sleepy?

[She runs a hand through her hair. The Wizard is well known for visiting bars and restaurants. It's kind of hard to believe that she's a machine.] Okay, so she was originally meant to... protect him... and then she went rogue or something? And what about him, then?

[eutychia]

"I don't know... maybe she's just tired from operating in a way she wasn't meant to for so long." Luka shrugs. Even the most advanced technology runs out of energy if you push it for long enough, he figures.

"He's... uh, organic, ostensibly." He guesses again, stopping himself from using the word human to describe the Protector. "He's the scientist part of the pair sent to this planet to save it. Kinda surprised that he'd talk about her as an equal given that she's technically just sort of... a weapon, though, right?"

[disguiseself]

That's... as good a theory as any, I guess. [She smiles a little, wondering if they should ask the Wizard about it later. Would it be rude?

She hums in thought, nodding along as Luka talks about the Protector.] I guess they either really got along before this or she won his respect as a person over the years, right? I mean, if she's an AI... well, she's so advanced that none of us would've ever guessed, you know? Maybe they were an active part of society back in their homeworld... [It's kind of sad to think that no one will ever really know what the Wizard and the Protector lost. Perhaps the Wizard could write her memoirs or something once everyone is safe - it'd certainly be an interesting read.

She eyes her friend curiously again.] Have you learned anything else about them?