Day 9: Morning

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: June 14th - Onward, 2020 ]

When your characters check their phones, clocks, calendars, or any other timekeeping implement they'll find that the year is 00 AW, forty years before the present day. The year before the Wizard's first game was held, the year before it came down to only two knights and the Princess facing off against the Wizard. It was before all of it.

Everywhere your characters go, there are no people. Their devices will not connect to the internet outside of the island, their companions will not appear, the Wizard and Monsters will not answer, but they can text each other without difficulty.

Outside, the heroes will not be greeted with the sight of the sky from Day 3. The sky lacks the massive vortex over the center of the mountain. Honestly, it all looks fairly serene. The only thing that seems amiss is the rumbling of the ground, the constant feeling of an ongoing earthquake. There are no fractures in the ground yet, though, no splintering of the planet.

Because nothing has happened yet.

Ninth Morning Event: The Past, Pt.II

The Weather
Stillness.
48°F
No wind.

Prompts:

6:00am The Arrival, All Cities: Gyre, Olivia, and Luka arrive flat on the ground. They wake on their backs, facing up to the stars, just outside of something that has never been on the island ever before.

They're at the top of the mountain, right beside where the mysterious doors were in the current day. But right now there's a wide-open metallic stairwell. It looks unnatural, like someone copy-pasted it into place. From beneath, there's a blue glow and steam rising up from below.

Guess it's time to wake up, make a plan, and walk downstairs?

?:00am, Unknown Location: This post will consist of one single long thread that progresses through the plot for this post. As discoveries are made, additional information will be uncovered.

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.

Activity Check: June 2020

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If anything, Jane's annoyed that she was bypassed here. But she wants answers just as much as her coworkers do, so she keeps her attention on the Protector the whole time. Give her the answers, weird magic man!

"Dealt with. In a manner that I have not yet determined. After verifying that they are a threat." He clarifies, rummaging in a pocket for his pipe so he can take a moment to himself before he gets his hands dirty again. The scent of unburned tobacco wafts in the air as he pulls it out.

"Eradicated. Exterminated, if the threat is severe enough." He adds, before turning his head away from the group.

"Begin collection procedures." He states loudly, his gaze and voice very much aimed at someone who isn't a part of their group.

At the edge of the intersection, the tall figure that was with him in the cave leaps over the cones and caution tape and starts a heavy-footed advance towards the floating blue crystal on the other side of the intersection. Their entire body is humming softly as they move closer, a huge hammer manifesting with a 'pop' in one hand. That's. Probably bad?

Fury fills him as he listens to the Protector talk, and before he can think about it, he lashes out and uh yanks that pipe out of his mouth. This nasty little man doesn't get to have a break before he tries to kill people! His brow furrows, his lip curling into a nasty snarl. But before he can say what he thinks of this fucking man, the Wizard starts moving down the street.

"What-- you--" he starts, his eyes widening as he looks between the Protector and that giant figure. Collection procedure is a pretty ominous phrase, especially after the man just promised to eradicate them if he felt like he had to, especially when Gyre knows how he is in the future. He opens his mouth to protest, only to see the hammer beginning to manifest.

A hammer means there's no more time to argue, and he drops the pipe onto the road, jerking suddenly out of the line of reporters, dashing down the street towards the strange Wizard.

"Stop!" he shouts, and since he doesn't expect them to listen to that, he leaps at them once he's close enough, trying to tackle them to the ground. He steels himself for the inevitable rush of cold, trying to wrap his arms around them so they at least can't swing even if he doesn't take them down.

[Olivia watches Gyre snatch the Protector's pipe and she opens her mouth to... she doesn't know, really. Warm him against antagonizing him? It's far too late for that. She doesn't need to think about it further as she sees the Wizard manifesting the giant hammer and then Gyre dashing towards them.

She fidgets, her eyes finding Jane's. She doesn't know who she is, but it seems she's on their side - hopefully she'll know better than to get in Gyre's way. Olivia moves to confront the Protector, hoping to drive his attention aware from the wild elf - although she realizes that's gonna be very hard with him trying to pin down the Wizard, or whatever it is he's doing.]

You say our planet was in danger and these crystals are a defense mechanism, but what was this threat you speak of? [Her voice comes surprisingly steady as she stares at him accusingly.] Isn't this the planet trying to defend itself against you, and whatever you have done?

That was a very Protector-brand answer, and just on track with what Luka had expected from him. He's also not surprised at Gyre's quick reaction, trying to stop whatever grim thing the 'collection procedure' referred to despite its likely futility.

Luka's caught between the sounds of Gyre moving to stop the Wizard and Olivia's further interrogation of the Protector. He lingers there, trying to get a sense of the situations that both his companion's have found themselves in at once.

He takes a step back toward the Protector.

"They aren't a threat. There's your verification." He says, though he knows its unlikely to sway him in any way. "You say you're trying to save the planet, but eradicating them is only going to make the situation worse."

When Gyre yanks the pipe away and runs, there's a flicker of an expression accross the Protector's face that breaks his calm demeanor for a moment. Jane sees it, Olivia sees it, and Luka completely misses it.

Fortunately, Jane steps up beside Luka and whispers "What is Red doing pissing an alien off like that?" to him, as if he would somehow know?

"The crystals are the defense mechanism of an infection afflicting this world." The Protector clarifies, watching Olivia as she accuses him. As if he hadn't just had it robbed from him, he holds a hand out to pop the pipe back into existence in it. Jane double-takes at where it had been thrown onto the ground and, sure enough, it's not there anymore.

"The infection sensed my attempts to cleanse it and reacted. Look at the fractures in the ground. The storm over the mountain." He explains, referring to the events of Day 3 that had now returned after whatever he and the Wizard had done with the rings at the bottom of the stairs. The storm and cracks were definitely involved. At Luka's counter, though, the Protector's voice takes on a cold edge.

"I advise you to keep your amateur threat analysis assessments to yourself, Eutychia. They would see you dead given the chance." He says it as if it's fact, as if he fully believes it, and he adds in a tone so cold it could freeze fire:

"If you had heard the death cries of thousands lost to threats such as this one, you would not need convincing."

Gyre, meanwhile, is faring pretty well as far as a foolish-wild-elf-turned-reporter could be doing in this situation. When he equips himself to the Wizard like an accessory, he gets hit with that familiar rush of frigid cold. It's like their body was pulled out of a deep freeze and hadn't come close to thawing yet.

A hand reaches back and grips him, the pinky and index gripping over his shoulders while the middle two hook under his armpits. Did the Wizard's hand get bigger? Did it flex in a way that should've broken bones or dislocated joints? Olivia and Jane get a good look at it and: Yes, that arm shouldn't have been able to move like that.

Jane, once again, is kind enough to react in real-time to it for Luka to hear: "What the fuck is that alien thing."

Except she cries out in surprise as the Wizard swings their arm hard around in an arcing swing. It looks like his body is going to get slammed into the ground full-force. But by the end of the swing, the arm has slowed and Gyre gets deposited on the ground like a child who'd just been stopped from getting into trouble. He's left on the ground with a Wizard staring down at him with a hammer in the other hand.

Great?

All three heroes will hear a soft flickering, like static, at the edges of their hearing. Like reality was getting ready to shift the scene again.

Oh dear. Well, he's pretty sure he's about to get very badly hurt when the Wizard grabs him like that, and he tenses his whole body in preparation, his hands jumping up to hold his head place. This still doesn't prepare him for being flung through the air in that way though. He feels his eyes roll back in his head, a thick darkness gather at the edge of his vision.

And then he's laid gently on the ground instead. It takes him a moment to find his focus again, blinking several times, shaking his head. He shifts his hands down, pushing himself up onto his elbows.

"You can't hurt them," he says up to them, and he sets a shield up directly in front of them as he pushes himself up onto his feet again. He's uh a little busy and does not notice the static!

[Olivia looks away when the Protector's tone gets cold, admittedly a bit intimidated. Her eyes find Jane's before the two of them turn just in time to see the Wizard's unnatural moves (to which Olivia reacts with a barely audible "fuck, that's so cool"), and then the violent way in which they... gently deposit Gyre back on the ground.

She may be wrong, but she doesn't think the Wizard'll hurt him. The Protector, on the other hand...]

Okay, so I take it you've witnessed planetary destruction before. [She says to him in a hurried tone.] But how can you be so sure that this is the same situation? Things were fine before you lot came along, right? [She says, glancing back at Jane for backup. She doesn't know if getting bad press on the Protector early on will change anything- hell, she doesn't know if this time travel thing can change things at all, but it's worth a shot. It's then that she hears the static, and she gets the feeling that she's running out of time.]

I mean, it just... it seems wrong! What if there was a mistake? [She takes another step forward towards him, putting all of her experience as a~~n actress~~ professional liar to look as concerned and afraid as humanly possible, big blue eyes locked on him, hoping she'll bring out any sort of empathy he's capable of giving.] What'll happen if you're wrong? What will you do?

"Red?" Luka instinctively questions the unfamiliar name again, until he pieces together who she must mean only a few seconds later. "Gyre? He's, well, they're both aliens, you know - and he's grown protective of those children."

And then the Protector's voice speaks up, coldly addressing those same children as an infection and Luka grits his teeth in frustration. He listens as Olivia tries to reason with the Protector, interested in how he'll respond while thinking of how he can refute his claims.

"You call them an infection, but what if our world can't survive without them? Imagine if.... uh, the solution for a brain tumor was removing the entire brain. Like, sure, it solves the problem technically! But the person can't live without their whole brain. That's like what you're doing here."

If the Wizard acknowledges what Gyre tells them, that they can't hurt the children, they make no acknowledgement of it. At least not outwardly. But they do make a generic answer to him:

"I don't understand." They answer vaguely, what are they referring to? Because this is an anime, the camera swings back towards Luka and Olivia with the Protector.

First, Jane is having her private conversation with Luka. "That doesn't mean he should be picking fights! Pretty sure 'killed by aliens' isn't covered by our insurance!" She insists, sounding quite grumpy as she says it. She doesn't want to have to write up an injury report when they get home from this. But she doesn't get to focus long because the Protector is answering Olivia with his usual coldness.

"Things were not fine." The Protector corrects Olivia without hesitation. Her assumption that because they didn't know about the danger meant it didn't exist was entirely wrong. Jane's mouth hangs open for a moment, she got cut off before she could back Olivia up because of how fast the Protector was with responding. But when Olivia follows with that added commentary:

"Yeah, we have no idea that you're right! What if you're making it all worse!" Jane accuses, pointing up in the Protector's business as Olivia steps forward to put on the perfect concerned act. Jane knew she had a good crew for this, but even she was surprised at how good Olivia was! And Luka is chiming in with a hard-hitting comparison that Jane takes a note to give him a high-five for later. Nice one, Luka! Unfortunately for all three of them, the Protector is ready for it.

"They are comparable to worms. Before they have taken root, they are all pulled free to keep the brain intact. The longer we wait, the more holes are created." He counters Luka's example with one of his own a moment before the static starts setting in. It starts with the ears, then the eyes, then the other senses until everything is static.

And then the three heroes are deposited into individual threads that they'll start by replying to this comment. They'll have no idea what this sentence means, but someone out there will.

Olivia wakes up on her back, directly beneath a floating blue crystal that contains a child. A few feet away, the Wizard stands with a hammer in hand. Their gaze is up on the crystal, watching it. The whole while, electricity is crackling off of the crystal and making all of Olivia's hair stand on end.

Gyre wakes up on the edge of a rooftop, one hand dangling off the side of the rooftop precariously. Floating on the building opposite is a crystal with a child in it. The ground atop the building is starting to crack with blue. Behind Gyre there's a grinding sound of the head of a hammer being dragged on the stony surface of the roof as the Wizard approaches him with it.

Luka wakes up with cool, brisk air conditioning blowing in his face. He's seated at a table by a window, the window-mounted air conditioner humming away as it blasts him. But it isn't loud enough to drown out the sounds of panicked people muttering "it's coming this way!" and "get out the door!". Luka will be treated to gradually increasing and decreasing static electricity and humming as a child, encased in crystal, slowly floats around the room. Over and over again the glowing crystal bounces off of the walls, crackling and sparking each time it bounces and changes direction. There's a loud thudding step as someone large and heavy steps through the front door. Naturally, it's the Wizard arriving here.

That can't be good for anyone, especially the children!

"That alien won't kill him." Luka explains with a certainty that wasn't quite earned from an outsider's perspective.

The Protector, as expected, is right on track with his dismissive excuses. He seems to have an answer for everything, even if it is an unsatisfying one. Luka's teeth remain clenched in frustration as he listens to the Protector twist his metaphor into something more suiting of his own agenda.

"But this planet-" He starts to argue before he's quickly overcome with static. And suddenly, he's somewhere else.

The transition isn't exactly pleasant. The feeling of a window-mounted A/C unit blasting him with all it's got on this already chilly morning is definitely a Thing, and he blinks a few times as the new environment settles in on him.

He doesn't have long to take it in. People around him, wherever he is, are frantic. There's a pulsating sensation of static as something moves moves about the room.

"Hey! Sxicq?" He calls out, hoping the glowing crystal fragment might react to that name.

Luka's intuition is right-on. When he calls out with that name, he'll feel everything go very still. Very calm. The crystal has stopped moving. The people exiting the cafe he's in are almost entirely vacated at this point, and there comes a voice that's more like glass being dragged through gravel than it is a voice at all. It crackles like it's having a hard time.

"What did you do?" The Wizard asks from the door, staring at the crystal but addressing Luka.

It... worked? He can't say he actually expected it to, and Luka's about as confused as the Wizard must be.

"That's... their name." He says, bewilderment evident in his voice. "It's Sxicq. They're not a disease or an infection or whatever the Protector called them."

He takes a few steps forward, still hesitant and unsure of the exact layout of his surroundings.

"They just need to leave this planet. Right?" Luka asks, looking for affirmation from the glowing anomaly itself.

"They're dangerous." The Wizard answers immediately, taking a heavy-booted step into the room. As they do, the crystal starts floating away from them.

"I have to collect and bring them back." They follow, eyes still very much on the crystal but they hesitate, turning down towards Luka. How does he know the things he's saying.

"How do you know their name."

"They don't want to go back, though." Luka insists, moving to put himself between the crystal and the Wizard. "And forcing them to isn't going to solve the problem. It will just make everything worse."

Luka realizes the predicament he's put himself into isn't as simply solved as he would ideally like it to be. He obviously can't change this Wizard's mind - not here, not now - and now he's standing between their hammer and its target.

"They told me it." He explains, hoping that answer will suffice.

"They have to go back." The Wizard counters, turning their argument very much into a standstill. The Wizard has the same realization that Luka does, that the situation isn't as simply solved as saying 'no, they don't wanna' and leaving it at that.

"It isn't a matter of want." But he gives a tidbit of juicy gossip that makes the Wizard pause, considering the man in front of them as they consider how to proceed.

"How are you able to speak to them."

The Weather

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