Twilight: 12:00noon - ??:00 Unknown

[ IRL Timeframe: July 20th - Onward, 2021 ]

In the past, the heroes had found themselves face-to-face with the Protector and the Wizard on year 0. They'd found the shattered pieces of Sxicq. They'd found the story before anyone had polished it into what it was today. It was free of all the lies, save for the ones coming from an alien's mouth.

The heroes influenced the past in subtle ways: Confronting the Protector with questions. Shaking the Wizard's solid foundations and instilling curiosity about the truth. Most importantly, Sxicq had seen all of their faces.

After chasing the crystals around the town and mountain, the heroes were pulled back into the room beneath the mountain. There, to their huge surprise, they were hidden behind some incredibly convenient piles of rocks to watch the events unfold that would define the next forty years. Floating over twelve of the platforms in the cavern were twelve of the crystals with kids inside of them that had been floating around the mountain. In the center of the circle stand two figures: Sxicq and the Wizard. The two appear apprehensive, but it's the third figure at the edge of the circle that's ruining it:

"Contain it! What are you doing!" The Protector shouts, stomping a foot. The air feels heavy, like it's made of electric cotton, and the hairs on everyone's arms stand upright.

"Get-- out! Of the way!!" He continues, stomping forward into the circle. As he does, a familiar blade slides out into his hand. Its shape is a tear in reality, a hole in the very makeup of the world itself.

The only thing that keeps the heroes from leaping forward to change history is the twelve small, glowing forms that are holding their hands. Smaller than children. Animals. Twelve of them, pleading in whispers: Stay. Watch.

True to their word, there is something to watch. The Protector rushes in, swinging his blade in a high arc before plunging it downward into the center of the circular floor of the platform. From it: A blue beam of energy, like lightning, fires forth through his chest. It pierces out from him, through Sxicq, through the Wizard, through the twelve crystals, and finally through the twelve animals where they're sitting around the heroes.

One bright white explosion later: The animals are gone. The crystals are gone. Sxicq is gone. The Wizard is gone. Only the Protector remains, standing over the circular rings in the floor. Slowly, he retracts his blade from the center. The edges of reality start to go to static.

"It is done." He declares with an air of finality. The static creeps in on the edges of everything, fading the vision as Sxicq descends into slumber.

The Protector's wrist beeps in defiance. He looks down at it, his face scrunching up in disgust. "It has to be done! Acknowledge: Mission complete!" He nearly yells at his wrist, only to be met with a response that stuns him.

"User not recognized, access privileges locked down." Says the same voice that came from within the ship. The static finishes pouring over everything, fading the vision of the cavern into nothing but noise.

And then everyone wakes up.

Everything feels wrong: The clocks all say it's sometime after noon, but the sky is an ever-churning, ever-shifting muddled mess of blues, purples, and darkness. The sun is missing. Weather outlets everywhere didn't have any explanation for the phenomenon. News stations were being careful to avoid referring to it as a sign of the end. The Protector had told them things were dire, after all, but they couldn't cause a mass panic.

And, most importantly, a small handful of news headlines on the planet were talking about time travel being real. They're talking about the blip to forty years ago. They're talking about the very same things that the heroes had just experienced, like they had experienced those exact same things. What effect would this have on the carefully-crafted story that the Protector had pieced together over forty years? Just how many people had shared this experience too?

Unknown to Luka, Gyre, and Olivia: Terrence had been to the past and had an experience much like the one they'd shared as a trio. He ended up with two regular people from the world who didn't recognize him as one of the heroes from this year.

What would happen now?

Ninth Afternoon Event: Afternoon Twilight

The Weather
The birds aren't chirping.
68°F
A little breezy.

Prompts:

12:00noon The Return, The Garden: When Gyre, Luka, and Olivia return, they're placed on the ground around the portal arrival in the garden. Nearby, Terrence has also been deposited: But he's in a tree about three feet up.

At least the gang's all here?

1:00pm Onward, Around the Garden: Once the heroes start making their way around the garden and inside the monster house, they'll realize that, for the first time, all of the monsters are here either inside or somewhere nearby. If the heroes wanted to find anyone, now was the chance for them to do so!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah," he mumbles out as he reads the text, brow furrowing deeply. It goes even deeper when he hears her stomach rumbling, taking a step closer to her, but not quite touching her yet. If she really wants to do it on her own, he won't stop her, but...

"I can bring you something. We can eat and talk," he offers hopefully, not wanting to deal with his phone as much as he wants to help her, really.

"I can eat later." Her answer comes after a long pause, long enough that assumptions could be made about why it was delayed.

"Unless you have food with you." She adds, only a few seconds after the first text.

He lets out a soft, amused sigh, finally reaching forward and nudging her body up into a better position in the chair. So she's this kind of person? he thinks to himself, and he turns towards the door.

"I'll get something. It'll be quick," he reassures her before leaving the room and heading towards the kitchen, closing the door behind him on the way out.

Fortunately for Gyre, Nine isn't going to go running away while he's out. She remains in the room the whole time.

The only difference when he gets back is going to be the fact that she's slid fully onto her side on the floor in his absence. Oops. Looks like his help to get her situated in the chair didn't stick.

Or maybe she'd started to get up and just laid down again?

I pokes his head into the room, taking a look around quickly before he actually steps inside. He tips the door open, nudging it closed behind him, and quickly going to her side.

"Ah, are you alright?" he asks softly, moving to start nudging her back up into her chair. "I brought something for you to eat, if you... uh, if you'll wake up?"

At first, Nine doesn't respond. She's silent and unmoving. But when he gets closer and starts to move her into the chair, he gets a response although it isn't the one he was probably hoping for or expecting.

All at once the metal cabling running to Nine's back disconnects, every heavy metal cable clonking to the ground in an abrupt and loud display. And, as if that wasn't startling enough, once they're all disconnected she sits upright where she is on the floor.

Gyre's phone bleeps as the message arrives: "Hello."

It's definitely not the response he's expecting, and he jumps slightly as stuff starts falling... out of her. Horrifying. A shiver runs down his spine as he looks around, startling again when she sits up by herself all at once.

"H... hello," he starts, pausing for a long moment to see what she does first. "Are you... awake?"

"I'm awake." She confirms with her voice this time. Her voice is... barely a whisper. But it's a whisper that Gyre has no trouble hearing? It's as if she's whispering at speaking volume, however that works. Her head tilts slightly where she's sitting on the floor.

"I'm hungry." She follows, bringing one hand up to her stomach as she looks down. But even after saying it, she doesn't get up. Is she just going to sit there?

He leans forward and down to her at the sound of her voice, mouth opening to ask her to repeat herself. But no, he did hear what she said. Weird. Her voice unsettles him slightly, but he doesn't need to say that, offering his hand to her.

"Do you need help getting up?" he asks, hesitating... and then shifting to offer the soup instead, making a quizzical noise as if to say, 'or this instead?'

Nine reaches out to take his hand--

And misses it completely. Her hand sort of floats in the air before he offers the soup and she shifts her approach to try to take the soup--

And she misses the soup entirely. Her hand is a full foot away from where he's offering it out. As she does, her entire body starts to slip as she loses balance and starts sliding slowly towards the floor again. Uhhh--

"Oh." Is all she says as she starts to slump. Is she just a ragdoll?

What the fuck...???

"Uh..." he starts, licking his lips in an attempt to buy himself a second. What is going on here??? Is she sick or something?? He reaches over and sets the soup down on the nearest surface, crouching down beside her to catch her and push her up straight.

"Are you... okay?"

Nine is totally okay and this is totally normal and nothing was wrong, according to her. She's easily moved when he brings her back upright again but she certainly doesn't seem stable.

"Hungry." She repeats, as if that explains anything. Fortunately, despite taking a few moments too long to actually get to it, she does elaborate.

"Haven't eaten today. Or yesterday." And that was probably bad, all things considered!

"Can I have that?" She asks without actually pointing at anything but she's probably referring to the soup?

"Yester--?!" he chokes out, straightening up and snatching the can off its spot. He offers it to her immediately, this time tapping it against her hand so she literally can't miss this time.

"Eat."

Hopefully Gyre makes sure she has it in her grasp before he lets go! It takes Nine several moments of gripping the can before she slowly brings it to her mouth. She misses on the first attempt, the can tacking softly against the visor of her helmet. Then she brings it down and finally starts to drink.

And uh, it's gone? Not just the soup inside the can, but the can itself. She tilts it back just slightly and it disappears.

"Thanks." She follows, not moving just yet. Her voice is still that unchanged whisper. Has anything changed besides the can disappearing? Doesn't seem like it! Bizarre!

"You said Eleven told you to talk to me?"

Weird! Fucking weird! He's slightly taken aback, pausing with his mouth just gaped open like a fish for a second. What happened? Did she eat it? The can too??

"Uh, oh, I, yes, uh, they did," he stumbles out, taking a short breath through his nose. "Did you... are you full? Do you need, more?"

If Gyre wanted to inquire about what happened there she would probably maybe kind of have an answer for him. Actually she wasn't all secretive and manipulative so he'd get a straight answer. Perhaps too straight of an answer. Something like "I ate it" without any further details. Was that better or worse? Maybe it's better if Gyre doesn't ask.

"Not full, but I'm not as hungry now. It was good, thank you." She's still just so whispery, but more importantly was why the knight was here with her.

"Is he sending you on errands?" She tries to get to the bottom of why Eleven said Gyre should speak with her! He'd been interrupted twice now before he could get to the bottom of why he was here. Now there was suspense involved and this wasn't even a book.

Day 9: Twilight

Twilight: 12:00noon - ??:00 Unknown

The Weather

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