Wizard's House

[wizardseason]

"Hey"

The Wizard greets the evil-allured knights the same way every night, with the same word, while casually sitting on the steps of the porch outside of her little home. The building looks handmade, like it was built by people who cared about the place they were going to live. Surrounding it on all sides are fields as far as the eye can see. Vegetables of all kinds, with fruit trees and bushes placed throughout the landscape. Closer to the home are bigger trees, willows and others, providing shade from the strange three suns above. Wherever this is, it isn't the world that the knights know.

Plunged into the ground a mere few feet away from the steps leading up to the home is a handwritten sign that states the following:

Knight Rules:
- Tell others if you want
- You can't reveal others
- The world ends this year

Comments

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea jolts awake, her brain full of 'WHAT THE FUCK?'

She sits up in bed, and just breathes for a moment, still feeling the tension from earlier. Was she really ready to straight up fight Gyre? Maybe. She's fought people for dumber reasons before.

The Wizard, though... If she can't control the monsters, and she couldn't save anyone in the village, then maybe she's not as strong as Haizea thought. After all, they've killed two monsters already! They could probably kill the Wizard too, but would it stick? She's come back before, she could come back again.

Haizea sighs then, annoyed at the realization that even if they could kill her, she doesn't... really want to? The monsters, sure, she'll kill them all day. The one in Bamborough today got a good hit on her, as far as she's concerned it's open season on monsters. But she still doesn't really want to kill the Wizard herself. Especially if she DID try and save the village. Haizea can respect that. But, that possibility just raises a much, much bigger question.

If the Wizard didn't destroy the village... then who did?

[sustainer]

"No," he says softly, shaking a hand at them, dismissing them quickly.

"No, I only want to know what you've seen yourself, okay?" He tilts his head, beginning to frown deeply as he wonders what their words could mean. "Did you never see them arguing?"

[tropicalstorm]

She raises an eyebrow at that. While she believes them, it's kind of hard for her to understand.

"Really? There's nothin' else you wanna do, nothin' else you wanna see?"

[daddykong]

"And I couldn't save anyone in that village."

The words echoed in Garrot's thoughts as he jolted from one wakefulness to the next. She couldn't because she didn't try, or because she did and it didn't matter? Were they doomed, like the rest of the planet when whatever was inside would break free? Or was she just as lackadaisical then as she is now? He thinks back, back to the why behind everything he's learned. Why couldn't she and the Protector fix things? Why did things go wrong? If she can grant people's wishes, why can't she do more?!

"I can't control what's stronger than me."

The words hit Garrot like a cannon full of bricks. She's strong enough to destroy towns, to blow up the world, and she can't stop a bunch of monsters?! She can't force their strikes away from fatal blows?! It's complete and utter bullshit, honestly, and as angry as it makes the doctor to think about... If she's telling the truth, then if he actually wants to kill the Twelfth Monster, to avenge his father, he'll have to be at the top of his game.

So Garrot's already skulking his way down to his backyard, staff in hand, to get some extra practice in before the sun shows its face. He can't afford to waste a single moment.

[daddykong]

Garrot catches the ball, but he lets out a sad little whimper at the news. No chance of a secret library of information. That sucks, but... does it mean the other companions can access everything? Maybe they have some facts tucked away that could help. As tempting as it is to jump on that, Xaljim asks a far more important question.

"Oh- uh...!" Garrot tenses up a bit, the paper ball crunched between his hands, and he's back to being nervous. This is an awkward question, because he can't reveal others, and he's not sure what'll happen if this counts as that (would she appear and kill him?!) but...

"She has four of us with her each night, not two and... she says none of the Knights are going to die this year." A pause. Xaljim might not know the answer, but he'll still ask. "What... what does she mean?" And then he shifts gears to anxiously crunching parts of the paper ball between his claws.

[wizardseason]

"No." Their response comes immediately, without even the slightest hesitation. They're set in their decision here.

"I will do what I wish in the time I have."

[wizardseason]

"I haven't seen them argue. I haven't seen the Protector in..." They start to say a number but they trail off, looking crazy thoughtful here. What's their answer? What's real?

"So long. Fifteen? Twenty knights? I don't know."

[wizardseason]

Xaljim's face makes a strange scrunch at the same time Garrot thinks he said the word 'four'. He narrows his eyes, questioning what word was supposed to go there. If Garrot picks up on it and thinks about it, he'll realize that his mouth pronounced the equivalent of a censored sound when he said four but he hadn't heard it when he said it. Xaljim heard the censor, though, but not 'four'.

"And you believe her?" He asks, semi-incredulously.

[daddykong]

He raises an eyebrow, registering that something was off with that word. Xaljim would freak out if there were twice as many Wizard knights as Protector knights, because he seems to want to be mad about everything. Hell, Garrot freaked out about it. So something seems real off, and Garrot takes out a hand to start counting.

"So there's me." Pointer finger. "Then that one." Gyre gets the middle finger and a very negative that. "And the that one." Haizea gets the ring finger, and a smiling that. "And the small one." Matilda gets the pinky, because she is small by comparison. Sure, everyone is small compared to Garrot, but it's the principle of it all. At least he didn't drop any names!

"And we all want to believe that nobody's gonna die this year." He sighs, knowing that's still a tall order. Most of them barely know how to fight!

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for Garrot, when he gets to the end of his counting game, he'll blink to find that his hand is gone. His wrist just ends with a flat stub. It's shadowed over so it's not like it was chopped off, and it doesn't look like a healed-over injury. It just looks like someone selected his hand with an editing tool and hit 'delete'.

"Uh." Xaljim starts, wide-eyed. "I'm." He tries to find the words.

"I'm gonna assume you said something there, but uh." He's absolutely staring at Garrot's lack of a hand. This is about when Garrot will realize he can still feel his missing hand and he can feel touching with it but. It's. Gone?

"You should probably. Not. Try that?"

[daddykong]

Garrot just fuckin stares, because this is too much. He needs that to punch people with! But when he opens his mouth all that comes out is just a rasping, high-pitched wheeze, because he also doesn't have the words for this. He can still feel it, though? There's another long number of seconds of silence from Garrot though, because if he can't communicate how this year is different, if he can't say there's four of them being harassed by the Wizard, then how can he show something's off?

So instead he just sort of stares into the void that used to be his hand for a bit longer. Maybe it'll come back if he waits? Or maybe Xaljim knows what to do? Get a kicked-puppy look from your foolish mortal, you poor, overworked primate.

[sustainer]

His frown deepens further, trying to put the pieces together.

"Did something happen? The last time you saw him?"

[wizardseason]

"He said 'Don't give up hope'." They blink, watching Gyre.

"But I don't know what he means."

[sustainer]

He blinks back, filing that away in his mostly negative Protector thoughts.

"What was going on before he said that?"

Day 3: Evening

[wizardseason]

For the third night, the new arrivals don't arrive in the usual place at all. They wake in an eerily familiar place: On the beach, to the sound of crashing waves.

This time, however, it's the dead of night. The only light is offered by the moon and the fireflies all around. Instead of being soaked to the bone by the ocean, they wake on beach chairs, reclined back for maximum comfort. The Wizard isn't here, not yet anyway. But each of the knights will wake up with a full set of wizard-themed pajamas (with wizard hat hoodie!) folded up at their feet on the recliners they're laying back on.

They won't know which beach they're on, the only thing that'll be clear is that the tree line starts immediately where the beach ends. Wherever they are, it isn't in town.

Re: Day 3: Evening

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea is the first one to wake tonight, and jolts to her senses. She sits up in the reclined beach chair and looks around, squinting.

“Again with the beach...?” She doesn’t hate that, but she does frown at the pajamas at her feet and unceremoniously kicks them off the chair into the sand below. When will you learn, Wizard, that Haizea don’t do pajamas!

[scandeled]

Matilda's up next, sleepyheaded and slow as she resists the urge to be lulled back to the sleep by the sound of-- holy shit, not waves again. She's bolting up too, looking around frantically, and letting out a loud huff of relief when she sees Haizea sitting up too.

"After this, I'm never vacationing ocean-side again."

[daddykong]

Garrot registers the sound of ocean waves and his allies' murmurs and his eyes snap open. A moment later, he's on his feet, scowling and just as angry as he's been every other night.

"You've got some explaining to do, Wizard!" The words are casually shouted as he glances to the moon, the beach, the chair he awoke from. No sign of the Wizard, so... Garrot huffs and kicks over his recliner, sending the pajamas into the sand. He's used to colder climates, and she always reacts to him. Maybe it'll help?

"Don't make me hunt you down!" But then he glances around and shrugs lightly. It's creepy and weird that she's not here, and as much as he hates to admit it, he doesn't like it.

[sustainer]

Gyre's eyes open when Garrot starts screaming, and he settles into glaring at the sky. Waking up three nights in a row to this big idiot shrieking about the revenge he's definitely not going to get in this dreamspace, if at all, is becoming exhausting. Especially after last night. He doesn't really want to be here with them, but he does want to know what the wizard has to say. Whenever she decides to get here.

Until then, he hasn't got anything to say. He shuts his eyes, pretending to be asleep for now.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea rolls her eyes at the tantrum. Classic Garrot! She pulls her legs in and sits cross legged on the beach chair before responding to him.

"Maybe she's avoiding us tonight," Haizea muses. "Trying to dodge questions about all that time travel bullshit today, maybe?" She frowns here, thinking about what she witnessed back in the past.

"Did, uh. Did any of you guys touch those floating pillar things?"

[scandeled]

Matilda's more than content to pout as Garrot snaps off, tugging the unbuttoned pajama top on like she's wearing some kind of absurd pj-jacket. He's getting easier and easier to block out as time goes by, even to her. "Or... maybe she got lost in time?" Matilda asks, her voice hinting with anxiety.

[daddykong]

"If she got lost in time then... do we win?" The question is level in tone, even contemplative. She didn't respond to boisterous bluster when she always would, so something's off here.

"If that's what she wants to do to avoid explaining the kids in those weird floating rocks, then..." Garrot trails off, crossing his arms in front of his chest. No point in beating around the bush or keeping secrets from each other.

What's troubling him is that if the Wizard is running from problems she created, well, he can relate. And that makes him so uncomfortable.

[sustainer]

Damn, why'd they have to switch to a conversation he cares about. He doesn't move much except to fold his hands together over his stomach. He doesn't even open his eyes.

"She said the kids are saved every year with her. They're still around," he murmurs grimly. He taps one finger against the top of his other hand, turning a thought over in his head. "Did it bother any of you how much the monster today looked like a child?"

[tropicalstorm]

"Don't remind me," she says with a shiver. "It was awful, fighting those half children monsters. Especially after the kids in the pillars earlier."

She shifts her position uncomfortably. "Did those kids talk to any of you? Because one talked to me."

[scandeled]

Wait a minute-- okay, time to be horrified. Matilda openly gapes at her peers, falling back onto her ass onto the beach chair. "Kids in pillars! What!" ... Look, she was a little distracted during the time travel escapade, meaning she spent most of the time being a coward instead of investigating.

"I-it was a little troubling what they looked like. I'm more worried about the ones we didn't get to see." The invisible menaces pushing them around.