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

[sustainer]

He watches the display, taking in as many details as possible as it cycles through once, twice. On the third go around, he reaches up to point out the flaming orb.

"What are these rings around the planet?" All frustration has vanished from his voice now that she's provided him with something. It's a clearer vision of what goes on then he's gotten so far, and he's still looking at each panel even as he asks the question.

[wizardseason]

"They're the spell we tried to cast." She answers, looking up at the panels as well. She motions up at the first, second, and sixth panels where the rings are.

"It's still going, resetting the cycle every year."

[daddykong]

Unsurprisingly, Garrot rolls his eyes. Plenty noncommittal answer there, Wizard. Par for the course. But honestly, Web seems okay enough, this creepy round place clearly involves stupid magic, and the Wizard's little friend isn't... necessarily a problem. That's good.

"So tell me something." He crosses his arms, and looks a bit more perturbed than before as he glares at her. "How did we get sent forty years into the past, before any of this even started, and then we jumped a year ahead and got attacked by monsters after you'd already been beaten? Monsters aren't supposed to show up like that!"

Obviously, he's accepted the time travel aspect pretty easily, but it sure feels like something jumped the rails to Garrot!

[scandeled]

Matilda shoots The Wizard the most disdainful look she can muster-- which isn't much, her arms crossing as she takes a few steps forward, her head still tilted to stare at poor, poor Web.

"There's still a way. There's always a way." She sounds like she's trying to convince herself- but this is the way things always work, in the stories. It has to be that way in real life, too.

[wizardseason]

"You'll have to ask the one responsible." She says, matter-of-factly as she turns back towards him and folds her arms.

Beside him, a mug of coffee pops into existence at roughly arm-level.

"Because it wasn't me."

[wizardseason]

"If there is a way." She answers, starting to slowly walk in a circle around the platform in the room. If Matilda's so set on believing there's a way, then...

"You'll have to find it."

[daddykong]

"But you know who did it, right?" Obvious question, right there. Garrot's pretty sure he won't get much of an answer on that front, but it's not worth it to keep running away, so he digs his metaphorical heels in. "No thanks, we're asleep, coffee sounds like a bad idea." On the bright side, he acknowledged the coffee in a non-rude way. This is progress!

"You'll talk about the Protector and his motivations, so who threw us through time? Spill." Nope, he's back to being pushy and rude.

[sustainer]

"And who is that?" he asks, pointing towards the eyes beside the thumbs down. He's back to just taking the information in, trying to piece is all together with what he knows.

[scandeled]

“I’ll find it.” Matilda vows, fingers fluttering back to her goggles, then moving to follow after The Wizard in her weird slow walk.

“All of that stuff today. Did... you take us there?”

[wizardseason]

"I do know, and you'll meet them tomorrow, too." She answers both questions together. As much as he's looking for some kind of reaction, she's as neutral as ever.

Except that there's a soft 'pop' beside his head as the coffee becomes hot chocolate. How about that?

[wizardseason]

Keep up that optimism, Matilda. The Wizard isn't going to discourage it. She lets the topic drop, however, because Matilda's asked the next important question.

"I didn't." She answers, simply, turning just slightly to look back at her.

"I was along for the ride, too."

[daddykong]

There's the slightest of twitches in Garrot's ears as the 'pop' gives him hot chocolate instead. His eyes don't even shift towards the poor mug, and his chest puffs out a bit. Sure, she answered his questions, but would it kill her to take the initiative on the details?

"Are they a threat?" A beat, and he's furrowed his brow. "Are they going to want to kill us as much as the Protector does?" Another beat, and he's back to glaring daggers at the Wizard. "What do you think about them?"

Maybe he'll get something useful out of those.

[wizardseason]

Her gaze drifts slowly towards the eyes that he's motioning at. Her smirk stays solidly in place as she prepares to answer.

"You'll meet them tomorrow." She answers, returning to the vague realm of non-answer answers she's been dwelling in.

[wizardseason]

Garrot's asking good questions, but he's also just slamming his car into the wall over and over again expecting to break through. In reality, his engine's going to give out and the whole thing's going to go up in smoke and the wall won't even break a sweat.

"That's for you to decide tomorrow." She answers, watching him. "I've never met them."

[daddykong]

"It's been forty years, how have you never met them if they can send us through time?!" Garrot throws his hands in the air, clearly a little exasperated. Poor guy needs to strap some giga drills to his metaphorical car. But then he brings a hand to his chin, raising an eyebrow in overblown suspicion.

"So are you avoiding them, or are they avoiding you?" Avoidance is the only explanation he can come up with, and thinking on it harder would risk empathizing with literally the worst being ever.

[wizardseason]

"Neither." She answers, simply. "A certain someone is keeping us apart. He's succeeded for thirty nine years."

She raises her mug to her lips, taking a slow sip before she delivers the juicy bit.

"But they're changing that, this year, and he won't be able to stop them."

[daddykong]

"Sounds like you like them." The declaration is deadpan, because he's not sure how to process that The Protector has been keeping them apart. He knows dramatic tension, so Harrot is pretty sure the Wizard is excited to meet her pen pal.

"How's the Protector kept you two apart?" He squiiiints. "You have all that magic, and they controlled time."

Just how strong is the Protector, if he can lockdown a time traveller?

[wizardseason]

"Every year, all he has to do is make all of you kill me." She answers, watching the way Garrot closes himself up in his thoughts. His lack of outbursting here is a dead giveaway that he's listening to her.

"He hasn't had to face them because he never let them out."

1/2

[sustainer]

"Oh." How annoying.

[sustainer]

But it does bring him to probably the most important question of the night. He gestures up at the changing images, and turns a pointed eye onto her.

"Where are the children, in all this? Your whole... plan?"

[wizardseason]

"Some of the children are right here." She answers, before turning away from him to look at the other pedestals. "Others haven't found their way back yet."

[sustainer]

He...... hates that. He's had his suspicions since earlier today, but his stomach drops when she says that. He hates to just make assumptions when she's being so vague, but there are not a lot of other answers that he can see right now.

"Are they the monsters?"

[wizardseason]

Why beat around the bush with this answer?

"Some of them are."

[sustainer]

Did the air get cold? Gyre's demeanor certainly frosts over, his expression going hard and dark. He takes a step towards her, his hands tensing into fists.

"What does that mean?"

[wizardseason]

"It means there are four of the children in this room, and there are twenty more out there." She watches him, curious what he's going to do with his emotions here.

"But they're all only pieces of one whole."