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

[wizardseason]

Garrot was easier to rile up than Gyre was. She watches him as he works his way through the logic of it and, when he reaches that last question it's that one that she's going to answer. That one has a clear answer, even if it was one he wouldn't want to hear.

"He decided it was easier to contain them if they were in pieces, rather than as a whole." She explains, waiting to see if he'll explode again.

"If they were smaller, it would all settle and the world would be saved." She continues, clearly referencing the Protector's actions.

"Each child is a piece, one fractured part of a whole. And you'll meet what they've made of themselves tomorrow."

[daddykong]

It helps that "already riled up" is Garrot's default state as far as the Wizard is concerned! But this? It prompts a head-shaking double-take from Garrot, and the growl from his throat almost sounds like the gears turning in his head. "They" isn't a plural here, it's an entity, the one that's sealed. Looking at what's in this room...

"So you're telling me the Protector broke the wolf-thing into a bunch of pieces to make it weaker." He furrows his brow. "They're kids so they can fit in the floating rocks, which... must be the seal thing Gyre mentioned." Garrot pauses, running a hand through his beard as he sighs, his ears drooping and shoulders slumping. He thinks he's putting things together, and he doesn't like it!

"Two questions. First, how many kids are there? Second, why'd they have to be kids and not plants or just blobs?" And then he gestures to the dormant monsters.

That said, he's going to bodily ignore the Wizard and start blatantly counting those platforms now. It's dumb magic, it's probably not a coincidence.

[wizardseason]

Garrot's spot-on with his realization that the 'they' she's been speaking of is, in fact, one entity. She listens to him work through it, deciding what she's going to correct and what she's going to explain. Fortunately he asks one of the most important things she needs to clarify. Way to go with that gut instinct, Garrot! As he makes his way around the room to count, he'll be able to verify that there are twenty-seven platforms in total.

"Twenty four." She answers his kids question without saying kids, because she has to correct him now at last.

"They looked like children in the beginning, but every year afterward they've taken a new form." She answers, motioning towards the first, second, and third monsters' bodies. As she waves her hand in the air in their general direction, each one of them shifts and turns into a child much like the one Garrot had seen in the past.

"Each and every one of them." She adds, her hand making it to where Web and Aqrisqi are and... Aqrisqi's rooster form does the same, momentarily shifting to look like a child before changing back. When she drops her little spell, all that's left is the three monsters and the rooster again and she turns to face Garrot.

"They picked blobs this year."

[daddykong]

This is kind of a lot to take in, so Garrot just stares, dumbfounded, at Aqrisqi. He hears The Wizard, but deconstructing his understanding of the world is intense when he's so stubborn. It's quite a few moments until Garrot actually says anything.

"They killed kids the first year." Or at least beings that looked like kids, and technically didn't exist long enough to be more than an infant. Maybe? It explains why so many people died. And the shapeshifting explains why the Companions always look different. But still...

"There's three more platforms." He's stern, gruff, sounding like he expects more bullshit. They're tied to the cycle, and while it's easy enough to figure out two of the remaining platforms are tied to the Wizard and Protector...

"The kid had dark skin, red hair, and looked creepily perfect." He crosses his arms, exhaling from his nose as he glowers at the Wizard. "Who was that?"

Garrot is a bit more concerned about the one who tried to get in his head, the one who asked if he'd save them all.

[wizardseason]

It did indeed explain why so many of the first year's heroes died, and it also explained why many of them didn't want to talk about their experiences. The ones who had spoken did so as quietly and as vaguely as possible. Way to dig up that set of skeletons, Garrot, and that's now something he knows about the first year's heroes and the weight they're carrying.

"You know who that was." She answers, intrigued but unsurprised that he'd bring up that specific child.

"He's been with you this whole time." She says, popping a mug into existence in her hand that has Xaljim's face and name on it, facing Garrot.

"His platform is over there." She adds, motioning to the side Web and Aqrisqi are on.

[daddykong]

OW.

Garrot's eyes go wide at that revelation, and all his attempts at composure can't stop him from sharply inhaling because it hits him like a punch in the gut. Xaljim is cool and helpful and exhausted and asked him forty years ago if he'd end the world. They need to have a talk as soon as possible because haha, what the fuck?

"So..." Garrot takes a deep breath in, trying and failing to keep his stressed emotions from becoming Blatant. "...why did the Protector make them into kids the first year, especially when people had to fight them?!" He's yelling again, clearly confused and hurt by the revelations and their implications. This is a bit fucked!

Depending on the answer, the Wizard might have competition on Garrot's shitlist.

[scandeled]

Matilda lets out a quiet huff, crossing her arms— but she’s not actually that distressed. Her eyes wander around the room, taking it all in, trying not to look too much at her fallen fellow knight. “This place? Where are we, anyway?”

[wizardseason]

The truth sucked, didn't it Garrot? She's got a perfect read on him in this moment, he's like an open book of raw emotions.

"Because that wasn't the original plan." She answers, simply. "They took our magic, merged it with theirs, and by the time all the dust had settled that's where we were."

She looks thoughtful for a moment before adding a comment as her mug art changes to "Protector" with his face on it.

"The fighting part was a certain someone's hasty improvisation."

[wizardseason]

"Inside the mountain" She answers, motioning up at the cone-like ceiling above them. There are numerous stalactites dangling down from above, clearly telling the tale that wherever in the mountain this is that it's been here a while.

"Behind a door."

[sustainer]

He feels... exhausted now. He's still got this simmering anger in his chest, but it's not directed at anything. Maybe the Protector, but he doesn't know when he'll get the chance to confront that issue. So instead, his voice goes dry, rasping after the irritation of yelling at her.

"Are they going to try to hurt people?" he asks warily. He needs to know what to expect tomorrow before he goes back and tries to put all the pieces together. Hopefully she can confirm what he knows a little better then she does answering questions.

[wizardseason]

"They're probably not happy with anyone." She answers, leaving the answer up in the air before she decides to share a juicy tidbit.

"The last person they interacted with, forty years ago, got thrown through a mountain." She gives her mug a little swirl, the Protector's face on it giving away who she's talking about.

"He deserved it."

[sustainer]

"Mm, sounds like it," he mutters, glancing upwards at the ceiling. Everything he's heard about the Protector so far makes him hate him, so he wouldn't be surprised if this thing inside the planet shared his opinion. Especially after these decades.

"They know that we didn't trap them, right?"

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea is dubious at the Wizard’s explanation of Web’s current state, but decides to let it be for now. They don’t look like their current health is getting worse at least. She’ll focus on the Wizard’s more cryptic statement for now.

“Yeah? And where’s that exactly? This shit looks like a movie set, I’m ‘bout ready to see some kinda tomb raider bust all up in here lookin’ for treasure on these, uhh...” she trails off, staring at the platforms and then counts them up, finger lighting trailing her visual path in the air in front of her, “27 platforms? Seems a bit like overkill, don’t it?”

[daddykong]

Garrot just grunts at that information, going silent and even closing his eyes as he adds the information to his growing bank of mind-boggling, fucked-up, world-shattering nonsense. They weren't supposed to make people fight, and both the Wizard and Protector used to be stronger. At least it wasn't supposed to be a kid-killing mission? But something about this room has been setting off a Garrot Tingle in the back of his mind, something that didn't quite add up.

"Twelve monsters, and you. Twelve companions, and him. That's the cycle." Garrot gestures to one of the pedestals, roughly in the middle between the monsters and Web. "Is number twenty-seven our incubating little friend, or did I miss something?"

[wizardseason]

If anyone hated the Protector most, it was definitely them. At least she assumed as much.

"I hope they do." She answers, watching to see how he takes that idea.

"Are you going to convince them if they don't know?"

[wizardseason]

The Wizard watches Haizea's outburst, curious where she's going with it, then the show of counting the platforms and that seems like a good moment to respond.

"In the mountain." She starts, before starting to walk slowly in a circle around the center platform.

"And I didn't choose twenty seven. I didn't make this place."

[wizardseason]

Garrot, don't talk about your Garrot Tingle. Please, it's a Monkey Sense.

But at his assumption, there's a little jingle sound that plays. It turns out to be a little floating spoon that's manifested beside her mug and tapped it rapidly, but it sounds like a 'you got it right!' bell. She slowly takes the spoon into her hand, bringing it up to the mug to stir the contents of it.

"Of course it is. Who else would it be?"

[tropicalstorm]

The mountain, okay. Good to know that for the future. She idly wonders if this place is real or just accessible in dreams.

"Then who did? The Protector? The monsters?" She pauses. "Or is there another? Another being like you, like the Protector?"

[wizardseason]

"I wouldn't classify them alongside the two of us." She corrects, but very clearly answers in the affirmative that there is in fact another being on this table filled with pieces.

"And I don't think this place was meant to be what it is now."

[daddykong]

It's absolutely more of a Primate Premonition.

"I dunno- you're not exactly direct about everything." For a moment, Garrot's slid back into that condescension he feels so comfortable in. But then he crosses his arms and just sighs.

"So the seals are you, the Protector, and the planet twenty-five times." Of course, the planet stole some of the two cosmic beings' powers, so his next question seems obvious. "Why didn't you two ever try to just make more seals? Why only twenty-seven?"

Because you can cover a broken bone with about seventy band-aids and then it's fine.

[sustainer]

He's definitely not happy about it, but there is a firm determination in his expression. He thinks he knows exactly how this is going to go and he's ready for it. It'll suck, but no worse then any other fight he's been in.

"I will. And I'll protect anyone they might try to hurt."

[wizardseason]

A primate premonition? Why not just ape awareness?

She lets him get through his thoughts, wondering how he'll react to more facts. Condescension? Disbelief? Anger?

"We didn't choose how many of them." She lifts her mug to her lips, taking a sip.

"That was just what it was after the air cleared."

[wizardseason]

Or Gyre will get his head knocked clean off. I mean, really, who knew? She nods at his determination. Their conversation here is probably at an end, but she has to add the obvious words here at the end:

"I hope you do."

[sustainer]

Well he doesn't know they're at an end. He can feel the conversation slowing, but he still checks around them, chewing his lip. He needs to know more, but he doesn't know what else he could possibly ask. All he can think is to reassert himself here.

"I will," he says, firmly. Utterly confident. Or as confident as he can be when he doesn't really know what's coming just yet. "Hope isn't important if there's nothing behind it."

[wizardseason]

"I agree," she answers as she lifts her mug to her lips to take a sip.

And really, what could anyone do but back their hope with thoughts and dreams?

Gyre will get to think about that, but not here in the dream space because he'll snap awake and, well.

It was all a dream, wasn't it?