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

Day 1: Evening

[wizardseason]

For the first night, there are four new arrivals to this place. They arrive sitting, leaned back against one of the trees near the Wizard's little home. Haizea, Garrot, Gyre, and Matilda will all wake to find that they are in eachothers' company... and, of course, the Wizard's.

She's sitting on the steps outside her home with an apple in hand. She's working a blade slowly through the outside, skinning it in one long noodly piece.

[daddykong]

The light of the three suns is jarring enough for Garrot to snarl, bringing a hand to cover his eyes until it dawns on him that this is wrong. Three suns are weird enough, but he's not alone- three of his allies are here, and as much as he wants to assume it was because they all made such radiant impressions on him... He sees the Wizard. The doctor hisses out an "oh fuck no" as he rises to his feet, eyes scanning the sign as his storming feet set towards the Wizard. And boy oh boy is he shouting, a half step from a berserker rage.

But deep down, part of him knows that if nothing else, he's putting himself between the Wizard and his allies. So they might be safe, if they're even in danger here to begin with. But these three... they should be easy enough to work with as far as damage control. He kinda knows them, that he can help them stay strong, so nobody dies except for this shitty fucking Wizard.

"What the hell do you mean, the world ends, you scrawny little bitch?!" He stops short of the sign, and just throws his hands in the air and starts angrily gesticulating like a parent at a bad teacher. "Are you so tired of losing that you're just gonna stack the deck, lose anyway, and throw a world-ending tantrum?!" He needs answers and he needs them now; he has kids to protect! And the rest of the world, but mostly his kids!

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for Garrot, the Wizard was expecting his little tantrum. As he approaches, she holds up a hand towards him. Her fingers are curved like she's holding a TV remote, though there's nothing there, and she presses her thumb into where the volume button would be. Slowly, Garrot's shouting fades out in a gradient to silence. He can try all he wants to shout, but his last half dozen words disappear into nothingness.

"That's enough of that." She speaks, not a hint of emotion making its way into her tone. Most people would be mad, or upset at such vitriol being sent their way. The Wizard is neither, she's as calm as can be, but she has that characteristic tiny smile going on as she tilts her head in response to Garrot's words.

"One question at a time." She adds. She'll shift her finger to seemingly turn his volume back up when he looks calmer than he does now. But if he's going to stay angry, he's going to stay muted.

[daddykong]

He wanted to believe this was just a fucked up nightmare brought about from traumas and stress, but the fact that the fuckin' Wizard just muted him forced the reality of things to sink in. Garrot, and three of his allies, would be dealing with this every night until the end. But he doesn't see the point in not being cordial, especially if yelling gets him literally nowhere. What's the point of yelling if not to hear your own voice?! Preposterous bullshit.

"One more time." He breathes out through his nose, and while he's not screaming, he's definitely still pissed. Like kid on the playground slapped his daughter's ice cream cone out of her hand pissed. "What do you mean the world's ending this year?" And then he gestures to the sign. She has to have put it there, right? So she should know what it says. Right?

The sign isn't going to talk... right?!

Day 2: Evening

[wizardseason]

For the second night, the four new arrivals don't show up laying around in the grass below the trees. Tonight, they wake up in bed. They'll find that they're in incredibly comfortable beds, wearing pajamas, with pillows so squishy that it absorbs their heads where they're laying in them. Haizea, Garrot, Gyre, and Matilda will all wake to the gentle sound of water tapping against the windows. It's dark and rainy outside, rain pitter-pattering against the window in every room.

When they emerge from their rooms, they'll find themselves in a long hallway that connects to the room the Wizard's currently in. She's wearing a "Kiss the cook" apron as she's magicking up a breakfast spread. There's a countertop with a big cooktop in it that she has bacon, french toast, pancakes, sausage, eggs, and all kinds of other foods going on. She isn't wielding a spatula, though, instead she's just standing over it and sipping coffee while the foods cook and flip themselves. It's like she's watching her handiwork, and she doesn't look up until the knights move closer. Hey kids.

[sustainer]

Oh! A nightmare! Gyre's eyes snap open the second the sense of his body goes from forest grass to fluffy bed, and he leaps off the mattress like it's a hot stove, his feet thumping on the hardwood floor. He takes a second to steady himself, to check his surroundings, his body, the weather outside, and it's only once he knows that he has everything with him, that he finally lets himself breathe. His hand wraps around his soul gem, squeezing it before he tucks it into the shirt of his pajamas.

This is to say, Gyre is walking out into the kitchen almost the second the dream starts, pausing in the hallway so he can look over this very cozy breakfast scene. Or well. It'd be more cozy if it was taking place outside, but he knows that not how they do it here. For now, he lets the smell of the meats draw him more fully into the room, glancing around at the walls, taking in the details.

"Is that a demand?" he asks after a moment, gesturing at the phrase on her apron as he settles into a chair that's pulled up to the counter. He settles his elbows on the counter, setting his chin in his hands so he can watch her work. Watch her magic work? Good (fake) morning, Wizard.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard is unsurprised to see Gyre awake so quickly. She'd seen him sleeping in the wild and a bed was a foreign entity to where she'd pulled him from. But she wasn't going to dump him in the wet grass outside in pajamas, that'd be crazy. As he approaches, she motions to the chair before he settles into it and gives her usual emotionless smirk in response to his comment before she answers.

"If you need it to be." She offers, casually, as she floats a piece of bacon over to where two eggs are sizzling away. The bacon flops in an arc beneath them, forming a :) face out of the bacon-2-eggs combination.

"Do you have a preference?" She leaves it open-ended if she means the food or the apron.

[sustainer]

"I prefer a more direct approach," he answers idly. He'd rather words one way or the other over a silly apron, watching the meat fly through the air. He can't help smiling slightly when he notices the smile on her pan, trying to fight how utterly charming he finds her sometimes.

"But I can't say I'd say no, if it was," he adds, and he reaches for... a raw slice of bacon, beginning to fold it into a little square in his hand.

Day 2: Evening, Animal Companions

[wizardseason]

Is your knight going to pester their animal companion? Do that here.

[sustainer]

Sometime after the festivities of the evening, after he's started a fire for the night, Gyre sighs. He has to do this. He's about to sleep and he knows he promised to have animal information for his fellow knights tonight.

Much as he doesn't want to deal with Fen... he calls out, "Fen! Can we talk?" and then returns to sullenly poke at the fire. Please be low energy tonight, Fen?

[wizardseason]

As if they were there all along, Fen steps out of the darkness and practically beams high energy right towards Gyre.

"Hello, my knight, how can I help! Do you have questions I can answer?" If there could be excited bubbles around them right now, they would have them.

[sustainer]

Ugh, he's already squinting against the implied light of their energy. This is going to be a nightmare, he's certain.

"I dunno. How much are you able to tell me about the wizard and the protector?"

[tropicalstorm]

That night, just before she passes out, she remembers the plan to get information from the companions. Fumicq has been vague before, but maybe it's worth a shot to ask them anyway?

"Fumicq? You there?"

[wizardseason]

As if they'd always been there, Fumicq's head rises up from where it had been set against their clawed feet on the ceiling. Their form slowly unfolds from the ceiling, they'd been resting against it like they were a cat on the floor but now they're needed.

"Yes?"

[daddykong]

Garrot's retreated to the basement of his house. Far from prying eyes and ears, and insulated enough to muffle any sound. The light in the master bedroom is on, but the shades are drawn. He's used to subterfuge and hiding stupid, trivial things from his kids, and that practice has served him very well tonight.

"Hey Xaljim, question for you." He's leaning against a wall, enjoying the nice, cold stone in an otherwise hot and humid island "If the companions don't know who's connected to the Protector or the Wizard, whose side are you actually on?" Blending common knowledge with a question raised by his dream the night before. If they all knew something about where the Knights fell, they'd be clearly on the Protector's side. But they aren't, even though they supply the weapons to let the Knights fight!

It's fishy.

[wizardseason]

Xaljim appears as if on command, hanging from the ceiling as if it's a net he can grip hold of. Somehow he's dangling, watching Garrot now that he's been called on.

"Yours." He answers immediately, eyes locked on Garrot.

"Why?"

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."

Day 5: Evening

[wizardseason]

For the fifth night, after missing the fourth due to the Wizard getting blown halfway across the island, the four knights may find it to be a relief to be back here. For the second time arriving here, they wake up in bed. They'll find that they're in incredibly comfortable beds, wearing pajamas, with pillows so squishy that it absorbs their heads where they're laying in them. Haizea, Garrot, Gyre, and Matilda will all wake to the persistent drumming of water impacting the roof above and rattling the windows. It's dark and rainy outside and no room in the house can escape the dreary mood.

When they emerge from their rooms, they'll find themselves in a long hallway that connects to the kitchen the Wizard was cooking in on day 2. There's no food cooking this time, no warm welcome for the four knights. Instead the lights are off, the only indication that anyone is around is the soft glow of candlelight coming through the front windows of the house.

Any of the four knights can step out onto the front balcony to find the Wizard seated on the covered front porch, looking out into the rainy fields. There are numerous lit candles placed all around, illuminating the area with a soft, warm light. Seated around her are Fen, Fumicq, Xaljim, and Cif who are all looking very much like they're sleeping.

Surprisingly, she won't be the first to greet whoever finds her first.

[sustainer]

Once again, Gyre wakes up the exact instant he feels his body in a bed rather then the ground, and while he doesn't leap to his feet with quite the fervor he did that first time, he's still up almost immediately. He glares down at his clothes, glares at the bed, and the room itself.

But glaring won't get him much of anywhere at this point. A heavy exhaustion begins to weigh him down as he leaves the room, and realizes he's going to have to deal with the others again. It turns out it's not a relief to be here for him! Even if he is looking forward to finding out whatever happened to their host last night.

This is to say, he meanders through the house, standing in the kitchen for a long time. It had been raining that time too. Is there something about this scene that she keeps coming back to it? Or is this just regular weather on a regular world? He doesn't know, but he's clearly deep in thought as he finally comes out onto the porch to find out what the lights in the window are.

He pauses when he sees Fen's big body asleep beside her, watching them for a moment before he turns his attention to her. There are a lot of things he wants to ask. He's overwhelmed with choice for a heavy beat.

What eventually comes out of his mouth though is a somber, "What happened to Rory?"

[scandeled]

The pillows are so squishy, the bed so comfortable that Matilda thinks she's at home at first. Not home in the bed in the home she's borrowing on the Island-- but in her big, fluffy canopy bed in her father's mansion. It's only when she rolls over that she realizes she's not, and she's faced with the awful reality that none of this is a dream. Not a real one, at least. She sulks under the covers for longer than she should-- and when she finally dares creep out of the bed, she takes the pillow with her.

It's dark, and she trails down the hallway with one hand against the wall, stopping at the entrance to the kitchen to pout for a few moments. No midnight breakfast? Fine, Wizard. She sees how it is. She's ready to gripe when she steps out onto the porch-- ready to repeat Gyre's question that she heard just before pushing the door open, or, once she sees Cif, to voice concern, but-- there's something more pressing to do right now.

She tries to push on Gyre's face. Just to. You know. Make sure his cranium's on.

Day 6: Evening

[wizardseason]

After the incredibly busy events of the day which, shockingly, featured very little of the Wizard's presence, the Wizard-aligned knights will find themselves back in the realm of... well, wherever the Wizard brought them every night.

This time, however, the small house that they've been so accustomed to waking up in is in shambles. It looks like a tornado ripped through it, walls torn open and windows shattered. Everything has been thrown from the shelving and all the decorations are ruined. Whatever happened here, nothing survived.

Not even the knights' pajamas. Tonight, they wake in a tattered bed with their pajamas ripped apart to their side. That's the only thing that isn't completely out of place: The pajamas are with them. Ruined, but with them.

The Wizard is nowhere in sight.

It's only the four of them.

That was probably bad.

[sustainer]

Once again, Gyre snaps awake the second he's in a bed. Even if it is tattered, it's nothing like the grass he's accustomed to. Instead of jumping up to his feet this time though, he freezes in place when he sees the state of the room. His skin prickles, and it takes several seconds before he feels comfortable enough to poke his head up and look around.

The place is a wreck. "What happened," he murmurs to himself, finally standing and moving out into the kitchen. Well, what's left of the kitchen anyway. He begins to look around, turning over debris as if he might find some evidence of her somewhere. He leans way out of each of the windows, taking stock of the strange, now familiar landscape.

He can't find the Wizard, and that feels bad. Is she dead? He cups his hands around his mouth as he leans out the final window, taking a deep breath and just shouting, "WIZARD!"

[daddykong]

Garrot awakens in his room as well, easily sliding back into his casual frustration every other time he awoke here. And while he's been here before, the awareness of the free-flowing air through the room and across his partially unprotected body is enough to send him springing to his feet and right out into the room where they'd eaten breakfast only a few dream-nights ago. Gyre's shouting reminds him that he is not alone, he is never alone in this place, and he takes a moment to uh adjust the tattered garment a bit, for decency's sake. He does not want to expose Matilda Hamilton to something so suggestive or untoward!

But instead of shouting as he normally does, Garrot hustles over to some of the damaged decorations and picks up an entire wooden shelf. This is her weird dream world, so whatever did this wasn't her friend. If it's not friendly to her, it sure as shit isn't friendly to them.

"I'll check outside." It's not an offer, it's not even much of a warning, because he's going right out that door, and he's willing to club the first motherfucker he sees. Big maybe if that's the Wizard; it doesn't really count as him getting the kill if someone else did the work, right?