wizardseason | Wizard's House

Wizard's House

"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

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Gyre is watching the wizard pretty closely as she answers each question in turn. He wants to pick out every detail that he can, his eyes narrowing in thought. He wants more information. He wants to go to this place she's talking about now, and he begins to open his mouth to say just that.

Instead, there's Haizea and his attention snaps to her, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

"Why would you refuse?"

"Because this is how it starts." If Garrot's words could cut, those would be like a bonesaw. As fun as eating a raw egg has been, the conversation has gotten serious and so he does the same. He needs to remind them all why they're here.

"She gets us to trust her with, I guess, some crazy stories about the world." He shrugs, and decides to be polite. "Maybe they're true. And maybe she's rewriting history, showing us what she wants us to know so then we sympathize and she can get us to destroy the world."

The Wizard has stated her motives clearly enough over the years, and they'd be idiots not to see everything she does in light of that. That said... "If the Protector was doing this it'd be fine. Then we could just ask you what he's lying about." The paradox is that she might lie about his truths, but. Baby steps.

This is a familiar debate. The Wizard knights, throughout the years, frequently had disagreements like this one. One after another, year after year, one would argue for and one would argue against. Rarely, they would both agree, but she wasn't typically lucky enough to have same-minded knights on her side.

"You're giving me too much credit." She offers after a moment, turning her just-barely-there smirk towards Garrot. He's making some particularly wild assumptions here and she wants to go on the record with one of the most true truths there was.

"I'm a terrible liar."

At Gyre's nose wrinkle, she stares back levelly. "I don't wanna go where it ends, I don't want it to end at all! This yearly game is stupid, but as long as we kill all the monsters then the world keeps on turnin'. If I can do anythin' to make sure that happens then I'm gonna, I got too many people dependin' on me to even think 'bout taking any risks."

When the Wizard finishes speaking though, she sighs. "For what it's worth, I don't actually think you're lying. I just can't care about the truth. It don't matter to me how this started, all that matters is that we live another year."

Edited 2019-04-25 19:31 (UTC)

"Selfish," he growls at Haizea, all the weight of judgment and disgust rumbling in his throat. To think he admired her even for a moment! He can't believe she'd so blatantly say how little she values the people who aren't in her circle. Disgusting!

"She doesnt want us to destroy the world," he says, looking pointedly at Garrot. He feels like he's the only one who listened at all, and the anger is clear in his voice, his expression, the tense way he gestures as he speaks.

"The world is dying, and it's kept... turning by the blood of dozens and dozens of people. The best thing I can see is try to heal it, and we can't do that without knowing how it started."

Garrot’s tone makes Matilda want to shove her face back into her breakfast, and she stays quiet while the others argue their cases, her face growing more and more heated by the moment. Matilda’s never been one for conflict, preferring to ignore it and carry on to her own drumbeat— but this is too important to ignore.

By the time Gyre’s finished speaking, Matilda’s perfectly manicured nails are cutting into the palms of her hands, her teeth gritted. “He’s right, you know. I want us to live another year too—“ She doubts herself. Pauses. Flounders. And then realized if she doesn’t keep taking now, Garrot or someone else will start talking again, and she’ll miss her chance to be heard. So she pushed away from the table and stand. “But we cant just say no! We cannot bring anything to finality, not without seeing the fountainhead! It gives us the very best chance!”

Selfish. The word makes Garrot's blood boil, it makes his claws dig into his palms so hard he draws blood. It makes him think back to the night before, to the conversation he and Gyre had. To dinner with Zafika. As much as he wants to let loose, to wrap his hands around the wild elf's throat and permanently shut it, he knows he shouldn't. He can't.

Garrot has gone out of his way to support the others, to give them no reason to seek out the Wizard. But the four of them, they need to work together and present a united front against The Wizard, so she can't manipulate the ones closest to her.

So Garrot goes silent and closes his eyes.

He can feel Gyre's gaze on him, can hear his plight and then Matilda's. But Garrot can also hear his breathing, loud and deep, as if to muffle the chatter. He focuses on it, on the times he would meditate in the elements, which was much more distracting than an argument between heroes.

"We're all right." Garrot opens his eyes, and while he isn't smiling, he looks gentler. Looks like counting to ten did wonders for his temper. "Our planet is like a patient in a hospital on life support, it can't live on its own." He nods, and then looks to Matilda and gives her a tiny little smile. Garrot won't say it yet, but he's proud that she found her spine.

"We can either keep the life support going for another year," he nods at Haizea, "which is fine. Sometimes things improve! Or we try and do a risky, cutting-edge procedure that might not even work. But maybe it will." And he finally tilts his head towards Gyre. "Neither choice is selfish." Rude, good sir.

"But we can't get a second opinion, and we can't trust her." Finally, he gestures dismissively with one hand towards the Wizard. "If she's a terrible liar, then she wasn't lying when she said her goal is to kill the Protector, which she said would destroy the world, not heal it." And then he ignores the others, and takes a step right towards the Wizard herself. "But as long as we aren't blindly accepting your little home movie, I'm on board." That last remark sounds more like a warning to the others.

The knights around her have put on a spectacular show. She looks to each of them as they speak, giving them her full attention so they have no doubts they've been heard. She'd expected them to devolve into shouting, especially because the content-to-observe Matilda joined in as well. But the shout-prone Garrot holds himself back and even encourages cooperation.

More importantly, he'd used an appropriate metaphor for the state of the planet. Haizea had reaffirmed her attachment to this dying world. Matilda had expressed interest in tomorrow's visit. Progress was being made.

"If nothing is done, nothing will improve." She clarifies, looking between Garrot and Gyre.

"He won't improve anything, and it's his life that's keeping this limbo going." She levels her gaze on Garrot as he moves towards her, her voice entirely devoid of even the slightest emotion as she repeats the fact she'd shared before so there's no doubt left whatsoever.

"I'm going to kill the Protector."

"You see!" Haizea exclaims, throwing a hand in the air for emphasis. "The Wizard's not lyin', but she wants to kill the Protector, and if the Protector dies then the world ends! Y'all can talk big 'bout tryin' to heal the world, but if we go along with her we're just workin' towards a plan for mass euthanasia. If we had any hint that healin' the planet was even possible that'd be one thing, but as it is all the info we got oughta lead us to believe that this shit is terminal, the only variable is when the death date is." She's angry, but doing her best to keep her cool and make her points calmly. Her hackles are still pretty raised from the tone Gyre used with her earlier though.

"I don't care if this is limbo, I don't care if the world shoulda ended long ago. All I know for sure is that everyone alive right now should keep livin'. I'm responsible for too many people to even take a chance on that," she sighs and gestures towards the Wizard. "Y'all kept it goin' this long and I'm gonna make sure you keep it up. I wish things weren't like this, I wish you could rest, but if you bein' sleepless means my kids get to grow up, then I'll keep you awake myself if I gotta." She cracks her knuckles before clenching her fists and releasing them a few times, feeling the adrenaline from confrontation.

"If that makes me selfish, then I'll be the greediest bitch alive."

Well. He thought it was going well. He learned something important about Matilda, watching her carefully for a long while after she stands up for herself. There is the tiniest hint of respect in his expression all of a sudden! Garrot at least has the sense to be curious, even if he has to do it in the least constructive, most stubborn way. The wizard goes and says an interesting thing even! It's the first time she's hinted at any kind of improvement, and he wants very badly to ask her about it.

Instead, there's Haizea, and he slams his fist down on the table, hissing at her this time instead of Garrot. "Mass euthanasia is bad, but it's just fine if other people's children die on the altar of the world for yours?"

He jerks suddenly to his feet, too angry to be able to sit anymore. He honestly can't even look at her, turning his eyes onto Garrot instead, pointing suddenly, sharply at him. "It's not life support. Life support has no living cost. This is bringing a dozen people a year and cutting a random samplings' throats over a dying body."

He yanks his attention off the doctor specifically, scanning over the group of them, his eyes holding on Matilda briefly, wondering how she'll do against his intensity. Either way, his gaze settles on the wizard.

"Seeing what she has to say doesn't bring us any closer or further from the world ending, but you," hey Haizea, he's on you again, drawing the silhouette of her out with his claw, "You are broken if you can't see past the people nearest to you enough to even try."

Matilda had almost expected Garrot to be angry with her for speaking up, and he gets a wide, grateful smile in return for the smile he gives her. Things don't feel quite so frightening then- even when the Wizard makes her declaration. Matilda knows in the very deepest part of her heart, that even if the Wizard speaks the truth, that it must only be because there isn't another option yet. One that they can all find if they work together!

Then Haizea's exclamation happens, and the confidence that was there for a few precious moments is gone again. Even if Haizea isn't directly upset with her-- the friction between her and Gyre is so strong that it makes her want to abandon the conversation-- she makes to sit back down, but Gyre's fist on the table startles her out of her own thoughts and back into reality- just in time for her to glance back at Gyre, the anxiety clear in her face. She wants to shrink away and give up, but she can't yet.

"I don't want the world to die either. I have someone out there I want to protect too, and... there are so many more tremendously beauteous things to see and so many things I want to do-- but there has to be another way!" She speaks so quickly that her words jumble together, and her tone is much more meek than it was just moments ago, but she's still speaking up. "We have to try! We just simply must -- she says she will kill the Protector. But what if there's a different way?"

It hurts, honestly, for Garrot to see all these people he cares about just arguing. Haizea and Gyre are both good people, and they're arguing about something they, that none of them know anything about! But again, it's Matilda that's his breaking point- she's meek, but they wont hear her. No, they'll hear him, and he'll make them listen if he has to.

"That's enough!" And with the speed of a master martial artist, Garrot's placed himself right in the middle between Haizea and Gyre. He's got one arm out for each of them, and he's as ready to push them away as he is to grab each of them by the throat. As Garrot takes a deep breath, his hands stop shaking, and he aims another smile towards Matilda. You don't need to worry, kiddo.

"Haizea, we're going, and that's final. You're outvoted, and you don't have to like it. And you're not selfish or broken." He's glaring at her, but there's a hurt look to him that shows he's sympathetic. Garrot doesn't trust this shit either. "And you," his head turns to face Gyre, and if looks could kill, the elf would be double dead, "need to apologize for insulting someone because you disagree with them. You're the oldest one here, so act like it, gramps!" No, Gyre, he hasn't forgotten about that grandkid of yours, the family that doesn't even know you're on the island, but he's trying to be calm, to be nice, even as the elf brings up families like he knows anything about them. So Garrot's demeanor shifts with such ice and venom that it's clear he's putting all his meditation-repressed anger into this one moment.

"I've had to grieve over my family getting dragged into this shit for years. So have my children. You haven't, Gyre. So if I ever hear you trying to use our pain to prove some point you don't know a damn thing about, the Protector will be the least of your problems." Gyre's crossing a lot of lines right now, and if Garrot doesn't try to stop him, someone else could be in trouble. And part of stopping him means distracting them all from this, so they can put their boundless frantic energy into solving an actual problem.

"Besides, if you're gonna get mad at anyone, shouldn't it be her?" And his head nods towards the Wizard, who's got his attention again. "If she didn't want people to die, she'd put down her hammer and have all her monsters just run away like the first one! So why isn't the Protector the only one killing people?!"

Edited 2019-04-27 23:40 (UTC)

The Wizard watches her four knights devolve into disagreements and debates and, largely, she stays out of it. She lets Matilda try to speak, she lets Haizea and Matilda spat, and she watches Garrot split them up. She has nothing to contribute to their discussions until they bring her in.

And Garrot brings her in.

Boy, oh, boy does he bring her in. He's lucky enough to bring that topic up here, and when he does her hammer clatters onto the floor behind the counter. The sound of the metal handle and head hitting the floor echoes throughout the room like a bell being rung. Where'd she get that from? When was she holding it? Either way, it's on the floor and she uses the loud noise to answer. Unsurprisingly, she just looks tired as she responds. Her characteristic smirk is barely there.

"I don't control them." She watches Garrot as she says it, saving the bombshell for now.

"They come to me because the companions go to him." The monsters, of course, and, most importantly...

"And I've never killed anyone."

When Gyre slams his fist on the table, Haizea jumps up to her feet, fists clenched as tight as her jaw. That slight bit of violence from him is triggering her flight or fight response, and for her the only option has always been ‘fight’. She glances around the kitchen slightly, trying to take stock of everything in reach that could be used as a weapon if this gets to that point.

“A dozen people a year is small price to pay for literally everyone else in the world gettin’ to live! Just ‘cause my kids are at the forefront of my mind don’t mean they’re all I care about!” she snarls, goddamn she’s so mad at this obtuse man. She’d say more but then Garrot actually puts himself between the two of them and she’s even angrier. How dare he tell her what to do! Like he could make her go along with their plans, plans that as far as she’s still concerned still have a real high chance of ending the whole dang world.

She’s fixing to say just that, when the Wizard drops her bombshell.

“...Okay, now I do think you’re lyin’. Even if we believe you don’t control the monsters, despite you actually gettin’ the tenth monster to come freak me out at the ramen place the other day, didn’t you destroy that whole fuckin’ town the first year this all went down?”

There's a moment here, when Haizea says that twelve people is a small price, and Garrot first puts himself between them, that's he's pretty sure he's going to finally hit this guy. His fists clench, and tension rushes up his spine as he braces his feet. It's a split second of true, pure fury, and then Garrot starts speaking.

The fury resolves into a bitter rage instead. He cannot stand the way Garrot talks to him. The way he seems to think he knows anything about him. He rolls his eyes the second he's told to apologize, gramps sliding uselessly off his back. He doesn't know what the word means honestly, and he doesn't know why Garrot is using it as an insult.

"Oh, fuck off," he growls, throwing his hands up between them as if to push Garrot away from him. He doesn't want to actually touch him though, so he turns and walks away, sniping over his shoulder, "I'm going with her. Twelve people is too many people, and I don't need to be grieving to know that."

And he almost leaves after that? He wants to just go out into the rain, too pissed off to be in this room with these people right now. Instead, Haizea actually says something of any value at all, and he pauses on the far side of the room to listen. He believes the wizard when she says she hasn't killed anyone, but he does want to know what the hell happened with the village. He's pretty sure he's out of this house as soon as he's got that answer though.

Edited 2019-04-29 17:37 (UTC)

Matilda, too, is less than impressed at the Wizard’s declaration that she hasn’t killed anyone. For someone who just realized this all wasn’t a tv show, she seems awfully invested in no one dying. The Wizard herself had asked it of her, hasn’t she?! “It counts if you tell someone to do something. Unless... You really don’t control them? Otherwise, why would a monster try and hurt us?” She mused our loud, eyes flickering over to Gyre. If he ollies out, she’s going after him, no matter how scary he might be. He seems like the only other one who believes the Wizard night have some good to her. That she might want what’s best.

“I’m going too. Everyone deserves to know the truth.”

Whether he liked it or not, Garrot was going. Matilda was naive and Gyre was... well, he seemed like he'd do whatever the Wizard asked, hook, line, and sinker. Plus he was convinced he was smarter than the two of them put together.

But then the Wizard drops that unbelievable little bomb, and Garrot finds himself silent again. He's glad Haizea and Matilda jumped in, asking some really good questions, because otherwise he really would've started shouting. And Gyre... Garrot ignores the wild elf altogether, unwilling to respect him as a fellow Knight.

"So you're telling me," the words are cold, aimed towards the Wizard. "That you can teleport people and create stuff out of nothing," Garrot wishes he had laser eyes. "And you can't stop them from killing people?"

He raises an eyebrow, he's scowling, and Garrot's new goal is to figure out how to end this once and for all, so that when he kills the Wizard, it's for good.

Garrot's mad, Haizea's in disbelief, Matilda's questioning everything, and Gyre's made up his mind.

An interesting quartet of knights, that much was certain. But she's set on answering the questions they'd asked her. The last bits of her smirk leave her face as she answers, looking utterly emotionless.

"I can't control what's stronger than me." She says it and leaves it hanging in the air for a moment. The monsters are stronger than the Wizard?

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

...

And all four of the evil knights wake up in a cold sweat in their beds/where they fell asleep. If they look at the clock, it's exactly one minute after they fell asleep. Morning's a far way off, better get back to sleep.

[ Each knight can make one additional tag to this post for any wrap-up they need to take care of or if they want to note what their knight does during their late-night wake up. ]

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?

"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.

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Wizard's House

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