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]

Xaljim's on his third rotation at this point, squinting as Garrot does that quick mental math. That's not the important part here. But then Garrot fractures and Xaljim... really doesn't want to share the information. He lets his eyes drift anywhere but Garrot as he answers.

"He went his own way, he sought his own answers." He gives, before switching back to the other topic.

"They made a bunch of us, there are monsters now, the world keeps trying to end, all because they tried some world-saving nonsense." And he folds his arms tightly, looking incredibly grumpy about those facts.

[daddykong]

He went his own way, sought his own answers? That's more cryptic bullshit, but it sounds like he might not have been too attached to the Protector if he went on his own. But the conversation shifts, and he can't ask more. Not yet.

"Why did they make you?" His brow furrows, and he looks sad at Xaljim's grumpiness. "They're both so powerful, what did they need a bunch of magic animals to do?" They clearly didn't need them to make weapons, because the Wizard has her hammer.

[wizardseason]

What, does Garrot want Xaljim to badmouth his dad? Like, there're some decisions that just have to be made here and this is one of them. He doesn't want to look Garrot in the eye and badmouth his dad, like, that's awful.

"I don't think they meant to, they barely acknowledge us." He stares, grumpiness plainly evident. "They barely tell us anything, either."

[daddykong]

Garrot's eyes go wide at all this information, and suddenly he's pissed! "Accidental and neglectful parents?! That's bullshit!" He throws his hands into the air, and they come down to rest at his hips. "I mean, you all are the main reason we can fight! They should respect you!"

As it turns out, he's assuming rather obviously that the powers come from the animals. Makes sense, since they seem to know what the Knights can do. But then he rides the bitchy wave a little farther.

"I mean, they're- they're like your parents." And now he crosses his arms, pouting. "Do you even know anything about them? Or did you learn everything from TV and from your Knights?!" He's clearly not pissed at Xaljim; Garrot is so pissed he looks like he'd be calling Companion Protective Services if he could.

[wizardseason]

Xaljim's annoyed response comes immediately.

"They're not my parents!" He rears back with another paper ball, preparing to bean Garrot in the face with it. But he deflates after a moment, letting Garrot work through his thoughts before he responds.

"I learn about them from the others, from them when they're around, and from the knights." He offers, clarifying.

"And it sucks."

[daddykong]

He sighs, because wow, Xaljim, Garrot didn't expect you to be having such a rough time of all this. Explains the temper, at least.

"After the Wizard first showed up, I started seeing less and less of my father. He was always at work, and my parents made sure I was busy with school and practice and everything else." Garrot looks down, similarly deflating. "It was so annoying."

But then he gets a little smile, like he's got a plan. "We could go talk to the Wizard sometime if you wanted? Or... I could, if you don't want to, and I'll just tell you what I learn." He brings a hand to his beard. "I mean, she's around, but the Protector isn't, unless you could meet the Protector along with my father?"

Does he want to bring Xaljim into the Wizard's dream so they can be on the same page, as equals? Absolutely.

[wizardseason]

Ugh, Garrot, don't follow up that kind of conversation with a smile. His eyes narrow as he gives his next plan, watching him for some kind of answer to this whole deal.

"I can't meet either of them anywhere unless they're on the island." He clarifies, narrowing his eyes at Garrot to ask a very important question:

"Which space do you have access to?" Protector, or Wizard? Clue him in, buddy, he's starting to have questions here.

[daddykong]

"Why can't you just be eager and gullible and tell me whatever I want without asking questions?" The words are groaned, exaggerated, like a displeased teenager. He doesn't mean any of it, but he still pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment. So dramatic, this one.

"You're on my team, so none of this can get out. To anyone!" Garrot is serious, and his arms cross over his chest. His eyes, glaring right at Xaljim's, are less daggers and more... pleading. It's not like he'd hide if he was with the Protector, after all. He'd have told Xaljim immediately! Happily! "Please... If anyone finds out the Wizard's trying to get her claws into me, even though she doesn't have a chance, then I'm in danger and so's my family." As they finally stop dancing around it, Garrot sighs, but there's a shudder to it that's a strong departure from all his confidence and bravado.

The Monkey Knight is genuinely scared.

[wizardseason]

"Yeah, that's what I said." He reaffirms that he's on Garrot's side. He's almost certain Garrot's a Wizard Knight before he even speaks. The level of trepidation is a dead giveaway, but he waits for Garrot to let it out and then he shakes his head.

"Just tell her no." He says it with this alarming finality, like it's the simplest fact in the universe.

"She can't make you do anything. And don't tell anyone else." Sorry Garrot, this monkey isn't the best for support but he's not going to kick him while he's down. He's here. He's on your side. He won't ditch you.

[daddykong]

"Th-thanks." The world didn't end when Garrot was honest about it. He's not dead. He can trust Xaljim. And that lifts a weight off his shoulders. Garrot's not smiling, of course, but there's a shift in his temperament.

"Can... any of the other companions see those papers you're throwing?" He brings a hand to his beard and raises an eyebrow. Garrot's bouncing back, now that he's getting a feel for things. "I could tell you everything I know, and you can write it all down so you're not in the dark anymore." He swallows down his apprehension, because it's obvious that Xaljim's his ally in all this.

"There's something different about this year."

[wizardseason]

"They can all see them." He answers, tossing a paper ball underhanded towards Garrot. Catch.

"But I can't write on them. You can tell me anyway." He answers, watching Garrot, watching what he's thinking about, and most of all...

"Different because you believe the Wizard or different because you don't?"

[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]

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.