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]

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."

[scandeled]

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?"

[daddykong]

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?!"

[wizardseason]

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."

[tropicalstorm]

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?”

[sustainer]

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.

[scandeled]

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.”

[daddykong]

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.

[wizardseason]

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. ]

[tropicalstorm]

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?

[daddykong]

"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.