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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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.

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?"

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.

Unfortunately for Gyre, the Wizard sees and hears Matilda's approach behind him. So he'll get to see her open her mouth to respond, hold up a single finger...

And then reach up with her other hand to grab a mug of cocoa she's created. She takes a sip as her original one-finger-up hand rotates to point behind Gyre at the rapidly-approaching Matilda.

She's going to sip her cocoa while Matilda tries to shove Gyre's head off.

He frowns when she doesn't answer his question, squinting at her and her stupid cocoa mug. Why does she have to make things difficult? When she points behind him, he's pretty sure she's tricking him, right up until he hears Matilda shuffling around in the door.

He turns in time to see her hands, and he lurches back a step, reaching up to grab her wrists. Very firmly. And hold her right there in place.

"What are you doing."

"I'm worried about you!" Matilda wails, struggling in the most futile way against his grip to try and push his head off, because that's clearly what you do when you're worried about someone. While she struggles, she shoots the Wizard the most venomous look she can, which isn't very.

"Both of you! Did your head fall off too??"

"You--!" he starts to shout back before uh it hits him that she said she was worried about him?? He didn't expect it at all, and he almost feels bad for holding her back.

Except he still doesn't want his head knocked off again today, so he continues to hold onto her, squeezing her wrists.

"Then why are you trying to grab my face!"

At this point, it's almost routine. She wakes up in a Wizard dream and rips the pajama pants into shorts before she even fully gets out of bed. Get out of bed she does, though, and she makes her way into the kitchen, only slightly disappointed in the lack of breakfast. There's not much time to dwell on her lack of pancakes or bacon though, as the sounds of Gyre and Matilda yelling soon reach her ears.

"The hell is goin' on out here?" She grumbles as she pokes her head out onto the porch before blinking at the sight before her for a minute before shrugging.

"Oh cool, you got your head back," she nods at Gyre while gently reaching for Matilda and Gyre's wrists to try to ease her hands off of him, and his off of her. She's hoping nonchalance will defuse the situation.

Edited 2019-10-19 03:19 (UTC)

Matilda continues to struggle against his grip, even as she starts to realize how silly it was to try and test out of his head was back on good by pushing on it. Her cheeks heat up, especially now that Haizea’s here to see, but she’s not great at holding still, so the struggle continues.

“I’m not trying to grab it! Just prod, and make sure it’s on okay!”

From where the Wizard is sitting, she's watched this entire carnival sideshow go down with a great deal of amusement. Her characteristic smirk is in place as she sips her cocoa, and she decides that now is as good of a time as any to comment.

"He wouldn't be speaking if it wasn't on right, I believe." She offers Matilda an explanation before popping a cocoa into existence in front of Matilda. A moment later, a second cocoa pops into existence near Haizea.

"To answer your question." She follows, turning to Gyre. "She was defeated, like Web. Away from where anyone saw."

Gyre recoils slightly from Haizea, giving her a Look when she grabs his wrist as if he's the problem at all! Unfortunately, as long as Matilda keeps trying to grab at him, he's going to keep his hands on her, holding her back. The triangle of hands on wrists holds firm.

"My head is just as attached as it always is. Stop," he says firmly, shoving down on her arms so she might get the idea and leave him along. This unfortunately means he doesn't have anything to say to the Wizard right now. He's a little busy! He'll get back to Rory in a second.

Gyre, she's trying! But, she shifts her grips to Matilda only and mutters "C'mon now, his head's just fine. Somehow." She can ponder the mysteries of Gyre's amazing detachable head later. For now, what she said about Rory is more important.

"Rory....... is she floatin' in that weird place with all the platforms now?" She hesitates to say the word 'dead' just yet. Nothing makes sense to her anymore.

It doesn't take much effort to get her to stop struggling against him- she doesn't even point out the fact that he's lying since that head was clearly not attached beforehand! She's too busy reacting to what the Wizard just said, letting out a quiet, despair filled gasp.

"N-no way! Not Rory!"

"Yes, that is where she is now." The Wizard answers, bringing one hand down to pet over Cif's head and then Fen's. Her other hand keeps her cocoa near her face.

The cocoas near both Matilda and Haizea insistently float a little closer to their faces, tempting them with the chocolatey goodness.

Once Matilda backs off, he lets go of her and retreats back as well, putting Haizea between the two of them so she doesn't get any weird ideas again. He straightens his clothes out a little, huffing out through his nose.

"Who attacked her? The monster today?" he asks, turning his attention to the wizard now that he feels safe from a small, rich woman.

'Well, if you insist' Haizea thinks before grabbing the floating cocoa and taking a big glug out of it. She might have a bit of a mustache of cocoa on her upper lip now.

"And what are they doing here?" She points to the animals, silently realizing how strange Fumicq looks next to the others. A pig, a dog, a monkey...... and a dragon. What was the deal with these animals, anyway?

Matilda's too busy slowly transforming into a wilting flower to do anything but sulk and bat away at the floating mug. When she speaks up, her voice is quiet as she watches The Wizard pet Cif.

"Yeah. Is... he okay?" She asks, fearing the worst.

The floating mug that went to Haizea no longer floats, satisfied that it was picked up. The mug near Matilda, on the other hand, pouts for a moment before poofing out of existence. Without a purpose, it doesn't need to be here.

"I'm not sure, I'm hoping these four might tell me." She answers Gyre while also answering Matilda and Haizea a little.

"They're just sleeping. We were talking before you all woke up."

He shifts a little closer to Fen, bending down to check on them. She says they're just sleeping, but he's never seen Fen sleep before. It's a little strange, and despite himself, he's a little worried about them.

"What were you talking about? Did they see what happened?"

She walks over to where Fumicq is sleeping and looks at them, sipping on her cocoa pensively.

"Fumicq once told me they didn't know who the Wizard Knights are, and I didn't tell them that I was one at the time. I guess they know now, huh?"

She's got a feeling things are about to get pretty complicated.

Matilda bends to pick up her forgotten pillow, then decides to just forgo standing as a whole, and kerplunks herself onto the floor of the porch. Your head is safe for now, Gyre.

"Yeah, I didn't know you guys talked." She sounds a little scandalized-- what did they talk about? Did they talk about her? Was her grandfatherly dog companion hanging out with the Wizard gossiping about her?

"I told them today." She answers Haizea, before glancing at Gyre.

"They may have seen, they like to keep secrets." She answers before taking another sip of her drink.

"They want you to bring them to the place I showed you two days ago. The place it all started." She offers, her small smirk returning.

"And you can bring any of the other heroes that you want to, with you."

Gyre's eyes widen at that last bit and he lifts his chin slightly.

"We should bring everyone," he says matter-of-factly. He's utterly disinterested in keeping information from the rest of them at this point.

Haizea just stares at Fumicq silently after the Wizard tells her that they know. She liked Fumicq, but she didn't fully trust them. This was not an uncommon emotion for Haizea, there's lots of people in this world that she likes but doesn't trust.

Her brow furrows at the invitation. Who would she even bring? Or maybe...

"If we bring everyone, then the Protector will know too. I don't think he'll take kindly to knowin' there's four of us this year," she says with a frown. She's not opposed to letting the cat out of the bag in theory, but she gets the feeling that the Protector is the type to kill first, ask questions later.

Matilda sits upright a little taller at Gyre's suggestion- only for her lips to twist into a pout at Haizea's response. They're both right, of course. She's not too keen on the Protector knowing she's spent so much time with the Wizard.

"But if everyone else knows too... It would be better, right? If we all worked together, the Protector couldn't hurt us!" She doesn't sound very sure.

Wizard's House

Day 5: Evening

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