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

[scandeled]

Matilda just. Sips her coffee.

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for Gyre, Haizea has made a bigger spectacle of herself than the others have. Which means that she's going to be the target of this discussion. Off to the side, Matilda will find that the coffee is delicious and good as-is. Wise choice!

When the sigh gets yanked out, it offers almost no resistance but drops little bits of dirt all over.

"You'd already been chosen." She gives a slight shrug before a version of herself stands up from behind herself. This second body casually walks off of the porch and stretches as a third body walks out from behind her. Then a fourth. Now with four wizards, they all give a sleepy smirk and split off from each other to go investigate the four knights here.

The first Wizard goes out towards where Gyre is, watching the way he's examining the leaf.

The second Wizard goes to Garrot, walking past him with a smirk to go where she has some kind of mysterious tomatoes-but-not-tomatoes growing just off the path.

The third Wizard goes over to Matilda, pauses for a moment to look her over, before tapping her mug to make it double in size.

The last Wizard stays put, smirking at Haizea. Something the matter, dragon knight?

[ Reply to this thread to start and we'll do four individual threads off of this one. ]

[scandeled]

Matilda giggles nervously, at a loss for what else to do as her mug grows. Then she lowers it, hesitating. What's she doing, drinking coffee in the middle of the night? She just kind of peers back at the wizard, cheeks flushed, before speaking up.

"You're not serious about ending the world, are you?"

[wizardseason]

The Wizard stays for only a moment before turning to start casually walking away. Waving a hand as if inviting Matilda to follow.

"I'm always serious." She turns back slightly, making sure she's being followed.

"It has to end."

[scandeled]

Matilda hurries up, careful not to stumble and spill her coffee all over herself as she scrambles after The Wizard. "But why?"

Look, she just found out this wasn't a tv show this morning, this is all a little too overwhelming for her to find the right questions. "The world's great! It has so many wonderful places and things to see! There are so many adventures to be had here!"

[wizardseason]

After a moment, Matilda's cup returns to its standard size. No longer is it a nightmarishly huge mug filled with far too much coffee. Now it has multiple tiny dog prints all over its surface.

"It's already gone." She manifests hot chocolate above her mug, letting it fall into her mug a moment later.

"Delayed destruction, even without my hand."

[scandeled]

That's much better, and Matilda instinctively holds it close to her chest as if the warmth from the coffee might help the chill she just felt go down her spine.

"That can't be right. If it's still here, there's still hope, right?"

[tropicalstorm]

As Haizea watches the wizard split, she feels the hopelessness of the situation and she hates it. She hates feeling helpless and jerked around and she's so, SO mad.

"WHY?" She yells, and tries to swing the sign at the Wizard. Her yell is pained and heavy. Why did the Wizard pick her as one of her knights? Why was she picked as a Knight at all? Why was the world ending this year? Why was any of this happening? She's full of questions and anger and the two are competing in her actions.

[wizardseason]

The sign splinters into shreds in Haizea's hands as she swings it, pieces of wood sailing into the air that dissolve into sawdust in the air. A moment later, the sign starts forming again where it was originally in the ground. Just like new, like it was never ruined by the dragon knight to begin with.

"Someone had to be." She answers, leaning back slightly from her seat on the porch.

"Someone has to do the hard work."

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea just stands there, and slowly lowers her arms out of their swinging position to hang limply at her sides.

"I won't do it. If you're really gonna end the world this time, I won't be a part of it."

[wizardseason]

The Wizard's expression doesn't falter, the smirk doesn't leave her expression. She gives no indication that she's disappointed at all, instead she just nods at Haizea's decision.

"I can't make you." She sets her mug down, there's no point in convincing her is there? She doesn't give any hint that she's not convincing her though.

"Should anyone be saved?" She asks, calmly.

[tropicalstorm]

"Everyone," Haizea replies instantly. It's her gut reaction, but even as she says it, she's second guessing herself. Should everyone be saved? Everyone on the planet? She's spent a lot of her life completely wrecking people who she considers deserve it. How can she say she'd save them now, when any other day she'd kick their heads in?

She doesn't correct herself out loud, but her face seems troubled.

[sustainer]

Gyre takes a moment to process Haizea's tantrum, and then the wizard steadily splitting and splitting before he turns his attention down to the one in front of him. He looks... quite passive, considering he woke up on another planet apparently.

"What kind of tree is this?" he asks after a second, holding the leaf up.

[wizardseason]

Leave it to pig knight to not be reactive, to walk in stride with this whole situation and ask the unusual questions. She approaches, reaching out to touch the tree with a hand. She closes her eyes, letting out a sigh.

"An old friend." She answers, vaguely before she opens her eyes to look right at Gyre.

"The last of its kind."

[sustainer]

"Why not make more?"

He tucks the leaf into the breast pocket of his shirt, glancing cautiously at her. Is it okay to talk to her like this? He supposes he won't know til he tries. The worst she could do is kill him, right?

"You're all-powerful, right?"

[wizardseason]

"The life that I create is fake, what is lost cannot be restored." She answers, she knows the price of death. She has to deal it out fairly often.

"They should not have been lost to begin with."

[sustainer]

Interesting. He glances up at the suns again, pursing his lips thoughtfully.

"What happened?" He sounds genuinely curious at least, not like he's searching for pain points that he can use against her.

[daddykong]

Garrot is not having any of this. Absolutely no coffee (they're asleep, why does he need it?!) and as much as he wants to snap at Matilda for speaking on his behalf (isn't that rude?!) things move a bit faster once the others come to. He's glad Haizea's as mad as he is, and Matilda being such a dainty doormat doesn't really surprise him either. Gyre... he's given up trying to predict that one, for better or worse. So when one Wizard becomes four the doctor tenses up, looking ready to fight, until... they start walking off.

He scowls, letting out a simple "tch" as he watches his allies divide themselves. What happened to being united against the Wizard?! Garrot knows he can't shout, because he'll just get muted again, and he can't run off and try to pull back one of them, because then this bitch could react, and- and...! He lets out a tiny little whine, his ears drooping and his scowl deepening as he stalks off towards the tomat-ish patch.

"This is insulting!" He calls out to her sounding quite disgusted, and his giantesque footfalls get louder and louder. He's following her, against all his judgment. "I mean, my father was a Princess Knight. My father who's dead because of you and your monsters. I hate you and you're literally the end of the world, so why should I even give you the time of day?!" He's pissed, but his tone shows he's actually expecting some kind of answer.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard is in the middle of inspecting one of the plants already, checking some of the little green spheres that have started popping up in bundles of three. She turns slightly as he storms towards her. She's tempted to mute him, but no. He's quite genuine as he approaches her and an answer doesn't hurt.

"No one wants to die alone." She answers, turning to face him. She somehow looks more tired than she had when she introduced the first monster.

"This is the last year that people will be made to suffer through this death."

[daddykong]

Garrot crosses his arms, not interested in the weird dream veggieberries in the slightest. Weird dream foods from an evil extradimensional wizard who tempts people to sabotage and destroy the world? No. Not a single fuck to give.

"The last year because you're finally going to die for good. Surrounded by all of us." He sounds a little cocky when he says it, because Garrot's been waiting for the chance to posture at her. The doctor would sooner like to dislocate her jaw with his fist, but he knows she's tough. That and, well... "But that isn't what the sign says, so what's gonna happen after we kill you?" He levels a glare at her. The Wizard's been beaten 39 times so far, and after what she did to that one town years ago, it's obvious she could destroy the world if she wanted to. But she never has. It never added up to Garrot.

"What's going to end the world?"

[wizardseason]

Garrot's missing out, then, the little treats aren't ready to eat yet but when they were... well, perhaps he'd have changed his mind. They're growing here specifically because they're delicious and like nothing else in the world.

She lets him have his little victory moment, his chance to be brave in the face of something he's afraid of. She won't steal that from him, not yet.

"If you kill me." She gives her mug a little swirl, the liquid within forming back into a little sphere for a moment.

"He'll keep it spinning for another year." She raises the mug to her lips, the steam fogging up her glasses.

"And I'll be speaking to a different set of knights."

Day 1: Four become one

[wizardseason]

After the Wizard had split herself off into four, eventually they must all come together into one again. The four wizards all come back together to the one on the porch, stepping into the shadows and vanishing until there's only one Wizard left.

The results of their discussions were varied and unique, but that meant that it was time for all of them to come together and share with each other.

No sense in hiding information from each other, after all.

Also the Wizard prepared chips, veggies, little meats and dips on a little table by the sign. There's a good variety!

[sustainer]

Gyre returns through the fields actually, instead of from a conversation with a wizard. He looks peaceful, thoughtful, and he's soaking wet. Someone definitely wet skinny dipping in an alien lake, and while he had the forethought to put his pants back on, his shirt is definitely still slung over his shoulder. He's covered in tattoos! And he's wearing a big, gaudy purple jewel! Weird!

He ignores the food for now, going to the wizard on her porch instead. "Do you have a towel?"

[daddykong]

Garrot is the next to arrive, stalking in from the tomato-ish patch. Earlier, he'd been too furious to pay them any mind, but now? His rage was just casually simmering, so he could afford to gawk for a second. As the doctor's field trip comes to an end, he sees Gyre. Soaking wet. Shirtless. Covered in tattoos.

It takes all his willpower to not let out a lurid, provocative "Woof" at his ally, because it is neither the time, place, or person for him to be like that. But if there's water, Haizea would want to swim too, which doesn't help matters. So he does blush a bit. Is he going to have to tell them to keep their clothes on in this weird dream world?! What if there's something in the water?!

"Hey Wizard!" He shouts the words, choosing to focus on work instead. "Gimme one of those big whiteboards. You don't want us to forget anything, do you?" And then he starts stroking his beard, trying to keep himself from asking about that piece of bright plastic that Gyre's got at his neck. Or worrying about sweet, gullible Matilda. Or looking at the Trickster's Tempting Treats, just block those out entirely.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea trots back next, absently licking the remains of the juice of the grindyen she ate earlier off her fingers and palm. She also gives Gyre a quick once over, thinks ‘nice’ but then is utterly distracted by the ramifications of him being soaking wet.

“Wait a second, Gyre, did you go swimming? Is there somewhere to swim in this bizarro world??” Garrot is absolutely right, Haizea wants to swim so bad now.