azume | Restart.

Restart.

APOCALYPSE.

It's difficult to say how long you're unconscious.

Whenever you do wake up, it's warm; your limbs will probably feel a bit heavy, and it might take a while for you to come back into yourself fully - whatever just happened, it's disorienting, weighing heavily on your body and leaving a heavy fog over your senses, and for a long moment it may be tempting to go back to sleep.

Slowly, though, everything will start to seep back in. The confrontation with Cyrus. Countless beams of light smashing down to earth, tearing everything in their path away. Judgement.

The end of the world.

The ruins still seem, miraculously, to be intact; pushing yourself up to sit up and look around will make it clear that whatever protected you from the attack on the world is still present, a swirling field of white light encapsulating the area and forming a protective shield around your group. The Lake Guardians are present for a brief moment, hovering overhead in a manner that's easily read as concerned, but as soon as enough of you are awake they'll take their leave - it's difficult to say where they're going and why, given that they don't offer an explanation, but all three of them are together still, having seemed to have found each other eventually over the past little while.

Their protection vanishes with them, and their departure may leave you feeling empty; on the other hand, it may not affect you at all, seeing as you have other things to worry about. Leaving the ruins themselves and returning to the center of Celestic Town, it will be immediately obvious that something is very, very wrong.

The first noticeable difference is in the people of the town; it seems that Cyrus adhered to his word in that everyone is alive, having been reborn after the world was destroyed. But there's something unwelcome and familiar about them now - the inability to process very much, the staring with nothing behind it, the lack of drive or desire to do anything for themselves, it seems that everything about them that made them a person has once again been torn away from them, leaving them dead-eyed and spiritless.

The other differences are less noticeable, but as the day goes on, something seems...off. Not just with the people, but with the world as a whole.

The passage of time and the expansion of space are things that everyone takes for granted; as long as the day passes by, the sun moving across the sky to fade into night, it can be assumed that everything is working as it should be. But the longer you spend here, the more it becomes obvious that something feels wrong; the sun continues to pass overhead, night will eventually fall, but there's an undeniable sense that nothing is really happening. The perceived passage of time seems more and more irrelevant to you, giving way to a notion that you're just...stuck, somehow. That nothing is changing, despite evidence that it should be; that everything is strange and stagnant and still despite the fact that you're still moving forward.

It's this, maybe, that makes you realize why Lucas is twelve at the oldest, despite the passage of at least five years; the flow of time, the expansion of space... Both have been disrupted and brought to a standstill.

Take the day to get used to your new reality; it might take some time to get accustomed to.

[OOC: Welcome to the start of Week 14, the end of the world, and the beginning of the second half of the game!

No NPC response will be given to this post, though you can thread here amongst yourselves if you wish; we'll see you tomorrow at noon with a new log for your further adventures!]

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[ He's alive.

Against all odds, Noctis Lucis Caelum is alive. He'd been back at the campfire, his resolve weakened from seeing his friends, afraid to die but knowing he had no other choice.

Cyrus had given him no other choice.

But he's alive, alive and breathing and Ignis is warm beside him. Warm, and steady, and real just as he's always been. Noctis shifts, his eyes opening, and he takes in a deep breath. ]

Ignis.

[And that was all it took for Noctis to be pulled into a sudden secure hug, as if that alone would protect from that and any other apocalypse that would try to strike them down.]

Are you hurt? [Always, always him before Ignis himself. Not that it mattered, since he was sure he'd gotten out of this without injury. If Noctis hadn't, then no god would save Cyrus from the natural conclusion.]

No. No, not at all. What about you?

[ His arms slide around Ignis, automatically, and he presses his face against Ignis's shoulder. Here, he's safe, he's home, he's alright. He thinks, maybe, with Ignis at his side, he can handle anything. ]

No, I'm fine. [Ignis let out a slow breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, the near-panic he'd held down when talking to Cyrus threatening to creep into the back of his mind again even though it was apparently all over. But of course he didn't show it for an instant, slamming and locking the door on it before it could properly manifest. That wasn't what Noctis needed to see right now, not what any of them needed.]

It's alright. We're safe, for now.

Good.

[ He lifts his head, then touches his forehead to Ignis's. They're safe. Both of them are, at least; he hopes the others are okay, too.

For now, he focuses on Ignis. ]

I was worried I wouldn't see you again.

[Much as he did care about the others, some things hadn't changed. And when things got down to their worst and most dire, Ignis would always have only a single priority above everything and everyone else.]

Come now, I think the end of the world will have to try a bit harder to be rid of us.

[ He gives the tiniest, quietest chuckle, and he leans in to press his lips to Ignis's. ]

You've got a point. Didn't work last time, right?

[Thank the largely useless Astrals he'd had so many years of practice at schooling his tone and expression, because at this point no matter how he tried to shut it down, a considerable part of Ignis just wanted to start screaming and never stop after all of that.]

[...Hm. That was probably some level of shock. He'd have to work on repressing that as hard as humanly possible before it became a problem.]

Not a chance. [He brought a gloved hand to Noctis' face, leaning against him as if to take in every single detail through contact alone.] Are you sure that you're alright?

[ He can't really hide anything from Ignis. Not even the smallest thing. Noctis closes his eyes and lets out a breath, shaky and heavy. ]

I thought my second chance would be cut short.

...I know. I was worried, too.

[Similarly, he wasn't so careful that he assumed he could hide everything from Noctis. So the honest statement came out quiet and calm, forehead resting against Noctis'.]

It's alright for now. You're safe. We'll just have to pull ourselves together and tread more cautiously.

[ He knows vulnerability isn't... easy, for Ignis. Noctis takes his hands, intertwining their fingers. He wishes he could make things better. He wishes he could fix things. He wishes so much, but he's only a man here. No magic powers. No gods to call upon. Just him.

Him, and Ignis, and everyone else against the end of the world. ]

We'll do better, this time. Another chance to try again.

Precisely. It's going to be alright.

[He wasn't sure he believed that himself, gripping Noctis' hands securely. The situation had changed drastically, and at this point survival seemed like much less of a certain outcome than it had just a day or so ago.]

[But that didn't mean they weren't going to try.]

Always is when you're around.

[ He brings their hands up to his lips, presses them against Ignis's knuckles. ]

You're alright, though? Right?

I'm fine, Noct. [Not strictly a lie; so long as Noctis was alive and as safe as could be expected, that was all Ignis really needed. Anything else--the sense of genuine panic, the desire to just collapse for a while and wait for things to seem less hopeless, the exhaustion and fear and a thousand other things--]

[They didn't matter. Weren't necessary, and he hated how thinking that sounded uncomfortably like Cyrus in his head.]

No matter what happens going forward, I'll be with you.

Ignis...

[ His voice is more serious, now, as he turns to face him fully. Noctis moves his hands to Ignis's cheeks, and even if Ignis can't see, certainly he'll be able to hear the frown in his voice. ]

We've just been through something terrible. You can tell me if you're not okay.

...

[Vulnerability was not, in fact, easy. It was perhaps more difficult with Noctis than it was any other. Being uncertain around Camilla, Zelda, or Bucky--that was easy. They didn't know him as advisor to the king, as the calculating tactician. But without that, he really wasn't sure what they saw him as.]

[This was different. He couldn't falter in front of Noctis, who looked to him for support and had done so for nearly all their lives. Not at such a critical moment when fear ran high and hope ran low. What was he going to do, admit that he had no idea if anything they were doing would even work, acknowledge that this was a fight they really might not win? Point out that they were horrifyingly outgunned by someone so terrifyingly rational in his perspective that it almost made him miss Ardyn's grandstanding madness?]

There's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine.

[ He knows there's not nothing to worry about. He also knows that Ignis is likely keeping things bottled up tight, for Noctis's sake. It's a thought that makes him feel more than a little sick, because Ignis has always listened to Noctis, and Noctis... has always laid his burdens on Ignis.

How many times has he layered worry upon worry on Ignis's heart? ]

We just survived the end of the world, Ignis. I can't believe you're fine.

[ It's gentle, the way he says it, voice heavy with worry. ]

Edited 2018-09-03 21:18 (UTC)

[Another silence, in which Ignis brought a hand to Noctis' shoulder, leaning just slightly into the touch on his own face. Everything else was always secondary to this, to what was right before him even if he couldn't see it.]

I'm more concerned with you right now. That's all I'm worried about at the moment.

And I'm worried about you. No matter what it is, you can tell me.

[ He tries not to, but... a little bit of pleading slips into his voice. ]

Talk to me, Ignis.

I-

[He'd already lied once, hidden the truth of Altissia and stayed silent about all that he'd known a decade in advance. Could he really stand to continue on like this and do it again? Conceal his real thoughts from Noctis of all people, even if it meant troubling him in the process? Duty and necessity clashed in a way that forced even more tension on an already tense situation, and did Ignis of all people have any right to burden anyone with his own thoughts on the matter? Especially Noctis, who he'd dedicated his life to protecting, when he would sooner set himself alight than allow his king to suffer?]

[But in the end, that strained note finally broke him and something honest left Ignis in a quiet whisper before he could pull it back and lock it with the rest of his uncertainty.]

...I don't know that we can win this time, Noct.

[ Ignis's admission doesn't take Noct's breath away. It helps him release it, a breath he hadn't even realize he'd been holding. ]

I can't say if we will for sure.

[ Maybe some time, ten years ago, he'd insist they could. Against all odds, they could, without a doubt... but Noctis is not a young man anymore, with his head bowed with the weight of a heavy crown. ]

But we're going to try. We have to try. [ His hand rests at the back of Ignis's neck. ] For everyone. For each other.

I don't care what happens to me. I never have. If all that we're doing no matter how hard we fight should end in my death, then that's simply how it is.

[That much was something he'd made clear. No hesitation in putting on the Ring, in anything he'd ever done or any step he had ever taken. There was never any direction to move but forward, no matter the risk and without worrying for the cost.]

...But you deserve more than that. I'm not afraid to die, but the idea that you would and nearly did as well-...it's something I can't stand.

[ Ignis might not care about what happens to himself, but Noctis does. That Ignis is so willing to just throw his life away at the drop of a hat, it's... it hurts. Deeply, a burning over Noctis's heart that he doesn't think will ever go away. ]

Then I'll have to care what happens to you, if you won't.

[ It aches. Noctis draws Ignis close, sliding a hand through his hair. ]

If I'm making it out of here, so are you.

[ Anything else is impossible. ]

[There was no answer at first, as if for once Ignis had simply been struck speechless by that. He took a slow breath and pulled his sunglasses off to settle his head against Noctis' shoulder.]

[For all his uncertainty and hesitation and fear that he was saying too much, burdening his king with matters he needn't have been concerned about--this was right if nothing else was. 'Home' wasn't Insomnia, wasn't Lucis, wasn't anywhere else on the planet to him--it was Noctis and always had been. This was where he belonged, no matter how things changed around them.]

...I don't want to leave without you.

[ Noctis slides his fingers through Ignis's hair, over and over again. It's, he hopes, as comforting for Ignis as it is for himself. This... even in the wake of the apocalypse... this is calming. It, at least, helps Noctis clear his head.

It's probably because Ignis is here, though, next to him. ]

No matter what happens, we'll be together. I can't promise that things will work out perfectly... but we'll be together. Always.

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discutio - 2018-09-03 23:17 (UTC) - Expand

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