azume | 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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[he's certainly not gonna complain at least]

'A lot' does summarize it, I think. I can't blame anyone for being rattled by things.

Yeah. I'm glad we survived, of course, but...

[He glances around at the others.]

This isn't the sorta thing anyone should have to go through, you know?

It isn't. Least of all people that already aren't prepared for situations like this.

[Aya, mostly.]

Yeah.

[Aya's the one he's the most worried about too.]

Even if you've experienced something awful before, this isn't exactly the same. It's a whole new set of challenges and honestly, I'm not even sure where to start.

I have to confess that was...'a lot', even for me. I think the best starting point we have now is to continue exactly as we were before Cyrus intervened.

Yeah. It's frustrating, but I don't think any of us are the sort to give up, even after something like this.

Even if we were, I don't think we have the choice at this point. It's carry on or wait to die, and I don't believe any of us willing to take the second option.

Definitely not. We can take a little time to be upset and take all this in, but I think we'll be okay. If someone's having trouble, I'm sure quite a few people here will jump in to help.

Of course. I think we're fortunate to have the group we do; I'd be willing to trust any of you with that much when it comes down to it.

Yeah, we're a pretty good group of people. It's been pretty great getting to know you guys.

I could say the same, I think.

None of this is exactly what I expected when I woke up here, but it's been fun, sometimes. Even when it's not fun, we've already managed some pretty incredible things.

So we'll keep going, and we'll figure something out.

It's been...something, certainly. Though I don't think it an altogether bad thing.

We wouldn't have gotten to meet these guys if we hadn't found ourselves here.

[Yuri inclines his head a bit to indicate Dein Nomos, who is floating nearby and just sort of staring, as usual. The sword makes a soft clanging sound, though it's kind of hard to tell if that's encouragement or just acknowledgement.]

You're right about that, certainly. Though I can't quite figure out how I'll explain any of them to Prompto and Gladio when we get back.

Hah, yeah, it'll be pretty difficult, won't it? It should be pretty interesting to see how it goes.

'Interesting' is definitely one word for it.

How do you think your friends will react?

I imagine Prompto's liable to adore them, especially Highwind. Gladio's more likely to be too busy lecturing us for vanishing to even notice.

Heh, fair. I've got a few friends like that too. There's always gotta be someone who worries a lot about you, yeah?

I have to confess that's usually my job. Gladio's often the first to worry if not me, these days.

It's always good to have at least a couple of you looking after things! I'm pretty sure all of my friends are worried about me; the timing really couldn't have been any worse.

Likewise. They must be beside themselves right now--I hope they're doing as well as they can.

Your friends are a pretty tough bunch, yeah? I'm sure they'll be able to look out for themselves while you're away.

They'll manage without the two of us for a while. I just...hope they aren't too worried.

(no subject)

fatalstrikes - 2018-09-03 02:51 (UTC) - Expand