Restart.

[azumods]

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!]

Comments

[gekkaju]

[Atsushi lifts his head from where he'd been resting it on folded arms over his knees, his brows furrowing just a little.

He glances up to Zelda after eyeing the bowl for a moment.]

Is...that for me?

[hyruglyphics]

It is, yes.

[ You were going on about food so... food?

Spicy ass tamato soup, but still!! ]

[gekkaju]

[Atsushi's expression softens, and after a moment he leans over and takes the bowl in his hands. It's warm, but not warm enough to indicate how hot it will truly be.]

...thank you. This is really nice. You didn't have to, though.

[hyruglyphics]

I suppose not but... I needed something to do, more mechanically. It made me think of a dear friend.

[ And after all this apocalypse it seems right and well. Atasushi seems like... well, he likes food? So she'll just roll with the nice food? ]

[gekkaju]

Yeah? Do you cook for them a lot, or do they just like to eat as much as I do?

[He jokes, gently. Maybe it's both...]

[hyruglyphics]

Mmmm, both both, and neither. He eats a lot, but he is more often the one doing the cooking than I. I did need to learn to manage for myself as well though, if he made something not to my taste.

[ Hence the mechanical skill. ]

[gekkaju]

It's a good skill to have, really. I can't say I'm really good at it myself at all...I would like to learn, though.

[hyruglyphics]

To be fair, my own "expertise" is mostly in what you can make in a pot in the wilds. ... I've travelled a lot in my days.

[ With a soft smile, she makes to settle in next to him. He's looking a little more positive already. That's good. ]

[gekkaju]

[Atsushi decides to- mistakenly- take a bite before he answers her.]

I like dishes like that. Things you can make in one pot always feel the homiest to- ...ah- oh-

[He coughs into his hand.]

Spicy...

[hyruglyphics]

It isn't too much, is it?!

[ SMILE? ... She's smiling? ]

It's a Tamato Berry Soup! They have quite the kick, don't they?! It seemed the proper way to get some energy in people.

[ But Zelda is kinda forcing herself, so. ]

[gekkaju]

N-no no, it's just right! I've never had a Tamato berry so I wasn't expecting it...

[It looked angry but he didn't expect it to taste that angry.]

It did wake me up though, that's for sure.

[hyruglyphics]

It's curious, isn't it? They look similar enough to tomatoes, but they're actually quite spicy, like a pepper! I actually find the flavor pretty intriguing.

[ . . . And she's glad it did wake him up, given what a massive bummer everything is right now. She beams at him, actually. ]