[OPEN] Well. That Didn't Go Quite As Planned

[moneytwin]

Who: EVERYONE
Where: The Temple of Beginnings
When: Immediately After The End.
Rating: PG-13, may vary by thread
What: You fall, you pick yourself back up and you move on. Or at least, you try.


Fished Out Of Water
One minute, you are witnessing the fabric of an entire world implode as it is literally ripped apart by powers unknown. The next, that tell-tale twist somewhere beneath your sternum, before you are bodily YANKED away from Akvos, away from the ocean and the Queen and the King and the Princess.

And land back on (mostly) solid, dry ground.

Welcome back to the Temple of Beginnings. Don't worry, there's no hurry for you to get back up just yet.


Hey, Howya Doin'?
Once you do get back up, now is the time to be taking stock of the situation - yours, your friends, and even those new merfolk neighbours (who may need a hand getting their fins back into the water). There is also the missing members of the Circle to consider: people who disappeared on the journey to Akvos, and those who never made it back..

(There's also that small matter with a certain 'witchess-san' that may be a cause for concern to some more than others.)

Whatever the case, it's a lot to process right now. Take the time you have, because you don't know if it'll be enough for what you need.

---

[[ OOC: Here's an open post for threads reacting to the end of the Akvos world hop. Feel free to use the above prompts, and/or make your own! ]]

Comments

Vex - OTA

[moneytwin]

• HACK SPLUTTER COUGH •
[ This is not the first time that Vex'ahlia has ever witnessed a city brought to ruin. But it was nothing quite like this. This was like a story from nightmare, tales of yor that were kept in sealed tomes by Vasselheim's horde of religious assholes, of magic best left forgotten to a bygone age.

But she has not forgotten the sharp CRACK of Allura's tower, how it had bent, crumpling in on itself, before cascading to the ground. The screams of the dying and the afeared, the crush of bodies as citizens fled the destruction wrought in the Cloudtop District and beyond across the city.

It is the frightened faces of the children that get to her most, a hand outstretched as she struggles against tidal suction from the tears in reality, before something else takes hold, plucking her from the watery cataclysm to deposit her on sandy ground, landing hard on her shoulder before she rolls aside. Close by, there's a sodden CLANK as Trinket is unceremoniously deposited beside her, and as one, both begin to hack and cough. They may be out of the water, but the water is not out of them. It leaves her dizzy, and it takes a few minutes for her to set herself upright.

Holy shit. ]

Anyone...else...alive? [sound off, if you please.]


• A Merfish Bowl •
[ Once she's found her land legs, rather than sea ones, Vex isn't long in staggering along to better assess where she's landed: a field, specifically the one overlooking the path down to a certain lake's beach.

And there below, several dark shapes becomes immediately obvious, with one drawing her attention immediately: one of the mermaids from the Palace flops helplessly, moored ashore and barely crawling across grass and gravel towards the water. Even from here, Vex can almost make out their raspy gasps, and beyond them - others. Some big, some small, and all trying to make it to the water.

Almost immediately, she's moving to give aid - something it feels she's been doing endlessly for weeks. Her bear far slower to rise and gamble after her, but anyone near by may hear her voice - gravely, but loud: ]

HEY! Someone! Help me!


• Bonfire Vigil •
[ Later. Much later.

It is the first night under actual stars rather than under water. Rather than retreat to her outdoor hammock and tent by the forest, Vex has returned to that field. Using the fishing spears she'd obtained in the now-lost world, she has cut into the turf, digging and setting aside the top layer until a wide pit has formed.

Trinket hauls in branches, some big, some small, all wood suitable for their needs, and soon enough a large fire is started, a bright orange light between temple and lake. And plenty of space around it for any company who might like to join a ranger and her bear. ]


• WILDCARD •
[ dealer's choice ]

hack sputter cough bc i missed them :(

[valuedstrength]

Alive. [Is the very strained response Vex is going to get as Steve stops vomiting water long enough to get to his feet. He makes his way over, dizzy and tense, to offer his services to the pair.] Give me your hand so I can heal you. Please.

[Steve barely has it together, but like that ever stops him.]

Bonfire vigil

[shootstyles]

[Izuku can't sleep even though he's bone tired. His chest hurts from coughing and throwing up water when they arrived, after which he'd collapsed on the grass unable to catch his breath. All he could think about was the sound of screaming and people being ripped into the void and everything going dark.

So he decided to run. To get his mind off things. When that didn't work he'd tried sit ups, then push ups, then a used a tree to do some pull ups. Then he'd decided to just punch the tree even though he didn't have his powers and all he did was bloody his knuckles. He tried to do everything except what he really wanted to do... cry.

Late at night he debates going to bed but he's unsure about what he'll see when he closes his eyes. Then a curious light in the fields near the temple catches his eye. He follows it, shivering in the night air in clothes still damp from earlier, and when he breaks into the field, he sees the roaring flames.

He doesn't recognize the person there but he feels compelled to go closer, maybe out of a desperate desire for both warmth and company.]

Oh. Umm. Hello.

[His voice is gravelly and slightly congested. Sounding like they all feel tbh.]

Bonfire

[teratias]

[The lake has a terrible draw for Waver. Sure, he spent one day nearly getting pulled under water there, but it represents something more important: a part of the world that manifested without the Witch's control. It's a mystery, one he is yet to solve.

So he's there more times than not. Walking like that's going to finally give him all the information to solve the mystery. It's bullshit, of course, but it helps.

Besides. There's always something new, like now. As he heads back. Because there's a bear, hauling branches around.

Waver squints, certain he's seeing things.]

Wait, what the hell?

[Because that's a polite way to react when you're within ten feet of a bear.]

bonfire

[fairysong]

[She doesn't see the half-elf woman at first around the fire. She does, however, see the bear that she bonded with the last time she was around a fire.

So again, Sheryl sits on the ground next to Trinket, her tone weary.] Are you feeling tired, too?

Do bears even get tired? [She says

to Trinket. Yeah, she doesn't notice you, Vex. That Stealth skill.]

merfish bowl

[billionaires]

[ tony, too, feels burnt out. even heroes have their limits, right? but when he hears her cries for help, he's speeding across the sand to meet up with her. instead, he sees a - bear?! - and freezes for a moment, looking up at the animal. wait, no, he recognizes this particular bear, and he visibly relaxes, reaching out a hand for the creature. ]

Puppy. [ he greets like they're old friends, then tilts his head at vex. have they actually met yet? ] You rang?

[ give him a second to be annoying, but then he'll catch onto what's happening and immediately start helping with the ones closest to the water. there are too many beached, though, even with the three of them it will take too long. he gestures for the woman and her bear to back up, calling on his power to help him turn the (literal) tide. he'd learned a lot about controlling it while in akvos, though he can already feel how substantially it's weakened. if vex and trinket will cooperate, tony will brew just enough of a storm to get the waves good and choppy, though there shouldn't be a current in this particular branch of water. the water rises like the ocean and collects all the struggling merpeople before calmly sweeping them away. the second they're safe, the sky turns a more friendly shade, and tony winds an arm around himself, exhausted as he plunks down on the damp ground to rest. ]

Merfish Bowl

[foundafamily]

[Firo's always been more nosy than cautious, so he doesn't think twice about investigating the call for help. He exhales sharply in alarm when he sees one of the Akvos mermaids--no, not just one, several of them--stranded on the shore. He darts towards one of the smaller ones first--a kid?--and calls over his shoulder to the other Circle member.]

You got that one on your own?

[It'll be faster if they can each take one down to the water, but he doesn't want to leave her in the lurch. He hasn't even noticed the bear yet.]

bonfire

[punshots]

[ He isn't doing well, to say the least.

But the bonfire has a familiar, nostalgic allure to it, and there's a limit to the amount of moping around in his (now unoccupied except for him) room before he starts to go stir crazy. He needs to walk his feelings out, even if in the end, it isn't going to change anything, and he knows that. Much as he doesn't want to be a burden on anyone else, he wasn't made to be alone for long.

So to the bonfire he comes, quiet in his approach, drawing nowhere near the amount of attention to himself that he typically does as he sits on one of the stretched-out logs and stares into the flames.

...He doesn't notice the bear until several moments later. ]

O-oh! H...hello. [ He waves a hand at Trinket timidly. ] Uh...fancy...meetin' you here.

[ For all he knows, this is a talking bear. He's seen stranger things. ]

[extirpator]

a)

[ the rift tears through the sky, threatening to consume the sea whole. it's as though a storm has brewed, reaching out for each and every building, crashing and thrashing and leaving little to no room for survivors.

he doesn't quite process it, doesn't quite register what's happening until death stretches beyond the constraints of his imagination.

there isn't a pang of sorrow, no — there's the bitter sting of guilt. whoever you might be, nier grips you by the arm and begins to run. ]

We need to leave. Before it takes us. Now!

b)

[ the temple is both still and silent. perhaps it is reminiscent of its people, all of which are stupified. nier is restless, with what and for why he doesn't quite know. he might approach you, asking a simple: ]

Are you hurt?

[ he seems to be holding a basket's worth of herbs. ]

You should rest. It's been hard.

wildcard

[ you know the drill. ]

b

[archaeo]

'm fine.

[She witnessed the destruction of Alderaan, like most people, from the safety of a faraway planet. It was there, and then it wasn't. There wasn't a trigger to pull on Akvos, though. No one person decided that would happen, and maybe that's easier to accept.

Aphra takes a swig of her drink, some sort of Star Wars alcohol that very clearly isn't available regularly at the temple.]

You know, you're lucky I didn't spend more time in your library or whatever. I would've burned the place to the ground.

b

[besieging]

It's a scratch.

[ It's...more than one scratch, and Ephraim hasn't actually looked at any of them that hard yet, but nothing's majorly impaired and he could totally keep fighting right now if he had to, which means he's obviously fine. nbd. ]

wildcard

[lumberlady]

[They're back.

It's the temple. It isn't Akvos anymore, isn't the ocean- But Konoha only has a single moment to partially realize that they've escaped, that the strange horror of a world collapsing around them was over...

Because she can't breathe. Choking, lungs beginning to burn with the need for oxygen after weeks and weeks of "breathing" water, Konoha stumbles to her knees, palms slapping the earth, barely catching her human half from hitting the ground. She reaches out blind for the closest figure, request for help a mere croak of noise-

Before she begins to retch, both sets of lungs and stomachs heaving.]

[nogoldenmirror]

A ☽ Out of the frying pan...

[ There are some things that one never wishes to see. She understands this more than most. Yet as the void begins to overtake Akvos, all she can do is curl the massive form of her dragon shape over a few merchildren and shield them with her wings. Not to shield them from the sight, but to offer what little protection she can from the dark-

Then she hits a solid surface, and hard. She coughs, sputters as suddenly she's forced out of the form and back to her human shape, those she'd been shielding gone (thankfully; that would have left her a witchy pancake). She wheezes, turning to her side and spitting up salt water. It's a few moments before she recognizes the location. Ugh.

She looks around, lifting herself slowly from the ground; trying to find anyone remotely familiar.]

...Still alive, I see. [It sounds far more relieved than she intends, which isn't saying much depending on who it is.]

B ☽ Into the forest (wait that's now how it goes)...
[After at least a good five minutes to reorient herself and speaking with others, she stands. Wobbly at first, before she shakes it off and heads into the forest instead of the temple. She has a plan, and she needs to do something or it will drive her mad.

So, she begins searching for herbs, picking some she recognizes and only what she will need.]

Must you stare so? [She asks anyone who decided to follow.] 'Tis as though one has never seen another scavenge for ingredients before.

[What is she planning? Who knows. One could always ask, though~]

C ☽ Fire burn and cauldron bubble...
[Back at the temple, she leaves her bedroom door open to let smoke escape from the fire she's made under a small cauldron beside a table covered in tubes, beakers, and flasks. The bubbling noise and the soft noise of something being ground by a mortar and pestle is likely enough to draw attention, as well as the almost floral scent coming from the room. And it isn't just the dried bouquets or the herbs hanging from a line from one end of the room to the other.

Morrigan pauses to wipe her forehead with a cloth, frowning. She almost drops the pestle if someone stops and says something.]

Does no one in this godsdamned temple knock? [Feel free to point out if one did; she was rather focused on what she was doing earlier...]

D ☽ A "Mysterious" Gift
[The next day, when everyone goes to get breakfast, they will find a bottle of some substance or other on their doorstep. Looking up and down the hall, one can find that someone left one bottle next to every door that seemed to have an occupied bedroom on the other side. At least, it is very conveniently labeled: shampoo.

Opening it will certainly suggest it is at least a substance that is floral in nature. It seemed a waste to just let those flowers wither without purpose.

Anyone who caught her previously in any step above this and goes to check on her will find a black cat curled up on the center of her bed, quietly purring in her sleep. Otherwise? One will find her sunbathing in the same feline form outside later in the day, quietly watching the others as if she has no idea who left the bottles there in the first place.]

E ☽ Wildcard
[Want to poke her for something else? Feel free to here or on her contact post.]

D)

[moneytwin]

[ Now this is something practical.

The gift is found outside her tent. Examined, sniffed, then brought inside. A bear snout gets shoved aside when he tries to lick it ("Trinket, stop, it's not--Buddy, I said no!"), before the recipient sets it on a pile and continues with basic clean up of things the Temple's transparent servants can't help with. The lack of name on the label and the unfamiliar hand responsible for the note on it can be mulled about later.

Later, much later, something big, brown and smelling of wet bear and flowers looms in the way of sunshine, before flopping across the flagstones beside the black cat. He grumbles, then yawns, stretching out his paws, before glancing back to the half elf padding silently behind him. Simple clothing and bare footed, Vex doesn't recognise the cat either - not yet, anyway - but if it's here, it's part of the Circle too. ]

I see someone else has the right idea about this sun, eh, Trinket.

[She smiles tiredly at the cat, before hands resuming toweling off her hair. Her excessively thick long hair, now damp and in desperate need of detangling by fingers after such an protracted time in the ocean. ]

C

[lonered]

I mean... the door was open. And smoking.

[That's all Keith has for an excuse. He thought something was on fire. But now that he's peeked inside and caught sight of Morrigan, he's inclined to linger. So he lifts a hand and knocks on the doorframe.

Better late than never?]

[wraithes]

no net.

[ it takes a few minutes for her to stop coughing up water, and to grow accustomed to breathing air again. but, eventually, she shoves herself up onto her feet, to find jesper, and kaz. and, if she's close to you: ]

Come on, on your feet.

[ it's said in a rasped voice, as she lowers a gloved hand to help you up, coughing into her elbow of her free hand. ]

We should start a fire, or something, to get warm.

[ anything but talk about what they just saw. ]

no mourners. no funerals.

[ inej, once she's landed herself back in the temple and gets herself back on her feet, makes her way toward the kitchens. far from hungry, bu seeking privacy. surely no one will go to the damn kitchens when they just witnessed a world falling to pieces.

she eventually makes it, where she drops herself onto a bench and buries her face into her hands, drawing in a shuddering breath and letting it out slowly. and again. and again. but there aren't tears, though her fingers are trembling at the sheer magnitude of what they've witnessed, and what they've survived. but she survived. again. which is what matters.

. . . even if all of those people didn't.

so if you walk in on inej, you will see her with her head in her hands, murmuring quietly to herself in suli. prayers, to her saints. blessing the souls that were lost in akvos, to calm her breathing, to focus, and to make herself presentable to get back out into the circle and help where needed. ]

no net

[tamerinblue]

[Ruki doesn't hear her at first, too busy hacking up the contents out of her lungs. It hurt and that wasn't even getting into the terrible violence she'd just witnessed. She doesn't have much time to dwell on it though, as someone's hand appears in front of her. She looks up, wiping at her mouth, and accepting it with her free hand.]

Thanks.

[She pulls herself up to her feet, though whether she is shaking from the cold or the events she just lived through, she couldn't say. So she just nods.]

All right.

[She looks lost and, frankly, a little more shaken up than she'll admit aloud.]

Maes Hughes - OTA

[dadandgone]

I. Rest
[It is the middle of the night at the Temple and in one of the many rooms a man is tossing and turning. His dreams are unpleasant, a nightmarish mix of not being able to run across hot, desert sands and struggling to swim from a sucking void. Sometimes there are screams and other times a child crying. Suddenly the ground rips open and ---

he's on the floor. He winces, laying there for a moment and wondering if any of his "neighbors" heard that. No one arrives just yet, so he pushes himself up, leaning his back against his bed and rubbing at his eyes. He hadn't had nightmares like that in a long time. Not since a few years following Ishval. He used to joke with Gracia that when Elysia was born she'd chased such nightmares away. Perhaps it was fitting that, being gone from them now for so long, they would start to come back.

He squinted at his window.]

Guess it's not too early to get some coffee.

[He gets up and heads to the kitchen. He wonders if anyone else is having trouble sleeping.]

II. Recovery
[Several hours later, Maes has taken up residence in the office he and Barabas had commandeered for keeping information about the Temple and the worlds they'd traveled to. He wanted to attempt to document some of the things they had learned while it was still fresh. Recording what information he could remember from the library, the stories he'd heard from the people, and what had transpired right before they'd been ripped back here.

There was no way he'd be able to document it all, especially not by himself, but maybe by laying out all the pieces he could figure out what they had missed. How things had gone some completely wrong.

Maes huffed, pushing back in the chair to balance on the back legs as he tossed his pen at the desk.]

This is pointless.

III. Wild
[Your move.]

I.

[moneytwin]

[ No rest for the wicked, as they say.

The kitchen is not deserted when Hughes makes his way in, though the occupant is not immediately visible; there's a burlap bag on the central table with fruit-shaped bulges, and assorted odds and ends atop a chopping block.

Across the room, something goes THUMP, and there's cursing from behind the door to the pantry before it swings open, Vex hopping in annoyance while trying not to drop whatever it was she retrieved from below. ]

For fffffffffuck's sake, fuckfuckfuck who even put that--Oh. [whoops. she's not alone? Vex stops mid-hop, and her voice takes on a more formal tone] ..Uh. Here for a midnight snack, too?

North Dakota - OTA

[brodakota]

[A - Return]

[Much like when he first arrived, North finds himself on his back, staring up at the sky. It's almost familiar, welcome in a way if reality wasn't rushing up to meet him. Very quickly, he's rolled over, coughing up seawater and spluttering before collapsing back on the ground.]

Okay, how about we don't do that again? Good plan?

[B - Network]

So, uh, who's out there?

York? Wash? Anybody?

[mostly he's just trying to locate friends, and will probably go looking once contact is made. Just trying to figure out who made it back.]

B - voice

[moneytwin]

Vex'ahlia here. And you are?

I only know Wash. But I haven't seen him around yet.

[helpful? more like tired]

[fuck1ngusernam3]

1. - mmm old man tears
(juuuust in case I'm going to ask for a max of 3 tag-ins to this one)


[It's gonna be a shameful thing, later, when Hank remembers it, when he realizes his first thought wasn't for all those people, all those fucking people, jesus - his first thought is that he's finally actually drowning, months and months of feeling water swirling around in his lungs every single fucking second, of shoving panic down every time he thinks about what he's breathing, all that and then this is when he drowns, this now, fuck, when he just got the chance to actually fucking breathe again.

He coughs and gasps and chokes even when he doesn't need to, when all the water's out of him and dripping through the grass he's still heaving high, panicky gasps in and out of him, coughing on all the water that's not there that he never fucking got used to, not like he was supposed to, like he was supposed to just accept it and move on and go fucking save everyone-

Sumo moves close enough that Hank can reach him and he does, winds his fingers through Sumo's thick fur and that was the key that'd tried to open the floodgates back when he'd first got there, that first horrible day underwater when he'd tried to pet Sumo and spent the next ten minutes trying to wrestle his shit back under control instead, but there's no getting it under control now. He pushes off the ground - or tries to, the dirt's solid under his knees and gravity's holding him down for the first time in months, the first time in a couple million fucking years, and he leans up and wraps his arms around his dog while the first sob kicks its way out through his throat. He presses his face into Sumo's fur, trying to muffle the noise, hoping like hell that wherever he is is somewhere no one else wants to go cause he's here and he's still coughing or gasping every other breath and even if he's clenching his jaw shut over it, crying is just happening now. Hank doesn't get a choice about it.

At least Sumo's relaxed - or maybe that makes it worse. If Sumo was freaked by all this, if he acted like Hank losing his shit all over him was something scary and new, maybe Hank could lock this down long enough to go somewhere with walls and doors where no one'll ever hear or know. But Sumo just sits there, accepting this part of his routine, just another fucking day, so Hank doesn't even have that much to try and shove himself back into some kind of normal human shape for.]

2. - would 'drowning our sorrows' be an appropriate water-based pun here

[What the fuck was he going to do after that whole shitshow but get blasted out of his fucking mind? Right now, a part of that's happening in the kitchen. The pantry door's open and the sweet sounds of angry cursing float out from it, along with the sounds of things getting tossed around. Every now and then the arc of one of those things - usually bags of things, grain or some old fashioned shit, sometimes fruit, occasionally an empty bottle - takes it through the pantry door and out on some crazy uncharted course into the room beyond. If anyone's in the way of some of that shit- well, too bad.]

Where- come on, come on, where the... fucking shit...

3a.

[About an hour later he's by the lake. There's a bottle of wine a couple feet in front of him, closer to the lake's shore. He's got the neck of another bottle, one holding something clear, with a stronger smell, held loose in his right hand. His elbow's resting on his knee. He's looking out over the water. He's frowning.]

Fucking hated this piece of shit even before- Who wants to be in the middle of all that goddamn water anyway, all that creepy shit down there, an' fuckin... Buncha bullshit, if you ask me. What's the fuckin point of all that bullshit.

3b.

[Same lake. Same hour, more or less. Hank's got rocks, now, and he's throwing them hard toward the water with a sneer on his face. Feel free to catch him showing this damn lake exactly what he thinks of it, or-]

3c.

[-when his dog gets in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time and a rock bounces off him. It's small, Sumo's not really hurt, but the startled noise he makes has Hank dropping his bottle and crawling over, wrapping his arms around the big dog's neck again.]

Fuck. Fuck, fuck. I'm sorry, fuck. Shit. Sumo- Nngh-

[After that thick, wordless noise Hank swallows, takes a big, shaky breath, and tries to figure out if he's about to start crying again.]

2!

[rightfully]

[ By now, there are two definitive things Lucina knows about Hank:

1. He never stops swearing.
2. Liquour is very important to him.

She only came into the kitchen to prepare some tea. Her waist length hair remains a mess of salt-streaked tangles, half-dry at best, and there's a faint shadow to her expression - around her eyes, furling over her mouth. There have been better days, certainly. The calamitous noise doesn't help, bottles clinking together - one flying past her face -

She catches the next one, unflinching. It's nice to know her reflexes are still up to par, if nothing else. It's set down unceremoniously. ]

Excuse me.

[ You're keeping her from the tea, lieutenant! >:( ]

Sheryl Nome | OTA

[fairysong]

[I]

[It's been about ten minutes since they've washed up here, back at the circle, on dry land, breathing air again. Long enough to make sure she's all in once piece. Long enough to process and realize what had just happened.

Sheryl's seen death before. The Vajra attacks were undiscriminating. People had died. Michael had died. She thought she'd seen her boyfriend die, and had almost died herself.

This feels different. This was a world dying. A world filled with playful dolphins she'd rode, with a woman who'd sold her the sea-green sarong she's wearing, with people she'd braved sharp coral to obtain medicinal herbs for, with little kids who she'd sung to to cheer them up.

All gone.

Sheryl says, softly at first, to the nearest person. Or group of people.] Hey... what was the point of all of that?

What did we even go there for? [Her voice is a little louder. It shakes.] Was there a reason for-- for any of that? Did we just go there to make things worse?

Why did she send us there? There was a point to it, right? There had to have been a point to it! [She's just kind of shouting, now, her tone sad, shocked and desperate. For someone usually composed and put-together, she's on the verge of tears, or perhaps panic.]

Why did that have to happen to all those people?!

[She's yelling at you, now. Mainly because you're the closest person. Sorry.]

[II]

[Some time later. A day or two, at least.

She's at least calmed down, enough that she isn't shouting at other people in desperate need to make something out of everything that's happened. She misses Alto and Ranka.

Sheryl's found herself wading into the lake. It's cold. Colder than she remembers. Her lower half is starting to get numb, but she's staying out here. Maybe it's the cleansing properties of the cold. Maybe she just wants to return to the water, to feel like she can do it again, and do it right this time.

She hadn't sung this song earlier, when she'd been in the vaults with the children and Konoha. It had been too sad, and she'd wanted to sing a song for hope.

She sings it now.] When I was in love with God...

[There's no music accompanying this. No performance. She's not singing it for anyone else but herself.

The cold makes her voice shake, not with its usual power.

Her heart hurts, and she keeps singing. Sheryl weeps where she stands, teardrops leaving little ripples where they land in the water.]

It's long, long, goodbye.

1

[rightfully]

—Sheryl.

[ Lucina's voice cracks like a whip. Her fingers scrabbling with her watch as she sends off a message, it takes her a moment to give the physical situation her undivided attention. When she does, her expression is quarrelsome. The sharp severity typically, but not always, reserved for battle. ]

Enough.

[ She'll soften in a second. Her sympathy isn't absent.

But, first, Sheryl needs to stop yelling. ]

OTA

[eyeofassault]

[The small android retreats as soon as she ejects the leftovers in her lungs and gets back on her feet. She can't think about the horrors she's just witnessed. Casualties of war are fine for her, an everyday occurrence back home, but reality ripping apart? No. It's not the time to think about it though because her assault rifle has to be cleansed of the salt water it's been soaked in forever. She is her gun, so her own "life" is on the line. No time to sleep.

G11 is quiet and fast for someone usually so sluggish. Her first stop is the kitchen to gather supplies: a large wash pan, warm water, a towel, and soap. If someone's in her way, she'll push past them, and once she's got everything she needs, the android finds the nearest room with an active fireplace. Gear and clothes are shed until she's down to her tank top and underwear and her long hair (grimy and tangled) is thrown up into a hasty ponytail.

She settles down for hours in front of the fire. Her gun is disassembled, laid out neatly beside her as she systematically goes over each part out of hundreds. G11 will definitely be taking a whole day to nap after all this is over. And that's before a bath for herself.]

[moneytwin]

I've never seen a gun like that before.

[ The voice is hoarse, but quiet, announcing Vex's presence into the room.

The fire she built outside won't be lit till sundown at the earliest, so a fire being lit indoors certainly caught Vex'ahlia's attention. Much like G11, she's stripped out of her leathers and clothing, all in desperate need of a wash and oiling and treatment for prolonged exposure to salt water, and she nurses a mug of hot tea where she leans in the door way. ]

Do they always have so many parts?

York | OTA

[infailtration]

fished out of water

That definitely did not go as planned. And York, for one, did not account for having to cough up both lungs full of water when they got back to the Temple. He collapses as he wretches, his chest burning painfully. Why, Astoria? Because they failed? It didn't hurt to suddenly be breathing water instead of air, why the other way around? Finally he feels like it's all up and is left exhausted and gasping from the effort -- both of hacking it all up and from all the fighting he'd been doing before.

As he pushes himself up off the ground he wobbles unsteadily, so used instead to swimming and propelling himself essentially in lower gravity. It's not as difficult as actual gravity changes, but it's still going to be a readjustment.

"...they always talk about getting your sea legs but I feel like I lost my land legs. Whoa."

and for something not fish...

The first place York is headed after he changes into dry clothes is the kitchens. Because 1) he's exhausted and hungry and wants something that isn't seafood of one sort or another and 2) witnessing the destruction of a world merits some comfort food, he thinks. He's seen worlds destroyed before, of course. The Covenant glassed several planets he barely made it off in time, and many more besides. Everyone lost.

He's most grieved about the missing Princess, though. The one he threw his lot in with, put his efforts behind. It was all for nothing and she's lost again, probably dead this time. He doesn't want to think about that, honestly. Doesn't want to think about anything, but that's impossible so he'll just think of something else as he starts cooking -- he finds the makings for a simple but hopefully hearty stew and can be found chopping things with just slightly too heavy a hand. Anyone who wanders by will be asked a snippet of what's on his mind at the moment:

"Hey, do you know who Alcina is? Didn't seem wise to ask."

Time for some Circle gossip, maybe?

[taketori]

a.

[ Truthfully speaking, typically Miyuki would be beside himself and happy that he's made it back onto solid ground, no longer surrounded by water. The fact that he had to spend so much time surrounded by it, unable to really teach himself how to swim properly was frustrating to him, but here he was! Back... to the Temple. He coughed up what water there was, nearly hacking up his lungs in the process. He's on all fours on the ground, trying to get his breathing back in order and keep the world from spinning.

In the process, his mind's trying to process everything that happened. Akvos... he saw buildings crumbling and everything around them swirling around into that void. Had... what had happened? Had they lost?

It all felt absurd, but... ]

What just happened? [ It was also getting him to at least steady himself on his knees, looking around. This was definitely the Temple of Beginnings... but-- ] Did... Did they make it out okay?!

[ Anyone, really. Did everyone make it out? ]

b.

[ It's late at night a couple days after they've returned. It was somewhat unsurprising, but he found himself unable to sleep much at all. It was typically his mad schedule that kept him from a good nights sleep, but with everything that had transpired and his first mission with the group ending in failure, it was hard for him to not think about the rest of that world and everything that took place.

There was a moment where Miyuki tried to put that behind him. After all, it sounded as if there was more to the loss than he was privy to. But in the end, it was hard to properly ignore. Hard to deal with in its own way. Which is why he had decided to take a walk, and inevitably wound up in the dining area, nursing an increasingly tepid cup of coffee and a piece of paper, lost in thought. Something to keep himself distracted, but it wasn't working.

He was already distracted, thinking of the world he had just been to, and the one he left behind already.

He missed his friends. ]

B

[eyeofassault]

[G11's usually a night owl considering her squad mainly runs night ops, so it's no big deal for her to be up and wandering. The android has her assault rifle slung over her shoulder as always, and her appearance...is an absolute mess with wrinkled clothes and her silver hair all in tangles. Someone hasn't been doing external maintenance! It could be the result of either her eternal state of laziness or being more impacted by Akvos' destruction than most of her battle experience has readied her for.

Still, the short android walks into the dining area for late night snacks with no care in the world. She'll even be whistling a tune before she spots Miyuki. A head nod at him:]

'Sup. Moping around like everyone else?