[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.]

awww time to make up for that then!

[moneytwin]

Oh good. Then I'm not alone in feeling--

[whatever else she may say is lost in a fit of coughing, a "fresh" wave of salt water finding its way up. lovely.

Trinket does not have a hand, but a large paw is waved at Steve as he gets near; you can grab his armor to help you stay upright, if you can help a sad bear stop horking. :( ]

[valuedstrength]

[Steve has to smile despite how absolutely miserable he feels given the circumstances. That bear is still too cute considering how absolutely deadly he must be.] Okay, big guy first.

[He does end up using Tricket's armor for support as he puts one large hand onto the bear's neck and pushes healing energy into him. There's no big light show, but Steve will keep his hand there until the bear seems healthier.]

[moneytwin]

[ It's an unhappy time, but it'll be less worse if the bear can be happier. No one wants to deal with excess bear barf, and who knows what else!

It takes a little while for him to realise what Steve is doing, and while there's no obvious signs of colour returning to him (Trinket is after all just a bear), soon enough he perks up, and one last hairball-like coughing hack is given.

Then he rubs his head against Steve's side, a friendly thanking gesture, before he looks at his mother, who is now sitting with her head between her knees. ]

can someone turn the lights down, please. [it was so much darker under water. or maybe its interplanar jetlag hitting]

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.]

[moneytwin]

[ For all she has her own house in Whitestone, and almost permanent permission to reside in the castle if she wishes, and even a free room in the temple itself, Vex knows that sometimes you need to listen to that inner voice and simply run.

Sometimes you just need freedom, to get away from others, to fly - and she can't do that here, either. And running away never really works, of course. No matter how far you go, whatever is at your back will catch up to you eventually, if you don't end up circling right back round to face it yourself.

Still. No one told her she couldn't build a fire, so build it she did, and here she remained well into the evening, ignoring the hole in her heart longing for the presence of her family, for Percival. For her brother.

She looks up at the voice, pausing mid-poke with one of the thicker branches. Others have come and gone as they pleased, but at least she's had Trinket as a constant behind her, a large snoozing wall of fur; he stirs briefly at Izuku's approach, before grunting and going back to sleep.

Ah hells. It's a kid. Looking about as well as she feels: terrible. ]

Hey... [a headtilt] Out a little late, aren't you?

[shootstyles]

[He glances down at his wrist to see if the communicator has a clock on it. Is time here even normal? He doesn't know. All he knows is that it's night now and it feels like they've been back for nearly a day. If there is a time on the communicator, he doesn't even actually read it.

He just gives an exhausted shrug.]

Didn't feel like sleeping.

[moneytwin]

[ She can hardly blame him for that when she herself finds sleep avoiding her presence.

She lifts her hand, long fingers curving back towards her palm as she waves him over. ]

Then take a seat, if you want. You hungry?

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.]

[moneytwin]

[ The bear, for his part, initially pays little heed to Waver. His attention is squarely fixed on the bundle of branches he's been dragging with both maw and paw, and seems to be headed in a very specific direction out of the forest accordingly.

It appears to be moving on a parallel path to the one that leads to the lake, and if Waver glances ahead, a crouched figure in the field seems to be concentrating on the dirt.

Its only when he spits the log out with a grumble that he looks up, then directly at Waver, staring right back at him. Rrraug? ]

[teratias]

....Hi?

[Because that's how you should greet a bear. Who is clearly hard at work. Waver can guess at that much because said bear seems to know what it's about, and that suggests more intelligence then well, the average bear.]

[moneytwin]

Raghl.

[ Trinket barely has much in the way of intelligence. Grog is much smarter than he is.

But his Beloved Vex asked him to bring in some kindling, and he remembers how to do that from when they lived on the road more than in cities. So he sniffs at Waver, three large snorting noises, before he ducks his head and starts the awkward looking hauling process again.

Two or three of the thinner branches catch and get left behind in his wake as he goes, but he doesn't appear to notice. He's much more focused on the slim dark figure who straightens up ahead of him. ]

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.]

[moneytwin]

[ Trinket, for his part, is stretched out by the fire, partially curled on one side and his head resting on an outstretched paw. The arrival of Sheryl earns a sniff, before a large wet nose moves to nudge her arm with his muzzle. Hello. His eyes are droopy, and greeting bestowed, he seems to relax back into that half-doze he'd been enjoying.

Meaning the answer to Sheryl's question comes from another source: the shadow reclined against his belly. ]

Given how hard he worked today, tired is a given.

[he's been working hard alongside her all week, truth be told. Today just brings an solemn end note to such activities]

[fairysong]

[Sheryl visibly jumps a little when Vex speaks, her gaze zeroing in on the woman lying there. Really, they're like six feet apart; the fact that Sheryl hadn't seen her is slightly embarrassing.

Best to play it off like it didn't even happen.] ...right, of course. I'm sure he's been a hard worker doing-- whatever it is that bears do.

[Which is... something. She has no idea.]

[moneytwin]

[ Be glad it wasn't Vax. You STILL wouldn't see him, even if his voice was audible.

(Gods, she misses her twin right now.)

She can at least appreciate Sheryl's play at being cool, benevolently not calling her out for the jump. Instead, talking about bears. She can do that. ]

Helped me on the beach. Hauled some merfolk to the water. Then helped me haul wood for the fire. [she never directly looks up at Sheryl; brown eyes seemingly more gold in the firelight] He's a very good boy.

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. ]

[moneytwin]

[ Did you mean to hold out your hand so close? No? Too bad, because after Trinket tilts his head at Tony (puppy? he's not a puppy!), a slobbery tongue slurps across his palm. Drool of approval. Aren't you blessed.

The woman witb the bear turns when addressed, a wiggling frightened merchild making it difficult for her to carry them, especially when there's a child-sized fist pulling on an already tangled braid. That's going to be so badly knotted later. ]

Help now, jokes later. [not even a 'darling'. then again, she's thin lipped and focused, not wanting to risk more death when there are those here who can still be saved.]

[ She hadn't realised there were more druids in their midst, however. It takes a bit of convincing, but Tony has her moving back up the beach, bear following dutifully, before he begins working his Astoria-branded magic. Raising an arm to shield her eyes against the sand whipped up along with the ocean waters, Vex watches with wide eyes as Tony has the water gathered the landlocked. There's a long silence once the last of the merpeople resurface, waving to them, before ducking back below.

Sandy footfalls, followed by heavier ones, approach Tony's back, and the man will find himself bracketed - the half-elf to his right, and the bear slumping to the ground on the left. Not touching, mind you, but if he wants to tilt and rest on the bear, there probably won't be any objections.

Vex, for her part, drops herself down to sit as well, drawing her knees up so she can rest arms on them. In her most conversational tone, she attempts to find something eloquent to say. When that fails, she just lets out a sigh. ]

Well fuck.

[billionaires]

[ he's just gonna... take that offer thanks, leaning against the bear and heaving out a heavy sigh. he had no idea if that would work or not but he's damn glad it did anyway. ]

Yeah, um. M-T-E.

[ the quiet is good. the calm is good. the merpeople are safe. so... ]

I think I'm gonna sleep for a year. You guys in?

[moneytwin]

..huh?

[a blank look, then she simply closes her eyes and lets herself fall back, flat on the sand. ugh. She can figure out what that stands for later]

[ Trinket heaves a sigh, and turns his head a bit to look at his half-elf and the stray human, bear eyes looking especially wide and dewy. Bears do not cry, but even he knows something Very Bad Just Happened. ]

I'm not sure sleep is something I want to indulge in right now. [her voice croaks a bit, finally pushing past the salt water and roarness of past screaming] Maybe something really strong to drink, first.

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.]

[moneytwin]

[ Vex has the arm of one of the mermen looped over her shoulder when he calls, struggling a bit to straighten up under his weight without any water to manage it for her. Glancing over, Firo is not recognised, but he doesn't need to be: he's here, he's helping. ]

We'll soon find out. Trinket!

[ The bear immediately lumbers over faster. He doesn't look at Firo, instead lowering himself to his belly so that the merman can grasp hold of his armor and lie across his back. Bear taxi service soon follows, though Vex does pause to wipe sweat from her brow with her forearm, looking back to Firo. ]

How's the kid doing?

[foundafamily]

[Firo hardly gets to process his holy shit, watch out, it's a bear reaction before the bear starts... helping...

Well. OK. At least it's not more trouble?

He turns back to the kid and scoops them up, trying to ignore the sounds of raspy breathing (or not-breathing) all around them.]

Not great.

[Not that any of them are doing well.

He doesn't stop to think about fresh water versus salt water--something has to be better than nothing--before he's dashing down to the shore to slide the mermaid into the water.]

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. ]