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

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! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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. ]

[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.]

[ she looks young, or at the very least, inej's age. and inej squeezes her hand lightly before letting go, coughing into her arm to get the last vestiges of water up before continuing: ]

The faster we organize some semblance of normalcy, the better we will all feel. Right?

[ it's not really meant to be a proper question, rather than to talk just to talk. and inej moves with purpose, to begin collecting dry brush, her movements automatic, purposeful. ]

Come. We can do it together. What is your name?

[Ruki nods. It's hard to imagine getting back to normal now. But what use is there in just sitting here getting cold.]

If you say so.

[She isn't an idiot. Ruki watches her for only a moment before walking forward to help collect dry twigs as well. She figures she can do that much.]

It's Ruki. Yours?

Inej.

[ she responds in kind, pulling a knife from her clothing to cut through some dry brush with ease, tugging it to dump it into an impromptu pile. ]

How long have you been in the Circle?

I got here just before we got sent to that underwater world, but I don't exactly know how long ago that was. It seemed like forever ago.

[She wasn't sure if there was a way to tell. Neither the temple or the underwater world seemed to have a calendar. There just hadn't been away way to really track the days and with things being rather dull at times, well, one day kind of bled into the next.

Ruki picks up another branch from the ground.]

I'm just not usually very social.

[ she has to offer half a smile, at the notion of not "being very social" -- mostly because inej feels the same. and once the brush pile reaches a respectable amount, inej begins to search her clothes for a piece of flint she found prior to akvos, sealed away in a pocket. hopefully it isn't too damp to create a spark. ]

I am not very social either.

[ in reassurance, knocking the pieces of stone together to try and create some amount of spark. ]

I'm not sure if I would call it shy, but I would rather be alone, sometimes, than surrounded by people. Being an introvert, maybe?

Yeah, that's the best way to put it I think.

[She definitely wasn't shy about things. Of course, nowadays, she didn't mind the company of her small group of friends so much. The hard part was figuring out how to make friends here. Everyone was either so much older or just so much was going on there didn't really seem time to get to know someone.]

Do you think you could show me how to do that?

[Ruki sets her pile nearby for use, watching curiously as Inej works to start the fire. It'd be a useful skill to know, since apparently they can never tell where they'll end up.]

[ there's a pause, at the question, before inej offers a smile and holds out the pieces of flint to ruki. ]

Sure; it's easier than it looks.

[ and inej pulls the drier brush closer, to set it up in a manner that'll be easy to catch. ]

Strike the rocks together to create a spark . . . it may take a few tries, but try to catch the grass and smaller brush on fire. And blow on the embers, to create a flame.

[Ruki accepts the flint, looking at such simple tools, before allowing her gaze to drift back to Inej as she builds another small pile of dry brush for her to practice with. It almost sounds too easy, but Ruki finds out rather quickly that just striking the rocks isn't cutting it.

The first few attempts result in nothing, though on the fourth try she sees the 'spark' briefly light up between the two rocks. She frowns thoughtful and goes at it again. After a few more tries the sparks finally catch on the brush and it lights up.

Ruki smiles and then remembers she's supposed to blow on it. She leans down, but the sparks flicker and die again. Her smile drops.]

Aw, it went out.

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

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