[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

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. ]

[fairysong]

[She whirls around, turning on Lucina, and her cheeks are flushed and her eyes shining. There's a moment where she inhales like she's about to shout something at Lucina too.

Her voice cracks when she speaks, and it's not a shout, but a trembling, desperate breath.] What... what was the point of anything we did there, Lucina?

Tell me!

[rightfully]

[ Slowly -- ] I cannot.

[ There's nothing she can say, no magic words she can use to make this tragedy better. In Lucina, it settles too quickly, because she's had too much practice doing so - because when there's someone who needs her to be the adult, that's exactly what she does. Another failure, laying deeper in the shadows beneath her eyes, making the battle scars laid across her skin itch just that much more.

Empathy does settle in, softness replacing the whip-crack of Lucina's voice. Akvos is lost, but Sheryl is right here, and that's what needs her attention right now. ]

It is no clearer to me than it is to you, Sheryl. [ Her hands find her swordbelt at its diagonal slash across her chest, fingers flexing into the worn leather. ] We're not given to know why.

[fairysong]

So you're saying she just sends us to places like that-- and we've just got to accept it?

[Her hand balls into a fist and she approaches the other girl, almost as though she's going to strike her, before she drops it.] Like hell I'll accept this! If she could've saved us, she could've saved everybody!

i!!

[heartslight]

[ Kairi's not having a much better time. She feels terrible about what happened — absolutely in shock of it, too. She'd been trying her best the entire time. She tried to help with everything she could — she'd taken it upon herself to be as good as her friends had always been with their own world travels. Sora and Riku — they'd done so much for other worlds. She witnessed some of it herself.

But she wasn't able to help. She doesn't regret any of her actions, nor is she the type to allow feelings of darkness to drown her out. Her heart is light — pure light, even — so she's naturally able to wade through these sorts of problems. Just ... so soon after it happened, she can't help her feelings. She's so sorry, Akvos. Sora. Riku. Everyone. She did everything she felt she could.

So when Sheryl shouts at her, she can't help but feel sadness, not just for what happened but for how Sheryl is feeling, as well.

And she shakes her head. ]

I'm sorry. I — I don't know ...

[ She's not sure what to say. ]

I tried my best ... I really did ...

[fairysong]

I guess everyone's best just wasn't good enough!

[Sheryl snaps, her voice sharp and pitched up.

It's a horrifically cruel thing to say, and she realizes it almost immediately after she's said it. So she turns her ire on someone else.]

Why did she even send us there if we couldn't do anything?

[heartslight]

[ Kairi flinches a little from the yelling. She's super not used to being around people like this, and she already feels bad enough.

She doesn't know Astoria well, but she's always sounded like she's well-meaning, and Kairi doesn't have much reason to not trust people in the first place. She always believes the best in people, unless they give her thorough reason to believe otherwise. So ... Ah. ]

Maybe ... she didn't know. [ Shaking her head. ] She wouldn't send us there just to hurt us.

[fairysong]

Well good job for her, then! Well done, Astoria! [Sheryl is

kind of very much on the verge of panic right now.] If she's going to throw us into impossible scenarios where we can't help anyone, I'm out! I quit!

ii

[taketori]

[ Miyuki didn't know what really drew him near the lake. He wanted to keep clearing out his thoughts, continue to try to distract himself the best he could. He didn't have the fallback of his student council work anymore, and he didn't necessarily feel comfortable doing any kind of training yet.

It was during his walk that he did find his way back to the lake, overhearing the voice singing nearby. He couldn't help but think it was bad form to not announce himself and just listen, but how sad the song was caught him.

Once she's done, he's silent for a moment, before giving a light applause. ]

So, that's what your singing voice sounds like. It sounds nice.

[fairysong]

[Ordinarily, Sheryl would have lived for that applause. Now it just makes her feel like someone's been watching her at her most vulnerable.

You can't just sing for yourself, idiot, she tells herself. People will hear.

The water makes her teeth chatter as she responds:] I'm not at my best right now. Sorry.

[taketori]

I don't think many of us are at our best right now.

[ He goes right ahead to take a seat right on the ground. It wasn't really worth much, but he felt he should probably get this out there. ]

I'm... fairly certain this wasn't our fault. That's the impression I have.

[fairysong]

Does it r-really matter? [She says through chattering teeth.] We still l-l-let all of those people d-die.

ii.

[lumberlady]

[Just like it had that day, in the midst of the colorful coral reefs of the Akvosian field, it's the sound that attracts Konoha. She's been going through the motions, trying her hardest to at least stick to the routine she'd established the last time they'd been at the Temple. Been "home".

But waking up early, weeding and harvesting the garden fields, gathering from the woods, repairing her harnesses, preparing dinner...

No matter how much she does it, she can't get the images out of her head. Can't forget the screams, the blood, the elders she'd carried on her back through the rift, the children she'd promised would be alright. But what can she do now, besides just... stand on the shore of the lake, staring despondently out at Sheryl's back and wiping tears the best she can with the butt of her palm.

Only once the last note of the song finally dies away does she speak up, voice meek and laden with regret despite her attempt to act as normally as possible.]

Sheryl... Come back, you'll catch cold...

[fairysong]

[She inhales, softly, at the sound of another voice. It reminds her of other times the kind jinba girl had come across her. Of course other people could hear her singing; there's no such thing as singing just for yourself.

Her hands ball into fists.] I'm not c-cold.

[The words are undermined by the chattering of her teeth.]

[lumberlady]

Yes, you are...

[The lake’s chill, a welcome respite the last time they’d been here when the sun had been shining and the days warm has turned icy... whether it’s actual seasons or just the haze of malaise hanging over the Temple, she isn’t sure. But she can hear the chatter in Sheryl’s voice, a pattern different from the hiccup of tears she’s grown intimately familiar with these last few days.]

Come on, Sheryl... Let’s go back...

[They get to go back somewhere.]

[fairysong]

[Konoha's soft, sad voice is convincing in a way that others haven't been. Perhaps because it speaks to what she's feeling herself. She turns and begins wading back to the shore.]

...I don't know if I want to go back. Not to that temple. Not to the circle.

i! (whispers im so sorry)

[televised]

[Honestly, her original intent was to ignore Sheryl. She didn't care for her breakdown. Didn't care that some human was losing her shit in public. It's not her problem. Not her business. And in a way? She feels like they had this coming. Like this failure was a huge-ass wake-up call for everyone who blindly believed in the Circle's mission. Not because she's completely unaffected by the fact that so many people just died, but because she's a pessimist through and through.

It's not until she starts getting yelled at that she pretty much loses it, herself, quickly turning to glare at the woman beside her. Scoffing, intoned as if she were talking to a child:]

—Because life isn't fair.

[She could leave it at that, but. Unfortunately, as we know, misanthropist androids—]

So shut up or find somewhere else to be a nuisance. Your tantrum isn't going to bring them back.

no it's fantastic and i am sorry for this in turn

[fairysong]

[Sheryl steps back, shock on her face at the biting words. (Perhaps hypocritical shock, given that she'd just been acting rather similarly, but shock nonetheless).

Her mouth gapes open once or twice and she inhales sharply, wordless, before she

steps forward and strikes this other woman across the face with the palm of her hand. Or at least tries to.]

r i p girls..... lmk if this is ok, tho!

[televised]

[Tries to, indeed. The thing about androids is that their brains are literally computers. That means faster processing abilities, faster reaction times, and — a large capacity for getting pissed off like North isn't the one stirring the pot here. North will take a step back before Sheryl's hand can make contact, visible startled... before her shock and surprise gives way to anger.

Almost immediately, North is going to be reaching out for Sheryl's wrist in retaliation. If she manages to get a hold of it, she's going to dig her nails in and twist, her grip hard enough to hurt but not enough to cause any significant damage. Regardless of whether or not she succeeds, though, she practically spits out her next words.]

Who the fuck do you think you are?

[Even though she's the shitstirrer in this situation, she still looks like she's ready to throttle her if she tries anything else. Bad.]

lbr she deserves it

[fairysong]

[It had been honestly a spur-of-the-moment thought. Sheryl isn't the type to just strike someone without any good reason to do it, and the reaction had been immediate and instinctive.

So she's surprised when instead of connecting with the woman's face, her hand whiffs through empty air. She spins further than she'd intended, losing balance, which makes it very easy for North to grab her wrist in turn. Before she knows it, her arm's being twisted and squeezed, pain shooting up from her wrist that leaves her staggering, almost falling to her knees as she actually yelps.

She tries to pull her hand away, but between the woman's grip and the bad angle, she has no leverage.] Let-- go of me!

Are you crazy?!

i!

[theseuschip]

[ When her voice rises Simon stiffens. He’s almost as displeased with Sheryl herself, as she keeps going, as he is with the helplessness and ugly, petty irritation he feels listening to her. ]

Calm down. Nobody’s happy about it.

[ It’s said flatly, and he knows how uncharitable a response this is when a little more emotional effort could alchemize this frustration — because that’s how they all feel, there can’t be anybody here who doesn’t agree with Sheryl — into something supportive, or... mutually beneficial.

But they all just watched a whole world and hundreds of reaching, desperate arms get ripped away into a void. It would be a great thing to rally together about, but. He doesn’t really have that at the moment. ]

[fairysong]

I am calm! [No, no she's not.]

How could she just let that happen?! Isn't she supposed to be some all-powerful witch?!

[theseuschip]

[ Actually never mind she is very calm, she’s convinced him. ]

I think we’ve established she’s not an ‘all-powerful’ anything. It wasn’t under her control.

[ Not that that isn’t unsettling in itself. ]

It was a really... really shitty accident.

[fairysong]

Then maybe she shouldn't be sending us to places she can't do anything about! Maybe she should've given us all better ~magical powers~!

Anyway you look at it, the problem ends with her! [She jabs her finger in the direction of the temple.]