of those blackholes & revelations

[capemods]

WHO: All imPorts.
WHERE: Atropos.
WHEN: January 7th to January 14th.
WARNINGS: Death and destruction.
SUMMARY: Atropos has risen in the night, and the inevitable has come: with her jaws she shears away the City from Earth and swallows it whole.

But the City is not yet dead.
FORMAT: Whatever you please.



The formless mass of metal haunting above, hovering like a lunar tombstone, begins to take shape. Asteroids plummet into the cheeks, the eyes, carving out bone structure. Her features howl with fury, with triumph, as she stares down below, savoring her conquest. A cavity opens. Metal swoops to form jagged, angry shears. Her teeth are born.

She waits as the world rotates, its spin more wobbly than it used to be.

And then she leans down to feast, her bite vampiric. She takes the City and then some, and all that it encompasses, so that every single imPort is captured. She takes the time to drink in any stragglers, any imPorts elusive to the City's thrall.

She holds the City on her tongue as she draws back her fist to punch the world.

And then teeth close to the shuddering, glass shattering vibration of a cosmic laugh. The jaws close, and there is no light for about an hour -- until Atropos begins to siphon solar energy from the sun into her veins. She is dissatisfied with its dying tint, or perhaps she cannot stand the redness of color, so once she injects this energy into her her body (her most intimate domain), she turns it bright yellow again. The universe within her is illuminated.

The City is a floating chunk of broken skyscrapers and puckered asphalt streets. The trauma of consumption has wrecked the usual infrastructure: buildings are half collapses, or skeletal, vehicles are flipped and strewn across the layout. Whatever vegetation that is still clinging onto life has rejoiced under the return of normal sunlight.

You can breathe. It isn't too hot, or too cold -- it's unusually pleasant, in fact. The sunshine veins that light your world are not overwhelming. There is no blue sky to complement the atmosphere, and whatever water still in the City will be constrained to the bottled kind found in shops.

But there are other floating pieces of worlds, and they might have water. Or food.

If you live in the City, your possessions should still be in the City. While about 76% of the natives have fled the City (which had gotten the brunt of focus over the past week), there are still some natives who were too sick, too sentimental or too stubborn to leave.

You'll find that your powers work normally, though you can't teleport within Atropos. You probably wouldn't want to teleport outside of her, anyway.

She swallows, and the City gentle glides down a slick throat. Dust and particles create stunning visuals, like the aurora borealis, except in warmer colors. Light reflects so easily from solar veins and starstrewn flesh.

While you can breathe easily, gravity is fickle. Physics is often defied. Atropos was never one to play by the rules.

Comments

open as hell!! (AND NOW IN THE RIGHT SPOT...)

[crab]

a.

[ He's only ever right when he doesn't want to be.

When the massive jaws of Atropos open to devour the City, Karkat finds that the terrible fear that has consumed him since the first buildings began to warp seems to evaporate, all at once, in the face of it. He steps outside to watch them descend, driven by a twisted compulsion to watch his doom approach. It leaves him numb, leaves him with a strange mix of bereavement, guilt and, most prominently, a feeling that this was inevitable, all along.

This universe was always ailing, terminally so. And although it may not necessarily be his fault this time, it only seems fitting, that he should go down with it.

And so, when light returns, when it becomes apparent that he is not dead, merely displaced, as it was once before, he's left at rather a loss for how to react. The light makes him uneasy in a way it hasn't done since he was a wiggler -- it isn't a comfort to his species, the way it is for humans, and now, it feels downright foreboding. There is no game to be played, this time, no game plan to be had, no sprites or consorts or denizens or dream clouds or planet lore to nudge him in the right direction, and being here again, without that structure, without it being a game, it feels more real. The destruction more final. Their doom postponed, rather than averted.

He picks his way through the rubble and decaying carcasses of the fauna that had fallen earlier in the week, for lack of any better ideas, in search of some objective, and of those he knows. ]

b.

[ In a rather short space of time, it swiftly becomes apparent that it is less cosmic annihilation he should be worrying about, and more slow, painful death through dehydration. He'd had water stashed in his sylladex, to begin with, but they'd exhausted their stores that day. Unable to trust either of his housemates with the venture, for various invidivual reasons, Karkat sets out on his own to obtain some. It gives him something to do, at least, something to strive for.

He's been searching less than an hour with no luck when the asteroids hit, when the earthquake arrives, and that numb acceptance he'd felt while looking at Atropos is long gone -- terror fills him, when he narrowly misses being crushed by a falling support beam. He runs, though he is aware of the stupidity inherent in attempting to run away from an earthquake. Concrete and broken glass rain down from above, and many already-unstable buildings collapse as their foundations are abused.

One fist-sized piece of rubble strikes him on the temple, and the next thing he's aware of is laying on the ground, coughing, eyes watering, with a painful sense of sharpness in his lungs. His near surroundings are shrouded in a purple haze, and for one wild moment he thinks he might be back on LOPAH, before reality sets in, and he struggles to sit up, head throbbing, the uncomfortable, clumpy feeling of dried blood in his hair. For a while, he merely focuses on breathing without dissolving into coughing fits, and by the time he struggles back to his feet, the haze is all but gone.

He is disoriented, sore both from the blow to the head and the fall to the ground. The haze he'd inhaled was probably poisonous. He's tired and has witnessed way more apocalypses than any one person has any right to. And he is really, really thirsty. Dust coats his throat, and it's with a muttered stream of curses that he resumes his prior attempts at looting. What he wouldn't give for a vending machine that hasn't already been ransacked! ]

a.

[culver]

[It had been over twenty-four hours since Kate had left to help with the evacuation efforts. It had been twelve since her last contact. In times of crisis, they had always agreed on checking in once every two hours, at the very least. Nill had waited for as long as she could, but Kate hadn't come back and the phones were down. There was only one option left. Naoto's blade is slung across her back, Heine's Luger is at her hip, and she tries to ignore the trembling in her hands.

When she had gone out to look, she hadn't expected to stare up into the jaws of a monster so vast that for the first time in so long, her legs start to shake.

They collapse.

It is dark for what seems like ages.

Brightness returns, and it is like opening her eyes for the first time. She is on the concrete, her jeans and shirt torn, boots and hair covered in dust. Some miracle of fate is all that kept her from getting crushed by the debris that lay all around her. She stands, still unsteady, and wipes dirt from her face, looks around. The streets (everything is crushed, all that's left of some buildings is rubble, she can't think about how familiar it all is) are empty, except for a shadowy figure or two in the distance.

The steps towards one of them feel so heavy, but she cannot stop moving.]

[crab]

[ His search is aimless, without direction or any clear destination, and so, it is pure chance, that he catches sight of her, walking towards him. The way she looks reminds Karkat of the way he feels, and he doesn't even need to think about it, when he changes course to approach her. ]

Nill. [ He calls, raising a hand. Not in a wave, so much as a simple method of drawing attention. ]

[culver]

[She recognizes his voice immediately, and relief replaces the daze. Nill's steps quicken until his face is no longer obscured by the curtain of floating dust. Karkat is safe. The phrase repeats itself in her head like a mantra, because right now it's all she has to grasp. Kate might not be, Renee might not be, but Karkat is. It matters.

She doesn't even think before moving to hug him.]

[crab]

[ And for once, rather than tense up or pull away from the contact, Karkat merely lifts his arms to return the hug, burying his face in Nill's shoulder and holding her tight. ]

Are you okay? [ His voice is slightly muffled. ]

[culver]

[For a moment, she lets herself forget that the world is falling apart around them. She's hugging a friend that she hasn't seen in what feels like ages, they're just saying hello. His question shatters the brief illusion, of course, but it was nice for a few seconds.

She nods instead of answering, pressing her cheek against his head. Nill presses her fingers into his back, a silent reciprocation of the question. She doesn't want to say anything.]

[crab]

[ Misinterpreting the press of fingers against his back, as Karkat has a tendency to do-- ]

Right, okay. That was a pretty dumb question, sorry.

[ He pauses briefly, preferring to talk into her shoulder rather than break their embrace. ]

This apocalypse is a lot shittier than my one was.

[culver]

[She doesn't even care about the misunderstanding. She's still hung up on the fact that he's still alive.

Finally, she finds her voice.]

I am sorry you have to go through another one.

[crab]

It's okay. I kinda had this one coming, anyway. [ He lets out a heavy sigh. ] I was responsible for the end of this world, in my reality. Suppose it's only fair that I go down with it, eventually.

[culver]

I don't think that is fair.

[Because nobody should have to go through this once, let alone twice.]

b. hey remember how i said we should get cr a month ago /cough

[smarterthandad]

[In the aftermath of the asteroid strikes, Valeria's taken it upon herself to look for survivors, and even find a few, all of whom had been too rattled by the last few weeks to concern themselves with how they had been saved by a three year old. "Saved for what?" is a question she's not asking herself; as long as anyone's still alive, it's worth fighting.

She finds it much easier and faster to float on an invisible disc of force than to walk on her short legs and spend all her energy clambering over obstacles, so she's gliding along, sitting cross-legged in the air like some kind of tiny yogi in a superhero outfit when she sees Karkat and drifts to a halt.]

You look awful. Are you all right?

[At least Val's customary lack of tact ought to be something less of a problem for a troll than it usually is for members of her own species.

Unlike Karkat, she's clean and put-together, uninjured by the earthquake (her force fields can deflect much worse than falling buildings), her white Future Foundation uniform still gleaming and spotless (unstable molecules don't stain), and her expression calm, shading into concern for him (she's been through nastier things than a few asteroid strikes).]

yes i recall lets do this

[crab]

[ After everything he's seen, a floating toddler with proper articulation only gives Karkat a few moments of pause, before he collects himself. He intends to answer her with some barbed quip about not having had time to do his hair and makeup what with the apocalypse and all, but what comes out of his mouth instead is: ]

I am awful. In every sense of the word.

[ Which results in his previously irritated expression morphing into something closer to confused and vaguely alarmed. ]

[smarterthandad]

[Well, that seems...off. Val's reclusive beyond her small circle of co-conspiratorsfriends, but she does monitor the network closely, albeit with a computer program that compiles profiles for her, and Karkat is usually...not like this. He does have a head injury, she supposes.]

...Okay, sure. I'll help you anyway. [It's what superheroes do, and she is totally a superhero just like her family, okay.] Is your species susceptible to concussions?

[crab]

Yeah, we are. We're susceptible to most of the same injuries your species is. [ The head injury may explain the bizarre word vomit. He frowns, and reaches up to feel his head. Bad idea -- he winces at the pain, and again when his hand comes away wet, smears of bright candy red on his fingers. Ordinarily he'd try not to draw attention to it, but... ]

This is disgusting. [ Scathing, furious. ] I can't believe this. I can't believe people don't instantly begin to projectile vomit like a collection of puke fountains the instant anyone sees it.

[smarterthandad]

Scalp wounds do bleed a lot, but that's because the area's heavily vascularized. It's not a good indication of severity by itself.

[Because that's clearly what Karkat's worried about, not the filthy mutant red color--which of course looks like perfectly normal oxygenated blood to Val.

She's looking around for a store to raid; even an overpriced I ♥ NY t-shirt will do as a bandage, since Karkat's clothes are filthy and her wouldn't absorb blood even if either of them were strong enough to tear a strip out in the first place.]

[crab]

It's not the wound. [ He tells her, and though his tone is impatient, the look on his face is one of dawning horror. ] It's the color.

[smarterthandad]

It looks adequately oxygenated to me. Let's find you something to bandage that up.

[Cranky alien kids being weird at her is actually a fairly normal day for Val, and she certainly doesn't know how much Karkat hates his blood, so she's just going to keep assuming he's lightly concussed as she starts to float off towards a less-wrecked part of the street.]

Are you dizzy? Do you need me to carry you?

[crab]

I have never been more grateful for someone's chronic ability to miss the point than I am right now.

[ Is what he has to say about that, following her with an only slightly unsteady pace. ]

I take back everything I ever said about stupid people. I welcome all stupidity with open arms, particularly yours. Thank every almighty fuck you don't understand what I'm talking about.

b

[heartlessglitch]

Karkat.

[ his name is the only warning there is before someone's hands find his arms, grasping him firmly from behind. maybe she would have found him sooner had she been in her robotic container, but danger distrusted the physics and metal alike with atropos swallowing them whole. still, she'd seen him stumbling along from a distance and recognized him-- relieved, despite her passive exterior, to find someone she called her close friend.

but by her initial assessment, he'd been better. he wasn't looking well. ]

[crab]

[ Karkat does not appreciate being snuck up on or touched unexpectedly even under good circumstances. In the middle of the apocalypse, in the aftermath of an earthquake, while suffering what is probably a concussion, being seized from behind with little to no warning, unsurprisingly, causes him to react aggressively. ]

Motherfucker! [ He flinches, violently, aiming a backward kick at the shins of whomever has a hold on him, and tries to tear himself out of their grip, strife specibus already in hand. ]

[heartlessglitch]

[ it's fortunate that her combat experience gives her the instincts to release him and dodge that kick, even in this more vulnerable flesh-based form -- but the instinct to retaliate, she resists, instead putting her hands up palms facing outward in a gesture of appeasement she had seen humans use before. ]

I apologize. I did not mean to startle you.

[crab]

Danger! [ He gasps, upon taking in her appearence, and that sickle instantly disappears right back into his strife deck. ] What the fuck, do you make a habit of creeping up on people in the middle of floating death dystopia and grabbing them from behind? I could have gutted you!

[heartlessglitch]

No. It was not my intention to take you off guard.

[ she finally lets her hands drop back down to her side, though she allows the space to remain between him, gauging his tension. ]

I was only relieved to have located you. It superseded my logic.

[crab]

I'm glad you're safe, too. [ The words rush out without preamble or posturing, which would be a warning flag, if not for the extenuating circumstances. He kind of wants to hug her, but holds his distance for the moment. ] Why are you human?

[ He has always associated her human form with vulnerability. ]

[heartlessglitch]

[ she purses her lips at his question-- not expecting it, maybe. it seems almost a small detail now, compared to ensuring the safety of one of her closest friends. but after a moment, she obliges him, responding a bit ambiguously: ]

The metal whispered to me. I didn't trust it.

[ she pauses, then asks in return: ]

Are you harmed? Have you had water or food recently?