(Untitled)

[howarewefortime]

T H I N G S   F A L L   A P A R T

T H E   C E N T R E   C A N N O T   H O L D

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-03 HRS

[howarewefortime]

There's a DRUM
in the bones of the place, as the walls and the rafters and the deep stone bedrock of Milliways groan and shake in unison.

A rumble and a roar as the destroyers of worlds continue to hammerDRUM
at each other beyond the shields, as the dying stars look on hungrily, as the cannons fire and the great, slow battle beats against the DRUM
of the world.

There's a DRUM
in the air of the place, the THRUM and HUM and FLARE of magic, the cymbal-clash of steel and snare of bullets, and the steady beat beat DRUM
beat of the fight.

Re: -03 HRS

[thedoctorwho]

While the Doctor is frantically doing what he can to keep the chaos outside the bar from spilling inside, somewhere not too far into his own future (but very, very, very far in the past), his universe's version of the Legion of Doom have lured him beneath Stonehenge where the Pandorica awaits. He knows the source of the cracks in the universe now, but there's nothing he can do as he is dragged literally kicking and screaming into the cube, the universe's perfect prison where nothing escapes, not even time.

Meanwhile, somewhere everywhere: the TARDIS is being pulled inexorably, unstoppably toward something. River does her best to steer the bloody thing, to force an emergency landing. Finally, she feels the exit from the Vortex. All she has to do is open the door and get out, and everything will power down, and the universe will be saved. It takes some creative rigging to override the circuits, but the door unlocks. She pulls them open... only to run into a brick wall. A literal one, sealing off her exit. She looks over her shoulder in

Re: -03 HRS

[howarewefortime]

It hurts the eyes to look at, bright and beautiful and sad. It flares up, and out, and then dims, then it fl-

it flick-

it flares up, and out, and then dims

it flares up, and out, and then dims

Between Milliways and the TARDIS, looping in upon itself, an end upon an end upon an end, another firework here where the end of everything is the hourly dinnertime show, Galactus and Unicron fl-

they begin to flicker

the TARDIS flares up, and out, and then dims

It's a busy sky out there; a crowded spotlight. There wasn't really room for one more star.

Slowly, things begin to tip towards it, the

(time might begin to get a little sticky here, stringing out like treacle and then snapping back together)

dark space behind the TARDIS, the shadow between the stars, so very far away. But not quite as far away as it was a moment ago.

(space might start to get a little funny, too)

Re: -03 HRS

[thedoctorwho]

Meanwhile, somewhere everywhere: the TARDIS is being pulled inexorably, unstoppably toward something. River does her best to steer the bloody thing, to force an emergency landing. Finally, she feels the exit from the Vortex. All she has to do is open the door and get out, and everything will power down, and the universe will be saved. It takes some creative rigging to override the circuits, but the door unlocks. She pulls them open... only to run into a brick wall. A literal one, sealing off her exit. She looks over her shoulder in time to see the console explode.

And over the skies of Milliways, where so many lights are going out... a new star blooms.

-02 HRS

[howarewefortime]

The opening of the Darkgate has cast a false night over Milliways, the once-crimson sky now a seething cloud the colour of old, dried blood. But the darkness is not total.

Even now, there is light.

The fiery column by the lake reaches up towards the sky from the silvery sphere on the ground, consuming the gloom like the very air feeding the unnatural flames.

It's been growing brighter.

The air is thick, sick, heavy with the smell of Free Magic, harsher and more cruel than even the scent of death that hangs over the field.

And then everything goes:WHITE

- stark and bleached in a blinding flash of light, and the ground judders even more violently than before. And when the light is gone...

The light is gone.

And so is the sphere.

Until it CRASHES back to the earth with another jarring impact, knocking all those nearby off their feet.

And then

everything

goes:WHITE
The shields around the sphere have protected Milliways from the worst of the devastation. Inside, however - within the area contained by those working against

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

Yrael yowls his challenges to Orannis aloud, even as the hot blast of air hits, ash falling from the sky like dark snow.

He can feel the weakness in those few shields that are left - and knows Orannis can, too. They won't last much longer.

Re: -02 HRS

[wordofa_sayre]

"Yrael."

For the first time since it had manifested, Orannis's resonant voice is shaded with sharp bitterness.

"Do you intend to stand against me a second time?"

Re: -02 HRS

[mogget_cat]

It has been thousands of years since they were brothers. It has been twenty-seven years, and it has been a few hours since they last spoke. A few words, little more, interrupted before the heart of the matter could even be addressed.

And it comes to this.

"Of course."

Bitterness, yes. On both sides.

-01 HRS

[howarewefortime]

It's too late.

You've done well. You all have; so very well. Thank you. But it's too late. The shields are disintegrating. Galactus and Unicron have battered at them too long and too hard; the looping death of the TARDIS has taken it's toll, and that toll is too high. The centre cannot hold.

They spin slowly into the black hole, one after another, silent in the empty void of space. The TARDIS flickers and blooms one last time, and then winks out, like a candle being snuffed. The two destroyers  s t r e t c h  away, long and terrible, and then they, too, stutter and are gone

Re: -01 HRS

[wordofa_sayre]

All things must end.

For thousands upon uncounted thousands of years, it has been the single driving desire of the being known as the Orannis, the Destroyer, Ninth of the Bright Shiners: to witness the destruction of all things.

Some dreams do come true... even if not exactly as one might have wished. All things are indeed ending, but the final victory is not the Destroyer's.

The combined efforts of those standing so valiantly in place of the Seven have succeeded. Blown by waves of wind and lightning-flame, driven by a sword of power and shifted by rumbling earth and the glorious song of the Eighth, its sibling, the gleaming sphere that is Orannis is borne inexorably backward until at the last it slides through the portal of the Darkgate -- and vanishes, irretrievably lost into the dimension beyond.

Re: -01 HRS

[mogget_cat]

The sudden removal of Orannis from Milliways would be a relief to anyone - should be a palpable relief - but the Destroyer's defeat does not stop the destruction currently claiming Milliways.

Feeling his home coming apart, the remaining Bright Shiner falls to the broken, scarred ground, his singing abruptly cut off.

Re: -01 HRS

[yucca_isnt_porn]

"And all you CREate, aNd ALl you DEstrOY, and all that you DO,and all tHAt you sAy. Aaand all thAT you EAt, ANd evERRRYone you meET, aNd all tHAt you slIGHt...And everyONE you FIGHT."
"AANnd all THAT is NOW, ANd all that is GONE, and all tHAAt's to COME, and EVeryTHing under the SUN is in TUNE, but the SUN IS ECLIPSED BY THE MOoooOOOOoooon."

There is no place left to run now, and even as lost as he is, Mother knows this, sagging with the thunder gun as the orb vanishes. Like everything's leaving him now, on that last note of the song.

"...I regret nothing on this day, save a place that will be lost."

[remindmeof_me]

"Okay, I'm out of ammo, I'm out of grenades, somethin' the size of a fuckin' Toyota ate my goddamn pipe wrench, and the whole godfuckinmothershitting universe is comin' apart at the assball seams," says Shephard, who's finally come inside to get out of the way of the unspeakable things falling out of the sky. "This ain't what I'd call optimal."

"Mrryip?" offers a tiny little voice, as do seven or eight others in rapid succession.

Shephard smiles, and reaches over to scritch the nearest puppy along his first neon blue stripe. "That's right, boy," he says. "You'n the others'n your momma, we're in this shit together. And you know what?"

Mrs. Wilson blinks at him as she nudges a few of the pups closer to the human.

"We gon' git through this somehow. Fuck me if I know how, but we're gonna. We did our part'n now it's down to the Almighty to do his. And he will."

Over there, he thinks, on the other side of the smoking wreck that used to be a table. That's where General Rogers was sitting the first time Shephard ever met him. Where he

[brave_kreyu]

Funny how these things work. There's blood in the snow, too much and of the wrong color to belong to anything that came through the gate.

If his eye follows the blood trail the darkness will resolve itself into a vast and familiar shape.

"Well met." Kreyu's voice is unfathomably weary, a worn sound instead of its usual rumble.

[remindmeof_me]

"Hola, Kreyu," says Shephard. "You, uh... you ain't never met the puppies yet, have you?"

[brave_kreyu]

"I have not," Kreyu replies, stretching her neck to get a closer look at them.

She doesn't stand. Considering what he can see of her rear legs, it's entirely possible that she can't.

00 HRS

[howarewefortime]

It's too late.

The air is thin now. Everything is so light; even the tremors don't seem so strong anymore.

All that remains is this: love, life, friends.

Piece by piece, the sky starts to break away, streaming away like banners towards the heart of the black hole. Piece by piece, the bedrock starts to follow.

The TARDIS snuffs out like a candle; Galactus and Unicron stutter again, and are once more gone.

All of Milliways leans in, narrowing down, focusing towards that one most important point.

The pike gets there first.

The wave that rolls out towards Milliways is blinding; bright, light, fire, energy, white, free-falling, bright, bright -

Re: 00 HRS

[claudiometer]

Claudia doesn't have time to turn off the bridge device. She doesn't have time to catch her breath. She barely has time to close her eyes against the bright, bright, bright light--
(I'm free-fallin' out into nothing)
--and even that doesn't help, not really, and she's thinking Joshua Artie Myka Pete Leena guys I love you I'm sorry
(I live this moment as my last)
because really, everyone here knows they're going down with the ship, and everyone who had the sense or ability to get home knows there may not be a ship to come back to. She just hopes everyone at home gets the message somehow.
(every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end)
...but is it her imagination, some last desperate completely insane hope... or are they falling away from the black hole?

Re: 00 HRS

[river_meimei]

And everything's snuffing out, there's nothing to fight, there's nothing left to do but be pulled in--

Re: 00 HRS

[wolflord_andain]

Nothing left to do save shift, swift and blurring, from wolf to man, reaching one bloodied hand out for the woman moving nearby, weapons still at hand.

"River."

Winter-grey eyes meet dark brown and hold, if only for a moment.

Shall they, as the common parlance would have it, blow this popsicle stand?