Not even tourism can fix this [open]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Anyone on the Convoy
Content: They arrived too late.
Setting: The site of the explosion...or as close as the ship can get to it, since the actual site has crumbled and fallen through the cloud layer
Time: All day on Amicus, starting in the early hours of the morning
Notes: A rough idea of Reial's new coastline can be found here.

Comments

[drinkitlovelife]

"No, no way..."

Kurumi's grip tightened on the railing, so hard that the metal started to crush. She shook all over, staring down at the clouds that should have been underneath something but weren't. Scenes came into her head of a bittersweet party, a crash she'd rushed to with her toolbox, the sound of bombs going off, monsters twenty times her size swarming a helpless town. Things that had ripped her apart, but no, they shouldn't have, because at least there was still something left, while this...

[thegoodtouch]

Optimus Prime couldn't take his eyes off the desolation either. He was lost in memories as well -- memories of his lost home.

He'd been there. He'd seen the buildings, the magnificent structures of Cybertron, buckle and crumble and finally sink out of sight as the ground gave way beneath them. He'd felt the earth that had seemed so stable shake under his feet. He remembered being able to see to the edge of what was left of their home, their civilization, their world.

Optimus had managed to prevent the entirety of Reial from suffering the same fate, but this...was still a lot of damage. Lives had been lost. A part of the continent was gone forever, and it was because he, Optimus Prime, had failed to prevent it.

His shoulders were slumped as he stood beside Milk on the deck, his entire frame weighted down with regret and guilt and failure. Once again, he was left surviving a cataclysm wondering, What should I have done?

[drinkitlovelife]

Kurumi looked up at the robot and shook her head.

"Why did we..." She sighed. "I knew it was impossible, but since when does 'impossible' actually mean anything? I always thought it didn't. A hero does whatever's needed, possible or not, right?"

[thegoodtouch]

"Sometimes..." Prime replied slowly, measuring his words. "Sometimes...there isn't a way. But that doesn't mean that you should give up before you begin. The only way to find out if something is impossible or only seems impossible is to try anyway, with all you've got. I'd say a hero does everything they can, no matter how impossible they think it is."

And yet...this time, it had been impossible. Even the planes would not have reached the lake in time -- they couldn't have carried enough fuel. And sending a strike force from Licere would have been suicide. He knew how tough those satyrs were. He simply didn't have the manpower to divide his forces like that.

[flightofthe]

It would take someone going and looking for Bumblebee to find him. The little scout had settled himself somewhere half-hidden, far from the ship and the rest of the crew but where he could still still the gaping emptiness where ground had been only yesterday. Memories played through his processor - names and faces, the shattering of buildings, the sudden void where loved ones had stood only kliks before. He curled up, arms wrapped tightly around his knees and his face buried, shuddering uncontrollably as a low, broken, staticky keening sounded from his vocal modulator.

[invincible_kuro]

Kuro was worried. Even if his hime hadn't been caught in the blast, there was no telling what happened to it during the cloudquake. And then there were his owners who could be anywhere on the cortinent...even...

But they wouldn't be there, he told himself, they had the Devil's luck, those two. They wouldn't have been...

Kuro was worried, and, like it always did, this worry manifested into a desire to shoot something, anything, even if he didn't mean to kill it.

So he had moved away from everyone else (because it was depressing being around them, and it didn't help stem his worry or his desire shoot something) and was prowling an area further away, looking for some kind of local fauna to pick a good old fashioned Badlands fight with. (Though if he were being honest with himself he wasn't really trying so hard if he was looking for something this close to the blast site

=D w-we've not played before, but I know Kuro's been on the ship long enough that-

[flightofthe]

((ooc: -Bee's probably met him before? If this isn't okay, I'll change it. =3))

Bumblebee stifled himself at the unexpected voice, shifting into view to peek around the rock he was leaned against.

"Oh . . . hey, Kuro." His voice was flatter than usual but not unfriendly. "I'm sorry, were . . . were you looking for me?" He'd hate to think he'd been "hiding" if he had duties to attend to.

It's fine! :3

[invincible_kuro]

"Yo."

At the question he just made some vague motion with his paw, "Nah. Just...looking around."

Then Kuro went quiet for a moment. For all that he liked to pretend, Kuro wasn't actually stupid (mostly), and he definitely noticed that something was wrong. But...honestly, he had gotten so used to everyone running to him with their problems that he wasn't sure how to bring it up when they didn't. His expression wasn't uncomfortable though, just blank...because, what the hell was he supposed to say?

[murcielago]

Ulquiorra stood on the deck, his hands in his pockets, looking out across the void left by the explosion with unmoveable impassiveness. If he cared, it didn't show on his face, but the magnitude of the situation wasn't lost on him. The magical residue left by the blast hung in the air as thickly as the stunned shock of those on board and the remaining charge made his skin prickle. The smell of dust and the eerie silence in the wake of such a noise acted as a distraction

[scaredbrilliant]

Justin wasn't sure why he had even come up here to look at the site of the disaster, except that he couldn't have done anything else. He doubted not seeing it would have helped. Not really. He'd still know what happened, and he'd still be stuck in the same endless tracing of what mental pathways, what broken value sets and linkages could have possibly caused anyone to want to do something like that. He could even understand it in the abstract, but on another level...

"It makes no sense," he said dully, the words directed out into the emptiness in front of him. He was aware of Ulquiorra's presence, of having automatically made his way toward him without quite realizing it, but it was difficult to turn away from the sight of the cliff and look at him.

[murcielago]

Ulquiorra blinked once, slowly, and turned to the sound of Justin's voice. He knew, of course, that something like this would upset him. Senseless destruction and pointless, large-scale violence were not things he'd had to deal with before and, more than likely, things he never would. He was used to things being largely controlled, albeit sometimes not in ways he would like and something like this, the reasons, the thought processes behind it...

It would be lost on a lot of people, but most of all him.

"Hn," he wasn't entirely sure what to say. His special brand of cynical, direct-to-the-point comments were not going to be welcome in the current situation. "We prevented more of the same happening."

It was a small consolation. Had all of them gone off, the entire floating continent would likely have cracked in two and sunk below the cloud layer.

[scaredbrilliant]

He did turn to look at him, then. The movement was slow, a little stunned. As if the sight before him pulled at his gaze, or as if he was afraid anything more than the gentlest motion might change the world again.

He didn't nod at his words, but he did answer, after a moment and a slightly deeper breath. "You did."

Justin, personally, had done nothing in the matter - not that he could have, of course. He was not irrational enough to feel guilt about the fact, but neither was he going to include himself in the number of people who helped prevent the disaster.

The thought of the entire continent disappearing... that was far more than he could wrap his mind around. He did not want to try, but the idea pushed against the edge of his thoughts anyway, enormous and incomprehensible. It was taking most of his attention just to keep it out.

Epic Robot Battle (cont.) thread

[daggersinsmile]

In Beast Mode, Dinobot came stomping out of the ship proper, to survey the damage. That was what he would tell anyone who asked, anyway. His real reason, of course, was to find Optimus Prime.

And gloat. Because that was what Dinobot did.

But he paused when he saw the damage to the coastline. He had no real feeling for Reial as a continent. It was simply the place where he had woken up. But this all felt extremely familiar. ...But then that had been Optimus' fault, too, hadn't it?

At such moments, he could only quite himself. "Hmph. If after every tempest come such calms, may the winds blow till they have waken'd death."

/thows prime into ALL THE THREADS. ALL OF THEM.

[thegoodtouch]

His target was standing by the rail, staring out at the empty space and swirling clouds below. As Dinobot approached, Optimus Prime did not turn to face him.

"What do you want?" he said heavily.

[daggersinsmile]

Dinobot scoffed, as he was wont to do. He came closer, and looked over the side at what held the Captain's fascination so. "You should know the answer to that. We are wasting time, Optimus. Staring at the edge of the world will not reverse the course of your most recent failure."

[thegoodtouch]

He did not turn to look at Dinobot. Prime's optics were narrowed, fixed on some invisible point in the clouds.

"What would you have done, then?" the weary Autobot commander asked, voice tense. "Tell me, did you have a way to save them all?"

[edge_of_honor]

Edgeworth rushed to the deck as soon as he had heard the explosion. His ears still rang with the sound of it all. His mind ran wild with images of chaos and destruction, while the more rational part of his brain tried desperately to figure out what, exactly, could have happened.

It was worse than anything he could have imagined. Edgeworth choked on his own breath when he saw the jagged edge of the continent, and his eyes widened as he grew weak in the knees. This...this was impossible. This couldn't be!

And yet, here it was. All Edgeworth could do was stumble back and ignore the frantic pace of his own heartbeat.