bakerstreet | the apocalypse meme

it's the end of the world as we know it

and damn do i feel fine.
Apocalypse meme for all your apocalyptic scenario needs.

HOW TO PLAY:
- Comment with character. Add your preferences, possible plot ideas, maybe some brief information on the character.
- Comment to others. Mix and match your preferred scenario or RNG it if you can't choose.
- Have fun and play nice!

PROMPTS:

TIMEFRAME

1. Impending doom. Patient Zero is loose, something was sighted off the Atlantic coast, a prophecy from on high - it's the beginning of the end, and only a few people know. There's not much time left, so best get preparin'.

2. Falling apart around us. You were there when it began, and now you're in the thick of it. The natural, the supernatural, or even your fellow man are against you now, and the only thought on your mind should be survival.

3. From the ashes. Whether you remember peaceful days or not, it's over now, and this is your life for good. Whatever happened has changed your world forever, and whether you choose to adapt or rebuild, nothing will ever quite be the same as it was.

CAUSE

1. Natural disaster. Storm's coming, water's rising, earth's shaking. Whether it's the whole world that's in danger or only a piece of it, you're in the line of fire and this one's gonna be a doozy.

2. War. World powers collided, or maybe everyone thought there was something worth fighting for. Then the swords flashed, or the bombs fell, or the dragon knights swarmed the villages, and now everyone's asking - was it worth all this?

3. Disease. Infection's in the air (or the water, or the bugs, or the mana.) When the doctors drop dead, who's left to fight the plague? Can't trust anyone to come near you, not even your friends, and especially the mysterious immune.

4. Monsters. Zombies, demons, kaiju, titans, Elder Gods? They're not human, they're not happy, and they're coming soon to a city near you.

5. Aliens. Monsters are scary, but aliens are organized. And they have cool spaceships. Can the human species stand together in the face of this threat?

6. Dystopia. Surely, this isn't the end. Why, it's a whole new beginning! Peace and prosperity...so why does it feel so wrong sometimes?

RELATIONSHIP

1. Buddy system. Stick together for safety and try not to kill each other while you're at it. You might even get to liking each other after a few years of this.

2. Enemies. Whether you're competing for resources or on opposite sides of a conflict, you've got reason to hate each other.

3. Friends to the end. Or siblings, or family, or lovers, or whatever. You knew each other before this, and now you're each others' emotional (and possibly moral) anchor. Death flags abound.

4. Let's be heroes. You hold the cure, the secret weapon, the map to paradise, and whether you're on your own or part of The Resistance, your mission is to save lives. All of them, preferably.

5. Let's be villains. You're in this for the fun of watching the world burn. Why? You tell me, you twisted little fucks. Can come in "co-conspirators" and "facing down the mastermind" flavors.

6. Rock bottom. Prisoners, slaves, soldiers, infected. The two of you have been through hell and have yet to come back - might as well wallow together. Or maybe you had the guts to fight back?

SCENARIO

1. Fighting to survive. Watch each others' backs! (Or try to put a knife in them, if that's your thing.)

2. A quiet moment. Swapping solemn stories around a campfire while you nurse each others' wounds - treasure these moments, because they don't come along too often.

3. Death...or worse. Goddammit you said you weren't going to get bitten and now look what happened.

4. Letting loose. Laughter is good for the soul, especially in times like these. Surely, you can recreate the things that used to delight you in the world before the end.

5. Future in your hands. You're in a situation to uncover all the sordid details of how the end of the world began - and you've got what you need to change it all, for better or for worse. The question is, are you willing?

6. Love in a hopeless place. Nobody's an island, and these are tough times on even the most hardened heart.

7. A day in the life. Anarchy isn't the only outcome - maybe there's an force trying to stop the disaster, or control it, or perhaps advance it. As members of this organization, you're not always in the thick of things, giving you plenty of time to watch the world fall and ponder your contribution .

7. Other. There's a whole world of apocalypse tropes out there. Go nuts.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He's bleeding, stumbling, ash choking thick in the air and in his throat, his lungs, stinging his eyes, blanketing his hair and his clothes in a fine veil of gray. He's got his hand around Aya's arm, helping the man along, trying not to lose him in the darkness created when clouds of dust and smoke blot out of the sun. He remembers his heart in his throat, the terror and amazement of those four giant claws—the size of a house, each one—coming down on the street so close to where they hid, raining dust and debris down on them. So close he could have reached out and laid his hand on one. Raleigh knew the Drift was a mistake. They called the monster here, and now what was a city, a military base, home to thousands and thousands of refugees, is just so much smoke and ash.

He never met the man before today, but he's been inside his head, so wrapping an arm around his waist for comfort as much as support hardly seems too intimate, not when he's still reeling from the trauma of his thoughts, his memories, the loss of a sister, the loss of a brother, tragedies that he lived and lived and lived until he thought he would go insane, and he's still not sure whose is whose, which pain belongs to him. And then there were the monsters, the whole species of them invading his brain until he finally saw with terror the Precursor and saw it look back: look and know him, know all of them.

Raleigh stops, letting go of Aya as he goes down to his knees, legs buckling under him, bending over, vomiting up the bitter ashy substance that chokes his lungs; burning and acrid on his tongue, his back heaving. When he finally stops he waits another moment or two to catch his breath, gasping—I'm okay—and finally staggers to his feet again. They can't stop. They need to find shelter, get underground, far underground where the Kaiju can't reach, because there will be more of them, he knows. The Precursor saw them. ]

[No, they can't stop.

They can't stop because it's searching for them. They can't stop because they saw all of this, because they all but invited the Kaiju straight into the heart of the base and prompted a frenzied sort of destruction unlike the attacks that'd come before. Purposeful. Hulking with powerful arms that served to speed the rest of its lumbering body along, the Kaiju had all but leveled the hanger and the rest of the campus-

Ripped apart their jaeger, which had been hastily patched together again in the first place-

And now it was tearing through the rest of the city with the bioluminescent dangle that acted as a searchlight showing it the way.

Aya's dragging Raleigh along as much as the other man is helping him along and when he stops it nearly drags him down to his knees as well. His swear is smothered, bile rises in his throat with full sympathy. It's swallowed down, pushed with a hand covering his mouth and his eyes shutting as the temporary pause gives everything swirling in his mind the chance to crash and overwhelm.

Neither of them are okay.]

I've got you. [Something clicked during their Drift making Raleigh all but family in terms of protectiveness- just another thing he doesn't have time to process. Aya holds onto Raleigh's arm slung over his shoulders, driving them forward because he thought (god, don't let him have imagined it) a sign for one of the subway stations at the intersection ahead of them.]

[ I've got you. Something about those three words comforts Raleigh intensely. Makes him look at Aya as he's picking himself back up off his knees, as Aya's helping him to his feet, lifting him up with an arm around him and Raleigh's weight leaned onto his shoulders. I've got you. Nobody's had Raleigh since Yancy died, and he can't help but think that it's just an illusion, just a holdover of the neural handshake, but he can't help but appreciate the sentiment, either. They were thrown into this soup together, after all.

They stumble forward again. He sees the sign, too, and then the stairs leading down, representing a small hope of safety, of shelter and recuperation. They need it badly, they need to be able to sink down and rest, just for a little while, just long enough to decide what their next move will be. He doesn't question thinking in terms of us, because even without the Drift it really is us, the two of them together; they barely escaped with their lives and it's not just the monsters chasing them now, it's the people who brought them to this, who forced them into one another's heads and into the hivemind of the kaiju, so there's one thing Raleigh knows now, which is that they need to protect each other. Aya is the only person left in the world for him to trust.

They go down the stairs and into the darkness, the station only dimly lit: most of the overhead lights are out but a few bulbs still buzz and flicker and the emergency lights are glowing steadily, so there's enough to see by. He lets himself sink down again once they get to a wall, onto dirty tile, keeping a hold on Aya's arm. The ceiling shakes, dust drifting down. ]

What about you? You're okay?

[Aya's fully prepared to let Raleigh sit while he tries to search for some sort of medical kit this ticketing part of the station should have. He's still bleeding. There's probably cuts on him as well, but he feels more the bruises from where part of the building collapsed around them and on him when the kaiju tried to claw its way to them.

(Again. How could the same exact thing happen twice? He had watched his sister die while trapped under the remains of their house. Watched Raleigh's brother be ripped out of the cockpit and-)

Instead, he drops to his knees facing, Raleigh's hand clasping firm onto his arm convincing him to just stop for a second. Here the air smelled like wet newspapers, the tracks of hundreds, thousands of people day-in and day-out, grime, half-hearted antiseptic and garbage but he'll take it over the cloud of death outside. The blood of all those people are on their hands, aren't they? He had volunteered without thinking about it, driven by a relentless need for revenge. And Raleigh had agreed to step back into a jaeger after]

Nothing's broken. [If there had been, they probably would be dead right now. He huffs, turns his head to try and cough out the dust that's sand in his throat while more just falls on top of them.] ...and we made it this far.

[The humor in his eyes is bleak. He has to wait for the dust to settle a second time and the muffled roar of the kaiju outside to fade before he can speak to be heard:] I guess that's okay.

[Does it still feel like they're crawling in your head?]

[ He tries for a smile, almost manages it. ] Yeah, I guess.

[ Aya never Drifted before today, did he? Maybe in simulations, but no computer program could give you an idea of what being inside another human being's mind was like. And nothing in this world could have prepared him—prepared either of them—for the brain of a kaiju. Raleigh is still reeling from it himself, and he's Drifted dozens of times, more times than he can really count; quite the veteran, he is. And still the thought of the things they saw inside that kaiju's mind makes him want to throw up again.

He's got a bad gash on his thigh that's going to need some attention; he's sure to get an infection if it's left untreated, if not just bleed out. He can see wounds on Aya too but nothing that looks like it could kill him, though Raleigh takes his time studying him now that they have a moment to breathe, just to be sure. Well, he would have been aware if the man had taken any bad wounds, during the fight. Would have felt his pain like it was his own. ] Can you help me with this? [ He touches the ragged place on his thigh, blood sticky on his palm. ] Don't want to bleed out.

the apocalypse meme

drops this here

...replies a million years later ;_;

<3!

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