[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]The end of the universe was supposed to be cold and dark. Things were spreading apart too fast for there to be a giant collapse and rebirth  no, they would die slow and cold and tired, empty planets floating in empty space. But humanity never went quietly in anything, and the end of their little planet was no different. One day it would be swallowed up by fire as the sun expanded, but for now, they fought and bled and died with courage. It would have been easier if they all gave up. Still painful, but faster, not as... hopeless. There are days when he would prefer to lay down and give up too, and maybe in another world he would have. One where there wasn't a collar around his throat and steady hands pushing him forward. He talks about it like it's a comfort, like he owes those hands something. Maybe he does, but he pays back that debt with his life. These days he jumps at commands like it's nothing. People think it's weak, and maybe  again with maybe, does he know nothing for certain?  they're right.
But it's survival. That's all anyone in this hell of a universe wants anymore.
A small, scarred hand scrubs over tired eyes and Tyd presses his back against the wall of the gas station, the other wrapped tightly around the gun he carries. He's running low on bullets (of course he is, they weren't supposed to run into any fucking trouble), and the garotte typically gets him a little too close for comfort. Bones would be pissed if something happened. (Maybe.) For now, though, they get a break. Everything has slowed and settled, though silence is uneasy. He glances towards the person he's stuck with  the one goddamn person, of everyone in their group  and frowns. "A gas station. Great choice."
[align=center]
HEART MADE OF GLASS, MY MIND OF STONE
PINTEREST —— TEAR ME TO PIECES, SKIN TO BONE; WELCOME HOME
[align=center] [table] [div style="width: 50px; height: 50px; background-image:url(https://i.imgur.com/RVdCCbl.jpg); background-size: 100% 100%"] | | | How could the end be anything but dark? Humans idolized the light, worshiped it and called it good. Pure. They were blinded by it, really, intoxicated by its warmth and too dogmatic to think that there could be anything else. The darkness, the chill, it was evil, it was coming to swallow them whole. They liked imagining that it was the light that would end it all, just for the poetic irony of it all; the sheep flocking to the shepherd only to be brought to the slaughter. The bright light they thought would save them would end up being the fire that scorched them away once and for all. They quite liked that thought.
But they couldn't help but find the reverse just as enthralling; that the end would come when the sun died, not expanded, and it would end when they died. They knew it wasn't true, that despite taking the name Catalyst, they were not truly the trigger of the apocalypse. Still, a person needed a purpose, something to give this pointless existence meaning. Their meaning just happened to be darker than those that would get swallowed by their savior.
Their blood is pumping, the adrenaline not yet fading despite the relative safety they seem to have found. They hold on to it; you can't get such a rush while still being safe (or as close as you could get in a world like this) very often. "If you'd prefer the gaping maw of a feral, be my guest." They don't even look at their companion; of course it had to be him. Of course.
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sighspace
I HAD THIS FEELING THAT YOU'D BETRAY ME ——————
IF I GAVE TOO MUCH AND YOU TOOK TOO MUCH ——————
there's blood on the leaves / there's blood on the sands I ——————
FEEL HIS GRACE S L O W L Y RUNNING OUT ——————
GIVE ME TRUTH GIVE ME A WAY OUT (I GOT A BONE TO PICK) ——————
[align=center] SOMEBODY [I]SHOWED YOU ALL OF THE HORRORS YOU WEREN'T BORN WITH IT ——————
[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Tydeus would have preferred that the world fell in fire. That would have been a fitting end to their world, not because it was poetic, but because it was cleansing. Burning away the sins. He doesn't believe in any savior or salvation, the same way he doesn't believe in damnation. Nobody could be behind this, whether or not they claim to have a kind heart. In the end, the real end, he supposes it doesn't matter all that much. They would be dead. Why do humans care about something so far in the future anyway? They'll be long gone before that, their bones returned to the earth and slowly falling apart, if not outright dust. It's a morbid curiosity, maybe. A need to know how those they will never live to love will fare. Will their children's great grandchildren live life fully and kindly? The answer, however grim, was typically no. But people were chaotic, uncertain things. Part of him still holds some hope for the future, just because people always found a way to survive.
This moment, though  him and Cat  maybe they weren't so lucky.
Though the other doesn't look at him, Tyd still casts a scathing glance their way before pushing himself off of the wall. He keeps his hand loose around the gun now, trying not to aggravate the bruises and scrapes already gathered on that hand. He hadn't been bitten, thank god for that, but running away from those things still wasn't all that easy. "That honestly sounds like a better option right now," the young man spits out softly. "I'm gonna look for something useful, if you don't mind." With that, he skirts past Cat without another look at them, free hand already brushing past mostly-empty shelves. As this stuff spread, people had turned quickly to looting and fighting over scraps like dogs. They sprung up in packs and tore places to shreds. This one was no exception. He scoffs and kicks at an empty can of  something, maybe beans? "Could probably find a use for that."
[align=center]
HEART MADE OF GLASS, MY MIND OF STONE
PINTEREST —— TEAR ME TO PIECES, SKIN TO BONE; WELCOME HOME
[align=center] [table] [div style="width: 50px; height: 50px; background-image:url(https://i.imgur.com/RVdCCbl.jpg); background-size: 100% 100%"] | | | //this is generally just really dark but specifically lots about death and dying and. maybe a little bit violent?
Despite liking the poetic irony of humanity being wiped out by some sort of fire, despite them entertaining the grandiose idea that they were the end, Catalyst wasn't sure that's what they would actually want for humanity. They didn't really want to be right, and they didn't want the rest of the world to be right either, not about the darkness in which they'd found some sort of solace. Nor did they really want things to end in flames, cleansing as it may be. No, humanity deserved something in the middle, they thought. To choke on the smoke of their factories, to succumb to illnesses they created, poisoned by the food they changed.
So of course, on some level Catalyst is pleased with the way the world appears to be ending. Well, humanity as they know it was ending; who knew what might be left for the ferals to inherit, and if they could even make anything of it or just die off. Either way, humanity inadvertently engineering their demise in an attempt to avoid it was even more poetically ironic to Cat than being consumed by their precious light. It's what they deserved.
"Have fun with that, then." They drawled, inwardly sighing as their pulse slowed down to something more reasonable to the situation. They followed Tydeus, casting a cursory glance around the store, tsking at the mess. "Define useful; is it a way out of our circumstances or life in general? I'm a little concerned about your current mentality, you know." There was the ghost of a shit-eating grin on their lips, though they were but a gentle, closed-mouth curve. "Mmm, perhaps. If the edge is sharp enough."
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sighspace
I HAD THIS FEELING THAT YOU'D BETRAY ME ——————
IF I GAVE TOO MUCH AND YOU TOOK TOO MUCH ——————
there's blood on the leaves / there's blood on the sands I ——————
FEEL HIS GRACE S L O W L Y RUNNING OUT ——————
GIVE ME TRUTH GIVE ME A WAY OUT (I GOT A BONE TO PICK) ——————
[align=center] SOMEBODY [I]SHOWED YOU ALL OF THE HORRORS YOU WEREN'T BORN WITH IT ——————
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