smashacademy | [Video] Apocalypse PSA

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[Video] Apocalypse PSA

[There's a scruffy young man on the screen. I mean his hair is washed, and everything, which is just... like, super amazing... wow. Hot water. You guys have it good. What was I saying? Right, scruffy. Cleaned up some, sure, but still in shabby clothes and generally haggard, weary in a way that makes him look way older than he is. He looks sort of familiar, if you squint

He looks pretty goddamn serious, or is certainly giving his best effort to be, but he keeps getting halfway there and getting lost, overwhelmed. God, he wants this to work, but he has no clue how to make it happen. He just wants to help, somehow, please.]

Smash Academy.

My name is Hajime Tanaka. You... may have known me. Know... still know me. A past... me. [time travel is the worst why]

Most of you have surely noticed, by now, the strange occurrences affecting your friends, or perhaps yourselves. I am certain many of you are worried and confused by the matter, but it is important for you to understand: no matter how much duress they may cause you, these effects are little more than a distraction from something much greater and more terrible to come.

The warped sky you've seen in the last month, the shadow insects and the monsters they make--they're the first signs of a terrible calamity yet to come. This school rests atop a dimensional boundary, and it is ready to split and unleash untold chaos upon Final Destination City. I come from the future, to... wow, that... sounds so silly out loud--I have come from the future where it has already happened, and it's... it's... been a bad time. I don't... I'd rather you not have to deal with it, is the thing.

I understand that many groups have already gone to investigate and inspect the catacombs beneath the school. Any who are willing and able, I implore you to keep looking, to try and locate the rift and put an end to this invasion before the world can end.

Those of you who can't or won't look for whatever reason, be warned and be ready in case of whatever may occur. Prepare and store whatever you can--food, weapons, clothes, whatever amenities you can. Locate safe places to hide, or--

[Wait. Wait this is either going to instill panic, or make him look like a nut. Deep breaths. Okay.]

The... the most important thing to me is that people are ready. We were taken by surprise last time. I cannot possibly emphasize how little I want that to happen to you all again.

((replies from

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[Make that two gross and dirty post-apocalyptic hobos who have cleaned up a little bit. This one's been kind of lost in his own thoughts off to the side while Hajime's making his announcement to the network. Not too lost - he's always aware of his surroundings, even in such relative peace - but enough that he's keeping pretty quiet.

Ever since arriving in this point in time Kiyotaka's been replaying the events that lead to the apocalypse again and again in his memory, comparing everything happening around the school now to what he remembers from then. So much of it is the same, but so much of it is off, too. If other people are being displaced from their timelines and realities into one where none of their realities ever happened, what if the same is true for him and Hajime? He's been considering that a lot.

But there is still definitely a very real threat present in the bowels of the school, there's no denying that. He can't let go of the knowledge that there are subspace bombs hidden underground. He can't let go of the fear that they could go off at any time and he hasn't been getting any sleep because of it, but he can't do anything about them, either.

There are other things bothering him... He finally speaks up after Hajime finishes his broadcast.]

...Everything's so different this time.

[By now the tone of his voice probably makes his unspoken fears obvious. What if there are new surprises this time, too?]

[There had been a degree of absurdity to the whole announcement. To open with the claim that these events, these people jumping from realities aren't relevant in the grand scheme, when he's just another one of them. It's pompous, self-important, diminishing the relevance of entire realities in favor of their own. In the face of all that, who's even going to take a word of what he says seriously?

Yes, things are different. So different, that... maybe they didn't truly go back in time, at all? What if they just jumped over from a similar but unrelated reality, trying to impose a past on something unconnected?

With the feed off, Hajime sags. He's tired, so tired. It feels like everything they want is just out of grasp, and the questions and concerns leave him exhausted.]

Different is what we want.

[They can't prevent what they don't know. All they need to focus on is avoiding what they do know.]

Different like this?

[He rubs the side of his face, his gaze directed somewhere on the floor but not really focusing on it. All he sees are the ways everything could go wrong from here. He started out so full of hope that they could change the future, but as time has worn on he's getting more and more anxious that some things are set in stone, or that he and Hajime are just so insignificant in the grand scheme of things (it is such a smack in the face that his entire world amounts to nothing in the long run).]

...I keep wondering if it will be worse this time. Those... Those pockets...

[For lack of a better word. He is relieved that the one he couldn't outrun did nothing more than deposit him on the roof of the dorms, but who knows how long it'll be before someone disappears into one for good? ~~RIP RHYS~~]

[He removes his glasses to rub at his eyes. He just doen't know. Once upon a time, in these halls, with this friend, he'd felt so sure and certain, so prepared even when facing the unknown. With his friend by his side, they could accomplish anything.]

Different. That's all we can ask for. We couldn't stop what we didn't know, then. We have to focus on what we do know, now.

[It's hard to imagine things being worse. But this is Final Destination City. Things can always be worse.]

We've come back to stop the past. Perhaps the past is trying to stop us. To derail, and dishearten. It's rebelling just as we have.

[Of course there's no consciousness to this place. He knows that, he's not a child anymore. But to think of things in such ways helps him to organize his thoughts, at least a little.]

That's one thing that stays consistent here.

[It's almost a joke, but it's more sad than funny. Still, he should try to remain optimistic. Or at least a step above defeatist. It's just difficult with the way he's had to come to accept that things always have the potential to go wrong or get worse. That's been a truth for him since even before the city's fall.

...But Hajime hasn't given up yet. And Kiyotaka won't give up on him.]

...At least we've fought them for long enough that we know a lot of weak points. [Even the big ones who seemed invincible for long enough to kill a few of its assailants.] We can pass that on, we can... make sure they all know how to use a weapon.

We've led for so long now. These are people who are... whole, and strong... and now, they can be ready.

[It should sound optimistic, but it sounds as if he's already anticipating the cataclysm to happen all over. His mind is already jumping to how to minimize the inevitable damage, rather than planning to stop it.]

What is it, about this place...? For so long... so long we've hoped for an opportunity like this, a chance just like this one, and now we have it... and we still can't believe in it...

[His hand, his flesh hand, the one with life remaining, reaches out to take Kiyotaka's.]

This place has the power to crush hope. We can't let it. We're so close, we just can't.

[Maybe Despair truly is greater than Hope.]

It only has as much power as we give it.

[No, it has more than that. This school... This place... And the world that's slowly bleeding into it...

He grimaces and brings Hajime's hand to his face, pressing his cheek against his knuckles.]

No matter what happens, promise me that you won't give up. [Because if Hajime does, even with all the lives Kiyotaka will be burdened with once again, he's not sure if he'd be able to continue. Not for another decade of watching everything fall apart all over again.]

[they didn't grow these stupid ahoges for nothing man]

No... no, I never could...

[Despair is easy. The easier route is never the greater one. The real question is how great he can be.]

We just had this conversation, didn't we? [They have this conversation every week.] So long as I have you... so long as we have each other, I swear...

[He touches his forehead to Kiyotaka's. He's become so selfish, living for this person instead of all the rest. But this is what keeps him going.]

Until my dying day, I won't surrender.

[So, this is something Joel has been through before, more or less. Advance warning would have been swell back in his world. If someone had come along on September 27, 2013 and told him what was going to happen...

...well. No. He wouldn't have believed it any more than he believed the street barkers with their 'the end is nigh' signs.

But now? Oh, ho. Hoo boy. Now, he's a completely different animal.]

I've been collecting weapons from this world.

Hard to believe anything could overtake a place with so many... special folks. I mean, people who can set their punches on fire and turn into giant animals.

What kinds of things are we goin' to be fighting and what's the best way to kill them?

Hmm. It's astounding, how much damage the element of surprise can do.

[Hence, this business. He'd often thought, if only they'd known, if only they'd have looked a little harder, paid a little more attention. There are powerful enough people here, with proper forewarning, maybe...]

Some of the foot soldiers have already appeared. The creatures come in all shapes and sizes, with weaknesses varying between them, but I've done my best to compile all I know about them. Their greatest unifying factor is that they're all made from the shadow insects that have infested the school.

Good. This is good.

What about places that can be reinforced as effective shelters? Which places have held up best and which places would work with a little more shoring up?

The dorms can be barricaded into effective shelters, for a time. They held up surprisingly long for how close they are to the disaster's origin. There's a volcano outside the city that makes a natural vantage point--several of the monsters move on wheels, and do poorly on uneven terrain.

Volcano? It's dormant, right?

What about in the city? Any facilities in the city that hold up? I'm a carpenter so if there's places that could be useful with some extra reinforcement we can get started on early, that'd be great.

[The boy with the disturbing familiarity turned on the video feed, nodding seriously, a strange look on a small child]

I understand. This place is...powerful, almost sacred. The creator of the universe had been drawn here...

That power is unstable, and I believe that the answer lies in those who have come to reside here. Yet who among us...certainly the Hands, but there must be more.

[At this point he seems to be talking more to himself]

Perhaps all of us. Maybe we have, together, reached critical mass. And yet our presence here is well within our rights. If the universe rejects us, that is cause for us to fight for our very existence.

[He certainly doesn't remember this boy, but there's a discomforting familiarity all the same. Not to mention his words speaking to someone far beyond his age.]

It's hard to say. Perhaps the instability was drawn to this location by we, the residents, but we just as well could have been drawn here as a result of the instability already present. Many students and teachers were already summoned here against their will, after all.

[He, too, seems contemplative. Almost everyone has tired to piece together motives and causes over the last ten years. It's hard to fight a war where the enemy's goals are unknown.]

Subspace hungers to engulf as many worlds as possible. This city is an intersection of dimensional borders. Subspace may well not just be after us, but our homes and realities, drawn by the simple act of our being here.

Perhaps. We must study this entirely. Nothing, no atom, must escape our notice.

...and yet such a thing would require more time than the universe allows. The very nature of another universe...we must take matters into our own hands.

[As familiar a thought as it was, the boy was visibly shaking as he spoke]

Are we the magnet, or are we the steel? Or are we and Subspace alike irresistable forces? What do you propose?

Hmm. I believe that in the grand scheme of things, people are incidental to Subspace's interests. Years of people slipping in and out through this reality drew its attention, and its hunger spotted an opportunity.

[His voice has gone quiet, eyes distant.]

But when it came to victory, its minions and soldiers showed no interest in us beyond submission and annihilation.

That is why we must stand our ground with all that we have. Repel them and wipe them out of existence. There can be no trace of them left. We must reset everything to zero...

[Oh. Oh right. He remembers you.]

We don't have the time for such drastic measures, and they would defeat the purposes of survival.

And yet a universe would survive. One pure and free from such chaos. We must bring about a new beginning, and purify by fire.

Ending with a bang and not a whimper. We must not cower in the face of our enemies.

There have been some who share this idea with you. That an empty universe is one better than what we're stuck with. One could argue that Subspace itself strives for something much the same.

Personally, I believe in surviving for the sake of a universe to survive in.

No, an empty universe is...useless. There can be no point in such a thing. That is why we must stand against this yawning void, to set creation right.

[Though Pulse had his doubts about the validity of time travel and dimensional rifts, he's had his own experiences with beings from one world plotting to invade another, and considering the danger posed by the invaders that had already arrived, he was more or less inclined to believe the supposed time-traveler's story.]

I will join in the effort to find and seal this rift.

[Of course, he had no idea how he would do it...]

Your aid is appreciated as much as it is needed. There are reports of weapons located under the school, as well as the gestation chambers for Subspace's army. If these can be disarmed or dismantled, I believe the opposition can be effectively crippled.

[Pit has been down the bunkers numerous times, but all he had discovered were trophies and stands and monsters. Nothing like a rift. Everything Hajime described chills him down to the core. His first desperate thought flies to Palutena because she would know better than he how to handle a situation as widespread and grave as this. But she's not around to give him guidance.]

I'll do everything in my power to stop these calamities from happening!

Hah. I know you will, Pit.

[Wait have you guys even spoken before this point?]

[Nope. But who knows what the future holds, right?]

So do you know where the rift is located? I've been down there a few times myself, but only unearthed a bunch of giant trophies and stands. Not a rift in sight.

Mnn... Unfortunately, there's only so much I can determine. I was not aware of the rift's presence until it became too dangerous to go near.

What I can tell you is the largest threat are the numerous bombs located under the school: should they go off, they could weaken the dimensional barrier beyond repair. I believe they can be found in the northern area of the catacombs, nearer to the forest and lake.

B-bo-bombs? Are they ticking as we speak?!

As far as I know, they're currently inactive. But they still bear a threat to the school; until they can be dismantled or otherwise removed, nothing is certain.

Oh. Well, that's a relief. I guess. I still don't like knowing they're there.

Nor I, but at least it means we can do something about it.

[Connor went to the bunkers a bunch. Went into town. Saw the bombs. Saw the bugs. This was all serious. This was getting very serious, and a gentleman was here to give a warning. Seeing as how past and future don't matter, Connor got on the screen and gave this man a most attentive look. He was acknowledging what he heard.]

I will stand strong and fight against this menace, you have my word.

Thank you. Every step taken is one toward a better future.

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[Video] Apocalypse PSA

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