In order for the apocalypse to be considered and labeled apocalyptic, a survivor is required. A survivor immediately moves the apocalypse into the post-apocalypse realm and a sense of new normalcy eventually follows. Society rebuilds until the next apocalypse trods on by. This, is the apocalyptic cycle.

The idea of the scalable apocalypse has stuck with me as of late, the personal apocalypse, if you will. Predicated on the notion that the apocalypse means "end of life as it is known". The personal apocalypse focuses on the individual or a small group's world being destroyed, this could be a simple as a car accident leaving someone paralyzed, swarms of military-grade robotic insect-assassins being programed to eliminate a family of probable terroristic hooman-fleshbugs or planes being driven into skyscrapers?

9/11 is an example of the apocalyptic cycle, the world as America knew it ended that day. Rome fell and a way of life was gone. The survivors of Hiroshima thought the world was ending. These were apocalyptic events, for some entire worlds were shattered. But the world moves on, to the next minor apocalypse, mini cycles swirling within a larger cycle. Events coalesce and the eventual global apocalypse comes and goes, the survivors struggle for the right to live until the heat death of the universe.

There won't be a single defining event known as the capital-A apocalypse. It'll be small event cycles within larger cycles and the larger cycles colliding into one another like teenagers trying to figure out fucking.