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[OTA] Too Cold to Swim
Dec. 1st, 2018 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyward_eyesWHERE: South Village Fountain, South Village Inn
WHEN: 1 December 2018, Morning to Afternoon
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: None
Fountain - Morning
He'd been in the Kashkabald Desert, south of the Esthari continent. There had been reported increased activity in the area from Chimeras, Abyss Worms, and even some Cactuars. While it wasn't normally the sort of issue that drew SeeDs out into an area there had been a client this time. Some organization or other that touted the importance of maintaining ecosystems for the further propagation of chocobos. Nida had sat through his briefing while trying not to roll his eyes. The nearest chocobo forest was far south of there, and sheltered by the eastern reaches of the Alnaj Mountains. Chocobos didn't go over the mountains, Abyss Worms lived only in sandy areas so weren't an issue and Chimeras hunted Abyss Worms so there was safety there, and Cactuars were too small to be a risk. All in all the mission was a foolish one. But there had been a client, there was enough money for a small team of mid-level SeeDs, and so he'd gone.
Still, in a weird sort of way he could understand how there had led to what he was dealing with right now. Chimeras were more than handy with Confuse spells. That would account for the disorientation. And the Aqua Breath attacks could lead to some really weird misinterpretations of the situation when you were also hit with a Confuse. Surely that explained why he felt like this now. Like he was in the water, like it was pushing around him, trying to drown him. Trying to...
Actually, you know what, this was actual water pressing around him. Maybe they had fought themselves closer to the ocean? Maybe he'd fallen in? Weirder things had happened when confused. Nida started kicking, swimming, pushing toward the surface. Good thing he learned to swim growing up near an ocean-side town. Soon enough he's breaking the surface and almost immediately regretting it. In cold water it's easy to forget it's cold. Covered in cold water with cold winter wind cutting like blades over his skin. Training kicks in at that point. First step, get out of the water. Fast. Nida swims over to the edge of the fountain, hauls himself up and over, and lets himself sit on the ground for a moment. Yes, it's stupid, but he's still confused and he needs to get his bearings before he figures out shelter to start a fire and dry off. At least he has his pack though. A pack that, when unslung from his shoulders, isn't one he recognizes. Or his drenched clothes for that matter. He drops the pack in front of him and stares at it for a moment, shivering.
"What in the world is going on?"
A question that seems a bit more relevant when a mouse darts by. It's a cute little thing, but when it runs past his pack, its tail just briefly brushing the material, the whole thing froze over more thoroughly than if it had gotten a full dose of Diamond Dust. And the mouse kept going. Thank Hyne, not touching Nida. But he was left gaping after the thing because how, how how things managed to get worse?
South Village Inn - Afternoon
People came here, he'd been told. They don't know how to get back home, so they'd said. Survival is an important thing, you need to work together, no electricity, no central air, no store to buy things from. It was all a bit much. At least someone had been kind enough to thaw his pack out with strange fire powers that didn't look like traditional magic. Which he supposed it couldn't be because he'd been told that there wasn't magic here. Sure enough he'd found nothing in his mind when he reached for his GF Siren, or his stock of spells. Everything was different. Maybe too different. He's lost, though only in a metaphorical sense.
At least the fireplace in the inn is warm to sit in front of, and it's nice for warming his fingers. The new warmer clothes were nice too, though he'd piled on just about everything he could find. The cold hadn't been a thing he was ready for, and Nida was certain that only this morning (which was also this afternoon because it hadn't been evening yet in the last fight he remembered) had been in the desert. In late May. So the cold he had arrived in was an extreme change he didn't know what to do with.
Now if only he could get something warm to eat, and maybe someone to keep him from drowning in his thoughts.
