Hypothermia and You: A Guide No One Ever Reads

[andrend]

WHO: Kylo Ren
WHERE: Near the fountain
WHEN: Evening, November 15th
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Incoming angry wet former Jedi with family issues
STATUS: Closed

---

It took almost no time at all for Kylo Ren to realize he had been submerged. The unfamiliar clothes that clung to his skin were heavy with the weight and chill of the water, and stuck uncomfortably to his skin while he fought to find the right orientation to kick and push himself upward. Everything on his body fought against his upward movement from the thing strapped to his back to the heavy and unfamiliar boots on his feet. When he breached the surface, both hands gripped tightly to the edge of the fountain and he hoisted himself out of its watery depths, rolling over the edge to the hard ground on the other side with deep, gasping breaths for air.

His thoughts were spinning wildly, and a chill clung as tightly to his skin as the over-saturated cotton pressing against him so uncomfortably. His mask and uniform were gone, and although he could feel the weight of the pack resting against his back, he could not sense his weapon. The air was frigid. His wet hair, skin and the drenched cotton and fabric clinging to his body did nothing to hold back the below freezing chill in the air. Rather than sit and gather his thoughts, Ren immediately began to remove his shoes and socks and set them to the side with his backpack. The scrub shirt followed, until Ren was left barefoot with only a tank top and the trousers.

Anyone out in the cold could come across Ren carrying a dripping backpack and bundle of foreign clothes as he deliberately makes his way barefoot into the town. His primary mission: find shelter before losing any of his digits or limbs to the cold. If not encountered in that state, Ren can be found eventually breaking or pushing his way into the first building he comes across in search of shelter from the elements. Especially if the building is giving off smoke or light.

Comments

[teen_angst_bullshit]

For perhaps the first time in her life, Veronica does a legitimate, full-on, out of a Saturday morning cartoon triple take -- The second for the shirtlessness, and the third for the face.

"Are you fucking shitting me," she says under her breath as she comes to a halt in the middle of the dirt road. He's angry and wet -- Not that the first is anything new, from what she recalls -- and she knows without asking he just hauled himself out of the fountain. All this time, she's wondered if he disappeared because he was so insistent on diving in there and screwing with it.

Her coat is small, but she whips it off anyway, jerking herself from her astonishment so that she can hold it out to him as she hurries over. Shit, what was his name? Cougar would know.

"Where have you been?" she asks, all wide brown eyes and already shivering.

[andrend]

His anger shifts to confusion for a moment and it shows in the bewildered look he gives her for a moment before irritable accepting the coat. He doesn't bother trying to put it on. His arms are too big for the sleeves, and he can tell just by looking at it. He does pull it around his shoulders, though.

"I don't know what you're talking about." There's a bitter shake to his words from trying to keep his teeth from chattering and not fully succeeding. It's cold, and he's wet and barely dressed, but it's better than wearing the freezing wet layers he had come out of the fountain wearing.

"Where is this?"

[teen_angst_bullshit]

Veronica stares back at him for a beat, because this cannot be fucking happening again. One more person and it's got to qualify as an epidemic. Her eyes slide closed with a slow, beleaguered sigh.

"It's a village," she finally replies, and seems to have steeled herself when she opens her eyes again, notching her hands into her armpits. "I don't know where. No one knows where. You're going to get frostbite, I'll explain what I can after we get inside."

[andrend]

The answer does little to ease Ren's mood, but he watches her with a faint scowl before packing it away to a neutral expression with a nod of his head. It's obvious he needs to get indoors. He doesn't have the clothing or the body heat to last long in this cold.

"All right. Fine. Lead the way." He doesn't trust her, but she isn't pointing a weapon at him so he'll deal with her for the sake of getting inside and maybe getting more information than 'a village' at some point.

[teen_angst_bullshit]

Someone's just as pissy as Veronica remembers him being, and maybe she should be grateful for that. Cougar had seemed like practically a different person, all of his cool confidence stripped away along with his memory. Still, this guy's wearing her coat, a thank you wouldn't kill him.

"Oh no, it's no trouble at all, you're very welcome," Veronica chirpily replies, and rolls her eyes as she motions him to follow.

There's a fire burning on the hearth in the front room of the inn, coziness beckoning along with the scent of whatever Kate has simmering in the kitchen, but Veronica troops past and up the stairs, all the way to the bathroom, which she motions to with a sweep of her arm.

"There should be a change of clothes in there," she says, pointing to his pack. "I'll be downstairs."

[womanofvalue]

She sees the feet. It's from the vantage point she's created from her home, but she doesn't register who it is until she's dragged her gaze away from the feet and the ridiculous lack of clothes that the man is wearing. It's only when she looks up that she realizes who it is. Grasping her things, she tugs on one of the sheets and immediately heads towards the centre of town, walking with brisk purpose. "Are you mad?" she barks at him, frustration warring with genuine concern in her tone.

"You're going to freeze yourself to death," she says, holding out the sheet. "Here, careful, before it's too late and we have to cut something off."

[andrend]

"I'm livid, not insane." He takes the sheet without even an attempt at pushing her away. It's too cold and the world he has found himself on is too unfamiliar to allow for arguments over survival. He wraps it around himself like a cloak, scanning the nearby buildings before turning his attention to the woman again.

"Someone tried to drown me." Tried and failed. He can only assume it was those traitorous fighters who had tried to ruin everything, and potentially succeeded.

He keeps moving, this time in the direction she came from. It's not safe or smart to stand outside and bicker over semantics or his sanity, and she isn't making outlandish threats in regards to having to cut something off. It was one of his first warning thoughts that pushed him to move.

"I need access to one of these buildings. Which way?" At least he asks. There's a cold chatter to his words despite his attempts to cover it. His own force of will can only do so much against the cold seeping into his core. He had not even had time yet to process the last 24 hours of his life, including where he was, how he had ended up there and the events of his last remembered waking hours.

[womanofvalue]

He's looking at her like he's never seen her before in his whole life. Taken aback, Peggy isn't sure whether this is all just some ploy or whether he truly doesn't know her. Hadn't that man in town lost his memory for a few weeks? And yet, he hadn't come out of the fountain and immediately stripped off all the things that might have kept him warm.

"You don't know me," she says, as if to test him and see whether he's lying and putting her on. "We can head inside one of the buildings if you swear you'll put some warmer clothes on," she insists.

[andrend]

"I would remember if I did." His tone is short, clipped and rough. He glances at her with a look like he's trying to figure out her motives but while he's defensive, he's not willing to fight about things outside, half naked, exposed to the world and weather and unsure of the who, why, where or how of far too many questions to process at once.

"If I can find anything that isn't a wet rag in this bag, I will. I'm not interested in dying of illness on this forsaken planet." Whatever planet it was, it was clearly not where he wanted to be. But Ren is at least apparently willing to cooperate with her, even viewing her as a stranger and potential threat. Even unarmed he knows he can hold his own in a fight, and as there is no blood seeping out of his abdomen or down his face and arm, he can only assume someone managed to get him to a medical droid or med bay at some point.

[womanofvalue]

"I brought you a sheet, didn't I?" Peggy replies, a touch arch considering she's trying to help a person who she thought she knew, but instead, it's a stranger with the very same personality traits that the original one had. He's every bit as frustrating. "Come on, let's go find a warm fire and some dry clothes for you then. I'm sure you'll feel better afterwards."

Perhaps it will even help his mood, if such a thing is possible.

[tooktheblack]

"Ren!"

Jon hadn't seen him in months, not since the day that he and the other man (Hux, he thought) had disappeared from the mill without a trace. Now that he was back, though, he dropped the game he'd been carrying back toward the inn and ran toward him, wanting to verify that it was truly the man he'd met upon first arriving here in this strange place.

"Ren, is that you? Where have you been?"

[andrend]

It's unfortunate that Ren had no memory of ever being in the town prior to his rude awakening in the fountain moments before his meeting with Jon. The man was someone the former leader of the Knights of Ren would actually almost trust. As it stood, he stopped mid stride to fix the man approaching him with a stare. There did not seem to be threat in his voice, or a danger to his approach, but Ren was in full alert and waiting for the surprise attack to spring on him at any moment.

Few referred to him as Ren with so little circumstance or apprehension in their voice.

His hand dropped to where his belt would have been but the lightsaber wasn't there, and he knew that. He felt more exposed by the lack of it than his lack of clothing.

"Identify yourself." Ren knew the various corps, units, designations, rankings and numbers of the stormtroopers he had encountered, and many of the individuals who held ranks within Starkiller, the Finalizer and other vessels of the fleet he held partial command over. This man's face and voice were both unfamiliar, and his familiarity with Ren threw up red flags instantly.

He threw up a hand in an attempt to draw on the Force around him and stop the other man in his tracks, but the Force did not respond the way he was used to, and the hand he lifted drew forth far less power than he had ever been reduced to in his life. Still, he fought for control over it and pushed at the energy around Jon in an attempt to stop his forward progress, like a hand on his chest made of nothing but the energy of the universe. The sheer drop in Ren's ability to access the Force around them started a panic deep at Ren's core that would build on his earlier realizations and fears after the death of his father.

How had it come to this?

[tooktheblack]

"Jon Snow," Jon said, lifting up a hand both in greeting and to demonstrate that he had no weapon and meant no harm. Did he not remember being here before, did he not remember that they had known one another? This would be the first instance in Jon's recollection of someone leaving and coming back; did the fountain erase those memories?

"You were here once before," he explained, keeping his voice calm and even in hopes that he wouldn't rile the other man. "You lived here for a moon or so, along with another man from your world. Hux, I believe he was called? Does that mean anything to you?"

[andrend]

Ren dropped his arm when John lifted his own, and the pressure vanished shortly after. A moon was such an inconsistent measure of time for a man familiar with travelling between planets and systems, but Ren doesn't argue it. Ren clenched his jaw and watched Jon, keeping his reflex reactions in check. General Hux had apparently been with him when he met the other man, and while he remembered none of it, there was a ket set of words in Jon's response that Ren latched onto.

From your world.

He and the General had come from very different worlds, but if the two of them had already been stranded together on this planet, they may have claimed otherwise. Or the stranger before him did not know enough to think otherwise.

Ren was half frozen and soaked, in either case, and Jon had at least proven he knew a high ranking member of the First Order, forgotten titles or not.

"Jon Snow is not a name I remember, but I do know General Hux. The rest of this conversation needs to happen inside a building." If it was a trap, he would deal with that when he got there. He was at more of a disadvantage remaining outside than in.

Rather than wait for Jon to choose one, Ren started moving again. His feet had begun to feel numb with the chill in the air, and he assumed the other man would redirect him if he chose the wrong building. As it was, he went for the closest one to them in that moment and left picking up or leaving the game to the man who had been carrying it.

[tooktheblack]

"Yes, you shouldn't be outside with the chill," Jon agreed. He could understand the other man's panic if he didn't recall their relationship. While Jon might not have called them friends, they were allies at least, and the relationship he'd had with both Ren and Hux had been on good terms. He felt obligated to explain what he knew and answer what questions he could.

"Would you like to go to the inn or somewhere more private? I have a home of my own. I can guarantee that no one would likely be there."

Ygritte, at this time of day, would likely be in the woods.

after he's arrived at the inn

[lastofthekellys]

This... This is not someone whom Kate is expecting to see sitting in front of the fire. Not that there are a large number of people she expects anyway, and certainly, new arrivals are not one of them when it's about any specific person. And he'd...

He'd vanished.

Her cloth still in hand from where she was going to wipe down the tables, Kate walks over.

"Mr Ren?"

She's a small woman, short and slender, dressed in a brown skirt and a white blouse. A cross at her neck, made from twigs bound together. She's not wearing the scrubs as the other people, but her expression is similar:

You came back?

[andrend]

She is not the first to recognize him and call him by name. Ren gets to his feet when she speaks, dressed in spare clothes provided by Veronica, and looking more than a little on edge still. His gaze had been focused on the curtains covered in writing, his thoughts on every unsettling thing he had learned so far.

Clearly this is another who knew him before, and yet again she lacks the fear or rage he expects to see in the eyes of most who would know him by his face and not his uniform.

"Ren." He corrects her. If he was going to take any titles it would be Lord, not Mister. But the correction is a distracted afterthought. The respect would be appreciated were he not so unbalanced by the series of events leading up to their meeting.

"My memories of this place were taken." He says it with emphasis. Taken, not lost or forgotten. Someone had ripped them from his mind and for now he thinks he knows by whom. "I don't know your name."

[lastofthekellys]

"Ren," she corrects herself easily enough with a nod. If there is one here who respects how people might call themselves, it will be here. "I'm Miss Kate Kelly. And we didn't know each other well, so you've nought to worry on that front."

Not that her tone or bearing are reassuring. While she's not afraid of him, she's afraid of the woods, of the woods trapping people and of people vanishing.

"You say, taken? Nothing is left?"

[andrend]

He should have taken the term of respect but he was resistant to an improper title. Still, he watches Kate and considers her question for a moment.

"Nothing of this place." He remembered other worlds and places fine as far as he could tell, but how would he know if something was missing without others to tell him it was?

"Nothing beyond the water someone tried to drown me in."

[lastofthekellys]

Kate chews on the inside of her cheek, frowning over it. She decides, in the end, to take his word for it. There are only two groups of people she habitually distrusts, and for all that she wants answers, she's not about to extend that well-worn paranoia to her fellow captives. She's not going to let the captors do that, and she doesn't like that it's her first thought. That he's lying.

"There are others that have been 'ere, then vanished," she says, by way of explanation. "You're the first to come back."

She feels the worst about Mr Boyd, about Miss Tauriel. They'd rescued her, and seemingly paid the price.

"No one's actually drowned. Yet, for all that might not be reassurin'. But I do have your old things, that were left. If you wanted 'em? Clothes."

[notabirdcostume]

The days were getting shorter so there was less time for Sam to explore the woods and look for supplies. It also meant more time inside and doing...well Sam was still trying to figure out what to do with himself. There wasn't a lot to clean in his new house. There wasn't television to watch or, hell, even a book to read. Maybe that was why he'd been sent that box with the playing cards in them. He'd certainly been enjoying those at least: games of solitaire, slight of hand tricks, and his current past time was seeing how high he could build a card tower. Sam was currently working on a fairly impressive one in his dining room, outside of the cold, and thinking he might even just call it early -- once he was done of course.

Sam was just about to place another row of cards on his tower, tongue sticking out in concentration, when there was a loud BANG in the kitchen. Sam jumped to attention and immediately sent half a deck of cards fluttering to the ground. "Son of a--," Sam groaned but then cut himself off. He looked over his shoulder at the doors separating the dining room from the kitchen area.

Someone was in his house. And after all the bloody animal parts popping up everywhere and Natasha's report of a hydra, Sam wasn't sure he was ready to investigate. But he also wasn't about to go down without a fight either. But also, also he didn't want to be a horror movie statistic. He stared at the doors for a few minutes, waiting to see if someone was going to come screaming through them. Nothing happened and all Sam could hear was rummaging sounds coming from the kitchen. He cursed under his breath and decided he was going to have to take a peak. For all he knew it could be Steve and wouldn't he feel dumb if he went sneaking around his own damn house for his jogging buddy.

Sam moved cautiously across the floor of the dining room, poking his toe at the door to jar it open so he could have a look into the kitchen without whoever was in there seeing him. What would he find happening in there?

[andrend]

Ren wasn't listening as carefully as he should have been for others in the house. He was used to leaning heavily on the Force and now it was barely a flimsy walking stick for him to put any weight on at all. The house wasn't chosen for any reason beyond being a near and easy target. He had climbed in through the window, which had turned out to be a mistake when he slipped on the counter and in his attempt to catch himself had lashed out with the force, slamming the window shut with a bang rather than managing any graceful halt to his fall.

He picked himself painfully up off the floor with a low expletive in a language likely unfamiliar to Sam and when the other man came for a peak into his kitchen he would find Ren pulling open various drawers, some with his hand and others without even touching them. He was looking for weapons, mainly. Though food and anything useful would also have been of some help.

Being reduced to a scavenger and a thief was not something that sat well with Ren, but it was necessary if he was going to stay alive long enough to get off the rock he was stranded on and get some answers.

He had just enough of his connection to the force left to shove someone back a few feet if he felt a threat coming his way, but it was no where near enough to set him at ease.

[notabirdcostume]

The sight that greeted him was not one he had been expecting at all. Aside from the incident with Bucky, he hadn't known anyone to disappear and reappear here in the village -- especially someone who had been part of the first arrivals and then been gone for so long. It actually took him a moment to realize that it even was Kylo Ren poking around his kitchen.

Of course, that raised a lot of questions in Sam's mind: why was Ren in his kitchen, what was he looking for, and why had he broken into one of the houses? Granted, Sam hadn't lived in this house last time Ren was here...but that was beside the point. The man had clearly broken into his house and hadn't bothered checking to see if it was already occupied.

Well, at least it wasn't a psychotic murderer. He debated playing a joke on Ren, but thought better of it. Ren had never really struck him as the type to react well to a little jump scare. Instead, Sam pushed the door open without making it bang. He then leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, "This isn't exactly the most polite way to ask for a cup of sugar. Already moved all the knives...unless you're looking for a stool to break again."

[andrend]

The sound of familiarity in Sam's voice and his choice of words didn't set Ren off the way it may have earlier. If Sam had tried a scare tactic, he might have found himself thrown back by an invisible force. As it was, Ren had dealt with too many unfamiliar faces already that day, knowing more than he would like about him without a mutual ground. He couldn't be surprised by it, only displeased.

"So you do have weapons." Mark that down for later. Ren shut one of the drawers still against hi hand and turned to greet the man in the doorway with an intense and searching stare. He could have probed for information and let the man believe he remembered who he was, but he was tired of mind games.

"Someone relieved me of my memories of this village and the time I spent here previously. You do not need to fill me in on that part, but I could use your name again." He was tense and ready for a fight, but his confusion over the village continued to grow with each person he ran into that seemed not only unfamiliar with who he was beyond the village, but neutral or amiable to being around him. Why had he trusted so many out of his uniform, and why did his name never strike the appropriate reactions in them?

[notabirdcostume]

Sam shouldn't have been surprised, but there's still a part of him that's a little disappointed that Ren had returned with no memories. Not that they'd really been friends--but they'd gotten along all right. Still, Sam had to remember Ren wasn't at fault here and it must be pretty awkward for him to have all these people insist that they knew him. Honestly, none of them had really known Ren all that well but the point still stood that they'd learned at least a little about him before he'd disappeared and now returned.

"I see. Sorry to hear that," he finally manages to say. He then adds, "I'm Sam. Guessing you've heard the rundown on this place then..." He trails off, not sure how to ask Ren about why he was then snooping through his house. One question at a time.