1 - Push yourself

[waywardking]

WHO: Noctis and YOU (and a pair of dogs)
WHERE: Hotel, various other areas
WHAT: Getting a better feel (literally in some cases) for the area, exploring in general
WHEN: Towards the end of September, after the air row signs appear
WARNINGS: Nothing really

Hotel

So Noctis may have been on this world for nearly two months, but he hasn't accomplished much. From what he can tell, a good portion of the city is either rubble or looking to become rubble, and combined with the fact that he's never sure what time it is exactly at any given time (besides a vague sense of night and day), he hasn't wanted to do much.

At the very least, he's figured out the layout of his and Prompto's--wherever he disappeared to, he wasn't there when Noctis woke up--room and parts of the hotel.

If you're around the hotel, you might find Noctis wandering randomly but purposefully. He's got a sharp piece of metal he found in the rubble and is making his way around the building, stopping at each doorway to carve a letter or number into the door itself or beside it at about eye level, as deep as he can.

"Here's to hoping these stick around."


Around

Outside of the hotel, Noctis is much less purposeful. This time, he's got a cane in one hand and is flanked by two spitz-type dogs, one black and one white. They're doing their own exploring, but at least one tries to stick near him whenever possible. If approached, they're friendly enough, though they seem to be able to tell just who might be a threat of some sort to either them or their master.

He can mostly be found near the fountain in the town square and tends to stick within a couple buildings of there. Sometimes he manages to make it to the edges of the town, dogs in tow, trying somewhat successfully to get them to tell him whether whatever plants he's just found growing nearby are of the edible sort or not. Nothing's tried to eat his hands so far, and he's not touching anything the dogs have growled at, so he thinks he's doing pretty well.

"How about this one?"

Comments

Hotel!

[ladiesss]

Krista is always poking around the hotel. She started off looking for useful things, but as her first week had gone by, it turned more into looking for useful people. Just observing, calculating, trying to figure out who could be a friend and who she might need to watch out for.

Whatever Noctis is doing seems pretty mundane, but interesting. She's been sitting quietly in the corner of the hallway for a while, reading over some notes she's taken in a small notebook, but started watching him as soon as carving became a thing.

Unfortunately, she's so used to weird spells, rituals, and other nonsense... That she assumes this is what this is, and not that he might... have trouble... seeing things.

"What are you doing?" She'll suddenly ask, from her spot in the corner, in a very quiet voice.

[waywardking]

He hadn't heard footsteps before a voice, so he's assuming she'd been there before him. He has no idea what she might be doing, just that her voice is coming from closer to the floor, so she's either small or sitting down.

"Marking the doors," he answers, pausing his work to feel the letter he's working on. He's gotten up to capital 'I' so far, and it looks similar enough to the number 1 that he's sure he'll confuse the two. This room'll be 'Ii' then.

"Harder to get lost this way." He carves the long part of the 'I' a bit deeper and then turns in her direction, trying to judge her face's location and settling for looking at the wall several inches above her head. The scarring on and around his eyes is more apparent when he's actually looking in her direction. "What about you?"

[ladiesss]

Oh... The more she looks at him, the more she starts to think she's made a terrible mistake. She doesn't want to assume that something is up with his eyes, but that's kind of what all signs are suddenly pointing to.

"Uh..." Still very soft-spoken, she looks down at her notes for a moment before sighing. "Oh, I'm just... Obsessively re-reading my own notes in the corner of a public hallway, like a weirdo."

The pages rustle a little as she halfway-closes the book, more out of self-consciousness than anything. She's pretty quick to change the subject.

"What'd you mark the one four doors down?"

[waywardking]

"Not that weird. I don't care where you read your notes unless I trip over you or them."

She's more than welcome to assume what she wants about him, or even ask. He'll correct her if she assumes wrong. As for the carving...

"Four doors that way? Should be marked with an 'E'." He's going in alphabetical order--or semi-alphabetical order, since the current door is going to be 'Ii" and not just 'I'. 'A' is his room.

[ladiesss]

"It's... a little weird," she counters about her reading spot, "...But I'll take your being cool with it anyway."

And then, after another moment of contemplative silence, she shuts her book.

"So are you blind, or something?"

Kind of blunt, but she's already getting the feeling he might prefer a direct question over someone being overly polite and weird about asking.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Bucky runs into Noctis out in the city, while they're both supposedly exploring at the rough border between the buildings and the wilderness beyond (although there's plenty of wilderness among the buildings, if you ask Bucky).

In this case, it's the dogs that get his attention more than anything, if only because he calls, curiously, "Did those two come with you, or did you find them bere?" as he approaches.

He hasn't seen anything like a dog here, so he suspects the former, but the latter's just as interesting.

[waywardking]

Noctis thinks there's plenty of wilderness everywhere; from what he can tell, there's a lot of wilderness interspersed with buildings, and so far he has yet to be proven wrong. He'd do a lot for a proper map--and the ability to read a normal one--but he supposes someone'll figure out one eventually.

Bucky's voice sounds familiar, but Noctis isn't able to place it more accurately than 'someone from the Fleet', and he frowns in the man's direction, straightening up from his position leaning against the nearest wall. The dogs seem to be as interested in Bucky as he is of them, because they trot over when he's close enough to sniff at him.

"The dogs? Yep, they're mine. Umbra and Pryna."

[waywardking]

"Sure, but like I said, neither you or them is in my way," he repeats, shrugging.

He's a little surprised that she's asked so directly, and doesn't bother to hide that surprise. Back home, people wouldn't mention it very often, or if they didn't know, would just ask what happened. So even though she didn't ask, he's automatically prepared to tell her yes and why, even though he doesn't have to.

"Yeah, but I'm still getting used to it. It's been...'bout a year now."

[ladiesss]

"Oh, wow..."

The fact that he keeps talking about it is somewhat encouraging. Krista leans forward so that she can rest her chin on her hands.

"Can I ask what happened? If you're fine with, like, talking about that to a random hall person."

She couldn't begin to guess if it was super-traumatic or not-a-big-deal, but either way, she's starting to sound a lot more curious than cautious.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

It's not a whole lot better for Bucky - Noctis looks familiar enough that Bucky's leaning toward "saw him in the Fleet" - but that's about the best he can do.

"Huh." As they approach, he does crouch down enough to let them sniff at one hand - he's not overly familiar with dogs, but it's also not like he doesn't know what to do around them. He's never owned one, but he's spent some time around them, at least. "I didn't realize pets would come along for the ride."

Although; he glances up, and, "They're kinda more than pets, though, aren't they?"