logsinthenight | I refuse to learn from my mistakes [Open]

Entry tags:

I refuse to learn from my mistakes [Open]

characters: Fjord and OTA!
location: Downtown shopping center; later the Invincible
date/time: 23rd Feb, spanning the next however long
content: Fjord thought infiltrating some crocodile spirits was a not terrible idea, and must face the repercussions
warnings: Some bodily hjarm, first aid thereon

[ 1. Closed to Soldat ]

It takes Fjord a bit more effort than he would have liked to make it clear of the water-logged bottom floor of the shopping center, and stumble his way out of the building completely and into the night. His lantern is still strapped to his waist, and a leather charm bounces with a tinny little clink with every laboured step he takes; the sound, as well as the bob of the lantern, is extremely irregular, as he clutches tightly to his left side with one hand and limps down the stairs and into Downtown proper.

He looks like shit. His entire everything is still completely soaked through, dripping with water; his breathing is laboured, grunting and wincing and cursing with every stumble as he tries to hold his blood-slick armour tight against his wounds. But there's a mindless determination to his form, nonetheless - where he looks like he's going to keep moving to find help, even if it kills him.

[ 2. The Invincible, OTA ]

After he's been rescued, and fixed up enough that he's not at immediate risk of dying, Fjord can be found at the Invicible again. He's not great about sticking to orders for bedrest, though: he's just as often found in the main living area, nursing some heavy-duty bandaging around his entire torso - which is visible even through his newest acquisitions, a plain grey t-shirt and black tracksuit pants - and also an ale at one of the tables in the corner, where he's propped himself up in a corner to keep his torso straight.

Until he gets banned back to his bedroom in room 203, or retreats there to give himself an actual proper break. The hardest part is making sure he doesn't leave to go on his patrol route; he doesn't like sitting still and doing nothing, and he's gotten used to having Jester and Caduceus around so that injures like this didn't happen.

(Those injuries are going to be a surprise for everyone, as well. He didn't tell anyone he was going to explore the mall.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Soldat catches sight of that through the crack between the restaurant doors, on their way back with the coffee mugs, and for a moment, softens into a smile. Aw, poor Fjord. They're both giving him such a hard time-- deservedly, of course!-- but he's gotta be tired and hurting. He probably knows just how dumb he was being.

To avoid embarrassing him by catching him at his slump, Soldat gives the restaurant door a good, loud bang with the metal shoulder as they push it open, giving him time to straighten up again if he wants to. "Coffee. I put milk in it. Hope you like milk."

The jarring bang makes Fjord jump, and he snaps back upright, a bit too quickly - something twinges and he goes poker-faced to keep from grimacing.

"Milk's fine." His voice is a little tight for a moment, before he unstiffens to lean back in his chair again. "Thank you, Soldat."

"And I thought I was jumpy, Christ," Soldat says with some amusement, setting his mug down in front of him. They slide into one of the other seats around the little table with their own drink. "Is your tablet back at the Invincible? Or did you fry it in the mall with your dunking?" Is there someone Soldat should warn about their eventual incoming, is what they're getting at here.

Fjord chooses not to comment on being called out. "Naw, it's in my bag," he says, and takes a moment to untie said bag from one of his belts - it's more of a sack, really, unremarkable and soiled with old stains and fresh water, but apparently water-proof - so he can dump it on the table, open it up and stick his hand in. Wrist deep, at first, then he frowns and goes to the elbow; then lifts it up so he can stick his arm in to the shoulder. The bag does not bulge in any meaningful way with this abuse.

"Where the hell... there." And Fjord pulls out his undamaged tablet to place on the table next to his coffee.

Right, the bag he could fit a glaive in. Soldat leans over to get a better look. "So what exactly is that? I saw it in your memory."

"Yep. That was where we found it, too." He lifts it and offers it to Soldat to examine. "Don't go punching a hole in the outside or it'll break the enchantment, but it's a bag of holding. They're supposed to be able to hold five hundred pounds."

They take the bag-- right hand, slightly less likely to snag and hurt something-- and peer inside curiously. Maybe it's like Somnus's magic portal space. "Can you put anything in there? Will it keep if you do?"

And this is about where Sora comes back with an armful of towels: Fjord with a cup of coffee, Soldat sticking their nose into a weird handmade bag. Perfectly normal Beacon things.

"Back. Magic's recharged." Sora walks up to Fjord first, holding out the towels and looking at Soldat a little funny. "What's that? A bag?"

"Bag of holding," he repeats, taking the towels. "Thanks. It's a magic item that holds shit." And directed back at Soldat: "I don't know if it keeps food well, I haven't put any in there to test it. I've mostly got coin."

If Soldat rummages, he'll find the wisdom charm, a lot of old-fashioned coinage, a rolled-up scroll and... a large tooth, bigger than his hand. Hard to say from what species, though.

"You should test it," Soldat suggests, offering it back to Fjord. "We need safe places to keep food, in case anything happens to the ferry again. Or spirits decide to steal our supply. There's at least one person who can make a magical pocket stasis thing. But giving spare food to only one person is stupid." What if that one person died? What if that one person changed their mind and refused to share? There's risk, and risk should be spread out.

Sora hopes that it holds things other than shit. That would be a waste of a perfectly nice bag. (He keeps this joke to himself, especially after it's clear that Fjord's proud of it.)

He takes his Keyblade out again and - "Heal" - out goes another Cure.. Most of the bruising should be either a mottled color or gone, but everything else is still very much on the mend.

"You guys have trouble with food?" Sora's heard about the ferry incident, but no one's ever mentioned food shortages before. Suddenly feeling a little bad about Valentine's. "Also, can I see?" He dismisses the Keyblade and makes a grabby hand at the bag. Give. His turn!

Fjord receives the bag from Soldat - and then passes it to Sora. "Thanks. Go fer yer life."

And back to Soldat. "I wouldn't think it'd keep things any fresher than just keeping them outside the bag. It's not like it's any cooler inside. But it'll be able to hold a lot, if we just need to stash things."

"Not trouble. Exactly. Just planning for possibilities. One month spirits got into the supply, ate a lot of it. Another month. I crashed the ferry and we lost some of the supply." Did you guys not know it was Soldat's fault? Now you do. "And there was the siege, which made people worry about food. And the time when the spirits stole all our things" And gave them back, but what if next time they didn't? "And the other time when they threw food at everyone. So." Suffice to say worrying about food isn't a bad idea.

They slide the third coffee mug over to Sora, pointing at him to sit now that he's done his job, and then have a sip of their own. "So the bag is not the same as magic stasis space?" Soldat does not know the word "hammerspace", though to be fair, Fjord might not, either.

"Thank you," Sora sing songs, giving Soldat a delighted grin, and takes the mug. Oh, mostly cream! They remembered. "Yo, I keep saying that I wanna try it more black." Still, he'll shake his head, grateful, as he sips and then sticks his face in the bag. This is really ineffective, since presumably there is no light in there. (They crashed the ferry that one time? Things to follow up on.)

He is not bothered about the rest of the conversation except for the part where it's supposed to be really big on the inside? He's actually gonna shout a "HEY!" into the bag, appropos of nothing. Does it echo?

Edited (pronouns hard) 2020-03-02 05:24 (UTC)

Fjord keeps half an eye on Sora with his bag in case he needs to snatch it away, but he's more invested talking logistics with Soldat.

"Not that I'm aware of, but I haven't had much of a chance to test it either." He takes a sip of his coffee. He'd prefer black, but this is fine. "It's got a finite amount of space, as far as I'm aware - like I said, there's a weight limit, and the size of things matters a bit - but I should be able to keep plenty of food in there, if I focus on things that won't rot easily. Jerky, hardtack - I can keep glass bottles in there." He's very clearly thinking in terms of what might last for a sailor.

He jumps, and winces, at Sora suddenly yelling at the bag. It's about as successfully muffled as you'd think a thick layer of leather would do; it is also pitch black in there.

"Kid. No yelling," Soldat scolds, but gently. They gesture for him to give the bag back to Fjord if all he's gonna do is make people twitch with it.

For Fjord's sake, they shrug a little over the mug of their coffee. If fresh food isn't a thing, then at least it's somewhere spirits can't get to. Maybe. "If you can keep some cans and jars and things in there. That will at least be a safe place. Unless the bag can be stolen."

Sora winces and removes his face from the bag. "Sorry," he says, scratching the back of his head. "Just wanted to see if it would echo."

Still, he'll give the bag back to Fjord, curiosity as sated as far as he understands the thing, then wrap both of his hands around his coffee mug. "How do you get things out of there without any light? Do you just feel around for it?"

"If they're gonna steal it, they have to go through me first," he says firmly, taking the bag back and moving to tie it back to his belt. "But it's not like most people know it's special, unless I tell them. Ain't no reason anyone should go assuming it is, it just looks like a bag."

And to Sora: "Well, turning it inside out works pretty well. But mostly I just reach in and pull things out, sometimes it takes a bit of digging."

"The spirits here," Soldat explains carefully, "managed to steal my knives. All my knives. Do you even know where I have all my knives on my person right now?" Of course not, no one knows where they keep all their knives on their person. "They did, somehow. Keep that knotted to your belt, just in case." And some spirits can probably untie knots, but not all of them.

Sora makes a face. "I'd definitely bash my hand on something if I tried that. Props, bro." He'd end up dumping it all out and then feel bad about the mess and spend hours trying to put it all back. Maybe it's best that Fjord has the bag instead of him.

Sora glances over at Soldat. "They steal things? Huh. I know they can be kind of random and sometimes they do things without knowing it's mean, but I didn't know they stole things."

"I would be curious to know if any guess I make about the number of knives on your person is accurate," he says dryly. Or if Soldat would be honest with their answer on it. "But I'll keep that in mind."

And true to his word, he is actually looking down to make sure he ties it on very securely. "Feels like I'm trying to keep one of my team-mates out," he comments, with a slight grin.

"Eight," Soldat says blandly. This may or may not be true. It really is an excessive number of knives, though. "You had a teammate who would steal your things?"

The spirits technically only stole shit for about two days, and then gave it all back, but a couple of them have gotten ideas from that. Soldat has one in particular, a porcupine-looking little guy, that seems to take personal pleasure in snatching their things and leaving them in funny places to find later. In the absence of Owl Friend, Soldat is starting to look more forgivingly on this behavior.

That's too many knives, Soldat. Sora looks over at them, nose in his coffee mug, trying to decide if he's going to believe them or if he's going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Hey, those are two very different things.

"I'd believe that. I had a friend who stole anything that wasn't tied down. He was a pirate, though." Sora turns to Fjord, coffee in hand. "You sailed, right? Any pirates on the team?"

"I mean, technically, all of the Mighty Nein are pirates now," he points out, tying off a final knot. "But naw, Nott was always a thief. Rogue, technically."

Soldat would recognise the name; might even be able to remember the small goblin it belongs to, from Fjord's memory that he found. "Back when Mollymauk was alive an' with us, Nott tried going through my stuff to steal something. She's got a bit of a pickpocketing streak, I suppose it comes with the territory."

"The kind of screechy one?" Soldat recalls dubiously, ignoring Sora's look. If you wanna know the truth, gonna have to ask, kiddo. "Why would she steal from her teammates, though." That seems counter-intuitive. Steal from enemies, or unaffiliated, but not backup. (Maybe if they were like field command. And it was some kind of quiet rebellion? Her field command woulda probably been this guy. Yeah, pretty dumb, then.)

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