Crash and Burrrrn [o]

[Penelo]

She knew she had been low on fuel, the gauge had been begging for a refill for the past two hours, but there was nothing on the radar but green grass. She'd become frantic increasingly as the red light started to flash through the cabin, but still; nothing. Just miles and miles of green. Another ten minutes, passed and she started to lose altitude, and fast. She slowed the aircraft down and prepared for a crash landing.

It came, and even though she went through the motions for a crash landing, it was still rough and she cried out as she bounced against the security harness. She'd bruise for sure. Any moogle repairmen would shake their head at her for the poor stay the Destiny was in after it finished carving into the earth. Bits of it had flown off, and the engines were totally ruined. She fell out of the new broken front window of the cock pit and drug herself away, as she turned back to look at the damage, an entire engine combusted and the power of the explosion sent her back several feet. She groaned on the ground.

A column of smoke pillared into the air and Penelo groaned, her bones were rattled and she could already see bruises showing on her arms and legs from the initial crash, falling, and then being blown away by the exploding engine. The fact of the matter was, this ship was finished. She threw a water spell at the fires to put them out, and as the entire thing hissed, she climbed inside to rummage through the compartments to get supplies.

The computers of the cockpit were ruined, as was her navigation. She had no idea what was north anymore, and would only have the sun to go by, until it got dark that is. She packed up as many potions and ethers as she could fit into her pack, as well as a bed roll, antidotes, a spare set of clothes, and her combat sword. Separately she strapped on her quiver, cooking sack, and bow. She took as much gil as she could manage to fit into her purse (she had saved a lot on her own, since Vaan had gone off on his own) and with one last exasperated look at her ruined cock pit, she slid out the front window.

Once on the ground, she started to look around. She had no direction and a meager supply of food. She had no garuntee there would be game out there for her to eat, or water (despite all the damn grass) but even in this sad situation, there was a smile on the blond girl's lips. This was uncharted territory for her, and her past few years with Vaan had ignited a thirsty for the unknown to her. She'd map this place out AND find a new airship.

Eventually.

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[wildrose]

Once more, Firion had found himself trekking across the wilderness. Until mere months before his only traveling had been from Salamand to Fynn, but now it seemed that his destiny was to backpack across every stretch of rural earth in existence. Sadly he did not have the courtesy of rough-familiarity with this land though. He knew it was at the foot of the mountain he had awoke in, but that was about it really. Oh yeah, and it was flush with monsters. Not weak ones, but beasts that could likely take his life if he lowered his guard. On one hand the flat nature of the landscape meant he could see them well before they entered spitting distance, but that sort of thing tended to work in reverse as well. They seemed few and far between though, so hopefully Firion could reach whatever lay on the far side of this great plain before any more encounters presented themselves.

Grass crunched softly underfoot, the dull noise reaching the rebel’s ears with ease in this stillness. The wind tickled at him delicately now and then, but for the most part he was left with only his thoughts for company. Firion had to wonder how far he was from civilization. This world was utterly new to him, but he at least assumed that it wasn’t 100% wilderness. This whole “multiple worlds” thing was a bit new to him, but from his layman’s perspective it seemed that everywhere had an intelligent population of some sort. Starring off at the unending horizon of grassland, he couldn’t help but ponder what lay beyond this placid biome. He had light travel rations, but if the fauna consisted entirely of savage killer creatures he would have trouble adding to it.

Still on the move, a subtle but altogether different sound came into focus. Blinking, he cast his gaze about calmly in search of the origin. He had a hard time reasoning out just what it resembled. A sort of rushing noise almost, with a repetitive metallic pang underneath. If only he could-

A much more explosive din (created by an actual explosion, natch) spread through the immediate area. Firion nearly threw himself down for cover, but only half-stumbled as he caught himself. Though surprising it seemed that he was in no danger. Now that he was suitably rattled he glanced about with greater haste, and easily located a great plume of smoke set in the distance. He could not yet make out its source, but plotted to change that as he set a course for the remote flame. His pace was quickened to his former forced march, and as the distance closed he became progressively more confused as to what he was seeing. The most obvious feature was the trench that had been violently cast into the soil, but what lay at the end was quite alien.

Skidding to a halt, soft brown eyes rested upon some metallic object at the fissure’s end. The red hue of its outer shell indicated that it was quite hot, but some time before he had arrived the column of smoke had tapered into a lighter steam. The design reminded him heavily of Palamecia’s own vessel of war, the Dreadnaught, but on a much smaller scale. Surely no airship could be so miniature, right? This was a dinghy compared to the Enterprise. If only he could have seen its shape before it was contorted so.....

And then he saw her. Not far from the smoldering wreck of tangled steel was a petite figure. Had she arrived in this mangled shell of a thing? If so she appeared relatively unharmed, though it was hard to tell from where he stood. If she knew the lay of the land it would benefit him greatly. Seeing that the girl appeared ready to depart, Firion raised his voice. “Excuse me, but....did you arrive here in this?” Survival be damned, he was REALLY curious about the odd contraption.

[Penelo]

Things could be a lot worse. For instance; she could be really injured, or crash landed in the middle of a battle field. She was in good health, didn't sustain any injury minus a few bruises, and she hadn't hurt anyone in the crash landing (minus the earth itself). She adjusted the pack straps at her shoulders while she thought these optimist thoughts and continued to look around.

She'd only just missed flying straight into the side of a mountain, and she could only believed that she didn't her chance of surviving a crash into a mountain was far less than one on open ground like the one that had juts occurred. She figured the mountains were not the way to go. Huge mountains like that were freezing cold, and Penelo didn't have any winter gear with her. She couldn't carry the weight of all the furs with her because she was only herself. She didn't have a Chocobo to carry extra supplies. She had to pack light.

Behind her, she supposed she saw a vast split in the land that was like a huge ugly scar in the plains. She could only be glad she also didn't hit that in her landing. That probably would have been even more disastrous then the mountain. She scratched at her scalp, now. She had two main directions she could go in, but she had no clue as to which would be the more successful route, or if there was even a civilization within her traveling range. She figured with the amount of food she had packed, grouped with the potions, she could survive a weak without restocking. That is if she wasn't constantly under attack by monsters.

The voice calling to her nearly got a scream of shock out of her. She'd be so deeply seated in her head trying to plot her course, she hadn't heard anyone approach (of course her ears were still ringing from the impact with the ground). She turned around to get a look at this person, but she was relieved that there was someone in this desert of green. "Hello!" she greeted first with an excited wave. After that was out of the way, she addressed his question.

"Yeah, I was just traveling...exploring, when I ran out of fuel. I had figured I'd hit a city soon enough to refuel, but turns out, these grasslands are so big...You wouldn't happen to know where the nearest aerodome is? I need a new airship." Obviously she needed a new airship, this one would cost so much more time and gil to repair and get it back into flying condition. She probably couldn't even salvage the computer controls, the wires had probably all melted together. She figured a new airship wouldn't be cheap, but if she got a price, she could begin working to earn the amount she needed. She turned her attention back to the stranger who appeared from nowhere with her neutral smile on her face.

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[wildrose]

In retrospect, Firion probably could have figured out a better way to approach the stranger. She seemed visibly startled by his arrival, which he found understandable all things considered. However, she quickly cheered up after seeing that he wasn’t some kind of monster or something. High spirits for someone who just took a dive into solid ground. He could admire that. Deciding that this girl would be no trouble and that he did not trouble her, he stepped purposefully from the scorched shell of steel as the blonde continued to speak of her situation.

Crossing his arms he listened attentively, but in all honesty he no idea about half of what she said. He knew full well what an airship was, but the idea of a “fuel” for it was completely foreign to him. Was Cid’s machine powered by any particular substance? He knew its workings were clockwork in nature, but perhaps there was something that made those gears turn? Alas, he could not be sure. Firion was certain that the Dreadnought had possessed some manner of generator to sustain flight - he had destroyed it personally, after all - but it was not as though he would know anything of the design. Stranger yet was the idea one could simply go to some dome of air and....obtain a new one. Perhaps the contraptions were more commonplace in this world?

Not this world, he silently realized. She is unfamiliar with the lay of the land. She is like me, then.

When all was done, Firion could only shake his head in regret. “I’m sorry, but I’m not yet acquainted with this territory.” Or her terminology, but that was another matter. A slight motion of the hand indicated the mountains looming at his back as he continued. “You’ll find nothing but wilderness that way, however. It’s my hope that I will have better luck in the opposite direction.” He really hoped the pilot hadn’t been expecting him to be some sort of cartographer or such. He may have unwittingly raised her hopes just to smash them down. That would not sit well on his conscience. But then, maybe he could still find a benefit to this chance meeting in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

“I hate to admit it...” A hand rose to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly as he spoke. “....but as you’ve surely noticed, I’m fairly lost here.” He moved several paces past her, half turning so as not to just shut her out with his back. “Perhaps we could travel together? At least until we can find someplace safer. I do have enough rations to share for a day, meager as they are...” This was true. He did not offer the most colorful array of foodstuffs, but all things considered he could do much worse. The snow of the mountain had also given him a good opportunity to refill his waterskin, which would hopefully last if nobody got greedy.

Why was he offering to travel with the stranger? Hard to say. Good will mostly, since he wasn’t sure how well the petite figure could handle herself in lands so rural. It would be nice to have someone to at least talk to along the way as well. Strength in numbers at the very least.

(Huh. I got right to the point, didn’t I? Whatever.)

[Penelo]

It never exactly occurred to her that this guy didn't know engine to cabin about airships, or that that was even possible. Sure, not everyone flew in them or piloted them in Rabanastre, but everyone knew stuff about them. She was knew to this world-exploring (if you don't count Lemures and she kinda doesn't) and didn't know what to expect from a place like this or from the people in it.

But as it was, this guy gave her the feeling that seeing a ship like hers (not in it's crashed and burning state) wasn't something that happened everyday. She could admit that when he said he wasn't familiar with this territory, her spirits dropped a bit. It would take a longer amount of time to find such a place (should one exist). She turned and looked in the direction he spoke of, the giant looming mountain seemed to taunt her. At least from up so high she might have been able to pick out a destination. Down here it was anybody's guess. "It's all grasslands and meadows back that way for....miles." Penelo gestured the direction she had been flying from, her spirits continued to dwindle. Two out of the four cardinal directions canceled out, she had two options. Straight ahead, or forty-five degrees either way.

She looked back at him when he started speaking again, he admitted he was fairly lost here, which was something she had already surmised (because he'd already told her), but it really wasn't THAT bad of a situation. Neither of them were mortally wounded and they weren't under attack...yet. So they had that going for them. She watched as he moved passed her and broke into a grin when he suggested they traveled together until they found a place to go. She nodded her head in agreement. "I have field rations for about a week, well a few days split between us. There is more in storage, if you wouldn't mind carrying a bit."

Penelo wasn't put off the idea of traveling with this virtual stranger in the slightest. She'd done it before and on both occasions she had ended up saving the world as she knew it. And as much as Penelo liked this new freedom, she missed people and being her old self that worried about everything--not that she was so eager to mother this guy. She held out her hand for a shake, "I'm Penelo. I'd be happy to travel with you."

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