Day 2 - Around the Island

[want_to_belong]

Who: Prompto, OTA
What: Exploring and survival
When: Day 2
Where: Different places around the island
Warnings: Dumb boy

Early Morning - Oatmeal - Around Weiss' camp, OTA
As promised, Prompto went to seek out Weiss' camp with some freshly made - and sugary! - oatmeal. The way Ignis worked out perfectly good and normal meals with so few ingredients amazed him. If it was him, he'd probably be trying to figure out how sugar was supposed to go with beef.

But there he was, calling out Weiss' name with a small pot of still warm but quickly cooling oatmeal. A piece of cloth had been thrown over it in an attempt to keep in the heat. She had said she didn't know when she would be leaving in the morning. Hopefully she'd still be around.

Morning - Survival Fruit and Veggie hunting - OTA
Food was a top priority for obvious reasons. Noctis had his fishing. Ignis had his cooking. Laurent seemed to be a hunter of sorts. Nyx had the ability to lounge around with his shirt off. That left the ever popular fruits and veggies.

He'd seen much of the beach and coastal areas the day before, so he searched further inland and managed to find a palm tree with a bundle of coconuts waaaay at the top. If he wasn't short on ammo he'd have just shot them down, but he couldn't be so reckless with their limited supplies.

Instead, he could be found painstakingly improvising his way up the trunk.

Exploration - How wide is this island? - OTA
After a comfortable stash of food and drink was put aside for that day, the ever present need to figure out their dilemma rose. For the time being Ignis had chosen to stay behind, but Prompto went on ahead with everyone else who had decided to see how long it took to reach the other end of the island.

There were precautions, of course. Should the island be so wide that they couldn't make it to the other end in a reasonable amount of time, they were to head back so that they wouldn't be caught in the dark. Beyond that, it was mostly a matter of safety in numbers. No one would wander off and get lost, right?

Evening - Night at the Ruins - Open to Women and Kids
Like a good boy, Prompto was back at the ruins by evening. It was the only place with solid shelter they had thus far, and with Iggy in such poor shape it wouldn't have been a good idea to go camping in the wilderness without any camping gear.

The chill of the night air rose, and after keeping to himself for some time he finally got to his feet and walked over.

"Hey... You look cold," he said as he shrugged off his thick winter coat and offered it.

Evening - Night at the Ruins - Open to dudes
For a while Prompto could be found tucked into a corner, quietly trying to get his phone to work. It would've been nice to place some King's Knight with Noct... They didn't have a place to plug their phones in, but maybe he could hook it up to a Leiden potato or something.

While he was putting his phone away a burst of wind cut through the ruins, creating a haunting howl. Prompto tensed up, scrunching up tighter until the wail subsided. Glancing at the man next to him, he asked with a forced smile, pretending that he wasn't bothered at all. "Hey, you, uh, don't think these ruins are haunted, do you?"

Comments

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She just appreciates that he's willing to try, she won't expect him to be completely over his misgivings in a day.]

It's rather a pleasant novelty, to be honest- where I come from, monsters lived underneath a mountain until fairly recently, and we haven't lived beside humanity on the Surface for long enough for the joy of being able to see the sky to wear off entirely.

[She smiles ruefully.]

I'm sure I'll feel less cheerful about it if the weather takes a turn for the worse, but hopefully by then I'll have built myself something that can keep the rain off properly.

[want_to_belong]

So you'd never seen the sky before? What'd you use to see underground? Did you have, like, generators or something? Like an underground bunker?

[He'd been in a cave that had been used to hideout during wartime and it was the closest thing he could think of. And he hadn't been a fan. Dark, eerie, scary sounds, squeaky gates, daemons, cave-ins... None of it was for him.

But other people had no choice but to stay there. Probably whole families.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Oh, it was a whole network of cave systems. We'd been living there for- goodness, millennia at least, and we'd hollowed out a fair amount of the mountain by then.

Most of the power was provided by the machinery in the Core- I'm afraid you'd have to ask someone else about that, engineering was never my field. For most other things, we just used magic.

[want_to_belong]

Whoa.

[That's a long time to be underground. Then she'd probably never seen the sky at all. She was probably born down there. He felt pretty sorry for her. Even if he'd grown up surrounded by a wall, he'd still been able to see the sky.]

...You know, there's some pretty neat stuff that happens in the sky sometimes. I've heard at some places at night you can see a bunch of colors swirling around up there. And sometimes at sunset you clouds and stuff will turn neat colors. Oh, have you ever seen a rainbow?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She smiles warmly at his descriptions.]

Everyone was very excited about it once we finally got out- for the first couple months, you kept getting people walking into things because they were too distracted looking up.

The sunset I've definitely seen, and someone pointed out a rainbow to me once... the swirling lights in the sky I've heard of but I've never seen them, I know there's supposed to be a specific name for them because I read it somewhere but I can't remember what it is.

[want_to_belong]

Ignis would know what it's called. I've never seen it, but we've traveled around a ton since we left the city. I... never concentrated that much on the sky, though. I mostly took pictures of us and different places.

[He always saw the sky. It would've been weird if he took a bunch of pictures of it.]

There's tons of neat things to see in the world.

[Just having a normal conversation was helping him loosen up a little bit. Hesitantly, he decided to ask.]

Hey... Do you know how to make nets and stuff? I mean, since you know how to make webs...

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet nods in understanding.]

It's good to remember time with one's friends, I think.

Hm... yes, I think I could manage a net fairly well. Were you thinking of trying fishing?

[want_to_belong]

That, and carrying stuff. And they could even be hammocks, maybe. I just thought they'd be really useful, but I don't know how to make one.

[And yet it seemed like they should be so simple to make.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

There's a few different ways, I think- weaving gets sort of reflexive with enough practice, like any skill. I could show you how it's supposed to work while I make one, if you like? You wouldn't really have the same material to work with, but it might still be useful to know.

[want_to_belong]

I could try. Not sure how good I'd be at it.

[He had a few limited skillsets that he felt proud of. Everything else, it always seemed like other people were better than him. Didn't mean he wouldn't at least try, though.

His posture was reserved, leaning most of his weight on one leg and holding the stuff rather close.]

I was thinking if I had a big bag I could bring back enough stuff for everyone.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She doesn't try to push him by intruding on his space, physically or verbally. This is clearly awkward for him, best to go slowly and let him get used to her.]

Well, some things one doesn't necessarily have to be unusually good at, just good enough to get the job done, I think. It's best to avoid being outright bad at something, but after a certain point it doesn't matter whether one is an amazing fisher or merely a decent one, so long as people get fed.

Still, I could probably do a bag, if it wasn't too large. About how big were you thinking?

[want_to_belong]

Did you guys have gym class where you're from? They used to keep a big pile of balls in big sack.

[He held his hands out in front of him.]

Something like 15 or 16 balls depending on how big they were. I thought that's be good for carrying a lot of coconuts around. There's a lot of people, so we're going to need to stay stocked up.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet looks amused at the description.]

Yes- it's been some time since I was in school, and gym was never really my favorite subject, but I recall. I could probably try weaving something like that, if you want.

[want_to_belong]

[So they did have gym. At least that made things easier to understand.]

I... Well, that would be nice, yeah. The more stuff we can make like that the easier it'll be to take care of everyone.

Fishing nets and stuff would probably be good, too. [He let out a small huff.] Anything we can manage.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She always liked math class better, honestly. She nods idly at his words while spinning out lines of silk in her hands, slowly letting the bag begin to take shape.]

True, but I can only do so much at once. A reasonably large amount, admittedly, but it's a physical effort like any other- the same way you can't climb trees all day without resting, let's say.

[want_to_belong]

Yeah, no problem with that!

[He didn't mean to sound like he was asking for so much.]

I mean, I'd want to do something to help make them, too. Once I get some stuff to make them with.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Luckily, he hasn't- the bag is progressing quickly as she speaks, a simple but practical shape of medium size.]

I've heard of people weaving baskets out of palm fronds, so that might be workable- and appropriate, given what you're planning on carrying in them.

[want_to_belong]

[He watched, trying to take in as much as possible. Even seeing it, it could be hard to keep track.]

Well, there's no shortage of those on the island. If I can figure out how to do that, we could have as many baskets as we want.

[prettypurpleparlor]

The simplest method, I believe, is to lay several of them out flat horizontally, then weave others alternating under and over them, coming up vertically.

[She holds up the finished mesh bag so he can see it clearly, and uses one hand to indicate a spot where where she's used that technique, so he can have a visual example.]

[want_to_belong]

Flay horizontally, others alternating under and over. Got it.

[Sounded simple enough, and he leaned in to look.]

How do you finish it without it falling apart?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She hopes he means 'lay', not 'flay', although technically one would have to strip the palm branch bare of fronds to use them...]

I'm sure there are a few ways, but I think the most straightforward option would be to take the loose ends and knot them together once you've got something large enough.

How did that typo happen? lol

[want_to_belong]

Really? That's all?

[Didn't sound too bad. Of course, watching someone else do it was going to be a lot different than trying to did it himself all alone later.

At least he didn't have to worry about being embarrassed if he was alone.]

That... actually doesn't sound that bad.

Re: How did that typo happen? lol

[prettypurpleparlor]

[No doubt it'd take a while to get it, but practice makes perfect.]

Well, keep in mind that this just for making something basic to start with, you'd probably need to get more complicated for something more advanced.

[She holds out the finished bag for him to take, so he can get it without having to come closer to her than arm's length.]

In the mean time, however, you'll have this for anything that doesn't suffice for.

[want_to_belong]

[Some of the nerves had calmed, but gods this was weird. It truly felt like having a rational conversation with some sort of Arachne. It just wasn't something that was possible at home.

He stepped up and gently accepted the bag from her. He didn't intentionally try to stay as far as possible, but he was nearly an arm's length when he pulled it back towards himself.]

Thanks. [He gave her a lopsided smile.] This'll help a lot.

Probably wrapping soon, I think?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Honestly, a few years ago some of her people probably would've said the same thing about humans. They got past it eventually, she figures he probably will too.]

[She hands the bag over and smiles back at him.]

It's no trouble, dearie. Frankly, anything that helps more of us survive on this island is all to the good- I get the feeling we'll want as many people as we can working together if anything goes suddenly wrong.