witchesreign | SURVIVAL SKILLS FIELD TRIP: Winter Island

Entry tags:

SURVIVAL SKILLS FIELD TRIP: Winter Island

Monsters:

Blue Dragon

Forbidden (near mountains)

Fastitocalon

Fastitocalon-F

Gayla

Mesmerize

Resources:

Mountains

Freshwater stream

Trees

Beginner's Forest (Chocobo forest) with chocobo and Chocoboy

All students are only given the following items during their trip:

1x Tent
1x Rope
1x Twine
1x Set of utensils
75x Rations (3 per person)
1x First Aid kit
- 10x Potions
- 6x Antidote
- 6x Phoenix Downs
- 1x Set of surgical blades
- 25x Adhesive bandages
- 1x Adhesive cloth tape
- 10x Antibiotic pointment packets
- 10x Antiseptic wipe packets
- 5x Packets of aspirin
- 3x Space blanket
- 2x Instant cold compress
- 2x Pair of nonlatex gloves
- 1x Scissors
- 1x Roller bandage
- 10x Sterile gauze pads
- 1x Tweezers
50 Fire spells
50 Blizzard spells
50 Thunder spells
20 Life spells
60 Cure spells
20 Esuna
1x Shiva junction
1x Quetzalcoatl junction
1x Siren junction
1x Signal flare

Of course, characters are allowed to take their weapons and whatever inventory of magic they might have already as well as personal Guardian Forces.

[The Ragnarok lands briefly in Winter Island, dropping off the group with nothing more than their Garden-provided packs and a "good luck!" from the pilot and accompanying SeeDs, though one SeeD also warns the group not to go to Shumi Village: "That's cheating." Have fun!]

Mod note: Be sure to be on the lookout as surprises may pop up in the thread. Each group is given one signal flare that should only be used if they require the immediate retrieval by a nearby SeeD squad sent to discreetly watch over them. Good luck!

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Rainbow, who was rummaging around in the pack bags that served for her pony backpack, came out with with the gloves clenched in her teeth and a wry look on her face.

"You get the feeling they don't actually look to see who's taking these trips?"

Cissie couldn't hold in her laughter. "Doesn't seem like it," she giggled, inspecting her own inventory. She'd brought along her own crossbow & arrows (and a few trick arrows, just in case!) for the trip, and while she wasn't eagerly looking forward to spending a weekend in the wilderness, she'd certainly been through worse before.

"Either that, or they just mass-produce their bags and don't think twice about it."

"You know that'd imply they think once about it, right?" said possibly the most insufferable person in the entire multiverse to be stuck with for a weekend in the middle of nowhere. His own pack was already slung over his shoulder; he hadn't given the contents more than a cursory glance. Overconfidence was something that happened to people who weren't as awesome. "Hey, if you don't want the gloves, I'll take 'em."

She tossed them to him with a jerk of her neck. "Might as well. No potion for me on this trip, it's not in the pack."

She rummaged a moment more, then came out with a grin. "Well, all right! This is gonna be fun!"

Fun was certainly one word for it. Cissie slung her bag over her shoulder and tightened her braid (she'd pinned her hair up, figuring it'd be in the way) before she nodded in agreement.

"I hope so. I haven't gone camping like this in a couple of years."

He caught the incoming gloves in his free hand almost lazily and stuffed them into his pocket.

"How about finding somewhere to camp before you start chatting about it?" He pointed; he hadn't just been preening in the glow of his own hubris while the other two were checking their bags. "There's water up that way." And, he noted to himself, probably plenty of groundwater. Nobody could accuse him of cheating if the point was to survive, surely?

"I'm following you guys," Rainbow said, taking to the air as casually as if she was taking a step to the side. "I've got a lot less to worry about than you two do."

Ed scowled up at her - probably a familiar sight for everyone involved, but at least his indignation was on his species' behalf for a change. "Who says anyone's worrying? Give it a month or two, then maybe we'll talk."

Still carrying his backpack over his shoulder instead of wearing it in the conventional way, he started to trudge in the direction he'd pointed out, whether or not anyone else was following.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Okay, I have a lot less stuff I need to take care of than you guys do. Also if there's tough going or rough terrain ahead, I can carry your stuff up so you don't have to haul it while you climb, or trudge, or plod, or.... whatever."

Of all the people she got stuck with, it had to be them. Cissie knew better than to fight with them literally 2.5 seconds into this field trip; they were all she had.

Instead, she brightly smiled at Rainbow Dash before she started to follow Ed. "Really? That'd be fantastic. Are you sure it won't be too heavy for you?"

"Of COURSE not. I could probably lift both of you if I had to," Rainbow turned a quick loop in the air, all confidence. But it was justifiable confidence -- they couldn't weigh as much as three Wonderbolts and Rarity. They're only two humans!

From a short distance ahead of them came the distinctive sound of low, irritable muttering. If there were any actual words in it, they were almost completely drowned out by the crunching of snow underfoot. (Privately, Ed was already starting to feel glad he'd remembered to do something about his coat before leaving Balamb. Hopefully nothing around here would force him to take it off.) The general sentiment behind it was clear, though.

Over his shoulder and somewhat more intelligibly, he added, "Just as long as you leave the stunts at home for once." He glanced at Cissie. "Don't know about you, but I'm fine with not being dumped into a stream just because some damn pony wants to show off."

Somebody'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. While Rainbow Dash's loops had made Cissie giggle - she didn't mind show-offs - she didn't exactly know how to handle a constant sourpuss.

"No, I agree." If the weather were warmer, sure, she wouldn't mind, but the ground was coated in snow. Who knows how cold the water around here would be? "It'd be a waste of Fire spells to get us warm again."

Rainbow winked broadly at Cissie, then zoomed ahead to catch up to Ed. As soon as she passed him, she tucked her wings in to barrel-roll over him, playfully. "Don't worry, I wouldn't let you fall in," she said, rolling back across as she spoke. "And I'll keep the snow off you guys, too!"

This morning? Try most mornings.

"Spells, sure. That and a towel might stop you getting hypothermia." He decided not to draw attention to the fact that, more pressingly, he wouldn't be able to swim.

As Rainbow sailed overhead, he stopped in his tracks just to roll his own eyes at her. Never mind flying pony gymnastics, where were all the people lining up to coo over his obvious expertise? Granted, there was only one other person around at all and she wasn't exactly applauding either of them, but he couldn't help feeling a little aggrieved anyway.

...Well, that was all he stopped for initially. Then he dropped his backpack and, in a perhaps surprisingly swift blur of movement to anyone who hadn't seen him in action outside a classroom, flung a snowball straight at her. "Keep it off yourself!"

It wasn't huge to begin with, and a lot of it fell away before it got close to her - even if this had been the right kind of snow, ideally you'd want a little heat from both hands to be sure the snowball held together. He felt like he'd made his point, though.

Edited 2012-08-22 12:47 (UTC)

If they HAD a towel. Cissie could probably synthesize one if she had the proper materials, but that'd require some time and effort she didn't exactly have at the moment.

She should've seen the snowball coming. She cringed, stepping backwards just in case snowball #2 would head her way. "Could you two lovebirds STOP FIGHTING for just one second?" She huffed, gripping her bow tighter before she realized that she'd pulled it out in slight frustration.

Carefully putting it back, she tried not to groan. Only three more days of this... well, at least she'd have stories to tell people when she got back.

Diminished though the snowball might be, a wad of it still hit Rainbow Dash in the bank, startling her for a moment. Then she laughed brightly,, then tucked in her wings to land next to Ed...

Till somepony said a word that shocked her so much she forgot to land, and instead just crashed straight into the ground in shock.

"LOVEBIRDS?!" she shrieked as she took to the air again.

At the same time, Ed spun round like he'd just been stung. "What?!"

Snowball #2, already coming together in his gloved hands, honestly hadn't been headed in Cissie's direction... up until just then. Now he was reconsidering - and, if his volume was any indicator, prioritising it over thinking about avalanches. "Where the hell did you...!?" But he abruptly cut off, though still fuming hotly enough to melt any snow that had got on him; Rainbow had beaten him to the protest.

Oh, so now they were turning on her. Great, of all the times for her big mouth to backfire and make the whole thing just worse!

"... Frenemies? I don't really know what you are, and I don't really care, but we're wasting too much energy fighting like this."

She sighed, immediately pushing herself towards the front of the line. "You can start fighting once we've got somewhere to camp and we've got boiled water, but right now? We won't get anything done like this."

Edited 2012-08-22 21:52 (UTC)

...She didn't get the joke, huh?

Carelessly tossing the second snowball over his shoulder (if it happened to go in Rainbow's approximate direction anyway, that was sheer coincidence) and picking his backpack up again, Ed resumed his trudge through the snow - somewhat quicker than he'd been walking before, in a not so subtle attempt to insinuate himself back at the front. "Hey, that's weird," he said. "That almost sounds like what I was saying. Doesn't it, Dash?"

"Let me know when anypony around here starts fighting," she grumbled, her feathers literally ruffled. She shook her wings off, ducked the snowball, then folded them up at her sides. Seriously, that was all totally play.

Amazingly, she's content to let Ed take the lead; after all, she could retake it any time she wanted. And it wasn't a race. "So what're we looking for besides 'near fresh water'?"

"Natural shelter from the snow or whatever else is out there would help, but it's not as important. If we didn't have tents, that'd be a different story." Ed's mood was already bouncing back. He could never keep it down for long when presented with an opportunity to act like a know-it-all. "Oh, and somewhere solid enough to pitch a tent, I guess. This kind of terrain, it might be hard for you to tell." His ego-stroking wasn't particularly subtle, either.

Now she just felt bad about interrupting their playtime. It hadn't been that bad in retrospect, and she just needed to pass this field trip in order to graduate in a month.

Even though she perfectly knew the answer, she decided to ask, "So how will we know if it's solid enough? No mud or anything remotely resembling sand?"

"It'd be good if there was a tree around, too, wouldn't it? To hang our food from so it doesn't attract ground animals."

Class was a constant battle between Rainbow Dash's desire to pass and her mental insistence that all this stuff was boring and didn't apply to a pegasus pony... but she had learned some things after all.

"Yeah, but not too close. Unless you want it to dump a load of snow on you in the middle of the night." By now, he was squarely back at the front, and slowing down a bit. "To be honest, picking a campsite around here, I'd pay more attention to the lay of the land than what it's made of. You can deal with sand in other ways," he said offhandedly, "but like hell I'd want to try rearranging the side of a mountain. Even if everything else about the site was good."

His tone of voice might have come across as a little dismissive, but that wasn't because he was bored of the topic yet - he was listening out for the stream he'd deduced the location of earlier. From the sound of it, they were still some distance away.

Of course, she'd go look if she were asked, but she has no pretenses as to whether or not she's going to be asked. "We could clean the tree off of snow first, just to be safe," she suggested.

He couldn't hold in his snickering. "And then wait for more to fall so you can do it all over again? Well, if that's your idea of fun, I'm not stopping you."

After a few more steps, a tangentially related thought occurred to him.

"So, Dash... you sure you're gonna fit in a tent? I'm guessing from the gloves they didn't think to pack you a bigger one than normal."

"I figured I'd just grab a cloud," she said, looking up at the sky expectantly. "So long as I throw the blankets over me, it ought to be fine. Plus that'll keep more snow off us, if I knock it all out first."

She'd nodded at Ed's explanation - the last place she wanted to be was on the side of some mountain, and it'd be better if they found a campsite near some freshwater.

Although she'd kept quiet for the most part, she couldn't help asking, "You sure?" Cissie wasn't entirely certain what she could do, considering Rainbow Dash was probably bigger than the tents, but she didn't exactly know if her classmate could stay afloat up there while asleep. "I'm okay with it if you are."

He was about to object to Rainbow's suggestion by reminding her that those clouds weren't solid for anybody except her... but what did he know? Only what he'd ~~been forcibly dragged along to~~ watched her do in a couple of her practice flights. Maybe it would keep the snow off them, flying in the face of any semblance of logic. That'd be pretty standard as far as damn magic and damn ponies were concerned.

Instead, he just let out a small sigh. "Yeah, are you sure about that? 'Cause we could use the material." He waved vaguely in Cissie's direction, even though there wasn't really anyone else around he could be referring to. "A little extra insulation's better than nothing." Especially for him. Frostbite wasn't a prospect he found all that appealing.

In response, Rainbow shot up into the sky like a bullet, then came down a moment later with a fluffy but ominously-dark cloud about twice her size, all told. Making sure it was off to the side of their path, she turned and kicked it hard. The cloud promptly dumped out a solid circle of snow a couple of inches thick, turning marshmallow white as it did.

"See, check it out. Comfy and practical -- for a pegasus pony," she said, hopping up onto it. "Like I said, some blankets would be good, but..."

She seized a hunk of the cloud material and yanked it up like a big comforter, pulling it over herself as she vanished into the cloud. A moment later she fell out of the underside, though she quickly turned in midair as he wings caught her, laughing.

At least one of them is enjoying herself on this trip.

He rolled his eyes again. "That's great, but we're not camping here. Why don't you make yourself useful and go look for some liquid water?" It had to be somewhere around here... By now, he almost thought he could hear it.

"It's over there," she said, pointing up the path. "I saw it when I was getting the cloud."

She twisted it midair to kick the cloud precisely in the middle of its lower surface. It puffed into nothingness around her hooves.

"...You couldn't mention that earlier? It was only the whole point of coming this way!"

He let out a small huff. Honestly, he wasn't that annoyed, but he felt like he should at least look like he was taking the field trip seriously... being such an obvious expert and all.

"Okay, well... we'll walk up there just so we all know where it is, then we'll scout around for a good place to set up the tents. Sound like a plan? You know, seeing as we don't want to camp too close."

"If I'd just gone and found it, you'd have yelled at me for being a flying pony and stealing your thunder when you'd already pretty much found it just by listening," Rainbow pointed out.

He waved a hand dismissively. "So what? I'd yell at you anyway."

And he redoubled his pace again, because if nothing else, his plan sounded workable to him.

"Yep, I know," Rainbow said, picking her own pace up to a trot.

They really were good friends, weren't they? Cissie couldn't help smiling as she listened to them. Despite their paces, she was able to keep up with them pretty easily.

"Your plan sounded fine to me," she said, though she was pretty sure he didn't want (or need) her sympathy. "And hey, maybe we could use Rainbow Dash's flying abilities for something else down the line. It's not against the rules, right?"

Hey, sympathy or no, she'd be hard pressed to find any time when he didn't appreciate ~~ego boosts~~ people agreeing with him.

He spread his arms - hopefully nobody was walking too close to where he was waving that backpack. "You're right, there probably isn't a specific rule about making sure everything we do out here is physically possible. Although it kind of goes against the spirit of surviving, if you ask me."

He was aware that Cissie's definition of "physically possible" wasn't likely to be the same as his... but dammit, his was right.

Except for the fact that things that weren't physically impossible couldn't happen...

"Yeah, I don't wanna make this TOO easy," Rainbow said. "I mean, think about it -- if I was trapped on this island, I could just fly home. So we gotta pretend a little."

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SURVIVAL SKILLS FIELD TRIP: Winter Island

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