dive_logs | i lay down on the cold ground

Entry tags:

i lay down on the cold ground

Who: Jayfeather, OPEN LIKE AN OPEN THING!
What: An unfortunate location
When: February 17th
Where: Meria, the ice fields

You don't feel anything while data frozen. Jayfeather knows this. It's what all the other Tamers have said. One moment, you are talking or walking, the next it is moons later. He has been frozen a few times. He's aware of what it feels like.

He's not aware of a phenomenon like this; one moment, he lay in Tetha Park and the next he's being battered and blown about, his fur cold and flecked with what he knows is snow. He can't hear his partner. He doesn't even know if the gray Piyomon is even around. He cannot scent anything but snow, snow, snow. Never has he experienced snow this harsh, except maybe for once, maybe...

He is a kit. In his mind's-eye, he can see the memory, the memory from his mother, carrying him and pulling his brother and sister, still tiny kits, along through the harsh winter. He can hear himself mewl and cry, his eyes closed (closed, the kit doesn't realize what will happen, what life will bring him, how much he will be cheated of). In his mind's eye, he sees her stop and curl around her kits to protect them from the harsh winter.

Only in his mind's eye, of course. His sightless gaze fixes at the ground and a moment later crouches down, wrapping his tail over his nose as his paws bump against something cold and hard, like his D-Comm, which is distinctly not around his neck like it should be. It doesn't matter, for he reaches a paw out to it -- he can barely feel anything with them, anything at all -- and doesn't recognize the texture of the device. He doesn't recognize its shape or any grooves or raised bumps. He's more blind than he's ever been.

His paws go over his head too, his ears flat. "L-Lionblaze," he whispers, shutting his eyes, though no difference is made. His brother cannot save him here. "Spottedleaf, Y-Yellowfang." StarClan cannot hear him. "Firestar." Nor can his leader. "...Leafpool... ...Mother--!"

Nor can his mother.

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Vi-Piyomon reaches them and immediately descends upon Jayfeather, something that almost smothers him; his smell, his frantic panic and worry-- it all is too much, especially in a world where everyone has kept so guarded. The sightless cat seizes up and Vi-Piyomon immediately starts looking him over.

"Did you get hurt? Did you start wandering? You know it's dangerous to--"

The questions snap Jayfeather back to reality and he cuts his partner off, growling low. "Of course I didn't start wandering! You don't just run aimlessly when you have no idea where you're going. Stop treating me like a kit!"

"Oh, but Jayfeather, I just meant-- if you were hurt, then you wouldn't know if--" Vi-Piyomon winces immediately at his words.

Over the wind and snow, Jayfeather is able to hiss. "So just because I can't see, I can't feel anything either?!"

His anger masks his disappointment; he'd thought he'd finally gotten through to his Digimon that being blind didn't mean he was useless, that he has other ways of functioning. Apparently, whatever crisis he'd been frozen through...it set all that back.

"Seeing where a wound is isn't everything," he berates, his very honor as a medicine cat insulted. "There's touch, scent-- so many senses all of you take for granted--" He cuts off quickly, spitting furiously into the ground. "It's not smart to argue here and freeze our fur off. Let's-- let's just go." His anger drains, leaving a just a tired, cold cat in its place, his last words directed at the Twoleg still close by.

Ruffnut shrugged and gave a sniffle as she found the cold was finally making her nose start to run. Maybe it was Jayfeather making the comment about scent that brought it to her attention. Either way she set off one foot after the other through the barren frozen land. Really if there was just a bit less snow and some grass it wouldn't be impossible to make a home out here for a viking. Just need some place to get food really.

Dracomon lasted exactly five minutes before he started complaining again about the god tree dropping them there. About not being evolved into ultimate. About how stupid the tamers were for setting free chaosmon in the first place. Ruffnut was for a change ignoring him, which she found to her delight just upset him more.

Already Jayfeather has a crimp in his tail from Vi-Piyomon's fretting -- treating him like he can't do anything, of course -- so with each of this Digimon's complaints (smells like a lizard-type, he's never been fond of lizards), he gets more and more quietly irritated, already uncomfortable in a Twoleg's arms.

Perhaps it's to break the tension, but Vi-Piyomon speaks up, "I-- I found these next to you, Jayfeather." A low growl causes him to amend, "They're like the D-Comm! Well, one sort of looks like the D-Comm, and one's another device... It feels like a digivice. L-like how the D-Comm used to feel."

"Fine. We'll need to get both of them around my neck, then," the cat grumbles. The D-Reader, though intrusive, at least stayed on him on its own. Now he'll have to walk around with two things hanging from him? And one without any protrusions to try and make it work? He hates this world.

Continuing her long legged strides Ruffnut cleared her throat before speaking "Uh, I've got some spare leather if you want I could make you a tie to put it around your neck." Clearly she was hesitent of offering any extra help because of how he reacted before.

It's weird to hear a Twoleg speak while carrying him. Or rather, weird to feel. Her entire body rumbles, sending tremors through him. "Yeah," he mutters after a moment. "...Yeah. It'd be easier than letting Firestar do it. He'd have just as many problems."

"Sure yeah! Cool name. Firestar." She grinned liking the sound of it. "Anyway when we get out of the cold I'll hook you up." Her pace was steady and her breathing steady. She was fit for how skinny she was.

Of course Firestar's a cool name. He's the leader of ThunderClan. For all that he disagrees with, in the past few seasons Jayfeather has come to understand his leader more and more. He's so cold, though, so he doesn't have the energy to retort. "...Thanks," he can just mumble, behind his closed eyelids seeing Leafpool again, braving the cold with him and his siblings.

His mother... He misses her too.

Ruffnut made a noise of concern and a split second decision. Those were her specialties.

"Don't scratch me OK?" She warned before in one smooth action tucking the blind cat under her shirt.

Direct contact with her flesh, the furs she was wearing on the outside keeping the cold wet frigid weather outside. She radiated heat from years of living amongst this type of weather.

Dracomon laughed. She kicked him in the shin and he fell into the snow.

As he can't see what's going on, Jayfeather lets out a sound that he will later claim is more than of a yowl than a mew, squirming just a bit as an unconscious reaction.

Except then there's an unfamiliar feeling. It's like when he's applying an herb or a juice to a wound, making direct contact with flesh instead of fur; yet this isn't a little spot of flesh, no. This is an entire body's worth, no fur he can feel. Or is there? This Twoleg's clothes -- that's what Firestar calls them, right? -- felt like the coarse, long furs of a longhair, like Graystripe. He doesn't understand.

Still, this is much warmer. He does not snuggle in -- instinct is split, honestly, one half of him wanting to tense up and struggle away and one half wanting to burrow in deeper -- yet he doesn't fight either. A small grumble in his throat dies and his ears just flick; he can't bring himself to actually say anything.

Ruffnut breathed a sigh of relief and continued on, the steady thump of her heart and her pulse keeping her thin chest warm. One foot after the other continued their path through the frigid north of the digital world.

"I see it!" Dracomon called and doubled his pace moving ahead of them eager to abandon the pile of clothes and blankets that was keeping him warm.Ruff smirked and followed suit. "Good thing we didn't land further away."

"At last!" Vi-Piymon cries, half-hopping along on his little talons. "Firestar is most undoubtedly worried-- I-I mean that we haven't contacted him or--"

Jayfeather's tail -- which still sticks out of Ruffnut's shirt -- twitches sharply, something that Vi-Piyomon must recognize by now as a silencing gesture. All that matters is they get to warmth now.

Unfortunately for our heroes, they weren't going to get too much further with only the cold to battle. The snow in front of them began to shift and suddenly something burst from it. It was a tall...cat in a jumpsuit in a helmet. He shook off as much snow as he could before growling as he looked around.

"What the hell is this shit?! VANITY!" He looked down and grabbed his partner in the snow and pulled out the poor Plotmon. "Why are we in Meria?!"

"As far as I know we just ended up here genius!" They glared at each other before both slowly turned towards the cat, viking, and their digimon. Uh oh...

Ruff's eyes boggled and she waved confused with her free hand, the other still holding Jayfeather against her.

"We're all just kind of appearing here. I think the god tree sneezed." She remarked dumbly just starting to roll with the punches.

Jayfeather's able to poke his head up and push past the almost overwhelming scent of Twoleg. The creature before them... It smells feline! "You're another cat," he states, almost surprised. This one he hasn't met! Usually, Firestar introduces him and tells him about the felines in the Digital World, be they the kind he's familiar with or those strange ones that walk on two legs. Perhaps in his time frozen, Firestar has met others...

Dark Razor blinked at the small group of people before him. So a Viking, a talking smaller cat, and two digimon woke up in Meria and stumbled upon Razor of the SWAT Kats. Now he needed a punchline.

"God Tree sneezed huh? Guess this is what happens when the world ends." He smirked at the two tamers. "So you got names?"

"Ruffnut Thorston of the Hairy Hooligan tribe." She declared with a hint of pride in her voice, "Oh and that's Dracomon. He's not important." She teased. Dracomon let out a growl of protest from under the pile of clothes he was wearing.

Jayfeather's head is sticking out now, his sightless eyes peering at this cat. Something about his scent... He brushes it aside; this world is full of things that are unfamiliar scent-wise, he reminds himself. He is likely just mixing something up. "Jayfeather. Of ThunderClan."

Dutifully, his partner chimes, "And I am Vi-Piyomon."

Jake listened and nodded as they gave their names. None of them he had met before so that made this easier. And they didn't seem to know him by looking at him, even better. He looked down to his partner who glanced up at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"I see. Name's Razor and this is Mirror." He looked back to his unsuspecting victims and smirked. "So you got any idea where the nearest lamp post is?

Ruffnut pointed in the direction they had been trudging. "That ways, not far from here. We'd probably be able to see it better if this place weren't you know, a miserable frozen hellscape."

"No reason to stay and freeze our fur off talking," Jayfeather says pointedly, his ears twitching and muscles tense. So on edge and uneasy! The Twoleg holding him, it must stem from that.

"That's true. No need to anymore talking." Razor pulled out his new D-Comm and flipped through the options. He activated the materialize function on it, his Gloveatrix appearing on his arm. He pointed it at the small collection of frozen souls with a smirk.

"Can't have you all running off and telling people I was here now, can I? Any last words before I blow you all into tiny bits?"

Ruffnut's eyes went wide in confusion and then narrowed defensively.

"Dracomon."

The dragon moaned from under the pile of clothes before a burst of radiated energy from his mouth burning through the clothes.

"What?!" Jayfeather's heartbeat increases and his fur fluffs, his entire body going stiff. "No, no-- I knew it, I knew he smelled--"

Vi-Piyomon, to his credit, does not squawk in fear and tense up, but instead stammers out a worried, "M-Magical F-Fire...!" and a rather shaky spiral of green flame flies at Razor.

Razor quickly ducked down into the know and activated his Gloveatrix's shield which he covered in dark blue Digisoul. The attacks hit but didn't seem to phase him. He retracted the shield and fired his first missile, aiming for between the group for best splash damage.

"AHHH!" Ruffnut yelped scrambling and slipping in the snow falling to her knees and bracing herself as the explosion hit pelting her with snow. The concussion blew her helmet off but her back was between Jayfeather and the explosion. Purely by accident.

Dracomon was thrown from his feet tumbling through the snow and ice getting tangled up in the clothes he'd been wearing and cursing with every bounce.

As Vi-Piyomon flew forward, he was split between terror for himself and terror for his partner. The first was of a purely selfish nature, yes. The second-- the second because he has been a failure of a partner thus far entirely. The heat and fire, it burns his feathers and he finds himself regretting wishing for warmth.

The snow is almost comforting as he tries to push himself up, aware that he's closer to Razor than he'd like to be.

Jayfeather hasn't experienced explosions. He doesn't know what this is; it is a burst of heat, has the snow caught on fire? He can feel it through the Twoleg, through the bursts of snow that land on his ears. He doesn't know what's going on and, by instinct, his claws grip Ruffnut's clothes, his heart beats faster.

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i lay down on the cold ground

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