nexus_sages | Snowstorms and matchmaking: An early Valentine's post

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Snowstorms and matchmaking: An early Valentine's post

Winter in the Nexus has been especially present this year. The weather has presented plenty of hardships for the past few months, something which numerous people have bemoaned. It doesn't look set to change, either. If anything, Winter seems to be going stronger than ever. There are no signs of it winding down at all.

Everything seems normal at first, the usual hustle and bustle has the Nexus thrumming now that people have adapted to the cold conditions. Then, rather suddenly, everything kicks into gear. The wind starts to howl, battering people to and fro. Not long after that, the sky becomes thick with snow, making it nearly impossible to see, the biting cold driving people back inside. It soon becomes completely inhospitable to all wandering around outside.

In the hurry to get out of the storm, people end up scurrying to the nearest available shelter. Apartment lobbies, houses, cafés, shops, restaurants, the library... Anywhere and everywhere that offers some shelter. Peculiarly, people seem to end up in pairs as they hide away from the cold. Looks like everyone is going to have to huddle close together. For... warmth... We'll say it's for warmth.

((This is entirely an excuse to shove characters together and force them to spend time with each other. Feel free to have as many threads as you like, trying as many combinations as you like, where ever you like. Brave souls can try and berate Reynard if they really want to.))

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Oh, she's fucking cold, but she's wearing about three layers of clothing. To say she hates the cold is putting it mildly, she waves a hand, "You need them about as badly as I do, and I've got on several layers as it is, including my own coat." Exiled Sith she may be, but she's gone very gray since being effectively kicked out of the Empire. Weakness isn't such a bad thing anymore, in her eyes. Not that it ever really was, having been the 'weak slave' before.

There's also the lack of conscious effort to warm her hands. "Were you caught outside in it, or were you lucky enough to already be inside?"

After a moment of examining their surroundings, she does sigh quietly, and shifts to sit down, crossing her legs as she does and brushing what snow remains in her hair out of it. She also adjusts her longcoat so she's not sitting on it as much.

"Outside. I was getting wood for the fireplace where I'm ~~squatting~~ staying."

He's very quick to pull both beanie and jacket back on, shuddering despite all efforts to be cool and unaffected by their surroundings. The cold is seeping in through every nook and cranny. Every gust finds new purchase in filling the abandoned building. It's not long before Josh sits down across from Dia, arms wrapped around himself to try and stay warm.

"Is it always this nice around here?" Joking has always been his way of dealing with bad situations.

"I'm still relatively new around here, so I couldn't say." She replies as she settles in, crossing her arms as well as the cold starts to seep into her. To her credit, she's trying to hide it, although she doesn't do so very well, shifting her position restlessly on occasion. "But from what I hear, this sort of extreme isn't bloody normal at all."

"And has a strong chance of someone or thing at its source, although what, or who, I don't know. One of the mystics, maybe, or some kind of device. Even for this place, a blizzard this bloody sudden isn't natural."

"I've only been here a few weeks, actually." Josh tugs his beanie further down over his ears and shudders. "It's been pretty much winter wonderland since I arrived. Not super thrilled about it, but I've been in worse situations."

The irony of him having firewood he can't use is not escaping him.

"Don't suppose 'knock the fucker out' is a viable option huh."

(Sorry for slowness, working third shift can take a lot out of you)

"I've been here a few," frown, thinks, "Months, I think? It's bloody difficult to tell sometimes. I wasn't winter when I arrived, closer to the local version of autumn. Then winter hit with a vengeance and it's been that way since." She glanced towards one of the windows and draws her legs up, crossing her arms over them.

The window, predictably, looks pretty much utterly white as it's covered in snow. "I've certainly survived worse myself, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it, either." The cold wasn't something she typically dealt with well, as she was used to more warmer climates.

"If I knew who it was, I'd do it on the bloody principal of the thing. Unfortunately, I don't know who or what's causing it, and we're some distance from the Forum area."

Then the ex-Sith frowned in thought for a moment, and cut a glance Josh's way as she did. "..And I don't know how comfortable you are with me suggesting this, but we'd probably have better luck staying warmer if we sat closer together?"

"Oh thank fuck." Josh is on his feet in no time and plopping back down right next to Dia. "I didn't want to say anything in case you minded, and you don't touch a Sith or Jedi or whatever unless you ask first."

He slips one arm out of it's sleeve and nudges Dia forward before he flings it behind her.

"Probably cant put your arm through it comfortably wihtout us looking like we're trying to get it on, but i figure even around the shoulders has to be better than nothing."

It doesn't take much coaxing for her to lean forward so he can slide his arm around her. She even pulls her arm out of her sleeve so he can do so under her coat, and so she can reciprocate, tugging him closer, but careful to keep her gloved hands from brushing bare skin too much. Mostly because her hands are artificial, and don't warm us as easily as the rest of her.

"You'll find I'm not a good example of either, to be utterly honest. And in this cold, you make concessions to stay bloody warm." She shivered a little and resettled, "Particularly considering I don't know if either of us will survive otherwise."

Freezing to death is an ugly, ugly way to die, in Dia's opinion.

"Dude, you sliced through a building with a lightsaber. You could pretty much sit on me like a chair and I'd still be impressed." He pauses then and laughs. Sitting like this, there's no way she can't tell how emaciated he is under his clothes right now.

"Kinda just got done nearly starving to death in some mines before I got here though. So I'm not that comfy to sit on at the moment." He laughs, because joking in the face of discomfort is one of his healthier coping mechanisms.

At least, like this, he's not shivering quite so badly anymore.

Edited 2016-02-15 21:25 (UTC)

(But she's still really heavily based on the gray path mine ended up taking)

"I probably could, but that'd be a little rude, admittedly." Dia admitted with an amused tone, "And I'm many things, but I'm not bloody rude to someone I don't need to be rude to." She shrugged her other shoulder.

She had noticed. She hadn't commented largely because she didn't know. "I suppose that explains why you feel like you're all bloody skin and bone. I'm amazed you've dealt with the winter conditions as well and as long as you have."

She isn't shivering as much either, but admittedly she's kinda a curvier woman. And as previously stated, wearing about three layers of clothing.

"...Thank you." Josh chuckles slightly. "Oh, that. Yeah. That wasn't intentional. I'm not usually...like that. But I am used to the cold." Growing up on a mountain will do that.

He's definitely not complaining about the curves, and definitely not stupid enough to mention them.

"So, possibly stupid question. Not offensive, though." He's raising an eyebrow, waiting for permission to speak further.

She was definitely more than capable of being rude when necessary, as she was rather fond of sharp, striking sarcasm that tended to cut deep when it was supposed to be picked up on. "I suppose you are, if you've lasted this long. Even if the weather now's a touch too extreme for anyone to survive in it."

That said, she echoes his eyebrow quirk with one inquisitive eyebrow raise of her own, "Possibly stupid, but enough to intrigue me and get me curious. Ask away, the worst I'll tell you is to mind your business."

"Okay, hear me out. You just lifted a ton of concrete and rebar and fit it back into a hole so perfect that it stayed there." He's not questioning the Force. He gets that. As much as one can without having it.

"Couldn't you just...I don't know..squeeze some of the water out of the wood? So we could light it?"

Dia sighed, then frowned, furrowing her eyebrows in thought, "Unfortunately, what you're asking is something that's not strictly possible." She shifted her weight, resettling and leaning her head back against the wall she was leaning against, eyes slipping closed, she continued speaking, though, "If I tried to squeeze the water out of the wood, we'd only end up with crushed, splintered wood. I can treat it like a scalpel when necessary, but that's more precise than I'm really capable of."

"That said, I didn't exactly put it back perfectly. I sort of shoved it back into place, and twisted it until it was jammed in the space. If I want to exit the way I came in, I'm probably going to have to cut it free again."

"Stupid question." Josh supplies, hunching his shoulders up and letting out a sigh. "I figured if it was doable, you'd have done it already."

Upside if they're stuck here long enough, the wood should dry out on its own. Granted that's several hours from now and that is longer than he'd like to spend trapped in a wrecked skyscraper no matter how nice the company is.

"So....Why here?" josh gestures around them vaguely. "Not like, why this building. The storm answers that. But..you're from probably one of the coolest universes I know of. Why...here? The nexus."

"Not entirely so, you didn't know. How else are you going to learn things if you don't bloody ask questions?" She shrugged her shoulders slightly, opening her eyes when he asked 'why here'.

Dia's sigh is nothing if not understandable, "That's a fun question." To her credit, she's not irritated, or anything, and she doesn't exactly hide it (Hell, her first question to the Nexus at large was about it).

"'Coolest' is still a fairly relative thing, admittedly." She's been here long enough to pick up on slang. Easy to do when damn near everyone is from some flavor of Earth, "Where I come from, it's life. But as to why the Nexus? I'm a fugitive on one side of my reality's war, and the enemy on the other. Aside from the bloody fringe of the galaxy, I don't really have anywhere else to go. At least until my old Master gets distracted by something else, or bloody forgets I exists."

Beat, "Or I'm finally declared dead and can move about the Empire more freely."

Yep, Josh, if the flash of the red saber didn't drop a big enough hint, you're sharing body heat with an exiled, very gray, 'tired of this war bullshit' Sith.

"Okay, fair point. They are kind of assholes, in the stories."

The revelation doesn't seem to startle him, mostly because if she was movie villain Sith he'd already be dead and she'd be painting herself in his blood or something, cackling like a maniac.

"I'd say 'screw the Empire and defect' but the other side would probably treat you like shit just for being from the Empire." Because prejudice is one thing every side has in common. Some just claim they don't.

"So...what do you want to do, when they do declare you dead." You'd think a guy would be a little wary to talk to her after said revelations. This kid must not be right.

To her credit, she's not exactly right herself. Dia has an admittedly extraordinarily skewed definition of 'normal', having been mostly raised as a slave, then becoming a Sith for a good portion of her adult life, and now an exile, well.

'Normal' to her is a little hard to define.

"I've debated fully and completely defecting, but you're right. Most of the Jedi likely wouldn't accept me, to say nothing of the fact that as far as the Republic is concerned, I'm an enemy of the state." She gestured vaguely with her free hand, mildly irritated, "A fairly minor one, as far as the Sith hierarchy is concerned, so they likely wouldn't be too interested anyway."

A mildly frustrated sigh, "As for what to do when they declare me dead, I'm not entirely sure. I've debated the mercenary route or something similar, or maybe finding a group of pirates or something." Dia shrugged again. "But honestly, I don't bloody know right now, and it could be a while before they finally do."

"Mercenary and pirate both sound incredibly cool to me." Josh admits, leaning a bit closer into Dia's embrace as the wind howls around the building they're cowering in.

"There's a freedom with being an outlaw, right? Playing by your own rules and all?" He might have a more romantic idea of it because he's just picturing Han Solo from the movies right now.

"...I decided to stay here so that folks would think I was dead, too." He admits, after a few long moments.

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Snowstorms and matchmaking: An early Valentine's post

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Don't worry! I've been there myself, slow posting is more than fine :)

Awesomesauce, I'm liking this thread so far, so I figured you at least deserved a reason

I'm a huge wars and TOR fan, so <3

Hee. Dia's -based- on the Inquisitor so I can play fast and loose with the backstory

NICE.

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