[Oxford] Vossler arrives.
((Closed for the time being Now open to the other FFXII characters. :D))
The airship Shiva was breaking apart and plummeting from the sky at such a high velocity that Vossler was pinned as much by inertia as by the twisted metal laying across his legs. The wounds he'd received scant minutes ago probably weren't even fatal, not if he could reach one of his packs or muster the concentration necessary for a healing spell, but he knew either course of action was ultimately futile; the impending crash would leave no survivors.
If he were honest with himself, it wasn't the sort of end he'd ever envisioned meeting. He didn't fear death, he'd lived the life of a soldier too long to view it as anything but a release from the ceaseless struggle of living -- but neither did he welcome it, not yet. His regrets weighed heavy on his mind, on his heart, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to draw breath. His vision swam and dimmed, there was a smell like burning ozone, a sudden wrenching around and through him, and then-
The nethicite explosion was simultaneously blinding and deafening; experiencing a star going nova up close and personal might have been similar, he imagined. But instead of the anticipated pain of literal vaporization, it felt like freefalling when he couldn't tell up from down, as the air rushed past him, and he was reacting on instinct, head ducked with his arms braced over it. He found he was no longer held by anything but an empty sky.
Unbeknownst to him, an invisible tear between worlds had spared him from a very grisly end.
The ground rushed up to meet him far sooner than expected, knocking the air out of him hard, cracking several bones, and the pain was so intense at one point that he was sure he might have vomited, and continued to heave with breath he didn't have until his lungs burned and it was all he could do to lay there. Blood streamed from several shallow cuts on his forehead and face, gradually pooling beneath where his cheek touched the ground.
He could feel a warm, heavy weight pressing into his side, something licking his stinging face, and then there was nothing.
The airship Shiva was breaking apart and plummeting from the sky at such a high velocity that Vossler was pinned as much by inertia as by the twisted metal laying across his legs. The wounds he'd received scant minutes ago probably weren't even fatal, not if he could reach one of his packs or muster the concentration necessary for a healing spell, but he knew either course of action was ultimately futile; the impending crash would leave no survivors.
If he were honest with himself, it wasn't the sort of end he'd ever envisioned meeting. He didn't fear death, he'd lived the life of a soldier too long to view it as anything but a release from the ceaseless struggle of living -- but neither did he welcome it, not yet. His regrets weighed heavy on his mind, on his heart, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to draw breath. His vision swam and dimmed, there was a smell like burning ozone, a sudden wrenching around and through him, and then-
The nethicite explosion was simultaneously blinding and deafening; experiencing a star going nova up close and personal might have been similar, he imagined. But instead of the anticipated pain of literal vaporization, it felt like freefalling when he couldn't tell up from down, as the air rushed past him, and he was reacting on instinct, head ducked with his arms braced over it. He found he was no longer held by anything but an empty sky.
Unbeknownst to him, an invisible tear between worlds had spared him from a very grisly end.
The ground rushed up to meet him far sooner than expected, knocking the air out of him hard, cracking several bones, and the pain was so intense at one point that he was sure he might have vomited, and continued to heave with breath he didn't have until his lungs burned and it was all he could do to lay there. Blood streamed from several shallow cuts on his forehead and face, gradually pooling beneath where his cheek touched the ground.
He could feel a warm, heavy weight pressing into his side, something licking his stinging face, and then there was nothing.