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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/DyH88WMW/Kid-s-Hat-Final.png[/img]

[color=8258fa]Level:[/color] 7 (2 -> 12 -> 14/70)
[color=8258fa]Location:[/color] Edge of the Blue - Limsa Lominscuttle Town - The Bismarck - The Drowning Wench -> Limsa Harbor
[color=8258fa]Word Count:[/color] 802 (+2 EXP)

[color=8258fa]Hat:[/color] Ice -> Standard
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[i][color=8258fa]‘Day 3 (I think?)...

So… a LOT happened today… or days??? (I *knew* I should’ve done this before I left!) Too much to fit in one entry anyway. I guess I’ll just have to leave this one blank. Sorry, (again) future me!’[/color][/i]

Hat Kid’s diary read thusly, as jotted down on the vacant back of a menu she absconded with from one of the two eateries she had been to that evening. Certainly, a great deal had taken place for the Seekers over the course of a single day, or what at least seemed like one for those who might have lost track of time throughout it. Many of the meatier story beats, it seemed, took place in the child’s absence, as she found out by sitting in on the dinner table discussion. One element of the already interesting story of Red Team’s escapades through the Dead Zone stood out to her; Linkle’s disappearance.

A somber mood fell over the table for those who knew her, insofar as they were able to get to over the course of three days. Hat Kid was little exception in that regard, as she couldn’t honestly say she had grown close with anyone during her time awake in this World. Linkle just happened to be among those she directly interacted the most with, which still amounted to little more than sharing a stale cookie and rescuing a monk pilot who didn’t need it. Beyond that, there wasn’t much else; nothing besides a shared cause on which to form a kinship. Not that it ever stopped her before.

That was just it. Hers was less a feeling of loss (though still felt in some part) than a reminder of its possibility. She had to ask herself again, what was she doing here? With all these other people? Who were they, really? Did she really care to know? Did she have to? What was to stop her from going back to doing things the way she used to and always had--on her own? Would she--or they--ultimately prefer that she did, or miss her if she left? After all, she had her own task to complete that none of them knew about, and loathe as she was to entertain the idea, they might be glad for it by the time they need to reach Space. To that end, she couldn’t shake the sense that she would be more useful elsewhere, doing what she did best: reclaiming what was hers! Though, the one, and perhaps most important question remained… Was she okay with that?

Her waking thoughts echoed clamors of the past. They “didn’t need a hero”; they had enough of them already. But then, she remembered it was her who inspired, through her actions, those outcries to begin with. That happened because she was there to make it happen, whether she meant to or not. They only got to say that because she gave them the courage and a chance to. They may not have needed, or wanted, a hero, but they had one. And in the end, they were glad to have had one. How would that have changed if she had turned away?

These dwellings kept her awake for no longer than was reasonable to allow them to. That, and the Dead Zone explosion did wonders giving her something else to think about, making her especially glad to have not been there herself, whilst also reminding her of what they were up against with Galeem, waking momentarily for seemingly the first time since the day it all ended. The view of it from nightlit Limsa, though, happened to be particularly spectacular. She sat for a moment to admire the scene from the balcony of the room she had been afforded before eventually heading back in, setting her hat atop the nightstand, as per her routine, and bedding down for the night. She would wake tomorrow with renewed determination to give this ‘crusader’ thing another try.

[hr]

Hat Kid made her way to the harbor the following morning to rejoin her group amidst the naval assembly. The inclusion of children within their ranks didn’t particularly bother her, for why would it. [i]She[/i] was there, after all, despite her doubts about being the night before. Her mind lay forward, in the direction of the Bottomless Sea past Peach and the Captains, where her Hat pointed her, toward what lay in store for them. She stood to attention saluting the present authorities, unprompted, before and during the speeches, and following them, took her place aboard one of their two ships--whichever had more vacancies, or better suited her strengths. It occurred to her rather late into this phase of their adventure that she still had next to no clue what it entailed, or how she would best serve their efforts there...