[EVENT - MINGLE] Badger Havoc

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Inn > Outside
WHEN: May 2, beginning late morning
OPEN TO: All - Mingle
WARNINGS: Badger violence?
NOTES: DETAILS | ASSIGNMENTS
Anyone may jump in as long as they don't step on the assigned roles!

---

The day began as innocuously as any number of others in the village: The roosters crowed, the sun slid lazily over the horizon, and the local denizens went about the typical steps of their day. As the morning wears on, more and more of them make their way to the Inn — Several to assist in the preparation and serving of the daily community lunch, some simply early birds looking to get in ahead of the rush.

It all seems entirely normal, or at least as normal as any day gets in a place like this. Unfortunately, unwelcome visitors don't always come with a warning, and this one doesn't even bother to knock.

Comments

Kitchen Madness

[sixthiterationevents]

Front Room Mayhem

[sixthiterationevents]

KIRA AKIYAMA | A VISION OF THE END - OF BREAKFAST

[3ofswords]

Kira's dreams haven't meant much in the last few months. Regurtitated memories, weaving home and the village into a single, hideously silent place. When he's asleep, he can't tackle the ugly questions with the same fuckless aplomb. He sees himself on the other side of thick glass, mirroring every move with a knowing smile. He walks through crops gone to rot in alien soil. The house empties, the dog goes missing, the bird lays dead on the stairs.

None of it comes true, though, except in the ways it already was.

Last night he's chalking up to eating too late, or something in those milky-white tubers they've started adding to the mix. He'd woken up to Aurora whining on his chest, squinting at each other while he processed--a badger in a Superman cape, tearing up the buildings. That would be weird enough, but there had also been ants, and he's had enough dumb stress dreams about incongruous swarms of insects that he's definitely writing this one off.

Or trying to.

Before the village, it wasn't strange to have his skin crawl most of the morning. For a dream to stick with him for awhile. But that was when his dreams meant things. Sometimes literal, sometimes symbolic--he hasn't had a shred of that extra sense since he arrived, and he can't imagine how that mish-mash of idiocy shakes out into any kind of warning. His brain had just gone a little wild after reading the underlined fuck badgers in his old journal.

But the feeling won't go away, and he's spent too much of his life relying on his gut to ignore it. When the breakfast sounds dim and the hair stands up on the back of his neck, he's already standing up from his chair in the pub, watching the entrance as a racket starts up in the kitchen.

When he says, "We need to get behind the bar right now" to his companions, it's with the old surety, said the same way he might look at an approaching sweep of rain and remark on an awning for cover.

Except the rain is a fucking badger covered in ants.

"What the fuck," he says, watching a chair flip over into a wall from where he's scooted himself up onto the bar, tea in one hand and his plate in the other.

The urge to move has now become an urge to stay the fuck put, so he says it again, "What the fuck," and lifts his mug to take a long sip of tea, wishing it were something a bit stronger.

[cleptes]

It was easy enough for Bela to fall into a routine when it came to breakfast. Especially since her internal body clock had her waking up at the same time each day - or close to it at least. She didn't always eat breakfast by herself, but she was fine with her own company as well.

This morning, Bela was seated opposite Kira at the table with a cup of tea and a small bowl of porridge laid out in front of her. Between sips from her cup and spoonfuls of her breakfast, she indulged in conversation with him and was quite happy to do so. She was about to ask Kira what his plans were for the rest of the day, but she's distracted by a sound coming from the kitchen. His words prompt Bela to stand up, lift her things before looking around to see what the hell was going on - that's when she notices the badger.

"Shit! That's a-" Nope. Bela isn't going to say anything else. Instead, she'll scoot over to the bar and climb on top of it, away from the bloody thing.

[3ofswords]

Plate at his side, his arm curves out to steady her, sitting them hip to hip. A familiar enough posture, by now--ingrained perhaps over the long winter and chilly spring. Right now he just wants her in his bubble, his sense of things, to know if she's safe beside him.

Signs point to: moderately. All they have to do is stay put and not, somehow, piss a badger off.

He has no idea what actually pisses badgers off. He's pretty sure part of their mitochondria is spite.

"I had a dream like this," he says, lighter than he feels. He leaves his arm at her waist, downing his tea as best he can without scalding his mouth. "I think we're alright here if it doesn't throw any more furniture."

Killian Jones | ota

[seekingcrocodile]

He's at the inn like usual, dropping off some fish for the community lunch. And while he's there, he might as well take a break, have something to drink, maybe chat with someone else for a few minutes. The inn is the center of the social life here for a reason, after all, and there's usually someone to talk to. Which is especially nice now that he lives alone. He likes the company, and doesn't even mind close quarters, although luckily there is plenty of room in the main room of the inn.

Once his drink is finished, he figures that he may as well find some small task to do around the inn, whether inside the building or out, since he'll be back here for lunch anyway, and this way he can feel like he's contributed something to the meal other than fish. And there's always a repair that needs to be made, or cleaning that needs to be done.

That's when his day takes a turn for the absurd. He gets up from the table, intending to take his mug back to the kitchen and see if there's any way he can be of assistance. Instead, before he even gets to the kitchen, an angry animal (he's not interested in looking too closely to see which kind) comes tearing out of the kitchen and straight at him.

What does he do upon realizing there's an attack badger with a poultry battering ram barreling at him? What anyone else would do, of course. He flees, right up the stairs behind him. The mug falls from his hand as he goes and lands on the floor of the front room. And if he lets out a little shriek on the way, well, he'll deny it later, and no one will be able to prove it was him.

His flight doesn't stop until he's reached the room at the top of the stairs, rushed inside, and slammed the door behind him. (His apologies to anyone who's currently occupying the room.) He takes a moment to catch his breath and regain his composure before addressing anyone who may be in the hallway through the door.

"Is it gone?"

[cleptes]

After leaving Kira by the bar, Bela ventured upstairs to the bedrooms in order to put a barrier between herself and the badger. She doesn't want to get scratched or bitten, getting a disease as a result; Bela doubted that the clinic had the proper equipment to deal with an infection, which only made her all the more cautious.

Bela heard a door slam as soon as she reached the top floor and wondered if someone else had the same idea that she did (not that she would blame them of course) Making her way down the hallway to find an empty room she then heard a voice coming from behind a closed door.

"I think so." She called back, taking a few steps closer towards the room. "Though I can't be certain."

[seekingcrocodile]

He cautiously opens the door, just a crack at first, making sure nothing's going to come smashing through the opening at him. Then once he's assured that he's safe, he opens the door wider so that he can step out into the hall, and closes the door behind him again, so the animal can't get in if it comes back upstairs.

"Oh. Hello." It's been awhile since their last conversation, but he enjoyed it. "I think we're safe up here. If that creature is what's creating all the ruckus downstairs."

Gaius Gracchus | OTA | Who let the badger out?

[ad_dicendum]

Gracchus had been to the storehouse to collect some more supplies for the kitchen, with no expectation that today would be any different than any other day. He'd marked off what he'd taken on his storekeeping tablet, then returned to the Inn with his pack stocked with food, specifically the grain that had kept through the long winter. It's only as he approaches the Inn on his return that he realizes that anything's wrong. There's nothing obvious from the outside, but he can hear shouts and the sounds of thumping and crashing from within the building.

He's not sure what he can do to help, but the Inn has been his home since he'd arrived in this strange exile so many months ago, and he has to do whatever he can, so he hurries towards the building, and he wrenches the door open without pausing to see what might be on the other side.

Which turns out to be a small furious animal, a bundle of snarling brown and white fur with a plucked bird in its jaws and, unbelievably, the remnants of some sort of fussy garment draped around its neck like a cloak. The thing charges out of the front room and rushes straight at him, making Gracchus shout and leap sideways out of the thing's way and, inconveniently, into a shrub. There's a deep, angry growl from behind the raw, plucked bird as the thing barges past him and out onto the road, and he only belatedly realizes that it's a badger, or something like one, but fiercer than any badger he's ever seen.

He's torn for a moment whether to follow the creature to try to prevent it causing any further mayhem, but his immediate concern had been for the Inn and its residents, so he pulls himself out of the bush and brushes down his tunic, then goes into the Inn, careful to pull the door shut behind him so the thing doesn't come back.

"What has happened here?" he asks in astonishment, looking at the overturned furniture in the Inn's front room. "Was this the ... meles?"

[seekingcrocodile]

Killian has finally dared to venture out from behind the door he himself had slammed to keep the badger out, after hearing no signs that it was still on the other side of the door, and is making his way back down the stairs to the front room. He can at least clean up the mess made by dropping his mug, after all, but when he makes it to the bottom, it's apparent that one shattered mug is the least of the mess needing to be cleaned up.

This is a story that new arrivals will be hearing for quite some time, he's sure.

"I missed most of the fuss, but since it didn't look like this when I went upstairs, that must be it." He had no idea that one animal could cause so much damage.

[ad_dicendum]

He hadn't realized until he reached the end of his sentence that he didn't know the name for the creature in English, because he's never yet heard anyone refer to one of them. Gaius is still attempting to straighten his clothes when he hears the sound of approaching footsteps from up the stairs.

He looks up, brushing a twig from the hem of his tunic. It's Killian.

"Did you see it? Do you know what happened?"

He's surprised that a creature so small could cause such havoc. Many things have been overturned, chairs and one of the tables, and other things disarrayed. He bends to pick up a chair and set it back on its feet.

"I would not have thought it could do all this."

Outdoor Chaos

[sixthiterationevents]

OWEN PRICHARD | SCHOOLHOUSE DESTRUCTION

[underpinnings]

A badger is worth a commotion on its own; Owen is cutting in from the river at the sound of upset and snapping wood when the animal bursts out of the inn, soft flannel flapping behind it like a cape, a plucked bird in its toothy grip.

There's bemusement, a pause, an arched brow.

And then there's fucking sense.

He's already getting out of the way when the animal diverts--its head snaps in his direction, a sound more like a screech than a growl muffled into a drumstick. If Miss Kate hadn't tied the bird up so nicely for the oven, it would probably be in pieces by now.

Owen's not about to fight a badger for a pheasant, but, the badger doesn't seem to know that. As it barrels toward him, white stripes like a landing strip for a few more lost fingers, Owen books it to the nearest tree. He's not sure how well badgers can climb, but he can get to a roof from it, and figure out the rest from there.

It's just his luck, this badger doesn't need to climb shit. It scrabbles up a couple of feet, just enough for Owen to keep pulling himself branch by branch into the leaves, hoping to leave the animal behind--when he looks down and the badger isn't there. A little higher, he can see it backed up in the grass, butt wiggling under its makeshift cape--and it charges a second time at the trunk. He expects a running start, a little more headway--

The entire tree shakes when the badger hits it. Groans, shivers, and the crack is so loud and sharp, it paralyzes him in the moment before the tree starts to fall. Owen throws his arms around the trunk, holding fast and hoping the branches will hold.

Instead, they crash through the nearest roof. Owen releases a series of coughs, battered on both sides by leaves, branches, the trunk, and the lattice of beams under the thatch. He's too winded to inhale the cloud of dust puffing up from the contact, and just when he's about to chance to breathe, the tree rolls over under its own weight, flipping him to one side and tossing him through a proper hole.

It's only the design of the building that keeps him from falling down into a row of desks. Thicker support beams cross below, and he's managed to catch in a wedge between them, held up under his arms. It sends a pang through every new ache in his body, and there's a wet patch on the side of his face, but he's conscious enough to loop his arms over the beams, drag in a breath, and call for help.

Ned Stark | The Ol' One-Two

[learned_to_die]

Ned had heard the rumors of an enraged and alarmingly strong creature - something called a badger, though he wasn't entirely sure what it is - rampaging its way about the village. He'd attempted, earlier in the day, to go out and try to locate it, see what they were up against, and what sort of tactic might have to be deployed. He's no stranger to aggressive or even violent beasts out in the wild, and although they've sprung up in the village throughout his time here, they've not seen anything like this before.

He hadn't been successful in locating it, so he'd continued on through his day, always keeping an eye out. At hearing a continued series of loud noises indicating some kind of mayhem and destruction, Ned sets out for the source, eventually running across a crazed, wild-eyed thing, its teeth bared and its gaze feral. It seems that, after all his searching that morning, the thing has found him instead.

He slowly side steps, wordlessly entering a fighting ring with the beast. He wishes more than ever that he had Ice with him, or even a more average sword - something, anything to give him an advantage. He swallows an anticipatory lump that's lodged itself at the base of his throat, a twitch in his finger all the kindling the badger needs to begin its attack.

It lunges forward, teeth gleaning with saliva and fury. Ned is able to roll out of the way, just in the nick of time. He hops back up to his feet before spinning to face the creature again, trying to learn and track its movements, see its wind up before the jump. He miscalculates the next, the badger catching his leg as he attempts to do another roll to safety. Ned cries out, remembering the feeling of Jamie Lannister's sword piercing his thigh, how he'd held his head high until they'd all left him to die in front of Littlefinger's brothel.*

But, instead of the same sort of resignation he'd felt back then, Ned feels .. strange. A surge of strength, like he could take on The Mountain himself with nothing more than his fists. With a rallying cry, he kicks his leg and flings the badger off of him, leaping at it and landing a few punches to its snout and head. He hears the cracking of its skull and jaw, feels the weight of it as it slumps in his arms, taking its last breath.

He rolls over onto his back, breath heavy and fingers trembling, but still feeling like a behemoth. In this rush, he's forgotten about his leg, which is still bleeding all over the dirt underneath.

---
*For Clint

Ned lets out a cry of pain at the creature's sinking, clamping teeth. He glances around for someone who might be of some assistance.

"Help!" he shouts, trying to pry the badger's jaws from his leg. "Please!"

[pretendtoneedme]

It's entirely a matter of chance that he shows up when he does - Clint's missed most of the chaos because he'd gone out hunting pretty far away from the village, almost to the edge of the terraformed area. Coming back when he does is not planned, just timing - but when he hears the commotion that's coming from what sounds like a rabid, frothing animal up ahead, he immediately starts running for the noise, drawing an arrows to fit it to his bowstring.

What he sees when he rounds the corner to face the noise is not what he expects, and for a moment he's holding back shooting out of sheer confusion. A not-incredibly-big spinning ball of... multi-colored shredded fleece? "What the fuck is going on?!" he yells as his muscles swing into gear again, confusion evident even as he lets the arrow fly. Unfortunately, the combination of crazy-strong badger plus improbable fleecy armor means his homemade bow and arrow aren't capable of pinning it directly in its heart - and Clint's eyes widen in the classic look of oh crap as the arrow strikes, definitely wounds, but fails to kill as the animal spins towards him with a scream. "Shit."

Lyanna Stark | OTA

[iron_beneath_beauty]

The commotion is enough to be heard from the woods, drawing Lyanna back from her hunting. There wasn't anything creeping about anyway and when she arrived at the village, it was clear why. The badger was already crashing out the front door, leaving the sounds of screaming and scrambling in the inn. Already it was charging towards someone else. She reached for an arrow, only to realize that she had left it behind where she had been stalking.

Without a weapon, she couldn't run to help Owen and everything was happening so quickly. Suddenly he was up a tree and the tree was falling over. Then she saw Ned, already charging towards the badger, his fist curled. He struck out, knocking the creature back and unconscious. She stared at the surroundings, the chaos left behind, complete stupefied.

"What happened?"

Re: Lyanna Stark | OTA

[tooktheblack]

"It seems a beast made its way into the Inn and Father just knocked it cold," Jon said, trying not to laugh. It had been quite serious a few moments before, yes, but now it was something nigh upon laughable. How had something so small wreaked so much havoc in such a short time? It had been stronger and fiercer than any other badger he'd ever seen.

"Lya, are you all right? Did it hurt you any?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

She can't hold back her laughter, replaying the image of Ned punching the badger in her head. That was so unlike Ned that it almost seemed like a trick of her imagination. Adrenaline was still sharp in her, the chaos beginning to die down. Still, however amused she was, she couldn't feel at ease, not yet.

The use of the nickname surprised her, as very few had called her that. She can feel warmth spread through her, touched by that more than anything else. "No, I only just heard everything from the woods. I don't think it noticed me." It was too busy being punched by Ned. "What about you? You were in the village when it arrived, right?"

Margaery Tyrell | OTA

[thekittenqueen]

As soon as the badger tore out of the inn, Gilbert was already racing towards the edge of the field, ready to fend off the potential threat to Margaery's livestock. She only had time to look up before the animals began to scatter, pushing back towards the police station. Margaery gave a scream, nearly knocked over by her bull. The ground seemed to shake under them, making her heart race instinctively, as it always did whenever there were earthquakes.

Between her animals and Gilbert, she was scrambling to keep everything in order. Her eyes flicked towards the rapidly moving puppy. "Someone grab him!" The badger had his eyes on her dog and he was twice his size. Gilbert was growling, his teeth bared and ready to fight. It didn't take much to guess how this could end. "Gilbert!"

At the same time, the cows were already trampling over the fields, ready to knock down the door to the police station. "Someone help me!" She gave another shout, only able to see one person clambering up a tree and the sounds of others giving cries of surprise.

[cleptes]

On the very rare occasion that Bela decides to do a good deed, Margaery is going to be the lucky receiver of it. How much she would be able to help is another thing entirely. She had fled from the inn as soon as the badger had left, going out the back door instead of the front; Bela was concerned that the animal would come back before anyone had a chance to deal with it.

Bela hears a scream and looks around for the source, noticing Margaery in a spot of bother. She doesn't know a thing about wrangling cows but perhaps she could help out with the dog. Which is why Bela makes her way carefully towards the growling animal and scoops him up into her arms, making sure his mouth and teeth were far away from her face. The dog wriggles a little but she holds on fast and makes her away towards Margaery.

"He needs to be somewhere else right now."

[thekittenqueen]

There is little time to be relieved, given Gilbert's eagerness to be from Bela's arms. The animals were already heading to the police station, so why not let them in to hide? Gilbert could at least wrangle them back to their pens and let out his energy by helping. Margaery is running, pushing past her cows as she shoved the door open, beckoning Bela to follow.

"Let him down, he knows what to do now." She gave the familiar whistle,the signal for her dog to begin wrangling. She kept an eye on the badger, though it didn't seem to notice her. She was grateful for that, but also confused. Large animals were ripe for the picking, but it was chasing someone else.

"It doesn't see us. Hurry inside!"

Peggy Carter | OTA

[womanofvalue]

Honestly, some days, Peggy wakes up and inevitably has to ask herself what the bloody hell her life has become. She'd only wanted something to eat, that's all, and when she approaches the main area, everything is in disarray. She's arrived just in time to see the tree come crashing down onto the schoolhouse, though she has no idea what might have caused it. She swears that she sees something small blurring in her vision that heads away, but that's crazy. Whatever made the tree fall would have had to be stronger than that.

Still, this isn't the time for that, and as she rolls up her sleeve, Peggy's only task is to try and help. Glancing to the debris, she peers inside to try and see if anyone managed to get themselves unfortunately caught in the disaster of it all. She's quick to duck under the tree, trying to get into the schoolhouse despite the fact that she could really use something like a forklift to earn herself a way in.

"Is anyone in there?" she asks, hoping that the answer is 'no'. "What on earth happened?" she adds, as if sensible answers are ever going to be something she expects to get in this place. It's never dull, she knows that much.

CLINIC | OTA

[theluckygirl]

Claire watched most of the badger commotion from atop the bar with Kira before realizing the little beast was capable of seriously hurting people, especially jacked up on whatever it was it was jacked up on. That wasn't any normal badger. Not in the normal behaviour sense of the word. Sure, it was an animal best off left alone but how can someone do that if they are chasing and going full-on berserk with unsuspecting people.

So, when the coast was clear, the nurse quickly headed over to the clinic to prepare the necessary supplies to treat anyone who may need it. Hopefully, she's just being overly cautious, but working in one of the busiest hospitals in New York does tend to do that.

[beallmysins]

The motherfucker bit him.

Jax had never been a Boy Scout, not when he'd been chasing around Clay's knees as a kid trying to learn all he could about various illegal shit, and therefore had no experience with goddamn badgers in the real world, much less the fucked up one he lives in now. He'd tried to fend it off as best he could but it'd taken a chunk out of his arm all the same and messed up one of his tattoos.

Claire's the only one he knows that can fix this and when he comes to the clinic, he's got a t-shirt wrapped around his right forearm and a grimace on his face.

"That goddamn son of a bitch bit me," he mutters, the curse words coming out in a sharp hiss.

[theluckygirl]

Who really had experience with badgers anyway? Not Claire and she doubted she was the only one. But she'd seen the teeth on the one that came through the inn and that's why she was pulling out gauze pads and the homemade saline solution they prepared for these types of injuries.

When Jax walks through the clinic doors and Claire sees who it is her brow furrows and she's instantly closing the distance to take a look. She can already tell by where he's got his makeshift bandage that there's going to be some tissue damage. But she doesn't unravel the shirt until he sits down.

"Come over here," she tells him calmly, gesturing to a couple of chairs. "I'm assuming you're talking about that Hulked out badger running around?"

Part of her is hoping it's something not as ferocious because of the possibility of rabies that immediately crossed her mind when she saw it.