[MINGLE] Great Shakes

[sixthiteration]

WHO: EVERYBODY
WHERE: EVERYWHERE
WHEN: 13 July (afternoon, main quake) - 14 July (morning, last aftershocks)
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Potential injuries, PTSD, and anxiety

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The sun is still high when the earth begins its initial, almost benign sway, but seasoned villagers know well enough that what follows will be far from gentle. Vibrations ramp up swiftly, exponentially, until within the space of a few seconds, the whole world is shaking — Dishes pinging down from shelves, young trees sifting free of the earth, shingles dislodging and tumbling like rain.

After 20 seconds, the worst is done, and after 30 the shaking has ebbed completely. Some will have escaped relatively unscathed, but others will not have been so lucky...

...and the aftershocks are still to come.

Comments

Annie Cresta + a flock of angry fowl | ota

[treadswater]

As much as she's been unsettled for the past few months (the past couple years, the past number of years), Annie has developed her routines here. One of them, the most notable one, is to walks her birds. Mostly, it is the eight geese she takes with her on her various circuits, keeping them inline gently with her switch. Other times, some of the peafowl may come with her. Mostly, the peacock and three peahens stay within the fences Annie and Finnick have built.

Unlike most of the residents of the villages, Annie's used to the daily storms. It's so far the most reassuring and familiar weather she's experienced. It reminds her of the rainy season around District Four's capitol and the Victors' Village. So she sees no real need to hide herself away unless it looks like a big storm, and today, the forecast seems to be for rain later.

All of which explains how and why Annie is walking up the path from the middle of the main village towards her house, escorted by ten birds, when the earthquake hites. Her eight geese, Star the peacock and fussy, fussy Port the peahen, all of them get uneasy, cranky.

"Hey, hey, birds, what's wrong? Hey!" The last is sharp as Aloft nips her fingers. "No! No biting- Birds, what are you doin'?" It becomes a struggle to keep them together, keep them moving in the same direction. Then it becomes impossible.

She doesn't scream. She throws herself to the ground, hands curled over her head. In her panic, the birds are forgotten. As Annie lies on the ground, whimpering with every shake and every moment of stillness after, the birds scatter. Star, Port, and two of the geese fly off back to the safety of their birdhouse in the Odair-Cresta house's old front porch. East, always close to Annie, had startled into flight, but comes back to her human. Several others do the same. But most of them?

Well.

The villagers all want to deal with a number of very agitated geese on top of all the normal earthquake damage, right? Particularly agitated geese who've scattered this way and that, and so are rather harder to avoid than normal...

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[ooc: Feel free to use Annie and Finnick's geese as an additional plot device! Just don't kill them ;) ]

[tosavecocoon]

As soon as the earthquake hits, Vanille has her own set of problems. Fortunately, she doesn't have enough animals to cause too much trouble and catching them isn't too difficult. The problem comes with finding the puppy and Bhakti. Once the purple ones are calm again, Vanille leaves them where they won't get into any more trouble before she runs off after the two dogs.

"Bhakti! Raine!" she cries, following the direction the two of them ran in. It takes her a while to track them, following the sound of them and the prints in the grass, although the latter is a bit more difficult to decipher. Could be the animals, could be a person. Either way, eventually Bhakti comes back to her, more comfortable with her than away.

Raine, on the other hand, seems to have found something else to occupy himself with. When Vanille and Bhakti finally find Raine, he's found some other animals to worry with. He's in something of a stand-off with a couple of angry large birds. Watching him, Vanille doesn't think he wants to hurt them. It looks more like he's trying to keep an eye on them.

"Birds, huh?" she says. "Do they belong to someone?"

Raine whines, fixated on the birds, even as he keeps very low to the ground.

"Wanna try herding them back to towards the houses?"

Raine whines again, slinking around to the back of the flock and slowly working them forward. Vanille keeps to the back of the grouping with Bhakti at her side, more because she knows what angry wildlife, and birds especially, can do. Hopefully, they can find the owner of the birds soon. Or, if they don't have one, well... she's just adopted some birds!

[burn_with_us]

Katniss associates earthquakes with mine implosions and the arena, neither of which are good memories, so when the ground starts shaking it's all she can do not to throw herself down and just try to hide until it's over. She can't, though. There's people here who depend on her already and she has to be the strong one. She's still the Mockingjay even if there's not a Rebellion here and she's got to look like she has it together.

Still, she's afraid. She runs toward Finnick's house to try and check on him and that's when she sees the geese scattering and Annie on the ground in the midst of them. Oh, of course. Annie's arena had flooded after an earthquake, no wonder she's afraid. Katniss hasn't talked to her since coming here but the least she can do is try and get the birds back together.

"Come on," she calls out, making little noises to herd the geese back together. "Annie, I'm getting them. I'm getting them back for you, okay?"