sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] Great Shakes

[MINGLE] Great Shakes

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Steve smiled, happy to see the other man regain his equilibrium.

"This your first earthquake?" He could still remember his first. It was a very uncomfortable and scary feeling. And this one hadn't been mild.

"I don't believe we have either. Steve McGarrett. It's a good to meet you Danny..." He chuckled lightly. "There's another Danny here... The other is my best friend and partner from back home. It's bound to get confusing."

"Yeah. There aren't a lot of Earthquakes in New York or the Himalayan Mountains." Which was where his plan had crashed and where he had been for the fifteen years following. Danny felt his panic raising and had to close his eyes to recenter himself. He remembered the snow crunching beneath him, the burning cold in his limbs and then those two monks standing over him.

"You can call me Ironfist or Daniel if you want." He really didn't care what he was called. Danny Rand was his name and it was important to him but that was different from being called by a label. His name would always belong to him.

"No, those areas are fairly stable compared to..." His voice drifts off as he sees Danny close his eyes and feels the tension returning to him. Concerned, he reaches out. "Hey, you sure you're alright?"

"Danny works fine," Steve shakes his head in response, he's not really worried about himself keeping them distinct, it's more when he says their name that he expects the confusion to arise in others. His voice and face are still full of concern for his new friend. "More just letting you know that there's another. I generally call him 'Danno'." Steve grins. "Drives him nuts, but this gives me more reason to do it. So, you know, that works for me."

"Yeah. I'm fine. It happens sometimes." It hadn't fully gotten over the stress of being the sole survivor of the plane crash when he was ten and even now he had moments where he had to push the thoughts from his mind. It'd been easier when he was in K'un-Lun and he'd been hoping it would be easily handled here but the stress was making it difficult to control.

He huffed out a short breath of laughter. "Danno? That sounds like a sucky nickname. If I see him, I'll make sure to call him that. Or Danny2. That'll probably annoy him too." Danny was all for playfully annoying people.

Though he didn't know if he'd do it with someone who he didn't know.

There's a thoughtful look on Steve's face as he files away that information. He doesn't know Danny well enough to press just yet, but it's something for him to keep an eye out for should the other man ever need help or want to talk.

"You should do that!" There's a light chuckle with his words. "He'd know you'd already ran into me and likely have more than a thing or two to say about that, but..." He raises a finger. "Just... His daughter gave him that nickname when she was just learning to talk so, you know, maybe don't tell him it's 'sucky'." That's not likely to annoy Danny in the way his new friend is hoping. Then Steve grins, "Danny2 would likely get him going as well..." Steve chuckles, already hearing the rant that's likely to follow that. "He's likely to insist that would be you since he was here first."

Danny smiled. "Noted." He didn't really care what people called him but Danny Rand was his name and that was important to him. "You and him, live here?" Which meant that two people from the same world was a common thing.

He had run into Claire shortly after waking up in the fountain but he didn't know if there were other people from his plane. He had been told that there are other worlds and they were connected to this world in some way but Danny hadn't met anyone who could really confirm that they were from a different world. (He hadn't met Ironbull yet.)

It was hard to imagine anything outside of what he knew, unless this was another capitol of heaven like K'un-Lun had been.

"Not by choice of course, but yeah, we do. We share a house in the village by the lake with my younger sister, Mary."

Steve had an idea of what Danny was actually asking though and while he could provide an answer he didn't have any reasonable explanation to give along with it.

"They are the only two I knew prior to coming here. We're all from Hawaii, well technically Mary lives in L.A., but we're not all from the same time. Mary is from 2011. I'm from 2012, and Danny is from 2015." He sighs and shrugs. "It's all very surreal. In Danny's time, Mary and I are both around and neither of us, as far as Danny knows, ever mentioned anything like this." It was frustrating for Steve because he had no idea exactly what that meant.

"However this place is able to exist, it's also not technology or capabilities available from where I'm from." Although if the Observers are time travelers, then that could explain it, but it could also indicate other worlds being involved, (Steve hasn't met Bull as of this conversation yet either).

Danny listened, his eyebrows furrowing together as his mind tried to wrap around what Steve was telling them. "You mean that you go home and don't remember any of this?" That seemed really fucked up but more than that, Danny wasn't sure how someone would manage that. Were their minds being messed with?

His frown deepened as he considered the repercussions. Claire had mentioned being here for awhile but Danny had seen her recently. He also didn't remember the same things that she did, so maybe it was their times.

"That's messed up."

"Well, that's the thing. I've been here just under a year, but according to Danny's recollection, I wasn't ever missing long enough to accommodate that kind of time away." It bothered Steve that none of this really made sense and that not only didn't he not have answers, there was no place for him to find them either. "For the me he knew back home, this simply never happened."

It was frustrating and didn't make any sense. Did the Observers return him to the exact moment they took him after wiping his memory of these events only? Or was this all happening more like a dream and all in his head. Which made him wonder if it was happening at all. It felt real, but then so had his time in the simulation and that hadn't ended up being real after all. Whoever was doing this to them, was messing with them in ways Steve could only guess at, and he didn't like it one bit.

"That's putting it mildly."

Danny put out a hand. "Look. I don't really get it, only that Claire said that I did thinks that I don't remember back in New York." It was easy for him to accept things at face value and thinking about it would make his head hurt.

He was still feeling a little shaky from the earthquake and looking uncertain. "I should head back and sit down for a second." He felt the pressure against the side of his head but shook it away.

"There aren't any answers." Holding out his hands he shrugged helpless and frustrated, and gave a quick shake of his head. "Whoever has done this, wants us to be in the dark. We can speculate, but there's not much else we can do."

At the last comment from Danny, Steve took another hard look at the other man and concern spread across his features. He held out a hand, ready to catch him or grab on to him should he start to waiver. "Buddy, you don't look very good. Are you sure you didn't get hurt in that quake?"

Moving in closer to be there if needed, he asks, "Where's your place? I'll help you get back... Or maybe we should head to the infirmary?"

Danny shook his head. "It's at the inn. I should be able to make it just dine." They weren't that far away from the building and if Steve wasn't sure of Danny's ability to walk then he could watch him walk most of the way from where they're standing.

"Thanks." He flashed Steve a brief smile. "I'm sure I'll see you around."

He hoped anyway.

"I'm sure," Steve said while returning the smile, although his had a touch of concern for the other man laced in his. "Take care of yourself. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

While technically he couldn't speak for anyone else, everyone else had always been very helpful and kind from his perspective so he feels confident in throwing it out there.

As Danny walks away, Steve does in fact watch him go. After a couple of steps he continues to head in the direction he was going before he encountered Danny, but also continues to keep an eye on the other man making sure he gets to where he's going. Or at least close enough to it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[MINGLE] Great Shakes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject