if the sky can crack [OTA mingle]

[sixthiteration]

Hail had been falling for two days now, peppering the ground and shredding the grass but rather than melt away like a late spring storm it had only intensified, growing in diameter and moving from a mild annoyance to damned near deadly. As the storm raged, ice flew up through updrafts and was forced back to earth in the downdraft, accumulating layer after layer of murky debris until it went hurtling toward the earth with wicked accuracy.

Shingles were ripped from roofs, the wind howled and lightning cracked. The hail had driven both humans and animals into the safety of the indoors, to the dark corners of buildings that might withstand the assault. With only candlelight and the hushed voices of villagers to stave off fear and boredom, the storm raged like a sentient being heedless of those who might be caught in the path.

After the storm, a calm came over the land and weak sunlight glinted off smoke-tinged ice. Steam rose from the melt and humidity was thick in the air; petrichor hung heavy, a soothing scent after a savage display of natural fury.

[OOC: Your hail mingle post. Feel free to have characters on the run, gathering animals or inside the Town Hall waiting out the storm.]

Comments

OTA

[almightythor]

fetching the animals

Thor had never seen such a storm as this and he, master of storms, could not understand why this one seemed to rage on and on with no signs of stopping. He had never experienced a storm that didn't rain itself out sooner rather than later and this one brought hail with it, dingy stones of wide diameter that shattered upon impact against the roofs of their houses and tore the plants to bits.

The animals were spooked, unhappy in the torment, and Thor had managed to herd together three of the goats and drive them toward the building referred to as a police station; he didn't want to put them into the building the villagers were refuge in.

"Come, help me! We have to get them inside!"

inside the town hall

Barely managing not to be struck in the skull by one of the hailstones, Thor found a comfortable place within the Town Hall and decided that something must be done to keep up the spirits of those who had sought shelter here. Some may have still been in their houses but for those gathered, he decided he would entertain them with story and song. Perhaps he couldn't control the lightning anymore and he couldn't bend the clouds to his will but he could do this.

"Would you like to hear a tale of Asgard, then? Of the Bifrost and the heroes that fought the Frost Giants of old?"

[turned_to_steel]

Sansa was currently dashing through the crazy weather with her arms above her head when she heard the yelling. Slowing down, her eyes narrowed as she looked for the source and finally picked out the large man trying to herd all the animals in. Of course, she knew him. She could recognize him now even if he wasn't shirtless and complaining of it being terribly hot.

Turning a bit to look over her shoulder, she scanned the area for Raleigh until a particularly large piece of hail hit her shoulder and reminded her of the bad weather she was in. Biting back a yelp, she spurred herself into action as she rushed towards Thor to help him.

"Are there any more out here?" She called when she got close enough.

Town Hall

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana was holding Itiiti, her piglet, as well as a trembling bunny when she walked over. They'd been in her room at the inn but she hadn't known if they'd be safe so she fetched them before gathering with the others at Town Hall. She was a little nervous but she felt her bravery mount with each passing second.

"I'd like to hear." She spoke as she took a seat by Thor's side. She loved listening to stories and she had no doubt that the thunder god had more than a few amazing ones.

"What's your favorite one?" She wanted to hear that one first.

[jetsetting]

"You know me," she told him, sliding onto the edge of the chair he'd put himself into, arm going around his massive shoulders. "I want to know hear all of it."

Truth be told, Annie knew that telling his stories likely made him feel a little better about the complete loss of his power; what had been diminished before was now just gone and though it didn't change anything about how she felt about him, she knew it bothered him. That it'd happened to him before and had affected him greatly.

Mostly, she wanted to support him and, though she barely fit on the edge of his chair and though her arm barely fit across his shoulders - power might gone, huge body still remained - she was going to listen to him until he no longer felt like talking.

fetching the animals

[maternis]

Newt had been on his way to Graves' house, actually, when the storm began to get much, much worse. He hears the man call for assistance in getting some of the animals under cover, checks to make sure Devlin is safe inside of his coat, and heads into the proverbial fray.

"Are there more?" He calls it out over the rising noise and violence of the storm, looking around them both as he asks. Not once does he meet the other man's gaze, but it's clear his attention is on the task at hand.

OTA

[herworship]

Leia's wincing as she comes skidding into the open doors of the big building the others call the Town Hall. The storm has been gathering intensity for days now, and any sensible person would have kept inside to begin with, but if she were sensible, she doubts she'd be stuck in this place at all.

She would, in fact, probably be dead, so maybe being sensible is overrated.

Using the thick coat she'd found in her pack, she'd covered her head as best she could and headed out close to an hour ago, trying to make sure that there weren't any people or animals caught out in the fray. Her heroics earned her a complete soaking, several large welts, and exactly one dog chased under a porch he was already heading for anyway.

Tossing her coat aside onto one of the benches, she stands a moment catching her breath, hair pulled from its makeshift pins and wild around her flushed face. There's a red mark coming up on her right forearm, and her face feels tender where a piece of hail glanced off one cheek, but she only seriously considers taking further stock of her injuries a few seconds longer before she steps back toward the door, the wind ripping at her wet clothes and hair.

"Come on!" she yells, motioning wildly when she spies a figure through the rain.

[Catch her as above, or at some point later inside the town hall.]

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana was running through the down poor with what looked like her jacket in her arms. She wasn't wearing shoes, she hadn't had time to put them on, but she didn't seem all that concerned about it.

She stepped inside quickly, throwing back her head to flick the thick black strands of hair over her shoulders.

"Thank you." Moana smiled at Leia. "I wouldn't have known what to do if you weren't here to get the door. You see... I couldn't leave these two behind." She looked down at the jacket in her arms which appeared as if it was trembling. Inside was a young bunny as well as a piglet.

[withoutahammer]

Getting caught outside in the hail is bad; getting caught outside in the hail when you can barely get up to a fast walk is a lot worse. Neil's considering just giving up and trying to shield his head and wait for the worst to be over when he sees the woman in the door. Waiting for him.

Letting himself get soaked to the skin is one thing- it's another to be responsible for someone else. He gets moving again, pushing himself until it's nearly a run, stumbling up to the Town Hall with his breath stabbing into his lungs each time he inhales. "Shouldn't have- I was fine- no need-"

OTA

[hawkeyesniper]

[On the Run...]
There was no umbrellas here. There was no way to shield herself or Arado from the onslaught. When she'd gone out to take the dog to relieve himself the hail had been annoying but manageable.

Now, the span of time it had taken Arado to do his business, the hail had expanded in size. Riza stood, pressed against a tree to avoid being hit. It wasn't proving a very effective shelter though and Arado looked like he wasn't going to be able to hang out here much longer either. He whimpered, moving up against Riza, his tail low and pleading for her to take them away from this. She pressed a hand to his head, "I'll get us home, don't worry."

A few things happened at once after that. The storm let out a large BOOM of thunder and lighting cracked across the sky. Arado yelped and fell back on his animal instinct -- tearing into the woods -- leaving Riza alone. She gasped, feeling her stomach drop, "Arado! No!"

She moved away from the tree. She had to find him.

[...Far From Home]
Later that evening, Riza could be found standing near the entrance of the Town Hall. She looks soaked, cold, and she holds her arms across her chest as she stares out into the worsening storm. Despite her searching, even getting someone to help, she hadn't been able to find Arado before someone had forced her back to the safety of one of the nearby buildings.

She feels awful and hadn't realized just how attached she'd become to Arado until just now when he was lost. She hoped he was okay and would continue to stare out into the distance hoping to catch sight of her dog.

far from home

[womanofvalue]

Peggy doesn't want to spend too much time out in the miserable wet of the storm, but when she sees Riza standing outside of the town hall, she covers her head and runs from the inn to meet her, trying not to get pelted in the meantime. "What are you doing out here?" she shouts, trying to get her to come back inside. "You're going to get struck by one of those awful things and then we'll be right back at the hospital."

She's spending far too much of her time there, honestly, and it's a habit she'd like to break. "Are you waiting for someone? We can leave a note, if you are!"

OTA

[zomboligist]

He's not entirely sure that he's being clever or calm, but when the hail starts coming down, Ravi panics on Mark's behalf, though it's completely easy to panic on his own because that's their food and delicate little leaves and Ravi has no want to starve. He spends about ten minutes rifling through his things to find the paracord and then breaks into the nearest empty house to rob it of its bedding, curtains, and anything else he can add to his pile of blankets before he heads straight for the crops, wincing as he thinks about how long it's been since the storm started.

Every pellet of hail hurts worse than the last, but Ravi only cares about getting stakes in the ground and tying the blankets up, using his height to ensure that he can get the blankets as taut as possible. It's entirely too warm for it, but he's wearing his fur hat, so only the rest of him is getting pelted with obscenely disgusting looking hail, but someone can patch him up later.

The make-shift solution seems to be somewhat working and Ravi desperately starts on the next little patch, wincing every time a new onslaught of icy hail assaulted his face, tamping down his fear at the lightning.

[3ofswords]

"You idiot," Kira calls over the sounds of the storm, detoured from his attempt to cut across the fields. He'd been aimed for home, afraid Bodhi or the dog might not have made it inside, but caught sight of the man struggling to secure the crops.

Shifting the pine branch he'd been carrying at his back to protect his own idiot neck, he frees a hand to snatch at Ravi's shirt and starts dragging him toward the treeline, where at least the shifting canopy might redirect the hail.

"There are shingles coming off the roofs," he yells, the wind stealing his voice and the crack of hail on every surface burying what remains, "what the hell is a sheet going to do?"

[pretendtoneedme]

"Angle it!"

When the hail hadn't died down after the first day, Clint had immediately become suspicious. Hail during the spring isn't unknown, not at all, but the conditions to create hail usually don't last for several hours on end. At first they were just little nuisances, icy bits down the back of his jacket, but as they got bigger... and bigger... and bigger...

Well, this was starting to look more like the hand of whoever or whatever was keeping them there than anything.

That supposition had proven (probably) true when the hail not only didn't stop, but got bigger, and Clint had broken into the scraps of wood he'd looted from house 14 to fashion some stakes. Collecting fabrics in much the same way Ravi had, he'd broken into the inn's stash of useful goods to grab a roll of duck tape and run out with his bundle of stuff. Fortunately the plants aren't too tall yet, so they don't have to rig tarps in the sky or whatever, but that also means if one of them gets hit by these hailstones it's gonna be shredded.

"If it's angled it'll roll off and not drag it down!" Clint's taken his stakes and lashed them into tripods so they don't get knocked over, then taped two of the corners of various sheets and whatnot to a bundle each and set them up much like very shallow tents. He's got his peacoat and overalls on as well as the thick hat he'd found to protect himself as well as he can from any hail strikes, but he can tell he's going to have some bruises after this. Better him than the crops. Ravi, however, looks like he'd sprinted out the door without much preparation, and getting this done sooner rather than later will get him back inside without, hopefully, too much injury.

OTA

[bit_fairytale]

When the first crack of lightning lights up the sky, it takes all of Amy's stores of stubborn courage not to panic, even if the still-healing scars on her neck make it hard to stay completely even-keeled, but what also doesn't help? The fact that there's a few sheep charging her way when the hail starts coming down, like she's some kind of sheep-whisperer and ought to know what to do.

"Hey, whoa!" she says, suddenly panicked as she tries to catch one of them by the wool and stop them from running off too far. While it'd be nice to have a mutton stew for dinner, she doesn't exactly want to see a sheep get fried by lightning anytime soon, seeing as it'd probably be a messy process. "Hey!" Amy shouts, squinting through the storm. She'll head home or to the nearest shelter, but she has to make sure the animals get the same benefit. "Hey, come and help!" she demands, reaching out to try and get hold of the other one. She's already scanning the nearby area for some place to go, but has the feeling inside is probably the best place to be.

They just might have a very sheep-like smell to deal with for a while, but better that than cleaning up sheep blood and guts.

[thekittenqueen]

A sheepdog puppy comes charging down the way, yapping at the sheep as he starts to wrangle and drive them back in the direction they came from, back towards the police station. Margaery raced after him, holding a cloak over her head in an effort to shield herself from the down pour of hail.

"They broke free from the herd." Margaery said to Amy, quickly tugging along the ram she had gotten a hold on. "We need to get them to the police station. That's where the animals are." She whistled are dog, giving him the command to send the sheep running. They were at least not protesting, apparently wanting to find shelter as desperately as Margaery wanted to usher them towards it.

"Thank you for catching them. I thought they were lost."

OTA

[forthecrown]

fleeing the storm

Elizabeth had been weary of the hail when it first came two days ago and now she was beyond weary and into downright harried; she had never been the sort to easily frighten but this storm was unlike any she'd ever seen in England and she wondered if the sky was truly falling down upon them. She had watched it from her window for a long while and then gone back to nap when she heard a riotous racket against the eaves of her house. The hail was bigger now and dark, murky with something that looked like ink.

There was also a pair of boxes on her porch. She'd heard of things coming in boxes and she stuck her head outside, surprised to hear a pair of soft whimpers. Oh God, was there something alive in there? She was trying to decide what to do, precisely, when a limb fell on her house and took out a large swath of shingles.

"Bloody hell," Elizabeth said, muttering the oath louder than she ought to as a queen. She tipped open one of the boxes and saw a puppy there - there must be a pair of them, then. Making a split decision she put the puppy in the box with the other and ran as quickly as she could for the Town Hall. She wasn't going to wait this out in her house if it was this intense.

As she ran, hail struck her shoulder and then her cheek, a stinging bruise already evident there. Damn.

taking refuge

Elizabeth had settled in a corner with her puppies, letting them out to wander a bit in her general vicinity. One was a lovely golden color and the other a black. They were Corgis, as well, and she'd always been fond of the breed. Both were yipping happily and the black one had decided to chew on Elizabeth's bootlace. How incorrigible.

"Whiskey, stop that this instant," she said, the rebuke coming off her tongue easily. "And, well, I suppose that's your name." She lifted the golden one, looked into her eyes. "And you, my dear, shall be honey. Honey and Whiskey go together, after all."

Refuge

[thekittenqueen]

With another storm to flee and wait out, Margaery had at least come prepared to entertain herself. A basket of clothing that needed mending, cards, books, wine, everything she might need. It was only when she spied Elizabeth were her corgis that she wondered if she should have brought Gilbert as well. He didn't enjoy being left on his own during a storm.

The thought was pushed away as she smiled at Elizabeth, kneeling beside her to hold out her hand for the dogs to smell. "Did they just arrive for you?" She asked in amusement.

refuge

[oncewasroman]

Rory was making his own rounds, ever the nurse he wanted to make sure no one had been injured by the falling hail. It hadn't been a concern of his at first, but as the pellets got bigger he began to grow concerned. He could have waited in the hospital--but the Town Hall seemed to be taking more people so he'd made a break for the building awhile ago and set up shop over here for once.

He passed by a woman who had recently arrived and gave pause. The pups were cute, but he was more interested in the bruise on her cheek. "Hello, are you all right," he pointed at his own cheek to indicate he was asking about the bruise.

OTA

[chosenbytheocean]

Rescuing 101

"Itiiti!" Moana was shouting the moment the storm began.

She was running as fast as she could, jumping over obstacles in her way. She had been fishing at the start of the storm but was quick to abandoned her task. She'd never seen a storm like this and she felt the urgency of it jolt through her.

Moana wasn't running to the Town Hall for shelter but to the Inn to collect the two, most likely terrified, animals that were currently in her room. She didn't know if it was safe there and it was worth braving the storm for the pair.

Inside Town Hall

Moana was sitting as close to a window as the weather would allow. She was watching the thick orbs of hail crash down on the small village with a frown. She didn't understand what was happening or why. It was raining ice. She'd never seen a storm like it before and she was both fearful and fascinated in it.

As time lingered and pulled she lost herself to her thoughts. It wasn't until a large sphere crashed against the wall next to her small window that she screamed, fell out of her chair and crash onto the hard ground.

"Ouch!" She lifted herself to her knees before looking around for her piglet Itiiti. The piglet, for all it's intelligence and braver, was hiding under a fallen curtain. It was trembling as Moana moved to pick him up.

Town Hall

[thekittenqueen]

Margaery bolted up from her chair as Moana let out a scream, her body braced for a shower of ice to pour through a broken window. The sounds outside resumed their steady fall, no shards of glass were scattered over the floor. It seemed as though everything was as it was before.

She knelt beside Moana, offering her a hand to help her back to her feet. The pigs were hard to miss, but Margaery's first concern was to make sure that Moana wasn't injured.

"You have never seen hail before?"

Rescuing 101

[thecatinahat]

Cougar's been trying to get to the inn for the last bit, but he stops every time he finds something that needs helping. His hat protects him from the worst of the hail and he's wearing the scrubs, so he doesn't mind if they get ruined. He's almost at the inn when he hears a familiar voice on the wind, calling out. He changes directions, quickly, and runs until he finds Moana, ducking under one of the nearest eaves to take cover.

"What do you need?" he asks, instantly, at her side. His own business can wait, right now, there is work to do.

OTA

[thekittenqueen]

Animal wrangling

The sudden downpour of hail sent Margaery's livestock into a panic. Even Gilbert, who had weathered thunderstorms and hail was sent scurrying behind her skirts, whimpering at the impact of the ice. The goats and sheep ran in different directions while the cows automatically raced back into the police station. A small favor, at least.

Whistling at Gilbert, both Margaery and he raced after the frightened animals. The goats were clever, breaking apart as they ran in different directions. Without anyone to help her, she was risking the likelihood of losing her animals in the storm. She glanced around frantically.

"I need some help! Please!"

Town Hall

After securing the animals in the barn, Margaery gathered Gilbert in her arms and hurried towards Town Hall. Her basket of mending was shuffled under the weight of her dog and cloak. Once inside, she found the nearest chair and collapsed into it. She was sore from the run and the struggling animals, frightened by the storm. There would be bruises, but they were at least safe.

Gilbert raced around her feet before curling next to her, worn out. It was something she could sympathize with.

Ice pelted against the roof and windows, picking up speed as the minutes passed. It wasn't to be a small storm, it seemed. As another figure ran inside, Margaery moved her things from the chair next to her, silently offering the seat to the figure. "Here. You seem to need to rest as well."

[notabirdcostume]

Catching a goat with the help of a friend in clear weather was hard enough. Sam was not sure he was going to be able to wrangle many of these goats. The other disadvantage was, of course, he had his injury to deal with. A sprained wrist was going to make goat wrangling all the more difficult. He could even hear Peggy getting on to him already. Scolding him for risking his injury for the sake of some goats.

But, Sam had to help. He'd heard her cry and he couldn't just ignore that. What kind of Avenger would he be in that sense? He rushes back into the police station-turned-barn and snags some rope. Maybe he can lasso one or two and bring them back in. He starts tying a knot, pressed up against the building to avoid being pelted with hail. When its ready he peers back out into the storm and dark -- squinting to see movement. "Got it!" He calls out to her before sprinting out after the goat with his lasso in hand.

Sam's come a long way from his first goat encounter--having capture one of his own he frequents this place and has gotten better and wrangling the darn things. It takes some doing, given his handicaps, but he manages to rope one, pulling it down.

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke isn't a pushover, exactly. She never has been one to blindly race into something just because someone asked her to. But when she finds a person in need, really in need, she always comes to help. Even at the expense of her own safety.

So when she hears someone yelling for help, she automatically turns to see what the problem is. Judging by the animals running everywhere, she can guess at it. She's never really been an animal wrangler, but there's a first time for everything.

"Where do you want them to go?" she yells towards the woman who had called for help, even as she moves to position herself as a large wall to scare the sheep back towards their handler. If only she had Cailan. Her mabari would make this so much easier. But she'd left the dog with Bethany, so there was no chance at all that he could be here.

OTA

[pretendtoneedme]

Last-Minute Hunting

Clint's from the Midwest. He's seen more examples of If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes than he can remember, and at first he hadn't worried. Hail in spring isn't unknown, and at first it's small, little granules that crunched under boots and were annoying when they got down your collar but no big deal. But then it didn't go away, and only got worse, and no hailstorm he could remember ever lasted more than an hour at most. When it looked like it wasn't going away any time soon, Clint cursed and ran to grab one of the bows from the inn, looking to find any game he could before it all went to ground. Most of it would have by now, but something would still be out, searching out food, and the people in the village needed to eat. He'd risk some bruises for more meat, since there was no way of knowing how long this'd last.


Town Hall Darts

He'd remembered seeing a darts set in the stash of games and things that'd been rescued from the schoolhouse, so why not break it out now. He liked cards and would sit down to a game later, but he missed getting to toss darts around. Nailing the board up close to one wall (and out of the way of traffic), he crossed to the other side of the room, darts in hand, to start throwing them. Every single one is a bullseye, dart after dart after dart. It wasn't a challenge for him, it was better: it was relaxing, a way to relieve some stress. Something he could focus on and not worry about the crops out in the fields or stray animals or anyone trying to move from one building to another. If anyone wanted to talk he'd pull himself out of his game, but until that happened he was more or less in the zone.


Assessing the Damage and Inspection

The thudding stopped suddenly on the roof. Watching from the windows to be sure it wasn't just a brief break in the assault, Clint waited until the sunlight returned, glinting on the ice and starting to evaporate it, water vapor rising from the piles on the ground. When he was fairly certain it wasn't going to start again, he headed out to start looking at how bad things were: what buildings needed to be repaired and what pieces could be retrieved, the state of the fields and the crops in them, any animal or person caught out.

But one thing he did was pull on his gloves and reach down to pick up a few of the pellets. He'd take them into the inn, try to melt them or smash them or hack them up, to see if there was anything in them that was... odd. It was almost guaranteed there was something weird, because the ice wasn't strictly ice as far as he could tell. It wasn't clear or even white but more smokey than anything, like something was mixed with the water as it froze.

Town Hall Darts

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana stepped up to the familiar man, watching him curiously. She had a small piglet in her arms who was trembling fearfully because of the storm.

"What are you playing?" It looked like he was throwing small spears at the board and while no one else was aware, Moana was very skilled at throwing. Her aim had been practiced spearing fish from a very young age.