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.]

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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.

[herworship]

"Sure," Leia distractedly allows as she makes one more squinting sweep of the outdoors and then lets the wind slam the doors shut behind her.

"Your wildlife rescue was more successful than mine," she adds once she's turned her full attention to the girl, her smile wry. "All I got out of it was a few lumps."

Her coat had helped, but she'll definitely have bruises come tomorrow.

[chosenbytheocean]

Itiiti, the piglet, jumped when the door bang closed and tried to burrow itself deeper into Moana's arm. Moana whelped before shifting the pair so that she could continued to hold the frightened animals.

"Well, Itiiti's mine." The bunny was going to eventually be dinner, when it got big enough. "I had to find him before getting inside. He sometimes wanders off and the storm scared him." Pigs were very smart, very much like dogs though Moana was thinking that she'd make Itiiti a collar so that people didn't eat him.

After making sure she wasn't going to drop either of them Moana looked up at the other girl. "Are you okay?"

[herworship]

"Oh yeah," Leia replies with a quick wave of her hand. "I'll have a few bruises, but nothing serious." Judging by the size of the hail, it could have been much, much worse. A direct hit to the head could knock a person out; she'd never seen anything quite like it.

"And you? You look like you got lucky."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana nodded her head with a smile. "A few bruises and scratches but nothing that won't heal." She was resilient and used to small scratches and bruises. Moana was to active not to accidentally hurt herself. Sometimes she didn't even know she had hurt herself until the bruise appeared.

"I don't think I've seen you around very much. Did you just get here?" This isn't a great time to arrive.

[herworship]

"A couple of weeks ago." Much longer than sat well with her by any definition of the phrase. It still bothers her that people greet her almost as if her being here and staying here is a forgone conclusion. She'll be damned if she resigns herself to her fate that easily.

"Is the weather often like this here?"

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana shook her head which in turn sent thick drops of water from her hair. The piglet in her arms squealed uncomfortably as the water hit him.

"No. This is a first but the weather here is sometimes really strange." Moana frowned. "Are you doing okay?" She seemed fine but being in this village was strange in many ways to many different people. Moana didn't want to assume that everything was okay.

[herworship]

"As okay as a person can be when they find themselves inexplicably trapped in a strange place," Leia answered with a low snort, but then softened her expression. "I'm fine. I've been through... well, much worse than this, put it that way." She might be pacing the halls at night, but she isn't crying into her pillow.

"Where are you from?"

[chosenbytheocean]

"I'm from an island called Motunui." She didn't expect Leia to have heard about it. It was, after all, just an island. She knew that there were many other places and worlds out there but her island was always going to be home.

"Where are you from?"

She repeated the question though a little bit more sheepishly.

[herworship]

"All over," Leia says, not precisely the truth, but close enough these days. "My father was a diplomat, so we traveled a lot." By now, it's begun to seem a little silly being so cagey about her identity with the people here, but better safe than sorry, as they say.

"What sort of an island was it?" she asks, hoping to shift the subject back to something less precarious.

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana was like a diplomat in a way but she'd left her island without her fathers permission and she was going to talk to gods. It wasn't exactly the same. "That sounds nice." Being able to travel anyway. That was something that she's always wanted to do.

"It's a tropical island. We didn't have hail." She pointed towards the door, indicating the storm that raged on the other side.

[herworship]

"That must have been nice," Leia replies with a soft little huff as she steps toward the nearest window to peer out; if only they were that lucky now.

"I have a friend who grew up in the desert," she adds conversationally, her face briefly pinching at the pang that naturally came with thinking of Luke. "I was surprised how well he handled snow."

[chosenbytheocean]

"I didn't handle the snow well." It had been a bit of a nightmare. When she first first arrived the snow banks were almost as tall as she was and she'd refused to wear shoes. If it hadn't been for Rory she probably would have gotten frost bite. "I really don't like the snow."

She looked down at Itiiti who continued to shake in her arms. "I'm sorry. I'm going to take him some where away from the walls. Might be quieter that way."

[herworship]

Leia looks to the piglet and then nods. No sense in further scaring the thing. It already looks like it's ready to bolt.

"Sure," she replies. "I think I'm going to stay here and keep a look out just in case anybody else is out there, but if you need anything, give me a shout."

[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-"

[herworship]

After a final glance into the fray, Leia lets the doors blow shut behind them and immediately points to one of the benches. "Sit down, catch your breath," she says, brusque and brooking no argument. Watching him cross the lawn, it had been obvious he'd been struggling.

There's a bathroom nearby and glasses lined along a shelf, leftover from some gathering or another. She fills one with water and carries it back, holding it his way.

"You alright?"

[withoutahammer]

Neil sinks onto the bench without arguing further because he knows how to take an order. He rests his head in his hands until she comes back with the glass and he takes it, trying to keep from slopping water over the cup's sides as his hand shakes with exhaustion.

He drinks and sets it down before he answers, his voice still hoarse. "Yeah- yeah, fine. Nothing hurt save my pride, thanks."

[herworship]

"Then you're doing better than I am," Leia says with a soft laugh, lifting a hand to carefully touch the spot on her cheek that's finally beginning to make itself fully known. It won't be more than a bruise, but it'll probably be ugly.

"I've never seen anything like this," she adds as she takes a step back toward the window and peers out. "Is this normal?" She casts a glance back to him over her shoulder.