It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

[kore_npc]

Who: Maggie and [OPEN]
Where: The General Store and its immediate vicinity
When: Early afternoon on day 110
What: a delightful earthquake rocks the Cape
Notes: This post is an open catchall for anyone who wants to use it. For Maggie, please tag this thread.

It had been a pleasant morning. The power had surged, blowing out a few minor appliances, before settling back to normal. The sun had been high in the sky and the bird had been chirping. The residents of Kore couldn't ask for a nicer day, at least not if they're being realistic.

That's why it's likely a surprise when the entire town begins to shake without warning. Things fly from shelves and animals scatter as the town is overtaken by a massive earthquake.

The worst of the shaking is centered around the General Store where poor little Maggie is looking for a box of crackers. The shaking is so violent that the building itself crumbles around her and he scream can be heard echoing in nearby buildings.

Comments

Running in from the woods

[venatical]

Dean's out for a walk when the rumbling happens; it's enough that it makes him stumble and fall, hitting his back on a tree as the leaves shake around him. The rumbling stops, and Dean stands there, eyes wide and uncertain as he waits to make sure it's not going to start up again. And then he gets the hell out of there, hurrying through the woods before they have a chance to fall down on his head.

Once he reaches the edge of the woods, he tries to spot what he was sure was a crashing sound. If the freaking diner caved in again he's going to be so upset. He's so proud of that.

Mind if I join you?

[tryingitall]

Balthazar's glad the power's back on. Gives him an excuse to go walking further afield on his foraging trips. He's between the stream and the forest when the shaking starts, and stumbles to one knee, waiting there for stability until the quake ends.

It's just one damn thing after another, isn't it?

When he rises again, he spots Dean as he appears at the edge of the trees. A quick flap of wings brings him to the hunter's side; he leaves his gathering basket behind. Hopefully he can come back for it later.

"Never a dull moment, is there? Want a lift back to town?" People could be injured. He'll try to regain his reputation for being a jerk to the Winchesters later.

not at all!

[venatical]

If it were anyone else, Dean might be suspicious. As it is, he looks over Balthazar uncertainly, tries to guess if he really thinks he'd have a hand in this and what he might get out of it -- not that he knows what the situation is in town -- and then he gives one short, quick nods.

"Alright. Was it just me, or did it sound like something big went down?" Two meanings: that something big happened and some big structure fell.

yay!

[tryingitall]

It didn't really occur to Balthazar that running into an angel in this situation might make Dean think of his recent trauma at the hands of Raphael and Gabriel. Not until that suspicious look, anyway. He's not sure whether he wants to laugh or apologize, so he does neither.

"Not just you. It was large-scale, and I think we may have lost a building." Reaching out, he places a hand on the hunter's arm. Assuming Dean doesn't stop him, he'll fly them into town in the next moment.

[venatical]

Dean spends too much time watching Balthazar reach in and flinching; he doesn't get time to tell him that they could seriously just jog. How long was that going to take? Freaking angels. The more he's been zapped around like this, the better his body seems to take it, but it still sucks. He shoots Balthazar a look, almost rolling his eyes, but they have bigger fish to fry than angelic impatience.

Quickly, he looks around and -- alright so he's biased, but he checks the diner first. One piece. Whew. He put a lot of work into that, okay. And Dean just likes to put feelings into inanimate objects.

"There," he says, pointing at what used to be the store. "Looks like a mess to me. Is anyone in there? Can you tell?"

[tryingitall]

He did offer a lift, though! If Dean wanted a piggyback ride, he should have spoken up quicker. Anyway, flight is better than jogging in many, many ways, not the least of which is they arrive without getting sweaty and dusty.

The diner looks fine, indeed. Later on Dean can brag about how it go put back together well enough that it survived an earthquake. For the moment, though, Balthazar is squinting at the store. "I can hear voices. Maggie, someone I don't know, and Raphael."

He glances at Dean. "I know you're not best of friends with him, but if Raphael can't handle any injuries there, no one can. I think we'd better sweep the rest of the town."

[venatical]

Dean's willing to let that one go; one, he doesn't want to meet up with Raphael like, at all, and two it sounds like someone else is there with the two of them. He wouldn't want to leave Maggie alone with Raphael because angels don't have the best bedside manner.

"He'd have to care enough to fix them, but alright, sure," he grumbles. Then he sweeps his gaze over Balthazar and raises an eyebrow.

"Do we have to angel-zap everywhere?"

[tryingitall]

"I don't think you quite get him," he says, but then Balthazar doesn't get Raphael either sometimes, and now isn't the time to philosophize. He rolls his eyes at Dean's implied complaint.

"I suppose not. I think it might be wise to check the coast. I don't think that was an ordinary quake, but I'd like to be sure the sea isn't about to rise up and flood us in response to the seismic activity."

[venatical]

He doesn't really want to talk about Raphael's finer points either; regardless, Dean's going to be a hard sell on the idea.

"Tsunami watch sounds good to me. Let's go."

[tryingitall]

"By foot, this time?" His eyes glint, but he begins walking at a reasonable speed.

"Although at least a tsunami might kill that damned tentacle beast. I'd be in favor of that."