[EVENT] Cold Winds Blowin'...

[ironwood]

Characters: All
Date: January 10-31, 2018
Location: Keeliai, all sectors
Situation: Hurricane and ensuing cleanup
Warnings/Rating: add warnings to headers as necessary, please.


Come late night on the 10th, carrying over into the wee hours of the 11th, the winds that have been on and off all month pick up, howling between buildings and rattling anything not nailed down. The worst of it comes over the next day, when the winds don't actually stop, sweeping through the city at high speeds and bringing rain and all kinds of debris with them.

The canals in Water are nearly impassable, making travel even more inadvisable than it would have been. In some places the wind takes out the power, too, leaving several people temporarily without much in the way of heat -- not good when the average temperature is hovering around 5°C (about 40°F). The rain comes heavier over the course of the day, and flooding both minor and major abounds; during the worst of the storm the canals are near to overflowing and there's a sincere -- and realized -- risk of drowning. As the flooding rises fast, some unprepared citizens may be caught by these rushing torrents and need rescue.

The storm settles down toward the end of the twelfth, leaving only brisk winds and a sullen drizzle as it finally passes the city by. In its wake, however, is a vast array of damage, and significant repairs to be made.

The high winds have knocked many trees down, some of which landed on homes and businesses -- in some cases, punching right through the roofs, rendering the buildings temporarily unlivable, and sending their occupants out into the storm to seek their nearest secondary shelter. Flooding is wide-scale, doing immeasurable amounts of property damage and putting many lives at risk. Many are left injured, homeless, or their businesses and livelihoods in ruins. Even more have lost personal possessions that are irreplaceable.

All told, the Merchant's Guild estimates that nearly 10% of the city's residential districts have suffered severe damage, meaning that the homes in those areas are not structurally safe to live in until repairs are made. This translates to about 6000 kedan across all Sectors in need of temporary housing. A further 20% (roughly 10,000) of the city has experienced moderate damage, so their homes are livable, but they may be without power, heat, or necessities like running water or adequate food stores.

The rest of the city takes light damage, mostly in the way of flooding and damaged goods. Volunteers are needed all over the place to remove storm debris to a growing mountain of wreckage outside the city walls. Everything from broken windows and furniture, to entire trees and large sections of rooftops need to be hauled away, and in some cases, the Foreigners' abilities will be much appreciated, since whatever left is going to be done with kirin-hauled carts and sledges.

Through the rest of the month, repairs are in progress, most of it taking place beneath a sapping cold rain, which impedes both repairs and volunteers' health, and many come down with walking pneumonia and flu-like afflictions. Usayi is among those organizing work crews for the clearing of large debris and urgent patches; he'll be spearheading those efforts as the month wears on as well. The Woodsmen also call for help from as many volunteers as possible, citing the loss of a great deal of growing and stored seeds, as well as the damage to their agricultural land plots, which are now littered with more debris.

Comments

Elizabeth | OTA

[isochrone]

pitching in;
Elizabeth is right in the thick of helping clean up after the storm passes, and she's surprisingly tenacious about the physical labour part. It's refreshing in a way to work on something with such a tangible outcome, and it's the same approach she's ever taken when teaching herself a new skill at home. Stubbornness and repetition have gotten her through a lot.

She moves through the Sectors with the clean-up crews, helping lift broken beams and cleaning up scattered debris, piling it into carts. More than once she overestimates the weight of something and might need help, and occasionally she'll take a quick break in the overhang of a doorway, shivering beneath her coat and blowing into her hands to warm them before she gets back to work.

public shelter;
She's helping pass out blankets and prepare food for large groups, although some of Keeliai's native cooking leaves her a little baffled. Elizabeth is eager to learn, and accepting enough to take instruction from Foreigners and kedan alike... most of the time.

"I am absolutely not serving that to anyone!" she exclaims, pointing at a soup pot with what appears to be still-growing moss coming out the top. "There has to be something else. It looks like a compost heap that's started to mould, and it doesn't smell much better."

pitching in;

[lasergrenades]

The armor is most useful in picking up and moving large pieces of debris, and that's how she spends most of her time while she's assisting the various clean-up and repair crews around the city.

It's good to see the Foreigners out and about, working as hard as any kedan to get their city back into shape. It's been a little while since she'd seen Elizabeth, but when the other young woman seems to be taking a breather, Pepper wanders over, waving an armored hand and smiling, the faceplate retracted so her identity is clear. "Long time, no see. How are you doing?"

[isochrone]

Elizabeth perked up when Pepper approached, rubbing her hands over her shoulders to shed some of the dampness from her coat. "Well, I've got nothing pleasant to say about the weather," she teased lightly. "You look very... productive, in that."

[lasergrenades]

"Yeah, it's totally been gross out," Pepper agreed. "Thanks. Tony made it for me - it's power armor. We're superheroes back home, and they come in handy when we're dealing with bad guys." She glanced around, sighing. "Or when we're dealing with disasters." Elizabeth looks a little chilly, so Pepper holds her hands out palms up. The repulsors in the gauntlets glowed brightly. "Here, you look a little cold. These are warm."

[isochrone]

"You've mentioned it before, but I've never seen it," she confesses. "It's much... sleeker, I suppose, than I'd imagined. It's not at all like the mechanicals we use in Columbia."

She extends her hands a little cautiously at first toward the glowing repulsors, than with more confidence when it seemed that it was safe. The silver thimble covering the missing link on her pinkie glints in the backlight of it.

"Oh that's lovely, thank you Pepper."

[lasergrenades]

"Columbia is the place you're from, right? And I'm guessing mechanicals are, like, mechanical suits," Pepper hedged. "Someone from back home said these suits are at least a few decades ahead of their time, maybe more. People have tried copying them and literally nothing has come close."

She smiled, happy to provide a little comfort against the cold, uncertain what the thimble was for. Maybe just another kind of jewelry; she'd seen Elizabeth wearing it every other time she'd seen her.

"You're welcome. Funny, I bet Tony never thought about using these as handwarmers when he invented them."

[isochrone]

"Yes, there are various types of automatons," Elizabeth agreed. "I wonder, what prompted him to make such things? Where did he draw his inspiration?"

It seems like casual conversation, but Elizabeth now knew that Jeremiah Fink had taken inspiration for many of his mechanicals from what he'd seen through Tears.

[lasergrenades]

"That... Is a very good question," Pepper said with a laugh. "I don't actually know. Tony's been building things ahead of their time since he was four. His brain runs a million miles an hour - if he's not doing something then he goes kind of crazy and that something is usually coming up with new inventions or solving some big problem. But maybe it was because we have stories about these kind of suits from the past - science fiction - and he wanted to make it real," she posited, and shrugged. "I'll have to ask him tonight and let you know. Or you can ask him, I'm sure he'd love to talk about it."

[isochrone]

Elizabeth nods sympathetically. "Boredom is the absolute worst thing! I taught myself so much when I was bored."

Which was all the time, essentially. Part of the reason that she has such an eclectic mix of talents.

"I'd like that, to talk with him about it. No doubt most of it will go over my head, but I don't mind."

[inkulcation]

China, for her part, doesn't so much help as passes through, more interested in ensuring the positions of her contacts and resources than genuinely helping; but occasionally there are displays of incompetency too great to ignore.

She will upbraid anyone who accuses her of outright helping, naturally.

It's one such occasion on which she passes Elizabeth in a doorway. Notably, China looks not at all bothered by the weather, though her hair is a little damp. She recognizes the girl from the network, and an interesting conversation or two. Possible future usefulness is what makes her stop, drawing chalk from her sleeve, and she reaches past Elizabeth to mark a symbol on the opposite side of the doorframe. The air above it wavers faintly with heat.

[isochrone]

Elizabeth had started to move to the side, thinking that China actually wanted to enter the doorway herself to the building inside. Then she watched in puzzlement at the chalk marking, until she registered that the air was warming. "Oh!" she exclaimed excitedly. "That, you did magic just now. I'd expected it to be... I don't know, somehow flashier."

[inkulcation]

"No flashier than words," China said, after the barest of pauses. She had rarely been accused of her magic being flashy, but she was nothing if not good at recovering quickly. "It's sigilwork, my dear, they aren't going to be flashy unless I design them to be. Which I will note can have its benefits."

In the same way that a brightly colored amphibian did.

"You were inquiring, after all."

[isochrone]

"Yes, I suppose I was," Elizabeth laughed. Unconsciously, she shifted toward China, drawn to her. "Thank you, I mean that. Would you... well, you seem to have it covered, staying warm."

[inkulcation]

It was a more subtle demonstration than some, but nevertheless not one that slipped by China. She tilted her head a little to the side, indulging Elizabeth with a little amused smile. "I do," she agreed. "I'm quite comfortable, even in this weather. Did you have a question somewhere?"

It had been rather a leading pause.

[isochrone]

Elizabeth flushed, ducking her head. China's words made her feel on the spot, which while feeling nice to be in her attentions, was also unnerving. "No," she replied softly. "I just... thought I'd mention it. Please don't let me waylay you."

[inkulcation]

"I did approach you, my dear." This was said with some tolerance; China was well accustomed to how she took some people, at first. It would be interesting to see how fast this one got over it. If she did at all. "You'd have to have it on your skin, to have its effects for yourself."

All writing media wore, and more so when introduced to the oils of skin and the constant pressure of everyday use. This was what had led China to tattoos.

pitching in;

[simulsimul]

Likewise Kratos has been helping out with the clean-up crews since arriving in the city, providing passing services from evacuating houses too damaged to live in to removing debris to healing incautious labourers. He's bypassing the clean-up crew on this occasion when he spots the woman trying to slide a broken beam onto her shoulder, and can see even before she's fully got its weight that this is probably not going to go well.

In two strides he crosses the street and catches the end of the beam before she can over-balance or impale someone -- or herself -- by accident. "Careful."

For his part, Kratos looks like something out of a storybook -- tall and unconsciously graceful, with shaggy red hair, and an impassive expression which lends him a bearing of assurance that anything and everything is within his ability to handle. He's not wearing armour, but his clothes are boots and tunic and trousers like the Woodsmen wear; and then, of course, there's the sheathed longsword on his hip and the cloak around his shoulders.

Re: pitching in;

[isochrone]

Elizabeth has definitely overestimated her ability to keep this particular load balanced, and Kratos' timely intervention was what kept her from ending up in the mud. "Ah, thank you, si--" she began, before getting a good look at him.

"Goodness, you look... like you're not from around here."

[simulsimul]

Someone who knew Kratos well would recognise the faint head-tip as a vague sort of amusement. It didn't show on his face, however, so possibly it only looked like confusion. "Neither do you."

In this sort of society, people who move toward manual labour usually already know how to lift a beam without falling over. "Let me." Kratos reached out to take the weight of the whole beam, intending to take it from her unless she resisted the help that far. "Where is this going?"

It was a fairly solid piece of timber. Maybe they were reusing it.

[isochrone]

"I'm not," she answered easily. "I'm from Columbia."

Elizabeth pointed at a pile of lumber that was in fairly good condition; Kratos was right, they were definitely planning to reuse what they could. In light of him taking the large timber, she immediately went back and picked up one a little smaller, following him.

"Then you must have just arrived?"

[simulsimul]

"I'm not familiar with that place." From what some of the kedan had said, most Foreigners seemed to be from a common world called 'Earth', but the names and nations overheard were ones Kratos recognised.

Kratos took the beam over to the pile, laying it down and slotting it in with ease. The weight of it didn't seem to be a bother.

"A few days ago," Kratos said, straightening and stepping back to give her the space, and turning to return to the dusty pile of debris. "What happened? When I arrived the city was already in this state."

[isochrone]

"That's all right," she smiled, although her eyebrows ticked up in surprise at the ridiculous ease with which Kratos handled the heavy beam. "There was a hurricane," Elizabeth explained. "Quite severe, moreso than the city seemed to be used to. As evidenced by the buildings, I suppose."

[simulsimul]

"I see." Well, it's certainly left a lot of debris. Kratos pulls off his cloak and unbuckles his sword, laying both carefully aside, but within view, so he can more easily pick up another beam without them getting in the way. He goes for he largest, leaving the smaller and more manageable things for the young lady. "What's Columbia?"

It's small talk ... of a sort. One can learn a lot once people start talking.