[hr][b][h1][center][color=0054a6]Percival[/color][/center][/h1][/b]

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[Center]Location: Percival's house[/center]
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	Percival lived on the outskirts of town. Land was cheaper there, and it gave him enough room to have a little bit of privacy in the woods. He slept through the little quake, very tired after spending the afternoon digging to plant some more trees on his land. Trees reminded him of home, and he was glad that they settled in the Pacific Northwest with it's dense forests, somewhere like Arizona just wouldn't have fit well for him. He woke up at his usual time at, six thirty, aiming to get a fresh start on the day.

	Some of his belongings had been shaken up by the quake. A mug he left on his desk had fallen off, and the hunting rifle he hung above his fireplace was drooping after it got loose from one of the rungs holding it. He nearly tripped over his baseball bat walking into his living room in the dark without the lights on, and was annoyed to find that the switch didn't work. Percival picked up his Wonderboy (as he was fond of calling his bat) and tried more switches, only to find that they too weren't working. The power was out, and much as he hated to admit his fondness for modern conveniences, that was a problem for him.

	The phone lines still worked in the power outage. He was about to dial Lancelot and the rest of the Emergency Preparedness Council when he got Lucy's message. He figured it was still worth talking to Lancelot anyway, and proceeded to call her, just trying to figure out what the next steps should be. They still had a while before the meeting in the afternoon, and there might be something useful to do in the meantime. For now, he called the power company, just trying to remind them to fix the blackout around town. He knew it would take them time, but the more people who bothered them, the quicker the response would be.

	[hr][b][h1][center][color=aba000]Scheherazade[/color][/center][/h1][/b]

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[Center]Location: Town Library[/center]
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	Scheherazade was staying up late at the library on another research binge, downing cups of coffee to maintain her energy as she looked for anything that might tell them something about the fate of their homeland. The books were sprawled around her, all filled with tabs and post-its for her reference. The shaking of the minor quake disrupted her concentration for a moment, and the lights flickered off afterwards. Undaunted, she fished for a flashlight and now redirected her efforts, looking into the causes and meanings of the new phenomena. 

	Her notes grew longer and more fragmentary. "Earthquake, symbolically and literally the shaking of the foundations of the world. Mythology suggests this, Japanese believed that giant catfish laid buried underneath their land, Indians believed that it was on the head of great serpent. Possible connection between these two limbless beings? Connection with other serpent myths (Jormugandr?) or other great fish (Bahamut?) Possible indication of a correction for the world, a revolution, a reckoning, or punishment for sins. Brought on by a higher spiritual power awakening sometimes possibly? Peruvian myth tells account of God calling shaking the earth with his footsteps to call for a census, are all to gather together? Is this an accounting of something. Need more sources. Need more coffee."

	Now Scheherazade was trying another angle, and had brought out an armful of books of geology. She flipped through pages and pages on sediments and fault lines, learning how little she knew. There were many details and a wealth of data, but it still told her little about what caused a fault to release it's stored up energy rather than simply fate or chance. The power outage had cut off her coffee maker, and her supply of caffeine dwindled. She fell asleep slowly while digging through page after page of geological maps, and laid there. Scheherazade slept through Lucy's phonecall, blissfully unaware that the whole town would be meeting in the library that afternoon.