A Time for Discovery (D1 Plot; Wonder & Open)

They say that when you’re about to die, your life flashes before your eyes in an instant. But the falling motion of his father to the ground is what filled the young boy’s eyes as the floor seemed to rapture in half. The incredible force behind the rumbling had come unexpectedly, completely out of the blue. It had been a regular day, if you could call a day regular. Squeaking screamed out of the loose ends of the chair that Peri sat on, eating his breakfast. Working the entire day wasn’t his ideal plan to spend a Saturday, however training was at an all-time low as of lately. Usually Games time only motivated a Career, but this year’s Games, to Peri, had been ultimately disappointing on the District 1 side, leaving him only to sit at home, or sit at work.

The cold spring’s air trickled in through a slightly open window, whispering warnings that no one would hear. His father, who’d be getting more and more sick as of late was huddled up in the living room chair. His eyes were closed and yet a small book still sat wide open in his arms. The pages were waterlogged and yellow. Wrinkled papers that which each turn crackled as if the slightest touch would snap them in half. Never had Peri seen such an old novel. Being the richest District lead to having luxuries such as antiques, but there had been many times over the years where Peri had seen his father huddled up with the leather-bound book over the years. Nothing special seemed to radiate from it, except the obvious age factor, but to his father, it was the brightest gem.

Spoonful after spoonful of food found its way down the frail boy’s stomach appeasing his hunger and preparing him for a lonely day of work. The winter wind still shouted warnings that were harshly ignored by uninterested ears. And his father still sat motionless, as though waiting for death to come take him by the throat and lead him on his new and exciting journey. But death had other plans.

Throwing on his normal combination of black t-shirt, and tattered jeans, Peri was ready to go. A small coat awaited him by the front door. It was warm and well kept. The cold, though not really all that low of a temperature seemed almost blistering. How people in lower Districts lived without coats was always a mystery to the boy who’d always been lucky enough to be well off. The walk to work wasn’t as long as some peoples, but still it was quite a walk away. Cobblestone sidewalks clicked against his worn down shoes on the way to the shopping district.

It was then that the world turned upside down. The sound was incredible and you could hear it a full minute before you felt it. Time seemed to move in slow motion, buildings twisted and turned until they fell into piles under rubble. Legs feeling life gelatin, Peri ran as fast as he could back to the house. Building after building collapsed and the grounds rumbling made it impossible to move in a straight line, impossible to move in the direction one was headed.

The house was virtually untouched. The madness had barely reached out to where he lived and aside from the few knocked over china plates, all was well. His father still lay asleep with the book which outlived rain and now hurricanes.

Death, destruction, and turmoil. The District was in pieces. Many of the buildings were destroyed and turned to rubble. Most were virtually unharmed just covered in rubble. Luckily, the gem shop was just covered in the dust of other people’s homes with a few windows shattered in. Nothing too morbid there. A thick coat of dust covered every square inch of the outside area, the inside also had the destruction seeped into the red velvet carpets. Some glass cabinets had shattered, but nothing that was utterly unfixable. That couldn’t be said for his mother’s factory and the training center beneath it. The earthquake had torn the place in two, literally. A crack large enough to be the parting of the red sea, though Peri didn’t have any Israelites to lead through the crack. The site was scary. But, at least training would be held off for a little while, more time to concentrate on fixing up the shop he called home.

His mother on the other hand was out of job. The factory had dismissed anyone who couldn’t help with the rebuilding of their offices, which included Citrine. Thus, the woman was hanging around the store most of the time, pitching in where she could.

However, the worst part about the earthquake is the hordes of people from other Districts that had taken to flooding the town. Peri typically wasn’t one to enjoy the company of others, so his District multiplied by 12 wasn’t necessarily the best thing. Every dusty street corner he turned revealed tens if not hundreds of people who he’d never set his bright eyes on in his young life. The feeling of not being able to recognize someone in his home was scary and uncomfortable. Intruders on his home territory, regardless of how they were helping to fix up the District.

There seemed to be a constant thundering noise that swelled up the District in the desperate attempt to fix it. Hammers, pickaxes, people were constantly at work to restore what had once been home, a home again. Though someone it would enver be the same. Home wasn’t something that was built by intruders on your land. Young males and females played through the unfamiliar streets where Peri had scraped his leg as a child. But to them, it was just territory they’d never danced across. The whole situation was disgusting, but they needed help. That was for sure.

Another day of cleaning up the shop was destined for Peri. Everyone work day had now become a cleanup day, in the weeks since the earthquake a lot had changed. Mostly the town had slowly been rebuilt. However, still the people lingered in his home, eating his food, dancing along his streets. As Peri turned down the street that led to the shop he couldn’t help but scoff at the hordes of people straggling down the cobblestone path. The stores were busier than ever with the sudden increase of potential customers. Not that they ever bought anything. All the poorer Districts did nothing but marvel at the products that were way beyond their price range. It was embarrassing.

In front of the general store stood a boy who Peri had never seen in his life, another District person. Peri, shaking his head in disgust, made it his business to talk the boy out of loitering. It may be something that was done to get money in poorer places, but not here. “So, what are you supposed to be doing?” He asked accusingly. Cleaning the filth off the streets could be his new job, and he wouldn’t mind.

(ooc: sorry this took so long cyrus, I wanted to put a lot into it.)