"SHIT" The word was out of her mouth before she knew what was happening, drowned out by the peal of thunder that had sprung suddenly into the air and rumbled on for longer than was expected, the noise amplified by the metal container of the ship around that encased her. Might as well be more like a tomb she thought only momentarily as she ducked in the hallway as if a bomb had gone off and not some normal act of nature. It was bound to happen, sure, the odds were not in her favor to not eventually have a storm take place while she wasn't in her apartment but damn if this wasn't the least opportune time. She couldn't see the flash of lighting that no doubt lit up the skies before another boom vibrated the air around her and had her falling full to the floor with her arms draped over her face as if to shield her from the noise. Useless of course, her eyes scrunched closed until the tremor passed. She figured this was her one shot and made a mad dash down the long corridor and into the main bar room.

Scrambling across the slick floor she scurried behind the bar, clinging to it with white knuckles as if it might somehow save her. "The one time, the one fucking time..." Mumbled curses continued to fall from her pink lips as she thought about where she might find to hide until the storm passed. Hopefully it was just one of the usual early spring showers that roared in and roared out just as quickly. Every moment of it was a particular kind of hell for the leopard as another wave of sound crashed around her and she ducked into an empty space beneath the bar and covered her face.

Dark spaces always seemed the safest at such time, the claustrophobia an actual comfort as she began to hum. An old habit that helped block the rumbling thunder from her too sensitive ears. It took her back to another life, a child hiding beneath the stairs, a house filled with relations all in black, the first peal of thunder that had set her heart racing never to stop. She hated this fear, such a silly thing when there were real things to fear in the world, but this was what stopped her dead in her tracks. "Ridiculous," she muttered viciously, curling tighter into herself as another peal echoed overhead. She picked another tune, the noise brokenly filling her ears as she tried to concentrate it and not the world around her.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, she uncurled enough to notice the storm seemed to have passed. Slowly, like a nervous animal emerging from its den, she poked her head out of her hideaway followed eventually by the rest of her. Glancing around she was glad no one seemed to have come down to notice a grown woman hiding beneath the polished bar, early enough still that most hadn't come into the Ark yet. Lord forbid Tetradore ever see her in such a state, she might never recover! Still on her hands and knees she was about to stand when a cabinet door opening seemingly on its own knocked her back onto her rear, more surprising still when a small child appeared from within. "What the h-" She caught herself before the swear left her mouth, some inground Southern propriety forbade her from doing so in front of a child no matter how taken aback she was at the sight. The hell was a kid doing in a place like this. "Hello Maeve." She recovered, falling back to sit on her rear as her gaze looked the girl over. Was she lost? "I'm Carolina. What were you doing in there, sweetie?" Or in here for that matter, she thought but kept it to herself for now. Surely the girl didn't live here, not with everything that went on....