Octavia vastly prefers animals to humans these days, if she's being honest. People are complicated, people are difficult, and it's hard to believe just about any of them are decent at heart lately - and if she's really being candid, she's not sure if she would have jumped into action quite as promptly for a person stranded up on a cliffside. Still, no need to confront that moral quandry just yet because it's not a person stuck in the worst of the weather, it's a dog. The decision is simple, automatic even. Without hesitation, she makes her way up the cliff.

Getting up there is easy. Reaching the scared and shaking animal is easy - but right as she's managed to coax him into allowing Octaia close enough for the dog to sniff her hand, there's an almighty crack of thunder above them. And then the heavens open. Great. She had actually noticed the person moving in the general direction of the cliff and had neglected to engage in any way, more than happy to tackle the task alone. Now though, things are different. The storm is only showing signs of getting worse, the cliff is getting harder to navigate and the dog - terrified, naturally - isn't exactly making a safe descent likely.

Resigned, tight (and far too unwelcoming given she's about to ask for help) Octavia grits her teeth and shouts down to the stranger.

"Are you any good at climbing?"

Octavia is mostly helping with the clean up because it gives her a good opportunity to scope out the other people in the area. Also civic duty and the desire for a livable space, but the primary motivator is information - ironic really, given the events that are about to transpire. She's subtle for the most part, and anyone observing her would probably need at least a little experience or interest in the subject to pick out what she was doing. Octavia hadn't even planned on doing any more than the brief small talk or task-based interactions that were unavoidable in group settings, but when the mist rolls down to them any hopes of flying under the radar are quickly dashed.

If anyone comes within a few feet of her, they won't receive a 'hi' or a 'how are you're. Instead, the greeting will be one of the following:

"I don't know how to swim."

"I didn't exist for the first sixteen years of my life."

"Everyone I know could be dead soon."

"I'm worried that I don't know how to feel anything any more."

"I don't remember how many people I've killed."

Good luck.

so this is...interesting. where's everyone from then?

( anything else, basically! i'm open to just about any ideas for threads but if there's anything you're not sure about feel free to pm any questions! happy to match for traditional prose or brackets, canon point is tentatively end of S4 if anyone's interested c: )