There are bluebirds over- Wait, those don't go here! [Mingle]

[ourearth]

Date: 11.11.2018
Characters: Open!
Note: This is intended to be a very relaxed mingle to give people a bit of a breather. It is plot-related, but a lot less dramatic than prior mingles.

---

On the 11th, something about Mossgate Council has changed yet again - but this time, it isn't nearly as disturbing and dangerous as back on Halloween.

Instead of cobwebs and skeletons, there are poppies. Red poppies and white poppies have flowered over night. They cover fields and lawns, the Greens and the forest ground, troop exercise areas over at the airfields, the gardens of the manor house, and even parts of the beach.

And up over the white cliffs of Mossgate, bluebirds flap their wings, flying around and sitting on the castle ruins, and if one stands still for a while and offers breadcrumbs, they'll come over and sit on that person's hand to have a snack, too.

They seem a bit confused, but not nearly as confused as the ornithology department at Mossgate University that can't save itself from interviews - no, they have no idea how that American species suddenly showed up in such numbers and why they're sticking to the cliffs specifically. Jane Astbury finally suggests with some exasperation that maybe they're just doing a music-themed tour of Europe, and could they please let her staff and students teach and study in peace?

Comments

[vernal_miss]

Closed to Family
Waking in the morning with the expectation of a quiet day, Nel is tending her overgrown terrarium when she looks beyond and out the window. Her vantage point is limited until she moves to lean over from beside her nightstand, but as soon as she gets a good view of the lawn outside, the girl doesn’t wait a second longer.

Almost flying down the stairs, she’ll head straight out into the yard barefoot in her jammies and into the fresh spread of flowers with a squeal of delight. The first touch of the white and red petals brushing against her skin tingles as she becomes better acquainted with them.

Maybe she can try to grow a poppy!

OTA
After a measure of pleading with older family members, Nel is out at the castle ruins to see all the birds everyone is talking about after finding the flowers. With a pouch of seeds, her camera, and her sketchbook all in her bag, it doesn’t take long for the young artist to go to work to capture the unusual gathering. Beginning with taking shots with her camera, she’ll settle down to sit on a low part of the ruins and lay out a small pile of seed to tempt the birds in for a close-up shot. Then later, she moves out to sit in the flowers and sketch at a distance.

OTA!

[iamnotgod]

Time continues to pass, and his psyche has proved as resilient as ever.

Today's calming activities consist of sitting outside and, as Ben and Sadie might find appropriate, drawing still life.

Of course, this entails being very still himself, and Walter's trying to keep himself to himself even as the birds have taken an interest in him.

He doesn't even have any food - but at least they're being photogenic? If any of them make a mess of his hair, however, he will die a little inside.

[vernal_miss]

Coming around a corner of the ruins, Nel is met with the sight of a man she met recently quite surrounded by the new arrivals at the cliffs. Smothering an outright laugh with one hand into a titter of giggles, she calls softly to him rather than moving close enough to scare his portion of the feathered flock, “They really like you!”

Camera already in hand, she’ll take advantage of the gathering to snap some photos with most carefully aimed to keep Walter out of the frame, and a few with him as a focal piece. It’s better to take the shots before the birds fly off and have to delete them than miss the opportunity all together. Walter’s preference being the deciding factor of course.

[iamnotgod]

Walter waits until his head is cleared from the potential for droppings before replying.

"I think I'm just a convenient post for them, really," he says. The camera doesn't set him off or anything - it's public interviews he wants to stay away from, not cute pictures to share with a small group of friends - but there's some evident tension in his posture.

Sensing an opportunity for a meta moment, however, Walter starts trying to draw Nel among the poppies; he can similarly dispose of it if she's not okay with that.

[vernal_miss]

A bird makes for quite a charming accessory, especially on the head. Maybe her first shot of Walter was more candid and relaxed, but she will find out once she checks the photos over.

With another giggle, she disagrees, "I don't think that's all. They aren't perching all over everyone!" For example, none of the blue birds are using her as a place to rest.

Unaware of Walter adding her to his sketchbook, she takes her time snapping shots of the birds in this section of the ruins and makes her way over slowly to her new friend. Once she reaches him, she looks to make certain the ground next to him is clean before she sits and calls up the photos of Walter on the menu screen. Holding the camera over to him, she offers for him to examine the shots, "What do you think? Are they keepers?"

[iamnotgod]

"Okay, the tallest available post, then," Walter clarifies - because he is the taller of the two right now.

Fortunately, the ground is clean enough for sitting (but for how long, one wonders), and Walter handles the camera with utmost care.

"... Thanks." Because she could easily have kept the camera away from him - so to make things even, he frees up one hand to give her the sketchbook with his (fairly rough, but almost complete anyway) drawing of her and the poppies.

He goes through the pictures, stopping on only two of them, before nodding and holding the camera back out to Nel.

"How do you prefer to select pictures for safekeeping? Bookmarking, just straightforwardly deleting all except your favorites, or...?"

While he's glad that he can provide input, it's still her camera.

[catted]

Not long after Nel went outside, Mary Ann follows with her coat and a pair of socks and boots. She doubts that she can pry her daughter away from this for long enough to get her dressed, but she can at least try to make her slightly more dressed for the weather.

"Coat," she comments first, before looking around herself. Poppies, huh? And so many of them... Well. If this is the same person as the one with the spiders, at least this time it seems to be less dangerous...

[vernal_miss]

Practically burrowed into a patch of the tall flowers by the time her mother comes out after her, Nel extracts herself reluctantly at the instruction with a couple of the flowers catching in her hair to come along with her. It is rather chilly, and she would like to keep playing, so the addition of a coat seems prudent even with her blanket of hair to help keep her warm. Skipping through the flowers to return to the front of the house, and bouncing excitedly even when she stops in front of her Mum, she grins up to her, "Mum! It's so pretty!"

Taking her coat, she slips it on as she keeps talking excitedly with arms put in one at a time before trying to extract her caught locks, spilling a little more than she intended straight off during the process, "They're all over and so tall! I didn't know poppies grew that high. I don't know how far they're growing but I can't make this many!"

[catted]

"Of course you can't make this many, we don't even have enough paper in the house for half a basket." She gently nudges Nel to sit and then hands her the socks. "But you're right, they are really pretty.

I wonder how they all suddenly came to grow." At least, she thinks, they are much nicer than what they got less than half a month ago...

[vernal_miss]

A flicker of confusion crosses her expression before she recognizes her mistake as she makes sense of the mention of the paper stock available. Right, she does make paper and tissue flowers from time to time. Obeying the nudge to sit down, she accepts the socks as she goes quiet to consider the option of leaving the assumption in place, but she makes a decision by the time she has her first sock on with a proud smirk rising to the surface.

She was going to tell her Mum soon anyways.

"I mean making real flowers, Mum. I wanted to show you after I got better at it."

[catted]

"...making real flowers?" Once the socks are on, the boots are held out. She might be curious, but she's not curious enough to forget why she called Nel back to the house in the first place. "An echo?"

Because that's the only thing that makes really sense.

[fairfeste]

"What're you up to?"

Feste followed their little sister out since... well, her departure from the house was pretty obvious and they wanted to make sure she wasn't going to get herself in trouble. They'll walk over and bend down next to her, smiling a little. "Oh. These are pretty."

[vernal_miss]

When Feste comes out after her, this is her second take of having hurried down the stairs to fling herself out among the flowers. Well refreshed from her nap and properly dressed this time in real clothes with her coat and boots already donned, Nel giggles as Feste comes out asking about her activity.

Peeking through the tall stems from her position under the flowers, she grins wide as Feste bends down next to her, "Just playing! They look super pretty if you lay down and look at them against the sky."

[fairfeste]

"Do they?" Well then, they'll have to check that out for themselves. They flop back onto the grass, looking up at the poppies towering over their head. "You're right! They do look nice."

[vernal_miss]

She does love that about Feste. Readily, she moves carefully and follows suit to lie down next to them to see the view upwards from another spot. The red petals against the bright blue sky and white clouds with green strings coming into the foreground of their perspective...it makes for a fetching contrast.

Nel manages to stay still for only a moment before a thought gets her to sit up and crawl between the tall stems so as to lean over Fest with a giddy smile, "Guess what."

[fairfeste]

Ah, of course the stillness only lasts for a moment. That's alright, Feste isn't a terrible still person either, and then grin up at their little sister. "What?"

Okay, PROPER OTA.

[iamnotgod]

Walter's always felt a bit distant from Remembrance Day - his education on the matter came somewhat late, for obvious reasons given he'd spent a decade out of reception from most popular culture to begin with.

But he hasn't missed the symbolism of the poppies, or the birds... or how very, very bizarre it is that they're appearing like this.

It's very much an opportunity to put his ever-growing drawing skills to work, though, so his schedule has tentatively been cleared for some therapeutic measures.

As long as no droppings land on him! That would be terrible.

[catted]

"Strange, isn't it."

The day being off, she and her wife have brought their younger children up here, and later they'll go into town and do some shopping. For now, though, she has a moment to say hi to people as the kids run wild and Janice already found someone to talk to.

So when she spots Walter, she wanders over towards him for a chat.

[iamnotgod]

Walter looks up when he hears someone walking - and that motion sets off several of the birds, the sudden sound of dozens of bluebirds taking off simultaneously making him flinch in turn.

"I'll say," he replies, once he recovers.

"I heard Astbury's statement, but... would you say this is like the spiders, then?"

[catted]

"It almost feels like it, doesn't it?" She can see absolutely no other reason why something as strange as this would suddenly have happened. ...Well, not that they know the reason, strictly, but the point is that she can't imagine that there are two sources that are entirely independent of each other.

"It's a lot nicer, though."

[iamnotgod]

"Helps that these birds have a very different rep from spiders."

Though that didn't mean they couldn't do damage, if provoked...

"I'm almost afraid to ask what could come next, though."

[brofistsforall]

It's quite the timing, that's for sure.

That said, Jacob spots Walter with his notebook out, and quietly approaches as to not disturb him. Not necessarily trying to sneak up on him, but he's curious as to what the man has started.

[iamnotgod]

Walter doesn't notice Jacob for certain until he's finished sketching - and then one of his subjects cheeps and swoops up to peck at his hair, leaving him to flinch in such a way so as to protect his sketchbook.

Once he's recovered, he spots Jacob as he uncurls.

"Fancy seeing you out here. Doing all right?"

Why yes, he is trying to downplay his reflexes. And the embarrassment of being harassed by a bluebird of all animals.

[brofistsforall]

Well, that's a little entertaining. Jacob can't help but smile at that, then seems to catch himself, chuckling a little.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who wanted a peek at the sketchbook," he says, glancing briefly towards the fleeing bluebird. "I'm doing fine. Still getting used to a few things, but fine."

'A few things' may be the new bulk, but. That counts as more than one, right?

[iamnotgod]

Walter snorts. "I'm not done with it just yet," he says - though that's not saying much, now.

Then again, he does have something of a perfectionist streak going.

"And aren't we all, really?" he asks in return, managing a wry smile.