saveourearth | Baby it's cold outside [mingle]

Entry tags:

Baby it's cold outside [mingle]

Date: 23.12.2018-30.12.2018
Characters: Open!
Note: Timeline behind cut at the bottom of the post!

23-24th December
With the schools out for Christmas, and the last few days of Christmas shopping closing in, there really is no escaping it now. Everyone but the best prepared is rushing to finalise the last little bits. Excitement is gathering as the shortest day of the year comes and goes.

The weather reports for Christmas are standard: grey, with light showers and patches of sun. As usual, a high chance of snow was predicted at the beginning of the month, but as the day approaches it has changed back to the more seasonal and typical (if less picturesque) weather: rain. But, with days to go, that suddenly changes again, as the weather reporters talk about the sudden turning of an artic wind, bringing with it sub zero temperatures, and maybe, just maybe, a white Christmas. Temperatures drop to -5c during the day and -10c overnight, particularly cold for this part of the world. On the morning of Christmas Eve, with less than 24 hours notice, the snow begins, falling lightly at first, and then heavily. By lunch time, the south east, including Mossgate, is a foot deep in snow and chaos has spread. Just a covering of snow is enough to cause panic, with infrastructure and transport unequipped to deal with it, and this is unexpected and heavy, and there has been no time to prepare. The trains have given up, promised refunds, and stopped. The busses have also all but stopped, and in Mossgate town centre just one or two an hour are running to the villages to ferry home those still stuck in town. Gatwick airport, which is having it's worst year since the ash clouds in 2010, has also officially given up and closed, redirecting flights to Stansted or Birmingham. Just after midnight, even the motorways close, and the smaller roads are unpassable much earlier. Panicked shoppers, trying to grab supplies for the unexpected weather, are being shooed out of stores early so that coworkers have a chance of getting home before the last transports stop. And it's still snowing. By nightfall there's almost two feet of snow, an almost unprecedented amount, and the news is talking about the possibility of powercuts and disruptions to water supplies. Sure enough, around 8PM, a powercut hits Mossgate and the surrounding area, wiping out the last of the Christmas cheer in the town centre as the festive lights go black – along with everyone's houses.

Christmas Day
Christmas morning opens to fresh, white snow all around, picture post card beautiful, and small showers keep it fresh looking for most of the day no matter how many snow angels, snowmen and igloos are built. That's probably little compensation for those stuck: the news is full of heartfelt stories of the struggle to get home for Christmas, and of locals in towns and cities along the southeast welcoming people stuck into their homes for Christmas. While the power is back on in Mossgate town centre by about midnight, the surrounding areas, including Moss Manor village, are still without power, with the word from the electricity board that it's unlikely to be fixed anytime soon. Neighbours with gas cookers and stove tops suddenly become the most popular people around (but at least with the temperatures outside dealing with food from the fridge and freezer is relatively easy).

In Moss Manor, the church hall, which has both a gas cooker and gas heating, is opened up for those who are unable to stay in their own homes. People are invited to bring along what food they have to share and join in with a community Christmas. The community feeling is only shattered when the power comes back on at 5:20PM, just before the repeat of the Queen's Speech on BBC2 and Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 start. A short but fierce battle ensues over which to show on the big screen. With moments to go, Pat Marsh puts her foot down and casts the deciding vote for Strictly, promising that she'll show the Queen's Speech from iPlayer directly afterwards.

As if that isn't enough, Mossgate and it's surroundings have one other surprise waiting for them on Christmas morning. Father Christmas has been through the entire council area, and apparently not one single person has been good. Every fire place has been decorated with traditional stockings full of neatly wrapped coal, one stocking for each member of the family. For those who don't have a fireplace, the oven has been selected as a replacement, and the stockings hang merrily from the oven door instead. If it's a prank, it's seen as bad taste, especially in homes with small children, but it's also generally agreed that given the weather it's rather backfired (not that anyone still has a coal fire but still).

25th-30th December
The snow finally stops overnight on Christmas evening/Boxing Day morning, but it remains cold, the temperatures only picking up at the weekend. Between the remaining snow and the ice formed where it melts, transport remains awful, with the connections to the villages particularly bad. Due to the Highspeed line, the trains from Mossgate to London are back up and running by the 27th, but other routes take days to be cleared. Likewise, the motorways are at least traversable by the 26th, but some smaller roads are still unaccessible until the weekend. Food supplies are slow to come through, and when the stores reopen on Boxing Day after Christmas closures, the shelves are immediately stripped bare again, especially of essentials such as bread and milk (although anything and everything is subject to panic buying, up to and including shampoo).

All of this chaos doesn't stop some people going out to the Boxing Day sales, with queues forming outside Next, which has advertised it's traditional early opening times of 6AM, despite the cold and the snow (and the fact that they don't actually manage to open until almost 7 due to lack of staff).

But as the temperatures rise back to a seasonal temperature in the single figures, things start to return to normal in time for the count down to New Years.

Timeline:

24th: Heavy snow starts unexpectedly in the morning
Transport is badly affected
A powercut hits the Mossgate area at around 8PM
Power is returned to Mossgate town by midnight, the villages including Moss Manor won't have power until well into the 25th

25th: Stockings appear overnight for each member of the family in every home containing coal
Moss Manor church hall is opened to the community
Moss Manor and the other villages have no power until 5PM

26th-29th: Panic buying and lack of supplies affects food availability
The snow continues to affect transport

30th: Temperatures return to normal for the time of year (0-10c)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As soon as Feste sits, Bells the cat springs out of essentially nowhere and curls up in their lap- she's been more attached to them recently, but Feste is just chalking that up to cats being cats. "Want me to grab your sketchbook or something? Or just a book?" They could probably turn on a movie or something too.

Surprised by the sudden arrival of Bells, Nel doesn’t think much of it as she had barely noticed Feste coming over seconds before. That Bells settles so quickly is a bit of a hamper to the offer, but it does make Nel smile in amusement, “I would, but it looks like you have a handicat.” Handicap due to the presence of a cat that limits movement specifically to avoid disturbing said cat. A movie could work for a short time, but Nel would slip off asleep once she relaxed enough.

“I don’t mind going to get something. Once I know what to get...” Drawing takes more effort than she may have to offer unless she contents herself with simplistic doodles. Something with interaction would be far more effective. “Maybe we could play a game?”

Feste grins, ruffling her hair a little at the joke. Bells purrs loudly in their lap, rubbing her face up against their side and hands. "Sure," they say, trying to give Bells all the pets she wants, "What kind of game do you want to play?" With their siblings, that could mean a whole bunch of things, but Feste at least guesses Nel won't want to run around right now.

Ducking her head at the hair ruffling, she smiles further with a snicker. She notices how affectionate Bells is being towards Feste, and extends a hand to lend to the effort with gentle petting if Bells isn't fixated on only Feste giving the attention.

Regarding the game, she hums softly in thought, "Maybe cards. Or a board game... Or a puzzle would be fun." Nel definitely has no intention of trying to engage in a more physical game, especially while they are still stuck indoors. "Which one sounds better?"

Bells accepts Nel's pets, at least, but she'll stay put in Feste's lap for the moment. "How about a puzzle?" they suggest, looking over towards the bookcase where they're kept, "I know we've got a bunch- you got a few for Christmas too, didn't you?" It might be good to work through some of them.

With no obvious signs of rejection towards her contribution to petting, Nel continues a little longer before she has to stop to look over at the bookcase as well to pick out details on the sides for identification. The newest ones are easy enough to spot, and she nods, “Yep. We should put a new jigsaw together. Maybe the one of the stars over the sea?”

Choice essentially made, now the hurdle of moving from the couch must be overcome. One foot drags out from the blanket over the front edge of the couch, followed by the other. A pause to consider, then she lets go of the blanket and pushes back with her shoulders to slide her hips forward while her legs hang down. Oozing her way forward, she pauses again with her feet on the floor and her body still reclined half in the blanket. Allowing herself a couple cycles of breathing first, Nel then manages to sit up and push through up to stand to shuffle over to the bookcase and slide the box free to carry back to the couch.

"Nel, I can get it--" Even with a cat on their lap, their little sister's condition is worrying enough that Feste wasn't really going to make her move. But... if she's got it, then they're just going to make sure she's wrapped securely in the blankets once she gets back.

Bells, sensing Feste's motives, will even move to sit on Nel to make sure she doesn't do that again. And so that the warmth of the cat might seep into her.

“I know, but I shouldn’t sit for too long either. That’s as bad as doing too much,” she assures them, knowing she needs to be active to a degree to ward off the worst of the fatigue. Bringing the sealed box over, she sets it on the couch, and heads for the kitchen to get a knife for opening it. By the time she walks back, her stride has improved in both cadence and length. The knife of course is immediately offered to Feste so they can open the box.

Rather than climbing back up on the couch next to Feste, Nel sits down on the floor so they have a place to work together. Accepting the blanketing without fuss, she is surprised when Bells abandons a perfectly good lap to pin her angled legs down instead. Tilting her head, she reaches to scritch behind the cat’s ear, “Huh... You were fixated on Feste a second ago.”

Bells just looks up at her, eyes perhaps a little too understanding of the situation as she purrs, nuzzling into Nel and kneeding the blanket on her lap as she settles there. "Yeah, she's been following me around a lot lately," Feste says, taking the knife to the wrapping and pealing the plastic off the box and sitting next to Nel, "And I swear she's gotten better and sneaking up on me. But, you know, cat. Maybe that's a skill they get better at when they get older."

Bells's purrs rumble, almost like laughter in Nel's lap. Feste doesn't dump out the pieces, instead grabbing a handful for them to start with and dropping those on the floor.

Working on the puzzle with a cat in her lap will make this far more difficult than if she could crawl around, but it is rather hard to deny Bells the space when she is acting so affectionate. Hand brushing lightly over the cat’s back as she pushes the folds of the blanket into an acceptable arrangement, Nel watches as Feste opens the box before lowering to the floor with her. “Maybe. I suppose you could put a bell on Bells, but that’d take away all her fun, wouldn’t it?” The last said to the cat with humor and a good scratch at the base of her tail.

“Thanks for opening it,” Nel says as she looks at the first scoop of pieces. Step one is to find edge and corner pieces, so she gingerly pushes the pieces around to separate them and pinch out those key ones. As she does this, she idly pets Bells with her other hand to oblige what she thinks the cat wants.

Edited 2019-01-07 11:24 (UTC)

Feste laughs. "Yeah, it would, and I get the feeling she wouldn't like it very much," they say, and Bells purrs her agreement, tucking her head down and curling in, showing her intent to not move for a while.

"No problem." Feste starts looking for edge pieces, not trying to push them together right now and just finding them, so Nel can start figuring out where they go if she wants.

Once more surprised by the behavior of Bells settling so quickly into a position usually signalling a long nap, Nel sighs softly as she accepts that one or both of her legs will be falling asleep before this is all over. A few more pets given, she then switches to using both hands for the puzzle.

Noticing that Feste is taking up the search for the edge bits, she starts sorting the central pieces into groups of colors and shades. May as well while they work in scoops rather than out of the box itself. She is slower than she might normally be, but she isn’t making errors so far.

“Feste? When do you have to go back to work?”

"Tomorrow, unless the weather is still super bad," Feste says with a shrug, continuing to pull out pieces, "They don't really do a lot of holiday time, not when they're in the middle of a shoot. But they also can't really do anything if the cameras can't see anyone, so."

A brief frown tugs at her lips at the first word, but the uncertainty lent by the weather leaves an inkling of hope for one more day with them and awake. For now, at least they can enjoy the puzzle together. “That makes sense, they have...um...deadlines?” she replies with an attempt at the right word for the business. “But, it won’t look right if the actors are shivering the whole time.”

Separating pieces into groups, Nel does drift in attention back to the edge pieces as she spots matching borders and begins connecting the sides in rows that she can reach. Moving between the task of connecting edges and sorting, Nel is moving a little quicker with focus.

Edited 2019-01-13 19:20 (UTC)

Feste nods, smiling at her. "Yeah. And there's a whole lot of people who work on a single movie, so they have to move on time as much as possible so they don't make anyone else get behind and have to rush," they say- that's probably the easiest way to explain it to her, "But not only do not they not want the actors to shiver all the time, they do want to make sure people are safe, too." For the most part, anyway.

They're happy to see that Nel seems a little more alert now, and once they're done with finding the edge pieces they'll start trying to put them together.

“So, kind of like group work at school? Everyone has to finish their parts to put it together at the end, and if someone takes a long time, then checking it gets harder,” she relates from a mundane experience common to many who have suffered class education. Smiling in return, she nods once, “I’m glad they don’t want anyone to slip and fall on the ice.” That would hurt!

Once all the pieces for the edges are sorted out, Nel will lend a hand as Feste can work to string them together into the rectangle frame by offering pieces she thinks should fit the pattern.

“Feste, would you ever want to be in a movie?”

"Yeah, pretty much like that." That's a much better way to put it then they would have thought of, so they're quite glad that Nel came up with it. They might have to use that again.

Feste still take the pieces, fiddling with the border that slowly begins to form. "Maybe!" they say, humming a little as they think about it, "I wouldn't mind it. It could be fun. But I'm not sure I'll ever been in one. The kind of stuff I do is all behind-the-scenes, right now. And I think it's hard to move between the two, at least when you're starting off."

They are welcome to use the analogy any time.

Nel continues to extend pieces, single and coupled, out for Feste in offer when she can to assist, leaning over Bells to stretch for it without disturbing the feline. While she has listened whenever she has previously had the chance to hear what Feste can share about their work on the movie, she inquires for more, “Are you doing anything new off camera? Or is there something you’ve seen other people doing you want to try?”

Feste nods, smiling at her as they continue working on the puzzle. "Yeah, I've mostly been doing stuff to make sure people are in the right place and help making sure that we've got permission to film in places. Which is stuff that you can't really get practice doing unless you're involved in an actual production." Which is cool. "But I think once the filming is over they'll put me back in editing for a little bit."

Humor in her smile, she replies, “Probably easier at work than it is at home making sure everyone is where they should be.” After all, Feste has always been there assisting their mothers in wrangling the younger siblings, including herself. As for calling to check permissions, that part sounds less interesting. Necessary, but boring.

Then editing is mentioned as a possible point of transition after filming, “Will it be like using that new program you got?” Nel is not certain how the film industry does their work as compared to single applications available for home use and short home videos.

"Sort of," Feste says- they did show it off to her since she saw the weird mall Father Christmas give it to them. They're still kind of bewildered by how much is in there. "But with a lot more footage to edit it, and their software is probably nicer than mine. Even if mine's pretty nice."

The Father Christmas as Nel continues to insist after similarly sharing her seed package gift. "Yours is ace! So the studio one must be absolutely brilliant," she says with confidence. She believes Feste is right about the difference, but she was quite amazed at all Feste can do here at home.

As the frame of the puzzle takes shape, Nel feels more eager to actually place pieces to match the image on the box cover. Rather than trying to tell Feste where to put them, she has another thought come to her of how to move without disturbing Bells too much. Pushing both hands on the floor, she lifts her hips as best she can to scoot a few centimeters forward, then moves her hands, and repeats. Bit by bit, she scoots herself over towards the jigsaw edge with feet and blanket dragging along.

Edited 2019-01-19 18:53 (UTC)

"Pretty much. They have... a lot."

Bells peers up at her, almost a little knowing as the girl inches forward- even as careful as she's being, a lot of cats would have still jumped off, but this one stays still, settling back down once Nel is close enough to the puzzle to reach it. "I'm surprised that worked," Feste says with a grin, shifting the puzzle so it's even easier for her to reach.

That look from Bells gives her the expectation that the cat will abandon her lap in favor of a less mobile place to sleep, so when she does not budge and simply tucks down once Nel has stopped scooting, the child is left wondering, "So am I..." Not about to complain, she pets Bells briefly in a small way of apology for disturbing her.

"Have you been trying to train her, Feste?" she asks curiously as she returns to working on the puzzle within her reach.

Bells purrs, happily accepting the pets. "No, I haven't," Feste says, looking back and getting Bells a brief scritch between the ears, "She's just started following me around more recently. I guess it's just a cat thing." Picking a person is a cat thing, right?

Baby it's cold outside [mingle]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)