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saveourearth2018-12-23 02:49 pm
ourearth) wrote in saveourearth2018-12-23 02:49 pm
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:
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)
no subject
Or the both of you being skeletons, by chance?
Though that raises the question of if any necromancers were involved at all...
[Still, Walter looks no less unnerved. This 'source of memories does not look like you' matter seems to be somewhat common among the Numbered, if his own case and Sam Stone's descriptions of a dragon are any hint.]
no subject
That leaves the question of... how they were moving, at all! It just looked like bones.
[No skin, no hair, no muscles. Nothing holding the bones together, as they moved.]
And... a bit of light, in the eyesockets. Glowing with... magic, maybe.
no subject
But if magic was involved, why assume it was you? Or him, or possibly even the skeleton you saw?
[He's thinking of the strange magic ritual Sadie said her other self went through, that enabled her to breathe underwater. Magical creatures...]
It's a reasonable conclusion, sure, but it's not the only possibility when we know so little.
no subject
[Russell gestures, and a triad of bones appear in the air. They float to the side, hitting the wall, and slide up it until Russell gestures down at them.]
Bones! Animated bones. That's the simplest explanation, isn't it?
[That, and it's a little more flattering to himself, to imagine that this other-him in these transplanted memories is the agent behind what he's seeing... as opposed to, he guesses, some skeletal zombie who goes for tea parties.]
Assuming they're even all memories from the same person. But, adding more characters to this story, when I haven't even seen them...
no subject
[And Walter's well aware he's being pedantic, here.]
Still, you're right. Don't count our chickens before they hatch... if they ever hatch.
no subject
[It's a perfectly normal idiom, but it also reminds him of a fleeting meme... And if there's anything Russell does not want to focus on, it's the image of himself as an unhatched skeleton. Or one that's hatching. He clings to the pedantic argument, if only for the sake of something else to talk about.]
No, I don't care if a skeleton is moving or not, it's a skeleton, that's not living. That's as dead as it gets. Even if there's a... a spirit in it.
no subject
[Walter waves a hand above his head as if to swipe at the thought. This whole Numbers situation really wasn't good for avoiding past channels of thought...
Even if there was a chance spirits could be a real thing, now.
Not to mention those animate skeletons Ben had seen in his own Echo.]Wouldn't ashes be more dead, though? Much harder to reconstitute anything from them.
no subject
[The particulars of what kinds of dead people are the most dead is, maybe, not the best topic for discussing in a winter storm power outage, when the question of when the heat will kick back in is hanging over them. He can imagine his mum complaining about the topic so easily that he hesitates.
Or, it's the absolute perfect time. Take the fears and face them head on, making a game and joke of it all.]
But we have to draw a line somewhere. Once the bones are ash, or bone meal, and something's growing from them... it's gone all the way around back to alive again.
no subject
Doesn't mean it'll make things grow on its own, though. Life needs a mix of things...
[And now they've just completely tangented. Not that Walter minds.]
no subject
Maybe not even much light, there's... moss, and mushrooms, and things underground, aren't there?
[Not that either of them is an expert in life underground, yet.]
no subject
[Was there a message behind what they were saying? Well, whatever, it's gone now.]
any thoughts on another topic? if no, we could let them tangent in peace
[They will almost certainly get back to the topic of skeletons, eventually.]
peace on earth and goodwill to men? (aka: no)
Apart from that, though, they are separate species.