[Audio network post] Backdated to December 25, Mid-morning

[scarsolderthanyou]

Merry Christmas, everybody.

[He's American. He can still say "merry" even though he knows perfectly well the local saying is "happy". He just doesn't care.]

In case you're wondering, the coal stocking things smell like that bastard from the bomb site, who was fooling around with it, a few months back. I'd remember that smell anywhere.

While I'm here, is everyone okay, with this power thing? Nobody's stranded anywhere without a fireplace or friends for body heat?

Comments

[Audio, unless Stone's is Video?]

[iamnotgod]

[And immediately Walter's mood goes from 'cautious, but better than when the power had gone out' to 'very alarmed.']

Oh, no. Not him again!

[He grinds his teeth, then makes himself breathe.]

Russell and I are doing all right, though.

[Not in the least because the power came back on for Mossgate at midnight that morning.]

[Audio] I should make that clear in the original post :P

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sorry to tell you this, but I'm pretty sure he's going to be showing up again. He's involved in all this, somehow.

[He doesn't sound that sorry. He's just annoyed by the whole thing, to be honest.]

Did the investigators interview you, too?

Re: [Audio] I should make that clear in the original post :P

[iamnotgod]

[Walter sighs. Loudly and in aggravation.]

Yes, they did-

[He briefly debates mentioning Russell, who had encountered the stranger while with someone, but caution in case someone who has a Number and hasn't spoken up is listening goes a long way.]

They dug in a lot on how I described him. Expressions, any hint of an accent. Similar with you?

[Audio forevs]

[scarsolderthanyou]

They seemed to think he was acting unnaturally. Like he'd been coached somehow on what to say, or was uncomfortable with what he was saying or how he was acting. It was a little weird, honestly.

Re: [Audio forevs]

[iamnotgod]

He could just have some sort of disability, if they wanted to focus on him seeming 'odd'.

[Goodness knows this wouldn't be the first time someone with a disorder has been considered 'acting unnaturally'...]

Not that it's an excuse for anything he's done, obviously.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Obviously. I think they were hoping it was some sort of lead. I didn't think "man acts uncomfortable at a bomb site" really counted as a lead, but I don't have all the information they have.

It might be suspicious, itself, that they have information about this that we don't.

[iamnotgod]

Benjiro couldn't find much about our investigators, either.

[Well, the superintendent Khan specifically, but that didn't mean it didn't apply to the others she'd brought with her.]

None of us work for the British government, last I checked - or at least aren't in investigations.

[catted]

[And this on top of the thing with Nel...]

So the bomb site guy got into every private home in Mossgate and surroundings and just left behind some stockings and coal?

...I wonder if the coal is explosive. [She starts moving as she says it to gather the stockings and carry them outside, just for the sake of safety.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

I don't think it's any more explosive than normal coal, Mary.

And I don't think he got in here. I don't have a scent trail, just smells around the stockings themselves. They just smell the way he did.

[catted]

...So he what. Magicked those coals in here?

[Nope, still carrying these outside. They won't be enough to heat the house enough for Nel to wake up, anyway.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

How should I know? How did he make me and Russell have a pulse thing? How does any of it work? At this point, magic is as good an explanation as any.

[catted]

I guess so.

[She doesn't sound convinced.]

I'd feel safer if I didn't know that he can randomly put stuff inside our houses, too.

[The graves and spiders were bad enough, but at least they were outside their houses. It felt less ...violating. Her personal space stayed untouched.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[The graves were personal enough, to Sam. That was his wife (and some of his friends) he had to see laid out like that.]

Well, I don't blame you, there. I'm not exactly pleased about all this crap. I'll sniff around outside and see if I catch anything else, if you want.

[Action]

[vernal_miss]

For her part, Nel had missed out on finding the coal-burdened stockings to start Christmas morning. The house was too cold for her to wake for the holiday, so only after the family had trudged through the snow to the church hall did she regain her awareness. By now, she has warmed up nicely, and takes time to shed her coat. Carrying her coat folded over her arms, she walks around those mingling in the space to approach her grandfather.

“Grandpa, can I sit with you?”

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam is unwinding his own scarf, and he answers her question by dropping the end into her head. Then, because he's nice that way, he adds aloud, "Sure. C'mon, kiddo. You sound like you've woken up the rest of the way." Finally. Her being so sleepy in the morning makes him worry, some.

[vernal_miss]

Crossing her eyes to look up at the scarf on her head with a small smile following, Nel looks back to her grandfather after she shakes her head to make it slip off. Given verbal permission, Nel promptly moves over right next to him and lifts herself up to sit beside him with little room to spare and her coat laid aside opposite of him. She begins to swing her feet in the air as she looks up, “Yep! I’m all warmed up and awake.” Tired to a degree still, but fully alert. She’s even sitting up nice and straight to try to convince him when other family members keep glancing at her.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"So we've decided it has to do with cold," Sam muses. "The colder you are, the sleepier you are. Maybe you should start sharing the bed with your mothers or siblings or something." He only means that half-jokingly.

[vernal_miss]

While Nel had noticed the cause and effect on her own last month tempering her alertness, the power outage had forced a test of the influence. Caught in freezing temperatures, she cannot stop herself from sleeping and certainly could not be woken until warmed. The child nods as her grandfather states the relationship, only to let out a single laugh at the suggestion of sharing a bed, “Mum gets up too early, and I don’t think anyone else would care to. Besides, I have a cat most nights. Cats are perfect at making toasty spots.”

[scarsolderthanyou]

"That's somethin', then." It's obviously number-related, which annoys him because that means getting to the bottom of it is going to be harder. They still know so little. "I might have to make your next birthday gift an electric blanket."

[Audio]

[lovedramamoron]

Bomb site? What bomb site?

[This was the first Jimmy had heard of that incident, and he was somewhere between alarmed and curious.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Are you new to town?

[Stone can't imagine how anybody missed the evacuation, honestly.]

A couple months ago they discovered an old bomb in one of the buildings in Mossgate. Evacuated half the town, then had to detonate it. There was this weird guy hanging around the bomb site.

[lovedramamoron]

I got here last month. Does that count?

Weird guy? What made him weird?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Yeah, that counts. I'm Sam Stone, by the way.

He was just weird. He acted strange, not necessarily uncomfortable, but like he knew us or was particularly interested in us. And he might've caused one of those pulse things. On purpose, I mean.

[lovedramamoron]

Nice to meet you. I'm Jimmy Dupin.

[He is silent for a moment as he considers this news.]

Did he talk to anyone?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Me and Russell, and a couple other people the next day. It didn't last long before we both had one of those pulse-memory things and he got away while we were distracted. Mostly he just stared at us funny.