Happy Mother's Day! [Mingle]

[ourearth]

Date: 31st of March
Characters: OPEN

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It is Mother's Day, the temperatures are summery (the forecast promises a high of 19 degree), the sun is shining almost relentlessly, birds are singing, a mild sea breeze blows...

And all across the echo boundary, people are waking up on this beautiful Sunday. Probably an hour later than normal, unless they have to go to work, since daylight savings happened. Ew. They open their eyes, and it smells of flowers and tea and baked beans...

And something sits over their lap. Or butt, or hip, if they aren't back sleepers.

This something turns out to be a tray on which sit:

• a hot cup of tea, a bowl of baked beans, a single slice of white toast and one burnt fried egg
  
• an empty card
  
• some cheap chocolate
  
• a bouquet of flowers complete with a balloon reading Happy Mother's Day
  
• either one of those three gift sets OR a shitty parfume.

Don't sit up too quickly in shock, the tea is really quite hot.

Now, whom does this happen to?

Well. Literally everyone who is more or less human. And yes, that includes three day old babies, eighty year old men, teenage boys, people in hospitals... everyone, really. And among the scents of flowers, food and beauty products, those with the right abilities will be able to scent someone familiar.

Comments

[catted]

There are, indeed, strange trays on the parents' bed, too. Two, to be exact, one above each mother. Both women are still fairly asleep, happily snoozing away in the certainty that they can't get up today before they're being woken by the kids.

[lovedramamoron]

Mysteries. [The answer comes without a pause to think. ]

[spaghettimonster]

Oh. Well, you've lucked out then, haven't you? Getting caught up in all this.

[lovedramamoron]

I wanted to learn how to write better mysteries, not end up in the middle of one myself.

Sorry I forgot to track this one

[vernal_miss]

Trays spotted in the dim lighting, Nel lingers at the doorway for almost a full minute before she works up the courage to sneak inside. Stealth is not natural to her, and her youngest sibling is far harder to wake than her mothers. Creeping in and pushing the door up to the frame but not into it, she tiptoes her way across the floor to the side of the bed next to her Mummy first.

Given the higher level she has to take the tray from, Nel considers the situation a little differently. Rather than taking the whole tray at once, she starts to disassemble it with the removal of one item at a time, starting with the tea. Best to remove the messiest things to spill first. Each one is set away from the bed, and only once she has the tray empty will she lift that away. After clearing one tray, she does the same process for her Mum’s, but she does end up bumping the edge and rattling it midway through. Immediately she grabs the sides of the tray and freezes with wide eyes turned to her Mum.

[spaghettimonster]

But... that's the best way to learn. 'Write what you know.' Any professor might tell you just that.

[catted]

Mum is totally asleep.

Pinky promise.

Yep, definitely not awake and trying to not look tense while things rattle worryingly above her. And Mummy is absolutely asleep as well. Ayup.

[vernal_miss]

When her Mum remains still on the bed, Nel allows herself to exhale in a quiet sigh. Ginger about how she moves after, Nel more slowly clears that second tray and then pulls the tray itself down from the bed without dropping any parts on the floor. Nel considers the various items momentarily, and decides against trying to sneak them out of the room. She can collect them and explain when she returns with the breakfast prepared by their children.

Of course, trying to slip out the door, Nel ends up tripping in the dark with a small thunk to the floor. Crawling out, the door clicks closed and she hurries back to Thom’s room.

[catted]

There is a stir on the bed, as one mother starts to sit up in worry and the other reaches out to hold her down.

A quiet whisper of 'it's fine, I'm sure it's fine' follows once the door has clicked shut behind Nel.

They're totally asleep. Yes. Definitely.

[lovedramamoron]

I don't think they say that when you're writing about murder mysteries.

[spaghettimonster]

Right, now, that's an important distinction.

[vernal_miss]

Opening the door to Thom’s room, Nel pokes her head inside to report with her voice hushed, “Thom? They had trays too, but I got them off the bed. Mum and Mummy are still in bed.” And likely somewhere between sleep and awake with a leaning towards the latter.

“I’ll get the others and meet you downstairs, okay?”

[dreamtamer]

Mindful of the surprise they had planned, Thom nods as he keeps his voice quiet.

"I'm all done here. I'll get Gizmo and meet you down there."

[vernal_miss]

Essentially back on track for the plan, Nel smiles brightly to Thom and gives him a thumbs up before she returns to the hallway. It only takes her a minute to visit the other bedrooms and rouse those that are willing to wake so early and venture downstairs to fix the breakfast portion of the plans for the day.

Between the lot of them, the children manage to make up a decent presentation of a pancake breakfast with lemon and sugar accompanied by a side of jam, scrambled eggs, and fruits sliced almost neatly. Freshly brewed coffee is naturally included, and the children return together to their mothers' bedroom to deliver the meal. Nel is in the lead and opens the door for everyone else as she happily greets them with an all clear, "Good morning, Mum! Good morning, Mummy!"

For now, the decorated gift box will wait a little longer.

[catted]

Now that they're officially allowed to be woken up, both mothers rise, rather a lot less blearily than would be expected of someone being torn from their sleep by a sudden surprise - but hey, the miracles of Mothers' Day, right?

"Good morning." Mary Ann looks at the children and the food and grins while she shoves her hair back, trying to make it a tiny bit presentable. "Wow, that looks great!"

[dreamtamer]

Thom follows Nel into the room, carefully holding one of the trays as he looks around for place to set it down.

[vernal_miss]

She had a sneaking suspicion, and the immediate alertness confirms it. At least the bedhead means they stayed put, so on the lights go.

Nel will wait for both trays to be taken to their mothers, smiling at the approval of the presentation. She moves over to where she unloaded one tray earlier to pick up the plate with the burnt fried egg, “Somebody made breakfast for everyone with gifts, but we wanted to make ours for you anyway.” Especially due to the fact none of their children would claim responsibility for the first breakfast to the whole family.

[catted]

Janice's eyes follow Nel as she moves, and she blinks in confusion at the additional tray, a tray which she is sure she's never seen around the house before. Especially not in two identical versions. The explanation only helps so much.

"...Somebody did what?"

[vernal_miss]

More details then.

Nel sets the plate back down and gestures at the items and the other tray, “When I woke up this morning, I had a tray with breakfast, a card, and some gifts on me in bed. Everyone had one. That’s why I came in earlier, to take your trays off so you didn’t think we made them.” The card is blank, so perhaps they would have realized it.

[catted]

"...so someone broke into our house to leave things, again." And here she'd hoped that that were just some Santa Claus shenanigans...

[dreamtamer]

"There was one on my bed when I woke up too," Thom adds. "But I don't think it was anything bad. Maybe they were just trying to be nice?"

[catted]

"...They broke into our house."

The people breaking into your house to tidy and clean thing is only funny and cute in theory, really. Not when it makes you feel violated because this is your safe spot that you want to keep safe for your children.

Right. Children.

She's... going to try and keep this light for them.

"But as long as they only left things behind, at least nothing really happened."

[vernal_miss]

Acutely aware of how much this bothers their Mum, Nel looks thoughtfully at the items that had been left. It seems odd, how they match in some ways and differ in others from what had been on her tray. Nothing is particularly personal either.

Not ready to let the mood be spoiled for the whole day, Nel walks back over to the edge of the bed and flops her arms and upper body over the nearest mother’s leg, “Then you shouldn’t let your real breakfast get cold!”

[catted]

"...Right." She puts on a smile that is at least half genuine, and tries to get into the proper spirit of this morning. Next to her, Janice does the same.

But she won't be able to shake that feeling of violation of their safe space for a good long while.