saveourearth | Happy Mother's Day! [Mingle]

Date: 31st of March
Characters: OPEN

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, scarcely any motion detecting at all. Hardly more than door and window sensors.

[That's a relief. He doesn't, for instance, need to be concerned that late night hall wanderings are logged, or activity in his room is being noticed, in any way other than the usual awareness of a person in a flat maybe hearing sounds.

But it's also not a relief, because that means...]

So whoever did this... either they walked through a wall, or they just... appeared... in the flat...

[Russell trails off, blinking rapidly and leaning more heavily against the door frame for a second. Give him a minute, something about this is familiar to him.

[Walter... can't entirely tell if his flatmate is being sarcastic.

And then Russell trails off, and he can't help but be concerned.]

Russell?

[He quickly steps over, though not all the way inside his friend's personal space, just in case Russell falls.]

[If Walter were to ask him, later, he wouldn't be sure how much of that dry relief was sarcasm either. For the moment, he shakes his head to reassert where and when he is.]

Mngh.

[Russell grumbles and puts a hand up - he's fine, the doorway's got him.]

Sorry, sorry, I'm fine. Didn't expect another one from... this.

Another Echo?

[Walter doesn't take another step forward, though his concern's still very clear on his face.]

Was it a memory, or something else?

Yes, and yes.

[Some of Russell's stress and fear about the situation has already drained away, and he rolls his eyes as he turns to lean with his back to the doorway instead.]

I remember that skeleton...

[That other skeleton.]

The brother, saying some things that... sound an awful lot like teleporting. I think he could have done something like this... gift.

[Ah, the reason Russell thought his alternate was a necromancer.]

Would there have been a way to track how he was doing it - or was the memory just about knowing that he could do it?

[Walter's gaze drifts back towards and across the upturned tray contents.]

[Very much so the reason. Somebody reanimating their own sibling makes sense, not wanting to lose their family and all. But why would someone reanimate two brothers, with all their own sentience and free will and everything, unless they were family? And if that were the case, where was this mysterious other relative?? Really, if it weren't for his weight loss, this would be the only sensible explanation.

Mostly.]

I didn't catch all that, I'm afraid. Just the knowing that he could do it, and the sense I was trying to make him go to work instead of... loitering around, talking at home. More annoyed than anything.

[That said, Russell follows where Walter's looking, and makes a face. Right, the current situation.]

...Not worried, that is to say. It's different when you know who's doing it...

And why they're doing it?

[Walter finishes Russell's statement, before moving back over to his bed to at least start on clearing things out.]

Still, if that were the normal, to be in such a way that it'd just be an annoyance...!

[He's not sure if he'd prefer it, but he doesn't like panicking or being paranoid about personal space being invaded - or having to watch his thoughts for any overt absence of the same.]

I have the feeling he did it a lot, in mostly harmless ways... Not opening graves or stressing us out with stress relief products.

[His annoyance over that part hasn't changed.

Still, invasions of privacy are a little different when it's someone else doing it, aren't they. If only because people think they know their own motives, but others' motives are more a mystery.]

At any rate. I should clean up, too. Need any bags, or deodorizing aerosols, while I'm getting them?

[And if you don't know your own motives, or are constantly questioning them? That's probably a nightmare all its own... and besides the point, probably.

Walter moves on to cleaning, adjusting his glasses as needed to be sure he's not missing anything.]

I'll skip on the aerosol, but a bag would be appreciated.

[Preferably the heaviest-duty bag as they have in the flat.]

Edited (PRECISENESS) 2019-05-05 21:30 (UTC)

[Regrettably not as far from the point as it could be - especially with Walter's changed stance on privacy as a portend of changes to come for all of them... that stay in the area with echoes, at any rate. But it is far from the point of cleaning.]

Right, one minute.

[Russell waves a hand in confirmation, and makes his way down to grab cleaning supplies. There's a couple minutes longer delay than the trip necessarily needs, as he looks around the various other rooms for signs of other gifts or forced entry that Walter's sensors missed. There's no sign, though, and he finally returns with bag in hand.]

...Looks like the trays are the only surprise, today.

[By the time Russell gets back the whole top sheet layer has been stripped from the bed, so as to facilitate moving the tray's upended contents closer to the door while keeping the rest of the room tidy.]

Somehow, that's not as reassuring as it should be.

[Walter pinches the bridge of his nose.]

[Russell brings the bag over by the displaced sheet, glancing around for a sign where to put it - or whether to hold it out while Walter fills it. While waiting, he offers wryly, because he's not sure if he's sincere about offering:]

Want to put a video on the network telling them so?

[There's no other known possible culprits for this kind of thing, than the people gaining superpowers from an unknown source of memories.]

[Walter starts gathering the sheet.]

Hold the bag steady - I'll be dumping this in.

[As for the question, Walter nods, then pauses.]

We may not be the only ones accessing it. Have you left any devices connected to the Network, or should I start one?

Happy Mother's Day! [Mingle]

i feel like there's a homestuck joke to be made about stairs that were warned about people...

XDD

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