saveourearth | Happy Mother's Day! [Mingle]

Entry tags:

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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Who eats baked beans for breakfast?

No one in this house.

[Walter's not in a good mood.]

I could've sworn this was a British stereotype at one point... one I'm glad to have missed out on, at any rate.

[There's a sigh.]

How are we going to avoid the press on this matter? This is more- personal, than the coal. Certainly more than the flowers and bluebirds.

[Walter has not had a pleasant night. While it was true he was no longer as attached to a normal circadian rhythm as he'd once been, he had fallen asleep at one point. As was more the case than not, lately, there'd been nightmares.

This morning is not a pleasant contrast.

Thus, the first noise in the flat occurring after 6 AM is a tremendous CRASH.]

What in the world IS this?

[The webcam feed does not clarify much, and that's only partially because the items from the tray are now on the floor...]

Later in the Day:

Walter is not heading outside today. However, if people want to meet him, the company would be much appreciated.

I didn't even know this was a thing. At home we only eat baked beans at picnics and barbecues.

Do you think this happened to everyone?

Check around.

If you're the only one in your household affected, it may be another Numbered thing.

But if the posts on social media so far are anything to go by... it's hit everyone that's human.

Or at least all the light sleepers who have social media.

Hold on. I'll check with my host family.

[He is gone for a few minutes.]

It's everyone here, so far.

[Walter lets out a long, fatigued sigh.]

If these supplies were stolen from somewhere, we're about to find out in what quantities soon.

It's Sunday, and one of the few days in the year that both Janice and Mary Ann sleep in. Rather pointedly.

After all they want to give the kids plenty of time to prepare for them waking up.

...Though they might sleep very lightly once the sun has risen. It's just the instinct of being awake in case someone burns down the house trying to fry an egg. Still, both women are still more or less asleep at this point in the morning, when they would normally already be up and about.

After the stress of the recent months, it had been decided among the five children to make certain this year’s Mother’s Day is a little more special. All of them had contributed as well as they could to a pool, and food supplies were picked up yesterday with a trip to the market by one of the older kids while the others kept their mothers occupied. After everyone had gone to bed, Nel and the youngest had quietly pulled out the gift they had picked a week before from hiding to wrap and decorate with an unnecessary amount of ribbon and stickers on the gift wrapping.

Come first light, Nel wakes to a quiet alarm on her phone and discovers the weight on her hip. Phone silenced, she carefully maneuvers to avoid spilling the tray as she turns and sits up. That’s...well it’s weird. Setting it aside, she looks across to the youngest sibling, still sound asleep, and is surprised by the presence of a matching tray. Nel gets out of bed and takes the tray off to put aside with her own, and goes about getting dressed. Leaving the youngest to sleep in a little longer, she slips out of her room to knock quietly at Thom’s door.

Thom, unfortunately, had slept through his alarm. And so when Gizmo wakes up and barks at the sound of Nel's knock, Thom startles awake and accidentally knocks his tray onto the floor.

After a couple of moments of loud clattering noises and barking, a very flustered Thom finally manages to get to his door and let Nel in.

Have you heard anything on the news yet?

Mostly confusion. Nothing organized; no coherent explanations either.

Considering this appears to have happened to everyone who'd been asleep within the Boundary, it'd be more worrying if it were otherwise.

[The sound of the crash doesn't make Russell jump from his sleep, he's a slightly heavier sleeper than that. But it's enough for him to wake a little, yawn, and roll over.

And that's enough for his hip to jostle the tray, knocking a tea cup over, setting it to pouring hot tea pouring into the blankets and mattress he's curled in. And that's enough for him to yelp, and knock the whole tray over, and set off his own crashing sound.]

What the hell!

[Well, that makes two of them. Walter crawls to the wall next to the door, using that to help stand himself back up.

His breathing is short and shallow as he pieces things together - and then he calls out, voice curiously flat:]

Someone was in the house.

[He is Not Panicking, with all the capital letters imply.]

Edited 2019-04-09 17:28 (UTC)

[There's still toast and beans and egg on the tray, flowers fallen sideways and a cheerful balloon bobbling in his face. The mystery breakfast is still an option... But probably not one he's going to take up on.

He shoves out of bed, and heads to the hallway before answering. It's too early in the morning for shouting across the house, anyway.]

So breakfast in bed, that wasn't you.

[Was Walter's voice strangely flat with surprise and wall muffling, or is something wrong with his voice in a computerized way?]

No.

[Just Walter bluescreening; if the tray had been paired with an Echo - let alone one of that nature - he might have been too stunned to say anything at all outside of processing what had happened.

Walter reaches for the door, much more willing to let Russell in if he's going to be heading the man's way anyway.]

What- well, just what, though to start with questions, what was on your tray? The same as these?

[He says, gesturing all around at the floor and bedspread.]

No kidding. Just think of the logistics to pull something like this off. And they do it to give everyone beans and burnt eggs for breakfast?

[Jimmy was still stuck on that part. ]

Something to be said about priorities, there.

[Though there's also enough ammunition to deduce someone was trying to emulate 'Mother'-y vibes deliberately.

Walter does not want to think these thoughts, but he's thinking them anyway.]

And beauty products, for some reason.

[Still, in terms of bizarre decisions that everyone has to live with... it's better than Brexit, and whatever the governmental mess is the Americans have to deal with?]

Weird priorities. You almost have to wonder if its leading into something else.

[Jimmy had tried, but he couldn't even take a guess at the reasoning behind this one.]

Like setting up for asking a favor?

[Though, this line of thinking begs another thought:]

This won't repeat itself on Father's Day, will it?

[That date falls uncomfortably close to the anniversary of the aurora...]

Possibly. Or leading into another problem.

When is Father's Day here?

June the 16th.

[You can draw the dots, Jimmy.]

[Russell leans in the doorway, peering around his flatmate just enough to take in the disarray on floor and bed.]

Ah, well, let's see... You've got the balloon there, the toast the flowers... Yes, it was much the same.

[Maybe a different set of the personal effects. Close enough.]

This isn't missing things, this is... Ugh. I'll go check the doors and windows, but. I get the feeling this is like those other things.

[The coal, the Halloween pranks.]

Walter speaks for himself - but I don't eat beans that've been all over the bedding.

[Russell's mostly joking, out of nerves. If he lets himself think too much about mystery trespassers somehow dropping things off in every home in the area without waking anyone, well, it's hard to feel safe. Anywhere.]

...You haven't stayed in a hotel and had breakfast there yet since coming to the UK, have you?

[Since, while she wouldn't eat it at home in the morning partly due to preferring a light porridge, it's a very typical for the "we need to give you a reason to eat here so there's more than porridge and cereal" type of food you find at hotels.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 4

Happy Mother's Day! [Mingle]

[Audio]

Re: [Audio]

[Action at the Flat throughout the day.] Also Keywords

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

closed to family / action

no subject

no subject

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

[Action at the Flat] - papyrus icon for the expression and splashing

[Action at the Flat] perfect expression, 10/10

no subject

no subject

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

Re: [Audio]

no subject

[Audio]

[Audio]