Grandma's less pleasant memorabilia [mingle]

[ourearth]

Date: 24-27th of September
Characters: Everyone!

---

A few weeks ago, they started building at the very end of the High Street. They're tearing down one of those ugly houses that were built after the war to replace all the buildings that had been destroyed in air raids, which Mossgate, being a coastal town with a significant harbour at the time, saw a lot of.

It's not an exciting rebuild in itself - Premier Inn is building a hotel to have a foot in Mossgate's reviving tourist industry. It is, however, kind of exciting to see new buildings, as there hasn't be much building activity on the High Street since the recession hit.

Or, well, it certainly causes some excitement. Because one of the typical hazards of building foundations in this area strikes: You tend to either hit Roman ruins, in which case you need to let the archaeologists have a go at it before you can continue - highly annoying for the builder. Or you hit a WW2 bomb, which needs to be defused and removed before you can continue - highly annoying for everyone who lives, works or shops nearby.

In other words, around 11am of the 24th, anyone within a certain distance of the bomb will be evacuated indeterminately while the experts come in and have a look at the bomb. So far, so annoying. The constables say that it shouldn't last longer than two days.

Due to the location and size of the bomb, the area of evacuation includes shops, a part of residential suburban Mossgate, a school, a senior residence and the town museum.

People who live nearby have to evacuate their houses and either stay with friends or relatives or bunk up in a hotel or emergency shelter in one of the local school's gyms.

Shops have to shut down and leave their goods in the hands of their security systems and the local police force.

A call for volunteers goes out to help evacuate the residents of the senior residence, as there isn't enough staff to evacuate all of them quickly enough.

Bus lines get rerouted.

Constables are pulled in from other locations and volunteers activated to send people away from the dangerous area, and tape goes up. Interested Bystanders [tm] gather and have to be argued with to make way for evacuees and professionals. Some local press gathers. Car drivers who just need to go through real quick, there's no reason to be like that Constable, don't you know who I am need to be sent away.

The excitement dies down some on the following days, though the evacuation lasts.

On the 25th, the Super announces that according to the experts the bomb should be in a state to defuse it and take it away safely.

On the morning of the 26th, a second announcement follows: No, it seems that the fuse and the bomb is too corroded to be defused, and that a controlled explosion will have to be undertaken.

Straw and other materials are brought in to pad the bomb and thus protect the neighbourhood from the detonation, other precautions are taken and preparations made, and on the 27th a controlled detonation removes the danger. But as detonated explosions go, they are still explosions, and the shock wave damages a wall of the next house, which holds McDonalds, while some of the straw catches on fire and is taken up by the sea breeze to set a roof two houses over on fire, which is the town museum. The fire department is present and quickly takes care of it, but the damage is still done.

After that, everyone is allowed to return to their houses, schools, shops, and so on.

Comments

[runs]

I. Semi-open

On the night of the 24th, Kitty gets woken by late night visitors. Or rather, people being led into the house and set up in the rooms that are currently not taken up by foster children.

Strangers in her house. She peers down the corridor with narrowed eyes from behind an almost-closed door and then crawls back under her covers, making plans to leave as soon as possible the next day and come back as late as possible without getting in trouble.

[If anyone wants their character to be one of the people who get a bed in this house feel free to just throw your character into this option!]


II. Open

So while the evacuations go on, she can be found anywhere but home. School, sometimes, but also at other people's places - Ben's aunts, Sky, Nanny, her own grandma and anyone else whom she knows she can drop in at will get visits in hopes that they aren't hosting strangers, too.

And she'll be around outside a lot, loitering around the arcades at the pier when it's raining too much and otherwise wandering around, sometimes to be found at a playground, sometimes hiding up at the ruins from prying eyes or just wandering the streets as if she has a reason to be there.

II

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie had managed to find herself an afternoon where she had no homework or revision to be doing and had decided to take Tigger and Amber walking whilst the weather holds. It was interesting how the cats had become almost more obedient since she ate that drugged cake, being even more willing to return to her now that she could perfectly mimic any sound they made.

Which was why Sadie let the two of them off their leads at the park. Amber, as always, stuck with her but Tigger was straight off, leaving Sadie to amble along behind watching the Bengal cat rocket towards the playground. Catching up, she finds her most vivacious cat meowing loudly and rubbing at the ankles of a young girl.

"Ah sorry, Tigger loves people. Would you like to come grab him?"

[runs]

"Not at all. I like cats." She's always gotten along well with them, they like her for some reason, and she has quite a few that she's befriended while loitering.

These two are new though, she's never seen them. "Is this one yours?" She leans down to offer a hand to the cat to approach and if she does so there will be scritches.

II

[warped_replica]

When Kitty makes it around to visiting Rose and Aggie, the two are as welcoming to her as always. The house has a slightly different feeling to it than usual, what with Rosemary keeping her music turned low in volume when she actually has it on. A question of why the house is so quiet will be answered that they are trying to let Benjiro rest. He has been sleeping and napping a lot with what happened at his school. That said, she’s welcome to go upstairs to his room to pop in for a visit.

Should Kitty decide to come up, the door is already cracked open a few inches. In the morning, he tends to be sitting on his bed working from his textbooks for school, sprawled out on that bed around lunch time dozing, or sitting up at his desk working on a new building project that requires as much mechanical building as programming to create.

By now, Benjiro is moving better, but all those bruises are still prominent with the discoloration starting to change hues only in the areas where the bruises are lightest.

[runs]

She happens to drop by while he is dozing and slips inside quietly to not wake him. She inspects the pictures of the little girl for a bit and then climbs onto the bed to nap there too.

The floor is just too hard for that. At least she doesn't try to curl up on Ben?

II! Can edit if preferred. |D

[iamnotgod]

They're supposed to be fundraising - and with good reason. And while a friendly face can do the trick more often than not, it's not always enough to keep things running smoothly.

Like right now.

"Oh, what is it?" Walter asks loudly, as he finds himself drawn back to the front of the still-clearly-damaged museum, and the kerfuffle going on there.

"Is this something we can help with?"

[runs]

The kerfuffle is two men - both of which work for the museum, or the volunteer parts of it anyway - discussing something with raised voices. The topic is hard to discern at the moment, but it quite obviously seems to be related to the girl that is standing there crying big, fat crocodile tears her eyes out.

One of the men glares at Walter for a moment and then turns back to the other. "Look how much it means to her, it's not like we have too many-" "That's not what this is about for god's sake, Keith, she would not be insured because she is too young!"

OTA

[scarsolderthanyou]

I.

Sam has his own place, so he's not in the senior living apartments... unfortunately his place is right next to the senior living apartments, because it's a good place for seniors, being within walking distance to various amenities, and a variety of friends. So he's grumpily packing up his old car with some clothes, books, electronics his kids have foisted on him and he's reluctantly learned how to use, and things he'll need for staying at his daughter's place.

Including earplugs.

He'll help anyone else nearby who needs someone to lug their things around, too. He may be old but he's not that old.

II.

It's time to put that new smelling thing to the test. Sam volunteers to help patrol the area, hoping to see whether he can literally sniff out people getting into places they shouldn't. Turns out, he's actually pretty good at it.

He's also trying to get some scents off that bomb, if he can sneak in close enough, himself. Given the last major events in Mossgate have done funny things to him and other of their little Numbered group, he has some suspicions about whether this event will do the same. At least the amazing sniffer lets him know when other volunteers, constables, or people who'd try to kick him out get close enough to catch him.

I

[channingchanningchanning]

Somewhere nearby, a harried looking sandy haired man is trying to convince a gaggle of children and a barking small white dog to get into a minibus parked in one of those parking spaces that are for people with the local area's parking permit.

Eventually he climbs into the bus to make sure that everyone's seat belt is fastened, at which point the dog escapes and runs forth and back between the end of the street that leads towards the high street and the car, barking all the way.

This leads him by Sam's spot, and he abruptly stops and barks at him instead. Come help his owner! His owner needs help! He's very stressed! Chad you are not helping.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam pauses to glare at the dog. "Shoo," he tells it. He is not a fan of yappy dogs. Big bruiser dogs, yes, little yappy fluff-balls not so much. (Honestly, he likes cats better than either one. They don't knock you over or hit your funny bone when they try to climb on your lap.)

I

[iamnotgod]

Walter, who's gotten roped into helping people move whether he likes it or not, is on the scene as well.

Being able to tell the people he's talking to exactly where they put their things (as long as he just saw them put them there, anyway) is certainly paying off, for what it's worth.

He makes a wry face at the earplugs.

"Wish I'd thought to bring some of those. Though," he adds, looking around at the crowded parking lot.

"Maybe we should be handing them out, as well."

He can't imagine the bomb disposal crew being quiet.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"What? These?" Sam holds up the packet of earplugs with an amused expression. "They're for my grandkids. Unless they have to blow it up, the bomb thing is probably going to be so far off none of us is going to hear them working."

II

[dragoonrouge]

The marvelous thing about Sadie's new eyes is, aside from the disorientating shift from short-sighted to long-sighted, that they are superior to her old human eyes in practically every way.

They are the only reason she is able to spot Sam from where she stands, the man doing a remarkable job at remaining hidden considering his age. Frowning at the odd behaviour, she taps her Number into her phone.

"Why are you skulking about the bomb?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam has the network up in a pair of earbuds, since he's focusing on scent not sound and blocking out sound helps him sort things out a little. He twitches at the voice, then answers, voice low, "The smell changed from yesterday. I'm investigating."

[spaghettimonster]

I. Open

The constables have their work cut out for them, because there's plenty of Interested Bystanders coming by to gawk at the evacuation and excavation process. Russell swings by High Street early on, curious to check out the bomb so loudly discussed on the network, social media, and news outlets.

And it's not long before locals bystanders for help with evacuating the seniors, or other ways of helping the community.


II. Closed to Chad

In a way, his mother's astrological encouragement was right. Following his passion (of rubbernecking at others' misfortune, and pitching in to help when asked) does help him get a new job. Or, at least, expand on an old one. He's conveniently in the neighborhood, just a street away, when the call comes in for him to take care of the dog he usually dogsits for!

For a few days. And he's so close, and she's not taking no for an answer, and before he knows it he's at the restaurant door, holding a leash and a bag of hastily gathered dog supplies.


III. Closed to Walter and Chad

Between juggling his things and trying to keep the dog in line, trying to warn Walter proves a challenge, and Russell gives up halfway through the task. He heads more directly home, walking scooter and dog down the streets to shortly outside the evacuation radius, before making his way into the flat.

"Hey, uh, Walter? You home?"

Please don't mind the yipping. Or remind him whether the flat has a no-pets clause. It's for a good cause.

[iamnotgod]

Walter's just coming out of the bathroom when Russell comes back, and his first impression is that yipping.

He pointedly waits a few seconds before saying anything.

"... Is it safe to assume you didn't have a choice in this matter?"

He's trying to be charitable here and ignore the 'buffer overflow' of all the related dog memories throughout his life searing back through his brain given the current bomb evacuation chaos.

[channingchanningchanning]

Chad gives Walter a withering look. Or what he thinks is a withering look.

It kind of falls flat because he's still a small fluffy fuzzball.

II

[channingchanningchanning]

At least Chad has calmed down a bit by the time that he gets picked up. He's still stressed, and barking at every unexpected movement (and what with all those people running around, there's a lot of unexpected movement) but at least he's not running in circles barking about the war being here any more.

He refuses to follow with Russell, though. He has to stay with his Family! They need him! So he digs his paws in and refuses to follow with the dogsitter.

I

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie wasn't loitering per se, but she definitely wasn't making too much of an effort to get to where she was heading in a timely manner.

She spots Russell fairly easily in amongst the crowd and decides to make her way over to the man.

"Hey Russell."

[dragoonrouge]

OTA

Sadie lives on the other side of the town centre, nearer the beach so she didn't have to worry about her house. However what she did have to worry bus cancellations, the Number 18 bus that both her and James took to school being cancelled at first and then heavily diverted the next day.

In light of this transportational annoyance Sadie had taken to walking to and from Sixth Form College, which also presented the opportunity to loiter and check out the area the bomb was found at the same time.

Closed to Ben

Speaking of college, that had been...less fun recently, after the incident involving Ben and those bullies Ben had been placed in External Exclusion and was barred from coming onto the school grounds for a week.

In light of the fact that they normally shared every single class except for their Maths class, Sadie had been allowed to play carrier pigeon with Ben's schoolwork, taking him what he had missed that day and collecting his completed work from the previous day. Which is how she found herself on Ben's doorstep, knocking on the door with a bright green folder in hand.

[warped_replica]

There is a small delay, then Agatha is the one to open the door. There is a questioning look to her face as she first answers with only a partial opening, yet the instant she sees Sadie on the doorstep, that door is swung open wide and a greeting smile appears as she takes a step back in invitation to enter, “Sadie Moore. Good afternoon, dear. Are you here to see Benjiro?”

As usual, Agatha is dressed in well tailored clothing that seems appropriate for a business casual setting, her white hair swept up into a loose and smooth bun. Beyond the entry of the house, Sadie might hear the faint sounds of music playing in another room on the ground level. Classical, if she listens closely.

Mystery NPC encounter 1

[saveournpcs]

Late on the 25th, the pair of characters are walking down the high street, nearing the evacuation area where police tape announces that everyone must turn back, when they spot someone.

A bald man is standing on their side of the police tape and pondering the area behind. At times, he looks down at the tape, and then as the get closer he actually leans down and inspects it from up close.

Then he prods it with a finger, like someone would prod a thing they expect to blow up into their face.

Here we go!

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie had bumped into Walter in their usual library haunt as she was studying and so the two had decided to go and grab a late coffee and have a chat.

On their way to one of the high Street coffee shops Sadie stops a ways back from the bomb cordon and tugs on Walter's sleeve, "Hey, is it just me or is that guy being dodgy?" She asks, stealthily gesturing to the man prodding at the tape.

Mystery NPC encounter 2

[saveournpcs]

During the night between the 25th and the 26th, the pair of characters is sneaking through the evacuation area, probably taking a shortcut, when they notice something. There is no patrol around, indeed there seems to be nobody anywhere in sight... but then there is a movement at the construction side, and a dark figure is sneaking out of the construction site that holds the bomb.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam isn't sneaking, thank you very much, unless it was sneaking to catch someone in the act of sneaking. He is here officially! As one of the volunteer patrollers! Because it's not like he'd be sleeping at this time of night, anyway.

So he and whoever he's with have to pause as he scowls at the figure. "There's not supposed to be anyone there this time of night," he grumps, tilting his chin up to try and catch a scent.