Grandma's less pleasant memorabilia [mingle]

[ourearth]

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

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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

[spaghettimonster]

Echos and age will both come in time, and while this specific bomb will be going away too soon, there's always later. Or maybe being a living skeleton will work.

Russell's eyebrows raise as he glances at the shaken folder, then back at her.

"And home passes through the warning zone? Better not tell your parents you walked this way."

He may be a weird old adult, but that means he's in that uncomfortable middle ground where he vividly remembers parental concern - and is starting to feel it himself, despite not being any kind of parent.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods with a shrug. "Mum and Dad trust me to be sensible. I just... haven't felt like going home yet." She frowns sadly at the folder in her hand.

Russell is a good adult but not adult egg, showing concern for her wellbeing.

[spaghettimonster]

Someday he will hatch into a very concerned adult skeleton, and even before that, with things like Ben running away from home, there's plenty to be concerned about.

If the folder's something to warrant sad frowns, it warrants more than a quick glance. Maybe enough enough of a look to see if there's anything informative poking out of it.

"Did you get bad news...?" he finally asks, general enough to invite a general answer.

[dragoonrouge]

He will be the best concerned adult skeleton in all of Mossgate once he hatches.

Sadie's sighs, "No, it was good news. Ben's not being made to leave with I'm happy about!" Goodness knows she is happy about that, that he wouldn't have to leave and forget. "I'm worried about him though. You know how he hates attention and his changes haven't exactly been subtle so far...I don't care how he changes but it's stressing him out and I don't like it."

[spaghettimonster]

It's true and she should say it. He'll be likely to say it too, but the more the merrier in saying such very true things. Russell will want to figure out a category for which she's the best, though, too. Fair's fair.

For now he blinks a few times, trying to process parts of what she's saying.

"Was there a risk of him being made to leave? He's been... well, you're not wrong, he dislikes attention or drawing it to himself, he's not said much to me about all this." Some things, in that talk the first night, and some little conversation since then. But not the kind of rapport Ben has with Sadie (wonder why) or maybe even Walter or other friends.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie frowns at Russell, confused by his initial question, before her face clears up. "Oh. Erm, did you hear about what happened on Friday? At college?" She asks, wanting to gauge what Russell had heard from either Walter or his family. "Ben had another Echo triggered."

[spaghettimonster]

"...Oh." Realization dawns and he goes a little sheepish as he nods. "Right. That fight, where he was fighting... surprisingly well?"

Russell not only heard a bit about it, but saw a shaky clip of it too. None of it from Ben, of course, because... as she said, he's uncomfortable with the attention, and wouldn't willingly foster it in more people.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods, "Yeah...It wasn't a fight at first...They were taunting Ben about his face mask." Sadie frowns and let's out a low, rumbling growl. "They said he was only wearing it to get sympathy points and trick a 'bint' like me into going out with him."

Sadie's growls get louder as she recounts what happened next, "They had him on the ground and just kept kicking him and that's when the Echo triggered...Those fighting skills, that was what he got."

[spaghettimonster]

This is likely the first time Russell's heard Sadie growl so seriously, much less anywhere near this much, and the sound is at least as unsettling as the rest of the story.

Teeth are cosmetic, even the ability to fight well under stress makes sense in ways. But growling is a danger signal, and the hairs on the back of his neck go up. He tries to keep smiling and talk gently, but not so obviously placating that it's patronizing.

"So it was one of those muscle memories... I'd wondered," he admits, lightly. "That's, uh, as good a time as any for it, I suppose. Though I can't say I'm not worried why he suddenly knows how to fight..."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie's growls trail off and she deflates as Russell echoes the biggest worry she has. "From what he's told me, whoever's life he's seeing...it wasn't good. I'm worried that he's going to see something that really hurts him."

"And this whole thing is infuriating!" Sadie continues airing her grievances with the whole situation, "It makes no logical sense at all!"

[spaghettimonster]

"Yeah," Russell agrees, more genuine than placating this time, but not happy about it. "It's like... magic. All these arbitrary rules, things happening without explanation, no idea how to stop it..."

He hasn't remembered anything terrible, or gained skills that frightened any more than suddenly making bones appear. But just that much, and having an inkling what others are experiencing, is enough to inspire the mood Sadie first found him in.

[dragoonrouge]

"Right!" Sadie nods, bolstered by the fact that Russell seems to agree with her. "And forgetting everything as soon as we leave Mossgate? I don't want to forget the last four months, and the longer we stay here and this goes on the more we'll forget so we almost can't leave."

"I just feel like we don't have much choice with this." She finishes.

[spaghettimonster]

"Err. Do we forget everything, or just all the... strangeness..?" Even as Russell says that, his face falls with the thought of what that would entail. "...I suppose it's the same difference. I'm a little nervous to try it."

He keeps meaning to head out with Walter and ride to the edge of the network's range, test one of them crossing out goes. But he's been delaying it, because what if the memories stayed gone when he came back?

So Sadie's not wrong. It's almost like he can't leave. Interacting with his flatmate or his cousin would be... Well, if he no longer remembered, they'd seem insane, and Ben's teeth would be horrifying.

[dragoonrouge]

"I don't think so..." Sadie begins uncertainly, "Sam seemed to remember when he reentered the bubble but that was months ago,a lot's happened since then."

"Are you thinking of going outside if Mossgate soon then?"

[spaghettimonster]

Months ago, months less memory to risk losing - and risk either returning in a disorienting rush, or not returning at all. The longer he waits, the worse this will get, huh?

"Well... I mean, I might want to visit family, sometime. They're not all from Mossgate."

[dragoonrouge]

"Same... I'm going to be expected to go to Barcelona next summer to visit Mum's family and I want to go back to London sometimes."

"I'm a little concerned about my eyes. They'll probably change back and I don't know if it'll hurt or not."

[spaghettimonster]

"Ugh," Russell says, grimacing at the notion, turning to start walking like he wants to walk away from the concept. But he loiters until it seems she wants to get walking too, and keeps talking about it, anyway.

"Worse, it might hurt... but with no notion why. Mysterious eye pain at the start of a holiday."

[dragoonrouge]

"Yeah... Well, I'm sure it'll be fine." She smiles at Russell, though the expression and her posture lacks confidence.

She moves to walk beside Russell. "I guess I'm lucky, I've got a good idea about how far I might change at least."

[spaghettimonster]

That makes one of them. Or, more likely, none of them.

At least Sadie offers a change in subject, and he glances sidelong at her. "You do? How's that, then?"

[dragoonrouge]

"In two of the 'memories' that I've had I've been with other cat people. What I've seen so far... Its been like some sort of fantasy RPG."

[spaghettimonster]

And there's no denying that Sadie has some cat people things going on with her. Russell nods slowly.

"Opening chests and checking health bars, or simply... the aesthetic of it all?"

[dragoonrouge]

"The aesthetic mostly. I got the ability to breath underwater from a magical, giant, talking turtle man sooo..."

[spaghettimonster]

"You can... breathe underwater, then? That's not really a cat thing. But it's probably a magical turtle thing."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods, "I can only assume that's why they were with the turtles. I got it when I slipped off of a boat in the summer and hit my head on the way down. It's how my brother found out about the Number stuff."

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh my god? That sounds like you might have..." Died, he doesn't say, because if she'd hit her head in the water and found out she could breathe it, she'd been in deep and long enough to start drowning. Russell lets out a shaky breath. "If these changes happen at times to save lives, I won't mind that at all."