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

[scarsolderthanyou]

"You're not supposed to be here, either," Sam agrees, and points firmly in the direction of the main road leading out of the quarantine zone. "But I meant him." He continues walking, in the direction of the other figure. "You're passing through, looks like. He's messing with the site itself. Hey!"

The last is louder, not quite shouted, meant for the other figure.

[saveournpcs]

The man stops and looks at them, and then smiles.

It's a rather... very unsettling smile. Like he is both happy and constipated to see them, but it is also just. ...making you feel like something is wrong.

"Good evening."

that icon seems increasingly relevant

[spaghettimonster]

That sure is an expression, and Russell struggles to match the smile for the sake of politeness... but the constipated part wins out, and he grimaces at the strange man.

"Good... evening, yes, hello," he offers back, then does his best to push all awareness of his illegal entry onto the stranger.

"Did you know, we're none of us supposed to be here?"

[saveournpcs]

He doesn't stop smiling. Indeed, neither his stance nor his expression change at all.

"I am just leaving, you see? Well, this place, at least. Not town."

[scarsolderthanyou]

It looks guilty, to Sam. He eyes the man narrowly. "I'm allowed to be here, not either of you." Sort of. Not entirely true, but closer to true than either of them being allowed there. "You aren't one of the bomb squad or the police, which means you need to come with me so we can make sure you're not contaminated by anything in there, or didn't sabotage anything," he says firmly, approaching to maybe grab mister-smiling-man's arm if he lets him.

[spaghettimonster]

"Err." Russell hesitates, because the sudden claims about contamination blindside him a enough that he wonders whether there's any basis to it. The evacuation zone was based on the expected explosion radius, if there was a risk of some chemical or radiation larger than that they would have said, surely?

But backing Sam up seems the best way to keep himself out of trouble. "Yeah, we should leave in the same direction. Get one of those... those detectors waved over us. Geiger?"

[saveournpcs]

"Why would you get a Geiger detector waved over you?" The man sidesteps Sam's attempt to grab him smoothly, with no more movement than is strictly necessary, all the while looking at Russell with way too keen interest, before turning to Sam and regarding him with the same too-great imploring curiosity. Like he's gathering ideas, almost. "And how should I be contaminated?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"How should I know? I just know you're not supposed to be in here, and there's reasons for that," Sam snaps at him. "It's my job to keep you idiots out of here, and that's what I'm going to do." He makes another grab, this time angled so that he can kind of herd the man in the direction of the nearest checkpoint even if he avoids being touched. "You too, kiddo," he adds to Russell.

[spaghettimonster]

"The... bomb?" Russell explains while letting Sam herd him a few steps toward the way out of the area. "I didn't hear which war it's from, but it might be radioactive, mightn't it? Is that why the big fuss about it?"

[saveournpcs]

"...I wouldn't know," the man says slowly, and makes a thoughtful face.

And then, Both Sam and Russell will suddenly feel hollow and hear the deep, loud thudding of a heartbeat, and then feel a wave of dizziness that exceeds all they have felt before when they received echoes. And when they recover from dizziness and echo, the man will be gone, having taken advantage of their disorientation to wander off.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam, as he often does when such things hit him, gropes blindly for something to sit down on. It winds up just being the ground, after a moment of finding nothing but the kid. "Shit," he says, rubbing at his eyes. This time... there's no vision. That's different.

When he can pay attention again, it's clear the bald man managed to slip away. In his annoyance, he growls. Not just a human sort of growling noise, but like a lion or bear might make. And the ground vibrates just a little under their feet.

[spaghettimonster]

When the emptiness and dizziness hit, Russell finds himself more able to stay in his feet than the previous times. As though he doesn't weigh as much, and the momentum of falling over is easier to resist with a slight shifting of his feet. He doesn't immediately know why, a memory of talking about jumping over puzzles doesn't seem to explain it....

But he gets distracted from puzzling through it by the growling and vibrations. Why do people keep growling around him lately, it's very unsettling. And it's too chill, this time of night, for him to be getting cold sweats.

Russell steps back, wavering for balance, and searches out a lamppost to lean against. "Are... you alright?" Is Sam going to turn into a werewolf and bite him, or something, he half means.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Just dizzy for a moment, there," Sam says grumpily, taking another moment to take stock of himself before slowly picking himself back up. "Which way did our friend go? Why didn't you stop him?"

Because he's not actually aware that Russell is another network person, and that he didn't see where the bald man went either because of his own echo.

sorry sam, there's reasons why kitty called russell a manchild and he ragequit the conversation

[spaghettimonster]

"I didn't... Why didn't I?" Russell glances around them, and realizes the old guy is right - the creepy guy has vanished from sight. And there's something suspicious about that, that they both got dizzy long enough for the guy to make an escape, as if he'd drugged them with some subtle aerosol...

Unfortunately, Russell's feeling put-upon and too lectured to be sensible, here. He settles for complaining, "why didn't you? It's not my job."

But it very much is Sam's, or so he's claimed, ever since he started herding Russell back to where they're supposed to be.

he's used to it, he has grandkids

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Because I had a dizzy spell. I'm an old man, sometimes things happen," Sam grouses back at him. "Which way did he go? Did you at least see?"

thank goodness there's some adult adults around here

[spaghettimonster]

"Well, I wasn't watching him! I... I got dizzy too." Russell doesn't expect that excuse not to fly, even if it's true. There's differences between some old man's dizzy spells, and that hollow pounding that comes with strange memories wriggling into his head, but either way it's distracting enough to miss even the most ominous of night walkers slinking off. He doesn't know how to explain any of that to a stranger, and wracks his brain for a better excuse.

"Maybe there's a gas leak," he suggests, and takes a few more steps toward the boundary's edge. At the least he can find something to lean against until his head stops spinning, long enough to make it the last few blocks home.

Sam's probably the most adult numbered person around, except maybe his daughter XD

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam gives Russell a hard look. The scent trail of the escaped bald man should stick around for another moment, and he has to ask: "Number?" It's only one word, and could be interpreted a lot of ways if Russell isn't on the network, but he has to know, just to be sure. It would make life easier not to have to hide anything, anyway. Though it does make him consider just how many numbered people have been interested in this bomb thing.

that sounds accurate and yet not how it usually goes

[spaghettimonster]

Russell's mid-step away when Sam asks the question, and he misses the hard look... but his spine stiffens at just that one word, in a way that indicates yes, he recognizes it. He steps forward once or twice more, leans against the side of the nearest building, and stares blankly at Sam.

"You... Weren't you just saying it's because you're old? God, I didn't think... Have we talked before?" Because now that he's thinking on it, that's a familiar voice, like he's heard it talking. Maybe not to him, but in one of the older exchanges he's listened to since.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Well, sure, if you aren't a network person then that's what I'd stick with, but if you are, better to be honest about it," Sam shrugs. At least he's not mad at Russell for losing their quarry anymore, since it wasn't his own stupidity that did it, just annoyed in general. And certain there's got to be something about that bald man that's important. "You've probably heard me around on it. I'm the one who did the test to where the boundary is for where we remember this shit and where we don't, me and Walter."

[spaghettimonster]

"That's it, the one who kept on saying numbers. I couldn't listen long enough to get the whole thing, I asked Walter about it." Because of course the network is a small circle, at least for those who aren't silently lurking, and they all seem to know a few people in common. Now that he's got that person standing in front of him, Russell drums his fingers on his thigh then asks, "how bad was it? Forgetting. I guess the plane kept going, but, do you think you could drive through that?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Yeah, I didn't suddenly veer off into a tree or a building, I just sat there thinking I'd lost my mind." Sam shakes his head. "It could be worse, it's just-- disorienting. And you really do think you've lost it. Now I'm going to get you out of here, okay? Then I'm going to try and find that guy. If he can make both of us get that pulse thing, even induce it to get away from us, then there's probably something fishy about him."

[spaghettimonster]

That's good information, and he tucks it away for future reference. It hasn't escaped him that those experiments were very shortly after the aurora, before too much of this strangeness started accumulating and affecting how he thinks about things. Would it be different, now, the longer that it's been going on...? But right now there's a more immediate mystery.

"You think maybe he caused it...?" Russell looks back in the direction that they'd encountered the strange man, and grimaces. "Right. Lead on, I'm happy to get away from him."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I don't believe in coincidences, and even if I did, it'd be a crazy one to think we both got hit and distracted just long enough for him to get away," Sam says dryly. "So yeah, I think he did." He motions for Russell to start walking in the direction of the nearest checkpoint, and follows along himself once Russell does. "Got a name, kid?"

[spaghettimonster]

"Y-yes, I do," Russell says, with a pause before he elaborates. As they get walking, he looks back and forth at their surroundings like he expects the mystery man to reappear. "I'm... Russell, I probably said that much on the network already... Didn't Walter call you Stone?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Sam Stone," he confirms. "Either one is fine." He's keeping his own eyes out for mystery man, as well as his nose. Or mouth, however that scent thing works. "How long you been one of us, Russell?"