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]

"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."

[dragoonrouge]

"Yeah..." Sadie trails off, scuffing her boots on the floor. She is fully aware of how lucky she got. "Ben and James were really shaken up. I'm certainly not complaining, it'll certainly make scuba diving in Mossgate cheaper for me." She jokes, trying to stop the mood from dropping further.

[spaghettimonster]

"You d-don't even have to rent any gear," Russell offers, recognizing the cause of joking the mood away and contributing to it, after a brief hesitation. Dangers and changes alike aren't light subjects, and thinking about it too much sometimes feels a little... helpless.

[dragoonrouge]

"It's a shame it'll only work in Mossgate, can you imagine how cool it would be in somewhere like the Maldives?"

Sadie looks at Russell curiously, "Have you got any unusual abilities since this started?"

[spaghettimonster]

"Well, not water-breathing, but yes. It's actually very easy to show you..." Russell looks back and forth on the streets they're walking through, checking for anyone obviously looking their way, and turns so his hands are mostly hidden between him and Sadie. A small bone materializes in the air an inch above his palm, and falls into his hand.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie crowds closer to Russell to provide more cover for whatever it is that he wants to show her. Whatever she was expecting, the summoning of a bone out of thin air certainly wasn't it, her mouth dropping open in shock.

"... Holy shit!" Sadie poke the bone, eyes wide as that proves that yes, it is indeed real. "Ohmygod that's magic! That's so cool!" She gushes excitedly.

[spaghettimonster]

"Shh shh shh!" Russell puts a finger to his mouth, glancing around them, but does nothing to hide the grin that spreads at her enthusiasm. "But you're right, it's got to be magic, I don't know what else it could be. And, and look, it's just with these bones..."

He gestures with the same finger, and the bone floats up a few inches as he beckons it up, then back down. It's nothing that'll let him fall in deep water with a head injury and come out fine, or anything, but undeniably magic.

[dragoonrouge]

"So not only can you make the bones you can apparently control the gravity around them." She's lowered her voice in response to Russell's shushing but she's still clearly excited by this.

"Could you do that to your own bones? Imagine if you could, you'd be able to make yourself fly."

[spaghettimonster]

"That would be so cool," Russell breathes, having never considered the idea. He stares at the bone in his hands, then at Sadie.

"I... It just seems to work on these ones? But. If I ever figure out how to do that, I promise I'll tell you about it."

With Russell's usual attention span to things that aren't bring him attention or praise, he'll have stopped trying by the time Halloween rolls around and brings him the blue magic that'll approximate Sadie's idea. But maybe sometime in the weeks after, he'll remember, try it... and succeed.