saveourearth | Grandma's less pleasant memorabilia [mingle]

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Grandma's less pleasant memorabilia [mingle]

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.

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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.

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?"

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.

"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.

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.~~

Sadie smiles at the younger girl and nods as Tigger takes the offered hand as permission to jump eagerly at the girl for a proper round of cuddles and hugs and starts meowing loudly at Kitty. Pet him!

"Yep, that's Tigger he's very sociable and bit pushy when it comes to being fussed." She reaches down and bundles up Amber who then examines Kitty cautiously from the safety of the crook of Sadie's elbow. "This is his sister Amber, she's a lot shyer but you'd be hard-pressed to find a kitten with softer fur. I've got a third cat called Squash but he's a grumpy old man so he stays at home."

There was something familiar about the girl Sadie decided as she introduces herself." My name's Sadie, what's your name?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

Edited 2018-09-27 08:24 (UTC)

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.

Edited 2018-09-30 08:17 (UTC)

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?"

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.

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.

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.

"It's only for a few days," Russell begins with, hoping that he's right about that. "They're in the evacuation radius, and, I was... nearby."

His employers intimidate him a little. Possibly because of the rumors about their connections.

He nudges the door closed behind him with his foot, but keeps the leash well in-hand. They haven't even dog-proofed the flat yet, and if he let anything happen to Chad, something terrible might happen to him?

It's a little overwhelming even for someone tall enough to see what's going on and human enough to be included in the conversations. There's a lot of business-like abrupt decisions of what to take and what to leave behind, and Russell isn't involved in any of that - now that he's been given supplies and dog, he's being shooed out the door.

If only the dog would cooperate.

"Chad, chad, come on, Chad..." Russell says lowly, pulling a bit on the leash to pressure the dog into following with. "Oh my god, should I borrow some clothes? Give you something that smells like them?"

Sadie smiles shyly at the always sharply dressed Agatha as she steps in through the door, wiping her feet on the doormat and removing her shoes to go on the shoe rack.

"Good afternoon Agatha..." She trails off, Ben's aunts' house was as well put together as the other times she had visited, and as always she found herself slightly distracted by the variety of decorations around the place.

Realising just how distracted she had gotten Sadie blushes and looks back at Agatha. "Sorry, I, Erm, I'm here with Ben's work from school." She holds up the folder before her face falls in concern. "...And to see how he's doing..."

Your look does nothing, Chad. Walter's had far worse.

~~Most of them aren't from as-cute sources, though.~~

Walter sighs, and drops his arms.

"I know this isn't going to be permanent, but something about this strikes me as indefinite. Did you want to start the dog-proofing now, or should I?"

Because someone really should watch this dog At All Times.

Well, pets it is! She delivers pretty good ones, too. But not in this position, so she sits down cross-legged first and then starts with the petting.

"I could come home to your place to meet all of them," she offers, not in the slightest bothered by that she's technically inviting herself into someone else's house. She's wandered into other people's houses without any invitation at all before and it worked out, so why not?

"And I'm Kitty!" She grins, and then rolls her eyes. "Or other names. But Kitty is pretty cool, isn't it? And you aren't supposed to give your name to strangers."

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?

He barks indignantly and then pointedly turns his back at them to start sniffing around the area that he can reach like this. It's really rude how they think that he wouldn't understand ...wait. That's intended. He doesn't want them to realise that he's the person from the network. That would make his interactions on the network harder.

No, no, NO! Not clothes! HIS HUMANS HAVE TO COME ALONG OR HE HAS TO STAY WITH THEM!

He barks in frustration and tries to dig his paws in even further. Why are all those humans being so unreasonable here?

That observation of the house rules is met by a grateful nod. Once Sadie has stepped off the mat to place her shoes on the rack, Agatha will close the front door behind her. Between the bobbles collected in their travels, the antique pieces, and the artwork made by Rosemary or purchased by both of them, there are a number of things to draw the eye in every room. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Agatha occasionally swaps out pieces to redecorate. Easier to avoid clutter when one limits how many items are present at a time after all.

Agatha smiles with a faint chuckle at the apology, waving it off with one hand as she crosses the other beneath that elbow. It’s a point of pride to create a refined space that demands attention. Giving the folder a look, the older woman holds her words a tad longer as the worry comes out. Her exhale comes more quickly, yet she smiles all the more warmly to Sadie, “Thank you for bringing it for him. As studious as he is, I know he’ll be ready to catch up from Friday and today. As for how he is doing,” she gestures a bit with her hand, “Ben is moving much better. He first came back out of his room after that fuss over the weekend, and he’s not sleeping quite so much anymore. He’s on the mend.”

As a good hostess, she’ll make an offer before letting her head upstairs, “I don’t mean to spoil your dinner, but if you’d like, Rosemary made some cinnamon rolls earlier today. You’re welcome to have one, or take a few home with you.”

Face turned from the doorway laying on his stomach, Benjiro doesn’t stir as she enters the room or when she comes over to where she can look at the picture frames. Even when she gets onto the bed, the most he does is bury a little more into his pillow. His facemask is laying off at the side, teeth instead covered by the next in a line of sacrificial mouth guards he tends to bite through at night. This one happens to be blue, and barely visible. At the very least, a blanket throw is available for her to use on the end of his bed.

The incessant fatigue abates enough a short while later that the teen wakes slowly, hand feeling over the mattress next to him to locate his phone. Picking it up to groggily peak one eye at the screen as he taps it awake, he sees the time and the number of unanswered messages. Phone dropped closer to his head as his eye closes, he relaxes fully for a full ten seconds before he recognizes the odd angle of the mattress down a little lower. Both eyes open this time as he lifts his head to peek up and over to where he feels a second weight, and spots Kitty curled up for a nap herself.

Well that’s unexpected.

A check given in a glance to the doorway, he hears nothing from his aunts, then looks back to Kitty. He doesn’t want to move too much and wake her, and his body is feeling stiff enough that he isn’t eager to move much anyways. Reaching out to snag the facemask and bring it over, he switches it for his mouth guard and settles down to tap at his phone as he starts to half doze again.

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Grandma's less pleasant memorabilia [mingle]

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it's time for me to start unleashing my icons w/ dog

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what a good icon

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