Let's make a film or sue Royal Mail, it's almost the same... [Mingle]

[ourearth]

Date: 21st-28th of October
Characters: Open!
Note: Like all welcome mingles, this is a SoL free-for-all mingle meant to get new characters involved by centering around something relevant to them. Without further ado, please welcome Nel, Mary Ann and Feste!

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I.

Pinewood Studios is looking for extras for some seafront scenes of a 19th century drama they're going to film in front of the white cliffs. The drama's working title is "The Major from India" and they've expressly put out a casting call for people of all ages and all ethnicities.

A few students from the local uni get to participate behind the scenes this time. Three lucky film students have scored internships that will let them experience the proccess of film making under the aspect of how to deal with extras, from casting to employing and placing them in the film (how do I make an extra NOT look at the camera or main character all the time?) to cutting to everything else. They will, of course, also have the opportunity to look into other areas of the making of this film, but the work with the extras is what they're supposed to focus on.

The casting takes place in the Mossgate outpost of Pinewood Studios.


II.

In Moss Manor (the village), the rumour mill is going wild. News have made it to the village that the local post office is going to be shut down, and the villagers won't have it. It's not like it is a big one! Two employees, neither of whom works full hours, and it's located in the village store so it doesn't even need its own house! Surely there is no economic sense in shutting it down!

And most certainly it's just unfair, targeting the villages despite all that talk to strengthen them - nobody is talking about Tarwich or Mossgate losing their post office!

In short, Moss Manor is in an uproar, and quick action is taken. Residents go from door to door with a petition to not shut down the post office, asking for people to sign. Posters are made and hung outside the church, in the pub, at the railway station, at the entrances of the village, and in the village store. And on the 27th, a very well attended protest is being organised outside the village shop, which just so happens to block the main road, causing diversions. And thus the protest affects quite a lot of non-Moss-Manor-residents, as that is the main road leading away from the coast into Kent and London. A few people have made protest signs, the pub has put up a little food stand outside its door selling hot dogs, burgers and drinks, and various speeches are given. First comes local MP Mary Saunders, talking about how unjust the treatment of villages by large national organisations is, then Reverend Pat Marsh who in essence asks people to remain calm and write angry letters instead of doing anything more drastic, then the captain of the local adult men's football team, who accuses the post of trying to kill small villages, and then the microphone can be taken up by anyone who feels like they have anything of substance to add to the things that have already been said.

But the angry valiant people of Moss Manor don't just speak up in their own village. With mayor Gary Russell's support, little info stands pop up on the Mossgate High Street and the Tarwich Community Centre. The aim is to inform everyone of the unfair closure plans, gather more signatures for the petitions, and try to get people from Mossgate and Tarwich to come to the protest on Saturday. Nobody does anything in Folkton. For one, the Moss Manor residents doubt that help will come that way; for two, the rumour mill will be faster in spreading the news around Folkton than any poster or stand ever could be.

Comments

[vernal_miss]

Coming across her eldest sibling while they are focused on their sketchbook, Nel alters her intended destination to veer to them instead. She stays quiet as she approaches, moving to stand behind and beside where she can lean to peek only for a second at the page to see the subject matter of the sketch. Patiently, she waits until Feste has lifted their tool away from the page to speak up and ask, “Can I watch?”

[fairfeste]

Feste looks up, smiling brightly when they see her. "Sure!" They'll scoot over a little, giving her room to sit next to them.

[vernal_miss]

Hopefully that considerate scootch to give her room doesn’t skew the perspective. Smile returned, she’s quick to come around and take a seat right next to her sibling on the side opposite their dominant hand. Best to stay out of the way of that drawing arm so as not to restrict movement as she reaches to rest her hand against that nearest arm.

“Are you going to color it?”

[fairfeste]

It'll be fine, they can adjust. It's a little harder to draw with Nel there, but they're going to shove her away. Especially since they don't quite know where mum is at the moment, someone should keep an eye on her.

"I haven't decided yet!" they say cheerfully, smiling over at her, "What do you think? Should I?"

[vernal_miss]

At ten years old, she can get on for a little while without supervision! ...however, she won’t pass up an opportunity for preferred company.

Looking at the paper then up to the inspiration and back, she hums thoughtfully in consideration. Color is usually best, but sometimes black and white is more powerful for showing contrast and subject. In this case she finds a compromise to be most promising in her head, “One color to make it pop.”

[fairfeste]

Feste grins, messing with her hair. "That's a good idea. What color? Green? Blue?" A fade of color from the sky could be interesting...

[vernal_miss]

Nel hunches down with a giggle as her hair is targeted, and she playfully bats at their hand with not an ounce of force behind it. The girl adores having her hair played with and brushed, and Feste has assisted in taming her locks more than once. As such, she trusts them not to leave her with actual tangles to fight.

“Those could be good... Which part do you want to stand out?” She is partial to green and blue, but there is no need to rush in choosing.

[fairfeste]

"I don't know yet," they say, grinning as they withdraw their hand, "Maybe I'll draw a little more and decide what looks best later." They're thinking the sky, though. That would probably look cool.

[vernal_miss]

As much out of habit as anything, Nel promptly begins to finger comb her hair back into order with both hands as she sits up straight once more. Tilting her head to work through her hair carefully and to see the sketch page at the same time, she nods a little, “Yeah. See how it turns out.”

Running her hands through the strands of all her hair, she sweeps the mane back over a shoulder and settles to rest with elbows her her knees to watch curiously while they work. She figures Feste will talk if conversation is not going to be too distracting.

[fairfeste]

They're quiet for a bit, working on some of the finer details of the sketch, but once they move on to something less difficult they'll start up again. "What were you doing before you came over here?" They like to know what their little sister is up to.

[vernal_miss]

Comfortable in that silence, she looks at the way Feste translates what they perceive to the page. She can only look between the sights ahead for reference, and it gives her a chance to relate detail beyond outlines that make the image represent cleanly.

When Feste asks about her prior activities, she sways back and forth a little on her elbows with a playful smile quirking her lips upward, “Noooothin’.” Never in her life has Nel been one to sit dull if she’s not asleep, in the act of dozing off, or being cuddled.

[fairfeste]

Feste gives a fake gasp. "What? Nothing? Are pigs flying too and I didn't notice?" They don't buy that for a second, Nel.

[vernal_miss]

That unleashes a flurry of giggles as her swaying comes to a halt, speaking a denial as the last giggles pass out, "Nooo!" She pushes up on straight arms from her legs and answers truthfully this time, "I was working on my Halloween costume. I want to be scary this year!"

[fairfeste]

"Scary, huh?" ...They suspect that if it actually scary, that won't go well. But they guess they'll see. "What d'you want to be, then?"

[vernal_miss]

“Well I was thinking about being a creepy porcelain doll,” she states. She certainly has not decided, but it’s her running thought at the moment, “So I was looking through my dresses and finding my old white stockings. I might cut one pair for my arms, then draw on those and a full pair to look like I have cracks.”

[fairfeste]

"You should probably talk to mum before you go cutting up any of your clothes." Even if they are old. "How'd you get the idea for that?"

[vernal_miss]

Feste can watch as the realization hits, and she slouches a bit, “...oh. Probably.” Not entirely deterred, she will indeed ask to see if the stockings are worn enough to use for the costume. There aren’t any big holes in one of the two pairs is the issue.

“I was looking through old pictures for ideas and I saw a doll in a shot from the antique shop.” After answering, she asks them, “If I can’t be a doll, what do you think I could be instead?”

[fairfeste]

It's a good thing they said something, then. "I don't think you couldn't be one. But mum might rather than you not cut up things so it might just need to be a little different. We could find some face paint and draw cracks on you instead, maybe."

[vernal_miss]

She muses with a low hum in her throat before answering, "Yeah, but wouldn't that get all over everything I touch? I want to wear my costume to school and through trick or treating... Plus, that won't make me very pale."

Nel has fair skin but not enough to pass as porcelain.

"There are other scary things... And I bet by next year those stockings will be worn out so I can save them until next year."

[fairfeste]

"I guess so." Feste thinks, tapping their pencil against their chin. "Maybe we'll figure something out. But it doesn't hurt to have a backup. What other things are scary?"

There are a great many things, but whether it's actually scary or not kind of isn't the point. It's whether Nel thinks they're scary, and they don't really want to give her any ideas on what she should find scary.

[vernal_miss]

As it seems Feste doesn't want to impart any ideas, she'll start to rack her brain once again as she tilts her head back to stare up into the sky as though a new costume might come to her in the shapes of the clouds. Softly she murmurs, "Dunno..."

Given a longer moment to think, she'll run through the usual affair of Halloween. Zombies, skeletons, monsters, ghosts, werewolves, mummies, demons... All rather overdone if sometimes scary. The doll she found to be creepy in appearance and its potential to be sinister on a more subtle level.

"Dolls aren't scary themselves until they're haunted. Other things can be haunted, right?"

[fairfeste]

Feste nods. "Yeah..." Clowns come to mind, but if Nel isn't already afraid of clowns then they really don't want to add that fear to her list of potentials, "What about, uh...." They're really bad at this, sorry Nel. "...another type of haunted toy?"

[vernal_miss]

To that line of thought of another type of haunted toy, Nel blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, "A haunted rubber duckie." Only to immediately laugh at the ridiculous notion, "It squeaks in the night and bounces on your head when you try to take a bath."

Yes, she's being silly. The creative process needs tangents every so often. Especially when their sibling is struggling to offer a serious suggestion.

[fairfeste]

Ok, Feste can't help it. They laugh too, grinning. "I like it. You should definitely do that." They're kidding, but they are 100% going to draw a comic about that now and give it to her at some point.

[vernal_miss]

Such a comic would be received with a grateful hug and immediate placement of the drawing up on the cork board over her bed on the wall.

“So would a haunted rubber duckie look different is the question. Maybe a sickly yellow-green color, and the paint of the eyes chips funny. Should the beak be crooked?”