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!

---

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]

"That'd be great! And yeah, you can pick any sticker out of the book," she confirms. Once Kitty takes the clipboard and starts to sign, she muses aloud, "You know, if you can get someone else to sign, you could have another one and they could have one too." Nel is expecting that Kitty has an adult somewhere nearby, or perhaps a babysitter.

[runs]

...Ohhhh.

Hm.

Getting someone else to sign that this girl wouldn't be able to get to sign......

She grins, grabs the clipboard once she's done, and steers towards a middle-aged man who is standing outside a nearby shop watching the stand on the other side of the street with contempt. She saw an elderly lady leave him there and walk inside, and chances are that was his mother...

He opens his mouth to tell her to bugger off when she marches towards him, but she is faster.

"If you sign, I won't tell the lady that just went into that shop that you're picking your nose while you're waiting for her." "But I didn't-" She cuts him off. "Yes, but whom will she believe, you or me?"

He gapes at her for a moment like he is a fish, and then reluctantly and very hurriedly signs the petition, not even looking at what it is for. Kitty grins at him, takes the clipboard and walks back to Nel, presenting the two new signatures to her. "Here!"

[vernal_miss]

Releasing the clipboard to Kitty when the other girl obviously approves of the bargain, she watches from the bench as she moves to approach a man that had passed them with his nose in the air not long ago at all. Her surprise turns to amazement when the man takes the pen to sign the petition after mere seconds of talking with Kitty. Unable to comprehend it, she looks between the man and Kitty as the girl heads back her way.

When Kitty presents the signatures, she takes the clipboard back with the pen, "...how'd you get him to sign? He snubbed us before!"

Her younger sibling offers the sticker book up for Kitty to browse, and shaking her head softly, Nel makes a simple amendment in favor for the other girl, "You can have his sticker too. Go ahead and pick three. Any you like!"

[runs]

She gives Nel a look that might be piercing on someone else but on Kitty just imparts great suspicion. "...If I take three, do I have to find another person who'll sign?" Is this a neverending cycle of hunting down people?

...Not that she'd mind, necessarily. That one was fun. "Are you not getting enough signatures like this?" She gestures at the bench and the stickers and the general surroundings.

[vernal_miss]

To that, Nel tilts her head to one side, then shakes it quite firmly, "No. You get the two I promised and the one he would have gotten if he had signed earlier." It's meant as a bonus for successfully obtaining a signature from a difficult target.

Asked about getting enough signatures, Nel glances towards her mother across the street before giving a small shrug, "Um...we're doing okay. Not as many as we want, but we're getting some. Each one matters."

[runs]

Kitty grins and picks three stickers. All of them get carefully pocketed.

"Why are you doing this?" She heard the explanation earlier, but that doesn't explain why Nel specifically is doing it.

[vernal_miss]

All of the stickers belong to Nel, but she approves of the selections Kitty makes as some stickers are clearly superior.

“Mostly to help my Mum. She’s across the street at that table getting signatures,” she explains. “That, and I like going by the post to pick up things or drop them off. I can’t do that by myself if I have to come into town here for it.” In general, Nel likes helping her mothers and older siblings.

[runs]

"Whom do you post things too?

I get a parcel for my birthday every year! And sometimes I put letters into the postbox for my grandma." That's the only real contribution that she can make about the usage of the post, but it's something, right?

[vernal_miss]

It's a welcome contribution.

"Oh, that's neat! I like to take things mostly for my mums and my older siblings, but I used to send lots of letters to my grandfather before he moved here a couple years ago," she answers happily. She would send her Skypa a lot of drawings with each letter as she could only send them every so often all the way to the States.

[runs]

"Where did your grandfather live?" Some of her relatives live really far away, so far that she's never met them. So Nel's grandfather can't live as far away if he moved here, right?

[vernal_miss]

“The United States of America,” she answers plainly. “He’s a minister and he heard a group here in Mossgate needed some help, so he moved! I like seeing him rather than talking on the phone or sending letters.” Family had definitely factored into the decision, but he had not made the transition of uprooting his whole life just for them.

[runs]

"Oh, I know America! That's where the Transmutators films and Ben and Jerry's are from!" Not a bad place, quite obviously, if they produce nice ice cream like that. "...A minster?" What?

[vernal_miss]

This other girl has good taste, "Yeah! They make strong cars there too," which she knows about thanks to her other grandfather. She means muscle cars of course.

At the apparent confusion, she shakes her head, "A minister. It's like a preacher or a pastor. He's really easy going though, not strict at all. He tells silly jokes all the time."

[runs]

"Oh." Understanding dawns. "...One of my families went to church. Sometimes it was cool, but sometimes it was very boring.

Do you go to his church then?" Will they realise that Kitty knows said grandpa? Who knows.

[vernal_miss]

"I got to go one time, but my Mums take us to a church near our house in Moss Manor. It's okay cause we don't go every week," she says with a shrug. Sitting still so long is difficult for her even at ten, but she does her best to make her family happy even when her attention wanders during sermons.

[runs]

She nods. That doesn't sound too bad.

"I sometimes go to the church on [whatever street Sky's congregation gathers] because they have comfortable chairs and there's sometimes cake afterwards." It's a 50/50 chance, but that's enough for her to feel like it's worth it on a cold and rainy day.

[vernal_miss]

The name of the street triggers a sense of recognition. In the same way she knows where her mums work, she knows where he works in case of emergencies.

"I think that's where my Skypa's church is," she states before adding clarification, "My grandfather I mean. His nickname is Sky, and he joked about being Skypa and it stuck."

[runs]

"I mean Sky." Huh. So that's Nel's grandpa?

"He never has any tasty cookies. But he's still nice enough." Just. Why would you try to make cookies healthy. WHY.

[vernal_miss]

“Oh..!” She exclaims softly in surprise at the connection. At the comment regarding the matter of cookies, she smiles with sympathy, “He is very nice, but good cookies would make him sick.” Nel feels bad eating anything with sugar when visiting him for that reason.

“So did your one family go to his church? Or did you go with someone else?” Nel knows other children at school that have two families after their parents divorced.

[runs]

"I didn't go with anyone, it was just cold and raining and they had cake." And thus a little girl wandered into the obviously semi-public place and asked if the cake was free. And then found a warm corner to eat some cake and be out of the rain. "I later found out that they don't always have cake, but they're always more comfortable and warmer than most other churches I know."

[vernal_miss]

"You went all the way there by yourself?" Nel is genuinely perplexed. Attending school on her own is one thing since she has teachers to keep an eye on all the children, but aside from running small errands, she doesn't go somewhere by herself if it takes more than a few minutes. Especially any place new.

"Your family wasn't cross about it?"

[runs]

"Not at all." They thought that she was at her grandmother's, but her grandmother's was taking an extended nap and then had a podologist appointment.

"I wasn't getting in trouble or anything, after all."

[vernal_miss]

"Huh. That's neat. I guess I should ask if I can try going out on my own somewhere," because if this other girl is old enough, then certainly she should qualify.

"Maybe next time you go to my grandfather's church, you can tell him you know me now. My name's Nel."

[runs]

"I'll tell him." She grins, and then jumps to the ground. "And if I see you again I'll come and say hi."

[vernal_miss]

Smiling as Kitty makes the agreement to relay their meeting to her Skypa, she smiles far more with the promise of seeing her again, “Please do! And thanks again for your help.”

Nel waves to her new acquaintance as she heads off, then returns to requesting signatures from the passersby.