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[personal profile] ourearth
Date: 2nd to 5th of November; backdated due to the Halloween mingle being too close by
Characters: Open!


2nd to 4th

Bonfire night approaches, and like every year, a large bonfire is set up on the Greens, as well as an impressive fireworks display, intended to happen on the 3rd. It's been advertised for a few weeks now, and many families, groups of teenagers, and just regular people are planning on going... And then it's abruptly cancelled at the evening of the 2nd. The official word on it is that some kind of safety regulations weren't met, and as this was discovered at the final security check, there is no time to fix them. Oddly enough, at the same time yellow signs go up near the Greens, reading:
Mossgate POLICE Working for a safer Mossgate
We are appealing for witnesses: Can you help us?
Police incident
An incident occurred in this area between 1pm on the 2/11 and 2pm on the 3/11.
In strictest confidence, plase phone
020787574
Did you see or hear anything?
Please call us
On the number above or at your local police station

...And the perceptive person might notice that there are a few oddities going on around town. For one, there is more police out in the streets than normal, constables nobody has seen before, too, and they are carrying guns. Why are they carrying guns? This is not the airport or central London! This is the first thing that really gets the rumour mill going.

The second thing is that the area that was fenced off so when fireworks and bonfire happened, only those who paid an entrance fee would be able to get close, is still fenced off despite the cancellation. And those who peer into the area will notice more police there.

And then, on the 4th of November, a few nondescript vans and a small nondescript lorry arrive at the parking lot at the bottom of the Greens, and some people get off. All of them wear civilian clothes. A few simply wander off into Mossgate, but the rest goes up onto the Greens. And some of those carry large suitcases that seem to be quite heavy. Too bad there's bushes and trees and it is impossible to see what they're doing at the place where the bonfire and fireworks were set to happen...

[ooc: There are a few dedicated open NPC toplevels below for people to investigate, as well as toplevels aimed at specific characters. If anyone has ideas for investigating that are not covered by the below toplevels and needs input, prod the mod contact thread on the last setting interactions post!]



5th

After the fireworks in Mossgate couldn't happen, it was decided to do them in one of the villages in Mossgate Council. Naturally, Folkton and Moss Manor both clamoured to get them. But after a few young men got into a fistfight about it and a nose was broken, Mayor Gary Russell arrived at the Salomonic decision of having the fireworks happen in Tarwich instead. They have a nice little park there, and the official reason for the decision is that it is closer to Mossgate town so it will be easier for people from there to attend. The real reason is of course to not take any sides in the village rivalry.

Tarwich, by contrast, is too young to truly have rivalries and there are no old families that could bring true patriotic pride into the mix. Nicely bland and harmless. An excellent middle ground.

So on the evening of the fifth, like every year, there are two massive bonfires in Mossgate council, one in Folkton and one in Moss Manor. Little fairgrounds have sprung up next to them - a children's carousel, a kiddie train, an ice cream van, one or two vendors that sell festival foods like candy floss (= cotton candy).

But unlike other years, there's a third event, and most unusually the location is the often-forgotten Tarwich: Carefully timed so that people can first go see the fireworks and then go to whichever bonfire they prefer, there is a very nice 30 minutes long firework taking place in Tarwich, just after nightfall. There are no carousels or ice cream vans here, but festival food is offered, too.
ourearth: General Mod icon, shows Earth (Default)
[personal profile] ourearth
Date: June 30th 2018, in the evening
Characters: Everyone!


It is a perfect Saturday evening after a almost unbearably hot summer's day: The sky is clear, the temperature only just begins to dip below twenty degrees at sundown with only a fresh breeze from across the Channel perhaps suggesting that a jacket should be brought along for later, and most residents of Mossgate and its surroundings are on their feet to come and see the annual fireworks above the ruins at the top of the Greens. The whole park is dotted with people on picnic blankets, but most attendees centre around the bottom near the bandstand, where an orchestra is setting up to play classical music to accompany the fireworks.

The fireworks are set to start at 10:30, once the sky has finally darkened enough and thus they do, a beautiful display lasting for over twenty minutes, accompanied by moving music, the wind from the seaside helpfully clearing the smoke away so they never get obscured by it.

But then, when the last firework has gone up and people are starting to turn their heads away, a shout goes up, those who were still hoping that the last of the fireworks might yet be before them calling everyone else to attention.

Something else can be seen in the sky, something that older residents or those who look at the nightly sky a lot might have seen before, but never at this time of the year:

Northern Lights.

They hang in the sky for almost half an hour before dissipating, and leave many a person in excited discussions with those around them about the odd timing of the sight.

Some of the residents of Mossgate and the surrounding area, however, will experience the occasion very differently. Because as the Northern Lights appear, they are overcome with a wave of absolute emptiness, with a feeling of being absolutely hollow inside, and a loud sound like a resounding heartbeat will drown out everything around them.

They'll be left feeling dizzy, and like they gained something - which they did. They're all in possession of one additional echo* now. And that number they could never forget? It's suddenly very present on their minds again.

And if they write it down, input it into a computer, say it out loud, or in any other way give form to it, they will realize that it does something now: It connects them with other people. The Network just went live.

[*This is a plot echo. Those characters whose First Echo the Northern Lights are will, of course, not get an additional echo, but everyone whose First Echo happened before the Northern Lights will gain another echo now. Please request all echoes over here and wait with playing out all echoes that aren't memory echoes until they have been approved.]

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