News Report #001 - Welcome To Mayfield [Action]

[pluckyreporter]

A: To 1248 Williams Road housematesShe woke up to an alarm that wasn't her own. The tone wasn't right. She-- didn't quite know what to make to make of it, groping out to try and shut it off as she shook off the dew of sleep and moved into something closer to wakefulness. Looking at the clock, the foreign wall beyond her, the strange-- place. She

Comments

Around Town

[after_thesky]

[Sarah Jane recognizes that behaviour. So obviously she has to approach. Today she has raided her newly droned husband's side of the closet. The men's clothing doesn't fit her well, but it does offer certain options the dresses here don't]

Are you looking for specifics or just general information right now?

[pluckyreporter]

[Roxanne gives a sharp look at-- someone who is clearly not a drone. In men's clothing, no less. She relaxes, fractionally, and replies]

I'm-- not really sure yet. I woke up today in a strange house with strange people, and now -- well, best to get the lay of the land, right?

I'm Roxanne Ritchi.

[after_thesky]

Sarah Jane. Smith, despite what the drones will tell you.

[A point that continues to irk her]

If you're a new arrival it's best to start with the basics.

[pluckyreporter]

Sounds like a plan.

[She flips her notepad open again, putting her pencil to the page.]

[after_thesky]

Alright, Mayfield appears to be a highly stylized recreation of a small town in 1950s America. It holds irritatingly closely to extremely narrow gender roles.

There are three categories of people here. The first is people like you or me who have been brought here from various other times and places. The second is the drones, who will insist you have lived here all your life and refuse to deviate from the script.

Finally, there is a third group who will also insist you have been here all your life, but seem to be powerful.

[pluckyreporter]

Yeah, I've noticed.

[frigging gender roles]

Okay. So. There's us, there's creepy robot people, and there's... the overlords?

Is that what they are? They run the place?

[after_thesky]

The gender roles get very tiresome.

The postman appears to be an ally at this stage. The milkman, on the other hand, is quite dangerous. Don't drink the milk he delivers. The biggest concern, however, is the unfortunately named Smith family.

[pluckyreporter]

Should I ask what's wrong with the milk?

[Probably not. Moving on.]

What's with the Smiths?

[after_thesky]

Poison about half the time.

The little daughter, Lucy, may actually be the mastermind behind all of this, from things she has said when things get complicated here. Where the rest of the family fits into it is less clear. But the original mother of the family, Jane, seemed to be another captive. She was found dead a few months ago and was immediately replaced by Jill after a communist witch hunt.

[pluckyreporter]

Commun-- what?

[Sounding less and less like a Megamind plot. Oh well, she won't feel bad about yelling at him anyway.]

[after_thesky]

The Cold War is a running theme here. Era appropriate, though this is more something out of an American propaganda film than history.

[pluckyreporter]

Wonderful. Glad I'm not a journalist in this particular time period.... except that I'd rather not be a housewife, anyway.

[after_thesky]

It's a rather frustrating option.

I started in journalism in the seventies. The Cold War was still underway, but I didn't usually cover stories involving it.

[pluckyreporter]

I started-- well, about twenty years after that. Cold War is long over though.

[after_thesky]

[Sarah Jane nods, using the information to roughly place relative timelines. Almost instinctive, at this point.]

It was never as all pervading as it is here. Everything here is exaggerated, really.

[pluckyreporter]

Yeah, it's -- just a little too perfect. I haven't seen anything like -- well, like what I'd expect in a real small town, even for the era.

[It's like something off television. Where's the Beav and his friends?]