The Bear and Barnacle

Rincewind was headed for the library. It was the only place in this wretched town he had found himself stuck in where he felt at all at home. True, there were no copper rails nailed to the shelves, there were no magical books (that he could determine at any rate), and the librarian was a woman, still it was a library. The smell of book dust and paper was enough to bring a tear of homesickness to his eye. He hurried along the street, occasionally glancing up and wondering about the darkness. It had been dark when he’d gone to bed last night, as per usual, but it had been dark when he’d gotten up as well. Definitely not per usual. He was staying well away from the roads; the growling monsters were still out in force, although now their eyes were open and glowing. Some of the people looked anxious and there were groups gathered around shops that spoke in hushed whispers. But still others just carried blithely on, chattering into their metal things, as if nothing at all odd was happening. Perhaps they were some sort of zombie, Rincewind thought. Without the falling-off bits and smelling far better (i.e.: not at all) than any zombies he was familiar with.
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The annoying thing, Spike thinks, about being a vampire is the number of wasted hours hiding from the son. Cause sleep isn't always needed, or at least not for very long. It drives him crazy, being trapped indoors or in sewers when he could be doing something useful, or productive.
He glances at the clock - 10am. He wants out - not sleepy at all, might as well find something to do. There's a sewer entrance just down the road...if he uses a blanket and runs, he shouldn't be more than lightly singed. He walks upstairs, into the living room, and is surprised to find it very dark. Curtains are open, but no mid-morning sun is streaming through. Curious, he inches cautiously closer to the window closet to the door. Outside, it's dark. Not night, no moon. But no sun either. Just dark. He glances back at the clock in the room. 10:05 am.

"Well that's just bloody weird." he muses, slowly opening the door and looking outside. Still dark, and he's not bursting into flame. He drops the blanket he was holding and steps outside. Casually smoking a cigarette, he spends a good half hour wandering the streets, watching people pointing at the sky and expressing concern. Him? He's rather enjoying his morning stroll. Not something he gets to do often. Not to say the lack of sun doesn't concern him, just that he's used to mystical weirdness, seen a fair share of it, so it's not an earth-shattering horror. For him, it has it's obvious benefits.

"Right," he says to no one but himself. "Got the day, or whatever this is, can do whatever I want." Something useful. Or productive. It takes him less than a minute to decide on a course of action. "To the pub, then...fancy a bit of breakfast.."

The sun rises, except that it doesn't.

Oh, yes, it does, the rushed evening edition of the newspaper assures everyone. If it hadn't, that would mean the planet had stopped, and inertia would provide that everything on the skin of the earth was torn away and flung shrieking into the darkness of the void. Judging by the continued existence of Margate, that has not happened. Yet there's no explanation for the darkness. All day, the sky is black, not even the stars present as they'd be in an eclipse, just a vast unsettling sphere of pure space. At night, the moon does not appear to rise either.

The strange thing is that the temperature doesn't change. It's just ... well, dark. The stores sell out of torches in record speed. Even their light seems a little less penetrating, weak against the pressing darkness. When the street lamps get turned back on, it helps some, but not as much as it should.

Blackness settled over Margate before anyone was awake to see, and now it blankets the town in alarming invisibility.

As usual, post to comm with character's reaction. The tag is "darkness". By the way, all -- if there's an event or topic you'd particularly like to see, feel free to drop us a line. Have fun!