Moon

"MOONLIGHT WHITE / WHITE LIKE EYES / I DROWN IN HIM"

― Weather Service hijacking

The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the Earth and is Earth’s only natural satellite. It plays a major role in the Local 58 series as a harmful entity, particularly in Show For Children and (chronologically) later in Weather Service.

Through unexplained means, the Moon becomes capable of harming or killing those who view it with the naked eye. It can be assumed that this phenomenon hasn’t occured before the events of Weather Service, considering the Moon and its nature are only being reported on just then.

Show For Children

The Moon incident is alluded to in the children’s show broadcast, A Grave Mistake. It is represented as its own character, having an expressive face to fit in with the animation’s art style. The Moon has a subtle presence throughout most of the cartoon; as the protagonist, Cadavre, treads through the graveyard in search of his deceased wife, he is looked down upon with a grin. When Cadavre continues on after viewing a skeletal corpse and a bird-like creature, the Moon take on a different appearance, simply gazing at the viewer with wide eyes. Combined with the darker coloring and absence of music, its presence gradually becomes more ominous.

Eventually, Cadavre tires himself out and lies in a cave, staring up through the hole he had entered. The Moon, now photorealistic, moves into view, and has what appears to be an eyeball on its surface. The scene abruptly cuts back to an inanimate skeleton, Cadavre’s “corpse”, and the cartoon ends.

The ending scene is a clear allusion to the Moon’s eventual danger to humanity. Cadavre’s fate suggests that viewing the Moon is quickly fatal, rather than just psychologically harmful.

The animation itself apparently predates the actual Moon incident by a number of decades. It is unknown to what extent the nature of the cartoon and the events of Weather Service are coincidental.

Weather Service

The Moon is a central plot point of Weather Service. After an EAS weather warning notice, we get a glimpse of the Moon itself, albeit barely in frame. The alert states that a warning for a “meteorological event” has been issued by the Country Weather Service and that it is effective until tomorrow morning. It then advises against viewing this event—the Moon—with the naked eye.

The weather warning is then upgraded to a civil danger alert, advising to stay indoors and not to look at the night sky. Before more information can be given, the alert is hijacked by an anonymous third party who claims that the event is “safe for all to view” and that the warning has been lifted. Another message reads, “GO OUTSIDE NOW.” Why the hijacker would encourage viewers to endanger themselves, and whether or not they are related to the state of the Moon, is currently unknown.

The picture quality then plummets, a sign of heavy interference from the hijacker. The actual Weather Service then appears to relay lines of text, insisting viewers to stay indoors, not to look up, and to face away from windows, minimizing the risk of viewing moonlight. The hijacker then resumes control of the station, and proceeds to broadcast a series of unsettling messages describing how the “Moon came in” and “found them thru [sic] the mirror.” This is implying that not all who view the Moon are doomed, and that the hijacker may have survived, possibly with an altered mental state. The episode ends with the hijacker offering the viewer to “look together,” and the broadcast cuts to the live camera feed of the Moon from earlier. Crowds of people are audibly screaming in the distance as the Moon descends further into the shot, to the point where over half of it is visible.

It is unknown if viewing the Moon through digital means, such as through a camera feed, would produce the same hazardous effects. However, it’s unlikely given that the warnings say not to view it with the naked eye.