[Mingle] Don't walk across a graveyard at night (you'll trip and fall)

[ourearth]

Date: 18.9.19
Characters: OPEN

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The local radio station is the first to spread it widely, but of course the news have already made the rounds around Moss Manor itself by the time they become official. Village gossip and all that.

And quite some news they are: The graveyard has been closed! Fences and tape have gone up, and if you stand on tiptoes and know where to stand and where to look, you can see the most visible reason for why that is: A sinkhole has opened near the centre of the graveyard, taking down two graves with a third tombstone balancing precariously at the rim of the sunk area. Luckily it hit the more historic part of the graveyard that has no recent burials in it, so it will be less emotionally impactful than what happened at Halloween last year, but it is still a dangerous development and has the vicar in a very unhappy situation.

Partly because there's press in the house yet again.

Press that is also bouncing around the whole Mossgate area trying to interview people in hopes of finding someone who will be hysteric about the situation. Or at least dramatically worried.

Most of Moss Manor's residents are unhelpfully calm, at least towards outsiders... but many are secretly treading very carefully and eyeing the ground closely wherever they walk. What, after all, if more sinkholes show up?

Comments

[saveournpcs]

...Nope, this is unhelpful. It can't see anything.

The mouse runs forth and back, to the front of the wardrobe, and then...

Down once more and up the back of Jimmy's chair. What is Jimmy reading there?

[lovedramamoron]

Okay,he can't ignore that.Rather grumpily,he looks up from his book and twists around to look at the back of the chair.

[saveournpcs]

...WHOOPS.

Tiny mouse tries to abscond.

Tiny mouse is almost fast enough. Jimmy will only see the end of its tail vanish over the back of his chair as the mouse rushes downwards, hoping to escape across the floor and under the wardrobe.

[lovedramamoron]

...Was that a mouse? That had definitely looked like a mouse tail disappearing behind the chair.

Jimmy quickly stands up and moves the chair out of the way to see if he could spot it again.

[saveournpcs]

The mouse isn't that fast, and he'll see it run the last metre or so to the wardrobe and then vanish under it.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy fetches a flashlight out of his backpack and kneels down to peer under the wardrobe.

[saveournpcs]

The mouse sits there, right at the wall. There's... not really anywhere where it could run from here.

It squeaks in annoyance when the light blends it.

[lovedramamoron]

If he'd been home Jimmy might have been tempted to just leave it there. It didn't look like it was doing any harm. But since this was his host family's house, he felt like he had to do something.

He leaves for a moment to rummage through the room, and returns with an old shoebox and a piece of cheese left over from his lunchbag. Mice liked cheese right? And if he could get it into the box then he could just take it outside.

He sets the cheese in the box and sets it up next to the wardrobe, then backs up to see what happens.

[saveournpcs]

...Box.

BUT CHEESE.

BOX.

CHEESE THOUGH.

...The mouse makes a break for it, trying to snatch the cheese and then get back out of the box before anything untoward can happen.

Which is a bit hard when you're carrying a piece of cheese that is half as big as yourself.

[lovedramamoron]

Okay, that was way faster than Jimmy was expecting it to move. He grabs for the box lid and makes an attempt to close the mouse in before it could escape.

[saveournpcs]

He only just makes it, but he does - the mouse is trapped in the box.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy quickly picks the box up and runs outside to the garden. Picking out a good sheltered spot, he sets the box down and takes the lid off before backing up a few steps;