Run, run, follow me [Open Mingle]

[saveournpcs]

Date: Saturday, 4.1.2020
Characters: OPEN

---

I.

It's midday when trouble seems to brew underfoot. Literally underfoot, in cases - wherever the Numbered are, they'll suddenly find dormice approaching them, running around their feet, in some cases up their legs, aiming to get their attention, and then running off - coming back again, running off once more in the same direction.

Trying to get the Numbered to FOLLOW.


II.

If Numbered decide to follow the mice, they'll be lead through the streets, fields, or whatever there is (in some cases, this might mean that the mice are trying to lead them through the military area aroudn the air base). Perhaps they'll run into other Numbered on the way - all mice seem to be leading those that they lead into the exact same direction.


III.

The direction of, it turns out, the tunnels under the cliffs. The mice will easily slip through the grates that bar the entries - the grates were made to keep humans out and let a tiny mice through easily. The Numbered, however... well, the grates were installed solid and sturdy to keep humans out. The mice will vanish in the tunnels and not come back.

Comments

[runs]

She hisses. "They better not even try or I will bite them BACK." And she'll put every single ounce of cat that she has in her soul into that statement, because she will actually do that if one of them bites her again. ...Or maybe not. Biting a dormice actually doesn't sound very appetizing.

[saveournpcs]

The mice don't get closer. But they do shrink back a bit when Kitty hisses. Unlike humans, who are perfectly happy to not notice that there's two cats in their midsts, they know exactly what Kitty and Sadie are, and if there's hissing... yep, going to keep their distance.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie pats Kitty's head, "Don't worry I'm sure they won't, they're rather adorable really."

Sadie starts to head in the direction the mice indicated, her ears constantly pivoting as she keeps an ear out for any unusual sound, "At least we can be a little more discreet than the others because of our eyes. Though I wonder how far in we're expected to go, some of these tunnels aren't exactly the safest."

[runs]

Kitty huffs, absolutely not convinced of this at all. She follows Sadie, though, ...until the last bit of light has disappeared. She has twilight vision, not night vision. Complete darkness will be exactly that to her: Complete darkness.

She stops, her hand reaching out for Sadie and digging into her shirt.

"I can't see."

[dragoonrouge]

"Ah, one sec." Sadie roots around her jacket pocket before pulling out her phone and turning on the torch to hand to Kitty, "If you angle it down and slightly back then it should be just perfect, or you could cover most of the beam with your other hand. The choice is yours."

[runs]

Kitty breathes a sigh of relief when the light floods the corridor... but also frowns in confusion. There's a weird secondary image overlaying the surroundings. ...No, actually just Sadie.

"Do you see that? On you!"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie frowns, "See what?" She inspects her hands, turning and moving them in the gloom, "I can't see anything different. What is it that you see, Kitty?"

[runs]

"Colours! Like... your face and hands are red, and your clothes are blue and green..."

She squints. What the hell. It's only Sadie- No. "It's on me, too!"

[dragoonrouge]

"Is it just my hands and face that are red?"

[runs]

"...Your legs are kinda yellow.

Mine too." What the hell. She has no idea how to interpret this new sight thing. Because it seems to be her issue, doesn't it. An echo? Probably, she just focused on other things too much to notice...

[dragoonrouge]

"Oh! That sounds like thermal vision."Excited ear wiggles activate," Kitty, that's so cool!"

[runs]

On the one hand she agrees. On the other hand it is in the way of her seeing normally.

"But how do I make it go away?"

[dragoonrouge]

"I don't know," Sadie admits apologetically, "But it should let you keep track of me really easily in the dark. Is there anything else that you can see with it apart from us and the mice?"

[runs]

She frowns and looks at their surroundings. And then, when the breeze changes direction to flow into the direction that they came from...

"I just got a ...ping that the air's temperature got warmer." What. The fuck. That definitely was a little picture lighting up in her vision announcing exactly that. WHAT.

[dragoonrouge]

"What the fuck?" Sadie was a little less enthusiastic to be going down the tunnel's now.

"If this was linked to the sea the air should be colder... Let's take this extra carefully yeah?"

[runs]

"It's warmer when it comes from there." She points into the direction that they're going. Yes, she's absolutely sure of that.

"...do you think there's lava down there?" It sounds ridiculous, but then so does a tsunami in Kent.

[dragoonrouge]

"I'd be surprised if it was lava, there would be far more steam thanks to the water around here and the heat from that would be pretty intense."

Sadie holds out a hand for Kitty to take, "I'll go first and you stay behind me okay? Just let me know if you see any big changes in temperature?"

[runs]

"...Okay." She'll take the hand, partly so she has some option to pull Sadie out of the way should she see some ...blast of heat or something come towards them.

But for the same reason she'll also stay besides her as they walk.

She just hopes that Sadie is right and there's no lava there.

[saveournpcs]

The tunnel that they're following slopes slightly down, but mostly it goes straight now, further and further. At this point, all the offshoots of the tunnel are much smaller, not all dormouse sized but none bigger than a rabbithole. For the time being, the tunnel they're in remains wide enough to walk side by side, though.

[dragoonrouge]

Slowly and steadily making their way down the tunnel, Sadie will occasionally check some of the larger holes but keeps them moving along the main tunnel. There isn't much point dallying when neither of them can take the branching tunnels.

"Any change, Kitty?"

[runs]

"It's getting warmer." Noticeably so, and the breeze is picking up, too... And then she holds up a hand.

There are shapes ahead. Various. The whole end of the tunnel is WARM, but in front of it there's two human shapes. "People and- something BIG."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie stops when Kitty holds up her hand and shuffles forward ever so quietly, Sadie's ears up and alert to listen out for any talking as she holds her finger to her lips. What on earth could be going on in the tunnel?

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy meanwhile is standing in the narrow passage between the mouse and the tunnel with Walter, listening intently to the distant voices.

"Do those sound familiar to you?

[iamnotgod]

"Actually, yes."

Walter can recognize them mostly by pitch at this point - imprecise, but given who all they can expect to be exploring these tunnels...

"That's Kitty, I believe. And quite possibly Sadie."

He keeps moving forward, somewhat more enthusiastically now.

[runs]

Kitty at this point has fallen behind Sadie, still peering around her at the approaching humans but also using her as a safety shield... and then she recognizes them. She's never seen them in thermal vision before, but Walter has a very peculiar way of moving. She'd know that one everywhere.

"Walter!" She hisses.