Run, run, follow me [Open Mingle]

[saveournpcs]

Date: Saturday, 4.1.2020
Characters: OPEN

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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

[saveournpcs]

The mice don't follow them, but they don't leave, either.

They stay exactly where they are.

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.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy focuses on keeping the light on the path in front of them.

Later he would not be able to pin down the exact moment that the echo started. He only knew that he had been glancing at the tunnel walls when all of a sudden he felt the all too familiar feeling of an echo, and he was remembering the walls of a very different underground tunnel. He remembered flashes of light playing across the walls of a natural cave, frightened small children, the sight of three men and a body in the shadows across the cave. And worst of all the sound of gunshots and the feeling of being shot through his stomach.

He staggers to the side of the tunnel, his face pale even in the dim light.

[iamnotgod]

Walter does not hesitate in supporting the teen, gently guiding him to the tunnel wall and helping him remain upright.

"Let me guess... another memory?" he voices, quiet but not in a whisper.

Despite his gentle tone, his expression is quite grim.

[lovedramamoron]

"Someone shot me!" he blurts out. His free hand clutches at his stomach, where he'd felt the bullet go through. "And I was a kid! Who just shoots at a bunch of kids like that?"

[iamnotgod]

"A criminal," Walter says, voice dark.

"And hopefully not someone we'll encounter down here. Do you need to head back up, get some air?"

[lovedramamoron]

"No," he says firmly. "We've gotten this far. I'm not going to let one of these stupid memory things stop me now."

Denial and compartmentalization was a perfectly valid coping strategy. He refused to think about this right now.

[iamnotgod]

Walter nods, making sure Jimmy can see him, before offering his shoulder.

"As long as it hasn't injured you now. Sometimes Echoes restore scars."

And not just mental ones, for once.

[lovedramamoron]

"I don't think I got any injuries." He presses on his stomach, but doesn't feel any pain. "I think it was just the memory of it."

He supposed he was fortunate. This was not a good place to experience an injury like that.

[iamnotgod]

"Still a terrible memory to receive," Walter points out.

"We'll keep going, then."

Jimmy can lean on him if he wishes to, though Walter won't draw attention to it.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy still has to lean on Walter a little as they move, although he leans less as they move along. It might have been a memory, but the pain had definitely felt real. And he was still feeling a little shaky from the experience.

[saveournpcs]

As they head down the tunnel, they'll notice that the breeze grows stronger. When blowing into the direction that they came from, it also becomes warmer, and more humid.

Otherwise, there isn't much to say; the tunnel continues, down and sloping slightly downward.

Eventually, they hear a faint rumbling in the distance.

[iamnotgod]

Walter grimaces; that humid sensation is not pleasant, and not just because Webmind technically counted as a computer.

"... I hate to ask, but what do you suppose that rumbling is, Jimmy?"

Something to distract the teen from his new memories, obviously.

[lovedramamoron]

"I'm going to guess that we found the big thing the mice were talking about. Well. gesturing about."

[iamnotgod]

"We haven't found it yet. Or rather, we haven't seen it yet."

And he's not looking forward to it.

"Should we record this to the Network?"

Or to their phones in general? Can Walter even upload anything to the web from down here?

[saveournpcs]

Walter has, at this point, lost his internet connection. The Numbered Network is accessible without an issue, though, and their phones work fine - there's just no signal of any kind here.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy checks his phone.

"No signal for me. Can you get into the network?"

[iamnotgod]

There is a tentative pause- lengthened as Walter belatedly realizes he can see, and that he doesn't need his glasses at the moment to do so.

"The Network's fine, but otherwise we're cut off. If we're going to find out what's at the end of this, we may as well keep going."

While Walter quietly tries to fight off his own budding panic at being isolated again...

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy was a little freaked out by everything, but any panic he might have felt was completely buried under an irresistable sense of curiosity.

"Right. Let's get this over with."

He shoves his phone in his pocket and starts walking.

[saveournpcs]

They walk for a good while longer, before they reach what seems to be the end of the tunnel and step out into - actually, do they step out? The tunnel ends, but there's no wide empty space. There's a space that might be huge, but a wall blocks the way. A wall covered in giant brown fur. A wall that is moving very slowly in synch with the breeze.

[iamnotgod]

Walter is immediately suspicious, and very much so.

"Is... that... that is not a mouse," is all he can make himself say, in a manner of voice that hopefully won't wake it.

[lovedramamoron]

"No one mentioned there were rodents of unusual size under the city," Jimmy says vaguely. In the surprise it was all he could think to say.

Reference is to an AJJ song.

[iamnotgod]

"No, definitely not," Walter says with some fervor.

There are no big red birds, either, but that's a reference he's not sure Jimmy will understand.

"I hope we're not supposed to wake it; it would make the earthquake seem small."

[lovedramamoron]

"Any ideas on what else we can do? It doesn't look like there's a way around it."

[iamnotgod]

"Well. It'd help if we had an idea of what to say, first."

Walter is not enthusiastic about this, not at all.

But slowly, tentatively, looking as if he'd rather be doing anything else... he walks up to the wall of fur and puts a hand on it, gently as anything.

He'll dash it away in a fifth of a second if the mouse (?) reacts, but at least it's as soft as it looks?

[saveournpcs]

There is no reaction.

The "wall" is as warm and semi-soft as one would expect a giant animal to be. From where Walter stands, he cannot really see the end of the expanse of brown fur - as far as their torch reaches, there's the cave wall and the furry wall, going up and up and stretching on to the sides as well. There's just enough space between mouse and wall to walk there and see if they can learn more about the creature, if they dare.