saveourearth | Run, run, follow me [Open Mingle]

Entry tags:

Run, run, follow me [Open Mingle]

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.

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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?"

"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?"

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.

"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?"

"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.

"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?"

"...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.

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.

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?"

"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."

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?

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?

"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.

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.

Sadie nods, "Sounds like and Jimmy as well. Let's see if they know a bit more about what's going on."

Walking forward Sadie waves at Jimmy and Walter, "Hey guys, what have you managed to find?"

Jimmy makes an exaggerated shushing gesture, and speaks in a half-whisper.

"You might want to quiet down. We don't want to wake it up."

"We managed not to be eaten by a mouse," Walter deadpans, pulling the handkerchief off his face slightly.

"Though given it is sleeping, that wasn't exactly hard. Did the mice explain anything to you as well?"

Well, inasmuch as dormice can explain anything, Walter supposes...

"So there IS a giant mouse there that wants to eat us!" SHE KNEW IT!

At another time she would probably have noticed that Walter isn't being serious here, but she's not in that kind of mind right now.

"I really don't think it'll want to eat you Kitty. Though I will admit that that is a very large mouse."

Despite her caution Sadie does want to get a closer look at the giant mouse later on, "I'll admit we didn't talk much to the dormice, what did they tell you?"

"That there was a very large mouse down here," Jimmy says tiredly. "Did you know they can do math? Except I think they meant multiplication or exponents instead of addition."

"Assuming they hadn't misinterpreted us and were merely portraying a circumference," Walter snarks, before moving over to a cave wall to feel a little more grounded.

"If this is all the mice wanted us to do - have a look around - then I'd be more than happy to head back out and have us resume our lives. I doubt it's that simple, however."

Kitty makes a face at the mention of maths. Did the mice go to school or what.

"...If they want us to wake it, then it's a trap." No matter what Sadie is saying. She doesn't trust this giant rodent. ...saying which, the others went down here as well, right? Maybe someone learned more about the mice's motif...

Which she would find on the network. So she pulls out her phone, puts in her number, and just as she wants to type, realizes that there's another person's message there. More than that one, technically, but...

She holds up her phone so the others can see Mary Ann's information. "Look."

Edited 2020-04-13 17:27 (UTC)

"Oh..." Sadie breaths out as she reads the message Kitty pulled up, "That, that explains a lot."

Sadie walks quietly up to the giant mouse and perks her ears up to full alert and closes her eyes to listen, almost close enough to lean against the mouse as she listens to the heartbeat and for any similarities to what she felt and heard in the river.

"This might have been what caused the stuff that happened in the river, Walter."

Jimmy frowns.

"How long do you think its been down here? Because there all those earthquake reports too, but some of those happened centuries ago."

"Possibly hundreds or even thousands of years," Walter answers, walking back over swiftly to take in the new Network entry.

"Assuming it grew at anything like a continuous rate, and didn't just spontaneously appear like certain other phenomena in Mossgate."

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