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

[spaghettimonster]

After the mysterious giant mouse thing, Russell expects to be led to more cave art, or bodies left from the war, or one of the sinkholes, or maybe even a wizened old man offering him a sword. Something dramatic and storytale-ish.

He mutters complaints and ideas to himself, roughly keeping the flashlight on the mouse so he doesn't lose it, but mostly he looks back and forth at the walls for signs of something of the sort.

When he's led instead to a person, and a familiar one at that, he's shocked enough to stop complaining and crouch down next to her. "Hey, what are... Nel? Are you hurt?"

[vernal_miss]

Her name seeps through the haze of sleep, and Nel stirs slowly as she takes in a deeper breath. Rubbing at her eyes, she peers one open to see a stronger light and someone close to her with a pair of feet. One hand is used to sweep her hair back as she turns her head to look up to see Russell.

“Huh...? Russell, you found a bigger hole? I was trying to look from inside but then I found the mice...” her voice is a little slurred at first but clears as she wakes further, “They showed me their big friend and we were talking, but then one of them went to get something.” A yawn follows, and she pushes herself up to prop on an elbow.

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh, you saw their big friend too," Russell says, with a slightly too-high voice as he tries to be calm and reassuring. He looks over her head and her surroundings, checking for any signs she hit herself. But her voice is sounding better as she talks, which is reassuring.

"No, Kitty found a better hole, she led a few people in... What did the mice bring you?" He checks around the ground again, as if expecting there to be something there. It hasn't yet occurred to him that this happened so quickly that it's him they went to get.

[vernal_miss]

The walls around her and the floor show no signs of blood or anything of that nature.

“Don’ worry, they’re supposed to be that big,” Nel offers after hearing the higher-pitch and mistaking it for nerves. Drowsy in expression, she draws in a bigger breath to ready herself and pushes to sit fully upright. The girl is slouching, but awake enough to think properly again.

Initially, Nel begins to look for an item with Russell before her gaze turns back up to him thoughtfully, “...I think they brought you. I got stuck trying to figure out what their big friend needs.” The girl looks to the dormice to see if she is indeed correct, then does her best to recap for Russell.

“It’s not help exactly, but something like it. I asked what we need to do and they made a shark shape. Then they made a person and it’s Mr. Evil. But they said he didn’t do anything to their friend, and he doesn’t need to.” She sighs and shakes her head, “I dunno what the big mouse needs from the clues of a shark and Mr. Evil.”

[saveournpcs]

The mice agree by nodding. They did indeed bring him here to help with the charades.

[spaghettimonster]

The lack of injuries is a relief. She's not wrong, though, it is nerves. Nerves that he's trying - and failing - to cover. Nothing can convince him that a mouse is supposed to be the size of an apartment building, or whatever the other kids were saying earlier.

"Is it that they want us to stop whatever Mr. Evil is doing...? Because Mr. Helpful already asked that," he tells the mice. "With no suggestions how."

[saveournpcs]

The mice nod eagerly. Yes, thank you, Russell, that's what they meant with their very ardistic rendition of a shark.

[vernal_miss]

“But...” she starts lamely, a little more puzzled and disappointed at her oversight to check if the request is a repetitive one.

Not ready to waste another opportunity, she decides to inquire, “We don’t even know what he’s doing that we’re supposed to stop. Mr. Helpful didn’t know. And I don’t understand...why did you show us your friend? Is your friend in danger?”

[saveournpcs]

More nodding, and squeaking. Three of them build a pyramid once again.

[spaghettimonster]

"He's... building a pyramid. Building something terrible," Russell corrects, and follows Nel's example in tossing out more things to yes-or-no at. "Or it's just something to do with... Pyramids, triangles, Masons, Illuminati?"

They're this deep down the mouse hole, it's worth throwing it out there, right?

[saveournpcs]

The mice squeak and pointedly look at Nel. YOU TELL HIM.

[vernal_miss]

The confirmation of danger and the reformation of the pyramid etch a worried frown into the girl’s expression. That simply will not do.

Then Russell takes a stab at interpreting. His questions veer well away from Mossgate, and she is stunned at how far it goes so quickly. Russell thinks differently than her. That’s probably why he broke straight through her roadblock.

At the squeaks and looks from the mice, Nel answers for them, “None of those. I think they’re referring to the sharks again. The sharks might be dangerous to the big mouse.”

Rather than stick to only conversing amongst themselves, Nel pulls around her rucksack to dig inside. Quickly she locates her sketchbook. Laying the pages open on the floor, she writes her Number as she speaks, “We need to talk to everyone about this. And...maybe while we try to get in touch, we could have a snack break?” Russell did mention snacks earlier.

[spaghettimonster]

There's a second or two of blinking at the mice pyramid, as Russell was - to his own regret - perfectly ready to work with the conspiracy theories he tossed out. They're nothing he hasn't heard before, albeit with fewer giant mice or aliens with miniature shower sharks. But he can't fathom what a pyramid has to do with sharks.

"Right, sounds good. Stop, eat something, get our wits about us." He nods, pulls his own bag off his shoulders and opens the section he'd filled with some foodstuffs. Protein bars, fiber bars, jerky, dried fruit. The sorts of things that wouldn't perish quickly.

"Sharks, huh. Sharks dangerous to the mice," Russell echoes as he starts laying his offerings on the ground for easy picking from. "He's not making a giant shark, is he?"

[saveournpcs]

The mice squeak, and then try to demonstrate something.

One runs towards the direction of the mouse, then back. One it runs up to another mouse before the move so they sit some distance apart from another, and shake their heads. One.

One other squeaks and then sits down directly next to another mouse.Then they shake their heads. Two.

Two other mice still squeak and then sit apart from one another roughly half as far away as the first two mice, and nod. Three.

[vernal_miss]

His openness to the suggestion is met with a smile, “Thank you.” She is grateful he had decided earlier to be more prepared than her. She looks back at her sketchbook to see the message from her mother. “My Mum’s on. She says Ben said the big mouse is under the mouth of Moss River.”

Looking back to Russell after she writes a response, she notices the theme of his food. The dried fruit looks particularly good, so she will reach for a package. In return, she turns her sketchbook to move a page closer to him and lays a pen on it so he can access the Network too.

As she starts to open the dried fruit, Nel notices the mice giving another clue. “The big mouse...?” she says as the first runs back. She watches quietly after, initially puzzled until the last two nod, “Not far. Not near. Part...no, half. Halfway.” Half of what. Russell asked the last question of them, “Is the shark half as big as your friend?”

[saveournpcs]

The mice nod, and then one of them manages to raise it's tiny front legs in an approximation of a \o/ gesture.

[spaghettimonster]

"We're under the mouth of Moss River...?" Russell echoes, in a faintly lost tone. He hasn't connected all the details yet - his superpowers don't seem to include enhanced memory or deductive reasoning - but he can already tell, he'll need some fortification when he connects the dots. He grabs one of those protein bars and cram it in his face, and settles down the better to check on the network as well.

Nel's question draws his attention up to the end of the dance of the mice. The little gesture at the end is admittedly adorable, but the information conveyed is too much.

"What? No. I was right? But, no. The sharks swim up the river this far, as if... they're looking for something. And there was something else with the mouth of the river, what was it." He shakes his head at the world, and grabs that pen to start asking the others.

[vernal_miss]

Between the adorable cheer from one of the mice and the pleasure that comes with understanding on her first attempt, Nel initially beams at the confirmation. In the seconds that follow, her expression falls as the reality of that statement sinks in with her eyes widening. A shark that big would be a threat to all the boats in the bay alongside the big mouse down here.

“_Oh...” follows quietly. One hand is run back into her hair as she tries to wrap her mind around the request to stop such a force of nature. Rather than ponder it alone, she writes to the Network again.

Pen dropped on the page, she follows Russell’s example and pries open the dried fruit. She dumps half the package into her hand and then offers her hand to the mice, “Here. You’re working hard. And after we are done down here, I can try to grow some fresh berries for you.” Her magic has recovered somewhat from when she disconnected from the world, so she expects she can manage at least that much.

[saveournpcs]

The mice are surprised by the offering, but after a moment of hesitation one tipples forward to accepts a berry, and when the others see that that venture went over without a problem, they swarm Nel's hand to all get a berry of their own.

[spaghettimonster]

The motion of the mice gets Russell's attention, and he looks up from reading through the Network conversation to see them swarm Nel's hand.

"Oh, good idea. We might not like the news," an understatement he's sure they can all recognize, "but we appreciate the warning. The least we can do is share some fruit."

[vernal_miss]

Her hand remains patiently still against the floor of the tunnel as the first then the rest of the mice take a piece. It tickles with so many tiny paws, but she holds back any giggles with a tight smile. Nel makes very certain all of the mice with them got a share, and pours a little more out as needed.

Looking to Russell when he speaks, she smiles in a more relaxed manner and nods in agreement. Very well said.

Once the mice are set, she picks bits from the bag to eat herself. Slowly her brow knits together with worry. She does not know that she can help in facing a giant shark, especially while her magic is blunted. That worry leads her to ask Russell, “...do you think we can stop a shark that big?”

[spaghettimonster]

"...I suppose it depends what we're stopping it from," he eventually says, with a grimace back the way he came. "Swimming out at sea, nothing much for it. I'm not recreating any shark horror films. But if it tries coming inland..."

Really, he has to shrug at that one, too. They have a smattering of strange powers between them all, but hardly the stuff of fighting against giant monsters. Even tiny sharks proved to be problems. But between wanting to reassure her, and wanting to reassure himself, he keeps talking through his thoughts.

"...Though. Between tiny sharks and a giant shark... Maybe Evil has some sort of size-changing ray. If we got ahold of something like that," he says, gesturing with a hand like it's a ray gun, "zap. No more giant shark threat."

[vernal_miss]

Occupying herself with another dried berry after posing her question, Nel listens as he frames the matter in a new way for her. It lessens her worry when he helps her understand the goal can be smaller than the giant shark.

The girl fails to grasp the concept of what happens in movies chasing after a shark, but the idea of the ray altering the size of the sharks is readily understood thanks to cartoons. A small smile is revived watching his gesture, and she replies, “If we shrunk it to the size of a sea monkey, maybe Mum would let Thom keep it.” He had asked for one before.

“It’s too bad we can’t make it sleep like the giant dormouse,” she comments. They will have time to brainstorm together for a real solution, and between the adults, a safe plan should be found.

[spaghettimonster]

Russell grins appreciatively at the thought of this theoretical big danger being turned into a child's pet, content in a comfortably-sized aquarium for the rest of its days. But he has to shrug at the second point.

"It's a bit tricky, isn't it? I think sharks need to swim, even in their sleep."

Not that he knows the type of shark, but he remembers hearing something about some possibly suffocating if they don't keep in motion. Unlike the giant dormouse, which can apparently sleep underground in a cave so long that it's far too large to ever get out again, except by - he assumes - causing more earthquakes and sink holes.

[vernal_miss]

This matter Nel has a little more knowledge of thanks to watching so many animal shows, “Depends on the kind of shark? I think some small ones like nurse sharks can stay still, but bigger ones definitely have to swim.” Hence such hurry when tagging one at the side of the boat. She remembers there is something the nurse shark has that a great white does not that keeps water moving over the gills.

“Well, whatever is decided, it’ll work out,” she says with a newly bolstered confidence. It may not be easy by any means, but she is convinced the Numbered can manage something to help the mice.