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

[dragoonrouge]

"It's hard to say," Sadie comments quietly as she continues to listen to the mouse's breathing and heartbeat, "There is no natural way for a mouse to achieve this size and Walter makes a valid point. Though mice seem to have been important in the area for a very long time. I saw Bronze Age stuff in that vision from the statues Jimmy found."

"When we investigated the river mouth I got lulled in by this heartbeat noise. Whatever it was reacted to my magic, that was what caused the tsunami we had last year."

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy frowns again as he stares over at the mouse.

"The question is, if we wake it up, is that going to cause another earthquake or tsunami?"

[iamnotgod]

Walter nods to confirm Sadie's story.

"Perhaps that is the question we should ask the mice. Both if we need to wake it up, and if those would be part of the consequences."

'Would waking your friend put the towns above in danger?' worked as a nice combo delivery method.

[runs]

Kitty brightens up at Walter's suggestion. "So we go back to the tiny mice?"

Not that she's particularly fond of them, but at least they won't eat them.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie moves away from the giant mouse and nods in agreement, "Sounds like a plan to me. Did you come from the same direction we did?" She asks Jimmy, pointing back in the direction her and Kitty had come from.

Going with Lel's plan, so Jimmy speaks up next round...

[iamnotgod]

Walter shakes his head before Jimmy can speak. "I suspect not, except in the general sense of 'from above ground'."

[runs]

"Where did you come from, then?" She frowns. There's only behind, really, since the tunnel ends right where the giant mouse is...

[lovedramamoron]

"From the other side of the mouse." Jimmy grins. "There's a narrow passage between the mouse and the wall we could just get through."

[iamnotgod]

"Whether it goes all the way around the mouse, we don't know for certain yet," Walter elaborates.

"We haven't seen either of its eyes yet, though they may be too high up given the rest of its dimensions."

Very specifically not mentioning the mouth, there.

[runs]

"...Even so we know that it is stupidly big.

...There's more." She holds up her phone again and shows them Nel's response to Mary Ann's message.

[dragoonrouge]

Quickly writing a response of her own on the Network Sadie shrugs, "How about you both lead the way and we'll go and talk to the dormice you encountered seeing as you've already chatted to them more than Kitty and I did to the ones we found."

[lovedramamoron]

"Sounds like a plan," Jimmy says. "But we'll have to go single file. Its kind of a tight squeeze between the mouse and the wall."

[iamnotgod]

Walter is also writing away, frowning and suppressing sighs.

"Unless we want to find an alternate way. And I brought handkerchiefs as a precaution for a reason; you'd need those two if we go back through the chamber."

[runs]

She will tag along, but... yeah. She's gonna hang back for a bit here. As much as she would normally be gung-ho about all of this, normally you're not dealing with giant mice that could swallow you whole or squish you. Mice aren't even cool like dinosaurs or sharks!

"...why would we need handkerchiefs?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie shoots Walter a questioning look at the handkerchiefs comment before petting Kitty on the head, any mice wanting to eat her will have to go through Sadie first.

"If it's going to be that much trouble there were some mice the way we came which was pretty straight to be honest."

[lovedramamoron]

"If we go back that way, you'll find out," Jimmy tells Kitty.

"Why don't we just ask on the network if there is anyone still up there by the little mice?"

[iamnotgod]

Walter lets Jimmy's explanation stand.

"Perhaps the mice can be asked to congregate in one place?"

That would solve that problem nicely.

[runs]

"Maybe...

Oh." She holds up her phone once more. "...The doctor says that we shouldn't enter the cave." Not that she minds. "Apparently Ben is going to climb the mouse."

[dragoonrouge]

"If this stunt doesn't kill him I will." Sadie mutters as she glares at the Network messages.

"Right," She sighs, "If we need to get to the mice then heading the way that Kitty and I came from will probably be easiest, the tunnel was pretty straight forward and it seems like time is of the essence."

Once they've decided which way they're going Sadie walks next to Kitty, ready in case the younger girl needs a hand and to chivvy her along if needs be.

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy sighs.

"I guess there's no chance at tagging along at this point?"

Climbing the mouse would be so cool.

But he ends up accompanying the rest of the group back out.

... Thread wrap?

[iamnotgod]

Walter doesn't growl, nothing so overt, but he is visibly unhappy alongside Sadie.

Instead, he makes his way up with the group swiftly.

[runs]

At least one person here is happy about the direction they're headed into.