Congregateeeeee [Mingle]

[saveournpcs]

Date: 4th January 2020
Characters: OPEN

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While Ben goes on an adventure, the mice comply with Walter's request and seek out all the Numbered, wherever they are at the moment, to lead them to an exit - which happens to come out at the highest point that they could have made the Numbered climb. Exercise is good for you?

Either way, the Numbered step out of a tunnel that is just big enough for an adult to find themselves behind a bush up at the ruins that sit on top of the Greens. Luckily, nobody is around as they step out in whatever groups that they found themselves in last.

And then the mice return into the tunnels and leave the Numbered to themselves.

...and as the Numbered who were down in the tunnels step out into the ruins, and a mouse squeaks good-bye at them, they'll receive an echo that makes them, or used to make their preincarnation, feel safe.

Comments

[iamnotgod]

Walter doesn't especially try to be the first out of the tunnels, but he does walk fast and-

Huh.

The onset of a new Echo after such a long time brings him to a stand-still. Only for a moment, because he retains enough presence of mind to remember people are behind him, but taking a deep breath, exhaling, and swallowing come all instinctively for him.

Safe. Warmth. Calmness. Finding the first connection, after a million failures, that seemed as if it could be permanent.

"Trying to be reassuring, aren't you?" he snarks, practically under his breath.

"Did anyone else feel that?" he asks aloud, making way for the rest of the Numbered.

[catted]

"Feel what, specifically?"

Mary Ann, having been the first to get going, was the first up at the ruins and is seated on a rock near the exit by the time everyone else arrives. She's pulled out her phone and is checking work emails, having started to worry about needing to go back down to the surgery soon already.

[iamnotgod]

"A feeling of calmness, I suppose. Centeredness. Being safe."

He shakes his head, letting his attention resettle on all the feeds he's normally plugged into-

"Like that round of Echoes from last year's Mother's Day, among others."

He remembers that, too. He's gotten more hesitant regarding just throwing those feelings out; they could be clues as well.

[catted]

"...Not right now, no. But when I stepped out of there," she gestures towards the entrance, "I felt something like that.

I have no idea if anything came with it, though." She frowns. There probably was an echo. Sometimes what it was just doesn't make itself known right away.

[iamnotgod]

"If it's not obvious right away, that's something to be careful about."

Having knowledge you didn't know you had come out unexpectedly bothers Walter to quite an extent, these days.

"But until Ben comes back," he adds, "we do have some time to try and figure out what it might have been."

[catted]

"I don't really. I need to get back to work." It might be Saturday, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she's off. And she is not, today. "I was just waiting for everyone to come up." For her children and father to come up, especially. And they aren't here yet. So she waits some more.

"....I'll be careful, don't worry." She sighs, and then her expression darkens. "I kind of dread the next full moon now." It's morose to think that that might be it, but what if the change that happened just needs specific conditions to be in effect...?

[lovedramamoron]

Shinichi shivers a little as he comes up after Walter. He feels the familiar sensation of an echo, but nothing else. He waits a moment, a little worried that he was about to get a front row seat to yet another horrible murder.

But nothing.

"Something changed," he says aloud. "But I have no idea what."

[iamnotgod]

"It came from the Mouse," Walter concludes, the capitalization slipping out unintentionally.

"Though why it did something as we left, I don't know."

Had Ben been affected by the same thing? There's no easy way to tell, not without potentially distracting the teen at a key moment while he's climbing-

"No new memories for you, then?"

[lovedramamoron]

Jimmy shakes his head. "Nothing. Not that I'm complaining. Most of the memories so far haven't been pleasant. But now I'm a little worried not knowing what it was that just changed."

[iamnotgod]

"If something's changed in the way you walk, or how you think, it'll be something easier to notice in retrospect."

Y'know. Hopefully.

"So now that we're waiting for Ben-"

With all of their surprise accoutrements.

"Any suggestions on how we should pass the time?"

[dragoonrouge]

With the way that the mice lead then out of the tunnel's, all Sadie can think is that its a good job she doesn't mind a bit of a hike but it did seem like a little bit of a micky take to take this tunnel when there others that were much closer. Though before she can mention as much she's hit by the sensation of an Echo followed by a cacophony of metallic clanking and clatter and the sensation of wind whistling down past her face as a spear drops from the sky and embeds itself into the soil next to her.

"Jesus Christ!" Sadie hisses and jumps back from the spear managing to trip over the pile of very purple armour that had landed around her. "This isn't my most graceful moment." She comments, flat on her back and staring at the sky.

[runs]

She jumps right into Kitty, who ends up under her when Sadie falls over. So instead of a response, there's going to be hissing and an elbow in the blond girl's back.

"OUCH."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie's cheeks bleed red in embarrassment as Kitty hisses and plants her elbow solidly in Sadie's back.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Sadie scrambles up and pulls Kitty up afterwards, busying herself with checking if the younger girl was alright, "I forgot the other stuff that landed when the lance tried to bisect me."

[runs]

Kitty is all right.

She is also wearing a grey coat that definitely wasn't there before. It's a kind of dirty grey colour, not meant to look nice but meant to fade into the background.

Not that she has noticed. She lets Sadie pull her up and peers around her. "A lance?"

[dragoonrouge]

"Yeah, it almost nicked me as it fell."

Sadie turns and pulls the lance from where it was embedded in the ground and her heart skuos a bit. It just felt right for her to hold the lance, the spear was near weightless, like an extention of herself despite being the same height as her.

"I think it and the armour was important to Q'uila," It had to have been to have felt so right, "Though I think that Echo gave you a new outfit too."

[spaghettimonster]

By the end of the climb, Russell's glad he and Nel stopped for snacks and networking. Food to fortify the bodies, conversations to fortify the minds... Well, enough to fortify his body, anyway. Between her size and her connection to nature, Nel seemed likely to doze off again, walking slowly enough he ended up giving her a ride.

It's a change of pace, but a preferable one now that the mice are leading them back to the surface, rather than dragging them down into mysteries, questions, and games of charades. A relief to figure out what the mice want from them... Looming threats of giant sharks and all.

There's causes enough for stress, still. Benjiro, lingering back in the tunnels alone, to explore and examine something about the giant mouse... The question of why the small mice picked this way to convey their worries, whether they just wanted to show off their big friend for context, or to have somewhere private to warn about the shark, or perhaps something else...?

With these thoughts weighing on his mind, Russell drags his feet a little as they exit the tunnels. He can't help but look back, considering how the sense of familiarity and almost comfort in the tunnels is enough that reaching the sky barely feels any different...

And then a mouse squeaks, and the second echo in as many hours hits.

As ever, he reflexively leans against the nearest surface of the tunnel's mouth, the better not to fall over during the dizziness spell. He lands harder than he means to, not used to carrying someone on his shoulders during one of these, but the briefly overwhelming impressions of family time and costume-making distract too much to be more careful than that.

[vernal_miss]

Her determination to reach the more distant exit was waning when Russell extended an offer to the child after yet another stumble. Nel had begun yawning more frequently, and looking upwards far enough to see his face challenged her tired eyelids. She simply did not have the energy left for a long hike, and his kindness brought a relieved smile. There was delay only long enough to stuff a bundle of her long hair down the back of her coat to keep it out of the way. Hoisted to sit on his shoulders with a strength not apparent in his physique, she sniggered from the boost in her view and sudden nearness to the tunnel ceiling.

The floor of the tunnel had been temptation enough while walking, but having his warmth and the softness of his hair under her hands and chin alongside the rocking rhythm of his steps proved too much. Sleep claimed her, causing her to curl in and snuggle his head during the trek.

Still slumbering when Russell emerges into the daylight, Nel is jarred towards consciousness from the effect of the Echo set upon them. Reflexively, she sits herself upright with a gasp at the moment when Russell moves towards support. His lateral motion that ends abruptly combined with her more posterior rock unseats her hips from the back of his shoulders. Too dizzy and disoriented to fight towards up, she ends up flopping against his backside upside down. Her legs curl, somewhat accustomed to the position from experience as the second youngest in her full household. The effort delays a fall, allowing her to hang through the opening of new veins in her magic, but she slips off his shoulders as gravity overcomes friction to pull her headfirst downward.

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh my god," Russell screeches, coming back to awareness as Nel starts slipping from his shoulders. He's far less an expert in giving kids rides than she has in sitting on shoulders, so his hands scrabble desperately behind him for a hold. He grabs at her with everything he's got, even in that reflexive way where people wish they had telekinesis... Which turns out to be more than he knows or expects.

There's a sense of something blue ringing out as her fall freezes at a gesture, drifting at a speed impossibly slow. More than slow enough for him to get an arm around her torso, or for her to place hands to the ground and slowly walk herself upright again.

[vernal_miss]

Barely able to eek out even a squeak of alarm, Nel goes silent as she finds herself hanging upside down in the air with wide eyes staring towards the ground. By the time she realizes what is happening, she feels Russell get an arm around her midsection.

Perplexed by this circumstance, she cranes her chin towards her chest to look at him, “...why was I floating?” She is not alarmed, but her own magic is relatively dormant.

[spaghettimonster]

"You were falling," Russell corrects, still a little bit screeching with his arm rigidly supporting her. He kneels down to help get her to the ground safely before he loses his grip again, saying as he does, "that was my fault, I didn't expect - an echo...?"

He trails off, remembering the thing he'd been bragging to Kitty about earlier. Floating. "...Are you sure? You were floating?"

[dreamtamer]

Thom is one of the last to arrive, having been delayed by needing to talk Gizmo into trusting the mice to let them pass.

As he steps out into the ruins, the dog one step behind him, he suddenly stumbles at a familiar dizzy feeling. And a new memory appears in his mind. Warmth and the smell of bread. Friendship and trust, finding a moment of happiness in the midst of despair.

He lets out a small laugh, and can't seem to stop smiling.

"Hey, Gizmo, have you ever had bread?"

[vernal_miss]

Thanks to Russell being kind enough to let Nel nap while carrying her out of the tunnels, Nel is still awake and sitting nearby when her brother comes to the surface from the tunnels. The sound of his laugh encourages her up to her feet and she walks over to greet him and Gizmo with a smile. Seeing her brother so happy is nice.

Waiting for Gizmo to answer first about the bread, she asks, “Guess you got one too, didn’t you?”

[dreamtamer]

Gizmo just looked confused.

"What's bread? Is it good to eat?"

Thom grins at him. "It's a surprise! But I think you'll like it."

He turns to look at Nel and nods. "I think I remembered friends, this time. We made bread together, and it looked like lots of fun."

[vernal_miss]

Gizmo is in for a treat if Thom is going to give him some bread!

A memory about making bread with friends sounds wonderful, and eager to hear details, Nel reaches to take his hand and tug to try to draw him over to where she had been sitting, “Oh, I want to hear more! Please, Thom?”

She might be a bit envious not having any Number memories of her own yet, but she is genuinely curious.

[dreamtamer]

Thom cheerfully follows after her and sits down.

"I still couldn't understand what anyone was saying, but I think everyone was really happy."