Thanks, Ben [Mingle]

[saveournpcs]

Date: 4th of January 20, 3 hours after everyone came out of the cavesCharacters: OPEN

---

Three hours after everyone came out of the caves, an earthquake of the magnitude 5.7 shakes the echo boundary.

Up on the ruins, a single block from one of the lower walls gets dislocated and falls.

Down in the city and villages, things go a bit worse. A couple of sheds collapse, things fall over and off things, and some houses are left with cracks in their walls and might end up condemned. A number of telegraph poles fall over and a few on cars. There's three injured and no fatalities over all, and a few related car accidents because people got distracted that again go without fatalities.

...And, of course, the Media are back. The next day, the Sun titles "IS THERE A NEW CRACK IN THE EARTH'S CRUST??? Another earthquake strikes Mossgate 4 houses condemned, 10 admitted to hospital, powerlines down", but newspapers with more journalistic integrity send reporters as well.

Someone else is back, too - Numbered will see Mr Neutral, Mr Evil and Mr Helpful wander the streets.

Comments

[saveournpcs]

Mr Neutral can be found at the mouth of the river, looking out over the bay towards the spot where the tsunami all those months ago had been said to have come from.

[iamnotgod]

It's not as long a walk as it could have been, then.

"Excuse me," Walter says on his approach, deceptively lightly, before starting in with:

"Does a dormouse large enough to cause earthquakes mean anything to you?"

Walter is not in a good mood, clearly. He is not shouting, but if words have texture, his are pointed.

[saveournpcs]

Mr Neutral does, for a fleeting moment, look faintly surprised, and then intrigued, before his features settle into a more neutral look.

"We did assume that there had to be something large under the city, but we had not expected a dormouse."

[iamnotgod]

"The mice in this town have been fairly active - and interactive - for the past year at least."

Though it's plain even now on Walter's face that this development has taken him fairly aback too.

"Would you happen to know of a similarly-sized being out under the bay?"

He's also been wondering if there's a third one, but one question at a time.

"Or theories of such."

[saveournpcs]

"...I do not." He shakes his head, but turns his head away from Walter to look out towards the spot where the epicentre of the tsunami was all these months ago. "I have been wondering if Mr Evil is working on something out there, but if there's a giant dormouse... would it be expansive enough to have caused the tsunami?"

[iamnotgod]

"The dormice thought it was a shark, from what some of the other Numbered have gathered."

Though Walter's first assumption would have been that the Mouse itself had caused the tsunami.

Or perhaps it had been a reaction to the Mouse from the shark? Walter wasn't sure now anymore.

[saveournpcs]

"...huh." He frowns faintly. "Now, I don't know him all that way, but I just can't see him building a shark large enough to cause a tsunami...besides, wouldn't your scientists have noticed such a being in the water?"

[iamnotgod]

Walter nods.

"They inspected something out on the Greens, the first November after the Aurora, and they became especially attentive to the waters after that first earthquake. Though," he adds, indicating the general location of the Mouse with a wave of his hand.

"They should have noticed the giant dormouse a long time previous as well; the animals may somehow be immune to such scanning devices."

A prospect he does not enjoy entertaining in the least.

[saveournpcs]

He nods at the thoughts about why the sientists would not have noticed a giant shark, should it be there. That does make sense.

"Something out on the Greens-

oh. You mean the thing that those who carried it away marked with the yellow fan sign? I don't think that was directly related," he informs Walter with regret in his voice. "That was just Mr Evil hiding something in the stack of wood they had there.

Mr Helpful felt that a human should be tipped off about it."

[iamnotgod]

Walter looks genuinely surprised when Mr. Neutral drops that particular info-bomb.

And then, he facepalms. "Of course that was something he did. Of course."

He'll be telling the rest of the Numbered later, after this conversation is over.

"Was it a prank from him, then? Though I can hardly imagine it being harmless to us humans."

It gives Walter some quiet relief and pride to still be able to say 'us humans' and not just 'us Numbered'.

[saveournpcs]

Mr Neutral shakes his head.

"I don't think anything he does here is meant to be a prank. He seems entirely serious."

[iamnotgod]

Oh, joy. And here he'd been hoping (albeit faintly, tampered by cynicism and his own reactions from what had happened when they had first come face-to-face) that Mr. Evil had tailored his appearance to imply he had a lighter side.

"Why plan to cause harm to anyone here, then? Is that simply... how he is?"

[saveournpcs]

Another nod. "That is how he is. His name says it, doesn't it?"

[iamnotgod]

"Just as yours implies that you remain Neutral?"

That's a question, because: "But will you remain neutral in this, as well? When another earthquake, or tsunami, could happen, or else something larger-scale than just Mossgate?"

Because it could get that bad, Walter realizes. And it's not a pleasant realization.

[saveournpcs]

He starts to feel a little bit like these solar powered dogs in hair dressers' windows, nodding his head so often.

"It is my nature. ...we are much less malleable than your kind seems to be."

[iamnotgod]

Or a bobble toy? Walter is more familiar with those, anyway, but he knows the feeling at any rate.

His expression right now, though, is one of sympathy, though with no small amount of confusion along with it.

"That seems to be a constant, in folklore. That what humans are most unique in is their flexibility, whereas other beings are stagnant in their ways."

Not very flattering, he thinks, but if it's true that presents another problem.

"What would it take to stop Mr. Evil, then, if persuading him to act otherwise isn't an option?"

[saveournpcs]

Mr Neutral doesn't nod this time. This time, he just gives Walter a very long, calm look.

"I think you can answer that question yourself.

How do you stop someone whom you cannot change?"

[iamnotgod]

"You fight it."

Something about the answer seems incomplete, which rankles him, but all the same: "You work your way onto their level, and fight them."

[saveournpcs]

"That is an action, not a goal," Mr Neutral points out. Look, he's neutral. He's not advocating for anything. But he will be the sounding box that Walter requires here.

[iamnotgod]

Walter smiles wryly. Indirect help; he can deal with that.

... In time past, he has been that.

"The Numbered do not even know what our goal is. Making it separate from Mr. Evil's isn't precisely a necessary step, here."

[saveournpcs]

"Perhaps you should agree among one another what goals you are comfortable with, then, before this goes any further." And what actions may or may not be taken based on that.

[iamnotgod]

Walter nods.

"Survival is important in the meantime, however. And not just surviving, but thriving," he adds, because he remembers what it's like to have such a narrow focus.

It wasn't much fun, and wouldn't have ended well for anyone in the cult, of that he was sure.

"So, speaking hypothetically now, if our goal were to defend Mossgate, which presumably is in contrast with Mr. Evil's goal..."

[saveournpcs]

He raises an eyebrow. "Then what would you have to do to survive and thrive?"

[iamnotgod]

"For me, personally, I'd go as far as is needed, though I also understand it's sometimes better to leave the question unanswered-"

To threaten the man without following through. But what sort of threat could the Numbered leverage against an alien?

[saveournpcs]

"Perhaps you should find less vague answers to that question." He sighs, and then shrugs. "Either way, I don't envy those of you who will have to pick sides."