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

Alien encounters

[saveournpcs]

The three gents with the straightforward names are wandering around the echo boundary. If you wish to encounter one of them, tag this toplevel with the name of the gent that you wish to meet.

Mister Neutral (though anyone is fine, really)

[iamnotgod]

Walter has not been having a good day, to put it politely. First the mice, then the Mouse, then Ben, and now MORE EARTHQUAKES.

But once the reports on that last part start hitting the Internet, he can't let himself just wait for answers anymore.

Once he's sure Ben is safe (which, admittedly, may be some time), he heads out and away, on the hunt for at least one of the three people who seem to know the most about this madness...

Even if they may not actually know very much. For being alien explorers, they act very out of the loop.

[warped_replica]

Aftermath
For those Numbered still waiting for Benjiro to return from his exploration, it would be another half an hour wait after the earthquake shudders through Mossgate. Along the way, as he walked off most of the discomfort, his pace picked up to make the long journey to the ruins quicker. His arrival appears sudden as he steps around a pillar in the ruins to approach where they had settled. He is clearly not crushed, one arm hooked on his duffel bag.

Wearing his face mask as usual, his brow is knotted with worry, “Is everyone alright?”

Next Day
After the tsunami, Benjiro had joined efforts in the damaged areas to assist with repairs any way he could. With the damage more limited from the earthquake he caused, he has nothing he can repair for the community at large. All he was able to do was clean up at the house and make a couple minor repairs to the sturdy house.

He spends a restless night in his room, and at first light the next morning, he is outside at work in the shed. Throughout the day, he can be found working on a new project.

Aftermath

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie whirls around in the direction of the pillar from where she had been sorting out the armour that had scattered about her with everyone's most recent Echo as soon as her sensitive ears pick up the sound of Ben's approach. Dropping the gauntlets to the side she rushes over to Ben and immediately starts checking him over and looking for any sign of injury.

"Are we alright?!" She parrots back incredulously, "Ben, where have you been?!"

Next Day (aka Not The Group Prompt)

[iamnotgod]

Walter's own skillset leant itself better to helping with relief coordination. Most of it he could even do at a distance, which he tried not to let on.

He also does his best to keep Ben shielded from the press - not that he's precisely expecting trouble from that quarter - and it's not long after first light when he calls Ben's aunts and lets them know he'll be over, helping him.

Again, he takes dictation on what needs to be moved where, what to prop into place for welding or wiring or whatever else is necessary, and gently encourages him to talk.

"That last streaming-location clue was quite something, Benjiro. Though I think they're starting to scale up their strategizing."

Re: Aftermath

[iamnotgod]

Walter just pointedly stares at the young man, aggrieved and relieved in equal measure.

Letting Sadie take the forefront, he heads over at a much slower pace, trying to gauge from a distance what Sadie's doing close-up.

"We know where he's been," he counters. "But we don't know what happened. Ben, do you feel you need medical attention, or can we focus on discussing details right now?"

[warped_replica]

Right hand raised to show his palm in a manner asking for calm, he stops as soon as Sadie reaches him. The only sign of injury Sadie will find with a visual search is the wrap of gauze around his left hand on his duffle bag. The small first aid kit in his bag will need to be minimally restocked later. He always wears loose, long sleeved clothing these days so any further check may have to be done with some prodding.

Having Sadie’s question answered for him, Benjiro looks surprised at the question of him potentially needing medical attention, “What? No, no...! I scraped my hand, I’m fine.” Comes with scaling rock with bare hands.

“I know that took a long time but the mouse is spread out much further than I had realized, and it’s more aware of what is happening around it than anyone asleep should be.”

[warped_replica]

Coming over that early meant Walter was invited to breakfast by his great aunts, and a decline would not be accepted without at least a beverage being given to him. After such a long night, Benjiro does eat a decent amount, but he lacks his usual enthusiasm.

Throughout the morning, Benjiro will provide directions for Walter at every step. The build will take at least a couple of days work to get everything tuned and to his standards, but the assistance is hastening the progress.

Not raising his eyes away from feeding a wire into the structure, Benjiro hums softly. A beat later, he replies, “It is getting harder to write the clues. My followers are learning the maps faster than I can find new hiding spots.”

Sudden deja-vu. o.o

[iamnotgod]

Walter would partake in breakfast, if only to make sure that Benjiro did as well.

Hands held perfectly still, he says, "Perhaps something more abstract? A picture collage instead of word games, for a change of pace. Or-"

He is not as certain this suggestion is appropriate given the nature of the MMORPGs Ben says, but. But.

"I could create a mod for you, if you'd like?"

Right?

[warped_replica]

Nodding once, he tilts his head to finish guiding the wire and starts to secure it carefully with his tools. Murmuring he considers, “A commonality between a set of pictures might work...”

When his friend offers to make the mod, he glances up from the wires, “...that sounds like a lot of work for something so minor. What did you have in mind?”

Yup.

[iamnotgod]

"Yes, or something like a Pictionary game."

Or whatever that party game had been.

Walter smiles. "It's no trouble, I assure you; at this point acquiring the server space is trivial. And while a cave system would be too on-the-nose-"

And frankly, water was out, too. Though inadvertently guessing the layout of Mr. Evil's base would be amusing...

"How about a cloud system? Where some of the clouds can be walked through, but not all."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie gently lifts Ben's injured hand to have a closer look as he answers Walter. A growl rumbles in her throat and she glares up at Ben, "¡Chingada madre! ¡Casi me matas del susto!"

She shoves his shoulder, not enough to shift Ben but it emphasises her point, "You could have gotten trapped down there!"

[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.

[warped_replica]

His hand is easy to lift and turn as he keeps his arm relaxed with his elbow propped on his duffle bag. Between her growl and the very angry Spanish she unleashes, Benjiro’s focus shifts only to Sadie with a wilting word, “Sadie...” Any of the words he would have said after are interrupted when she shoves his left shoulder. Supported, the mild sprain did not hurt, but having the anterior to posterior force translating through the joint is an unexpected stress to it. Not braced for it, he squints one eye shut with tension as he croaks out a sound that starts high and ends low with a slowed exhale to end it.

His voice is softer as he opens his eye and replies, “...yes, I could have been. But there’s no one I would have asked to go looking around in there. We need as much information as we can get.”

[iamnotgod]

Walter lets Sadie's language stand.

"In terms of injuries, you got off lightly," he allows.

"But there was an earthquake half an hour ago. Could you feel any of it?"

If Ben was at the epicenter, then there must have been something.

[dragoonrouge]

The anger drains from Sadie at Ben's pained response to her shoving his shoulder and she goes back to fussing.

"You shouldn't go looking for answers to the detriment of you health, Ben. How badly did you hurt your shoulder initially?"

It was important to double check what the original injury was like with Ben's healing factor at play.

"Can you sit down or will that hurt more?"

[warped_replica]

A look towards Walter is given, acknowledging his injuries could have been far worse. Especially if he were still fully human. Speaking to both Walter and Sadie he gives his reasoning, “I know, but we were brought here because I was too cautious at the forts and in the time since then.”

Regarding his shoulder, he looks to it and gingerly moves it into flexion, then abduction, and rotates it. The lowering of his elbow between hurts worse, but he tolerates it with a wince at his eyes, “I hurt it just before walking here, so it’s about the same. A little less sore to move.” Then following her question about sitting, he nods and moves a few steps nearer to the group to sit down on a lower level of stone of the ruins.

“As for the earthquake...that was my fault. I made a mistake and upset the mouse. It shifted away from me after I dropped from the wall during my second climb. I didn’t touch it coming down but it must have felt me land.”

[warped_replica]

“I don’t know if any of my followers are dedicated enough to try to figure out my stick figures,” he says with a faint tinge of humor. “A cloud system could be interesting. Though, I do wonder if anyone would be restricted from downloading a mod.”

“Maybe a mini-game based in a browser would be more accessible... But that’s more than double the work,” he wonders out loud. Benjiro likes to team up with other skilled players, but when he opens his streams to viewers, he tries to be inclusive of all skill levels.

[iamnotgod]

Walter gives Ben a knowing, bemused look. "I could always lend a hand in that area instead. But then, you do have skill in sketching."

Perhaps not digitally, but all the same.

Walter gives a sympathetic sigh at the mere idea of browser games. "Nothing using Flash," he says right off. "But it's easier to build that sort of thing from scratch than it once was, to be sure."

[spaghettimonster]

Russell is not one to worry quietly in one place, and as the minutes turned into hours he spent his fair share of time pacing around the ruins. Checking for messages from Benjiro, by text or by network - no matter that either was unlikely in different ways. Checking for tips on spelunking and finding people, should something go wrong. Checking in with family and friends after the earthquake, getting and giving what reassurances he could. Promising to let Agatha and Rosemary know as soon as he heard from Benjiro, without giving away what he did know.

So he's returning from the latest bout of pacing in time to see the group gathered together, and hear the tail end of the conversation. He breathes in a sharp breath first, trying to find the words, but just settles in a scolding tone far closer to his mum than he'd like to admit.

"Ben. What do you mean, dropped off the wall...?"

Mister Helpful

[spaghettimonster]

At some point in the day, after Benjiro's well-being is resolved, Russell heads back to the cliffside where Mr. Helpful revealed some surprising information.

After all, today he's learned a few other surprising things, and this seems like the best place to take some binoculars and search for signs of giant sharks in the water. He could have gone elsewhere to do this looking, but the possibility of crossing paths and sharing some information is a dim hope in his mind.

Next Day

[runs]

Kitty had already left before Ben came back to the surface the day before, but he finds him on the day after the Earthquake. She has acquired a popsicle and takes it out of her mouth with a soft plop before she addresses him.

"Sadie says the earthquake was your fault."

Mister Evil

[vernal_miss]

After outright leaving her older siblings during the shopping trip, Nel is not about to go terribly far once she has returned home. That her Mum, brother, and grandfather also went along with the mice did ease the attention on her. If nothing more, she did sensibly text her Mummy on her way there.

Once the house is quiet, Nel asks to go for a walk around in Moss Manor. With a strict time to be home, she is allowed to go. Cellphone in her pocket and bundled up against the chill, she heads out for a walk.

[warped_replica]

The sound of his name said in such a sharp tone startles him into flinching more upright out of his slouched posture. He turns his head to look to his cousin, a grimace behind his face mask. Of all the questions he could have asked...

“...I lost my grip,” he admits with regret. He had made a serious miscalculation. “I had no issues the first time I climbed up, but I couldn’t see above the head from there.” Trying to move the conversation off of himself and to what he had learned, he adds, “Its head is upriver about a mile from the mouth and the tip of its tail is roughly a mile and a half out under the ocean. Maybe two.” Hence why he had tried to go up again.