one new mouse

[vivariummods]

It's been two days since the vote. Since then, there has been little activity. The speakers have never been turned on since that day, and there's been no sign of the owner of that voice. No further contact has been made, and it seems as if the group was abandoned again without a clue as to why they're here. ... Unless any members of the group are lucky enough to wake up early enough to catch a glimpse of something, uh, "new"... In the Greenhouse, while the artificial sky is a reddish colour from "sunrise", a large metal ladder is placed in front of the sickly trees. Beside the ladder is a children's wagon, filled with apples, and on top is an upright mouse with a gas mask... Yeah, as if this place couldn't get any weirder. The mouse quietly mumbles to itself, something along the lines of "... work... not paid... test subjects... spoiled", and holds an apple in one paw and a tape gun in the other. It appears to be taping the apples to the tree branches, one at a time, occasionally climbing down to grab an armful of apples to bring up. It's only a third way through the pile of apples (which only seems to be about a dozen...) so catch it while you can.

Comments

MINGLE

[vivariummods]

[ Post a top-level doing whatever, showing off your new item, or talking to Calhoun. Be free. ]

TALK TO CALHOUN

[formicarium]

[ Calhoun just continues to tape apples to the trees, occasionally taking breaks here and there, mumbling about test subjects and some other nonsense. Probably complaining as usual. ]

Re: TALK TO CALHOUN

[babel_hacker]

[That sure is a mouse. When Atsuro came over to check the Greenhouse and saw the house, he paused when he noticed its gasmask. Gasmask...

He remembers seeing a gasmask before.

Atsuro slowly walks towards it, until he's close enough to pick up on...words? It can talk?]

Uh, hey?

[This feels so weird.]

[formicarium]

[ Calhoun turns his head, looking down at the Atsuro, continuing to hold onto an apple and his tape gun. ]

Can't you see that I'm busy, test subject? Sheeeesh, what's a mouse gotta do around here to tape apples to a tree in peace?

[ He sounds... whiny. He sighs and shakes his head. ]

[babel_hacker]

[Yeah, now he's sure he's not imagining it.]

You can talk?

[formicarium]

[ Calhoun just looks at Atsuro like he has three heads. ]

Of course I can talk! I'm not just your average mouse, you know. Look, I even got working thumbs like you.

[ He places down the tape gun and apple on top of the ladder and jumps off. He's... extremely small, as in 3'2" small, but he stands in front of Atsuro and holds up his paws to show. His paws are definitely shaped like a mouse but clearly has opposable thumbs that he's wiggling. ]

[babel_hacker]

[Atsuro looks down at the talking mouse with an incredulous expression.]

Y...eah, you do. [Uh.] So if you're not an average mouse... what kind of mouse are you?

[formicarium]

[ He sees you making that face. ]

The mouse who's in charge of watching you bunch! Making sure that you're not misbehaving, getting in trouble, killing each other, though you've already screwed the pooch on that one.

Honestly, I leave my eyes off everyone for a few days and this is what I come back to. I really don't get paid enough for this.

[ He sighs and shakes his head. ]

Re: TALK TO CALHOUN

[1st_response_is_anger]

Can I...take an apple? *Maria posed her question to the mouse in a gas mask. Because why not, really?*

[formicarium]

[ Calhoun turns his head, looking down at Maria from his ladder. ]

That's why I'm taping them up, test subject, so I don't have you bunch getting scurvy on me!

[ He doesn't budge from the ladder nor does he offer one, however. He just gets back to taping the one in his hands. Maybe he wants you to grab it from his wagon or climb a tree?? ]

[1st_response_is_anger]

How generous of you. *So much sarcasm. But she did take an apple from the wagon because they looked pretty good.*

Wait...test subject? AHA! I knew it! This is a stupid experiment!

[formicarium]

Hey! Put that down! I haven't finished taping those up yet!

[ Calhoun points to the apple in Maria's hand then back at the wagon. Huff huff, what a rude test subject. It looks like he's not going to even acknowledge Maria's last few comments about the "stupid experiment" and all. He's way too focused on the apple. ]

[1st_response_is_anger]

So I have to let you tape it up before I can eat it? *Seemed kind of pointless. Maria felt tempted enough to take a big juicy bite of the apple and say "deal with it." However, given that she'd recently been kidnapped, subject to a fight and a murder vote and couldn't quite remember all of her past, it might be the rare chance to use discretion in her actions. For her, anyway. So she placed the apple back in the wagon.*

Fine. *It's not like the apples were going anywhere. Also, she knew she should be more...wary?...amazed?...at the talking mouse. Somehow being kidnapped with a loss of identity was helping her cope more with whatever was going on.* What's your name, mouse?

[toybombs]

[She's not entirely sure where to put her attention, to be honest. On one hand, those apples look mighty tempting. On the other, she now has a photo of herself and a few other individuals, and even though it gives little away she almost feels obligated to sit and try to analyze it for every last clue she can find.

It's a loose photograph, not at all dated, but showing herself smiling happily with some older men. All of them are covered in a layer of dust, and are dressed lightly for travel in warmer climates - clearly something more on the exploration side as opposed to leisure.

You'd almost expect a photo of her with friends around her age, but... None of the people look especially bad-natured. She doubts she would travel with a whole group of such people unless they were allies. So what's this about?]

[elliexir]

[ Ellie could be mean and approach Rio from behind, surprise her that way, but she decides against it because she doesn't need Rio to cry on her.... again... for the tenth time.... no thank you, so she approaches from the front, carrying something new (a book??). ]

Sooooo... Asides from that weird rat thing, at least we have some new stuff. What'cha get?

[toybombs]

Oh... umm, it's a photo, but...

[She shows it to Ellie with a look of confusion. True, the older guys have distinctly grandfatherly looks, but it's a pretty odd age group for a girl like her to be around. And they certainly couldn't be related, either; these guys are definitely westerners judging by the look of them, whereas she's pretty clearly Japanese.]

[elliexir]

[ She peers over to take a look. Hmmm. ]

Huh, who are all these people?

[ She asks, forgetting that Rio, just like everyone else, doesn't have any memories before the warehouse... ]

[toybombs]

I have no idea... it looks like I was in a funny group.

[She sticks out like a sore thumb...]

Maybe they were teachers...? [Although that doesn't really match the clothes, either. And why would she be the lone student among them?]

[elliexir]

Oh right, sorry, forgot about the whole memory loss thing.

[ It's still kind of hard to wrap her head around the fact that everyone here is suffering from amnesia... ]

But maybe? They don't look like teachers, though. More like explorers or something.

[elliexir]

[ So, that mouse thing was super weird and creepy. She didn't really talk to it a lot, just grabbed what she got and it looks like she nabbed a book? She holds it open and approaches (unless you're Hisoka then she'll totally stay far away and you'll just probably see her reading/overhear her). ]

All right, it's been a little tense lately, so here: what did the duck say when he bought lipstick?

"Put it on my bill."

[ She lets out a small chuckle after. Hope you're prepared. HERE COMES THE PUNS ]

[1st_response_is_anger]

*Okay, that was stupid but it made Maria snort.* Nice one. What do you got there?

[elliexir]

[ She holds up her book to show Maria, while still maintaining her page. Yes, even the cover has terrible puns, it's great. ]

"No Pun Intended: Volume Too" by Will Livingston. This is what that mouse gave me and it's great. You seriously gotta hear some of the puns in this.

[ While the whole situation in here sucks and there's that whole dead body from a few days ago, this is a little something to lighten her up and SHE IS PUMPED ABOUT IT ]

[1st_response_is_anger]

A pun book? Maybe you're a budding comedienne. *Still, it was a chance for at least someone to be happy.* All right, lay some on me.

[elliexir]

[ She flips the book back to herself and clears her throat. ]

What happened to a frog's car when it broke down? It got toad away. [ Small laugh here. ] That one's good.

[1st_response_is_anger]

*Stupid joke contest, hunh? It's immature, yes, but somehow she could picture herself doing this with someone...only she couldn't remember who.*

Let me think of one. *Then for whatever reason, her mind went to medical humor. She mimed talking on a telephone.* Urology department, please hold.