what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[inourhead]

"We didn't get to any family words - I have other students, I couldn't just focus on her," sighs Gloria.

"Mouse?" says Pyay.

"Look," says Gloria, "why don't you take her to a pet store with feeder mice and I'll call social services and see if there's anything they can do?"

[unblinkered]

He sighs.

"Sure. I'll... yeah. My number's in the staff directory, if you need to call me, I'll... drive her down to Petco, see if they have... I mean, she doesn't need mice, no clowns to keep her from sleeping, but... it'll keep her happy, I guess."

[inourhead]

"If you're certain she doesn't need the mice for anything then you understand her a lot better than I can claim to," says Gloria tartly, heading for her phone.

[unblinkered]

"Mm. Yeah, they could... need them for something else, I guess. Whatever."

He goes to the door and motions for Pyay (...or Song?) to follow.

[inourhead]

Pyay or Sohng follows him. "Mouse?" she asks.

[unblinkered]

"Yes. Max and Pyay go get mouse." He points out the window, down to the parking lot- and then realizes, crap, she'll probably think he means there'll be mice in the car. Do they even have cars, where she's from?

Whatever. He holds open the door to the stairwell.

[inourhead]

She peers at the cars, then shrugs and goes down the stairs.

[unblinkered]

Max leads her outside to where his Volvo's parked, and opens the passenger-side door for her. He gestures for her to sit down.

[inourhead]

She peers at the car. She is suspicious of the car. Eventually she sits in it.

[unblinkered]

He goes around and gets into the driver's seat, and then starts the engine. The car begins to back out of the parking space.

[inourhead]

She is alarmed! But she calms down pretty quick, especially when she sees other cars moving on the road.

[unblinkered]

So she didn't know about cars, then. He gestures around at the vehicle and says "car".

They approach a large shopping plaza nearby. The Newark skyline is visible in the distance as they pull up in front of a large pet supply store.

[inourhead]

She also didn't know about really tall buildings, apparently.

[unblinkered]

He's uncertain for a minute about what she's alarmed by- and then notices, and points to the distant city. "Skyscrapers."

He walks up to the automatic doors, signalling her to follow.

[inourhead]

She follows along reasonably docilely.

The pet shop employee who greets them is kind of alarmed by the bag on her back.

"Is that a backpack with mice in it? What?"

[unblinkered]

"It's... a long story. That involves her being a wizard. She did some wizard stuff to the mice too much, or something, and a bunch died, and now she needs new mice to do wizard things to. D'you guys sell live feeder mice?"

[inourhead]

"Are you off your meds?" the clerk asks.

[unblinkered]

He sighs.

"Yeah, I'm off my meds. I'm a crazy person. D'you have live feeder mice or not?"

He picks a rubber chew toy and a rawhide bone off the rack next to the counter, and hands them to Pyay with the accompanying shaking gesture.

[inourhead]

Pyay takes them, and looks at them, and then puts them back, apparently disinterested in performing magic on them.

"I... yeah... how many do you need?"

[unblinkered]

He shoots her an annoyed look. "...Pyay, mice. How many mice? One, two, three, four...?"

[inourhead]

Pyay peers into her cage. "Eight," she concludes.

[unblinkered]

"Eight," he tells the clerk. "Eight mice, for crazy wizard purposes."

[inourhead]

"Yyyyyeah, I'll have that for you in just a second."

The guy runs off and comes back with a little plastic box with eight live white mice in it. "Eleven ninety-five."

[unblinkered]

Max hands over his credit card, and hands Pyay the box of mice.

"...Jerk." he mutters, when they're out of earshot. "Even if I was off some kind of meds... kids've got no respect."

[inourhead]

When they are outside of the store, Pyay pauses to remove the dead mice from her cage. She then picks up very small pieces of grit from the ground near the decorative shrubbery outside the storefront, and puts down larger pieces of grit and smaller dead mice. She puts her new mice in with the remaining live ones from her initial supply. One of them immediately falls asleep. Holding the last of the new mice, she extends her hand in Max's direction. "You?" she asks politely.