NIMHmuck: Ideas for a NIMHmouse colony?

If you've been on NIMHmuck very often of late, or have been keeping up with Marcus's and LordDirk's fan art albums, you probably know about or have heard about the ideas we've been having to build a new NIMHmice colony on the muck. To help facilitate discussion, I've even posted some of the chats and emails that have been exchanged so far on the subject here: http://www.nimhmuck.com/?q=node/55

Anyway, if you're a mucker, or even if you're not, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. What would a colony of NIMHmice (from the 'lost six', or possibly a different experiment) be like? Let the speculation begin and the ideas flow forth. ;)

As a practical limitation, Mice are smaller and weaker than Rats, so their technology is going to reflect that. The stuff they steal isn't going to be as large.

Since there were only six Mice in the "lost group", family relationships are going to play an extremely important role in the early development of a colony. I don't recall (or if it was even specified) whether the original six included any females. If it did, and if the colony bred only among themselves, I could see them producing an extremely tight-knit society run along the basis of an extended family. Other Mice who married in later, as well as their descendants, might find themselves feeling somewhat left out of decision making, etc., since the core of the society would consist of Mice who were all related and had grown up together. Even if the "purebred" Mice tried to include the halfbreeds and newbies, it's often difficult under those conditions.

Alternately, if the original six were all male, and had to take wild Mice as mates, it's easy to imagine a society developing where leadership roles and the skilled professions are reserved to males, either by law or by custom, since the original females were unable to fill those roles. That would probably die out over a few generations as capable females asserted themselves, but it would make for some interesting tensions and RP in the early days of the colony.

This brings me to something I've been pondering for some time - why exactly was Mrs. Brisby able to learn to read? I know that Jonathan taught her, but is reading a skill that ordinary Mice can learn in the NIMH world, provided that they have a good teacher? If it isn't, then did Jonathan manage somehow to "infect" her, either accidentally or intentionally?

The agent that brings about the intelligence boost isn't really specified in the book or movie, IIRC. Suppose it were a prion or retrovirus, such that the infected Mice and Rats were themselves producing it in their bodies. If it's a retrovirus, then the NIMH Mice and Rats might well be raising the intelligence of all the animals around them, without meaning to do so. It may be something that stays specific to rodents, or alternately it may jump orders and start infecting other mammals and birds, much like the avian influenza is in danger of doing.

If it got loose among the Humans, the potential exists for a race of super-Humans to spring up, their intelligence comparable to ordinary Humans as theirs is to ordinary Rats. Imagine a world of human-level forest animals, living alongside Humans possessed of god-like technologies, doing things that were completely incomprehensible to the Rats and their friends.

Alternately, what if the intelligence booster is a prion? One could imagine it being spread by sexual contact, or other exchange of bodily fluids. That would account for Mrs. Brisby's heightened intelligence. That leads to some amusing possibilities for bawdy stories (which I'm guessing is probably not what you're after), but also allows for some grimmer scenaria. Criminals, traitors, or enemy prisoners might be kept as prion "incubators", their blood or other fluids being harvested every so often for the prion agent. It could be used to raise the intelligence of captured wild Mice, either with the goal of having them join the colony, or of serving as slaves.

IIRC, the intelligence raising process took some time - it wasn't a rapid thing. If one wanted slaves who were intelligent enough to do technical work, but not as intelligent as their masters, an evil society might innoculate them with the prion agent, make use of them for the several months that their IQ falls in the window of desirability, then kill them before they became troublesome. That's nasty, but would provide some interesting dramatic or RP opportunities.

I like the idea, and I can think of a few MUCKers who would appreciate it as well.

I like this, (being a fan of mice)
and I saw the cool art of the mice outpost and dress.

I do not think NIMH will stop because The rats and mice got away, they would get more subjects and start again, leaving more to be rescued and to join the colony.
As for injections of the "smart stuff", some fan-fics like Paul Gibbs had where Mrs Brisby took the injection and it changed her, and not always for the good, she became a nosey bizybody in to justin`s love life (which made for a great story) :wink:

The neat thing about injecting a wild mouse is you never know what you will get ( a Jenner maybe?), not only do they get smarter, but also they grow in to human emotions, love, selflessness, greed, and the works.
Which I think can make in to a great RP.

I do`nt RP, but I`m getting close to where I would like to, any room in this colony for a mouse from the desert who lost his way? :)

i would not mind joining up as i would be curius to see the society difference between mice and rats.

I'd like the idea. Although I do have a few questions.

One question is, are you going to allow NIMHmice going to the colony of the rats (or the other way around)? I could guess the answer is yes, but actually I have a feeling that OOCwise the mice and the rats going together is going to be a little complicated. I suggest a rule about the mice OOCly have to stay in the colony. Also to make things easier (in my point of veiw) I think we should have newcomer's first character a rat or a feral from the colony. I'm gonna explain why...

At the moment ALL of the characters are in the rats colony/valley. Therefore there is gonna be more characters in the valley than the mouse colony. If OOCly the player only has mice characters and wants to chat with people over in the rats colony and the mice go there ONLY oocly, I think things are gonna be confusing and kinda messed up.

Simon, do you understand what I'm trying to say? Sorry if you didn't. I'm pretty bad at explaining. I'll try to explain on NIMHmuck if you don't. :?

Any idea for a TP or GP? :?:
As Simon said before, the plot has to be one who could get involved a lot of players, the most the best. So I was thinking on something like a council meeting where the mice could discuss about an important subject. A so critical subject that the entire colony is gathered at the council hall (or wherever those kind of meetings are up to :wink: ), with the Elders and others leaders on the center of a large hall and the common mice watching the meeting on some kind of atrium with upper levels and all the stuff.
Something like the one on the movie, but of course with the mice's style. :wink:

The matter of discussion could be the discovery of the rats's colony by a scouting squad, and what to do about it.
I imagine two sides: the ones who want to go and make contact with the rats and some others who want to leave the rats alone.
And maybe some others who want to go to a war against the rats and some other topics that could appear during the meeting. :wink:
And maybe could be an arguing between the Elders and the common mice, Elders vs Elders, common mice vs common mice...etc.
Yeah, with many shouts and flying chairs and those kind of stuff (well, no need of getting violent, or at least during the meeting! :lol: )

And (hehe I'm in hyper mode :) ) could be little "background Rps" before the meeting, something like the rumors about the discovery of the NIMHrats spreading all around the colony and everyone preparing themselves for the great meeting on the way.

Well, this is just an idea coming from my imagination, anyway new ideas for a global or tiny plot are welcome too.
Ah! There're vacancies for Elders chars, and for something like this I think that all of them MUST be present. :P
UP!! :wink:

Hey Torrie, that is a great idea with the NIMH-serum being based on a prion.

I had myself assumed it was a sort of self-replicating viral vector, which would be a bit more controllable than a prion, but in essence also be transmissable through "infection" and body fluid exchange.

There has been a lot of RP on that basis as well.

I have never looked into the viability of how selective gene exchange could be accomplished via prions, but I'll look into it.

Thanks a lot for mentioning the prion angle.

wow were is the link
when i click i get error did i miss it.

wow were is the link
when i click i get error did i miss it.

Sorry about that. The NIMHmuck website went down a while ago. The website is back up at http://nimhmuck.thornvalley.com currently, however, we were unable to restore all of the content, including this stuff.

Why the insistance that it be only mice? I think you should leave the door open other species, especially if you go with the virus idea. Lab waste from NIMH or a second experiment would account for more than mice being altered, plus, as outcasts, they'd probably pick up stragglers of other species who'd gravitate to "civilization."

Maybe a rescued kitten who becomes a protector and other things like that. Regular rats, mice and squirrles.

Mal, I looked at your fan art today for the first time. Dude, your art is incredible. I also read your elderly Brutus story. That was great! You've managed to express humor in your NIMH artwork, something I tried to do in my fanfics, but never really managed to do. Keep up the good work!


<Edit>Now that I think about it, what if new colony is in a dump or landfill? Limitless material resources, food arriving daily all year long (perhaps a bit old, but edible by rodents) fewer predators and can live deep under the ground. Landfills are huge and deep. An old buried car or refridgerator could be made into a lot of living space. And there'd be little human presence in a landfill.

Why the insistance that it be only mice? I think you should leave the door open other species, especially if you go with the virus idea. Lab waste from NIMH or a second experiment would account for more than mice being altered, plus, as outcasts, they'd probably pick up stragglers of other species who'd gravitate to "civilization."

It's mostly a muck dynamics thing. The idea is that these are just the "lost mice" from the original experiment. Introducing new experiments from NIMH has a lot of complex and far-reaching consequences that we don't feel ready to address yet.

<Edit>Now that I think about it, what if new colony is in a dump or landfill? Limitless material resources, food arriving daily all year long (perhaps a bit old, but edible by rodents) fewer predators and can live deep under the ground. Landfills are huge and deep. An old buried car or refridgerator could be made into a lot of living space. And there'd be little human presence in a landfill.

We've actually had their colony put near a junkyard, but the reasoning's pretty much the same. Great minds and all. ;) We also are going to put a Farmer's market nearby.

Is this new colony replacing the Thorn Valley MUCK or will they both exist at the same time?

Is this new colony replacing the Thorn Valley MUCK or will they both exist at the same time?

No, they'll both exist, but in different locations.

Okay, i haven't actually been able to get onto NIMHmuck yet, my other computer was a piece of junk and wouldn't even let me post on this forum, so i have absolutely no idea what's going on currently, but i think i got the jist of it.
Here's my take on "First Contact": What you would probably have is one or two, maybe three to five at the most, members of the mice colony who locate the rats. Those few would be the ones who would make contact, probably much to the chargin of the elders of the community, some of which may or may not be involved. I honestly do not think this would be a fighting point between the communities, since both have a common bond in the past (namely a place called NIMH), so i guess that both communities would be more than likely thrilled at the discovery of the other. where things go from there, i have no clue.
I would also guess that the mice would be less likely to be secluded, like the rats (making the junk yard not a bad place) because their size would not allow them to fend well against larger predators, and because that same size would allow them to go undetected much more easily.
One question here: is this going to go off the movie version or the book version of the story? I ask this because in the book there were six lost mice, in the movie it was nine.

I've finally found time to revive Zohar from being inactive. All I need to do is get connected. x.x