Lantern Mouse

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"Lantern Mouse"
Details
Code name	LanternMouse
Behavior	Fearful
HP	0.5
Food Pips	2 2 1
Points	2
Regions : Shaded Citadel
Downpour Regions : Looks to the Moon (region) : Industrial Complex, Garbage Wastes, Shoreline, Subterranean, Silent Construct

Two Lantern Mice hanging and lighting up.

Other Lantern Mice forcing a purple one to disconnect by pushing it away from the ceiling early.

Lantern Mice are passive, fearful creatures found in Shaded Citadel. Their natural bio-luminescence may be exploited to navigate dark areas.

Appearance

Lantern Mice look like glowing hamsters with big eyes, two dots on each side of their body, and elastic tails they use to hang from the ceilings and scaffolding. They come primarily in red, blue, and yellow tinted colors. Green- and purple- tinted Lantern Mice can also appear, but are significantly rarer.

While Lantern Mice are referred to as mice, they are nearly the size of a Slugcat.

Abilities & Behavior

• Lantern Mice are bio-luminescent and glow with considerable strength, although they need to spend some effort to turn their light on.
  • The more injured they are, the more difficult it is for them to glow at full strength
• They run in fear at the sight of Slugcat, whether they are holding a Spear or not.
• They can be grabbed and dragged around as a portable light source, although they weigh the player down considerably, restricting movement.
  • If dangling Lantern Mice are grabbed before they detach their tail, unless there is a shortcut nearby, Slugcat likely has to:
    • Wait for their tail to lengthen enough due to grab-stun to:
      • Make a pipe accessible to force their tail to detach, or;
      • Find convenient level geometry to force enough tail bends (3) to force detachment,
    • Or attempt to spam grab-linked throws to trick the mouse into detaching its tail.
    • Otherwise, such Mice are impossible to remove from their room.
• They repel small groups of Coalescipedes, but large groups still attack them aggressively. Throwing a mouse into a group of Coalescipedes can help distract them for some time.
• If a Lantern Mouse is killed while it's charging up, it returns to its original color.

Relationships

Default relationship	Afraid (0.1)
Ignores	Overseer (0)  •   Centipede (Infant) (0)
Wants to eat	Batfly (0.5)
Plays with	Lantern Mouse (0.01)
Afraid of	Red Centipede (1)  •   Dropwig (0.7)  •   Big Spider (0.6)  •   Spitter Spider (0.6)  •   Pole Plant (0.5)  •   Monster Kelp (0.5)  •   Slugcat (0.3)

Trivia

• Lantern Mice are one of the 10 backer-created creatures, specifically created by co-composer Lydia Esrig.
• In 1.5, Lantern Mice are only capable of swimming in shallow water. Otherwise, they float around in the water until they get close enough to the shore to climb out.
  • In 1.9, they are now capable of swimming on the water's surface.
• Lantern Mice are unafraid of Scavengers and ignore them. Scavengers likewise do not seem to acknowledge Lantern Mice.
• Lantern Mice have a 1/17 chance of facing the opposite way and a 1/8 chance of hanging their hands down when sleeping.
• There is a 1/100 chance that any individual Lantern Mouse has a completely random hue.
• Lantern Mice do not eat Batflies despite having a "want to eat" relationship with them. Batflies are also not scared of Lantern Mice.
• In incredibly rare circumstances, a Lantern Mouse may decide the best place to dangle from is a ceiling underwater. Under even rarer circumstances, such a mouse may drown to death due to its tail length. Lantern Mice do not detach if drowning.
• Despite their unique interaction with the ceiling, they are unable to climb any walls, background walls or ceilings like other creatures, the only way they can reach the ceiling is through crawlspaces or poles, resulting in them often packing together hanging from the same spot.
  • The level design in Shaded Citadel allows this behaviour to properly work, featuring multiple ceiling passages and crawlspaces, however taking them out of that region makes them often find less convenient hanging spots.

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