Lantern Mouse

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

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

Appearance

Lantern Mice are rodent-like creatures with large eyes. They are around half of the size of Slugcat. Their backs sport four big dots, two on each side. Their bodies glow and are usually either pinkish-orange or blue, though there is a ~1% chance that a Lantern Mouse spawns with a completely random hue.

Two Lantern Mice hanging and lighting up.

Their default state is glowing, with their colors being bright and vibrant. Occasionally, a Lantern Mouse attaches themself to the ceiling and goes through the process of lighting up. The Lantern Mouse's main body fades to complete black while the spots on their back turn into a saturated version of their main colors. Their eyes also invert to white while this takes place. After a few seconds, the Lantern Mouse abruptly reverts to their normal color scheme with a small burst of particles expanding outwards.

• 

  The possible color range of Lantern Mice.

• 

  A close up of the very right side of the color palette. Note the rainbow of colors at the end, representing the chance for a Lantern Mouse to spawn with a random color.

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

Abilities & Behavior

Lantern Mice are fearful of most other creatures and flee when approached. When idle, they either wander around or sleep by hanging on the ceiling by their tails. Lantern Mice tend to be seen in groups.

If injured, Lantern Mice struggle to glow at full strength. If killed, they continue to glow for a substantial amount of time and may be used as a temporary light source. Eventually, a dead Lantern Mouse completely fades.

Slugcat is able to grab on to a Lantern Mouse as they hang from the ceiling; however, they do not immediately detach in most cases. There are ways to force a Lantern Mouse to detach their tail, the easiest being to enter a pipe into another room, which always severs connections of any kind.

While their glow repels small groups of Coalescipedes, due to their low weight, if a group of Coalescipedes manages to grab onto a Lantern Mouse it almost always results in death.

Trivia

• Lantern Mice are one of the 10 backer-created creatures and were specifically created by co-composer Lydia Esrig.
• If killed while hanging, a Lantern Mouse's tail elongates until they touch the ground or detach.
• 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 capable of swimming on the water's surface.
• Lantern Mice have a 1/17 chance of facing the opposite way and a 1/8 chance of hanging their hands down when sleeping.

• Lantern Mice do not eat Batflies despite having a "wants to eat" relationship with them. Batflies are also not afraid of Lantern Mice.
  • Likewise, the "plays with" relationship also has no visible effect.
• In incredibly rare circumstances, a Lantern Mouse may decide to dangle from a ceiling underwater. Under even rarer circumstances, such a Lantern Mouse may drown due to their 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. The only way they can reach the ceiling is through crawlspaces or poles, often resulting in them packing together hanging from the same spot.
  • The level design in Shaded Citadel allows this behavior to work properly, featuring numerous ceiling passages and crawlspaces. However, Lantern Mice brought to other regions tend to find less convenient hanging spots.

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