There's nothing strange about the way Pocket's Party ends tonight. At least, not at first. Each television portal tunes to a view of the cave, and students slowly make their way through, though each arrives back in the real world at the same time. It’s what’s there waiting that’s strange.
Nine of their peers and one party bug stand at the mouth of the cave, all looking a little worse for wear, maybe a bit disoriented.
Pocket materializes in front of her brother, springing up from the ground and clutching his face. Her expression shifts rapidly, anger, shock, fear, horror. “What did you do?”
“They’re still in there, Little Sister. They’re still—We can—I can fix—” Pouch gasps, nearly collapsing into Pocket’s arms once she has him.
“Your wing,” Pocket frets, gingerly touching the spot where one of Pouch’s iridescent wings has been ripped away. She lifts her gaze, first to him, then beyond the Falls. “What—Ohmigawd—”
The first students who wander close to the mouth of the cave and peer out at campus will see just what Pocket is gasping at: everything is covered in vines. Purple flowers bloom bright, sparkling in the silver moonlight. A suffocating blanket of weeds.
“He’s out,” Pocket says, her voice for a second very small. She turns to the gathering students, and the sight of them seems to steel her resolve. “You need to get back to your Houses. You’ll be safe there.” Pocket says. She releases her brother and walks to the entrance of the cave where, after a moment of concentration, she begins to glow. Pocket lifts her foot and brings it down, a single stomp that makes the very earth shake.
A carpet of green moss erupts from the spot, spilling out of the cave, down the path, ripping through vines and flowers, withering the weeds. Not all of them, but most, cast out by command of the holler, itself. From the mossy carpet, things begin to climb out: wisps of light, and muscheron, and … is that Bub?
Peckenpaugh’s groundskeeper steps up to Pocket and trills softly. She smiles but says nothing at all. “They’ll escort you. We need to...tell your guardians. And…” Pocket looks at her brother, and takes his hand when he offers it. “Try to stop this. Try to get them all back.”
The two of them disappear.
[STUDENTS ARE FREE TO MINGLE HERE FOR A WHILE LONGER, but Bub, the muscheron, and the will-o-wisps gathered will be escorting kids back to their dorms. Everyone will arrive at their homes safely, between midnight and 12:30AM. Staff is already waiting for each house, which is immaculately clear of any vines. More teachers will join students at their dorms as the night goes on.]
While the rest of the night may be restless, as dawn breaks on Saturday morning a sense of safety pervades. Though the day starts with a thin layer of frost over every leaf and blade of grass, it evaporates with the rise of the sun, and the mist that settles in the holler’s basin is warm. There are still weeds in parts of Peckenpaugh campus, and staff is busy all day with further removal, but it looks like the magimagicicada put a stop to the unchecked spread and killed a lot of the growth…for now.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT
Nine of their peers and one party bug stand at the mouth of the cave, all looking a little worse for wear, maybe a bit disoriented.
Pocket materializes in front of her brother, springing up from the ground and clutching his face. Her expression shifts rapidly, anger, shock, fear, horror. “What did you do?”
“They’re still in there, Little Sister. They’re still—We can—I can fix—” Pouch gasps, nearly collapsing into Pocket’s arms once she has him.
“Your wing,” Pocket frets, gingerly touching the spot where one of Pouch’s iridescent wings has been ripped away. She lifts her gaze, first to him, then beyond the Falls. “What—Ohmigawd—”
The first students who wander close to the mouth of the cave and peer out at campus will see just what Pocket is gasping at: everything is covered in vines. Purple flowers bloom bright, sparkling in the silver moonlight. A suffocating blanket of weeds.
“He’s out,” Pocket says, her voice for a second very small. She turns to the gathering students, and the sight of them seems to steel her resolve. “You need to get back to your Houses. You’ll be safe there.” Pocket says. She releases her brother and walks to the entrance of the cave where, after a moment of concentration, she begins to glow. Pocket lifts her foot and brings it down, a single stomp that makes the very earth shake.
A carpet of green moss erupts from the spot, spilling out of the cave, down the path, ripping through vines and flowers, withering the weeds. Not all of them, but most, cast out by command of the holler, itself. From the mossy carpet, things begin to climb out: wisps of light, and muscheron, and … is that Bub?
Peckenpaugh’s groundskeeper steps up to Pocket and trills softly. She smiles but says nothing at all. “They’ll escort you. We need to...tell your guardians. And…” Pocket looks at her brother, and takes his hand when he offers it. “Try to stop this. Try to get them all back.”
The two of them disappear.
[STUDENTS ARE FREE TO MINGLE HERE FOR A WHILE LONGER, but Bub, the muscheron, and the will-o-wisps gathered will be escorting kids back to their dorms. Everyone will arrive at their homes safely, between midnight and 12:30AM. Staff is already waiting for each house, which is immaculately clear of any vines. More teachers will join students at their dorms as the night goes on.]
While the rest of the night may be restless, as dawn breaks on Saturday morning a sense of safety pervades. Though the day starts with a thin layer of frost over every leaf and blade of grass, it evaporates with the rise of the sun, and the mist that settles in the holler’s basin is warm. There are still weeds in parts of Peckenpaugh campus, and staff is busy all day with further removal, but it looks like the magimagicicada put a stop to the unchecked spread and killed a lot of the growth…for now.