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: Armani & Open+ ⛓
"We messed up." Armani's voice is small and shaky as tears well in his eyes. It's never taken much to make him cry, but he's also never felt this guilty before. He reaches for Eddy, burying his wet face into his hoodie. "I'm s-so s-s-soooorrryyyyyy...!" he cries, choking out sobs.
He is just a baby! A baby who has royally fucked up!
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Armani & Open+ ⛓
When Armani latches onto his hoodie, Eddy slides his arms around him, and it's as much for his benefit as it is Armani's. His face ducks into the other boy's hair and his shoulders shake a few times. Everything.. just.. hurts.
He'd been taken in by curiosity and loneliness, too. And it had almost cost Pouch. They were probably next.
The memories had never shown that. Maybe if they'd opened more. Or maybe if they'd listened to Wyatt–
"Fuck the birds," he says in a low and tight voice.
The strange blanket of flowers is a lot to process. And she doesn't really want to.Something bad happened. She's livid. But mostly very worried. Before Chanel goes home to Thorntrail, she makes a beeline for the returned adventurers. If they're available. She says very little, but she inspects Mary Grace, then Eddy, then Armani, for signs of life. Then, in a line, she slaps each of them if they don't turn away quick enough. It's a gentle slap. This is worry and care and honestly probably the best case scenario.
As Chanel wraps her arms around him, she finds that he feels cold. Strikingly so, like his skin is made of ice. And maybe a little extra squishy in some places.
Armani (miserably) digs down the front of his turtleneck to remove a Wizgel ice pack that's been bothering him this whole time. Ah, that's a little better.
Okay, now he will take that undeserved hug. "The flowers and vines are Lionel Qualls," he tells her once he calms down enough to speak full sentences again,
Although she doesn't admit this now, and never will later, Chanel gasps when she touches her brother and he is cold. The color leaves her face entirely, and when he reaches in to pull out the source (stupid genius ice packs,) she laughs and it's strangled. Maybe the hug is a little too long, and maybe she holds him a little too tightly.
Prove it.
She doesn't answer right away. She's not sure of the implications of this, except for poor Mr. Qualls. "And now he wants to kill us all by spreading out. How exactly like a man." Is what she says.
Mary Grace is a little... dazed? Out of breath, elbows scuffed, purse half dumped out and—aw, damn, her phone is gone? She's too distracted and scattered to avoid the slap, and honestly, she deserves it.
"I—" She blinks, turning her attention toward Chanel. "I didn't know you cared."
Several possible responses to this. They range from protesting that she doesn't care, has never cared, to a straight up punch in the face to save her the trouble of finding words at all. Her fist clenches like perhaps that's winning, but instead, she laughs. It's a little too high-pitched to be convincing. "Oh, good, you're still more stupid than you look."
Eddy's mind is a swirl of thoughts, and his NASA hoodie has looked better, but Chanel always seems to know how to pull him back.
"Ow." His voice is quiet. It's less pain reaction, and more acknowledgement that he fucked up. His jaw clenches and he exhales audibly through his nose as he looks down at Chanel, fighting the hollow feeling in his chest.
"Yeah, ow." She snaps. But her hand stays on his face for a moment, her thumb tracing the line of his cheek to prove it's still there. Her rage,paper-thin, crumbles after that.There's a million questions, but none of them really matter. She gets the gist. They're back safely. They brought something terrible with them. And now they'd figure it out. There's no questions right now. She just shakes her head. "I'm sleeping in front of your door tonight."
Eddy's face breaks into a pained smile as Chanel examines it. Physically, he's still in one piece. Armani too. He'd made sure of that. Everything else.. hopefully could be fixed with time.
The lack of questions is a relief. He'll try to answer them all. But not tonight.
"Floor's hard." It's not an argument. It's also a fact she's probably aware of. But Eddy says it anyway.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Open
Trudy is pretty sure that her patronus gave Pouch the boost that he needed to win the fight, and that she is therefore responsible for saving the day. There's no need to thank her here, though. Save your applause for when she mentions it in her valedictorian speech.
People seem to be reacting to something negatively at the mouth of the cave, and Trudy moves a little closer, but she still can't see. One of her glasses lenses is shattered, and while she can repair it with magic, the other is missing entirely. She moves to take out her spare pair, but they're gone. She huffs loudly. Next time, she's bringing two spares.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
"Theyyyy call her Trooooody McGillijoody," Kermie sings as he salsas up to Trudy's side and bumps her with his hip. "Most likely to die in the line of duuuuty."
Edited (i have so many tags to reply to but this has been in my head all day) 2020-05-18 05:40 (UTC)
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
Lionel is hit with a wave of disorientation, owing little to the trip back to the cave and mostly to the revelations of the night. What is real? he finds himself asking over and over. LQ, the one communicating through the computers and the planchette, was that never Lionel Qualls? Was it this vine-wielding, Bob Dylan-listening entity the whole time? Is Lionel somewhere else, still needing to be saved? Or is he lost for good? And, looking out over the campus at the sea of vines, flowers, and weeds: what have they unleashed?
Lionel closes his eyes forcibly, willing his mind to slow down. The memory he saw, of the Qualls family at breakfast, that felt real. Right? He's reluctant to trust anything now, painfully aware of how easily he's been manipulated thus far, but he can't do nothing. He needs to help, or at the very least he has a responsibility to undo what he's already done. The scene from the Elflock Lanes basement flashes in his mind. The ghostly figures unlocking the hatch, Mr. Qualls among them. That look on his teacher's face. What was that? Mr. Qualls will have answers, he hopes. About what happened and about what they need to do now. Quietly, he resolves to return the memory to his teacher.
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peckenpaugh2020-05-15 10:03 am
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.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Armani & Open+ ⛓
He is just a baby! A baby who has royally fucked up!
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Armani & Open+ ⛓
He'd been taken in by curiosity and loneliness, too. And it had almost cost Pouch. They were probably next.
The memories had never shown that. Maybe if they'd opened more. Or maybe if they'd listened to Wyatt–
"Fuck the birds," he says in a low and tight voice.
And now THE REAL threat.
And now THE REAL threat.
And now THE REAL threat.
And now THE REAL threat.
Armani (miserably) digs down the front of his turtleneck to remove a Wizgel ice pack that's been bothering him this whole time. Ah, that's a little better.
Okay, now he will take that undeserved hug. "The flowers and vines are Lionel Qualls," he tells her once he calms down enough to speak full sentences again,
And now THE REAL threat.
Prove it.
She doesn't answer right away. She's not sure of the implications of this, except for poor Mr. Qualls. "And now he wants to kill us all by spreading out. How exactly like a man."
Is what she says.
And now THE REAL threat.
"I—" She blinks, turning her attention toward Chanel. "I didn't know you cared."
And now THE REAL threat.
And now THE REAL threat.
"Ow." His voice is quiet. It's less pain reaction, and more acknowledgement that he fucked up. His jaw clenches and he exhales audibly through his nose as he looks down at Chanel, fighting the hollow feeling in his chest.
There are no words.
And now THE REAL threat.
(She's sleeping in front of their door tonight.)
And now THE REAL threat.
The lack of questions is a relief. He'll try to answer them all. But not tonight.
"Floor's hard." It's not an argument. It's also a fact she's probably aware of. But Eddy says it anyway.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Open
People seem to be reacting to something negatively at the mouth of the cave, and Trudy moves a little closer, but she still can't see. One of her glasses lenses is shattered, and while she can repair it with magic, the other is missing entirely. She moves to take out her spare pair, but they're gone. She huffs loudly. Next time, she's bringing two spares.
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
"But—" he whines. "My airhorn keychain." Kermit shoves his hands in his pocket, dejected. "How'm I gonna be annoying now?"
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Trudy & Kermie
STUDENTS ARRIVE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: Lionel
Lionel closes his eyes forcibly, willing his mind to slow down. The memory he saw, of the Qualls family at breakfast, that felt real. Right? He's reluctant to trust anything now, painfully aware of how easily he's been manipulated thus far, but he can't do nothing. He needs to help, or at the very least he has a responsibility to undo what he's already done. The scene from the Elflock Lanes basement flashes in his mind. The ghostly figures unlocking the hatch, Mr. Qualls among them. That look on his teacher's face. What was that? Mr. Qualls will have answers, he hopes. About what happened and about what they need to do now. Quietly, he resolves to return the memory to his teacher.