peckenpaugh | A Busy Day at Peckenpaugh

at peckenpaugh today

what's up? Unfamiliar folk start arriving at the crack of dawn, and by breakfast there’s a whole pop up tent community on the Eastern Quarter just at the edge of the quodpot pitch. Curious students aren’t quite driven away from the encampment, but neither are they permitted to snoop around. All across campus this morning, berobed wizards wander, taking samples of this and that, stopping to talk with local denizens both human and not.

An explanation doesn’t come until the morning announcements: the Bureau of Magical Beings is, as promised, setting up on campus. This is for safety as much as investigative purposes as school administration continues to work to identify and eliminate the strange invasive plants that spread across campus over the weekend. In addition to BoMB agents, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has also sent along a few aurors who specialize in “this sort of thing.” Though Ms. Kwan doesn’t bother explaining what “this sort of thing” is. What she does mention is that while the BoMB and DMLE are here for student safety, students are under no obligation to answer their questions, and if they have concerns they should report them to their Heads of House.

Second and Third period are cancelled today to make room for a voluntary Q&A session in the school auditorium. Interested students and staff may attend to meet BoMB and DMLE agents, ask a few questions, and learn a bit about what safety precautions are being implemented. The assembly goes on for about an hour and a half, during which time students are introduced to several new (or not so new) faces:

an ancient and high ranking BoMB Agent and preeminent Magizoologist named Al Falco (some may recognize him from the magikinetic sculpture race, or as a name that frequently shows up in their Magizoology textbooks)

a younger BoMB official overseeing fieldwork, Agent Ford Taurus, who promises his name is not fake

Dr. Malia Fernsby, a high-strung-seeming cryptobotanist

Bigfoot herself, Beefy

several aurors whose names are never given ⁠— including two surprisingly young-looking ones simply referred to as “the specialists”

By lunch, Mothgardeners learn of their newest addition, and Valkyrie Horvat is tasked with escorting him around campus. And boy does Rex have a lot of places he wants to hit up…

All in all, it’s an extremely busy day on campus, and classes wind up a little lackadaisical if they happen at all. That said, while skipping class is fairly easy, actually leaving campus during class hours proves difficult: there’s a DMLE checkpoint at the eastern bridge and the aurors stationed there know you should be in class right now.

volunteer slots! Echo Ellerby helps translate for a frustrated Muscheron being interviewed by a BoMB agent, and it actually goes pretty well! Apparently the Muscheron have dozens of stashes of hoarded goods underground all over campus, but the little toadstool is pretty sure they cleared everything out of the one beneath the Stump before they moved. “Allza good, allza got. Acorns t’zacorns, nothing for hims to eating there… prozabz’lee.”

A redheaded auror, one of the young “specialists” from the morning assembly, approaches Trudy McGilliguddy before lunch and asks them to show him where their magic party spirit throws their magic parties. You know. The ones the adults can’t find.

Whether or not Trudy was forthcoming, Audrey Poke spots the Specialists up by the Falls later in the afternoon, talking to Pocket. It’s the first sighting of one of the party bugs since Friday night and she seems happy to talk to them, but she looks noticeably run down.

While on the central green, Viola Warbeck spots one of the two specialist aurors ⁠— a tall curly-haired fellow ⁠— trying desperately to find some cell service. “What? No. Of course I’d tell you if it were a Hell situation. No. He can’t bring his camera if it is.” When the specialist notices Viola eavesdropping, he shoves a graze subscription box into their hands and tells them, “Safety first,” before going on his way. Inside, there aren’t snacks, but a collection of protective items: a satchel of purified salt, bundles of dill and sage, an iron spoon, a vial of water, and messily scrawled instructions for a complicated Charm that dispels “Anonymity.” Whatever that means.

[CHARACTER E] spots a string of Muscheron trying to sneak onto a table in a BoMB tent, where they’ve gathered a pile of rocks that kind of look like cicada shells. Some more than others. [CHARACTER E] throws the Muscheron a bone with an Accio behind the back, which nets the Muscheron a treasure trove of stones and [CHARACTER E] an interesting missive: Central Appalachian Paw Paw Reserve abandoned. No sign of struggle or flight found. Agent Oxford still MIA. Request assistance.

[SEVERAL STUDENTS] may have the opportunity to help Rex out with a few things today, as well...

how this works! ⬥ Because so much is going on today, we wanted to provide everyone with an IC/OOC to react, interact and scene.

⬥ Under the Morning Assembly header your student may ask any question they like of Ms. Kwan, the Heads of House and the represented BoMB agents and aurors.

Please limit yourself to one question at a time. You may ask more as they are answered.

You may address questions to specific people.

All in attendance will answer to the best of their ability provided the questions are pertinent to the assembly.

⬥ Rex is surreptitiously trying to open some cicada shells, but, he explains to those interested, he can’t hold all the memories himself ⁠— it’s too dangerous. You can sign up under the Help Rex Out header to request a cicada shell.

Doing this obligates you to open a cicada shell and carry its memory. We will get back to you in a few days with your memory. You are not obligated to return the memory, but it is an option.

If your character is already carrying a memory, they cannot take on another.

We will prioritize players who do not have cicada shells already on this, but will also give shells to those who already have a shell on another character if demand is low. HOWEVER, we ask that you limit yourself to one cicada shell requested from this particular venue.

It will take us a few days to get back to you with your full memory as we need to sort who gets what and write the content. :)

locations! ⬦ MORNING ASSEMBLY: Second and third period are cancelled today to make space for a voluntary assembly in the auditorium. Students can stop by to get an introduction to the BoMB Agents leading the effort. After an explanation of safety measures being taken and requests for students to report anything interesting or concerning to their Heads of House, questions are taken.

⬦ HELP REX OUT: The seer-prince of the Lepidopterites needs your help! His pockets are just overflowing with cicada shell stones, and he thinks they need to be opened and possibly returned to their owners, but he can’t take on all the memories by himself. If you are willing to accompany Rex around campus, over the next few days he will be completing the water rituals at each of the four Houses to open shells. Fill out this form to claim a shell:

⬦ AROUND CAMPUS & ELSEWHERE: Campus is buzzing with excitement now that so many visitors are running around. What did you get up to today?

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fred receives a shell that’s totally unopened and must take it from House to House to complete. It may be a bit hard for Fred to place who the stone reminds her of, but it’s certainly vaguely familiar.

Fred's heart leaps into her chest as she bursts through the library's front door. It's dark inside, but it's dark out as well, and her eyes are already adjusted. As another teenager trips their way in behind, a wolf shoves past both Fred and her companion, leaping its way up the wooden spiral staircase to that door that shouldn't open.

Tonight, though, it will open. Here, in this memory, it's opened every time someone's tried to use it. Here, now, it's just a portkey door.

"Monty!" shouts a voice belonging unmistakably to a Crockett. The teen boy who owns it trips up the stairs as he chases after the wolf.

"Zed! Shit! Wait up!" Fred hisses, reaching for Zed’s collar as he runs off. The voice is not hers. It's familiar, but not. She knows it from town somehow, but does that narrow down the pool when you're a local hometown darling? At the moment, it doesn’t matter. She just knows she needs to run.

“Monty said Tink called to him,” Zed says as they climb. “Tink thinks they turned on El.” Up, up, up the narrow stairwell, to the top and that door that doesn't open, but will. Tonight, it will, and every night before this one it did, as well.

This door is not the one Fred is familiar with. No wrought iron inlay, no ivy pattern. Just a plain wooden door with a brassy knob. The wolf is up on its hind legs, scraping deep gouges into the door, desperate to open it but unable. Just beyond, something knocks, over and over, rhythmic.

"Damn, Monty, hold up—" Zed Crockett reaches for the brassy doorknob, then immediately hisses in pain as he snaps his hand away. "Holy!"

"What?" Fred-but-not-Fred pushes herself up to the door. That knock, knock, knock just goes right on, ceasless.

Zed grimaces, clutching his hurt hand at the wrist. "It's, like, it's on fire!"

Fred withdraws her wand and casts Glacius with impressive ease, casting a thin layer of frost over the doorknob and twisting it open. Smoke billows through immediately, but it clears after a moment. Beyond is another library, but one unfamiliar to Fred, and not just because it's burning. The source of that steady knock also becomes evident: a tapestry poster advertising Paw Paw's Summer Reading Program, half burnt to ash, swings back and forth from one smoldering thread, smacking against the doorway. It fills the hall with the smell of burning plastic.

The wolf snarls, ducking into the flame-engulfed room and leaving the two other teenagers behind.

Zed jumps in after him, heedless of danger, and almost takes a falling beam to the head. Fred nabs him by the collar this time, yanking him back.

"Gil, we have to save them!" Zed protests.

"Ain't gonna save anyone if you're brained, shithead." Fred-but-definitely-not-Fred informs him. She grasps at Zed's pocket, retrieves his wand and shoves it into his hand. "Shielding charm. Now. Let's go."

Fred awakes from the memory with a cough, sweat breaking on her brow from the imagined heat. It’d felt so real a few seconds before, and now it fades like details from a dream. This memory is hers for now, but it shouldn’t belong to her for long.

A Busy Day at Peckenpaugh

Fred gets a cicada shell...