peckenpaugh | HE IS HERE

Entry tags:

! ic/ooc,
* endgame

HE IS HERE

the vines have run wild

it's over Everything is in shambles. Walls and floors torn and broken from roots and branches sprouting through. They block doors and crowd passages and pulse with sick life. The Thing sits in the center of it all, angry and starving, its trunk both still and moving in ways you catch only when it is in the corner of your vision. Branches that look less like bark and more like skin stretch in every direction, lush with shadowy leaves and dotted with bits of glowing blue. The ruined floor is littered with those little twinkling dots. Seeds. Everywhere, seeds. They hang on boughs, and rest on banisters in the upper levels. The one thing in this nightmare that doesn't radiate that awful, pervasive hunger.

The roof is gone, replaced with a writhing canopy of shadow and muck. Some parts of it are complex spiderwebs of tendrilly shapes, others solid formless movement. The only consistent thing about it is that it is terrible to behold, faintly nauseating to look at for too long. Ash rains down between gaps in its branches, and what glimpses of sky are visible are nothing but swirling gray clouds. What stars still shine are magic, man-made, floated between balconies by prom committee before the dance.

Those remaining begin to stir. Each one of you has heard Pocket's words, "Find the roots." And if you want to save your friends, your family, the holler — hell, maybe even the world — that's exactly what you're going to do.

You climb from protective cocoons of dying moss, push your way past walls of solid ice, emerging into utter destruction. Things move and make noise at the edge of your vision, but for now, at least, all is calm. What to do? Where to start?

it's ruined Among the twinkling maple seeds are the dropped possessions of students and staff, lost when they were pulled away. A compact mirror, a cell phone, a pair of glasses, cups of punch spilling across the floor. A single red heel sits at the edge of the jagged pit that peers down into the Sorting Path. The air here is hot. Too hot. If you jump, you'll surely be boiled alive.

Though locked when everyone tried to flee, vines and roots have torn the doors to the auditorium off their hinges. The splintered remains of heavy oak doors litter the entrance halls and stairwell alcoves, leaving an open path outside. Not that you'd want to flee, by the looks of it.

A cool night breeze is the only relief from the growing heat of the auditorium, yes, but even that is tainted by the heavy scent of flowers. Outside, vines and purple flowers have exploded over every surface. They climb up lamp posts, engulf buildings whole, hang from trees. It would be beautiful if it weren't horrifying. Campus is unrecognizable.

there is no hope Roots and vines clog the way to the Sorting Path, and most stairwells are completely obstructed by the growths of that horrible tree. Up above, something buzzes and wails, a mockery of a cicada's cry, and beyond that the twittering of birds nesting in the tree's highest branches.

Pouch coalesces in the middle of it all, a one-winged magimagicicada, weak and weary but undaunted. Resolute, if not reinvigorated. He bends down to touch a seed, and the moment his obsidian fingers light on it, a blue-white portal to somewhere else rips right through reality. A memory begins to play. Somehow, the bug seems to know what he's seeing.

She gave us what we need, the one who ran says to the gathered students, his voice in their heads as much as the air. Let's all not let her down, huh?

Find your friends. Find my siblings. It's time to fight.

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The last time Eddy ventured out here during the daytime would have been sometime during freshmen year. Back when all the odd rumors were wild new adventures that had to be explored. He'd brought along some leftover Halloween M&Ms as an offering since that was all he could afford.

The chill didn't mean anything back then. Maybe someone had complained about forgetting a jacket. Someone else had thrown some skittles at them and called them an idiot. But it's instantly recognizable now. The one who ran hadn't gotten very far.

But that's not who this memory belongs to. Pouch is fine. Or, well. Safe, at least. Relatively. Fuck.

No, this memory almost certainly belongs to the 400-pound bearret sitting in the small clearing, and—

Oh shit is that more goop? "Fuck," is all the warning Eddy gives as he reaches for one of the metal cans (his weapon of choice, apparently) and hurls it at the innocent cup of sweet delicious bruney clutched in Bearigold's good paw.

Blessedly, Eddy has good aim thanks to years of ball sports, but it's maybe also a blessing that this isn't actually the bearret in question.

Audrey hasn’t had any experience with goop, yet, and blinks when Eddy lobs the delicacy right out of the hands of this precious darling. “...Hey.” She protests, albeit mildly. She runs to rectify this, and picks up the pudding, nestling it gently back into Bearigold’s paw. “She can have a snack.”

Edited 2020-06-02 17:12 (UTC)

"I— Uh—" Eddy sputters in a truly eloquent manner. There are no burbling bear growls coming from the brown substance, or soft jingles from his back pocket. Just a bearret trying to enjoy a cup of creamy processed sugar sludge. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, he has to tug his belt chains free of some briar branches before he can join her and knocks into the bucket, causing more clatter.

"Sorry," he grimaces, apologizing to both Audrey and Bearigold. "Was a thing. Before."

That explains a lot.

His struggle probably isn’t amusing, and she imagines there’s a very good reason Eddy is so on edge. She doesn’t quite trust the fraying cardboard box that the bearret’s crouching over, but she’s not so cautious. She crouches down and starts rifling through, gently amused despite the circumstances. “...so it’s not just Lukashenko.” She holds up a pudding cup to Eddy. Just about half kidding. “Need one too?”

Edited 2020-06-02 19:35 (UTC)

Eddy accepts the offered pudding cup, moreso because it's being handed to him than out of any desire to actually consume it. Not that Eddy doesn't regularly consume all manner of processed garbage. He peels back the lid without really thinking. Just something to occupy his hands further.

"Didn't get a chance for snacks earlier," he replies, tone light despite the heavy meaning behind his words. As he crouches beside Audrey, he swipes a finger through the pudding left clinging to the lid, and then tilts the cup towards her. "Split it?" he asks. A soft dare.

Well. She should've known that she would be held to her own standards. Audrey hesitates. This is...probably a bad idea. And they have so much to do.

On the other hand, there's never a wrong time for pudding.

She reaches forward, and expertly tears half the lid, folding the foil to act like a spoon, and takes a bite. If she dies, she dies.

"Need our energy." She explains away her bad choice, even as she looks around, "...What....is here. Do you think."

"Cheers." A rare grin, even outside the apocalypse, spreads on Eddy's face and he licks his finger clean. At least in this memory he can see why Lukashenko and all the freshmen went bonkers over this stuff.

"Need our energy," he agrees, and tosses the rest of the cup back impulsively, proving he is in fact Wyatt's brother, no matter how expensively you dress him up. (If he does die tonight because of this, hopefully they'll massage the truth.)

"Bowl glowed. Before," he offers, as he grabs the bucket and drops the empty pudding cup inside. Littering ain't right, even if it's just a memory.

"Cheers." She echoes, and waits just long enough to make sure Eddy does not get sick or die before plucking a fresh pudding cup out of the box. She doesn't take it as a shot, just licks slowly (terrible manners) off the top while surveying the scene. Nothing's glowing yet.

"So did Kyle's planchette." She provides. "...So something here's important." Nothing except the pudding cup seems to be anything but discarded belongings, and she surveys it with a little huff before straightening up. "I wonder..if you were a bearret. What would you find...important, here."

She's not exactly sure why they're here in this memory at all, but. If it helps Bearigold out. It'll be worth it.

It will. Though if Eddy's honest, he'd been hoping they would wander into a ketchup guzzling competition or baby's first taxidermy lesson when they'd passed through the portal.

He scratches the back of his ear as he surveys the clearing. He's never been a bearret so nothing here immediately jumps out at him. It definitely all looks like junk leftover from inconsiderate teenagers passing through.

"Guess.. start grabbing things?" he suggests as he does just that, picking up the can he'd thrown earlier and tossing it into the bucket as well. "Then.. see if the train opens?"

Something in that box of pudding does glow. Boy, there are an awful lot of pudding cups in there.

She's about to go start grabbing things, when she happens to look down, tip of her tongue collecting more pudding. And then again. She nods, and only then reaches down to pull off some of the pudding cups, trying to dig to the center. She pulls up a six pack of pudding and holds it out, somber. "Or...and. Hear me out. Just eat our way through."

She beckons her head so he can come see. And maybe assist. Her stomach is only so big. "It's what she would've wanted."
Both Pocket and Bearigold. It's true.

No matter how many discarded beer cans Eddy grabs, none of them start glowing. Apparently Bearigold is not secretly concerned with conservationist efforts.

He hears Audrey out, and.. the smile returns. Just a small one this time, but he crosses back over to her and takes the six pack before settling onto the ground. This is a sitting down kind of project.

Off go six lids, one by one. He peers into the box at the remaining cups, doing a quick mental count. Even this much pudding is a lot for Eddy, who like many teenage boys, seems to be a bottomless pit. Ah well.

"Gotta do our part to save the world." Down the hatch.

Eventually, as they work their way through pack after pack of chocolate-y goodness, the duo does find one cup that begins to glow—though its glow flickers, only growing solid after they've eaten the contents. Why is this one so special? Was it especially tasty?

Eddy and Audrey found the linchpin!

Once it's in hand, though, Bearigold starts moving again. She methodically works her way through pudding cup after pudding cup, having a bear-y good time. The only sound is her schlorping on that pudding, until a sound cuts through the peaceful evening air.

"Um, who's Lionel?"

Bearigold falls backward off her log with a start just in time for a vine to whip out of the ground. She lets out a soft, fearful yelp, clutching that last pudding with her one good paw. Just before the vines reach her they're frozen solid. Heavy with ice, they fall, shattering into a fine crystalline dust.

With a confused yelp Bearigold bolts through the brush. Branches and twigs snap, and the duo find a bearret-shaped hole through the shrubs that leads back to Peckenpaugh's auditorium.

[Memory Complete! You have reached 12 replies and found the linchpin. You may head back to school or stay and play with beer cans.]

She'd missed...so much pudding over the course of the year. But now she never wants to eat it again. The vines make her jump back, but it seems to be okay. Like the pudding, they're just a memory.

Before they get a chance to scurry under some shrubs, though, she pokes Eddy's shoulder with her elbow. Friendly jab, nothing serious. "Your boy's watching out." Past tense. Technically. But it's nice to see evidence of the cicadas here. Now.

Developing an aversion for pudding is unfortunate, but Eddy thinks he might be there. Luckily a gut full of memory pudding doesn't slow down the reflexes, because shit, those vines are completely unexpected.

Eddy bumps his elbow back at Audrey, gently. The sudden, sourceless frost is unmistakable, and he glances over his shoulder to the train car. Strange, comforting, and a little sad, to think he'd been watching over this little spot and they'd never known he was there.

"Find her. Save her," he promises before they disappear through the shrubs.

Audrey and Eddy have completed the memory "Snacktime"!

Upon emerging from the memory out into the auditorium, the portal snapped shut behind them.

Somewhere on campus, Bearigold has been freed — she makes her way to the safety of the old train car.

Audrey and Eddy earn 5 Tokens for completing the memory!

They earned an additional 3 Tokens each for locating Bearigold's linchpin before the memory capped!

You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime

MEMORY: Snacktime - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Snacktime - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Snacktime - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Snacktime - COMPLETE & TOKENS!