peckenpaugh | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, yeah, but..." But what're they supposed to do with that? Start stacking cereal boxes and fruit and stuff? Aris tilts his head, examining the pyramids a few seconds longer before shaking his head and turning back to face Armani. Who's already scaling the shelf. He blinks and half-hops over the unfortunate smooch-victim to get into a position to steady the makeshift ladder. Just in case. Then he nods in agreement.

"Oh, yeah, maybe! See if you can pull it free!" He looks upward, trying to get a glimpse of where the garlic is attached to the ceiling.

Small yet strong, Armani has no trouble scaling the shelves upon shelves upon shelves of boxes and boxes and more boxes until he's at the very top. He reaches out for the string of garlic, trying not to look down.

Not knowing what more he can do, Aris continues to brace the shelf and to look up toward Armani. If he falls, at least, he'll do his best to catch him!

Edited 2020-06-02 17:50 (UTC)

Without warning, the cardboard cow topples over. The heifer falls like a hatchet, separating the two teens by a corrugated wall. The freshman boy still leaning in for a kiss finds his lips pressed to the cow's pink nose. Startled, the memory owner shrieks, throws open the pantry door and flees out into the old black and white kitchen to laughter from her peers. That view flickers and changes, not Pocket's Ghostly Party, but the Peckenpaugh auditorium.

[MEMORY CAPPED! You may continue to explore this scene, locate the linchpin, or head out.]

"Uh... did we do it?" he asks, clutching the garlic. It doesn't feel Special like he thought it would.

Aris isn't completely certain about that. But life has come back into this little piece of the world and that seems like a good sign to him! Special in its own right, even if the garlic is...just garlic. "Well. You did it!" he calls up to Armani, offering him a grateful smile before adding less adamantly, "...I think. Need a hand getting down or anything?"

He lifts one hand in offering.

Edited 2020-06-02 18:48 (UTC)

"Ah. If you could catch this for me, please, that'd be a big help." He lowers the string of garlic and drops it for Aris to catch. "We can try taking it with us? See what happens?"

He works his way down the shelves, though it's slower getting down than it was going up as he carefully feels around with his foot before stepping. "I was expecting it to feel... I don't know. Different? Like maybe transform into a root? But maybe I just play too many video games. Maybe garlic is just garlic sometimes."

Edited 2020-06-02 19:00 (UTC)

Taking the (distinctly unspecial) garlic from Armani so he can climb down, Aris turns the bulbs over in his hands and considers this. "...I mean, whatever we're looking for isn't just what it is, though, right? That's the whole point. Since there aren't any literal roots around." He slings the garlic over his shoulder and nods to himself once the Thorntrail is back on the ground. "Okay! Yeah. You're right. Let's try this again..."

He turns back to the closet. The peculiar fruit. The vaguely intimidating cow. The boxes upon boxes of cereal. The pyramids. If this were a video game, it'd probably be simpler. Something would be glowing.

Armani hops down, taking another look around the pantry as well. The cow cutout, maybe? He pulls it away from the Freshman to inspect it. "I'd hate to leave before we're supposed to, but-- I don't really know if we've done our job or not."

Ah, there it is! Armani reaches for the cow cut out, and the one he pulls away leaves the original behind. It makes a weird noise, too. Like a suction cup being pulled off a wall — oh, it's that freshman still smooching the cow's face. Weird.

The cow cut out in Armani's hands glows gold! He has found the linchpin!

Aris utters a small gasp watching the second, glowing cow cutout come away in Armani's hand. Then he lights up, beaming and calling out, "Oh! You got it! This time for sure!" Still not a literal root, but glowing is just as magical as transfiguration, anyway.

Armani gasps as the cow cutout glows in his hands, then squeals with delight. "We found it!!!" he gushes, hopping up and down as he holds the linchpin over his head. This was definitely the Magical Item production quality he was craving. "Aris and Armani, LET'S GO!!" he chants like a cheer, then adds, "-- save more people!!" before bouncing his way out the door.

Edited 2020-06-02 20:05 (UTC)

Aris and Armani completed the memory "First Kiss?"!

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

Elsewhere in the auditorium, Kiss Traumatized Freshman and pollen, a magimagicicada were freed.

Aris and Armani each earned 5 Tokens for completing the memory!

They earned an additional 1 Token for locating the linchpin after hitting the reply minimum and an additional 2 Tokens for replying beyond the minimum!

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

Caught up in this success and in the other boy's enthusiasm, Aris cheers and follows after him, "Let's GO!"

If the rest are like this, this'll all be over in no time!

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: First Kiss?

MEMORY: First Kiss?

MEMORY: First Kiss?

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET

MEMORY: First Kiss? - COMPLETE & TOKENS

MEMORY: First Kiss? - REPLIES MET