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

It takes a lot for Felicity to abandon those sweet smelling tuna cans, but something tells her the lightsaber holds a little more meaning for Kirby.

She grabs for it.

When Felicity grabs the lightsaber, it shines gold and another one remains in the trash next to Kirby. She has found the linchpin!

The Niffler hisses and pounces forward at the other players, flexing what's left of its front claws.

Unlike Maisy, Aris didn't find a convenient makeshift weapon among the garbage. Not quickly enough, anyway. When the not-Niffler lunges forward, he jumps back with a small yelp and does the only thing he can think to do: he kicks it, starting low to catch it under the chin and continuing through a full high kick.

Who says cheerleading has no real-world applications?

Edited 2020-06-06 15:08 (UTC)

Stunned by Aris's kick, the not-Niffler gives one last hiss and then evaporates.

Kirby scrambles out of the dumpster, clutching the lightsaber, and hops onto the ground. As he brushes pieces of trash off his clothes, he notes that the playground is empty. Crap, he’s going to be late for class.

He trudges across the playground, hanging his head. Then he remembers something—he’s a wizard, and they’re not. He imagines coming back to the school and turning the bully into a beetle. As unrealistic as this fantasy is, it cheers him up just to think about the possibilities the future holds.

Back in the dumpster, all the rummaging around has left a hole that seems to stretch into the ground. It’s big enough for people to slide through, if they can stand to.

[MEMORY COMPLETE!]

Felicicoon pops out of the dumpster, scurries back under her clothes, and suddenly reappears as herself. Except her dress is on backwards. But that's a problem for later. Right now they gotta get back to school and give Kirby his lightsaber.

Before she jumps into the dumpster again, she turns to the others. "If anyone asks, we got PECK on the first try. Right?"

"I still don't get it," Maisy complains before she hoists her skirts up and slides down the garbage shoot.

Aristotle, Felicity and Maisy completed the memory "Dumpster Dive"!

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

On the second floor, Kirby Sparrowgrove was freed! Elsewhere in the auditorium, shrub, a magimagicicada was freed!

Aristotle, Felicity and Maisy each received 7 Tokens for completing the memory!

They each received 3 Tokens for completing an encounter and 1 Token for finding the linchpin.

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

Edited 2020-06-06 19:37 (UTC)

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive

MEMORY: Dumpster Dive - COMPLETE & TOKENS!