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

Jupiter stares at the goop splattered across the desk. Somebody better clean that up because she's not going to.

Just to prove how unlikely it is that she'll clean anything, she instead wanders over to the young Lionel and ruffles his hair. "Oh, do you think I should?" She doesn't wait for an answer. Even if she can't take him out of the memory, she tries to lift him up anyway. Jupiter has always suspected that she could free lift Lionel.

Lionel's physical form does not move, but his soul does rise up and leave his body. His glasses-less eyes, trained on the desk, have taken on a pleading quality.

Claudia pouts. Shoot. She really thought Jupiter was strong enough to pull that off. But Claudia's never dwelt on her mistakes before! So why start now?

"Well, let's just take a real quick selfie while we're all gathered," she suggests, digging into her clutch again for her camera and selfie stick. "Then we should start taking notes on the mystery we definitely have to solve."

Edited (i swear we're almost there) 2020-06-07 20:34 (UTC)

Jupiter poses, flashing a peace sign while smooching the still sort of goop-covered side of Lionel's face, and once the selfie is snapped she turns to examine the smear of gray goop.

"Oh, shit!" She shouts suddenly, and grabs the Zippy Dip gift certificate. "I think this is still valid!"

When Jupiter grabs the Zippy Dip gift certificate, she actually grabs a golden, glowing copy. Jupiter has found the linchpin. The memory suddenly resumes.

Confusion about Lesters and Lionels and Leons is forgotten at the sudden appearance of a smoking computer.

Lionel rushes over to it, bends under the table, and yanks out the plug. Then he stands, pulls the fire extinguisher off the wall, and sprays a cloud of foam onto the machine, producing a satisfying hiss that slowly dissipates.

“Very good, very good.” Lionel turns to see Mr. Qualls coming toward him, ghostly hands silently applauding. “And that is exactly why you’re going to make such a great TA next year,” he beams. Lionel pushes his gold-rimmed glasses back up his nose and can’t help but smile back.

“Now, go grab that Zippy Dip certificate off my desk and get yourself a milkshake. My treat. We’re celebrating!”

The door to the computer lab opens and Jupiter and Claudia can see it leads back to the auditorium, not the library.

Congrats!

However, (ROLLED 2) their selfie turned out like shit. If they want a proper memento, they should probably try again.

[MEMORY COMPLETE! Muck defeated. Linchpin located. You may continue to thread here or move back to Peckenpaugh through the portal.]

"Aww, dang," Claudia says, clicking through the pictures on her camera. "These make Lionel look so old."

She blows the hair out of her face and looks at Jupiter. "Let's go find him and make him take a new one."

Claudia and Jupiter completed the memory "Lester"!

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

At the base of the tree, Lionel Lovelace was freed! Elsewhere in the auditorium, lightning, a magimagicicada was freed!

Claudia and Jupiter received 5 Tokens for completing the memory!

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

They received an additional 1 Token for uncovering the truth about the Epstein-Barr Virus and Timotheye

Lionel received 5 Tokens in small compensation for his suffering.

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 2020-06-07 21:45 (UTC)

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester

MEMORY: Lester - TOKENS!