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

"Maybe we just didn't see the hidden dangers," Mary Grace suggests, eyebrows up as she reaches out to pet the puppy on the nose. "There were roots under our feet the entire time."

The puppy doesn't respond to Mary Grace's pets, so she spins back toward Presley. "Don't worry," she flexes one arm. "Mama's here to protect you."

Felicity reluctantly concedes that she probably isn't the master of space and time and reality. The acknowledgement that they're not in full control makes her feel momentarily unsafe. But she's with Presley and a flexing Mary Grace and everything is going to be okay, she tells herself. "Mary Grace is right," she nods at Presley, projecting confidence. "You'll be fine."

She crosses over to the bluetick and calls back to her roommate, "Does Mama want a blue ribbon?"

"I am perfectly capable of protecting myself." Nevermind that Presley has done fuck-all since prom was interrupted. He always thought he'd step up and take charge the second their school was in danger, and it's embarrassing how in over his head he feels right now.

But he will not let the girls see that. "Take this seriously," he snaps at Felicity, before returning to the scene with the puppy and Mr. Hobgood. Should they... save him...? Warily, Presley places a hand on the frozen dog and tries to push him out of the way.

"Mama deserves a blue ribbon!" Mary Grace calls out, overconfident as always, and punches the air a few times. Yeah, she'll give 'em what for. Whoever they are.

"I don't think we're supposed to meddle with time, Pres, but I do think we're supposed to—" She reaches into her clutch and retrieves a vape pen, "—blend in. Holy shit, I think we match."

Edited (sorry for...who she is...) 2020-06-02 03:19 (UTC)

"I am being serious," Felicity mumbles to herself as she tries to pluck the blue ribbon away from the dog. "Just not too serious."

Doesn't Presley know that if you act all serious, things might just... get serious?

Edited (don't apologize alex) 2020-06-02 03:26 (UTC)

"Is that what you're thinking about right now?" Presley half-yells, letting go of Ducky to snatch the matching vape right out of Mr. Hobgood's hand. He shakes it in Mary Grace's face. "O'Malley, the current situation is cataclysmic. The school is destroyed, half of us are just—gone—and Pocket left us with absolutely maundering instructions to do who knows the fuck what! Can EVERYONE just FOCUS."

Alright, so he's now full-on yelling.

Edited (now i'm sorry) 2020-06-02 03:46 (UTC)

Presley takes the vape—or, really, he takes a copy of the vape, which glows gold as he shakes it in Mary Grace's face. And suddenly, everything's moving again, everything going topsy turvy as Ducky and Hermes collide, both of them somersaulting into the dirt.

“DUCKY! And—Hermes! Sorry, shit, did she hurt you?” Richard Pompel shouts, jogging toward the two of them. He offers a hand to help Hermes up, but Ducky is already trying to scramble away again, just fucking stoked on the idea of digging up some mandrakes right now.

“Just my pride,” Hermes grunts and takes Pompel’s hand. “And also my coat. Is there a tailor in town?”

“Maybe not a tailor, but I bet you could trade a Morgenstern for a—DUCKY, not the mandrakes again!” Aaaand he’s off again, scrambling after his rambunctious baby before she can piss off his business partner better than he ever could. As Hermes brushes the mud off his sleeves, a huge metal tub of water just behind him glows blue at the edges. Just below the water, Peckenpaugh awaits, so take a dip.

[MEMORY COMPLETE. Linchpin acquired, criteria met ~~unless Presley wants to take a fat rip from that vape~~. You may continue to thread here or move back to Peckenpaugh through the portal.]

Mary Grace exhales a cloud of smoke when everything stops moving. Right. Weird shit. Prom as usual.

"The fuck did you do, Pres?" she asks, obnoxiously playful.

"Hit it or pass it," Felicity adds, sidling up next to Mary Grace, crossing her arms, and fixing Presley with an expectant stare.

He just stares at Mary Grace, then at Felicity, and then at the changed scene.

"Fuck everything," Presley declares, and takes a long pull from their teacher's vape. Or a ghost double of their teacher's vape? Honestly, who cares anymore. He's done. Presley coughs a few times, and shakes his head as he regards the glowing tub of water again. "Of course I'd be wearing my best suit for this."

Edited (wait he's a square) 2020-06-02 05:27 (UTC)

"My MAN!" Mary Grace cheers and claps Presley on the back as he coughs. She hands her vape to Felicity. "Now this party can get started, Prom Bond... James Prom... Bond... Promsley Bondragon."

Yeah that's the one.

She peers into the tub. Kinda seems like the logical next step. "Royalty first?"

Edited (I spent so long trying to come up with a James Bond prom pun I decided to call myself out) 2020-06-02 05:58 (UTC)

Felicity takes a big drag from Mary Grace’s vape and holds it in until she’s come up with a Bond pun of her own. “Let’s go Miss Moneypresley,” she exhales, delighted by this turn of events. She hops into the tub and beckons the others to follow. “Bad Girls Club is needed back at school.”

Felicity, Mary Grace and Presley completed the memory "Just Ducky"!

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

Elsewhere in the auditorium, Hermes Hobgood and the mist, a magimagicicada were freed.

Felicity, Mary Grace and Presley each received 5 tokens for completing a memory.

They each receive an additional 1 token for finding the linchpin on the 8th tag.

Presley received 2 tokens for ripping that vape.

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

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky

MEMORY: Just Ducky - COMPLETE & TOKENS