HE IS HERE

[peckishmods]

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.

but you'll keep going, won't you?

TO ELSEWHERE
| TO OUTSIDE | TO THE UPPER LEVELS | TO THE SORTING PATH |

IN THIS HUB
| ARE YOU THERE? |
| AT THE BASE OF THE TREE | A POCKET OF SAFETY |
| BACKSTAGE | THE DANCE STUDIO |

OOC POSTS
| OOC ACTION HUB | OOC CHATTER - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS |

Comments

Re: MEMORY: Haunted House

[quidditched]

The mystery of what record contains all this mood music will plague Eddy's mind for many late nights in the future, but for now he's saved the embarrassment of everyone realizing his next instinct was just to try punching these bugs.

The little skeleton bird sproings, the sole survivor of this memory mayhem, and this would be a lot easier if they weren't like four feet tall.

"Need a lift up?" he asks Mary Grace, hands clasped together as a makeshift step.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[crowhop]

Mary Grace spits on the floor, like a fucking lady. "You'd tell me if I had bugs in my teeth, right?" she asks, grinning wide to show them off, then hops up on his hands anyhow.

She's not entirely certain if this is what they need or not, but she knows damn well she fucking hates this clock, so when Mary Grace grabs for it, she tries to take the whole damn thing down.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[necrodanseuse]

Nothing special happens.
But it does create a really good smash, if Mary Grace lets it fall.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[teratophilia]

"Grab the bird out of it?" Armani suggests. He wants his sister back.

Re: MEMORY: Haunted House

[crowhop]

Mary Grace, who doesn't like men telling her what to do, looks right at Armani and then gestures at the clock. She doesn't say a word, but her face is asking when his hands broke.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[teratophilia]

"I was trying not to do your job for you," he snaps, dropping the facade of being a sweet and innocent little flower he tries to portray himself as as he snatches the clock away to grab the dead bird inside.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[necrodanseuse]

It does snap off but it does not glow.

At least the record has shifted back into the Addams Family again, as though Chanel, somewhere, is cheering Armani on.
Or just cheering a fight on.
Who can tell.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[teratophilia]

Armani drops both the bird and the clock as soon as they're no longer useful to him. "Is it me?" he asks, taking the change in music as a Sign From Above. "Can people be roots?"

Time go to touch... himself. Child self.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[quidditched]

Eddy sighs heavily, gives the clock a strong kick and goes to grab this damn record to figure out why it doesn't make any sense.

MEMORY: Haunted House

[crowhop]

Mary Grace dusts off her thoroughly trashed skirt and just starts trying doorknobs.

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[necrodanseuse]

As Eddy touches the record, it glows golden. The scene starts to play again.

The little girl wipes her face and pushes her way into the room, resolutely looking happy for her twin. "You did it!" She coos, and rockets her way into the room, twirling a few times to make herself presentable. "Armani, you're a real witch!" With careful fingers, she reaches for one of the dolls (pink dress) in awe and wonder, yelping and giggling when it kicks its little heels into her wrist. Chanel links her arm through Armani's to watch the spectacle. Somehow, somehow, that goddamn cuckoo clock, in its dilapidated state on the floor, springs out just one more time. Instead of the missing small skeleton bird, part of the wall falls away, revealing an opening to the auditorium.

[YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE NPC AND COMPLETED THE MEMORY! And found the linchpin. Please exit or stay to play thank you for freeing 1 useless child]

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[quidditched]

"Oh," Eddy says, turning the glowing record over in his hand. Guess that explains that mystery. He hands it to Armani, figuring he ought to have it. He watches the rest of the memory play out silently. It makes him realize how much he misses her. "Let's go."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[teratophilia]

Armani yoinks that record and bolts out to the auditorium. Outta his way!! "CHANEL."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[crowhop]

Mary Grace pauses to check her lipstick in her compact before following.

MEMORY: Haunted House - TOKENS!

[peckishmods]

Armani, Eddy and Mary Grace completed the memory "Haunted House".

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

Elsewhere in the auditorium, Chanel Addams was freed.

• Armani, Eddy and Mary Grace each received 5 Tokens for completing this memory.


• They received another 5 tokens for defeating some clock bugs, and another 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!

Re: MEMORY: Haunted House - TOKENS!

[teratophilia]

Armani also definitely grabbed his hockey stick on the way out because it's important but the narrator keeps forgetting it exists.

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[teratophilia]

Armani bolts toward Chanel, waving the linchpin and the hockey stick around. As if she can't obviously see him. "CHANEL, CHANEL. CHANEL. CHANEL."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[necrodanseuse]

Chanel, having no idea what on earth has just happened, mostly checks her dress and trilobitenecklace for damage. There isn't any. She is missing one shoe. A problem for later.

She looks up when she sees someone very familiar running forward, and has no choice but to reach her arms out. "...Darling!" She shouts back

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[teratophilia]

Armani drops the hockey stick so he can run into her arms. "Are you okay?? Did they hurt you? I'll kill them some more."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[necrodanseuse]

She's missed something again. And that makes her more angry than anything. She knows, a little, what has gone on. She was grabbed by the vines. But she's back. And may god help those things that let her get free. Soon.

She holds Armani tight. "If it's all the same. I'd like to fight my own battles now....are you all right? Has it been awful?"

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[teratophilia]

Armani's expression shifts to something more somber. "It's been..." he starts, quietly, and hesitates. "... Nothing I can't handle. But. I haven't found Laszlo yet."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[quidditched]

Eddy joins at an intentionally slower pace, assuming the twins would want some time to themselves. He crosses his arms over his chest, an attempt to hide all the damage he's done to this borrowed suit, but it doesn't hide much. Chanel looks stunning as always, if completely impractically dressed. Even if this weren't Hell.

He hovers close and gives her a slight nod, fingers twitching, but not quite reaching out for her. "Seen Wyatt?"

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[necrodanseuse]

Their faces begin setting off more alarm bells. Yes. Yes it makes sense that others would be missing, too. And their job is to find them. That’s what they have to do. Chanel nods to herself, and breaks away from Armani just for a moment. She sees that hand, Eddy Waxweiler, and she reaches to grasp his wrist, just for a second, to inspect him, too, for any visible injury. A furrow in her forehead deepens, a little. She releases both of them with a soft shake of her head. “I was alone. I didn’t see anyone. Shall we find them?”

It’s a question that doesn’t invite any answer but yes, and she spins so her back is facing her brother. “Unzip me.” This is also a command. Whatever. The whole school has seen her in a corset, and this dress was custom.

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[crowhop]

Mary Grace takes a moment to fluff her boobs before casually making her way up to the others. There's a dead bug in her hair still and a rope wound around her torso like a sash, and she's pretty sure this is going to be an iconic Halloween look once this gets turned into the movie it deserves to be.

"We only gotta find the ones we like," she says with that deadpan arrogance that's hard to read. "Let the guys getting paid for this handle the rest."

MEMORY: Haunted House-COMPLETE!

[necrodanseuse]

“Oh, you look pretty.” This is said with at least three parts scorn, but she’s not lying. Apocalypse hot is a whole genre, and this is it. “Thanks for taking the time out of your day, then.” She assumes they all had found her, Mary Grace included. She can’t help but look a little smug about that.