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

Audrey's brick (ROLLED 9) strikes true, slamming into the Jupiter-thing's skull. The Joop monster can't retaliate (ROLLED 1) before she's slammed back into the boat, crushing the back of her head.

Felicity's feet kicks don't hurt much (ROLLED 3), but they do add insult to injury as the thing that looked like Jupiter starts to dissolve, a pile of ash melting into the water.

Meanwhile, Kermit tries to kiss Trudy.

Felicity watches. Intrigued.

Kermit's doppelganger kisses Trudy. Well, sort of. Her mouth is wide open in a shriek, but he still lands, so it counts as first base.

Amidst the screaming, Trudy flails and jerks back. She isn't experienced at physically fighting, but it doesn't stop her from decking him.

Edited 2020-06-05 16:39 (UTC)

Kermit's doppelganger gets a face full of fist (and heartbreak) from Trudy's fist (ROLLED 10), and he slams back into an oar, stuck in midair. Dazed, he stretches one hand out for that golden float Audrey had been headed for earlier... but his hand starts to dissolve into dust before he can reach it.

Audrey, Maisy, Felicity and Trudy have defeated two Pod People!

And suddenly, things are moving again. Not just one thing, but everything. Jupiter and Kermit are back on the boat, splashing down into the water, as the Greentooth River Monster reluctantly swims to their rescue.

The monster grabs the rowboat first and uses it to push at the two floating teenagers. Their protests and shouts mean nothing to the monster as they herd the pair along, flippers slicing through the river water. As they approach the shore, the monster grabs the lip of the boat under the water and flips it right side up, spraying water over the teenagers on the shore.

Peering over the edge of the boat, though, it almost looks like there's a hole there. No—not a hole, an opening, just big enough for some humans to squeeze through. Hopefully it doesn't just lead them underwater again.

[MEMORY COMPLETE! And you defeated the NPCs! Grab that linchpin and get out of here.]

Edited 2020-06-05 17:00 (UTC)

Audrey, owl-like, blinks. What just happened is...bad. But there are no bodies so she...assumes it’s not, at least, like she is a murderer now.

She still doesn’t feel like swimming very much and reaches for the golden float, numb, to have some support, here.

“....He was kinda cute, too.”

She intones to Trudy, to acknowledge her sacrifice.

Edited 2020-06-05 17:25 (UTC)

The float glows even brighter under Audrey's touch, and when she moves, an exact copy of it comes with her. Looks like that's the linchpin!

Edited (repetititititive) 2020-06-05 17:31 (UTC)

"I have a new appreciation for the real Kermit," Trudy replies. She gives a wet pat to Aundrey's shoulder, then heads through the portal back to the real world.

Audrey, Maisy, Felicity and Trudy have completed the memory "Moonlit Swim"!

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

Out in the waters of the Greentooth River, the river monster was freed!

Audrey, Maisy, Felicity and Trudy receive 10 points for completing a memory with an encounter!

They receive an additional 2 points for locating the linchpin, and Trudy gets 1 point for finding true love with a monster.

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 (extra spaces bother me!!!) 2020-06-05 19:03 (UTC)

Felicity follows the others back through, silently, her mind still with fake-Kermit. She's been in his shoes before. Giving kisses to people who don't want to kiss back. It sucks.

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE & TOKENS!

MEMORY: Moonlit Swim - COMPLETE!