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's almost idyllic," Claudia says, throwing her arms up and breathing deep. It smells so crisp and clean and the view is nothing short of breathtaking. Honestly not the worst place to spend your senior prom.

Except for all the people missing.

Including the actual walking, talking Xenia de Bourgh. Which kind of puts a damper on that whole thing.

"Joopie, what did you see in my head?" she asks as she reaches out for the ring, lighting on the familiar golden band. "Did it goop on you?"

Under Claudia's fingers, the ring's glinting grows bright. Claudia has found the linchpin!

"Of course Deebs wouldn't have an embarrassing memory, she's—Oooh! Heeeey!" Jupiter coos, jabbing a finger at the glittering ring and then pumping her fist. "Bingo! Here we come, Xen!"

She glances up, at Claudia after and clicks her tongue, "Oh, just, like, a ton of balls mostly. You were awesome."

Lionel bites his tongue and doesn't ask clarifying questions about Claudia's memory that is "balls mostly." It feels like a trap. Better to just steer clear.

He lights up when young Xenia's ring begins to glow. "We've got her?" he asks, hopeful. "Xenia's okay?" For someone who's content to be alone always, he's unusually excited at the prospect of being reunited with all his roommates.

Before either of the girls can answer, things are in motion again, the memory resuming.

"I do!" Xenia exclaims, too loud by several measures. Her voice half-flattens the grubby crowd; they all rear back from her like it's microphone feedback, hands clapped over their ears, yelling.

Then, all at once -- miraculously -- they start to laugh. First one, then another.

"Wow, it actually works," one says.

"Yeah, that's cool."

"Weird."

"Maybe try your inside voice."

And Xenia laughs too, looking at once unsure and relieved and very pleased with herself.

Behind her, as the scene quiets back down, a neat slit appears in the air. A portal back to Peckenpaugh.

[MEMORY COMPLETE! Linchpin acquired, replies met. You can continue to thread here or head back to Peckenpaugh through the portal!]

Edited 2020-06-08 04:59 (UTC)

Claudia yelps in surprise when Xenia's voice bursts forth, knocking straight into Jupiter.

"Oh! Oh! That's what it's supposed to do, right??" she asks, giddily clapping her hands. "We did it! We have to go take pictures with her!" Claudia grabs onto Lionel's shirt as she hops past toward the portal, ready to dive right in, as everyone should do when they see a mysterious portal open up in a liminal space.

"We just gotta pick her up!" Jupiter affirms, rubbing her shoulder with one hand and blinking the blast of sound out of her head as Claudia bullrushes Lionel toward the exit.

Jupiter hangs, lighting her fingers on the frozen pre-teen Xenia's shoulder. "Super cool," she says, agreeing with the gathered children, and then jogs after Claudia and Lionel.

Claudia, Jupiter and Lionel have completed the memory "It Works!"!

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

In the upper boughs of the tree, Xenia de Bourgh was freed!

Claudia, Jupiter and Lionel each earned 5 Tokens for completing the memory.

They earned an additional 2 Tokens 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!

HE IS HERE

MEMORY: It Works!

MEMORY: It Works!

MEMORY: It Works!

MEMORY: It Works!

MEMORY: It Works! - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: It Works! - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: It Works! - COMPLETE!

MEMORY: It Works! - COMPLETE &TOKENS!