Trudy rounds the tree as well, hoping to get a look at whatever Maisy saw that restarted the memory. "Why's it only doing it on one side?" She goes to investigate, looking up at the limbs and down at the roots below their feet.
Mary Grace returns to the base of the tree, placing her hand on the bark. Part of her — most of her, honestly — expects it to feel like the malignant tree in the auditorium, more like flesh than bark.
"Cursed, maybe?" she guesses, peering closely at the trunk. "Magic eclipse?"
With three students examining the maple, everything starts to move.
As Armani bends down to check the holes around the roots in the great old tree, three cicadas and a muscheron climb out to meet him, though they don't see him at all. The three cicadas take flight, zooming upward into the canopy, and the muscheron shouts something in Mushkin, running toward its friends at another tree.
Cicadas start to wail, a strange summer call in early spring. All around, there's chaos. Students running for staff, coming close to see what's happening, shouting and panicking. Zelda Gunzenhauser takes three long steps back, her head craned to get a look at the top of the tree. Mouth agape, eyes wide, horror dawns slowly across her features as, on one side, dry and yellow maple seeds begin to fall, little helicopters twisting lazily to the ground, blown about in the breeze. The bark of the tree turns gray. Under Mary Grace's fingers, it's uncomfortably warm to the touch.
"What's happening?" Zelda asks—no, calls to the tree. Panic rises in her voice. "Tink? Peter?"
Cicadas start to fall from the branches. The memory stops again, bugs frozen in the air.
When everything moves again, Chanel lets out a small cry and runs toward her brother and the rest of the students, in case something else happens. There's a small horror playing out here, and it's abundantly clear what it is. This must be the day when things started to go wrong. This tree is about to become very dangerous.
"Back off the tree." She snaps. She doesn't want to see Mary Grace or Armani or honestly anyone get grabbed back.
Chanel, predictably, gets closer herself, examining the tree hard for any way to stop this. She doesn't touch it, at least.
Mary Grace pulls her hand from the trunk when it starts to heat up, not really looking to scald off her fingertips quite yet, but she doesn't back away. As long as no one's asking her to climb this thing, she ain't afraid.
"There's marks," she points out as Chanel comes closer, leaning in to look at the house symbols scratched into the trunk.
Maisy follows Mary Grace and Chanel back around the tree, stepping carefully to avoid the roots. She's not as brave as Mary Grace, but not as smart as her either, and doesn't hesitate to reach out and experimentally touch the Deeplurk symbol carved into the trunk.
The tree is still uncomfortably warm to the touch, but under Maisy's fingers the Deeplurk insignia glows faintly green. The boughs of the tree rustle.
The memory begins to move again.
Those frozen cicadas and maple seeds fall like rain, thunking against the ground, though not everything in the air is dead. As the grass surrounding the tree starts to wilt, more cicadas land and then spring up into human form, each one of them like Pocket with glittering wings, carnelian eyes and skin like a clear night sky. A dozen or more, moving with purpose — catching what's falling, trying to usher students away from the area.
"Z, you need to get everyone here and you need to go," Pocket appears, leaping up from the ground as she so often does, and taking young Zelda Gunzenhauser by the shoulders. "It isn't safe here."
Zelda hardly seems to hear her command, pushing past her, toward the maple. "Tink, what's happening? The tree—It's—"
"I—I don't know," Pocket says, voice sharply taut. "It's okay. We're going to stop it. We have to stop it. It'll be, like, okay." Her voice cracks, unconvincing and unsure. "We'll activate the sigils. You just have to go!"
But Zelda doesn't leave. She watches as four magimagicicadas wordlessly turn and approach the great old tree. They move past the students bearing witness to this memory as though they aren't even there — because they aren't, not really.
A small one walks right through Maisy, barely more than ten-years-old, the little one stretches his hand up as high as he can reach trying to touch his steaming fingers to the Deeplurk symbol. On the opposite side, the tallest of the gathered beings, their form glowing at the edges like smoldering embers, extends their orange-red fingers toward the Wildgulch symbol. Another, body blooming with little pink flowers, raises their hand to the Thorntrail symbol on the west side. And at last, hobbling forward, an ancient magimagicicada who radiates a sharp, raw charge, bends her crooked form down and parts her lips in front of the Mothgarden symbol.
Before they can do what they've set out to do, the memory stutters to a stop. On the ground, everything's frozen, but up above, the tree continues to wilt, shedding maple seeds and leaves.
This isn't quite like any other memory she's seen. Chanel bites her lip. "One for each house. Should we try... Trudy. I'm afraid you may have to kiss this tree."
Happy that it's not her fate, Chanel moves to imitate the boy with the little pink flowers, raising her arm towards the Thorntrail symbol.
Chanel's hand grazes the Thorntrail symbol and the foot fills with deep red color. Something radiates back through her fingers, an old feeling, strong and sturdy and immovable, certainty. But that feeling lasts only a second, and the light fades from the symbol once more.
"Is she kissin' it or blowing on it?" Mary Grace asks, leaning in close to look at the woman by the Mothgarden symbol. Does she actually have to (get to) burn this tree down? "Hey, that weird kid didn't take off, did he?"
"Why do I keep having to kiss things!" Trudy demands with irritation. "I'm not doing it unless I have to, though it would hardly be the worst kiss of the evening." She huffs, then leans in to blow on the Mothgarden symbol carved into the tree.
A puff of Trudy's breath hits the Mothgarden symbol and lights it right up, a glowing blush of pink color. Trudy feels a rush of energy, fluttering wings and bright bubbles bursting beneath her skin. It's wonderful, energizing, inspiring, and it lingers as the ancient magimagicicada beside her comes back to life.
The old woman exhales against the symbol, her breath sparks of static and arcs of electricity. The Mothgarden symbol hums and the bark on this side fills with color.
Mary Grace puts her hand back on the trunk, tracing the triangular lines of the Wildgulch symbol, then looks around. "I ain't got any fire on hand," she glances around at the others. "Anyone got a light I can bum?"
"I don't smoke, and the wand Pouch gave me is... unreliable," Trudy says.
"Oh, maybe we could start a fire with my glasses by magnifying the sun!
I've always wanted to try that!"
“We’ll just all swap tree spit, today.” Is all of Chanel’s input.
But she’s nervous about the fact that her contribution didn’t spark anything more than a momentary burst of color. While the others play with fire, she resolves herself to dig into the ground and slap a handful of earth on to the tree. Her manicure’s ruined anyhow.
While the others are busy solving the emblems, Armani's still crouching around the roots. Itching to use a Talisman but not having seen an opportunity until now, he reaches into his garter purse to pull out a Ziploc bag. Within the Ziploc bag is a dead snake. Which he takes out and drops down one of the Muscheron holes.
Earth pressed to the Thorntrail symbol turns the lines a deep rust red, the color of blood. All that power spreads back toward Chanel, the feeling of certainty far stronger than before, buzzing beneath her skin, humming in her bones.
The flower-skinned magimagicicada starts to move, pressing their splayed fingers over the Thorntrail symbol, buds flourishing from the contact, spreading from the cicada to the tree.
The magimagicicada freezes once more, but the cicadas above continue to sing. Cries of hope, of confidence, even as their tree goes right on wilting.
Meanwhile, at the root of the tree, Armani's snake talisman disappears down the hole. It seems for a moment that that is the end of it, but as the cicadas cries grow louder, something in there moves.
A tiny button muscheron wheels something out toward Armani, looks up at him with its two beady dot eyes and smiles wide. "Itza youz!" says the little thing, gesturing with tiny hands toward the prize it has given before scurrying away, disappearing like dandelion fluff blown away in a breeze: a familiar pink tamagotchi, once gifted to him before for returning something to the tree. This certainly doesn't belong here. Not in 1989. When Armani touches it, it radiates some strange power it hadn't before. Maybe this can help him somehow, if he's ever in danger. [Armani will be able to keep the muscheron gift once he has left this memory.]
It takes a while to find the right angle, but once Mary Grace catches a sunbeam, the tree doesn't hesitate to start sparking and smoking. Blue light fills the Wildgulch symbol like a trail of lit gunpowder. A burst of energy shoots from her fingers to her toes, right up into her head where the feeling percolates, a shaken can of soda. Strength, inspiration, resolve. For a second, her whole body goes hot — so hot it melts Trudy's glasses. Whoops.
The magimagicicada who burns like a campfire brushes their fingers over the Wildgulch symbol and then freezes. The whole tree seems to glow from within, and the cicadas' screams pitch up to a deafening roar.
This is all mystifying and fantastical to Maisy, who has been standing in uncharacteristically silent awe. But this snaps her out of it, and she stomps her foot impatiently.
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peckenpaugh2020-06-01 11:18 am
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"Cursed, maybe?" she guesses, peering closely at the trunk. "Magic eclipse?"
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
As Armani bends down to check the holes around the roots in the great old tree, three cicadas and a muscheron climb out to meet him, though they don't see him at all. The three cicadas take flight, zooming upward into the canopy, and the muscheron shouts something in Mushkin, running toward its friends at another tree.
Cicadas start to wail, a strange summer call in early spring. All around, there's chaos. Students running for staff, coming close to see what's happening, shouting and panicking. Zelda Gunzenhauser takes three long steps back, her head craned to get a look at the top of the tree. Mouth agape, eyes wide, horror dawns slowly across her features as, on one side, dry and yellow maple seeds begin to fall, little helicopters twisting lazily to the ground, blown about in the breeze. The bark of the tree turns gray. Under Mary Grace's fingers, it's uncomfortably warm to the touch.
"What's happening?" Zelda asks—no, calls to the tree. Panic rises in her voice. "Tink? Peter?"
Cicadas start to fall from the branches. The memory stops again, bugs frozen in the air.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"Back off the tree." She snaps. She doesn't want to see Mary Grace or Armani or honestly anyone get grabbed back.
Chanel, predictably, gets closer herself, examining the tree hard for any way to stop this. She doesn't touch it, at least.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"There's marks," she points out as Chanel comes closer, leaning in to look at the house symbols scratched into the trunk.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
The memory begins to move again.
Those frozen cicadas and maple seeds fall like rain, thunking against the ground, though not everything in the air is dead. As the grass surrounding the tree starts to wilt, more cicadas land and then spring up into human form, each one of them like Pocket with glittering wings, carnelian eyes and skin like a clear night sky. A dozen or more, moving with purpose — catching what's falling, trying to usher students away from the area.
"Z, you need to get everyone here and you need to go," Pocket appears, leaping up from the ground as she so often does, and taking young Zelda Gunzenhauser by the shoulders. "It isn't safe here."
Zelda hardly seems to hear her command, pushing past her, toward the maple. "Tink, what's happening? The tree—It's—"
"I—I don't know," Pocket says, voice sharply taut. "It's okay. We're going to stop it. We have to stop it. It'll be, like, okay." Her voice cracks, unconvincing and unsure. "We'll activate the sigils. You just have to go!"
But Zelda doesn't leave. She watches as four magimagicicadas wordlessly turn and approach the great old tree. They move past the students bearing witness to this memory as though they aren't even there — because they aren't, not really.
A small one walks right through Maisy, barely more than ten-years-old, the little one stretches his hand up as high as he can reach trying to touch his steaming fingers to the Deeplurk symbol. On the opposite side, the tallest of the gathered beings, their form glowing at the edges like smoldering embers, extends their orange-red fingers toward the Wildgulch symbol. Another, body blooming with little pink flowers, raises their hand to the Thorntrail symbol on the west side. And at last, hobbling forward, an ancient magimagicicada who radiates a sharp, raw charge, bends her crooked form down and parts her lips in front of the Mothgarden symbol.
Before they can do what they've set out to do, the memory stutters to a stop. On the ground, everything's frozen, but up above, the tree continues to wilt, shedding maple seeds and leaves.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
Happy that it's not her fate, Chanel moves to imitate the boy with the little pink flowers, raising her arm towards the Thorntrail symbol.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
This isn't enough. The ritual needs more.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
The old woman exhales against the symbol, her breath sparks of static and arcs of electricity. The Mothgarden symbol hums and the bark on this side fills with color.
The old woman freezes.
Above, the sound of cicadas singing grows louder.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
Re: MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"I don't smoke, and the wand Pouch gave me is... unreliable," Trudy says. "Oh, maybe we could start a fire with my glasses by magnifying the sun! I've always wanted to try that!"
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"Hand 'em over then," she says, hand out. "Does that mean Maisy's gotta spit on the tree?"
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
But she’s nervous about the fact that her contribution didn’t spark anything more than a momentary burst of color. While the others play with fire, she resolves herself to dig into the ground and slap a handful of earth on to the tree. Her manicure’s ruined anyhow.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
The flower-skinned magimagicicada starts to move, pressing their splayed fingers over the Thorntrail symbol, buds flourishing from the contact, spreading from the cicada to the tree.
The magimagicicada freezes once more, but the cicadas above continue to sing. Cries of hope, of confidence, even as their tree goes right on wilting.
Meanwhile, at the root of the tree, Armani's snake talisman disappears down the hole. It seems for a moment that that is the end of it, but as the cicadas cries grow louder, something in there moves.
A tiny button muscheron wheels something out toward Armani, looks up at him with its two beady dot eyes and smiles wide. "Itza youz!" says the little thing, gesturing with tiny hands toward the prize it has given before scurrying away, disappearing like dandelion fluff blown away in a breeze: a familiar pink tamagotchi, once gifted to him before for returning something to the tree. This certainly doesn't belong here. Not in 1989. When Armani touches it, it radiates some strange power it hadn't before. Maybe this can help him somehow, if he's ever in danger. [Armani will be able to keep the muscheron gift once he has left this memory.]
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
The magimagicicada who burns like a campfire brushes their fingers over the Wildgulch symbol and then freezes. The whole tree seems to glow from within, and the cicadas' screams pitch up to a deafening roar.
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
"Me next. What do I do?"
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong
MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE
MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE
MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE
MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE
MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE
Re: MEMORY: What Went Wrong - COMPLETE