Just as the students start to examine Pepsi for the safest spot to climb, the little tiger starts moving again.
Behind them, the Wandering Willows all leap from their beds, the Blob deflates with a flatulent sound. It's chaos. Utter bedlam, trying not to get trampled.
In the air, Zero Sugar Pepsi twists, a teeny tiny John Wick in her own action movie. What had caught her attention was not Ms. Treetops, but something reaching for the Herbology teacher — a strange vine tipped in a tiny purple flower. Pepsi intercepts the vine with her little claws outstretched, pulling the vine off course and along with her.
Whether she knows what she was doing, or just saw an irresistible toy, the spiny kitten rescues Ms. Treetops from that strange creeping vine. Tansy turns at the sound, leaving her snapping dragons behind to carefully separate the cactus kitten from the invasive plant.
"Oh, what a hero," she murmurs, warm and affectionate as she scoops the kitten up into one arm. "You don't like these either, hmm? Don't touch them. They're bad for you."
With her free hand, Tansy Treetops produces a gnarled wand from somewhere at her hip, and she carefully blasts the vine with ice until it isn't moving any more.
In the commotion, an empty terracotta pot rolls off the table and lands sideways on the ground, the mouth of the toppled pot a long tunnel back to Peckenpaugh's ruined auditorium.
[REPLY REQUIREMENT MET! You may continue to thread in this scene and acquire the linchpin or leave at this time.]
Still wandless, Winter can do little but dance out of the way of the Wandering Willows, trying to steer the boys out of their path as well. Darting this way and that, ducking stray branches, even once it's all gone still again she looks unsettled, rodentish.
"Everyone okay?" she asks, squinting one eye shut. Her gaze cuts across the gap, back to the table. "Guess we could maybe use Ms. Treetops as a stair, still?"
Shit fuck. It's like a trap being sprung whenever these memories start sputtering back on again. Eddy doesn't love the idea of scaling one of their teachers, but "guess she won't remember" he reassures himself aloud as he surveys the route. (Right? Right?)
Talking is something Eddy is very bad at, but climbing? That comes as naturally as breathing. Trying to find the least invasive route (look, he doesn't want to touch her butt), he jumps and catches hold of the crook of her elbow, low enough with her crouching still, and pulls himself up. Then he crouches himself and extends an arm to aid whoever's next. "Going up?"
"I'm going wherever you're going," Wyatt answers, grasping Eddy's hand and following him up. He also doesn't want to touch her butt or anything. Even in a memory, that seems wrong. "Alley-oop!" he says, scrambling up onto her shoulder.
"This is absolutely not what I signed up for when I enrolled into Peckenpaugh," Presley complains, but he's moving as soon as the other boys make room, pulling himself up after them with ease. Who knew that cheerleading would be more useful than Potions in his life?
Once stable (on Ms. Treetops' giant immobile body, just don't think too hard about it), Presley leads down and holds a hand out to Winter. "I don't suppose anyone has an idea on how we're going to get that cactus down once we climb up there?"
"This'll give you a leg up in the aurors' small crimes division," Winter deadpans, wearing a half-smile, taking Presley's hand after a moment of hesitation. She's not even sure if that's an actual division, but she's proud of her pun, regardless.
She is about as graceful a climber as you would expect. Quick to get up once pulled, but utterly heedless of how her skirt flips and folds. Thank god for a petticoat. Once she's up with the rest of them, she smooths out her dress, clears her throat, and offers, "Roll it down Ms. Treetops' back?"
She scrambles up Tansy's frozen arm, clinging to the teacher's sleeve to reach her shoulder.
"Pushing things off ledges works real well too," Eddy suggests as he continues to scale Ms. Treetops, her hair making for a convenient set of ropes. He's recently come to appreciate the fuck-this-shit lifestyle of being a feline.
Presley smirks. "I'm willing to try it, but I take no responsibility for whatever permanent mental damage the cat suffers from us breaking her linchpin." He hangs in the back, checking around the greenhouse again, just in case, and follows the others across their teacher's back.
"End of the world finally has you embracing a little ch-chaos, hm?" Winter asks with a faint smirk. She looks up at the greenhouse, happy to see it whole again, everything healthy and happy, not covered in weeds or frost. Even if it's only for a little while. "I think Eddy's got it. Pepsi would appreciate the gesture, frankly."
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
Behind them, the Wandering Willows all leap from their beds, the Blob deflates with a flatulent sound. It's chaos. Utter bedlam, trying not to get trampled.
In the air, Zero Sugar Pepsi twists, a teeny tiny John Wick in her own action movie. What had caught her attention was not Ms. Treetops, but something reaching for the Herbology teacher — a strange vine tipped in a tiny purple flower. Pepsi intercepts the vine with her little claws outstretched, pulling the vine off course and along with her.
Whether she knows what she was doing, or just saw an irresistible toy, the spiny kitten rescues Ms. Treetops from that strange creeping vine. Tansy turns at the sound, leaving her snapping dragons behind to carefully separate the cactus kitten from the invasive plant.
"Oh, what a hero," she murmurs, warm and affectionate as she scoops the kitten up into one arm. "You don't like these either, hmm? Don't touch them. They're bad for you."
With her free hand, Tansy Treetops produces a gnarled wand from somewhere at her hip, and she carefully blasts the vine with ice until it isn't moving any more.
In the commotion, an empty terracotta pot rolls off the table and lands sideways on the ground, the mouth of the toppled pot a long tunnel back to Peckenpaugh's
ruined auditorium.
[REPLY REQUIREMENT MET! You may continue to thread in this scene and acquire the linchpin or leave at this time.]
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
"Everyone okay?" she asks, squinting one eye shut. Her gaze cuts across the gap, back to the table. "Guess we could maybe use Ms. Treetops as a stair, still?"
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
Talking is something Eddy is very bad at, but climbing? That comes as naturally as breathing. Trying to find the least invasive route (look, he doesn't want to touch her butt), he jumps and catches hold of the crook of her elbow, low enough with her crouching still, and pulls himself up. Then he crouches himself and extends an arm to aid whoever's next. "Going up?"
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
Once stable (on Ms. Treetops' giant immobile body, just don't think too hard about it), Presley leads down and holds a hand out to Winter. "I don't suppose anyone has an idea on how we're going to get that cactus down once we climb up there?"
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
She is about as graceful a climber as you would expect. Quick to get up once pulled, but utterly heedless of how her skirt flips and folds. Thank god for a petticoat. Once she's up with the rest of them, she smooths out her dress, clears her throat, and offers, "Roll it down Ms. Treetops' back?"
She scrambles up Tansy's frozen arm, clinging to the teacher's sleeve to reach her shoulder.
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
MEMORY: Little Hunter - CAPPED
Toppling the cactus it is, then.