THE UPPER LEVELS

[peckishmods]

up into the balconies

you climb

The breathing boughs of that nightmare tree crowd into the upper balconies of the ruined auditorium. You have to duck and bend to get by them in places, sometimes through spaces that seem to grow smaller as you press through. These branches are warm to the touch, some of them uncomfortably so, pulsing with something that isn't quite life.

You've climbed these stairs more than once in your time here; to take your place after your sorting, to watch new students find their House, or perhaps just for an assembly. This building always seemed so sturdy, so safe. It was a place to go for shows, for celebrations, and hell, to just get out of class. Now, the floorboards creek precariously, split and splintering where vines have crept through. Benches are broken, overturned and tossed aside to make room for the auditorium's new king: the malignant maple. Up here, the glowing blue seeds hanging from branches are close enough to pluck. Those that have ripened litter the floor and railings, filling the balconies with an eerie blue twinkle.

The air is muggy, clogged by falling ash. It stinks of coal and sulfer. But you keep moving, anyway. Keep opening portals and pushing on. Just a little bit higher, and then maybe you'll be able to plunge into the depths.

and you fight

By now there's a plan, and with it, a slowly growing brigade of people, of beings, of bugs, who are gathering to push back against inevitability.

and you never give up

TO ELSEWHERE
| TO THE BASE OF THE TREE | TO OUTSIDE | TO THE SORTING PATH |

IN THIS HUB
| THE SECOND FLOOR | OUT ON THE BOUGHS | THE THIRD FLOOR |

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

Comments

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

While the vuvuzela glows under Trudy's touch, she isn't able to move it at all. It seems stuck for now.

MEMORY: Party Games

[nublada]

"I'm disappointed in her form," Claudia tuts, adjusting Ms. Altizer's grip on the ball. "How do you take out a man's eye with bad form?" Unsure what else she's supposed to do, Claudia starts tucking her Hermeticism teacher's hair out of her face. She needs to look presentable.

MEMORY: Party Games

[andpoke]

Audrey, still a little dizzy from whatever the bugs did earlier, just slow blinks, taking in this whole scene. She tries not to sway too much in place, but at least looking drunk kind of fits in here. "He...poked it out." She decides, "On boobs." She sees you, little blonde.

MEMORY: Party Games

[themurderbird]

"I don't think boobs would to it," Trudy says, then yanks the vuvuzela harder.

MEMORY: Party Games

[gasgiant]

"This how you charm women? Shit." Jupiter walks around young Alva Berzelius who is on the brink of disaster and yet still drowning in broads, examining him for clues as to exactly how this works.

Oh, wait. They're supposed to get the linchpin. "Do we have to play quid pong?" A pause. "Because Kermie's my partner and I am not allowed to quid pong without him."

MEMORY: Party Games

[nublada]

"Grab the boobs!" Claudia suggests to the group as a whole as she plucks a stray eyebrow from Nes Altizer's face.

MEMORY: Party Games

[bratsquatch]

"I hope we have to play quid pong!" Felicity chirps up. "We'll get 'em out of here in no time." She tries to pick up a cup of beer to chug as she circles the table. You know, just in case that's the linchpin.

"Oh, and grab the boobs," she agrees, as if this is being put to a vote.

MEMORY: Party Games

[andpoke]

"...Questionable consent." Is Audrey's vote against that particular plan. She straightens up and tries to line the quid pong table up with her eyes. God, she's not good at this. Nor prepared. She buys time by looking up at Jup, a little too serious. "...But I bet if you played just. The best game of Quidpong. To save Kermie. And everyone. He'd be proud. When you tell him later."

She's all set to accept that cheap beer games will set them free, and God help them all.

MEMORY: Party Games

[nublada]

Claudia, adjusting Ms. Altizer's delightfully 1980s top so it's just a little more off the shoulder, circles back around so she's standing behind her again.

"I bet I could nail it now," she says, and uses Ms. Altizer's hand to toss the ping pong ball at the red solo cups.

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

Claudia (ROLLED 2) misses the cup, and the ball bounces into the party behind Mr. Berzelius and the boobs he's drowning in.

MEMORY: Party Games

[bratsquatch]

"Oh! Me!" Felicity grabs a ball with her right hand and closes her left eye as she takes aim. She brings her Big Gulp up, finds the straw with her mouth, and takes a drag for hydration and good luck.

Then with a flick of her wrist, she sends the ball flying.

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

Felicity (ROLLED 1) watches her ball bounce off Mr. Berzelius' head and roll even further into the party.

MEMORY: Party Games

[gasgiant]

"I bet you gotta get it in the cleavage," Jupiter observes, already loading Ms. Altizer's hand with another plastic ball, pulling it back at the elbow like a catapult and letting it fly.

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

Jupiter (ROLLED 9) lands that ping pong ball right in the cleavage. It rolls down the girl's front and into the red solo cup.

Nothing happens, but she looks cool.

MEMORY: Party Games

[gasgiant]

Jupiter flexes, kisses her bicep.

MEMORY: Party Games

[andpoke]

Audrey blinks. That should’ve done it. But, ah, that’s not quite all there is to beer pong. “Ooooh.” She doesn’t bother to explain. But she takes this hit and goes to stand on the other side of the table. Gingerly, politely, she fetches the cup Jup had thrown the ball into. She drinks the beer in it, fishing out the ping pong ball and trying real hard to not think about whose chest this had just been embraced in.

Surely that was the missing link.

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

Audrey gets a little buzz on with that flat memory beer, but everyone stays right where they are.

MEMORY: Party Games

[bratsquatch]

"Is it his eye?" Felicity asks solemnly. "Do we need to take his eye?"

MEMORY: Party Games

[themurderbird]

"One way to find out," Trudy says, and immediately approaches her potions teacher to poke him in the eye.

MEMORY: Party Games

[peckishmods]

You know, Mr. B would probably at least whine about one of his students doing that in regular life, but apparently it's fine right now. Because he doesn't move, and neither does the memory.

MEMORY: Party Games

[gasgiant]

Jupiter gets an amazing idea. "Maybe someone has to make out with me to get it to start."

MEMORY: Party Games

[andpoke]

"I don't...well. Maybe."

That beer was gross, and now she's going to have a headache later. Audrey resists the urge to sink on to the floor in defeat only because the floor is so sticky. From where she stands, she throws the ball back to the cup in front of Ms. Altizer. Surely the truth must still lie in the pong.

Or making out with Jupiter, who can say, that's as good an idea as any.

MEMORY: Party Games

[nublada]

"There's bound to be a kissing closet somewhere," Claudia muses, and she finally turns away from her future teacher to start looking for closets. "Maybe a blanket strung up in a corner to hide the smoochers. Who wants to investigate the best places with me?"

MEMORY: Party Games

[bratsquatch]

"I will!" Felicity volunteers. She hops around the table to where Claudia is. On the way, she tries to slap the frozen ball into the vuvuzela.

MEMORY: Party Games

[gasgiant]

Jupiter, meanwhile, wanders over to one of the beer can towers to see if she can score a brewski.