peckenpaugh | THE UPPER LEVELS

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Armani helps to pull Merlin toward him and hugs him tight because, fuck yeah, he is HOLDIN' on for dear life.

Is there a grappling hook spell to hook onto the roof of this Hell Horse's mouth? Shit, shit, he doesn't think so but... surely SOMEONE has invented it?? With no time to think this through, he acts on impulse and points his wand upward to embarrass himself in front of Merlin. "Rezón..!!" Which is... literally just grappling hook in Spanish.

Edited (this is stupid, sorry) 2020-06-10 20:01 (UTC)

There is no safe place. The ground opens up with Merlin's spell, but it's less like rock and more like sand at this point and it quickly fills back in, sucking them further down with it. The ringing of an emergency broadcast signal echoes all around them, not unlike the cry of a cicada.

And then—

There's a flicker of light. There's a grunt.

There's a one-winged magimagicicada dragging himself out of the throat of the party entrance.

"Don't think this one's too stable!" Pouch calls out and holds one hand out to the pair of students. "Had to come in the back way."

His face dares them to ask what the back way looked like.

Growling in frustration at his failed spell and the ground's continued efforts to pull them under, Merlin barely registers Armani's improvised charm. He does, however, register Pouch's arrival and outstretched hand. Just one. He tightens his grip on the Thorntrail with one arm before reluctantly reaching out with the other and grabbing on. Good thing he's been hitting the weights with Imogen.

Once he's got a firm grip on the magimagicicada, he retorts, "So what're we supposed to do?" He seems to have exactly zero intention of asking about the back way. He's seen the front. He figures he knows what the back's like.

Edited 2020-06-10 20:33 (UTC)

Armani holds on to Merlin like a little baby monkey clinging to its mommy as they're hoisted up.

Edited 2020-06-10 20:37 (UTC)

"Leave!" Pouch answers jovially, popping the two out of the ground with a surprisingly strong tug. His one wing flaps and flutters reflexively as he hops along the ground, unable to rest on any one spot for very long.

"My little sister really didn't want any yinz seeing this." Pouch hurries Armani and Merlin to the back of the throat, their feet squishing and sinking into the tongue with each step. He gestures down, to a portal waiting for them at the end of a slick esophageal slide. "Better hurry or it'll get real inconvenient to yank y'all out."

There's nothing Merlin would like to do more than just get the hell out of here, but he's stubborn and the idea of leaving the job unfinished clearly rubs him the wrong way. Even with his dress shoes squelching with every step across the giant tongue which threatens to pull them under. "But what about the linchpin? Don't we need it?" he protests as they reach the esophagus.

"Yeah!" Armani chimes in. "Don't we need to pull it out?"

Behind Armani and Merlin, the quartet of partygoers sinks further into the dirt, the blonde's high ponytail the only evidence she was ever there. The emergency test pattern rings louder and louder, the sound doubling and tripling as echoes bounce around the small space.

"I'm pretty sure this one's fallin' apart without out help!" Pouch shouts over the noise. His feet are already disappearing into the tongue and he rips them out with a loud schlorp. "Little Sister clearly doesn't wanna be saved this way."

The frozen Pocket's head slips into the ground, the lenses of her sunglasses pointed at the roof of the cave. "All right, time for Plan C!"

Pouch slaps a hand on both the boys' shoulders and, for just a moment, everything is ice cold. Merlin and Armani are transported like melting ice out of the memory, freezing then thawing in the Peckenpaugh auditorium. By the time they reconsolidate, Pouch is gone again.

[MEMORY COMPLETE! Merlin and Armani were pulled out by Pouch before Pocket's shame could swallow them whole. You can continue to thread here now that the ground isn't trying to eat you, tokens will follow soon!]

Merlin and Armani completed the memory "We Don't Talk About The Pony Party"!

The portal collapsed after they were deposited in the auditorium, and Pocket is still trapped within the nightmare tree. She really doesn't want to be saved that way.

Merlin and Armani receive 5 Tokens for completing the memory.

They each receive another 15 Tokens if they promise to never tell anyone what they saw here.

You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!

THE UPPER LEVELS

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party

MEMORY: We Don't Talk About The Pony Party - TOKENS!