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

"Not from around here, whatever they are," Jupiter says, head bobbling as she glances at the reflection in the two-way mirror and back again. She pokes at the lump of coal with one finger, knowing better than to handle it with ungloved hands and no wand to easily clean up with.

Any puzzle that requires more than brute force to solve is not generally one that Jupiter will waste her time on, but she considers her tongue for a moment. "At the seance, whatever we talked to said these folks were 'all gone', but then we found one on that kayaking trip," she observes, tipping her head to watch Trudy for a reaction. Trudy is a great deal more clever about these things than she is. "Wonder if they made the plant monster."

The memory begins again with a slow nod from the man in the dark robes. "In exchange for being allowed to stay in this...plane? You will monitor the wound in Paw Paw?"

The memory owner nods. "His..._pressure? No. _Aura? Cannot _harm us. We ^can keep the gate."

"Coffee, sir!" chirps an intern as they throw open the interrogation room door.

It startles the memory owner, who flares several sets of extra long shadowy tendril limbs. That startles the intern, who nearly drops the coffee.

The interrogation room door still stands open, though, leaving a way to the Peckenpaugh auditorium.

THE UPPER LEVELS

MEMORY: Coffee

MEMORY: Coffee