peckenpaugh | TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS

the place i belong

what's up? The sun spills gold over the hills of the holler and a light mist sweeps into the valley basin. For a few moments, there is peace, but there’s only enough time to catch your breath before everything’s moving again. There are lost friends to track down, wounds to attend to, and an entire campus to clean up, after all.

Between Healers Greatheart and Crockett, Berzelius and BoMB Agents, and even several magimagicicada, healing injuries is a breeze. The students don’t need to worry about clean up. Once patched up, they’re all taken to Elflock Falls, where storefronts and homes have opened their doors to teens who need a bite to eat or a few moments’ rest.

Within the first two hours after the disaster breaks, more MACUSA agents arrive on campus until the grounds are swarming with aurors and BoMB Agents (and a few sneaky journalists). While the staff works tirelessly to get every student to the safety of their home, it becomes increasingly apparent just how close they were to disaster.

how this works! ⬥ Thanks to your efforts, the nightmare tree was purged just before dawn, and what’s been left behind is a new sentient maple, a new heart for the holler, a new home for the magimagicicada (and muscheron).

⬥ Your clothes may still need some mending, but between Healers Greatheart and Crockett, Mr. Berzelius and MACUSA healers, all students have their injuries tended to. Aches and pains and bruises may still persist, but it seems like you’re all making it out of this okay.

⬥ Students are evacuated from campus as soon as possible, taken to Elflock Falls’ city hall ⁠— which is covered in the dead remains of the nightmare tree’s vines. As locals return to their homes and storefronts, they open their doors to help students find food, rest, and comfortable clothes.

Students are not allowed to return to their dorms at this time, their possessions will be delivered to their homes untouched.

The one exception to this is wands. Pouch and several magimagicicada show up in front of City Hall by 8:30AM with bouquets of wands. He spends the rest of the morning making sure everyone gets the wand that belongs to them if it was lost.

Clothes are provided from wherever they can be gotten: Kyle puts out racks and racks of Spellunking oddities, June Morgenstern provides some more fashionable options, the ZippyDip and Pizza Pi(e)rates both have ample t-shirts, and the magimagicicada gather up what they can find to help out, though … you know how party bugs are.

Ms. Kwan encourages students only to speak to the media or MACUSA if they are truly comfortable doing so, and staff in general does their best to shield kids from reporters desperate for a first hand account of what happened from a minor.

The MACUSA does try to get statements from students, but Peckenpaugh’s teachers, though exhausted, are fiercely determined to not let kids who don’t want to speak be bullied into talking.

⬥ Parents and guardians are called to pick up their children. Those who are residents of Elflock Falls are permitted to return to their homes and arrangements are made in town for students who can’t leave immediately.

⬥ Students have access to the news via wizard wireless and wifi. Reporting on the disaster began at around 9PM, and it quickly becomes apparent just how far the nightmare tree’s reach was. Vines stretched as far north as Pittsburgh, into Ohio and Maryland, too, with the epicenter ⁠— Peckenpaugh and Elflock Falls ⁠— totally inaccessible by any form of magic until 6AM on June 2nd, when all reported roots and vines died abruptly.

⬥ Campus is closed for two weeks while thorough investigations are done, and it’s honestly kind of hard to get around Elflock Falls without bumping into some MACUSA official checking for vines. As the weeks go on, more news trickles out via official statement and gossip:

Al Falco is under investigation for the initial decision to implement memory erasure in Elflock Falls.

Officials are asking for information on the whereabouts of Ludwig Lukashenko in an unrelated matter, but no one so far has been willing to speak up. Or has a clue.

No new vines ever spring up, though the MACUSA will reportedly have its work cut out for it for years to come dealing with muggles who witnessed the infestation. It’s predicted that this may have a heavy impact on the increasingly controversial International Statute of Secrecy.

The magimagicicada continue to resist classification or cooperation with the MACUSA while eagerly assisting in the reconstruction of Peckenpaugh

The remaining Coalseam Creepers, now called Coalseam Gatekeepers, are given ample support in turning the ruined town of Paw Paw into a true home, and diplomatic relations are opened in earnest, finally.

In a statement issued by Peckenpaugh, it is confirmed that Caleb Qualls (and his son, Lionel) have moved on.

⬥ Graduation is held at the end of June, during which time all students are honored for their heroism. The Quallses are immortalized with a statue erected in place of the Surly Stump, designed by Percival Potkin. Bryce Qualls and Richard Swint are both on hand for the unveiling.

⬥ By the end of July, it’s announced that Peckenpaugh will reopen for the following academic year.

⬥ You may continue to thread in any end game threads! We’ll be capping unclaimed mod-made threads later today.

locations! ⬦ AT THE FOOT OF THE MAGNIFICENT MAPLE: Well, the auditorium looks like shit but that tree sure is pretty. Anyway, you’ve done it! You’ve saved your friends, you’ve saved the holler. Sunlight filters through the green and silver leaves of the Magnificent Maple and you can already tell it’s going to be a hot one today. Find your friends, take a breath, you’ve earned a break.

⬦ ELFLOCK FALLS: Elflock Falls’s looks a bit like it’s just gotten done with one of its rowdier celebrations. Dead vines, withered flowers, and the remains of the horrible nightmare creatures are being cleaned up by MACUSA representatives and locals by the time the first students are dropped off at City Hall. Every storefront is thrown open and people provide anything they can ⁠— food, clothes, a hug ⁠— to the students who saved their lives.

⬦ HOME: You leave Peckenpaugh still in need of answers, still unsure if you’ll have a school to come back to in September. Give it time. You’ll come to know. But for now, it’s time to go home.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So this is weird," she says, when things have calmed and the streets are clean again.

They're on a bench outside of Pizza Pi(e)rates, half in the sun and half in the shade. Imogen's pulled her sneakered feet up, arms wrapped around her folded legs. There are still cuts and bruises on both sets of limbs: warped little roses of purple, weird slashes, pebble-shaped gashes.

"Leaving," is the lazy clarification, a second later. The last syllable melts into a familiar half-grin aimed directly, drily, at Merlin. Imogen knows she sounds like someone who cares right now. A self-aware joke. In truth, she's over a lot of it: packed up already and set to escape to California any second now. Life is meant for change.

"Oh, the memories," she drawls.

"That's the weird part?" Merlin returns, glancing over at the girl with a small, teasing smirk. The expression is bittersweet, though. While he's ready for the changes that have to come, the reality of what's being left behind has become clearer over the last few days. Especially after all they'd gone through for this place and for each other. It makes him feel stupid and sentimental when he thinks about it, particularly when he's with Imogen, but...maybe that's not the worst thing.

He leans back on the bench, letting his head loll back until he's looking at the bright sky. Swimming in a too-large borrowed sweatshirt, with his hair mussed and a bruise standing out on his cheek, he doesn't look all that ready to take on the world. But, of course, he knows he is.

"...Yeah," he adds after a pause, "It is. But it's time, huh? Get out in the world and make our mark on it. And the memories aren't going anywhere, anyway."

After a second's thought, Imogen shrugs, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "Okay, not like, leaving. Just--" She waves her hand, searching. "Saying goodbye. Probably never coming back. All the things people think you should feel about it."

Another second. Now aloud, the refrain bouncing in her skull: "Life is for changing. You're right."

Then she shifts just a little, so her head lolls back like his.

"Did you mean what you said?"

Life is for changing.

In Merlin's mind, this is one of the few undeniable truths and he's on the verge of quipping back that of course he's right when Imogen's question stops him. He turns his head enough to look over at her, curious and somewhat hesitant as he tries to recall what he might've said that had mattered enough for her to bring it up again now. She seems to be in a contemplative mood.

"...Probably. What'd I say?"

"That I should visit you," Imogen clarifies, straightforward. "When you go do your dragon stuff."

Maybe she is in a contemplative mood, comparatively. But she's never in a shy one.

This prompts Merlin to straighten on the bench, half-turning to face Imogen. The question seems to have caught him off-guard but he's quick to answer it and there's no trace of hesitation. "Course I meant it. Why would I even bring it up otherwise?"

There's a beat before another thought occurs to him and she can see the certainty in his features falter for a moment, his eyes shifting as he adds more slowly, "...you having second thoughts?"

"No," smirks Imogen, though something in the knit of her brow reads very genuine.

She is quiet for a long moment, considering. Her eyes pass from Merlin to the sky and back again, and her fingers spider out toward Merlin's.

"No," she restates, firmly and brattily. "I wanna bother you."

While Imogen isn't always direct about what she's feeling, she isn't the type to sugarcoat and spare feelings either, so this is all Merlin needs to hear. He nods and reaches out to meet her hand with his, fingers interlacing. "What a pain..." he complains without a single ounce of conviction and smiles at her.

"Sorry 'bout it."

Imogen looks pleased, in the midst of everything else. The longer they sit here, maybe, the more bittersweet it starts to feel. She can kind of see what the others mean when they say they'll miss the place.

One hand occupied, the other fishes through the kangaroo pocket of her hoodie.

"Here," she says, offering Merlin a black Sharpie. Specifically, the same one that traveled through so many memories in the pocket of her destroyed dress. It still writes. It's very dark.

For a moment, Merlin doesn't understand what's being offered to him and he just looks between the girl and the Sharpie. Then he remembers watching her shuffle her meager supplies as they prepared to head off into another unknown dreamscape, arranging her wand and her phone and the rest so she could easily get to what she might need to get to. She'd had the Sharpie there too. He nods and silently reaches for it, plucking it out of her fingers with more care than a marker actually needs. It's strange how precious the object seems now.

He stays silent, not knowing what to say. Should he thank her? Should he ask her why? Should he promise to hang onto it?

In the end, he offers her a small, devious grin. "...Might make you regret this, you know?"

Imogen tilts her head, mirroring the grin. "Oh really?"

Encouraged, Merlin's smile widens and becomes more devious still, "Oh, definitely." He doesn't wait for the girl to challenge him further. Instead he uncaps the Sharpie, glances around to confirm that they aren't being observed, and leans forward to begin writing something on the edge of the bench between her sneaker and his bruised knee.

It doesn't take long and when he straightens, the characters become visible: MP+IR. He looks at her defiantly, expecting her to push him off the bench or make a face or just make fun of him. If she goes for the Sharpie, though, he's definitely turning that + into a ♥. Do your worst, Imogen.

TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin

ELFLOCK FALLS: Imogen and Merlin