TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS

[peckishmods]

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!

Comments

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[shoulderdevil]

Patrice is tired. Not just because the evening felt like it went on forever, not just because he had to climb shit and tromp through memories and try to fight off vines. He's emotionally exhausted, too, enough so that his mind drifts to tiny Desmond, sitting on a bench much like the one he's seated on now in town, and it makes him want to lie down. So, he does, head thunking onto the wooden slats of the seat of the bench. He's lost his suit jacket somewhere, but it doesn't matter. He squeezes his eyes shut tightly.

"I'm thirsty," he laments to nobody, because complaining about that is easier than complaining about everything else swirling around in his head.

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[opsia]

There's a strange sort of itch crawling in Desmond's limbs. The night was long and tense and strange and, honestly, he's full of a restless need to move. The desire to go isn't a new one, but the urge to go home is a bit odd. Ain't really one he's ready to square with at the moment, so he's been walking instead. It counts as moving.

His feet come to a stop at the railing of the bench, though. Head tipping to regard the uncomfortable angle Patrice has chosen to sprawl himself in.

"Can't help you with that."

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[shoulderdevil]

"You never get me anything," Patrice says, slightly whiney, deceptively easy as he opens his eyes to look at his friend. He remains sideways for only a few moments before righting himself, giving Des a place to sit beside him if he wants to.

"I got you back a little, though. I ate some of the pastries in your memory. They didn't really stick, though. I was still hungry, after."

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[opsia]

Des hums, not necessarily in sympathy, but in something that vaguely resembles agreement. His shoulders tick upward for a moment before he shoves his hands into his pockets. "Got to put your requests in earlier."

Then he drops himself into the offered seat, legs stretching out in front of him and resting the heel of one boot onto the toe of the other. Probably be good manners to take up less sidewalk-space, but it isn't really top priority at the moment.

"S'too bad, though," he replies. "Real good pastries if they stick to you."

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[shoulderdevil]

Patrice sticks out his tongue as he stretches his arms out in front of him, taking up more space without giving it any thought, unlike his companion.

"You know I always want something, you should just be better prepared." The whine has left his voice, even though nothing he says is even bordering on serious until he continues. "Yeah, they were really good; you must have liked them a lot to remember them that well. Weird to eat something grey, though."

ELFLOCK FALLS: Patrice & Desmond

[opsia]

Usually feels important to follow good sidewalk etiquette but circumstances are - Well, circumstances have been a bit exhausting. People can walk around. Or they can kick him the hell out of the way. Either's fine, honestly.

"Everything's grey," Des shoots back, easy as anything. It's the truth, after all. So it's easy enough. Then he tips his head, resting it against the back of the bench. "Ms. Mariah bakes the best puff pastries I ever had. Real nice too. Always invited me back to hers."