peckishmods: ([place] our little holler)
peckishmods ([personal profile] peckishmods) wrote in [community profile] peckenpaugh2020-06-11 03:01 pm
Entry tags:

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!
infamously: (⚔️ 43)

Winter & Presley

[personal profile] infamously 2020-06-13 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
It will be a long time before Presley can think "Elflock Falls" and not see giant vines and dead whatever-they-ares. But everyone in town seems determined to eke out normalcy in the wake of what happened, and for once, Presley allows things to happen without complaint. He's got something more important to deal with, anyway.

The moment he spots that unruly blonde hair, he starts running, and gets about ten feet before remembering he's actually cooler than that. He slows to a walk, and tries out a few hand-in-pocket poses (both hands? left hand? right hand?) to score the maximum amount of cool and casual points. (Ah, there's his vape pen.)

"Carmichael." Presley stands in front of Winter, left hand in his pocket, right hand idly twirling a vape between his fingers. His tie is missing, his damaged jacket was tossed away an hour ago, and the sleeves of his dress shirt are rolled up. His hair is clean and cornflakes-free. He somehow looks, despite everything, like someone who just got out of prom. "I've been looking for you." 
damnnearkilledem: (🍄 063)

Winter & Presley

[personal profile] damnnearkilledem 2020-06-13 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
Winter's tipping her head up to see who's there before Presley even speaks, curious about the shadow that's fallen over her. It's his voice that has her sitting up, draping her arms over her knees in a show of ease, and then letting her fingers fiddle together nervously completely giving herself away.

"Am I that hard to spot?" she asks with half a smile pointed up his way. Presley cuts quite the silhouette, a little disheveled, twirling that vape with his sleeves rolled. It makes Winter laugh, a huff of air through her nose, though she can't quite place why. Someday, he'll make a very good auror — or, well, whatever he wants to be, he'll be quite dashing while he does it.

Those are wandering thoughts, though, embarrassing when looked at with too much scrutiny. Has her expression gone soft at the sight of him? Ugh. The only solution is a joke, "Here to exact revenge for the c-cereal incident?"
infamously: (⚔️ 82)

Winter & Presley

[personal profile] infamously 2020-06-14 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes," Presley says without hesitation, without even a smile except for the slightest upturn of the corner of his mouth. "But rather fortunately for you, I've had my fill of violence today, so you are spared from a trouncing in a duel."

He takes a step closer, and hesitates for a second before moving to sit next to Winter on the grass. He's never thought of himself as someone who's intimidated by talking to girls—in fact, he would've been the first to make fun of a classmate for letting hormonal attraction control them like that—but in this moment, Presley finds himself unable to sit near Winter and just... look right at her. He does glance over (one second, two seconds) and looks away again to watch their surroundings.

It'll take weeks to clean all of this up. Presley feels a pang at the idea that he won't see it, if they don't return for their senior year. "Doesn't feel real, does it?"
damnnearkilledem: (🍄 053)

Winter & Presley

[personal profile] damnnearkilledem 2020-06-14 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"No, it doesn't," she replies a little too readily, like that's exactly what she'd been thinking. She keeps her gaze fixed forward, preoccupied with what Presley might see in her face if she let him have all of her attention at once. "Not the...nightmare. Not the fact that the nightmare's...gone."

It is gone, isn't it? Silent, Winter watches the people wandering about. Some move with purpose, others still seem dazed and confused. Everything feels like those first spinning malleable moments after a too long nap, your brain trying to separate what was dream from what is reality. She wonders how long it will seem this way, whether she'll wake up one day, expecting morning and finding the darkened auditorium.

She sighs and seeks the first solid thing she can: Presley. Winter tilts, leans lightly against his shoulder, then apologizes for the intrusion, "Sorry." The contact's uninvited, but it's steadying. The world doesn't spin quite so fast with an anchor. After a moment, she adds, "You could t-trounce me in a duel, but I bet I could take you in a scrap."
infamously: (⚔️ 89)

Winter & Presley

[personal profile] infamously 2020-06-17 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
At that, Presley laughs—the first laugh he's had all night. "Careful. I might enjoy that," he says with a grin, and brings his arm around Winter. He's not a physical affection type of person, but... this is nice. Who knew that he'd ever care about, much less like, being a normal person for a moment? Sitting with a girl after prom, staring up at the sky instead of at the mess down below.

He lets himself look at her. It helps that Winter seems determined not to look back, but the gentle contact between them tells him what he wants to know. The way she'd smiled at him earlier, and picked cereal out of his hair.

"How about we make a bet?" Presley affects an expression of complete seriousness. "If you can beat me in a 'scrap'... I might deign to go to prom with you next year."