2008-08-12 - Memory Dream: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The year is 2008, and it's an unusually cool Gray Harbor summer. The overcast sky is accompanied by a strong sea wind, that fills the air with the scent of salt, even this far into the town - and where is here? Addington Memorial Park. The Gray Harbor Horticultural Society is having a fancy tea and flower show, and they're not letting a little overcast sky rain on their parade. Until and unless it actually starts raining.

Raised beds show a variety of flowers and plants, and fanciful statues have been placed in the center of the beds - it seems like this year's theme is Alice in Wonderland, and the centerpiece is a huge plaster mushroom, on which sits a big, fat caterpillar who is smoking a bubble pipe and looking down over the attendees with a benevolent stoner face. Someone must have bribed the show designers to get that out there, but it does seem to exercise a curious fascination for people. Maybe because it's ten feet tall and purple and yellow. It does stand out.

The petite curvy blonde teen of average height was with her grandmother that afternoon. Katherine had just come into town and was staying with her grandparents. She didn’t know anyone, she didn’t know the town very well, so her grandmother had invited her along to the tea and flower show. She was wearing a yellow sundress, with a long cashmere white long sleeved top over it, her black jacket draped over her arm in case the rain decided to fall.

Being here with his parents and sister, Jonathan is dressed in a comfortable shirt and shorts. He's making his way along for now, watching the various people, and also the caterpillar on the mushroom. Especially the mushroom with the caterpillar. That's very interesting.

The show is bustling, but stuffy. Despite the fanciful decorations, it's definitely an adult event. And although they have some areas for the younger kids, there's just not a lot for fifteen and sixteen year olds, unless those teens have a burning desire to learn about plants. However, as Katy and Jonathan look around, quite possibly bored out of their skulls, their eyes drift towards the mushroom and the caterpillars. Did...

Did it just wink at them? Did the plaster statue of the caterpillar just WINK at the two of them? It seems like it might have, but maybe a closer inspection would prove that or not. Maybe it's a prank by someone else as bored as the rest of them.

Her gaze had been set at watching the younger set run around and she seems to be trying really hard to look interested, her poor grandmother wasn’t entirely sure what to do with her. She’d been taking pictures of the flowers on her phone and looking for the next when she notices it.

The caterpillar statue. Winking? She’s so confused. But she happens to be close by. Glancing over her shoulder at her grandmother, who seems occupied in conversation, she then moves forward towards the statue.

Jonathan has moved a little away from his family, every now and then looking to the caterpillar. And now he pauses, blinking at that wink. If that was even a wink. He steps closer to it now, shaking his head a little. "Did you just..." he begins, before he goes silent. No talking to objects.

As the two youths get closer to the mushroom, it seems to grow in their sight. That's probably just perspective and distance playing tricks on them...wait, no. No, it isn't. That mushroom is definitely taller. The voices of the crowd and the band playing in the distance all fade away, and the plants around them are ALL taller, growing rapidly to arboreal heights. But none are bigger than that mushroom. It towers, it dominates, it...

falls. Apparently that much plaster is not meant to stay upright, and the whole damned thing tips over towards them. Jonathan is able to jump out of the way, moving on instinct, but Katy isn't quite as fast. The plaster hits the ground and shatters, and a big chunk of it knocks her to the ground - which is now rich, deep, dark topsoil rather than the nicely trimmed lawn of before - and the weight of it traps her there, although she doesn't feel more than bruised.

Katy was confused at the sudden environment change. And where was her grandmother? She hadn’t even noticed the mushroom until it began to grow, and all the plants around also started to grow. She hadn’t reacted quickly enough though when the plaster crumbles, and she’s promptly knocked over on her back and is trapped.

“AHHHHHHH!” She screams, unable to move the plaster keeping her trapped on the topsoil.

Jonathan blinks a bit as he sees the change in environment, looking around rather carefully. "What the...?" he begins, seeing the mushroom starting to grow. Watching it, he is aware when it starts falling, and thus he manages to get out of the way. Taking a deep breath, he blinks as he hears the scream, gaze going in that direction to see the girl trapped by the plaster. Since she's trapped, he should probably go help her, right? So he moves in that direction, grabbing hold of the plaster to try moving it away. "I'll help you," he offers to her, trying to keep his voice calm.

Jonathan is a strapping young lad, and although the plaster is heavy, he's able to lift it well clear of Katy's legs, allowing her to move from under it. But, while they're attending to that, it has become clear that wherever they are, it's no longer the Addington Memorial Park. They are surrounded by what appears to be a jungle - if jungles were made of domestic garden plants grown to twenty or thirty feet in height. Roses nearly as large as car doors bloom in riotous colors around them, along with a dozen other flowering plants. The ground is good, fertile topsoil that their feet sink into. It smells like it's been recently enriched with some sort of compost, which isn't the most pleasant thing ever. The plants are so thick, with broad, green leaves, that it's hard to tell any other features of the landscape. The most noticeable marker was the mushroom, and that has now shattered into a thousand pieces.

The weirdest thing, though? The giant caterpillar on the giant mushroom doesn't seem to be among the shattered pieces.

Picking herself up with the stranger’s help, Katy stands up, feeling a little sore. When she takes in her surroundings, the blonde realizes quickly that they are no longer at the Addington Memorial Park. The sights and the smells seem to overwhelm her senses and she looks to the boy who just helped her.

“Thank you,” she says, “I’m Katherine.”

Jonathan lets out a bit of a breath as he holds the plaster up long enough so the girl can get free from it. When she's clear, he drops it down again, and steps back. "You're welcome. I'm Jonny," he offers in return, before he adds, "I hope you didn't get hurt, Mi... Katherine." A brief pause as he looks around at their changed surroundings. "I think... we're not in Kansas anymore," he remarks, as he looks around.

There is a level of anxiety in Katherine that spikes as Jonny speaks and a reflexive glare is shot in his direction before she remembers...

“Did you see the caterpillar wink earlier?” she asks, “Something weird is going on here.”

"Caterpillar... You mean I wasn't just imagining that?" he offers with a bit of a sigh. "I came over to look at that caterpillar, when things changed." A brief pause, as he looks around again. "Where are we?"

Katherine hears something, causing her to look up, and out of sheer panic, she picks a direction and bolts, afraid something else might fall on top of her.

Jonathan doesn't seem to be hearing as much. But he sees that paniced bolting, hurrying after the girl, since it's probably safer sticking together right now. "What is it?" he asks, while hurrying after her.

“Not sticking around to find out!” is all the response that Katherine gives as she runs.

The problem with sounds is that they can sometimes trick you. The direction that Katy picks takes her under dark leaves, and drooping petals the size of serving platters. But that noise? It doesn't grow softer. Instead, it grows louder. Soon, even Jonathan can hear it - a strange, organic crunching sound. One that stops as Katy bursts out into a clear, sunfilled patch. Sunfilled because all of the greenery has been eaten up.

Is being eaten up. She nearly runs head first into the thing responsible - a giant, fuzzy caterpillar with a black head marked with a white pattern that looks awfully like a human skull. It has mandibles longer than their arms, and its face is stained with green pulp and sap. Its faceted eyes stare at her. The mandibles slowly, slowly, come to a stop. It's easily the size of a bus, and that's only the parts she can SEE.

"Wait..." Jonathan begins, as he follows after her, blinking as he comes to a stop as they reached the sunfilled patch. "Whoa..." he begins, blinking as he looks to the caterpillar, rather carefully. "IS that...?" he begins, trailing off as he just stares at the giant creature.

Katherine is running on pure instinct right now and she is trying really hard to remember to keep herself calm. She’s relatively sure Jonny can keep up with her, seeing as he’d moved the plaster to help her. She isn’t that fast. She pulls on his arm towards the direction they’d just come from, trying to initiate another run, or at least a move in a different direction. “Let’s go,” she said insistently.

"Hungry."

The world rumbles out from the green-stained maw, slow but deep, as if it starts all the way back at the end of the thing. The teens can see their reflection in its faceted eyes.

"Huuuuungry."

When Katy pulls at Jonathan's arm, the giant caterpillar starts moving forward, each of its stubby legs digging a trench in the ground. "Hunnnnnnnnggggrrrry?" Maybe it's going to offer them food! Or invite them to dinner. Is it...is it drooling? It is. It's drooling blackish green slime from its mouth as it inches forward.

"Sounds goo..." Jonathan's words are cut off by the word from the caterpillar, and he looks to the creature. "Ah, well. We'll just head off, and leave you to eat your nice, vegetarian meal in peace... So sorry for..." And as it moves forward, he grimaces, looking to the girl again. "RUN!"

Katherine was already gone before he could even finish his thought, sprinting as fast as she possibly could.

They run!

It's hard. The ground is spongy beneath their feet, slowing them down a little. Still they're much smaller than the caterpillar, and are able to duck and weave through the foliage where the monstrous beast has to crash through it. It looks like they might be making ground on it. But then it surges forward, mandibles agape. It grabs for Jonathan, and he can feel that sap-coated grip close around his leg, sending him face first into the ground. "HUNGRY."

It rises over Jonathan, eyes gleaming. "HUNGRY!"

One moment Jonathan is running as best he can away from the caterpillar, the next he find his leg gripped and he's sent into the ground. There's a brief scream, and then he attempts to kick in the direction of the creature, while one hand reaches around to find if there's something he can throw at it, or try hitting it with, or something. "I'm not food!"

Katherine looks over her shoulder, expecting Jonny to keep up, but he’s not there. She turns around to find him face first on the ground. As she approaches, all she can think about is helping the only other person around. She wasn’t going to survive this alone. She swore up and down that she would not let her emotions trigger any sort of weird occurrence or try to purposely will something to happen, but she felt she had no choice. But she had no idea how she made it happen the first time. She was simply angry and the window shattered. But she had to do something.

“Leave my friend alone!” She shouted angrily, trying to will something to happen to help Jonathan.

Jonathan's hand flails on the ground, and falls on something long and dagger like. A massive rose thorn, broken off in the chase. Jonathan's kick knocks the mandible aside, just a little, but his attempt to stab at the creature is knocked aside with one sweep of chitin. But something in Katy stirs as she's about to see the boy she barely knows eaten up. She feels a hot wash of power come over her, and then?

Broken stems and plants rise up from the ground and hurl themselves at the caterpillar from all sides. "HUNGRY!" it shouts in despair and recoils. It doesn't look like it's been driven off, but the assault gives Jonathan time to rise up to his feet again.

Attempting to stab at the creature doesn't quite succeed. But thankfully something happens to give him time to get to his feet. Frowning as he glances back at the caterpillar, he lets out a bit of a breath, looking to Katherine again. "We need to get out of here, back to..." he begins, hurrying over to her so they can try getting away again now.

Katherine does not bother to say anything but just starts to run, figuring he’ll catch up. When he does, she tries even harder to run. She’s not too athletic and hasn’t really done much since she quit dancing. But she tries, because she is not about to get eaten by a giant caterpillar before she gets a chance to at least have a conversation with the cute guy she’s with. Because teenage priorities. And if they ever got back to the Park, she’d have company during the flower show.

There's a surge from the monster as they run away, a tremendous clash of greenery, somehow louder than before. But when they look behind them? The caterpillar is gone. Did it give up? Or...is that a rumble under their feet? Or is that swaying of the canopy a sign that the beast has taken to the sky to drop down above them? If they go high, they'll avoid it if it's crawling beneath the ground - but be easy prey for one that's gone above. On the other hand, staying low and hiding might work if it's up in the canopy, but will only make them easy pickings for an underground worm.

Choose swiftly little morsels. The caterpillar is HUNGRY.

Jonathan lets out a bit of a breath as he looks behind. "Where did it go?" He grimaces a bit as he looks around, trying to look both up and down. "Any idea about where it might have gone?" he asks, after a few brief moments. Voice a little bit shaky now.

“It’s gone,” Katy says quietly as she looks over her shoulder, “I have no idea. But we can’t stay put.”

Slowing down to a brisk walk, Katy tries to listen for any nearby activity. She is internally freaking out but trying to be calm.

When they stop, they hear nothing and feel nothing that might give them a clue on whether the caterpillar is above, or below. There is only the wind through the garden, and the faint, faint rumble of the ground below. Which one is right? Or...if they continue to stand still, will it even matter?

Katy sighs as they continue moving, though she isn’t able to run as much so she continue with the walk. “I have no idea what to do next...” she admits quietly, though she does not admit fear is an issue. Who would do that around someone they want to impress? No, she was attempting to stay calm.

Jonathan frowns, nodding a little bit as he hears that. "We'll have to keep going. Try to get out of here. I have other plans for life than being eaten by a caterpillar..." He grimaces a bit. "That rumble... is the thing underneath us?"

Nope. It is not underneath them.

Instead, from the shadow of an immense leaf, out pops the giant caterpillar up above them, and neat as a pin, it grabs up Katy in its mandibles, and tosses her up into the air, prepared to catch her in its slavering jaws. "HUNGRY!" may very well be the last word she hears...

Katy is terrified as she is sent flying by the giant caterpillar and all that could be heard is her terrified screaming, convinced that she’s about to meet her end. Again, her mind goes into self preservation mode. What can she do? She has no idea but she tries to replicate what she’d done earlier on the way down.

"NO!" Jonathan calls out, frowning as he sees the girl sent flying. He looks a bit unsure of what to do, as he hurries to look for something to use as a weapon, as he tries moving to approach the creature a bit from the back. Should be some undefended spots, right?

Katy reaches for that weird power, but in her present state of freefall, it's impossible to get a solid grip on it. Although things go flying through the air, very few of them pelt the monster, and there's nothing to stop those big, stained mandibles from clenching around her middle, and squeeeeeezing. She can feel the serrated edges tear through her pretty dress and then into her skin. "HUNGRY."

What the burst of psychokinetic power does do, however, if provide a nice big branch for Jonathan to grab. He bravely attacks the rear of the worm, slamming it into its fuzzy, black and yellow back. It thrashes angrily, but doesn't drop its prize. Instead, it releases its grip on the plant it was holding onto, and drops on the brave young man, driving him into the ground, covering him with a ton of writhing caterpillar flesh.

"HUNGRY!" A scissoring chomp on Katy. And another. And another. The pain is immense, and both young people feel every moment of it...

Before they wake up in a bloody, disheveled heap at the foot of a giant plaster mushroom, with a group of much younger children - maybe around eight or nine - giggling and poking them with sticks. Katy's dress is RUINED, but hey, she landed on top of Jonathan, and is squishing and bleeding on him. That's one way to start a friendship with a cute boy?

Katy feels an overwhelming wave of pain as she stirs and lets out a pained noise. Glaring at the children poking at her, she slowly sits up, sliding off of Jonathan before taking a look at how badly injured she is.

Jonathan winces a bit as the one that landed on top of him is stirring, but he stays down for now. Feels like he got ran over by something, so it hurts to move.

Katy has nasty, deep gashes on both her belly and her back, although they won't need stitches. They're going to bruise terribly, though; this will probably be the summer she remembers as a terrible time to wear a bikini...but the rest of the memory of this day will swiftly change into something that's less insane. Jonathan is bruised from head to toe, but he's at least not going to bleed all over anything!

Katy sits up and whispers to the boy lying nearby, “Hey, are you okay?”

"Where did that truck come from..." Jonathan mutters, as he starts sitting up a bit. "Feels like it ran me over..."