genessia | Event Log (Finding the Cure)

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Event Log (Finding the Cure)

Welcome to Happy Heights!

Attleton's premier amusement park!

Or at least it used to be.

Attleton's mayor has mentioned the unfortunate only access point to the items needed to make the tonic that will cure the tragic sense-depriving infection that's going around. They'd thought the disease was gone, so they hadn't bothered to maintain the area, but the wells are Happy Heights are the only place that's still going down to the aquifer. They could drill down but-- well, they don't have time for that before the disease really sets into permanence! The number of freak incidences and the decrepit state of the theme park will make it difficult to maneuver, but they've notified the electric company to turn the power on so that people can navigate their way through the park in order to gather the ingredients to make the cure.

Unfortunately, since it's been so long since the park's been opened, rain water and nature have all but wiped the park's map into illegibility. You're on your own for exploration and it's time to find at least four wells from different parts of the park. There are many, but none are a walk in the park to get to! They used to be part of a collection game kids could play when they came into the park.

The mayor warns everyone that the cure is incredibly sensitive to sunlight and oxygenation from the atmosphere- by the time a person can get four, the first extracted water will have their bioluminescence diminished. (And going to that park in the dark... it's too dangerous, he wouldn't recommend it!) It probably won't make it out of the park, so drink it right away! Good luck!

OOC NOTES: There will be different areas listed for different flowers that have soaked into the wishing wells' aquifer. Each area will have a couple of different scenarios you can play out- you're responsible for playing them out and you're welcome to have a blast with whatever you want to do! If you don't want to play it out but you did play sensory deprivation, feel free to handwave your character getting a cure, but remember: If you manage to have at least four different threads with 10 comments from your character, your character will receive an Attleton Charm ICly and for 'exceptionally valiant efforts' in eliminating the disease. (3 month prize claim limit puts this prize available until Dec. 21st.) To claim a charm, click here. Good luck!

Don't forget: If your character tampers with any of the things that are set up to get access to wells except when stated, the ride may explode or collapse, cutting off the well. Pretty unstable park, you know.

If your character wants to explore more of the park than where the wells are, they're more than welcome to. Feel free to make your own thread if you just want to have your character playing on any rides or doing things that they want- get creative, have fun, but the only areas with wells are those listed.

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Too scared to pay attention, he ran into Ted all-too-hard and ended up on the ground so fast that he wasn't sure where he was. He scrambled up to his feet, collecting his staff and hopping away to assess whatever it was he bumped into. At the same time, he still wanted to run. His veins were pumped full of adrenaline and it would be a wonder if there was any blood left in them.

"T-Ted?"

As he came to realize it was friend and not foe, he stepped in close again to take Ted's hand, pointing at the diner. "Th-There's a donkey i-in there!"

And with that explanation he tried to pull Ted away with him to flee. He wasn't about to let a friend get hurt.

His eyes widened a bit as he got an answer. "An ass? And it's lived here so long, in this decrepit park? Goodness. I think we ought to unhitch it, if nothing else. Careful; their kick is said to fell a mountain lion. Why farmers kept them around, I hear. Well, that and load-bearing." His arm was as pretty stiff for being yanked, too numb to notice much in Bracken's duress. Still, he thought they were talking about a flesh-and-blood beast, instead of the much more unnerving thing belting out mechanical screeches.

His mind was so focused on finding a real donkey that he didn't pay much attention to anything else. "Where did you see it?"

"I-It's in there. I... I think... I think it's p... p..."

He had to fight to try and spit out the word. It wasn't a fear of that particular word, but more how frightened he was in general. "Possessed!"

Still, he had no intention of letting Ted go there. He kept a firm grip on his hand, pulling the other direction. Though, he had the strength of a normal man. Unfortunately, trying to explain the situation clearer would be difficult.

"A possessed donkey? Good Lord!" Not that possessed humans were much better, but this was like Legion running the pigs off the cliff! If only he could exorcise! That got him thinking of ghosts, which got him thinking of Gengar. He had a spiritual sense. Probably. One pokeball flash later, out came the grinning ghost Bracken might remember from their time in the ruins.

"Gengar, see if you find any beasts of burden. This particular burden is an unwelcome spirit." Ted's still oblivious to Bracken's yanking protests, stepping heavily into the facility. "Other than that it's quaint; artificiality mimicking nature. I don't know if that's affectionate or mere mimicry."

Bracken did his best to hold Ted back, getting more and more nervous as they approached the building. In the very end he let go, terrified of having that donkey popping out at him again, and hid outside by the door. He just knew it was going to lunge out and get Ted, but he couldn't do anything about it. He should have found some way to explain better!

He didn't fully run away though, cowering by the door outside and waiting to hear that shriek a second time.

Hear a second time he did! Accompanied by a small "Ah!" Then Ted started laughing. He probably would've been more frightened, had his senses been more acute and he hadn't spent so long in Everglade, where such spookiness was common to the point of callousness. "Haha, so that's what you meant! These animatronics are well in the uncanny valley, eh? Gengar, come back! We've found the ass!"

Then he started poking around with no real purpose in mind. "Supposedly there's some sort of quest or game in practically everything in this park. What this one is...do you think it has something to do with these malleable mascots?"

He was very hesitant to look inside, especially after shuddering in terror at the second horrible screech. It was only after Ted didn't come out for a while and kept talking that he cautiously peeked inside of the building.

He hadn't gotten to take much of a look inside before, when half of his life had been frightened out of him.

"A-Are you okay...?" he asked quietly from the door, voice trembling. The only thing keeping him there was loyalty.

"Heh, well my sensitivity isn't quite what it used to be, and truthfully being in an eatery where everything has almost certainly expired is disappointing, but otherwise I'm none the worse for wear, thank you for asking. How about you, Bracken? Has this mysterious ailment afflicted you any? Your sense of hearing seems fine, at least." Hopefully it got his sense of smell; if he has to go to wherever they kept stock, it must be noxious.

Speaking of wretched, Gengar came floating back to see what all the fuss was about. "Eh", it commentated, feeling the spookiness overrated. He'll definitely make plans to scare Bracken sometime; he looked good for a spook.

Ted, meanwhile, was doing something near a cavity search. Curiosity knew no bounds. "What do you make of this place, Bracken? Find any interesting clues?"

He stepped more fully in view at the door, lingering there.

"I... I didn't get m-much of a look..." he admitted. He'd run out immediately, so there wasn't much investigating on his part.

He shuffled in nervously, keeping his distance from the awful thing at the door and not taking his eyes off of it until he was 'safely' around.

"I'm... I'm not sick. K-Katze is, and they s-say there's healing water here."

Wrong affliction, but he didn't know that. He had prepared, though, strapping a thermos to his side so that he could collect the water. It seemed to be the only extra thing he brought.

Standing by Ted, he stared at three animatronics on the stage, eyes full of mistrust.

"There's... There's more."

Ted followed Bracken's eyes, smiling a little once he found the rest.

"Aha, a quartet! See what they have to say; this one perhaps lost its voicebox. I wonder if that's significant?" Ted tries pricking his fingers against its 'teeth', then seeing if he can fit his head inside and look for anything significant. Nope, wouldn't fit. Oh, he knows! Ted snapped his fingers. "Gengar, do some possession of your own and see into this ass of ours." Gengar obliged, floating into and rummaging around. He came back with a few rusted bits of metal. Spare parts that were barely hanging on, but it didn't seem very useful. The quest continues!

He wasn't one to tug and yank on people, but he was severely tempted when Ted tried to stick his head inside. He looked positively like he'd just seen a ghost. How could Ted be so reckless? He stared in utter horror, afraid something would happen.

Luckily, it didn't. He breathed a sigh of relief, finally exhaling after his whole body had been paralyzed.

He still didn't want to turn his eyes away from the terrible beasts, but he couldn't do much searching if he didn't. He kept enough of a distance between him and them that he thought he would notice if they made any movements and started looking around, quite a bit slower and more cautiously than Ted.

But, sometimes taking one's time could pay off. He noticed an old bulletin board in the corner with directions on it. It described a game for the children to pay, collecting precious pieces and helping their 'friends' turn human...

"T-Ted...? Can you read th-this?"

It wasn't that the writing was so faded that it was unreadable. It was dark, but there was enough light to see it, and the board was old and dusty, but the bright yellow letters on the dark green background stuck out enough to see. It wasn't even that Bracken couldn read it himself. It was just a decent sized description and he knew Ted would be able to read it faster than he could.

Ted figured that if the thing would wound like a bear trap, at least he wouldn't be in that much pain. Being numb had some upsides! Besides, this was for kids. Surely even...whenever this park was in operation, they had some concern for child safety. Right?

Of course they did. And of course he'd read aloud: that's talking, his favorite. "Certainly!" He motioned toward one of the tables and sat down. The last well he found involved, on some level, playing along, so perhaps they needed to order something to win the game. He rang a bell and banged on the table a few times and shouted "Waiter!", to little avail. He cleared his throat and began.

In the woods where children play, four siblings got in trouble
They went to tease a kindly woman and make mischief on the double
With broom and boiling cauldron, she was not all she seemed
A witch with spells and curses and wicked eyes that gleamed!
So the children played their pranks and mocked her for a time
But witches prank back twice as hard, and did so for their crime
One by one the little boys became beasts through and through
So best behave, you little scamps, or else the curse may come to you!"

Ted made a small laugh. "Goodness, talk about your grim fairy tales!" There was a backside to it, but Ted would hardly notice it on his own.

Edited 2016-09-24 04:34 (UTC)

The wording was abnormal and made it a bit difficult for him to piece together, but it seemed to be like a fairy tale of some sort. He thought about it and thought about it and... still didn't know what to do. He examined the words that Ted had thankfully read aloud, and searched for hidden words. Small print, something.

But there were none.

There was some disappointment. Somewhere inside he had hoped he found something so that he could feel useful, but it seemed it was nothing.

"M-Maybe it's n-not what we need," he mumbled, accepting his failure. There didn't seem to be much in that room besides their creepy companions, whom he would rather leave behind.

His eyes drifted to a hall just beside the board. "M-Maybe... we sh-should check the back?"

Ted grasped his chin in thought. "I admit befuddlement myself. Perhaps it's telling us to behave? Observe proper table manners? But then our table doesn't look to be set any time soon. And I was rather insolent anyway with my invasion of our greeter's innermost privacy. All right, might as well continue the insolence. You lay your eyes on whatever backrooms lend themselves; I'll see to the other three cursed souls. They might have something more to say."

They did! Sort of. Approaching must have kicked something into gear, though horribly out of tune and out of pitch.

"WELCOME TO FROGGY FEZBOAR'S WE HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR STAY MAKE SURE YOU WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU EAT AND THEN GO PLAY OUR BURGERS ARE DELICIOUS AND OUR ROOT BEER CAN'T BE B-B-B-B-"

Their almost-rhythmic heads and feet were twitching as it tried to belt out the rest. Ted had to shout a little to be heard. "I hope a clue wasn't in that insipid song!" He's got Gengar on the case, checking them for valuables too.

He hadn't left the room because, quite frankly, he didn't want to go alone. Hadn't Ted ever seen a horror movie? So he stayed and watched Ted blatantly violate all horror movie rules, standing there right by the hallway.

He cringed at the song. It probably wasn't that great to begin with, but with them being fuzzy and the grinding of gears as they 'danced', it was definitively not music to the ears. He wasn't as quick to get loud as Ted was, so even though he spoke up he was still not quite shouting, "I... I don't want to split up..."

It was uncertain if Ted could even hear him, but he hadn't moved from where he was.

Thankfully, the music stopped, either out of sheer malfunction, or else Gengar moving something out of place. He didn't seem to find anything of interest.

"We'll get back to them, I suppose. Safety in numbers, eh? All right, two heards are better than one. Let's see what we can see."

The bathrooms were unappealing. Not really rancid, but simply old with cracked tile. Hopefully no one thought to actually use the things; who knew what the state of the plumbing was like?

Then there's the "Employees Only" section, which Ted would burst right on through. For all he knew that might be the ultimate rudeness that sealed them off the cure forever, but hey, he's curious and nothing else seems to be turning up any leads. Gengar made a rush for the freezer, unleashing a waft of expired, frozen food smell. If only Ted had lost that sense instead. He pinched his nose and coughed.

Once he'd scolded Gengar for putting strange things in his mouth, he noticed the worn out, mangled boar seated in one of the chairs. "A possible fifth robot, or simply an obsolete predecessor?" There was also what appeared to be a strange metal pot. "Either they made large batches of soup here, or..." Deep thoughts. "You think there might have been more to that story?" The word "cauldron" sprung to his mind.

Edited 2016-09-24 05:27 (UTC)

He was practically watching Ted jump through rooms like he was ready to bust someone. It seemed like he went through rooms so fast, Bracken barely got to peek in before he was going somewhere else. In reality, it was probably fortunate. Who needed to get a good look at gross old toilets or expired food?

The options of doors left him indecisive where to go, and while he would normally follow Ted, he never stayed anywhere long enough to bother, it seemed. Finally, still inside of the hallway, he glanced back.

He pursed his lips. He was positive the animatronics had been on the stage before, but now the stage was empty. It pinged him as wrong immediately. For a moment he froze in place, as if he was distrusting of his eyes and waiting for the animatronics to reappear, but when he didn't he shakily called for Ted's attention.

"T-Ted..." He didn't say much, but his gaze was clearly fixed on the stage.

"Mm? What do you see? Ah!" He gasped with some surprise at their departed band. "Or rather, what you don't see, but ought to! Looks like we'll have to give chase. Oh, I'm sure they're important!" He broke into a run, leaping on the stage. Or would, if he didn't trip over his numb feet and fall face first into it instead. He'd have a lot of bruises before the night was through. But he got up comfortably enough, and bade pursuit.

He was far more terrified than Ted was, and not in a rush to find the creepy, horrid things. But he did step in the direction Ted went to follow him at least.

As he went down the hall, he tilted his head a bit. The board was still there, next to it. The majority of it was pushed to the side, so he could only see a bit of the board, but he could clearly make out that there was yellow text on it. Thing was, he was on the other side of the board, so the text should have been facing Ted, not him.

Of course, he couldn't make out the text well enough from where he was to see that it was any different.

"T-Ted...? Who... Who turned the board around?"

Naturally, the original text was still clear as day for Ted to see.

Edited 2016-09-24 05:47 (UTC)

"Hmm?" Ted's easily distracted. That and he had faith that the robots would have machine-like rigidity, and either way patiently for them in their new location, or else return. He went down to rejoin Bracken and get a look for himself.

"No one, I believe. Aren't we the only souls here? What makes you say that?"

He stayed where he was, staring at what he could see of the text. He knew it should have been the other way around so that Ted could see it. He thought Ted would notice that the blank back side was suddenly facing him, but apparently he didn't, so he pointed at what he thought was the front side.

"Th-The text is on this side, now. It... It should be on the o-other side."

When it came to abstraction, Ted wasn't half-bad.

"So that must mean..." he rushed over to Bracken's side to make sure. "Oh! Print on both sides! I should've known. That ending did feel a little premature. Ahem." He'd do the honors again.

And so, my wicked children, the witch informed with glee
if you ever want to be boys again, here's what you must be:
Loving guests and good hosts with great hospitality
And then one day someone may come who will try to set you free
Be sure to keep a piece of cloth that you all once wore
Return them to my cauldron, and you'll be beasts no more.

"...that's it! Bracken, you're a genius! Hurry, let's break the spell! We've got to find those brutes and strip them of all they've got!"

Funny enough, that wasn't the first time he'd been called a genius, and he could only stare in utter shock. Soon after warmth flowed through him as he felt proud and happy that he'd helped.

That was soon overtaken by the fact that they had to hunt down those monsters. He'd rather they stayed hidden somewhere and they never had to see them again.

"M-Maybe they have some other... other clothes lying a-around?" he suggested hopefully. That would be a lot easier than stripping them.

Ted likes the direct approach. "I doubt it; by the sound of the tale, their clothes were very precious. Precious enough to keep on their person." Then again, was this really what the park intended for children to do? Pluck the bowties off of donkeys?

Eh, they got this far without questioning patent absurdities. Why start now? "Come on, let's head after them!" Where exactly they went to was the mystery, as the podium was still bare. Gengar lent his in-corporeality again, seeing if there was some underground basement. He floated back up with a head shake in the negative.

"Then there must be a backroom behind the stage." Now it was his turn to do the yanking, but his touch isn't what it used to be so Bracken's free to decline. Ted would hardly notice, assuming Bracken had an equal thirst for adventure and victory.

It wasn't much. There was a table with a few parts for repairs, some sparse shelves with not nearly enough supplies, and all the robots, apparently retired for the day, slumped over in idle positions.

Playing hide and seek this way wasn't his idea of fun.

"Th-There was a second story but... but I don't know how to get there," he offered. At least, that's what it looked like from the outside.

Though he had finally given up and separated from Ted outside, he didn't go quite that far here. He followed, reluctantly, and definitely a pace behind Ted. Maybe there was some selfishness there, but he also saw Ted as a melee fighter, someone who stood in the front in battle, it made sense for him to go first.

He glanced around the backroom. Though he was no engineer, and came from a world where a lot of this stuff would be highly uncommon, he did find gears and bolts and such to be easily recognized items. It seemed like there were parts scattered about on one side, with the robots on the other. He chose to stand by the parts, as far away from the robots as possible in the tiny space. Not that it would have helped at all if they were attacked, but he at least felt a bit better there.

Ted could do what a Ted ought to do. He really, really hoped that he wouldn't see Ted get his head bitten off.

Event Log (Finding the Cure)

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