this is where fun goes to die

[salamandher]

[This is where fun goes to die.]

[The stereotypical abandoned amusement park. Everybody says it's haunted. And, in their line of work, when multiple people start saying something's haunted, it either is, or it's damned close to being so. There's probably some kind of correlation, but that's not important.]

[What is important is that traffic was so terrible. Terrible enough that they pull up into the weedy parking lot as the sun is starting to go down. It's cold. Not enough to snow, but enough to see your breath when you talk. There's a wind blowing up off the lake, and the old ferris wheel carriages swing out in the distance. Something calls out, long and lonely.]

[It's probably an owl.]

[But that owl is not helping anything.]

I'm so not getting out of this car. You know that, right?

[She's still buckled in, in fact.]

Comments

[salamandher]

Yeah, and it's got owls. Did you hear that? Do you know what eats owls?

[wizardcop]

Don't you dare tell me "nothing" again. Fedora could eat an owl. Madigan's griffon could eat an owl. There are lots of perfectly normal things that could eat owls, too.

[salamandher]

Well, it's true! Nothing! Except... bigger owls.

So I'm not going out there. They're worse than fairies.

[wizardcop]

Kara, we really don't have a choice in this, so for the love of god, what is it going to take to get you out of the car?

[salamandher]

A hell of a lot of compensation. An entire pizza. New York style. With literally everything on it.

Except potatoes.

[wizardcop]

Consider it done. Now can we go before the sun completely goes down?

[salamandher]

Fine.

[Even so, she eases out of the car very slowly, pulling her coat a little tighter around herself.]

Let's just. Get this over with.

[wizardcop]

[ Maybe to make her feel better, or maybe to make him feel better, he calls Fedora out of his hat immediately as they pad across ruined, weed-eaten asphalt. ]

If it makes you feel any better, I don't see any ghosts.

[ Yet. ]

[salamandher]

So... either they don't come out until the sun goes down.

[She kicks at a tumbleweed. Or dead shrub. It's one of the two.]

Or we're not dealing with ghosts.

[wizardcop]

What would we be dealing with instead? A Scooby-doo villain?

[salamandher]

... That's way too easy.

Also no.

[wizardcop]

All right, what, then?

[salamandher]

Uh. Charlie said... gremlins. Fairies. How far away from Jersey are we?

[wizardcop]

What does our proximity to Jers--- you know what, never mind. Let's just see that we can find, hm?

[ There's agate, of course, held by a rusted old chain. It's come off the hinges in one place though- likely shoved aside by vandals since it leaves an opening big enough for a person. Fedora steps through first, Jacob following after. ]

[salamandher]

Devils, Jake. The devils.

[She makes a face, but goes to duck after them, trying not to touch the rusted metal.]

[She'd really rather not find out if she's capable of getting tetanus or not.]

[wizardcop]

[ This place must have been closed for a while- nature is taking back what once was it. Vegetation pokes through the pavement and entangles itself in wood and iron beams. The ticket booth stands empty and dark, windows long gone, and the roof soon to follow.

Behind that, the skeletal remains of a roller coaster and a Ferris wheel loom in the near-dark. ]

Well, this isn't creepy at all.

[salamandher]

[She steps a little nearer to him as they take in the sights. Or... what's left of them. There's a little whack-a-mole booth, or something like it, a few feet away, and the cartoon critters have had the fake fur long-since stripped off. They're just little skeletons poking out of holes now.]

... Yep. Creepy. Let's go now.

[Was it her imagination, or did one of those things move?]

[wizardcop]

[ If it did, neither Jacob nor Fedora noticed. The wolf heads onward, nose to the ground, and Jacob isn't keen on being left behind.

He does grab Kara by the hand though. You know, so they don't get separated. He sketches out a spell with his free hand, releasing a little globe of light to bob along above their heads. It's getting dark, and that sure isn't helping things. ]

[salamandher]

[She's really okay with the hand-holding. In this instance. She maybe even squeezes it a little as she follows along.]

Seen anything yet? Except miles of rust and accidents waiting to happen.

[Like that roller coaster car sitting on the track. Half on the track.]

[wizardcop]

Nothing yet, no. What I want to know is why these places are just left to rot. Why not tear them down?

[salamandher]

Cheaper, probably. If you ditch something, you don't have to pay for the mess.

In a lot of ways.

[wizardcop]

There's something about an abandoned amusement park that just seems... so much more desolate than anywhere else.

[salamandher]

... People are supposed to be happy in these places. Yeah, they rip you off, but. Y'know.

Good times and stuff. They're not supposed to be empty. I guess.

[wizardcop]

Mm. Let's head towards the Ferris wheel. It's as good a place to start as any.

[salamandher]

... You still don't see anything? Isn't that a little. Concerning?