The sun sets and the light fades, allowing the shadows of the trees to grow longer and the shadows to encompass the abandoned park. The amusement park, once brimming with life and light once upon a time, now sits alone...broken and decrepit. Fireworks used to light the skies, but only the stars keep it company now. Beneath the shattered building pieces lie secrets and dangerous shadows that only few dare to face. This tale follows four of such souls...

The shadows of this place long and hunger...
Death is very much a possibility.
And those who live...will they walk away unscathed?
Or will they be changed forever?

---

The three of you drive in your own vehicles through the empty woods and fields to the abandoned amusement parks. Upon reaching the place, you all see that there is a fence around the park. For those who have been here before, or did their research, they would realize that the fence wasn't here when the amusement park was active. It seems the fence was set up to keep people out.

However, a door in that fence is open! That allows the three investigators to enter and approach the closed main gate of the park.

There, they see something standing a little aways from the main gate itself: A platypus animatronic wearing a leprechaun outfit. The animatronic is slowly alighting itself and starting to move!

@ihinka@fellsing@Redking0380

---

Duck-Billed O'Malley...

You were asleep, and feel yourself waking up. The first thing you see is the Main Gate. Heavy metal doors closed, with a blackened screen near it. You can see the leading mascot, Jack the Jackalope painted on a crumbling wall, along with faded paintings of other mascot. There is also graffiti littered on the broken walls and doors. There are also cameras on the walls that aren't broken at all!

You notice that the people you're familiar with are nowhere nearby....



@rush99999

A button is pressed.

Power floods the system.

At first, it is subtle. Status LEDs flicker to life beneath the costume, diagnostic readouts scrolling rapidly across screens that lay elsewhere. Servos whine as they calibrate, joints twitching in precise motions. Then the animatronic platypus's eyes illuminate, a warm pleasant glow focusing and sharpening as if awareness itself is snapping into place.

Duck-Billed O'Malley's bill opens slightly, closing again with a soft pneumatic hiss. His head tilts, smooth and deliberate, as internal gyros stabilize and posture routines engage. One webbed foot shifts forward and steps off the charging port, testing balance. Another follows. Each movement is fluid, uncannily lifelike.

A cheerful chime plays from speakers hidden within the animatronic's endoskeleton.

"Duck-Billed O'Malley back online!" A Irish accented voice rich with digital warmth and just a hint of theatrical flair then happily exclaims from those same speakers. "Primary Battery... at full capacity. Secondary Battery... at full capacity. Tertiary Battery... at full capacity. Emergency Reserve Power... at full capacity. Probability Manipulation Charges... all present and accounted for. Extended Shutdown Restoration Sequence... still ongoing, Estimated Time to Completion: Unknown. Diagnostics complete. A minor discrepancy has been detected in the memory core. All functions nominal otherwise." O'Malley straightens, adjusting his leprechaun vest with a practiced gesture coded long before this moment, before reaching up and tipping his leprechaun hat. "Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Assorted geniuses behind the glass! I believe we're ready to open the doors!"

After a moment, O'Malley looked around and realized that none of the people he was addressing were present. He was alone. Of course he was. Zachary had mentioned that such would be the case when they were planning this operation. Not that such a thing bothered him. He'd handled jobs on his own all the time even back before all the woes Covid had brought. O'Malley looked upon the Main Gate of Wilderness Wonderland with a melancholic sort of nostalgia. He still had fond memories of visiting this place in its heyday during the crossover event between the bowling alley and the amusement park. Seeing the dilapidation this place had fallen into grieved him almost as much as it had to look upon the boarded up husk of his own venue. Now that O'Malley was back up and running, he had hopes that he could get the rest of his friends back online as well. That together they could reopen their old place and get back to doing what they did best. Once they had done that, maybe - just maybe - they could do the same for Wilderness Wonderland too...

A brief crackle of static Pulled O'Malley out of his thoughts. "O'Malley?" A familiar voice spoke up then. "O'Malley, can you hear me? Come in, O'Malley!"

"Readin' ya loud and clear, Joey m'lad!" O'Malley happily said in response to Joseph's words. "A lotta the park has been left to its own devices. But it seems the cameras have been well maintained. If they still work, I believe I can win them over." With that said, O'Malley shut one eye and a strange rune etched into his endoskeleton that looked oddly like a cog wheel began to glow softly. Soon enough, O'Malley's closed eye began to see once more. But instead of what was in front of it, the eye saw anything the amusement park's security cameras could see.

As Loch made their way out of their car, they couldn't help but pause when they looked up at the dilapidated park, separated from the rest of the world by a large fence.

Tonight is going to be long night, they thought. The burst of adrenaline they had experienced all throughout the drive over here (and the various pit stops they'd made) seemed to be almost instantly drained out of them, replaced with a weariness. They glanced over their shoulder at the bulky backpack they had stuffed with a variety of tools, tech and snacks, then back over at the fence.

"Yeah, I definitely didn't think this through," they muttered to themself.

Thankfully, they didn't have to worry for too long about how they were going to get themselves and their gear over the fence unscathed because after a cursory glance at the perimeter, they noticed one of the doors in the fence was apparently open.

Convenient. One might even say too convenient.

With a grimace, Loch opened one of the side pockets of their bag and dug around until their hand wrapped around their flashlight. It was one of those heavy duty ones, the kind that would provide a good amount of light, wonderful for searching through dark, dusty places in search of clues. Also for blinding any one who tried to bum-rush you. And probably weighty enough that being smacked in the head with it would be incredibly unpleasant.

It was perfect.

Loch switched it on and shone it on the door, trying to see if it had been forced open or merely left unlocked. Once they'd found out all they could from that, they would enter.

Approaching the main gate, they would see a very familiar-looking animatronic standing a little ways away.

The heck was he doing here? Then again, how could he not be here?

Anxiously, they start waving an arm over their head, hoping to attract the attention of O'Malley - or the animatronic they assumed to be O'Malley - without having to shout and possibly alert any security guard or policeman who might be lurking about.

Cassidy

Cassidy rode her custom Triumph Thunderbird competently. Fast, but with care and precision. Her mind was still rattled by the encounter with Toby. His frailty had shaken her to the core. To have survived this long when he'd been expected to perish a while back spoke of an unparalleled strength of spirit. Images of Toby coughing blood in the gym as he approached her, of him laboring for breath in the ambulance, of the wild ride to the hospital still streaked her mind's eye.

She allowed her attention to drift back into focus on the task at hand. The bike stopped smoothly in front of the abandoned amusement park. Cassidy swiveled the kickstand with her boot, to support the idle bike and meticulously took off her riding gloves and her helmet. She stored the helmet in the bike's saddlebags. All the gear she would need was either in her riding backpack or on her person, like her sidearm and her knife. Still astride the bike, the former jodoka surveyed the landscape before her. What she saw could easily serve as the backdrop of a horror movie. Especially with the fence, she knew for a fact was not part of the park's original layout. No, it was put there later. Presumably to keep vandals out. Or... the much scarier thought. To keep something in!

Whatever the case, at this particular moment the fence wasn't doing a good job of its intended purpose. The front gate hung open, and... Wait! Wait! Wait...! Was that... a person. Slowly, quietly Cassidy dismounted her bike and reached around and under her jacket for the small of her back where her Walther P99 lay securely in its holster. There was a frantic moment of struggle as she raised Cassidy's arm, aimed at the shadowed figure and almost pulled the trigger.

LEAVE ME BE, FIEND! Cassidy threatened in her mind, aiming the shaky gun at her left hand, where her talisman resided, securely tied around Cassidy's wrist. Or I'll shoot my bloody hand of and you with it!

It was an empty threat. Cassidy knew. After all... she would never let her do it. But it made Cassidy feel good delivering it anyway.

A bit more in control of herself, the former Olympic athlete once again surveyed the horizon before her. Only this time, she allowed herself to perceive beyond what ordinary people could not. If this thing was haunted, Cassidy would know. And she was not above enlisting the help of the corporeally challenged.

---

With one eye still shut, O'Malley turned to face the newcomer he heard approaching and saw on the security camera. "Good evenin' to ya!" The animatronic called out in greeting. He opened his bill to continue speaking, but paused a moment after getting a good look at who it was that he was speaking to. "Now wait just a moment..." O'Malley said as the facial scanner in his one open eye cross-referenced the newcomer's face with the faces saved in his regulars database. A single partial match came back. "...Loch? Is that you?" O'Malley asked. The person standing before him bore a great many differences to the picture he had in the database, but there were enough similarities to warrant asking. Especially when a lot could change about a person's appearance over the course of six years.

While all of this was happening though, the rune on O'Malley's endoskeleton that resembled a cog wheel continued to glow as a separate thought process in the animatronic's mechanical mind searched Wilderness Wonderland's security system for a repository of camera footage that he could go through to see if any of the cameras he now had access to had picked Ellora up on their feed. With any luck, Ellora would have left a video trail that O'Malley would be able to follow right to her.

Loch couldn't help but feel the tiniest pang of joy when Duck-Billed O'Malley recognized them. The more cynical side of their brain chastised them: Of course O'Malley would recognize them! Each of the animatronics at O'Malley's Pizzeria and Bowling Alley had facial recognition technology and a log of previously encounter customers. What better way to keep popular with kids than have their favourite characters recognize them on subsequent meetings, creating the illusion of a connection that kids would then want to keep up, begging their parents to take them again and again so they could continue to see and bond with their animatronic 'friend'. And all in the name of capitalism!

Still, it was pretty amazing that those systems were still working after all these years. Was the animatronic's memory internal or was it stored on a database somewhere? And how was that database still functioning after five years of disuse? Was the company that had run the establishment still keeping that information? If so, for what purpose?

Loch looked the animatronic up and down. He wasn't up to the standard of repair the Pizzeria and Bowling Alley would have normally kept him at, but he wasn't in complete disrepair either. Someone had fixed him.

But who? And why? And why bring him to this park?

Loch cautiously continue their approach, a grin creeping up their face as their inner child managed to wrestle some whimsy out of them from the grips of their near constant suspicion of the world. "Hey, big man!" they said. They raised their hand up as if to give him a friendly thump on the shoulder, before quickly deciding against it."Yeah, it's me. You look... good, all things considering!" They adjusted their glasses.

O'Malley would note that Loch's voice is a little deeper than it was five years ago, and their Scottish accent less thick. O'Malley might also note that the glasses Loch is wearing at the same pair they had six years ago... and therefore long past the time that they should have been replaced.

"So, err... what are you doing here?" Loch continued, trying to sound as casual as possible given the circumstance. "And err..." They pointed with their thumb to the door they had entered from. "You would have been the one who got that door open, would you?" Lockpicking did not seem like a skill anyone would give an entertainment animatronic, but they had to at least ask.

"Hey, big man!" Loch said. "Yeah, it's me. You look... good, all things considering!"

At this confirmation, O'Malley's bill opened wide and the sound of a joyful gasp issued forth from his speakers. "Oh I just knew it was you!" The animatronic exclaimed happily. "It's so wonderful to see you again, Loch m'lass! You look well too. The years have far kinder to you than they have to your old pal O'Malley. You've changed quite a bit as well. It took me a moment to recognize you. But thankfully enough of you had stayed the same to ping a partial match from my database... Speakin' o' things that've stayed the same though, my sensors indicate those are the same glasses you were wearing when we last saw each other about six years ago. Those might be a little outta date now, m'lass."

"So, err... what are you doing here?" Loch continued, trying to sound as casual as possible given the circumstance. "And err... You would have been the one who got that door open, would you?"

"To answer your questions in order, I am here on behalf of my good friends Zachary Williams and his son Joseph." O'Malley said. "Ellora Williams, Zach's wife and Joey's Ma, went missin' here. So I've come to find her and bring her home safe and sound. As for the door, it weren't me that opened it." O'Malley gestured towards the Main Gate. "I was reactivated right here in front of the entrance. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it was either Zachary or Ellora who opened that door... Since you've asked, I'll ask in kind: What brings ya this way, Loch? You hopin' to find some cryptids lurkin' about this spooooooky old abandoned amusement park or somethin' like that?"

As he spoke, the thought process O'Malley had looking through the cameras returned to looking at the live feed. This time, it was looking for any sign of what had made the claw marks or what had been chasing Ellora through the park in the recorded security footage he had glimpsed her in.

Cassidy

Cassidy's scrutiny was interrupted by murmuring voices near the opened fence gate. Incidentally this was also one of the places that pinged with magical or spiritual energy. Or rather, something near the fence gate. The more Cassidy listened to the voices, the more a sense of sickening feeling of deja vu churned in her stomach. The speaker's inflection, rhythm of speech, accent, phraseology... It was as if she was listening to her mother. Only, the voice was hollow and distinctly mechanical. And also male. Could it really be?! O'Malley...?! Cassidy wondered, caution still keeping her rooted to the spot near her bike. She could literally see the ebb of magic swell and flow through the wiring of the park. Something was alive with spiritual juju up here.

Toby's condition had prevented him from explaining in detail why she'd needed to come here. Only that people needed help. O'Malley was not people. Not that an animatronic couldn't need help. But somehow Cassidy doubted the duck-billed platypus was what Toby had meant. And who was the animatronic talking to? Well, O'Malley, for all his similarities to her mother, was friendly enough. So whoever he was speaking to in a friendly manner should be safe, Cassidy thought.

Still gripping the Walther by her side, Cassidy approached quietly, but openly as not to spook the animatronic and his companion by making them think she was sneaking up on them with ill intentions.

"Um, evenin'..." Cassidy raised her free hand in greeting. Only once she was close enough did she realize the other person had been Loch. "Well now. Ain't this a party." Cassidy's melodic brogue sounded out of place in this taken straight out of a horror movie scene. "Loch. O'Malley." Her posture visibly relaxed. Even though her right hand continued to grip her sidearm. "Fancy meetin' ya here."

---

"Um, evenin'..." Another newcomer called out in greeting.

O'Malley didn't need as much time as he had with Loch to recognize this one. "Cass m'lass!" O'Malley exclaimed joyously as opened the eye he had shut, having finished snooping through the park's security system for the time being.

"Well now. Ain't this a party." Cassidy said. "Loch. O'Malley. Fancy meetin' ya here."

"A party indeed! And here's me without any party hats to hand out!" O'Malley laughed. "Although I will admit that does leave me a little confused as you why you'd approach with weapon in hand. Maybe holster that for the time bein'? We're all friends here. And saints willin', we shouldn't have need for violence in there." O'Malley inclined his head towards the Main Gate as he spoke those last two words. While what he had seen in the cameras hadn't painted what was stalking the confines of Wilderness Wonderland in the best light, O'Malley's programming forbade the use of violence on his part until whoever or whatever he was dealing with proved itself to be firmly beyond any sort of reason.

Loch's grin faltered slightly when O'Malley referred to them as 'm'lass'.

Ah, right. They forgot about that. They weren't sure exactly how to address the pronouns issue. It certainly didn't seem like the most important thing right now, and they weren't even sure how easy it would to be to explain to him.

He was, after all, an animatronic at a children's establishment.

Based seemingly on the personality of an Irish gangster from the 80s and 90s.

It was kind of the closest experience Loch would ever have to coming out to a grandparent, now that they thought of it.

"I-I see," Loch said in response to O'Malley's answer, filing those thoughts away for the moment as the much more important topic of a "missing person" case came to the forefront. They certainly hadn't come across that on their cursory research of the park. At least that gave some resolution to the "who had opened the door" mystery.

"Err, something like that," Loch answered O'Malley's question about whether they were searching for cryptids. Cryptids, mysterious organisation, mass conspiracies about kidnapping people to use them as basis for AI. In the eyes of the common man, they probably were all of similar ridiculousness... then again, could O'Malley be considered a 'common man', either the animatronic himself or the man his personality had been based on?

Before Loch could elaborate, a third person joined their conversation, one familiar to both of them: Cassidy Byrne, former Olympic martial artist turned spooky psychic. The simultaneous sensation of her presence being unexpected while also inevitable washed over Loch. It was also tinged with discomfort, in part because she seemed to be armed.

"Yeah, I agree with the platypus," Loch said. "Approaching someone in the dark while holding a gun doesn't give the friendliest of vibes."

Cassidy

Cassidy's left eye twitched hearing O'Malley up close. The similarities were truly uncanny and she couldn't help but shudder with discomfort at being reminded of her backstabber of a mother. Some years after the scandal and with some therapy under her belt Cassidy had finally realized that her parents' actions had never been supportive, but rather - self-serving. She had been a tool for her parents' ambition. Her mother, mostly, but her father had been a willing accomplice. So, yeah, she always felt unsettled when around the animatronic platypus. But she would not let this discomfort hinder her mission here. Cassidy gripped the gun tighter and barred her teeth in an almost feral grin. Which, in the current setting, was admittedly creepy-looking. When she spoke, however, her tone of voice was friendly and unthreatening.

"Not like I snuck up on ya, innit?! Or like I'm pointin' this fella at ya. Tis nice and calm pointin' down at the ground." Cassidy fully approached Loch and O'Malley. "And 'sides..." Her androgynous features darkened. "Yer, plenty wrong 'bout needin' violence in dere, O'Malley! I'd bet my disgraced Olympic career we'll be needin' not only dis..." Cassidy lifted the gun, still holding the muzzle pointed at the ground. "But most certainly dis..." And, lowering her gun again, she tapped with the muzzle the kukri strapped to her right thigh. "Cus ya see, me fellas, I know what be in dere. An' it ain' nice an' it won't go down without a proper fight! An' I intend to give it its due and more on top." Cassidy's body coiled more and more tightly as she spoke, her muscles bunching in anticipation of the vengeance she would unleash on whatever was stealing children's lives in there. So absorbed was she in her desire to mete out justice, she was almost oblivious of her constant presence.

"So not only would I not be puttin' dis away..." Cassidy continued with an eerily calm voice. "I suggest ya arm yarselves with any cold iron implement y'can find. Tire iron! Crowbar! Whathaveya! I'm not sure why ya came 'ere or what ya know. But what I know is dat in dere is a most despicable ting dat uses kids to rob dem of dier years and put unnatural beings in dier bodies when da bill comes due. And I will not let Toby down again!" The last sentence slipped out of Cassidy's mouth almost unintentionally. As if she hadn't meant to mention it, but didn't fully realize that she had.

---

O'Malley frowned slightly at Cassidy's refusal to holster her weapon. While he was aware that violence could regrettably become a necessity in there, his programming still railed against going down that road so easily. Though the revelation that there was something in there that posed a threat to children did a lot to ease those reservations... so long as it was without a doubt directed at the threat in question. But there was another revelation that caught O'Malley's attention. Scott Williams had done his fair share of monster hunting while he lived. And he often brought a handful of animatronics along to assist him. O'Malley was one of those animatronics, so he knew what it meant when someone suggested taking up arms forged of cold iron. "You're thinkin' we're liable to run into a creature from Faerie in there?" O'Malley sought confirmation, just to be sure.

Cassidy raising her voice and looking so serious would have been enough cause for alarm, but now she was warning about something within the park, and her words made Loch's mind flash back to what they had read earlier.

"Stealing the years of children...?" Loch muttered, more to themself than anyone else. But before they could ask anything else, O'Malley decided he had his own bombshell to drop. "Wait, faeries? Like... pixies, brownies, banshees and the like? Are you telling me that's what we're dealing with?!"

This was not what they had signed up for.

---

Light after Light went by, illuminating the rough roads William knew these streets, knew these paths, but the shadows drew long over them. Crafting a background of fingers that grasp at the edges of the windshield.

In this gloom the white paint of his van appeared more dingy, more gray with stormy undertones rippling in between each beam that rolls over it.

Such weather would be fitting for this night. Ever roiling thunder interspersed with blinding lightning, heavy raindrops to provide a staccato to sorrow and dogged determination.

But such things do not come. Only tires on asphalt serve as the ambiance for this forsaken ride.

The only thing that could be claimed as a positive for it was the time, short as it was. In the old days the drive was a bonus, and a reason why he had transferred to the Wonderland. The pay may not have been as good, but the gas saved was more than enough.

Still, one would want such a momentous moment to… last longer. Instead of seeing the destination to ones journey within ten minutes.

Parking was strange, his spot was still there. Not unexpected given the nearly empty nature of the lot, but something just felt like it was… diffrent. Different enough to assume his spot wouldn't be marked, or empty, or nearly perfect.

But nearly empty and actually empty were two different things, and he could not help but wonder who exactly was here. Perhaps those who contacted him? Perhaps someone else who had been?

It matters little. He climbs into the back of his van, one that once held tools and parts for mechanical life, and gathers his weapons. Perhaps nothing will be hostile in this place, perhaps nothing will be found but dank halls and old stains, perhaps…

He checks the chambers of his revolver, gives the axe a quick grind, and hesitates at the knuckles. They were clean. Meticulously so. A gift, one given by his father-in-law. ‘So that you can bust in the teeth of those fools who flirt with a married woman.’

Brutal that man, so unlike his daughter. But brutality has a place, he slides them into a pocket.

The husk known as William Aubergine steps out into moon light and approaches an opened gate, axe held almost lazily over a shoulder.

"Wait, faeries? Like... pixies, brownies, banshees and the like? Are you telling me that's what we're dealing with?!"

"That is at the very least what I extrapolate from what Cass has mentioned so far." O'Malley said in response to Loch's words. "I know your area of expertise leans more towards cryptids, Loch m'lass, but I like to think your knowledge will still map well enough to the task at hand. If you get stuck anywhere though, you know you can always ask your old pal O'Malley for a helpin' hand." A moment later, O'Malley glanced over at the open gate as he saw the figure of yet another person approach it. "Look alive you two." The animatronic spoke up while gesturing towards the incoming new arrival. "It seems there's going to be a fourth member to this band."

Cassidy

"Could be The Shee, could be somethin' else entirely! There are more things in Heaven and Earth... an' all that. All I know fer sure is that, Toby, da lad who sent me 'ere 'ad some aura 'bout 'im. It felt like somethin' that would be 'fraid o'cold iron! So I came adequately prepared." Cassidy glanced at Loch, who looked to be a bit green around the gills. She tended to have that effect around the conspiracy theorist. But this time she probably wasn't the only source of Loch's discomfort. "Well, anyway... I told ye why I'm 'ere. So... turnabout's fair play...?" Cassidy peered questioningly at the animatronic and Loch, just as O'Malley was announcing the arrival of another... someone. How did it go... Two's company. Three's a crowd. And four's a party. "Now it's truly a party." Cassidy voiced her thoughts, turning fully to the newcomer. Bracing herself to attack, should this new someone be hostile.

---

After William crosses the threshold of the fence, and approaches the trio, all four of them can hear something. The speakers start to play whimsical music, albeit very distorted from age. William and Duck-Billed O'Malley would recognize this music as the usual entry music that plays for guests as they enter. But...how is it suddenly playing now?

A wide TV screen placed above the doorway lights up to a blue background, and a familiar animated mascot appears: A tawny rabbit wearing a waistcoat, with antlers growing from his head. His long ears are perked up as he greets the four of you cheerfully,

"Hi there! Welcome to our Wonderland! Here, you will find friendly family experiences that are both whimsical and educational! You can--"

His voice and image distorts, before he appears closer, and he speaks in realization, "Wait! You're our first guests in. One thousand nine hundred, and eighty-two days," His voice became mechanical as he listed the days.

His speech goes back to its normal cheerful tone as he speaks again, "Congratulations! I'm Jack! Jack the Jackalope! Please come on in, and enjoy our park!"

The TV shuts off, and the heavy entrance doors leading into the park slowly swing open, possibly much more ominously than whimsically. The heavy doors reveal rows of turnstiles that lead into the Main Street of the Park.

@ihinka@fellsing@Redking0380@rush99999

The new arrival seemed familiar to O'Malley, but not as familiar as Cassidy had been. The animatronic was just about to ask the newcomer for his name when the music started up. "Ah, seems the welcoming committee has noticed us at last." O'Malley said before the screen above the entrance lit up and revealed an old acquaintance to be alive and well. As overjoyed as he was by the prospect of seeing Jack the Jackalope again, O'Malley kept quiet so as not to interrupt the mascot's welcome.

As he listened to Jack speak, O'Malley shut one eye again as a separate thought process began reviewing both the live feed and recorded footage of the park's cameras in search of anything that might confirm Cassidy's claims that wielding cold iron would be a good idea. He believed the claim, of course, but a lack of certainty as to whether they were up against a Faerie threat or something else had O'Malley on the lookout for more concrete answers.

Once the intro was done and the doors were open though, O'Malley could contain his excitement no longer. "Jack's still here!" The animatronic exclaimed. "Joey! Zach! Did you lads get all o' that just now? Jack the Jackalope is still up and running after all this time! Oh how it warms the hard drive to see 'im again. Haven't had a chance to do that since the big crossover back in 2012. We'll have a fair bit to catch up on, that's for sure." As he spoke that last sentence, O'Malley began making his way into Wilderness Wonderland.

---

William did not know the people next to the entrance, and frankly had little care for learning who they were compared to what they stood next to.

Duck Billed O'Malley was an old face, an acquaintance and little more. William worked on him as a favor when a colleague was on sick leave, but that was years before he even heard of Wonderland. Least until…

Point being, the mechanic did not expect to see the leprechaun up and around anymore. Much less here, with these strangers.

Each step echoes in the cold night, doing little to deter their conversation even as they turn towards him. One seemed on the edge of a greeting when the staticky whine of a television screeched out, one of them turning on to reveal… Jack.

Jack the Jackolope, Handsome Jack, the Jack of The Box zone, even the Jack of a limited time card set. It's a face that even after this long it's easy to recognize for anyone from this town, but it's deeply familiar to William. His hands had wondered every groove of that face, astonished at the lack of seams and how quietly it ran. ‘Now that's an inventor's secret’ Greyson would always say smugly, tapping the side of his nose with a shine in his eye. William always thought his face was off. Maybe that spark was the memory of something haunting? He had seen the same thing many times himself in mirrors.

History matters little except where it has led to, and in this moment it leads to him barging forth to follow the Duck inside the Wonderland.

Cassidy

"Dial down yer optimistic settings, O'Malley! If we were sent 'ere, it wasn' for socializin'!" Cassidy grunted as she cautiously followed the animatronic, weary of the newcomer as well. She didn't like unknowns and she didn't know this person or how he would act or react. But Toby was depending on her and she would not let the lad down a second time! "I don't know why yer 'ere, mister, but know I won't let ya get in da way of what I need doin'..." Cassidy addressed the older man, without even looking at him. No, she was amped and anxious. All her normal senses, and her somewhat unnormal ones, were screaming to high heaven this place was... wrong! But there was nothing in sight. Gripping the pistol Cassidy cast her gaze about, looking for anything dangerous they might have missed. Some trap. A cleverly set ambush. A supernatural lure... Something overlooked. Or made to look benign when it was anything but.

Over the years, in Her constant company, Cassidy had learned to trust all her senses and sensations. She'd developed what LEOs might call sixth sense, but was in fact a conglomeration of experience and knowledge that allowed you to process pertinent information on an almost subconscious level. And so, just like cops, Cassidy had come to trust her gut in a lot of high-octane situations. Now wasn't much different. As she followed behind O'Malley, trying to stay between Loch and any possible oncoming danger, Cassidy allowed her senses to expand and engulf as much of the scenery as possible and feed her real-life data she hoped her brain would interpret and warn her about just in the nick of time.

---