Halloween Night, 1987. A year since the events at the Old Barnaker House. Memories have faded. Things seem, fuzzier somehow. Did that, could that have even happened?
And here you are again, on Halloween Night. On the outskirts of an old amusement park. On Halloween Night. Didn't want to be called a chicken again...
And here you are. Something tugs at the back of your mind. A forgotten memory. This isn't right. You shouldn't be here. There's a metal arch over the front gate, topped by large, rusted metal letters. The remaining letters spell out 'UNLAND.'
"Unfortunately, that way it's blocked. I think we'll need to go south and west, around the boating lake and past the Dodgems to reach the Tunnel of Love."
"This is a reasonable plan though. In my Marvel Tomb of Dracula comics, going to the monster's lair is often a good way to finally destroy the monster."
"Not sure if its lies, what happened to Charlieseemed more han that. That other voice coming outta him. Your right Harry like the Barnaker house sooner or later we're gonna have to face whatever. "
"All right, let's go that way," says Harry, "and confronting Dracula in his lair worked just fine in the novel." He tactfully doesn't mention that one of the heroes died in the process.
”Are we gonna stand here talking or are we gonna get moving?!” snapped Charlie impatiently. Mention of what had happened to him down by the lakeside was just making him more nervous and edgy than he already was!
Max took a shot at improving the lady's outlook, but his patting her shoulder and saying, "There, there," didn't really cut it. He was more of a books kid than a compassion kid.
Charlie walked over and stood in front of Safiya. ”Miss,” he said, kneeling down so he could look her in the eye. Something his dad had mentioned once upon a time. ”Miss, I know it’s scary, but we need to get out of here. We’re just kids, we can’t carry you, so we need you to stand up and come with us. We work together and we’ll get outa here.”
The woman doesn't even seem to hear your soothing words, hers eyes blank, arms wrapped around her legs she rocks and mutters, clearly very far gone into her own torment. But when Darren touches her shoulder, she turns her head and looks. For a second her eyes seem to recognise another human being, whether it is the physical contact or the words, she slowly gets to her feet. She's unsteady and blinking vacantly at the world around her, but she you as you move. Not saying another word.
-----
You circle back around the scenic lake, and try and keep some distance between you and Mr Fun's House of Hilarity, crossing the grass and trying to keep equidistant between the funhouse and the carousel. Whatever thinning there might have been in the mist has been left behind and it's as thick as it ever was. The moonlight now swallowed up in the darkness.
But despite your best efforts, as you cross the main path that leads back to the entrance, there in front of you, emerging from the mist is Mr Fun. You can feel Safiya stiffen up and stop moving before you're even able to make him out.
He grins and offers up that red balloon in front of him. The smile is twisted, it doesn't look right, doesn't look like it was made by a human mouth. In fact Mr Fun doesn't look right at all. His movement is all stiff, and sticking out behind him you can see odd shapes, as he moves his head and arms they seem to move in complementary ways, like they're linked somehow. They look mechanical.
OOC: SAN roll for everyone except Harry, Charlie, and Darren for seeing the oddly mechanical Mr Fun. SAN 1/1d3+1
The longer you stare at the awkward looking clown the more it seems to shift and change before your eyes. The white clothing dissolves, revealing more machinery. It doesn't look human at all. The form is all angular and hard edged. Cogs and wheels, pistons and rods rotating and sliding as the hideous automaton moves and its mouth opens awkwardly.
OOC: Afraid there's some more SAN loss - 1/1d4+1
'Aww, you boys don't look happy,' his face contorts into a semblance of a sad face. It's like a caricature. 'I want cha to be happy Harry. I want all you boys to be happy.' You almost feel like you hear a creaking, like a creaking of gears as his expression changes impossibly slowly back into a smile. 'Don't cha worry Harry, I'm your friend, you know Perry's your friend Harry. You said I was your friend Harry. I just wanna help you Harry, you said you wanna tear down the lies, that's what you said. I can help you all. Like I helped your friend, like I helped Dirk. He told me about his brother Richie, about what he did. And when he told me, told it to the mirror. When he confronted the lie, I took it away. Just like that. Put it in the mirror where it can't hurt him anymore. And Dirk was happy. he wasn't Dirk the Dirt anymore. I wanna help you like I helped him, Harry. I wanna help all of you...'
You don't know what he's talking about. You don't know this clown. You never told him you wanted to 'tear down the lies,' yet...there's something, it feels like when there's something on the tip of your tongue. A sense, at the back of your mind. You just can't grab hold of it. And a memory, a feeling, a feeling like peeling away the layers of reality, a feeling of being one with reality - you can't quite make sense of it but you can feel it there - somewhere inside you...
His brow slowly and almost painfully furrows. 'But I can't help you...' and he stiffly raises his arm and points a finger at Charlie. 'I can't help you Karen. You've hitched a ride with Charlie here. It's between you two now,' he smiles again, 'But I can help you Charlie, just like all your friends...'
The sight of the robotic clown and the memory of his earlier connection with the universe cause Harry to snap.
Sanity roll (current level 25) for seeing the robotic clown: d%
Sanity loss: 1d4+1
Idea roll (75% stat) to avoid temporary insanity - failure is good: d%
Charlie scowled at Mr Fun, even as Karen’s memories stirred in his mind. ”GO. FUCK. YOURSELF.” he said, very firmly and deliberately, gripping the heavy bat for added reassurance.
Of course. It's all becoming clear to you now. Like a veil has been lifted from your eyes. The mist around you even seems thinner, like you can see through it. Ever since that night deep under the Barnaker House you've known. Hell, you've always known. Deep down. This life. This world. It's just the surface. Just the simple sense impressions that the mundane people see. But you know. You know there's something deeper. Something underneath the surface. Underneath the illusions. Underneath the simple macroscopic world of the ordinary. There's a deeper truth, deeper even than the quantum world. Deeper than the world of string theory. Underneath all the lies. You want to tear down the lies. When the clown came to you, Perry the Clown, Mr Fun, whatever he calls himself. He offered you the opportunity to see what's underneath. To really see the world as it is. And you wanted your friends to see too. That's why you invited them here. That's why you wrote the letter from Shirley. They had to see. They have to see!
Scowling at the misshapen, mechanical clown, Charlie shouts out, full of vitriol: 'Go. Fuck. Yourself.'
But the power, the hatred is somewhat diminished by the high-pitch, feminine voice he hears emanating from his own mouth.
"It's starting to come back to me," says Harry. "The truth about how the universe really works. This world is just a shadow. We have to see beneath the surface! The only way out is in."
