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Raylene Dunwich     Getting the missives to help out with 'a peculiar haunting' in an amusement park wasn't that surprising. Raylene does know most of those involved, either by reputation or by association as former Union. The only exception is Danse, who instead received a garbled radio message talking about 'ghoulish monsters' and 'animatronics.' Some kind of synth-ghoul infestation?!?!

    Either way, the gates to the park are where everything leads, and Raylene is there too. "Hello! I take it you're all here to look into this little problem?" She smiles, gesturing to the park. A house of mirrors, a little built-in restaurant with music faintly coming from it, a ferris wheel, rows of games like shooting bottles and tossing balls at targets... it's all the usual sorts of things. Only, despite it being a saturday night, nobody is there! The gates are closed!

    "This place has had some problems with guests cliaming to be attacked by monsters. They're going to close it up if that isn't taken care of. Nobody has been killed or even seriously injured yet, but it's not that far from my home so I thought I'd bring some people in to take a look. See what's going on and why. The staff are about if you want to ask questions, I'll be doing my own investigation."

    Raylene pauses. "You all will, of course, be well-paid for this."
Kazusa Ujikane     A haunting? Kazusa can do hauntings! Sort of. Normally she'd use a card, but her only card available at the moment is The Beast. And she doesn't even have it loaded. And Saber is otherwise busy, besides. But she's a member of Heaven or Hell, which... that totally qualifies her, right? ...right...?

    "That's right!" Kazusa replies cheerfully to Raylene, her eyes already pretty well sparkling. Someone may or may not have half-forgotten the purpose of their visit already. "I'm going to go check out the Hall of Mirrors first! That's, uh, there's totally something suspicious about mirrors, right?" She's already on her way. It doesn't have anything to do at all with the fact that Kazusa just plain likes mirror mazes. No sir, not one bit.

    (it totally does)
Danse It may be infrequent, but Danse does sometimes get away from the Commonwealth to go exploring the Multiverse itself. Scribe Haylen basically makes puppy dog eyes and 'doctor's orders' type statements until he finally relents about it. During this particular extended patrol, the wideband radio receiver had managed to pick up some choice keywords from a random burst of a transmission, and none of them are particularly welcome. Ghoulish, animatronic? Though there was no solid evidence yet, there were rumors among the caravaneers that Massachusetts' favorite bogeyman, the Institute, had taken an interest in the wider affairs outside their world, so what might normally be dismissed as distracting coincidence instead becomes a point of laser focus.

    The headlamp of his T-60 model power armor is what cuts through any inevitable fog, haze or other obscuring factors that might linger in this location, glancing off the remaining reflective surfaces as the heavy bootsteps approach. It looks like the average closed-to-the-public amusement park, to any and all sensors, but certainly that can be misleading. "Sometimes tales of monsters turn out to be the real thing," he recollects, from some of the Deathclaw nests that had been stumbled across on exactly these kinds of superstitions. The light mechanical filter applied to his voice is removed when he shuts off the lamp and takes off his helmet, staring around with his own eyes briefly. Though he had no prior knowledge that it'd be a formal investigation he was joining, he seems to quickly adapt to the atmosphere, if not assume responsibility: "Let's not jump at shadows, but be on your guard."

    He does take a short stock of others that arrived before, and after, him. Mostly a head count for whom he should be expecting to encounter this evening, and who might have to be looked for if they don't check in regularly. As the Brotherhood of Steel adherant present, he volunteers, "I'll check behind the scenes on some of the rides, the mechanisms and maintenance areas. If I were a 'monster', there'd be no better place to base myself out of."
August Kohler August Kohler is here, and is dressed in a hoodie. His sole weapon is a shard of glass, as he listens to Raylene. He nods to the story, eyes widening at 'you'll be well-paid'. "Well, alright, that sounds like a good deal." As Kazusa says the Hall of Mirror, August starts heading her way. "I'll join her. My powers are activated via mirrors, so if something goes wrong, I'll have plenty of sources to activate them." And then, noticing her enthusiasm, August just glances at Kazusa. "Lead the way."
Raylene Dunwich     "Oh, guests!" The park IS technically running, if not actually open to the public right now, and the staffer there is... not at his post. The house of mirrors, that is. Looks like all these rumors have made the STAFF a little nervous, too, though there's no reports that they've encountered these problems. Anyway, he opens the door for August and Kazusa. Unfortunately, at first it looks like just a regular mirror maze... which might be fun, with all the distortions and all, but not a particularly good lead. At least at first.

    It isn't THAT long before the strange, gutteral moaning starts to echo through the passages of warping mirrors, and the lights begin to flicker.

    Meanwhile Danse gets a good long look from Raylene before the girl heads off. "This should be interesting. Good luck, sir, but you sound like you aren't easily frightened. Your technology looks oddly familiar." She's never seen T-60 armor before, but the style does ring a few bells. And of course, this is an alternate Massechusetts, which makes it even more interesting. "If you need a reference, don't hesitate to say you're with Raylene Dunwich."

    Checking out the maintenance areas is a good idea! The fog is pretty light, thankfully, but not all the lights of the park are lit up, so having that lamp might be a good thing. The mechanical portions of this place are dank but in much better repair than what Danse is likely used to. He also finds, behind the power station that powers all this stuff, a small cubbyhole with what looks like a table and chairs set up, with trays for eating and several lockers. The lockers are standing open, empty, but don't have any labels on them unlike the lockers in more official areas holding spare uniforms and the like.
Kotone Yamakawa So here is Kotone she's looking to get away from things to maybe not deal with a terrible eldrich horror, right? Maybe just for once or having to bust and fight someone she considers almost a friend. Or berating herself for letting her emotions get the better of her. She seemed to be curious about this place and well monster attacks are something tht need to be taken care of thankfully no one's dead from them yet but she shrugs a bit at Raylene a bit at payment not paying too much mind to that. She's just thankful for something to focus upon as she now gets ready to look out upon the park and she sees August, oh boy, yup times just got bad again but she's going to lev ehim be for the moment as she moves to fall in with Danze.

"I'll come with you Danse with our tech skills we should be able to catch on to anything there."
Kazusa Ujikane     "Oh, are you coming with me? Cool~!" Kazusa grabs August by the arm and drags him right along.

    And they're let right in, for that matter. Handy. She's quite happy to go fishing and floundering her way through the maze, using her hands to make sure she doesn't run right into a mirror or a pane of glass. But the moment there's a ghastly moan and a flicker of illumination, she utters a quiet little "Eeee-!" and immediately clings to August. After about a second of awkwardness, she hastily releases the poor German teen, then brushes her off. "That's, uh. I think that's what we're here for. We... should probably go check it out." She doesn't sound too enthused.
Danse "Understood," comes Danse's confirmation to Raylene. He'd have exchanged more pleasantries than that, such as giving his name or confirming his battle-hardened, hard-to-spook nature, but the atmosphere felt like they should get to work first. It's not that he's completely without familiar company, though, and the presence of Kotone Yamakawa manages to get the faintest trace of a smile to come to his face. "Wasn't expecting to run into you here, Yamakawa, but you probably have your own reasons. You're correct, of course. More sets of eyes on it are welcome." He's still not completely convinced that this wasn't someone's overactive imagination, but it pays to keep an open mind. "Fall in behind me and we'll investigate."

    With the human facing part of things taken care of, he places his helmet back on. If there are Synths or feral ghouls around this place, he'd rather be fully armored, and as noted, the headlamp does come in handy. He's aiming to visit the various' rides and attractions back areas, the sorts of places employees go to take their smoke breaks, as well as the heavy machinery that makes everything go is fenced off with warning and high voltage signage. It's the perfect place for one of the monsters of the old holoreels to make its nest, but more importantly, these sorts of places tend to not be visited as frequently, and can serve as a way to get from place to play relatively hidden. Or so his theory goes.

    This is something of his element, as well. Though, as noted, the difference is that it looks like people have been here a bit more recently than two centuries ago. Something happens to catch his attention about the arrangement he comes across, though, as he shines the headlamp across the curious inset room, with the lockers and eating arrangements. "That's a strange place to have a cafeteria and dressing area," he ponders aloud. "It could be something that the workers here set up on their own." Still, anything that might be out of the ordinary is worth a further look, and so, if it's actually possible, he shifts his way inside with hydraulic footsteps, mostly to look for clues on how 'official' this spot is, as well as who it is actually used by.
August Kohler You know, this isn't too bad, thinks August. A mirror maze, staring at a giant robot in weird shapes in all directions, etc. But, then, the creep starts. August's first reaction is that Kazusa clings to him, which causes him to stare at her and go "what?!". He turns to avert her gaze soon afterwards, wiping off where he was touched (while hiding his blushing) as he moves forward. "Yeah, let's go. I'll lead the way this time, so be careful!"
Raylene Dunwich     The mirror maze has those groans echoing, and a glimpse of a glowing ghoulish creature is easily seen! It appears to be shuffling away... ish? It's hard to tell with all the mirrors about! But it's especially bad because a moment later the moans are coming from... behind the two? Is that right? It really is glowing a sickly green though.

    Speaking of glowing a sickly green, Danse and Kotone find some interesting clues. The tray doesn't look like it belongs here, because there's nowhere to store lunch trays. It is possible to squeeze in with the power armor... just barely though. And doing that, a few splotches of glowing green paint(mixed from glowing blue and glowing yellow paint in another sidequest) can be found on the floor next to one of the lockers.

    Kotone finds something of interest too, though. Under the tray, there's a newspaper talking about the hauntings... but tucked just under that is a paper that looks like a half-finished contract offering over a million dollars for the land the amusement park is on, offering it to Mister Withers.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa Was glad to see Danse got a moment to get off his world as she falls in she grins a bit. "i needed to get some time off work to be honest Paladin Danse." Though it was odd calling him that given he wasn't with the actual Paladins. Either well as n with the group she was working for now. She fell in with Danse with a slight bounce ot hes teps and she keeps moving along keeping pace well enough with the Paldin and honesly her friend.

"LEt's see what we can find."

Kotone would now also start chekcing out the baqck rooms with her cyborg senses at least she can replay things later if nothing else. She too start to seek otu anything that might be ... odd.n

She does find something strange there she looks at the lunch tray and tilts her head there's a new paper she'll move ot grab it and the contract taking a look at it.

"Danse would you look at this..."

She holds up the contract to show him.
Kazusa Ujikane     Oh, he wants to go in front! Okay, Kazusa can live with that.

    (oh my god thank you)

    So in they go, with Kazusa pointing out directions for them to take here and there. When they actually end up /chasing/ something, as nervous as she might be, she's... actually got a decent eye for navigating the maze to it.

    Unfortunately, it cheats, and now she's the closest one to it. "Eeeeeeep!" She immediately presses herself against a wall, then begins fumbling through her purse. Fumble fumble fumble, until at last she pulls out- oh god, that's a cross. An honest-to-god crucifix. A blessed one, even, given to her by Psyber.

    Judging by the way she's holding it as she starts to creep forward, she's... going to try and brain the spook with it?
Danse It's not that glowing paint would be completely out of the ordinary to find in the back areas of an amusement park. Especially not to Danse, whom comes from a world where safety concerns were, and are, typically secondary to the end effect. The circumstances it's found, though, only add to the suspicion. He draws one of the segmented fingers of his armor across some of the paint's dried leavings, perhaps to test how fresh it is. "This isn't really proof on its own," he figures, "But it seems someone was doing something something shady back here. Judging from this level of sophistication, they were probably ready to do so for a long duration, too." It doesn't tie directy in to the monster reports, though perhaps they could ask staff if this ties into any of the descriptions.

    Though more details are forthcoming, once Kotone calls him over to look at her own discovery. Adjusting the lenses of his helmet for fine newsprint, instead of the usual tactical sense setup, he glances over the same newspaper. It seems almost a little suspicious in its own right that any pranksters, or those of even more sinister intent than that, would simply leave proof of reading about their own exploits out like this. But...well, criminals can also be really dumb, too, as he knows from experience. "I'm starting to build a picture of what we're really dealing with here. We should bring this evidence to the staff, Yamakawa. Though," after a dramatic moment, he allows, "I do wonder why anyone would go to this much trouble for only a little over a million dollars." That's a lot of potential jail time for barely enough money for a new mainstream level automobile.
August Kohler It appears there's a monster...behind them! As Kazusa pulls out a cross, August meanwhile stares at one of the mirrors, speaking. "PERSONA!" A burst of blue energy surrounds him, as a robot soldier with a gunleg appears behind August, turning and rapidly moving to pursue and tackle the creep. Though, it /is/ a hall of mirrors...what could happen?
Raylene Dunwich     The paint that Danse discovers is... well, it's not dry, but it's not quite fresh either. Sort of that gummy, sticky consistency of a paint that is still drying. And of course there's the curious documents. This IS an out of the way place, but surely they wouldn't just /leave/ the stuff there. Who are they going to ask about it?

    Meanwhile in the mirror house... trying to brain the ghoul crashes a mirror, but there's a loud yelplike noise as the persona appears, and the Tin Soldier crashes into... something that squirms and scampers away faster than a ghoul should. "What the...?!" Looks like the monster was startled by the bullies crashing and smashing the poor mirror house!
Kazusa Ujikane     Crash.

    Yelp?

    Kazusa blink blinks a couple times. Something clicks. "...oh my god, it's not a real ghoul at all."

    She immediately gives chase, using the age-old hall of mirrors trick that is 'look at the ground to see where there actually is and isn't a mirror or glass'. "Hey, come back here! You coulda got yourself killed, we're real paranormal exterminators! August, don't let him get away!"
Danse In other words, the paint is in that perfect, polymer-ish state for Danse to be able to scoop some of it up for evidence, without having to worry about it bonding to his armor and Scribe Haylen complaining about having to sand it off later. Outstanding.

    Also, if they'd coordinated a radio ahead of time, it might have saved Kazusa and August some time, embarassment, and possible bodily harm to whomever is impersonating a monster...but such is life, and time was short before they scattered to the winds.

    With this, Danse entrusts the evidence to Kotone, such as it is, scraping another dollop from the glowing paint goop he'd collected for her, in addition to the newspaper they'd found. "To be honest, while I said we should bring this to the staff's attention, we have no way of knowing if any of them might be part of this. I think it's better to trust this with that girl from before, Raylene Dunwich." At least, he figures, she wouldn't name drop someone that wasn't herself, in that context. "If you could run what we've found over to her, I'd appreciate it. As for me, I'm still not certain I'm satisfied with this. I'm going to keep looking around."

    In particular, the paint couldn't have been setting out that long, and if they come back in the interim, he should be ready for them.
August Kohler As the ghoul /yelps/, August just...blinks. Staring, flatly. He comes to the realization at the exact same moment as Kazusa, but she's the one who says it. "Jesus christ. Alright, lemme nab him. Tin Soldier, GO!" The Tin Soldier keeps running after, a scary robot in burn scars with a gun leg, as it moves to just /tackle/ the monster to the ground, trying to pin it. If it has to go through the mirrors? It damn well will!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa seems pretty pleased with what she's found and shown off to Danse "No it's not but it is something to start on and i agree we need to. It could depend on how much buying power had. When my father was little a comic was three dollars it's like ten now."

She notes before falling in step with Danse and she does muse though if the buying power is point either way it's not very much to risk such jail time over. If she were to do some crazy crime it should be enough to cash out for life on not anything less. She then realies she was thinking way too much like George there as she moves to head back with Danse. Hopefully this would help paint a clearer picture.
Raylene Dunwich     August's Persona tromps through a few mirrors, but not as many as would be expected before... *SMASH* Okay there's one more, then the running 'ghoul' is tackled fully, tumbling over and crashing through the thin wall to land on the soft grass outside. "OW! Get it off of me, you meddling kids!" It sounds like a cranky old man!

    He was definitely running back toward where Danse and Kotone were, though, when the Tin Soldier caught him. They can hear the ruckus outside, and crashing through the wall has revealed the secret trapdoor he used to get inside. Oh my! What's going on here?
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa's response?

    She sits on him.

    "I'm not going /anywhere/ until the cops get here." To emphasize the point, she crosses her arms over her chest.
Danse Danse really doesn't know anyone involved in this scenario. Whomever Mister Withers on that paper scrap could be, if they had proxies operating on this, or even if it was just someone else that thought they could get a windfall out of it. That'll be something to work out once the whole gang is assembled together again and they can put all the pieces in place. Once the radio comes across that the more immediate suspicious person is being sat upon, though, Danse has no reason to stay behind in this cramped little maintenance area any longer, at least. "Let's go then, Yamakawa. It sounds like the others have caught a suspect."

    As he moves back out onto the grounds, taking care to duck low under pipes and duct work, he thinks about everything they've learned so far. Kotone's explanation makes sense, once it sinks in through his power armor helmet. "Ah...right, a million would have much better buying power a lot of places." Maybe it's just his own natural code kicking in, though, but he still finds it odd to go to this length for that. Hopefully, they'll find out soon enough. "I suppose the man mentioned in that scrap of paper, or someone associated with him, was stoking these fears. Maybe they thought enough people believing it would get them their deal. It seems foolish, though. Why would they rely on ghost stories, when there are a lot of business means to do it." There's a heavy dose of annoyance to his voice, when he adds, "Legally."
August Kohler The Tin Soldier just stands there menacingly while Kazusa sits on the guy in the costume, as August moves up to the pair. "Alright, you've made us waste our time /and/ a perfectly good Hall of Mirrors. Why?"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone does not take long to catch up with Raylene and she'll move to give her the papers and not for amoment "Danse is making a good point but regardless of the buying power can vary but it's still not enough for jail time related to crimes wouln't you think? Or the fact professionals in dealing with spirits are known to be about in the multiverse as well. Someone calls up Heaven or Hell or Shinra, or I'd think."
Raylene Dunwich     The man starts to grumble, "There's a contract, can't sell the amusement park as long as it's turning a profit..." Which explains why Withers might want to scare off people... so he can sell it /himself/. "It was almost done..."

    And that is when Raylene returns! "Except that isn't true! There is no contract, is there... MISTER WITHERS!" Now it is time for the reveal, as the ghoulish head is grasped and yanked off to reveal a white-haired old man. "So why would you bother to do this clumsy charade? It's almost like you expected it to be revealed. Fortunately, I know the answer... because I've been having tea with the real Old Man Withers."

    She looks about. "You see this amusement park is atop a slumbering Great Old One, which is kept asleep and from hatching to devour the continent by the joy of happy children above. Old Man Withers is a part of a long line of keepers to collect this joy and keep the Old One sleeping. This... was a frame job to remove him from his position and cause chaos when the sleeper awoke."

    She reaches for the old man's head and yanks AGAIN! "Isn't that right... NYARLATHOTEP?" The mask reveals an ebon-skinned man beneath, with glowing red eyes.

    He snarls, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if not for you meddling kids!"
Kazusa Ujikane     Kazusa looks down at the doubly-unmasked 'Withers'. She looks up at Raylene. She looks down at 'Withers' again.

    She promptly yelps, and leaps off of him as if scalded. "AAAH-!"
August Kohler August blinks, doubly, when Raylene reveals that this is actually some sort of Great Old One plot. Wait, eldritch horrors? Oh god no. And when Raylene names him, August slams his eyes shut, sort of shaking in place. "ohgodnopleasejustonedayoffgodpleasepleasepleaseletmefree"

Eventually, he'll open his eyes, and blink at Nyarthalotep, before turning to everyone else. "So, uh, we're still getting paid, right?"