Wolfgang is vaguely aware that he's holding his breath as the door opens, waiting for something to happen. When it doesn't, he looks back at her, shrugs, and nods. He doesn't sense anything inside and if there's anything in it, it surely will have heard the door open. It will know they're coming.
He goes in with her, her first because she's armed. It's a small storage room full of dusty old cardboard boxes that no longer have anything but metal scraps in them. What catches his attention is what's sitting in the center of the room: one of those old-fashioned fortune telling machines, but this one dilapidated with great age and neglect. The animatronic puppet inside it, rather than being a cartoonish fortune teller or racist caricature, is instead a circus clown that probably never looked anything but terrifying even when its entire face was intact.
He's frowning at it, his hand raised to illuminate it -- for his own benefit mostly, he can't see in the dark without casting a spell to alter the frequency of the wavelengths in the room -- and he's considering, because this is such an obvious clue. There is nothing else in this entire shop but this; they are obviously being led somewhere.
Before he can actually interact with it, it comes to life with a sudden rusty jerk, the lights on the side flashing and bathing the room in a dusty rainbow light as the clown inside the machine waves its arms and turns its horribly grinning face, chipped paint and all, directly at them. Tinny, recorded laughter floods the room, staccato in sound like a record skipping. It only has one eye; the other is filled with a brass coin, stamped with a pattern of a spiral.
The machine lurches and shudders violently, reminding him of an off-balance washing machine. He is afraid for a moment it's going to explode or at least fall over, but instead the clown's mouth opens and a small paper card ejects from it, falling into a slot at the bottom of the machine for them to take.
"Th-thank you-ou! C-c-come back soon!" it says as the machine slowly stills again, the animatronic eye fixated somewhere just beyond them. A blue light inside it slowly pulses before fading to a stop, like the thing just died.
Wolfgang looks at Lea, reluctant to put his hand anywhere near that, but he doesn't sense danger still. Tentatively he reaches into the prize slot and pulls out the card, holding it up so that both of them can see it.
Printed on it is the silhouette of a roller coaster.
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He goes in with her, her first because she's armed. It's a small storage room full of dusty old cardboard boxes that no longer have anything but metal scraps in them. What catches his attention is what's sitting in the center of the room: one of those old-fashioned fortune telling machines, but this one dilapidated with great age and neglect. The animatronic puppet inside it, rather than being a cartoonish fortune teller or racist caricature, is instead a circus clown that probably never looked anything but terrifying even when its entire face was intact.
He's frowning at it, his hand raised to illuminate it -- for his own benefit mostly, he can't see in the dark without casting a spell to alter the frequency of the wavelengths in the room -- and he's considering, because this is such an obvious clue. There is nothing else in this entire shop but this; they are obviously being led somewhere.
Before he can actually interact with it, it comes to life with a sudden rusty jerk, the lights on the side flashing and bathing the room in a dusty rainbow light as the clown inside the machine waves its arms and turns its horribly grinning face, chipped paint and all, directly at them. Tinny, recorded laughter floods the room, staccato in sound like a record skipping. It only has one eye; the other is filled with a brass coin, stamped with a pattern of a spiral.
The machine lurches and shudders violently, reminding him of an off-balance washing machine. He is afraid for a moment it's going to explode or at least fall over, but instead the clown's mouth opens and a small paper card ejects from it, falling into a slot at the bottom of the machine for them to take.
"Th-thank you-ou! C-c-come back soon!" it says as the machine slowly stills again, the animatronic eye fixated somewhere just beyond them. A blue light inside it slowly pulses before fading to a stop, like the thing just died.
Wolfgang looks at Lea, reluctant to put his hand anywhere near that, but he doesn't sense danger still. Tentatively he reaches into the prize slot and pulls out the card, holding it up so that both of them can see it.
Printed on it is the silhouette of a roller coaster.