ic Five Nights at Pete E. Popcorn's (IC)

[Thevshi]

Port Regal
Freedom City, New Jersey
Friday January 10, 2025. 7:30 PM

 

It was a cold, overcast late evening in Freedom City, a faint trace of snow from earlier in the week still visible in places on the ground. Out on the tip of the furthest small peninsula into the Century Narrows the most prominent feature was Ocean Heights Amusement Park. Of course, this time of year the large amusement park was dark, closed until late-Spring, its rollercoaster, Farris Wheel and other rides dark shadows against the lights of North Bay on the opposite side of the Narrows.

 

But the presence of the amusement park meant there were other businesses that were located nearby to try to draw some of the crowds that came. Once upon a time, one such place was Pete E. Popcorn's Family Funhouse, a circus-themed family restaurant. But years ago, the business had shut down and been just generally abandoned. Growing up in Freedom City, Renee King had heard stories about the creepy abandoned location, but never really had an opportunity to try to visit. But recently, in the library at Claremont, she had come across a reference about some mystical incident at the restaurant, reviving her interest.

 

So, she had gathered a couple of her fellow Claremont students to go with her to explore the location. The first was Riel Estime, the dimensionally displaced pirate captain, the second, Harper Hale, who as always had her trusted camera with her.

 

As the three teens made their way down the dark street, the dark shape of Ocean Height's rollercoaster just visible in the distance, they saw a dilapidated building with a roof shaped like a circus tent. However, something was off, for some reason, the large sign on the building reading "Pete E. Popcorn's Family Funhouse" was flickering with light (although some letters remained completely dark)…
 

[EternalPhoenix]

Serendipity

 

Telling the truth, Captain Riel Estime did not know why he was accompanying these two ladies. No, seriously, he had no reason. Normally he'd have taken his sister Kadene and his crew out on the Happenstance for the weekend right after classes had concluded for the week. You know, around 5 hours ago. But Kadene had her outing with Owen, so that was canceled until the morning. Leaving him with literally nothing to do on a Friday evening. Enter Renee. Wait. Nah. Well...it did take all sorts to fill a world. 

 

"Mademoiselle Renee, a question if you would be so kind. I've done some research here and there, but perhaps you can clear this up. Tonight's outing. Would this qualify as a 'date' in this world?"

[Supercape]

Spore

 

Harper, equipped with her best digital camera, smirked. "Date with whom? Or are is it a threesome?" she asked, trying not to snigger. 

 

She snapped Riel as she said the words, trying to gauge the reaction. Riel was a mysterious monster - and a dashing, cool one, too. 

 

"Seriously, I think Renee had something other than romance tonight - although you never can tell, right?"

 

She took a few more pictures. The rollercoaster looked awesome in the night, even if it was far away. And the lights of the city twinkled beautifully. 

 

"I think she had something a bit spooky in mind, even if its not Halloween. Spooky and cold. I don't like this type of air, and I should have worn a coat."

 

A thick jumper, a woolly hat, a camera - that should have been enough, but she felt the itch of a chill all the same. "Although I like the night. I can get sunburn watching a firework display."

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

Renee had been planning this excursion for weeks. As soon as Renee had found the book, The King had decided she wanted to investigate. Magical investigations were one of her favorite things! And while she had never explored an abandoned building, she did love Scooby-Doo and Poppy's Playtime! But Renee herself would never consent to entering into such a place. Or rather, she'd never be bold enough to invite Riel and Harper with her. But the King would.

 

Dressed in an urban explorer's outfit with jeans and a jacket and a scarf, She had a variety of reasonable tools on the left side of her belt; flashlight, phone, rope. On the right side were her magical tools; an EKG, a few weird looking potions in strange bottles, and in her hand was the book she'd borrowed from the library.

 

She was almost barely paying attention to Riel and Harper as she shined her flashlight over the building.

 

"Pete-E Popcorn's! Fun~ Goes!~ Pop~!" She rocked back and forth on the heels of her feet as she sung the theme she'd learned off an old Youtube video. Then she suddenly turned around and aimed the flashlight directly at Riel and then Harper, like she only then remembered she'd brought them both.

 

"A Date?! Haha! The Privateer wants to steal the Queen's heart!? You'll have to fight the Harlequin, I think! Unless you're willing to share!" she winked. "And maybe our dear Fungalmancer too?" she grinned at Harper. "If you're throwing your blooms into the ring! But the queen is magnanimous, so I won't be shutting anyone down. We're just high-schoolers after all, we should be exploring. Not just the world and our places in it, but how we feel, how we think, how we love! To shackle yourself to a single person right now? That shuts down all the wonder and mystery of LOVE! L-O-V-E! The most powerful magic in the world! All magic is powered by Love!" she said, lying, because Magic had plenty of different ways to be powered.

 

"Now then!" she smiled, pointing at Harper, then Riel. "This is the first meeting of C.L.U.E.! The Claremont League of Underage Explorers! Our mission statement is to explore magical and mystical places around Freedom! To discover the dangerous, to stop the spurious! But most importantly, it's to have FUN! We're gonna explore abandoned places, find magical places, and expand our horizons! And maybe make-out a little I guess if we're into that." she clapped. "We're going to find so much cool stuff!" She swung her hips back and forth excitedly.

 

"Alright, cameraperson Harper! Onwards we go! And Riel, remember, you're here to make sure we don't get crushed by falling pillars or something! That's how your luck works, right?"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As the three Claremont students made their way closer to the building, Riel’s sharp ears were the first to hear what sounded like the warped sounds of a calliope echoing faintly from outdoor speakers. The distorted music just seemed to add to the somewhat creepy ambiance of the place. 

 

The young pirate captain was also the first to notice three figures come running out of the front door of the old building. They appeared to be teenagers as well, maybe slightly older than Riel. 

 

“Ohmygod….did you see those things!” Exclaimed one of the figures, a teenage girl.

 

“What the hell where they?” Stated a male teen.

 

"I..they looked like some sort of robot-animal things." Stated the third, who then paused and looked around. "Wait….where are the others?"
 

[EternalPhoenix]

Serendipity

 

The reaction Harper got was a mischievous grin. "Interested in threesomes, are you? Let me tell you, they're not as special as you think." Who said anything about romance? 

 

But then Renee was talking. "A privateer? Your Majesty, you wound me. I'm a free pirate that plunders what and when he chooses. A good sovereign will keep their booty well guarded. Yet I see no Harlequin here." His grin broadened. "They do say opportunity favors the bold, do they not?"

 

And on that subject, a pivot so rapid most heads would spin. "So we march into the unknown for the sake of adventure, exploration, and our own personal amusement." He was not able to follow up, because people were screaming and running this way. By all the gods. He wasn't sure he cared about the fates of overconfident idiots. He walked up to the other teens in full swashbucklingly piratical attire, complete with sword. "Let me guess. You came for a night of imagined monsters menacing you, and found real ones." Did they not know the nature of the city in which they lived? Or was it perhaps the illusion the young have of their invincibility?

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Pfft, just because you know such things does not mean that we do, Pirate Prince! Your world is far different from ours, after all." said the King. In truth, if she was Renee, the idea of engaging in any sort of sexual connection- much less a threesome- would have terrified her. She had been expecting jokes about handholding! But the King wasn't going to be defeated by just words!

 

"It is true! The Harlequin is not here at the moment! So perhaps you should indeed be so bold, Free Pirate, who plunders what he chooses when he chooses!" she said, laughing. But witnesses! Witnesses! That was good!

 

"Aha! Witnesses! Yes! Hello Witnesses, we are Investigators, but we are not here to see you in awhile, nor to catch you later! We are here now. Tell us more about the robot animals! And your missing friends!" she clapped.

If nothing else, she herself clearly thought she was invincible, illusion or not.

[Supercape]

Spore

 

Spore ignored her two squabblin' chums for a moment and focussed on the teenagers.

 

"We can help," she started. 

 

Hoping that they could, actually help. 

 

"Don't worry about us... my friends are a little, er, melodramatic. We are... er... practicing for our drama class play and you know, they get a bit over excited about their roles as a pirate and a king."

 

She gave the other two a glance... turn the volume knob down a bit - these are kids!

 

Right then, she wished she had telepathy, but lamentably all she could do was a firm glance, bordering on a glare. 

 

"But we can help, that's for sure. What happened to your friends and what do they look like?"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As the three Claremont teens approached the three slightly older teens seemed to be in various states of panic. Two of them already had their smartphones out and were hastily texting, the other, brunette girl looked to the three Claremonters, a slightly confused look on her face at first. But that quickly passed as she began to answer their questions.

 

"Ohmygod…we…we just went in 'cause Robbie dared us to see how creepy it is in there!" She exclaimed.

 

One of the boys texting did not even bother to look up as he shot back, "it was Mark's idea to come here in the first place!"

 

The girl just ignored him and continued, "we were not going to mess with anything, I mean, most of it is pretty gross. But then these robot-animal things just attacked out of nowhere! We ran, but, three of us have not come out yet!"
 
At Harper’s question about the others, the girl continued, "umm, there is Mark, he is a bit over six feet, our school’s quarterback. And Jen, typical blonde cheerleader, and then Mariko, she’s part Japanese."

 

Just then, there was a panicked scream from inside the dimly lit building.
 

[EternalPhoenix]

Serendipity

 

Nope, Riel didn't care. Not his circus, not his monkeys. Except. There were ladies in both trouble and distress. The amoral pirate and the proper gentleman warred within him. The winner, of course, was never in doubt. Otherwise he'd have become someone he despised a long time past. While he may not care about the problems of the young and stupid, he very much cared about the type of person he himself was.

 

It was in this spirit that he gallantly strode forward, took the slightly older girl's hand, and looked her in the eyes with all of his 6 feet and 3 inches in height. Grinning with all the considerable charm he could muster. "Mademoiselle, fear not. We shall retrieve your friends in sisterhood. And this....Mark. So swears Captain Riel Estime, of the Luckstorm Pirates. Jen and Mariko shall return to you safely. Mark will also return. Trust in me and my comrades. "

 

He released her and turned to Spore and King Cole. "Do you need to make any preparations, or can we depart immediately?"

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Nope! I'm ready to go!" The King said, turning on her flashlight. If she even saw Harper telling her to calm down, she didn't acknowledge it at all, and her attention was immediately focused onward, to Pete E.'s, to where she wanted to have her next adventure. Though Riel seemed to have his own goals now. But that was fine! A free wheeling and free spirited pirate made a good companion, after all. As did a responsible and mature photographer to record her adventures!

 

"We'll find your friends! And whatever was attacking them!" which was what she was way more interested in. "That's what we're working on right now, we're investigating the haunted Pete E. Popcorn! So we'll follow up on your investigation, discover these weird creatures, and get your friends back." she said, cheerfully grinning before heading down the street, at one point doing a cartwheel as she moved towards the abandoned restaurant. "And we'll get photo and video!"

[Supercape]

Spore

 

"Enough talk, we need to go!" said Spore. 

 

In an ideal world, she would have infected her chums with fungus, allowing the symbiotic mycology to take effect and provide them with all the protection it gave. 

 

But that would take time. A good ten seconds, maybe less. And they didn't have time. Every second they delayed was a second something awful could be happening. 

 

"Lets go, c mon!" she snapped at the two of them. 

 

As for herself, she was already running...

[Thevshi]

GM

 

When Riel strode over to the slightly older teenage girl and took her hand, she seemed momentarily at a loss for words as she met her gaze. As he made his promise, she just seemed to stare with a slightly dreamy look in her eyes before she seemed to remember what was going on and nodded in understanding. "Thank you." She managed.

 

Meanwhile one of the teen boys (not the one that was apparently Robbie, who was still busy texting) seemed to have a jealous look on his face but stayed quiet as the three Claremonters started toward the entrance of the abandoned restaurant.

 

The entry of the former family funhouse was in rather similar shape as the exterior, the walls covered with what was likely once colorful wallpaper, now faded and stained with water damage and in several places covered with layers of graffiti. The cushions on the benches in the seating area long the walls in front of the host counter were dirty and smelled of mildew. Trash and other debris littered the floor, the tiles faded and cracked in several places. A few of the overhead lights were working, though most were burned out or broken, making the space only dimly lit and filled with shadows.

 

To the left of the host counter was an open doorway leading into a small hallway, a sign reading 'Restrooms' hanging over the opening. Just to the right of the host counter, was a wide opening that presumably led into the restaurant proper. To the right of that opening were three raised dais that appeared like they were designed for something to be on top of them. There appeared to be some sort of name placards affixed on the front of each.

 

Just then there was a loud crashing sound from somewhat further into the building, followed by a frightened woman's scream, which was followed by more crashing.