Hey... wanna see my head come off?
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Abandoned by Disney
- A curious blogger sneaks into Mowgli's Palace, an Expy of the Discovery Island
Disney resort, whose very existence Disney has attempted to censor after inexplicably abandoning it. The place initially appears to just be experiencing an impressive amount of urban decay, but then the author starts noticing phenonomena that are just... off. Meat hooks in the kitchen are swinging for no reason, the water is still running despite everything else crumbling, he hears strange whispers from nearby rooms despite being alone, and dangerous animals from the resort are still living in the ruins. After encountering some of the Resort's released wildlife, he finds the Mascot Dressing Rooms... and discovers there was a very good reason why Disney pulled out and wants no-one getting into the resort... or anything getting out.
A Few Suggestions
- The situation with Frank starts innocently enough with a couple of cards complaining about him cheating at board games. Several suggestions later, somebody (implied to be the possessed mascot) suggests trying to find Frank and gives the clues "It's cold", "It's wet" and "Flush", followed by a complaint that they don't think anyone is looking for him. At the end of the story, the mascot reveals they stuffed Frank into a toilet and laughs about it, noting that he was in there long enough to become severely bloated and deformed.
- We also get a few suggestions that are about a performer that can't get their suit's head off, descending into madness... only to realize that it was their head the entire time and proceeding to use the cards to complain of the fact that every moment of their life is absolute agony. We also begin hearing that the suggestion slips are going missing, and that there's one more mascot than they expected to have on payroll. And at the end, we have one final comment that truly seals the deal as to who this mystery mascot is; the Photo-Negative Mickey from "Abandoned by Disney"."costumes are heavy with people inside and there's no hook left for me"
Room Zero
- The blogger from the first story is being stalked by some unknown party which is extremely irritated at his publicizing the truth about Mowgli's Palace (and anyone else who reposts his story). Meanwhile, he delves into a series of even more sinister events at Disney World as told by some anonymous employees, including the "Gascot" sightings of unknown people wearing disturbing Disney-themed gas masks◊, the eldritch events at a waterslide, the sinister "corpse disposal" procedure for Mascots who suddenly die, and the seedy underbelly of Disney's exclusive clubs. All of which subtly or directly revolve around an unspeakably nightmarish incident in the 1970s which seems to be the cause of all the demonic events at the Disney resorts.
- The titular Room Zero. Somewhere beneath the park, there are thousands of human skeletons lying about in the darkness of an old bomb shelter. Disney laid concrete upon it, erasing any evidence of its existence. All this time, visitors are having fun atop a mass gravesite, and they know nothing about it.
- How did they die? Someone, or something, sounded an air raid alarm when the park was at full capacity, forcing all the patrons to crowd into the bomb shelter. After a half hour, people began to panic and become agitated; then the lights went out, and all hell broke loose. Only a few patrons and staff members managed to escape the madness. An employee later descended into the darkness to investigate, only to be greeted by a mocking, raspy voice so echoing she couldn't tell if it was across the room, or right in front of her..."Shut the door, dear. You're letting out the cold."
- How did they die? Someone, or something, sounded an air raid alarm when the park was at full capacity, forcing all the patrons to crowd into the bomb shelter. After a half hour, people began to panic and become agitated; then the lights went out, and all hell broke loose. Only a few patrons and staff members managed to escape the madness. An employee later descended into the darkness to investigate, only to be greeted by a mocking, raspy voice so echoing she couldn't tell if it was across the room, or right in front of her...
- What's scary about the second story is how many real-life facts are being presented by the author about Disney. Mowgli's Palace is fictional (albeit inspired by a real-life attraction); the Magic Kingdom is not. Utilidoors? Real. Member-only club? Real. Corpse disposal? Simply the most feasible way to minimize panic in the case of a fatal emergency. Since the place is huge, hiding things is almost trivial (ever wonder how the cast members could magically appear in two far-flung places unnoticed?), so it's horrifyingly, horrifyingly plausible for Disney to try to forget about unfortunate incidents happening in the early days of the park's founding. You can't erase all the evidence? Let nature reclaim it.
Corruptus
- The final installment explains pretty much everything. You see, Disney promotes "wishing upon a star" and believing in things in movies, right? Well, that's because if people believe hard enough, things will happen. Disney has been conditioning people to believe something they can exploit into existence. And it worked. But something went terribly wrong, these things weren't born out of 'wishing on a star', they were born out of hate and fear… of Disney. The Gascots, the inverted Mickey, and the Room Zero incident were all caused by the people affected by Disney's actions; the potent fear of nuclear war as terrified patrons were rushed into Room Zero, the unanimous hatred of Disney wrought by the citizens as Disney was destroying their neighborhood to build Mowgli's Palace, was what brought the beings (the Corruptus) into existence. These things are the imperfect prototypes of monsters born out of raw, murderous fury and anguish. And every time we've read these stories, every time we've shared them with a friend, or watched a reading online, we've only been fueling these things. We're creating new ones. We're breaking reality as we know it. And we learn that there are more. And there's the implication they could be formed from sources other than the corporation that inadvertently made them... including YOU.
- Despite the majority of the cases being unresolved, Disney at least managed to identify the culprit in most Corruptus incidents. The culprit for "Room Zero"? Unknown.
- The sheer Paranoia Fuel the author is subjected to: his phone and internet services abruptly terminated; his library card revoked, due to late fees on fetish material, self-help books for various mental illnesses, and a detailed book on weapons of mass destruction (none of which were his); Mickey silhouettes appearing everywhere he goes, including inside his house; a crime scene outline in yellow paint, in his parking space, with the word RETRACT; and black suit-wearing people carrying clipboards and red pens follow him anywhere, everywhere he goes — and when he manages to subdue one of them, it turns out that the "notes" they've been taking are undecipherable random scribbles and Mickey silhouettes. And the author somehow knows that the worst is yet to come..."I have no doubt that somewhere, at this very moment, someone is using my identity to commit a crime that would discredit me. That, or the men in white jackets are about to show me a lovely little padded cell. I don't know what's going to come of this, and that's the worst part I suppose. All I know is that it's coming."
- The worst part? It turns out Disney, as horrifying as their actions in the story are, might actually have a good reason for doing these things: as mentioned, the Corruptus are brought about by hatred and fear of Disney...and the Narrator, by publishing these reports about Disney's shady past, may actively be making the Corruptus situation worse, and possibly even creating more.
