Nancy Drew Versus Wires - Haunted Carousel Post #4

I did not actually mean for that cliffhanger there to go all dangly as long as it did. My keyboard developed a serious space-bar issue, in that it would often go 'clunk' and sink down and not actually come back up again. With my keyboard replaced with a more functional model I can now resume playing goofy detective video games. Hooray! Let's get back to that.

Last time, Nancy had encountered someone who had a thick accent, dark...ish hair, and clean-shaved except for the JPEG artifacts. Just like the guy who got out of prison recently! Let's see what happens!

Nancy instantly starts with the probing questions. Where did Harlan work before he came here? "In a... stoooore. A department store! In... Fleming...ton. Not here." He's also only worked here at the park for a "few weeks", claiming that he stayed on while the park is closed to get up to speed with how all the equipment works. From there, the conversation wanders to Elliott, who is "about a month behind" on his work. Not like Harlan, who gets everything done right away, fast as he can. "If Elliott doesn't get caught up all like fast? He'll be waving goodbye, like soon."

Well, that was... ... Okay it's REALLY HARD to consider Harlan a suspect here. He's too cheerfully dim and friendly. He may well be Dunning's old cellmate, but even if he is, I don't think this guy has any EVIL PLANS for the park. That said, I could be wrong. I didn't get a chance to directly confront him or anything, but I guess Nancy doesn't want to tip her hand just yet.

I do step outside and try giving Paula a call, to see if she remembers hiring any, y'know, ex-convicts. She does not. Hm. ... Okay, what about Joy? Does she have anything to say on the matter? I drop by again to see if she's in her office. She is, but has nothing in particular to say. So... *tap fingers* Okay, I drop by the Midway again and win myself a token from the Squid Toss game, so I can get that harmonica. As long as I'm out here, I also play Goofy Romhack Breakout again and snag a toy shark and a boat too.

I have no idea what the hell these things are for. But OMG toy shark and boat. Nancy will have bathtub time with an MP3 of the Jaws theme later.

It is at this point I realize I have actually forgotten what I'm doing, and I re-read my old entries to remind myself. Okay, right. By now Joy should've had plenty of time to phone Elliott. Let's peek in on him and see if he's willing to give me that soldering iron.



Hey, Elliott, I'm REALLY sorry about the paint thing, a--
He's a dark-haired, clean-shaven man with a thick accent.



OHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Okay actually Elliott doesn't have too much of an accent. He's more "smarmy" than "Jersey". He comes off as sort of aggressively Californian, actually. Still, it IS an accent. Every male character in this game is clean-shaven with dark hair and an accent. Fucking demographics.

Within moments he's managed to mock the concept of a "curse", Nancy, the concept of "sabotage", his employers, Nancy again, Harlan ("the nicest, friendliest guy you'll ever meet. Dude creeps me out.") and himself. I do get that soldering iron back, though. Nancy can continue her electrical engineering career.

Let's take a look around Elliott's office. On a bookshelf I find a reference guide to carousels...



...which is pretty densely packed with information. I don't feel like cutting it up into screenshots, so just let me bang out a few notes:

- 'Golden Age' of carousels was 1800s to 1930s.
- Three styles, "Coney Island", cartoony and unrealistic and gaudy/heavily jeweled. 'Philidelphia', military-style/armored realistic horses (Kessler's style), and 'County Fair', simple horses for easy transit by traveling shows.
- "Carousel" used to actually mean the turning machine that held a brass ring. It was for horsemen putting on jousting shows in the 17th century, you'd try to stick your lance in there. Eventually this became a ride with wooden horses.
- Horse names are written on the inside of their bridle.
- British carousels go the opposite way from American carousels because England insists you mount the 'proper' side of the horse.
- Band organs are small pipe organs in the base of the carousel, fed with rolls of hole-punched musical paper. NOT A CALLIOPE. That is DIFFERENT.

Nancy also borrows some tissue strips and eyeballs a length of measuring tape she doesn't seem inclined to take with her. There's an interesting-looking magazine I'm not allowed to prod at. ("Do you always go poking around in other people's stuff?" Yes, Elliott. I do.) She finds an invoice for wood on the floor, over $1000 worth of wood ...which is interesting but I have no idea if it's actually important.

The biggest thing here, however, is a full-sized lathe backed up against the wall. Nancy "wows" at it, but is not allowed to touch it. Drat. Oh well, let's go solder things to other things! First off, let's crack this manual open.



I'd like to point out again that this is just something we were HANDED AND TOLD TO GO DO. Seriously, Ingrid? You have respect for our delicate balance of peanut butter intake, but you want me to go do THIS and ... "Serious injury or death"? God, I want to solder Nancy to a wall or something and get you FIRED for this. Stuck to the inside of the card reader is a note saying the resistance has to be 15 ohms, and the resistor Nancy has should be 5 ohms. Click, solder solder solder... done. ...huh. That wasn't hard at all.

WELL IT COULD'VE BEEN, OKAY?

I yank the tag off the panel and take it back to Harlan. He resets the power, and Nancy offers a conversational gambit I hadn't recalled myself: "Ingrid said when they hired you, it was from from Trenton, not Flemington. And you were a bouncer." Harlan shrugs and rattles off that he's held just about every type of "guard" job there is. All over Jersey. Yup. He's worked everywhere. That's all! He forgot.

Sigh, rub face. CLEARLY he's not going to crack so easily. You know, I'm really suspecting him as "the ex-convict but not the carousel thief/saboteur" here. All right, it's roller coaster time. Back to the coaster, swipe a card, head on in. Inside, we carefully cross the tracks (you better believe I was expecting to get a shark-coaster train in the face), and check out the emergency stop button. Curiously, there's a pencil beneath it, and Nancy identifies the toothmarks as "Joy's".

Well. Back out of th--

And as Nancy's crossing the coaster rails, one of the tracks switches and pins her foot to the floor. The ride starts, and it's going to come all the way around right back at her! ...naturally. Nancy rips open a box on the wall, futzes with some wires, and activates the track switcher just in time to not get plowed into by a giant chrome shark. HA. You can't kill Nancy Drew THAT easily, game!

Let's go ask Joy about this pencil. Joy is willing to open up a little and share that she doesn't have any idea what her co-workers even LOOK like. She comes to work, works, then goes home and sleeps. That is her life. ... Geez, Joy. You work for an AMUSEMENT PARK. Happy it up a little. Nancy presents the pencil, and Miles the Fruit Fucker 3000 chimes in that Nancy was "snooping" earlier. This is true, and I admit it willingly, which visibly surprises Joy.

"Miles" was a gift from her father, created "just for her". She's never had any idea what he's good for, so she mostly ignores him. Supposedly he's full of riddles to connect her with memories from her childhood. Not that she can solve them. "Miles, what am I?" she asks resignedly.

"Joy Trent is a party pooping stick in the mud." Miles cheerfully replies.

Cannot decide if hilarious or sad. Kind of both. "I don't WANT to relieve my memories. My mother died when I was four." Joy huffs. Nancy has sympathy. Her mother died when she was young too. Joy then admits that she finds Nancy... kind of impressive. She's a gutsy, brave investigator who is everything Joy isn't. Maybe she can help with those riddles!

...okay sure why not. "To be told a truth long since put away, bring me the silvery remains of a four-bit day."

Uh-huh. Let's backburner that for now and... Hm. I wonder what Bess and George are doing?

*ring*
Bess: "HI, NANCY!"
Nancy: "Wow, he called."
George: "Yes. And he gets free refills. Bess has achieved nirvana, and I can touch the phone without fearing for my life."
Nancy: "Glad to hear it! I almost got killed by a roller coaster!"
Bess: "You always have the best stories. You're sure you're okay?"
Nancy: "Doing fine! Let's see. Translated that note, it was basically just about the sale of a carousel horse called Glory."
George: "All that research for that? Bummer."
Nancy: "Let's see. Harlan is a security guard who -may- be a recent release from prison and is suspiciously nice."
George, Bess: "SUSPECT LIST."
Nancy: "Elliott is relentlessly using me to avoid working, and may have sabotaged the park to give himself time to catch up on work."
George, Bess: "SUSPECT LIST."
Nancy: "And that's about it!"
Bess: "Keep in touch, Nance. And watch out for roller coasters?"
Nancy: "Don't worry, Bess. They have to stay on rails. They'll never catch me."


NEXT TIME: We... uh... ask around about that riddle, I guess? Try to catch people out of their offices?

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