Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wonderland is a splendiferous amusement park! A place where fantasy becomes reality and the rides are things that tend to play on the end of what actuality can hold for such a park. A place only made more amazing by the wondrous mascots that cared for the park and each guest. Every day was more magical than the last. With peanut at the helm, making new attractions with the help of June Bailey’s creativity, the park had no end in sight! 

That was until things began to shift. Peanut began to hear the whispers of ideas from June less and less as years went by. Until, as he feared, she entirely went quiet. He tried not to panic, he really did. Weeks began to go by, months even, the others asked him why he had yet to create anything new. 

He tried to make his own creations from his own creativity, and that worked out for a little while, but his creations weren’t nearly as splendiferous as what June would come up with. People began to grow bored of the park, the numbers of guests continued to plummet as nothing new and fun was brought into the park. 

The other mascots were confused, wondering why Peanut had seemed to just lose his spark. Spiraling down a dark place, giving a look to his eyes that they had only ever seen when the darkness had taken over and he went alone to try and fix clockwork swings. That was so long ago, so for him to return to this depressive state was startling. This, coupled with the park being vacant, or anyone to greet or care for left the other mascots simply tending to the empty park. Glorified grounds keepers, preparing it for the day that they would hopefully, one day have guests again. 

That one day, Peanut's muse would return to him, and Wonderland would return to the splendor that it once was. 

-

You’re the daughter of June Bailey, world class amusement park engineer. June’s ideas, while at first, were outlandish and seemingly dangerous to an unready world were put off by existing amusement parks. Cast aside as a child with too high of dreams to attain. But with enough determination, and help from friends, family and wealthy investors that saw something in the spunky kid… Wonder Park was made. While things she wanted were limited due to safety concerns- nothing like the things she had imagined in her childhood, she was still able to push the boundaries of what amusement parks could do. 

Years passed and after the death of her own parents, the birth of her child, her and Blanky cutting it off, and the creation of her own park, she became too busy to give her aid to Peanut anymore. 

As years went on it wasn't just Wonderland she became neglectful to. Her daughter, while living what some would say as a life of luxury as the daughter of the new ‘Walt Disney’ of her time… you weren't getting much of a childhood. 

Being only eight years old, you could count on two hands the amount of times you had gotten to see your busy mother in the last year. You had inherited your mothers overflowing creativity and seemingly endless energy. But with a sheltered life, and always under the supervision of nannies and lacking the supportive parents that her mother had growing up, she had yet to truly flourish in any way creatively. After not too long, you had lost any ember of a creative spark you had. 

Your childhood was mostly spent studying with private tutors, taking an early advantage from the brains you had gotten from both your mother and father. It was true, you loved math, but the numbers and calculations couldn't be a replacement for a friend. The numbers were strictly less fun when you didn't have a way to use them, you knew your mother had ways to use her numbers, coming up and creating new attractions and rides for her park. But you… You had nothing.

As the end of the school year ended and summer began you were visited by your Great Aunt Albertine, the last time you had seen her was a few years ago at your great uncle's funeral. The ancient woman didn’t come empty handed, she came with news that you were going to go spend your summer in your mothers childhood home. With even greater news that your mother was going to meet up at the house to spend the summer with you!

You were supposed to feel excited, right? Or at least feel something, but you didn’t feel almost anything, maybe some relief that you would be away from your nannies and the large manor of a house. A break from studying and the monotony of everyday life, perhaps the thing you were most ‘excited’ about was just the change. It wouldn’t change the fact that you knew your mother wouldn’t stay the entire summer, that she would get some call that made her leave early. It wouldn’t change the fact that she would eventually leave back to work, and you would be left entirely alone… again. 

Nothing would change that.

Chapter Text

You sat in the backseat of your great aunt's car, head resting lazily against the window. It was cloudy outside, dark gloomy clouds that cast a shadow over the little forested town. Bustling wasn’t a word that could be used for this town, at least not anymore. From the position you had, an overview from a hillside road that could view down at the town from a distance, it appeared quite empty. Perhaps everyone was gone for the summer, or perhaps it wasn’t as glamorous as you had hoped it to be. 

After all it’s where your mother grew up, and while you didn’t know very much about her, you had heard it was in her childhood home where she grew up did she get all of her ideas for Wonder Park. You held a place like that to some nearly impossibly high standards, and cruising down the road towards the neighborhood closer to the edge of the town, you weren’t getting anything you hoped for. 

Though the possibility that it was more than it appeared was still there, after all you only just arrived, it would be wrong to say on first glance of a book’s cover that it is disappointing. You had a whole summer to open this book and delve into the contents within. 

Your mothers childhood home wasn't what you were expecting. Not to say you knew what you were expecting, you’re an eight year old that had only ever really understood a manor and people taking care of your every whim. You hadn’t expected your mother’s home to be anything less than what you had grown up with. Yet here before you was a simple house, like any other in the neighborhood around you. 

A very small, compared to what you were used to, two story house. You hadn’t really shown any expression of joy or excitement since being picked up at the airport by your great aunt, and she seemed a bit disappointed with how underwhelmed you appeared to be. Her wrinkled old face giving a somber expression, a smile pressed to her lips by force, trying to appear happy as if for your sake. 

“What do ya think? This is where we’re gonna be spending the summer, isn’t it great kiddo?” She asked, her bony hand coming to rest gently on your back, guiding you towards your temporary summer housing. 

No words left your mouth, a simple shrug of your shoulders sufficed for your exact feelings on the location. It was alright, still not as amazing as everyone in your life had made it up to be, that being your great aunt and your mother. What made this place so special, what had made it the mesmerizing experience it had been before? To help mold your mother into the inventive woman she was today? You simply didn’t see the appeal. 

“Your mother loved this old home so much.” Aunt Albertine continued, pulling out a pair of keys from her bag and beginning to fiddle with them to open the front door. “It’s why she fought so hard to keep it after your grandparents passed away. She couldn’t let wonderland disappear.”

That caught you off guard. Wonder land? Did she just forget in her old age that it was called ‘Wonder Park’. Surely that had to have been it. You didn’t think too much more on it, simply following her inside after the door opened with a rather noisy creak. 

The house inside was just as bleak as it had appeared on the outside. Dusty and old, smelling like that of an untouched moldy house. Though appearing like it was still a home in use. The rooms were still fully furnished and even the soft humm of electronics buzzed through the air with still being on. 

Your grand aunt ushered you inside and told you that your mother said that her old room upstairs was all yours for the summer. She told you to go explore while she brought the bags inside, though you wondered how that woman was going to do such a feat. 

You did as you were told, scaling the stairs upward you found yourself lost on the photos that had been left on the wall. Albeit a bit hard to see from a few layers of grime, you could see what looked like images of your mother, she was young in these images. All photographs of her childhood here, being with her parents at different ages. It was a new experience seeing your mother in different states of her life. With your grandparents, two people you had never seen, with versions of your mother you had also never seen. She looked happy. 

Though at a point the images stopped, near the top of the staircase. Where it looked like it had been open to more framed pictures, was simply nothing. Looking at the last image you could see your mother in a graduation cap and gown, her parents on either side of her, both looking worse for wear. You knew they died from being sick of something, but you didn’t really have a clear idea of when. This was probably the closest you were going to get to knowing this information. It was the first time you really felt any real feeling toward your mother other than the default ‘love your family’ feeling. You felt empathy for her, after all after she graduated, had you then split up with your father… she must have been alone for a bit as well. 

You mulled over these thoughts and feelings while searching the second floor for your mothers old room, eyes scanning the closed doors around her until they landed on one that seemed a bit more childish than one would have thought. After all, your mother didn't move out until her parents passed away and she had long since graduated high school. Seeing a rather childish looking ‘June Bailee’ paper cardboard sign hung up on the bedroom door was enough to put a small smile of amusement on your face. 

Hesitantly you opened the bedroom door to an equally child like room. It had its touches of being that of a high school student, but still very much had the feeling of childlike wonder about the entire room. Papers were strewn about the walls with what looked to be like sketches and doodles of blue prints of crude but creative amusement park rides. 

It was then you began to see a bit of the wonder your mother talked about when speaking of her childhood. You stood in the middle of the room, looking around at everything there was to see. On a bulletin board near the door to the room was a bit of the child-like leftover to the room, five drawings that looked like a child about your age would have drawn them. Five animals is what you could guess from them, a blue bear for sure, two.. What you could guess were beavers. Then a boar, a porcupine or maybe a hedgehog, and lastly a monkey. You paused, looking at them for a longer moment, something about them made you curious. Everything else in the room could be childlike, but these were extra. 

Not long after you and Aunt Albertine got there you had chosen to explore a bit more while she ordered dinner for you both, seeing as the house was currently vacant of anything to eat with being empty for over eight years. While she was busy looking over the online menu for the Chinese food place, you took to exploring the house a bit more. There was much, and aside from your mothers old room, there still wasn't anything that stood out. You had thought you had combed the entirety of the house until you saw that there was an attic entrance. It was a pull down door on the ceiling, a cord dangled down from the sealed door quite a bit above your head. It took some searching for some boxes to stand on before you managed to tug the door down, leading to a wooden ladder to fold out from the space. 

There had been no hesitance when you climbed up the ladder into the even dustier section of the house, having been smart to turn the light on to the attic that had been in the hallway below first. Inside was boxes, that was expected, but what they were labeled had not been what you were expecting. Every box was labeled with some form of ‘Wonderland’. Seemingly dozens of boxes all with tools, dioramas, working models and much more of a child's make believe amusement park. You didn’t know where to start, would you get in trouble for snooping through all of this? 

You couldn’t help yourself, especially seeing, closer to the back of the attic wall was an already opened box. Curiosity having already gotten the best of you, you made your way over to it and opened it to see… stuffed animals? Looking to the side of the box it simply read ‘ splendiferous mascots!’. On closer inspection to the animals inside you could see they seemed to resemble the stuffed animals you had seen crudely drawn on the bulletin board before. 

A large blue stuffed bear. two bits of wood with googly eyes on them, the two beavers? A homemade boar plush, a porcupine that was a sewing pincushion with googly eyes on them. Then a stuffed monkey. 

You plucked the monkey from the box, despite its age, it still felt incredibly soft. Your thumb ran over the plush middle that had long lost a lot of its firmness from the test of time. It had appeared to be duller than it could have been in color. For a child that didn’t have any of her own plushies at home, you found yourself drawn to these. Was it because they were your mothers old toys? Maybe. You just knew you liked them. 

“Here you are.” The voice of your aunt came suddenly, causing you to jump, startled that you had been caught red handed. You turned to face her as she climbed up into the attic with you. You were still surprised with how well she moved around for how old she was. 

She sat beside you, looking into the box with a happy hum. “It didn’t take you very long to find your mothers old things. She used to love these stuffed animals so much, I’m not surprised to see she stored them away up here.”

“The box said ‘Wonderland Mascots’..” You said, the first words you have spoken since you’ve seen your aunt. “What’s Wonderland?”

A gentle laugh came from your aunt as she reached further into the box and pulled out a large folded piece of paper that had been hidden under the plushies and other various things in the box. Unfolding it a few times you could see what it was without it being fully open. It was a map of an entire make believe theme park. 

“Wonderland was the first theme park your mom ever made, it started as a silly project with your grandmother and her… and over time it evolved to where the entire neighborhood was helping her.” Your great aunt explained, her old eyes taking in all of the memories from so long ago laid out across the entirety of the attic around you both. “I remember even your uncle would get in on the game, it was pushing what you could come up with creatively really.. Flying ferris wheels made out of glow sticks, carousels that houses flying fish.. There was so much more, and they made each and every one of them..”

“That was it.. Just coming up with silly ideas for rides?” You asked, a little taken back by how an entire neighborhood could be attached to such an idea. 

“Well yes.. I think it helped with how infectious your mothers ideas were, and the whole story with the park. For example, these mascots here… See here, this big blue guy..” She said, pulling the bear from the box. “I believe his name was Boomer, and he was the greeter! He would entertain and say hello to every guest that came to the park.”

She plucked the two pieces of decorated wood from the box and sat it beside us on the floor with ‘Boomer’. “These were Cooper and Gus, I remember because they were Uncle Tony’s favorite, the way June would tell us how they fixed up the park but were also rough and rowdy brothers made your uncle laugh…”

She pulled the pincushion from the box and sat it in the lineup, "This was Kevin- no, I remember, This was Steven. I believe he was in charge of keeping the guests safe, June said he was very good at his job, making sure everyone at the park had a safe experience.”

Her hands moved to the boar. “This was… Greta… yes, Greta. She was the one who kept all the other mascots under control for the most part… always knowing what to do and how to lead them.”

“Then there’s peanut..” She said with a soft chuckle, looking to the plush monkey in your hands. “He was the one who built all the rides at Wonderland. If I remember right, once you had an idea that you wanted him to add to the park, all you had to do was give him his special marker…”

She hummed, leaning over to look more in the box before pulling out a very used, and very dry blue Crayola marker, holding it out for you. “... Then whisper in his ear what you wanted him to make.”

Taking the blue marker from her you returned your gaze to the plush in your grasp. Peanut.. The idea of all of this made you smile, you had no idea this was the childhood you were missing.. You wished your mother could have told you all of this much sooner. To think you could have been building more of this Wonderland with her for so long now.. But she was too busy building her own Wonder Park. Maybe it wasn’t too late. If your mom kept true to her word this time around, you had an entire summer to spend with her! Though, you didn’t want to get your hopes up, after all, she had never kept to her word before. You didn’t see why now should be any different than anytime before. 

But the game your great aunt told you about, it seemed, dare you say fun. You never really got to play any game that was simply made from imagination, something that was almost entirely within your own head. The only games you had really played were with the nannies, who would only play games that would be ‘educational’. There was a lot of chess so far... 

“Tell ya what, Tiny.” Your aunt said, ruffling your hair as she stood, using a nickname that you knew they used to call your mother when she was your age. “Why don’t you tinker around. Use that big brain of yours to add to WonderLand. Bet your mom would love to join you when she gets here.”

You paused, eyes staring at nothing in particular as you hummed in thought. Eventually you did look up to your aunt. “When.. is she gonna get here?” 

She sighed, rubbing her neck as she began to shuffle over to the trap door of the attic to go back to the second floor. “She called after I ordered the food, said she may be a few days late. I’m sorry, Kiddo.”

You gave no response, already having guessed this would happen. She would keep putting it off and putting it off until she gave you a call with ‘oh i'm so sorry sweety, I couldn't get the time.. I promise i'll make it up to you!’ . But she never did.