I guess I'll have to explain my AU befjre the quesions, huh?
Explaining my Over the garden wall x Ride the Cyclone AU (ft. Sara's friends)!
So, before we dive into this paragraph, I'll explain the lore of rtc to people who don't know it. RTC is a musical about 6 teenagers, members of the St. Cassian chamber choir from Uranium City, who die in a tragic rollercoaster incident and wake up in a warehouse (afterlife) with a future-telling machine named Karnak that has the power to bring only ONE of them back to life. Each teen gets introduced with a recap of their life, a label (for example, "Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg, the most successful girl in town!") and finally, a monologue. After all that shi, that person breaks into song, singing about their regrets/what they wanted to be in life to convince the others to give up the blessing of resurrection on their behalf, through an unanonymous vote. I watched this on YT last June and was immeadiately like "HMM how can I make this abt otgw?" And I did! So allow me to explain this whole AU in a long, long rant.
Let's begin with the basics...the opening number and bg! I'll start with the town. Uranium City is an actual place in North-East Saskatchewan. It's broke and desert and there are currently 97 ppl living there. I hc Wirt living in Henderson, New Orleans. It's a fairly small town and maybe I'm gonna make it a LITTLE more desolate just for this AU. I thought it would fit even more, even if it already fit well...ESPECIALLY because, in one opening number of RTC (Tragic Fact), the kids talk shit about their town and these lyrics opened my third eye BECAUSE THEY'RE SO ACCURATE:
"Empty people, empty mind
Living life or killing time?
A dead-end town against a dead-end wall!
There's nothing cute and nothing sweet,
This town has only one main street!
Let me face my boredom at the mall..."
This is generally how I think Wirt's town would be like (DEAD END WALL WALL WALL WALL) (yeah, I think that, beyond the wall, the town ends. It's been there for years, centuries even). Tragic Fact also mentions a "marching band" and a "Fat Man cafè" and, in Distillatoria (I hate that shit comic) there's a donut shop named "Sam's donuts", so um...just rewriting the lyrics. Now...time for the choir!
Instead of the St. Cassian chamber choir, all of Sara's friends are part of the marching band and play different instruments (I also gave them names, yes):
Jason Funderberker plays the sax
Rosemary Hand (girl with pigeon costume) plays the violin
Donatello Sherwood (boy with TV head) plays the accordion
Sara Edwards is the mascot, but plays guitar in her free time
\/\/|₹¡ ??????...
Luisa Calloway (girl with witch costume) plays the drums
Last thing, now. How they died. In the original story, the choir goes to a fall fair after performing and die on the Cyclone because the railroads fall apart on the loop-de-loop. In my AU, the kids perform on Halloween and go to the party after. Wirt joins both the hangout AND the marching band last minute, that will be important later. It kinda goes just like episode nine, but ALL of the teens end up jumping over the wall to flee from the police. The black trains runs them over, but each of them die in specific ways.
It works like the OG otgw concept, kinda...they don't know they're dead and got ran over so they accept the invite of getting on the train. They jump off the train, Beatrice finds them all scared and confused BLA BLA BLA. She makes a deal with them: she will lead them to Adelaide. If one of them convinces the witch enough, that person would be resurrected thanks to her spells. The rest of the teens' spirits would be stuck in The Unknown ("eternal peace" says The Beast, but it's clearly the lantern and one of them finds out soon enough).
Basically: Beatrice needs scissors for human form. Adelaide is willing to give them if she brings some children for servants. Beatrice finds the children, isn't willing to give all of them. They make a deal: one child would be spared and brought back to life, the others would work for her. The Beast, always lurking, hears about this pact. He makes a much more pleasant one with Adelaide: all children could be yours, but one shall be given to me. Adelaide accepts gladly...so while the kids are performing, Beatrice thinks the witch is thinking of who to bring back...but she's actually thinking of who to keep. The Beast is tricking Adelaide, expecting to betray her at the last moment to keep the children all to himself. The kids thought they ones not chosen would simply stay in the Unknown and be given this "eternal peace", not expecting anything bad. So it's a cycle of betrayal. The kids are being betrayed by Beatrice, who is betrayed by Adelaide, who is betrayed by the Beast.
In the end, Beatrice admits the plan to John Doe and that she needs the scissors for her family, but he was too slow to actually think of it as a wicked secret. When Adelaide decides who to give to The Beast (and ties the rest of the kids down), much to Beatrice's protests, she orders Beatrice to take them to him. Beatrice kills her with the cold air but they're all betrayed and take the scissors, running away. They encounter the Beast, who takes John Doe, but Donatello sees right trough his bullshit: he's not trying to spare them. They blow out the lantern and find Beatrice, who points them the way to Auntie Whispers, able to actually bring all of them back to life.
Wirt brings me an insane amount of joy and happiness and I hope he gets everything he wants I love him so much. I’ve been into otgw for years but my love for him never dies I think I just enjoy his character more and more as I get older