lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: October 1st - 7th, 2017
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Memories begin returning to the displaced as the fall gets chillier. How the hell did we end up here, again? Also, apparently, the fair is in town.
Warnings: Individually marked!

PORTLAND BY NIGHT↴

Memory regains will come into effect at the beginning of October, to whatever degree you've decided upon, and may be regained at whatever pace you desire from then on. For those with their full carnival memories, it will be like waking up in the body of someone else - for those with half and half, it will be like rapidly recalling sets of memories from a totally different life. Those with full amnesia will simply feel as if this is how it's always been.

Unfortunately for you, memories aren't the only thing you have to deal with. The supernatural community of Portland is bustling all of a sudden - could your presence and these events somehow be related?

► THE OUTER CIRCLE: As of the start of the month, the Portland Circle of Enlightenment will find itself starting to get swarmed with members from other chapters. Most notably, it would seem that a small cabal of top mages from the North American Enlightenment Council will be making their home in Portland's HQ. For anyone but the highest of ranks, the purpose behind their visit will be unclear, but it seems like something is definitely up on a metaphysical level. The Circle will be buzzing with rumours of unique planar activity and threatening omens. It seems that it all started with an unusual flare of activity in the planetary ley-lines, starting approximately a week ago. However, even if you would usually be the type to keep tabs on such things, you will find that you oddly have no memory of observing this phenomenon yourself.

► THE ANIMAL FAIR: Good news, the fair is in town! Or, at least, it would be good news... if this was a regular fair. Instead, what's being observed is a bunch of nearly identical flyers, spread all around Portland - each of which bears only the words "THE ANIMAL FAIR", a seemingly bloody paw-print of unknown origin, and the directions to a vague forested location outside of the city. It's dated for October 7th, and all instances of its posting having been discovered with a scattering of rose petals, crow feathers, and pre-burnt matches laying on the ground around them. Most are taking this to be some kind of bizarre viral marketing campaign, but others may know better.

► THE EARTH SPIRIT: If you have connections to The Pack or any of its many variations, you'll probably hear whispers of something very odd that occurred last week - according to the elders, it sounds as if the Earth Spirit, the magical and spiritual center of the planet, has suddenly taken a wound. It's not clear why or how, but there is a fair bit of concern among spiritual types, as it is werebeast belief and nebulous magical fact that the magical forces within the earth are the source of all magic here, as well as the source of life. While many werebeasts claim to have felt the Spirit succumb, you strangely have no memory of such an event occurring. Though things do feel strange, if you know how to tap into the Spirit yourself.

► THE WAR CRY: Though Anath's rain of terror across North America lasted for the first fifteen years or so of the Severing, most independent demons have had enough time to start taking the arch-demon's relative inactivity for granted. For that first while, the warrior queen had seemed determine to rebuild an army on earth by forcing her scattered brethren into service - only for her to gradually settle down in a fortress somewhere in Texas and dig in her heels. Of course, this was too good to last - it sounds as if she and her demonic legion have begun tearing their way up the west coast, their goals remaining a mystery. Their destination, however, is almost certainly Portland.

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Part of the reason why Strange was so desperate to get a higher ranking in the Circle is that he doesn't have to do meaningless shit like this. The Circle didn't normally make house calls, but one of the second tier mages had cast the runes and apparently there was potential for great power in this Peridot person. (Strange didn't believe him. That idiot could barely cast runes to begin with, much less interpret them).

So, he got shoved to make a house call. The perils of being trusted enough that his opinion on Peridot's magical skills would be taken seriously, but being lower-rank enough that they made him do the damn house call to begin with. Of course, Strange has absolutely zero idea that Peridot's a were which really, it's for the best if that information stays quietly under the rug. All he knows is the vague nature of the runes and that magical activity around that area had been surprisingly high for an area with no known mages.

Strange raps on the door to the Wolfe residence. He still looks a bit out of place in his suitjacket and tie, but Strange straight up doesn't realize that. When the door opens, he gives Peridot a small nod. "Miss Peridot Wolfe, I presume?"

She only opens the door part way, and when she does, it's with no small amount of caution. Could anyone really blame her? Just a quick glance through the peephole was enough to tell her that she's never seen this weirdo before in her life, and yet somehow he already knows her by her full name? Suspicious.

"Maybe. Who wants to know?" she asks, a skeptical eyebrow arching upwards.

Do Circle mages have business cards? Who knows. But Strange certainly does, the massive egotist. He reaches into his back pocket, pulls out a small business card holder, opens it and offers Peridot his card. It's actually a pretty nice business card, very simplistic that just has his name, an email address, as well as his position with the Circle of Enlightenment.

"Jonathan Strange, Circle of Enlightenment representative. If you are Miss Wolfe, then I'm certain you already know the organization." After all, if Peridot had been practicing enough magic to get on the Circle's radar, then surely she must have done enough searching to know what the Circle is. Any mage worth their salt knew of the Circle and it wasn't like the organization was entirely secret.

"If you aren't Miss Wolfe, then simply give her my card and I'll be on my way."

It's obvious she does know what he's talking about, because as soon as he says the words "Circle of Enlightenment", she goes wide-eyed. She glances down at the business card as if to confirm it, and then looks up again, grinning.

"The Circle-- You're with the Circle?" Peridot beams excitedly. The door opens a bit more as she slips out onto the front stoop in her pink cat patterned socks. "Sorry about the confusion, yes, I am Peridot Wolfe. It's an honor to meet you!"

As soon as Peridot starts smiling, Strange's smugness increases tenfold. She knows the Circle, she gives the Circle the proper amount of respect, this is exactly what he wants to hear. She's already making a wonderful first impression...even if those socks are a little silly.

"We keep track of mages all around the Portland area, especially those with potential fit for the Circle." Strange explains all this in a very matter of fact tone, as if this is something everybody knew. "Your name came up as a potential candidate. Of course, in cases like this, a previously established and highly regarded Circle member pays the potential initiate a house call so they can see just how talented the initiate is."

The next part is unsaid but incredibly obvious in Strange's tone: show him what you've got, Peridot.

Strange isn’t the only egotist here. As soon as Peridot hears “talented” and “initiate”, her heart skips a beat, and her first thought is just: ‘At last. I have arrived.’

“Well if you’re looking for talent and dedication in the arcane arts, you’ve come to the right place,” Peridot grins with a nod. And then a little less confidently: “Um… was there something specific that you’d like to see me do?”

Together, they will feed each other's egos to the point where it just becomes a massive self-sustaining loop of egotism.

"If there are any spells you feel you're particularly good at, then show me those, of course. Other than that...I think it'd be best to stick to the basics. Levitation of small objects, revealing or detecting cast magic, things like that." Truth be told, Strange has no idea how talented Peridot is to begin with, but even she should be able to detect enchantments, right? Hopefully.

Then, there's a pause. "Of course, I'll need to actually go inside your house to begin with. May I come in?" Let's not do magic on the front stoop in broad daylight.

...Is she really going to let some strange man who just showed up at her door claiming to be a circle mage just. Come inside of her house with nobody else home?

Yes. Yes she is, because if this is legit, she doesn't want to blow her chance by being rude.

She looks hesitant for half a second, briefly glancing around to see if anyone else is watching this exchange. "Oh! Yes. Of course. I nearly forgot..."

Peridot steps back and holds the door open, ushering him inside. The entrance leads immediately into a living room type space, which... isn't decrepit, but it's not exactly the tidiest, because it's occupied by two twenty-somethings and their 16 year old sister. There's a tiny pomeranian sacked out on one of the chairs.

Sometime later, when Strange is looking back at this with fresh memories, he'll realize oh my god, that was such a creepy thing to do, why did this version of him not at least think things through a little bit first.

As it is, thinking things through is for losers and Strange happily follows Peridot into the living room area. And look, it's tidier than his apartment so he can't judge. His attention is turned to the dog for a moment because holy shit, sleepy dog, that is just too cute, before turning back to Peridot with a smile.

"So! I think detect enchantments would be a good place to start, wouldn't you?" And then, without waiting for an answer, he just continues. "I'll place a simple spell of some sort on one of the objects in the living room, you find out which one I enchanted."

"That seems like a logical enough place to start," Peridot nods in agreement. Secretly, she's totally jazzed, because detecting enchantments was one of the first things she ever taught herself, magic wise. This will be a cakewalk.

There's a pause, as Strange looks around the living area. Careful not to let his eyes linger too long on anything, he steeples his fingers and then casts the spell, saying a phrase in perfectly accented Greek. A moment or so later, Strange puts his hands to his side, still looking far too smug.

"There we go! I've placed a basic spell of magical marking on something in the room. Try to find it."

The enchantment's on a piece of paper that's fallen off the table, onto the floor, probably someone's school assignment or something like that. It straight up looks exactly the same as it did before it was an enchanted school assignment, though there's obviously magic radiating from the paper.

Peridot averts her eyes while he's doing this, and pulls out her phone to fiddle with. While he's doing that, she pops off a quick text to her sister.

Once that's taken care of, she just as quickly fires off the necessary spell, and instantly keys onto her target. She marches over to the piece of paper and snatches it up, grinning smugly and giving it a little wave.

"Too easy," she says.

That is impressive. Strange can't help but look at Peridot, giving her a small nod of admiration. "Good show. Shall we try levitation next?"

Hopefully she's just as capable in other spells as she is at detect magic. It would be so lovely to have someone in the Circle who actually respected him, actually thought he was impressive and not a creepy weirdo.

Don't get your hopes up too high yet, Strange. About her not thinking you're a creepy weirdo, that is. Not the spells. She's fine with those. It's just, you, a stranger, did just randomly ask to come into her house.

Peridot smirks, and utters the appropriate magic word. All of a sudden, the sleeping dog in the corner becomes airborne, and it blinks awake groggily. It looks vaguely annoyed, but apparently not too surprised that this is happening to it. Being a terrible little ham, Peridot even takes it a step further, and says another word to make the dog float over to her, where she catches it in her arms and gives it's ears a good scratch.

"Easy."

Sorry Peridot, things like 'rationality' are getting discarded in favor of 'Strange's ego.' And honestly, being a terrible little ham endears Peridot so much more to Strange for he is also a blatant show-off who likes to look impressive. That extra effort and showing off has definitely been noted.

He's distracted by the dog again because that really is a cute dog, before turning back to Peridot, wide grin on his face. "What about conjuring of light? Or a spell to repair a broken object? Or if you have something in particular you want to show off, go ahead!"

Peridot beams wider. "Gladly! Allow me to give you the full demonstration."

And she does. Light, repair spells, a little bit of fire, some illusion magic here and there. Peridot spends a lot of her free time practicing this stuff, and she will hungrily try out new techniques pretty much every chance she can get, so there's a lot of basic (and a couple of rather advanced) spells in her personal book of tricks.

The more Peridot shows off and the more magic she casts, the more Strange's grin just grows. She's managed to learn all this without any formal training? No wonder the Circle wanted her for a candidate.

Ambition recognizes ambition and by the end, Strange isn't even bothering to hide any trace of neutrality in his expression or tone. There's nothing but admiration in his voice as he gives Peridot a nod.

"Well, you'll certainly get a glowing recommendation from me! That was very impressive, Miss Wolfe! The Circle would be foolish to turn you down--but if for some bizarre reason they do, you have my card. Call me up and I'll train you myself."

After all, the idea of two magicians working together just sounds right in his head. Jonathan Strange and Peridot Wolfe? It does have a nice ring to it.

She may not have any formal training, but she DOES have a lot of time on her hands, probably because she has no friends.

Peridot beams at Strange with great reverence, the sort that is exclusively reserved for people who stroke her ego so thoroughly. “What an incredibly generous offer! So how will I know the Circle’s answer? How long does it usually take them to make a decision?”

What a coincidence, Strange doesn't have friends either. He matches Peridot smile with one of his own, a smile reserved for people who actually respect him a little bit.

"Usually it takes them about two to three weeks. You'll be notified in person--there's secrecy contracts and all that nonsense that the Circle will want you to physically sign."

Or not because shit starts to spectacularly hit the fan and who knows what sort of garbage fire Portland will be come week three.

"Are there any times off the top of your head that you know you'll be busy or out of town?"

Peridot just chuckles. "Oh, no. Definitely not." Traveling requires money, and/or extended family worth visiting. Peridot has neither.

"Wonderful!" Strange remarks, with a grin. "The Circle always tries to contact people when they aren't busy but sometimes things happen."

There's a lot that can happen in the thirty minutes in between creepily scrying on someone and actually going to meet them.

"And, of course, you have my card. If you ever have a question about magic or the Circle itself sometime in between now and the deliberation, don't hesitate to call or email me." After all, it's not like Strange has a social life.

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

closed for peridot!

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