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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As it is, he's had to put in his fair share of helping to get the black roses and vines away from the main doors on top of what his job actually entails (which is general clean up, so in hindsight, not that much different), so he hasn't quite been paying attention to the influx of new arrivals or people who have been milling around.

The tension is palpable, and already he's planning on posting and searching online for more information - fae-linked happenings is something that he knows a few contacts of his will want to know about, and info swaps are always useful. Maybe in return he can wheedle some more information about the Animal Fair brochure he saw the other day.

He's actually about to head home for the night to do just that actually, but when he cuts through the main common area - there's a small figure sleeping on a chair that looks. Vaguely familiar.

He has to stop and do a double take.

"... Steven?"

Holy shit.

He's not expecting it to actually be Steven considering that his next door neighbour went missing a couple of years back and no one has seen him since, but when this small figure curled up on the couch looks kind-of-familiar enough to be recognisable, he has to stop and ask, anyway, even if he has to fend off an orchid sprite who's clearly Not Pleased about Matt nudging Steven awake.

He promises he's gentle!

Matt's apparent alarm and intensity is enough to bring down Bud the orchid sprite's fury, it does seem - which mostly amount to the tiny thing buzzing out of Steven's hair and shrieking at him in a voice too tiny and high to hear. Bud flutters back and forth and jabs Matt in the cheek with a tiny hand, trying to shoo him away.

Steven wakes up regardless of course, and his eyes go wide as he sees Matt there, tangling with his sprite friend. He doesn't really comprehend what he's seeing at first. It feels like slivers of two different sets of memories are competing for recognition, and it dazes him so completely he can't even react with the same amount of alarm he usually would.

Bud only stops flipping out when Steven has slowly pushed himself up, reaching a hand out to Matt like he's seeing some kind of phantasmal vision.

"I know you," he mumbles. He just doesn't know where.

... Geez, this orchid sprite is persistent as hell, as evidenced by the poke to his cheek which is actually sharp enough to feel like a pinch. The orchid sprite is also tiny enough that Matt doesn't even want to actually swipe the thing away - what if he ends up sending the poor sprite crashing into a wall or something?

But then Steven is awake probably from the small commotion, and Matt instinctively takes a small step back - still within reachable distance - to give him some space. .

... Yeah, the kid definitely looks somewhat like how Steven looked the last Matt saw him. There's something else about him that also seems more familiar than just a childhood recollection - Matt has the strange feeling that he's seen something like this before, but he can't quite remember where or how he would have seen a changeling Steven.

"... Yeah. Do you remember who I am?" Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to ask. "You used to live in the apartment next door to my family's. With your dad."

Bud pulls back too when Steven starts speaking, and then bobs back towards her friend, watching Matt warily. Clearly Matt is making Steven upset somehow based on Steven's expression. She's not going to keep fighting him, though, if they're trying to have a conversation.

"My dad..." he mumbles, looking away for a moment. He can barely think about their apartment without immediately fixating on the day that Childermass had come to take him. Everything before that is so confused. He searches his mind anyway, though, and starts piecing together a few happier memories. Memories of other people in that apartment building, and how he had been so eager to meet them when he was little...

"I... I got taken away," he says, like he's trying to explain how he just disappeared, and why he can't seem to remember it as clearly. That much is probably obvious just from the sight of him, though.

He honestly had no intention of making Steven upset? Although yeah, he's... probably backing off a little bit more now, because he clearly looks upset.

And he's also... not entirely surprised when Steven finally says that he was taken away. It's something that his own parents had heavily implied when he'd reported back that day that Steven had just gone missing and Greg had refused to say anything about it beyond the bare minimum.

To be fair, his parents hadn't quite hit on the supernatural or fae aspects of it.

His expression is a little bit more grim when Steven doesn't say anything further, but that's more because he's trying not to get too worked up or agitated - he still can't quite make it stop sounding like a growl when that happens, and the last thing he wants to do is to scare Steven even more because that would... probably not end well at all.

"... How long have you been here?" He's going to take a stab in the dark and assume that Steven hasn't gone home at all, mostly because if he had, Matt would have seen him, and Greg would... probably have said something? Greg looked terrible the last time Matt had seen him, anyway.

"I just got to the Sanctuary today..." He sounds distant when he explains stuff like this. Everything still feels so floaty and unreal. He hasn't accepted this as the new normal, yet. "And... I got away a few days before that."

The implications of his tone are pretty severe. Whatever getting away from the fae entailed, it sounds like it must have been harrowing. He's obviously come out of all of it significantly worse for wear.

"She... She's looking for me."

He knows, because he heard about the roses cropping up here, and he's terrified of it. He shakes his head, numbly.

"I don't wanna go back. I can't."

His expression softens. He's seen kids like this before, especially kids that have just experienced their first were change and they have no idea what just happened, like the proverbial rug has been pulled out underneath them. He's been there before, too, although, probably on a lesser scale than Steven. Still, Matt's got a rough idea of what to do.

He takes a step closer towards the couch and drops to his knees, and while he makes sure not to make any movements that are too sudden to startle Steven, and at this level, it's easier for Matt to have a firm grip on Steven's shoulders, at least to stop him from having a panic attack at the first instance.

"Hey, breathe." He's trying to keep the growl out of his voice, but god damn it, full moon is so close that it's probably going to bleed in one way or another. "With me? Okay. Calm down. You're going to be fine."

"Whoever she is, she's not going to find you, okay? The Sanctuary is safe enough."

... Yeah, he hasn't quite connected the dots that it's the Rose Queen that Steven is talking about, but he will, eventually.

When Matt grabs Steven's shoulders, he'll feel the thorns beneath his shirt. They cover his shoulders like little spikes. They aren't razor sharp enough to instantly cut through the fabric, but they are very much there, just like the thorns that line his forehead like a crown.

"She's my mom," he tries to explain. "The... The Rose Queen." He's trying to stay calm, but it's so hard. He's staring back at Matt, and the fear is clear in his eyes.

"She'll be so mad at me..." He's been punished harshly, multiple times before, for trying to escape that place. He can't bear to think about what she would do because he actually did manage to leave.

"Can they really keep her out?"

"... The Rose Queen is your mum?" Yikes. Like, okay, he'd expected the Rose Queen to be somehow involved, mostly because of the thorns on Steven's shoulders and the whole rose and thorns concept, but that wasn't even something that he'd contemplated at all.

At least, in hindsight, it does explain why Steven used to stay with only his dad, and how his mother has never been in the picture. Matt's own mother had gossiped about a bitter divorce when Matt was old enough to understand what it meant, although he'd never really believed that. Greg was just too nice of a person.

But anyway, that isn't too important now. What's important is that Steven seems to be on the verge of a panic attack, and while he's good with dealing with kids, he's not really that good in dealing with emotional kids. He tries, but he's... never really had a stellar track record.

"Pretty sure they can." He's trying to sound reassuring, and even if he can't cross his fingers, he's probably doing it mentally. "Helen's pretty good at this kind of thing, if you go talk to her later, she'll see what she can do to keep the Rose Queen away from this place, okay?"

Steven just nods numbly at the question about his mom. He accepts the fact that she is, even though it hurts to think about - fae just don't care about that kind of thing like humans do, at least not when it comes to halfbreeds. Changelings don't even really counts as people to them. Even at her best, she'd only ever treated him like a precious pet.

He wonders, then, why she can't just leave him alone. If he matters so little... why would she want him back so bad? The principle of the thing, maybe. Or maybe he was supposed to be useful to her someday, if he ever learned to properly do the things she'd been trying to expose him to.

But forget about that. If this is Matt, and he knows him, then Matt knows his dad. Does he have any idea where he's gone?

"Do you know where my dad is?" he asks, a flash of desperate hope in his tone. "I can't... I can't remember where... where he should be... I don't know..."

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

SANCTUARY, OCTOBER 4TH

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