⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

TIME 2 INVESTIGATE

[insidescoop]

Carly would be a pretty poor reporter if she didn't try to look into any of this; first and foremost, she's familiar enough with the Circle thanks to being -ahem- pulled by the ear a few times by Ashleigh to recognize when the bees seem to be swarming, and she'll try to stealthily get around and near their building in an attempt to catch some rumors buzzing around. Will she hear anything? Who knows.

She attempts to also ask if Aslla has heard anything-but while his AU counterpart would probably know about the demon stuff, Aslla being without such memories is of No Use At All. She'll have to ask her friends for information...LATER THOUGH, for now...

First, she trawls the usual internet haunts-Do Mages have a forum? She's going in. Do other supernaturals? TIME TO DIG DEEPER. She's only got as much access as someone who can be sneaky and beg her way into a basic 'member' account has, but someone's got to be chattering right?

From there, given the black roses and odd posters around, Carly not only tries to do some internet searching on the Animal Fair, but on beings other than a certain fae that might be associated with roses-after all, she's been at this long enough that she Probably Knows A Little About the Rose Queen being a thing. What DOES she find in the depths of the internet..?

After that, there's only one thing left to do. On October the 6th, she'll be hoofing it through the woods to try and make her way to the Animal Fairgrounds-what will she...and Aslla, for that matter-feel on their way in?

INVESTIGATION

[ringleaders]

The deep interwebs have a lot of crazy shit in them, if you're willing to seek out non-indexed information. The biggest issue here is quality control, because any asshole can make a website, and a lot of people who post about the supernatural don't actually know anything about the supernatural, or are just talking shit based on second or third hand accounts.

Still, after hours of filtering through ignorant chatter, drug selling websites, and unsolicited, horrible porn of all varieties, Carly will find something of actual note in an anonymous forum that she managed to get hooked into a few years back due to various connections. It actually tries to keep it membership limited, and when you go to the ".onion" address, all you see is a contextless login page.

Thankfully, Carly actually has a sign in for this one, and so she gets into a forum for the supposed discussion of real magical issues. As it turns out, someone has already made a post about the Animal Fair, and there is actually a fair amount of posts being made within it. Its history goes back a while, too, and about half way through a long thread she'll find someone explaining how when Animal Fair showed up in Illinois a year or two back, a lot of strange things happened, including the supposed assassination of a True Fae called The Winter's Claw.

Apparently they know this because a changeling told them.

There are so many things associated with roses I'm not going to get into them, because they are honestly irrelevant and are just going to be red herrings. Just google "rose associated creatures" and you'll get just about as much information.

As soon as Carly enters the woods she will feel a strong sense of being hunted, as if she is like a tiny rabbit being hunted by a wolf. Aslla will feel similarly intimidated, through perhaps to a lesser degree. Does she continue?

[insidescoop]

Well, add Winter's Claw to the list of things to delve into-first online of course, but then through any books at a later date.
EDIT: depending on if Lambert is around, and if the cafe has wifi, she might be snatching a seat in the cat cafe while making this particular search, and that conversation might bring More Questions Forward.

So much for the rose petals, but hey, that's what this trip is for! SO INTO THE WOODS... ...Normally, this kind of Feeling Of Dread would tell Carly this is a good time to book it.

Unfortunately...Aslla Piscu isn't quite the same. Being under the impression that even the Carnival was a place of I Could Die At Any Moment, he urges Carly onward! get to it, coward!!

Rip Carly tbh