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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Tamaki turns to stare at her, a little surprised. He doesn't think she can see him, but she seems to know he's there now. That's interesting enough to him; maybe he should try to get her to stick around for a little while.

He reaches out, ghosting his hands along her shoulders. He's trying to push her back, towards the tree he sometimes stands under. If she keeps trying to move away, he'll keep chasing her.

God! That's cold as all get out! Doll shudders at the icy sensation, feeling like a frozen scarf was just draped across her shoulders. The overwhelming sensation of a soul is even more pronounced the colder she feels, and leads her to believe that someone or something is messing with her. Or trying to get her attention in a very persistent manner.

Well, where does she have to be, really? Might as well wander around like an idiot and mutter to herself-- who was she trying to be fancy for?

"Alright, alright--" Doll says, turning around. "I'm listening. ...hope you are too, but I'm alright looking a fool. Already a joke, after all," she sighs heavily and starts walking back the way she came, slowly. "Tap my shoulder if I need t'turn, yeah?"

It's a little slow going, but eventually she's steered to the tree. Doll looks around, frowning a little. "What's here?"

Tamaki is triumphant that he managed to guide her to the tree, but he realizes once he arrives that he didn't really think further than this. It's a little embarrassing to realize that. He has to come up with something, soon.

Really, he just wants her to stick around for awhile, but it's hard to have a conversation with someone who can't hear, see, or really feel you. He wants to ask her what she means about already being a joke, and tell her that yes, he is listening, but there are no easy ways to do that.

He does have... one option at his disposal, but he uses it so rarely he's not sure it will work. It's worth a try, though.

Concentrating on the tree, he moves his fingers, tracing out a message that appears in frost on the bark.

Just me.

It stays for only a few seconds before it fades away again, and Tamaki gasps, recoiling away. Ghosts can't get fatigued, but this is a level of haunting that is beyond his power to really keep up for long, and it makes him feel strange.

Doll's eyes nearly bug out of her head when she sees the message on the tree. Frost, like the cold feeling she's felt on her shoulders and fries. An actual ghost, probably. And it's brought her here, to this tree. To... what? Talk?

Well. It had knocked her food down and then shuffled her over to this tree. Clearly the ghost wanted her attention, but if not to find something here...

"I'll just, have a seat then," she says awkwardly, sitting down against the tree with her legs out in front of her. "Um. Never conversed with a spirit b'fore. Never even done a Ouija-board thing," she says with a nervous laugh. But it gives her an idea.

"Y'can move things, though. Y'knocked these clean outta my hands after all, so maybe..." Doll strips out of one of her jackets-- she's got another on underneath, maybe two-- and lays it out on the ground. Then she puts two of the fries down on it.

"Alright, it's not a board, but we c'n make do. Yes--" she points to one of the fries. "--and no. That work?"

Oh! It's like a game! This excites Tamaki, and he twirls around, though she can't see. For someone who didn't seem excited at all to have him around before, she certainly is cooperative now.

He sits down cross-legged in front of her, wiggling the "yes" fry back and forth on the coat with a finger. He doesn't really have to touch it (or pretend to) to manipulate it, but doing that makes the whole exchange feel more normal.

(There's something strangely familiar about trying to make this girl understand him through unconventional means, but he doesn't understand where that feeling comes from, so doesn't give it a lot of thought.)

Even if she can only ask yes or no questions, it's more than they had a moment ago.

Yes, Doll is staring very intently at the fries and can't see Tamaki twirling around. When the yes one wiggles, Doll gasps and sits up. This is definitely for real, and it's amazing. So what does she ask?

"Alright, okay. So... you're a ghost?" Yeah, obviously Doll. "Were you a teacher?"

That first question is so obvious, Tamaki doesn't bother answering it. What else could he be? It's silly that she would even ask.

But at the next question, he reaches over and shakes the "no" fry back and forth. Definitely not a teacher. With his grades, he would never even see college; not as a living person.

Hey cut her some slack, she's never conversed with someone she couldn't see before! Though admittedly, yes, dumb question.

"So... you were a student?" Doll seems troubled by the thought. It would mean that this person died young, like she almost had. Like sometimes she wishes she had-- but she'd been too afraid.

Tamaki hesitates for several seconds, unsure how to answer. Technically yes, he was a student - just not here. Here is where he ended up after he fled, away from his body, away from his death and the horrible memories it conjured. And here was where he had stayed, attached to it in some way.

But yes, he was a student, so he shakes the yes fry. Specifics are impossible here, anyway.

How terrible. Doll's shoulders drop a little bit at the confirmation. "I'm sorry."

But maybe they don't want to be reminded of their misfortune, or maybe they don't think it's so bad at all. Doll doesn't know what it's like to be a ghost, after all, so maybe she shouldn't assume. But either way, this conversation is going to be a little one-sided if she just asks them questions all the time. Maybe they want to know about her a little bit?

"I'm not a student. But I guess I kind of look like I could be, so nobody bothers me when I walk around here or sleep in the library. And sometimes they leave the locker room showers open, so I can get a decent washin' in when the shelters 're full.

"My parents're long gone, 's probably f'r the best. I get along alright though," she says with a reassuring smile. "I don' even know if y'care though, am I talkin' too much about myself?"

Tamaki hangs his head when she says she's sorry, wringing his hands in his lap. Few people express sympathy for his situation, especially not after he'd messed with them as he has her. Maybe he's starting to feel bad for knocking her fries out of her hands.

He listens to her story without moving much, staring at his hands the whole time. She sounds like what he almost was; he used to think, when he got out of foster care, that he would get on a train and go somewhere far away, get a job and be happy, but who knows if he would have made it. Maybe he would have been sneaking into locker rooms to use the shower too.

At her question, he hesitates. Normally he would say yes, but something about this girl makes him reach out and indicate no instead.

People, in her experience, did all kinds of crazy things for attention. She imagines that if he's enjoying spending his time wiggling fries, that the stunt with her food was more of a bid for attention. Most people probably brushed it off like she had initially, and if she wasn't so sensitive to what a soul felt like she might have kept walking. If he's getting something he needs now, a few fries is probably worth it.

"Alright, that's good," she laughs a little, rubbing the back of her beanie in relief. "Sometimes it jus' slips out, I don' mean t'go on and on, but nobody really ever asks. Kind of nice t'tell somebody, instead of watchin' them make their guesses.

"This is a nice spot t'watch people from, though. Is that why you like this tree?"

He reaches out to tell her yes, that is why he likes the tree. It's really, as she surmised, a way to get attention. Most people don't know he's really there, but they at the very least react to him, and that's more than he sometimes hopes to get. More recently, with Sora moving into his room along with Joker, he's had other people (reluctantly) paying attention to him more than normal, but when they're not around he still resorts to old tricks.

He's wishing he could say more than one word answers.

"Mm..." Doll nods along with the fry. "Y'prob'ly have a million stories of things you've seen, huh? The things people do when they think nobody's watching..." She laughs and looks at the fries in thought.

"Wish I knew your name. I call m'self Doll." She looks thoughtful again. "Maybe if we went t'the library, there'd be somethin' there that y'could use t'talk better. What d'you think?"

He's never really been in the library (it's right on the edge of where he seems allowed to travel, after all), so he's not sure if they could really find something there.

He waves both fries. Maybe yes, maybe no.

But he is willing to try. It's an offer for him to talk, and one he's willing to take.

So he stops moving the no fry, and only moves the yes. He hopes she gets that it's an agreement.

Doll blinks at the wiggling fries-- what does that mean? Is that like a shrug of some sort?

Well, the Yes fry is wiggling, so apparently they're willing to at least try. She grins and gathers up her jacket and pitches the fries in the direction of some birds. They're pretty cold now, and the birds will probably appreciate them more.

"Alright, let's go then!" she says, whipping on her coat and heading off. "I figure, even if there's no Ouija board, we c'n at least make one! Y'could spell stuff. Little better 'n just yes-and-no stuff, right?"

She chatters away as they walk, most people giving her odd looks and a wide berth because this probably homeless girl is wandering the campus talking to herself. Doll notices, but she doesn't really take it to heart. She's not talking to herself-- she's talking to her new friend.

"So jus' when I was pretty sure I was about to get caught, manager pokin' 'round the dumpster and gettin' closer as I squeezed myself back towards the bins-- here comes that possum!" she laughs. "Guy musta jumped ten feet if it was six inches, I swear!"

Tamaki dutifully follows along, listening to her jabber. He doesn't understand all of it (there's something about her accent, and phrases she uses he doesn't entirely comprehend) but he gets the gist. He laughs at the end of the story with her, easily, because it's funny, and because there's something comforting about being able to laugh like this with someone.

(He feels like, maybe, he used to laugh like this with others, but he can't remember when, or who.)

He follows Doll into the library, looking around at all the books and the people studying. It's a little intimidating, being in here, and he stays close to her. At least she has a coat on.

She feels a slight chill next to her, but it only makes her smile at the space next to her. Maybe they feel nervous, or are sticking close because they feel comfortable around her. "Come on," she whispers. "I know a spot where nobody'll bother us."

She gets in the elevator and takes it to the fifth floor. Then she heads for a back corner, seemingly under renovation of some kind-- there are big carts full of books and most of the shelves are empty. There's brown paper taped down on the floors, and Doll skips ahead to snatch a tiny pencil off a table.

"Alright then, here we are!" She trots off behind a couple of carts that block off an immediate view of her tucked into the corner. Once she's sat down, she starts writing out an alphabet on the brown paper along with 'Yes' and 'No', then drops a penny out of her pocket onto the floor. "How's this look? Good?"

Tamaki settles down on the floor across from her, looking down at the board. This will definitely work, he thinks, and he almost wants to laugh. He's never gotten to use what is essentially a Ouija board on someone.

He moves the penny over to the 'Yes,' then moves it slowly, letter by letter, pausing a bit between words.

I M

T A M A K I

He looks up at her face, hoping she got that.

"A... K... I. Tamaki!" Doll says the letters out loud as he marks them, just in case she makes a reading error he can correct her. "Wow. Nice to meet you, Tamaki. Oh!"

She picks up the pencil again and writes a line of numbers, zero to nine. "How... many years have you been here?"

He pauses for a minute on that question, staring at the row of numbers. How long has he been here? He remembers his death, but the years in between blur together a bit.

He moves the penny slowly hovering over four, then moving to six, then back to five. He pauses there, then moves back to the letters.

D O N T

R E M E M B E R

Somewhere between four and six, maybe. Point is, he's probably died recently (ish?), and it makes sense if he ended up at a university. Maybe he's just looking to keep moving forward, even though he's died. Doll can relate, she wants to just keep moving forward and ignore the fact that she's tied her soul to an agenda she doesn't approve of. So far, it's not working so good.

"Well, that's okay. The years kinda blended together f'r me too," she says with a smile and a shrug. "I've been doin' all th'askin', there somethin' you wanna ask me?"

Tamaki considers, then looks down at the board. It's tedious to slowly spell out every word, so he hopes she doesn't mind if he shortens it a bit.

W H A T

L I K E

2

D O

He's curious. The girl might be homeless, but she seems upbeat and pretty cheerful. He wonders what keeps her going - it's pretty hard for him to find any cheer, these days.

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

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