⇨ 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

[espigeon]

"And that's good! Angels don't... some angels have genders. The more humanlike ones, or the ones that can be more humanlike and then they really liked a gender and kept it. I don't really understand, but it's fun."

He totally plays dress-up with pronouns, trying them on to see how they look or to match the people around him, then casually casting them off for next time.

"There's a lot of things I don't understand. Maybe some day I will, though. I've been getting better, I've been able to remember more things." That helpless smile again. "Did you meet Helen?"

[starseedling]

Not having a gender seems practical, from Steven's perspective, considering how irrelevant its always felt. But, he's also not up enough on that kind of discourse to have much to say about it, either. Which means his interest sticks to some of that other stuff.

It strikes a familiar note.

"Um... yeah, I did," he says, but feels the need to backtrack a little. "Do you mean... you forgot a bunch of stuff? Why?"

[espigeon]

"I did. It's all really complicated and messy, but, uh, there was this angel," and here Iuliael tips his head back, looks ceilingwards with a strangely intent expression, and sings a short phrase. The words are incomprehensible, but there's somehow a suggestion of fire and vastness and the joyful anger of righteous purpose.

Even before the reverberation's died down Iuliael's looking bewildered and good-humored again. "Or the Dove of God, though that's a really, really bad translation, it never liked translations but most people can't pronounce... um, anyway. It sent a hand down here to do things while it was in Heaven, and the hand got cut off, and became me. There's lots of things I'm not good at. It's like... why would a hand need to remember things, or judge, or... do anything on its own, when the mind that commands it can just tell it what to do?" He pulls his hand across his head and down his neck, awkward. They're good metaphors as far as he's concerned, but do they make sense to people who aren't so scattered?

"So I'm not as, as good at things as other angels. They're complete, and I'm not. But I'm getting better."

[starseedling]

"I see..." Steven says, frowning. He thinks he does understand what Iuliael is talking about, sort of. If he's just part of someone, how could he do everything the full version had done? Or... something. Humans don't live the same way as humans, do they?

Steven has to admit he's felt the same way, since he escaped. Incomplete, like the fae parts of him are just an empty space instead of an actual piece of his identity. While at the same time, they aren't something he wants to be at all.

"I forgot things, too," he says, slowly. "When I was in the garden. I can't... really remember where I lived, or... a lot of stuff. It's really scary."

[espigeon]

Oh, good. Sometimes when Iuliael's tried explaining things it's just resulted in blank incomprehension. He's been working on getting more concise, on not explaining every little thing. Doesn't mean he's always managing it.

"People act like memory's so solid, but it changes and washes away so easily. Some of it you don't even notice. I'm sorry that happened to you, though. It is scary." And Steven's at least part human and probably gets older, too. He might die or his people might die before he figured out where to go. Iuliael does have enough self-awareness not to say that thought out loud, at least.

THOUGHT OF SOMEWHERE TO TAKE THIS

[starseedling]

Steven is silent for a little while after that, quietly accepting Iuliael's perspective. However, after allow it to sink in for a few moments, something else occurs to him.

"Do you ever... remember stuff that never happened?" he asks. "Like... you remember it happening, but... it's wrong?"

[espigeon]

Iuliael was thinking of a song, but if the conversation's going to keep going that's good too! He has all the time in the world to sing, but not all the people in the world to talk to.

"It depends," he says hesitantly. There were things he'd done as part of the Dove which are now repellent, but Steven's first sentence suggests that's not the kind of wrong he means. "My memory isn't good. I've only just remembered, in the past few days, that I was human once. Sometimes it happens, a virtuous human is made into an angel. I... feel like this human was more normal, though."

He shrugs. "Maybe pre-angels are normal inside, and it's what they do? I don't know. Is that what you mean?"

[starseedling]

"I don't know," Steven says more quietly, obviously bothered by the feeling but not sure how to phrase it. He had no idea that angels were ever humans either, actually, but he knows very little about angels so that makes sense. "It's stuff like... I keep remembering living next to the ocean, but I know I grew up here. I... don't know how that could fit in."

He glances away, frowning.

"I can't even remember where in the city I did live, but... for some reason when I try to remember I just think about the beach. I don't understand it."

[espigeon]

"The ocean?" he echoes, and then for some reason he wants to say that's not an ocean and remembers it, just an instant of it, like a postcard. A body of water slate blue with the light from the sky, big enough that the other shore was too far away to see, but it was so still compared to the sea, merely wrinkled and rippled. The only waves were caused by wind. Seagulls. Sand caught between his toes. The smell, sunscreen and dead fish and none of the brine of ocean. An appreciation for the fine day, but under it, the thought. All this will be gone unless-

"Unless we stop them," Iuliael mumbles, his eyes wide. For a moment his clothing much more closely resembles odd wings gathered like fabric and wrapped like he's hugging himself. The memory is so clear but so short, and there's no context at all. Who we or they are, where that was, anything.

But it's also not relevant right now and it's so rude to zone out like this in a conversation! He blinks several times, trying to pull his scattered thoughts together. "Um. Maybe, uh..."