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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Wait what.

"Well tell me what it is!" Strange blurts out, knowing full well that the likelihood Nightshade will actually tell him what the cause is is next to none. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and right now, Strange is wishing he made that agreement just a little bit tighter.

Her smile sharpens into a fang filled grin. She reaches forward to pinch his cheek.

"I wouldn't worry your little head about it," she says. "It never mattered to your kind to begin with. You're... human, aren't you?"

She leans in, as if to smell him.

Strange takes the cheek pinch with as much dignity as a middle aged man can take getting their cheek pinched: aka there is barely any dignity to begin with, as shown by him getting slightly flustered.

"I'm a mage, thank you very much." Which is a puffed up way of saying he is a hundred percent human. And, Strange just tries to maintain his dignity as Nightshade leans in to smell him. He smells mostly of cheap aftershave, though the smells of smoke and various herbs linger on his clothes.

"Has whatever caused this tampered with the etheric energies as well?"

Edited (words are hard) 2017-06-18 04:23 (UTC)

She lifts her head and leers at him, clearly smug with her apparent victory over someones he never considered a challenge in the first place.

"That's an interesting question," she says, and offers no further insight. "Actually... there's something interesting about you... I can't quite put my finger on it."

She considers him for another few moments, and then:

"Would you be interested in making a real bargain, this time?"

This is a bad idea. This is one hundred percent a bad idea. The Circle would cast him out, he'd be under the thrall of this creature, and someone (though Strange can't remember who right now) would most likely throttle him in response. And yet, there's something familiar about this whole situation in a way that Strange can't place his finger on. Making a bargain with a faerie...had he ever thought about doing it before?

Although, she did call him interesting. That does more to help Nightshade's case than any thing else so far.

"I would be willing to hear the terms of the bargain before deciding if I would accept it or not," Strange responds as diplomatically as possible.

Excellent. She smiles again.

"My contract is thus: I will answer you one question, and in exchange... you will allow me to draw one answer from you myself."

God help us all, he's halfway considering it. And it's obvious that Strange is considering it by the way he pauses, frowning slightly as he mulls over his options. Just one question...that should be simple enough, right? What information could the faerie pry from him just from one question? She won't learn anything about the secrets of the Circle, mostly because Strange barely knew any secrets of the Circle to begin with.

"A few points of clarification. One, what do you mean by 'draw one answer'? I'd like to know what I would be answering, after all. Two, by one question and one answer, you only mean just one question or answer, not one of those 'technically one question but actually sort of three questions' sort of things."

"You may ask one question and get one answer. As for my side..." She pauses to consider it. "There is one thing, in particular, that I wish to verify... and I will be able to see it myself, given your permission."

"You don't have to say a thing!"

"But I want to say a thing. If you're going to extract an answer from me, I'd like to know what I'm answering in the first place. It would simply be rude otherwise."

At least the way he's going into nitpicky detail with regards to the conversation means that he's giving the contract serious thought. If he could learn what was messing up the omens and meddling with the state of magic...well, he could fix it himself. Couldn't he? Maybe?

"Also, what will sealing the contract consist of? I'm not good with blood."

"Only your verbal agreement is required," she says. "However, your answer in words will not be sufficient. The answers I seek are not ones you consciously know."

Not answers he consciously knows? Well that's interesting. And worrying. Strange liked to think he knew himself fairly well, what could he not know about himself that this fae could know in the first place? That should give him pause but the prospect of knowing why the omens are coming up wrong, the prospect of using that to fix what's wrong with the state of magic? It's too good a chance to pass up.

"Very well. I accept the terms of the contract." And as he says those words, Strange gets a sinking feeling in his stomach, like he's just now realized what a huge mistake he's made. But it's only one question and answer, right? How much of a mistake could it be?

But then again, it's a faerie contract. Oh God if anyone finds out about this, they're going to throttle him then and there. Time to straight up lie should Foster and the rest ask him how it went later.

Something loosens in her posture, as if a moment of suspense has passed. However, before Strange will get only closure as to just what he's agreed to, he can have his good news first.

"Very well. The contract is made."

She flips forward again, looking cloyingly pleasant.

"You may ask your single question."

There's about half a minute of silence before Strange asks the question, as he goes over just how to phrase it to get the information he wants. He's not going to make the same mistake he made earlier. No, he's going in with specifics this time.

"Being as specific as possible with regards to name, species, origin, or title and answering to the best of your knowledge and fullest of your capabilities, who or what is the cause of the inconsistent omens and bizarre etheric energies?"

Hm. She has to pause and think now, too, because the answers to that are complicated and she has to consider what would count as a truthful answer in this circumstance. She has no interest in bungling any contracts, after all, and the results of this one hardly matter in the long run.

"The cause of the etheric distortions is a great ritual, cast twenty five years ago, using this world's spirit as its power source. I don't know the exact identities of those behind it, but I have reason to believe they were human mages, and almost certainly of the Circle's ilk."

Almost there, but not quite. It doesn't feel centered, yet.

"The reason that the distortions are happening now is that the spell formed by the ritual has been put to work again, in a way much larger than it had been for the years in between."

All pausing and deliberation goes straight out of the window as Strange just angrily exclaims, "What?!"

Because that ritual cast twenty five years ago is (to him) obviously the Severing. But Circle mages casting it? He couldn't believe the Circle could be so idiotic, so foolish as to separate the realms to begin with! Strange barely remembers the time before the Severing, but he remembers enough to have convinced himself that magic was different back then.

Whether or not it actually was or wasn't, he's got no clue. What matters is that Strange believes magic was different and, as a result, he's just not so silently fuming at the revelation that it was Circle mages who messed things up and blocked off the realm of faerie to begin with.

"If anything, it's likely those idiots from the Enlightenment Council meddling with the spell," Strange complains, more to himself than to Nightshade. "That's probably the reason why the spirits are weaker, I imagine they're tied to the nature of the Severing to begin with!"

Sorry Nightshade, you've become a sounding board for Strange's theories.

Well, that's cool and all, but now that she's given her answer Nightshade has no further need to be candid. Instead, she's focused on acquiring her end of the bargain, and from there... well, she'll have to play by ear.

"My turn," she says, ignoring him, and flits up to his face, touching his forehead with a hand. Strange can't really see the magical effect that results in this, but he'll feel something like a shiver through his soul - only for her to pull away with a small, glowing object in her hand.

"Hmm," she says, eyeing it closely. A moment later, she crushes it in her palm.

Strange knows the obvious jokes that are going to come out of this: holy shit, Jonathan Strange has a soul? Still, he remains perfectly still as Nightshade places her hand on his forehead and casts the spell, only moving when he physically shudders in response to that shivering feeling.

When she pulls back with the glowing object, Strange frowns.

"What's that?" he asks, knowing full well that Nightshade's under no obligation to answer him. Still, he's nosy as hell so of course he's going to at least make an attempt.

"A small piece of your spirit," she says, opening her palm and watching the cloudy miasma of energies now resting on her palm. Her expression suggests that if she could put this under a microscope, she would. "You know! There's something off about you, too! This situation may be more prevalent than I thought."

She flits away from him, in case he gets any grabby thoughts.

"Hmm... what to do? You probably don't even know what the problem is, do you?"

There's a brief pause as Strange frowns before he tentatively starts talking again. This is going to possibly dig his hole even deeper but fuck it, he's interested and wants to know just what exactly she means by 'off' in the first place. He's already made a contract with this faerie, he's already out on his ass should anybody in the Circle find out about this, who cares, let's just keep going.

"Let me propose an alliance." A phrase that sounds so familiar and so risky all at the same time. "I am a mage with the Circle of Enlightenment. That affords me access to some materials that are off limits to others. If you tell me more about how exactly I am different and what exactly the problem with my spirit is, then I shall try my best to find more information about this situation and relay to you that information once I've found it."

Because there's something off about him? Strange definitely wants to know just what that is. (And yes, he has absolutely no idea what the problem is to begin with.)

...Ah.

Now this... is something she hadn't anticipated. An open offer of a contract with one of them. One with connections, none the less. She has to consider this, because it's ultimately a bigger deal than the other deals she's made have been. She has to be sure that she won't be played.

"...Promise me that you will not partake in any actions intentionally meant to betray me. Do that much, and you'll have my oath."

There's a pause because hmm, does serving as the distraction while Amethyst and the angel are rescued count as betrayal? After all, Strange knows what Foster and the rest are doing and undoubtedly Nightshade would view them stealing two people from her realm as a betrayal. Still, she's outright considering this so at least in Strange's mind, that gives him a bit of an edge.

"Obviously, any actions that I have taken against your kind in the past I cannot undo. But as of this moment, I shall not partake in any further actions intentionally meant to betray you specifically. However, I think it's only fair that I ask the same of you: promise me that you will not partake in any actions intentionally meant to betray or harm me and I'll gladly give my oath."

That should cover his bases...he hopes.

That's fair, she supposes. She can't fault him that. Thankfully, she has little need to betray him specifically. There are a lot of fish in the ocean.

"Then it is done," she says, with a sense of gravity that flows into the magical bond clicking into place. "I give my oath, and you have given yours."

She raises and eyebrow at him.

"Agreed?"

"Agreed," Strange responds, with a solemn nod, trying to push back the overwhelming feeling of dread that's creeping up in his throat. This whole situation feels familiar and worrying at the same time. Still, no turning back now, especially since he can feel the magical bonds of the contract as they slot into place.

"Now then. I need to know what the problem with my soul is in order to properly research it."

She considers that for a moment. How to explain?

"Fae, angels, demons... none of us were originally from this world, you know? We all came from somewhere else. And when the 'Severing' happened... it was made so that we could no longer return. And now, the same has happened to you."

She shrugs a shoulder.

"You're not from here, is what I'm saying. Your soul is etched with magic of another universe, even if you put on a show of being from this one."

It's odd. Part of Strange thinks that Nightshade's absolutely wrong. Ridiculous. How could he be from somewhere else when he remembers this world so perfectly well? He was born, grew up, married and divorced in this world, he wasn't putting on a show of being from here, he knew he was from here.

And yet, there has been so much odd nonsense happening in this past week that he can't reject that idea entirely. Things ranging from the odd etheric activity to the omens he couldn't make out to something as simple as Yuya being unable to remember the names of his parents. He doesn't believe Nightshade's theory but he can't discount it entirely.

"I suppose the first place to start is research into the Severing itself. If you say the spell's been put to work again, then I need to stop it. But in order to stop it, I need to find out just what precisely happened twenty-five years ago."

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npcarnival - 2017-06-19 16:49 (UTC) - Expand

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kingsroads - 2017-06-19 18:08 (UTC) - Expand

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