⇨ 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

[amusicaladventure]

"There's a lot of things I could do." Ash emphasized the words with another flick of her fingers, chopping through another vine. "I have no idea about any of this, but I intend to find out. Can you tell where the source of these vines are?"

[espigeon]

The puncture marks close. The tiny eyes around them remain, at least for a few minutes, little spots of shining blue. The rest of him shifts. Here a birdlike head appears and vanishes, here some wings become hands with eyes in their palms. Right now he's too worked up to remember not to do this, and looks less human than an insect is.

"Yes. I'll look." Iuliael's fluctuating unreal flesh braids or flows into a kind of rope or snake, eye-dotted and with many small wings off the sides, and winds rapidly away across the ceiling, where there are fewer vines. The plants reach towards him, but he's neither a target nor really a danger, so there isn't particular effort put into catching him. The song fades soon after he's out of sight and with it its effect, but Ash should be fine.

Soon enough he's back, now singing something else. Wide awake everything's in technicolor/All the energy exploding in my eyes

"These aren't normal plants!" As if this wasn't obvious. "They're not rooted like plants should be! There are roots, they're just not that important! Some are in the garden, some are just... around. Also I think they're faerie."

[amusicaladventure]

God, angels were creepy bastards. Demons made more sense.

"Oh. Well. Huh." Ash considered her position with a frown, reaching out to run a finger down her shield to reinforce it. "I can enforce order. Fae magic hate that. What about you? Anything to add to the pile?"

[espigeon]

Most angels were better at pretending to be humans with wings. It was effortless, for most of them, and in fact many angels in the area hadn't even taken significantly different forms in decades. Iuliael manages it okay when he's not worked up, but he's a seraphim, or part of one. They're weird.

"You can? Do it!" This person is a mage? Oh. Yes. Of course, with the cutting before. Iuliael's not very observant. He manages to focus. "Not much. All the virtue I have left is in singing human music. While I'm here I can have an effect, but not on the vines. They can't hear me! Or they don't care. But they can't really hurt me, so maybe I could protect someone."

[amusicaladventure]

"If you're going to order me, maybe I won't." Ash was already fantastically irritated at this turn of events. Helen had sworn, oh how she'd been so angry that anyone had implied otherwise, that she and hers could protect Sanctuary. Well, look what that little piece of angelic arrogance had wrought! "Support my shields for a bit while I pull up my spellbook, okay?"

The cell phone didn't have everything in it. For that... Ash tucked the phone under an arm and dug into her bag for her pocket Raspberry Pi, a little thing she'd custom-built with its own little screen and everything.

[espigeon]

"Please do it?" Not really understanding why people get snippy, in or out of stress, Iuliael sounds immediately contrite. "Okay. Uh... don't run anywhere for a minute. Please?"

He changes his song to a piece of slower folk rock, managing a halfway decent form of the guitar licks. Just when the sky runs out of rain/Just when the sun runs out of light, etc. In case this doesn't work, because he doesn't know if it will, he's never really tried this before, Iuliael unfurls like a roll of wrapping paper. It's easier to escape being hooked if he's made his substance thin, and if the shields look likely to fail he can interpose himself.

Fortunately while he may have a lot of dump stats he's also not a bad bard.

[amusicaladventure]

God, angels are creepy. She can't emphasize this enough.

"This is a tricky one," Ash muttered as she tapped through her options, the mini keyboard fortunately making the search a quick one. Indeed, the symbol that popped up was fractally intricate and far too complicated to easily draw. Ash took a moment to review the incantations and gestures necessary, then lifted one hand to begin making passes as she spoke in a language that was nothing like sense or logic.

Order, the opposite of entropy, spread out from her in a slowly-widening circle. The feeling was pleasant for no one, but especially not for creatures of such wild magic as fae.

[espigeon]

As it turns out, Iuliael is farther from order than many other angels. It comes with being a seraphim, or a shred of one. Their nature is flame and flame is mutable, which is why his shape is so flexible. His song falters and he ripples weirdly. Order is easier on him if he keeps his form static, but that's hard when he's worked up. It hadn't used to be, of course. He manages to condense into something mostly human, though with eyespotted clothes that bear a certain resemblance to closely-wrapped wings. It helps.

The vines bristle, drawing away from the unpleasant alteration to reality. Neither the angel nor the mage are targets, really. They're not worth the degree of fight they might put up for changelings. But that doesn't mean they're just going to leave them alone. Thick woody ones grow up around and over the doors and windows and settle, sinking thorns like anchors before they stop moving, some of the magic going out of them.

[amusicaladventure]

Angels creepy &tc.

"Oh come on," Ash snarled as she let her incantation fade. That was just petty and spiteful, especially when she could lop through the vines with her magic. All it would do was delay and annoy her. "Hey, you all right over there?"

[espigeon]

"I'm okay," the angel says in a small voice. He looks, now that he has a face to display expressions on, disoriented, dazed, which isn't terribly different from usual.

Even under the heavy perfume of roses there is the powerful green scent of the plants growing, and the creak of stressed wood. "Uh.. what now?"

[amusicaladventure]

"We cut out way out, probably. Unless you can think of a reason we shouldn't." Not that he seemed to be the most competent and effective angel, but Ash didn't get to where she was by underestimating others or failing to take their abilities into account. "You don't have some angel-sense that will tell you what Helen is doing, do you?"

[espigeon]

"Not if there's no one to get hurt. You have to do the cutting, though. I don't have any sharp edges." Long ago he'd had a sword, but he has no idea where it even is now.

The mage seems to know what she's doing, so he'll just follow along. "Other side of the Sanctuary. I don't know what she's doing though... fighting, probably?"

[amusicaladventure]

"I always kind of thought your wings could be sharp as razors or something." At least she could drop her shield spell, and the cutting spell was so simple for her she didn't need an externalized pattern; she could move her mind into the proper configuration through habit and practice. Being careful not to damage the walls or the furniture, she began slicing through the vines sealing them in. The vines had definitely delayed their escape.

[espigeon]

"I..." He's about to say that his can't, but he's honest to a fault and he can't recall if he's ever tried. "I don't know. You'd have to make the edges really thin and hard..."

Iuliael unfurls a wing that had been clasped against him acting like clothing. It does have the look of cloth, sort of, or some kind of tissue anyway, cut in patterns and laid to imitate the feathered wing of a bird. The eyes in it look like printed patterns or a butterfly's eyespots, which is probably an improvement on earlier, when his less-human shapes had sported actual eyeballs.

He reaches that wing out and the 'feathers' curve and crook like clawed fingers. Iuliael grasps and pulls on a woody vine, scoring it deeply and making it shift a bit. This is not the razor-wing Ash described, but on the other hand he's not impaling himself on thorns.

[amusicaladventure]

And that looked like something out of a cartoon, to the point that Ash had to bite her tongue just a little to keep from laughing. "Well," she finally said, "today I have learned that living in an apartment should not have kept me from learning a weed-whacker spell."

Ash turned her attentions fully to a door, working on carving out an exit for them without harming the actual Sanctuary itself. Not like the plants respected that, but the last thing she needed was someone using a gouge or nick to claim that mages had been irresponsible and so forth...