apocalypsehowcomm | Event - Circus, Circus

Event - Circus, Circus

Circus, Circus

➥ By the Pricking of My Thumb

(cw: wax, potential compulsion and fighting)

The train pulls into the railyard at noon under a bright blue sky. The engine is a bright red with orange and yellow flames painted along the sides. The first carriage after that is pitch black with similar flames and a logo for the Fenix Down Extravaganza. It's a stylized red phoenix head in a circle of orange and yellow, the name of the circus painted across the top and bottom, mirroring the curve of the circle. A line of carriages stretch out after that, painted all different colors, but each maintaining the motif of flames down the sides and each bearing the company logo.

Excitement comes to the railyard. The circus is in town for a one-week stint before they continue their journey north. People in colorful costumes--clowns, 'fire fairies' covered in drips of candle wax, and those in animal masks--paper the town with advertisements. You might even find yourself conscripted to help with putting up the fliers and posters if you look idle. A stack of posters is placed in your hands. A $100 bill set atop seems to be your incentives to do something more than just toss them in the bin. There's a frantic energy both about the performers and the people in town. You might even find yourself strangely caught up in it. You want to help spread the word, to ensure the posters reach every part of town. Everyone else who's been conscripted, as well? You can do it better, faster. You need to be faster. You need to claim the space for your own before it's lost to someone else.

There hasn't been a circus come to Gloucester in decades, and it's the Fenix Down Extravaganza! They're renowned for their pyrotechnics and laser lights shows. Surely the enthusiasm for all that is just… catching.

The tents and booths are set up in vacant fields to the west of town, and there's one curious addition, as well. There's a railroad car that's been seemingly pulled away from the railyard somehow. No one sees it being moved, but it's out in the vacant field, and some might recognize it as the old, dilapidated thing that had been hidden in the railyard, the charred husk filled with old posters. It looms, in the field, almost seeming to smoke where it sits. It's quickly cleaned and restored over the course of the day the circus is setting up, though, and it seems to have been turned into the ticket booth for the front of the circus, complete with a new bright red paint job.

➥ Something Wicked This Way Comes

(cw: large-scale vehicular collision, industrial disaster, fire, harm to animals)

It's not a single person who can claim credit for the find, but many people all together. Hours have been poured into researching the mysterious midnight train crash that had rocked people from their beds almost a week ago. Finally, something is found. Stitched together from local newspaper clippings from around Cape Ann, a story emerges, identifying a derailment in the city of Gloucester back in 1921. More than a dozen workers had died in the railyard and there were fires beyond that in the town. The train itself had had only a few people aboard, performers for the Smoke and Mirrors Acting Troupe, along with animals used in their performances. The stories seem to be tucked away a few pages from the front of the newspapers, which are dominated by stories about skyrocketing unemployment following the Great War and the return home for the troops.

All of the stories seem to end with the same sentiment: It could have been so much worse. If the train had derailed further north in one of the more populated cities, where it had been scheduled to arrive the next morning after the crash? It could have been hundreds, maybe even thousands dead.

The information, whomever has found it, is enough. ADI calls a staff meeting. Ghostly circus train derailments just before another circus rolls into town? That's not a coincidence. Everyone who's willing is purchased a ticket for entrance to the Fenix Down Extravaganza, and every person is assigned a partner to join them. Don't lose track. There will be no kidnappings this time. ADI is determined to keep their people as safe as they can be while investigating. Maybe have a chat with your new companion(s).

Those who misbehaved during the last event's Sticky Wicket prompt and were caught with either an opened box or found to have injuries related to the artifacts inside the boxes will be assigned an additional person to their group. A mentor to keep them on the right track this time. And also to narc on them if they mess up again. Better behave, partner.

➥ Send In the Clowns

(cw: reference to cannibalism, fire, pain, mild body horror)

There's a light and excited atmosphere about the circus once a body makes it through the long queue out front. The sweet and sticky scent of fried and sugary foods permeates the air along with barbecues and the ever-present smell of ash. Fire would seem to be the main attraction for the Fenix Down Extravaganza. Fire dancers, fire jugglers, people swallowing fiery swords, and walking over beds of hot coals. There are sideshow attractions and games to see before heading into the big top. Notably, there are no animals or signs of animals at the circus save for a small contingent of goats that are set up as a petting zoo, and a sideshow with a reptile exhibit along with a 'snakeman.' Otherwise known as a performer decorated with shiny sticker scales who provides interesting 'snake facts' to anyone who happens by.

The Food
The food is typical carnival garbage. A little overpriced, but still decent and provided in excess of what people should reasonably eat in one sitting, especially for things like the cotton candy and funnel cake. There is some decent grilled food available, and those who go snooping will find that the food prep within each of the little booths is acceptable for what it all seems to be. There is one booth characters might notice that has 'long-pig' on the menu. Or does it? Check again, and it's not there. It seems to be selling hotdogs, though. Just ordinary hotdogs. Care to bite into one?

The Games
Your standard rigged carnival games: the ring toss, the ladder climb, the baseball and milk jugs. Spend more money for bigger prizes! But you're risking losing it all, as well. There are a few unique games, as well, though. One is called 'The Floor Is Lava,' and participants must make their way around a strange obstacle course that's up on balance beams. If you slip and go down, it's just grass of course. But for a moment, for a split second, you can feel the heat and agony as the lava engulfs your body. You're fine, though, of course! It's just a game, after all. Even if you might feel a bit… singed after that. Another game someone might find tucked away in an obscure corner is 'Liar, Liar,' which involves throwing beanbags at targets. Each target lights a match that helps to burn a string leading toward a cartoonish figure in polka dot boxers. The goal is to get the fire to touch the boxers before a timer runs out. When the fire hits the boxers, there's an uncomfortably realistic shriek. But it's probably fine.

The Sideshows and Exhibits
Fire is the overriding theme at the side shows with fire dancers and jugglers being the most prominent amongst the tents. Attendants for the tents all wear full (and varied) animal heads obscuring their faces; though, if someone is rude enough to rip off their masks, they'll just find disgruntled employees who would like that back now. The more notable sideshow acts include:

The Twisted Twisters - A pair of contortionists who maneuver bowls filled with flames while they shift around. They're very affable, joking with each other as they work.
Flammie the Magnificent - A magician who's open about his use of smoke and mirrors, as well as making objects appear in a burst of flame. He's a purposefully goofy magician aimed at younger kids.
Asbestos Mike - A man who juggles burning coals. His hands are… unfortunate to look at. But he doesn't seem to mind and claims to have no working nerve endings. He's extremely calm about… everything.

➥ Lost & Found

(cw: child endangerment/distressed parent with missing child, disorientation, hallucination)

And then, of course, there are the 'experiences.' They're not rides per se. Those are hard to pack up on a train, but they're exhibits to pass through with a particular theme toward interaction or ogling. There's a small wax museum with decently-crafted models of a few famous individuals. And then there's the Fun House. It's a mirror maze inside that seems to stretch on far larger than the small space it's set up in should allow. For those who make it to the center of the maze, they'll find a dark room with a single mirror in it. This, unlike the rest of the mirrors in the Fun House, isn't one that distorts your form. It's simply a standard mirror. There's also a corridor of mirror beyond it that leads to a quick escape from the Fun House for those lucky winners who make it there.

Said 'winners' will find that everything seems to be perfectly normal when they step out onto the bustling circus grounds. But is that- Ah, that's someone they wanted to talk to. Or maybe it's someone who looks suspicious. Just someone they want to follow. There is a figure and it's someone they want to follow. If they do so, they'll quickly lose said figure in the crowd, only to spot them a ways on a few moments later. Pursuing this figure will result in the winner being run around the circus grounds, never quite able to catch up. If they stop their pursuit, they will find themselves somewhere that they have not seen before. There may be a sense of disorientation as they try to get their bearings.

For those who don't enter the Fun House or come out as winners, they might notice someone--a parent--frantically looking about some other time. The parent comes up to them, asks if they've seen their child, before hurrying off to try to find an employee for help. Their little one was just there. They just came out of the Fun House and now… now they can't find their child! Employees will be only too happy to help, but non-employees might be quicker on the draw to locate the missing child. They're always found in a random place, seemingly unharmed but confused and frightened as they search for their parent, claiming they saw said parent going just over there, or over here. Still, you've reunited a family! No harm, no foul, right? Kids go wandering all the time. Parents really ought to keep a closer watch.

➥ The Ringmaster

(cw: fire, pain, immolation, screaming)

"Please be advised the following show contains flashing lights, sudden loud noises, and fire. Anyone who may have difficulty with these, please make your way to the exit. Our employees will provide refunds for anyone who may have challenges due to these effects." A full two minutes pass to allow those who need to leave time to do so. And then…

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and everyone in between, put your hands together for the one, the only, Fenix Down!" The words sound over the PA system in the tent just before roaring calliope music picks up and the man himself practically dances to the center of the ring in the main tent. Fenix is a remarkably short Caucasian man with dark hair, brown eyes, and a suit that looks like it's on fire, all orange, red, and yellow licks of color across the fabric. His bright yellow tophat features the company's phoenix logo on it, and he nearly loses the thing as he dashes around the ring, grinning like a madman and eliciting cheers from the audience as he raises his arms for them to shout.

"Are you ready, my friends, for the brightest, the grandest, the most extravagant show you have ever seen?" Thunderous cheers from the audience. "I am Fenix Down, and this is my extravaganza!"

The show plays out with two main acts with smaller ones in between. The main acts are introduced by Fenix in turn:

"Penny, the dancing flame!" is firedancer with an elaborate show involving a flaming whip and multiple other performers in horse heads acting as her 'animal companions' for the show.
"And Roderick, the man with laser hands!" is a young man in large, dark glasses who conducts a laser lights and pyrotechnics production from a DJ-style turntable as rock music plays and performers dance and tumble around the ring.

On the final night, there is a change to the performance, though. "And now, my friends, my dear friends, we have a special treat, a new main act to premier: Pyre, the burning man!" Those who are witness to this will see a young man enter the ring. He's sweating and a bit on the heavy side. He also looks… frightened. Frightened and exhilarated. He waves to the crowd as a circle of pipes is raised from a stage in the center of the ring. Pyre sets himself in the middle and lifts his hand. Liquid sprays from the pipes and for those who are close enough, they will likely recognize the scent of gasoline.

"I will be reborn and rise as the phoenix!" Pyre declares before striking a match. His whole body catches immediately in flames and there are horrified gasps and screams from the crowd. Those who might try to interfere are asked to hold on, hold on, just wait by employees. There's nothing to do for young Pyre, anyway. The flames burn rapidly until he collapses on the stage. Fenix makes the first subtle movement he has ever made for anyone who has watched his other performances. A small snap of his fingers, half-covered by one hand. The fire snuffs itself out immediately.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I know that seems frightening, but just watch," Fenix calls. "Like a phoenix, we rise!" As he says this, Pyre picks himself up. His clothes hang in a charred mess about his form, but his flesh… it seems to have knit itself back together. He is whole, and proceeds to give the audience a double-thumbs up. Relieved guests erupt in applause for this… very strange and rather harrowing final act.

After each performance for the night, the main acts and Fenix are available to take photos, sign autographs, and generally schmooze with the public for a little while. They each have a small tent so that you can have a moment of privacy with your favorite act, if you'd like. If anyone is looking for answers, particularly, these are the top of the hierarchy and might prove the most fruitful to speak to. They're also the only people in the circus that seem to have supernatural energy about them, for those who might have such senses to notice that.

➥ Mod Notes

GENERAL - Players are welcome to play NPCs for themselves when they are needed in a thread. If you need more information on general behavior for these types of NPCs, please feel free to ask! In general, the information provided in the prompt should be sufficient and you're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. For this event, the only NPCs that should not be controlled by players for threading are: Fenix Down and the Main Acts in The Ringmaster prompt. These NPCs will be played by mods and available for interaction.
BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMB (25-26 August) - Characters may accept fliers to put up a maximum of three times (that's $300). Not everyone will feel the compulsion to put up the fliers, but if you need incentive for your character to take action, they can do so. The fliers are ordinary adverts with dates, hours, location, and pricing for the circus. Characters can wander around some of the set-up for the circus, but they'll be shooed away if they linger too long with a request to leave for their safety. Circus personnel doing the set-up are not interested in talking. They'll ignore characters or threaten to call the police for harassment if characters persist in bothering them while they're trying to set things up. Those who attempt to mind-control the workers or otherwise compel them for information will quickly discover that these are genuinely just ordinary people who are doing all the set-up. And they would really like to do their job because they do not have enough time.
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (25-27 August) - Players are free to OOCly select their ADI-assigned partner. Those who misbehaved during the Sticky Wicket prompt (and there was evidence of that misbehavior) will find themselves saddled with a mentor, either as their partner or in addition to their partner. This mentor (if they're a PC) should be someone who DID behave in that prompt or who has not made themselves a problem for ADI up to this point. Partners are not required to stick together or with their mentors for the duration of the event. This is just an opportunity to get some new CR (or strengthen existing CR)! And maybe butt heads while you slip away from each other while investigating. Mentors will be expected to be somewhat responsible for their charges, though, if you would like to play with that dynamic.
SEND IN THE CLOWNS (26 August - 2 September) - Regular employees and sideshow acts have no particular information to provide about anything sinister going on at the circus. As far as they know, the work is grueling sometimes given the quick set-up/break-down and schedule, but they're paid very well and even have benefits! They're pretty protective of their employer, as a result, and aren't going to willingly trash-talk him or the circus beyond some standard grumbling about the extra work going into this as Gloucester wasn't originally on their tour schedule.
LOST & FOUND (26 August - 2 September) - Employees will be generally helpful in these situations, using walkie-talkies to try to find missing children. They won't be fast, though. Parents will be uniformly distressed, then grateful to anyone who might assist in locating their children. Children will be wholly unharmed, wherever they are found, but frightened, confused and disoriented. Characters who end up as 'winners' in the Fun House will need several minutes to get their bearings back after following their hallucinations. If they try to return to the Fun House, they won't seem to be able to find the center of the maze anymore, and the mirror maze will appear to be wholly ordinary and the correct size for the space it's in.
THE RINGMASTER (26 August - 2 September) - Characters who would leap in to assist Pyre will be waylaid by staff just long enough for him to stir and complete his act to show that he is, indeed, alive and seemingly fine. Those who still try to interrupt will be escorted out by security. Characters will have the chance to speak to Fenix, Penny, Roderick, and Pyre during this prompt. The first four will be available for the full week the circus is in town. Pyre will be available the final night. Characters may interrogate one NPC each. Each NPC will have different information they may be able to provide.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. No Thumb-Pricking Here

The fliers everywhere are annoying. Actually. They're distracting, and cover over things that he'd much rather be looking at. Also, there are people everywhere trying to hang even more. He stares at one obsessively poster-hanging civilian as he walks on a patrol around town, pulls a flier down on his way back from the grocery store that's covering a prime window for seeing into one of the busier coffee shops, and actually growls at a couple posted on one of the trees in the park.

He grabs the hand of a civilian about to plaster one on the fence around the ADI apartments. "Stop," he says flatly, mask in place and face completely hidden. "Not here." He won't allow the sight lines from inside to be obstructed.

II. Clowns Aren't Funny and Neither Is Winter

The circus that is the source of the fliers-- and also the thing that is not James Buchanan Barnes's current job for ADI-- is... baffling. There are games. There are prizes. There are shows. There is suspicious-looking food. What is he supposed to do here? What is he supposed to be looking for? What counts as strange enough to count for ADI?

Sometimes he's here with his official partner (whoever that is; feel free to slide into the slot), sometimes he's here with a roommate or two, sometimes he's here alone looking around. His roommates, at least, convince him to go without the mask. The rest of the time he's just making people edgy, looming over their shoulders to examine the ring toss they're playing, or loitering menacingly at the food stalls, or appearing around a darkened corner, a shadow with no face.

He is, however, very good at The Floor Is Lava, and surprisingly good at the supposedly rigged dart game as well, once people convince him to actually try both.

III. Mirror Mirror

The fun house is about as confusing as everything else, but the different shapes the mirrors warp the body into are strangely compelling. It takes him longer than he should to get through it, constantly distracted by the face (or no face, depending on if he has his mask on) and body. He doesn't look at either one much, it's just a vessel for carrying out missions after all, but this is... odd.

Run into him actually poking at his own face in the mirror, or tugging at his hair with brows down.

IV. Winning

The last mirror is disappointing, nothing strange to it at all, and the exit is close by from there. Except once he's out, he keeps-- spotting a weirdly familiar blonde head. There's something about it. Something that says mission. That says follow.

He stalks through the crowds, most of which part nervously when confronted by his masked face and murder strut. When he finds that blonde head, he's going to--

--he doesn't know what he's going to do. But his hand is on the holstered gun, inside the pocket of his pants.

V. Not Winning

A second trip through the fun house, this time frustrated with and confused by the need to see that blonde head again, results in utter failure. No ordinary mirror. No swift exit. He spends too long in there before giving up and coming out again, bare-faced and unhappy.

Which means of course some distraught mother actually latches onto the metal arm with demands to find her daughter. He almost shakes her off... but... ugh. It might well be related to what happened to him. So he goes hunting again, this time without a hand on his gun, for a confused child. Fun.

VI. Petting Zoo

The one thing that does settle the thing that is not James Buchanan Barnes, particularly after the fun house, are the goats. They're... actually kind of cute? And he enjoys feeding them lettuce and carrots and weeds from the side of the field while they lip at his clothes and make bleating noises.

He doesn't remember ever interacting with animals that weren't trying to hurt him. Or weren't actually people. So this is... novel.

Edited 2021-08-28 05:59 (UTC)

Without the mask, Winter is three-point-five percent less intimidating. Kate doesn't want to push him quickly into doing something that makes him anymore uncomfortable. It is a little baby step but it is progress. She is content with that.

"I'll be right back." She says to her roommates and then darts off to one of the food stands. Kate will be gone for a few minutes as she waits in line. Progress deserves a reward! And what is a better reward than a funnel cake? Especially one that is topped with strawberries and whipped cream?

When Kate rejoins the group, she has both a funnel cake with three forks. She cannot possibly eat the entire thing herself. (She could, however, eat the whole thing herself.) She also has a tray of lemonades to go with the cake. "My treat," she says. "Have you two ever had funnel cake?" Yelena is Russian and Kate has no idea about Winter's origins.

"... no?" he says, frowning, funny that he can make something sound like a question when it shouldn't be and make a question sound like a statement, most of the time. Anyway, he doesn't remember funnel cake, at least.

He looks sidelong at Yelena. Tell him what this thing is, teammate, and if it's safe to eat. It looks weird.

Yelena's expression is an inversion of his, a quick grin. "Once," she says. "When I was small. It was a good day."

(It had been a middling day at best, a show for the neighbours at a halfhearted autumn fair. But she'd been five at the time, and not particularly discerning.)

She catches the sidelong look and adds, "It's fried dough, with fruit and sugar. Maybe not a thing to eat every day, but it's delicious."

She nods her head in agreement with Yelena. "You shouldn't eat it everyday for the sugar content alone but as a treat, I like them." Kate is not going to promise that he'll like it. Despite the sugar and it being just friend dough, not everyone has the same taste buds. He may hate it but Kate feels that he should at least try it before deciding that.

Her hands are full or she would try a bite to show him that she likes it. Kate has a small feeling that he trusts her where food is concerned. She has a larger feeling that she shouldn't push him. It comes from the look in his eyes. It's not her place to push anyways. She can ask, she can say please along with all of the other niceties, but she shouldn't push.

"Oh, I got us some lemonades too. We should find a place to sit."

He has tried a few sugary things in the cafeteria and from the vending machines. Sugar is generally approved of, unless it comes with sour. So he nods, and deftly relieves Kate of at least some of her burden, two of the lemonades. "Okay."

There's picnic tables. Not the most secure of eating places, but he'll make do. It's not like there's anything better if Yelena and Kate want to sit. He might not be the most socially adept, but he's pretty sure they won't want to sit in an aisle between the booths, back to a wall. That's not "fun".

Yelena doesn't particularly object to the concept of sitting on the ground, but given the option of a table, she'd rather sit a little ways above the anthills. She scans the small seating area, then spies a family just departing from an umbrella-shaded table on the outskirts.

"There's a good one," she calls, before darting ahead to secure it before any other roaming snack-inclined circus-goers can do so.

It is, in fact, a decent table. It also has good sightlines, as such things go. Priorities.

Kate is not going to question why Yelena had picked that particular table. It is a good one and has shade. Isn't that what one should look for in a place to sit?

"Thank you, Winter." Her smile is genuine when he takes two of the lemonades from her. Her load is a little lighter. She carries the rest to the table and sits down in the most vulnerable seat (not that she's aware of that). Kate would have been an easy pick for a sniper but in this current moment that's not how her brain works.

She puts the funnel cake on the table and then takes out her own lemonade. "I think, that since you've never had one, you should take the first bite Winter." After that, it's going to be a free-for-all. In the meantime, she turns to look at Yelena. "Think you might try any of the games?"

He's not questioning, either, because he knows it's the best option, and he's kind of quietly grateful. Even if Yelena does it for herself rather than his own paranoia, it's still appreciated.

He settles with eyes on the bulk of the circus-goers and sets the second drink in front of Yelena, then eyes the funnel cake. He's frankly not sure how to eat any of it without the whole thing falling to pieces, but he'll give it a go, trying to dig into the fried part with the plastic fork without shattering the whole thing and getting strawberries everywhere.

It would be a lot easier with one of his combat knives, but that seems like overkill.

Bucky Barnes/Winter | MCU | OTA

II - Going Into The Clown Shoe Business Is No Small Feet!

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IV

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