[Network] Collecting Information

[bloodalwaystells]

Who: Andrew Jaeger
Username: a.jaeger
Warnings: CW: Body horror, burns, mass burning deaths, human sacrifice. More will be added as needed



Good evening, all. For those I haven't met yet, my name is Andrew Jaeger and I'm looking to compile the information gathered in light of tonight's rather disturbing events. After several discussions, it seems like some of us have different information and I'm looking to put it all in one place, discuss it, and if possible, decide on a course of action.

I'll start by reviewing what I've been able to discover about the carnival over the course of this week:

* The Funhouse seems to have some sort of disorienting effect for those that go through it. I suffered this myself as well as witnessing others affected. I...found myself chasing someone that wasn't there, and when I came to, I was very confused and upset. I had been chasing an innocent bystander instead.

[That's hard to admit, but he does anyway. It's important that all the details are there for people, even the ones that hurt.]

* Photographs of the building reveal nothing concrete, though I did find some distortion around the ticket booth when I took shots of that. More on that later.

[He'll enclose those photographs here: there is some blurriness and warping around the ticket booth. Maybe he just took some bad pictures? Maybe, but the ones he took of the Funhouse look perfectly fine.]

* A psychic investigation of the ticket booth confirms that the train jumped the rails and crashed into a wall at the trainyard, then burned with people trapped inside.

I did catch something interesting before the fire, however, from the people in the car before the crash: "The end that will be a new beginning". This is a theme that seems to recur with the circus, so I thought it was worth noting.

* I don't believe that Pyre is human. If he is, he's possessed of some kind of unnatural power. He apparently has some sort of criminal history, possibly arson, that Fenix helped him out of, and he started out at the circus doing technical work before he began his show. He seems very loyal to Fenix, and very enamored with the idea of fire in general. "Wax poetic" in his own words...

I also witnessed him melt his hand down to the bone, and then regenerate it. He did this right in front of me, inside his private tent while we talked. I didn't see any signs of accelerant or pyrotechnics, he just snapped his fingers and his hand burned.

[Yes, that last bit gets added casually, because isn't that the sort of thing that happens all the time? Of course it does.]

* If the circus is drawing power from the fear they inflict during their shows, I'm worried about the possibility of a mass-casualty event. If the train wreck was some kind of offering or sacrificial rite, then another certainly isn't out of the question. I hope I'm reaching, here, but I'm not sure that I am.

I'm available to talk publicly or privately about any of these details, if it helps anything, but I would very much like to hear from anyone who talked to the other employees of the circus or found anything else of note. I haven't shared the information given to me by other ADI investigators, I'll leave it to those individuals to jump in with what they have.

Thank you for your time, and I hope this helps us form a clearer picture of exactly what's going on and what we're meant to do about it.

Comments

un: strange

[sorser]

Regarding the derailment that this all seems to be connected to, I think it’s time to start questioning ADI about their potential involvement in the incident.

[You reading this, ADI? Well, Stephen doesn’t appear to care.]

As insinuated not-so-subtly by one Mr. Fenix Down.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Oh, we're being open about how suspicious we find them now?]

Probably not a bad idea, but I think developing a plan of action away from where they'll be watching is probably for the best.

Still, live your life. The direct approach can also work.

[sorser]

Well, I’m definitely not going to tell someone how they should spearhead their own investigation. Just getting the word out.

[The word that ADI is sure to notice, one way or another. That’s the idea.]

Alternately, I’m also just screaming into the figurative void with the hopes that someone will climb down from the upper rungs of the ADI ladder and speak on this matter. The direct approach is worth the effort.

un: shiroe

[guildmastermind]

Oh, that's an interesting thought, and it would give Fenix and his circus a reason to stop here. 100 years later, for the sake of revenge. And if the other circus was anything like this one--which is possible from its name, Smoke and Mirrors Acting Troupe--perhaps ADI would have had a reason for the derailment, wanting to ensure they didn't reach the bigger cities.

[sorser]

A conclusion that we could have drawn sooner if ADI, assuming it’s true, had been transparent about the derailment in the first place.

It feels redundant to send us in to investigate, unless they’re using us to verify the circus’ bad intentions. And if that’s the case, the next thing we should be asking is “what now?”

[bloodalwaystells]

It would also be a reasonable test of our abilities, if they're uncertain of our capabilities in the field. Sending us in when they already know what's going on, to find out just how many details of the whole thing we come up with. How many of us are affected by the unnatural forces present, and how severely.

It could have been a test run. With the added benefit of gathering more information about a new threat.

[sorser]

Reasonable on paper, but I don’t particularly like the idea of being treated like a guinea pig. I prefer transparency if we’re expected to work efficiently.

un: cupkate

[bossyboiler]

Penny stated that they stopped here almost at the last minute.

un: jelica

[musicdied]

There were rumors that the owner of the Smoke and Mirrors Troupe was involved in the occult.

If Fenix Down was not just trying to sow discord to put us at each other's throats instead of his, maybe the ADI one hundred years ago was more direct in dealing with magical things.

[sorser]

Of course there were.

[Dry. Should he even be surprised at this point?]

That might be the case, but even if ADI doesn’t subscribe to “the ends justify the means” anymore, I’d still like to know why they didn’t bother to mention any of this in their briefings.

Not exactly a small detail you leave out and hope no one discovers it. There’s more to this story.

[bloodalwaystells]

Pyre made a reference to the whole thing being "Smoke and Mirrors" but I'm not sure if that was an innocent turn of phrase, or him being clever. He seemed to make a lot of little jokes like that, that amused him but that he wouldn't explain.

[Jaeger is starting to get a headache. He probably just needs more coffee...]

But I agree. This is all important information that hasn't been shared with us, and if they want us to do our jobs properly, we need to be informed of things like this.

I know some of us were able to find more information about the train wreck in the news archives, but if ADI knows more about it directly, that's a hell of an omission.

[sorser]

There’s not much I’d call “innocent” about this whole thing. My money’s on it being a purposeful turn of phrase.

Anyway, it’s going to be harder to give ADI the benefit of the doubt if this ends up being true. But let’s see what they have to say for themselves first.

[musicdied]

They are trying to be a covert organization. There is always more to the story.

Did you notice, when the ghost train crashed, that mostly it was only us who noticed? Not the people in town, not the ADI agents from here. They didn't seem to be aware of the remains of the wreck, either. I think you're right that someone hid information about what happened before, but it may not be someone at the modern ADI.

[sorser]

I did notice. I even asked a few of the locals, and not one bite of real recognition. No hint of even the smallest memorial.

It’s odd, and even if modern ADI operates differently, it’s telling that they didn’t think to mention it beforehand.

[bloodalwaystells]

Yes, And I thought it very strange. It could be that it was a phantom event and something about us "other world" refugees makes us more attuned to such things in a way that the local residents aren't, but I can only guess at this point.

I know when we got to the scene of the crash, there was nothing there but the ruined car. No casualties, no fire, just a burnt-out car that they're now using as a ticket booth at the circus. And as I said before, there are very strong psychic impressions of fire and death around that car. It wouldn't surprise me to find it an anchor for other supernatural events.

[bloodalwaystells]

Misdirection and chaos certainly seems to be part of Fenix's act, I wouldn't put it past him. He's a showman at heart, that type of personality tends to thrive on what they create.

I agree that we need more information about this, preferably from ADI themselves.

[musicdied]

Smoke and mirrors. It seems to all come back to that, one way or another.

[bloodalwaystells]

It does. Which means digging for those roots, to see if it all really does connect. I suspect it does, but I think we need more to make it all fit.

un: alexreagan

[11calls]

He insinuated it to me as well. Fenix told me that a "Mr. Charles Moore" was the one who had witnessed 'Apex Detectives' around the day before the derailment. Moore was apparently a performer from the 1910 circus--a magician-- who wasn't on the train. When I asked about the age gap between them, Fenix said that he was very young and Moore was very old. He was very cagey about where Moore may have lived or been buried but he Fenix did mention his own stomping grounds in Maine.

[Stephen King country, not really all that reassuring.]

Something else to consider: he definitely made a mention to circus folks being "slippery as seals." Given everything that happened last month with the selkies I really don't think it was a coincidence given his other choices of word play.

[sorser]

Good to know. Consider it a name that’s worthy of inquiry further down the line.

I wasn’t here for the… seal situation. [What else to call it, really.] Was there anything else to link them to that incident, retrospectively?

[11calls]

Other than the idea that he's got someone who's acting as some sort of informant in town and knew what happened, I don't know that there's a direct connection. But he's definitely too calculated in his speech for it to be anything else.

[sorser]

Possibly another reason that drew the circus here, on top of the history. Most would turn in the other direction if they heard what had happened.

[bloodalwaystells]

I wasn't here for the seals incident, I've only heard about it secondhand. But it sounds like Mr. Down is keeping at least some track of what's going on in this town.

I definitely think it's time to find out what ADI isn't telling us. Finding out more about Mr. Moore would be a good addition to that list. There's a lot of history of the carnival and the players that we don't have yet.

[11calls]

The Circus has or at the very least had a public website with various dates around here listed on it. Down listed them off perfectly but it may be worth checking to see if the places around had a visit from the circus and what kind of show it was if they had. Burlington, Vermont was the last place the show was, that isn't all that far away.

[bloodalwaystells]

I'm happy to leave that to our more technically minded people, but that's definitely a good place to start. Going through Burlington's news for mentions of it would be helpful, as well, and keeping an eye on Boston's current news for advertisements and other publicity around the event.