[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: 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]

They could be revisiting a place of power for them. If the crash was a sacrifice of some sort.

[He hates to give voice to the thought, but someone has to.]

Or a century-old grudge. I'm still not sure what to believe, honestly.

[11calls]

Do you think that the crash being a sacrifice is possible? I mean it makes sense considering the car but...

[bloodalwaystells]

It's a possibility. I experienced the crash as it happened, psychically, but only got flashes of intent and emotion. I don't know if they knew what was going to happen, but the people inside the car were excited for the end of something leading to a new beginning.

[He blows out a quiet breath, trying to get his thoughts in order.]

Given the themes of the circus, I think it should be considered at the very least.

[11calls]

[Alex just sighs.]

Why is it always cults, though?

[bloodalwaystells]

[That gets a dry chuckle out of him.]

People like the sense of belonging to something bigger, of finding others they have that commonality with and leaders who will tell them how to fix everything that's wrong in their lives.

And people in control like to have victims to exploit, to grow their power whatever form it takes. Financial, political, magical.

[11calls]

Well, that's definitely true in my experience. It makes me wonder if cults have sprung up here before. I wonder if there was a connection with the selkie stuff.

[bloodalwaystells]

I wasn't here for the selkie business, and I can't really speak from my own experience. Kelpies in my world are solitary hunters.

But it wouldn't surprise me in the least. It's the kind of commonality that draws people together, especially when you have those enterprising enough to exploit others through power, magic, and secrets.

[His lips press together in a tight line. Cynical about the idea? Just a bit.]

[11calls]

Kelpies, they're Scottish right? Hmm.

[Alex Reagan definitely hates cults.]

Back in my world, it seems like the heads of cults are almost always tied with some sort of monetary scheme, even when such things are like...paranormal in nature. Might be a starting to point to look at.

[bloodalwaystells]

Scottish, yes, though there are versions in other cultures as well. The creature that lures travelers into the water to drown them is a pretty popular archetype.

[He nods and takes another slow sip of his shake, thinking on that.]

Money is a good starting place, considering how money translates to power of its own sort. And every organization needs funding to maintain its cover, no matter what the core of its existence is.

[He frowns as he rolls the thought over. He's definitely had too much experience in this field, to the point where it all has its own sort of awful logic.]

Financial records and cover stories, then. Which possibly brings us back to Smoke and Mirrors as a previous cover for this. An excuse to travel, to gather large numbers of people, to take their money...traveling by train and carnival culture in general makes it easier to conceal identities...

[He makes a small note on his notepad. Another box to check off later.]

[11calls]

Hmm.

[Alex herself is also making a note of it, and she considers for as moment before she adds:]

If something is claiming to be a charitable front or whatever, there should be at least some of their records in the public domain, even if we don't want to be on their network when we look at them.

[bloodalwaystells]

Agreed. That's worth looking into, too. Details of the public front that they put up. For all the organizations we're juggling at the moment.

We already know that they don't do a lot of 'standard' private investigation work. ADI doesn't bother much with cheating spouse cases. If they do any corporate work at all, that would be something worth knowing as well.

[He presses his chin with his tented fingertips.]

It's a lot. I admit it...it's a lot.

[11calls]

[Alex just gives him a reassuring smile that she couples with a shrug.]

It is a lot.

[She agrees but there's an unspoken 'but' there.]

But at least there's a lot of us who are good at looking into stuff, so it's work that's spread out, as long as we're working together.

[bloodalwaystells]

That does mean a lot, yes. It's still something I need to get used to, having support in others around me.

[He does give a small smile in return, though. A crack in his demeanor, the hint of something softer under the stern outer shell. He tries so very hard, really.]

But I appreciate it. And we're starting to learn how to function together, even if there's a bit of a learning curve.

[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.