apocalypsehowcomm | [Network] Collecting Information

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[Network] Collecting Information

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.

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"Wax poetic"? Was he overly fond of puns, did you notice?

He made a couple of comments that seemed to amuse him a great deal. He talked about "waxing poetic". That he "rose above" his fear of doing the act for the first time. And that he "reshaped" himself for his new life at the circus.

Honestly, he sounded a bit drunk during some of the conversation. High on adrenaline, perhaps, or just very excitable, but he seemed to find a great deal of things entertaining.

I wasn't able to see as much of their train as I would have liked, but the cars I did see were covered in candles. Beeswax, I think, by the smell. Fire and melting things are an obsession for more than just him.

I don't know if it would be useful, but I have one.

There's a little more to speak of, regarding Pyre. He's a new addition to the circus, having joined them late this year. He's been in the background most of the time, and this was his first public performance. I spoke to Pyre after his show, and 'provoked' him sufficiently that he attacked me--when he hit me, his hand was made of molten wax that burned my skin. Now, the circus did not have a stop in Gloucester scheduled, but they chose to make one now, 100 years after the other circus train derailed. That, combined with the above about Pyre's performance seems like they were trying to make some sort of point here. We know there are greater entities feeding on fear. If they got a small dose of it here, I don't want to imagine what they'll get further north, when they stop in Boston. Fenix Down's name and Pyre's act both speak to a theme of rebirth. In video games (notably the Final Fantasy series), a "Phoenix Down" is a revival item that can be used when a member of your party is defeated in battle. Pyre the Phoenix rose from his own ashes. While a direct connection can't be drawn (to my knowledge) between this and the derailment, coming back 100 years later feels like a cycle coming back to the start/endpoint. It's interesting to note Jaeger mentioning the snap Pyre used to return his hand to normal, above. We saw Fenix snap at the end of Pyre's performance, before he stood up again--back to normal. A somatic component to whatever's going on, possibly. Something to pay attention to in the future. If someone had prevented either of them from snapping, would the burning simply have continued?

Edited 2021-09-01 06:56 (UTC)

I'd be curious to see if I could divine anything off it, but I'm wary of using my abilities too much here. I've been told it's not safe and I believe that. The backlash from the rail car was fairly intense as well. I experienced what those in the car did.

[He adds that last reluctantly, because that? That was horrible. He'd pay the price again if necessary but he's relieved that he probably, honestly, just doesn't have enough juice for it.]

Were you the one that took the pictures of the "shrines"? I didn't get a chance to comment on them at the time but I was shown them later.

Is that normal for how your abilities work?

[Because that sounds absolutely nightmarish.]

There must be safer tests that can be done at headquarters, to see if there's anything significant. Or chemically unusual.

[She saw those menus. She's not ruling anything out.]

It was living quarters for some of the performers. But he's right, they do look a little like shrines.

It was more intense than I usually experience, but it's always a possibility when you open yourself up to the psychic impressions left on something. And violent death tends to leave a very strong impression.

[He sort of knew what he was in for, and did it anyway. Some risks just need to be taken.]

They definitely seem to take their theme very seriously, even off-stage. I wasn't able to talk to any of the other employees, unfortunately, but Pyre at least was very devoted to the whole idea.

Devotion alone isn't a crime, but if they're committed to something malignant, then I'm definitely concerned.

I personally can vouch for the burns, and that they were indeed made by molten wax. And I hope you're feeling a little better.

That's an interesting question. Magic in my world doesn't tend to require gestures, some people simply use them to help focus. So I can't speak with any authority about that, but it is an interesting "tell" to watch for.

I'm still learning how magic in this world functions. ADI told us some, but it still leaves a lot of details and nuances.

I find it very curious that they decided to stop here. Did they know about ADI's presence here? I'm still not certain that the train crash was a sacrifice, but I have to admit it lines up in disturbing ways.

[There are a lot of questions that Jaeger still can't answer. And it's bothering him a great deal.]

If the town doesn't burn down around us in the next few days, I am buying you a drink.

[She's sticking with her first impression on this one: absolutely nightmarish.]

I'm not certain there's anything benign to be committed to here. But what you said about sacrifice - maybe we've already seen it.

No one's mentioned the fliers yet but they were paying people a hundred-dollars to put them up. [ Look. A hundred-dollars is a hundred-dollars. It was supposed to have been easy money but no! ]

I'm not sure how far into it when it started. It may have been halfway, I'm not sure. At any rate, I started to feel as though I had to put as many as I could up. [ And with Kate that meant putting them up perfectly level and secured with more than one piece of tape because she's like that. ] I didn't notice it though until I was out of fliers.

I wonder if the residents of Gloucester felt any compulsion from them to visit the fair. If the goal was to feed off of fear, then it would stand to reason that they would want as many people as possible to attend.

That's an interesting point as well. Putting up fliers isn't something I'd usually take the time to do, but I was doing it too.

[Well, a hundred dollars is nice, but still.]

With the circus pretty much over, it might be difficult to investigate at this point but it's worth adding to the file at the very least. Perhaps pick up a couple from the walls just to see if there's any traces of anything unusual about them.

I'd definitely welcome a drink when all this settles down a bit.

[He purses his lips in reluctant agreement.]

I'm not seeing a lot of benevolent intent here, either. Even if the real event has already passed, it's proven a success and will probably be repeated now that they know it works.

Pyre seemed to be well enough after the whole thing, thrilled even, but the audience got far more than they bargained for. Even if it turned out "okay" in the end.

[Because he's not going to say it's really okay. Not if it's giving power to something that shouldn't exist.]

I remember where I put them up. I wonder if they're still there. I mean, they couldn't have all been removed overnight.

[ She remembers where she started anyway. ]

Considering how many we put up, and how many of us were working on it, I'm sure it will be simple enough to collect a couple before they're all torn down.

Sooner is better than later, I expect. If there's any traces of anything on them, in particular.

I talked to Pyre too. He got very offended when I insinuated that people actually got hurt and that he fed on pain. He was very adamant that it was all a smokeshow and that they got their power by feeding off of what people thought would happen rather than any actually suffering infilicted.

Of course, when I did the exact same thing to him and pretended that I was aspiring to avatarhood and threatened to kill him as a way to feed whichever God I'd be feeding, he got very upset and angry. So methinks he's not particularly good at taking it.

I don't know how true his claims of cruelty free fear feeding is, but at the very least he seems to believe it. That being said, he was painfully stupid.

Edited 2021-09-03 02:56 (UTC)

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.

[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.

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.

I can go now and collect some and bring them to you.

[ It's not an excuse to visit the cute little coffee shop where she had started putting the fliers up, no way no how! ]

Is it really magic?

[ Despite everyone having an Ability in Kate's world, there is still no such thing as magic. ]

About the Fun House.

There was a mirror at the center of the maze. It felt strange, so I tried to move it or get a read on it of sorts. I wasn't able to move it entirely, but I felt the magic I used being reflected back to me. (I know, it's a mirror. Funny.) There is no reason why I should have been affected by it.

When I exited the maze I experienced similar hallucinations as you—and what I can assume others, as well—did.

Edited 2021-09-03 16:16 (UTC)

I'm not sure if I'd call him stupid, but certainly naive, lonely and easy for Fenix to manipulate. Desperate for attention and validation. I can see just how it happened... It makes me wonder if there are other people with powers who could be so easily picked up by groups like the circus, turned to the cause of spreading fears.

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.

If this wasn't already the repetition. What happened with Pyre was horrible, but it was contained. It could have easily not been, with that many people and that much accelerant in a closed space. It was like they knew exactly how far they had to go to get the result they wanted.

[She grimaces, glancing down at something offscreen.]

It feels like we're missing the piece that would tell us the shape of this. Whether this is them building to something bigger, or them accomplishing what they came to do. I don't think we can just wash our hands of it either way, but knowing would help shape our approach.

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.

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?”

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