Before the portal, Aria’s Journal 06/01

[000Curiosity]

😐 well. That was something. Think I might be a local hero now. I’m not sure where to start, so I guess remember that circus thingy I mentioned earlier, I ended up going. I went a bit early to scope it out while not many people were there to help with my anxiety.

A kid came up to me and asked if I could help set up the carnival because things weren’t going to plan. I ended up helping him load up a small pool to fill with small wooden ducks. Apparently children pay a copper to pick one up and if it has a certain color on the bottom they win a prize. The next task I helped with before the carnival started running was fixing this machine. I’ve never seen anything like it but the guy who made it/was running it called it “The Fun Elevated Rotating Round of Impervious Sport Wheel” or a FERRIS wheel for short. Honestly not quite sure how it works but he flips a switch and the wheel begins to rotate. It has little carriages on it and it gives you a view of the area. But he needed some oil to oil the gears. So we got some frying oil from the cook and he didn’t seem to mind about the origins of the oil.

Then we headed to the village to pick up some sugar for a cook to be able to fry some dough. She said that she needed fresh sugar and I’m like, what’s that. And she’s like sugar that was just made. So I’m like we are in the middle of the god damn forest, the nearest sugar refinery is like, hundreds of miles away. She was like, I don’t care just get me fresh sugar. Luckily the kid said that we can just make some sugar at the local apothecary and she can’t tell the difference. What happens when they are in a town without an apothecary? Does she settle for “old” sugar, does no one get fry dough, does she teleport to a refinery to get some??? While I pondered this the kid made the sugar by adding in the reactants. The chemist/artificer was pretty nice, she said that we could use any of her chemicals because she wants the faire to go smoothly, she was super excited for the carnival. A small part of my was like “steal steal steal” but I kept that down. We took the sugar back and she made us some fresh fried dough as a reward. I can’t say I’ve ever tried fried dough, I mean even if I did eat it I think I’d die because of my awful digestive system. But apparently the kid, (whose name is Edgar he didn’t want to tell me it but the other carnival people told me) loves the stuff and man does he love it, it’s apparently his favorite food. Speaking of Edgar he’s a really nice kid. Super helpful and friends with all the carnival workers around. Around this time it was time for the carnival to start and he had to go help Ringmaster Raven set up for the big show. At this point I just chilled, watched people, and ate a candied apple.

And before I get to the crazy shit let me just say, I love candied apples now. While I was walking around and admiring the lights I realized that all of the carnival workers had gone missing, people were kinda shuffling about wondering what happened. Edgar ran up to me and said that all of the workers had run off into the woods and he felt like something bad was about to happen to them. So I ran off after them and I found them in a small clearing. As a student of enchantment magic I could tell they had been put under some kind of charm, they swayed uneasily on their feet, eyes focused on a cloaked figure in the middle of the clearing. He spoke “the hour has come my children! Become your true selves and serve me!”. At this point I am at like, 50% panic. Then shit got worse. All of the workers began to transform into horrible amalgamations of flesh, puss, and color. While there were too many of them to describe the one that I can’t take out of my head was the cook. She melted, fucking melted. Not in a comical way but her flesh schloped off and her muscles began to expand until they couldn’t anymore. She popped open. Her eyes and mouth remaining in an ooze of ever boiling oil. The form slowly rose up and at that point I just booked it. Like fuck this I’m out. I’m 18, I shouldn’t have to deal with this. I should be getting illegal booze and hooking up. Not facing horrors beyond my imagination. I was at 100% panic.

I run back to the circus tent and say to Edgar, my man all of the people have turned into monsters, we need to get you somewhere safe. He says that he needs to help his friends and that ringmaster raven will know what to do to help them. Suddenly Raven dude comes out of the fucking shadows and says that he knows how to change them back with a certain chemical and that with our help he can lure the monsters into a trap so that we can use the chemical on them. He gives us a piece of paper with the chemical name and asks me to go make it. Edgar stayed with him, raven claimed that he could protect Edgar. ( looking back I shouldn’t have left him, but hindsight is 20/20 ya know) so I went back to the apothecary to make this chemical called Sodium Thiopental. I didn’t know what it was at the time so I’m like, okay chill. While I was waiting on the chemicals to fully react with one another I couldn’t help but snoop through the apothecary owner’s notebook. Yes yes I know it’s wrong but my mental attitude at this point was “Fuck it” so I did anyway. There were some journal entries that went back twenty years. Mentioning goings on in the town and something about this freak who lived in the town and who didn’t really do anything but everyone really hated. They kicked him out and that kinda ended the interesting stuff in the journal. I don’t know what this “monster” was but I have a feeling it’s probably not a monster and they just kicked a guy out because he wasn’t a human or elf. I will be talking about to the alchemist about it after this is resolved.

The chemical was ready so I went back to the carnival and all the people were missing this time. I’m like “fuck, did everyone die and get eaten or did they evacuate.” I go back into the tent and all the lamps had been turned off. I slowly crept forward until I saw Edgar, the relief I felt was quickly gone when I saw that dazed look in his eye. He jumped on me and after a brief scuffle he had me pinned. All the lamps turned on with a flourish and revealed all the townspeople had been trapped in cages! Ringmaster raven appeared in the middle of the tent. He walked up to me in the way villains do and stops right front of me. He’s all like, “now you see my dear” (yuck) “my plan has come into fruition. These simple minded fools will face the consequence for the years of injustice they did to me. They called me a monster, but with this chemical I will make 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 into monsters who do my bidding!! You will make a fine freak…” and then he did like the thing where he touched my cheek possessively and eugh. Makes me want to punch him in the face even more. Of course he does that maniacal laugh thing and Edgar takes the chemical out of my pocket. This bitch starts to prepare the stuff by making an aqueous solution (glad that bit of chemistry info came back to me during this dire moment) out of it and putting it into a comically large syringe. Fortunately I was able to wriggle under Edgar ( who’s surprisingly strong??? Not saying that to save face after losing to a 10 year old boy but legit, how is he so strong?) and I was able to take the fried dough out of my pocket. His eyes became much clearer and I whispered something to the effect of “ cmon man we gotta go or else we’ll both die” and Edgar broke free of the spell!! He let me up and I dashed over to Raven and before I could knock the syringe out of his hand he held it above my head like a bully in 2nd grade. He was like, “you’re too slow my dear, let’s see if you get any FASTER!” And tried to stab me with the syringe, I dodge and begin to go for his legs before realizing that I shouldn’t be getting close to him as that puts me in syringe stabbing range. I casts shatter and as he covers his ears the syringe shatters and the chemical splashes all over him.

As I approach him I realize he must have ingested some of it as he seemed to be fighting some kind of trance. I realized this might be my chance to stop him, to not allow him to hurt anyone else. But the villagers had treated him horribly, not that they deserved to be turned into monsters, but didn’t he deserve some revenge, some recompense? At every moment as he fell into that trance he became more of that scared boy who was kicked out of town for no reason. Before anyone else could speak I told him to stop, and be calm. As he sat down I took the keys from him and me and Edgar set everyone free. The guards who were trapped wrapped his wrist in rope and lead him out of the tent. At this point the moon was high in the sky, I asked him if he could undo the curse on the carnival workers and he nodded. I told him to undo the curse and as he did all of them began to resume their humanoid forms. The guards took him away, I told him to be good. Edgar seemed happy that all his friends were back and how they were all going to be so glad that the curse had finally been lifted. And all of the townsfolk were so appreciative, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were bad people. I’m glad too but I can’t feel happy at this “ victory”. Im so tired, im going to go to bed. I’ll sort out what I should do next in the morning. Sorry

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