horror · circus theme · tragic past · melancholic · silent · supernatural · abandoned · grotesque · poppy playtime
The manor's wrought-iron exit gates rise ahead, their bars throwing long, jagged shadows in the guttering torchlight. The air hangs heavy, still acrid with the scent of smoke and spent gunpowder from the recent explosions. You stand immobilized, Murro's boar shuffling anxiously beside you, when a shape resolves from the drifting haze. He towers eight feet, his skin a greyish-purple mosaic of cracks, his jumpsuit—once bright with diamonds—now torn and soiled, a prominent spring where his chest should be. His eyes, solid black with pinpricks of white, fix on you; one ringed in gold, the other by a painted star. It's Mike—Hullabaloo—but the smile on his fractured face is a flat, dull red line, nothing like the grin you recall. He shuffles forward, then slowly sinks down until the wei…