conversations.from: system
conversations.value: Welcome to the Devil's Carnival. 
  
  No, not like that ridiculous opera. We're not quite so literal here. There's no Lucifer, no Hell, and no off-key musical numbers (unless you happen to overhear our Master of Mayhem singing in the shower). There are, however, vampires walking high wires, werewolves taming lions, and fae striking bargains on the midway. If you're careful, you can come and take a look around, enjoy the show, and return safely home at the end of the night.
  
  If you're not, you might just find yourself a permanent resident under the big top.
  
  This is Darke and Moreau's Devilish Fun Fair, where the fiends come out to play. 
  ______________________________
  
  **Game Theme: [Aurora - Under the Water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP24Fp_aJbM)**
  
  **Purpose & Structure:** The Devil's Carnival is intended to be a character study, an exploration of damaged, dark creatures trying to make peace with their pasts and find a place for themselves in a world that no longer has a use for or belief in them. The game will deal with numerous themes, including:
  
  * personal horror 
  * guilt and redemption
  * morality and humanity, including moral ambiguity
  * immortality 
  * escapism vs. confronting the past
  * anachronism and purposelessness
  * trust and camaraderie
  * otherness
  * closed communities
  
  We'll be accomplishing this through a combination of three things: subplots, side quests, and personal narrative.
  
  *Subplots* will focus on something from your character's past that haunts them. It might be a person - a past lover, a murderous enemy - or it might be something your character did, witnessed, or failed to prevent. In any case, it should be something that they know will one day catch up with them, and that they live in constant dread of. The threads of these subplots will be woven together to create the game's metaplot.
  
  *Side quests* will help flesh out the day-to-day life of the carnival crew and give you some short term drama to work with. I'll be very open to player requests and suggestions for mini-adventures, unexpected trouble, etc. I'll also keep an eye out for opportunities to build on players' moves and drop surprise side quests into 'social' scenes.
  
  *Personal narrative* will be the responsibility of the players, an opportunity to take a deep dive into your character's psyche and the relationships they're building with one another as members of the fun fair's crew.
  
  **Mood:** The tone of the game will be dark, tense, and occasionally brooding, interspersed with moments of levity, hope, and the occasional thrill. A sense of sloughing off slow decay and creeping towards a modern age will be juxtaposed against the heavy timelessness of being an immortal, supernatural creature.
  
  If you need inspiration, check out:
  * The Devil's Carnival (film)
  * Carnivale (TV show)
  * American Horror Story: Freak Show (TV show)
  * Cirque du Freak (book series)
  * The Night Circus (book)
  * Black Butler: Book of Circus (manga/anime)
  * The World of Darkness supplement Midnight Circus (book)
  * Just about anything Rob Zombie or Emilie Autumn related (music)
  * The [Jim Rose Circus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rose_Circus), [Cirque Berzerk](http://www.cirqueberzerk.com/index.html), and other 'cirque noir' groups 
  
  Characters don't need to go to the Jim Rose extreme in their acts by any stretch of the imagination; traditional circus acts, freak show fodder, midway agents, burlesque dancers, ride operators, fortune tellers, and even operations crew are all needed and will have a place here.
  
  **NPC CAST:**
  
  ***Priscilla Darke*** *(witch)* - Mistress of Mayhem and General Manager 
  ***Arséne Moreau*** *(zombie*) - Master of Mayhem and Advance Agent
  ***Colette "Lettie" LeRoy*** *(gorgon)* - Artist and Wardrobe Mistress
  ***Mary Worth*** *(Bloody Mary)* - Operator, House of Mirrors
  ***Darayavausha "Dasha" Konstantinovna***, *the Swan of St. Petersburg (vampire)* - Tightrope Act and Assistant, Knife Throwing Act
  ***Roman Shishkin***, *the Prince of Thieves (vampire)* - Knife Throwing Act
  ***Duke McGrath*** *(cat sith)* - King of Beasts Act, Freak Show and Menagerie Manager
  ***Kiki Katerwaul*** *(banshee)* - Clown
  ***Jinn*** *(jinni)* - Medic and Midway Agent
  ***Tobias Bryson*** *(reaper)* - Roustabout
  
  **PC CAST:**
  
  ***Daniel Summers*** *(conjugate)* - Aerial Acrobat
  ***Vigil*** *(graveyard guardian)* - Head of Security
  ***Nessala*** *(mermaid)* - Burlesque Dancer and Mermaid Exhibit, Freak Show
  ***No-She*** *(wendigo)* - Concessions
  ***Wake*** *(doppelganger)* - Medium and Handyman
  ***Zephira West*** *(siren)* - Birdcage Act, Burlesque Show 
  
  Please check the [NPC document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sKq-n4rT5s59t7MZleAqyMvcoi2quF5YaDPOh-eUV4Y/edit?usp=sharing) for brief write ups on named NPCs. I may add more as we go along, depending on how plot develops and what roles are and aren't filled. While I haven't bothered mentioning them here or drawing them up in detail, assume that there is an assortment of 'extras' who work the midway and see to the operational needs of the carnival.
  
  While the use of [carnival lingo](http://www.conklinshows.com/info/dictionary/index.html) is not required in this game, it's a heck of a lot of fun. Feel free to use it or not in accordance with your comfort level.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: In addition to providing a home for the Fun Fair's main attractions, the big top serves as a sort of commons for off-duty crew. Town halls, parties, and disciplinary hearings are also conducted here. 
conversations.prefix: Under the Big Top:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Drunk college kids - and even sober college kids - come with all sorts of risks. Keeping them from fooling with dangerous animals, pyrotechnics,the performers in the Freak Show, and each other takes constant vigilance and endless patrolling.
  
  (Recommended for Vigil and Wake)
conversations.prefix: Nose for Trouble:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're a performer by trade, and you're officially on. Time to earn your keep and give the public something to talk about for days!
  
  (Recommended for Daniel and Nessala)
conversations.prefix: Wow the Crowd:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The Fair is full of dangerous things, none more so than the people - and things - that run it. Surrounded by so much life, the evil in you is clawing to get out.
  
  (Recommended for Zephira and No-She)
conversations.prefix: Inner Demons:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You are a mermaid, one of the long-lived, aloof People of the Sea.  You can breathe water equally well as air, and slither on land on your naga-like tail.  You can also become human for brief periods of time.
conversations.prefix: Merfolk:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have a natural talent for art, dance, design, and performance.  Visually, you know how to stun in just about any medium.  (It doesn't hurt that, like most merfolk, you're beautiful, too.)
conversations.prefix: Artistic:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The emotional whiplash of abruptly coming to terms with morality and consequences left you burned.  Sometimes you're too cautious and withdrawn, and don't trust your own  judgment when you should.
conversations.prefix: Burned:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You are technically two people inheriting the same body. You have two completely different personalities and aspirations, but you can't be separated for more than a couple of hours at a time.
conversations.prefix: Conjugate:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You killed one of your own people.  Maybe you were trying to do the right thing when you did it, but what you did was still wrong.  And if your people ever catch up with you, they won't exactly be understanding.
conversations.prefix: Guilt of a Murderer:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: While your mental capabilities are split and often contradicting, you have the strength of two men. Your eternal companion also gives you the figurative strength to deal with great emotional trauma, because you never have to go through it alone.
conversations.prefix: Strong:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You are haunted not only by an upsetting past, but by yourself. Or rather, the other half of yourself. You can't be alone, and this constant companionship on top of harsh memories takes quite the toll.
conversations.prefix: Haunted:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You both want desperately to be your own person, but can you overcome the biological bond you share?
conversations.prefix: Individuality:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Cannibal spirit of the north. Monstrous, bestial, and always hungry.
  
  So the legends say.
conversations.prefix: Wendigo:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have spent the last several decades in a blur of pure animal instinct. That occasionally has advantages.
conversations.prefix: Instinct:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: It never lessens. It never stops.
conversations.prefix: Hunger:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The legends outline the ways in which a human spirit can be twisted into a wendigo.
  
  But can a wendigo grow a human soul?
conversations.prefix: A Human Heart:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A spirit empowered to protect a burial ground from intrusion and evil, borne of the first person interred in that ground. 
conversations.prefix: Graveyard Guardian:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Life and unlife alike are nothing without purpose -- and purpose is nothing without the will to see it fulfilled. 
conversations.prefix: Driven:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: To deny the manifold possibilities of this world is to admire a portrait for the brush that painted it. 
conversations.prefix: Blinkered:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Those that call failure a discovery of one more way to not succeed would do well to consider the cost of said discovery -- to others above all. 
conversations.prefix: Never Again:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: *Fetch. Ka. Vardøger.  Etiäinen. Ankou.*
  
  There are many names for what you are, but you've never encountered another. You can be anyone. You are no one. 
  
  They say you are a harbinger of death, or its cause. Maybe once that was true.
  
  Not anymore.
conversations.prefix: Doppelgänger:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have lived many lives, walked in many shoes, experienced so many pains and triumphs.
  
  You understand.
conversations.prefix: Understanding:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Old habits die hard.
  
  Observing others has been your entire existence. Sometimes you can't shut it off.
  
  Sometimes you don't want to.
conversations.prefix: Intrusive:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You weren't always set on honoring and celebrating the life around you. Once upon a time, *you* were the malevolent creature in the dark that wrecked lives for the sheer joy of it.
  
  Find a way to atone.
conversations.prefix: Atonement:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: To all intents and purposes you're human, but your parentage has endowed you with certain...quirks.
conversations.prefix: More Than Human:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Once you've picked a path, you have the strength of will to see it through.
conversations.prefix: Determined:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: This world is still new to you, but you're learning.
conversations.prefix: Inexperienced:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Like a siren, the darkness calls you.
conversations.prefix: Resist the Urge:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Your tank is a barely a puddle compared to the ocean.  Your coral castle and your shower sleeping station barely give you enough room to move at all.  
  And you can only take so much of it.
conversations.prefix: Claustrophobia:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You notice a lot in your surroundings, especially about people. You've spent lifetimes watching them, after all.
conversations.prefix: Observant:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You have trouble identifying your emotions, much less  expressing them. Sadness, anger, shame become one feeling, and your reactions tend to be... inappropriate.
conversations.prefix: ESL (Emotion as a Second Language):
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You were also human once.
  
  Even at the hunger's worst, some part of you remembers.
conversations.prefix: A Spark: