#defunct circus

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Spoiled Hunt,” Border Cities Star. October 20, 1932. Page 8. ---- Just a easy as shooting rabbits, was the description of lion hunting by Walter White, a boatman of Commerce, Mo.,, and a deputy sheriff who machine-gunned two lions to death on an island in the Mississippi river and thereby broke up the big lion hunt of the midwest. The hunt was staged by Denver Wright. St. Louis man, who had purchased two lions from a defunct circus.

[circusgoth-dotcom]

i wish i could mute notifications for specific blogs (unless i can and i just don't know how?), idk why people keep following my old self ship blog but i don't want to delete it so i just have to be mildly annoyed about it

[scrabbleknight]

The Amazing Digital Circus Theory: Nothing is Real

I just watched (and rewatched) The Amazing Digital Circus and I absolutely love it, especially with the music. Pomni is my favourite anxiety-filled jester, Kingster is the most relatable character there is, Gangle is precious and should be protected, Jax is literally just the classic yellow-gloved Bugs Bunny, and Ragatha is the nicest person in the cast. Oh, and there's also Caine and Bubble, the beloved showman duo.

I don't really know anything about it outside of the pilot but I still want to put my two cents in the whole theory thing. A-hem! So, the theory goes:

The cast isn't trapped in this digital world; they're DIGITAL COPIES of the original persons.

In September 2015, a science fiction survival horror game was released, titled "SOMA". The game is about a man named Simon Jarrett who, after doing an experimental brain scan to help with his brain damage, was transported to a futuristic underwater lab that is completely taken over by a rouge AI known as the WAU.

Spoiler alert! This game deals with the concept of consciousness as well as the Ship of Theseus, except there's no real body. See, the big plot reveal in the game was that Simon wasn't transported to the future at all; the Simon we've been playing as was really a personality copy of the original Simon, which became the basis of AI technology. The real human Simon lived the rest of his days as usual and eventually died from his brain injury. This plot point about not being the real Simon was not only brought up once, nor twice, but THREE TIMES, each more devastating than the last.

What's happening in the Amazing Digital Circus is something like that. Pomni stated that she wore a headset and was suddenly transported here. But what if that's not true? What if Pomni is actually a digital copy of the real human Pomni (who's name we don't know)? What if that's the case for all of them, minus Caine and Bubbles who are more likely to be true AI made to help them and keep them sane?

This is why none of them can't escape. Because there's no such thing. They're not trapped in this circus purgatory; it's literally the only place they can exist. The real human selves are probably unaware at all. Real-life Pomni probably was playing a game and is now having dinner with her family, blissfully unaware that her personality had been copypasted into The Amazing Digital Circus. Turning into an Abstract is just what happens when their data becomes corrupted, which is exacerbated from insanity. Keeping sane means their data stays clean, or maybe their data becoming corrupted is what makes them insane and Abstracted. The chicken or the egg?

Calling it now; if this theory is true, then Pomni will learn that she herself is not real and this could cause other characters becoming Abstracted, maybe even herself. It could lead to them figuring out how to undo Abstracts, or at least destroy them completely, giving them a way out (through deletion).

As for why their personalities were copied and put into this place... Who knows? It could be an experiment performed by the C&A company, or it could be a glitch in the matrix that became self-aware and isn't big enough of a deal to be dealt with, like an old defunct project.

Man, I am so looking forward to Ep1 :D

[akallabeth-joie]

Girl Genius Pre-Canon Timeline

I just binge-read through the archives again, and decided to finally sort though all the time cues we get for the 20-odd years before the story starts. Years are based on the date on Klaus Barry Heterodyne's memorial, in conjunction with Agatha's age, and a lot of "it's been X years" remarks made during flashbacks. I'm only using information from the webcomic, since I don't have the novels on hand.

Late 1869- mid 1870: Lucrezia Mongfish accepts Bill Heterodyne's proposal; disappearance of Klaus Wulfenbach

?1870?: Birth of Gilgamesh Wulfenbach*

?1871?: Birth of Tarvek Sturmvoraus*

1872: Birth of Bill and Lucrezia's eldest child, Klaus Barry Heterodyne (2 years 3 months after Klaus Wulfenbach's disappearance)

Before 1873: Birth of Theopholous DuMedd, son of Serpentina Mongfish. His aunt Lucrezia attended his christening, which therefore must have taken place sometime before her disappearance.

1873 (or January 1874): The Other attacks Castle Heterodyne, killing Klaus Barry (age 407 days / 13 months) and 63 castle staff including Carson Von Mekkan's son (and possibly also Dr. Mongfish**). Disappearance of Lucrezia. Bill and Barry Heterodyne leave Mechanicsburg to fight the Other. Beginning of continent-wide warfare and chaos.

1874: Birth of Agatha Heterodyne (<9 months after attack on Castle Heterodyne, probably at least 4- 5 months after, since Lucrezia was apparently not showing at the time of her disappearance).

c.1874-1875: “A few years” after the destruction of Castle Heterodyne (per Carson), and “about 18 years” before the main story starts (per the authors in the now-defunct list of all characters appearing in the story), Bill & Barry Heterodyne disappear.

c.1875-77: Attacks from the Other stop shortly after the Heterodyne Boys disappear. Klaus Wulfenbach returns to Europa, builds the airship Castle Wulfenbach and ends the wars, making an empire in the process. At some point, he starts a school for the children of rulers and powerful sparks.

1877/8: TPU expedition to Castle Heterodyne, which lasts 6 months; during that time, Klaus Wulfenbach takes over Mechanicsburg

1878: Klaus Wulfenbach begins imprisoning troublesome sparks in Castle Heterodyne

?1878?: Gilgamesh Wulfenbach breaks through as a spark at age 8. Tarvek is sent home from Castle Wulfenbach at some point before this.

??At some point before 1879 (and probably after 1875) Barry returns with Agatha; they are constantly moving, and Barry keeps their identities a secret, even from his old friends.

1879: Agatha, age 5, begins to break through as a spark.

1881: Barry Heterodyne disappears again, leaving Agatha in the care of Adam & Lilith Clay in Beetleburg.

1889: Tarvek takes Tinka from Master Payne's circus and reverse-engineers her to make a clank body for his mortally-wounded sister Anevka.

1892: The Story Begins... (spring/summer 1892)

1894-5: The Story Resumes (deep winter, after a 2.5 year time-skip).

*I think the novelization mentions Gil being 22 when the story starts (which is the age listed on the fan wiki, no source cited), but it's been years since I read it, so here I'm sticking to the information in the comic itself. This is a rough estimate, since we don't have a ton to go on: we know that Gil was born during his father's exile and accompanied him back to Europa, which puts his birth year at no earlier than 1870 and no later than 1875. Gil is finished with college by time the story starts, suggesting that he is older than Agatha (who is 18 and still a student at that point), but he also appears to have returned to Castle Wulfenbach relatively recently (having run into none of his old friends, who also haven't noticed that a certain empty laboratory is now his flight lab). Around age 8, Gil was friends with Tarvek, which suggests they are probably of a similar age. If taken literally, Tarvek's remark about being ~3 years old when his father was collaborating with the Other (c.1874 and before) puts his birth year around 1871. Like Gil, Tarvek has finished college before the story starts, and was apparently back in Sturmhalten at least three years before the story.

**The lengthy but defunct character list has Dr. Mongfish dying in an attack on Castle Heterodyne. We only know of one such attack, though it's possible this refers to a separate, earlier event. However, his grandson Theo Dumedd's (fictional) story of the Heterodynes' disappearance puts Dr. Mongfish as alive up to that point--and while many parts of the timeline don't fit this fictional story, I think it's weak evidence that Dr. Mongfish didn't die or disappear conspicuously earlier.

[vampirenest]

Some thoughts on Caine

It seems like quite a few fans of thew pilot are assuming that Caine is an AI. And well, that could be the case - there's only one episode so far - I actually have a theory about Caine.

Firstly, Caine is a human, not just any human, but the programmer and head developer of the amazing digital circus and Secondly, he digitized himself willingly. I don't think that the creepy empty office is behind the exit door are a reference to the backrooms or some other similar horror. No, I think they're a reflection of the actual offices where the original program was developed. The logo on the wall - C&A. It's probably a children's entertainment company or a toy company. Or I should say was a children's entertainment or to our company? I think they're defunct, and I'll get into that a minute.

Given our limited amount of information, we don't know if putting on one of these headsets fully digitizes you and removes your body from the physical world, or if all of the characters stuck in the show are hooked up to a machine somewhere. Because that is an important distinction to make. It's possible that originally there was supposed to be a second person on the outside world, ready to remove you from the program when you gave them a signal, and because the company no longer exists, there's no one to do that any more. And that's why they can't get out. It could also be in the development of the programmed went horribly wrong and Caine, having made himself a part of it, either because he was very passionate about the project and really believed it (or maybe because he was dying? that could be interesting.) had no idea.

He wouldn't have any contact with the outside world after he became part of the program. All he would know is that the humans that were getting turned into characters, we're no longer happy to be there like they and all that he could do was try to make them happy with their new existence as much as possible.

I don't think Caine is malicious. I think that turning himself from a human into a computer program willingly messed up his mind, and the reason he can't be corrupted is because he's part of the amazing digital circus and he has full control over it.

He absolutely knows more about what's going on than what he tells them though. Bubble is an AI, probably the AI originally designed to run the program and superseded by Caine once he inserted himself into it or one he designed to be his assistant.

[soulnottainted]

I'm also really proud of myself bc I did 7/10 houses this year which was more than double the houses I've done the past two events

So here is my ranking outta the houses I did

1. Universal Monsters Unmasked

A gorgeous gorgeous house! I'm really biased also bc I adore the universal monsters. There are also some really creative scares in there! The bell tower Quasimodo and the Invisible Man's hand coming down from the ceiling were my favorites. It was the first house we went through and naturally it had to be the last one we went through. We almost closed it out, and did heart hands at the cast, and most if not all of em did it back at us, PLUS we got the best run on our final time too.

2. The Darkest Deal

The story alone got me hooked! The first time we tried to go in, we got flooded out, but once we did it, I was very glad what we saw! Wasn't expecting all those demons besides the Collector tbh, and it was neat that past victims, musicians, were warning us. Also I love the pacing of the story elements and the effects, very well done!

3. Dueling Dragons

A beautiful recreation of the defunct attraction that I never got to experience. Despite being one of the least scary of the houses, I always enjoyed going through it. The ice and fire effects alone made me wanna go back through it again! The sets are immaculate, and those troll scareactors are very huge. Also the attention to detail and giving us multiple endings to experience was great! I experienced 3 out of 4 endings. Not a scary house but I was blown away by the set design.

4. Dr Oddfellow's Twisted Origins

Yeah I don't remember much of this house because there was absolute CHAOS in that house, my brain couldn't focus on anything, but I think that's the point. My childhood fear of the CarnEvil video game kinda came to life in there, I was actually intimidated a lot by going through the circus theme, it made me uncomfortable. But I had to see the MAN running the show. I missed so many of the lore and Easter eggs in that house. But I got a lot of scares, it was very close quarters in there. Knowing the lore of what the house is supposed to be after the fact made me love the house even more.

5. Bloodmoon

This house was the one that got me the most! The sets were amazing (i was so happy to know the designer did dead man's pier last year) and the attention to detail was top notch! I just wish there were a variety of scares in there. It wasn't my personal cup of tea but I can appreciate it!

6. Stranger Things

I really wanted to love this house, but I don't think it was worth waiting two hours for it. I missed a lot of the scares so that hurt my ranking of it. I was happy as a clam when I did get a scare though! Seeing Eddie was great, I got a few Vecna scares. Robin of all people scared me the hardest (also that bully from the series stepped right out in front of me).

7. Chucky Ultimate Kill Count

I was bored out of my mind in that house, which was a shame because i love the franchise and the TV series. The only scares I got were from the chucky mascots. It was so neat to see Glenda though. I wish more characters from the show were in there. I loved the Meta concept but it didn't translate well, despite taking the behind the scenes tour before hand.

[dudeshusband]

info:

mike was an auror at the ministry of magic, who joined the order of the phoenix. bill and mike's ship was full of banter and was teased by fred and george. they stuck together through everything. this ship is defunct.

mike and pete work together at the circus. mike falls first and is very insecure about pete's interactions with jill and saadia. pete eventually realizes he likes mike, because the animals tell him. mike tells him they're going on a date in humorous fashion. a very summery, humor heavy ship.

[johnschneiderblog]

Unwanted acrobats

I know about carpenter ants, fire ants, red ants, back ants, army ants ...

On Wednesday I expanded my knowledge; i learned about acrobat ants - a name that evoked images of an ant circus inside the walls of our house. Ants doing cartwheels and backflips, stacked three-high on a unicycle ...

It started with tiny piles of something-or-other showing up on the baseboard molding beneath a bedroom window sill. The something-or-other, the bug man said, was frass, residue left by wood-boring acrobats - so named for their ability, when threatened, to raise their abdomens over their heads.

I guess you'd have to be an acrobat ant to know how to employ a skill like that.

Anyway, the bug man gelled and sprayed. He declared the circus defunct. I like an optimist.

[braintapes]

Ramblin a bit about my Pokemon OCs over here before I go back to shiny hunting

My main setting premise is that some years after the events of XD:GoD, some former higher ups of the now-technically-defunct Team Cipher fucked off to either some region adjacent to Orre, or some remote part of Orre, and started to build a giant amusement park slash battle resort slash tourist attraction. Like if Poketopia of PBR was a Vegas knockoff.

It's full of all sorts of shows, acts, attractions, anything and everything to get people to stay and spend their money. They have their own imitation league/gym challenge (not officially registered)

Dark-type lounge singer who adores all things noir. Desperately trying to write and star in her own noir mystery thriller feature. Way more interested in the act than in actually battling

Rock-type rock band and you have to fight each member and they all fight in character and try to incorporate you into their rock opera story

There's a kid. Like some random child running the Bug-type facility. Very child emperor vibes, kid very openly wants to be the leader of his own evil team and loudly plots world domination and whatnot. Also not really interested in battling and brazenly ignores you when you challenge him in favor of watching obnoxious tiktoks at max volume. the entire time.

Circus themed fighting-type facility run by a cutthroat mime. Probably one of the most dangerous areas of the park but they also have some of the best shows

The main restaurant is run by a Psychic-type expert who reads customers minds to get their orders as soon as they step in the door. Worst customer service known to man as a result, but some of the best food you've ever eaten. They also maybe send subtle psychic suggestions to customers to Extend Their Stay and Spend More Money. it's fine dw about it

Ghost-type roller disco run by the overlooked youngest sibling of a Very wealthy family who happen to be investing heavily in the project. all good vibes and spooky scariness

Pokemon Rancher pulled in off the farm to be their Dragon-type specialist. Actually an expert with Flying-types and birdlike Pokemon but they thought Dragon-types would draw more crowds and the guy was too much of a pushover to say no. Turns out he is amazing with dragon-types, but no matter how hard management tries they Cannot sell the guys image as a fearsome big bad dragon guy 'cause he's so amiable and friendly

Guy who was the now-technically-defunct Team Cipher's head tech. Got teasingly called a human computer and genuinely loved that so much he wholeheartedly threw himself into that role. Wears a former snag machine as his main prosthesis, though it no longer functions as one. Instead, like his monitor head, it allows him to interface with all the electrical parts of his facility as well as anything with a signal in the rest of the park. Plays the role of the 'Champion' and absolutely hams it the fuck up in battle and does not hesitate to manipulate the building itself to throw hazards and puzzles at you

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Coincidental Disney Logo Trivia...

The current Disney logo celebrates the enterprise's 100th year of existence... It's a lovely, full-length intro full of neat stuff. A more ground-level tour than a pan down from a starry sky...

It first appeared, in full, before STRANGE WORLD in movie theaters this past autumn. They got the ball rolling early. The logo had also appeared - in cut-short form - in a handful of trailers at the time as well, like for the LITTLE MERMAID remake, ELEMENTAL, and the trailer for DISENCHANTED. D23 attendees were treated to it first before that...

STRANGE WORLD being the first film to bear the new logo, which will likely be used for another decade or so without the "100" next to "Disney", is curious... The film was a massive flop, and one that was largely left for dead by the company.

Wouldn't be the first time...

The first two pictures to introduce the iconic Walt Disney Pictures logo, that laid the groundwork for all logos thereafter, the very thing so many people associate with this company's movie library... Also flopped...

Those movies were... RETURN TO OZ and THE BLACK CAULDRON, both released a month apart from each other in the summer of 1985...

Believe it or not, the Disney studio never had a proper logo introduction for DECADES...

Early Disney cartoon shorts had title cards letting the audience know who the picture was coming from, which was par for the course for most shorts. Walt and Roy Disney had went through a few distributors during the late 1920s and 1930s, notably Celebrity Pictures, Columbia, and United Artists. When Walt was readying his first feature-length film, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, he struck a long-term distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures. A long-defunct company, but back then a recognizable movie giant, up there with the likes of Paramount, Universal, and 20th Century Fox.

Disney films typically began with an RKO title card, not RKO's actual animated logo sequence depicting a blinking radio tower over a spinning globe. The title card would be stylized to fit with the credits sequence of whatever movie it was. For example, in PINOCCHIO, the RKO logo is carved into wood. For DUMBO, it's a circus poster-looking graphic. And so on, and so forth.

Walt and Roy then broke off from RKO, launching their own distribution company Buena Vista in 1953. Many of the Disney films released from 1954 to 1961, that were not leftover RKO-contract movies and shorts that were released well after the two parties parted ways, opened the same way. A Buena Vista title card that was stylized to look like the opening credits of the respective movie... But by the early 1960s, most Disney movies just used a standard blue gradient logo. This title card's general design layout would be used all the way up until 1984.

"Walt Disney presents" for films made before Walt's passing, and "Walt Disney Productions" for posthumous films, would be the next title card you saw after an RKO or Buena Vista logo. Walt Disney Productions became "Walt Disney Pictures", quietly, in 1983. The first film to be released as a "Walt Disney Pictures" movie was NEVER CRY WOLF. In that film, which is unfortunately a hard one to find, the first thing you see is a bar with serif text saying "Walt Disney Pictures". A title card. No official logo just yet.

Heck, the home video end of things had a logo before the film studio themselves did! Two logos at that!

Disney didn't release a new feature film in 1984 that was under the Disney name. SPLASH and COUNTRY came out in 1984, those were the first two pictures under the company's Touchstone Pictures banner, a banner meant for more adult-oriented films. Then-CEO Ron Miller founded Touchstone, and he'd be replaced by Michael Eisner by the end of the year. Following Eisner's arrival to the company, the rebrand went into full swing... The studio was officially renamed Walt Disney Pictures, the self-distribution company was still Buena Vista, as would be mentioned in a movie's end credits.

So, a new logo was in order...

The logo's first appearance, in short-form, was before a theatrical trailer for THE BLACK CAULDRON that ran in late 1984 before the theatrical re-release of PINOCCHIO. It is unknown if the longer logo preceded PINOCCHIO's opening credits for that re-release, if it did, then that would make it the 1984 Walt Disney Pictures logo.

Anyways, the first film audiences saw it before was RETURN TO OZ... But in short form, with no music!

A month later, THE BLACK CAULDRON came to theaters. It opened with the full logo, with the full 'When You Wish Upon a Star'-inspired jingle that everyone and their brother's dog knows...

Again, two movies that flopped. In fact, all of Disney's mainline 1985 movie releases that weren't Touchstone movies... Just didn't cut it at the box office. These two movies, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS... It wouldn't be until the summer 1986 releases of THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE and FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, two films bearing this logo that did well at the box office.

The revised version of this logo, with more digital-looking glowing light effects and animation, and the arch not overlapping with the "W" in "Walt"... First appeared before a test re-release of THE BLACK CAULDRON under the title TARAN AND THE MAGIC CAULDRON in January 1990, which didn't take off in the few cities it was screened in... Later, in July 1990, it accompanied a very successful re-release of THE JUNGLE BOOK. As for a "new" movie bearing the logo that did well? WHITE FANG, released in January 1991, did okay. It wouldn't be until BEAUTY AND THE BEAST later that year, though, in November... For a genuine big hit...

For this Disney 100 logo, it looks like LITTLE MERMAID will be the first box office success bearing this new logo. It's actually their first mainline Disney theatrical release since STRANGE WORLD... Everything else has been a Marvel movie (QUANTUMANIA, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3) or a 20th Century Studios/Searchlight movie (AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, CHEVALIER).

Funnily enough, the first film to introduce the previous long-running CGI Disney castle logo?

Big hit. HUGE, record-breaking hit... That was PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, from summer 2006...

Maybe when Disney makes a new logo to replace this one in, say, 2040-something... It'll be for a hit movie? I dunno, just something I noticed.

Logo stuff, ya know?

[vocaloid-tunes]

i apologize for being anonymous, but my question being, do you only download your songs in MP4, or do you have MP4/PV as well? Asking because of your LOLWAT post, the PV is concidered lost, so i just wondered :) i'm in a vocaloid lost media discord server team so, im just browsing around for it haha, thank you - Riinbow/Bloodpop (I dont use tumblr much, but have been attempting to find things recently using it)

Gotcha gotcha, and no problems at all. I hope this is OK to post in general for anyone who is interested in lost media and found some that are available on here, but if you want me to take down the ask and post this anonymously let me know.

So we usually only download our songs in .mp3 format, which is why some songs that we have posted also have lost PVs unfortunately (I can name a few off the top of my head).

For the LOLWAT song by Circus, I was actually quite curious about that myself when reformatting old posts. I am not the mod who posted it, and I think it might have been posted by a mod that no longer operates the blog anymore / Tumblr says it was posted 5 years ago in 2018, and I became a mod around 2019 I believe. I couldn't even find the old YouTube link to update the credits on that post, so I can't say I have it or any information on how to find it. I also dont know where they found the image used for that post, but it is likely from the now defunct PV. I highly doubt the other mods would have it though.

That being said, I might still be able to provide some pieces of lost media (but most likely not in PV form) and I am also interested in lost media archival especially for VOCALOID, so if you want to DM a server invite to my backup account, @modsachiko2electricboob (yes I know LOL), feel free to.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Wright and wrong! Straight shooting sheriffs spoiled the dandy lion hunt Denver Wright of St. Louis had in mind. He bought a couple of cubs from a defunct circus, let them go on a tiny island in the Mississipi - went out to shoot them in real African style. A couple of cops got in ahead of him - peppered the kitties and ruined the party.”

- from the Toronto Star. October 18, 1932. Page 21.

[authoramalgam]

I finally wrote the part two to something I wrote like... a few months ago or something, And I wanna post some of my bullshit. *vibrates like a jar full of angry hornets*

This was bullshit. All of it was bullshit. Ant knew it and Michael knew it. Scenery Saloon and Steakhouse. Emilia had set the entire place up as a trap for Dan. He would be arriving there tomorrow for this job that Emilia, using an illusion disc to appear as Ant, had offered him.

Even now the defunct circus animatronic, not bothering to use its human disguise, wandered through the building, making sure her trap was set.

And they couldn’t do anything about it. Ant knew why. If they interfered too early, and got Emilia's attention, their plan to permanently destroy their remnant and end Ronaldo’s Torment would be ruined. That didn’t stop Ant from hating this vehemently. To know his best friend would be going through this hell Again. Just as he was actually starting to get better again. “And you’re sure that that jail cell thing will hold up?” Ant asked dubiously. It felt too easy.

Michael frowned. Or at least he probably did. Him being some sort of an amorphous grey entity sometimes made it hard to read him. Occasionally he was able to take a different form. A yellow bunny looking thing, but he really despised the way it resembled Spring Bonnie, so he didn’t use it often. 

Ant had asked once why he was grey like that. Ronaldo was to blame, of course. Apparently Michael was the first he’d tried to bring back. It hadn’t worked properly, leaving his soul permanently changed, and when Michael started going against Ronaldo, he stopped trying to bring him back. Father of the century right there.

“It’ll work for a while.” Michael finally clarified.”If Emilia doesn’t try and sabotage it right off the bat. It should last until I figure out how to get that door in place.”

Ant’s ear twitched in irritation. “...Fine I guess.”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t be like that. Dan’s gonna be fine.” Michael tried to reassure him. “He’s gotten this far-” “Yeah and?! Everyone’s undefeated till they’re not Michael!” Ant snapped. “What if things go wrong? I can’t- I won’t let Dan end up like this.” Some wandering soul, another victim of Torment.

“Ant it’s-” Michael was cut off by what felt like a shock wave. Every single object in the room, from the chairs, the tables, the speakers onstage, and even the bottles in Bonnie’s bar all jolted. Half the glasses fell to the ground and shattered.

Emilia stopped in her tracks, green eyes glowing as she scanned the room.

In normal circumstances, Ant would wonder if that had been some weird earthquake, or if something had exploded, but this wasn’t normal. Ant was a ghost, if that had been an earthquake, he shouldn’t have felt it. And glancing at Michael, it was obvious he’d felt it too.

“What was that?” Ant asked, hoping the grey entity would be able to give some kind of answer, but he didn’t.

“I have no idea.” He sounded nervous. Nervous was never good.

Instinctively, Ant’s mind went to one place. “You don’t think Ronaldo-” Michael cut him off. “No. He isn’t even in town.” Yet. Supposedly he was headed towards the steakhouse. But if Ronaldo wasn’t behind the shock wave, what was? “I…” Michael was quiet, almost hesitant. “I think we need to check the salvage shed. Just in case.”

The salvage shed. It had apparently been near impossible to even build without being found by Emilia. Supposedly if they were ever able to trick her inside they may be able to drain away the remnant inside Circus Baby, putting an end to her, but that was a big if.

As Ant was about to leave and follow Michael outside, he glanced over his shoulder. Emilia had gone back to her wandering. A janitor was already sweeping up the broken glass. The animatronics were all stationary.

There wasn’t supposed to be a janitor here.

“Hey- Wait- Michael wait, there’s-” Ant chased after Michael, passing through walls until he reached the back of the building. “Oh my god how are you this fast?!” He hissed as he passed through the chain link fence and ducked between trees on his way to the salvage shed. “Hey!” He finally managed to grab Michael by the shoulder, yanking him back a bit. That was one of the neat things about being a shadow animatronic thing, he was way stronger than he had been before. Not strong enough to fully fight off Ronaldo’s stupid Nightmare thing, but at least strong enough to handle most other ghosts. “There’s a guy.” “A guy?” Michael deadpanned as he pulled out of Ants grip. “What do you mean there’s a guy?” He glanced around, checking the woods for movement.

“No. Not here.” Ant explained. “In the saloon. There was a janitor, and I know there’s no way anyone would be in the building right now.” Especially if Emilia was walking around without her illusion disk active, she’d kill anyone who saw her like that. “He was over sweeping up the mess at the soda bar but,” Ant paused. “He showed up right after that… whatever the heck earthquake thing. There has to be some connection.”

Burying his face in his hands, Michael groaned. “Great.” Him being frustrated was pretty understandable. If this was another ghost suddenly popping up, it probably was, then they’d probably have to be the ones to deal with it. Before it decided to start trying to possess animatronics or actively try and interact with Dan. “Let’s just check this,” He waved a hand at the salvage shed. “Then we’ll go find out what this janitor guy is doing.”

Rolling his eyes a bit, Ant went along with Michael. Poking his head through the wall he was able to see the cramped room was unchanged. “Yeah. Everything looks-” “Shh!” Michael shushed him, pointing at the table in the center of the room. How Ant had missed it, who knows, but there was something there.

At first, he thought it was a dead body. A human figure slumped over, face in their arms. Almost like they’d fallen asleep or something. But they weren’t breathing and their skin was a sickly greyish colour. Then, its hand twitched. Blackened claws scraped against the wooden tabletop as the ghost raised its head slightly. A single bloodshot eye could be seen peeking out of the long tangled mess of greasy purple hair.

The room was dead silent. That is until the ghost stood up, its joints all popping and twisting as its body distorted. It towered over them, looking at the pair with an elongated smile seemingly frozen on its face. Not wanting to stare into its maddened eyes, Ant’s gaze flickered down towards the ghost's chest. It looked like it had been torn open. A jagged, ripped open wound that dripped with blood. There were what looked like glowing magenta wires wrapped around its broken ribs, pulling them even further apart. The wires wrapped around the entirety of the ghost’s torso and even parts of its arms and neck, digging into the skin. That had to be painful.

Letting out a quiet laugh, the ghost leaned in towards Ant’s face, barely a few inches from him. “My eyes are up here, rabbit.” A sickeningly familiar voice rasped.

A deep panic filled Ant. Like when you’re a little kid, terrified of the monster in the closet. Except the monster was real and right in front of him. “Ronaldo?!” He should be miles away, and his soul was trapped in the Spring Bonnie suit. So who, or what, was this thing?

The entity's eyes widened, its smile stretching just a bit as it tilted its head. “Oh.” It glitched. “Ant. It’s you.”

Ant stared almost helplessly into the eyes of the entity he could only liken to the devil itself. In turn, Ronaldo, or whatever this thing was that sounded like him lifted a clawed hand as if to grab him.

Then, there was a blur of grey from Ant’s left as Michael lashed out, his fist connecting with Ronaldo’s jaw with a satisfying crack. “Get away from him!”

The entity reeled back, clutching at its face. The eerie smile it wore never faded but it looked strained, and the look of surprise and  anger on its face belied its true feelings. “Rude.” It spoke like it was scolding a disobedient child. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you that hitting people is against the rules?”

Michael bristled with rage at Ronaldo’s mockery. His spectral form flickered and burned like an out of control fire. “Oh, yeah, sure Dad.” He spat the word like venom. “Hitting is wrong, but murder, that’s just fine by your rules, isn’t it?”

Ant grabbed Michael’s shoulder, just in case he tried anything stupid. Whatever this thing was, it was pretty safe to assume it was some sort of threat. Even now, the twisted figure glared at Michael, an unreadable expression on its face.

“Who are you?” Ant challenged it first, then rethought his question. “What are you?” It sounded like Ronaldo, and seemed to act pretty similar, but it looked nothing like him.

The entity flickered for a moment, glancing at Ant, then back at Michael. “...Hah…Hahahaha!” It burst out in deranged sounding laughter, its form flickering and distorting before it settled back into a more human-like form. The wires and jagged chest wound were gone, and its body was no longer twisted. He could almost be mistaken for a person. “Fun…” It drawled, completely ignoring what Ant had asked him.

“What. Are. You?” Michael repeated, louder, still infuriated.

Ant already had his own theory. This was possibly one of Ronaldo’s creations. Some sick experiment with Torment. Like the Nightmare. That didn’t explain why it sounded like him though.

“What?” It finally responded to the questioning. “What am I? What are you?” It countered, taking a step towards Michael. “I don’t recognise your face.”

Ant took a step back away from the approaching entity, pulling Michael with him. “I could say the same to you.” Michael just kept getting more irritated. “You’re avoiding the question.” He growled, crossing his arms defensively.

“Hahah…” The entity at least stopped walking towards them, but it still examined them closely. “Interesting. This is interesting.” It tilted its head as it again went back to staring at Ant. He could almost swear he saw a look of pity on its face. “Shadow Bonnie… Hmm.” Then, without another word, it turned on its heel and walked out of the salvage shed, passing through the door, heading towards the steakhouse.

Ant and Michael stood there for a moment, before their minds kicked back in and they tore after the rogue spirit. “What is that thing?!” Ant asked, hoping Michael may have some kind of answer. Of course he didn’t.

“I don’t know.” The grey figure responded as he wove back through the dense trees. “Maybe someone's ghost, but…” He momentarily flickered, a visual indicator of his doubt. “My dad has to have done something to him. I don’t know what, but we need to stop him.” Before he got inside, before he did something drastic.

Yet as they passed through the back wall and into the steakhouse, they found no trace of the purple entity. Maybe it had faded, maybe it was simply hiding, maybe it was somewhere else in the building.

“Wh- Where did he go?!” Ant leaned into adjacent rooms, just to check, but found no traces of the thing nearby. “God- AAAGHH-” He yelled into his hands, doing his best to stay composed. “G r e a t .” That was just another problem to add onto the stack. Ronaldo, Emilia, weird Not Ronaldo, and whatever that tremor had been earlier. Though, Ant was fairly confident in his assumption that that ghost had something to do with it. “Now what?”

Michael seemed just as infuriated as Ant, and he flickered every couple seconds. “I don’t know.” He said after a long pause. “Whatever or whoever that was, it's hiding from us. We’ll just have to keep an eye out for it while we’re dealing with Emilia.” That was, in theory, all they could do. Trying to find a ghost that didn’t want to be found was a losing game, but it still was frustrating. Knowing something, especially something connected to Ronaldo, was roaming around freely, was stressful. There was no telling what it wanted, or what it was planning to do. It seemed safe to assume it wasn’t friendly though.

Ant groaned again, feeling almost defeated. “...Fine. Whatever.” This wasn’t ideal, but they could deal with it. Probably. Dan had certainly made it out of far worse situations. Like back at the foundry. One extra renegade spirit was not the breaking point. “Wait. That janitor.” The memory suddenly came flooding back to Ant. With all the panic about Ronaldo earlier, he’d completely forgotten.

“Oh. That.” Michael sighed, sounding worn. “We should go see what that was about, huh?”

“Yeah, we should.” Hopefully it wasn’t anything too terrible. Sometimes, just because of the supernatural influence over Fazbear entertainment as a whole, ghosts would just wander into establishments on their own. Like some kind of draw. Most were content to wander, many left once they’d satisfied their curiosity. The biggest concern was when they wouldn’t leave. Some, for whatever reason, would possess the animatronics. Even then, sometimes it turned out well. They would hang out for a few days, just wandering around causing minor problems. The violent ones though, they were an issue. Usually outside spirits weren’t too hostile, since their deaths weren’t caused by Fazbear entertainment, but occasionally, there were ones that just seemed to like raising hell.

Michael usually had to deal with these types of things alone, considering he’d been the only ghost strong enough to do anything, so there was at least one plus.

They made their way back towards Bonnie’s bar. Sure enough, even as they entered the showroom, Ant spotted the guy. He was just standing by the stage, looking up at Chica.

“Hey. Hey!” Michael cautiously drew closer, yelling a bit to try and get the ghosts attention. Ant followed behind him, but kept back a bit. He knew he wasn’t exactly a very friendly looking entity.

The janitor jumped a bit, then turned and looked over his shoulder. Now that Ant was closer, he could see just how bad a condition the guy was really in. His once blue jumpsuit was torn, dirty, and splattered with blood. There was what looked like a blanket wrapped around his arm and shoulder as a makeshift sling. Most noticeably, there was a screwdriver sticking out of his neck, and as he fully turned, Ant could see stab wounds in both his throat and just above his stomach.

“Oh… This… This isn’t good.” He muttered as he looked between Ant and Michael. He looked nervous.

Michael was the one to start talking. “Hey, we’re not here to hurt you. We just want to know what you’re doing here.” He raised his hands a bit in a placating gesture.

The janitor was still giving them doubtful looks, but seemed to calm down a bit. “Uhm… I…” He seemed hesitant about talking. “Who are you?” He was definitely avoiding answering questions. Not a great sign, but this guy seemed more confused or scared than outright hostile.

Ant took this as an excuse to interject, hoping that maybe it would make him seem less intimidating. “Well, I’m Ant, and this is Michael. We-” The janitors eyes grew wide as Ant spoke, and he clutched at his wrapped up arm. “Oh no. No no no no no-!” He turned, and Michael tried to grab him, but he’d already vanished within a second. “...That was weird.” Michael muttered, staring at the spot the spirit had just been a moment before. “Did you know that guy?”

Ant shrugged. “I don’t think so?” He couldn’t remember it off the top of his head. “Maybe he was freaking out about you?”

“I don’t know, but this is getting weirder and weirder.” He seemed tense. “Something is going on here. I don’t know if my dad or Emilia are behind it or what, but we need to be careful.”

[fuzzbeararchives]

MEET THE HUMANS (Part 1/?)

VANESSA JEONG-

Night shift security for Freddy Fuzzbear's Family Fun Centre. She happens to have a shift on the night that nine children went missing and were later found deceased in the facility's basement; Having been used as sacrifices for a ritual by cultist Karli Evans, who has yet to be captured. After the incident, Vanessa takes a deep dive into the history of the Freddy Fuzzbear brand and how it ties into the rise of instances around the USA that emulate the 1985 kidnapping and murder of five children at the original Freddy Fuzzbear's Pizza.

/

SAVANNAH "VANNY" ROBERTSON-

Once a normal, straight-A high school student, Vanny becomes tangled in the mess that is the Fuzzbear story after purchasing a handmade plush of long defunct character Henry Hare. Unbeknownst to her, the plush had been created by Carly Evans with the intent of its demonic energy possessing her target and forcing them to do her bidding. Just weeks after finding the plush, the dark forces invade her beloved Bunn E. Rabbit fursuit while she is still wearing it, causing her to lose complete control of her body and actions and forcing her to sit back and watch as it carries out the most heinous of acts. Vanny went missing for two months before being freed from the costume but still suffers the consequences of witnessing such horrendous events to this day.

/

GREGORY HUDSON-

Your average middle school student who enjoys gaming, spending time with friends and family, and long weekends off from school. Gregory attends a birthday party for his best friend Logan held at Freddy Fuzzbear's Family Fun Centre, all the kids getting to reap the benefits of the facility's overnight stay package. Things seem perfectly normal until one of the children suggests sneaking away from the Daycare area that they were meant to be sleeping in, with animatronic attendant Vixey's supervision. The situation quickly deteriorates as one by one, the children are lured away by an unknown figure, beginning with Logan's baby sister Mia. After escaping as the sole survivor of the incident, Gregory teams up with Vanessa to discover the cause of his friends' deaths and prevent any more from occurring.

/

MELANIE SCHMIDT-

Located in Cincinatti, Ohio, Melanie is far removed from the chaos happening at the Chicago, Illinois-based Family Fun Centre. However, in her city exists a more traditional Freddy's location that doesn't even use its signature animatronics for its entertainment. Rather, original incarnations of the famous main four cast have been made into walk around mascot costumes for employees to wear at certain hours of the day. Melanie is lucky enough for her 13th birthday to be hosted in this restaurant, but things go awry as she and her party guests are targeted in an almost exact replica of the infamous 1985 kidnapping and murder of five children in the original Freddy Fuzzbear's Pizza. She escapes the grisly fate by the skin of her teeth, but is now shaken as the incident leaves even more victims of the followers of the universally feared Bunny Killer aka Wayne Howard behind. Gregory and Vanessa catch a train along with the surviving animatronics from The Mechanical Circus down to talk to Melanie and find out who exactly is responsible for her friends' deaths. It turns out, a now former employee of Freddy Fuzzbear's Pizza Circus by the name of Bryan Walker used his own handmade fursuit to lure his victims in a normally inaccessible back room and fed them pizza, cake and soda laced with sleeping medication, just like the original MCI before returning that night to kill them and stuff their bodies in the mascot costumes used in place of audio animatronics. Now, Melanie is determined to help capture Chris as well as Carly Evans and avenge the deaths of their victims.

She bonds quickly to Gregory, who relates to her survivor's guilt from his own experience with the incident back in his home city. They become fast friends and a formidable team, using their combined brain power to solve the puzzle that is the rise of the Bunny Killer Cult as well as find the identities of its followers who committed the respective murders.

[zapphattack]

Abandoned: Dogs See Dogs - Modern AU [Clara-centric, gen]

the title may give you preconceived notions but i assure you this is not anything you'd expect from me. this is from a defunct modern au of gorkhon that i used to sketch stuff for during class, not much to say for myself given how i don't think of it much anymore

Clara was in trouble. Nothing she couldn't settle, of course, she was adept at solving issues, it was the sole reason she was still alive. Probably. She honestly couldn't recall clearly most details of her life leading up to this moment. Either way, she needed cash, because she was almost certain she'd be turning 18 in a few months and she knew what happened to kids in shelters who became legal adults. She had to leave her foster parents at some point in the near future, the Saburovs didn't need her brand of trouble on top of their already notable pile of responsibilities managing the hellscape that was the school year-round. 

The campus was quiet as she lurked, dawn threatening to break in the next hour or so. Gorkhon University, funded by Olgimsky Enterprises and built by the Stamatin Brothers and Co with direction from the Kain Institute of Science and Education, headed by the Saburov Group of directorial principals. A private school with unorthodox practices like open program learning and an overpriced list of extracurricular coursework, public access libraries and laboratories alongside private collections of anything ranging from artwork and literature to patented chemical formulas for pharmaceutical drugs, student housing going from absurdly cheap studio aps to bizarrely expensive lofts, and sporting a passable high school campus as well as a very well-rounded college education program. 

It was conceptually utopic and functionally a mess of bureaucracy all the way up and down the chain of endless systems keeping it all from crumbling under its own weight. At least the three pillars kept each other in check, and consequently themselves busy enough to make loitering the grounds a minor offense overlooked at most times. 

The architects that made the place opted for the baffling design choice of having as many alleyways and pavilions between buildings as there were open streets and elevated walkways connecting everything, like a freaky attempt at an architectural nervous system. Worst of all, it worked like a charm to maneuver places easily without crowding the main pathways between building sectors. Clara thought that the librarian, or whatever position Lyuricheva held officially, deserved more credit for being the glue to the Stamatins' barely cohesive vision for the buildings. planning all the roads seemed like a nightmare when taking into account the creative decisions Peter Stamatin adamantly defended and Andrey Stamatin made a reality.

As it were, Clara was glad for the elevated footpath she took, because it led her to the most fateful piece of glossy A4 paper she encountered up to this juncture of her life. It was in a graphic artstyle with neon colors highlighting the text “Diamond Dogfight: Battle of the Bands!” at the top of a rather crowded poster. Below there were cut-out pictures of people singing into microphones or playing what one could presume to be sick guitar riffs. Alongside the images were a few blocks of text reading “Participate in the newest talent scouting efforts of the Ace of Diamonds Theater and Circus Troupe! Sign up today with at least two other bandmates and compete in a tournament-style round-robin elimination competition. Impress our panel of judges to win a grand prize of 100,000 rubles!!” and she spotted a QR code at the bottom corner alongside an email address and phone number labeled “Ace of Diamonds contact info”.

 She barely registered her phone in her hand, mind running wild thinking about how neat and tidy this solved all her problems as she scanned the code, which led to a sleek website sporting a huge block of logos at the top she could imagine was a list of sponsors. In that list was the clock of the Kain Institute, the bull of the Olgimsky Industries, the bold S of the Saburov Group, as well as some smaller icons depicting the Steppen symbol of the Khatanghe Initiative Fund, the geometric logo of Polyhedron Project and the blazon of the Town Hall. Clara was almost amused by how the three big logos competed for attention, the two at the sides raised a bit above the one in the center, clearly a design choice settled on after a long argument by the families as to how to make them equal in the layout.

She skimmed over the introduction page below that had the same text as the poster before tapping on a tab labeled “Rules and Sign-Up”. A much less cluttered page listed numbered rules about band size (3-10 with two categories for smaller and larger bands), song lengths (3-6 minutes barring extraneous circumstances), set decoration and costumes (irrelevant for scoring), the validity of cover songs (valid, but evaluated on different grounds compared to originals), going for about 20 bullet points. The interesting part was the List of Clauses, an additive ruleset about optional gimmicks in the competition. 

Clara’s attention honed into a topic called the “Dog Eat Dog Clause”, which stated the following: “a band may only add members during the competition if they are from another group the band defeated previously, but a member can only be added if they were the last group defeated by the stated band; only one member may be gained each round, and this clause is only valid if all parties agree to the partnership and the resulting band does not exceed the member limit of their given category. The Board of Judges will not be mediating disputes between bands, and any deals involving splitting the prize or other such topics are not to be brought up to the organizers.”

Now, Clara knew she wasn't exactly the epitome of popularity, so this rule opened some doorways for her to advance in the competition without having the strongest starting lineup of players. If she could just get two halfway decent musicians to join her for the first set, even if one left in the middle of the tournament she could still convince her rivals to lend her a member. 

She scrolled until she reached the sign-up form, skimming it halfheartedly until something caught her eye. In small print at the bottom of the form was printed the phrase “Only participants of the student body or junior faculty members are eligible for the cash prize. This includes Gorkhon High and Gorkhon University students and faculty. Outside competitors are eligible for a scholarship negotiated with the Gorkhon Board of Directors if chosen as winners.” She vaguely heard the sound of metaphorical doors closing at that moment

--

Having a teenage girl wander around the university campus was never an overly common sight, but it wasn't bizarre enough to warrant comments, so Clara trudged the halls on what she had decided to call a scouting operation. She wanted the prize, she really did, but there were a few issues with that. Specifically the fact that she was never officially enrolled in either the High School or the University division of Gorkhon. 

She was morally the foster child of the Saburovs, but she had no documents proving her legal existence, so she couldn't enroll in school very easily, and she was only taken in recently, so it'd be weird to ask to enroll at this point, especially since she had no recollection of prior school experience necessary for an entry test. The Saburovs let her have total freedom outside of the house, and she could leave whenever she wanted, so it never came up and they were rather neglectful in regards to such things, in truth. Sure, they fed and housed her, but after she was deemed independent they let her do whatever she wanted. 

But back to the issue at hand. She could try to forge a student ID with the level of access her foster parents had. She almost did that, but she had looked at the panel of judges on the website of the competition and immediately shot down the idea. Student Body President of Gorkhon High, Victoria “Capella” Olgimskaya Jr was one of the main judges, and she'd get caught in an instant if she were to pretend to attend, and it's in the middle of semester, so not even the transfer student excuse would work. Therefore, she would attempt the boldest, most unexpected maneuver of all: convince Gorkhon U students or junior faculty that she was totally a student of some obscure college and they should very much trust her and join her band.

She'd been wandering for about an hour, and there were some noteworthy candidates, but she needed to be subtle in her choices. Her bandmates needed to be quick-thinking or skilled enough to pick up an instrument and play it alongside her, but gullible enough to take part in her scheme. Potential business partners needed to have motivation to win but not demand too much compensation, so either someone meek but skilled or an arrogant talent that could be easily swindled.

It was 7 am by the time she strolled around a dark corner outside the science lab building, where she spotted a figure hunched over in what she could see as a biology or medical sciences lab littered with papers, books and various sundry chemicals. Whoever it was had been there for a long time, and their shoulders were hunched shallowly over a microscope, left hand scribbling furiously on a notepad without raising their eyes from the tool. She decided to do some recon. 

--

Daniil Dankovsky had spent all night trying fruitlessly to make some kind of breakthrough in his research into human vitality and death. That's what she could gather from observing him from outside after she came back from her extended reconnaissance. At this point he seemed to just be analyzing chemical components of random solutions he found in the lab, noting cell behavior and whatnot for the hell of it. 

Med school alumnus, pathophysiology consultant and researcher endorsed by the Kains, he had the run of the lab until morning classes started without supervision, which was somewhat remarkable in itself. Apparently he was also dead tired, as his writing was decreasing in quality from “cursive doctor handwriting” to “not picking up the pen from the paper and gliding every word together like lopsided fairy lights”. 

Clara poked her head into the lab from her position on the window, which was brightly lit by the morning sun. The thin curtains drawn over the windows fluttered in the breeze and ruffled the man's hair as he muttered unintelligible things under his breath. She knocked on the glass, watching as he stopped his ministrations to push his dark bangs away from his pale face. He looked objectively terrible, and the girl cleared her throat to no avail in a futile attempt at being acknowledged. Nothing. She slid over the windowsill and dropped soundlessly into the room, smelling the sharp tang of chemicals and coffee from the bench where the Bachelor of Medicine worked. 

Clara had been elaborating a game plan for the past two hours, debating what kind of people she should recruit to get what she wanted. She had settled on students from an area not directly involved with the arts, as to not be overthrown by her bandmates. Alongside that, anyone in the field of psychology or sociology might be curious about herself and her supposed major, and that was dangerous if she wanted to keep up her ruse of being a student, as well as the more sociable students of such fields possibly not accept her as a classmate if they don't recognize her. Her final choice was a field of research technical and precise enough to have decent musicians but eccentric and busy enough not to question her presence in the school. Med students. 

She hopped onto the table where the man worked, decided on who to try to recruit. Clara probably wouldn't get very far with this one, but a test run of her script wouldn't hurt. She had seen him working since she started scouting, and when asked about him the staff and assorted students around the block informed her of his habits and name, and she brought up as many files as she could access about him from the directorial database. He was a maniac. 

“Muttering gibberish, are you? Perhaps you should vacate the lab soon, your time's almost up anyway, Dr Dankovsky. Get some rest.”

The man startled next to her, and he jerked his head towards her in a manner befitting a spooked lizard. Or perhaps a snake. He looked her up and down before speaking “It's not gibberish, it's latin. And I don't have a doctorate.” His eyes narrowed at her. “Which you would know if you knew my name. Who are you, little girl? Why are you here?”

Interesting that he'd seem offended by her using a title above his station with him. Most men that entrenched in their own work would preen at being overestimated. Still, she had to answer. “I heard you were hoarding the lab, thought I might come in and burst your science bubble to let you know. A favor, you could say.” At his suspicious look she added “I'm Clara.”

“Daniil Dankovsky, Bachelor of Medicine and founder of Thanatica.” Thanatica. She'd seen that somewhere before. “Although you already knew my name. How did you get in here? The door is locked, I don't like being disturbed.” he added, almost as an afterthought. She looked back at the window, then at him. He gaped for a moment before schooling his expression into a look of disbelief. “We’re on the second floor.”

“I didn't say anything!” she quipped, smile in place. This was turning out to be more fun than anticipated. “Anyway, regardless, you might need to vacate the premises in a few minutes. I was hoping to take up a little of your precious time to make a proposition.” Dankovsky looked dubiously over her before she added “business proposition, that is.” which didn't really make a dent in his expression. She stifled a giggle as he shrugged, a gesture that seemed uncharacteristic of somebody who put so much effort into seeming competent and intellectual, but he was fresh off an all nighter, so it's to be expected. 

The Bachelor picked up his things, shoving a comical amount of hardcover books into his bag alongside three separate notebooks filled with sticky notes and tabs. She busied herself with the microscope, fiddling with the dials and cataloguing every fidget she could draw out of Dankovsky with her callous handling of delicate equipment. As he closed his, frankly, extremely unwieldy oversized handbag, he snapped at her “Stop messing with that! You'll break something and I'm the one who'll pay for it.”

Clara was a little taken aback by the silence as they trudged out after Dankovsky locked the lab back up. She curiously followed in his steps, wondering when he would finally ask what she wanted, but wanting to see where his steps would lead. They were going the scenic route to some place, she could tell that much, as he followed brick pathways through patios and wove his way through elevated walkways in the vague direction of either the joint campus cafeteria or the Gorkhon Library. She periodically stepped on the backs of his leather shoes, successfully removing one entirely on her third try. He tripped but managed not to fall on his face, turning towards her with a murderous glare. Clara smiled crookedly and brought her hands up in surrender. 

“You're a little pest, girl, and you're successfully lowering my willingness to listen to your proposition with every passing moment.”

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

What’s This? Natemare is EVOLVING!

Scaredy/SCARED-E

Yes, that name was inspired by both Pizzaria Simulator’s Lefty/LEFT-E and WALL-E. Don’t judge me.

His name is, obviously, a greater acronym: S.eek C.all A.nalyze R.estrain E.ncapsulate D.estabilize E.liminate  

He’s a defunct/abandoned animatronic. (I’ll be using Nate’s latest merch design  for his description, and it was very clearly inspired by Sister Location’s Funtime Animatronics)

The casing of his body has been carefully designed to make him look like he’s wearing clothes. I like to think that it’s similar to Phantom’s outfit: black slacks and a black vest, but with a blue shirt.

He’s also got a black bowtie instead of a necktie, but it’s actually a larger button attached to his neck and chest. Pressing it will cause a section on his throat to slide open, revealing his harmonization module. It contains a row of switches and dials that need to be toggled with in order for Scaredy’s voice to be properly in-tune.

He can speak with his own original voice, but has also been programmed to mimic/sync the voices of others.

He stands at a very intimidating 8’3. (According to the Sister Location blueprint easter eggs, Circus Baby is canonically 7’2)

There’s a tiny fog machine inside his mouth. It activates when he speaks/sings, and makes it look like smoke is pouring out between his teeth.

You know that hole in the middle of his face where his nose should be? There’s actually a small, well-hidden button in there. If you press it, his face plates will pop open (press it a second time to close them).

There’s a loudspeaker on his chest, beneath his bowtie. One of the systems inside his head is a database for songs and music, which can be updated and shuffled.

Each of his fingers has a retractable, built-in guitar pick. (Keep in mind, however, that he can only play a guitar if it’s been specifically built to connect with his systems.)

His sensors can be activated by sound, light, and movement/proximity.

The interior of his torso is a large, hollow storage tank (which might not be quite so empty). It can be accessed via pressing the red button on his right cheek, which will cause a hatch on his stomach to slide open. 

Metal framing inside him holds back his gears, prongs, and other sharp mechanical parts. But if you press the red button on his left cheek, the framing will disengage, his endoskeleton parts will recoil inward and. . .well, the process wouldn’t be pretty. In fact, it’d be agonizing.

He used to be the star attraction of a recently closed-down haunted house (more on that in the near future). He was programmed to perform twisted, threatening songs that would be played all across the building. His music was basically treated as a soundtrack for visitors to listen to. 

He would also pause his songs to taunt visitors as they passed through his section (jumping at someone who got too close to him, making morbid jokes/puns, etc.)

He was typically kept onstage in a room at the center of the building. But on certain occasions, he’d be allowed to wander around the halls and look for visitors to. . .surprise, let’s say. . .

He’ll be featured in my last Goretober story 😈