A stupid idea that's bugging me...

[IamLEAM1983]

I designed the Freaks so each group has its Ringleader - like Arthur for the locals - but I also tend to think they have a bigger group whose responsibilities include meeting the smaller groups across the country when threats specific to the Freaks arise. Obviously, being batshit insane, they're unable to just rent some office space and email one another - they have to make a scene of it all.

I started listening to Midnight Syndicate's Carnival Arcane and wondered if they couldn't have some kind of Big Top inspired group, undead carnies that actually do offer a show when they stop in town, but who only really do tours when the Freaks need to coordinate. It fits with their theme of secrecy, seeing as most mundanes would only think they're trying to keep the Barnum legacy alive, in the face of modern acts like the Cirque du Soleil.

A few character concepts started percolating, including some much-needed context for that vampire clown concept that's been bugging me. Then something hit me: the Weavers would've wanted to infiltrate the Freaks, thinking that an already screwloose group would be easy pickings for Amaxi's eternal recruitment gig. What if that backfired? One of the circus' apparently human and mortal goons gets discovered, he's overpowered, no amount of Black Speech manages to beat back the unrelenting tide of cackling undead flesh - and he breaks. The rare case of a vampire Squid crops up, and he trades one kind of insanity for another - nihilistic collective obliteration for a chronic inability to take things seriously. The Weavers' sanctimonious approach turns boring, serving the Others becomes boring - but watching the circus' audience float in that weird space between amusement and unease becomes gratifying. He'd lose the Black Speech, but after scales, extra limbs or other bits and pieces of the grotesque, fang-laden tentacles and greasepaint tend to mix in well with the rest of the Freaks.

From there, I figured he'd have gotten it a lot worse than Arthur. I figure Amaxi's poor goon is overpowered but manages to take their Ringleader out. Unbeknownst to him, the circus' bit of cohesion-guaranteeing collective mania includes the notion that whoever kills the Ringleader has to assume the Ringleader's identity. So Arthur eventually gets the Call, he learns that Horatio Ignatius Grimley's Circus of the Strange and Grotesque is about to drive its caravan into Old Hope, and has a specific image of the group's Ringleader in mind. He doesn't know Grimley's changed faces, as it were.

In the meantime, I figure Meris remembers a couple distinct Grimleys if she's been in America a few times before Hope. She kind of knows what to expect, maybe ignoring that the name gets passed along only if the previous Horatio got shafted. Maybe it's a "vampire dynasty" thing, after all. I turn you, so you're a Grimley. Knowing that the circus is a good spot for research, seeing as these particular Freaks get around a lot and sometimes carry interesting rumors, she figures she'll attend a showing.

And who shows up on that particular night, all covered in greasepaint, with the expected Ringleader's top hat and flashy outfit and sporting the kind of impossible Snidely Whiplash mustache that probably requires magic hair tonic on Squid skin to exist? Someone she's tried to kill once before. Only he's changed...

[TennyoCeres84]

Why not? That could be fun!