+X+X+The Greatest Show on Earth (Sign-Ups)+X+X+

[Blademaster]

The entire city of Greatport was lit with dazzling lights of every color of the rainbow. Laughter and music filled the air, mingling with the sounds of raucous venders, ticket takers, the squealing and hissing of great, colorful machines loaded with laughing children, young lovers, screaming adults who were far too old for this, but couldn't resist the pleading of their young ones to go for "One more ride on the roller coaster, Daddy? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease pleasepleasepleaseplease...? Just one more, I promise...!"

The lights and sounds in the air combined with the scent of sweets, oils, pretzels, hot dogs, burgers, pizza... It was a chaotic, yet beautiful cacophony of joy, amazement, and carefree fun that assaulted every sense... There could only be one explanation for it all.

That time of year had come back at last... The Greatport Carnival was in town.

[SKREEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee...]

"Mommy, can I go play the balloon game again?" a little boy with a missing tooth asked, tugging his much taller mother's pant leg pleadingly.

"Again?" she asked, giving him a firm expression... Well, she tried to, anyway. But she couldn't really pull it off, considering she was hefting a huge teddy bear over her shoulders and she had cotton candy stuck to her cheek. "You already won a prize, sweetie..."

"I know. But I wanna win one for Cindy, too."

The mother's heart melted - Cindy was her niece, who was in the hospital with a broken leg. She wanted to come to the carnival so badly, but she refused to let anyone else miss the carnival because of her.

"OK, sweetie." she said warmly. "One more. But come right back afterward, OK?"

[Kzzt... Chacha cha-CHA, cha-chaaaaa...]
[Kzzt... Chacha cha-CHA, cha-chaaaaa...]

The little boy smiled and nodded, then ran off towards the booth a few hundred feet away.

The only problem with that was that he was 6. And a few hundred feet was a bit much for his little legs to handle in one go, considering he'd been walking and running and jumping and playing all day...

About halfway to the booth in question, he stopped and panted for air. Maybe Mommy would buy him another soda if he won a good prize for Cindy...

"Greg..."

"Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and ghouls!"

The little boy's head perked up at the mention of his name. He looked around...

"Over here, Greggy..."

Greg looked in the direction of the voice. Standing half-hidden behind the first booth was a clown in a yellow, red-spotted suit. He was holding a bunch of balloons in one gloved hand, and gesturing to Greg with the other.

Greg walked over to him.

"What is it?" he asked, curiously.

"Step right up!
Behind this curtain lies a ghastly concoction of delight! Horror! Fantasy and terror!"

The clown plucked a balloon from his bunch, smiling widely.

"Just wanted to give you a little present." he replied, chuckling. "You're having fun at this carnival, aren't you?"

Greg smiled and nodded.

"Uh-huh!" he replied, reaching for the balloon.

The clown paused for a second.

"So then why not let me give you a little gift to make it even better...? You want the carnival to be the very best it can be, don't you?"

Greg's eyes lit up.

"Yes sir!" he squealed, grabbing the balloon.

"Your every wish is our command,
your every whimsical desire brought to life..."

The clown's grinning lips parted, revealing two jagged rows of blood-stained teeth, his warm chuckle turning cold, deep, and... evil.

"As you wish...!"

"But I warn you, there's always a price...

WELCOME TO THE GREATEST SHOW UNEARTHED!!"

Greg's eyes widened; he uttered a blood-curdling scream. His eyes filled with blood, his skin suddenly making sick stretching noises as his body inflated like a balloon and burst. Flesh, bone, blood, and gore splattered everywhere.

"Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA..."

Across the carnival, the ground began to rumble. Flaming black spires of stone, sharper than needles, erupted from the shaking earth. Dozens were impaled instantly, their ghastly elevators dangling them 30 feet off the ground like grisly, shrieking puppets.

"Welcome to the lower berth:
The greatest show unearthed!"

The roller coaster harnesses flew off, and the coaster itself stopped dead - in the middle of a 50 foot drop. Almost everyone on-board was killed instantly, their skulls cracked like eggs on the front of the carts or their bodies flung clean off, shredded by the tracks below. Stained with blood and death, the tainted coaster twisted and writhed, its metal exterior cracking and twisting like a shed skin as a great entity underneath stirred to life.

"We appear without a sound -
the darkest show around!"

Every vendor simultaneously screamed as their deep-friers, candy-makers, and cash registers flew open and issued forth swarming maggots, crawling centipedes, bats with humanoid heads, and other demonic lifeforms that lashed at them, eating their way into the poor humans' bodies before their patrons' eyes.

"We will leave you in a daze!
Madness! Murder! Dismay!"

The once warm and vibrant atmosphere of the carnival was gone in seconds, replaced only by utter terror and agony. Laughter was silenced by screams and stampeding footsteps. Sweet scents of candy and fried food were masked by burnt flesh and the metallic scent of blood. Every light was extinguished, bulbs blowing out and replacing themselves with angry, hungry flames, billowing and forming into a massive symbol... An inverted star forming a human skull.

"We will disappear at night
With blood on the concrete!"

The perverted, citywide festival lights up the sky for a brief few moments, before the edges of the city beyond the carnival crack and break apart, a blood-colored substance bubbling up through the fissure and rising over the city. A literal crimson tide, rolling over the entire city and closing itself at the top, trapping the entire city - and what is left of its population - inside...

"Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA...
Nana-nananaaa-naNA-nanana-NANA..."

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

The first person to call this a CarnEvil ripoff gets shot.

...Er... I mean... Ahem.

Yes. Welcome, one and all. To a carnival like none you've ever seen before. The staff here will make sure you have the time of your life. And by 'time,' I mean 'end.'

You're trapped, boys and girls. Trapped in a citywide carnival from Hell - LITERALLY!

With no outside help able to rescue you and no way of escaping, what will you do? And how long will you last?

My only advice is not to eat the cotton candy... You don't know who it's been...

SIGN-UPS:


Name: (Who are you?)
Gender: (What are you?)
Age: (How old are you?)
Appearance: (What do you look like?)
Personality: (How are you?)
History: (Who/what/how WERE you?)
Weapons/Skills: (What can you do to keep yourself alive?)
Relationships: (Who's got your back, and vice-versa?)
Other: (????)


Hurry along, now. The show is about to begin... Mwahahahahahahaha!


EDIT: Sign-ups up.



Name: Dergan Metolly (pronounced 'muh-TULL-ee')
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Appearance: Dergan is very small, barely 5 feet in height and less than 120 pounds. He looks almost malnourished despite whatever he's eaten that day. His eyes are brown, and his hair is dirty blonde and shaggy, hanging crookedly off one side of his head. His skin is rather pale, and his clothes are kind of... worn. His pale blue shirt is stained, his jeans are torn, and his 3 year-old left sneaker is missing a lace. The only thing of his that's clean and new-looking is his watch, which is shiny and old-fashioned. A stark contrast to the rest of the boy.
Personality: Dergan is a very quiet and kind-hearted person. The reason for this is that he's almost always scared of something. Even meeting a new person makes him shake and stutter. Those he knows, he's more comfortable and vocal around, but he's still by no means a pinnacle of sociality. He usually stands at the back of the crowd, staying out of the limelight and any action that may arise in a situation.
History: Dergan was born into a rich family. He was a very energetic child, as they all are, but being a member of the upper crust took away a lot of the fun of his childhood. What also took a lot of his joy away were his perfectionist parents, who demanded their son be intelligent and disciplined so that he could take over the family business. This meant private schooling, and when Dergan disobeyed his father, he was beaten into obedience.
On Dergan's 10th birthday, the much-tamed child was given a gift by his father: his watch, which he believed to be a good luck charm. He said that the day he bought that watch was the day his first employer promoted him, giving him a chance to be the successful mogul he is today.
Perhaps the watch was good luck, because as soon as Dergan's father parted with it, his company was hit by the full force of the recession, plunging it into bankruptcy. Dergan's family lost everything, including immunity from child-protective services. Good thing, too: the loss of all his money made Dergan's father even more violent, and he'd often give the boy bruises or even broken bones by that point in time. And so, Dergan was whisked away and adopted into a new, poorer family. He's been much quieter since the transition; nobody really knows what he thinks of his original family now. But considering he still has his dad's watch...
Weapons/Skills: ...Uh... He's good at running?
Relationships: Open.
Other: He's pretty smart for his age, "thanks" to his dad.


Name: Agon
Gender: Male (apparently)
Age: ???
Appearance: A shadowy humanlike figure in a greatcoat and blacker than the blackest night. Agon stands an imposing 6'5," yet is skinny as a twig. His spidery hands are concealed by white gloves, and he wears shiny black shoes and a fedora that conceals his face in shadow. Underneath the coat is a fancy golden suit that, when seen from the right angle, becomes thick with brown stains. In the shadow of his fedora's brim, two red eyes are visible. Not cliched, glowing red eyes. Empty voids offering a glimpse into Hell - a red-skied Earth, the ground tainted by wickedness and decay, and utterly devoid of life.
Personality: In a word, demented. Agon is almost always happy, usually because he's sating his sick sense of humor. He fancies a good show, and will go to any length to 'please' his patrons. He has a dramatic flair to his actions, a vivid showmanship and high intelligence underlying his manic, almost jury-rigged exterior personality. Nobody has ever seen him angry, for some reason.
History: Unknown at this time.
Weapons/Skills: Aside from the obvious ability to turn an entire city into the set of Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Agon doesn't walk - he just seems to 'warp' from one spot to the next when noone is looking.
Relationships: None.
Other: He's behind you right now. Don't look.