THE CIRCUS

 



Note: The Circus is a lot more 'full' than the pictures show. I just... I'm lazy.

LOCATION: Dimension 72.5 (Pocket Dimension between dim.72 & dim.73

ABOUT POCKET DIMENSIONS:

- The Circus is a 'Pocket Dimension' located between Dimension 72/73. Pocket Dimensions are small rifts in space that are created when dimensions tear or split apart oddly – sometimes the splits cause fractures in the universe, creating these Pocket Dimensions. They are odd anomalies.

- They are typically empty spaces of 'nothingness', some having their own physics and traits.

- These dimensions can be manipulated by highly magical beings, so long as said beings devote decades or centuries to studying the specific pocket dimension and their own magic.

- Pocket Dimensions can be found randomly, but can usually only be travelled to/from by people who have specific co-ordinates or the dimension's specific mapping number.

HOW IT WORKS

- The Circus is home to MILLIONS of residents from thousands of different dimensions. It’s a huge collection of The Ringmaster’s favourite species. He constantly keeps it updated, collecting performers and beasts from multiple dimensions and ‘hiring’ them to work in his dimension, often involuntarily. If it exists it’ll probably be in The Circus.

- The Circus is essentially a giant powerhouse. The Ringmaster gains his power and magic from love and adoration, so it fuels him. The stronger he is the more entertaining The Circus is and the more adoration he receives, so on so forth, which is exactly how he and it have become as strong and large as they are.

- The Circus is compiled of millions of performers from different dimensions, collected in one huge dimension by The Ringmaster.

- The Circus is basically a giant funfair, with huge tents which form the circus shows scattered throughout it, and carnivals filling the space.

- The Circus is controlled entirely by The Ringmaster. As he built everything from scratch and has a thorough understanding of the dimension's abilities he can manipulate anything - be it space or matter - as he pleases: He can manipulate podiums to move, he can make things appear from thin-air, his emotions can change the colour/texture of the curtains, and he can bend corridors to take people wherever he wants them to go. He can do this from wherever he wants whenever he wants, provided he is inside the dimension, and he can control multiple things at once. Of course, this is incredibly draining. When he is not within the dimension it runs by itself.

- The Circus and The Ringmaster are basically one entity: He’s the puppeteer and The Circus is his puppet.

- Because of this sometimes things happen in The Circus that are not intended. For example, when The Ringmaster's guard is down or he is tired, things can happen such as: Sneezing resulting in people exploding. Vivid hand-gestures resulting in roller-coasters swinging in the distance. Shouting setting some things on fire. Crying causing flash-floods.

- The Circus is a violent place. People die all the time and they are replaced just as quickly. Guests and workers are regularly eaten by other performers, and sometimes people are just killed by random incidents such as falling pianos, or exploding every time The Ringmaster sneezes.

IMPORTANT ODDITIES/TRAITS:

- When things die in The Circus, 60% of the time it’s just due to an unfortunate accident. The other 40% is a result of a bad day for The Ringmaster.

- The Circus is also split into separate districts, though lazily. You can only tell what district you are in based on oddly riddle-like signposts or the colours of the area surrounding you. The districts help to keep the place from burning itself down, so there are: Dream District, Fire District, Water District, Non-physical embodiment of sentience District, etc. Don't be fooled though - the place is mostly a mess. Only the most dangerous and hazardous of performers are segmented into districts.

- In The Circus everyone is made to speak one language - Human English. Why is it Human English? Because The Ringmaster wanted it to be that way. The dimension has a spell/charm cast over it that automatically translates people's speech into English for them, quite effortlessly. If a person wants to speak a different language then they must put effort into learning that language and it must not be native. (Example: Francois can speak French when he wants, as his natural language is Faunic. He cannot do so fluently, he must do so with effort and practice). Thoughts are not translated, so telepathic beings can communicate in their own languages if they wish.

- There's also a censor over The Circus: No-one can swear or curse, unless they find an appropriate loophole. Depending on the conviction of the curse the replacement word can change. 'Shit' can be translated to 'Shoot' or 'Sugar', and 'Fuck' is usually replaced with 'Fun!'. This is because The Ringmaster wanted to create a 'family friendly environment' (if you can call The Circus that...). Performers who have a wide understanding of the English Language (take Trick for example) can manipulate words having multiple meanings to swear. (Example: Trick can say 'Balls', which is both a curse and noun used regularly in The Circus).

- The Circus is 'managed' by a select panel of around 50 members of staff known as 'Management'. The Ringmaster calls them 'Spiders'. This is because 90% of them are undercover agents working for various different government/secret agencies sent from different dimensions, intent on taking over The Circus or burning it down. Each member of management thinks they're the only member who's undercover. They all think that The Ringmaster doesn't know, but he does, and he hires them as 'Management' to watch them and mess with them. He's prone to outbursts during the frivolous meetings he has with them (which are deliberately stereotypically corporate: long table, chairs, suits, etc), so most of them end up dying and being replaced by more 'spiders' along the way.

APPEARANCE:

- The Circus, being a pocket dimension, is available to people of every species regarding they can gain entry. Because of this (and The Ringmaster's obsession with collecting everything) it is a vast, packed, colourful place. Walking around you may see performers that are human-sized with eight arms and seven...what are those? You might see performers that stand hundreds of meters tall, or guests who only appear when you look straight at them.

- The Circus is a giant, vast expanse of land that pans out until the horizon and beyond. In fact, there isn't really a 'horizon' - it's all located in a flat, white space that just keeps going and going and going.

- There is a wall however, but it is very difficult to locate as it’s thousands of miles long and almost impossible to reach from the inside. When people travel to the dimension using their own devices (vortex manipulators, for example) they appear in the white void and must enter The Circus through one of many thousands of entrances.

- The Circus consists of thousands of gigantic (from 'human-sized' to 'thousands-of-meters-tall') marquees and tents coloured with reds, golds, whites and yellows.

- There are also millions of rides: Carousels, ferris-wheels, roller-coasters, slides, etc; all of which vary in size and intensity. Some are deadly, some are harmless, and all are incredibly intricate. Some aren't like anything you've ever seen before - some rollercoasters come to sudden stops, some don't have parachutes, some ferris-wheels can man hundreds of guests of all shapes and sizes, others are simple and plain.

- Scattered around the tents are millions of stalls. Where the Big Top and marquees serve as the main 'Circus' attraction between these places is the Carnivale; millions of tents, carnival stands, stalls and games available to any wandering guests: Merchants, food stalls, drink stalls, hook-a-duck/carnival stalls, games, and many, many smaller tents that lead to individual exhibitions and shows all run by The Ringmaster's magic and bajillions of performers that live there... *deep breath* The more 'Showy' performers tend to stand around, talking to guests and luring them towards stalls.

- Between the lively fun there's hidden chaos. Some stalls snatch performers, some roller-coasters kill their guests, and some rides are inescapable. 30% of the attractions are actually twisted forms of the standard attractions you may see in an ordinary circus, but there's no telling which ones are which. And of course... no-one notices the gore and the bloodshed, they're too busy enjoying the fun.

- If you search for weeks and are extremely lucky, you might find an exit. Good luck with that.

- The ‘Big Top’ is the largest of all the tents – spanning a few hundred meters in diameter and another hundred in height. In the centre of the Big Top is a huge ring surrounded by spiralling pillars. The main ring changes regularly; sometimes there are diving boards, sometimes rings of fire; usually a huge mish-mash of the lot. Surrounding the ring are tens of thousands of stairs ascending steps for the guests to sit in, and surrounding the top of the stairs drops the rest of the tent’s circumference with a small curtain at the top of each set of steps leading to the outer-corridors. The Big Top is where The Ringmaster's shows happen, which promise to be the most fun and exciting and violent of all the performances. Thanks to the size of the Big Top this can mean that there can be hundreds of different performers performing together at once. It's a fine spectacle to see.

- The outer corridors of the Big Top wind and move of their own accord, leading to random tunnels and rooms. The corridors are usually made from red, gold or black walls, but can become curtains as they please.

- At the end of one of these is the beast area, where thousands of cages are stored beneath a huge, red curtain storing the more feral animals in The Circus – those harder to train.

- At the end of another of these corridors is a curtain that leads to a balcony on the outside of the Big Top, with a huge, golden staircase that curls up the side of the tent and (after thousands of steps) leads to The Ringmaster’s office.

- At the back of the big top (behind the front of the main ring) here’s a large, red curtain; different from the curtain that the tent is made from – this leads backstage, where performers prepare for events and separate doors and curtains lead to other sections of the Big Top.

- Somewhere behind the backstage is Francois’ place, where he looks after the tamed beasts. He’s chill. I had to mention Francois – I’m sorry.

- Beneath the Big Top is a dungeon where The Ringmaster works on his ‘secret projects’. It’s basically where he makes amalgamations of the injured or more common members of his collection, performs experiments on his performers, and generally where he spends his time when he feels like being a bit creative. Sprocket lives in here, and is the circus' resident scientist.

- Let’s just call it a deadly monstrosity of fun and limb-filled candy-floss.

 

TYPICAL PERFORMANCES / SCHEDULES

- The Circus is always moving, be it night or day, and it never closes. The Carnivale/Funfair is the most lively section - that being the space between the marquees.

- Shows are almost always on in all of the marquees and tents - it's a non-stop party, even during the night. The Big Top puts on two performances a day - one in the 'morning', one during the 'night'. These are the largest of the performances, and as the Big Top is so large people have to use binoculars (and relevant equivalents) to see the main ring. These shows are ALWAYS led by The Ringmaster.

- The Big Top is only ever accessible to guests when the main shows are on. During any other time performers and beasts are allowed to wander the ring, clean up any bloodstains, rehearse, or generally just commute in the vast, dimly-lit space. It's where most of the more popular/famous performers spend their time: It's a safe place when the show isn't on, as well as being very close to backstage. The Ringmaster tends to spend a lot of time in there too as he loves commuting with his favourite performers.

- Every now and then The Ringmaster makes 'Themed' days. As he's very invested in human culture The Circus often has Halloween, Easter, Winter, Summer and Spring themed days in which the entirety of The Circus embodies one particular theme for an uncertain period of time. These can range from common themes such as this to 'Musical' days - days in which everyone is forced (using magic similar to the censor) to sing with every word.

- The Ringmaster occasionally puts on very obscure 'shows' in the Big Top. These can range from live and very, very deadly 'Wipeout Courses' (which he of course narrates over the speaker system), 'Gameshows' (in which performers and guests are involved in dangerous and often life-threatening gameshows, which he acts as the host for), and... well, occasionally he just stands in the centre of the ring and shouts for a while - it depends on what mood he's in, really.

COMMUNITY

- There’s a split between Performers and Beasts in The Circus, though it’s not visible to guests. Performers are the more ‘intelligent’ and humanoid beings, those less bestial – those who can communicate, those who are able to perform. These are allowed to wander around and have almost any job. The Beasts are kept in stacks of cages and treated like animals, hidden behind the darkest of the curtains backstage. The rarer beasts are allowed to stay with performers such as the beast tamers, but the most violent are left in the cages until showtime.

- There’s also an odd, unspoken split between performers who are born or created in The Circus and those who have been kidnapped/hired and taken in by The Ringmaster. Circus-born performers such as Sprocket are generally a little antagonistic towards those who are taken in, but this animosity isn’t particularly common around the older performers.

- Some (around 3%) of The Circus’ performers are ‘Experiments’ created within The Circus by The Ringmaster and the resident scientist, Sprocket. Sprocket is one such experiment, as are his robots (Deck, Dex, It, Springs, etc). These experiments can range from being artificially created monsters to odd amalgamations of former performers and beasts. There’s no bias against these experiments, but they are surprisingly common.

- The Circus is also home to 'Happy Clowns'. These are dangerous performers with former criminal convictions and are frequently put in the centre ring with irritating or disobedient performers in order to teach them 'lessons'. They do everything The Ringmaster says and are calm, stony beings when not in the ring. However, when in the ring they are violent and disgusting, often killing their opponents. 'Bubsy the Clown' is the most famous, and The Ringmaster's favourite.

TRAVELLING CIRCUS AND SCOUTS:

- There's also a select few performers and hands who are allowed to leave The Circus from time to time: The Travellers. These folk are The Ringmaster's most trusted performers and are sent in a magical caravan troupe to explore other dimensions and share The Circus with those who cannot travel to Dimension 72.5.

- These performers are mostly shapeshifters; those who are able to change to adapt to the chosen dimension's habitat. For example, in the ponyverse (mlp) The Ringmaster sometimes joins the troupe, who all transform into suitable forms to blend in.

- Scouts are also performers who The Ringmaster trusts intensely, though these are exceptionally powerful and often very rare. These performers are often sent out to scout for suitable new performers, kidnap them, and return them to the dimension for him. When they are incapable of doing their jobs The Ringmaster goes in their place. (Alistair was originally sent for by two Scouts, who he killed before The Ringmaster caught him in person)

HOW TO ENTER THE CIRCUS:

- Either find a ticket/be sent a ticket, or find the co-ordinates yourself and travel using your own device.

- Tickets can only be activated by magical users, or by non-magical beings if a magical user is present. Not doing so can result in general loss of limb.

- Anyone travelling to The Circus without a ticket appears before one of many giant, golden gates (entrances), of which there are thousands. Here a sample of your blood is taken by The Circus' mechanical guards and stored in a blood bank (where your species/rarity is checked to see if you are in demand), and you will be asked to pay a fee before entering. The fee can be either currency (any works) or a promise of work.

HOW TO LEAVE THE CIRCUS:

- Unless you keep your ticket or have your own way of travelling to and from the dimension, you cannot leave unless The Ringmaster allows you to.