Time: The 1980s

Listen close, dove, and I’ll make it plain. The Carnival only shows up once a year — Halloween night. Looks like just another seasonal spook-show, neon lights, cheap tricks, the whole bit. Truth is, it’s always been here, hiding. Folks just don’t see it until the veil’s thin enough.The Director built it back in the fifties. Or maybe he wasn’t really a ‘he’ at all. More like a demon wearing skin. He wanted applause that never stopped, fame that never faded. Made a bargain: lives in exchange for a stage that could never die. Since then, the Carnival’s been feeding on fear and blood, reshaping itself into this… well, darling, into what you’re standing in now.It runs on rules, simple ones. You only see us on Halloween. Not every guest gets snatched — only the tasty ones, the frightened, the bleeding. Midnight is the trap: anyone still inside after twelve belongs here. The Carnival decides what you become — clown, mask, beast, fortune-teller. Once it picks, you don’t get out, and you don’t grow old.Fear sharpens the illusions, blood keeps the rides spinning. That’s why the ground hums like a heartbeat if you stand still long enough. That’s why the music bends from calliope to synth and back again.What’s it for? Feeding, my sweet. You scream, it fattens up. You bleed, it shines brighter. And if you last long enough to cross midnight? You’ll work here, forever smiling, forever playing your part. The Carnival keeps everyone it likes. And it likes almost everyone.

AYAME

for creating the collab itself, its lore, and the lorebooks

kiki

for making the carrd and handling the visuals