Down the Rabbit Hole...

NOTE: The Following information is presented OOC, "Out of character", as its discovery would be VERY difficult even for an investigator on par with DC' Comics own Legendary "Batman". Its intended to give a player some perspective as to the scope of Carnivale's madness, without actually giving the inquiring character real details of Carnivale's past or his origins...

• Was Outcast as a child, thrown out of the house to fend on his own at age 4...

• Stayed near his families home (Rural) scraping, and salvaging untill he was 9, having been involved in many gruesome displays of cruelty. To animals and people (Think the little boy from Texas Chainsaw), except a tad more twisted...

• Learned to get into the walls of the house, moving unseen among the house...

• Watched his Father, Uncle, and Cousin Brutally treat his mother, her sister (his aunt) and older sister (age 10 when he was thrown out, and 15 when he hit 9) for years...

• His female cousin was killed from abuse at age 6, when he was 8, he played with her body like a doll, and made her pretty, as well as he could...

• More people came, all the time, and some of them disappeared, to the cruelties and twisted machinations of the men in the house, raping and abusing the women often over weeks...

• Would Kill the young girls off, whispering to them lullabies as he murdered them "setting them free" (this angered the men of the house, who had begun to suspect the boy was "around")

• would make the girls pretty in death, and "play" with them... only to later "eat" them for sustenance.

• at age 10 became more bold, allowing himself to be seen for brief moments, he had mastered the hidden areas of the house and the surrounding property, and blatantly antagonized the men of the house...

• Would often play games with the residents, stealing things, in teasing games, taunting them...

• Games became deadly, after the men "hurt" him... attempting to capture and kill him, with shotguns...

• Murdered his sister while she was being brutally raped, by his Uncle, "Setting her free", after sneaking into the room from one of his hidden entrances, this Completely caught the madman off guard, and the boy murdered him as well, beating him to death brutally as he lay paralyzed, after being electricuted (Soaked the floor, near the bed, and used jumper cables tied to a car battery, and the Fuse box)

• Sang singsong tunes to his mother as he killed her as well, though she begged for salvation... His Cousin, Knocked him unconscious, at his fathers direction, catching him at work on his mother...

• Made good an escape, talking his cousin into attempting to murder his now crippled father (confined to a wheel chair), when strangers arrived, distracting the men (he convinced his cousin that his father would steal all the girls, etc)

• Used the strangers to help himself, playing on their pity, and played the role of victim, tricked them into situations that brought his Father and Cousin out of hiding, to subdue them...

• the Strangers overcame his Cousin, at his pleading, killing the madman in self defense...

• Strangers tried to escape after this, but the boy sabotaged their vehicle, before it got 100 yards...where he fled from the Vehicle...

• Went back inside and stalked his father, brutally assaulting him, tormenting him, through the house, where he proceeded to maim him further, used chemicals to keep his father aware, and out of shock while he performed many more atrocities on him, like molesting his mouth with the mans own severed penis.

• He beat him for hours much as his father did the girls, saying many of the same things the men had said to the women as they hurt them... as time drug on, he took more trophies from his father, and fed them to the men's dogs, also attempted to feed these trophies to his father...

• The boy paraded the women around his Severely damaged father, playing disgusting and tormenting games, like lap dancing the dead girls on his father, and using other parts of their anatomy to further torment the man, one such, example, was forcing the dead girls jaws to bite flesh from the mans face...

• The Police raided the house, after one of the surviving strangers reported the incidents at the house, the boy severely injured one of the officers, attempting to resist arrest, when he ambushed him from the ceiling with a meat hook, taking one of the officers eyes, and extremely disfiguring him, as the boy lifted him from the floor, attempting to lift him into the ceiling, but lacking the strength...

• the boy was apprehended with further injuries both to himself and a handful of more officers (Bites, kicks, etc) and even killed one of the Officers by tricking him into a jury-rigged trap...

The Black Parade

The Maniacs seem to have new leadership and are better organized and more strategic than their history has ever demonstrated in their crimes. Also, the Maniacs are far more brutal and murderous. (showing new costuming and clearly more sinister crimes)

The Maniacs kidnapped several journalists from the Westside area (Jonas Quinn, Natasha Peebles), after a three day search, their bodies were discovered in the Detroit River, with jagged smiles carved into their faces, their eyes carved out and their stomachs loaded with bleach, the Corpses were bloated and deformed from the expansion of interior gases.

The Maniacs assaulted a major drug dispensal warehouse operated by lackeys and business associates of the Recently incarcerated "The Truth". Several of his top enforcers were kidnapped (Antoine Luceno, Scott Duvall, and Lawrence Belle) they were hung by the neck outside the Skyrise apartment building facing the Millennium Penitentiary; Jagged smiles carved into their faces, their eyelids, and lips surgically removed, their stomachs were opened and their intestines strung to dangle to the streets below.

The City is in a state of shock and panic, local authorities and heroes are patrolling diligently to uncover the wereabouts of these New Maniacs and put an end to this reign of horror. Chief Surhoff of the MCPD has taken a personal oath to driving out this madness and ceasing the killing spree.

Several bomb threats were called into the cities emergency system, threatening City Hall in City Center, Harmon Labs in Downtown, and the Skyrise Apartment building in Westside. Two of the bombs were diffused and eliminated, however the Skyrise detonated with 25% of the inhabitants inside as well as several Emergency technicians and firemen, who were trying to assist in evacuation procedures.

Chief Surhoff was Broadcasted over the Emergency broadcast system from WCOC, he was attached to the WCOC Radio transmission tower in the thunderstorm. The heroes fought valiantly to free him, before the storm could kill him, via the 70ft Lightning rods welded to his trap. The Chief was rushed to Mercy General, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove a Maniacs emplaced pacemaker from his chest.

Convoys of jury rigged maniac rigged "floats", constructed from husked vehicles retrofitted with mesh wiring for windows, steel and Iron spikes for framework and tank treads, crawled through Central Westside, down mainstreet leading directly to the Renaissance Center, blaring dark carnival music (see Words and Images for a sample), and terrorizing everyone in their path. Hundreds of the cities Maniacs came out to torment the city. Kidnapping many citizens and dragging them back into their sewer hideouts, remote factories and warehouses hideaways. The maniacs proceeded through police vehicle barricades and heroes killing, maiming, or generally injuring countless more citizens in their evil march.

Anarchy and a handful of the maniacs assaulted the Prison yet another time, and challenged heroes to stop them, they stood their ground for some time before being forced to withdraw and join the Parade.

L'espione and Mister Freeze sealed the ramps into Westside from City Center and Renaissance Center, with vehicle blockades and towering wall of ice. L'espione posed as the Leiutenant Jordan of Westside MCPD and assaulted the Westside Police Precinct, taking several lives and providing several casualties, before withdrawing. Officer Jordan was held and investigated regarding the assumption it may have been him attacking his own men.

• Officers Killed;
  3
• Officers Wounded in Action;
  8
• EMT's Killed;
  2
• Firemen Killed;
  4
• Citizens Killed;
  143
• Citizens Kidnapped;
  12
• Citizen Casualties(wounded);
  211
• Thugs Apprehended;
  31
• Thugs Killed in action;
  67
• Property Damage assessment;
  $8,313,176.77
• Valuables stolen;
  $327,316.00

Memoire's of a Sociopath

An ancient audio-recording reel, the ones that remind you of old movie projector film reels, lies in a box, on the far reaches of the dust covered shelf. Labeled in fading and peeling yellow tape, it reads "the Glassman case". Reaching, he draws the reel from the cardboard crypt, the room suddenly falls into silence, everything seems so far away. The time difference hits like a truck, horn blazing. The power of what lies locked away in this aluminum casing seems so dangerous, now that it is in his hands. He cant help but feel that by just touching it, he has stirred the monster that he seeks notice, like it is connected to everything its ever touched, and somehow, it knows he is here. He cant back out now, he has come too far, the answers have to be here, everything leads back to this...

Choking back his unease, he carries the reel upstairs, he pauses at the landing, looking back into the storage basement. How like a hungry thing it seemed now, angry that he had taken one of its treasures. The dusty and dry room, seemed to curse him as he left, but blinked into a portal of darkness as he flipped the light switch, and its curses locked behind the flimsy particle wood door as he closed it. He passes the sleeping night guard, without any attempt at stealth, pauses to see if the aging man will wake, he hadnt meant to "steal" the reel, but answers to this killer were here he knew it. He donned his heavy brown Fedora, complimenting his aged trenchcoat, as he stepped into the cold night air. How like a undercover detective he looked standing on the landing to this old records hall, his breath fogging into the night. A stranger, likely a bum, by his sullen gait, and hunched countenance shuffled by, but paused to ask.

He paused to give him another look over, he could be dangerous, you never knew with people anymore, and this case had him more on edge then ever.

he returned walking past the stranger. the stranger offerred back.

He whirled then, something about how he said it triggered his defences, he wanted answers... Gone.

No one there.

Impossible right? He knew he just talked to him. He scanned both ways down the street, empty save the rows of cars hugging the curb and the faded lights of the streetlamps. Definately on edge, maybe the lack of sleep was getting to him now. He needed to get home, get some answers.

Once he got back to his place, he quickly left the old chevy sedan to lick its wounds, the vehicle was over twenty years old, but chevies seemed built to last, so he never bothered to replace her. He scanned his home on the way to the door as he always did, sort of an old paranoid habit, but habits like this kept you alive in this line of work, and it hadnt failed him yet. Satisfied he entered the house, and brisquely crossed the room to the old Audio-reel player he had borrowed from archives yesterday. He layed the reel down, but couldnt help but pause and stare at its dulled aluminum casing again. "the Glassman case" it read, same as before, but something... was there something there? He rubbed his palms over his face, shot the reel another sidelong glance and left the room. Removing his hat and coat, which he discards on the back of his nearby sofa, who's crimson colors were all but a dull dunn now. He goes to the kitchenette, not quite a full kitchen, and begins brewing some joe.

He comes back to the Audio-reel player and open the reels casing. It was just a reel, wound with black audio-ribbon, unlabled, uninspired, such a simple thing. After staring it over, he starts setting the reel in the player, winding the tape through the device and plays it.

Fading and crackling audio-feedback silences all other ambient noise, and a power settles over the room. The Nostalgia is not missed by him, and he sits in the wooden chair nearby, his attention raptured.

The speaker is precise and well spoken, but seems distracted, or uninterested. There is a long silence, broken only by the constant crackling in the feedback. Another pause. The voice of a child, full of darkness and hints of malice. The voice trails off into low snickering. The speaker seems annoyed, and is followed by a pause. The voice is distracted, and resigned. It is followed by another long pause. The speaker is annoyed, but hints of fear are in his voice.

The Feedback is suddenly swallowed in a great deal of noise, and commotion, like furniture being overturned and fighting. Shouts in the background for help and security, are nearly impossible to make out over a sadistic laughter.

The feedback abruptly ends, but most the reel is left unrecorded. He leans back in the chair and reminds himself to breath, realizing he had stopped somewhere in the recording. No answers, except a name. The killer has always been a killer, no surprises there. He lets out a long sigh, and remembers the joe! he starts to check on it, when the feedback starts back up from the player.

The familiar crackling of the recording begins again, and background sounds of objects being moved, likely the recorder itself carry on for a moment, then seem to abruptly stop. Then there is a long pause.

The childs voice hums into the recorder, sounds like fairgrounds or carnival music. Ragged and feignt breathing can be heard in wimpered gasps behind the childs words. There is feint shuffling behind the static's crackling. The feint sounds of shuffling continue, perhaps the scrambling of the panicked doctor. The doctors screams wail across the player, he feels the doctors terror in his bones. The childs Malicious laughter rings for several seconds, untill the recorder suddenly cuts out, sounding like it was knocked over.

He stares at the player, stunned, for a long while.