Mike is seventeen years old. He's just returned to the circus with some assorted chemicals carefully stored in jars. He's been experimenting with creating a smoke bomb to enhance his performances. Ever since Natalie and Mr. Sergei arrived he's had to step up his game somewhat, Mr. Sergei wouldn't be a threat to Mike on his own but Natalie is an amazing performer. The woman has beauty, passion, skill, all of it, and it shows. Despite Mike's distaste for her choice of partner he can't deny that Natalie is worthy of respect. He wishes to perform with her one day, unfortunately Mr. Sergei is more than a tad possessive and Mike isn't sure he'd take kindly with Mike replacing him as her partner even for just a single act.
He carefully unscrews the lid on the brown Clorox bottle and pours it into a pot, he lights the stove and waits for it to come to a boil. As he waits for it to cool he crushes up some kieserite and mixes it with water. Once the Clorox has cooled he combines the two and stirs. He grabs some sugar from the cupboard and mixes it in as well alongside some baking soda.
Later Mike is juggling on a tightrope and he does a few flips to get the crowd excited. They're cheering so loud it all blends together and Mike grins. He can hardly see anyone's faces because of the bright spotlights illuminating him but he knows everyone he needs watching is doing so from backstage. Going off script Mike pretends to trip and fall from the rope, he catches himself with his knees at the last moment and pulls a lighter out of his suit pocket and illuminates his new hacky sack. Smoke comes pouring out of the bag and fills the circus. While smoke conceals him from the audience he quickly descends to the main stage and grabs a new set of balls to juggle with.
When the smoke dissipates the shocked crowd sees Mike Morton sitting on a circus stool on the main stage juggling like the event never even occurred. He yells his thanks to the crowd and the clapping and screaming begins. Mike grins at the crowd, takes his bow and makes his way off stage.
Even Bernard's scary look behind the curtain can't take the grin off his face when the cheering crowd can even be heard when he descends to his dressing room. Mike turns to Bernard who is chasing after him "I know, I know I should've told you but you never would've given it the okay. The crowd liked it, see?"
Bernard scowls and repeats those words Mike has heard hundreds of times over. "Mike, you know I love you but if you keep acting like this no one else will. Go to your room and think this over, maybe in the future you will act more responsibly. I'm extremely disappointed in you" Mike shrinks inwards and nods, so much for the warmth of the crowd's cheers getting him through Bernard's scolding.
He needs to stop acting solely for attention and consider the things Bernard says more. If he continues this way maybe even Bernard will cease to love him. He knew Bernard would hate the act but deep down he hoped Bernard would've appreciated his creativity and been proud…
Mike wakes up well rested, the bed is comfortable and the pillows aren't too soft or too hard. He stretches and checks the clock beside him, 7:30AM. He rolls out of bed and gets dressed in casual clothing. After combing his hair out and brushing his teeth he grabs a vile of nitre to put in his morning coffee and heads outside to look around. He makes his way back to the dining room and he almost doesn't believe what he sees. His legs grow weak and he has to steady himself on a chair so he doesn't fall. Natalie is sitting at the other end of the table eating breakfast with Dr. Dyer and another woman with a bow in her hair. Natalie and the other woman are making intense conversation so Mike tries to take the opportunity to slip away unnoticed and evaluate his options but Dr. Dyer notices him and beckons him over.
"Mr. Morton! I do hope you slept well, come meet Margie and Vera!" Mike takes stiff steps over to their end of the table, his legs feel like led and the walk feels much longer than it is.
To his credit, Mike pulls on a pretty convincing smile all things considered. "Good morning Dr. Dyer! I did sleep well thank you!" He turns to the other two, however his eyes stay mainly focused on Natalie. "My name is Mike Morton, it's nice to meet you both!" He holds out his hand to shake and smiles.
The other woman introduces herself as Vera Nair, she reeks of perfume, it's a tad bit overwhelming but it doesn't smell particularly bad. He turns to Natalie and nods at her. She introduces herself as Margaretha Zelle and continues with her breakfast quietly. Mike does his best to get to know Ms. Nair and Dr. Dyer. The former keeps sending odd looks to Natalie, but Mike does his best to ignore it. Ms. Nair and Mike continue to converse but Mike's mind wanders; how does he find out if Natalie was the arsonist? He can't just ask her, surely the criminal wouldn't confess so easily. Maybe if he makes an effort to earn the trust of her friends, however that plan only works if she has yet to tell them Mike's name.
Mike finishes up breakfast with little issue and excuses himself to go look around the manor. He didn't get a chance to slip the nitre into his coffee unnoticed so he unscrews the small vile's lid and drinks it. Bernard lost his mind when he saw Mike drinking the stuff "Dear Mr. Mike Morton!" he had cried, however nitre doesn't actually do much, it's mostly a placebo for Mike. The most it does is give a very small painkiller effect, it's not the best thing to consume but unless taken in very large doses it doesn't do much harm. The only time it has been genuinely dangerous to Mike was when he heavily concentrated the stuff and spilt it on his skin. Potassium Nitrate is sometimes used to cauterize small wounds and it burnt him slightly. Bernard never found out about the small scar on the inside of Mike's wrist from that accident thankfully.
He decides to begin his day by introducing himself to his new housemates. He makes his way back to his room to grab a pocket sized notebook and pen and makes his way to the door closest to his.
Norton Campbell - Prospector is engraved in the door, some old man comes to mind briefly but Mike dismisses it as soon as a voice calls "One minute" rather gruffly from the other side of the door. Soon the lock clicks open and a relatively tall man appears in the door frame. He looks about 5'10 Mike would guess? Mike doesn't have a great grasp on height, he knows he's 5'7 but he's not really sure how to use that to gauge other people's heights. Other than his somewhat imposing height the man, Norton Campbell, has a noticeable mark on his face, it's faded enough that an untrained eye could almost mistake it for a birth mark at first, however it stands out to Mike immediately as a burn scar and makes him cringe internally. Luckily it doesn't show on his face and instead he grins wide and extends his hand to shake with Norton.
"Mr. Campbell is it? Nice to meet you! I'm Mike Morton, the Acrobat!" Mike is about to grab his hacky sacks to demonstrate shortly however Norton stares at him weird and he waits for a better time to show off.
"Norton's fine. I'm the Prospector, but I guess you knew that." He goes to close the door, sighs, then says flatly "Piece of advice, don't get downed before the dungeon is revealed or no one's coming to save you." Then he promptly closes the door in Mike's face. Mike is so shocked by the man's curtness that he stands stock still staring at the door momentarily.
Then when he comes back to his senses he pulls out his notebook and writes:
Norton Campbell - The Prospector
-RUDE!
-Burn scar?
-Call him Norton
-Or Mr. Campbell to be a nuisance :)
Mike sighs then scribbles down lightly below the above points
-seems to give good advice - check with Dr. Dyer or Kevin
-Cold, don't like him but he doesn't seem that bad
He flips the page and continues his notes below the information he already has about the matches.
-Don't get downed before the dungeon is revealed or no one's coming to help me (Norton's advice)
Mike closes his notebook and returns it to his pocket, hopefully he manages to leave a better impression on the next person he speaks to. He walks to the next room over and lets out a sigh of relief, Emma Woods - The Gardner is inscribed in the nameplate. Dr. Dyer had spoken kindly of her earlier so she should be pleasant company!
He knocks and she answers near immediately, she's wearing gardening clothes and she has gloves in her hand. They briefly introduce themselves, Emma's eyes glow like a child's when Mike starts juggling for her. However their meeting is short as Emma has to go tend to the manor garden before she meets with Dr. Dyer before the doctor's match. Emma promises to come see him later and help him better understand the games.
After she leaves Mike pulls out his notebook and starts a section for her.
Emma Woods - The Gardner
-Very kind
-Paranoid?
-Helpful!
-Childish
Emma seems quite nice, Mike hope's they become friends in the future.
Mike continues his introductions well into the day until Emma comes looking for him with three others. Behind her is a man with jeans and glasses, a strange man with a blindfold and an… owl? As well as a very tall man with bandages covering his face.
Emma calls him over and Mike greets them with the same friendly excitement he's been wearing all day. His cheeks are getting a bit tired from smiling, he does hope it's not beginning to look stiff.
"Hello Emma, nice to see you again! And it's nice to meet you three, my name is Mike Morton and I'm the Acrobat!" The man with jeans shakes Mike's hand and introduces himself as Lucky "Lucky Guy" (Does that even count as a profession? Mike does suppose he met a thief earlier so maybe?) then the blindfolded man waves and introduces himself as Eli Clark the Seer. When Mike seems somewhat confused he explains that he's somewhat comparable to a fortune teller. He also explains that he's blind but his owl Brooke Rose acts as his eyes when need be. For his part, Mike hides his astonishment well and pretends like this isn't the strangest thing he's ever heard. The final man introduces himself as Leo Beck "Hell Ember" and as a hunter as well as Emma's father. Emma grins up at him when he says that.
The pretend match goes well, Mr. Beck teaches Mike some containing tricks and shows him which pallets are safe and which aren't. He explains the hunter abilities and how to counter them (unfortunately many of the skills like predicting blinks seem to just come with time). They go through a fake rescue with Mike then explain survivor traits like Borrowed Time and Tide Turner. Afterwards they go through some ideas with Mike for an item he could bring with him to matches. Eventually they settle on his bombs he made for performances, Mike's certain with a bit of altering he could create bombs that work well in game settings.
Mike's exhausted by the time he returns to the manor and decides to just take dinner to his room when he sees Natalie at the dining table, he has no energy to pretend to be nice to her.
When he goes to enter the kitchen there's a boar waiting outside which reminds Mike of an old friend but doesn't concern him too much considering the many strange creature's he's seen around the manor in his short time there, including but not limited to Cerberus, the three headed guard dog from hell. However when Mike walks into the kitchen, none other than Murro is at the counter cutting up something clumsily. When he sees Mike he almost drops his knife, Mike manages to catch it in time but backs off quickly to avoid close proximity with Murro. He doesn't say anything to Mike at first, just nods his head in thanks then opens the refrigerator and hands Mike a bottle of Hires Root Beer and a plate of food. On closer inspection it looks to be shepherd's pie, Mike's favorite. While Mike marvels at the food given to him Murro finally speaks. "Emily told me you arrived yesterday, she helped me make shepherd's pie since you'd probably be pretty stressed after seeing Margaretha, I didn't tell her that though, if you're worried. You should get some rest, you missed matching and you have a game tomorrow at 10:00AM on Lakeside Village. You should thank Emily later."
Mike is filled with so many emotions that all he manages is "Thank you Mr. Murro." before he runs out of the kitchen and to his room, food in hand. Once in his room he takes out his notebook.
Murro
-Is at the manor?
-Why is he here?
-Made me my favorite dinner?
-Really nice to me? Why?
Mike taps his bottom lip with his pen momentarily before he finishes his notes.
-Didn't do it.
He has no solid evidence that Murro isn't the carnival killer, and by extension Bernard's murderer, but everything that just happened felt so genuine that Mike can't help but believe in Murro despite every logical part of his brain telling him Murro had means and motive and a kind gesture doesn't change that.
Mike finishes his dinner then goes to write in his diary for the day.
Day Two | January
Dear Bernard
Why is Murro here, and why is that woman here? Murro was so kind to me Bernard, after all this time he still remembers my favorite food, he's still acting all mature like, making sure I say thank you and all that. Does he not think you raised me to have good manners? You were an excellent caregiver, however I guess there's no reason for him to think that. That's mostly your fault though Bernard.
Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I hope you didn't see that wherever you are, please don't hate me. Unrelated but I've met a lot of kind people here so far. I do hope they become my friends. However there was this awfully rude man named Norton, I hope I don't get matched with him, that'd be a pain. Embarrassing too if he had to help me.
I've been thinking about Joker an awful lot Bernard, why did you blame me for what happened to him? I'm sorry, I'm sure your reasoning was sound, regardless, I've been thinking about him. It's unfortunate he died as he did, he was very kind to me, a good, if not somewhat repetitive, performer as well might I add. I hope his death was painless, although I doubt it was. I think it's best if I stop thinking of him.
I should prepare for my match tomorrow, I was advised to prepare bombs like the ones I used in performances to aid in matches against the hunters. Wish me luck Bernard!
That's all from Mr. Swifts of Hullabaloo the Traveling Circus - Presented by the Ringmaster Bernard!
Sorry, I'm feeling nostalgic today, all these familiar faces must be getting to me.
With love, Mike Morton
