Page 43 of The Opening Act is Death

6.If you hear applause when no one’s clapping — run.

III. STRUCTURE & SPACES

The Main Tent (Performance Stage)

• Stage rotates by blood type.

• The crowd appears faceless, draped in shadow.

• Madame Noire is always center — never seen entering, only appearing.

The Backstage

• Where the carnies sleep (if they do).

• Haunted dressing rooms, cracked mirrors that whisper secrets.

• The Escapist’s quarters are always locked… except when she visits.

The Sideshow Row

• Marionettist’s puppet graveyard.

• Mirror Maiden’s corridor of glass — all showing possible deaths.

• A bone carousel that spins when someone lies.

Madame Noire’s Tent

• Tutu mannequins made from old flesh.

• A hidden music box that plays her lullaby from her mortal days.

• Blood on the floor, never fresh, never dry.

The Ring of Chains

• Elias’s act space. Rusted metal, swinging cages, barbed wire threads.

• The only place he feels honest.

IV. THE CROWD

• They’re not human. Never were.

• Shadows in masks, frozen smiles, empty hands that clap in unison.

• When they love something, they cry blood.

• When they hate something… it disappears from the world entirely.

• Some say they’re the souls of past performers who failed.

V. THE PERFORMERS’ BARGAINS

Each carnies traded something to join:

•Madame Noire:Gave her soul for eternal adoration. Didn’t read the fine print.