Co-GM - GenericUserName

As the Freak Show opens people flood through the gates, children screaming happily and parents groaning unhappily behind them. The Freaks wander the grounds, showing off talents and features or just doing whatever will get them a little cash. Some people are afraid of the Freaks and cower away from them, while others move closer in awe. There are those who make loud, disgusted sounds, and those who have to walk away to keep from being afraid. There are, as always, skeptics, trying to prove that the Freaks are hiding their real bodies with paint and plastic and (today, at least) failing. But not all of the freaks are outside.

In the year B251 the market for extreme body modifications is on the rise. You can buy genetic alterations for your children, give yourself immune or physical variations, have body parts moved or added - it's expensive, of course, but not as much as it was twenty years ago, or fifty. It's not uncommon to see someone walking down the street with snake eyes or cat ears. The bored-looking employee behind the counter may have feathers growing around his neck or patterns living in his arms. Alterations to the bone structure - prehensile tails, digitgrade legs and the like - are a little more extravagant, but not necessarily bizarre, and modifications to amend or assist with physical disabilities are becoming increasingly affordable and therefore increasingly common. We've made great leaps in the past few years, no small thanks to the volunteers.

In order to make new advances as quickly as possible, companies responsible for modifications experiment on contracted volunteers: usually homeless people hoping for a few months of free food and shelter or people with disabilities or atypicalities that they hope experimental modification can solve, though parents can volunteer their offspring through a fairly extensive process and companies with permits and low fatality rates can "adopt" unwanted children. Adult volunteers whose experiments go well are released with a payment and, depending on their origins and individual ability, generally go on either to better themselves or to continue their previous lifestyle. Volunteers whose experiments go poorly usually die. Survivors are released under the same circumstances as successful experiments - except that with their failed modifications, they usually have no means to better themselves or even to continue living as they had previously. In fact, with faulty limbs or trapping scales, halting movements or strange neuroses, failed graftings or mutations from radiation, those who see them seem frequently to agree they're good for little but to be stared at...

Circo Contaxiosa is a fairly unknown traveling circus and freak show composed of these failed experiments. The performers survive on the revenue gathered from presenting their talents and abilities and, of course, from showing off their various mutations and anomalies. They park in one field or another for a couple of weeks at a time, setting up tents, putting up signs and posters around town, and staging performances for paying customers before vanishing again, sometimes early and unannounced. Despite the occasionally sudden disappearances, Circo Contaxiosa is a fun source of harmless entertainment - as long as you don't touch the performers.

The problem with the fast paced, hit-or-miss experimentation conducted on volunteers is this: the observers are often left unaware of longterm side effects. Grafting subjects can develop chronic graft-versus-host disease. Attempts at improving senses can succeed at first, but ultimately backfire.
Irradiated volunteers can become contagious.
The precise mechanics of this occurrence are unknown, perhaps because it rarely manifests while the volunteers are still being observed, but subjects modified via radiation sometimes develop the capacity to involuntarily transfer mutations to unmodified individuals through direct contact. The contagious mutations will not develop immediately - in fact, on occasion they may not develop at all - and rarely resemble the 'controlled' mutations of the index case.

When some stranger inevitably ignores the signs posted around the grounds ("PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH OR HARASS THE PERFORMERS") they tend to disappear, and the circus with them. It wouldn't do to have people realizing some of the performers are contagious, after all - God only knows what would happen to them if that information got out. Some months later a new Freak will appear, showing off some bizarre ability, standing near signs that insist they are not to be touched - or perhaps they will disappear entirely, giving way to a corpse made by the manifestation of some mutation too aberrant for the human body to handle. {{I DISLIKE THIS PARAGRAPH GREATLY}}

Setting: Circo Contaxiosa has situated itself in a field outside the moderately sized southeastern city of Cirene. A fence has been erected around the tents to keep people from sneaking in without paying the fifteen dollar entrance fee. The tents themselves are arranged in a kind of semicircle, with 14 tents of varying sizes radiating from a single central tent large enough to hold a few hundred people. Outside the entrance is some extra field for parking, while the tents obscure the seven vehicles used to transport the tents and the two RVs used to transport the performers who aren't sitting in the fronts of those vehicles.

Modifications:

Grafting: Grafting is used to attach foreign body parts to a human. This may be as simple as giving them a patch of scales or as complicated as attaching extra limbs. Often used in association with restructuring. Radiation is used to help grafts take, and individuals with grafted modifications are not affected by contagious radiation. They will therefore generally be yelled at rather than kidnapped if they touch a performer. Grafting and restructuring are by far the most common types of commercial modification.

Restructuring: The act of moving or reconstructing body parts. Usually necessary in order to make grafted limbs function. Sometimes used to give people digitgrade legs or extend spines. Used almost exclusively in association with grafting. Radiation is sometimes used to help in the restructuring process, and individuals with restructured modifications are sometimes unaffected by contagious radiation. However, when not used in association with grafting, restructuring is usually used reparatively and made as undetectable as possible. Grafting and restructuring are by far the most common types of commercial modification.

Radiation: Precisely what it sounds like: modification through radiation. Used in various ways, most commonly to heighten senses or immune system. Individuals with radiation modifications can look entirely human, but may also have grafts. Radiation modification is underdeveloped and prohibitively expensive, and individuals with radiation modifications are therefore extremely difficult to find. Companies are frequently experimenting with radiation modifications in order to figure out how to make them less underdeveloped and less prohibitively expensive. Individuals with radiation modifications are not affected by contagious radiation, but may carry it.

Embryonic Genetic Modification: Genetically modifying embryos in order to change the outcome of a child at birth. Commonly used to give offspring a certain eye or hair color. Cross-species genetic modification can be used to give children animal features, but it is prohibitively expensive and tends to have less specific results than grafting. Genetically modified individuals are affected by contagious radiation. Genetic modification is extremely common, but cross-species genetic modification is extremely uncommon.

Playable things:
Basically, you can play a character who is already in the Circo or you can play a kid who wanders up and happens to touch one of the freaks, leading to their getting kidnapped. It's up to you.

Character Sheets: (Feel free to add more sections to this.)
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Role: (Human or Circo Member)
Act: (For Circo Members. If you're playing a human, put what you want to have as your act.)
Appearance:
Freak Traits: (This can include grafting, radiation, etc. For humans, what you will be getting when you touch the freaks.)
Personality:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Fears:
History:
Other: