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17. Perfumer

This story is about a perfumer, Vera Nair.

Vera was a talented perfumer born in Grasse, France. After years of experimenting and researching, Vera finally gained inspiration from a mysterious perfumer recipe, and she created Euphoria. The recipe came with a letter from Oletus manor, stating that the recipe is a perfume that helps you to forget about your worries. However, the aroma doesn’t last long.

Vera has no choice but to find the source of the formula and maybe alter and improve the recipe. She is hoping the owner of the manor can help her relieve her worries, primarily her feeling of guilt. This is because she is not Vera Nair, she is Chloe Nair. Vera Nair was her late twin sister’s name, whom she murdered. Chloe used Vera’s name for a reason: Vera was the likeable twin, and Chloe was the opposite.

Chloe murdered Vera out of rage from jealousy. Vera took Chloe’s perfume and took credits for it and opened a shop under Chloe’s name and used the recipe that Chloe received. Without Chloe’s knowledge, Vera was only trying to advertise Chloe’s skill and talent. Vera herself knows that no one likes Chloe, so she took the advantage of people’s favour of Vera. Chloe only realised that Vera was only trying to help her, after murdering her sister, the only person who likes and loves Chloe sincerely.

She realised that Vera was only trying to help yet she allowed her envy gets the best of her. This is why Chloe is trying her best to search for the recipe to make Euphoria last longer, because all she wants is to forget about her past.

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16. Wu Chang (part 2)

Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu were patrolling the area as government runners one day.

The local governor filed a lawsuit against two government officers for injuring his son at a tavern. Apparently, Fan was the person the son said assaulted him. The local governor demanded the county’s government to solve this issue within 10 days.

Initially, Xie Bi’an was the one who confessed to the assault at the tavern and claimed that no one was involved. Then, Fan Wujiu confessed to the assault at the tavern and also claimed that no one else was involved. Later, there was a letter of appointment addressed to both Xie and Fan are to apprehend the fugitive together.

Fan sent a letter to Xie, asking Xie to meet him at the Nantai Bridge to discuss regarding the so called assault. Using his record in the apprehension, Xie has earned himself a chance to choose the “truth”. He only chose to be the guilty party.

However, because of the recent misfortune that the accused government officer Fan Wujiu drowned during a rainstorm, the case of the assault was concluded before the details of the case could be ascertained.

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16. Wu Chang (part 1)

This story is about 2 sworn brothers, Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu.

[The Heibai Wuchang, or Hak Bak Mo Seong, literally "Black and White Impermanence", are two deities in Chinese folk religion in charge of escorting the spirits of the dead to the underworld. As their names suggest, they are dressed in black and white respectively. They are subordinates of Yama, the ruler of the Underworld in Chinese mythology, alongside the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced Hell Guards. They are worshiped as fortune deities in Chinese temples in some countries. (Source: Wikipedia)

When its purpose is intimacy among close friends, sworn brotherhood stands on the border between friendship and kinship. It is analogous to other sorts of Chinese fictive kinship, particularly adoption of the god-parent type, and yet at the same time it is different because its fictive quality remains vibrantly in the consciousness of the participants, and no attempt is made to forget the artificiality of its creation. It is closer than friendship, not so close as kinship, different from both, and similar to both, and it generates secondary relationships that are different from itself, such as kinsmen of Ego's sworn brother, or sworn brother of one of Ego's sworn brothers. (Source: Jordan, 2020)]

They are not brothers, but sworn brothers.

One day they travelled to Nantai bridge, they noticed the weather and it was going to rain. Xie told Fan to wait under the bridge and Xie will return home to get an umbrella. After Xie left, the rain started to pour and the river rose. However, Fan was hesitant to break his promise and wait somewhere for Xie. He stayed under the bridge. Shortly after, Xie returned with an umbrella and Fan was nowhere to be found. Fan Wujiu had drowned.

Xie Bi’an did not take this in fine. He was so grieved because he had no choice but to live without Fan. Whether it is raining or shining brightly, he carried the same black umbrella during the day and wore white mourning clothes every day. Xie eventually committed suicide by hanging, underneath the Nantai Bridge, where Fan waited for him on that fateful day.

The black umbrella then found by a migrating merchant and is placed as a hallway decoration in his home. Ever since he brought the umbrella home, the merchant’s family is experiencing strange things happening to them. In the middle of the night, there were sounds of men sighing and sobbing filling the hall of the home. Everyone said that Xie Bi’an’s soul was in the umbrella. Knowing this, the merchant invited Taoists to get rid of the umbrella; they did dispose the umbrella to lift a spell casted on the town. The merchant went out to the town, thinking it would be as calm and quiet as his home. On his way to town, instead of just the town, the country was in chaos. The disposed umbrella was missing.

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15. Geisha

This story is about a Geisha, Michiko.

[Geisha (芸者) (/ˈɡeɪʃə/; Japanese: [ɡeːɕa]),[1][2] geiko (芸子), or geigi (芸妓) are a class of female entertainers from Japan trained in traditional styles of performing art, such as Japanese dance and singing. Their distinct appearance is characterized by long, trailing kimono, traditional hairstyles and the oshiroi make-up. Contrary to popular belief, geisha are not prostitutes; a misconception originating in the West due to interactions with oiran, whose traditional dress was similar to that of geisha. (Source: Wikipedia)]

Michiko was the best dancer in Yoshiwara, a famous red-light district in Edo, Japan. It is said when Michiko dances, she has her movements like a red butterfly gently flapping its wings. Michiko met Miles, a foreign army officer, at a banquet party where they met and fell in love. She gave up everything including her career as a geisha. They got married and returned to Miles’ homeland together. She was a curious and excited when she set her foot on the foreign land, only to find out that her marriage with the man she loves is beginning to see its misfortune.

Miles’ father is particularly the most outspoken of his thought regarding this marriage and is totally opposing it. He was sceptical of her and her intentions and hopes to drive her out of the family home. One time, Miles came home from a business trip only to find out that his wife disappeared. His father claimed that Michiko ran off with another man while Miles is not around and encouraged his son to marry another woman and forget Michiko. What is on the other side of the story is that Miles’ father murdered Michiko and left lots of scars on Michiko. Without knowing this fact, Miles started to search for his wife but he never found her as nobody knows where she went.

There are rumours that a woman in kimono always visited and wanders at night near where Miles live. Her face was scary and scarred, but when she dances she will remind out of a red butterfly.

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14. Gamekeeper

This story is about a forest keeper, Bane Perez.

Bane worked at forest farm and patrol cabin at Oletus Manor. He has raised a black nosed moose like a child while he was working. However, new hunting season always comes, accidents always happen during this time. Bane often wonders how to hide and take care of the moose into safety. He was too late, the poachers has arrived with no mercy.

Gunshots rang through the forest. The black nosed moose has fallen to the ground when Bane arrived. When he approached the scene closer, he looked at the poacher’s team and recognised one of them. He was the boy that Bane rescued few years prior. Bane pleaded with them for mercy, but the poachers have a much sinister idea. They cruelly cut Bane’s tongue and placed the head of the black nosed moose onto Bane’s head, making him look like a Greek mythology character the Minotaur. They locked Bane up with a steel jaw bear trap at Bane’s neck and abandoned him to begin a massacre in the forest.

After the poachers left, the dogs dragged Bane to the manor and Bane was treated there until he miraculously recovered. However, no one thought that his humiliation would turn him into a real Minotaur. The forest became his game place and his maze. Since that day, Bane never gives any kind of mercy to anyone who sets foot on his land, even if it’s to kill them.

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13. Acrobat

This story is about the popular guy in Hullabaloo, Mike Morton.

Mike is a ball of sunshine; he is full of energy and is a very cheerful man. His birth’s background is unknown, but at some point of his childhood, he was taken in and care of by a man named Bernard, Hullabaloo’s ringmaster. Mike saw Bernard as his father figure and he was raised his circus where Mike learned acrobatics and juggling.

Bernard often has to scold Mike for his mischief, such as wanting to his juggling balls with stones. Mike’s request was “hazardous”, said Bernard. This because of the size and shape of the juggling balls, as well as filling, are very critical. At some point of Mike’s career, Mike’s bottle of strong acid (as filling for his juggling balls) was stolen from him. Coincidentally, around the time when the bottle was misplaced, the sad clown Joker’s face was burned.

Bernard suspected Mike of doing such because Joker’s injuries looked like corrosions, which leads to the suspicions of acid’s outcome properties. His suspicions did offend Mike, of course. He thought of getting another bottle before Bernard finds out about this “mistreatment” of Joker.

At one point, Hullabaloo faces a disaster. Few members of the circus thankfully survived, including Mike. However, Mike finds out the only other survivors were a strange couple, one of them was Natalie. He’s now desperate and he lost the only things that are important and mattered to him, Mike’s goal is to find the murderer of his home and the people that he cherished.

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12. Wildling

This story is about a man “who grew up in the woods”, Murro.

Murro grew up locked in a cage by Hullabaloo’s ringmaster, Bernard, who is presumably his own uncle. Along with him in the cage was a boar to accompany him and it has been practically became his companion throughout his caged life. Throughout his life, he often refers his “eventful” experience that his journey of growing up is similar to Kaspar Hauser, a German youth who claimed to grow up in an isolated cell. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser)

It seems that the story of him growing up in the wood was just a rumour the Bernard made up for the drama.

Murro disclosed that his first 10 years of his life, he lived surrounded by walls and all he has was a toy dog. The only person that he recognises was his uncle Bernard. In compare to Kasper Hauser, he is luckier than Murro. Despite his death being ruled as being stabbed, Murro said that everyone knew that Kaspar Houser killed himself instead after his presence was being ignored as many people came to think the he was a huge fraud.

Apparently, when Murro had his first appearance being advertised on Hullabaloo’s poster, the advertisement introduced his as a wild child raised by an animal. He became an angry individual. He compared himself to Kasper again, being that Kasper had the whole German’s attention about his life condition as a captive, but what about Murro? Wasn’t he a captive too? Why isn’t anyone noticing this? He probably should learn how to escape, like how Kaspar Houser did! Unfortunately, he might need an assistant or two; it appears that Bernard doesn’t want to let him go.

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11. Female Dancer

This story is about a woman that grew up with everything, Natalie.

Natalie grew up in the beautiful and peaceful Lakeside village with her uncle Eugene and aunt Marjory. She wishes to have the wealth to the point she hates cheap industrial products.

One day, Natalie went to Hullabaloo circus for a show. She realised that the tent has everything that she wants; fresh flowers, fine clothes, the applause, and a handsome smiling clown. The handsome smiling clown gifted her music box. Natalie soon learns his name as Sergei.

Despite being warned by her aunt and uncle, Natalie continued to see Sergei and spent time with him; they also danced together where Natalie learned about her talent in dancing. Sergei popped the big question and Natalie did say yes.

Her aunt and uncle were furious and locked her in the house as a hostage to avoid her from seeing Sergei. She managed to escape but eventually she regrets her decision for leaving without saying goodbye.

Natalie spent her time in Hullaballoo as a lion tamer. She was admired by everyone especially from her beauty and her blonde locks. However, her life wasn’t going too well either. She was careless enough to show her body full of scars to everyone, in which leads to people thought of her being abused by Sergei. One of them was her secret admirer, Joker, one of the clowns opposite to Sergei.

The people suspicions was actually true, her Sergei is indeed abusing her and being controlling over her. During her attempts to contact her Aunt Marjory and Uncle Eugene, he has been tearing up her letters for her to cut and stop any relations she had back in Lakeside Village.

The Hullaballoo circus was burnt down one day, many were killed but luckily, Natalie survived and fled. She never knows what had happened to anyone especially her husband. After her refuge, she changed her identity to Margaretha Zelle.

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10. Smiley Face

This story is about one of Hullaballoo’s clowns, Joker.

Joker was once the star of Hullaballoo. His face was naturally sullen that made himself the best miserable clown. His trump card undergoes a reformation when 2 new people were brought in by Bernard for Hullaballoo. They are Sergei, the happy clown contrasting to Joker, and Natalie, a glamorous acrobat and actress who then trained as an animal trainer.

Joker was attracted to Natalie, but she was in a relationship with Sergei now known as the Smiley Face. Not long after that, Joker found out Natalie back has lots of scars; he quickly assumed that Sergei has been abusing Natalie despite being married. Joker hopes that he can replace Sergei by first replacing him as the Smiley Face. However, the superiors told him that a pitiful Smiley Face will never become the main star of a parody not matter how dreadful the act is.

Soon after, there was a fire causing the circus tent to burn down, Joker had to end his career due to his face being burnt.

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A. Hullabaloo

Hullaballoo was a circus that was owned and run by Bernard, the ringmaster. He provided employment and recruited many new members then helped them train for different types of acts;

·         He trained a boy to become an Acrobat and letting him to use balls filled with Nitre, fire, and glycerine,

·         He have trained a jungle raised to ride and adapt on a boar,

·         He trained a beautiful lady to be an animal trainer.

Though, the circus was seen as a harmonious family, but as a typical family behind closed doors, it is a total opposite.

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9. Mercenary

This story is about a mercenary, Naib Subedar.

Naib was a Ghurkha soldier under East India Company. He wasn’t tall or physically strong as other soldiers, but like other Ghurkha soldiers, he has trained his strong physiques and undefeated spirit through the rugged terrains.

He may be a soldier, but due to his beliefs in human equality, his dislike of war was at the tip of his tolerance that he eventually quits. Additionally, watching his friends die in the battlefield devastated him, he ended up shooting the opponent’s general in the head.

Yes, Ghurkha soldiers supposedly serve in the British military, Naib was discriminated because of his nationality. Not only that, Ghurkha soldiers’ wage is lower than British soldiers. However, it became another case if the Ghurkha soldiers set off as mercenaries.

Naib became a mercenary, he’s finally free and his wage is higher than before, but he has left his desire to kill after his retirement as a soldier. It becomes a typical matter that mercenaries are indeed weak comrades. They chose to retreat and not fight because their overall power was low. There are times when Naib recalled his times being in a war, being the only one survived and got severely injured. His guilt never fades.

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8. Forward

This story is about a rugby player named William Ellis.

William was a part of his school’s football team. He, of course, has a muscular body and has a brute force. He was one of the forward players. He used his brute force as a forward to knock down the opponent. However, his “unfair” advantage has its cons; his teammates favour him less.

He was indeed the creator of rugby. He also earned fame and fortune out of it. It went downhill when he attended a magician’s show. The magician used a trick, notably his famous one: the escape magic, while being chained. Since that day, his concentration wavers because the escape magic is unbelievable to his eyes. The fateful day came by, when he accidentally injured his opponent severely, due to the distraction he gained, to the point William was forced to retire.

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7. Magician

This story is about a magician, Servais Le Roy.

Like pretty much everyone, Servais started from the bottom, which is a magician’s apprentice. His mentor, John Henry Anderson, has taught him magic since his childhood. Despite teaching Servais since he was young, his mentor would never let him perform on stage and not be an assistant.

Naturally, Servais felt frustrated and unsatisfied, he doesn’t like to be in his mentor’s shadow. He’s tired of helping John with small stunts such as those card tricks. So he learn his mentor’s most impressive trick which is an escape magic, a magic when casted a decoy will imitate your last actions and will stay still at the last position where the magic is casted.

Using his mentor’s escape magic, he traps his mentor and killed him during a performance which leads to people thinking it was a terrible accident. As a result, the magician John Henry Anderson’s reputation was passed down to his apprentice, Servais.

Servais was at the peak of his career and  life when he finally can perform as a solo. He started his magician career locally in Belgium, he then moved to London, England to open a magic shop. However it turned downhill when the public did not gave him validation, turning a blind eye to his amazing disappearing tricks.

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6. Explorer

This story is about an explorer, named Kurt Frank.

He was born in Yorkshire, England. He is an adventurer even at an early age; he and his family migrated from one country to another. They moved to Italy, then to France, and eventually to their homeland, England. He felt like a migratory bird thanks to the experience, and due to this he developed an aloof personality with difficulty to focus. As a result, he hated going to school.

It is said that he’s obsessed with reading materials related to ancient artifacts and expeditions, such Gulliver’s Travels. Kurt always thought that he’s a great explorer and he proved it. He is good at sailing and drives hot air balloons very well, and because he reads Gulliver’s Travels, he goes out for a journey every day. He also has been bringing the book along while having his adventures because he wants to be as small as Gulliver.

On another side of this story, Kurt Frank apparently got admitted into White Sand Asylum as he is diagnosed with Delusional Schizophrenia. He is patient no. 93.

One particular month, the asylum has completed its patients’ assessments and will start discharging healthy patients in about a month after. One servant of the church, named Lorraine Miller, has sent a letter to a known bishop there, Bishop Duke, to inform regarding patient no. 93’s Delusional Schizophrenia is still within him and may evolve to a larger scale if he were to be exposed to the outside world. Though he does not lean to being violent, he may pose a threat to the community through sharing untrue conspiracies with others as his mental health stability worsen and his delusions are boosting.

The servant also mentioned that the asylum and church’s staffs are aware that patient no. 93 has never and incapable to operate a blimp across jungles. She told Bishop Duke to reconsider the decision to discharge patient no. 93 from the asylum with serious considerations.

It is speculated that patient no. 93 was already released when the servant’s letter reached Bishop Duke.

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5. Thief

This story was about orphanage owner named Kreacher Pierson.

Kreacher opened an orphanage on White Sand Street. He supports more or less 14 orphans, including Lisa Beck. He started off his career when he was going to church to repent his past actions until he found out that the church he went to wants to open an orphanage.

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IdentityV/comments/amc5gb/though_i_cant_seem_to_find_this_piano_and_banner/)

Kreacher is skilled at covering his tracks. Although that’s the case, there are times when the orphans exposed him for theft, like snatching a kind woman’s purse and said nothing while she gave the said orphan a hot and soft white bread.

Things got way downfall when a letter was sent to Kreacher, informing him that a number of orphans in the orphanage are diagnosed with mental illnesses should be comprehensively treated; unfortunately Lisa Beck is included in this group. The orphans were to be sent to a mental institution that is run by the Catholic Church.

Kreacher is unfortunately got arrested with theft, though it is unknown how and when he got caught, the orphans are not having a good time either. There was an article stating that at least 12 orphans of the White Street Sand Orphanage were found to have varied mental illness according to the church clinic. The White Sand Street Orphanage was then transformed into a mental institution for children by the church.

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4. Doctor

This story is about an ambitious and extremely clever doctor, Lydia Jones.

Lydia was born in an unstable, middle-class family. During this time, she tasted ups and downs and tired of constantly relocating and being unstable with her life. She is a modest person but in order to survive this cruel world, you have to do something unique. Lydia hopes to use this chance to find a secured and stable life and a place that she can call ‘home’; things she never had but often a normal life is to ask for nothing. Before that, she needs to solve few problems from her past.

The original smart and lovely innocent eyes were eventually lost from her past’s glory. She obviously wanted to survive in this cold world, but she became driven, self-indulgent, and unfriendly.

She opens “The Lydia Jones Clinic”, but it does not gain money instead money flies. She even went against her methods to gain money; she begins to provide private medical service for patients, including illegal surgeries and electroconvulsive therapy. This was successful for the clinic, but one day, a woman was found dead on her operating table. Dr. Lydia Jones had fled from performing an illegal abortion surgery to Martha Remington.

She changed her name to Emily Dyer.

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3. Gardener

This story is about the daughter of Leo Beck and Martha Remington, Lisa Beck.

She was born around1876. Her father, Leo Beck, a factory owner, made her small toys and treated her like an actual father material. Then, there is Freddy Riley, a lawyer who is her father’s friend and visits the Becks often.

One thing led to another, Lisa is seeing her mother less and less ever since the lawyer visits ‘often’. With her father’s crisis with the heavily tabbed factory, her father had a very unattractive and unclean appearance. Her mother being possibly infatuated with the lawyer, matters like that easily become the primary fighting topic.

Her mother, Martha, soon left the household and began a new life with Freddy; Lisa was left confused and upset as a growing child. Her father’s drinking habit worsens and starts selling off stuffs from the household.

Her father soon sent her to an orphanage before burned himself in the unlucky factory that he set fire on. She was abandoned and all alone now, no mom and no dad.

The orphanage was owned by a man named Kreacher Person. Lisa stayed there for good 5 years. However, the orphanage produced children with psychological trauma and numerous of disorders. As a result, Lisa was sent to a clinic and was operated by Dr. Lydia Jones. The doctor performed electroconvulsive therapy on Lisa. Unfortunately, it caused her to become psychotic. After such treatment, Lisa ran away and changed her name to Emma Woods.

(Source: Gaming Grizzly on Twitter)