By: Daiyu Tang ((Photos by Ted/Val))
The fairground lights looked warm from a distance but up close they flickered like warning beacons. A calliope wheezed, balloons strained at their strings, and the carousel’s painted horses bobbed in slow circles as if they’d rather not be here either. Not like in Hathian you can find real horses anyway; unless it’s in the Gein.
The posters promised that you would ‘Experience the Unknown,‘ and Hathian, ever the overachiever, obliged.
So read on my dear ghoulish readers to find out what you missed (if you didn’t go) or if you did, whether your little contribution to the atmosphere made it into our review!
Vignette One – We Saw Knife Throwing…
A ringmaster’s voice cut through the chatter and nudged the crowd toward a makeshift stage chalked onto the asphalt. A young man, later identified as Elrik, found himself strapped against a target. We suspect he would be protesting that this was not what was meant by ‘being daring‘ when he’d likely asked about the carnival. He held as still as his nerves would allow, while onlookers traded breathless jokes to mask the tension.
Enter a knife thrower… He locked Elrik’s legs, stepped back to the line, and produced the knives, showman calm in the way only someone very used to risk can be, or perhaps someone not used to consequences if he missed. Blades thudded into timber, a whisper from flesh. The crowd exhaled in a ragged cheer; some called for more, others begged him to stop. It’s Hathian my dears, you can guess which group was louder!
Then came the escalation: a spectator, Athena, asked to try a throw. Holloway lifted her arm like a prize-fighter’s and presented her to the crowd as his latest ‘tool’. Did Elrik consent? Did it matter? The thrill for some was palpable; so was the dread from others who knew Elrik hadn’t signed up for that part.
Did the audience see anything else? Anything involving a sleight of hand? Well, it didn’t appear they did and blurred photos are hardly evidence. In any case, Wayne slid in behind Athena, anchored her wrist, called the finale, and they released together. The blade shaved a few pale strands from Elrik’s hair and pinned the bottom half of the apple to the board, no blood, just a crowd-pleasing gasp, then relief and applause as Elrik was unstrapped.
Editor’s take: Carnival bravado is one thing; deputizing a stranger from the crowd to send steel past a man’s skull is another. The ‘hand-over-hand’ fig leaf romance didn’t change the ethics. It read like Hathian at its most honest, danger sold as entertainment, consent blurred by spectacle, and possibly, not that I’d turn State’s witness a tidy bit of larceny slipping through the seams while everyone watched the apple. It made for a hell of a photograph, yes, but as journalism we should call it what it was: reckless theatre in a town that already bleeds too easily.
Vignette Two – Ringing the Bell
Our next ‘act’ which we observed was ‘Test Your Strength‘ and it was doing brisk trade in bravado and bruised palms. First up, the city’s most notorious workaholic in uniform, Koh Gausman, hefted the mallet and drove the striker to a crisp 75, the bell flirting with a full ring as the scoreboard flashed his mark. Considering the potential shadow he is under with our recent reporting, maybe he was getting ready for a career change, but one doubts it.
A few beats later, Einar, an apparent Viking chorus to this sideshow stepped in with a howl of “YGGDRASIL!” and posted a 72, then a 64 on the re-try, cursing the “rigged piece o’ shit” in the way only men do when physics declines to be impressed and whisper it, skills decline.
Lillith took her swing for the fun of it, landing a modest 48 as Isabella’s turn punched up a tidy 71. Around them the air changed, heat, a flare, singed hair when a fire plume kissed too close to a bystander. Heads snapped between the meter, the mallet, and the drifting smoke like metronomes in a storm, something Hathian had only relatively recently gotten over (except the FDH!).
Editor’s take: Hathian’s favourite myth is that strength is measurable. Bells, boards, numbers… nice illusions. What I saw was something truer: a crowd that tenses as one when fire licks the edge of safety, then laughs it off because that’s how we survive here. As for the HPD’s golden boy Koh muscling a 75? Congratulations. If only the department’s ethics could ring as clean as its forearms. Krystal, take note.
Vignette Three – Kpop Exists Everywhere, Even Spooky Carnivals
Under a wash of fairy lights, someone we think was Caisen (he of dressing in that hot Demon costume before) held court with a dog. He was there for the cards, the reading and the tricks. He handed the deck over to be shuffled, promising to “summon back” the same card wherever it hid. The trick played slow and confident, the dog sitting neat with a lantern clamped in his maw as Caisen talked his customer through the disappearance act. People drifted in, hands finding fur, eyes chasing floating cards, the little gasp that always follows a good vanish. For a minute the carnival was quieter than Hathian deserves, a small pocket of wonder that didn’t need a knife, a badge, or a back room.
Editor’s Take: I’m not sentimental, ask anyone, but the city needs its soft tricks as much as its hard edges. A dog sits, a lantern ‘disappears,’ a stranger hears they might learn to be kinder to themselves. Call it misdirection if you want. I call it grace with better marketing. And yes, so what if the cards might have had a trick up their sleeve; so should everyone that matters here in Hathian.
Vignette Four – Circus Side Deals
While citizens queued for prizes, serious business slipped behind canvas. Citizens were observed from time to time to disappear after certain of the circus performers and unless a few of them were turning tricks behind the canvas then this reporter’s interest was definitely piqued. However, security in the form of carnie’s with looks that cut as much as the knives prevented me from getting anywhere to overhear what might have happened. There was, in passing one tent, the low murmur of people who know every word has weight. “We’re new in town, and we need a few things,” The music seemed to soften but try as I might I could not discern who had spoken and I had to move on before hearing any reply…
Editor’s take: You don’t need tarot to read Hathian, the cards always turn up Swords. New faces arrive, ask for ‘things,‘ and leave a little lighter in pocket but a lot safer. Carnival or not, the city sells two things better than cotton candy: plausible deniability and delivery by midnight. Oh and sex, but at least that’s mostly visible on the street.
Vignette Five – Between the Alleys
I almost didn’t hear it. It started like a blink-and-miss-it scuffle: a boot scrape, a grunt, a jerked head and then a rope cinched tight around someone’s neck. One of the carnies, the silent ‘mime’ (Read: fucking scary ass thing -Ed) had ghosted in behind him with a cowboy’s loop and a pickpocket’s timing. The man’s eyes bulged; he windmilled a whack-a-mole mallet backward in panic, bonking air as the line bit skin. A bigger carnie stepped into the frame, broad enough to blot out the view and sell a smile while the real work happened in his shadow: a classic distraction-and-extraction. Krystal would be proud. This was advanced Yoga camp.
The mime appeared to be trying to steer his catch toward the staff tents while the muscle ran interference. Around them, people kept watching tarot cards, fire plumes, and rigged games; a few clocked the choke and didn’t want to believe what they saw. Staggering… the rope taut… the mime angling for the exit as the crowd became accidental cover. Whether the grab stuck or the mark slipped the snare wasn’t clear from where this reporter stood; the last clean look that was had was of the handler trying to tow his prize into the dark seam between tents… Maybe it was all part of the show? What do you think?
Editor’s Take: Hathian loves a euphemism, but when a noose tightens in the circus and the only applause is the sound of people pretending not to see, the carnival isn’t just dark; it’s honest about the town it’s playing to. Hathian, one dirty gulley of a town; we get the Carnies we deserve perhaps? Or maybe, it was a prank. Mhh…
The Main ‘Attraction’ – You Get a Free Ambulance Ride
What was billed as the big finale knife throwing act ended with one woman stabbed and at least one carnie in apparent overdose on Sunday evening, as sirens cut through the fairground and paramedics pushed stretchers through spilled popcorn and plastic prize bags.
The crowd first gathered around a hand-painted sign promising ‘Final Throw’ the knife routine fronted by a long-coated showman with a line in promises and danger as intoxicating to watch as the liquor that was being sold all over. A young woman, later identified as off-duty paramedic Quinn, was drawn into the spectacle, which proved helpful later as you’ll soon see dear reader…
The mood shifted when a masked woman in a feathered corset and bird mask stepped out of the ring of onlookers. Witnesses say she moved with clear intent, one hand resting on a knife strapped to her thigh while her attention stayed fixed on the knife-thrower. She was later identified as Mollie Kuramoto.
Kuramoto did not retreat from the spotlight, despite the knife thrower looking like danger turned up to ‘maximum’. Instead, she addressed the crowd and the knife thrower directly, turning the spectacle into a public accusation. Pacing in front of him with a knife of her own, she told onlookers that carnivals like this one were “a ruse… for you to pick and choose people who capture your attention, how you then drug and incapacitate them and whisk them away from everything they know… taunting them, breaking them, making them do your bidding again and again till they have the scent of you buried in their bones!”
Gesturing toward Quinn, she asked whether the woman would be ‘next,‘ accusing the knife thrower of planning to “catch her with your blade, lead her to the tent under the guise of making sure she was okay for her never to emerge again!”
The confrontation did not end at the knife board. Witnesses place Kuramoto and the knife thrower later struggling on the ground near an ice cream stand after the pair moved away from the main act. In the chaos of multiple fights breaking out, Kuramoto and the showman went to the ground in a grapple with a knife between them. So Hathian. So On-Point. Sharp Point.
At one point, witnesses report seeing Kuramoto produce a syringe and drive it into the man’s arm before both went down hard. What substance was used has not yet been confirmed, but shortly afterwards he was seen slumping against the side of the ice cream cart, grey-faced, his pupils described as “pinpoints,” before he collapsed and began seizing on the asphalt.
I, my dear readers, wonder what she stuck him with. What does Mollie carry? In Hathian it can be anything… but whatever it was, it left the knife-thrower grey and glassy-eyed, and it did not stop the beating that put the other man into the seizure that drew EMS in.
Being a Bystander Leads to Head Injuries…
With one innocent trying to prevent the fight and paying for it with a blow to the head, another bystander, medically trained it appeared, could be heard calling, “He’s unconscious. Still has a pulse. We need to keep him from aspirating… Someone tell 911 we have an active seizure. I need EMTs with airway support and trauma gear!”
Moral of the story? Don’t get between carnies and their show… Unless you’re Kuramoto and tooled up with fire in your heart to make your point.
By the time paramedics (including Quinn coming back for the rescue!) pushed fully into the carnival, both Kuramoto and the seizing man were on the ground. The seizing man was strapped to a backboard and loaded onto a stretcher before being removed from the scene under escort.
Kuramoto Taps Out – Carnie Dragged Out; Observer Scores 1:0 to Kuramoto
Kuramoto had dragged herself as far as the side of the ice cream stand, bleeding from a stab wound to her side. FDH medic Nathan Ferrer was seen kneeling beside her, introducing himself with a calm “EMS, Miss. Here to help you,” before cutting away clothing to treat the wound. As more police and fire units arrived, the carnival tried to return to business, games re-opening just metres away from taped-off bloodstains; but for Kuramoto, the night ended in the back of an ambulance.
The knife thrower’s fate unclear… He was last seen grey-faced and staggering, then dragged away by one of his own… Hauled off by the ankle and vanished behind the tents rather than into the care of FDH… Alive? Dead? Unknown. Experience the Unknown they said. Truly the truth.
Thus what began as a sideshow ‘Final Throw‘ has now become the central question hanging over the carnival: were Kuramoto’s allegations simply part of a feud, or a public unmasking of something much darker behind the tents as perhaps our little earlier vignette suggested? For now, what residents saw was ‘simple’ enough, a knife act that ended with a woman on a stretcher, a would-be good Samaritan convulsing under fairground lights, and the star performer quietly removed from the scene under the same bulbs he’d been playing to minutes before.
Later, when contacted for comment we got this delightful reply…
“I’d rather finger my own knife wound, than talk to a reporter. Fuck off.”
Mollie
Closing Thoughts – Did You See More?
If you came for wholesome cotton candy and left with rope burns, a concussion, and a sudden respect for people who don’t talk, congratulations: you did the Hathian Carnival correctly. From ‘consent-adjacent‘ knife acts to strength tests that were definitely about dominance, not hammers, and a mime who weaponized silence, this wasn’t entertainment so much as an anthropology exhibit of Hathian and those it attracts.
Is it a 5-star Yelp night out? Only if your Yelp is written in goat blood. The concessions were ‘cash only,’ the prizes seemed to be bruises, and the customer service policy felt like, ‘If you can still breathe, you can still play.‘ Points for ambience, though: lighting to die under, music to second-guess your life choices to, and crowd control that relied on the crowd controlling itself through denial.
Would I recommend it? To my enemies, absolutely. To the rest of you: bring a buddy, an airtag for your valuables and a tetanus booster. Keep your back to a wall and your hand at the level of your eyes. ‘Down Once More…‘ should be playing in your head.
As for next year, after only rubbish and a few faded posters were left to show what had been in Hathian, then dear Carnies, take a bow and take a gap year. Let the town’s heart rate come down and the rope marks fade. If you must return, maybe swap the ‘near-miss homicide chic’ for a goldfish game and a churro stand. Or don’t. This is Hathian. We’ll write about it either way.
