I had a bit of trouble coming up with a decent name for this hub. Multiple people suggested something to the effect of 'all that glitters', but that seemed a little too trite. So I was looking up quotes from the Merchant of Venice, hoping something there might be appropriate, and lo and behold I see that the original Shakespeare quote is in fact "All that glisters is not gold". It carries the same meaning, but the obsolete Elizabethan synonym gives it a veneer of antiquity and pretentiousness that I feel is appropriate with this series.
From its first successful tale, Dread & Circuses featured MC&D rather heavily. This eventually developed into its own arc, which includes tales, GoI formats, and eventually SCPs that make no explicit mention of the Circus of the Disquieting. For this reason, I have decided it would make sense to give my MC&D collection its own hub, as opposed to having them scattered across the site.
No. Although this is heavily inspired by Randomini's portrayal of MC&D, and he's okay with me writing alternative versions of his characters, he has made it clear to me that neither my portrayal of his characters nor the events they participate in are congruent with his pseudo-canon, and thus they exist in a separate continuity from the Acidverse.
Of the six tales that currently exist in Wills and Ways, I personally don't consider any of them explicitly contradictory to what's presented here. If Randomini ever posts more Wills and Ways tales I assume they'll eventually be a point of clear divergence, but for now it's not known when these two continuities go their separate ways. I don't know how Randomini intends Wills and Ways to progress, and in this continuity the events of that series are something of a Noodle Incident.
Regardless of exactly what happened, the end result was that Amos was resurrected, and Amos, Ruprecht and Percival were able to reclaim two thirds of their shares in Marshall, Carter, & Dark, 22% each, and are considered Senior Partners. Skitter, Robert, and Iris are Junior Partners with 11% shares each. The remaining 1% is split between various high ranking employees.
Iris is the most prominent character in this series, and in addition to being Junior Partner she is Percival's proxy, apprentice, heir, as well as the Chief of Paratech Development and Acquisition.
Skitter remains active in the company as well, though he prefers fieldwork, and is effectively a Wanderer scouting the Ways for any anomalies that may be of value. Though he's yet to appear in this series, I've mentioned him a few times, and I've implied that he's also maintained a decent enough relationship with his older counterpart.
Robert I haven't fleshed out in my mind too much, but he's probably even more of a 'rich idiot with no day job' than Ruprecht is, and likely consumes a high quantity of Unicorn Horn to ensure his sexual escapades remain truly consequence free.
So despite not officially being a canon, this series does have tales by authors other than myself, and if anyone else would like to contribute I'm fine with that. If you have an idea for a tale, scip or GoI format, reach out to
DrChandra over chat or wikidot.
Extra special thanks to
Zhange for the amazing banner art. The banner was originally a segment from her all GoI painting (which you should definitely check out on her tumblr if you haven't already). I asked her if I could use the MC&D segment for a banner, and not only did she agree, but she took the time to edit it to make it look nice, giving it its own background and that beautiful door in the foreground. I would have happily accepted just a cropped section of the original artwork.
Special thanks to
Randomini for creating these characters in the first place, and being such a good sport about me using them in my own writings. Three cheers for Creative Commons!
Thanks to
fieldstone and
DarkStuff for contributing to this continuity.
And lastly, especial thanks to you, the reader. None of this would be here without you. You may take that in pride or shame at your own preference.