Roleplay / Cirque Mystique

"Welcome to Cirque Mystique"

"It's not that different from any other circus, except for one big thing. Everything that happens on stage...It's all real. It doesn't matter who you are, what you are, or what your special ability is. We are all bound to him. Well, I've introduced myself. Who are you in Cirque Mystique?"

—Esmeralda

As described by the Admin:"The Cirque Mystique is a traveling circus/magic show. It has the usual stuff: tight rope walkers, magicians, clowns, etc. But there's one big thing that sets them apart from all the rest: Everything that happens on stage is real. A guy turns into a bear? It's real. A dancer disappears into thin air? It's real. A guy breaths out fire? It's real. Of course, the audience doesn't know this. They just think it's special effects. Dr. Facilier is in charge of the whole thing. He finds people with talent/special powers and puts them in his show. Once you're in, you're basically in for life. So, what's your character? You have a bunch of possibilites ahead of you."

Cirque Mystique is a YouTube Forum Non/Disney Roleplay firstly created by angelofmusic1992 as the Administrator while Zuyuri as the Moderator. The roleplay tackles on the members of Cirque Mystique, with Dr. Facilier as the Ringleader, plotting on different stories of individual characters played by their respective YouTube users and engaging on different events such as Fan Vid and Arcs. Its threads and plot arcs are held in ProBoards.

It technically had the rule of All Animation Is Disney, Anime, and use of 2D Characters until it was announced that any types of animation are allowed, including 3D animation. Therefore, the participants of the roleplay were given three types of species depending on which existing characters from any forms of animated movies, cartoons, or anime they choose:

• Humans
• Gifted Humans
• Supernaturals

The roleplay was officially opened on September 4, 2011. It is one of the longest running Youtube roleplays, lasting for six years.

Cirque Mystique closed their curtains on June 7, 2017 from the Admin's announcement of the Cirque Mystique role-play being shut down. Its ending video is shown here.

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Cirque Mystique contains examples of:

• Ability Required to Proceed: In some plot videos or threads, characters are involved with developing their powers, especially if they gained them for the first time and they must master it.
• AB Negative: Subverted for some supernatural characters, as some still have the blood of a normal human.

• Adaptational Origin Connection: Most of the character's backstories would come first, and then their time joining Cirque Mystique would connect him.
• Adaptational Personality Change: This happens to a few characters, while the rest of the chosen characters still have their original personalities intact from their perspective series. This depends on how their Character Development changes from their personalities in the roleplay. It's a little change, but it actually gives some impact on what they went through before they arrived to Cirque Mystique in the first place.
• Adaptational Species Change: The majority of characters who are entered into the roleplay are changed into Half Human Hybrids.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: It happens when characters who have powers from their original series are changed for the Roleplay, such as Violet, who had her power of creating force fields and being invisible from The Incredibles changed.

• Adventure Towns: Youtube users will vote for a new location once the Administrator has announced that the Circus is about to move, such as from London to Nairobi.

• All Deaths Final: Even though Gifted Humans and Supernaturals can withstand fatalities, depending on the plot, there are permanent character deaths applied to the roleplay. This happened rarely unless the user planned to kill their character via Plot Device.
• Alternate Timeline: Based on the chosen clips from her audition, Esmerelda was found in the The Jungle Book (1967) timeline, her mother was killed in the The Hunchback of Notre Dame timeline, and then she was found by Facilier in the The Princess and the Frog timeline.
• Ambiguous Ending: The roleplay has ended, but Cirque Mystique itself hasn't.
• Amusement Park: Unlike in some other circus-themed roleplays, Cirque Mystique isn't a Circus of Fear nor does it involve an Amusement Park of Doom. The majority of the characters aren't abused in the Cirque, as they are its residents instead.

• Animated Credits Opening: Two versions made: First one is by 94xSuperAngel, and the second one is made by the Admin.
• Anime Theme Song: Both songs came from existing anime themes. 94xSuperAngel's version is Paradise Lost from Ga-Rei -Zero-, while Admin's version is Again from Fullmetal Alchemist

• Appeal to Tradition: The roleplay features common traditions from the real world, especially Christmas or the Anniversary of Cirque Mystique. They are mostly celebrated by fan videos.
• Back Story: Needed in the audition. Each character has and needs one, and they can be read in the Characters board of the forum.

• Blood Oath: Once you're signed up to the circus, you are bound to the circus forever. Without the blood, of course. That's until the contract was lifted though.

• Cast Full of Writers: 17 Youtube players with 109 characters.

• Character as Himself: Basically the characters were from different movies/games/animes/cartoons who took participation in Cirque Mystique.
• Character Class System: In this roleplay, characters are seperated into three groups: Humans, Gifted Humans, and Supernaturals.

• Character Death: A couple of characters died in the roleplay. But they will only die when their user wants them to.

• Character Signature Song: Their chosen audition music would count as their song, aside from their Leitmotif song in their series.
• Circus Episode: It's Cirque Mystique after all. What's a circus roleplay without any mentions of a circus?
• Circus of Fear: Not. That only happens during their horror show performance.

• Claimed by the Supernatural: Dr. Facilier is an immortal wizard who accepts members that will take performance on the stage.

• Color Motif: From the ringmaster, to the theme of the forum, to the Roleplay Wiki, all are purple and black.

• Curtain Fic: When an arc isn't proposed yet, users will have their characters interact with domestic tasks inside Cirque Mystique, such as shopping and rehearsing.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Multiple characters have experienced neglect, abuse, war, or even a massacre in their lives. It's the reason why they move to Cirque Mystique in the first place.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Just because Facilier is the ringmaster doesn't mean Cirque Mystique is an Amusement Park of Doom.

• Dead Fic: There are unfinished threads due to the disappearance or removal of one of the participating users.

• Death Is Not Permanent: Okay, so some characters were given a Character Death. But there are some characters who're able to survive their own death.
• Declaration of Protection: Dr. Facilier proclaimed this.
  Dr. Facilier: I blamed the cruel, Human world for making me fall with Sara. I saw Humans as heartless, not understanding of how us Supernaturals lived. And from that mind-set, I opened up the circus.

• Deletion as Punishment: Once a member made an offence, such as not participating in a thread after a month or three or even bullying another member, they are automatically out of the forum.
• Depending on the Writer: The user can do whatever they want to their character depending on their desired interactions on Cirque Mystique, such as making up their own backstory, personality, or Character Development. Some users rather prefer playing their characters as who they are in their series, but some would love to play their chosen characters in a different perspective.

• Discontinuity Nod: Once a member whose character took an important role in the roleplay is deleted, the Admin and Moderater have the decision to adopt the character and continue where they left off, or to drop the character entirely and ignore their participation in the plot.
• Double-Meaning Title: What is the goal for the characters in Cirque Mystique? Is the title talking about the place? Or something else? No one will ever know...

• Easing into the Adventure: When there aren't any kidnappings or events, most characters will do the basic plots that involved interacting with other characters.
• Elective Broken Language: Especially from the characters who originated in other countries outside America. From English, to French, to Spanish, to Russian, to Japanese, to Malay, to Latin, to German...
• Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: Averted. It happens for the characters whose physical age doesn't match their mental age. For example, Hanyuu from Higurashi: When They Cry is a goddess that is physically fifteen but mentally "centuries old", or Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon is a Half-Human Hybrid of a dragon whose age was physically 25, but 256 in dragon years.
• The End... Or Is It?: The role-play ends with an Ambiguous Ending.
• Episode Title Card: "Title" (Tag: Assigned Character's Name).

• Establishing Character Music: The character's audition videos provide music that somehow fits into their backstory.
• Event Flag: Whenever a member proposes a plot to the admin and has it approved.
• Event Title: Event Titles such as "Final Confrontation" in Thrax Arc to "The Doughboy Cometh" in the recent Arc.
• Every Episode Ending: Ends with an "End Thread" line that signified the thread has ended.

• Everyone Is Related: In Cirque Mystique, a character can be related to another character, who is related to another character, who were friends to another character, who is related to another character. You'll get it soon.
• Everyone Join the Party: When a thread or event requires everyone to participate.

• Expendable Alternate Universe: This happen in Crack Videos or Fan Vid such as Dark Side AU where Cirque Mystique is literally a Circus of Fear.

• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: The reason for many character's living in Cirque Mystique is because no-one wanted them. Many Gifted Humans or Supernaturals had families that wanted a normal human, and not some "monster" that would ruin their lives simply by having powers.

• First-Episode Resurrection: Tulio in "Final Confrontation"
• Flashback Effects: Monochrome option when using an editing software.

• Foreign Exchange Student: More like performers. Characters such as Manolo Sanchez from Mexico and Shuichi Shindo from Japan.
• Foreign Language Title: Cirque Mystique. It came from the late 19th century French language. Cirque means "Circus" and Mystique means either "Mystery" or "Magic", though it sounds almost to "Mystic".

• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: Some characters, such as Esmerelda, who's closer to her friend Belle than her father Dr. Facilier. At first.
• Friend to All Children: Adult characters would make children feel accepted and safe in the circus.
• Fun with Foreign Languages: For international characters who would suddenly blurt out a word according to their mother language aside from English.

• Government Conspiracy: The government believes that the characters inside the circus are evil and must be eliminated.

• Half-Breed Discrimination: Many characters are neglected and abused due to being Supernatural or Gifted.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The Supernaturals such as Selkies, Dragons, and Gargoyles.
• Here Comes the Science: Characters who uses their intelligence in their performance especially for the Humans such as Belle, Miles Prower, Hiro Hamada, or Chihiro Fujisaki.
• Here There Be Dragons: Some characters are a mixture of human and dragon.

• Heroism Equals Job Qualification: Some characters were given the opportunity to join Cirque Mystique because they saved a member.
• Home Sweet Home: More like "Circus Sweet Circus", but it's still a home.

• Humans Are Special: There are characters who are fully human and rely on their intelligence or physical abilities in contributing their participation in the circus.

• In a World…: "...Where everything you see on stage was real..."

• Infallible Narrator: It's a rule in the threads that posts can't be any less than two lines. Due to this, posts are usually very descriptive of the locations and characters contained within them.
• Initiation Ceremony: In verse, signing a contract. Out verse, accepted in the audition.
• In Medias Res: Cirque Mystique is the present timeline, but there are given plot videos showing how the characters came to the circus in the first place.
• Insert Song: Threads applied some songs from the real world. Aside from that, the characters- especially Disney characters- had their songs from their series. As for the main roleplay or the cirque itself, it can be recognised through the song of The Greatest Show Unearthed by Creature Feature.

• Interactive Fiction: Along with Interactive Narrator, the roleplay has user interacting with their characters, or even with each other while inside the story.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: From The Princess and the Frog, to Big Hero 6, to The Book of Life, and lots more.
• Interpretative Character: Users go through this when choosing a character and even interpret it when interacting with the other circus members. Especially for the characters who were in the Gifted Humans and Supernaturals class would apply on what they are or what their powers do.

• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: During the Alice arc, where the villain manipulated the children so their souls would be fed to Lucifer.
• I Warned You: "...To not expose any of the secrets of the circus or you'll get in trouble."

• Japanese Spirit: There's a character who is a Yokai.

• Language Barrier: Some characters don't understand what the international characters are saying.

• Let Me Tell You a Story: The character's backstories were told whenever another character asked on how were they able to get to the circus in the first place.

• Limited Animation: Basically, the plot videos used clips from their original movie/show.
• Limited Sound Effects: That evil laugh in the end is considered to be the one, aside from using the original audio from their series would provide.

• Locked in a Room: In Strato-Form Arc, where members were kidnapped and locked with their powers suppressed.

• Long Runner: The roleplay ran for a total of six years.

• Magic by Any Other Name: Magicians have different types of magic, such as basic magic, fire magic, or even Alchemy.
• Main Characters: While everyone can be a protagonist of their plot, Dr. Facilier was the one who started it all. But if it meant for each of the corresponding users related to their characters, it would be such as Esmeralda to angelofmusic1992 or Hiro Hamada to xxmintostarxx. And the list goes on.

• Malignant Plot Tumor: Strato-Form Arc, it seemed that it still continues ever since "The Doughboy Cometh".

• Middle-of-Nowhere Street: Downplayed. The location is close to civilisation, but closer to the forest to maintain the balance of publicity and security.

• A Minor Kidroduction: In their audition videos, the characters showed their younger selves before shifting to the present timeline.

• Musical Episode: There is a musical about it.

• Obligatory Swearing: There are some instances where a character can actually swear, though it is only applied to characters that aren't children.

• Only Known by Initials: "CM", because Cirque Mystique can be long to type.

• Our Vampires Are Different: There are Vampires, but they don't want to have blood sucking business with anyone.

• Parallel Conflict Sequence: Such as in "The Doughboy Cometh" thread where characters have two main objectives to save the circus from the attack - the beast who wrecked the Main Performance Tent and the villain himself.

• Patient of the Week: The Infirmary Tent always meets new patients.

• Place of Protection: Cirque Mystique's objective is to protect the characters who were shunned out by society's rejection of them. It was the character's opportunity before they reached the Point of No Return.

• Playing Both Sides: When the proposer also played as the Villain at the same time as playing their own character.

• Plot Threads: 2,341 of them to be approximate.

• Recruitment by Rescue: Most of the characters were lost and wandering around until they saw Cirque Mystique, they were mostly rescued by Dr. Facilier or other characters.
• Recurring Character: For users, most of their chosen characters are from other roleplays they particpated in aside from Cirque Mystique.

• Same Character, But Different: Depending on the Writer. Some characters retained their original personality as who they are but there are some got their personalities changed or modified depending on how residing inside Cirque Mystique affected them.
• Same Face, Different Name: Youtube users can change the name of their character for the roleplay, such as Aoi Asahina from Danganronpa becoming Loreley Salazar, or Ruby Rose from ''RWBY becoming Ruby Rider.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Some characters from their original series died, but are alive in the roleplay.
  • For example, Chihiro Fujisaki from Danganronpa got murdered in their original series, but are alive in the roleplay.
  • There are some prices to pay for this turning point- other characters close to them can die instead. For example, from The Secret of Kells, Aidan is alive but Brendan, the main protagonist of the series, got killed instead.

• Story Arc: It somehow started with Thrax Arc and currently ended in the Salem Arc.

• Villain Episode: There are videos featuring the villains.

• When It All Began: When the characters are given their backstories. For Dr. Facilier, it goes way back before Cirque Mystique was built.

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