I know this urban legend resurfaced not long ago, but I remember being a kid and hearing about how there were clowns (or maybe just one clown) going to playgrounds and trying to lure kids away. Now, Chicago has a very weird history of clowns. The World's Columbian Exposition was one of the first times that people saw clowns up close. Clown makeup was designed to be looked at far away, not close up and seeing their dramatic makeup close up was frightful. Then there was the time a circus train crashed and a ton of circus performers were buried in a mass grave called Showmen's Rest. And, of course, there was John Wayne Gacy who definitely dressed up a clown sometimes.
But what if all of this clown lore comes from a singular cryptid. No, I don't mean It or Pennywise or whatever you want to call it. I'm going to come up with my own, exclusively clown, cryptid (It/Pennywise can change shape if I recall).
What if there is a clown cryptid? Or, more accurately, a cryptid that looks to us like a clown. There are humanoid cryptids so I think this is possible. So the cryptid would look roughly human but have dramatic facial markings. Since this is a cryptid, it wouldn't be makeup, it would be just what the skin looks like (I say skin because I think anything else would make the creature look too non-humanoid). I think the cryptid would have a very long lifespan so that it could have lasted from the fair until now.
Now I think the creature would only have emerged around the fair because finally it could blend in. People wouldn't see it around and immediately notice something was off. I imagine that this cryptid would, perhaps unintentionally, cause chaos. At the fair, it would have seen anything sensed as otherness put on display and being kept captive. Perhaps someone realized that the cryptid was not a performer and was not even human, but saw it was a creature. Perhaps this was one of the people who died in the fire at the indoor ice rink.
After that, I imagine the creature joined up with a circus troop to get away from it. Eventually it ended up with people who discovered what it was. They were going to make it a sideshow, deprive it of its liberty. And so...it crashed the train. So many were unidentified that no one would come looking for the creature under the name it had been using.
This time, the creature went even further underground, emerging only decades later. It wanted to seek out friends for it was growing lonely as it aged. It made the grave mistake of befriending a man who said he wanted to be a clown to entertain children. The creature liked children, they made it feel less alone. It helped the man, but was later horrified to learn he was a killer.
Once again, the creature hid itself. But it grew lonely. Now though, many people feared clowns. The creature had never wanted to hurt anyone, it was just frightened and did not want to become captured. It could not find a way to join up with circuses now as they wanted things it did not have like a resume or a reel. And so it turned to children on playgrounds for friends. Most just let it be and some were amused and became its friends.
But, every now and then, one kid would look too closely at it and the realization would dawn in their eyes...this was not a human. The creature would spirit the child away, it hated doing it, but how else would it save itself? When the stories got out, the creature went into hiding again, hoping the stories would fade.
But it grew too lonely. And now, it has returned.
So, beware when you see a clown. The clown may be a friendly performer, but if it is the creature, you cannot let it know you recognize it. If you do, your only hope is to reassure it that you mean it no harm and will tell no one. Perhaps it will listen to you.
But perhaps this is what every other victim has tried before.
(Prompt by me)
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But what if all of this clown lore comes from a singular cryptid. No, I don't mean It or Pennywise or whatever you want to call it. I'm going to come up with my own, exclusively clown, cryptid (It/Pennywise can change shape if I recall).
What if there is a clown cryptid? Or, more accurately, a cryptid that looks to us like a clown. There are humanoid cryptids so I think this is possible. So the cryptid would look roughly human but have dramatic facial markings. Since this is a cryptid, it wouldn't be makeup, it would be just what the skin looks like (I say skin because I think anything else would make the creature look too non-humanoid). I think the cryptid would have a very long lifespan so that it could have lasted from the fair until now.
Now I think the creature would only have emerged around the fair because finally it could blend in. People wouldn't see it around and immediately notice something was off. I imagine that this cryptid would, perhaps unintentionally, cause chaos. At the fair, it would have seen anything sensed as otherness put on display and being kept captive. Perhaps someone realized that the cryptid was not a performer and was not even human, but saw it was a creature. Perhaps this was one of the people who died in the fire at the indoor ice rink.
After that, I imagine the creature joined up with a circus troop to get away from it. Eventually it ended up with people who discovered what it was. They were going to make it a sideshow, deprive it of its liberty. And so...it crashed the train. So many were unidentified that no one would come looking for the creature under the name it had been using.
This time, the creature went even further underground, emerging only decades later. It wanted to seek out friends for it was growing lonely as it aged. It made the grave mistake of befriending a man who said he wanted to be a clown to entertain children. The creature liked children, they made it feel less alone. It helped the man, but was later horrified to learn he was a killer.
Once again, the creature hid itself. But it grew lonely. Now though, many people feared clowns. The creature had never wanted to hurt anyone, it was just frightened and did not want to become captured. It could not find a way to join up with circuses now as they wanted things it did not have like a resume or a reel. And so it turned to children on playgrounds for friends. Most just let it be and some were amused and became its friends.
But, every now and then, one kid would look too closely at it and the realization would dawn in their eyes...this was not a human. The creature would spirit the child away, it hated doing it, but how else would it save itself? When the stories got out, the creature went into hiding again, hoping the stories would fade.
But it grew too lonely. And now, it has returned.
So, beware when you see a clown. The clown may be a friendly performer, but if it is the creature, you cannot let it know you recognize it. If you do, your only hope is to reassure it that you mean it no harm and will tell no one. Perhaps it will listen to you.
But perhaps this is what every other victim has tried before.
(Prompt by me)
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