Here
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Mama
Name: Bertha Madson | AKA: ’Birdy’ the Armless Dynamo | Relationship: Close | { May 1885 - Current }
Notable: Birdy just being Birdy gives Maggie enough reason to call her a hero. Adding merit to that title, the spitfire of an armless wonder recently made a deal with Papa Mal to set Maggie free of the curse...At a price, of course. The only caveat to her freedom was that...well, she wasn’t entirely free when it came down to it. In fact, Maggie was still tethered to servitude to the demon, charged with the task of luring poor souls back to the carnival either for his consumption or to sign on for eternity in her place. In exchange, Maggie has been given a taste of the outside world and the ability to partake in the opportunities therein.
More: Having lost both arms and parts of her feet in the winter of 1890, Birdy had to learn to adapt to life without the benefit of her most useful appendages. With a no good drunk of a husband and three children to tend to on top of the constant hustle and bustle of carnival life, the woman seemed to have no problem rising to the task without complaint or issue. Even after losing her two younger boys to Influenza in 1910, she never altered course in raising Maggie to the best of her ability though she vowed not to bring anymore children into the world after the heartache she sustained. In Maggie’s eyes, there was nothing her mother couldn’t do and in reality, that wasn’t far from the truth, very early on in her life Bertha had learned to perform the tasks of an able bodied woman faster than two or three could accomplish together at once. It’s common to hear Maggie exclaim “my momma can do that and she ain’t got no arms, what’s your excuse?”
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Papa
Name: Martin Madson | AKA:Hell Mouth - Fire Eater | Relationship: Strained | { April 1880 - Current }
Notable: Martin ‘Hell Mouth’ Madson was known far and wide not only for being a horrendous drunk and philanderer but one of the most electrifying performers in the realm of fire eaters. His charisma and finesse is usually talked about just as frequently by recent visitors as the daring act of consuming the fire itself. The pride of performing under the big top was something Martin had always dreamed about passing down to his children. Having lost his two boys, the pressure of his expectations has fallen squarely on Maggie’s shoulders. This, among very many others, is one of the more obvious reasons for the tension between father and daughter.
More: It is inexplicable even to Maggie herself how it is that she and her mother remain so loyal and obedient to a man who has stumbled off or worse, stumbled in drunk more times than she can count, sometimes in the company of a woman who was not her mother. Martin was always a drunk, but matters were only made worse by the death of the two boys who were meant to carry on the Madson name. Things were only further exacerbated when it became apparent that Birdy was either unwilling or incapable of bringing anymore children into the world. He is a reckless, blustering fool who lacks the intelligence and fortitude to communicate and compromise and thus he made it known that he would sow his seed across the carnival camp as a means to carry on his bloodline. He tended to get violent with Birdy when he’d had a few but with Maggie he somehow seemed to find his soft spot. Maggie becomes distraught and furious with the way her father treats her mother but because Bertha has strong ideals about how a family is meant to stay strong as a unit, she gets by coexisting with her father as best she can.
