Characters
Monica (MC) Valentine Algernon (the mouse guy)Plot
Set in the 19th century, Valentine is a child of nobility with Monica as her maid. Her mother sent to the mental asylum, she's left with her absent father who's frustrated with Valentine's inability to read (dyslexia). However Monica is able to learn quickly, so Valentine secretly employs her to do her homework. She assigns her as a "personal maid", and Monica is able to recieve an education. With their combined loneliness, they develop a strong bond that eventually turns romantic in their teen years.
Valentine wishes to leave nobility and join the travelling carnival. As a closeted trans-man (who doesn't know/understand), she wants to be a "new person". Monica wants to be a doctor, but is afraid to leave her job, and more importantly, Valentine. But Valentine promises that if she ever joins the carnival, she will eventually return, marry her, and build a life where she can be a astronomer.
One night, when Monica and Valentine are 20, Monica wakes up to hear pounding and shouting above her. Then Valentine's father comes and asks her to go to Valentine's room and pack her things. When Monica sees Valentine, she has a bloody gash on her cheek. She says her father is sending her to the asylum because of her inability to read & because she cut her hair. However Valentine says she's running away to the circus instead, which frightens Monica. Valentine asks her to join, but Monica is reluctant. The next day, Valentine is gone.
A year goes when Valentine's father visits the asylum and discovers that Valentine was never there. So he gets Monica to confess the truth. As a deal, he provides 40 pounds, enough funds for a month. He says that she can't return until she find Valentine.
Monica's first instinct is to visit the carnival since Valentine always wanted to go there. She sees a masked dancer who looks like Valentine, and attempts to hide backstage. However Algernon finds her, but he's sympathetic. He says that as long as she wears a mask at all times and hides her identity, she can stay. Monica joins the showman's cast of dancers to blend in with the other ladies and find Valentine.
Keep in mind that this carnival is a magical place. Performers were desperate to leave society, so lost their memories and hid their identity.
Monica struggles to find Valentine, connecting with every woman in the cast. She forms a close bond with Algernon, as they both work behind the scenes as costume/set designers. After 3 weeks in the travelling carnival, Monica loses hope. But then she connects the dots, realizing how Valentine always dreamed of being a man, and the showman is the only person she hasn't checked. So in the middle of the night she sneaks into his room and carefully unmasks him. She sees the same scar he bore on the night she left.
Brokenhearted, Monica concludes that Valentine will never come back because he's the showman. More dissapointing, he was willing to abandon her to achieve his dreams. Algernon and Monica exchange quiet goodbyes, and she leaves the carnival. Using the money she recieved, she enrolls in a nearby university, and spends the rest of her life fufilling her dream of seeing the stars. She never sees the carnival again.
