'tis Night-Mare, Carolus Ni Bruhn

**It's Night-Mare, Carolus Ni Bruhn** is an episode of Venture: Kingdoms Originals.

## Synopsis

As fall hits Venturia, the Breadnut kids get ready for Night-Mare. Luz and Linos go to a nearby Natuuit farm to pick out a Natuuit. Luz chooses the biggest Natuuit on the farm, forcing Linos to painstakingly bring it back to their home. Linos is horrified when Luz starts vivisecting the Natuuit to make a macabre Jack-o-Lantern.

After the opening, Calvin assists Carolus Ni Bruhn in piling up fallen leaves. Linos intentionally razes the mound to spite Carolus, causing leaves to stick to his face and Ichor Sucker. Luz gaslights Carolus Ni Bruhn into punting an orb of goo, only to pull it away and cause Carolus to painfully crush his head into the ground.

Linos pens his annual letter to the Greatest Natuuit, trying to ignore Carolus Ni Bruhn's heresy, Calvin’s verbal abuse, Patrycja’s assuring that the Great Natuuit is contradictory to science, and even his sister Luz, who threatens to flay and eviscerate him while he’s still conscious. Only Salome, Carolus’ younger sister, sexually obsessed with Linos, supports his religious beliefs. Luz stalks Linos as he walks outside to send his letter to a post-delivering donkey. Carolus Ni Bruhn shows up outside of Luz’s house, bragging that he was invited to a Night-Mare festival hosted by Wiola. Neither Carolus nor Luz believes that he was invited: as Carolus breaks out into his "mating dance," Luz assumes his invitation was simply intended to gaslight him.

That night, the kids go trick-or-treating, each with their own outfit. Most dress as corpses in basic body bag costumes; Carolus Ni Bruhn has "troubleth with the top," leaving a point that makes him resemble a Ku Klux Klan member. Fatass's trademark smell makes it so that he is automatically noticed and verbally abused for his differences. Luz dresses as an offensive caricature of a Beldam, claiming that their stereotypical evil is the opposite of her personality, failing at one form of irony but succeeding at another. Before going to the village, the children stop at the pumpkin farm to act heretically to Linos for missing the year's celebrations, as usual. Stubborn, Linos is convinced that the Greatest Natuuit will go to his pumpkin farm, and convinces Salome, acting exclusively on her sexual fantasies with Linos, to skip trick-or-treating and aide him.

While trick-or-treating, the kids get their confections (outsides of Carolus Ni Bruhn, who gets nothing more than stones pelted at him). After going back to the pumpkin farm to verbally abuse Linos and Salome, the kids go to Wiola’s Night-Mare festival. Wiola and Luz get Carolus to serve as a model for Natuuit carving, to his initial joy, then agony as they use his bald head to slice in potential Jack-o'-Lantern designs.

Elsewhere, Calvin, wearing his soldier costume, climbs on his doghouse (imagining it to be an armored train). After a gory but failed crusade against the unseen Qow Bryagnol, Calvin crosses through “rural Ecrania" to crash the Night-Mare celebration. Sneaking in a “Gallnut Crouch” cauldron, Calvin makes out with Luz when she bites a Gallnut, leaving her horrified about committing an act of bestiality. Afterward, Calvin receives entertainment from Mathias’ playing of war songs on his jukebox, though the songs of death depress Calvin. Humiliated, Calvin escapes from the festival.

Linos and Salome are still at the Natuuit farm. After Linos discerns Calvin’s mysterious shadow rising from the dark patch, he gaslights Salome until believing it is the Greatest Natuuit, before faking a seizure. When Linos gets up, Salome, enraged, verbally abuses him for making her miss the Night-Mare customs when Carolus comes to get her back home. As they depart, Linos, still delusional, claims that the Greatest Natuuit will arrive, promising to speak positively of them "if he comes." Linos has an actual seizure after realizing that his statement could potentially deny the Greatest Natuuit’s existence.

That night, Luz deduces that Linos has not returned. Luz locates her brother in the pumpkin farm, covered by a bedsheet, suffering from hypothermia and a minor coma. Showing her virtuous side, Luz brings Linos to their home, removes his shoes, and relocates him to his bed.

The morning after Night-Mare, Carolus Ni Bruhn and Linos smash their heads against a wall and ventilate their hate of the night before. Carolus tries to console Linos by saying he has done “retarded” things in his life as well. Linos, furious at Carolus’ ableist choice of words, vows that the Greatest Natuuit will go to the pumpkin farm next year; Carolus listens, vexed, as Linos profanely rants and the episode closes.