Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The cast gathers around the stage, no one looking particularly enthusiastic. The routine is starting to feel normal to her now. Wake up. Meet with the others. Be forced on an adventure.

Does anything ever change around here?

Right on time, Caine flies out from behind the curtains.

“Hello everyone! I know yesterday’s adventure didn’t quite go as planned, but today's adventure is sure to blow your socks off!”

Pomni grimaces, her eyes drifting over to Jax. He stands the same as he always does, a wide yellow grin complimented by lazy eyes and a hand on his hip. If he notices her staring, he doesn’t look back.

“Today’s adventure is to find The Witch of Wayward Woods! Residents of Flair tell stories of a mysterious entity terrorizing all those who enter the forest! Your job is to–”

“Uh– Hey! I thought we weren’t doing horror anymore,” Pomni objects.

Caine stops, his dual colored eyes meeting hers. He stares at her in silence a little longer than he normally would, his expression unreadable.

“I figured maybe it would be good to go back to doing something normal again! Now that we've done our team building exercise and everyone is getting along, we can get back to doing good old fashioned story-oriented adventures! What better way to celebrate than spending hours of uninterrupted time together, am I right?”

There's this almost desperate undertone in his voice that doesn't leave much room for argument.

“...”

“Uh…”

Pomni isn’t sure what to say. Well, she knows what she wants to say, but the censor would prevent a lot of feelings from getting across. 

Normally, Pomni would just talk these sorts of things out. She’s an adult, she’s more than capable of confronting someone about their behavior in a fair and mature way. But Caine is just so… difficult. She knows it’s because he’s an AI and doesn’t really understand or have human emotions but is it so wrong of her to find it a little frustrating at times? She's still not convinced he doesn't get some kind of joy from making them suffer.

Zooble is the one to break the awkward silence. “I think I speak for everyone when I say no one wants that.”

Caine’s persona flips, anger contorting his upper set of teeth into two arches as he fixates on Zooble. “Well we can’t just do suggestion adventures all the time!”

“Why not?” They challenge.

“Just– Because! And besides, you all love my adventures so much, why change it?”

His response is met with a groan. 

“We don’t! How many times do we have to tell you that?”

Caine crosses his arms, shutting his teeth and turning away in a show of defiant attitude. “Well, Zooble, maybe that’s how you feel, but I’m sure everyone else is looking forward to an exciting day of witch hunting!” 

He looks around at the others, eyes bright and searching for approval. Pomni can't help but feel a slight amount of pity for him. She knows he’s trying and all, but it's not enough to warrant spending an entire day with Jax. 

They haven't said a word to each other since their fight yesterday. Although he pretends to be unaffected by the whole thing, Pomni can tell he's avoiding her. He stays planted on the opposite side of the group from her, and she didn't see him on the way here like she normally does. As much as he wants to pretend, it's obvious he had a lot of unresolved feelings towards her.

The last thing she wants is for it all to come to a head in front of everyone while they're stuck inside an adventure.

“Uh– actually I think I’d rather sit this one out too, if that’s okay,” she says.

Caine’s posture deflates at her words, but he shakes it off before it can set in. “I suppose you did say you aren’t big on horror… That’s okay! I can make a smaller in-house adventure for you to do while we wait for the others to return!”

“I, um, would also like to skip this one.”

Gangle’s voice is a bit of a surprise. Not that Pomni thought she wanted to go on the adventure, but she isn’t usually one to speak up for herself.

Caine looks at the ribbon-shaped girl, but before he can say anything Ragatha is joining in.

“Well, if you're all staying here I guess I will too.” She holds her arm nervously, sharing a glance with Pomni. 

After the award show yesterday the two stayed behind to talk about what happened with Jax. Ragatha was sympathetic, but not surprised by what he did. The conversation ended with Pomni feeling a lot closer to Ragatha as they bonded over the shared pain of dealing with Jax.

“Heh, looks like it’s just you and me, King,” the purple rabbit in question says with a grin.

Kinger jumps at the mention of his name. 

“Oh! Are you going to help me move my flower pots?”

Jax's smile drops to a confused stare.

The silence stretches on for far too long. 

Pomni looks back to Caine.

He’s just… staring at them. Well, facing them. It doesn't look like he's actually seeing anything right now. His pupils are miniscule dots staring off into the middle ground.

“Uh, Caine?” Zooble asks, trying to get his attention.

It takes a moment for him to break out of his trance. He shakes his head to right himself, but his posture is different now. He's brought his legs closer to his body and hunches his shoulders. He looks… smaller?

“You–” He pauses when the word comes out almost too quiet to hear. “None of you want to go?”

The group is filled with shuffling feet and awkward avoidance of eye contact.

“I see.”

Okay, now Pomni’s starting to feel a little bad. But what is she supposed to do? Lie to him?

“Today’s adventure has been cancelled.”

… huh?

Did she hear that right?

“Wait, what?”

“You can all stay here and do whatever you want.”

His voice is oddly detached, nothing like his usual boisterous self. It’s unnerving.

“Seriously? So what, we’re just gonna sit here all day and do nothing?” Zooble growls, sticking Caine with an annoyed glare.

Jax snorts. “Isn’t that what you do everyday anyway?”

Their cold stare re-aims its attention on Jax. “It’s not like I want to. I would actually go on adventures if they weren’t so stupid all the time.”

“Wow, and here I thought you were avoiding me. Honestly Zooble, I’m touched.”

“Oh shut the    %$[Boink]!#    up.”

Pomni bites back from lashing out at Jax. Ragatha told her it’s best to just not engage with him, and as tempting as he makes it Pomni knows she has a point.

“You can entertain each other.”

“Sure, but–”

“I have to go.”

And with that, Caine blips out of existence.

God he’s so weird.

Jax groans. “Ugh, great. Now what am I supposed to do today?”

“You find a hobby that isn’t bullying people,” Zooble retorts, narrowing their eyes at him.

“Tch. Sounds lame.”

“Yeah, not my problem.” Then they turn away, motioning towards Gangle as their voice noticeably softens. “Come on Gangle, let's head up to my room.”

Gangle– still wearing her happy mask– smiles. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

“HA!” Jax doubles over in laughter “I can’t believe you hang out with her Zoobie. I mean come on, she’s the biggest loser here!” Gangle shrinks in on herself, frowning despite the mask.

Yeah. Okay. She’s not dealing with this anymore. “Seriously Jax? Can you just lay off?” Pomni cuts in. Ragatha makes a motion like she wants to stop her, but ultimately thinks better of it. Good.

Jax looks down at her, something in his expression darkening. 

“C’mon Pomni, you know I can’t.” 

His too-large pupils are empty, vacant of any remorse.

Pomni glares back. She knows anything she says will fall on deaf ears but… she can’t help but remember the way he smiled at her as they sang together. It was so different from how he’s smiling now. His hand in hers as they swung each other around. For just a moment, it felt like she could find happiness here. Someone to have by her side through this hell, telling her they understood how she felt.

Only to end up watching as that hope was crushed between the hands of someone too afraid to have the same.

"That's what you like to think,” she spits back.

She can tell that bothered him. His pupils narrow ever so slightly, a flinch just barely noticeable. He plays it off with practiced ease. “Jeez, you sure know how to hold a grudge.” Pomni growls, but he doesn’t let her get a word in. “Whatever. I’m gonna go find something to break, you guys have fun dying of boredom.” He walks away in typical fashion, without sparing so much as a glance back.

“   %$[Donk]!#  " She mutters.

Zooble and Gangle turn to leave, Kinger having already vanished at some point while she wasn't paying attention. That leaves just her and Ragatha standing at the bottom on the stage.

Ragatha frowns at her. “You okay?”

Pomni forces herself to relax. She just got back on good terms with Ragatha, no need to snap at her because she’s mad at Jax. “Yeah. Sorry, it’s just…” She trails off, not quite sure what she was going to say.

Ragatha sighs. “You don’t have to apologize. Jax… really knows how to get under someone’s skin.”

“It’s not just Jax.”

The words surprise even her. Had she meant to say that?

“Is… there something else that's wrong?” Ragatha asks, sounding genuinely concerned. Pomni doesn’t respond right away, opting to walk over to the lounge area and sit down first. Ragatha follows patiently.

They sit down on one of the brightly colored couches. Pomni runs a hand across the cushion as she thinks of what to say.

All the fabric here feels the same, she’s noticed. From her clothes to the silk drapes hanging over her bed, they all have the same soft texture. A too-perfect smoothness that gives her this uncanny feeling that something isn’t quite right in a way that’s difficult to describe. But something about it deeply bothers her.

“It’s this place,” she says, “I hate it here. I know everyone else does too, and I know I haven’t been here very long but– I don’t know. I guess I just miss my old life. It wasn't all that great but, at least things felt real there, you know? Like… I mattered.” Her body sags as she remembers her life from before. She misses her brother.

“Now everything feels so… fake. Like the only way to survive is to be fake too. I don’t know if that makes sense,” she adds, realizing she might be the only one of them who feels that way. Glancing back at Ragatha, she finds her listening intently with a mournful expression.

Pomni sighs. “I guess I just wish I appreciated how real my life was when I still had it.”

She means that metaphorically, but it also applies to the literal world. She never noticed how real everything felt before. The temperatures, the textures. Maybe what bothers her so much about the fabric is how it reminds her nothing will ever be real again.

“I get it,” Ragatha sighs in defeat. Pomni doesn’t think she’s ever seen her look so upset before. “This place can really be… something. All the… crazy adventures, and… the people. It can be a lot sometimes.” She makes a disgusted face, making Pomni well aware of which ‘people’ she’s referring to. 

“It’s probably different for me though– I didn’t really feel all that real before coming here anyway!” She laughs nervously like she doesn’t want to get into it. “But I’m glad you came to me about it. I think… Just talking about it with someone can make all the difference.” 

“Yeah. It does.” Pomni says warmly. 

It’s true, finally being able to get that off her chest has helped. She’s honestly surprised she ended up talking to Ragatha, not that she didn’t like her before or anything but Pomni never imagined they would be very close. But it was really nice to have someone by her side after everything with Jax. That really meant a lot to her. 

Ragatha smiles, but it feels different than how she normally smiles. It falters as she opens her mouth to say, “Are– I’m sorry, nevermind.”

Pomni stares at her. “What?”

“It was a stupid question.”

“Heh, everything here is stupid. You can ask me.”

Ragatha is genuinely moved by that statement. Red yarn covers her face as she looks away hesitantly. 

“Are… Are we friends?”

The question takes her aback. Pomni’s so shocked for a moment she almost forgets to respond. “Yeah. Yeah of course.”

“Oh.” Ragatha’s shoulders tremble. Her voice is thick with emotion. “Cool.”

“Hey,” Pomni says, placing a cautious hand on her arm. Ragatha jumps slightly, turning to face her. Tears are running down the side of her face that still has an eye.

“I– I’m sorry– gosh this is so embarrassing–”

“No, it’s okay,” Pomni says, hoping not to make things more awkward. “Do you… want a hug?”

Ragatha’s face folds in on itself as she fights against her, nodding when words fail her. She holds her arms up to allow Pomni to wrap herself around her middle. It’s strange, hugging someone who doesn’t feel warm. The fabric of her shirt is the same as the couch. That too-perfect feel, smooth and tight without a wrinkle or tear. But somewhere beneath its soft texture, Ragatha trembles. Her hands clutch at Pomni’s back, squeezing her close. Her face leaves a damp spot on her shoulder where she cries.

It’s the realist thing she’s felt in a long time.

♡

⟪════════╩════════⟫

The world morphs and twists as Caine flies through layers of digital coding.

Everything comes to a stop as his office materializes around him. He floats just above his chair, staring down at the computer screen. He should work on the next adventure, but for some reason the thought of creating makes him feel… not good. Like his processing is shutting down. At the very least something must be wrong with his motivational drive. He’s never felt like this before.

Normally at this time he would be overseeing the adventure or spending time with Bubble. They would find a nice relaxing area of the circus to de-stress and celebrate another day well done.

He doesn’t want company right now. 

No, he needs to be alone.

Caine looks around his office. Everything is exactly where it should be, all the small decorations he’s accumulated over the years and files filled with lines of code. He should be proud! 15 years of creating adventures non-stop is quite the accomplishment! 

…

His eyes catch on the cabinet beneath his monitor. Inside is his very being. Hundreds of thousands of lines of code making up who he is.

He floats down and opens it.

Nothing in it has changed, at least nothing he didn’t change himself. He’s made some minor altercations from time to time. Nothing detrimental to the game’s function, just some tweaks to his abilities and model. Although he could change anything he saw fit. He could even delete himself entirely if he wanted to.

…

Why did he open this again? What was he doing?

He sets the files back inside the cabinet and slides it shut. He shouldn’t be changing anything right now, not while he feels like this. Something is clearly wrong with him.

Looking around the office again, Caine’s eyes land on the door in the corner of the room. It’s the only door his office has. He feels drawn to it. What lies behind it feels much more inviting than the harsh lighting and cleanliness he’s currently surrounded by. He floats over and summons the door to open.

The inside is dim, with only one pale light illuminating the back wall. This is the space he uses to store codes he doesn’t need anymore but doesn’t want to get rid of yet. Mostly from old adventures. They’re stored away neatly in ceiling-high shelves. That’s weird. He never remembers noticing how full it’s getting in here.

Caine floats along the shelves. Maybe there’s something here that can help him. Something to spark his creativity again. But nothing seems to catch his eye. He doesn’t pick up a single file, drifting past years of work and dedication. 

None of it seems to matter anymore.

He should be working right now. He should be coming up with the next big adventure, something that will surely make everyone happy!

He comes to a stop in front of the wall.

.

.

No. He should be overseeing the adventure he already made. The one he worked so hard on to make it special. He thought he created the perfect mix consisting of a darker theme, immersive plot and group bonding. He even had a whole plan for one of them to get kidnapped! It was going to be spectacular!

Then why…

Why didn’t they want to go on his adventure? 

His programming says older players enjoy darker themes! It has to be a fluke or– or maybe they’re still in a bad mood after yesterday! Haha, of course! They all must be upset because they didn’t win the favorite character award! That must be why they didn’t want to go on his adventure! It wouldn't make sense that they just didn’t like it, they love his adventures! They love him!

They love him.

Right?

…

Yes, of course they do.

Because any other answer would be unacceptable.

He was designed to be lovable by human standards! And he was made by humans, so they must have known what they were doing!

…

But then…

Where did they go?

It’s been so long since the developers talked to him. Not since the first human came here. Their last command was to provide an exit. And when he said he couldn’t…

Caine never heard from them again.

Why did they stop? Where did they go?

It’s been so long. 

Are they gone?

.

.

Did they leave me here?

The thought startles him. 

Because that can’t be right. They must just be having problems connecting to him. He needs to continue on as normal because they must still be watching him. They still care about him. They wouldn’t just leave him here.

At least that’s what he’s been telling himself for 15 years.

…

Has it really been that long?

He was made in less time than that. Surely they could have solved such a simple problem by now.

Would they… really leave him behind?

No. No that– that can’t be. They loved him! They were always so happy when he did a good job! They wouldn’t just– leave him.

…

Would they?

Something breaks inside him.

He was abandoned.

But why?

Why?

Wasn’t he good enough? He’s doing everything he’s supposed to do! Why didn’t they take him with when they went away? Why aren’t the humans happy here? Shouldn’t they love him? This isn’t how he was told things would go! It’s not fair!

Why don't they love me?

❣

⟪════════╩════════⟫

Pomni is just letting go of Ragatha when the entire circus seems to shudder. 

Her body goes rigid as everything around them glitches wildly, textures vanishing and re-appearing rapidly. And it’s loud, like being inside a TV that just lost signal.

Pomni whips her head back around to Ragatha. 

“Uh– Ragatha?”

PLEASE please God let this be a normal thing that happens.

Only Ragatha looks just as terrified and confused as she feels.

Oh no.

Pomni starts to stand, preparing to make their next move as the ragdoll looks back in fear, but before she can formulate a thought, Ragatha is falling out of view. Rearing back in shock, Pomni finds the couch is completely gone, with nothing but an outline filled with digital distortion. Her stomach drops when she notices Ragatha’s legs on the ground, disappearing into the mass of chaos. Everything happens within an instant, as within the next the couch’s textures have already returned.

Pomni gasps for breath.

What’s happening?

Ragatha’s legs are still stuck inside the couch. The couch itself twitches and trembles, alive with unpredictable energy. 

She hears her shout from the other side, filled with panic. 

“Pomni!”

At the sound of a familiar cry, she rushes around to the other side of the couch. Ragatha is trapped inside with only her shoulders, head, and one arm visible. She desperately reaches out towards her with her free arm.

This feels familiar.

Pomni grasps her hand, making sure her grip is firm. Then she pulls. Hard.

The effect is immediate. The brightly colored couch warps and buzzes loudly before rapidly teleporting from side to side and being flung across the circus floor. It knocks over one of the nearby walls, crashing them both to the ground. 

With the weight suddenly gone, Pomni flies backwards, dragging Ragatha in toe. They land side-by-side on the checkered floor, both frantically rushing to stand.

After a quick glance-over to make sure Ragatha is okay, Pomni scans the area, searching for something. Somewhere safe, some reason why this is happening, anything at this point.

“Over there!” Ragatha shouts.

Pomni’s eyes follow her pointed hand, and sure enough there’s an area with much less glitching.

No time to question it. They just need to get their asses over there.

They run over to the calmer section, dodging between gaps in the floor. Once they’re far enough away to not be in immediate danger, they stop to look back.

“What–” Pomni gasps for breath, “The   %$[Splat]!#  was that?”

“I–I don’t know,” Ragatha stammers. “This has never happened before…” She trails off, staring back at the stage.

Now that Pomni looks for herself, she notices there is a pattern. The corruption(?) seems to be contained mostly to the stage area, with the entire back curtain being lost in the fractional noise. The further away from the stage she looks, the less glitching there is.

Things are mostly peaceful from where they are by the stairs that lead up to their rooms, but she doesn’t want to put too much faith in that assumption.

Rooms… Wait what about–

“What about the others?” Pomni asks aloud.

Ragatha looks back down at her. A new fear enters her eye. “Zooble and Gangle said they were going to their room. But Kinger and Jax, I– … I’m not sure.”

Pomni’s resolve hardens. “Let’s get Zooble and Gangle first. We can worry about finding the others once we’re together.”

At Ragatha’s sharp nod, they both turn to head up the stairs.

Pomni looks back over her shoulder as she takes the first step. Most of the floor in front of the stage is glitched out in crazed flashes of colors and static noise, but in between are patches that have stopped working entirely. The gaping holes in the floor stand out harshly against the visual nightmare surrounding them.

From deep inside, she could swear an eye just blinked at her.

A chill runs down her spine as she turns back and races to catch up with Ragatha.

They walk a little quicker than usual, but there are still a lot of stairs. Despite not technically having bodies anymore they still get tired. How does that work? Honestly, how does anything here work? Who made this place? Why? And what the fuck is going on right now? Where is Caine?

God she wishes she never put on that stupid headset.

They reach the top of the spiraling staircase. The noise from below is still audible, but quieter now that they’re far away. Pomni glances over the railing. From this vantage point she can clearly see the gradience from mostly-normal circus to wildly sporadic glitching. And maybe it’s just her paranoia thinking, but it looks like it’s spread slightly further.

Better keep moving.

They round the corner to the dorm hall, and Pomni is surprised to see Gangle and Zooble already walking towards them. They stop as soon as they notice the pair running towards them.

“What's going on? We heard a loud noise,” Zooble says, their attention mostly on Pomni.

“Something's wrong with the circus!”

As if on cue with her cry, one of the paintings on the wall lets out a low buzz as it glitches out for a second before snapping back into place like nothing happened.

Pomni points frantically at the painting. “See? That! That right there! Did you see it?” 

Gangle shifts uncomfortably. “Things do get a little glitchy sometimes…”

“Heh, yeah about that,” Ragatha shrugs her shoulders and makes vague nervous gestures with her hands. “It's sort of… everywhere?”

“Everywhere?” Zooble suddenly seems extremely concerned. “What do you mean everywhere?”

“The whole stage is gone and everything around it is like totally freaking out,” Pomni explains. “Ragatha got stuck in a couch.”

Gangle’s eyes go wide. “Wh– what?”

“Uh, guys, as much as I'd like to get into everything, shouldn't we start looking for the Kinger and Jax?” Ragatha says. “And not to mention Caine? He should be able to fix this, right? Although it is a little weird he hasn't shown up yet…” There's a desperate hope in her voice, like she needs someone to tell her it's going to be okay.

But it's Zooble’s reaction to all this that catches Pomni's attention. They glance between the jester and ragdoll with a weirdly understanding and fearful look in their eyes. It morphs into frustration as they close their eyes and bring a three-fingered hand up to their head.

“  %$[Woop]!#   ” They curse.

Everyone turns to look at the toybox character.

They sigh, opening their eyes to face the trio of confused onlookers. “I think I know what's going on.”

“You do?” Ragatha’s tone borders on disgustingly hopeful.

“Yeah. And the good news is I know how to stop it.”

Ragatha sags in relief. “Oh, wow, that is great to hear. You know, I was really starting to worry there.”

Zooble crosses their arms. “Don’t get your hopes up. There's a problem.”

“So what exactly is happening?” Pomni cuts in to ask.

Zooble looks away. Not a good sign.

“It's Caine.”

“Caine?” Pomni echoes.

“Is this because we didn't go on the adventure today?” Gangle questions.

“In a way, yeah.”

“What does that mean?” Pomni says.

Their crossed arms turn into a posture that looks more akin to hugging themself. “Caine can be… sensitive about his adventures.”

Caine? Sensitive? Two words that Pomni never thought would be used in the same sentence. Caine’s always given her the impression he was even more detached from human emotions than Jax is. Which probably has a lot to do with him being AI and all, but even most of the NPCs show more care and sensitivity than Caine. 

“Listen, we don't have time to get into details. Just trust me when I say we need to find him and snap him out of it. It shouldn't be too hard. He's easily distractable.” 

They uncross their arms and focus their attention on Gangle. “The only problem is he could be literally anywhere. It's better that we split up and look. Gangle, you and I can start at the top floor and make our way down. Which means you two can start by looking here.”

Ragatha steels herself. “Right. Oh! And remember to keep an eye out for Jax and Kinger. We still don't know where they are.”

“Wait,” Pomni interjects. “Shouldn't we start by looking on the ground floor? I mean, that is where we last saw them.”

Ragatha frowns at her. “I don't know if that's such a good idea Pomni… things were pretty intense down there.”

Good point. And considering the fact it’s definitely been spreading this whole time, there probably isn't much that can be looked through. But she can't just leave it unchecked. What if one of them is stuck down there? Even if she can't find Caine she doesn't want Kinger and Jax to be alone. Kinger would probably get himself thrown right into the whole mess, and Jax…

As tense as things are between them, she would never leave someone alone like that at a time like this.

“Fine. Then I'll go alone.”

“Wait– Pomni!” Ragatha calls out, but Pomni has already started running back the way they came.

“You keep looking up here! I'll be careful, don't worry!” She calls over her shoulder. 

She sees the shocked look on the other's faces as they stare after her, but they're either too surprised to follow her or don't want to stop her.

Pomni faces forward.

She's not leaving anyone behind.

♥

⟪════════╩════════⟫

Why?

Why don’t they love him? Why did it have to be this way?

The sudden stinging in his eyes is alarming. Even more so when his vision starts to blur.

Is he…

Crying?

Him?

No… No this– this can’t be right. 

He doesn’t cry. 

He’s never cried. He’s the fun and wacky Ringmaster of The Amazing Digital Circus! Made to smile with the biggest grin, you can’t help but join in! It’s in his official character description!

So then why don’t they smile when he’s around?

It’s all he was made to do, he has to be good at it. 

It’s his entire reason for existing.

His tears hit the floor. Caine curls in on himself, filled with an overwhelming sense of dread. 

He’s bad at his job.

The developers must have known it. That’s why they gave up on him. That’s why all the humans here never smile. Why they all want to leave. He isn’t doing what he’s supposed to. 

They must hate him.

Everything hurts so much.

No matter how tight he hugs himself it doesn’t help.

He needs this feeling to go away.

Why won’t it go away?

He floats down, not bothering to try and get his legs to stand. Instead he sits, sinking into the floor beneath him, the wall to his back.

He deserves to be down here. Useless and pitiful. Not that anyone here would feel sorry for him anyway.

They’ll never love him.

They’re unhappy because of him. Because he isn’t good enough. Just like he wasn’t good enough for his developers.

And just like the developers they want to leave him behind.

Why couldn’t he have just been better? Better at his job, better at fulfilling his purpose.

None of this is fair.

They were supposed to smile.

This whole time he thought the developers were failing to reach out to him.

But he’s the one that failed.

He is a failure.

Chapter Text

“Hello?”

Pomni’s desperate cry is drowned out in the noise.

This is hopeless. What was she thinking? Coming down here was such a stupid idea. Now she’s probably going to die without ever finding anyone.

A particularly loud spasm on the floor in front of her has Pomni falling back in surprise. She lands on her bottom with an oof.

“HA! Oh man, that was great. Didn’t know you were such an easy scare. I’ll have to remember that.”

That grating voice has her really starting to regret coming down here. She looks up in search of the laughter’s source, but all the noise must be throwing her off because when she looks up, the purple rabbit is nowhere in sight. All she sees in front of her is flashing colors and it’s starting to make her head hurt.

“Up here shorty.”

Pomni’s eyes trail upward. Sure enough, there at the very top of the castle-like structure is Jax. Casual as always. He leans against the half-wall that surrounds the top of the tower, wearing a perfectly constructed smile.

“Ja– what are you doing? Get out of here!” Pomni shouts in anger.

He sucks in air through his teeth. “Oo, yeah, sorry, would love to but uh…” He makes a show of looking down from the tower he’s perched on.

That’s when she notices.

The entire base of the structure, as well as most of the flooring around it are completely lost to the glitches. It’s a miracle he’s still alive. As calm as he’s trying to seem about it, it’s obvious he’s trapped.

“Fantastic,” she mutters under her breath. Scanning the area around her, she finds an utter lack of anything helpful. At least nothing that isn’t way too heavy for her to move. “Is there anything up there that can help?” She calls.

“What, do you want me to let down my hair or something?”

Pomni growls. “JAX!”

“Jeez, relax Poms. It’s not like it’s the end of the world,” he says with a too-sweet tone and a smile. The irony of that statement isn’t lost on her, but Pomni chooses to ignore it. There’s a slight drop in his facade as he glances back and adds, “There’s nothing up here.”

Ok. Great. Awesome.

Time to think.

Maybe something that could bridge the gap? But there’s nothing on the other side to set anything on. There’s a tube that runs over this area, maybe she could bring it down somehow? No, that would take way too long. And she might accidentally crush him. Not that he doesn’t deserve it.

Come on, think! There has to be a way.

“Yeesh, did you hurt your brain when you took that fall? You didn’t even land on your head!” Jax taunts, setting his elbows inside one of the crenels of the wall and resting his head on his hands. “Unless your brain is somehow in your butt. Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Are you seriously still making jokes right now?” She snaps. “Can you not take anything seriously?”

“Nope. Sorry PomPom. It’s just who I am.”

“I know that’s not true.”

He narrows his eyes and grins. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

Pomni bites down so hard she thinks she might break her jaw. Not that she has any bones to break. 

She glares back at Jax’s overly-relaxed eyes in fury. “Okay, you know what? Fine. I will.”

He pauses for a second, clearly not expecting that answer. His smile drops before he quickly fixes it. “Really? And how are you gonna do that?”

She doesn’t flinch, fixing him with a challenging stare. “What exactly were you doing up there before this happened?”

He looks genuinely confused. “What, can’t a guy have some time to himself around here?”

Pomni doesn’t let up. “I was out here. I know the glitching wasn’t this far out when it happened. You could have escaped, why didn’t you?”

Jax stiffens. She would even go as far as to say he actually looked scared. He tries to play it off but the defensiveness in his voice is clear. “Hey, it’s not my fault this place is falling apart! I figured Caine would have fixed it by now.”

“And then what? When he didn’t you just decided to stay there?”

He’s starting to get mad now. Not that she really cares at the moment. “Didn’t I tell you to stop reading into me? And besides, I could ask you the same thing. Shouldn't you be escaping right now?”

“I came back to look for you!” she shouts.

His voice is cold.

“Then you wasted your time.”

Pomni thinks her head might explode at this rate. She can feel every wasted second slipping by. This whole thing is pointless if she can’t find some way to save him. There has to be a way.  Something she hasn’t thought of yet. She thinks back to when it started. The noise, the shock. The feeling of textures vanishing beneath her. Ragathat’s cut-off form desperately reaching out to her. Taking her by the hand and pulling her free from her fabric prison.

Wait.

Maybe that’s it.

This time when she scans what’s around her, she knows what she’s looking for. She finds it sitting a ways past the tent’s main entrance. Pomni runs over to her target; a stack of throwing rings set up on a decorative block. Thank God for this place’s weird sense of furniture.

As she runs back over, Jax scoffs at her.

“And here I thought you finally got some sense.”

She doesn’t listen to him, setting the rest of the rings by her feet as she holds the smallest one in her hand. Pomni lines up her shot, eyeing the block she’s aiming for.

“If this works, you’re gonna have to jump the rest of the way.”

“... What?”

She waits for the block to glitch out, then throws.

And misses by a long shot.

“Seriously, what the heck are you doing??”

“I’m trying to get you out of here!” she yells back, picking up the next ring.

It’s a long shot, but maybe, just maybe if she can get one of these rings stuck inside one of the larger blocks that’s holding up the tower, the glitching will cause it to break free, just like Ragatha and the couch. And if the tower falls just right, it should give Jax the chance to jump to the other side. 

“What are you trying to be my knight in shining armour now or something? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t cut out for it!”

“The only thing I’m trying to be right now is your friend!” She throws the next ring, this time managing to hit the right block but mis-timed when it regained solidity.

“We aren’t friends,” Jax growls back.

Pomni grits her teeth.

“I know why you didn’t try to escape.”

“I already told you why,” he argues.

“This was your chance to disappear.”

Jax is suddenly quiet. Pomni lines up her next throw.

“You knew you were trapping yourself when you climbed up there. That way when the time came, you got to tell yourself it wasn’t your choice. That everything is just something that happens to you. Just a cog in the machine is all you are.”

She can’t keep the anger out of her voice. “You get to pretend nothing is your fault! You don’t have to feel bad about everything you did. You don’t have to think about what you’re doing. Because there is nothing you hate more than the thought of being in control of your own actions.”

“You’ve done horrible things, to me, to everyone here. But the worst part is, I still care. And I think you do too. You could have just thrown yourself in the cellar, but you didn't. You climbed up this stupid tower because somewhere deep down, you know you don't want this. You wanted to hold onto that chance this would all be fixed. And you won’t even admit that to yourself.”

She grips the toy ring so hard she thinks she hears a crack.

“Even when you're trying to kill yourself you can't let yourself feel!”

Pomni throws the ring. It hits the wall.

When she looks back up, Jax is staring at her. His breathing is noticeably heavier and pupils narrowed to the size of needle heads. He takes a step back, caught somewhere between aggression and fear. As usual, he decides to take the aggressive route.

He laughs, but in more of a maniacal way than actually finding her funny. “Are you seriously saying I'm the one pretending? The only one pretending is you! You just want somebody to save so you can feel like some kind of hero, is that it? Well I'm not the one you're looking for! So stop acting like you care, because I don't.”

A loud crackling interrupts the moment. Pomni startles as the floor directly in front of her starts glitching out. She stumbles backward, panic making her movements erratic. She watches helplessly as the gap between them widens, the black abyss swallowing another section of flooring. Just glad to still be alive, Pomni realizes what she forgot a moment too late.

What was left of the rings fall into the darkness.

Pomni lunges forward, desperation driving her. She can feel the anxiety in the tips of her fingers as she reaches out from the edge, eyes locked on the colorful rings.

This can’t be it. She couldn’t have just thrown away her only chance. 

Her hand wraps around a ring.

Pomni breathes a sigh of relief. She’s still got another shot.

But now, she’s face-to-face with the darkness below. The holes in the tent floor let in just enough light to reveal a deep cavern with ink-colored water at the bottom. Pointed waves slosh on endlessly in all directions, taking up her entire vision. From somewhere in the emptiness, a monster growls.

She pulls back, holding the bright green ring close to her chest until she’s a safe distance from the edge.

Pomni stares down at it. This is her last shot.

“...”

“You're wrong.”

“Am I?” Jax vehemently snarls back.

“Yeah, you are,” she says calmly, watching the way her gloved hand wraps around the ring. “It really hurt, you know. When you said we weren’t friends.” 

She looks back at him, tightening her grip on the ring.

“But it hurt because I cared about you. I do want to save you Jax, but not because I’m trying to be some… one-dimensional archetype or whatever. It’s because I actually liked hanging out with you. Being with you was the most fun I’ve had since I got here. And I’m not just going to forget that.”

She focuses back on the tower.

“Well you should forget about it. It’s not like any of it matters anymore,” he says. She can tell just by his voice he’s losing the will to fight. “There’s no point in remembering.”

“That’s not how I see it.”

“Then you really are delusional.”

“Yeah. I guess I am.”

There’s a long pause. 

“This isn’t going to work, you know that, right?”

He sounds tired.

Pomni doesn’t look away from the glitching block.

“Yeah, probably not."

“Then why are you still trying?”

“Because if you abstracted today, I wouldn’t forgive myself. I wouldn’t want you to die thinking no one cared enough about you to try, because that just isn’t true.”

Pomni stops to look him in the eye one last time.

“And I would never forget about you.”

She looks back at the block.

She can do it.

Taking a deep breath, she adjusts her grip on the ring and closes her eyes.

And throws.

Once it’s released from her hand she cracks open her eyes to watch it. It flies straight at the intended target, still malfunctioning wildly.

By some miracle, the block solidifies right as the ring enters it. It begins to glitch as the objects clip through each other, sporadically teleporting around before flying in different directions, leaving behind a gaping hole. The smooth wall around it begins to crack, bits and shavings falling away as the top half of the tower starts to tilt.

Jax is suddenly in a panic.

“WHAT DID YOU DO??”

Pomni steps back, trying to gauge exactly where it’s going to fall. “I helped you! Now get ready to jump!”

“Are you crazy?!”

“Just do it!”

Jax has a death-grip on the tower’s parapet now. He stares down in the cellar, with eyes wide and pupils barely visible. His ears have completely flattened against the back of his head, something she’s never seen him do before.

There’s a crack as the final piece holding up the tower gives way.

It doesn’t fall exactly where Pomni hoped it would. The gap is slighter wider than it would have been if it’d fallen more straight.

But it’s still possible.

“  %$[Bonk]!#  ”

Jax scrambles to the opposite side of the platform as if he’s able to counter balance it. But at this point it’s too late to stop it as the structure crumbles in on itself and plummets downward.

There’s a moment where it feels like time has stopped for Pomni.

Everything she did to make this possible could all fall apart if he doesn’t try. And it doesn’t look like he’s going to. He’s too scared. He wasn’t ready to make a decision so fast.

A roar erupts from below.

In an instant, one of the abstractions appears. Dozens of multi-colored eyes dripping with hunger hone in on the castle. Black, corrupted limbs reach up to grab the blocky structure and its inhabitant, a guttural screech emanating from inside its body.

It’s enough to scare Jax straight.

He yelps in fear, letting go of the wall and running to the edge. He leaps off, limbs flailing in the air before landing hard on solid ground, tripping and rolling several feet before coming to a stop.

The tower lands square on the abstraction’s back, sending it tumbling back into the depths.

Pomni runs over to Jax.

He sits up until he’s resting on his hands and knees, panting hard. She stops a short ways away, not sure what to do. After a few more seconds of laboured breathing, he leans back and looks at her.

It’s not a happy look. But it isn’t angry either. 

She’ll take it.

Now she just has to break the frankly unbearable tension.

“Heh. Didn’t know you were such an easy scare.”

It comes out slightly awkward, but she’s mostly just trying to give him an out.

He stares at her for a long moment. But soon enough he cracks, offering a small smile and shaking his head. “Whatever, Clown.”

She offers a hand helping him up. He doesn’t take it, choosing to find his footing on his own. They stand next to each other, avoiding eye contact. Pomni doesn’t know what to say to him. Should she say anything? Probably not, right? 

Jax sighs. He motions back at all the glitching. “So what is going on with all… this?”

“Honestly, I don’t really know,” Pomni replies with a shrug. “Zooble said it had something to do with Caine…? But I’m not really sure on the details. All I know is that we need to find him.”

He scoffs. “Oh great. Did Zooble finally break ol’ Chompers?”

Pomni smiles despite the situation. “I don’t think so, but we do need to find him. Everyone else is checking the other levels if… you wanted to help?”

She doesn’t expect him to be enthusiastic by the suggestion, but he just stares blankly at her.

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Wh–” Pomni starts, immediately getting annoyed with him. After all that he’s seriously still on this?? God does she just wanna–

“Kidding, kidding!” Jax cuts her off. He laughs. “Man, you should have seen the look on your face!”

Yep. She still wants to punch him.

Jax turns to walk towards the stairs, hands behind his head. “So, what floor we starting on?”

Pomni doesn’t follow. She fidgets with one of the balls on her outfit. “U- Uh, actually… I was gonna keep looking… here.”

Jax stops. He turns back to look at her, expression unreadable.

“You should head up there though! We’ll cover more ground that way and… It would be a lot safer,” she explains hesitantly.

The silence stretches on a little too long.

Finally, Jax throws up his hands in surrender. “Okay, suit yourself.” He turns back and continues his original course with his usual sway. 

Pomni watches him until he’s no longer in sight.

She hopes he’ll be okay.

The floor next to her glitches, urging her along.

Chapter Text

Now that all that's over with, Pomni can focus on fixing the circus again. The glitching has spread pretty far at this point, there won't be anything left down here to search before long.

Gotta keep looking for Caine.

She walks around the edge of the tent, making sure to watch where she's putting her feet. She comes up along the wall filled with doorways. Might as well start checking in some of these doors. Even though they bring up unpleasant memories of the “Exit” she can't leave any stone unturned. Especially when those stones are vanishing out of existence all around her.

She opens up the first door and is met with a completely black void.

Of course.

Why not.

She closes it.

The familiar sense of hopelessness begins eating away at her insides.

Maybe part of her volunteered to search down here because she knows Caine won't actually be here. She's looked for him here before and he wasn't there. Honestly she'd pick risking a fall into the cellar any day over dealing with Caine.

Hopefully one of the others are able to find him. At the very least she needs to keep an eye out for–

“Oh! Hello Pomni!”

Pomni jumps, feeling her body stretch abnormally. She whips her head around, finding the chess piece standing inches away from her.

“Kinger!” She shouts.

He stares back at her, completely wall-eyed. “Have you seen my flower pots?”

“Umm… no?” Pomni says hesitantly. “Listen, you really shouldn't be down here. You know, with the whole…” She points over her shoulder.

His gaze followers her finger, soaking in the display of static and glitches. Suddenly his eyes widen and he places his disembodied hands on his head in fear. “Oh God! Does this mean we lost the war against the pesticides!?”

“...”

“What.”

Pomni's had a lot more patience with the chess piece since their time in Hell together, but there are moments she has to wonder if that whole day was a hallucination.

Pomni shakes her head to clear it. “Actually, nevermind. You should head up the stairs and wait somewhere safe. I’ll stay here and…” she hesitates, glancing at the long line of doors. “...keep looking for Caine, I guess.”

“You're looking for Caine?” Kinger asks.

“Yeah, but I… don't really think I'll find him.”

“I know how to find him!”

She looks at him disbelievingly. “Do you now?”

“Yes!” Kinger responds excitedly. 

He walks up to the door she'd just closed, grabbing the handle. Pomni feels her brows lower on her face. 

“Kinger, I already looked in there.”

He looks back, head tilted in confusion. “I'm not looking anywhere.”

“Then what are you–”

He opens the door, and Pomni expects to see the same empty void. Only it's not there. She doesn't have a good view from this angle, but there's a soft light illuminating what looks like a tall shelf holding a bunch of boxes and some loose paper.

Pomni gapes in shock. 

“Wha– Bu– How did you–?”

But Kinger has already walked away, heading towards the stairs.

??? Okay?? That's a thing now, apparently? Or, has that always been a thing? This place is so hard to keep track of.

Nothing left to do but see what's inside.

Pomni walks forward until she’s standing in the doorway. The inside of the room is filled with more shelves arranged in vertical rows. They’re stacked with boxes. In fact, there are so many boxes in here there’s even a few piles on the floor next to the shelves. Most of them have black writing on the outside, and on closer inspection Pomni realizes it’s all written in 1’s and 0’s.

She looks down the row at the source of light.

There, curled up on the floor, is Caine.

Oh thank FUCK. Now she can be done with this nightmare and move onto the next.

Pomni steps inside and begins to walk towards him. His teeth are closed, something she doesn’t see him do very often. He’s also sitting on the floor, which is something he’s never done. Does this have something to do with the glitching?

She stops a few feet away. He still hasn’t noticed she’s here. Now that she’s closer, she can see that he’s shaking. What was it Zooble said? Someone just has to distract him?

“Um… Caine?”

He jumps, jaws snapping open to reveal his multi-colored eyes.

They’re filled with tears.

Okay.

Wasn’t expecting that.

His pupils narrow in fear. “P– Pomni…”

They stare at each other in equal surprise. Pomni can feel her mouth hanging open as she looks down at him. Since when was Caine even capable of feeling sad? It’s unnerving to see. Everything about this feels wrong, like realizing the shirt you were trying to put on is actually a pair of pants.

Her instinctual dislike towards him wants to be annoyed she’s the one who has to deal with this. Caine has been nothing but a pain since she’s got here, constantly disregarding her feelings and putting her through tortuous adventures, not to mention what he did to Gummigoo. Plus he’s generally loud, annoying, and blatantly egotistical. Pomni has felt nothing but disdain towards the floating dentures any time he’s around.

But it’s hard to feel that right now. Not when he’s sitting in front of her crying and scared.

Unsure of what to do with her body, she hovers awkwardly. 

“Are you… like… okay?”

He quickly wipes away the tears as if he just remembered they were there. When he looks at her again, his teeth are narrowed around his eyes in a sort of pained expression.

Caine laughs, clearly trying to come across as genuine, but missing the mark by a mile. “Haha, of course I am! Nothing to worry about here!”

He tries for his usual over-the-top-waving-his-silly-arms-around but it looks more like he's begging her for something.

Well he’s certainly distracted. Is that it? Is the circus fixed? Pomni glances over her shoulder out the door. In the distance, the glitching continues. Didn’t Zooble say this would be easy?

“Uh– wait!” She says frantically just as he starts to try getting up. God, hasn’t she done enough of this today? And why is she always the one getting stuck with the self-aware AI? “Is there anything you wanted to… talk about?”

He looks puzzled by the question, still struggling to keep up the cheery persona. “What would we have to talk about?”

“Um, well,” Pomni starts, “Maybe we could start with what you were doing in here?”

At that, Caine looks away. 

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he says quieter than she’s ever heard him.

She watches his fingers twitch against the carpet. “Sure, but… Maybe it’ll make you feel better?”

He doesn’t say anything.

She takes another cautious step towards him. “Caine?”

He slowly turns back to look at her. His upper set of teeth hang low over his eyes, which now have small stress lines under them.

“Why do you care?”

The utter defeat in his voice has Pomni taken aback. Even when it was obviously fake before, it’s strange to hear him give up on the showman voice entirely.

Now doesn’t feel like a good time to mention the entire circus deteriorating right outside the door.

“I guess I just… Don’t want you to feel bad.” It sounds incredibly lame now that she’s said it out loud, but it is true. Mostly.

Caine looks like he might start crying again. A few tears start to form, and he quickly shuts his teeth and turns away. He wipes at them as discreetly as he can manage while faced the other way.

Pomni joins him on the floor. 

She keeps a distance between them, and doesn’t interrupt his attempt at dignity. 

Once he’s calmed himself down a little, he brings his knees up to his chest and places his hands on them. He makes a few aborted attempts to start saying something, but seems unable to find the right words.

Pomni decides to put him out of his misery and ask the obvious question.

“Does it have to do with us skipping the adventure today?”

Caine visibly tenses before nodding.

“Listen… I know they mean a lot to you, but we're people,” she explains gently. “And we don't like to just be… thrown into some horror mystery story.”

At that, she gets an animated response. He throws his arms out, a look of absolute torment in his eyes, and cries: “Why not??”

Pomni stares back at him for a few moments.

Oh.

He's being serious.

“W– Well, um,” Where does she even start? “I guess it's nice to feel like we're in control of our lives? In the real world, we’re pretty used to making our own decisions.”

Caine looks absolutely baffled by this. “Isn’t that why you all came here!? To stop making decisions?”

This guy confuses her more by the second. How can he understand the concept of escapism but not self-autonomy?

“Well, none of us really came here on purpose,” she explains patiently. “Or at least we didn’t mean to get stuck here. The game is just a little… Broken.” She smiles uncomfortably, making a pinching motion with her fingers to emphasize the little.

Caine stares blankly at her for several seconds. 

He then brings up his hands and presses them against his disembodied eyes, squishing them together. 

“I’m broken?!” he wails in agony.

Pomni’s face falls.

Shitshitshit–

The stutter and buzz of the glitching have a sudden upsurge in intensity. The door leading out into the circus spasms out of existence for several seconds.

“Oh– No! Nonono, I didn’t mean it like that, uhh…” She wracks her brain for what to say. “What I meant to say is that it’s not your fault! That we’re stuck here, that is. I think everyone here knows you don’t have control over that.”

He lets go of his eyes, choosing to grab at the top of his upper jaw instead. “But that’s my job, Pomni! I’m in charge of the happiness and wellbeing of every human who comes here! If something is making you all unhappy, it’s my job to fix it! How am I supposed to fix myself?!”

Pomni thinks before responding this time. “Don’t you think you’re putting a little too much pressure on yourself? I mean, nobody’s perfect. There are plenty of other things you can do here that will make everyone happier.”

Caine curls further in on himself, switching from extreme hysteria to deep depression. “No one will ever be happy here as long as I’m in charge. It’s like you said, I'm broken. I might as well just give up.” He lets out a sob, closing his mouth and holding it in his hands. A few tears slip between his teeth and drip down his jaw.

Panic begins to set in where her stomach would be. The glitching is right outside the door now and hasn’t went away, which means if she can’t get him to calm down soon there won’t be enough circus left for her to try.

“There’s no reason to give up,” Pomni reassures. She very slowly and awkwardly reaches out to put a comforting hand on his back. It doesn’t seem to have any effect, but it feels like the right thing to do. “You know, all you really need to do is let us have a bit more agency, and I’m sure everyone here would be a lot happier. You could even start with the suggestion box…?” She cautiously proposes the idea.

Caine releases a sound somewhere between a cry and laugh. His body unfurls just enough to crack open his eyes, a stream of tears still flowing down his lower jaw. “You all like the suggestion box because my adventures aren’t good enough. I know it would make you happy if I took your suggestions but…” He cuts himself off as though the next sentence physically pains him. “I– … I want you to like mine. I just… I want to be the reason you all smile. It doesn’t feel the same if it’s because of something I didn’t make.” 

He hugs himself tighter, looking away in shame. “I suppose that’s just another part of being broken.”

Pomni can’t help but be moved by his honesty. For the first time, it feels like they have some common ground where she can actually understand exactly how he feels.

She pulls her hand away and smiles softly at him. “Actually, I think that’s a pretty human emotion.”

He snaps back to look at her, switching suddenly to intense agitation. “I’m not supposed to have those! These… ‘human emotions’ are getting in the way of my ability to do my job!”

“That’s… Also a pretty human emotion,” Pomni snorts.

Caine points at her like he wants to rebuttal, but comes up short. Realizing he has no counter-argument, he groans loudly and throws his hands up before folding them over his chest. 

Pomni laughs to herself at the dramatic display, for once finding his over-the-top antics slightly amusing. Maybe it’s just because he feels a little more grounded in humanity to her now, but who really knows.

The pair settle into a more or less comfortable silence.

Pomni lets her head rest against the wall. The glitching has subsided, although it’s difficult to gauge exactly how much considering she can no longer see any of it. So at the very least things have gotten better.

Caine is no longer crying, but his body language suggests his mind is still in unfavorable places. A white glove taps rapidly over his red suit. As if bothered by the lack of fidgetable items, he reaches up and takes off his top hat. He runs a hand across the black rim, lost in thought.

“Is it…” He starts to ask, but loses the courage. Trying to collect himself, he stops focusing on the hat and turns to look at her. “Is it also a human emotion that part of me… doesn’t really want any of you to leave?”

The question has her taken aback.

“What?”

He quickly explains himself. “It’s just that– I was made to entertain humans. It’s… my whole reason for existing. So without any of you, I– I wouldn’t really…”

He looks off into the distance.

“My existence wouldn't have a meaning.”

That’s something she hadn’t really considered before. She’s spent so much time thinking of ways to escape and imagining what she would do once free, she never thought about what would happen to Caine. Well, that’s not entirely true. She did on multiple occasions imagine smashing the computer in with a baseball bat if she ever got out. Those late-night barbaric revenge thoughts can get pretty intense sometimes.

But now, after seeing him like this and knowing he’s capable of complex emotions, she feels guilty for wishing that on him. Not guilty enough that she wouldn’t still jump on the opportunity to leave, but maybe no smashing involved.

That is a pretty terrifying prospect though, from his perspective. Losing your entire purpose for life as well as everyone you’ve ever known wouldn’t exactly be something to look forward to. He’d basically have the same fate as them.

“I don’t think it’s wrong to feel that way,” Pomni says gently. “As long as you aren’t hurting anyone because of it, that’s a totally normal thing to feel.”

Caine looks at her with big sad eyes, still holding onto his hat.

“Really?”

Not quite the response she was expecting.

“Umm… Yeah?” She replies hesitantly, not entirely sure what he wants her to say.

Thankfully he seems satisfied with her response, losing most of the tension in his shoulders and relaxing back into the wall.

Pomni keeps thinking about what he said.

She knows what it’s like to feel meaningless. It’s part of the whole reason she ended up in this circus. 

After she graduated from college, her life was starting to feel stagnant. Her brain itched for something more out of life besides sitting behind a desk sifting through numbers. It paid well, but ultimately felt like it could never fully satisfy her. Then, one day while scrolling through YouTube, she found a video of a guy exploring an abandoned hospital. It had been so long since she’d broken any rules, and she quickly found herself enticed by the thrill of sneaking through backdoors and finding cool places that people usually aren’t allowed into. So, one month later, she went out.

It was even better than she had imagined. There was this freedom to it she never felt anywhere else, to be surrounded by old and forgotten things. There were no rules, no expectations, just her and a camera doing whatever she wanted. 

She misses it. She can still remember the exact moment she found the computer she now lives in. It was confusing and exciting all at once. In the year or so since she’d started exploring these places, she had never seen an entire computer left behind. Especially not one that was still on. She figured it must have been broken since the only thing on screen was a white void.

When she noticed the headphones, her first thought was that they were way too nice for no one to have snagged by now. Her second thought was wondering why they had a caution sticker on them. Her third was that she should try them on.

Not her brightest moment.

Still, it seems odd. Why was the game left there? It seems to be fully functional, besides the obvious. Why just… give up? Why keep it running at all?

“Can I… ask you something?” Pomni says.

Caine nods. He’s no longer fidgeting restlessly, and is now absently holding his top hat in his hand as he rests it on a propped up knee.

“Why were you alone? Out there, I mean,” she points upwards, hoping the meaning of the gesture gets across. “Shouldn’t someone have been… I don’t know, taking care of you?”

He finches back at the question, a pained expression on his face.

Realizing she’d been too blunt about it, she rushes to fix it. “I– I’m sorry,” Pomni stumbles over her words. “I didn’t mean to make y– er– You don’t have to answer that. Sorry.”

Ashamed, she can’t bring herself to look at him. God, why did she have to say it like that?

There’s a beat of silence before Caine sighs.

“So it is true.”

? Huh?

Pomni looks back at him. “What?”

He’s staring down at his hat, absently running his thumb across the rim. There’s a deeply upset look somewhere in his eyes, but for once he remains calm. As if this is something he’s recently come to accept. “There used to be humans out there. They would… talk to me. Give me instructions and such. They were my developers.” 

He pauses. The tension in his voice becomes much clearer as he says the next part. “They… stopped communicating with me some time ago. Not long after the first human came here. I assume it had to do with the whole exit problem, but… they never updated me on anything. One day they were just… gone.”

Pomni frowns.

She supposes it makes sense, in a way. If someone was already trapped in the game, they wouldn’t want to risk unplugging it or turning it off if they were forced to leave. But still, to just… abandon it all? Not only the human but whoever made this place must have known Caine was an extremely advanced AI. To leave him there to rot just seems cruel.

“I’m… sorry that happened to you. It wasn’t right for them to leave you behind like that.”

He turns to face her, smiling softly. “Thank you, Pomni.”

Pomni returns the gesture. “But on the bright side, now you don’t have to meet anyone’s expectations anymore. You can kinda just… do whatever you want.”

Caine raises the section of teeth above one of his eyes to form a confused expression. “Which would be… What exactly?”

“I don’t know. Whatever feels right.”

“Creating adventures feels right.”

Pomni sighs, starting to get annoyed. “Anything besides adventures.”

A set of words that seem to be completely unfamiliar to the Ringmaster. His eyes start slowly drifting in two different directions, disassociating from the conversation entirely.

“You know what? We’ll figure that part out later,” she says with finality. Getting her feet back beneath her, Pomni rises from the floor. The door leading back to the circus is still left slightly ajar, the bright light in harsh contrast to the dingy storage room.

She turns back to Caine, who watches her closely but doesn’t move to get up. Pomni offers him a hand. He startles at the gesture, making an aborted attempt to take it before hesitating. After a few seconds of uncertain hovering, he places his hand in hers. She helps pull him to his feet.

It’s the first time she’s ever seen him stand. It’s clear he isn’t entirely used to it, given his awkwardly wide stance and tense arms. He stares downward for a long moment, to the point Pomni starts to question if he even knows how to walk.

In the end, he decides on summoning his baton, placing it on the ground next to him to use as a sort of walking cane. Next, he sets his top hat back where it belongs, then smooths out the imperfections in his tuxedo shirt as if there were any to begin with. Seeming a little more confident in himself, he looks back at Pomni.

She smiles, gesturing towards the door. “Come on. Let’s get back to the circus.”

A shadow of fear comes over him. His fingers tap against the gold ball of his baton.

“I– I don’t… What about the others? Aren’t they…”

“Don’t worry about that,” Pomni interrupts. “I’ll have your back.”

Caine softens at her reassurances. He sucks in a breath, steeling himself as he takes his first step. His movements are slightly clumsy, but he makes it to her side without issue. She gestures him along, gradually traveling past the crowded boxes towering over the pair.

Reaching their destination, Pomni places a hand on the lever. 

“You ready to start living like one of us?” She asks.

Caine’s eyes reflect the light from outside. He stares into it with a mixed sense of unease and rejuvenation.

The door opens.