Chapter Text
“Please don’t leave, not yet. You promised if we went, we’d go together!”
“I’m sorry man, I just can’t do this anymore…”
“How can I help? What can I do? Don’t fucking give up!”
“I think you’ve helped enough.”
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHH
“Meeting by the stage in t-minus five minutes my silly little circus-goers!”
Well now I am definitely awake. I didn’t even know we HAD an intercom, and I don’t like that now Caine knows how to use it. I shot out of bed following the unwanted morning announcement. I get up and walk over to the mirror and the small sink in front of it. Due to our very not-alive nature, we don’t get a full bathroom in each bedroom, Caine calls it a waste of space, but at least we get a little sink area. I splash some water onto my face and rub my eyes. Another day, another adventure I’m guessing. Caine never just speaks to us like we are real people, it’s like his only purpose is to provide us with something to do while he holds us here hostage and provides little to no hope that we will ever get out.
That’s something I’ve given up on looking for, an exit.
I plod over to the door, and take a deep breath.
Whatever happens today won’t matter tomorrow
I gently remind myself.
~
I walk out to the common area by the stage and see that almost everyone is there, except Kaufmo oddly enough. He’s normally pretty punctual but hey, who am I to judge a guy for sleeping in. Half the time my only motivation to show up is the fear of missing out on something funny happening.
“Has anyone seen Kaufmo this morning? He’s usually never late.”
God, that damn ragdoll won’t ever stop pretending she gives a damn about everyone. It’s the second most irritating thing here, following Caine of course.
“Relax Raggie. I’m sure he’ll be here sooner or later. The guy always shows up, he deserves a little break every once in a while.”
Ragatha gives me a glare and opens her mouth to reply when Caine and Bubble appear out of nowhere.
“Good morning everyone! Well, mostly everyone, anyways! I was thinking, since we’ve been consistently going on some great and amazing adventures, coordinated by yours truly, why don’t we do something in house for a change?”
Caine looks around at us, hoping for some kind of thunderous applause or gratification on his shiny new idea. Spoiler alert, he definitely doesn’t get it.
“Theme song! Theme song! Theme song!”
Bubble burst in, yelling over and over again. Caine puts two fingers up to his upper gummy-forehead.
“Bubble, they were supposed to GUESS what we were doing today. Whatever, ANYWAYS! Bubble is right, I have coordinated a theme song and video production for an AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS introduction! The best part, every SINGLE ONE OF YOU gets to STAR in it!”
Once again looking around for the gratification he so desires, and does not get, he begins to explain how the entire process is going to work. I personally stopped listening the second he started talking about music and choreography. I don’t care what that guy says, he is NOT getting me to dance in his silly little music video. As I walked away from the main group, I rounded a quick corner and slid down the wall.
It’s been like thirty minutes past call time, where the HELL is Kaufmo?
I shake the thought from my head before my brain starts to wander to the worst possible scenario. I look over to the rest of the group. Kinger is practically staring into space, looking around aimlessly at the ceiling and paying absolutely no attention to what is going on around him. Zooble and Gangle are standing off to the side, Gangle’s got a piece of paper in her ribbon-y hands. I’m willing to bet it’s some kind of smutty hentai art, based off of everything else I’ve found in her room, but her and Zooble seem to be chatting about it. Ragatha appears to be listening attentively to Caine explaining his vision, but you can see the worry building up inside of her based off of the expression on her face. I just know she's thinking of Kaufmo too.
Whatever, I don’t give a rat’s ass what she could possibly be worrying about. Her caring is only for show anyways.
~
Loud, horrible music begins in the background. It’s cheerful, sure, but it’s painful to listen to considering there is not a single thing to be happy about in this hellhole. We’ve rehearsed about a million times in the past three hours, and every time we get less animated, and our choreography gets simpler. Still no Kaufmo.
Another take from the top, Caine makes his way out of the tent, introducing the circus to whoever could possibly be behind the fourth wall and willingly choose to subject themselves to this shit.
Standing behind one of the curtains, I wait for my cue. They seriously wanted me to dance at the beginning of all of this… Fortunately I have found myself laying flat on the floor, and I only have to sit up ever so slightly to play my part.
Ragatha, Jax and there’s Kaufmo, woohoo!
I turn to look behind me, the little cardboard cutout standing in for Kaufmo has fallen over.
I debate going to pick it up during the small in-between scenes that happen outside of the tent, but as I’m moving to stand up, a small cartoony jester spawns in.
She’s extremely short, with red and blue pinwheel eyes matching her primary-colored get up. Complete with the pointy shoes.
Right from the get-go she seemed incredibly confused, as we all were, but she hadn’t made it to the panic stage quite yet. Promptly running into me and causing a painful domino effect down the line of others, the music comes to a screeching halt and everyone turns to face the little jester.
“Caine, is this one of your NPCs, or is this a new sucker?”
I ask, damn well knowing the answer before it is provided, and unfortunately what it means for the rest of the days activities.
“Cause if it’s a new character, we’re gonna have to redo this WHOLE theme song.”
~
After several recurring conversations about this being a dream, a brief tour of the circus, convincing Caine to revisit the theme song another day, a couple expected panic attacks and a spin of the trusty ‘here’s-your-new-name-wheel’, we finally were getting through to the new addition.
One part of me was excited at the idea of teasing a newbie mercilessly for a while, but the other was still in some form of recovery-mode from the last incident. Either way, I took a bite at the fresh meat I was so kindly provided by the universe, and gave a decent honest introduction to everyone and everything I considered relevant. We had all spoken so long to ‘Pomni’ that we were sure Caine was done adventure-plotting for the day, even after I sarcastically gave him the idea, but unfortunately, we were sadly mistaken.
Right when we were all convinced it was over, Caine decided on once again, an in-house adventure for the remainder of the day. Fine by me, normally this meant it was over quicker. Zooble on the other hand was extremely disappointed, but it’s not like they ever participated anyways.
Ragatha, being the goodie-two-shoes she always has to be, immediately brings up Kaufmo again, suggesting we all go check on him and introduce him to Pomni. Sending Kinger and Gangle after Zooble, who was hilariously de-membered and stolen by the gloinks, Ragatha, Pomni and I make our way to Kaufmo’s room. As we walked, I noticed Pomni’s room was placed right across from mine. Nothing significant, just an observation considering I was mostly trying to tune Ragatha’s unnecessary positivity out.
I can’t help but mess with Pomni a little bit as she starts to take in reality. Any moment I can mention her belief that this is all a dream, I take it.
Standing in front of Kaufmo’s door, Ragatha rings the bell.
No response.
Ding-Dong!
No response, again.
I reach into my pocket and pull out the key to his room, I have a key everywhere, it definitely comes in handy most times, other times I just use them for investigative purposes. Teasing Ragatha to lighten the mood, the door unlocks and swings open.
EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT
EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT
Scribbled all over the walls.
A large black mass covered in colorful eyes notices our presence in the room. With no regard for either of the two standing behind me, I promptly grab the first object in sight, a bowling ball, and make a humorous remark to avoid thinking about the fact Kaufmo had abstracted. I immediately sprinted away, hoping I could run into the others and avoid this entire situation entirely, leaving Ragatha and Pomni to handle it themselves.
Finally running into Kinger and Gangle, who were both standing in front of a dark hole in the ground, I decide to make the first move towards escaping our impending doom. Giving the two some false hope that he’s still alive and well, I throw the bowling ball at Kinger and watch Gangle unwind as they both fall down the hole. I quickly follow. The faster we can get away from what really happened, the less of it I have to deal with, and I know I physically cannot handle this right now, not again.
Down in the nest of the Gloink Queen, we appear to be safe from whatever creature Kaufmo has abstracted into. As much as I want to ignore that I am aware of it entirely, I can’t help but wonder how Pomni and Ragatha are handling the situation. I’m thankful I swiftly got away, but the small tinge of guilt in my chest tells me I shouldn’t have left them alone, especially Pomni.
I am quickly shaken from my thoughts when I notice a Gloink glitching. Just then, Kaufmo (the abstraction) falls through the ceiling and onto the Gloink Queen. Quickly retrieving Zooble, the four of us make our way to the conveniently placed elevator as the others take in the news. Upon arrival to the main floor, Caine and Pomni arrive where Kaufmo is then placed in the cellar, with all the other abstractions. Ragatha drags herself over to the group, glitching out rapidly. Caine, with the snap of his all powerful fingers, easily fixes the glitch and she walks over to Pomni.
I glance over at the small jester as she listens to Caine ramble on about some fake exit door with nothing on the other side. You can see reality setting in just by looking at her. Her pupils shrink and her body tenses up, not even allowing her to take a breath. You can just see her slowly dissociating, and it just gets worse as we walk over to enjoy the ‘celebratory’ feast from Bubble. I wish I could console her, make her feel better, assure her that not every day someone abstracts and the adventure is dealing with a friend gone insane, but I don’t even know how I’d start the conversation. Knowing Ragatha, she’d discount every word I have to say, so why even try.
Regardless, I know exactly how she’s feeling, I just wish I could do something to help.