Chapter Text
Accounting was never a passion of hers.
Christine clicked her mouse around the computer in her desk, her cheek rested tiredly on the palm of her other hand.
Anyone who would pass her desk could see the defeated lines that creased around her eyes. Looking through the supermarket company's financial records wasn't all that fun, certainly not when she's working overtime.
She's almost given up hope on this business ever working properly. Her CEO is most likely stealing money, judging from his unstable salary, the workers are just barely above underpaid, it's all going to shit.
As the clock struck 7, she mentally sighed in relief, turning off her computer to clock out for the day. The woman has something to look forward to tonight. She recently bought a new video game she heard from her urbex friends.
The brunette stared down at the headset by her computer, waiting for the game to be set up on her computer. "The Greatest Digital Circus". It seemed silly, childish even, that she would ever be interested in a game with such a name.
But the game description that wrote "The most jaw dropping, mind blowing, heart stopping circus adventure ever known to exist!" wasn't what drew her in to take the game, no.
It's the mythos connected to it.
While she was briefly exploring an abandoned DVD store from the 2000s, she came across a multitude of forgotten videogames, some known and some obscure. But this one... this one drew her in. And maybe —emphasis on maybe— she took it from the spot. Allegedly.
After running a background check on the title to make sure it was not a fake game, a hacker's ploy to steal vital information or something of the sort, she came across multiple articles from small websites and videos regarding the videogame.
The rabbit chase began when she discovered all sorts of unsettling events linked with the game's existence. Psych ward cases were tied to it. Not only that, but also people found knocked out, in comas with the headsets around their face, unresponsive to any sort of stimulation.
She's always been one for mild thrills.
Even so, this was treading a thin line in and out of her comfort zone, figuratively using it as a jump rope, even. She came to that conclusion when she noticed her speeding heartbeat at the sight of the game setup coming closer to an end.
All she really knows about the game is those cases of such unfortunate individuals, and that it is categorized as an RPG with choices in the gameplay.
Something in the back of Christine's mind screamed at her to shut off the computer and let it go, delete every file connected to the game and toss the headset in the nearest electronics recycle bin.
But curiosity killed the cat, and she's sure its too late to pretend she never went after it now.
The computer dinged, and her head snapped back to it. The application of the full game was located right under the setup file, practically calling her name. The icon showcased a circus tent in between two sets of teeth. Well, that's not that great.
She reached out for her computer mouse, drawing it to the icon before she double-clicked it. The computer's usual sound was louder than before, more evident in the quiet of her apartment. The only thing she hoped is this game wouldn't fry her disk with how much she heard it working trying to load it.
She recognized that the entire situation felt like the start of a horror movie, but she's a typical protagonist– won't back out even when the signs are practically showcased one by one in front of her eyes.
She clenched her jaw, staring at the game loading and instructing her to wear the headset connected via Bluetooth. Jeez, reality is kicking in right about now. Why is she even doing this? She has free Will, she can put this down and forget all this— right?
She gazed at the computer, then at her cellphone. Should she let someone know? It feels like a safety measure that's much needed. Only issue is that she's lacking the friends and familial bonds to trust anyone with the information that she's doing the stupidest thing she's ever done.
Her fingers clenched the edges of the headset, staring down as it powered on, and her brows furrowed subconsciously as she pondered.
'Screw it.' She thought, and pulled the band over and around her head to wear the headset properly.
Christine felt dizzy and stumbled slightly as though the earth was knocked off her feet suddenly. It appeared strange to her, as she'd never had that happen with her headset before. Not off to a great start.
She watched the 'power on' screen of her headset and the screen that showed up the moment her Bluetooth connected to the game and then-
Pitch black.
She stared at the utter dark void for some time, before the game logo popped up in her sight. Before she was even thinking, she reached out and... touched it.
That should have been her red flag. She felt the feeling of static around her fingers, numbing her momentarily like static electricity, the sensation making her jump.
The logo disappeared, and her vision was transported to a different scene, pulled in by some invisible force. She stumbled forward. She was all too aware of the fact her body was physically reacting to these motions, and it was setting her off.
Three buttons showed up in front of the girl, and around her was showcased a bright green land, with a circus tent in the blurry background, an amusement park and a body of water.
"Play", "Settings", "Exit"
Out of panic, she pressed with her very much physical hand at the button "Exit", only for its opacity to blink and not take the command.
Who programmed this stupid game, seriously?
She attempted it over and over and over and over again. Eventually, the brunette grumbled and raised her hand further up, to the "Play" button.
The buttons disappeared into thin air, and a few models of characters appeared in front of her. Some of them were blurred, marked as 'occupied' and unable to reach. Small arrows were floating on either side of her vision. Her gaze fell upon each model. A tall purple rabbitoid, a Raggedy-Ann inspired Ragdoll, a chess piece with a big fuzzy robe, a frog, a clown...
...a jester. It was one of the few character options that seemed to not be occupied, and was also... humanoid. Before she even attempted to touch it, unsure how the environment of the VR would react, her mind ran quick in thought.
Occupied? What could that possibly mean in a game? She wasn't aware this was a multi-player game. She never found anything like that on her research, and it's mentioned nowhere inside the box or on any of the details, even in the fine print. And yes, she read that as well. It was C&A's desperate attempt to avoid any responsibility for all events tied to the game.
There aren't any in-game purchases, which rules out the idea that it was unavailable because they were behind a paywall. Then it would only make sense if the avatars were unavailable because they were already used by other players. But how were there other players? Does every person who owns a copy of this CD connect to the same network? Some kind of server or cloud?
If high-school had taught her anything before she went into accounting, it was that computers are complex machines, and coding is all too complicated.
But even this, though possibly beyond her comprehension, seems sketchy as fucking hell.
As the lights around her seemed to flicker ever so slightly, she was reminded of what she was supposed to do. She stepped forward hesitantly —yes, stepped, with her own two feet— and touched the short jester avatar whose blank eyes stared right back at her.
She felt her entire body numbing and itching, the weird repulsive sensation of static covering her flesh head to toe; It was as if the hair covering her body was fighting to tear itself out of its follicles. Nothing hurt, but she wished to jump out of her skin for this one.
Her vision began to go black, and she shut her eyes on reflex, tightly as her head twisted from left to right, hands clenching its sides, barely noticing the band around her head. Or, rather...
Its absence.
When the feeling subsided, ♡/@#* hesitantly opened her eyes. She looked down at her hands, and they were unnaturally pale and thin. She lacked one finger on each hand, covered by red and blue colored gloves.
What the heck is this? Just how lively can this VR get?
She looked back up, and the models were gone. Instead, the scenery had been replaced once again, by a similar one, less blurry and more detailed. In front of her was the pathway towards a circus tent. Around it was an amusement park and a lake.
She turned her head around, taking in the rest of the digital world, and the path behind her led to an actual town, with apartment buildings and shops that looked sort of vintage and timey.
The music from inside the circus seemed to echo louder than the muffled voices coming from the town square. Her vision returned to the circus tent, the fabric of the entrance now slightly pulled open to the side. The only thing the slit of the fabric revealed was mysterious pitch black.
'Strangely ominous design for a circus based game. Almost makes you wanna turn around and...' She began to think, and her thoughts sounded more soundly in her head than usual. "...leave." She finished out loud, but barely audible as she felt her mouth move. The texture of her skin felt funny. What is happening?
Suddenly, a small bubble popped up over her head, at the edge of her vision. A text bubble. She didn't know there were games who still used that sort of task system.
"Enter the circus tent...?" The girl voiced the written words, a thick layer of confusion glazed over her words. She's being commanded to go in the tent. By who? Is it just how the game goes?
Regardless, she obeyed. Is there much else she can do anyway? If she's being commanded by the game, there must be a predetermined gameplay. She would only waste time straying away from it.
And she's starting to think she wants to get out of this game as soon as possible.
She approached the circus entrance, pulling the fabric to let herself in with hesitant steps. The inside of the circus was dark, the only thing slightly visible being the seats of the audience and the center of the circus.
Glancing around, she tried to take a seat on the audience seats, but... there was an invisible wall. Damn game mechanics. She stared at the seats she couldn't reach for some minutes, wondering if she could somehow find an opening around, but before she could figure it out...
The stage lights flickered open.
"Woaooh!" The harmonizing of a choir.
She nearly ascended to a different plane of existence right then and there from how sudden it was. Her head had snapped to the direction of the sound and she had stumbled forward, much like her heart slamming against her ribcage.
Silence followed, before it was rudely interrupted by the rhythmic sound of stomping feet. And the harmony sounded again.
She stepped reluctantly away from the seats, staring to the center of the stage that was so incredibly close to the seats she could almost reach her hand out and touch the lights.
"Ladies and gents... this is the moment you've waited for." Someone sang with a deep voice, seemingly from the center of the stage. The figure was hidden in their own shadow by the big bright lights behind them, simply showing the silhouette of their hat, cane, and arms.
Stepping down a few of the steps, she kept her eyes on the person like a hawk, awaiting whatever was going to happen. Without a single clue what was going on, she settled on the plan of paying attention for anything that could help.
As the choir sang the same note once again, in the same key and intensity, she didn't flinch, just looked around. But that dread that made her want to flee never wavered. In the shadows behind the stage, she could vaguely make out the silhouette of a few other people. The one on stage sang again. "Been searching in the dark, your sweat soaking through the floor."
The figure stepped away from the light, the side of his body illuminated by the lights. "And buried in your bones, there's an ache that you can't ignore." A floating... set of teeth dressed sharply in a red suit and bow tie, an outfit that intensely reminded her of ringmasters in circuses. 'Is that what he is? A ringmaster?' Her thoughts replied to her own realization, but she wasn't given much time as the ringmaster rushed towards her, floating in front of her.
"Taking your breath... stealing your mind." He sang and waved his hand near her face in a theatrical motion, and her mind buzzed unnaturally. Her hand throbbed suddenly and her ears began to ring as she fought to keep her eyes focused. "And all that was real was left behind." Something's not right. Something is very wrong, and-
...
...and maybe now it doesn't matter. Maybe she can just watch this show and enjoy her time playing this game. She was anxious just a second ago, panicking inside, and then suddenly... it all felt so distant. As if it was never the truth to begin with. The ringing in her ears subsided swiftly and she found herself enticed by the sight of the circus ringmaster floating away from her to the center of stage as he kept singing.
"Just surrender 'cause you feel the feeling taking over!" The teethy ringmaster trilled his vocals once more, waving a hand in half a circle, in a similar fashion to a magician performing his best trick.
The lights flashed, making the jester avatar blink profusely, before the only thing illuminating the scene again was the burning props of the performers passing right beside her as the song continued.
"It's fire! It's freedom! It's flooding open!" The song echoed as she caught glimpses of the performers' peculiar character models, dazing and strange, mostly even inhumane. "It's a preacher in your pulpit and your blind devotion."
The sudden attention from the show was not what she would have expected when she first stumbled upon the circus tent. To be fair, she wasn't expecting much of anything. But with the way the ringmaster approached her as he finished the verse #$>]! was sure this was not so accidental.
She had long forgotten about her desire to leave however, buried in the depths of the brain like the skeletons hidden in the closet, along with many of her memories, her name, how she was planning to get out of the game and continue on with her human and real life.
That's not a goal anymore. No one is considering this here.
"So tell me, do you wanna go?!" The force of the pull on her hand made her yelp, as she was dragged right into the bewitching show of the circus by the pair of floating teeth and eyeballs. Goodness.
Floating into the air, the ringmaster showcased the people on each of their respective acts, continuing to sing his song in the process. "Where the runaways are running the night! Impossible comes true, intoxicating you." He turned right to the jester again, and the unsettling image of teeth with eyes was never gonna be forgotten by her ever. The worst part of the situation is she was sure now that this wasn't just a random instance, not a show that just happens.
This is targeted. This is part of the game, and it's probably some sort of cutscene on top of that. No other explanation would suffice for the experience she is currently undergoing.
The performers boomed from beneath her into song, accompanying the lead of the musical number with their harmonic and even voices. "This is the greatest show!" This is the type of coordination and perfection you only acquire through repetition and practicing. She cannot lie, these guys are pretty damn good.
The song went on as she was pulled along through the air, witnessing the show from above, with no interruptions to let her miss even a second of this. "It's everything you ever want... it's everything you ever need..."
And suddenly she was being thrown into the show herself, placed on the ground beside the aerial of their group, a figure made up of red ribbons, tied to bows in specific places, for the appearance she presumed. She was upside down, tangled between fabric and ribbons as she cascaded down with the fabric keeping her floating, grinning as she looked at the short figure of the jester.
#<]!/ stumbled through the stage, away from the aerial before almost crashing into the juggler, an incredibly tall chess piece with two eyeballs —seriously, what is it with eyeballs and this game?!— who was juggling a flaming ball between others, making it seem like they were truly floating in the air with how flawless he was. Truly experienced technique. Not that she would know, though. "And it's here right in front of you... this is where you wanna be."
As the bridge circled back to its beginning, the short brunette fought to find a way off the stage with the least amount of chaos and carnage possible. Judging from how she almost fell on the juggler with the flaming ball, it was not gonna be an easy task.
As she turned around abruptly she watched the two acrobats coming down, holding onto the bar as one propelled herself towards the other, who caught her arm with ease. All three glanced at one another, the acrobats seeing the new face and the new face watching them back, like a sudden intrusion to their act that they didn't quite expect.
Right. These shows are organized. There's a certain flow that performers have to reach to truly say that they can go on stage all together, and that's when each one of them has learned to work their magic around each other coherently. However, the new element of a jester who showed up to the circus show unprompted was destined to interrupt that flow from the beginning. And so the acrobats both made their way to land, slightly abruptly but handled professionally, nonetheless.
The finishing detail to this sensory nightmare for the girl was when she saw that, making her panic grow. She's messing with the sequence of events. That's not supposed to happen. This is a cutscene, isn't it? She didn't have to be here, she's playing the game. That's how it works... right?
"This is where you wanna be!!" The thing that really drove home that this was real and not just something she was spectating on a screen, was the high note of the singer with the abstract shapes for a model, aching her ears from the closeness to the source and settling the idea in her mind: she's living this. She's in here.
"When it's covered in all the colored lights
Where the runaways are running the night
Impossible comes true, it's taking over you"
What is going on anymore? Before she could even really realize, the ringmaster had made her an actual part of the show. Which is how she wound up right atop a tightrope, freezing in response to the terrifying sight of the distance between her and the ground.
No one quailed or batted an eye at the event, continuing to sing and dance below her without a fear in the world. "This is the greatest show!" The purple rabbit acrobat from earlier sang from his head voice, as the drums of the number continued on, banging on her head heavily as she tried her best to stay stable and on the tightrope.
With not much left to do, she took a shaky breath and began to very slowly step on the rope, her heart practically inhabiting the space where her eardrums should be with how loudly she could hear it. She isn't even afraid of heights. The chorus continued.
She made it across just in time for the other acrobat, a delicate looking ragdoll to swoop in, hanging from the trapeze as she caught the shorter jester girl on her arms. She was singing as well, the grin on her face unmistakable, and her voice reflecting it. " 'Cause everything you want is right in front of you. And you see the impossible is comin' true!"
She stared at the most humane figure in here like it would give her the answers she was looking for, but was only met with a melodic voice, accompanied by the other acrobats across them. "And the walls can't stop us... now."
The two acrobats on the trapezes crossed paths in the middle, and for some insane reason —in the jester's words— the ragdoll passed her entirely on the rabbit, mid-air, meters above the ground that are not safe enough to fall from, making her flail. But he caught her.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
The number was reaching its conclusion. She had to make a run for it after that. This is too overwhelming. She remembers she wanted to do something. She needed to do something.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
She has no business being here! She didn't even come here for the show.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
She came here for... she walked in here for...
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
What did she want again...? She can't recall what was troubling her earlier.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
No matter how much she racks through her brain, she can't figure out what she was thinking.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
Maybe, then, in that case...
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
...it wasn't important after all. She was just worried that it was.
"This is the greatest show, oh!"
Silly her. Panicking for nothing.
"This is the greatest show!!"
The drums allowed the choir of performers to shine through as the toothy ringmaster landed in front of her, all confidence and hutzpa, offering out a hand as the song died suddenly.
She has no idea what happened. The only thing she knows is she doesn't need to worry about it. She can't think or remember anything to worry about.
...
What's her name again?