Chapter Text
She felt lightheaded, the sounds of screams was deafening like a never-ending horn blaring in her ear. She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t breathe.
Breathe, damnit, She thought wildly, BREATHE!
Her eyes shot open, only to be bombarded by bright, white spotlights and loud cheers. She was lightheaded.
She was standing before a faceless crowd on what appeared to be a large wooden stage. Her eyes widened into what she imagined was a shape wider than a full moon.
The curtains moved like a ghost in front of her.
Something, or someone, yanked Her back with such a force that made Her stumble like a newborn foal. “What in the Plane were you doing? You could’ve ruined the show, why-” She zoned out as She realized a pair of dentures with eyeballs and a suit was talking to her.
Her eyes widened and She opened her mouth to scream, but She had no voice.
“Oh, why you must be new!” The dentures said, “Thank heavens! A new attraction! That means revenue should go up!”
He has an awfully cheerful voice and was loud, it nearly hurt Her ears more than the crowd on the other side of the blood-red curtain.
“W-What’s going on, who are you, where am I?” She finally managed to say, the words spilling out onto the floor in a hurry.
She looked down at her hands, seeing how one was gloved red and another was gloved blue. That’s weird, She heard the one loud and clear thought in the ruckus of Her mind.
She then looked down at Her body and screamed, but it was drowned out by the crowd. “WHAT THE SHUFFLEZ-”
“Now, now lady! We won’t have any of that foul language here at the Digital Circus!” The dentures said, almost as if he was scolding Her like a parent would.
“W-wh-”
“Now, you must be confused. Yes, you were human, yes, you’re different now-” The dentures said, “I am Caine, your newest boss but think of me as a friend!”
“You’ll meet the others after the show, but don’t worry! They will like you just fine!” Caine said, “Now what’s your name?” He was hovering a few inches off of the ground.
She thought long and hard, but the mess of Hers called a mind wouldn’t conjure up a name. She had no name.
She didn’t know who She was.
She didn’t know where She was.
She didn’t know how She got there.
She felt trapped.
“OH MY GOD! I DON’T REMEMBER MY NAME!” She screamed,
“Do not fear, my dear! Once the show is over, we can discuss a new name for you and your role in this bedazzling circus.” Caine said
“C-Circus? I-I don’t know anything though!” She said, still weary and confused,
“That is quite alright, you have the appearance of a jester! We’ll make you a wonderful clown! Ragatha is a most wonderful teacher!” Caine said,
“H-How do I leave? I wanna go home.” She said,
“Oh… uhm…”
“You can’t.”
“W-What?” She stuttered, “B-But-”
“No buts my dear- oh look, the show’s over! Follow me, I will introduce you to the others!” Caine said before fluttering off like some sort of Peter Pan.
Wait, who's Peter Pan? She thought as the explanation was lifted away from Her.
She reluctantly followed after the fancy dentures where he seemed to lead Her further “backstage”, he opened what looked like a black dressing room door. He knocked on it once and then swung it open.
Inside was 6 different… people?
A periwinkle rabbit wearing tattered overalls, he seemed to have a permanent smile. It looked strained… Almost as if he didn’t smile then bad things would happen.
Then there was a ragged doll with red curls and one button-eye. She looked somewhat human, her “skin” looked like different shades of leather stitched together sloppily. She seemed the most happy of them all.
There was a sad clown with a party hat on. He looked like he wasn’t there mentally, his plump red lips locked in a frown and his beady, little, black eyes were creeping her out.
There was a king’s chess piece with white gloved hands hanging loosely by his side. His bright blue eyes were at different levels on his “face”. He wore a white and black fur-lined coat that was major covered by a velvety purple. His first words upon see Her was “Insect collection?”
And then there was a bundle of bright red string that was adorned by a dramatic mask. The mask resembled that of a comedy and tragedy mask, but on the comedy side. She seemed meek and quiet.
Last and hopefully least was a mess of varying shapes and colors, they only had two eyeballs to resemble a face. One arm was a yellow squiggly and the other was a red color. They looked bored and exhausted.
WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?
“Well, that’s a nice way to greet your fellow circusmates.” The periwinkle rabbit said, his voice smooth and relaxed.
“Hey, it’s okay, New Stuff. We all had a hard time adjusting to the Digital Plane when we first came.” The doll spoke up, trying to soothe Her.
“My name is Ragatha,” The doll said, reaching out to touch Her shoulder but She flinched away.
I don’t like touch. She thought
Ragatha seemed to notice She was flinching away and rested her hands at her side. “Well, over there is Jax-” Ragatha said, gesturing to the purple rabbit.
“I am perfectly capable of introducin’ myself, dollface.” The rabbit said, his voice relaxed and almost lazy. Ragatha seemed to ignore him though.
“And there’s Kaufmo,” She pointed at the sad and slightly-out-of-it clown before then gesturing to the chesspiece, “And that is Kinger.” Ragatha said,
“He’s supposedly been here the longest,” Jax stated before making a crazy motion at his head, “It’s why he’s a little loose in the head.”
“H-How do I leave?” She blurted out, hoping that She would receive a different answer than what Caine had given her.
Everyone was silent.
You could hear a pin drop.
“You uhm…” Ragatha seemed almost nervous now,
“You can’t!” Jax said all too eagerly, he was leaning on what She assumed was his vanity.
“What.” She said
“He’s right,” The mess of shapes said, “Welcome to your new home and… your new body.”
She couldn’t help but stumble over to one of the vanity’s mirror, accidentally knocking the bundle of strings down causing their mask to fall off. The mask broke into two halves against the ground, but apparently they had a secondary mask underneath.
She looked at Her new jester-like appearance, a far-away look in Her eyes.
I’m not me…
I’m not me..
I’m not me.
I’M NOT ME-
“Looks like this one has a jumpstart to losin’ Her mind.” Jax chuckled in an almost menacing manner.
“I’m going to my room.” Kaufmo suddenly spoke up,
“Wait a minute there, Kaufie, we still got to let New Stuff pick her name.” Jax spoke up, Ragatha walked up to beside Her and reached out to touch Her hand only for Her to jolt away.
She had forgotten that Caine was there and She jumped when he spoke up, his voice loud and overly cheerful. The other performers didn’t look too happy when Caine began to speak as if they had a vendetta against him.
“What do you want your new name to be?” Caine asked, getting directly in Her face and only hovering a few inches away.
“Uhm.. I don’t know, pick literally anything.” She said blankly, still trying and failing to comprehend the situation.
Suddenly, Caine snapped his fingers and all of them were back onto the stage where She had first woken? Yes… Woken up in. The only difference was it was much quieter than before with the Audience gone, there was empty popcorn buckets and other trashes in the stands.
She jumped as a slot machine appeared right in front of her, She stepped back but accidentally bumped into the ribbon being who just squeaked. She found herself sitting in between Ribbon and Kinger.
“Do you have an insect collection?” Kinger asked, was he always this wide-eyed?
She didn’t respond, she just stared at him as he looked over at Ribbon. “Do you have an insect collection, Gangle?” Kinger asked,
So Ribbon’s Gangle… Who’s the shapes?
“Uhm… No?” Gangle murmured,
Just then Caine began speaking again, “Alright! Let’s have a SPINNNNNN-” He yanked the lever of the gigantic slot machine down. The strips began to roll,
X…
D…
D…
C…
C..
“What do you think of XIDICIDIS?” Caine asked, but when She opened her mouth to speak he interrupted her, “You’re right, terrible name, let’s try that again!” Caine said, yanking the lever once more,
P…
O…
M…
N…
I…
“What about ‘Pomni’?” Caine said and all She did was shrug, “S-Sure, I guess… I’m just.” She said,
“I should give you a tour of the Circus!” Caine said and before Pomni knew it, he grabbed her shoulders and they glided through the cosmoses, leaving the others behind, and were in a long hallway that had several abstract picture frames.
“This is the Quarterly Hallway! This is where you and the other performers sleep!” Caine said before grabbing her shoulder again and teleporting to what looked like an entrance or exit.
“This is the entrance to the Circus, you are never allowed to exit this Circus tent without me by your side-
TERRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DO.”
Pomni felt scared at his sudden voice change, but soon enough, Caine was back to his intoxicating cheerfulness. “Outside of the tent are hotels and Him. ” He said,
“Who’s Him -” But before Pomni could get an answer, she was grabbed and teleported again. The constant moving was starting to get to her stomach, she felt extremely sick.
Suddenly, there was a long, but shorter than the Quarterly, hallway. It was lined with different and unusual things - except for the sponge on a pedestal… There was even a thick book that didn’t look digital, it hovered over a golden pedestal with a clear case around it.
A nasty roar filled Pomni’s ears and she screamed as she whirled around, only to be disgraced with the sight of a two-headed black monster with several multi-colored eyes. It appeared to be glitching extremely.
“What the BLOINKS is that!?” Pomni screamed, Caine was right beside her but didn’t seem fazed. “Oh that is just an abstracted monster, they used to be the friendliest bunch before abstracting. Their names was Glitz and Glam.” Caine explained nonchalantly,
“Wait, that was a person? ” Pomni gasped,
“Yes, two to be exact. They were twins supposedly, they did trapeze and were a lovely set before Glitz had abstracted. Glam joined her not too shortly and they conjoined.” Caine explained, “Abstracts are always so curious…” He murmured softly as if he was lost in a trance, resting the side of his… face or gum on his cane.
“W-What… How-” Pomni didn’t even get to finish her question when Caine grabbed her and they teleported back to the stage where the others were. Pomni couldn’t stop it, she found black goo falling out of her mouth and onto the floor.
Oh God-
“Oh wow! Clean up on Aisle You!” Caine laughed,
Then suddenly a bubble with a smiling face appeared, “I got it boss!” The bubble then began to lick up Pomni’s puke.
Caine didn’t seem too happy, “Why are you like this?”
Why am I like this? I’m a freak.
Freak
Freak
Freak
Freak
BLOOKING Freak
“Hey Pomni, I can show you your room if you want. Kaufmo already went to bed.” Ragatha offered, holding her hand out to Pomni who flinched away from it.
That was the first time that Pomni realized Kaufmo was gone.
“Well, anywho, you all get started on cleaning up! Then you can have dinner and go to sleep!” Caine said before vanishing into thin air.
Pomni felt confused.
Extremely confused.
There was no way this was real.
But it was.