Chapter Text
When I was a little girl, I was ignored by everyone. They said that I was so weird, they never liked me and I was the black sheep, a one out outcast. I was ignored by my parents, my friends and I was the weakest against my classmates. Everyone thinks that I am a freak of nature, due to I look so weak, and a easy target that everyone would bully me.
But all of that negative memories had put that way. When I saw the circus that my family had come over when I was little, my eyes became fascinated. The sweet taste of the candy and those smiles of those kids brought me happiness for the first time. The Circus entertainers, the performers, they were a lot. All from that laughter and joy made me dream of being at a circus one day, but my parents won't allow it because I was too dumb. They never cared about me, never gave me love. All they can say was, "No child will ever grow up to be a performer."
If only I could just disappear and never exist in this world and live somewhere that is more perfect.
It was very late at the office. Twenty years old I had became and now I am starting college at this company. I do not know what it was but I was signed to work at the C&A Youth College, a relative school like the company, C&A. Except, this was not what I expected to see. Everything is completely empty, no one is at the front desk, no one is in the classrooms and there was no sound. People say that if anyone who enters this building will disappear. The office was empty, there was no one here and I notice a light coming from one desk. There was something laying on the desk next to an old computer that I did not even notice what was on it. Did someone leave their VR headset here? No. That's not true. Whoever put it there must have left it behind but I could not just take it with me. That would be stealing. I noticed that has a cord attached to the computer which had something on it. I took a look at the screen to see what it reads. "The Amazing Digital Circus."
I had never seen or heard this kind of game at all but it looked like it was made in the late 90s.
It looked a little fun so maybe I should take it on and see where it takes me. According to the box, it reads it's rated E and it is a nonstop game and you can create your own character but I need to wear the headset in order to play the game and make my avatar. The headset looked quite old but it does give lifelike audio and real visuals according to the game's manual. I clicked on the play button and select new file. There I can see the avatar selections. It asked me to choose what kind of avatar I can choose. There was the creatures category, which had sub types like dogs, frogs, rabbit, shellfishes, ghost, giraffe, unicorns, dinosaur, worm, etc. The second avatar option is objects, chest pieces, doll, puppet, book, ribbon, toy and themes will be based on drama, royalty, fun, knowledge, and music. The third was humanoids, based on a clown, acrobat, jester, ballerina, ringmaster and last but not least entertainer.
There was so many choices to pick so I need to try and pick a character I needed. I moved the mouse on the clown, because I like clowns and the theme for the avatar is balloons. Whoever designed this game is a genius, I thought. At first, I was skeptical of why that headset is there but I had to calm down my nerves in order to play this game. I began to grab the headset and placed it on my head.
The next thing I knew, everything is totally black. I was sure the game would be starting but there was nothing. Nothing but darkness. I thought I heard a gentle jingle of the Digital Circus theme song, very faint and lively. A red dot appeared right in front of my eyes, consuming a flow of data. Red one, green ones, blue ones, yellow ones, lights that were consume and showing a slide of unusual images, a few tent carnivals, roundabouts, swimming toys, food, even entertainment objects, making rhythmic beats. Every time it feeds off data, it grows stronger and stronger. Now bigger and out of control, it was placed in a box. A blue dot merged from its place to consume data, but the red data, wanted everything for itself, broke free out of it's prison and consumed it. It generated shapes and primary colors explode all over the screen, making a circus tent with their own light. It looked a little more like a memory, not the opening of the game. I was able to make out a few lyrics and then I woke up here.
I was in a huge room with so many colorful blocks, slides and spiral staircases leading up and down. The floor below my feet is made out of checkerboards. Behind me was a stage with red curtains hanging from the wires. Above my head are pipes connected to giant blocks with toy castle structure, a bouncy house, even sky like objects floating in the air. This did not look like it was fake at all. It's almost like I was in the game itself. I had so many questions that I never thought of. Where am I, how did I get here and the headset... What happened to my headset? Did I take it off?
I shook my head, trying to figure out where the heck I am. There is nobody here except pure silence. Maybe I was the only person here. I wanted to call for any help, but I should explore this place and find someone who is here. I carefully took a few steps around the empty room, my feet making a sound of a little bell, and searched around for anyone to answer where I am. This place is so weird, the blocks look like giant towers and tubes leading up and down.
There are so many doors and each of them has a peculiar fairground. I was not at the office anymore but I was sure I was transported here, able to roam free without bumping into anything. It doesn't look anything like in the game but it felt so digital, so lifelike. The graphics are so real instead of pixel and smoothly rendered animation. It was strange that when take each step, the sound of the bells ring, isn't it? Like the sound of a Christmas elf. After a few minutes of walking around, I stopped and noticed a mirror. It was hanging on the orange wall with a golden frame around the glass. The mirror is normal enough to make me see my reflection, if I had the chance. I began to approach the mirror and took a look.
When I looked, I found my own reflection in the mirror. It was me. Except my clothes had transformed into a pale pink dress with a feathered blue bow on my chest and red jester shoes. Socks of blue and red covered my legs, translucent pink puffy sleeves and a pink, blue and green lace necklace wrapped around my neck. My hair is completely fluffy, long and colored in pink and blue, tied in two ponytails with twin bows on it. My entire skin all over my body is white instead of a peach color. I don't even have a single nasty blackhead on my pores and I looked so beautiful. I was wearing makeup on, rosy blue cheeks, lipstick and on the center of my face was a blue circular nose. I pressed it. It let out a honking noise like a clown.
I stepped back a few feet to get a more featured look. My toes and fingers were so long and my arms were so bendy like a doll. My torso was quite thin. Both of my eyes are purple with dark pink spirals on my pupils, no longer a solid human color. Judging by the form, I look like a clown. This is what my avatar looks like, the one that I chose and created.
A lot of emotions ran around in my mind, my body feeling so completely different. My clothes are different, my face looks different and my skin looks different. But there is one thing... How can I take off my costume? Do I still remember who I am? What was my name?
I thought I heard a small little noise, a doink doink noise.
I turned around and noticed what appeared to be a small little star-like shape with eyes. It is so small, so tiny, and it looks so cute and harmless. I stepped a little closer at the star shape until it started to scurry away. Whatever that thing is, it might be friendly. I started to chase after the small creature. Eventually, I found a little group at a distance, more creatures, but with different shapes: spheres, cubes, triangles, crescents, pins. The shapes turned to me and ran away in all directions. Where did the shapes come from and why do they sense that I was coming?
This tent extremely strange, having little creatures roaming around the tent. I thought for sure there has to be someone to talk to, but there was no one, so where could the owner be?
A loud shatter and roar stopped me from walking. Judging by that sound, It did not sound very friendly, more like a lion's roar mixed with a glitched sound. It was nearby, coming from the lower floor. I headed down to the lower floor, scared to find out what kind of creature is out there. Carefully, I looked over and saw what appeared to be a black thing. It was huge, with a long neck, spiky limbs that came out of the giant black blob, and eyes, they are covered with them, multicolored, rainbow, shimmering, like ripples of the water. But the most shocking thing is that it lacks a mouth, so it cannot even speak. It could only growl, snarl and leave a trail of glitches. It was searching for something, something to attack. I carefully went down the steps to make sure it won't make any noise to attract it.
Looking over the column, I see it, looking around, growling and starting chasing around a few red barrel-like monkeys, but about the size of little dogs. Suddenly, It paused, smelling something. I think that thing must have seen me. I gasped, covering my mouth and pushed myself back against the wall, my eyes wide with terror. I held my breath so I won't make any noise as the monster slowly began to make its way where I was hiding.
I kept holding my breath until I heard the footsteps slowly descending. I was quite relieved that I didn't get caught but something cold and full is running down my stomach. I didn't notice my midsection slowly filing in, turning round and large. I kept my breath still held in and I felt my sensation filling in. I looked and saw my stomach inflating. My eyes went wide with shock, noticing my stomach was being filled in, just like helium, like a woman having a baby through pregnancy. It was strange that my skin started to feel like rubber, thick rubber. The pressure was building up in my stomach.
I felt my chest balloon up alongside my thighs before the sound of the hissing air went into my limbs. A thought struck me. When I hold my breath, my body seems to inflate, like a balloon. No wonder I was inflating. No normal human could do that. It's not real. It's not. I feared that I would get even bigger by the minute until I turned into a blimp.
I clutched my inflating breasts to keep quiet but now my arms are creaking, feeling helium coming in them. Not only are my arms inflated and puffing out to the side but my legs are being inflated, too. It's starting to get harder to move my arms and feet because they are shrinking into my body.
I felt like I grown a few feet more than I thought but my bloated feet slowly lifted themselves off the ground. The loud hissing made the creature notice that I was here. I wanted to let go of my breath but I couldn't. So much air is filling into my body and then...
It stopped. I looked around in confusion, feeling myself floating in the air when the creature noticed me, looking up. It tried to catch me, but it could not. I was so high in the air that the monster can't reach me. It even tried to jump but it cannot catch me. Finally, it gave up and started to leave to attack more of the little shapes.
I moaned in relief, glad that I was so safe in the air. I was completely huge, almost fifteen feet tall of a blimp, very light but completely fat. I could not speak because my cheeks are so swollen and my arms and legs are sucked into the body. It was kind of relaxing and my body was so full of air, and a lot of pleasuring sensation inside it. It was a relief that my dress and socks were able to stretch into place. I was safe from that creature, whatever that thing is.
As my completely inflated body floated endlessly upside down, I thought I saw something or someone enter through a big red door and disappear. Did I hallucinate that this was an exit, standing in the floor? I flapped my hands to move to where it was going but the door disappeared into thin air. I was left there, completely ballooned up, not able to speak or anything. Just floating in the air, inflated like a balloon.
One small shaped creature landed on top of my inflated breasts and then noticed me with my inflated face. Thinking of me as a bed, it started hopping around like a child. I felt a sensation growing on my body like it was bouncing me like water balloon. I was getting stubborn that I was gonna inflate even more but I couldn't. The creature kept bouncing be like a trampoline until I could not take it anymore.
My mouth opened up and I was sent deflating around the room, bubbles emerging from my mouth with each deflate. I zoomed around the room until I went right into a hole in the middle of the floor. I kept on deflating and rolling down on a slide. I was sliding, sliding down the tube like being on a ride. I zipped around the swirling tubes and then right into a huge blue cave, covered with glowing stars and circles in colors of blue, green and pink with blocks and buttons niched in the walls. I swear that I can hear someone talking, when I started to get close to the bottom of the cavern.
"I'm not here for the adventure or anything. I'm just here to hide from the-"
Before I knew it, I slammed into a cushioned wall. My body landed down on the ground, completely deflated back to normal. At least I can move and speak again but I was so dazed that I must have landed on something hard on the ground. Barely wearily from the dizziness, I lifted my head and saw what appeared to be a group of strange characters. They did not look human but rather strange creatures.
One looked like a purple rabbit standing on two long legs with pink overalls and yellow gloves, almost like a rubber hose cartoon character, a pair of long fluffy ears with a pale lilac face with fur on his cheeks, two yellow eyes, black pie shaped pupils, a small black nose and a grin that matches the yellow. The second one looked like a wooden king chess piece wearing a purple robe, with a fluffy white leopard trim of fur, but with no mouth, just two blue eyes. Finally, the last little one looked like a red swirly ribbon with a white mask, on it were decorations, two black holes for eyes and a mouth. Despite the bow behind the mask and the dark red coat, it is a girl.
"Wow," the rabbit smirked. "Looks like another newbie has joined in on the fun."
"T-talking bunny?" I whimpered in shock, seeing the characters surrounding me.
"My gosh," the chest piece exclaimed, to my relief he is able to speak despite having no mouth. "You startled me. Where the heck did you come from?"
"That is what I was gonna say," I said nervously and looked at her newcomers. My legs were a little shaky and I could not get up. "Where am I? How did I get here? Is this a dream?"
"If it is, then you probably are, sugar," the cartoon rabbit grinned.
"That girl looks a little like Kaufmo but she's a different clown," the ribbon humanoid whimpered. Despite her mood, she had a sad mask.
I was gonna ask where I was until a gruff voice echoed. "What kind of strange character are you supposed to be?"
I looked up. There in front of me was a massive grub-like thing. Smoothly slimy, two mouths on each side of the back and the front. It was legless, making it look like a giant worm creature with thousands of colorful eyes, a red body and two blue lipped mouths on each side behind and front. Giant yellow polka dots cover her entire body along with a blue stripe that connects to its mouth. I was completely frozen in place and maybe that thing is what cushioned my fall. I began to back away, nervously.
"I didn't mean to!" I stammered quickly. "I just somehow inflated like a balloon and the next thing I know I was in this cave."
"It was foolish that you attack the Gloink Queen with your sudden appearance."
"Gloink?" I questioned, staring at the little shapes. "What are Gloinks?"
"You dare wonder why we are?" the monster bellowed. "We gather stuff and eat stuff. All Gloinks must be born and you look like a tasty treat."
Before I knew it, the Gloinks carried me up my waist and started to hold right into the monster's mouth, "Hang on!" I shouted. I struggled to hold onto the Gloink Queen's mouth and pushed. I held my breath and struggled on. But... that was a mistake. My belly started to inflate slowly and then so did my breasts and limbs. The three strange characters that had met me watched in shock, seeing me inflate in size. I was back to being an inflated balloon, puffed up arms, legs and bloated breasts and cheeks. The queen tried to swallow me, but she could not. She shook her head, trying to swallow me up but she couldn't. Her mouth is quite too small to gullet me down and she is stuck, stuck with me being in her mouth. It really worked that she did not swallow me.
"Wow," the rabbit grinned, amused. "Would you look at that? She inflates like a balloon and blocks that queen's mouth."
"That is quite obvious that she did save us from being eaten," said the chest piece humanoid.
As the Gloink Queen tried to spit me out since she could not eat me whole, the same monster crashed down from the ceiling and fell onto the Gloink Queen, crushing her down. She finally spat me out and so did a pink triangle. Not just any triangle but a head of a triangle. Like the king chest piece, it lacks a mouth with one white eye and one yellow eye with a spiral pupil. It also had strange antenna on it's head like an ant, one with a zebra striped stick, and the other a blue thunderbolt. The head slammed into the chest piece character's hands, sending him flying and landed into the wall. At least he wasn't hurt, but he did caught the head.
"Oh, thank God, Zooble, you're okay!" he exclaimed in relief. "You didn't experience a game show in there, did you?"
Zooble? That is a pretty nice name for a strange looking creature.
The head gave him a confused look and spoke in a female voice, just like speaking with no mouth. "Uh.. I- What are you talking about?"
My inflated body bounced around the cave, on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, until I stopped and landed on the ground, completely upside down and full of air. I moaned weakly, shaking my head and looked at the group. They were all looking at me. This was not quite right, fearing they might tease me, but this looks different.
"You certainly did great," The rabbit smirked approaching by inflated body. He sounded really impressed and quite attractive, seeing my inflated body. He lifted up a finger and touched me, a rubbery sensation forced down my skin, causing me to groan, blushing pink. "How were you able to do that? Inflating your entire body like a balloon."
I could try and talk to him, even if my body is still inflated. "Mmfft mmfft!" Wait.. I cannot speak! That explains I had so much air in my inflated body.
"She can't speak because she's inflated. That's why her cheeks are so bloated," whimpered the masked one.
"Try deflating yourself," the chest piece character told her. "Slowly..."
"Yeah," the head of the shape nodded. "Just take it easy with the breath."
Nodding, I relaxed and slowly exhale, bubbles emerged from her mouth. The circus members looked up, amazed to see the bubbles fly in the air. My body continue to shrink until I was completely back to normal. Finally, some people who wanted to help me, and understand me. I stood back up to my feet and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks. It's nice to meet you guys, whoever you are. How did I get here?"
"Please don't freak out, new girl, but you appeared a few moments ago so this is your new home," said the shape creature.
New home? My thought echoed.
"We have been stuck here for years," the rabbit explained. "Name's Jax by the way."
"Jax?"
"The longest who had been here is Kinger."
"The talking chest piece?" I peeped, looking at the chest piece who is still holding Zooble.
"Over here is Crybaby and you already knew Zooble's name."
"It was quite a surprise that you had startled us," the chest piece answered. "Thanks for saving us from that Gloink Queen. If you hadn't tumbled down there, we would have been eaten."
"That's nice but I cannot help but think about this monster over there," I said, turning my head to the monster, beating up the Gloink Queen over and over. Glitches were sparking everywhere, making me nervous. "It was trying to catch me."
"It's just Kaufmo," Jax reminded me. "Don't worry about it."
"Kaufmo abstracted!?" the ribbon character whimpered in worry.
"Nah, he's fine."
"Abstracted?" I questioned. "That thing right in front of us is Kaufmo?"
"He used to be a clown like you," Jax explained.
"YOU'RE RIGHT! HOW ARE WE GONNA GET OUT OF HERE!?" Kinger wailed in fear.
"Where can we go?" I asked. "The last thing I remember is going down that slide. We can't climb up there."
"Guys. Over there," Zooble grumbled. We looked and noticed an escalator that leads to the upstairs, next to a big pile of giant toys. Maybe that is a way out. We started to head to the moving stairway.
"Ladies first," Jax grinned to me and Gangle, that must be her name. "No wait, why would I say that?" He pushed Gangle to the side before I headed behind him. I am beginning to see that he looked very rude to the poor ribbon girl. I pulled her gently up to her legs, who started to feel a little better around me. Kinger went behind Jax and both me and Gangle stay at behind, taking the escalator to the top.
"Wait.. Pomni's not even here!?" Zooble questioned. Pomni? There was another human who arrived here? I guess that must be when I first arrived before her. "Wasn't this whole thing for her?!"
"Be quiet. I can't hear the escalator," Jax replied.
It took a while for me to arrive back at the place where I had first entered. Everything around here is a mess, the cracks were spread all over the ground, some building blocks, dices and pillows were scattered, even the little Gloinks were covered in glitches. At least we got out of the cave.
We began to look around and searched until we found what appeared to be two people. One was a chattering teeth toy with pearly teeth and red gums lined into it. But inside them was a pair of eyeballs, one green, the other blue, despite having a red ringmaster outfit, a black hat, a cape and bowtie. And one was a small girl in a blue and red jester's clothing with an oversized hat, pitch black hair and white pale skin. Wait... That person. It was the same girl I saw when she went through the red door.
We began to head over to the duo once I heard the ringmaster speak out, looking around the area. "Now, what the heck happened around here? Oh, yeah- my doing."
"Caine!" Kinger cried, getting their attention. "Kaufmo went through a sort of Kaufmosis and abstracted!"
"Kaufmo abstracted?" Caine exclaimed exaggeratedly and his red tongue sticking out. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"
"A long story," I said, stepping up, quite nervous. "I saw the monster just a few minutes ago and then it tried to attack me. But I managed to get away by inflating myself."
Caine focused his strange colorful eyes at me and floated right next to my face, making me jump. "What do we have here? Another human being has entered the realm."
"Yes. I'm new and I can't remember how I got here and my name."
"Don't you worry, dear," Caine smiled. "I'll have your name picked out but first, I have to take care of things." With a snap of his fingers, he lifted the abstracted monster out of the cave and opened up a hole on the floor. "And into the cellar you go."
And just like that, Kaufmo is gone. "At least the monster is not gonna chase me," I sighed. "Thank you, Caine, is that right? You should give me a tour around the place since I never seen this magical world around here."
"It is magical," Caine grinned. "Let's get you a new name. It can be anything." A giant slot machine came down on the stage and spun six letters. Then it stopped. "What do you think of this name?" he asked. "You are a clown after all."
I looked at the word and then saw the words Puffie. Quite a cute but balloony name. It might be because I inflate a lot. "I shall take it."
"Great," he smiled. "You're now Puffie and you can join our adventures with your new members."
"Man, I can't believe Kaufmo just gave up like that," sighed Zooble. Her orange spotted body had appeared and the arms, bendable different limbs reached over to her head and picked it up. Then she placed it onto the neck piece. This must be her physical form: a put together toy creature made out of various shapes. "I mean, no offense Kinger, but I always thought you would be next."
"Thank you."
"Guess it just goes to show you can't rely on Kinger for anything," Jax smiled.
"Well, thanks for all of that you've done," I said softly. "Maybe I might get used to living here, even though I never met you guys." Suddenly, my attention was drawn by a figure dragging toward us. It looked like a doll with red yarn hair and a blue patchwork dress. She resembled a lot like a Raggedy Ann, but no doll had a blue bow on her short hair and a blue button stitched and sewed on her right eye. But strangely, she was covered with little glitches and completely jumbled up.
"I-I am i-n so much p-p-p-pain!"
"My God," I exclaimed in shock. "What on earth happened to you, miss? Are you okay?"
"Don't worry, Puffie," Caine assured me. "I'll take care of it."
With a snap of his fingers, he restored the rag doll back to normal. She was okay but I took notice of the girl in jester clothes, Pomni, I think. She was looking at hand, realizing that it had stopped glitching. She must have gotten her hand glitched by that monster or something or she was trying to help the rag doll creature. I slowly began to approach the frozen girl and tapped her.
"You okay?" I asked.
The girl blinked and looked right at me. She must have zoned out but she was surprised to see me for the first time. But to my concern, her look is so worried. I think that was why she wasn't suppose to be there in the first place. The doll got back up to her feet and dragged her way up between me and Pomni. I wanted to ask what the doll's name is, but she refused to talk. I guess she must have felt betrayed that no one helped her because that monster, Kaufmo, had caused her to glitch. She must have suffered so much.
Now, for the first time in my life, there are six humans who transformed into their avatars while me makes the seventh. But I do not understand why Pomni went through that door in the first place, the exit door.
"I do have to apologize for lying about the exit," said Caine, quite guilty. "I knew how much all of you have been wanting there to be one, but, you know, I was having so much trouble figuring out what to put on the other side and ended up never quite finishing it. And you know how I never like letting people see my unfinished work, especially if it leads you out into the void."
"What's a void?" I asked.
"It's where you should not go," Caine replied. "It's dangerous and you might hallucinate about the exit. Anyway, it looks like you defeated the Gloink Queen with your help, so I guess the adventure's over. Your reward is a delicious digital feast cooked by our head Bubble Chef."
Floating around a long table was a large clear bubble with black beady eyes and sharp teeth.
"Made with all the love I'm legally allowed to give," it smiled.
My eyes went wide in alarm, seeing the delicious cooked food laid out at the table. Fresh sliced, hams, pork buns, carrots, vegetables. I know the food looked digital but it almost looked real to me. I could not staring at them and my stomach is growling for them.
"You know, I am pretty hungry," Jax complained.
"You didn't even do anything," whimpered Gangle, even though that I was the one who stopped the Gloink Queen.
"So what? I can still be hungry."
"Well not really, 'cause we don't need to eat, drink or sleep in this digital world," Kinger replied. "So the digital food here only gives off the virtual sensation of eating without any of the nutritional benefits."
"Sheesh, lay off it. Since when are you an expert on the digital world?"
"Expert on the what?"
As their voice drowned out from their chattering, I stared at Pomni for a while. She looked at me, still worried as usual. She was unsure where she came from but I think she might be a few minutes new here before me. I guess we never know. I started to join everyone at the dinner table and for the first time, I made new friends.
I was sure that this Digital Circus is more than a game, but my home, filled with so many new characters, adventures and a new life began from a weak pathetic girl with no friends or family and into a circus girl.