Chapter Text
“Run Pomni! You can still mak–” Pomni heard Ragatha’s voice violently cut off as she was turned to sandstone.
Pomni didn’t dare look back at her ragdoll friend, feeling everything. From the sweat dripping from her forehead, the pounding of her heart and the sandy ground slowly crumbling beneath her feet as she ran. She could feel the vibrations of the sand worm beneath her feet, motivating her more than ever to push on. She blocked everything that was constantly on loop in her head. From being forever trapped in the digital circus, Jax, Ragatha, Caine…
Pomni stumbled, yelling out as she began to lose her footing. Without thinking, she took her last available step before the ground completely swallowed her and leapt. She almost dropped the Lapis crystal in her hands but thankfully found it still within her multi-coloured gloves as her body harshly landed upon solid stony ground.
The jester stood up, not wasting any time with brushing herself off and quickly ran to insert the Lapis Lazuli back into its proper place, hearing a satisfying pop as it clicked back into place. She let her shoulders drop with an exhausted satisfaction. Suddenly she felt everything shake around her, time rewinding, everything undoing.
Sand flew all around her, forcing Pomni to shut her eyes to keep out the sand and dust, but with each peak she took, she saw everything going back to the way it was, back to the beginning. She saw the sandworms being summoned back to King Philitis’ tomb along with his majesty himself and all of his undead bandaged army. She saw her friends being un-sand-stoned and freed from their sandy statues, making her let out a sigh of relief. However, it didn’t overlook her notice at how unsettled and traumatised her friends looked from being encased in stone. She couldn’t help but worry about them.
Behind her appeared the portal, back to the digital circus.
She frowned.
This was one of the few adventures they’d had recently that had a happy ending.
Caine had been making sure there weren't many of those lately. She could tell it was bringing everyone in the circus down, even Jax. He didn’t crack as many of his jokes anymore. And whenever he did, no one really had the energy to give him any retortions or reactions back. Everyone in the circus just seemed down. They all seemed tired. And not just physically…
Pomni watched as they all wordlessly made their way through Caine’s portal, one after the other, barely giving each other a look of acknowledgement. Pomni made sure to be the last one through to make sure no one got left behind. She wouldn’t be surprised if Caine did that on purpose and restarted the adventure again just to torture one of them. The thought made her shiver. She stepped through the portal.
Pomni’s eyes strained against the contrast of the bright colours of the big top as she re-entered the circus. The adventure they’d just been on had taken place completely in a dark cavern, a tomb specifically. To go from almost pitch darkness to the bright child-like colours made Pomni feel like a vampire and immediately make her want to return to the shadows. That thought made her feel suddenly depressed. The closest she could ever get to that here was going to her bedroom and hiding under her bed. That was the darkest place in this whole digital world. She never thought she’d miss the dark like this…
“Welcome back! I can’t believe all of you guys got sand-stoned by the army! What losers you all are! Well, almost all of you!” Caine’s loud bombastic voice mocked from his hovering position above them, his form slightly enlarged to make himself tower over Pomni and the gang.
No one dared to say anything to him this time. Just like the other times.
Pomni tried not to look at Caine when he felt his gaze on her, mentioning that it was ‘almost all of them’. She swallowed hard and tried to keep walking.
“Hmm.. Welp! Time to brainstorm more ideas! Breaktime!” With that, he was gone.
Pomni could physically feel the sigh of relief in the big top.
She made her way back to the main couches where everyone else sat, defeated. She lifted and propped herself next to Ragatha, who had sat on the cough with ease. She hated how her character’s size made her feel like a child.
“Thanks for the save there, Pomni” Ragatha quietly said, gratification in her voice. She tried to pull a smile but failed.
Pomni succeeded in pulling a smile, even if it was a sad one. “You’re welcome. As long as one of us completes the adventure, that’s what matters. As long as we all come back” she says, glancing at the people around her, “we’re in this together.”
“...How long until you think he’ll get sick of this?” Ragatha asked quietly. Her voice trembled as if on the verge of tears.
“He’s not a human. He doesn’t feel emotions like we do. He might not ever get tired of this,” Zooble explained, disappointed yet dreadful.
That made Pomni think. What if that wasn’t necessarily true? What if he could feel emotions like they did? Her thoughts went back to Gummigoo. Although he initially started as just an NPC, he became more than that once he realised what he was. He had his own thoughts, reactions, ideas, emotions. He became as real as Pomni was, at least even for a few minutes. That showed that if all of these NPCs could break away from their code like Gummigoo did, they’d have their own thoughts and emotions. Who was to say the same couldn’t happen for Caine. Although Caine wasn’t an NPC, he was more. He’s AI. Constantly learning. Could he learn emotions and thoughts like a human though?
What Pomni knew of Caine so far was that he had a short temper, but he’d gotten frustrated and tired of her and everyone else’s ‘whining’ and disliking of his adventures and had switched up his tone. He had developed. He had learned. He had made his own decision on not wanting to listen to them and do things his way. He is more than an AI. He’s one with his own thoughts, ideas and emotions. And that was terrifying.
Despite Pomni’s thoughts on Caine and his humanity, she said nothing to counter Zooble, choosing instead to stay silent and look at her hands.
“So… what do we do?” asked Ragtha.
Everyone was quiet at that, except Pomni, realising what she had to do. Putting on her mask, she stood up from the cough and looked at everyone.
“We do what we've always done. Live.”
A few confused and unsure faces looked at her.
Pomni explained, “look we’ve pretty much given up on escaping. But that doesn’t mean we continue to be miserable here until we all abstract. We have to make the best that we can out of this situation, at least, while we’re not on Caine’s adventures.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Gangle quietly asked from next to Zooble.
“What we’ve always done while we’ve been stuck here. And I know we can’t hope for escape but we can at least hold onto the hope that with us passively going on these adventures that Caine might ‘cool down’ and won’t be so hard on us, eventually.”
Jax let out an amused scoff at this, “and what makes you think Caine’s gonna ‘cool down’ and go all soft on us again, Pom-Pom?” he mocked.
Pomni tried not to bristle at his nickname for her, breathing in and continuing, “because despite him being AI, he shows emotions like us. He’s been happy with us and he’s been angry with us. He can eventually become happy with us again. He just needs time. We just need to be careful and suck it up for a bit.”
“And how long will we need to do that for?” Zooble questioned her, arms folded and eyes narrowed.
How long could it take? Pomni feared the answer. What if it took years? What if it took as long as someone abstracting for him to ‘soften up?’ Zooble was insulting that they couldn’t just be these passive little beings forever. They were human. They weren’t made for this. Something had to give. It was humans VS. AI. But Caine was more than just AI, he had human emotions. Pomni almost wondered if they could use that.
“I-I don’t know, but we have to try. This is all I got. I’m just as clueless as you guys,” that was a bit of a lie, “but in the meantime, we gotta be there to support each other. Please?”
She saw everyone’s faces soften a little, except for Jax who turned away. They nodded at her.
Suddenly feeling deflated and her social battery low, Pomni decided to excuse herself and make her way back to her quarters. She needed some time to herself, to rest. She left the others in the main room under the big top, starting to walk down the hallways towards her room.
The hallway was quiet, with only Pomni’s small footsteps on the plush red carpet to be heard. Pomni found herself staring at all the different framed pictures on the walls, wondering what they all meant. What did they mean? Why did Caine make them? This whole digital world was made by him, so it must have meant something. The framed pictures were confusing in a way that reminded Pomni of a Picasso painting, or some abstract. It was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
As she passed by all the doors belonging to the previous people who had once lived here, she found her thoughts straying to them too. Her heart felt heavy with each and every colourful character on the doors that were crossed out. Abstracted. Would that happen to her one day? Would she too end up like the others? The picture on her door crossed out? Her body abstracted and living forever in the cellar of this digital world? Luckily ,Pomni found the door to her quarters before she could answer that thought, opening her door, slipping through and shutting it, finally alone.
Letting out a heavy, Pomni rolled her shoulders and stumbled her way to her bed. Although it was an eyesore with its repetitive stripes of red and blue just like her character model, at least the bed was soft and squishy. Once landed on it, Pomni could already feel sleep’s arms wrapping around her and luring her eyelids to close.
“Hello, my little sweet Jester mine!”
Pomni screamed. Her body flew up and almost hit the high ceiling hanging over her bed, glitching a little as it did. She barely recovered once she fell back onto the squishy mattress, bouncing three times, eyes darting back and forth only to find the dentured ringmaster himself hovering a couple feet off the ground in front of her bed. He didn’t look ashamed of waking her at all. In fact, he looked happier than usual (if that was possible).
Stuttering Pomni cried, “Caine? What are you doing here?”
Unfazed by her panicked reaction, Caine proclaimed proudly, “I’d just thought I’d pay my dearest protagonist a visit and congratulate you on your effort with today’s adventure!”
Pomni opened her mouth to argue until she snapped it shut. Did… Caine just compliment her? Now that she wasn’t expecting. What was the punchline here? After a few seconds of Caine saying nothing and just staring at her, Pomni realised there wasn’t one. He really was complimenting her.
Shocked, all Pomni could voice was, “Thanks”. It sounded pathetic. She hoped that was all he wanted from her, but both her stomach and her brain knew that wasn’t true. Caine always had something he was planning, always something up his sleeve. What was it?
Pomni almost got a fright when Caine spoke again, just as loud as ever. She winced at his volume within such a small space and at such close proximity.
“As you should thank me! As I put so much effort into all these adventures! It’s nice to get some appreciation every once in a while, don’t you agree?!” He was suddenly in her face, all pearly white teeth up close and personal as he stared down at her.
Pomni sheepishly nodded, instinctively leaning back, almost losing her balance as she did so. She grabbed her bed’s spindle that helped support the ceiling of her bed to support herself from falling back against her bed. If Caine noticed her discomfort at his proximity to her, he either didn’t show it and ignored it, or just straight up didn’t know. Pomni wasn’t sure which one it was. Caine had always been naive of Pomni and her disliking of people getting into her personal space, or maybe he had always known, and just used it to mess with her.
Caine had no smelly breath or even breath for that matter for Pomni to get uncomfortable with, but she was still getting increasingly more and more discomfort with how close he was to her. To quickly get him to move away from her, Pomni forced some words to hopefully get the AI to back off.
“Umm, yeah. I appreciate the work you put into the adventure, Caine.”
Just as quickly as he had appeared in her space, he was gone. Now he was back in the middle of her room, hovering like a phantom. He was glitching, and with that, the room around her was too. Everything was appearing and disappearing and appearing again. Caine’s eyes showed multiple files and code being scrolled through, a whirring audible as what Pomni believed AI Caine scrolling through his thoughts(?) or emotions(?). She wasn’t sure. Before Pomni could theorise more, Caine and her room was back in one piece, Caine’s eyes now their normal freakish unmatching green and blue.
“Uhh, yes. As you should.” His voice was surprisingly quiet in comparison to what it was before. It honestly surprised Pomni. It was the same voice he had used with her and the gang before demonstrating to them what would happen if they didn’t go on his adventures. It had an underlying threat to it.
Another moment passes. Pomni watches as Caine floats higher, looking around her room as if he wasn’t the one who created it for her in the first place. He looked to be admiring the red and blue painted walls, the chandelier hanging above them both, the mirror in the corner, the drawers that were too tall for Pomni and the toddler toys scattered around her room.
“I did a good job creating your quarters, didn’t I, Pomni?” Again, Caine’s voice sounded… normal(?), and he used her name.
“Umm, yeah.. Definitely went for a theme,” she pathetically said. She wasn't sure whether it was a complement or not.
In truth, Pomni hated her room. She hated how it made her feel. Like a child. Everything in the room was created to resonate one of a child’s bedroom. The colours too bright and colourful, everything in the room being too high and out of her reach, H*#), the child’s toys? This room was designed for a child, yet designed with her in mind. It was Caine’s insult to her.
However, it was the only space in the circus that no one went in (until today that is). It was her private space where she took the time to herself and away from the others. It was where she could rest and recharge her social battery and have time to herself. In a twisted way it was her safe space. It wasn’t a space she liked a lot, but at least it was hers.
“Indeedy I did!” Caine boomed suddenly, his hand coming up to dramatically point at himself, chest puffing out like some proud bird.
More silence. Pomni was getting sick of this. He’s never been so weirdly quiet like this before. So many random awkward silences. She was hoping he’d just leave her alone. She withheld a sigh as she started the conversation this time.
“Sooo,” she started as she criss-crossed her legs while she sat on her bed, “I thought you went to brainstorm more ideas?”
“YuuuuuuPPPP!” he obnoxiously popped the ‘p’. He was spinning his cane dramatically between his fingers. Pomni tried not to stare, looking away at one of the corners of her room.
“So, you’ve already got an idea for tomorrow’s adventure?” she asked quietly.
Pomni flinched when Caine let out a loud thunderous laugh. A mocking one. She felt a shiver run up her spine, her stomach suddenly starting to feel queasy.
“Tomorrow? Of course not, my little Pompous Jester! You little lovelies will go on another adventure! Two adventures a day! Now how does that sound?” He boasted, throwing his arms up and spreading them proudly.
What?
Pomni felt the urge to vomit, her stomach dropping. No, no, no, no, no!!! She and the others could barely take one of these kind of adventures a day, let alone two! Two is too much! Since Pomni and the others had challenged him, Caine had become a lot harsher with his adventures, making them a lot meaner in their nature. They had been on multiple adventures that had been incredibly mean-spirited. Caine’s adventures had become darker, evil-er, some even containing some blood and gore. If Pomni and the others were to go more than one of these adventures a day, she wasn’t sure what would happen. Someone would most likely abstract within a short amount of time. They would have little to no time to recover.
The panic rose in Pomni, trapped and nowhere to go. Pomni was trying her best not to release all of her frustration at the AI ringmaster, fearing she’d make things even worse for her and the others by showing her discontent with his plans and ideas. She felt her eye twitching involuntarily.
Caine floated around her room as he continued, a pensive look across his dentures and a hand placed at his lower jaw, where his chin most likely would’ve been, “Yes, I think two adventures a day will teach you guys how to appreciate the work I put into my adventures…”
“Please don’t!” the words left Pomni’s lips before she could stop them.
Caine froze. It felt like everything in the digital world stopped with him. Pomni suppressed a shiver, instantly regretting her words and covering her mouth. F#&%, this is exactly what she didn’t want! Now she was too far gone. He heard her. She didn’t like his idea. She was challenging him.
Caine slowly turned to her, his floating dentures meeting her gaze before the front of his torso did. Pomni was a little surprised that Caine didn’t look angry. Instead, he looked interested, his eyes having a glint of intrigue in them.
“Don’t, you say?” he asked her.
Quiet. Like the calm before the potential storm. Now it was Pomni’s decision whether she wanted to suck up to him or summon this storm and suffer its consequences.
She took a breath.
“I-I’ve seen them out there,” she spoke quietly and as calmly as possible, her voice shaking, “They won’t be able to take two adventures a day Caine, they-they just can’t. Please. Just one adventure a day is enough, please”.
God, she hated how she sounded. She hated everything she was saying, even the sound of her voice. Begging. She was begging Caine despite him not even being human and lacking empathy. Why would he even care? Everything was just a game to him. She and the others weren’t people to him, they were just pawns on his chestboard, players of his game, acts in his twisted little circus.
Caine was staring at her, almost surprised at the genuine worry and pleading in her voice. He quickly shook away that surprise however, bringing his gloved index and thumb to his “chin” again in fake thought.
Pomni continued despite her hatred of pleading, “you want us to start enjoying your adventures? Give us time to process that we can never this place. We can’t do this if we’re constantly on your adventures. And-and if you do too many, the less they feel like adventures and more like chores! Also for you, if you do too many adventures, the more rushed they feel! The less time you get to focus on the quality of your adventures! Quality over quantity!” God she sounded so f*#&ing pathetic right now.
There was a long pause. Caine was still thinking, or at least pretending to. H&#!, he probably had his mind made up already and was taking pleasure in her pathetic begging and filling his ego.
After what felt like minutes, Caine spoke, “you know, you’ve always had such a way with words, my dear”.
Pomni didn’t move, her body tense. She felt her grip tighten against the bed’s spindle. She was bracing for the worst, for the storm. Although Caine’s words sounded comforting and a little relieving, she still couldn’t relax around him.
Caine let out a sharp laugh and made Pomni flinch, “I was very clever for matching your mind files to a jester, wasn’t I?”
Pomni wasn’t sure what to say to that. She could feel the room’s atmosphere tensing around her, like a hand slowly tightening around her throat.
“Wasn’t. I?” Caine reinforced, his voice taking on a dangerous tone, just like the one he said before his musical number.
Pomni frantically nodded, “Y-yes Caine”.
The ringmaster stares at her for a moment longer before springing back to his usual loud, bombastic self, the room’s air suddenly present again.
“Well! You’ve convinced me dear Pomni! One adventure per day it is! Allows me to come up with more brilliant adventure ideas! Toodle-loo!”
With that, he was gone, leaving no evidence that he was even there, apart from a traumatised Pomni.
What the H$%( was that?