Chapter Text
Pomni’s mind was racing as she saw the usually exuberant Ringmaster on the ground motionless. Her hands shook as she leaned down, checking to see what could possibly be wrong with him.
As she examined she noticed that nothing seemed to be different with his avatar, he was just scarily still. She had never seen the Ringmaster be anything but excitable and ever constantly moving around and doing whatever he so pleased.
She took a step back, standing straight up as she contemplated what to do. Her breathing came out in panicked puffs as she began to slowly walk backwards before turning to sprint towards someone she thought might know what they’re doing.
“K- Kinger can fix this..! Just gotta find him…” She muttered as she ran as fast as her cartoonish digital legs could take her.
It was a short way from the main stage to Kingers pillow fort, though the run felt like it took forever. Her hands pushed on one of the walls, her hand pounding quickly on what she thought was the door.
“Kinger!! Open up, quickly!” She yelled before seeing him pop his head outside of the fort to see what was happening.
The man may not currently understand much, as he seems to be a bit confused in the light, but he does understand that there is a problem.
“AAACH— oh hi Pomni!” He yelped in surprise before returning to his normal state of semi consciousness in bright lights.
He opened the pillow forts makeshift door to her and invited her inside. As she quickly made her way in she saw him patting a spot next to him for her to sit down. She shut the door behind her, darkening the room enough for him to think clearly.
“What’s got you so…” Kinger paused before gesturing to her entirety, referencing her anxious nature.
She sat silently for a moment, wringing her hands in her lap as she considered her thoughts on the current situation. She was conflicted on what to tell Kinger, not wanting to worry the man.
“Well uh, something happened… with Caine.” She said nervously as she looked up at Kinger with a serious expression.
He looked down at her with a questioning look in his eyes, urging her to continue further.
“He uhm- I don’t know… something happened! And now he just stopped working, what do I do?!” She spoke quickly, blurting out her words as she explained the current situation.
Kingers eyes widened at her explanation. His mind raced with questions, wanting to know how this happened and what the repercussions could possibly be. He tried to think rationally about what to tell her and what to do for now.
“Is anything else glitching?” He asked, his voice laced with concern about the current state of the circus without its ringmaster keeping everything stable.
“I guess I didn’t see anything glitching..? I wasn’t really focused on that, I just ran here.” She responded, one of her hands nervously gripping at one of her cartoonishly large buttons on her jester outfit.
Kinger paused for a moment, clearly thinking deeply, or at least as deeply as he can with his mental state. “We should go grab him, I can try to figure out if there was any kind of internal issue.”
Pomni nodded before standing up, Kinger following suit. The two walked outside the pillow fort with Kinger squinting at the change in light level.
Pomni leads him over to where she was with Caine originally. They approach the rather small ringmasters almost lifeless looking body lying on the ground just as he was when Pomni left.
Kingers expression seems unreadable, which is understandable considering his inhuman appearance. The one constant force in this circus had changed, Pomni couldn’t yet tell if it was going to fix or break their world yet.
“You wanna help me bring him to the pillow fort…?” She asked quietly before kneeling down next to the surprisingly small man on the ground. Kinger looked down at the two with his normal blank expression before kneeling down to their level and beginning to help her pick the small man up.
Their AI ringmaster wasn’t really heavy so he was easy enough to carry back to the pillow fort. The two entered the fort once more, with Pomni shutting the pillow door behind them all.
Kinger sat down in the middle of the fort before laying the ringmaster down in front of him. Pomni looked over at the two with a mix of uncomfort and concern before walking towards them, sitting next to Kinger.
“So… you want to tell me the full story?” He asked after a moment of examining the AI. He looked back over to Pomni, her expression seeming a bit guilty along with anxious.
She paused before answering him. “We had an argument… I was just being honest with him and then this happened!” She answered slowly at first before emphasizing her words with her hands at the end, almost like how Caine usually does.
Kinger didn’t respond to her just yet, opting to be silent for now while he contemplated on what might have happened with his internal systems.
“I haven’t seen something like this since I first came to the circus.” Kinger said quizzically as he looked down . Pomni’s interest was piqued at this, she always wanted to know more about the realm that she was currently trapped in.
“This has happened before..?” She questioned nervously as she looked up at his stern expression.
“Of course it has, at least something like this…” He responded as he looked down at the small man. “He’s never fully shut down though, even though originally he was supposed to shut down when players left.”
Her eyes were blown wide at this fact, the puzzle pieces of this mystery world slowly coming together. “He’s supposed to shut down..?”
“Creative AI really aren’t supposed to run for long periods of time, it leads to a lot of problems within their systems.” He says quickly, as if remembering a certain part of an old job he had.
Pomni looked up to Kinger before looking back down at their Ringmaster, the pillar holding the whole circus together.
“Hey Kinger… can Caine abstract..?” She asked quietly, her voice almost a whisper as she felt guilty for asking.
“Maybe, but you shouldn’t worry about that. If I can get access to his coding somehow, I might be able to fix… this.” He responded as he gestured towards Caine’s unmoving form.
Her morals seemed to shift slightly, maybe if an emotional overload was possible, he could actually feel what they feel.
“Kinger… what’s going to happen to Caine if we leave the circus?”