Chapter Text
Pomni woke up to a tap on her shoulder, and looked up to see Kinger looking at her with a concerned expression.
"Oh god Pomni, did you sleep in here?"
She yawned as she stood up. "Yeah, I suppose so. …I didn't want to leave Daisy alone."
"You're too kind for your own good sometimes," he chuckled. "But I'm glad that you look out for everyone. I'm sure they appreciate it."
Pomni smiled. "…So, is there any reason you woke me up?"
"Oh, yeah! Good news, Caine said he would try looking into Daisy's mind files with me. We're going to try pinpointing the source of the corruption first, before we try to edit anything. We're being as cautious as we can. We don't want to accidentally damage her memories or anything."
"…Alright," that was a lot to take in. She was hopeful though. If Caine was willing to help, then there had to be some chance of success, right?
"We want someone to watch her while we do. If something goes wrong and we accidentally hurt her, then someone can let us know and calm her down. I figured you'd be the best person for that." Kinger smiled with his eyes.
"O-okay. I'll do my best. …Would it be easier if I was with her in there?"
The chess piece panicked, "No! …Sorry, but you can't do that. It's way too dangerous. You won't be able to visit her once we start editing her code. We have no idea how her brain will react, so it's way too risky."
"Oh… so if editing her code doesn't bring her back…?" She dreaded the answer, but she had to ask. Please, she didn't want to lose Daisy…
"Then you might never be able to talk to her again," Kinger sighed. "Look, I know it's not ideal, but it's the best we've got, Pomni."
"I…" she could feel the tears forming. "Alright. Just try your best to bring her back, please." She hadn't given up on her for this long… no way she'd stop now.
Hold on, Daisy. She'd get her back even if it was the last thing she ever did.
~Daisy's "POV"~
She opened her many eyes to find Pomni sitting at the far edge of her tent, fidgeting with one of the bells on her shirt. Daisy slowly crept towards the jester as not to scare her.
"Oh, good morning." The other smiled, but she could tell there was a lot on her mind. All she could do to express her concern was whine.
"I'm okay, just… thinking about things…" Daisy tried her best to point at herself. This would be so much easier if she could talk. Pomni shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't."
What? Why not? She didn't like seeing the jester hurt, but she had never seemed to care about a few glitches. Why change her mind now?
God, Pomni looked so sad… "Kinger and Caine were gonna try looking into your code… it's too risky for me to visit right now."
Look into her code…? What? No, they couldn't do that. What if they saw something she didn't want them to see, and they decided to mess with her for what she'd done? What if Caine used it against her in a way—
"Woah, woah, it's okay, Daisy," Pomni placed a hand on her reassuringly. "They're trying to bring you back because I asked them to. They won't hurt you, okay? Not on purpose, at least. I can't promise anything in terms of resurrection…"
Oh. They were… bringing her back? Was that even possible? Well, she guessed she would find out soon if those two were messing with her code. Either she would be alive again, or she'd be even more insane than before. Great.
She decided to just lie down. Processing that information would take all of her energy for the day anyways. If it all went wrong, who knew what would happen to her? …What if she went crazy and hurt someone? What if she could never see anyone else again!?
Huh? Pomni was next to her now, curled up next to her abstracted form, stroking her front leg. A whimper escaped her form. She didn't want the jester to be hurt because of her.
"Shh… it's okay. I'm fine," she looked into Daisy's eyes and smiled. "Just relax, please. Hopefully, we'll be together again soon enough."
She smiled inside at that and nuzzled Pomni. She laughed and hugged the abstraction before lying down next to her. "Now get some rest. I don't want you to be stressed while they're working, okay?"
Daisy nodded and curled around the jester protectively. As long as they were together, she'd be alright. For now, she'd do what Pomni asked and sleep.
~~~
When she woke up, Pomni was chatting with Ribbit a bit away.
"Kinger told me to come here too," they explained, "said it'd be better to have two people watching her." Oh? She didn't mind, but it made her a bit worried. If the chess piece thought Pomni would need back up, that couldn't be a good sign. Were they sure this would work?
The jester looked over and her eyes widened. "She's awake," she shuffled over. "Hi, Daisy."
She purred in greeting. Huh. Being like this made her feel even more like an animal. What was she, a cat?
"Hey, looks like I'll be hanging out with you too," Ribbit smiled. She blinked slowly in response. That was how cats showed affection, right?
The two exchanged conversation a bit more before Kinger poked his head into the tent.
"Good news, we think we're getting close to finding the source of the corruption. …To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to go so quickly. Just continue keeping her calm, alright? You two have done great so far."
"Okay," Pomni grinned at her and put a hand on the side of her head. The frog just looked between the two before nodding in understanding. If she wasn't an abstraction, she'd be blushing hard right now.
The next day or so fell into a pattern of Pomni and Ribbit telling her some story, eating, sleeping, and repeating the cycle. Daisy wished she could talk, but at least the two could talk to each other. Kinger would pop in with updates every so often, making slow but steady progress.
They were having a conversation about some adventure they had been on recently when her vision began to dim. What the? She tried blinking, but everything kept getting darker. Before she could make a sound, she was enveloped in darkness.
~~~
…Daisy was back at the lamppost again, but no matter where she looked, there was no one around. None of her friends, no other versions of herself, just silence.
No! She didn't want to be here alone! She clawed at herself, tried to force her brain to just wake her up, but nothing happened. Dammit. She only ended up bruised from the struggle. Just get her out of here, please!
She crawled back to the lamppost and laid against it, tears flowing freely now. Shit. Something had gone wrong, hadn't it? They'd fucked up her code and she'd be stuck here, wouldn't she? She would never see anyone again.
No. No no no. That couldn't be true, right? This was just a bump in the road, then she'd be with the others again… right!?
She pulled on her ears, trying to drown out the sound of her heartbeat. Maybe she was just having a nightmare and she would wake up any minute. Yeah, that had to be it. Yeah…
Daisy curled up next to the pole, attempting to slow her breathing again. If this was real, panicking would just fuck herself over. She would basically be a Pokemon that hurt itself in its confusion. Man, she missed video games, but that was beside the point.
She'd just wait until she either woke up or came back to consciousness in the circus. Whichever one happened first. How long would that take though? It had already taken days to find what part of her code was corrupted… surely it would take longer to fix it. Would she be stuck here for days? A week? A month? God, if it was that long, it'd feel like forever.
All she could do was wait. So she waited. And waited some more. She had whole conversations with herself, while she slept at other points. When she was feeling particularly anxious, she tugged on parts of her skin until she was missing chunks of fur and there was even the yellow flesh visible underneath. Surprisingly, it wasn't gory at all, just weird. She did find a bone though. Ugh.
Well, since this was her mind, she just healed herself and decided to never do that again. She didn't even think she had bones, but Caine had made things weirdly realistic right before he went crazy. After that, she decided she'd sleep the rest of the day away. Daisy had no sense of time in her head, so this just meant lying down and waiting to wake up again.
It was quite lonely in here. She found herself wishing for Pomni, Ribbit, or even Ragatha or Zooble to be there. Sure, she could talk to herself, but what was the point of that? She didn't have anything new to add to her own wealth of knowledge.
She resorted to imagining what Lilly Mateo was doing out in the real world. From what she'd seen in the printed out screenshots Zooble had showed her, Lilly actually frequented their queer bar. She smiled at that. Daisy wished she could've gone to a place like that when she was still human, but considering she had still lived with her mother, it would've been risky.
…Maybe Zooble could open a bar in the circus. Not that she was there, but they could open it for when she came back. Eventually. She would get back there, even if she'd been stuck here for what felt like eternity.
Ugh. She just wanted something to do. Unfortunately, this meant tugging on her skin again.
~Pomni's "POV"~
A few minutes after Kinger informed them that he had found the corrupted part of Daisy's files, her abstracted form drifted off to sleep. Well, she thought it was sleep, until the other started thrashing and clawing at herself in a sudden state of mania. Shit. No no no no no. Please, no.
"Daisy!?" She tried to soothe the abstraction, but nothing either her or Ribbit did seemed to help. What had gone wrong? Could she feel the chess piece messing with her code? Did he accidentally hurt her?
Ribbit put a hand on her shoulder, "I can stay with her while you notify Kinger, if you want."
"Can you tell him?" Pomni motioned with her hands. "…I don't want to leave Daisy."
She blushed, and the frog smiled. "Alright."
As they bolted off, the jester attempted to approach Daisy again. "Shh, it's okay, I'm here." She held her hands up and tried to pat the abstraction, but she reared away and tried to scratch herself again. "Please, don't hurt yourself…" Pomni was on the verge of tears now.
Daisy paused before curling up on herself and whimpering. The jester decided to approach her abstracted form again, this time finding success in stroking the other's head.
"Is she calmer now?" Ribbit peaked around one of the blanket walls of the fort.
Pomni gave her a thumbs up. "Seems to be."
"…Kinger said he'd slow down a bit. He's guessing that he got too into the flow of things and freaked Daisy out. …He seems to be making progress though."
"Alright," she sighed. "I just want her back so badly…"
The frog sniffed. "I know. …I do too."
~~~
The next few days dragged forwards for Pomni. Daisy had fallen asleep not long after she freaked out, but now it had been multiple days, and she was still sleeping. The jester mainly spent her time pacing, curled up in a ball, or sleeping herself on the pillows. Ribbit tried to talk with her, but she was too deep in her head, worrying.
She just wanted Daisy back… but it kept taking longer and longer. She knew Kinger had to work slowly to best protect her, but… ugh, she was being too impatient. They just needed more time. She'd be back soon. Pomni just had to wait.
"Hey," Ribbit rested a hand on her shoulder. "You sure you're okay? …We can have someone else watch her for a while if you need to get out in the open. I know you don't want to leave her, but I can tell being cooped up is driving you crazy."
What? …But she wanted to be around Daisy, she didn't care about going crazy. "I…" Wait. If she went crazy, would she even be here when the rabbit comes back? "Okay, fine. I suppose I should."
They smiled. "I'll go get Kinger to watch her for a bit. I'm sure he could use a break too."
"…Alright."
Pomni sat on a pillow, waiting for Ribbit's return. She couldn't help herself from glancing over to Daisy every so often, but nothing changed. She was still sleeping.
Kinger peaked around a blanket, "Caine's watching the console. You go relax, okay?"
"Thank you." She gave him a thumbs up before slipping away to meet the frog. "So, what are we gonna do?"
They grinned. "You'll see."
She led the jester up to the cafe, getting them both hot chocolates. They settled on some bar stools before talking again.
"…Daisy, Kaufmo, and I used to come here all the time before Kaufy abstracted."
"Oh?" She thought she had heard about that, but only briefly.
"Kaufmo and I kinda made it a weekly tradition to get hot chocolate from here. When Daisy got here, we decided to bring her along to give her some sense of normalcy. That solidified the friendship, along with us learning we all had the same sense of humor. The three of us were attached at the hip, until, well…"
"Kaufmo abstracted."
They sighed. "Yeah. As you know, he was obsessed with finding an exit. …Daisy distanced herself, as she does. I tried to help him, but he couldn't let go of the idea of leaving."
"…And now we know there's no way to leave."
"Exactly," she took a long sip of her hot chocolate. "If this all works out with Daisy, we might be able to get the others back too. …But then we'd have to tell Kaufy there's no way out, and…"
Pomni patted their shoulder, "That'll be hard, yes, but we'll get to that when we're there. For now, we have to focus on Daisy."
"Yeah, you're right. At least she's been calm since the first day. …Y'know, I think her abstracted form is getting smaller."
"Huh?" She hadn't noticed that, but now that Ribbit mentioned it, she could see it. "I didn't realize, but I think you're right." She drank the last of her hot chocolate and sat up. "So, should we go—"
"Not yet. I have something else to show you." The frog led her out of the main circus tent, where the stars shimmered above them. They lay down on the grass, extended their hand up to Pomni, and pulled her down next to herself. "Isn't it beautiful?"
The jester gazed at the stars, "It really is."
"Y'know, my room has a star projector. …I like the feeling of the grass under me out here, though. Even if it's not real."
"Caine did make things a lot more realistic when he was crazy. Most of it was insane stuff, but I guess it had some benefits too." She grazed her hand over the blades of grass and smiled. "Do you know any constellations?"
Ribbit looked genuinely surprised at the question. "Oh, uh, yeah… but they probably don't exist in the circus. I doubt Caine copied the star map onto these stars."
"Oh, that's true… I guess we'll just have to make our own."
"Our own constellations?"
Pomni nodded. "Sure, I don't see why not! …Hey, that one kinda looks like you!"
"Wait, I see it!" She sat up. "And that one looks like you!"
"Hold on, are all of these just us?"
"Oh." The frog burst out into laughter.
"I guess Caine really appreciates us, huh?"
"Apparently."
The two continued to laugh, genuinely smiling for the first time in a while. They managed to point out stars forming every member of the circus, even some they didn't recognize apart from that one zombie adventure. It was… nice, just relaxing like this. Both of them hadn't truly relaxed since Daisy abstracted.
When they did return to the main circus tent, their conversations continued. They felt the lightest they had in weeks, maybe even months. Pomni and Ribbit fell asleep facing each other, with a new conviction in their hearts.
~Daisy's "POV"~
Daisy was not doing so hot. She had just recovered from another panic attack, and now she was all bruised and battered again. Except she did not have the energy to heal herself right now. She'd deal with that later.
For now, she was clinging to the lamppost in a desperate attempt to calm down. She wasn't entirely sure what had set her off again, but now she had this weird feeling of being comforted by some outside source. Odd, but it did help her breathe a bit easier.
Maybe that was someone trying to reach her? God, she hoped so. She didn't think she could stand being alone for much longer. There was only so much speculation about your human self one could do.
The rabbit curled around the pole and decided she'd just sleep for now. There was no use in staying awake anyways. All she was doing was waiting for someone to come save her, like the pathetic creature she was. Whatever.
She drifted off to sleep thinking of the Disney princesses, damsels in distress. She guessed being stuck in a tower wasn't so different to being stuck in your own mind. Hey, didn't she have her voice taken from her just like Ariel? She must have watched that movie a million times as a kid, before her mother stopped her at least.
At least some of them had some fighting spirit inside them. She barely had any fight left in her, but she'd keep going regardless. For Pomni and Ribbit, for Kaufy… for everyone.