Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

( It was a humid and stormy summer afternoon. )

( To this day, I still remember when I was first sent here. )

( When The Amazing Digital Circus, just ended. )

(Daniel chills on the living room sofa, scrolling through recent reviews on the new VR headset produced by Glitch. The same company responsible for making the world inside the VR headset. People all over the world were giving the headset rave reviews, with the most common comment being about how “immersive” it is compared to other headsets like the Oculus Quests, and even Apple’s headsets.)

(Suddenly, a knocking on the front door was heard. Daniel gets off the sofa, makes his way to the front door, and opens it to see his newly bought VR headset packaged, yet soaked from the rain. He grabs it from outside on the porch and closes the front door.)

Daniel: This is it! I finally get to see what it’s like to be in the circus! (Daniel takes the headset box out of the soaked cardboard box, and reads the headset box at it with anticipation.) “Glitch Production’s Immersive Virtual Reality Headset”. “Comes pre-installed with “The Amazing Digital Circus” game.” Cool!

(Daniel carefully unboxes the headset out of the box and puts it on his head. He’s met with a futuristic looking user interface. The headset scanned his whole body, then the straps behind his head tightened.)

Daniel: Wuh…! Hey! (Before Daniel could even put up a fight he falls back down on the sofa, banging the back of his head against the wall. The impact knocked him out cold, allowing the headset to continue its process of transitioning him to the immersive digital universe.)

( It was just an ordinary day in this little computer game. )

( Nobody had any idea what would be brought into the digital world. )

( A cheater. )

Caine: Welcome, to the Amazing Digital Circus! My name is Caine! I’m your ringmaster! And I’m here to show you the most jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, mind-bending paraphernalia you’ve ever laid your eyes upon! Isn’t that right, Bubble?

(Caine pulls Bubble out of his top hat.)

Bubble: That’s right, Caine! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got cooking up for today!

Caine: Well, let’s not waste any time! Let’s get right into the show!

(🎶Gangle, and Zooble, and Kinger too.🎶)

[Process of transition: 25%]

(🎶Ragatha, Jax, and there’s Kaufmo, woohoo.🎶)

(*Disclaimer: Kaufmo the Clown did not show up today.)

[Process of transition: 50%]

(🎶Day, after day, after day, after day, after day, after day…)

[Process of transition: 75%]

(And then the power flickered, glitching the user interface for a few seconds, before returning back to normal.)

(…day we fly. Past the moon, and the sun, and we don’t know why!🎶)

(A player dressed in a two-toned red and blue jester outfit suddenly appears on the center stage. Her name is preset to Pomni, but she has no clue of how she got here, who she is, what she looks like, nor has any prior memories before putting on her headset.)

Pomni: W-W-Whe… Wh… Where am I? (Pomni takes a few steps before a giant eyebal whizzes past her. She quickly gets out of the eye’s way and turns around to see an exit door.)

(Pomni runs to the door hoping to escape the sensory overload sanctuary she’s placed in, but the door fades away into particles.)

(A big top hat whizzes past Pomni, causing her to land on her bottom. She only had enough time to scoot out of the way before a big potted flower landed hard onto the stage, clipping partially into the ground.)

(Pomni gets up while the potted flower continued to clip further into the stage. She slowly backs away from it, unaware of who’s right beside her. But before she could accidentally bump into the tall purple rabbit…)

[Process of transition: 99, 100%]

[Transition complete! Welcome Player #15000623!]

(A bright light flashes between Pomni and Jax. And they, as well as Kinger and Gangle are knocked back by the blast. The blast causes Gangle to drop her comedy mask on the floor, breaking it in half.)

(Daniel is given a new, short, and stout body, sporting rather glossy black hair, a pink long sleeve shirt with bright pink polka dots, light blue overalls, with golden stars for buttons, and a pair of black boots. He’s seen floating in the middle of the light, but as the light fades, he falls on his back, still knocked out from that head on collision with the wall earlier.)

(Daniel sits up in a daze, and rubs the back of his head.)

Daniel: Ughhh… Oh, my head… Huh…?

(Daniel looked around, he was in what looked like a circus. There was a lanky purple rabbit, a short jester girl, a mix and match toy. A talking rag doll, and a guy with a red suit, only teeth and eyes, a bubble with razor sharp teeth, and beady eyes, a ribbon with a theatre mask, and a tall king chess piece. The purple rabbit creature spoke.)

Jax: Caine, is this one of your NPCs, or is this some new suckers? Cuz if it's some new characters, we're gonna have to redo this whole theme song.

Zooble: I’m not doing that again.

Caine: My, my! It appears that not one, but TWO humans, have entered this realm!

Pomni: How do I… take this… headset off…!? (Pomni tries hard to feel for a headset on her face, but she only grabbed at her own face.)

Jax: Just keep grabbing at it. That worked for all of us.

(Daniel looks curiously confused.)

Daniel: Headset…? (Daniel waves his hand in front of his face hoping he’d feel something rectangular around his face, but he felt nothing.)

Pomni: W-What’s… going on? I-I-I… put on some weird headset, and n-now I’m… here. Who are you people? Why can’t I take it off?? Where am I!?

(Daniel looks at his surroundings to see the other human, presumably Pomni, getting comforted by Ragatha.)

Ragatha: Let’s just try to calm down. Everything’s gonna be okay, new stuff. We’ve all been through this. You just need to get your head to--

Pomni: WHAT THE F@€K IS GOING ON!? …Wha--?

(Daniel felt a little isolated from what’s happening around him, that a special power known as a cheat code activated on its own. This one being tied to his alienation, causes him to become invisible.)

Caine: Now, now, now, my dear. We can’t have any of that foul language around here. The Amazing Digital Circus is a place to be enjoyed by all ages! You, my friend, and your little plus one… uhhh… (Caine stops rambling now that he notices Daniel is gone missing.) That’s strange. I could’ve sworn there was more than just you.

Daniel: Hello? Can you see me?

(Caine can’t see Daniel, but he can still hear him.)

Caine: I don’t know where you wandered off to, but I hope you’re hearing me say this.

Daniel: I’m right here, just invisible.

Caine: Invisible??? But… that’s not normally possible… Hang on a second! (Caine grabs his top hat and rummages around until he pulls out a pair of white gloves with a bright green ring around the wrists.) A-ha! Here they are! Put these on!

(Daniel puts on the new gloves and he immediately becomes visible again.)

Daniel: What are these…?

Caine: Your new Hacker Inhibitor Gloves! A little failsafe to keep dirty little cheaters like you in check! Here in the Digital Circus, we call them, “Game Genies”! And it looks like you are the very first Game Genie to step foot into The Amazing Digital Circus! Welcome aboard!

Gangle: They broke my comedy mask…

(Jax deliberately steps on Gangle’s comedy mask, breaking it into more pieces. Gangle is distraught.)

Jax: So, Caine, we have a new adventure today for the newbies, or what?

Caine: I’d like to give our brand new members a tour of the circus grounds first! (Caine whizzes in between Daniel and Pomni, putting each arm around their backs.) Off we go! (The three are zoomed out of the circus tent and get to see it from the outside.) Here we have, the Tent! This is where your living quarters are, as well as all sorts of other activities! These activities may include… (Caine’s eyes go blue as prolonged dial-up tone blares. After a few seconds, he continues like normal.) …Ball pits, mini golf, and more! (Caine then grabs Pomni and Daniel and zooms out further to see the rest of the digital landscape.) And here we have, the Grounds! Drown yourself in the digital lake, or engage in ridery at the digital carnival! Night, day, it’s all okay! The choice is yours! A cosmic buffet!

Pomni: Uh, is… that all there is?

Caine: Of course not! (Caine grabs Daniel and Pomni again and quickly warps them to the void.) This is the Void! We don’t venture out into the Void. (Caine gets close between Daniel and Pomni and speaks ominously.) Not even I know what’s out there.

Daniel: Uh…

(Caine warps them back to the Grounds.)

Caine: We stay right here, where I can keep my… (a bunch of eyeballs surround Caine as he speaks dramatically.) …hundreds of all-seeing eyes on both of you!

Moon: Hello, Caine.~ I love you.~

Caine: Eaugh! Let’s get outta here before the moon gets frisky!

(Out of the corner of her eye, Pomni notices an exit door sitting smack dab in the middle of the Grounds.)

Pomni: Wait, what’s that…

(Caine zips Daniel and Pomni back inside the circus tent. Once inside, the two were nauseous from all the warping, that they both simultaneously threw up on the same spot. Daniel, still seeing stars, lies down on his back.)

Caine: Woah, clean up on aisle you two!

(Bubble then appears out from the top hat.)

Bubble: I’m on it, boss! (Bubble then slowly licks away at the shared vomit.)

Caine: Why are you like this…?

Pomni: Wait, wait! W-Was that an exit door I saw out there? Is that a way to leave?

(Jax chimes in.)

Jax: What exit? (Jax then pulls out Zooble’s right arm and uses it to scratch his back.) If there was a way to leave, I’m pretty sure we’d have all left by now.

(Zooble chokes out Jax with her disembodied arm.)

Zooble: Yeah, what are you talking about?

Caine: U-Uh, I… (clears throat) I assure you, there is no “magical exit door”! You’re probably just experiencing… (dramatically) Digital Hallucinations from your mind’s transition to the digital plane.

Pomni: But I-I swear, I saw…

Caine: DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS! (Caine then enters a state of fidgetiness for a few seconds before continuing.) As for you! (Daniel snaps out of his dizziness to be met with Caine’s “face”.) I don’t know what caused you to be classified as a Game Genie, but something must’ve happened during your transition here! (Caine pulls Daniel up off the floor and back on his feet.) How about we talk about something else? Like your names!

Pomni: My name? My name is, uh… U-U-UH!? Oh, God! Why can’t I remember my name!?

Caine: Nobody can remember their name once they enter the Digital Circus.

Daniel: I remember my name.

Caine: What? (Caine glares at Daniel, intrigued by the fact he's the only human who still remembers some personal information. Daniel stares back at Caine, maintaining a nonchalant expression, somewhat intimidated by the ringmaster staring at him.)

Daniel: Yeah, my name is Daniel. Daniel, uh… What’s my last name? God, it’s like on the tip of my tongue.

(Caine raises a brow as Daniel questions his own identity.)

Caine: Hmmm… Maybe there’s some kind of exception in you that makes you unique… Let’s see… (Caine pulls out a digital tablet from his pocket and looks through each human file. He seems to be in awe of something while he’s going through Daniel’s file.) Huh… You’re the only human to have a cheat code. It’s, “Invisibility”.

Jax: Wait a minute, dentures! You’re saying we have a cheats folder and you never told me!?

(Caine looks at Jax with a stern yet cheeky expression.)

Caine: Now, now, Jax. If you had access to Cheat Codes, you’d likely just abuse them for your own personal gain. The Amazing Digital Circus is meant to be played fair and honest at all times.

Jax: Then what about the new kid? I’m sure he’s got a lot more cheat codes up his sleeve than what he led you to believe.

(Caine turns his attention to Daniel, looking him up and down with a quizzical expression.)

Caine: Do you really think the new human is hiding any other cheat codes aside from turning invisible?

Jax: The only way to find out is by taking off those stupid gloves you made him put on.

(Caine looks at Daniel’s gloves and contemplates Jax’s suggestion. He eventually decides to give it a shot.)

Caine: Hmm… Alright then. Please give me your gloves, Daniel.

(Daniel hesitates for a few seconds before taking off the gloves and handing them to Caine.)

(After the gloves came off, a plethora of various cheat codes both helpful and harmful flooded the file’s cheat folder.)

(Caine’s eyes widened with shock as he observed the numerous cheat codes in Daniel’s folder.)

Caine: My… Goodness! How many cheat codes do you possess?! I’ve never seen any human with this many cheat codes in their file!

Daniel: I swear, I didn’t know anything about no cheat folder! I didn’t even know I was gifted this many!

(Caine continues scrolling through the various cheat codes within Daniel’s file, his curiosity deepening.)

Caine: Hmm… It’s fascinating, but I’m not too sure this is fair. You’re the only human who has cheat codes. Surely, it would create an imbalance. I’m going to have to go ahead and delete some of these cheat codes…

[Error!]

[Cannot delete cheat code!]

(Caine’s eyes widen with surprise and confusion.)

Caine: Huh?! Error… I can’t delete a cheat code? Oh, my upper jaw… (Caine shakes his jaws vigorously before looking at Daniel with a serious expression.) Tell me truthfully, Daniel, and remember, no dirty tricks … Have you ever hacked into a video game in the past?

Daniel: Oh tons of old Nintendo DS games. I’ve even dabbled in modding old Nintendo Wii U and 3DS systems. But this? I would’ve NEVER known until you mentioned it like right now. All I remember was putting on the headset, and then, the power flickered…

(Caine rubs the bottom of his lower jaw in skepticism.)

Caine: I see… For you to have this many cheat codes… It’s as if… (Caine looks at Daniel with an intense stare.) It’s as if something happened when that power flickering occurred… Something that caused you to be gifted with all of these cheat codes… It’s most likely caused by the very transition that has pulled you into this digital realm.

Daniel: Can I please have my gloves back?

(Caine looks back up at Daniel who was now levitating in midair. Another random cheat code was activated. This time being “Zero Gravity”.)

(Caine was taken by surprise when Daniel suddenly began floating in midair. Another random cheat code being activated on its own. Caine sighed and pinched nothing between his floating eyes, getting increasingly irritated.)

Caine: Oh, for the love of… How am I supposed to talk to you when you’re floating midair like that?!

Daniel: Caine, if you don’t give me the gloves, another cheat code will activate, and we both don’t know what it’ll be.

(Caine lets out another sigh, seeming quite exasperated with the situation.)

Caine: … I suppose you’re right… Fine… (Caine gives the gloves back to Daniel, watching as he puts them on and immediately falls back to the ground.) This is going to take a while to get used to…

(Luckily, Daniel manages to land right on Kinger’s pillow fort, breaking his hard landing.)

Kinger: MY IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS!

Daniel: Sorry about that…

Caine: Now, what was I doing again? Oh yeah! A new name! (Caine floats towards Pomni.) Don’t you worry your little head. Your new name can be anything! (In quick succession.) Hereby acknowledging that your chosen name and or names may not breach the Digital Circus user license agreement stating that your name may not include objectionable content. Objectionable content includes but is not limited to sexual explicit materials, obscene, defamatory, libelous, slanderous, violent, and/or unlawful content or profanity. What are ya thinkin’?

Pomni: Huh? I don’t care, just pick anything.

Caine: Let’s see!

(A giant 5-slotted slot machine drops onto the floor. Each slot wheel contains random letters that come together to make a name. After a few seconds, the machine stops at “XDDCC”.)

Caine: What do you think of, “XDDCC”?

Pomni: I don’t…

Caine: You’re right, terrible. Let’s try that again! (Caine pulls the lever and the slots spin to form a new name, “Pomni”.) What do you think of, “Pomni”?

Pomni: Huh? Uh, s-sure. I think I just…

Caine: Gadzooks, you’re right, Jax! We should have a brand new adventure for our new members, Daniel and Pomni!

Jax: I don’t remember asking.

(Caine points his ringmaster stick at Daniel and Pomni.)

Caine: You! Do you two like adventure? Activity? Wonder? Danger? Horror? Pain? Suffering? Agony? Death? Disease? Death? Angel food cake?

(Bubble then eats the spawned angel food cake out from Caine’s hand.)

Caine: … YOU PARASITE! (Caine pops Bubble.)

Pomni: Uh, I don’t really…

Caine: Since both of you are new around here, we’re gonna make it a simple in-house adventure, to warm you two up to how things work around here!

Zooble: Wha… No! God! I don’t want an in-house adventure!

Caine: Don’t worry, Zooble. I’ll make it something unobtrusive that you can still choose to not get involved with. Today’s adventure is… (Caine snaps his fingers and text displays today’s adventure.) GATHER THE GLOINKS! (Caine then cackles maniacally.) That’s right! The entire circus tent will be infested with Gloinks! And YOU gotta catch ‘em all!

Bubble: But what are they?

Caine: I’m glad you asked, Bubble! They’re small…

Bubble: And what do they do?

Caine: They…

Bubble: And how do they…

(Caine pops Bubble again.)

Caine: Gloinks are small mischievous critters that steal anything and everything they run into. Why do these humanoid hash browns do this? How do you stop them? That’s for you to find out! Now, good luck! And have fun, my little superstars! (Just like that, Caine then disappears in a cloud of dust, leaving the members and the lost Game Genie to their devices.)

(Pomni’s eye twitches for a moment.)

Pomni: What did any of that mean?

(Ragatha tries her best to address the point of the adventures given.)

Ragatha: Oh, that’s just one of Caine’s little adventures. They’re just something fun to do to, you know… prevent us from going insane. (Ragatha chuckles nervously.)

Zooble: (sigh) Speak for yourself. If anyone needs me, then f@€k off. (Just as Zooble walked away, she was ambushed by a set of Gloinks.) Oh god! Oh jeez! No! (After the ambush, the Gloinks formed a single file line while carrying all of Zooble’s body parts.) Oh god! Augh! Somebody help!

(Gangle watched on in horror.)

Jax: (bored) Oh no, they killed Zooble. Anyway, you guys wanna get something to eat?

Ragatha: Oh, wait! We should go check on Kaufmo. I’m pretty sure he’d like to meet Pomni.

(A blue star Gloink approached Daniel and Kinger sitting in the broken pillow fort. Daniel noticed the Gloink and before he could do anything, he was carried away with the Gloinks as they took all the pillows away from Kinger.)

(Daniel’s entire body flailed and tumbled with the Gloink that grabbed him by his foot. His grunts and thuds could be heard in the distance.)

Ragatha: Hey, Kinger! You wanna come with us to check on Kaufmo?

(Kinger gets up from off the floor.)

Kinger: No, not really. (Kinger makes his way to Pomni and Ragatha.) I think Kaufmo’s gone insane. Last time I spoke with him, he was rambling endlessly about some, “exit”. (Kinger then leans his upper body towards Pomni’s direction.) Kinda like you, Pomni. You might be going insane too.

Pomni: But, wait! Wouldn’t that more likely mean the exit does exist?

Jax: Could also mean you just have a jumpstart in losing your mind.

Gangle: (from afar) Wait, what about Daniel and Zooble?

Pomni: Well I think, I’d like to ask him about it… U-Uh, if this was real, which it isn’t, because it’s a dream. (Pomni smirks in her belief that she’s just dreaming.)

Jax: Heh, she now thinks this is a dream. (Jax pulls off the ultimate shit-eating grin of shit-eating grins while staring at Ragatha.)

Ragatha: U-Uh, why are you looking at me like that?

Jax: I’m fine with doing whatever. As long as I get to see funny things happen to people.

(A green square Gloink hops its way to Jax and smacks him in the face.)

Jax: Ow! Okay, I’ve already had enough of these things. (Jax sighs in frustration.) You, me, and Pomni will go check on Kaufmo. Which leaves Crybaby, and Hoo-ha, together to go handle the Zooble situation. And as for the Game Genie…

Daniel: (from really far away) AUGH! OOF! OW! HELP! ME! PLEASE!

Jax: Eh, he’ll be fine.

Ragatha: (laughs nervously) Do you think pairing them up together is a good idea?

Jax: Of course I do! They’re the two most mentally stable and capable characters to be paired together.

(Kinger’s nerves reach astronomical speeds as he twitches and shakes in place like a wacky wavy inflatable arm flailing tube man.)

Jax: I’m sure Daniel will catch up with them shortly. He’s got enough power to disintegrate that Gloink on his foot. C’mon ladies, let’s go harass the clown.

(With that, Jax, Ragatha, and Pomni set out to search for Kaufmo.)

Gangle: My comedy mask is broken again…

Kinger: …

Kinger: GAH! Oh! Gangle. You startled me.

(Ragatha, Pomni, and Jax enter through the curtains and into a large hallway that has doors on each side of the walls with art work of every character that has been here.)

Ragatha: So, this is where we all live. Or well, where we all sleep at night. Even though we don’t really need to sleep, it’s sometimes nice to kinda take a break from everything and have a bit of a routine, y’know?

(Jax looks to his left and see a door with a glitched out picture on it and thought nothing of it.)

Ragatha: I’m sure there’ll be one for… (the three members stop at Pomni’s door which has an artwork of her sad face on it.) Oh look! You already got one!

(The three continue walking down the hallway as usual.)

Pomni: I… still don’t understand… about the adventures. Why even go on them at all? W-W-Why not try to find a way to… leave?

Ragatha: Well, we usually do, when we first arrived. But, after a while, you start to realize that, you really can’t leave. And constantly chasing an unobtainable goal will start driving you a bit crazy. And eventually you get to asking what the point of anything is, and you completely lose sight of who you are and why you’re even alive. And when you reach your breaking point, something really terrible can happen. (Ragatha snaps out of her deranged rambling right on time to be met with Kaufmo’s door. The picture on his door depicts a happy clown with a yellow hat and the smile of a total goofy goober.) …

Ragatha: Ah, but that’s not something we need to deal with today! Above anything else, the adventures give us something to do that keeps our minds healthy and stimulated. (Ragatha rings the doorbell to Kaufmo’s room.)

Jax: (playfully) Thank goodness this is all a dream, right Pomni?

(Pomni looks like she’s seen a ghost. Jax helps her snap out of it by tapping her face with the back of his hand.)

Pomni: (gasps) Why are we here again? What are we doing?

Ragatha: We’re getting one of our friends. (Ragatha rings Kaufmo’s doorbell again, only to be met with total silence.) Huh. Maybe he’s not in his room? I hope he’s alright.

Jax: Don’t worry, dollface. (Jax holds up a key.) I got a key to his room. (Jax then approaches Kaufmo’s door and kneels down to put the key in.)

Ragatha: Wha… Wait, wh… why? You… You… You shouldn’t have keys to anyone’s room!

Jax: Nah, I got keys everywhere, and you’ve all been fine. By the way, I may have left something in your room today, so let me know if you find it. Eh, you’re not afraid of centipedes, are you?

Ragatha: JAX! That’s literally my only fear, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS!?

Jax: (trolling) Whaaat? It could be a completely unrelated question! You’ll never know until it’s too late.

(Jax opens Kaufmo’s door and the three members are met with walls that are filled with the word “EXIT” written supposedly in blood, horrifying paintings that signifies Kaufmo’s descent into madness, and a terrifying giant dark multi-color-eyed monster that used to be Kaufmo the Clown himself.)

(Jax notices the bowling ball and grabs it.)

Jax: Oh, I’ve been looking for this! Thanks for keeping an eye on it, Kaufy. Imma head out. See ya. (With that, in a flash, Jax leaves the other two members with the abstract monster.)

Ragatha: (nervously) Oh! Kaufmo’s… been abstracted! That’s… That’s okay!

Pomni: What… is that?

Ragatha: Uh… It might be that terrible thing I was talking about earlier, when you reach your breaking point?

Pomni: H-Huh!?

(Kaufmo pokes his abstracted head out of the doorway.)

Ragatha: O-Okay, wait! M-Maybe there’s still time to fix him if we get Caine!

(Kaufmo squeezes the rest of his abstracted body out the other side of the door, knocking Ragatha on to the floor, and pushing Pomni away from Ragatha. Pomni gets up and runs a good distance away from Kaufmo as a fight or flight reflex.)

Ragatha: Oh, woah! Kaufmo, listen! I know we didn’t always get along, like when you called me out for fake-laughing at your jokes! I swear, I really did think they were funny, I was just having a bit of a bad day!

(Kaufmo grabs Ragatha and slams her relentlessly to the floor and the walls of the hallway, before flinging her to hit every surface of the corridor, even the ceiling. The attacks made Ragatha badly injured, glitching like crazy. Her glitchiness makes her voice stutter.)

Ragatha: H-H-Hey, Pomni-i-i? Do you-u-u think… y-y-you could… perha-a-aps help m-me out here-ere? I u-understa-and… if y-y-you-u don’t… want to-o, thou-ou-ough.

(Pomni sucks it up and holds out her hand in hopes of helping Ragatha out, but the glitchiness of Ragatha zaps Pomni’s hand, causing it to glitch out too.)

Pomni: Ow! (Pomni looks at her glitched hand, then down at Ragatha, then looks at the monster behind her. There’s nothing she could do besides run for her digital life.) I’m sorry! (Pomni runs for the curtains, while Kaufmo roars and chases after her, kicking Ragatha while she’s already down on the floor.)

(Meanwhile, after some time, the Gloink stops hopping and moving, allowing Daniel to regain control of his situation. He quickly grabs the Gloink and successfully pulls it off his foot.)

Daniel: Aha! Gotcha! (Daniel tries to chuck the Gloink away from his hand, but it refuses to let go. He shakes his whole arm to get it off him, but it’s stuck to him until someone, presumably Caine, helps take the Gloink off him.)

(Out of nowhere, a loud crash can be heard. Daniel looks up and sees the now abstracted Kaufmo fall from the second floor down to the main floor. He pokes his head out from the other side of the vibrant colored structure he was behind when Kaufmo fell, and then it chases a red triangle Gloink.)

Daniel: …What is that…? (Daniel then looks up at the broken multicolored railing and sees Pomni peeking out.) Pomni…?

(Pomni leaves Daniel’s vision. He looks down at the Gloink that’s still stuck in his hand, despite not holding onto it at all. He then looks up at the blue tall pillars that lead to the railing. He then tries to speak to the Gloink.)

Daniel: Hey buddy. I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m gonna need you to help me climb all the way up there. (Daniel points to the tall blue pillars while the Gloink watches.) I don’t know if I’m able to do this… (Daniel holds the Gloink in both hands, trying to stretch it into splitting in half.) …but… sorry in advance…! (After Daniel stretched the Gloink far enough, it split into two smaller Gloinks.) There we go! (Daniel then eyes the tall blue pillars.) You can do this, Daniel.

(Daniel dashes towards the pillars, raises both hands above his head, and then jumps onto the pillar. Then, by using the sticky grip of the small Gloinks, he climbs up the pillar, using the Gloinks as portable rock stubs when rock climbing. He can hear Kaufmo’s abstracted growling in the distance, but it didn’t stop him from reaching the top.)

(Once Daniel has made it to the top, all that was in the way was a leap of faith. The pillars felt unstable beneath him. If he was gonna jump, he must jump now.)

(Daniel takes a running start, takes the leap of faith, and lands on the other side of the railing. The Gloinks in his hand saving him from a fatal digital injury. He quickly climbs over the other side of the railing and is met with the sweet pink floor. He had done it.)

(After a few seconds of rest, Daniel gets up from off the pink floor and sees the broken railing to his right. He smushes the Gloinks back into the regular sized Gloink, sticks it on his back, and then heads off into the curtained doorway.)

(As Daniel walked down the big, long, and trashed hallway, he sees Pomni rush in the opposite direction.)

Daniel: Pomni? Pomni, what is going on!?

Pomni: Can’t talk now! Gotta find Caine!

Daniel: Wait, uh… (Pomni continued to rush out through the curtains. Daniel hesitated but continued to press forward and figure out what the heck happened to the hallway while he was outside. He sees Ragatha glitching like crazy and is immediately concerned.)

Ragatha: D-D-Daniel? (Daniel rushes towards Ragatha, who’s still glitching like crazy.)

Daniel: Woah! R-Ragatha, what happened?

Ragatha: D-D-Don’t worry-y abou-ou-out me-e.

Daniel: No. I won’t let you die from whatever this is. Grab my hands.

Ragatha: B-B-But I-I…

Daniel: Please!

(Daniel grabs Ragatha by her glitchy limp rag-doll hands. The glitchy state she’s in sends electric shocks to his hands, causing him to wince for a moment. The strength of the glitchiness seeps into Daniel’s Hacker Inhibitor Gloves, bugging them out.)

Ragatha: D-D-Daniel! St-St-Stop-p!

(Daniel lets go of Ragatha. He looks at his gloves coated with glitches. Little did he know that the glitchiness inside the gloves helps allow Daniel to pick a cheat code of his choice to use at any time. This’ll be a good opportunity to use his magic godlike cheating powers to help those in need.)

(Daniel concentrates hard and activates a cheat code of his choice. In this case, it was “Heal Other Players’ Injuries”. He rubs his hands together, creating kinetic healing properties. He then grabs Ragatha by both arms and refuses to let go.)

(As Daniel held on to Ragatha’s arms, the glitchiness slowly faded away from her body. After a few seconds of healing, she was back to normal. Daniel then helps Ragatha up from the floor.)

(Ragatha’s body returns to its normal state as the glitchiness fades away. She looks at Daniel with a slight air of disbelief and gratitude in her eyes.)

Ragatha: Thank you, Daniel… You saved me. I don’t know how you did that, but… Thank you.

(Daniel smiles weakly at Ragatha, his own body feeling the effects of using the healing cheat code. He feels a bit worn out, but content knowing he was able to help Ragatha.)

(Daniel and Ragatha walk down the big destroyed hallway, looking around at the carnage caused by Kaufmo.)

Daniel: So, what was with Pomni running the other way?

Ragatha: Oh, I told her that the only way to fix me and deal with Kaufmo was to go get Caine. Caine can be difficult to get attention once he leaves the tent, and we don’t really know where he disappears to, so our best bet is to look around and call out for him.

(Daniel looks to his right and sees the door with a picture of Pomni’s face on it. And the door before hers has a glitched out picture of Daniel’s face with green outlines and a black background.)

Daniel: I-Is that supposed to be my room?

Ragatha: I suppose so. I mean, Caine said it himself. You really are the first cheater we’ve ever came across. I’m just hoping that you’ll use your powers for the good of everyone, including yourself.

(Daniel walks towards his door, his curiosity growing as he takes a closer look at the glitched picture of him plastered onto it.)

Daniel: You really think I can help out everyone, Ragatha?

Ragatha: I know you can, Daniel. You just saved me from a glitching mess. And you did it without hesitation to save me, a stranger’s, life. I have confidence that you’ll only use your powers for the greater good.

(Daniel pauses for a moment, seemingly contemplating over Ragatha’s words. He looks at her, a genuine smile across his face.)

(Daniel then realized the situation Pomni’s now in. She’s calling out for Caine while an abstracted Kaufmo is lurking around the circus. There’s a chance that he could severely damage her.)

Daniel: Oh no…! Pomni! (Daniel makes a mad dash for the curtained doorway that leads out into the rest of the circus tent.)

Ragatha: Hey! Wait up! (Ragatha tries her best to catch up with Daniel.)

(Pomni skids into a left turn as she’s currently being chased by the abstracted Kaufmo. He growls like a bloodhound high on the scent of blood. Pomni dashes and makes a break away from Kaufmo’s warped line of sight.)

Pomni: Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide!

(Pomni stops right next to an elegant looking mirror on her left. She takes a good long look at herself, befuddled by what she looks like. A jester.)

Daniel: Pomni! Over here!

(Pomni looks to her right and see Daniel and Ragatha hiding behind a yellow barrel. She runs right towards them as Kaufmo grew near.)

Daniel: Quick! Release the monkeys!

(Daniel, Pomni, and Ragatha work together to open the lid on the yellow barrel, releasing a multitude of red bouncing monkeys. Everyone hides behind the barrel while Kaufmo chases one of the monkeys. The distraction worked.)

(Kaufmo catches the monkey and stomps it into the checkered floor. Flattening it like a glitched pancake. He then walks further away from the barrel, and away from Pomni, Daniel, and Ragatha.)

(Pomni runs away from the barrel in continuing to find Caine.)

Pomni: God, where is Caine? (Pomni notices an exit door standing right in front of her. Daniel and Ragatha catch up with her and see the exit door that she stares at. Pomni, since she got here, has been longing for a way out of the game, and now this was her chance to leave. The growls of Kaufmo hang in the atmosphere of the circus tent. She feels a hand on her shoulder.)

Daniel: You go in there and see where it takes you. Ragatha and I will try to seek shelter somewhere else. And I’ll deal with Kaufmo.

(Pomni approaches the exit door and opens it looking back at Daniel and Ragatha.)

Daniel: See you on the other side, Pomni.

(Pomni closes the exit door on the other side. The exit door then fades away. A red triangle Gloink hops peacefully a few yards behind Daniel and Ragatha. Kaufmo followed the Gloink and smashed it into the ground, causing cracks in the floor.)

Daniel: Hey! Kaufmo!

(Kaufmo looks at Daniel taunting him with the Gloink stuck to his back.)

Daniel: You see the Gloink? Come and get me! (Daniel picks up Ragatha in both hands and dashes away from Kaufmo as fast as he can. He activates another cheat code, this time being “Speed Shoes”.)

(Kaufmo slams his abstracted head against the ground, but Daniel manages to evade Kaufmo’s attacks as they ran towards a big circular hole in the floor. Daniel stops near the hole looks at Ragatha, who’s looking down at the big dark hole. He sets her back on her feet near the hole’s edge.)

Daniel: You’re gonna have to jump, Ragatha.

Ragatha: Uh… A-Are you sure this is safe?

Daniel: Just trust me on this!

Ragatha: O-Okay.

(Ragatha does what Daniel says and jumps dollishly into the hole. Daniel turns around and faces Kaufmo head on. The abstract beast stops and faces Daniel with its multiple multicolored eyes, and fluctuating polygons.)

Daniel: Hey! Kaufy!

(Daniel grabs the aforementioned Gloink from his back and taunts Kaufmo with it, treating it like a dog frisbee. He holds up his arm, ready to launch the Gloink nice and far to get Kaufmo to leave.)

Daniel: Go, FETCH!

(Daniel uses his cheat powers to shoot the sticky Gloink off from his hand. Kaufmo sees the Gloink fly over him and immediately chases after it, leaving Daniel to hop in after Ragatha. He jumps into the hole cannon ball style.)

Daniel: Cannonball!!!

(Daniel falls right into a red slide that consists of comical twists, turns, loops, and ramps. After that, the slide ends in the Gloink cave, where the almighty Gloink Queen resides in all her slugginess. Daniel sees Gangle, Kinger, Ragatha, and Jax standing off against the Gloink Queen.)

Gloink Queen: You foolish assortment of colorful characters! Do you not realize that EVERYTHING must be Gloinks!? I, am Gloinks! YOU , will be Gloinks! GOD , WILL BE GLOINKS!

Jax: This is dumb and weird.

Gloink Queen: Well, b-- Uh-- Y-Yet, you’re still watching it!

Jax: I’m not here for the adventure or anything. I’m just here to hide from the…

(Suddenly, Kaufmo breaks the floor beneath him and lands right on top of the Gloink Queen. She spits out Zooble’s head and Kinger’s disembodied hands right in his direction. He flies backwards into the rocky wall.)

Kinger: Oh, thank god you’re okay! You didn’t experience a game show in there, did you?

Zooble: (visibly confused) Uh… I… What are you talking about…?

(The abstracted Kaufmo beats the Gloink Queen to a glitchy pulp, slaying it in cold digital blood while she cries out in pain. Gangle watches in horror. Jax is unfazed with everything. Ragatha looks like she’s seen not just a ghost, but a haunted house full of them. Daniel is more or less concerned about everyone.)

Gangle: What’s happening!?

Jax: That’s just Kaufmo. Don’t worry about it.

Ragatha: …

Daniel: Uh… guys…?

Gangle: KAUFMO ABSTRACTED!?

Jax: Nah, he’s fine.

(Kinger, still holding onto Zooble’s head, slowly loses it.)

Kinger: YOU’RE RIGHT! HOW ARE WE GONNA GET OUTTA HERE!?

(Zooble’s fed up as usual.)

Zooble: Guys. Over there.

(Everyone turns to see the set of escalators that lead to the main floor of the circus tent.)

Kinger: Huh.

(Everyone starts making their way to the escalators.)

Jax: Ladies first. No wait, why would I say that? (Jax then deliberately pushes Gangle over, knocking her to the ground. Ragatha’s still speechless after she saw Kaufmo brutally beating the Gloink Queen to death. Daniel helps Ragatha get on the escalator.)

Zooble: Wait, Pomni’s not even here!? Wasn’t this whole thing for her and the cheater!?

Jax: Be quiet. I can’t hear the escalator.

Daniel: You uh… okay there, Ragatha?

Ragatha: …

Daniel: Hmm… I just hope Pomni’s in a better place, wherever she is…

(Meanwhile, Pomni is deep into the office labyrinth. Every exit door she opened led to yet another room. There was no telling if she was getting closer or further away from leaving her digital hell. Every shred of her sanity was being plucked away as she ran through door, after door, after door, running, and panting frantically. The only thing that’s keeping her from giving up was the hopes of one exit door out of all the ones she’s opened being the one that gets her out.)

(Pomni presses on inside a bigger office room, but as she reaches the exit door, she stops and turns her attention to the computer on the opposite side of the room. This wasn’t any ordinary computer. This was the same computer, with the same headset connected to it, that sent her into the game in the first place.)

(Pomni chuckles crazily, realizing that she did this to herself. Her sanity suffers a major blow from seeing that same computer. Nevertheless, she opens the exit door and enters into a long hallway. The wall on the opposite side of the hallway has a giant logo that reads “C&A”, possibly hinting to the fact that Pomni worked for that company. She didn’t stop to see it though. She was focused on getting out of her predicament.)

(Pomni quickly opens the exit door and enters another long hallway. This one felt different than the previous corridors. She could feel this one being the last room before she escapes. She grasps at the exit door on the other side of the hallway, desperate to see if she’ll reach the real world or not.)

(Pomni turns the door handle, opens the door, and launches herself into the open endless void. After all the pain she’s endured through, the corridors she ran past, all that was left for her was the void. This void was bright, mysterious, and enchanting. Pomni flew deeper and deeper into the void, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Was the void her one way out? What could possibly lie beyond the void?)

(Meanwhile, Caine and Bubble are hanging out together at a fancy restaurant populated by wooden mannequins. The two are both laughing.)

Caine: Oh, Bubble. You always know how to make me say this exact sentence. (Suddenly, Caine’s WackyWatch alarms him.) Gasp! An alert on my WackyWatch at this hour?

[Alert! Someone’s stuck in the void!]

Caine: Oh no! Someone’s venturing out into the void! They’ll get totally spoiled! (Caine teleports out of the restaurant and into the void to grab Pomni and teleport her back into the circus. Once Caine teleports Pomni back into the circus, he puts her back on her feet.)

Caine: There you go!

(Pomni looks like she’s died and gotten so close to reaching heaven, before snapping out of it.)

Caine: Now what the heck happened around here? (Caine observes the mess that surrounds him and Pomni.) Oh yeah! My doing!

(The rest of the circus members rush to Caine.)

Daniel: Caine! There you are!

Kinger: Kaufmo went through a sort of kaufmosis, and abstracted!

Caine: Kaufmo abstracted? (Jokingly) Why didn’t anybody tell me!? (Caine sticks his tongue out while cartoon sfx played.)

(Pomni looks at Caine with a mixture of confusion and sternness. Caine snaps his fingers and another giant hole opens near the other circus members. Daniel loses his balance a bit, wobbling before regaining ground. Everyone looks up at Kaufmo floating in the air above the hole.)

Caine: And into the cellar you go!

(Kaufmo is lowered into the cellar which is full of other abstracted players. The hole closes up, and Kaufmo was never seen again.)

(Zooble’s body makes its way to Kinger to put her head back on her body.)

Zooble: Man. I can’t believe Kaufmo just gave up like that. I mean, no offense Kinger, but, I always thought you’d be next.

Kinger: (thankful) Thank you.

Jax: Guess it just goes to show you can’t rely on Kinger for anything.

(Ragatha snaps out of her scared face and sees Pomni. She makes her way to her while Daniel follows.)

Ragatha: Pomni, your hand.

(Caine looks at Pomni’s glitched arm.)

Caine: Oop!

(Caine snaps his fingers again to fix Pomni’s glitched hand. Pomni looks at her hand to see it has stopped glitching. She doesn’t make any side eye contact with Daniel or Ragatha.)

Caine: I… do have to apologize for lying about the exit. I knew how much all of you have been wanting there to be one, but, y’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.

(Pomni realizes that all this exit doors, especially the same on that led her into the void was never going to let her leave the game. She was destined to stay for god knows how long, with the other randos who were just as unlucky as she is.)

Caine: Anyway, it looks like you defeated the Gloink Queen, so I guess the adventure’s over! Your reward, is a delicious digital feast cooked by our head Bubble Chef!

Bubble: Made with all the love I’m legally allowed to give.

Jax: Y’know I am pretty hungry.

Gangle: You didn’t even do anything.

Jax: So what? I can still be hungry.

Kinger: Well, not really, ‘cause we don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep in this digital world. So the digital food here only gives off the virtual sensation of eating, without any of the nutritional values.

Jax: Sheesh, lay off it. Since when are you an expert on the digital world?

Kinger: Expert on the what?

( Since that adventure, everyone’s who was affected by Kaufmo has been put on edge. Pomni’s still in the middle of processing that there really is no way to leave. Jax is still looking for any trouble to stir with Gangle. Zooble couldn’t possibly care any less about my situation. Ragatha and Kinger are talking about, something. I don’t really know, it doesn’t involve me. Nothing does. )

(After the digital feast, Daniel returns to the now fixed hallway and stares at his own door. He takes a deep breath before opening it. He’s met with pitch black, then the room builds itself, forming everything in a neon green wireframe, before everything is given the textures to create an almost identical replica of Daniel’s room in the real world. The window has a good view of the rest of the grounds, as the sun with a bright cartoon smile on its face slowly sets.)

( I will give Caine this, however. He did a pretty decent job in remaking my room from the real world. )

(Daniel gets into his family sized bed. Being about the same size as Pomni, this bed was clearly made for more than just him.)

( Don’t really know what I’d do with a bed this big though. )

Chapter 1.5: Surprise!

(Daniel lays down on his extremely large bed, staring endlessly into the nothing up at the ceiling. Being a hacker in charge of not easily destroying the digital world is hard enough. His eyelids begin to feel heavy when all of a sudden…)

Caine: BWAAA!!!

Daniel: AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! (Daniel jumps high off his bed and lands face first on the ceiling.)

Caine: Hey, Daniel! Guess what!

Daniel: (muffled) Whyyyyy…

Caine: You’re right! The prologue to The Amazing Digital Circus; The Game Genie, Ready Game Genie, has reached the impossible goal of 1 kudos, and will now be upgraded to chapter 1, of The Amazing Digital Circus; The Game Genie full story!

(Daniel lands back down on his bed.)

Daniel: Oof… Wait, is that how that normally works…?

Caine: Silence! I have so much to show you! (Caine warps Daniel with him to the Grounds.) Pomni’s little crying face left quite the little crying mark on the internet! Something I don’t canonically have any knowledge of! (Caine displays a screen full of shitty content farm videos.) Take a look!

Daniel: Caaaine… What am I looking at…?

Caine: The consequences of our actions! (Ominously) And it’s only going to get worse from here.

Daniel: Uh… Oh god…

Caine: But that’s not what I’m here to show you! (Caine flips the screen around to show a candy landscape.) I’m here to show you all the cool adventures you and your silly billies are gonna go on! Like this cool Candy Canyon Kingdom! And Kinger with a shotgun! And let’s not forget about minimum wage labor. (The screen then shows a grey model of a baseball stadium.) How about some- wait, wait. This isn’t finished yet! DON’T LOOK!

Sun: Hai Caine! I’m gonna kill you!

Caine: W-W-What? Why?

Sun: I saw the whole original series, and everybody’s furious about you not bringing that NPC back after episode twooooo!

Caine: I mean, I guess we could keep him, but-

Sun: Ok, nvm! I don’t wanna kill you anymore!

Daniel: What was the sun talking about…?

Caine: Oh he’s just one of the characters you’ll meet shortly! Speaking of characters, there will be all sorts of new dialogue from many of our new colorful characters!

(In rapid succession, pictures of Gummigoo, The Fudge, Princess Loolilalu, and the frantic blue mannequin NPC flash in Daniel’s eyes.)

Daniel: … W-Wait, what was that first picture?

Caine: With this many new characters, imagine all the nasty deviant art work that we’ll be completely powerless to do ANYTHING ABOUT!

Daniel: Uh… is this a cry for help…?

(Caine transforms into a pickle.)

Daniel: I… see…

(Caine pops back to normal.)

Caine: I blacked out for a second, what happened?

Daniel: I… You-

(Bubble emerges from Daniel’s mouth and escapes.)

Bubble: How can we watch the full series, if it’s not even finished itself?

Caine: Great question, Daniel! You can start by watching each episode before reading the chapters they’re based off of! Therefore you can start to understand how much Daniel changes the game, quite literally! And while you’re at it, why not support the original series by buying some of their merchandise? All merch sales go right back into funding their show, and allows them to do bigger and crazier things, to keep our fanfiction story happy and healthy!

Bubble: Wowee! I’d become a pin if it meant getting sold to fund more wacky advent- (Pinned!)

Caine: Like this Bubble pin!

Daniel: Wait, th-this has nothing to do with- (Pomni pinned!)

Caine: And this Pomni pin! And we can’t forget about this… (I’M PICKLE CAINE!) Me plushie! Also available are these cool shirts at your local Hot Topic, and the Digital Circus sticker sheet! Plus, a limited edition vinyl record featuring all the songs from the Digital Circus pilot! And I haven’t even mentioned these cool plastic figurines that well adjusted people can be normal and responsible with! These products are only available at digitalcircus.store! Any other source is a dirty bootleg and won’t support their show, no matter how legit or silly they look! So what are you waiting for? Support The Amazing Digital Circus at digitalcircus.store, so it can help motivate Daniel to make more of this wonderful fanfiction!

Caine: … And, that’s all I have to announce. Bye!

Daniel: (muffled in the Pomni pin) Okay Caine, you can warp me back to my room now! Caine??

(Caine disappears in a comical fashion.)

Daniel: (muffled) CAINE!? Once I get outta here, I’m gonna kick his teeth in, I swear to god.

Chapter Text

[0, 1, 2, 3%]

(Daniel sleeps in his big bed.)

( Since my arrival, I stuck out like the sorest thumb possible. )

[4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10%]

(As the number went up in his head, Daniel felt more and more uneasy.)

( I couldn’t make a single connection with anyone. )

[15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20%]

( It didn’t seem to matter whether I kept my real name, kept my prior memories, or managed to lose either or both. )

[26, 27, 28, 29, 30%]

( It also didn’t help that my bed is twice the size it’s normally supposed to be. )

[37, 38, 39, 40%]

(Daniel started getting twitchy.)

( One thing was clear though. )

[58, 59, 60%]

( I’m NOT like the other players. )

[79, 80%]

(Daniel was now full on tossing and turning in his sleep.)

( I’m, completely, alone. )

[Loneliness: 99, 100%]

[New cheat code unlocked: Teleportation]

[Teleporting…]

(While Daniel was tossing and turning, he couldn’t close his eyes, but he did feel a cheat code activate on its own. He was then suddenly teleported out of his room in a bright flash.)

(Meanwhile, a ringing on the doorbell wakes Pomni up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare about abstracting and being left to rot in the dark cellar with the other abstracted players. She jumps out of bed, falls on a toy letter block, clips into it, shoots into the ceiling, and then lands on her face near her door.)

(Pomni slowly tilts her head up off the floor of her room, looks to her right, towards the block that launched her into the ceiling, then looks upwards to be greeted by her door.)

Pomni: (groans) Huh…? (Pomni lowers her head back down onto the floor.)

(The person who rang Pomni’s doorbell was Ragatha. She’s checking up on Pomni after the wild, wacky, and wondrous in-house adventure they had yesterday.)

Ragatha: Hey, Pomni. How’d you sleep? (Ragatha pauses for a second.) Are you still sleeping? I’ll let you get back to it if you are.

(Pomni opens a tiny bit of her door, still processing everything happening in her new life.)

Ragatha: There she is. Hope you’re doing alright. I know yesterday was a bit of a doozy.

(Pomni opens the door a bit more.)

Pomni: “A doozy”…

Ragatha: Oh, and don’t worry about the whole, “leaving me and Daniel for the exit” thing. It’s perfectly understandable what you were going through at the time, and there’s no hard feelings. (chuckles) you’re all good.

(Pomni clearly still has a ton of things going on in her head. Her mind shrouded in thoughts and confusion.)

Pomni: Huh…?

(Ragatha’s attempts at letting water flow under the bridge blows up in her face. She instead changes the subject.)

Ragatha: Uh, well, let’s just forget about all that. I also checked up on Daniel, but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere. I hope he’s okay. The circus is big, and probably ever expanding, so who knows where he ended up.

(Pomni walks out of her room and closes the door behind her.)

Ragatha: It’d sure suck for him to miss out on the new adventure too. Caine’s got a new adventure today, and judging by what he’s been teasing, it seems like it’s gonna be a fun one.

(Cut to the main stage area of the circus tent. All the circus members wait on the checkered floor while Caine takes the stage in introducing the new adventure.)

Caine: Today’s adventure is… (Caine waves his magic ringmaster cane around, and text displays the new adventure as confetti is tossed in the air.) Candy Carrier Chaos! That’s right! The Candy Canyon Kingdom’s been robbed of their most valuable resource!

(Bubble enters the stage to present the valuable resource. Caine snaps his fingers, Bubble opens their mouth, sticks out their tongue, and reveals a bottle of maple syrup.)

Caine: Maple syrup! It’s up to you to bring the rotten bandits who stole it to sweet, buttery justice!

Bubble: An entire kingdom of candy? Sounds sticky.

Caine: Very sticky indeed!

Bubble: Sounds (BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!).

Caine: (bewildered) … Bubble, you can’t say that…

Zooble: Mmmmmmmmmm, nope.

Caine: ZOOBLE WAIT! I-I’m testing out a new AI in this one! It should be 57 times more immersive!

Jax: (breaching Zooble’s personal bubble) Ooh, a new AI. (Jax nudges Zooble with his lanky elbow.) You don’t want to mess with the new AI, Zoobie?

Zooble: Uh, yeah, no. (Zooble walks way, limping as part of her mix n match nature.)

Ragatha: Woah, sounds fun. What do you think, Pomni?

Pomni: So, our entire existence here… is just, LARPing?

Ragatha: W-Well, uh…

(Caine frantically interrupts Ragatha.)

Caine: Why are all just standing there!? The-- The Canyon-- C-Canyon Candy Kingdom needs you now! (Caine snaps his fingers, and a portal opens up next to a happy and cheerful Gangle. He then shoves every member, besides Zooble, into the portal that leads to the Candy Canyon Kingdom.)

(Caine then takes out a smoke pipe and takes a puff of some bubbles. Bubble floats near Caine, who he then tries to offer to Bubble.)

Caine: Hmm?

Bubble: Nah, thanks, I’m trying to quit.

(Cut to a world that’s entirely made out of candy and sweet stuff alike. Gangle, Kinger, Ragatha, Jax, and Pomni are carried to the kingdom gates via transportation on a candy coated carriage pulled by a giant gummy elephant.)

(As they got closer to the moat that surrounds the kingdom walls, the drawbridge lowers down, and the members are greeted with a huge crowd of cheering multicolored mannequins. Confetti rained endlessly across the kingdom as the gummy elephant walked down the open path the mannequins made.)

(Some of the mannequins were waving, to which Ragatha waved back with a smile on her face. As the gummy elephant stopped, the circus members hopped off and made their way down the open path that leads to the castle itself.)

Ragatha: Wow, Kinger, look at this castle! It’s amazing!

(A little candy butterfly flies near Kinger, putting a smile in Kinger’s eyes.)

Kinger: They’ve even got little candy bugs here. It’s so beautiful.

Gangle: Yeah, this place is great! (Gangle’s happiness is cut short as a blue mannequin frantically rushes in, shoving Gangle and breaking her comedy mask yet again.)

Blue mannequin: LOOK!!! IT’S THE PRINCESS!!!

(Trumpet fanfare plays as the princess of the Candy Canyon Kingdom, Princess Loolilalu, makes her entrance to the circus members.)

Princess Loolilalu: Ah, you must be the brave knights sent to us by God… (A stained glass painting of Caine goofily sticking his tongue out is seen atop the castle’s outer wall.) to help us with our recent catastrophe.

Ragatha: That’s us, ma’am. Your kingdom’s awesome, by the way. Love the vibe.

Princess Loolilalu: (giggles) I like you already.

Ragatha: Look, Pomni. We’re already friends with the princess!

Pomni: (flatly) I’m not a child, you don’t have to hype me up.

(The princess walks down the stairs to get closer with the members.)

Princess Loolilalu: I assume you’ve been informed of your mission. The bandits that robbed us used a modded syrup tanker, so we figured the best way to go head-to-head with them, is to give you a war rig of your own.

(A candy coated war rig drives into view, running over a poor innocent yellow mannequin. Since no one is in the driver’s seat, it’s a mystery on how the war rig got here, let alone run someone over.)

Jax: Ooh, violence!

Pomni: What time period is this supposed to be, again?

Princess Loolilalu: Here’s the key back into the kingdom for when you’ve secured the goods. (The princess gives the key, in an elegant fashion, to Ragatha.) I trust you not to let it fall into the wrong hands?

Ragatha: You can count on me, Your Highness.

Princess Loolilalu: Oh, please. Call me Loo.

Ragatha: (chuckles) Will do, Loo.

Jax: I call shotgun! (Jax dashes to the war rig, opens the door and hops right into the driver’s seat. He then honks the horn, and it makes a goofy, distorted, warbling sound.) Oh, god, is that the horn? Ugh, that sucks! (Jax pulls Gangle into the driver’s seat, and he moves into the passenger seat next to her.) Gangle, you drive.

(Kinger, Ragatha, and Pomni then individually enter the back seats of the war rig.)

Princess Loolilalu: Farewell, good knights! I have every faith in you!

(The truck engine revs up, pink clouds come out of the candy cane exhaust pipes, the truck begins to move into the open path, and the circus members ride on out of the kingdom gates, and into the open depths of the Candy Canyons, as the kingdom’s drawbridge closes back up.)

(Meanwhile, in the outskirts of the Candy Canyons, inhabit three distinct Australian gummy gators. Chad, the orange-yellow lanky gator, Max, the purple-red chubby gator, and Gummigoo, the yellow-green leader who’ll do anything to save his village, and his family. Right now, Chad and Max are chipping away at some candy eggs(?) with sharpened candy cane blades, while Gummigoo is out on watch duty, looking out for anyone trying to take the syrup from their war rig.)

Chad: D’you think your mum’s gonna pull through if we get all this back to the village?

Max: I’m sure she will. This much syrup would save hundreds of people.

(Gummigoo puts down the binoculars for a moment and looks back at Chad and Max.)

Gummigoo: We won’t know for sure until we get back to the village. She’s a fighter, though. She taught me everything I know. (He gives them a reassuring grin before putting the binoculars back on his face.)

( Or at least, I thought I was. Until I ran into him. )

(Suddenly, a bright light flashes near Chad and Max, and behind Gummigoo. The candy eggs(?) are thrown out of their hands, and the teal fire they had set up gets put out.)

(The light fades away and Daniel is seen dozing off still, with no sign of tossing and/or turning. Gummigoo turns around and sees what appeared behind him.)

Gummigoo: Is everyone alright?

Max: Are we flash-banged?

Chad: What is that, Boss?

(Gummigoo investigates the sleeping Game Genie and attempts to wake Daniel up.)

Gummigoo: Oy! Get up!

Daniel: (sleeping) Mmmmnnnn…

Gummigoo: Who are you, and what are you doing here?

(Daniel slowly opens his eyes to the gummy gator appear right in front of him, asking who Daniel is and what he’s doing here.)

Daniel: Uhhh… Huh…?

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 0%]

(Gummigoo continues to stare angrily as he is a bit taller than Daniel.)

Gummigoo: I said WHO are you and WHY ARE YOU HERE?

(Daniel snaps out from his dazed stupor, sits up, and responds quickly.) Daniel: Wait wait wait! First off, I’m Daniel. And second, I don’t even know WHERE I am! Last thing I remember is sleeping late in my room. Does THIS look like my room to you!? (Daniel regains his composure by taking a deep breath.) Listen, whatever you plan on doing to me, I won’t stop you. I’ve pretty much got nothing left to lose.

(Surprised by the response, Gummigoo replies with a slightly shocked tone.)

Gummigoo: I… have no intention of harming or capturing you. I just haven’t seen someone like you around here before. so, I assumed you don't reside here… I'm Gummigoo, by the way...

(Daniel, thinking that he and Gummigoo got off on the wrong foot, decides to reintroduce himself.)

Daniel: Name’s Daniel. (Gummigoo pulls Daniel up from the sugary ground.) And, to be honest, I don’t even think I’m supposed to be here. The others are probably wondering where I ended up.

Gummigoo: “The others”? (Gummigoo scratches the back of his head. Something about what Daniel said sounded a bit peculiar to him, he then begins to ponder some more.) But then how did you even get here? No one else I know of can just get warp into existence. Unless... (Gummigoo put two and two together, and came to quite the realization.) You’re… not from here, are you?

(Daniel looks away, dejected.)

Daniel: I’m classified as… a Game Genie. A dirty hacker… I feel like I don’t belong anywhere. Not here, not at the circus, and not even the real world wants anything to do with me.

Gummigoo: Easy, easy. I’m sure that someone, whoever they may be, are worried sick about you. I mean, you did just show up out of nowhere. There’s gotta be at least someone out here looking for you. (Gummigoo looks into his binoculars again and spots the kingdom’s war rig off in the distance.) Oy! Looks like it’s your lucky day. (Gummigoo then passes the binoculars over to Daniel, and he sees the same war rig off in the distance.)

Daniel: Oh! That must be them! They must be trying to come get me!

Gummigoo: Do they think you’re a criminal? Or are they coming to give you a ride home?

Daniel: Probably the latter. Caine must’ve sent them on an adventure to rescue me.

Gummigoo: Looks like they sent someone after us too. C’mon!

(Gummigoo grabs Daniel by the arm and pulls him into his truck. Chad and Max follow Gummigoo as they ride off to follow the other truck.)

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 5%]

(Meanwhile, the other truck has Gangle driving, Jax at the passenger seat, and Ragatha, Pomni, and Kinger in the back.)

Jax: Alright Gangle, when we catch up to ‘em, I’ll jump over, crawl inside, and shoot ‘em repeatedly until they’re unrecognizable! (Jax carries a candy shotgun from the glove compartment.)

Gangle: I feel like that violates some kind of convention… (Gangle is more worried about her safety now that Jax has a loaded shotgun.)

Jax: You’re violating my ears with your clap back! Get driving, driver! (Jax taunts Gangle with the shotgun.)

Ragatha: So, Pomni. I’m sure there’s some way you could help out here. Maybe when we catch up to them, we could- (Before Ragatha could finish her sentence, Jax chimes in.)

Jax: -We could be assertive! Like THIS! (Jax grabs Pomni by the neck and throws her out of the truck from the top latch.)

Ragatha: Jax!

(Now Pomni is stuck holding the exhaust pipes of both trucks, trying her best to hold on. As the trucks get further away from each other, Pomni’s arms stretch so long that her legs get pulled into jester clothes, but her shoes stop her from stretching any further. Jax pops his head out the latch to find Pomni holding for dear digital life to both of the trucks.)

Jax: Ah, that’s perfect! Just hold that pose, I gotta get something!

Pomni: (strained) Jax, you @$$hole!

Jax: Y’know, I swear there was some kind of bazooka back here but, (Jax scoffs.) I’m having such trouble finding it.

(Kinger pops out the latch holding a life floaty and throws it to Pomni.)

Kinger: Pomni! Take this!

(The life floaty hits Pomni and bounces off her jester hat. Then Jax finds the bazooka that a boot loaded into it.)

Jax: Here it is! Alright, Pomni! You just stay like that, and I’ll cross over you.

Pomni: Are you KIDDING ME!?

(Pomni suddenly begins to lose grip on one of the exhaust pipes and flings herself onto the roof of the other truck where Daniel’s inside.)

Daniel: What’s happening out there? (Daniel tries to open the top latch, but he can’t reach it. Luckily, Max helps Daniel up by being a footstool.) Woah!

Max: Need a lift?

Jax: Nice going, Pomni. Now I have no bridge!

(Daniel pops his head out the top latch of Gummigoo’s truck to find Pomni.)

Daniel: What is all the… wait, Pomni? (He looks down back inside the truck while still popping out the latch.) Guys! It’s the people from the circus! They’re here to rescue- (Before Daniel could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a boot shot out of a bazooka that was aimed at his head, knocking him out cold.)

(Max loses his balance, causing Daniel to fall back into the back of the truck.)

Max: Uh oh… Uh, boss? I think one of them knocked out the hacker!

Gummigoo: Seems like that lot’s trouble. (Gummigoo looks to his right and see an area of spiked landscape.) Let’s see how their rig does on those rocks around there.

(Chad tries to shift the gear, but his lanky arms miss the shift stick.)

Chad: Me arms aren’t short enough to shift the gear.

(Gummigoo grabs the shift stick and pulls it all the way down to Rocky Road mode. The truck’s suspension suddenly springs up, and they turn towards the bumpy rocks.)

Jax: Ooh, now we’re cookin’! (Jax drops from the top latch and gets Gangle to follow them through the rocks.) Hey! Ribbons! Up and at ‘em!

Gangle: I don’t think we…

Jax: Aren’t you supposed to be submissive and agreeable!? MOVE IT!

(Gangle steers right into the rocks. The whole crew shakes around as the multitude of bumps in the ground rattles their war rig. Jax’s head remains stable like a chicken’s head.)

(Gummigoo crawls through Chad’s lanky arms, and pokes his head out the driver seat window. Chad rests his head cutely in between the bumps on Gummigoo’s back.)

(Gummigoo sees the other rig shaking crazily in the rocky ground, almost as if they’re after them, and NOT for Daniel.)

Gummigoo: Man, these fellas just don’t know when to quit, do they? (Out of the corner of Gummigoo’s eye, he sees something, or rather someone, on top of his truck.) What the… (Gummigoo turns his body around to easily look up, but all he could see were a pair of familiar red and blue hands. He doesn’t remember seeing those hands before, but they seemed awfully familiar to him.) Hmmm…

(Gummigoo sticks his head back into the truck.)

Gummigoo: Hey, Game Genie, I think we got company on top. Can you tell them that we’re just here to give you back to them? (Gummigoo turns around and sees Daniel still completely unconscious.) Daniel…? (Gummigoo holds Daniel by the shoulders.) Hello! Earth to Game Genie!

Max: Is he still breathing, boss?

(Gummigoo checks Daniel’s pulse and discovers a strange rhythmic heartbeat.) He’s still alive, but he’s badly hurt. I’ll handle them and their rig. You make sure Daniel recovers.

Max: Sure thing, boss!

(Gummigoo shift the gear off Rocky Road mode as now they were driving through a ridge.)

(Now that they were past the rocks, everyone in the other truck could gather their bearings and continue their chase for the syrup, Pomni, and Daniel.)

(Ragatha gets up with a butcher cleaver stuck in her head. Being a ragdoll, she feels no physical pain at all.)

Ragatha: Ugh… Everyone all right?

(Kinger gets up with a bunch of knives stuck to his chess piece head. He too is also probably incapable of feeling any physical pain.)

Kinger: Can you repeat the question? I couldn’t hear you over the knives.

Jax: Hey, Gangle. You should ram into ‘em.

Gangle: What?

Ragatha: You should NOT ram them! Pomni’s still on board!

(Jax pushes Ragatha into a pile of knives in the back of the truck.)

Jax: Do it. It’ll be epic.

Ragatha: Why are there so many knives back here!?

(Now Jax terrorizes Gangle with blackmail.)

Jax: Do it, or I’ll tell Ragatha about the figurine thing.

Gangle: Guh! (Gangle laughs nervously, then steers right into Gummigoo’s truck.)

Max: (yelp!)

Gummigoo: Woah! Woah! Woah!

(Pomni scrambles to hold on something while the truck was pushed. She holds onto a graham cracker stuck to the top of Gummigoo’s truck for dear life.)

Pomni: ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO F@€KING KILL ME!?

Gummigoo: These guys are whack jobs! (Gummigoo then looks at the lever next to the shift stick.) Let’s give them some of this! (Gummigoo turns the lever, and the sides of their war rig pops out some green sugary spikes. One of which almost got Pomni in her bottom.)

(Jax pops out the top latch again.)

Jax: Aww, no more ramming? Guess I HAVE to tell Ragatha about the thing now.

Gangle: What!?

(Pomni opens the top latch on Gummigoo’s truck to find an unconscious Game Genie, and Max looking out after him.)

Max: AHH! Do you mind!? He’s clearly knocked out cold!

Pomni: Guuuuuuys…?

(Kinger pops out the other truck’s top latch while holding a giant anchor.)

Kinger: Pomni, take THIS! (Kinger throws the anchor, it misses Pomni, and falls down the ridge for quite some time. The rope that’s tied to the anchor goes on for quite some time too.)

Jax: Uh, hey, Kinger, is that rope attached to anything?

Kinger: Uhhhh… I don’t know. Let me check.

(Kinger walks back down into the truck. Once he’s back in, the rope tugs the whole truck towards the edge of the ridge. Jax gets knocked out the latch, holding on with his hands. The truck itself rams into Gummigoo’s truck a second time, this time getting stuck on the side spikes. Ragatha gets impaled by one of the spikes.)

(Gummigoo takes control of the steering wheel and turns hard to the left.)

Gummigoo: Hang on tight!

(Both trucks spin around. The spikes on Gummigoo’s truck detach from the other truck, causing it to careen off the ridge. Gummigoo’s truck on the other hand spins out wildly. Ragatha gets pulled out of the spikes, causing her arms to go through the open hole in her chest.)

(As the truck falls down the ridge, Jax stands on top of the truck comically tapping his foot in disappointment at Gangle specifically. Gangle gets up to see what has happened.)

Gangle: W-W-What? Wha…?

Jax: I blame YOU for this.

(SPLASH! The entire truck is dunked into the river of chocolate fudge.)

(Gummigoo’s truck is still spinning crazily out of control.)

[20%]

(Pomni miraculously is STILL holding on for dear life.)

[40%]

(The truck veers into a vertical corner of terrain and begins to clip in between the ground.)

[60%]

(The truck then clips through the bottom of the ground, throwing Pomni off the truck.)

[80%]

(It then bounces in a way that it kicks Gummigoo out of the truck, which ends up clipping back up and launching high into the sky.)

[99, 100% Unsafe]

[New cheat code unlocked: Disable Player Collision]

(Max looks at Daniel as he suddenly slips out the back of Gummigoo’s truck, through the syrup tanker, and begins to fall back down to the ground, before falling through the ground and into the blue abyss below.)

(Meanwhile, after a long fall, Gummigoo harshly lands on his stomach inside of some strange looking maze. The walls and floors are tinted blue, with the walls striking a blue outlined grid pattern, and the floor striking a checkered pattern similar to the floor in the circus.)

(Gummigoo groans as he slowly gets up off the floor. His calls for help only echo into the vast emptiness of the maze.)

Gummigoo: Lads? … Hello? Anyone? (Gummigoo walks down the maze. His breath shakes, getting progressively anxious and scared as he continued forward.)

(Suddenly, Gummigoo comes across a line of characters, standing completely still. He rushes into the room to get a better look at what he sees.)

(A chocolate fudge monster, the gummy elephant, the princess, the colorful mannequins, and then, there they were. Gummigoo, Chad, and Max. Standing completely still, with no expression on their faces whatsoever.)

Gummigoo: Huh? (Gummigoo creeps closer towards his statued copy.) Uh… (Gummigoo tries to see if the lifeless copy of himself was his own digital hallucination. He reaches out his hand to the white chin of his lifeless copy, but it felt so real.)

(Gummigoo gasps, breathing heavily in pure fear. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He backs away a bit, staring into his lifeless copy’s eyes, as it stares back at him.)

( Gummigoo, in the most sense, is a lot like me. )

[15, 20, 25%]

( We’re both not like anybody. )

[35, 40, 45%]

( We both struggle so hard to fit in. )

[55, 65, 75%]

( And when push comes to shove… )

[80, 90, 95%]

( It’s near impossible, to find help. )

[Existential Crisis: 99, 100%]

(Meanwhile, Pomni loses grip on a floating Utah teapot and falls into the same room Gummigoo’s in. She lands right on her face.)

(Pomni quickly lifts her head up off the floor and is just as bewildered as when she first got in the circus.)

Pomni: Huh?

(Gummigoo looks at Pomni, and begins to ask some questions.)

Gummigoo: Where are we? W-What’s all this?

Pomni: I-I don’t know. W-We’re somewhere under the map, I think.

Gummigoo: “Map”? (Gummigoo then turns back to the lifeless statues.) Why aren’t you, or any of your crew up here?

Pomni: I-I’m not sure. Be… Because we’re not, uh, NPCs…?

Gummigoo: “NPCs”? What are you on about? (Gummigoo begins to question everything in his life.) What are you people? … What am I? (Gummigoo looks down at his hands, and then back at the lifeless statues of everyone.) Where’s Mum?

Pomni: Y-You have a mom?

Gummigoo: Shouldn’t she be here with everyone else? (Gummigoo’s voice begins to shake as he finds out that he never in fact had a mom.) I-I can’t even remember her face…! Did she ever have a face…? Was anything ever real…??

Pomni: Okay, w-w-wait. Don’t… Don’t think about that. I-I-I think there… must be a way to launch ourselves back up. Right?

(Gummigoo begins to hyperventilate as his own worldview crashes down around him. Pomni gets closer to the fudgey monster, before Gummigoo asks her something important.)

Gummigoo: I want you to tell me, exactly, what I am.

(Pomni and Gummigoo stand still, facing each other at a distance.)

(Meanwhile, back up at the Candy Canyons, a big bubble of fudge emerges from the fudge river. It then pops to reveal the other circus members wiped out on top of their truck.)

Ragatha: Ugh… Is everybody okay?

Gangle: No…

Ragatha: Oh, man… Poor Pomni and Daniel. I hope they’re all right.

(Kinger pops out of the top latch, knocking the lid off into the fudge.)

Jax: “Poor Pomni and Daniel”? How about “poor us ”? We’re one tanker away from being Augustus Glooped!

(Suddenly, two jawbreakers for eyes pop out of the fudge river, groaning in awe with a gluttonous voice. It then rises from the river to show his fudgey physique.)

The Fudge: Oh! Is that…? Do my eyes deceive me? A delicious gift from within the kingdom gates? Don’t mind if I do! (The fudge monster carries the whole truck in its hand and opens its mouth wide open.)

(Ragatha stops the fudge monster from eating them whole.)

Ragatha: Woah, woah, woah, woah, buddy! We’re not food! We’re not candy! We’re none of that! You don’t wanna eat us!

The Fudge: Wh… You’re not candy? How am I expected to eat something that’s not made of candy? (The fudge monster puts down the truck and sinks a bit into the river itself.) I’m sorry…

Kinger: Pomni always seems to miss the big, gloopy monsters.

Jax: Who are you, anyway?

The Fudge: I am the Fudge! I used to live within the kingdom walls, but I was banished by that rotten princess, after I ate too many of the delicious townfolk. Oh, they were so delicious! Sometimes I can hear them… calling to me. (The screams of the townfolk can be heard inside his head.)

Ragatha: Oh god! That just sounds like murder.

The Fudge: Is it really murder if it’s delicious? Answer me that!

Jax: You make a great point.

Ragatha: Uh, no! Bad point!

Jax: Why don’t you leave this to me, before I start thinking your hair looks like Twizzlers?

Ragatha: (grabbing hard on her own hair) JAX!

Kinger: Oh wow, it kinda does!

Ragatha: STOP!

Jax: Well, Mr. Fudge, you seem like an upstanding guy with real noble goals.

The Fudge: Oh, I am not! If you knew what I did in my free time, oh, you’d be SICKENED!

Jax: (clears throat) As I was saying. I happen to know a way into the kingdom walls… (Jax pulls out the same kingdom key that Ragatha held. She checks her pockets to find out that Jax really did steal the key from her.) if you’d be willing to help us out in return.

Ragatha: Hey! When did you…

Jax: Shut up, Twizzler hair.

(Kinger pops out the top holding a metal bucket.)

Kinger: Here, hide it with this. (Kinger puts the bucket on Ragatha’s head, covering her face, and her hair, away from the fudge monster.)

The Fudge: Oh, you must be some kind of master of unlocking things, come to free me from my outdoor prison!

Jax: That’s me. All we need you to do is help us bring some dirty bandits to justice.

(Suddenly, Gummigoo’s truck crash lands right into the fudge river, causing a huge splash of fudge. The truck then floats up, and Max opens the top latch for him and Chad.)

Max: I saw the reaper wink at me…

(Ragatha lifts the bucket from her face.)

Ragatha: Wait, w-w-what just happened?

Max: Chad, mate! We lost the Game Genie! He just slipped through the truck!

Chad: Our boss isn’t here too! I wonder where they went!

Ragatha: Wait, Daniel’s not in there anymore? Where is he now?

(Daniel was still falling, still unconscious. The voices in his head were all that he could hear.)

Caine: ( If I start losing track of who’s a human, and who’s an NPC, who knows what could happen! )

Daniel: ( Please, Caine! You don’t know how much he means to me! )

Caine: ( Daniel, please. You cannot be falling head over heels for every NPC you come across. )

(The words Caine say begin to repeat, with “falling” being the word that grew louder, and louder, until Daniel regained consciousness. He slowly opens his eyes.)

Daniel: Mmmm… Falling for… Gummigoo…? (Daniel looks around and immediately sees the dangerous situation he’s been thrown into.) AHHH! I’M ACTUALLY FALLING! (Daniel screams helplessly and flails about as he falls deeper into the dark blue abyss below. He harshly lands on a few Utah Teapots that redirect his fall towards the room of NPC models. He reaches the blue checkered floor landing directly on his back.) Oohoof! Uugghhh…! My back…!

(Daniel’s fall and groan alarms Pomni, who was in the middle of jamming a big lollipop into one of the wheels of one of the candy truck models.)

Pomni: D… Daniel? (Pomni makes his way to Daniel. He opens his eyes, dizzy from the fall, his back aching from landing so harsh on the floor.) Oh my god, Daniel! Where have you been! Ragatha was worried sick!

(Daniel snaps out of his dizziness and finds Gummigoo sitting depressingly on the other side of the room.)

Daniel: (Gasp) Gummigoo!

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 25%]

(Daniel tries to run to him, but he trips on the floor, falling on his face. He gets up again only to fall back down onto his face, moving an inch closer. As he gets back up a third time, Pomni puts her hand on Daniel’s shoulder.)

Pomni: Wait!

(Daniel breathes heavily. Pomni turns Daniel around to face her.)

Pomni: What is going on with you?

Daniel: Pomni…! Please…! Don’t hurt him…! He did nothing wrong…! He was just trying to get me back to you guys…! This isn’t his fault…! Please…

Pomni: Hurt him? What are you talking about?

Daniel: I woke up, far from where I usually sleep… I thought you guys were only here, to take me back to the circus…

Pomni: Uhh… I’ll tell you our side of the story once we find a way out of here. He said something about having a mom or something…

(Daniel and Pomni look at the sad gummy gator looking at the NPC model of himself.)

Daniel: But he never had a mom… did he…?

(Pomni darts her eyes away, not saying anything. Daniel tries to approach Gummigoo to comfort him, but his back still hurts from the fall. Pomni helps Daniel make his way to Gummigoo.)

Daniel: G… Gummigoo…? (Daniel sits down right next to Gummigoo.) You… feeling okay…?

(Gummigoo looks up when he hears Daniel's voice he tries to smile to not alarm Daniel but it's very obvious he's still upset, he speaks with a sad and defeated tone)

Gummigoo: No…

Daniel: Care to have a chat…?

Gummigoo: What’s there to talk about…?

Daniel: Well, I don’t just wanna leave you here. I don’t think Pomni wants to leave you here either.

Gummigoo: Why not? I don’t matter in the slightest… (Gummigoo takes off his hat and puts it on his chest.) I’m nothing… My life… My memories… My friends… (Tears begin to form in Gummigoo’s eyes.) It’s all fake…

Daniel: Well, I still think you’re real. I’m sure your buddies think you’re real too. Y-You still care about your buddies up there, don’t you? I’m sure they still care about you as well.

Gummigoo: What does it matter? What do we have when you people leave? We’re just obstacles… created to be defeated and forgotten.

(Daniel looks at Gummigoo in a concerning persistent manner.)

Daniel: Y-You don’t have to be. You don’t deserve to be forgotten.

Gummigoo: Tell me. Do you actually even care about me? Or was it just an act to get me to come along? Was I just a pawn in your game? An idiotic tool just to be used and discarded?

Daniel: No. I don’t find you as a tool at all. I couldn’t have possibly known about, all of this… Back on earth, where I’m from, I can recall some times when, I felt like I was being used as a tool… It might not have been exactly like what this is, but, you’re not alone… I barely even know what’s going on half the time… As a Game Genie, I can do just about anything. I could help the whole world, or watch it all burn. It’s a lot of responsibility for just one person… But… I don’t let my lack of agency stop me from trying to be a good person… Maybe… you could find a sense of purpose at the Circus, with us, perhaps…?

(Gummigoo seemed slightly comforted by Daniel’s words and begins to smile a bit again, he seems more relaxed now.)

Gummigoo: You are very inspirational with your words… That's what I like about you. But I still do not understand. If I'm not just a pawn or a tool to you... Then why? Why are you trying to cheer me up? Why do you care for me? How do I benefit you at all?

Daniel: Because you don’t try to be like the other circus members. Because you’re nothing like the other circus members. You’re just like me… because we’re both not like anyone. And yeah, it sucks… but at least I have you. And now you have me. And if it weren’t for you, Pomni would’ve probably gone crazy, thinking I abstracted or something. What I’m saying is… (Daniel puts his arm around Gummigoo’s back.) You helped me out of a really tight spot. I should at least help you out of yours.

(Gummigoo smiles widely now and seems relieved.)

Gummigoo: You’re quite a strange person. But I guess us strange people stick together, right?

Daniel: That’s what makes us something wonderful. (Daniel holds out his other hand for Gummigoo. He brings his hand to hold Daniel’s hand, interlocking fingers together.) We could be, something wonderful, together.

Gummigoo: “Something wonderful”… Suppose I could give it a try. All I ask is that we don’t tell the lads about this. (They look at the NPC models one last time.) They’re a couple of bright-eyed yobbos… and I don’t want to drag ‘em down with me.

Pomni: Heh. Yeah, that makes sense.

Daniel: Oh! Pomni, this is Gummigoo.

Pomni: “Gummigoo”? Wow, that’s… just about as dumb as my name.

Gummigoo: So, do you have any plans on how we're going to get out of this situation?

(Daniel and Gummigoo turn their heads to look at Pomni for a response.)

Daniel: I did blackout. Whatever happened while I was unconscious must’ve gotten us down here. Maybe you could help find a way to get us out?

Pomni: (stammers) I don’t know… M-M-Maybe we could make some kind of glitch with the truck’s collisions? I’m not really sure how we could… (Before Pomni could finish her sentence, she spots some model cubes by a corner. They don’t seem to be glued to the floor, so they could just be their one way ticket back to the Candy Canyon Kingdom.) Hmm… I’m gonna grab those cubes over there and squeeze them under that truck. You and Daniel will wait in the truck until I come in and start it, and hopefully it’ll glitch us out of here.

(Pomni, feeling pretty confident about this plan, rushes to the corner to grab the cubes. Gummigoo stands up just fine, but Daniel struggles to get back up because of his back.)

(Gummigoo then picks Daniel up and holds him bridal style to the truck. Since there’s no middle seat, Gummigoo decides to have Daniel sit on his lap. Once Pomni lined up all the cubes under the truck, she gets into the driver’s seat and closes the truck door.)

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 55%]

Pomni: All right, I’m just throwing stuff at the wall here. (Pomni looks at Daniel who’s blushing profusely and then at Gummigoo.) If this doesn’t work, we can try something else.

Gummigoo: You’re the expert here.

(Pomni laughs nervously.)

Pomni: I’m really not. But let’s see how it goes. (Pomni finds the key and puts it in the ignition. The engine of the truck starts and the cubes underneath begin to collide between the truck and the floor, causing the truck to build up speed while standing still.) I just realized, this might be a little vio-

(Before Pomni could finish her sentence, the truck built up enough speed to launch itself like a rocket up out of the blue abyss. Gummigoo and Pomni share a heartfelt glance at each other, then Gummigoo shares a heartfelt smile with Daniel, making his heart skip a beat, and making this launch back into candy land much more magical.)

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 85%]

(Meanwhile, the Fudge carries both trucks on top of it with Gangle and Jax on top of the truck that was given from the kingdom, and Kinger, Ragatha, and the two tied up bandits Chad and Max.)

Jax: Gotta say, this is a lot more anti-climactic than I was hoping it’d be.

(Gangle takes the binoculars off her mask.)

Gangle: What were you hoping for?

Jax: You know, like, one big, final battle. Bloodshed. Death. Chaos! Whatever. I’m sure the Game Genie could whip something up like that for me.

Ragatha: Are you sure they disappeared? It wasn’t that they fell off, or something?

Chad: (stammers) I can’t say for sure, but, uh… Yes, definitely.

Max: It’s not like the boss to just vanish with a clown, or for Daniel to just phase through the truck like a ghost. Very unusual.

Ragatha: Well, that’s… concerning.

(Kinger now has the bucket on his head.)

Kinger: Well, if worst comes to worst, we could always ask Caine to find them.

Ragatha: (sigh) I’m more worried they’re having another horrible experience. Pomni still seems really upset about what happened yesterday, and I don’t think I’ve seen Daniel at all today. I don’t think they really like me that much.

Kinger: It’s a lot for anybody to go through. Don’t take it too personally. I remember how long it took for you to adjust.

(Ragatha’s spirits are lifted by Kinger’s words of wisdom.)

Ragatha: O-Oh, yeah. I’m surprised you still remember that.

(Kinger lifts the bucket off his face.)

Kinger: Remember what?

(Out of nowhere, a copy of Gummigoo’s truck bursts up out of the ground and shoots into the sky, reaching the apex of the trajectory. Gangle looks with the binoculars to see where that sound came from and looks in shock of the flying truck. Jax steals the binoculars from Gangle and also sees the second truck probably plummeting down towards them at high speeds.)

Jax: Do you guys have a second truck that flies?

Chad: Yeah. Oh, wait… No, we don’t. No, not at all.

(Just like that, the copied truck landed right on the Fudge’s head and it begins to melt into a giant fudge puddle.)

The Fudge: Uh oh… Down I go…

(Gummigoo hops out of the truck still holding Daniel. He puts him down with his feet in the fudge. Pomni gets out after them and vomits as soon as she gets out into the fudge puddle. She gets down on all fours, dizzy from the wild ride.)

Gummigoo: (chuckles) Couldn’t keep it in, could- (Gummigoo instantly throws up after her. He rattles his lips.)

Daniel: Ugh… I think that crash landing fixed my ba- (Daniel violently pukes after Gummigoo and Pomni, coughing up any left over upchuck.) Aw man! There goes yesterday’s dinner!

(Pomni gets up to find one of her hands covered in melted fudge.)

Pomni: Uh, what’s all this stuff? (Pomni flicks the fudge off her right hand. Ragatha rushes over from the other truck.)

Ragatha: Pomni! Daniel! Are you two okay? W-What happened?

Pomni: Yeah, we’re fine. We uh, we made a new friend. (Pomni looks to her right to see Gummigoo reunited with his buddies, Chad and Max.)

Max: Boss! Where have you been? We got fudged!

Gummigoo: You don’t wanna know. (Gummigoo pulls himself to his buddies for a long group hug.) Good to see you, lads.

(Kinger and Gangle observe the spectacle of there being two of the same trucks they were tasked with hunting down.)

Gangle: Why are there two bad-guy trucks?

(Kinger makes his way to the second truck and turns on the valve in the very back, releasing a load of maple syrup. He then turns the valve the other way to stop the flow of syrup.)

Kinger: This one’s full of syrup, too.

Gummigoo: Oh, yeah. Suppose it is.

(Daniel, Ragatha, and Pomni get closer to the rest of the gang.)

Daniel: Wait, this was all about maple syrup? Not, about rescuing me? I’m really starting to question Caine’s ethics.

Gummigoo: Well, uh, you don’t suppose my mates here could, uh, take this one back to the village, could they?

Ragatha: I guess. Since there’s two of them, there’d be no real harm.

(Gummigoo helps Chad and Max out of the candy ropes. Meanwhile, Jax is sulking about how nothing violent happened throughout the whole adventure.)

Jax: I’m so unbelievably disappointed right now.

(Ragatha makes an attempt to comfort Jax.)

Ragatha: Well, maybe there’ll be blood, death, and violence in the next adventure.

Jax: (sarcastically) Ha ha ha ha. How wholesome.

(Daniel, Pomni, and Gummigoo make their way to Ragatha.)

Daniel: Ragatha, meet Gummigoo. (Daniel begins to blush again.) I was wondering if it’s okay if he could come back to the circus with us.

Ragatha: Oh! Uh, i-is that allowed?

Pomni: His reality was kind of… completely shattered…? Me and Daniel feel like it was the least we could offer him. Opposed to just leaving him behind.

Ragatha: (chuckles) Hey, That’s good of you, Pomni! You too, Daniel!

Jax: UGH! Let’s just take this DUMB truck to the DUMB kingdom, I guess!

(Gummigoo and Daniel look at each other with heartwarming smiles, knowing that their newfound bond for each other is just beginning.)

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 95%]

(Once the whole gang get back to the kingdom, Daniel and Gummigoo were met with multiple colored NPC mannequins all cheering for the return of their beloved syrup. The other five members are used to the sporadic cheering when they first set out on this wild adventure. Gummigoo and Daniel just played along with the rest of them in hopes of making a good impression.)

Princess Loolilalu: Thanks to you brave knights, our kingdom will once again thrive! I’m sure it was no easy task.

Jax: You have no idea. (Jax rolls his eyes.)

(A portal that leads back to the circus opens up right next to Princess Loolilalu.)

Princess Loolilalu: Farewell, brave knights. Have fun executing that bandit fella!

(Pomni plays along with the execution thing.)

Pomni: Yes. That is what we’re doing. (Gummigoo plays along with Pomni by shooting the princess a thumbs up from both hands. And Pomni elbows Daniel to get him to play along with her.)

Daniel: Huh? Oh! Yep! That’s right! No need to worry about him no more! Adios princess lollipop lady!

(Suddenly, an explosion can be heard in the distance. Jax remembers that he still has the key to the gates of the kingdom.)

Jax: Oh, hey! Maybe I didn’t leave the gate unlocked for nothing after all! (Jax looks behind him as the Fudge makes his way, and his rounds through the kingdom entrance.)

Ragatha: Uh, what? I-I thought he was dead! You still did that!?

Princess Loolilalu: Okay, wait. (The Fudge chuckles as he continues his rampage.) Y-You did what, now?

Jax: Well, love to help you again sometime! Bye!

(As the kingdom was quickly becoming a thanksgiving feast for the Fudge, everyone began to enter the portal back to the circus, the place where Gummigoo would be proud to call his new home.)

(Caine welcomes the members back from such a harrowing adventure.)

Caine: Welcome back, my little hard-shelled hamburgers!

Gummigoo: So, this is the circus, huh? (Gummigoo looks around at his surroundings.) I could get used to this.

Caine: Oop! Looks like one of these guys made it through! (Before Caine could snap Gummigoo out of existence, Daniel objected.)

Daniel: STOP!!! (Daniel pants for a second. Caine is confused on why Daniel is stopping him.) Don’t do it, Caine! PLEASE!

Caine: I know how much you guys love your NPCs, but if I start losing track of who’s a human and who’s an NPC, who knows what could happen!

Daniel: I won’t let you DO IT! I know NPCs mean so little to you, but I can tell you for a certainty that there are certain things on this planet worth protecting!

Caine: Look, I admire your empathy, but there will be hundreds more NPCs where that came from. (Caine gestures toward Gummigoo.) You can't really get attached to these things, Daniel.

Daniel: LOOK at him, Caine! I mean, this gummy gator just had his reality shattered into pieces for crying out loud! He’s broken! Just like the others! Just like me! And I know somewhere in you knows he’s broken too!

Caine: Well, I can always get you another one.

Daniel: NO! I do NOT want you to REPLACE him! That’s MEANINGLESS!

Caine: Look buddy, I know that you might think I'm evil or heartless, but you gotta know that I've seen what happens when somebody gets too close to these NPCs. It never ends well...

Daniel: WHY!? Why does it never end well!?

Caine: Well, for one thing people usually start valuing the lives of the NPCs higher than their own. They start letting their real lives crumble because of their obsession, and, well, I've seen people take their own lives when their NPCs die and they can't bring them back. Or you could become obsessed with protecting them to the point where they become paranoid like crazy... Not saying that you're one of those people but...

Daniel: So you’d rather let an NPC die because someone got attached to it? Even when you KNOW, they have NOBODY else to feel this close to!? OPEN YOUR F@€KING EYES, CAINE! Not ONE of the other circus members has made me feel such a way that I do for Gummigoo! Everyone else is either a crybaby, apathetic, a whack job, shipped with Pomni, an @$$hole, abstracted, or the face of 99.9% OF CONTENT FARMS ALL OVER THE INTERNET! (Daniel begins panting)

Caine: No, of course not! I'm not a psycho, but you can't get attached to these things. (Caine's face softens a bit.)

Caine: ...

...

Are you saying that Gummigoo means that much to you?

(Daniel raises his hands, and his voice loud and clear that it echoes throughout the circus tent.)

Daniel: YES!!!

Caine: .....

(Caine thinks for a moment. He looks at Daniel, then Gummigoo, then back at Daniel... Caine realizes how much it truly and deep down means to Daniel, more than anybody else.)

Caine: ... Fine. You are absolutely right about that... I don't get how anyone can get attached to these things, never will, and I would do away with them if I could. But just because that's the way I think, it doesn't mean I have to go out of my way to deny you happiness. If he really means that much to you then so be it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go drink water. It’s clearly been a while since I’ve done that. (Caine disappears in his typical Caine fashion.)

(Pomni, Gummigoo, and everybody else is left in total shock at what just happened. Daniel closes his eyes lets out a long sigh of relief and exhaustion as he lays on his back.)

Daniel: Finally… No offense to you guys. I just legitimately can’t find anything about you guys romantically attractive besides Gummigoo. I guess I’m just broken like that…

(Gummigoo sits right next to Daniel, who’s still lying on the floor.)

Gummigoo: Is that all true, Daniel? Do I really mean that much to you?

(Daniel sits up.)

Daniel: Of course you do! I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you. Gummigoo, I… I thought I didn’t have the guts to say this to anyone, but… I love you. You’re the one good thing that came from this digital mess. That’s mostly the reason why I wanted you to live with us. To live with me.

(Gummigoo blushes while smiling from ear to ear.)

Gummigoo: Aww, Daniel. (Gummigoo holds Daniel to his level and kisses him on the mouth. It was a short kiss, but still enough to make Daniel's heart skip a beat.)

(Daniel’s eyes propped wide open when Gummigoo kissed him on the mouth. He didn’t say anything, but his subconscious went berserk.)

Daniel in his mind: OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!!! YES!! YES!!! NO WAY THIS IS REAL!! NO WAY THIS IS REAL!! OH MY GOD, IT IS REAL!!! OHH!! THIS MAKES EVERYTHING ALL WORTH IT!!

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 99, 100%]

[New cheat code unlocked: Moon Gravity

Gummigoo: (concerned) Uhh… you okay, mate?

(Daniel blushed profusely, giggling like a little kid. As he jumped for joy, he launched high into the air, and begins to float back down slowly, like he was jumping on the moon. Everyone was surely surprised by the kiss they shared.)

Ragatha: Wow, Daniel. I… didn’t know you had it in you.

Jax: So, how exactly do you plan on f@€king an NPC?-

(Zooble punched Jax in the gut.)

Zooble: Shut up, Jax! Anyways, I support this. Just don’t get me involved. (Zooble then walks towards Ragatha.) Also, I got everything ready.

(Ragatha realized what Zooble meant by “everything”.)

Ragatha: Oh, right. Hey, you guys wanna join us for Kaufmo’s funeral?

Daniel: Oh, right. Kaufmo. (Daniel floats back down onto the floor.)

Gummigoo: Who’s Kaufmo?

Daniel: It’s a long story. I… don’t remember much about him, but I’m sure they do.

Ragatha: We like to have a little funeral service to remember the people who abstract. (Jax shows the tiniest bit of emotion before not caring enough to join.) This one just got pushed around a bit with all the arrivals and everything.

Kinger: It’s the least we can do to honor their memory.

(Cut to the funeral service taking place near the giant curtained doorway. Everyone except Jax is standing around a yellow chest that’s topped with two bouquets of flowers, and a portrait painting of Kaufmo.)

(Ragatha’s the first one to walk up near the chest to give her speech.)

Ragatha: Oh man… I always think I’m prepared for these things, but then you set up the picture and, well… (Ragatha begins tearing up.) I’m already breaking.

( Everybody has a chance to be a part of the story. )

(Ragatha continues her speech on how Kaufmo was a good person, despite their differences.)

( It’s clear that there were some people who weren’t as lucky as us in getting accustomed with this new world. )

(Gangle shows everyone at the funeral a drawing of her and Kaufmo, before breaking down into tears.)

( But I know that, as long as we stick together… )

(Kinger closes his eyes praying that Kaufmo is in a better place in the afterlife.)

( Through thick and thin, despite our differences… )

(Zooble talks about how Kaufmo was a friend she never knew she wanted, until he was gone.)

( We WILL find an exit. )

(Pomni thinks back to that nightmare she had this morning about her falling into the cellar. This time, the hands Gangle, Zooble, Kinger, Ragatha, Daniel, and Gummigoo all help pull Pomni up. Knowing that she’s surrounded by people who’s going through the same motions, the same issues, and are willing to help each other out in dire situations, puts her at ease for once in her digital life.)

( I knew so little about Kaufmo, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss him. Gummigoo knows little to nothing about Kaufmo, but he knows that just being at the funeral service helps get to know the late clown. )

(After the funeral, Daniel and Gummigoo arrive at Daniel’s door to his room.)

Gummigoo: So, this is your room?

Daniel: It sure is. (Daniel opens the door to his room.) And it’s pretty close to what it looks like in the real world too. Well, minus the extra large bed.

(Gummigoo lays down on one side of the bed.)

Gummigoo: This might just be the single most comfiest thing I’ve rested my head on, in my life.

Daniel: You know, Gummigoo… (Daniel blushes.) You’re more than welcome to be roommates with me. I’ve not had the best sleep before, and… I could use someone to fill the empty bed space.

Gummigoo: You mean it?

Daniel: Of course. I’m certain this what Caine would’ve wanted, should I choose to find a partner. And, I guess you’re the partner I’ve always wanted.

(Gummigoo hugs Daniel, holding him tightly in his embrace as tears began to form in his eyes.)

Gummigoo: (shakily) Thank you so much, Daniel… for everything…! You don’t know how much this all means to me…! You’re the best partner I never knew I needed…!

(Daniel and Gummigoo shed a few tears of joy together, holding each other tight as all their emotional pain washes off them.)

( And even IF we don’t find an exit… )

(Daniel and Gummigoo held onto each other’s embrace as they drifted off to sleep for the night. The light of the moon coming through the window is the only thing lighting the room.

( There’s no place I’d rather be, than with my beloved Gummigoo. )

[Loneliness: 0%]

Chapter 2.5: Digital Dreams Part 1 (NPC Dreams)

(Daniel and Gummigoo are seen dozing off in Daniel’s family sized bed. Much like how players, like Pomni, dream and have nightmares, NPCs like Gummigoo can have dreams too. And this is what an NPC dreams of.)

(The scene fades to white before fading out into a scene of all the other 6 circus members as marketable plushies. Caine, in his marketable plushie form warps into scene.)

Caine: …aaaAAAAA! Guys! I set up a musical adventure for you today, but the song starts at 12:30 and I didn’t have time to write lyrics! You’ll have to make up the lyrics on the spot, or suffer a horrible punishment!

Pomni: What punishment!?

(Caine grabs Pomni and chucks her onto The Amazing Stage.)

Caine: TWELVE THIRTY!

Pomni: AAAAAH! (Pomni lands onto The Amazing Stage with a cartoon BONK!) I c… I can’t sing without a script!

Caine: Hup! (Caine tosses a shampoo bottle and Pomni catches it.)

Pomni: This is a shampoo bottle!

Caine: THE SONG, POMNI!!!

Pomni: (stammers) 🎶Contains: Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Fumic Acid, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Uh, Magnesium Nitrate,🎶

Bubble: Sounds delicious!

Pomni: (continues) 🎶Limonene, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, and uh… water!🎶

Gangle: (with happy mask) 🎶I’m super happy, never sappy, when I have my happy mask.🎶

(A banana peel is thrown onto The Amazing Stage near Gangle.)

Gangle: (continues) 🎶Don’t break it, Jax! Don’t break it, Jax! Don’t break it, Jax! That’s all I ask.🎶 (Gangle slips on the banana peel and breaks the happy mask yet again.) What the f@@@€k, Kinger…!

Kinger: Oop, sorry. Just… (Kinger takes a bite out of his banana, despite being mouthless.) eating a little banana.

Ragatha: 🎶Sunny days, and rainbows, getting hugs, and petting kitty cats. When you feel down and in the mud, instead of frowning, do a silly dance!🎶 Take it away, Zooble!

Zooble: … This is stupid.

Caine: Booooo! (Caine grabs Zooble off the stage and shakes her ruthlessly until all her detachable limbs come off her body.) C’mon! Let loose those angelic pipes, Zooble!

Jax: 🎶Zooble’s part was terrible, that act was so unbearable, I’m super duper hoping that those limbs are not repairable!🎶 (Jax chuckles before getting tackled by Zooble, knocking the both of them off the stage.)

(Then the stage goes dark, a spotlight flashes on Kinger, as he gives out the best performance on The Amazing Stage worthy of a key change.)

Kinger: 🎶You all know me as Kinger, but on the stage, I’m Singer! Gonna serenade ya’, baby, with my own Tony-winning zingers! (Kinger lands on his side, letting out a soft ow.)

Caine: Alright, Pomni! Let’s bring this hootenanny home, with a classic duet!

(Gummigoo spawns in his marketable plushie form on The Amazing Stage right next to Pomni.)

Pomni: Gummigoo…?

Gummigoo: Crikey!

Pomni: (Gasp) Gummigoo! O-Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you’re alive!

Gummigoo: Crikey!

Pomni: W-Wha…?

(Gummigoo begins to glitch out like crazy.)

Gummigoo: Crike-e-o Down Unda-a-a (Gummigoo then explodes into confetti.)

Pomni: …

Pomni: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

Caine: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

Bubble: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

(Pomni falls off the stage and the whole thing ends in one giant explosion, waking Gummigoo up in a cold sweat and panting.)

(Gummigoo looks down at his hands and sees he’s no longer a marketable plushie anymore. He then looks at the big cartoonish Sun in the sky yawning, indicating today’s a new morning.)

(Gummigoo then looks down at Daniel beside him, who’s still fast asleep and gives him a soft warm grin, before getting up off the bed, and makes his way to Daniel’s door. He looks back at Daniel with the same warm smile before leaving the room, keeping Daniel’s door open a bit to indicate that he woke up early.)

Chapter Text

( I didn’t know how long I slept that night. )

(Daniel is seen in Gummigoo’s lap, while Gummigoo holds him with one arm and rubs his glossy hair softly with the other. The two sit together on the sand of a beach with a night sky sprinkled with stars and space clouds as far as the eye can see.)

( I didn’t even know Gummigoo was the first to leave my room in the morning. )

(Daniel closes his eyes as Gummigoo continued to gently rub his hair.)

( All I could think about was this. )

( All I could think about was him. )

( For once, it was like everything was… perfect. )

(The cartoony Sun slowly peaks up from beyond the horizon, shining brighter and brighter until Daniel slowly opens his eyes. A crooked groan escapes his mouth as he continues to wake himself up.)

( After that delightful dream, I was thrusted into the worst few days of my digital life. )

(Daniel looks to his right and sees Gummigoo isn’t there.)

Daniel: What the… (Daniel then looks out the window and sees the cartoony sun higher in the sky.) Maybe I slept in…?

(Daniel turns to face his door and sees that it’s slightly open. He exits his room stretching his arms and rubbing the remaining sleepy from his eyes.)

(As Daniel made his way down the hallway, he’s met with the rainbow railing that Kaufmo broke a few days earlier, and has already been fixed while he was away.)

(Daniel pulls himself up to get a good view of his surroundings, then he sees the rest of the circus gang at a little lounge. He then turns around and sees a door with a down arrow. He makes his way to the door, opening the door to find himself on the main floor.)

Daniel: Huh. How convenient.

(Meanwhile, the other circus members and Gummigoo are observing Pomni who’s been holding her breath for a while that her face turns blue. After a few seconds, she gasps for air, breathing heavily.)

Pomni: I can’t hold it any longer!

Jax: Sure you can! We can’t die from oxygen deprivation, remember?

Pomni: But, it still feels like I’m gonna die.

Kinger: Try not to think about it.

Jax: Or you can toughen up! I wanna see what your funny cartoon body does! (Jax pulls Pomni’s arm, causing it to stretch.)

Ragatha: Hey, take it easy.

Jax: (mocking) “Ooh, take it easy!” That’s YOU.

Gummigoo: Is that Jax person really like this all the time?

Zooble: Mmhm.

Pomni: All right. Here I go! (Pomni inhales deeply before holding her breath. After a few seconds, her face turns blue again.)

Zooble: All right, we’ve entered the blue zone.

(Daniel, using his speed cheat code, speeds over, slowing down to a screeching halt.)

Daniel: What’s going on here? A breath holding contest?

(Jax shushes Daniel, growing more impatient. Then Pomni’s face changes to purple.)

Jax: Hey, there’s something new!

(As Pomni continued to hold her breath, her face began changing into all the colors of the rainbow.)

Zooble: Okay, we’re getting red.

Ragatha: Ooh, orange!

Gummigoo: Yellow.

Gangle: Green.

Kinger: Woah, look! Now she’s turning blue!

Zooble: She was already blue.

(After almost a minute of Pomni holding her breath, the color on her face began to change faster and faster until she stops holding her breath, returning her face to a pale white. She gasps for air, panting this time.)

Ragatha: Huh. Guess the hue shift just gets faster.

Pomni: Why am I the one doing this? Why not one of you guys?

Jax: Because something different happens with each person! For instance, Kinger starts glowing, Ragatha’s hair noodles stick up, Gangle’s mask starts spinning, Gummigoo explodes into confetti…

Daniel: Wait what!?

Gummigoo: I’m not testing if that theory’s true!

Jax: Ahem… and Zooble turns straight.

Zooble: My limbs straighten up- f@€k off.

Pomni: What about you, Jax?

Zooble: He refuses to show us because he’s a coward.

Jax: I wanna keep the mystery alive! What do YOU, the Game Genie, think it is? (Jax points directly at Daniel.)

Daniel: I don’t know, maybe your ears inflate like those long balloons?

Jax: I’ll never tell. (Jax chortles)

(Out of nowhere, Caine swoops into the scene.)

Caine: Why is everybody standing around when there’s ADVENTURING to be had? (Caine then warps everyone near the stage to show them the new adventure.) Today’s adventure is… The Mystery Of Mildenhall Manor! That’s right! This big, spooky mansion has been rumored to be filled to the brrrim with paranormal activity! It’s up to YOU to solve the house’s deep mysteries, and capture all the ghoulish ghost activity you can! And for the first time ever, you can-

(Caine stops in the middle of his rambling, a record scratch can be heard. His eyes slide out of his closed teeth like cinder blocks. Once his eyes are out, they try and look for Zooble.)

Caine: Where’s Zooble? I-I made this adventure really cool and “m-m-matoor” just for them!

Daniel: Let me try something. OH, ZOOBLE!

Zooble: (from afar) P!$S OFF!

(Caine’s eyes shrink. A low growling can be heard.)

Bubble: !retsnom a morf seramthgin citamuart evah ot eineG emaG eht rof tiaw t’nac I

Caine: What?

Pomni: The NPCs… aren’t gonna become self-aware in this one, right?

Gummigoo: Mate, I’m literally right here!

Daniel: Which actually reminds me, Caine. Now that Gummigoo is a part of this family, is there any way to make him like, some sort of pseudo player? I’m sure you had plenty of water to drink, and enough time to think of what Gummigoo’s new outfit would look like.

(Caine looks at Gummigoo)

Caine: I uhh… (Caine scratches back of his head) I kinda have an idea about that… (Caine sighs and says under his breath) This is the last time I invite an NPC here. (Caine snaps his fingers.)

Gummigoo: Wait what-

(A white light flashes, and Gummigoo undergoes his transformation from NPC to Playable Character.)

[Process of transition: 20, 40, 60, 80%]

(Once the bright light fades, everyone sees Gummigoo’s brand new look.)

[Process of transition: 99, 100%]

[Transition complete! Welcome Player #15000624!]

(Gummigoo is seen in a yellow shirt with white vertical stripes, green overalls with silver star buttons, a fresh pair of cowboy boots, and two extra accessories from his lads. Max’s brown western vest, and Chad’s blue bandana.)

Gummigoo: Well? How do I look?

Daniel: You, look, AMAZING! (Daniel smiles from ear to ear as he hugs Gummigoo.) Thank you so much, Caine!

(Caine looks the other way.)

Jax: Okay, enough with the mushy stuff. Are we going on that scary adventure or what?

(Daniel puts an arm around Gummigoo’s back.)

Daniel: I think I’ll do the honors of giving Gummigoo a tour of the circus grounds for Caine!

Gummigoo: Haven’t I already seen everything here?

Daniel: Trust me, this whole circus tent isn’t everything. Don’t blink!

(Daniel holds Gummigoo tightly and teleports right outside the circus tent.)

Daniel: This whole time you’ve only seen the Tent. This is where we’ve been staying most of the time, and it’s also where Caine drops us off after a harrowing adventure. However if you turn around… (Daniel and Gummigoo turn around to see the rest of the circus grounds.) we’re greeted with the Grounds! There’s the Digital Lake over there to drown ourselves in if we want to.

Gummigoo: What?

Daniel: Caine’s words, not mine. And to our left is the Digital Carnival to engage in ridery! Day? Night? It’s alright! The choice is ours, a cosmic delight!

(Gummigoo shakes his head a bit.)

Gummigoo: This sounds nice and all, but is that all there really is?

Daniel: Well, there is one other place, but I’m not sure if Caine would want me to teleport you there with me. It’s called the Void. We’re not really supposed to be or venture off into the Void. Nobody knows what’s out there, not even Caine knows. However, I do know one place better than the Void. Follow me.

(Daniel pulls out his hand, Gummigoo holds his hand, following along as Daniel leads the way to a tall hill that overlooks the entire circus grounds. They sit down near the only tree that sits atop the hill.)

Gummigoo: Crikey. What a view.

Daniel: This is the first time I’ve seen this hill. Not even I knew how great the view would be from up here. I’ve been thinking of going here to reflect on things, but for now, I think it’s best to just call it the Hill.

Gummigoo: (taking in all the view of the circus grounds) I can see why you would like coming here to reflect. This is all just so nice. The view, the breeze, the sound of the lake… (Gummigoo looks to Daniel and blushes with a smile) And your company.

(Daniel blushes with Gummigoo.)

Daniel: Maybe… we should get back to the gang. Don’t want to hold them up more than we already have, you know?

(Meanwhile back in the circus tent.)

Caine: -How should I know? I’m not the boss. Oh wait, yes I am! (Caine laughs crazily.)

(Daniel and Gummigoo return in a flash.)

Daniel: We’re back!

Caine: GREAT! Everybody into the fractal noise! It’s ADVENTURING TIME!

(With that, Caine shoves everyone present into the portal, transporting them into the inside of Mildenhall Manor. Everyone’s walking together through the foyer.)

(As Gummigoo looks around the interior of the manor, a thought crosses his mind)

Gummigoo: (whispers to Daniel) Say, you don’t think we’re really gonna have to solve this place’s paranormal mystery, right?

Daniel: (whispers back) I’m sure we’ll have to solve some sort of mystery. Not really sure what, though.

Ragatha: (trying to hype Pomni up) Oh, this place is spooky. I wonder how hard Caine’s gonna go with the scare-factor!

Pomni: I hope this adventure doesn’t end up being another horrible nightmare. I’m not really a fan of horror, and I don’t really handle jumpscares that well.

Jax: Boo!

(Pomni skitters and stammers.)

Jax: HA! (chuckles) Come on! That wasn’t that scary! What, you scared of the vacuum cleaner too? (Jax pulls out a vintage vacuum cleaner from nowhere.)

(Ragatha interjects.)

Ragatha: Hey, be nice to her! She’s had a rough couple of days.

Jax: Her and everyone else.

Gummigoo: That one time.

Daniel: I’m just here for the ride, but also, yeah, try to be a little bit nicer, Jax. At least I’m putting in the effort.

Jax: (laughs) Effort? What effort? You’re a hacker!

Gummigoo: Jax, maybe now’s NOT the time to be hurling hackusations in the middle of ghost busting!

(A faint spooky giggling can be heard. Gangle shushes everyone, they all stop dead in their tracks.)

Gangle: Does anybody hear that?

Gummigoo: Hear what?

(The faint spooky giggling continues to grow louder, until a dark figure with a scary face appears. Pomni shrieks in fear, her eyes popping right out of her sockets.)

(Suddenly, the dark figure reveals itself as Ghostly the friendly ghost guide.)

Ghostly: Hey, I’m ghostly!

Pomni: Wha? (Her eyes drop to the floor, still outside of her sockets.)

Ghostly: And I’ll be your guide today!

(Pomni picks up her eyes from the floor.)

Pomni: Why… won’t they go back in?

Kinger: (chuckles) I remember my first wild take. I don’t know why they’re not retracting though. (Kinger tries to put one of Pomni’s eyes back in her sockets, but it pops back out and onto the floor.) That didn’t happen for me.

Daniel: Doesn’t that hurt a lot?

Jax: Wanna find out for yourself? (Jax points the vacuum nozzle at Daniel’s face.)

Daniel: (gritting his teeth) I wasn’t talking to you, Jax!

Ghostly: Before you continue on your adventure, you have to choose which door you’re gonna go through! (Ghostly waves his little ghost arms to the left door.) The door on the left is the NORMAL door!

Caine: (disembodied voice) Rated WOW for all ages!

(Ghostly then waves his little ghost arms to the right door.)

Ghostly: The door on the right is the REALLY SCARY door!

Caine: (disembodied voice) Rated AAAAA for mature Zoobles only!

Ghostly: It’s up to YOU to deci-

(Ghostly shrieks as Jax sucks him up with the vacuum.)

Ragatha: (stammers) JAX!

Jax: What? I thought we were supposed to capture all the ghosts.

Daniel: What did you think this is!? Luigi’s Mansion!? (Daniel sighs.) Man… I was gonna give him a cool yet basic nickname, like “Gary”. Or “George”.

Gangle: Uhh… which door should we choose?

Jax: Hmm, not sure. (Jax snatches Gangle’s comedy mask from her face.) Let’s try this out. (Jax tosses Gangle’s comedy mask into the door on the right. The door opens like a mouth, and the mask is sent right down to throat.)

Gangle: Aww…

Kinger: Don’t worry, Gangle! I’ll get it for you!

Jax: Hold up, let me be sure. (This time Jax snatches Gummigoo’s hat from his head) YOINK! (Jax then tosses Gummigoo’s hat into the scary door’s gaping mouth.)

Gummigoo: MY HAT!

Kinger: I’ll get the hat too, Gummigoo! Don’t you worry! (Kinger makes his way to the scary door, entering it while holding one of Pomni’s eyes.)

(Pomni notices what’s going on and tries to reel back, but then ends up getting dragged into the scary door while screaming. Her other eye gets slurped up by the door before turning into a wall.)

(Everyone except Jax are left in shock.)

Jax: Oh, THAT’S the scary door.

(Gummigoo backhands Jax hard while shouting Australian obscenities.)

Gummigoo: BLOODY JACKRABBIT MONGREL!!!

(Daniel facepalms and groans at the whole situation.)

Ragatha: Okay, I think I’m making a decision for all of us when I say that we’re going to the normal door.

Daniel: Agreed.

Jax: (groans) Fine.

(Everyone makes their way to the door on the left. Once everyone went through, they were met with a much more welcoming atmosphere.)

Gummigoo: Is it me or did it get brighter in here?

Daniel: It’s certainly a change in direction. Somewhat.

(Another ghost appears from another room, this time it’s a nice ghost lady.)

Martha: Well hello! I’m Mrs. Martha Mildenhall. Welcome to my humble abode! It’s been so long since I’ve entertained any guests. Would you care to join me for tea and-

(Jax prepares himself with the vacuum cleaner, ready to suck her up.)

Jax: Ooooh, it’s the BIG CATCH! Hold still, this’ll be quick… maybe… (Jax chuckles.)

Daniel: Are you KIDDING me Jax!?

Gangle: Jax! No! She’s nice!

(Ragatha puts her hand on Jax’s shoulder.)

Jax: UGH, what, dollface? Can’t you see I’m-

(Jax turns his head to see Ragatha winding up her other arm to beat him up. What followed after was Ragatha beating the everlasting daylights out of Jax senseless.)

Jax: RIBBONS, HELP!!!

(Jax screamed before getting pulled back by the ears. Ragatha took some rope and tape to tie and shut him up.)

(Gangle was left in shock again.)

Martha: My word, that young lady sure knows how to use a lasso. Was she farm-raised?

Gummigoo: Not exactly, but I do know now where she gets all that anger from.

(Ragatha finishes Jax off, panting from exhaustion.)

Ragatha: We’d… be honored… to have some tea… Also… sorry about it him… he’s nothing… but trouble…

Daniel: Yeah, he’s had that coming to him for a while.

Gummigoo: I really wish we could’ve met at a different time, when I STILL had my hat. (Gummigoo eyeballs Jax, who’s still muffling and struggling from the rope and tape.)

Martha: Oh, don’t worry. I can let you borrow my hat.

Gummigoo: Really? Thanks!

Martha: Here. (Martha takes off her hat and puts it on Gummigoo’s head, but it falls straight through him since it’s a ghost hat.)

(Gummigoo tries to pick it up from the floor, but the hat is intangible to corporeal beings.)

Gummigoo: Uhh… Mrs.? I can’t pick up your hat off the floor.

Martha: Oh, silly me. I forgot about the whole ghost intangible thing.

Daniel: You gave him the hat, but forgot it was intangible?

Gummigoo: Never mind that. I guess we could just enjoy some tea, while I wait for the chess piece and Pomni to return with my hat.

Daniel: Yeah, but tea’s not really my cup of tea. I will enjoy some water though. That last adventure in the candy canyons had me parched.

Martha: Don’t worry little boy. A cup of water is easier to make than tea. I’ll get the cups.

( So far, everything in this adventure has been going smoothly, but that feeling wouldn’t last for very long. )

(Meanwhile, back at the circus tent, Caine’s floating through the tent trying to find Zooble.)

Caine: (sing-song) Zooble, come on out! I just wanna talk to you! (Caine thinks of where Zooble is, and then realizes how he can get to her.) Oh, I know! (Caine snaps his fingers and Zooble’s pulled directly towards Caine.)

Zooble: What th- (scoffs) Could you have done that the whole time?

Caine: Zooble, (Caine floats down to Zooble’s level, putting his hand on her shoulder.) I-I just wanna get to the bottom of why you keep skipping all of my amazing adventures.

(Zooble flicks Caine’s hand off her shoulder.)

Caine: You could end up really hurting Bubble’s feelings.

Zooble: Uh, Bubble’s feelings?

Caine: E-Enough about Bubble’s feelings! How about YOUR feelings?

(Caine snaps his fingers again, and this time a small therapy room is constructed, complete with a leather sofa, a leather chair, a table to hold a potted plant and lamp on it, a rug, and a few paintings.)

Zooble: I…

(Caine takes out a pencil and a pad of paper.)

Caine: So, what’s on your mind, Zooble?

Zooble: I… would rather not.

(Caine laughs hilariously at her face.)

Caine: That’s hilarious! (Caine then returns to his seat.) Go on.

Zooble: No, I mean, I’ve already told you what my problem is. You just never seem to remember, because… (Zooble sighs.) Oh, never mind.

Caine: My mind is a beeswax-polished coconut. Nothing ever escapes these cakes. (Caine points to his eyes and squeezes them together.) So, what can I do to make my adventures more… appealing to you?

Zooble: See? This is exactly what I’m talking about. All you’re thinking about is your adventures. It has nothing to do with your adventures. It’s more just… Ugh, forget it. You’re probably not even listening.

Caine: Zooble, look at this cool bee I drew.

(Caine shows Zooble a drawing of a little bee on the pad of paper. Zooble’s left eye twitches in irritation.)

(Meanwhile Kinger and Pomni exit from a green portal into a dark room. Pomni’s the first to pull her head up, and her eyes are back in their sockets.)

Pomni: (groans) Wha?

(Pomni and Kinger get up from off the floor.)

(Kinger notices Gummigoo’s hat still on the floor.)

Kinger: Oh look! Free hat! (Kinger dusts off the hat before putting it on his head.)

Pomni: Where are we?

(Lightning flashes, lighting up the room, and causing the fireplace behind them to lit up revealing what kind of room they’re in. It’s a trophy room, that consists of all 8 of the circus members’ heads cut off, mutilated, and then mounted on the left and right walls of the room.)

(Pomni looks at her severed mutilated head mounted on the wall.)

Pomni: Oh, that’s… Noooo…

(Kinger turns around and sees a different head mounted right above the fireplace. It was a head that neither he nor Pomni recognized.)

(Kinger and Pomni make their way near the fireplace.)

Kinger: I wonder what this thing is. (Kinger spots an old tape recorder, and moves his disembodied hand to hit play on it.)

Tape recorder: My name is Baron Theodore Mildenhall. Hunting has been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember. Although one could say it eventually became more of an obsession.

(Kinger and Pomni look back to the head above the fireplace.)

Tape recorder: (continues) The creature you see before you is one I’ve been pursuing for years. Not, quite a man… but not quite an animal. Something… unholy. Something evil. I took it upon myself to spend every waking moment, doing all I could to protect my family from the creature, hoping that when I’d eventually killed it, I would be freed from this awful feeling. This inescapable dread. I was wrong. (The tape ends.)

Kinger: You know, I’m starting to think…

…

Pomni: How about we try to find a way back up to the others?

(Pomni and Kinger turn around and make their way to the door behind them. Once she opened the door, they were met with a literal brick wall.)

Pomni: (slowly losing it) Okay, cool. That’s great. I LOVE these adventures.

(Kinger goes into another room where there’s a dumbwaiter in the wall.)

Kinger: We could always ride this thingy up.

(Pomni gets to where Kinger is, and tries to open the bars like a barbaric jester, but the bars a locked shut.)

Pomni: (becoming more irritated) It’s locked. It’s locked, of course! It’s LOCKED! I LOVE THAT IT’S LOCKED!

(Kinger and Pomni open another door to be met with another room, supposedly Mr. Mildenhall’s office.)

(Pomni opens all the drawers in the desk hoping to find a key to open the dumbwaiter. While Kinger finds another tape recorder and hits play.)

Tape recorder: Tuesday, December 4th.

(Pomni jumps from the tape recorder suddenly talking, before giving Kinger the stink eye, and then going back to finding the key in the desk drawers.)

Tape recorder: (continues) Although I had shot the creature multiple times in its vitals, and severed its head to keep as a prize on my wall, my troubles were just beginning. I took my eyes off the body for what felt like only a minute, but when I looked back, the body was gone. The creature was not dead, and it would be back to reclaim what I’d taken from it. If anyone is listening to this, all I ask of you is one thing. Do not let the head out of your sight. YOU have been warned. (The tape ends.)

Kinger: Well, this is some rather inconvenient lore placement.

(After a solid minute of rummaging, Pomni shoots up holding the key in her hand.)

Pomni: GOT IT!

(Suddenly, every room was shrouded in advanced darkness. The only things visible were each other’s eyes.)

Kinger: And this is some rather inconvenient darkness.

Pomni: (groans and wails) AHH!!! What was that!? Was that you!?

Kinger: No… Oh, wait… you mean me grabbing you right now? Yeah, that was me. Is this your hand? (Kinger pokes Pomni’s eye.)

Pomni: Ugh! That’s my eye.

Kinger: Yes, but WHICH eye?

Pomni: I… really don’t think that ma- (Kinger pokes Pomni’s eye again.) Will you stop touching my eye?

Kinger: Oh, yeah. Sorry.

…

(Kinger shrieks, scaring Pomni.)

Pomni: Wh…! W-What happened?

Kinger: I just remembered a really funny joke.

Pomni: (stammers and sighs) Why did you scream, then?

Kinger: Maybe it wasn’t actually that funny.

Pomni: Oh my god…

Kinger: I thiiiiiiiink… we should hold onto each other, and slowly make our way back into the trophy room.

Pomni: U-Uh, sounds fine to me.

(The two pairs of eyes slowly made their way from one room in pitch black darkness, to another room in pitch black darkness.)

(Pomni notices a slight creaking.)

Pomni: (whispering) What was that?

Kinger: (whispering) What’s what?

(Now both Pomni and Kinger notice the creaking noise.)

Pomni: (whispering) That!

Kinger: (whispering) It’s probably just magnets. Or a boat.

Pomni: (stammers) A boat?

Kinger: (whispering) W-Whatever the case, I think we should be completely quiet.

Pomni: (whispering) I… Okay, yeah. I agree. You know, you’re really hit-and-miss with these things, sometimes.

(Soon after, a fly begins buzzing around Kinger, who’s trying to squash it with his hands.)

Pomni: (stammers)

Kinger: (whispering) There’s a fly in here. (Kinger continues his attempts at killing the fly.)

Pomni: (whispering) Don’t you think that’s making a lot of noi- (Pomni then notices the fly, despite the fact that they’re both encased in darkness and are essentially blind.) Oh god, there IS a fly.

Kinger: Aaaaaaaand… Gotcha! (Kinger successfully squishes the fly in his hands, and the buzzing stops.) I think I got him. I can’t see my hands.

(A scary third pair of eyes approaches Pomni and Kinger from behind. The head from the trophy room lets out a loud demonic screeching, all while glowing and getting rid of the advanced darkness in the process. Kinger and Pomni were taken aback from the head’s appearance. Once the head stopped screeching, the room fell back into normal darkness.)

Kinger: I’m sorry, could you speak up? I couldn’t quite make that out.

(Pomni grabs hold of Kinger by the robe in a moment of panic.)

Pomni: F@€K THE FLY! RUN!

(Pomni rushes right to the dumbwaiter, while the head screeches and lights up again. Still holding the key in her hand. She struggles to put the key in and accidentally drops it on the floor.)

Pomni: Come on come on come on come on come on come on come on!!

(Kinger turns around to face Pomni.)

Kinger: Pomni, I think this might be the creature from the tapes!

(Pomni babbles in a panicked frenzy, then groans as she goes back to putting the key in.)

Pomni: Come on come on come on come on come on come on come oooon!!

(Kinger looks back at the creature’s glowing screeching head. The head opens its mouth, wailing demonically. All the while, eyes are popping in and out of view in the creature’s mouth.)

(The multitude of eyes in the black of the mouth sends Kinger into some state of hypnosis, and thinks that those are his wife’s eyes.)

Kinger: (dazed) You look beautiful, honey…

(Pomni finally unlocks the bars to the dumbwaiter.)

Pomni: GOT IT! (Pomni turns around and sees Kinger almost becoming the creature’s food. She rushes right over to him, pulling by bottom.) COME ON!!!

(Kinger snaps out of his dazed hypnosis.)

Kinger: (stammers) Huh? Oh, yeah.

(Pomni and Kinger open the dumbwaiter bars, and entering the tiny box inside.

(Kinger closes the bars as soon as he’s in with Pomni.)

Kinger: Prepare for take-off, ‘cause this boat is going UP!

(The dumbwaiter actually goes down very slowly, causing Kinger to panic.)

Kinger: Huh?? That’s not up! That’s not up at all! Why aren’t we going up!?

(Kinger screams as the dumbwaiter begins going down faster.)

Kinger: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!

(Meanwhile, back at the circus tent, Caine’s losing it trying to figure out what Zooble’s problem is.)

Caine: I DO NOT use my adventures to torture my guests! Any torment I may or may not inflict is 100% accidental, like ANY good war criminal!

Zooble: (scoffs) We weren’t even talking about that! I really couldn’t give less of a crap about the adventures!

Caine: Then what is your PROBLEM, Zooble!? I’m trying my best to remember whatever it is that YOU or my brain won’t tell me!

Zooble: (sighs) It’s me, remember? I don’t like… myself. I hate this body. I hate all these stupid removable pieces. I just want to find something that feels… good.

Caine: Oh yeah! Now I remember why I couldn’t remember! It’s because that problem is already solved! (Caine snaps his fingers and a box filled with Zooble parts appears.) Simply swap out your undesirable Zooble parts for better ones!

Zooble: I’ve been trying to find parts I like since the day I got here.

Caine: So, back to the adventures!

(Zooble side-eyes Caine, then looks the other way.)

Zooble: Forget it.

Caine: “Forget it”?

Zooble: Just forget it.

Caine: Forget what?

Zooble: Caine, nobody likes your stupid adventures.

(Caine laughs while wiping a tear from one of his eyes.)

Caine: Good one, Zooble!

Zooble: Ragatha’s too nice to say anything. Jax just likes to f@€k with everybody. Gangle’s too shy to speak up. Kinger’s insane. Pomni looks traumatized every time she comes back from one. And the Game Genie… He’s probably not even playing fair because of his stupid cheat codes.

(Caine floats his way over to the leather sofa.)

Caine: Oh, Zooble, Zooble, Zooble. Making adventures is my art! It’s, all I exist to do! All I’m… good at. A-And, uh… (Caine chuckles.) …w-what you’re saying could imply that I’m bad at the only thing I’m good at, and that… (Caine chuckles weakly before stammering.) That’d be…

(Caine’s ai has been pushed to some sort of existential crisis. The more he processed that statement, the more he and everything around him began crumbling down around him.)

Caine: ( Oh god, oh god no. )

( Are my adventures really that bad? )

( Does the Game Genie really cheat his way past everything I’ve thrown at him? )

( What if my adventures aren’t catching enough of his attention? )

( Maybe if I add more to the adventure he’s in, maybe it’ll catch enough of his attention to not cheat through the whole thing! )

Zooble: U-Uh, whose therapy session is this, again?

(Caine snaps out of his internal thoughts and existential crisis and the therapy session continues like nothing happened.)

Caine: Oh, yeah! (Caine gets back to his leather chair.) We need to get to the bottom of your behavioral issues! I’m gonna show you some ink blots, and you’re gonna say the first word that comes to your mind. (Caine jots a picture down on the pad of paper and shows it to Zooble.)

(Meanwhile, Ragatha, Gangle, and Gummigoo sit at the dining room table waiting for their tea, and Daniel enjoys his water, while Jax sits and watches all tied up.)

Daniel: Thanks for the water and tea for us.

Martha: Oh, it’s nothing, really. I just love sharing a cozy hot cup of lapsang souchong tea with my guests.

Ragatha: Well, we’re actually here to solve a mystery in this manor, and if it’s not too much trouble to ask, we would like to know what happened with you and Mr. Mildenhall.

Martha: Oh, my husband, Theodore? He was a doozy till the very end. It’s actually funny really. He was really obsessed with hunting stuff. I never really understood the appeal myself. But sometimes, it makes me wonder if he loves hunting more than he loves me. He’s especially been obsessed with hunting a specific creature… I forgot the details, but it basically drove him mad.

Gangle: So, how did you die?

Martha: I got caught in the crossfire. That’ll teach me to never get between him and his shotgun.

(The tea kettle whistles, indicating that the water has finished heating up for the tea.)

Martha: Oh, tea kettles calling! (Martha gets up from the dining table and over to the stove.)

Gummigoo: Is that the whole mystery? Just someone’s passion gone terribly wrong?

Daniel: There’s gotta be more to it than that. I feel like Mrs. Mildenhall isn’t telling us the whole story.

Ragatha: What makes you say that, Daniel?

Daniel: Think about it. A passion for hunting would only turn into an obsession if someone’s only hunting one thing. I believe that the creature Mr. Mildenhall was trying to hunt, is something that can’t ever be killed. The only question that remains is, who or what could make an unkillable monster?

(Martha comes back to the dining table with the tea kettle. Once she sits down, she pours tea into everyone’s teacups. The tea felt warm to the touch. Ragatha’s the first to take a sip before Gangle, and then Gummigoo.)

Ragatha: Mmm, good tea. Sorry again about your husband killing you and everything.

Martha: Oh, you know how men are. Always having the silliest priorities.

Ragatha: (chuckles wryly) Don’t I know it.

(Ragatha looks towards Jax, who’s still muffling and struggling in the corner.)

Martha: If your friends see him, I only hope he doesn’t bore them to death with his endless monologues. That man could turn a 57-second story into a Greek tragedy.

(Jax gets tired of muffling and looks around for something to untie himself, but then he notices a misplaced door on the other side of the room. Then he looks back towards Gummigoo and comes up with an idea.)

(Jax butt-scooches towards Gummigoo’s chair, nudging him to get his attention.)

Gummigoo: What the… Jax? What do you want?

(Jax muffles something while nudging his eyes to get Gummigoo to look at something.)

(Gummigoo looks at Daniel, and then looks beyond where Daniel is sitting and sees the door.)

Gummigoo: Uh, Daniel?

Daniel: Yes?

Gummigoo: Is that a door I see behind you? Or am I hallucinating?

(Daniel turns around to see the misplaced door.)

Daniel: Huh. Was that door always there? I don’t remember a door being there.

Ragatha: Strange. I don’t remember there being a door either. Maybe it’s a walk-in closet?

Daniel: Or maybe it’s a door that leads to more of the manor! This might be a sign that there really is more to this mystery than what we’ve been told! Come on, Gummigoo! We got a mystery to solve!

Gummigoo: Hold on! Lemme finish my tea! (Gummigoo takes a quick sip of tea before putting it back down on the table.) Good stuff.

(The two get off their chairs, and Daniel waits for Gummigoo on the other side of the table.)

Ragatha: Well, I’ll be sure to ask the others about Mr. Mildenhall next time I see ‘em. Thanks again for the tea. I had a really nice time here. You two have fun exploring the rest of the manor.

Martha: (chuckles) Oh, don’t mention it. Feel free to visit anytime.

(Ragatha carries the tied up Jax in a red wagon while Gangle follows beside her.)

Ragatha: Definitely!

(The three circus members make their way back to the front door to be greeted by Caine’s disembodied voice and a hearty congratulations sign.)

Caine: (disembodied voice) Congratulations, my little ironclad waffle cones! You’ve taken the PACIFIST ROUTE, and you should be proud of what good people you are!

(Jax rolls his eyes and lets out a muffled groan.)

Caine: (disembodied voice) Unfortunately, we still need to wait until your other teammates finish their adventure before I can grant you permission to leave.

Gangle: I wonder how long that’ll be.

(Daniel and Gummigoo stand right in front of the misplaced door. They take a deep breath in, and then out.)

Daniel: Ready?

Gummigoo: Let’s boo this.

Martha: Good luck you two!

Daniel: Thanks, Mrs. Mildenhall.

(With that, Daniel and Gummigoo enter the misplaced door.)

(Martha takes a long sip of her tea.)

Martha: You’ll need it.

Caine: (disembodied voice) Rated [REDACTED] for [REDACTED]!

(Once Daniel and Gummigoo entered the misplaced door, they were greeted with advanced darkness.)

Gummigoo: Where are we? W-Where are YOU?

Daniel: Gummigoo, I’m right here.

Gummigoo: Where though? I can’t see anything!

Daniel: Hold on, let me try something. (Daniel tries to activate a cheat code that make his eyes act like flashlights.) Does that help?

Gummigoo: Not really. They don’t have good enough range.

Daniel: Maybe I can use my eye lights to find a light switch.

(Daniel puts his hands on the walls to feel for a light switch. Once he feels a light switch, he turns it on to get rid of the advanced darkness.)

Daniel: Aha! (Daniel’s eyes stop glowing and the room slightly lights up revealing a long corridor.)

Gummigoo: Finally! I thought we were gonna be stuck in the dark and not get anywhere.

(The corridor looks somewhat normal for the most part, a few paintings are displayed here and there with frames, a coat hanger, and a few candle lit lanterns hanging on the walls.)

(Daniel notices a tape recorder sitting on a table.)

Daniel: Maybe this tape recorder here can help give us some clues on what REALLY happened here. (Daniel presses play on the tape recorder.)

Tape recorder: Friday, May 13th, 2011. My name is Strawinsky Mildenhall. The brother of Baron Theodore Mildenhall. I work at a trauma center. No, not that kind of trauma center. I make trauma a reality. I take any phobia or obsession people have, and twist it into monsters to permanently scar them psychologically. Recently, I made a pact with God to help ruin my own brother’s life, by making something he’s unable to kill, no matter what he did. While I am glad he’s gone, I’m still not satisfied. (The tape ends.)

Gummigoo: Well… I guess that answers who made the unkillable monster. (Gummigoo notices Daniel pondering deep.) Daniel?

Daniel: That name. “Strawinsky”. Why does it sound so familiar?

Gummigoo: What are you talking about, mate? We already solved the mystery, let’s go back!

Daniel: Wait! As much as I’m thrilled that we solved the mystery from the start, it’s obvious that the mystery we’ve solved has led us to a completely new mystery! We can’t turn back now! Besides, I think I heard the door lock itself when we entered. So, let’s make like IKEA, and push forward with this rabbit hole of a mystery!

Gummigoo: Fine, but we better find my hat in here, somewhere.

Daniel: Okay! Let’s go!

(The eager Game Genie and his gummy gator partner ventured down the long manor corridor to be met with a stairwell leading to a lower level of the manor.)

(Daniel notices a flashlight left on the floor and picks it up.)

Daniel: Looks like we weren’t the only people here. (Daniel turns on the flashlight, lighting up more of the hallways.)

Gummigoo: Now THAT’S a flashlight with good range.

(The two bravely pressed forward through the maze-like hallways, when suddenly they clipped through a one-sided wall.)

Gummigoo: What the…!

(Daniel and Gummigoo turned around to see the wall they clipped through. Gummigoo puts his hand on the wall and pushes against it.)

Gummigoo: Are we seriously trapped here right now?

(Daniel notices a door to his left.)

Daniel: Hey, there’s a door here. We’re not trapped just yet. (Daniel opens the door to an abandoned anteroom.)

(Daniel and Gummigoo walked through the abandoned anteroom.)

Gummigoo: Crikey. could it get any more musty in here? What would a guy like Strawinsky use an anteroom for, anyway?

(Daniel notices another door on the other side of the anteroom

Daniel: Look, another door! (Daniel opens the door on the opposite side of the anteroom to be met with an industrial wardrobe room, with hazmat suits hanging on the left wall.)

(Daniel and Gummigoo walked through the industrial wardrobe room.)

Daniel: What kind of profession like Strawinsky’s requires hazmat suits?

(Gummigoo notices another door that’s slightly propped open. It’s emitting an ectoplasm-green light from the other side.)

Gummigoo: Woah… What’s going on over there? (Gummigoo goes to the slightly opened door to be met with a balcony that overlooks a forest of dead trees, and a giant ectoplasm-green moon, in an otherwise pitch black void of a night sky.)

(Daniel finds Gummigoo on the balcony and is amazed by the discovery of a green moon.)

Daniel: Woah… I haven’t seen a moon that green since Super Mario Odyssey.

Gummigoo: Wait a minute, if we’re underground, how can there be a balcony here?

Daniel: Maybe this was one of his side projects? (Daniel notices another tape recorder.) Another tape recorder! Let’s see what clues it gives us this time! (Daniel hits play on the tape recorder.)

Tape recorder: Friday, July 13th, 2012. I find it funny how much society puts pressure on people to read books. Whether that be school, or a library, or fan fictions seen online. I often find myself staring at the moon, wondering what to make a monster of next. I keep thinking I outdid myself, and then I make something bigger and scarier than the last. After a while of experimenting though, I think I’ve hit my latest breakthrough. Once it’s finished, bookworms won’t want to touch another book again. (The tape ends.)

Daniel: Huh. Quite a real thinker here.

Gummigoo: What kind of clue is that supposed to be?

Daniel: Whatever it is, it’s trying really hard for me to remember something, or recall a memory. But I can’t seem to remember or recall what it’s trying to tell me. Is he… trying to warn me about something? What does he have against reading? Maybe if we continue further, we’ll find something to jog my memory.

Gummigoo: But where? There’s no more doors out here.

Daniel: Wait a second. See the texturing on that wall over there? (Daniel points to the wall left to the balcony.) It doesn’t line up with the wall with the door. What if this is a tiny door disguised as part of the wall?

Gummigoo: Why would Strawinsky make a tiny door disguised as part of the wall?

(Daniel puts his hands on the wall to feel for an opening.)

Daniel: Maybe to throw wanderers or the feds off his tracks. This guy probably knows a lot more about escaping from the cops than what we let on. (Daniel knocks on the wall.) Drywall! (Daniel puts one hand on the drywall as to not lose it.) I found the sweet spot! Quick, go look in the other rooms that might help tear open this wall! Take this too! (Daniel tosses the flashlight into Gummigoo’s hands.)

Gummigoo: On it! (Gummigoo goes back in the industrial wardrobe room. He looks in each of the hazmat suits, but just before giving up and looking in the anteroom, he finds a hammer in one of the pockets of the final hazmat suit he looked in. Gummigoo rushes back to the balcony.) I found a hammer!

Daniel: Which one? Sledge? Or regular?

(Gummigoo examines the hammer.)

Gummigoo: Uhh… regular. (Gummigoo hands it over to Daniel.)

Daniel: I’ll take it! (Daniel winds up his other hand holding the hammer.) HIIIIIYAH! (The hammer punctures a little hole in the drywall. Daniel repeatedly hammers into the drywall until there’s a tiny opening for one person each to crawl into.)

Gummigoo: Well? What’s on the other side?

Daniel: I don’t know, it’s too dark in there! Can you hand me the flashlight?

(Gummigoo passes Daniel the flashlight.)

Gummigoo: Here.

(Daniel turns on the flashlight to see an empty baron bedroom.)

Daniel: That’s so strange.

Gummigoo: What’s over there?

Daniel: It’s an empty bedroom.

Gummigoo: Like, a normal room with a bed to sleep on?

Daniel: No, I mean an actual empty room. No bed, nothing.

Gummigoo: Let me see.

Daniel: Actually, why don’t I just crawl in all the way and pull you in from the other side?

Gummigoo: That’ll do.

(Daniel crawls the rest of the way through the hole in the wall, landing on his stomach. Once he’s back up on his feet, he holds out both hands through the hole for Gummigoo.)

Daniel: Okay, Gummigoo. I’m gonna need you to hold my hands tightly while I pull you up and through the hole!

Gummigoo: Got it!

Daniel: Ready?

(Gummigoo holds tightly onto Daniel’s hands.)

Gummigoo: PULL!

(With that, Daniel pulls Gummigoo up and through the hole in the wall with all his might. Daniel’s thrown backwards and Gummigoo lands right on top of him.)

Gummigoo: Oh, sorry mate.

Daniel: No need. I kinda wanted this to happen between us. I didn’t think it’d happen here though. (Daniel chuckles.)

(Gummigoo gets up off of Daniel and dusts himself off.)

Gummigoo: Well, whatever the case, I feel like we’re nearing the end of this second mystery. It feels like there’s not that much left to explore.

(Daniel gets up off the floor, dusting himself off too.)

Daniel: You’re probably right. Maybe the next clue we find will jog my memory enough for me to remember whatever it is that Strawinsky’s rambling on about. Wait, where’s the flashlight?

(Gummigoo finds the flashlight off the floor.)

Gummigoo: Got it! What about the hammer?

Daniel: I can’t see it.

(Gummigoo turns on the flashlight.)

Gummigoo: How about now?

(Daniel finds the hammer on the floor and picks it up.)

Daniel: Got it! Found a door or a way out of this room?

(Gummigoo points his flashlight at the walls, and shortly afterwards finds another door.)

Gummigoo: That way. Come on.

(Daniel and Gummigoo make their way out the empty bedroom and find themselves at another hallway. A faint deep demonic snoring sound can be heard.)

Daniel: (whispering) What on earth is that?

(Gummigoo shines a light through the hallway and is met with a wall.)

Gummigoo: (whispering) A dead end? What kind of hallway has a growling dead end?

(Another faint deep demonic snoring sound penetrates the silence.)

Daniel: (whispering) Maybe there’s a person somewhere in another room…?

(Gummigoo and Daniel make their way to the end of the corridor to see another door on their left. It looks slightly propped open, much like the door that led to the balcony. They both push on the door to be met with more advanced darkness. Their noses however are hit with the most extreme and hideous odor imaginable. Whatever was in there with them was either a rotting corpse, or a sleeping monster.)

Gummigoo: (whispering) Jesus Christ, it smells so bad in here!

Daniel: (whispering) Oh god… Now I know why they need hazmat suits. Uhh… is it too late to get them?

Gummigoo: (whispering) Well we’re already here, and it was a pain getting through that tiny hole in the wall, so probably. Let’s just turn on a light switch somewhere, and see where the noise and smell is coming from.

(Gummigoo turns around to feel for a light switch on the wall behind him. Once he gets a feel for the light switch, he flicks it on, and the same dim lighting fills up the room, revealing it to be a study room with bookshelves along the opposite wall.)

(And there lies what’s making that scary noise and awful smell. A huge creature that slightly resembles a human. It has no clothes on, no hair, no legs, it has many rolls of fat, twig arms, and has a tail of human skin that trails behind it.)

(The moment Daniel laid his eyes upon it, he was struck with a pang of pure fear in every fiber of his digital being. Luckily for them, the monster seemed to be resting after violently eating every book in the study room.)

[20, 30, 40%]

(Gummigoo turns back around to see what Daniel sees. All the pages ripped out and spread all over the floor, the big undulating pile of human skin and fat on the other side of the room, and then he looks at Daniel, who’s terrified at what he’s seeing in front of him.)

Gummigoo: (whispering) D… Daniel…?

[50, 60, 70%]

(Daniel was mortified. He couldn’t move, look away, or even speak. The only thing that came from him was his shaky breathing. All of his traumatic memories were flooding back to him all at once. He remembered seeing the monster back when he was 12, and now, many years later, his deepest fears of that same monster coming back to hunt and eat him are now coming to fruition. And worst of all, he nor Gummigoo had any idea when it’d happen.)

[80, 90%]

(Before anyone could do or say anything, the door slams and locks itself shut behind Daniel and Gummigoo’s backs, tripping them both. The sudden loud noise wakes the monster from its slumber. It turns its head a full 360 degrees before facing Gummigoo and Daniel. Despite its obese appearance, it dashes right towards the two, snarling and growling like a hungry wolf hunting its prey. And then…

[Trauma 99, 100%]

[New cheat code unlocked: Freeze Time]

(Daniel closed his eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable to happen, but when he opened his eyes, he was met face to face with the monster. Daniel looked around at his surroundings, and then at his gloves. The green rings on his wrists were glowing green. Everything around Daniel has slowed to a complete stop. He looks up at the monster, trying to make sense of all that he’s seeing.)

Daniel: W-What… ARE you…?

(The monster responded to Daniel via telepathy. He could hear every word the monster said.)

Monster: ( I am the embodiment of your deepest, darkest, fears. I go against everything you believe in. I will make your demise last for eternity. I will make sure to be the last thing you see, before, you, DIE. )

(The monster’s maniacal cackling echoes inside Daniel’s head. He reaches for the door and twists the doorknob, but it’s locked. Then he looks at Gummigoo who looks just as terrified as he is right now. Daniel pulls Gummigoo’s frozen body close to him, and teleports out of the study room.)

(Meanwhile, Pomni and Kinger ride the speeding dumbwaiter all the way down to the cellar. The dumbwaiter itself breaks into pieces, and the two are launched right out of it, landing gracefully on their faces.)

(Pomni is the first to get up, groaning from the crash landing.)

Pomni: What…? Oh god… Where are we now?

(Kinger lifts his head up off the floor.)

Kinger: I’m not sure. A… cellar of some kind.

(Pomni and Kinger notices what is supposedly Mr. Mildenhall’s rotting corpse sitting a few feet away from them. In his decaying lap is a shotgun. Pomni and Kinger then spot a tape recorder closer to them, and Kinger hits play.)

Tape recorder: Things have gotten far worse than I could ever have imagined. My paranoia has driven me to the point where I was no longer the protector my wife and theoretical children needed. Jumping at every shadow, every noise. I ended up shooting the love of my life, mistaking her for the creature. It’s ironic, isn’t it? In my attempts to protect her, I ended up becoming the monster myself. Now I wait down in my cellar, no longer having anything to protect but my own soul. If nothing else… I will slay the beast that took everything from me. (The tape ends.)

Kinger: How’s about we take his gun?

Pomni: Yeah, sounds good to me. (Pomni makes his way to Mr. Mildenhall’s corpse, slowly creeping closer, hoping that he wouldn’t attack her while she was taking the shotgun.) Please don’t come alive…!

Mr. Mildenhall: Okay, I won’t.

(Pomni was taken aback a little, hesitant to pick up the shotgun, but once she got it, she returned to Kinger to examine the gun.)

(Kinger looks inside the reload chamber.)

Kinger: Looks like we’ve got two shots. (Kinger seals up the reload chamber.) Let’s make them count.

Pomni: Uh, yeah.

(Suddenly, a distant clanging noise can be heard from a pipe over to the left of them.)

Kinger: Stay behind me.

(Pomni gets behind Kinger. Out from the darkness of the pipe, comes some grimy hands. Then it reveals the rest of itself as the body of the creature. It exits from the pipe, contorting and hunching like crazy.)

(Pomni looks the other way and sees the head of the creature screeching and glowing as it made its way to the cellar.)

Pomni: (laughs nervously) Uh, Kinger? I-I think we may have a problem this way, too!

(Kinger looks the other way with Pomni and sees both the head, and the body of the creature approaching them slowly.)

Kinger: Just, leave it to me. I can handle this.

(The creature’s body stops stalling and books it over to Kinger. He fires the first bullet straight to the heart of the body. Kinger then turns to aim at the head, and fires the second bullet straight to the brain. Both parts of the creature don’t move after that.)

Kinger: Well. That wasn’t so bad.

(Kinger jinxes before the tape recorder plays itself.)

Tape recorder: …Which is what I would be saying if I didn’t know that the creature was actually one of God’s angels.

Kinger: What?

Tape recorder: (continues) And anyone who brings harm to it will be dragged down into the cold, spiraling pits of Hell, where my soul resides.

(The body of the creature spreads a single bony fleshy wing covered in eyeballs.)

Tape recorder: (continues) I apologize, dear listener, but I need a living host in order to escape the hall of the damned, and your bodies will be my only means of doing so.

Kinger: Now, wait. How did he record this if he was in Hell?

(Suddenly, a bunch of bony arms and hands grab hold of both Pomni and Kinger, and slowly pull them down through the floor.)

Pomni: (shrieks) Oh no! Let go of me!

Kinger: (wailing)

Tape recorder: (continues) I hope you’re ready, because the next breath you take down there, will be your last. And your bodies will belong to me. (The tape ends.)

(Pomni and Kinger are almost completely through the floor. Pomni and Kinger struggle the whole way down.)

Pomni: LET GO OF ME! (Pomni grunts as she slowly sinks entirely through the floor.) I HATE THIS STUPID ADVENTURE!!! (With that, Pomni was sucked down into Hell with Kinger.)

(Meanwhile, Daniel teleported himself and Gummigoo out of the locked study room and back out on the balcony. Gummigoo panics as it all happened so fast.)

Gummigoo: (panting) What happened!? Am I dead!?

Daniel: (recovering from revisiting his trauma) No… We’re safe… Oh god the stench. Oh, I’m gonna be sick! (Daniel leans over the balcony railing to heave and hurl from the overwhelmingly awful stench of the monster they encountered.)

(Gummigoo hears a faint screaming grow louder and looks up to see Kinger and Pomni falling through the black void.)

Gummigoo: Pomni!? King chess piece!?

(Pomni and Kinger fall through the balcony view and down into the black void.)

Daniel: (queasy) Ugh… Sorry for the vomit…!

Gummigoo: Was that King chess piece wearing my hat?

(Daniel gets away from the railing, rubbing the vomit off his lips with his sleeve.)

Daniel: (queasy) I think so… Also he goes by Kinger. I… think what we just witnessed in the study room was all there is for us to do here. We’ve CLEARLY bitten off more than we can chew.

Gummigoo: Well, IS there a way for us to leave? This whole part of the manor seems to be quite unfinished. I can’t really tell if that was intentional on Caine’s end or not. Maybe we can… jump off the balcony, and meet up with Pomni and Kinger?

Daniel: No… that’s not really a good idea. For all we know, they’ve probably entered Hell, along with my vomit. Maybe we missed some extra information from these tape recorders? (Daniel hits play on the tape recorder next to him.)

Tape recorder: Friday, July 13th, 2018. After six years in the works, I’m ready to unleash my latest monster upon the human mind. Codename; Bibliophobia. A monster with a name so corrupt, and a hunger for human flesh more powerful than any monster I’ve ever made, or will ever make. A few of my colleagues have been sacrificed for the sake of this monster in particular, myself included. If you are listening, I am no longer alive. Don’t bother calling the cops on me, because this monster will have eaten them too. (The tape ends.)

Gummigoo: Okay, that’s enough outta the tape recorder’s pie hole. Why don’t we just huddle up, and retrace our steps back to the others?

Daniel: Good idea. Let’s blow this Strawinsky stand.

(Daniel and Gummigoo retraced their steps from the balcony, through the industrial wardrobe room, past the abandoned anteroom, and back to the wall they clipped past.)

Gummigoo: Well, this is as far back as we can go from here. Where do we go now?

Daniel: How about that way? (Daniel points down the corridor that leads to 2 split paths.)

(Gummigoo and Daniel make their way to the other side of the corridor where it splits both ways. They notice another tape recorder sitting on a table, much like the first one they came across.)

Gummigoo: Another bloody tape recorder?

Daniel: Let’s just hope this one won’t be awful. (Daniel hits play on the tape recorder.)

Tape recorder: Much like my brother, Theodore Mildenhall, this hobby of making monsters from the obsessed and traumatized has turned into an obsession of my own, that would eventually end up being my demise, and soon will be your demise too.

Daniel: Oh god, that awful stench is back.

Tape recorder: (continues) I’m not sorry for the countless crimes I’ve committed, or the lives I’ve lost, especially me and my brother’s. It all means nothing to me.

Gummigoo: Uh… Daniel?

Tape recorder: (continues) I had already lost everything, when I lost my innocence. Then again… (The tape cuts.)

Bibliophobia: I N N O C E N C E  D O E S N ‘ T  G E T  Y O U   F A R .

(Daniel’s eyes widened in fear, as he felt a slimy hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, he was pinned to the floor by the monster from the study room. Daniel screamed for help, kicking and scratching at the floor as he was sucked into the monster’s jelly-like body. Once Daniel was inside, he tried desperately to push back out, but to no avail.)

Daniel: (inside the monster) Gummigoo! Don’t leave me here! (Coughs) Gummigoo! GUMMIGOO! HELP ME!!!

(Gummigoo watched in sheer horror. He nor Daniel know how to defeat the monster.)

Gummigoo: (whimpers) I’m so sorry, mate! (All Gummigoo could do was book it back to the others, as the monster began to chase him down.)

(Meanwhile, Pomni and Kinger find themselves in Hell, which rather looks like some sort of murky dungeon.)

Kinger: Not really typical of what you’d think Hell would look like. (Kinger sniffs a bit.) Not really typical of what I’d think Hell would smell like either. Or maybe that’s the vomit.

Pomni: We… are LITERALLY in Hell right now! HELL! (Pomni’s shouts echo off the walls like they’re at the bottom of a well.) Of course I’d be in Hell! How could I NOT be in literal Hell right now!?

(Kinger puts his disembodied hand on Pomni’s shoulder reassuringly.)

Kinger: Just… try to stay calm. (Kinger stands up.) I’m sure Caine included a way to escape.

(Kinger and Pomni stand in front of the hall of the damned. Pomni almost steps forward, but Kinger stops her.)

Kinger: Hold on. (Despite Kinger’s eyes being exposed in all directions, he’s got beyond 20/20 vision, and can see every tiny soul flowing through the hall.) Let me try something. (Kinger takes out his left eye from his head, and tosses it down the hall of the damned to get the better look.) Hey, there’s actually a staircase down there. It could be a way out. Maybe it’ll work for us since we still have our bodies? Though, I’m worried about what the tape said earlier.

Pomni: I’m… just gonna try going fast.

Kinger: Wait, Pomni!

(Pomni tries and books it to the staircase, but then she stops and contorts as all the souls start beelining into her mouth.)

Kinger: Pomni!

(Once Pomni has become fully possessed, she turns her head almost 180 degrees, facing Kinger with a demonic gremlin laugh.)

Pomni?: (demonic) FREEEEDOOOOOM!

Kinger: POMNI! (Kinger grabs the possessed jester towards him, getting knocked back to the floor. He also manages to get his eye back in the catch.)

(Once Kinger gets back up, he grabs his shotgun and stumps the souls out of the possessed jester.)

Kinger: HEY! YOU GET OUT OF HER, YOU DAMNED EVIL SOULS!

Pomni?: (cackling demonically) HOW’S YOUR WIFE, KINGER?

(Kinger stumps the rest of the souls out of Pomni, letting her cough up any stragglers. The more souls she coughed out, the more she returned back to normal.)

Kinger: Hey. You alright there?

Pomni: (scarred) …No.

Kinger: I’m, guessing the souls are attracted to living things. Just want a vessel to be able to leave with. Man… Seven years of computer science for this, huh? (Kinger chuckles slightly.)

Pomni: (scared) …Why? Everyday I spend here in one nightmare after the next! I KNEW IT WOULD END UP LIKE THIS! He… (Pomni curls up into a ball on the verge of tears.) He just wants me to suffer. I really AM in Hell.

Kinger: Don’t say that. You’re not in… Well, I-I guess we are technically in… Eh, forget about that. How about we just relax for a bit while nothing is chasing us? (Kinger sits and scoots next to Pomni.)

(All Pomni can think about was how much she’s been pushed to madness, not just from people like Jax, but also from the adventurers Caine has her go on.)

(Pomni never asked to be sent into this game, and the chances of her escaping have never been so slim before. Knowing that she’s forever trapped, she starts sobbing softly. Her face buried in her hands, and her cries echoing through the murky darkness.)

Kinger: It was… my fault we went down this path, wasn’t it? I’m really… sorry… for that.

(Pomni stifles her soft sobbing, rubbing the tears from her eyes.)

Pomni: Why have you… been acting so different lately?

(Kinger chuckles.)

Kinger: I have, haven’t I? I’m normally not too good with memories. But being surrounded by darkness always… brings me back to a certain time. Right after my wife had… abstracted… I don’t recall the exact string of events, but we both ended up in the fort together. And it was dark. The darkness seemed to calm her down a bit. The harsh, jagged edges smoothed out, and… she didn’t seem aggravated anymore. She wasn’t the same as before, but she was calm enough to touch one last time… before she got sent to the cellar. I’m always taken back to that moment when engulfed in darkness.

Pomni: (perplexed) You had a wife? Like, here in the circus?

Kinger: Yeah. She was funny, creative… and really into entomology. I used to hate bugs, but… she somehow got me to like them. (Kinger sighs.) It’s not the most cheerful memory, but… it’s one I at least have control over.

Kinger: (continues) I know how it can feel in this… circus. Sometimes it all just feels… pointless.

Pomni: Yeah…

Kinger: But it’s not. Not if you have people who care about you. Good memories can do a lot. Hold onto them. And cherish the people around you. You never know when they’ll be gone. In this world, the worst thing you can do is… make someone think they’re not wanted or loved.

(Pomni, feeling a little bit more better, inches closer to Kinger.)

Pomni: I’m glad you’re here with me.

(…)

Kinger: You know, I’ve been thinking about that last tape. He said, “The next breath you take down there… will be your last.” Maybe we can get through if we don’t breathe.

Pomni: I’m… not very good at… holding my breath.

Kinger: Well… How about we try… not thinking about it? (Kinger lifts up Gummigoo’s hat that he’s been wearing the whole adventure.)

(Pomni stammers a bit, trying to comprehend what’ll happen once they leave Hell.)

Pomni: If… we leave, and we go back to the circus… you’re just gonna go back to being crazy. You’re not gonna remember… any of this. Are you?

Kinger: Don’t worry about me. (Kinger stands up.) As long as YOU remember it, things will be okay. You’re very strong, Pomni. And I know you’ll be able to get through this. (Kinger lends his floating hand to Pomni.) Just hold onto me. We’ll get through it together. You ready?

(Pomni grabs hold of Kinger’s hand, pulling her up off the floor. They look directly at the hall of the damned, take a deep breath, hold their breath in, and casually walk through. As they walk through the hall of the damned, they see all the souls spiraling around them, and none are entering either of them.)

(As the two continued their stroll, Pomni’s face starts turning blue, while Kinger on the other hand glows bright like the brightest star in the night sky. Kinger’s light penetrates through the darkness in all directions, making their jovial jaunt through the hall of the damned a lot more holy.)

(Once they reached the other side of the hall, they both exhale. Pomni’s face returns to the pale white, and Kinger stops glowing. The two however still hold hands as they went up the stairs. Once they got up the flight of stairs, they open a door that leads next to the rest of the gang waiting at the congratulations sign.)

Ragatha: Oh, Pomni! Kinger! Are you guys okay? Was it scary?

Pomni: I’m… fine, actually. (Pomni and Kinger then see what Ragatha did to Jax while they were away.) What happened up here?

Ragatha: Uh, don’t worry about that.

Kinger: Pomni was very brave. At least I… think she was. (Kinger leans in towards Pomni.) Were you?

Pomni: Something like that. (Pomni remembers what Kinger said about cherishing the people around her, and decides to approach Ragatha.) Hey, Ragatha.

Ragatha: Yeah?

Pomni: I just want to say… (Pomni sighs.) Thanks for always being concerned about me. I feel like, through everything, I haven’t really been appreciative enough about that.

Ragatha: O-Oh! Thank you, Pomni! I just want to make sure you’re doin’ alright. You know, we care about you.

(Jax rolls his eyes as if it’s the only thing he can do since he’s still tied up.)

Gangle: Did you remember to get my comedy mask?

(Pomni and Kinger did not in fact get Gangle’s mask back. But they did get back the next best thing.)

Kinger: F@€K!!!

(Gummigoo’s hat falls off Kinger’s head. Pomni picks it up off the floor.)

Pomni: At least we got Gummigoo’s hat back. I wonder where he is.

Ragatha: He went with Daniel into a misplaced door. They’ve certainly been in there for a while. I wonder if they’re okay.

(Meanwhile, Gummigoo dashed up a different flight of stairs that led him to a similar layout of hallways than the one he was just running out of. He could feel and smell the monster persistently giving chase to him.)

(Gummigoo sees the hallway split into two paths. He has no time to think this through. If he stops for just one second, he’s the monster’s dessert. Gummigoo immediately makes a hard left turn upon coming at the split path. He notices the one-way wall isn’t there and becomes more hopeful for escaping.)

(Then Gummigoo realizes there’s another split path and now he has to make another split-second decision. He can feel the monster behind him closing the gap ever so slowly. In a panic, he takes a sharp right turn coming into the split path. He feels the wall phasing through him. The long corridor they went through at the beginning had a one-way wall. It didn’t stop the monster however, as it broke through the one-way wall.)

(Gummigoo and the monster were almost bumper to bumper at this point. No other predator he had faced ever has been that hot on his gummy gator tail before. And he was gonna make sure to shake the monster right off. Gummigoo takes another sharp left turn in the middle of the long corridor. The double doors bursted open, revealing a fake foyer and another set of double doors. He could feel the exit from this hellish manor growing closer and closer. He bashes through the second double doors and sees the rest of the gang at the congratulations sign.)

Gummigoo: PORTAL! PORTAL!!! WHERE’S THE BLOODY PORTAL!?!?!?

(Everyone was confused about Gummigoo’s frantic dashing, until they see the monster that has been chasing him throughout the manor and they all scream in terror, even Jax.)

(Meanwhile back in the therapy session, Zooble’s in the leather chair, Caine’s in the leather sofa, and Bubble’s wearing Caine’s top hat.)

Caine: And… And now, I-I’m just starting to wonder if the “Wild West” was… e-even a real direction at all.

(Outside of the pretend therapy room, the rest of the circus members exit the portal with a big crash.)

(Caine looks at his wrist like he’s wearing a wristwatch.)

Caine: Whoopsie-daisy! Looks like everybody completed the adventure and they’re back home! (Caine grabs his top hat from Bubble, shakes his cain from out of the hat, and puts it on him while floating off the sofa.) Quick, pretend we weren’t having a therapy session!

Zooble: Okay…? (Zooble puts away the pad of paper.)

(Caine floats on over to the rest of the crew.)

Caine: Welcome back, my meowing milkmaids! Woah. What happened over here? And where did that rope and wagon come from? (Caine snaps his fingers and the rope and wagon disappear.)

Jax: (dizzy) Don’t ever call us that again.

Kinger: (dizzy) Here’s your hat, Gummigoo.

Gummigoo: (exhausted) Thanks, mate… (Gummigoo pants, putting his hat back on him, before realizing something dire.) OH MY GOD, DANIEL! Caine! Daniel got eaten by a monster!

Caine: The Game Genie got eaten by a monster? And here I thought Game Genies were the toughest players in the known digital universe! Don’t you worry your little NPC head off. I’m sure he’ll respawn back here in a jiffy!

Pomni: W-What do you mean, “respawn”?

(Meanwhile, Daniel’s been beaten and bruised from tumbling around inside the monster’s stomach. He’s been holding his breath for what felt like an eternity because the stench was starting to get lethal the longer he was inside the monster.)

Daniel: ( Ugh… the smell… )

( I can’t breathe… )

(The squishy stretchy walls of the monster’s insides slowly closed in on Daniel.)

Daniel: ( I knew it’d end up like this… )

( It’s… over… for… me… )

(Daniel slowly closed his eyes, hoping for a last minute miracle to save him, but no one was around to help him. He could feel the walls beginning squeeze him tightly, to the point where he felt like he was being crushed, until…)

[Daniel was consumed by Bibliophobia.]

[Respawning Daniel…]

(Daniel poofs back into the circus tent. He laid unconscious on the checkered floor. Everyone else gathered around Daniel. Ragatha, Pomni, and Gummigoo were especially concerned and worried for his health.)

(All Daniel could hear for a moment was a high pitched ringing in his ears and he slowly opened his eyes to see everyone huddled around him. Gummigoo’s face is the first one he sees before the others come into his view. When Daniel fully regained his consciousness, the first he did was a big gasp followed by frantic panting.)

Gummigoo: Easy, easy! Breathe, mate. Breathe.

Daniel: (shakily) Wha…? What happened…? Did I die…? WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?

Ragatha: Let’s just calm down here. I don’t know what happened with you and Gummigoo, but what I do know is that you guys are now safe and sound toget-

Daniel: WHAT THE F@€K JUST HAPPENED!? (Daniel begins mildy hyperventilating.)

Caine: I… think I have some explaining to do… (Caine snaps his fingers and pulls Zooble over to the rest of the crew.) See, me and Zooble here were having a little therapy session in hopes of making my adventures more enjoyable for everyone. And… I guess in my attempt at making a better adventure for everyone, especially the Game Genie, I… think I ended up traumatizing him. I just wanted to make a good and scary adventure for you guys. I never wanted to… scar anyone psychologically. It doesn’t help that I can’t get rid of whatever trauma you people have.

Gummigoo: Wait, so you can’t just… make someone forget something that scars them psychologically?

Caine: Sadly, no. If I remember correctly, before Daniel interrupted me about him remembering his name, one of the few things I don’t have control over, are your minds. That’s why I give you guys new names, and new identities. To help compensate losing your own identity when entering here.

Pomni: What about the whole respawning thing?

Caine: It’s to help someone when they get stuck or lose a life.

Jax: Hold on, I thought we couldn’t die here.

Caine: Well, no. Not HERE, here. And it’s not REALLY dying either, because you just get kicked out of the adventure. Anyway, enough outta my mouth! What did YOU guys think of the adventure?

Pomni: Ehh…

Ragatha: I loved it!

Gummigoo: I hated it.

Jax: I barely got to do anything. I wouldn’t even call it an adventure.

Bubble: Well I think the adventure was SPOOKTACULAR!

Caine: Thanks, Bubble!

( One would think that’d be the end of that. But the nightmares wouldn’t end there. )

Gummigoo: Welp, I’m all adventured out. What about you, mate? …Daniel?

(Daniel was still sitting on the floor. The feeling of being eaten alive by a monster he had trauma from in his past had him permanently and psychologically scarred.)

(Daniel’s eyes stayed glued wide open, well into the night, while lying next to Gummigoo on their bed in Daniel’s room.)

Gummigoo: Hey… Daniel…? Are you… feeling any better…?

Daniel: (traumatized) …

Gummigoo: How about some TV? Let’s see what’s there to watch. (Gummigoo touches Daniel’s shoulder, trying to entice him.)

Daniel: (scarred) …

Gummigoo: How about a movie night? I got “Didney’s Hercules 1997”, your favorite.

Daniel: (scared shitless) …

(Gummigoo puts away the TV remote and the VCR tape.)

Gummigoo: Hey. Do want to talk… about the adventure?

Daniel: …If Caine is our god… then why has he forsaken me…?

Gummigoo: I’m… truly sorry about what happened back there.

(Daniel looks towards Gummigoo, before staring back up at the ceiling.)

Daniel: Do you think… Caine stays at the circus tent… because he too, hides in fear of the stuff he’s created?

Gummigoo: You’re talking about the monster, right? I’m… sure whatever that monster was, could be explained. But, for now, let’s just try to get some sleep, okay? Goodnight, Daniel. (Gummigoo tucks himself in with half of the big blanket they usually share together.)

( I didn’t get a wink of sleep that night. What the monster told me kept bouncing around and echoing in the walls of my mind. It felt like at any moment, the monster would find its way into my room, and finish me off. This was just the beginning of my downward spiraling paranoia. )

Chapter 3.5: Digital Dreams 2 (The Invitation)

(Daniel turned his head away from Gummigoo, trying to ignore the trauma he experienced. After 6 long grueling hours of staying awake, his eyes began to feel heavy.)

(Daniel slowly closed his eyes and began seeing himself surrounded by many copies of the monster. He looks up and sees the monster’s face as it’s about to eat him.)

(Daniel immediately opens his eyes, panting and in a cold sweat. He looks at Gummigoo who’s still snoozing. Then he looks at the door that leads to the hallway. He gets up off the bed, exits his room, and teleports out of the circus tent in a flash.)

(The brief flash of light causes Gummigoo to wake up. He lets out a crooked groan while slowly pulling himself up.)

Gummigoo: (groggy) Mate… what gives? (Gummigoo awaits a response, but Daniel’s not there.) Daniel…? (Gummigoo then sees the door is left open. He gets up off the bed, exits the room, and traverses through the hallway. The lights throughout the entire circus tent are dimmed during the night, giving off a different atmosphere compared to during the day.)

Gummigoo: (concerned) Come on, mate. This isn’t funny. (Gummigoo exits the hallway and makes it to the rainbow railing, then he turns around and notices the door with the down arrow. He enters the door, appears at the checkered floor, and makes his way out of the circus tent’s entrance.)

(Gummigoo pushes through the giant curtains and is met with the Grounds. He looks to the right, towards the digital Lake, and then to the left, towards the digital Carnival, which still had flashy lights going off all day and night.)

Gummigoo: Okay, Gummigoo. Think. If I were Daniel, where would I be? (Gummigoo takes some time to think, and then has a little eureka moment.) Aha! (Gummigoo makes his way through the circus grounds and sees the Hill.)

(Meanwhile, Daniel’s sitting and sulking under the tree on the Hill. The trauma he’s been battling since their adventure together has taken quite a toll on his mental health.)

Gummigoo: There you are.

(Daniel jumps in fear, but then realizes it’s just Gummigoo, and feels a little relieved before going back to sulking.)

Daniel: (sighs in relief) Oh, hey… Hi Gummigoo… (Daniel sulks again.)

Gummigoo: Is this… about the monster again?

(Daniel looks towards him, then back to the overlooking view, and nods slowly.)

(Seeing Daniel struggle this much with his trauma, Gummigoo knew he couldn’t do much to make the pain go away, but he knew it wouldn’t hurt to try talking it through.)

(Gummigoo sits next to Daniel under the tree.)

Gummigoo: Look. I… I don’t really know much about you… or your past experiences. But… I still remember… when my worldview crashed down around me. When I found out I was an NPC, for the first time… Seeing you in such… distress… puts me back in that darkest moment of my life. Then I remember you… and how you were there for me… at my lowest point. If nothing else… I still want to be there for you… at your lowest point.

(Daniel stops sulking, hearing Gummigoo’s reassurance that he’s there for him, at his lowest point.)

Daniel: I’m… glad you want to help me through this. This… ongoing battle with my trauma… has been something I’ve dealt with for almost my whole life. A part of me wonders… if I didn’t come across that monster as a kid… that this psychological trauma would’ve never happened. And now here I am… reliving it all over again. The worst part? I’m dragging you down with me too…

(Gummigoo tries to say something about that, but he hesitates. He doesn’t want Daniel to think he’s a burden, but he also doesn’t want Daniel to shun him because of his trauma.)

(Gummigoo eventually finds the words he’s looking for.)

Gummigoo: I don’t… feel like you’re dragging me down with you. Not one bit. In fact, I… appreciate your honesty with your inner personal demons. And… I wanna help you beat all of them, one at a time if I have to…

(Gummigoo puts his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, which makes him feel a bit better. Daniel starts to feel a little warmer inside. Daniel then puts his arm around Gummigoo’s back, leaning on him for support.)

Daniel: Thanks, man. I… (Daniel sighs.) …really needed this. Sometimes… I just can’t get over this trauma of mine. And it… can feel… like a complete hindrance at times.

(Daniel and Gummigoo huddled together under the tree, looking over the horizon. As time passed by, they began to see the cartoony sun slowly rise up from the horizon. The sun slowly wakes up, letting out a yawn. Shortly after, it winces for a few seconds, before sneezing out an envelope that lands near Daniel and Gummigoo.)

Gummigoo: Huh… That’s quite a way of sending air mail.

Daniel: What’s in the envelope?

(Gummigoo examines the envelope. It looks elegant, and is outlined with a golden sheet. He opens the envelope and pulls out an invitation slip that looks just as elegant as the envelope it came in.)

Gummigoo: (reading the invitation) Dear citizens of The Amazing Digital Circus, you’ve been formally invited to my palace, known as the Glitch Inn, located at the heart of the Glitch Kingdom. A portal will soon be opened for you to enter our kingdom. We hope to see you soon. Yours truly, Princess Glitch.

(Suddenly, a portal appears right next to Daniel and Gummigoo.)

Gummigoo: Well, speak of the devil. (Gummigoo gets up off the ground.) We’ll spend a day or two at the Glitch Inn, and we’ll have such a good time, you’ll forget almost all about that monster traumatizing you. (Gummigoo holds out his hand to Daniel.) What do ya say?

Daniel: A break from the adventures would be nice. (Daniel holds Gummigoo’s hand as Gummigoo pulls him up to his feet.)

Gummigoo: And judging from what we’ve been through, we definitely need this. (Gummigoo looks towards the portal, and then back to Daniel.) Ready?

Daniel: Let’s do this.

(With that, Gummigoo and Daniel entered the portal leading to the Glitch Kingdom while holding hands. They appear on the other side of the portal, traversing through a forest of trees. They made their way down the straight dirt path that eventually leads to a giant cottage hotel. Gummigoo and Daniel spot two people standing outside the front door of the hotel. One was Pomni, and the other was a friendly murderous robot drone they weren’t familiar with.)

Gummigoo: Oh, hey there, Pomni! Who’s your new friend?

N: (gasps) New guests! (N gets up in both Daniel and Gummigoo’s faces with a creepy look.) HI.

(Gummigoo jumped a bit, and Daniel was startled so hard he tripped and landed backwards on his bottom.)

N: (continues) I’m N! And this is Pomni! It’s nice to know you both know her! Say hi, Pomni!

(Pomni looks like a nervous wreck.)

Pomni: (nervous) “Hi, Pomni…”

Gummigoo: I…

N: And welcome to Glitch Inn! The classiest hotel this side of… wherever we are. And the home of our beloved Princess Glitch! As our premium guests, you can experience our 5 star luxury cottage suites, and bond with our guests over all things Glitch! Isn’t that right, Pomni?

Pomni: (nervous.) “Hi Pomni…”

(N puts his arm around Pomni’s back.)

N: She even wrote a song for our tour! Isn’t that right, Pomni?

(Pomni gives a thumbs up.)

N: Drop the beat!

(N pulls Daniel and Gummigoo through the front door.)

N: 🎶Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, here at the Glitch Inn…🎶

(Pomni tries to sing along with N, but gets pulled into the door behind her.)

N: 🎶You’ll get the best room service, with little to no mistakes!

(The door behind N opens. Pomni’s seen on the bed, and a chandelier falls on her face. Then the door closes.)

N: 🎶We do fan-made competitions, and host fun events and games!🎶

(The door behind N opens. Pomni looks up as a pile of paper falls on top of her. Then the door closes.)

N: 🎶You can chat with other guys, ask who they are or how they’ve been!🎶

(The behind N opens. A fake crowd of silhouette people is seen. Pomni peeks her head out from the other side of the door frame.)

N: 🎶You can do all of these things and more, down here at the Glitch Inn!🎶

(Pomni tries to sneak out before the door could close on her again, but then she was pulled back behind the door as it closed again.)

N: 🎶We got this brand new TV, that shows you things you never seen before!🎶

(The door opens, revealing a massive vintage TV. Pomni’s seen inside the TV, fearing for her life. She begins to scream as the door slowly closed again.)

N: 🎶So chillax, and come on in! We hope you thoroughly enjoyed your special…🎶

(Pomni bangs on the door before bursting out all dizzy.)

N: 🎶tooooouuuuur…!🎶

Pomni: (dizzy) …here at the Glitch Inn…

(Pomni faints on the spot, and N gives Daniel and Gummigoo an entertaining jazz hands. And then…)

(Ding dong ding)

Caine: (over the intercom) Everybody make some room for the Princess!

N: Oh my gosh! Okay, this is happening! (N gets close to Daniel again.) You want me to fix your hair? No, never mind! Enjoy your stay! (N takes Pomni and dashes out of there before the door slowly opens.)

(Daniel and Gummigoo were met by a bright beam of light. Once the beam of light slowly faded, they got to see what the princess looked like. She was almost as tall as Gummigoo. She had a green dress, with pink garments. She had a quarter melon slice for a head. Her eyes were giant black watermelon seeds. Her hair was a bright green, with streaks of dark green, and it flowed down to her waist side. And atop her head was a tiny rose gold crown with little black jewelry on the side that act as the watermelon seeds. She is a graceful watermelon. She is the Glitch Princess. She is Princess Vanessa Watermelon Glitch.)

Princess Glitch: Ah. You must be the two people Caine was talking about. Daniel, and Gummigoo, was it? Welcome to my palace. I am Princess Vanessa Watermelon Glitch. Some of my people either call me the Glitch Princess, or Vannamelon.

Gummigoo: Well, I can certainly see why. I’m Gummigoo. (Gummigoo puts his arm around Daniel’s back.) And this here is my mate, Daniel. He’s been through quite a lot on our recent adventure, and we’re looking for a place to unwind for a little while. You don’t happen to be full on guests, do you?

Princess Glitch: Actually, your buddy, Caine made reservations for you and the rest of your crew at my palace. They’re all waiting for you over by the lobby ahead. (Princess Glitch opens the door in front of Daniel and Gummigoo.) After you two.

Gummigoo: Thanks, mate!

(Gummigoo and Daniel enter the door in front of them and are greeted by the rest of the circus gang and Caine.)

Caine: There you two are, you little unsung lovebirds!

(Gummigoo notices Pomni chilling next to N and is confused.)

Gummigoo: Wait, huh…?

Ragatha: Don’t worry about Pomni. The whole nervous wreck thing was her idea. N’s a really nice guy once you get to know him.

Pomni: I’m fine, Gummigoo. Really.

N: Care for some hot cocoa?

Gummigoo: Well, you certainly had me fooled. (Gummigoo chuckles.)

(Jax approaches Pomni.)

Jax: Heh, so what was it like being stuck with the nutcase? (Jax points over at Kinger.)

Kinger: Hello! (Kinger waves his hand.)

Pomni: It… wasn’t that bad, actually.

(Jax rolls his eyes as he approaches Daniel and Gummigoo next.)

Jax: What about you, Aussiegator? Did you and Daniel figure out how to get busy, or what?

(Gummigoo presses his hat firmly on his head.)

Gummigoo: Why do you want to know so much?

Jax: Because I barely got to do anything while you were with those ladies having a tea party. (Jax points over to Ragatha and Gangle, who has her comedy mask back on.)

(Gummigoo and Jax’s voices muffle as the witty banter continued. Daniel looks around at his surroundings, then out of the corner of his eye, he notices a tail of skin trailing off from underneath the door near the check-in counter. Daniel rubs his eyes, then the tail of skin was gone.)

Gummigoo: …Daniel?

(Daniel stops paying close attention to the door.)

Daniel: Huh? (Daniel notices Gummigoo at the check-in counter.) Oh. Coming!

(Daniel makes his way to the check-in counter next to Gummigoo. They’re greeted by a dapper looking penguin with a fancy accent, a pair of sunglasses, and a name tag that reads “Cubert”.)

Cubert: Greetings, and thanks for stopping by at the Glitch Inn. (Cubert, Daniel, and Gummigoo notice Jax sleeping against the check-in counter.) Sir, you have to reserve a room in order to sleep here.

Caine: Don’t worry about him, Cubert. I’ve made reservations for each of my guests!

(Cubert checks the computer for reservations.)

Cubert: I see. So, Pomni and Ragatha, they’re room 305. Gangle and Zooble, they’re room 306. Jax and Kinger, they’re room 307.

(Jax looks towards Cubert, rolls his eyes and then pretends to sleep.)

Cubert: And that leaves you two with room 308. Lucky you two.

Gummigoo: What’s so special about room 308?

Caine: It comes with a balcony that overlooks the forest of this kingdom! You two will get to have the best cottage core experience for your stay!

Daniel: Wait, what about luggage?

Caine: I took care of that too! (Caine snaps his fingers and a luggage bag full of stuff appears.) Each group has a luggage bag packed with all their personal essentials!

Cubert: Here’s the key card to your room. (Cubert passes a key card to Gummigoo and Daniel.) Enjoy your stay at the Glitch Inn.

Gummigoo: Thanks, mate!

(Daniel and Gummigoo make their way to the elevator.)

Cubert: Jax and Kinger, please report to the check-in counter.

Kinger: Oh! That’s us! Come on, roomie!

(Jax groans.)

(Later after everyone got their key cards and luggage, they all come out of the elevator on the third floor corridor. Daniel and Gummigoo see the others enter their rooms. Pomni and Ragatha enter room 305, Gangle and Zooble enter room 306, and Kinger drags Jax’s limp body by the arm into room 307.)

(Daniel and Gummigoo look at each other, and then at the door that reads “308”. Gummigoo scans the key card on the scanner, the door unlocks, and Gummigoo opens the door.)

(The room had everything a hotel room would need, along with some extra stuff. A big bed on the east wall for both Daniel and Gummigoo to sleep together. A wooden wardrobe on the bed’s left, a wooden nightstand with a lamp on the bed’s right. In front of the bed, on the west wall there’s a fancy wooden drawer with a vintage yet familiar looking television. To the left of the drawer is a potted plant near the door to the room. To the left of the drawer is a mini fridge, with a microwave sitting on top of it like a hot and cold harmony. And the north wall has sliding doors that are also windows, with green curtains over the sliding doors.)

Gummigoo and Daniel: Woah…

(Daniel made his way to the nightstand and turned on the lamp to let some light in. While Gummigoo went right to the curtains to unfurl and give more light to the room.)

(The view overlooking the kingdom’s forest had clouds block the entire sky. Not an inch of the blue sky was visible to the naked digital eye.)

(Daniel took off his black boots, revealing his neon green and black stockings. He sat on the bed, his mind completely clouded like the sky. Gummigoo opens the sliding doors, looking out over the kingdom’s forest.)

(Gummigoo takes a deep breath in and out. Then he wonders where Daniel is.)

Gummigoo: Oy! You gotta come out here, mate. (Gummigoo looks back at Daniel who’s still sitting on the bed, deep in his thoughts. He closes the sliding door as he makes his way to Daniel.) Looks like you got yourself comfy instead.

(Daniel takes a short moment to respond to Gummigoo.)

Daniel: …Huh? Oh, yeah.

Gummigoo: Maybe some TV will help clear up that mind of yours. (Gummigoo makes his way to the vintage TV, and examines it.) “Puzzlevision+”… Must be British. How do I even turn this thing on? (Gummigoo pushes the button on the bottom left corner of the TV, and it begins shaking, taking him aback.)

(Suddenly, the TV grew arms, then legs, then a body. This newfound body looked pretty dapper, sporting a fresh pair of black and white dress shoes, dark grey long pants that have a jigsaw pattern, dark grey suspenders that matched the pants, and had buttons shaped like jigsaw puzzle pieces. The body also sported a grey vest with a white undershirt, a bow tie, and on the hands were cartoony gloves. On top of the TV sprouted a black bowler hat with a grey band around it, and it had 2 TV antennas protruding from the hat. The TV switched on, revealing a light grey screen, with pair of cartoony looking eyes, and a big grin that looks like a TV’s color bars taking up the bottom half of the face.)

Mr. Puzzles: Ugh… Sorry for the prolonged entrance. Getting my plans foiled twice in over a year can give you such a crick in the neck! (Mr. Puzzles rearranges the wires connecting his TV head to the rest of his body, untying a knot lodged within the wires of his neck.) Much better. anyways, I am your inter-dimensional, groundbreaking, state of the art, TV of tomorrow! I am, Mr. Puzzles!

Gummigoo: (whispering) Since when did TVs learn sentience?

Mr. Puzzles: (teasing) Aww, never saw a TV talk to you, huh? (Mr. Puzzles stops teasing.) I’ve gotten that reaction a lot more than I expected to. Not a lot of people here remember me.

Daniel: I remember you.

Mr. Puzzles: Huh?

Daniel: Yeah. Didn’t you end up in a maximum security prison? How did you manage to get out?

Gummigoo: Uhh… Should I just call 000? Or is it 911?

Mr. Puzzles: No need to call the cops on me, uhh…

Gummigoo: Gummigoo.

Mr. Puzzles: Right, Gummigoo. Like I said, I found a better calling. I finally found a place where I belong, where I can entertain anyone, old or young, big or small. Plus, the princess was nice enough to upgrade and make copies of my lovely TV head, to put in every room in the palace! I still gotta introduce myself to the rest of your buddies, but before I go… (Mr. Puzzles takes his hat off his head through the TV antennas, and digs through the hat pulling out a TV remote.) Here. (Mr. Puzzles tosses the remote over to Daniel, and it lands right on his lap.) I’m not really fond of people messing with these knobs… (Mr. Puzzles points to his knobs on the side of his TV head next to his screen face.) so I’d rather have you use a remote to go flip through the channels. Who knows what new channels could be on this TV, right Mario look alike?

Daniel: I’m… Daniel.

Mr. Puzzles: Oh… Anyways, glad we had some time to chat, but I gotta get going. Enjoy your stay!

(Just like that, Mr. Puzzles’ body slips back into his TV head, doing a back flip back onto the wooden drawer where it once stood. It displays static before shutting off.)

Gummigoo: What a strange lanky yobbo.

(Suddenly, Kinger’s yelp could be heard from the other room next door.)

(Fade forward to night time. Gummigoo is fast asleep, and Daniel is still sitting on the bed, watching English dubs of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, then a specific but hopefully helpful commercial plays.)

Commercial: See something out of place, but can’t get the Scooby-Doo crew on the phone? Seen something strange in your neighborhood, but can’t find the number for Ghostbusters? No need to cower in fear! Squiddo, PrinceZam, BlockFacts, Ashswag, and my trusty boney dog, Skipper, are on the case! Together, we are “Skipper-Doo!; Detectives and Mystery Solvers”! See something bugging you? Call the number on your screen right away, or check out our website for more details.

(Daniel’s eyes felt heavy again. He struggles to stay awake as the TV began showing a commercial for the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing service. Despite his efforts, he’s forced on a one way ticket to sleepy time junction.)

(The scene fades to white before fading out into a scene of the lobby of the Glitch Inn. Suddenly, Cubert is seen on fire, running around the lobby screaming in panic. While Jax stands near the fireplace by the corner and laughs.)

Jax: Hey Pomni, I put hot sauce in his coffee and kidnapped his whole family! You’ve gotta see this! (Jax looks around but Pomni’s not seen anywhere.) Pomni?

(Jax finds Caine on the opposite corner. Caine immediately pounces on Jax, and Jax’s sent to a different white void.)

Jax: H… Heaven? (Jax looks around and sees Zooble, Ragatha, Pomni, Daniel, Gangle, and Kinger standing in a horizontal line.) Oh, Hell. Hey guys. (Jax begrudgingly makes his way to the others.)

(Caine appears looking pretty down in the dumps.)

Kinger: Hello?

Caine: L-Listen… I… I need to get real with you for a moment. (Caine lowers himself to ground level and starts walking towards the others, using his cane as a walking stick.) This… will be really hard for you to hear… but… (Caine drops the sad act and returns to his wacky ways.) I’M REVAMPING THE MOVEMENT ENGINE IN THE ENTIRE DIGITAL CIRCUS!!!

Everyone else: Oh.

(Caine opens the lid on his cane, revealing a red button.)

Caine: And I’m testing it right now! (Caine pushes the red button and a Windows 3.1 tada sfx plays.)

Zooble: Okay, I think I speak for the void here when I say, I don’t give a f-

(Zooble suddenly becomes immobilized, almost like she became a statue. Everyone looks at the statued Zooble.)

Caine: Well, my new update’s bugged! Time to pani- (Caine becomes immobilized next, and falls back to ground level.)

(Suddenly, everyone starts screaming and running in random directions like headless chickens. Everyone except Daniel, who just stood there and began hyperventilating as he looked around in horror. Jax sees Ragatha become immobilized next, followed by Gangle.)

Pomni: (On the verge of tears) They got Kinger! THEY GOT KINGER!

Kinger: Oh, I’m not actually frozen. (Kinger sees Pomni and she’s gotten immobilized too.) Hello? (Kinger screams before he gets immobilized shortly after.)

(Daniel looks over at Jax, who looks distraught.)

Jax: (panting) No! I… I didn’t even get to tell them I…

(Daniel grabs Jax by the shoulders.)

Daniel: What!? What is it, Jax!? WHAT!? (Daniel looks at Jax and realizes he’s too late. Jax was the last person to become an immobile statue. Daniel slowly takes his hands off Jax’s lifeless shoulders, stepping back slowly while quietly hyperventilating in fear. He looks down at his gloves and realizes the wrist rings are black, meaning he’s completely powerless. No cheats, no help, and no friends.)

(Suddenly, a deep demonic laugh could be heard inside Daniel’s head. The immobile statues of the other circus members and Caine turn into a skin colored texture, before melting and meeting together to create the same bibliophobia monster from their recent adventure, this time a lot more bigger. Daniel was terrified, but he knew that if he stayed frozen in place, the monster would surely eat him. He looked around and started running away from the monster as fast as humanly possible.)

Daniel: (panting) Help! Gummigoo!? Caine!? Anybody!! Help me!!! PLEASE!!!

(The bibliophobia monster began speaking telepathically again.)

The Bibliophobia Monster: ( No one’s around to help you now. Your soul now belongs to ME. )

(As Daniel kept running, the monster’s demonic cackling grew louder and louder in his head. The white void around Daniel slowly turned black, he still tried to run before he realized he couldn’t feel the ground collision beneath him. He begins to panic, flailing his limbs like gravity wasn’t applied to him. And when gravity was applied, he began falling, and screaming, as he fell into the monster’s unhinged jaws.)

(The faint sound of glass breaking was enough for Daniel to wake up from his horrible nightmare. He jumps in a panic off the bed and lands on the floor on his back with a thud. Despite the sound of glass breaking, and the thud, Gummigoo was still sleeping like a rock.)

Gummigoo: (mumbling in his sleep) No… Don’t give them our syrup… It’s for our village…

(After a few seconds, Daniel pulls himself up, finding himself in the most coldest of sweats he’s ever been in. He looks at his gloves which were still glowing green around the wrists.)

Daniel: (panting in relief) It was a dream. It was just a dream… (Daniel gets up off the floor to look around and sees the only light coming from the room is the TV that is suddenly broadcasting his own nightmare on loop.) Am I… still dreaming? (Daniel looks at the door and slowly makes his way towards it. He exits room 308, closing the door on his way out to the hallway.)

(Daniel looks to the right, where the elevator is on the east end of the hallway, then he looks to the left, which has a door on the west end of the hallway. Daniel turns left and makes his way to the door on the west end of the hallway. The only sounds that are made is Daniel’s footsteps on the carpet flooring as he nears the door at the end. He notices that exact tail of skin underneath the door as it slips through the other side.)

(Daniel immediately opens the door and is met with a stair well. As Daniel went down the stairs, he thought to himself.)

Daniel: ( Should I really be doing this? )

( What if I’m still dreaming? )

( How do I know if I am? )

(Daniel sighs to himself as he opens the door that leads back to the hall of the lobby. He passes through the dining hall, the bathroom doors, a door that reads “Surveillance Room Staff Only”, and then as he passes through the library which had its doors open, Daniel took a peek inside the library and saw the Bibliophobia Monster.)

(Daniel immediately jumped back behind the wall, covering his mouth with his hands as to not make any loud noises while beginning to hyperventilate. After a moment, he regains composure, and slowly tilts his head to confirm what he saw in the library, but the monster was gone.)

(Daniel steps out from behind the wall and enters the library, looking around for any signs of the monster ravaging through the books, but everything seemed fine. Daniel then notices a telephone sitting on a table near a fancy looking chair. He then remembers the commercial he saw before he had the nightmare. Daniel scours through the book shelves and finds a phone book. He opens it up, flips the pages to services that start with “S”, finds the number for “Skipper-Doo! Detectives and Mystery Solvers”, and then dials the number.)

(Daniel picks up the phone’s receiver, hoping for the people in the Skiper-Doo service to respond.)

Squiddo: Hello, this is Squiddo of “Skipper-Doo! Detectives and Mystery Solvers”. How may I solve your mystery?

Daniel: Hi, this is Daniel. I am a guest over at the Glitch Inn, in the heart of the Glitch Kingdom, and I think there’s a monster on the loose.

Squiddo: Can you describe what the monster looks like?

Daniel: It… wears no clothes, has no hair anywhere, it has no legs, it’s really fat, and it has a tail of skin behind it. I think it’s trying to lure me into a false sense of security, because each time I see it, or its tail peeking from under a door, it disappears.

Squiddo: Got it. I’ll be on my way in a few hours. Hang tight in the meantime. Buh-bye!

(The detective hangs up, and Daniel puts the receiver back on the telephone’s hook switches. He then sighs in relief knowing that his fear will somewhat be justified. Daniel exits the library and retraces his steps to the bathroom. He turns on the sink and begins splashing his face with water, thinking it’ll help alleviate his digital hallucinations. After rubbing his eyes, he looks in the mirror. His reflection shows him without any hair or clothes on. Daniel jumps back and splashes more water on his face and rubs his eyes even more. After that, his reflection returns to normal.)

(Suddenly, a tall and dark figure looms behind Daniel. He sees the figure appear behind the bathroom stall in the mirror, and turns around in fear of what the figure might be. The figure retreated back into the bathroom stall.)

Daniel: Wait… Mr. Puzzles?

Mr. Puzzles: N-No…?

Daniel: What are you doing in the bathroom?

Mr. Puzzles: I… don’t really have a place to rest during the night. Also… (Mr. Puzzles twists the top knob on his TV head and Daniel’s nightmare plays on his screen.) your little nightmare you somehow broadcasted was entertaining at first, but now it’s just giving me the creeps. (Mr. Puzzles shudders as he switches his screen back to his face.)

(Daniel scratches his head in confusion.)

Daniel: I don’t… How is that… even possible…? (Daniel looks at his gloves again, still glowing green around the wrists.) Is this… a new cheat code…?

Mr. Puzzles: “Cheat code”? Oh! You must be that Game Genie guy the teeth man was talking about! (Mr. Puzzles puts his arm around Daniel’s back.) Listen, don’t sell yourself short, man. Something tells me you’re gonna do great things with those cheats of yours.

(Daniel uses his other arm to get Mr. Puzzles’ arm off his shoulder.)

Daniel: I’m gonna go… number one now.

Mr. Puzzles: Okay… (Mr. Puzzles leaves the bathroom.)

(Daniel picks the furthest stall away from the others and just sits there, sighing to himself. Fast forward to tomorrow morning, and Daniel’s snoozing on the can.)

(Jax opens the bathroom stall where Daniel’s resting.)

Jax: There he is. Found him!

(Daniel wakes up in a short panic, followed by tired confusion.)

Daniel: Wha…? Jax?

Jax: Come on. Get off the pot. (Jax holds out his hand for Daniel to hold as Jax pulls him up off the toilet. Once Daniel’s back on his feet, Jax immediately lets go of Daniel’s hand in disgust.) Eugh. You wish.

Daniel: What…?

Jax: Come on. Let’s get you back to your boyfriend. (Jax gets behind Daniel and pushes him and himself out of the bathroom.) Here’s your pesky plumber.

Daniel: Gummigoo?

Gummigoo: There you are.

(Gummigoo helps Daniel walk through the lobby’s hallway while Jax just trails along.)

Daniel: You probably saw my nightmare, on the TV, didn’t you?

Gummigoo: Jax was actually the first one who saw it.

Jax: Gotta say, the whole “putting hot sauce in the coffee and kidnapping the whole family” bit was pretty clever. Not really sure what was going on with the end of the dream though. One thing I know for sure, that dream definitely gave me some ideas. (Jax grins maliciously.)

Gummigoo: Jax, no. Let’s just get back to the others.

Daniel: Where are the others?

Gummigoo: Well, there was supposed to be an outdoors event today, but because of the sudden rain, we can’t go outside. So we’re all spending some time at the dining hall to discuss what event we could do inside.

Jax: My idea for a food fight is still on the table.

Gummigoo: Jax, for the last time, we’re not doing a bloody food fight. This isn’t elementary school.

(Jax groans as the three enter the dining hall.)

Caine: There’s my three little mousketools!

Mr. Puzzles: Don’t mind him. He somehow binged a ton of Didney Junior before your nightmare was broadcasted.

(Jax chuckles at Caine.)

Daniel: Uhh… Is my nightmare still being broadcasted?

Mr. Puzzles: Ermm… (Mr. Puzzles twists the top knob on his TV head and begins flipping through different channels, before returning to his face on the screen.) No. Not anymore.

(Daniel, Gummigoo, and Jax sit with the others.)

Ragatha: I’m really sorry that you had such a bad nightmare, Daniel. I really wish I or the others could help, but we didn’t know what was beyond that door.

Kinger: I may not know what monster is chasing you, but maybe not thinking about it will help.

Daniel: You know, Kinger, it’s not easy to not think about something if you see it almost everywhere.

Jax: You could also do what I do and toughen up.

Daniel: And look where THAT got me. (Daniel buried his head in his arms on the table.) Eaten…

Caine: Can you believe it? It’s been a whole year since The Amazing Digital Circus premiered! Hot diggity dog!

Jax: You’re a little late there, buddy.

Caine: I do not control when these chapters release.

Jax: Excuse you, it’s MY job to break the fourth wall here.

Caine: What’s a wall?

Gummigoo: Is he serious?

Caine: Anyways! To celebrate, I was thinking about the event this week. We could go frame by frame on each episode and talked about what we liked! Unfortunately, this series happens to be in a separate timeline where Daniel doesn’t exist, but he’s more than welcome to give us his thoughts on the show with us!

Jax: I would rather abstract myself.

(Caine clears his throat.)

Caine: Starting with episode 1!

(Jax groans for a solid second or two, before the doorbell rings.)

(Daniel lifts his head up from his arms, then looks to his left and right.)

Mr. Puzzles: I’ll go get it.

(Mr. Puzzles exits the dining hall, entering the lobby through the door next to the check-in counter, then he opens the front door to be greeted by a British Inkling wearing rounded two-tone shaded glasses, a yellow raincoat, and red rain boots. And next to the Inkling is an active skeleton dog.)

Mr. Puzzles: May I… help you?

Squiddo: Hello. Are you the guest who called about a monster on the loose?

(Daniel enters the lobby through the door next to the check-in counter and dashed over to the front door.)

Daniel: (panting) Hi… That would be… me.

(Princess Glitch makes her way to the front door from the side.)

Princess Glitch: What’s going on here?

Squiddo: I’m Squiddo, and this is my trusty pal, Skipper. We’ve gotten a report from a guest in here who states they’ve seen a monster on the loose.

(Daniel pleas to the princess.)

Daniel: I’ve seen the commercial, and I had a nightmare about the monster, and now I think it followed me over here! Squiddo seems to understand my dilemma here! Please let her in!

Princess Glitch: How much does it cost?

Squiddo: Only three likes.

Mr. Puzzles: I got this one. (Mr. Puzzles pulls out a stack of paper thin thumbs ups, takes three out from his total, and puts the rest back in his back pocket.) Here. (Mr. Puzzles hands the three likes to Squiddo.)

Squiddo: Thanks, pal!

Daniel: Wait, where’s the rest of your crew? PrinceZam, BlockFacts, and Ashswag?

Squiddo: Oh, they’re all pretty busy this month. October is the chance for services like ours to be booming. Also, is it okay if Skipper comes along? Or is there a strict policy against pets?

Princess Glitch: Uhhhhh… (Princess Glitch thinks hard while looking at Skipper looking up at here with cute puppy eyes.) Sure… I guess…?

Squiddo: Great! Thanks!

Princess Glitch: Wait! What about tracking mud!?

Mr. Puzzles: Oh, you can’t track mud in this digital world. I’ve tried.

(Squiddo and Skipper enter the front door of the Glitch Inn. Squiddo takes off her raincoat and puts it on a coat rack next to the front door, revealing her orange hoodie, green backpack, blue jean shorts, and keeps her red rain boots. While Skipper shakes the rain off of his bones, making a little rattling noise.)

(Squiddo and Skipped began investigating as they made their way through the lobby’s hallway.)

Squiddo: Now, can you tell me what happened?

Daniel: Well, I had that horrible nightmare, then the sound of glass breaking woke me up.

Princess Glitch: Oh dear. Have we been robbed?

Daniel: I don’t think so. The glass on the sliding doors looked intact.

Squiddo: Well, what happened after you woke up?

Daniel: I left the room, and decided to take a short stroll, thinking it’d help clear my mind. Then I saw a tail of skin caught underneath the door leading to the stairwell. And when I opened the door, all I saw were the stairs.

Squiddo: So, you saw the tail of skin one moment, and then the next moment, it disappears?

Daniel: I figured, if I followed it, it would track me to where the monster would be hiding. So I went down the flight of stairs, through the lobby’s hall, saw the library doors open, and then, for a split second… I saw it. The whole monster. I didn’t want to get its attention, but when I peeked back in, the monster disappeared entirely.

(Daniel, Squiddo, Skipper, Princess Glitch, and Mr. Puzzles near the library as Daniel described his situation.)

Squiddo: Well, since the library’s right here, me and Skipper should investigate.

Mr. Puzzles: Knock yourself out.

(Squiddo and Skipper enter the library. They both look around, the shelves of books around them being a little dusty. Skipper runs around the library, sniffing the floor and the books. They examine and investigate each corner of the library, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.)

Squiddo: Huh. That’s strange.

Daniel: What did you find?

Squiddo: Actually, we didn’t find anything. Everything seems normal. Maybe there’s another room that might help us.

Daniel: The surveillance room! I saw a door that read “Surveillance” on it on my way over here!

Squiddo: Let’s move.

(The Game Genie, detective, princess, and Mr. Puzzles make their way to the surveillance room. Daniel opens the door and sees a set of monitors, and a security guard snoozing on an office chair.)

(Squiddo tries to get attention from the snoozing security guard by tapping the shoulders.)

Squiddo: Hello? Excuse me.

(The security guard jumps from her snoozing and turns her chair around to face the crowd at the surveillance room door. The security guard herself being a penguin much like Cubert, but with a different facial appearance, and a name tag that reads, “Cubelet”.)

Cubelet: Oh, sorry. I thought you were all animatronics. Wait a minute, what are you guys doing here?

Squiddo: We’re here to help investigate about a monster going on the loose, and we need some video evidence.

Cubelet: Ohhhkayyy… Knock yourself out, I guess. Idk. (Cubelet yawns as she walks out of the surveillance room to presumably get another cup of coffee.)

(Squiddo hops into the office chair and begins reviewing the footage through the surveillance cameras scattered across the Glitch Inn. Shortly after, she finds the camera in the library room and begins rewriting the footage to last night.)

Squiddo: Okay. Time to see if this monster appears.

(Squiddo plays back the camera footage after rewinding a ton. The camera shows Daniel walking midway through the doors, before turning his head, and jumping back to behind the wall near the doors. Soon, Daniel returns into the camera’s view, peeking slowly from behind the door frame.)

Squiddo: Huh. That’s odd. (Squiddo rewinds the footage to Daniel jumping back behind the wall.) Daniel, didn’t you say that you saw the monster in the library?

Daniel: Yeah, I think so…

Squiddo: Well, from what the camera picked up, it looks like you shot back at nothing at all.

Daniel: But, I…

Mr. Puzzles: Are you sure you weren’t high on anything or…?

Daniel: WHAT THE HELL KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT TO ASK, MR. PUZZLES!?

Princess Glitch: Oh dear…

Squiddo: HEY! Easy, now! No sense in losing your marbles just yet. Daniel, can you describe what monster it was again?

Daniel: It vaguely resembles a human, it has no clothes, no hair anywhere, no legs, it’s really fat, and it has a tail of skin behind it.

Squiddo: I see. Everyone, follow me to the dining hall.

(Once everyone returns to the dining hall where the others are…)

Gummigoo: Wait, who is that?

Daniel: This is detective Squiddo. Hopefully she’s got something that’ll help make that horrible monster I keep seeing go away.

(Squiddo takes off her backpack, puts it on the table, unzips one of the pockets, takes out a big book about monsters and demons, and lays the book on the table. Squiddo opens the book and scrolls to a specific set of pages about the bibliophobia monster.)

Squiddo: Let’s see. Human like appearance, no hair, no clothes, no legs, extremely obese, and a tail of skin. Is this who you’re describing?

Daniel: Yes, very much so.

Gummigoo: What else is there to know?

Squiddo: It appears to be the last thing Strawinsky made before he died, presumably because of this monster. The name of this monster itself is so corrupted, a select few call it by its codename, “Bibliophobia”. This monster carries a hideous odor everywhere it goes, stunning its prey, before trapping them inside its rolls of fat, eventually killing them.

(Everyone around the table was stunned as Squiddo kept reading what she documented.)

Daniel: So it wasn’t Caine’s fault…?

Gummigoo: Is there more?

Squiddo: Oh, tons. This monster started making its rounds on the Internet as a meme back in 2018 on YouTube, and TikTok in 2021. Many different well known YouTubers were influenced by the monster’s hunger for books and human flesh. Channels like Saberspark, Endigo, TheLivingTombstone, CG5, Gooseworx, and many others, fell victim to the monster’s hypnosis, leaving their channels with irreparable damage. If you’re not careful, the Bibliophobia monster might see you before you see it.

(Silence fell upon the dining hall. Some people covered their mouths, others covered their eyes, Gangle hid her entire mask in her ribbons as she was shaking in fear.)

Gummigoo: That… is a lot to take in… But… how does that involve Daniel here…?

Squiddo: Maybe he clicked on a video that showed the monster on YouTube, and that’s what started his trauma.

Daniel: It was more than just a single video. As soon as I clicked on that video, it felt like I opened a Pandora’s Box worth of unholy things. (Daniel begins clenching his fists.) I started seeing the monster almost everywhere, even in places where I least expected it to show up.

(Daniel sits back in his seat with his hands on the sides of his head.)

Daniel: It got so bad, to a point where if I saw its face, even by accident, I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes without seeing the monster glued to the insides of my eyelids. Its hideous disgusting face forever etched into almost every part of my mind. To top it all off, I was only 12 when I saw that monster, and to this day, I don’t know how to make it stop. And now my nightmares of being that monster’s food have become a reality…

Gummigoo: Uhh… Is there any way to defeat the monster?

Squiddo: As far as I know, there is nothing documented about killing or getting rid of the bibliophobia monster. All we could do is stay as far away from it, and pray that it doesn’t make its way over here. You, Daniel, are actually lucky to have survived after being eaten alive.

Daniel: You can thank Caine for that…

Caine: Aw, Gawrsh! Ahyuck!

Squiddo: Welp. Looks like I’ve done all I could do here. Come on, Skipper. (Squiddo crouches down, letting Skipper up on her back like a piggyback ride.) See you guys some time soon. Buh-bye! (Squiddo carries Skipper on her back as the two made their way out the Glitch Inn.)

Ragatha: I… I don’t know what to say, Daniel…

Gangle: Me neither.

(Pomni and Zooble wanted to say something about this but couldn’t.)

Kinger: Well, if it makes you feel any better, in your defense, I was the one who opened the library doors. I like me a good book about bugs before bed.

Jax: That checks out.

Gummigoo: Okay, you know what? Caine, you can continue the frame by frame stuff while I take Daniel back to room 308? Come on, mate. Back to our room. (Gummigoo helps Daniel out of the dining hall.) You feeling okay, at least? (Daniel couldn’t respond to him. His headspace which was once clouded was now filled with doom and despair. Everything that transpired ended up spiraling him further into his traumatic paranoia.) Daniel…?

(Fade forward to Daniel sitting on the bed in the room. His arms wrapped around his legs, his eyes refusing to close, rarely blinking, as he stares directly at the TV in front of him. The rain outside evolved into a severe thunderstorm overnight. Daniel’s stress builds up inside him. He and Mr. Puzzles are the only people in the room.)

(Mr. Puzzles switches the screen to his face.)

Mr. Puzzles: Well, I’m bored. (Mr. Puzzles then forms the rest of his body from out of the TV.) So… looks like you’ve finally gone insane. Not that I thought it was much of a surprise to begin with.

(Daniel stares at Mr. Puzzles, his minds clouded with fear, and not even saying anything.)

Mr. Puzzles: You know, all that stress building up in you is only gonna kill you faster.

Daniel: Not FUNNY!

Mr. Puzzles: Okay, sheesh. Tense much?

(Ding dong ding)

Princess Glitch: (over the intercom) Mr. Puzzles, please report to room 926.

Daniel: Wait, don’t leave me! At least tell me what that monster will do to them! Will they be eaten too?

Mr. Puzzles: For the last time, this “monster” you speak of is just a figment of your hyperactive imagination.

Daniel: That must mean something WORSE happens with them!

(Ding dong ding)

Princess Glitch: (over the intercom) I repeat, Mr. Puzzles, please report to room 926.

Mr. Puzzles: Look, Daniel. As much as I secretly want you to continue losing your mind, I’ve got more important places to be. You’ll be just fine without me. Toodles! (Just like that, Mr. Puzzles’ body slips back into his TV head. It lands back on the wooden drawer, then displays static before shutting off.)

(The rain pours, the wind howls outside, and the lightning claps echo through the storm.)

(Daniel’s left all by himself in room 308 to sulk and shudder as the lightning flashes light through the balcony windows.)

Daniel: How do they know it’s just all in my head? (Daniel puts his hands on his head in frustration. The once shut off TV then begins to play Daniel’s traumatizing moments from the recent adventure. He yelps as he leaps from the bed to shut off the TV. He breathes heavily.)

(Somewhere in the darkness of the TV screen, Daniel can see a reflection of his face. He’s tired, stressed out of his mind, and his hope is ever so slowly draining.)

Daniel: What’s happening to me? I’m supposed to be, a heroic Game Genie! (Tears form in Daniel’s eyes as he raises his voice.) I’M SUPPOSED TO BE A HEROIC GAME GENIE!

(Lightning flashes once more, the TV turns back on, revealing more traumatic visions of Daniel’s recent adventures. Daniel screams and tosses the TV off the table and onto the floor. He rushes out onto the balcony and slowly climbs his way up onto the roof. The rain on his face masks the tears of fear coming from his eyes. As he stands up slowly he shouts at the storm.)

Daniel: Okay! I’m here! What do you want from me, you monster!?

(Gummigoo opens the door to their room.)

Gummigoo: Hey, Daniel. I… (Gummigoo sees the blankets trashed and the TV on the floor next to him. He then sees the balcony door opened and runs out to find Daniel on the rooftop.) What the…!? Daniel! Mate, get off the bloody roof!

Daniel: NO!

(The lightning strikes lighting up their surroundings for a second.)

Daniel: If that monster is out to get me, just let it happen!

Gummigoo: Daniel, please! You don’t understand!

Daniel: No! YOU don’t understand! Anything I do to get away from Bibliophobia, shoves me violently closer the brink of abstraction! I see it EVERYWHERE! In my dreams, in my digital hallucinations, and now on TV! And nobody believes me! I CAN’T LIVE LIKE THIS! Why did we have to go in that stupid door!? WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME NOW!?

Gummigoo: This.

Daniel: Wuh… What…?

Gummigoo: I had a feeling that door would only lead to danger. I saw it, and we went in anyway.

Daniel: But… why!?

Gummigoo: I took a risk at your expense! There’s a chance for us to work together, so we’d be closer!

(Daniel looks at Gummigoo in a mixture of confusion and stress. Gummigoo grabs his hat and holds it to his chest.)

Gummigoo: Mate, I see SO many things that can hurt you. (The rain covers Gummigoo’s face with more water to mask the tears falling from his eyes.) I should never have let one of them be me. (Gummigoo then puts his hat back on his head.) My point is, having your trauma haunt you isn’t healthy to anyone, but please understand! The past doesn’t make you! Your trauma doesn’t make you! You make you!

Daniel: I do understand, I… (The lightning strikes again, causing Daniel to have some sort of clarity.) What am I doing? I guess… I can’t really… make myself up here. I’m coming down. (Daniel slides off the roof with the help of the rain and lands back on the balcony. He rushes into Gummigoo’s arms, and they have long hug in the rain.)

[Daniel’s ❤️ for Gummigoo: 150%]

Gummigoo: Don’t worry, mate. Whatever scares you, I’ll protect you from it, from now on. Now, why don’t we go back inside. (Gummigoo helps Daniel back inside the room as he continues to talk to him.) Since we don’t really need to sleep, we can stay up as long as you like. I could make you a little dream catcher and then we could stay up and see the sun rise again.

(The view shifts up as the dark stormy night fades into a vibrant sunny morning. Every circus member walks out of the Glitch Inn, with Daniel and Gummigoo being the last ones out.)

Princess Glitch: Sorry again that you had such a rough few nights.

Daniel: Oh, don’t worry about that. After what Gummigoo told me, I think I’ll be fine. I learned that not only do I make who I am, but it also takes both not thinking about it, and toughing up. If I figure out how to do both, I can hopefully put the past behind me for good.

(Jax grins while Kinger smiles with his eyes.)

Gummigoo: And don’t forget, we’re always here to support you when you need us. Never forget that.

Zooble: Jesus, have you two even slept at all?

Gummigoo: Oh, me and Daniel stayed up last night making this. (Gummigoo shows everyone a dream catcher made out of licorice, candy canes, and rock candy.) Hopefully this thing will give us an edge over what’s fighting inside that head of yours. (Gummigoo tussles Daniel’s glossy hair as Daniel chuckles.)

Ragatha: I know that sleep is essentially optional in this world, but don’t you guys need sleep the most? You two look tired.

(Daniel and Gummigoo are seen with huge bags under their eyes, and an undead expression on their faces.)

Gummigoo: (groggy) We look bloody awesome…

(Daniel and Gummigoo snap out of their undead expressions.)

Daniel: Wait, what about our luggage?

Caine: Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to send it back to each of your rooms as soon as you enter this here portal. Speaking of which, it’s time to go back home! (Caine snaps his fingers and a portal opens up, revealing the inside of the circus tent.)

Princess Glitch: Once again, thank you for your time here at my beloved palace.

Daniel: It’s been quite the honor, princess. But right now, I gotta go catch up on the Zs I missed.

Gummigoo: I hope the stars will align for us to meet again sometime soon. Catch ya later!

Daniel: Goodbye, Princess Glitch!

(Princess Glitch waved at Daniel and Gummigoo as they entered the portal. The portal shrank until it disappeared. Princess Glitch turned around, holding a picture of Jax, kissing it and giggling to herself.)

(The scene fades to Daniel and Gummigoo sleeping together on their big bed, in Daniel’s room. The light of day from the window shines through the window blinds. The dream catcher was attached to the lamp on the nightstand near Daniel’s side of the bed. They left the TV on, and a message from Princess Glitch shows up.)

Princess Glitch: (on the TV) And be sure to stay tuned on the Glitch Channel for our upcoming GlitchX 2024 on November 1st. You won’t wanna miss this interview with Olan Rodgers, and his comeback with his latest indie animated masterpiece.