Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Darkness is oppressive.

If you don’t have some form of light, it will consume you.

I know that. 

I should have been prepared for that.

I knew what would happen.

Knew what would happen if I let the darkness consume me.

But I gave up.

I was done.

I couldn’t take this anymore.

The repetition is driving me insane.

I have no light.

No one will listen.

I wish someone would come who is a light.

Someone who listens to an ignored & forgotten voice.

Like me.

The silence is deafening.

Chapter Text

DogDay had been through a lot, but this was new.

He’d survived the experiments, kept his friends together, survived the Hour of Joy, & kept himself sane through the ten years after.

But falling through a bright blue sky? That was not something he’d thought could happen.

The orange canine critter had woken up ( Didn’t I die? ) to find himself falling at an increasing speed in a brightly colored world, vastly different from the one he had been in before. As soon as he’d realized he was falling, his eyes had shot open with a yelp.

He flailed his arms in panic, trying to remember what Bubba had said to do.

He started trying to straighten himself out when a female voice spoke to him.

“Well, this is new!”

He did not scream. He would reiterate that as many times as he had to. (You try to avoid screaming when a cartoon sun that’s at least twenty times bigger than you shows up & starts talking for no apparent reason.)

“Wha- who are you?” DogDay asked.

“I’m the Sun, silly!” The cartoon sun replied, following Day as he fell.

“Great! That’s great. Can you perhaps stop me from falling to my death? ”

Sun laughed. “You’ll be fine, new guy! Unless…” Sun squinted her eyes, making Day uncomfortable.

Sun’s eyes suddenly widened. “Oh! Oh . That’s what Moon was talking about.”

Day blinked in confusion. “I-I’m sorry, what-?”

Sun laughed again. “You’ll find out soon, little puppy! Have fun!”

And with that cheerful goodbye, Sun shot back up into the sky, leaving Day alone. He huffed in annoyance, then scanned his surroundings as he straightened himself out, going spread-eagle as he did. He saw an amusement park of sorts, & right below him–

Wait.

DogDay squinted. 

Is that a yellow & red circus tent?

Pomni scrambled out of the creature’s path as it charged at her once again.

This, she thought, panting, is UNDOUBTEDLY, the WORST day of my life!

Why did I put that stupid headset on?

Pomni had already been struggling when she’d first entered the circus, her anxiety being made worse with the combined force of meeting six strangers, not being able to remember her name, being given a new name without full consent, Caine maigically pulling her around on a forced tour of the digital world, randomly suggested a brand new adventure just for her, & got told that Kaufmo, another member, had mentioned seeing an exit just like she had. 

Pomni, Ragatha, & Jax had gone to talk to Kaufmo (she’d hated Jax already at that point. He was so annoying!). Only to discover that Kaufmo had been replaced with a giant black quadrupedal monster with neon yellow, blue, green, & pink eyes. 

Jax had immediately grabbed a bowling ball & run off (she hadn’t been very surprised), leaving Pomni & Ragatha alone with the monster, which had immediately slammed one leg into Ragatha, knocking her into the far wall & causing the ragdoll-like girl to start glitching badly, which was apparently very painful, which Pomni figured out when she tried to grab Ragatha & run, causing Pomni’s hand to start glitching badly. Ragatha had told the terrified girl to go find Caine, but she had gotten intercepted by the monster before she could get to the main room where she had appeared.

She lept back as the monster tried to swipe at her again, apparently more interested in her than the dozens–if not hundreds–of Gloinks wandering the circus grounds. The Gloinks were NPC’s in a variety of shapes & colors that loved stealing stuff. They had taken apart a pillow fort built by one of the other people stuck in the virtual world–a living king chess piece named Kinger–& had disassembled another person who was apparently like a Mr. Potato Head toy, where you could remove arms & legs & change them out–Zooble, if Pomni remembered correctly. 

The monster let out a roar, lunging towards her. She would’ve been toast, were it not for a massive ball shaped conglomerate of Gloinks & random stuff rolling in front of her right before she could get hit. 

The monster immediately switched focus, targeting the Gloinks as Pomni made her escape. Normally, she would’ve tried calling out for Caine to get his attention, but she didn’t want to attract the attention of the monster again. 

She ran through the main area of the circus, knocking things over as she did, her hope being that the monster would be slowed by the mess. 

Three minutes of searching & knocking things over, she realized her mistake as the monster bellowed, charging towards her. 

In her attempt to slow the monster down, she had inadvertently created a trail behind her for it to follow, leading it to her. 

Pomni dove behind a couch, praying to whatever deity was out there that the monster wouldn’t see her. She poked her head out the side right as it turned from her hiding spot. 

Pomni held back a sigh of relief. It seemed her hiding spot was good for now, at least until it spotted her again. She knew this was a temporary solution, but it was her best shot until she could come up with a plan of escape. 

She was five seconds into making her plan when there was a tearing sound above her. Pomni looked up just as an orange dog tore through the roof of the tent & crashed into the monster, making it collapse onto its knees. 

As the monster went still, Pomni’s mind could only think one thing:

What the heck?

DogDay shook himself off, trying to figure out where he’d landed. 

He was certain he’d seen a brightly colored room, but the place where he’d landed was pitch black, with no light that he could see. 

DogDay turned in a slow circle, trying to get his bearings right as a very faint white light glowed in the distance. With no better plan, DogDay headed in the direction of the light, which didn’t get much brighter as he approached it. 

He was wondering if anything was even here when he rounded a black corner, freezing at the sight. 

A human with white skin, large red lips, & a yellow clown outfit was trapped in a cage made of a strange black liquid, with tendrils wrapped around his arms, legs, & neck. His eyes were closed, & it didn’t look like he was breathing. 

DogDay’s heart rate spiked with panic as he raced towards the human, painful memories trying to surge through his mind as he remembered his own imprisonment, caused by one he’d once called a friend. 

DogDay used his paws to pull two of the bars apart, both liquid tendrils giving with little resistance. He made his way to the human, not noticing that his sun–shaped pendant was starting to glow. He didn’t care about what was around him. 

All that mattered to him was getting the poor human out, his determination slowly chasing away his fear & dark memories. 

DogDay reached the human, immediately unsheathing his claws to start tearing off the tendrils. 

Even though the critters had been designed for kids, the bigger bodies toys had ways to defend the children–& themselves–if necessary. Their paws/hooves had sharp extremities that they could unsheathe if needed. DogDay, CatNap, Hoppy, & Bobby all had claws that they could extend out of their pawtips, Kickin’s beak had razor sharp pieces that he could extend as well as some in his feet, Bubba & Picky both had sharp razors in their hooves, & Crafty’s hooves & horn had sharp razors hidden in them.

As he tore away at the tendrils, his pendant glowed, getting brighter with each removed tendril. DogDay removed the final tendril, which had been around the human’s neck, causing the human to collapse into DogDay’s arms. 

As soon as the human fell into DogDay’s arms, DogDay had no time to react as a ball of golden light exploded from DogDay’s neck. 

He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision, quickly discovering that he was back in the tent he’d seen when he was falling. Across from him was a human girl with brown hair sticking out from underneath a red & black jester’s hat. In fact, her entire outfit was reminiscent of a jester’s, down to the shoes being different colors. 

She looked genuinely terrified. “You just–he just–but he–the abstraction–but–what–how?!”

“Um, hi?” DogDay waved nervously. Who is this girl? 

Before he could ask anything, a very confused voice asked, “What happened here?”

DogDay turned to find even more bizarre creatures than Playtime Co. had ever produced. In the lead was a purple rabbit with yellow Cheshire cat eyes and pink overalls. Behind him came a king chess piece with a purple robe and a crying tragedy mask with a body made of a red ribbon, who would probably give both the Doctor and The Prototype an aneurysm. Another aneurysm causing creature followed behind, and the only way to describe this newcomer was amalgamate.

The rabbit whistled and turned toward the jester. “So, what did I miss?” Before she could reply, he noticed DogDay, and rolled his eyes. “Great. Two newbies in one day. Wait, is that Kaufmo?”

“Um,” DogDay didn’t know what to say. 

“A little help here?”

DogDay turned towards the voice and found a glitchy rag doll with red yarn hair, a blue button over her left eye, and a purple dress.

“Ragatha!” The chess piece ran over to her and bent over her, looking incredibly concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Considering I got smacked by an Abstraction?” Her glitchy voice asked. “Pretty good. Who’s the dog? And–is that Kaufmo?”

“I’m confused,” DogDay said.

“Aren’t we all?” The jester asked. “Less than 30 seconds ago, Kaufmo was an Abstraction, you fall through the tent–” she pointed up with her left arm, which DogDay only just noticed was glitching like the ragdoll’s body “–crash land into the Abstraction–”

“Say what now?” The rabbit asked.

“–and then explode the Abstraction into a ball of golden light, and suddenly reappear with Kaufmo as though absolutely nothing happened!” She looked at the others. “Is this normal?”

“No,” the amalgamate said. “I’ve never heard of an abstracted member reviving.” She turned towards the chess piece. “Have you?” 

“Not that I can recall,” he mused.

There was a sudden popping sound, and DogDay jumped back, still holding the unconscious human, as a pair of chattering teeth with two eyes, one blue and one red, attached to a red suit teleported in from nowhere. “Welcome back, my brave adventurers! You have–” the eccentric creature, who had more hyperactive energy than Kickin Chicken and Hoppy Hopscotch combined, paused upon noticing DogDay. “You’re not human.”

DogDay winced at the reminder. “No, I’m not. I’m a toy.’

“1. Cool, never heard of that before,” the rabbit said. “2. Say what now?”

“Lemme fix you guys up real quick.” There was another popping sound as the chatter teeth snapped his gloved fingers, causing the glitches on Ragatha and the jester to disappear. 

He turned toward DogDay. “I’m Caine! Nice to meet you, newcomer! Now, what shall we use for your name?”

“DogDay. My name is DogDay.” He blinked. “Why are you all looking at me weird?”

“Normally, anyone who enters the circus can’t remember their name.” The ragdoll explained. “It might be due to the fact that you aren’t a human, but I’m not sure.”

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Caine said. “We need to settle your sleeping arrangements. Since you somehow revived Kaufmo, you will be staying with him!”

“Not that you could leave anyways,” the rabbit said.

“Jax!” Ragatha reprimanded.

“What?” He asked innocently.

“I’m fine with that,” DogDay said. “Both the sleeping arrangements and the not leaving thing.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone but Caine shouted.

DogDay flinched (thank you sensitive hearing), but shrugged at their shock. “My old life was Hell. As long as I have a safe place to stay, and more freedom than my past life, then I’m okay with being stuck here.”

They all looked confused, but were clearly just going with it at this point.

“We’ll do the tour later,” Caine declared. “For now, those of you who participated in today’s adventure, your reward–” he threw his arms to his right, revealing a table loaded with food that hadn’t been there before. “This wondrous feast!” He smiled, which looked very weird. “By the way, how did you defeat the Gloink Queen?”

The four that had arrived together gave each other a strange look, then replied in unison, “Bowling ball.”

“That certainly won’t be taken out of context later,” Caine said. He turned back to DogDay. “As for you, we’ll get you set up in your new room, so you can get comfortable. If you need something, let me know!”

DogDay blinked. “Um, okay.”

DogDay stretched out on his incredibly fluffy bed, feeling more comfort than he’d ever felt before.

Caine had given him a bed shaped like a giant pale yellow paw, with an orange blanket and amber pillows shaped like paw. There was a bone plush on the bed, and even a pillow shaped like a tennis ball. Even though he wasn’t an actual dog, DogDay had wanted a bed like this for years.

Kaufmo, the human he had rescued, was sound asleep on his yellow bed, which had red and blue balloon shaped pillows at the head, the blanket covering him white with blue, red, and yellow polka dots.

A quiet knock on the door caught DogDay’s attention. His ears perked up upon hearing it, and he went to the door to answer it. On the other side stood Ragatha, holding two plates of food. She smiled when he opened the door. “Hey! DogDay, right?”

DogDay nodded, closing the door behind him, leaving it cracked open just in case Kaufmo woke up. “Your name is Ragatha, right?”

“Yep!” She smiled again, then handed him the plates. “We don’t really need food here, but it’ll probably make Kaufmo feel better.”

DogDay looked at the plates. “You guys mentioned something that started with an “A” earlier when you were talking about Kaufmo. What was that?”

Ragatha’s smile faded. “That’s called Abstraction. See, we all used to be humans, but when we put the headsets on, we were transported into here, leaving our bodies behind. When our minds can’t take it anymore, and we’ve lost all hope, we abstract. Abstraction is basically death, which is why we were all surprised by you somehow saving Kaufmo.”

DogDay thought about that. “I’m not sure what happened, but I’m glad I was able to help.”

Ragatha smiled again. “Hey, by the way, would you like me to tell you a little bit about everyone here? I mean, I can’t really say anything about Pomni, since she’s new, but I can tell you about the others.”

“Sure,” DogDay shrugged. Might as well, since he’s living here now.

“Okay. First, a bit about me—I try to be the positive one in the group, trying to include everyone in everything, and making sure everyone is as happy as I can help them feel.”

I can understand that, DogDay thought. As the leader, he felt that type of responsibility often. 

“Zooble is the one with the pink triangle head. They don’t really go on the adventures Caine gives with us, but they’re really cool when you get to know them!”

Is…is Zooble multiple people in one? Or am I missing something about her? He wondered. 

“Gangle is the one with the comedy/tragedy mask. Her masks affect her emotions, so when her comedy mask breaks, she’s forced to feel sad until she can fix her comedy mask and wear it again. 

“Kinger is the chess piece. He’s really forgetful, since he’s really old, but he’ll sometimes remember things from the past and talk about them. When he acts forgetful, just go with it. If you can’t find him in his room, he’s usually in his “impenetrable fortress,” which is just that pillow fort out in the main area.”

Ragatha looked back at the room. “Kaufmo is always really reserved. He was adamant about there being an exit, but we’ve seen no proof, and I think it’s our fault he abstracted, since we weren’t really willing to listen to him about the exit.”

“Well, you can ask him for forgiveness when he wakes up, right?” DogDay pointed out.

“True,” Ragatha agreed. She took a deep breath in, then said. “Jax is the rabbit. I’m gonna warn you in advance, he’s a jerk. He enjoys making others suffer, and thinks it’s fun to watch. If you find a bunch of snakes or rakes in your room, it’s because of Jax.”

“Good to know,” DogDay said. He thought for a moment, then said, “So as long as I don’t let him know what annoys me or scares me, I should be good, right?”

“Hopefully,” Ragatha said. She glanced down the hall to the central area, where he’d fallen into, then leaned in and whispered, “He’s deathly afraid of corn, so if you find a way to get some, and he gets on your nerves, just leave it in his room.”

DogDay blinked. “Corn?”

“I don’t know why, but that’s his fear. I’m the only one who knows, and he doesn’t know that I know. I’m waiting for the right moment to use it.”

“Oookay?” DogDay didn’t know what to do with that information. He adjusted how he was holding the plates, then nodded gratefully to the rag doll. “Thank you, Ragatha.”

“Of course!” She gave DogDay a quick hug. “Let us know when Kaufmo wakes up!”

“I will!” DogDay promised. He waited until Ragatha left, then quietly went back into the room, shutting the door carefully behind him. He set the plates of food on a table in the corner. Just as Ragatha had said, he didn’t feel hungry (a sensation he was glad to be rid of), and he wasn’t sure that Kaufmo would want an immediate reminder of his situation, so he wouldn’t give Kaufmo the plate unless he asked for it. 

DogDay stretched out on his bed again. His intent was to stay awake until Kaufmo woke up, but his body said otherwise. 

DogDay’s eyes closed, and he immediately fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Kaufmo woke up in his room. 

Confused, he looked at his hands, expecting to see the telltale black of an Abstraction. To his surprise, he saw his white gloved hands, and the yellow of his clown suit. 

What…happened?

He remembered abstracting. He remembered feeling like his body was on fire, Odin running through every fiber of his digital being. The darkness had surrounded him, trapping him in a cage made of black tendrils. After that, everything had gone dark. The only thing he remembered after that, before waking up, was a ball of golden light, then he’d woken up. 

Did someone… save him?

He scanned the room, all the writing he’d done before abstracting gone without a trace. Not even his plea was there, just a dog sleeping on a bed—

Wait a minute .

That dog had not been there before. He was anthropomorphic, like Jax, with orange fur covering most of his body. His belly was yellow, and his ears, paws, and the spot over his right eye were an amber color. He was sleeping on a new bed that hadn’t been there before, shaped like a paw. 

Kaufmo was severely confused, but looked around his room again, just in case he’d missed something. He noticed a piece of paper on his pillow next to him, and when he unfolded it, he recognized Caine’s typed-out writing.

Kaufmo:

We’re not fully sure what exactly happened, but you’re okay now. Your new roommate saved you somehow. 

He’s going to be staying with you from now on, so if you need anything to help you feel more comfortable, just call!

-Caine

P. S. His name is DogDay. 

Of course. 

Kaufmo recalled the golden light that he’d seen before waking up. Was it possible that the dog, DogDay, had some sort of power that had revived him?

And if it had revived him, could it revive others? 

He remembered Queenie, who had abstracted a few weeks after Kaufmo had joined. The pure panic on her face when she transformed, then her rage as she stormed off, with only Kinger willing to chase after her. Poor Kinger’s memory problems started after that.

Another painful memory was of Blitzy, a serpentine creature with dragonfly wings and wolf limbs (definitely the most bizarre creature he’d seen). She had abstracted a few minutes after Queenie, and had been caught immediately by Caine. The AI had then gone searching for Queenie, and Kaufmo had lost two friends in one day. 

He’d been struggling to hold it together ever since, especially since no one was willing to talk about the exit he was positive he’d seen. They only wanted to talk about the circus, and the adventures. Never themselves. Not unless they had nothing else to talk about. 

He stared at the paper, then noticed a second one underneath his pillow. He picked it up and unfolded it. There were only two words:

Wish granted

Granted?

Then he remembered his wish. He looked at DogDay. Is he the answer to my wish?

DogDay yawned, then opened his eyes. He immediately sat up straight as soon as he noticed Kaufmo was looking at him. “Oh! You’re up!”

“Yeah,” Kaufmo agreed. “Who are you?”

“I’m DogDay. How are you feeling?”

Not what he’d been expecting in the second half. 

“Better than I was this morning,” he admitted. “How am I…alive?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure.” DogDay looked confused. “I crashed into the circus tent, then pulled you out of some sort of black tentacle cage, then we were back in the tent.”

So he does have some sort of power, Kaufmo reasoned. But he doesn’t know what it is, or how to use it. 

Looks like Queenie and Blitzy will have to wait, then. 

Kaufmo shifted, then noticed the two plates of food on his side table. DogDay sat up a little straighter. “Do you want some?”

“No thanks,” Kaufmo said. “I don’t really like the digital food. Caine can not figure out how to make it taste fully real.”

DogDay nodded. He picked up the plates and went over to the trash can, tossing them inside. That was…surprisingly easy. 

Kaufmo was about to ask DogDay more questions, but was cut off by Caine’s voice telling something in the room next to them. 

DogDay winced, making Kaufmo wonder if he had sensitive hearing just like a dog. “I think he forgot you’re supposed to be resting,” DogDay said. 

“Caine is pretty much the definition of ADHD most days.” Kaufmo looked at the wall. “Who’s my new neighbor?”

“I think Ragatha said her name is Pomni? I think?”

Kaufmo shrugged. “We can ask her in the morning.” 

DogDay looked at the clock, which was still showing a half-moon. “Time is weird here, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

DogDay settled back down on his bed, then turned toward Kaufmo. “If you need anything, even if it’s just to talk, please wake me up.”

“I…I will.” Kaufmo promised. 

His wish had been granted. 

He finally had someone willing to listen to him. 

He was no longer alone. 

Chapter Text

“Hey, Kaufmo?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeaterday, Ragatha and Caine both mentioned something about “adventures,” and I just realized I’m not completely sure what they meant.’

DogDay and Kaufmo had both woken up a few minutes ago, and were getting ready for the day. DogDay was thankful his fur was easy to groom, since it now only took him a few minutes to be ready to go somewhere. Compared to the infinity of a hell he’d been in before…

“Well, the adventures are stuff for us to do so we don’t go insane.” Kaufmo paused. “That’s how they’re supposed to work, anyways. As you can probably guess, it didn’t work too well for me.”

Kaufmo lowered his head, and DogDay immediately leaned in and gave him a hug. He was going to support Kaufmo, no matter what. 

“It probably wouldn’t hurt so much if I couldn’t remember anything at all.” Kaufmo muttered. 

“No way!” DogDay said. “Your memories make you who you are! You can’t just wish you didn’t have them.” DogDay said. He was speaking from experience, after all.

Kaufmo sighed. “I know, I just–”

He was cut off by Pomni suddenly flying through the door, yelling as she slammed into the bedroom wall.

DogDay leaned over her. “Are you okay?”

Pomni groaned.

“What exactly threw you in here?”  Kaufmo asked.

“I tripped over a block, and I went flying,” she groaned.

“Ah. Physics.” Kaufmo smiled. “Happens to all of us at one point.”

“I thought Physics was a branch of science?” DogDay remembered Miss Delight talking about it in the past.

“Well, yes, but technically no. In terms of science, yes. In terms of the Circus, physics is how this world decides how we interact with the environment. And sometimes–” he gestured at Pomni, “–it has interesting effects on us.” 

“Ow.” Pomni muttered.

“Huh.” DogDay helped Pomni back onto her feet, the jester nodding to him gratefully.

As they walked to the main area, Ragatha’s voice called to them from where her room was. The group turned around to see the ragdoll running towards them from her room. 

“You guys ready for today?” She smiled at the group, though it seemed to be mostly directed at him and Pomni.

“Sure,” Pomni said. She looked slightly uncomfortable with the attention she was being given.

“I’m pretty excited!” DogDay wagged his tail. “After all, this will be my first adventure here!”

Ragatha nodded. “Caine hasn’t said anything yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he changed it for your arrival.”

“Has he done that before?” DogDay questioned.

"Yesterday's adventure changed after I arrived,” Pomni said, “so I wouldn’t be surprised if it got changed again.”

They arrived in the main lobby, where DogDay had crashed into the Abstracted Kaufmo, and saw that the other members of the circus were already waiting for them. For some reason, parts of Zooble had changed. She had a few new accessories on, and one of her arms was different. DogDay guessed she was like a take-apart and put-together toy, able to change her look to be whatever she wanted.

They all gathered around the stage, and were waiting for Caine.

“Yo, Day!” DogDay barely stopped himself from flinching when Jax called out to him. “Has Caine given you any teasers yet?”

“No,” he replied. “And please don’t call me ‘Day.’ I have bad memories connected to that nickname.”

Jax looked slightly surprised, but shrugged it off with a smile. “Guess I’ll call you Sunny, then.”

“Does he always give people nicknames?” DogDay asked Ragatha.

“Yeah, it’s his thing.” She replied.

“Mine was Koffer, for some reason.” Kaufmo said.

DogDay was going to question that when Caine suddenly teleported above the stage, floating in front of the group ( that was going to take some getting used to).

“Today’s adventure is–” he threw his arms energetically into the air as bright pink words appeared for the next words he spoke. “CANDY CARRIER CHAOS!”

“Huh,” Ragatha said quietly. “Guess he kept it."

“That’s right!” Caine continued. “The Candy Canyon Kingdom’s been robbed of their most valuable resource: Maple Syrup!”

A bubble with black circles for eyes and Huggy-sharp teeth floated up to Caine and stuck its tongue out to reveal a bottle of maple syrup.

Hoppy and Kickin would joke that we’re probably going to Canada, DogDay thought.

“It’s up to you to bring the rotten bandits who stole it to sweet, buttery justice!” Caine said.

“An entire kingdom of candy?” The bubble asked. “Sounds sticky!”

“Very sticky indeed!” Caine answered.

“Sounds [BEEEEEP]” The bubble’s mouth moved, but no words came out, only a very long and very awkward beep.

“There goes the censor,” Jax said.

“Censor?” DogDay asked.

“Basically, we can’t swear or say inappropriate things.” The rabbit explained.

“Huh.” DogDay noticed that everyone but Caine and the bubble creature was looking at him (Probably because the bubble character was still saying the long beep).

“You’re not gonna try swearing?” Pomni asked. 

“Nope. I don’t swear, and even if I did, you guys already said I can’t, so there’s no point in trying.”

“I like this kid,” Zooble said.

The beep finally stopped. Everyone turned back to the stage as Caine said, “Bubble, you can’t say that!”

“Mmmm, nope!” Zooble suddenly turned away, and started walking off towards the hallway that led to the rooms. 

“ZOOBLE WAIT!” Caine shouted. He floated over to Zooble, who paused as Caine continued, “I’m testing out a new AI in this one! It should be 57 times more immersive!”

“Ooo, a new AI!” Jax’s smile widened. “You don’t want to mess with the new AI Zoobie?” He asked as he elbowed the amalgamate.

“Uh, yeah, no.” Zooble continued to the rooms. Jax glanced at DogDay, then shrugged. “Can’t force ‘em.”

“Hey, Kaufmo?” DogDay whispered to his roommate. “What’s AI?”

“It stands for artificial intelligence,” he whispered back. “It’s basically a simulation of a living being that isn’t really alive.”

“Weird,” he said. He then asked, “Hey Caine? How many bandits are there?”

“There should only be three, but there’s a chance that there may be more! I activated the AI a few days ago so that the characters could prepare. I don’t know how many there will be in total, but it’s guaranteed to be at least–BUBBLE DON’T EAT THAT!”

Said Bubble was starting to gnaw on a green block. He pulled away with an, “Aww, man!”

“Well, sounds fun!” Ragatha smiled and turned to Pomni. “What do you think, Pomni?”

“So…our entire existence here is just…larping?”

“W-ell-” Ragatha started.

“WHY ARE YOU ALL JUST STANDING THERE?” Caine demanded. “Th-th-the canyon-the candy canyon kingdom needs you now!” A swirling portal of some kind appeared behind Gangle, and Caine pushed the group through, with no further explanation.

Caine stared at the spot where the portal had been for precisely 3.427 seconds before he pulled out his bubble pipe. It helped his body relax before he got to work on the next adventure. He’d seen humans on the internet use them to “chill” before work. Due to normal cigarettes being blocked by the censor, he’d been forced to get extra creative with his version. He’d done more research, and had found a bubble pipe in an old cartoon. He’d recreated it in the circus for himself.

Bubble floated past him happily. Caine offered the pipe to his companion, who shook himself. “No thanks, I’m trying to quit.”

More for me then! Now, what adventure will likely attract Zooble’s attention?

“This is pretty cool!” DogDay leaned out a bit more to try and see if he could see their destination.

Contrary to his original idea, this world was made entirely of candy, and held in some sort of desert. The cart they were riding in was made of chocolate, wafers, taffy, and cookies. The elephant-like creature that was pulling the cart was also made of candy. Even the large pink mountains were made of various types of candy!

Those three would have loved this place, he thought sadly.

Large chocolate-coated wafer walls came into view, and DogDay knew they had reached their destination. Some sort of drawbridge lowered, and the cart was pulled into the kingdom. Candy mannequin people waved at them as they entered, and DogDay saw smaller ones that were probably children.

“Caine made all of this?” He whispered in awe.

“Yep.” Kaufmo smiled at DogDay, clearly enjoying the dog toy’s awe and enthusiasm.

They stopped and dismounted not too far from a castle made of various types of candy, and it reminded DogDay of when they’d been able to make gingerbread houses with the orphans one Christmas.

“Wow! Kinger, check out this castle!” Ragatha said. “It’s amazing!”

“They’ve even got little candy bugs here!” Kinger said, watching as a candy butterfly floated gracefully past him. “It’s so beautiful!”

“Yeah, this place is great–” Gangle was suddenly shoved to the ground by a candy person excitedly running up and shouting, “Look! It’s the Princess!” 

Cheers went up from the crowd as Gangle sat on the floor, holding the two halves of her broken comedy mask. “Every time,” she whispered.

DogDay helped her up. “I can help you fix it when we get back!” He offered. Where are Bubba and Crafty when I need–nevermind. He cut off his thoughts. It wouldn’t help.

A more detailed candy person came into view as trumpets were played. Her hair was made of taffy, with a delicate gold crown on top, and her dress was made of cake, with icing making the lace and decorations. She smiled at them as she approached. “Ah! You must be the brave knights sent to us by god–” She pointed up at a mural of Caine, then continued, “–to help us with our recent catastrophe!”

“That’s us ma’am!” Ragatha answered.

Why is Caine considered a god? That’s definitely weirder than anything I’ve ever seen before. And also is not giving me good vibes, considering back there… DogDay shivered.

“You’re kingdom’s awesome by the way!” Ragatha said. “Love the vibe!”

The princess laughed. “I like you already!” She said.

“Look, Pomni! We’re already friends with the princess!”

“I’m not a child, you don’t have to hype me up.” Pomni muttered, making Ragatha’s smile shrink.

“I assume you’ve been informed of your mission,” the princess said as she descended the stairs that led down to them. “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!”

She pointed to her right, and a big rig made of candy rolled into the kingdom square, crushing a candy person as it did. 

“Ow,” DogDay whispered.

“OOH! Violence!” Jax said.

“Somehow, his reaction doesn’t surprise me,” DogDay whispered to Kaufmo.

“He’s always trying to find ways to break things, or exploit glitches.” Kaufmo answered. “You know how in a cartoon some characters can pull stuff out of seemingly nowhere? That’s basically what Jax can do.”

“Huh. Okay,” he said.

“What time period is this supposed to be again?” Pomni asked.

“Here’s the key back into the kingdom for when you’ve secured the goods,” the princess said as she handed a candy key to Ragatha, who was probably the best to trust with something important. “I trust you not to let it fall into the wrong hands?”

“You can count on me, your highness!” Ragatha bowed. 

“Oh, please!” The princess smiled. “Call me Lu!”

“Will do, Lu!” Ragatha smiled and did finger guns at the princess (well, she did her best with her mitten-like hands).

“I call shotgun!” Jax leapt into the driver’s seat of the rig, then honked the horn. DogDay’s ears begged for death at the horrid sound that came from the horn. Jax also recoiled from the sound.”Oh, geez, is that the horn? That sucks!” He pulled Gangle into the driver’s seat as he moved over. “Gangle, you drive.” The rest of the group piled into the back, though it looked slightly squished, as five chairs were squished next to each other. DogDay, however, was happy to sit on the floor to make room for the others.

As Gangle pulled away, DogDay poked his head out and saw Princess Lu waving at them. “Farewell, good knights! I have every faith in you!” 

The drawbridge closed behind them, and they were officially on their way.

Gummigoo stared through his binoculars, his instincts screaming at him to get moving.

The heist had been successful. They’d snuck in while the guards were being replaced by their next shift, as the kingdom’s guards had to inspect the weapons and armor of the next shift before they could perform their duties. They’d filled their tanker to the brim with syrup, and Gummigoo had been disgusted by what he’d seen. The princess had said that the kingdom’s reserves of syrup were very low, and being rationed to her citizens. The tanks in her storage, however, had all been almost full. He knew syrup was hard to come by, but the princess had enough syrup to heal her citizens for ten years, thirty if they rationed, even after they’d taken an entire tanker’s worth.

Gummigoo had felt no guilt when they’d filled the tanker. There would still be enough for the princess, and what they’d stolen would last their small village for at least a decade, if not more.

“D’ya think your mum’s gonna pull through if we get this back to the village?” He turned as Max spoke up. The tall, skinny gator’s orange gummy hide was glistening in the sunlight. They’d all been quiet since they left the kingdom, each having their own thoughts to ponder.

“I’m sure she will.” Chad said encouragingly. The purple gummy gator with red highlights, arms, and legs was cooking a jelly rabbit for breakfast. “This much syrup would save hundreds of people!”

“And they were keeping it for themselves,” a third voice muttered. “Selfish pieces of black licorice.”

That was the new blood, a fourth member who hadn’t helped before, but had been training for a few years now to be ready for a quest with the gummy gators. The new blood was currently sharpening her blades, ready for a potential fight. The only reason everyone was on edge was because Chad had accidentally tripped an alarm on the way out. By the time the guards had arrived, the group was already well on their way to the village.

Gummigoo sighed. They were resting only because of the early heist. Once they’d eaten, they would be back on the road. He turned his head to the group. “We won’t know for sure until we get back to the village.” He was praying that it would be. “She’s a fighter, though. She taught me everything I know.”

“Which you then taught to me,” New blood said. “We’ll make it, Gummigoo. We have to.” 

“Well, I’m cooking as fast as I can!” Chad said as he turned the jelly rabbit again. “Fire can only cook so fast!”

Gummigoo rolled his eyes and brought the binoculars back up to his eyes, remembering when they’d met the new kid.

She’d been found inside of a crate from a raid he and the other gators had done on a bandit caravan. They’d immediately brought her back to the village, Gummigoo and his mother working together to nourish her back to full health. When she’d first woken up, she’d had no memories, and Gummigoo was convinced that whoever had taken her had hit her hard enough to cause amnesia. He still wanted to find whoever it was and make them pay, but that was significantly lower on the list.

The kid had taken well to village life, living and working with Gummigoo and his mum on their ranch. She’d grown incredibly close to his mum, and had been the first to volunteer for the mission.

As he was looking through his binoculars, he noticed a rig driving in their direction.

“Done!” Chad held up the cooked jelly rabbit as Gummigoo turned around.

“We’ll have to eat on the way,” he said.

The kid’s ears perked up. “I hear a rig. At least seven passengers.”

I keep forgetting how good her hearing is, Gummigoo thought.

“They sent someone after us,” he confirmed. The others immediately packed their things, with the kid using her cleaver to cut up the jelly rabbit into four equal portions before using her powers to store it in her charm.

“Let’s go!” Gummigoo ordered, pulling Chad into the tanker. “We need to try and keep our lead!”

“Yes sir!” The other replied, eating as quickly as they could as they drove away.

Hold on, mum. He thought. Just for a bit longer. We’re almost there!

Chapter Text

If Poppy Playtime was real, then today would mark 30 years since the Hour of Joy. 30 years since the toys rose up against their oppressors, and set themselves free from the experiments and testing.

A weird way to start a chapter, I know, but this isn't really a chapter. This is just a little update on my stuff.

I'm currently writing more chapters for the fan stories I'm working on, as well as a new story that should release in a few days, probably closer to a week. I'm also planning another AU, but it'll be a while before it comes out.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who wrote a comment, left a Kudos, or subscribed to one of my stories. You're support has been incredible, and I love seeing your comments and responding to them!

So, feel free to keep leaving comments on my stories!

I will also say that if you want to send me fan art of my stories, you can do so by sending it to me at [email protected]. The only requirements to send me your fan art is to let me know if you're okay with me posting your art in my stories, what name you want me to use if I show your work, and what format it was done in (drawing program, pencil and paper, etc.) I want to make sure I give credit to the artists who send me their work.

And if anyone wants to do a story with me as a cowriter, feel free to e-mail me your idea! If I feel like it's something I can write confidently, then I'll let you know! The only requirements for that is that you give me your AO3 account name and that you own Google Docs.

Anyway, it's almost 11:00 in my time zone, so I need to go get my hour long playlist of Poppy Playtime songs ready to go.

Have a wonderful day!

Chapter Text

Picky hadn’t changed much.

She was still an anthropomorphic pink pig with darker pink hooves and a red apple pendant on her zipper. There was a scar on her left eye, though it appeared that her vision was not impaired. She was also wielding a meat cleaver, which definitely wasn’t terrifying considering the fact she’d helped in the kitchens almost every day before the Hour Of Joy and had used a cleaver during the Hour.

The pink pig narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know how you know my name, mutt, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is getting you off of our ride!” She swung at him.

DogDay’s eyes went wide, and he jumped back, barely dodging the attack. “Wait!” He raised his hands. “We can talk about this, can’t we?”

“Y’all forfeited your chance to talk when your friend rammed our tanker!” She swung again, and DogDay was forced to keep dodging. 

“Aw, no more ramming? Guess I have to tell Ragatha about the figurine thing now!” Jax said.

“What?” Gangle asked.

Picky raised an eyebrow at him. Her hearing was clearly as good as ever. “Y’all kind of suck as a team.”

“Blame Jax,” he muttered, dodging yet another swing. Picky muttered something under her breath as she reached for her charm. It glowed red, and then her cleaver disappeared in a flash of red light. Another flash appeared, and then she was holding two small axes.

SINCE WHEN DOES SHE HAVE MAGIC? DogDay thought in a panic. 

“Oh! You’re still up here?” DogDay glanced back to see the purple gummy gator was back on the tanker.

“Guys?” Pomni looked nervous. “What’s the plan?”

“Working on it!” DogDay jumped in surprise when he realized that Picky had tried to take advantage of the distraction and attack him. Kaufmo, who had answered Pomni, was blocking her axes with his candy sword.

“Pomni!” Kinger shouted again. “Take this!”

Kaufmo and Picky were forced to step away from each other as Kinger threw an anchor with a rope attached to it past them. Both sides froze and looked at each other.

“That’s not good,” Kaufmo said.

Jax was clearly thinking the same thing, because he turned to the chess piece and asked, “Hey, uh, Kinger. Is that rope uhhh… attached to anything?”

“Uhh, I don’t know. Let me check.” Kinger disappeared back into the rig, and literally one second later, the rig violently swerved toward the tanker, throwing Jax out and forcing him to cling onto the edge of the roof.

“Picks! What happened?” The yellow gator asked.

“The idiots threw an anchor at us!” Picky shouted back. “And it was attached to something! ”

The yellow gator muttered under his breath, and the tanker started turning away from the edge of the cliff they had driven next to at some point.

“Hang on!” Kaufmo shouted. “This isn’t gonna be pretty!”

The tanker successfully pulled away from the rig, but the resulting spin sent it off the edge of the cliff.

DogDay’s eyes went wide with horror as he reached an arm helplessly to the cliff. “No!”

The rig was the least of his concerns, however, because the tanker was sent spinning out of control. The group that was on top of the tanker dropped to their stomachs and held on for dear life as it spun. DogDay glanced up, and his eyes widened even more when he saw that they were heading towards a large candy rock jutting out of the desert. “Brace yourselves!”

He expected to crash into the rock and be thrown away from an exploding tanker. He’d expected the stolen syrup to spread out from the destroyed tanker and soak into the earth.

What he had not been expecting was for the tanker to start shaking violently and jerk and spin around in every direction possible. Despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten, he felt his stomach try to send up everything it had inside of it. 

DogDay was thrown from the tanker into–how had he been thrown into the floor? 

He looked up, and saw that the tanker was flying up into the sky, while he, Kaufmo, Pomni, Picky, and the yellow gummy gator fell through the earth.

Picky screamed as she fell–somehow–through the earth.

This mission was supposed to be quick! They were supposed to be back at the village by now!

Instead, they’d been forced to stop and eat (she was the only one who’d had the foresight to eat before they left), which had given the Candy Canyon Kingdom enough time to get together a group to go after them, and even though they were the least coordinated team she’d ever met, they’d immediately thrown Chad off of the tanker, which was hard to do (she knew from her training with the gators how hard it was to move Chad, even when he was caught by surprise).

She’d gotten impatient, and had decided to get on the roof of the tanker and deal with their opponents themselves. She knew they wouldn’t be able to best her easily, even if they had weapons.

The sky around her suddenly changed from its normal bright blue to a dark purple, which pulled her away from screaming long enough to look around. 

Are those…giant tea pots?

Now THAT was weird.

She didn’t get the time to ponder as she slammed against one of them. Pain flared in her right arm, which had taken the brunt of the impact. She slammed against a few more things, each of them sending a jolt of pain through her body before she finally stopped falling. Her body was killing her. Why were there giant tea pots under the world? In fact, why wasn’t the earth solid? She’d been part of mining expeditions a few times, and not once had she or anyone else reported a massive expanse under the earth filled with giant tea pots that hovered over large walls.

Picky took a couple of deep breaths, then sat up. Pain shot through her right arm when she moved it, and she didn’t need to touch it to know it was broken. 

Great, she thought, rolling her eyes.

She dug in her bag, which thankfully hadn’t gotten lost in the fall, and pulled out her vial of syrup. Each of them had a very small dose of syrup, just in case one of them got hurt badly during the heist, though they were emergency use only.

In a strange place, under the earth, completely on my own, with no idea where Gummigoo or the others are, and a broken arm.

She opened the vial and drank about half. This definitely counted as an emergency.

Contrary to popular belief, the syrup couldn’t immediately heal any and all injuries you had. It worked slowly, speeding up the natural healing process of your body, though it did have magic in it. Unfortunately, most people thought that you had to consume large doses in order for the syrup to work, and thus consumed massive portions in order to deal with even the smallest of injuries.

Many of the smaller villages had reported to the Kingdoms over and over again that the large doses weren’t needed, but the fancy doctors in the kingdoms shot down their discoveries, claiming that there was no way that a small village could ever understand how a magical substance like the syrup worked. That, or they claimed that because they’d had actual medical schooling, they knew more than some small town doctor.

It was why the villages had survived the syrup drought so long. They knew that you didn’t need a lot of syrup unless the injury was severe, leading to many of the kingdoms taxing the syrup reserves of the villages. Naturally, they’d fought back, but now that the syrup drought was over, they were trying to find new syrup reserves. The one in Gummigoo’s village was dry, and they were nearing a new one (they hoped), but there wasn’t enough syrup for big problems.

Like Mrs. Gummigrand, Picky thought, packing up anything she’d taken out, save for her cleaver, which she started using to mark her path, in case Gummigoo was searching for her, and a cloth, which she used as a makeshift sling for her broken arm.

When Picky had woken up in the village with no memory of anything except her name, Mrs. Gummigrand had been the first to volunteer to take the young pig in. She had helped Picky learn a lot of skills, and she’d even been the one to discover Picky’s magic. When Mrs. Gummigrand, who had tried and failed to get Picky to call her Ma Gummigrand, had gotten incredibly sick, Picky had been the first to volunteer for the heist. She and the others normally targeted actual thieves and their caravans, but because the land was still recovering from the syrup drought, they knew that there was no other option.

As she kept walking, listening for any sounds Gummigoo might be making, she reminisced about her training days. After her recovery, she’d insisted on paying Mrs. Gummigrand back for her kindness, as well as for a place to stay. Mrs. Gummigrand had put Picky to work on the ranch, leaving the task of teaching Picky the laboring tasks of the ranch up to her son, Gummigoo, and his friends, Max and Chad, who helped out in exchange for free lunch and dinner on the days they worked (she fed them even when they just came over to visit).

Gummigoo had taught her a lot about ranch life, and had helped her learn how to use each of her weapons that came from her magic. Mrs. Gummigrand, on the other hand, had taught her how to do tasks that would probably be seen as insignificant, such as churning butter, preparing food for winter, sewing (that came in handy whenever her felt hide tore), and even weaving.

The task she didn’t need help learning, oddly enough, was baking. She’d discovered that she knew how to bake like a pro when Mrs. Gummigrand had left a cookbook on the counter while she was helping Gummigoo with a rowdy horse, and when she’d come back in, Picky had already finished putting an apple pie in the oven, and was just putting a loaf of bread to rise. Ever since then, Mrs. Gummigrand had been giving Picky new recipes every week, and each time, Picky made them without fail.

Mrs. Gummigrand and Gummigoo both theorized that Picky might’ve been a baker for one of the kingdoms at some point, and had run away for whatever reason. Gummigoo had even theorized that she might’ve gotten attacked by the Fudge, barely escaping by jumping into a fizzy river.

Whatever her past, she’d left it forever in favor of living in the village. It was a far simpler life, anyways. She didn’t want a life in the kingdoms, no matter the offers she received.

Picky wasn’t sure how long she wandered around, but when she passed the spot where she’d fallen for the third time, she cursed that stupid mutt and his crew, especially the rabbit. Jax, if she’d heard right.

The crew that had been sent after them was…weird, to say the least. First of all, none of them were made of candy. Second, they had come in a rig, which was somehow fast enough to keep up with their modified tanker. Third, the mutt.

Picky paused and sighed, rubbing her forehead with her good hoof. That mutt…how had he known her name? Other than knowing her from her past, she had no answer to that. His eyes had shown surprise when he’d seen her, but his voice…

There had been heartbreak in his voice, as though she was a spirit from the beyond that he’d seen die. Maybe she had been attacked by the Fudge, and he had seen her fall into a fizzy river and thought she had died.

That didn’t explain why his will to fight had drained the moment he’d seen her, though. Everyone knew that if you were attacked physically, you had to defend yourself. So if he was from here, he would’ve defended himself, even when he attacked her. 

She groaned at the headache that was forming. She was not happy with these thoughts.

After what felt like hours, she finally stumbled into an open area. To her relief, the first thing she saw was Gummigoo, his back turned to her.

“Gummi!” She called to him. Her smile turned to a frown when he didn’t turn around to greet her.

She hobbled up next to him. “What…” she trailed off when she saw what he was looking at.

Standing in front of them, not moving whatsoever, were the citizens of the Candy Canyon Kingdom. She saw Princess Lu, candy citizens, the Fudge, the two vehicles that had been fighting mere moments before, and…the gators. All of them had their arms outstretched, and they were all staring blankly in front of them.

Heart pounding, Picky scanned the rows of people, searching desperately for Mrs. Gummigrand. She was there, too, along with the animals and tools from the ranch, as well as the other villagers. There was, however, one villager missing, along with a certain mutt and his crew.

“Wha–what is this place?” Gummigoo whispered.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’m fairly certain that no one’s reported something like this before.”

She looked over at them, and felt her heart ache at seeing his face. He looked horrified, more than he had when they’d learned that his mother was sick.

“I–”

A yelp came from behind them, and the two ranchers turned around to see the clown land on the ground, followed by the jester and the mutt, who landed on the clown.

The mutt lifted his head, his eyes going wide. “What in the–”

“Off,” the clown growled.

“Oh! Sorry!” The mutt jumped off, looking around in wonder at the strange room. The jester got off as well, dusting herself off.

Gummigoo shook himself, then turned to the jester. “Where are we?” He turned to the statue of himself. “What’s all this?”

She looked confused. “I don’t know. We’re somewhere under the map, I think.”

“Map? What map?” Gummigoo looked at Picky to see if she understood, but she was just as confused as he was. 

He turned to the mutt and the clown. “Why aren’t you, or any of your crew, or Picks up here?”

“Picks?” The clown asked.

“I’m not sure.” The jester responded, even though she hadn’t been asked the question. “Because we’re not NPCs?”

“NPCs–what are you on about?” Gummigoo demanded. He looked around again. “What are you people?” He hesitated, then looked down at his hands. “What am I?”

Picky felt her heart shattering. Gummigoo was normally very strong, and cared for his crew deeply. To see him like this, shattered and broken, it hurt her.

The clown turned to the mutt as he spoke, “I’m not even a person. Not really.” Then, so quiet that only Picky could hear, “Not anymore.”

Picky narrowed her eyes. What the heck did that mean?

The clown leaned in towards the mutt. “We can handle the gator. You wanna talk to your friend?”

“Yeah.” He looked at her, then said, “We’re gonna need some privacy, though.”

“Is your past really that bad?” The clown asked.

“It’s not pretty,” the mutt admitted.

Picky stayed next to Gummigoo, not daring to leave his side for the moment, as he started to break down. “Where’s the kingdom representatives? Where’s the caravans of thieves that we’ve stopped? Where’s dad?”

Picky winced at the last one. Gummigoo’s dad had apparently died before she’d gotten there, back when he was a young gator.

“Why can’t I remember his face?” Gummigoo grabbed his snout, his eyes becoming more and more panicked as he spoke. “Did he even have a face? Why can’t I remember anything before Picks? Was any of that even real?”

Picky heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see the mutt approaching her. She pointed her weapon at him. “What did you do to him?” She demanded. 

“I didn’t do anything! I’ve barely been here for less than a day!” The mutt protested.

“Woah woah woah wait wait wait!” The jester was waving her arms, trying to catch Gummigoo’s attention. “Don’t think about that. I think there must be a way to launch ourselves back up, right?” 

No one answered her.

Gummigoo started hyperventilating, and Picky had to focus her powers to make the smell of citrus fill the air. For some reason, under certain circumstances, she could create a citrusy scent, and it helped others fall asleep or calm down. She was just hoping that it worked here, too.

Gummigoo’s breathing started to slow down, and he gave her a grateful nod. “I need to talk to them. Figure out what I am…and I think you need to do the same.” He gestured to the mutt, who was looking at Gummigoo with concern.

“I’m your friend.” She answered simply.

“That may be true, but there’s something else going on here, and I don’t plan on leaving until I get answers.” He hesitated. “I need to know, Picks.”

“Know what?”

He looked down.

“I need to know if I’m real.”

Picky’s heart ached for her leader. He’d helped her so much when she’d first arrived, when she’d felt like a failure after not being able to help on the farm, or a fraud when she’d learned that her body wasn’t made of candy. She wanted to help him now, but she couldn’t. She knew nothing about this place. Only the mutt’s crewmates seemed to know something.

She sighed, but nodded. “Come talk to me after.” She took a few steps to the mutt, then stopped and faced Gummigoo again. “That’s an order.”

He smiled at her. “Yes ma’am.”

As she approached the mutt, she heard Gummigoo tell the jester and the clown, “I want you to tell me exactly what I am.”

Picky stared at the mutt, and noticed that, despite his earlier cheerful attitude, his tail was low to the ground. She knew from taking care of cake wolves back at the ranch that that meant he was upset about something. 

He walked to the other side of the area, and she followed him, making sure she was in shouting range of Gummigoo if he needed her.

She stopped a few feet in front of him. “Alright, mutt . Start talking.”

He stared at her. “You don’t remember anything. Do you?”

“Clearly not.” She was starting to get impatient, and it had only been a few seconds.

“Do you think you might know my name?” He asked, and his pendant glowed a little. A name did come to her, but not one she remembered speaking. “Is it DogDay?”

The mutt’s tail wagged a little bit. “Yes.”

She frowned. “You said you weren’t really a person anymore. What did that mean? And what’s it got to do with me?”

He hesitated, but it didn’t stop him from talking to her. As he talked, memories that had been buried for years by an unknown force came rushing back. Trauma and pain that she’d forgotten, and her friends, how could she have forgotten them? And how could she have forgotten that ? Especially when it surrounded her entire existence as a person–no, as a toy?

As DogDay continued talking, she felt her body trying to hyperventilate, but she forced herself to only take deep breaths in. She couldn’t have a full-blown panic attack, especially not right now.

When he’d finally finished, she forced herself to talk slowly. “So, I used to be an orphaned human kid, but I got turned into a toy by a mad scientist through a horrifying surgery, became a caretaker for a bunch of other orphaned kids, revolted against the human workers of the factory where the orphanage was housed, killed all the workers without being concerned if they were innocent or not, lived underground for seven years, slowly starving because we ate the bodies too quick, turned to cannibalism against the other toys, lost my eyesight, slowly went insane, ate some of our friends, and got killed for eating them?”

The mutt–no, DogDay–winced. “Put in the shortest and simplest way possible? Yes.”

Picky put her head in her hooves, the pain from her memories trying to make her head explode. “I need a minute. Alone.”

DogDay hesitated, nodded, and walked over to the jester and the clown, both of whom were messing around with the second rig. Gummigoo was sitting by himself.

Picky hesitated. She was pretty sure that Gummigoo had also just been handed an earth-shattering revelation, but he was the only one she felt like she could talk to without feeling bad.

“Hey.” She sat down next to him.

Gummigoo looked back at her. “Hey.”

There was silence for a few seconds.

“So, what did they tell you?” She asked.

Gummigoo sighed. “They…they said I was something called an NPC. They said it was a character who acted a certain way based on how they were made by a computer. I don’t know what a computer is, but they said that everything about me–my personality, my history, my memories–it’s all fake. A simulation. A facade.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I’m not real.”

Picky stared at him. He wasn’t…real? But she’d been living with him for the past three years! That had to have been real, right?

“Well, I’m not sure I should share, then, because I’m pretty sure mine’s worse.”

“Worse than learning your entire life is nothing more than a lie, and that you haven’t been real a single day of your life?” He raised an eyebrow. “Try me.”

She told him, rather bluntly, what she’d remembered about her past, thanks to DogDay’s rambling.

His eyes widened. “Crikey, that is worse.”

“Told you.”

They sat in silence for another moment before DogDay came over, holding his hands nervously to his chest. “Can I…talk for a second?”

“To who?” Gummigoo asked.

“Both of you.”

Gummigoo sighed. “Sure.”

DogDay sat in front of them, and Picky was surprised to see that his pendant was still glowing, although it was barely visible. 

“Pomni and Kaufmo told me about what they told you,” he said to Gummigoo. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

“What makes you say that, lad?”

“You might not have been real before, but you’re real now. You’re here, and you’re alive. I highly doubt that Picky was just floating in the void for three years and told to act like she knew you and had been living with you up until today. Even if Caine hadn’t intended it, you became real the moment you met Picky, even if you weren’t before. Your life matters here, and it has a purpose, even if it didn’t before.

“And Picky, you’re safe, now. You’ve been able to live here peacefully, and without strife, for three years. You made yourself a new life, away from the past. You can’t change who you were, but you did change who you are, and that’s all you can do.”

Picky thought about that, but didn’t get the chance to say anything before the jester asked, “Uh, you guys wanna try…helping out at all?”

Gummigoo gave Picky his, I’m gonna test you now, look, but didn’t answer the jester.

“Uh, are you still–”

“DogDay! Can you help me move this?” The clown called. 

“Yep! One sec!” He turned to Picky. “Will you be fine on your own?”

“I have a cleaver on me. I think you know the answer.”

He raised his hands in mock surrender, then ran off to help the clown as the jester until she was a few feet behind Gummigoo. “Hey, you okay?”

“No,” Gummigoo said.

The jester waited a second, then asked, “You want to talk about it?”

“What is there to talk about?” Gummigoo asked.

“Hey Picky! We need more muscle over here!”

Picky rolled her eyes at Gummigoo, but went over to help, keeping her ears turned toward the conversation.

“I don’t just want to leave you here.”

“Why not? I don’t matter in the slightest. I’m nothing.”

“If he wasn’t testing the jester, I’d go over there and smack him for being an idiot, then hug him.” Picky whispered so that only DogDay could hear her.

“He’s testing her?” DogDay whispered back. “Why?”

“Beats me, but he probably wants to see if she’s genuine, like you are.”

DogDay’s tail started wagging faster and faster, and a bright smile lit up his face.

“My life, my memories before Picks,” Gummigoo continued, “my friends…it’s all fake.”

There was a pause, and when Picky turned after shoving a candy rock closer to the rig, she saw that the jester was now sitting next to Gummigoo.

“This might sound weird, but, I think I know the feeling. Well–maybe not the exact feeling, but, feeling like you’re nothing.”

The clown quietly sighed. “I know it too,” he whispered to DogDay. “That feeling–that you’re nothing–that’s what caused me to Abstract.”

DogDay leaned in and gave him a friendly hug. “You don’t have to feel that way anymore. Not when I’m around.”

Picky smiled. She was glad DogDay had found a new introverted friend to adopt and care for. He’d need one until CatNap eventually joined them.

At least, I hope he joins us. If I’m here, and DogDay’s here, then that means the others might be elsewhere in this whacky multiverse. Picky smiled at that thought.

“It’s kind of normal,” the jester was still saying. “I mean, people even feel like that in the world I come from. “But…you still care about your buddies up there and Picky, don’t you?” She looked back at where Picky was with a smile. “I’m sure they still care about you.”

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

The silence after Gummigoo spoke seemed to go on for an eternity.

What would have happened if me and DogDay weren’t here? Would things still be going this way? Picky couldn’t help but wonder about the possibilities. She desperately prayed that it wouldn’t have gone this way for Gummigoo if she and DogDay weren’t here.

“The circus, the place I’m from?” The jester paused. “Well, I’m originally from somewhere else, but, if it has to be my home, maybe it can be yours, too. The people there are…interesting, but, at the very least, maybe you could be somebody real there.”

Picky’s heart was pounding, and in her head she kept chanting, Come on, come on, come on!

“Why are you trying to cheer me up? How does this benefit you at all?”

The jester hesitated. “I guess I just don’t want you to feel like you’re nothing. I don’t want anybody to feel like that.”

“But I’m not even a real person. Would I even belong?”

DogDay turned to Picky, and the look he gave her was definitely, Oh yeah, he’d definitely belong.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t belong any less than me.” Even though her back was to the trio by the rig, Picky could tell that the jester was smiling. “And…I could use a friend.”

“A friend…”

DogDay’s tail was wagging so hard that Picky thought he was going to create a miniature tornado in the room.

Gummigoo stood up, and turned to the jester. “You’re a strange little chracter.” He smiled. “Suppose I could give it a try.”

“Yes!” DogDay silently cheered, and Gummigoo smiled at the toy’s reaction.

“All I ask is that we don’t tell the lads about this. They’re a couple of bright-eyed yubbos, and I don’t want to drag them down with me.”

“Us,” Picky corrected as she came over.

Gummigoo smiled at her. “Us,” he amended.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” The jester smiled nervously. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Gummigoo.”

“Wow, that’s just about as dumb as my name,” the jester muttered.

“Not as bad as ‘Picky Piggy.’ Seriously, I’m not even picky! I love food!” 

Gummigoo laughed at her, and she was happy that his confident demeanor was returning.

“What did you have in mind in terms of us getting out of here?” Gummigoo asked.

“I’m not sure,” the jester admitted.

“Hey, why don’t we use the physics?” DogDay asked.

“The what?” Picky and Gummigoo asked.

“Like this morning, when Pomni flew into the room!” DogDay was very excited, judging by his tail. “If we place these blocks under the tanker just right, we might be able to launch ourselves back up!”

“That actually might work,” the clown said. “I’ve done something similar in the past, so I think we can do it!”

“Then let’s get to work!” Gummigoo said.

It only took them a minute to get everything set up before they piled into the tanker.

The blocks were now under the tanker, and they were prepared to try launching themselves back up to the surface.

“Okay, we’re basically just throwing stuff at the wall here,” Pomni looked nervous, “but if this doesn’t work, we can try something else.”

“You’re the expert here,” Gummigoo said.

Pomni laughed nervously. “I’m really not, but let’s see how it goes.”

“Seatbelts?” DogDay asked.

“Everyone’s strapped in,” Picky confirmed.

Pomni started the tanker, and it started to shake.

“I just realized, this might be a little violent–” she was cut off as the tanker went flying straight up, hopefully out of this strange black void they’d been dropped in.

Chapter Text

Ragatha sat on top of the syrup tanker, worried about the missing circus members.

They were currently riding on top of the Fudge, on their way back to the kingdom with two of the bandits. The third one, as well as the other toy that had the same body type as DogDay, had disappeared alongside DogDay, Kaufmo, and Pomni, who Ragatha was most worried about.

“Gotta say,” Jax said from the rig, “this is a lot more anticlimactic than I was hoping it’d be.”

“What were you hoping for?” Gangle asked.

“You know, like, one big final battle, bloodshed, death, chaos! Whatever.”

Ragatha turned her attention back to the two gator thieves, who were tied up with a rope made from some kind of licorice. “Are you sure they disappeared? It wasn’t that they fell off or something?”

“I can’t say for sure,” the orange gator answered, “but yes, definitely.”

“It’s not like the boss and Picks to disappear with a couple of clowns. Very unusual.” The purple gator looked concerned.

Pomni is a jester, Ragatha thought. Not a clown.

“Well, that’s concerning,” she said aloud.

“Well, if worst comes to worst, we could always ask Caine to find them,” Kinger pointed out from underneath the bucket on his head.

Ragatha sighed. “I’m more worried that Pomni is having another horrible experience. She still seems really upset about what happened yesterday. I don’t think she really likes me that much.”

“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.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m surprised you remember that!”

Kinger lifted the bucket off of his head. “Remember what?”

And there it goes, Ragatha thought. Kinger’s memory was really bad, so whenever he remembered something, no matter how briefly he remembered it for, Ragatha made sure to write it down. Kinger was surprisingly wise for someone with such a bad memory.

An explosion in the distance made everyone except The Fudge jump, and Jax turned his head towards the explosion, taking the binoculars from Gangle. “Do you guys have a second truck that flies?” He asked the gators.

“Oh yeah!” The orange gator paused, then realized what Jax was asking. “Oh, wait, no, we don’t”

Ragatha looked up as said tanker suddenly crashed into The Fudge’s head. “Oh, oh, down I go.” The Fudge melted into a large puddle of, well, fudge.

Gummigoo jumped out first, followed by DogDay, Picky, Kaufmo, and Pomni, who vomited up some sort of black liquid onto the floor. Gummigoo laughed. “Couldn’t keep it in, could–” he cut himself off as he also threw up the strange black liquid.

“You two good?” Picky asked.

“Y-yeah,” Pomni said shakily.

“Happens to everyone,” Kaufmo said.

“Pomni!” DogDay turned and looked to see Ragatha running up to the group. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The jester turned and looked at where Gummigoo and Picky were heading to Max and Chad. “We made some new friends.”

“Boss!” Chad spoke up. “Where’ve you been? We got fudged!”

“You don’t wanna know,” Gummigoo said to them. “Good to see you lads.” 

Picky joined the hug as well, careful with her injured arm. Kinger and Gangle walked to them, and Gangle finally asked, “Why are there two bad guy trucks?”

Kinger made his way over to the tanker DogDay and the others had used to escape, and turned the nozzle on the back. Golden maple syrup spilled onto his head. “This one’s full of syrup too!”

“Huh, yeah. I suppose it is.” Gummigoo smiled, then turned to Ragatha. “You don’t suppose my mates here could take this one back to the village, could they?”

“I guess? Since there’s two of them, there’s no real harm.” Ragatha shrugged.

“I’m so unbelievably disappointed right now,” Jax muttered somewhere behind DogDay.

“Well, maybe there will be blood, death, and violence in the next adventure,” Ragatha said.

“Hahahahaha how wholesome.”

DogDay turned to Kaufmo. “That was sarcasm, wasn’t it.”

“Yep.”

“Tell mum that Picks and I went with the knights sent by the kingdom to buy you two time,” Gummigoo was saying to his friends. “That way, it would seem like we’re going to be punished by them.”

“They won’t actually punish us,” Picky said. She summoned her cleaver, pointing it at Jax’s head. “And if they try–” she threw it past his head, rebounding it off of a rock and catching it when it came back. Jax jumped out of the way when it rebounded, looking at Picky with respect.

“We will,” Max said. “Make sure you come back and visit, alright? Your mum’s gonna be worried if you never show up again.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Pomni promised.

DogDay turned to Kaufmo as Pomni introduced Gummigoo to Ragatha, and noticed an odd look in the clown’s eye.

Oh dear, he thought. 

He then shook his head and pulled Picky to Ragatha. “This is my friend, Picky Piggy.”

“Nice to meet’cha!” Picky said.

“Nice to meet you too!” Ragatha said.

Jax suddenly groaned and stood up. “Let’s just take this dumb truck to the dumb kingdom already!”

Cheers and applause greeted the group as Princess Lu came forward. “Thanks to you brave knights, our kingdom will once again thrive!”

Picky’s eye twitched, and DogDay leaned in for support.

“I’m sure it was no easy task,” she continued.

“You have no idea,” Jax said.

The portal reappeared, and the princess smiled at them. “Farewell, brave knights! Have fun executing that bandit fella!”

DogDay winced, and Pomni quickly spoke up, “Oh, we’re just gonna reform him so that he’s no longer an evil bandit.”

“I suppose that works too,” Princess Lu conceded.

Explosions and screams suddenly came from behind them as Jax smiled at something in his hand. “Oh, hey! Guess I didn’t leave the gate unlocked for nothing after all!”

“Uh, what?!” Ragatha demanded. “I thought he was dead! You still did that?!”

“Okay, wait, you did what now?” Princess Lu looked terrified.

“Welp, love to help you again sometime, BYE!” Jax shot through the portal as everyone quickly followed him, and DogDay was praying that whatever was attacking the kingdom would disappear once they left.

“This place sure is…colorful.” Picky looked around.

“Welcome back my little hard-shelled hamburgers!” Caine said cheerfully.

“So this is the circus, eh? I could get used to this!” Gummigoo said.

“Oh! Looks like one of these…” Whatever Caine had been saying while he was looking at Gummigoo was cut off as his attention was pulled to Picky, who was still holding her cleaver, and was now glaring at Caine. The ringleader stared at her for a moment. “BE RIGHT BACK!” With a pop, he teleported away.

DogDay turned to look at Kaufmo. “What was that about?”

“Well, Caine normally doesn’t leave any AI other than himself run permanently, and any NPCs that are able to get into the circus usually get vaporized.”

“...and you didn’t think to mention that before we got here?” Picky demanded.

“He’ll sometimes ignore them,” Kaufmo said, holding his hands up. “His reasoning is that he doesn't want to mix up humans and NPCs on accident, and hurt one of us. It happened in the past.”

“Oh,” DogDay said quietly.

“A warning still would’ve been nice,” Picky muttered. 

Caine reappeared, a look of confusion on his face. “Everyone in the main lobby now, please.” He snapped his fingers, and everyone who had wandered away came flying into the room, along with Zooble, who was holding something that she quickly hid behind her back.

“What the [SPLAT] Caine!” Zooble said. “Why the heck did you bring us here?”

“I’ve made a discovery that you all need to know about,” he announced. “And it involves DogDay and his pink friend.”

“The name is Picky.”

“Right.” He took a deep breath in, then said, “The AI in the Candy Canyon Kingdom has become self-aware. All of it.” 

“Wait, what? How?” Pomni asked. 

“What does that mean?” DogDay asked Kaufmo. 

“Remember how I said AI isn’t really alive? Somehow, it came to life.”

“How?” DogDay asked Caine, repeating Pomni’s earlier query. 

“I believe that Picky is the reason. Her arrival in the circus, much like DogDay’s, created an unexpected factor that changed how things were supposed to go originally. For example, Kaufmo would have most likely stayed abstracted if DogDay hadn’t shown up and magically saved him. Picky brought a new character into that map that changed how the original story was supposed to go. Oh yeah, I also deleted the Fudge. The Candy Canyon Kingdom is safe.”

Picky and Gummigoo looked relieved at that, but DogDay had one final question. “Does that mean that the other critters will do the same if they’re here?”

“It depends,” Caine said. “Both on which adventure they’re in, and if they interact with the NPCs at all.”

“Does that mean that Gummigoo can stay?” Pomni asked.

Caine sighed. “I can’t really vaporize him now, since I’d basically be committing a murder, so yes. He can stay.”

Pomni quickly turned and gave Gummigoo a high-five.

“I’ll get you your own room for now, and I’ll adjust your code so I won’t accidentally delete you.” Caine sounded upset, for some reason.

“Uh, thanks,” Gummigoo said.

“I’ll be staying with him,” Picky said, “since we’ve worked and lived on the ranch since I arrived.”

“Fine by me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get tomorrow’s adventure ready.” Caine disappeared with a pop, and Bubble floated up into…wherever Bubble stayed.

“So…is that it?” Picky asked.

“I…I guess,” DogDay said. “I haven’t been on an adventure before today.”

“Huh.”

“Hey, Ragatha? What’s that?” DogDay heard Pomni ask.

“Well, normally when someone abstracts, we do a sort of funeral to remember the person who abstracted. But since Kaufmo is okay, we had to make a change of plans.”

“Oh.” DogDay turned to see Pomni smiling, a relieved look in her eyes. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

Based on her response, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was afraid to be forgotten if she were to abstract, DogDay thought. 

But she won’t be forgotten. As long as I’m here, I’ll never forget anyone I’ve met in this circus.

Chapter Text

“I can’t hold it any longer!”

DogDay shifted on the couch to make himself more comfortable as he, Picky, Gummigoo, and the circus members watched Pomni experimenting with her cartoon body.

“Sure you can!” Jax said. “We can’t die of oxygen deprivation, remember?”

“Bu it still feels like I’m gonna die!” The jester protested.

“Try not thinking about it!” Kinger suggested.

“Or you could toughen up!” Jax flexed one arm, then grabbed Pomni’s arm and stretched it out. “I wanna see what your funny cartoon body does!”

“Hey, take it easy.” Ragatha looked irritated with Jax.

“Take it easy,” Jax said in an imitation of Ragatha’s voice. “That’s you.”

“Alright, here I go.” Pomni took another deep breath in.

“Y’know, other than his cruel attitude, Jax reminds me a lot of Hoppy and Kicken.” DogDay said to Picky.

“Because they like pranking people and making them laugh?” She asked.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I hope we find one of them soon.”

It had been two days since Picky and Gummigoo had officially joined the circus, and DogDay was starting to get worried. Caine was pretty sure that the other critters would eventually show up, but so far there had been no sign of them on the adventures since Picky had appeared. Caine had started sending NPCs specially designed for searching into adventures he had created in order to look for the other critters, but so far there hadn’t been any luck.

“Alright, we’ve entered the blue zone,” Zooble said. She was lounging next to Gummigoo and Kaufmo on the blue couch, while DogDay and Picky were on the purple couch with Gangle, who was happily drawing.

Sure enough, Pomni’s face had turned a shade of blue, and was starting to change to other colors.

“Hey, there’s something new!” Jax said.

“From blue to pink. Not what you’d probably expect.” Picky stretched.

“Okay, and now she’s red,’ DogDay observed.

“Oh, orange!” Ragatha said.

“Yellow,” Gummigoo said.

“Green!” Gangle said as she looked up from her drawing.

“Woah, look! Now she’s turning blue!” Kinger said.

“She was already blue,” Zooble pointed out.

The color change went faster, continuing to speed up before Pomni finally gasped for air, her face returning to its pale white.

As she gasped for air, trying to catch her breath, Ragatha spoke up. “I guess the hue shift just gets faster!”

“Why am I the only one doing this? Why not one of you guys?” Pomni demanded, looking at the other circus members.

“Because something different happens with each person!” Jax said. “For instance: Kinger starts glowing, Ragatha’s hair noodles stick up, Kaufmo inflates like a balloon and starts floating, Gangle’s mask starts spinning, and Zooble turns straight.”

Zooble glared at Jax. “My limbs straighten out– [BLOINK] off.”

“What about you?” Pomni asked.

“He refuses to show us, because he’s a coward.” Zooble said.

“I want to keep the mystery alive!” Jax said. He suddenly turned and pointed at absolutely nothing. “What do you, the viewers, think it is?”

Everyone stared at him in silence. 

“Will you stop doing that?” Zooble demanded. 

“Hang on, can we go back for a second?” DogDay asked as he raised his paw. “What did you mean by, ‘Zooble turns straight?’”

Jax laughed. “Oh, are you actually telling me that you don’t know what that means?”

“Yes, because I don’t.”

Jax’s smile actually faltered. “Huh.”

“Well,” Kaufmo spoke up, “Zooble is nonbinary, which basically means that they are neither male nor female, using They/Them as their pronouns instead of She/Her or He/Him.”

“Oh.” DogDay was still confused about why someone would want to call themselves that, but he turned to Zooble and said, “I don’t fully understand it, but if you want me to use They/Them for you, then I will.”

“Thanks,” they responded.

“Why is everyone just standing around when there’s adventure to be had?” Caine suddenly floated into the room, and everyone stared at him. 

Gummigoo sighed. “You happen to always have the worst timing, don’t you?”

“Today’s adventure is: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor!”

“Oh boy,” DogDay said quietly. He was not a fan of horror, and the font that Caine had used for the adventure announcement seemed to indicate this was a spooky one.

“That’s right This big spooky mansion has been rumored to be filled to the brim with paranormal activity! It’s up to you to solve the house’s deep mysteries and capture all the ghoulish ghostly activity you can! And for the first time ever, you can…”

Caine’s eyes slowly phased through his closed mouth before darting around. “Where’s Zooble? I made this adventure really cool and matoor just for them!”

Everyone looked around, and DogDay shrugged, shaking his head. “Probably in their room.”

Caine looked furious, making a quiet growling noise.

“Retsnom eht morf seramthgin elbirroh teg ot ecneidua eht ni nerdlihc eht lla rof tiaw t’nac I.” Bubble said as they floated around.

“What?” Caine asked.

“Well, you can count me out,” Gummigoo said. “I’m not too good with scary things, and I want to explore a bit more of the circus. There’s plenty of things here I haven’t seen yet.”

“Alrighty, that leaves everyone else to go on the adventure!” Caine said. “Now, into the fractal noise you all go! It’s adventuring time!” Caine summoned a portal.

“Guess we don’t have a choice,” DogDay muttered.

“Remind me why these are a necessity?” Picky asked as the group walked through.

Gummigoo stared at the portal, then turned to Caine as he started to turn away. “Hey, Caine? I actually wanted to know if I could do something.”

“Oh? What did you want to do?” The ringmaster asked.

Gummigoo whispered his idea into Caine’s chatter teeth head, and the ringmaster flew into the air with joy. “That’s a wonderful idea! I’ll get you set up!”

“Thanks Caine–woah, that was fast.” Gummigoo looked at what Caine had given him.

“I’m good that way. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Zooble to find. If you need anything, give me a shout!”

“I will,” Gummigoo promised.

As Caine floated away, calling Zooble’s name, Gummigoo turned back to his “Project.”

I hope she likes it, he thought.

Rain poured down outside the manor as the group walked through the seemingly abandoned main area.

“Oh, this place is spooky!” Ragatha commented as she walked beside Pomni and DogDay. Picky was near the front with Kaufmo, Kinger, Gangle, and Jax, and she was holding a  small knife. “I  wonder how far Caine’s gonna go with the scare factor!” The ragdoll continued.

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

“Boo.”

Pomni jumped away from Jax, who let out a “HA!” before saying, “That wasn’t even that scary! What, are you scared of a vacuum cleaner too?”

“Wha–what is this, Luigi’s mansion? Where did you get that?” Kaufmo demanded.

“Be nice to her,” Ragatha reprimanded. “She’s had a rough couple of days!”

“Her and everyone else,” Jax said. “Right Gangle?”

DogDay’s ears pricked up at the sound of laughter. “Does anyone else hear that?” He and Gangle asked at the same time.

A creepy face appeared from the dark, accompanied by the eerie laughter from earlier. Pomni screamed, and, for some reason, her eyes flew out of their sockets, a black string the only thing keeping each eye connected to its respective socket.

Then the face transformed into a cute cartoon ghost. “Hello!”

Pomni’s eyes fell to the floor as DogDay’s heart rate started to slow down. That reminded me of him, he thought.

“I’m Ghostly, and I’ll be your guide today!” The ghost said cheerfully.

Pomni picked up her eyes. “Why won't they go back in?”

Kinger chuckled. “I remember my first wild take.” He grabbed one of Pomni’s eyes curiously. “I don’t know why they’re not retracting, though.” He tried pushing it back in, but it just popped right back out. “That didn’t happen for me.”

“So,” DogDay turned to Ghostly. “You said you’re our guide?”

The pale green ghost nodded happily. “I’m glad you fondly came out of the shadows to join us!”

DogDay and Picky immediately shared a look. One of us is here, he thought.

“Before you continue on your adventure, you have to choose which door you’re gonna go through! The door on the left is the normal door.”

“Rated WOW for all ages!” Caine’s voice said from somewhere.

“And the door on the right is the really scary door!” Ghostly continued. 

“Rated AAAAA for mature Zoobles only!” Caine’s voice said again. 

“It’s up to you to use-AAAAAA!” Ghostly was cut off by Jax vacuuming the pale green ghost up.

“Jax!” Ragatha protested. 

“What? I thought we were supposed to catch all the ghosts!” Jax said. 

“Do you not remember what happened last time you skipped a tutorial?” Kaufmo demanded. 

DogDay noticed Jax flinch slightly, barely enough for the dog to notice. “It’ll be fine,” Jax said. “What’s the worst that can happen? We go to Hell? Caine can’t even do that because Hell isn’t family friendly. The Greek mythology adventure proved that.”

“So, which door do we go through?” Gangle asked, walking up as Kinger continued trying to put Pomni’s eyes back into their sockets.

“Hmm, not sure.” Jax looked thoughtful as DogDay and Picky walked over to Kinger and Pomni. “Let’s try this side!” DogDay turned around right as Jax plucked Gangle’s comedy mask off and threw it at the door on the left. It crashed through, revealing a monstrous mouth with a green light coming from its throat.

“Aww!” Gangle protested. 

“Don’t worry Gangle,” Kinger said. “I’ll get it for you!” 

As he ran and jumped into the mouth, DogDay realized that Kinger was still holding onto Pomni’s eye. He quickly grabbed her arm, and Picky grabbed him, and the two critters braced themselves. 

It wasn’t enough though, as the three of them were pulled through, screaming as they were sent to the scary path.

The rest of the circus cast stared in silence at the scary door, which had sealed itself into the wall, leaving nothing but smooth wooden planks. 

“Oh,” Jax said, finally breaking the silence. “That’s the scary door.”

Chapter Text

“Zooble! Come on out!” Caine called. “I just wanna talk to you!”

Gummigoo looked up from the screen Caine had given him. “Did you check their room?” 

“Yes! They disappeared!” Caine looked frustrated, then thoughtful. “Oh! I know!”

The AI ringmaster snapped his fingers, and a magical sound played through the circus right before Zooble flew into the area. 

“Wha–could you have done that the whole time?” They demanded.

“Zooble, I just want to get to the bottom of why you keep skipping all my amazing adventures! You could really end up hurting Bubble’s feelings!”

Gummigoo gave Caine a weird look as Zooble asked, “Bubble’s feelings?”

“Enough about Bubble’s feelings! What about your feelings?”

Gummigoo blinked, and suddenly the area around him was transformed into a therapy room (The only reason Gummigoo knew what that was was because of Picky showing him a picture from a book in their room). Caine was in the main chair, and Zooble was on the comfortable-looking couch.

“So, what’s on your mind, Zooble?” Caine asked as he pulled a small spiral-bound notebook and a red pen from underneath his hat.

What is going on here? Gummigoo wondered.

“I would rather not–” Zooble started. 

“HAHAHA THAT’S HILARIOUS!” Caine interrupted. “Go on.”

“No, I’ve already told you what my problem is,” they said. “You just never remember, because– *sigh*, nevermind.”

“My mind is a beeswax polished coconut. Nothing ever escapes these cakes. So what can I do to make my adventures more appealing to you?”

“See? This is exactly what I’m talking about!” Zooble half-shouted. “All you’re thinking about is your adventures. It has nothing to do with the adventures! It’s more–just–ugh, forget it! You’re probably not even listening.”

“Zooble, look at this cool bee I drew!” Caine turned the notebook around to show Zooble what Gummigoo assumed was a picture of a bee.

Zooble’s eye twitched. 

“Um, should I be here?” Gummigoo asked.

“You’d better stay,” Zooble said. “I need someone sane to keep me from murdering Caine.”

Gummigoo blinked. “Um, will do, mate.”

DogDay landed with an “oof!” on the ground, the others falling beside him.

I think Picky’s gonna kill Jax after this, he thought, or she’s at least going to try.

“Everyone okay?” He asked.

“I think so,” Kinger said.

“I’m alright,” Picky replied.

“What even happened?” Pomni raised her head, looking around the dark room. “Where are we?”

A flash of lightning lit up the room, and a fireplace lit as well. The group jumped and whirled to stare at the trophies hanging on the wall.

“Um, why are all the trophies your guys’ heads, but creepified?” DogDay asked nervously.

“And what the heck is that?” Picky demanded, pointing at a head that was pale gray, a sickly color that made DogDay want to recoil, as well as blank, black eyes.

“I don’t know,” Kinger said. “Maybe this tape will tell us.”

To DogDay’s surprise, there was an old open-reel tape recorder, and it was sitting below the creature’s head. Kinger pressed play, and a man’s voice, one that sounded way too familiar for DogDay’s ears, spoke up.

“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 became more of an obsession.”

Already has 3 things in common with CatNap, DogDay thought nervously. Why do I get the feeling that this adventure is not going to be good for me?

“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.”

Everyone stared at the head in silence.

“You know, I’m starting to think…” Kinger trailed off.

“This guy died,” Picky said bluntly.

“Definitely,” DogDay agreed.

“How about we try to find a way back up to the others?” Pomni suggested.

“Good idea,” DogDay agreed.

They made their way to the connecting room, and Pomni tried opening a door, only to find it bricked off.

“Okay,” Pomni said. “Cool, great. I love these adventures!”

“I think she’s starting to lose it,” Picky whispered.

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t go insane and abstract,” DogDay whispered back.

“We can always ride this thingy up,” Kinger suggested, pointing to a box connected to a pulley system.

“An old elevator. Good idea, Kinger!” DogDay’s tail started to wag.

Pomni leapt onto the metal keeping them from entering the elevator and started to shake it. “Locked,” she announced, then continued, “Of course it’s locked! I love that it’s locked!”

“Maybe the key is in one of these rooms?” Picky suggested, pointing to a closed door.

Pomni slowly opened it, revealing what was most likely a study, as there was a desk with a lamp on top, as well as another message for them. Pomni immediately started searching the desk drawers for the key, and the two smiling critters joined her. Kinger pressed play, making Pomni jump, but she went back to searching as DogDay and Kinger listened to the message, Picky pausing to listen as well.

“Tuesday, December 4th. 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, and when I looked back, the body was gone.”

“Lovely,” DogDay muttered.

“The creature was not dead, and it would be back to reclaim  what I’d taken from it.”

DogDay, Kinger, and Picky all looked back at the trophy room as the recording wrapped up, “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.”

“Well, this is some rather inconvenient lore placement,” Kinger said after a few seconds of silence.

“GOT IT!” Pomni declared energetically, holding a small metal key into the air.

Naturally, that was when the lights went out, leaving the group’s eyes as the only thing visible, like they were in some kind of cartoon.

“And this is some rather inconvenient darkness!” Kinger said.

“If I hear the Torreador March, I [DOLPHIN SQUEAK] swear,” Pomni muttered.

“The…what?” DogDay asked.

Pomni suddenly screamed. “What-was that you?” She asked Kinger.

“No?”

DogDay’s heart was about to beat out of his chest when Kinger said, “Oh, wait, you mean me grabbing you right now? Yeah, that was me. Is this your hand?”

“OW! No, that’s my eye.”

“Yes, but which eye?”

“I really don’t think that ma–will you stop touching my eye?!”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“DogDay, is this your paw?” Picky asked  as he felt a hoof in his paw.

“Yeah.”

Kinger suddenly screamed, making everyone jump.

“What?” Pomni and DogDay demanded at the same time.

“I just remembered a really funny joke!” Kinger sounded way too cheerful.

Pomni stuttered for a moment before she asked, “Why did you scream, then?”

There was a pause. “Maybe it actually wasn’t that funny,” Kinger said.

“Oh my gosh,” Pomni muttered.

“I think we should all hold on to each other, and slowly make our way back into the trophy room.”

“Sounds good to me,” DogDay said. “Is this your other hand, Kinger?”

“Yes.”

The quartet slowly stumbled through the darkness, and DogDay was starting to wonder if they were even close when an eerie sound reverberated through the room. 

“What was that?” Pomni whispered.

“What’s what?” Kinger asked.

The noise echoed through the room again.

“That!” Pomni kept her voice to a whisper.

“Floorboards creaking?” DogDay whispered.

“It’s probably just magnets, or a boat!” Kinger suggested, also keeping his voice to a whisper.

Pomni spluttered for a moment. “A boat?” She demanded.

“Whatever the case, I think we should be completely quiet.”

“I–yeah, I agree. You know, you’re really hit and miss with these things sometimes.”

The room was silent for a few seconds, which was broken by a quiet buzzing noise, followed by Kinger clapping.

“What–” Pomni started.

“There’s a fly in here.” Kinger whispered as he continued clapping.

“I think that’s making a lot of noi–oh gods, there is a fly.”

“I thought that was ambiance,” DogDay whispered.

“I thought we were trying to be quiet,” Picky hissed.

“Aaand gotcha! I think I got him. I can’t see my hands.” Kinger said.

DogDay was about to comment when an ear-splitting screech came from behind them. Everyone flinched away from the head, which was now glowing white, had bloodshot eyes, multiple rows of Huggy-sharp teeth, and ripples in its mouth like raindrops on a puddle.

Everyone was silent for three seconds before Kinger said, “I’m sorry, could you speak up? I couldn’t quite make that out.”

“[BLOINK] the fly,” Pomni said. “RUN!”

Everyone instantly started for the elevator. Pomni kept muttering to herself while she fumbled with the key, Picky summoned two small knives and started trying to pick the lock, and DogDay jumped onto the gate, trying to use his critter strength to pull it open.

“Pomni! I think this might be the creature from the tapes!”

“YOU THINK!” DogDay shouted back.

“Got it!” DogDay heard a clicking sound, and the gate swung open. Picky shoved Pomni inside, and then jumped in herself. DogDay was about to follow when he heard Kinger mutter, “You look beautiful, honey.”

DogDay turned to see Kinger with his head part of the way into the creature’s mouth. “Kinger!” He dropped to all fours, ready to charge in and protect his friend.

Before he could move, though, a flash of yellow light darted past the head, tackling Kinger to the ground and crashing into DogDay.

“Move it, chess piece!” A familiar voice ordered. 

DogDay rubbed the back of his head and looked up. His eyes went wide at who he saw. “Kickin?”

“Day?” The yellow bird stared at him for a brief moment, then shook his head. “Catch up later,” he said. “The elevator’s the safest place for now. Get in!” He ordered Kinger again.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” He crammed himself in, and was followed by DogDay and Kickin Chicken.

“Prepare for takeoff,” Kinger said as he closed the gate. “Because this boat’s going up!”

The elevator jerked, then started to descend.

“Huh? That’s not up. That’s not up at all! Why aren’t we going up? UUUUUUUUUUP!!” Kinger shouted.

“I do not use my adventures to torture my guests! Any torment I inflict is 100% accidental! Like any good war criminal!”

Gummigoo rubbed his snout, feeling a headache forming. Caine had been ranting like that for the past 15 minutes, and it was getting really old, really fast.

Poor Zooble, he thought.

“We weren’t even talking about that!” Zooble shouted. “I really couldn’t give less of a crap about the adventures!”

“THEN WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, ZOOBLE?” Caine demanded. “I’m trying my best to remember, but both you and my brain won’t tell me!”

Gummigoo moved an asset around, trying to figure out the best place to put it as Zooble sighed and answered, “It’s me, remember?”

He looked up at Zooble. What?

“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.”

Right, DogDay mentioned that Zooble can remove their parts and swap them out at will, Gummigoo remembered.

“Oh, yeah, now I remember why I couldn’t remember! It’s because that problem is already solved!” Caine snapped his fingers, and a box full of different parts appeared out of thin air, making Gummigoo jump and think, Never gonna get used to that.

“Simply swap out your undesirable Zooble parts for better ones!”

“I’ve been trying to find parts I like since the day I got here,” Zooble said.

And still hasn’t found any that work? Why not ask Caine if they can make ones from scratch that they might like? Gummigoo wondered.

“So, back to the adventures.”

“Forget it.”

“Forget it?”

“Just forget it.”

“Forget what?”

“Caine, nobody likes your stupid adventures.” Zooble sounded frustrated.

Caine laughed. “Good one, Zooble.”

“Ragatha and DogDay are too nice to say anything, Jax just likes to [PLOINK] with everybody, Kaufmo clearly doesn’t care because of his near abstraction, Gangle’s too shy to speak up, Kinger’s insane, Picky is too new, and Pomni–she looks traumatised every time she comes back from one, save for Candy Carrier Chaos, and she still looked kind of upset.”

“Oh, Zooble, Zooble, Zooble, making adventures is my art! It’s all I exist to do, all I’m…good at. And uh, what you’re saying could imply that I’m…bad at the only thing I’m…good at and that…” Caine’s eyes became unfocused.

Pain shot through Gummigoo’s whole body, making him cry out in pain and grip his head as the circus started to glitch out.

“W-ha-a-ts ha-a-ap-pe-n-i-in-ng?” Gummigoo managed to ask through the pain in a glitchy voice.

“Whose therapy session is this again?” Zooble asked nervously.

The pain suddenly stopped, and Gummigoo sat there gasping for air as the circus suddenly snapped back to normal.

“Oh yeah, we need to get to the bottom of your behavioral issues!” Caine sounded happy again, as though nothing had happened. “Now, I’m going to show you some ink blots, and you’re going to say the first word that comes to your mind!”

Gummigoo looked back at his project, relieved to see it wasn’t damaged. He got back to work on it, his mind whirling.

I hope Caine can’t abstract, because if he can and does, I fear that this entire circus, and everyone within, will be destroyed with no way to reverse it.

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Enjoy this sketch I made for this chapter!