Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gangle squinted as she jumped out of the portal and back into the brightness of the circus. Holding the two broken halves of her comedy mask, she looked around, allowing herself a moment to take in the sights of the tent around her. Although she enjoyed the adventures, there was always something about the circus itself that seemed to her like a better place to be.

Behind her, she could hear the voices of her friends emerging from the portal as well.

"No, you're completely missing the point of this!" yelled Pomni.

"What? It's totally a relevant question!" replied Jax.

"It's... really not. Why would the watermelon even be on fire in the first place?" asked Ragatha.

On their way back from the adventure, everyone had started arguing about... fruit, or something. Gangle hadn't been paying much attention to them. Today's adventure had been a little bit stressful, and she just wanted to unwind. As she watched Kinger waddle back to his pillow fort, Caine showed up, floating in the air above them all.

"Welcome back, my breathtaking butterscotches!" he boomed, suddenly appearing. "Did you all enjoy today's adventure?"

"Caine, can you explain to Jax that you can't just combine the seeds of any two fruits you want to make a new type of plant?" Pomni asked, frustratedly pointing both of her arms out at Jax. Caine lowered himself down to talk with the others.

Gangle paid him little attention, opting to glance around the tent and find Zooble. Usually, they sat around, waiting for everyone else to come back. Gangle would sometimes go sit with them, and the two of them would just hang out and talk. But today, Zooble was nowhere to be found.

Oh well, Gangle thought, as she walked up to Caine, who seemed to have joined in on the conversation about fruit.

"Well, it depends on the type of coconut that you'd use for- Oh. Hello, Gangle. Did you need me to fix your comedy mask?"

Gangle smiled, and looked down at the broken mask in her hands.

"Actually... I was thinking of trying to fix it myself again today. I could use the practice." Usually, Caine would just zap her mask right back together and that would be the end of it, but some days, Gangle would feel a little crafty, and would choose to fix it all by herself.

"Oh. Alright!" he said, turning back to the others. "However, I do think you've all been a little quick to dismiss the potential of cantaloupes in this hypothetical..."

Gangle wandered off, into the hallways and towards her room. As she walked, the voices of her friends faded out behind her.

Kinger, Ragatha, Pomni, Caine, she loved all of them. Even Jax had normal moments sometimes. But tonight, she was feeling a little worn out, and just felt like being alone for a while.

As she reached her room, she glanced to her side, looking at Zooble's door. Were they in there, asleep? It wasn't like them, to go to bed this early, Gangle thought, but if Zooble was in fact asleep, then Gangle would try to be as quiet as she could.

Quietly, she opened her own door, and walked inside. The walls were covered in half-sketched drawings, mostly by her, but some by her friends, as well. On the wall to the right of the door was a large mirror and pink desk, the shelves of which were covered in sketchbooks, some full, others with only a few sketches in them. The lights were a pleasant shade of rose, and ribbons of every color dangled down from the roof, put up by Gangle herself. In the middle of the far wall, Gangle's bed took up a large portion of the room space. Either side of the bed was covered in plushes of several animals and characters that Gangle knew. She had been requesting new ones since the day she arrived, and Caine kept delivering. She kept her favourites in a row at the very end of the bed, seven plushes that resembled the people she spent every day with. Her friends, the ones who she would give anything for, the ones who kept her going, who kept her sane in this slice of reality that was anything but.

In the corner of the room, there were several small crates of extra masks, next to a box of crafting supplies. When Gangle felt like fixing her own mask, she'd come here, grab a bottle of glue, and simply tune out the rest of the world.

She lifted her supplies up onto the bed, and sat down to start working. She enjoyed the peace and quiet of the moment, of being all by herself on an otherwise noisy day.

For a while, she got to work on fixing her mask, spreading glue along the edges of the cracks, being careful not to fray the ribbons that made up her hands around the sharp parts. Some smaller shards had broken off earlier, but Gangle didn't mind. She'd gathered them up, and carried them inside the slight concavity of one of the mask halves. It was like solving a puzzle, finding all the small, finer details, and putting them together to create a bigger picture.

"...can just be so tiring sometimes. I mean, why does..." she heard from outside her door. From the voice, Gangle thought it was Ragatha. She stopped what she was doing with the glue, stood up, and walked over to her door to listen.

"Mhmm, absolutely. I mean, what Kinger said was true, about the unpredictability of it." Definitely Pomni's voice. The two women seemed to have taken their conversation into the hallway.

Gangle went back to her bed, and sat down. She looked back down at her broken comedy mask, and frowned a little. She'd come in here to unwind, to take a moment of peace alone. With two of the others outside, would fixing the mask really be the same? Should she invite them in to help her? Ask them to leave? Gangle closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in, and out. She took a second to think about what to do.

The breath that she took had felt nice. Maybe what she really needed was some fresh air. Outside, in the grounds, she'd be alone, with nothing but the digital wind in her ribbons and the light of the moon.

Quietly, so as not to disturb Zooble's potential sleep, she packed up her remaining mask fragments into the crafts box, opened her door, and slipped out. Pomni and Ragatha were a short ways down the hallway, and were too deep into their conversation to notice her leaving.

Gangle slipped out the main entrance of the tent without anyone noticing. Jax had been on the couch in the common area, Kinger had sealed himself inside his fortress, and Caine and Bubble were... well, wherever they went off to when they weren't in the tent. Once again, Zooble was nowhere to be found. Gangle had hoped to get at least a glimpse of them before sneaking out, but to no avail. Gangle wondered where they were. She always liked spending time with Zooble, more than anyone else in the circus. When Zooble was around, she felt... more like herself. As if she could open up in ways she couldn't around the others, and everything seemed to become just a little bit brighter, if only for a short while. She often wondered what Zooble got up to while the rest of them were off on adventures, and wondered where they'd gotten off to right now.

Putting the thought out of her mind as she made her way down to the digital carnival, Gangle looked around to admire the scenery of the grounds. She didn't make her way out here too often, and sometimes got lost. Around the carnival, there were lots of paths, with twists and turns and loops, and if Gangle wasn't careful, she'd be wandering around for days. Eventually, she reached the carnival.

All around her were rides and booths as far as the eye could see, all of them completely empty. Gangle didn't come down here too often, and she didn't know if anyone else did either. The place was a ghost town, an empty shell of something fun, stripped of all of its intended energy, rendered silent and eerie.

Kind of like the circus itself, Gangle somberly thought. A circus, a place of childlike joy and wonder, something that people should be excited to visit, only this one was a trap, forcing its visitors into feeling fear and hopelessness. The tent was large, and felt a lot like a ghost town when the others weren't with her. Gangle didn't much like being alone, but tonight, she felt almost at peace. She wandered around for a while, past the still rides and empty booths, past the colours and lights, until she almost didn't recognize the place she'd gotten to. Maybe she could sit down here, and keep fixing the mask?

"Dah dah dum dah dun-dun, dah dun-dun..."

Gangle looked up. Was there someone singing, all the way out here? She listened closely.

"Dah dum dun dee doo, dun dee doo, dah dun..."

There was music coming from somewhere around her, that much was obvious. It was someone singing. A female voice, calm and soothing, singing a pleasant melody in the distance. Gangle spun around, and again, saw nobody. She closed her eyes, and tried to find the direction it was coming from.

Behind her.

She turned around, grabbed her box of supplies, and started walking down a path, following the voice. She didn't know who could be singing out here, at this time of night, but she had to admit that she was curious. This sort of thing didn't happen every day.

Further and further she followed the voice, down the path, occasionally branching off to take a different path a little to the left or the right. The singer didn't sound malicious, and Caine never allowed the occupants of the circus to get in too much danger, so Gangle didn't feel too afraid as she walked. The voice started changing direction a little, started to sound like it was coming from a point that was higher in the sky. This only made Gangle more confused. She looked up.

She stopped for a moment, looking at the sky. Besides the singing, something about it seemed... off. Gangle couldn't quite figure it out, but there was something strange about the sky.

In addition, she no longer recognized any of her surroundings. The lights of the circus had started to dim behind her, and the rides of the carnival became fewer and farther between.

At this rate, I'll fall into the void before I find the singer, Gangle thought morbidly.

Eventually, the path simply came to an end. The brown sidewalk just... ended, in the middle of the forest. Nothing else there. Gangle stood at the end of the path, confused. And the singing continued.

"Who... Who's there?" she yelled into the night. "Who are you?"

For a few seconds, silence. And then, from the trees, emerged Zooble.

"Gangle?" they asked, confused.

"Huh? Zooble?" Gangle couldn't hide the rising note of hope in her voice. Of all the places she expected Zooble to be, way out here was probably the last place on the list. Of all the things she expected to find out here, Zooble was not one of them. Upon seeing Zooble's face, for just a split second, Gangle no longer felt lost. For a second, something inside her just felt... safe.

Zooble was clearly not expecting anyone to be way out here. They clumsily stepped around as they talked, eventually choosing to lean against a nearby tree.

"Hey, it's... what... how... what are you... doing here?" they asked, trying and failing not to sound suspicious. Gangle squinted her eyes a little, the small facade of safety starting to wear off.

"I... needed some fresh air. I went down to the carnival, and got a little lost, heh." She gestured to Zooble's tenuous lean against the tree. "What are... you doing out here?" Zooble's gaze darted all around, and they sounded guilty about something.

"Who, me? Here? Psshh, I'm not..." they paused for a second, not really seeming to have any idea what to say, "I... was on a walk too." They looked up at Gangle, and blinked twice, hoping she wouldn't question it too much. Gangle's eyes narrowed slightly, not buying the explanation for a second.

"Uh huh. And you... leaning against a tree, acting all guilty about something, do you do that on your walks... often?" She gestured a ribbon arm up to her friend.

"Is that... I... uh..." Zooble stuttered, looking for the right words. A few seconds passed, and they sighed, evidently giving up on the charade. They stood up straight, and turned around, giving a gesture for Gangle to follow.

"Alright, I'll show you what I'm really doing. Just... promise not to tell anyone?" they asked. Gangle hesitated for a second, unsure of whether to follow.

Zooble's my friend. Yeah, I can trust them.

"Sure." Gangle smiled, and nodded.

"Well, here we are," Zooble gestured around to the space, "Ledge sweet ledge."

Gangle could hardly believe her eyes. In the middle of the forest, through the trees, Zooble had taken her to a clearing. A stone slab a few meters wide filled the ground in a space without any trees, overlooking a large open cliffside. Gangle looked out, and saw hundreds upon hundreds of trees, a rather large portion of the digital forest. A short ways out, the map simply... ended, falling off into nothingness. The stone portion of the ground itself was covered in several pieces of outdoor furniture, like lawn chairs, or folding tables.

But the most striking sight that Gangle could see was the open sky. Without any trees above to block her view, Gangle could see an entire open view of the starry night sky. Out, out it went, to the very edge of the digital circus itself. Nothing, anywhere else that Gangle had been since the day she arrived had simply felt this... open. She almost dropped to her knees at the sight of all the stars. She was speechless.

"I...what..." she muttered, almost stumbling over her own words.

"Yeah. Pretty cool, right?" Zooble asked, noticing Gangle's awe. They looked over, making eye contact. "I... found this place a while ago. I come here whenever I need to clear my head, or if I ever need an escape. I'm pretty sure Caine knows about it, but he hasn't ever confronted me about finding it. Welcome," they said, dramatically gesturing their arms out, "to my secret lair."

Gangle was dumbfounded.

"I... I heard someone singing. When I was walking, there was a voice, they were singing, they... led me here." She managed to tear her gaze away from the sight before her, and turned to look at her friend.

"Singing?" A look of realization filled Zooble's face. "Oh. That's probably just the Moon. She likes to sing sometimes."

As if on cue, the Moon suddenly appeared out from the trees behind the two, and floated in the sky.

"Hello, Gangle," she spoke in her dulcet voice, "did you enjoy my singing?"

"Huh?" Gangle looked up at the moon, and smiled. "Oh, yeah. It was lovely. You have a really nice voice." Zooble simply reached out an arm and gave the Moon a big thumbs up.

"Thanks, you two! Happy I could brighten up your night!" She smiled, and whooshed out of view. In the distance, Gangle could hear her start humming again. She turned back to look at Zooble again.

"So, what's with the box?" asked Zooble, sitting down in a chair. Gangle looked down at the box in her arms.

"Oh... yeah. These are crafting supplies. I thought I'd... try to fix my comedy mask again."

"Do you... want any help?" asked Zooble.

Gangle felt a little surprised at her friend's request. Zooble had never really shown much interest in this crafting thing. Still, she couldn't help but feel happy at the chance to spend more time with her friend. She smiled.

"Yeah. I'd like that."

She set the box down on the ground, and turned a chair to face towards it. She took the glue out, and slowly dumped the remainder of the contents onto the ground, being careful not to break anything further. Zooble grabbed the bottle of glue, and two of the bigger shards. They carefully squeezed a little bit out onto one shard, and tried spreading it around.

"Like... this?"

But as they said it, they squeezed a little bit too hard on the bottle, and splattered glue all over the side of the shard they were holding.

"Oh, [%$!#]! Sorry, Gangle." They looked up, worried they'd upset their friend. But Gangle just chuckled, and put her hand to her face.

"Heh. It's fine. That sort of thing happens every time I try to do this. Don't worry," she replied, smiling. Zooble looked a little sheepish.

Eventually, the two got into a rhythm, looking for the right shards that fit with the pieces they'd already assembled, aligning them with the right spots, being careful to apply enough glue. Gangle felt happy, being able to spend time with her friend like this, and being able to relax. The evening air was quiet, with slight gusts of wind, but no bird noises. The amazing view, coupled with the peaceful sounds of the digital forest, was enough to lift Gangle's spirits higher than they'd been since she could remember, even without her comedy mask on.

Even beneath the beauty of the night and the peace of the outdoors, there was something else. A feeling within her, that, whenever Zooble was around, lifted up her confidence and made everything feel easier. Recently, whenever she'd been around Zooble, things became simpler, and that warm feeling in the back of her mind had been growing more and more.

And so as the two worked, they started talking.

"The view is... amazing. How'd you find this spot?" asked Gangle, curious. Zooble looked out at the night sky.

"I'm... not really sure myself. One day, I just got so bored of Caine, of Jax, of everything, that I snuck outside to clear my head. But then... I got a little lost." They paused to look down at their hands. "Space is... a little weird here sometimes. You can stay on one path, on a straight line, and somehow loop around back to the point where you started. I must've wandered around for almost half an hour before stumbling out of the forest and seeing this. When I first saw it, I kept expecting Caine to snap me back into reality or something." They rolled their eyes, and stopped talking for a second. "Reality. Heh."

Gangle opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Zooble seemed lost in thought for a second. Then, they looked back out at the view, and continued.

"Ever since then, I can find my way here pretty consistently. I... don't come out here too often, but every time I do, it's just... magical."

Gangle looked at her friend in a little bit of awe, and then turned back to the night sky. She looked down at her own hands, the ribbons she'd had to deal with since the day she arrived.

How long has it been, a voice in her head went off, since you landed in here? Truth be told... she didn't know. She could remember the events of the day with perfect clarity, but most of the days since then had just... started to blend together. Like nothing she did in here really mattered. She looked up Zooble, and without warning, the voice in her head started talking again.

They matter.

Gangle felt a little sheepish.

"Hey, Zooble?" she started.

"Yeah?" Zooble asked, looking over at her.

"I..." she paused, not really knowing how to turn her thoughts into words. "I wanted to say... thanks. For being there for me. For showing me this, and helping me with everything, and just... thank you." A tear fell from Gangle's mask, and another one grew back in its place as she sniffled. Regardless, she gave the biggest, most genuine smile she could. In response, Zooble's eyes lit up, and they put a hand behind their head bashfully.

"I'm... happy to hear that."

As they finished fixing the mask, neither one could stop smiling, or hide their joy. After a short while, it was almost completed.

"Last couple pieces here, gotta... do..." Zooble muttered, finishing up with the mask, "and... stick that piece there... almost..."

They stuck the final shard in with a 'click'.

"There we go!"

Unable to hide the pride in their voice at having completed the mask, they held it out to Gangle.

"Try it on!"

Gangle reached out to grab the mask, and tentatively slid it onto her face. She blinked once or twice, and smiled. There it was, in her mind, the solid feeling of assertiveness and potential that came with the comedy mask.

"Did it work?"

"Yeah!" Gangle curled her ribbon arms around the mask, and smiled even bigger. "We did it!"

Zooble's face was full of joy. Gangle felt happy, and proud that she was able to fix her mask.

The two just sort of... stood there for a few more seconds, not really finding any words to say.

Wait, what now? thought Gangle. Now that we fixed the mask, what am I supposed to do say? What else is there for us to do?

Gangle thought about what to do for a little while longer.

"Did... you wanna... sit down and... look at the stars together?" she asked, a little timidly. Zooble closed their eyes, and nodded a little.

And so the two of them sat back down and simply beheld the beautiful night before them. Gangle looked up, and tried her best to appreciate the view. At first glance, it was just an average night, albeit cloudless and very starry. But, the more she looked out at any specific patch of sky, any constellation, she found that more and more stars were appearing behind, just dim enough to have been out of view unless one was concentrating on them. Deeper and deeper into the sky she saw, out until she could practically feel the stars. For a moment, she forgot about the circus, about the adventures, and simply felt free.

"Dah dah dum, dah-aah, dah-aah, dah dah dum..."

From behind, Gangle could hear the Moon's voice, singing quietly. It lifted her up, enhanced the experience of the infinite sight before her, pulling the lights and the noises of the forest together into an orchestra. She felt as light as a feather, drifting in tune with the music, beholding the night in its entirety. Finally, thanks to Zooble, and the night she had, she felt at peace.

"It's..." she started, not being able to find the right word. Zooble chuckled a little.

"Yeah. It's just... beyond words."

As Gangle walked back to her room that night, her mind was consumed in a flurry of different thoughts, drowning out the noise of the other circus members arguing. She'd loved the sights on the ledge, and really hoped that she'd be able to return whenever she could. She'd had fun, being able to spend time rebuilding her mask, working on being happy again.

But most of all was the time that she'd spent with Zooble. Tonight, they'd just seemed... different, somehow. Like whatever Gangle was feeling around them before had been enhanced on that ledge. Even just thinking about their face made Gangle smile.

She reached her room, and climbed into her bed. Often, she'd spend a lot of time laying awake before actually managing to fall asleep, but since she was feeling so peaceful on this particular night, sleep came rather easily to her. Before she drifted off, a few ideas rushed through her mind. Not so much thoughts as minor rewritings of the beliefs she'd been taking for granted in the circus.

Tonight proved that, even if this place isn't real, I can still find real moments, real people.

The little moments can matter just as much as the big moments.

Tonight, on the ledge, with Zooble, that moment mattered. They matter. Today mattered.

As Gangle was about to fall asleep, she had another idea.

She would try to make tomorrow matter too.

Chapter Text

The next day came, and the next day passed. Once more, Gangle emerged from the portal, and the lights of the circus filled her vision. As she stepped out, she almost tripped, and stumbled around for a few seconds before regaining her balance. She wobbled her arms around in the air for a small amount of leverage. Once she felt balanced again, she let out a small sigh, and hunched over a little bit, smiling.

Any other day, she might not have cared too much if she fell over, but today was different. All day, she'd been putting in the effort to keep her comedy mask intact.

Every now and again, Caine would let the circus members have a day off, just to hang out in the tent. On most of those days, she could keep her mask from breaking, but when another adventure rolled around, her mask would break again, like clockwork. Gangle could hardly remember the last time she'd made it through a day without breaking her comedy mask, which was why today was so special.

She'd made the most of every moment. Thanks to the talk she'd had with Zooble last night, out on the ledge, today felt easier. Like she was suddenly ready to take on everything that came her way.

Make the most of today. Make today matter.

She kept repeating the thought throughout the day, whenever anything would go wrong. When Ragatha had tripped and fallen off the rocky trail, Gangle helped her back up, and made sure she was feeling alright. When she and Kinger had gotten separated from everyone, she'd taken charge and found a path back. When Jax had 'lost' the magical golden idol that Caine had given them (Gangle had a sneaking suspicion that he'd just chucked it off a cliff when no one else was looking), she was the one who led the group back down to find it. All day, she'd tried to make the best of every bad situation.

Behind every choice to stay positive, behind every decision to take charge of the events around her was what she'd seen and heard on the ledge last night. She remembered it vividly, the view, the music, and most of all, the safety she felt when being with Zooble. Normally, Zooble acted a little bit isolated, but out on the ledge, they seemed calmer, more open. Almost like a different person.

And against all of Gangle's expectations, her positivity was working. Her mask hadn't so much as cracked all day. Which was why, if she tripped and broke it right now, she'd feel really, really bad.

The others had already gone through the portal. They stood in front of her, talking about the adventure.

"Yeesh, you guys really can't accept that I actually just lost it, can you?" asked Jax, clearly finding it funny that they'd wasted so much time looking for the idol.

"We left you alone with it for three minutes, and when we came back, it was gone and you were smiling!" said Pomni, putting an angry emphasis on her words. Jax flipped his body around and sneered.

"Of course I'm smiling! It's fun watching you guys get all worked up about this." he said sarcastically. Pomni put her hands to her face, and slowly moved them outwards, exasperated.

"I... I just can't with this anymore. I just... gah..." she muttered to herself, wandering away towards her room. Gangle briefly watched her walk away, then chose to divert her attention to looking around the rest of the tent for Zooble. She wanted to share her accomplishment. She glanced around for a few moments, but like yesterday, Zooble was nowhere to be found. Her mind started to wander.

Are they in their room, hiding from Caine? Are they asleep? Or... could they have gone back to the ledge? If... if I went out there again, would I-

"Good afternoon, my shining strawberries!" Caine boomed, appearing out of nowhere, as he did. His voice snapped Gangle out of her thoughts, and she looked up. "Boy, today's adventure sure was a... where'd Pomni go?"

Caine perked his head up, and started looking around a little frantically.

"Did... did she not like my adventure? Wasn't it fun enough?" he asked, sounding worried. Gangle lifted up a hand to answer.

"She's... okay." Gangle glanced over at Jax with a note of contempt in her eyes, which he shot a chaotic smile right back at. "I think she just felt a little stressed out. She went over to her room."

"Oh, okay!" Caine yelled, his voice instantly regaining its normal ringmaster tone. "Anyway, dinner's ready if you all are hungry! I'll be off, preparing your adventures for tomorrow!" With that, Caine vanished into a cloud of smoke, disappearing as swiftly as he originally appeared. Gangle turned around. Just as he'd said, there was a full table of food. She glanced around the room once more, hoping that now that Caine was gone, Zooble would show up. Unfortunately for her, they never did. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, Gangle," said Ragatha, beaming, "you made it through a whole adventure without breaking your comedy mask! Great job!"

"Thanks! I've been trying to... keep a more positive mindset, I guess? I think the mask doesn't break as much if I... believe in it, or something?" She smiled, and tilted her head a little, almost as if she was confused by the idea of how it worked. Ragatha smiled again in response.

"Well, it seems to be working good so far!" She made eye contact with Gangle, a cheery tone in her voice. "Have you been feeling happier recently?"

Gangle nodded. Truth be told, for the last few weeks, her own problems had started seeming like smaller and smaller concerns, and she felt genuinely happier than she'd been for some time.

"Well, that's good!" Ragatha said.

"A-hem!" Gangle heard from behind. She turned around to look at who was talking. It was Bubble, floating near the table, wearing a chef hat. "I made pastries for everyone!"

Gangle smiled at the thought. After the effort of keeping her mask together all day, she was hungry. Apparently, so was Ragatha.

"Ooh, yum!" She turned to Gangle. "Do you mind if I go get something to eat? I'm starving." Gangle gestured out a ribbon arm.

"By all means!"

Ragatha started speedwalking towards the table. Gangle paced, taking a moment to look over the selection of food that Bubble had made. As she looked, her mind began to wander.

It sure would be nice if Zooble were here right now. I bet they'd enjoy this food. I wonder what they're doing right now?

She glanced over to the hallway that led to everyone's rooms.

You know, she thought, nobody's told Zooble about the food yet. They don't know about it. So... if I were to, say, bring them some, that'd be good, right? Nobody would object to me doing that. And if I were to, say, stick around with them for a while, I'm sure nobody would mind.

Whether or not the internal monologue was the effect of having her comedy mask on all day, or if she had a little Jax-shaped shoulder devil whispering in her ear, Gangle didn't much care. Silently, she snuck up to the table, and pretended to look interested at the food. Nobody saw her ribbon hand slip and covertly grab a few pastries.

"You know, I'm feeling a little bit sleepy all of a sudden," she fake-yawned, trying not to sound suspicious. "I think I'm just gonna head to bed. Good night, everyone."

"Oh, okay!" Ragatha said, a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Mmghm. Good night, Gangle!" Kinger said between bites, chowing down on a cinnamon bun.

Jax didn't even acknowledge that she'd said anything.

Down the hallway she walked, clutching the snacks in her hand. She chuckled to herself, enjoying the feeling of having stolen something a little bit more than she probably should've. She almost laughed louder, but then realized that Pomni was close by. She didn't want to be heard, so she quickly tried to stop chuckling. Despite this, she was unable to fully keep the smile off her face.

She made her way down the hallway to Zooble's door. It was at this point that doubt started to set in.

What if they're asleep, and I'm waking them up? What if... they don't want to see me?

She shook her head, trying to press the thought out of her mind.

No, they'd understand.

Hesitantly, Gangle knocked on the door. She stood back for a moment, a little nervous.

There was no answer. She tried again. Still nothing.

"Zooble? Are you there? It's Gangle."

Silence. Gangle felt a little more nervous.

"I... brought you something."

Still nothing.

Okay, yeah, they're probably not in there, she thought.

Gangle hoped that meant Zooble was back out at the ledge. Before she fully thought about what that meant, she felt a flicker of hope cross through her mind, hope at being able to head back out there. All day, she'd been thinking about the moment they'd had together. She'd be lying if she wasn't happy at the chance to spend another night under those stars.

Without thinking about it, she started walking to the end of the hallway, further and further, until she'd reached the door of the tent. Still holding the pastries, she looked around.

The stars filled the night sky, some shining bright, others dim, creating an endless tapestry of night as far as the eye could see. As she looked up, once again, something irked inside her about the sight of the sky. Once again, she couldn't quite put a finger on what exactly it was, but something was off. She just couldn't figure it out yet.

Gangle also realized... that she didn't know which way to go.

But she knew someone who did.

"Um... hello? Excuse me, Miss... Moon?" Gangle called out to the night sky, not knowing exactly what to say. At the top of her field of vision, the moon flew down, her bright blue contrasting against the darkness of the night.

"Hello, Gangle. Can I help you with anything?" she asked, with a hint of cheeriness in her voice.

"Well, I was wondering if... you could lead me back to the ledge where Zooble was last night? I'd... like to see them, please." Gangle asked timidly. The Moon hesitated, then pondered her request for a while. Eventually, she spoke.

"Alright. Zooble... doesn't usually like visitors. But I suppose you already know about the ledge, and you haven't told anyone about it, so you seem like you can be trusted. Besides," she paused, a smile on her face, "they like having you around." Gangle felt a blush spread across her face.

"Wow. Um... great! Thank you!" she said, flustered. The Moon chuckled.

"Just follow me," she said, slowly floating away from Gangle into the night.

Zooble took a deep breath in, and out. They glanced up at the night sky from their chair, enjoying the digital evening breeze. The night was... quieter than usual, they thought. Naturally, they came out here to be alone and at peace, but something was different. Something was... missing. Zooble looked up.

The Moon wasn't singing her normal songs. She wasn't anywhere in sight. Zooble was confused. They stood up, and leaned their head around a bunch of different angles to try and see her in the sky. Soon, they found her, off in the distance. Was she... talking to someone?

Suddenly, she started moving towards Zooble, rather slowly. A bemused expression filled Zooble's face. Was there something going on?

Eventually, The Moon reached the ledge, with a rather mischevious smile.

"Hello, Zooble," she said.

"Uh... hey, Moon. Is something up?" they asked, still confused. The Moon chuckled.

"I've got a surprise for you," she said, smiling. She looked down, towards the treeline. Zooble looked that way as well, and, against all their expectations, saw Gangle emerging from the forest. Comedy mask intact, she was smiling and waving. Upon seeing her, Zooble's confusion was immediately replaced with bewilderment, with a hint of hope filling their mind.

"Brought you a donut!" Gangle said, smiling and holding up the pastries in her hand.

"Mmgh. This is great," said Zooble, holding the donut up to their face and making a bite sound in order to psychically bite into it. Gangle chuckled, and took a bite out of the croissant she'd taken for herself. She'd always liked croissants moreso than other pastries, for as long as she could remember. She took another bite, and a strange thought struck her mind.

"Do you think..." she paused, turning to look over at Zooble, "that I liked croissants back in the real world?"

Zooble tilted their head in confusion. Gangle knew she'd have to elaborate.

"I mean, there's not a whole lot I remember about who I was. I know what I did for work, I remember how I got in here, I know my passions and interests, but... I can't remember a single name. Makes you wonder what else was erased, you know?" She shifted her shoulders a little. "And when we got our new bodies, they have their own..." she paused, "aspects that we all have to deal with. Maybe... maybe the taste of things changed too?"

Zooble looked at their friend with concern.

"Do you... often think of stuff like that? About who you were in the real world?" they asked. Gangle shrugged.

"I don't know. Sometimes... it's nice, having that hope in your mind. That feeling that you were real once, instead of..." she trailed off. She turned to look out at the stars.

"Someday, maybe... we could be real again, is all." she continued.

Zooble had a look in their eyes, like they wanted to help. They hesitated for a second, unsure of what to say, then sighed. They looked down at their arms, and out at the sky again.

"I get that."

Both of them were silent for a while after that, save for the munching sounds as they finished their snacks. Gangle mulled over the idea in her head, the thought that she'd get out someday. Honestly, she didn't have much hope, but she tried her best to hold onto what little she had. She was making progress in the circus, learning how to work with the avatar body she'd been given by the system, and she could genuinely say she felt healthier. But there was always that little voice at the back of her head, that unwavering little whisper that said kept saying that none of it was real. Gangle just wanted to be real again.

And then, staring at the night sky, a flash of inspiration struck her mind. All at once, she realized what had been bothering her about the sight of the stars for the last few days.

They weren't really there. They weren't the real stars.

"Do you ever wonder how far away those stars are?" she asked. Zooble looked over.

"What do you mean?"

"The real stars are a really long way away from Earth. They go out forever, and it would probably take forever to reach them. But not these ones. They're all just... right here. Are they at the edge of the circus? The edge of the grounds? Or, if we wanted," she held up a hand, letting it slice through the air, "could we just reach out and touch them?"

Zooble looked out into the night, considering this. Gangle continued, a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"These aren't the real stars. They're just... part of the show." she remarked.

Zooble tilted their head, indicating a contemplative frown.

"I... don't think it matters if they're real or not." they said, their outward gaze unbreaking. Gangle looked over.

"Huh?" she asked, quietly.

"To me, the stars are just... there. They're beautiful, and inspiring, and all that stuff, but they're... not much more than that. That's... all they really need to be."

Gangle looked out into the sky, trying to see as far as she could. Zooble continued.

"When I come out here and see this sight, every time is different, but still amazing in its own way. It's..." they struggled for a second to find the words. They sighed, and closed their eyes. "It's peaceful, it's magical, whatever you wanna call it. It... inspires me to try and do better here, and maybe to be a better version of myself. It doesn't matter to me if the stars are real or not, because... when it really matters the most, they're still beautiful." They looked over at Gangle, and leaned their head back a little, their way of smiling.

"What's more real than that?" they concluded.

Gangle looked down at her own two digital hands. The ribbons she'd been given by the system, the ones that made up her whole body. Slowly, she reached up, removed her comedy mask, and flipped it around to look at it. All day, she'd been trying to weave positivity into her actions, her mindset, and she managed to stay together. She'd been learning how to become happier, not for the others, but for her own health, she realized. Behind all of that, behind all of her growth, was the people she spent every day with here.

Kinger, the reliable one when things became hard. Ragatha, the much needed dose of cheeriness when Gangle was feeling down. Caine, who kept her days interesting and lively. Jax, when he wasn't being impossible. Pomni, who'd helped her take steps towards dealing with her emotions. And next to her was Zooble, the one she could tell anything.

The realest star of all to her.

Gangle felt a tear drop down her tragedy mask. She wiped it away, and put her comedy mask back on.

"I... spent all day trying to keep this thing together." She let out a light exhale. "Feeling positive really helps with that."

"That's good. I'm happy to be able to help you with that." replied Zooble.

"I just, I wanted to say..."

Gangle looked at Zooble, who was inquisitively returning her gaze. There was so much she wanted to say, at that moment. So many words, feelings, and so little time. Inside her head, she debated, trying to find the right words to express what she felt. She closed her eyes, smiled, and sighed.

"I wanted to thank you. Really. Being here, with you, and being able to talk about things has really been what I've needed, recently. This... means more to me than you know."

Yeah. That was a pretty good way of saying it.

Gangle swore she could see a blush forming on Zooble's face. For a second, they avoided eye contact, and tried putting their arm behind their head in that way Gangle knew meant that they felt a little shy. They looked back at her, and almost said something, but seemed to stop themselves.

"I... don't know what to say, really."

"Wanna just... keep looking at the stars together?" asked Gangle.

"Heh. I'd like that."

The two leaned back, and stayed next to each other, admiring the view. Gangle thought the stars were beautiful, and didn't worry about whether or not they were real. She just appreciated the beauty for as long as she could.

Chapter Text

Gangle slowly opened her eyes, marking the start of another day trapped in the circus. She didn't move for a short while, still having just woken up. Slowly, she moved all of her ribbon limbs, and mustered the strength to push away her blankets. She looked down at her body.

Sometimes, in her sleep, she would roll around, and some of her ribbons would get tangled up in each other. Usually, it'd be a mess, and it would take forever to untangle everything. Luckily, it hadn't happened in a while. As she looked down, she saw that she was untangled on this particular morning. She'd slept rather peacefully last night, after the calming talk she'd had with Zooble on the ledge. She'd been calmer recently, able to sleep easier at night, she noticed.

Still half-asleep, she meandered over to her desk and sat down in the chair. For a while, she just sat there, looking at herself in the mirror, taking a little time to mentally wake up. She stared at the reflection of her comedy mask, occasionally tilting her head, looking for any cracks or imperfections. Sometimes, small fractures would show up on her mask even before she'd begun her day. For the longest time, she'd simply assumed that it was a side effect of rolling around in her sleep, that as she moved, her mask was scratching on her pillow somehow. Luckily for her, the mask was perfectly smooth on this particular morning, without a single blemish in sight.

I must have slept really well, she thought to herself.

She stood up, and made her way over to the bed, where she fell back down and stretched her ribbon arms out beside her. She took a deep breath in, and out. Sitting up, she glanced over the side of her bed, and looked at the plushes she had of her friends.

God, she didn't know what she would do without the others. The thought of being stuck in the circus all alone, spending that much time without any of the growth that her friends had helped bring her. Without Caine's adventures, Ragatha's optimism, Pomni's reassurance, she wouldn't be the person she was today. And without Zooble...

Try as she might, Gangle realized that she couldn't even imagine her world without Zooble anymore. They were just... irreplaceable. Without them to talk to, without their help when she needed it, Gangle probably would've given up a long time ago. She picked up the plush she had that looked like Zooble, and stared at it for a while. Slowly, she shook it around a little, as if she was making it walk. She chuckled a little.

She couldn't wait to see Zooble today.

As she made her way into the main tent, with all of its spiral staircases and colorful pipes, she looked around to see if Caine had started explaining his adventure for today. A quick glance told her that he was nowhere to be found, however, she saw that all of the others were seated in the common area. Slowly, she walked over, and sat down in between Kinger and Ragatha. All five of the others (except for Caine) were here, already having a conversation.

"Look, all I'm saying is that the graphics in here are really good, for how old those computers looked!" yelled Pomni. She waved her arms around her face really fast, expecting everyone to watch. "See? It looks way ahead of its time!"

"Eh, maybe in places like these, where there's not a whole lot to load," said Jax, looking around at the big, empty tent. "But on some of the really big adventures, the ones you haven't seen yet, oh man, this place starts lagging like crazy!" He threw his arms in the air, and started to laugh as he talked. "One time, heh, Caine tried loading in an entire rainforest around us. He put so much effort into trying to render the trees, everything else just started breaking. Kinger over there," he said, gesturing to Kinger, "ended up totally frozen in place for hours."

"I did?" asked Kinger, evidently not very mentally present.

As Jax continued, Gangle thought back to that adventure. She remembered what it had felt like when the circus itself started to slow down, when her movements became less coherent, and even something as simple as moving her arm around would take a few seconds. She didn't much enjoy how it had felt, and she'd been happy to get back to the tent that day.

That was an adventure from... before Zooble had shown up, she realized. She looked over at them, a little surprised to have remembered that. They seemed to be listening intently to the way Jax was describing it, obviously curious. Gangle couldn't remember Zooble ever going on an adventure like that, one which went beyond the standard processing power of the circus.

Without warning, Zooble looked over and made eye contact with Gangle. A little startled, and a little bit excited, Gangle's eyes lit up, and she gave a small wave hello. Zooble shyly waved back. Then, they turned to the group and started talking.

"I... don't think I was there for that one. What happened?" they asked, curious. Ragatha's smile faltered.

"It... wasn't great. It took us a while to do something as small as even just move around," she said, gesturing, "let alone make our way through an entire forest. In the end, Caine had to call the whole thing off. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy about having to do that. For the entire week after that, he kept putting us into one adventure after another." She looked down, and avoided eye contact for a while.

Gangle looked back at everyone else, wanting to push the thought out of her mind. She tried thinking of a way to change the subject.

"Does anybody know what today's adventure is gonna be like?" she asked. She was curious, after all. Unfortunately, all she got were a bunch of confused looks. Jax shrugged, and Pomni shook her head.

"I... guess it's a surprise," said Ragatha, a little confused.

"Should we go... check on Caine, or something? Make sure he's doing alright?" asked Gangle.

As a group, all six circus members made their way over to Caine's stage. They all stood there for a few seconds, looking around the empty tent for their absent ringleader. The tent was unnervingly quiet.

"Caine! Where the [%$!#] are you?" yelled Zooble, breaking the silence.

In the middle of the stage, from behind a sudden cloud of smoke, Caine appeared, waving his arms around.

"Good morning, my prodigious pretzels! I do apologize for being late on this wonderful morning, but I've been cooking up a really amazing adventure! Not to toot my own horn here, but this is probably the best adventure I've ever made!"

Off to the side, Bubble opened their mouth and perfectly reproduced the honking noise of a horn. Caine looked confused.

"What?" he asked.

"Best adventure ever, huh?" asked Jax sarcastically. He turned to Pomni. "This is gonna go over well."

Caine filled everyone's view with one of his pre-adventure presentations. Everyone's eyes lit up with colors and flashing lights all around. Caine flew into view, his voice booming.

"Today's adventure is... escape the maze! In teams, you'll all be working together to make your way through the maze and find each other! What sorts of mysteries will you find behind the multitude of doors everywhere?"

He paused. He looked around awkwardly for a few seconds, then started to stare uncomfortably at Zooble.

"What?" they asked, sounding annoyed.

"Sorry, it's just... usually, you'd have interrupted me by now, saying you're not gonna come along." he said.

Zooble looked over at Gangle for a few seconds, deep in thought, then turned back to look up at Caine again.

"I've just been... thinking about..." they started, sounding a little shy.

"Zooble?" asked Gangle, hope in her voice. Zooble nodded at her.

"Yeah. I'm gonna come along this time."

Gangle couldn't stop herself from smiling.

"Oh. Wow. I... uh...." Caine stuttered, not expecting that. Immediately, he picked up his normal tone once more. "Alright then! It's settled! Prepare yourselves, everyone!"

The portal opened, and everyone was thrown in.

Gangle was falling, and screaming, and then she landed.

"Ow..."

Out of habit, she put her hands up to her comedy mask, and was surprised to find that it still wasn't broken. She tried tapping it again a few times to make sure, but nothing happened. From behind her, she heard two successive thuds. She turned around to see Pomni and Kinger on the ground behind her. She held out a hand to help them both up.

"Ugh... can't Caine find a less headache-inducing way of doing that?" asked Pomni, clutching her head.

All three of them stood together, glancing around their new environment. Bright white lights illuminated the entire place, making the rainbow-colored walls shine. Everywhere Gangle looked seemed to be a different shade. But as they waited, none of the others fell down around them.

"Where... are Zooble and the others?" Gangle asked nervously.

"Caine did say that we'd be split into teams. Maybe everyone else is together?" asked Kinger.

The rising note of hope in Gangle's heart earlier was brought to a screeching halt. Zooble finally chooses to come on an adventure, and they can't even be with her for it?

"What... what do we do now?" she asked, uncertainty filling her voice.

"Well, if this is a maze, it'll probably have an exit somewhere. Maybe we just start walking around until we find it?" asked Pomni. Kinger nodded.

"Sounds good to me. Gangle?" he asked.

"Y-yeah, okay."

The three of them turned left and tentatively started walking. From behind, they heard a strange squelching sound, and then a faint roar.

"This way?" asked Gangle, suddenly scared. The other two nodded, and they all quickly rushed away.

After running for a while, they stopped, and took a breath.

"Okay, so... this maze has monsters in it, or something. Great." said Pomni frantically.

"Hey, guys, check it out," said Kinger, pointing and turning at something, "there are doors over here."

Confusedly, the trio walked towards the doors.

"What if there are monsters behind them?" asked Gangle. Pomni shook her head.

"I'm... just gonna open one and get it over with." She turned to look at her friends. "Ready?"

Kinger nodded. Gangle timidly put up her arms to protect herself. Slowly, Pomni opened the door, and peeked inside.

"It's... it's just a bucket." She opened the door wider, and Gangle could clearly see a bland, empty room with nothing but a bucket inside.

"Ooh." Kinger exclaimed, rushing in, grabbing the bucket, and putting it on his head.

"How do I look?" he asked, holding his hands out. Gangle gave a little chuckle, cracked another door open, and peeked inside.

"Waah!" She slammed the door closed. "Don't open that one. There's an alligator in there."

Pomni nodded, and made her way over to a third door. She opened it slowly, looking inside, then suddenly flung the door open and rushed in. Gangle was confused, until she saw Pomni leave the room holding a mace.

"[%$!#] yeah," she said, a crazed look in her eyes.

"Maybe we can use this stuff somehow," thought Kinger, the bucket still over his head. They started walking, looking for other doors.

Using a bag that she'd found behind a door, Gangle found herself carrying a box of crayons, a flashlight, and a compass that didn't seem to work. In her hand was a staff, and on her feet were a pair of running shoes. When she'd put them on, Gangle swore she actually felt a little faster. Behind her, Pomni was carrying her mace, but also found herself wearing a scarf. In front of Gangle was Kinger, leading the trio through the maze, carrying nothing but a bucket on his head and a dream in his heart.

Gangle was still feeling upset that Zooble wasn't here with her. She'd hoped to be able to spend more time with them today, and when they'd volunteered for the adventure, Gangle could hardly contain her excitement. But now, they were nowhere to be found, and Gangle was starting to feel lost.

"Hey, Gangle," asked Pomni, snapping Gangle out of her thoughts, "is everything alright?"

"Huh?"

"Sorry, you just looked a little concerned about something. You wanna... talk about it?" she asked. Gangle sighed, and slowed down a little to walk next to Pomni.

"Thanks, Pomni. It's nothing, really. I just... I was hoping that Zooble and I would be on a team together. They volunteered for the adventure, and I..." she trailed off, "It's just been really nice to spend time with them lately, I guess." Pomni smiled.

"I get that. You really trust Zooble, huh?" asked Pomni. Gangle nodded, smiling shyly, and closed her eyes.

"Yeah. They're always... there for me, y'know? Like..." Gangle paused, moving her free arm around to try and find the right words, "they always know just how to respond to how I'm feeling? So we work really well together."

"What do you think they'd do if they were here now?" asked Pomni.

"Hmm. They'd probably try to find somewhere safe, then look around for any weapons they could use." Gangle smiled. "Maybe, once they found enough, they might try taking on the monster we'd heard?"

"Do you think... we should try doing that?" asked Pomni.

Fear started to fill Gangle's face at the thought. She may have had her comedy mask on, but she wasn't quite feeling up to the challenge of fighting a maze monster. She watched anime. She knew how scary monsters could get. Pomni saw her friend's reaction to the suggestion, and immediately tried backpedaling.

"Or, y'know, we could just stick to the first part of the plan? The finding-somewhere-safe and looking-for-weapons part?" she said. Gangle nodded.

"Alright. Sounds good," she said, trying not to show fear. Pomni nodded, and started to walk faster, but then slowed down again to say one more thing.

"And, Gangle?"

"Yeah?"

"We can do this." Pomni smiled resolutely. "We're in this one together, right? If you need my help, I got your back!"

"Guys!" From a little ways ahead, they heard Kinger call for them. Soon, he bounded back over to the duo, holding a shotgun he'd found.

"This'll show any monsters not to mess with us!" he exclaimed, hoisting it into the air. Gangle and Pomni both chuckled, and the trio kept walking through the maze.

After they walked for a while, another roar emerged from the depths of the maze. Gangle gripped her staff in anticipation.

"Was that near us?" she asked, frightened. From ahead came her answer.

The trio could see a figure in the distance. It was silvery, humanoid, but almost twice as big as a regular person. It had giant wings with long, bladed feathers, and four jagged claws on each hand. It had a long, spiky tail. At first glance, Gangle thought it was a dragon. The most striking feature, though, was the mouth. Nearly filling up all of the space of its face, the mouth itself was curved into a spiky smile, with sharp teeth visible from the top and bottom. This monster had finally found its targets.

"Uh, Kinger?" yelled Pomni. "That shotgun would probably come in handy right now!"

The monster started rushing towards them, slow at first, but gradually building up speed.

"Don't worry. I'm on it." Calm and resolute, Kinger tilted his head back to be able to see far enough from under the bucket, aimed the shotgun, and fired. The monster reeled back on impact, stunned, but quickly shook it off and kept going. Kinger shot again, and it slowed down, but continued its course.

"Okay, yeah, we should probably run now," said Kinger.

The three of them quickly turned around and started to dash down the hallway. Pomni was in front, but Gangle quickly took the lead.

Guess these shoes really do make me faster, she thought, while also running in fear for her life. She turned a corner, and slowed for a second.

What should I do now?

Instinctively, she looked around the hallway for anything. Unfortunately, her eyes saw nothing but the doors.

The... doors. She had an idea. Quickly, she looked around for the strongest looking door, and rushed towards it, flinging it open.

"Everyone, in here, quick!" she yelled. Kinger and Pomni ran in, and she followed, slamming the door closed behind her. She stood with her back to the door, trying to keep it closed.

"Wow. Great thinking, Gangle!" said Kinger, a little out of breath. Gangle smiled.

"Thanks, I-"

The door was flung open behind her, and she was suddenly thrown against the wall. The next few moments were a blur to her.

Gangle could see the monster, in the now-open doorway, snarling at the three of them. She could hear the impacts of Pomni's mace against the creature, and the noise of Kinger's shotgun. On the ground was the contents of her bag, her staff, and the broken shards of her comedy mask.

"No... no..." was all the sound she could manage. Her friends were in trouble.

"This- ugh, doesn't seem to be- ah, doing much!" yelled Pomni, swinging her mace around.

"Stay at it!" yelled Kinger back, who'd resorted to whacking the creature with the gun.

The monster swung its claws violently through the air, jumping around and fluttering its wings to try and get better leverage against its targets.

I have to do something.

"Hey!" yelled Gangle from the side of the room, catching the attention of the monster. It stopped swinging its claws around, and turned to look at her. Then, it began its approach.

"Uh... I..." Gangle, flustered, began scrambling for anything she could use. She grabbed the box of crayons, and hucked it at the monster. It didn't even seem to notice, and it slowly continued creeping forwards.

Gangle screamed in fear. Frantically, she grabbed the only thing she could - the flashlight - and turned it on.

What she didn't expect was what happened next. The monster reeled back in pain from the light. Gangle looked up. It wasn't attacking her anymore, rather, it clawed at the air, trying pointlessly to push away the light. Gangle had no time to react to this. Quickly, she scooped up what she could off the ground into the bag, slung it over her shoulder, grabbed her staff with her free hand, and yelled to the others.

"Let's get out of here, now!"

Pomni and Kinger nodded to each other, and the three were able to escape the room, thanks to Gangle maneuvering her way around the monster while still keeping the beam of light fixed on it. She slammed the door behind her as hard as she could, and the three started to run away again, down the hallways, around corners, until they were sure that they'd gotten far enough away.

"In here, guys!" yelled Pomni, gesturing to another open door. Gangle saw that this particular door was several times thicker than the last one. The monster would have trouble getting through this one, if it could even find them. She rushed in, and stopped, out of breath. She took a deep breath in, and out, as Pomni closed the door once all three had entered the room. Gangle looked around the room. Unlike the maze, it was bland, gray, and dark. Gangle didn't care about that. No, what had caught her eye was this room's item.

Sitting on a small pedestal in the middle of the room was a lonely croissant.

Coming off the high of adrenaline, Gangle allowed herself a moment to try and relax. She held the croissant in her hands, not eating it, but pondering it. God, it seemed like forever ago by now, the talk she'd had with Zooble only last night. She'd enjoyed her croissant, hadn't worried about monsters, and was celebrating an entire day of keeping her comedy mask together. She grabbed the bag, and rummaged through it for any shards of her mask. She found a rather large one, and held it in her other hand, side-to-side with the croissant.

Pomni and Kinger had been discussing the encounter in their own corner of the room, but then Pomni came over and sat beside Gangle against the gray wall.

"Are you feeling alright after that? You took a really hard hit there."

Gangle solemnly shook her head.

"I... spoke with Zooble last night. About... this whole place," she held up the croissant, "and how it's not real. Not really. They'd said that that didn't matter much to them, as long as we could still try and appreciate the beauty of it." She closed her eyes, and continued. "At the time, what they were saying seemed... inspirational, really. So, I thought I'd try doing that."

She shifted, holding up her comedy mask again.

"I've been trying to stay positive, to keep this thing together. Trying to appreciate the beauty, or something. Trying to find the things that matter. But I couldn't even do that. I just..." she curled her legs up, and tucked her face behind her knees as best she could. "I can't even stay happy enough to keep it together for two days in a row. I miss... I miss when things were real, in the real world, when we're not getting chased by monsters every day. I miss Zooble. And I just..." she felt a tear drop from her mask and reform, "I just wanna go back to being normal again." She sniffled.

"I don't want this warped version of reality."

Pomni reached a hand out, but then retracted it.

"Warped version of reality..." repeated Kinger. Pomni looked over to him. Kinger scratched his head, then looked over at Gangle. He waddled over and sat down beside her.

"Spending every day stuck in this place, this world, it can all feel like a lot sometimes. From what you're saying, it sounds like you've been putting a lot of pressure on yourself to try and stay positive. You want to feel normal, and you're afraid of what might happen if you don't."

Gangle looked up at him. The tone in his voice was surprisingly real.

"Appreciating the beauty is one thing, but it's important to hold onto your own feelings, too. It can be hard, trying to find the right balance of emotion. Just being positive about everything all the time isn't healthy. Finding the right way to express how you feel is important. You... said you felt better when you were 'real'." He looked out across the room.

"I don't think you're any less real in here than you were out there. You're Gangle. You're real to the rest of us. You're a real person, with emotions and depth. Even if this place isn't real, you can still be real on the inside of it."

"H-how do you do that?" Gangle stuttered in awe. She'd never seen Kinger be this... aware of himself, really. Kinger gave a faint sigh.

"You do your best to stay with the people that matter the most to you. We all care about you, Gangle. We want you to feel comfortable."

"We're here if you need us, Gangle," said Pomni, scooting a little bit closer.

Gangle felt another tear drop from her mask. She could feel her friends, on either side of her, wanting to help and support her. The three sat there in silence for a short while longer before Gangle sniffled.

"Thanks, you guys. That... means a lot to me." She looked over at both of their faces, and she could see in their eyes how much they both cared. She closed her eyes, and let out a large breath, realizing that she'd been holding one in.

"It can just get really hard to find a way to keep going in here," she said, "but you guys make it better."

She tried thinking about how both of them had defended her against the monster. How they tried to help her in the fight, and what she could do to try and help them. She remembered the flashlight.

"When I shined that flashlight on the monster, the light seemed to hurt it." She looked through the bag for it, and shone it across the room, clicking it on and off. "Maybe... we can use that, somehow?"

Pomni and Kinger considered this.

"If you think it's worth a shot, I trust you," said Pomni.

The three of them took stock of what they had left before leaving the room. All three had their weapons and accessories of choice. In Gangle's bag was the flashlight, the compass, a few shards of her mask, and the croissant. While they walked down the hallway, Gangle found herself fidgeting with the compass. Pomni noticed.

"Do you think it does anything?" she asked.

Gangle still wasn't sure. Every time she tried pointing it somewhere different, the arrow seemed to move around randomly, like north itself was moving somehow.

"Not sure yet."

The two watched it for a while as they walked.

"Hang on. It's doing something," Pomni pointed out.

Gangle saw the needle start to converge towards a direction. It was still moving wildly, but it was starting to contain its movement to a single half of the compass.

"Almost like it's pointing somewhere," said Pomni.

"Do you think we're supposed to follow it?" asked Gangle, thinking aloud. Pomni shrugged, and smiled.

"It's worth a shot."

The trio tried their best to follow the compass, making specific turns whenever they could, and backtracking if they needed to. As they went on, the compass became smoother with its direction, as if getting closer to whatever it was pointing at was somehow making it more precise. Against all odds, Gangle was starting to feel hope again, hope that whatever the compass was pointing to would get them out of this adventure. Finally, it stopped shaking, and converged on a single direction, no matter how much Gangle moved it around.

"We're close. It should be just around this corner," she said.

The three rushed around the corner together, and at the end of the hall, they saw... another monster.

"Oh, you gotta be [%$!#]ing kidding me," Pomni said, completely deadpan.

The monster turned around, saw them, snarled, and began rushing at them. Hurriedly, Gangle set the bag down, and fished around inside for the flashlight. Kinger started shooting, but soon stopped.

"I'm out of ammo," he said, clicking the shotgun trigger.

"Gangle! Get the flashlight ready! I'll stall it!" yelled Pomni, running towards the silver monster, swinging her mace around in the air. As Gangle rummaged through the bag, she heard the sound of the mace thunking the monster once or twice. Finally, she found the flashlight.

"I got it!" she yelled.

"Great! Get over here!" yelled Kinger, who was now also running up to fight the creature. He tried whacking it with the gun, since he couldn't shoot anymore. And Gangle was left alone at the end of the hallway with the only thing she knew could hurt the creature.

Focus on how I feel. Use that. Look for openings.

You can do this, Gangle.

Gangle took a deep breath in and out, preparing herself. She stretched her arms, and began running. Thanks to the shoes, she reached the others in no time. She held her staff in front of her, charging towards the monster like she intended to ram it with the staff. The others got out of the way fast, leaving her to face down the creature. It didn't back down, it stamped at the ground, fully ready to take on her attack...

And at the last moment, Gangle swerved out of the way, sliding on the ground, turning as fast as she could. The monster didn't expect that, and it was caught off guard for a second. Wasting no time, Gangle aimed the flashlight at the creature and turning it on.

The monster howled in pain at the sudden light attack, clawing aimlessly at the air, temporarily immobilized. Pomni got in a good whack or two with her mace.

But then the monster roared wildly, and stretched its wings out wide, hitting Gangle and knocking her down. The flashlight clattered away.

The monster reached its arms out for Pomni and Kinger, knocking them off balance and pushing them both to the ground. It snarled, turned around, and with anger in its eyes, started slowly approaching Gangle.

"Uh, guys? Guys?" she yelled, trying to crawl away backwards until she was against the wall. Her friends were unconscious. The monster kept approaching. Gangle could see her own reflection in the creature's eyes. She ducked, and put her hands over her face, trying desperately to achieve a small layer of defense.

Thunk!

From out of nowhere came a soccer ball, smashing into the monster's head. It looked to the side, and gave a terrible roar.

"Hey, save some of the fun for us!"

Gangle looked to her right, and couldn't believe her eyes. At the end of the hallway were Jax and Ragatha, standing side by side, looking like they were ready to fight a hundred of these monsters.

"Whaddya say, Rags? Think you can handle one more of these things?" asked Jax. Ragatha scoffed, smiling.

"I'll take the left. You head up the front," said Ragatha, with more confidence than Gangle had ever seen her with before. From behind her back, Ragatha pulled out a machete, and held it by her side, running up to meet the monster. The monster itself, having abandoned the easy target that was Gangle, roared again, and rushed up to meet Ragatha. Swiftly ducking to the side while maintaining her speed, Ragatha sliced the blade along the creature's silver hide. It roared in pain, but kept swiping at her.

Jax, on the other hand, rushed past the creature to grab the soccer ball. While the monster was distracted with Ragatha, he booted it as hard as he could, smacking the monster right in the head again. Distracted, the creature couldn't do anything but aimlessly flail its arms around. Ragatha swooped over to Jax.

"Machete! Now!" he yelled, holding out a hand. Ragatha smiled, and handed it over to Jax, who ran up and started to fight with the monster. Ragatha, on the other hand, ran over to help up Gangle.

"Are you guys alright?" she asked, lifting the bewildered Gangle off the floor.

"Yeah... we're fine..." said Gangle, awestruck. "How... what?"

Ragatha smiled coyly.

"With all of the monsters in here, we've had to learn how to make do. Turns out, I'm pretty good with a machete," she said, sounding proud of herself. Gangle could still hardly believe it. She looked back at Jax, who was having the time of his life fighting against the monster.

"Where's..." Gangle started, but before she could finish the question, she got her answer.

From around the corner came Zooble, wielding a really big axe. They swooped around the monster gracefully, swiping at it, taking every advantage they could, occasionally yelling out directions for Jax. They ducked, and dodged attacks, and they were amazingly calm, despite the tension of the battle.

It was the coolest thing that Gangle had ever seen.

Ragatha turned back to look at Gangle.

"Do you guys have anything we can use against this thing?" she asked. Gangle looked around the floor for the flashlight, and picked it up, presenting it to Ragatha.

"The light from this seemed to hurt it earlier," she said. Ragatha nodded, steely-eyed.

"Perfect!"

Zooble didn't know how much longer they could stall the monster for. After a while, it stopped seeming weak to the cuts from either of their weapons, and seemed ready to fight back. They only hoped the others had a plan.

With a swing of its arm, the monster knocked Jax down. Zooble kept jumping around it, avoiding its attacks, but the barrage seemed to be getting faster. They didn't know how much longer they'd last alone.

Then, suddenly, inexplicably, it screeched in pain. Zooble didn't know why. But they weren't going to waste the opportunity.

They ran up, pushing themselves off the wall for speed, and with a swift swing of their axe, they made a direct hit on the monster. It gave a small yelp, and suddenly popped like a balloon upon the axe's impact. Zooble had expected more pushback, and since they'd run up with a lot of momentum, tripped and fell over.

And as they looked up, they saw Gangle rushing up to them, tossing a flashlight to the ground and holding out a hand to help. They were speechless.

"Wh- Gangle?"

"Hey, Zooble!" she said, sounding happy.

Without warning, Gangle pulled Zooble up off the ground, and into a hug. It was... nice. Zooble hesitated for a second, not having expected this, but then they accepted it, and hugged her back for a few seconds.

They both pulled away, and stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. Gangle slowly put a hand up to her face.

"I'm... really happy to see you're safe," she said, smiling.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, each of them heard Caine's voice.

"Well done, my fanciful gumdrops! You've defeated enough monsters to claim victory over the maze! You should be proud of all of the new skills you've learned along the way!"

And with that, the portal back to the circus opened up at the end of the hallway. Ragatha went over to help up Pomni and Kinger, who walked back over to join the others. Jax helped himself back up, even though Ragatha had offered him a hand.

"Were you guys... okay?" asked Zooble, sounding a little worried. Gangle looked over at Pomni and Kinger, and smiled.

"Yeah. I think we made it out just fine."

And the six of them walked back through the portal together. Once more, Gangle took in the familiar sights of the circus.

Bubble floated up to them all and said that dinner was ready. Gangle smiled, hungry after the adventure, but she was stopped.

Kinger stood in front of the group, the bucket still over his head.

"Everyone, before we go eat, I'd like to say something."

"Oh?" asked Ragatha. To Gangle, Kinger sounded just as serious as he had in the croissant room, so she paid attention. If he had something important to say, she didn't want to miss it.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you all said this morning. About how this place can glitch and load things improperly. And then, on the adventure, Gangle said something that caught my attention."

Everyone turned to look at Gangle, who was confused. What had she said?

"You were talking about... reality. How you missed the real world. And then, you said it. You used the phrase, 'this warped version of reality'."

Gangle could feel everyone's gaze pointing at her, but she didn't care. What was Kinger getting at with this?

"Your point being?" asked Jax, sounding annoyed that he didn't get to eat.

"I'm sorry, everyone, that it's taken me this long to realize it. But I think I finally have an idea on how to escape the circus."

Knock knock knock.

Gangle looked up. Someone was knocking at her bedroom door.

"Hey, it's Zooble. Can I come in?"

"Oh! Give me a second!"

Gangle quickly got up and tried to tidy what she could. She wasn't really expecting company, and her room was a bit of a mess. It was a little dusty, but she didn't have enough time to clean everything. She went up to the door and opened it, seeing Zooble.

"Hey. What's... going on?" she asked, gesturing her arm to invite them in. They walked in, and Gangle sat down on the side of her bed, patting the covers next to her for Zooble to sit down on. Instead, they sort of just flopped down and laid across the bed, sideways, much to Gangle's surprise.

"Is... everything alright?" asked Gangle, concerned. Zooble sighed.

"I just keep thinking about... Kinger's plan. To 'escape the circus with glitches', or whatever. It just... ugh." They put their hands up to their face, and rolled over to look at the ceiling. Gangle knew what that meant.

"You don't think it'll work," she said, sounding sad.

"No, I just-" they stopped suddenly, sighing, and looked over to Gangle. "If it doesn't work out, and we all get our hopes up for nothing, what happens then? We just keep going like nothing happened?"

"Zooble?" asked Gangle, confused on where this was coming from. They stood up, and started pacing slowly, looking like they were trying to work out how to say something.

"But say it actually does work tomorrow. Say we all get out. What then? Do we just get on with our lives? Pretend everything's fine?"

Gangle frowned.

"I... think we have to try, at least."

Zooble walked back over to the bed. Gangle could tell they were frustrated, like there was more that they wanted to say. That they couldn't say.

"Listen. If this crazy plan actually works, we might not see each other again. And I don't..." they trailed off, avoiding eye contact, but then after a few seconds, they looked Gangle right in the eye.

"I don't wanna lose someone like you. I... can't keep pretending that this isn't more than it is. That we aren't more."

Gangle was a little shocked. She could feel her heart start to beat faster. Zooble kept talking.

"This... time that we've been spending together, it's been so nice. Being able to talk about anything, I've felt... so free, with you."

"Wh-where are you going with this?" asked Gangle, flustered and stuttering. Zooble took her hand in theirs, and looked her right in the eye.

"We could stay here together. We don't have to risk it. It could just be the two of us. Stay here, with me." They gripped her hand a little tighter.

Gangle was absolutely flabbergasted at this. She stumbled and stuttered over her words, seeing the resolve in Zooble's eyes. They... genuinely wanted to stay with her. And it would be so nice, to stay with them.

For a moment, Gangle thought about it. With the two of them, alone here together, they could be happy. They could learn from each other, do whatever they wanted together, they could... they could be happy.

"I..." she started. Hope filled Zooble's eyes for a second.

"I... can't. We can't stay here." she said. Zooble closed their eyes in resignation. Gangle continued.

"We... owe it to ourselves, to get out of here. We can't stay like this forever," she said, waving around her ribbon arms. "If we did, we'd just... be miserable. We have to get out, and find each other." She gripped Zooble's hand, and nodded, resolve in her voice. "We have to."

Zooble hesitated, unsure. Gangle wanted them to come with her, she wanted them to see how happy they could both be in the real world, together. They'd both grown in here, so much, but she knew in her heart that it was time to look forward.

Zooble sighed, got up, and slowly headed for the door.

Wait, no, why are you leaving, don't leave, please, I-

"Zooble?"

"Yeah?"

Before she knew what she was doing, Gangle got up from her seat on the bed. She walked over to the door, right up to Zooble, put both of her hands on their shoulders, and kissed them. Pressing her mask against their face, softly, making sure to be gentle. She could feel Zooble's shock, as well as the speed of her own heartbeat, but Zooble didn't seem to be against it. After the initial second, they reached a hand behind her mask, and pulled her in, embracing the kiss. Both of them stood there, together, hearts racing, holding each other, neither once wanting the moment to end. Gangle could feel her hand start to shake, but she didn't care.

After a few seconds, she started to pull away. Zooble loosened their grip on her head, but there was a linger as she moved back, as she didn't want to stop. She looked Zooble right in the eye, and tried to give the most genuine smile she could.

"It'll work out. I promise. We'll make it work."

"O...okay." they said, awestruck. Gangle let go, and Zooble took a step back, opening the door. They started to leave, walking backwards out the door, not daring to turn around. They grabbed the doorknob, and held it for a few seconds, not wanting to close it. Eventually, they gave in, and closed the door.

Gangle walked over to her bed and laid down, sprawling out across the covers. Her breathing was heavy. Ecstatic and almost buzzing from the kiss, she held out her hands to look at them. She chuckled when she saw that they were both shaking. Despite the monster and the fight, despite the rush and intensity of today, she knew that both would eventually fade from her mind. The kiss, however, she would remember for the rest of her life.

What a crazy day, she thought, euphoric.

Chapter Text

Gangle opened her eyes for what she hoped would be the final day in the circus.

Last night had seemed almost as long as her first night in the circus, and for good reason. After Kinger's explanation of his escape plan, Gangle was shocked. Finally, after all this time, was an opportunity to go back to reality, to finally feel some semblance of normality again. Try as she might to fight it, or suppress it, Gangle couldn't help but feel a rising note of hope in her heart. Kinger's plan had been echoing in her mind for a very long time before she managed to get to sleep.

And as if the prospect of escape alone wasn't enough to faze Gangle, the kiss last night had absolutely driven her mind and heart into a frenzy. She kept replaying it in her head, over and over, a million different thoughts buzzing around her brain like a beehive. Zooble's concern for her, their fear of losing her today, their hesitancy to accept escape, a feeling hopefully changed by Gangle's own reassurances. How they'd taken her hand, and made their feelings clear to her. And then, finally, the kiss, that magical, perfect moment.

For those brief few seconds, the intensity and stress of the past day had all faded away, and Gangle felt whole again, moreso than she had in a long time. With Zooble, she felt like everything simply became brighter, and any task became easier. Whenever they were around, Gangle felt free to open up her thoughts. Thanks to the kiss last night, she'd made her feelings crystal clear, too.

A teardrop emerged from her mask, and she wiped it away. She'd predicted a night of restless sleep after everything that happened, and she didn't want to scratch her comedy mask in her sleep before what could be her last day in the circus. She looked across her room, at her comedy mask, which lay safely on top of a crate, fully intact. She had backups, so she wasn't too worried, but something told her that today, she'd need the same one she'd been using for the last few days. The one she and Zooble fixed together. The one she kept intact for an entire adventure.

She started to get up from bed, but her balance was almost immediately thrown off. Righting herself, she could see why.

Looks like I was right about that restless sleep, she thought, looking at her tangled body. Her tragedy mask was scratch-free - for whatever reason, it barely ever broke - but the ribbons that made up her body had tangled and knotted and tied themselves together in her sleep. And that meant she'd need to take some time to fix everything.

Slowly, she sat up, and made her way over to the mirror behind her desk. She watched her reflection carefully as she began untying herself. As she worked, the voices of her friends echoed in her mind.

"It inspires me to try and do better here, and maybe to be a better version of myself."

"We're in this one together, right? If you need my help, I got your back!"

"You're Gangle. You're real to the rest of us."

"I don't wanna lose someone like you."

Gangle knew the risks. Even if today worked perfectly, there might be people who couldn't make it out. And if everyone made it out fine, they might not find each other again. The world was big, and sometimes people slip through the cracks.

As she finished her untangling, Gangle beheld herself in the mirror. She'd been lost in thought for a while. Now, looking at her reflection, she had an idea. She walked over to the other side of her bed, and grabbed the plush that looked like her. She held it up, and looked at it, then turned to the mirror and looked at her reflection.

If this works, then today's gonna be the last time I look like this.

She picked up her comedy mask in her other hand, and sat down on the foot of the bed, looking at both items, trying to come to terms with it. For almost as long as she could remember now, she'd been made of ribbons. How would it feel to go back to a human body?

She set the plush of herself down on her bed. Slowly, she put on her comedy mask, and in the back of her mind she felt that spark of resolve ignite. She stood up, and walked over to the other six plushes. She picked them up, and set them down on her bed, in the same arrangement. Jax, Kinger, Ragatha, Zooble, Pomni, and Caine. She grabbed the plush that looked like her, and put it in the very middle. Smiling, she walked out of the room, and closed the door.

Goodbye, Gangle. For what it's worth, it was fun being you.

Making her way out into the main hall, Gangle was confused to see that it was empty. Normally, everyone was up and about, preparing for adventure by the time she got up. She looked around for her friends. To her right, she saw them, huddled around the corner of the tent. She walked over to see what everyone was doing.

When she got there, she saw that Kinger, the bucket still over his head, was walking along the wall, methodically placing one foot exactly in front of the other.

"One hundred fifty eight, one hundred fifty nine..." he counted as he walked. Somewhere around 250 steps, he turned left, and started walking in that direction too.

"What's... Kinger doing?" Gangle asked. The others turned to look at her, not having noticed her presence before.

"Oh, good morning, Gangle!" said Ragatha, cheerful as ever. "We've started setting up Kinger's plan. It's..." she trailed off, watching him count his steps.

"It's really weird so far, is what it is," said Jax.

Gangle looked over at Zooble, who was leaning against the wall, away from everyone else. They met her gaze, and shyly waved. She waved back. She wanted to talk with them today about the kiss, and how she felt, and a million other things. She motioned for them to come over, hoping they'd join in with the group, but they didn't. They just... hesitated, for a few seconds, and tilted their head. Although they said nothing, Gangle understood what they meant.

Don't worry. We can catch up later.

Gangle started to walk over to them, but stopped when Kinger started to speak.

"Two hundred and fifty six! Alright, everyone, it should be somewhere around here!"

Gangle turned around, and saw Pomni, Ragatha, and Jax walking over to him. What was going on over there?

Quickly, she glanced back at Zooble, and saw them give a small thumbs-up. She smiled, nodded, and rushed over to the others.

When she reached them, she saw Kinger using a crayon to draw a big circle on the ground.

"Almost... there... alright, team!" he yelled, "Let's do this thing!"

"How... exactly are we doing this, again?" Pomni asked.

"Yeah, how's this dumb plan gonna work?" asked Jax, sounding almost annoyed that this was taking so much time.

"Well, I'm glad you asked!" Kinger said, pointing a finger into the air, . "When computers load an area like this one, they do it in small chunks, so they don't have to load an entire map at once. Tell me, have any of you ever noticed a wobble, sometimes, when you're walking?"

Gangle thought back. Every now and again, she'd notice a small hiccup in her step, like her balance had been ever so slightly thrown off by something unseen. It didn't happen too often, so she really hadn't given it much thought. When it did happen, she just attributed it to 'adjusting to the digital world,' or something, and moved on with her day. She looked over at the others, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, I have," she spoke up. "Is that important to this?" Kinger nodded.

"I think that's what it feels when we cross from one major chunk of the map to another."

"But... how does that help us get out of here?" asked Ragatha.

"I'm glad you asked. In games like this one, sometimes the edges of these areas can cause glitches. If you walk around them in the right way, and at the right speed, it might cause other areas to warp, and load improperly. We just have to find the right spot to do that, and hopefully, that'll give us a window to get out through. Which reminds me, Gangle." All eyes turned to her.

"Y-yes?"

"Do you still have those shoes from yesterday? The ones that you said made you faster?"

Gangle thought back.

"Uh... yeah. I left them in my room." Sometimes, Caine would let the circus members keep mementos from their adventures. She had a shelf of curios in her dresser, various items she'd used and decided to hold onto. Random objects, like a pendant, or a coin. Luckily, she'd kept the shoes that had helped her in the fight against the monster yesterday.

"We're gonna need them for the plan. Would you mind going to get them?" asked Kinger.

"Sure." Gangle nodded tentatively. She walked back to the hallway.

Grabbing the shoes, Gangle closed the drawer. She left her room, and almost bumped right into Zooble, who was just outside.

"Oh! Sorry!"

"Ah! Zooble! You startled me there!" Gangle almost dropped the running shoes.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" they asked, reaching a hand out. Gangle nodded.

"I'll be fine." She tried to smile, to show them that she was alright. "Just... try not to do that again, okay?"

"Alright."

"So..." Gangle started, trying to sound cool, "what's up? What's going on with Zooble?" Zooble sighed.

"It's just the plan. I'm... still feeling a little nervous about it." They leaned up against the wall. Gangle followed, leaning as well.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.

Zooble didn't say anything for a bit. To Gangle, they looked deep in thought about something. Finally, hesitantly, they spoke.

"Promise me something."

Gangle nodded slightly, intrigued.

"Anything."

"Promise me... that if this works, that you'll find me. That the kiss last night meant something. That on the outside of all of this, we'll be safe. Together." They laced their fingers around Gangle's ribbon hand, and lifted it slightly, looking her in the eye.

On their face, Gangle could see their feelings for her, their hope, their inspiration, but also their fear. Fear of losing her, fear of something going wrong and something bad happening to her.

"Promise me."

Gangle smiled, and tightened her grip on their hand.

"I promise. We'll be safe." She smiled. She could feel Zooble's hesitancy, but from what she could tell, her own optimism was starting to work. Finally, they nodded.

"Alright. Let's do this."

They got up from the wall, and still holding Gangle's hand in theirs, flipped it around, signifying they wanted her to come with them. Gangle stood up, and the two of them started to walk back to the common area.

"One more thing," said Gangle, as they walked.

"Oh?" Zooble was curious. Gangle blushed a little.

"When we get out, and we're back to our normal lives, and everything... would you... wanna... I dunno, go somewhere with me? And we'd... get lunch or something, just the two of us?"

Having tried not to sound flustered, she held in a breath. Zooble chuckled.

"Are you... asking me on a date?" they asked. Gangle fake-chuckled in an attempt to play it cool.

"Would that... be okay?" she asked, hopeful. Zooble closed their eyes, and nodded.

"Gangle. I'd love to go on a date with you," they said. Gangle could hear the joy in their voice. She smiled.

"Oh... wow..."

Zooble chuckled again, and the two kept walking.

When they both reached the end of the hallway, a strange sight met their eyes. A few paces in front of them was a large red 'X' on the floor, about five feet wide. Gangle wondered what it meant.

"Oh, what are they doing over there now?" asked Zooble, suddenly sounding annoyed. Gangle looked over.

Caine was there, floating in the air, watching everyone. The four circus members had gathered around the circle that Kinger had drawn on the ground, and they were all slowly stepping over their own feet, wobbling their arms. They looked concentrated. Every now and again, Caine would give a little shiver.

Gangle and Zooble walked back over to the others.

"Hey, we got the shoes!" yelled Gangle. Ragatha looked up.

"Oh, great job!"

"What's... going on over here?" asked Gangle. Ragatha slowed down her weird movements to talk.

"We're testing the boundaries of these map chunk things. They should be somewhere around here, we think."

Gangle looked up at Caine, as if he'd give some sort of explanation of her friends' weirdness. He just sort of shrugged in response.

"Don't look at me, this wasn't my idea. I'm just here in case anything goes wrong."

"Come on, try it!" said Ragatha, gesturing to a vague area to her right. Gangle stepped up.

"Just walk around slowly, and see if you feel one of those wobbles." Kinger pitched in, focused on his own footing.

Gangle made her way through the area. At first, she felt nothing. But then-

A flutter in her step, like something was tripping her. For the briefest of seconds, she slowed down, and her balance was thrown off a little. She stopped, and turned around. Caine shivered again.

"Whoa," was all she could say.

Zooble shortly followed, taking Jax's place around the circle, who promptly left to go get a snack. They paced around for a bit, and then seemed to experience the same thing. They looked at Gangle. She gave a smile, and a firm nod in response.

The five of them kept stepping weirdly around the circle for a while, Caine giving a small shiver every time someone felt a wobble. Gangle was focused on one particular area of the circumference, hopping back and forth, feeling a wobble now and again. She was so close to freedom, she could almost feel it. One step at a time. She just had to find the right footing, the right place to step, and she could finally leave.

Just one more step, she thought, putting her foot down.

At the exact moment her foot touched the ground, an odd feeling rippled throughout her nervous system. It felt like a ringing, like her body was harmonizing with the floor itself. It didn't feel like a normal wobble or flutter, like the others, rather, it felt like all of the wobbles were coalescing and harmonizing around her. It felt really weird. Upon her putting her foot down, Caine started making incomprehensible gibbering noises out of nowhere.

"I... think I found it," she said, her voice almost ringing in harmony with the feeling. Everyone, who'd been looking at Caine, suddenly looked at her.

"Oh! Don't move!" said Kinger, holding out his hands. He grabbed his crayon, and drew a much smaller circle around the spot Gangle had stepped. "Okay, now you can move."

She took her foot out of the circle, and instantly, Caine stopped making the weird sounds.

"Oh. Whew!"

Gangle walked away from the circle as the others continued to dance around. She went over to Caine.

"Hey, Caine. Are you alright after that? You seemed a little bit messed up by it."

Caine, always holding onto that sense of composure, tipped his hat.

"Not to worry, my dear. I'm feeling just dandy!"

Gangle could sense a small amount of regret in his voice. She looked over at the others, and back to the ringmaster.

"Are you... gonna be alright, with us leaving?"

"Hmm?" He looked down, one eye open.

"If this works, then we'll all be gone. You... wouldn't have anyone to make adventures for. You'd... be all alone here." She stopped there, not wanting to go any further down that particular train of thought. She... didn't want to think about the idea of someone being all alone in the circus, particularly not someone like Caine, one of the people who'd changed her life. Slowly, Caine dropped his usual pep, and floated down to talk with her easier. His teeth (eyebrows?) shifted to a melancholy expression.

"My place is here, making adventures for whoever ends up inside my circus. People come and go, but the adventures always have the same heart behind them." His tone was a little somber, like someone who was trying to be strong in the face of a challenge. Gangle had never heard him sound this serious before. He continued, looking out at the group.

"My... purpose is to keep you all entertained, however I can. I can't force any of you to stay."

Gangle thought he sounded resigned, defeated. She didn't like that. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Caine, for being there for us. Your adventures... really helped me grow, and learn about myself as a person. I doubt that there's a single one of us who'll forget you."

Caine looked at her. He seemed to consider this, then smiled. Slowly, he opened his mouth to say something, and-

Suddenly, he started gibbering again. Startled, Gangle yelped, and jumped a tiny bit back.

"Found one!" yelled Pomni, throwing her arms in the air in victory. Gangle looked over. Kinger made his way over to where Pomni was standing, and marked out the spot between chunks. Pomni moved her foot, and Caine went silent again, blinking a few times. He looked over at Gangle. Then he started to laugh.

Realizing that he wasn't in pain, Gangle chuckled too. Caine sighed.

"Oh, man, this is gonna feel really weird," he said, his usual demeanor sounding back up to 100%. He held out his hand, motioning for Gangle to head over to the others.

"You can go help them again. I'll... I'll be fine."

Gangle smiled, and started to walk back.

"Oh, and Gangle?" Caine said from behind her. She turned around.

"Yeah?"

Caine... seemed to hesitate.

"You've all changed... me... for the better, too. I'll remember you all, for a long, long time."

He was being genuine, Gangle could tell. She smiled, wishing her friend a happy future.

"Goodbye, Caine. Good luck."

Kinger drew a long line between the two points on the floor with a yardstick that Caine conjured up. Walking parallel to the line, the circus members found a third spot, and a fourth shortly afterwards. Kinger connected both new points, and soon, the crew was left with another large 'X' on the floor.

Standing beside one of the lines, with the running shoes on his feet and the bucket on his head, Kinger stood there, addressing the group.

"Alright. This is it, team. Pay close attention to how I walk, everyone."

Slowly, he walked beside the line, and upon reaching the point where the two lines met, stepped right and turned, then quickly flipped around and turned left, walking back to where he started.

"It might take a few tries, but the important part is getting the right steps at the right speed. I'm going to speed it up now."

He repeated the steps much faster, going back and forth a few times.

Gangle felt a little bit worried. How was this supposed to work, exactly? And if it didn't, what would she do next? What would-

"Whoa, look at that!" yelled Ragatha, snapping Gangle out of her thoughts. She looked across the tent, to where Ragatha was pointing, and she could hardly believe her eyes. About halfway down the tent, around where the hallway that led to everyone's rooms began, was something that wasn't supposed to be there.

At a certain point, the floor suddenly changed to grass, and the wall just... stopped existing, the bright blue sky being there instead. A short distance away, the lake was visible, as clear as if it was right in front of them. The pathway and the rocks made it clear: Kinger had made a chunk of the map appear in the wrong place.

The circus members murmured.

"Was this... supposed to happen?" asked Jax, confused. Kinger nodded.

"Mm-hmm. I'm going to head over there now." he said.

"W-wait. What... happens next?" Gangle asked.

"I left a big 'X' on the floor exactly twenty paces from the entrance to the hallway. The idea is that, if I'm standing in the doorway when Caine resets the chunk, the circus's system won't know which room to load me back into, and hopefully, it'll spit me out of the program itself."

"What if it goes wrong? What then?" asked Pomni, worried.

Kinger lifted the bucket and looked at her, then adjusted his gaze to look at the rest of the crew. His expression looked a little solemn.

"If this works, we'll make it out. But if something goes wrong... then we'll know not to do that again. Everyone..." he paused, sighing. "It was a pleasure getting to know you all. I can't wait to see you all on the outside."

Seeing everyone's faces, he turned around, and walked over to the X. Turning towards where the wall would be, he walked, counting 20 steps, and turned in place to look at Caine, who had followed him.

"Alright, Caine. I'm ready."

Caine nodded, and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, the light from outside disappeared, as the wall and floor suddenly poofed back into existence, right back where they were supposed to be as if they'd never left. Gangle looked over with concern.

She heard the bucket clatter to the ground, and watched in awe as it rolled away, leaving nothing but an empty doorway and a pair of running shoes behind. Caine floated back over to the five others.

"I... I can't see him anywhere." A few more seconds, and he shook his head. "Kinger's not in the circus."

The shock from everyone was almost audible.

"He... he actually did it," said Zooble, still not believing the words that came out of their mouth. "He's... gone."

Mouth agape, Gangle tried to formulate words. She failed.

The remaining five sat around for a short while longer, deliberating over who should go next.

"This is an actual way out! We can't mess this up, guys!" said Pomni.

"Do we even... know if he made it out? How do we know he wasn't just evaporated by the code or something?" asked Zooble.

"Oh please, if he was, it would've looked more exciting," said Jax sarcastically. Zooble didn't like that.

"What... what if it..." they started, not wanting to finish that thought.

"Zooble?" asked Gangle, concerned. They shook their head in response.

"I'm sorry, I just..." they got up, and started to walk away, "I need some fresh air."

Gangle frowned, and watched them get up and leave. So much was on the line here.

"Well, they're definitely not going next," Jax said, smiling.

Gangle got up too, and started to follow them. Unfortunately for her, once she reached the door, they were nowhere in sight. She didn't see where they'd gotten to after leaving.

But she knew Zooble. She didn't need to see where they went.

"It's just so... ugh. Why aren't any of the rest of them worried about this?" yelled Zooble. The Moon frowned. Zooble continued.

"I mean, Kinger just disappeared into thin air! And none of them seem concerned!" They threw their hands into the air.

"Maybe they are. Maybe they just don't want to show it," the Moon offered. Zooble tilted their head, and sighed. Their tone became resigned.

"Why can't... they all just see how dangerous this might be? Why can't Gangle?"

Zooble closed their eyes. They didn't know if Kinger was gone, or if he'd made it out, or what. They didn't like that uncertainty, and they especially didn't like applying that train of thought to Gangle. If she did the same thing, and if she ended up hurt...

"Maybe Gangle is just as scared about this. Maybe she just doesn't want to show it."

That got a small chuckle out of Zooble.

"Yeah, right." They thought back to how Gangle had acted last night when presented with the plan, and how she was so confident that it would work. "She seemed so sure of it. Like the thought of the danger hadn't even crossed her mind."

"You know what I think?" the Moon asked.

"What?"

"I think Gangle is just as concerned about you as you are for her. She cares about you, you know."

Zooble felt a small blush rise on their face. The Moon laughed a little.

"You really don't see it, do you?"

"See what?" asked Zooble, a little bit frustrated.

From behind them came the answer.

"I do care about you, Zooble. More than you know."

Zooble turned around, and saw Gangle standing there by the treeline. Zooble didn't even hear her show up. Slowly, Gangle walked over to the stone outcropping, and sat down in front of the chair she'd used both nights before. She looked over at Zooble, and patted the ground next to her. Tentatively, they sat down.

"I'll... let you two talk this out," the Moon said, floating out of view. Gangle sighed, and laid back on the ground beneath her.

"I figured you'd be out here," she said calmly. Zooble looked away.

"I... don't think I can do this. Please, stay with me here." They paused, and an uncomfortable silence hung in the air between their words. "Please."

Gangle looked up at the sky. Night and day were strange, in the circus. But since the Moon was nearby, a few stars dotted the sky, even though it was the middle of the day by anyone's account. She thought about the stars, and then spoke.

"You wanna know the reason I'm so sure about this, Zooble?"

Zooble tilted their head in confusion. If there was something Gangle knew, they very much wanted to hear it. Gangle lifted her head, looking over at Zooble, smiling.

"It's because of you."

"Wh- me?"

Gangle nodded.

"Ever since I can remember, you've been helping me work through my emotions. Being there for me when I need you, even if I didn't feel like I deserved your company. Helping me calm down when I was stressed, showing me this place, opening up this side of yourself to me. Teaching me to appreciate the beauty of things, and to try and see them for what they could be rather than what they are. All of that was you, Zooble."

Zooble was visibly flustered at this. Gangle kept going.

"You've helped me grow as a person, in this place. I'm better, because of you. Now, we have a chance to grow even more. It's not that I'm not worried about the danger of the plan, or what could happen to us. What could happen to you." She paused. "It's that... above all else, we have to try. It's what you've taught me that's making me seem so sure of this here." She reached out for Zooble's hand, and wrapped her own hand around it. "We have to try to go further. I'm very sorry, but we can't stay here together."

Slowly, she sat up, and climbed to her feet, taking Zooble with her.

"After all, I have a promise to keep. And you owe me a date."

Zooble closed their eyes, deep in thought. Once or twice they nodded.

Please say yes, please say I got through to you, just please come with me.

Finally, they opened their eyes.

"Okay. I trust you."

Making their way back to the circle, Gangle and Zooble held hands as they walked. They approached the others, and saw that Ragatha was wearing the shoes.

"Oh, hey guys!" she said, chipper as ever.

"Hey, Ragatha. Are you..." Gangle asked, looking at the shoes. She nodded, smiling.

"Yep! Gosh, if this works, we can all finally go back to normal, huh?" she asked. Gangle could hear something in her voice, a twinge of uncertainty, like she still didn't fully believe it would work. Gangle smiled, and let go of Zooble's hand, pulling Ragatha into a hug.

"Good luck out there," she said.

Zooble joined in on the hug. From a little ways over, Pomni walked up and came into the hug, too. Jax rolled his eyes.

"We getting on with this, or what?" he yelled.

The four held each other for a while longer, then let go. Smiling, Ragatha wiped a tear from her eye.

"Well, I guess this is it. You guys should go. I'll be alright."

Gangle nodded, and the three of them walked away, towards where Jax was standing. They watched Ragatha take the quick steps, and they watched the wall disappear in response. They watched her walk away, and disappear when Caine reset everything. And then, it was the four of them left. Caine floated back over, holding the shoes.

"She's... gone." a hint of sadness in his voice.

Since day one, Ragatha had tried to help everyone else feel comfortable. Gangle enjoyed spending time with her. She hoped that Ragatha was safe, wherever she ended up. She squeezed Zooble's hand a little.

They reacted, looking her right in the eye. Gangle understood what they meant to ask.

Do you trust me?

She gave a faint exhale, and nodded.

Still holding Gangle's hand, Zooble turned to adress the others.

"I'm going next. End of discussion."

The words came as a shock to Jax and Pomni, but Gangle knew what they wanted.

"Whoa, really? A- are you sure?" asked Pomni, confused.

"Ah- whu-" Jax started to stutter, but then quickly regained his composure. "You know what, I don't even care. Go on. It'll finally be fun around here without you."

Gangle frowned, and tugged on Zooble's arm a little.

"Are... you really sure?" she asked. This was what she wanted, she knew, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't also worried. Just earlier, Zooble had seemed so unsure of the plan. But now, they looked like they believed it completely. Zooble nodded.

"We're gonna need to go through with this for you to follow up on your promise."

They held up Gangle's hand.

"It'll work. We'll make it work."

They pulled her into another hug. Pomni didn't join this time. The two of them stood together, holding each other, not wanting to let each other go. Gangle had so much she wanted to say. Eventually, she lifted herself out of the hug. Calmly, Zooble spoke.

"See you on the other side, I guess."

They let go of Gangle's hand, and turned around to get the shoes from Caine. Gangle went to sit beside Pomni and watch Zooble do the steps. She watched as the wall glitched, and Zooble walked over to the X, counted the paces, and stood there waiting. Although they were a ways away, she definitely heard them talk again.

"Thanks, Caine. I know we didn't really get along, but for what it's worth, I think we both ended up alright."

Caine said something back, but Gangle didn't hear. She was too focused on watching Zooble go, trying to keep them in her sight for as long as she could.

She heard a finger snap, and just like that, Zooble was gone.

Caine flew back over, and barely said anything.

"There we go. Who's next?"

Gangle noticed that his voice had lost a lot of its normal intensity. He seemed to be just as emotionally affected by the idea of leaving as everyone else was.

Now that Zooble was gone, it was up to her now. She stood up, and looked at Caine.

"I'm ready. Let's do this."

She waved goodbye to Pomni and Jax, and, moving like she was on autopilot, she put the shoes on, and did the steps effortlessly. She walked over to the X with Caine close behind, and turned around, stepping into the grass. A short ways down from her was the chunk of the lake that had loaded improperly. If she looked at the right angle, she could see her own reflection. She smiled at the sight, and turned to look up at Caine. All that was left was to leave.

"Good luck out there, Gangle," said Caine. She nodded, holding in a breath.

"Good luck, Caine."

Gangle smiled.

Twisting and falling.

Rising up into the air.

Swirling down like water falling into a drain.

Gangle opened her eyes. She was flying through the void. Scared, she looked around. The void rushed past at a speed she didn't dare to imagine. Her avatar spun around in the open space, drifting.

"Gangle!"

A voice came from the depths. Gangle looked out, and saw Zooble in the distance, spinning away from her.

"Zooble!"

She pointed her arms back, trying desperately to become more aerodynamic and reach them. At the speed she was already going, she'd approach them soon.

Come on, you can do this, just get over there, just reach them!

Slowly, the gap between them started to close. Zooble evidently had no more control over their trajectory than Gangle did.

Almost there, just a little further!

"Grab on!"

Zooble reached a hand out for Gangle to hold. With all her might, Gangle stretched, and reached, and tried to hold on. She didn't know how much longer this trip through the void would last.

Just... There!

Gangle finally got a hold of Zooble's hand.

"I'm here. I'm not letting go."

The two started to spin together around each other's grip on their hands. Acting like a focal point, it changed their trajectories, speeding them both up. Gangle could feel everything collapsing.

Then she evaporated.

She opened her eyes, a scream escaping her mouth. She felt trapped. She kept screaming for a little while longer. There was something on her head. Frantically, she ripped it off, and stared at it.

It was a VR headset. She was in a chair, in an otherwise empty room. She looked at her hands, adrenaline coursing through her mind.

She had hands.

She looked down at herself. She had hands, a body, hair, all normal human things. Was it normal to be breathing this hard?

Suddenly, the door to the room opened. Defensively, she put up her hands to protect herself, and let out a small whelp.

After a couple seconds of having not been attacked, she started to lower her arms, and look at the person who'd entered the room. It was a man, with a medium build and a small, blond beard. The look in his eyes told her that he wasn't here to hurt her.

"Are you okay?"

She closed her eyes.

"I..." her voice was rough.

"It's okay. Take your time."

She thought about how she hadn't really used her voice in years. Slowly, she started to talk again.

"I... I just need a little time to adjust."

The man knelt down to be eye level with her.

"Alright. You can take as long as you need. Remember to breathe."

She did, taking a deep breath in, and out. She closed her eyes. After a while, they reopened. She looked at the man. Something about his voice...

"You're... You were Kinger, weren't you?"

He nodded, and smiled, giving a little wave.

"Hi. It's nice to finally meet you. I'm... Simon."

A name. He remembered his name.

"You were... Gangle, weren't you?" he asked, inquisitive. "It's good that you made it out safe."

"Wh-why don't I remember my name? Shouldn't I-" she started, her breathing becoming a little faster. If something had gone wrong, if she still couldn't remember, she-

"It's okay. It took me a second, too. Just focus on your breathing. It'll come back."

She nodded.

"Alright."

He looked her in the eye.

"Do you want me to stay in here?"

She... shook her head.

"I... I think I can manage. Thanks. I'll... just be a few seconds."

"Okay."

Kinger - Simon - got up and started to leave.

"Lisa."

He turned back around.

"What?"

"That's... my name." She could hardly believe it. "I'm... Lisa."

Simon smiled.

"Good to meet you, Lisa."

Leaning against a desk, Lisa looked into a mirror. She had short, black hair that was tied at the back. Her eyes looked like those of a person who hadn't had much rest recently, but they contained a spark of joy nonetheless. She stared at her reflection in awe, still not believing that she'd finally made it back into her normal body. She wasn't Gangle anymore, with the masks and the ribbons. She was Lisa.

Simon had insisted the two stick around to see if any of the others would wake up. The two of them were in some sort of office building, on a floor full of desks and computers. Towards the back were five rooms. The door on the left was open, Simon said that it led to the room he'd woken up in. The fourth door was also open. That was the door that Lisa left after waking up.

"Ragatha... and Zooble... had left before I did," she said. "But... neither of them are here."

Simon shook his head.

"There's only five rooms here. That's not enough for everyone to have entered the circus. Which means..."

Lisa felt the note of hope in her heart sink.

"They're somewhere else. They're out, but they're somewhere else."

Simon put his hands together.

"And it was only Jax and Pomni that were left?"

"Yeah."

While waiting for the others, Lisa decided to look around the place. At first, she found nothing but switched-off computers and office supplies. But there, in the corner of the room, there was something.

"Hey, Simon?"

"Yeah?"

"Come take a look at this."

One of the computers in the room was on. It glowed with nothing but a few words. The two stared at the screen for a while, then started to laugh.

"The six of you are free at last! You've won, my adventurers!"

Caine's final message.

It felt good, to laugh.

Lisa and Simon went back to the doors.

Twenty minutes passed, and no sound was heard from behind any of the remaining doors. Reluctantly, Lisa decided to call it quits.

"Are you gonna be okay out there?" asked Simon. Lisa nodded.

"I... have an aunt that lives around here. I'll find her."

"Okay. You go on ahead. I... think I'll stay here for a bit.

There was a note of sadness in his voice, of memory that Lisa didn't quite get. Was he nostalgic for the circus? Holding onto hope that another door would open? Whatever the case, she wished him well, wrote down her phone number so the two could stay in contact, and she turned around to leave.

Before she could, though, she heard a door opening behind her. She looked back. Simon was gone, and the second door was open. The door to the room next to his own. She heard him sigh.

She hoped that, whatever he was doing, he was okay.

Lisa got out of her aunt's car, squinting as the sun met her eyes. From her pocket, she grabbed the napkin, and double-checked the address scribbled down on it. There was no mistaking it. This was the place.

She walked up to the door and knocked. It was a rather small place, but it looked nice. It looked cozy. From inside, she heard voices.

"Hey, Christine, can you get that?"

"On it!"

Footsteps rang out from inside, and the door opened.

It was a woman, slightly shorter than Lisa herself. She had long, brown hair that was tied in a ponytail.

"Can I help you?" she asked, pep filling her voice. Lisa knew that voice.

Is this... Pomni? she thought.

"Um... hi. Is this the home of..." she looked down at the napkin, "Avery Newman?"

The woman nodded.

"Can I ask what this is about?"

"It's nothing bad. I just... need to talk to them for a little bit."

A few expressions filled the woman's face. Contemplation, evaluation, and a hint of surprise. She smiled.

"Sure. I'll go get them."

"Thanks."

The woman winked.

"Don't worry. I got your back."

She walked away, and Lisa chuckled a little.

She recognized me.

Shortly after, someone else came to the door. They were taller, and had dark hair with a purple streak. They had a nose ring, and a little fleck of color in one eye.

Is... is this...

"Hello?"

That voice.

"Are you... Avery?"

"Yeah. What's going on?"

Lisa took a step back, and stretched her arms out before putting them back down at her sides.

"Hi. I'm... Lisa McMillan. But I think there's another name you might know me by."

At the sound of her voice, she could see the surprise light up Avery's face. She could see their shock, their joy. They took a step back, and almost whispered the word.

"Gangle?" they asked, hope filling their voice. They sounded like they could hardly believe it.

"Hey." she waved shyly, and gestured to her car. "Brought you a donut."

She dropped the napkin, and rushed forwards, twirling around Avery and pulling them into a hug.