Chapter Text
"Fuck!" Amari curses under her breath, running beneath a roof for cover, since it has started raining. It wasn’t even supposed to rain, but of course, with Amarin's luck today, it does.
First, it took her hours to get here.
Why?
Cause there was a traffic jam. The road that was supposed to take Amarin two hours, instead took five. And of course it had to be on a such important day like this.
'Why was it so important?' You may ask her.
Well, after months of looking for some other circus escapes, she managed to find one.
Sparky the dog, or in the real world, Frank Mitchell.
He was stuck in the circus for five years, apparently he knew Ragatha and Kinger, but he didn't seem to recall the names of the others.
Finally, she thought that she would move closer to her goal of putting an infinite end to 'The Amazing Digital Circus'. But oh boy, she sure was wrong.
As soon, as she brought that up to Sparky, her hopes got crashed faster than a speeding bullet on their gun adventure. Turns out, he was never interested in helping her with that.
Apparently, he had no idea that this was the reason she wanted to meet. He just thought that she needed some help readjusting to the real world after escaping the circus.
Long story short, their meeting ended with Sparky shouting at her, that she's absolutely crazy for wanting to mess with those people and he wants nothing to do with her. After that he just left her, in the bistro they meet in, all alone with all the people, who were now staring at her thanks to his small 'scene'.
And that's pretty much how she got here.
Amari sights. Great, now she's fully soaked, this day couldn't possibly get any worse.
'What now?' She looks around, seeking any possible place for cover, where she could wait the rain out. Since she's so 'lucky' today, she of course managed to miss her bus. And the next one isn't coming for the next eight hours at least.
A café comes to Amari's sight, but upon closer look, she realizes that it's closed. She checks the time on her phone. No wonder it's closed, it's already past midnight. Wonderful, that just means that pretty much everything will be closed by now.
She decides to get moving. It's probably not the best idea to stand all alone at night on a street with barely anyone. She's still looking for any kind of open place.
'What's wrong with him?' Amari thinks. She's discased at Sparky's attitude.
How can he live, knowing that there are still people stuck in that digital and do nothing?
How can he live, knowing that there are still some unsuspecting people, who just happen to find that vr set and enter their worst night mare?
How can he live with all of that, while knowing that he could at least try to help?
It might be dangerous, going against those people, Amari knows that, but still.
How can someone be so selfish?
Amari stops in her tracks, as soon as her eyes catch some light up place. Upon closer look Amari realizes that it's a bar.
Finally some luck on her side.
She quickly runs towards to it, not wanting to get even more wet than she is now. She walks in, sighting.
There are like two more people sitting there, chatting and having drinks. Now that she thinks about it, she would also use a drink or two. She decides to sit on the right side of the bar, away from those two people. She sits down and looks around her.
The bar isn't really big, it's quite small actually. A jazz music is playing, the air is filled with the smell of alcohol and vanilla? Out of all things. The blue lights finish up the over all look of the bar. It all reminds her of the bar adventure, in a sense.
"Good evening ma'am, what can I get you?" The bartender snaps her out of her thoughts. Amari's eyes scan over the drink menu. "Suprise me." She smiles at the bartender. "Sure thing." The bartender starts making her drink.
'They seem familiar.' Amari thinks.
They have a short mullet, it's pretty colorful, with pink, green and black. Their face is also full of piercings. But it isn't their appearance that seem so familiar. No. It's actually their voice. They sound like . . . like Zooble.
"Here you go." They give her, her drink.
"Thanks." Amari has to figure out if it's really them. But, she can’t just straight up asks them, she had enough embarrassment for today already. She has to find out discreetly.
"What's your name?" The bartender suddenly asks her, it takes Amari by a surprise. "Oh, I'm Amari. And you?"
"Bernie." They smile: "What brought you here?"
"I was meeting a . . . an acquaintance here in town, cause . . . cause of work." Amarin answers her. Bernie seem to be interested in talking with her, which is working in favor for Amari.
"I'm guessing that it's didn't go really well."
"Yep, . . . we ended up having a minor disagreement. How'd you know?" She asks, wanting to keep the conversation flowing. "I'm a bartender, I've got an eye for that."
"You're not there first, nor the last person to come drink away their problems here." They conclude.
"You seem like you have experience. Have you worked as a bartender for long?" First, Amari should learn more about them, to figure out, if they really could be Zooble.
Who knows? For all she could know, her mind could just be playing tricks on her. "Not really, only the last five months."
Five months? They could have possibly got out of the circus only recently. What else could she asks?
Her eyes look Bernie up and down, not really sure what she's even looking for. Amari's so focused on them, not even noticing Bernie's small discomfort. But it's all worth it once she notices the tattoo on their right arm.
That's right! Zooble once said that she also used to be a tattoo artist. "Nice tattoo, where'd you get it?" She asks her.
"Oh, this one?" They point at their arm. Amari nods. "My friend made it for me when we were both practicing our skills.
"Really? You used to be a tattoo artist?" Amari tries to learn more, finally getting some useful information. "Still am."
Amari takes a sip from her drink. It all checks out so far. It could possibly be Zooble. But it could also be a coincidence.
Amarin finishes her drink. "Can I get the same thing?" She requests. Bernie gets right to it.
'This isn't going anywhere.' Amarin thinks. She needs to let them know, or at least give them some kind of sign.
"And what about you?" They bring her the drink:
"What's your job?"
"Well. I used to work as an accountant for a supermarket chain, but, after a certain events I stopped. For the last two years I work as a freelancer." Amari answers her, hinting at her past. After all, she did mention her accounting job on the bar adventure. Zooble could potentially remember that.
"I can travel more freely thanks to that." She adds.
When she returned from the circus, she did actually got the offer to return to her old job. But at that time, she already made up her mind to devote herself to putting an end to 'The Amazing Digital Circus'. So she decided to go freelance, giving herself more freedom that way.
"Do you travel a lot?" Bernie asks.
"I guess you could say that." Amari says, admiring decorations on a wall that she didn't notice before. She doesn't know how to continue. They do seem like Zooble, Amari's sure of that. But it could also be just some other non-binary bartender/tattoo artist.
"What ‘cha looking at?" Bernie snaps her out of her thoughts. "Just the decorations. This whole place is really pretty."
"You think so?"
"Yea, it all reminds me of the bar adventure Caine made for us." Shit. She didn't meant to say that out loud. Amari slowly turns her head to Bernie, to see Tahir reaction. They are turned away from her.
Well, looks like they have no idea what she just rambled about. She should get going, if she doesn't want to make an even bigger fool of herself. She quickly throws her drink inside her.
"I've gotta say, I had no idea that you were also so short in real life, Pomni." She almost chokes on her drink. Bernie turns around looking into Amari's eyes.
"Zooble?" Amari asks, not being able to contain her smile.
Bernie also smiles: "Luckily, not anymore. Amarin laughs: "Oh my god! I can't believe it! It's actually you!" She practically jumped out of her seat, from the excitement. She looks back over at Bernie, who is now showing her to be quieter, with their index finger on their mouth. Which reminds Amari, that their not alone here.
She looks over at her left side, checking if the two people noticed her sudden change in volume. Thankfully, they ignored it.
"When did you manage to escape?" Amari turns back to them. Bernie's smile drops a little at the question. "Only like six months ago." They answer with a saddened tone to their voice. It's at this moment Amari, that realizes how painful this question has to be for them.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry. I didn't m-"
"It's okay." Bernie reassures her. Amari just sights. It's now that all the tiredness comes over her. Plus the fact that she's fully soaked also doesn't help. She's extremely uncomfortable. Bernie also seem to notice that.
"Hey, when are you leaving the town?" They asks her. "My bus is coming around 8 am." Amari answers her.
"My shift ends in 30 minutes, we could go to my place. We can talk more there. Plus, you could use some dry clothes." Bernie suggests, pointing out Amari's soaked appearance.
They're right, she could use a shower and some dry clothes. And also a place where she could wait the rain out. "I'd love to."
* * *
"Thanks for the spare clothes." Amari says walking out of the bathroom. She just took a shower at Bernie's place. It feels good to finally not be wet.
"You're welcome." They smile, pulling their eyes away from the phone their on. Amari sits down on the sofa, right across Bernie.
They put their phone away: "So, have you meet anyone else from the circus, yet?" Amari looks at her confused. "Anyone else? Did the others also manage to escape?" She asks, her eyes lighting up.
"Only Jax and Ragatha." They let out a heavyhearted sight, turning low in the spirits. "Kinger and . . . Gangle were still there when . . . I abstracted."
Oh . . .
"I'm- . . . That's. . ." Mamari doesn't know how to react to this information. What is she supposed to say now? Maybe she shouldn't have gone here. Perhaps it's time to leave now.
"Let's go to the balcony." Bernie says, as they stand up, walking towards the said balcony. Amari follows right after her. She looks at Bernie once again. They're currently taking something out from their hoodie.
It's a cigarette package. They take one between their fingers, putting the cigarette in their mouth. They turn to Amari, stretching their hand with the cigarette packet for them.
"Oh, I don't . . ." She's about to turn their offer down, but then something within stops her.
Should she? It was years by now, since she smoked last time. But one cigarette would hurt, right?
So, in the end, she does take the cigarette. "Thanks." After that, Bernie takes out a lighter, lighting both of their cigarettes.
They take a drag from their cigarette. Amari does the same. She inhales first, and then exhales. A gray smoke leaves her mouth.
"So, . . . I guess you wanna hear what happened after you left."