Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Welcome to the amazing traveling circus!
My name is Caine! I am your ringmaster and, my, do we have a show for you all today!
Please put your hands together for our lovely cast!

It was the same every show. Caine would float over the ring, voice booming as the audience roared louder than their lions. The red and yellow tent filled with cheers, colors, and bright blinding lights. Anybody outside was captivated by the sight alone, rushing to watch the show. The acts were well known, they didn’t exactly change too often. The daredevil, the acrobats, the mime, the juggler, and the performer. All working to entertain people from all around the world, under the guide of their ringmaster, of course. Everyone knew who they were. Everyone ran to watch when the circus appeared in their area. They were never in the same place twice in a row. The way they traveled should've been impossible. It was like magic.

As the ringmaster introduced each act, the audience let themselves be swept away by it. The pair of teeth tossed his top hat up, letting a rag doll with a purple button eye catch it, her other arm being held firmly by the purple rabbit gripping the trapeze bar as the pair swung through the air. The rag doll held the hat loosely while a chess piece flew through the air to grab it and throw it to the mute clown with a pasted smile. The hat was then passed to the person made of zolo blocks, juggling their own limbs along with the hat before tossing it to the girl made of ribbons and a mask for a face. Microphone in one hand and hat in the other, she passed the hat back to their ringmaster who officially began their show.

Through all the usual commotion, no one paid any attention to the panicked jester backstage.

Chapter Text

The cast walked backstage with tired smiles on their faces, talking amongst themselves. Until their ringmaster popped up out of nowhere. “Well done my little super stars! One of our best shows yet!” 

“You say that after every show” Zooble groans, putting their toy limbs back in place. Caine simply dismissed the juggler’s remark. A scream makes them all pause. The Rag doll being the first to break the silence that followed it. 

“Um…Caine? Are you sure all the audience members left?” 

“Of course! Everyone was sent back home.” The ringmaster snaps his fingers and a short jester with a red and blue hat appears right in front of all of them. The poor thing was shaking, eyes small as pinballs as she looked around frantically. Her gloved hands stayed close to her chest and her back was hunched over, making her seem smaller. “My my! Looks like we have a new cast member! I’ll handle this one. The rest of you go rehearse for tomorrow’s show!” 

Seeing the jester flinch, the Rag doll quickly tries to intervene. “Caine, maybe one of us should-” 

“I got this one, Ragatha!” 

Before she can argue again, a purple hand wraps around her wrist, dragging her away. “Jax!”

“What? You heard the dentures, she’ll be fine. Besides, we have to have this routine down by tomorrow.” The two walk off, bickering while the jester looks down at herself. 

“What?...What’s going on? Where am I?! Who are-”

“Welcome to the amazing traveling circus! You called the number, you are now part of the family!” The ringmaster announces rather loudly. “Now tell me, what is your name?”

“I-” Her pinwheel eyes shrink even more. “WAIT! WHY CANT I REMEMBER MY NAME?!” Her hands grip at the jester hat on her head, trying to pry it off. Why won’t it come off?

“Oh silly me! No one can remember their name once they’ve joined the circus!” His tongue sticks out from his teeth. “My apologies, friend. So, what should your new name be?” 

Feeling disoriented, the anxious jester mindlessly shakes her head. “Just…pick anything, I guess.” 

Caine’s eyes brighten at that before snapping his fingers. The floating pair of teeth and the small jester appear in front of a door with her face and random letters under it, ‘XDDCC’. Caine’s teeth furrow, scratching under where his chin would be. “hmm…That’s not right!” With another snap of his fingers, the letters flipped, revealing an actual name. ”What do you think of, Pomni?”

She looks up at her face on the door. Is that really what she looks like? She’s poked on the shoulder with the ringmaster’s cane. “Huh? Oh. Yeah that’s…fine.-”

“Wonderful! Lets see what you can bring to the team then!”

Pomni was certain the circus’ ringmaster was insane. Caine had thrown her into anything and everything! She’d been tossed, turned, and almost burned. It was a wonder how she was still alive. Although, with all the things she’d just witnessed, she was starting to wonder if death was even possible here. He made her the target for a knife throwing act! An idea he’d apparently had for years! After many trials and errors, Caine called in the rest of the crew, introducing her formally and asking them to help out. “I trust that you will all help her find her talent! I have important business to attend to.”

Once he disappeared, Pomni looked out at all the characters in front of her, fighting the tremble of her hands. Ragatha smiles brightly, being the first to walk over. “Welcome to the family, Pomni. I’m sure you’re gonna love it here.” The jester only looks up at the rag doll as she continues. “I’m Ragatha, one of the acrobats for the circus. Maybe we could start with that.” She offers, only to be cut off by a snort.

“Don’t bother. She’s much too shaky to even be up on the tightrope” Says the purple rabbit, arms crossed and a permanent smirk on his face.

”Jax. Be nice. It’s her first day.”

“What? I’m just being honest.” He says through a smug smile. “Besides, we don’t need another acrobat. Having me is enough.”

“Please. We all know Ragatha’s the one people come to see.” The circus’ juggler interjects before the rabbit’s ego can get any bigger.

Jax only scoffs “Matter of opinion, Zoobie.”

“She looks like a jester.” Everyone turns to the higher pitched voice. “Maybe it’s like Kaufmo. Pomni could possibly help with physical comedy?”

Pomni relaxes a little bit at the thought. “...I did work as costumed characters for 3 years.”

“Where is Kaufmo?” Ragatha asks, the chess piece shrugging with his response.

“He went to his room once Caine sent us all off. Kept saying something about a dark room. And eyes?” 

The rag doll’s own eyes widen, turning to Jax with a forced laugh. “Maybe we should check on him? I mean, I'm sure he’d love to meet Pomni!”

“Alright. Sure. The three of us will go check on him” He points to the remaining members of the circus. “You three can help set up an act for the new clown.”

“She’s a jester-”

“Same thing. Let’s go.”

The trio walked with Pomni between both acrobats, shoulders still hunched as she finally got a good look at the place. “You’re going to love Kaufmo. His comedy is purely physical, being a mime and all.” Ragatha rambled. “Like Gangle said, he did start as a regular clown but…well, it wasn’t his best work.”

“Say it like it is, Dollface. He sucked.”

“He wasn’t that bad.”

“You could hear crickets when he went onstage.”

“That’s harsh!”

“Just being honest.”

“How do I leave?” Pomni’s shaky voice cuts through their bickering. “...Like…if I don’t…like it here?” Ragatha’s face falls a little.

“Oh! Well the thing is-”

“You can’t.”

The jester’s frown deepens at the confirmation. It’s not like she hadn’t figured that out already. While with Caine, she’d tried to escape multiple times. But whenever she’d make it outside, the circus wasn’t even on the ground. They were so high up, no hills were even visible. How else were they supposed to leave? An exit door doesn’t exactly exist up here. A yellow finger pokes her face causing her to flinch and look up. When had they stopped walking? “What? What’s happening?”

“We’re getting one of our friends!” The Rag doll smiles brightly, knocking on the door. No answer. After three more tries, Jax pushes her aside, holding up a key with a grin.

“Don’t worry, Dollface. I got this one.”

“Wha- JAX! I thought you gave those back to Caine!”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. And you’ve all survived so far.”

Once the door clicks open, all three of them freeze. The room was empty and the place looked abandoned. Furniture was destroyed, objects were scattered across the floor, messy doodles of different colored eyes covered all four walls. Ragatha pushes past the other two to look around the room. Her smile was completely gone. Picking up a broken picture frame from the ground, she fights the tears already threatening to form in her eyes.

Until the picture is ripped out from her hands by a yellow one. “Okay, we don’t have time for this. You two go find Caine, I’ll tell the others to start looking for the clown.” Ragatha nods quickly, putting a smile back on her face before she turns back to the jester planted at the door.

“Right! I’m sure Caine knows where he is!”

Pomni watches as she walks over to her, looking at the room one more time before leaving with the rag doll. Ragatha begins calling out for the ringmaster, although her cries for help don’t seem to reach him. “So…how long have you been here? If you don’t mind me asking!” The jester asks, rushing the last bit.

“I don’t really know…We don’t exactly age here. I’m sure it's been years! Just not sure how many. What I do know is Kinger’s been here the longest and I came along after him.”

“Right…and you all perform every night?”

“Yes, we do! The circus disappears to outsiders after every show, once every audience member has left. We’re up in the sky in between them and then it reappears in a new location. Caine says it’s what keeps people lined up to come see us.”

“You’re never allowed to get off the circus grounds? Have you guys at least tried?”

The doll looks down as they continue down the hall. “We all did. When we first arrived. After a while you get used to it here. We don’t have to worry about food because Caine and Bubble always take care of it. There’s a carnival on the grounds so we have something to do when we’re not rehearsing. We all have our own rooms to rest in. There’s really no real reason to leave. We all called the number on the flyer. We all kind of brought ourselves here. That’s what Caine says, at least.”

It doesn’t take long for them to run into the others again. They’d been walking for quite some time now, having gone through all the rooms and looking anywhere they could think. Ragatha walks a little faster when she sees the rest of the cast. The mime is still missing. “Still no sign of Kaufmo?” Everyone shakes their head. Gangle’s comedy mask was gone, using her ribbon hand to wipe the tear drops from her eyes.

“You don’t think-”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We just need to find Caine first.”

Right on cue, the ringmaster appears in front of the group. “Hello, my dancing daisies!”

“CAINE” Kinger shouts. “We can’t find Kaufmo anywhere. Do you know where he might be?”

“Right! That’s what I'm here to tell you all! It seems our silent friend has disappeared.” Pomni perks up at this, not understanding why everyone looks so distraught. “With our comedy act gone, it looks like we could use a jester.” Caine says, focusing on Pomni. “I’m sure you’ve all had quite the long night. Get some rest and we’ll pick up our rehearsal in a few hours!” With that, he disappears.

Pomni looks around at the others. “...I thought you said we couldn’t leave.” Ragatha smiles sadly.

“We can’t. Some just…disappeared. One day they’re here and the next-...” She shakes her head, smile softening a little. “No point in thinking about that right now. Caine’s right, we all need some rest.”

The ringmaster let out a tired sigh. His teeth aching from today’s events. He never enjoyed lying to people, he was never good at it until now. But if it’s meant to protect them all, is it really lying? He steps inside his own tent, located on the other side of the circus. “Bubble, has anything changed?”

A literal floating bubble hovers over to him. “Nope! Same results as the others. Want to try again?” Caine doesn’t hide his disappointment as he shakes his head.

“No, we’ll try again tomorrow.” He snaps his fingers and the ground below them opens up. He finally acknowledges the monster in front of them. A black creature with an odd body, jagged spikes, and multiple glowing eyes spread all over. With another snap of the host’s fingers, the creature was placed into the black hole.

Chapter Text

Pomni would never get used to this. How could she? It’s not exactly normal to wake up to a door being blown off its hinges. The jester jumped out of the bed with a scream, eyes still heavy. Her hands curled into fists as she blindly moved them in front of her.

“Huh? What? Who’s there?”

“Oh! Hi Pomni”

Rubbing her eyes, she let out a deep sigh of relief. “Kinger.” She helps the chess piece up. “I thought you stopped aiming the cannon towards the rooms” The daredevil had been practicing his act for next month. In the process, he had broken multiple tables, knocked down doors, and put a hole in the tent. Caine was getting tired of fixing his failed attempts.

“I did.” His detached hand scratches his head, eyes not focusing anymore. “At least I think I did”

The jester leaves the room with a tired roll of her eyes. Walking to the circus’ kitchen, she finds Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha eating at the one table Kinger hadn’t crushed yet. “Hey Pomni! You seem tired.” The doll greets.

“Kinger flew through my door”

Gangle stifles a giggle while Zooble lets out a snort. “Again? I thought someone was helping him this time.”

Ragatha nods “I offered but Jax said he could-” Her shoulders and face drop with a sigh. “Of course.”

“Hey, Pom Pom, love what you did to your room.” 

Ragatha gives the rabbit a look as he sits down next to her. “Seriously? You said you’d help Kinger!”

“And I did! I helped him knock down another door.”

“Caine’s gonna strangle you when he finds out.” Zooble points out.

“Oh boo hoo, the pair of dentures needs to move his fingers. We’re the ones bringing in the money. He can live through a few mishaps.”

Gangle’s smile weakens a little. “I don’t know. He’s been getting irritated a lot easier than usual.”

“It’s Caine. It’ll pass.” Jax says, taking Gangle’s plate of half-touched food. Zooble glares at him while he rolls his eyes and only takes out one of her waffles, setting the plate back. He chews as he asks, “Where are we performing tonight?”

“He hasn’t said yet.” Ragatha answers, her nose scrunched a little at his actions. “Did you leave Kinger alone? I’m gonna go check up on him”

Before she can stand, Caine appears above them. “Good morning my adorable little circus freaks. Who’s re-WAIT. One, two, three, four-...Oh!” He snaps his fingers and Kinger falls onto the floor in front of everyone. “There we go. Now, I need your help keeping our beloved circus presentable for our yearly inspection next month! Let me know if anything needs fixing so I can take care of it, but in the meantime,”  Caine looks directly at Kinger. “Try not to make any more holes in the tent.“

“Um…The door to my room was kind of blown…off?”

The teeth’s green eye twitches. “Noted. Go rehearse! We’ll do a quick run through in five to seven hours. Have fun my superstars!”

With the short time that Pomni had been in the circus, she’d quickly learned that her favorite pastime was watching the others practice. Currently, she sat at the left platform while Ragatha moved around a hoop hanging from the ceiling. Below the ragdoll, Gangle sang lightly to herself as she helped Kinger set up again, Zooble worked on juggling random objects they found lying around, and Jax was nowhere to be found.

“How’ve you liked it here so far, Pomni?” 

The jester shrugs. “It’s not so bad. We practice, perform, and Caine leaves us alone. I guess it could’ve been worse.”

The aerialist twists to sit on the hoop, hands on either side. “That’s the spirit! Don’t worry, it gets easier. After a while, this place becomes the norm.” Pomni twiddled with her thumbs. The norm. That seemed almost impossible. Nothing here was normal. They didn’t have actual bodies. The audience felt like a herd of NPC’s. Nothing here felt real and everything reminded her of the fact. She could fall off the circus and instead of hitting the ground, she’d simply poof back here. Multiple knives could impale her and she wouldn’t die. In fact, she would barely feel it. 

A ‘haven’ is what Ragatha called the circus. ‘Prison is a much better word for it’ is how Jax would always reply. Pomni couldn’t help but see it as both. Sometimes it was a refugee from the storm, other times it was as if she were in the eye of it. 

A loud shatter followed by a whine caught everyone’s attention. The voice that responded was completely unapologetic.

“Oops.”

Ragatha lets out a tired sigh, giving Pomni an apologetic smile as she lets the hoop lower down so she can scold Jax. The jester watches the cast basically gang up on the purple rabbit for breaking Gangle’s comedy mask. They were a mess. Jax was a jerk. Ragatha was kind to a fault. Kinger was insane. Zooble was ready to fight Jax. And Gangle was extremely fragile. It didn’t matter though. She was stuck here. Whether she liked it or not.

Haven or Prison? There was no way she’d be able to decide on that yet.