Chapter Text
Zooble squinted as the box they were hiding in was opened.
They looked up to see Pomni reaching in and pushing off the top of the box with effort.
They huffed, “Is the adventure over already?”
“No, the adventure hasn’t even started yet,”
“Oh,” One of their arms jutted up, grabbed the lid. “Well, don’t be a narc, find your own hiding place.”
Pomni replied, "It’s not that, it’s just that we haven’t even seen Caine at all today. Plus, Gangle was looking for you."
The white mask moved to the jester’s side, “Hi Zooble.”
Gangle wasn’t wearing her usual comedy mask; tears hung at the corners of her eyes, but she smiled. She picked up Zooble’s head and gently held it in her arms. Zooble looked up at ease in her embrace.
Nearby, Ragatha stood by until her attention was drawn to a note stuck on the wall.
“Hey, what’s this?” Ragatha tugged on the note, ready to read it, when something happened.
There was a soft spring-like noise, and someone was suddenly standing there.
“A new human has entered this realm!” Caine exclaimed as he suddenly floated beside Ragatha. Had he just appeared, or had he already been there?
“Human?” He spoke with a British accent; it sounded like it was broadcast through an old speaker, scratchy and almost artificial.
“I’ll take that.” Caine took the note from Ragatha and shoved it into his coat pocket. “We will just save that for later; we must greet the new cast member!”
This new guy looked weird, tall and thin with a metallic body, it looked almost like shiny steel, with pieces covered in cracked marble, maybe coral, a few blue lights on their arms and legs, with visible bronze gears turning in their body, only blocked by bits of clear glass. They had a round, almost egg-shaped head, and a black LCD screen served as his face, making simple expressions just a little more complex than what you would expect from an emoticon. The only other thing of note was two clocks on their chest, a digital one and a clockwork one, hanging off a simple chain like a weird pocket watch, both showing random times and switching to random times. Otherwise, they had a long, somewhat tattered blue coat to finish their look.
He looked at his hands, studying them.
Gangle tried to calm him down, “Yeah, it’s weird. You get a new body when you get here. It’s a little… off-putting at first, but you can get used to it.”
Zooble put their body together. “Uh, you got a robot body. That’s cool. Weird design, futuristic slick with a bit of retro steampunk with those gears.”
“Oh, I think I met a clockwork robot once or twice…. I can’t- huh.”
“Confused? Finding it hard to remember. Worry not, my new friend. “ Caine hovered above them, “It's very common that once your human mind-“
“Human? That word feels wrong.”
Caine cleared his throat, clearly not liking being interrupted.
“Sorry, please go on.”
“When your mind is transferred over into the digital realm, it sort of, to use the technical term, plops out. You experience amnesia post-entering the digital realm, causing confusion. Worry not, given some time for you to get used to everything, your memories will come back… for the most part.”
“Ah, I see, the complexities of a mind being transferred into a new synaptic engine, causing errors on the normal neural net, making it difficult for the mind to make the normal neural connections, making it difficult to remember things. Much like how significant damage to the brain can cause memory loss by damaging those neural routes.”
The other just stared at him for a moment.
“Yeah, exactly, what you said.” Caine cheered.
Pomni stared at Caine, not even sure he knew what the weird robot man said.
“Blimey.” He mumbled out, “My mind hasn’t felt this foggy since I had those Gargle Blasters with Douglass.” His digital eyes blinked, which, for that face, was going out for a second. “I can remember having drinks with a man named Douglass… he was a writer … funny man… love my long scarf… I can’t remember- I don’t remember what I looked like. Even now, I can’t remember what I looked like. I can’t remember my name. I remember he said it, but-“
Pomni scratched her head, “Yeah, sorry to say, but join the club. None of us remembers our real names. Some memories never come back. I still can’t remember what I really looked like.”
Ragatha walked up, “Uh, how about you focus on what you can remember? What was the last thing you remember? How about the year?”
“2024? No. 2017. 2000? No, that seems a bit early. 1989? 1996? 2005? It wasn’t 1963, I’m sure about that.”
The others glanced at each other.
“I was in a building. I remember something big and blue, this beautiful shade of blue! And this headset, and I put it on.”
Zooble sighed, “Yeah, that part is pretty in line with all of us.”
Caine, taking attention, announced, “Well enough of that! Let us start with introductions. I am Caine, your ring master here at The Amazing Digital Circus.”
A large bubble with a sharp-tooth grin floated beside him.
“This is my assistant, Bubble.”
“Hiya!”
“Hi I’m Ragatha.” The red-haired doll greeted him with a warm smile.
He thought he’d like her, with her red hair… red hair… it reminded him of… something… someone.
“I’m Zooble.” The jumble of abstract toy parts gave him a small wave.
“Hello, I’m Gangle.” A mask on a body of ribbons worked up a smile; she had tears, was something wrong? Did something upset her?
“I’m Pomni.” The short jester tried to be reassuring, “I was the last new person here, so I know how rough it can be and overwhelming… and you’re actually taking this a lot better than me.”
The other started to notice it too. When someone showed up, they would be scared, confused, or at least upset, but this guy was just going along like it was pretty normal for him.
He looked around, taking in this new environment, almost with a small, excited grin and curiosity.
“Well, nice to meet you all.”
He wasn’t even surprised by their odd looks, more just mild curiosity at the new forms, even his new form.
“I’d introduce myself, but I don’t know what to call myself. Which, oddly enough, doesn’t feel as strange as you’d think it would. Maybe I changed my name before.”
“Well, let’s name you.” Caine dropped a huge slot machine from the sky.
“How about we help him find a name?” Pomni suggested, “ I mean, it would probably be good bonding for the new cast member.”
“What a great idea, Pomni! What to be a team player! Have a golden star!”
Bubble suddenly licked her face, leaving a sticker. Pomni disassociated and twitched.
Ragatha grabbed the ends of her skirt and used them to try to wipe off some of the slime on her face.
Pomni just let out, “Thank you.”
Pomni just wanted to make sure he didn’t end up with a weird name.
The ruckus must have caught the attention of their final members, as Kinger walked over. Jax made his way slowly from the other side. Jax looked tired.
“We got a new guy.” Ragatha told them, " We were just introducing ourselves.”
“Oh, hello, I’m Kinger.” One hand flew over to the new guy, and he quickly shook. “Nice to meet you, do you like insects?”
“I think so, I met some friendly ones before. She seemed nice, a little sad.”
“Oh, what kind of bug?” Kinger agreed.
Jax kinda looked at them, “So, he just started crazy. Another sucker for the cellar.” Jax let out a sigh; even his usual smile seemed tight, almost stretched across his face. He glanced over to Ragatha, cleaning Pomni, “Uh, maybe stop flashing the jester.”
“What?” Ragatha asked, before she turned to Pomni, realizing she was raising her skirt right at her face.
Pomni seemed to realize the same thing, her eyes going wide before turning the opposite way.
Ragatha dropped her skirt and simply tried to pat it down, her face going red. She wondered if Pomni saw anything.
“That’s Jax.” Zooble introduced the rabbit. “Don’t listen to him… just maybe never listen to him.”
“Cellar? What’s that about?” He asked.
Ragatha looked nervous; they all looked a tad nervous except maybe Kinger, who was just sort of staring at his face.
“Uh, maybe let’s not talk about that right now? You just got here.”
Jax took a step forward,”Come on, doll face, maybe we should let him know. You know, RIP, that band aid off!”
“Jax!” Pomni scolded, almost pleading with him to stop.
Jax moved over and placed an arm around him conspiratorially and leaned toward him like he was sharing a secret. “See, there is this thing that happens in the circus. When things get too tough on you, when your mind has had enough, when you snap, maybe it’s a bad day or maybe it's a lot of things, but when you finally snap! You snap big way! You abstract! You even lose this!” He motioned at their bodies, “You just become a large mass of black with colorful eyes! You attack everything! So in the end, you're not even you anymore. You're nothing! Caine! Caine show it to them!”
Caine winced but relented. He opened the hole in the ground, and they looked down; one by one, eyes opened, and countless masses looked up to them.
“Caine, close it!” Ragatha demanded.
The light agitated them; it made them move and react, but they were clearly not happy about it.
Caine closed the cellar.
“So, there’s your little peak of the future.” Jax finished up, “Welcome to the Digital Circus! You're going to hate your stay here!” He let out a hoarse laugh before walking away.
“Does that really happen?”
Ragatha gulped, he choked on the words, almost wondering on what she should tell him, she sighed, “Yes, when things get bad with us, we can turn into that… and there’s no fixing it once it's done. If someone abstracts Caine, send them into the cellar. There's nothing we can do. They will attack everyone… and well, at least in the dark they seem calm.”
He looked around, and they seemed uncomfortable with the topic. Caine seemed ashamed or guilty… did he feel bad that he couldn’t help them? Just a few minutes earlier, he seemed to have a great deal of power here. Kinger looked at the spot where the hole was almost longingly.
“And…. there is no exit.” Gangle said shyly, “We’ve looked, who ever made this place seemed to forget to put it in.”
Zooble sighed, “Yeah, I hate to admit it but… welcome to your new home.”
Caine fixed his top hat. “Well, let's not dwell on that. The best way to prevent abstraction is to keep your mind active and wet! So let me whip up an adventure for our new-“ He paused, “We still don’t have your name.”
“Oh, right.” He tapped his non-existent chin.
Pomni stepped in, “How about something robotic… since your avatar is robotic?”
“Mister Roboto!” Kinger suggested.
“Mecha man!” Gangle suggested. “Voltes. Canti. Android 42”
“Gizmo,” Zooble suggested.
“You have a clock motif,” Ragatha noted, “Something with clocks.
“Clockworks?” Pomni offered.
“Oh! I like that! I’m Clockworks.”
“Wonderful!” Caine beamed, “As I was saying, let’s have an in-house adventure!”
Zooble moaned out, annoyed.
Caine didn’t let that stop him: “In honor of our new friend, THE TEMPORAL TURMOIL TANTRUM!”
A large, broken clock dropped behind Caine, and it hit the ground, which made them all jump.
“Father Time has gone and broken his clock, sending the temporal gears all across the circus and the grounds. If you don’t find the seven gears and bring them back, we can’t fix the clock and set things straight. Until you do, everything is going to be thrown off wack, and sending everything on in strange temporal zones. So why don’t you take Clockworks around and find those gears?”
With that, Caine and Bubble vanished.
“$%&@!” Zooble let out.
Clockwork blinked.
“Yeah,” Pomni bemoaned. “This whole place is supposed to be family-friendly. So we can’t curse or make naughty gestures.”
“Uh, @#$%! Oh, we can’t.” Clockworks chuckled, amused by this off feature.
“Should we get going?” Ragatha said in a chipper tone.
“Can we split up?” Zooble raised a suggestion. “If this thing is hitting the whole circus, I’d rather get it done. How about… well, Jax left. How about we split into teams of three? Gangle and me will take Kinger and go looking around for those gears. You and Pomni take Clockworks. We’ll get this done faster.”
“I-I guess that's fine.” Ragatha agreed.
Okay, she wasn’t going to mess this up. She had a good talk with Kinger -of all people- she could practice being there for people, but still giving them space. She could do this, plus Clockworks didn’t seem to be freaking out, so it should be easy.
“So, where off first?” Clockworks flashed them a digital grin.
0000
UNIT officer Hawkins walked down the halls of an abandoned building. He held up a scanner.
A while back, UNIT had detected a peculiar energy spike, psychic energy, lepton energy, gamma, and a cocktail of other energies they couldn’t understand.
And soon after that, usually a person was reported missing. They didn’t have all the answers to what was happening; in fact, they had very few. They weren’t even sure if they had a full list of everyone missing. They’d had dead ends and a few misleads, but they had to check them all out. They looked around, and their scanner showed them to … a computer. An old-looking computer was running.
“How the hell? Power to this place has been cut for years.”The closer they got, the louder the scanner blared. They took a step back. UNIT had some rules: if you found something strange, take a step back and report it. Let the science guys figure it out. One guy lost an arm because he tried to touch a stair case they found in the woods. As far as he was aware, they had never found a computer like this. They usually-“
“I found the headset!” Agent Fritz yelled out, calling them over, “And I found something else.” She waved him over. Their flashlights led them to a desk; nearby were an old, forgotten, and now dusty backpack, a dead flashlight, and a small camera set up on the desk.
“Another urban explorer?”
Fritz flashed their light further, and Hawkins' jaw dropped.
A large blue phone box, an English Police Box, no, the Tardis.
“Is he in there?”
“I didn’t-“
Hawking knocked on the door. “Sir! We’re from UNIT are-“
The door swung open, and at first, they were amazed by the famous, bigger-on-the-inside interior, then their stomachs dropped. The Tardis beeped, a headset seemed to have fallen onto the console, and no Doctor in sight.