Chapter Text
Their world was ending.
They had pushed too far, too hard. It was too much for the AI controlling their world to handle. Everything was cracking and crumbling. The brightly colored blocks and checkered floor were glitching so frequently that the void was becoming clearly visible.
Caine stood before them- stood, mind you. Not floated. With the unstable energy coursing through the very lifeblood of the game, it rendered the ringmaster powerless.
He was currently scrambling around in place, waving his arms as if trying to keep the destruction at bay. It wasn’t doing much good.
“What the [CAR HORN] is going on right now?!” Zooble yelped, narrowly dodging a glitched-out mess of… something.
“The Circus- The Circus! It’s failing! I can’t- I can’t- why can’t I control this?!” Caine muttered. He was panicked, his own form hard to make out through the blurs. “What did you guys do?”
“I-”
“The Exit!”
All eyes turned to where Pomni was pointing. There, a red exit door. Wide open. The endless vastness of the white void yawned out before them all.
Somehow, they just knew the moment they stepped through that space, they would be free.
“Is that really… I mean, there’s been so many red herrings.” Gangle asked in a wobbly voice.
“There’s really no way to know unless someone goes through,” Ragatha replied, taking a few steps towards the door and peering at it nervously. It was almost too much to believe, especially with their reality crumbling around them.
“I volunteer Jax!” Zooble said.
“Yeah, right. Like I would ever- hey!”
Zooble was not asking. They grabbed him by the ears and not-so-gently threw him through the portal. It wobbled a bit in place but returned to its former medium.
The rest were quiet.
“Well, that answered nothing.”
Everyone looked at the mismatched avatar, they only shrugged.
“I did what nobody else had the [BOING] to do- oh come on. Even that’s censored?” They threw up their hands, all three of them, and marched toward the portal. “[CAT SCREECH] this, at least I can curse if I’m dead.”
And then there were five, including Caine.
Speaking of the dentured man, he had given up trying to rectify whatever was happening to his beloved circus in favor of staring at the portal where two of his residents had already left.
He looked betrayed.
Gangle siddled toward the door, a guilty look plastered on her mask. She gave a pitying wave before following Zooble through the door.
Four remained.
“Are you all really… leaving me?”
“Oh no, Caine- we’re not leaving you. We’re just… escaping! Yeah, this is about the circus, not- not you personally.” Ragatha scrambled to say. “I mean, yeah. In a way, I guess we are technically-”
“LOOK OUT!” Pomni screamed and tackled the doll just as a large chunk of the ceiling shattered where she’d been standing. Right, they were in an active collapse.
“O-Oh, thank you, Pomni." She was helped up by the smaller and dusted off her dress. "Um, I think we should probably go now.” The ground shook beneath them. A great crack shot across the black and white tiles. “Right now would be great, actually!”
Ragatha snatched the jester’s hand and tugged them both toward the door. Pomni yelped at the sudden speed and looked back with panic.
The ringmaster's eyes were dull as the circus began to be stripped away by the void. Piece by piece, bit by bit. Each new glitch was draining. Pomni averted her gaze, feeling weirdly guilty about Caine’s fate.
Instead, she called out to the chess piece.
“Kinger! Hurry up! We have to go, like, now!”
Kinger, who had been oddly quiet this whole time, seemed to be contemplating something. His large blue eyes switched between Caine and the door where the two were standing.
The lights had blown a while ago.
"Kinger, come on- AGH!" Pomni covered her ears in pain as a high-pitched, horribly distorted whine sliced through the air.
Time’s up.
The old king bowed his head. He sent his floating hand and shoved the girls through the door. The last thing they saw was Kinger holding Caine. Watching them.
Then there was nothing.
No light. No sensation of touch. No noise.
Nothing.
And that is where the story truly begins.