Chapter Text
Another day, another adventure from hell waiting to happen. Was the thought on everyone's mind as everyone but Pomni waited in the 'main area' for Caine to appear for whatever hell he had planned next. Ever since that weird award show happened, Caine hadn't made an appearance since then, and everyone was certain that they had all missed a day of 'entertainment'.
And that was concerning to everyone but Jax and Kinger, if they were remembering things correctly, Caine always had an adventure ready for them every single day without fail. So for him to miss one was completely out of character for him. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it had something to do with the award show, because what else could it be? AI's don't get sick, and if he was bugging or glitching, everyone most certainly would know about it.
"Do you think that we're going to get another day off?" Gangle asked.
"If we do, I'll eat my hand" Jax snorted.
"You mean foot, that way it will be a lucky day for all of us" Zooble replied to him.
Jax made a dramatic move of being shot in the heart, you know the one, before going limp on the sofa.
"Seriously though, for Caine to just, not create something for us is not like him" Zooble continues "sure he's always acting, unpredictable, but for him to just not send us on an adventure? That's something even I couldn't predict"
"Neither could I" Ragatha added.
"First time for everything" Jax said as he got back up "I wouldn't worry too much about it though. Mr Chatty Teeth most likely did it because he couldn't handle the fact that no one likes him"
"He certainly likes us" Zooble adds "didn't we have this conversation already?"
"Who knows? I don't care either way"
As the annoying rabbit and Zooble continued to bicker, neither of them saw Pomni jumping off a balcony before shouting so loudly that it literally bounced off the walls.
(A few minutes before the scheduled adventure)
Pomni closed the door to her room with a look of tiredness and exhaustion she doesn't remember having before. Most likely, the mental stress from all the insanity (adventures included) and it was now finally catching up to her. It seems the most logical at the moment.
Her cartoon body felt heavy, like a sponge holding in so much water that it couldn't remember how to remove it. And all because of one, ignorant, self-centered, and childlike persona that refused to listen to others.
Motherf***ing Caine. The bane of their existence.
Pomni rubbed one of her eyes in frustration as she slowly made her way to the 'main stage' area, just thinking about that stupid ring leader made her eye twitch and head throb.
Looking back on everything she has gone through, she can understand why the others lost any form of willpower to help make Caine understand their tastes. The entity always made things about himself, never listened to them, and was very determined to make them like his 'adventures' even if it led them to abstraction. And something told her that the adventures made them abstract faster, if you don't include the false hope that happened when she first got here, poor Kaufmo.
She visibly shuddered at the thought of turning into one of them, and honestly? She was beginning to, somewhat, understand everything. Not that it mattered anyway, it was very clear that there was no way to leave, Caine would most likely just turn that into an adventure, give them false hope, and expect them to be happy about it... she most likely would have abstracted once it fully sunk in.
Sighing in frustration, she limply kicked imaginary dirt from the floor as she continued her journey.
Only to stop mid-step at a brief, loud sound of buzzing. Almost as if Caine had conjured up a swarm of angry bees.
She drops her foot and turns around to face the hallway behind her to see if anything was out of place. There wasn't any. Was she hearing things? Was all of this finally getting to her?
She quickly checks her body to make sure there wasn't any signs of abstraction. When that turned out to be a negative, she let out a sigh of relief and turned back around to continue onward.
The buzzing happened again. Then it continued to get louder. Pomni turned her head again and was met with something she wasn't expecting.
The hallway was popping in and out of existence, the colours were shifting into patterns and colours of different shades of purple and black, if she didn't know any better, she would think that the hallway was glitching. It seemed to be speeding up every few seconds, unless that was her imagination. So she ran. She ran as fast as her legs would let her, mumbling curses as she tried to evade the random holes and cracks that seemed to be appearing on the floor, she had to warn the others as well as find Caine, would calling him work this time?
"CAINE?! CAINE ARE YOU THERE?!" she practically shrieked the words as she neared the exit to the hallway, she could only hope that all of her friends were not here and all in their usual spots.
"CAINE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING UNORGANIC, PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE THERE! PLEASE!"
Still no answer. So she kept running.
The sounds behind her began to sound more frantic, like angry bees being disturbed from their nest. Pomni had to force herself not to look back as she continued to run while calling for anyone for help while trying even harder not to listen to the thoughts swarming inside her mind.
Was Caine no longer interested in them? Was he going to kill them all? Was he changing the place while they were still 'alive' to see it? D*** it all.
As she neared the archway, she knew that taking the long way down would waste precious seconds going down the stairs just to turn again to get to the others, she had to make every second count, so with the last bit of energy she had, she jumped over the rail and screamed at the top of her lungs in the hopes everyone could hear her terrified warning.
"CAINE! THE CIRCUS IS BEING DESTROYED! EVERYONE GET OUT NOW!"
(Back with the others)
When the group heard the scream/shout, they all looked around to where it was coming from.
"Was that Pomni?" Gangle asked.
"Last I checked, Kinger didn't have the goods or cords needed to sound like that" Jax scoffed while rolling his eyes "who else would it be when all of us but Kinger are here?"
"But, what did she mean by, the circus is being destroyed?" Ragatha asked weakly "surely she didn't actually mean-"
Her words were interrupted by the sound of Pomni crying out in pain, there was a brief pause before she groaned and started shouting again.
"RUN NOW! RUN FOR THE EXIT! I MEAN THE CIRCUS TENT EXIT!"
They didn't do anything but stand like a bunch of lemons still processing what the heck was happening. They waited until Pomni came into view and stopped in front of them, panting like she had ran from one end of the map to the other, she stared at them as if they were crazy. Which was ridiculous because Kinger was the only crazy one at this moment in time.
Pomni, who had been waiting for them to do something, lost her patience and snapped at them "why are you guys standing around? WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!"
"Pomni, what did you mean about the circus being destroyed?" Ragatha asked calmly.
"I mean, the circus is literally being destroyed right now. I was on my way here when the bedroom corridor started making noises and I looked behind me and the place was LITERALLY BEING F***ING DESTROYED!"
Everyone looked at her as if she had glitched another head. As Jax allowed the information to sink in, he scoffed at what she was implying.
"Oh come on, are you sure that it wasn't you coming close to ab... strac.. ting..."
Everyone looked at him, confused when he started dragging out the last word, but when a strange buzzing noise began to grow louder, they all looked towards the area they thought it was coming from. All were thinking the same thing 'that better not be what I think it is'
Their question was answered when the archway that Pomni mentioned began to flicker in and out of existence, the colours glitching from purple and black into a dull black and white, then it ripped itself away like a demented jigsaw puzzle.
"SH**! F***!" the crowd swore as they all began running for the tent's exit.
"CAINE! WHERE THE F*** ARE YOU!" Zooble shouted.
"WHERE'S KINGER?" Pomni yelled over the loud roaring noise of the buzzing when she realised the chess piece wasn't with the group.
"WHERE ELSE WOULD HE BE?! IN HIS FORTRESS!" Jax screamed back sarcastically.
Pomni cursed as she skidded to a stop and turned back around to get Kinger out before the destruction did.
"POMNI, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Ragatha called out.
"I'M NOT LEAVING KINGER BEHIND!" Pomni shouted back without turning her head to the others "GO NOW! DON'T WAIT UP! GO!"
There was no way in this digital hell that she was going to leave Kinger behind when he had done so much for her.
By this point, the, tornado of glitchy destruction, had now taken away the balcony just outside the archway she had come out of, and she was nowhere near where Kinger was. Maybe calling him might help.
"KINGER!" she shouted as loudly as she could "KINGER I NEED YOU HERE NOW! THE WHOLE PLACE IS GOING TO COLLAPSE!" come on, how else could she get him out?
Think Pomni, think, what did Kinger say he liked? Something to do with his. Wife? That's it "KINGER, I FOUND A BUG FOR YOUR COLLECTION!"
"DID SOMEONE SAY B-" Pomni didn't hear the rest of the sentence as the horrendous, screeching, buzzing sound was now louder and literally making her ears ring like bells, while also noticing that the whole place was literally vibrating from the attack.
Could she even call it an attack at this point? No, she can't think about that right now, she has to find-
"POMNI!"
She didn't have time to react when the ground under her feet gave way, and she fell downward, gravity somehow still taking effect as she looked at the hole she fell through get smaller every second. The last thing she sees is Kinger's familiar purple robe before the whiteness takes over her vision.
System error... Attempting system reboot...
Reboot unsuccessful...
Accessing safe mode...
Safe mode com- ERROR occurred...
ERROR ERROR ERROR
File uploaded... Game accessed...
Adding eight new characters...
Characters successfully uploaded...
System online...
Game activated... running system now...
The first two things Pomni acknowledged as she regained consciousness were that she was on a hard surface that was giving off the sensation of her body being gently rocked back and forth, while the second thing she noticed was the sound of something liquid quietly sloshing against the object that she was lying on top of.
Forcing her eyes to open up, she is immediately met with a darkness that had strange white dots decorating half of the scenery. Which was odd, because she doesn't remember this being part of the circus or its grounds. Did Caine do some redecorating while she was... wait, Caine... the Circus... her friends... breaking... Kinger...
"Pomni? Are you okay?"
The jester's spiral immediately crashed to a halt at the voice she heard before she passed out, she immediately pushed herself up into a sitting position so that she could turn around and see the person she thought was gone.
"Kinger" she immediately cried as she threw herself into his arms "thank god your okay, I thought- I thought I was..."
"I thought the same thing too Pomni, I'm okay, we're okay, we'll get through this though" he whispers to her as he holds her as close as possible.
She didn't try to say anything, she just held onto his robe tighter while he just held her as she broke down.
By the time she had finally calmed down, the location seemed a little brighter than when she had woken up, but she still wasn't able to figure out where they were.
"Do you know what happened to the others?" She asked weakly after removing herself from his robe to wipe her face "or what happened to the circus?"
"I don't know what happened to the circus, my only guess is that something happened to Caine which caused the whole place to collapse on itself, but I cannot say for certain" Kinger admitted after a moment of silence "as for the others, I'm certain that they are in this world with us, but since they weren't with us inside the tent, it seems logical that their spawn points are somewhere else from ours"
"Okay" Pomni sighed tiredly "what about our precise location?"
Pomni felt Kinger's hands, which had been still holding her the entire time, tighten their grip on her body "we seem to be in the middle of an ocean that is polluted with leaves, some strange containers, and planks of wood"
Pomni pushed herself away to look at Kinger as if he had just stated that he was about to abstract "are you serious?"
"I wish I wasn't"
"Then how the hell are we going to find the others if we're stuck in the middle of nowhere?"
"Pomni, think for a moment, we are in the middle of an ocean, what is the one thing that oceans always have? Besides water"
Pomni wanted to ask what that had to do with anything, but quickly decided not to and answered his question "the water is always moving, something to do with, tides?"
She faintly saw Kinger beaming at her proudly "exactly, this raft is moving with the tide, yes, it might take a while for us to find them, but we still have a chance of finding them"
It wasn't the answer she had completely hoped for, but it was better than nothing right now. Sadly, she did not have a chance to think about it as Kinger spoke again with a serious tone.
"Pomni, I don't have long until it's day time so I need you to listen to me carefully and not interrupt me" he instructs her "you've been asleep for a whole day and half of the night, I've managed to have some time experimenting with what we have to work with and it's both complicated as well as simple"
She nods before he continues.
"We both have a hunger and thirst bar that we need to keep on top of in order to not lose health" he explains calmly, eyes focused on her with a confidence she wished she had at the moment "the items in the water are needed to help expand this raft, however when I examined the 'list', I did not see any craft button after grabbing some items and placing them in my back pack"
As if to prove his point, Kinger moved one of his hands behind his back and pulled it back to reveal said backpack with a piece of wood sticking out of it.
"I'm lucky that I have no arms, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to grab them, anyway, the only places that may hold any food or water, are either in the barrels and trunks I've faintly seen bobbing in the distance, or on islands, at least I think they were islands, or it could have been a boat" his eyes became distant before they focused on Pomni again "make sure you remember those things Pomni, barrels, trunks, and islands as you look for the others, and what ever you do, don't- AAH! Oh, sorry Pomni, you scared me"
Pomni didn't need to turn around to know that the sun was now making its appearance behind her. She gave Kinger a smile and a small pat on his hand before moving away from him "I'll try not to do it next time"
Grabbing both her and Kinger's bags and pulling them close to herself, she began to look through both of them to see what she had to work with, Kinger's held the items he had stated while sane, along with what looked like a plastic hook, when she looked in her own bag, she found the same looking hook and some cooked food, perfect, she didn't need to worry about food for a while and just focus on water, as for the hooks, perhaps she could use them to grab the items drifting in the ocean. She could not think of any other reason they would have a use for.
She spent half the day practicing her aim with the hook and pulling it back to her. She did get some luck with grabbing planks in the process, despite it not being her goal at the moment. That's what she would call sheer dumb luck.
As for Kinger, he just sat in the same spot, staring at nothing in particular, but would occasionally look at her for a split second before drifting into whatever it was he thought of while insane.
By the time the sun was starting to set again, Pomni had managed to gather a decent amount of wooden boards, as well as some plastic and what looked like palm fonds, not bad for her first day of survival. Now all that was left to do was find some extra food and water, sadly, during her 'training' she did not encounter anything of the sort, and her thirst bar was less than half full. Were these islands randomly generated? Or would she have to wait for the next day for any to spawn?
She could only hope her friends were okay while she figured out how to expand this raft for them all, because there was no way that they would be able to fit on this 2 x 2 raft.
"Look Pomni" Kinger called out in childlike wonder "floating metal"
Pomni looked to where Kinger was pointing and almost cried in relief. There was indeed what looked to be a floating piece of metal that she was certain was a raft, if her friends weren't on it, then she was certain that she would find some supplies to help sate her appetite and thirst. And as luck would have it, the tide was taking her directly towards it. So she waited patiently for it to come into view so that she could prepare herself for whatever might be there.
As soon as the metal came into view, she realised that it was an abandoned raft with none of her friends on it, but there was definitely a crate on board, she could only hope that she would be able to carry it back onto her raft without issues. Maybe she could ask Kinger to help her.
"Kinger, the moment I get on the raft, I'm going to grab the crate and hand it over to you" she explained without taking her eyes off the metal structure in front of her.
"Okay" he chirps joyfully.
Once the raft got into jumping distance, Pomni ran to the edge and jumped as far as she could and almost smashed her face into the crate before she had the chance to brace herself, once she managed to get her balance decent, she immediately zoned in on the crate, thankfully it was wide enough that she could pick it up herself, the issue was on whether or not she could pick it up without help.
"Are you going to feed yourself to the fishes? Or did you want to swim with them?"
Before Pomnie could ask what he meant by that, she jumped in surprise when she felt something cold and wet touch her leg, she looked down to see that her feet were completely submerged in the water. How the f*** could she have known that her weight would cause it to sink? BAH! Forget that, she needed to move this crate before it went completely underwater, if that happened, then not even Kinger would be able to get it out in time.
Grabbing both sides of the box, she quickly hoisted it up with a small amount of resistance, then she handed it over to Kinger just as it was moving away from the sinking 'island' before jumping on herself.
"Nice work Kinger" she praised him while giving him a tired smile as he placed it down in the center of the raft "now let's see what 'treasures' we'll find inside this thing"
Considering the weight of it, she could only guess that the items were good enough to last a while, if there was any food in there anyway. Thankfully, the crate had simple locks that she could just flip upwards and she could open it without resistance. Once she was certain that nothing else was holding it down, she lifted the lid up without issue before peaking her head over the edge to see what her prize was. Only to freeze in shock and horror once she realised what was inside the crate, or rather, who was inside and unconscious.
"CAINE?!"