Chapter Text
A void of white was sitting empty. It was a void so what could you expect? It was very lonely… But not for long!
Poof! Someone has appeared in the void! Someone.. Very, very, strange looking. They were certainly not human. They had metal joints! Their face was very flat, literally just a faceplate. Their face was painted half white and half off-black, with swirls on their cheeks. They also had, well, what looked like, rays sticking out from the sides of their faceplate. As well as a night hat decorated with stars, most probably for aesthetic purposes. The strange animatronic also seemed to have heterochromia, one blue eye, one red eye. Very strange indeed… They dressed nicely at the very least!
They looked around their surroundings very confused and disoriented.. All they could see was an endless white void..
“What the- What the hell?” They asked, though of course no one answered. “Where the hell am I? I swear, if this is another prank from Puppet-”
It took them a moment to realise they weren’t standing, they were floating! There were no floors in the white void, how could you stand?
“Woah! Shit- How in the hell am I floating?” The strange animatronic stumbled on their feet, trying to make sense of their new environment. Now, they were even more confused! Luckily, they didn’t have to be confused alone.
Shortly after the robot’s arrival, there was someone new to join them! They had a strange TV-shaped head accompanied with another case of heterochromia, albeit different from the animatronic’s eyes. The outline of one of their eyes was a bright cyan that brought a lot of attention to their face. They wore a navy blue suit with bright cyan highlights, complementing his heterochromia, and a red bowtie. Under their suit, they wore a red and black striped waist coat and a white undershirt. The TV man also had dark blue skin with sharp cyan claws that seemed to glow.
They were, like the first arrival, very confused and disoriented with the change of settings. However, they were more aggressive about it…
“Huh.. Wait- WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!” They yelled as their left eye swirled. “God damn it, I was fucking working on something! Fuck! Hold on- How am I floating?!” The TV kept yelling and yelling, louder each time as they grew more irritated and confused with their new surroundings.
It was quite unbearable for anyone to have to deal with. The strange-looking animatronic knew very early on that the TV would not be fun to be around. They stayed silent, trying to gather their thoughts, while the other was cursing up a storm.
The TV turned around and realized he was not alone in this void. “Now, wait- Who the FUCK are you?! WHERE ARE WE?!” His voice broke into glitches as he progressively got more frustrated.
The first arrival calmed his nerves and gathered his thoughts into one collected response. “I’m not sure.. I am just as confused as you are… Although I am handling it better..” They mumbled the last part, the TV heard it and rolled their eyes in both annoyance and disgust.
The TV scoffed. “Alright freak,” He said as he was getting closer to the robot, “if you can’t provide even useful information, then give me this- What’s your name, buddy?” The TV smiled sarcastically with his teeth and leaned closer to the stranger’s face with his hand clasped together behind his back.
“Ruin,” The animatronic said, seemingly unbothered by the close proximity. “my name is Ruin Eclipse, but you may call me Ruin.” Ruin stared at the other man, his eyes half-lidded and eyebrows raised. He looked at them in a non-chalant manner.
The TV leaned back, laughing. “‘RUIN’?! THAT’S YOUR NAME? Fucking pathetic, fitting for a jackass like you..”
Ruin seemed slightly agitated by the arrogant man’s comment by the way his eyes narrowed even more. He rolled his eyes. “Yes, well, what’s your name then?”
The other gave a prideful laugh. “My name is Vox.” He started. “CEO of Voxtek enterprises, the most successful business in all of hell!”
Ruin could not give two shits about his business, so he switched the topic. “So..” He paused for a moment to think.. “how do you suppose we get out of this place?”
Vox looked only slightly irritated at the sudden topic change, but he answered nonetheless. “Fuck if I’m supposed to know, I don’t even know where we are!”
Ruin collected his thoughts for a few seconds. However, his response was delayed when someone new entered this strange place.
This new someone looked the strangest out of all three of them. They had teeth for a face. Their upper jaw acted as eyebrows, while the lower jaw acted as lips; however, both jaws moved in sync when they talked. Which was… Odd to say the least.. For the third time in a row, they also had heterochromia, one blue eye, one green eye. They wore a long dark-magenta tailcoat that had gold undertones, with a black collar and white lining. They also wore a black bowtie and tophat! This strange “person” also had white gloves and a staff. They wore black pants that, in a cartoonish way, also extended into their black tapshoes.They just looked very cartoony in general.
“Uhh- Wh-what?-” They stuttered. “Whe-where am I?! N-no- This isn’t the trashbin! Have they found out a new way to delete me completely from the circus?! O-oh god-.. ” They were very distressed, very confused like the others too, but mostly distressed. It seemed like he was about to have a panic attack in front of them!
Ruin floated carefully towards the pair of teeth, wanting to calm them down before he and Vox had another issue to deal with. “Hello? Are.. You alright?” Ruin set a hand down on the stranger’s shoulder.
When he felt someone touch them, they snapped to look at him. “Wha-what? Wh-who are you?!” They pointed and looked at both of the strangers frantically.
Ruin immediately retracted his hand. “Hey,” He started, he wanted to calm this stranger. “Relax, no one here is going to harm you in any way..”
The stranger calmed down a fraction, his stiff body loosened a bit. “Where… Wh-where am I..? This isn’t part of the circus or computer at all!”
Vox floated towards the two characters. “Well, I don’t fucking know, none of us here do.”
The pair of teeth was shocked by Vox’s foul use of language. “I- Uh- Language!”
Vox frowned even more with that. “Whatever Mr. Goody-fucking-two-shoes.. So, who are you?” He asked boredly.. He was already getting tired of this shit, especially with the newbie’s almost panic attack.
The teeth seemed to snap into a “ringleader” esc personality. He floated higher into the air and did a few spins as he introduced himself. “Well, strangers! My name is C.A.I.N.E! It stands for Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity! I’m the ringmaster of The Amazing Digital Circus!” He said strangely happily after the meltdown he almost had.
Ruin was quite whiplashed with the sudden change, he narrowed his eyes in a confused manner. “Hm.. Caine, you seem.. Nice, but I’m still wondering as you haven’t answered my question when I asked, so I shall ask it again.. Are you alright? You seemed quite distressed when first appearing here..” He was quite curious, especially with the sudden tone shift.
Caine immediately floated down as he heard the question, he looked awkward and a little saddened now. “I.. Uhm…” He couldn’t get the words out of his mouth for whatever reason. He was upset earlier, that was easy to verbalise. But… He didn’t want to explain his reason for being distressed.. Not that the animatronic had asked him why, but he might later.. And if he did.. He’d see how much of a failure he was.
Ruin waited patiently for the answer as the AI lagged and glitched a bit. However, Vox was not quite as patient as Ruin was.. “Just answer the god damn question, you pathetic fuck..” He said, impatiently.. Ruin turned his head towards the TV and narrowed his eyes at them.
Caine fiddled nervously with his fingers as he floated up and down gently to keep calm. “I’m alright, I just.. Overreacted earlier, just misunderstood the situation!” He said, raising his hands up.
Ruin nodded. “Alright, I suppose. As long as you aren’t on the verge of a panic attack anymore..”
Caine floated quickly towards Ruin, getting in his face unintentionally. “ANYWAYS, I’m not alone in this void, it seems. So! I’d like to know who you are, now that you know me!” As he said that he booped Ruin’s nose.
Ruin felt somewhat uncomfortable with the touch and moved backwards to provide space between them. “Alright, my name is Ruin Eclipse, but as I’ve already said to this one-” Ruin gestured at Vox as the TV demon crossed his arms and scoffed, “you may call me Ruin..” he smiled warmly at him, albeit a small smile, to give him a sense friendliness. “And the TV-headed asshole-”
Caine interrupted, “Ah, ah, ah! Language, my dear!”
Ruin continued, despite the interruption. “Is Vox. He can be.. Quite arrogant and very, very ill-mannered, so don’t take what he says to heart.” Ruin could tell he was a sensitive, almost child-like entity. In his days of being a daycare attended before.. What happened.. He had dealt with sensitive children and rude teenagers, this situation was quite similar to those experiences.. He could try to deal with being stuck with them.
Vox grumbled under his breath. “I’m a fucking adult, I can introduce myself, Ruin..” Vox uttered Ruin’s name in disgust. It was a very odd name, he did not like it at all. At least Caine’s name wasn’t as stupid. Although with it being an acronym, it was already starting to sound dumb to Vox. He was glad he was so much better than them, they were pathetic losers to him.
“LANGUAGE!!!” Caine shouted, getting in Vox’s face now. Caine looked like he was losing his s%$!# and he was! He couldn’t have people swearing! It was part of his programming to keep everything child-friendly and he couldn’t let them swear!
Vox pushed the pair of dentures aside, getting annoyed with him getting in his face.
For a while, Caine and Vox bickered. Thank the Heavens Ruin wasn’t involved. He was busy roaming around the area, trying to examine the white void for a possible way to get him and his compatriots out. However, it was truly a void, so he had no luck with finding an exit. He floated back to where Caine and Vox were talking. He was quite tired from the conversation, so he needed a break at the moment. He supposed, maybe to pass time he could get to know his “void-mates”...