Chapter Text
Wind whips through your hair as music blares through your car's speakers. The night air smells sweet and humid, and you can hear cicadas trill as your car speeds down the highway. You sing along to your favorite song, all the cares in your mind fading away. Driving gives you a great sense of freedom- it's one of the only times you feel truly free. You scoff as you turn into the parking lot of your apartment complex and pass the monument sign lit up with a spotlight. "Creekside Oasis." Yeah right. The 'creek' in question was a drainage ditch, and this place was a few fires and pitchforks short of hell. Nonetheless, it was a roof over your head, and it was what you could afford.
You find your parking spot and quickly shut your car off, gather your belongings, and head inside. Your best friend was already waiting inside your studio, and you didn't want to keep him waiting any longer. When you open your door, you find him perched on the back of your couch, a velvety treasure you found off of Facebook marketplace.
"Santi, I thought I told you to stop sitting up there like that. You're gonna break the damn couch," you nag, although there's no real bite to your voice.
"Yes, mom," he rolls his eyes and slides down to the cushions, grinning.
"Did you bring the headset?" you set your belongings down on the counter in the kitchen on your way to the couch.
"Wow, Y/n. You refuse to see me for a whole week and you can't even say hello or ask how I'm doing before getting right down to business? Shame on you. Shame on you." Santiago feigns a wounded heart, clutching his chest and falling back onto the armrest with a dramatic flair. You snicker in response.
"Yes, yes, hi, hello Santi, how are you? Now can I see the headset?"
"Patience, Pen." You laugh, both at your impatience, and the nickname he's had for you since you were both eight and you accidentally stabbed yourself in the thigh with a pen while reaching for something below your bed.
"Fine. What's up?" You sit criss-cross next to him and he scoots closer until your knees knock together awkwardly.
"I was wondering how your story was going? You know, since you neglected me for seven entire days while you wrote," he adds with a teasing glare. "I remember something about a 'sudden burst of inspiration' when I told you about this stupid headset, and I want to know what you've accomplished."
You grimace slightly. While the headset did give you a little dose of creativity, it hadn't been hardly enough. In the whole week, you might've written five usable pages. God, it was awful what your brain did to you. So many beautiful ideas and no capacity to get them onto paper properly or form them into one comprehensive novel. The headset that Santiago's boyfriend found while exploring some abandoned building downtown had given you a false sense of hope, and you had canceled all non-essential commitments to use this creativity boost while you still had it, but it fizzled out much quicker than you thought it would. Essentially, you blew Santi off for no reason.
"Well..." You begin, trying to find the right wording. "I did get a couple pages done... I thought of having Delia-" your main character- "find some headset and get transferred into a digital world, and through that discover the secrets of the universe around her..." You swirl your hand in the air, dramatically punctuating your words. "But I've been struggling to figure out how she would've found it in the first place, and moreover... Is it stupid to have a simulation within a simulation? I don't know..." You trail off, hugging your knees to your chest now. You can feel the doubts start to creep out of the shadows of your mind. Santiago puts a reassuring hand on your shoulder, gently shaking you out of your impending misery.
"Hey, it's alright. You're going to figure it out, just... give yourself some grace, okay?"
"I wish I could, Santi, really. But, look around," you gesture to the room around, eyeing the mold growing on the walls and the cardboard box you'd been "temporarily" using as your TV stand for two and a half years. "I need to get out of this place. And in order to do that, I really need this book to take off. All my other books have been... Well, they've been failures-"
"Don't say that!"
"It's true, Santi. It's fine, but..." You sigh, exhaustion evident in your face. "Like I said, I really need this to work out. And I don't know how much longer I can keep working at Quicky Express." You recoil at even the name of the place on your tongue. If you had to stare at those checkered floors layered in a thick coating of grime that would take an act of god to clean for too many more nights, you might actually start losing your shit.
Santi just laughs at you, earning a glare from you.
"Is my misery funny to you, Santi?" you groan, and he quiets down.
"Of course not- well, actually... Yeah, a little." He chuckles as your face scrunches up. "Here. Let's take a look at the headset now, maybe that'll help you jog up some more ideas."
He leans over and pulls the VR headset out of the old dog food box it was resting in and holds it out to you. You take it carefully, turning it around in your hands until you find the logo.
"C&A... what kind of company is that? I've never heard of it." Santi shrugs in response.
"Dunno, Logan and I haven't tested it out yet so I have no idea what's on it."
"Wait, y'all didn't even try it out?! God, Santi, the stupid thing probably doesn't even work!" You laugh, and he throws his hands up indignantly.
"God forbid I don't care to try on an old busted-up VR headset my boyfriend found in a rickety old office building when I have a perfectly good Switch right there to play with," he scoffs.
"That's fair, but still!" You grin and roll your eyes, before positioning the headset right-side up. "Well, here goes nothing I guess. Let's see if it still works."
You lower the headset and adjust it around your eyes until it was comfortable, and wait. For a few seconds, it's just a black screen, and you almost take it off. Then, a blue screen pops up, the C&A logo showing up again in bold white lettering. Your heart thumps in your chest. It actually works! It goes back to a black screen and then a brilliantly colored landscape appears. As the loading music starts up, a bright blue sky and rolling green hills give way to a few simply animated trees, and a yellow and red big top tent propped up in the corner. "The Amazing Digital Circus" floats into your vision in vivid primary colors. Then, something strange happens.
You feel your body being moved, almost like the G-force you would feel on a roller coaster, but instead of pushing down, you feel pulled in. The circus tent pulls closer and white light floods your senses. You reach up to pull the headset off, but you can't feel anything on your face anymore. In fact, you can't feel anything at all. Or see, or smell, or hear. You begin to panic at that, until you regain every ability, one at a time, almost as if your senses are being loaded in.
A drumroll occurs somewhere distantly, before turning into vibrant, bouncy music. You open your eyes, unsure of when you closed them in the first place. You find yourself on a stage with red curtains, and beyond the stage is a headache of bright colors and shapes. Toy like tubes connect in mid-air, playing blocks stack up in tall towers, red and yellow stripes run up the walls, and a checkerboard floor splays out beneath it all. It smells vaguely of stale popcorn. You blink, rubbing your eyes, but pause as you do. You feel... wooden..?
You look down at your hands and sure enough, find wooden doll-like hands, your ring and middle fingers fused together. That would have freaked you out, but the fact that there seemed to no longer be a headset on your face was a bit more pressing. You look down further, examining your body. As you do so, you find that (somehow) you are standing on pointe.
"Uh... Guys? Is that..?"
Your attention snaps up towards the new voice. Standing below the stage is a jester girl in red and blue. She stands awkwardly with her knees angled towards each other. You almost find yourself snickering about "Disney knees" before your rational mind gets ahold of you again.
"H-hello! Uh, do you... Would you happen to know how to- WAH!" You go to take a step and immediately your ankles give out from underneath you. You've never done pointe before, and your body- no matter how fake- shouldn't be able to accommodate that. You groan, pushing yourself up off the floor slightly as more people gather around.
"Oh, great. Fresh meat!" A purple anthropomorphic rabbit in pink overalls grins down at you after hopping onto the stage with you. You grimace at him. He really needs to brush his teeth. They're almost the color of... corn.
"Shut up, Jax." Another character with a triangular prism for a head pipes up, another made of ribbons and some sort of mask following close behind and staring shyly at you from behind the other's shoulder.
"Hey there, stranger!" A girl with red yarn hair and a button as one of her eyes walks up slowly, waving a stuffed hand. "What's- do you remember your name?" she asks nervously as she walks toward the edge of the stage to get a closer look.
You go to answer, and then realize with horror that you can't seem to remember. They all must see it in your widened eyes, because they all seem to slump a bit at your lack of an answer... Well, except for that weird butter-teeth rabbit.
"Uh-"
"What's all the commotion over h- WOWZA!" A snazzy chattering teeth toy materializes out of thin in front of you, mismatched eyes within his(?) jaw rolling around cartoonishly as he moves. "A new human! And in such a short time!"
"W-"
"Say, what are you doing on the floor? Just because you're wooden too doesn't mean you belong there, you silly swan!" He laughs oddly- it sounds too sped-up to be human, and it shoots a chill down your spine. You don't have time to dwell on it however, for he snaps his fingers and you are back up on your feet- rather, your toes- once again. "Back up you go!" You wobble slightly, testing your new feet carefully. You manage to make it a couple steps before falling backwards and landing on the floor with a dramatic clattering.
"Wow! She's completely useless!" The purple rabbit- Jax, was his name?- guffaws. "She can't even walk!" You shoot him an unseen glare as he cackles at your expense.
"Jax! Be nice! There's things we've all had to get used to in these bodies!" The plush doll reprimands him, but it seems to do no good. She turns back to you defeated, before straightening out again. "Don't mind him," she says with renewed composure. You look over the pile of limbs that is currently your body, and do your best to convey a shrug.
"It's whatev-"
"Upsidaisy!" The man with a pair of teeth for a head whips around his finger and you find yourself standing again. "There we go! Let's try that again!" You would've been irritated that not a single soul let you get out more than four words at a time, but he floats closer and puts a gloved hand on your shoulder, stealing your attention. "I've gotcha this time! Just believe in yourself!"
Yeah, okay. You could do that. You steel yourself and begin to walk further. You stumble a couple times, to which the man beside you responds by grabbing your hand and holding onto it until you feel steady again. You close your eyes and try to just... believe that you can suddenly do pointe. This world was fake, anyway. Why shouldn't you be able to..? Huh. Just like that, you're walking normally again. How intriguing.
"Good job!" The pair of teeth booms, patting you on the back with an enlarged hand so hard you stumble a bit. "Now then, let's step into introductions, shall we? HAHAHA- anyway." You lift a brow at the terrible joke as the rest of the cast groans. He ignores all of you as he floats into a spotlight- when did that appear?- and tips his top hat at you with a grand flourish.
"My name is Caine, and I'll be your ringmaster here in this wacky, wonderful world! You, my wooden wonder, have found yourself in The Amazing Digital Circus, a place full of fun that lasts... forever." He says the last part without his dramatic lilt, eyes staring off into space. He stays like that for a while, making you glance side to side nervously.
"Uh, Cai-" he cuts you off by suddenly appearing by your side, pulling you into a side hug.
"This here is Gangle, that jumble of mis-matched parts is Zooble-" they flip him off at that- "Ragatha is our resident rag-dolly, and this one is Jax! Kinger is... somewhere..." He pauses briefly, rubbing his chin, and then floats away to lift the jester girl up by her shoulders, who yelps in response. "And this one is Pomni! She's our latest arrival, aside from you of course! You two should get along swell!"
Each character waves or nods in greeting. Pomni lifts a hand weakly to you before looking up at the ringmaster.
"Caine, can you put me down now?" She sounds exasperated. You silently wonder how often this happens...
"Oh, yeah!" He drops her suddenly and she lands on her face with a groan, earning another cackle from Jax.
"Don't forget about princess Bubble!" A large iridescent orb with dangerously sharp teeth floats out of Caine's hat and stares into your soul. You shudder briefly.
"Oh, yeah, and Bubble." Caine's tone flattens out once again. He floats back to your side and mutters behind a hand to you. "You can just forget about him."
"I heard that!" Caine pops him quickly, and then twists his body back towards you.
"Now then, let's give you a grand tour!" Before you can protest, he grabs your arm.
The world seems to fold in on itself for a split second before opening back up again into an entirely different area. The force of the... teleportation, you assumed, was enough to send your head spinning and your stomach lurching. You groan, clutching at your body. Caine blabbers on about slipping into a self-induced temporary coma (otherwise known as sleeping!!) in your bedroom, drowning yourself in a lake and engaging in debauchery at the carnival, and then the world collapses and gives way to a new space again. Your nausea quickly subsides as you stare around in shock. Around you is nothing but white space for as long as the eye can see, expanding in all directions.
"Wha- where the %$!# are we? Did I just get censored??"
"Now now, my dear, this is a family-friendly play place! No swearing allowed!" He wags a finger in your face as you crumple. The thought of not being able to curse was honestly dreadful. "Goodness, you humans and your swearing," he shakes his head. "Anyway! To answer your question, this is THE VOID," his voice echoes infinitely into the empty space. You begin to feel sick again.
"I... I don't think I like it out here."
"Well I have swell news for you then, my plucky puppet!" Puppet..? "We don't adventure out here, uh, ever! I don't even know what's out here." He pulls you in and stares ominously at you, and you find a way to back up despite being in his grasp. "Back we go!" He snaps and you both are transported back to the circus. He puts you on the ground gingerly, and floats back a bit.
You don't think you can hold it in any longer. You hunch over and watch in horror as a viscous ink-like substance rushes out of you. You stumble back again, groaning.
"I got this bos-"
"Don't even think about it, Bubble!" Caine pops him again, before snapping the inky liquid away. "Man, you humans sure are messy!" He laughs his weird laugh again. Pomni steps towards you slowly, and reassuringly pats you on the back.
"It's okay, I did that my first time too. You'll uh... You'll get used to it." She offers a smile, and you manage a meek one of your own.
"Now that that's out of the way, you'll need a new name! Have any in mind?" Caine leans over, one enlarged green eye staring you down.
"Uh... I suppose I'm not going to be able to remember my own name, huh?"
"Nnnope!" The others shake their head as well.
You sigh exhaustedly. The only name you seem to be able to remember that could work was the name of your main character. The irony of Delia being written to have put a headset on and be transported to a new reality was... not lost on you.
"Um, is Delia okay?"
"Delia. Deel-lee-uh..." He tests the name on his tongue. "Magnificent! What a lovely name! Delia it is!" You give a half-hearted thumbs up.
Ragatha walks over to you and Pomni, a soft smile on her face.
"How are you feeling?" she asks.
"I mean, still a little queasy," you laugh. "But um, I'm fine, I guess. I was gonna ask earlier, um, would you guys happen to know how to... um... leave?" Pomni and Ragatha look at each other briefly, before looking back at you.
"So, about that..." Pomni begins.
"You... can't really leave. At least, not as far as we know." Ragatha finishes gently.
"That's right, my dear! There is no exit here! But why would you ever want to leave?" You finally notice that Caine has been floating just slightly above you, stomach down and legs kicking behind him. His tongue hangs out and his eyes roll in opposite directions in what is supposed to look like a goofy face, but ends up giving more uncanny horror.
"Right. Of course." You groan, pulling at your face with your hands. Wooden hands. That, supposedly, you were stuck with forever. Tears well in your eyes as you think of your unfinished novel, of Santi. You'd leave behind no legacy, except for your best friend who you imagined was probably distraught right now. Ragatha and Pomni both place a supportive hand on each of your slumped shoulders as you begin to cry softly. Above, you can hear Caine start to panic.
"W-why are you crying my dear? Is something the matter?"
"Caine, she had a whole life before this that she has to abandon now! That's a hard pill to swallow! Give her some time," Ragatha scolds, and Pomni nods along. Caine backs away in the air a bit, looking around as if unsure what to do. He grabs his hat and fidgets with the rim.
"I-I'm sorry I-"
"It's okay," you sniffle, and give a sad, tired laugh. "It's not your fault I put the headset on. Maybe... Maybe this place won't be so bad. It's not like my real life was all that great," you add, muttering. "I'm sorry, this is... kind of embarrassing huh?" You laugh again, at yourself, at your tears, at the situation.
"No no, not at all!" Ragatha shakes her hands.
"No, it's pretty embarrassing!" Jax calls from farther away before you watch Zooble strangle him. You giggle at the sight. Deserved.
"So then, are you all humans as well?" You swipe at your face, puzzled as they are covered in... makeup? Paint? Your attention is stolen back by Pomni.
"Yeah, we're all humans too. Well, except for Caine, he's an AI." He waves excitedly at the mention of him, and you smile. He's a bit terrifying, but also kind of adorable somehow.
"Uh, by the way, Delia. Your face is... it's... melting?" Melting??
"W-what? Um, Caine, do you have a mirror?" He snaps to attention and nods quickly.
"But of course I do!" He waves his arms and a full-length mirror appears between them. He grabs it at the sides and holds it down for you to see.
When you see yourself, your mouth gapes. You actually don't look half bad... In fact, you actually kind of like how you look. Your figure is certainly more of an hourglass now than you would have ever been able to achieve in the real world. You chuckle at the thought. From what you can see past the trails in your paint made from your tears, you seem to be some sort of ventriloquist doll, based on the lines at the corners of your mouth. Your lips are colored with a dark red lipstick in the middle that matches with the deep rouge of your nose and cheeks, overlapped by a swirling pattern. Your lashes are dramatic and over the top, your purple eyeshadow shimmers in the light, and your arched eyebrows connect to the contour of your nose. You have black curly hair that wraps around your forehead in little swirls- almost akin to Betty Boop- along with an acrobatist's cap and a star crown.
You have a cream colored ruffled collar like a clown's, big poofy sleeves- rich, warm purple on your right side and sunshine yellow on the other. You have a corset-top leotard, purple and lined with gold with a big star in the middle at the bust, and purple and yellow strips going down your torso. Your legs are covered in mis-matched tights- yellow with purple stars on your right leg and a diamond pattern on your left. The tights connect to your point shoes, which have little cream pompoms at the ends.
While your hands and chest (the only other bits of "skin" showing beside your face) have a wood grain to them, your face looks more like that of a carved doll- you can tell it's wood still, but it's a bit lighter and smoother. You also find two little beauty marks, one on your chin, and one below your left eye. Your makeup seems similar to that of a clown, but more refined, and overall you appear to be loosely based off of an acrobat in the 1920s. When you look down at your hands, you find ball joints along your fingers, and you wonder briefly if the rest of your joints are made up of ball joints as well.
You must have been staring at yourself for a while now, because Caine clears his throat as he drums his fingers along the side of the mirror.
"So, uh, what'd'ya think? I spent quite a while on your design, in fact I think it's my best work yet!" It's hard to tell, since he's all teeth, but you think he's smiling down at you expectantly. "I tried to go with a more... realistic vibe! More human-y! Do you... like it?" You think you see a hint of worry flickering in his eyes, and for a moment you wonder if the others are unhappy with their bodies.
"I... love it!" You grin, watching as your face lights up cartoonishly. You were so expressive here, but it didn't seem to bother you.
"Wait, really? You do??" Caine's pupils grow to the size of saucers, excitement flooding his body language.
"Uh, yeah, I look gorgeous!" You laugh, doing a little twirl in front of the mirror that he had let go of, but stayed floating in the air.
"Wowee!! I am so glad to hear you say that, you have no idea!" Caine wipes a big blue tear from his eye, and you find yourself giggling at his antics.
"I'm glad to hear you're comfortable in your body too, Delia! That will really go a long way in helping you get accustomed to this place," Ragatha smiles, gesturing up at the tent. Pomni smiles and nods as well.
"Even if there's some things you find... odd... you'll get used to those, as well," she adds.
"Thank you guys, seriously. Y'all are so sweet." You grin and pull Ragatha and Pomni into a hug. Ragatha hugs you back happily, and although Pomni tenses up, she eventually wraps her arms around you in return.
"Gadzooks!! Would you look at the time!" Caine holds a watch out, and you find that instead of times, there are little icons around the watch face, probably to tell him when to go do what. "I've got to get to planning some extra special adventures, since you're new here! I live to impress! And if anyone else here hates my adventures, I might just-" He's cut off by a blue-screen glitch, and you stare up at him in shock.
"Uh, does this... happen often?" You turn to the girls, unsure. They both nod, and you turn back to him.
Time passes- you're not sure how much- and Pomni and Ragatha tell you they're going to go on and head to their rooms to relax for the "night." They tell you they'll see you there and walk off together, talking cheerily about something you don't quite understand. Perhaps a previous adventure? You wanted to wait until Caine booted up again, but he really was taking a while. Just as you get up to follow behind them, his eyes blink and he floats around, looking for the others. He looks sad for a moment before his eyes land on you, and he lights up.
"Oh! You're still here," he chirps as he floats down toward you. You nod.
"Yeah, I figured you might want someone to still be here when you booted back up. You okay, by the way?" He looks incredibly excited again and you worry he might glitch out once more.
"You... wanted to make sure I'm okay??" He inches forward mid air until his face is right in front of yours. You smile, but back away slightly.
"Well, yeah?" 'Tears' well up in his digital eyes as he takes your hand in his.
"I am now, my dear! I swear, I'm going to cook you up the best adventure you've ever had," he declares, pointing a finger into the sky triumphantly.
"Thank you..?" You laugh, and he floats back up higher into the air.
"It'll be ready before you know it, but I've got to go get to work! Go ahead and get some rest in your room, and it'll be done when you wake up! Too-da-loo!" With that, he disappears into a cloud of confetti.
Your mind swirls with all of the information of the day. God, what have you gotten yourself into? You sigh, releasing all the tension built up in your wooden body. You start to walk towards your room, but stop in your tracks. How... How do you get to the rooms from here?
"%$!#."