Chapter Text
It was a quiet evening in the circus. Low, ambient music was playing all around you as it tended to do in the afternoons. Your soft, faux furred paws thumped on the floor as you wandered around the tent, looking for a place to curl up and destress for a while.
You’d been a part of the digital circus for some time now, while you can only guess how long it had been, it seemed like a decent yet still sane amount of time. Either way you never went out of your way to ask. Caine slightly intimidated you and you preferred to stick to yourself rather than interact with any of the other members.
The only person you regularly spoke with was Kinger, everyone else assumed he was sort of crazy and unaware but you saw through it. Spent long hours sat together in his pillow fort and obsessed over your bug facts together. Kinger helped tether you to this reality, kept you from abstracting. You almost saw him as some kind of dad.
On your stroll around the tent, you spot Kinger’s pillow fort off to the side. You walk over and pull one of the pillows to the side, silently shifting inside and closing the gap behind you.
“Ah (y/n), how are you?” Kinger greets you with a soft smile, though he doesn’t have a mouth, you see his eyes slightly scrunch up. You shrug and curl up into a sleepy ball of fluff, eyes fixed on your father figure. Kinger picks up your hesitation and nods, putting one hand on your back, slowly petting you.
When joining the circus, you had transformed into a furry cat plush, orange with small black stripe-like patterns. It took a decent while to actually grow on you, but when it did you really embodied your new skin. You even grew accustomed to how your almost feline instincts felt, getting used to the purring and urge to rub against random surfaces. It was definitely weird, but you almost enjoyed it.
The rest of the evening was filled with comfortable silence, though after a while you decide to head to your own room. You wave Kinger goodbye and quickly shuffle out of the pillow fort, walking towards the hallway and your room.
/ᐠ - ˕ -マ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
You were by all means not a morning person, or morning kitty. It was incredibly hard to grow used to not having an energy drink in the mornings, even harder to be summoned out of your room whenever it pleases Caine.
Everyone’s stood in front of the stage listening to Caine ramble about his new adventure for the day. Something about a bloodthirsty butcher.. meat on the walls. It didn’t sound too appealing to anyone. That’s when Zooble reminds Caine of the suggestion box.
“Ah! Yes to be completely honest I forgot we had that… let’s see,” Caine exclaims as he rummages through the overflowing box of papers, “How about Zooble get’s turned into a piñata and we all take turns beating them up?”
“That one’s mine,” Jax chuckles from off to the side.
After a couple more suggestions, of which were mostly jokes, Caine reads out one more.
“What about an adventure where we all work at a fast food place?”
Gangle nods and smiles, Jax and Zooble just start to complain.
“Alright, today you’re all working a hard day’s work at Spudy’s Restaurant Chain!” Caine booms dramatically from above.
“See you all when it’s over,” Zooble says, starting to walk away.
“Ooh! How about I sit this one out and Zooble can take my place?” Kinger suggests kindly. Caine immediately agrees and opens a portal, sucking all of you inside and dropping you into a fast food restaurant.
“I can’t believe Caine made this today’s adventure..” Zooble groans.
You’re too busy worrying about what to do now that your only support person isn’t in an adventure with you. Whilst Gangle hands out roles to everyone, you stand off to the side, fidgeting with the beans on your front paws.
“(y/n), can you help Pomni with customers? It’s gonna get real busy real quick!” Gangle says to you, weirdly different with her new mask. You hesitantly nod and walk to the front, standing awkwardly behind the cash register next to Pomni.
Gangle was right, it got super busy quite quickly. You did the best you could, serving customers and taking orders as quickly as possible. God these NPC’s were insufferable sometimes.
“Hey Pomni?” You awkwardly look over at her, avoiding direct eye contact.
“Yeah?”
“I’m gonna go out back for a bit, just call me back up if it gets busy,” you practically whisper, Pomni nods and you quickly scurry to the back of the kitchen. It was a mess back there, Ragatha was… drunk on something, Gangle was dissociating off to the side and Jax would not stop complaining. You just prayed this adventure would be over soon.
/ᐠ - ˕ -マ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
“Working hard or hardly working ey (y/n)?” Gangle’s cheerful voice calls to you from the back window. You’re sat curled up against the wall in the alleyway behind Spudy’s, you can’t be sure how long you’ve been out here for but sigh. You stand up and brush yourself off in your work uniform, sighing before pushing through the back door.
Lunch rush.. great.
“Uh.. hey Gangle?” you mumble to your fellow circus member / shift manager. She turns around quickly with a smile.
“Can I- uh-.. work in the back for a while.. I can clean?”
You hated cleaning, but it seemed like the lesser of two evils right now. Gangle nods.
“Of course, we need someone to take over for Ragatha.. she’s lost her mind a little bit…” Gangle exclaims with a grin, you sheepishly nod and walk over to where a drowsy, stupid version of Ragatha is draped over the counter.
“You can just.. chill for a while, I can take over if you want.” You say to Ragatha, she smiles sleepily.
“Thanks (y/n), you’re th’best.” She slurs her words and stumbles away towards the back, you sigh and start to assemble burgers. For a moment you eye up the bottles labelled ‘stupid sauce’.
/ᐠ - ˕ -マ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
What a long adventure.. a boring one too. The shift at Spudsy’s had ended and Caine had summoned you all back to the circus after grading everyone’s performance.
You yawn and rub your eyes with your paw-like hands before heading towards your bedroom for the night, wanting nothing more than to pass out.