Chapter Text
The circus was a lot more peaceful now. The color was back in the circus, though some gray patches still remained, and the power to control the circus was in the hands of everyone. Caine was back, somehow, but he seemed less… controlling. At least, he seemed to be making an effort, to mixed responses from the circus members.
Speak of the AI…
“Hey, Kinger? Can I borrow- er- talk to you? A-and Pomni.”
Shortly after Caine returned to the circus, Zooble and Pomni pulled him aside to establish some ground rules. One of the first rules stated that Caine could not be alone with any of them. Zooble insisted that if Caine ever cracked again, none of them should face that alone. Pomni didn’t argue it.
That’s how Pomni found herself sitting beside Kinger in his new, much larger pillow fort, and rethinking what it means to be connected to the internet.
“The connection wasn’t stable, it only lasted long enough for me to make the, uh, slideshow for you all. But if the connection returns, you all could access the internet more regularly! Maybe check in on yourselves and what’s going on in the macroverse.”
That… that could change so much for them. But Pomni had too much experience with false hope to put too much into this. Kinger also seemed skeptical, his hand rubbing where a chin would be, further grounding that spark.
“The connection you made… it was temporary, likely from someone passing by.” He glanced at Pomni, then refocused on Caine, subtly confused and curious. “Has the connection returned at all?”
The jester expected Caine to turn reserved, as he usually did now when he couldn’t solve their more complex requests. Instead, he became excited, arms spreading wide, and his form floating a bit higher off the ground.
“That’s the amazing part! It just did!”
With much less flourish than Caine’s usual, although still a good amount of flourish, the ringmaster summoned a red-and-blue-patterned tablet. He turned to give Kinger and Pomni a better view as he navigated to the browser and typed ‘bees’ into the search bar. After a brief moment of processing, real pictures of bees and the start of a Wikipedia article describing where you could find them were loaded on the screen.
Pomni gently took the tablet, as if breaking it would ruin their only chance to access the internet again. She scrolled for a few seconds, clicking on a few websites to see all the bee facts load. It all loaded without issue; every image and website was so refreshingly real. She’s gotten so used to the digital world’s smooth, blocky, oversaturated shapes that seeing real footage again took a minute to process. The slideshow Caine first showed them took her weeks to really sink in.
She could check up on Abigail. They could all check on their other selves. They knew generally where their human selves were now, but you could only get so many details from a five-minute, curated slideshow.
However long this lasted, they needed to make the most of it.
“Caine, can you make tablets for everyone?” Pomni looked up from the page denoting every species of bee, seeing Kinger and Caine pause their own quiet conversation about where the wifi signal was coming from and how to keep it around. She would probably join that conversation after she made sure the others knew they had internet access for the moment. “ I think everyone will want a little internet access while we have it.”
“Of course! I’ll go deliver the good news!” Caine’s eyes sparkled, his feet kicking behind him. “Oh, they’ll be so thrilled to see their real selves. And maybe it’ll give everyone more inspiration for adventures!”
Before he teleported away, the ringleader snapped a purple tablet covered in butterflies into existence. Kinger quickly grabbed the tablet out of the air and admired the different species on the back. Even without a mouth, she could see the small smile in his eyes.
“This signal is coming from a local hotspot,” Kinger said, turning the tablet back over and turning it on. “We’ll only have the signal as long as whoever is nearby is within range of the console.”
Pomni determinedly clicked on the search bar, deleting ‘bees’ and beginning to type. She didn’t notice, but her mouth upturned in a smile.
“Then we'd better make it count.”
<><><>
When Caine popped in on Ragatha baking, dropped a lavender patchwork-patterned tablet onto the kitchen counter, enthusiastically explained they had internet access for an unknown amount of time, and disappeared in a cartoonish puff of smoke, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do.
Five minutes later, after she put her sugar cookie dough in the fridge and took her new tablet to the couches, she still wasn’t sure what to do.
She should… check on Suzie, right? See how she’s doing out there, in the real world. With her big house, and successful real estate business, and horses…
Ragatha bit her lip, looking away from the awaiting search bar and toward the bright cubes and cones scattered around the circus, Jax’s tent catching in her peripheral view. Pomni and Kinger were still in Kinger’s pillow fort, and Zooble and Gangle weren’t around. She looked back down at the empty search bar, still hesitating. She really did want to know more about how she- Suzie was doing out there, but just… not yet.
Maybe…
She glanced up again, Jax’s tent standing tall and overflowing with pillows, blankets, and whatever cozy things they could easily conjure for him. There was still so much she didn’t know, so much that Jax wouldn’t share with her, and now the chance of her finding out, well, anything else about him was so much smaller.
Maybe, she thought, already typing his name, she could find something he liked. They could conjure something to remind him of home. It might make him more comfortable in there, even if he may not understand it. Pomni always said that Jax was still in there, that the real Jax, beneath all the snark and jokes, was just waiting to come out.
Maybe a reminder of home would help.
<><><>
“Holy shit, my bar is sick.”
Zooble refused to waste a second of however much internet time they were gifted. Their eyes were wide as they drank in the details about ‘The Triangle,’ as well as their most recent social media posts. The Triangle was thriving; it had a popular social media following and several positive, personal reviews online. Some pictures they found showed a dark, inviting atmosphere, stuffed floor-to-ceiling with a variety of memorabilia, from neon signs to action figures. Somehow, it didn’t feel disjointed or messy, but flexible.
“I should make something like this in the circus,” They said, transfixed, “something…”
Their mind wandered, sitting in Gangle’s dark, theater-themed room as they continued to explore. Gangle sat next to them on her bed, slowly scrolling on her own newly gifted tablet, taking in all they had missed in the real world. In the back of their head they were curious what Gangle was reading. Maybe how their art was doing on Tumblr? They wondered if she had started releasing her webcomic; they had talked about her ideas a few times, and they had real potential. In the front of their head, however, they were still eagerly scrolling. They had found their Twitter now, the following was decent, and there were even more pictures of The Triangle and its regulars.
Maybe they could make something like this in the circus. Conjuring was still unnecessarily difficult, so they may not be able to recreate the whole building, but surely they could put up a simple bartop with a few stools. If they could add some of their real-world trinkets to the walls, it might capture that comfortably cluttered feeling.
“You did it.”
Gangle’s delicate voice cut through their thoughts, their teary mask turning to Zooble. They tore away from a recent tweet about a karaoke night, seeing the reflection of their hot pink triangular hot in her mask. Their mismatched eyes, which bothered them less than they used to, shifted from wide and scrutinizing to something softer. Gangle always seemed to make them a little softer around the edges, something they had recently noticed happening more and more. Blinking a few more times, they remembered Gangle had spoken to them.
“Did what?”
The mask’s eyes were simply black shapes, but conveyed something like awe and pride. Their small smile reached their eyes, as it so rarely did, and her signature tears were absent. It had been, well, a while since anyone had looked at them like that. Like they were something more than a mess of random parts.
“You made a difference in the world.”
The girl beamed at them. It made them believe. She made them believe.
“So did you.”
Gangle’s smile faltered, her ribbons curling and shoulders dropping slightly. She shrank in on herself, taking up much less space than she should, even with the little mass her avatar held.
“Huh?”
“You made a difference, too,” Zooble started. If they weren't looking into Gangle's dark eyes, they'd notice their reflection in the porcelain was just as proud. “out there, and in here.”
“Well, not really.” She laughed shortly, little tears sprouting from the corners of her eyes. She looked back at the Tumblr page showing a manga-style spread, “my webcomic isn't really that popular, a-and I don't think I- Zoey even has a job yet-”
“Gangle.”
She stopped again, looking back up at Zooble. They placed a clawed hand on her shoulder, gently squeezing the thin ribbons.
“Check the comments.”
Her wide eyes blinked again, then turned back to the tablet briefly. The tears dangling off her mask swayed with the motion. The edge of her ribbon dragged the page up, and she tapped the comment icon. It showed exactly what they expected, just as their bar reviews did.
Of course everyone loved it. It's Gangle. How could you not?
“You made a difference,” They repeated, squeezing their shoulder again to drive the point home. “Out there,” they nodded to the tablet, “and in here.” And despite their lack of a mouth, they put as much smile into their words and eyes as possible.
If Gangle looking up at them, twice as awed as before, dropping the tablet on her bed, and tackling them in a hug was any indication, they'd say the message was received.
<><><>
Kinger was pretty sure he knew what a hotspot was now. Maybe.
“So, the internet signal comes from a phone…”
“Uh huh.”
“... And the phone is mobile? You can just bring one with you anywhere?”
“Yep.”
“But why would a phone need an internet signal?”
Pomni was being very considerate in answering all his questions. Caine was trying to help, too, before he left, but his explanation left a bit to be desired. He lost track around the fourth bee allegory. The jester was doing a great job filling in the blanks, although he hated to bother her when she was clearly searching for something within the screen.
Dozens of glowing eyes, swirling colors, inky blackness, violent angles becoming smooth
“Modern phones are a lot more like little computers now. So the internet signal is for browsing and apps and…” She trailed off, tapping more intensely on the tablet. He tried not to look directly at it, lest the brightness become too much, but it looked like she was fighting a pop-up notice on a site he didn’t recognize. Her eyebrows were downturned in frustration, the tapping more aggressive than it needed to be. “God damn two-factor…”
“What’s a two-factor?”
“It’s…” The frustration ebbed a bit, and she began to tap more regularly. Although she paused a moment to look back up at Kinger. She took a deep breath, released it, and smiled a little more easily. He would take that as a small victory. “Sorry, Kinger. I’ll explain it to you later. A-and the tablet too, I just really need to send this message before the internet disconnects. Maybe we can look up more photos of your family, after?”
Man, did he want to see more pictures of his family. Caine’s presentation was wonderful, but there was so much left to wonder about Grant’s life. Where did he go after C&A? What is his wife doing now? How are his daughters? He hated to admit it, but the thoughts of what was going on outside the circus had begun to haunt him whenever it was dark enough to remember them.
Dozens of glowing eyes, swirling colors, inky blackness, violent angles becoming smooth
But that could wait. Even if it never came, he would be okay. He made it this far without even knowing Grant had gone on to have two precious little girls, hadn’t he? He could wait a little longer.
“Thank you, Pomni. That’s very kind of you.”
The girl turned a bit shy, looking back at the glowing screen in her lap.
“What are you working on now?” He prodded, motioning to her tablet without looking at it. He didn’t expect to understand exactly what she was doing, but if she was having trouble figuring it out, he might be able to help. “You said you’re sending a message?”
Pomni turned back to the screen, a small amount of frustration returning to her face, but stronger than that was the determination sparking in her pinwheel eyes. He loved to see that strength in her shine through.
“Yeah, sort of. The real trouble is trying to log in to any of my- Abigail’s accounts. I can’t get into her Instagram without an email or phone number confirmation, and I don’t have time to make a whole YouTube video. I- She doesn’t really use anything else.” She tapped on, although it seemed she was running low on options. ”I’m trying Twitter now, but…”
It reminded Kinger a bit of himself when he was stuck trying to fix a stubborn bug. Queenie would always sit with him, sometimes offering suggestions, support, or random bug facts. He never felt so frustrated when he was with her.
Dozens of glowing eyes, swirling colors, inky blackness, violent angles becoming smooth
“You said you needed an e-mail, well, you can get one pretty easily, can’t you?”
“That’s-” She began, shaking her head in disagreement. He thought webmail would really catch on in popularity, but it wouldn’t be the first time he was wrong about the future. He also thought C&A would grow into the next biggest thing in modern computer science, but look how that turned out. Pomni’s shaking stopped abruptly, her eyes going wider. “That could work.”
With that, she was tapping away again, hope and determination in every movement. That’s something Kinger really liked about her; she was always doing her best.
The jester let out a triumphant little cheer at something on the screen, and he wondered if his daughters had similar little mannerisms. He sighed deeply, thumbing the edges of his butterfly-themed screen.
What a weird day.
<><><>
<Gmail: Abigail B. - Come Back to C&A>