Chapter Text
Just one month.
One month after the newest addition to the circus, Pomni, the small, anxiety-ridden jester had arrived. It was as if her arrival sealed everyone’s fate.
—————————————————
Pomni woke to the sound of knocking at her door. She didn’t recall having any bad dreams about abstraction, nor herself abstracting the night before, thank goodness. She certainly didn’t think she could handle her new life here in this circus if it meant waking up every morning being bounced around her room by faulty cube collisions after experiencing recurring nightmares time and time again.
She groggily stood up, swinging her small feet over the bed and approaching the door.
“Hey, Pomni..? You up yet?” A familiar voice—Ragatha—spoke through the door.
“If you’re not that’s alright, I can just come back later-“ she was cut off by the sound of the door creaking open, the jester herself emerging seconds after.
“Theeeere she is!” Ragatha chirped, “how’d you sleep this night? Did you.. have any nightmares again?”
Pomni hastily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “No.. not that I remember. Is the adventure starting yet, or..?”
“Oh, no. Caine hasn’t come to the main stage for his announcement yet.. he’s, uh, actually late today, for some reason.” Ragatha explained, as her and Pomni began walking down the player corridor and into the main area of the tent.
There, she saw mostly everyone sprawled out or sitting on the assortment of colorful couches in the middle of the main area. Gangle appeared to be doodling in her sketchbook, with Zooble looking over her shoulder, just behind the couch. Kinger and Jax sat on the couch right next to them, the rabbitoid looking particularly bored and Kinger simply.. staring off into space.
The duo quietly made their way to the blue couch, sitting next to eachother before looking away.
An awkward silence stretched on for what felt like hours.
“..so, uh,” Zooble abruptly started, breaking the silence, “anyone have any clue where Caine is?”
No one answered. Pomni noticed Ragatha open her mouth for a split second, as though she wanted to suggest something, before closing it again.
“Jeeez,” Jax dramatically exclaimed, “hate to say it, but you’re all boring as [BOINK!] without Caine here.”
Pomni couldn’t argue with the fact he was certainly a bit right about that… for the past month or so she’d been in the circus, her daily routine consisted of:
Wake up.
Get dramatically yelled at by Caine, announcing his seemingly impromptu adventure for the day.
Go on the adventure.
Come back, usually completely exhausted, traumatized, or a mixture of both.
Rest. Go to bed. Repeat.
She really hated to admit that she had no idea what to do without having to follow that daily routine she’d grown oh so used to.
“How about you be quiet for once in your life, Jax?” Zooble argued back in a passive aggressive tone, narrowing their eyes at him.
“Well what are we supposed to do? I can’t have my own fun messing with you freaks if dentures over here is apparently dead or something-“
“N-now now! Let’s just stay calm, everybody-“ Ragatha attempted to console, “Caine’s probably just, uh… running updates, maybe?”
Jax shot her a completely unconvinced glare.
“Suuureee, or, he’s getting totally [BOING]d over by a virus or something, and now it’s coming for us, or some [POW].” He said, voice dripping with sarcasm, a large grin taking up his face.
Gangle winced a bit. Her comedy mask was, for some reason, already broken, even though it was only morning. Had Jax seriously broken it already this early or something?, Pomni distantly wondered.
“Jax, can you just shut up with the whole scary talk thing? We’re not falling for your damn fear bait.” Zooble shot right back, “Like Ragatha said, Caine’s probably fine.”
Suddenly, the circus abruptly glitched.
And then, the lights flickered out.