Chapter Text
The music starts up as everyone takes their places as the “camera” approaches the circus tent.
“Welcome! To The Amazing Digital Circus!” a male figure with two human jaws for a head that moves much like lips, with heterochromic eyes appears, floating in the air. He is dressed in a classic ringleader outfit, a pink coat with tails, white button up, tie, black…pants? legs? A cane and a top hat. “My name is Caine! I'm your ringmaster and I'm here to show you the most jaw dropping” he says detaching his lower jaw below himself for emphasis “heart stopping” he seems to physically stop a…very realistic human heart from passing him “mind bending paraphernalia” he shows a human brain being misshapen and twisted around “you ever laid your eyes upon!” he exclaims with enthusiasm “isn't that right bubble?” he asks as the curtains pull away to reveal a painfully colorful space filled with slides and balloons and structures as he pulls off his hat and a bubble character with sharp teeth emerges from it.
“That's right Caine! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got cookin up for today” the bubble with a high pitch voice says as they float down in front of a stage
“Well let's not waste anymore time” Cain says tilting his head “let's get right into the show!” he announces, spreading his arms out as the ‘camera’ pans to the stage and away from the two cartoon characters.
Gangle and Zooble and Kinger too~
A song begins playing as characters are introduced one by one through the reveal of a curtain, the first, Gangle, is a character with a porcelain mask with a body made of ribbons, she waves at the camera with a happy face.
The camera zooms as a new figure is introduced by the pull of the curtains, revealing a character made up of multiple shapes and different kinds of parts.
Another character is revealed in the same way, a pillow fort is shown with a chest piece with purple robes, floating hands and human-like eyes. He quickly retreats into his pillow fortress scared.
Ragatha, Jax, Puppet, Kafmo, woohoo~
The song continues as the rest are introduced, a ragdoll woman waving, a purple cartoon looking rabbit with pink overalls standing casually, winking at the camera, next to him a porcelain doll with visible lines sectioning off their face, wearing comfy pajamas pushes him as to get the spotlight. Finally a cardboard cut out of a pinball looking clown falls to the floor.
Day after day after- day after- day after day we fly~
The music seems to glitch, repeating itself as floating objects spin around.
Past the moon and the sun and we don't know why~
A jester character suddenly appears as objects fly through the air, clad in red and blue.
“Where?” the jester stammers out as she takes in her bright surroundings
She walks around, almost getting hit by a flying eyeball. She spots an exit and runs towards it, only for the exit to dissolve and disappear. A hat zooms past. A big flower falls and clips through the ground, frightening her. She knocks over Jax, who grabs Puppet to try and stable himself but fails, taking Puppet with him and because of it Kinger, and subsequently Gangle to fall over too, breaking Gangle's comedy mask, revealing a sad face with tears while the theme song slows down and stops.
“Ugh… ow…" you get up and rub your face, some cracks forming and seeing your arm broken off before looking at Jax "oh, hey Jax, knew you’d fall for me eventually” you tease cheekily as you cradle your face while getting up to your feet, partially loosing balance from being pushed away by Jax as he groans in annoyance.
“Oh, get off me” the rabbit replied as he slapped your outstretched hand away using your own arm as he brushed himself off. he hands you back your arm and you reattach it, watching the cracks fade away. You turn around and see the new arrival just as everyone circles around.
“Caine!” Jax whines “is this another one of your NPC’s or is this a new sucker?” he asks as he turns around “cause if it's a new character! We’re gonna have to redo this whole theme song…” Jax chuckles out but there was clear exasperation in his voice as his smile widens and his eyes squint.
“Yeah, I'm not doing that again,” Zooble chimes, crossing his arms.
“Ditto” you second, your forehead spinning around to pinched eyebrows and your jaw spinning around to a frown as you also yawn “I wanna go back to bed” you say with your arms crossed.
"you always want to go to bed Puppet" Zooble rolls their eyes.
“My my, it appears a new human has entered this realm!” Caine exclaimed, pointing his cane at the jester girl before pointing in the air.
The jester starts clawing at her head trying to take the headset off. Oddly enough her eyes turn into moving scribbles as she does.
“ How do I... take this… headset off!?” she cries in frustration as she claws at her head.
“Just keep grabbing at it. That worked for all of us.” Jax purrs out sarcastically as you lightly smack his arm with the back of your hand, your face shifting into a scolding look as Jax rolls his eyes.
The jester attempts to pull the headset off but, not realizing that it doesn't work, pulls at her eyes and mouth instead. When she gives up, her eyes and mouth fly back into position, making her head wobble.
“What's… going on? I-I-I put on some weird headset.. and now I'm...here?” the jester says as she looks at her hands before actually registering there were people staring at her.
"sounds about right" you mutter.
“Who are you people? Why can't I take it off? WHERE AM I?” the little jester begins to panic before Ragatha decides to intervene.
“Let's just try to calm down. Everything's gonna be ok, new stuff. We've all been through this. You just need to get your head to—” she is swiftly interrupted by the panicking jester.
“WHAT THE [SQUEAK] IS GOING ON!?...what—” she looks down at her hands in pure confusion as you try to stifle your cackles, your face spinning into an amused expression, Jax’s shit eating grin growing. She tries again only for the censor bar to hit once again.
“Now now now, my dear! We can't have any of that foul language around here.” Caine chimes in, exaggerating his words “The Amazing Digital Circus is a place to be enjoyed by all ages.” you silently scoff to yourself, all ages your ass- “You, my friend, stumbled into an incredible world of wonders, where anything can happen!...e-except for swearing.” he finishes explaining, looking around the space.
"trust me, I tried too when I got here" you lean into her eyesight before leaning back next to Jax.
The jester immediately tries saying what you can assume to be every single curse word in the book, you start cackling to yourself in amusement “Oh, my god. Well, h-how do I, you know.. Leave?” she asks tentatively to Caine.
Caine floats in the air, unsure how to respond “Uh-”
Ragatha decides to break the news to the jester gently “W-Well don't freak out about it or anything, but uh, we.. don't exactly—”
“You can't.” you and Jax say in unison, however in different tones, Jax’s tone was mocking, making fun of the newbie’s lack of knowledge. Yours however was softer, wanting to get to the point but still being sympathetic.
“What?” the girl’s eyes minimize as she looks at you and Jax in nervous confusion.
“Shut up, Jax. But yeah, they're right. Welcome to your new home, and your new body.” Their claw points down to the jesters feet, while Jax makes an annoyed face at Zooble.
“Me?! What about Puppet!?” Jax complains while you give him a smug smirk.
“Well, Puppet isnt being a jerk” Zooble replies, narrowing her eyes at Jax as you snicker at him, leaning onto his shoulder with a smug smile but he shoves his hand into your face and knocks you over.
“Ack-!”
“‘N-n-new home’? What do you mean?” her eyes darted around in a panic.
“Guys, don't be mean” Ragatha tries to diffuse and avoid a conflict happening.
“Whatever— We've been stuck here for years! Old Kinger over there's supposedly been here the longest” he says pointing at Kinger’s pillow fort. Kinger peeks out of his pillow fort that he had made “Huh, did somebody say something about an insect collection?” his eyes widened in excitement.
Jax pops beside the newbie “That's why he's craaazy” he chuckles while doing a cuckoo finger twirl before he sighs, losing his smile “Eh” and zips away from her back to your side.
The jester starts panting and the pupils of her eyes turn into scribbles, but she seems to calm down…sort of “Oh, okay, now I get it!” she laughs “This is a dream! And I should just play along until I wake up, right?” she says, her voice a little shaky as she has a smile on her face. The rest of the cast just stares at her, very clearly hinting that no, as much as they wish it was…it was not in fact a dream.
“..Whatever you say, kid.” Jax ends up breaking the silence as he looks at the jester in amusement while you start to doze off.
“They broke my comedy mask…” Gangle sobs out, Jax purposefully walks on Gangle’s mask, breaking it even more.
“So, Caine, we havin' a new adventure today for the newbie or what?” Jax says nonchalantly as Gangle sobs more.
“I'd like to give our brand-new member a tour of the circus grounds first” caine announces
“Uh-” is the last thing you hear as Caine grabs her and teleports away.
The cast sits in silence for a bit “so, how long d’you think the newbie’s gonna last?” Jax asks no one in particular.
Jax looks over and sees you dozing off while standing up "uggghh, not again…" he walks over and shakes you awake "huh- what?"
"stop falling asleep everywhere its annoying" he huffs ad he crosses his arms "not my fault I'm always tired.." you groan
Caine and the jester reappear in the tent, the jester looked dizzy before vomiting some kind of black oily sludge.
You were fully zoned out at this point and your attention was brought back when you heard Jax on the floor being choked by Zoobles' detached arm.
“Yeah, what are you talking about?” he asks in confusion while Jax struggles on the ground, you giggling at his misery.
Caine starts stuttering “Uh-uh-I- “ he clears his throat “I assure you there is no ‘magical exit door.’” he says in quotations “You're probably just experiencing DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS! From your mind's transition to the digital plane.” Caine explains, however, you weren't convinced. Exit door? What is he babbling about- he was clearly hiding something, what did he do?
It wasn’t like you were convinced about the exit, after so many years, why would an exit turn up now? People have been trying to leave for years without success. Even despite your best efforts, you gave up.
“But, I-I swear I saw-” the little jester tries to protest but-
“DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS”...Caine cut her off, he seems to fidget, avoiding looking at anyone before grabbing his cane and flying up “...How about we talk about something else? Like your name!” Caine changes the subject. “My name? My name is uhh…” she tries to think but starts panicking when she draws blanks “AAHH! OH, GOD! WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER MY NAME!?” she holds her head in her hands.
You once again zone out as this was just the same process you went through when you arrived at the circus. Instead you start thinking about your next 'self portrait'
“Gadzooks, you're right, Jax! We should have a brand new adventure for our new member, Pomni!” Caine’s voice snaps you out of your daydream.
“I said that, like, 5 minutes ago” Jax pipes up.
“You!” Cain bursts out pointing his cane at Pomni “Do you like adventure? Activity?” Caine's voice starts speeding up as he slowly gets closer to Pomni “Wonder? Danger? Horror? Pain?Suffering?Agony?Death?Disease?Death? Angel food cake?” Caine suddenly backs away, talking at a normal speed and holding out a cake.
Bubble appears and eats the angel food cake Caine had pulled out. Caine looks at his hands and then at Bubble with slight anger and confusion.
“YOU PARASITE!!!” he yells out in anger and pops Bubble.
“Uh- I don't really-”
“Since you're new around here, we're gonna make it a simple, in-house, adventure to warm you up to how things work around here.”
“What? No, god! I don't want an in-house adventure!” Zooble interrupted in disgust
“Don't worry, Zooble. I'll make it something unobtrusive that you can still choose to not get involved with! Today's adventure is... Gather the Gloinks!” Caine starts laughing, slowly turning maniacal until he interrupts himself. “That's right! The entire circus tent will be infested with Gloinks, and you gotta catch 'em all!”
“But what are they?” Bubble chimes in
“I'm glad You asked, Bubble, they're small-”
“And what do they do?” Bubble interrupts
Caine watches bubble in silence, slightly stunned “They-” he tries again
“ And how do they-” bubble interrupts again but is popped by caine
“Gloinks are small mischievous critters that steal anything and everything they run into! Why do these humanoid hash-browns do this? How do you stop them? That's for you to find out. Now, good luck, and have fun, my little superstars!” Caine disappears. After this, Pomni stares into space, Her eye twitches. She then turns to the others.
“…What did any of that mean?”
“Oh, that's just one of Caine's little adventures.” she says walking towards Pomni “They're just... something fun to do to, you know, prevent us from going insane” she chuckles weakly.
Zooble sighs “Speak for yourself. If anyone needs me, then [BOING] off" Zooble pulls the middle finger but is also censored as they walk away, however they get ambushed by Gloinks.
“Oh God, oh jeez, NO!” in a cloud of smoke, Zooble is taken apart by the Gloinks she is taken away “OH GOD! SOMEBODY HELP!” Zoobles voice fades away the further they get.
Gangle gasps in fear while Jax looks bored and uninterested.
“Oh no, they killed Zooble. Anyway, you guys wanna go get something to eat?” he says, stretching his arms over his head, looking towards the others. You smack him upside the head as you glare at him.
“Ow! What?” he complains, rubbing where you hit him glaring at you.
“Oh wait! we should go check on Kaufmo! I'm pretty sure he'd like to meet Pomni!” Ragatha pipes up before a swarm of Gloinks dismantle Kinger’s pillow fort.
“MY IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS!” he cries out in distress.
“Kinger! You wanna come with us to check on Kaufmo?” Ragatha offers
“No, not really” Kinger gets up and walks to the group “I think Kaufmo's gone insane. Last time I spoke with him, he was rambling endlessly about some exit” he recalls absently “Kind of like you, Pomni! You might be going insane too” he said, Turning his attention solely onto Pomni.
Exit door? after so many years why would an exit door appear now? something isn't right.
“BUT! WAIT! Wouldn't that more likely mean the exit DOES exist?” She asked hopefully.
“Could also mean that you just have a jump start on losing your mind?” Jax piped up, twirling his finger in a cuckoo motion. At this point you aren’t even gonna try.
Gangle tired to redirect the focus “Wait! What about Zooble!?” She calls out with genuine concern, however no one really paid her any mind at the moment.
“Well, I think I'd like to ask him about it, IF this was real, which it isn't, because it's a dream” Pomni tries to rationalize to herself.
Jax chuckles to himself in amusement “Heh, she still thinks this is a dream” he mutters to you as he smiles deviously in the distance in Ragatha’s direction. Ragatha notices this and is immediately nervous
“Uhh... why are you looking at me like that?” She turns around to face you two.
Jax relaxes his face “I'm fine with doing whatever, as long as I get to see funny things happening to people!” He stated confidently, however he is oblivious to the gloink approaching you two and it swiftly bonks him on the side of his head.
“Ow!” You snicker at him as the little Gloink bounces away “Okay, I've already had enough of these things” his pupils shrink and narrows his brows before he sighs with an annoyed expression, he turns around and points at Ragatha, himself and Pomni “You, me, and Pomni will go check on Kaufmo” he turns around pointing at the final three “which leaves crybaby, hoo-ha, and sleepy over here together to go handle the Zooble situation” his expression relaxes to his chill smile.
“Wow, trying to get rid of me already Jaxie?” You sarcastically remark at him with a mocking smile, fluttering your eyelashes dramatically as you lean on his shoulder, Jax turns his head slowly towards you with a glare.
“Don’t ever call me that again” he mutters to you but you just chuckle in amusement as you leisurely walk over to Gangle and Kinger.
Ragatha walks over to Jax in concern “Haha, do you think pairing them up together is a good idea?” She points at your group.
“Of course I do” Jax brushes off her concerns “They're the two most mentally stable and capable characters to be paired together” he says as Kinger starts shaking violently as you and Gangle look on scared “besides…Puppet’ll take care of ‘em, their fine, alright ladies, let's go harass the clown” Jax casually walks away with Pomni and Ragatha trailing behind him.
Gangle holds the broken pieces of her comedy mask “My comedy mask is broken again…” you gently pat her shoulder in sympathy. A sudden outburst from Kinger scared the both of you.
“GAH! Oh, Gangle, Puppet. You startled me” you give Kinger a concerned grimace before something catches your eye. You see a Gloink holding one of Zoobles pieces. “Hey! Over there!” You direct their attention, pointing at the Gloink, it notices the three of you looking at it and bolts. “After it!” Gangle yells out, the three of you chase the Gloink. It zips around as you try to catch it. You try lunging at it but it slips from your grasp. You three spend a while trying to trap it or try to get a hold on it, but no dice. Finally it jumped into a hole in the ground and the three of you slid to a stop.
After you three catch your breath you stare at the hole.
“I don't know what I'm looking at here…” Kinger speaks up as he stares into the hole. “The Gloink with one of Zoobles pieces went down here Kinger, remember?” You try to probe his memory. “Oh, yeah. Thank you for the recap” he joyfully thanks leaning towards you.
Gangle stares at Kinger in confusion “....What?”
The three of you hear Zooble screaming from the hole “Boy, we're not very good at this, are we?” Kinger laments, you pat his shoulder in comfort and you try to withhold a yawn as your eyes start drooping.
You hear hurried steps and heavy breathing approaching, you turn around and see that Jax was running over here “Ugh.. Sup, fellas?” he pants out. Your eyebrows spin to a raised brow.
“JAX!” Kinger screams “We found the Zooble hole” he said, his voice significantly calmer, his floating hands pointing to the hole.
Jax brushes him off, still regaining his breath “Cool” he shakes his head.
“How's Kaufmo doing? I hope he's not still mad at me for not laughing at his jokes” Gangle tapped her ribbons together and shrinks into herself.
“Oh, he's doing great” he draws out sarcastically “In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him this happy before”
You look at him with suspicion…He was omitting something. But what?
“Well, it's good to know he hasn't completely lost his mind” Kinger sighs in relief, however you hear a growl coming from the distance.
“Jax what was tha-”
“He actually asked me to give you this” Jax hastily interrupts you, holding up a bowling ball. He throws the bowling ball at Kinger which knocks him inside, Kinger grabs one of Gangle’s ribbons and pulls her in. you look down at the two in worry but Jax quickly kicks you into the hole, him jumping in right after.
You, Kinger and Gangle yell as you go down a long red slide. the four of you are being thrown up into the air before falling into another slide. followed by a sign with Caine in the middle saying "RADICAL” you heard voices aweing at it, but you had little time to process as you, Kinger and Gangle rolled onto the floor hitting bowling pin shaped Gloinks. Jax smoothly landed and kicked the remaining one, an oval sign appeared congratulating him which he grabbed and broke with his leg. The three of you roll out on the floor, and look up to see a giant red and yellow slug monster with multiple eyes eating a table.
Kinger looks at it in wonderment and awe “An insect collection?” his pupils expand “I think it's a nest” Gangle corrects Kinger who turns to look at her, they stare at each other for a minute before he suddenly shrieks.
The giant slug monster finally notices the four of you much to your disappointment.
“What form of non-Gloinkinian mass dares presume presence in the nest of the Gloink Queen?” the Queen speaks in a deep and gravelly voice, it low key sounds wet, like she is gurgling.
“Oh [BOINK] it talks-” you mutter out with wide eyes while Jax is unbothered and checks his non-existent nails before addressing the queen.
“Oh, is that who you are?” he asks, pointing at the Gloink Queen “You know, you could have asked for my consent before forcing me to see something so completely and utterly disgusting” he gestures to the Gloink Queen while you look at him like he is crazy.
The queen sputters and guffaws at his audacity “How despicable, a rabbitoid that runs its mouth in the presence of my royal figure” she proclaims insulted, holding her head up high.
Kinger gets up from kneeling on the floor and tries to reason with the queen “Well, as a royal myself, I would like to kindly ask if-oh, look there's Zooble! Hi, Zooble!” Kinger waves at them happily as their head is getting carried away by a Gloink.
“AUGH! HELP ME, YOU IDIOTS!” Zooble cries out in frustration as their body continues to get carried away by Gloinks.
Jax, ever the drama king, gets upset at Zoobles tone “Kinda rude, Zooble. Now I don't wanna help you” he crosses his arms in disapproval.
You, Kinger and Gangle realize that one of you has to retrieve back Zoobles head So you three play Rock, Paper, Scissors to get the head back. Gangle loses because her hands are ribbons, and thus, they can only do paper.
“Oh, I always lose…” she covers her sad mask with her ribbon hands as a sign of defeat. You and Kinger then go one v one and you also lose to him on purpose, you were way too tired to be the hero today, besides you felt that something was off and would rather be ready to run if necessary.
Kinger exclaims in delight as he heads towards the little Gloinks. He was able to get a grip on Zoobles head “Gotcha!” However, his hands continue to move towards the Gloink Queen. he freezes and watches awkwardly as his detaches hands float away “Oh” his brain finally catches up to what was happening as he looks on in surprise.
The mini Gloinks stack on top of each other with Zooble's head on top as Zooble realizes they are being eaten alive “Hey?! KINGER YOU MOTHER-” The Gloink Queen cuts them off by lunging down and grabbing Zoobles head with her tongue. She swallows Zoobles head and Kinger's hands whole, Gangle squeals in distress.
Jax shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly “Eh, he'll be fine” he dismisses Jax suddenly looks to his right and sees a blue star-shaped Gloink glitching aggressively and the Gloinks stop to watch their own sibling dying in front of them. Jax looks back and forth; he also steps closer to you, away from the Gloinks., concerned for his own safety and hoping none of the others notice the glitching.
“You foolish assortment of colorful characters!” She raises her head to the ceiling to show disapproval towards the four of you “Do you not realize everything must be Gloinks!? I am Gloinks. You will be Gloinks! God will be Gloinks!”
You look at her uneasy “uhhhh…. I don't know about that…” as you step farther away from her.
Jax just looks at the queen in disgust “yeah, This is dumb and weird” Jax agrees with you as he also steps back with you
The Gloink Queen sputters in surprise “Well, B- uh- Y- Yet you're still watching it!” she exclaims in disbelief.
Jax just rolls his eyes “I'm not here for the adventure or anything I'm just here to hide from the-”
The ceiling caves in, as an abstracted creature falls through the floor, hitting the Gloink queen so hard she spits out Zoobles head, knocking Kinger into a wall and begins attacking the Gloink Queen.
Kinger clutches their head in relief “Oh, thank god you're okay!...You didn't experience a game show in there, did you?”Kinger asked in concern
Zooble looks at him confused “Uh.. I- What are you talking about?”
Meanwhile you, Jax and Gangle watch as The Gloink Queen being beaten up by the abstracted with cartoon noises emanating from the fight.
Gangle clutches her mask in panic “What's happening!?” she cries out “It's just Kaufmo. Don't worry about it” Jax pipes up nonchalant.
“Kaufmo Abstracted!?” you and Gangle yell out and your face shifts into one of rage. Kaufmo abstracted? no…no it couldn't be.
“AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US, WHY!?” you shout at him but he doesn't react “Nah, He's fine” he brushes you off “[SQUEAK] I knew you were hiding something” you mutter out.
Kinger pops in panicked “YOU'RE RIGHT! HOW ARE WE GONNA GET OUT OF HERE!?”
“I mean no one said that but solid point” you mutter out.
Zooble groans “Guys, Over there” they use their eyes to point at an escalator “oh!” Kinger exclaims and you five head to the escalator.
“Ladies first” Jax says gesturing Gangle to go ahead of him “No wait, why would I say that?” he swiftly shoves her to the ground, you help her up as Kinger and Zooble go up the escalator.
Zooble notices that Pomni isn't with the group "Wait.. Pomni's not even here!?” he cries out in anger “Wasn't this whole thing for her?!” she rages.
Jax interrupts Zooble “Be quiet. I can't hear the escalator…” he closes his eyes to enjoy the sound. You slightly lean to the side to give him a questioning glare before sighing and lounge against the railing. Kaufmo really gave up? what happened?
The five of you get to the top of the elevator and see Caine, the four of you run over to Caine, Zoobles head still held in Kingers hands “Caine! Kaufmo went through a sort of Kaufmosis and abstracted!” he exclaims in worry.
“Kaufmo abstracted? Why didn't anybody tell me?” he exclaims dramatically while cartoon music plays and he sticks out his tongue. Pomni glares at Caine but he pays no mind, guess they did try to, but Caine being Caine wasn’t any help.Caine snaps his fingers and summons the abstracted Kaufmo over to him, while the latter growls furiously “And into the cellar you go” Caine opens a hole in the floor and sends Kaufmo down into The Cellar, which contains a body of water and several other abstracted beings, the hole shortly closes after.
Zoobles reassembled body comes up to Kinger and collects their head, attaching it back onto their body “Man, I can't believe Kaufmo just gave up like that” they look over to Kinger. “I mean, no offense Kinger, but I always thought you would be next” they admit.
“Thank you” Kinger joyfully thanks and you desperately hope he wasn’t fully aware of what Zooble said. The implications of it would be—whatever.
“Guess it just goes to show you can't rely on Kinger for anything” Jax says before you smack him harder on the head, causing his head to lean forward and he rubs where you hit him “ow!” he exclaims but you give him a scolding look.
You wince as Ragatha is crawling towards Caine, glitching out uncontrollably “I am in so much pain!” her voice stutters and glitches as her body is pulled in all sorts of ways.
“Oop!” Caine snaps his fingers, which reverses the glitching on Ragatha, and Pomni's hand. As Pomni looks at her hand, Ragatha stands up and stands next to Pomni, avoiding looking at her, clearly not happy. Pomni looks at the floor the opposite way. you squint at the two, what happened?
“I do have to apologize for lying about the exit. I knew how much all of you have been wanting there to be one, but, you know, I was having so much trouble figuring out what to put on the other side and ended up never quite finishing it. And you know how I never like letting people see my unfinished work-” Caine monologues.
you glare at Caine, is he trying to make people abstract? creating a fake exit and gaslighting everyone that it doesn't exist would be—
“Especially if it leads you out into the void. Anyway, it looks like you defeated the Gloink Queen, so I guess the adventure's over! Your reward is a delicious digital feast cooked by our head Bubble Chef” your snapped out of your daze as Caine makes a feast pop up.
Bubble shows up, donning a chef hat, spatula and knife, next to a long table with food on it “Made with all the love I'm legally allowed to give” it trails off and you cringe.
“You know, I am pretty hungry” Jax claimed, looking at his hand, Gangle pipes up “You didn't even do anything” Jax looks at her annoyed “So what? I can still be hungry” while you roll your eyes.
“Well not really, 'cause we don't need to eat, drink or sleep in this digital world. So the digital food here only gives off the virtual sensation of eating without any of the nutritional benefits” Kinger pipes up, info dumping on you three
“Sheesh, lay off it. Since when are you an expert on the digital world?” Jax mocks Kinger “Expert on the what?” Kinger says as he seems to have forgotten what he has already said, you look at him with sympathy as you lead him and the others to the table while Kinger keeps talking.
You all eat and converse, Jax and Gangle deep in conversation…something about climate change with you between the two slightly dozing off when you notice that Pomni is giving a really creepy smile…maybe Jax was right, she might be losing her mind already. You hope you don't have to see another abstraction for a while.