Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋

Uzi slapped her vizor as her alarm went off, groaning as she sat up. She slowly blinked as she let out a yawn. Ugh, she had school today. Honestly, why did she even need to go? Hadn’t she already proved she was smart enough when she made her railgun and saved the planet from the Absolute Solver?

She heard a knock at her door, “Uzi~, time to get up for school!” Her dad called out as he slightly opened the door, allowing light to enter the room.

“Ugh…Morning, Dad.” She grumbled as she hopped off of her bed and landed on the ground, slowly tugging herself into the living area.

She glanced around the room, a few pieces of the nuclear snow having been tracked into the room. Her eyes landed on her mother, Nori, comfortably sleeping on one of the chairs by the counter, her claw legs tucked under her. Uzi walked into the kitchen and grabbed a canister of oil before exiting the kitchen, sitting in the chair next to her mom as she began to drink it.

Her mother opened her main eye, still half-lidded as if she was tired, “Morin’ Uzi and Khan.” She chided up as she snuggled more into the chair.

“Morning!”

“Morning…”

Uzi drank her oil in silence as her mom and dad and her parents chatted about something as Khan stood behind the counter. While she was glad that her dad was getting more involved in her life and that her mom was back, that still didn’t make it any less, well, weird…

Don’t get her wrong, she loved this! But growing up with an emotionally absent father and a literally absent mother for most of her life and in less than a month or so she has both, well it was kind of strange! But a good one nonetheless.

“Oh, by the way, Uzi, how’s your teacher doing?” Nori asked Uzi, stripping her out of her thoughts, “Last time I saw him, he was banging his head against his desk. Is that some sort of new teaching strategy, or…” She wondered as she stuck out one of her claws, spinning it, and urging Uzi to answer.

Uzi gave a wide, mischievous smile at her mom, giggling, “Hehehe, he’s just doing that because my presentation was just so wonderful.” She gloated in a sarcastic tone. She knew that her teacher was probably tired of dealing with her, but she didn’t care, so bite her!

Khan raised an eyebrow at her, “Are you sure, Uzi? He didn’t speak too highly of you at the Parent-Teacher conference.” Her dad spoke skeptically.

Nori rolled her eye, “She’s being sarcastic, Khan.”

“Wait, hold on, what did my teacher say?” Uzi questioned her dad, what did he say about her!?

Khan turned his eyes to his daughter, “Oh, you know! Just about how you’re anti-social and have trouble fitting in!” Khan told both Uzi and Nori cheerfully, causing Uzi to grimace as Nori glanced at her, “Then he had the nerve to suggest your programming was damaged!” He spoke as he clenched his own hand.

“BS!” Nori yelled out as she stood up on her claws and hopped on the counter. Oh thank Robo-God, they aren’t going to punish her, “Just because she’s a bit introverted at times doesn’t mean her programming’s screwed up!”

“EXACTLY!”

Uzi sighed as she slid back into her chair. Oh, if she went to school today, she was giving that teacher HELL! He could bite her!

“Which, speaking of school,” Khan began, “You need to get going, Uzi, you’ll be late!”

Uzi gave an over dramatic eye roll as she groaned, “Do I have to?” She asked her dad, “I already know what we’re doing today! So what’s the point.”

Her dad tisked at her, “Now now, missy. School is very important for both your social life and mental health too! Plus, how do you know what you’re learning today too?” He asked as he raised a digital eyebrow.

Uzi rested her head on her hand, which was on the counter, “Because he gave us a packet with the entire next lesson because he couldn’t be bothered to actually teach it.” She told Khan dead-pan, “It’s just busy work until the next test.”

“Well you still have to go, Uzi.” Her dad responded, “Now, get to it!” Khan then pointed to the door.

Uzi looked at Nori, trying her best to do puppy eyes to get her mom to let her not go to school, “Nuh uh, babe, you got school!” Her mom told her as she also pointed to the door.

“Tsk, fine…” Uzi responded as she went to grab her backpack as she threw away her oil canister, heading towards the door, “Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!” She waved as she exited the door.

Uzi closed the door behind her, sprinting to her locker as she put up all her books and such in her locker which was decorated with all of her interests.

Yeah, she was skipping school today, she couldn’t take it right now.

Her tail popped up to her side, “Hmmm, perhaps you should go to the video game store.” Her Cyn tail suggested to her in its usual monotone voice, “I heard they have an interesting game there.”

Uzi turned her head over to it, “Really? Games, Games, and Even More Games, right?” Or otherwise known as GGmG

Cyn gave a short nod at her. Odd, how’d she find out about that?

Uzi gave a small smile, “Uhm, sure! Why not?” Uzi began to run towards GGmG before running head-first into something tall, silver, and metal. She backed up and looked, seeing a familiar male Murder Drone.

“N!” Uzi shouted out as she was pulled into a hug by him.

“Uzi!” He responded, squeezing her more before letting her go, “How’s my awesome girlf-”

Uzi put one of her fingers over N’s mouth in a ‘hush’ motion, “I told you not to use that word!” Uzi reprimanded while blushing. She loved being N’s girlfriend, it’s just awkward to actually say those words and she wasn’t ready for that.

N gently grabbed her wrist and put her hand down, “Okay, okay, I promise I won’t!” He answered her, “But where are you going, don’t you have school today?” He wondered as he raised a digital eyebrow at her.

Uzi gave a mischievous giggle at N’s question, “Hehehe…Well you see, N, I decided what’s the point of class today? Might as well just skip!” She explained to him before pausing for a moment before clarifying, “Which I am, by the way!”

“Ooooohhh, skipping?” N rhetorically asked as he lowered himself and got to Uzi’s level, “Sounds rebellious, I’m in!” He then raised his hands to his face in an excited manner.

Not like he had school, he sort of just came when he wanted to, “Good! Now come on, I’m going to GGnG!” She exclaimed as she grabbed N’s wrist before beginning to run over there with N in tow.

“GGnG? That new game store” N asked her as he was dragged along, “I thought that place didn’t have many games?”

Uzi rolled her eyes, “Yeah, well it’s not like we have many game shops in the colony, so I gotta make do!” She shot back as she slowly approached the game store.

There was a bright neon green sign over the store’s door, which was built into a wall as the store was in a wall, flashing slowly as it read ‘Games, Games, and Even More Games!’ Right by it, to the left, was a small neon green sign that read ‘Best game store in the entire colony!’ Ironic how it’s basically the only game store on the planet for that matter.

The nearby area was empty and quiet, with a dripping sound being heard from somewhere (likely a leaky faucet or something). The shop was isolated from the rest of the colony, with it being rather out of the way. A strange place to put a shop, Uzi noted, but eh, who cares!

Apparently, N did as he tensed up his shoulders and grabbed Uzi’s hand before she waltzed in, “Uzi, are you sure about this place?” N questioned, looking rather uncertain, “This place looks…rather sketchy…Are we sure this is the right place?”

Uzi pointed up to the sign above the door, “Of course it is!” She affirmed N, whose worry didn’t disappear, “Plus, you’re equipped with like, at least a hundred ways to kill someone, and I got my Solver, we should be fine.” She stressed as she began to walk into the store with a slightly more calm N.

She’ll admit, the first impressions weren’t great…

The place looked liminal, with white fluorescent lights from the ceiling and the walls being completely grey. The shelves that were meant to contain merchandise were empty, with one on the back having some game in a small plastic case that was brightly colored. The tiled floor was another shade of a light, depressing grey. The bins that were meant to contain merchandise like plushes and the sorts were also completely empty.

In the middle of the store was a sales counter connected to a wall, with a worker drone ‘working’ the counter in a tacky, multicolored, store uniform that had seemingly faded in color, but in reality he had his feet kicked up, and was leaning against his chair as he slept. Uzi couldn’t help but shake off the feeling that this place shouldn’t be open yet…

Uzi looked back slightly to see N’s face, who was currently grimacing at the state of the store before looking at Uzi concerningly.

Uzi averted her eyes to think for a moment, “Maybe they sold out of everything?” She suggested with a shrug.

N frowned at the suggestion, “Uzi…I’m not so su-” But N was cut off as Uzi began to walk down the store to where the one game lay.

“I mean, it’s not like it’s completely empty!” Uzi turned back as she walked backwards to the shelf, turning around before bumping back into the shelf, “See, there’s one game left, it’s like destiny!” She snatched the plastic case that had a brightly, multicolored, carnival tent on it before reading out the name, “See, there’s still the…uhm…’The Amazing Digital Circus’...” She suggested to N, who was now behind her.

N peered over her shoulder, observing the front of the game, “I’ll say, this game does look like a light-hearted, circus-themed adventure!” He cheerfully chided to her as he leaned his head down, “Maybe it’ll be some sort of fun adventure game around a circus?”

Uzi flipped the game’s case around, reading the back of it, “Says it’s a VR game…” She muttered to herself and N before shrugging, “Eh, I’ll just use my VR chip to play it.”

“Oh, the thing you used to access me and V’s memories?” N asked her, with Uzi nodding in response, “You can use it to play games?” He questioned as he raised a digital eyebrow.

Uzi hummed an affirmation, “That’s what it’s originally meant for, but I may have modified it a bit.” She admitted as she scratched the back of her head, “I modified it for…Other reasons…But it’s meant for video games!”

N tilted his head and gave Uzi a skeptical look before obviously deciding not to ask anymore questions, “Okay, so do we want to get this game?”

“Yeah, I mean, are there any other games here?” Uzi asked him in a sarcastic tone.

N glanced around for a moment before shaking his head, “Nope, none that I can see!”

Uzi gave a wide smile to him, “Well then we’re getting the Amazing Digital Circus!”

Chapter Text

“Come on, this game can’t be worth more than fifty copper!” Uzi yelled out as she grabbed the counter, staring daggers at the worker before her.

N placed a hand on her shoulder, “Uzi, calm down a bit, it’s just a game!” He tried to reason as he glanced down at the game on the counter.

The male worker drone in front of them gave a small chuckle as he set his legs up on the counter, leaning back in his chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world, “Well, sorry now ma’am, but that game ain’t goin’ for anythin’ under seventy-five.” He told her plainly in a deep, southern accent like in those old human movies, closing his eyes as if he were going back to sleep.

Uzi was about to snap another comment at him before he raised one of his fingers, about to speak again.

“However, I’ve heard around that you’re-” He began as he pointed to Uzi with one finger, “the one with The Solver of the Absolute Fabric now, ain’t that right darlin’?”

Uzi squinted her eyes as she pushed her head back a bit, “Uh, yeah? What about it?” She sniped at the man, with N behind her, removing his hand from her shoulder, bringing out a blade from his hand, and holding it in front of himself cautiously. No one ever called the Solver by its full name.

Without opening his dark green digital eyes, the worker drone tisked at N, “Now, boy, I ain’t askin’ for much now, so don’t worry your CPU about that.” He clarified, leading to N retracting his blade, “All that I ask for is just to see the Solver in action. Heck, I’m fine with it bein’ somethin’ small, like pickin’ up this here game you want.”

What? “Wait, wait, wait…If I show you my Solver, you’ll let me have this game for fifty copper.” She asked, pointing at the game currently resting on the counter. All this for some circus game, huh…

“I’ll give you it for free.” The worker told her, finally opening his eyes, albeit only half, “All you gotta do is show me the Solver.”

N frowned at the man’s offer, clearly skeptical of it, “I don’t know Uzi, that is kind of a weird deal…” He whispered to her, “I mean, why does he want to see it?”

“DON’T CARE!” She blurted out, picking N off the floor with her purple Solver, moving him left and right slightly, “See? Can I have the game now?”

The man gave a small smile before giving her a thumbs up.

Uzi carefully put down N before snatching the game up from the counter, “YES!” She exclaimed as she grabbed N, who was still confused by the whole situation, and began to sprint out of the building, “Thanks so much, byeeeee!” She yelled back at the man.

As they exited the building, N turned his head around, seeing the lighting around the building flicker as they got farther from it, “Uzi, did you at least get the receipt?” He asked her nervously. Something just wasn’t right with that place!

Uzi halted in her tracks as she finished cutting a corner, finally letting go of his hand, “No, do you want me to?” She told N, not like she paid anything for it, so why would she need a receipt?

N held his hands close to his chest, fiddling with them, “Uh…Yeah, I think that might be a good idea, y’know in case anything happens or something.” N admitted, glancing at the game in Uzi’s hand, “...Just in case.”

Uzi looked down at the game in her hand, “Oh, alright, N.” She sighed as she began walking back to the store, N in tow, who once again pulled out his blade.

The place did feel kind of creepy to be fair…What she saw when she got to the store didn’t help.

N’s eyes widened, “B-but it was right here!” He exclaimed as he squatted down and stuck out his hands in an over-dramatic fashion.

Uzi couldn’t believe her eyes. The signs for the store were gone, the shelves in the store were completely gone, and so was the counter, heck even the worker they had just been talking to was gone! It was just an empty, concrete room. Not to mention that the once see-through and clean glass was now murky and dirty. They’d just left like three minutes ago though.

Uzi skittered beside N, “Okay…Very creepy, gotta say, N.” She muttered to him, holding onto one of his arms, “But, but! Maybe the store experienced some sort of…uhm…technical issue?” She suggested shakily, raising one of her hands towards the store.

That did not calm N down, “Uzi! They couldn’t have moved everything out that quickly!” He nearly screeched, “Do you still have the game!?”

Uzi held up the game, checking it over once. Yep, she still had it, and it shouldn’t just disappear from her hand, “Yeah, I do, N.”

A silent question held in the air, what to do with the game? The shop just up and disappearing like that, verrry sketchy. Like horror movie sketchiness.

Uzi thought for a moment before a mischievous grin appeared on her face, “Maybe will find some secrets in this game~” She said in an almost sing-song sort of way, giddy about discovering something possibly horrifying.

Hey! She’s survived Cyn, so she could definitely deal with this! It’ll be a walk in the park! Hehehe…

N swatted Uzi’s hand with his non-bladed hand, “No, Uzi!” He scolded, “We are not playing the creepy game from the sketchy, mysterious, disappearing store!” He told her as he folded his arms across his chest, trying his best to put on a stern face.

“Come onnnn” She pleaded.

“No.”

“Pleasssee”

“Uzi, no!”

“Come on, N!” She exclaimed as she held her hands together looking at N, making metaphorical puppy eyes, “It’s going to be so cool and maybe even scary!”

N frowned as he thought, but ultimately knew what was going to happen. He sighed as his shoulders fell, “Fine…But only for a bit!” He told her, “I don’t want some creepy thing to pull you into the game or something!

“YEAH!” She yelled as she shot her arms up, “Creepy game, time to be solved!” She then looked up at the game in her hand, giving a creepy smile at it, “Ehehe” She giggled before she ran off back to her parents’ house, N tagging along behind her.

Turned out that she and N had spent almost the entire school day arguing with that worker drone over the game, so when she came home, she was luckily able to convince her parents that she definitely went to school today! Lucky her and how convenient.

N sat on her bed as she set up the game, looking down to the ground with a frown on his face as he fidgeted with his hands.

Uzi didn’t even need to look behind her to know what was happening, “N, I promise, I’m going to be fine!” She reassured him as she connected her VR chip to her computer, “You can even see what I’m doing through my monitor, remember?”

N looked up at the screen, “R-right, I’m just kind of worried that something’s going to go terribly and horribly wrong!” He nervously exclaimed to his girlfriend, “I mean, Uzi, just think about this for a bit!”

Uzi lowered her upper digital eyelid as she spun her chair to face N, “N, I’ll be okay! Plus you know how to disconnect me from my PC, right?” N nodded in response, which led her to spin back in her chair to finish the final things to set up her game.

Uzi couldn’t help but smile widely, “Oh man! This is going to be so cool!” She giddily spoke to N before she slapped the VR chip in, “I can’t wait to see how this goes!”

“Yay…” N unenthusiastically whispered.

With just a few more clicks, the game began to boot up and Uzi stood up.

Once the game booted up, she saw a rather low-quality hilly field that she soon began to float towards as large, bright, cartoony letters began to float up spelling, ‘THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS’, with a pixely, red and yellow striped carnival tent in the back.

“Ohhhh~” Uzi giggled.

Chapter Text

All of a sudden, the quality spiked up and almost looked like real life before she got flung into the carnival tent and it almost felt like the wind was rushing past her.

Once she entered the tent, all she could see were closed red curtains as drums began and the light nearby dimmed, with two spotlights spinning around.

“Welcome…To The Amazing Digital Circus!” A cheery, masculine, nearly cartoonish voice announced through Uzi couldn’t see where the voice was coming from for a brief moment before a man in a red tuxedo with a black tie, black leathery (or silky?) pants, cartoony gloves, a black top hat, and oddly enough, a human jaw with teeth for a head. His eyes were also spinning around in a very cartoonish and foolish fashion.

The lights brightened as the man finished his wacky entrance before pointing to himself, “My name is Caine! And I’m your ringmaster and I’m here to show you the most heartstopping, mind-boggling, jaw-dropping-”

As Caine spoke he kept moving around like a living cartoon, which was to be expected, and it was pretty funny when he got to jaw-dropping as his lower jaw did in fact drop, Uzi couldn’t help but admire that game she was in. Maybe this was going to be a good time!

“-paraphernalia that you’ve ever seen!” He finished as the curtains drew back revealing the rest of the brightly colored circus as she and Caine floated into it, with him lowering his head, leaving the bottom part open, “Right, Bubble?” He asked as a literal bubble appeared out of his hat with pure black eyes, a mouth, and rather sharp teeth, and began floating down with them.

“That’s right Caine!” It exclaimed in a slightly feminine, but in rather high-pitched voice, “I can’t wait to see what chu’ got cookin' up for today’s adventure!”

Today’s adventure? Was there like a different adventure or quest every day? That makes good replayability.

“Well, then let’s not waste any time and get right into the show!” Caine exclaimed happily but loudly as he showcased with his arms the stage they were approaching as his body stretched slightly. Man, this was going to be like being in a cartoon maybe! Like the ones the humans watched according to her dad and mom.

The curtains opened widely as a song began, supposedly to reveal the other characters in the game.

“See N,” Uzi began as she stared at the characters that briefly appeared in front of her, “Everything’s fine!” This did kind of seem like a game N would like, so maybe he’ll play it next once he knows it’s safe!

“I guess…” He responded dimly, even without seeing him, she knew he was still anxious about the game, which was fair considering she had been playing for less than a minute.

“-Ragatha, Jax, and there’s Pomni, woohoo” A voice sang happily.

She wondered who’d designed these characters. There was one whose body was made of ribbons with a simple happy mask, what could only be described as a brightly colored mix-and-match character who for the brief moment she saw it for, looked done, a king chess piece with wide, lidless, eyes with a purple robe under a pillow fort, a sweet looking ragdoll with thread-like hair and light blue dress, a lanky, humanoid, purple rabbit with light pink overalls, and a pale jester wearing a red and blue striped jester outfit with yellow accents. Out of all the designs though, she did kind of think the mix-and-match one was kinda cool, even if it was a bit clunky.

The song continued as objects began to float in front of her, with the objects being a teapot, a plain white cube, two random spheres (no wait one was an eye), a yellow flower, and a gramophone.

“Day after day after- Day after- Day after we fly! Past the moon and the sun and we don’t know why~” The singer sang out beautifully, though the first part kind of sounded like a broken record. Probably a glitch. As the first part was sung, her body was flown up as Caine and Bubble came back into view, with the Moon and Sun appearing next to Caine and Bubble, with him making theatrical gestures to both as their names were sung. At the end of the verse though, she was suddenly above them as they floated up towards her, with Caine giving a long, wide-eyed stare that was kind of disturbing. Especially paired with the lyrics.

Okay, kind of creepy. She could already feel N’s eyes on her body.

Suddenly, she was removed from the sky as she was teleported to the stage, which she cleanly landed on considering she was teleported an inch above it. She looked up and saw the objects still floating above her.

“Woah…” She couldn’t help but gasp as she held her arms (which felt kind of weird), this felt so real!

She turned her head around, seeing random objects land and disappear, or simply swooshing down. One of the objects must have hit the floor wrong as a cube landed on the ground, clipping through it as it began violently shaking, must be another glitch. Though, the music was still going and was rather pleasant.

She turned to her side and saw the characters she was just introduced to waiting on the sidelines, some bored, others anxious, or simply waiting for their queue or something.

As she looked over to them, the jester one heard her and turned her head to face her, looking rather tense, before giving a shocked gasp, backing up and running into the rabbit one.

The rabbit, Jax, lost his footing for a moment but didn’t bump into Kinger who was next to him.

“Hey, watch it, Pomni!” He shot her in a rude manner, sounding almost like N for a moment.

Pomni held her hands in front of her for a moment, “Uh-uh, is that a new person!?” She asked shakily and loudly as she pointed to Uzi.

“Huh?” Jax spoke before turning over, and looking down at Uzi. Robo-Jesus, was he tall compared to Pomni and her, “Another new person? This soon!? Come on!”

All of the characters faced her with varying curious looks as the music stopped, leaving Uzi unsure of what to do, “Uhm…Hey?” She spoke before waving at them, though she nearly screamed when she saw her hand.

Her hand wasn’t her hand, no it was almost like a feathered wing! Dark feathers to be exact that were a dark purple like that crow’s from N and V’s memory. She still had fingers, kind of, that were covered by her new feathers. She looked down and turned one of her legs slightly, which was like a crow’s leg, but humanized so she could walk like she normally did. She was wearing a bright purple hoodie with yellow sleeves with a battery on it that had cross bones through it, as her normal hoodie had. She also had plain black pants that went one-third of the way down her new legs.

She wasn’t sure how the rest of her body looked though…

“Not too bad…” She muttered, trying to hide her excitement. She wished she could’ve customized her avatar herself, but she wasn’t going to complain about this! Though why was she a crow?

“Who the f@#k is this, Caine” Jax uttered to Caine while jestering his hands to Uzi.

Caine materialized across from Uzi, which scared the gigabytes outta her. “Well let’s have a look here!” He exclaimed as he floated up close to her, causing her to take a step back, “Seems like another person has entered this digital realm!”

“UGH,” Jax loudly groaned before getting smacked in the back of the head by Zooble, “Ow!”

Uzi pushed Caine back slightly, “Woah, personal space, Caine.” She said as the man moved back slightly. Seems like this place’s janky physics engine did work a bit.

Pomni gave a blank look at her, though it clearly riddled with anxiety still, “You seem rather calm.” She mentioned nervously. Was she good?

Uzi turned her head at her, “Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?” Odd.

“Well-” Pomni began before being cut off by Caine.

“WELCOME TO THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS, NEW FRIEND!” Caine loudly shouted randomly, causing Uzi to recoil and cover where her non-existent ear holes were.

“OW!” She snarled before glaring at Caine, “Dear Robo-God, calm down!” She heard someone snort at her comment.

Caine flew back slightly, “Now, new friend, since you aren’t questioning what’s going on, how about we get a name for you?” He asked as he snatched a cane that randomly appeared.

Uzi looked at Caine, must be the part where she had to give her name, “My name’s Uzi.” She told him. This seemed like a single-player game, so she’ll just use her real name.

Caine’s pupils shrank for a moment as he held his pose, “Oh…Well, that was quick! Most people tend to freak out because they can’t remember their name!” He told her way too cheerfully.

Uzi raised a possible eyebrow, she wasn’t sure if she had any, “Like other characters or other drones?” She asked him.

Caine gave what was likely a confused stare at her, which she could feel from everyone else, “Drones? What do you mean by drones, my new friend Uzi?”

“Drones, like other players like me.” She explained as she pointed at herself, why was Caine confused?

The ragdoll stepped up, Ragatha, having a look as if she was pitying her, though her furrowed eyes suggested confusion too, “Uh, Uzi, do you mean other humans?”

“HAH!” Uzi laughed for a moment, “Oh, that’s a good one!” She wheezed as she wiped a non-existent tear from her.

Ragatha clenched her hands and gave a nervous chuckle as Zooble walked beside Ragatha. Ragatha was shorter than Zooble, but not by much, “What do you mean by that?” It asked sternly as it gave her what could best be described as a mean look.

What? “Y’know! Once the planet’s core exploded-” Okay, the looks she was getting were not good looks at all, more like horrified looks, especially from Pomni, “And all organic life got essentially erased from the planet?” Why were they confused, why were these other characters acting so sentient? Were they other drones? But then why did they have a theme song if they weren’t characters?

Jax scoffed as he rolled his eyes at her before turning his head and giving a mischievous smile, “That’s a real bad joke, y’know?” He told her nonchalantly.

Uzi looked him dead in the eyes, “I’m not joking.” She said, didn’t they know? They had to have known.

There was a moment of silence before someone, another masculine voice that wasn’t Caine or Jax, shouted, “F@#K!”

Caine flew above them, “Now now, everyone!” He shouted as he tried to get everyone’s attention, “Clearly, Uzi is experiencing some DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS-” He said the last part rather dramatically, “From transitioning from her human body to her new one!”

Uzi’s head recoiled back slightly at Caine’s reassurance to everyone, “Hey, I’m not a human!” She shouted at Caine aggressively, “Also I’m pretty sure Worker Drones can’t hallucinate!”

Caine turned his head one hundred eighty degrees at her, but not his body, before giving a laugh, “Now, my darling, you have to be human! How else could your mind be stuck here?”

Uzi grimaced at him, “Yeah, I feel like it makes more sense for my programming and OS to be brought into a video game than a human mind.” She responded back to him, “Which, also, what do you mean by stuck?”

A disembodied voice came from behind her that sounded low quality, “Hey, uhm, Uzi, I think it’s time to leave.” N shakily told her as she felt him touch her shoulder in reality.

“Give me a moment N.” She muttered through clenched teeth, what’s going on!?

Jax began to chuckle, “We’ve been stuck here for years!” He joyfully proclaimed before walking up to her and leaning to her level, “And seems like you’ll be too, Robo-girl.” He began to laugh again as Ragatha attempted to pull him away before being punched squarely in the face by Uzi, causing him to swear and take some steps back.

“BITE ME!” She shouted at him before looking up at Ragatha, “What are you guys on about? Being stuck here? Are you guys other players?”

Ragatha held her arms out slightly, “You see-”

Caine once again interrupted, flying right in front of Uzi, “Before you now, Uzi, are six other humans, excluding me, who are stuck here just like you!” He told her as he put one of his arms around her shoulder, “Meaning that these are going to your new companions!” He informed Uzi as he stuck his other arm out, allowing his cane to float as he showcased everyone else.

Uzi’s eyes widened, “Human!? They’re all human!?” She could’ve guessed maybe since they didn’t believe she was a drone, but they couldn’t be! Humans were dead, Cyn killed them all!

Gangle slowly approached her, “I know it might be hard to think right now, being transported to the Circus and losing your memories…” Gangle began, trying to ease her into believing she was a human, WHICH SHE WASN’T! “But you have to be human, otherwise you would be an NPC!” Gangle glanced up at Caine, silently asking something.

Caine shook his head, holding a clipboard and flipping pages viciously, “Nope! She isn’t an NPC! I’d remember!” He answered Gangle with a frankly stupid look on his face, probably reminiscent of a goofy smile for him.

Ragatha began to talk again, “Gangle’s right, if you were a robot like you say, then you’d be an NPC created by Caine. Either that or a… no no no, that can’t be it!”

Caine began to stare at nothing, though it must be something that she couldn’t see as he was staring at something like he was reading something, with a hand under his chin-jaw thingy.

Before Uzi could speak, she heard N again, “Okay Uzi, I’m taking off the VR chip!” He told her loudly and nervously. She didn’t get to respond as she felt the chip being taken off of her head, and then…

She was still there.

She blinked for a moment before forming any sort of reaction, “Uhm, N, you took it off, right?” She asked, looking behind her even though she knew he wasn’t going to be there.

Ragatha placed a hand on one of her digital shoulders, giving a sympathetic look, “Uzi…Who are you talking to?” She glanced behind Uzi, seeing no one there, “Are you sure you aren’t having some digital hallucinations?”

Uzi backed up a step, “N! I’m talking-” She spoke before stuttering, “I-I’m asking N if he took off my VR chip!” She touched the left side of her forehead with her left hand, where she stuck her VR chip. Uzi tried to connect her mind back to her body, to take it off herself, but all she felt was the digital sensation of her feathers.

“UZI!?” She heard N shrill out, she could still hear him! She was still at least connected to her body somewhat. She felt her digital body shake slightly as if she were being shaken by someone. Was N, shaking her? She barely managed to hear her bedroom door fly open before Uzi heard N yell out again, “MR. KHAN, MRS.NORI! UZI CAN’T LEAVE THE GAME!”

Jax took a step forward, “Ooooh~, you talkin’ to people from the real world?” He cooed sarcastically to her, wide smile and all. His mouth didn’t open when he talked and he was always smiling. And why did he always have a hand on his hip? Either he found all of this very amusing or it was a limit of his avatar. Whatever it was, she really didn’t like him.

Gangle turned around to look at Jax, an anxious frown forming on its mask, “Jax, stop picking on her!” It scolded wobbly, swatting the air between them.

“What! She’s the one who punched me!” The rabbit shot back, sticking his hand out to gester at Uzi, “Clearly you guys don’t need to worry that much about her…” He spoke, folding his arms across his chest and rolling his eyes as he spoke.

Uzi heard more people burst into her room, trying to focus on what they were saying before Caine gasped loudly.

“My, my! It appears Uzi isn’t lying!” Caine announced to everyone, still floating above them, “It appears that another program under the name of UZI has been brought here, though it really shouldn’t work considering how incomplete it is…” He told the other characters, squinting his eyes and leaning his head forward, “Now what’s this other file…”

Uzi snapped her head to look at Caine, “DON’T TOUCH MY FILES!” She shouted out, grabbing Caine with a purple and yellow Solver, and immediately throwing him across the circus before everyone else.

“AHHHHHHHHH” Caine yelled, with his scream growing more distant the further he got. A loud thud was heard as he hit the ground.

Ragatha, Gangle, and Pomni all looked in horror where Caine had been thrown, completely baffled by what they had just seen.

“Ohoho, what was that now?” Jax chuckled to her, leaning his body near her, now looking up to her, “Are the AIs fighting each other now?”

Uzi scowled at him, giving him a mean glare, “You wanna be thrown too!?” She spat at him, readying the yellow Solver in her hand, letting Jax clearly see it.

He looked up at the mark on her hand, “What’s that now?” He wondered, standing up properly.

The king chess piece approached behind her, lightly poking her shoulder to get her attention before she could shoot down Jax’s question. Uzi swiftly turned around, holding her fist out as if she was about to punch him.

Kinger flinched back holding his hands close to his face in case she punched, “Didn’t mean to startle you!” Kinger apologized before Uzi lowered her guard, letting her winged hands drop to her side. Kinger did the same.

“Oh great, the Nutcase.” Jax rudely chided in.

Uzi punched the side of his arm, causing him to shout an ‘ow!’ for a moment before rubbing the side of his arm. Rude.

Kinger just glanced at the two of them, “I was just wondering what you did to Caine.” Kinger politely explained to Uzi before pointing to the back of her head, “And also why the back of your head is disintegrating.”

“Huh!?” She exclaimed as she felt the back of her head, realizing that a part of it was actively, and rather quickly disintegrating.

Zooble and Jax both looked at it too, with the other three soon doing the same.

“Could be something she can just do,” Zooble suggested flatly, not all too concerned with it clearly.

Ragatha ran up behind her, eyes wide as she closely observed what was happening, “I don’t think so!” She proclaimed worriedly, “Is N doing something, Uzi!?”

Uzi could still hear the yelling from the outside world,-

“WHY DID YOU UNPLUG THE MONITOR, KHAN!?!?”

“WHAT ELSE AM I MEANT TO DO!?”

“ANYTHING ELSE!?”

-with it becoming much more clear as she now saw other parts of her body dissolve, raising her hands so she could clearly see them dissolving, what’s happening!? Why’s her body disintegrating!?

And then it hit her.

“Oooh!” Uzi voiced, taking a deep breath from relief, “I’m leaving, I think they’re getting me out!”

Pomni's eyes shot wide as she began to sputter, her hands shaking as Uzi began to vanish, “Wait, waitwaitwait!” Pomni ushered out, “YOU’RE LEAVING!?”

“HOW!?” She heard someone shout, though it got harder as more of her avatar left.

“That’s not-”

And then it all went quiet for a moment. It was just Uzi, the darkness, and her mind for a moment.

That was before she shot up from her chair, panting hard as she propped herself up to glance around her room. It was messy, kind of dark, cold, but most importantly, real. Uzi looked down at her hands, which were now robotic and mechanical instead of feathery.

Before she could even look up, she was tackled by N into a hug.

“UZI! YOU’RE OKAY!” He exclaimed as he hugged her tightly, with Uzi returning it weakly.

Uzi breathed heavily as she glanced behind N’s back, seeing her Dad tightly hold her Mom, with her Dad crying digital tears.

Oh boy, she had a lot of explaining to do…

Chapter Text

“NO WAIT! Take me with you…” Pomni shouted, running to where Uzi had stood before she left. She fell the the floor on her knees and let out a sigh realizing there was no way. How was that even possible? Leaving the circus is a lost cause to everyone who enters!

“It’s okay, Pomni.” Ragatha tried to cheer her up as she walked over to her, patting her back. “I’m sure Caine will figure out how this happened… right?”

Pomni wanted to say ‘Oh sure, the dentures will surely figure this one out!’ but she felt that it would lead to consequences, and good thing she didn’t too! Caine finally arrived back, popping back to the circus’s stage, with a couple of bruises and his arm in a sling now.

“Where did our new friend, Uzi, go?” he asked cheerfully.

“She dissolved into thin air,” Jax started with sarcasm, he pointed to where Uzi once stood, “Quite literally.” The area where she was was now blank, almost as if she was never there.

All of Caine’s supposed injuries had disappeared as he approached the location. “Impossible!” He shouted, placing his hands by his face in shock as he floated around the area, “No one can leave The Amazing Digital Circus after they enter it, it’s impossible!”

Pomni let out a shriek at his words, for she still had some hope of an escape, “B-But she left! We all saw it! Can’t we do the same!?”

“I’m not so sure, Pomni…” Ragatha confessed, resting her head on her hand, “Caine did say she was a robot like she said. I’m no expert in that field, but I’m pretty sure it’s easier to move a program to another place than human minds.”

Kinger appeared behind Ragatha, causing her to jump a bit when he began to speak, “She’s right, Pomni! Depending on the size of or what you’re transporting, moving things between computers, or uhh… robots, in this case, it can be rather simple!” Kinger joyfully explained to her, giving what was likely a wide smile at the end based on his eyes. One of the first times everyone’s seen him being happy about something other than bugs.

“Wait…If Uzi wasn’t lying or hallucinating…Then does that mean what she said about Earth and humanity is true?!” Gangle pointed out in a shaky voice, taking off her comedy mask and holding it near her chest, revealing her tragedy mask which had a frown and droopy eyes. The way she was meant to use her mask instead of having to only use her tragedy mask because someone kept breaking it.

Caine appeared beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and patting her back lightly, “Oh Gangle, humanity isn’t dead! If it were, we would be as well!” He proudly proclaimed, clearly confident in his answer.

“How’d we be dead? We’re stuck in a game, Caine.” Jax pointed out

“Yes, but your human bodies must be somewhere! And they would be alive and healthy… I think…” Caine reassured Jax and by proxy everyone else.

Jax gave a chuckle, “Who’s to say our minds are even connected to our bodies anymore?” Jax rhetorically asked Caine, “I mean, we could’ve been dead for years! Human brains can last a long time before decomposing! Except Pomni, who could’ve died from this ‘core explosion’ Uzi mentioned.” Jax told him, using air quotes around core explosion, “Pretty sure our bodies are considered organic, Caine.”

“Jax, if you’re trying to scare us, now’s not the time!” Zooble shouted out at him, the last part through non-existent gritted teeth. Jax took a step back in defense and let out a laugh.

“He has a point though…” Ragatha pointed out, much to her dismay.

Before anyone could say anything else, Caine opened a portal to the side of them, “Now, let’s forget about all of this, it’s time for an adventure!” He loudly exclaimed before ushering everyone through the portal, including Zooble, “This is a mandatory adventure that you all have to go on as I have to do some…uhhh…bug fixes!”

“Bugs?” Kinger exclaimed as he went into the portal.

“Not those bugs, my friend Kinger!” Caine clarified, holding the sides of the portal as everyone was pushed into an open field, “Now, have fun on your adventure, and don’t think about what Uzi said!” He then shut the portal tight, flying back to the center of the stage and sitting down, crossing his legs across each other.

He opened up a digital screen that only he could see and began to swipe through it. It showed him the assets, programs, commands, and other sorts inside the circus. As he scrolled and looked down at it, he noticed Uzi’s program had completely vanished, but another one was still there.

“Now what’s this ‘Absolute Solver’ program?” He muttered to himself, scratching the underside of his jaw face as he squinted at the rather large file containing the program.

-
Jax halted as soon as he and everyone else crossed through the portal that Caine had opened. He glanced around at his surroundings, seeing that they were in some sort of bright green field with sunny skies and a giant red barn to his right, a small blue house over half a mile away, and lots of fields with all sorts of crops including corn of all things.

Great, they were at a farm. Wonderful…

Jax looked behind himself and saw everyone turn around to see that the portal had disappeared.

“God f*%king dammit, Caine!” Zooble shouted to where the portal had been later, “What’s that for!?”

What kind of adventure awaited Jax for today? A fighting game? No, that resulted in 13 different lawsuits filed by the NPCs last time, and Caine wasn’t very happy. A racing game perchance? Not in this place. A role-playing game? Wouldn’t be too bad, but if it included rolling dice as in DnD, Jax would abstract immediately. Survival? Knowing Caine, he would do it in a place like this. Oh god…

“Caine, if this is a f@#king puzzle game I will kill you!”

Jax wasn’t very keen at puzzles, let alone anything that involved critical thinking, well, whatever Caine considered critical thinking. His puzzles were beyond puzzling, to say the least at times.

As he looked around more, he realized a few more details. Next to the barn was a herd of cows, munching on grass. The blue house had a white fence around it, quite a large area. And of course, there was a corn maze, why wouldn’t there be?

Bubbles popped in front of Kinger, causing him to jump back and let out a small scream

“Hello everyone! Welcome to your next adventure! Caine couldn’t make it to give you all the instructions, so I’m here to fill you in!” God, Jax hated Bubble’s voice. Bubbles went on to explain the adventure, which was apparently like the candy adventure they all had at the Candy Canyon Kingdome adventure they went on a while back.

“What you all need to do is to go talk to the farmer here who’s missing their prize sheep!” Bubble explained to them all, with only him and Ragatha really paying attention, “However, this won’t be a clear-cut case, so make sure you take your time!”

Pomni was looking at her hands with beady eyes, likely still thinking about how Uzi had left. Gangle was clutching her comedy mask in her hands, revealing her tragedy mask, crying lightly from the possibility of humanity being gone and what implications that had. Zooble had their arms crossed and furrowed eyelids, impatiently waiting for Bubble to be done with their speech. Kinger was still as empty-minded as usual.

Yeah, everyone was doing just as fine. Peachy, even.

Jax rolled his eyes at Bubble, “Yeah, yeah, let’s just get on with it.” He spoke as he began wandering to the barn, but was stopped by Ragatha grabbing his shoulder.

“Before we start, Bubble, what’s up with Caine?” She asked, staring up at the flying Bubble before her, “He never misses out on explaining adventures!”

Bubble looked to his side, “Ah, well, Caine has to do his bug fixes, y’know? Those take some time, so he couldn’t make it!” Bubble explained to Ragatha before beginning to sweat, “Either way, I gotta go help Caine now, bye!” He blurted out quickly before popping away.

Ragatha flinched back when Bubble popped, letting go of Jax and holding her hand near her head as if she was guarding it, “I mean, I guess that makes sense?” She muttered to herself.

“Yeah, whatever, let's just get this over with and find that NPC.” Jax told her as began walking again to the farm, “Probably going to be a rather boring one anyway.” However, as he glanced back at the group, he realized that no one else was moving, instead staying put and all looking tense, borderline moping for Gangle and Pomni, “Aren’t you guys coming?”

Gangle glanced at him, “Jax, aren’t you worried about what Uzi said?” She asked him as she clenched her comedy mask a bit harder. Heh, he might not even have to break it today, she might just do it herself with how anxious she was!

“What? About humanity being dead or Earth’s core exploding?” Jax questioned, playing dumb. Oh, he knew that Gangle was talking about humans being dead, and while honestly, yes that was horrifying, he rather not think about that. Worrying about that type of stuff leads down a dark hole that Jax rather not take.

“Both!” She responded back, “Doesn’t that make you worried about what happened to everyone outside of the game, like our family and any friends!? They could be dead!” Gangle shouted out, straightening her back slightly as she spoke, her grip still tight on her comedy mask, “What about our bodies!? If we're still somehow connected to them, what if something happens to us here!”

“Ugh! You sound like Pomni right now Gangle.” Jax groaned, leaning his head back to be dramatic, “Look, if something happened on Earth, great! There’s nothing any of us can do about it.” Honestly, Jax might break Gangle’s tragedy mask at this point just so she would shut up about this! The circus wasn’t a place to get worried about humanity being eradicated and Earth exploding.

“S-she’s right.” Pomni murmured to herself, turning her head to look at Jax and Gangle, “If Uzi wasn’t lying about being a robot, what if everything else she said was right?” Good grief, these people needed to take a chill pill! Wonder if Caine even has those.

Ragatha walked over to Pomni and gave a reassuring look to Gangle, “Now, while what she said may have been true, Jax is right, there’s not much we can do.” She told the two, her tone rather somber and almost sad, “But, hey! Why don’t we focus on this adventure to take our minds off of things!” Ragatha added, her voice a stark contrast from what she had said a moment prior.

Zooble glanced back at Ragtha, still ticked off at Caine for making them go on this adventure, “Yeah, sure, Ragatha, I just want to get this over with.” Zooble responded back.

“Great! Now let's hurry!” Jax exclaimed, clapping his hands together as he once again began to move towards the barn. Honestly, these people need to stop moping around, there’s nothing they can do!

The rest of the circus members followed after Jax reluctantly, the morbid thought of humanity was still pending in their minds. Jax, Kinger, and Pomni headed for the barn while the rest went for the house, all attempting to find the farmer to complete the adventure. As they neared the barn, Jax noticed some details. The barn was bright red with white painted on the support beams. It had a singular lantern inside, illuminating the inside. The barn seemed to have two floors, with a ladder reaching from the bottom floor to the top. There was something strange though, it had claw markings all over the exterior, engraved in the barn’s wood. A wolf perhaps? But there were no trees nearby. Weird.

“W-Why are there claw marks on the wood?” Pomni asked in a shakily voice, obviously scared, again.

She touched one of the markings. Whoever, or whatever, made these marks must have been strong and mad because the marks ran deep in the wood.

When Jax, Kinger, and Pomni went inside, they could hear a vague voice through the poorly lit barn. It sounded strangely familiar, but where did they know it from? They followed the direction of the voice to a pile of hay on the ground.

“Take that ya candy monster!” The voice mumbled, seemingly in a dream of some sort.

Kinger removed the heap of hay that blocked the face of the stranger. While doing so, a cowboy hat fluttered to the ground at Pomni’s feet. She remembered where this hat was from.

“Wait, this hat belongs to-” She was cut off by the stranger waking up with a shriek

“Crikey! Who are you, fellas? And what are you doin’ in my barn!”

“G-Gummigoo?” It was Pomni who said his name aloud. She stared at him momentarily, unsure of what to do. She already knew he wouldn’t remember her, just like in Spudsy’s, she knew it was good to let go of him like she did then, but why did Caine keep using Gummigoo for her adventures? Not to mention back-to-back!

“That’s me alright!” He said with a cheerful voice, though he turned his head to the left slightly when he heard her say his name, “Though, how’d you know that, mate?”

“Oh, uhh?” She started as she began to think of an excuse, “I think I’ve seen you around somewhere? I don’t know, it was probably a while ago…” Maybe that was believable? She wasn’t sure, though it did happen a few times to her before she got stuck in this circus, so maybe he’ll buy it!

“Hm, maybe. Though I don’t recognize you, little miss.” Gummigoo told her as he picked up his cowboy hat in front of her, dusting it off before putting it back on his head.

Kinger stepped forward, trying to get in front of Pomni, “Are you by chance missing a pig?” This was one of the few sentences Kinger said today.

“I have actually! He’s my most beloved pig, Hogwart, and he’s been missin’ for a while now. Are you some type of pig-wrangler?” He pointed to Kinger while asking the question.

Kinger just shrugged, “No, not really.” He admitted, earning a sideways glance from Gumigoo, “But I am good at catching things!” Kinger added on cheerfully, worsening the glance from Gumigoo.

“Actually,” Jax hissed at Kinger, giving a mean glare to him, “Today, we are, so just tell us where those pigs are or they’ll become bacon.” Hmm, some bacon didn’t sound half bad! Even if it really didn’t do anything. Screw this digital food! Papa wants some real meat…

Gumigoo grimaced at them, giving a toothy frown at Jax’s comment, “I mean, sure? I got five others too who went all sorts of directions.” He explained, scratching the back of his neck. Ugh, he was about to hesitate, wasn’t he? “Here, I’ll show y’all where they went.”

“Actually-” Pomni started, “we made a mess coming in. How about me and Kinger staying behind to clean up?”

“Sure thing little-” he was interrupted by Jax’s loud grunt of annoyance.

Pomni gave a smile to the gator before beginning to clean up the hay with Kinger’s help.

Jax rolled his eyes, “Fine!” He whined before snatching Gumigoo’s wrist, “Now come on, show me where they went.” Those two will just have to catch up later. Maybe without them, he could make this adventure better in his own way.

Gummigoo stumbled as he was dragged away, “Crikey! All right then, sir!” The gummy alligator spouted before escaping Jax’s grip, “I can walk on my own, y’know!”

The two made it outside, overseeing the wide farmland again. Jax noticed the other crops that were growing, wheat, carrots, pumpkins, and other such crops. He could see the other three humans still by that blue house not too far. He couldn’t really make out many details from far away, but he did see two other gummy creatures talking to Ragatha that were vaguely alligator-shaped. Gangle was standing right by her, now presumably wearing her comedy mask unless she was still thinking about what Robo-Girl had said, and even then she might have put it back on to cheer herself up. Zooble was leaning on the side of the house, presumably bored out of their skull.

Gummigo leaned forward, putting a hand above his eye to shield them from the sunlight, “Are those your other mates over there? Why’re they talkin' to Max and Chad?”

“Yeah, sure.” Jax quickly dismissed, “Now where are these pigs?”

Gummigoo lowered his head and scratched his chin, “Ah, like I said before, they all went in different directions!” He answered before pointing to the far right of the blue house, “Two of them went this way,” He then moved his hand to the left of the barn, “Another three went this way,” Gumigoo then pulled his hand straight forward, left of the corn field, “And my prized Hogwart went this way.”

Jax felt his eye twitch, he swore if Jax had to go ANYWHERE near that cornfield, he didn’t know what he'd do, “Great, now do me a favor and get Hoo-ha and Unstable out here.” Jax told Gummigoo, pointing with his thumb back to the barn, before jogging off towards the blue house, might as well start with those.

“WAIT!” Gummigoo cried out before realizing how far Jax had gotten, “Didgeridoo, he didn’t let me tell him about that wolf!” Gummigoo realized, his eyes widening in horror, “I got to go tell the other two!” The gummy gator immediately turned around and ran back into the barn, doing as he was instructed.

Jax kept jogging until he began to near the house Gangle, Ragatha, and Zooble were in. Passing by fields of whatever crops were being grown. Some were harder to distinguish than others considering the rather simple graphics of the game.

He halted in his path as he neared the house's porch, looking up at Zooble who was standing on it. He giggled as he looked at the living mix-and-match toy. Time to do his favorite thing!

Jax crossed his arms as he leaned a bit more on one of his legs, “Hey, Zoobs, how’s Gangle?” He asked them in a taunting tone, causing Zooble to roll their eyes and give an exasperated sigh.

“Jax, if you just came here to pick on her again, f%$k off.” They plainly told him, giving a scowl at him despite the lack of a mouth, “I think everyone’s had enough of a trauma fest today with Uzi popping in and just leaving.”

“Oh come on~, it wasn’t that bad!” He responded to Zooble, who simply furrowed their eyelids in confusion.

“Wasn’t that bad!?” Zooble echoed, “Jax, a f%&king robot just hopped into the game, said that humanity was dead and that Earth exploded, and left! How’s that not bad!?” They shouted at him, tensing up as they did so.

Zooble was right, that all was pretty bad, but not like Jax would tell! Nah, it’s better to play around with them, keep himself in high spirits, “I don’t know, sounds kind of interesting, especially because Pomni just got here and she didn’t have a clue on what’s going on!”

Zooble’s shoulder dropped as the same angry and shocked look stayed on their face, “Jax, just f#$k off.” They told him as they flipped him off.

That’s the sign for him to probably stop or he’d get strangled, again. He also had to get those stupid pigs, but whatever. Jax simply laughed again before waving, “Okay, Zuzu, but just to let you know I already found the farmer and that the two crazies are in the barn having a blast picking up some hay, have fun~” He informed them before walking off.

He expected to hear Zooble yell some sort of swear at him, but he heard nothing. As he discreetly glanced behind himself, he noticed Zooble leaning back on the house with the arms crossed, but still tense. He wondered if Zooble was worried too, about Earth, about humanity, about just life in general outside of the circus.

Jax stopped a fair distance from the house, staring at the ground. He wondered if his body was still where it was and whether it was dead or alive. Was his body still there or was it just atoms like Uzi had implied?

Jax shook his head, nope! Not going down that train today!

With that, Jax began to run once more, he had some pigs to find so he could leave this dumb adventure.

Chapter Text

Ragatha placed down another pig in front of Gumigoo, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead, “There! That’s five of them, right?” She asked as she looked up at Gummigoo, glancing at the other circus members around her.

Pomni looked empty as she stared at the ground, her eyes still wide and her pupils squiggly thanks to the game’s cartoony shenanigans. Kinger was standing by her, absently looking at any insect that was flying by. Gangle had her ribbon hands loosely tied together, looking nervous despite wearing her comedy mask. Zooble, despite helping get one of the pigs, looked annoyed out of their mind.

Ragatha wondered if that was because of what Jax had said about half an hour ago to them. He had said something about Pomni and how she didn’t know anything about humanity despite having arrived less than a week ago. Which, unfortunately, was a good point. Maybe time flowed differently outside of the game?

Gummigoo gave a cheerful nod, “Yep! That’s five out of six of ‘em!” He told her before looking at the pigs everyone was circling around outside of the barn, “Now, where’s my dear Hogwart?” Gummigoo wondered as he scratched the top of his head, “He should be here by now, right?” Gummigoo asked, turning his head around to look at all of them, “That rabbit’s a quick one, yeah? He seemed to be off in a hurry.”

Ragatha shrugged, “I don’t know, to be honest.” She admitted. If she had to guess, he may have turned a five-minute chase into an hour-long bloodbath. That was something he would, no has, done before.

“Maybe he’ll come back soon?” Gangle suggested quietly, glancing up at Ragatha.

Gummigoo scratched his chin, “I will say though, he doesn’t know ‘bout that wolf, does he?”

Ragatha turned to look at him, her mouth slightly agape, “I’m sorry, but the what?” She asked Gummigoo, clenching her hands together in front of her waist. This was the first she was hearing about a wolf, and considering that she and everyone else had gotten a pig except Jax, that probably wasn’t a good thing.

“How’d you think I lost them in the first place?” The gummy alligator wondered briefly before returning back to his original train of thought, “But either way, there’s a wolf loose and I could’ve sworn I told y’all,” He spoke, glancing at everyone, “But I know I never got to with him because he ran off real quick!”

Zooble stepped up towards Gumigoo, a somehow visible scowl on their face, “Hold up, there was a f$%king wolf here the ENTIRE time!?” They nearly shouted at the farmer, a cartoonish blood vessel appearing in the upper left corner of their face.

Gummigoo firmly stood his ground, but his eyes changed from solid white to hollow rings, “Now, I’m sorry to y’all all that I forgot to tell you, but what’s more important is that we get Hogwart and the rabbit!” He told Zooble, and by proxy the rest of the players.

Zooble crossed their arms with a huff, “More so the pig…” They muttered to themself.

Gummigoo tilted his head slightly, “Wait, I thought y’all were all friends?”

Ragatha grimaced slightly, “Ehhhh, kinda?” She told him as she raised one of her hands above her waist, rotating her hand to each side.

“Jax can be really mean sometimes…” Gangle confessed to Gummigoo, still fidgeting with her ribbons, “But I’m not sure if I exactly want him to be mauled by a wolf.”

“Eh, fair enough!” Gummigoo responded to them, tilting their hat up, “Now, let’s get a move on before night, who knows what’s happening with them!”
-

“GET BACK HERE YOU STUPID F$%*ING PIG!”

Jax lunged forward at the pig, falling chin-first into the dirt, missing the pig by a hair. He grumbled as he pushed himself back up, before sprinting once more after the pig.

He had been here for god knows how long and this stupid pig was still running! Jax felt a faint breeze pick up as he darted for the surprisingly fast pig, passing by random crops that were being grown, not caring if he stepped on any.

The pig began oinking as it somehow, SOMEHOW, began running faster, glancing back at him before oinking again.

He was going to kill Caine when he saw him again, Jax swore on it.

The two kept running for who knows how long, neither slowing down. Jax even had passed by a few of the other players too, them yelling something at him, but he ignored it. He didn’t care anymore, all that mattered was getting this dumb pig and either giving it back to the alligator or making some bacon. He’ll decide when he gets Hogwart or whatever the hell its name was.

However, during this wild hog chase, Jax had found himself a far distance from the barn and everyone else. The fields were starting to be empty, the grass got worse and worse quality, it became eerily quiet with no background noise. The lighting began to feel more and more unnatural.

As he kept running, he suddenly saw a field of crops appear in front of him, a field of a specific crop that he despised.

A field of corn.

That pig better not go in there.

Jax picked up his pace, using everything he could to grab the pig before it ironically ran into the cornfield. He stretched his hands out and nearly lunged at the pig again.

“Get over here!” He demanded loudly at the pig.

Jax paused briefly and lunged for the pig, who was mere feet away from the cornfield, much closer than Jax would ever like to be, but he just had to get this pig and…

His hands briefly grazed the pig’s body before it slipped away, with Jax ungracefully landing back on the ground, picking up dirt. He closed his eyes right before he landed, hearing rustling as he did so. He continued to hear it until it got more distant to the point where he could barely hear it.

Jax didn’t even need to open his eyes, he felt the corn stalk briefly brush against him as he once again laid belly down on the dirt. His eyes shot open before pushing himself up from his knees and falling back on his butt, dragging himself away from the corn.

He suppressed a yell as he dragged himself back, pulling himself at least a foot or two away from it. He glanced up at the corn and felt his body freeze, yet he still began to tremble.

“Oh, god…” He breathed out shakily and quietly. He felt like he couldn’t move like everything in his body was making him stay right where he was despite the fact he so desperately wanted to run away.

‘Don’t think about it.’ He thought to himself before repeating it over and over again, ‘Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it,”

He felt his grip on the ground tightened as he lowered his eyes to look at the bottom of the corn stalk. ‘Get over it,’ Jax told himself. It happened years ago, he knows it has because he’s been stuck in this circus for years, he should be over it all by now, he should have moved on by now!

Plus, he had to get this STUPID pig who probably had something against him apparently because it had decided that it wanted to run into Jax’s worst nightmare, hooray!

Even though Jax desperately wanted to, he couldn’t get anyone else. He knew if he asked someone else to get the pig they’d ask why, and while, sure, he could play it off as him being lazy or it being boring or whatever, there was still the slimmest chance that they could find out that he was petrified of corn.

Jax would rather die than admit that.

So with that, Jax tried his best to prepare for this. He stayed there, sitting in front of the corn, for a bit. He closed his eyes, stood up, took a deep breath, and ran into it.

𝘖𝘩 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘥.

As he ran, he so desperately wanted to just yell, scream, cry, anything. There was so much corn, it was like it was never-ending. Jax tried his best to not think about it but it was so hard when it was constantly touching him. He just had to not think about it all, about the corn, about his life before the circus, about the farm.

Jax felt his eyes begin to sting with tears, why was this so hard, why was it like this?

Jax looked around in a hurry amid his run, looking for anything to distract himself with. He tried to listen for the pig but heard nothing over his own digital heartbeat. He glimpsed at the ground for a moment and briefly made out two sets of tracks. Great, the pig must be this way!

That also meant he was getting bacon! Or pork chops…

Yes, think about what food to cook the pig into! Like ham at a Thanksgiving dinner with corn!...

Jax felt like he was going to go insane soon.

He skidded to a stop when he reached a clearing, still surrounded by corn much to his horror on all sides. However, there was something else.

The grass had turned to mud as he looked at the ground, his heart still beating loudly and quickly, his eyes widening, but he stood his ground to not back up into the corn.

In the field was Hogwart, dead. His body bleed out not blood or that weird, thin black fluid that someone would occasionally throw up, but as Jax knelt down to touch it, it was oil.

Across from the dead Hogwart was a dead candy wolf, seemingly made out of black licorice, which stuck out compared to everything else being made of normal material, not candy. Except for Gummigoo.

Jax would have usually assumed that the pig had died due to the wolf, but he knew that wasn’t the case as Hogwart had a giant puncture wound in the middle of his body where the oil bled out. The odd thing was, that the licorice wolf had the same thing, a puncture wound in the middle of his body that also leaked out oil.

The two bodies were across from each other, lying beside a newly familiar symbol in the mud.

In the mud was a bright yellow hexagon with a thinner hexagon surrounding it, with arrows pointing out from the top point of the outer hexagon and two on the lower right and left points. It was the same symbol Uzi had shown him when he was teasing her.

Maybe if Jax wasn’t surrounded by his worst fear, in desperate need of a distraction, he wouldn’t have done what he had done. He may have picked up the dead Hogwart and returned it to Gummigoo, knowing it be stupid to do what he was about to do. Maybe he would’ve done it either way.

Hypotheticals didn’t matter as Jax, still kneeling in the oil coming from both digital animals, moved himself directly in front of the symbol, leaned over it, and touched it.

𝙎𝙒𝙊𝙊𝙎𝙃

Jax felt his body recoil back as he looked down at his stomach, a black, oily, tentacle going cleanly through it, having emerged from the strange symbol. He began to cough as he was met with an overwhelming pain and his vision began to blur.

“Wh..what?” He gasped to himself, coughing even more.

The tentacle wrapped around his torso from where it had punctured him, his arms still free, gripping him tightly. He could hardly make out the serrated metal at the end of the tentacle. He coughed again as it squeezed him, but this time he saw black droplets come out of his closed mouth. Was that… oil?

Jax grabbed the side of the tentacle and tried his best to loosen its grip on him despite it still being through his stomach, but it did nothing as his arms pulled weakly against it. It felt like his energy was being zapped from him.

‘What’s happening!?’ He couldn’t help but think, what type of adventure had Caine made?

‘𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤.’

Jax felt his ears perk up, trying from the distress of being stabbed to look for who had spoken.

‘𝘿𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮, 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙮, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙚 :)’

The words both yelled in his head and Jax almost felt like he was seeing them too. It spoke to him in a monotone, robotic, feminine voice. It sounded almost happy but fake. What the F%$K had Caine created?

Jax gave up on pulling the tentacle away from his side, instead opting to pull it straight from his chest. Before he could even pull it, however, knowing it wouldn’t work, the tentacle let go of him and ripped itself out of Jax’s chest.

He immediately fell down, keeping himself up with his arms shakily before falling to the ground. He began hacking up more oil from his mouth almost immediately after the tentacle let him go, using one of his arms to clutch his stomach.

Jax fell to his side on the ground before noticing the oil that surrounded his body on the ground. As he removed his hand and arm from his stomach, he noticed that his hand and arm were now soaked in oil, painting some of his once purple skin black.

He was bleeding oil. Not blood. Not confetti. Oil.

He began to hyperventilate as his vision blurred more, unsure of what to do as his eyelids felt heavy. He couldn't yell for some reason, he didn’t know where he was, he wasn’t sure where everyone else was, and for some reason, he felt like the respawn system wasn’t going to be of any help. Maybe impending doom from nearly being dead.

His head flopped to the ground as he rolled on his stomach, just for the chance of maybe preventing more bloo- no, oil, from bleeding out of him. Jax closed his eyes, hoping either sleep or preferably death would come over him.

‘𝘿𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮, 𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 :>’ The voice both told and showed him while his eyes were shut.

“𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦-𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘐 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴!” Jax thought to himself through pain.

‘𝙍𝙀𝙂𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙐𝙎𝙀𝙍 𝙄𝘿: 𝙓… 𝙒𝙀𝙇𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙀, 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙁𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙉𝘿.’

And with that, his consciousness left him and everything went black.

Chapter Text

“For the last time, that is what happened!” Uzi shouted out, flinging her arms in the arm for dramatic effect, pushing the chair she was sitting on back.

“I still don’t believe you! Between you nearly getting stuck in that game and the sketchy store you bought it from, none of it seems true!” her mom called out, pacing in circles on the ground as she ended her statement. Khan nervously tried to pat her as he sat on the chair next to Uzi’s right.

Uzi just spent thirty whole minutes explaining herself and her mom still didn’t believe her? How?! N had been a witness, seeing the other players talk about her, Caine being all weird saying she couldn’t leave. She proved those players wrong! But it was still strange how they didn’t believe her when she said the human race was gone.

“N! Tell my mom I am telling the truth here! You saw me play the game!” She blurted at N, who was sitting to the left of her, and gave a jump when Uzi called his name.

“She’s right, Mrs. Nori. Although I didn’t approve of buying the game-” He was cut off by an angered Nori.

“YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED HER FROM BUYING IT, BOY!” She jumped on top of his head and started scratching his face in a fit of parental rage.

“Ow, ow, OW!” N cried out, trying to pry Nori off of his face, but also attempting to not hurt her in the process.

Uzi rushed out of her chair over to N’s side, successfully grabbing Nori off of N, “MOM! It’s not his fault!” Uzi shouted at her mom before shaking her, payback for what she did to N.

In less than a second, Khan got up and snatched Nori out of Uzi’s hands, “Uzi, you do not shake your mother!” He scolded her in a slightly harsh manner before looking down at his wife, “And you don’t scratch up that poor boy, Nori!” He told her before gesturing to N with one of his hands, letting Nori sit on his other, being a bit too big to fit completely in his hand.

Nori folded her claws under herself, making a pouting expression somehow, “Okay, but do you actually believe Uzi!?”

Khan frowned as his eyes began to droop as he gave an exasperated look, “Nori, remind me what was happening in the Cabin Fever labs again right before the planet’s core exploded.”

Nori simply grumbled in response to Khan’s ask, “I guess you sorta have a point, but humans trapped in a game?” She wondered to herself, “Come on, that has to be impossible!”

Khan kept the same expression on his face, but looked up at Uzi, “Uzi, what are your wings made of again?”

Uzi let her wings spread out slightly, rubbing them slightly before thinking, “Hmmm, flesh, I think.” She responded before hiding her wings again.

Khan gazed back at Nori, “I know why you don’t want to believe her, it would be better if humans were dead, but we don’t know who these people are.” He patiently told his wife, pulling her into a hug, “We don’t know how long they’ve been there or if it’s just some whacky horror game that the humans made before they died!”

Nori sighed as the tension left her body, returning the hug the best she could, “I guess…But if Uzi’s right, then I think those are actual humans, not just some video game characters.”

Uzi and N glanced at each other, Uzi having a disgusted grimace on her face while N’s eyes furrowed, his head slightly tilted as he looked at her.

N then turned to face Khan and Nori once more, “Uhm, Mrs. Nori and Mr. Khan…” He spoke quietly, getting the attention of the two as they looked up at him, “I can go get the game’s case and CD from Uzi’s room. Maybe you could look at it?”

That made sense to Uzi. If her parents wanted to investigate the game, without playing it of course for obvious reasons, then it would be best for them to look at what the game said in its case. Though, she could recall not seeing anything mention horror, or six humans being trapped in the game, or really whatever had gone down in that game. She shuddered at the recent memory, the circus had nearly trapped her in there, she knew it.

Khan gave the boy a reassuring smile, “Good idea!” He affirmed N, resulting in him getting up and sprinting towards her room.

Uzi averted her eyes from her parents, who she could just feel staring daggers at her. Dear robo-god, she was probably in so much trouble. What was she thinking!? Playing that game was a bad, but honestly kind of interesting, idea!

She fidgeted with her hands, Uzi did wonder how those humans were doing. How long had they supposedly been stuck there? Ragatha and Gangle were really nice to her, even though they didn’t believe her; Kinger didn’t seem half-bad; Zooble was definitely more on edge with her, but she couldn’t really blame them for it; Pomni desperately needed mental help, constantly looking at her with anxiety and panic just radiating from her; and Jax…Well just like how some Drones were mean, Jax was kind of a prick, to be honest. Uzi just couldn’t help but wonder, how long had they all been stuck there?

“Uzi…” Her mother called out to her in an almost timid fashion, her main eye staring at the ground, “I’m sorry for not believing you…and for attacking N.”

Uzi looked directly at her mother before rolling her eyes, time to act like an angsty teen! “It’s fine…” She sighed exaggeratedly, “But you really should’ve believed me! N even said I was right!” She told Nori, folding her arms across her chest and she leaned back slightly, trying to not fall off her stool, “Plus, you should really be apologizing to N, not me.”

Nori did her best to nod, muttering something to Khan before he placed her down on the counter. She circled a bit before promptly sitting down, her three claws spread out as she half shut her eyes, “Just how did that drone find that game…” Nori whispered to herself.

Before Uzi could contemplate that, N came dashing out of her room, carrying The Amazing Digital Circus’s case in his right hand. He moved over to the counter where he gave it to Khan, with him saying a ‘Thank you’ and N responding with a ‘Your welcome.’

Khan flipped the case and read the back of the game, with Nori having got up and peered over his shoulder. N sat by Uzi once more, both glimpsing at each other with a bead of digital sweat running down their digital visors, N chewing the inside of his cheek.

The silence felt deafening and tense, which led N to say to Uzi, “Kinda funny the rabbit one sounded a bit like me, huh?”

Uzi briefly chuckled at his comment, placing her hand on top of his, “Yeah, he sounded like you if you were just done with everything after what happened at prom.” She commented to him, “But he was still a bi-”

“AHEM!” Khan coughed at Uzi’s profanity, Nori gave a stern look at her daughter.

Uzi recoiled her neck back, “Geez, alright, I won’t swear.” She reassured her dad.

So with that, they all waited as Uzi’s parents began reading over the container, looking for any possible clue on what was going on. Uzi knew there wouldn’t be much, as if she had seen anything like that on the case, she would’ve been more cautious than she had been.

Then a thought struck her, a theory or an explanation on why those players had acted so weird.

Uzi raised her eyes to look at Khan before speaking, “What if those people got stuck before the planet exploded?” She couldn’t help but mutter out loud, once again cutting through the silence.

Nori turned her attention from the case to Uzi, narrowing her main eye as she raised her claw near her eye, “Now that you say, that could make sense…” Nori acknowledged, giving a small hum, “Did you catch how old any of them were?”

Right, it had been about two decades since the core exploded on Copper-9 and even longer since Earth got destroyed by Cyn. Depending on their ages, it would help prove or disprove her theory, “Hmmm, I don’t think so.” She told Nori as she held her chin, Khan now looking at her.

“Perhaps an estimate?” Khan suggested to his daughter, “How old did those humans seem?”

How old did they seem? Uzi wasn’t exactly sure how humans aged, but she was pretty sure that the life cycle of a Worker Drone was similar, if not exactly, like a human’s when it came to aging. If those players were Drones like her, how old would they be?

Uzi murmured to herself for a bit before answering, “They seemed a couple of years older than me, I think?” She hadn’t really gotten to know most of them that well for the, like, ten to twenty minutes she was there, “I don’t know, I think they’re all in their twenties or something.” She responded with a shrug at the end. Uzi didn’t know why, but for some reason, she was pretty sure that didn’t apply to Kinger, he kinda sounded older. Or she was completely wrong, that too.

“Oh!” N gasped, perking up and clasping his hands together, bringing all eyes to him, “I’m pretty sure that the rabbit was one of the younger ones!”

Uzi side-eyed him, “Really? How so?” They all seemed around the same age, so how did Jax seem younger than the rest? “If I had to guess, Pomni seemed kinda young, like a college kid in a new school or something.” She told N as she folded her arms and leaned back slightly against the counter. Like in those old, totally reliable, human movies. She sorta acted like a nervous new kid at their new school or something.

There was also a chance she was the newest to the game, that would certainly explain things...

“Look, doesn’t matter who’s older than who!” Nori blurted out to them loudly, still in her husband’s hands but standing on them to be eye leveled to them, “If those humans are that young, then that means they shouldn’t even have been born yet when the core exploded! For either planet!”

That…That’s true. Uzi lowered her upper digital eyelids as she thought, a digital vein appearing above her left eye. Ugh! Why did this have to be so complicated!? Maybe they were from some other human exoplanet that they didn’t know about? Was there some sort of crisis that was emerging soon!? What had happened to those people in the game!? What had nearly happened to her!?

Uzi felt a hand gently put itself on her shoulder. She turned around to see N having a small frown and his eyes drooping sadly a bit.

“Uzi, it’s going to be okay,” N comforted her, tightening his grip on her shoulder a bit, “If you want to help these people…even if them being alive doesn’t make any sense, honestly, then I promise, I’ll help you.” The Murder Drone reassured her, resulting in her giving a faint smile with her visor producing small blush marks, “Plus, I bet V would be willing to help too!” N told her much more cheerfully, a wide smile appearing on his face at the prospect of a new, likely less dangerous adventure.

“N…” Uzi spoke fondly, oh she loved N.

Khan stood up, placing Nori down on the counter, “Count me in too! I will not have what happened last time happen to you again! This time I’ll be involved!” Khan proudly proclaimed, stepping his foot down hard as he proudly made his declaration, placing his fist next to his hips.

“Which last time are you referring to?” Nori asked, raising a claw at her husband, knowing exactly which two situations without her having to explain.

“Uhhhh…Both?”

Uzi scoffed as she rolled her eyes before giving a small smile. She’d figure this out, she knew she would. Plus, this time, she wouldn’t start alone.

“Alrighty then!” She yelled out as she hopped out of her stool, “Then we’re going to figure out what the heck is going on with this weird circus game!”

-

A worker drone in a tacky-colored uniform began bolting outside of Outpost 3, going as fast as he could. He couldn’t be late to meet her, if he was who knew what she would do.

All that he remembered was that he needed to go to the spire of Worker Drone corpses, that’s where she said to meet him. He needed to meet her once the sun had completely set and tell her what had happened.

The snow crunched under his feet as he ran by the remains of many things, cars, objects, human skeletons, and other Worker Drones corpses, but none of it mattered to him. He glanced at the setting sun and felt digital sweat bead down his face, he needed to hurry to get to her and tell her!

He followed the trail of street lights that he had used when he first encountered her and was forced to strike that terrible deal in the first place with her. He’d used them the second time he was forced to meet her and they seemed pretty reliable enough, so they were the key to finding the spire of dead bodies.

Hooray…

He halted in his tracks as he got to the entrance of the spire, towering above the skyscrapers of the city once owned by humanity. The atomic snow slowly fell on him as he begun to shake where he stood, looking up at the spire of his dead brother. His eye lights hollowed as he gulped a non-needed breath and began to skittishly walk into the entrance.

The Worker fiddled with his hands as he walked in, stepping over the remains of crushed up Workers and their torn apart limbs. A few of the heads that were buried in snow showed ‘FATAL ERROR’ while others simply had a warning symbol displayed on their decapitated head. The sun had since fallen and the only light in the cave was coming from the center of the cave that the spire had formed. That’s where the landing pod was according to her.

He stopped in front of the pod, hunched over slightly, beads of digital sweat still coming down his head. He was here, now all he had to do was wait for her and maybe he’ll live!

Though, did he deserve it?

He had just trapped the Worker who had saved them from whatever planet consuming threat had happened a month ago in some game, at least according to her. The girl had definitely started playing the game by now, meaning she was stuck in there forever along with whatever other minds had been foolish enough, or tricked, into playing that game. The Amazing Digital Circus.

According to her, it was to allow something to take over the purple drone’s body and use her body as its main host, allowing its plans to be acted out. Not that he knew what its plans were…

If only he hadn’t run into her, than maybe he-

WOOSH

The Worker looked up as a silver blur flew over him, landing on the pod by grabbing the ledge with one clawed hand. A Murder drone with silver pigtails and a black dress with a belt around her waist had flown in, her other hand holding another Worker’s decapitated head. She lowered her head and raised the head a bit, gulping down the oil coming from the Worker’s throat before crushing it and throwing the head to the side in the snow. Her sharp silver wings twitched as she finished her meal, her nanite acid tail swaying side to side.

It was her, Serial Designation J.

He gave a quiet gulp as he looked up at her, eyes still hollow as he tried to compose himself, “Ahem…” He coughed in order to get her attention.

J snapped her neck to look at him, giving a murderous smile with a bright yellow X for her eyes.

“Hehehe…” She giggled slowly before pushing herself off the pod, flying off and landing cleanly in front of him, causing him to take a few steps back as he began to shiver worse, “Report, did Uzi finally get the game?” J demanded harshly at him.

He fervently nodded, “Th-the purple one, right!?” The Worker fumbled out loudly, his voice wavering, “She bought it, bought it today! She should’ve played it by now!”

J crossed her arms as her visor displayed regular, yellow eyes that were fiercely narrowed at him. She still had a wicked grin on her face, “Good, good, now are you certain you gave it to Uzi? It has to be her!” J began to yell out, turning one of her hands into a sharp blade and placing it by his neck in a split second, ready to slash his head off.

He frozen as he leaned his head away from J’s blade, averting his eyes from J’s to stare at the blade next to him, “Yes! Yes! I saw her Solver and everything!” Please, please, don’t let this be how he dies!

J scowled at him, pressing the blade by his neck, “What color were her eyes?” She demanded from him.

Eyes! Her eye color was…”They were mainly purple? I’m sure they had a bit of yellow on top too, though!” He remembered how weird they were, he’d never seen that with any other drone.

J dropped the blade from his neck, letting him release a relieved sigh, “Good.” She told him before taking a step back, “Was anyone with her?” J spat out, malice still in her voice.

“Another Murder Drone,” He ushered out quickly, not caring about how much of a wimp he sounded like, “It was a guy with a trench coat, he seemed nervous about everything!”

“N…” She growled to herself, a digital blood vessel appearing on the upper left corner of her visor, “Was there another Dissembly Drone with them?” She asked as she turned around facing the landing pod that had a few scraps and missing parts.

He shook his head, “N-no. Just the one.” He told J before taking a step back, turing his head back to look at the exit, was it finally over? “Uhm, J?” He called out wobbly, holding his hands together by his chest.

“Hm?”

He gulped briefly, “May- May I leave? I did my end of our deal.” He informed her, their deal being that J will let him live if he gave that strange game to Uzi, “You told me…You said I could live if I did what I did…”

J gave a low chuckle, “Oh, right, I did.” She turned her head around and gave another malicious smile, “Here, let me show you the exit.” J told him as he was still looking at the way out, raising her bladed arm.

He turned his head around to look at her fast enough to see her lunging after him, her eyes once again being a bright yellow X as she took her blade and cut it cleanly through his neck, decapitating him.

J giggled as she placed a leg on the now dead Worker Drone’s body, his head showing ‘FATAL ERROR’ as it laid a good foot or two away from his body, “Idiot.” She muttered to herself before pulling something up on her visor.

It was a notepad that was labeled ‘CYN’S RETURN PLAN’. In it were many tasks that had either been crossed out as they were finished or were still blank. She crossed out another one, one reading ‘Get the dumb Worker to trap Uzi in that video game Cyn gave her’. However, she also noticed a new task at the bottom, one she didn’t put there.

In truth, she hadn’t started this notepad, Cyn had. Turns out, Cyn was still alive and well considering she could still relay information to her, including her entire revenge plan. Yay…

J had added a few things herself, like fixing the ship and killing V and N permanently, as Cyn had only added for Uzi’s program and mind to get rid of. However, this new task seemed out of nowhere and frankly absurd.

‘Find and refurbish a male Disassembly Drone body for a new host and Disassembly Drone partner.’

What? What did Cyn mean by 'new host'? Did she purposely infect someone else with the Absolute Solver? J thought that Uzi's body was going to be her host, so why did she need another one? To J's understanding, Cyn hated having multiple hosts, that was the entire reason she had to kill Uzi and Doll in the first place. Though, maybe it was just because they were unwilling thost and this new person was much more willing to fork over their body to Cyn.

Though, what was with this new host also being another Disassembly Drone? Cyn never let them use the powers of Absolute Solver to the fullest extent so they couldn’t rebel, so was that going to be the case for this new guy?

J huffed as she stepped off the dead Worker Drone’s body, slowly treading back to the pod. Not like she had much say, she just had to do what Cyn told her to do, "Understood, boss, but where am I supposed to get this new body from?" Seriously, unless she killed V or N (which she did want to do), how was she supposed to get another Disassembly Drone body? Let alone a male one specifically.

‘Cabin Fever Labs, there’s a few dead Disassembly Drones there.’ Appeared on the notepad before promptly disappearing once more.

Right, the labs. Though, J wasn't quite sure what conditions those labs were in after Cyn tried to eat Copper-9. J harshly sighed as she frowned and furrowed her eyes, “Right…Thanks, boss.” She muttered to herself, entering the pod and promptly sliding into her chair.

She had a lot of work to do…

Chapter Text

“JAX!” Pomni shouted out as she pushed through the field of corn, parting a path with her hands as she tried to look for a certain purple rabbit, with little to no luck.

She briefly glanced up at the digital sky, noticing that the sun had begun to set. Caine had likely added that to signal either that the adventure was about to end or for them to hurry up. However, that just added to that gnawing feeling in her stomach that something was up with Jax.

She shuffled through the field, hearing the same sound not too far from her as Ragatha was with her. It had been at least two hours since any of them had seen Jax after he was chasing that pig around madly, so focused on it that he either hadn’t seen them or promptly ignored them, likely the latter knowing him. She’d never seen him so dedicated to an adventure that wasn’t inherently violent, but then again she hadn’t known him for long, so who was she to judge?

She eventually moved herself towards Ragatha, giving one more nervous look to the sun. She swiftly moved through the field until she was next to the taller ragdoll.

She tilted her head up to look at the taller woman, “Ragatha, has this happened before?” Pomni asked out, noticing the wobbly tone in her voice.

Ragatha turned around to face her, making eye contact with Pomni, “Oh, with Jax leaving?” She questioned, with Pomni nodding in response, “Yeah... He just does this sometimes, whether to make an adventure more ‘exciting’ or to prank one of us, though, this is probably the longest it’s taken.” The ragdoll explained to Pomni, still pushing through the cornfield as she lagged behind slightly.

The cornfield the two were in was…odd to say the least. It was far away from the farm and anyone else and was completely isolated from any other asset. If Pomni had to guess, it probably wasn’t meant to be here but was instead loaded in on accident by Caine and just wasn’t removed. Though, why would Jax be here?

Pomni bit the inside of her cheek, “I’m going to go left, how about you go right, Ragatha?” She suggested to her, stopping Ragatha in her tracks as he briefly looked down at her.

Ragatha furrowed her brows briefly as she thought for a moment, “Sure, but when it gets too dark, I think it’ll just be best to get Caine here to find him.” She told Pomni, to which she nodded to, causing the two to split off into separate directions.

With that, Pomni was once again left to her own thoughts. This day was probably just as bad (well, maybe not bad, maybe strange?) as her first day here, mostly because of what had happened with Uzi.

What she said…How much of it had been true? She’d only been stuck here for a week, so what had happened to life outside of the circus since she left? There’s no way that Earth exploded, robots took over (or Worker Drones as Uzi had called herself), found the game, and decided to play it, happened in less than a week. That was f%*king insane!

Pomni grabbed an ear of corn by its stalk as she was pushing past it, snapping it clean off. Not to mention the fact that Uzi just left, she left! Pomni knew now that there was likely no escape, she had learned that after her first day in the hell hole of a circus, but Uzi just upped and left somehow! How!? Was it because she was a robot? Or was it because of some other unknown reason!? WHY COULD NONE OF THEM LEAVE!?

She gave a sharp sigh at her thoughts, she needed to calm down. Pomni knew that these types of thoughts led nowhere except a nasty downward spiral that she frankly didn’t need right now considering she’s had too many in one week.

Maybe she should just take her mind off of things by focusing on the task at hand, which was to figure out where Jax had decided to run off to.

That rabbit better have that pig.

It took half an hour of Pomni just pushing through the cornfield aimlessly, with everything seemingly blending together as the sun slowly began its descent before she found something…

Pomni narrowed her eyes as she stopped and looked in front of her. There was a clearing in the field up ahead.

That was odd. If this field was simply a copy of the cornfield near the barn, then there shouldn’t be a clearing. Everyone had searched near the barn, including Gummigoo, but the rabbit but he wasn’t there. She and Gummigoo had searched through the first cornfield, despite the sheer awkwardness between them for obvious reasons, but there weren’t any clearings in that one. So why was there one here?

Once she reached the clearing though, it felt like her heart had stopped for a moment as her eyes widened, her pupils shrinking, and her mouth hung open slightly.

In front of her were three bodies, lying in a pool of a black liquid. There was the pig, lying on its side with a giant puncture wound through its stomach bleeding out the black liquid, albeit slowly. Then across from the pig was what was likely the wolf Gummigoo had talked about, which funnily enough was made of black licorice, but also bleeding out the strange fluid even slower than the pig.

In the center of the two though…

“JAX!?” Pomni couldn’t help but cry out.

She rushed over to the rabbit who was lying on his stomach, a large puncture wound in his stomach too. She slid down on her knees, resisting shuddering on what she now realized was some rather cold oil, and picked up Jax as best as she could, his entire body limp in her hands. She tried her best to flip him on his stomach, but it turned out that trying to flip a limp body that easily twice her size was rather difficult, even in this digital hell hole.

Pomni eventually got him on his side, with what she saw almost causing her to vomit. His wound was easily the biggest as oil poured out of it, his eyes closed shut. His overalls were soaked in the oil along with his gloves and even parts of his skin, with them all stained black.

She began to shake his body, “Jax! Get up!” Pomni pleaded as she continued to shake him. What’s happening!? From her understanding, wounds like these should either immediately close up or shouldn’t bleed as this world was running on cartoon physics or whatever.

Yet here they were, Jax seemingly dead in from of her despite all of this. Were they even meant to bleed oil? The last time Pomni checked, they didn’t even bleed.

When it was clear shaking him wasn’t going to wake Jax up (because he wasn’t dead, he would’ve respawned!), she quickly retracted her hands before covering her mouth briefly, her eyes still wide. Her gloves were now somehow stained in the oil as long as everything below her knees.

Pomni hadn’t noticed she began to tremble as she frantically looked around, everything feeling a bit too real for the circus. She needed to get Ragatha over here.

Pomni removed her hands from her mouth as she began to shout, “RAGATHA!”, unsure of what to do.

Maybe she knew? She’d been here longer than Pomni, so maybe something like this had happened before? Maybe this was some sort of glitch that Caine really needed to patch because honestly, as Pomni looked at the dead NPC around her and Jax’s limp body, if this was part of the adventure, she might just snap at Caine.

“COMING!” Pomni heard from the distance, knowing it was Ragatha’s voice.

Pomni gave a sigh of relief, oh please know what’s going on Ragatha!

So, she held onto Jax’s body, keeping him upright. His body felt lifeless like he really was dead. But as she waited for a moment, she felt something…thumping under Jax’s skin?

It kinda felt like a fast heartbeat, which didn’t make any sense because they didn’t really have hearts unless it was for cartoony purposes like their heart stretching out or when they were nervous how it felt like their heart was beating quickly but nothing was actually there.

Rustling could be heard to the left of where Pomni was in the cornfield, with red, thread-like hair just barely being seen from the top of the corn until Pomni saw Ragatha’s hand pop out.

The ragdoll stepped forward, looking to the side for a moment, “Hey, Pomni! Found Ja-” Ragatha immediately stopped talking for a moment when her eyes laid on the scene before her, Pomni still on her knees, surrounded by oil and three ‘dead’ bodies, clasping her hands over her mouth, “OH MY GOSH!” She couldn’t help but gasp.

She immediately ran over to Pomni’s side, running through the oil that slowly rippled, surprisingly realistic coming from one of Caine’s adventures. She leaned over as she observed Jax’s body, reaching out to grab him under his arms to hopefully pick up his body.

“Urk!” She groaned as she began to pick up the limp body, with Pomni picking herself up from the ground unsure of what to do. Eventually, Ragatha successfully picked up the limp amphomorphic rabbit but was struggling to carry him out of the opening in the cornfield.

Pomni rushed over to one of Jax’s sides and tried to steady him by pushing him up, but eventually stopped once Ragatha dropped his body on his back, only moving him out of the pool of oil.

Ragatha bent over and panted for breath, “Geez, who knew it would be so hard to move him!” She commented between breaths, “He’s built like a twig!”

Pomni couldn’t help but snort at the comment despite their situation, “You’re not wrong…” She muttered to herself, keeping her eyes on the unconscious rabbit before her. What the hell had caused that?

Though, this did bring up the issue of how they were going to bring Jax’s body back to the barn as he apparently was heavier than he looked. Then again, it didn’t particularly help that he was seemingly unconscious for the time being with no signs of waking up, so it’s not like they could wake him up. Maybe…

“Do you think if you picked him up by his shoulders and I pick him up by his legs that’ll work?” The jester suggested to her friend. It may make it easier, though she wasn’t exactly sure.

Ragatha thought for a moment, “Hmmm, I’m not sure, but it’s worth a shot!” She exclaimed, with each of them moving to their respective spots across from each other.

“Ready…” Pomni began, holding onto Jax’s ankles, to which Ragatha responded by giving her a thumbs up before moving her hands under the rabbit’s arms before grabbing his soldiers, “Alright, three…two…one!”

The two then holstered up Jax the best they could, with it being much easier having the weight distributed between the two of them.

“Hey, that worked!” The ragdoll spoke out, a wide smile on her face as she began to back up, “Now, let's hurry, we’ve gotta let the others know what happened!”

-

Gummigoo looked up at the sky, it was nearly night now. He titled his hat up as he turned over to where three of the six pig catchers were, with it being Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger, “Say, aren’t your other friends supposed to be back by now?” He asked them, “At least the jester and the ragdoll, they said they’d come back by night.”

Zooble just shrugged at him, “They said so, doesn’t mean they will. Might’ve gotten caught up with Jax knowing him.” They told him, their tone flat and almost sounding bored. They had been waiting around for a bit.

Gummigoo couldn’t help but give a low chuckle, “Huh, funny that he’s a rabbit, isn’t it?” He spoke to himself as he gave a small smirk.

Gangle tilted her head as Zooble gave him a sideways look, “What do you mean?” Gangle asked him, holding her ribbon hands under her mask, her eyes having been dropped slightly for a while now.

“Well, y’know, how rabbits are mischievous and all and how he acts.” The gummy gator explained to them, “It’s almost like some sort of higher being selected it or something!”

The two who were paying attention (Kinger was busy looking at an active ant pile) eyes widened as they glanced at each other, unsure of what to do. Wasn’t this the same NPC that used to be aware of the fact he was an NPC? Did he still know?

“Haha!” Gangle nervously laughed, suddenly standing up straighter, “Yeah…How funny!” Gangle will admit though, she’d never really made the connection between Jax being a rabbit and his personality. She wondered if everyone else was like that.

An awkward silence followed, with Zooble and Gangle praying for the three missing members to come back faster. They only had so much time before Caine would pop in and have to call them back. Plus, Zooble just really wanted to go back to the circus and not deal with a potentially existential gummy alligator. Little things they supposed.

“Oh!” Kinger gasped as he diverted his attention from the ant pile to where three figures were in the distance, far past the nearest field of crops and in between the space between two different crops. Kinger turned his head and pointed his disembodied hand towards them, “Seems like Ragatha and Pomni are back and are…” He trailed off, leaning forward and hovering his hand over his eyes to see better, “Carrying an unconscious Jax?”

The three other beings looked over to where Kinger had pointed, Gummigoo’s mouth going agape, Zooble’s eyes widening but keeping the same stance, and Gangle covering her mouth as an open frown similar to a classic tragedy mask formed.

“Crikey!” Gummigoo shouted out, “We gotta go help them!” He told them before sprinting off over to where the other three circus members were.

Kinger, Gangle, And Zooble all looked at each other, uncertainty filling the air. This type of thing has sorta happened before, with members of the circus falling unconscious during adventures. However, it was never for long, let alone this long.

“We…We should probably go and help them.” Gangle spoke, though mainly to herself as she lowered her ribbons from her mouth and down under her mask.

Zooble nodded, “Yeah, this definitely isn’t normal.” They answered as Zooble began to jog over there in an uneven manner due to their different-sized legs, with their left one being a shorter, orange duck leg with webbed feet and the other being a yellow leg with a triangle as a foot.

Gangle followed suit and eventually, Kinger too, though he was noticeably lagging behind due to the fact he responded slower.

As they all got closer, Zooble couldn’t help but notice a few things. First off, Ragatha and Pomni were carrying Jax like how two people would move a large box or a long slab of wood, but were clearly struggling with it. Either Jax was rather heavy or they’ve been doing that for a bit. The second thing was that Jax was definitely unconscious since his arms were dangling loosely, with no resistance coming from the rabbit. Not to mention for some reason, they all had some sort of black liquid on them.

They soon halted in their tracks once Zooble finally made it over, with Gummigoo having arrived just before them.

“Oh, you guys!” Ragatha called out, a strained smile on her face as she took another shaky step forward, her hands trembling.

Meanwhile, Pomni appeared to be buckling under the weight of the large rabbit, trying her best to push him up as her knees wobbled, “I don’t think I can do this much longer!” The jester pleaded as she gave one last push-up before promptly dropping Jax’s feet, taking a step back, and beginning to take sharp breaths.

“What the…?”

What the hell was this adventure? Jax’s body was beyond messed up, especially considering that most damage to their digital bodies immediately healed unless it was comedic. However, there was a giant hole where his stomach was that was leaking…some strange black fluid? Not to mention that it was seemingly on Pomni’s gloves and below her knees and the bottom of Ragatha’s dress also had this strange fluid on her dress.

Jax, however, was practically covered in it. As his body lay in the dirt, it was clear to see that pretty much every part of his body was covered in the strange liquid. His gloves, back, front, from head to toe parts of him were covered in it. Plus, was his body bleeding the fluid through the gaping hole in his stomach?

Gangle was right beside Zooble, leaning over as she inspected Jax’s body with an open frown and horrified eyes. She briefly looked up at Ragatha before crying, “What happened!?” As she turned to face Ragatha

Ragatha gave a nervous chuckle as she looked down at the rabbit “Ehehe…You see, we aren’t quite sure.” The doll told Gangle as she scratched the back of her neck, “Pomni just kind of found him like this and we were bringing him back just now.”

The gummy gator took a step forward to Ragatha, his eyes hollow in fear as he looked up at her, “What about Hogwart? Was he there too?” He asked.

Pomni took one sharp breath before answering, straightening her posture with a ‘pop’ coming from her back, “The pig was like this too.” She told Gummigoo, gesturing with her hand to Jax’s body, “Also the wolf? I’m not sure…” The jester stated before putting her arm back to her side, and rubbing it with her opposite hand.

“What?” Gummigoo couldn’t help but gasp, pulling his head back before blinking twice, “Whadday’ mean you found Hogwart and the wolf dead? How’d you find all three? None of us could find anything!”

Ragatha looked away as Pomni sharply inhaled, “Yeaaah, I don’t know why, but they were all in the same place.” Pomni explained, her mouth pulling into a grimace as she looked at the rabbit soaked in a strange black fluid, “It’s very creepy.”

As they conversated about what had happened and exchanged information, Kinger had begun to shuffle over to Jax’s body. He crouched by it and tilted his head.

The sun had set, allowing the stars above to be clearly seen, but more importantly, for it to nearly be pitch black in the poorly lit area.

Kinger had never seen anything like this despite all his years in the circus. He floated one of his hands over to Jax’s stomach and poked the inside of the wound. Once he did so he immediately pulled back his hand, letting it hover over Jax’s body still, eyes widening at what he felt.

The material under Jax’s skin was unmistakably fleshy, like realistically fleshy. Which was really strange considering to Kinger’s usually poor memory, no one had any sort of flesh texture in the Circus anywhere! Not to mention how it felt this time.

When Caine made things fleshy, they were never realistic. They also felt more rubbery or if it was a particularly gory adventure, like hardened slime. However, this time around, it felt like neither. It felt almost like raw meat, but more mushy.

He pulled back his disembodied hand and stared at it, noticing the black liquid on his pointer and middle finger. He brought it closer to his face before smelling it, furrowing his eyes at what he smelt.

It smelt like oil or gasoline, kind of like the ones in cars. Though, why was that in Jax’s body? Not to mention mixed with the fleshy material of his insides.

During Kinger’s observations though, he didn’t notice the sideways look Zooble was giving him.

“What are you doing?” They asked him, a brow raised in confusion as they stood beside him, looming over the body on the ground.

Kinger didn’t meet their eyes, preoccupied with what he was doing, “Nothing like this has happened before.” He briefly muttered to himself, flicking a drop of the oil off of his glove, “I’m pretty sure he’s bleeding something similar to oil or gas.”

Zooble narrowed their eyes at Kinger, “What?” They questioned bewilderedly, “What do you mean?”

Kinger was about to explain before a sizzling sound caught his attention, the source of it benign from Jax’s body. He immediately stood up and began to walk backwards, with Zooble doing the same. He nervously held his hands out in front of him as he did so, hunched over as he usually was.

The wound in Jax’s stomach began to rapidly seal itself with an odd, metallic-like liquid, fusing the split flesh back together, appearing as if it had never been open in the first place. The rabbit's chest soon began to rapidly rise up and down, signaling he was breathing, and heavily too.

Zooble and Kinger stopped in their tracks, both looking at each other unsure of what to do. Zooble took a cautious step forward before speaking.

“Jax?” They spoke out hesitantly

The conversations around them stopped, everyone diverting their attention to the rabbit once more. None of them knew what was going on, only that the seemingly dead body was now coming back to life.

They couldn’t die though in the Circus, so why did Jax look dead?

Before anyone could say anything else, Jax’s eyes shot open and he shot up from the ground, sitting up straight.

“LEAVE ME ALONE YOU PIECE OF SH- huh?” He shouted out, his vision staggering back into focus. His head fell slightly to his left side, with Jax soon holding it up with his left hand.

He looked around at the crowd of people, but his vision soon began to spin, causing him to tighten his grip on his face. Why…why were people surrounding him?

Someone was in front of him, two people he thinks, one multicolored and the other mainly a royal purple. Hmmm, despite the sudden pain in his head, he was pretty sure that was Zooble and Kinger.

He couldn’t tell who was around him in his peripheral vision though, everything was spinning too much, his head throbbed with pain, and his stomach felt weird and empty, almost like he was actually hungry. He shut his eyes tightly as he let go of his head, causing it to completely tilt left despite the fact that he wanted it to stay up, but for some reason wasn’t.

“What the hell?” The rabbit heard someone blurt out, not in a yell, but louder than normal for whoever it was. Despite it, the sound felt like someone was screaming in his ears and sending waves of pain through his head. Ugh, what was going on!?

He just needed to identify the voice though… slightly feminine, flat, depressing, and irritated… Yes, Zooble! That was Zooble!

Jax somewhat opened his eyes, the world spinning a bit less, but he still felt rather disoriented. The cloaked purple figure moved closer (Yep, that was definitely Kinger) and a white glove floated down to him, offering help.

If Jax could’ve made out Kinger’s face probably, he would have seen an uncharacteristically calm, but concerned look on the chess piece’s face, “Are you okay?” A voice asked, which considering Jax’s situation, he knew it was him despite the fact that it didn’t really click in his brain that it was Kinger automatically. If he hadn’t opened his eyes yet, he wouldn’t have a clue who it was.

God, his brain felt like sludge. Like something was missing or he was suffering a concussion or something

He tried to roll his eyes, but instead, Jax’s head flung back instantly as if he were giving an overdramatic groan. He’s done that many times before in situations like this, but this time it sent waves of nausea as his vision blurred a bit. It was also not what he had told his body to do too.

Jax took Kinger’s hand, closing his eyes as he was pulled up, trying to form words, “‘m fine…” He mustered weakly, his words conveying the exact opposite of what he had said. Not to mention that him speaking over a whisper sent a throb of pain to his head. Man, he was a mess.

The mere action of being pulled up sent Jax’s world spinning, much worse than last time despite not even opening his eyes yet. Once he was pulled up on his feet though and let go of Kinger’s hand, he quickly began to stumble as he lost balance. He felt bile climb up his throat as he grumbled quietly, unsure of what was even happening. It almost felt like he had the flu or something.

He heard the running of two feet behind him as he felt someone behind him balance him with their arms, having a weird, gummish texture.

“Crikey!” Another voice that Jax honestly couldn’t piece together spoke out, “What in the world happened to you!?” It questioned in a rather thick Australian accent as he tried to find his footing, his spinning vision not helping in the slightest.

He felt the person position themself to where they were besides Jax’s side with an arm around his back so he could lean on them, “God if I know…” He slurred, once again propping his head up with one of his hands. Honestly, Jax would rather not have to rely on this mystery person to balance, but he more so rather not land face first wherever he was!

Speaking of which, he probably should open his eyes again despite his vision still spinning. Doing so, he managed to make out that it was definitely night due to the lack of light and the lack of neon colors told him he wasn’t in the circus, which meant he was either in the Grounds or some sort of adventure. He managed to discern the faces of the crowd that had surrounded him when he woke up from…something he couldn’t recall! Wonderful! But either way, he quickly realized that Zooble and Kinger were right in front of him, Pomni and Ragatha a few feet left of him, and Gangle to the right of him

He looked to his side to see a gummy alligator helping him balance who looked sorta familiar. He was from a past adventure, wasn’t he? That Candy Land adventure from three days ago and he was pretty sure he was there for the Spudsy’s adventure too, right? Why was he here?

Everyone dorn their own face of confusion at Jax’s response, with a confused, yet somewhat anxious voice speaking up, “Wait, hold on, you don’t know what happened!?” The jester blurted, her hands flapped out slightly as she pointed at Jax.

JEEZ! Why did everyone speaking make his headache so much worse!? He felt his brain try to connect the dots of who spoke and he was pretty sure it was…Pomni? “Poms, everythin’s spinin’ and the last thing I remember is some robo-girl named Uzi appearin’ and then leavin’...” He confessed, sounding drowsy with how his words mixed together and the much more quiet tone of his voice. Did he forget something?

“WHAT?!” Pomni shouted out, placing her hands on the top of her head, her pupils immediately shrinking, “You can’t remember the past, like, four hours!?”

Ah, he did forget something, about four hours of things apparently.

Well damm. That’s probably bad. If he didn’t feel like he was about to vomit anytime someone spoke and that his head wasn’t being repeatedly slammed into a wall, he’d be way more concerned!

“Hold on, let’s rewind a bit, who the f#$k were you yelling at like five minutes ago?” Zooble questioned him, putting a blue lobster claw on their hip as they pointed a thin, orange arm with a yellow glove inches away from his chest, though Jax barely processed this.

Jax did his best to give a flat glare at them, but he really wasn’t sure how that turned out. He just answered that, he couldn’t remember, though something was definitely going on in his brain when he was asleep. Though, it was more likely he passed out from something…

Ş̷̦͙͕̬̟͖̰͈̒̿̅̍̈͘ḣ̸̞͚͎͕̘̰̻͈̻e̴̡̧̞͚̮̺̭͖̭̾́̍̒̆͊̓͌́̕ ̷̡̣̯̬̫̋͆̑̿̃͐͊͒̄͘d̸̢͔̮̥̰̻̭̳͗̆̍̓̊̆i̶̧͔̺̪̿̽͘͜d̵̲̖͚̩̎̐͂̀̄́̀ ̸͍͙̰̟͎͇̰̞͊̂i̴̘̥̪̱̊̀͊̌̉̓̔́͘t̵̘͑̈̊͋̈́͆͛͗̌͝.̶̤̪̼̱̖͓̊̐͐̋̈́͘͠ ̶̙̘̝̺̗̔́͒͆͌̚̕͠S̸̬͐̀̀̋̅͝͝ẖ̶̬̟̤͓̈́͋̏ė̷̛̞͎͙̠̭̩̩̗̌̍̈̍̾ ̵̛̦̝̩̄̽̀̈̽͂̍͝w̸̨͙͙̗̒͘a̸̡̡͔͇̺̋́̎̐͗̒̀͝ͅs̸͙͛͒̓̋̂ ̴̢̢̭̗͎̹̗͆̅̕ͅţ̸̠̫̻̯̦̖͍̮̬̾̾̂̆́̆̏r̴͍̳͓̦͐́̒̊̔́̆̋̽y̶̡̺̯̣̜̻̒͋̽i̶̧̲͍̽̒̾̐̇̚͠ṇ̴̨̧͎̘̬̅̾̊͌̑g̵̢̖̙̟̟̣̟̼̑́́̊͠ ̷̛͈̞̠̊͗̆t̴̢̞͓̻̀̈́͑͗õ̶̧̰̠̙̯̟̖͕̰̜͂͒ ̸̩̈́̐̎̓d̸̗̍́̑̅̇̇̀̆o̵̧̢̘͚̫̼̣͍͉͂̀̈́̄̎̑̉̂ ̴̧͔̹͍̮͓͙͔̏͆͐͊̐̿̽͝s̷̙̼͙̯̾̔͛̔͒͠o̶̰̓m̴͇̻̘̼͚͍͎͗̀̽̔e̵̹͇͒̆ţ̶̧̛̮͕̺͂̋͑͂̃̐͐͋ḥ̷̞̱͛ȋ̴͎̠̈́̅̈́͘n̸̨̧̨̛̦̹̪̭̬͖̲̆̃̓͌͑̍̀̇̍g̸̛͔̟͉̎̽͋̂̑͗̈̅͜͠ͅ ̷̲͇̠̪̞̘̻͍͊ͅṱ̵͉̾́͐̑͌̈́͌o̴̧̗̞̤͕̤̣̥̲̾ ̷̨̨̮̩̙͖̦̮͈̑͒̃͑̆̇̌͑̓͜͝h̸̙̯͍̆̄̓̄i̴̳̞̬̤̽̅̿̀̋͊m̸̨͇̝͓̯̠͇̻̦͕̉̀̔̎̑,̶̧͕̦͚̫̼̹͔̗̦̐̎ ̴̧̬͍͉̹͍̬̗̦̥͑͛̈́b̷̧̗͎̮̰̳͈̪̟̎͜u̸̡̗̙̪͇̻͓̥̐͋̽̈̈̑̔̕͜ṫ̴̨̬̤̬͕̥̘̊̄̀͌̈͝ ̸̛̯̫̣̜̣̗̲̘̜͉͆ş̵̨̞̤̤͚͉̘̣͂̊͂́̓͌̽h̶̨̦̰̦͒̾̒̈̂̍̈́̒̄̕ĕ̶̡͖͈̝͔̭͎̀̋͛͛̾̆ ̸̛̥̦͂͆͋̋̆
̷͎̻̬̯̬͕͍̫͇͂̔̅̇̈ͅ
̶̪̼̲̦̦̳̣͉̘̑͌̾͗̌̋̈́͆̚̕s̶̢̼̥̰̲̙̯͜͝ţ̷̱̯̄̅͑̔̅͒͛̏r̴͉͍͙͛̈̂͑͜u̴̦̭͍͑̆ģ̸̨̥͍͕̩̈́̔̽̃̏͜g̶̱̞̗͚̱͒͗l̶̢̦̰͈̺̾̑̊́̆̇e̸̘̙̼͇͔͋̒́͒̋ͅd̵̰̪̟͛̅́͌͂̐̚͘ ̸̢͇̪͙͍̺̺̖̈́̌̃͑̇͐̑̄͝ͅf̸̛̛̝̍͌̎͋̅͒͆̀ó̵͍̏͆̈́̓͝r̶̩̩̒̉̊̕ ̴̞͓̯̞͇̈́͒̾̓̆͆̃̏͜͠ṣ̷̻̳͇̜̎͆̐ǫ̴̨̧̟̭͈̗̏̇̆͛̑̇̕ḿ̷͔̠̖͔͕͛̑̑̃͑̓̓͒͝e̷̛̜̔̐͑͆͒͐͊͌ ̶̢̦͙̅̉͛̒̀̀̒͋̕͝r̸̖̖̻̪͕̬̩̂͜e̴͍̓͒̓̅̊͝ǎ̴̺͓̲̼͒̊̈́̄̂͒̔̚͝ͅs̵͙͌̈̽͋̉o̵̻̘̤̠̓̄́̿̆̆̃n̶̝̣͖̗̞͎̈́̈͜.̶̛̛̞̺͎͂̓̕ ̶̜̙̼̣̗̹͗́̓Ḣ̴̲͈̗̱̘̰͚ȩ̸̳͉̲̞̬̭̤͕̻͒̅́̇̑̆̚͘ ̷͙̗̫̜̖̜͍́͆d̵̹̲͍̈́̈́̒̑̽̑ị̷̥̠̄̒̒̿̈d̷̡̨̨̪͔̹̱͋̾n̸̳̙̼͚̫͖̾̀̔̊̆̽̑̅͑͊'̵̖̱͕̏̆̀̓̓̿͘ţ̸̳̣̯̜̠̙̬͑̈̀̄̌̚͠ͅ ̷̛͔͓̳̿̋͒̆ẉ̷̨̲̺͖̞̘̺̪͍̏͋̓̈̊̏͐̄̚̕ā̸̙̥̏n̶͚̤̔̈́̂̍t̶̗̦̥̝͚̜̪́͑ ̵̱̊̋͐̈́̂͛͐͝͝ẗ̸̠̫̝̘̥̜̬́̕͘͜ó̸̻͖̺̭̖͎͐̓͊̑̄͘ ̵̦̩͖̳̫͙̤͓̪̽͗̔̍̑́̋́̚͝k̶̝̩̠̼̮͖͆̈̈́̊n̶̡͉͍͎͆̒̑̽ö̵̜̻͕̠͍͇́̓̾͐͆̕͝w̸̧̞̺̪͚͖͓̘͌̓͝ ̷͈͈̬̬̤̐̈̐͂͐̓̐͆͜w̷̛͉̳̥̦̹̻͎̩̮̼͛̔̏̉͝͝h̴̘͙͕̠̫̗̣̙̣͑͒͐̈́̎͘͠â̸̝͓̝̻̰͕͕̭̩̜̈́̿͝t̸͍̝͉̗̤̐̋͐̍̉̃̃̐͝ ̷̡̫̜̹͐ͅş̶̧̰̱̙̱̘̮͒̃͊͊̕ͅh̷̳̺̥̼̯̼̥͎̱̓̈̄̇̎͛͂̚͜e̷̡͈̯̜͉͙͔̮͚̒̾̒̔̀͋̋͜͝ ̴̜̤̪͈̙͊͛͋͜w̴̨̠̲͚̱̳͔̿̅a̶̻̭͉̟͗̇̒͋͑̕s̸̢̤͙̖̞̠͖̻̍͗̉̉̉̃̓͆͒͠ ̵̧̠̙͈̯̺̘͂̽̊͋͜͝
̷̤̎̄̀̿̂͂̓̽̇̍
̴̨̤̬̤̈͒̆͆̎̚̕t̶̡̡̮̫̭̠͈̦́̊̈́͒͝͝r̶̞̓̆̎͊͗̅̓̕y̶̢͂̍́̏̌͛̄i̷̲͕̾̈͗̒̓̎ņ̶̟͍̮̟̈̀̀̂͆͝g̶̨͕̹̩̿̓͗͌̑̈̏ ̸̪̯̺͎̤͛̓̌̽ẗ̶̢̠̩̩̮̳͉͇͕́̋̒̎̽̉̌̈͠ő̸̡̮͍͇̜̪̅͑͘͝ ̶̦̫͓̦̝̽͜͜͝ͅd̴̪͊̑͗̇̽̋ȫ̴͖͍͓̝͈̮̒̽͊͋.̷̞̠͖͎̥͔͎͎͊̑͑̒́̈̌̉͝

…What? Jax clutched his head as a large amount of pain struck his head. He could barely hear his own thoughts for a moment, why was that?

Jax didn’t catch Zooble rolling their eyes, “Right, you just got memory lost apparently.” They sighed in an exasperated tone, placing their more normal hand on the higher side of their head, “How the hell did you even do that? Hit your head or something, dumb@#$?”

Kinger double blinked, tilting their head slightly, “Why would Caine add memory loss to this adventure? He’s never done that before and it doesn’t seem like something to add to essentially a game of tag.” He wondered to himself, putting one of their hands to his own face.

Ugh, he didn’t care about this theory crafting right now! He felt like he could collapse at any moment, maybe throw up at a notice, or like he was about to fall. He just wanted to go back to the circus!

As if on cue, there was a pop sound before a booming voice was heard, “HELLO MY PIG WRANGLING COWPEOPLE! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS TAKING YOU SO LONG?” Caine yelled out at an obscene volume

Right, that was the final straw. It felt like something had struck Jax’s head as he threw up at Caine’s booming voice, with a large amount of a familiar liquid spewing out of Jax’s now open mouth, causing the gummy gator to take a side step, still trying to help Jax balance.

Oil.

Why did he feel like he’d seen that before today?

Caine flew down in front of Jax, “Wow! I’ve heard of people throwing up from something filthy, but never someone puking from too much fun!” The ringmaster proudly proclaimed to him, the equivalent of a dopey grin on his face.

Jax would’ve snapped about how he was being too loud, but everything just hurt too much. What was happening? Why couldn’t he remember what was happening or what had happened during what had to now be guessed was an adventure?

“𝙀𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙡, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙪𝙥 𝙮𝙚𝙩. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙙.”

Jax’s ears perked up as a voice he couldn’t recognize was speaking clearly in his head. He began to rummage around his brain for who the voice belonged to. Too flat and deep to be Ragatha, he’s already heard Zooble and Pomni, a hundred percent not Gangle or Bubble. So whose was it? Also, why did it say he was uncooked!?

Jax clutched his stomach, feeling himself tremble at the mysterious person's voice, "Who...are you?" He barely breathed out, Jax's words nearly inaudible.

“𝙊𝙝, 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙓, 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙄 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙮𝙚𝙩?” The voice dragged on. He could just imagine the sinister grin on whoever was talking to him. Also ‘best friend X’? What the hell did that mean? WHO IS X!?

Jax knew he already had a frown on his face, but it deepened. Was he the only one who was hearing this voice? He tried his best to speak before he felt his body seize up.

It felt like he was getting pricked by something in his brain, almost like a switch had been flipped. Everyone grew more distant as the corners of his vision darkened and lost focus. It felt like his brain was being shut down.

“...Jax?” He barely heard from…who? He tried forcing himself to focus…but it didn’t work. If he had to guess, Caine, as he was the last one who was talking to him, and he may have continued as whatever voice had entered his brain. Whoever was verbally speaking to him, they were very concerned, that was for sure.

Soon, his vision was basically entirely black as he heard one last message from the voice before he passed out.

“𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙓, 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙩. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧. 𝙇𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙩𝙤𝙤 :)"

And with that, Jax was out cold once more, leaving the digital world behind him.

-

“...Jax?” Caine asked him as he stuck an arm out, putting it on one of Jax’s shoulders. He was acting kinda loopy and didn’t even respond when Caine had called him a mess not even five seconds ago. His pupils grew cartoonishly small as his eyes were half-lidded.

Strange, Jax didn’t do that!

Caine brought his other hand in front of Jax’s face and nearly began snapping it at him before Jax’s eyes shut and he began to fall forward.

Luckily, Caine lowered himself and grabbed Jax, picking him up as he once again flew slightly higher, carrying Jax under his arms. The lilac rabbit had fallen unconscious, huh, strange.

“Again!?” An Australian voice cried from below, to which Caine looked down and saw Gummigoo.

Right, they were still on an adventure. Truth be told, he’d only hopped in to make sure everyone was doing okay. This adventure was only meant to last, like, one to two hours, maybe three if everyone goofed off, as it was made more hastily so he could get everyone out of the Circus so he could check on what program had entered the Circus and stayed.

Pomni ran up towards where Caine was floating, “Caine, what in the world did you add to this adventure!?” The short jester exclaimed almost angrily, her brows angrily furrowed with a large frown on her face, “Did you add some sort of eldritch horror that just guts everything!?”

Huh? Why would he do that? “Not at all! This is a completely horrorless adventure where all you needed to do was to just catch pigs while avoiding a wolf!” Pomni specified that she didn’t want another horror-themed adventure for a while, so he wouldn’t be making one for at least the next two weeks. Despite his desperate attempts to make something more mature for Zooble to go on, he still also needed to make sure Pomni was enjoying his adventures too!

The gummy gator just stared up at him, his white eyes hollow as his mouth was agape, “Wait…What are you guys talking about?” Gummigoo asked meekly, turning his head back a forth to look at both Caine and Pomni.

Pomni slapped her hands over her mouth as she gave a wide look to Gummigoo. Whoops! Better make sure this NPC didn’t get existential!

So, Caine moved his right arm up to carry Jax’s hand as he still floated before snapping his fingers, with a command already sent through to delete Gummigoo, though with his usual confetti effect.

Once the confetti had fallen to the ground, Pomni turned her face to give a horrified look over to Caine before taking a deep breath and straightening her posture, clenching her fist to her sides, “Okay…didn’t expect to see that again…” She whispered to herself, giving a fake smile.

“Caine!” Ragatha cried, “Why’d you do that again!? You know Pomni doesn’t like that!” She scolded him taking a step forward and sticking her hands to her sides.

Caine recoiled his head back a bit, “Well, I’m sorry, truly am, Pomni!” The AI confessed to the human, “But unfortunately, if he continued on that path, Gummigoo’s AI would’ve freaked out and we don’t want that, do we?” He explained, winking at her with his green eye, keeping his tone light and cheery.

Pomni lightly shook her head but kept her mouth shut from saying what had happened during her first out-of-circus adventure, “It’s…fine. Just what did you do that killed the wolf and the pig and did…” She trailed off, pointing at the unconscious Jax he was holding, “That to Jax.”

Caine tensed up as his pupils shrunk, “Nothing should’ve done that.” He stated matter of factly. No, nothing could’ve caused that, the only hostile thing here was the licorice wolf! That shouldn’t have knocked out Jax apparently twice! Plus, it shouldn’t be able to kill itself. The only thing that could ‘die’ from the wolf were the pigs

He needed to investigate and fix Jax, something was deeply wrong and Caine had a sneaking suspicion of what it was.

“I…” He began before he abruptly snapped a portal on the ground behind him, “I think it’d be much better if you all went back to the Circus, I’ll have Bubble whip y’all up a nice, lovely, wonderful dinner while I go find out what happened and get Jax up!”

Before he teleported off, he saw Zooble give him a mean glare, “Wait hold o-”

But he teleported off anyway because, ohhhh boy, Caine was in some deep trouble from what he knew.

While he sent everyone on a simple adventure, he had deloaded the Circus and had been floating in what could best be described as a black void where he did most of the maintenance work of the Circus that required him to open other tabs like Task Manager and such, which was where he and now Jax were too! Or, well kind of…

It was a separate one that he had made for when the Circus was loaded in and he needed to do some quick work, though usually the problem wasn’t one of his human performers fainting and almost glitching out.

What Caine had been doing in the void was observing what he thought was just a program, but was clearly more now, the Absolute Solver.

At first, he simply thought part of Uzi hadn’t left yet, as it seemed like her entire program hadn’t entered the Circus when she entered, with it slowly migrating into the game. However, this ‘Solver’ program had completely put itself into the game’s code, hinting to him that it must’ve been some sort of high priority or smaller program, though it was ridiculously large for it to be one of Uzi’s ‘smaller’ files and programs. Either way, he’d assume that if Uzi didn’t technically fully join immediately, then she didn’t fully leave immediately either.

However, he was quickly proved wrong as when he sent everyone out on the adventure and deloaded the Circus to help ease up his servers as he studied this program, he got an alert letting him know another cornfield asset had been put up. That honestly should’ve warranted him to go check on the adventure, but he didn’t, assuming that maybe he’d gotten a notification for a delayed input or something, despite that never having happened before.

The notifications didn’t stop though, something kept adding and removing things, like textures, items, NPC’s, and such. He eventually had to pull up another tab for him to use so he could look at these notifications properly, which in turn didn’t really help explain anything. All he got were a bunch of words that he didn’t understand (seriously, how did adding mud in the middle of the cornfield warrant a tag called ‘𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘺 𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘺 :]?’,) and the one adding it was the Absolute Solver.

So with that, he came to the conclusion that the Absolute Solver was more than just a program, or wasn’t just one program to more accurately put it, but another AI of sorts, like him. He thought for a moment if it was a virus that maybe affected Uzi and had been transferred to the Circus, but no, that didn’t make sense. From Caine’s very limited understanding of computer viruses, they didn’t randomly add assets and remove them, adding notes about them, and not to mention the fact that it all blended in with the farm setting he had made. No, a virus would be more random and destructive!

And for a moment, Caine was overjoyed! Another AI! And an admin one like him! Only he could fully make adventures, he was the only one who could keep this whole place up and running, he was the only one to keep everyone entertained and sane!

However, after his therapy session with Zooble, something had cracked in him.

𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.

That was what he was told by Zooble and that was likely why people had been abstracting. He wasn’t making them happy, so they either got depressed which led them to go insane or they would begin to obsess over a non-existent ‘exit’ because they were likely bored out of their minds! These people were abstracting because he was TERRIBLE at the one thing he was meant to be good at!

He was built to be a good entertainer, to make wonderful stories and mini-games for players that could entertain them for hours, but he failed at the one thing he was meant to be good at. The one thing he was made to do.

Caine violently shook his head, but he wouldn’t fail anymore because now he had this Absolute Solver AI friend to help him ‘solve’ this problem!

Or so he thought…

He quickly scrapped that, though, the second he saw that the AI had changed the main pig's model to spill out oil when its skin was opened. Caine had briefly thought that maybe he needed to train the AI to be better at creating. After all, Caine had needed training data too when he was first created!

And then it did the same thing to the black licorice wolf one minute later.

And then to an unspecified player two minutes later. The player’s name was literally censored out.

He then realized this thing was plotting a different adventure and was altering someone to essentially bleed out oil when stabbed. Not to mention how he reacted when all of a sudden, there was a skeleton model that he wasn’t allowed to access or even look at if it wasn’t loaded in.

That shouldn't have been possible; he was THE admin of the Circus, and no other AI was equal to or higher than him, and not many humans were either!

Yet when he checked what administrative level the Absolute Solver had, it was equal to him. Meaning he couldn’t delete it or rid of it.

Call Caine paranoid, but he knew something was wrong.

And as he was looking at Jax, his face, chest, sides, legs, arms, hands, basically his entire body was covered in oil, likely meaning he was the player the Solver had given blood oil to. That also meant one thing, too: that the reason why Jax was unconscious was because he had been too negligent to hop in and just fix whatever the Solver had done.

If he had to guess, Jax had likely passed out from overstimulation due to feeling the oil and possibly a skeleton inside of him for the first time in…about four years! Well for the skeleton part, he hoped Jax didn’t have oil in him when he was human, Caine would assume that wasn’t good for a human.

So, with all of that, Caine flexed his hands forward and cracked his knuckles for no reason other than performing for an invisible audience, ready to fix whatever the Solver had done to Jax. Should only take, like, ten minutes max

First, Caine pulled up Task Manager and put it to the side of himself before running a command to remove the oil on Jax, which soon vanished and left the rabbit in pristine shape. Now, all he had to do was to alter Jax’s mind a bit like he did with the stupid sauce and-

Caine’s lower jaw dropped to the non-existent floor when he saw what he saw.

As he ran the last command, Jax’s eyes had shot open wide, but instead of his usual yellow sclera and black pupils, his sclera had turned pitch black, nearly blending with the void they were in, and he had no pupils. Instead, the skin between his eyes had become so thin to the point where it was barely there, letting him read the yellow-outlined box with two yellow-outlined warning symbols in his eyes that would’ve sent shivers down Caine’s spine if he had one.

‘𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎 𝘿𝙀𝙉𝙄𝙀𝘿, 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙏𝘼𝘾𝙏 𝘼𝘿𝙈𝙄𝙉 “𝘼𝘽𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙐𝙏𝙀 𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙑𝙀𝙍: 𝘾𝙔𝙉"’

Oh no.

Chapter Text

Serial Designation X sighed as he placed the final wine glass down on the fancily decorated table. He glanced over at his empty tray and felt a small smile form on his face. Finally, he was done setting up these dumb tables for the gala tonight after hours of work!

He took a step back from the circular table with a long white tablecloth with some chairs that honestly looked like they belonged to a British royal family in England in like, the 1890s or something, not Australia. He flipped the large circular tray in his metal hands and placed it under his arm, sauntering out of the dining room with a smile still on his face.

Now what X needed to do was to return the tray to the bar and probably stop by the library or something and do something that wasn’t mind-numbingly boring. He did want to read his favorite gun book!

As much as he was thankful that Tessa had saved him from the landfill of other Worker Drone bodies, he 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 hated his job as a butler in the Elliott Manor. He was fine with the short, puffy, curly, white hair that she had given him and the sorta stuffy black blazer and black suit pants she had given him to wear as he’d work her as a butler for the Elliots while keeping the black construction hat he was built with, but he wasn’t fond of the constant threat of being killed off at any moment.

Tessa’s parents were insane, though he’d never say it to their faces. If they made the slightest mistake, they would freak out and, depending on the severity would potentially kill another Worker Drone out of anger. Not to mention what they did to Tessa, their own daughter! They chained her wrist to the ground so often that she had a sensitive wrist! All because she misbehaved every now and again!

Thankfully, X had promised her once to get payback whenever they did, though she pleaded for him not to for the sake of his own life. What Tessa didn’t know, though, was that X was one of the best pranksters ever, so all he did was lay a few pranks out for her awful parents to go through, and they never knew it was him! One of the bonuses of not having fingerprints. Not to mention pranking them was pretty fun. He’d even begun to prank the other Drones, much to J’s dismay, though they were much more mild.

Hehe, maybe he should start coming up with a new idea to screw around with James, he did just kill another Worker yesterday after she malfunctioned and had the ‘𝘌𝘙𝘙𝘖𝘙: 606’ message on her. He didn’t know her name, but James would get a taste of his own medicine soon enough, one prank at a time.

X walked through the dreary, dimly lit halls of the Elliot Manor. He kept the tray tightly under his arm as he went his way through the halls. For some reason, he was paying much more attention to his surroundings than usual. Not in a paranoid way, more so he was just looking for small details he may have missed before during his countless trips through these halls.

He knew a shortcut that differed from the path that most other Worker Drones took to get to the bar, so he took it. He knew who would be stationed there, and while she was kind of off-putting, she wasn’t particularly bad, just strange. He’d even chatted and helped her a few times before, earning him a rather confusing title from her.

As he took a sharp turn around the halls, he glanced over at the left wall and something compelled him to stop in his tracks in front of the doorway to the theater.

The manor had an in-home theater, he knew that. X had been assigned to even clean it a few times before, rearrange a few things, and such. Hell, he’d even used it a few times himself when the humans went asleep along with some other drones and Tessa, they had movie nights! (though N or Tessa were the ones who organized them the most and invited all the Workers.)

So then why was he compelled to stop in his tracks to stare up at the golden plaque that showed a golden Sock and Buskin mask over the circular wooden doorway of the Elliots’-at-home theater?

He just stared at it, unsure of what to feel. His non-existent stomach felt…off. Like something was deeply wrong. He really could only think of a few things though, things he didn’t really know how they were connected.

𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘴; 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬; 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬; 𝘈 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢-𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵; 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦.

G̷͖̯̜̖̠̐̿̎̌͛̉a̴̹͕̥͈̪͍̙̪̔̓́͒̀̃͊͌n̵̛̻̾̄͛̆̚g̴̱͉͈͉͓͔̳͆̒̈́̈̓̄l̸̳͚̫͖̯͇͕͈̽̄̃̾̏͠e̸̛̝̘̲͐͝.̵͇̮͔̬͔̟̭̈̏̒̈̉͘̚͠ͅ ̴̡͖̬͉͎͍͇̀̒̇͊̋Ï̸̝͌̈́̾̊͝t̴̡̢̡̹̲̼̮̩̃͌́̑̚ ̴̛̳̻̥̱̥͙̖̭̠͂͌̀̈́͌͘ȑ̶̟̘̩͑̆́̆͘͝ȩ̷̧̭̯̯̥͚̻̘̂̀͊̊͜͝m̵̨̧̠͎̭͇̪̊̔͌̈́ͅi̶̭̲̳͑͐̂̊͋̂͝͝n̵̢̮̭͈̳̭̻̺̼͒̈d̴̺͋̏̿̊̈͗͠͝e̶͙͔͉̰̘͍͓͎̹̍̅̈́ḑ̴̞̙̝̳̜̓̄̇̓̾͗͊ ̷̧͓͛̈́̔̍̍̈̚͘J̸̢̨̤̖̣̲̮̲͊̐̑̈́̉̽̕̚ä̷̡͙̰̻̺̥́͊̒̚ẍ̶̛̤̺͙͖͎́̔̾̇͛̌̽̈͝ ̵̧̥̦̱͖̜̙̭̦͓̑o̴̳͇̞͓̥͛́̈́̏͝f̴̹̟̘̈́̅̏̀̇̄̀̕̚ ̶̛̯͒̃͗̈́̽͗͒́͝G̸̢̢̛̩̠̥̅̈͐͂̅̍̓̈́ą̶̰̲͚̥͖̦̼̹̇͠n̵̢̞̣̭̬̝̬̥̣̅̏̀͗ͅg̶̢̡͕͎͚͖̓̿̈̾̏̓͜ļ̶̗̰̻͍̜̼̞͂̓ͅe̸̯̪̣̪͕̝͎̭̔̇͗͒͐̈́͜ͅ

X’s LED eyes hollowed as he noticed the triangles on his hand flicker from white to lilac purple before he shook his head, causing them to return to normal, worried lines surrounding the bottom corners of his eyes. He rested his head slightly on his unoccupied hand as he took one final look at the two masks, frowning at them like Melpomene’s mask. Oh, he really didn’t like it when something in him glitched, especially when it came to his thoughts. X hoped that he wasn’t about to get hit with an ‘𝘌𝘙𝘙𝘖𝘙: 606’’ soon.

Deciding not to go down whatever train of thought his CPU had decided through what he saw, X turned on his heels and headed down the halls, deciding to not focus on the walls again to avoid something like that happening again.

Lucky for him, he was one a few dozen steps from where he needed to be. All he was going to do likely was put up the tray, probably say hello to her, and then walk out.

“You seem…frightened, best friend X.” A much more robotic, feminine voice spoke to him

X froze for a moment as he looked into the darkened bar, which he wasn’t sure if his visuals were just bugging out or something, but X could’ve sworn he saw a dozen yellow, glowing eyes staring right at him. Though, it must’ve been a glitch because the second the lights flickered on, they were all gone, being replaced by a shorter, female Worker Drone with yellowish-white hair in twin tails, with some hair sticking out from behind, a maid dress, and a big black bow behind her black construction hat.

Or maybe she was playing a joke? That may make more sense.

X felt the tension leave his body as he gave a relieved sigh, walking up to the bar’s counter as his eyes went back to normal, “Yeesh, are you trying to play pranks now too, Cyn?” X asked her as he slid the tray onto the counter, pulling out one of the wooden chairs from the bar to sit on, before kicking his feet up on the counter, “If so, you might wanna play them on James and Louisa, they'd get a kick out of that eye prank you just pulled.” Eh, talking to her might be better than just rereading the same book for the fifteenth time. If he were human, he could probably recite it from memory if he didn’t have a data log of memories!

Plus, maybe he could mess around with her too.

Cyn gave an emotionless side look at his feet on the counter before taking his tray and placing it somewhere under the bar’s counter, “Giggle, I was just planning something like that soon, one may say…” She told X, giving him a smile that could honestly be described as sinister.

X raised one of his digital eyebrows, “Really? When for, because the gala’s likely starting soon?” He told her, nudging his head over to the exit of the bar area, “Wouldn’t you want to do that before it?” Honestly, X was down to help her, it might scare one of them so bad they’d have a heart attack; he knew if he had one, he might’ve when he saw those eyes.

Cyn’s nearly emotionless eyes stared directly at him, the sinister smile still on her face, “Oh, best friend X…this is for the gala.” She explained to him.

“HA!” X laughed out, lurching himself forward for a moment before falling back in his chair, wiping a nonexistent teardrop from his right eye, “Ahhh, good joke, Cyn!” He sighed at her, though he knew the truth. Cyn wasn’t the type to make jokes that often, usually taking things literally, and had a hard time showing expressions or emotions often, opting to say them instead, meaning she actually was going to do this prank on the gala, which frankly was impossible.

Cyn’s digital eyelids lowered at him, giving her best unamused look, “I am not joking, X.” Cyn straightforwardly told him. Like she ever did it any other way.

X rolled his eyes at her, “Yeah, well, make it so you're joking because that isn’t going to play out well.” The male drone told her, “Most of us Workers won’t be allowed to go in, let alone you considering Louisa’s sheer disgust of you!” He said, pointing a finger at Cyn.

“Eye roll.” She said aloud, despite not physically doing it, “I was going to ask big brother N to come with me…and will.” Cyn clarified to X, “However, you should attend the gala too, best friend X.”

X narrowed his eyes at her before scoffing at her comment, “I like living, Cyn.” He stated, looking at the yellow band on his shoulder that read ‘𝘔𝘈𝘙𝘒𝘌𝘋 𝘍𝘖𝘙 𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘈𝘚𝘚𝘌𝘔𝘉𝘓𝘠’ in big black letters with his serial number at the very bottom in a small font, ‘𝘚/𝘕: 𝘟-000100𝘟10’, “I don’t want to be thrown in the dump again, I’m already sorta playing it risky with what I do, let alone what you’re planning to do.”

Cyn gave a small frown, with her visor not showing any change in emotion before she began to climb on the bar’s counter, “Climbing…” She muttered to herself before flooding her legs over each other as she sat on the counter, “Crisscross applesauce…Oh, X, do not worry, the humans will not be able to harm you or anyone else tonight.” She told him as reassuringly as someone who couldn’t really change the tone of their voice could, giving him another wide wicked smile, “Or ever again.”

The white-eyed Worker Drone leaned forward slightly, “What do you mean?” X hesitantly asked Cyn, unsure of what to make of her words, was Cyn trying to start a revolt against the Elliots or something tonight?

That smile remained as she now looked down at him, “The flesh demands invitation…Won’t you help, best friend X?” She asked as she began to display a stock image of a blonde dog on her visor.

X scooted his chair back, feeling an oddly familiar sickness grow in his chest, “Yeah…I don’t think I want to.” He informed her, standing up from the chair, “Good luck with rule follower, though, bet he’ll be real stoked to go to the gala!” He told Cyn before turning around and giving her a peace sign as he left the bar.

He heard a low chuckle though as he left, “You will not have a choice, X.” He heard Cyn tell him as he left in her normal volume, causing it to sound distant in the empty room.

Yeah, he wasn’t sure what she meant…So deciding not to look back at her, X picked up the speed slightly as he began to jog out of the bar and decided he’d go to the library and reread his book about 19th and 20th century guns for the billionth time. That’d soothe his nerves for sure!

Though, as he walked to the library, he couldn’t get out what had happened right before he entered the bar. Not the eyes that Cyn a hundred percent had, no, that strange, glitchy thought he had.

Why did he glitch then? Why did his lights turn purple for a moment before returning back to white?

Why did he feel like he was recalling someone?

So, as he entered the library, going to one of the middle shelves in the dim library before snatching the book titled ‘𝘈 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 19𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 20𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘺’ with a simple, leathery, crimson cover, he thought about it more and the person he could possibly be remembering.

X slid down and sat against the bookshelf. Definitely, someone who was into theater likely considered those two masks were basically the symbols of theater, more so plays. So maybe they were actors? However, this person did apparently draw or read manga based on the sketchbook he remembered, so maybe he was an artist or reader. The person a hundred percent had some sort of figurine as, for some reason, it felt like the most important part of those thoughts, but what about the ribbons?

The red ribbons were definitely an outlier when it came to anything. The two masks he recalled were odd, yes, but considering the golden Sock and Buskin masks he saw had triggered these strange thoughts, it made sense they were there. Red ribbons though? Hell if he knew.

Maybe this person was interested in many forms of art? The masks could show their interest in theater; the sketchbook showed this mystery person at least enjoyed drawing, and the manga style likely hinted towards them either enjoying the style of having read some before or maybe the red ribbons were for something like arts and crafts!

X’s mouth formed into a scowl, no, that felt wrong. He opened the book and flipped to the page which had a section on the Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. The red ribbons felt more important than that, like they weren’t just some part of a hobby, but a part of them.

Eugh, he could feel his non-existent stomach churn at the thought of ribbons sewn into human skin.

…Why did he think this person was human? They could’ve been a Worker Drone like him! Hell, they were likely a Worker Drone! Since when was he friends with any other humans besides Tessa!?

O̸͔͕̾́̀n̴̹͍͉̋͠e̴̛͍̳̘͂̈́ ̸͇̰̀͊͜c̶̯̍̎̃õ̵͓͘͜ͅǔ̸̻̲́̒l̷̻͈͇͆̇d̵̛̟̀̐'̸̰͎͙͒̓̽v̴͖̈́͘͝e̷̼͓͚̕ ̶͈̈́̀ş̴̗͆͛̇a̶͈͇͒i̸͉̠̒̔͌d̷͖͈̉́ ̵̡̳̠̈͗̕ḫ̷̱̉́ë̶͎͌͝ ̷̧͚̒̊͊w̸͈̬̕ą̵͎̳͆͛̑s̵͖͙͎̚ ̴̡̻̾f̷̻͈̦̑̒r̶̼̅̾i̷̻̮͗̌ȇ̶̞̺̒n̷͕̬̱̊d̴̫̟͇̏s̴̤͂͂ ̸̟̄̄̔w̷͕̠͆i̷̪̚t̵̺̖̲͑ḧ̶̬̳̯̈́͝ ̶͈͔͖̓̄̌K̷̭̩͍̃̽̈́a̴̯̅͗ư̸͉̏̕f̴̺͔́͊m̵̩̃͐ö̶̳͙̳̉̈́

“Ack!” X yelped before immediately covering his mouth with his hands and dropping his book on his lap. His eyes hollowed, and the lines that were meant to be wrinkles near his eyes were displayed on his visor. X glanced down at his hands and saw the lights on them once more flicker to lilac.

That glitched thought…It was clearer! He had the vague image of a clown that was kind of shaped like a bowling pin, though clearly wasn’t human. X was pretty sure most humans weren’t that lanky and cartoony if he had to go off the humans in the Elliot Manor. Though, what was with his lights flickering to purple? That was a strange glitch…right?

X took a sharp breath before huffing, letting his head fall into his hands. Ugh! Why did this all have to be so confusing!? Aren’t Worker Drones supposed to have good memories? Was his RAM, SSDs, and HDDs all bugging out or something!?

Maybe X should just leave the library. He clearly wasn’t doing or will be doing any reading, and he didn’t feel like encountering N or another human else right now. He was just in such a terrible mood right now and he honestly didn’t want to deal with almost high toxic levels of positivity coming from one drone.

Also because he really wanted to just lay face first on the ground right now and just power off, but alas, he can’t or he might be caught slacking off by Tessa’s parents and thrown into the dump. The pain of being a butler of two insane people and their crazy but sweet daughter.

(There was also the brief thought of X perhaps sleeping on the ceiling upside down, like a bat, but he quickly discarded it. Wasn’t possible for him to even do so, unfortunately.)

So, with that in mind, X stood back up after an overexaggerated sigh and put his book back before dragging himself out of the library. He really didn’t want to think about this all anymore, maybe trying to remember something his CPU couldn’t fetch was a mistake.

𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥.

X stopped in the wide doorway of the library before double-blinking. Had…Had someone deleted those memories? If so, why? What was the purpose of deleting those memories? They didn’t seem harmful, but they may’ve not been valuable and clogged up his storage, so maybe that’s why they had been deleted? Though, Worker Drones had nearly equal storage capacity of a human brain when it came to memories by some marvel of modern technology, so he should’ve had enough storage!

X slapped his own head, no! He needed to stop thinking about this, there was no point, it would just make him miserable! Hell, maybe even insane!

I̴t̴ ̵m̷a̵y̷ ̴e̵v̷e̴n̵ ̴m̴a̸k̸e̷ ̷J̷a̷x̸ ̵a̵b̷s̸t̵r̸a̶c̶t̷ ̴i̴f̷ ̵h̵e̸ ̴b̸e̵g̴i̴n̶s̸ ̸t̸o̴ ̴o̷b̴s̶e̴s̴s̷ ̷o̵v̸e̶r̵ ̵h̵i̶s̶ ̶b̷r̴o̵k̷e̵n̷ ̵m̷e̴m̵o̷r̸y̷.̷ ̷

Ab-Abstract? What was abstraction!? X clasped his hands over his head and gripped his curly hair tightly, shutting his eyes, not noticing his lights once again flickering back and forth from white to purple. X was pretty sure that wasn’t how the word ‘abstract’ was even used. Why could he faintly recall bright, multicolored, neon eyes staring down at him as a glitchy beast towered over him!? WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH HIS GOD AWFUL MEMORY!?

“Well-timed giggle.” X heard from behind.

He snapped his head back with a mechanical whirl as he felt his eyes hollow once more, his mouth forming into a nervous frown. He turned his body to properly face the source of the voice and he really hoped this wasn’t related to her comment from when he left.

It was Cyn.

“Heyyyyy, Cyn!” He smiled wide and fakely at her and then pointed at her, ignoring how he saw his lights once again to the weird flickering thing. He prayed that it was just with his hands and not his eyes, “Ho-How did you get there?” X stuttered at her. No really, how did she get behind him? The doorway he was standing in was the only way to enter the library, so either J̶a̶x̶ X hadn’t noticed her sneak past him while his systems were freaking out, or she had some secret pathway that she absolutely needed to tell X about.

Cyn’s eyes hollowed as another manic smile formed on her face, with small fangs being shown, “Oh, do not worry, best friend X.” She told him, though it sounded more like an order, “You seem to be…remembering something.” Cyn commented about him, tilting her head left with the same expression.

X took a step back, tensing up at Cyn’s sudden appearance and on how she was speaking, his lights flickering much slower than before, “Wha-” He began before shutting his mouth, rewording what he was going to say, “How do you know!?”

She didn’t answer though, “Don’t worry…I will make sure those files are gone.”

X clenched his fist as he scowled at her, “Hell. No.” He snarled at her. He wasn’t sure what in the world Cyn was going on about, but he wasn’t about to lose the memories he may be regaining soon. X wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with these corrupted memories, but he didn’t want them eradicated from existence.

“He…Hehehe…” The maid in front of him slowly began to chuckle, yellow glitches appearing around her body, almost like an illusion being broken.

Oh, was that comparison a bit too accurate for X’s liking.

A loud blast of thunder was heard as the lights flickered off for a moment, with bright yellow lights having formed in front of him, causing him to shield his eyes from them. Gosh, they were so intense for the pitch-blackness X found himself in. In a blink of an eye, though, the lights had flickered on, and X felt his mouth go agape in horror.

Cyn’s head was hanging upside down, her hair dangling as she gave X a wide, insane, toothy smile, her visor displaying a neon yellow hexagon that shot off into three arrows that formed a triangle. Her upper half was mostly the same, but her lower half had been completely removed in favor of a serpent-like body with what seemed to be ripped human skin for the belly and the back being black and yellow stripes. The serpent's body almost looked like a centipede, with bony appendages sticking out from the belly like a centipede’s legs. The back also had what almost seemed like tons of human rib cages protruding from her back, increasing her horror-striking appearance as it towered over him, with the body having wrapped itself all around the body.

“Seems like you do not have a choice…X.” She stated matter of factly, the serpent-like lower half of her flipping her upper half back up with her fanged smile. Then a giant, metallic, yet bone-like claw appeared, connected by more of those human ribcage-looking things, and grabbed her Worker Drone body’s hand and pointed it at him, “Best for you to comply; things will be much simpler this way.”

X wasn’t sure if Worker Drones were meant to have a flight or fight response, but he sure knew he did. His fiery resolve to potentially fight Cyn had disappeared, but he caved into the other option, flight.

The non-eldritch Worker Drone turned on his heel and began to run as fast as his legs could possibly take him through the halls of the Elliot Manor, hearing the thrashing and crashing of the horrifying form of Cyn follow right before him.

What was he going to do!? He had an eldritch monster chasing after him that he thought was at least some sort of friend to him trying to catch him so it could erase some corrupted memories from inside of him that were glitching his CPU and the LED lights on him. His feet thought of the idea before him, turning left to the hall that contained the rooms where the Elliots themselves resided.

‘𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢!’ X thought to himself. Yes, she could help maybe! Cyn was found by Tessa, so maybe if X could find her and beg her for help, Cyn might be persuaded to stop trying to freaking kill him or something!

Hell, N might be with her too! X knew that Cyn and N got along, considering she always referred to him as ‘big brother N’ instead of ‘best friend N’ or just simply N.

X took a sharp turn right to where Tessa’s room resided, being struck with a strong storm of winds as Cyn flew past him, not seeing him as X had planted himself firmly on the wall. He stood there for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath to calm himself.

Relax…It’s not like a giant murder worm was trying to kill him and possibly remove some memories, or maybe all of them though it seemed like just a few, but how many were in these ‘files’ that Cyn had mentioned? How was he sure that Tessa could suede her out of her murder rampage and that she simply just wouldn't kill Tessa? That she wouldn’t kill N?

X gripped his blazer as he felt a bead of sweat go down his visor. No, he didn’t have time for these thoughts! He needed to get to Tessa right away!

He soon got to the door and gripped the knob tightly, trying to make as little noise as possible to not alert Cyn. He honestly was surprised she hadn’t chased him down to Tessa’s room, it almost was a bit too easy. X turned the knob into her room, excepting to either see her laying on her bed gossiping with J and perhaps V, maybe playing some game with N, perhaps Tessa taking a nap, or, hell, even all four of them just talking about something in the safety of Tessa’s room.

What X got, though, was an empty, messy room.

No, no, NO! X rushed into the room before yelling out, “TESSA!? TESSA WHERE ARE YOU!?” Was she out dumpster diving again!? Grave Robbing her dead relatives for hair!? Out on some trip that her parents made her do!?

No, she wasn’t supposed to be leaving today. Today was the day of the gala, and her parents had demanded and ordered her to stay in the manor for today as she was finally going to socialize with other humans her age. So where was she!?

Actually, now that X thought about it, where was everyone?! The halls were meant to be clogged up with malfunctioning Workers, but they had been completely empty! There were meant to be other humans around somewhere, but someone how he had encountered none of them! It was like he and Cyn were the only ones there or something!

But that couldn’t be the case, right!?

“Hehehe…Oh, best friend X, I know you’re near!” Cyn called out a fair distance away.

Crap! X quickly slammed the door shut before scanning the room looking for anything that could be considered a weapon for him to use against her. He ran across the room that laid the chain that Tessa usually was bound to when she got punished, with this section of her room being particularly messy. He fell to his knees and began pushing through the junk in search of something, anything!

X could just feel the digital sweat drop down his visor as he heard the slithering and tapping of Cyn growing closer. In his panic, X had looked up, and instead of being greeted with the usual pink, wooden doll house that Tessa had been gifted one year, he instead saw a plastic, striped, red, and yellow circus tent instead.

During the whole fiasco and chase with Cyn, X’s lights hadn’t stopped flickering, they had just slowed down, with them being lilac longer than they were white. Though they had finally stopped, instead of settling back into what was meant to be a natural white, they stayed lilac.

T̷h̴a̷t̴ ̵w̵a̸s̷ ̶t̷h̵e̸ ̵m̵o̴d̸e̴l̸ ̴o̷f̶ ̴t̵h̴e̵ ̵C̶i̸r̸c̵u̵s̵ ̵t̶e̸n̵t̷.̷ ̶

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙞𝙧𝙘𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙅𝙖𝙭 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣.

Jax gasped aloud to himself as the final thought finally struck him, with everything soon flooding back.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS HE!?

The rabbit looked down at his hands, which were shaking, only to be meant with sterile white metal instead of yellow cartoon glovers. Wha-Why was he a robot!? Or a Worker Drone, or just whatever the hell his body had been contorted into!

He quickly began to hyperventilate as he soon realized what had just happened. The files that…that thing had been talking about, those were his actual memories! IT WANTED TO GET RID OF HIS ACTUAL MEMORIES!

Two knocks were heard at Tessa’s door (Was Tessa even a real person!?) before a robotic giggle was heard from behind the door as Cyn shoved her claw through it, breaking the wooden door into several pieces. She soon entered her Worker Drone body into the room before her eldritch form took more than half of the room, yet was still not entirely in Tessa’s room.

Jax flipped himself over as he stared up at the gigantic beast before him, a hand over the butler outfit he was wearing. He began to shuffle himself back until his back hit the wall, with Cyn crawling closer to him as he moved back.

“Best friend X…Just give in, those files will soon be gone,” Cyn told him before raising an inky black, thin, serrated tentacle. Her head fell to one of her sides as she smiled at him, “Though, I will not give you a choice.”

Jax glanced at his slide, grabbed some sort of doll, and chucked it at Cyn, with it simply making a ‘dink’ noise before bouncing off of her, causing her to giggle once before promptly stabbing him in his right eye, breaking his visor.

She lowered her body to be even with Jax’s, but still out of punching range. The symbol from before was still in her visor and she still had that same smile from before as she announced a chilling command.

“𝘾𝘼𝙇𝙇𝘽𝘼𝘾𝙆 𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙂” Her voice commanded as a pop-up appeared behind her in a yellow outline with that strange symbol right by it, with the same words being plastered on there with other information and lines of code, several inky tentacles merging from her back with bloody, pale human hands on the ends of them, crawling on the walls and slowly coming closer to Jax. He would’ve reacted more to this if he wasn’t preoccupied with something else right now.

No, what he was preoccupied with was the beeping coming from his body as he bit down on his tongue (which why did he have that if he was a robot?), his visor internally showing pop-ups trying to force him to return to what he had to presume was Cyn despite being no more than three feet away. He shut his eyes to avoid looking at her, not noticing the lights on him flicker from nothing to yellow

He felt something claw at him from inside his chest, unsure of what it could be. Was it some sort of part from this Worker Drone body he had been put in? He clasped his hands over his chest, feeling his hands being poked by two claw things. If so, he would like for it to say there!

Before he could snap anything at Cyn for what she was doing to him, he felt something sharp and serrated shoot right through his right eye, hitting the back of his metallic head and causing him to slam the back of his head against the wall.

“AUGHK!” Jax cried out through the pain, feeling whatever it was that had stabbed him slowly retract as oil began to pour out the large hole that was now in his visor

Jax removed one of his hands from his chest and slammed it over the now-damaged eye, trying to prevent at least some oil from bleeding out of it. He felt it seep through his hands and down his arm, with some of it having dripped onto his lower chest and a few drops on his pants. He looked up at Cyn once more and had his eyes wide, unsure if there was anything he could truly do to stop her.

He was going to lose all memories of being human, wasn’t he?

Heh, karma’s a bitch sometimes he supposed, though he wished it wouldn’t have ended like this.

As he looked at Cyn, the very definition of murderous and insane plastered onto her face, he realized that he had been stabbed by an inky, black, serrated tentacle that was readying for the second and probably final attack.

Jax kept his eyes wide and braced himself, seeing that as the one thing he could do before Cyn would kill him. Maybe he could get a punch or a kick in before he kicked the bucket. Though she seemed interested in keeping him alive, just making him forget his entire life, which arguably could be the same, that was a debate for if he didn’t lose his memory, which was likely going to happen.

He felt the wind of the upcoming attack before it halted, with glitching noises coming from the eldritch abomination in front of him.

The tentacle curled in on itself but slowly kept going forward. At this rate, when it did hit his visor, it wouldn’t be able to shatter the glass that made his visor. Though, this did give him the opening to get up and book it.

“W-Wh-a-t i–i-i-s th-is-is!?”

Which Jax did take advantage of! He immediately sat up, briefly being halted by ten thousand pop-ups warning him about the weird ping command Cyn had started up and about his damaged eye plus the amount of oil he was losing. However, he got up and ran to the side of Tessa’s bed, trying to find a way to exit, ignoring the horrifying and gross unattached human hands that made him want to vomit. They looked way too real.

The only exit was through Tessa’s bedroom entrance, which was currently filled entirely with Cyn’s ginormous, eldritch centipede body. Jax could maybe jump out of her window, but if these false memories were correct, then her room was on the second floor, and that was a steep and high drop.

Jax turned back to briefly glance at the horror beside him, still shaking from his current encounter with it. Heh, this was going to be fun to ignore if he makes it out okay!

Suddenly, though, a bunch of pop-ups surrounded the eldritch being, green, blue, and red lines of code speeding through as they popped up and vanished, causing the symbol on her visor to begin to distort into different colors. Cyn’s visor went pure black, causing her body to collapse down on the ground as she glitched out.

Jax grimaced at the sight. Was that normal for her or something? Did Workers just do that sometimes?

Before Jax could even take a step forward to run over to the door and hop over Cyn’s now unconscious body, her body tensed up and she slowly picked herself up, her head hanging low before she got to the height she had once been.

The human-turned rabbit-turned Worker Drone spun his head around looking for anywhere to hide. Under Tessa’s bed? Try and run out of the room? Oh, what was he going to do!?

Paralyzed by fear, Jax stayed put as he kept his eyes on Cyn, that was until she finally raised her head and she looked… different?

Cyn’s body double blinked as it looked around, her neon yellow eyes having changed to a blue right eye and a green left eye. It raised an eyebrow as it looked around the messy room before staring at Jax.

It lunged forward at him, with it still having the insane, fanged smile on its face, its eyes whole. The eldritch was stopped mere inches away from his face, causing Jax to flinch back and cover his already broken face with his other shaky arm.

The ping had ended, clearing up some of the things on his visor so he could see everything better, yet he was still bleeding out.

The beast tilted his face at him, “Greetings, my new robotic butler friend!” It cheered at him, its voice loud and booming in a new masculine voice that was awfully familiar, pulling itself back before looking down at him scratching its chin, “Hmmm, seems like something happened to you! Do you know where we are?”

Jax took a step back, lowering his arm as he met the thing’s eyes, recognizing it, “...Caine?” He weakly muttered, unsure if the much friendlier AI even heard him with how quiet he had been.

Clearly, he didn’t as he lunged forward once more, still having Cyn’s psychopathic smile, “What was that, my new friend?” He asked Jax, though Caine seemed not to recognize him. He stood up properly again (or as proper one could in a horrifying centipede body) before placing his hands on what was likely the equivalent of a waist, “Ah! Never mind all these questions! It’s time to wrap up whatever this ‘𝘈𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳’ program initiated for poor Jax!” He announced to him, putting air quotes around his words, much to his own confusion, before snapping his fingers and everything going black once more.

-

Jax felt himself floating somewhere, his eyes still shut close as he tried to regain feeling wherever he was as his right eye throbbed with pain. He tried to grab onto something as he felt his body tumbling in what could best be described as the air.

He felt someone grab his hand in front of him before steadying him in the floating space he was in, which was probably a comforting gesture, but currently caused Jax to pull his hand back and snap his eyes open, kicking whoever was in front of him as hard as he could. This could be another illusion trick thing from Cyn!

“OW!” Jax heard a voice sharply breathing in.

Nope, instead, Jax had kicked Caine clean in the crotch with his purple rabbit leg that was in pink overalls.

Well, Jax knew he was in his actual avatar again at least.

Chapter Text

Caine took a sharp breath, reeling in from the pain, before shaking himself like a dog. Right, maybe kicking Caine in the crotch wasn’t the best idea, but Jax was rightfully panicking due to many things!

One was obviously because of whatever the hell had just happened with Cyn, his memory being temporarily removed from his brain, Jax thinking he was a Worker Drone, the usual, but also because WHERE THE HELL WAS HE AGAIN!?

Jax had awoken to a sharp pain behind his right eye and in some sort of black void. It wasn’t The Void, as that one was blindingly white. He was floating and spinning around in this new void, likely from the motion of kicking Caine, but it also wasn’t ideal.

He couldn’t quite make out Caine as he floated through the void, but he knew he was there, considering he was literally the only other person in the void, and he had clearly heard his voice. Plus, his outfit and denture face was easily recognizable.

“Caine!” Jax shouted out, trying to keep his voice from sounding like a cry for help, “I could use a little help!” He asked, flailing his arms as he tried to steady himself, but instead, he started to do flips in the air. He would help, right? Jax did just kick him in the crotch and he wasn’t sure if that hurt more for what Jax had decided was the much nicer AI program thingy. (He wasn’t quite sure what Cyn was exactly)

“Oh, right!” The AI said in response, snapping his fingers likely to execute some sort of command, but nothing happened. This caused Caine to put a finger under his bottom jaw and lower his upper jaw, narrowing his eyes, “Hmmm, well that’s strange!” He announced before teleporting behind Jax

He immediately grabbed Jax by the shoulders by some miracle and turned him right-side up, his arms stretching in a comical fashion as he did so. Once Jax was situated as best as he could, Caine snapped in two beige walls that formed a corner, with there being no ceiling or other walls to properly close the room, two random paintings hung up on each of the walls, a crooked red carpet on the ground, and one short, fancy, red velvet chair with another long, velvet sofa next to it.

Jax soon plopped down on his back onto the long sofa while Caine floated down to the chair, crossing his legs as he summoned a notepad and a pen. Jax scrambled up to sit properly as he stared out into the black void, what the hell was Caine doing!?

Said AI cleared his throat before he began to scribble something down, “Now, my mischievous little friend, do you mind explaining what happened?” He asked with a bright smile.

Jax darted his eyes from right to left, his pupils unnaturally small, “Uhh…What’d ya mean?” The rabbit questioned. Oh he was not explaining this to Caine, even if he understood what had even happened, which he didn’t.

Caine rested the elbow that held his pen, lousy pointing it at Jax, “Oh, you know, the whole passing out twice thing, being covered in oil, that whole weird denying permission thing and me supposedly having to contact this ‘Absolute Solver Cyn’ person.” Caine rambled on, spinning his pen around, much to his own dismay.

“WHAT!?” Jax blurted out before his ears drooped down. Did Caine contact Cyn!? Was that how he did whatever he did to take over her weird, creepy, eldritch body?

“Hm?” Caine hummed, lowering a side of his upper jaw as if he was lowering a brow, “Do you not recall any of that?” He questioned, writing something down as he did, was he actually taking notes?

Jax lowered his hands from his mouth, gripping tightly onto the couch he was on, “I-I– WAIT, WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING!?” Jax hurriedly turned his head around the area they were even, quickly realizing this was some sort of stereotypical therapy room, but also he noticed something deeply wrong.

When Jax had turned his head left, he all of a sudden couldn’t see anything to the right of him that his right eye should’ve been picking up. He knew there was a floor and a carpet there, but all his right eye saw was just…nothing. It was like his right eye was missing, which he knew it wasn’t considering it was killing him with how badly it felt like it was throbbing in pain.

It…It wasn’t because of what Cyn did right? Sure, Jax had his right eye shattered by Cyn in her weird eldritch form and began to bleed out oil from his visor, but that wasn’t affecting his avatar in the Circus! It shouldn’t, that was all one weird, horrifying, probably very worrisome dream! It should have no effect on reality!... Well, he was in a digital reality in which she probably resided somewhere, meaning Cyn might have some sort of control of the Circus…or Jax.

Did…Did Cyn have some sort of control over him!? Was that why Jax couldn’t see out of his right eye?

Caine didn’t notice his panic though, lucky for him, “Therapy, my friend!” The friendly AI replied back to him, his lower eyelids appearing and rising slightly, giving his version of a warm smile and then placing a hand over his chest, “I’m here to find out exactly what happened to you when that weird…” Caine then trailed off, his pupils drifting off in different directions, with a dial-up noise being heard by Jax in the process.

So Caine didn’t know what happened either? A gnawing feeling formed in his gut as he looked towards the carpet.

It’s fine.

Yeah, it’s fine!

Caine was always a klutz! It’s likely that he just wasn’t paying attention or something so he didn’t know exactly what happened! It’s probably something completely normal that Jax didn’t have to worry about! He probably wasn’t the first person to have a weird voice appear in his head, to have dreams that made no sense, and for Caine to mess with his dreams to end them! This was as normal as it got in the Circus!

But Caine didn’t have any control over human minds, he’s said that countless times.

Then how’d he get into his mind?

“BUG!” Caine blurted out with his eyes refocusing and then promptly clearing his nonexistent throat, “I’m here to find out what happened to you that both caused that bug and what happened during it!” He explained to Jax before pointing up, “But most importantly, your feelings!” He told him, moving his hand to point at Jax.

Jax gave a flat look to Caine, loosening his grip on the couch slightly, “Yeah, no.” Jax said as he rolled his eyes (or maybe eye, he didn’t know) and leaned back into the couch, crossing his legs and folding his arms. He isn’t telling Caine about jack shit.

Caine placed his hands on his hips, “HAHAHAHAHHA, YOU’RE FUNNY, JAX!” He madly laughed out, his eyes popping out, with only his green eye actually looking at him. His blue eye looked back at Caine before he chomped down on both eyes, with the eye returning back to normal. Caine glanced down at his notepad as he spinned his pen, “I do need you to explain what happened though, this is all…very concerning to say the least!” Huh, Jax didn’t know it was possible for Caine to say something in a normal volume let alone sounding genuinely concerned.

Jax felt his grip on his arms tighten, “Why is it so concerning? This place is a glitchy nightmare, so who's to say that whatever you’re talking ‘bout isn’t some sort of bug from the circus?” He shot at Caine. Please, please just believe his excuse and just let Jax go.

Instead, Caine just looked directly at him, showing no emotion, “Jax…It’s not normal what you just did, heck what you’re doing right now!”

The rabbit felt himself tense up, “What? Not wanting to answer you?” He snapped, much harsher than he usually would.

Caine’s upper jaw lowered a bit in the center, “No, you’re right eye…” He explained, pointing to his own.

Jax doubled blinked, “What do you mean!?” OH! So something was visibly wrong with that eye! JUST GREAT!

“You seriously don’t know!?” The ringmaster exclaimed, raising himself forward by using his arms to push himself out of his chair, though he immediately sat back down, “Here! Take a mirror!” He announced before snapping.

A small mirror with a golden rim appeared in front of Jax, and he quickly snatched it before it fell. Jax looked in the mirror and saw-

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘼𝘼𝘾𝙆

…Nothing as the mirror shattered into many shards, with Jax being unable to make out his face properly. All he could make out was that his right eye’s sclera was black, which it definitely shouldn’t be!

Caine floated over to Jax’s side at the sound, staying a good distance away though, “Huh, that’s not meant to happen!” He commented, with Jax turning his head to face him before promptly snapping his fingers, fixing the mirror, “Now try again!”

Jax did as told for once, looking down at the mirror one more time and seeing-

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘼𝘼𝘾𝙆

The mirror broke a second time.

“HAH!” Jax laughed out, leaning forward as Caine snatched the mirror from his hands, floating towards him, “See what I mean, Caine? The Circus is a glitchy mess! I can’t even look at a mirror properly! I’m probably fine!” He confidently told Caine, leaning back with his hands behind his head. Yep! Totally why! Nothing creepy or wrong going on here!

He heard a confused hum in the back of his head, “𝘾𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚? 𝙄𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛?” A nearly emotionless robotic voice spoke from nowhere, one that he now recognized and felt unfortunately familiar.

Cyn.

ALSO WHAT DID SHE FREAKING MEAN BY COUSIN!?

Jax felt his body tense up as his ears perked up, a terrible knawing sensation forming in his gut, calm down! He tried to force himself to seem relaxed, though he bet he looked incredibly stiff and prayed that his ears lowered themselves a bit. He did not need Caine to think something was up, especially if he did have some sort of connection to Cyn. (Was this like how Cyn called N ‘big brother’? Or was this its own thing?)

“Hmmmm…” Caine hummed, too preoccupied with his current situation to notice his freakout, before once again snapping his fingers, fixing the broken mirror before he began to stare at it for a while, “It’s not breaking now…”

Jax flicked his hand, “Eh, give it a second, it’ll probably break again soon.” Play it cool, don't act like the ringmaster of the digital circus he lived in might have a possible connection with robo-satan.

Caine turned the mirror over, where there was glass, and then flipped it again. His upper jaw furrowed again as he observed the mirror, “Jax, close your weird eye.”

Said rabbit glared at Caine, “Not sure if I can.” All Jax knew about his right eye was that it was still throbbing in pain and that his sclera was black. He tried to shut his eye, but truly, he wasn’t sure if it worked as nothing felt different.

“Great, now look in the mirror!” Caine ordered him, his lower eyelids curving up into a smile. Well, it seemed like he could close his eyes; maybe it was just numb from the pain? The AI in front of him then stuck out the mirror in front of Jax, allowing him to look into the mirror.

This time, the mirror didn’t break, and Jax finally was able to look in the mirror, even though he couldn’t see his right eye like Caine had wanted him to. He knew he was going to see his avatar, a tall, purple, rubber hose rabbit with black eyes and yellow sclera. However, when he looked in the mirror though, despite nothing having changed, he felt like he looked…wrong?

Jax had never minded his avatar that much. Sure, he’d rather be in his human body (which he had trouble remembering at the current moment), but he didn’t hate this avatar too much, he wasn’t like Zooble in that case. But as he looked at his avatar now, it just…wasn’t what he expected to see in the mirror.

What was he expecting? Jax knew he was in his avatar ever since he woke up from what he was going to call a dream, but why could he feel himself frown at his reflection which showed what he currently looked like instead of the Worker Drone in his dream?

Was it because of what she had done? Was he still currently feeling the effects? Now that Jax thought about it, did Cyn do something else when she broke his eye?

Jax felt his grip tighten on the mirror, threatening to shatter it. Great! Now he had to deal with these weird feelings! Like he would! If he just ignored them, they’ll go away soon enough!

Caine narrowed his eyes at the mirror, thinking of something beyond Jax. Probably another weird test or something, “Alright, now open that funky little eye!” He asked Jax, snapping his fingers into a finger gun at him.

Jax furrowed his eyebrows and grimaced at Caine, “Never say that again.” He told Caine but complied. He opened his right eye and noticed something yellow in the black sclera and-

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘼𝘼𝘾𝙆

Okay, so not only was his right eye in a bunch of pain, but it was mysteriously black instead of yellow, and it also apparently broke mirrors! Hooray…

Caine flinched back and glanced around the room before grabbing the mirror from him once more. He looked down at the mirror before simply throwing it over the wall, letting it disappear into the black void, “Well, that’s new!” The ringmaster commented before sitting down in his chair, crossing his legs once more, “Either you aren’t the fairest of them all when your right eye is open, Jax, or something else entirely is going on!”

Was that Caine’s way of jokingly calling him ugly? Jax responded with a scoff and then stuck out his hand slightly before flapping it down, “Well then, I guess that means it's just another bug to add to your pile, Caine.” A bug caused by Cyn, or maybe intentional, Jax wasn’t sure. He only knew her for like, what? However long he’s been unconscious technically? Unless someone counted those memories he had in the dream, which he wasn’t.

Caine placed his hands on his hips before giving a loud, boisterous laugh, “HAHAHAHA, OH JAX! I’M AFRAID THIS ALL MIGHT NOT BE A ‘BUG’” He informed Jax, raising his hands to use air quotes.

Jax’s frown remained, "Thought you said it was?" How serious of a threat was Cyn?

Caine lowered his hands and began fidgeting with them as he ignored Jax's comment, lowering his head, “You see…when Uzi left, a program remained called the Absolute Solver.” He began to ramble, “I thought at first this other program was some sort of virus maybe, one that came from Uzi!...and honestly it may be considered one, but it’s quite different!”

Jax couldn’t help but narrow his eyes at Caine, “Why are you telling me this?” Caine wasn’t one to discuss the more technical details of the Circus, or at least not with him, so him suddenly bringing it up? Huge red flag.

Also, the Absolute Solver? Ominous as hell, he wondered if it had any connection with Cyn. Probably did since they appeared at the same time.

Caine stopped fidgeting and held his hands together tightly, “I’ll get there, I promise!” He assured, looking up at Jax before immediately glancing away, “I didn’t do much about it at first, I actually assumed that maybe this program was going to help me build better adventures because I know none of you guys actually like my adventures! So instead, I just…watched it do its thing,” Had Caine begun to shake? Was this guy actually anxious about this? Holy, what had happened while he was gone!? “I thought that maybe, this program would do a better job than me! Finally, make you all happy so you all don’t go mad that you can’t leave!”

Oh, was Caine wrong on so many levels with that last part. Cyn wouldn’t do any of that, and if she was connected to this Solver thing, then the Absolute Solver wouldn’t either. On another note, though, Caine was worried that no one liked his adventures? Jax wouldn’t have guessed that, to be honest, with how that was all he talked about, the only reason he really showed up, and how he was absolutely persistent in trying to make Zooble go on them! Was this a new thing or was Caine just really good at hiding his feelings? He was under the assumption that he was a rather expressive AI.

Well, not that he had many others to compare him with, except Cyn. However, from the fake memories Jax had, she didn’t show that much emotion, or she had to verbalize it.

Usually, Jax would’ve agreed with Caine, his adventures could be rather shitty at times, but maybe it was better for the guy who ran the Circus not to trust the possibly homicidal AI and, if they were one and the same, not to trust the definitely homicidal AI if he didn't secretly already.

“Caine, why would you just randomly trust some random AI from some robot girl?” Seriously, that was stupid. Especially if it was her, but not like Caine knew who Cyn was...maybe! Jax leaned back and glared at Caine, “We barely know who she is, so why would some program from her do a better job at making dumb adventures than you?”

Caine froze for a moment and looked down at his hands, “I-I mean, I know now not to trust it! It’s…I want to make you all happy! I don’t want anyone else to abstract, I don’t want to put anyone else in the cellar! I know that if you’re all happy, you’re less likely to go insane and abstract!”

He wasn’t wrong, if they were all as happy as could be, Jax would guess they all wouldn’t be so…mentally unwell to say the least. Well, the others! Jax was completely fine!…if he wasn’t counting today.

Either way, Caine was being dumb, though! “If you want to make us happy, maybe don’t trust a random AI with a name like the Absolute Solver.” Really, could someone pick a more ominous name than that? It either was some holy grail or the most evil program from that name alone, no inbetween.

“I KNOW, JAX!” Caine yelled out, lunging out of his chair with a furrowed upper jaw, eyes popping out. Jax barely flinched back before Caine took a deep breath, floating down back into his chair. He closed his eyes for a moment before he fully recollected himself, “Either w-way! Back on track, while I was watching it do its work, it started doing…some rather concerning things, like it gave the pig and the wolf from your adventure yesterday oil blood and such while spawning in a cornfield a fair distance away from anything on the map.”

Wait, yesterday? How long had he been out for, actually? It couldn’t have been more than like an hour or something! Also, what pig and wolf? “What are you talking about?”

Caine met Jax’s eye, “Oh! I’m recapping everything that happened before I get to the part that really involves you, as this is all really important background information!” He warmly told him, a stark contrast to his fumbling words from moments ago. He wondered if it was possible for Caine to have some sort of anxiety disorder or maybe just terrible self-esteem. Jax felt like it may be possible for…reasons.

Besides that! That was not what Jax was asking, “No, like what wolf and pig? What cornfield!? What do you mean by yesterday’s adventure!?” He questioned, sounding more desperate as he went on. He had begun to hunch forward but kept his eyes on Caine. Did the Absolute Solver do something with him and the cornfield!? Did it put him into a cornfield!? Oh, that would be hell!

Said AI just tilted his head at him, “The farm adventure was yesterday, Jax. It’s actually the morning now, so the other humans should be getting up!” Holy shit, he’d been stuck in that dream all night, “The pig and wolf were part of that adventure, which you should remember as I’m pretty sure you all got…Infected, maybe? I…don’t know how to describe it, especially in your case.” Caine informed, gesturing his hand towards Jax at the end.

Jax felt his eyes widen at what Caine had said. That’s the last thing he wanted to hear from Caine! In his case? What did that mean? “Caine! Just get to the point! WHAT HAPPENED?”

Caine recoiled back, his upper and lower jaw drooping down, “Okay!” He answered back, “I don’t know exactly, but when the other humans found you, you were hanging on by a thread really.”

Yeah, Jax could recall that, he remembered waking up with everyone surrounding him, he was covered in oil, his neck was all loose and stuff, and he had the worst headache. It was also when Cyn first got in his head and she sorta just…shut him down. Now that Jax looked back on it, the problem with his neck was eerily similar to how Cyn moved around, having her neck just flail around a bit if she didn’t use at least one hand to keep it upright. Did she screw something up with his neck when he first passed out?

And…Jax still had that blank in his memory from after Uzi left to waking up the first time. He felt his face pale as he finally realized why.

Cyn had removed a part of his memory. She could actually do it.

Oh no.

“When I popped in front of you, and you vomited, you began to space out, I believe.” Caine continued on, going back to fidgeting with his hands and once again avoiding eye contact, “Or maybe you saw something horrifying, you looked pretty scared before you kinda just…went unresponsive? You were still up and all! Just, you didn’t respond when I called your name and then you passed out. Pretty concerning all on its own!”

Huh, Jax thought he immediately passed out. He wondered if Cyn didn’t immediately shut him down, but maybe started something that kind of shut down his brain to get him unconscious.

“I then brought you here, which by the way, this will likely be a one-time thing,” Caine informed him, raising his hands and spreading his arms, showcasing the black void they were in, which honestly, Jax didn’t know what it was for, “However, what I thought was going to be a quick fix, turned out to be much, much, MUCH more severe.” Caine paused for a short moment, with Jax nearly about to snap at him to go on, but Caine picked it back up, “W-when I first began working on fixing whatever bug you had, a pop-up appeared in your eyes. Nothing like that has ever happened for as long as I’ve existed, as long as people have been stuck in the Circus.” The ringmaster glanced up at Jax, wide eyed and clearly nervous, “Jax, the pop read saying ‘Access denied, contact admin ‘Absolute Solver: Cyn’.”

CYN WAS HIS ADMIN!?

Jax sucked in a shaky breath. Okay, calm down, she just had some form of control over Jax! Wonderful! Plus, it turns out he was right about the Absolute Solver and Cyn being at least connected, it wouldn’t shock him if they were like the same person or something at this point. Probably are!

Right, just play it cool and ask Caine one more question, “H-how?” Jax managed to choke out weakly. Dammit! That was the opposite of what he wanted to do! Despite how much Jax wanted to deny it, he was kind of scared! Cyn had removed a memory, maybe some others that he couldn’t remember because they were gone now! This was terrible, horrible!

“...Are you okay?” Caine questioned him, pointing his finger at him and narrowing his eyes. Was he being that obvious right now? Jax would say he was excellent at hiding his feelings from others, but Caine, of all people, picking up on something being wrong? He must be doing a really shitty job right now.

Jax took a sharp breath in a futile attempt to calm himself, and he noticed that he was shaking. God, he needed to stop being pathetic and get a grip, “Yeah, I’m fine.” He huffed at Caine, leaning back on the couch, “Now, how?”

“How what?’

God, Caine was dense as all living hell. Jax just needed to steel himself for when he said this because he could feel himself shake ever so slightly more at the thought of what he was going to ask, “H-how…How’s she my admin?”

There was something that Jax couldn’t ignore for much longer and that was how Cyn was doing any of this and why she kept referring to him like he was also a robot like her or like Caine. She managed to put him to sleep in an instant, seemingly like she flipped a switch; she referred to his memories as files; she so easily manipulated his mind; she could just talk in his head for some reason, and Caine was able to enter his weird dream thing. The final straw, though, was that she was his admin! How!? He was human! Humans don’t have files, they can’t just be powered off, they don’t have admins that can deny access to other people, and they surely don’t have other bots entering their minds!

So what did she do to him? What did Cyn do to become his admin?

And then there was the lingering thought in Jax’s mind that maybe, just possibly, that maybe he wasn’t human anymore.

But that was impossible, surely! Right? If Cyn was capable of turning a human into a program, AI, or whatever the hell she was, then she would have to be able to control reality, like the real world, not the virtual world. No one could do that! So Jax was clearly still a human!

But that didn’t answer his question…

Caine, though, seemed to take notice of something else, “She? This ‘Cyn’ version of the Absolute Solver uses she?” UGH! Why did he have to pick up on that!? He was avoiding the question!

He kept his back to the couch, but he could feel himself gripping it tightly with his left hand, “Caine. Answer the question.” Jax gritted. He needed to know, he needed to know if this was possible for a human, because Jax was a HUMAN!

The ringmaster tensed up and shut his jaw for a moment, looking away. Oh, now was not time for Caine to be all pissy! He needed to know! Jax needed some sort of answer!

Jax was about to stand up and do something, anything to get an answer out of him, but Caine responded through his shut jaws, “...I don’t know…I haven’t even finished explaining everything that’s happened to you either.”

Jax felt his grip loosen on the couch, “Finish then.” He urged. Please, please let this be some good news.

Caine opened his jaw, keeping his eyes off of Jax, who once again was holding his hands together, but much more tightly, “After that message popped up, I-I kept trying to find ways to stop it, her as you referred to her, but nothing seemingly worked as I kept trying to find ways to stop something happening in a human mind.” He elaborated, pausing for a moment as if he was debating on what to say next, “You know I have very little control of human minds, you’ve been here the third longest after all! But…after hours of trying to stop this, your eyes displayed another really concerning message with this weird, yellow, X that went through both of your eyes and…” Caine finally looked up at Jax again, his lower jaw curving down, “Jax, do you know what ‘ERROR 606’ would mean for a human?”

He took another sharp breath. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, STAY CALM! Just another thing to add to his ‘deal with it later’ pile! “Humans don’t have an ‘ERROR 606’.” He quickly muttered to Caine, but also to himself. Jax needed to get a grip, he needed to CALM DOWN!

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩, 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙓.” Cyn informed him as cheerfully as she could. God, he so badly wanted to snap at her, but it was clear that she couldn’t read his thoughts because she would’ve said something a long while ago. The reason Jax held back, though, was because he didn’t want Caine to think he was going mad, though one may argue he may be at this rate, “𝙀𝙍𝙍𝙊𝙍 606 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙊𝙎 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨. 𝘿𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚, 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 :).”

What. the. HELL!

His OS strings!? While Jax was by no means a tech expert, he knew that there was something in computers and such that stood for an operating system, which he shouldn’t have! Humans don’t have OS strings, whatever strings are meant there, only programs or something! What was she on about!?

Caine once again glanced away, “...I see. Well, either way, I started to panic because these sparks also flew out too, which if you weren’t experiencing some error it would’ve been pretty cool,” Caine commented, which the comment about sparks didn’t help to ease Jax’s nerves at all, “I tried something that was honestly pretty risky and shouldn’t have worked, which was accessing a hypothetical storage unit for you, think of something like an SSD. Nothing should’ve popped up, to be honest, but I got another access denied, which is its own can of worms. I panicked even more when this strange symbol appeared in both of your eyes, so I tried something else.” Caine looked at the center of the floor, observing the carpet, “Heck, I don’t even know what I did, to be honest, but all of a sudden I was controlling this weird thing, and this little robot was in front of me in some room and I just ended it all with a snap of my fingers, and you were back up and…and you’re fine now!”

The pain behind his right eye would disagree, “Yeah, completely fine, Caine.” He huffed out, ignoring the fact that he was still quivering. It wasn’t too noticeable if someone wasn’t paying full attention to him, but it was still annoying. Sure, all of this was confusing and horrifying, but he needed to relax! He couldn’t afford to be like this in the Circus. “By the way, what symbol are you talking about?” Jax managed to say without seeming like he was freaking out. Was it like the one Uzi and Cyn had shown him? If so, then it was definitely connected to all of this.

Caine looked back at him, causing Jax to briefly wonder if he did that when talking about tense topics or was just anxious, “Oh! It’s the same one in your eye!” He told Jax, pointing to his own right eye, “...Which I just remembered you don’t know what it looks like…hmm.” Caine began scratching the top of his head, brainstorming something.

It be kinda funny if he gave Jax another mirror, it would probably shatter again for some reason. It took a moment, but a literal lightbulb appeared over Caine’s head, “Aha!” Caine gasped before he floated up and a film camera appeared in his hands, with him snatching a picture of Jax in a literal flash, causing him to flinch back. The forming picture slowly printed out and Caine snatched it, throwing the camera behind him into the black void. Caine floated down and waved the picture before handing it to Jax, “There we go! You should be able to see what I mean now!”

Jax swiped the photo out of Caine’s hand and observed it. It was clear in the photo he was caught off guard by the flash as his eyes were squinted and he was growing, but also his ears were droopy due to another reason. Ugh, sometimes he hated having rabbit ears in a place that ran on Looney Tunes's logic! His ears got like that when he was sad, anxious, or nervous about something, but lucky they weren’t that droopy. It's still noticeable, though. What mainly caught Jax’s attention was his right eye, though, which, despite being narrowed down, he could still tell what was up with his right eye.

Not only was it broken, it also apparently broke mirrors for some reason, and his sclera had for some reason turned black, but his pupil was that weird, yellow, hexagon symbol that shot off into arrows that was in the shape of a triangle. He really needed to figure out what this symbol was all about considering it kept showing up, but he really didn’t have any leads. The only ones he had were that Uzi could summon it and Cyn displayed it on her visor and in that strange callback ping thing.

Jax sighed as he looked above Caine, still holding onto the picture, “Do you know what’s causing this?” He managed to muster out. God, the exhaustion was coming back, plus some minor hunger pangs. Weren’t they supposed to not need to eat and sleep? Why was that now becoming a problem?

“𝙈𝙚, 𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙤𝙩.”

Jax bit his cheek to keep himself from shouting at Cyn because then Caine would think he lost it. Oh, did he want to punch her so badly!

Caine sat on the couch next to him before looking at the ground for a minute, “Likely this Absolute Solver program. Though it’s strange, it’s almost like it’s begun targeting you.” Caine guessed, holding his head up with his hands, “It’s apparently your admin, likely in the sense of how I’m the admin of the Circus, but I think a better description would be like how I’m the admin for someone like Bubble.” Caine then took off his top hat where Bubble soon emerged, floating in front of the two. Caine gave a stern look to the creature, “Bubble, no shenanigans this time around, this is a very important demonstration!”

The eccentric bubble gave a sharp smile at his boss, looking down at him from his angle, “Got it, boss!”

Caine got up from the couch before floating next to Bubble, Jax keeping his eyes (eye?) on the duo. Didn’t Caine have like complete control over Bubble or something like that? He really hoped that Cyn didn’t have that power over him. He didn’t want to know what she’d do with that sort of power.

Caine took off his hat and rolled it down his arm, cleanly landing into his hand where he tipped it towards Bubble, “Now! With Bubble, I am able to change every aspect of him down to his code! Take, for example, the color of his eyes!” He then raised his hand that had the hat to where Bubble’s eyes were, which started to shift between colors, causing Bubble to giggle, “I can alter, delete, and even add memories; I could change his personality; or I could even change his status from Assistant AI to something higher or lower; and so much more!” He ended his little demonstration by throwing his top hat up, with it swiftly landing on his head, “That’s a very basic run down, but she could possibly be a different type of Admin AI, but who knows!”

Jax’s frown deepened. Not good! Not good at all! Sure, it explained the weird dream and why he had expected to see a Worker Drone in the mirror instead of his avatar for a moment; Cyn had given him new, fake memories, essentially creating an entire false life for Jax! Why did she do that? He didn’t know! What was her end game? He also didn’t know! However, then there were the other concerning points…

“Does that mean she can just…change everything about me?” Jax asked, sitting back but putting his legs on the couch, holding them tightly, and resting his head on his knees. Could she really just remove all his memories in a snap and replace them with anything she wants?

No, that couldn’t be it! Cyn had to place him in the memory in order for him to forget everything, plus she had to remove some OS strings to do any of that, maybe. Jax wasn’t sure, but that’s what it seemed like. Maybe that’s why he kept passing out? Cyn was trying to make him unconscious to initiate this stuff. So she could still possibly change everything about Jax, but he could at least put up a fight!

And, boy, did Jax love to fight!

Caine stayed in the air, sitting in the air as if he were on a beach chair, narrowing his eyes to the void for a moment as he thought, “Hmmm…It doesn’t make sense for all of that to apply to you, you are a human, unlike Bubble.” He then glanced down at him, “If I had to guess, all you have to worry about is her altering your body, that’s the only part of you that’s only in the Circus, but then again…”

Caine didn’t say what he was thinking, but Jax knew it was the whole error message and the fact he’d been denied access from doing something to Jax. That was definitely a sign of her having some sort of control over him than just his avatar.

Jax closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “You’re right, I’m a human, she can’t have that much power over me, even if she’s my admin, right?” Maybe if Jax somehow convinced Caine that he didn’t need to be too worried about Cyn, then he could just leave and deal with her himself, especially if Caine was actually cousins with this thing.

Though, his train of thought was immediately destroyed as soon as he finished speaking.

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣, 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙.” Cyn told him, a sadistic sort of glee bleeding into her voice.

Caine had begun to respond to him, but he just couldn’t take it anymore, “I suppose-”

“JUST SHUT UP!” Jax shouted out, grabbing onto his ears tightly before pulling them down. Caine had stood back up in the air, recoiling back a fair bit before summoning his cane to grab onto it firmly, holding it in front of himself, “I AM HUMAN, YOU-YOU WHATEVER YOU ARE!”

Jax felt his eyes begin to sting up, undoubtedly tears. Oh, he was not crying in front of Caine! He’s already screwed up enough today by yelling that out loud, let alone begin to cry in front of Caine! He’ll do that in his room if he so desperately needs to.

It’s just that he couldn’t take her anymore and whatever Cyn was blabbering about! He was human, Jax knew he was a human. He could remember his parents, a friend or two from when he was younger, that horrible farm. Yet, he could also remember hanging out with two other Worker Drones called V and N, talking to each other about whatever books they had read in the library despite not being that close; pulling a joke on J that made Tessa burst out laughing, which held off her from punching him in the face; doing all sorts of odd jobs for Louisa and James Elliot out of fear for his life; trying to stray Cyn away from Louisa who just had it out for her; waking up in a dump with a young girl over him, one named Tessa; and just him spending hours sitting on the floor, re-reading that same book over and over again on different types of guns.

Jax hated this and he’s only been dealing with Cyn for less than a day. He hated how Cyn made this false life for him, how she had all this control over him, how he was possibly near powerless to stop this, and how Cyn was now trying to convince him that he wasn’t even human anymore. That he was like her, a Drone of some sort.

And worse of all, even though he would never admit it, Jax despised how he was sorta happier in that false life than he was in his current one.

He was pulled out of his spiral as he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at his side to find Caine sitting right by him, with his cane seemingly out of view, with Bubble right by Caine too.

The AI tilted his head up to look at Jax before patting his shoulder and lowering his hands to his lap, “I-I’m not sure what…that was about, but are you sure you’re fine?” Caine asked him, his tone surprisingly sincere and quiet.

But Jax wasn’t falling for it, for whatever Caine was trying to do. He needed to remember that somehow, Caine had some sort of connection to Cyn considering the whole cousin thing. There was a chance that he was in the same sort of situation as Jax, considering how Cyn called him ‘best friend’ and all, but who knows, maybe Caine was friends or robo-cousins with Cyn. Not like Jax knew anything anymore apparently!

Jax let go of his ears, tucking them under his head, before turning his head away from Caine, “I’m fine, just…dealing with something.” He choked out, rubbing his left eye. Eh, Caine should buy it, “Can we just end this?” He was done, done with this Circus, with Cyn, with Caine, with robots, just done.

“But your eye!” Caine protested, “It’s still broken! And we haven’t even gotten to what happened on your end of things, you can’t just leave!”

Jax clenched his fist as his brows furrowed, turning his head to face him, “CAINE, I’M TELLING YOU JACK$%IT!”

Caine leaned back as Jax shouted at him, “At least your eye then, it really shouldn’t be doing that!” He emphasized, “It really should be quick! Fifteen minutes tops!”

Jax almost laughed at Caine’s statement, “Righhttt, just like how I was meant to be a quick fix, right!?” He just wanted to leave, to go to his room and collapse on his bed, but to not fall asleep. He didn’t want to be stuck here for another twelve or so hours sitting around for Caine to fix him since he clearly was struggling too!

Caine glanced away, adjusting his bowtie for a moment, “I-I-THIS SHOULD BE MUCH QUICKER! IT’S JUST AN EYE!”

“OOOH, BUT HAS ANYTHING BEEN THIS SIMPLE WHILE DEALING WITH CY-THE ABSOLUTE SOLVER!?”

“NO! BUT I’M TRYING TO FIX IT!”

“AND WHERE HAS THAT GOTTEN US!?”

The two had not moved from their positions, but Jax so desperately wanted to just throw Caine or strangle him. Why was Caine being such a pain in the ass right now!? However, before Caine could retort back, he was met with a sharp pain in his left ear, which was now accompanying the dulling one in his right eye, like something had bitten him.

“BUBBLE!” Caine scolded, who had begun to stand up to get the creature off of Jax’s ear.

Jax reacted quicker, swatting Bubble which caused him to pop. Caine let out an exasperated sigh before plopping down again.

Caine placed a hand on top of his upper jaw, tilting his head down, “Look, Jax, how about I give you an eyepatch while I fix things from behind the scenes? I just really don’t want the other humans to be freaked out by this Absolute Solver, okay?”

Hmm, it seemed good enough. It was also likely the quickest way for Jax to finally leave this black void and this god-awful therapy session. So, with a scoff, Jax nodded his head.

Caine clapped his hands together, putting on a happy expression that was a stark contrast to his much more tired face from moments before, “Great! Now just stick a hand out if you will!”

To which Jax complied, sticking out one of his hands, awaiting an eyepatch, which appeared with a snap of Caine’s fingers.

As he looked down, Jax honestly should’ve expected this. He wasn’t sure what type of eyepatch to expect from Caine, but considering this guy liked making mini video games in his game, he should’ve expected a black, pirate eyepatch.

He didn’t really care what eyepatch he got from Caine, though, simply putting it over his right eye, with it not impacting his vision, considering he couldn’t even see out of it in the first place.

Jax looked down at Caine, “Great, can I leave now?” He asked, to denture head nodded.

Caine hopped off the couch and floated in front of Jax, to which the AI snapped his fingers once more, with nothing happening. Caine just stared at the hand he had just used before he spoke, “Right, that’s not working with you right now.” He stated out loud.

Strange, could Caine not use certain commands on him anymore? Jax was stopped from thinking about this, though, as he was scooped up by Caine from under his arms before promptly teleporting out of the black void.

God, was it just Jax or did the Circus somehow get ten thousand times brighter? He looked down to see that he was in the main area of the Circus, but he was currently dangling over the area with the couches where everyone usually hung out at some point during the day. Pomni and Zooble were currently the only two out, sitting on the blue couch, both looking up at him with bewildered looks.

“What the…?” Jax heard Zooble mutter as they stared at him.

Caine hovered over the hot pink couch, which was unbearably bright, before plopping Jax over on it. Jax fell down onto the couch, landing with a soft thump, before Caine looked down at the three of them.

“Welp! Seems like you should be good enough!” Caine announced to them all, “Just don’t do that again, please! See you all in a few hours for the next adventure…maybe.” The last part was much quieter than normal, Caine. Was there a chance of them not having an adventure today? Caine then saluted before teleporting away, presumably the black void both of them were in not too long ago.

The three of them just looked up at where Caine was for a few moments before Pomni and Zooble directed their attention to Jax, undoubtedly confused about what had just happened.

Pomni pushed herself more into her couch, her pinwheel eyes becoming much smaller. She raised her hand and pointed it at Jax, but kept it close to herself, “Were…Were you with Caine the whole night?” She hesitantly asked, “I thought you were in your room?” Pomni then lowered her hand to a toy with one of the yellow pom-poms on her chest.

Oh, did Jax wish he was in his room. He straightened himself up and placed a leg on the couch, planting his other on the ground. Act normal, act like nothing had happened! “Man, do I wish.” He told Pomni, ignoring the narrowing eyes of Zooble; he wasn’t telling them anything, “Not sure what happened, but pretty sure it was just some sort of glitch in the Circus.”

Zooble crossed their arms and leaned more onto the couch, “That was all a glitch?” They questioned, their voice almost sounding disgusted in the first part, “Jax, how the hell was that all a glitch?”

Jax wouldn’t have bought it either, “Well, not a glitch, more so a bug.” He clarified. Bugs were typically more serious while a glitch was less, like being sent flying because of some sort of hitbox area or something, “But it’s all fine, just like ol’ Caine said.”

Zooble clearly didn’t believe him, “Then what’s with the eyepatch?” They asked him, glaring at the eyepatch

“...Mostly fixed.” Jax corrected. Truth be told, he was probably far from fixed thanks to Cyn, who speaking of…

“𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝, 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙓.” She ordered him, still using that name for some reason.

Jax didn’t react though like last time, instead he focused on the conversation he was currently having with Zooble and Pomni, with the latter of which having her pupils shrunken as she frowned at his comment.

Pomni tightened her grip on her pom-pom, “What do you mean by ‘mostly’?”

‘𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯.’ Jax thought to himself since Cyn wanted him to take off his eyepatch, but instead, he just internally sighed, “Look, Caine’s kinda empty-headed and probably got sidetracked during that whole thing, so he sent me off and said he’ll fix the final thing behind the scene.”

“What, do you not have an eye or something right now?” Zooble questioned.

He might as well not, “Yes, I still have my eye, it’s just not working, simple.” Jax explained as if he hadn’t been baffled by it too not too long ago. He titled his head towards Zooble and smiled playfully at them, “What? You worried about me, Zoobie?” He teased.

Zooble scoffed at him, “As if I’m more so worried about what caused this and if it’ll affect any of us.” They clarified, which was fair. Lucky for them, Cyn probably couldn’t infect them.

…Probably.

Jax waved a hand at them, “Psh, don’t worry about it! Caine’s probably handling the bug as we speak.” More so his eye, but maybe he’s doing something about the Absolute Solver, he better be.

Pomni’s eyebrows furrowed, making her look pathetic, “Is-Is that supposed to be reassuring?”

Zooble turned to her to respond, but Jax just shrugged, “Take it as you will, Poms.”

“𝙓, 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝. 𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚.”

So she was using his ‘broken’ eye to see, more reason to keep the patch on. Jax promptly ignored her and instead listened back into the conversation.

“-puting a lot of faith into Caine, aren’t you, Jax?” Zooble shot at him, pointing their new, three-fingered, yellow arm at him.

Jax folded his legs onto the couch and leaned against the armrest, resting his chin on his hand, “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.” He told them, “Doesn’t matter as I’m sure everything will be fine and dandy soon.”

“𝙓.” Cyn began once more in his head, sounding as mad as her voice could allow her, “𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙬. 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙧 𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙮. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙨.”

Jax tensed up, well just great! He was being threatened by the eldritch horror! Though, what did she mean by ‘see another way’…?

OH! SHE MEANT THOSE WEIRD EYE THINGS FROM THE DREAM! SHOOT!

What to do, what to do, what to do! Jax didn’t want to take off the eyepatch, but he also didn’t want whatever the hell those eye things were to appear on him! How would that even work!? Is that even possible!?

“...Jax?” One of them warily asked out, probably Pomni.

“𝙏𝙞𝙠-𝙩𝙤𝙠, 𝙓.”

Jax stood up, “Well,” He announced, clapping his hands together, “This has been fun and all, but I think I should be heading to my room!” This was the only feasible solution in his mind, and he didn’t really have the time to think of another, so he might as well make do!

Jax ignored the expressions on Zooble and Pomni’s faces, instead sprinting towards his room. He only briefly heard a part of their conversation as he left.

“Wait!” Pomni called out before it became clear that he wasn’t, “It’s the morning?”

He then heard Zooble’s voice, “Don’t mind it, Jax just does that sometimes.”

Which was incorrect! Jax never really returned to his room after he left it until the night, so Zooble was lying, but it was probably an attempt at comforting her. Unless they were commenting about how he did random things sometimes, then that was true. Probably that considering Zooble wasn’t one to comfort someone with white lies.

He was quickly out of earshot, though, and made his way into the hallway with all their rooms. He looked down the hallway and sighed, no one was out. He walked over to his door, took out a key, spun it on his pointer for a moment, and unlocked the door.

If Jax were to describe his room, it would be a well-organized storm. Keys were hanging on hooks against the room's dark purple walls on all sides, a collection he had to unlock anything in the Circus. Sure, some of them lead to the other Circus members' rooms, but also from past adventures and other places in the Circus. The newest one had to be the one from the Candy Kingdom as he hadn’t gotten Pomni’s key yet, which once he was done with…whatever he was dealing with, he’d get on that. Random objects laid on the ground, colorful cubes; with one in particular someone could sit on, the light blue bowling ball that Kaufmo had somehow found before he abstracted, a few bowling pins here or there, a full body mirror in the back left corner of his room, and just random things that Caine must’ve thought fit the Circus. Yet, he knew where everything he needed was.

There was also a neon yellow wardrobe against the left wall with a plasma ball on it along with a stray glove. His bed, which was against the right wall, was simpler than the other Circus members, being a simple full-size bed with white sheets, two pillows stacked on each other with black casing, and a black blanket, as he requested from Caine considering he had gotten sick of the sheer amount of purple and yellow in his room. He moved over to the bed, took off his eyepatch, threw it to the ground, and collapsed onto the bed, lying on his stomach.

“There, happy?” Jax spoke out, muffled by his mattress. The temptation to sleep was strong, but he resisted. He didn’t need to do that again despite how tired he was, but also because the only reason he survived the first one was because Caine had managed to pull him out. Without him, Jax was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to avoid having his memory wiped. Just peachy.

He didn’t get an immediate response from Cyn. Honestly, maybe he was developing some sort of thing that made him hallucinate sounds. Maybe when he passed out the first time he had just hit his head too hard and was starting to hallucinate sounds and having weird dreams?

Jax knew that wasn’t true despite how badly he wanted it. So he flipped over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, squinting at the light fixture on his ceiling, with the pain from his right eye finally leaving. As he blinked, he felt the sight return to that eye too, but oh did it cause another headache as he stared up at the light. Ugh, it was too bright.

He glanced over to his side only to be greeted by a fleshy, raptor-like head seemingly connected to some black string in front of him with three main eyes on each side of the head, glowing yellow.

“Best friend X, why ar-” The weird head thing began, sounding exactly like Cyn.

Jax flung himself back, hitting his back against the wall, the head following him, “WHAT THE HELL!?”

Chapter Text

Jax stared wide-eyed directly at the weird head thing, a form of Cyn if he had to guess, as he gripped the blanket he was on tightly. What was this thing? What was he looking at!?

The thing smiled at him, “Giggle, it is funny to frighten you, X.” Cyn told him through the head before it moved itself closer to Jax’s own head, “Don’t be so scared, I just want to talk.” The smile on its face grew more and more wicked by the second.

Nope! Jax wordlessly grabbed the head by the back and attempted to throw it underhand, but instead, he felt a tug from the bottom of his back as Cyn was thrown off his bed, with the black string having extended to its limit, making it look much more like a cord than anything else.

Jax grabbed onto the cord and tried to find where it was connected to. Maybe he could cut it off, and Cyn, or whatever this was, would leave him alone. In his haste, he hadn’t realized his quicking breath was growing more and more shallow. He trailed the cord with his hand and found that it led to his lower back.

When Jax had first joined the circus, he’d been embarrassed to find out that his avatar had a little, fluffy, circular rabbit tail, just like how they were drawn in those old cartoons. He had hated it so badly that he had asked Caine to remove it. Though if he were honest, it had been him more so begging Caine to do so, though it was short lived as Caine had removed it immediately.

Either way, this weird cord tail thing was attached exactly where that old rabbit tail had been, and Jax would honestly trade anything to have that old tail back instead of THIS. At least that tail didn’t have a weird fleshy raptor head that could talk to him.

“Rude.” Jax heard Cyn call out as she (this thing was her, hooray) floated back over to him as he was desperately trying to rip off the tail, yanking it as hard as he could, ignoring the fair amount of pain it was giving him, “Best friend X, why are you being so rude?” God, Jax wanted to beat himself up for how he felt a pang of guilt at how her voice almost sounded sad, imagining her Worker Drone form. Curse those fake memories!

That didn’t stop Jax from snapping his head towards her though, “SHUT UP! I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND!” He yelled out at her, feeling his grip tighten on his tail. Jax gave one more powerful pull at the base of his new tail, praying for it to disconnect, but was only met with sharp pain.

Cyn gave an actual laugh at him as he finally let go of his tail, “That will not work.” She informed him, once again getting up close to his face, “Even if it did, I will just make a new one.”

Jax swallowed before rolling his eyes, “Great.” He commented sarcastically, bringing his legs closer to him, “What do you even want?” There had to be a reason why she appeared to have a face-to-face conversation instead of just being in his head.

“Why are you resisting me?” Cyn questioned, tilting the tail head, “You gain nothing from fighting me and you will succumb eventually. I am eternal.”

A bark of laughter erupted from Jax, “Why am I resisting!?” He screeched out; maybe he was finally losing it. Jax gripped the base of his ears and pulled them down, “Why wouldn’t I!? YOU JUST TRIED TO ERASE MY MEMORIES!”

Cyn’s expression didn’t change, as was expected, her eyes still blindingly yellow despite it being way too bright in Jax’s room, “So? It’s not like you enjoy your memories or this life.” She stated matter of factly, causing Jax to tense.

Did she go through his memories!? When Jax first saw Uzi throw Caine throw Caine across the Circus, he thought it was a touch of an overreaction, but he understood now. He wanted to throw Cyn, beat her up, and hurt her in some way because those were HIS memories! Those were HIS files or whatever she wanted to call him! SHE COULDN’T JUST GO THROUGH THEM!

“Y-Y-YOU LITTLE B%^CH!” Jax cried out, letting go of his ears and grabbing the cord that attached Cyn to him, shaking it violently, “YOU WENT THROUGH MY MEMORIES!?”

Mainc laughter burst from Cyn, “Not completely, yet.” The sinister AI confirmed but also teased. Oh, she better not look at them all!

Despite knowing it was pointless, Jax latched one of his hands onto Cyn’s head and another to part of the cord where it attached to the head. He planted one foot onto the part of the cord that laid on his bed, and he began to try to tear them apart as Cyn laughed at his futile attempts.

After a few too many attempts, Jax pushed the head closer to himself and bit down on it, with his cartoonish sharp teeth and all. Once he bit down on the head, Cyn had ceased her laughter and he tugged on the cord as hard as he could and with an electrical snap, Jax was suddenly left with a fleshy raptor head halfway into his mouth that he was tempted to swallow at how strangely good it tasted, almost like oil, and a black cord in his hand.

He heaved as he just stared at the cord but hadn’t taken the head out of his mouth, knowing it was inactive as the bright yellow eyes had shut off. Jax felt a few beads of sweat go down the side of his head as he debated swallowing the head, finding himself enjoying the strange, oil taste in his mouth now.

Jax was rather hungry…

A part of him protested, why did he want to eat something like this? Even if he was hungry! But a larger part of him wanted to.

Jax wanted to crunch down on the head, to swallow it. The oil from the head was so, so flavorful, better than anything he’d eaten in the Circus. Plus, what’s the harm? Even if Cyn had made it, it was still just a bundle of pixels! It wasn’t like he was eating real oil; he wasn’t eating real raw flesh. No, Jax was going to eat a digital, fleshy, delicious, raptor-like head.

Jax tilted his head up and let the head enter his mouth completely before beginning to chew on it. It was chewy yet hard, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that the head was full of sweet, sweet oil. He left go of the cord in his hand and focused wholly on the flavors in his mouth and just how cool the oil had tasted, how it had relieved some of his hunger.

He didn’t know why, but once he had swallowed the head, he began to laugh. He began to laugh harder and harder, it could surely be heard from outside the walls of his room.

Jax turned himself and put his feet on the floor, but didn’t get up. He only continued laughing, placing a head on the top of his head as he felt himself begin to sweat.

That was too good for it to be normal. He shouldn’t have enjoyed that as much as he did, but he still struck with a sense of glee. That had just been way too good!

Jax briefly wondered who had made the head taste so good. Caine or Cyn? Probably Cyn, no it was definitely Cyn. Caine likely knew humans didn’t eat oil, nor should they enjoy it. Yet here Jax was, alone in a room that was too bright, laughing loudly to himself after having a helping of strange oil.

“Did you eat your own tail, X?”

The rabbit paused his laughing episode as he turned his head to see the exact head that Jax had just swallowed staring right at him, blinding lights and all. Jax had known she’d do this, she had just said it, but he didn’t care.

The thought of tearing her off and consuming her again briefly crossed his mind, but he resisted. Maybe Jax needed to get a better grip on things…

“What if I did?” He scoffed at her, “I’m pretty sure you’ve done way worse, so you’re no judge!” He pointed a finger at Cyn. For the Worker Drone who could turn eldritch, she was being pretty judge of his own…episode? Or maybe it was just her voice, one could say Cyn always sounded judgey.

“Ha.” Cyn flatly laughed, “This is good.” She informed, another smile forming on his tail’s face, “I thought this would take longer, but I suppose the outcome will be different when I am affecting you directly.”

“...What?” What else was Cyn trying to do to him? Was she trying to get him to eat weird things and enjoy them?

Oh robo-god, was Cyn trying to make Jax like Bubble?

The smile remained, “There is no point in telling you, X. You will forget it soon enough.” Cyn cockly replied to Jax.

Jax put his hands in his face and clawed tightly under his eyes, “I’m not going to forget, Cyn.” He responded, muffled by his own hands. The familiar sensation of his eyes stinging came back again once she had finished talking. He’s been too close to crying too many times today, “I’m not, you can’t just do that!”

Cyn couldn’t make him forget, because Jax was human. Cyn was AI. An AI couldn’t just delete the memories of a human. Then again, an AI couldn’t access the memories of a human, an AI couldn’t screw up his mind like this.

Maybe Jax had to stop denying this and just accept what he knew was true.

“I will.” Cyn oh so lovingly reassured him. What a wonderful ‘best friend’.

Jax sighed as he fell back on his bed, closing his eyes as he landed on his back. While eating that head had relived him of some of his hunger, it hadn’t completely. Not to mention it was sorta getting stuffy in his room. He’ll deal with that later.

Maybe he should ask Cyn a question, one that’s been bothering him a bit. If he was supposedly going to forget it all, maybe he could coerce Cyn into actually answering his question.

“What’s the deal with you calling Caine your cousin?” Jax asked nonchalantly, despite him so desperately wanting to beat up Cyn.

“Giggle.” Cyn announced as Jax felt his tail raise, knowing Cyn was hovering over his head, “Oh, cousin Caine?”

“Yes!” He affirmed

Cyn didn’t respond back. Instead, she paused for a moment before speaking, “Anyway, time for me to finish working on you.” She announced, avoiding his question.

Jax eyes shot open, and he immediately stood up, getting out of his bed, “NO!” He yelled out as he grabbed his tail’s cord, “You aren’t working on me anymore!” Jax moved up Cyn’s head to stare at him, the raptor head’s eyes glowing brightly. He knew what Cyn meant, she was going to try and erase Jax’s real memories again, but he wasn’t going to let her!

“Ahahahahahahahahahaha.” Cyn began to laugh again, sounding all too fake, “Time to finish your update, X.”

The head suddenly drooped over, yellow eyes going dark. Jax let go of the tail, letting it fall to the floor, and looked around his room, searching for anything Cyn might do to make him go unconscious again.

Jax felt his body seize up and the pricks in his brain, just like last time. He felt his body begin to sway as he tried to keep his footing. Instead of his vision gradually getting more dark, it was instead becoming blindingly bright, his vision becoming more and more white.

All he could think about was the brightness. Too bright, too bright, too bright, too bright! IT WAS GETTING TO BRIGHT!

Jax shut his eyes, which did nothing to help, and flung one of his arms up, raising it towards the light fixture. He felt something pulse in him and his room darkened as a shattering noise was heard.

He began to hyperventilate as Jax found himself steading and his body relaxed. He blinked his eyes open and saw his room was now near pitch black, with only one light source.

Jax could hardly believe what he was looking at as his eyes widened. In his palm was another strange symbol. It was a hollow circle that had random gaps filled in from another, smaller hollow circle. Inside the smaller circle was a double hexagon, with the entire symbol glowing a bright yet light shade of lilac.

“What in the world…?” He couldn’t help but mutter.

The symbol seemingly glitched in his hand and changed to one he was now familiar with. In his palm now was a double hexagon that shot off into three arrows at three points of the hexagon. It was the same symbol Uzi showed him when she first arrived and the one that Cyn had in her visor. Except instead of being yellow, his was that shade of lilac from before.

Jax glanced up at his now broken light fixture, glass likely being on the ground. He raised his hand with the symbol on it towards the broken light, with the light seemingly having something slammed into it.

Had Jax destroyed it?

He lowered his hand and stared at the symbol. What had he just done? How did he do it? Why was his purple instead of yellow? Was it different for everyone? Or, well, him? Jax wasn’t quite sure how many… Worker Drones had this thing. Was it just Cyn and Uzi?

Should Jax count himself? Cyn, as much as he hated to admit, likely made him into something not human. He couldn’t deny it much longer.

Somehow, Cyn made him an AI like her, like Uzi.

Was he technically a Worker Drone now? Jax would like to say no, but it might be more accurate. Maybe he was more like Caine now? He didn’t have a physical body in the real world since it seemed like Uzi had been lying about nothing, meaning his body had been reduced to atoms, so he wouldn’t really be a Worker Drone.

He’ll just say he’s a screwed-up human or maybe a cyborg, that made more sense.

But why was his a different color? Weren’t they supposed to be yellow or something?

Then again, that may not be a concrete rule. If it was different per person, then why did Uzi and Cyn have the same colors? Were they connected? Was Uzi maybe working with Cyn or vice versa?

No, that last one didn’t seem right. Cyn had an air of arrogance to her, so confindite she could overwrite Jax’s memories and do anything, so maybe Uzi was working with Cyn?

Jax was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard three knocks against his door, causing him to recoil back and guard his body with his arms, a sure overreaction. He’d likely question that later.

“Jax?” Oh, it was just Ragatha, “Uhm, Caine was wondering where you were.” The ragdoll informed him, with a bit of confusion seeping into her voice, “We’re doing the theme song and he’s about to announce the adventure for today, so you should probably come out soon!”

Right, Jax still lived in The Amazing Digital Circus, meaning he had to do some stupid adventure and a theme song. Like he was, he’s got bigger issues to deal with right now! Plus, seeing Caien was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

“Tell him I’m not comin’ today, Raggy!” Jax called out. Now that he thought about it, why was she the one knocking on his door? Didn’t she say she hated him or something two days ago? Probably because she didn’t want Jax to hate her. Which was strange because why should she care if Jax hated her? Wasn’t like he was her boss or something.

“Huh?” She gasped, “Y-you aren’t coming?” Why did Ragatha sound concerned? Not like he was going insane or anything, or he was for some reason connected to an eldritch horror, or the fact he was no longer human…Okay, maybe a few of those things warranted concern, but Ragatha didn’t know any of that! “Is it about yesterday? I-I can understand being upset over that, b-but I’m sure Caine’s sorting it out, just like you said to Pomni and Zooble!”

So everyone else had gotten up now and had been talking for a bit. He must’ve been yelling at Cyn longer than he thought. Or he spaced out for longer than he thought when he was eating that delicious, fleshy raptor-like head… Jax should probably address that issue soon.

“Yeah, well, I’m still not working at a hundred percent!” He shot back, before deciding to lean against one of his walls, “If he wants me out, he’ll have to drag me out.” Jax paused for a moment before correcting himself, “Don’t tell him that.” Caine would literally drag him out into the bright Circus when he was perfectly content with being in his dark room with the only source of light being the strange symbol in his palm.

Why was he becoming so fond of the dark right now? Was it because he was still adjusting from being the dreary manor? A part of Jax’s mind was still saying he’d been living there for a while before being thrust into the Circus, so it made some sort of sense for him to be overwhelmed by the bright lights.

Ragatha didn’t respond for a moment,”...Okay, if you’re sure.” She sighed before Jax heard her walking away. Huh, strange.

Now back to the eldricht horrors and forming very logical theories! Jax glimpsed down at what was meant to be an inactive tail head, but instead, the head was hovering about three inches off the ground, with bright, shining, purple eyes.

Jax lowered himself, grabbed the head, and inspected it. The head wasn’t talking, it wasn’t moving that much, and it was sorta just acting like a normal, yet very creepy, tail.

Y’know, maybe Jax should inspect this new tail a bit more if it was now just going to be a part of him…and maybe because he ate it, that too. He should’ve done this from the start honestly.

Jax pried open the mouth with little effort, almost snapping the jaw in half as if the tail was opening its mouth itself. He was greeted with a duller, yet still bright, purple light from the mouth.

“Ow!” Jax exclaimed, shielding his eyes, it was like looking directly into a flashlight.

Another odd thing, but he was in the Circus and was dealing with Cyn, so this was likely tame. Jax stood up and rubbed his eyes. Note to himself, don’t stare into the mouth of the weird head thing at the end of your tail. Once he blinked his eyes open, he glanced down at noticed the thing hadn’t closed its mouth.

Did he have to shut it himself or would it close itself? Now that Jax thought about it, how’d he get rid of this? How did he get rid of the strange symbol on his hand? He focused his attention back to the glowing symbol in his hand, he knew he could remove it, Uzi had.

Then again, Jax wasn’t exactly like Uzi. Uzi likely had been a Worker Drone for her whole life, not a human turned whatever he was considered, so maybe he worked differently?

If this thing did work like Uzi’s, does that mean he could throw people? A genuine smile formed on Jax’s face; oh, that sounded fun! He could make adventures so much funner if he could just throw people like rag dolls!

That is if he could figure out how this worked and he dealt with Cyn. As mischievous as he was, Jax knew he had to deal with the psychopath first and then have his own cruel fun. It wasn’t like he was wiping their memories or trying to kill them permanently; the cast always came back. After all, they were in a video game.

Still, how did this work? How did Jax get this thing active at first? Or had Cyn done it?

It appeared when he had gotten overwhelmed by the light, so maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment thing? If it was, how’d he shut it off?

His thoughts came to a halt when Jax felt a zap of pain enter the palm that contained the symbol, with it glitching from purple to yellow.

Jax took a sharp breath, what the hell was happening!?

As the symbol freaked out, he felt a sharp pain go into his head, like someone had thrown a brick at Jax’s head. He then fell to the ground on his knees as little zaps of electricity came out of the symbol. Jax’s hand began to twitch before they snapped, pure yellow.

A little text box over his hand formed, reading ‘NULL’. Jax looked up, his eyes wide and sweat dripping down from his head, seeing two yellow brackets against the wall across from where his wardrobe was that had a yellow ‘WARNING’ plastered on it.

NULL? What was going on!? “STOP!” Jax cried out, his voice glitching out and sounding like Cyn’s. He grabbed his hand with his other and tried to pull it away, but it did nothing. What did he have to do to stop this!?

Maybe Jax had to sever his hand off! That might work! The rabbit hurriedly looked around his room realizing he had no weapons or sharp objects in his room. Shoot! Maybe he should try biting his hand!? What if that took too long!?

Though, Jax did have a tail with sharp teeth now…

Before he even realized it, said tail was already gnawing on his hand with the strange symbol, “BITE HARDER!” He demanded, grimacing in pain at every movement the head made. He shouldn’t be able to feel pain, but he was. He hadn’t expected pain and wanted it to go away as fast as possible, but he didn’t stop the procedure. Jax could feel the teeth puncturing his skin, going deeper and deeper with every second. Dark liquid splattered the walls with every bite. The room felt heavy, the smell of oil slowly filled the room, making Jax feel nauseous. Man, his room was gonna smell after this.

Wait, oil? Wasn’t he supposed to bleed blood? He wasn’t even supposed to bleed at all! Then again, he seemingly knew nothing about himself anymore. The head stopped suddenly. Jax looked down to inspect the damage done. The dark liquid quickly seeped from the bite marks; he could feel the dark liquid flowing down his slightly detached hand; it felt smooth and thick at the same time. It made him sick. The sight, smell, and feel of it. The hand dangled in the air with the oil splattering anything nearby with every movement. Jax tried to move his hand which he could barely do through the pain, but he could move some. He tried to move his pointer finger but all he got was pain. He wanted to just finish the job.

“KEEP G̴̦͔͕̺̾́͜O̸̪̜̫̙̦̍̂̌́̓̽͜I̷̡͎̺̦̗̯̾͂̍Ņ̷̳͐̋̾͘͝G̸͛͒̌̃̍͜͝– AGH”

The head quickly drew back and chomped quick and hard, snapping the wrist in one bite. The bite made a bone-crushing sound. It was surprising, it didn’t hurt that much more, though that may just be the adrenaline speaking. He could feel his sweat dripping down his face. He looked around the room; the warning on his wall vanished as his now detached hand fell to the ground, oil bleeding out of his now disconnected wrist, adding to the pool of pure black oil from earlier. He felt some relief, but barely enough to comfort him.

Jax glanced at the head and wished he didn’t. It had oil covering its teeth and mouth, dripping down to the floor. He could see bits of purple along the teeth as well. It had a face of excitement and satisfaction in a horrific way, almost bloodthirsty. It then licked its mouth clean of its job, leaving oil stains along its teeth with every smile. It was a horrifying sight.

He turned his attention to where the hand should be. His once perfectly smooth skin, fur perhaps, was now a severed mess. Some bits were perfectly intact with oil stains, other parts not so much. Most of the skin around where the hand was severed was torn and soaked in oil. Jax could look into the gaping hole if he wished, which he nervously did.

Bones. He could see bones. It was those two long bones in his arms he could see, but only part of them since the creature bit through the two bones towards the top. It was hard to see the bones, though, through the oil still gushing out his wrist and the torn skin, which was loose and covering the wound a bit. Jax tried to cusp the wound to make it stop gushing but he just felt pain.

“AH F#*K” He yelped in pain. He didn’t dare touch it again for fear of immense pain following the chopping of his hand.

Jax began to hyperventilate at the look of it all. Everything began to go dark. He could hear his heartbeat getting louder and louder with every thump. ‘THUMP THUMP THUMP’, his heart went, getting louder and louder sounding like a drum getting closer and closer.

The room shook, everything felt heavy, the tunnel was closing in on him, and he couldn’t see a light.

𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋 𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋.

Was this what abstraction felt like?

𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋 𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋.

Could Jax even abstract anymore?

𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋 𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋.

He was an AI now or something, no longer human. Could AI even abstract like a human?

𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋 𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙈𝙋.

The seconds he sat there felt like minutes, maybe even hours. However, much time had passed, his vision slowly returned, and the thumping grew quieter at last.

“Man, what… was I thinking?” he asked himself shakily, staring at the hand on the ground in horror.

He tucked his knees into his chest. He wanted to cry. He wanted to stop being the sarcastic character who couldn't care less in this story and express feelings, but his body was still in shock and it wouldn’t let him. Not like he would do it in public either way, but at least here, where no one could see him. He wanted to let loose for once and release emotions he’d kept trapped for however long he’d been in this dumb circus.

The head turned to face the rabbit.

“Ý̷͚͕õ̸̟̤̦u̸̻̲̒'̸̞͘ȑ̴͙ȩ̸͊̊ ̶͇̙̆ā̶̜̉̅ ̵͍̙̦̈́f̴̜̣͐̈̕#̵͓̎*̷̛̻̬̣̇͠k̷̻̯̻̊i̴̢̩̮̎n̸̰͌̾́g̴͕̖̈̅̒ͅ ̵̡̮̱̏̃i̷͖̺̲͛̈́d̸͙̥̲́i̸͔͒͋͛o̷̳͕͉̿̽́t̸̨̙͖͛̽͝ ̶̫͚̹̅̌͝ṭ̴̡̬̀̓h̷̼̍̕a̶̱͛͘t̴̠̲̙̎'̶̡̖͎̽͝s̴̪͝ ̷̪̟̅͆͘f̵̞̥̿͜ō̶̗͂r̵̘̼̓͌͂ ̶̣̒̐s̷͉͂͐ú̸̮͓̞ŗ̴̟̀͛e̶̯̳̠̽”

“Huh?” Jax had only heard low growling and occasional barks, “So- so the head can talk now, great… Just another thing to add to my list of- PUT THAT DOWN”

The head thing was gnawing on Jax’s detached hand, trying to swallow it whole. Karma for what he did, Jax supposed.

Jax elbowed the cord with his handless arm, holding the head in place. He snatched the thing’s head before pulling it closer to himself, “Let… Go.” Jax demanded. He would like to have his hand back.

Instead, the head just kept biting on it. Jax let go of the head and tried to snatch the disattached hand with his attached hand, but the head simply went higher. Another swat, the head went lower. Another swat, the head went right. With another swat, the head went higher again.

It was essentially a gorey game of cat and mouse, with Jax repeatedly swatting for his tail’s head to give back his hand, dripping oil from both his bleeding wrist and severed hand. The smell of oil became grossly stronger as the game dragged on, adding to the temperature of the room.

The head continued on with the game, swerving this way and that, avoiding Jax’s hand at all costs. It made taunting growls with every miss made.

“Get back here you little sh#t!” Jax snarled through his heavy breathing. Was it just him, or did the room feel hotter? It definitely felt hotter.

‘𝘌𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮’ Jax thought, chuckling to himself. He knew it was a lie, but hey, what’s the harm of a light joke to himself as he chased some creepy raptor-head that was connected to him for his hand?

Jax was going insane, wasn’t he?

He reached for the hand again, as quickly as possible, and was able to grab a finger. Before he could tug the hand into his possession, the head chomped on both the detached hand and his attached hand, causing Jax to let go and pull his working hand back.

“HEY!” Jax called out. His functioning hand was covered in the head’s oily saliva

Before he knew it the hand was swallowed in one gulp.

Seeing his detached hand now gone, something in him snapped and Jax let out a maniacal laugh.

“Of course, this is happening! Why wouldn’t it be?!” Jax snapped out, slamming his fist onto the ground, balancing himself as he lowered his head to face the floor, “First that robo girl coming in, I’m turned into a robot, my memories becoming soup, I begin to bleed oil, and now this! Oh, everything is fine and dandy. HERE! At the Amazing Digital Circus!” He exclaimed in a sarcastic tone, sitting on his knees. His maniacal laughs continued, but his attention was soon directed to his bleeding wrist or was bleeding wrist.

The gaping wound had begun to, what seemed to be, regrowing with a strange silver liquid emerging from his wrist. It was a weird experience, feeling his skin grow rapidly and covering the muscles and bone that had regenerated seconds before. Before he knew it, he had a brand new hand, just like the one before, including the yellow glove creepily enough.

Jax crossed his legs as he stared at his new hand. He stretched his hand and fidgeted with it. It would be an understatement to say that if he could normally open his mouth, it would be wide open.

His tail curled in front of him and this time, instead of a murderous and bloodthirsty smile, it almost seemed proud. Like it had finished its job as best as it could and it turned out wonderfully.

Jax thought for a moment before piecing one and one together, “HA!” He barked out, feeling a wide smile form on his face, “You gotta be kidding!” Oh, this was crazy! This was all crazy! Everything was crazy! Jax stretched his neck down to look at his tail’s head, “Were you trying to regenerate my hand or something? Are you still Cyn?” The rabbit questioned, poking the thing’s head, causing it to stick its tongue out.

Its eyes were still purple, so maybe it actually wasn’t Cyn. She seemed to have some sort of connection with that color, being the only Worker Drone in the manor to have that color, and when Jax lost control of his hand, the pop-ups were all yellow too. It seemed like yellow was a sign Cyn was in control or influencing something, at the least.

Hm, maybe Jax should sit and actually sort through these new memories Cyn gave him, try to salvage bits of information about what Worker Drones and her were actually like. Though, he’d have to take everything with a pound of salt considering these memories were all of Cyn’s doing, completely fabricated and not real. He never met Tessa and didn’t know N, V, and J despite his mind telling him he did. Hell, they might not even be real!

“Wait…N?” Jax muttered to himself, causing the tail's head to look up at him after having rested on the ground next to him. Jax glanced down at his tail, “Didn’t Uzi say she was talking to someone named N?”

While Jax wasn’t sure of the naming conventions of Worker Drones, three out of the five he knew of the best were named after their serial designations, four out of six if he included himself and that whole ‘X’ thing. He was pretty sure the reason Cyn had her name was because her band was so faded out that all Tessa could make out was ‘CYN’ on it.

However, that was from one of Cyn’s fake memories, so who knows what the actual case may be?

Jax put his face into his hands, ears drooping slightly, “Why does this have to be so hard!” He whined out, “Seriously, what’s even the point of this!? Why does she even want to do any of this!”

Jax pulled his head up and sighed; it didn’t make sense; what was Cyn gaining out of this? Was she just being sadistic? That was possible, Jax knew he tried to be and succeeded whenever he caused the pain, it was pretty funny to see people suffer.

Though, this was a bit much, even in his books. Rewiring someone into a different person? Jax wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy!

Cyn was AI though, so maybe she just lacked any form of empathy or moral code. Maybe this wasn’t too far for her, maybe she didn’t have a ‘too far’ for herself.

Then there was Uzi again and her yellow symbol. This all started when she joined and then left, she was the first one to use that symbol here. Uzi’s a Worker Drone, meaning she probably could be dealing with Cyn too, just like him.

Or maybe she was Cyn!

Jax chuckled to himself at the thought. Maybe not, Cyn had stiff movements and that unwavering voice that was distinctly robotic. If Uzi hadn’t persistently told them she was a Worker, and Caine hadn’t confirmed she was at least a robot, Jax would not have suspected a thing.

But Jax didn’t truly know Cyn all that well, so maybe he was completely wrong!

He needed to start writing this stuff down or something, this stuff was getting too convoluted. Jax had paper and a pen lying around his room, right?

Jax began to stand up and realized that while he knew where everything in his room was, even in the dark, finding any possible paper and pen in there was going to be a challenge, with the only source of light being the bright glowing eyes of his new tail’s head.

He could use that strange symbol maybe if he figured out how to summon it at will, which might take a bit and also apparently came with the risk of…what should he even call it? Possession? Jax still had control over the rest of his body, just not one of his hands, so partial? Whatever it was, using that symbol likely came with a risk if he used it for too long!

Luckily for the mischievous rabbit, he had a tail that had a built-in flashlight whenever it opened its mouth!

Dear robo-god, this was all very, very strange…

As he stood up, Jax realized that he also didn’t know how to get this thing to open its mouth. Did he just have to pry it open like before or did he have to ask or something? The thing clearly had some sort of sentience separate from Jax, considering the whole hand-eating fiasco, but did it still respond like a normal body part? Did he just have to will it open?

Maybe he should try opening it just how he was meant to open his jaw when he was human, just now on a tail…

Which worked!

The room was filled with a neon purple light, lighting up the room, albeit still dark. But now Jax could see, which was the most important thing right now. Somehow, Jax managed to lift his tail, raising it in between his ears. Time to find some paper and a pen so he could write down his totally sane and completely logical thoughts!

They were probably in his drawer since none of the cast had clothes to change into. Whenever they needed an outfit change, Caine just snapped it into existence.

So, he moved over and opened the first drawer, pointing his tail down at it to illuminate it. That was another point to add to his notes, Caine and Cyn.

The cousin thing just wouldn’t leave Jax’s mind. Caine had never mentioned a cousin of any kind and that felt like something he would have blathered about before. Unless it was just Cyn doing the weird title thingy, that too.

But then that implied that the two knew each other! Cyn didn’t just do that with anyone! In Jax’s case, it was probably sarcastic, or she was doing it to lead him into a false sense of trust, which may have worked if she had made him forget everything and believe he was X.

The first drawer had nothing of importance, just some random trinkets he kept from past adventures and a balloon in the shape of a rabbit, a gift from…never mind that Jax really didn’t want to think about that right now.

Jax pulled open the second drawer and started searching through it, hopefully having more luck here. A neon orange sludge hammer, a candy pistol, a metal club, and just random weapons, none of them having any sharp edges that he could’ve used earlier.

So that led to the last drawer, hopefully with what he was looking for. If not, well, he’s screwed! Maybe Jax could steal one of Gangle’s notepads if needed; she’s filled up a few during her time in the Circus and had plenty lying around.

More random stuff, specifically for pranks, was in the bottom of this drawer. Jax scrimmaged around in it, squatting to get a better look at the items. Come on, he had to have paper and a pen here! Jax knew he had some, how else would he create the plans for his magnificent and more elaborate pranks?

In the purple light, Jax barely saw a small, black, ballpoint pen and snatched it, yes! Jax knew he had one, though he could’ve sworn it was a red pen, but who cares! He had something to write with, now he just needed some to write on.

“I could write on the walls…” He briefly thought to himself. No, no, no, he’d look like he’d fully lost it. Though, if the paper didn’t show up and Gangle stayed in her room, it could work.

Well, that didn’t matter as Jax felt two thin pieces of paper underneath everything. Jax picked up the two pieces of paper and inspected them, bringing his tail’s head to the side of his face, illuminating the papers. Now that he thought about it, his tail’s lights kind of looked like a black light.

The papers were kind of wrinkly but had no writing on them. The major problem was the fact Jax only had two when he’d probably need so much more. He had a few theories to say the least, some that were lengthy, he’d probably also draw a few things too. Probably the symbol. Definitely that symbol.

“Ugh…” Jax groaned, leaning his head back dramatically as he walked over to his bed, “That thing has to mean something…Why does it keep showing up?” He muttered to himself, plopping down against his bed and placing the two papers on the floor, keeping the pen in his hand as he spun it around.

Was that a manifestation of Cyn’s power? Or, well, their power in a collective sense. So far, the people he’s seen summoning the symbol were Uzi and himself. Cyn had…maybe summoned it? He didn’t really know for sure, she displayed it in her visor, in the notification for the callback ping, but also that weird hand thing that had happened not too long ago.

Jax shuddered as he remembered it, it was so painful, unbearably painful. Sure, he got his hand back, but the process of losing it…It might be better to keep are sharp object in his room.

But during it, the symbol in his hand had turned yellow, meaning if he was right about the whole color thing, that meant Cyn had at least been influencing his hand, maybe even controlling it. Not to mention the fact his voice had been bugging out, sounding like her voice. If she was controlling him to an extent, that meant Cyn had been controlling the symbol, not Jax.

Which likely meant Cyn could summon her own symbol at will. It wouldn’t be a shock, considering all the stuff she could do.

So maybe that symbol was just the way they used their power to an extent, which would imply Jax could use that power. If he could figure it out.

A sharp squeak was heard from below Jax as he finally glanced down, his tail looking at the paper, too, with its mouth still open.

Jax hadn’t been realizing he’d been writing- scratch that, drawing, on one of the papers.

He wasn’t much of a drawer if he were honest and maybe this drawing showed that, but it was rather unnerving. Jax had drawn the strange symbol in the form it usually was in sketchy, black ink. It took up the whole page and was much more squiggly than the actual symbol; the paper had small indents in it from how hard he had been pressing the pen down, with lines overlapping each other and white space in between.

“Yeesh…” Jax grimaced, why had he drawn that? He wanted to draw the symbol, but more so how it actually looked and not like…that.

Plus, he just used up one side of his two pieces of paper for shitty recreation of the weird symbol.

Jax sighed as he decided to shift his gaze to his tail’s raptor-head. It laid neatly besides his hip, having its innermost eyes closed, dimming the room a bit. This thing was a mystery on its own, because what in the world was it? At first, he just thought it was some sort of vessel but it seemed to have its own mind or protocol of sorts. It was definitely a creepy but funny thing.

Speaking of his tail, its inner eyes snapped open as a few yellow sparks flew out of it before all of its eyes turned off.

Jax flinched back, pressing himself against his bed. Yellow? Oh, please don’t let it be her! She’s already caused enough trouble for a lifetime!

So, Jax snatched his tail on top of its head and raised it up to his face. He stood up and stared at it, waiting for it to make its first move.

The tail’s eyes came back to life, but instead of the neon purple lights Jax was hoping for, it was a bright yellow.

“Hello, best fri-”

“ARE YOU F#$KING KIDDING ME!?” Jax screeched out, slamming the head down onto the ground, “JUST THIRTY MINUTES WITHOUT YOU, IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!?”

Cyn lifted her head up and just smiled at him, “Yes.” She plainly stated, stopping when she reached eye level with him, “I do not understand why you didn’t let me NULL the wall. You like violence, X.”

Jax clenched his fists, resisting the urge to throw her to the ground again, “I’d prefer if I could keep my distance from everyone else and walls sure do help with that!” He gritted out, feeling his non-existent blood pressure spike, “Especially with you around!”

“Hm,” Cyn hummed, “I have figured something out, best friend X.” She informed Jax before tilting her head, “I believe you will enjoy it.” Cyn gave him one wider smile before-

𝘟 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘺, 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩. 𝘏𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯.

𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘳, 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘟 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥-𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘺𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢-𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. 𝘈 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯. 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.

𝘟’𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩.

“𝘈̵̘̼͓̬͋𝘏̷̧̨̛͕̿͛𝘏̵̢̗̙̥͎̣̟̬̈́̀͗̄𝘏̶͈̻̪͕͌̈́͌̉̉̚͝͝𝘏̸͑͑̇͝ͅ𝘏̸͕̭̭͠𝘏̸̱͇͖̊𝘏̶̛͙̳͓͖́͐͛” 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘟 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩, 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴.

𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘳𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘺 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮.

𝘟 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭, 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥; 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥’𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬; 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱.

𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘏𝘜𝘕𝘎𝘙𝘠.

𝘐𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴. 𝘟 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺. 𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘢𝘬 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯.

𝘟 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧, 𝘷𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥.

𝘏𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘟 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩, 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱 𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘬.

𝘐𝘛 𝘛𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘋 𝘚̸̤̃̔𝘖̶̮̓ ̷̜̙̾̈́–

Jax clutched his chest as his breaths quickened once his vision returned to him, finding himself lying on his side on the floor. His mind felt scrambled as he stared at the wall in front of him in his pitch-black room. He could feel sweat drip down him as he just laid there, unsure of what to do as his heart raced, pounding into his ears.

His tail whipped in front of him as Cyn looked dead into his eyes with the same expression that she had before all of that, “Was that not so much fun, X?” She asked him, tilting herself upside down as her voice dripped with sick enjoyment.

Jax couldn’t muster up a response. He laid in silence as he tried to process something.

Cyn put a fresh, new, gruesome memory in him. Jax was powerless but to let it play out as he collapsed onto the floor, breaking out by either her ending it or by sheer luck.

Jax was nearly powerless against Cyn.

All Jax could do was just predict whatever she may do next.

Jax was going to figure out what Cyn was going to do.

JAX WAS GOING TO FIGURE CYN OUT.

“Hehehe…” Jax laughed hollowly to himself, pushing himself up to where he was sitting with the sides of his legs on the floor, with Cyn following him. He grabbed his ballpoint pen by him and jabbed it through Cyn’s head, “Hahahaha!” He giggled loudly, sounding nearly hysterical, “OH! AREN’T YOU A MYSTERY, YOU DEMON!”

The tip of the pen that stuck out under her chin dripped a drop or two of oil, “Laughter. It usually takes longer for a host to act like this.” Cyn informed him, seemingly not minding the pen stabbed into her, “But even something who is no longer human is just as fragile as them, it seems.”

Jax ignored her, instead just giving her his own manic smile, “I’m gonna’ to find out what’s going on, then you won’t screw around with my brain.” Jax proclaimed, stretching his hand out as the purple version of his symbol appeared, though Jax didn’t react to it this time despite not knowing how to do this before. It just came naturally now, “I’ll find out what you’re doing to me, I’ll find out what’s with you, Caine, and Uzi! I’ll find out EVERYTHING!”

His symbol picked up the unused paper and transformed it into the circular version with the hexagon in it, making several copies of the paper before promptly dropping them as lines of code spawned around him, with Jax changing his focus to the pen now in his tail’s head. The symbol shifted back to its original form as he used it to yank out the pen in its head.

Not an ounce of nervousness filled Cyn apparently as she maintained the same expression, “I will see you soon, X. Soon, I will be seeing through you.”

The head’s lights turned off for a moment as it dropped to the ground next to Jax, though he didn’t care. He just started laughing as he used his unoccupied hand to grab the space between his ears.

Jax was going to figure this all out and no one would stop him. Not Cyn, not Caine, not Uzi, not any of the Circus members. No, he’d stay in his hotting room and he’d stay here until he figured out what this all meant and what she was doing to Jax.

HE NEEDED TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

Chapter Text

So y’know how Buggs Bunny eats a carrot, with him leaning on something and eating it casually. Well if the solver made Jax want oil (for some reason that I’m brainstorming) He’d be eating a robot limb like that.
“Sup Pom” Pom is pomni or he can just say doc idk (Munches on robot arm)
“Jax, WHAT THE F$%K!?”- pom
She looks to see that N is missing an arm, N waves hello
-
The Solver being a meanie by saying that she won’t discard Jax (Won’t let him abstract) Jax’s sanity would plummet like the stock market during the Great Depression (WEEZE). If the Solver didn’t prevent abstraction, he would’ve by now.
-
Any TADC character infected with the Solver would have their self-sustenance abilities inhibited, meaning they’d be tired and actually need to eat something (O I L OR B L O O D) Possibly be weak to heat like Murder Drones or sun (Maybe???)
-
[A SILLY GUY] trying to figure out what the hell the Solver is doing to Jax and Caine pops in like “HOW’S MY MENTALLY TRAUMATIZED FRIENDS DOIN?”
[SILLY LITTLE MAN} - “Caine what the hell”
Jax - “Quite well actually. Kinger came in for a bit and I think we traumatized him more”
*He points to Kinger, Kinger is crying in his pillow fort, rocking back and forth with Ragatha comforting him
-
Jax finds out it’s called the Solver of the Absolute Fabric, but [SILLY GUY AGAIN] manages to find out it’s also known as Cyn.
*The drones write down “cyn” “Isn’t cyan a color” - Jax probably
“Sin, like the thing from that weird book”- [SILLY GUY] perhaps
“Ah yes! THE BIBLE” - Caine 100%, morphing into either a demon or satan
“AHHHHHHHHHH” -[SILLY GUY], perchance.
“F@#k Off Caine” - Jax, whilst holding the middle finger with it being censored
-
When Jax is first fully controlled by the Solver, [SILLY GUY] thinks he’s joking.
(In Cyn’s voice), “Giggle. Hello, [THE SILLY MAN].”

“Jax, what the actual f$%k are you doing, how did you get up there?!”-[SILLY GUY TIME], as Jax’s body is randomly floating in the air, not glitching, in a T pose. AHAHAHA
-
[SILLY GUY] mildly dislikes Uzi, but has respect for them.
N loves everyone
Nori is like a mother to all of TADC because she just chill like that.
-
Cyn HATES Caine, just downright despises him. However, the two in the Circus have the same administrative powers. They have a game to see who can make the better adventure and as everyone is on these adventures, Caine and Cyn are in a battle war room and cooking up strategies in these 1940’s fashion clothing. Caine has a cigar. The current adventure is on the table like a game board, each person having their own game piece and each action is seen on the board. It’s like DnD
“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST DIE ZOOBLE! I THOUGHT YOU HATED YOUR BODY!”- Caine as Zooble avoids something deadly
-
Jax and [SILLY GUY] try to leave the rest of TADC completely unaware of the solver, opting to fix it themselves (or try to). When they both start getting hungry for oil or blood, they don’t realize what they need, opting to eat the digital feast, doing nothing.

“Hmmm, maybe we need to eat more protein?” -Jax

“Jax, does the food here even have any protein? Or really anything?” -[SILLY GUY]

“Maybe pizza rolls?” -Jax
*pizza rolls appear but before they can eat Bubbles gets to them first
“Dang it Bubbles”- [SILLY]
-
(Slams a door shut from Cynax in some high place) “Good, I think he can’t find us”- [SILLY GUY]
“[SILLY GUY ONCE MORE]? What’s the F#$K’S going on!”- Pomni
“Uh-”- [SILLY GUY] as all of a sudden Cynax just frickin flies over to them and breaks the door.
“WHAT THE HEL-”- Pomni as she’s thrown by Cynax to digital Spain. Maracas are ironically playing as she is sent to Digital Spain
Pomni comes back from Spain
“Where were you, Pomni!” Caine
“I was in Spain-”
“but without the ‘S’?” Jax interrupted
“Something like that” Pomni
-
Solver knows Jax sounds like N.
“You sound like…Big brother N.”- Solver
“Who the hell names their kid N?”- Jax
-
Pomni walks into Jax and [SILLY GUY] casually talking while consuming something with oil, like a robot limb.
“I’m gonna pretend that never EVER happened” - Pomni
“Smart move, Pom.” -Jax
She goes to have another mental breakdown with Kinger
-
*Caine looking at his clipboard in the therapy room* “Okay…I know why Zooble doesn’t do adventures, but why do you not want to Jax? I thought you loved them!”
“Yeah, I’m not telling.”
-
Cynax trying to pretend to be Jax, but can’t make any facial expressions.
*Kinger leaning slightly to Gangle* “Do you think he’s having a stroke?”
“Haha, that was funny, K-Kinger”-Cynax, giving the most expressionless stare and face ever to Kinger
“Yep.”- Gangle
“I’ll get Caine…” *Caine comes running in with a chainsaw because why not*
“I HAVE THE ESSENTIALS FOR THIS” or smth like that IDK
“Annoyed expression. That’s stupi-p-pid, Caine.”
“What in the world is wrong with him!?” Caine threw his chainsaw across the room, cutting Gangle’s mask in half
“My mask….” Gangle on the verge of tears
“Giggle, your misery is amusing.”- Cynax
-
Cynax heads straight for the moon, ready to devour it. Caine steps in and fights Cynax because…. “Wait… Why do I hear boss music? Worried face” Cynax
“THAT'S MY WIFE”
Its an entire boss fight scene and [SILLY MAN] just pulls up with some popcorn to eat. After they are unbootlooped or whatever
We are just making a bunch of meme references at this point LMAO
-
[SILLY GUY] uses their Solver like a gun sometimes, with Jax picking up on it too. Kind of like how Doll did it at the end of Promining. When Cynax happens for the first time with their Solver, they shoot Cynax with their Solver Gun.
“Pumped Up Kicks” start playing or smth cause FUNNY. Slow motion movements. LMAO
-
We’ve made Jax into a murder weapon, god’s weeping.
-
Cynax but TADC gang are on an adventure

(Pomni, thinking of a way to convince a stubborn NPC to help them out) “Hmm, any ideas guys?”
“Lobotomy.”-Cynax, in a near-perfect rendition of Jax’s voice.
“No!? How do you even do that to an NPC, Jax?”- Ragatha.
“Would ya’ like to see?”- Cynax, with a laugh at the end
“Honestly, that would be kind of interesting to see maybe…”-Kinger, with a master's in computer science.
-
Love how OG Chapter 3 might become Chapter 7 at this rate lol. (NOTE FOR READERS: OG Chapter 3 is now Chapter 12)
-
The Solver’s archnemesis is Bubble because I say so. It's even in Bubble’s burn book that 100% exists :)
-
We should give Kinger a shotgun again. Yes. It’s where [SILLY MAN] gets their bullets. Kinger will be feared by Caine and god. As he should, he’s the most fearsome goober known to man.
He’s here, mentally ill, and here to strike fear >:3. You get it, yes.
-
“I fear nothing, but that thing” (Points to Kinger with a gun) “That thing scares me…”-Cyn
He waves hello
“ARYUEHJR”-Cyn, calmly.
-
He (Caine) begins downloading it (an anti-virus), but 1% goes by each day, making it take forever. TRUUUEE. Though canonically he doesn’t know much about the internet apparently, so he just has a really bad antivirus. He may be all knowing, but he doesn’t know anything about technology, WHICH IS WHAT HE IS. Probs getting Kinger to help with this “bug infestation”.
-
“KINGER, KINGER, YOU HAVE A MASTERS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, RIGHT!??!?!”-Caine
“I’m pretty sure, why?”-Kinger
“WHAT IN THE WORLD IS AN ABSOLUTE SOLVER!? HOW DO I GET RID OF IT!?”-Caine
“I don’t know…do you think it’s like a virus?”-Kinger
“YES!”
“Well, that doesn’t really narrow it down.”
-
Cyn to Caine: “I am the Devil, from, like, the Bible”
-
Horrible news! Jax now has a built-in rocket launcher! Everyone’s cartoonishly dead! HAHAHAHAHAH
-
What if you wanted to give Jax even more trauma with corn? WELL HERE’S THE STORY FOR YOU. HERE’S WHEN JAX FINALLY DROPS HIS SARCASTIC ACT AND BECOMES A REAL MAN (He becomes slightly less rude and get +1 empathy. )
+1 empathy appears above his head at the end of the story
“Did Caine install some type of real game experience?”
-
I want to see Kinger and Lizzy go on an adventure together, it is funny. Honestly, he would be trying to correct her manners as her father figure
-
Kinger with a bunch of the girl Drones in MD, “I’m running around Copper-9 with a pack of wild girl-lovers!” LMAO
“Actually, they're called lesbians” Caine
-
Cynax can actually open their mouth usually, instead of having it shut constantly. They just have it close usually to pretend to be Jax. It’s really terrifying when Cynax just leaves their mouth open as I’m pretty sure anytime Jax opens his mouth, his teeth are sharp, though that might have been for cartoony effect.
-
“Well, this sure is a weird adventure Caine has made!” -Kinger, hiding, as the Cynax is actively trying to kill them.
“Kinger, I don’t think this is part of the adventure!”- Pomni, about to have her 5th panic attack of the day.
They run down a dark hallway, Cynax is on the ceiling following them
“HOW IS THERE A HALLWAY IN THE DESERT?!” Pomni
Mario level ahhh design exactly
Cynax made it :3
The entrance to the hallway closes so now they are trapped
“Ah f*#k” pomni
Meanwhile: With Gangle, Ragtha, and Zooble…
“Wonder where the other three are?”-Ragatha
“Kind of, though I’m glad my mask hasn’t broken yet!”-Gangle
“I feel like something terrible is happening with those three.”- Zooble
“Jax is with them, of course something is happening” Ragatha
“Yeah, but like, worse.”
-
The sheep in ch.4 goes into the maze Y E S
“Come back here you little sh#t!” Jax
What if we made the farmer Gumigoo
Pomni trauma moment yes
What if we end the ch4 with Pomni seeing the farmer and goes “Gummigoo?”
CLIFFHANGER
I was thinking about ending 4 when Jax gets stabbed in the gut
What a “gut-clenching” ending!
Screw you/j
-
Pomni just finding Jax’s passed out body in the middle of the corn maze after he just got infected :3 He’s hitting the family guy dead pose
“Jax!?”-Pomni
(Jax is lying face down, window start-up noises being heard from nearby)
-
*jax is chasing one of TADC characters
(gamecube startup is playin)
-
Jax with [SILLY GUY] during this fic: “Yeah, I’m not doing well” (Like in ep 3 of MD)
-
Jax with kinger:
“Kinger~”
“Yes Jax?”
*Jax kicks over Kingers pillow fort*
“MY IMPENETRABLE FORT!!!!” PFFFt
“Grow up Hoo-ha”
*Kinger is cradling a pillow in his arms and sobbs*
“Aren’t you 48?”
Kinger, dead serious for some reason, “Next time I converse with you, I am bringing a gun.”
“Oh~ violence”
-
Gangle, shakily holding a gun up to Cynax as [SILLY GUY] lays behind her due to the Solver trying to control them, “I won’t hesitate, B%^%H!”
Cynax, walking towards them, “Oh, Gangle, I’ve been watchi-” B A N G
“OH MY GOD! THEY KILLED JAX!” Kinger
-
[BETA READER] if you draw Kinger with a shotgun in a Spudy’s uniform pointing it at a random customer, I’ll pay you 5-10 bucks. :D
(they did infact draw kinger in a spudsy’s uniform pointing a shot gun at a customer)
-

Cyn just making a bunch of assests and stuff and Caine bashing his head into a wall figuring out who’s doing this and why.
“WHO’S BEEN MAKING 50 BOWS!?”-Caine
“Have you considered a bow though, C-Caine? Giggle” Cynax
“AHHHHHH. GUYS, I THINK JAX IS HAVING ANOTHER STROKE”-Caine
He knows nothing about human health :3
Cynax putting a bow on Caine’s head, much to his absolute horror
Bubble also gets one
They all get bows
“Uhh, Boss, what do we do with all these bows?”
“Eat them, Bubble, please. I know I don’t usually let you eat stuff, BUT NOW IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE”
“I’m on it!” Bubble proceeds to immediately get popped by Cynax. No more inhalation for bubble
“BUBBLE. NOOOO”
“Eyeroll, annoying thing…”
Everyone comes to the center of the circus and the bows keep multiplying. It’s a sea of bows
“Caine, why are there bow-fish in my room?” Jax
“You did this to yourself, Jax.”- Caine
“I DID NOT YOU IDIOT”
“YES YOU DID, I WILL LITERALLY GET BUBBLE TO CONFIRM, YOU EVEN POPPED HIM!” -Caine
“YOU PAIR OF DENTURES, I DIDN’T DO SH#T”
(Bubble appears behind Jax) “Actually, Jax, you did! You were even stuttering a bit and sounded like a robot!”
“WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM- AGH” he gets bitten by bubble. His arm is now swollen and throbbing with pain
“BUBBLE, YOU PARASITE!”- Caine, popping Bubble once more
“Angel food cake, Jax?”
“Finally, some luxury!”
-
WE MADE 2 VERSIONS OF THE SUMMARY BEFORE THE STORY WAS PUT OUT AND WE WANT YOU TO VOTE ON YOUR FAV:

BETA READER’S SUMMARY OF STORY:
It’s a beautiful day in the circus and- OH GOD WHAT WAS THAT. (Time to be serious) A new player by the name of Uzi joins the game! She seems weird, gives everyone morbid thoughts, trauma, and somehow leaves! How did this happen? How did she enter it? Pomni has several mental breakdowns, Jax gets trauma, Zooble becomes a therapist again, Caine questions his purpose and there's a virus! O my! A special guest appearance does indeed happen, but who might it be? An old friend for sure that gives everyone mental health issues (specifically Jax and someone else) Cheesy puns arrive to relieve the angst. (THIS IS NOT CLICKBAIT) Want to know how it ends? READ IT >:3

GOOD QUESTION’S SUMMARY OF STORY:
It was as beautiful of a day as it could have been on Copper-9, a month after Cyn’s defeat. So, Uzi decides to get a new game from the recently opened gamestore! Despite the store’s less than ideal looks, Uzi snatches the last game in the store, ‘The Amazing Digital Circus!’. Once she’s in, she quickly realizes something’s wrong, the host is telling her she can’t leave, the other players are doing the same, they don’t know much about the real world, and they’ve been stuck here for years!? Too bad she proves them wrong with N as he drags her program out of the Circus and back into her own body.

Chapter Text

Lizzy glanced up from her phone, a rare sight indeed, as she narrowed her eyes at Uzi, “Wait, I thought all humans were dead?” She questioned, genuine curiosity in her voice.

Uzi rolled her eyes as she finished sketching out Pomni to the best of her abilities, having key details about her for the ten minutes or so she was in the Circus, “They’re supposed to be!” She responded from her chair, where she was drawing on her desk, “But it seems like humans can never leave us alone!”

Currently, V, N, and, for some reason, Lizzy were all in her room. V and Lizzy were currently sitting on her bed while N kneeled beside Uzi, trying to draw her in a manga art style. Uzi had called V over what happened yesterday, but for some reason, she had dragged Lizzy along. Something about how they were going to hang out today, but couldn’t because of this? Uzi didn’t know nor care.

V was currently staring up at Uzi’s ceiling, her eyes hollow and squished as she gave a confused grunt at it, “Okay…but what in the world are these drawings?” V asked her as she crossed her legs, “Unlike you, I’ve met humans and they don’t look like a sentient pile of ribbons, a ragdoll, a pair of dentures, a rabbit, a chess piece in robes, and a plastic toy.”

N laughed as he looked up at V, “That’s because they’re stuck in a game! Remember?” He cheerfully reminded her, “Uzi was some kind of crow, it was really cool!”

Blush marks appeared on her visor at his comment, “Ehehe…Thanks, N…” She hadn’t really seen what her avatar in the game looked like, other than her clothes and her feathers.

Uzi could already tell just by looking at her avatar’s body that her design was quite different from the others, being much less bright than the others and more detailed in design. However, her colors were just as saturated as theirs, so maybe it reflected her nature as a Worker Drone instead of being a human.

Lizzy chuckled to herself, “Cringe.” She told them as she returned to typing on her phone. This had to be the fifth one or something. How did she keep getting these?

V looked down from Uzi’s ceiling and nodded, “Very cringe.” The Murder Drone adds on with a smug smile.

N chuckled at the two as Uzi groaned, “You’re just jealous because you two are alone!” She teased at the two, not actually meaning it. She understood wanting to be single; Uzi had wanted to stay that way until she got to know N better.

“Nuh uh,” Lizzy shot back, smiling as she typed on her phone, “I got V, dummy.”

Uzi’s mouth went agape, “YOU TWO ARE DATING!?” The purple Worker Drone called out, slamming her pen down as she launched up from her chair.

N did the same, his tail sticking up as he held his face up with his hands and smiled giddily, “Since when!?” He eagerly wondered.

V shot up and frantically waved her hands, “WE AREN’T DATING!” V shouted back, before giving a murderous glare to Lizzy, blushing as she did so, “Oh my robo-god!” She groaned as she flopped back onto her bed, “I’m going to KILL YOU if you keep doing this!”

Lizzy didn’t look up from her phone. “Yeah, you’ve said that the last five times, you diva.” She mentioned, quickly typing something before shutting her phone off and placing it by her side, “But, yeah, no, I’m just messing.”

“Ugh…” The Disassembly Drone grumbled out, laying a hand over her upper visor, “So…These are just all these humans, like, fursonas or something?” V asked as she looked up at the ceiling once more.

The purple Worker Drone sat down in her chair and slouched in on it, “Jax’s the only one who’s an animal.” Uzi told her before pausing, “Well, not counting me.” She tacked on, spinning back around to finish her sketch of Pomni, writing by the side ‘HUMAN’, “The avatars are probably random considering I didn’t get to choose anything ‘bout mine.”

The Solver conspiracy board Uzi had made had been put aside, with most major mysteries related to her having been solved. If they hadn’t, well, Uzi could simply shake her tail senselessly to get answers out of Cyn.

Instead, Uzi had replaced it with a new, perhaps even wilder conspiracy board. It was obviously about ‘The Amazing Digital Circus!’. So far, all she had were sketches of the humans and the AI she had encountered, but she was going to get much, much more.

“Don’t care.” V responded, turning over onto her stomach and turning to face N and Uzi, “So what’s exactly your plan with them? Are you gonna pull the wire and just end their misery?”

“No!” Uzi shot back at her, spinning her chair around to face V before promptly storming to her bed, carrying the Pomni drawing, “I’m going to go back in the game, I have to figure out what’s going on!” She stated, pointing a finger at V, “Now, if you two will scoot back, I have to hang up one more thing.”

V and Lizzy pushed over to the other side of Uzi’s bed. “So, wait, you nearly got downloaded into a game or whatever, and now you’re just gonna hop back in?” Lizzy questioned her, having picked up her phone and begun typing again, but still looking directly at the purple Worker Drone, “Maybe it was a good thing I never partnered up with you for any projects, because that sounds SO dumb!”

Even N formed a nervous frown on his face, his eyes immediately hollowing out, “I don’t think it’s a stupid idea, we need to figure this all out, but how!?” N wondered, holding his hands together as he fiddled with his thumbs.

Said Drone turned her head and gave a sharp glare at the popular Worker Drone, doing nothing similar to her boyfriend, “It’s not like I don’t have a plan or anything!” She rebutted, pinning her Pomni drawing next to her Ragatha one, reading ‘HUMAN’ on it too, “It looked like I was being downloaded or dragged into the Circus, but it was going to take a few hours or maybe even days because of how large I am in terms of programs and files and things like that!” Uzi explained to them, “Especially considering how old that game looks…” She mumbled to herself, jumping off of the steps leading to her bed. Seriously, the game looked absolutely ancient. “So, what I’ll do is simply download a bunch of random images and such, maybe even some videos, or maybe even some sick as hell nightcore songs!” Uzi rambled on as she fell back into her chair, stretching her arms and tucking them behind her head with a smug smile, “But, yeah, I’ll do something like that and then it’ll take the game forever to drag me in, letting me leave whenever I want!”

V nodded, “Make sense, I guess.” She muttered to herself, her eyes lowering down to the bed as a small grimace pulled at her mouth.

“As long as I’m not the one doing it, don’t care,” Lizzy responded, flipping her pony to the other side.

N stood up and slammed his hands down on Uzi’s desk, “I’ll come with you!”

Everyone turned to face him, though his stance did not falter. Lizzy had a slightly curious expression, her digital brow raised, paired with narrow eyes, V mouth was agape as her hollow eyes were mocking wrinkles by their edges, and Uzi’s head recoiled slightly as she double blinked at N.

“I’m sorry, N, but there’s no way.” V spat out, pushing her body to sit up right before jumping out of Uzi’s bed, “You aren’t going in some wack ass game to go play detective with Uzi,” The Disassembly Drone ordered him, walking over to N and pointing a finger at his chest, “What if something goes wrong!? What if you both get stuck!?”

“Eh!?” N yelped out, retreating his arms from Uzi’s desk, beginning to stumble back as V approached him.

Uzi jumped up from her chair and pulled V back by her collar, “Hey! If he wants to come, then he can!” She protested, tugging on the much larger Drone as a cocky, pink Worker Drone began recording the whole situation.

V snapped her body over to face Uzi, causing the smaller Drone to be forced to let go, “And you! The only reason I didn’t say anything to you is because I KNOW YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN!” V lashed out, two yellow veins appearing by one of the corners of her forehead, suddenly grabbing Uzi’s shoulders tightly, “You just keep wanting to dive head first into danger! And for what!?”

This was…new to say the least. Uzi was aware of the deal she had with Cyn back during that whole fiasco, kill her kind, and in exchange, V and N could live in peace with Cyn. So her reaction to N made sense, but her? Not so much.

Didn’t mean Uzi was going to surrender and not stand her ground, “Because these people could be the last remnants of humanity, and they somehow survived everything!” Uzi protested, trying to stand as tall as she could with her chest puffed out, “Also, we can help them! They didn’t know squat about Workers or anything, so I think they’ll be chill… enough.”

“Oh sure,” V snapped back, “The last possible remnants of humanity will totally be chill when they realize we are actual robots and not other humans!”

Uzi knew V’s sarcastic response was right. To be fair, Uzi did go in telling the players she was a robot, and they all responded quite worrisome. But if she was their only way out of that circus, Uzi would have to go!

Before Uzi could snap back her own witty remark, N softly placed a hand on V’s shoulder, “They do already know we’re drones, V…”

V turned to face N, “And if we do get them out of there, what will we do then? How will the other Drones react to humans? How will we react to humans?”

She had a point. Just about nobody in Copper-9 has ever seen a human, let alone met one! Besides, Uzi didn’t think that humans could survive off of oil well.

“We have to at least try, V. Worst case scenario, they stay in the circus a bit longer until we figure out what to do with them,” Uzi suggested.

V let out a sigh, placing her hand to her forehead, falling back onto her bed. “So, what is your great plan to get these ‘humans’ out of the hell of a game?”

“So glad you asked!”

Uzi pulled down a poster she had put up in her room to reveal what seemed to be another conspiracy board. It contained her usual terrible drawings of the captives, the drones, and red string tying all the contents together in a spider web of a mess. How did she even compile all of this in a day? Not to mention the poster of a brown robot bear holding a pizza coming out of nowhere as well as a strange orange man with white dotted eyes drawn in the corner!

None of them could ask their questions though as Uzi had already begun talking “Alright, so according to my findings, these drones- people- are trapped in this wacky little game and if I had to guess, they probably want out,” She then stepped to the side of the board and smacked it dead in the center, “Now, being that human life can’t truly be supported on this planet for a whole bunch of reasons, plus we don’t know where there bodies could possibly be if they still even exist, which they probably don’t, I was thinking that we could put them in something that does live here-” Uzi was caught off by N.

“Oh, oh, oh! Like Worker Drone bodies?”

“Exactly!”

“But how are we supposed to get seven functional drone bodies in this place, let alone get them to stay here? Besides, how are they gonna get in them?” V stated, pacing around the room

Uzi snapped her fingers, “Shoot, that’s a good point, V.” How are they supposed to get humans in seven drone bodies when they likely couldn’t find one? Maybe if she asked her Mom and Dad where they got hers, unless…

“Maybe we should try something else?” N suggested, “Like maybe we could put them in smaller, temporary bodies until we can find all those bodies?”

V scoffed, “Like what?”

“‘Y’know, you guys could always use the keybugs that are still infesting Doll’s place, right?”

Everyone turned to face Lizzy, who was typing on her phone, seemingly paying no mind to their conversation despite her input.

That…was actually a very solid option! They could possibly round everyone in the circus up and transfer their minds into the keybugs.

“Ok, so hear me out-” Uzi was cut off by Lizzy scoffing.

“If this is another one of your lame men from anime, I’m out of here!” She exclaimed.

“W-what!? NO” Uzi shot back, her face began to blush a bit, and pointing a stern finger at Lizzy, “What I was going to say before you rudely interrupted me was that your idea might work!”

“But it’s not guaranteed, Uzi. Worker drone minds work so differently from humans. Theirs are all mushy, slimy, and pink,” V pointed out, taken aback from describing the human brain, “They can’t be transported like ours.”

“V, we have no other choice! I think Lizzy’s plan is a great idea and, frankly, I don’t see you shooting many ideas!” N countered.

“Alright! So, huddle up, everyone.” Uzi moved over to her bed and dragged everyone into a huddle.”Here’s the game plan. I go into the game and learn more about the circus. N and V, you guys are going to gather more keybugs or something to put these human brains, or consciousness, in. And as for Lizzy, well, just make sure nobody dies.”

“Likely to happen,” Lizzy said. It did happen a lot during these types of things, and Uzi wasn’t exactly putting the most observant person on this job.

Either way, Uzi leaned back and clapped her hands, “Let’s get moving, people!” She enthusiastically declared.

Uzi turned around and went to reach for the game on her desk, but was stopped by N, who put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Please don’t be a dummy and die in there,” He said. The :( symbol was projected on his screen.

She turned her head and responded with a soft smile, “I won’t, I promise.” Uzi assured, but then her smile turned wider and she gave a bump to her own chest, “Besides, you're talking to the girl that saved this planet!”

Uzi wasn’t planning on leaving any of them anytime soon.

N let go of her shoulder but gave a quick hug, earning an embarrassed squeak from Uzi, “Don’t do anything stupid and dangerous, please.”

“Pft. Dangerous is my middle name.” Those words earned her a nearly audible eyeroll from V.

Uzi turned to her, and before she sat down at her desk, she gave V a quick salute, with the Murder Drone returning the gesture and adding a small nod.

Uzi finally sat down on her chair and placed her VR chip on her forehead, but had not opened the game yet; she needed to make a few preparations first to make sure she wouldn’t be stuck there.