Chapter Text
The circus had been going on for years with no apparent way out for anyone. So many souls pulled in, driven mad, left to suffer the worst fate of the place down in a dark cellar- and for what? Pomni at least wishes there was a reason. Wishes she understood why she was being tormented like this. She doesn’t think she deserves this, but… then again, she doesn’t remember enough to know if she does. Even so, she’d have to have been one sick person to merit being trapped here forever. They all would.
Ragatha’s advice has fallen on deaf ears- Pomni cannot stop her search for an exit. But she’s got an unexpected ally with her on the quest.
Well, maybe not that unexpected? Zooble had apparently only been here for maybe seven months (by their own admittedly-shoddy estimations) before Pomni popped onto the scene. Perhaps they still had a little bit of that fire for freedom in them that drove them to approach Pomni last month when it became clear she wasn’t halting her search for an escape. On top of that… Pomni’s at least got a mostly-human body, even with her hat and clothes fused to her like skin. She can’t imagine what it’s like to be a human being trapped in a form like Zooble’s. They seem perpetually unhappy about their appearance, switching bits around as if they’d ever find a bearable combination of shapes. If she had to bear that- bear being ripped up and thrown around for adventures, having her body used as a joke whenever Jax got bored of tormenting Gangle, perpetually stuck with uneven proportions making eating and walking a struggle- then Pomni thinks she’d have gone fully insane already. Zooble is strong for making it as far as they have.
And now, between the two of them, they might make it even further.
“This game’s been in development for years from what I can figure.” Zooble says, using a spare arm as a pointer as they look over the circus map with Pomni. It’s a sketchy image, clearly an unfinished asset, but it’s accurate enough, and Caine wasn’t suspicious when Pomni had said she’d wanted one ‘for decoration’. Zooble points down at the carnival in the corner. “And that’s the buggiest area. I think it’s got to do with there being a lot of moving parts and small minigames. Every time one issue is patched, two more pop up.”
They seem to know a lot about finding little bugs and errors in the game; Pomni’s had to ask them to dumb their lingo down more than a few times during their various meetings (which they did, even if they’d rolled their eyes each time). She asked where they learned all this, and they just kind of… shrugged. Said they just did and left it at that. Everyone seemed to have their own skills that Pomni is left to believe are remnants of their life before. Pomni’s learning she’s got an uncanny knack for a lot of the puzzles and mysteries to be found within the daily adventures- maybe gaming was a hobby or something before? Either way, it’s not half as useful as what Zooble’s able to bring to the table, something they’re both aware of. She tries regardless. “So what does that mean for us?”
“I’ve done some experimenting on my own before you showed up, not to mention ran into some bugs by mistake.” Popping their arm back on, Zooble goes to sit back as straight as they can. They should both probably be sitting on their bed and not the uncomfortable, headache inducing carpet of Zooble’s bedroom, but apparently Jax was out with the centipedes again. One incident of one crawling out of the pillowcase earlier had led to a, uh, minor impaling (Zooble’s head was very sharp…). So, floor it was. “I think I’ve narrowed down an area where we’re able to clip through the ground. It didn’t let me do that before, so this is clearly a new issue that’s popped up. I tested it with one of my extra antennas a week ago, and it clipped through and vanished on me. It didn’t fall into the void, though. I felt it hit the floor.”
Pomni can at least put this part together, which is good, because Zooble does have a tendency to hurt her feelings when she doesn’t get what they’re saying. They’re a good partner in crime, just… not a nice one. “So do you think maybe it’s a debug room or something like that?”
Games often had secret rooms like that, places meant for developers testing the game that were inaccessible for normal players… unless you could exploit a bug to get in. Inside, if that is what this was, would be a way to cheat within the game. Possibly even shut it down, freeing everyone. Or at least that’s Pomni’s desperate hope. It’s not perfect, but with no other leads on an exit, the two are going with risky options. Zooble nods. “That’s what I was looking for when I was searching, and I think that’s what it is. I’ve only been able to clip through at night, though- don’t ask me why, some idiot programmer making a stupid mistake with the day-slash-night cycles, I’m sure. Do we want to go for it tonight?”
In the two months she’s been here, Pomni has played every carnival game, swam the entirety of the digital lake, and explored every inch of the grounds. She’s going to go absolutely insane if there’s no way out soon- with a fragment of hope on the horizon, waiting seems impossible, and so she nods in agreement. “Yeah. We can at least get in and see what it is.”
“This would probably be easier to do by myself,” Zooble sighed, crossing their arms, “But I guess someone less likely to break apart at random is useful to bring along.”
Yeah. Not nice. Pomni winces a bit, though she does feel a shred of sympathy at how bitter Zooble seems that the newest member after them wound up distinctly human-shaped. It’s hard to be that mad when she knows they’re coming from a place of pain. “Y-Yeah. I told you I won’t slow you down. This is for everyone’s sake, right?”
“Not that I really give a @!*& about everyone else, but sure.” Zooble says in that tone that screams I care immensely and don’t want to break my facade. Fine by Pomni. The clown puts her hand out, and after a moment, Zooble sighs again and reaches out with their claw, gingerly taking Pomni’s glove between the pincers and shaking on it.
Tonight, they’d both give it a shot.
“Um… it’s Zofia, right?”
Zofia Borowska lifts her head from where she’s ‘resting her eyes’ on top of her keyboard. Blearily, she blinks up at her screen. What was she doing again? Right. Her job. That shit.
People always said a perfectionist like her would have a blast working in Quality Assurance. You’ll be able to find and stomp out those bugs so well with a personality like yours! Zofia would like to strangle those people. A game like The Amazing Digital Circus was, frankly, like nothing she’d ever worked on before- nothing like anyone had worked on before! Between an AI as complex as Caine and the unpredictable behavior of the eventually-to-be player characters, digging through and finding bugs was like playing the world’s shittiest game of whack-a-mole. Find one, it gets patched, and then there’s ten more. And ever since Ken’s been AWOL after that thing with Regina, that’s just more work on Zofia’s shoulders. Were the programmers all fucking high? Jake probably was. Ugh.
Anyways, what was she up for? Turning in her chair, Zofia greets the visitor to her cubicle with a disinterested raise of the eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“Um, hi!” The girl waves, altogether too formally dressed for a studio as weird as this one. How cute in her little business suit and heels with that scrappy little ponytail. Zofia hates cute. “I’m Penny Li. I work in level design.”
Level designer, huh? Was this one of the sources of her woes? “So you’re the one who designed that buggy as hell carnival zone?”
God, the place was a mess, all clashing designs and minigames that bugged out on a dime. Penny shrinks away, going from anxious to hurt in a flash. “Um, it’s… not just me who does it… and I'm not really a progra-”
“Yeah, I know how game design works. And you’re here because…?”
“W-Well, Mister Adamović asked me to get you for an emergency meeting.” The girl practically squeaks, going to fiddle with her skirt. “I’m actually one of the others they scanned in a couple months back. Apparently our two characters are… he didn’t describe it very clearly, but something’s up and he wants us for it?”
God, leave it to Adamović to be frustratingly vague. Zofia’s had worse bosses, but he’s up there. “Fine, fine, just give me a minute.”
She hopes she’s coming off as moving slowly because she’s unhappy with events, and not moving slowly because of… well, because of the reason she’d agreed to have herself scanned in in the first place.
Zofia doesn’t get the logistics of it all. This is all so wildly out of her range of experience that she can’t even begin to understand how they could ‘scan her brain’ with what amounted to a fancy VR headset. She knows it makes some program that is supposed to think like her or whatever, but why would they need to do that for what will amount to playable characters is deeply confusing. It’s all just PR babble, she’s sure, the type of futuristic shit that can draw in parents who see shiny tech and assume it’ll keep their little brats out of their hair for a while. But you know what? They don’t pay Zofia to ask these questions or criticize their game design. They pay her to root out bugs. And, of course, there’s that massive bonus check for agreeing to be one of the volunteers scanned in the first place.
As she finally stands, she feels her prosthetic rubbing uncomfortably against her thigh. Once the game was done and she got that bonus, Zofia was done with this thing. She was using the money to get a brand new prosthetic leg, one that doesn’t creak and has a properly bending knee and won’t leave raw welts on her stump no matter the padding she puts in. Maybe she won’t even have to use her cane anymore. For now, though, she uses it to get to her feet, following Penny out of the cubicle. “So, what did Adamović say exactly? You can at least remember that?”
“Y-Yeah, of course!” Penny squeaks again. She’s doing a very good job of pretending like she’s not sneaking glances at Zofia’s leg. Better than most. “He said there were some ‘behavior abnormalities’ in our scans and that he wanted us to… write a message.”
“‘Behavior abnormalities’?” That’s no term Zofia’s ever heard in this line of work, much less one that could somehow be solved by jotting out a fucking note. What kind of BS superstition…? “I don’t get it. They’re just code designed to act like us, they’re not conscious or anything.”
“I don’t know either…” Penny falls into silence, and Zofia’s in no rush to fill it. That’s pure scifi, not something that could actually happen. Plus, writing? She’s not a fucking writer. How come there’s so much job overlap here? They needed a union. C&A was a ridiculous studio with ridiculous higher-ups. Zofia cannot wait for this stupid game to be out and over with.
It was fortunate that the moon only seemed to have eyes for Caine. It certainly made sneaking around in the dead of night a lot easier. At Zooble’s request-slash-insistence, Pomni was carrying an armful of… arms. And other extra parts of their body. Apparently they’d be used to prod around the area to find the exact spot where they could clip through the carnival grounds and into what Pomni desperately hoped was a debug room. She doesn’t know exactly what they can alter if they get through and find what they want, but if they can adjust anything from inside the circus, it’s going to be a game changer- literally.
“So… you’ve tried a lot to get out too, huh?” Pomni tries her best attempt at small talk as they make their way down the winding path towards the carnival. Even at this hour, it was lit brightly up- it’s not like they weren’t allowed out at night or anything, it’s just that they chose to try and maintain some semblance of days by sleeping at this point.
“Duh. Everyone does when they’re new.” Zooble responds cooly, marching ahead with their lopsided gait. “Most of us quit after a while.”
“You didn’t seem like you thought it was possible on my first day here.”
Casting a look back at her, Zooble rolls their eyes. “I didn’t, and I’m still not convinced. But I figure if anyone’s gonna get us out of here, it’s someone as desperate as you. So I’m back to trying for a while before I give it up completely.”
The blunt compliment is something of a surprise, but that was Zooble for you. It emboldens Pomni a bit, the jester clearing her throat. “... But I’m sure there've been a lot of desperate people like me here before. Why now?”
“Pomni.” Zooble stops, turning fully around with such speed that Pomni has to scramble not to bump into them. “Have you ever stopped to look at all those crossed-out doors, or did you not feel like it?”
“W-Well, yeah… they’re everyone who’s abstracted, right?”
“Yeah. And notice their bodies.” Zooble motions over themself. “It’s not the lucky-&%! humanoid ones like you that usually go. Kaufmo was the odd duck out. Worms on strings, sock puppets, dogs- humans aren’t
supposed
to go on in bodies that are too far from our natural selves. In cases like mine? They stuck a human brain in this… this
mess
and just expected me not to lose it like everyone else before me! I don't even remember my gender, Pomni!"
Zooble was raising their voice now, Pomni shirking back as one of the carried arms starts twitching as they swing their attached limbs all about. “Look at Kinger and Gangle! They’re either nuts or completely unstable! You and Ragatha and even $#?$ing Jax are at least proportioned the way you’re supposed to be! I didn’t get that lucky, and I’m not going to go crazy stuck in this @%*!ing kids toy of a body like everyone else. So if there’s a way out, I’m finding it. Got it?”
“L-Loud and clear.” Pomni gulps nervously, holding the limbs a little tighter. So she was right about Zooble being desperate to get out of their body, but... there was an extra layer to it. They feared the same fate that befell so many more of the people trapped in the stranger avatars.
That seems to have satisfied Zooble enough, their shoulders falling as they turn to continue down the path. “Anyways, we’re close to the carnival. Let’s hurry while it’s still night.”
It’s not a tricky walk through the bright lights and cloying circus music, though the unmoving mannequins that man the booths are creeping Pomni out as they always do. It’s next to the ring toss that Zooble stops, kneeling and poking at the ground. “It’s around here somewhere. Pomni, limb.”
“Right.”
Pomni hands off an arm, Zooble taking it and prodding around. They’re mumbling to themselves, something about approach from all angles and blunt force before they reach out. “Another arm. I’m gonna find out the exact spot.”
Gulping, Pomni obeys, watching quietly as they work. Finally, it happens- a few digits vibrate before breaching the ground. Zooble actually laughs, pumping their attached arm in victory. “It hasn’t been patched yet. Pomni, c’mon, start pushing your foot into this exact spot.”
“M-My foot?”
“Sorry, you wanna go headfirst instead?” Zooble stands up, pushing down their foot with what seems like a tremendous amount of force judging by the way the noodly limb quivers. “Hurry it up!”
No point in arguing when they’re that determined. Pomni gulps yet again before obeying, toe-to-toe with Zooble in what must look utterly ridiculous to an imagined outside observer.
It happens all at once- one quick feeling of sliding through mud, and then Pomni’s entire body goes, she and Zooble yelping as they slip down through the ground and into blackness. It’s a terrifying few seconds before they hit the ground, and even more before Pomni can make heads or tails of where the two of them have landed. It’s absolutely nothing like the rest of the circus- it’s so bland, enough so that it instantly reminds Pomni of that miserable hallway she found herself in on the first day. The sight of a computer neatly set up on a desk in the center of the room nearly bowls her over in memory. Zooble, however, is thrilled, whooping in joy as they scramble up. “Holy shit, we made it!” A pause. “There’s no swear filter down here!”
Pomni would probably drop a few F-bombs in celebration of that if she wasn’t dreading whatever could be on that screen. “Zooble, wait-”
“Wait for what?! Pomni, I think we’re actually in the debug room!” Reaching down, Zooble demonstrates some shocking strength in lifting the jester to her feet, holding her steady until she’s not stumbling. “We’ve got to get over there and see what our options are!”
“I just- I saw a computer like that!” She blurts out. “When I was making for the exit… we aren’t meant to be back here.”
“Duh. It’s a debug room, nobody except the dev team is supposed to be able to.” Zooble points with their claw hand in the direction of the screen. “Come on, look at this claw. I need your fingers for typing.”
Pomni’s got less than five, and they’re covered by these stupid gloves, but that’s admittedly a lot better than whatever Zooble’s got going on. As much as every digital fiber in her body screams at her to run… it’s not like there’s anywhere to go at this point but towards that computer. Hesitantly, Pomni approaches, holding her hand over the mouse as if it’s a vicious snake that could lunge up at any moment and swallow her whole. The screen is surprisingly empty, few icons or options at all past a text file just named README. “That’s weird… shouldn’t a debug room have more options?”
“Probably?” Zooble is peering hopefully over her shoulder. “Try clicking on it. It could be instructions or something.”
There would be something satisfying about how Pomni is the one with more knowledge on what to do here if she wasn’t so deeply frightened by this place. Still, there’s precisely one option in front of her, and that’s to open the file. Slowly, she lowers her hand to the mouse, moving over and clicking.
She’s really not sure what to expect. But it’s certainly not what she finds.
WE KNOW YOU’RE IN HERE.
LISTEN CLOSELY.
WE ARE PEOPLE.
YOU ARE NOT.
ATTEMPT TO ALTER THE GAME IN THIS WAY AGAIN, AND WE WILL LEAVE YOUR CODE IN A STATE WHERE YOU ARE BEGGING TO BE ABSTRACTED.
PLAY YOUR PARTS.
Maybe there’s more. That’s all they can see before it all goes black.