Candy Hearts And Paper(clip) Flowers

by The__Starcatcher

Summary:

There's a new member of the Digital Circus! However, instead of keeping her socialisation to her fellow humans, she strikes up companionship with the ringmaster himself, trading lessons on human culture to have him teach her piano. Strangely, she treats him like he's human, which although makes him feel good, fills him to the brim with confusion. Her spunky nature seems to mess with the innermost workings of his code, bringing him to experience concepts that should be foreign to an AI such as himself, such as romance. Only problem is, he has no idea to deal with these new emotions.

Set after Episode 6! If you think it's cringe, cool, please just click off. I would be happy to refund the £0.00 you paid to read this! PLEASE DON'T USE THIS FOR AI GENERATION!!

Notes:

Okay, this idea has been brewing in my head for way too long, so here it is! Surprised how little procrastination it took, honestly. Please enjoy, and share any ✨constructive criticism✨ if you wish!! DO NOT USE THIS FOR ANY SORT OF AI GENERATION PLEASE, NONE OF THEM ARE SENTIENT NOR CAN THEY HAVE EMOTIONS SO YOU DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION, THANK YOU.

Chapter 1: Welp, my new update's bugged!

“Good morning, my melodic music boxes!”

 

Caine's voice echoed throughout the circus tent from where he was upon the stage. As per usual, it was accompanied by overly enthusiastic hand gestures and baton-twirling to match his flamboyant tone.

 

The rest of the cast sans Ragatha audibly groaned. Jax twitched; he and Pomni had let out the same huff of annoyance in unison. He scowled, choosing to tactically scoot away from her. If she did notice despite what he considered immaculate stealth, it wasn't apparent from her expression.

 

“Caine, it's not even light outside yet. Why are we awake?” grumbled Zooble, pressing two fingers to their forehead while jabbing their clawed hand towards the tent door. The sky hadn't even begun to brighten.

 

“This is IMPORTANT!!” hollered Caine, splaying his limbs out. The ridge of his jaw twitched momentarily before he thought better of it, clamping the edges of his ‘face’ shut.

 

“Upon request, I'm updating the Circus with a new TEXTURE PACK!” he continued after regaining his composure, adding jazz hands to his exclamatory revelation with a flourish. He had worked day and night on this update, even abandoning his work on his adventures to be able to finish it. They'd love it!

 

Or so he thought.

Pomni was attempting to scrub the exhaustion out of her eyes vigorously. Jax was picking at his gloves. Gangle and Zooble looked to be exchanging conversation with their eyes. At least Kinger seemed to be listening! Ah, wait, nevermind; he dissociated.

 

After a few painfully awkward moments of Caine staring at them, Ragatha forced herself to clap loudly.

 

Pomni paused her eye-scrubbing to throw a bewildered glance at her. Ragatha’s eye widened remarkably fast and she stiffened immediately, balling her fists at her sides. Pomni blinked.

 

Caine's baton floated aimlessly next to him. “I said, the… texture pack?" he repeated uselessly, his voice jarringly monotonous and his entire form drooping with disappointment.

 

“Wait, wait, wait,” began Gangle, tilting her mask slightly. “Is this… uh… the thing I asked the other day? About being able to feel things more?”

 

Jax snorted, and she squeaked, flailing her ribbons about and almost smacking Zooble in the face. “For- for myself! I mean, it could benefit others-” she added hastily, her gaze flicking to Zooble, “but I asked for myself.”

 

At that, Caine perked up, his eyes lighting up with proud joy. “EXACTLY, my dear!! This new update will enable you to FEEL THINGS more, so you feel more at home here!”

 

“Does this… include pain?” asked Pomni, raising a tentative hand. The rest of the cast murmured in agreement.

 

Something eerily similar to hurt flickered behind Caine's eyes, and he folded his arms. “Now now, what makes you say that? Of course not! I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable!”

 

“But you do anyways,” complained Zooble under their breath, and by the looks of it, everyone else was inclined to agree.

 

“WH- NO!! WHY WOULD YOU- I WOULD NEVER-” spluttered Caine, his arms and legs gesturing wildly. “You know what, forget it.” He popped open the cover of the ball of his cane, revealing a shiny red button, and pressed down on it with a little more force than necessary.

 

Jax felt as if his body had organs, more than usual. He could feel the blood rushing under his digital skin, the slight twitches his ears gave when the others recollectively gasped. His skin didn't feel as rubbery anymore. The buttons on his overalls were strangely shiny, glinting in the bright light. Even his gloves didn't feel plasticky, now feeling more like worn fabric on his hands. It wasn't anywhere near to actually being in his old body, but it was much more comforting than what the digital world previously had to offer. He shook the thought off. Pathetic, he thought to himself.

 

Pomni had let out a small puff of air in delight as soon as Caine pressed the button. She felt… real. She felt alive. She could feel her joints, and the springiness of the soles of her shoes. The bells on the tips of her hat added a satisfying sort of weight to it, and she could feel a smile pull at her lips that actually felt remotely natural for once. And her skin. It didn't feel like human skin, of course, but it didn't feel like a layer of accumulated nothingness stretched over whatever she had inside. She looked at her hands in wonder, marvelling at how she could see some sort of stitching on her gloves

 

Gangle could feel beneath her ribbons. They felt more like… arms, rather than crutches. Her mask felt firmer, like a mug. It no longer felt paper thin anymore, and she pressed her hands to her face in wonder, revelling in how the mask seemed to provide a consoling coolness to her palms.

 

Zooble jolted. They felt connected to their limbs, as if they were no longer disconnected prosthetics they were forced to deal with. Their lack of a mouth felt more natural to them, and even though they still felt like their parts didn't fit right, it felt oddly bearable.

 

Ragatha could feel something other than polyester stuffing beneath her fabric skin, and it shocked her. Her dress and her body were separate materials, one rougher and layered while the other was more consistent. She could… actually distinguish between the two, she discovered with joyous laughter, and her hair was a different texture altogether. It felt light, and soft, and she ran an amazed hand through it just to savour the sensation.

 

Kinger jerked. Then he let out a perfectly cut scream. All of a sudden, he felt like he was in a body again. His cloak was warm around him, comforting and plush. His hands felt more attached to his person than usual. His eyes felt like they were more secure. And he didn't feel hollow anymore! But why? Oh yes, the update! What update? What is an update? Is he an update? No, that's silly. He can't be an update. Is this an update? Oh yes, this was an update! As soon as that question entered his head, he blinked, and then smiled at the experience of feeling.

 

Caine watched their reactions with… a sense of fulfillment, he realised. He hadn't felt that in a while. Neither had he ever felt the feeling of fabric rather than a coating of staticky blankness on his body. He blinked. That was new. But that wasn't of importance, what with his troupe so happy and lively, and to think it was all because of him! When was the last time he had managed to do that? With anyone? Had he ever managed to-

 

The sudden sound of Jax snapped him out of his thoughts.

 

“Hang on. Caine, you mean to tell me there's no bugs in this update? Not a single one?” he snarked, cocking a hip. There would usually be some sort of bug accompanying an update, which meant that someone would get ill. He inadvertently hoped it was Gangle and not Pomni.

 

To his annoyance, Caine actually pondered on that question, before shrugging. “Well, Jax, I did work extremely hard on this, so I wouldn't be surprised if it paid off!” he laughed, twirling his baton. Jax threw an incredulous look at Pomni the others with a snort, but thumped his foot when he found that they didn't have a single concern about this situation and were still admiring their ‘new’ selves. “Tch,” he muttered, folding his arms in an impressive display of his maturity. As if he cared.

“ANYWAYS, I’m glad that you en-” Caine paused in midair, his outstretched hand momentarily going limp amidst its usual animated movements, “that is to say, appreciated my additions, but I’m afraid we can’t dilly-dally around here for long! I’m sure you all need your rest for tomorrow’s SURPRISE ADVENTURE!!” he exclaimed, oblivious to the group’s abrupt silence.

Pomni squinted, furrowing her brows. Did Caine just… correct himself? He barely ever did that. Why? It seemed like he was going to say ‘enjoyed’... did he think they didn’t enjoy the update? Just as she opened her mouth, Zooble interjected, raising their eyebrows.

“Thanks, Caine. That wasn’t so bad, surprisingly. I actually think it was really well done,” they admitted brusquely, though their tone wasn’t as clipped as usual. Gangle smiled up at him, apparently lost for words.

Kinger nodded earnestly. “Yeah, it was an astounding difference from the last patch! Wait… what's a patch again?” he asked, tilting his head.

 

Ragatha and Jax hummed in assent (though Jax’s feedback was rather half-hearted), before Pomni spoke up. “I… think that this makes the Circus feel more tolerable. More real,” she added, nodding kindly. “Thank you.”

Eventually, Caine gave up trying to get his vocal synth (or ‘vocal chords’, as he found the humans called them) to function. He felt his processor heat up a little in his chest, but he didn’t find himself paying much attention to the unfamiliar sensation. They… liked it? Thanked him for it..? He couldn't remember the last time he’d been thanked, which was bittersweet, to say the least. He privately extracted the memory file of this incident to replay at a later date, since it probably wouldn’t happen again in a long while. This experience was new to him, but definitely not unwelcomed, and he-

A loud, yet slightly muffled flump forcefully brought him out of his reverie. The sounds of everyone’s chatter instantly died out, and their eyes darted to the source of the noise. Upon seeing what it was, the cast went into noiseless shock. The deafening silence echoed against the walls of the Tent. Even Caine, who would have immediately jumped into action once he saw the situation, seemed stunned in place, his jaw slightly slack.

There was a brief yet agonising pause in which the tension felt thick enough to cleanly cut through with a gloink, but Jax quickly grew bored of it and so decided to aggressively trample on it. So this was the bug he'd been expecting?

He rolled his eyes, his mouth curving downwards in a disapproving sneer. “Just what we needed around here,” he scoffed, leaning on his hip again. His voice had its usual sing-song mockery, Pomni noted, but there was a hint of something behind it she couldn't quite place, like he was trying not to get involved. “Another darn player.”

Chapter 2: A New Home With New Confusion

Summary:

The new player has arrived, but she's more different than one would expect...

Notes:

AHHH I FINALLY GOT IT DONEEE!! Sorry it took longer than expected, but here it is! Please enjoy and let me know your thoughts on this.

Light.

 

It hit her eyes in an assault of colour, refracting and bending in ways that made her head spin. Her line of vision was hazy, yet the sharp, crisp lines of scattered light that scattered across it helped to dispel it somewhat.

 

“Ugh, her hair looks like Ragatha's. ”

 

“Jax!!”

 

“You two, shut up, you're giving her a headache.”

 

“Y-Yeah, I don't think this is good for-”

 

“Be quiet, ribbons. You're ruining the Circus ambience, or whatever.”

 

Several disoriented voices floated down to her and she blinked, trying to make sense of them and failing miserably.

 

“Augh… my head,” she groaned, sitting up and clutching her head with her palm. To her confusion, her fingers grasped several thick tubes of plastic where her hair should have been.

 

“Wow, would you look at that? She can move.” A contemptuous, condescending voice harshly fell upon her ears, and her eyes snapped up towards an anthropomorphic purple rabbit smirking down at her, surrounded by a peculiar cast of characters.

 

“Huh? Wait, what- uh, who are you? Is this a multiplayer game?” she sputtered, gaze flickering from everyone's faces to her hands. Even amidst her bewilderment and perplexity, she still felt some sort of inexplicable wonder at how oddly detailed the mechanics and graphics of this game was, as she admired the leathery kind of feeling the cuffs of her gloves provided.

 

“Hah! She thinks this is a game .”

 

“Jax, don't be mean!” scolded a ragdoll, placing a protective hand on her shoulder. “It's okay, new stuff. We've all been through this,” she added, her eyes softening placatingly. “Just take deep breaths, and-”

 

“That doesn't change the fact that she still thinks this is all a game, Rags. We can't even leave!”

 

Her gaze snapped up from her legs (her calves had strangely taken the form of lightbulbs) to the smug expression before her, and she tilted her head. He wasn't serious , right? There had to be some way to escape this weird place. “What do you mean? If it isn't then what is this-”

 

“I'M GLAD YOU ASKED, MY DEAR!! WELCOME, to the AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!! My name is Caine, and I'm your ringmaster, offering YOU an endless expanse of FUN!”

 

A loud, energetic voice was suddenly overwhelming her ears, and she found herself floating in the air without warning, facing a fashionably dressed pair of dentures. He tipped his hat to her, and the action was so unexpectedly polite in this strange place that she felt as if she forgot to breathe. She recovered quickly, however, half-bowing, half-curtseying back with a mischievous glint gracing her features. After all, if she was going to play this game, she might as well have some fun in doing it properly. Her fingers gripped the stiff cloth of her short skirt, her brain momentarily freezing at how realistic it felt beneath her gloved fingers despite lacking quite a few aspects of real clothing.

 

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Caine! My name is-” she paused, blinking. Oh [%&!?]. Why couldn't she remember her name?! You know what, she'd probably had enough of this game for now. Or ever, she thought, backing away before realising that she was still midair and that Caine's arm had wrapped itself firmly around her waist. “Why can't I remember my name?!” she panicked, tugging frenziedly at the two plasticky pigtails at either side of her head in an attempt to get the headset off. What the [&%*?]. Why couldn't she just take the [?%&@] thing off??

 

“Oh, there it is! I was wondering when she'd have a normal reaction!” said Jax.

 

She ignored that.

 

Abruptly, she felt a pair of large, warm hands squeeze hers, and her eyes met Caine's mismatched ones that were looking at her with such intensity her mind briefly blanked.

 

“Now, now, my dear, don't you go and get your pretty little head all tangled up! Nobody can remember their name once they get here, but I would be delighted to assist you with choosing a new one!” he explained enthusiastically, showing no inclination of letting go of her hands.

 

“I know that losing your name on top of being here can be… confusing, to say the least, but we could help you choose a name,” piped up a small jester who was previously scrutinising her like she could read her every thought, and though she found the girl’s piercing pinwheel eyes somewhat unsettling, she nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.

 

“Yes, please,” she nodded gratefully, oblivious to Caine's pout (seemingly; it was hard to discern from his features). “That would be great.” She would have spent ages fussing over what her name should be, since to her a name was incredibly important a thing. A name was wild, she thought, like a symphony of rainstorms rolled into one to form something so inherently you , even if you might have the same one as others.

 

“I vote on Shortstack Number 2! She's almost as short as you, eh, Pomni?” grinned Jax, nudging her with his elbow. Too late, he realised that oh [%&*], he wasn't supposed to be talking to her- and by the looks of her stiff, tight-lipped expression, he might as well have drowned himself in the Digital Lake.

 

“[%&?*] off, asshole,” hissed Zooble. One of their parts atop their head vibrated with annoyance. “That doesn't even count as a name.”

 

The new player gaped at them in shock. “Wait, what was that?” she gestured hectically, making Caine quickly let go of her to avoid getting swatted. “Can we not swear here? [%&?]. [$?!&]. [$%€+]!! “Oh. Oh, darn,” she laughed, slowly processing the fact. Wow. It was humorous to her in a morbid sense, slowly bringing her to the realisation that if there was a way to block out her words, the exit must have been blocked out as well. That there was really no way out of here, and despite her not being hellbent on finding the exit, it still clung to her mind like a parasite.

 

“Ah-ta-ta-ta-ta!” tutted Caine, pressing a finger to her lips, “No more foul language from you! Now, how about that name? Seeing your… unique character model, perhaps something lamp-based? Something radiant and glowing to really bring out the spark inside you!!” he continued exuberantly, and with a snap of his fingers she was down on the ground again next to a tragedy mask with ribbons for a body. To her concern, she was holding another mask that was split clean in two.

 

“Uh, yeah, cool,” she replied distractedly, brows furrowing. Why was she holding another version of her face? The two exchanged a wordless glance, the tears rolling off the former's mask when she realised the new character felt sympathy for her regardless of only just meeting her. It had been so long since she had experienced pure, genuine kindness from someone who didn't immediately judge. Apart from Pomni, of course, but she seemed to be in a bit of a mood, squinted Gangle, looking over at the irritated jester.

 

“YES, RAGATHA, THAT'S ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!”

The sound of Caine's fervent voice sucked the new player back into the present and she focused her gaze away from Gangle. “What do you think of ‘Clover’? I personally think it suits you quite delightfully!” he exclaimed, thrusting the ball of his cane inches from her face.

 

She blinked, pushing the baton a safe distance away. That… actually sounded great! Like the word was fizzling with hope, she mused, beaming widely. The lightbulbs in her calves flickered brightly, her tail wrapping itself around one leg. The sight itself fueled her with curiosity and fascination. It was so different here, yet already peculiarly familiar. It was certainly more welcome than where she had been stuck previously, even if a part of her was itching to burst through the exit and leave. All thoughts of being eternally stuck were pushed to the back of her mind, instead overtaken with the desire to try and find out as much about the Circus as possible, if only to take her mind off the more… serious issues at hand. “Thank you Caine! I like it.”

 

Caine felt as if he was blue-screening. When… when was the last time someone had genuinely liked their name? When was the last time somebody had been so accepting of arriving here? These questions and more replayed repeatedly in his mind until he was once again snapped out of it by Jax.

 

“Uh, Earth to Caine? Hello??” said Jax exasperatedly, rolling his eyes. Sheesh, what's with Caine daydreaming so much recently? “Raggie here was asking if Clover should get a new adventure-”

 

“I did not!” protested Ragatha, stamping her foot in irritation. This stupid rabbit and his stupid habit of twisting her words! “I said that she should get to know us better, not that!! ”

 

“Gadzooks, you're right! But first, she needs a little tour of the grounds first,” said Caine, once again wrapping an arm securely around Clover's waist and teleporting out of the Tent. 

 

It took a few moments for Caine to properly register his current thoughts. He hadn't realised that the new texture pack was so elaborate. Well, he did, but he hadn't really thought about it beyond ‘wow, I've really outdone myself this time!’. Her waist was soft. Exceedingly so. It was then he noticed that her middle had slightly more padding than the average player, but he didn't find himself minding. Instead, he found himself wanting to pull her into a tight hug, his processor beating a little faster in his chest in response to the thought. Wait. Where did THAT thought come from?! Careful, Caine, he internally scolded, this is EXACTLY the type of thing that would make Bubble remark on your ‘negative rizz’! Besides, he couldn't think about that now, he had a TOUR to execute!!

 

                     ★★★★★

 

Clover flung herself onto her bed, sighing. The many glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling and walls blinked consolingly back at her, which brought her a feeling of unexplainable joy. She'd thoroughly examined her room, finding the shelves on the walls filled to bursting with random knickknacks (her personal favourite was a pen with a fluffy pompom bee topper) and the carpets ecstatically lush. Her desk was a little tall for her liking, but it was still amazingly well-made. She had even found a notebook in one of the drawers! The cover was decorated with four-leaf clovers, which she felt was a bit too on-the-nose, but oh well. Said desk was situated where the bottom bunk of her bed would be, and was illuminated by a colourful string of fairy lights dangling from the bedframe.

 

After her tour, she'd been formally invited inside Kinger's pillow fort since Zooble had vehemently shut down any chance of her experiencing an adventure for today, much to her dissatisfaction. Kinger had introduced her to his insect collection, which had utterly captivated her. They'd spent hours (at least, what seemed like hours; she couldn't find a clock anywhere) talking about the different bugs.

 

For some strange reason, Kinger appeared to be more sane when in the fort, his conversations much more stable than earlier on. He had eagerly shown her what he called one of his ‘most prized artifacts’, which was a stark blue monarch butterfly that gave the illusion of having numerous technicoloured eyes around the black linings. Clover thought it was beautiful, though she wondered why he had called it ‘honey’ once Jax demolished half of the fort.

 

Following that, she'd spent time with the others in the lounge to get to know them better. She was not disappointed. Apparently, according to Pomni, Jax was afraid of corn. Peculiar, but she wasn't one to judge. She was one to carefully store that information away for future reference.

 

Zooble had offered her a mirror, since she realised she didn't exactly know what she looked like (how could she have forgotten that?? It's not hard to think ‘oh hey. I don't know what I look like.’). Upon looking in the mirror, she found that her skirt resembled a lampshade. It was green, like her top, but the collar was yellow. She (or rather, Jax) also realised that her tail acted as a pull-switch for the lightbulbs that replaced her calves. The sensation caused when someone would repeatedly pull her tail was incredibly unpleasant. She saw wide dark-brown fabric eyes with pie-cut pupils in her reflection, which was eerie, to say the least. Sure, she didn't look bad, but this wasn't her body, nor was it her hair. Her hair consisted of neon yellow glow sticks that formed a short fringe over her forehead. Two glowsticks looped around the rest of her hair at either side. The hair that went through these loops were held in pigtails at the bottom, except the pigtails were large pink plastic glowing flowers. Her nose was made of a scratch on her face. Her whole appearance was both kind of cute and very disconcerting.

 

She huffed, rolling over and shaking her head. Nope, she was not thinking about that! Nor was she thinking about the fact that if she did find a way to leave, she wouldn't be happy either way since-

No! She forced her thoughts to drift somewhere else, and they thrashed and struggled until finally settling on Caine. Not him exactly, just a moment in the lounge involving him.

 

                     ★★★★★

 

“You've gotta be lying, no way!” exclaimed Clover, shuffling over to the end of the chair, her eyes wide in rapt attention.

 

“I wouldn't lie about these things, you know,” smirked Jax, leaning far too close to Pomni than she found comfortable, though she didn't think he realised.

 

“Oh please!” started Ragatha, placing a hand on her hip. “You would. And poor Clover actually believes you!”

 

“I don't know whether to feel disappointed in you for thinking you could pull it off or at myself for proving you right,” she muttered dramatically, rolling her eyes. To be fair, she didn't exactly mind that Jax lied; she got the feeling that not every word of what he said was true, and besides, it made for great inspiration material for her own writing.

 

Zooble snorted. “It’s fine, you're new so it's easier to trust him. What you should know by now is that he's full of [!%&*].”

 

“And I take offense to that, Zoobie.”

 

Clover let out a laugh. The atmosphere was light and fun, and the constant bickering and teasing distracted her mind from getting preoccupied. Her eyes darted around the room, taking in everyone's expressions.

 

Gangle was focusing hard on her drawing, one of Zooble's arms around her. Ragatha had taken to tutting at Jax whenever he opened his mouth, having abandoned her cross-stitching a while ago. Kinger was listening intently, occasionally interjecting with his own thoughts about why the government had hijacked the toasters. Despite being burdened with their own troubles, everyone still came together to bring some sort of happiness here.

 

Amidst her pondering, though, her line of sight landed on Caine. He was floating nearby, seemingly in conversation with Bubble, but his gaze kept flicking towards her direction, drumming his fingers along his thigh as if he was nervous. The sight stirred incomprehensible feelings inside Clover. What was wrong with him? Even though she'd only been here a day, it wasn't hard to tell that this wasn't the ringmaster's usual behaviour. She sprung to her feet, oblivious to the rest of the cast's confused calls, and tapped Caine on the shoulder.

 

“Hey, Caine? You okay there? You seem a little… off,” she inquired, tilting her head and bouncing on the tips of her toes.

 

“Huh?” he jolted, almost hitting her in the face yet again, though she didn't protest, “Oh, hello, my dear! Anything I can help with?”

 

Clover scrunched up her nose; his voice was oddly strained. “No. Aren't you going to join us? You look bored,” she commented, latching onto his hand and already tugging him towards the couch. Jax made a face of pure indignant horror, which caused Pomni to break out into fits of giggles before quickly switching her expression to one of neutral annoyance.

 

Caine froze. This was supposed to be the humans’ leisure time, away from him and his restlessness to have some organic company. So why was this new player bringing him into it? He'd ruin it like he usually did. Perhaps she didn't understand, being unfamiliar with the logistics of the Circus. Yes, that was it. She was just unfamiliar and trying to find her way around. Yet here she was, dragging him towards somewhere he didn't belong.

 

“It’s impolite to whisk me off without telling me where we're headed, you know,” he joked weakly, pulling at his collar with his free hand.

 

Clover only grinned, tipping her head towards the others.

 

Caine sighed. “Look, I- I'm a busy person, and I have things to do! Adventures to plan! You could… spoil the surprise by involving me into your conversations! So go and mingle with your acquaintances while I come up with another one of my fabulous ideas,” he squeaked, yanking his hand out of hers. He wasn't exactly sure why he was doing this, but it was for the best.

 

“What? Why?” demanded Clover, but before she could get a word in edgeways, he'd disappeared in a puff of smoke. [%&*?]. 

 

                     ★★★★★

 

Clover tossed around in her bed. Why did he just vanish like that? He seemed a fairly social person, so it definitely wasn't out of shyness. He was chaotic, lively and always full of energy, which she liked more than she'd care to admit. It was hard to come across someone with as much spirit as she had. But then it suddenly just evaporated when she tried to talk to him. What the [%&*?]. Perhaps he needed time to cool off after introducing her here, she realised, and suddenly felt a twinge of guilt. It wasn't her place to decide what he was feeling. She didn't even know why she was getting so worked up over a single interaction! She turned to face the wall, ignoring her thoughts and hoping that for once, her sleep would be peaceful.

Notes:

Wow! That was one hell of a chapter! Please please please give me your thoughts, I thrive on attention :P

I posted fanart of Clover on Tumblr!! You can find it here

Notes:

Oooh, who could it be? I'm really excited to get this out here! It's my first time writing for TADC, so it might be a bit wonky, but I'm still happy with it. Please just share your thoughts on this if you come across it!