Chapter Text
Vox was drowning. In paperwork, literally!
You’d think that some of his stupid assistants would do the work, but of course not. He groaned.
”Ethan!” After he called out to his employee, immediately after there were quick tiny footsteps echoing through the hall. Many VoxTek employees would’ve been absolutely shitting their pants, which absolutely did not make his ego bigger. No matter—His assistant was used to it, he never demonstrated his nervousness now, which, you know—good.
He doesn’t like weakness.
Ethan opened the door, and saw the state of his desk. Vox heard him gulp.
“Ethan, my dear assistant.” He began, slowly lifting his gaze towards the very nervous eel that was standing in his office.
”What is this?” He gestured towards a comically large stack of paperwork that was on top of his desk, he could tell the eel was surprised, but he resisted the urge to huff.
“Oh—sir, apologies, the paperwork must’ve been mishandled—“ “If you don’t take this shit out of my fucking desk in three seconds, I swear to Lucifer I will kill you.” His voice filled with static and spiraling eye was enough to tell he was being very serious. Not totally, only about 90% percent.
Ethan squealed in fear and immediately took all the paperwork in his hands, and almost flew out of the office.
Fucking finally. God, I am so tired right now.
Now that Vox thought about it, he was very much tired. There were multiple pop-ups in his face about “unusual low battery!” Or “Energy Needed” which he ignored because he was busy.
Then, his world tilted, and Vox fell asleep, not in a very comfortable position.
He slowly opened his eyes. V— hoped he didn’t fall asleep at his desk like last time. It caused him major back pain and made him feel old.
Why is the music so loud?
Valentino would sometimes barge in to his office with loud music blasting through his phone, so that makes sense. “Val.. Turn the music down.” V—mumbled tiredly. “Who’s ‘Val’?” V— jolted, startled by the cartoonish purple bunny, unusually familiar to a certain old friend of his.
What the
@#?’?Where am I?
He guessed he said it out loud, since the guy started snickering. Too mocking. But he was too focused on the fact someone managed to kidnap him and put him in a … circus? It certainly looked like one, but it was so big.. was he in a stage? There seemed to be other people surrounding him.
He sat up to take a look towards his new companions and possibly kidnappers.
“Who the #@?!$ are you guys?”
Wait what.
Suddenly, he heard a poof! Sound next to him, and a guy that had teeth for a head started practically yellling. He could feel a migraine coming.
“No, no, no, my dear! Bad words are not allowed in The Amazing Digital Circus!” V— grimaced, was that where he was right now? Was this guy the mastermind behind the kidnapping? He could just kill them right?
“Well, I don’t give a @#$&*. I don’t know if you noticed, but kidnapping someone who is much more powerful than you is not a smart choice.” V— gave a mocking yet sharp smile, while standing up and fixing himself up. Some of the others were staring at him strangely.
Do I have something in my face?
“Don’t be silly! Right now, I am the most powerful being in this room! But not to worry— I only use my powers to create amazing adventures for my subjects.” Teeth guy explained, making really exaggerated expressions, which compensates for not having a mouth, or nose— or eyebrows. Or a face, really.
But what caught his attention, was the fact that he mentioned he was the most powerful in the room.
This guy must be joking. He obviously didn’t think he was the most powerful.
“Now, you want to tell us your name? Before I forget! Mine is Caine! The mastermind—“, V— knew he was behind this! “Behind your amazing adventures!” Oh, Caine got him there.
Speaking of that, he ..
“My name, tsk! Well it’s…” He paused, it was not often he forgot his name. What is this? How could he forget it? It obviously started with V.. or did it? Maybe it started with something else. He looked around as if the others had the answers. Some looked with pity, some with mocking grins, some with sympathy.
“My name..” ??? mumbled. He grabbed the sides of his casing. This must be a mistake, how could he forget something as important as one’s name?
“Not to worry my TV headed dear! Well, before that, we must have a super duper hyper AMAZING tour for our new brand member!” Caine then grabbed the TV headed man that was very much spiraling.
They both disappeared in a ‘poof!’ Sound.
Then they were in front of the tent. The landscape looked so incredibly cartoonish he couldn’t believe he wasn’t dreaming right now.
V— tried everything to wake up. Pinching himself, or even blinking several times, but nothing worked. He had no connection to Hell right now, and it was more unnerving than he thought.
“This—“ Caine gestured towards the tent. “Is The Tent!”
Yeah no s—[BOING]
”Your,” he pointed towards V— “Living quarters, and where you can do all sorts of activities—“
“Get to the point.”
Caine sighed, as if he was used to this, then grabbed V— by the arm and pulled him farther away from The Tent to completely see the whole ‘map’. Yep, still cartoon.
A hand appeared, and started pointing towards some sort of… pool, or lake.
“You could drown yourself at The Lake,” the hand moved towards some sort of carnival. “Or ride endlessly at The Carnival!”
“You can choose the day; night. You can choose anything you want! A buffet of some sorts.” Caine smiled, then V— felt himself being pulled farther away.
Just how big is this world?
“And this right here—“ He gestured towards the endless white space, that seemed to have some type of digital texture, “is The Void! We do not venture in here.” Caine got too close for the sinner’s comfort.
“Not even I know what’s out there.” He said eerily; it hardly made V— scared.
“So you will stay at The Tent, or anywhere else that isn’t The Void, so I can have my hundreds of all seeing eyes—“ Caine summoned eyes that looked like his, “on you!” He made them look towards V—.
”…So you’re like… God?”
“In your case, yes. I could be.” Caine responded easily. “Now, we shall go back, I’m sure our dear members are waiting for us!” Caine tilted his head innocently.
“Seems like you’re not the newbie anymore, Pomni.” Jax said, walking towards the jester, who smirked, ready to banter once again with her friend. But then she thought about it, what did the guy mean by powerful? He did have an interesting body for sure.
A TV head is funny. Funnier than a jester. A fool, whatever Pomni was.
“Well I don’t know, but he seems like an egocentric guy, a bit pathetic if you ask me.” Zooble added, looking to the side nonchalantly. Pomni silently agreed, nodding softly.
“Well, I don’t think so. Maybe we should give him a chance!” Ragatha tilted her head and smiled, kind and bright as ever, but certainly she couldn’t fool many.
“Gee, Raggy, you’re too dumb for your own—“ Jax was interrupted by Caine and New Stuff teleporting back from the tour, New Stuff looking more distressed than the other. Although Caine wasn’t doing peachy visibly either.
“Now, we have to decide your name, or you can choose your own. When you enter the circus, you forget your name. A side effect from your body entering the physical plane. One thing I do not have control over, are your feeble little minds.” Caine winked, which made V— grimace once again.
“How can I be sure you’re not lying? Why can I not just—Leave? ” V— asked, desperately trying to make sense of all of this. He was seconds away from a panic attack. Pomni was sure.
“Oh, sorry, hi— the name is Pomni.,” V— looked at her, in his bewildered expression. “The thing is, you can’t exactly… well, leave. You’re stuck here. With a new home, and body.” Pomni said, with a soft tone, as if he was a little kitten about to run away.
What she said absolutely made him spiral.
“New home? N-new body?! Wha— what is happening?”
He once again curled on himself, and he could feel his left eye turning on his hypnosis. But it didn’t affect Pomni, so was he truly powerless here? Was this a new punishment for forsaken souls?
“YES! New home! Now let’s talk about something important,” V— heard someone mutter something about Caine not being able to read the room, which he agreed. “Like your name! Of course, you can choose anything you like.”
”Hereby acknowledging that your name and or names may not breach the Digital Circus user license agreement stating that your name may not include objectionable content. Objectionable content includes but is not limited to sexually explicit materials, obscene, defamatory, libelous, slanderous, violent, and/or unlawful content or profanity.” Caine said in what appeared to be in one breath. V— looked at Caine weirdly.
”So, what are ya thinkin’?” He asked, suddenly moving from his position.
Ah, his name. He knew it started with V. Or maybe..
Why did he suddenly feel so doubtful about that? No matter, his gut was always right.
“It.. started with V. I know it did. So, just.. call me V. For now.” V said, cautiously. He felt the surprised stares from all the other members, of course, he knew probably most of them didn’t know at least the first letter of their name.
Caine stared at V, which made him squirm uncomfortably under his gaze, until he finally yelled, “Very well! For you, V, we will do a special welcome adventure!”
“Caine’s Chocolate Factory!,” Big letters spelling what Caine said appeared above him, which made V sort of surprised. “You will have to escape a chocolate factory, while also discovering the amazing experiments being done! And, avoid dying! So let’s g—“
“Wait!” Pomni interrupted, making everyone look at her. “Could we first show V his room? Maybe he needs a little bit of time to cool down.” She explained, not really looking at Caine in the eyes. Which V understood.
Caine didn’t seem to really think about it, he always responded almost immediately. “Oh, but of course! You guys show him around the living quarters, and I will perfect my adventure so you guys have the most incredible experience!”
Pomni gave a small smile, but it was more nervous than anything, she wasn’t used to this herself. She was fairly new.
Then, Caine poofed out of there, possibly going to his office. Or does he even have one? She didn’t know.
“Why don’t we focus on introducing each other? That way, it’s a lot easier for today’s adventure.” The doll-like chick said, she seemed a lot like Charlie, but more experienced. She seemed older.
They all seemed to agree, so he just went with it.
The one with red ribbons for a body went first, which was odd since he didn’t even remember they were there.
“Well, uhm, my name is Gangle! Nice to meet you, V.” Gangle’s voice was soft, she seemed timid and delicate, like her porcelain mask. V could tell he could manipulate her easily to get his way.
Then, the guy… or was it a girl? Either way, they had a big head, no mouth whatsoever. And weird antennas.
“My name is Zooble, nice to meet you, V.” Their voice was rough, low and soft. V had a feeling that they weren’t as easy to manipulate, nor charm. He almost cursed under his breath.
Then, the weird rabbit went third. “Hey, New Stuff, my name is Jax. Now that we’re done with the boring introductions, can we actually go to the adventure and get it done with?”
“No, Jax, we gotta show him his room, remember?” Pomni scolded, putting her hands on her hips and looking up at him, it felt more like teasing rather than scolding.
Can they not flirt infront of me.
“Yeah, so can we go now?” V deadpanned, but he got ignored by the both of them. “Well Pom-Pom, I’m sure he can find his room well by himself. Ain’t that right, V?”
V digital expression showed nothing but exhaustion, so Jax and Pomni wasted no time to show him his room while the others hanged out in the stage. Well, one put more effort than the other.
They were walking down the hall, and he could see some pictures crossed out. Did they leave? Or did something happen to them?
“So, there is another one? Kinger?”
“Yeah, he is the one who has lived here the most—“
“Yeah, that’s why he’s craaaazy” Jax chuckled, while leaning down way too close for V’s comfort. His hand twitched, yearning to zap him out of existence, but he really couldn’t.
V noticed how Pomni sent a glare towards Jax, but it had a glint of fondness to it. Jax had the same gaze, they really were at it, huh?
“Oh! Here it is, that’s your room. You can enter it and lock it, but sometimes people can find keys to random rooms and there’s a chance one of them will lead to yours.” She explained quickly, like she was used to it. This was all too quick for V.
He opened the door to see a dark blue room, with mostly teal led lights, although it had a light at the center of the room that was currently turned off. At the corner of the room, right beside the wall, there was a bed that was modern and big, with a desk beside it, also very modern. It all screamed CEO room.
“… Wow.” Indeed, wow.
The trio went back after analyzing V’s room, yet there wasn’t anything much to analyze, it seemed extravagant yet bland. Very much like him.
They went back towards the others, V was mostly silent. Not paying attention to the banter of the lovebirds.
When they came back, they were all
In the middle, just standing. Waiting for Caine. Was it just him, or was this way too awkward?
Am I officially anti social?
“Seems like V and the others are back!” Caine appeared behind V, making him jolt and definitely yelp. Not yell. He will ignore how some stifled their laughs.
“Apologies my dear!” He patted V’s head in a condescending manner, or it seemed that way. Caine didn’t seem to be the type of guy to be condescending, he was an AI after all.
It was nice to receive touch after all this time.
But some of the others were staring at them, V thought the novelty of him was off. Why were they still staring like he was a bug?
Maybe he was. But he looked in the mirror; it was the same form he had in Hell. V wouldn’t mention that to them though, too dangerous, maybe some would stop talking to him.
He didn’t realize he was zoned out until he looked at his surroundings and saw how no one was there but a portal, and Caine next to it.
“What are you waiting for!? The adventure begins!” Caine said in his showman voice, that seemed like V’s. He missed that life.
“Don’t rush me, teeth face.” V has started to come up with creative insults after he realized he couldn’t use cuss words.
V finally entered the portal, and it was not so different from smoking drugs while drinking alcohol. It was cooler since he didn’t have to have a headache tomorrow morning, but did they even have time here?
He looked around, and indeed—it looked like a chocolate factory, too similar to Willy Wonka’s. Obviously everyone must see the resemblance.
“Oh, hi V! Sorry for not getting you. Caine, kinda—sorta made the portal suck everyone up except for you… anyway!”
Was she always this awkward? No wonder I’m getting anti social.
“Kinger is finally here, you can meet him!” V forced a small smile; he didn’t have any interest in meeting him. It might be necessary in the long run, but he realized it might not bring him much to make allies since, they can’t die or get killed. What’s the point?
He blinked, and he was suddenly infront of a gigantic chess piece with eyes, eyebrows, yet no mouth.
The name does fit him. A king.
V gave him a showman smile and introduced himself, short and sweet, he just wanted to get this over with.
Kinger wasn’t exactly responsive, it was like he was high— but they couldn’t exactly get high here. At least that’s what those lovebirds told him when he asked.
“Hi! My name is.. Kinger! At least I think it is. Or maybe it isn’t?” Kinger chuckled. “Nice to meet you B!”
V didn’t have the heart to correct him, and it seemed everyone agreed with V silently.
Will this adventure be worth it?