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It’s been a long time since Pomni first arrived to The Amazing Digital Circus. And this time has been… well. Pomni had both experienced happiness and sadness in this game. At some moments she could be having a relaxing moment just taking in her digital surroundings. Then at other moments, she would have mental breakdown after mental breakdown and existential crisis after existential crisis that had her almost begging to abstract.
But right now, she was in a neutral state. The closest thing to sleep in the circus. The jester tossed and turned in her red and blue bed.
Pomni was facing the wall next to her bed as her bedroom-door creaked open. The person trying to be as quiet as they could be, which wasn’t very quiet. But Pomni’s own snores drowned it out to her. The bright lights of the outside world shimmied it way into the dark room as they floated their way in.
The figure finally arrived to the side of the bed, looked down to the tiny jester. Slowly, they raised their hand with a air horn, lowering it down right next to where her ear would be if she had them.
1… 2… 3…
HONK!!!
The jester’s eyes launched open, screeching from the loud, sudden noise. The sound made her jump, making her hit her head on the top of her canopy. She fell back on to the bed, clinging to the solid ground like a cat digging its claws into the floor. Pomni’s eyes snapped to the person who had woke her up like that, and of course it was the exact person she expected.
“ CAINE, what the $(@) was that for!!!” She yell, anger flooding her voice.
Caine casually throw the air horn way, his energy too tiring for everyone in the morning… and it wasn’t even morning it was like 3:00 am or something.
“FIRST, LANGUAGE!!! AND SECOND-“ In one snap a the whole room was infested with different kinds of party decorations, making it even more messy then it already was.
Balloons, banners, streamers were all over the room in the colors of blue, red, and yellow. Bubble rushed into the room from the open door with some sort of tray with a cover over what was on it. When the two AIs were ready, Caine tugged the cover off of the tray to show some sort of digital cake with her face on it.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” They said in unison, confetti flying in all different directions. Pomni didn’t even have time to question what they meant, she basically almost had a heart attack. The confetti all around her make her shake in fear but thank fully, it disappeared after a few moments. But she was still shaking. I mean it was basically like seeing your friends organs all over your room.
“W-wh-what… birthday? what do you mean?” After recovering enough to talk, Pomni’s mind asked a million questions at once.
“WELL…“ Caine’s eyes turned to static as he searched up the term.
“BIRTHDAY , NOUN, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY ON WHICH A PERSON WAS BORN, TYPICALLY TREATED AS AN OCCASIONL-“
“No no, I mean… Why ?” Pomni started to get even more annoyed then usual with Caine.
Caine pause, he blinked a few times before realizing what the jester meant.
“OOOH!!! WELL 365 DIGITAL DAYS AGO, THIS CIRCUS WAS BLESSED WITH THE ARRIVAL OF A CERTAIN JESTER, YOU!” He shouted, pointing to Pomni. Pomni’s expression turned to confusion, it wasn’t like she was born here.
“SO WE’RE HERE TO CELEBRATE!!!” Bubble threw the cake up into the air, quickly moving under it in time to catch it in his mouth.
“Yeah!!!”
“…”
The room filled with awkward silence as Caine slowly turned to his bubble companion.
“…why do I even bother…” Caine said with a very quietly compared to his usual voice. Out of nowhere Caine pocked Bubble and made the bubble boy explode. Pomni flinch, even though that was a usual occurrence.
Caine quickly turns back to his cheerful self, face the nervous jester with a happy expression or at least what looked like one.
“SORRY FOR THAT MY DEAR, BUT I HAVE TO LEAVE TO GET PREPARED FOR TODAY’S ACTIVITIES! SEE YOU AT THE SPECIAL ADVENTURE!!!” Caine said as he quickly puff away in a cloud of smoke. Pomni coughed and her anger can right back to her.
“Stupid Caine, stupid (&)@ Birthday…” Pomni whispered and took a step onto the floor. She stood there and a thought crossed her mind… a year. She had been here for a year. She hadn’t found an exit or even a hint or clue about a way out. She blinked, taking a seat with her back resting on the side of the bed. Her breaths became shallower and come faster. God… what is she going to do…
Is she just meant to stay here forever? Will she ever except it? Should she just give up and abstract right now?
But before she could fall too deep… a knock sounded through the room. She looked up to see her door still open, thanks to Caine but the person that was in the door way was Ragatha.
Ragatha looked a Pomni with a small smile, her regular eye shined in the way it always did when she looked at the jester.
“Hi Pomni,” she said with a hint of worry in her voice. “Can I come in?”
Pomni mind was in a fog but she was able to make her self nod. The rag-doll walked in, making her way to the jester’s side. She sat down, resting her hands on her knees as she looked down to Pomni.
“I just wanted to check in on you, I heard yelling…” she looked around the room to she the over the top birthday decorations. “I guess that was just Caine.”
“…yeah” she whispered “ I guess it’s my birthday ,” she said the word birthday with a sarcastic tone.
“Oh!” Ragatha looked surprised, finally getting why the decorations were here. “Well H-happy birthday Pomni!” She cheerfully said, but with a hint of nervousness. She clearly felt bad for not realizing it.
"Thanks but..." Pomni tried to find her words but she just stopped and sighed. Ragatha's eyes widen just a bit and she scooted a bit closer.
" But What?" she ask gently, not want to be to pushy.
"It's just... I've been here for a year or how ever long in the real world and I have found nothing... Not even a clue about that God $@?) Exit!" Pomni's voice started to rise at the end of this rant but not really shouting. Ragatha fiddled with hand, try to find the best route of action to help her dear jester. Pomni looked up at her Dolly.
“Well,” Ragatha paused, a tiny smile stretched across her face. “I think that kinda makes sense,”
Pomni flinched at what the rag-doll just said. She blinked rapidly, her face squished into a confused expression. Ragatha had to have been joking, right?
“W-what do you mean?”
“Me and the others have been here for years, in my opinion if there was something to find, wouldn’t it have been found by now?” Ragatha waited for a response from the jester but it was just silence. Her chest grow tight with anxiety, did she accidentally make Pomni upset? She hadn’t meant for that. The Rag-doll looked down to the small jester by her side to see her not mad but… sad.
Devastated even. Her eyes widened, looking at the jester’s face as it fell deeper into a sadness, as I’d she had just realized something depressing. But before she could try and console her, Pomni spoke up.
“Years… you all have been here for so long,” she groaned, her hands moving to the side of her head.
Ragatha didn’t know how to respond to that.
“…how many birthdays have you had?” The jester said calmly, almost as if she hadn’t been sad just a second ago. Ragatha blinked, trying to remember the answer and how to say it.
“I’d say… 4 birthday,” she mumbled, a twinge of sadness dripped into her tone of voice. The rag-doll looked down to Pomni, staring into the jester’s eyes as the red and blue pinwheels slowly spun around and around. The jester this time moved closer to Ragatha, her eye still glued to the floor. She stop as soon as the two’s shoulders touched, sending Ragatha into a mental fog of her own, both of their faces heating up.
“That stupid… how could we even have real birthdays here?” She muttered, rolling her pinwheel eyes. Ragatha, still almost fully stuck in her mind after that advance, squinted her eyes.
“…How so?” She asked.
“How would we even now today is my birthday?!” She replied, a bit pissed off but not at the Rag-doll just the situation.
Ragatha just stared at the Jester, until an idea popped into her head. She smiled to herself as she answered.
“How do we know today is not your birthday?” She said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Pomni turned her gaze to Ragatha, narrowing her eyes at her. But it quickly fell into a sad smile as she looked at her.
“People have actually names on birthdays too,” she murmured in a sarcastic tone. Ragatha kinda struggled to find what to say about that. She knew Pomni hated her name. It’s meaning, it’s childish feel, it’s was also just stupid hard to spell when Pomni was first getting used to it.
“You know, you could…. call yourself …Penny”
Pomni looks even more confused then before but she just played along, she was kinda getting numb to it.
“What..Is a… Penny?” She mumbled, which basically translated to ‘Why the name Penny’. Ragatha started to stumble and sputter over the words try to escape from her mind.
“Oh I just- I’ve always liked the name and- You just- You kinda give off the name’d energy- And I may have been saving the name.” Ragatha spoke her sentences over one another, getting way too flustered then she usually was.
Pomni leaned a bit of her body weight on to Ragatha, which snapped her out of it. The rag-doll immediately stopped for talk, wondering why the tiny jester was so U.N. put off by physical touch right now.
“I like Penny,” She told Ragatha, as if the roles that reversed and she was consoling her. Which Ragatha liked. She stared straight into the wall almost unable to look down at Pomni.
“You can keep her,”
“Can Penny have… the prettiest brown eyes?” The question was asked so sincerely that it made a giggle come out of Ragatha.
“Haha… why brown eyes?” The rag-doll questioned.
“Their a regular eye color… and I just think brown eyes are pretty” The jester muttered.
“…Yes…” Ragatha answered the tiny jester question. She had finally gotten the courage to look down to Pomni, seeing the jester fiddling with the bells on the ends of her hat. Pomni looked up, to the wall in front of her.
“Penny… with the prettiest brown eyes,” She said almost content, like her and the girl next to her weren’t trapped in this video game for probably eternity. The jester turned her head a bit to cuddle up against Ragatha close… then she realized what she was doing.
She looked up to Ragatha’s face with big red and blue pinwheel eyes, she could almost feel the heat radiating off of the rag-doll’s face. Or maybe that was just her’s.
“Uuuuhhhh!!!” She blinked, her eyes now scribbles. She quickly stood up.
“I-I guess I’m gonna go-go for a… WALK or somewhere!?!” She yelled, walking robotic to the door.
“WAIT POMNI!” Ragatha stood up, picking up her dress trim so she could fallow the Jester. “This is your room!!!”
“Oh… yeah it… it is” She paused in her tracks in the hall way, Ragatha just a foot behind her.
“Can I Join you?” She asked, hoping that Pomni would look at her. And just like that, the jester turned her gaze to the rag-doll.
“Sure,”
Ragatha walked up to Pomni’s side, but neither of them started the trek. Ragatha smiled down to the tiny, now glowing with blush, Jester.
“Thank you, Penny.”