Chapter Text
The light suddenly exploded, blinding and saturated with surreal colors. A frenetic, repetitive circus tune began hammering in Nenia's ears like a drill.
She had been catapulted against a hard checkered floor. She got up with difficulty, feeling her body rigid, wrong. She looked at her hands: there was no skin, but lacquered wood. The finger joints were spherical, like those of an old ventriloquist's dummy or a puppet.
Terror closed her throat; the only thing she managed to utter was: "What the fuck..." But from her mouth, that last word didn't come out. A cartoonish BOING echoed in the air, and a black bar with abstract symbols covered her lips.
"NO SWEARING, MY DEAR! The Digital Circus it’s suitable for everyone, young and old!”
A giant set of dentures with two mismatched eyes floated toward her, waving a cane. She recoiled. "And what the fu-BOING-ck are you?!"
"Wow," interjected a voice a bit farther away. Nenia looked up. It was a tall, slender periwinkle rabbit with pink overalls and an unsettling grin on its face. It detached from the column it was leaning against and approached with a smug smirk. "Not even half a second and you've already gotten censored! Twice! That's a record."
"I AM CAINE! The highest authority of this circus, your official provider of distress and delight!” said the denture-man, floating and twirling in front of her.
The woman continued to look at her hands with unease, then turned toward the colorful world she found herself in. "But… where the fu-BOING-ck have I ended up?!"
The periwinkle rabbit who had spoken earlier bent over in loud laughter. "I can't believe it… we're already at three!" She looked up in his direction and studied him better. There was something about that rabbit... something incredibly familiar that made her temples throb, like a faded memory trying to resurface but failing to focus. A small twinge went through her skull. "I just told you!" exclaimed the flying dentures, who apparently was named Caine, spreading his arms in a theatrical gesture that nearly knocked off his top hat. "In the Amazing Digital Circus! The place where anything can happen, except swear words!"
Around them, a group of absurd figures watched her with a mix of curiosity and pity: a rag doll with one eye and the other one as a button that smiled timidly at her, a trembling chess piece huddled in a regal purple robe, and a strange creature made of red ribbons with a ceramic mask that seemed on the verge of crying.
"The Digital... what, sir???" she said, shifting her attention back to Caine.
"SIR?! OH! What delightful formality! I LIKE IT! It adds a touch of... class to this madhouse!"
He spun in mid-air.
The rag doll stepped forward, smiling reassuringly. "Hi," she said in a sweet voice, offering her cloth hand. "I… am Ragatha! Don't worry. It's... well, it's always a bit traumatic at first."
"Traumatic?! NONSENSE!" Caine interrupted, floating between them and gently pushing Ragatha aside with his cane. "IT'S JUST THE EXCITEMENT OF THE DEBUT! Let’s cut the chatter! To insert you into our fantastic opening theme, we need an important detail." He approached Nenia's face, his eyes in the gums dilating with anticipation. "What's your name, my dear?" The puppet-woman scratched her head, then replied: "Uh... I'm... Nenia. And who are you? Traumatic? Start of what?"
At the word 'Nenia', the cheerful infernal tune seemed to glitch with a screeching sound. An unnatural and heavy silence fell instantly under the tent. Caine froze in mid-air, his jaw locked in an expression of pure static bewilderment, as if his processor had just crashed.
The rabbit, who had been watching her with an air of superiority, lost his grin. His long purple ears shot up, and he detached from the column he had leaned against again, straightening his back and staring at her with a new, almost alarmed, intensity.
"She... she just said her name?" whispered the ribbon girl, whose ribbons began to tremble visibly, while her sad mask seemed to grow even darker. "But, it's impossible! No one remembers their name when they arrive here! No one!"
The chess piece, standing trembling, widened his mismatched eyes staring into the void, his hands gesturing jerkily. "Calculation error! Database anomaly! Digital synapses shouldn't retain previous personal data! Is it a bug?! Are we under attack?!" he shouted, spinning in panic.
Caine recovered with a graphical shake, gliding abruptly a few inches from Nenia's nose. "Nenia? Are you sure, my dear?" He scrutinized her with his mismatched eyes, skeptical and agitated. "Didn’t you just spit out a random combination of letters like 'XDDCC' and get lucky? Because usually here, memories of the past go... poof!" He mimed an explosion with his hands, but his smile was decidedly strained.
"Well, I have a weird name, but your reaction seems... exaggerated! XDDCC??? What the..." she replied, even more confused.
"It's not exaggerated at all!" Caine retorted, conjuring a holographic ledger that floated in mid-air. "Usually here, names melt like digital snow in the sun! New arrivals stutter, glitch, and in the end, I have to choose for them!"
He scrolled frantically through a list with his gloved finger. "Let's try inserting it: N-E-N-I-A." The panel emitted a cheerful green DLING! of confirmation. Caine's mouth hung open, his eyes rolling in opposite directions in astonishment. "Incredible! The system accepts it! You're the first one ever to keep your original name! What a thrill!"
The periwinkle rabbit stepped forward, invading Nenia's personal space with calculated slowness. He scrutinized her from head to toe with those yellow eyes and rectangular pupils, a mix of cynical suspicion. "A real name?" he murmured, leaning slightly toward her. "And tell me, 'Nenia', do you remember just that? Or has your little wooden head kept other secrets from the real world? Like: who were you?"
The rag doll intervened, placing a cloth hand on the rabbit's purple arm to pull him back. "Jax, stop it. You're scaring her! Let her breathe." He yanked away, stepping back and huffing. Nenia looked at that familiar rabbit for a moment, then turned to the doll: "Hey, sweetie… what's... going on?" Ragatha blushed slightly on her cloth cheeks, caught off guard by that confidential tone. "Oh, well... It's complicated. You're in the Digital Circus. It's a virtual world and, well, we live here. And we… we can't leave."
The rabbit snorted, crossing his skinny arms. "Translation: we're prisoners in a Candy-colored nightmare. And you're the new fresh meat. Or fresh lumber, in your case." He chuckled. "We can't leave??? What the fu..." She didn't have time to finish the word before Caine reappeared between them with a pirouette, completely ignoring the tension. "Potayto, potahto! The important thing is that now you're one of us! And to make you feel at home right away, it's time for the Grand Tour! Follow me to the dorms! We'll find your room right away!" Caine pushed her cheerfully down the hallway, ignoring her protests. "No panic! You'll get used to it in one glitchy instant!"
They found themselves in a long atrium, lined with numerous doors. Each had a drawn portrait of the owner; others showed the anonymous silhouette of a wooden drawing mannequin, and still others were crossed out with an X, beneath which were drawings of other cartoonish individuals.
The Ringmaster stopped in front of a door. The portrait showed Nenia's face in that body: the glasses, the blue braids, the doll-like jaw. "And here's your realm!" exclaimed the director, flinging open the door and staying outside.
The interior was... disconcerting. One wall was entirely covered with racks full of weapons - guns, knives, rifles - but they had the colorful, harmless look of plastic toys. There was a bookshelf overflowing with tomes titled things like 'Applied Criminology' and 'Forensic Anatomy'. In one corner hung a heavy punching bag, on the opposite side, there was a wall piano, and above it, attached to the wall, posters of various musicals - Hair, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent. But the thing that immediately caught everyone's attention was the bed: above the headboard, on the wall, were hung handcuffs, ropes, and strange leather instruments that seemed straight out of a dungeon.
Ragatha covered her mouth with her cloth hand, widening her eye. "Oh heavens! It's... particular."
Suddenly, another individual popped up from the hallway. A character that seemed made of various colored plastic pieces stuck together. They peeked in the door: "Oh sh-BOING-it, a new arrival?" they said, then gave a quick glance at the room, rolled their eyes, and walked away. "Too much weird stuff. See ya." Their head disappeared at the end of the hallway.
The rabbit, who had followed them whistling, froze on the doorstep. His yellow eyes quickly scanned the fake weapons, the punching bag, and stopped on the bed. A crooked, mischievous smile split his face. "Well, well..." he murmured, entering without asking permission and touching the sack. "Who would've believed that? Looks like the little doll has some interesting hobbies. Very interesting."
Nenia blushed visibly, looking around: "What are you, some kind of stalker who... kidnapped me and brought me to this fuc-BOING-king place?"
"Stalkers? Kidnappers? What a macabre imagination!" Caine laughed, a digital and grating sound that made the fake glass of a fake window next to the piano vibrate, staying outside the room's doorstep. "The Digital Circus is paradise! And we didn't furnish this room, my dear. It was procedurally generated from your... let's call it 'mental essence'!"
The periwinkle rabbit, who hadn't stopped snooping, grabbed a pair of leather handcuffs from the bed's headboard, dangling them on his index finger with an amused air. "Yeah, we sure seem like the dangerous ones here," he commented sarcastically, shifting his gaze from the handcuffs to the weapons on the wall. "I mean it, dollface. Who were you out there? A dominatrix or a serial killer? Because I'm starting to think we should be the ones afraid of you."
"You're always this annoying, rabbit? If you don't get out of my, apparently, room, I'll make you try those on," Nenia finally replied, losing her temper. He burst out laughing, a dry and grating laugh, while raising his hands in mock surrender. "Ooh, audacious! Are you inviting me to dinner or trying to arrest me, officer?" He took a step toward her, twirling the handcuffs on his finger. "I warn you though, sweetie: if you tie me up, then I become your responsibility. And believe me… I'm a terrible pet. I make messes, eat a lot, and don't obey commands."
The doll, flushed, stepped in between, trying to gently push Nenia out of the room. "Okay, we've seen enough! I think Nenia is tired and confused! Why don't we all go to dinner? Caine has prepared a banquet, right? He's decided it'll be a daily activity to make us feel more… human!"
The puppet-woman continued to glare at that intrusive rabbit, then shifted her gaze to the rag doll: "A banquet? I don't understand anything anymore but... O-okay?"
Ragatha smiled encouragingly at her and guided her out of that unsettling room, while the rabbit put the handcuffs back with one last amused look, following them while whistling.
They returned to the main atrium, under the central tent in the common room, where Nenia had 'woken up' shortly before. With a theatrical snap of his fingers, Caine made a long banquet table appear, overflowing with dishes in saturated colors and plastic-like consistency: giant chicken legs, glittering cakes, and jellies that wobbled unnaturally.
Everyone took their seats. The rabbit flopped into the chair next to an empty one, brazenly putting his feet on the table and crossing his arms behind his head. Nenia sat rigidly, glazing suspiciously at a dish that looked like a pixelated roast that had appeared in front of her. "Listen, sir," she began, looking up at Caine who floated at the head of the table. "Is there anything vegetable? Or at least that doesn't look like a dead animal? I'm vegan."
The purple rabbit looked at her, widening his eyes and burst into a raucous laugh, nearly tipping over his chair. "Vegan?" repeated the rabbit, grinning and showing his yellow teeth. "And without anyone voting to make you one? Are you serious? You're trapped in here, made of wood, and you're worried about your diet? Relax, dollface, no one suffered here. Except us, obviously, having to listen to this nonsense!"
She turned directly toward him. "Now I'm suddenly craving for some rabbit!" He didn't back down an inch and instead of getting scared, burst out laughing again. A genuine, wicked, and amused laugh. He ran a hand over his long purple ears, pulling them back slightly as if showing them off. "Wow. Ambitious." He rested his elbows on the table, interlacing his gloved yellow fingers and propping his chin on them. "It wouldn't suit you, I'm full of preservatives, sarcasm, and digital cholesterol. I'd sit heavy in your stomach for weeks!" He looked her straight in the eyes, his rectangular pupil narrowing. "But hey, if you think your teeth are strong enough to chew on me, go ahead! I like watching people choke trying."
She ignored his provocation and turned to the other diners, scrutinizing them with a mix of suspicion and clinical curiosity. "Listen," she said, pointing at them one by one with her wooden finger. "You said I can't leave. That this is a… digital circus. But what are you? NPCs? Faulty artificial intelligence? Or is there... is there someone real in there?"
The rag doll lowered her gaze, twisting her hands with a sad smile. "We're people, Nenia." she replied softly. "Or at least, we were. Before putting on a strange headset and ending up here. We're human, just like you."
"Yeah," interjected a grating and annoyed voice. The strange character made of pieces who had passed by in the hallway earlier had joined them and sat a little ways away. They detached an arm to scratch their back, then reattached it with a dry 'clack'. "Welcome to the desperate club, doll. Get comfortable, it'll be a long eternity."
The chess piece, who until then had been staring intensely at a digital bug walking on the tablecloth, suddenly shouted, making the mask-girl next to him jump. "Humans?! Who said humans?! I'm a chess piece! Or maybe I'm the king of a lost kingdom?!" He hid trembling behind the poor girl, who with her sad mask sighed, her body ribbons slumping.
Suddenly, a noise of frantic footsteps interrupted the delirium. A girl dressed as a jester arrived running, almost slipping on the shiny floor, her hat bouncing and her eyes wide. "S-Sorry I'm late! I was…" she panted, clutching the edge of the table right in front of Nenia, out of breath and without finishing the sentence. She looked at the new arrival questioningly: "And who are you?!"
The rabbit bit into a digital chicken leg that made an exaggerated 'crunch' noise, spitting out some pixels. "Pomni, relax or you'll stroke out right here!
"Uh… nice to meet you." said Nenia, offering her wooden hand which the jester girl grasped. "I'm Nenia and yes, apparently I'm the new arrival," then she turned back to the rag doll. "So... You're human? Jeez! This is frying my brain." She pressed her fingers to her temples, jolting for a moment at the unexpected touch of wood she wasn't used to, then huffed.
Pomni, the jester girl, interjected: "When did you arrive? Are you... are you human too?" Nenia nodded without a word. The jester smiled. "You know, when I arrived here we had a banquet like this! Lately Caine likes to redo it often, since we made him understand that we like daily routines! They give us a sense of… normality!"
The jester's gaze fell into the void and she slumped heavily into the chair next to hers. Nenia looked up again, starting to stare insistently at the one made of various colored pieces.
Them, noticing Nenia's insistent gaze on her mismatched pieces, crossed their arms with a snappy jerk that made her shoulder creak. "What? Never seen abstract art?" they growled, looking away. "Stop staring or I'll gouge out those glass eyes." The rabbit chuckled, pointing at Nenia with the gnawed chicken bone. "Welcome to the madhouse, dollface."
She looked at her hands again, then back at the 'abstract artwork'. "S-Sorry! I didn't mean to stare. You're... interesting, anyway. For what my opinion's worth. I was trying to understand your... avatar better? We're avatars, I suppose." She shrugged. "But I don't know your names, except for that periwin-BOING-kle jerk here." she said, pointing at the purple rabbit with her thumb. "The rag lady called you Jax, right?"
He bulged his eyes: "Nothing gets past you, huh, charming Little Pinocchio? I think we'll get along great. Especially if you keep trying to insult me with that dockworker's vocabulary."
"Then I'll stop insulting you, let's see if you like this," and she raised her middle finger, which was immediately covered with a black bar. "WHAT THE FU-BOING-CK!!!" Jax burst into laughter, showing his open mouth and pointed teeth for a moment. Caine gently tapped Nenia on the head with his cane, as if scolding a disobedient puppy. "No obscene gestures! The Digital Circus is a family-friendly environment! Hands are for clapping, hugging, and pointing to the non-existent emergency exits!"
She huffed, then turned back to the others. "So, what should I call you? If I have to stay here, I'd at least like to know who I'm with." The figure made of colored pieces rolled their big round eyes, apparently less irritated after the awkward compliment earlier. "Zooble," they grunted, skewing an unidentified piece of food with forced nonchalance. "And I heard you: 'interesting' is a nice way of saying 'a mess of random pieces'. Anyway, welcome to the club."
The jester girl sketched a trembling smile, adjusting her jester hat that hung sideways. "I'm Pomni. Nice to meet you."
The rag doll was playing with fake peas on her plate until she felt watched and, looking up, saw Nenia holding her face with one hand, staring at her insistently. "I don't think I caught your name earlier, sweetie. Or that of the lady over there with the beautiful mask." The doll kept her gentle smile, though a veil of embarrassment colored her cloth cheeks. "Oh, um... I told you in the earlier commotion, but I understand if it slipped your mind," she replied sweetly, touching her chest. "I'm Ragatha."
Jax burst into another laugh: "Ah, you remembered my name and not hers! 1-0 for me, Raghy! How could it be otherwise?" Ragatha glared at him.
The girl with the mask, feeling called out, jolted slightly. She clutched her ribbons to her body as if wanting to disappear. "I'm Gangle," she whispered in a faint voice, touching the sad mask on her face. "Nice to meet you."
Jax bit into another piece of chicken, speaking with his mouth full. "Don't get too used to that face, dollface," he commented, nodding toward Gangle. "Gangle has a much cheerier alter ego, but it literally breaks every five minutes. She's practically our living puzzle." "It's a pleasure to meet you all." replied Nenia, ignoring Jax. She tilted her head sideways looking at Caine. "And you, Sir, are you human?"
Caine opened his jaw in a grating laugh, while his eyes rolled backward in horror.
"Human?! Me?! Oh, no!" he exclaimed, floating higher to look down at her. "My dear, I am a pure, immaculate Artificial Intelligence! I am the one who controls the sun, the moon, and well… all of this!" He made a wide gesture encompassing the entire tent, making confetti appear and disappear from nothing. Then he approached her more: "And call me 'you', for heaven's sake! Though I admit I appreciate your way of addressing me!"
Jax rolled his eyes, cleaning his teeth with a nail. "He's the boss," he translated dryly. "Or the jailer. Or a crazy program with too many admin powers. Pick the definition that helps you sleep better at night."
Nenia lowered her voice, leaning toward Jax. "He seems nice. Isn't he?" Jax arched an eyebrow, not pulling away from that sudden closeness. In fact, he leaned imperceptibly toward her, lowering his voice to a hoarse, complicated whisper. "Oh, adorable. Like a tooth extraction without anesthesia."
Then the woman turned to the chess piece, who hadn't introduced himself and seemed to be trying to grab something invisible fluttering around him. "Who's the chess piece?"
At the question, the chess piece seemed to pick up her attention like a radar. He snapped to his feet, nearly knocking over the chair.
"Who?! What?!" he shouted, widening his mismatched eyes and waving his floating hands. "Am I under observation?!" Then, noticing that Nenia was simply looking at him without threatening him, he suddenly calmed, resetting to a composed pose. "Oh. Hi. I'm Kinger. I'm... the King. I guess. Or maybe I was a promoted pawn? I don't remember the bureaucracy!"
Ragatha smiled sweetly, intervening to reassure her. "Kinger's been here longer than any of us. Sometimes... well, his mind wanders a bit, but he's harmless."
"Harmless or not, I like him already," she said in a lower voice, while Kinger seemed to observe a fork with strange curiosity. Pomni looked at her, giving her a sweet smile and nodding. "Kinger's a good person." Nenia looked at her and smiled back. Then she asked another question: "But what do you do here? Eat things. Sleep. Is it some kind of 'The Sims' simulation or do you do other stuff too? Because it seems, what? A video game?"
Jax snickered, rocking his chair precariously with his hands behind his head. "The Sims? As if!" he retorted with a bitter grin. "There at least if you get bored, you can remove the ladder from the pool and end the game. Here? Here you're immortal, sweetie. And boredom is the only thing that kills you slowly."
"ADVENTURES!" thundered Caine, fluttering to the center of the table and exploding small harmless fireworks over a plastic turkey. "Every day your beloved Ringmaster creates astonishing, IN-CRE-DI-BLE ADVENTURES! To keep your mind... uh... stimulated and away from abstraction!"
Ragatha nodded, trying to make it sound less creepy than it seemed. "It's a way to pass the time. Caine creates levels, missions. Tomorrow you'll see one. We do one almost every day!"
"Abstraction? What's that?!" asked the puppet-girl suddenly, intrigued by that unfamiliar concept.
At the word "abstraction," the atmosphere at the table changed instantly. If before there was underlying tension, now there was pure terror. Ragatha shuddered visibly, hugging her cloth arms to her chest, while Kinger let out a choked sound.
Caine seemed to realize he'd hit a sore spot and gave a strained smile, waving his hands. "Oh, nothing to worry about on your first day! Technical details! Boring nerd stuff!"
"Yeah, nothing to worry about on the first day… I know something about that!" said Pomni under her breath, sighing. Jax, however, didn't miss the opportunity. He leaned across the table toward Nenia, his yellow eyes narrowed to two luminous, cruel slits. "It's Game Over, dollface," he said in a low, grave voice, losing his mocking tone for a moment. "When your mind breaks, when you stop understanding who you are, your body gives out. You become a black monster, a glitched mass without a brain that destroys everything it touches."
He pointed his thumb at the floor, downward. "And when it happens, Caine throws you in the cellar. Forever."
Nenia looked at him with a mix of worry and curiosity in her eyes. "Oh. I see. I think. And has it happened to many so far? Are they still in this... cellar?" she asked softly, noticing the tension in the air. Ragatha lowered her gaze to her plate, unable to hold eye contact. "Yes…" she replied in a whisper. "There are... some. And yes, they're still down there. They don't die, Nenia. They just stop being themselves."
Jax slurped noisily from an improbably colored drink, visibly enjoying the general discomfort. "It's like a monster dump," he added nonchalantly. "Caine keeps them there because he doesn't know what else to do with them. Sometimes, if you press your ear to the floor in the middle of the night,you can hear their low, guttural moans clawing at your very ears! Or maybe it's just Kinger snoring, who knows."
Caine, feeling the atmosphere get too dark for his standards, clapped his hands. "Enough! Enough with these horror stories! You're bringing down my approval rating!" He fluttered over the table, making the plates disappear with a snap. "Dinner is over! Everyone to bed! Tomorrow awaits a day full of... NON-LETHAL ADVENTURES!"
As the others got up resignedly, Jax passed by Nenia, leaning toward her ear. "Sleep well, dollface," he whispered, his mocking tone hiding a warning. "And lock the door tight. You never know what might 'glitch' out from the floor." "Tsk!" she replied. "If you think you can scare me with so little…"
Jax chuckled, not at all offended; in fact, he seemed amused by her hostility. "I forgot I was facing the wooden-version Rambo," he commented, turning his back and walking away with his hands in his pockets. "Night, neighbor."