Chapter Text
A figure was falling into an abyss. Or rather, they felt like they were falling into an abyss.
They didn’t know how they ended up there, or why, just that…They weren’t like anybody. They weren’t human, they were a Time Lord. The rest…A total amnesia.
As they kept falling into this abyss of zeroes and ones, they heard an eerie, distorted melody playing in the background. It felt…Alien, yet familiar.
Doo-wee-ooo…Eee-ooo-woo…
But right then, the music changed into something more cheerful and circus-like, and the Time Lord snapped out of their trance as they heard a young woman scream.
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!” She shouted.
“Someone’s here too?” The Time Lord, “Hang on there, I’m coming! Well, you’re falling, so there’s nowhere for you to hang on-You get what I mean!”
While still falling, the Time Lord tried to move towards the source and managed to grab a hand. But weirdly enough, they couldn’t see the woman, only a black silhouette.
“W-Where are you?! I can’t see you!” said the woman.
“I can’t see you, either,” said the Time Lord, “Look, I don’t know where we are, but just stick around with me and everything will be fine, I promise!”
“Who…Who are you?” The woman asked.
“Oh, right! I didn’t tell you my name,” said the Time Lord, “Hello, I’m-”
Then, the Time Lord was no longer falling.
“What the…?” They said as they looked around. The place was…Vibrant. Full of toy blocks and several equally colourful objects, all of them inside a red-and-yellow tent. “Where am I?”
“WELCOME TO THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!! ” Suddenly, a…Thing with a pair of dentures in place of the head with blue and green eyes and dressed like a ringmaster appeared in front of the Time Lord, startling them.
“Oh, look. Two new suckers in a row,” said an anthropomorphic purple rabbit wearing pink-ish overalls and with a wide grin on his face. “That’s a record.”
The Time Lord then noticed the other “sucker”, a short jester girl with completely white skin and a red-blue-yellow colour scheme in her outfit, who was desperately trying to take a supposed headset off.
Then she stopped, as she sighed in defeat.
“What is going on…I-I just put on a weird headset and now I’m here,” she said.
The Time Lord recognised her voice, but instead decided to investigate where in the world they were.
“You! P.Teeth Barnum,” they pointed at the supposed ringmaster. “I guess you’re the one in charge. Mind explaining what this place is?”
“And how do we leave?” The jester added.
“Sure thing!” said the ringmaster. “The Amazing Digital Circus is a place full of wonders for all ages, where anything can happen! I am Caine, your ringmaster, and as for leaving-”
“You can’t!” the rabbit interjected with all the nonchalance in the world.”We’ve all been stuck in here for years.”
“Years?” the Time Lord and the jester said in unison, the former with curiosity, the latter with pure dread.
“Now, no need to panic, it’s not as bad as you think.” A ragdoll with red hair, a blue button in place of her right eye and wearing a blue dress with a few patches on it and a blue ribbon on her head spoke with a gentle and reassuring tone.
“They look calm to me. The ragdoll, at least,” said the rabbit.
“...’Ragdoll’?” said the Time Lord. Then, they noticed something off…They were wearing gloves, big enough to be oven gloves. Realising something was wrong, they immediately turned to Caine. “Give me a mirror.”
Caine snapped his fingers, and a mirror appeared in front of the Time Lord. “There you go! Revel in your new fantastic Digital avatar!”
The Time Lord look at themselves in the mirror in complete shock. The rabbit was right, they were a ragdoll, although a male-looking one, compared to the other one. He had messy shoulder-length, yarn-like red hair under a white hat, black eyebrows, a flat red-ish triangular nose and stitches and patches of different colours all over his body. He was wearing a blue shirt with bright red question marks on the collar, brown trousers and a rainbow patchwork coat.
“What…?” They said, touching gently their face, not recognising themselves at all. “What?! WHAT?! ”
Then, the Time Lord took a deep breath. “So…We’re stuck here forever?”
“Yeah, we are.” A bizarre-looking humanoid mix-and-match toy spoke with a tired but gentle tone. “Welcome to your new home.”
“Well…I guess I should start knowing the names of my new ‘roommates’,” said the Time Lord.
“Oh! I’m Ragatha,” The ragdoll introduced herself. “The rabbit is Jax, the abstract-looking one is Zooble, the ribbon with a mask is Gangle, and the one inside that pillow fortress is Kinger. There’s also Kaufmo the clown, but I haven’t seen him today.”
“Well, nice to meet you all, I’m-”
The Time Lord went silent as they realised something horrifying: They didn’t know their name. “...I don’t remember my name.”
The jester looked confused and horrified, too. “I…I don’t remember mine, either.”
“Nobody remembers their name when they enter the Digital Circus!” Caine explained, “Your minds are one of the few things I have no control over, but I can help you come up with new names!”
“We forget only our names? W-No, better not tell him, I can ask the others for that,” the Time Lord thought.
“Let’s start with you!” Caine pointed his…Well, cane at the Time Lord. “What’s gonna be your brand new name? It can be anything you wish! HerebyacknowledgingthatyourchosennameornamesmaynotbreachtheDigitalCircusUserLicenseAgreementstatingthatyournamemaynotincludeobjectionablecontent.Objectionablecontentincludes-butisnotlimitedto-sexuallyexplicitmaterial,obscene,defamatory, libellous,slanderous,violent,andorunlawfulcontentorprofanity.” said Caine fastly.
The Time Lord thought about their brand new name for a while. Then, they glanced at themselves in the mirror and, after that, at Ragatha. “Considering my appearance and to fit the naming convention, let’s go with…Randy.”
“And what about you, my jester friend?” Caine turned to the other newly-trapped player.
The jester snapped out of her mental breakdown. “H-Huh? Just…Just pick anything, I don’t care that much.”
Caine snapped his fingers, and suddenly, a slot machine, but with letters, appeared in front of them. The ringmaster pulled down the lever a name appeared.
“What do you think of ‘Xdcc’?” He asked.
“I-”
“Right, terrible. Reroll!” Caine pulled down the lever again, and a new name appeared. “How about ‘Pomni’?”
“I guess it’s fine…” She said
“WONDERFUL!” said Caine. “Randy, Pomni, allow me to give you a tour of the grounds!” He grabbed the two and warped outside of the tent at the speed of light.
“Oh, look! We’re floating!” said Randy, mildly amused.
“This is the TENT!” Caine pointed at the tent, “Home of your living quarters and several fantastic activities! Such as -”
Suddenly, Caine began glitching. Instead of speaking, Randy and Pomni could only hear white noise. They looked at each other in confusion.
“-And more!” The glitching stopped. Then, Caine warped the two farther from the tent. They could now see a floating island surrounded by cartoony mountains and a sky that looked like it was day and night at the same time.
“These are the GROUNDS!” He said, “Drown yourself in the Digital Lake, or engage in ridery at the Digital Carnival! Night, day, it's all okay! The choice is yours, a cosmic buffet!”
“How lovely, I could use a swim,” Randy commented with a smile on their face.
“Is…Is that all..?” Pomni asked.
“Of course not!” Caine dragged the two much, much further from the Grounds, into a bizarre space made of white cubes.
“Now this is interesting.” Randy looked around.
“This is the VOID!” said Caine, “We…Don’t adventure into the Void. Not even I know what’s in there.”
He dragged them back to the Grounds. “Nope, you all stay here so that I can see you with my HUNDREDS OF ALL-SEEING EYES!! ”
Pomni glanced back and saw something…Odd. Right next to the tent, there was a red door with the word “EXIT” written on it.
But before she could react, Caine dragged her and Randy back inside the tent. “So…Any questions?”
Due to moving from place to place at an inhuman speed, Pomni vomited a black liquid on the ground from the dizziness. Randy patted her gently on the back.
“Wow. Clean up on Aisle You! ” said Caine.
“On it, Boss!” An anthropomorphic bubble with a wide, sharp grin came out of Caine’s top hat and…Started licking Pomni’s vomit. Ew.
“...What the f*ck is that?” said Randy, "Oh, I swear now! And I make funny noises when I do that, I should say them often."
“W-Wait…” said Pomni, “What was that? There was an exit door near the tent?”
“What are you talking about?” said Jax, “If there was one, we would have used it already.”
“He’s got a point.” Randy folded their arms.
“But…You saw it too, didn’t you?” Pomni asked Randy.
“Uh…I assure that “exit door” was your imagination,” said Caine, “A fixation, a product of DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS from your mind transcending into the Digital Realm!!”
“But-”
“ DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS!! ” Caine interrupted Pomni. “Now then, everyone, I think it’s time for Pomni and Randy to face their first adventure!”
“Oh, an adventure! I love an adventure,” said Randy.
“Wonderful! Today’s adventure is gonna be a simple and indoor one, to warm you two up!”
“What?!” Zooble protested, “Caine, no! I don’t want an indoor adventure.”
“Don’t worry, Zooble, I’ll make it so that you can choose not to get involved with it!” said Caine. “Now, today’s adventure: Gather the Gloinks!”
The ‘title’ of the adventure appeared over him as the ringmaster laughed maniacally.
“That’s right!” said Caine, “The entire Circus tent will be infested with Gloinks, and you gotta catch them all!”
“But what are they?” Bubble asked after finishing…Cleaning up the ground.
“I’m glad you asked! They’re-”
“And what do they do?” Bubble interrupted Caine.
“They-”
“And how do they-”
Caine popped Bubble.
“Gloinks are small mischievous critters that steal anything and everything they run into!” Caine explained, “Why do these humanoid hash-browns do this? How do you stop them? That's for you to find out. Now, good luck, and have fun, my little superstars!”
He disappeared, leaving the Players by themselves.
Pomni’s left eye twitched; each instant, she was closer to a mental breakdown. “Wha…What did any of that mean?”
“Oh, it’s just a little adventure Caine prepared for us,” said Ragatha. “He always does that, to…Stimulate us and prevent us from going insane.”
“My, how nice of him,” said Randy with sarcasm. “He doesn’t want his prisoners to die from boredom.”
As he uttered those words, Ragatha, Gangle and Zooble glanced away, seemingly nervous of something.
“What? Did I say something wrong?” Randy asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” said Ragatha.
“Well, I’m off,” said Zooble. “If anyone needs me, you can f*ck o-”
Suddenly, the Gloinks, a group of small, bouncing creatures of different shapes and colours, attacked Zooble, stealing their detachable body parts. “Oh, God! HELP!”
The Gloinks dragged her away.
“Shouldn’t we start chasing those things?” Randy asked.
“Eh, they’ll be fine.” Jax shrugged.
“Oh! We should check up on Kaufmo. I’m sure he’d want to meet Randy and Pomni,” said Ragatha.
“Hold it!” Randy objected. “What about Zooble? We can’t leave her just like that!”
“If you’re that worried, I guess Gangle and-”
Jax was interrupted by the Gloinks, who stole the pillows that formed Kinger’s fortress, leaving him “defenceless”.
“AH! MY IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS!” He panicked.
“Oh, hey Kinger!” said Ragatha, “Wanna come check Kaufmo with us?”
“Not really, I think he went insane.” Kinger approached the group. “He kept rambling about an exit.”
“I think we should really have a chat with this Kaufmo fellow,” said Randy, “Lead the way, Raggedy Ann.”
“Good, then Crybaby and Hoo-ha can go help Zooble,” said Jax.
“Oh, you’re coming with us?” Randy asked.
“Of course! Something funny could happen,” said the purple rabbit.
And so, Randy, Ragatha, Pomni and Jax headed towards the dorms of the Big Top.
As they walked, Randy noticed how Pomni was walking like someone who was slowly going mad as minutes went by, and so decided to talk with her.
“You okay there?” said Randy.
“Me? Oh, perfectly fine. I just don’t remember my name or what I look like, and can’t seem to find a way to wake up from this nightmare! Toooootally fine!” said Pomni with a desperate-sounding sarcasm. She then sighed in defeat. “...How can you be so calm?”
“Eh, this isn’t the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me, nor is it the first time I have a different body,” said Randy, “Though I can’t remember which body I have…Am I a guy? Or maybe I’m a woman? Or perhaps I haven’t become a woman yet? No, I think I’m a guy.”
Pomni looked at Randy, even more confused than before. “W-What?”
“I’ll explain…Later.” Randy noticed something odd. On several of the doors leading to other players’ rooms, many of them had red crosses over their icons.
“What’s with those doors?” He asked Ragatha.
“Hmm? Well...” She said, clearly uncomfortable with the topic. “Those are players who are…No longer with us.”
“How? Did they find the exit or…?”
“They’re dead.” Randy continued.
“HA! They wish they were dead!” said Jax.
“Jax!” Ragatha scolded him..
“What did you mean by that?” Randy asked.
“Why don’t you keep answering our detective here, Rags?” said Jax. “I think something fun is about to happen.”
“W-Well…When a new person first arrives in the Circus, they quickly start looking out for the exit.” Ragatha explained, her tone growing increasingly panicked as she continued to talk. “But then…They start to realise that they can’t leave. They start wondering what the point of anything and then they lose sight of who they are and…When they reach their breaking point, something really terrible happens.”
Randy could hear Pomni frantically repeating “It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream…” under her breath.
Then, the group arrived in front of Kaufmo’s room, the icon showing a noseless clown with white skin, button eyes and wearing a yellow clown suit. Ragatha rang the doorbell, but nobody answered.
“Huh. Weird.” She said, “I thought he'd be in his room. I hope he’s okay…”
“I think I can help you with that. Hold on…” Randy started looking into his pockets and, much to his surprise, pulled out a sonic screwdriver. “Ah-ha! I didn’t know I’d find it here!”
“What’s that thing?” Jax asked.
“A passepartout…I think.” Randy used the sonic screwdriver on the door, unlocking it. “Now then, let’s talk with-”
When he opened the door, the group witnessed a frightening sight: red writings like “NO EXIT” or “NO WAY OUT “ all over the place, from the ground to the walls and at the centre there was…Kaufmo. Or at least, what remains of him: A giant, black, glitchy abomination covered in colourful eyes.
“What the F*CK is that thing?!” said Pomni.
“Kaufmo, I believe,” said Randy. He glanced at Ragatha. “So this is what happens when you go mad? You become..That?”
“Y-Yeah…” said Ragatha, “He…Abstracted.”
Jax glanced down at the floor and saw a bowling ball. “Oh, I’ve been looking for this. Thanks for keeping for me, Kaufmo, see ya!”
He grabbed it and disappeared.
“Well, ladies, in a situation like this, there’s only one thing to do…RUN!”
Randy, Pomni and Ragatha stormed outside the room, chased by the glitchy monstrosity. But as they ran, Ragatha stumbled into a Gloink and fell to the ground, leaving her at the mercy of ‘Kaufmo’.
“Ragatha!” He shouted as he noticed what had happened, and he and Pomni stopped running.
“K-Kaufmo…Listen.” Ragatha tried to reason with the beast. “I-I know we didn’t exactly get along, and I’m sorry I faked laughing at your jokes! They were funny, I swear, I was having a bad day!”
The creature was about to strike Ragatha until…
“OI! BIG GUY!” Randy shouted, gaining its attention. “Come and get me!”
“What the hell are you doing?!” Pomni shouted in panic.
“Absolutely no idea, but it feels right! Keep running, Pomni! Go find Caine, I’ll distract him!” Randy started running, with Pomni barely managing to dodge Kaufmo. “GO FIND CAINE, I WILL FIND YOU!”
He ran away, with Kaufmo chasing Randy and leaving Pomni and Ragatha alone.
The jester went to help the ragdoll stand up. “Are you okay?” She asked.
“Y-Yeah…” said Ragatha, still shocked about what happened. “Will…Will Randy be okay?”
“I don’t know…” said Pomni, “But we'd better get moving, we have to find Caine.”
“Right, let’s go!”
Pomni and Ragatha ran off, hoping to find Caine before Randy could get hurt.
Meanwhile, Randy kept running and running as Kaufmo kept chasing.
“I have to find a place to hide; he’s getting faster.” He thought as he looked around.
But then…He saw it. A red exit door, the same one Pomni was talking about earlier.
“ Fantastic. ” He said with a Manchester accent. Randy ran towards the door and went inside.
As he closed the door and turned, he was now in a…Some sort of office.
“Fascinating…” Randy thought, “Fascinating indeed.”
Almost instinctively, he scanned the area with the sonic screwdriver. Then, he looked at the same red exit door on the other side of the room. “I doubt there’s an exit, but let’s see what you’re hiding here, Caine.”
Randy walked through the red door…And ended up in a room basically identical to the previous. But he didn’t care and went through the door. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
Then, he reached what seemed to be an abandoned office, with desks full of random papers. Randy approached a desk and found a dossier with a globe emblem on the cover and underneath a familiar name:
U.N.I.T.
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce - North American branch
“UNIT…Where did I hear that name before?” Randy thought. He opened the dossier and…Found it dirty with ink, making it impossible to read anything…Except for a name. Or rather, a title:
Operative: ‘The Doctor’ (XVI)
Suddenly, the Doctor felt a massive headache, and several voices kept repeating that title.
“Doctor…”
“Doctor!”
“Doctor!”
“Doctor!”
“DOC-TOR!”
“DOCTOR!”
“DOCTOR!”
“ENOUGH!” Randy shouted…And the voices disappeared. He then turned to the old PC with a headset next to the monitor.
“This…Is this how we ended up here?” He said to himself. He then scanned the headset and the PC. “Both broken.”
He then approached the red exit door and opened it, revealing the Void. Realising that there wasn’t any other way, Randy walked back a few steps and…
“GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
He ran and jumped into the Void.
…But then, he found himself back in the Tent: Caine just teleported him.
“There you go!” He said, “You shouldn’t adventure into the Void, Randy!”
“W-What?!” He looked around, confused. “What happened?”
“You’ve missed the adventure, buddy.” Randy turned to see Jax, walking towards him and Caine, along with Gangle, Kinger and Zooble (or rather, just her head held by Kinger).
“Randy!” Pomni and Ragatha ran towards Randy, with the latter - much to his surprise - hugging him.
“W-Woah there!” Randy chuckled and patted Ragatha gently on the back, “How long have I been out?”
“Hours, I think?” said Pomni, “We were looking for you, but you…Disappeared. Where have you been?”
“I hid inside that exit door you’ve seen,” said Randy. He whispered to the two. “And I have found something interesting. Meet me in my room, hopefully, P.Teeth Barnum won’t hear us. But anyway!” He turned to Caine, “We have a problem, Caine. Kaufmo abstracted.”
“Kaufmo abstracted?! Why didn’t anyone tell me!” said Caine, sounding…Like he pretended to be surprised?
Suddenly, the group saw Kaufmo running towards them. Randy stood between them and the monster and pointed the sonic screwdriver at it, but then Caine snapped his fingers, and Kaufmo fell into a giant hole.
“Into the cellar you go!” He said.
Randy approached the hole cautiously and looked inside of it: He could hardly see anything, the cellar was pitch black, except for the several multicoloured eyes moving around the place, the other Abstracted players, dozens of them.
“...All these people, stuck in this place because of their curiosity…” He said softly, “And despite having gone completely mad, they’re denied the sweet release of death…They have no mouth, and they must scream.”
The players looked saddened, having been reminded of their grim situation: Stuck to be the puppets of an AI, until eventually they break down and become a mindless beast like those underneath the Tent.
Not too long after the others helped reassemble Zooble and had dinner (not that they needed to eat here in the Digital Circus), Pomni arrived in front of Randy’s room, where she also found Ragatha waiting there.
“Oh, hey Pomni!” she said, “I was waiting for you.”
“Thanks,” said Pomni, still not exactly sure of what to say to Ragatha. “What…What do you think Randy wants to tell us?”
“Well, one way to find out.” Pomni rang the doorbell.
“It’s open!” Randy replied from inside, and Pomni and Ragatha entered.
Randy’s room’s colour scheme matched perfectly with the Time Lord’s colour scheme, with the walls being as colourful as his rainbow coat and some white roundels on them.
“Have a seat.” He said. Pomni and Ragatha sat down on the bed.
“So…What have you found, Randy?” Pomni asked.
“For starters, not the exit,” said Randy, “It was a grey room and kept repeating almost endlessly…Until I ended up in an office with a headset next to an old computer.”
The girls’ eyes widened.
“That’s…That’s how I got here!” said Pomni, “A dusty headset in an abandoned office, I remember!”
“But…What is it doing that here?” Ragatha asked.
“Probably Caine made it based on your memories, trying to help you. How very kind of him,” said Randy with a slight inch of sarcasm in the last part. “But…There was also something weird there. Does the name ‘United Nations Intelligence Taskforce’ or ‘UNIT’ mean anything to you two?”
“Not…Really?” said Ragatha.
“The military organisation?” said Pomni, “Why do you ask?”
“There was a dossier with that name on it inside the office,” said Randy, “It could only read that…It sounds so familiar, and I don’t know why. And that title…’The Doctor’. Who are they talking about? Doctor Who?! ”
Real World, UNIT North America HQs.
An old man with blue eyes and wearing a US military uniform was observing a bunch of large monitors in a room. A younger officer entered the room, holding a dossier.
“Colonel Smith,” He said.
“Any news on the Doctor?” Smith asked,
“No, sir, they disappeared from the planet,” said the officer. He handed him the dossier, “Although we found another victim of the Circus, a 25-year-old woman. We still haven’t identified her yet.”
Smith checked the photos inside the dossier, showing an unconscious, short young woman with shoulder-length brown hair.
“Put her with the others.” He ordered,
“Yessir!” The young officer left. Smith went back to look at the screen, showing the sickbay, where UNIT had found all the bodies of the victims, seemingly in a coma.
“Another one…” Smith sighed, “Wherever you are, you'd better gonna find a solution for this, Doctor.”
<-----To Be Continued------