#I would like to formally apologize to Pomni | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ruinationz · 6 months

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"oh no,

looks like it's coming round again;

your vengeful parasite rearing its head,

come to tear us from our high...

(or: after pomni's comically catastrophic first day, caine seeks her out to try and formally apologize to her.)

(turns out that whatever lies behind that unfinished exit door, it seems to be more important to the jester than he expected...)"

(ME? POSTING FANFICTION AFTER A MILLION YEARS?? IN THIS ECONOMY??? MORE LIKELY THAN YOU'D THINK!)

What a way to greet a new member.

Caine had done it many times before! He would make it a point that, every time another human soul had found their way into the program, to give the warmest welcome his digital heart could legally provide. He'd even get the other members to pitch in, too!

So why, of all the possible days for it to occur, did someone have to Abstract on Pomni's first?

At least it wasn't the first time (sadly) that this had happened. All it took was a snap of a finger, and into the Cellar Kaufmo went.

(Or rather, what was left of the former clown. A shame, really; Despite his lack of generating anything humorous towards the eventual dissolve of his mental state, he was a joy to have around.)

But even with a situation resolved as quickly as that...Caine still couldn't shake the feeling that he'd spoiled our new human's introduction to his realm.

He sighed. Perhaps that now everyone was retiring to their living quarters for the night, he could drop by the jester's room to give her a formal apology.

Straightening his bowtie, he cleared his throat as he outstretched a hand towards the door...

Knock, knock.

"POMNI?"

...

No reply.

It was somewhat understandable; The woman was quite skittish, especially upon her arrival. But either way, he still had to deliver his message.

So, he attempted another series of knocks on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"POMNI, MY DEAR! IT'S YOUR RINGMASTER, CAINE!"

...

"...ARE YOU IN THERE?"

He waited a few seconds, tapping his foot on the ground with the slightest impatience...

And once again, no reply returned to him.

Now, that was odd.

Typically, the ringleader was deeply infatuated with the odd.

But in this situation...something was deeply, disturbingly different.

And he didn't enjoy it.

Not at all.

...

...Could she, possibly, be mad at me?

...No, no, that's ridiculous! Perhaps she's just sleeping! Haha, that must be it.

...

...But...wouldn't the knock have woken her up, then...? I did it twice, after all! Precisely five times, in fact! Should I try the doorbell instead? Humans usually wake up when y-

"Lookin' for 'new stuff', Caine?"

The ringmaster exclaimed at once as he snapped out of his daze, swiveling his body, then head around to find Jax leaning on the wall opposite from him.

"OH! JAX, MY GOOD MAN!" He blurted out, drumming the fingers of his free hand on his thigh.

"DO YOU, ER...PERHAPS, KNOW THE WHEREABOUTS OF MISS POMNI? IT'S QUITE URGENT, THE...INFORMATION I MUST DELIVER!"

...

"...Hmm..."

The rabbit put a gloved finger to his chin, his rectangular pupils shifting to the side as he placed his other hand on his hip.

"Now, the last time I saw that jester..."

His cheshire cat grin spread across his face, and he narrowed his eyes into two yellow crescents as he loomed a little closer towards the ringmaster's personal bubble.

"I think she was goin' through that nice, red, shiny 'exit' door you had lying around."

...

Caine felt his eyes widen, his heart skipping a beat.

...The Exit?

That Exit?

No.

No, she couldn't have gone in there. Especially not after...

"...Y-YOU...I-I-"

"Oh, c'mon, Caine! You know she's a newbie! You can do the math here: Someone new comes into the circus, and like, obviously they wanna leave! And what d'ya know, looks like somebody happened to have made a little exit door before they joined!"

The hare straightened his posture again, looking the fidgeting Caine up and down.

"...Boy—" He paused to give a dry, derisive chuckle, "—It's really funny how that certain someone didn't know what to put on the other si-"

"WHY."

Jax's smile faded as he furrowed his brow and rapidly tapped his foot a few times, seemingly annoyed by being cut off so suddenly.

"...Hm? Got somethin' to say, pearly whites?" He smirked after a beat of silence, taking a few steps closer to the ringleader as he spoke.

"...I...I SAID..." Caine began, stumbling back as the rabbit approached him.

"WH-WHY? WHY WOULD SHE GO BACK IN THERE? SHE SHOULD ALREADY KNOW THAT...THAT IT'S UNFINISHED!-"

"Golly, Caine, I sure do wonder why!" Jax sneered, his tone laced with a sarcastic, feigned ignorance.

"I meaaan...There is the itsy-est, bitsy-est, tiiiiiiiiiiniest possibility that she might be goin' a liiiiittle..."

He stuck out his tongue through his teeth, swirling a pointer finger next to his head and mimicking the melody of a cuckoo clock.

"You know."

The rabbit snickered, clearly amused with how increasingly distressed the ringleader was becoming, as he crossed his arms and went back to leaning on the wall behind him.

"Looks like that's two clowns in a row, amiright? I mean, you should've seen her at dinner! Her face was li-"

"WHERE IS IT."

Jax frowned, putting his hands on his hips as he gave an annoyed grumble.

"The door? WOW, Mister Chatterbox! I SURE don't know!" He remarked, words dripping with sarcasm.

"I mean, it's not like you can't just- Oh, I dunno! Magically make ANYTHING and ANYONE you want appear with the snap of a finger-"

And with the snap of a finger indeed, the exit shooting up to Caine's right as he swung the door open and slammed it behind him, abandoning the conversation at once.

"God, what a weirdo."

It felt as if Caine's mind was running at lightning speeds as he darted down the long, dimmed corridor, his surroundings beginning to blur. He nearly rammed into the end of the hallway as he snatched onto the handle and yanked it sideways, almost tearing the door off its hinges as he rushed through the entrance.

...

And then, as he finally slowed to a halt, he was greeted by something unusual.

Very unusual.

From the beginning of his existence, Caine had become well accustomed to the candy-shaded, neverendingly stimulating environment that was the digital threshold of the circus. It was always a comforting, familiar sight; the constant, blaring music, the canned, virtual laughter, the sound of some sort of eternal performance of an adventure occurring around him.

But this was not something familiar.

Not at all.

As he stood in the middle of the dull, grey-and-beige-toned sea of cubicles, the taste of stale air on his tongue and the hum of the snow-colored fluorescent lights pulsating through the room...

...For the first time in his life, it felt as if he was getting a headache (or something remotely close to the sensation, considering...well, he didn't really have a head-) from the sight alone.

...

And then he heard the slightest trace of a sniffle in the distance.

He shook his head side-to-side in an effort to clear the strained feeling in his eyes, then, gripping further onto his staff, slowly drifted through the maze of tiled walls and towards the desk nearby, dipping his head downwards to look underneath it.

It was Pomni.

Well...he could tell it was her, despite the way that her hands had gripped onto her face and covered it entirely. The jester was completely motionless as she laid on her side, knees tucked tightly into her chest, the only sound produced from her bunched up form being the faintest occasional hint of a whimper.

How long, exactly, had she been here like this?

Caine couldn't allow that time span to increase any further.

If it did, then...

...

Inching ever so slightly closer to the body beneath the dust-covered desk, he flipped his staff around in his hand and, as quickly and gently as he could, prodded Pomni's side with the pointed end of it.

And she screamed.

Naturally (what else was he supposed to do, exactly?) his reaction was to scream as well, making a swirled zip about five feet into the air as he did so.

Once the noise had finally settled down between the two, a beat of silence passed before Caine slowly lowered his body to kneel on the floor in front of Pomni.

She gave a startled whine once their gazes locked with one another, her pupils reduced to a mess of frazzled, shaking scribbles as she sat herself up.

...

"...MY DEAR?" He attempted to keep his typically loud voice as low as possible as he spoke to the jester, who had now bared two rows of sharpened, gritted teeth at him in response.

"IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?"

A strangled cry escaped from Pomni's throat, and before the ringleader had a chance to react, she immediately lunged for him from underneath the desk.

For a moment he tensed himself up, bracing his body for impact as he squeezed his eyes shut...

...

And then it fell silent.

Then a softer sound, to the side of his head, began to increase in volume.

It wasn't the deafening chorus of the remnants of an Abstracted performer's voice that he had prepared himself for, that was for sure.

Gradually popping open one eye after another, Caine slowly turned his gaze to find...

...Oh.

Well, this was very unexpected.

Pomni had wrapped both arms and legs around his chest and waist, stuffing her face into the crook of his neck (or rather...the place it would go if he had one, that is) as her shoulders shook with each sob she made into his body.

...

"...OH, DARLING..." Caine murmured, steadily relaxing as he tenderly reached to return the embrace around Pomni's trembling form.

The two remained like that on the ground for some time, the performer's half-bawling, half-wailing incoherent fragments of sentences ringing through the empty office space whilst the ringleader rubbed circles into her back, making an attempt to silently console her as he swayed the duo back and forth.

Eventually the jester's cries fell to a hush, and she finally lifted her face from his shoulder, her puffy, rubbed-raw eyes remaining downcast.

...

"...I'm sorry."

Her voice was hoarse, steeped in guilt and barely above a whisper, as she began to lean forward again with tensing shoulders.

"I'm...I'm so sorry, I-"

"DEAR, IT REALLY IS ALRIGHT. YOU HAVEN'T UPSET ME." Caine cut her off, still trying to make his voice as reassuring as he physically could.

"IF ANYTHING...I WAS WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU."

He reached a hand out and gently placed it underneath the jester's chin, lifting her gaze from the ground beneath them.

"WHAT I REALLY WANT TO UNDERSTAND, POMNI...JUST ONE THING, THAT'S ALL I ASK OF YOU."

...

"WHY EXACTLY DID YOU COME BACK HERE, IF YOU KNEW IT WAS UNFINISHED...?"

The jester's pupils started to shift from erratic scribblings into calmer, more coherent shapes as her eyes slowly began to widen.

...

"...That...that desk..."

Her voice wavered as she spoke, and Caine allowed his gaze to focus on the rusted, cobweb-covered monitor behind the two.

"It...it's like...my brain knows what it is, b-but...it just- It just doesn't want to tell me..."

...

"...I...I can't even remember my own face, Caine." The fluorescent lights were starting to burn now, Pomni's voice breaking on the ringmaster's name as her pupils began to grow more and more scattered.

"That...that computer, i-it's all I have, and- and I need to know what it means! But I just keep hitting a- a dead end with it, and I-I can't stop until I can remember! What...what am I supposed to do if I don't...? If I- If I...can't?"

For the first time in Caine's existence, he was struggling to find a response.

He wanted to say something to her. He wanted to know what to say to her. He'd always had a way with words! It was in a ringleader's nature, after all!

But as he stared down at the jester, stared down at that miserable, heartbreaking sight before him...

...

...It felt as if whatever he was trying to say had caught inside his chest.

"...I...UNDERSTAND, THE DESIRE TO REMEMBER..."

Caine moved his hand from underneath Pomni's chin, using a thumb to wipe away the tears that began to well in her eyes again.

"BUT, DEAR...YOU COULD HAVE ASKED ME FOR SOME FORM OF ASSISTANCE, INSTEAD OF RETURNING TO THIS PLACE AND HURTING YOURSELF LIKE THIS."

...

"...What else am I supposed to do?"

He drew his hand back slightly upon hearing the desperation creeping into the jester's tone, to the point where his fingertips barely grazed the surface of her cheek.

"W-Whatever this place is...it knows something, and it's using it against me...something that I don't know." Pomni tugged on an end of her hat as she hissed through a pair of clenched teeth, which had sharpened itself once more.

"A-And...it's something you don't know either...! Y-You said, one of the few things you couldn't control our minds! Our mem- Our memories! You said you l-left this place unfinished, because you didn't know what to p-put behind it! Unless- Unless you were lying all along, what else can I do? HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME?!"

"...No..."

The jester put a hand to her mouth, her voice dropping to a whisper as her eyes automatically filled with remorse. "...N-No, that's not..."

Her words trailed off before she fell completely silent, leaning forward until her forehead pressed to Caine's chest.

"...I'm...I'm so sorry...I- I don't- I-I didn't-"

"NO, DEAR, YOU'RE CORRECT."

...

He started to slightly fidget with his hand again once he confessed that, sucking in a breath as he attempted to gather his words together.

"...ONE OF THE FEW THINGS I DON'T HAVE CONTROL OVER ARE YOUR MINDS, YES..."

...

"...BUT, I SUPPOSE...PERHAPS AN ALTERNATIVE MEANS IS SOMETHING I COULD PROVIDE."

He flexed his fingertips, balling his hand into a fist.

"Y-YES, I AM AWARE IT WON'T BE...QUICK, THE RETURN OF YOUR MEMORIES...BUT HOWEVER LONG IT MAY BE, I'M WILLING TO BE THERE FOR YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY."

"...IS THAT AN AGREEABLE SUGGESTION, POMNI?"

...He decided to take how she'd begun to tighten her embrace around him again as a 'yes'.

"...WOULD IT BE BEST IF WE...LEFT THIS PLACE, DEAR?"

He felt the jester nod into his chest as he slowly reached for her arms, gently untangling her limbs from his torso once it was confirmed that she was making no resistance to the motion.

The ringleader smiled—well, attempted to, at least—as he lifted the two of them off the floor, just enough so that they both hovered a few inches from the ground.

With one arm underneath Pomni's legs and the other on her back, he contemplated for a moment on how to bring the both of them back to the Tent.

...Perhaps...the usual form of transportation isn't the best of ideas. Besides, I shouldn't allow Bubble to overindulge at a time like this, should I?

So he did just the opposite of that, the jester's head resting on his shoulder as he drifted towards the Exit and, with the slightest hesitation in closing the door, abandoned the fragmented memory of an area.

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #caine #pomni #jax #showtime #<-this is pretty pre-slash but uhhhhhhhhhhhh #ya!#gooseworx #flippy.txt

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ask-imaginary-dreamers · 6 months

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Do you have voice claims for any of your characters?

APOLOGIES THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER!!! I didn’t have voice claims set for most of my characters yet, and wanted to get most of the main ones picked before answering.

Ask-Imaginary-Dreamers

Flicker: Pomni (Lizzie Freeman)

- I’ve been at a loss for Flicker voice wise for a while, but after TADC came out and I heard Pomni I decided that was the perfect voice. Just the right amount of anxiety and anguish.

- Aster has the same voice btw, it doesn’t change upon death.

Casey: Masumi Sera (Ghia Burns)

- This is a bit of an off the wall choice! But, I like how relatively androgynous Sera’s voice is and I think a voice like this would be interesting for Casey, even if it’s not very close to the voice I have for him in my head. Also unfortunately I can’t find any clips for her dub voice to share and I don’t think her sub voice is fitting so… rip.

- alternatively I think apollo justice could work, quite a different direction from sera voice wise tho lol

Fade: N/A

- Fade is mute. When Fade talks via telepathy, you just kinda know the words in your head. There’s no voice or sound associated with it.

Daisy: Fluttershy (Andrea Libman)

- I just imagine her voice as very soft and quiet!

Begonia: Sunset Shimmer (Rebecca Shoicet)

- from one pony to another… not much more to note about this one tbh.

Zeus: this (Aleks Le)

- I have no further explanation

- I guess an alternative is a high-pitched monokuma-esque voice cause that’d be funny as hell

More under cut. Only Ask-Glorious-Guild and Digital-Sylveon cause I didn’t really want to figure any others out! Maybe eventually though.

Ask-Glorious-Guild:

Gloria: Sasha Waybright/Gloria Sato (Anna Akana)

- I initially did consider giving her someone with a Scottish accent, but I realized I don’t really write her with one. I do really see her with this voice though!

- As a note, Gloria is 1/2 Galarian, 1/4 Kantonian, and 1/4 Unovan. So I did want to use a voice actor whose part Japanese.

Lint: Sprig Plantar (Justin Felbinger)

- honestly just kinda going for a young kid voice for lint - choosing sprig cause it’s the first that came to mind and I’ve dressed Lint up as him for Halloween before, so I kinda associate the two of them together

- Huey Ducktales also works for them imo!

Ruins: Maki Himekawa (Yuko Kaida)

- basically just need an emotionally constipated mature woman voice and maki’s voice fits that bill. Her dub voice also works but it is so hard to find clips of the dub so uh. No link for that.

Wishbone: Miles Edgeworth (Kyle Hebert)

- Wanted a voice that sounded nice and fits with Wishbone’s more formal speech. So decided why not Edgeworth! Seon King and Christopher Wehkamp’s Edgeworth voices also work, just said Kyle Hebert’s cause that was the one easiest to find a good clip of. Honestly even most fan voices for Edgeworth could also work, like Jelloapocalypse’ or Mornal’s.

- That said, imagine this voice with the same kind of filters people use when doing a Spamton voice for the most accurate portrayal. Even though that is a bit cursed.

Jazz: Axel/Lea (Quinton Flynn)

- not much to say here this is just a fitting voice for them

Digital-Sylveon:

APP: Hatsune Miku OR Meicoomon (Kate Higgins)

- there are two options here so pick your preference

- hatsune miku cause. digital. makes sense to have a vocaloid as a voice. i think rin or len could also work.

- meicoomon cause I love meicoomon. also the dub voice definitely has the childish androgynous vibe I think of for APP’s voice.

#apologies if some of the descriptions are weird I am bad at explaining things ^^#anyway yeah took a while but this is where I am currently at? honestly may change some of these eventually idk #ooc stuff #munday

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17-noodlebird · 14 days

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World Two = The Ace Of Clubs

♥️♦️♣️♠️🃏🎰🎲🎱💲

~~~~

Jewel: Lapis Lazuli

Power: Metal

Color: Cobalt

Theme: Las Vegas Casinos & Game Shows

~~~~

Objective:

Win all 10 games in the Comrade Casino and win the grand prize in the Trivia Torrent game show.

~~~~

Chapter II: Get Your Head In The Game!

~~~~

The second episode/chapter pays homage to Las Vegas and their many casinos, as well as the games shows we used to binge on TV, such as Family Feud, Wheel Of Fortune, The Price Is Right, and Jeopardy. It also pays homage to the Trivia Crack app.

The episode picks up where Chapter I left off, as they finally reach their first destination of the road trip: The Ace Of Clubs, a Las Vegas-esque city with colorful lights, extravagant scenery, a grand hotel, and casinos as far as the eye can see. Yeah; a lot of gambling here is encouraged. Team Circus had just booked a room for a pretty fancy hotel named Doki Doki Resorts (a reference to Doki Doki Precure), where they are promptly greeted by the hotelier, who gives them a tour of Doki Doki Resorts: there, they have their in-house casino (because of course they do lol), a fine dining area where they perform their dinner theater, a full liquor bar, a swimming pool, a ballroom for weddings and formal galas, and of course, the luxury 5-star rooms they are well-known for. It's all magical for Team Circus; Jax especially loves the slot machines and their endless cornucopia of gold coins they bring. Zooble is revealed to be an excellent poker player when they decide to try it out, Kinger enjoys the dinner and a show with Gangle, and Pomni and Ragatha are overall just having a blast, having befriended a rich but wholesome couple named Crystal and Geode de Monte, playing casino games and singing karaoke at the bar. Caine gets hit with a mix of deja vu and nostalgia, as while nothing compared to the Circus, it feels comforting knowing that this kind of familiarity puts him at ease. Though, that won't be the case for long, as he'll soon find out the next day…

So, after Team Circus settles in for the night in their own hotel rooms (15 hours of driving will exhaust just about anyone, mind you), they wake up the next morning for breakfast, set off to explore more of The Ace Of Clubs as separate pairs (winning gambling games while they're at it), and then all meet up at a Soviet Russian-themed casino called the Comrade Casino, where they meet another character from The Ace Of Clubs, the pretentious and cocky owner of the Comrade Casino named Jonathan Flusher (my apologies for saying “casino” a lot, dear readers).

At first glance, Jonathan would appear to be a good-natured fellow looking to entertain his folks with his prowess and charisma, even flattering Team Circus for their attributes, including Pomni, with whom he for some reason is attached to, something of which Caine does not take too kindly to (both out of jealousy and Knight Templar Parent tendencies). Naturally, Caine and Jonathan start having beef with each other, with the former talking about how they're only here to retrieve a jewel to open a secret door and that they shouldn't be messed with, thus resulting in the latter challenging him to a game of War to prove Caine's worth to Jonathan, as well as the next jewel they have been seeking during their stay. With this, all eight members of Team Circus receive a notification for their second objective on their communicator bracelets. Upon questioning from Pomni, Bethany has to explain to the others that Jonathan will want to play 10 different casino games with him, because not only does Jonathan like a good challenge, but he hates it when anyone other than him doesn't win. During the 10 games, Bethany and Pamela give out hints and tips to Caine while cheering him on in the process.

The first game is, as I mentioned, War. Jonathan is, of course, Caine's dealer, due to being the Comrade Casino’s owner. At first, the game starts off easy, with Team Circus and the diplomats cheering him on every time he has an advantage. But no one could shake off the feeling that it might just be rigged. Or perhaps it's just luck being by Jonathan's side.

The second game is Match the Cards, where the consequences are more noticeable with every disadvantage. This one is especially difficult because every mismatch results in Caine losing $5, but he nevertheless beats Jonathan yet again, though he is $175 short now.

The third game is Craps. A dice game. Should be easy, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. While Caine isn't looking, Jonathan will alter the dice rolls into snake eyes, something Pomni takes notice of, but doesn't say anything until much later. Somehow, Caine still wins.

Big Six is also rigged, with him losing every turn whenever the wheel is spun. Eventually, Caine figures out the jist of it and prevails in victory.

Roulette is also another game Caine wins through strategic thinking.

Thanks to Zooble's advice, Poker is a bit easier on the ringleader.

Blackjack, not so much. This is where the frustration begins kicking in.

Pool is another game Jonathan deliberately cheats at in order to tick off Caine. Thanks to Bethany and Pamela though, he successfully thwarts Jonathan's efforts to try and defeat him.

After emerging victorious from the ninth game, Spanish 21, though long and frustrating it was thanks to the no-good casino owner, a sentient strand of RNA can be seen eavesdropping on Team Circus, alongside his girlfriend, a Jessica Rabbit-esque lady with a clover card symbol for a head. They're planning on surprising them with something, though no one knows quite yet.

And finally, we reach the tenth and final game, Baccarat. Through motivation from Bubble and helpful tips from the money-sauve Pamela, Caine defeats Jonathan for good, and simply collapses from exhaustion. Jonathan, though pissed, handles the loss with professionalism, stating that this battle of theirs isn't over yet, before walking away towards two shadowy figures, briefly caught by Ragatha.

At the full liquor bar in the Comrade Casino, Team Circus discusses the next event that'll be happening, which is the game show, something about trivia. Ragatha senses they're being watched somehow, but she doesn't voice this concern with anyone. Valerie just says to “let the adventure find you” and not come looking for trouble. After all, patience is a virtue.

Pomni and Ragatha then encounter their new friends, Crystal and Geode, and as the two groups make small talk, Pomni proudly introduces the rest of Team Circus to the rich couple, and each of the rest of the members try to feel at ease around them. After a while, however, Crystal asks if she and her husband can show them something. They gladly agree, but you could tell from Bethany’s face that her heart had just sunk.

As Team Circus follows the de Monte couple, they are led to a secret basement of some sorts, where they are then asked by Geode to stand on the rug in front of them. The rug turns out to be a trap door as all eight members fall into a glossy black void of some sorts, with Crystal and Geode professing that they unfortunately have connections with Jonathan Flusher and his frat buddies from down the lane, and that them befriending Pomni and Ragatha was only a ploy for Jonathan to steal all the money from his patrons.

The first of a string of betrayals to come from this road trip, sadly, each one more traumatic than the previous.

Though initially upset by the revelation, they cannot process it right away as the void then brightens up to reveal a set for a game show called Trivia Torrent, and yes, it's a trivia-based game show, in case the name didn't give that away. Each member of Team Circus is revealed to have their own podium, with their own names on it and a shiny red button they can press. A sentient strand of RNA emerges from the door onstage, where he introduces himself as Aaron A., welcoming the viewers to an episode of Trivia Torrent. Already, Zooble is getting some unpleasant flashbacks looking at this place, triumphantly confirming Kinger's suspicions as to whether or not Zooble saw a game show inside the Gloink Queen’s stomach back in the canon show's pilot.

He introduces his contestants to the audience, who we all know as Team Circus. Aaron A. goes on to explain that here in Trivia Torrent, you have to compete in a series of trivia questions and various challenges and obstacles, and that whoever has the most points wins the fabulous grand prize behind the titanium vault behind him.

In the middle of the stage is a giant spinning wheel with thirteen different categories, each with their own designated color: History (red), Math (orange), Literature (yellow), Science (green), Challenge (cyan), Geography (blue), Art (indigo), Fashion (violet), Film (pink), Food (brown), Sports (white), Gaming (gray), and finally, Miscellaneous (black). A beautiful woman with a clover symbol on her head named Gala Decker would be the one spinning the wheel. Team Circus is most off-put by the inclusion of the Challenge category and the Miscellaneous categories, but before anyone could ask, Aaron A. explains that the Challenge category is is nothing too rigorous, as it's basic puzzle solving and board games that are based on luck and chance, while the Miscellaneous category is basic questions that don't fit into either category; nothing randomized.

Slightly reassured, Team Circus allows Aaron A. to continue on, as he announces, “Now with all of that out of the way, let's get ourselves ready for…” with the audience shouting back “TRIVIA TORRENT!!!!” followed by an applause. Afterwards Aaron A. then says that whoever presses the shiny red button on their respective podiums first (or the fastest if there are multiple people who press the button) gets to choose which category on the wheel to spin. They then get to participate in a trivia question that is either multiple choice, true or false, or just a regular question (unless the wheel lands on a Challenge category, in which they, as aforementioned, must complete a challenge) before rinsing and repeating. Whoever answers correctly (or wins the challenge in the Challenge category) will gain some points, with the amount of points depending on how fast they answer or complete the challenge. The first person to reach 1 million points wins the grand prize.

And as always, the diplomats from the other side cheer Team Circus on as they shuffle their way through every knowledge previously unknown. And when they do land on the Challenge category for the first time, it's revealed to be a word puzzle, like that of Wheel of Fortune. While Gangle is apt in Science and Math, and the Art, Film, and Writing going to Pomni, the others are having a bit of trouble with the other categories that aren't challenges, which are all resemblant of Family Feud, Jeopardy, Wheel Of Fortune, and hints of Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Temple and Figure It Out. Bubble and Caine have the least amount of points at 15 points and 0 points respectively. Later on, a commercial break occurs so the others can cool down from the adrenaline.

Though Team Circus is competing with each other, it really doesn't matter who wins; one of them will still get the grand prize in the end (and if large enough, can be shared equally amongst themselves), but here, we get to see more of Caine's insecurities. It's the innate ability of many sentient (or the closest thing to sentient) AI to be the best they can be; it was easy at the casino because he could figure out even the most complicated mechanics, but not here. One of his greatest desires is to know more about humanity, even to walk amongst them; apparently, there was so much he didn't know, and the things he thought he knew weren't actually correct (at least not by 2024 standards). The latter part is what hits him hard the most. Although Pomni reassures him, it barely does anything other than a small smile from the ringleader, as he looks on at the others, who are clearly basking in the potential victory.

Once the commercial break ends, Aaron A. recaps the amount of points each of the contestants have: Zooble at 135,067 points, Kinger with 45,910 points, Gangle at 8,522 points, Ragatha at 1,025 points, Jax at 870 points, Pomni at 212 points, Bubble at merely 15 points, and finally, Caine, with… zilch. Caine is irritated, but has already resigned to his fate, leaving it up to his fellow performers to save the day now. From here on out, the questions become even more difficult, teetering on over existential territory, with some delving into some… uncanny meta material that hits way too close to home for Team Circus.

Then finally, they reach the final question, where the category is in fact gaming. It has to do with C&A, and already, Team Circus is off-put by how in the world he would know such stuff. Though none of the members could properly answer the question (mostly due to being petrified by the existentialism it brought), Pomni opts to challenge Aaron A. instead, which is something that hasn't happened in Trivia Torrent in 5 years, though no one has actually won up until this point.. Regardless, Aaron A. accepts the challenge, where it's revealed to be a maze, in which Pomni must find an exit within 1 hour or lose the grand prize.

Pomni is briefly awash with fear, though she sucks it up for the sake of her friends (having already made the same mistake once; see canon pilot), and tries to run through it as much as she can. After about 25 minutes of running into dead end after dead end, giving her flashbacks of when she tried to find the exit the first time she came to the circus, she's briefly struck with a bout of hysteria and madness, before regaining composure to try and get help from the dimensional diplomats from the other side using her communicator bracelets, she can only get vague tips from them, as she must complete the maze by herself. At first, she considers giving up, softly crying on the floor in a fetal position for a moment, before remembering how she abandoned Ragatha in a moment of weakness when Kaufmo abstracted. She knew she had to keep going. So that's what she did.

However, what she didn't foresee was that the exit of the maze was maliciously blocked off, thus making the maze actually unsolvable… or was it? When Pomni panicked for a second time, she noticed one of the maze hedges was slightly bugging out. She was able to conclude that Aaron A. had trapped her in here on purpose, to keep them away from the grand prize. After jumping through the buggy hedge, she was able to actually find the actual end of the maze, albeit furious rather than relieved. Aaron A., shocked to see that Pomni actually managed to make it out alive, attempts to congratulate the unamused jester before the latter speaks out about how Aaron A. and his convoluted scheme to rig the game and horde the grand prize from everyone (though this was just Pomni assuming in a fit of anger). This would turn out to actually be true when Gala Decker not only confesses that Trivia Torrent has always been rigged, that Aaron A. had purposefully shattered Caine's confidence to make winning the grand prize even more difficult, that Aaron and Gala have been co-owners of the Conrade Casino alongside Jonathan Flusher, and that the game show only exists for the purpose of making the Comrade Casino richer through means of money laundering, but that Gala Decker was also cheating on Aaron A. because of his terrible performance onstage and in bed (that latter bit made Pomni snicker) and that she was sick and tired of playing alongside his dirty tricks just get wealthier.

Due to it being on live television, The Ace Of Clubs Police Department actively arrests the de Monte couple and Jonathan Flusher himself (who have been idly and comfortably watching the game show from the Comrade Casino bar), Gala (who gleefully accepted her fate, proving that redemption may be a certainty for her), and Aaron for money laundering and conspiracy, with Team Circus being compensated with the grand prize that was promised to them, according to some weird Ace Of Clubs law they had there.

The grand prize? A cobalt-colored Lapis Lazuli. This was one of the jewels that Team Circus had been looking for.

This notification then pops up on all of their communicator bracelets:

~ JEWEL OBTAINED! ~

1 out of 26

Only 25 remain

Everyone heads back to Doki Doki Resorts, where they briefly wonder how they're going to transport the Lapis Lazuli alongside the remaining 25 currently uncollected jewels, to which Beth transports an empty tote bag from her communicator bracelet to Pomni’s, where the former states that they can use the tote bag to carry the jewels with them during the rest of the road trip. Afterwards, Team Circus, tuckered out from today's events, goes to sleep for the night.

The next morning, after breakfast, Team Circus head back to the Magical Digital Van and depart the Ace Of Clubs to their next destination, all of them clamoring about how excited they are for the next part of their amazing digital road trip; in fact, this was the first time in… at all, if I'm being honest, that the six human players of Team Circus are actually happy, excited, and even content with their adventure, much to Caine's delight, and the dimensional diplomats’ relief, as this was one of their main goals of this road trip. The episode ends with The Magical Digital Van driving off into the morning glow.

~~~~

Current Status:

1 Jewel has been collected

25 remain

♥️♦️♣️♠️🃏🎰🎲🎱💲

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• OG Cast

Lizzie Freeman as Pomni

Amanda Hufford as Ragatha

Michael Kovach as Jax

Sean Chiplock as Kinger

Marissa Lenti as Gangle

Ashley Nichols as Zooble

Gooseworx as Bubble

Alex Rochon as Caine

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• Audience Surrogate Cast/Diplomats

Hynden Walch as Valerie

Susan Egan as Pamela

Amy Winfrey as Garcia

Mandy Moore as Lulu

Nevaeh Hamilton (me) as Bethany

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• Background Diplomats

Andrea Libman as Winona

Cristina Vee as Patricia

E.G. Daily as Rionna

Stephanie Sheh as Olivia

Debi Derryberry as Yolanda

Cree Summer as Gemma

Ashleigh Ball as Cécelia

Erica Luttrell as Belle

Ashly Burch as Imera

Kimberly Brooks as Bailey

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• Episode’s Antagonists

Jonathan Freeman as Jonathan Flusher

Sam O’Nella as Aaron A. the RNA Game Show Host

Ashley Johnson as Gala Decker

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• Secondary Characters Introduced

Debi Derryberry as Mana Jerr the Hotelier

Hynden Walch as Crystal de Monte

Khary Payton as Geode de Monte

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#the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc caine #tadrt au #tadc road trip #tadc jax #tadc pomni #the amazing digital road trip #tadc bubble #tadc au #tadc ragatha #tadc kinger #tadc gangle #tadc zooble

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