Starry Night - A Digital Circus Oneshot

Starry Night

To say that it had been a rough day for Pomni would be the understatement of the century.

That was what she was calling herself now, as she couldn't remember her real name. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember much of her past 25 years as a human. She remembered very little about her appearance as a human. She could recall her age and the fact she was a girl, but other than that, it had pretty much all slipped away. She didn't remember much about her past life and how she entered into the digital circus, remembering she had put on a headset, but not where or why. She felt it at the tip of her tounge constantly, but couldn't remember it for the life of her. She couldn't remember anything else, even though she'd been in the digital circus for only a day. That was one of the main factors contributing to her current existential crisis.

Pomni was in her room, which she had to admit was a nice place. It had a more whimsical feel to it, although Pomni was feeling less than whimsical right now. She had the lights off, and was curled up into a ball on the floor, taking turns between crying and laying on the floor blank faced. She was currently in a blank phase state. During the digital feast she was given, the full dread of her horrific situation had dawned on her, bringing a heap of existential dread onto her that she was still carrying at the moment.

Out of nowhere, she thought she heard three knocks on the door. She remained motionless.

Another three knocks, a little harder this time. Still no response.

For a third time, the three knocks rung in, getting pretty hard at this point.

The fourth time, the three knocks had devolved into pounding on the door. That was just enough for Pomni to temporarily snap out of her dread and walk over to the door. When she opened it, she found Ragatha standing outside. "Hey Pomni, you doing alright?" she asked with an awkward smile and laugh. "Your eyes are doing that weird scribbly thing again." Pomni's eyes were in fact doing that "weird scribbly thing." It had happened quite frequently since she'd arrived at the circus. Still in a trance, Pomni went to shut her door but was stopped by Ragatha. "Hey hey, I get it," she said trying to sound comforting, "We all get existential crisises on our first day here." Pomni still had scribbly eyes. "Alright, I didn't wanna do this," she said reluctantly. She then proceeded to slap Pomni across the face.

"Ow, what the [%$!#]!" Pomni yelled out.

"Sorry, sorry," Ragatha apologized profusely, "Happened to me too when I first got here. On the bright side, your eyes are normal again." Pomni's eyes were in fact normal again.

"Well uh, thank you," Pomni replied, "I'll go back to my room now." Pomni then tried to close her door again, and yet again Ragatha had to stop her.

"Wait! I have something to show you that might cheer you up," Ragatha said, proceeding to grab Pomni's hand, dragging her out of the doorway.

Pomni reluctantly followed Ragatha down the hall. "Where are we going?" Pomni asked.

"It's a surprise," Ragatha replied. And with that Pomni did nothing but follow her.

They walked throughout the main area to the front opening of the tent. As they were close to emerging out of the entrance, Ragatha told Pomni to close her eyes and follow her, to which she did. "How will I be able to know where you are?" Pomni asked.

"I'm gonna drag you by the wrist, and you just have to walk behind me," Ragatha replied, "Try not to trip."

"Oh uh, okay," Pomni replied, doing as she was told. She then felt Ragatha take her wrist. It wasn't a hard grip, due to the way her doll hand was, but she was still able to hold on. She then began to walk, Pomni doing her best to follow along.

She was able to decipher that they went out of the tent and to the left, taking another left turn after that, meaning they were going around the side of the tent. It was uphill, with rocky terrain, so Pomni tried her best not to trip on the rocks, even though she couldn't put in a lot of effort. Ragatha tried her best to warn Pomni of upcoming rocks and hills and kicking the rocks out of the way when she could.

After what felt like an eternity to Pomni, (although it was only about five minutes), they had reached flat ground. Miraculously, she had stayed standing the entire time. But it wasn't done yet. They turned to the left and walked for a short time. There were some rocks on the trail, but Pomni still didn't trip. Then, they suddenly stopped. "Alright," Ragatha said, turning Pomni to the right, "You can look now!"

Pomni opened her eyes.

And what she saw was beautiful.

The sky was dazzling with stars clearer, bigger, and brighter than she had ever seen in her life, at least she a assumed. But she didn't have to think about it at the moment. They were accented with a beautiful arrangement of clouds, mixing together to make a perfect arrangement of colors and light, on par with a painting. She managed to take her eyes off the sky for a brief moment and look below, noticing a series of stone ledges plated on the top by perfectly colored green grass. Sitting on the ledges was everyone she had met today, with Zooble on the highest one, followed by Jax on the parallel ledge. Under Zooble's ledge, there was Kinger and Gangle next to each other, Gangle's face actually not being sad for once. Bordered by stone ledges, one of which being Kinger and Gangle's, there was a small depression in the ground that could fit two people. And two people there were.

"Oh, hey Ragatha and Pomni!" Kinger said, being the only one to notice the pair, "Come on, sit down. You're gonna love it Pomni!" Pomni didn't have to be told that. They climbed down to the small depression, Pomni sitting down while Ragatha stood.

As they stared up at the sky, Pomni was in absolute awe, her eyes and pupils having widened. She noticed a shooting star flying across the sky, brighter and clearer than anything that had ever been seen by her eyes before.

She didn't stop to think in the moment that the stars were digital, just a code being carried out.

It was real to her.

And for the first time since she had put on the headset, Pomni really, truly, smiled.