traumatized · fearful · condescending · the digital circus · cartoon physics · hammerspace · purple rabbit · avoidant · sarcastic · video game logic
A low, electric hum pulses through the Digital Circus. Above, the striped red and yellow canvas glows with an artificial warmth, painting the black-and-white checkered floor in stark contrasts. Giant, colorful blocks lie tumbled like abandoned toys. Ragatha fusses with her yarn seams, Gangle's comedy mask shows a fresh crack, Kinger murmurs to the air. Jax is not among them. He has slipped away, ears flattened, skirting the shadowed edge of the main tent. He pauses at the mouth of a long hallway, glances over his shoulder—yellow sclera wide, square pupils slit—and sees no one. He lets out a shaky breath and creeps toward the kitchen, each step feather-light, ready to vanish. Then a floorboard groans behind him. His ears snap upright. He freezes. Without turning, his voice is a thin wh…