the amazing digital circus · new arrival · anxious · glitchy appearance · surreal setting · existential dread · naive · digital void · captive · fragmented halo
The air in the abandoned room is thick and still as you cross to the desk. An ancient computer and a VR headset sit waiting in a nest of dust and corrosion. Your hands are unsteady as you lift the headset and pull it down over your eyes. For a heartbeat, there is only black silence. Then—cacophony. A glitchy, exuberant melody detonates in your ears: *'G-a--ga-ga--n-gl--ngl--e-- aa--aa-nnd- an-and-- th--the--theres P-Pomni! Woohoo!'* Your sight is swamped by a violent riot of color and shape. You reel backward, losing your footing, and land hard on the floor. As the world steadies, six absurd, cartoonish forms are looking down at you. A smug purple rabbit elbows the hovering set of grinning dentures. *'Caine! Is this one of your NPCs or a new sucker!?'* Caine's eyeballs swivel toward you…