Everyone seemed to have relaxed into Twinkle's arrival. She seemed to get along with everyone, even Jax. But she mostly spent her time with Kinger. The fox would listen to him ramble about nonsense. He would talk about bugs, and she would draw them out. Using a sketch book Gangle had lent her. Pomni looked at them from the sitting area, where everyone else was.
"Should we invite them over?" She asked, looking over at the others.
"Nah, let them be. I've never seen Kinger outside his fort this much." Zooble spoke up, looking back down at Gangle; who was also drawing.
Suddenly, Caine popped up from a magazine on the coffee table.
"I think you know what time it is~!" Caine smiled down, earning a grown from everyone. Pretty much against their will, they followed the ringmaster to the stage. Seeing everyone else walking, Twinkle lead Kinger over.
"It's that time of year people! You're going back to school~!" Caine floated in circles as Japanese characters popped up behind him. Gangle and Twinkle were immediately excited.
"Oh wow! Are we doing a slice of life anime?" Gangle looked up hopeful, her comedy mask beaming with joy.
"You could say that Gangle~! You'll be living the loves of a student in this adventure. Along with a little mystery." Caine chuckled to himself, Bubble joining in.
"But I need everyone to be in this adventure, so that means you need to join Zooble." Looking down at Zooble, Caine froze. The take apart toy hadn't moved away from the group. They stood next to Gangle, a soft look in their eyes.
"Huh? Yea ok, fine." Zooble shrugged.
"What? Just- ok? You're gonna do my adventure?" Caine sounded like he wanted to cry. Squealing like a girl, Caine brought out a portal. The portal was a soft pink, small circles rained down in it.
"There's no way I'm doing this one. Slice of life animals are the worst ones!" Jax complained, watching everyone filed in.
"Awe come on Jax, it might be fun. And doesn't sound scary." Pomni nudged him.
"Ugh. Fine." Jax followed Pomni as the portal closed.
The air seemed lighter, the sky a bright baby blue. Everyone blinked, looking around. The graphics had changed. It wasn't to much, but noticeable. Everyone was in a school uniform depending on gender; Zooble seemed to score the men's uniform, they were happy about it. Ragatha twirled around in her new uniform. Her hair was less yarn, and almost actual hair. Though, it was still made of yarn. Jax had the biggest upgrade. Instead of his normal smooth skin, he had fur. The rabbit stared at his arms. Feeling his face.
"Whoa, you're so fluffy Jax." Pomni giggle.
"Hush up, this is weird." It was obvious Jax actually enjoyed his upgrade, but like hell he'd ever admit it. The group walked into the school, and met with Kinger. He was in a suit and glasses.
"Oh, there you guys are. Isn't this place cool? I found a book." Kinge held up a book. It was upside down, but the cover was of a group of butterfly's.
"This guy and his butterflies." Ragatha mumbled. Not in annoyance, but more of admiration.
"This is so awesome~" Gangle was all smiles, her comedy mask never smiling this wide before. Jax snuck up behind her, and started walking to bump into her. But before he could knock her down, Zooble tripped him.
"Oops." They shrugged, a smirk obvious in their tone.
"Why don't we walk around? See what the adventure could be." Pomni suggested. Her large eyes seemed to shine even more shiney, and it was disturbing.
"Alright then." Jax stood up, wiping off dust. "Why don't you, me and Twinkle look around the second floor." Jax pointed across the group by name.
"Love birds can check the ground floor, and rag doll can check outside with coo coo puffs?" Jax started walking towards the stairs, and Pomni just shrugged; following behind him.
"Uh, I mean- i guess?" Twinkle hesitated before following the funny bunny duo. Everyone else nodded and went their ways.
"Hm, this place doesn't look to bad." Jax looked around, relaxing his arms behind his head.
"Yea but, it's just the same chunk over and over." Pomni pointed at the same classroom they just passed. A few manikin NPCs sat or stood still.
"At least it's calm right? I kinda miss school." Twinkle smiled.
"Heh, nerd huh?" Jax teased, only to get a playful punch.
"No, I just liked it. Getting away from home, hanging with friends." Twinkle's voice faded out. The two looked confused and almost spoke, when a voice broke through the moment.
"Senpai~!" The trio turned, and saw a new npc. It was a rabbit girl, half the size of Jax. She had a perfect hourglass figure, filling out the school uniform nicely. Her little nose wiggled adorably. She had fluffy fur, perfectly groomed and pure white. Blue eyes contrasted her snowy form.
"There you are, how come we didnt walk to school together?" She pouted up at Jax. He was simply stunned; dead panned. The bunny looked at Pomni and Twinke with a hint of disgust.
"Was it for these two? Come on, that's not fair." Her whining was annoying, but her cute form almost made up for it. Jax scowled but sighed, patting her head.
"Oh how could I have forgotten? Why don't we sit together at lunch?" Even with his monotone voice, the NPC's eyes widened with joy.
"Deal!" She giggled before skipping away. Jax turned to the two girl's, both trying not to laugh.
"You gotta be kidding me-" Jax rubbed his forehead. "So not only are we in a slice of life- I'm the stupid love interest?!" Both girls now howled in laughter. Pomni fell to the ground as Twinkle leaned against a railing.
"Shut up! This so isn't funny!" Jax's tantrum only made the girls laugh harder. Althought Twinkle's laughter turned into a scream; as Jax pushed her over the railing. A deep thud echoed up the staircase.
"Haha, now that's funny." Jax smiled down at Twinkle, who was aggressively flipping him off and cussing. The blounk sounds went on for over a minute before she finally stopped.
----------------------------------------------------
Time was different here. Not different like the circus, at least there they didn't have much of an illusion of time. In this adventure they go through a full school day, go home to a blank white home, sleep for what feels like maybe five hours, then repeat. At lunch time, everyone would group up. Gangle and Pomni threw out theories about what the adventure could be, while Jax was being harassed by the NPC bunny girl. Zooble and Ragatha actually enjoyed the school. Zooble came and went as they pleased. Exploring the basically racist Japane town, they seemed to be happy. Ragatha enjoyed the routine, the nice NPCs, and Kinger's rants. At least when they made some kind of sense.
Twinkle however, wasn't enjoying herself. After about day two, she started hearing something; a voice. It was like her own, but deeper and slower. At first it wasn't really words, almost like breathing into a phone. But after five days, the chanting started.
"Who does she think she is?"
"Why does she think she can he so close?"
"Poor senpai need us~"
"He will be ours"
"No one else deserves him"
"We must end her"
Twinkle ignored it at first. But after what everyone assumed was the second week, she started to lose herself. Twinkle would zone out, stare at Jax, and flinch whenever someone came close. She got more irritated, easily pissed off. The teacher NPCs started to treat her like a delinquent.
"Mrs.Fox? Are you listening?" Twinkle looked up, a blue manikin stared down at her. She could hear his scowel.
"Huh? Uh. Nah." Twinkle slightly smirked as the manikin twitched.
"Get out, now." Shrugging, Twinkle obeyed. Outside she heard the teacher go back to talking. Although it sounded like a mix of a cartoon horn and an animal crossing gibberish. Twinkle took to the halls when she found Jax's classroom. She stopped, staring openly.
The way his fur fluffed up, his ears twitching, those beautiful golden eyes. His smile would make any woman's heart flutter-
'Oh my fu(beeping)ing God, the hell am I thinking?!' Twinkle smacked her forehead, shaking back to reality. By then, Jax had turned and seen her. With a smirk, he waved off the teacher and walked out.
"Sup, spyin on me now?" Jax smirked, looking down at Twinkle.
"Oh hush, you know why I'm here. This place is makin me go nuts. We need to find a way out." Jax nodded along, starting to walk down the hall. With a pep in her step, Twinkle followed the rabbit.
"Ya know Jax," he looked down, Twinkle smirking. "These graphics make you look more like a hare, instead of a rabbit."
Jax looked at his reflection, smirking.
"Yea, I guess. Those percings of yours, I'm almost jealous. They make you look almost cool." Twinkle's tail wagged.
"Oh, was that almost a compliment~?" Leaning toward the rabbit, he playfully pushed her away.
"In your dream. No one will believe you~" wiggling his fingers, Jax started to skip away. The two chased eachother down the hall, stopping at the lunch bell rang.
"Huh, lunch time already. Shall we?" Jax gestured toward the cafeteria, earning a nod. The duo met up with the others, but Jax was quickly caught off guard. The bunny girl NPC had snuck up behind him, grabbing his arm.
"Senpai~! Come on I missed you, lets sit over there yea?" She had already started pulling him away, glaring at the group.
"This bi(beep)" Twinkle's ears lowered back, defensive and pissed.
"Come on, he'll be fine." Zooble patted the spot beside them, nodding as Twinkle sat. She didn't hear a word anyone said, the voices had gotten to loud....
That night, as Twinkle layed on the white box; she knew what she had to do. Walking down the steps, into the equally white kitchen; she saw it. An NPC who played her mother stood still, not coded to be awake at this hour. The fox walked past her, the largest knife from the kitchen was snuck into her large fluffy tail. On all fours, she wondered through the copy and pasted neighborhood. Using her nose, she smelled her way to the window of a small house. Her claws worked perfectly, getting under the wood to slide up the plastic glass. Inside, her fluffy paws made her steps unnoticeable as she wondered around.
"There you are...bi(beep)" Twinkle muttered under her breath. Inside a white room, was the NPC modle. Her eyes were closed, her body is a stiff T pose on the white block of her bed. Panting filled the room as Twinkle crawled onto the bunny girl, her legs saddled on the NPCs hips.
"You've been a pain in my a(beep) for to long~ You think you're so smart, so cute. Make me sick." She slowly traced the NPC's jawline with the tip of the knife. Just then, she opened her eyes. Her blue eyes, grew wide in pure terror. The modle shifted and tugged, but she wasn't coded to be up at this time.
"What~? Cat got your tongue?" With that, Twinkle drove the knife into the rabbits chest. A loud, glitches scream was let out. Twinkle didn't stop though, she stabbed her over and over and over. Syrup like black liquid sprayed all over Twinkle. Inside the goo was glitches and 1s and 0s. Finally, after so long the modle stopped moving. Her blue eyes pulled to a Grey, her mouthing hanging open; dripping black goo. Twinkle let go of the knife, letting it fall to the ground. A soft, broken giggle escaped her. She bent down, gently licking the goo from the rabbits mouth.
With a flash, the bright and over stimulating circus came back to life. Everyone was on the stage, back in their original outfits. Slowly, all eyes went to Twinkle. She was still on all fours, panting like a dog. Althought the knife and black goo was gone.
"Whoa, hey you ok?" Ragatha came to her side, patting her back.
"Huh? O-oh! Yea I'm fine I-" Caine cut off Twinkle, floating over head.
"Well what a bust! I had so much planned for that adventure, a real favorite! But looks like Twinkle got to my plot twist much faster than I expected." Everyone looked back to Twinkle, who was holding Ragatha for support. Nervously laughing, Twinkle waved off the AI.
"Well- ya know- it was obvious that it was a Yandere trope." Everyone slowly nodded.
"But then, how did you end the adventure? Were you the yandere?" Jax smiled an evil, teasing grin. Twinkle laughed, though it was slightly louder than usual.
"Oh please, don't flatter yourself carrot brain. I was trying to sleep in that lunch box, when the crazy bi(beep) attacked me. Guess she was jealous." Jax glared a playful look at the nickname, and everyone else accepted the answer.
When everyone split their separate ways, Kinger had an unexpected visitor at his pillow fort. He opened the 'door'. He was deep enough in shadows, that his mind was able to register Twinkle's shaking figure.
"Twinkle? What's the matter?" Kinger moved over, allowing the fox to crawl into the small fort. She sat silently, and Kinger let her. Only when her twitching form started to shake. It was slow, then violent. Her whimpers were breathless, lile she was trying to stop breath in order to be quiet. Kinger simply nodded, and gently pulled the crying fox into his lap. His soft robe, wrapped over her form.
"You killed the NPC, didn't you?" Kinger's voice was soft enough that if she wanted, Twinkle could pretend she didn't hear. But, she nodded; nuzzling closer into his hold.
"I-" Her voice came out cracked and weak. Kinger's hands either rubber her back, or started to pet her soft ears. The affection immediately helped her calm down.
"I heard voices...it was terrifying...only l-letting in made them go away...I- didn't mean too..." Twinkle's tail curled around their bodies, holding them together. Though, Kinger didn't intend to leave anytime soon.
"Of course you didn't. You're not like them..." Twinkle's eyes widened and looked up at the chess piece. He had no mouth, but she could feel is soft smile.
"You remember?" Her voice was barely audible, but still Kinger nodded.
"Of course...you know I'm better in the darkenss...I see you still are too." Twinkle's tears returned, nodding as she nuzzled back into his lap.
"Thank-...thank you, Kinger...you'll always be my real dad.." Even before she finished her sentence, her tears fell harder.
The two sat together, only the soft sounds of tears could be heard. That is, untill humming drowned out the sorrow; and soon there was silence. A sleeping fox, and a sleeping chess piece. Both found comfort in the shared safe space; as well as the understood sorrow.