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R A I S I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !

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Thankfully, the tiny pierrot didn’t show any signs of long-lasting distress from her traumatic experience and even went all in on her own crew-curated adventures. Even though Pierrosie behaved a little… unorthodox at times.

“Good day to ya’, madam. What can I get ya today?” Jax asked behind the counter of the surprisingly realistic child-sized store inside the playground, squatting to fit in.

Pierrosie pointed at something behind him. Jax’ gaze followed the direction.

“C… cigarettes? What the hell, who put those there?” He questioned, perplexed. “I can’t sell you those.”

When he turned around, Pierrosie was holding a gun, pointed at him.

He stared at the gun, then at her. Then he laughed.

“I dig whatever’s wrong with you, kid.”

“D… d-did Pierrosie just pull out a gun?” Ragatha, who sat nearby on one of the swings, whispered to Pomni.

Pomni, sitting on the other, slowly nodded in disbelief.

“Should…. should we…. intervene….? H-how are we supposed to behave…?” Ragatha continued nervously.

“I don’t know,” Pomni responded honestly while fiddling with her pompom, “it’s all… make-believe, isn’t it?”

They watched Pierrosie gesture her gun at Jax, motivating him to hand over the cigarette packages.

“Appreciate the dedication, doll. But still… those are for our adult customers.”

Like in an exaggerated mafia movie, Pierrosie shoved her arm over the counter in a threatening gesture, throwing all products on the ground. Then she grabbed Jax by one of his suspenders and pulled him close.

She wasn’t strong enough to actually drag him, so he leaned downwards, making it seem as if she was actually able to. His acting made it look oddly real.

“S-sorry ma’am!” He answered in feigned panic, “If I sell those to anyone else but the boss’ wife, he’ll punish me. And that’ll be way worse than being shot, to be frank.”

Pierrosie squinted her eye in skepticism, then spat out to the side. Nothing actually came out of her mouth, but the toy pot on the ground made a hollow tin sound and moved anyway.

Damn. This was intense. Pomni found herself rather drawn into the plot, when somebody behind her said, “What are you doing?”

She and Ragatha jumped.

It was Caine.

He floated right behind them, looking at Jax and Pierrosie from the distance; his face deadpan. 

“Is this why you don’t show up to my announcements anymore?” He asked in a flat tone, and Pomni thought she saw his shoulders glitching. “Because of her? Because she’s doing adventures for you now?”

There was something strange in the way he said it. Something unpredictable. It activated Pomni’s fight mode. Protective, threatening words started to form in her chest.

Thankfully, Ragatha was quicker — and as per usual, way more sensible.

“That’s not what’s happening, Caine,” she said while touching his arm.

This small gesture seemed to confuse him; But also calm him.He blinked and looked at her, something hopeful in his eyes.

“We all need a break after what happened. Her, most of all. And we are the ones creating these mini adventures for her, not the other way around.”

Caine looked at her, then at Pierrosie and Jax again, who were so involved in their little play that they hadn’t noticed him yet.

“But… I’m… …” Caine began, and strangely enough, he didn’t argue. “My… purpose…”

“It’s just on pause. Don’t worry. You can wait, can’t you?” Ragatha said with a soothing voice.

“I….” Caine started again but then went silent. From the way he glanced, it seemed as if he wanted to say that he wasn’t able to wait.

Ragatha seemed to have the same impression, because she suddenly suggested something that sent a cold shiver down Pomni’s spine.

“How about you join in?”

“What?!” Caine and Pomni responded at the same time.

“Ragatha—— are you—” Pomni began, but Ragatha lifted her hand to signal Pomni to stay silent.

"It's, of course, nothing, compared to your adventures. And you know how limited Pierrosie is in what she can take in, so you’ll have to go easy on her. But I remember you saying that you enjoyed being part of an adventure for once?”

Caine appeared as if he could barely contemplate the offer.

“But… aren’t you guys skeptical of me?” He asked.

“Yes, Ragatha… aren’t we that?!” Pomni added anxiously. What in God’s name was going on inside her head??

Ragatha nodded, and continued, unusually honest, “Yes. But trust has to begin somewhere. And now that I know that Pierrosie is not just an NPC, but even an AI, I think you could teach her a lot. Be a mentor, maybe.”

Caine stared at Pierrosie.

“I don’t get why I should do that. I was created for humans, not for other artificial intelligent beings. I have basically zero motivation to help her.”

Ragatha thought about it. Then, she slowly said, “If you think about it… in a way, she’s your daughter, too.”

Pomni felt as if something inside her writhed. Those words were uncomfortable; almost disgusting. Even though they were technically correct. Like delicious cheese being the rotten bodily fluids of another species, or the beautiful ocean being full of millions of corpses.

“Well… yeah. I get the semantics. But that’s just a different descriptor and doesn’t change anything.” Caine responded dispassionately.

“How doesn’t that change anything!?” Pomni replied, almost furious. 

This startled not only Caine, but also Pierrosie, who had finally noticed the other AI's presence.

When looking at Caine’s face displaying what felt like genuine confusion, Pomni felt a twinge of guilt; After all, he wasn’t human. He was bound to numbers and facts, not humanoid sentiments. 

However, she was unwilling to cater to him. Ragatha was clearly better with her words than she was.

She got up and walked over to Pierrosie, who anxiously glanced over to Caine, to pick her up.

“I understand that it doesn’t have meaning for you.” Pomni heard Ragatha continue, with a slightly exhausted voice. “But it has meaning for us. It… improves our experience here in the circus greatly. And it would improve it even more if you’d try to be part of it.”

When Caine turned towards Ragatha again, he was excessively teary-eyed. “You really think so…??” He asked.

Ragatha gulped and smiled. It was weak, but it seemed genuine. “I hope so, at least,” she answered, genuinely. “How about we go over to Pierrosie and ask her if she’s okay with you joining in?”

Upon hearing this, Pierrosie clutched closer to Pomni, who exchanged worried looks with Jax.

When Ragatha and Caine came over, the clown doll had wrapped her arms around Pomni's neck, looking away.

Caine made a sound as if he was clearing his throat, but when he wanted to talk, something strange happened. Something new.

Pierrosie made a noise. This was rare, but not unusual — the unusual part was that it didn’t sound human at all. It didn’t even sound organic. Instead, she gave a quick sequence of high and low bleeps.

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This made Caine stop and stare at Pierrosie.Pomni looked for Ragatha’s eye contact to see if she had any idea about what was going on; But she seemed just as lost as Pomni.

The others of the group came closer.

After a couple of seconds, Pierrosie made the same sounds again, but longer this time.

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This appeared to confuse or even impact Caine in some way.

“What’s happening…?” Pomni whispered to Kinger, who’s curiously observing the scene.

“She’s talking to him,” he answered, unnecessarily.

“I figured as much, but…”

“It’s a 4-bit language, developed specifically for AIs to communicate with each other efficiently via soundwaves.”

Caine slightly tilted his head. 

“You shouldn’t be,” he answered to whatever Pierrosie had conveyed. 

Pomni felt increasingly nervous. Not knowing exactly what they were talking about — what her pea told him — felt unsettling. She couldn’t help her, nor explain. She could only read her body language, which clearly stated: Please protect me.

Pierrosie turned her head even further away from Caine.

“I… I promise I won’t delete you.” Caine added, finally giving some context on what they might have been talking about.

Ragatha stepped between them. “My little button… I know Caine and you didn’t have a good start. And you really don’t have to play with him if you don’t want to. But I want you to know that he helped Pomni get you back with us.”

This made the clown doll turn her head towards Caine to look at him again, curiously; albeit with suspicion.

He scratched the back of his gums. “Well… I didn’t do much…”

Ragatha touched his arm again; And once again, it seemed to instantly get to him in some sort of way.

“Don't hide your light under a bushel, Caine. You worked with Kinger and allowed him to do… administration things. That was a lot. I could tell it was a very tough and somehow risky decision for you.” Ragatha said.

Whatever went through Pierrosie’s mind, she didn’t show. She only gazed at Caine.

“Well… what do you think, uhm… Rosie?” Caine said, most likely in an attempt to bond with her.

This caused the porcelain doll to make a face as if she had just bitten into an exceptionally sour slice of lemon, while simultaneously being angry about it. It looked downright slapstick-y. She obviously didn’t like this new nickname.

“I, uhm… I can partake in your subpar roleplay?” He suggested, then — without waiting for an answer — snapped his fingers.

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