Your Choice

1 - Where Am I?

Your mind fails in aiding you as to where you are. One second you felt calm as you placed a headset atop your head. The next, you felt so immersed in this digital world that you almost forgot it wasn't real. Music blares in your ears, successfully blasting your eardrums and your hands immediately rush to protect you from this obnoxious noise. Surrounding you are colors so bright, that you swear even when your eyes are closed they still invade your vision. And just as soon as you got there, your environment changed. 

You observe you are now standing in a circus tent. Colorful wacky characters are dotted randomly throughout the quite large room you're in, and you have never been more positive that this wasn't real. A tall rabbit walking on its hind legs was abnormal, but a chess piece with two working eyes accompanied by a crying tragedy mask with ribbon limbs was DEFINITELY fake. You almost wonder if you're dead.

This "game" seemed fun and all, but you quickly decided it was time to leave. Slowly, you bring your hands up to your head and grab at the mysterious headset you had put on just moments earlier. Nothing. You continue moving your hands, trying to find any part of the goggles that you had just immersed yourself in, but again you are met with nothingness other than your own new face and the digital world around you.

"This probably isn't good." you state, a bit too calm for your current situation. Somehow, all these fever dream sleep paralysis demons hadn't noticed your presence until you spoke. 11 eyes and one button turned their attention towards you, and oddly enough you felt frozen in place from what you could only assume was anxiety? Perhaps the awkwardness of this situation was getting to you. 

"Oh... oh!" a woman's voice exclaims, and when you turn to look at who, you see a lifelike raggedy Ann doll. Probably one of the most normal out of these abominations. The expressions around you are filled with either shock or sympathy.

Tentatively, you feel yourself take a step back and raise your dominant hand slightly, as if to guard yourself from these "potential threats."

"Hel... Hello?" you question, even though it was supposed to be more of a statement. You (and apparently everyone else) are surprised at how calm you've been reacting. Most likely because the truth hasn't settled in. And because you aren't completely aware of the truth yet.

"Just a quick question but, where am-"

"HELLO!" You jump back quickly and shield your face from an unsettling pair of teeth that popped into existence right in front of your face. "YOU MUST BE A NEW MEMBER!" it continued. It takes all your will not to punch this mysterious entity in its... face? No, that's definitely not a face. But it does appear to have a set of eyes. This creature of sorts does also lack a nose...

You snap out of your thoughts to hear this set of teeth yapping about your new home. Too timid to admit you weren't listening, you stand still with your gaze lowering towards the floor as it continued to ramble on. So caught up in your own thoughts, you didn't tend to notice the giant bubble that emerged from the top hat that the teeth had (why would teeth need a top hat? or a suit for that matter.)

It wasn't until the bubble came right against your face that you stumbled backwards, eyes wide and arms flailing as you tried to regain your balance. You let out a started peep. 

"BUBBLE! What did I tell you about INTIMIDATING our RESIDENTS?!" The teeth wouldn't stop screaming, and you couldn't tell if that was the cause of your migraine or if it was the bright colors or the torturously annoying music. As you try to get up from the cold floor, you put a hand against your forehead as if it would ease the pain at all. 

"Where was I? OH RIGHT! EVERY DAY WE GO ON THESE AMAZINGLY FUN AND CREATIVE ADVENTURES MADE BY M-"

"Please! Just, stop screaming. Please." You said anything you could to get this freak show to SHUT UP.

"Huhh, looks like the newbie has some sass! And one hell of a sanity..." the weird lanky purple rabbit remarked, mumbling that last part under his breath, making it a bit more difficult for you to understand.

"I'm not exactly interested in this whole charade, so it would be much appreciated if you told me how to leave." you respond to all these... fairy tale creatures? What other words could you use to describe them. And yet again, a wave of silence washes over everyone.

"Have... have they been listening...?" the ribbon-girl shyly questions. A look of confusion spreads across your face. Was something the teeth said actually important? Again, you find your thoughts interrupted by a scream, as the paranoid chess piece seemed to forget about the woman standing right next to him. He let out a sigh of relief as he realized who it was. In the distance, you notice a jumble of shapes pinch the bridge of where their noise would be, and walk away with little to no interest. 

"MUST I REITERATE, MY FRIEND!" The floating dentures took a pause. "THERE IS NO EXIT!!" Suddenly, all these overwhelming emotions rid themselves from you as you continued to sit as still as a statue. Your head slowly turned to look up at this floating ringmaster of sorts, whilst your eye twitched. You let out a very quiet chuckle. 

"Excuse me." you whisper, barely audible. "What did you just say?" And before you knew it, your emotions came flooding back. But one stood out more than the others. Irritation.

"I..." it seems to hesitate again, as if it feels bad for being the one to spill this inevitable truth. 

"Guys... at least they're handling it better than I did..." a girl who you didn't even notice before responds. She seems to be the shortest out of all of them, and by the way she acts she's most likely the newest too. Out of everyone here, this jester girl seems like she'd be the most relatable. Again, you laugh out of pure shock and annoyance. 

"Seems I was wrong about their sanityyy~" the absolutely exasperating rabbit teases. 

"Jax, now is NOT the time!" the rag doll speaks up again. You transition from sitting to lying on the cold, hard floor. For a game, this all felt so real. Maybe I actually did die. You feel the presence of someone approaching as you cover your eyes with your arm. After hesitating, they begin to speak but before a comprehensible noise manages to be voiced, you shut them down.

"No." you state calmly. 

"Bu-"

"No." you reiterate, a bit more firm this time. "Leave me alone."

You are responded by silence, until a voice you haven't heard yet states their opinion. "Well this isn't normal." You sigh, before saying the one thing you can only think of saying in a situation like this.

"F-" You jump as you hear a loud noise, like a sound effect in a tv show. This unexpected noise also seemed to startle the theatre mask and the jester. 

"Looks like they really WEREN'T listening!" laughs the snide voice that you've only heard from lavender boy. "Maybe you'll pay attention to a less annoying voice. You can't cuss here. So what's the point in even trying hon?"

Man, this dude was really starting to get on your nerves, and considering your current situation you're not sure if you should try to make allies and get along with everyone here, or if you should tell these hoes how you really feel. Especially this arrogant, narcissistic bunny. Your mind, filled with conflicting thoughts, finally decides to...