I'm not sure on the quality of this story, but I just wanted to try making a one shot.
Enjoy.
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Eight non stop hours of work. He knew he shouldn't have chosen to intern at that company, but his family kept telling him of would be good experience. How he wished they were in his place right now, sitting at his desk with his head laying on the table and eyelids heavier than a ball of tungsten.
But he was finally done and back in the safety of his home. He could relax. He let his eyelids shut over his eyes and mind began to sink. Sink into what would usually be the land of dreams, but not this time. As blood seeped from his nose and pooled into a puddle next to his head, the boy mind and soul left his body.
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"Wake up!" The boy heard a feminine voice say. He didn't answer, he wanted to sleep. "C'mon, spider boy. We need the scissors!"
'What the heck is she talking about? Spider boy? Scisso- wait. Whose voice WAS that?' The boy's eyes burst open. 'I'm getting robbed!' The boy quickly got up with a scream before a gloved hand was placed over his mouth. His panic quickly turned to confusion when he saw the person covering his mouth.
It was...a cartoon character. One he recognized too. A large sentient brown queen chess piece with floating hands wearing royal red robes. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just need the scissors next to you to save my husband." She said softly with eyes that showed no malice as she removed her hand from his mouth.
"Queenie?" The boy asked in disbelief. He quickly massaged his eyes, but the obviously cartoon character was still there.
Queenie's eyes...eye orbs?...widened in surprise. "You know my name?" She said before she...smiled? She didn't have a mouth, so the boy couldn't exactly call it a smile but she seemed happy. Her pupils became star shaped as well. "Aww! A latrodectus said my name! Not quite an insect, but this is a dream come true!" She said excitedly before a familiar scream resounded around them. "Right! I'M COMING, HONEY! Scissors, please."
The boy shrugged and gave her the scissors that his body was blocking. Now with the scissors in hand, Queenie left the room. The room which the boy quickly began to inspect. It was...made of sticky webs, spider webs. He quickly touched the nearest wall and found it quite bouncy, but as he did he noticed his own arm. It was pitch black and was very fuzzy. Almost like a spider's hand.
Funnily enough, there was a mirror in the room. He got off the bed and headed towards it and saw his appearance. He believed if a spider character was ever made for a children's show, it would look like this. His appearance lacked any of the sharpness or edge that made spiders scary. He even had a cute red bow tie on his neck and exactly 57 freckles.
"I think this is a lucid dream." He said before quickly imagining a giant cartoon plushie. But nothing happened. "Why isn't it working? Give me the plushie. Plushie." Nothing happened. The spider boy suddenly had a scary thought. What if this wasn't a dream. Anxiety quickly rose up in his mind and he immediately slapped himself on instinct to slam it down. And then he felt it. Pain. But it was...not the same.
'Maybe I just thought I felt it.' He reasoned and tried again and again and again. Yet never did the pain feel normal. It felt different. It felt like static, numb and slightly burnt, as if someone described pain to someone who never felt it. "This isn't gonna work. I need something else. Maybe if I find something out of place."
He quickly looked around the room, trying to see if anything seemed out of place. The furniture seemed wacky, yet grabbing a ball of silk and throwing it proved physics applied properly. He tried as many things as he could, ignoring everything around him from screams to odd static until...the room itself disappeared around him leaving behind only a familiar out of bounds area.
"Hey! I was checking the floor!" The boy yelled at nobody in particular. "Stupid dream!" He said before he heard a joyful voice behind him.
"There's the memory leak!" He looked around to find none other than the ringmaster himself, Caine with Bubble floating beside him. "Knew I'd find around here! Time to be free!" The ringmaster continued snapping his fingers. Nothing happened. Caine blinked before snapping his finger a few more times. Then, the boy felt it. Pain. Searing pain that felt like his insides were melting. It was as if he swallowed a bucket of lava. The boy screamed out in pain. It wasn't a dream. IT WASN'T A DREAM. "Huh, this is slower than usual."
"I think it's lagging. Try a lot more times." Suggested Bubble cheerfully. The spider boy's eyes bulged at the suggestion before his gaze turned to Caine.
"Great idea, Bubble!" Said the ringmaster before he snapped his fingers non stop. The boy screamed loudly, the lack of lungs making it even more continuous. "Hmm, I don't think it's working."
"How about snapping two fingers at the same time?" Suggested Bubble cheerfully.
Before Caine could reply, the boy screamed "F*#K! STOP! PLEASE!" The ringmaster stopped with a blink.
"What? I didn't give any NPCs swears this adventure." Said Caine with a contemplative expression. "Could you be a new character in the circus?" The boy replied with screams of pain and agony. "Do you, uhh, need a moment?"
"I think he's dying." Said Bubble nonchalantly, causing Caine to freeze.
"Oh no! Do you know what this means? I can't be the ringmaster like this." The ringmaster said staring at his shaking hands with widened eyes. "These hands, Bubble, they have sinned! I'm a murderer!"
"I'm...not dead." Spoke the boy through his teeth as the pain seemed to lessen.
Caine pulled out a magnifying glass and inspected the spider boy before clearing his virtual throat. "Actually, I seem to have set your character data on the path to being erased in exactly... 43- 42 minutes. You are going to die. Now, where was I? Oh, yes." He said before immediately falling to his knees. "Time to write a goodbye letter to all the characters before I go to where all the other filthy murderers are!"
"I will always remember you." Replied Bubble nonchalantly.
"Don't; I don't deserve it." Replied Caine dejectedly, his shoulders sinking so much they reached the floor.
Suddenly, a voice snapped Caine out of his dejection. "Don't feel too bad. My life wasn't that great." Said the boy with a shrug as he laid sprawled across the floor.
Caine paused before he teleported above him. "We can't have that young man! I was made to keep humans like you stimulated and happy. We can't have these thoughts around here!" Suddenly, a chair manifested under the spider boy as Caine sat across from him. "Now, tell me why you have such thoughts so I can help you before I go to hell with THE REST OF THE SCUM." He said, the last part said in between digital tears.
"Chill out. You don't need to go to hell for this." The spider boy barely blinked before Caine was fully dressed in clothes made of literal snow and the ringmaster gestured for him to continue as if nothing had happened or changed. The boy paused with a frown as he thought about his life and what he felt was missing. "I wanna feel like I'm worth something. Everyone else feels ahead of me by miles no matter where I go. I've never done anything meaningful."
"Wait no longer!" Exclaimed the AI. "In the 38 minutes you have left, I will make you the most worth something human on this digital plane!" Before the boy could say anything, Caine snapped his fingers and a palace of pure gold surrounded them. It hurt the boy's eyes just to look at it. "What do you say, King Placeholdername?"
"No. This just hurts my eyes." The boy said with a deep frown. "I can't even use the gold." Caine flinched before snapping his fingers once more to create a bedroom with purple walls full of gifts and wrapped presents.
"No one is more worth it than the birthday boy!" The ringmaster exclaimed cheerfully before the spider boy spoke.
"I didn't have many friends. My birthdays were just like any other day." He explained, causing Caine to visibly panic.
"Uhh, defeat the dragon!" He exclaimed before the terrain formed into a vast plane with a giant red dragon in the middle.
"I can't move." Deadpanned the boy. Caine froze. "I think you're misunderstanding what I want." He continued, gesturing for the ringleader to stop. "I just...wanna feel like I did something right."
Caine nodded. "And how do I make you feel that specific emotion?" He asked pulling out a clipboard and pen.
The spider boy took a deep breath, feeling a slight sense of...purpose. "I don't know." He said tiredly and Caine froze. "How would you feel if someone called your adventure great?"
"I would be honored!" Caine exclaimed. "There's no greater pleasure than knowing my art is being appreciated!"
"That's what I want, but with my art. Or anything really." Caine listened carefully as the boy spoke before suddenly having an odd thought.
"Is that why that why characters abstract?" He asked curiously. "They can't find their appreciation?"
"No, your adventures are just awful." Deadpanned the boy. "And before you have a mental breakdown, art is subjective. Your adventures aren't bad, they're just not for everyone."
Caine paused, carefully taking in what he had just heard. "And how do I make adventures suitable for my guests?"
"F*#k if know. Ask someone else." Ask someone else? Caine wrote those words in bold.
"Thank you." Said Caine cheerfully. "With this, I'll make adventures that will keep all my guests' minds healthy and stimulated."
The boy blinked. "Will it really?" He asked.
"Absolutely!"
The boy thought that maybe he succeeded where others had failed. Maybe this was why he was sent here. To prevent more abstractions. Maybe his actions finally meant something. Finally, he felt right. And the next 25 minutes were the best 25 minutes of his life.
And that was how a suggestions box that went almost entirely unused was placed in the Digital Circus; left to be a plot point in another story. Abstractions still happened. The boy's actions meant nothing.