NOTE: this is a continuation of TADC after The Last Act. So there is spoilers here.
Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
Without consciously thinking about it, Pomni found herself stopping outside the TV room Jax had shown her months ago. Figuring that was far enough, she opened her mouth to say something to those still at the table only for Scratch’s voice to sound in her ear.
“Just got to the end of the hallway. Can you all hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Scratch,” Kinger’s voice said.
“Whoa,” Zooble mumbled just loud enough to be picked up.
“Pomni, are you there?” Scratch asked.
“Y-yeah, I’m here,” Pomni said, stuttering from surprise at being called out. She shook her head, pushing away old insecurities and added, “And I can hear Kinger, too.”
“Great,” Scratch praised. “I’ll meet you in the computer lounge.”
Pomni looked back the way she had come, realizing she wasn’t going to get a chance to take care of her plate as she took the few steps to the computer lounge.
Finding the door open, she walked in and took in everything Caine had done during the night.
The sofa was still in its spot by the wall to the right of the door, an arm chair and coffee table adding to give it a cozier feel. The tables the computers had sat on were now pushed together in the center of the room, leaving the far wall barren where some of the tables had been. Five monitors had been put together, creating a semi-circle around three chairs. She stepped closer to the active monitor, resting her hands against the back of the chair closest to it. Half of the screen was taken up with a t-posed representation of Scratch, his model showing the wireframe that made up what she saw. The other half of the screen was a black window with green text. She could guess what some of the abbreviations meant; SimHrtRt she guessed to be simulated heart rate, noticing Scratch’s heart rate was actively fluctuating between 82 and 84. Below that were what she guessed to be his model’s measurements, not for the first time wishing her own wasn’t so short. After that the abbreviations and numbers became less understandable. She thought one might be referring to his weight, thinking she remembered a YouTube video talking about the pull of Earth’s gravity. That was the best guess she had with the equation it gave, ending in 77kg. She’d watched enough BBC to know that would be around a person’s weight.
She was starting to surprise herself at how much she was understanding, guessing her affinity for numbers could translate to this world.
Noise from the hallway got her attention, getting her to step back from the computers as she only just realized the group had been talking in her ear. The voices stopped, reminding her of the proximity feature Scratch had mentioned, as they walked into the room and Zooble asked Kinger, “Shouldn’t we make some sort of containment for the abstracted while we’re trying to help them?”
“Pomni might’ve had Jax if there hadn’t been a flash grenade in the hallway,” Gangle added.
“That’s actually a good idea,” Scratch said, his voice still coming from the ear piece and the black box in Kinger’s hand. “When we go down there, we’ll create a room.”
Kinger went straight for the computers, taking a seat at a blank screen and setting the speaker box between two monitors. He clicked the screen on and started typing away, reminding Pomni he was going to need to connect her data to a computer as Caine took a seat beside him.
“Are you okay? You don’t have to do this, you know,” Ragatha said, resting a hand on Pomni’s shoulder.
Pomni looked up and gave her friends a smile. “No, I’m fine. I wanna help. And if we can help Bizco, we’ll be able to help the rest of them.”
Ragatha gave her a smile before giving her a hug. “Just be careful, okay.”
Returning the hug, Pomni found herself glad to be more comfortable with particular people’s touch. Letting go, she looked up and smiled back, “Will be.”
“Pomni, I need to get a scan of you,” Kinger said, getting Pomni to look over at the old man at the computer to notice a green circle on the floor at her feet. Ragatha stepped away, surprise on her face at the new element.
Pomni stepped aside, going towards the far wall so she was close to a similar spot Scratch had been last night when she had watched Kinger and Caine do the same thing to him. “Ready,” Pomni said, holding out her arms. She tried to ignore the other’s eyes as the green circle traveled up her body. A part of her wondered if this could count as something more private like a doctor’s exam, but in a world were two of her friends didn’t wear any clothes and now one in the circus didn’t wear pants, it was hard to tell. Scratch walked in, only giving Pomni a glance before he stepped over to the computers.
The green circle passed her eyes and finished scanning her head, sounding out a chime above her as the green ring vanished.
Scratch leaned over his creation and coworker, resting a gloved hand on the back of Caine’s chair as he checked, “Everything looking good?” He looked over the data on the screen for his answer and nodded his head before looking over at Pomni as she stepped closer, curious about her own data. “Let’s go contain Bizco. Once you’ve got him scanned, we can get started.”
Pomni gave a glance at the screen Kinger was turning away from, seeing her wireframe body as it hit her hard once again that she was only a digital clone of herself. It was a weird thought that, while it didn’t give her existential dread like she had heard it gave Ragatha, reminded her that she was now an off shoot of the person she had been when she was born. Sometimes she thought about contacting her other self, but shook the idea from her mind as Scratch was already turning around to head out of the room. She turned and rushed to follow after him, knowing deep down she shouldn’t contact her other self.
“What can we do?” Ragatha’s voice asked, coming from the earpiece.
“Nothing much right now,” Kinger admitted.
Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
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