-11:11 P.M, Liminal Land Amusement Park-
A nimble silhouette swiftly jumps and swings through the summit of the spiraling tangled roller coaster tracks. It pounces from structure to structure while remaining hidden in the shadows of the infinite tracks that riddle the top of the theme-park.
The silhouette is holding onto long puppet strings that stretch down all the way to the theme park floor.
The strings are connected and puppeteering Juno's curly violet haired puppet as it sprints through the plastic wonderland, vaulting over extravagant attractions.
Her wooden feet tap the ground faster and faster as she speeds up and her skirt and hair flow in the wind behind her.
She slows down and stops when she reaches the dark unsettling entrance-exit of Liminal Land amusement park where Solange is laying with her feet kicked up on the rows of metallic gates next to the empty ticket stands.
They glance at each other.
Solange, cheekily: "Oh, you're back. Took you long enough. I started to think ya got gobbled up by a muppet in there."
Juno stretches and cracks her wooden fingers: "I was stashin' 99 puppets on the canopies of the theme-park, you thought it was gonna take 5 mins?"
Solange spins her matryoshka doll in her hand: "Hm. I guess. So are they like lying lifelessly on top of the roller coasters or something?"
Juno's carousel eyes spin in aggression: "N- NO! THEY'RE ALL ALIVE FRAGMENTS OF MY DEMONIC SOUL AND UH- S- SCOUTING THE AREA! Or something."
Solange blinks: "Sure thing. And this matryoshka doll is also alive then."
Solange moves her matryoshka doll side to side and pretends it's talking: "YoOHoO! i'M SuPeR DuPeR aLiVe! HeLLoO!"
Juno: "I'll kill you." -_-
Solange moves the matryoshka doll again: "Oouu! ScArY! TiMe To HiDe iN SoLaNgE's BoObS!"
Solange stuffs the matryoshka doll in her shirt.
Juno: "..."
Solange points at her shirt: "She hid in between my b-"
Juno: "I HEARD IT THE FIRST TIME! Where are the boys?"
Solange points at the ground.
Juno makes a confused expression then looks down.
Gianni and Milano are on the floor laying like a pair of sweaty sardine corpses reeled up from sea and left to dry out.
Gianni twitching on the floor: "My ass... my ass hurts..."
Milano stares up at the tent tiredly.
Bumpkin takes advantage of the situation and sips some blood from Gianni's neck.
Bumpkin: "Ehehehe..."
/＼ ^-▿-^ ／\
Bumpkin: "Eh...?" /＼ ^-_-^ ／\ (He seems disappointed with the flavor)
Milano continues gazing at the tent.
Juno's face fills with a jovial smile and she clasps her wooden hands together: "Aaaw, you 2 worked so hard pushing that cart full of my puppets all the way over here! Good job, good job! You managed to warm my cold evil wooden heart. <3"
Gianni: "I hope you get termites and a woodpecker lands on your ass."
Juno: "HAH!?" (╬ﾟ◥益◤ﾟ)
Juno tries attacking Gianni but Solange holds her back.
Bumpkin hides back in Gianni's shirt. /＼^꒪ȏ꒪^／\
Juno: "LET GO! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"
Juno struggles in Solange's arms.
Milano weakly nudges Gianni with his elbow.
Milano: "Hey. Hey Gianni."
Gianni turns to him, exhausted: "What man?"
Milano points up at the tent: "Get a load of that loser. Staring down at us with his stupid colorful designs. I think he thinks he's tough or something."
Gianni diverts his eyes to the tent: "Haha... Yea. What a loser. He thinks he can keep us from seeing the electric eels. I bet even Goma-Chan could beat his ass."
Milano puts his finger on his mouth: "Shh, he might hear you."
Gianni: "Like I care! In fact, I hope he hears me!"
Gianni screams up at the tent: "HEEEYYYY TENT!! YOU'RE A PUNY PLASTIC PIECE OF SHIT! I'LL BEAT YOU TO THE GROUND, WHIP MY DICK OUT AND TAKE A PISS ON YOUR FACE FOR BREAKFAST!"
Milano: "HAHAHAHA! YEA! I CAN'T DO THAT SINCE I DON'T HAVE A DICK BUT I'LL KICK YOU ON YOUR FACE AND SPIT ON YOU FOR LUNCH!"
Gianni: "PUAHAHAHA! I'LL SLEEP WITH YOUR GIRL FOR DINNER!"
Milano: "I'LL SPANK YOUR MOM FOR A LATE NIGHT SNACK!"
Gianni cracks up: "HAHAHAHA!! LATE NIGHT SNACK!!"
Milano: "YOU HEAR THAT GIANNI!? HE'S TOTALLY CRYING BECAUSE OF US!"
Gianni: "HE TOTALLY IS!"
Gianni and Milano: "HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA!!"
Solange and Juno stare at them: "._."
Juno: "Um... Are they ok...?"
Solange smiles after a moment: "Yea, they're only ok when they're like this."
Gianni gets up: "Although I wouldn't actually sleep with his girl since I got Blanca."
Milano smiles and gets up: "Yea, yea, I know."
Solange walks in front of them: "Finally you're up. With how lifeless you were layin' on the ground, I coulda sworn you were one of Juno's puppets."
Juno: "HMM!?" (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)
Milano: "Let's go over the plan before we go in."
Solange: "Yea, yea we split into 2 groups to look for the Muppeteer, find him, kill him, take his points, then head to the giant prize dispenser to buy the equipment we need to take out the Centipede Witch and her points should be more than enough for us to make a contract with the head of the circus purge that asks to change the rule of only 2 people being allowed to win the circus purge to 4. Easy peasy."
Solange pets Salamander the lion, who's cuddled up sleeping on the ground.
Milano: "Easier said than done. There are a limited number of rivers and canals in the theme park that connect with the ocean. So Sky doesn't have that much range and I'll have to stay close to the water most of the time."
Juno: "I didn't go too deep into the theme-park when I was stashing my puppets but I didn't see any muppets roaming around. They must be deeper in. They're definitely in there though, this is the Phantom Muppeteer's terrain. It's kind of creepy, where could he be hiding thousands of those things?"
Gianni: "Probably in his asshole."
They all turn to Gianni.
Gianni: "What?"
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Solange comes around from behind Gianni and squeezes one of his buttcheeks.
Gianni: "ARGH-"
Solange: "Me n' Gianni will go in as group 1. Milano you go in wit' Juno, since you're limited to areas close to the water, Juno can cover you better. She has more range than all of us thanks to her puppets."
Gianni: "Nope. I'm not goin' in wit' you."
Milano puts his hand on his chin: "Hmm. That actually sounds like a good strategy though."
Gianni: "AH COME ON!"
Solange grips Gianni's butt tighter.
Solange: "I know right! By the way Gianni, why're you actually kinda thick!? Wasn't expectin' this much voluptuousness." XD
Gianni: "STOP VIOLATIN' ME WIT' YOUR SOCIOPATH HANDS! I'M SAVIN' MYSELF FOR BLANCA!"
Juno: "I showed you guys the map but we still haven't decided where each group's going. Now's the time."
Solange: "You 2 go through the love canal into the water park zone, Milano's orca will have more range in that area. Me n' Gianni will head towards the ferris wheel and ball pit."
Milano: "Why the ferris wheel?"
Solange smiles: "Jus' a hunch."
Juno with a serious face: "Alright then it's settled. But like I said, when we go in that theme park, we're entering the Phantom Muppeteer's terrain."
Gianni and Milano take in the view of the entrance as the eerie low droning sounds of the retro neon flickering lights reading "LiMiNAL LAND!" greet them.
Juno: "This is one of the 3 mythical performers of the circus purge. The roller coasters are like his guts and intestines, the ball-pit his stomach, the water park his bladder, the ferris wheel his heart and the entrance his jaws. Goin' deep into that park is willingly letting it eat you alive."
Gianni and Milano glare at the entrance as they fist bump each other with serious faces.
Milano: "Looks like we found another tough guy, Gianni. He's gonna have some digestive issues soon though."
Gianni: "EAT ME UP THEME-PARK! I'LL GIVE YOU DIARRHEA!"
Right by the entrance, a small hidden frog muppet is watching them without a single blink from on top of a pendulum ride.
-7KM Away, At the Ferris Wheel-
Phantom Muppeteer exhales cigarette smoke into the Ferris Wheel pod, hotboxing the small pod.
Sloth Muppet smiles as the cigarette haze drifts around him: "You really are a genius, dad! Making a deal with the puppet girl to bring Gianni right to you and all! What was the deal anyway?"
Phantom Muppeteer chuckles: "Hahaha... Puppet girl? All I said was I made a deal with a girl. I never said anythin' 'bout no puppet girl, kid."
Sloth Muppet tilts his head and looks at Phantom Muppeteer.
Sloth Muppet: "But if it's not the puppet girl-" [https://img.wattpad.com/b3e93135e9db64a23e1c8e80a4afcdd6217bc14b/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4f75646c4a764f683976474c65673d3d2d313139323637373330302e313664343065306338653834323034613136373131393239323832352e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
-12:44 A.M, 2KM Away From the Ferris Wheel-
Gianni and Solange make their way through an immense and jumbled jungle-gym playground. They navigate through the plastic slides, colored mats, spongey mazes, spiraling ladders and spinning cylinders.
Solange balances her way through a gapped playground bridge.
She glances down at the vast ball-pit made up of 666,666,666 plastic balls through the gaps on the wobbly bridge.
Solange: "You know, Gianni. There's somethin' about you but I can't exactly pin it."
Gianni squeezes through plastic cylinders: "Hah?"
Solange: "No matter where you go you're always the elephant in the room. It's pretty impressive. Even with all these psychotic weirdos running around, if the Circus Purge was a room, you'd still be the elephant in it."
Gianni begins climbing up ladders to an upper floor in the jungle-gym: "You always say that. What the heck does it even mean?"
Solange lightly bounces her way through a path of trampolines: "In your case, I don't know what it means either to be honest. It's like you're unreal or fake but not in a bad way, more so in an unnatural way? But that also sounds bad, it's hard to explain."
Gianni crawls into a tube slide: "What kinda sociopathic bullshit are you spouting out?"
Solange crawls in from behind him: "Oh I got it! I just can't help but feel like if life was a show, you'd be the main character. You feel more like a protagonist to me rather than a person. When I talk to you, I get this surreal feeling as if I was talking to Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny or something."
Gianni turns to look at her: "When I talk to you I get this surreal feeling of wanting you to shut up."
Solange: "Hahahaha! And you're funny too, I love it! But seriously everytime you say something it feels more like a line rather than you just saying something. Or like you're making a speech to someone or something that none of the rest of us can see."
Gianni makes it out the other end of the slide and looks out to the rest of the jungle-gym silently.
Solange looks at Gianni as she makes it out too.
Gianni: "I spent ma life perfectin' the art of bein' a clown so that the audience from the outside world would like me and applaud. Even clowns got their lives outside o' work but I was so focused on bein' as real of a clown as possible for them, even when they weren't watchin', that somewhere down the line I prolly became as fake of a normal person as possible."
Gianni looks down at the ball-pit: "The fake me is still tellin' me to get up on stage dance around like an idiot, shake my butt, slip and fall, hurt myself and make 'em laugh."
Gianni smirks: "But guess what the real me is sayin' about everyone who laughed and booed? It's sayin' I should drown them in the gallons of make-up I washed off my face over the years."
Solange: "You did it again."
Gianni: "Ah?"
Solange: "The speech thing. Hehe. You totally got somethin' way creepier about you than that depressin' ol' story you just babbled on about."
Gianni: "Tch. Besides that, ma life's been cleanin' bat shit, so I dunno what to tell ya."
Solange puts her arm around Gianni.
Solange: "Ya can't hide it forever."
Gianni: "I'm not hidin' nuffin."
Solange: "Ok my turn, can I tell you a secret?"
Gianni looks at Solange.
Solange: "The reason I insisted that we go after the Centipede Witch instead of the Giraffe Pirate is cuz the Giraffe Pirate's Milano's dad."
Gianni's eyes widen: "What."
Solange: "The memory from last time me and Milano went to the 2nd layer that made him want to kill himself was something to do with his father. So, Milano can't know the Giraffe Pirate is his father cuz if he does, he'll go after him. And if he goes after him, he'll remember again. The memory so awful that it made him want to kill himself."
Gianni: "WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! WHAT!?"
Solange: "If Milano runs into the Giraffe Pirate, it'll be curtains for him. So don't tell him, ok?"
-9KM Away-
Milano and Juno are being pushed by Sky the orca through a romantic abandoned love canal tunnel on a swan canoe.
Milano: "Solange doesn't know that I figured out the Giraffe Pirate's my dad. She thinks we're going for the Centipede Witch after we take out the Phantom Muppeteer. Gianni thinks that too..."
Juno lets her wooden fingers drift by in the calm current of the water: "So, you feel bad for lying?"
Milano looks up at the ceiling of the tunnel to see a silhouette controlling Juno's puppet strings while walking hidden on the complicated pipe structures.
Milano: "I'd feel worse if I let my dad live. He'd continue doing the things he did to you and I to other kids."
Juno gets a glimpse of another canoe approaching from ahead in the tunnel: "Milano, someone's there."
Milano looks with a serious face.
The girl from the museum with bob-cut bone-color hair, Mira, spots them from her canoe.
Milano: "...A girl?"
Mira with dark circles around her eyes: "How many points...?"
Juno, confused: "What?"
Milano squints his eye and immediately notices Mira's canoe is covered in blood and guts likely from other performers. A skeletal sail of an animal is lurking in the water beside Mira.
Milano: "JUNO!"
Mira fiddles with a remote control: "Give me your points."
An 18 meter Spinosaurus fossil unfolds out of the murky water as water runs down every crook and crevice of it's ribs and skeletal structure.
It spirals around Mira's canoe and roars at Milano and Juno as water trickles down the empty eye sockets on it's skull. The spine-chilling vocals of the Spinosaurus echo ear-piercingly through the tunnel.
Milano and Juno's eyes burst wide open!
Juno: "IS THAT A FREAKIN' DINOSAUR!?"
Milano: "SKY!!!"
-9KM Away-
Gianni and Solange continue moving through the vast jungle-gym above the colossal ball-pit.
Gianni: "WAIT SO WHAT THE HECK IS THE MEMORY THAT MADE MILANO WANT TO KILL HIMSELF!?"
Solange: "Secret, till you tell me your secret."
Gianni: "SERIOUSLY, I GOT NO SECRETS!"
Above them...
The guy with the palm tree shaped dreads wearing a woman's kimono, Shinjiro, stalks them from a higher floor on the jungle-gym.
Shinjiro: "He's missing his grotesque makeup and nauseating hat, but without a doubt. That's him. It's Gianni of Circopia."
Shinjiro keeps his stare: "Akuma... I would like to make an order..."
A gut-churning uncanny mouth merges from the shadows behind on the left of Shinjiro [https://img.wattpad.com/a9cec3dda35e623eeac89ed8f452b6b1e134b651/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4a68734966736b6b4872757371413d3d2d313139323637373330302e313664343065383761653463646261343933363336343032373738302e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
A gut-churning uncanny mouth merges from the shadows behind on the left of Shinjiro. It leans and whispers into his ear.
Shinjiro: "No. I have it memorized. Make me a cold number 47 from the menu, Devil's Cocktail."
Akuma excitedly giggles and switches to Shinjiro's right side, still staying behind him.
Akuma excitedly giggles and switches to Shinjiro's right side, still staying behind him [https://img.wattpad.com/5eeeea5a242673334a6c8e83f35cafe1f19444e4/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f62694d6266525752746b61732d413d3d2d313139323637373330302e313664343065613131633237393262663138303835383236333839342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Shinjiro draws his sword: "Yea, yea. Ain't nothin' in ma' life left smilin' bout anyway. Just put the check on my tab! And you can have my older sister's big toe as your tip! I'll slay that clown before the Muppeteer gets his gloves on him."
[https://img.wattpad.com/a0084ff586195d0fa78dd04bfa7edee4800fa048/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4c44346f66684e566a6e594d79673d3d2d313139323637373330302e313664343065633766623834646464643738333430313931353638302e706e67]
2 unappetizing hands reach from behind Shinjiro and tie a baby's apron around his neck.
2 unappetizing hands reach from behind Shinjiro and tie a baby's apron around his neck [https://img.wattpad.com/19a636f18550c304470ddc492c0f31f9400509a3/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6f4b66744d706747462d364d6f773d3d2d313139323637373330302e313664343065646139336564383132393937353431383432313130362e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]