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R A I S I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !

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▶ BOOK 1: M A K I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !

⊹˚₊·‧Chapter 1: Intro

Life with Pierrosie was nothing short of fascinating and overwhelming.

It was clear from the very first day that things would be nowhere near human standards, just by looking at her: She neither looked nor behaved like a physical infant. On second glance, though, she didn’t seem like your common NPC, either; leaving Ragatha and Pomni to embark on an entirely new experience without any references.

The differences from human newborns started with her physical circumstances: She could walk right away (albeit a little wobbly, her little bells always announcing her position), had no sense of hunger (neither Ragatha nor Pomni would’ve been able to nurse her, anyway) and therefore also had no need for any diapers. But all of that wasn’t too surprising given the circus’ determining factors.

She also didn’t speak at all, but she seemed to have the ability to understand words, concepts, and issues occasionally; it wasn’t always easy to tell because, more often than not, she was just curiously observing her surroundings with her little working lacquer eye (the other one was perpetually closed) — sometimes without even reacting to any stimuli, or even downright walking away while somebody was talking to her.

It was unclear whether she could process input — for the lack of a better word — only sometimes or simply didn’t feel like engaging. At times it even felt as if she didn't hear or see at all. Other times she responded to complicated questions; like that one time when Ragatha was joking that she was so bad at math that she couldn’t even pull the root out of 25. Pierrosie had just casually shown five fingers in response — the usual four on one hand, the fifth on the other. After that, Pomni and Ragatha had asked her a couple of increasingly difficult math questions, all of which the little pierrot doll could answer quickly and flawlessly.

Her lack of talking also extended to overall noises: She only made them rarely, even when she chuckled — she usually just opened her tiny mouth in a silent laugh, her eye shining; On rare occasions, however, when she was more than just a little delighted, she could audibly giggle, too. It was one of the cutest sounds Pomni had ever heard.

When she wasn’t laughing, though, it often was hard to tell what the kid was thinking, because she often lacked facial expressions; Straight-up poker- facing everyone around her. Pomni kind of liked that.

Pierrosie slept a lot, however. Or… was a lot on standby? It was difficult to tell if she could even experience sleep. Upon questioning, Caine grumpily answered that it was no wonder that she needed to shut off so often, because she simply wasn’t able to process much; Not hesitating to point out that it was their own fault for keeping such a faulty NPC.

Ragatha and Pomni didn’t mind. Even though Pierrosie had her own crib, she would often sleep between them in Ragatha’s bed, where they simply couldn't grow tired of looking at her. Gently stroking her tiny porcelain hands with which she was holding onto their fingers, even during her sleep — while simply watching her rest for hours, still unable to contemplate her existence and what it caused within them. At least Pomni felt that way; By looking at the way Ragatha observed the tiny creature, Pomni suspected that she had little trouble seeing the virtual entity as her baby.

Even though she was physically capable of walking, most of the time she wanted to be carried around, and every single person in the circus was happy to comply. 

In fact, everyone seemed to like her, Pomni noticed with a swelling heart.

Even though the group had eventually shown their support for Ragatha’s pregnancy, Pomni didn’t discard the possibility that once the NPC infant was there, some — or maybe even all of them — treated her awkwardly or even distantly. 

But thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the truth. They all seemed to be rather fond of her - and interestingly, she also seemed to be fond of them. In such a strange, intimate way, as if she would already know and trust them. If she was a result of Caine using data from Ragatha and Pomni to program her - was there a possibility that she had also ‘inherited’ their feelings and established relationships?

The crew didn’t mind this at all: they all loved to play with her, to hold her, and to show her around. 

After a short while, they all had developed individual approaches to the kid: Gangle enjoyed being creative with her; building little cities with objects from their rooms, painting on the floors, roleplaying tropes. Even though he often forgot that she was there to begin with, Kinger ended up reading stories to her, appearing unusually sane when he did so. Zooble did a lot of dress-up with her, letting the girl toy around with their chest full of parts, or even play some make-believe scenarios, often together with Gangle.

But Jax… 

It was... special with him.

He didn’t seem to like her at all. He stayed away from her, often even leaving the general orbit when she was close. Never talking to her. He even seemed to avoid barely even looking at her. 

Though Pierrosie didn’t stop pestering him. She would constantly chase him around, trying to touch him, walk into his field of view when he looked away, even signaling that she wanted him to pick her up. Why she behaved like this, Pomni couldn’t tell; Maybe she liked him and wanted him to treat her just like everyone else did — maybe she wanted to torture him for ignoring her. Who knew.

But eventually, something happened.

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