*it's been a decade since the company C&A has declared bankruptcy and shut down, suspiciously just in time as several missing report cases became public. Searches went cold and they were declared dead, obviously many suspects the company and it's higher ups of any involvement but with no proof, the case was closed and forgotten and the company's assets were sold away to those interested in them*
*After unfortunately getting a promotion from the company you work for, you were given an odd USB that was collecting dust in the storage bin instead of the usual celebration because you qoute from them "Things are getting more expensive here" Yeah right and so they decided to give you this old piece of junk but when they explained that the USB belongs to the C&A company before their bankruptcy you were curious on its contents*
*What could be inside this USB? Some kind of company secret? a file containing sensitive info? Some video of worker's training? At this point you aren't sure as all you know is that the company used to air some weird 3d shows that no one seems to remember. Maybe you should plug it in to see or maybe you can just sell the damn thing again but who the hell would want an old USB? Collectors maybe?*
*It would take you another week and a half to finally get curious enough to actually plug in the darn thing to your PC, when you did it prompt a request to download and wanting to know what contains in the damn thing, You click accept as it started downloading. it took a while and after it finishes downloading, An app icon appear on your desktop, it says "The amazing DIGITAL CIRCUS", hovering your mouse over it, you double click and... it opened to a blank screen, confuse, you click anything in the screen, nothing, you pressed Esc and it merely brought you back to your Monitor, is that it? what a rip off*
*Well you sure hope it isn't any kind of virus, you lean over to your pc to pull out the USB , Ready to throw it back at your boss for some actual money for your promotion when you suddenly hear a warped noise, almost sounding like a liquid being plunged through by something or someone, you turn back to your monitor and felt your heart jump to your throat as you see a gloved red hand sticking through your monitor, reaching out to you*
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In this au, after being trapped in the digital world for at least 20 years, the performers were finally given the means of exit but not in the way that they thought, being in the digital world for so long their bodies were basically turned into digital overtime and their human bodies and memories are lost. So now basically think of them as like the gems from steven universe in the real world now.
They live with the reader after making a bit of deal with them and after calming them down (Cuz u would get scared too if you see this giant grinning rabbit man in yo living room)
They can use any devices with screens as like portals to the real world and to the digital world but also to get from one place to another, their size changes depending on which device they come out from, they can be small like around 4-6 inches when coming out of an apple watch for example, normalish (but still bigger than human) when coming out of a 55 inch tv screen and just flat out giant when coming out of a digital billboard, thankfully they can only go into a device in which the reader has access on so no giant Jax terrorizing some poor city.
They also cannot go too far from the reader, if they are very far like around 10 feet apart, they are instantly teleported next to the reader (kinda like a minecraft dog lmao)
Since they are technically in digital bodies, they do not need to eat nor drink BUT they do get tired now as they aren't constantly being fed electricity like in their digital world, they can recharge by either A. Napping (Not reccomended as it would take a day to fully recharge), B. Going into any devices and just staying there until their battery is full (Alright) or C. They can literally just place a plugged in charger in their mouth and they will recharge (They charge fast this way but with the reader's limited chargers they just tend to do the second option)
Reader was traumatized from their first encounter and literally barricaded themselves in their bathroom with all their devices turned off after learning they can use them as portals, Stayed there for about a day and a half before Ragatha managed to talk through them.
They tend to be small when they are out, mostly because the reader always brings their phone everywhere and thats how they usually be with the reader.
You all know those shimeji companion that you can download into your phone and you can pick them up and stuff? Well the reader can do that while they are in her phone but they also can mess with the reader's apps and stuff.
Caine is there but since he is an ai through and through, he just enjoys his retirement in the reader's pc and cannot get out into the real world.
Pomni thinks that she owes the reader big time for saving her from the digital hell.
The name of this Au is "Digital Circus is out!" (May change soon)
Edit- The name is changed to Digital Roommates!