-9 Years Ago-

12-year-old Gianni and 12-year-old Blanca are climbing up the rails of an abandoned roller coaster ride at a hauntingly deserted theme park.

Gianni is ahead of Blanca as he climbs high up the rails of the roller coaster, about 100 meters above the ground.

Blanca is sweating and trying to catch up out of breath: “Gianni! Don’t go that fast! You’re gonna fall!”

Gianni climbing with a determined look: “As if! I’m the greatest performer alive, Blanca! This is nothing for me! Plus, the top of this roller coaster is so close to the ceiling of the tent, maybe we can hear what’s outside there! I’ll meet you at the to-”

Gianni’s feet slip off the rail: “Hah?”

Blanca’s eyes widen.

Gianni starts falling: “AAARRGGH!!!”

Blanca catches him from his shirt mid air.

Gianni looks down at the abandoned theme park nervously as he dangles from his shirt: “Ah shoot man. Almost became the tragic end of the world’s youngest most talented performer.”

He turns to Blanca.

Gianni: “Thanks Bla-”

He sees her holding on to him and crying.

Blanca tears up, blushing: “Idiot.”

Gianni in shock: “Oh… Ah… My bad… Bla-”

Blanca sniffs her nose: “No more climbing for you! I’m doing the climbing and you’re gonna hug on to my back like a stupid koala!”

Gianni: “Y-yes m’am!”

-15 Mins Later They Reach the Top of the Coaster-

Blanca pulls herself up the last rail with Gianni hugged up on her back like a koala. They collapse on top of the abandoned coaster cart left at the highest point of the ride.

Gianni takes a comfortable seat on the cart: “OH YEA! WE’RE AT THE TOP! THAT WAS EASY!”

Blanca breathing extremely heavily sits exhausted on the seat beside: “I can’t feel my teeth, Gianni, help me…”

Gianni panics: “AH CRAP! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR TEETH!? DID YOU PUSH YOURSELF TOO HARD!? LET’S HEAD BACK DOWN! I’LL CALL HELP-”

He’s interrupted by Blanca giggling: “Hehehehe…”

Gianni pauses: “Huh? What.”

Blanca flicks his forehead: “Do you feel your teeth, silly?”

Gianni has a big think moment.

Gianni: “AH COME ON! Don’t scare me like that!”

Blanca rests her head on his shoulder as she catches her breath.

Gianni goes bright red as he freezes: “Ahh…”

Blanca closes her eyes: “Is it ok if I sleep here?”

Gianni trying to act cool: “S-Sure I guess, this cart is pretty tight, not like you can sleep anywhere else.”

Blanca rests her eyes with a smile on her face.

Gianni eyes her for a moment then looks up to the ceiling of the tent. Its flamboyant colors and patterns stare back at him.

Gianni: “Blanca…”

Blanca, still resting her eyes: “Hm?”

Gianni: “You know, there’s something called a sky above the tent ceiling.”

Blanca doesn’t open her eyes: “Sky?”

Gianni: “The sky! Sometimes it’s blue! Sometimes red, orange, yellow, even purple or black! AND CLOUDS! THEY’RE SO COOL! They’re like giant fluffy white cotton candy floating in the air! THEY MAKE THUNDER! IT’S LIKE ELECTRIC EELS IN THE SKY! There’s also something called rain! And snow! And wind! And Hail! Which are different ways the sky cries or something. There’s also day and night! The sun shines bright in the daytime and it’s scorching hot but it feels so good! Oh! And the moon takes over at night! It’s so peaceful and dark! No circus lights!”

Blanca shifts herself, snuggling in his shoulder: “How do you know about all of this, Gianni?”

Gianni proudly brushes his nose and chuckles: “Hahaha… I just know.”

Blanca: “Milano told you, didn’t he?”

Gianni: “HUUH!? HOW DID YOU KNOW!?”

Blanca lays on Gianni’s lap and looks up at him.

Blanca: “I don’t know. It sounds like something he would say.”

Gianni: “Arh-argh-”

Gianni blushes and looks away moodily: “How does he even know about that stuff?”

Blanca looks up at the tent ceiling: “I don’t know. He’s pretty mysterious.”

Gianni with his arms crossed: “Tch. I’m mysterious.”

Blanca: “Not really.”

Gianni: “Am too!”

Blanca: “I don’t like mysterious anyway.”

Gianni: “Ok, I’m not mysterious.”

Blanca chuckles: “Hahaha! See? Anyway, it doesn’t matter if he told you because you were the one who told me, Gianni. Thanks to you, I know about the sky!”

Gianni blushes as he looks down at her: “D- Do you want to- uh…”

Blanca puts her hand on Gianni’s hand.

Blanca: “I want to see the sky with you someday.”

Gianni tears up in happiness and speaks in a wobbly way: “E- Even the electric eels…?”

Blanca squeezes his cheeks with her hands: “Especially the electric eels!”

-9 Years Later, Present Day-

Gianni’s eyes open on the messy floor of his tent house, riddled in props and costumes.

Bumpkin the bat is drawing a moustache and monocle on Gianni’s tired face covered in dry and smudged make up.

 /＼^-▽-^ ／

Gianni with a sore voice: “Blanca…”

Goma-Chan is cooking pancakes: “Ohayo Gianni-Kun!”

Gianni turns his head around to see the white board… ‘help me’ is still eerily written on it in red from last night. Bumpkin flies off and lands on the bunk bed.

Gianni gets up immediately: “ELECTRIC EELS!!! I- I MEAN- BLANCA! I’M GOING TO SAVE YOU!”

Gianni starts pacing frantically around the room: “What do I do!? WHERE DO I START!?”

He stops.

Gianni: “…Milano.”

-Flashback, 12 Years Ago-

9-Year-Old Milano, a boy with long black hair is on his knees beaten up with messed up clothes, bruises and a bleeding nose. His cheek is gruesomely ripped. You can even see the inside of his mouth through it as blood leeks down his face.

9-Year-Old Gianni unrolling his sleeves: “HAHAHAHA! THAT’LL TEACH YOU FOR THINKING YOU’RE A BETTER PERFORMER THAN ME!”

Milano doesn’t face Gianni. He blankly looks up to the tent ceiling instead.

Gianni: “Oi!! I just beat your ass, dumbass! At least be man enough to look me in the face! Why you looking up at the tent like a weirdo!?”

Milano as he stares up at the tent ceiling: “I’m looking at the sky.”

Gianni: “The what? Stop making up stupid bullshit.”

Milano’s blue eyes glimmer as some of his hair brushes off his beaten up face.

Milano: “The sky. It’s beyond the tent.”

-12 Years Later, Back to Present Day-

Gianni clenches his fist.

Gianni with a deep dead voice: “I need to talk to Milano…”

Bumpkin tilts his head: “Eeh?” 

/＼^-_-^ ／

Goma-Chan bites into the pancakes: “Itadakimasu!” ☆*:･'(*⌒▽⌒*)'･:*☆

-5 Hours Later, 2:15 P.M in front of Milano’s House-

Gianni stands in front of Milano’s house. Bumpkin is sitting on his shoulder staring up at the immense size of it. Unlike Gianni’s small jester-hat-shaped-tent house, Milano’s house is a large mansion of a tent with colossal metal barred gates blocking the luxurious and well kept garden of the mansion.

Gianni gazes at it, astonished: “What the- Did Milano get filthy rich!? He even has his name printed on the front gates in gold!! This just feels like a slap in the face telling us how broke we are, Bumpkin.”

Bumpkin stares at the mansion in envy: “Eeehh…”

/＼^･ω･`｡^ ／

Gianni walks up to the gate and presses the bell on the side: “It’s probably the karma I get for bullying him.”

Bumpkin nods in agreement: “Eh. Eh.”

/＼^￢0￢^／

The voice of a drunk girl is heard from the bell device: “Wh-who is-thiss…? hehe.”

Gianni blushes: “Oh! Ah… hello… This is Milano’s place right? I’m… an old friend… or something.”

Drunk girl’s voice from device: “Oooh- Oke! Come in! Join the party!”

The device makes a buzzer sound and the heavy gates start opening.

Gianni and Bumpkin stare up at it as the shadow of the gates opening reflects on their faces.

Gianni: “You ready? Bumpkin.”

Bumpkin flies inside without waiting: “Eeeaaah!”

/＼^＞ω＜^ ／

Gianni: “You little flying shit…”

Gianni takes his first steps inside to see rows of giant fancy bush sculptures of Milano flipping with orcas.

Gianni: “Huh?”

He hears loud music and a lot of people cheering from the backyard.

Gianni: “Milano…?”

Gianni walks that direction and gets to a towering weeping tree.

The sounds seem to be coming from the other side of its drooping branches.

Gianni gently navigates through the drooping branches until he gets to the other side of the tree.

Gianni: “WOOAAHAAH!?”

The backyard is full of girls cheering and dancing in their bikinis. Bumpkin is dancing with them too. They’re all gathered around a ginormous salt-water pool to watch a spectacular performance. /＼^-▽-^ ／

Milano, a beautiful man with long tied up black hair, blue eyes, wearing a tight one piece swimsuit is doing flips and flashy tricks with an orca in the pool-tank. He jumps out of the water with the orca, does multiple air flips and dives back in with perfect form.

The girls cheer extremely loud. The water splashes on Gianni.

Gianni, soaking and in amazement: “Milano…”

As Milano gracefully flips with his orca, water droplets sparkle all around him mid air like he’s some kind of angel. He locks eyes with Gianni for a moment.

He dives back in the water.

Gianni mutters to himself: “Milano… you got this good but you haven’t been selected to perform for the audience yet!?”

Girl in the crowd: “That might be the case but I’d bet all my money that Milano’s gonna get sent to the outside world as soon as he’s picked to perform his first performance!”

Milano resurfaces from the water and unties his long black hair, letting it loose and shaking it around. His orca swims around him.

All the girls cheer for him: 

“THAT WAS INCREDIBLE MILANO!”

“YOU’RE SO HOT! YOU’RE THE BEST PERFORMER IN CIRCOPIA!”

“I CAN’T WAIT FOR YOUR OFFICIAL DEBUT PERFORMANCE!”

Milano feeds a fish to his orca from the fish bucket: “Thank you everyone for supporting me during my evening training.” (U_U)

Gianni in his head: “THIS IS JUST TRAINING!?”

Milano: “But… I wouldn’t even be close to where I am today without my best friend and partner. My Orca, Sky.”

Sky smiles and lets out orca noises as Milano pets his head.

The girls cheer again:

“SKY! WE LOVE YOU!!”

“SKY!”

“I’M GONNA GET A TATTOO OF SKY ON MY BREASTS!”

“SKY! LOOK AT MY BREASTS!”

Sky blushes and dives underwater. (๑꒪⍘꒪๑)

Milano climbs out of the pool and glances at Gianni.

Milano waves at him with a warm smile.

Gianni waves back in disbelief, still dripping in water.

One of the girls runs and puts a towel on Milano’s back.

Girl: “Hm? Who’s that?”

She looks at Gianni standing awkwardly.

Milano: “Oh. That’s my childhood bully. He’s the one who gave me this.”

Milano points at the scar on his cheek that stretches to his mouth.

Milano: “I got my butt handed to me that day. My left cheek was ripped open actually. I looked like a ghoul or something. The doctors thought it was makeup for a horror themed performance.”

Girl: “That’s terrible! I thought that was an accident with your orca! Do you want us to kick him out for you?”

Milano: “No, don’t do that. I’ll talk to him.”

Gianni in his head: “Oh. Right… Once again, I realize how much of an idiot I am. How do I even have the nerve to show up here and ask him for help… After everything I put him through… I should…”

Gianni speaks out loud: “I’m sorry… I’ll leave now.”

Gianni starts walking back.

He feels Milano pull him back from the back of his shirt.

Gianni turns around.

Milano with a friendly smile: “Sorry about the girls, Gianni. Let’s talk privately inside the mansion. I imagine you’d only come here if it was an emergency. I’ll make us some Boba Tea.”

Gianni looks shocked: “Boba wha?”

-20 Mins Later, Inside the High-Class Living Room of Milano’s Mansion-Tent-

Gianni and Milano are seated at a fashionable table inside the silent and large living room with their boba teas. Behind them in the interior swimming pool, Sky the Orca swims around and blows out air from her blowhole as Bumpkin makes a game out of dodging the water she blows out.

Milano sips his Boba Tea: “I see. So once you deciphered Blanca’s clapping, it translated to ‘help me’. That’s very peculiar.” (U_U)

Gianni stares at his boba with a dead expression: “Why is she asking for help? The outside world… it’s supposed to be better than here. Isn’t it?”

Milano: “Gianni, what you went through sounds like long term trauma.”

Gianni glances up at him: “What?”

Milano: “You know, like PTSD. When people are put in traumatic situations it’s possible for them to make up things that aren’t actually there even after the trauma has seemingly faded. Are you sure this wasn’t some sort of misunderstanding? Or perhaps you were hallucinating in order to give meaning to Blanca’s meaningless claps because they left you feeling empty insid-”

Gianni stands up aggressively and clenches his fist: “I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!! I WOULD NEVER MAKE SOMETHING LIKE THIS UP!! BLANCA NEEDS MY HELP AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!”

Milano takes a long contemplating sip from his boba as he eyes Gianni’s clenched fist.

(U_U)

Gianni’s eyes widen when he sees his own clenched fist. He loosens it up and immediately sits back down.

Gianni tears up: “I’m… sorry.”

Milano looks at him sympathetically and puts his hand on Gianni’s hand.

Milano: “It’s alright. I know you must be going through a lot of pain right now and as an old friend, I’ll help you as much as I can.”

Gianni moves his hand away: “I bullied you man... I wasn’t your friend… Stop acting so nice, it makes me feel even guiltier about it.”

Milano chuckles: “Please don’t say that, because that would mean I had no friends back then. And also the scar you gave me gets a lot of compliments from the girls, so if anything I have to thank you for that!”

Gianni looks into Milano’s blue eyes. (U_U)

Gianni: “Milano… What is there in the outside world?”

Milano tilts his head: “Hm?”

Gianni: “What lies beyond the tent…?”

Milano puts his finger on his chin: “Hmm… Well there’s a lot of theories on that, some people think there’s nothing. Others believe it’s the end of life or heaven. I even heard a theory about the tent being inside another tent, that would be kind of ironic thou-”

Gianni: “Milano! I know every dumb fake theory by heart! I can repeat them all without notes! I’m asking you what really is out there.”

Milano: “Oh. I don’t know.” (U_U)

Gianni: “Wha- WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW!? YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME ABOUT THE SKY, DUMBASS! YOU EVEN NAMED YOUR ORCA AFTER IT!”

Milano: “But Gianni… I made up the sky. I thought you knew that.”

Gianni’s pupils shrink: “What.”

Milano: “It’s like what I told you earlier. PTSD and trauma can cause you to make things up and really believe them. You could probably tell despite me trying to hide it but I had a rough upbringing as a child.”

Gianni freezes: “What are you even saying to me right now man… Shut up… Shut up and tell me the truth.”

Milano: “I created the sky in my head as a kid. It filled the empty void inside me. All the different types of weather I invented and colors of the sky were just symbolic of my feelings.”

Gianni trembles as he tears up: “R-rain…?”

Milano: “It doesn’t exist…”

Gianni’s expression turns cold and pale: “S-Snow…?”

Milano: “Doesn’t exist…”

Gianni shouts: “CLOUDS!!?”

Milano: “Sorry… I made those up too.”

Gianni clenches his heart: “E- Even the electric eels…?”

Milano puts his boba on the table: “Especially the electric eels…”

TO BE CONTINUED…