Work Text:
Despite what some people thought about her, Ragatha was a fairly observant woman. She noticed the slight changes in behavior and reactions of her friends before even they seemed to, watched them closely if she felt something was wrong, and- on more than one occasion -confronted the others in an admittedly less-than-casual manner if she thought it would help. It was all done with good intentions, though she knew she could come off slightly… mother hennish at times; even with that in mind, however, Ragatha refused to give up one of the few things she seemed to be good at in this stupid Circus.
Which is why she immediately noticed when Gangle and Zooble started acting strangely.
The duo could be found whispering in random places, collecting odd supplies and carrying them to Zooble’s room, and even glancing over at Ragatha when they thought she wasn’t looking. If they thought they were being subtle, Ragatha felt it would only be merciful to let them know that no, they weren’t.
“Hey, you two! How’s it going?” Ragatha cheerfully asked, walking up to her friends with a gentle smile. She tilted her head slightly as Zooble grunted and Gangle smiled, showing off completely different sides of their more recent conspiratorial behaviors. “Anything special you have planned today?”
At that, Gangle and Zooble shared a nervous look with each other, having a silent conversation- which appeared to turn into an argument about a minute in -and eventually coming to an agreement. Gangle sat back and started drawing, her eyes occasionally glancing from her drawing pad to Ragatha as Zooble moved to speak.
“We were wanting to wait until later today, but since you’re so insistent on knowing-”
“All I did was ask.”
“-Gangle and I are having a ‘Girl’s Night’ tonight. We were thinking of inviting you, but didn’t think you’d be interested.” Zooble leaned back against the couch with their usual bored expression. If any part of their explanation was a lie, Ragatha couldn’t tell - smart move, really, having the most nonchalant of the two explain the situation. Gangle couldn’t lie to save her life, and everyone knew it.
“A Girl’s Night? Of course I’m interested! It’s been a while since we’ve done anything like that!” Ragatha eagerly replied, bouncing on her toes for a moment before sobering up with one thought. “Oh, but what about Pom-”
“Tonight. My room. Lights Out and no earlier or later.” Zooble cut off the question with a strange intensity, showing off a rare crack in their normal unfazed disposition. “You need to wind down; your constant worrying about Pomni, a grown woman, may I remind you, is getting annoying.”
Ragatha frowned, offended by Zooble’s words yet understanding where they were coming from. She had been fretting over Pomni and the jester’s apparent ‘sickness’ that didn’t seem to want to go away, so perhaps a calm night with Gangle and Zooble could help.
“We’re gonna have so many fun things to do!” Gangle chimed in, smiling widely as she pictured what a normal Girl’s Night looked like. “We’ll play board games, read cheesy magazines, talk about our favorite anime-”
“ You will talk about your favorite anime.” Zooble snorted, amused by the notion regardless of its absurdity. Honestly, they found themselves picturing a night like the one Gangle was describing; a night dedicated to nothing but the three, with no annoying rabbits, manic chess pieces, or chaotic AIs to ruin things. Sadly, they knew that wouldn’t be happening tonight; yes, the plan was to lure Ragatha into the room under the guise of a Girl’s Night, but they had a feeling that at least one thing was bound to go wrong tonight.
Everything had been planned out to a T with almost every possible response they could receive from the ragdoll in mind. The door would be locked, Zooble would stand guard and make sure Ragatha couldn’t leave, Kinger would be there to keep Pomni calm, and a written explanation of everything they knew had been rehearsed by the trio over twenty times so no one stumbled over their own words and f[!&$*]ed everything up. And, if worst comes to worst, they’ll just tie Ragatha up and gag her so she couldn’t scream for Caine.
“Okay, sounds fun! Tonight in Zooble’s room at Lights Out.” Ragatha nodded as she went over the terms, finding that she was actually quite eager to have something to take her mind off everything that had been going on lately. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“Mmm… maybe a pillow? Your fluffiest one!” Gangle replied, noticing Zooble’s confused expression and holding back a nervous shrug. She had… no idea what made her say that, but Ragatha didn’t seem too confused, so neither Gangle nor Zooble said anything about it. “Oh! And, if you could, try to keep this away from Jax and Caine.”
“Oh, trust me, that won’t be a problem.” Ragatha assured. She’d already planned to keep her mouth shut with the knowledge that Jax would try to crash the party and that Caine would just… invite himself for no reason. Kinger wouldn’t be too much of an issue, Ragatha reasoned. He usually kept to himself and didn’t seem too interested in what the others did if it didn’t directly affect him.
“GOOD AFTERNOON, MY SUPERSTARS!” Caine’s booming voice made the trio groan; it had almost been an adventure free day, but they supposed Caine was getting bored of the domesticity he was likely spying on. He ignored everyone’s complaints, going over the day’s adventure with his usual enthusiasm.
It wasn’t hard to miss the slightly annoyed hint to his tone that followed Kinger saying Pomni still wasn’t feeling better.
“Alright, let’s just get this over with.” Jax muttered, stepping into the conjured portal with his own annoyed tone. It seemed as if Pomni’s missing presence was taking its toll on him as well; with no one else present to give such dramatic reactions to his pranks, Jax was quickly getting bored. He’d been snippish lately, and Gangle once quietly pointed out an area on Jax’s left arm that appeared to be going bald.
Frustration, meet Jax.
“That’s the spirit, Jax! I just know you’ll all love this adventure!” Caine cheered. “It’s sure to knock your socks off!”
~~~~~~~~~~
Unsurprisingly, no one enjoyed the adventure, not even slightly. Zooble watched with a rare look of sympathy as the group quite literally stumbled back into the Tent. Gangle’s right arm was on fire, Kinger’s eyes were swirling and likely making him incredibly sick, Ragatha was missing the button that replaced her left eye, and Jax… Huh, that’s weird. Nothing seemed outwardly wrong with Jax, yet his face was contorted into a snarl that somehow complimented the dark bags under his eyes.
“Congratulations my Star Spangled Spaghetti Noodles! You’ve saved the princess and successfully returned her to her home!” Caine cheered, snapping and undoing every bit of (physical) damage done to his cast. “And, as a reward-”
“Nope! F[!*$^&] that! I’m going to bed. If you need me, no you don’t!” Jax snapped, storming away towards the dorms without another word.
“Wow. That’s… new.” Zooble muttered, earning nods and mumbles of agreement from the others. “Caine, what did you make them do? Jax has never reacted to an adventure that aggressively.”
Caine scratched the top part of his top jaw, part of it raised as if he was raising a curious brow. The adventure hadn’t been anything extreme (he’d learned from the cast and their recently lackluster performance lately that upping the ante on adventures without offering a bit of respite wasn’t as good of an idea as he’d originally thought), just a simple ‘Save the princess and get her home’. There were a few other NPCs that helped progress the plot, and a dragon or two for them to fight, but other than that nothing too crazy was involved.
“I think it might have something to do with what happened towards the end of the adventure.” Ragatha sighed, lying down on her back with her normal eye closed.
“Oh? What was it that could have possibly affected our resident prankster so much?” Caine inquired, lowering himself so he could be closer to the group. He heard Gangle sniffle and turned to look at her, knowing that she was volunteering to answer.
“W-we got the princess to the castle, a-and the king and queen were incredibly thankful. But… instead of just offering a normal reward like the NPCs usually do, they said their best offer was… oh…” Gangle looked down at the floor and whimpered, not wanting to think about the adventure anymore.
“They said the best reward would be to see the execution of the culprit.” Kinger groaned, his eyes clenched shut despite his desire to forget everything. “Who just-so-happened to be their jester.”
“Oh.” Caine replied, his eyes darting from left to right awkwardly. “Is… is that all?”
“IS THAT ALL?!” The group simultaneously shouted, ignoring Zooble’s amused snort.
“We had to watch a jester NPC who was dressed in blue and red be decapitated!” Ragatha shouted, glaring at Caine through tears. “What made you think that having an NPC that looks like POMNI getting decapitated was something we’d enjoy?! THE HEAD TURNED INTO ASHES THE MOMENT IT FELL TO THE GROUND!”
“Oh… s[!&$^].” Zooble whispered, now understanding- if only slightly -why Jax had gotten so upset. Sure, he liked to prank Pomni more than the others, found glee in her angry yapping and annoyed blushing, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see her actually die. He was an asshole, yes, but not so sadistic that he’d wish extreme- lasting -harm upon any of the other Circus members.
Caine was silent for an uncomfortable two minutes, hovering up just a bit higher so no one could grab him as he tried to come up with an explanation. “Well, you see… I didn’t intend to make their jester so similar to Pomni, but she’s the closest I have as reference to what one looks like!”
No one responded to Caine, refused to with the knowledge that something… unsavory may be said. Instead, an intense staring contest went on until Caine got too uncomfortable to stay where he was. He cleared his throat and motioned to the dinner table, where a large buffet of digital food was waiting.
“Your, um… Your reward is a dinner prepared by Bubble, with a surprise dessert later.” It was incredibly awkward, and the way Caine’s voice quieted down was proof of how much he wanted to just poof into thin air to get away from the situation. “If you need me, I’ll be… around.” He took a second to glance up at a high beam that was suddenly very interesting before disappearing without another word.
Once Caine was gone, Zooble made their way to the others, a look of attempted consolation in their eyes. “You guys need to talk about it, or…?”
“No. Let’s just eat.” Ragatha sighed, making her way to the table with a frown. Kinger followed with his eyes wide open, and Gangle stayed behind just long enough for Zooble to catch up with her.
“Maybe we should put this meeting off.” Zooble whispered, sighing at Gangle’s sharp expression. It was rare for her to get so worked up that anger replaced her sadness, but when it did happen, Zooble knew nothing was going to change Gangle’s mind about a certain topic. “Alright, fine. But the minute she starts freaking out, I’m knocking her out and tying her to a chair.”
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.” Gangle sighed, sitting next to Zooble and looking over at Kinger before speaking again. “The last thing we need is to put more stress on everyone after today’s s[!*$&]show.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Pomni’s head shot up from Kinger’s lap, her tail twitching in interest. She’d been surprised- maybe even beyond so -when she was instantly pulled into a group hug when Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger entered the room. Her Abstracted areas shot out briefly in response, but calmed down quickly when Kinger assured her that nothing bad was happening. The quartet had spent the remaining time in silence, cherishing it as well as Pomni’s general presence.
“Ragatha?” Zooble asked, wanting to make sure they were opening the door for the right person.
“Yeah…” Ragatha replied from the other side of the door. She sounded incredibly tired, and no one judged her for it. She’d been driving herself near insane with her worry about Pomni, so seeing an NPC that looked exactly like her getting killed in such a brutal way was likely chewing on the doll’s nerves something fierce.
Zooble looked to the others, waiting for three nods before slightly opening the door. “Hey, could you do me a favor?” They waited for Ragatha to nod before continuing. “Could you close your eye before coming in?”
“Um… yeah, sure.” Ragatha replied, finding the request odd, but not feeling up to questioning it. She let her working eye fall shut, reaching out and flinching slightly as Zooble lightly grabbed her wrist to lead her into the room. “Any particular reason for this?” She asked, waiting for a response and tensing at the sudden sound of a door being locked. She twirled to look at Zooble, who looked genuinely apologetic for locking her in. “Zooble… what’s going on?”
Zooble sighed, leaning against the door with a frown evident in their eyes. “Alright, truth time: You… aren’t here for a Girl’s Night.”
“Oh! Um… then what am I here for?” Ragatha asked, tilting her head slightly. She watched as Zooble prepared to respond, thinking it was likely some meeting to try and determine how to stop Caine from anything else traumatizing for an adventure.
“I… Well, we… Oh, God, why is this so hard?” Zooble groaned, burying their face in their hands before looking back up at Ragatha hesitantly. “You know how Pomni’s been sick for the past, what, four days?”
Ragatha wilted, nodding sadly as she was reminded of her worry. “Kinger says it’s bad. I don’t know what it could possibly be, but I’m sure he’s run it by Ca-”
“HEY! Why don’t we skip ahead to the main event, yeah?” Zooble shouted, wanting to avoid any type of negative reaction from Pomni. Ragatha was likely going to lose her s[#*^!&] when she saw their friend already, so it would be best to show her the kinder side of Pomni. The gentle, understanding, I-Don’t-Want-to-Kill-You side. “So, you know how sometimes Pomni can get… overwhelmed?”
“Kind of hard to miss it.” Ragatha chuckled, so focused on Zooble that she didn’t notice the duo that was walking up behind her. “The poor thing is like the walking definition of anxiety.”
“Heh, yeah.” Zooble quickly glanced behind Ragatha, making a subtle motion with her hand to let the others know now was as good a time as any.
“Um, hey, Ragatha?” Gangle asked, spooking the doll slightly. She apologized for scaring her friend, smiling slightly as she was instantly forgiven.
“Oh! Hello, Kinger. What are you doing here?” Ragatha asked, raising a brow as the man started muttering… something.
“Kinger! Stop being weird!” Zooble snapped, staying where they were and gesturing for Gangle and Kinger to move. As the duo followed the order, Zooble counted down from ten, knowing that they’d be needed when Ragatha finally realized what was going on.
Ten
Ragatha watched Gangle and Kinger move to the side, confusion clear on her face.
Nine
Once the two were parted enough, Ragatha noticed the giant fort settled against the opposite wall and hummed with interest.
Eight
“This is impressive! Can I check out the inside?” She asked, looking to Kinger with the impression that he’d built it (which was true, but that didn’t make Gangle feel any less sad about not even getting the thought of her involvement).
Seven
Kinger nodded, his eyes locked onto Ragatha in a disturbingly intense fashion.
Six
“Kinger, stop looking at her like that.” Zooble huffed, watching Ragatha disappear into the fort effortlessly.
Five
“You think this will go well?” Gangle nervously asked, looking between Kinger and Zooble anxiously.
Four
“We can only hope so.” Kinger replied softly, making it a point to keep glancing back and forth from the fort to his friends.
Three
“What about you, Zooble?” Gangle asked, wringing her hands together in an attempt to distract herself from her nerves.
Two
“You want my honest opinion?” Zooble waited for two nods before chuckling humorlessly.
One
“Absolutely not.”
ZERO
Ragatha’s scream of horror echoed through the fort and traveled into Zooble’s room, followed by the doll rushing out and towards the door. She gasped as Zooble held her back, eyes narrow yet filled to the brim with an apology. She shook her head, silently questioning what the hell was happening before gasping as Kinger pulled her back and Gangle tied her up through heartbroken tears. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! We need to get out of here! Pomni’s-”
Just before Ragatha could finish, the aforementioned jester crawled out of the fort, muscled arms and legs carrying her towards the doll like a cat that was slowly moving towards its prey. Her breaths were heavy and controlled, single working eye dilated and Abstracted eyes locking in on Pomni’s target. Everyone stayed silent for a staggering five minutes, each waiting for the other to make a move before Ragatha opened her mouth and took a deep breath.
“COVER! COVER! COVER!” Zooble screamed, launching themselves at Ragatha and slamming a hand over her mouth until Gangle managed to grab a cloth that was then used to gag Ragatha. “Look, we don’t want to do this any more than you want it to happen, but you can’t, and I mean you CANNOT say his name; Pomni will flip her s[!&$^*] and put us all in danger!”
Ragatha gave a muffled shout from behind the cloth, clearly disagreeing with the decision to keep Caine in the dark. She struggled against the rope and hold and gag, putting as much fight as she could into it all before eventually tiring herself out. Looks of sympathy were sent her way, and Pomni let out a soft chuff as she moved to sit next to Kinger.
“She’s not dangerous, Ragatha.” Kinger quietly assured, glancing down at Pomni with exhaustion. He hadn’t needed to fight this hard for something in a while; the half Abstraction doing little to affect Pomni’s general disposition. “She’s just… different.”
Pomni snorted, using her tail to gently slap Kinger’s arm with both playfulness and slight offense. Her fairly calm reaction served to calm Ragatha down just slightly, causing a chain of reactions and leading everyone to let out deep breaths of relief.
“Okay, we’ve got that settled, so what do we do now?” Zooble asked no one in particular. “No offense, Ragatha, but I don’t trust that you’re ready to be set free yet.”
Ragatha grunted in response, unable to really do much of anything else. She understood it, really she did; part of her was screaming at her to call Caine in, to let him know what was really going on. But as she took a longer look at Pomni, who was just… lying down, not bothering anyone or anything, a separate part of the doll decided that maybe it was best for this to be a secret. For now, at least.
“So… What about Jax?” Gangle asked.
“What about him?” Zooble stiffly responded, turning to make sure their door was still locked and nodding at the confirmation.
“I think Jax is worried. A-about Pomni.” Gangle softly stated, clearly not believing her own words, but choosing to work off his behavior earlier that day.
“Sure, the prankster rabbit that loves to make Pomni’s life a living hell, misses her.” Zooble scoffed, not wanting to upset or offend Gangle, but needing them all to look at the facts. Jax was cold, uncaring, and refused to make attachments to anyone. The day he started missing someone would be the day Bubble stopped being freaky.
“Why else would he have been so upset by what happened on today’s adventure?” Gangle pointed out, wanting everyone to look at this from both angles. “He was just as upset as we were.”
“Probably because he wasn’t the one who got to do the chopping.” Zooble sharply replied, not wanting to discuss the suggestion any further. “Face it, Gangle. Jax is a menace, that’s all he ever was, and that’s all he’ll ever be. Beyond… you know who, Jax is the last person who deserves to be involved in this. He just. Doesn’t. Care.”
“Now, who in the world told you that?”
Gangle let out a soft and fearful squeak in response to the unexpected voice, followed by Zooble and Kinger swiftly turning to look at the- now unlocked and very open -door. Ragatha simply sat in silence, as she truly had no other choice, and Pomni…
Pomni appeared completely unfazed by Jax’s presence.
“Huh, who’da thought that being turned into a giant ugly monster was all it took to get Poms to calm down?” Jax snickered, saying nothing in response to the growl his words earned him. It was an empty sound, more hollow and full of boredom than anything else. “And here you all are, having a little sleepover with her without me. Why, I’m hurt.”
“Good. Why don’t you go be hurt somewhere that isn’t here?” Zooble stood at their full height, not afraid to start a fight if it would get Jax out of their room and close the damn door.
“Nah, I don’t think so.” Jax hummed, leaning against the doorframe and keeping Pomni in his sights at all times. A soft ‘Swish! Swish! Swish!’ noise could be heard from where he was standing, and the remaining Circus cast simultaneously wondered in awe if he was actually wagging his tail. “I think I’ll stay here.”
“No. You won’t. You are going to leave and act like none of this ever happened. Just like you always do.” Zooble tensely ordered, eyes going wide at Jax’s suddenly devilish grin.
“Alright, I’ll go. But don’t be surprised if in a few minutes you see Ca-” Jax let out a strangled yelp as Zooble gripped his throat and pulled him into the room, slamming their door and locking it back with a pissed off groan. They threw Jax onto the floor in front of Pomni, beginning to pace as everything started to unravel.
Jax, meanwhile, looked into Pomni’s working eye and shifted to be on his side with his head resting in his palm. “Come here often?” The joke was met with Kinger kicking Jax in the stomach, the rabbit groaning and turning onto his back in shock. “Alright, not the time.”
“Oh… What now, Zooble?” Gangle asked, flinching as Zooble screamed in response. “Okay… you don’t know. Kinger?”
“We could always stay in here forever.” Kinger suggested, being shut down immediately and shrugging to the best of his ability afterwards.
Ragatha started talking from behind the cloth, clearly having an idea. Zooble sighed and removed the cover, raising an expectant brow. “Why don’t we just move Pomni through our rooms every night? Now that we all know, we can come up with a better excuse and keep, um... him from getting suspicious.”
“That… actually might work.” Zooble perked up at the idea, their stress levels still high, but not as high as before. “Okay, we’ll try that for the next two or three days and see how things go. If it works, we’ll just… keep it going.”
“Yeah, and keep coming up with excuses to give our second resident maniac all the while.” Jax snorted, having recovered from the kick and toying with Pomni’s hat. “Sounds foolproof. 10 out of 10, excellent plan.”
“You know you don’t have to help us.” Ragatha muttered.
“I know, but I want to.” Jax honestly replied, letting out an odd sputtering sound as he realized what he’d said. “Y’know, to see how long this thing lasts. It’ll probably fail on day one, anyway.”
“Uh-huh. So, since we have that settled, who’s going to take Pomni in first?” Zooble asked, looking at Kinger and silently asking if he wanted to take the first rotation.
“I’ve been watching over her alone for four days now. I need time to myself.” Kinger tiredly responded, looking half dead already. “We already have a fort in here, why not let her stay there tonight?”
“No, it’d be too suspicious, especially if all of us suddenly flood out of here and Pomni doesn’t follow.” Zooble sighed.
“I can take first watch.” Jax offered, frowning at the collective “NO!” from everyone else. “Tch, whatever.”
“I’ll do it.” Ragatha sighed, offering a grateful smile at everyone’s nods of agreement.
“Why ask the question if you were all just going to put her with Ragatha anyway?!” Jax scoffed, moving to his feet and moving to the door. “F[!&#^*] you guys, I’m going to bed.” He unlocked the door and slipped out, making sure to only crack it once he was gone.
“Ugh, a[!*$^&]hole.” Zooble muttered, crossing their arms before looking over at the others. The little ragtag group was certainly in a frustrating situation, but maybe they could make this work if they did their best to keep each other sane. Now that everyone knew, the only thing they needed to do was keep Pomni away from Caine and his ‘Hundreds of All Seeing Eyes’.
That couldn’t be too hard, right?