Chapter Text
When Jax woke up, he only felt slightly better than he did last night. He jolted upright.
“F[HONK]ing hell! Why do I still feel so sh[DING]y!” He angrily kicked off his sheets. Only now he realized that Caine never gathered them all together at the end of day, declaring the end of this stupid experiment adventure or whatever the hell it was.
Does this mean we’re still in our messed up primal dynamics or whatever today?
It was hard enough for him to fall asleep last night. Ever since Pomni shut the door on him, he couldn’t stop the gnawing feeling in his chest. There was a barrier between them. Him and his… Him and Pomni. He couldn’t even pester her about her idiotic, sweet, alluring scent all day!
Alluring?? He smacks himself on the head.
At some point after that interaction, Jax had managed to pull himself back into his room, muttering excuses as to why it made him so irrationally upset. It’s not normal for her to be such a recluse, that even Ragatha couldn’t somehow prompt her to speak somehow. Maybe she needed something more than that.
Maybe Pomni needed me more, he remembered thinking to himself last night. After Ragatha’s futile attempts at trying to reach out to Pomni, he finally heard the door creak. Pomni actually let her inside. He scoffed to himself.
He remembered sitting at the edge of his bed, waiting to hear Ragatha come out again. It took about an hour, but the second he heard her footsteps leave the hallway, he had to go check on Pomni himself. He had the strongest urge to make sure himself that she was okay.
Before he knew it, he was standing at her door, staring at the handle so hard that he was sure his brain could move it. He could smell her.
Help. Help. Help. It seemed to say, only to him. Only he could hear that she needed him. In response to her scent, he felt himself heat up a bit more as well.
That was when Ragatha spoke up and had to ruin his moment.
Ruin my moment?
Whatever had happened, Ragatha had promised not to speak a word to anyone about what she saw in the hallway. Him, looming in front of Pomni’s door, hoping his body was saying some semblance of I’m here, it’s okay to her. Fighting every urge to open the door. He didn’t need to open that damn door.
He swung his legs over his bed and held his head in his hands. The heat he was feeling subsided some, but his senses were still on edge. He could still smell Pomni’s peachy smell from across the hall but much fainter.
She must already be up.
Jax groaned, forcing himself to stand and get ready for the day. He switched his pajama pants for his overalls, and steeled himself as he walked out the door.
Smells. Everything was still smells. Kinger and Ragatha were sitting on one side of the table, the ragdoll stroking Pomni’s back gently. The jester looked tired and a little worse for wear, but her spirits seemed higher than when he last saw her.
Of course, Pomni looked up first, probably smelling him before Ragatha could notice him there. Ragatha actually gave him a smile, even if it was a bit shaky. To her credit, she seemed a bit concerned about Jax too. He grinned wide, trying to play his usual self.
“Well, looks like we’re all stuck smelling like someone’s dead grandma’s closet,” he drawled.
“Good morning, Jax!” Kinger happily greeted him.
“Looks like you two got close,” he hums towards Zooble and Gangle on the opposite end of the table. They’re sitting closer than usual, on of Gangle’s ribbon legs appearing to be wrapped around one of Zooble’s.
Zooble just shoots him an annoyed look. Jax shrugs and walks to an open seat at the table. One that conveniently puts him on one side of Ragatha, while Pomni occupies the seat on her other side. Good chance to prod at the ragdoll to make sure she kept her mouth shut and that Pomni didn’t hear anything unsavory about his alpha-ness.
“Nothing wrong with some tight lipped camaraderie, right, Poms?” Jax added, trying to lean over past Ragatha. Pomni stiffened at him getting close. Annoying.
“Yes?” She adds with a shrug. Good enough for me, he thinks.
“See! Us alphas are getting close with our omegas!”
“GOOD MORNING MY SUNSHINE-Y BIRDS OF A FEATHER! ARE WE READY FOR TODAY’S ADVENTURE?”
As if on cue, Caine manifested with exaggerated swagger. Zooble narrows their eyes at Caine. The ringmaster looked down at the circus members, alarmed at the lack of enthusiasm from anyone.
“ARE WE NOT READY FOR AN ADVENTURE TODAY? I MADE SURE TO KEEP YOUR BEAUTY SLEEP UNINTERRUPTED FOR ANOTHER SPECTACULAR GAME TODAY!”
Caine zoomed down into each members’ face. Ragatha was the first to speak up this time.
“Caine, why is everyone still like this?” She asked as politely as she could muster.
“OH, BUT DIDN’T I EXPLAIN? WE’RE DOING AN EXPERIMENT!”
The ringmaster emphasizes the word “experiment” with an echo and reverb effect. No one seems amused.
“But isn’t this using up too much of your precious storage?” Ragatha tried again. Caine lets out a laugh.
“MY DEAREST DARLING DOLL, HOW COMPASSIONATE OF YOU TO THINK OF ME IN THAT WAY!” His face leans closer to hers, while she leans away with a forced smile.
“IT’S REALLY SIMPLE - I’VE SET A CODE TO LAST FOUR DAYS THAT IS STRAIGHTFORWARD WITH NO RANDOMIZATIONS! IT’S SCRIPTED, YOU SEE!” Caine adds matter-of-factly, like any of it was supposed to make sense to them. Jax gave him an irritable frown.
“FOUR DAYS?” Gangle shrieked. That action is what caused her comedy mask to slip and break this time. Shockingly, she’s unperturbed by it shattering.
“You realize that everything is twenty-fold for me, right? I already gotta deal with having these keener animal senses as a freaking rabbit. Now you’re making all of us suffer?”
“Wow, Jax, you’re actually concerned for everyone here?” Pomni finally spoke up. To him. He stared at her face, realizing that she had a genuine smile. Did she always look like that?
“Yeah, well, like I said, I feel it exponentially more than you unnatural freaks,” he tried to shrug it off dismissively.
“I’m so excited to finally perform a play with you all! Is a Midsummer Tomorrow or something with tuna?” Kinger asked.
“NO, YOU FOOLISH CROWNED CARVING, WE–“ Caine taps the space next to him, “–ARE GOING ON A CARNIVAL SCAVENGER HUNT!”
Everyone except Kinger groaned.
“YES! SEEING AS A LOT OF MY PRECIOUS BRAIN CAPACITY IS BEING USED UP BY THIS CODE, WHAT BETTER WAY TO REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE, BY BRINGING THE ADVENTURE TO US! TO THE CARNIVAL GROUNDS!”
With no warning whatsoever, Caine snapped his fingers and everyone was sucked into the fractal noise he spawned in.
“I didn’t even get to eat breakfast!” Jax screamed into the sky. Caine just laughed.
“YOUR ADVENTURE TODAY INVOLVES SCAVENGING FOR CLUES AT THE SPOOOOOKY SCARY CARNIVAL!”
Sure enough, it was shockingly dark out for it being the beginning of their day. Instead of bring flashing lights, the carnival had a ghostly glow of dimly lit lanterns. Everything still functioned –the carousel spun ominously and the ferris wheel creaked. They could even hear ghostly laughter as apparitions faded in and out of various carnival activities. That is, if you could even call them apparitions. Assuming that Caine’s brain was working overtime, the “ghosts” were vaguely shaped pixels that were more mist-like than anything else.
Pomni visibly shivered, and Jax noticed. For a split second he frowned, then made his way over to her.
“Spooked by a couple of squares?” He grinned, leaning into her. Peaches. She flinched away slightly.
“No, but the ambience really isn’t helping,” she added, swallowing a bit. Her eyes darted once to him then back in the opposite direction. He could tell she was avoiding eye contact. Instead of backing off, he propped an elbow on her head and leaned his weight on her.
“Alright, so what’s the scavenging we’re supposed to do?” Jax asked. He could practically feel Pomni glaring at him.
“YOUR TASK IS TO HELP A GHOSTLY GOER ON THREE RIDES! HELP THE BANSHEE OVERCOME HER FEAR OF HIGH SPEED COASTERS–“ Caine pointed at a the rickety wooden roller coaster on one side of the park.
“–ENCOURAGE A GHOUL THROUGH A TUNNEL OF HORRORS–“
He twirled his cane to the opposite side of the park.
“–AND FINALLY HELP A LITTLE CHILD GHOST MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE FERRIS WHEEL!”
The ringmaster floated upward, following the direction of his cane.
“GOOD LUCK, MY HELPFUL SUNFLOWER SEEDS!”
They decided that splitting up into groups of two would help them get through this scavenger hunt quicker, though Caine didn’t seem to mention anything about hunting anything after.
Gangle and Zooble had already walked off into the direction of the Tunnel of Horrors by the time the ringmaster made his exit. Ragatha glanced over at Pomni, but Jax was already stealing her attention away. She was more than happy to be Kinger’s partner, just after she made sure Pomni was okay.
“I’ll be right with back, Kinger,” she smiled at the chess piece while grasping his hands.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, Ragatha. I just saw a swarm of moths by the roller coaster!” He gave her hands a squeeze and took off in that exact direction.
Great, she thought to herself. A high speed adventure AND bugs that are known to chew through fabric. This was a horror adventure, alright. She did her best to sound supportive as he walked away.
Now that Ragatha understood a bit more about… what Caine did to some of them, her worry only grew. Unfortunately, she knew she couldn’t be the one to help her friend this time. She took a few sure strides towards the pair.
“Hey, Pomni?”
The two glanced up. Jax was quicker to narrow his eyes at her while Pomni just smiled back.
“Oh, I’m already paired up with Kinger!” Ragatha tried to reassure mostly Jax. His expression softened slightly, but he still looked just a bit on edge.
“If you need anything, just scream for us and we’ll be there!” With that, Ragatha quickly squeezed one of Pomni’s hands and smiled. Jax was less than amused, but at least he knew she was getting out of their way.
I’m sure they’ll be okay, the ragdoll tried to smile as she left the pair.
Pomni stuck closer to Jax than she originally intended to, but she just couldn’t shake how creepy the carnival ambience really was. For poorly rendered ghosts, the still startled her when they appeared in the corner of her eye or anytime a ghostly giggle game from a booth nearby. Jax just snickered at her.
“You’re such a big scaredy cat. You even know these aren’t the slightest bit real,” he laughed. Pomni tried to laugh with him a bit.
“Y-yeah, it’s all really silly. Doesn’t make the atmosphere less creepy though,” she forced a small smile up at him. He noticed that the peach scent she normally gave off turned into something more tart, like cherries. It was distinctly different from the sweet aroma he’d gotten used to in the last day that it bothered him. They continued walking for a bit, the rabbit still looking down toward her.
“What?” She asked. Jax shrugged.
“You smell a bit different. Bitter and gross, like bad cherries,” he added.
“Bad cherries? What is it with you and smelling fruits on me?” Pomni frowned at him. Cute.
Don’t.
“Hey, what’s with you even smelling like fruits in the first place? You’re starting to make me think you’re gonna turn into some salad or pie. Fitting for a clown, dontcha think?”
“Jester, you log,” she quips back.
“Hey, hey, fair enough,” he raises his rands in defense. Pomni’s eyes go wide at his subtle admission of defeat, but Jax doesn’t seem to notice. Instead he presses another question.
“Okay, so what do I stink of to you right now?” He asked. Pomni blinked at that and looked up in thought.
Why is she thinking so hard about the way I smell? Jax laughed at himself internally, but then stiffens when he thinks, Oh, do I stink bad too? Maybe I smell like mold instead.
“I think you smell like the ocean right now.”
Jax stopped in his tracks. Pomni took a few more steps before realizing that he stopped walking alongside her. She glanced over her shoulder, a brow raised in confusion. His expression was dumbfounded for lack of a better term.
The ocean?
“So I smell like rotting fish and seaweed? Gee, thanks for making me feel good about my personal hygiene,” he joked. Pomni frowned in thought for a second.
“Actually, you smell like salt water and the sea breeze. It’s actually… really calming to me,” she smiled back. Jax took a few steps to walk back up to her and they continued at their previous pace together.
They were silent until they reached the ferris wheel. Sure enough, there was a slightly more defined figure of a child-looking ghost, wailing at the foot of the ride.
“Great, now I have to deal with another crybaby,” Jax groaned. Pomni took a deep breath next to him and walked straight for the ghost kid.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The freaked out at the thought of horror and jump scares Pomni, walking up to a ghost? Is she nuts?
Jax jumps into a wide stance. It felt like alarms were going off in his head.
Danger. Danger. She doesn’t like it, it’s not safe. She’s–
Talking to the ghost kid?
Almost immediately, he noticed the air coming from her no longer smelled like bitter cherries. It was back to its original, tender peach smell that made him crave her so bad.
Crave her? He flinched again. Steeling himself, he marched right on over to join Pomni and the ghost kid, whom he named Gangle-Mark-Two, or Mark for short.
The ride up was simple enough. It seemed like Caine only had enough energy to let them complete the task. Apparently the thing that they were scavenging for were special ghost tokens that were supposed to form the fractal noise that would bring them back to the main circus tent. It was rare to have an adventure that didn’t go off without a hitch, so it was a nice change of pace.
“CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE MY FRIENDLY GHAST HELPERS! AND YOU MADE IT BACK HOME IN ONE PIECE, AND ALL TOGETHER!”
Caine waited for them on the other side, ready to shower them with confetti.
“This, actually wasn’t too bad, Caine,” Pomni smiled at the ringmaster.
“WHAT’S THIS? PRAISE FROM POMNI?” He popped up in all random directions around her. “A HORROR ADVENTURE SHE ACTUALLY PRAISED!”
“That’s because your ghosts were 8-bit blobs,” Zooble added. They were hand in hand with Gangle. Jax opted to not comment.
“AH, BUT THE BEST PART IS THAT YOU ALL GOT ALONG WITH YOUR PRIMAL DYNAMICS!” The ringmaster emphasized the last two words with a singing voice. “THE EXPERIMENT SEEMS TO BE GOING SWIMMINGLY!”
At that, Ragatha cleared her throat.
“But Caine, didn’t you say you programmed a script for it? How far does the script for these animal dynamics go?” She asked with a shaky smile. The circus crew looked over at her in confusion. Jax frowned. Zooble did look at Caine, also wondering what this meant. Kinger had already walked away, following a moth he took with him back into the tent. Pomni looked over at Gangle, whose eyes were wide with something she read as fear.
“You used animal programming?” Gangle asked, her voice trembled slightly. For a split second, Caine’s avatar seemed to freeze entirely and an eyeball glitched. He practically spawned back into place.
“OH YES, ANIMALS HAVE MATING CYCLES! THANKS TO ZOOBLE’S REQUEST, YOU ARE NOW ABLE TO IN THE CONFINES OF YOUR ROOMS! GOOD NIGHT!” And at that, Caine zapped out of their reality, almost as if he wanted to avoid talking about it altogether.
No one spoke for a whole minute. The only noise was the occasional comment or laugh from Kinger in the background.
“Well, goodnight everyone,” Zooble broke the silence in a calmer tone than anyone would’ve expected. They gave a tug at one of Gangle’s hands and they followed right behind.
Jax practically screeched.
“No f[SPLAT]ing way!” His jaw dropped at the two of them leaving. “Wait, so you’re saying they knew this whole time? Those nasty b[HONK]es!”
Pomni just stood there, hands clenched around each other. A mating cycle? What does that mean for me? What does that mean for me as an OMEGA? Aren’t they like…
“Pomni?” Ragatha tapped the jester’s shoulder lightly, causing her to flinch away slightly.
“I, uh- Do you, uh–“ Pomni tried to speak to her friend, but the words would come out. Something was overwhelming her senses again. That warmth creeping back into her bones. The woody, earthy scent of Jax that pulled her in. It was too much. Way to much for her at the moment.
Before she could register it, Pomni was already dashing away from everyone left in the common area, straight to her room. She swung her door open, slamming it behind her. Her back crashed against the door as she felt her body grow warmer.
Is that what she was feeling?
Her body was… wanting?
At that moment, a stronger wave of heat hit her, causing her to buckle over. Her room suddenly felt too warm, her clothes too itchy, and it felt like she was swimming through the air.
Bed, she thought to herself. Nest.
She haphazardly wiggled the parts of her jest suit off until she was practically in the nude. As she crawled into her bed, she tried to feel for parts of her pajamas that were somewhere under the covers still strewn in a nest shape.
Those should be better, at least.
But the moment she got her pajama shirt on, the fabric felt like it was stinging on her skin.
Hot, she thought to herself again.
Her body burned and ached, and all she could do was grip herself tighter. She felt the incessant need to be held. To feel pressure on all her sides. She wanted to feel safe in someone’s arms.
Empty.
Pomni suddenly felt really empty and lonely. Her legs wriggled uncomfortably between her sheets. She needed someone to fill that emptiness.
That wet earth, sandalwood smell comes back to her, this time with the added layer of the ocean breeze. It made her feel calm and warm.
Oh, she thought to herself. I need Jax.