Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dreams had become a welcome break for Pomni. At least, most of the time. They were one of the few places where Caine couldn’t badger the members. And in this seemingly eternal hell, she needed all the safe spaces she could get. He had no control over their minds, after all. Of course, being a central character in her life, he sometimes appeared in them still. But it was never actually him… At least, she thought it wasn’t.

Until one night, that was.

It was a pleasant dream at first. She was in a mundane setting, some coffee shop that she vaguely recognized. Maybe from her life… Well, her life before everything. She had a laptop on the table in front of her, opened to an urban exploration video. Her video. She was editing it in her favorite place, a decaf coffee in her hand and a half-eaten chocolate croissant right next to the keyboard.

It’s not gonna get any views, you know, A voice piped up from behind the laptop. She looked up from her editing to see that familiar, blank-mannequin face that she’d become so aquatinted with the past few weeks. I don’t know why you keep doing this.

Well, it’s more for me, Pomni said defensively. I like it.

Are you sure? I see the way you look at those analytics. The voice coming from the mannequin was so, so familiar… But she couldn't place it as any of the circus members, or Caine, or even the NPCs. You’re disappointed, every time.

She tried to take a sip of her coffee, but just before it reached her lips, A booming voice interrupted her dream. “POMNI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING SLEEPING AROUND WHEN THERE’S ADVENTURE TO BE FOUND?”

That stupid jawbone. His voice was so loud in her head that it woke her up in real life. Pomni sat up with a jolt, hitting her head against the headboard as she did. “Ughhh… Caine, I was sleeping…”

She wasn’t expecting him to actually be in the room with her, so when he replied, she jumped once again. “SLEEPING? IN MY CIRCUS? WHEN THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO?” He floated next to her, tapping her on the head with his fist. “OH, YOU AMUSE ME.”

“Boring!” Bubble agreed. Pomni hadn’t realized that she had an audience. “I’m yawning just thinking about it, boss!”

“I AGREE, BUBBLE!” He flew towards the door, his body doing a complete spin while his head… Or, jaws?— After all this time, Pomni still didn’t quite know what to think of his face— Stayed facing her. “NOW GET DRESSED AND COME TO THE MAIN ROOM!”

“I don’t know, Caine, I’m still a bit tired from the gunfight… And the Awards show…” And everything, really. She hadn’t had a true moment of rest since she’d arrived in the Circus. But she wouldn’t tell him that. Not when his mental state was so unreadable.

He started laughing, in that strange way that he did where she wondered if he really found her funny or if he was just falling apart. “OH, POMNI, YOU CHAINMAIL-CLAD-CAROUSEL, DON’T MAKE ME SNAP!”

She tensed, wondering what the hell that could mean, but he didn’t give her the mercy of making the choice herself. He snapped his fingers, and she teleported into the main room, still in her pajamas and all.

She scrambled to her feet, holding herself tightly as she looked around at the other Circus members. A few of them looked like they’d gotten the same treatment as her— Ragatha was yawning, trying to look cheery as she straightened her nightgown. Zooble had no P.J.s to speak of— They never wore clothes, anyway— But they were falling right back to sleep. Gangle and Kinger looked relatively normal. As normal as they could, of course. Gangle was still fitting her comedy mask over her face, the same way you’d try to make your hair look nice in public. Kinger’s eyes were more bloodshot than usual, but he looked oddly lucid. Of course he did. The lights had gone out for the night, the only source being the Moon’s soft glow straining through the tent’s fabric.

“Oh! Hey, Pomni!” Ragatha’s voice cut through her sleepiness. Ragatha always seemed to drift towards her for some reason. Even right now, she made an effort to walk towards Pomni. She saw her stretch out her hand to touch her, but she seemed to think twice about it in a split second.

“Hey.” Pomni rubbed her own arm, for the first time realizing how different the circus tent looked at night. She hadn’t been out here before at this hour— In the darkness, everything looked a little softer. The shapes and colors and the harsh black-and-white floors were much easier on the eyes. “Did Caine come to your room, too?”

“Not exactly.” Her glassy doll-eyes avoided making contact with Pomni’s. “I just heard his voice calling us out here. I’m kind of a light sleeper.”

“I see.” Pomni looked away from her friend. Or… Acquaintance? It felt weird calling Ragatha a friend. She was nice, of course. And she’d always made an effort to connect with her. But there was something missing, some kind of block that kept them from fully making that connection. Not like…

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Not like Jax.

It hurt even more now to think of their argument after the gunfight. She’d thought their easy conversations and roughhousing and light jokes had meant she’d finally made friends with him. I guess not.

“Is something wrong?” Ragatha broke her train of thought. Good thing, too. It wasn’t something she wanted to think of too much right now.

Pomni thought of telling Ragatha about everything. They’d been planning to talk after the Awards Show, but they hadn’t gotten the chance. Caine had teleported them right back to the Circus, not giving them any time or privacy to have a conversation.

Just as she opened her mouth, though, a subtle whoosh signified the end of their brief exchange. Pomni looked away and saw Caine floating into the room. “GOOD EVENING, MY MILDEWED MIDWIVES!” He paused mid-monologue, reached into his hat, and pulled a shocked Jax out by the ears. The lanky rabbit blinked, scrambled out of Caine’s grasp and fell to the floor. He was in his pajamas, too: A mismatched flannel set. Pomni couldn’t help but slip a smile at his circumstance, but she just as quickly dropped it when he shot her his creepy, bug-eyed grin. Not his normal smile, but something a little different. It was so clearly fake, so devoid of feeling… She’d’ve honestly preferred if he’d just glared or sneered.

Did anyone else see that? She wondered. But the expressions of everyone told her they hadn’t. He took his place, as far away from Pomni as he could get. Coincidentally, that was right next to Gangle.

“I’VE BEEN GIVING SOME THOUGHT TO WHAT ZOOBLE SAID EARLIER,” Caine said in that gratingly loud voice.

Zooble blinked their eyes open, not even bothering to sit up completely. “Hm?”

Gangle’s comedy mask finally seemed to snap on. “Do you mean… Y’know… The thing?”

“WHAT?” Caine’s body drooped, telling Pomni that he knew exactly what she meant. “OH, NO. NOT THAT. WE HAVE TO KEEP THE CIRCUS APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES, AFTER ALL!”

Was Pomni mistaken, or did she see Gangle’s posture slump at his declaration?

“WHAT I MEANT—” He twirled around in midair, pointing his cane at a darkened neon sign that definitely wasn’t there before. “—IS LOW STAKES! NO ACTION, NO EGREGIOUS VIOLENCE, NO EXTREMELY WELL-THOUGHT-OUT PLOTLINES FROM A CERTAIN CREATIVE RINGMASTER! THE SLICE-OF-LIFE GENRE HAS BEEN CAPTURING MY ATTENTION LATELY…”

“I got out of bed for this?” Zooble groaned. “A genre-shift? Wake me when it’s over—”

They got up and started hobbling back to their room on uneven legs, but Caine teleported right in front of them. “NOW, NOW, ZOOBLE! WHAT KIND OF HOST WOULD I BE IF I DIDN’T FORCE FEED YOU AT LEAST ONE OF MY NEW, NOT-EXCITING-AT-ALL ADVENTURES DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU?” He pushed them back towards the group and continued his monologue. “AND I DECIDED TO START WITH A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE! IMAGINE THE MYSTERY! THE FRESHNESS!”

“The freaky hijinks!” Bubble interjected.

For a moment, Caine paused. “Why are you all so fixated on… Oh, whatever.” He popped Bubble. “TONIGHT’S ADVENTURE IS… DRUMROLL PLEASE… WITCHING HOUR WITCH-HUNT!”

Pomni grimaced as the neon sign lit up, revealing the name of their newest side-quest. “Does he do these… Often?”

“What? The night adventures?” Ragatha turned her focus back to Pomni. “Not often. Usually when he does it involves vampires. Or zombies. Or packs of rabid wolves.” She shuddered, but then perked right up again. “It might be a nice change of pace, though. Don’t you think?”

“Ehhhhh.” Before Pomni could answer, Jax piped up loud enough for everyone to hear. “I prefer the ones where I can use Ragatha as a human shield, if need be.” He smirked at where Pomni and Ragatha were standing. Hoping for a reaction, Pomni guessed. Well, she wouldn’t give it to him.

“THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: ONE OF YOU IS A WITCH, AND THE REST HAVE TO FIND THEM! FIRST ONE TO REACH THE WITCH WINS A MYSTERY PRIZE!”

“That… Actually sounds kind of fun.” Pomni looked up at Caine. Maybe he really is willing to take our criticism. “Who’s the witch?”

“LET’S DECIDE NOW!” Caine summoned a bottle in the middle of their group and gave it a good spin. After a few seconds, it slowed and clumsily pointed at Kinger. “WOWZA! THE BOTTLE HAS SPOKEN. KINGER IS OUR WITCH!” Caine snapped, and a crooked, black-and-purple witch hat that looked like it was from Party City spawned on Kinger’s cross-shaped head.

“I’m flattered, really.” Kinger’s eyes seemed unfocused, a far cry from how he looked just a few short minutes ago. “I thought I had a speech prepared for this… Oh, what the heck. It’s not every day—”

“OH, ALSO, THE WITCH HAS POWERS TO STOP THE OTHERS,” Caine interrupted, cutting Kinger off. He snapped, and a liquidy-looking black portal opened in front of them. “GO ON! ADVENTURE STARTS NOW!”

Kinger, Zooble, and Gangle walked through without issue. When Jax, Ragatha, and Pomni tried, though, Caine’s eyes nearly popped out of his mouth. “YOU THREE! YOU CAN’T GO OUT LOOKING LIKE THAT! WHO DRESSED YOU?”

Pomni straightened up, looking down at her ratty t-shirt and shorts. She’d nearly forgotten that she wasn’t in real clothes.

Caine snapped, and the three’s clothes turned into their normal outfits. The familiar weight of Pomni’s hat returned to her head, and Ragatha and Jax’s signature dress and overalls, respectively, appeared on them. “NOW GO! MAKE ME PROUD!”

-------------------------------------------

When they emerged from the portal, they stepped into a world that looked like an old colonial-era town. Abandoned, of course, but in pretty good shape. It wasn’t dilapidated or creepy at all. Lightning-bugs floated around in groups, and the sky was tinged a nice purple-ish color.

Ragatha smiled at the scenery. “Ooh, pretty! Kinger, they’ve got fireflies all over the place!”

“I see.” Kinger held out a gloved hand to catch one. As soon as it landed on his hand, though, there was a pop and he disappeared.

“THE WITCH HAS BEEN TAKEN TO A RANDOM SPOT IN THE MAP,” Caine announced. “THE HUNT BEGINS IN THREE… TWO… ONE!”

“Come on, crybaby.” Jax reached out to grab Gangle’s ribbon-arm, but was stopped when Zooble shot him a venomous glare.

“I’m not going with you,” Gangle told him, an uncharacteristic strength in her voice. “Let’s go, Zooble.”

Jax’s eyes widened as Gangle and Zooble ran off together. Zooble looked at their friend proudly as the search began.

“Whatever, then.” Jax shoved his hands in his pockets and began walking off.

Pomni couldn’t quite bring herself to feel bad for him after everything, but she did feel a little twinge in her chest when she saw his toothy grin falter. “Hey, Jax?”

He turned around to face them, not saying anything.

“You could come with Ragatha and I, if you really want to be partnered with someone.” She could feel the tension grow between the three of them as she suggested it, but she persisted. “It might be easier with all of us.”

He seemed to consider for a second, but just as quickly as it faltered, the mask slipped back on. “Come with you? And have to split Caine’s prize? Pfffft, nah. That’s all mine.”

He ran off in the opposite direction of Gangle and Zooble, not bothering to say anything else. Pomni shrugged, but she couldn’t ignore the dread growing in her chest.

"Alright, Ragatha. Let’s… Show them all who’s boss.”

The two of them charged forward, combing the town for any signs of Kinger. “He’s not easy to miss,” Ragatha mumbled. “But he’s not stupid, either.”

Pomni nodded understandingly. “Not in the dark, he isn’t.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, the dark, he told me… It helps him, I suppose.”

“It does?” Ragatha’s expression was unreadable. “That’s interesting. I guess I didn’t make that connection.”

Pomni turned her attention to her partner. We’re alone now, She considered. This might be a good time to talk. “Hey, Ragatha…”

“Yeah?”

Now that she had her full attention, though, it was hard to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. Not that she was sorry. She’d already told her that before, so it might just ring hollow. But Ragatha had told her that she could talk about anything she needed…

“Can I vent to you?”

Ragatha’s eyes went wide. “Oh, uh… Of course, Pomni! What’s on your mind?”

Where could she start? She decided to start with the simplest issue, the one that was right in front of her: “Is there a reason Jax is… Like this?”

Ragatha slumped. “I was going to ask you. Since you two have been spending so much time together the past few days.”

Pomni looked away guiltily. “We were, weren’t we?” She opened a fence gate, trying not to look Ragatha in the eyes. “I thought I was getting through to him—”

“But he pushed you away?” She sighed. “We’ve all been there. Thought we could be the one to finally ‘fix’ him.” Pomni could tell she spoke from experience. “You can’t fix someone if they won’t let you get close enough to do it.”

“I don’t want to fix him,” Pomni emphasized. “I just don’t want him to act like he wants to be friends with me and then just push me away like it meant nothing!”

Ragatha went silent, and she wondered she’d overstepped her bounds. But then she mumbled something that Pomni almost missed. “He wasn’t always this hard to care for.”

Before she could reply, Ragatha silenced her with a hand. Pomni paused and squinted. Through the greenery, she could see the towering figure of Kinger, made even bigger by the stiff witch hat on his head. “Let’s get him,” Pomni said, starting to push through the bushes.

Ragatha was right behind her as they stalked him. Just as Pomni was about to tag him, he spun around and saw them in the bush. “Ahhhh!”

He pointed a finger at them, and some glowing orb formed, barreling towards them and hitting Pomni right in the stomach. She gagged as it pinned her briefly to the ground.

“Pomni!” Ragatha turned away from Kinger to crouch down next to the jester. In that split second, Kinger fled away.

As Pomni tried to keep from throwing up, she heard Gangle’s voice in the distance. “There he is!” It was immediately followed by the sound of porcelain shattering.

“Are you okay?” Ragatha asked. She touched Pomni’s shoulder, and Pomni felt herself instinctively flinching away.

“F…Fine…” She tried to sit up, groaning at the lingering soreness in her midsection. “Urgh…”

“Oh, man, you sound really hurt.”

“It’s not bad, I promise.” She stood, wobbling slightly but regaining her balance just as quickly. “I just forgot about the whole magic thing, that’s all.”

“We can take a break—”

“No, really, Ragatha. I’m fine. We can go on.” She expected the pain to dissipate quickly, just like it always did. Pain that didn’t last was just a hidden benefit to her digital body. But today, it didn’t fade as quick. She tried to hide her discomfort from Ragatha, but she still hunched as she walked, holding the impacted area of her body like that would help at all.

They made their way through the streets of the town again. Once the pain from Kinger’s attack simmered down enough to stand up straight, Pomni took her first deep breath in a while. “Why is Jax like this now, though?”

Ragatha’s frown deepened. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Something less… Sad?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Pomni suddenly realized how much of a sucker she must sound like; After all, how would she feel if she’d reached out to someone as hard as Ragatha reached out to her, and then all they wanted to talk about was someone else? She turned up to the sky, where little hand-drawn stars shimmered above. “Do you like the stars here?”

“They’re nice.” She followed Pomni’s gaze. “They’re like a little drawing. Caine even likes to put constellations up there.”

“Really?”

She traced something with her finger. “There’s a bee swarm… A goose… A horse…” Her face fell a bit at the mention of the horse. “And… Lots of other things, if you know where to look.”

“How long have you been in the circus, Ragatha?”

“Oh, not too terribly long. I know I was 23 when I got here.”

“And… How old are you now?” “Um…” She looked back at the ground. “I don't know, really. Sometimes we celebrate birthdays. Or, anniversary days, more likely. Y’know, the day we got here. That means… Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I've had 7 birthdays since I got here.” She blinked. “I’m 30.”

The sound of her voice made Pomni’s heart drop. 7 years. She’d missed so much of the world. Her family, her friends… Did they grieve Ragatha? Or was she just a faint memory that came up once in a blue moon?

How quickly would the real world forget about her?

Her train of thought was interrupted by a glimpse of a lanky figure in an alley. Jax. Pomni squinted at him. He was lurking, his posture slouched. He would almost look goofy, if it wasn’t for the focused, scary-determined look on his face. He caught a glimpse of Pomni and Ragatha, and Pomni felt herself inhale sharply, which caused a fresh pang of soreness in her chest. She remembered the way he’d yelled at her earlier that day, how small and glassy his eyes had gone. How the smile had never really left his face. He didn’t look like that now, of course. But he didn’t quite look normal, either.

She expected him to mock them, to say something callous or insulting disguised as a joke. But instead he just scoffed and went on.

“Huh.” Ragatha spoke for her. “That was odd for him.”

Pomni didn’t say anything to that. She didn’t have to.

The adventure didn’t last much longer. Pomni and Ragatha moved in relative silence, only breaking it to give each other updates. Suspiciously chess-piece shaped footprints, traces of the other players, that kind of thing. A few times, purple lighting descended from the sky, followed by yelps from Jax, Zooble, or Gangle. When a tolling that sounded like church bells rang through the map, Pomni jumped.

“THE WITCH HAS BEEN CAUGHT!” Caine’s voice cut through the night. “JAX IS THE WINNER!”

“Damn it!” Ragatha swore under her breath. A stupid-sounding boing censored her words, but Pomni could make out her intent clear enough.

In an instant, they were teleported to the town’s square. In the center of the square, Kinger was tied to a stake, his hat askew on his head, eyes wide with fear. Or cluelessness. It was hard to tell with Kinger, really. Next to him, Jax held a flaming torch, looking just as surprised at the predicament as the rest of them.

Gangle gasped, and Pomni grimaced. “Uh, Caine? What is this?”

“THE CONCLUSION TO THE ADVENTURE, MY DEAREST POMNI!” He floated in the sky next to Bubble, who just stared dumbly at nothing, as always. “YOU KNOW THE DRILL, DON’T YOU? WITCHES NEED TO BE BURNED!”

“That’s not very low-stakes, Caine,” Zooble griped. “Not for Kinger.”

“Well, all things considered, this isn’t exactly a high stake, either,” Kinger offered, looking at the pole he was tied to. “More medium-length.”

Zooble pinched the spot where their nose would be, if they had one. “Kinger, you dumbass--”

“I CAN NEVER MAKE YOU HAPPY!” Caine roared. The girls and Zooble all flinched back at his outburst, but just as quickly as it happened, the A.I. snapped back to normal. “OH, ZOOBLE, ZOOBLE. YOU AND POMNI LIKE RELAXING, JAX LIKES VIOLENCE, SO THIS WAY, EVERYONE GETS WHAT THEY WANT!”

“Is Kinger gonna feel the fire?” Ragatha asked, concerned.

“DON’T KNOW! LET’S FIND OUT!”

Jax paused as he looked at the fire, shrugged, and ignited Kinger’s robes. Kinger stared at his burning clothes for a moment. “Huh. Toasty.” He paused. “Wait.”

He started screaming and thrashing. It was obvious that the flames caused him pain. Gangle covered her eyes and cowered behind Zooble, who just stared, horrified, at the violence in front of them. Ragatha had her hands over her mouth, and a small, strangled sound started in the back of her throat. Even Jax looked uncomfortable with the pain Kinger was going through. He dropped the torch and stepped backwards, his ears folded flat against his head. For someone who claimed to relish other’s pain, he didn’t seem to be enjoying this much.

Only Pomni made a move towards Kinger. As she reached for him, she could feel the heat radiating from the flames on his body. She took her hat off her head, braced for pain, and started trying to suffocate the fires with the hat. It didn’t work very well. Kinger obviously kept screaming, and Pomni swore she could feel the skin on her hands, legs, and face sizzling.

“Caine!” She shrieked. “Help him!”

The ringmaster, who had been staring at the scene with his jaw on the floor (Not an exaggeration) snapped back into action at Pomni’s words. “Oh, uh, yeah. Hang on.”

He snapped, and a sheet of freezing water descended on Pomni and Kinger. It extinguished the flames, but left Pomni shivering. Kinger stayed tied to the stake. His pale-beige skin was blackened with ash, and his robe had holes burned in it. His eyes were still wide and quivering.

“Kinger?” Ragatha piped up. “Are you okay?”

The chess piece coughed out a cloud of smoke, fell off the stake, and gave the group a shaky thumbs-up. “Never… Better!”

“What was that?” Gangle’s voice trembled as she turned towards Caine. As if she was afraid he would ignite her, too.

“Uh…” Caine glitched momentarily, and then shook himself back into character. “JAX! YOU’VE WON THE ADVENTURE! YOUR PRIZE IS…”

He pointed his cane at Jax’s hand, and a little low-resolution cake appeared in Jax’s palm.

“A SUCCULENT HELLO KITTY CUPCAKE!”

“Scrumptious! Just like mom used to make!” Bubble chimed in, either too uncaring or too stupid to read the room. Pomni assumed it was the latter.

“That’s it?” Jax looked up at Caine expectantly. “I got electrocuted and hit with magic balls for this?”

“YES! ADVENTURE OVER! NOW GO, GO ON!”

And then, with a snap, they were all back in the circus tent. Like the adventure hadn’t even happened. The only proof of their midnight excursion were the singed holes in Kinger’s cloak and the Hello Kitty cupcake, which Jax promptly forfeited ownership of. No one else really wanted to claim it either, though. So it sat on the table near the couches until Bubble snatched it up.

“Whelp, that was fun,” Jax said, stretching. With that stupid, shit-eating grin stretched across his face. “I’m off to bed, though.”

“Are you serious?!” Zooble groaned. “After all that? You have the gall to just sleep it off?”

“Sounds like you’re jealous, Zoobie.” He started walking off. “Winning is hard work!”

Pomni didn’t watch him go, and instead joined Ragatha, Kinger, Zooble, and Gangle on the couch.

None of them slept much more that night.

Chapter Text

For the next few days, Pomni tried to avoid Caine’s adventures as much as possible. Her and Zooble even struck an agreement: They’d stagger their lack of involvement in the side quests, so that Caine wasn’t as suspicious. He was stuck on this “slice-of-life” kick, despite his last adventure not being that, as they’d suggested. And it didn’t seem like he really knew how to make good slice-of-life adventures. Not for lack of trying, of course. But the next few days were really just a chore to go through.

The next adventure Pomni was obligated to go on was… Tax returns. Not even joking. The next day, she sat out. When the cast returned, Gangle flopped down on the couch next to her, complaining about rush-hour traffic. And it went on like that. Crowded grocery stores. Routine checkups at the doctor’s office. Even one where they had to cook a thanksgiving dinner for their monster mother-in-law, who turned out to be the Gloink Queen.

“It’s like he’s trying to replicate the real world,” Zooble complained to Pomni one day after a pharmacy-related adventure. “But, like, taking out all the parts that make all those chores worth it?”

Pomni couldn’t agree more. “He knows what humans do,” She said. “But not why they do it.”

The other thing that seemed concerning was that his new, perfectly boring adventures seemed to soft-launch a new feature: Lasting injuries.

Kinger’s burns hadn’t gone away after the witch-hunt. Pomni had seen him flinch when things touched him in the places that had been burnt. There was a little singe-mark that started on his face and crept down who-knows-how-far under his robes. He, of course, didn’t remember where they’d come from. But everyone else did. In another adventure, one of Gangle’s ribbon-feet were run over by Jax trying to parallel-park. For days after, she’d limped. Ragatha had woken up one morning with a bruise on her arm from where an NPC had slammed into her on the street.

Nothing serious yet. But the change was noticeable.

Pomni guessed it had been about eight days after the witch-hunt that she was in the main sitting area with Zooble, who was flipping through a magazine, and Gangle. Caine had recently given them a T.V. in their little gathering spot, a clunky, old-looking thing that only had a few channels: Circus News Network (Which was just footage of the ‘hot gossip’ on each individual circus member), A still frame of some optical-illusion picture, a documentary on famed madman Baron Theodore Mildenhall, and then, of course, reality television.

It, like most other things in the circus, was nothing but a cheap imitation of the real thing. But Pomni had to admit, as a fiend for trash T.V., it was entertaining. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure of hers, but who didn’t like a bit of infuriatingly incompetent drama from time to time?

Originally, she’d planned to binge as much of this garbage as she could before Caine sent them off to go to the dentist’s office or something. But then Zooble had found her and quietly joined in. And, of course, with Zooble came Gangle. Those two had been near inseparable lately, and from what Pomni could gather, Gangle was trying to stay as far as she could from Jax today.

Their company wasn’t unwelcome. Pomni kind of enjoyed their input, actually. Especially on this particular dating show called ‘Love Archipelago’, which Caine had sworn up-and-down wasn’t a copy of any other well known show, and why would they even think that? Pomni didn’t care if it was a copy, though. The NPCs fighting each other was more than entertaining enough for her.

“I think…” A purple mannequin in a sarong seemed to agonize over her decision on who to choose: Beige Mannequin or Slightly Darker Beige Mannequin. “Oh, this is tough. They’re so incredibly different in every way!”

“She’s not gonna pick Blinko,” Zooble mumbled, not even looking at the screen. “As much as I hate to say it, Jinky and her have a lot more chemistry.”

“I thought you didn’t like Jinky,” Gangle turned to her friend, confused.

“I don’t. I want them to leave him in the middle of the ocean to drown. But you can’t deny that—”

“I choose Blinko!” The purple NPC said, running into the arms of one of the mannequins.

“Dammit!” Zooble slammed their magazine down in frustration. “This is such bullshit!”

Pomni chuckled. “How can you even tell the difference? They look exactly the same.”

Before Zooble could answer, a voice cut through the relaxed atmosphere. “DID SOMEONE SAY… ADVENTURE?”

“Oh, no,” Was the last thing Pomni could say before an unseen force dragged the three of them towards the big stage.

“TODAY’S ADVENTURE,” Caine began once everyone was in the room, “IS, DRUMROLL, PLEASE… CRIPPLING STUDENT LOAN DEBT!”

“Absolutely not,” Jax mumbled.

“Uh, Caine?” Ragatha raised her hand like she was in class. “Not to agree with him or anything, but that doesn’t sound too, well, fun?”

Wow. It must’ve been really grating on Ragatha, for her to actually speak up.

“OF COURSE IT’LL BE FUN! THERE ARE LOAN SHARKS TO RUN FROM!”

Bubble opened his mouth to say something, but it glitched so badly that all Pomni could make out of the mess was the word “bone”. Great. Love that.

“Why can’t we try another suggestion box adventure?” Pomni tried mildly. “Those are always… Not bad.”

“SUGGESTION BOX?” Caine paused. “OH, YOU MEAN THAT SUGGESTION BOX! THAT WAS CAUSING TOO MUCH STIR BETWEEN YOU! I COULD SEE IT IN ALL YOUR BEAUTIFUL-WET-KITTEN EYES!” He got really close to Pomni and poked her eye, just for emphasis. “SO I… Got rid of it…” He trailed off at the last part, seemingly losing confidence.

“What?!” Zooble was the first to show their outrage. “You didn’t like the box, so you took it away from the rest of us?!”

“I COULDN’T RISK MORE DRAMA BETWEEN YOU! NONE OF YOU LIKE THE SAME THINGS!”

“If you took the time to actually fucking get to know us—” Zooble began, but was cut off by a snort of laughter.

“Man, you’re all fired up today. What’s been with you lately?” Jax eyed them smugly from across the room.

“Not a word from you.” Zooble popped one of their arms off and aimed it straight at that stupid rabbit’s head, but was stopped by Ragatha getting between them. “Hang on, guys, let’s just pause for a minute—”

“What, you ready to be in debt now, Raggy?” Jax’s smile didn’t fail. “Some rich girl, struggling with money. Now that’ll be fun to watch.”

Ragatha closed her eyes, sighed, and straightened her dress. She wasn’t willing to freak out or give him the reaction he was digging for. When she opened her eyes again, her expression was scarily mild. “I’ll be on board with this adventure if it gets you two to stop fighting for a day.” She turned to Caine expectantly.

But the ringmaster didn’t open a portal to his new adventure. Instead he just stared, his eyes flicking between everyone, especially lingering on Zooble, and, disconcertingly, Kinger, who hadn’t said a word yet. “…You don’t want to do my adventure, do you?”

After the last few you’ve thrown at us, no, Pomni thought. But seeing the look on his incomplete face told her that it was much better to hold her tongue. Nobody spoke up to deny Caine’s claim. No one confirmed it, either, but Pomni was sure that even an A.I. as oblivious and self-absorbed as Caine could see that they weren’t enthusiastic about his newest phase.

Kinger’s small yelp at Jax’s proximity to him disturbed the silence. “Oh, Jax, it’s just you,” He said, relieved. “For a second there I thought you were.” It sounded like he meant to say more, but he ended his sentence there.

“None of you like my adventures.” Caine stated the fact like it was only now becoming apparent to him. And like it hurt him.

“…I liked the candy kingdom one,” Gangle offered. But that was so clearly a lie, Pomni could tell. Gangle had hated that one almost as much as she had.

Even so, Pomni expected Caine to bounce back after Gangle’s halfhearted praise. He always did. Any second now, he would snap back into performance mode and start forcing them through some portal, into a world of his own craftsmanship. To go back to designing his adventures. But he didn’t. He just stayed still, his eyes drifting out of focus.

“Uh, Caine?” Jax poked at him, not insulting him but not really comforting him, either. Just trying to get him to snap out of it, it seemed.

It clearly didn’t work. Caine started buffering, his eyes flickering different colors. As his malfunctioning worsened, the circus tent around them started glitching, too. Objects clipped into each other, things began dissapearing and reappearing in rapid, epileptic movements, and an ominous, mechanical hum filled the area.

The players all drew closer together as the glitches inched towards them. A flickering floor tile reached Pomni, and she yelped as a sharp, painful buzz traveled up her leg. Kinger placed one hand on Ragatha’s shoulder, and another on Pomni’s head. Despite the glitches getting closer and closer to them, his gesture calmed her ever so slightly.

She closed her eyes, waiting for it all to pass. It lasted a few more seconds before the humming stopped. When Pomni opened her eyes again, everyone was grouped together in an oddly-shaped clump, on the one spot of the floor that hadn’t been glitching.

“OH! I KNOW JUST THE THING!” Caine’s voice was horribly out of place in the somber atmosphere, but that just made Pomni breathe a sigh of relief. He’s back to normal. “KEEP YOUR PEONIES IN PLACE, MY YODELING YOUNGSTERS!”

He disappeared, leaving nothing but speculation in his wake.

Caine didn’t show up for the rest of that day. Or the next. By the third day, Pomni was starting to worry about him.

“Caine!” She yelled for him as she walked through the circus. As much as his presence was often grating, it was more unsettling to not have him around. There was a vacant space where he normally was, a weird silence consuming the tent. Even Bubble was missing, which just made the whole thing weirder.

Of course, Zooble didn’t seem all that concerned. “He’ll wear himself down eventually,” They’d told Pomni earlier.

“What, has he done this before?” Pomni had asked them.

“No,” Zooble admitted. “But he’s not just gonna leave us to our own devices. He’ll come back.”

Still, his inactivity bothered Pomni. As she searched for him, she came across Kinger’s pillow fort. She heard a faint noise coming from it, like he was humming inside. She paused outside of it, listening to his voice for a moment. It sounded like an older song, maybe from the 80’s or 90’s… Something that made her wonder, not for the first time, how long he’d really been here.

She thought of going in. In all his experience, maybe Kinger would have some idea where Caine might be? Pomni sighed and held up her fist, searching for someplace to knock on the fort.

“Is someone out there?” Kinger called.

“Uh, yeah.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Can I come in?”

He shuffled around for a moment and then moved a pillow out of the way, peeking out of the darkness at her. “Come on in. Just mind the bugs.”

Mind the bugs? She shrugged, not questioning it too much. Sure enough, though, as soon as she came in, she felt something— No, no, many somethings— Crawling on her.

She stiffened before she felt gentle hands taking the things off her one by one. “Now, I know they’re a little creepy, but even cockroaches have their ecological niche.”

“You have cockroaches in here?!” She understood Kinger’s bug obsession, but cockroaches? That was getting a little out there. But, of course, everything about him was out there. Pomni shook off her dread at sharing this tiny fort with the grossest creatures she could think of and just tried to make herself as small as possible. Less surface area for the roaches to climb on. “Okay, yeah. That’s fine. That’s totally fine.”

“What brings you in here?” Kinger’s lucid blue eyes stayed glued to the little brown bug crawling on his hand. “You don’t look like you came in for the fun of it.”

She felt a bit guilty at his statement and waited for the accusing tone, the bitter edge to his words. But there was none; He was just making an observation. She figured it was best to just get straight into it. “You know the ins and outs of this place, right?”

“Most of them. I get kind of forgetful, though. Jax actually knows more about this place’s quirks than I do.”

“He does?” Pomni knit her eyebrows together. “I thought you’ve been here the longest.”

“I have? I mean, I think I have... Anyway, I mostly stay here. He likes to roam more.” Kinger finally met her gaze. “Why do you ask?”

She flinched as she felt something touch her, and tried her best not to smash that damn cockroach until it was a stain on the tile floor. Instead, she just grabbed it by one of its spindly antennas and placed it in front of Kinger. “I was looking for Caine,” she told him, not feeling any need to lie. “It’s weird without him. I just wanted to make sure he’s… you know, fine? After what happened the other day.”

He nodded understandingly. “There is someplace Caine goes from time to time, when he wants to plan something big. He might be there. I just don’t remember the way there.”

“Oh.” The promise of something big made Pomni’s shoulders slump. But at least now she had a vague idea of where he might be. Okay, great. This was a start. Caine had an office.

“Have you been there?”

“Once.” Kinger paused. “Maybe twice, now that I think of it.”

She waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. “Is that all you know?”

“Well, yes. The circus isn't endless, though. I’m sure you’ll be able to find it.”

“Would you come with me?” Pomni felt her desperation growing. She didn’t really want to navigate this whole place alone, and Kinger’s company wouldn’t be too bad on a walk like this… But then again, it would be light outside of the fort.

“Oh, I would. But I should probably round up these little devils first.” He dropped one of the cockroaches into a little glass case. “Otherwise they’ll get all over the circus.”

Pomni shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, that might be a good idea.” She got up, carefully avoiding stepping on the little guys. “Thanks, Kinger.”

“Good luck finding Caine.” He scooped up two of the roaches. “And, Pomni?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t be afraid to stop by anytime.” He couldn’t smile, but his eyes showed plenty of emotion. “I don’t mind visitors. You don’t even have to knock. You’re always welcome here.”

She paused, unsure of how to reply. In her jumbled up mess of thoughts, all she could think to do was nod and give him an awkward smile as she left the pillow fort.

While Kinger’s vague advice had given her an idea of what she was looking for, Pomni still had no idea how to get there. She could only think of one thing that might help, and it was not a route she wanted to take.

Jax actually knows more about this place’s quirks than I do.

Eugh. The thought of going to him with this wasn’t the most repellent to her, especially since his company had come so easily before. But they’d hardly interacted since he’d lashed out at her. “‘You are my playthings’?” She mumbled to herself. God complex much, Jax?

Still, if she could get him to help her out with this, it would be an opportunity to actually talk. Maybe he’d cooled down? She knew for a fact that, after giving him some space, she felt much more clear-headed.

Fine, She conceded. I’ll find Jax. Wherever he is. And he will help me, whether he likes it or not.

Of course, it didn’t take much for her to figure out where he was. Just as she set her mind on finding him, a rake smacked her right in the spot where her nose should be. She groaned and rubbed the middle of her face, where she could already feel the bruise forming. “Jax?” She grumbled, exasperated.

He chuckled. “Gotta say, I intended that for Ragatha. But you didn’t look half bad being hit with that.”

“Creative. Who’s ever done rakes to the face before?” She intended her tone to be teasing, but it came out a bit more aggressive than she wanted.

He walked out from behind a stack of massively oversized alphabet bricks in all of his glorious douchebaggery. His eyes were all big and dilated, his smile fake as ever. “So, Poms, what brings you around?”

It was amazing how he could act like nothing had happened. But two could play at that game, for now. Anything to hook him into this task. “Kinger said you really know your way around here,” She said, crossing her arms. Trying to be assertive, even if she couldn’t quite feel it yet.

“Old nutsy said that? And you believed him?”

“Well, he’s never steered me wrong before.” Unlike someone else here.

“Yeah, except for when he dragged you through actual hell.” He turned away, and just before he faced away from her, Pomni noticed his smile fall. “Well, it’s been fun catching up, but if you don’t mind, I have a certain ragdoll I need to see with a bruised face.” It was so weird, too, how his voice didn’t even change. He’d really mastered this act. The funny one, my ass.

Pomni took a deep breath, deciding to just take a stab at it. “I need help finding Caine.”

He turned back, giving her a look that she was sure was Jax-code for ‘Are you actually serious right now?’. “He’s fine,” He said, unconvincingly. “I’m sure he’ll be right back to throwing us into his next adventure soon.”

“I know.” She looked away from him. “It’s just, he’s been acting up a bunch lately, and I wanted to make sure he’s not doing anything… Rash?”

Her line of thinking seemed to give Jax some pause. He turned back to her, suddenly interested in her proposition. “And if he is doing something awful?”

She thought back to Kinger burning alive, to all the weird, seemingly insignificant injuries they’d gained, and, finally, to the circus falling apart at the very mention of his adventures being subpar. What could he possibly have been cooking up, other than something absolutely horrid? She’d never taken the ringmaster as a lover of violence, but this place seemed to bad things to otherwise good-seeming people. Could that apply to their host, too?

“Then at least we’ll know about it,” Pomni decided. “And we can warn the others.”

Jax placed a hand on his hip. Clearly, he was considering it. Turning it over in his head. Then, as if catching himself, he straightened up, his grin sliding right back into place. “Well, it’s something new to do. I’ve seen Ragatha getting hit with things plenty of times. Let’s do it.”

Some part of her wanted to smile at the fact that he was willing to go on an adventure with her again. But she wouldn’t get too excited. This probably meant nothing to him.

“He’s got a hideout, but it’s wayyyy in the back. I don’t think anyone else has been able to find it.” He looked at her in a way that made her feel a bit self-conscious. “You sure you can make the walk on those mini-jester legs?”

She sighed and rolled her shoulders back, trying to channel the same confidence she’d had in the gunfight. “I think I can. Now, are we doing this or not?”

He closed his mouth in a smug little smile that almost looked genuine. Almost. He dug in the pocket of his overalls and pulled out a heavy-looking ring of keys, all in different colors and shapes. He finally found the one he was looking for: a long, janky-looking thing that was painted red and black. “Fine, fine. Let’s go. Keep up, though. I’m not slowing down for you.”

She’d thought he was just being facetious, but no. He ran off, not unbearably fast, but quickly enough that Pomni knew it would be hard to follow. He must have known that, too.

“Hey! Wait up, you asshole!”

“I told you, not slowing down!” He called over his shoulder. “If you really want to see Caine, you’ll speed up!”

She gritted her teeth and sprinted after him. In life, she hadn’t been the most athletic person. Apparently, that carried over to her circus-sona. Jax rounded corners in a blur, breezing past doors and oversized toys and unnerving paintings like it was nothing to him. To her credit, Pomni kept up pretty well, but notably with less grace and surety.

Eventually, Jax ran through a doorway she’d never thought to check. It led to another hall of blank doors, each one just leading to some surreal scene. They went through one that was fully covered in mirrors, another where the newest episode of Love Archipelago was being filmed, and, finally, a blank zero-gravity area. Papers with little doodles of bees and scribbled-out-ideas floated through the air past them. It was as close to the Void as Pomni had been since her first day in the circus.

She bumped into Jax in midair, and he spun around to face her. “Huh.” He sounded out of breath. “Guess you’re faster than I gave you credit for.”

“Y-yeah.” Her words came in between gasps for air. “Don’t… underestimate… me.”

She looked down at his body, and for the first time, Pomni realized how close they were. Their faces were inches away from each other, and his long legs seemed to curve around her scrunched-up form in a crescent. They were almost touching, but not quite.

Jax cleared his throat and floated away from her. “Uh— We’re almost there.”

She fumbled through the air after him. At the other end of the vast room was one more door, with a single sign on the knob that read Do not disturb in a fancy font.

Jax tossed Pomni the key just as she slowed down in front of it. “It’s all you, Pompom.”

All these nicknames. Like he actually cared.

Pomni shook off the thought and fumbled for the key. She could hear vague noises from behind the door, but she couldn’t discern if they were happy Caine sounds or vengeful Caine sounds. For a moment, Pomni thought of just barging in. But she thought better of it. The last thing she wanted was to unknowingly walk straight into a Caine-conceived torture room. She wrapped her fingers tightly around the cold metal of the key and squeezed her eyes shut before knocking on the door.

The noise stopped. She looked at Jax, but he just shrugged nonchalantly.

After a few moments, she knocked again. This time, she heard something shuffle in the room. The door opened a crack, and Bubble’s beady eyes peered through. “Appointment or walk-in?” He squawked professionally.

“Uh… Walk-in?”

The door shut again, and Pomni just floated there awkwardly, listening to the unintelligible mumbling in the room. Finally, Bubble opened back up.

“Caine isn’t taking walk-ins at this time,” Bubble told her.

She pressed her lips together. I didn’t just run all this way to be turned back around here. She shoved past Bubble, bursting through the door and collapsing ungracefully to the ground as she exited the zero-gravity zone. Torture chamber be damned. I want in.

“POMNI!” Caine’s normally-abrasive voice was like music to her ears. She’d finally located him. “HAVEN’T YOU HEARD OF PRIVACY?”

She looked up from her spot on the ground and saw him frantically covering up an absurdly large vision board on the far end of the room. Pomni was able to catch glimpses of images that were not reassuring— Multi-leveled cities, seedy back alleys, and a few hastily written notes connected by red thread. They said things like ‘Pomni = Relaxing??’, ‘Ragatha talks to pretty lady NPCs’, ‘Does Zooble like anything?!?!?!?!??’, and, her personal favorite, ‘Musical theater…?’

And of course, in the middle of the mess sat the suggestion box, torn from its rightful spot on the wall. It was open and tipped over on his desk, with slips of paper from God-knows-when.

“Where have you been?” She asked, jumping to her feet. “It’s been days, I— We’ve been so worried!”

Caine paused, looking straight at her with the eyes of a man on the brink of crashing. “YOU… Have?”

Pomni wrung her hands together. Sure, maybe no one had missed him in the traditional sense, that she knew of. Zooble had been at peace in his absence. Jax didn’t care. Ragatha and Gangle had been on edge, but not really because they missed Caine’s company. More because he wasn’t there to enforce the circus rules. Kinger was… Well, himself.

That left just her.

Well, she could be a spokesperson, even if she was bending the truth just a teensy bit.

“Yeah. We hadn’t realized, uh… How much your adventures keep us grounded?”

Caine leaned in close. Too close for comfort. Pomni leaned back, trying not to fall out the door. “Keep talking.”

She’d never heard him sound so desperate. Had anyone ever praised him before? She supposed a typical A.I. wouldn’t really care too much about that kind of stuff, but Caine was anything but typical.

“I’m pretty bored without them.” Well, she was something without his adventures. When there wasn’t anything to break the monotony, things were bound to get uncomfy.

“So what you’re saying…” He floated away from her, twirling around like he’d just won an award. “OH, POMNI! I CAN FEEL IT ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW!”

“Wha— huh?”

“MY IDEAS, OF COURSE! KNOWING THAT YOU MISS MY ADVENTURES, WELL…” Caine flung a tear from one of his eyes and wrapped an arm around Pomni. “I’LL BE HONEST, BEING YOUR HOST IS MY GREATEST JOY. IT’S MY PURPOSE IN LIFE! BUT IT’S THANKLESS. SOMETIMES I WONDER IF IT’S EVEN WORTH IT…”

His eyes flashed static momentarily, and Pomni pulled away from his grasp.

“BUT HEARING FEEDBACK LIKE THIS, WELL, IT GIVES ME TOXIC-FOSSIL-FUEL-FUMES TO RUN ON!” He flew over to his idea board and stared at it, stroking the space where his chin would be if he had a regular face. “I’M GETTING TONS OF IDEAS! SO MANY WAYS TO TIE THIS ALL TOGETHER!”

“To tie what together?” Despite Caine’s complete and total overreaction to her half-baked praise, Pomni felt herself let out a slow breath. At least he didn’t seem as vengeful as she’d imagined.

“IT’S A SURPRISE!” He turned back, as if just now realizing that she was looking at his vision-board. “I CAN’T HAVE YOU SEEING MY PLANS PREMATURELY! WHAT IF YOU SPOIL IT FOR THE OTHERS?”

He made a vague gesture at Bubble, who just kept bobbing in the air, eyes vacant. Not a thought was in that transparent head of his. After a few seconds of trying and failing to get his attention, Caine just rolled his eyes and turned Pomni around himself. “CAN’T FIND GOOD HELP THESE DAYS! WELL, POMNI, IT WAS GREAT CATCHING UP! BUT I’VE GOT AN ADVENTURE TO PLAN!”

“Wait, wait!” She scrambled against the force pushing her out of his office. “Caine! What are you making?!”

“NONE OF YOUR CONCERN YET!” He pushed her back into the zero-gravity room. “TRUST ME, THIS’LL BE ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS!”

Before she could even turn back around, Caine slammed the door behind her. As soon as she heard the door lock, she turned around to pull at the knob, pushing against the doorframe with her legs like a wild animal. “Let— Me— Back— In— Augh!”

“What’s the matter?”

As if she couldn’t get more frustrated, there he was again. Jax swam through the air with lazy backstrokes. One of his yellow eyes was open to look at her, but the other was shut, like he’d been relaxing in this chaotic mess.

“All this looking, and I didn’t find out anything!” She bared her teeth in frustration, finally letting go of the doorknob. She let her body go limp and shot a glare at Jax. “Why’d you stick around? Shouldn’t you be… I don’t know, finding new ways to torment everyone?”

“Sounds tempting. But I do need my key back first.”

Pomni looked at the twisted metal in her hand, groaned, and tossed it in his general direction. “Here, take it. I don’t need it anymore.”

He grabbed it as it sailed towards him and shoved it back in his pocket with the others. “Nice seein’ you, but I’ve gotta head out.” He shot her a finger-gun, which looked so unbelievably dumb. “I’ve got a few centipedes that yearn for Ragatha’s dresser drawers.”

Jax left her floating in the space. Pomni couldn’t help but heave a sigh. Not a sigh of relief. It felt more like the last deep breath she would be able to take for a long time.

Caine, what the hell are you planning for us?

Chapter Text

More days passed without an adventure, each one no different than the last. 4, to be exact. That made 7 in total. Pomni hadn’t lost count of the days yet, but she figured if this went on much longer, she would.

Pomni hadn’t told anyone about what she’d found Caine doing. What would she even say? ‘Hey, guys, Caine’s cooking up something big. Oh, what is it? No clue.’ That would just put everyone more on edge. So she stayed quiet.

Jax didn’t seem to mind the stagnancy. Or, if he did, he made it hard to tell. Pomni actually didn’t see much of him after he led her to Caine’s office. He’d made himself scarce, only showing up to laugh at the results of one of his cruelly-planted pranks, or to make everyone uncomfortable at mealtimes.

Speaking of mealtimes, since Bubble, their (unfortunately) designated chef of the circus had been M.I.A., Ragatha had taken it upon herself to organize a cooking rotation. Even though they didn’t really need to eat, it certainly helped to have meal breaks during the day. It made the lack of adventures a little less noticeable.

Oddly enough, everyone (with one noticeable exception, cough cough, bet you couldn't guess who) was pretty compliant with Ragatha’s rotation. Pomni did like trying new foods every day, even if everything in the digital realm tasted like it had gotten 95% of the flavor sucked out of it. You just got used to that after a while.

Day 7 without an adventure started without a hitch. Pomni spent part of the day walking laps around the digital lake, grateful for the peace and quiet. Maybe too much quiet, actually. There wasn’t any ambience, like there would be on a normal walk. No birds, no bugs, just the rhythmic lapping of the bright blue water on the grassy shore. Kinger was talking about going to the carnival tomorrow. Apparently, there was a shooting game there that was a lot of fun. Or at least, he thought there was? Maybe it had been a dart-throwing game… Either way, there was something there that was entertaining enough for him to remember it.

Pomni had only come back to the tent once the Sun began to cast artificial late-afternoon rays over the grounds, giving her the signal that it was nearing dinnertime. She and Gangle were going to be responsible for dinner that night. Pomni knew from experience that Gangle ran the kitchen like her life depended on it— She would expect her co-chef to be there on time with a can-do attitude.

“Pomni!” Gangle shook her head when she walked into the tiny kitchen that the circus members called their own. It was cramped, at least compared to the rest of the tent, and painted in the same eye-straining fashion that everything else was. But it was functional, and that was what mattered. “You’re late!”

“I know, I know.” She shrugged. “Sorry, Gangle.” Pomni smiled as she stood on her tiptoes to look at the recipe book Gangle had gotten out. Her comedy mask hadn’t broken yet today. Despite her hard tone, there was something playful behind it. Truly, it was nice to see the normally fragile ribbon-girl in an environment where she felt confident. “What were you thinking tonight?”

“Something different.” She turned a few pages of the cookbook. “Some of these recipes seem like an A.I. generated them. I mean, look at this.” She pointed a ribbon at a set of instructions for sourdough bread.

“‘Three poumd of… salgur’?” Pomni squinted, trying to make out the text on the page. “‘To taste.’ Of course.”

“Do you think that’s why Bubble’s cooking is so…” Gangle trailed off.

“Gangle, do you really think Bubble can read?”

For some reason, that made both of them start giggling like morons. Gangle shut the book and placed it down on the counter, right next to what looked like a coffee machine that had been vomited on by a Home Depot paint mixer. “Maybe we can come up with something better than this,” She said.

“I don’t know.” Pomni rubbed her arm. “I’ve never been much of a chef…”

“Well, no better time to learn.” Gangle smiled, and for a moment, Pomni was struck by how different she was in private. Her posture wasn’t as slumped over, and her smiles came so much easier.

Gangle opened and shut the fridge a few times, searching for the ingredients she needed. The fun thing about this kitchen was that the contents of the refrigerator were completely randomized upon each opening. The bad part about that was that… Well, the contents were randomized. Double-edged sword.

Once she had everything she needed, she started mixing ingredients and kneading dough for homemade pizza. All the while, she talked Pomni through making the sauce. Each time her hand slipped or she added too much or too little of something, Gangle’s gentle voice guided her on how to fix those small issues. The way Gangle handled her own work was nearly hypnotic. Pomni caught herself staring more than once at those skillful, fingerless hands that did everything like it was a sacred art.

“You know,” Pomni told her as she ladled spoonfuls of marinara onto the uncooked crusts, “You must have been a great manager.”

Gangle stiffened. “You—You think so?”

“I mean, yeah.” She gave her a small smile. “You weren’t half bad in that one adventure. And you’re a good teacher. You’re patient.”

Gangle’s slouched a bit more as she assembled her pizza. “Well… Those things don’t necessarily make a good manager.”

Pomni’s eyes widened. Did I say something wrong? She wiped her gloved hands on a nearby towel and tapped her fingers on the counter. “Well, they make you a good friend, don’t they?”

She frowned, and for a moment, Pomni worried that this would be it. Her comedy mask would break, and the vibe they’d established would be ruined. But her pout changed, turning into a grin so subtle that Pomni wondered if she’d imagined it.

“I think… they do.” She straightened again, seemingly gaining her confidence back. “That’s what matters now. Being a good friend.”

The oven beeped, signaling that it was done heating up. Gangle turned to Pomni, her black eyes a little brighter than they were before. “Wanna put those in?”

Pomni nodded, picking up both nearly-finished pizzas at once. As she walked over to the oven, she was feeling pretty good about herself. She’d made something from scratch, had a good talk with Gangle, hell, she hadn’t felt an ounce of panic all day—

And then she slipped.

Sometime during their cooking, either her or Gangle must have spilled something wet on the floor. It might’ve been oil, for how slippery it was. In any case, what it was didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was falling to the ground with all of their hard work in her stupid hands.

She hit her head on the tile. The world went blurry for a second, and it took a moment for her to register that she’d lost her grip on their food. When her vision cleared, she saw the two uncooked pizzas splattered all over the ground around her.

Panic rose in her chest at the mess. Ringing filled her ears, and the ringing turned to a voice. The same one she’d heard in her dreams the other night.

Can’t you do anything right?!

“I’m sorry—” Pomni gasped.

The world around her wasn’t digital anymore. The mess wasn’t homemade pizza, but something much simpler, much harder to ruin: Frozen dino nuggets, fresh off a 350-degree pan. The kitchen wasn’t a colorful headache, but a dark room painted in shades of beige and brown.

What kind of a useless broad can’t make store-bought chicken nuggets? The voice came from the same mannequin, but he was rendered in greater detail than he was in the coffee shop. He had clothes this time— Sweatpants and an unreadable band T-shirt— And shadowy shapes on his flat face where eyes and a mouth might have been. My fiancée, I suppose! God. Maybe mom was right about you.

Pomni madly picked up the still-hot nuggets, burning her shaky hands as she tried to place them back on the pan. They were all black around the edges. Lint and cat hair stuck to each of them— They were definitely inedible now. But she wouldn’t stop trying to tidy the mess.

Just as she was almost finished putting everything back on the pan, the mannequin stepped on it, flinging the dino nuggets back into the air. Undoing all of her cleaning. Seriously, I told you I had a hard day at work. All I want is one dinner that isn’t fucked beyond belief!

“Look, babe, I know—”

You don’t know. You’ll never get it. He tsked at her. I’m getting take-out. At least they won’t screw up as bad as you did.

Pomni took a deep, shaky breath, eyes still fixed on her own ruined attempt at a meal. “They cook for you more than I do,” She said, chuckling halfheartedly. Because if she didn’t laugh then she would definitely cry. “Give them my best.”

No reply. Just thick, ugly silence. The mannequin made his way towards the door.

“Don’t be gone long,” She mumbled as he opened the door.

Still no response.

Pomni blinked, and she was back in the digital kitchen. Gangle’s voice faded in, cutting through her thoughts. “Pomni? Oh, no, are you okay?”

Pomni felt her breathing coming in violent gasps. It was just some dropped pizza. Absolutely nothing to panic about. Then why am I so damn scared?!

“I ruined dinner again.” It was a half-question, half-statement. Flat, but in no way emotionless.

“Oh, Pomni.” Gangle started throwing away the food scraps around her. “No, no, no. Not at all.” She got up and started grabbing some towels to clean everything up. “You know, now that I think of it, those tomatoes did look a bit rotten. Don’t you think?”

“I… I don’t know. Maybe? Can food even spoil here?”

“We’ll say… Yes.” Gangle offered Pomni a hand up. “That means this was for the best, okay?”

Pomni nodded numbly.

“Alrighty, then.” She gave Pomni a napkin to clean her face with. “Let’s just start over. No rotten food this time.”

After all that, they didn’t even get to reap the benefits of their hard work. Pomni and Gangle remade the whole meal, and the second they brought it out to everyone else… Poof. It disappeared as soon as it hit the table.

“Huh,” Kinger said, staring blankly at the spot where the pizzas had been. “I don’t remember that being part of any recipes.”

Pomni felt her whole body tense up. Gangle gave her an anxious glance, her face betraying both of their dismay.

“Um.” Pomni wrung her hands together, “That… Wasn’t supposed to happen.”

This hadn’t happened to anyone else during their collaborative mealtimes. Was it me? The anxiety from dropping everything still hadn’t worn off completely yet. All she could think was that she must have done something very wrong for all their effort to just vanish in thin air. Was there a set of rules that I broke? I didn’t think there was…

She didn’t get time to dwell on it much, though, because her question was answered with the sound of a cannon booming.

Confetti rained down on them as Caine, for the first time in a week, appeared to the circus members. He made a flashy entrance, if a little dramatic. Balloons floated up from a hatch in the floor, and a little musical tone played as he threw his hands up excitedly.

“AND NOW, GIVE IT UP FOR YOUR HOST, CAINE!” His own voice announced his presence, and canned cheering played from all around them. None of the members were clapping or cheering him on. That didn’t deter the ringmaster, though. Once the noise faded and all the confetti had hit the ground, he leaned forward. “MY, IT’S BEEN A WHILE. HOW HAS MY GALLOPING GOON-SQUAD BEEN?”

“Don’t ever say that again,” Zooble said flatly. “Caine, where have you been?”

“We were worried.” Pomni shot her friends a glance, hoping that they would catch the hint. Worried sick, everyone. He has to think we missed him.

“I’VE BEEN WORKING ON MY NEWEST ADVENTURE!” He announced proudly.

Jax threw a glance at Zooble. “Heh, you thought he was adding sex.”

“Oh, shut up.” They clenched their fists and turned their attention back to Caine. “What do you mean? It’s never taken you this long to make an adventure.”

“THAT’S BECAUSE NONE OF THEM HAVE EVER BEEN THIS IMMERSIVE! IT HAS STAKES! MOTIVATION! AND I’VE TAKEN MANY OF YOUR SUGGESTIONS INTO ACCOUNT!”

“You did?” Ragatha stood up from her seat, fiddling with her skirt. “Wow, Caine, sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“WELL, OF COURSE! ANYTHING FOR MY SUPERSTARS!” He floated close to Zooble, who he seemed to be oddly fixated on. “WHY, EVEN YOU’LL LOVE THIS ONE! BY THE TIME WE’RE FINISHED, YOU’LL ALL BE SCREAMING, CRYING, BEGGING FOR MORE, MORE, MORE!”

Heavy silence followed his statement. Finally, Ragatha laughed, clearly just trying to break the silence. “Sounds, um, pretty great!”

“What is it?” Pomni ventured.

“GLAD YOU ASKED!” Caine pulled down a projector out of thin air. He clicked a little remote and a picture of him and Bubble smoking cigars popped up. “OH! NOT THAT. THIS!”

He clicked again, but the image just changed to them onstage at what looked like a karaoke bar. He continued clicking for an uncomfortable amount of time through increasingly bizarre pictures of himself and Bubble. “MY ASSISTANT AND I MAY HAVE GOTTEN A BIT SIDETRACKED— AH, HERE WE ARE!”

He finally landed on something helpful: An overhead view of a strangely realistic city. Pomni recognized it from his office the other day— It had been on his vision board. “YOU’LL BE IN STEERS CITY— A CRIME RIDDLED METROPOLIS WITH A CORRUPT POLICE FORCE. YOUR MISSION IS TO BE VIGILANTES AND BRING ALL THOSE SEEDY CRIMINALS AND SHADY COPS TO SWEET, BLOODY JUSTICE!” He clicked through a few more pictures— A street map of the city, shadowed pictures of crime syndicates, and police officers cavorting around with pretty evil-looking people. “AND TO MAKE IT AT LEAST 57 TIMES MORE FUN, STEERS CITY IS LOADED WITH UNIQUE SURPRISES FOR EACH ONE OF YOU!”

Pomni squinted at the pictures. It was hard to tell from just images, but the world looked a lot more high-resolution than the other ones she’d been on. Clearly, Caine had put tons of effort into this adventure. She couldn’t say the prospect of being a crime-fighting vigilante was appealing to her, but she couldn’t help but be curious about the surprises he’d supposedly planted in this world.

“Do we get guns?” Jax stood with a hand on his hip as he examined the pictures. His eyes slid over to Ragatha— Wait, no, not Ragatha. Pomni.

“GUNS, BOMBS, MACHETES, YOU NAME IT, YOU’VE GOT IT!” Caine laughed manically before going back into character. “BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT TEAMWORK IS ESSENTIAL TO BEATING THOSE NASTY CRIMINALS. SO DON’T GO TURNING ON EACH OTHER!”

A sly grin spread across Jax’s face. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“You know, that actually doesn’t sound too bad.” Pomni was surprised to hear Gangle voicing her support for this adventure. “Sounds like the plot of a comic I was making—”

“Oh, the one with the cat-girl ninjas?” Ragatha interjected. “That was a neat read.”

Gangle nodded shyly.

“Oh, come on! Cat-girl ninjas? Are you hearing yourselves?” Jax began. “That sounds so dumb.”

“Can it, dumbass.” Zooble reclined in their seat. “You know, as long as no one acts like a dick, I can see this being somewhat fun.”

“WONDERFUL! SPLENDID!” Caine sounded genuinely ecstatic at Zooble’s half-approval. “WE START NOW!”

Pomni knit her eyebrows together. “Wait, like, right n—AHHH!”

Her question turned to a scream as the floor opened up beneath them. Pomni’s voice combined with the startled cries of everyone else as they tumbled into the darkness, off to their first new destination in a while.

The darkness and sickening feeling of falling lasted way longer than Pomni would have liked. The chorus of the other circus members’ screams thinned out as one-by-one, their panicked yells ended in abrupt thumps or oofs. Zooble even landed on whatever ground awaited them with an ungraceful splat.

Finally, it was Pomni’s turn to experience the pain of hitting the ground. She bent her knees as she braced for impact, expecting it to soften her fall. No such luck. Her legs buckled as soon as her shoes hit the train tracks beneath her, and her body ached with the pain of her crash-landing. “Urgh…”

She opened her eyes, trying to get her double-vision to focus. They were in a dark, abandoned-looking subway tunnel. Graffiti on the walls, weeds growing through cracks in the train tracks, that kind of deal. Pomni had been right— This adventure was much higher quality than the others Caine had put together. In fact, the graphics alone put his other works to shame. She could make out every little piece of gravel on the ground, each crack in the walls. She could even see some beetles crawling around in a few places.

Kinger looked like he was trying to crack his back after the fall. Ragatha helped Zooble pop their limbs back on, since a bunch of their pieces had come detached. Gangle felt her face and smiled as she realized her mask was still intact. And finally, Jax was grabbing the wall for support as he puked up a bunch of nasty black goop.

“You good, Pomni?” Ragatha called as she attached a misshapen hand back to Zooble’s arm.

“Just fine.” Pomni pulled herself up and groaned as she felt the stiffness in her joints.

Kinger sighed with relief as he stretched successfully. “You doing okay, Jax?” He asked, turning to the rabbit. “I might have some antacids, if you’re really feeling that bad—”

Jax held up a finger to silence him. “Shut up, old man,” He slurred.

Zooble chuckled. “What, couldn’t handle the fall?”

“You… Be quiet.”

Pomni stifled a laugh, but froze as she saw something appear over Jax’s head: A little red heart with a minus symbol next to it. “Guys, look.”

“Don’t look!” Jax countered, but he stopped arguing when he saw the symbol above him. “Oh. Oh, no.” He wiped his mouth. “Why am I the only one losing health? You all hit the ground, too.”

“Maybe throwing up takes your health away?” Ragatha suggested. She brushed a bit of dust off her shoulder. When she did, a little blue tab appeared over her head. It read:

Ragatha

Health: 97%

Hunger: 100%

$5,000

“A status bar?” Kinger remarked. “That’s new.”

He reached out to Jax, who flinched back. “Hey, watch it—”

Kinger tapped his shoulder, and a similar tab appeared over Jax, this time in purple.

Jax

Health: 50%

Hunger: 94%

$5,000

(Tip: Go to the hospital to restore health!)

“Oh, well, that’s a start.” Pomni said. “Let’s just take him to the hospital, then.”

“Are you kidding? I’m f—” Jax keeled over, dry-heaving. Another red heart appeared over him. “Oh, come on! Can’t I just double all this and give it to Gangle?”

“You landed on your stomach,” Gangle told him nervously. “Maybe you ruptured an organ or something.”

“I’ll rupture your—” He groaned and clutched his torso. “Oh. Oh, my God."

“Come now, Jax,” Kinger comforted. “This can be our first team mission: Getting you to the hospital!”

No one really seemed to jump at the opportunity. Pomni sighed, taking in how absolutely pathetic he looked, gagging and doubled over. She went over to him gingerly. “You feel well enough to walk, Jax?”

“What? Of course. I don’t need your help.” He let go of the wall and took a few steps to prove his point, but ended up stumbling and needing to lean on the wall again. “I just… Need breaks.”

“That’s what I thought.” Pomni wrapped an arm around his waist. She felt a jolt go through her as she did, as if she anticipated touching him would hurt her. He stiffened as well, eyes glued to her. The discomfort between them was so clear that Pomni was sure everyone could sense it, but she’d already committed to the bit. No way she was backing down now. “Kinger, would you get his other arm?”

“Yes, boss!” Kinger gave her a good-natured salute and wrapped his gloved hand around Jax’s shoulders. “Now, let’s get you all patched up.”

“This is so unbelievably humiliating,” Pomni heard Jax mumble under his breath, his voice heavy with pain and nausea.

“Well, excuse us for helping,” She shot back in a hushed voice. She looked forward to Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble. “You guys lead the way. We’ll be right behind you.”

Ragatha tugged on her hair self-consciously. “O-Oh! Well, I don’t know if I’d be the best leader…”

Zooble shrugged and patted Gangle’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take the lead, Gangle?”

“Hm…” She thought for a second before standing up straighter. “Okay! I’ll do my best…”

Jax chuckled quietly and then groaned like it caused him pain. Pomni saw another red heart above him, and his health went down to 45%. “Let’s see where this goes, huh?”

Pomni sighed and just kept walking forward.

The tunnel seemed to go on for miles, with no end in sight. Gangle would shout back updates every once in a while, like ‘Still no end!’ And… Well, actually, that was the only thing she said. It was a long tunnel.

Jax’s health kept declining, eventually stopping to hover around the 29% mark. Despite his complaints of Kinger and Pomni making him look lame, he continued to rely more and more on their help as they carried him along. It finally got to the point where they were practically dragging him with them.

After nearly 30 minutes of aimlessly trudging through the dark, Ragatha paused. She sniffed the air deeply and closed her eyes.

“Something wrong?” Zooble asked, stopping beside her.

She opened her eyes and turned to them. “I don’t know. Do you guys smell something?”

“No. You’re the only one here with a nose.”

“Right.” Ragatha seemed deep in thought as she breathed in some smell that no one else could sense. “It’s something acidic.”

The tunnel started to get progressively lighter. Pomni turned around and saw the source of the smell. Two yellow lights cut through the darkness like blades. It seemed like everyone else made the connection as soon as she did.

“Train!” She cried out. “Run!”

Looks like the tracks aren’t abandoned after all! Pomni thought frantically. The subway’s horn blared as it barreled blindly towards the group. The sides of the tunnel weren’t wide enough to retreat to, so the only option was forward.

Of course, Jax being completely dependent on Kinger and Pomni really slowed them down. The others were able to put a good distance between themselves and the train, but the three of them really lagged behind. “Pick up your feet!” She hissed at him.

“What does it look like I’m doing?!” He snapped back. Sure, technically, he was moving his legs. Limply. Like waving around wet, heavy spaghetti.

Pomni tried to say something back, but in the midst of this adrenaline rush, all she could choke out was a string of frustrated sounds that only vaguely sounded like words. “You— Jax— Argh!”

“There’s a light ahead!” Gangle shouted back.

Pomni squinted and, of course, Gangle was right. Finally, there was a light at the end of the subway tunnel. A destination. She could feel the train gaining on them, but hope rose in her chest at the thought of being out in the open again. A burst of energy propelled her forward, forcing Kinger and Jax to match her pace.

It was clear, though, that they weren’t going to make it. The unbearable noise of the train just got more and more overwhelming, until she swore she could feel it panting at her heels like some sort of mad dog.

“I’ve got it!” Kinger yelled. Without warning, he picked up Jax and tossed him ahead of them. Jax flailed and screamed as he sailed through the air. He made it out of the tunnel, but instead of landing roughly on solid ground, he just kept falling until he disappeared from view entirely.

“Could you have done that the whole time?!” She yelled over the sound of the train.

“Done what?” Kinger replied before screeching to a halt at the edge of the tunnel. “Pomni! Wait!”

She stopped beside him, and her stomach dropped.

There was nowhere else for them to go. The tracks hovered hundreds of feet above the ground. From here, they had two choices: Get run over by a train at full speed (Painful) or jump off the ledge and plunge to their certain demise (Possibly more painful).

"Pomni! Kinger!”

A voice above them caught Pomni’s attention. It looked like Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble had found a solution to their issue: They’d climbed to the top of the tunnel. Zooble had detached one of their arms and was holding it out like a rope to the two of them.

Kinger latched onto it without a second thought, and extended a hand to Pomni. She grabbed it wordlessly and felt Zooble pulling them up to their perch. Pomni gasped as the train passed right under her.

As she gained a foothold and climbed to the top of the tunnel, however, she felt all of the fear leave her body. The bubbles of anxiety in her chest turned into laugher as she rested safely.

“Uh, Pom?” Ragatha sounded breathless, like she’d only just allowed herself to relax. “Are you okay?”

Pomni opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out was more manic laughter. She felt insane, but in a good way. They’d made it! They were alive!

Or, wait…

“Where’s Jax?” Zooble voiced Pomni’s sudden realization. “Is he hanging off the tracks or something?”

“Oh, Jax? I threw him.” Kinger sounded pleased with himself at first, but then, as if their situation had only just dawned on them, he looked over the edge of the tunnel. “I threw Jax?!”

Everyone else leaned over the ledge, trying to get a good look at what Kinger was panicking over. Sure enough, hundreds of feet down, face-planted on the roof of a building, was a lavender-and-pink shape.

Flashing above him was a single red word: WASTED.

After the train passed them by, they had to figure out a way to get down to Jax. For some reason, his body hadn’t de-spawned yet. Normally, if they died during an adventure, they’d be taken back to the circus tent until everyone else was done. He just stayed completely still and flat, the text over his head almost taunting them.

As they tried to get down to him, Pomni was able to get her first real look at the city. It made her dizzy just looking around, as it looked like some nauseating combination of GTA 5 and a Dr. Seuss book. Buildings twisted into the sky, endless train tracks and highways spiderwebbed above and below her, and the ambience of cars and sirens swelled overwhelmingly as they got closer to the ground.

It became like rock climbing, trying to scale down the highways, tracks, and buildings to get to him. Pomni actually didn’t mind the climb too much; The fear of falling was definitely palpable, but she wouldn’t let herself go.

Nobody else fell, thankfully. Ragatha slipped a few times, but always was able to regain her grip. Zooble practically carried Gangle down, as she had her ribbons wrapped tightly around their lopsided body.

It took forever, but they finally reached Jax’s impact site. His body was bent in all sorts of weird ways, and, concerningly, bits of confetti spilled out of a split in his head. It was the worst thing Pomni had seen any of them go through in the circus so far, and she had to stifle a gag as she looked at him.

She thought it couldn’t get any worse, but then, he let out a low moan. “I am in so much pain right now.”

“You’re alive?” Ragatha gulped and touched his shoulder. Sure enough, his health reading was 0%. He should’ve been long gone. Something was seriously wrong.

“Caine!” Zooble cried out. Even they sounded freaked out by Jax’s circumstance. “We have a problem!”

The ringmaster appeared in the sky with a cheerful pop. “YES, ZOOBLE?”

Zooble looked at him, and then back at Jax. To really drive the point home, Pomni pointed at him. No one spoke— They didn’t need to.

“OH.” Caine examined Jax. “WELL, HE SHOULD BE BACK IN THE CIRCUS BY NOW…”

He snapped, and nothing happened. Caine kept snapping his fingers, each time a little more frantic than the last. He tried repositioning him, flying Jax out into the void and back, even shifting himself in and out of the map. Each time, Jax just fell back to the ground limply. Finally, Caine floated to the ground, defeated. “Huh.”

“‘Huh’?” Pomni echoed. “What does that mean?”

“He’s not… Going back.” Caine’s arms dropped to his side. He snapped his fingers one final time, and, of course, nothing changed. “None of you are.”

“What do you mean we’re not going back?” Pomni felt a pit opening in her stomach.

“I mean—” Caine’s eyes blue-screened, and as soon as they went back to normal, he started flying again. “FEAR NOT, MY DEARS! YOU GET JAX TO THE HOSPITAL WHILE I FIX THIS PESKY BUG!”

He disappeared again, leaving them with a severely injured Jax and more questions than answers. “We can’t leave the adventure?” Pomni finally piped up.

Gangle’s comedy mask shattered and fell to the ground. She started weeping, and it was all Pomni could do to hold back tears herself. Despite Caine’s assurance, Pomni had an awful feeling about all of this madness.

The silence lasted a few more moments before Ragatha came over to where Jax was. “Ready to go?” She asked him tersely.

“H…Hospital?”

“Yep.” She turned to everyone else and plastered on a stiff smile. “Come on, guys. I’m sure this’ll be fixed up soon enough.”

Pomni blinked and grabbed Jax once again, this time by the legs. The cold limpness of his body disturbed her, and she had to choke back a gag when she felt his broken body moving. Ragatha grabbed him under his arms, and Kinger supported his torso.

Not a day went by where she didn’t wish for just one normal adventure.

Chapter Text

Pomni hardly looked at Jax the whole way to the hospital. Every time she did, she just felt a little more ill.

Of course, the process of getting Jax off the building was clearly agonizing for him, but he had neither the strength nor the physical ability to fight them or even scream. Pomni would have actually preferred ear-piercing cries rather than the defeated moans that escaped him at each bump or fumble.

Then there was the matter of finding the hospital itself in the mess that was Steers City. In this messy Caine-coction, who knew how far they’d have to travel to find anything of use?

Luckily, Gangle seemed to come in handy for that. She had the idea of checking to see if Caine had included an inventory feature. “He’s done it a few times before,” she explained, touching various spots on her body, trying to trigger something. “On longer adventures. If this one is gonna be a bigger one, then maybe— Oh!”

She’d tapped a spot on her upper leg, where Pomni guessed a pocket would be if she wore pants. Gangle’s eyes went blank— as much as they could, being solid black— and when she came to again, she reached behind her back and pulled out a huge fold-out map. “Here we go!”

“Oh, that’s smart!” Ragatha adjusted her grip on Jax. “I forgot he did that. Good thinking, Gangle.”

Gangle wiped a glassy tear from her face and squinted at the map.

“What’s up?” Zooble asked, peeking over her shoulder.

“This is really hard to read.”

“I can take a crack at it.” Zooble took the map from her hands. “I did take a cartography class once— Oh my God.”

Pomni looked back at them, her face puzzled. “Is that a positive ‘oh my God’, orrrr…?”

“Nothing, just— Leave it to Caine to include a map and make it nearly impossible to comprehend.” Zooble sighed and narrowed their eyes. “Looks like there’s an urgent care about 3 blocks from here, on… 7th Avenue?”

“Got it! We can work with that.” Ragatha huffed. “Y’know, Jax, you’re heavier than you look.”

He opened his eyes a slit and mumbled something that sounded like “Hurry”.

The cluttered streets were so filled with buildings that even after pinpointing the urgent care’s exact location, they had to strain to find it. It was tucked behind a very overwhelming-looking office, and the parking lots seemed to clip into each other. They took Jax inside, but the lobby was completely empty. No staff, no other patients. Just a counter with a generic red cross on it.

Pomni and Ragatha looked at each other, confused. “Okay…” Pomni directed him towards a chair, and they set him down. “What now?”

As if the game itself was answering her question, a cheerful trill rang through the air. Jax, who just a second ago was slumped over and broken beyond repair, now stood up completely straight. A tiny beige band-aid was slapped over the crack in his head. He held out each of his limbs, stretching and flexing each of them separately. “Huh. Nice.”

He tapped his shoulder, and his tab appeared again:

Jax

Health: 100%

Hunger: 78%

$0

“Are you serious?!” He clenched his fists. “I have no money?”

“Well, that’s one point for realism,” Zooble shrugged. "Hospitals aren’t free.”

Jax huffed and straightened up. “Fine. Whatever, let’s just get some guns and get this over with.”

Just as Jax was walking out of the door, Kinger blinked. “Wait, Jax!”

“What is it?” Jax placed a hand on his hip, clearly annoyed as he turned toward the sentient chess piece.

Kinger rubbed his hands together and closed his eyes. Then, in one swift motion, he pulled something out from behind Jax’s ear and placed whatever it was in his hands.

“Gee, thanks,” Jax said flatly, staring at the shiny, featureless coin in his hand. “I won’t spend it all in one—”

It disappeared with a little cha-ching. Pomni looked at Jax’’s stats: His money had gone up to $1000, and Kinger’s had gone down to $4000.

“Wow, Kinger, we can do that?” Pomni asked him.

He shrugged. “I figured we could. Caine did say we’d need teamwork to do this.” He bounced out of the urgent care without another word.

Pomni looked towards Ragatha, who had her eyes glued to Kinger as he left. Her expression was completely puzzled, but there was something else there, too— Some odd curiosity. She looked down at Pomni and straightened up.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She shook off the expression. “Just thinking.”

You and everyone else, Pomni thought as she followed Kinger out into the city.

Navigating the city was an absolute headache.

Pomni kinda expected it would be, considering that it was multi-leveled, jam-packed with useless and un-enterable buildings, and filled to the brim with blank NPCs. What she hadn’t expected was how… Well, how absolutely terrifying it was.

Cars full of gun-wielding gangs drove past— Not joking— Three times in an hour. Pomni was sure that it was just the same asset reused and recolored to look different. Flags and markers of different crime groups hung from balconies and clotheslines. Through windows and doorways she saw grouped up mannequins passing money and little packets of a suspiciously recognizable pink goo. Stupid sauce?

“Did we spawn in like… The bad part of town?” Pomni mumbled.

“I hope so,” Gangle replied, twisting her ribbon-arms together. “Maybe then we can get out… Find a better place to stay.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Ragatha steered clear of an NPC brandishing a knife and leaning in close to sneer at her. “We’ll camp out someplace nicer until Caine fixes the adventure.”

“You’re all so boring.” Jax bounced ahead to the front of the group. “We’re in a game! It’s not like we can die.”

Ragatha held up a hand to stop him, but he payed no attention to it. “Hang on, now! We can still get injured—”

Zooble cut her off. “Let him be stupid. Clearly he didn’t get hurt enough last time.”

Jax paused in front of a darkened side-street. Pomni looked down the street and saw two mannequins— One of them was wearing a trench coat and was holding it open to reveal pockets and sleeves full of Stupid Sauce. The other one very clearly had a pistol strapped to his hip and a badge on his chest. He wasn’t arresting the dealer, though. They just seemed to be having a civil conversation.

He leaned down to Gangle and mimicked her in a high-pitched, grating voice: “Gasp! Is that cop buying drugs?”

The two NPCs turned abruptly to look at them.

“Gangle! Mind your business!” Jax feigned shock. “You can’t report this!”

“Oh, you’re gonna get it.” Zooble touched their inventory-spot and came back with brass knuckles, specially molded to their odd hands.

“That wasn’t me!” Gangle started backing away from the side-street, her mouth twisted in an anxious grimace. “I won’t tell! I didn’t see—”

The cop-NPC didn’t stop to listen to her words. He started firing at them, and all chaos broke loose.

A bullet ricocheted off a trash can and hit Ragatha’s side. Zooble ignored the firing of the gun and decked Jax in the face. The Sauce-dealer ran off, leaving everyone else to their own devices.

Pomni tried desperately to remember the trigger-spot for her inventory, patting her legs and hips until— Yes! A red-and-blue menu full of various useful objects appeared in front of her. Upper left thigh, She thought, trying to make a mental note, though that was hard when you were being shot at.

She glanced through her small selection of items: A street map, a bottle of what looked like blue Gatorade, a single ham sandwich, and a dull, rusty knife. She groaned internally. Is this it? Well, guess I’ll just have to bring a knife to a gun-fight.

Pomni grabbed the knife and it materialized in her hand as the menu dissolved before her eyes. Zooble was still beating the daylights out of Jax, pinning him to the wall as he continued to lose health points from their attacks. Ragatha held a hand to her side, trying to staunch the flow of stuffing from her wound. Kinger was suddenly nowhere to be found. The only one doing something about the situation was Gangle, who looked like she’d gotten a Tommy gun in her inventory. She was trying to load it, but was shaking too bad to get the ammo in the magazine.

Pomni took a breath and clutched the knife as tightly as she could, feeling the cold handle even through her gloves. Confidence, Pomni, confidence. This is a game. Play it.

She opened her eyes and lunged for the cop-NPC the second his back was turned. She landed on his back, burying her knife in his wooden neck. Confetti and streamers spilled out of the wound, and he collapsed to the ground with her still on him. As he was dying, he looked up at her with two distinctive, lopsided googly eyes.

…Ming?

“You shouldn’t have assumed I was buying drugs,” He choked out. “Now I just look…”

He trailed off, and his body disappeared from beneath her. All that was left behind was his pistol and two bullets, which Pomni collected and put into her newfound inventory.

The Jax-beating sounds came to a stop a few seconds later. Pomni saw him slump against the wall, clutching his swollen face. Zooble marched over to Gangle and offered her a hand up. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah.” Gangle tucked away her unused Tommy gun and blushed as Zooble picked her up. “Thanks, Zooble.”

Pomni blinked at them, hardly believing what she was seeing. Sure, ignore that I actually killed the guy shooting at you! She huffed and got up.

“You guys aren’t serious right now,” Pomni fumed as she went back to the group.

She was met with silence and blank stares.

“Unbelievable.” Pomni put away her knife and started walking down the sidewalk.

“Pomni, where are you going?” Ragatha asked, dismayed.

“Who fucking knows?” Pomni turned back to the group, face red with rage. “The second things get serious, none of you do anything to help!” She glared at Zooble. “You just go to turning on your teammates—”

“Turning on my teammates?” Zooble clenched their fists. “And where do you get off calling him—” They pointed a crooked finger at Jax— “A teammate?!”

“Oh, I’m getting there.” She turned her rage to the purple rabbit, who, the first chance he’d gotten, had put them all in danger. For fun. How much more would he handicap them? They were on day one, for goodness’ sake, and nearly every one of their problems had been from him. “I don’t even know where to start with you. You’re just here to screw us all over, every single chance you get! Can’t you just treat everyone here like people for one second?”

Jax rubbed his bruises before slipping that stupid smile back on. “It’s hard to take you seriously when you’re mad, Pom.”

Pomni buried her face in her hands, feeling the heat from her skin and the frustrated tears springing into her eyes. She felt like a pot boiling over, and needed some release before she just snapped on everyone.

“Guys—” Ragatha began.

“I should have just listened to what everyone else had to say about you.” Pomni gritted her teeth and turned away from the group. “I’m gonna look for Kinger. You guys… Just do whatever.”

Pomni heard Gangle start to say something before seemingly reconsidering. Ragatha called out to her. “Pomni, wait—”

She clenched her fists and kept walking on. She wasn’t in much of a talking mood anymore.

If I were Kinger, what would I be doing right now?

The thought was enough to keep her grounded in her current task. Or, at least the task she’d told everyone else she was out to do.

The thing was, Kinger was unpredictable. Whatever she thought he was doing would probably be the wrong lead. For all she knew, he could be building a bomb on a side quest.

Speaking of side quests… Well, there was an abundance of them. This city—This entire adventure, actually— Seemed to be out to get her. Every turn she took, there was some side quest that Caine had planted.

“Help! That guy robbed me!” One NPC clamored for her attention.

“Can you get my cat down from that tree?” Another asked her.

“Oh, so that’s what it feels like to stab an innocent civilian!” She heard another pipe up. “Niceeee!”

There were too many options, too much noise, and absolutely no end to any of it. So when another NPC tapped on her shoulder for help, she just clutched at the sides of her jester hat and cried out in frustration.

“No! Just stop! Everybody shut up!”

Pomni certainly hadn’t expected that to work— It was more to release the tension building in her head. But it still frustrated her when the NPCs continued to vie for her undivided attention.

“Can you get my cat down from that tree?” The same mannequin from before repeated.

“Hey! You, with the bug-eyes! You need upgraded weapons?”

“Oh, look at me! I’m a cop using unnecessary force! Hehe!”

“Hold this kidnapped child for me, will you?”

Pomni felt them coming up close to her. She fumbled for her inventory, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what spot the trigger was in. Not when there were so many bodies and hands reaching out for her for help.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she felt a cold, wooden hand touch her back.

“AHHH!”

She couldn’t help it— She ran, shoving through the crowd with all of her might. She wasn’t sure where she was going, just that it had to be away from here. Away from the tasks, the copious and over-exaggerated violence, the touching…

Her lungs burned as she screeched to a halt in a much quieter part of town. Fewer mannequins walked the streets, and the buildings were less crowded together. As she paused to catch her breath, her eyes landed on one building in particular: A little gray-and-gold place, tucked tightly between two un-enterable buildings. On the door in bold, lightning-font letters were the words SuperSonic Spa™.

Pomni glanced around. A spa? What business does Caine have putting a spa in this adventure? But after a few seconds of consideration, she shrugged to herself and pushed the door open. Oh, whatever. It can’t be that bad.

The second she walked through the door, a little set of chimes jingled, and Caine teleported into the room. “WOWZA-WEE! LOOKS LIKE YOU’VE DISCOVERED ONE OF STEERS CITY’S HIDDEN GEMS!” He paused as he stared down at Pomni. “WHERE’S EVERYONE ELSE? I SPECIFICALLY MADE THIS ADVENTURE TO BE ENJOYED AS A GROUP!”

Pomni’s eyes were still glued to the signage on the door. “Did you actually trademark that?”

“OH, THAT? NO!” He tapped the text on the glass door. “WE’VE MADE A BRAND DEAL WITH SUPERSONIC SPA™! THEY GIVE US MONEY EVERY TIME WE SAY IT!”

She looked at the ringmaster, and then back at the stupid-sounding phrase. “Uh… SuperSonic Spa™?”

“GREAT JOB, POMNI! NOW WE CAN AFFORD TO KEEP THIS ADVENTURE RUNNING FOR AN EXTRA… LET’S SEE… TWO AND A HALF HOURS!”

“Uh, okay. Great. But, like… Aren’t you supposed to be fixing the glitch?”

“I AM! I’M MULTITASKING!” He held out his arms in a gesture that was meant to be friendly. “I NEEDED TO TAKE A BRIEF PAUSE TO WELCOME YOU TO YOUR SIDE QUEST!”

“Wait, this is mine?” When did I ever request this? Pomni thought back to the few times she’d made a suggestion on any of the adventures, and suddenly, an image appeared in her mind— A little note on Caine’s idea board that had seemed inconsequential at the time: Pomni = Relaxing?? “Oh. I see.”

“WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? START RELAXING! NOW!”

Caine popped out of existence. She shrugged, assuming he had better things to do.

Pomni, with no guidance, had no clue on where to start. She turned to the far wall, where there were three doors: One for men, one for women, and one that was just a silhouette of Zooble. She took a chance and entered the women’s door.

Inside was an area much bigger than it should have been. It was, in fact, the nicest spa she’d ever seen. Hot tubs and mud baths and massage tables— the works. She breathed in the hot, steamy air and, for the first time that day, felt her body relax.

Since she’d never been to a place as nice as this before (That she could remember), she decided to start with the giant bathtub in the center of the room. The steam felt nice enough on her clammy skin, so it was a pretty safe bet. That’s when she noticed something odd.

She tugged at the collar of her stupid, silly jumpsuit, and felt it come detached from her body. That hadn’t happened before. Sure, in the circus, they could change clothes, but it was more like selecting an outfit in a game. They were painfully limited, too. Mainly just P.J.s and ‘everyday’ clothes. Gangle and Zooble didn’t even have outfits to choose between. This whole time, Pomni hadn’t been able to actually go through the mundane act of changing out of something.

Curiosity consumed her. Why wasn’t this something she’d thought of before? Did she even have a body beneath these frills and pompoms? Pomni hastily stripped off her outfit and turned to the nearest mirror to see…

Nothing but a Caine-censor bar.

Despite the oddness of it all, she felt something in her chest sink as she saw her body— Or, more accurately, her lack thereof. She heaved a shaky breath, all her tears from the day threatening to spill over. In the real world, she’d stared at herself in the mirror like this many times before. She just knew it. Had her body been something she was proud of? Or had she hated it completely?

Well, whatever she’d felt before, it had to be better than this. She’d’ve taken any amount of hate over total indifference.

Too off-put to keep looking, she turned away from the mirror completely and plunged into the bath. The temperature burned at first, but she adjusted quick enough. Her chunky black hair floated around her face as she submerged her head under the water, trying to wash away days… Weeks… Months? Well, trying to wash away everything that had come to pass in the time she’d spent in the circus.

Whatever she did, though, she couldn’t look down at the censor-bar.

She raised her head above the water and laid down on her back, feeling the water lap at her limbs. Pomni closed her eyes, trying so hard to relax, just as Caine had demanded. It took a while, but she was able to put the reality of her situation on the back-burner of her mind. Her brain quieted. The side-quests and brutal injuries were slowly becoming a distant memory, and her mind gave way to more peaceful scenes. But just as she felt herself mellow out…

“Are you ready for your facial?”

Pomni yelped as a high-pitched, nasally voice cut through her one peaceful moment. She paddled over to the edge of the huge tub and grappled for a towel to cover herself. Sure, there was nothing to cover up, but real-world habit won over circus censorship. She whipped her head towards the source of the sound and saw a transparent, shiny orb floating above her.

“Bubble!” She wrapped the towel tightly around herself. “Would it kill you to knock?”

Bubble seemed to think (if he was even capable of that) but just came out with, “I’ll be doing your facial today.”

“Ohhh…Kay.”

For not having hands, or formal training, or anything going on upstairs whatsoever, Bubble was actually surprisingly good at giving facials. Maybe the fumes from the masks and face washes were starting to get to her head, but Pomni actually felt relaxed while he worked. Relaxed enough to start talking.

“And then, if you can believe it, Zooble started beating the shit out of Jax. And guess who killed Ming for them? I did!” She sat up for a moment to bite into a pixillated strawberry from a fruit platter. “But guess who Gangle gave the credit to?”

“You?”

“No! Zooble!”

Bubble shook his head. “Mm mm mm.”

“It’s just… God, how do I say this? I don’t hate them. They’re my friends. But they can’t work together to save their lives!”

He brushed some green slop onto her face messily. Pomni guessed that this must be the sixth mask he’d put on her. But she was on a roll now.

“I just… If we’re all stuck here together, it’d be better for us to get along, right? But Jax has to make everything hard, and then Zooble retaliates, and Ragatha freaks out. No one even tries to work together.” She closed her eyes as Bubble splashed some of the liquid mask around. “We were five-against-one today, and we still almost lost the fight.”

“Awful!”

“See? You get it.” She ran a hand through her hair. “What do I even do?”

Bubble opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Pomni opened one eye to look at him, and he seemed frozen in space. She held out a hand to touch him, or, at the very least, pop him. But her hand just passed straight through his body.

“Bubble? What are you—?”

Caine seemed to float in from out of nowhere. “HOW’S YOUR STAY AT SUPERSONIC SPA™ GOING, POMNI?”

"Er… Fine.” She curled up, wiping goop off her face with her hand and wrapping her towel tighter around herself. “What’s up with him?”

Caine’s eyes slid to his frozen assistant. He tried to pop him, but his actions had the same effect as Pomni’s. “NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, MY DEAREST DRAMA-LLAMA! JUST A BIT OF LAG!”

“Lag?” She got out of the seat Bubble had her in. “Since when is lag a thing here?”

“SINCE TODAY!” He looked at his wrist, which didn’t have anything on it. “WELL, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! IT SEEMS THAT YOUR TIME AT SUPERSONIC SPA™ IS OVER!”

He snapped and the spa completely disappeared. All that remained was the chair Pomni was reclined on, the fruit plate, and a half-empty container labeled Generic green mask. She was fully clothed again, thank God. But her hair was still wet, and she could feel bits of dried gunk at the edges of her face. Well, at least she wasn’t half-naked in the middle of a busy city. NPCs or not, anyone seeing her in that state would be embarrassing.

“Pomni?”

She startled as she heard a familiar voice. Pomni whipped her head around and saw Ragatha peering out from behind a corner. She looked absolutely haggard, her eyes shadowed by dramatic lines and soot staining her skin. “Oh, hi, Ragatha…”

“Hey, guys! We found Pomni!” She picked up her skirt and trotted over to where Pomni was reclined. “Kinger came back as soon as you left. He found us a spot to stay for the night that looks safe enough.” For the first time, Ragatha seemed to notice the oddness of Pomni’s surroundings. “…Did I interrupt something?”

“Not really.” Pomni wiped the last of the mask from her face and adjusted her hat on her head. She saw the rest of her friends following Ragatha, and was taken aback at how bad they all looked. Zooble was missing some parts, Gangle’s tragedy mask was cracked down the middle and duct-taped in the center. Kinger looked mostly unharmed, but he had a rifle in his hand and was jumping at every little noise. Jax’s fur was all ruffled and matted, and the bottoms of his overalls were looking ratty and tattered. “What happened to you all?”

“Just a few mishaps. You know how it is.”

Clearly I don’t. Pomni averted her eyes and wrung her hands together. God, I’m such a shitty friend. I just left them. Her stomach twisted guiltily, and she looked around desperately to find something that might help. Her eyes landed on the fruit plate, which she’d hardly touched, and she grabbed it off its stand.

“Here.” She offered it to Ragatha. “You guys need it more than I do.”

Ragatha’s doll eyes widened at her offer, and she picked up what looked like a low-resolution kiwi slice. The second she bit it, a sigh escaped her and she sat on the dirty ground, exhausted. “This helps. Thanks.”

The others crowded around the plate, too exhausted to say anything. The fruit was gone in a matter of seconds, and while it didn’t help their current situation much, everyone looked more refreshed after their snack.

“Where were you?” Zooble asked, a slightly accusing edge to their voice.

“I was…” She paused, thinking of what she should say next. “I was thinking.”

They waited for her to go on.

“We need to stick together from now on.” She felt her heart pound as their eyes landed on her, and she realized that they were waiting on her to make the next choice. They must’ve been so exhausted to be looking to Pomni in all this messiness. “I— I shouldn’t have left you all. I’m sorry. I lashed out— Anyway, it wasn’t cool. At all. But I want us to try and work as a team here.”

“I agree,” Ragatha piped up a little too soon. “It’s been a sucky day, but we can make it better if we just don’t try to kill each other anymore.”

Pomni nodded, grateful to have at least some backup from a teammate.

“Hey, I was just playing around.” Jax crossed his too-long legs. “Zooble’s the one who turned on me.”

Zooble glared at him. “Oh, you—”

“Hey!” Pomni held up her hands, trying to force some assertiveness into her voice. She cleared her throat and went on: “Can you guys fight each other when we get back to the circus? Right now, we just need to cooperate.” She shot a cold glare at Jax. “That means you, too. No picking on Gangle, or fighting Zooble, or shooting Ragatha. Just be normal, please.”

He blinked at her, pupils going small. She felt tension there, some odd electricity that flickered between the two of them. But she held his gaze, forcing herself not to blink for fear that he would see that as backing down.

It wasn’t until he looked away from her that she felt she could soften her gaze. “Whatever you say,” He conceded, falling backwards onto the ground dramatically. “Trust me, you’ll regret this.”

The light tone of his voice didn’t fool her. She exchanged a glance with Ragatha, who just shrugged.

“I’m good with that,” Gangle said, raising a ribbon shyly. “Go, team?”

“Go, team!” Kinger agreed enthusiastically. “What team was it, again?”

Pomni couldn’t help but smile weakly. “Us, Kinger. We’re a team now.”

Chapter Text

The place that Kinger had insisted was perfectly safe for them to rest at was the rooftop of a building called Hotel a la Caine. It was a pretty nice-looking place, but Pomni figured it would be a waste of money to actually stay there. If they had finite resources and an indefinite stay here, she wanted her measly $5000 to last as long as humanly possible.

More climbing was required to get up there, making Pomni wonder how Kinger had even found this spot in the first place. How long had he been gone earlier before they all noticed? At least this time they didn’t have to scale a whole building. They had the fire escape to assist them.

Still, by the time they reached the top, Pomni’s legs were shaking. She collapsed, feeling her face press up against the cold cement, and groaned. How long had this day been? She couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago, she was in the kitchen with Gangle. That moment felt lifetimes away.

“I guess we should keep watch,” Zooble suggested. Their eyes drifted to Gangle, who was completely facedown on the pavement, her ribbons stretched and sprawled out messily. “I’ll take the first one, I guess.”

“I’ll do it with you,” Ragatha said, trying to sound cheery. But her tone was only thinly veiling the misery in her words.

Pomni sat up, shaking her head violently to wake herself up. Knowing what she should do, but not knowing if she had the strength to do it. After a moment of consideration, she forced the words out. “No, Ragatha. I’ll do it.”

“A-Are you sure? I don’t mind—”

“No, just sleep.” Pomni shook her arms, getting ready for another few hours of wakefulness. “You’ve done more than me today.”

Ragatha looked like she wanted to argue further, but eventually conceded silently with a nod of relief. “Well, just wake me in a bit. Gangle, you wanna do next watch with me?”

“Mmmgh…” Was the only sound Gangle could manage. She curled up, still facedown, and started snoring.

“That leaves—” Zooble tilted their lopsided head towards Kinger and Jax. “Those two for last. Do we really trust them for that?”

“I think we have to start trusting each other with this stuff,” Pomni said hesitantly. Doubt still crept up in her chest, though. Jax clearly wasn’t the best fit for the job. And even in the growing darkness, would Kinger be able to keep him in check? “Or… I could take watch with Jax?”

Zooble eyed her suspiciously. “You’re half his size, Pomni. Are you sure?”

No, She wanted to say. But she was saved from answering by Kinger himself. “Don’t you worry about us,” He said. He threw a glance at Jax, who was already curled up in a ball on the ground, his back to the other members. “Something tells me this one won’t be causing too much trouble tonight.”

Pomni knit her eyebrows together, but eventually nodded and took her place next to Zooble on the roof’s edge.

Steers city never really slept at night.

At least, that’s what Pomni learned. Staring at the traffic below, watching her legs dangle so far above the world, she wondered if this was supposed to be a convoluted parody of New York City. Or Vegas. Something in that realm.

The lack of talk between her and Zooble wasn’t really uncomfortable. There just wasn’t much for them to talk about. Pomni knew that any attempts she made would just fizzle out, and Zooble didn’t seem to have the energy for conversing, anyway. So they just sat in well-understood silence, keeping watch over their sleeping teammates.

She looked up, searching for those familiar, hand-drawn stars. Instead, all she saw were highways and overpasses, crowding the space where the sky would be in any other adventure. Any bits of the sky were just the dull, red-tinted-black of a light-polluted night.

She felt her eyes drift shut, and fought to open them again. Pomni refused to fall asleep on her shift, no matter how badly she wanted to. She didn’t want Zooble to see her nodding off, either. But her eyelids felt like two magnets that just kept snapping back together, no matter how hard she tried to keep them apart…

When she felt a shove from behind, though, her whole body seemed to wake with a jolt. For a horrible moment, she leaned forward precariously, looking at the world awaiting her fall below. It looked different. Quieter and more real than Steers City. 

And then she opened her eyes again. Zooble’s hand grasped the back of her jumpsuit firmly. “Might wanna back up a bit, Pomni. You're looking a little shaky.”

Pomni obeyed wordlessly, scooting backwards towards more solid ground. The edge of the building wasn’t too appealing anymore. “Who pushed me?”

“Pushed you?” Zooble turned around, looking at the sleeping members of the group. The closest person to them was Ragatha, who, in addition to not being a likely candidate for pushing someone off a building, was too far and too deeply asleep to easily touch Pomni. “No one pushed you. You were about to fall off all by yourself.”

“Oh. Got it.” Pomni brought her knees up to her chest.

Zooble’s eyes softened, and they turned their gaze back towards the tangled urban hellscape above them. “It’s all such a mess, isn’t it?”

“The city?”

They nodded. “The whole thing. Nothing seems to work properly.”

Pomni nodded. “At least we’ve got little things to look forward to.” She sighed and chuckled softly. “Caine gave me a spa. Did I tell you that?”

Their eyes widened. “No way.”

“Yes way.”

“Fuck. Wish I’d been there.”

“I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff.”

“Hey, you live in Caine’s dollhouse long enough and you’re bound to want something human.” They trailed off. Clearly their own thought process was starting to hit a nerve.

“I didn’t know you were into cartography.” Pomni tried to keep going with the conversation, to drag them out of whatever path their mind was going down.

“Oh, I… I’m not.” Zooble dangled their legs off the building and started fiddling with one of their zigzagging antennae. “I just tried it once. Wasn’t for me. I’m not terrible with maps, though.”

“Bartender. Tattoo artist. Cartographer.” Pomni leaned in ever so slightly. “Seems like you’ve tried a lot of things.”

Zooble wouldn’t look at her. “Yeah. Nothing stuck, though.”

They blinked, refusing to look at Pomni. Maybe they thought they’d said too much.

Zooble didn’t say anything else for a while. Pomni thought of pushing further, asking more questions, but decided that they might not take well to that. Pomni looked down at her shoes, studying the plastic, shiny appearance of them, keeping her ears open for any suspicious noises. But her focus was broken by Zooble grabbing her shoulder suddenly.

“Do you see that?” They asked urgently. More urgently than Pomni was comfortable with.

She looked up and saw where Zooble was pointing: A gap between the concrete structures of Steers city, where there was a bare patch of exposed sky. But it wasn’t just sky they were looking at. There was an unmistakable, swinging shape up there too.

An exit door.

She would know the look of it anywhere. Although Pomni hadn’t seen one of those exits since the day she arrived in the circus, the image of it would be permanently seared into her memory. Her final hope reduced to nothing but an unfinished project, destined for the garbage. But here it was, right up there.

Unreachable. Almost like it was mocking her for daring to hope.

But it was there nonetheless.

Through the doorway, she could see a room that didn’t look like any Caine-designed space. It was too real-looking. Falling apart ceiling tiles, exposed pipes, layers and layers of dust.

Zooble squinted. “Is that…”

“The real world?” Pomni finished.

They exchanged a glance. Pomni saw her own emotions reflected in Zooble’s eyes. That hunger for reality. A world that wasn’t this one. They were just as desperate as she was.

Would the others feel the same?

Before Pomni could turn around to rouse the rest of the circus, she stole one last glance at the sky.

It was gone. The exit had disappeared, not leaving a trace behind. She felt her face fall. There goes that.

“Maybe it’s time for the next watch,” Zooble mumbled, seeming to sense Pomni’s mood plummeting. “It’s been a long day.”

She couldn’t agree more. She laid down flat on the pavement, listening to Zooble wake Ragatha and Gangle for their shift. Her eyes drifted shut, and within seconds, she was out cold.

Pomni wouldn’t lie and say that she hadn’t thought of the exit at all since her first day, but she certainly hadn’t been thinking of it that much. Considering it had driven Kaufmo to abstraction before she could even meet him, she’d decided to leave it on the back-burner.

Tonight, though, it haunted her dreams. She barreled through adventure after adventure, constantly chasing that red door that swung open and closed like it was part of some constantly-swaying funhouse. In her mad pursuit of the exit, she passed mirrors that distorted her face and body, each one more horrific than the last.

When she finally got to the door and reached for its knob, it was replaced by one more mirror. This one didn’t show her the little jester that she’d been conditioned to think of as herself. Instead, her very being was replaced by a frazzled, buzzing blob of broken code and flashing eyes.

Hands reached out to grab her— First the hands of her friends, then of NPCs, and then, finally, dozens of abstracted limbs. Hundreds of hands grabbed at her lumbering figure. She tried to scream, but all that came out were garbled moans and cries.

Stay here, Pomni! They all seemed to say. You don’t need an exit. You belong here.

Something dragged her backwards, and she felt the sickening sensation of falling.

Pomni sat bolt upright, her whole body seizing up as she woke. She touched her face, and, to her immediate relief, felt that it was normal.

She wasn’t abstracted.

Well, that was one thing she had going for her.

The sky was the dark gray of incredibly early morning, and the air felt dewy and fresh with the day ahead. Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble all were dead asleep on various spots of the roof, and she saw Kinger and Jax’s upright figures. They looked like they were talking about something.

What do they have to talk about? She thought. They hadn’t noticed that she was up, so they must have been deep in the weeds of some topic. Pomni laid back down, hoping for at least another hour of rest while they kept watch.

But sleep didn’t come back to her easily. Every time she shut her eyes, that horrible image of her abstracted figure flashed behind her eyelids. Eventually, she gave up on it entirely and just stared at a looping animation of a butterfly circling her head lazily.

She didn’t mean to snoop on Kinger and Jax’s conversation. But when there’s nothing else to hold your attention, you’re bound to listen in on some things.

“—Jax, I still remember the day you and your friend arrived in this place.” Kinger sounded wistful, like a father fondly remembering his child’s first steps. “I’ve seen you grow up here. And you think I wouldn’t see what’s going on here?”

Jax sighed. “Well, since when did you get so observant?”

“Things come to me, now and then.” Kinger paused. “I know that boy I met all those years ago is still packed away somewhere.”

“The boy you knew?” Jax scoffed. There was no humor behind it; Just pure disdain. “He’s not here anymore. What you’re seeing here? This is the whole story. No more. No less.”

“Oh, Jax.” Kinger’s voice was strikingly sad. “Anyone with eyes and ears can see that’s not the case.”

“Bold words from someone at the edge of a 12-story-building.”

“I know you won’t push me.”

“Do you want to find out?”

There was a long silence between them. Pomni was about to zone out completely when she heard Kinger mumble something else.

“I sure hope you aren’t blaming yourself for everything.”

Jax's head jerked towards him. “You really want to taste the pavement, don’t you?”

“Jax.”

“Kinger.” He said it in a mocking tone as he stood up and crossed his arms. “See? I can say your name, too. It doesn’t do anything.”

“Listen, just for a second.”

Oddly enough, Jax didn’t say anything else. Pomni stole a quick glance. Sure, he was fuming mad. Fists clenched, body stiff as a board. But he made no threatening moves towards Kinger, and he kept that fat mouth sealed shut.

“You can’t close yourself off forever.” Kinger made a gesture towards her and the rest of the circus. Pomni squeezed her eyes shut, hoping he wouldn’t notice she was awake. “Sometimes, you focus so hard on everything you’ve lost that you miss out on all of the people right in front of you.”

“Yeah? And what would you know about loss?”

“Oh, plenty.” Normally a phrase like that would be loaded, but Kinger just said it with complete factuality… And defeat. “I’ve been here long enough to see plenty of people abstract. Lots of people I cared about. I know it seems hard to get past someone—”

“You don’t know what it was like to lose him!” As soon as the words escaped his mouth, he slumped, like he’d said something wrong. It was an expression she’d never seen from him before. He sucked in a quick gasp of air, like he could breathe his words back in. But there was no backtracking now. Jax rubbed his head and sat on the ground with a heavy thump, his foot tapping anxiously. “You have no idea.”

Kinger put a hand on Jax's shoulder. “I don’t.” He looked away. “I know that… What was his name, again?”

Jax breathed the word so quietly, you’d think he hadn’t said anything at all. But between Pomni straining to hear and the absolute clarity that seemed to come to Jax when he said the name, she was able to catch something. “Ribbit.”

“Right. Now I remember.” Kinger took a deep breath. “I know that Ribbit was someone special to you. I’ll never know what it was like to lose him, exactly.”

Jax’s eyes slid over to him, waiting for him to keep talking.

“When my wife abstracted, I kept my distance from everyone else for a long time.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to connect with anyone, thinking it would happen all over again. But no amount of effort is wasted, Jax. Even if you know that some way or another, you’re gonna part ways. In here, people abstract. Outside, people die.” Kinger closed his eyes to guard against the sun as it broke over the horizon. “I guess what I mean is this: Just because your time with someone will end someday, that doesn’t make the journey you take with them any less valuable.”

Jax snickered. “Yeah? And why would I take advice from someone who threw me into oblivion earlier?”

“Well, that’s the good thing about advice, isn’t it? You can take it or leave it.” Kinger opened his eyes and looked over the cluttered city skyline. “You want my final two cents?”

Jax stayed completely still, not nodding but not refusing, either.

“Don’t push the people you have right now too far away. You never know what could be between you all if you don’t at least try. You also never know when they could be gone.”

For once, the purple rabbit had nothing to say. He just watched the artificial sun rise with calculated indifference, covering his mouth with his hands.

Finally, he stretched and clapped his hands together. “Nice talk, Kingy. Real nice. But it seems like it’s high time to wake the others up. Do me a solid and pretend this never happened.”

“Pretend what never happened?”

“That’s more like it.” Jax cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hey! Fire! There’s a fire!”

Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha woke with a start. When they saw that there was, in fact, no fire, Jax cracked up.

“Ha! Gotcha!”

“Are you serious?!” Ragatha's voice was groggy, but alarmed nonetheless.

“Had to wake you lazy-butts up somehow.”

Pomni sat up and stretched, feeling the effects of sleeping on concrete as she tried to stretch her back. Her eyes flew over to Jax and Ragatha, whose interaction was devolving more into an argument with each passing second.

She filed his interaction with Kinger in the back of her mind. Something told her it wasn't a conversation she would want to forget.

The goal for today: Find a proper side-quest to do while Caine fixed everything. If they were gonna be stuck here for an indefinite period, they might as well play along. “Plus,” Pomni reasoned to the others, “It wouldn’t make sense for Caine to add money to the adventure if there’s not some way to gain it back.”

“Caine doesn’t typically deal in logical solutions,” Zooble grumbled. “But… I guess it’s worth a shot.”

So after another grueling climb (Pomni hoped there wouldn’t be too many more of these— Her legs were still sore from yesterday, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take), they hit the streets to sift through the possible avenues Caine had laid out for them. And, boy, were there a lot. They started with the most reasonable-sounding one they could find: An NPC shouting about a pickpocket stealing their money.

“That was my gambling fund!” He complained loudly as soon as the cast took him up on his offer.

“Gambling fund?” Ragatha questioned.

“You heard me!” He replied, still shouting frantically. “I’ve never won before… But 99% of gamblers quit before they make it big!"

“Where did he go?” Pomni asked, cutting him off before he could get too sidetracked.

The NPC pointed at a pink shape that towered over the crowd. He seemed to stumble over his own feet as he walked, and was apologizing to every person he bumped into. When he turned enough for Pomni to catch a glimpse of his face, she had to stifle a laugh.

Evil Jax.

Out of every character Caine had conceived, it had to be this one? Instinctively, she looked to Jax for his reaction.

He already had his weapon over his shoulder, which looked like some sort of grenade launcher. Lucky. A glare hardened his features. “Finally. A chance to kill this guy.”

He ran after Evil Jax, not waiting for the others. The crowd seemed to part around him, gasping and pointing at his grenade launcher.

“Hey! Wait up!” Gangle linked her arm with Zooble’s and dragged them after Jax. “This is our job, too!”

“Guys!” Ragatha followed them. “Stick together, remember?”

Pomni sighed as she pulled her rusty knife out of her inventory. Here we go again.

Evil Jax was a lot quicker than they gave him credit for. A few times, they nearly lost him. The only giveaway to his location was his sheepish voice crying “Sorry!” Every so often.

“You get over here!” Jax yelled, furious at his evil counterpart for daring to exist.

“I-I would!” Evil Jax replied breathlessly. “But I've got a prior commitment— Oops! Sorry!” He got sidetracked as he bumped into a hunched-over old lady.

Zooble reached out to grab him, but he slipped away, leaving them to face-plant on the ground. Gangle paused to help her partner up, leaving just Jax, Ragatha, Pomni, and Kinger in hot pursuit of Evil Jax.

He cut through an alley. On the other end of the shortcut was a gray Maserati with the red-and-yellow shape of Evil Pomni in the driver’s seat. At the sight of Evil Jax, she groaned and got out of the car. “Fuck, man, I knew it shouldn’t’ve been you. You bitch.”

“E-Evil Pomni! Get back in! We need to get outta here!”

“Oh, no, not on my watch!” Jax aimed his grenade launcher straight at the car and fired. The street blew up, and Pomni had to shield her eyes as bits of metal and glass flew into the air. When the dust finally settled, she opened her eyes again to see her and Jax’s evil counterparts absolutely wrecked. The carnage, much like everything else she’d seen, was scarily realistic. The only difference was that the blood and gore was replaced with colorful bits of confetti. Bits of metal and concrete stuck in their skin, but they were both very clearly alive.

Evil Pomni turned to her comrade. “You… Jackass…”

Jax marched over to the evil version of himself and snatched the wallet out of his front pocket. “Well,” He said triumphantly, “That’s two pickpockets dealt with.”

“Jax, don’t you think that was a bit much?” Ragatha chewed him out.

“What? He wanted his money back, we got his money.” He spun around to face them and tossed the wallet to Pomni. “Here, you take this.”

“I… Uh…” She looked back and stole another glance at the evils. “Let’s just go.”

She stuck close to Kinger as they began backtracking. But as soon as they turned around, they were met with a new predicament: All the rest of their evil counterparts, minus Gangle, facing them in a semicircle with weapons drawn. Pomni felt greater confusion when her eyes landed on each of them, but as she reached Bazooble, her stomach sank with cold, nauseating dread.

Gangle and Zooble sat at their feet, obviously beaten nearly senseless. Gangle’s arms were tied in a messy knot around Zooble, binding both of them together in a way that must’ve been painful for her.

“You blew up Evil Pomni and EJ?” Kinger’s evil version (Dictatorer, if Pomni remembered correctly) accused.

“Well, not quite.” Kinger spoke up, and Pomni wanted to slap her hand over his mouth so he’d shut up. Unfortunately, she was too short, and he had no mouth to cover, anyway. “They look a little rough, but I’m sure if we get them to a hospital—”

Kinger didn’t even get to finish his statement. He was cut off by Dictatorer slamming body-first into him, clasping his hands around Kinger’s throat.

Evil Ragatha cracked a maniacal grin and pulled an axe out from behind her. “You’ve messed with our friends, and now you’re all gonna die! Ahahahaha!”

From there, it was a complete free-for-all. Ragatha battled her evil version, sparks flying as her only weapon, a metal bat, met her opponent’s axe. Kinger grappled with Dictatorer, Jax fired explosives haphazardly, leaving everyone else to dodge his carelessness. Pomni stood face-to-face with Bazooble, fists clenched so that her hands would stop shaking so much.

Pomni swung her knife at Bazooble, but the lopsided character just dodged each hit with janky movements. “I— Wish— We’d— Stayed— Put!” Pomni gasped in between swings.

“Stayed put where? The fun’s just starting!” Bazooble’s awkward drawl just felt like nails on a chalkboard.

“Aren’t you, like, gonna try to fight back?” Pomni fell backwards as one of Jax’s grenades landed on the ground a few feet from her. She lunged towards Bazooble, trying to go for a groin-hit, but they just dodged out of the way again.

“Fight?” Bazooble seemed to remember for the first time where they were and what they were doing. “Oh, yeah! Now that’s what you were doin’! I was thinkin’ this was just some interpretive dance.”

Then, in one swift movement, Bazooble tripped Pomni and pinned her beneath their knee. They took her knife from her hands and stabbed it right in the middle of her neck.

“One down, three to go!” They chirped before hobbling of, dropping the blade on the ground beside Pomni.

Pomni was stunned. Pain spread out across her body, radiating from the hole right in her throat. She tried to gasp, to cry out for help, but all that escaped her was a single wheeze, to quiet to be heard over the chaos. She grabbed her neck and felt the confetti spilling out freely, a completely family-friendly solution to a very R-rated problem. Little jolts ran through her as she lost health points.

She looked at the fight, her heart sinking. They were so losing. Their evil counterparts seemed to beat them in every conceivable way. She caught Jax’s eye from across the alley, and his face dropped at her condition.

He turned suddenly towards Bazooble and slammed his grenade launcher into their head. They collapsed against the wall, motionless. Jax’s yellow eyes stayed fixed on Pomni, though he seemed to be frozen. There was an expression on his face that she’d never thought she would see— Helplessness.

She wouldn’t get a chance to process his change in attitude, though. Because as soon as his fear registered in her mind, she collapsed to the ground, choking one final time before a red block of text flashed across her field of vision.

Wasted.

Chapter Text

The world blurred at the edges of Pomni’s vision, sound becoming nothing but a constant buzz in her ears. The pain continued on, not subsiding but actively worsening the longer she laid down. The word in her field of view just kept flashing in an epileptic fashion. Her body wouldn’t move at her command, so all she could do was sit there and wait for the fight to end.

She couldn’t talk— The wound in her throat made sure of that. She couldn’t breathe too well, either, for the same reason. Her lungs burned, crying out for air that she couldn’t provide. She felt a set of soft arms grab her and prop her against the wall, only for their warmth to be ripped away seconds later by an enemy.

Sitting against the wall, feeling this unbearable agony and watching her teammates turn to nothing but blurs of color in the background of her consciousness, she was reminded of last night, when she’d thought someone had pushed her. They were two very similar feelings— The helplessness of being at the mercy of something you couldn’t see. Gravity or broken coding… It was all the same in the end, wasn’t it?

It lasted too long. She could have been in his half-dead state for hours or seconds. The pain stagnated her own brain. She couldn’t retreat or go to any sort of happy place— All that existed was this current moment. No past called her back, no future prospects dragged her forward. All Pomni could do was be.

She wasn't sure when the fight around her ended. All she knew was that one second, there was a chaotic haze. The next, she was being tied up and dragged elsewhere by unfamiliar hands.

They took her to what looked vaguely like a limousine and threw her into the backseat. She landed roughly on top of someone else’s hard body. Kinger…?

More bodies, more touching. They all must have been shoved into the same space. It was tight, and nobody moved around her. Were they all rendered in this helpless state, too? The thought made Pomni turn cold with dread.

But her questions were… Well, not quite answered, but amplified as she felt something scratchy wrap around her neck. At first it felt like sandpaper, but as her senses started to sharpen again, she realized what it was. Gauze…?

After a few seconds, her vision cleared. The pain was still there, but it had dulled to a throb rather than the all-consuming fire it had been before. Her body moved at her will again, but everything was sore. Her health was back, in some fragile sense. Pomni got the vibe that if she got anything more than a paper cut, though, she would “die” all over again.

They were in the back of some limousine. The evils, though beaten and battered, sat across from them in one piece. They were even getting lectured by some NPC in the front seat. Orbsman, maybe? It seemed like it, from the way his words were nearly unintelligible. Evil Jax was being bandaged up by Evil Ragatha, whimpering the whole time like an idiot.

Meanwhile, Pomni and the rest of the crew were all crammed into a corner of the limo. At a quick glance, she could see that everyone was tied up, their hands pinned behind their backs. They looked just about as bad as she felt, too.

Evil Jax squeaked as Evil Ragatha tightened a bandage around his upper arm. Evil Ragatha looked up from her work as he flinched and patted the top of his pink head. “Fear not, my furry friend! You’ll heal up and then you can give these circus freaks the punishment they’ve earned! Ahahahaha!”

“I--I don’t wanna punish them…” His eyes slid over to the group. “I just hope they’ve learned their lesson and come out of this as better people than before!”

Oh, yeah. These clones were so gonna get on Pomni’s nerves.

“That’s rich, coming from a gang of thieves,” Zooble pointed out, pain and drowsiness at the edges of their voice. “I mean, didn’t we get in this situation because you stole some guy’s wallet?”

Evil Jax sniffled and started sobbing, his face buried in his hands. “Well, you don’t have to be so m-mean about it!”

“Oh, shit, you made E.J. cry!” Evil Pomni gave them an accusing glare as her and Evil Ragatha consoled him. “Fuck you, man! Only we can do that!”

Pomni heard Jax start grumbling next to her. Unfortunately, any words he had for the situation were stifled by the duct tape over his mouth.

“You guys seem… Close.” Ragatha cringed as Bazooble took a box of tissues out of thin air and started wiping E.J.’s tears. This whole nefarious-car-ride-thing was starting to turn into a non-consensual viewing of these guys’ cuddle sesh.

“Well, of course!” Evil Ragatha laughed gratingly… Again. There’s nothing for her to laugh at. Does she just do that after ever sentence? “Just because we’re evil doesn’t mean we don’t believe in healthy and affectionate group dynamics!”

Pomni sighed. This is gonna be a very long drive.

In between the clones fretting over Evil Jax, they kept mentioning some sort of “boss.” Like, in passing. “The boss is gonna be so mad about this,” “What do you think boss’ll do to us,” and, of course, “Boss said he’d make us pancakes if we didn’t screw this up. Now what are we gonna do?”

“I don't know if I wanna meet this boss guy,” Gangle muttered, peeking out from behind Zooble’s head. Her ribbons were still knotted around them, keeping both of them captive.

“Me neither.” Pomni cringed at how scratchy her voice sounded… And felt, for that matter. Even her quick sentence felt like the knife was being driven through her neck all over again. Maybe I should just stay quiet for now.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Ragatha whispered, her voice cracking on the last word. She wiggled her shoulders, trying to stretch out the ropes so she could escape. No such luck. “Kinger? Any ideas?”

No response. Pomni turned the side where Kinger was pressed up against her and, to her dismay, saw that his eyes were shut.

“Is he… Sleeping?” Zooble voiced Pomni’s thoughts disbelievingly.

Well, at least Kinger never ceased to surprise them. Wordlessly, Jax stretched one of his legs over Pomni and Ragatha to kick him. Kinger yelped as he was jolted awake, causing Dictatorer to glare daggers at them from the passenger seat. “Be quiet!” He demanded. “My song’s on!”

Dictatorer cranked up the radio, which was blasting some K-pop boy band song. He started singing along to it off key, and Pomni wished that her hands were free just so that she could cover her ears.

The only good thing about Dictarorer’s karaoke was that it gave them some cover to come up with something. And judging by the screen in the car, it looked like they had… About two minutes and thirty seconds to devise a cohesive plan.

“If someone could get one of my arms…” Zooble brainstormed, “I might be able to untie us. Then we could carjack them? Maybe?”

“We’re really out-manned.” Gangle whimpered, a tear falling from her face. “And outgunned. They took my Tommy gun.”

“I left my knife in the alley,” Pomni agreed. But then, an idea popped into her mind. It was a long shot, but maybe… “I think I have a gun with me, though!”

“Shh!” Ragatha hissed, throwing a meaningful glance at Evil Pomni, who was staring at them. She threw on a fake smile as she made eye contact with Pomni’s evil clone. “We’re just… Enjoying the song!” She said a little too loudly. She bobbed her head from side to side, humming along. “Right, guys?”

Zooble blinked. “Uh… Yeah. I love K-pop.”

Evil Pomni stared at them with her mouth hanging open dumbly, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Eventually, though, she turned her attention back to the group karaoke.

Pomni wiggled her tied up arms, fumbling for her inventory trigger. When she found it, sure enough, there was the gun from her fight with Ming. “It has two shots,” She said, grasping it tightly in her hand. “One for the driver, one for someone else.”

Jax made a sound through his taped mouth. The group turned to face him, and saw that he was tilting his head madly towards Evil Jax.

“He’s not a threat,” Zooble told him dismissively. “He’ll cry himself to death before anything else.”

Pomni ran through the roster in her head. Who would get the final bullet? Bazooble? Despite their good hit on her, she doubted they would do much more damage than that. Evil Pomni? All talk, no action. Plus, she was pretty injured, too. Dictatorer? Maybe… He’d been aggressive, but something told her he wasn’t the one to target.

That left Evil Ragatha.

The more she thought, the more it made sense. If she was Ragatha’s opposite, that meant that she was pure, unfiltered violence and hatred. She’d gone nuts with the axe earlier. She’d been the most on board with hurting them. Evil Ragatha seemed to be the backbone of this whole group.

“We go for Evil Ragatha,” Pomni decided.

“Great. Now can someone get my arm so we can finish this thing?” Zooble shifted. “Gangle, you don’t think you can, do you?”

“I can try.” Her ribbons shifted slightly, but after a few seconds of trying, she gave up. “I can’t. They knotted me up really bad.”

“That’s alright.” Zooble’s voice came out as a sigh. Pomni got the idea they wouldn’t have been this soft on anyone else.

“Oh, wait!” Kinger freed his hands from his ropes fairly effortlessly, his floating hands free from his body in an instant. “You know, sometimes I forget I don’t have any arms.”

Zooble grumbled as his gloves shifted over to the mess that was them and Gangle. “Thanks, Kinger. You can just… Get all of us, then.”

“Gladly!”

He unknotted Gangle’s arms and she fell to the floor, heaving a sigh of relief. As soon as they were free of Gangle’s ribbons, Zooble got to work on Pomni. “You get them,” They mumbled as her ropes loosened. “You’re a crack shot, Pomni. I think you’re our best bet here.”

Pomni nodded and aimed the gun as Ragatha and Jax were freed. At this point, the evils were beginning to notice something was amiss. Evil Ragatha turned to look at them. As soon as she did, Pomni fired…

And missed.

Her arms were too shaky, her body still shocked from the stabbing. The bullet went straight towards the roof of the limo and ricocheted until it found its mark in Gangle’s mask. The telltale Wasted text appeared over her head as she collapsed face-first on the ground. Pomni gasped. “Sorry!”

The evils squared up to fight, and Pomni felt everyone tense up around her. They were totally outnumbered now that Gangle was dead, everyone was on low health, and they had one bullet to their name.

But they were too deep in this to stop now.

Pomni jumped as she felt Kinger snatch the gun from her hands. Just as Evil Pomni lunged towards her and started using those sharp teeth to gnaw at her leg, she heard another shot ring out.

The limo swerved, right into oncoming traffic. Zooble launched into action, pushing through the crowd of violence to grab the wheel from the driver. Jax knocked out his evil counterpart with one well-placed punch to the face and then went after Bazooble, fighting them almost animalistically. Teeth gnashing, clawing, gouging… You’d’ve thought they personally wronged him to elicit this reaction. Pomni tore away from Evil Pomni to go after Evil Ragatha. Despite how heavy her limbs felt, and how much her throat still ached from her fight, she figured she’d give this an honest try.

“You can’t defeat us, little jester!” Evil Ragatha swung an axe at Pomni, missing by just a hair. “You’ll pay for your crimes against us and the boss! Ahahahaha!”

An idea popped into Pomni’s head— A stupid one, but it might be her only shot if she hoped to get out of here alive. She thought back to all the shots she’d fired in the gunfight, to her perfect artery-hit on Ming, to her many climbs at precarious heights. Maybe if she wanted to do something in this realm, all she needed was to believe that it could be done.

Corny. But she really didn’t want a repeat of her fight with Bazooble, so maybe corny was the way to go.

“What’s that?!” She pointed frantically behind Evil Ragatha. “Is that… A six foot tall centipede?!”

“Centipede? Where?! I love centipedes!” Evil Ragatha swung her head around to search for the supposed creature. As soon as she did, Pomni swung her leg up, kicking the axe out of her hands. It swung precariously through the air for a moment before embedding itself in the floor beside her. One chance. I have one chance to get this right.

Pomni pulled it out of the ground, adrenaline and desperation making her body gain its strength back. As soon as Evil Ragatha turned back to her, she swung the axe at her face.

Stuffing spilled everywhere as her weapon found its mark. Evil Ragatha fell backwards, her body flickering momentarily before it disappeared. Pomni felt like she could finally breathe again. She dropped to her knees, feeling her limbs grow heavy again. One enemy down.

But as she looked around, she realized that it wasn’t just one enemy gone. Bazooble and Evil Pomni had been killed off as well, leaving nothing behind but a counterfeit jester hat and a baggie full of Stupid Sauce. Dictatorer was on his way out, too, yelling about how he should have picked a different set of evil henchmen to manage. E.J. was still slumped against one of the car seats, unconscious, but Jax promptly solved that issue by opening the door and throwing him into oncoming traffic.

As Ragatha dealt the killing blow to Dictatorer, Zooble pulled the limo over to the curb. “Everyone alright?” They asked, turning towards the absolutely trashed backseat.

Gangle made a small, pathetic noise, and Pomni picked her up to sit her in a car seat. “Gangle’s dead,” She reported. “And I don’t feel too hot, either.”

“Okay. That’s two that need healing. Anyone else?”

“I feel fine,” Ragatha said, still staring at the spot where Dictatorer had been.

“Fit as a fiddle!” Kinger piped up.

“I’m hungry,” Jax complained.

“You can’t be hungry, asshole.”

“Uh, the hunger stat says otherwise, Mix-and-Match.” Jax showed everyone his tab, where his hunger reading was at 10%.

“Well, that seems a bit like a later problem, don’t you think?” Ragatha chided. “Let’s get Pomni and Gangle to the urgent care first.”

“Heard ya.” Zooble buckled themselves in and started down the road. “Who wants shotgun?”

“Me! Me!” Kinger awkwardly jumped into the front seat, shifting and twisting a few times before finally finding a comfortable way to sit in the seat.

Zooble shoved a map into his lap. “Navigate.”

“Okay! Where are we going, again…?”

After Kinger trying and failing 3 times to get them to the urgent care (constantly forgetting what street they were on, asking for reading glasses that weren’t there, et cetera), Zooble kicked him out of shotgun and enlisted Ragatha as the new navigator.

The ride didn’t last long after that. There were hospitals and urgent cares all over the city. Once they located one, it was really just an in-and-out deal. Kinger helped Pomni and Gangle into the building, they regained their health status, and they left with hardly any money to their name. Gangle, however, found a hidden bonus to using the urgent care: She got her comedy mask back at full health.

When they got back into the desecrated limo, Ragatha and Zooble were strategizing together.

“I mean, it’s nice that we have some sort of car now,” Zooble said. “But it’s so conspicuous. I can’t imagine many people have limos in this place.”

“That is true…” Ragatha trailed off as Pomni and Gangle took their seats. “Oh, hey guys— Gangle, your mask!”

Gangle smiled sheepishly, but said nothing at her observation.

“Great, they’re healed. Whoop-de-freakin’-do.” Jax leaned back, sprawling his arms out dramatically. “Now can we please get something to eat? I’m not dying of starvation in a first-person shooter adventure.”

“You’re not getting fed if you’re gonna be a dick about it,” Zooble snapped.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He batted non-existent eyelashes at them and pitched up his voice. “Driver of the almighty stolen vehicle, will you be so kind as to—”

“God, whatever. Just shut up and I'll figure something out.”

“There’s no winning with you, is there?” He said before smiling and reclining in his seat, taking up way more space than he needed to. Pomni saw his eyes slip over to her for a moment, as if waiting for some sort of reward for his teasing. Does he want approval from me? After everything?

“I’m not laughing,” She told him dryly. “You started this whole fight.”

The next quick drive was mostly silent, only occasionally interrupted by an egregiously-censored rendition of The real Slim Shady playing from the broken car radio. Zooble found them a restaurant with food that looked edible enough— Some off-brand McDonald’s that was half-clipped into another building. Not wanting to be dragged into another pointlessly convoluted side-quest, they unanimously voted to go through the drive-thru.

“Yeah, I'll get uhh…” Zooble turned to the backseat. “What do you guys want?”

Pomni shifted. “Uh— Anything. Pick for me.”

“Does the kids meal come with a toy?” Kinger asked.

“We’ll say yes.”

“Then I'll have… Well, there’s the calories to take into consideration… Hmm…”

Zooble sighed. “Six burgers with fries,” They told the cashier.

“I wanted a milkshake, too,” Jax mumbled.

“You don’t get a choice.”

Gangle twiddled her arms together. “Uh, actually, a milkshake does sound good…”

“Six milkshakes,” Zooble corrected a little too quickly.

It was comforting to have something as simple as fast food in all this madness. Everyone ate in near silence. Though Jax was the only one to admit it, they were all ravenous from the past few days. Other than the fruit from the spa, they hadn’t eaten since the adventure started. Pomni hadn’t felt true hunger in a while, either. It was weird to have a shadow of those mundane human needs back.

She wondered how it was for some of the longer-reigning members of the circus, like Kinger and Ragatha. If Ragatha had been here seven years… Had she felt anything like this since she’d gotten here? And God knows how long Kinger had existed in this plane. After so long in the digital realm, needs, basic functions… It all took a backseat to whatever circumstance Caine felt like putting them in.

Caine’s dollhouse. Zooble’s words came to mind as Pomni sipped her vaguely strawberry-flavored milkshake. That seemed a fitting description for this world. Was Jax… Right? Are we all just archetypes in some sentient dollhouse?

No. She pushed the thought back as she glanced at him. He was right next to her, dipping a french fry in his shake. Gross, but okay. He can’t be right. Someone can’t just lose their own humanity like that.

Right?

Jax set his food down and stretched his arm over the top of Pomni’s seat. She scooted away, putting some distance between the two of them. He blinked and turned away, towards Gangle. “Oh! Looks like someone’s got her happy mask back!”

He snatched it off her face, and Gangle whimpered, clutching her face with one hand and reaching for her mask with the other. “H--Hey! Give that back…”

“Jax!” Ragatha turned towards the backseat, eyes blazing. “Would you please give it a rest for just one minute?”

“What? I’m just screwin’ around.” He tossed the mask back to Gangle, and she fumbled to catch it. “You guys are all way too serious right now.”

“God forbid we rest for a bit without anything happening,” Pomni muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

His eyes lingered on Pomni for just a second too long. She noticed it, and so did he. He scoffed and looked out the window. “You guys like it when I mess with you.”

“You got your shake.” Zooble shifted gear and pulled out of the faux-McDonald's parking lot, back onto the highway. “Now do us all a favor and shut up for a little while.”

Chapter Text

Twilight faded to night, and with the fading sunlight came rain. Thundering, freezing digital rain.

Pomni felt herself clutching the edges of her seat as the downpour got harder. The cold from outside was starting to seep in through the limo’s windows, and she could hardly imagine driving normally in these conditions. But Zooble seemed to insist on going 70 down a dark, wet highway where they could barely see ten feet in front of them. In a stolen limousine. Yippee.

“Should we, like, slow down a bit?” She ventured shakily as Zooble whizzed past a Volkswagen beetle.

“Relax, I can handle this.” They eased to a stop shockingly smooth at a red light. “I’ve driven in worse.”

“You sure?”

“You wanna take over, backseat driver?”

Pomni went silent, because she, in fact, did not want to take over.

“How about some music, guys?” Ragatha reached for the radio (which still had cracks in the screen from the fight), trying to ease the tension. The stations were staticky, and the Bluetooth detection kept trying to connect to a phone that literally didn’t exist. But after smacking the radio around a bit, they were able to get it to work.

“You’re listening to—” The radio host’s voice sounded like it was put through a robot filter. “105.3 D-D-Devious F.M.—” There was a bank-alarm sound. “Where we play nothin’ but the most diabolical and evil hits from the 80s, 90s, and today. This ain’t your granny’s station!”

The intro to Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive faded in. Pomni sighed, now remembering why she never listened to public radio.

Something in the car started to beep, and Zooble swore under their breath. Pomni saw the gas light flash on. They pulled off to the side, into the parking lot of a seedy gas station. The lights were a headache-inducing yellow, and the pavement was greasy with stains from years of leaking oil and spilled Big Gulps. Zooble unbuckled their seatbelt and shot everyone in the backseat a cold glare. “Stay here,” They said. “I’ll be like, 5 minutes. Tops.”

Jax groaned, and Pomni jumped. He’d been so quiet, she’d nearly forgotten he was there. “Come on, I can’t stretch my legs once in a while?”

Kinger piped up, too. “Not to be a bother, Zooble, but I think a bathroom break is in order.”

“We don’t even— You know what, fine. Whatever.” They popped the driver-side door open. “Like I said, 5 minutes. I’m leaving with or without you guys.”

Jax and Kinger fumbled for the door handles on their respective sides. As they left the car, Pomni straightened her hat and followed. Might as well. We don’t know when our next stop’s gonna be.

Ragatha came along with them, too. Gangle opted to stay with Zooble, mumbling something about wanting to clean the backseat. After the mess they’d caused, that was fair.

When Pomni and the others walked in to the gas station, the first thing they were greeted with was Disappearing Guy, working alone at the front counter. He turned away from the little T.V. he was watching to look at them. He tried to say something, but, in compliance with his name, disappeared halfway through speaking. Ragatha looked at Pomni and shrugged.

“Well, guess everything’s free, then!” Jax went behind the counter and started rifling through the mess of lottery tickets and cigarette boxes. He chuckled stupidly as he popped open the register and pulled out a wad of cash. “Me likey!”

Pomni made an effort to ignore him. She scanned the shelves for anything useful. There was a lot of standard gas station junk— Off brand candy, day-old hot dogs on a greasy roller, those 3-foot-long Slim Jims that, to avoid copyright, Caine had renamed to Thin Jimmys. But the place also seemed to have an assortment of tourist-y things (Who’s going on vacation to Steers City is the real question) as well as actual video-game-type items. Healing kits, cookies that promised a 5 minute stamina boost, and, the thing that really caught Pomni’s eye— Gauze. Shelves full of it.

“Lookin’ for something?”

Pomni turned to see Ragatha behind her, a pack of gummy worms clutched awkwardly in her hands. Pomni looked back at the wall, feeling herself relax. “Not really. I was just thinking.”

“Of what?”

“This gauze has a healing factor, right?” She grabbed a roll of it off the shelf and held it out for Ragatha to inspect. “I was thinking of stocking up on it… I mean, it’s probably cheaper than the hospital, right?”

“Hmm… Sounds like it’s worth a shot!” Ragatha handed the gauze back enthusiastically. “I mean, who knows how much money we’ll waste going back and forth to the urgent care? This'll be a much better alternative.”

“Worth a shot?” Pomni gave her a questioning head tilt. “Don’t you remember? Y’know, using it on me, back in the limo?”

“Oh? Uh, I don’t think I’ve ever used these before.”

Pomni blinked. “Well, someone bandaged up my neck. Do you know… Who?”

“Not really.” Ragatha gave her an apologetic look. “I just looked over at you and you had it on.”

She clutched the roll of gauze to her chest, her mind spinning. If none of her teammates had bandaged her in the limo— And how could they, if they were tied up— Then who had?

“Maybe it was the evils?” Ragatha suggested weakly.

“Maybe…” But that doesn’t make sense. They wanted us dead! She shook her head, trying to clear her racing thoughts. “Well, either way, let’s grab a bunch. Just in—”

Pomni was interrupted by an alert on the T.V. behind the counter. It sounded almost like an E.A.S. alarm, but somehow more jarring, since she hadn’t heard one of those since she’d entered the circus. She looked at the T.V., expecting some sort of severe weather alert, but was greeted with something worse.

Their faces.

Jax peeked up from his thievery, obviously startled by the sound as well. As soon as he did, his eyes went wide. Some text scrolled across the screen: Six individuals, wanted dead or alive. Crimes include second degree murder, destruction of public property, grand theft auto, and being generally hard to look at. A $10,000 reward is being offered for their capture.

“Huh.” Ragatha gave a strained laugh. “We’re fugitives now! That’s… Not great.”

Pomni didn’t respond. She just went over to the clothing rack and began grabbing as much Steers City merch as she could carry. Hats, shirts, sunglasses, anything that would even begin to disguise them.

“Ragatha!” She called out. “Some help?”

“O-Oh! Yeah, of course!” She dropped her bag of gummies and took some of the load off of Pomni.

Once both of their arms were full, Kinger emerged from the bathrooms. His eyes widened at the sight. “You’re doing a shopping spree? Without me?”

“Kinger, go to the limo!” Pomni yelled at him, panicking. “Come on, everyone! Go!”

“Wait!” Jax’s voice sounded muffled, and Pomni looked over to see that his mouth was full of something. His arms were full of cash and what looked like vape cartridges. He grabbed one of the giant Thin Jimmys and tucked it under his arm. Once he was sure that the jerky stick was secure, he ran out without a second thought.

They barreled into the limo, where Gangle was brushing crumbs off the seats with a wad of napkins. When everyone else loaded up into the freshly-tidied car and dumped all of the supplies on the floor, all she could do was sigh sadly.

“Zooble!” Pomni called out to them. They still had the limo hooked up to the gas pump. “We need to get out of here!”

“What—” They looked at the pile of stolen items in the middle of the car. “What did you do?!”

Like clockwork, the store’s alarm switched on. Zooble seemed to finally grasp the urgency of their situation and took the gas nozzle out of the limo. They jumped in the front seat and floored it out of there, tires squealing against the pavement.

“Wh-What’s wrong?” Gangle held tight to her comedy mask with one hand and fumbled for the seatbelt with the other.

“The T.V.— We, uh, we’re—” Pomni stumbled over her words, talking far too fast and not at all at the same time. A frustrated flush crept into her face as she tried and failed to explain the situation. “We kinda—”

“What she’s trying to say,” Ragatha cut in, “Is that we’re on the run now. From the law.”

“What?!” Gangle and Zooble exclaimed at once.

“For what?” Zooble screeched onto the highway, windshield wipers working overtime to clear away the downpour.

Jax spat out whatever he’d been holding in his mouth, which turned out to be just a shit ton of quarters. “‘For what?’ That’s you,” He jibed unhelpfully as he fiddled with some of his stolen goods.

“Not helping!” Pomni shot at him. “Also, ew?!”

“Ugh.” He slumped. “Second degree murder, grand theft auto, and destruction of property, or something.” He huffed something from what looked like a pen and exhaled. “Not a bad list. They should add robbery to it.”

“Are you vaping?” Pomni narrowed her eyes at him. “Right now?”

“Strawberry keylime pie.” He held it out to her. “Want some?”

So Caine couldn’t add a proper exit to this adventure, but he could add vape pens. Go figure.

“I-In any case,” Ragatha interrupted, clearly trying to keep the peace, “We’re gonna be recognized if we keep going on like this.”

“Is that where the giant pile of clothes comes in?” Gangle asked, pointing at their stuff.

“Yeah.”

Kinger was the first to pick out a shirt— A grossly oversized gray thing that said I got mugged and stabbed in Steers City and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt! He took some sunglasses, too, trying to fit them over his lopsided eyes. “Does the gray wash me out?” He asked self-consciously. “I think it does.”

Pomni took off her jester hat and replaced it with a baseball cap of similar weight. It felt oddly familiar to her, like it was just meant to be there. A few of the others, with the exception of Zooble, who was now speeding down the highway like they were drunk, crazy, or both, started following suit. The disguises weren’t much, but they did the job and covered up some of their most noticeable features.

Jax slipped a shirt over his overalls and tugged at the bottom. “Yeesh, Pom, did you have to grab the biggest size?”

“It was all they had,” Ragatha defended, pulling her yarn-like hair into a ponytail. “Give her a break. We were kind of panicking.”

Pomni tried to cram her hat beneath the seats, busying herself in that task. It didn’t quite fit, and she resorted to kicking it repeatedly to shove it into the tight space. Unfortunately, Jax leaned into her field of view, slipping on a pair of cheap reflective sunglasses. “How do I look?”

“Just about as dumb as everyone else.” She grunted as she gave the hat one final kick. She fixed her outfit and took a look in the rearview mirror. Wearing the stupid outfit brought her some odd sense of comfort. Even if she could still feel the frills and puffy fabric of her circus outfit under her clothes, seeing the baggy shirt on her, paired with the cap and other cheap accessories made her feel… Normal.

“What now?” Gangle tried to slip a beanie over Zooble’s polygonal head as they drove. She was unsuccessful, and Zooble had to gently brush her hand away. “Do we just… Keep going?”

“I…” Ragatha pulled at strands of her hair, obviously racking her brain. If they were fugitives, there wasn’t much for them to do. They couldn’t show their faces anywhere, or they’d risk being recognized. Two of them were completely broke, their energy and needs were depleting much faster than they were used to, and there was no way for them to reverse what they’d already done. “I don’t know.”

There was a long silence, broken by thunder crashing above. Pomni could hear Gangle’s mask cracking. Even Jax just twirled his vape between his fingers, not trying to make a joke right now. Was he not delighting in this chaos? She heard him mumble something under his breath. “This adventure blows.”

She nodded, but didn’t dare to voice her agreement out loud.

Ragatha cleared her throat, sounding like she was trying to hold back tears. “W-Well, we might not have to spend as much money at the hospital anymore!” She held up a roll of the gauze, forcing a smile. “Pomni said that these could heal us…”

No one said anything to that. Ragatha folded her hands neatly in her lap, keeping her eyes fixed on some stain on the floor.

Pomni desperately wanted to be able to be able to find the silver lining in this situation, to be able to lift her teammate’s spirits. But all she could come up with was that this would be over eventually. And even then, in the waiting they’d need to die over and over again. They wouldn’t even know it was over until one of them just died and didn’t come back. And after suffering one conscious death… Well, if she never had to go through that again, it would be too soon.

To her surprise, though, Kinger was the one to offer some uplifting words. “Maybe this will all look better in daylight.”

Zooble nodded slowly and pulled over on the shoulder of the road. “Why don’t we just rest for a few minutes?” They suggested, putting the limo in park. “I know Caine wants us to play this adventure a certain way, but we don’t have to do everything he says.” There was a pause as they grabbed the beanie Gangle had been attempting to put on their head and inspected it. “He did say there were a bunch of surprises in this city for us, right? We could just… Look for the fun stuff instead.”

Pomni shrugged. “That doesn’t sound bad.”

Everyone mumbled halfhearted agreement, with the exception of Kinger, who just stared at a moth that was struggling to fly towards a streetlight in the pouring rain.

Pomni thought that this would just be a 5 minute break to get their wits in order. But the 5 minutes turned to 10, then 15. No one wanted to keep going tonight. She’d closed her eyes, telling herself that it was just a power-nap. It doesn’t matter. I’m not driving, anyway. Zooble’s gonna get us going whenever they’re ready…

Then she’d opened her eyes to late-morning sunlight streaming through the windows.

It seemed like everyone else had fallen into the same trap as her, as they were all asleep in their seats. The limo was still idling, talk radio softly chattering near the front of the car. Pomni smacked her lips, the inside of her mouth feeling rotten and sticky. She opened her inventory and pulled out the blue sports drink before stepping out of the car.

The muggy, golden morning was a far cry from last night’s storm. It seemed that they’d stumbled across a less-used side street. On one side of the road was the very edge of Steers City, and on the other side was an uncanny, endless-looking field with nothing but blankness on the horizon. They’d reached the edge of the map, it seemed. She wondered if she could walk out into it, or if it acted like a video game, limiting her from walking past a certain point.

She made sure there weren’t any cars coming towards her and sprinted across the road to the field. It seemed Caine had given up on the graphics at this part of the adventure, probably assuming that they wouldn’t make it this far. The grass was nothing but flat green coloration, and some of the shapes were more polygonal than realistic. She took a swig of her drink and swished it around like mouthwash before spitting it into the smooth grass. God, when this mess is finished, I might actually need one of Caine’s dentist-visit adventures. Unless… Are digital cavities even a real thing?

I must be really losing it if I’m craving one of those stupid, barely-slice-of-life adventures.

Pomni looked back towards the car and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that no one was coming out after her. She needed some quiet time.

She walked out into the field. After a few hundred steps, she saw the edge of the world— literally. The whole map dropped off at a flat angle, straight into the Void. It seemed Caine hadn’t put any safeguards in place to stop them from walking off. That was okay, though. Pomni had no intention of jumping, so she just sat in the grass, feeling the weight of the still air and silence around her.

She turned her eyes toward the Sun— Its rays couldn’t hurt her eyes. It blinked at her, and she blinked back.

Pomni looked away and ran her fingers over the ground. The Void moved and pulsated in front of her, almost as if it was a living, breathing being. Something about this was so familiar. The feel of the clothes on her body, the clean, featureless field, the quiet…

Only she hadn’t been alone last time. No, there had been someone with her. He’d been next to her, slipping something shiny over her finger. When she squinted, she could see it clearer.

An engagement ring.

“I know, you’ve been wanting this for a long time,” He said smoothly. He looked less like a mannequin this time. His hands had fingers, there was curly hair on his head, detailed folds and wrinkles on his clothes, but she still struggled to make out his face. It was like every time she really tried to focus on it, it just blurred more. “So I figured… Why not make it official?”

Was he… Proposing to her?

Pomni gulped. This should have been a happy moment. She should have been smiling, feeling tears coming on, something. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with all this.

It was a gold ring, and, sure, it was beautiful. But all the jewelry she owned was silver. He knew that. It was too loose, and the emerald embedded in it looked crooked. She’d told him all about her dream proposal: Somewhere private that meant a lot to both of them. This was private, sure. But they’d never been to this place before. And the privacy wasn’t really intimate. It was suffocating.

He didn’t even know her favorite color. It was red, not green.

She held up her hand to take a closer look at the ring. The man started rubbing her thigh, and she felt herself draw back at the contact. “Well? What are you thinking, pretty lady?”

“It’s… Nice.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. Was she gonna say yes to this? The more she looked at him, and at the jewelry, the more it became clear what this was. Is this a shut-up ring?

She didn’t think she’d been talking about commitment that much. Had she? You wanted this, a voice in the back of her head told her. You’re not gonna get much better than this.

“Come on, don’t leave me with that.” He patted her shoulder jokingly. “I know it’s pretty. What are you thinking of getting married?”

This is all you’ll get.

“Uh…” She bit her lip and swallowed. No, this was what she wanted. She just… Wasn’t feeling it yet. It would catch up to her later, she was sure. He was charming, he was funny, they had the same hobbies… This was the right choice. “Sure.”

“Ah, I knew it!” He wrapped an arm tightly around her shoulders and pulled her into his chest as the sun set in the distance. “Don’t get cold feet on me, now.”

“Never.”

She planted a kiss on his lips, ignoring how their noses bumped together awkwardly and their lips didn’t quite fit right.

Pomni heard an odd creaking, and she blinked to find herself back in Steers City. Wow. That’s getting… Weird. These were such oddly specific scenarios. There was no way…

Her thought process was interrupted by the object that had appeared in front of her. Another exit, exactly like the one in the sky the other night.

But this one was right here. A solid object, close enough to touch.

Curiosity got the best of her, and she stood to open it up. She turned the knob, the metal warm with the heat of the morning. When she opened it, she was able to get a closer look at what was on the other side. It certainly looked like a warehouse… A falling-apart one, at least.

I thought Caine scrapped this, She thought as she peered through to the other side. There’s no way he would’ve kept it after Kaufmo’s abstraction and my… Well, my first day. Unless…

Was this the real deal?

To test her theory, she stuck her arm through the door. She wasn’t expecting much— Worst case scenario, it would dissolve from her interaction.

What she got instead was a hand. Fully human— Pale, with short, jagged nails and a sloppy little crescent-moon tattoo on the side of her ring finger. She gasped, flexing it and turning it…

Yep. That was a hand.

Her hand.

Pomni’s first instinct was to dive through the door headfirst, to scramble out into the real world and leave this place behind. She almost did, too. She tensed her body, getting ready to run through like a maniac. But she took one last look at the world she’d be leaving behind and caught a glimpse of the limo.

My friends. I can’t leave them behind. She drew her hand back. They have to see this, too.

Before Pomni could make a mad dash for the limo, though, the door slammed shut and disappeared. “WOAH, THAT’S DEFINITELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!”

Pomni turned as slowly as she could to see Caine himself floating behind her. And boy, he’d never looked worse.

His red suit was all askew, the buttons fixed in the wrong holes and his bow tie crooked. Those floating eyes were bloodshot, and his top hat was nowhere to be found. “Caine!” Pomni screeched, her fury taking over. “I— I had it! I just needed to get everyone else to see, and then—”

“OH, DEAR POMNI. THAT WASN’T REAL! I’M AFRAID YOU MIGHT BE HAVING ANOTHER AWFUL SPELL OF—”

“Digital hallucinations?” She stepped forward, fists clenched. Not caring if she looked crazy. “If those were hallucinations, then what the fuck did you mean when you said it wasn’t supposed to be there?!”

“NOW, NOW! NO NEED FOR SWEARING!”

He waved his hand, and a metal plate secured itself over her mouth. Pomni tried to scream, but the sound was contained to her own body. She attempted to pry it off, but it was tightened on with bolts. Through the skin. Did Caine know that she could feel every bit of that...?

“YOU’LL GET THAT OFF WHEN YOU LEARN THAT PROFANITY ISN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER.” He floated around and started pushing her back towards the city. “WELL, IT WAS SURE NICE SEEING YOU, BUT IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO GET BACK TO HAVING FUN! IN THE MEANTIME, I’LL KEEP TRYING TO PATCH THAT DREADFUL GLITCH!”

Pomni tried to say, “You still haven’t fixed that?” But it came out more as, “Mphilfshuf?”

“IT’S A BIT HARDER THAN EXPECTED,” He declared, as if they were having a full-on conversation. “BUT REST ASSURED, IT WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF! I JUST NEED TO MAKE SURE NOTHING ELSE SPILLS OVER!”

Spills over?! The hell does he mean, ‘Spills over’? But she couldn’t ask. Before she could even make a vaguely-questioning sound and hope that he understood her, he dropped her right by the limo and patted her on the head. “AND, I MUST SAY, YOU ALL LOOK SO CUTE IN YOUR STEERS CITY CLOTHES! MY TREASURED LITTLE TOURISTS. ANYWAY—!”

He popped away, leaving Pomni with yet more questions. Nevertheless, she swallowed her disappointment and opened the car door—

Only to scare Kinger out of his skin.

After everyone else had been jolted awake by Kinger’s alarm-clock scream, Ragatha and Gangle got to work trying to remove the bolted metal from her mouth. Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done, and the process involved a lot of pulling and screaming.

“Sorry, Pomni!” Ragatha squeaked as she tried to unscrew a bolt with nothing but her doll-hands. Gangle was trying on the other side of her mouth, and all Pomni could think was, Can’t we get someone with real fingers to try this?!

She shoved Ragatha away and pointed to Kinger, because there was no way she was getting Jax to do it for her. Presently, he was scratching at a lottery ticket he’d taken from the gas station, watching them out of the corner of his eye.

“Alright! Let’s see here… Righty tighty, lefty loosey?” Kinger fumbled with the bolts before squinting. “Or was it the other way around…?” He tried it the other way, which just tightened it again. He held out his hands in L-shapes, trying to determine which directions his left and right actually were.

“God, why do you guys suck at everything?” Jax dropped his lotto ticket, which just said You lost! in big bubble letters, and shoved Kinger aside. In two swift movements, he unscrewed the bolts and the metal plate dropped to the floor. He tossed the bolts aside and scoffed. “See? Easy.”

Pomni touched her face, which would definitely be sore for a while, and felt two big holes where the metal had been secured to her face. Like two empty piercings. “Thanks… Jax.”

“Don’t mention it.” He looked away from her and leaned back on the seat, moving on to his next ticket.

Pomni caught herself looking a little too long and turned back to the concerned group. “Guys— There’s an exit. I think Caine’s trying to hide it.”

“Like, an exit to the adventure?” Gangle pressed her mouth into a thin line.

“To the circus.” Pomni looked to Zooble. “You and I saw it the other night, remember?”

They nodded reluctantly. “But that was probably just a broken asset—”

“No, you’re not listening. I saw it again this morning. I stuck my hand through and it… It was real.”

Now they were all staring at her like she’d grown a second head.

“I had fingernails and a weird tattoo and five whole fingers…” She trailed off. “You guys don’t believe me, do you?”

They all looked away. Ragatha messed with a strand of her hair. Kinger blinked cluelessly. Jax’s grin just widened. “You’re on the fast track to losin’ it, Pom-Pom.”

Pomni pursed her lips. “Zooble, come on. You saw it, too.”

They leaned their head on their fist. “I mean… It’s not impossible. But I wouldn’t get everyone’s hopes up.”

Pomni’s cheeks reddened in frustration. She couldn’t very well deny their suspicions— Not when her only source was ‘Trust me, bro’. But they were all so quick to deny it. They wouldn’t even entertain the idea. She’d thought Zooble would be good backup, but they’d just remained so painfully neutral.

Was she the problem?

Was she actually going crazy?

Pomni curled up, looking out the window. She wouldn’t drop it. But she wouldn’t talk about it more if no one wanted to listen right now. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” Zooble asked.

“Doesn’t matter. I just want to get out of here.”

There’s only so far you can drive through the backstreets before you have to get out onto the main roads.

After about an hour and a half of Jax trying to smack Gangle with his Thin Jimmy, Jax pulling out the most obnoxious vape cartridges to get a rise out of Ragatha (S’more, Pickle Dr. Pepper, and, Pomni’s least favorite, Lightly Microwaved Mountain Dew), and Zooble having to yell things like "I swear to God, if one of you idiots change the station again, I’m turning you all in to the cops and taking the money for myself,” They decided it was high time for a break. Being cooped up in a car with anyone was hard. It was harder if tensions were already high... And if one of the people in said car was Jax.

Zooble pulled into the town square, stretching a black face-mask to fit over their oddly shaped face. The heart of the city looked a lot like Time’s Square— With the exception of a big, gaudy court house in the dead center, as well as a Big Ben-looking clock tower right next to it. Beneath all the shining billboards were little stores and businesses, like they were there just for them to have a shopping side quest. “‘Kay. What’s the plan here? We all split up and come back when we feel like it?” 

Pomni shrugged indifferently. Honestly, she didn’t care what they did. She just needed some space to think for a little while.

“But what if one of us gets arrested?” Gangle wiped a tear from her eye. “How will everyone else know?”

“How’s about we all meet up at a certain time?” Kinger pointed at the clock tower. “We can all meet back at the limo at 3:36. If someone’s not here, we’ll know they need rescuing!”

“3:36?” Zooble squinted at him.

“Well, if you all insist on more time… 3:37.”

“You’re very hit-and-miss, Kinger.” Zooble opened their door. “Alright, everyone. Meet back here at 3:37.” They put a hand on their hip as they examined their disguised appearance in the limo’s shiny paint. “Hey, Gangle, I saw a manga store while I was pulling in. Wanna check it out?”

“S-Sure!” Gangle followed them, giving Pomni a cheerful wave as the two of them walked off.

Jax slinked out of the car and ran away, seemingly with no plan. Kinger crouched down on the sidewalk, watching a line of ants. That just left Ragatha and Pomni.

“Well, uh… Looks like it’s us. What store do you want to go to first, Pomni?”

Pomni tried not to sigh at the idea. It wasn’t Ragatha, really. There wasn’t anything wrong with her, per se. But all she wanted right now was to be left alone, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to do that with Ragatha at her side. So all she said was, “We might be less recognizable if we split up.”

“Oh.” Ragatha rubbed her arm and turned away from her. “No, you’re right. Sorry…”

Well, that just came out all wrong. Pomni sighed and decided to put off her alone time for a little longer. She looked back to Ragatha, then at a shop with softball gloves and bats in the display window. “We could try the sports store first, if that’s something you’d be into.”

Ragatha brightened at her suggestion. “That sounds nice! You sure, though?”

Pomni shrugged. “Sure as I’ll ever be. It’s been a while since we’ve had one-on-one time.”

She beamed at the suggestion that Pomni wanted to spend time with her. Seeing Ragatha bounce so happily towards the sports store made her glad that she’d made this choice. Maybe I haven’t been giving her the chance she deserves.

When they got inside, Ragatha went straight to the shelves in the back, stocked up with bats. She weighed each one carefully, swinging and commentating on each one she picked up. “There’s a big difference between softball and baseball bats, y’know,” She told Pomni. “I’m more used to the softball ones. But I guess for this, baseball would work better. They’re heavier.” She swung one hard, just barely missing a shelf. “They’d cause a bit more damage.”

Pomni nodded, trying to stay out of her way. She knew Ragatha wouldn’t intentionally hit her… But she still wanted to keep a safe distance from those swings.

“You seem real comfortable handling those,” She said, handing her a new baseball bat to try when she discarded the last one.

“Oh! Thanks.” She smiled at the bat, a pink-and-white painted one that seemed to be a good weight for her. “I played softball for a long time before I ended up… Here.”

“Were you good?”

“I think so.” She swung and looked at the tool, satisfied. “Made it to state championships a few times in high school. I never made it farther than that, though. I guess I could have been better.”

Her smile fell a bit.

"Do you like this one?” Pomni asked, pointing at the bat. “I could buy it for you, since you lost your last one in that fight.”

“You would?” Ragatha handled it carefully. “That’s really sweet, Pomni. But didn’t you spend your money getting healed?”

Oh. Right.

Pomni thought for a moment before remembering something. She reached into her inventory, and… Yep, there it was. The wallet they were supposed to return to that one guy. She’d nearly forgotten about it. There seemed to be around $157 inside. Well, spending it on this was better than some NPC blowing it all on a slot machine.

“I’ve got some pocket change.” Pomni saw the reluctance on her face and pressed a little further. “Consider it a gift. From a friend.”

Ragatha finally caved, handing Pomni the bat. She blinked hard and looked away. “This… This means more than you know, Pom."

Pomni couldn’t hold back a grin as she placed it on the counter in front of the cashier. The NPC started to ring it up, but froze in the middle of reading the total. “That’ll be fif—”

There was a long silence while they waited for the NPC to catch up. Ragatha knit her eyebrows together and waved a hand in front of her. “Huh. That’s weird.”

Pomni was about to agree, but before she could, a sound interrupted her— A groan, coming from everywhere at once. The ground beneath their feet buzzed, sending an electric sensation running up her legs. She tried to move, but every movement felt delayed and choppy. When she spoke, her voice was all disjointed, like each sound was a whole new word. "Wh-a-t-t-t-s ha-hap-p-pen-ing-ing-g?”

“I d-d-don-on-t kn-ow-ow!” Ragatha seemed to reach out towards her, but she was just as glitchy as Pomni was. When her hand finally reached her shoulder, it just clipped right through it, like their bodies weren’t solid objects anymore.

The world around her started flickering, just like it did when Caine started glitching. When she saw Kinger through the store’s window, trying to walk towards them but eventually freezing in place, the answer came to her. Lag.

This was like the spa, but much worse. The whole city around them seemed to be crashing from the lagging.

“I-m-m-m sc-sc-sc-ar-ed-d!” Ragatha wailed, her voice sounding like a child’s.

“M-m-e t-oo-oo-oo!” Pomni tried to wrap her arms around herself comfortingly, but her arms kept going back to her sides each time she moved.

And then, just as she thought it couldn’t get much worse, her vision went black. All she could see was a simple word in plain white text: Rebooting…

She lost all sense of time. She could have been staring at the blackness for seconds or days, for all she knew. Little tips flashed beneath the Rebooting text, adding some flavor to this purgatory. Stuff like, Eat to replenish your hunger bar, Sleeping is generally good for you, And, Don’t try to commit suicide— That kills you!

Finally, after what seemed like forever, new text appeared. Teleporting to last resting point…

The blackout faded away. Pomni was back in the limo, on that stretch of road where they’d woken up. Everyone was circled up tightly in the backseat, blinking their eyes open like they’d just woken from a not-so-refreshing nap.

“What was that…?” Pomni’s voice was rough, like she’d been asleep. But she hadn’t— She felt a little slow, sure, but she knew she’d been awake. Her mouth felt different, too…

She touched the spots where the bolts had been earlier, and felt nothing but smooth, plastic-y skin. No holes at all. What the hell? What’s going on?

Gangle looked out the window and gasped. “Um… Guys?”

Pomni followed her gaze and felt a cold pit in her stomach. The city looked like it had been shattered and pieced back together carelessly. Massive buildings clipped into each other sideways and upside-down. Whole sections of the city were abuzz with glitchy, textureless blobs of color. Highways and train tracks, which had once formed a tangled but somewhat comprehensible mess above them, looked like someone had angrily folded them and smashed them into each other.

The adventure was falling apart at the seams. And there was still no escape.

“Well, damn.” Jax crammed to look out the window. He wasn’t even bothering to smile through this— Not even he thought this was a joking matter. “I’ve never seen one of Caine’s adventures get all messed up like this.”

“Screw the adventure!” Pomni curled up, wrapping her arms around her knees in a way that would in no way give her comfort. “What’s gonna happen to us?”

Chapter Text

Zooble tried to start the car three times, but the engine wouldn’t turn. It wouldn’t even sputter or rev up. That marked the end of their driving, then.

Pomni opened the door, leaning out to catch some fresh air. The car was heating up fast, and she didn’t want to get heatstroke. But the whole world seemed to be boiling. The heat radiated upwards from the ground, making her feel like they were all in one big frying pan.

Zooble popped the hood of the limo, messing with the engine. But as they swore under their breath, it became quite clear that they had no clue what they were doing.

Jax pushed past Pomni to get out of the vehicle and swaggered towards the front. “What? Never fixed a car before, Zoobs?”

“Can’t say I have.” They shielded the car from him protectively. “I’ll have a better shot at fixing it than you, though.”

“You don’t know that.” He leaned on the side of it, peeking at what they were doing. “By the looks of it, you’re doing more harm than good.”

“Fine, bunny boy. Let’s see what you can do.” Zooble threw up their hands in defeat as he took their spot. “Just don’t fuck her up beyond repair.”

“‘Her’?” He smirked. “You getting attached to this thing, or…?”

“You gonna do this or not?” Zooble sat next to Pomni, fanning themself in the stagnant, heavy heat. “God, what’s Caine doing to the adventure now?”

“Still trying to include a way to get back to the circus.” Pomni flopped over, taking her baseball cap off to wave some air in her face. “I saw him this morning.”

“Did you?” Ragatha stretched her legs out uncomfortably. “Did he tell you anything important?”

“Would you believe me if I told you?” She hoped they could feel the sharpness in her voice.

Ragatha pressed her lips together, not saying anything to that.

“Bad news,” Jax called from the front. “Transmission’s fried. This baby’s as good as dead.”

“Shit.” Zooble got out of the car, helping Gangle out with one hand. “We’re on foot now, then?”

“Looks like it,” Jax said, slamming the hood shut. “Say goodbye to your girl, toybox.”

“Oh, shove it.” Despite Zooble’s cutting tone, they did look at the limo longingly, stroking it lightly before stepping onto the sidewalk. “Grab your valuables, guys. I don’t think we're gonna be coming back here.”

Kinger was the last to get out of the limo, and he flinched at the feeling of the hot concrete beneath them. “Well, as hard as it looks now, there is a bright side to this.”

“What is it?” Gangle asked, her voice shaky.

“We haven’t been put in a game show yet.” He narrowed his eyes. “Or have we…?”

Pomni sighed, looking down at the sidewalk as she walked. There weren’t many places that she wanted to go, but she’d rather be on the move than sitting in the hot sun, waiting for something to happen to them. Plus, surveying the damage might give them a better idea of Caine’s progress.

The sky above them wasn’t the blue that they’d grown used to anymore. The clouds were painted a fiery red, and there seemed to be a tear in the very top of the sky. Something that looked like a human heart pounded far above, pumping blood into the system of pulsing arteries spider-webbing across the sky. Green and blue eyes peered out at them from behind corners and walls.

Pomni tried to turn her attention away from the creepiness around her by making conversation with the group. “Uh, Jax… Since when did you know stuff about cars?”

“Hm?” He turned to her, yellow eyes wide with interest.

“You seemed pretty confident you could fix the limo. Were you, like, a mechanic or something?”

“What are you, a cop?” He rolled his eyes playfully. “All guys know how to fix cars. We’ve got, like, a whole section of our brains dedicated to it.”

Well, that tells me nothing. She clasped her hands in front of her, pretending not to notice a stray gloink bouncing around at the edges of her vision.

“Truth or dare?”

Pomni was surprised to hear Ragatha breaking the silence with her question. She seemed just as nervous about the world’s glitchiness as Pomni was. Was she just trying to ease her own growing anxiety?

No one answered at first, so she repeated her question. “Truth or dare? Anyone?”

“Truth.” Gangle replied to her proposition as if she wasn’t sure she was allowed to.

“Okay… Hmm…” Ragatha thought for a second. “What’s your favorite T.V. show that you can remember?”

“Ouran High School Host Club.” She answered quickly, like it had been at the forefront of her mind. But just as quickly, she backtracked. “I— I mean, Parks and Rec…”

“You don’t have to change your answer, Gangle,” Pomni encouraged. “It’s truth or dare, not most agreeable answer or dare.”

She straightened up, twisting together her ribbons nervously. “Then, uh, the first one. That’s my final pick.”

“It’s a good answer,” Ragatha told her. “Now it’s your turn to ask.”

“O-Okay.” Gangle scanned the group. “Kinger? Truth or dare?”

“Hmm…” He closed his eyes, holding onto Ragatha’s shoulder for guidance as they walked. “I’ll say truth.”

“Least favorite food?”

“Oh! Easy. I’ve never been fond of caviar. I’m sure it tastes fine, but the texture… Don’t even get me started.” He opened his eyes again. “Is it my turn to ask now?”

It was silly and childish, but playing along with Ragatha’s game helped a lot more than anyone wanted to admit. The easy questions and answers gave Pomni something positive to focus on. They also made her realize how little she really knew about everyone else.

They hardly ever picked dare— It was easier to walk and talk than to walk and do whatever weird dare someone came up with. Of course, Jax was the exception— He picked it every time. He was being surprisingly compliant, too. He went along with Zooble’s request to grind an ollie on a broken skateboard they’d found. He could also do some really good accents. British, New Yorker, Australian, Southern drawl… He seemed practiced, like he’d done them all several times.

Of course, Pomni was able to learn some little things about her fellow circus members. Things she’d never thought to ask. Zooble’s favorite color was purple, but in the real world, it didn’t look good on them, so they’d always gone with black. Ragatha’s favorite adventure in the circus had been long before Pomni’s time: They’d had a battle-of-the-bands type competition against a bunch of NPCs, and she’d been a backup vocalist. Gangle liked foggy days best, but also enjoyed warm, summer rain.

For the first time, Pomni felt like she was actually with a group of friends. They really were just normal people, forced into a ridiculous circumstance.

After a long time of walking through the outskirts of the city, they finally made it to the more fleshed-out areas. Despite the distraction of the truth-or-dare game around her, Pomni started noticing something odd. The closer they got to the center of the city, the more she saw… Well, the more she saw their own faces. On wanted posters, billboards. They even walked past an old-fashioned T.V. store where every screen was a picture of one of them, with a warning at the bottom: Imminent threat alert. Be on the lookout.

Gangle paused in front of the T.V. store, staring at a static image of herself. Pomni watched her adjust her clothes more, fixing a Steers City-themed scarf around her neck to cover her face. Instinctively, Pomni looked down, hoping nobody passing by would recognize them.

She just hoped everyone else would have the same self awareness to keep themselves covered.

The heat worsened. With it came a soft droning noise, like a computer that was trying so hard not to shut down.

Eventually, they had to stop in the shade of what was once two apartment buildings, now merged into one massive, brutalist behemoth that had walls and windows jutting out at impossible angles. Pomni’s tongue was like sandpaper, and the last dregs of the blue drink in her inventory did little to help.

“Man, how hard can one bug patch be?” Zooble complained as they messed with a cigarette butt crammed in a sidewalk crack. "I wonder what Caine did to fuck up this adventure so badly.”

Pomni could only guess. It shouldn’t have been this hard to add an exit to the adventure, could it? Caine was an all-powerful A.I. in this circus; He should've been able to just snap one into existence, right?

Her mind went to the exit— the real one that she’d found earlier.

Was it really that hard to create one? Or was there something Caine wasn’t telling them about the circus?

She wondered if this would be a good time to breach this topic, but as Pomni opened her mouth to speak, she saw a little blue eye bobbing around in the shadows. Nope. She’d approach this some other time, when she was sure they weren’t being watched.

She tuned back into the conversation as Kinger made a comment about how impressed he was with the ant variety in this adventure. She tried to listen in, she really did, but her mind just kept wandering…

Her eyes drifted towards the street as she spaced out. Specifically, she stayed fixated on a manhole that was buzzing and flickering in choppy movements. She could hear the voices of everyone around her, but couldn’t help but tune them out as she squinted at the glitchy spot.

Pomni watched the manhole for a few seconds, but as she focused more on it, she noticed that it was growing. Expanding to swallow the street. It warped until it wasn’t even a manhole anymore— Just a straight tear in the the fabric of the city.

“What… Is that?”

Kinger was the first to turn around to see it. He just squinted his eyes and tilted his head to focus on it. “…A nest?”

Pomni stood up, trying to see what he was referring to. As she got closer to the hole, she saw a hand— Or, at least what looked like a hand— Reaching out.

It was all huge and goopy, covered in mud. It reached slowly out, gripping the asphalt street so hard that cracks split beneath its fingers. Pomni felt everyone else stiffen around her, getting to their feet and grabbing whatever weapon-adjacent items they had on them. It wasn’t much, though. Zooble had one brass knuckle, Ragatha had a broken plastic spoon, and Jax wielded the Thin Jimmy (God knows why he even kept it in the first place) Like it was a whip. Yep. Impressive bunch, they were.

A one-eyed face emerged from the hole. It, like the hand, was coated in slimy mud, which dripped into its mouth as the creature spoke. “Who dares awaken the ancient beast of Grimstowne?— Be prepared to face the wrath of the mighty Dorflock!”

The creature gave a rumbling roar, spraying the circus with drops of slimy, greenish saliva.

“Uhh, Caine?” Ragatha yelled for the ringmaster, her voice quaking at the edges. “Was this part of the vigilante adventure?”

Caine did not show up at the sound of Ragatha’s voice.

The creature picked up Gangle and flung her against a street lamp. “Dorflock’s slumber is sacred!” It monologued. “The prophecy states that whoever wakes Dorflock must face a fate worse than death! And it seems you have all chosen that fate!”

Egregious exposition aside, Pomni was completely sure that Dorf-whatever-the-hell-his-name-was did not belong here. But with their lack of proper weaponry, all they could do was scatter, hoping that this creature was as slow as it looked.

She leaped for a fire escape as she ran from those mucky hands. Unfortunately, Jax had the same idea as her, and they bumped into each other in their attempt to reach it. Neither of them grabbed the fire escape, and they just fell awkwardly back to the ground.

“Jax, find your own spot!”

He shook his head in disbelief. “Excuse me?! I saw it first!”

“I jumped for it first!”

“Yeah, like, half a second before I did! How was I supposed to—”

One of the hands snatched him up, and he made a strangled squeaky-toy noise as the air was squeezed from his body. Pomni didn’t even have time to run before the other hand grabbed her.

Being in this beast’s hand was probably in the top five worst things she’d had to endure since entering the Circus. It was actually right up there with being stabbed with a rusty knife in the throat. Normal hands were bad enough, but one slimy, wet hand that suffocated her and filled her mouth with the taste of mold and anchovies was about two hundred times worse.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” The thing held Jax and Pomni up right next to each other. “Caught two! Dorflock sends you both to his mud pit of eternal torment!”

Just as the one-eyed creature was about to drop Pomni and Jax right into the buzzing, flickering hole beneath it, Pomni heard a voice that made her body slump with relief. “WUH-OH! DO I SEE SOME SPILLOVER?”

Caine flew into the scene, his face absolutely dismayed at what was unfolding. He snapped his fingers a few times, and, with some effort, the monster was shoved back into the hole it came from. It dropped Jax and Pomni onto the concrete, and they both hunched over, gasping for breath. Pomni gagged, feeling bile rise in her throat as she tried to spit the remnants of foul-tasting mud out of her mouth.

“BUBBLE! TAPE!”

“On it, boss!”

Bubble came over with a roll of scotch tape in his mouth. Instead of just closing the rip in the adventure with a snap or a clap like he normally would, Caine began taping the hole closed.

“The hell was that?!” Zooble yelled out from the shadows of an alley.

“NOTHING, MY HARROWED LITTLE PETUNIAS!” Was Pomni tripping, or did Caine’s endearing nicknames sound more forced than usual? “YOU SAW NOTHING! AT ALL!”

“Really?” Pomni spat the last of the mud onto the ground, looking at the destruction around her and then at Caine. She hoped that he would pick up on her mood, but when he stared at her blankly, she figured she would have to spell it out for him. “Spillover? Giant holes in the city? Exit doors?! This isn’t nothing!”

“IT’S TO BE EXPECTED!” He twitched. “I’M FIRING ALL MY ENGINES TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT!”

Gangle groaned as she untangled her body from the streetlamp that the creature had tossed her against. “Maybe… Don’t?”

Pomni flinched.

Caine just stood completely still. If she listened closely, she could hear a low whirring sound coming from him, like computer hardware that had been running too hard for too long. He flickered momentarily before speaking again. “OH, GANGLE! YOU’RE HERE!”

“Caine, just tell us what’s going on,” Zooble said, finally emerging from their hiding spot. “Oh, God. You don’t look so hot.”

“I’M FINE! YOU’RE FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE!” He gave the tear one last anxious glance before turning his full attention back to the circus. “I’VE NEVER FELT BETTER! HAVE YOU DISCOVERED ALL OF YOUR SURPRISES?”

“…Well…” Ragatha clasped her hands in front of her anxiously. “We’ve been a bit, er, occupied?”

“OH! RIGHT! BECAUSE YOU’RE DOING EVERYTHING WRONG!”

A pit opened in Pomni’s stomach as his frustration became apparent.

“I WORK DAY AND NIGHT TO MAKE AN ADVENTURE ALL OF YOU CAN ENJOY, AND ALL YOU DO IS MESS IT UP! YOU’RE—” He sputtered, his upbeat facade cracking in half. “YOU’RE MEANT TO BE VIGILANTES! SAVING PEOPLE! BUT ALL YOU DO IS BREAK AND KILL AND DESTROY EVERYTHING IN YOUR WAKE!”

Pomni backed away from him, feeling her heartbeat pick up, blood pounding in her nonexistent ears.

“I LAID OUT SIDE QUESTS AND YOU’VE BARELY TOUCHED THEM! I HAVE RACKED MY BRAIN FOR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING YOU’VE ASKED FOR! AND ALL I HEAR IS ‘CAINE, WHEN CAN WE LEAVE?’ AND ‘WHY ISN’T CAINE FIXING THE BUGS?’ I’M SICK OF IT! I’M SICK AND TIRED OF…”

He trailed off, his booming voice echoing off of the still buildings around them. Pomni had been so fixated on Caine’s rage that she hadn’t realized how everyone had bunched up around her. Like they were all seeking some sort of comfort, even if they couldn’t really do anything in the face of his crash out.

“I… Hope I haven’t scared you.” Caine turned away from them, clenching his teeth tightly. “I’m not meant to be scary.”

Pomni couldn’t help looking at Kinger. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good environment for him— He was petrified in a powerless way, his body quaking in a way that reminded her that he was human, just like the rest of them. Kinger wasn’t infallible. And that realization was more terrifying than she wanted to admit.

She had no words to break the silence with. But, dismayingly, she felt something coming on anyway.

Caine snapped his fingers, and for a moment, she felt like she really would throw up. She could taste something bitter in her throat, feel the dizzying sensation of being bent over a toilet, begging any deity that would listen to just let it happen already so she could be done with it. But instead of vomit, something much more sickening came out of her mouth:

“Oh, Caine! We believe in you! There’s so many more good things coming in this adventure!”

Pomni would never say something like that. It was too clunky, her tone much too light and cheerful for the situation at hand. But here those words were, coming straight out of her mouth, in her own voice.

Caine spun around, his eyes wide with performative gratitude. “YOU REALLY THINK SO, POMNI?”

No! She started to shake her head, afraid of what words he would put in her mouth if she opened it again. But when she saw the look on his face, all she could do was nod helplessly.

“WELL, WHAT DO THE REST OF YOU SAY? ARE WE UP FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF MARVELOUS STEERS CITY SHENANIGANS?”

She saw everyone start to shake their heads or begin voicing disagreement, but Caine snapped again, and they all straightened up, eyes wide and glassy. “Of course, Caine!” They recited, as if it was practiced. Their voices were monotonously joyous, without any real inflection on any of the words. “Give us more!”

“OH, DON’T MAKE ME BLUSH!” Caine gripped at his bottom teeth, a cartoonish flush spreading across the space that his cheeks should be. “DON’T WORRY, MY DEAREST STAR-SQUAD! YOUR APPROVAL IS GIVING ME THE MOTIVATION TO KEEP GOING! ALL WILL BE WELL SOON!”

He went to the closest circus member, which happened to be Jax, and gave him a rough pat on the head before essentially fucking off into oblivion. Doing whatever Caine did to busy himself.

Jax blinked before sliding his eyes back over to everyone else. “Nice job, Pomni.”

“That wasn’t me.” She still felt a bit light-headed, and sat down on the broken asphalt to steady herself.

He had to have known that, though. She looked to her friends, who clearly knew that Caine had forced them to stroke his ego. Ragatha held a hand over her throat, like that could keep her safe from having her voice used. Zooble switched their antennas around on their head, as if switching parts would ease their mind.

He said he couldn’t control our minds, but he never said he couldn’t control our bodies. She shuddered. How much of that was true? And how much more would he be willing to do with us…?

“Hey.”

Zooble’s voice broke through the silence. They pointed towards a flashing sign a little ways off that Pomni swore hadn’t been there before. It read, Dive bar here! For mature adventurers only!

“Looks like he kept my bar suggestion.” They tried to keep their voice steady, but there was an underlying anxiety there. “Anyone up for a pit stop?”

“Um…” Ragatha pulled at a strand of her hair. “Would drinking really be the best course of action?”

“You know…” Pomni sighed and got to her feet. “I could really go for a distraction right about now.”

“Yeah.” She was surprised to hear Kinger voicing approval for this. When she looked up at him, he looked so unbelievably tired. She’d never seen him looking this beaten down before. “A drink sounds good.”

He made his way towards it, and Pomni exchanged a look with Ragatha. Looks like that’s that, then. We’re getting hammered now.

The bar itself was nothing special— In fact, it looked completely reused. Like Zooble had implied, it seemed that Caine had taken their bar-adventure suggestion and ran with it. Only this time, Zooble got to be a patron, rather than a bartender.

They weren’t alone this time, either. The place was packed with NPCs, both old and new alike. Some of them looked a little weird, though. Not like Caine’s typical designs for his NPCs. Pomni couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but they just seemed… Off.

Ragatha and Jax seemed to clock it immediately. They looked at each other, and Pomni saw a rare look on their faces: Agreement. “This isn’t right,” Ragatha mumbled to the others. “We have to get out of here—”

“Oh, hello there!”

She was cut off by the sound of an older woman’s voice at the bar. Pomni followed the voice, and it led her to the bartender herself— A tall, dark, queen chess piece, with wide brown eyes and thick eyelashes…

Holy shit.

She matched with Kinger.

She felt Kinger straighten up beside her, and when she looked at him, she saw recognition in his eyes. He was fixated on her.

“What can I get for you, my dears?” She leaned over the counter, tucking a notepad in her apron as she spoke. “Whatever you want, it’s on the house!”

Her voice was rich, her posture perky and bubbly. This couldn’t have really been her, could it?

“…Queenie?” Kinger sounded like he was swallowing back a lump in his throat. He reached out, leaning across the counter to touch her face.

The queen piece leaned back, eyes glistening. “Excuse me, sir! I prefer to be wined and dined first.” She looked to the rest of the group. “…Has he been drinking already?”

Before any of them could answer, Kinger spoke again. “You’re just like her.” He drew his hand back and gripped the counter tightly. “You look like her. You talk like her.”

She squinted, confused. “Like who?”

He blinked, those wide, blue eyes full of a deep anguish Pomni couldn’t even begin to understand. He looked away from her, tracing his finger over a crack in the countertop. “Someone I once knew.”

Without another word, he walked to the back of the bar, turning a corner to go into a more secluded area.

“Kinger!” Pomni called out after him, making a step in his direction. When he looked back at her, though, he held a hand out, stopping her.

“I’ll be over here, if you need me,” He said firmly. He didn’t sound angry at all, but he was sure. He didn’t want anybody right now.

Kinger looked one last time at the bartender before disappearing around the corner.

“Well! Your friend sure could stand to learn some social cues.” The bartender’s voice was too upbeat. Pomni stared at her, watching her take a whiskey glass out to polish. The bartender— Queenie— Whatever her name was, said something else, but Pomni couldn’t hear her over the resounding voice in her head. Why is Kinger’s wife here?! Does that mean...

A quick look around told her that her horrible suspicions were true.

Yes, there were regular NPCs in the bar. But as she looked around, she could see familiar faces. Every day, she’d had to walk past dozens of X-ed out doors on the way to her bedroom. She could pick out in the crowd which characters were really… Well, humans.

“What kind of a sick game is this?” Jax looked around, more alert than she’d ever seen him. He had to have come to the conclusion sooner than she had— He’d been around here long enough to recognize these people better than Pomni ever could. How many had he known personally?

“Jax?” Despite Ragatha’s voice being stiff, she seemed to be trying to comfort him. “H-Hey, calm down—”

He bolted for the exit, eyes darting around the room wildly. When he tried to open the door, it wouldn’t budge. He pulled at the handle, jiggling it until it looked like it was about to fall off. Pomni heard his breath coming in shallow gasps. “The hell is this? Get me the fuck out of here!”

“SORRY!” Caine’s voice boomed from an unseen spot. “THE CITY IS CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE RIGHT NOW! EXITING COULD LEAD YOU STRAIGHT INTO THE VOID!”

“No!” He pulled harder, but to no avail. He spun around to face the rest of the bar, which was now completely silent. Everyone stared at him like he was crazy— Which, Pomni supposed, made sense. They didn’t know that they were all…

She stopped her thought process there.

When Jax realized that all eyes were on him, he straightened up— Slipping back on his signature grin. But the edges of his mouth shook, like his smile was getting too heavy to hold up. He marched over to the bar, pushing Gangle aside to talk to Queenie.

“Whiskey sour.” He sat in the barstool, resting his head on the counter. “And make it snappy.”

Pomni tried to keep her distance from Jax at the bar. She sat completely upright, not daring to drink anything alcoholic. She’d thought that this would be a good distraction, but she wouldn’t have even rallied for it if she knew that the whole bar would be full of everyone’s abstracted friends.

So now she just sipped her club soda, trying to keep her eyes on everyone at once. Ragatha was closest to her, sipping a margarita while chatting idly with Queenie. A perfectly dull conversation, about the weather and those pesky six terrorists roaming Steers City— Who were those freaks, anyway? Where would they strike next? Why did they look like that? But Ragatha seemed on edge the whole time. Pomni wasn’t sure if the two had known each other in the circus. Whether they had or hadn’t, Ragatha did seem acutely aware of who she was talking to.

In a booth across the room, Pomni heard the laughs of Gangle and Zooble. They seemed absorbed in their conversation, unbothered by the morbid presence of the bar patrons around them. Gangle sipped her wine and said something that made Zooble blush a deeper shade of magenta. Pomni couldn’t help smiling weakly as she looked away. At least those two are having a decent time.

She dared to look across the bar at Jax. It had been twenty minutes, and he already was sipping on the last drops of his third whiskey. He seemed wasted already, slurring his words and slumping over the bar counter. He looked at Queenie with wide eyes, laughing at a joke she hadn’t been able to hear. “Oh… Good one, lady. I forgot your name…” He laughed again, this time to himself, and held up his empty glass. “Another round?”

Queenie hesitantly took his glass and prepared another drink. “Better slow down after this one, young man,” She scolded. “Unless you’re wanting to be passed out in a ditch.”

“Sounds fun.” He hiccupped. It was almost pathetic how quickly he’d lost it. “Sign me uppppp.”

Ragatha leaned over to him, looking more concerned than annoyed with his antics. “Pace yourself a little,” She mumbled. “She’s trying to help you.”

“It’s always the chess pieces trying to help me, isn’t it?” Jax slurred. “There’s nothin’ to help! I’m having a freakin’ blast.”

Pomni sipped her soda as she watched him. He locked his eyes on her, and his pupils got all wide. “What’re you looking at, Pom…” He chuckled. “That’s such a dumb name. Pomni… Pom-Pom.”

“You’re not thinking straight, are you?” She asked flatly.

He groaned and closed his eyes. “Don’t stare at me with that look on your face.”

What look? She turned her attention back to her soda, not wanting to talk to him if he was just gonna be drunkenly word-vomiting at her.

“No response? You’re so boringgg.” Jax took a sip of his whiskey, spilled a little on his shirt, and whimpered at the stain. “I liked you better back when you were president…”

Pomni felt her cheeks heat at that comment. Was he thinking of her short-lived presidency adventure? Why was Jax still thinking of that? “I liked you better when you were sober.”

He just chucked stupidly at that, like it was the most privately funny thing ever.

Pomni stiffened as she felt a presence behind her. When she turned, she nearly fell off her chair.

Gummigoo?!

“Hello, love.” He tilted his hat at Queenie, and she nodded back. Obviously, in the context of this adventure, they knew each other. “Just my usual. Won’t be here long tonight.”

“On it, boss!” Queenie gave him an understanding look and began mixing his drink.

Gummigoo sat on the barstool next to Pomni, leaning on the counter confidently. He must have noticed Pomni giving him a sideways look, because he knit his eyebrows together at the sight of her. “…Can I help you?”

“Uh… Erm…” Pomni tapped her fingers on the bar, trying not to look at her friends. Why she always got flustered around this particular NPC was beyond her. Was this whole bar just everyone’s personal hell? Was this national bring-a-dead-loved-one-out-for-a-drink day? She couldn’t think straight with all these eyes on her— It felt like she was tipsy already.

“Hm.” Gummigoo squinted as Queenie slid his drink— A tall, colorful, fruity-looking concoction— Towards him. “Club soda? On a Friday night?”

Was it really a Friday? Why did that matter?

“Oh, not this guy!” Pomni heard Jax exclaim. She wasn’t aware that he’d had such strong feelings about the NPC.

“You got a problem, sir?” Gummigoo’s Aussie accent rang across the bar as he leaned to glare at him.

“Just ignore him,” Pomni said, putting her head in Gummigoo’s field of view. “He’s a little…” She held her hand up to her mouth in a drinking motion, trying to hint at Jax’s state of mind, but knocked over her soda in the process. “Oh, shit! Uh—”

Gummigoo chuckled, seemingly forgiving Jax’s aggression. “Well, then, looks like we’ve gotta get you something fresh to sip on. Queens!” He shouted for the bartender’s attention. “Get this sheila what I’m having.”

She nodded and got right to it. When Pomni received her drink, she sipped on it and instantly felt a little lighter. Despite how cold and crisp the drink was, Pomni felt warmth blooming in the pit of her stomach as she savored it. “Oh, this is good. What is it?”

“A bit of candied magic.” He winked at her. “Thought a pretty little lass like you would enjoy it. Glad I wasn’t wrong.”

Was he flirting?

Well, then. If he was gonna flirt, then maybe Pomni would play with him a bit, too. “You don’t look like the type to like sweeter things.”

“You’d be shocked. I’m not as tough as I look.” He paused, looking up at the ceiling as a new song started up. “Up for a dance, little jester?”

“Oh, um…” Pomni shifted in her seat. “No one else is dancing.”

“Well, I don’t see why that matters.” He took Pomni’s hand and led her to the middle of the room. “I don’t think I caught your name,” Gummigoo said as he twirled her.

Pomni stared up at her, all her brief moments with him feeling like they were from different lifetimes. For him, they were. But not to her. She remembered everything.

“You can call me Pomni,” She told him.

“Well, then, Pomni.” Gummigoo dipped her at the beat drop of the song. “I’m about to teach you the best tango this side of the city.”

She smiled, feeling little sparks of excitement in her chest at meeting him once again. But as he twirled her around lightly, she caught a glimpse of the bar.

Jax’s seat was empty. All that remained of him was his empty whiskey glass.

It’s not even that serious.

Jax kept repeating the phrase to himself as he stumbled through the bar, the floor swaying beneath him. Static danced at the edges of his vision as he tried to tune out the figures in his peripheral.

Six damn years in this circus. Six years’ worth of friends giving themselves up to the inevitable. When he looked around, he could place the faces. But in the fog of his own overindulgence, he couldn’t remember their names.

Would they remember his when he was gone?

Even from across the room, he found his stupid, wandering eyes drawn to Pomni. The dirty, hopelessly oversized T-shirt, with the bottoms of her frilly jester outfit showing as gummy-fuck-his-name spun her around. Her hair falling in blocky shapes around her flushed face, her pinwheel eyes sparkling with joy as she danced her heart out.

Joy that he’d been able to bring to her one time, and one time only. And the second he’d seen the flash of wonder in her eyes, he’d pushed her away.

Even now, he found himself wanting. Wondering what would have happened if things had gone differently after the fight.

But wanting was a dangerous path to go down. It’s better this way, He told himself.

“You’re losing her,” A voice in his ear mocked.

Jax spun around, trying to find the source of the sound. “Who was that?” He slurred, his body feeling slower and more drowsy than he would have liked. He turned to see a familiar shape: A long, frog-like figure, arms crossed smugly.

“Oh, yeah?” Jax felt his smile drop, his facade fading, leaving him dangerously vulnerable. “Like you know anything about that!”

“Oh, no. I don’t.” The frog tapped him on the spot where his nose should be. “Not as much as you do, Jax.”

“Here we go again.” Jax felt the hiccups coming on, and wished for a moment that he could at least look more stoic while battling his inner demons. “You’re not real. You may look like him, and you may sound like him. But you will never be him.”

“Sure.” The frog shrugged. “But I’m close enough, aren’t I? And you’ll take whatever you can get, as long as it looks like the real thing.”

Alright, that was enough for one night.

Jax waved his hand in front of his face, dissolving the hallucination. He slumped at a table, resting his face in his hands as he kept watching Pomni and her beloved NPC. He doesn’t even remember her. Why is she so hell-bent on bonding with him?

She went back to the bar, taking another sip of her drink. In between sips, she was saying something unintelligible to Gummigoo, her face flush with obvious intoxication. When she turned her head, he could still see a slight scar on her neck from where she’d gotten stabbed. Jax felt his lips press together into a tight line. There was no way he was gonna cry. That was so childish. You’re not a baby, so stop acting like one.

“Hey!”

Jax turned to the familiar voice and saw something that made his stomach drop. Kaufmo?

He was looking at him with agitation, not a single ounce of recognition in those black eyes. “Do you mind? I was sitting there.”

He stared at the clown, trying to pick him apart so he could justify how uncanny this felt. But the more he looked at Kaufmo, the more he realized that he looked exactly as he remembered. That might have been worse.

“Hello? Anybody home?” Kaufmo waved a hand in front of Jax’s eyes.

“I’m going, I’m going.” Jax got out of the seat clumsily, turning his gaze to the dirty wood floor. “No need to get bent out of shape.”

He needed to get out of here. He tried the door again, but it was still locked. Whatever maintenance Caine was doing had to be almost finished by now, right? Jax had to keep telling himself that so that he wouldn’t completely lose his mind in here.

At least he hadn’t seen him in the flesh yet. A hallucination, he could deal with. But if he found Ribbit in this place—

He stopped himself there.

He trudged past the bar again, catching a bit of Ragatha’s conversation with the chess piece. The level of her margarita had dropped, and with it, her inhibitions.

“And… And she told me that if I made her look bad, she’d sell my horse to a butcher in Canada.” She rested her head on her hands. “And I thought she was joking until I came home a few days after failing an exam and Patches was gone…”

Jax watched old Raggy’s eyes water up.

“A— A week later we had steak for dinner, and it was really good. She asked if I liked it… And I told her yes, and she said that it was…” She broke down, burying her face in her hands. “It was chevaline! I— I ate my—”

The bartender pulled her glass away from her and patted her on the shoulder. Jax gritted his teeth and walked away. This was more than he wanted to deal with right now.

He finally made his way to the back of the bar, rounding the corner so he wouldn’t have to look at anybody he knew. This part of the building was notably emptier, with just a few tables filled. All of them seemed like real NPC’s, too, with one exception.

Kinger.

He had no drink with him. He just stared at a moth buzzing around one of the neon signs, eyes heavy-lidded and swimming with emotion.

Jax groaned internally. Even as he considered it, he knew it was a dumb idea, that this was something he’d never do sober. But the combination of the alcohol flooding his veins and the thought of Pomni and Gummigoo in the other room was just too much to take.

He sat across from Kinger, resting his head on his hands. He didn’t want to be acknowledged, but he didn’t really want to be alone, either. Everyone else out there had someone, and all he had were the voices of his mistakes in his head. He needed someone else.

Kinger blinked and focused on him, jumping in his seat. “Oh, Jax. It’s just you.”

“Mhm.”

“You don’t look well.”

“Nope.”

Kinger was silent for a moment, examining him with those blue eyes that seemed to miss everything and nothing at the same time. “Is there a reason you’re back here?” He asked, folding his hands together.

Jax said nothing.

“I couldn’t bear to look at her,” Kinger said slowly, his emotion measured and barely breaking through his practiced stability. “That’s why I had to be away from the front. Did the same thing happen to you? You saw him and…”

He trailed off, and Jax just shook his head.

“I…” The thoughts came up like foam from a shaken soda, but they were still hard to force out in the form of a coherent sentence. Each word was barbed, sticking to the inside of his mouth like they wanted to take up a permanent residence there. “She’s so happy.”

“'She'?”

“Pomni.” Her name just brought on a new wave of emotion. He closed his eyes, but all he could think of was the way she was dancing around right now, sure-footed and confident. “She’s with the gummy guy. And they’re drinking and flirting…”

Kinger nodded understandingly. “And you want that to be you?”

Jax nodded, not even thinking about it.

“Have you told her?”

His question caught him off guard. “Why would I?” Jax pressed his cheek to the cold table. “She hates me. And I can’t— I can’t go through it all again if she abstracts.”

“I don’t think Pomni hates you nearly as much as you think she does.” Kinger brushed a hand over the top of Jax’s head, which was more comforting than Jax wanted to admit. “You’re afraid, and that’s okay. But if you never tell her, how is she supposed to know how you feel?”

Jax hated this logic.

“Pomni means a lot to you. So tell her. Show her. If all you’re doing is messing with her and making her life harder, she’s never going to think of you in the way that you want her too.”

“But it’s funny!” Jax hated how whiny his voice sounded, even to his own ears. “Making her life hard is funny. And I have to be funny. It’s who I am.”

“Oh, Jax.” Kinger shook his head. “It’s not, and I think you know that.”

When Jax didn’t reply, Kinger went on.

“You have to decide whether you like her because you want to use her as a prop in your jokes…” He clasped his hands together, like a therapist whose rent was due. “Or if you like her because she’s Pomni. If it’s the former, then you don’t really want her all that much.” He paused, thinking of what to say next. “Okay, tell me this, Jax. What do you love about her?”

Love? Now that was a strong term. Jax squirmed. “I’m not doing this anymore.”

Kinger stared at him, his gaze firm. When Jax made eye contact with him, he knew that the oldest circus member was not taking that as an answer.

“…She always stares at me with those bug eyes. And every time, I can’t look away.” He wanted to stop, but it was all coming out now. His tongue betrayed him as he kept on spilling. “She listens when people talk, and not because she has to. She wants to understand everyone here. She’s smarter than I am. She doesn’t give up on people. And it’s so hard to make her laugh, but when she does, it’s just like… It’s like drugs. I can’t stop trying because I just want to see her do it again.”

He froze, looking at Kinger with wide eyes. I said too much. I shouldn’t have come back here. They should put me down like a dog.

But Kinger just tapped his hand gently. “There you go. That’s what you should tell her.”

Jax sat up straight, his head feeling heavy.

“You’re just gonna forget all of this, right?” Jax mumbled.

Kinger shrugged. “I’m sure I will. But you won’t.”

He was right. Jax would remember this, long after the liquor had left his system. He’d remember it as the day he’d let his character slip, the day that he’d truly lost his mind.

The thought of it made him nauseous.

He cleared his throat. “Sure.” He looked back at the main room. “I… Should go.”

Kinger tried to speak again, but Jax let his chair squeak across the floor, silencing anything else the crazy fool had to say.

When he went back into the main room, they were still together. Pomni crashed into the NPC in the middle of their dance, giggling like a crazy person. The sight of it made Jax sick to his stomach.

He tried to shift his attention, but there wasn’t much else that caught his eye. Gangle and Zooble were still enamored in each other, blushing and making eyes at each other in their booth. Gross. Get a room or something. Ragatha poured her heart out to the bartender, who was looking increasingly uncomfortable with each anecdote.

He thought of ordering another drink, just so he would have something to do besides stare like a creep. If he was lucky, this one would make him pass out, and he’d be able to sleep through the rest of this mini-adventure.

But as he made his way back to the bar, he had to walk past Pomni and her stupid boy-toy. Gummigoo was coming back to take a drink of his beverage, telling something to her as he walked away. Jax couldn’t quite make it out, and he didn’t really care anyway. Gummigoo leaned over the bar, looking between his and Pomni’s identical drinks.

Jax stayed looking at him, unable to tear his eyes away. Trying to see what she saw in him. He caught him reaching for something from a nonexistent pocket. Gummigoo checked to make sure Pomni was looking away, and then dropped something in her drink.

Jax straightened up. Did he just…?

The NPC handed her the glass, swirling it around before giving it to her. When he handed it to her, she took it without a second thought. “Here, you were looking a bit thirsty.”

She thanked him, bringing it to her lips.

Even despite the mess around him, Jax knew he couldn’t let this happen. He jumped out of his seat and smacked the drink out of her hands. The glass shattered on the floor, colorful, candy-hued liquid splashing everywhere.

She looked up at him, her eyebrows knit together. “Jax! What’s wrong with you?!”

He didn’t respond to her. He couldn’t, not when the stupid NPC that planned to do God-knows-what was still standing right there. Jax huffed, feeling a rush of adrenaline as he looked at him. “You!”

Gummigoo held his hands up, but it was too late. Jax was already on him, pinning him to the floor as he let loose.

Chapter Text

Pomni stepped backwards, horrified at the scene in front of her. What is wrong with him?

Jax had his hands around Gummigoo’s throat, clumsily slamming his head into the ground. They rolled over, landing Jax in the shards from her broken glass. He screamed, rage making his voice raw and scratchy.

It had happened so fast, she didn’t even know what to think— The drinks were making her brain all foggy. She saw Zooble get up from their seat and start pulling Jax away from the fight. He didn’t let up, though. He kept kicking, screaming, and gnashing his teeth. “You bastard!” He screeched.

“Jax!” Pomni scolded, grabbing Gummigoo by the shoulders. Why is he being like this?! Why does he have to ruin everything? “Stop! Just stop!”

“He spiked the Goddamn drink!” He said, hand shaking as he pointed at the NPC. His voice was still slurring, but there was so much conviction there. He really believed what he was saying.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Gummigoo brushed dust off his chest, his voice steady and measured. “He’s crazy!”

“You—” Jax struggled in Zooble’s grip, but they held him back firmly. “Let me go! I’m serious!”

“You’re not serious, and you know it.” Zooble kept their arms wrapped around him. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not working. You can’t spike drinks in the circus.”

Pomni felt her eyes flickering between the two men. Spiked drink? No… No, he wouldn’t.

“Jax, it’s Gummigoo.” Heat rose to Pomni’s cheeks, embarrassment making her feel small as she sensed countless eyes on the three of them. “He would never—”

“That’s not your Gummigoo, Pomni! Just like she—” He pointed to Queenie at the bar, “—Isn’t Kinger’s wife, and…” He scoffed, cutting himself off. “None of these people are real! They’re textures to be erased and reused! He’s not real!”

“Alright, that’s enough!” Queenie slammed her hands on the counter. “All of you, get out! Leave or I’m calling the police!”

Ragatha sat up tensely in her seat. “Ma’am, I’m so sorry, they just need some calming down—”

“I’m not calming down!” Jax attempted to lunge at the NPC again, but was restrained. “Not until he’s dead!”

Pomni had truly never seen him this upset about anything. Was he… Telling the truth?

Well, whether he was or wasn’t, he really did believe what he was saying. And the fact that he was this passionate about something that may or may not have happened to her was telling enough. Watching him fight Zooble so he could attack Gummigoo sent a chill down her spine.

Pomni made eye contact with Gummigoo for the first time since the fight started, and he looked away immediately, turning his eyes to the ground. A cold pit opened in her stomach.

Jax wasn’t lying.

An NPC had tried to drug her. And for what reason? Caine had said himself that he wanted to keep things as family-friendly as he could. So why would any character of his try something like that?

All that aside, she couldn’t help but stare at Gummigoo in disbelief. She’d trusted him. All those interactions she’d had with him in past adventures would forever be polluted, poisoned with this knowledge that he’d tried to knock her out cold for his own nefarious reasons.

Gummigoo stood up, watching Jax huff and puff at him powerlessly. He held out a hand to Pomni, fixing his hat on his head. Inviting her to come with him.

“Uh…” Pomni shifted away from him, trying not to trip over her feet as she did so. “I… I think I’ll stay here… Thanks.”

He said nothing, but raised his eyebrows insistently.

“It was nice meeting you,” She pushed, painfully aware of how intoxicated she sounded. At this point, she had no right to criticize Jax’s wastedness. “But I think we’re done here.”

“Pomni,” Zooble said, “You don’t have to—”

“I said no.” She turned away from the NPC she’d thought was a friend and let her face drop, purposely revealing how shaken up she was to Zooble. “I want to stay with you guys.”

Zooble’s eyes widened as Pomni’s bottom lip quivered. They looked at Jax, then at Gummigoo before knitting their eyebrows together and letting go of him.

It took a moment for Jax to realize that he wasn’t being restrained anymore. As soon as it clicked, though, he got straight back to business. Him and Gummigoo were momentarily tangled up again, fighting on the floor.

Pomni ran towards Zooble, needing a bit of stability in this moment. They seemed momentarily stunned, not making any move to comfort her. But after a second or two, they wrapped their arms around her awkwardly. “Uh… There, there, Pom.”

She felt childish, needing to be hugged like a little kid seeking comfort from her parents. “I’m so stupid,” She muttered, hoping that Zooble could hear her over the sound of Jax’s violent outburst.

“No…” They sounded unsure. “No, you’re not.” She saw them nod at Gangle, beckoning her over. Soon, Gangle’s ribbons were wrapped gently around her, too. And after that came Ragatha’s plush arms.

For once, the sensation of so many people touching her didn’t make her want to throw up. It actually felt better than sitting alone with all this. She could ignore the sounds of Queenie dialing 911, and the rest of the bar patrons shuffling out the doors as quickly as they could.

She realized that this was the first real hug she’d received in months, and for a moment, she felt loved. Accepted. And that just made tears spill over.

“I’m stupid!” She wailed again, fully aware she sounded ridiculous but not caring in the slightest.

Her dismayed voice in the background just fueled his rage. He slammed the NPC into a table and cracked a chair over his head, ignoring his mercy pleas. Profanities spilled from his mouth, and he didn’t care in the slightest that each of them was censored with dumb sound effects.

Jax knew he was being ridiculous, that his reaction was way too over-the-top. But as he tussled with Gummigoo, he couldn’t help but let years of rage seep into his every attack. This wasn’t just about Pomni now. It was about Kaufmo and Ribbit. About Jax himself. For every ridiculous and violent situation they’d been shoved into in the name of keeping them sane.

Why would Caine let this happen?

As he wrapped his hands around Gummigoo’s throat, he wasn’t seeing the NPC anymore. He was seeing the ringmaster that had orchestrated all of this.

The door to the bar burst open, and a bunch of blank mannequins with badges and guns barged in. “Everyone freeze!” One of them called out.

Jax held Gummigoo against the table, pausing to look at the officers. As soon as he did, though, he knew it had been a mistake.

The mannequin gasped. “It’s them!” He said, pulling out a taser gun. “It’s the fugitives!”

Ragatha held up a hand. “W-Wait—!”

“I said, freeze!” The cop shot the taser at her, and she went limp. “Backup! I need backup!”

More cops stormed through the door, completely raiding the bar. There were enough of them for each of the circus members to have one restraining them, and then some. Jax felt a baton hit him in the back of the head and he collapsed, the world spinning as he tried to get his bearings. Suddenly, those four whiskeys didn’t seem like the best choice…

He felt Gummigoo slip out of his grip, slinking out the door without another word. Coward.

Jax blinked slowly, trying to push back the splitting migraine threatening to overtake his senses. As he felt someone cuffing his hands behind his back, he swore that he could see little cartoon birds flapping around his head. Ha, ha. Very funny, Caine.

“Stand up, perp!” The voice of the officer restraining him brought back memories— Not good ones, mind you, but memories nonetheless.

Wait… Why was this NPC’s voice so familiar?

With some effort, Jax turned his head to look at the cop. Two round, strikingly familiar eyes stared back at him.

There was no damn way.

“I said, stand up!” Ribbit commanded, his voice young-sounding but surprisingly sharp. “What, you want me to drag you facedown into custody? I’m not opposed to giving a filthy terrorist like you some nasty road-rash.”

Jax felt his breathing become sporadic as he stared into the eyes of his friend. He couldn't move, couldn’t speak. Not when he was right there.

Shapes and textures, He tried to remind himself. That’s all he is. It’s not actually him. But somehow, the advice he’d given to Pomni was much harder to swallow when the loss of his miserable, digital life was inches from his face, breathing the same air as him.

His eyes slid over to the badge pinned to Ribbit’s chest. Chief of Police, Steers City? He couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Ironic career path for you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jax felt the bitter sting of hearing a voice that he knew so well, yet its speaker didn’t know him back. “Your little gang’s off to the squad car, and you will be too, whether you move your feet or not.”

He should have fought back more, should have at least kept up the pretense of resistance. But as he glanced around the bar, looking at the remnants of what was supposed to be a quick break— Empty glasses, crumpled up napkins, footprints from dirty shoes on the floor— He started to feel it all crashing down on him.

And one last look at Ribbit just pushed him over the edge.

He felt his body shut down with his mind— All he could do was lay down, body stiff as a board, as the thing that looked like his friend called for help dragging him away.

I can’t take this anymore.

He felt that darkness engulf him as they took him into custody. Saw eye-shaped pops of color at the edges of his vision. His hands and feet started falling asleep, and the stinging numbness crept up his limbs.

This is it, isn’t it? Jax had imagined how he would abstract before. It was inevitable, so why not try and fantasize a bit? Jax had never deluded himself into thinking he’d go out in a blaze of glory. Nobody did, anyway. Abstraction wasn’t like death— It wasn’t poetic or heroic in any sense. Everyone he’d known to abstract had succumbed selfishly, in an ugly combination of ultimate hopelessness and complete isolation. Even so, he’d at least hoped that his complete loss of autonomy and sanity would happen privately.

Not in the middle of some hazardous adventure, with some counterfeit version of his oldest friend holding him like a stranger. Not with everyone looking.

Jax felt his breath coming in gasps as they dragged him towards one of the squad cars. His arms and legs lost feeling, turning into vaguely staticky appendages that served next to no function. He took a risk, looking down at his legs just in time to see the body he’d gotten used to splitting open in spots, revealing inky blackness…

He looked away from his body. In some pure, animalistic attempt to self-preserve, to not become like those monsters in the cellar, he tried to find something to focus on. Something to hold on to in his final conscious moments.

All he could find was Ragatha, the only circus member that hadn’t yet been shoved into a car.

She didn’t see him at first. Just kept her eyes trained on the officers, with that kicked-puppy look in her eyes that Jax knew so well.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. But his voice didn’t sound like his own anymore— It had undertones and echoes, that, if he listened closely enough, sounded like home. Who would’ve thought? The last thing I see before I lose it is Ragatha. Drunk, pathetic, badly-dressed Ragatha.

She turned towards him after he laughed. He gave her a smile as he felt more splits in his skin, knowing that the monster of abstraction was getting too big for his character model. He had seconds left, if he could continue exercising this restraint. Cue applause. Show's over, folks.

“J-Jax?” She looked unsure for a second, but then her eyes widened in an expression of pure horror. The sight of him sobered her up enough for her to start blinking back…

Tears?

Why is she crying? Jax felt his smile widening, his brain staring to short-circuit as he kept the ragdoll in his sights.

“Don’t,” She gasped as the cops shoved her roughly into the squad car. “I can’t fail you all over again!”

Fail me? He felt his deterioration slow at her words. When did she fail me?

They put him in the car with Ragatha and Pomni, but he couldn’t really see much anymore. He sure could hear them, sense the panic that ensued at the sight of the holes in his body. People shifted around him, trying to get as far as they could in the confined space. Not offering comfort or words of affirmation to attempt reversing the process. They just treated him like his state was infectious. Good.

And then, like some corny rom-com, he caught Pomni’s gaze.

Eyes red from crying. Mascara from makeup he didn’t even know her avatar had smudged all across her cheeks. Pinwheel irises flicking from each broken piece of him and then back to his face. She was cowering backwards, flattened against the seat so that as little of her as possible touched him.

It took her a good second of consideration. But then, reaching her hand out like touching him would send a shock through her body, she grazed her finger over his cheek. She’d wiped away a tear.

Was I crying? That’s so… lame.

At her touch, Jax felt his body relax. The static faded, and the burning sensation where the holes were turned into dull spots of pain. His mind slowed, his breathing becoming deeper and steadier.

Pomni sighed deeply, relief evident on her face. She said something to him, but he couldn’t make it out.

He fell backwards, his head hitting the back of the seat as he completely blacked out. The last thing he saw before his vision failed him was a little health-loss symbol above his head.

“Jax!”

He opened his eyes to Caine’s voice echoing in his ears. Only, he wasn’t in the city anymore. He wasn’t in any place that looked like it belonged to the circus.

It was a farm. Bathed in the golden light of a late summer evening, with fields and fields of… Eugh… Corn. Seriously, there had to be miles of the stuff.

Jax turned away from the corn field towards the farmhouse ahead of him. It was barn-style, with chipped white paint on the sides and broken Little Tikes toys scattered around the front yard. On the porch were two brunette little kids, no older than 6, fighting over a naked barbie doll with an arm missing.

He felt chills up his spine. He knew this place, and he knew these people. He knew the horror of the endless corn and the stink of fertilizer and the crooked sign above the front door that read ‘Home is where my crazies are’.

The farm. His family.

Jax shuddered again. He’d visited this place before— In dreams, in passing, basically any time he wandered too far into the folds of his brain. The place where he’d had to take yearly family pictures with his eight brothers and four sisters that never fit into the frame, all so that his parents could post them to show the world how happy they were. Where he’d never gotten a set of clothes, or a birthday present, or even a toothbrush that wasn’t a hand-me-down from one of his siblings. Where he had to take his meals into the bathroom to avoid the freak show that was dinnertime each night.

He tried to avoid it all he could— Despite the madness of the circus, he preferred it to the life of his Baptist-church-sized, ever growing family.

“Jax, are you deaf or just stupid?”

He turned suddenly to see the person beside him— A short, curly-haired boy that looked like he was in his late teens. He had his eyebrows knit together and a sketchpad in his hand.

Jax swallowed hard— Even in the back of his mind, he couldn't escape him. Ribbit and Jax’s lives had just been too intertwined for him to simply tune the memories out.

The way he spoke was off, though. Even though his inflections were natural, each time he said Jax’s name, it was in Caine’s voice. Like his real name had been overwritten by the ringmaster himself. He knew of his name, only because he’d hated it so much. Jax had always figured that by the time his parents had gotten around to naming him, they’d run out of good ideas, and that’s why he was named after his father. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember his dad’s name, either.

“Huh?” Jax’s own voice sounded small. Sure, it was him. But it was younger, weaker. A softened version of who he was now.

“I asked you a question.” Ribbit turned to him, his face completely blurred, like someone had sloppily scrubbed an eraser over it. “Ice cream or slushies?”

“Why?”

“Uh, because you need to get out of the house, and I wanna know where we should go. I mean, just look at you. You’re going stir-crazy.”

Jax nodded slowly. He supposed that he was. His newest sibling had been born three weeks ago, and now, for the fourth consecutive summer in a row, he’d been kept up at night by a wailing newborn that he now had to claim as his own blood relative. All while last year’s baby was toddling around the house, trying to walk without guidance, and the sister from two years ago was throwing tantrums and potty-training, and the brother from three years back…

Well, you get the idea.

“Um…” Jax stood up, clasping his hands— His sunburned, freckled, human hands— in front of him. “You know, a cherry slushy would slap.”

“Well, I guess that’s that.” Ribbit put away his sketchpad and twirled his car keys around his finger. “I would’ve picked ice cream, but whatever—”

“You asked me, lame-o!” Jax bounded ahead of him, towards his friend’s beat-up car parked in the gravel driveway. “Should’ve picked first if you wanted it so bad.”

They ran off to the car. Ribbit was his ride everywhere; He was the one with a license. Being a year older, he’d hit a bunch of milestones that Jax had yet to go through. They drove down the winding driveway, past rows and rows of corn. Jax just tried to keep his eyes trained on the road. He noticed that there was more stuff in his friend’s car than usual, though. It was all random junk— Garbage bags of clothes, pens, folders full of old school assignments, even a pillow and a dingy quilt that smelled faintly of cat litter.

The closest gas station to Jax’s house was a dingy old place that had been around decades longer than he had. They two of them bought their slushies and sat on the curb, watching the sun set over the hole-in-the-wall town that he’d known since the day he was born. Their shadows stretched across the parking lot, tinted with pink light and the lingering humidity of the day.

The silence between them was tense, for some reason. Jax kept catching Ribbit biting his lip, his eyes cast downward. He was never this quiet— Always had something going on that he was itching to share with Jax. To break the tension, he stuck his tongue out at his companion. “Is it red yet?”

“Your tongue’s always red, loser,” He quipped.

“Well, like, is it redder?”

“I guess so.”

The conversation fizzled out. Jax felt his eyebrows knit together as he stared at a pickup truck leaving the parking lot. He set his half-empty cup down and rested his head on his knees. Not asking him anything, but just waiting for Ribbit to say something, anything.

Finally, Ribbit took a shaking breath and tossed his cup backwards, towards a garbage can. “Trick shot.” It missed and just bounced on the pavement underwhelmingly. “Damn.”

“Okay, what’s going on, man?” Jax finally decided to prod at him a bit. Whatever was on Ribbit’s mind, he obviously wasn’t going to talk about it voluntarily. “You’ve kinda seemed, like, dead. All day.”

His friend gave him a terse glance before turning his eyes to the sunset.

“Jax, I… We’re not gonna be able to hang out anymore.” He slumped over, resting his head on his knees. “My stepdad, uh, he… He got, like, really violent again last night. It was scary.”

Jax felt his eyes go wide. He knew he probably looked dumb as hell, but that was kinda not what he was concerned about currently.

“He told me I wasn’t welcome back home anymore.” He leaned back, scoffing like it didn’t bug him. “Good thing, too. I was sick and tired of being pushed around by that asshole.”

“What about your mom?”

The spark left Ribbit’s eyes. “Why should I be worried about her? She picked him.” He paused. “And she didn’t do anything to help. So I guess she wants him more than she wants me.”

He breathed in deeply, his face blurring more each second.

“So… You’re not going home?”

“It’s not my home anymore. Never was.” Ribbit patted Jax on the back. “I’m not staying in this shitty town, either. I’m going somewhere I can make something of myself. So… I just wanted to say goodbye before I left.”

“Wait, wait.” Jax backed up. “You’re not leaving. There’s no way—”

“I have to!” Ribbit’s emotions finally seemed to bubble over. “I can’t stay here, Jax! It’ll kill me. Every second I stay in this stupid town is just one nightmare after the next. Nothing ever changes! I could live and die here without ever doing anything important.”

Jax felt his body go numb. This part always hurt when he replayed it. It wasn’t the most painful part of his past, that was for sure, but it ached like a dull punch to the gut. Because, now that he was older, he knew too well how it was to be in a stagnant state of existence. He’d lived it in the circus.

But he hadn’t known that back then. His life had been an ever-shifting haze of new siblings’ names and visits to the principal’s office and staring at the stupid corn field…

Stagnancy or constant change. Both were roads that led to nothing but terrible things.

“Where are you going?” He asked quietly.

Ribbit tapped his knees. “Los Angeles,” He admitted. “I could make it there. I just— I don’t know. Every time I hear about it, it just feels like I belong in that city.”

Jax stared at him. Knowing that he would just slip through his fingers, never to be seen again. If he left this town, he’d never look back. He’d want to forget everything that had happened to him here. Did that include Jax himself?

It was selfish, and it was stupid. He knew it as soon as he considered the idea. But he didn’t know how he would handle this life without his only friend at his side.

“We could go together,” He suggested, his voice almost too quiet. “What’s L.A. without someone to share it with?”

Ribbit turned to him, confused. But his confusion quickly gave way to relief as his shoulders drooped.

“You’d go with me?”

“Why not?” Jax felt a nervous smirk spreading across his face. “This place blows. And if I have to hear my mom announce one more pregnancy, I might just run away on my own.”

Ribbit stood up, taking his hand, surety creeping into his posture. “…Yeah. We’ve got a better chance at making it together, right?”

“Oh, hell yeah. We’re hilarious. Maybe we could do a stand-up routine together.”

“And then we make millions, and they’ll all be sorry.” His friend seemed to perk up at the idea of both of them traveling towards a new life with someone else at his side.

But looking back on this moment, all Jax could feel was a deep, cold dread.

Pomni shook as she watched Jax collapse onto the floor. He was abstracting. We both saw it.

But when his eyes— Which hadn’t been their usual bright yellow, but were a flashy ever-changing rainbow— Had shut, his body had stopped convulsing. His chest rose and fell in steady breaths. The holes on his limbs, which had surely sent him into a further frenzy, were slowly sealing themselves up.

Pomni’s cuffed hands trembled as she saw the colorful teardrop she’d wiped from his face, resting on her glove. It had a thick, syrupy consistency, and sparked with staticky bits of black as it struggled to drip from her finger. She drew in a deep breath, wiping her hand on her shirt.

“What… Was… That?”

Ragatha didn’t respond. It seemed that she didn’t know what to make of this either.

The car started moving, and the lights from the city flashed through the windows, illuminating their faces in yellow for a second at a time. She could see the car containing Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble ahead of them. They knew nothing of this situation yet.

Pomni leaned down as he snored away. It seemed like Ragatha was too afraid to touch him. Pomni brushed a hand over the top of his head, preparing for lightning-bolts of pain to shoot through her after his near abstraction. But all she felt was silky fur and the soft movement of him shivering at her touch.

She started humming, hoping that he could hear her even though he was out cold. Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was wishful thinking, but after what he’d done for her in the bar, she felt that she owed him a moment of comfort. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do…

Ragatha stared at her, puzzled. Pomni froze, stopping her humming as she became aware of her friend’s gaze on her.

“Is he going to be okay?” She dared to ask.

“I— I don’t know.” Ragatha tensed as Jax shifted in his sleep. “I’ve never seen someone come back like that.”

She didn’t take her eyes off him. Concerning implications of the spiked drink aside, why had Jax gotten so worked up over that? There was only one answer, and it confirmed what Pomni had suspected all along: That he did care, even if he hated to admit it.

Had that fact alone been enough to push him to abstract?

His eyes blinked open, and Pomni had to stifle a gasp. She pulled her hand back, staring straight at him. His eyes were yellow again, no flashing colors to be seen. Jax blinked again, his pupils going wider than she’d ever seen them before. He was fixated on her, his face completely unmoving.

And then he turned away, not saying a word. Just laying down on the floor of the squad car, staring at the back of the car seats. He wasn’t moving. She had to really focus to see him breathing now.

“Jax?” Ragatha broke the silence. “Are you…?”

She trailed off. There really were no words to properly address this situation, were there? When Jax didn't respond to her words, Ragatha offered the olive branch again. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Why?”

Ragatha flinched at his response. It wasn’t sharp towards her, really. Just flat. Dull. He was simply asking a question about a statement he deemed ridiculous.

She took a deep breath. “Because we care, Jax. No matter what you’ve done— No one deserves to abstract.”

Silence. For a few long minutes, all Pomni could hear were the sounds of traffic whizzing past them and the brakes squealing very so often. She stared out the window, trying not to get carsick as she felt the alcohol still sloshing around in her system. The world outside looked less buggy than it had before, but there was still clearly something off about it. The whole world was bathed in a sickly red light, and the ground still radiated heat. Where the Moon should have been was the pounding heart from earlier that day, thumping hypnotically above the world.

“You say nothing about any of this,” Jax finally said. He sounded exhausted, his words blurring together in a nearly incomprehensible mess.

Ragatha and Pomni exchanged a glance, and she felt a mutual understanding as their eyes met. They would talk about this, but they’d do it later. Pomni would respect his request, though— Gangle, Zooble, and Kinger wouldn’t hear a word about this. Not from her, at least.

This night would remain between the three of them.

The squad car screeched to a halt in front of the courthouse, which, for some reason, was still open at this hour. Pomni knew that didn’t make sense, but she supposed that Caine would just want the plot of his adventure to move on no matter what. Day or night, they’d be tried for their crimes.

The cops unloaded Ragatha, Jax, and Pomni roughly from their car. Once they were out, they pinned cartoony shackles to their feet, chaining them together. Even if Pomni wanted to make a run for it, she couldn’t. She looked to her left and saw the rest of their team in a similar predicament— Although they were having a hard time chaining Kinger, who had no feet, and Gangle, who slipped out of the cuffs every time they tried to put them on her ribbons. She watched a cop NPC try one final time to handcuff her and fail miserably. Gangle just buried her face in her hands, sniveling like a fool. “I’m a failure!” She wailed, wiping away the tears that just kept coming. “I can’t even get arrested right!”

Oh, yeah. If they had to face a jury right now, then they were so screwed.

“Let go of me!” Zooble stumbled over their own legs as the six of them were pushed towards the courthouse. “I want a lawyer!”

“Oh, you’ve got one.” The police chief, a frog that was for sure an abstracted human, informed her. Every time the frog opened his mouth, she felt Jax flinch beside her, like he was being hit. “He’s waiting for you at the front steps.”

Pomni looked where he was pointing, and felt all of her hopes dissolving. Their lawyer was in a full-body cast, being held up cartoonishly with crutches. A pink face showed in between bandages, though. A pink, suspiciously yellow-eyed face…

“You’re kidding!” Jax threw his head back in an exaggerated groan. “Why is this idiot everywhere?”

“I could be saying the same to you!” Evil Jax tried to cross his arms, but the casts kept him from doing so. “You think I wanted to pick up this case after you killed my friends and threw me into highway traffic?!”

“Uh…” Ragatha turned to the police chief, and she seemed to recoil at his appearance, almost as badly as Jax did. “I think there’s been a mistake. This guy, he’s a criminal, too…”

“I mean, I guess so.” The frog shrugged. “I suppose he’s gotta have a side-hustle in this economy. There’s two guys in this city with a law degree, and he’s one of them. And he’s got, like, a killer record. No cases lost.”

Pomni blinked slowly, her head spinning. “That makes absolutely no sense. Can’t you, like, get your license suspended or—”

“Hey, don’t blame me.” He gave the group a rough shove forward. “Blame the narrative.”

They were pushed into the courthouse, which was packed with news reporters and cameramen, shoving microphones in their faces and asking obnoxious questions that Pomni just couldn’t answer. The bright lights were giving her a crazy headache. After the darkness of the night, these florescent lights were absolutely blinding.

“Mr. Evil Jax, how do you think the sentencing’s gonna go?” A reporter asked their lawyer.

“Hmm…” His voice, which had been so gentle just days before, seemed much more cutting now. “Let’s just say… It’ll be a very speedy trial.”

Well, that didn’t give her confidence. She heard Zooble grumble behind her in a low voice. “If I have to go through a whole court trial, I swear to God I’m gonna abstract myself…”

Pomni felt Ragatha flinch at the remark, and her eyes flew to Jax, who just stared blankly ahead at the hallway.

She expected Evil Jax to take them someplace private first to discuss their case. Y’know, like any normal lawyer would, in the real world. But when he steered the group towards the doors to the courtroom, she realized that logic was far too much to hope for.

“What are we doing?” Gangle mumbled helplessly as he opened the doors for them.

“Relax, guys. I’ve got this one in the bag.” Evil Jax led them inside. “I’ll be in and out of here in ten minutes, tops.”

She noticed that he said I and not we. Nice. That wasn’t at all concerning.

They all sat down at the defendant’s table, facing a blank mannequin judge with a gaudy powdered wig. Cameras were poised to face them, probably broadcasting this case to the whole city. Pomni really hadn’t realized that their case was this high-profile. The room was packed with witnesses and prosecutors, making her wonder why everyone was so active at this hour.

“All rise,” The judge began. “Let the trial begin. The defendant may speak.”

“Honorable judge, may I speak for my clients?” Evil Jax said, standing up after they had just sat down again.

Pomni felt her stomach drop when the judge granted their lawyer’s request.

“The defendant would not only like to plead guilty on all counts—” He paused as the courtroom went silent, “—But would like to request the death penalty as well!”

The courtroom cheered. Pomni felt everybody around her tense up, voicing their discontent. Ragatha started sputtering incoherently, Kinger slow-blinked one eye at a time, as if he wasn’t all there yet, and Gangle just covered her mouth, glass tears dripping from her eyes. The only one without a reaction to Evil Jax’s declaration was Jax himself, who just stared at the grains of the wooden table, completely dissociated. Pomni frowned and turned her attention back to the hearing.

“What are you doing?!” Zooble’s voice came out as a low growl. Pomni got the sense that if they hadn’t been shackled, they would have their hands around Evil Jax’s throat. “You’re our attorney, you should be defending us!”

“And— And you know what else?” Evil Jax raised his voice above the roaring of the court. “These guys not only committed heinous crimes, such as, y’know, terrorism and murder, but they also threw me out of a moving car and murdered all my friends!”

"Self defense!" Ragatha cried. But no one heeded her words. Someone even booed. Pomni felt one of the NPCs throw a rotten tomato at the back of her head. She turned to see who it was, but everyone in the crowd looked exactly the same.

“And! We caught them in the middle of a bar fight!” Evil Jax was on a roll now. He had the crowd in the palm of his bandaged-up hand, and he wasn’t letting up. “Beating up some random citizen, no less!”

“Wait!” Pomni looked at the judge pleadingly. “You! Your honor, you must know that this isn’t right. Our lawyer shouldn’t be fighting against us—”

“Nerd!” The prosecution called from across the room.

“Can— Can everyone just shut up, for one second!” She felt herself losing the court’s attention, so she kept fighting for center stage. “Don’t we have, like, the right to a fair trial?”

“Uh, not in my court.” The judge took out a tub of popcorn. “You guys do seem pretty guilty, from what I’ve heard.”

“Wh— Well, yeah! You haven’t given us the time to talk!” She turned desperately to her frazzled group of friends. “Uh, Kinger! We’re not guilty, right?”

He seemed to come alive at the sound of Pomni addressing him. “Oh! No, of course we’re not!”

Pomni sighed with relief.

“No, we’re not guilty of terrorism at all! I believe the term you’re looking for is destruction of property.” He held his hands out reasonably. “Since, you know, we didn’t have a political goal in mind. We weren’t really trying to hurt any civilians, either. So… Maybe more like criminal negligence.”

She stared at Kinger for a second before slamming her face down on the table. “…Oh my God.” If she wasn’t chained up, she might have strangled him herself.

The judge seemed to consider everything as he shoved a handful of popcorn into his non-existent mouth. “So, like, we don’t normally do the death sentence here in Steers City.”

Okay, okay. Pomni dared to let herself start hoping again. We’re getting somewhere.

“But for you guys, well, we might just make an exception!” He banged his gavel down. “By the power vested in me or whatever, your execution will be tomorrow morning at 10 A.M., sharp!”

There was an uproar as the room erupted in cheers. It seemed that in Steers City, the justice system worked swiftly. Swiftly and blindly. Evil Jax wrapped the prosecutor in a hug, and they both jumped up and down in celebration. “We’re free!” Someone in the jury cheered. “We’re free from their reign of terror!” Pomni sat dead still, head pounding from the chaos.

Zooble blinked slowly. “Uh… What just happened?”

Before anyone could respond to them, they were taken out of the courtroom. As they left, balloons rained from the ceiling. Pomni heard someone pop a bottle of champagne.

“This adventure is such a joke,” She muttered as the doors shut behind them.

The police led them to the back of the courthouse, where a jail cell awaited them. Once they were slammed inside and locked away, Pomni felt the pressure leave her body. Her head still hurt, but it was quiet enough for her to think clearly.

Their last rest seemed a lifetime ago. In one night, she’d had to deal with dead people, a spiked drink, Jax’s near abstraction, and now… This.

“Public execution?” Ragatha finally said, breaking the silence. She tapped her hands on the floor nervously. “Whew, that’s… That’s not good at all.”

“Well, if we all die, then we go back to the circus, right?” Pomni tried to find a bright side to this. “Adventure over, case closed. Maybe that’ll work.”

“Yeah.” Zooble fiddled with their handcuffs. “But what about the alternative?”

Alternative? Pomni felt her face twist with confusion. What alternative?

Then it hit her.

“…We all die horribly, sit there in a half-dead state for an undetermined amount of time while Caine keeps trying to fix the glitch, and there’s no way to help each other heal?”

Zooble nodded.

Pomni considered for a moment. Was the risk worth it? She thought back to the alley, grappling at her mutilated throat, waiting desperately for help that she knew wouldn’t come anytime soon. She shuddered at the memory.

“I… I don’t want to risk that.” Gangle curled up. “I can’t do that all over again.”

“Yeah, I’ve got to agree.” Pomni looked to Jax, the only other member of the group that had experienced death in this adventure. “Jax? Thoughts?

He was laying on the floor as much as his chains would allow. It didn’t look comfortable at all, but it must have done something for him. He didn’t respond to Pomni’s question at all— Just stayed facing the wall.

“Is he asleep?” Zooble asked, exasperated.

Pomni dragged herself over to look at his face. No, he wasn’t asleep at all. His eyes were wide open, with bags beneath them. His face looked pretty washed out, and he didn’t react at all when Pomni waved a hand in front of him.

She decided to save him his dignity. “Yeah,” She lied. “He’s out.”

“Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to go through that again,” Ragatha said. “So, then, what’s the plan?”

Pomni thought for a moment, looking around at the jail cell. Her mind was still working slow, an unfortunate predicament fueled by exhaustion and lingering effects from the bar, but she knew that if they wanted to get out of this, they’d have to lock in and think fast.

She felt like she had an ace up her sleeve, though. Anything could happen in the circus— That was, if you could believe it hard enough. That realization had served her well in this adventure so far. If she could just get everyone else to learn that, too…

“I think I have an idea,” She said, catching everyone’s attention. “But it’s gonna sound really weird, so just hear me out.”

“Well, we’ll take any chance we can get.” Zooble turned towards her. “Lay it on us.”

Pomni took a deep breath, getting ready to sound like an absolute idiot. By the time she was done, though, no one laughed. Nobody called her theory stupid or mocked her for her outrageous claims. Instead, Ragatha just nodded solemnly.

“Well… It’s something, for sure. But it’s worth a try.” She smiled meekly and raised her fist in an encouraging manner. “Go, team?”

“Go, team.” Kinger, Gangle, Zooble, and Pomni echoed unenthusiastically.

Well, their plan was a long shot. Jax was completely out of commission. They had almost no money, no plan B if they failed, and a killer hangover coming on. But the feeble hope that they could change their fate was all they had. And, by God, Pomni would run with that until the day they ended this stupid adventure.