Chapter Text
“I am pleased to announce that, after the extremely boring string of suggestion-box adventures you’ve all STRUGGLED THROUGH and HATED, I have a Caine-original locked and loaded for you! I was nice enough to take into consideration the very few nice things I’ve heard about the suggestion-box adventures and tried to incorporate things that seemed popular into your next adventure–” Ice Fakers! “”
“This sounds like the perfect adventure to restart my skipping streak,” Zooble mumbled, slowly rising from their place on the couch.
“Quite the opposite, my enthusiastic friend!” with a snap of Caine’s fingers, Zooble’s legs disappeared, and their body landed back on the couch with a soft thud. “I noticed a sort of, er, tension, after your last adventure. But I also saw a lot of BONDING going on! So, I figured the best way to PROMOTE BONDING and DECREASE TENSION would be a classic Caine adventure with an emphasis on TEAMWORK!”
“Don’t all of our adventures kind of focus on teamwork?” Gangle questioned softly.
“This isn’t going involve anything with horror, right?” Pomni’s asked, eyes wide.
“Absolutely not! This simple, laid-back adventure consists of nothing more than a round of classic introductory icebreakers! Reintroduce yourself to everyone with a clean slate, while reliving the best part of your school days!”
“Oh God,” Jax pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is worse than horror.”
Everyone began sharing their thoughts and comments on the adventure all at once, resulting in an unintelligible garble. Through the chaos, Ragatha’s attempt at consoling the group could be made out, along with Jax’s inevitable threat on her life.
“I’m glad to hear you’re all excited! Class starts now!” Caine clapped his hands together, and with that a glittering portal opened from the floor, swallowing up the group.
***
The walls of the classroom were painted an electric cyan blue. A lack of windows meant the only light came from big, fluorescent panels in the ceiling, which hummed softly in the silence. There were six desks arranged in a circle, all facing inwards towards each other. Without any obvious instructions, everyone just sat quietly and did their best not to make eye contact with anyone else.
Ragatha shifted in the uncomfortable seat. It had been over a decade since she’d sat in a desk like this. She couldn’t keep her eyes from darting back and forth between Pomni and Jax, who were seated beside each other. Ragatha pretended not to care that they were neighbors and acted like she was not offended that they were opposite her in the seating arrangement. She had been dreading facing everyone again after her outburst in the last adventure. But Caine was right. There was tension. But Ragatha figured the issues were too deeply seeded to be solved by something as silly as high school ice breakers.
Minutes passed. The room was relatively quiet. By now, most of the group was softly exchanging whispers. Gangle was shyly sharing her drawings with Zooble, who praised each piece accordingly. Ragatha was doing her best to not think about the notes Jax kept passing Pomni, trying not to imagine what crude jokes or drawings could possibly warrant the giggles they drew from the jester. Kinger was staring at the chalkboard in the front of the classroom, with the words BE RIGHT BACK scrawled across it in white chalk. Ragatha sighed and laid her head in her arms.
The moment her head hit the desk, the door slammed open and a disheveled NPC hurried in. He was a long, green inchworm, with thick-rimmed black glasses and a brown leather briefcase. He slammed the brief case on the big desk in front of the chalkboard. Upon contact with the desk, the case flew open and a stack of white copy paper exploded from it.
“Hello, class! Your first assignment is to catch one of the question sheets floating around.”
Exchanging confused glances, everyone reached for the nearest paper, intercepting the sheets’ journey to the ground. Ragatha grabbed a piece from the air and looked over it. It read The Name Game across the top. Oh wow, she thought to herself. We’re really just doing regular ice breakers.
“Alright, looks like everyone successfully completed the first assignment! Great job!” the worm inched across the front of the class, wiping the chalkboard clean with a dusty eraser. “Let’s get some directions out of the way before we dive into today’s lesson. We will play several rounds of ice breaker games! Each game will be slightly harder than the previous one. And, every game will have a loser–or multiple! If you lose, you will be sent to DETENTION, and you will be stuck there until all of the games are completed and we have a winner!”
“So, this is really all we’re doing? No surprise catch, or plot, or anything?” Pomni asked, looking up from the sheet on her desk.
“Do you know how lame this is going to get? We’ve all known each other, like, forever. This is going to be dumb.” Jax tilted his chair back as far as it would go without knocking him out of it.
“I think this will be fun!” Ragatha defended, shooting daggers at Jax. “Getting a deeper understanding of each other will help us get along on future adventures.” She smiled half-heartedly. As she looked around the circle, no one else shared her apparent enthusiasm.
“Surprise surprise, Ragatha, who is weird and lame, thinks that this adventure, which is also weird and lame, will be fun! Never woulda imagined that…” Jax smirked to Pomni, who giggled in response. Ragatha kept her outward composure while simultaneously biting her inner cheek so hard she tasted blood.
“So, how do we play this game or whatever...” asked Zooble, looking up from an instruction sheet Gangle had covered in doodles.
“I’m glad you asked!” smiled the inchworm. “The first person will introduce themself. Then, the person immediately to their right will introduce not only themselves, but also the person who went before them! As we progress, the person introducing themself will also have to repeat the names of everyone who has gone previously.”
“I’m not trying to be a downer, but won’t that be super easy?” Pomni raised an eyebrow. “We all already know each other’s names. Plus, even if we didn’t there are only 6 of us?”
“All I’m hearing are good things! Prove to me how well you know each other.” The inchworm responded with a tone almost seemed sarcastic. “We’ll start with you!” the worm gestured to Ragatha.
“Oh, uh, hi! My name is Ragatha!” She glanced over her peers with wide eyes. The only eyes she caught were Pomni’s, but the contact lasted only a second before being awkwardly broken.
A beat of silence followed. Everyone realized at once Kinger was next. Ragatha cleared her throat and nudged the chess piece. “Hello. My name is Zooble. And that lady before me was Ragatha-” confused, Zooble shot a dirty look at Kinger.
“YOUR NAME, Kinger,” Zooble whisper-shouted.
“But that’s no fun, you already know my name is Kinger. That’s why I made up a new name.”
“MY NAME is Zooble, Kinger. You’ve got to introduce YOURSELF.”
“Your name is Zooble? That’s bizarre. That’s the name I just made up for myself.” Zooble sighed and covered their face with their palm.
“Well, Inchworm, touché. He was the only one that could’ve possibly messed that up.” Jax leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs in front of him. He leaned down, mouth inches from Pomni’s ear, and spoke softly. “Let’s hope all of the games end this easy, then we can get back and I can show you that thing I was talking about earlier..” the jester blushed slightly and smirked. Ragatha wanted to look away but couldn’t.
“That game was short-lived! No worries, we’ve got plenty more in store! As I promised, the loser must go to detention to wait until all the games are through. Off you go!” The inchworm snapped and Kinger disappeared. “Anyways,” the inchworm reached into his briefcase and produced a multi-colored koosh ball. “Let’s get onto the next game! This one focuses more on teamwork and trust building. Everybody, take a seat on TOP of your desks.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do whatever this is while staying seated in my chair.” Zooble retorted.
“Haha, I don’t think so!” The inchworm spoke through gritted teeth now. “Just go ahead and follow the direction I gave you.”
“And if I don’t?” Gangle shot a look at Zooble, wordlessly questioning their defiance.
“If you don’t I’ll make sure there’s a special punishment waiting for you after your stay in detention!” The worm nodded and Zooble ambled to the top of their desk. “Another outburst like that and I’ll have no choice but to send you to detention! Are we all ready to learn the rules now?”
Everyone nodded, a solemn quiet settling over them at the threat of a punishment.
“Alright! During this game, no one is allowed to talk! I can already tell that this may be a struggle for this group…” Jax opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but Pomni flashed him a look and he said nothing. “I am going to throw this ball to someone. All that they have to do is throw it to someone else! The goal is to complete as many trips around the circle until someone drops the ball, or talks! Then that person is out and will join Kinger in detention. Got it?”
The group did a collective nod, and the inchworm tossed the ball to Gangle. Gangle in turn tossed the ball to Zooble. Wanting to spice things up, Zooble tossed the ball to Jax with a bit of fire. Jax opened his mouth in pretend shock, apparently offended, as he caught the ball. He in turn extended his arm to Pomni, essentially dropping the thing into her lap instead of throwing it. Pomni looked around the circle, passing over Ragatha with her eyes twice before giving in and throwing the ball to the doll.
Thinking hard on where to send it, Ragatha channeled her softball days to absolutely launch the koosh ball at Jax. Without acknowledging the power behind the throw as he’d done with Zooble, Jax lightly kicked Pomni’s dangling leg to get her attention. He shot her a mischievous smile, then sent the ball flying towards Gangle. Gangle, who had been paying more attention to the pencil drawings across her desk, was caught by surprise when the ball hit her square in the face and shattered her comedy mask.
“Ahhhhh, you did that on purpose!” big blue tears appeared on the face of her new tragedy mask. The ball and the two halves of the comedy mask hit the ground.
“C’mon Jax she hasn’t even bothered you once! What was that for? Why are you always picking on her for absolutely no reason?!” Zooble hopped down from their desk and made their way over to Jax. “And this isn’t the only time! It’s every day! What do you even get out of this?!” As Zooble got closer to Jax’s face, his eyes grew wider. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?! You have a snarky reply to every other thing that’s ever been said to you!” Jax smirked slightly, then pressed a single finger to his mouth.
“ Zooble! Return to your seat! What did I say about another outburst?” The inchworm looked out over the class with a disappointed look on his face.
“Look you don’t know us, but Jax literally does this every day, and nobody ever stands up to him! And we all know Gangle is too shy to do it herself!” Zooble looked back at Gangle, whose cheeks flushed under her tears.
“Well. That’s a little above my paygrade to handle. But I do have a solution you’ll like! Gangle, you dropped the ball so you lost. Off to detention for you!” Gangle let out a sob, and as quick as the inchworm snapped she was gone.
“Why do you think I would like that?!” Zooble asked, their anger clearly intensifying.
“Because YOU are going to detention, too! I warned you about another outburst.” Zooble made an obscene hand gesture, censored of course, and the inchworm snapped again.
Jax and Pomni exchanged glances, and Ragatha directed her attention to an interesting spot on her desk. The inchworm clapped his hands, and all empty desks disappeared. The three occupied desks were pulled forward, making the circle tighter.
“Looks like it’s just us, huh.” The inchworm took a seat on the ground in the middle of the three desks. “ I didn’t plan on losing two with that last game… Kinda throws off my plans… Do you guys know any good games?”
“Are you being serious right now?” Pomni narrowed her eyes at the worm.
“Haha, of course not…” the inchworm looked off into space for a moment, thinking to himself. “I know what we’ll do. Lightning round! Prove to me how well you know each other by listing off fun facts about each other! The kind only a very good friend would know. The first person rendered speechless, loses!”
Jax made a face. “That doesn’t even sound like a game. And how’s that fair? Dollface here hates me so I don’t talk to her, and I’ve only known Pomni for like 20 minutes.”
The inchworm threw his hands up. “Then I guess you’ll end up in detention!” the worm laughed to himself. “Alright, without further ado, let’s go! Jax, to keep things easy on you, why don’t you start us off?”
“Fine. Pomni, you used to work as an accountant. For a supermarket.”
“You got it. Umm…” Pomni reflected on everything she knew about the rabbit and rag doll in front of her. It suddenly dawned on her that she knew almost nothing about Jax. Darn. Let’s hope she knew more about Ragatha than anyone else. “Ragatha, you like horses. You used to have a few.”
“Yup…” Ragatha did not feel like giving Jax the satisfaction of stating facts about him, and she knew that Pomni was at a disadvantage due to being around for less time. She would use this to her advantage. “Pomni, I know that you used to explore abandoned houses.”
“Got me there. Um, Jax, I know you don’t like corn?” Pomni swallowed hard. How was she just now realizing she barely knew these people.
“Absolutely correct, my good friend. Ragatha, I know that you have major mommy issues.” Jax smirked.
Ragatha bit her tongue and closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to give in to his bullying. “Pomni, you used to run a private YouTube channel.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t think you were paying attention when I said that, haha…” Pomni looked up, wracking her brain for information on either of the two in front of her. “Umm… Jax, you don’t like wearing women’s clothing?”
Jax reddened a bit and forced a smile. “You’re so right. Looks like our friendship is really blossoming into something beautiful, huh, Pomni.” Pomni smiled in response, a light blush creeping across her cheeks. “Ragatha, you were a terrible realtor in your past life.”
Ragatha clenched her fists. As much as she wanted to say something rude about Jax in return, she figured that Pomni had very little information left. If she could just remember one more fact about the jester, she’d be sure to lose. “Pomni, I know that you have an extreme aversion to horror.”
Pomni made a face and nodded. This was it for her. Unless…“Jax, I know you think Ragatha is fake, and uh, not really all that nice. That she is just nice to get what she wants from people.” Both Jax and Ragatha turned to Pomni, stunned.
“That’s right, Pomni. I DO think that. And I know that Ragatha is only super nice because her mother was SO MEAN to her, so she thinks that being super nice will somehow make up for being a disappointment.” Jax sounded confident, but he refused to meet eyes with Ragatha.
“Well, I know that Jax is just a jerk to everyone as a defense tactic! That in reality, he is afraid that if he MAKES people dislike him, then it will hurt his feelings less than people deciding they don’t like him because of his real personality!” The words fell out of Ragatha’s mouth, her hand flying over her face to keep anything else from coming out.
“Yeah, well I know that Ragatha is lonely! Because she doesn’t have any real friends! Because you don’t form any sort of emotional connections with constant positivity, and love, and all that other fake stuff!” If she wasn’t so focused on what to say next, Ragatha would have wondered if the red in Jax’s face was from embarrassment or anger.
“Jax wouldn’t know what love and all that other fake stuff was if it smacked him upside the head! I KNOW people loved you, and you were just too hard-headed to see it!” For some reason, tears pricked in Ragatha’s eyes.
“You know people loved me...?” Jax paused briefly, then shook his head. “I-I know Ragatha… I know Ragatha will say she loves you, then disappear and not be there for you when you need her!” Jax crossed his arms.
Pomni could not have been more confused. This could NOT have been what Caine was anticipating when he introduced this adventure. What were they even talking about? Was there a tear going down Jax’s face?
“You don’t know how to be vulnerable! I wanted to be there for you! You pushed me away, no matter how close I tried to be!” Ragatha looked up, to keep the tears from falling from her eyes. Pomni and the inchworm exchanged very puzzled glances.
“You didn’t want to be there for me… I came to you, multiple times, and you didn’t want me!”
“Showing up to my room in the middle of the night then being mean to me until you fell asleep at the foot of my bed is NOT asking for help.” For the first time that day, Jax and Ragatha locked eyes. Ragatha noticed the puffiness of his eyes, and the frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Jax…” she took a step towards him and his eyes widened. “I-”
Ragatha was cut off by the inchworm. “Based on the fact that Pomni here hasn’t spoken in nearly 10 minutes, I’m going to say she loses.” He snapped his fingers, and Pomni disappeared. “Why don’t you two, uh, clean up a bit, and we’ll get back to the final game? Pick a grand winner? Get your friends out of detention?”
Ragatha and Jax wiped their eyes and sat down again at their desks. I did not mean to lose control like that. And I can’t believe there’s another stupid game! Ragatha took a deep breath and chewed the inside of her cheek.
“Our final game is a classic–Two Truths and a Lie! Everybody’s favorite! But here’s the best part! YOU don’t get to choose your truths, or your lie! Everything will be chosen for you. You’ll get a sheet of paper with pre-determined truths and lies, written on behalf of your partners via very intelligent AI, and all you have to do is circle the lie! Whoever circles the lie first, wins. That seems easy enough! And it has a 0% chance of starting an emotionally charged argument, so I’m a winner too. Let’s get you your papers! Start as soon as you’d like.”
As if by magic, a sheet of paper appeared on the desk in front of Ragatha. Three lines were printed in the center of the page.
I’m sorry for hurting you.
What happened was for the best.
I still love you.
What the hell kind of Two Truths and a Lie response is this?? Ragatha sat and stared at the page. Her vision was swimming. Her mouth felt dry. This whole thing felt like torture. No one in the circus even knew we were together? We kept everything secret! How did they get this information? Ragatha bit the inside of her cheek and clenched her fist. She hoped Jax’s sheet had, well, normal responses? Anything but these weird options! Ragatha was torn out of her thoughts by Jax grabbing a pencil, circling something quickly, and holding the paper up for the inchworm to collect.
Damn. Ragatha hated losing, especially to Jax, but maybe this was for the best. She didn’t even want to know what was true and what was a lie. The inchworm pulled comically small reading glasses out of his briefcase, threw them on, and brought the paper to his face.
“Hurry up with that, will ya? I wanna see you send Ragatha to detention.” Jax turned towards Ragatha to make a face, but she pretended not to see him.
“You’re wrong.” the inchworm stated plainly.
Jax’s face took on a dark shade of pink. “Wh-How-Are you sure?” He raised an eyebrow and swallowed hard.
“100% sure. It’s up to her now. Ragatha, if you pick correctly, you win. Pick incorrectly, and you and Jax tie for the grand prize. Which is, of course, nothing. But at least you get to leave.”
Ragatha nodded and looked back to the paper. I believe Jax is sorry. She put an X next to that option. I believe he thinks what happened was for the best. He seems pretty much fine without me around… Her eyes darted over the last option. Her chest tightened. This can’t be. There’s no way. Trying to keep back yet another wave of tears, Ragatha circled the third option. She handed the page to the inchworm, and he treated it much the same way he did Jax’s.
“Hm. Wrong. Again. I guess you both lose. Which means you also both win!” The inchworm snapped, causing the papers to disappear and the rest of the group to reappear. “Just out this door to the right is the portal back to the circus! Thanks for playing!” the inchworm held the door open as everyone filed out of the classroom and down the hall.
Ragatha stood up, eager to leave this horrible adventure. “Hey Dollface, wait a sec,” Jax wrapped his hand around her wrist, and she turned back to face him with wide eyes.
Jax kept Ragatha there until the rest of the group was closer to the portal. His hand slipped from her wrist and interlaced their fingers. Slightly horrified and feeling the blush spread across her face, Ragatha made a face at Jax. He leaned in, closer than he’d been to her in years.
“The last thing I want is more nagging from you, but I’ve gotta know–through all of this, you never stopped with the,” he looked away for a moment, losing his bravado and seeming embarrassed. “with the loving me stuff?”
Their eyes met again at last. Ragatha’s lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to speak, but she had nothing to say. She could do nothing but nod.