Chapter Text
The more things change the more they stay the same.
At the absolute least: They had Coffee now. Real coffee. Actual working realistic coffee. That by itself was a massive upgrade as far as she was concerned.
It had been...a month, she thinks. At least three weeks. Since everything happened. Contact with outside was incredibly sparing, but Caine informed her their notes they left were being looked at. So that's good.
Adventures started again. She has mixed feelings on this. Overall they've improved, she thinks, but that doesn't change the fact that some just...they're not great.
AM was talkative. He only made one adventure a week on average, and they were either entirely devoid of challenge or basic competitive challenges, but he took criticism seriously and by his own admission was still trying to work past his old code. Pomni spoke to him the most. Ragatha and Zooble kept their distance most of the time. Gangle and Kinger were a bit more willing to converse. With Jax...well it's interesting. He tried to prank him rather violently, a rigged shotgun around a blind corner (Where the f*#$ he got that still escaped her.) AM not only didn't so much as flinch at the blast but pretended like nothing happened. Seems his unwillingness to even engage with Jax's nonsense took the wind out of the rabbits sails, cause he returned to his normal targets.
He was improving. Slowly but surely. Pomni was cautious at first but she considers him a friend again. One that has much to work on.
Then there was Ted.
The newest addition. A fellow performer like the rest of them. He didn't talk much. He participated in adventures but it'd be a complete coin flip whether he'd complete it or simply sit down and refuse to participate further. He also refused to enter AM's adventures by default. He and AM avoided each other like the plague, and given what history Pomni knows it's completely understandable. The only real upside is there seemed to be a mutual understanding of avoiding each other. No growing animosity, no rising tension, simple mutual hatred. Probably the best they're ever going to get, honestly.
Still she can't help but worry a bit.
She gently sat down next to him on one of the tables set out for breakfast. "May I sit here?"
Ted had a friggin steak on his plate. Seemed a bit much for breakfast in Pomni's eyes but she wasn't going to judge. He turned, his luminous eyes scanning her before gesturing. "Sure. Help yourself."
His avatar was strange. A slithering goo thing, deep purple on the outside and glowing yellow on the inside. He had a black turtleneck on top of his otherwise inhuman body. She knew despite having no legs he could jump and move as effectively as anyone else. She still didn't fully understand why he looks like that, but he refused to talk about it and she didn't push.
"...May I ask why steak?"
A shrug from Ted. "I stopped caring about days passing years ago. Morning, Evening, I don't care. I wanted a nice steak, and this is serviceable."
"Huh." She gently began to poke at her own plate, poking the yolk of the sunny-side-up eggs. "So how is...everything?"
She saw his hands (Goo arms? Fingers were only there sometimes) stop and a faint rise to where his chest would be. "You're worried about me. Did Rags put you up to this?" Despite his words there was no bite to them. He just sounded tired.
"Wha-No? I-Well I am worried but Ragatha didn't ask me to check on you."
"Decided to yourself then. Alright. Let's cut through the s*$t and-I will never get use to that-and make it clear. No, I'm not fine. No, It's not something you can fix. Yes, I am getting better. Trying my best to, anyway."
"What's-" She stopped her own words. "No, stupid question, nevermind."
"What's wrong, right?"
"Yeah. I sort of remember the gist of it."
A little chuckle escaped from him then. "The gist of it. That's one h&#l of a way to put it. Look, Pom, you're a good kid-"
"I'm 25."
"-And I'm effectively over a hundred; You're a kid. A good one. Put simply, all of this? The Circus? There's no comparing it, it's an absolute improvement to my life beforehand. That I can decide "I want to have some steak" and get pretty good steak is by itself a miracle in ways I can't even begin to emphasize. But it's all still very...different. I'm not going to complain, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth let alone a blessing from god himself. It's still different. Bright, colorful, and with new people drastically different from the ones I knew." He gently poked the steak for a moment. "I miss them, in some weird bulls*#t way. And you're all very nice barring Jax and even then what he does is pennies compared to what my life was like before, what AM use to do. You don't shake off over a hundred years of hell in a month."
Pomni listened, and then nodded slightly. "That...Well, now I feel silly. Cause. Yeah, that's obvious."
"Don't. You were worried, you checked. I'm telling you I'll be alright. This doesn't have to be some weird thing. Just give me time." He picked up his utensils but paused. "And don't tell me a thing about what you and AM talk about."
"Got it." An awkward silence, but as she let the yolk run over the rest of the egg she figured she could at least make this end a little less awkwardly. "So. That latest adventure. Did you enjoy it in the slightest?"
"Admittedly? Not that bad. I think I might have owned a boat at some point. A proper one, small but luxurious. Nothing like riding a pirate ship."
"I imagine no one fired cannons at your old boat."
"They didn't, but upon retrospect I'm kind of shocked they didn't. I was an a$$hole, I think getting sunk by a cannonball might have humbled me."
"Might. Keyword there."
The glowing eyes narrowed at her, but he chuckled regardless. "I want to get snippy but honestly I'd probably just spin it into how getting attacked by cannons was cause they envied me."
"That's about the only thing about your past I know about: You were a Rich Prude."
"Rich Narcissistic prude. Amazing what over a century of torture can do to make one reflect on their behavior, eh?"
Pomni just blinked in mild shock.
Ted shrugged. "Laughing it off is just one way of coping, but yeah I can see how that's not as funny to you."
A day had passed. Pomni sat now on one of the many chairs on the Circus's ground floor. Beside her knelt the large mechanical avatar of AM, holding a blueprint of a large blimp.
"So it...It was somehow guided by someone's heart being on the front...spike?"
"The Bowsprit, but yes. It's something I'm attempting to recycle. I wish to keep the idea of guidance, but I was trying to think what else may work instead of a heart. It is morbid, and not fitting for the Circus."
"I could see the idea still working out. Plus Caine does do the occasional morbid adventure, the horror themed ones. And it's kind of...I don't want to say poetic. Fitting? Literally guided by the heart."
"As was the intention." She looked up at the mechanical bird's single eye, turned with pride.
"If it had to be sanitized, maybe it could run on something important to a person. Like a photo or prize possession. Or...I see those censored bits near the back, all the mechanisms. What if there was something that 'removed the soul' and THAT was what guided it? Not literally, obviously, but it'd still fit the theme."
AM looked at the blueprint and squinted, before using a finger like a quill to add a note. It was in shorthand, but she could still identify it as her idea being notated. "While there will be many revisions before this idea can be realized, your input is valued and your idea is sound. It will be considered when the time comes to recreate this setting."
Pomni smiled a bit. "Glad I could help. And I do like the idea, a blimp guided by the heart. I don't want to know the original intention but it's...almost romantic?"
AM remained silent on that regard. She instead looked it over until she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
Ted had walked into view, turned a 180, and promptly left.
"Ted, was it?" AM clearly noticed. Even now, when he says that name, it drops with black bile.
"Yeah. He left though."
AM moved to a different part of the blueprint, but Pomni couldn't help but think about how Ted's been acting. She does believe him, that he doesn't need help and is adjusting, but...well, AM was his jailer, torturer, abuser. Regardless of reasoning nor circumstance, knowing he's here must be making it harder for him to adjust.
She's biased. She can't help him there. Maybe...someone else can. Zooble springs to mind. Kinger as well, if he'd be willing to hang out in the dark to talk to him.
"Is everything alright?" AM noticed she was lost in thought elsewhere.
"Messy human emotions, mainly."
"Hm. Anything you wish to discuss?"
"It involves Ted, so no."
"A wise idea then. Shall I leave you for now?"
She paused. "...I think for now. But I am interested in this blimp. We'll work on it more later."
AM nodded, rolling up and storing it away under his cape and nodding. "Simply call for me if you wish to speak. Otherwise I will be off to make further plans for adventures."
"Of course. Talk to you later, AM!"
"Farewell for now, Pomni." The large avian turned and began walking towards the nearest wall, parting it like a curtain and vanishing elsewhere.
So, where to find Zooble or Kinger...?