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Our story begins as many do, with Caine waiting outside a portal for his guests to return. What was unusual, was Gangle being the first to exit, tripping over her own ribbon legs onto the floor, comedy mask breaking in the process.
Jax was next to exit, pointing at laughing at the prone Gangle, a hockey mask over his face, and prop hook over one hand. He moves the mask up to reveal his face. “Oh come on Gangle, you don’t like hockey?”
Next to exit is Zooble who slaps Jax on the back of the head and takes the hockey mask. “That’s enough!”
“You don’t know how to take a joke do you?” Jax chuckled, his Cheshire grin never wavering.
“It’s not funny. You’ve scared her enough already!” The abstract being snapped.
“Oh come on Zoobie, it’s not my fault Gangle’s a scaredy cat loser.” Jax said.
“After that adventure, anyone would be prone to fear! And don’t call me that.” Zooble glared.
“Oh come on! It wasn’t even that scary.” Jax said. As if to disapprove this, Pomni and Ragatha exit the portal looking traumatized. Kinger is not far behind, looking more confused than anything.
“What’s that I hear Jax? You want more scares? I could really use some feedback if I’m going to make the best Halloween adventure!” Caine said.
“Sure, I can help you out with some scares.” Jax smirked.
“No! Caine, don’t listen to him. Trust me, a Zombie apocalypse taking place in a world of vampires, werewolves, witches, and serial killers is bad enough!” Ragtha said.
Zooble looks around to see that Gangle has run off, clearly upset about things. “I’m gonna find Gangle, And Caine I swear to god you’d better not take Jax’s advice!”
As Zooble leaves we see that Caine is already sitting in a red chair with glasses on, a notebook and pen in hand, clearly planning to do exactly that.
The circus is large and confusing sometimes, but Zooble knows their way around. And even if they didn’t, they knew Gangle. There was a specific part of the circus Gangle liked to hide in, a place where three over sized blocks met, creating a small alcove. It was a place that felt separate from everything else. A private place away from prying eyes.
Sure enough, Gangle was there, the ribbons that made up her torso pushed against the wall, leg ribbons bent to meet her tragedy mask as she huddled in on herself, arm ribbons lying atop her leg ribbons.
She was clearly crying, and Zooble could see several drawings scattered around. Drawing of sexy vampires, curvy witches, zombies that looked like attractive people who at most had a skin condition, and werewolves that looked more like someone’s fursona than a monster. They moved their way closer to Gangle making sure she took in their presence before sitting next to her.
“Hey, Jax is a jerk. Don’t pay him any mind.” Zooble reassured her.
“He’s right though. I am a scaredy cat.” Gangle sniffed.
“Anyone would be scared in that situation.” Zooble told her. “Besides fear is a good thing. It’s what keeps us from doing stupid shit and getting killed. Or hurt, you know since we can’t die here.”
Gangle smiled weakly. “Its not just that, that makes me upset. When I heard we were gonna have a Halloween adventure I got my hopes up. You know? Halloween’s not just about getting scared. There’s sexy Halloween costumes. There’s paranormal romances, there’s the stories about that one monster who’s just misunderstood.”
She took a deep breath and picked up one of the drawings. “And even when it is scary, sometimes there’s a monster that’s super hot and you can fangirl over.”
Gangle huffed. “But no. Caine had to go the scary route. He had to make all the Zombies super gross, and all the wolfman more wolf than man, and give all the vampires those creepy long chins.”
“I thought that maybe, this would finally be an adventure I could enjoy. But no. I have to get scared. I have to be miserable. I have to have Jax chase me around in a hockey mask with a chainsaw!” Gangle snapped.
Zooble nodded. “Yeah. It could have been fun, but Caine’s just really bad at knowing what we actually want from these things. And you know, we did alright.” They placed a hand on Gangle’s shoulder? It was where the shoulder would be,anyway. “Sure we got scared, but we also made it through. And you know? We could always make our own Halloween fun. Make a story or something.”
Gangle’s eyes widened in hope. “Zooble? Would you uh,um.”
“I promise I won't judge you for what you’re about to ask.” Zooble told her.
“W-well. I’ve always wanted to uh, roleplay a paranormal romance. But uh, everyone thinks roleplay is weird, and uh those that didn’t I really didn’t trust enough. So uh, would you be willing to uh. Role play with me? Maybe in a few stories? As like some monsters?” Gangle asked.
Zooble smiled. Role play was pretty fun for them. They didn’t really know how to feel about themselves. About the body they have. But when roleplaying, they could be whatever they wanted. And it was freeing. Plus, Caine wouldn’t make it so they could have sex, but they could definitely role play that they were. Zooble knows Gangle. That’s definitely part of it.
“Yeah. We could definitely do that.”
Gangle beamed, and Zooble felt lighter at the sight. Gangle didn’t get much happiness in this place. None of them did really. Being immortal in a digital hellscape isn’t all its cracked up to be. At times Zooble wonders if they actually put on that headset. If they didn’t just die, and this is all their own personal hell. Even if it isn’t, it functions as one.
“Oh my god! I totally have to make art for it! So we can totally encapsulate our characters! Maybe make some sketches of the world so we get a feel for it!” Gangle said, clearly very excited now.
“That’s right. Just because Caine and Jax are going to ruin Halloween in some ways doesn’t meant they have to let them ruin our Halloween.” Zooble said.
Gangle was already hard at work, a flurry of movement as she drew on the paper. It was nice to see her so happy.
Zooble sighed. There’s precious few things to be happy about right know. So they have to grab their happiness where they can.