Chapter Text
“Pomni?” Ragatha called from the other side of her door, accompanied by her polite knock. The vibrant red and blue of Pomni’s room came back into focus as she blinked out of her trance. She wasn’t quite sure how long she had been dissociating, but it must have been a while.
“Yeah?” She shouted back as she slid off the edge of her bed and ambled up to her door.
Eventually, Ragatha’s voice came again- more meekly. “I-I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out. Y’know, since… Caine hasn’t given us an adventure in a while.”
She was right. Caine hadn’t so much as shown his face in a few days. Usually, a few hours to themselves was a godsend, but now? Pomni began to wonder if something else was going on. Was Caine planning something big?
She turned the door knob, pulling it open enough to reveal herself entirely. Ragatha, upon seeing her, eased.
Pomni smiled at her softly. “Sure. We can take a walk.” Stepping out and shutting the door behind her, she joined Ragatha in a leisurely stroll. “So, uh… You haven’t seen Caine either?”
Ragatha sighed. “None of us have. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have a break! It’s just…” Grimacing, she toddled her head back and forth. “I’m kinda worried about him.” She admitted.
Pomni scoffed. Of course Ragatha would be the first one to worry about him. “Should we worry? He’s always trying to get our attention, so… Maybe he wants to be alone? To plan something?”
Ragatha clasped her hands together, looking downward sullenly. “I dunno. I just think we’re a little hard on him sometimes. He’s only trying to keep us entertained- and sane.” Under her breath, she added, “…and is failing miserably.”
Pomni leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better read on Ragatha’s emotions. Her reluctance in showing discomfort was usually telling enough. “Did he… talk to you, or something?”
Ragatha blinked at her in surprise. “Oh, no. Kinger did.” Pomni stayed quiet, inviting conversation with a pensive stare. “When Kinger and I were alone in the loser's room in the last adventure, we had a talk.” A tiny smile brightened her expression. “It was really nice.”
Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, she started again. “But- I keep thinking about this one thing he told me. That the worst thing you can do here is make someone feel like they’re unwanted or unloved.”
Pomni smiled to herself. That was the Kinger she had met in Mildenhall Manor. “I agree, but… Would treating him like everyone make a difference?”
Ragatha’s eyes dimmed. Pomni winced inwardly as she watched her retreat into herself. With a silent sigh, she realized pushing against her like this wasn’t helping. Kinger was right. Ragatha had a right to know she was wanted and loved. The only way to do that was to support her. The same needed to be done with Caine.
She knew how to do that. “How about we give it a shot and see if it helps?”
Ragatha brightened up almost instantly, though hopeful disbelief remained in her tone. “Really?”
“Sure, why not?” Pomni grinned at her sweetly. “Couldn’t hurt to try.”
Ragatha laughed with relief. “Great! Uh… What if it doesn’t help his adventures be more… normal?” She turned toward the stairs at the end of the hall, drifting her hand over the rail.
Pomni hummed uncertainly, trying to ignore the jangling of the bells on her hat. “We’ll just have to think of something else. Like– tricking him into going on a date with the moon or something.”
Ragatha snickered. “What would that do?”
“Buy us time.” She answered simply. Ragatha smiled and nodded subtly, embracing the quiet of the main room as they wandered toward one of the more popular places they liked to hang out at.
After a moment, Pomni remembered something. “Was it dark in the loser’s room?”
Ragatha raised an eyebrow. “Yeahhhh… How did you..?” Realization flashed in her eyes. “The dark! How did I never realize that before?”
“Realize what?” Kinger blurted. The pair jumped, whipping around to find him standing idly beside one of the many giant objects scattered about the main room.
Pomni sighed to soothe her nerves. “You have got to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” Kinger asked again blankly.
Pomni shook her head to herself. As wise as he was in the dark, it was sometimes hard to interact with him normally otherwise. “Nevermind. Are the others around?”
Kinger shook his head. “Gangle and Zooble are over there,” he said, not giving any hint as to where that was. “Not sure where Jax is though.”
Ragatha leaned to one side so she could see around the giant cube Kinger was standing beside. “Th-That’s okay, Kinger. He probably wants to be left alone if he’s not messing with us.” Pomni winced internally, watching Ragatha walk past Kinger and head towards the couch, where Zooble and Gangle were relaxing. As much as she hated how Jax treated them most of the time, she knew he was hurting. Their last adventure had confirmed that. He didn’t want to get hurt even more by connecting to them, only to possibly lose them later. In some twisted way, his view made sense.
But she couldn’t just leave him behind. He had as much a right as anyone else to be included.
She placed a hand on Kinger’s robe. “Hey, Kinger?”
“Yeeees?” Kinger blinked unevenly. Pomni did her best to hold back a chuckle.
“Can I trust you to fetch Jax from his room? I-If he’s there.”
Kinger turned on a dime with an enthusiastic arm- hand swing. “Sure thing!” Pomni watched him go for a moment to make sure he was going in the right direction, self assured once he started climbing the stairs, mumbling to himself in a sing-song voice. “Gotta get Jax. Gonna get Jax. Gotta get Jax. Gonna get Jax.”
Pomni left Kinger to his task, ambling toward the couch where Ragatha, Zooble, and Gangle were all drawing together. She waved to get everyone’s attention to avoid startling Gangle.
Gangle peeked up from her drawing pad, giving her a friendly smile. “Hi Pomni. Do you want to draw with us?”
Pomni glanced at the pens and paper scattered on the floor, offering a sheepish grin. “I can try.” Choosing a small slip of paper and random pen, she settled in to draw beside Ragatha. A quick glance revealed her drawing Martha Mildenhall and Jax tied up in the wagon.
Grinning to herself, she tried to conjure up something to put to paper. She settled on doodling some bees, hoping to give it to Caine later as a gift. She didn’t know why he was obsessed with them, but she figured she didn’t need to. It was just another one of Caine’s quirks that wasn’t altogether horrible. Much like his habit of singing Daisy Bell or laughing at weird times.
Eventually, when Pomni had a full page of bees, she heard Jax’s shouts echoing from upstairs. She tucked her lips in to keep herself from laughing while Kinger made his way down the stairs while holding Jax above his head like a cartoon. When he reached the couch area, he set Jax down gently and gave him a gentle pat on the head.
Jax swatted his hand away. “Uhg! Don’t ever pick me up like that again! I could’ve walked here on my own!”
Kinger blinked at him. “I was asked to get you. Pomni didn’t say how.”
Jax’s ears drooped slightly. “I don’t know why I expect anything less from you.” Turning to Pomni with dead eyes, he sighed. “You interrupted my nap, so this better be important.”
Pomni bit her tongue to keep a sharp retort from bursting out. “I just thought you might want to hang out with us.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Yeah? To do what?”
“To draw,” Pomni answered, setting her drawing aside so she could grab a pen and paper for Jax. He stared at the items as they were offered to him, his eyes softening slightly as he took them.
As soon as the vulnerable look had crossed his expression, it morphed into a sneer. “Tch. Fine. I’m sure I can draw better than most of you,” he puffed, gently taking the items from Pomni’s grasp.
“I’m going to ignore you.” Zooble grumbled, not bothering to look up from their paper. Jax, in typical fashion, shrugged it off and plopped himself down beside Pomni. She bounced a bit from the force of it, as if the couch was made of rubber.
Pomni glanced at him, then his paper, wondering why he was still here instead of retreating back to his room immediately after being dropped. It wasn’t like she could force him to stay with them.
As she stared at his blank paper and the pen in his hand, she wondered if Jax really believed all the things he had said the last time they were together. She figured not, since he had been more quiet and less antagonistic the last few days.
Slowly, Jax’s pen drifted over the paper. She pretended to draw while watching him out of the corner of her eye, despite knowing he would probably crumple up his drawing the moment he caught her.
To her surprise, he was just drawing shapes. Fractals almost. Some of the shapes seemed vaguely familiar, though Jax’s drawing ability made it hard for her to truly distinguish why. Convinced he was just doodling, she scooped up another piece of paper from the ground and continued to draw.
“Look what I drew!” Kinger shouted suddenly, holding up his paper. Pomni looked up to find that the page was blank.
“Uh…” Ragatha let out a quiet laugh. “It’s blank, Kinger.”
Kinger looked back at his page. “Oh. Right.” He flipped his page around, revealing a detailed picture of a butterfly.
Gangle gasped with awe, almost dropping her pen. “Woahhh… Kinger, that’s really good! Where did you learn to draw like that?”
Kinger tilted his head in a shrug-like motion. He didn’t seem to notice- or perhaps care- that Pomni giggled at his response, going back to doodling on the blank side of his paper.
Jax sighed suddenly. “Bees?”
Pomni looked up at him. “Yeah? I didn’t know what else to draw.” She stared at her paper for a second, unsure if she wanted to share her and Ragatha’s idea. “I might give it to Caine. He’d like it.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Sure he would, but what’s the point?” He tossed his pen aside and folded his drawing in half. “What would we get in return? A [SPLAT] adventure none of us want?” Pomni grimaced at the notion, watching Jax continue to fold his paper into an airplane. “We’re better off without him.”
Zooble huffed. “I hate to disagree with you on this one, but without Caine… there is no circus.” Pomni and Ragatha stared at her in surprise. Even Gangle looked up from her art.
Jax still seemed indifferent, though whether that was his mask or not, Pomni wasn’t sure. “So what?” He pointed his plane at Zooble. “Just means we can do whatever, right?” He closed one eye, readying a throw.
Their antennas twitched irritably as they muttered. “So there’s no us either, Jax,” she hissed, gesturing to all of them in a collective wave of her hand.
Jax’s expression turned from one of mischievous denial to one of cold realization in a heartbeat. “What?” He scoffed, lowering the plane to his lap. “How would you know?”
Zooble glanced at Gangle, their gaze softening as they carefully considered their words. “I… I’m not sure. All I know is that this place depends on Caine to exist. Just like the adventure maps and NPC’s.” They turned their paper over and set it aside. “He made me talk to him a while back while you guys were on an adventure. Turned into a therapy session, of all things.”
“For Caine?” Ragatha guessed.
Zooble nodded glumly, folding their arms. “Pretty much. It got heated and we started talking about his adventures and how we… Y’know, don’t like them.” An unsettled air washed over them. “He couldn’t handle the idea that he was bad at his only purpose and started glitching.” They looked to the others with dire eyes. “The circus started glitching.”
Gangle hugged her drawing to her chest. “D-Does that mean Caine can..?”
“Abstract.” The word came calmly on Jax’s breath, who looked about as disturbed as the rest of them. Pomni took special care to examine this rare expression on him.
“Maybe,” Zooble mused. They cast their attention back to their drawing, picking it up again. “Either way, I-I think we should have a meeting with Caine to see if we can all reason with him. I don’t mind the quiet either, but eventually he’ll come to us with another adventure. When he does, I want it to be one we’ll enjoy.”
“That’s probably wise,” Ragatha agreed. “But how are we going to talk to him about it?”
Zooble shook their head. “That’s the problem. He doesn’t take criticism well, so... We might be screwed either way.”
Gangle raised her hand timidly. “Maybe we could be gentle about it? He is good at making adventures when he has a little direction.”
“Oh, great,” Jax scoffed. “I’m sure that’ll go well. He just loves listening.”
“I don’t see you coming up with any bright ideas.” Zooble muttered, taking a peek at Gangle’s drawing when she offered it.
Jax clasped his hands behind his head, laying back against the couch and crossing a leg. “Look, I didn’t want to do anything anyway. Pomni’s the one who dragged me here.” Zooble let out a sigh, muttering curses under their breath- censored just as quietly, of course.
Pomni looked down at her drawing. It felt a little dishonest, but giving Caine a gift might make him a little more open to listening. It was for their own benefit, sure. But it couldn’t be all bad, since they were trying to make space for him to exist, too.
Taking a deep breath, she told herself that now was as good a time as any. “Hey, Caine!” The others jolted at her volume, though Kinger’s reaction was slightly delayed.
Zooble’s antennae twitched with anger. “What are you doing?!” They whispered sharply.
Pomni made a staying motion with her hand. “J-Just trust me,” she insisted quietly, before clearing her throat. “Caine, can you come here please?! We want to talk!”
After a moment of uncertain silence, Caine popped into existence a few feet above them. He dusted his hands, as if he had any need to do so. “Apologies, I was busy testing a new AI for you all.” He sounded tired, almost imperceptibly so. It struck Pomni as strange, since he wasn’t usually capable of subtlety. He planted his fists on his hips. “What can I do for you?”
Pomni nervously grasped at her drawing. “W-Well… I wanted to give you this.” She stretched out her arm to offer him the drawing.
Caine’s mouth stretched in surprise. He floated down to take it as if it were made of glass. “You… drew this… for me?” He stared at it for a few tense seconds, digital tears beading at the edges of his eyes. “No one’s ever given me anything before! Nevermind a drawing of bees!” He wiped his tears away with a single finger. “I could just-” Pomni recoiled when his eyes suddenly shifted to dark blue. Lines of text ran through them rapidly, like he was checking lines of his own code.
In an instant he blinked back to normal, lovingly tucking the drawing into his suit pocket. “I’d thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I don’t have one! HAHAHAHAHAHA!” He sighed, laying back in the air and crossing his arms. “Anyway, if there’s anything else you need, now’s the time!”
Ragatha found enough courage to stand up, stepping forward while she rang her hands together. “A-Actually, we wanted to talk to you about your adventures.”
Caine stared at her for a second too long. “What about them?”
Zooble cleared their throat. “W-We think you’re good at making them, it’s just…” They sighed, glancing between Gangle and Caine as if asking for help. “You need direction.”
Caine’s arms drooped. “Direction? Like… The wild west?”
“Kinda.” Gangle spoke up, raising her pencil. “L-Lots of artists need direction. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Caine scratched the top of his head, pushing his hat aside. “W-What we mean to say, is that we really liked the way you interpreted our suggestions for adventures.”
Caine folded his arms stubbornly. “But that doesn’t feel like I’m making anything! Where’s the fun in making an adventure when it’s all your ideas?”
“Not every adventure has to be our suggestions,” Pomni relented. She knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere by trying to completely snuff out his creative process. “Besides, you still make like- ninety percent of the adventure after reading our prompts. L-Like the stargazing adventure. It was probably just that right? It didn’t say to give us sandwiches, or to put fireflies- things like that. You still created all of that for us!” Zooble and Gangle nodded approvingly.
Caine tapped a finger to his ‘chin’. “Hmm. I suppose…” He seemed to smile, snapping his fingers to summon the suggestion box- which zipped into view beside him. “I’m glad you enjoy your adventures, even when most of it is still decided by yours truly!”
Kinger, who had made an oversized paper hat and placed it over his head, raised a finger to the sky. “Think of it like a commissioned art piece! Even if the idea wasn’t entirely yours, you’re still the one who made the art.”
Caine pointed to Kinger with his cane. “I like the way your words sound!” He snatched the suggestion box and popped open the lid with a quick snap of his wrist. His expression quirked. “Huh. Seems like we exhausted most of the options last time.” He stretched his arm out to an unnatural length, enough so it was within reaching distance to all of them. “Commissions please!”
Small slips of paper appeared in a floating stack next to the box, alongside a pen adorned with little yellow bees. Pomni couldn’t help but smile at his expectant face while she walked up to write her suggestion. As much suffering as he had caused them, it was nice to see him happy.
She stared at the blank page for a moment. Despite this being the plan, she hadn’t exactly thought ahead to this part. Scribbling down the first semi-interesting thing she could think of, she placed it into the suggestion box and stepped away so the others could take their turns.
Jax in particular giggled as he placed his in the box. “This is gonna be [BOINK] epic when it comes up.”
“I’m sure,” Pomni chuckled. “What did you pick?”
Jax gave her a shrug. “Eh, you’ll find out soon enough. I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Is this going to be like the last two adventures you picked?”
Jax waved his hand dismissively. “Pssh, as if I want my picks to get skipped again. I actually came up with something everyone will enjoy.” He crossed his arms. “Well, I think everyone will like it.” With a leering grin, he leaned toward Zooble. “Especially Zooby!”
Zooble glared at him before shaking their head. “Still ignoring you.” They took a step back while Caine’s arm snapped back like an elastic band.
He wiggled his fingers before reaching into the box, shuffling the slips around. “Alright, today’s adventure is— Bubble, drum roll please.” Bubble popped into existence beside him and opened its mouth to produce a subtle drumming sound. “Today’s adventure is…” Caine yanked a slip from the box. “A short day’s work at a nice froyo shop. That sounds nice!”
Gangle winced. “Oh no…” Zooble sighed and patted her on the back reassuringly. Jax’s ears hung forward limply.
Pomni raised her hand quickly. “Er… I-I can be the shift leader this time. It was my first job.” Gangle sighed in relief as Caine nodded approvingly.
“Sounds like a plan!” He formed a portal with a quick wave of his cane, floating back proudly. “Sweet frozen treats await you! Good luck my jumping jambalaya juniors!”
Ragatha sighed as she trudged toward the portal. “There won’t be stupid sauce in this one, right?”
Pomni shrugged. “It’ll be fine. That job was never really that stressful. Besides, we always got free ice cream every shift.”
Kinger gasped excitedly. “OoOh! Free ice cream?!” Without hesitation, he leaped through the portal, leaving it shimmering like a ripple on water.
Jax glanced at the portal. “Yeah, that checks. I’m gonna put my head under the soft serve.”