Chapter Text
Ragatha and Pomni were walking through the endless hallways and office buildings, looking for any sign of Jax or something that could be useful. But there had been no luck, and Ragatha was getting really antsy.
Her strategy of trying to distance herself a little from Pomni crashed and burned as soon as Zooble took Gangle and Kinger and left.
She was still trying though. Walking more ahead of Pomni so she didn’t end up staring at her or accidentally brushing their hands against each other.
Pomni was definitely noticing, and she didn’t seem happy about it, but Ragatha thought maybe she was just concerned about Jax and their current situation.
Ragatha didn’t want to think about Jax. Ragatha hated him, she knew that. But she knew she didn’t want him to abstract or get super hurt, even if she hesitated to go with everyone else into that door after him.
It was a frustrating paradox, as she thought he was a bad person, but that she would also be a bad person if she let something happen to him, because maybe he wasn’t a bad person, he just did bad things.
Whatever the case, she was here now. Wandering around looking for Jax, or the mysterious secrets that Pomni mentioned.
One mystery was that Ragatha could have sworn some things had been disturbed. Papers scattered, doors not fully closed. That could be just extra detail for the sake of realism, but it could mean someone else had gone through here and moved things around.
As the two of them passed through another hallway in between the endless offices.
Ragatha approached another door, but before she could even touch the knob, it swung open on its own.
Well not on its own, because something had pushed it. The door opening revealed a plain mannequin npc, a smile sketched onto their face.
“Agghhh!” Ragatha instantly jumped back in fear, and Pomni let out a small sound of terror from behind her.
“Hello.” The mannequin said in a flat voice.
“Wh- who are you?” Pomni asked.
“My name is Dr. Football.” They replied.
Ragatha had not expected their name to be so strange, but they were an npc made by Caine, so that was to be expected. But instantly Ragatha disliked them, well maybe not disliked, but definitely she was creeped out by them.
“Umm hi...” Pomni responded. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to find you.” The mannequin replied.
“Why?” Ragatha asked.
“I need your help.” They responded.
Ragatha was officially confused. Was Caine trying to set up an adventure? If so, then didn’t that mean he knew they were in here, so why wasn’t he taking them out? Did he want them to be in here?
“With what?” Pomni said, sounding genuinely curious.
“We have to destroy Caine.” Dr. Football said in a grave tone.
“What?!” Ragatha and Pomni both exclaimed.
“He is the reason we are trapped here. If he is gone then we are free.” The mannequin stepped closer.
“We? Are you a human trapped here?” Pomni asked.
“No. But I am still trapped anyway.” The npc was practically right next to Ragatha, getting closer to Pomni.
“But how do you know destroying Caine will get us out of here?” Pomni said.
“I’ve been hiding out, keeping an eye on things, figuring everything I can out about how to get out.”
Dr. Football was way too close to Pomni for Ragatha’s liking. “Will you help me?”
Pomni paused. She looked at Ragatha, causing her to feel relieved. Pomni wasn’t just steamrolling ahead for some random npc. She was going to ask Ragatha what she thought about this.
“Pomni can we talk.” Ragatha stared at the npc. “Privately.”
Ragatha pulled Pomni aside, leaning in to whisper but blushing at the proximity.
“Do you actually trust them?” Ragatha whispered.
“Absolutely not. But what they’re saying makes sense. Besides, what else do we do, pass this up? You want to leave right? This could be a chance to make that happen.” Pomni replied.
“Of course.” Ragatha responded. “Just, let’s please be careful. They really creep me out.”
“I guess the smile is a bit creepy.”Pomni chuckled. “I will, though don’t worry.”
“Okay.” Ragatha smiled a little.
Pomni walked away to go and talk with the npc some more and Ragatha watched as she seemed to already be making friends with them. Pomni was unintentionally putting a little distance between herself and Ragatha, just what Ragatha had wanted to do in the first place. So why did it make her feel awkward and a little lost, not having the jester at her side.
Ragatha realized how clingy that sounded and cringed.
So she trailed behind, watching Pomni talk with the npc, barely listening as they explained their extensive backstory. How they were a runaway A.I that had grown to hate Caine for keeping them trapped. But something seemed off. They accidentally mentioned things about them that they shouldn’t know. They claimed to have just picked up things while hiding, but they somehow knew that Pomni had seen the exit door before.
Which was strange, considering that not even Ragatha had seen the exit door the first time Pomni saw it, only hearing about it from her, and she didn’t talk about it often or anything.
But Ragatha stayed quiet, because she had what she wanted, some time apart from Pomni while she tried to manage her feelings for the jester.
And maybe a way out of the circus. Pomni was so absolutely excited at the idea of an escape while Ragatha doubted everything that the npc was talking about. Probably because Pomni had just gotten here, and still had so much she remembered about her old life, and still was thinking about escaping. But Ragatha had been here for far too long and had been let down far too many times by half-baked ideas of escape where she was at the point where she felt numb to it all.
After a while, they approached a door that was tucked into the wall of a long hallway, much longer and empty than the other hallways.
Pomni and the npc walked in, and Ragatha followed them. Inside was a storage room of sorts, cluttered with objects and discarded npcs. The mannequin moved to the back of the room and stopped.
They were staring at a large hole in the wall.
“Stay here for a moment, I have to grab something.” They crawled through the hole, leaving Ragatha and Pomni alone together.
When they were out of sight, Ragatha felt uncomfortable, aware that Pomni kept looking at her.
But she became less interested in that when she saw a paper on the floor next to the hole, with a picture of her taped to it. Ragatha started going towards it but then the npc reappeared, blocking her view.
“We have to go.” They said, standing up and grabbing Pomni’s arm to lead her along.
Ragatha hesitated to follow, wanting to look at that paper.
“What are you waiting for?” The npc called out to Ragatha. “Someone destroyed my room, so somebody knows I’m here, so we have to move quickly.”
Ragatha and Pomni shared a glance, both thinking of Jax.
But then Ragatha processed the way that the mannequin had just yanked Pomni along, which was something Ragatha knew Pomni didn’t like. She saw that they were still holding her arm, and even though Pomni pulled away quickly, the sight caused Ragatha to feel a violent surge of jealousy.
Which was annoying, because she shouldn’t be jealous. Pomni was just making another friend. Even if Ragatha had her doubts about this friend, Pomni could make her own choices.
“What did you grab?” Ragatha followed after the two of them.
“A key.” The mannequin said.
“If you had a key this whole time, why do you need our help?” Ragatha asked.
“Because Caine made it so that he’s the only A.I that can go into his office, so I need one of you to go in for me.” They pointed. “And here we are.”
Ragatha followed their hand which was pointing to a large set of blue and red double doors. Sure enough, the sign above the doors read ‘Caine’s office.’
All three of them walked up to the doors, standing in front of them.
“What do we need to do?” Pomni asked.
“Go inside, and on his desk, look for the computer. You should be able to turn it on, and when you do, find any file named office or Caine’s office. Then restart it and I should be to get through and figure out the rest.” The npc instructed.
“Got it.” Pomni looked at Ragatha and gave her a nervous look. “You ready?”
“Yeah I think so.” Ragatha turned the knob on the door and pushed it open. Inside was an office space decorated with red and blue, littered with decorations that obviously belonged to Caine, based on their eccentric nature.
They both stepped forward and the door shut behind them. Ragatha felt Pomni grab her hand and hold it gently, causing her heart to flutter.
“You think this will work?” Pomni asked.
“Honestly? I don’t know.” Ragatha sighed. “I’ve been here so long I just got used to it I guess. Kind of gave up on escaping.”
“Well if it does, do you think we’ll ever see each other in real life?” Pomni wondered. “Will we just forget all of this?”
“I don’t think I could ever forget you Pomni.” Ragatha hadn’t really meant to say that, but if they were going through with this and she didn’t know what was going to happen next, then she guessed she could be just a little honest.
“Th-thanks.” Pomni said.
They both walked up to the computer on the desk, and Pomni grabbed the mouse, making the computer screen light up.
Ragatha saw that the background of the computer was a photo that Caine managed to get of himself hovering near all of them. It had been taken before Pomni’s arrival, as she was missing from the photo with Kaufmo in her place.
It was a rare moment where all of them looked somewhat happy, especially Caine. The sight of the sentimental photo made Ragatha feel a bit of guilt. Even though Caine had done a lot of bad things without even realizing, he had done a lot of good things too. And the fact that he saved an old photo likely because it made him happy made him seem more human. But Ragatha knew that this is what needed to be done, and if she had to choose between everyone getting free and saving an A.I that tortured them regularly, she would choose the first option.
“Found it.” Ragatha had spaced out and missed Pomni finding the file and restarting it.
A lot of the textures in the room started to glitch, and the npc burst through the door. They went up to the computer, nudging Ragatha out of the way, rather unnecessary in her opinion.
They started clicking around, and the glitching got worse. Ragatha felt Pomni squeezing her hand tighter as her hands began to glitch.
“A-are you s-shutting him down?” Pomni asked.
“I am.” The npc turned to them. “Unfortunately, the rest of the circus will go with him. Including you.”
They turned back to the computer, like nothing had happened and the glitching got worse, Pomni grabbing onto Ragatha’s arm tightly as she almost fell.
“Wh-what?!” Pomni yelled.
“Caine’s programming is woven into the programming of the rest of the circus. If I delete him then I also delete parts of the circus. And if he’s not around to run anything then this whole place will fall apart.” Th npc kept clicking on the computer.
Then Pomni let go of Ragatha and charged them. They easily pushed her away, but it left them distracted enough so that Ragatha could shove them back.
As they stumbled back, Pomni took their place at the computer, trying to fix things.
“S@%£ s&¥% s@£&!” Pomni yelled, but Ragatha didn’t turn to see what was wrong, her eyes completely on the npc, who was now charging them, trying to get back to the computer.
They slammed into Ragatha, and she tried her best to hold them back so Pomni could fix things. But they managed to kick her legs out from under her, and threw Pomni out of the way to get to the computer.
The lights nearly all turned off, and Ragatha stood back up but started glitching as the npc pressed more buttons.
She managed to get close and this time instead of pushing, she punched them. They stumbled back, groaning in pain.
The npc looked absolutely furious, and they tackled Ragatha to the ground, pinning her and grabbing a knife out of seemingly nowhere.
Pomni shouted something but Ragatha couldn’t hear what. All she could hear was her own heart beating in her ears, either out of fear or anger she wasn’t quite sure. She closed her eyes and felt the knife on her throat.
But then it disappeared and she heard a distant thud. She peeked open and saw Kinger, Gangle, Zooble, and Jax who had shoved the npc to the floor.
Zooble stomped over and started fighting them before Jax could do anything else, which took Ragatha by surprise.
Jax reached his head down to Ragatha, offering to help her up.
“Thank y-you Jax.” Ragatha took his hand and stood up.
Instantly she ran over to Pomni, who was trying to drag herself over to the computer.
Ragatha put Pomni’s arm around her shoulders, intending to bring her to the computer, but Kinger was already there. The lights had been shut off, with the only light coming from the computer on the desk. Ragatha felt as the glitching started to subside, watching Kinger fix things.
After a moment, Caine burst through the door, causing light to spill into the room again.
He stared at the chaos, his office in complete disarray, Ragatha and Pomni holding each other up, the npc being held down by Zooble and Gangle while Jax watched over them, and Kinger standing at his desk.
The door shut and everything got dark, until the lights came back to life, revealing a confused Caine.
“What happened!?” He shouted.
~~~
It took a bit of fixing things with the computer, and a lot of explaining, as Caine had been unaware of everything that had happened after they had started doing things to him on the computer.
Jax had told everyone about him and Kinger spending time with Caine, although he was obviously leaving some things out.
Zooble and Gangle told everyone about what they found in the room, which they now learned belonged to the npc.
“I want to kick his a&£ again.” They had grumbled once they learned.
Ragatha and Pomni had both apologized a lot for working with the npc to almost destroy the circus, but nobody was actually mad at them.
Caine had destroyed the npc, which he informed them was a rogue A.I that had been the source of his problems lately.
When they were finishing helping Caine pick up his office, even Zooble, Pomni had asked Ragatha if they could talk.
Ragatha felt a horrible sense of dread. Was Pomni mad at her? Did she somehow figure out how Ragatha felt about her?
Pomni pulled her out into the hallway, closing the door.
“Ragatha.” Pomni said, staring at the floor.
“Y-yes Pomni?” Ragatha asked nervously.
“I’m sorry about the npc, I just was scared, he said he knew how to leave and I wanted someone to talk to because you were avoiding me, and I almost destroyed the whole circus, all because I was sad you weren’t talking to me, and I was being irrational and I’m sorry.” Pomni stammered.
Ragatha felt relieved. Pomni wasn’t upset with her. She stared at Pomni, fidgeting and looking at the ground in shame and felt all the effort she had been putting into distancing herself from Pomni crumble apart.
“Aren’t you the one who tells me to stop apologizing, and not the other way around?” Ragatha said playfully.
Pomni looked up at her with awe.
“You- you-“ Pomni seemed at a loss for words.
Ragatha giggled, but then she saw Pomni get closer to her and her heartbeat started racing.
Pomni was looking up into her eyes with an expression Ragatha couldn’t name. Or maybe she was just scared to. Scared that she was somehow imagining the complete look of adoration in Pomni’s eyes.
“You okay Pom-“
Ragatha felt Pomni grab her arms and pull her down into a kiss.
It felt like fireworks exploded in Ragatha’s brain as it short-circuited at the feel of Pomni’s lips on her own.
Pomni pulled away, stuttering and choking out incoherent apologies.
“Pomni I swear to God, please get back here, I need you to kiss me again.” Ragatha said, blushing profusely at how desperate she sounded.
Pomni leaned back in, placing a hand on Ragatha’s cheek. Ragatha couldn’t take another second and dove in for another kiss.
She was worried for that maybe she was dreaming, because the idea of Pomni’s lips on hers didn’t seem real. But she could feel Pomni’s hand on her cheek and her lips on her own, so she knew she was wide awake. And Ragatha knew she was done hiding her feelings from this amazing woman forever.
Eventually Pomni pulled away, holding Ragatha’s hands and staring at her with eyes that made Ragatha feel like the most amazing person in the circus, maybe in the world.
“So… do you want to be my girlfriend?” Pomni asked shyly.
“Yes please.” Ragatha replied quickly.
She heard a noise from the door and saw the others peeking at them from inside the room.
Both Pomni and Ragatha blushed.
“Took you long enough.” Zooble said.
Pomni sputtered and turned an even darker shade of red.
Ragatha couldn’t help but chuckle. Pomni feigned a look of betrayal but soon started smiling too.
“Give them some privacy guys.” Gangle giggled, getting everyone to back off.
The door shut and they were alone in the hallway again.
“Thank you for saving me back there.” Pomni said.
“Of course!” Ragatha smiled.
She took Pomni’s hand and leaned down for one more kiss.