Chapter Text
Just like last time Ragatha had used her infinite power to create a building, the foundation was by far the easiest part.
It was as simple as creating a cube made out of a strong, applicable material and then clipping it into the ground. With enough of its volume poking out of the ground, she had both a strong start and a blank canvas to work with. Unlike last time, she made sure to align this cube with the invisible grid that existed just beneath everything in their world. Ragatha wasn't sure if Pomni had realized it yet, but the cottage was at a teensy bit of an angle, and she didn't know how to fix it with out knocking everything in the house over.
Just the idea of having to re-make or repair all of the little knickknacks she had made gave her the beginnings of a headache. She could deal with the two degree slant, for now.
Focusing on the project in front of her, she hopped up onto the smooth, hard material. Ragatha clicked her feet against the granite base with a little self satisfied hum.
Now came the hard part. "The blueprint, please." Ragatha said to the only other person in her vicinity.
Pomni handed it over, climbed up onto the foundation to join her and then went back to staring at The Sun.
"...d'you think she's figured out that you silenced her?"
Ragatha spawned a table and spread the blueprints for the Dorsia onto it. "Definitely," she said quietly. After a moment, she spawned a landline onto the table. Just in case. And, while she was at it, an umbrella.
While The Sun could no longer antagonize her verbally, she seemed just as happy to beat Ragatha down with heat and light.
She turned to face celestial body. At the moment, The Sun was screaming silently at the two of them. It was a little difficult for Ragatha to read lips when the entity in question didn't have any, but the message was clear enough. She wanted to vaporize her.
The very first morning her and Pomni had spent together in their cottage had been punctuated by two firsts in her life. Morning sex, and the living of embodiment of sunlight watching her have it through a window. After her and Pomni had realized and subsequently screamed in horror, The Sun had winked and loudly promised Ragatha that she would be telling everyone every chance she had. That was all it had taken for Ragatha to mute her indefinitely. Since then, any time her and Pomni wanted to get frisky, they both made sure every curtain in the house was shut.
She only felt a little guilty about it. The grounds had become genuinely peaceful with no antagonistic Sun screaming at someone the moment they stepped out of the Tent. Maybe just a few more weeks, then she would let her be heard again. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
"Mhm," Pomni mumbled. "Good," she said, turning around to plant her hands onto the table. "All right, I've been meaning to ask..."
She circled the bathrooms with her fingers. They were labeled as: Men's, women's, who cares. The last one was the largest of the three. "Do we really need bathrooms?" Pomni asked, tapping the little roughly drawn squares that represented rooms. "We can't exactly... shit."
"Oh, Pomni..." Ragatha said softly. She reached forward and put her hand on top of Pomni's as a grin started to form on her face. "But you love bathrooms."
Pomni rolled her eyes with a bark of laughter. "I don't love bathrooms, Ragatha. I simply... appreciate them. All I'm just suggesting is that adding them may be unnecessary." She flipped her hand over to hold Ragatha's. "It's a big project after all. I don't want you overworking yourself."
Ragatha pulled Pomni's hand up to her mouth and pressed a kiss to the top of it. "That's very sweet of you, honey. I understand your concern. However... I really, really want this to feel like a proper restaurant. So, that means the whole works! Bar, kitchen, bathrooms-"
"-Outdoor area slash patio?" Pomni suggested.
She closed her mouth, turning to look behind them towards the path. "That... is a really good idea!" Ragatha exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips.
The space between the foundation and the path leading up to the Tent could easily fit two or more large, circular tables. At the very least, two large ones on one side of the path coming up through the soon-to-be patio, and then a smaller table on the other side. "Could surround the whole thing..." Ragatha mumbled, thinking out loud as she envisioned it in her head.
Pomni joined her at the edge of the foundation. "Might look good with like... I don't know, half brick walls?" She said, spreading her arms. "My old favorite bar had an area like that."
Ragatha furrowed her brow as she imagined what that might look like. Red bricks slotted together, interlaced with mortar and topped with a slab of something to rest drinks on... she could just use a smaller version of the foundation. She waved, and a tiny version of the brick wall she pictured appeared in her hands. "Like this?"
Pomni picked it up and marveled at it. "God, that is so cool." She said softly, hefting it up. She blinked, handing it back to her. "Yeah, perfect. Just what I was imagining."
Ragatha slipped the tiny brick wall into her dress pocket as she smiled, reaching up to play with her hair. "Thanks, hon," she said softly. "...how about trees? Just, around it. It would give it some-
"-some privacy!" Pomni exclaimed.
Ragatha beamed. "Yes, exactly!"
Her heart caught in her throat at the way Pomni was looking at her right now. She had her hands up, balled into fists and she had a huge grin plastered across her face. She was just as excited about this as Ragatha was.
Ragatha reached forward, wrapping her mitts around Pomni's hands. Her girlfriend returned the gaze with half lidded eyes and, at that very moment, the landline rung. She winced as metaphorical bullet went through her foot. She should really touch up on proper firearm safety.
She quietly excused herself as Pomni laughed, and she went to go answer the phone.
"Hello?" Ragatha asked politely as she buried the phone into her yarn. "Who am I speaking-"
"The Fudge ate someone again." Zooble's voice broke through the static. "One of the mannequins wandered too close to his enclosure."
Ragatha grimaced.
That murdering, conniving fudge-y monster had been one of the most consistent sources of her frustration in the past two months. This was the second time this week. She had honestly lost track of how many poor NPCs she had to pull out of his chocolatey maw. What irked her most about him was how coy he would get about it. Like, for him, it was just a matter of time until he gobbled someone up. It seemed like no amount of corrective intervention would ever get through to him.
"Okay," Ragatha muttered, rubbing her neck. "Know who it is?"
"...yeah, I think it's... what's his name, the guy with the locket?" Zooble mused.
Ragatha put the receiver down and waved her hand as she thought about Abel appearing before her.
He appeared instantaneously a few feet from her, covered head to foot nubs in fudge. He stopped shivering, wiped a globule of chocolate from his face and looked around. "Oh thank god," he whispered, visibly relaxing. "I could feel his stomach acids digesting me that time."
She quickly thanked Zooble for the heads up, hung up and turned to Abel. "Please, please stop taking walks around the back of the tent. You know he's just waiting for that... you do know, that right?"
"Yes, of course, however..." As Abel was explaining that he needed to get his ten thousand steps in every day no matter what, Pomni walked over. She took one look at Abel and folded her arms.
"...besides, if you want to just nip this in the bud, I suggest you should just," Abel slid his nub across his neck. "You know? No one is going to miss that guy."
Pomni slowly turned from him to face Ragatha, raising her brows.
Ragatha met the look with a harder one. She wouldn't be having this conversation in front of anyone, especially not a NPC. She turned to Abel with a smile. "Wanna go to your room?"
He tilted his head. "Could you put me in the baths room? I need a-"
She waved her hand, and the NPC was gone, leaving a small pool of sickly sweet smelling fudge where he had been. Ragatha also removed that, except she didn't send it anywhere. She simply deleted it.
Pomni strolled over to the table and sat up on it. "He raises a good point, y'know," she mused, once again crossing her arms. "The guy unapologetically eats people, Ragatha. Why keep him around?"
Ragatha shook her head. "We've been over this. The alternative is either placing him back in the databank, or..." She trailed off, looking at the spot where the puddle of fudge had once been. She didn't like to think about the latter option. Unlike creation, deletion couldn't be any easier. That terrified her.
Pomni was silent for a moment, working her jaw within the confines of her mouth. Her brow furrowed as she started "One day..." She said, staring down at the ground. "Someone is going to do something bad. Like, really bad. The kind of thing where a slap on the wrist won't be enough."
Her girlfriend looked up from the foundation, giving her a concerned, but determined look. "What'll you do then?"
Ragatha gripped the table as she leaned up on it. "That... is a bridge we'll cross when we get to it, okay?"
Pomni made a face. The we'll be discussing this later face. Regardless, she dropped the subject and hopped off the table, joining her in front of it.
Only later did Ragatha realize she had clutched the wooden table so hard it cracked.
2
They had arrived at the restaurant five minutes early, and were killing time just outside of the patio.
Ragatha suggested they go in to find their table early, but Pomni wanted to get one last smoke in before she was confined to it. Complaining about the smell, her girlfriend stepped away and stopped to chat with a table full of blank NPCs. Pomni recognized this pastel set as part of a clique that were originally from Princess Loolilalu congregation. In lieu of Loo's religion, they had found construction to be their calling.
Pomni idly wondered if they knew they didn't have to wear the high visibility gear and hard hats at all times.
Interesting fashion choices aside, they had been vital in construction of Dorsia. She had some initial reservations after seeing for herself the work they had done to create their old place of worship. The tapestries in the reception area in particular had made her feel queasy. But, after working with them for nearly a week, that had all faded. Despite their eccentricities, the group had been very affable and genuinely apologetic. According to Kinger, most of their escalation into a full blown cult had been Loo's fault.
She grimaced and put out her first cigarette out into the low, brick wall separating the patio from the grounds. She dashed that foul woman from her mind. She could stay holed away in her castle, for all Pomni cared.
Pomni was in the middle of lighting her second cigarette when she spotted movement at the Tent. The heavy curtains of the entrance parted briefly, illuminating a lone figure. They started down the path, and then took a hard right, into the grass. Pomni squinted her eyes and craned her neck. It was almost impossible to make out any real details from this distance, but there was no mistaking that color scheme. Blue hair, red dress and pale skin.
She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Evil Ragatha outside of the Tent. That woman could give Loo a run for her money when it came to being a social recluse. She had something under her arm too, something big, but that she couldn't make out.
Pomni adverted her eyes with a shrug of her shoulders. Ragatha's NPC double had proven to be harmless even with her flair for dramatics, so she let her antics leave her mind.
Her girlfriend returned a minute later, and she put her cigarette out. Ragatha joined her in leaning against the low wall.
Pomni snapped her fingers. "Time check?"
"Seven oh six," Ragatha replied instantly.
"They're late."
Ragatha folded her arms and looked up the path towards the Tent. "Yeah..." she trailed off, and one of her hands reached up to play with the gem of her necklace. "I'm sure they'll show up soon!" Ragatha said with a little clap.
Pomni said nothing for the moment. She really hoped they wouldn't.
"What do... you think of the restaurant?" Ragatha asked suddenly.
Pomni furrowed her brow and turned her way. The line of her mouth was stretched a little thinner than usual, and she was playing with the slit of her maroon dress. "It's great," Pomni said, looking over her shoulder to drink in the building's detail.
Dorsia was even more impressive in the gentle glow of The Moon, who hung high above the building with a gentle smile on her lips. The fairy lights hung down and partially covered the frosted glass. The corners of the building were made up of tall, marble columns that were from an old fantasy adventure, according to Ragatha. Despite the extravagance and size, it still had that 'Ragatha' touch that separated it from so many of the cartoonish props still littering the Circus.
It still boggled her mind that that was something she could just... make. Like, in the exact same way Pomni could write little snippets of poetry, or how Gangle could draw up a room, or blueprints to a restaurant.
Some formless thought that had irked Pomni's mind for weeks finally formed into a question. The question was answered by the building in front of her, and Ragatha's current but now rare anxious disposition.
"Why haven't you sewn anything since you became admin?" Pomni asked.
Ragatha froze, like she had just accused her of a war crime. She relaxed immediately, and then her face grew thoughtful. "Umm... I don't know. I guess I just haven't... felt the want to?" She mumbled, her brows furrowed. "Why do you ask?"
That confirmed it, at least for Pomni. True, divine creation had become her art.
Pomni closed the distance and took Ragatha's hands. The taller woman's line of a mouth crinkled into an unsure purse. "Pom?"
She took a breath. "Ragatha... the restaurant is amazing. Everything you make is amazing. I don't know how you do it, honestly. When you talk about the process of... jury-rigging old props into new ones, or just... creating entirely new objects... It makes my head spin, and to think you've gotten so good at it in what, a little over three months? I mean," she trailed off, turning to look at the restaurant. "Look at that! It's an entire fucking restaurant that... you made out of nothing! Out of just an idea!"
Ragatha's face bloomed with a color that very nearly matched her hair. "That's... very sweet. Thank you." She said quietly, and fell into an old habit of tucking a strand of yarn behind a long gone ear.
"Don't sell yourself short, love." Ragatha murmured, bringing their joined hands together at chest level. Chest level for Ragatha, head level for Pomni. "You helped a ton. Y'know, you have a bit of an eye for exterior design. The patio is beautiful."
She licked her lips and gave a little shrug. "Eh, I'm just an ideas guy. We're a dime a dozen."
Ragatha let out an airy little laugh. "Mhm, well I love your ideas, guy." All of a sudden, Ragatha's expression grew distant. Her eye flicked down to their hands, and then past Pomni and somewhere in the distance. "We do make a great team, don't we?" She said, her voice just above a whisper.
"I... agree?" Pomni said, her voice rising on the last vowel. "Something on your mind?"
Her girlfriend blinked, and then brought her gaze down back to Pomni. That shade of scarlet was back, but Pomni couldn't identify what had caused it. Ragatha cleared her throat and pressed her lips against Pomni's forehead. "Just you." She said in a soft, curious tone.
Pomni took that as a cue to relinquish her hands and place them on Ragatha's shoulders. Ragatha's hands found their way onto her hips. Her felt fingers snaked through the unused belt loops of her slacks and pulled her closer. Pomni grinned as she looked up at the same time Ragatha looked down.
They had learned a lot since their first kiss. Pomni discovered that she could elicit a reaction from her girlfriend by gently digging her teeth into the raised line that formed her mouth. Meanwhile, Ragatha could very nearly get her to melt into a puddle of Pomni by running her hands through her hair.
Sometimes, though, nothing was nicer than a simple joining of lips. Her girlfriend's soft, but textured face pressed against her smooth, rubbery one; the feeling was electric.
It felt like an actual jolt of static shock passed through them when they were this close to one another. It ran down her avatar's spine, making her shiver despite the warm temperature of the night. It made butterflies flit about in the conservatory permanently affixed to her stomach. The phantom feeling of goosebumps erupted across her skin, and she had to fight not to smile into the kiss.
Ragatha, bearing a knowledge of this program that far surpassed any other, save for Caine, had no explanation for how such feelings persisted into the digital world. Pomni liked to believe they were soulmates.
Pomni opened her mouth, and felt filled it. Her dull teeth gingerly clamped down on Ragatha's mouth, and her girlfriend made that sound that she loved so much. It was somewhere between a stifled giggle and a squeak. Felt fingers dug into her hair, and she felt her pulse quicken-
Someone cleared their throat just a few feet away, and Pomni wheeled back. Ragatha let out a whine of pain and Pomni realized with horror that some of the string that made up her girlfriend's mouth was wrapped around her teeth.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Ragatha hissed, putting her hands up.
"Sorry!" Pomni spluttered. Carefully, she reached up into her mouth and dug out a few of the strands entwining her front teeth.
"Dude." A high-ish, uncomfortably familiar voice muttered. Scratchy, sleazy. Bored. Out of the corner of her eye, Pomni tensed up at the sight. It was her doppelganger, watching the scene unfold with folded arms. Her brows were furrowed, and her mouth was a flat line. To her left, Jax watched on with a barely concealed smirk plastered across his face.
Pomni plucked one string out as Ragatha let out another whimper. Her doppelganger pressed on. "Can't you just fucking- like... wave yourself back to normal?" She asked incredulously.
Ragatha's iris flicked to her, then back to Pomni. Her girlfriend's face had, incredibly, gone an ever deeper tint of red than the hair framing it, and Pomni was sure as shit she shared a similar shade. With a little wave of Ragatha's hand, the strings caught betwixt her teeth vanished, and Ragatha's mouth no longer looked like it was coming undone.
As Pomni wiped the spit from her mouth, she turned the face the pair. God, how she wished the heat on her face would just up and dissipate already. "Sorry, we were just-"
"We saw." Jax said with a grin.
Pomni's doppelganger began to smile. "Don't mention it."
Pomni folded her arms. God, she already needed a smoke. The need only grew as the silence stretched uncomfortably. Pomni's brain chugged as it struggled to find some common ground to talk about so they could move on. In the rough, she found something. "You're late." She said, and instantly regretted it.
That was no diamond.
The smiles glinting in the dark faded in a second, and a hand dropped onto her shoulder. "Pomni!" Ragatha exclaimed. She knew that tone. The why are you like this tone.
"It's whatever," her double mumbled quickly, tilting her head. "Blame my fuckass date. This wad couldn't pick between three different identical button-up shirts."
The grin returned to Jax's face and he rose his hands. "Guilty. I haven't been to a place this classy before."
Pomni checked out their outfits in greater detail. To her genuine surprise, the both of them had actually dressed up. Jax sported a short sleeved button-up that was half undone, hanging loosely over a pair of slacks. Catching her gaze, he nodded at her.
To his right, her doppelganger was already staring her down with a smile that showed a couple teeth. Pomni had to bite her lip lest it curl contemptuously. She was dressed in-
"Gosh, what a nice dress, Evil Pomni!" Ragatha chirped.
Yeah, that.
The smile on her face grew, exposing a full row of shark's teeth. "Thanks. You too." Her eyes slid back towards Pomni. "You look good. I bet your girl dressed you."
Pomni moved from biting her lip to biting down the urge to drop all pretenses, dive at her doppelganger and demand to know what she was hiding. What the converging rivers meant, and why they had been asked to dinner. Her plans, her machinations, what was really going on.
Instead of interrogating the other woman for the second time in her life, she instead faked a smile. "Thanks. I like your dress." That part wasn't a lie, the dress was cute. As opposed to the classy, maroon cocktail dress Ragatha wore, her doppelganger had decided to go with a blue sundress. Briefly, Pomni wondered if she'd be barred from entry by not dressing classy enough. In a perfect world, maybe.
Jax cleared his throat. "Isn't anyone going to say anything about my dress?" He asked, putting one hand on his hip and motioning down at himself.
A ghost of a smirk danced upon Pomni's lips. "You look very pretty, Jax."
He grinned a self satisfied grin as he folded his arms. "Thank you."
Pomni waited for the punchline. She must've been waiting and staring for too long because his eyes furrowed as he watched her.
"What?" He said, glancing towards his date. Pomni's doppelganger just shrugged and then glanced up past Pomni. "Oh, shit, right." She muttered, scratching under her arm pit.
"We're really are late. We should probably go in," her doppelganger mumbled. Ragatha perked up, tearing her gaze away from Jax.
"Oh! Yes, you're right! Also, no big deal about being late! I get it, you two live farther than we live from here. So, no hard feelings!" Ragatha said with a clap, followed by two thumbs up. Jax and Pomni's doppelganger stared back with blank expressions.
Pomni turned her way with a frown. She was starting to get the feeling her girlfriend was just as nervous about this as she was, maybe even more so.
"Shall we?" Ragatha asked quickly into the second silence that had formed. With that, she lead them up the path splitting the patio in twain, and through the wide, double doors into the restaurant.
The face that greeted them first had the kind of familiar she liked. Pomni brushed past Ragatha and put her hands on top of podium. "Chad!"
The gummy gator, dressed in a very swanky suit, grinned in response. "Oi, Max, look who it is!" He turned and called out towards the middle of the dining room. Pomni followed his gaze to see Max, dressed in a waiter's uniform and holding up a tray full of expensive looking drinks with both of his stubby arms. He caught her gaze and nodded at her.
"Glad you could make it!" Max called over the chatter of the room, and turned to serve the drinks to a table full of blank faced NPCs. Pomni recognized them as the group who had taken to exploring the grounds.
She turned back to Chad and drummed her fingers against the wood. "Job pay well?"
Chad winked and clicked his tongue at her. "You know it doesn't! Me n' Max were gettin' bored of sittin' around just playin' cards. So, when we heard you n' the missus, hey by the way," he tipped his hat to Ragatha, who had just joined Pomni at the podium. "-we're making a whole ding dang restaurant, a rip roarin' one at that, we thought... heck, why not? Let's get employed."
Ragatha laughed. "Thank you for that, by the way! Gosh, what a turn out, huh?" She said breezily, tilting her head towards the dining room. Just thirty minutes after opening, the place was more packed than a can of candied sardines.
Jax leaned forward between Pomni and Ragatha, resting his elbow onto the podium. "Got any tables left inside, big guy? We need one for four."
Chad narrowed his eyes. "Four?"
"Yup." An arm slung around Pomni's shoulders.
Her body jerked and she shrunk into herself, and the weight of the arm left her shoulders in a flash. She caught her doppelganger side eyeing her for just half a second, before she turned to lean up against the podium with Jax. "Uh, yeah, I'm the fourth." She said quickly.
Pomni put another foot of space between her and her doppelganger and took a deep breath. Calm, cool and collected. Stay alert, watch out for any signs of a prank, a coupe or whatever nasty game these two were playing. And, above all else, don't lose it. It was one thing to beg her girlfriend to cancel a date, but it was another entirely to have an episode in the middle of one. She didn't want a repeat of last months disastrous picnic date.
The Host let out a little chuckle. "Ah, didn't see ya back there, lil' miss! Righty-o, nothin' to worry about, sir." Chad said, pumping his arm. "There'll always be a table reserved for the esteemed Ragatha and any of her guests. Follow me, folks."
Chad hopped off of his seat from behind the podium and, with a little flourish of his too long arms, he lead them further into the restaurant.
"Looks like there are benefits for being in God's company." Jax muttered under his breath.
Her doppelganger snickered, and Pomni thought about throwing herself out of a window.
Instead of defenestrating herself, she took in the surprisingly satisfying sight of seeing the restaurant now full of patrons. Every other time she had seen it, it had been during the day, and with either just Ragatha, or her and the construction crew. Now, tables full of NPCs, both blank and fully realized, were gathered around tables and stuffed into booths. Despite the classy aesthetic they had chosen, the vibe tonight seemed to be more jubilant rather than refined. Glasses clinked together as laughter punctuated the soft jazz being pumped through invisible speakers. The lights in the fixtures above had been chosen for their warm glow, and it gave the whole place a cozy feeling.
She also spotted a few familiar faces. Pushed up against the back wall, near the bathrooms, she saw Kinger, Orbsman, Dr. Football and Disappearing Guy all crammed together into a small booth. Plates of food, drink and sheets of paper littered the table haphazardly, and based on that, and the instrument cases at their feet, Pomni surmised this was an impromptu band meeting. Out of all of them, Pomni like Kinger's playing the best. He could really kill it on the keyboard.
Before she could really drink in the atmosphere, their host cleared his throat.
"And here we are!" Chad pipped, and they found themselves in front of a nice booth with a view out onto the patio. Easily the best seats in the house.
Pomni waited until her doppelganger got into the booth first, and nudged her girlfriend to go in next on their side. Pomni sat down across from Jax and picked up her menu. She laughed and tossed it to Ragatha, who reacted with a giggle.
"This menu is blank," Jax said flatly, holding his up for Chad to see.
"Good eye, sir!" Chad exclaimed, pumping his arm. "Y'see, here at the Dorsia, we can rustle up juuust 'bout anything you can think of."
Jax dropped the menu and look at Ragatha. "How the hell did you manage that?" He asked, folding his arms.
She played with the gem of her necklace as she wiggled the fingers on her free hand. "D'you want the long answer, or the short answer?"
As someone who had heard the long answer, Pomni leaned forward and caught the attention of the table to avoid hearing it again. "How about we order first, guys?"
Chad held up his finger. "Your waiter will be along in just a shake of a tail, folks! In the mean time, woudja like to take a look at our menu for drinks while you wait?"
"Let me guess," Jax muttered. "It's another, slightly smaller but still blank menu?"
Another, slightly smaller but still blank menu was tossed casually onto the table. Pomni snorted, and so did her doppelganger. The smile faded from her lips at the drop of a hat, and she snatched up the menu. "Thank you, Chad." She said, giving her friend and Host a strained smile.
"Anytime! Err, well, any time when I'm on the clock, that is." He bid them a good dinner and was off, humming a jaunty tune to himself.
Pomni stared at the other, slightly smaller totally blank menu and tried to think of what she wanted to drink. A rum and unbranded soda? Eh, she wasn't in the mood. Maybe a negroni? She could always down one of those.
"Hey." Pomni looked up over the menu to see her counterpart regarding her coolly. "Can I have a look at that when you're done? I want to know my options." As she finished asking, the flat line of her mouth quirked up into a smirk.
Pomni handed it over wordlessly. Her doppelganger only stopped staring at her until after the menu had exchanged hands. She looked at it for all of half of a second before tossing it aside and crossing her arms.
In the quiet that befell the table afterwards, Pomni turned her attention towards the rest of the dining room. Pomni still hadn't seen a certain couple that had promised her they would be here. Her eyes narrowed. There they were. Sitting up at the bar, she spotted Zooble and Gangle. They were clinking wine glasses together as they talked animatedly about something. Both of their backs were turned to her, but maybe she could stop and chat for a moment later.
A blank NPC in uniform strolled up to the table, obscuring. "Oi, you lot. I'm Kim, I'll be your waiter for the evening."
"Man," her doppelganger muttered. "You get around, don't you?"
"Evil Pomni." Kim said with a nod towards her. "Right, drinks? What're we thinkin'?"
Pomni ordered a negroni, Ragatha a cosmopolitan, Jax a whiskey sour and her doppelganger a vodka martini. Before Kim went to leave, Ragatha stopped him. "Wait, gosh, I can't believe I didn't think of this, but- how about I just make the drinks for the table? You look like you have enough on your plate as is."
He shrugged. "If that's what you want, miss. Be back in a few to take your orders for dinner."
Pomni's doppelganger grinned. "You're too nice. Y'know that?"
Ragatha flapped her hands. "Oh, no, it's just... I might as well, right? It's much easier for me." With that, she furrowed her brow, stuck her tongue out as she focused and, with a wave of her arm, four drinks appeared in the middle of the table. Pomni reached forward and took hers and tipped it back.
"Perfect." She said quietly.
Jax took his and took a sip. He watched Ragatha over the rim of his drink and then set it down. "How do you... do that?" He asked with a roll of his wrist.
Pomni narrowed her eyes as she put her drink down. This was the first crumb of interest she had seen him show about how Ragatha did her thing. Besides thanking her once right after she saved everyone's life, he had mostly kept to himself and, assumedly, spoke mostly only to her doppelganger.
The suspicion was fuel to her investigative mind and, as she glanced to the left to see her doppelganger also looking at Ragatha with interest, another puzzle piece was added to the growing pile.
Ragatha rubbed her neck with a sheepish smile. "It's... a little hard to explain... Basically, to create a prop, I just have to sort of imagine it and, kind of... pull it out?"
"Out of what?" Jax said, taking another swig of his drink.
"Nothing!" Ragatha replied with a little laugh. "See, if wanted, say, a brick, I just picture it in my head, and..." She held up her hand, and a brick appeared in it. "I can't explain it, but there is a feeling of a tug as I do it... But, that's something easy. When it comes to something complicated like a drink, which is made up a series of objects with wildly different checks and flags, textures and even and flavor, oh my goodness, don't get me started on how long it took me to wrap my head around flavoring things... Suffice to say, things like that take more effort!"
Ragatha wordlessly handed Pomni the brick. She stared at it. What the hell was she supposed to do with this?
Pomni's doppelganger looked up and around with a frown. "How the hell did you make this place, then? Looks complicated as shit."
"Piece by piece." Pomni answered for Ragatha as she set the brick on the floor next to her seat, pointedly not looking at her doppelganger.
Jax raised his brows. "Why not the whole place at once?"
Ragatha shook her head. "That's... impossible. Well, not impossible, but the result wouldn't be pretty."
Jax quirked his brow and leaned back. A quiet, subtle invitation for her to go on. Pomni didn't know he was capable of something like that.
She leaned forward, tapping her fingers against the table. "Okay... Close your eyes and picture a location. The clearest memory you have of a place. Childhood home, a school... have it in mind?"
This explanation was new to Pomni, so she closed her eyes and pictured her shitty little apartment she lived in for over four years. Ragatha pressed on. "Now, go over every detail. Interior, exterior, what bulbs were used in the lighting fixtures, the make of your kitchen counters, what was in your cabinets, the square footage of your bathroom..." She trailed off.
"Hard to keep all that in your mind, right?" There was a mumble of agreement from across the table. "Still, it might look fine in your head, but it's not. The human brain is shockingly good at filling in the spots in a way where it feels like you have the complete picture. But, if I tried to make something with that incomplete blueprint... It'd come out like a... well, a melty, misshapen mess."
Pomni opened her eyes. "Huh. You haven't put it that way before."
Ragatha laughed airily. "You can think Kinger for that."
"How long did this take you anyways?" Jax asked.
She tilted her head. "A little over five days... Also, it wasn't all me! I just spawned everything in. Pomni directed most of the operation, and we had part of Princess Loo's... erm, old group come help us construct it."
Her doppelganger took a small sip of her martini. "Awesome," she said, staring down Pomni under half lidded eyes.
"You two are perfect for each other," she continued with a smirk.
"Thank you!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Three heads turned to Pomni, who answered back with a slow sip of her drink and a glance cast away from the table. She hadn't meant to say it quite like that.
"Uhhh," her doppelganger scratched under chin with a frown. "Didn't mean to... I meant what I said." She finished, snatching up her own drink and taking a heavy swig from it.
"Mhm." Pomni mumbled, setting down her negroni and staring at her doppelganger's drink. She shouldn't be surprised at her order. Pomni didn't particularly like martinis, nor did she enjoy the taste of vodka. Lo and behold, there her opposite was, very visibly enjoying the drink. Did she even realize how gross it looked to lick your own lips that much?
The other woman looked up from her drink to meet Pomni's gaze. Had she been staring that hard? Before she could look away, her doppelganger once again spoke directly to her.
"Wanna try some?" She asked, and the grin appeared back on her face as she shook the half empty glass.
"Hard pass." Pomni replied curtly. She wasn't even trying to hide the contemptuous tone in her voice at this point.
Ragatha must have noticed, because she kicked Pomni under the table. Of course, since it was Ragatha, it was more of a gentle nudge.
"Jerk," her doppelganger mumbled under her breath. Pomni ignored it. She needed to either reign in her distaste, or figure out just what they were planning.
She picked up one of the blank menus and stared it, making a face like she was really concentrating. She needed to buy some time to think. Mostly to do little impromptu sleuthing. But, she did also need to figure out what she wanted for dinner, but she could slip that under the stack of thoughts at the moment. She had other fish to fry.
The last time her doppelganger had been a suspect, there had been a clear crime committed. Two, really. The murder of Evil Jax and the far realer crime of Caine twisting Ragatha's mind to make her capable of it. While her double had been cleared of the first and had no hand in the second, Pomni had learned a lot more about her than she ever could have expected, or ever wanted.
The conversation between them that had taken place in that interrogation room, although somewhat hazy in her mind now, had revealed several things about her doppelganger. Most importantly, she knew Pomni's taste in women. At the time, she had swallowed the subsequent discomfort and half formed questions to focus on the case.
She had nearly forgotten all about it until the fateful day she had accessed the terminal behind Caine's former office. Among the folders stuffed with files that made up the Circus, there had been one for the players. In it, she saw one for herself. She wasn't able to bring herself to open it, but just the existence of it rocked her to her core.
A little over month later, in bed and having one of her weekly night time rumination sessions, it had hit her. Why her doppelganger had known her incredibly specific preferences that Pomni herself hadn't told a soul. The reason had caused her to stumble to her and Ragatha's bathroom and christen their new sink with a basin full of black vomit.
Her entire mind had been in stored in that file. And, when Caine had created her doppelganger, he had used it as a base.
All for something as banal as a fucking softball game.
She hadn't told anyone. Ragatha probably knew at this point, she made it a habit to check the terminal once a day at work. But, the others? Pomni would only tell them if it was tortured out of her. Besides the existential crisis it gave her, it had also turned her discomfort around her doppelganger to full blown revulsion. It sickened her to know that part of her mind was in something else, and that thing chose to act like that.
Sleazy, off-putting, and way, way too touchy. Is that what an Evil version of her was supposed to be? If so, it certainly explained her taste in romantic partners. She didn't hate Jax, but she would rather abstract than date the guy. Unless her doppelganger was just dating him to mess with her, then she must've...
Pomni looked up from the menu so quickly she nearly gave herself digital whiplash. Jax was telling a story about an adventure Caine had put them on years ago, and Ragatha was in turn correcting him on what actually happened. Meanwhile, the pale woman across the table was looking right. At. Her.
This wasn't a date. Not a prank, either. Not a coupe, not a power grab, or any insane half formed theory Pomni had in the back of her mind.
Not five thousand pieces. Not a thousand, either. Not a hundred, or even a measly dozen. Just two pieces made up the puzzle, each emblazoned with the face of a jester. They clicked together, and the picture was finally revealed.
Her doppelganger was just straight up fucking with her.
Pomni very slowly put down the menu.
Then, she started to laugh.
"See?" Jax said with a scoff. "Pomni thought it was funny, that means it... was..." He trailed off as Pomni kept laughing well after he had finished up whatever joke she had missed.
She leaned forward, clutching the table as full body giggles threatened to rupture her body. How could she have not seen this coming?
"Pom?" Ragatha asked softly. Her girlfriend put her hand on her knee.
Still, she kept laughing. How could she not? It was hilarious. Could it be possible to have dementia about just one specific concept? Occam's razor just seemed to slip her mind time and time again. She started to cough. Tears began to stream down her face.
"Dude. You're turning blue," a bored sounding voice stated.
As quick as it had started, the laughing fit died out.
Pomni reached up to wipe the moisture from her eyes. "Sorry about that. I just uh, I don't know... just thought of something funny, I guess."
"Yeah, no shit." Jax said. "What, you think up an entire Netflix special while looking at that menu? You haven't said a word in five minutes."
Pomni grinned at him. "You wouldn't get it."
Ragatha opened her mouth to say something, probably to voice her concern over Pomni spacing out, but fortunately, it was at that moment Kim returned.
"Arright, what're we thinkin', ladies?"
"Poutine, please!"
"I'll have a cheeseburger with fries. Also, not a lady."
"Uh huh. You?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kim turn her way. Pen up, nib ready to scrawl out her order. Her gaze however was locked onto her double. The other woman stared back, rubbing her arm. She shifted in her seat.
Suddenly, Pomni was in the mood for fried fish.
Pomni grinned and leaned back. "Fish and chips, please," she said.
"Good choice," Kim muttered, then turned to Pomni's doppelganger.
"I'll have what she's having." She said, leaning forward as she smiled at Pomni.
Pomni returned the smile, flashing her own set of teeth.
So, it was a game, then. The rules and goals were not known to her, but she sure as hell wasn't going to lose.
"'Kay..." Kim muttered, clacking his nub against the table. "Be back with your food in a bit. Uh, good luck with... this."
Ragatha stood up suddenly. "Wait!" She cried.
Kim froze, putting his nubs up.
Pomni looked up with a frown.
She met the gaze, and she begun to wring her hands together. Pomni stared at them with shock. She couldn't remember the last time she had done that. "What's wrong?" Pomni asked, reaching up to take one of her hands.
"I just," she looked up across the dining room. "Would really, really like to check the kitchen. Just to make sure everything is going okay! Y'know, I mean, maybe that's a bit silly. You're right, Pomni, I shouldn't-"
"-I didn't say anything-"
"-worry so much. I'll just let them do their jobs-"
"-I would also like to see the kitchen!" Jax exclaimed while he stood. Ragatha had been slowly sinking back into her seat as she mumbled, only stopping at Jax's outburst.
"...yeah?" She asked, standing back up with a curious expression on her face.
Pomni openly stared at Jax. Just what the hell was going on here?
He snapped his fingers. "Little miss sunshine here has a nut allergy. Just want to make the kitchen is up to code." As he said that, he ruffled his date's hair.
Pomni's doppelganger responded by punching him in the side of the leg hard enough to make him collapse back into his seat.
"Oh, that's... really sweet, Jax!" Ragatha replied, quietly ushering Pomni out of the way so she could leave the booth.
"Yeah, I'm... the best," he said through gritted teeth, clutching his leg as he limped to flank Kim along with Ragatha.
Their waiter took one last look at the two of them, and then shrugged. "Right. Whatever. This way," he said, turning on his heel and making his way to the kitchen.
With a promise to Pomni that she would be right back, Ragatha left with Jax and vanished behind a set of double doors that briefly showed a bustling kitchen.
Pomni felt a sharp pang of concern as she watched her go. Three months ago, she would've jumped up from her seat and ran across the room to be at her side. Just the idea of her having Jax as her company would have made her skin crawl. Now, it just made her itch. Pomni had seen firsthand that Ragatha could stand up for herself these days. And if Jax did try something, she could just... well, she didn't know what Ragatha would do, actually. But the what if likely was on Jax's mind more than it was on hers.
So, she lowered herself from her half stand and plopped back down onto her seat.
As soon as she remembered her company, she regretted not absconding when she had the chance.
Her doppelganger looked away from the kitchen to her. The downcast corners of her mouth curled into a smirk. "'Sup," she said, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.
This game sounded a lot less enticing when she didn't have the buffer of her girlfriend. "Hey," she responded, sitting back in her seat and folding her arms.
Her smirk grew into a half-grin that exposed a few of her razor sharp teeth. "Huh," she said, tilting her head. "Last time we were sitting across from each other at a table, you were interrogating me for a murder."
Pomni said nothing. She missed that, honestly. Her doppelganger looked a lot better with cuffs around her wrists.
Her old suspect pressed on, licking her lips. "I miss that, sometimes."
Pomni furrowed her brow. "Why? Are you that enamored with handcuffs?"
Her doppelganger leaned back, putting her hands behind her head. "Ehh, they've lost their luster," she said with a smirk. "Naw, but seriously, man. That was the last time we like, seriously fuckin' talked, y'know?"
"Uh huh," Pomni glanced over to the kitchen's doors. What was taking so long?
"We should do this more," her double said quickly, causing Pomni to look back over. "Just shoot the shit, hang out."
"Uhhhh..." Pomni replied intelligently, reaching up to scratch at her neck. "I don't know, I'm..." Come on, think, think. Get out of this. "Busy."
Fuck.
"Like, a lot," Pomni continued, and gave her doppelganger what she hoped looked like a sheepish smile.
"No you're not," she replied instantly, folding her arms. "Besides helping your girl run this place, you don't do jack shit. Besides making this place, I guess." Her doppelganger narrowed her eyes. The smile had been wiped off of her face.
"You're lying to me. Why?"
Okay, she wanted honesty? She wanted to talk shop? Fine, she would let her doppelganger have what she wanted. Pomni reached forward to place her wrists onto the table. "I just don't see us having a lot to talk about," she said curtly.
Wait, how did she know what she did with her free time?
"Have you been spying on me?!" Pomni asked suddenly.
Her doppelganger rolled her eyes. "No, dummy. I just don't see your gay ass in the tent unless you're with your girl or playing poker at the bar. Doesn't take a detective to put together that you don't like to leave your house."
She held up a finger before Pomni could retort. "And, you don't see us having a lot to talk about? Sister, I'm you. Doesn't that sound like something worthy of discussion?"
Something hot twisted and convulsed in her stomach.
"You're not me," Pomni said coldly.
The beginnings of a smile was washed off of her doppelganger's face. "Dude. I'm literally-"
"No, you're not!" She yelled, leaning forward.
Her doppelganger reared back, but Pomni pressed on.
"You couldn't be any less me, dude!"
"Look at what we're wearing! Look at our drinks! Our dates, the way we talk, the way we do anything! You and I are polar fucking opposites!" Pomni stood up, jabbing her finger at her doppelganger.
"Why, why would I want to shoot the shit with someone like that?!"
A thought occurred to Pomni as her doppelganger stared back with wide eyes. It made a little giggle burble past her lips.
"You know, it's funny, actually," she said, suddenly dropping her tone to a conversational one. "You'd think I would want to be around you, considering you are my opposite. Wouldn't that make you actually, like, I don't know, a good hang? Not a fucking mess? Not a neurotic, useless wad that can't go one week without losing her fucking cool!?"
Her doppelganger went to stand, wearing a baffled expression. "I'm not-"
Pomni slammed her fist against the table. "But nope! It's not that simple, is it? It never was when Caine was calling the shots! You're not cool. You're just my evil doppelganger. A sleazy, gross touch-y feely freak that just. Won't. Take. The. Fucking. Hint." She punctuated each word with a jab of her fingers against the table.
She planted both hands palm down onto the table as a contemptuous smile slid across her face. "Since you can't manage, I'll spell it out for you."
"I don't like you," She growled, leaning half way across the table. "I never will, and I especially wouldn't after you planned this sadistic night just to fuck with me!"
Her doppelganger looked up from her lap with a baffled expression. "Wha-"
"-So stop making excuses to be around me! Jesus, I think half the reason I don't visit the Tent much is because of you!"
The other woman sunk back into her seat.
Pomni stared at her. At some point, she had knocked Ragatha's cosmopolitan over. The liquid spilled out under her splayed out hands. "Do you get it now?" She hissed.
Very, very slowly, her double's mouth shut. Just as slow, she nodded. "I understand," she said quietly.
Pomni let out a shuddering sigh as she sat back down. She ignored the stares from the patrons around her. She ignored how quiet the restaurant had become after her outburst. She didn't care about any of that right now. "Great," she said, just as quiet. "I'm glad we're finally on the same page."
Her doppelganger stared at her. She put her hands onto the table and clenched them.
After another moment, she tilted her head to the side as she looked her up, then down. "Not exactly..." The tone made Pomni look up from her empty drink.
Over the sounds of the dining room returning to the normal, but now tentative volume of people enjoying their dinner, they stared at each other.
Something between a grimace and grin rose to the other woman's face. "I didn't ask you two out just to fuck with you, man. I had an actual reason, or an ulterior motive, as you might put it," she spat.
Pomni should've said nothing. She couldn't help herself. "What-"
"Hold that thought. I've got to take a shit," her doppelganger said suddenly as she stood.
Pomni stood as well. "What, you can't- no one can shit, here!" She yelled into the room. A couple pairs of eyes and a whole host of blank faces turned her way as her doppelganger half jogged to the bathroom.
She sat back down, folding her arms. Clearly, her doppelganger didn't want to be around her. A first that she would take with a smile and a thank you very much. No, no, keep the change.
She bit her lip as she stared at the bathroom door swinging shut. Still, she couldn't get what she said out of her mind. An ulterior motive? Just what the hell was it, then? A prank? Some sort of coupe?
And, just how long did it take to check out a kitchen? Her only theory there was that Jax and Ragatha had somehow slipped into a conversation. The idea of them having civil one made her laugh. The laugh died out on her lips as she realized how insane that would make her look sitting alone. She didn't need her friends and peers thinking she was insane.
They already knew the unfortunate truth that she was a live bomb, half a second from detonating at all times.
"A bomb..." She mumbled. She glanced over to her right to the closest table. A group of NPCs were talking in hushed tones. One of them glanced past their shoulder to catch her gaze, and it whipped around in a flash.
Of course. It all made sense. Pomni was the atom bomb she had suspected to be in the envelope that Friday afternoon. All her doppelganger had to do was wind her up and then, boom. She would be standing in the middle of a crater just like every other time in her life. Walking through blood and bone as she had to work down to her own bone just to curry the favor she had lost due to her implosion.
If her doppelganger knew her taste in women, then she sure as hell knew this was a life long habit of hers.
The realization put two choices in front of Pomni. They sat on the table, between the glasses overturned by her outburst.
She could either sit here and wait until Ragatha came back, tell her what happened and get the hell out of here... or, she could go find her doppelganger and punch her in the mouth.
Her legs made the decision before her mind could. She stalked across the dining room in flash and pushed opened the door to the women's bathroom.
"Okay, asshole, you..." She trailed off as her pupils darted from left to right. And, just to make sure, down and then up. Her doppelganger was nowhere to be seen. That didn't make any sense. She walked in here and sure as hell didn't step out on Pomni's watch. Did Ragatha add an escape hatch, or something during construction while her back was turned?
Her back was turned.
Pomni felt her skin crawl. She went to turn, but it was too late. A shoe slammed heel first into her back and it sent her sprawling to the ground with a hiss of pain.
She rolled over to see her doppelganger let go of the door, and it swung shut. She had been hiding in the space between it and the wall. God, she was such an-
"Idiot."
Yeah, that.
She stood with a grimace, flexing her back as the ache slowly subsided. That heel had to have drove directly into her spinal column. She rubbed at the spot as she watched her doppelganger flex and unflex her hands, staring her down with wide eyes and a frown showing a maw full of shark's teeth.
The silence stretched onto in the tens of seconds. Pomni's nerves started to crackle with anxious energy like live wires. She threw her hands up. "What's your plan now, huh? Talk to me!"
Her doppelganger laughed through her teeth. "Oh, now you want me to talk to you. God, you are just so..." She brought her hands up and clenched them.
Pomni rubbed her neck. "I'm what?"
Ignoring her, her doppelganger turned on her heel and faced the door. One hand went onto the slim metal handle, and the other wrapped around the bar for stability bolted to the wall. In a horrifying screech of metal, Pomni's doppelganger ripped the end of the bar closest to the door out of the wall, smoothed it out and tied it around the handle.
Although she had seen it, she didn't believe it. Her evil counterpart had treated stainless steel like two ends of flimsy rope.
Her double stepped back, inspecting her handiwork. After a moment of what Pomni realized was quiet deliberation, she kicked the door, hard enough to leave a dent in the metal. It bent, but didn't budge. After a satisfied nod, she turned back towards Pomni with a cruel smirk on her face.
"I tried playing nice, I really did," she said, standing up straight. She reached up to roll her shoulder. "I thought if I gave you space, tried to be your friend... maybe, just maybe, we could've had... fucking, something, man."
Despite the fear mounting in her stomach, Pomni scoffed. "No you didn-"
"Shut up," her doppelganger barked as she cracked her neck. "You don't know anything. If one fucking thing was made clear tonight, it's that."
Right about now, Pomni was really wishing she hadn't vetoed Ragatha's idea to add a window to the bathroom. Then, at the very least, she could've had an escape route.
"So, fine," the other woman continued, kicking off her heels. "If all I'll ever be to you is your evil fucking doppelganger," She spat the word out like it tasted terribly in her mouth. "Then that's what I'll be to you."
There was a dull crack in the following silence. Then, another. Pomni looked down. Her doppelganger was cracking her knuckles one by one.
A cold chill creeped up Pomni's back. The subsequent sinking feeling she had in her gut wasn't just because she was scared shitless of her doppelganger. It also wasn't just because she was worried about whatever was going on with Ragatha and Jax. No, this icy claw gripping around her stomach, threatening to make her hurl her lunch was because of one, very horrifying thought.
She had seriously misread every single action taken by her doppelganger tonight, and she was about to pay the price for it.
That was the last thought that went through her head before the other woman charged at her.