Chapter Text
Selfish. Stupid. Manipulative. Obsessive.
The cruel adjectives cut through Ragatha’s mind as she woke up slowly in her bed, facing Pomni who was definitely closer than she had been last night. Their hands were somehow still rested on top of each other despite the fact that they had probably both gotten rough sleeps, or at least Ragatha had.
Despite everything that screamed in her head, she couldn’t help herself from staring at Pomni’s face, calm and relaxed as she still slept. Staring at the soft breaths puffing out of her gentle looking lips. Staring at the way her bangs rested on her forehead.
God Ragatha was a creepy little weirdo and Pomni should hate her, hate her for asking Pomni to stay here with her, because why did she do that?
Ragatha closed her eyes shut tightly, not wanting to get up and disturb Pomni’s sleep but also not wanting to look at her anymore, her mind flooded with guilt.
Ragatha must have drifted back to sleep because next thing she knew a knock sounded on the door.
Ragatha’s eyes flew open just as Pomni’s did, the two looking into each other’s eyes and blushing profusely.
“Ragatha?” Gangle called out from the other side.
Ragatha jumped up, letting go of Pomni’s hand, part of her feeling sad about that. Pomni also jumped up, almost falling off the bed.
“In a second Gangle!” Ragatha called out, desperately staring at Pomni, silently praying that Gangle didn’t get the wrong idea, and even if she did at least that she would keep it to herself.
Ragatha slowly took a deep breath and opened the door, Pomni at her side.
Gangle smiled at the both of them, and Ragatha saw that unfortunately Zooble was also there.
“Oh there you are Pomni.” Gangle said.
“What were you guys up to?” Zooble asked in a smug tone.
Ragatha was probably as red as a tomato. Why couldn’t Zooble shut their damn mouth? God this was horrible. Pomni was probably so disgusted.
Both Gangle and Zooble chuckled slightly, and they moved to let Ragatha and Pomni step into the hall. Ragatha noticed that most of the lights in the circus were off, in the way they usually were at night.
“We need to have a meeting, Kinger’s getting Jax right now.” Zooble said firmly, teasing forgotten. “Something happened yesterday and we need to figure out what before Caine shows up.”
Ragatha nodded, sensing the urgency in Zooble’s tone. She couldn’t help a small smile from escaping as she noticed that one of Gangle’s ribbons was wrapped firmly around one of Zooble’s arms in a sweet gesture, and the two were standing very close to each other.
“What?” Zooble barked, noticing her staring.
“Nothing, just… happy for you two.” Ragatha smiled as both Zooble and Gangle blushed, remaining close together.
Ragatha thought they were cute with each other and wondered when they had gotten together.
But this became less important as Jax and Kinger approached. Kinger was saying something to Jax, who just nodded. Jax looked different from usual, not grinning or being obnoxious, just kind of remaining neutral. Ragatha figured it was because it was early.
Everyone just stared at each other. It was clear that Zooble wanted to share something, and from the glance Ragatha gave Pomni, they needed to talk about what happened to them as well.
“So, did anyone else start glitching like crazy during the adventure? Because that was weird as f&€%.” Zooble finally broke the silence.
Ragatha hadn’t expected that, and she didn’t expect everyone else to also start nodding in response.
“Okay. Me and Zooble thought we were the only ones.” Gangle said.
“No, me and Pomni had something like that too.” Ragatha said, leaving out everything else, because she had to admit that she was embarrassed that she had panicked so badly that she thought she was abstracting. Talk about an overreaction huh?
She looked to Jax and Kinger, and the both of them just nodded.
Ragatha thought it was a little strange that Jax was just hanging out and talking to Kinger instead of messing around. Maybe he finally realized that this is serious.
“Well me and Gangle broke through that door again, and Caine was just floating out there, being all creepy. Then he said a bunch of stupid s&¥£ and then teleported us back.” Zooble said, ignoring Jax’s question about ‘what door’. “But after he did we both started glitching.”
“So it was Caine then?” Pomni asked. “And Jax, it was a door that lead from the adventure back to the circus, for some reason.”
Ragatha didn’t expect Pomni to add answer his question, but she did. She also couldn’t help but notice the looks they both gave each other before Jax turned away.
Anyway, the good thing was that at least they had figured out what caused the glitching, even if that thing was likely going to be unhelpful in fixing it. Caine could be impossible at times, and Ragatha had seen the way he got defensive whenever any sort of glitch, or bug, or error had occurred in the circus , no matter how small.
Then suddenly all the lights flickered. Ragatha thought they were going to turn on or something but they stayed dark. Another glitch?
“We should go out there and see if Caine is there yet.” Ragatha said.
Everyone nodded in agreement, though Zooble didn’t look too happy about it, which was to be expected.
The group decided to head towards the main stage, where Caine would be. None of them really talked, and Ragatha was fine with that. Everything seemed so awkward between all of them, or maybe that was just her own brain and everyone else was being normal.
Once they reached the stage, Caine was nowhere to be found.
“Well what now? Do we just wait for him to show up?” Gangle asked.
“Guys look!” Pomni called from on top of the stage. She was holding a piece of paper in her hands.
Pomni jumped down from the stage and ran towards them.
“It’s a note from Caine.” Pomni said. “It says ‘GOOD MORNING MY TRICKY TWIZZLERS I AM UNFORTUNATELY A TAD UNDER THE WEATHER TODAY, SO I WILL BE ABSENT. HOWEVER, THE SHOW MUST BE GO ON WITHOUT ME, AND THE GREAT WHEEL HAS DETERMINED THAT IT IS RAGATHA’S TURN. ONE MINUTE AFTER THIS NOTE HAS BEEN PICKED UP, THE ADVENTURE INVOLVING HORSES SHALL BEGIN! BECAUSE IN ALL MY ENDLESS CREATIVITY THE BEST THING I COULD THINK OF WAS STICKING A HANDFUL OF HORSES IN A FIELD. LOVE CAINE.’ And there’s a little bee with a heart.”
Ragatha considered the contents of the note. It figures that when it was her turn for an adventure that would actually be something she liked, then Caine would be absent, and she would be crushing on her best friend in the entire circus.
She was surprised at the self-deprecating comment tucked into the end of the note, because Caine always acted like he thought he was the most amazing person, or A.I she supposed, ever. It felt odd to see a glimpse of insecurity from the usually upbeat and confident ringmaster.
Ragatha felt a bit of pity for Caine, because even though he put them through so many terrible and stressful adventures, he was just an A.I, it wasn’t really his fault just his programming. Right? Ragatha wanted to believe the best in Caine, but it was hard to ignore everything he had put them through.
“I guess you were right about the horses huh?” Pomni asked, and just like that, Ragatha wasn’t thinking about Caine at all.
“Y-yeah I’m- I’m sure this’ll be great!” Ragatha faked a positive response, avoiding Pomni’s eyes.
Some part of her was still trying to deny everything, that she was just really good friends with Pomni, that she just appreciated everything the jester had done for her. But Ragatha knew she that wasn’t true, and it hurt.
The best course of action was to just distance herself a bit, let the feelings go away, then everything could be back to normal. That’s how this worked right? Ragatha tried to remember the last time she had even liked someone like this. Before the circus maybe?
Ragatha was so lost in her own thoughts she didn’t even notice them being teleported to the adventure. Once she saw that she was in a different place than she had been a bit ago, she began staring at her arms, watching anxiously for any signs of glitching.
The only thing that came was a gloved hand being placed gently on her own, reassuring her.
Ragatha looked away from her arms at Pomni and wanted to cry.
But instead she just smiled and gently lowered her arms, looking at her surroundings instead of the red and blue eyes next to her.