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When Pomni wakes up ill one morning, she is shockingly excited. Her throat feels swollen, her body aches, and the dim light from the sun through her window hurts her head, but since she’s sick, that means she’s escaped the circus. She’s finally free.
She opens her eyes.
Her annoying jester themed room is still there. The fake window with the fake sun is to the left of her bed. And her body still hurts. She groans in frustration, pulling her pillow over her head to help with the headache. Who even knows if Caine has medicine in this place?
Someone knocks on her door. Again, she groans. They knock again, calling her name.
“Pomni? You okay?” It’s Ragatha. There’s muttering, so she’s not alone. “I’m going to have Jax open your door.”
Now how in the [boink] does Jax have her room key?
Pomni doesn’t say anything. She keeps the pillow over her head as Jax opens the door.
“Pomni!” he exclaims. Then, he notices how poorly she seems, and he swears quietly under his breath.
“Geez, Pomni, are- are you okay?” Ragatha asks.
When she tries to verbally respond, all that comes out is a squeak and a coughing fit.
[Boink.] This cannot be good.
“Is she...sick?” Jax mutters. There’s silence. “I didn’t know we could get sick.”
“We can’t.”
It was in that moment that Pomni truly realized how artificial her existence was. They don’t need to eat, their injuries heal in minutes, they don’t need to breathe, they don’t need to sleep, and now she’s finding out that she was never meant to be sick. It honestly feels like she’s supposed to be existing even less than she usually does.
Pomni clears her throat then tries again. “I’m fine,” she manages. “Just- weird dreams again.”
She throws the pillow off her face. If she could work through illness in the real world where she’s meant to get sick, then she can work through illness in a world that she’s not even meant to be able to get sick in.
Ragatha doesn’t look convinced, taking a half step towards Pomni with her hands out just in case she falls. Pomni wants to smack her hand away because she doesn’t need the help, but she resists. It’s not her fault that Pomni feels like [boink].
As she pushes past the two, stumbling out into the hallway and towards one of the many bathrooms (which they didn’t even need), she overhears Jax tell Ragatha, “I bet that she won’t even make it to today’s adventure.”
She slams the door behind her. The bathroom she stumbled into was small with a simple sink and shower. There was a mirror above the sink, cracked and shattered completely in the center from what looked like a claw hit.
Pomni grips the porcelain and stares at herself, her reflection scattering throughout the shards of glass. Her eyes spin around for a second before returning to normal. There are bags under her eyes, which she didn’t even know was possible.
Then, for a split second, her reflection changes to a human. She barely processes it before it’s gone.
Instead of thinking about it, Pomni simply sighs and splashes her face with cold water, trying to snap herself out of this. She was fine. All she has to do is get through today’s adventure, and she’ll be able to rest again.
Her eyes glitch again, and her face feels burning hot, but she opens the door and walks out. She tries to act cool but immediately accidentally bumps into Ragatha.
“Oh, sorry!” Ragatha says, acting as if she wasn’t clearly waiting for Pomni. Part of her is bothered, but another part of her is somewhat glad that someone cares about her. “I’m heading to the lounge before the next adventure. Do you maybe want to come with me?”
She can feel her arm glitch next to her, watching as Ragatha flinches. It has got to look at least a little similar to abstraction.
“If that’s okay with you,” she replies quietly. “I know I probably don’t...look...the best right now.”
“Maybe resting will make you feel better.” Ragatha smiles at her and gently grabs her arm, pulling her towards the lounge. She doesn’t notice how Pomni flinches at the touch.
The lounge is more of a large open space than an actual room. There are three large couches formed in a U shape with a wood coffee table in the middle. Where there would be a fourth couch is a small bookshelf full of DVDs with a TV on it. None of the movies listed exist in real life, and they all have the same cast with Caine as the star.
“I bet that Caine will have us make one of these movies as an adventure,” Pomni jokes. Her arm glitches again.
Ragatha crouches down, reading the titles of the movies before making a quiet aha sound, pulling out a specific case. She hands it to Pomni, smiling.
The front has a black and white image of Ragatha in a low cut long, black bodycon dress with a slit in the leg. Her back is up against Jax, who’s in a black suit with some of his chest showing. They’re both holding guns. Jax’s finger rests on the trigger while Ragatha’s finger is off to the side of it.
“We’ve done it once. It was kind of fun,” Ragatha admits, tucking a red curl behind her ear. Pomni smiles, and she feels her mouth twitch and spin before returning back to normal.
“It sounds like it.” Ragatha hums. “I don’t think I’d be too opposed to doing that again.”
She stands up, DVD case still in hand. “I can pop this in and make you some tea, if you want? I’m sure Kinger or Caine can summon some medicine for you,” Ragatha suggests.
Pomni aggressively flinches at the offer. She doesn’t need to be taken care of like some child. What she needs to do is push through all of this nonsense because it’s nothing and she’s fine.
(Deep inside her, she knows the glitching is only going to get worse, but she can gaslight herself into thinking she’ll get better. It’s fine.)
“I’m fine.” It almost comes out as cold, and Ragatha seems taken back by it. “We can just watch the movie.”
Ragatha has an unreadable expression, but it seems somewhat worried, so Pomni looks away and sits on one of the couches. After a second of staring, Ragatha turns on the TV and pops in the DVD before grabbing the remote and sitting next to Pomni. She has to fight the instinct to lean against the doll’s shoulder.
They’re able to get to Ragatha’s first kill before Caine snaps them to the stage to explain the next adventure.
“Today’s adventure will be-!” Caine starts, but he immediately cuts himself off when Pomni’s right arm glitches three feet away before jolting back in place. He stares directly at Pomni. “You’re glitching.”
“I’m fine,” she mumbles. Caine hovers in front of her, and she stares down at the ground. She can feel everyone staring at her.
“You’re glitching,” he says again. He pokes her arm, and she takes a step back. “Welp! We won’t be doing what I originally had planned, which is a shame because it was very scary!”
“I’m not doing this,” Zooble says, starting to walk away. Caine snaps and brings them back.
“Everyone has to do this adventure,” Caine says. “It’s a team one, and we need equal players.”
“Caine, I swear to God, if it’s another [boink]ing customer service adventure-,” Zooble starts. Caine zips up where their mouth should be. They end up just looking annoyed and confused, but they stay quiet.
“Zip! You’ll find out today’s adventure when you go there!” he exclaims. Below the group, a giant portal opens up, sucking them into the adventure.
Pomni is in a hospital bed in a thin, blue hospital gown. She groans and immediately tries to get out of bed, but the IV stuck in her arm stops her.
“Why are we in a hospital?” Pomni exclaims. There’s a curtain all around her bed, so she can’t tell if there’s anyone else there or if it’s just her.
(For a split second, she almost thinks that she’s escaped and in a hospital in the real world, but her unnaturally white hands give away that she’s still in the [boink]hole that is the circus.)
“I think this is Caine’s way of trying to fix what’s going on with you,” Zooble says from Pomni’s right. “Not sure why he made me a patient, too.”
“Did you guys get anything explaining this adventure?” Ragatha asks nervously from her left. “I hope it’s not just me.”
Before either of them can answer, Jax rips open Pomni’s front curtain. He’s dressed in an old 1950s nurse’s outfit, and he quite frankly looks [boink]ed off about it. His arms are crossed as he glares at his reflection.
“You have got to be kidding me,” he grumbles. “Whatever. I’m Nurse Jax, and I’m here to steal your blood.”
Pomni stares at him as her right leg glitches and kicks him in the stomach. It doesn’t seem to faze him, though.
“I think our outfits are cute,” Gangle says anxiously. Jax pulls back the curtain separating Pomni and Zooble, and she’s right. She looks absolutely adorable in the outfit.
Zooble is full on just staring at her, wide eyed and definitely blushing.
Jax rips open Pomni’s other curtain, revealing Kinger in a normal mordern nurse outfit. He has a stethoscope around his neck, and he seems slightly softer, slightly saner.
Jax’s face turns red from anger. “This is worse than the maid outfit,” he exclaims. Pomni can’t help but giggle to herself. Her leg glitches again, kicking him again.
“Whatever.” He straightens out his little hat and stands up straight. “Did you guys get any note of what’s going on?”
Pomni shakes her head. “It’s like the stupid president thing again, but with all three of us instead of just me.” She glares at Jax, who just laughs.
“Ha! Yeah, that was funny.” He grins. “Well, that just means I can do whatever I want!”
Even though everyone knows women’s clothes don’t have pockets, Jax somehow manifests one and pulls a comically large syringe out from a far too small pocket. Once he pulls it out, the pocket disappears. He looks down in confusion for a second, but he shrugs and looks back to Pomni.
“This is going to, uh, take all your blood,” he explains. Pomni just blinks. “And replace it with drugs. Like meth. Did you know I used to make meth?”
Ragatha looks over in horror.
“Yeah, it was with my old teacher. Once a fly got in our lab-.”
“You can’t do this joke again,” Zooble tells him. “Pick a new show.”
“Fine!” Then, Jax starts limping. “You-” he points at Pomni- “are a liar.”
Zooble rolls their eyes.
“Now, tell me all of your symptoms so I can drug myself, get your diagnosis wrong but have the treatment work for a little before you start dying, get your diagnosis wrong again, flirt with-” he looks around for a second- “myself, since I’m not flirting with anyone here, have an epiphany, drug myself again, then finally get your diagnosis right.”
Pomni just blinks. This was most definitely a reference that she simply didn’t get. Maybe she should’ve been in more fandoms in the real world.
“What.” It’s not even a question, just a statement of confusion. Her head glitches through the roof, but her eyes stay with her body. It comes back backwards at first before fixing itself. She coughs, and a bird flies out of her mouth.
“You really haven’t seen that?” Jax asks, sounding genuinely bewildered.
“Can we just get this over with?” Pomni feels exhausted, and her head is still killing her. The bright evil lights weren’t helping.
“I have to steal all of your blood,” he informs her, thrusting a paper in her lap. “I don’t think Caine knows how hospitals work.”
“Can I go into debt in this place?” Pomni mutters, reading the paper.
In large letters, it just says, “STEAL POMNI’S BLOOD. ALL OF IT. DISTRACTION!”
Huh. So he does have to steal all of her blood. Odd.
She shrugs, handing the paper back. “I don’t think I have blood. But sure. If it gets you off my back.”
Jax, trying to figure out how a syringe works, stabs her in the foot. The syringe is instantly filled with plastic balls. He looks at it and lets out a little huh.
“Interesting.” He shrugs and tosses the syringe behind him. There’s a crash then a cat yowling, for whatever reason. Then, he throws himself down on the foot of her bed. “Welp! Guess we just have to wait for the others to do their tasks.”
They look over at the others only to find Zooble upside down and Ragatha having stethoscopes wrapped around her wrists.
“I think we’ll be here a while,” Pomni laughs, which sends her into an aggressive coughing fit.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jax asks.
For a second, Pomni thinks he almost looks worried for her, but Caine appears above them before she can deny anything being wrong. She hates that these people are trying to help her when she doesn’t need any help.
“Great job! You all did the adventure.” He seems somewhat annoyed. “I still haven’t taken care of our little virus, though, so!”
They’re thrown into yet another adventure. This time, Gangle and Pomni are teamed up with crayons and colouring pages. Kinger and Zooble are given paints, and Ragatha and Jax are given chalk and a slab of concrete.
“Do a art.” And then, before Pomni can tell him that there’s nothing wrong with her, he’s gone.
Gangle seems nervous, fidgeting with a purple crayon already. She seems like she’s trying to ask Pomni something but can’t quite get it out.
Pomni, instead of pressing like she usually would, picks up a different purple crayon and starts colouring in flower petals on one of the sheets. Behind her, she can hear Ragatha and Jax arguing like toddlers. It would make her laugh if she could do that without coughing and causing a shooting pain through her head.
“I think Caine named all these crayons,” Pomni points out. She shows Gangle her purple crayon which is labeled stupid tall bunny. Gangle giggles.
“Are you...sick?” Gangle asks. Pomni rolls her eyes.
“No.” It’s simple and borderline mean sounding. She sighs. “I’m fine. It’s...whatever.”
Gangle looks up at her for a second. She absolutely wants to fight back, to lie to her, to whatever, but she stays quiet and grabs a blue labeled clothing hat colour blue on her head it’s up there.
A very long unnecessary name, but this is Caine we’re talking about, so neither of them question it.
“So...” It’s a little awkward, but at least Ragatha and Jax aren’t letting the room get silent. “What are you colouring?”
“Um, a mushroom house,” Gangle replies nervously. She flinches back a little, probably expecting Pomni to make fun of her like Jax does.
Pomni leans over to see it more. The spots on the roof are blue, and the rest of the mushroom is partially purple, although it’s clear Gangle got distracted in the middle of colouring before switching to the blue with the ridiculously long name.
“I think it’s cute,” Pomni tells her, but her head decides to glitch around, making her cough and stutter on her words. It’s annoying.
“You should take it easy,” Gangle mumbles. She looks around and notices a corner conveniently full of pillows.
Pomni has to admit, the area looked super comfortable. Maybe she doesn’t need to sit over there because she’s sick (which she’s pretty certain will go away if she ignores it for long enough), but maybe she can just go sit there with Gangle because it’d be a lot more comfortable on her joints to lean against something instead of hunching over like a shrimp.
When she blinks, a new shrimp stuffed toy has appeared in the pile.
That solidifies it. The two of them grab the ends of the table and drag it over to the pillow corner. They adjust themselves to get comfortable, Gangle smiling mostly to herself despite having her tragedy mask on.
Pomni decides to just let her have it.
They’re sitting there, quietly colouring and occasionally showing each other the silly crayon names. Their favourite one ends up being big head teeth red. There, on the other side of the room, Zooble is standing up with a paint soaked piece of paper in their hands.
They come over to the duo and sit next to Gangle, showing her the paper. It seems to be a thick lined tattoo-esque design of her comedy and tragedy masks.
“I made this for you,” they say. Then, they glance over at Pomni. “How are you feeling?”
Their tone is a bit awkward, like they aren’t really used to trying to comfort people. If Pomni were sick, she’d feel appreciative of the attempt.
“I’m fine,” she mumbles. Gangle is still admiring the piece, holding it carefully to not smudge any of the paint.
“Oh, Zooble, I love this,” Gangle says breathlessly. Zooble would definitely be turning a bright shade of pink if they had the ability.
“Thanks.” It’s awkward.
“Do you mind if we switch activities for a bit? I- I wanna draw something for you now. If you don’t mind,” Gangle mumbles.
Zooble nods and steps out of her way, letting her crawl out from the pillow seats before sliding next to Pomni. They grab another sheet of paper, one with astronauts and planets.
“I don’t know if I should make this realistic or not,” Zooble says. Pomni laughs a little, grabbing a striped multicolour yellow and green crayon labeled the sun should be flirting with the grass instead of being a major jerk. She doesn’t get the reference.
“I don’t think anything around here is realistic,” Pomni replies. Somehow, the striped crayon doesn’t blur and mix. “You’re like a weird Mr. Potato Head, Jax is a purple rabbit, Gangle is made of ribbons, Ragatha is a doll, Kinger is a chess piece, and I’m, well... I’m me.”
There’s something else she wants to say, but it would include her admitting something she doesn’t want to admit because she’s fine and everything is fine.
“I think you should make everything whatever colour you want, is what I’m trying to say,” she finishes, shrugging as she continues colouring with the striped crayon.
Zooble looks at their colouring sheet, then at all the crayons they have. Pomni’s colouring hand glitches into the pile for a second before reattaching to her wrist. She ignores it, somewhat getting used to the pain and annoyance.
“Caine will fix that soon,” Zooble says, grabbing an orange crayon labeled zooble’s torso. All the crayon labels are in all lowercase, which is interesting. “It’s, uh, never happened to any of us before. But I’m sure he can fix it. And whatever other illness you have.”
Pomni wants to snap a crayon in half. “I’m not sick. I’m fine,” she insists. Zooble shrugs.
“Whatever.” They colour the rocket ship orange, then they grab a green simply labeled grem to use as an accent colour. “Look, you don’t have to admit you’re sick if that’s what you want to do, but you can at least let us help you.”
“Why would I need your guys’ help when I’m fine?” she laughs. The tip of her crayon practically shatters from how aggressively she’s pressing it down on the paper. She ignores it.
“I don’t know.” Zooble is somehow cool and collected, not nearly about to lash out like they would if Jax were acting this stubborn and annoying.
(She knows Zooble would be getting onto her if she voiced that opinion out loud. It was somewhat out of character for them to be so caring to Pomni of all people. Usually this soft side was reserved exclusively for Gangle as of recently.)
“It just-.” They sigh, trying. “It would make us feel better if you just accepted our help. You don’t have to deal with things alone. We like having you around.”
There’s silence. Pomni doesn’t want to agree nor disagree.
We like having you around.
It echoes throughout her head, like a cruel promise or something.
Then, as if this nonsense can’t get any worse, her own thoughts start glitching.
They’re mean, telling her no one likes her. Sure, her insecurities from the real world would sometimes appear in this digital one, but usually they were completely unfounded.
“You don’t have to,” Zooble tells her. “But just know we’d like to.”
Before Pomni can reply, Caine appears in front of her, making her jump and glitch. He looks somewhat disappointed.
“I need you all back in the circus to finish this,” he says. He seems exhausted, but she can’t look more into that before he snaps and they’re all back in the harsh light of the circus.
Caine is gone before Pomni can ask him how much longer the glitches will last.
She doesn’t imagine that the not sick feeling will go away with the glitching.
Still, the lights here are far too bright, and they’re making the pounding headache worse and her eyes burn.
Before she knows it, Zooble is shoving her into Kinger’s pillow fort with him. They give her a certain look before boarding up the entrance with pillows.
“Oh! Hello, Pomni,” Kinger says warmly. She’s always loved how kind he was to her in the dark, even if parts of who he usually is slips in at random moments (like under her presidential desk, which she still doesn’t forgive Jax for). “Those glitches can’t be fun.”
She just shakes her head, worried that she’ll glitch out of this place if she moves too much.
Kinger decides to move so he’s sitting next to her with his knees to his chest, purple robe still somehow in place. “And I heard from Ragatha that you’re sick,” he continues.
“I’m not. It’s fine,” she says. Kinger looks down at her then gives a quiet hm.
“Well, if you won’t let us help when you’re sick, you can at least let us help with that glitching,” he suggests. Pomni shrugs. She’s just so tired from all the coughing and headaches and pain and glitching and everything. It’s miserable.
“I don’t know how any of you can help.” Her voice nearly breaks.
She almost lets her guard down. Everyone has just been far too kind to her, and she can now feel Caine physically tampering with her code. In the back of her mind, she hears a very faint buzzing noise of frustration that gets louder when she focuses on it.
But she’s not one to let people take care of her.
“I can sit here with you and make you comfortable until Caine is done,” Kinger offers.
She wants to run.
There’s a small memory of someone, a man, yelling at her. She’s young and sick, but he’s mad at her for whatever reason. Faking, manipulative.
And Kinger is just sat here, being so kind to her like that memory should’ve been.
She’s not sure who the man in the memory is meant to be, since it’s just an audio memory instead of a visual one, but it still freaks her out all the same.
Pomni’s entire body glitches further away from Kinger. He doesn’t move, opting to just watch her instead and wait and see if she’ll return back to her spot or if her code has just decided to move her.
“At least your body is staying attached to each other now,” Kinger jokes lightheartedly. “That’s a good sign, I think.”
That means a lot, considering Kinger doesn’t do much thinking.
She laughs a little. “I can feel Caine touching my code,” she tells him. He blinks at her. “It hurts.”
It’s the first time she’s admitted any pain to any of them.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Kinger tries.
She’s too exhausted to fight it anymore.
“I...” She pauses, unsure if she really wants to do this. “I wouldn’t be opposed to other people being in here.”
Kinger sticks his head out of the pillow fort, only to knock over everyone over. They all scramble back, trying to pretend like they weren’t eavesdropping and waiting for Pomni to finally accept help.
It doesn’t take them long to push Kinger back into his fort so he stays sane then clamber in themselves. Jax pushes Gangle, and Zooble takes off their arm and hits him in the head with it, glaring.
“So, you finally admit it,” Jax teases. Pomni pulls her knees to her chest, resting her head on it.
Kinger takes his place back on her left, and Ragatha crawls over to sit on her right, left leg crossed into her lap and right leg out to the side as she leans on her arms behind her. Zooble sits across from her, legs curled under them so they can sit on their heels, so Jax and Gangle will be separated. Jax decides to sit across from Kinger, legs also pulled up to his chest, leaving Gangle to sit across from Ragatha. Her legs get tangled in each other as she tries to sit cross legged.
Pomni’s entire body glitches around again, making her nearly knee Jax in the teeth. He moves back, letting her glitch around in the air before she returns to her spot, frustrated.
“Caine is literally ripping my code apart,” she explains. “It hurts like [boink].”
“He can do that?” Gangle asks. Jax looks like he wants to say something to her, but one quick glance from Pomni makes him roll his eyes and contain himself.
“Apparently.”
“That doesn’t sound fun,” Ragatha says. Pomni nods. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not like it’s your fault,” she replies.
“I hate people who say that,” Zooble complains. “She’s not saying that because she thinks it’s her fault. She just feels bad that you’re in pain.” Then, almost to themselves, they mutter, “We all do.”
“Oh, so Zooble can be nice to people!” Jax teases. Zooble glares at them.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a [boink] I’d be nicer to you,” they bite. Jax puts his hands up in defense.
“Calm down, shape-o.” Zooble looks like they wish death was permanent here so they could kill Jax. “I’m just making a silly joke.”
Pomni finds herself cover her mouth with her hand to try and muffle her laughs.
Zooble glances over at her before reaching over to Jax and strangling him. His mouth opens, revealing sharp yellow teeth, and his eyes bug out. He grabs Zooble’s wrists, pulling at them.
Pomni can’t stop laughing.
When Zooble lets go, they say, “I was just joking,” in a mocking tone.
(Part of Pomni thinks they’re acting like this to make her feel better.)
She looks to her right only to see Ragatha and Gangle laughing too. If this were any other moment, Jax would probably be saying something to Gangle about laughing at his misery.
Ironic.
“It’s nice we’re all together,” Ragatha points out after a moment of silence. “We always spend adventures mostly together, but once they’re done, we barely are ever together.”
“I like when we’re together,” Gangle admits quietly. She’s anxiously playing with her ribbons. “It gets lonely in here.”
They really don’t spend much time together outside of adventures. It was kind of bittersweet that it took Pomni’s code pretty much breaking for them to all spend time together.
“Alright, Pomni!” Caine exclaims, startling everyone as he wipes his hands off on each other. “You should stop glitching now. The sick feeling will go away in a day or two.”
She just smiles, acting like he didn’t just scare the [boink] out of her. “Thanks, Caine.”
He disappears just as quickly as he appeared.
Being sick would suck [boink], but at least she’s a bit more willing to accept help now. Hopefully it gets the group together more often, even once she’s better.