Chapter 1: Getting Attached
Chapter Text
Jax couldn’t quite place when his interest in Pomni was piqued. Had it been when she had first come into the circus? She had knocked him down, before looking at him with wide multicolored eyes that seemed to draw him in before he snapped himself back into reality to question where she came from. He had been intrigued once it was confirmed she was a new member of their cast. It had been a while since they had gotten someone new in. He just wanted to gather info before she was told by the others to keep secrets from him. He didn’t want to keep an eye on her for any reason. Even if he did, he failed horribly once he saw what Kaufmo had become. The multi colored eyes locked on him, the black shape that’s not similar to the individual that had once been but, but not unfamiliar at all. No, for him it was too familiar. Even if part of him wanted to grab Pomni and take her with him, the sight of abstraction was too much. He wasn’t in his body after that - running on auto pilot to get through the rest of the day.
Maybe his interest in Pomni came after she had yelled at him for throwing her out of a moving semi-truck. Sure, he had been yelled at for his actions many times before. But the way that Pomni bit out her protest to him using her as a bridge was different from Ragatha’s scolding. When the ragdoll berated him, it felt almost like a babysitter charged with a bratty child. Sure - he’s the youngest member of the circus and was technically a teenager when he entered - but he’s lived in this hellscape for 4 years. He’s a 22 year old man, not a 17 almost 18 year old teenager. And Pomni yells at him like it. She doesn’t sugar her words with a fake cheer.
Perhaps it had been after the haunted mansion. After being dragged into the more terrifying section with the least sane member, Jax was sure Pomni would be freaking out and crying about it. She’s been traumatized by most everything that’s happened to her so far - she’s shaping up to fill in the anxious archetype, perhaps a source for some humor but not too much. Don’t want her to abstract before he can get his fun in with her. Instead of the whimpering crying mess he expected to encounter, he spoke to a calm Pomni that didn’t have any smack to talk about the crazy king.
By the time they were in the fast food hellscape that felt like something he had been pushing down for longer than he cares to think about, he’s attached. His attachment isn’t like Ragatha’s with her sugar sweet words and constant check-ins. It isn’t like Zooble’s occasionally soft-spoken words that didn’t match up with their usual gruff off-putting demeanor. No, Jax’s attachment was something less obvious, but extremely meaningful to the lavender hare. It’s eyes constantly being on her, taking notice of every small thing from her expressive face to her nervous pulling at the pompoms decorating her outfit. It’s his poking and prodding at her body to see all of what it can do. It’s his ears constantly being trained to her voice, the small changes in her tones from the various stimuli that the circus provides.
His attachment is meaningful to him that, after being mentally tortured by the too familiar acts of working fast food, he has to see her. Check, ensure that she’s not having a worse time than he is. He had seen the NPC from the candy adventure come in, and her reaction - flustered and almost flirting - had made him want to pulverize the candy alligator until there’s nothing remaining but a puddle of chunky syrup where he stands. Jax knew he couldn’t let that show. Although he couldn’t really see Caine punishing them, there’s a chance that the AI could come up with something absolutely horrifying quite easily for him. So, he holds back on ripping gummy guy’s limbs off with his teeth. Some of his discomfort fades when he sees the candy NPCs leaving out the drive thru window, but not entirely. He decides to check in on Pomni then, and instead comes face-to-face with Gangle and her annoyingly plastic cheerful mask. Oh, how he wishes he could destroy it just like her porcelain ones. She sends him to training, away from Pomni, and Jax’s thoughts spiral. Anxiety floods his system from many sources. His body being manhandled, the uncertainty of being observed, the fact that he was yanked away from checking on Pomni, the fact that Pomni was flirting with the gummy guy, and now he can’t hear Pomni-
When Jax is pushed out by the massive gloved hands and pat on the head, he can hear Pomni’s voice as she speaks with - is that the Gloink Queen? - doesn’t matter. He can hear Pomni, she sounds a little disturbed under her polite tone, but she’s not screaming in pain so it’s fine. At least Gangle’s sanity seems to be breaking with their unbreakable happy mask. He might take more pleasure in that if he didn’t want to throw himself into oncoming traffic. At least the sudden change to dinner rush distracts her enough for him to check in on Pomni, finally.
Of course, Pomni puts up a mask. He’s too mentally exhausted to do the same and just wants to take a moment to find some form of comfort in her presence. Then Gangle’s annoyingly cheerful voice calls out to him, breaking his moment of reprieve. He slips the mask back on. It’s much easier after seeing Pomni. He gives himself one more glance as he gives her a wave and calls out a “Later, Pomni.” It’s enough to get him through the rest of the hellish adventure.
It’s after that adventure that Jax’s writing gets more creative. Before then, he had been taking notes on her. Making sure he would never forget anything. Almost like a journal a field researcher might possess, but instead of a wild animal being observed it’s a digital jester. Some parts are rather lacking, which frustrated him. He knows how her face changes colors when she’s unable to breathe, but he can’t pick out which of those shades is her favorite! He knows his original characterization of her as the anxious one isn’t correct. What she could possibly be instead is the most intriguing part of her. His need to understand her takes over, and he goes to the once-forgotten suggestion box. The fact that Caine had dragged them on something from this recently means it’s likely to happen - most likely sooner rather than later. He’s carrying a stack of papers, a few ideas that came up when thinking of his grand plan to understand Pomni mixed in with the details of his idea. He makes sure to keep Pomni in the dark for his plan - this is about seeing how she reacts and understanding her better.
It’s not a complete failure. He knows her favorite color is red. There would have been many other things discovered if it had been given the time of a full adventure. Technically Pomni was supposed to detonate the bomb he brought in, that was really just a timer designed to look like it would unleash various creepy crawlies on the room it’s in. Then she was set to order the entire menu for a banquet to try and tie together the American and Australian people - allowing him the opportunity to see more of her favorite foods other than salmon and banana pudding. He would then see how she reacts to various stimuli when presented with having to bring peace between her new allies and New Zealand. Oh well, at least there’s violence with how Caine decides to play it. There’s always more time to observe her.
Jax is overly pleased that Pomni lays out next to him during their next quick adventure. It’s a calm moment of peace. Before she came around, he would have been spending this time in solitude. No easy way to make jokes, and everyone clustered together stops him from being able to make jabs that actually give any reactions without Ragatha getting in the way. Of course, the rag doll still gets in the way. The two of them bicker as they always do. Then Pomni questions if he cares what other people think. Pomni. The one who he’s actually interested in. For a split second, he debates on telling her about the archetypes, about how he help people maintain them to stop them from going insane. But then Ragatha’s blue dress catches his eye and he shrugs it off. He’s trying to not think about why when Ragatha brings up the exact reason herself.
Jax wants to kill her.
He turns to look at her, imagining all the ways he can make her stuffing fly with his bare hands and teeth. It’s better than thinking about green skin getting covered by glitchy blackness as eyes start to pop out of the blackened areas. Ragatha starts to stutter over her words when she sees Jax’s deathly glare. The woman quickly scurries away, going the easy route of talking to Kinger about bugs. Jax expects Pomni to follow her, but she stays with him and questions it. Something about that - something about Pomni - makes him unintentionally open up. Not about the answer to her questions. He rants about frustrations built up over years from Ragatha’s actions and outlook. He quickly covers it up by insulting Ragatha, and Pomni quips back at him. It’s exactly what he needs in that moment. She’s exactly what he needs in that moment. To be more precise the smile and quiet giggles she gives him are what he needs.
He doesn’t know exactly why they’re pulled into an intermission - maybe the moon flirted with Caine too hard? - but it’s a disorienting experience. Everything goes black, and then he’s falling with Zooble and Gangle following him into the same hole. Then he’s suddenly crushed by a bowling ball, hearing Pomni’s squeaky toy of a body next to him experience the same fate. Anger comes up in his being at the thought of her being in the same kind of pain from being squished like a bug that he’s experiencing in the moment. Next thing he knows he’s holding hers and Ragatha’s hands - one of them pleasant, the other burning like one massive ant bite covering everywhere that a mitten hand touches his gloved paw. After flashing through some poses in a room with Pomni and Zooble - his back where Pomni had been leaning on him in the first shot still tingles with something exciting long after the last shot - Jax is running. He knows this hallway - it’s the same one that’s plagued his nightmares for the last 3 years. He skips to a stop in front of a door that’s too familiar - then it changes. As he’s opening the door, the interior’s cool tones shift to black and white.
Jax doesn’t know how to feel about whatever that was, but there’s a seat next to Pomni and the promise of booze. He needs a drink after that. He orders a drink - something that comes from memories he’s happy to repress - and can’t control what comes out of his mouth next. Somehow it’s Zooble that drags him out of the spiral that comes with figuring out that Caine can control their brains, even if the floating dentures is lying about that face. Jax returns the favor with a joke to try and distract himself, but when Caine just appears right after Jax had that revelation - something just breaks in him. He pulls on his ears and slams his head on the counter, and when the drink hits him where his nose should be, it’s probably the second best thing about this situation. First one being the ability to sit next to Pomni. Thankfully Jax has the ability to joke at Zooble’s expense - and this time it doesn’t backfire, and with that Jax’s self confidence is back to normal. The booze is also helping with that. Zooble does give him a great way to learn more about Pomni, though. And learn more he does. He commits the facts she gives to memory, determined to write the information in his journal on her later.
Jax can feel the whiskey hitting him when Disappearing Guy comes in. He wants to bite off Zooble’s head for answering Pomni’s initial question, but that would probably cut this adventure short and he likes how his brain isn’t fully attached. Maybe that’s why he actually apologizes to Pomni about the president adventure. He doesn’t give her the real reasons behind why he did it - but she had been so anxious during it that he feels bad about it now. He doesn’t expect her to accept the apology - and when he sees Ragatha’s concerned face down the bar, he has to do something. Pulling her close, having the word “Friendship” come out of his mouth, it’s close to what he desires. But he can’t do that yet. Pomni’s still too anxious about him. Ragatha trying to undercut his claim on Pomni irritates him to no bound - so he pulls out a rather effective bullet for his verbal pistol. He had been thinking about saving Ragatha’s uncharacteristic words for later, but she needs to hurt now for trying to come between him and Pomni.
The adventure starts to backfire on him again when Zooble moves the corn closer to him. He had been able to ignore that it was there with Pomni next to him and it in Kinger’s glass. Having it out next to him - small consistent bulges that remind him of multicolored bulges coming out of black flesh - is too far, though. He jumps up and behind Pomni - not wanting to get too far from her but hating how the corn stares at him. Then, the strangest thing happens where Jax is grateful for Caine.
Not just for changing the adventure. Evil Pomni is a goldmine of information. Caine sees everything - whatever information Evil Pomni gives Jax will have some truth behind it. After his own evil clone approaches, he feels like it will be the inverse of whatever is said.
Then, the worst possible thing could happen. Jax gets put in a stupid fucking maid dress. He feels stupid - he knows he looks stupid - and it’s happening with Pomni right there. A small part of him is jumping up and down like a schoolgirl with a crush over her voting against the dress. The rest of him hates that it’s happening, hates Gangle and Zooble more for doing this to him, hates how short the dress is, hates how there’s a boob window for no reason he doesn’t have boobs, hates how he can feel the eyelashes added to his avatar-
He’s done with everything about this adventure. He uses cartoon logic to make the ball fly into the stands and tries to make the best of a shitty situation by talking with Evil Pomni. At least if he says something stupid to this version nothing will come of it. That is, if he was able to speak to her. He’s not even able to ask her anything important before Zooble makes Caine summon another ball. Jax doesn’t care. He wants to be sitting next to Pomni and making her laugh.
He flops down next to her, annoyed at Ragatha’s presence on her other side. He feels a little bad that his annoyance comes out at Pomni’s question, but tries to shrug it off by joking about Gangle. Of course, Ragatha is there to interrupt him before he can get to the punchline. He throws a barb back, and would have probably done much worse if Pomni didn’t interrupt them. He tries to play it cool with her, winking at her before Ragatha goes off on him in a way that he’s never really seen her do before. It’s actually really interesting to see her character break like that. Then Pomni starts to almost defend him. He’s near giddy when Ragatha blows up on her - watching that bridge burn is one of the most satisfying things he has ever seen during the circus. Of course, Ragatha slips back into her archetype immediately and apologizes to Pomni, but her stuttering response and nervous body language is enough to tell Jax that something in their relationship broke with that outburst. He can’t help but poke at Ragatha - not expecting anything of it, honestly. Then she apologizes. To him. For “bringing up that thing earlier.” At the reminder of the stargazing adventure - a flash of a reminder comes up. Jax feels his mask slip on, biting out a response to Pomni’s well-meaning question and wanting to bite off his own head about it. His mask breaks when he spots a corn cob next to him - and he totally doe not jump up like a scared cat. He takes a moment to throw the corn cob away, then goes back to Pomni who sends Ragatha to bat for her.
“What, not interested in the great game of softball?” Jax asks, sitting next to her.
“I just don’t really care for sports. Plus Ragatha seems like she enjoys it.” Pomni shrugs a little. Cute Jax’s mind supplies.
“Yeah, this is defiantly one of her suggestions. Honestly I don’t understand why she would suggest this, there’s a room that we could make work for this in the circus already.”
Pomni’s interest is peaked as she turns to face him, “Oh? What’s it like? I haven’t been able to explore much.”
Jax grins as a plan to learn more about her forms, “I can show you when we’re done with this, if you want.” Before she can respond, Jax’s outfit changes back to his normal overalls and he feels immense relief. “Oh cool I’m not a vegan anymore,” Jax doesn’t waste the time to go and take out all of his frustrations on the object that’s annoying him the most. His “Evil” Clone. What’s so evil about him anyways? Is his niceness just a front and he’s actually a bigger asshole than even Jax? What is Caine trying to say with this stupid pink clone? Treating him like a chew toy is quite the pleasing experience. Especially when he can hear Pomni’s giggles.
Chapter 2: Making Connections
Notes:
So...this is over double the first chapter. Uh, thank you guys so much for all the kind comments I've gotten for this, you guys have no idea how much they mean to me. I literally spent all day writing this because I kept on getting encouraged by everyone so thank you so much.
Now it is time for the dreaded ep 6. There are several changes that start off small to try and get the characters in better positions for what I want, then some bigger ones. Along with my creepy stalker Jax. I love him so much. He's such a fucking weirdo.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
After the lighting round, Jax notices that Pomni is more open to interactions with him. They actually have moments outside the adventures where they’re spending one on one time together. It excites him in ways that nothing else really can. He’s learning so much more about her. Everything has been taken down in his journal of her. He’s able to observe the details of her now - like how the pinwheels in her eyes rotate when she’s thinking. Or the exact shape her teeth indent in her lower lip when she bites it nervously. Or the way her bangs frame her face like the beautiful piece of artwork she is. It’s enough details that he’s able to sketch out drawings that are near photo-realistic in his journal. Sketching her out is how he occupies the time that others use to sleep. His pencils aren’t nearly good enough to capture her truly - but he gets close.
The morning that everything changes, Pomni and Jax are leaving their rooms at the same time. It’s not a coincidence. Jax knows that she will wake up after most of the cast is already at the breakfast table. Pomni has an alarm clock that will go off about 20 minutes after Ragatha leaves her room. If she throws the alarm clock so that it hits a wall she’ll stay an extra 20 minutes until dragging herself out of the room. If the alarm clock is silences without an impact to a wall, it’s about 5 minutes. Jax hears the alarm clock hit a wall, finishes up the details of Pomni’s eyelashes, and greets her with his usual practiced grin.
They walk together - Pomni going off about a weird dream involving a werewolf acting more like a dog than a monster - when one of Zooble’s parts drops down from a random flowerpot in the air. Pomni takes the time to question them, while giving him both new ammo to use against the grumpy collection of child’s toys and an opening to torment them with Caine. Truly, Pomni is the best.
Jax watches with amusement as Caine destroys Zooble’s hiding spot and announces that the adventure is going to be a team one. From that moment, Jax’s mind is focused on how he can get Pomni onto his team. It shouldn’t be too hard to do - he’s pushed away practically everyone else in the circus already. But he also doesn’t want to show anyone any vulnerability he may have. Taking the initiative to team up with her would be showing his attachment to her. That’s like a wild prey animal bearing its throat and belly to a predator. It’s bad enough that you are able to read his thoughts and opinions on him, reader. He doesn’t need anyone else to know.
He stands behind everyone gathered at the stage to listen to Caine’s new adventure. He can’t help but roll his eyes at the mention of the favorite character awards - he knows the audience well enough he can take a guess as to who will win that. He scoffs to himself at the idea of more sports - lame. Pomni hates sports. She would rather spend time with him than play softball. Which, while there’s an uncomfortable feeling at the face, is a fair indication that her idea of a good time is more related to the thrills rather than the exertions of urban exploring. Though, maybe that dislike of hatred will lead her to be on a team with him. He hopes she chooses him over sports again.
When Ragatha tries to bring back softball, Pomni’s so-so reaction makes his grin a little bit wider. Yes, push her away. Push them all away. His mind whispers to him. Caine goes off on his explanation and, as per usual, Zooble interrupts with their protest. This time it’s against being on a team with him. Jax can’t help but blow a kiss- he would rather shoot his own brains out than be on a team with them.
The argument between Caine and Zooble escalates, but Jax is more interested in Pomni further damaging the bridge between her and Ragatha. Pomni pushing away Rag’s idea of a good time only gives him more opportunities to sink his teeth in and keep her away from the others. Jax can’t help but come closet to observe her expression - this is one that he hasn’t quite seen yet. It’s gone by the time he’s reached the group, though. Shame.
Zooble’s agitated voice pulls Jax from his thoughts for a moment, “Alright, you really wanna know what I want?” Jax’s eyes dart to them - he knows this will be good. “I want the ability to have s[!@#]x.”
Jax’s pupils shrink, darting over to Pomni for a split second as his jaw drops. He quickly fixes himself, slipping the mask back on to to ask, “No way, are we finally having this conversation?” he chuckles out, eyes darting from Pomni to Caine to Zooble. The idea of it hadn’t come into his mind in years. The closest thing that came to lust was his obsession with Pomni - and that idea stops his train of thought. He knows that Caine is having one of the worst freakouts in history, but he’s not really seeing it. Instead he’s imagining the expressions that Pomni might make as his face is between her legs, or panting above her as he moves his hips in tandem with hers.
He gets dragged out of the not family friendly thoughts by Zooble exploding in his direction again, “Tell that to him! He’s the one that f[!@#]ks everything all the time!”
“You are in a mood today, aren’t you?” Jax asks, looking closer at Zooble. They’re acting rather unpleasant - more so than their usual archetype calls for. His eyes quickly scan their body - checking for the glitching black mess that would have him grabbing Pomni and darting for a safe room.
Caine says ass. Jax looks up at that - the curse word falling out of the AI’s mouth without a censor is off putting. He hears Pomni question it, the censor getting applied to her, and he can’t help but remember how Caine had already lied before. Just how much is the pair of dentures hiding?
Caine summons a private room where no one can see or hear what’s going on inside and the dirty thoughts come flooding back into Jax’s mind. Would Pomni’s blush marks on her face grow during sex? Would they glow? Would her eyes do anything odd as she succumbs to pleasure only he can provide her?
Then, a gun is in his hands. When did Caine summon a gun? “Wait, what am I doing? I wasn’t paying attention.” Suddenly Caine’s grabbing him by the face and forcing images into his mind. It burns his eyes and hurts his brain. He shakes it off, looking down at the gun in his hands. He sees Ragatha out of the corner of his eye. Rage at the rag doll that has built up for years and only increased exponentially in the past few months since Pomni’s arrival takes over, and he shoots her. He glares slightly at the body leaking stuffing instead of blood, wishing that for once the death would be permanent.
It seems like that’s enough to make Caine break. He summons a pile of guns and immediately Jax is digging in the pile, popping out out with a cheer as his tail wags and he grabs a gun. This is so much better than sports. He just needs to get on a team with Pomni and then kill everyone else! It’s a dream come true. The only thing missing is the permanent status of the deaths of the rest of the cast. It would make things so much easier for him if they all got killed forever in this game. Thankfully, Zooble makes Caine have teams again by prodding at the AI - now it’s just a matter of getting Pomni on his.
Zooble and Gangle quickly scurry away together, but for once Jax pays the ribbon woman no mind. He walks to the side, letting his excitement about the guns show to hide that he’s listening to Pomni and Ragatha. He chuckles to himself when he hears his name. And then Ragatha does something that Jax had only dreamed of. She practically forces Pomni to interact with him. Ragatha! The one that’s been getting in his way the most!
He acts like he wasn’t paying attention to Pomni’s conversation when she comes up asking if he has a partner yet, rocking on her feet as an adorable smile comes to her face. Jax can’t help the gleeful grin as he teases her, and she quips right back at him. She’s perfection.
They move into position near the gun pile, Jax lowering himself to the ground to get the most use out of his cartoon hare legs as the countdown reaches the final few seconds. Then the guns disappear. Jax frowns at his hands as he sits back. Caine gives a half-hearted explanation of the guns being teleported, and Jax gets to his feet.
“It’ll be my pleasure murdering all of you,” Jax calls out as he salutes to the retreating forms of the other circus members. Pomni calls out for them to have fun, and Jax rolls his eyes before grabbing her, “Hah, it’s a game!” he makes sure that she’s following before letting go - he doesn’t want her to be uncomfortable now that he has her with him.
They make their way to the dorms, searching for a few moments before Jax finds a revolver behind a block. He aims at some targets that Caine had set up for practice when distributing the guns as he asks, “So, who are you gonna kill first, Pompom?” praying her answer is Ragatha.
“I don’t know if I’ll really be doing much of the killing?” Pomni stutters out, looking unsure before slipping into something more friendly, “I’ll just find guns for you and you can do all the violence stuff. You like that, right?” Pomni asks with finger guns.
Jax watches her for a moment. “You...know none of this is real, right?” he questions. Her unsure reaction has him shoving the gun into her hands. “The game today is literally to shoot each other,” He pints her to the practice targets, “So what’s the point in taking this moral high ground?” Pomni’s protests and uncertainty about hurting the others is impacting her ability to even knock a can down with a .44 colt. It’s a little impressive how the physics of their world bend to their mentalities. And it just makes him even more intrigued by her.
“Alright, let me be real here. Why do you care about that?” Jax asks, looking at her. The real question in the back of his mind refuses to come out of his mouth. Why do you care about them. Her reaction to question him makes Jax sigh as he grabs the gun from her hands.
“Look, I know what it’s like,” he says, remembering a very similar conversation he had several years ago. He can almost hear Ribbit’s voice mixing with his own, “One day you’re somebody in the real world doing important things. And then, the next, you’re just a weird little cartoon-“ the memory of a voice that’s been out of use for too long falls away as he stumbles, “jester. You want to hold onto that part of you that still thinks it’s part of that world. But in the end, what does it get you?”
Jax looks down at her, imploring her to listen to him. Imploring her to see things the way he does - to not go insane. To be like him. “Ragatha tries to be all nice and friendly, but she gets torn up every other adventure.” Jax moves away from Pomni, not wanting to hurt her. “Whether we like it or not, all we are now is a bunch of cartoon characters.” He shoot the gun without tearing his gaze away from Pomni, hearing the tin can fall down. “So what’s the point of pretending we’re not?” He tosses her the gun, heart in his throat as she fumbles it for a second before getting her grip,
“We’re still people though, right?” Pomni asks as she approaches Jax. Her expression is one that he hasn’t seen too much of recently - it’s almost akin to concern, but veers into questioning as well. It’s a sign that she’s listening - maybe he can save her.
“I thought we were at first, but as time goes on, we just end up falling into our archetypes.” He turns away from her, looking at the targets.
“What’s your archetype then, the villain?” Pomni asks. Jax feels something in him howl in pain at that remark, and he turns quick to defend his image to her. He explains everything he does to keep up the position he’s put himself into, doing his best to convince her that he’s not a villain.
Her confusion at his declaration of being the funny one is a step in the right direction. Her mind is open to the idea - open to him. Jax quickly explains and puts the rest of the cast into their boxes for her before reaching out with his finger to poke her between her large eyes. “And you are the one who hasn’t figured that out yet.” The expression on her face makes him almost backtrack, but he can tell that it’s working. He’s breaking down her walls and she’s listening to him. “We al just became archetypes. I at least have the self awareness to choose who I am.”
She looks like she’s trying to solve a complex mathematical equation as she mutters again, “The funny one.” He gets down on her level, pulling her forward by her shoulders as he questions who she wants to be. Giving her the same self-awareness he has - the same power over their digital prison. He knows that she’ll be fun - at least she’ll entertain him for the day. That’s how Pomni works. She’ll work with whoever she’s with and come out of it different. After the Candy Kingdom Borefest she acted different in regards to the NPCs. After being stuck with Kinger in the mansion she was more insightful. And her sticking with him during the lightning rounds opened her up to being around him. He just hopes this will be enough to pull her into his orbit away from the ones who don’t understand.
“So who do you wanna be? No better chance than now to try something new!” Jax encourages her, getting down on her level and pulling her in by her shoulders. He can smell her now - something sweet almost like candied apples. He pushes her to face the targets, “You wanna go nuts? You wanna finally work off those weeks of rage and anguish that have been building up inside you?” He sits slightly to the side to look at her closely - her anxious face, the nervous grip on the gun. His tone changes to something a little softer, warmer, just for her, to push past her final wall, “I know you hate it here. Everyone does.” He gives her a grin, “But the silver lining is you can pretty much do whatever you want! Like, look at the way you’re aiming that gun. Too realistic. Just let loose!” He throws his hands in the air and gives her an encouraging smile.
He watches, enraptured, as she takes in a deep breath, letting it out and relaxing her form into a rather badass pose as she shoots the gun - taking down the second target. He needs to memorize her in this pose - the gun hanging from one of her hands in a loose grip, cocked to the side. Her head tilted, eyes almost brooding down the barrel of the gun half-lidded. Fuck that’s hot.
She seems shocked that it worked - and it doesn’t make sense for it to sting the way it does when it’s obvious that she didn’t trust him. But that's quickly stomped out by her grinning and saying, “Aw, what the heck?” She jumps around to face him, “Today, I’m just gonna be evil!” The grin she gives him after her words is almost predatory - and Jax knows that his journal is going to be filled with images of her today because dammit why is that hot too? “How’s that?” Pomni asks, looking at him with her usual innocent smile.
Jax grins, happy that she’s finally listening to him, “Heh, go for it!” He watches with amusement as Pomni starts having an evil monologue - stumbling over her words in an adorable fashion before she falls into role - running around him with her maniacal grin followed by crazed laughter.
Jax chuckles, “That’s the spirit, Pompom! Now, lets find me a gun and go hunt some losers.”
“Yeah!” Pomni cheers, jumping in the air as she darts down the hallway. It’s not too long before they find a few more drops - a couple bullets and another revolver. Jax is taking a look over his new loot when the sound of gunfire and Kinger’s yelps come from the main area of the tent.
“Looks like we’ve located the king and the rag doll,” Jax says, leaning down into Pomni’s space. She cheers in character, and Jax feels his grin widen as he follows her down the hallway. Coming into the main section of the tent, he can spot Ragatha whining in the direction of cover, several feet away from it to actually do any good. He grins as he aims and fires - shooting her grabby paws off. “Whoops, did I do that?” Jax asks as he thinks That’s what you get for pulling Pomni away from me for so long.
“You missed a spot!” His partner barks out, Pomni firing the shot that takes down Ragatha.
“Hah! You’re so cool!” Jax exclaims, the rush of emotions making him feel almost high. Elation at Pomni listening to him, justice for the rag doll getting her hands shot off, and then shot by the one who she oh so desperately wants to protect from Jax all the time. He feels so giddy he could probably shit out a rainbow and fly. Not that he’s going to try. In this world, it might actually happen.
He doesn’t need to think about grabbing Pomni when Kinger starts to return fire. His hand automatically grabs her arm and pulls her behind some cover, looking over at her for a moment to ensure that she didn’t get hit. Once he’s confirmed she’s solid, he tells her, “I’ll take Rags, you go Kinger.”
At her crazed agreement, they take off in separate directions. Jax can hear Ragatha as she mutters “Need a gun, need a gun!” to herself over and over. He jumps out from behind a pillar to scare her, and feels a great deal of satisfaction at how the gun she holds doesn’t fire. He grins and takes the moment to do a trick shot, jumping in a flip over her, shooting downwards to blow apart her head into a fabric and stuffing mess. He looks around for her to respawn, chasing her into a random maze Caine keeps in the tent. He jumps to the top - listening for any sign of Ragatha so that he can take her down once and for all.
The dumb doll is calling out for Kinger - hopefully Pomni’s already taken care of him. He lets his upper body drop down, enjoying how she jumps back in fear and falls to the ground as he drops down.
“I-I-I know exactly what you’re doing with Pomni! It’ll never work!” Ragatha accuses fearfully.
Jax looks down at her, a shot of anxiety running through him. “What?” he bites out, grip on the gun tightening.
“You know-getting close with Pomni? To make her another you?” Ragatha slowly gets up, and Jax pushes her back down to the ground. Before she can speak another word, he’s biting out vitriol.
“Oh so you just want to force her to be like you all the time? Fake, putting on a mask of joy that she doesn’t get to decide? Newsflash, Raggedy, I gave her an open decision. I asked her who she wanted to be. And you know what she told me? She told me she wanted to be evil. So, Ragatha, am I corrupting her? Or was she always like me from the start?” Jax aims his gun, and lets a few bullets loose into Ragatha’s shocked expression - her doll body falling and exploding into stuffing once more. He takes a few deep breaths, looking down as her body disappears. At least he doesn’t have to deal with her anymore.
He can hear Pomni’s footsteps, and her voice comes as she gets closer, “I lost Kinger, but I got him down to one life?” Pomni offers to him, looking up almost expectantly.
“Good work, I took care of the rag doll. Let’s go hunt down a king.” Pomni seems to bask in the compliment - her blush spots turning a slightly darker shade. He files that information away - knowing that he will spend hours analyzing it later.
Pomni takes him to where she last saw Kinger, and he takes a moment to listen for the chess piece's odd movement, hearing it in one specific direction. They take off, keeping their eyes peeled for the oldest member of their digital hell.
They start up a casual conversation, starting with Jax asking Pomni how she’s enjoying taking the evil role on.
“It’s...actually kinda fun! It felt a little cringe when I did a monologue in the hallway, but you just encouraged me and that...helped.” She pauses for a moment before her insane smile comes back, “Just hope that you don’t get on my bad side, bunny boy!” she jests. Despite him hating the nicknames - he’s a hare, not a bunny - something about her mouth forming the words is appealing.
“Hey, I’m on your side now, ankle biter. You’re almost like a Chihuahua - but you’ll actually do some damage!.” Jax barks in laughter at the image of Pomni as a small dog with ears bigger than her head. At least her large eyes would be appropriate.
The conversation continues - and Pomni asks him something he wished she couldn’t. “What’s with the corn thing?”
“Psh - what corn thing?” Jax deflects automatically.
“Why are you afraid of corn? And don’t say that you’re not. You literally jumped out of your seat twice when you saw some.”
The area where Jax would have a heart if he had a physical body feels lighter at the idea of Pomni watching him. However, the context for it makes the areas where his stomach would be drop. “Not gonna let me out of this one?” Jax looks away as he tries to come up with an explanation that’s close to the truth but not exactly. That would be showing her too much. “Well...I don’t know...” He thinks of the comparisons between abstractions and corn, “It’s got a bunch of little...pods on it. It kinda looks like an egg sac or something.” It kinda looks like the eyes that covered Ribbit’s body as they screamed at you to leave them alone. “It’s gross. It makes my skin crawl.” He shakes - not at the idea of corn - but the memories that are only pulled away by Pomni’s voice.
“Interesting...Do you have like a type of trypophobia?” She asks, explaining the exact issue that he has at his confused glance in her direction. Little holes aren't exactly the same - but it does almost give him the same idea. It works too. If she thinks it’s just some irrational fear she won’t dig deeper, probably. “I’m learning a lot about you today,” Pomni comments.
Jax is unsure how to feel about that statement. Half of him is leaping with joy - she’s taking the time to learn about him, purposefully learning more about him. He doesn’t think it’s at the same level as his interest in her - but it is interest from her in him. That’s something. That’s good. That’s what he wants. He wants all of her attention, all of her interest, all of her emotions on him and him alone. The other half of him is scared. Scared that she will learn too much too fast and jump back into Ragatha’s arms. Scared because he knows, deep down, that if Pomni learns too much and turns away, that will be it for him. There will be nothing left for him after that. If he manages to push away his obsession, that’s the end of the line for dear old Jax.
“Don’t go digging too deep there, Pompom,” Jax says, hoping to distract her for the moment, “Let’s not forget we still need to find where nutso went before we can rest easy.”
Pomni stops walking, her pupils shrinking in size and expression going blank. Before he can question why she’s making that face, Kinger’s voice speaks up from an open door he somehow didn’t notice. “I’m right behind you, aren’t I?”
Jax turns around and starts to shoot in tandem with Pomni. The two of them back the crazed king into the darkened room, Jax closing the door behind them. It’s dark, but he aims confident that his shot will hit Kinger. But it doesn’t work. Gunfire is the only source of lights as the younger pair shoot at the older man. Pomni and Jax work together - brushing against one another, directing each other to where the chess piece's fire just was. The return shots stop for a second, and Pomni points out where he’s loading a gun with the use of a lighter - wait was the lighter loading the gun? Jax doesn’t have time to question it as the shots keep coming and he keeps shooting out return fire. Then he feels his heart drop as he watches in slow motion as one of his bullets hits Pomni. No no no no fuck fuck fuck you’re not supposed to hurt her. You’re supposed to protect her. Protect her from the insanity of this place, protect her from being forced into unhappiness by the others. Protect her from yourself. “Whoop, sorry.” he calls out, genuinely upset that he took away one of Pomni’s lives.
A few more shots go off before Kinger calls out, “I hope you guys are ready for my ricochet super move!” The move is so super that it takes out the man who shot it in the first place. Jax feels the light string hit his ears, so he pulls it to look down at the body of the insane king. Pomni lets out a “Huh” before Jax offers her a high five over his still smoking body.
The two leave and look for signs of the remaining two victims. They clear the lower floor of the circus, and Jax spots some casing on the floor above them. “Huh. They probably took one of Kinger’s lives, saw us come in, and retreated,” Jax deduces as he looks around. They find a couple drops of ammo - but it’s in hard to find places. The other duo has already cleared this area.
Jax eventually hears Zooble and Gangle, and nods in their direction before taking off. Pomni is hot on his heels, and the two let some shots ring out as they catch sight of their targets. The sudden ambush works in their favor - one of Pomni’s rounds hitting Zooble in their center piece while Jax shoots at Gangle’s ribbons, laughing as his bullet catches one and unravels the woman into a pile of limp ribbons before she respawns. One heart appears over Gangle as she respawns a little bit away, the same image coming up above Zooble next to her.
Zooble quickly runs into the large tube maze that covers a good section of the tent’s space with Gangle right behind them. Jax and Pomni are only a couple hundred yards back, and quickly start to close the distance.
They run into a large tube maze that covers a good section of the circus, the twists and turns making it difficult to get a line of sight on either target. After a few minutes of jogging with Pomni and Jax closing in Zooble and Gangle call out asking if they’re still being followed.
“Yeah, we’re still following you,” Jax replies helpfully.
“Where else would we be?” Pomni’s quip makes Jax chuckle and grin at her, calling her cool once more. She the pink blush marks on her face turn a shade darker again, and his tail wags the smallest amount in response.
Jax can hear Zooble ahead of them somewhere, “Alright, this is a long one. We’re gonna have to run. Let’s go!” He turns to Pomni with a grin, and the two of them slide, aiming their guns and firing at Zooble and Gangle as the pair runs down the longest tube in the maze. Zooble returns fire as they run, Gangle moving her mask making it difficult to aim. They turn down the end of the tunnel without getting hit, angering Jax slightly. He advances down the tunnel with Pomni right behind him, firing at Zooble as they come out from cover.
He pulls the trigger to a quiet click, and glares at the gun before noticing- “Hey, why’d you stop shooting? You outta ammo?” Zooble sasses back, asking the same question. Jax turns to Pomni, asking for her response, and feels a small pit of dread at her lacking reply.
Then, Gangle’s laughing like her happy mask is on. He looks up, seeing that it is in fact in place - how did it not break yet? - while she runs forward, laughing manically as she shoots a tommy gun. Jax fully lets his body turn into rubber as he dodges the bullets, happy to see that Pomni is doing the same. Gangle’s erratic firing really isn’t dangerous in a plastic tube. That fact is made evident when she shoots in a circle, perforating the tunnel in a way that had it falling apart, throwing all four circus members and their weapons to the ground outside the dorms hallway.
Jax falls flat on his face, groaning in pain and slightly dizzy from the impact. He struggles to get up as he hears a gun being loaded, one gunshot, and the very familiar sound of porcelain breaking. He gets up, looking over to see Pomni standing with a sniper rifle, Zooble running down the dorms hallway, and Gangle’s body on the ground - her comedy mask shattered on the floor and her tragedy mask in it’s place, a wide grin and a bullet hole making the sight unusual.
The pair chases the remaining victim down to their dorms, Jax calling out, “You just gonna hide in your room?”
“Coward!” Pomni spat at the door.
Jax looks at the door, then looks at Pomni for a moment. He could just pull out Zooble’s key and get the drop on them. But a memory from just this morning comes back to him. The ammo that Pomni had given him before their gun fight adventure even began. He grins as he taps her head, getting her attention as he lets the first notes come out.
“Daisy, Daisy,” his heart soars as Pomni joins him almost immediately, “Give me your answer do.” Jax has to stop himself from looking over at Pomni, though his emotions about this situation bleeds into his voice slightly, “I’m half crazy all for the love of you.” He can’t help but look at Pomni on the you, and feels the tips of his ears burn when she meets his gaze. He closes his eyes to compose himself for a moment, “It won’t be a stylish marriage,” He allows himself to look back over at Pomni, and finds himself grinning wider at her winking face. She’s enjoying this. “I can’t afford a carriage,” They turn to face each other, “But you’ll look sweet,” Jax offers his hand without thinking and Pomni takes it. He twirls them around with a wide grin, “Upon the seat,” they let go of each other and move to stand in front of Zooble’s door once more, “Of a bicycle built for two.”
Jax feels his heart racing - Pomni’s voice was so beautiful. The way that her voice harmonized with his own was the best music Jax has ever heard. Her voice is like one of an angel’s choir. He would do anything to hear her sing for him again - and only him. The need to eliminate Zooble for the fact that they heard this moment burns in him. It burns hotter than his rage at Ragatha for trying to seal Pomni away - this is Zooble experiencing something that Jax has now decided is for his ears only. They must pay the price with their life.
With that in mind, he pulls out the key to their room, intent on destroying them. He opens the door, and does not expect the flash grenade that greets him. Or the many, many bullets. He feels one - then two lives get lost from the encounters, and sees the same thing happen to Pomni next to him.
“Ow,” Jax immediately gets up, Pomni jumping up at the same time. She quickly takes off after them without a word, and Jax grins as he follows, ignoring the passing hallway as he chases down Zooble - still determined to destroy them.
They get to the balcony overlooking the main floor of the circus as Zooble runs from the ramp on the floor below them. Pomni checks her cylinder, before looking at Jax, “Watch this,” she encourages, before spinning the cylinder closed. Her crazed grin comes back as she spins the gun around her head, switching which hand it’s in a few times before letting the shot fire off above her.
Jax watches the bullet as it ricochets - hitting each gun out of Zooble’s many limbs they’ve attached to themselves before knocking the abstract artwork turned sentient down. “That was one of the coolest thing you’ve done all day, Pompom,” Jax comments as the pair rush down to Zooble’s prone body.
Zooble looks up at them over their prone body, actually looking impressed between the two of them for a moment before hardening their face, throwing out a quip, and using all four hands to flip them off. Jax makes eye contact with Pomni, both of them giving each other an evil grin before looking at Zooble and firing in synch.
Pomni is immediately laughing and cheering, “Ahahah, we did it!” She turns to look at Jax with her hands in the air, “We make such a good team!” She wraps her arms around him in a hug in celebration.
It’s nice. Her arms around him. It feels - it feels like something he’s been missing. Missing for years now. Something that he didn’t realize he was craving until this moment, when it’s being presented to him on a silver platter. Its heat - gentle warmth and burning fires. It’s happiness- small simple joys, large moment of grand cheer. It’s peace - moments spent gazing up at the stars, or singing duets in hallways. It’s the source of his obsession with her. The reason why he studies. The explanation to why his interest hasn’t petered out and instead grew into an obsessive need to understand every little thing about her. It’s why he needs to keep her near. Keep her safe. Keep her from being poisoned against him. Keep her happy. He needs to. He needs to be the one to provide that happiness. He can’t kill anyone who gets in the way of it, but he can torture them. But Pomni wouldn’t want him to torture them, would she? Maybe - maybe he can find somewhere to torture them away from her? Yes - yes. He’s going to keep this feeling. He’s not going to let anyone take this from him. They’ll need all the luck Caine can provide if they try. He’ll give them one last chance. Now that Pomni is closer to him - and he’s never letting her go - they have one chance to accept this fact. Or be lost forever.
Jax doesn’t realize his own arms have wrapped around Pomni until he’s giving her a squeeze back, “Yeah, we do make a good team,” he agrees, something soft in his voice from his revelation.
Jax lets his arms drop after a moment, mourning the loss of contact but not wanting her to be too weirded out by it. Pomni takes a few steps away, and Jax watches her curiously. “I suppose this is the part where one of us betrays the other,” she says in a dramatic voice.
Jax chuckles lightly, “Or Caine just isn’t paying attention because he has that award show thing,” He offers, not wanting to have to act this out. It’s either hurt her, or let her hurt him, and he would rather shoot himself in the head than deal with either situation.
“Oh?” Pomni turns around, confusion on her face, “You...don’t want to betray me?” Pomni asks, tilting her head and stepping forward.
Alarm bells go off in Jax’s head. He doesn’t know what exactly to do. Sure - all day he’s been pulling Pomni into his orbit closer and closer. But how - how does he explain the hesitance here to her? How does he come off in a way that’s not obsessive and creepy?
“Nah, it wouldn’t be funny.” Jax decides. “We’re a good team,” he says again, “The readers would hate it if we threw away all that development!” Jax hopes that the meta commentary will prevent Pomni from questioning him too much. Usually whenever he brings up things like that other members usually stop.
“O...kay then. Uh. Does that make us...friends?” Pomni asks, looking at him uncertainly.
The word makes Jax’s heart stop for a second. The last friend - no. No. Ribbit is not Pomni. Jax couldn’t protect Ribbit. Jax will protect Pomni. He won’t let her abstract. He will do everything he can to keep her safe.
“If you need to put a label on it, I guess that works,” Jax responds, looking down at her. She looks up at him with bright eyes that make him want to wrap her up in a blanket and keep her locked away in his room.
“Friends,” Pomni says the word with enough glee that gives Jax enough hope that she might feel at least a sliver of the attraction for him that he feels for her. Later that night, after an uneventful award show, Jax spends hours transcribing every detail of the day that he can remember. Every new expression he had seen. The details of her actions today - her take on being evil. Her blushing at his compliments. It’s enough to convince him that maybe...maybe this isn’t something that’s fully one sided. Why else would she have been kind to him? He’s an asshole - he know that Ragatha has warned Pomni against him. Hell, he’s the one that threw her out of a moving truck! But she’s still trying. Why might that be? The only reason that Jax can think of has his tail wagging as he furiously scribbles at 3 in the morning.
Pomni wants him to claim her. And he will. He just needs to plan.
Notes:
Hope you all enjoy! Please please please leave a comment it is my life source and i will forever be grateful. Now that we're out of canon so far I will be taking a little bit longer to get the next chapter up so please bare with me! I have no idea how long that one will be - i try to keep my chapters to be at least 2.5K and so far this fic has gotten me to that goal for each chapter quite easily so i imagine it won't be too hard for me to get another installment in over the weekend. Thank you for reading, have a lovely time of day wherever you may be!
Chapter 3: Establishing Claim
Notes:
I am back. before i get into this, I'm sorry for what is about to happen to Ragatha. I do not hate her. This is a yandere jax fic, he is going to be a yandere. I'm just saying that because this fandom has proven to be very.....vocal with opinions and i dont want mad people. I love ragatha, but in this fic she's not going to act like her canon self for a few reasons. one of those reasons is very big so i dont want to reveal it, and i hope i've written it in a way where people can maybe figure that out before i make that big reveal. i can say that about a lot of things with this fic, honestly. i'm trying a lot of foreshadowing so i hope the big twists i will have aren't too obvious yet. there's gonna be some things that aren't meant to be subtle mixed in as well. i always enjoy fics where you can tell some of whats going on and then go back and see the big things so i hope i'm able to give all of you guys that experience.
also i the chapters just keep on getting longer and longer. i can't control it. this is 8.5K. the rest of the fic total so far is 9.6K. I've almost doubled it with just this one chapter. Again. This better not keep on happening but I cant control it
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jax wants to destroy Ragatha. He wants to rip her extremities off with his teeth. He wats to reach into her torso after and pull out all of her stuffing, making her watch as her body deflates from the lack of filling. He wants to take a razor to the threads keeping her bad button eye in place. He wants to make her suffer. Why? Because she waited for Pomni to leave her room this morning before going to breakfast. The rag doll always goes first. But this time it was after Pomni’s alarm had hit the wall and she had slept in a little bit more before dragging herself out of bed. Jax totally didn’t watch that happen from her closet before. He does have plans of doing so later this week, though.
He watches as the doll touches Pomni on the shoulder and the jester flinches slightly from the contact. Jax remembers shooting those hands off yesterday - if only they had stayed off. Pomni turns her attention over to the rag doll, rolling her shoulder so the mitten hand falls off. Ragatha sends a glance behind herself. Jax quickly ducks behind a pillar. He holds his breath, ears straining to see if she says something about noticing him or not.
He’s able to catch Pomni’s voice as she questions what Ragatha wants, her tone tired. She hasn’t had her coffee yet. It’s an alarm hitting wall day - she needs her coffee before she has any important conversation. It doesn’t actually do anything to them, but he can understand the placebo effect.
Ragatha asks Pomni if she has a moment to spare for a quick conversation. Memoires flash in Jax’s mind of the day before. Staring Ragatha down as he spat out that Pomni chose to be evil. Questioned if she was more akin to him than her.
Jax has to know what’s said. He looks up at the pillar he’s standing behind, and smirks when he sees a ledge. He quickly jumps up to it, and uses the advantage to get closer to their conversation.
Pomni is looking up at Ragatha - one eye closed while the other opens slowly. The closed eye slowly opens as well, and Jax can’t help but chuckle at her tired expression. That’s another one to add to the journal for sure.
Ragatha is looking down at Pomni with her hands held up to her chest. “I’m just...concerned. Jax is well..” He can’t see her expression from here, but he knows her well enough to see her eye half lidded in concern in his mind’s eye.
Jax’s ears flatten to his head as he hears his name, but they raise when he hears Pomni’s immediate response in a harsh tone, “Jax is my friend, Ragatha.” Pomni’s taken a step back from the doll, her gaze hard.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Ragatha responds, taking a step forward, “He’s well-I don’t think he’s telling you the full truth-“
“Ragatha. I don’t appreciate you trying to sabotage my relationships.” Pomni’s tone is still harsh, and Jax wags his tail in excitement. “I understand that you have history with each other. I do. But I’m an adult. I’m allowed to make my own connections. And I would really appreciate it if you would stop trying to sabotage that.” Pomni turns away before Ragatha can respond, and Jax counts that as a victory. He didn’t have to push Ragatha away from Pomni - the rag doll went and pressed buttons that did that all on her own!
But, the interaction does give him something to think about. He had already guessed that Pomni wasn’t a big fan of others messing with her friendships. He can’t obviously push her away from the others now. He still wants to rip every individual fiber that makes up Ragatha’s cloth body apart for touching his Pomni. But he can’t do that where Pomni will see it.
Jax slides down the pole, strutting past Ragatha with a bright grin and a wave, “Good Morning Rags - oh you look so sad.” His tone is mocking as he greets her. She hasn’t looked away from where Pomni had been standing when she had told Ragatha off. There’s a distant look in her eye until Jax speaks - then it locks onto him, her face instantly hardening into a mask as his grin widens, “Today is going to be an amazing day!”
Ragatha scoffs, “I can’t see what she even sees in you. Why-why does she defend you so quickly? It’s-it doesn’t make sense!” The woman stomps and Jax rolls his eyes, crossing his arms.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He lies so that she can’t accuse him of something he was totally doing, “But since you’re obsessed with Pomni,” deflect, deflect, deflect, “I’m guessing that she went and defended my honor from you. How kind of her to do - I mean, she is my best friend.” Jax grins as steam practically bursts from Ragatha’s ears.
“That-that hardly means anything! You have no friends - of course the one who is stupid enough to go along with you-“ The only reason she’s able to utter the last 6 words is because that’s how long it takes for Jax to stalk over and grab her by the throat. He squeezes as hard as he can - hearing seams pop in her neck.
“Don’t you ever insult her in my presence,” Jax growls, his mouth actually opening to articulate the words. His sharp teeth drip with saliva as he leers over Ragatha - getting close enough that he can see the weavings of the cloth of her fabric body and yarn hair as it stands up on end. Ragatha’s eye is wide, her mitten hands pawing at Jax’s arm, trying to push him off. He lifts her in the air - her feet dangling as he holds her close. “I don’t care what you say about me. You keep Pomni’s name out of your f[!@#]king mouth.” The words come from within his chest as a deep rumbling threat, the usual cartoonish censor replaced by a plain bleep that adds to the seriousness of his words. He squeezes her neck hard - feeling stuffing come out from between his fingers - before letting go.
Ragatha drops to the floor, gasping for air she doesn’t need as her hair falls back around her face. Her hands come up to her neck and Jax leans down, “That’s a warning. Next time you insult her, you’ll be in too much pain to register the regret of doing so.”
Jax stands back up straight, slapping a smile back on his face. “Good chat, Rags. I’m gonna go get breakfast now - see you later.” He leaves, listening to her gasping as fluff falls from the seams on the sides of her neck.
At the table, Jax slides into his seat next to Pomni, pulling some pancakes onto his plate as he looks over at Pomni’s coffee cup. A quarter of her cup is left - not a full conversations but greetings are fine. “Morning Pompom,” he says, grabbing the powdered sugar that’s closer to him than usual. Maybe Caine finally figured out that he’s the only one that uses it. It's happened the last few days, so hopefully the trend continues.
Gangle makes a noise but quickly withers under Jax’s glare. He figures that’s good enough for now as he turns to the stack of food on his plate. Pomni looks over at him with a soft smile, “Morning, Jax. Sleep well?” She finishes off her coffee as she waits for his response.
Jax thinks about how he spent his night. Sketching out her various new expressions that he had seen the day before. Spending hours to sketch every single hair, every tooth in her crazed grin, every shadow that danced across her features. Analyzing all of her behaviors from the day before. Her almost easy agreement to team up with him while talking with Ragatha, her blush marks darkening at random points, her taking on the evil role, her remembering his jumping at corn. Writing notes over his own tangled emotions about being called her friend.
Trying to put one singular name to the feelings he has for her is complicated. To someone outside of Ragatha’s influence, love might be a proper word. To Jax, though, the word love is meaningless. It comes after pain - after losing the one thing that makes you feel sane in a place that breaks minds. That’s not the word he wants to associate with Pomni. His mind flits to a place long closed - a place he’s rare to delve into the past 5 years. A language he hasn’t spoken for 5 years but knows like English. Amor. Sure, it means the same thing. But it’s not tainted. It hasn’t been uttered by anyone in the circus. Jax wasn’t even sure if anyone else know other languages. Spanish was as much his mother language as English, though. So, he feels amor for Pomni. Evidence suggests that she feels the same way for him, at least slightly. Almost defiantly not at the same level as him. Those revelations had made his night fairly decent.
Pomni is still staring at him, her head tilted as she waits for his response. She’s finished the coffee now - setting the empty mug down. Jax tries to act like he didn’t zone out for a second, giving her a noncommittal hum before responding, “Normally. Nothing too crazy happened.”
Ragatha approaches the table at that moment, leaving a small trail of stuffing as she walks. Her head is slightly deflated, and Jax can’t help the wagging of his tail at her misery. She makes an odd noise similar to a scream into a pillow, catching the attention of everyone else.
“Woah, what the f[@#$] happened to you,” Zooble gets up from the table with Gangle on their heels, quickly rushing over to Ragatha who points over at Jax as he adds some fresh digital fruit to his pancake stack.
“She deserved it,” Jax defends himself immediately before biting out with a harsh tone, “She knows better than to antagonize me.”
“What could she have possibly said that makes you think this is deserved?” Zooble barks back, their tone matching his.
Jax’s eyes dart to Pomni for a second out of his control before glaring at the still-leaking rag doll, a small pile of stuffing at her feet as Gangle tries to hold the seams close with her ribbons. It’s not the exact scenario he had in his mind when he planned the first step to his plan last night. Declaring a public friendship with Pomni is necessary for two major reasons. First, he needs to reassure Pomni. She had surprised him with the question of it last night and he had a freak out about it. He needs to ensure that any anxiety that may linger from his refusal to say the word itself. Second, if he publicly declares it, the others might be more willing to pair him up with her. If they know that the jester is safe from the worst of his antics, they might send her to be with him and avoid any conflict. He hopes they do - that would make the rest of his plan so much easier. The major concern he had with the first step was Ragatha - but she had pushed Pomni away all by herself. And right after gave him the ammunition to keep them apart.
“She insulted Pomni for being friends with me,” he spits the words out, and the expressions that come from it are so delightful that, despite none of them being the object of his affections, he almost wants to sketch them out all the same.
Zooble’s eyes, narrowed in rage at him, widen to shock as they take a step back like that was a physical blow. Their arms - raised as if they were going to attack Jax - fall limp as they turn to look at Ragatha - eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
Gangle’s hands fly for her mask, letting the stuffing she was able to patch up with her ribbons fall from the holes on either side of Ragatha’s neck. The white fluff floods out like blood flowing from an arterial wound - a thick heavy flow that’s got different textures of stuffing mixed in. Gangle’s comedy mask shatters from the first brush of silk to porcelain, and the tears of her tragedy mask are perhaps the largest they’ve ever been. She takes several steps back away from Ragatha - eyes darting between everyone rapidly.
And Ragatha’s expression is the most exquisite. A tear almost equal to Gangle’s comes from her excellent eye. She looks down, her emotions the same as a dog that’s been found amidst the explosion of a well loved throw pillow. Embarrassment and guilt express themselves in equal measures - her body evading the touch of others as she steps back.
There’s the scrape of a chair next to him, and Jax quickly looks over at Pomni. Rage isn’t an expression he’s seen her direct at anyone else before. Her teeth sharpen to shark’s once more, her eyes widening as her pupils shrink. She slams her hands down on the table, hard enough to knock down everyone’s drinks. Kinger, down at one end and completely out of it, suffers from a glass of strawberry milk spilling on his robe.
“What the f[!#@]k Ragatha?” She barks out, stomping her foot. Jax’s foot thumps in agreement immediately after unconsciously. “First you ambush me before I’ve had my coffee to try and push me away from Jax, and now you’re insulting me behind my back to him?” She throws her hands up in rage, letting out a scream of pure frustration. “I’m a grown a[!@#]s woman! I’ve been living on my own for seven f[!@#]king years! I don’t need a f[!@#]king mom!” Pomni grabs an almost empty platter, dumping out the remaining contents before she starts to load it up with various dishes. Jax watches curiously for a moment before his attention is dragged away by Zooble’s voice.
“Wait, Ragatha, did you actually do those things?” He looks up to see that Gangle has moved to stand next to Zooble, one ribbon holding onto one of their arm pieces. Ragatha, unable to speak, nods her half-deflated head as an odd sounding sob breaks out of her mouth. The pile of stuffing at her feet cushions her fall as she collapses to the ground. Jax rolls his eyes. Overdramatic much? Karma’s a bitch, ragdoll.
Pomni shaking his arm grabs his attention. He looks over to see that she has gathered up most of the smaller serving dishes of fruits, the powdered sugar shaker, a syrup dispenser, and a pot of coffee on the platter she had cleared off. “Grab the pancakes and plates so we can go eat somewhere in peace,” her voice is quiet, almost pleading, and he acts instantly. Standing up, he places the plates and platter on one arm, putting his own cup of apple juice and Pomni’s mug of coffee on the pancake platter where someone had grabbed a serving already.
The two walk away, Jax taking the lead to a room that’s designed to look like an overly extravagant royal dining room. He places Pomni’s plate and mug at the head of the grand table, his own setting on her left side. Jax thinks as he helps her with the dishes on her platter. Would she want to talk about that? Maybe. He’s not sure if she would. She asked him if he wanted to talk about things during the softball game. Maybe she would appreciate it if he did the same?
They sit down, and Jax breaks the silence, “So...are we talking about that or something else?”
“Something else. Please.” Pomni’s response is immediate, and Jax nods.
“Alright, something else. How did you enjoy being evil yesterday?” He needs to know if she’ll choose it again. After this morning, it really doesn’t matter either way, but it’s still something that’s rather important. To try and keep her anxiety away, he returns to the task of preparing his stack of pancake.
“It was fun,” Pomni’s voice is much brighter now, and the smile she gives him matches, “I understand why you’re always hankering for violence on adventures. It adds an excitement that Caine can’t really meet the expectations of.” She reaches to grab a few of her own pancakes, selecting some of the chocolate chip ones as opposed to Jax’s blueberry and strawberry selection.
“Hey, be careful saying things like that,” Jax teases lightly, pointing at her with the syrup dispense before he uses is as he continues with a warning in his tone, “You don’t want to end up on his bad side like Zoobs. He was glitching out at them a lot yesterday.” Jax knows that Caine is acting weird. There’s something off about him, and he doesn’t want Pomni to get caught up in that mess.
Pomni chuckles, “I’ll try not to ask him to remove any censors from keeping this place family friendly. Despite there being no children in the circus.”
Jax nods, cutting off a bit of pancake and stuffing it in his mouth to avoid saying something stupid. Why would he say something stupid? Because Pomni just mentioned children, of course. And sure, it wasn’t in the context of wanting to have them with him. But Now the idea is in his mind. And he can’t help but wonder what that would even look like. Would they be a jackrabbit like himself? Would they be more humanoid like Pomni? Would Pomni have multiple children? Would they look different from each other? The first idea that comes into his head of what his child might look like would be disturbing to anyone else. A purple body similar to his, but the face cut out and replaced with Pomni’s. Almost like Pomni wearing his skin. That idea makes something deep in his gut burn and he quickly drinks down some orange juice to try and drown those thoughts out.
He breaks the short silence, “So, what archetype do you want to play for the adventure today?” Jax asks, trying to get the conversation back to where he needs it.
Pomni hums as she cover her pancakes with sliced bananas and syrup, “I don’t know yet. After that,” she waves her hand dismissively at the door, “Evil does sound pretty good right now,” It seems that despite saying she doesn’t want to talk about it, she actually does. Odd behavior. He’ll have to remember this for his journal later. “Ragatha is just so frustrating. I know you told me she was fake, but you’re at least asking me my opinion on her before you did that. She just started being vague and weird about you. It’s not like she needs to sugar coat every single word to me like I’m a toddler! I hate it! I hate how I get treated like I’m a kid because of this stupid body I’m in! It feels like the only ones who don’t see me as an elementary school student are you and Kinger.”
Jax raises an eyebrow at her, listening to her words and taking the time to think them over. She seems to appreciate this, he notices a slight bow of her head as she lifts the fork to her mouth. He figures that, to keep appearances, he should probably ask about what was said. But something else is nagging at him as well that he’ll have to follow up with. Where does the crazy one fit into all of this?
“Vague and weird does sound like Raggy’s MO when it comes to unpleasantries,” memories of the doll’s stuttering and rambling nonsense ending in the word love after green flesh gave way to the hulking blackness covered in pod-like eyes flash in his mind. She had tried for months, until Jax exploded at her. “What did she even say, as vague as it was?”
Pomni looks at him as she chews, the pinwheels in her eyes spinning for a moment before she swallows and speaks, “She said that you were hiding something from me. Which, I fully expect you to be doing. You’ve been here longer than me - I’m not sure how long, but it’s obviously been a long time. Same goes for her. I’ve never seen you two act nice to each other - and it’s clear that there’s some history there. I will want to eventually get both sides of it, but I don’t want to know things about you before you tell me, and I can’t trust her to hide things on your behalf.”
Jax is shocked by her words. Gratitude fills him - she’s not asking or demanding that he tells her the past between him and Ragatha. She’s not listening to Ragatha’s side of their history. She’s giving him the chance to tell his side first. He holds off on that, though. It’s not that he doesn’t want her to know. Out of everyone, he thinks she’s the only one that might listen to him and understand him. But he doesn’t want to risk her floating away from his orbit. She’s going to get both sides - she’s going to hear about how he reacted to love with violence. While she’s always been understanding of him, it’s too great of a risk. Until his claim on her is more firm, he won’t be able to have her understand him fully.
He’s not sure how to address his gratitude. Or how to mention that he’ll bring it up later. However, there is one question she had that he can answer. “I’ve been here 4 years. Got sucked in about 10 minutes before I turned 18. Happy birthday me.”
Pomni makes an empathetic sound before responding, “That’s rough. My birthday was...about 4 months before I came in here?”
Jax counts back for a moment, “Wait, you’re a June birthday too? What day?” he can’t hide his excitement. This is something he has in common with Pomni. Something that connects them.
Pomni seems to brighten up at the question, “June 17th,” she says confidently.
“Hah! I’m before you! June 5th.” Jax crosses his arms and leans back in his chair.
“Technically, I was born 5 years before you,” Pomni jests.
“Semantics,” Jax waves the comment off. Pomni laughs and he swears he can feel himself grow lighter in weight from the sound. He might just start floating. Oh wait. That’s Caine’s weird snap summon thing.
Jax blinks as he’s suddenly in front of the stage, the rest of the cast standing near him looking over cautiously. Unfortunately, Ragatha’s seams have been fixed and her head has been restuffed. Jax really wanted that to last longer. Oh well. He’ll just have to find some other way to cause her excruciating pain.
“Now that everyone’s here onto today’s adventure!” Cain grins as he summons text behind him, “The Fight of the Secret Alien Crewmember On A Deep Space Colony! There will be 10 rounds of gameplay, and one of you will be chosen to be the secret alien. It will be randomly selected, even I don’t know who it will be! It is the alien’s task to kill the rest of the crew and feast on their bodies! The rest of you will be given various tasks to preform to maintain the space colony. You all must complete your tasks, or kick out the alien to win. If you die you will be turned into a ghost, and are still able and expected to complete your tasks. If you find a body, run to the center of the map to set off the alarms!”
Pomni surprises Jax with her reaction, jumping up and down, one arm reaching out to grab his wrist. He looks down at her, amusement dancing across his face at her obvious excitement. She looks up at him a flicker of confusion then understanding flashing across her face. She pulls his arm down, and he leans down to her level as Caine continues.
“He’s ripping off a game. You would have loved it I know it. I f[!@#]king love this game. I stopped playing it because I started to be a b[!@#]h to my friends after.” Pomni is shaking in excitement and Jax can’t help the chuckle.
“Just don’t get rude with me after,” Jax says, an undertone of worry in his voice. He doesn’t want it to come through, but he can’t help it. The idea of her being rude to him now. It almost makes him grab her and hold her tight. The only reason he doesn’t is because Pomni gives him a bright grin of sharp teeth.
“Ah, I could never be b[!@#]hy at my evil bro!” She lets go of his arm and wraps his shoulders in an awkward half hug, giving a quick squeeze before letting go. Jax can feel the tips of his ears heat up from her sudden action and he clears his throat before standing up straight.
“Cool, because that would be totally lame if you were,” Jax jokes, walking to a portal that had been summoned. Honestly he hadn’t really cared to even feign interest in the back and forth between the other cast members and Caine. His only concern was the banter between him and Pomni.
It’s familiar, in a bittersweet way. It’s almost familiar, how he’s hanging onto her every word, ignoring the rest of the world just to focus in on her voice. How he doesn’t really know the full grasp of the adventure but he doesn’t care. But, the hand that’s reaching to pull him along isn't webbed nor is it green. It’s gloved, red covering what he would imagine to be white if they could take off their outfits.
Once inside the portal, everyone is given a new outfit for this adventure. They’re all the same basic thing - an astronaut suit. Gangle’s is white with red stripes, her tragedy mask pressed against the inner side of the helmet. There’s a little raincloud hovering over her that refuses to be removed. Next to her Zooble stands in an orange suit, an odd crown of weird shapes, some resembling parts to their body, rests on their helmet. Ragatha’s is a light blue with a plaid pattern to it. Atop hers is a small ball of yarn. Kinger has a tan one that has oddly placed and shaped purple spots covering it - the pattern makes something in Jax’s guts twist uncomfortably. Jax turns to see that Pomni’s is half red half blue, and her jester hat is on top of her helmet. Jax immediately leans down, looking into her suit and widens his eyes at what he sees.
“You actually have hair. It’s not just three things attached to your hat,” he quickly stands back up, resting his arm on her head. He didn’t see anything weird atop his head other than his ears, but his suit is purple. He’s not sure quite where the shade comes from since it’s not the same as his fur. For some reason, he finds a warm comfort in the color though.
The interaction was fast enough that the others didn’t take notice of it, thankfully. They all leave the space ship they were spawned in, finding a little science station in deep space. Jax checks his pockets with his free hand and finds a tablet that’s telling him various tasks to do. Darn, he’s not the alien first.
“Are you the imposter?” Pomni whispers from under his arm. Jax looks down at her, putting his tablet away as he does so.
“Nah, though, if I was, why would I tell you?” He smirks down at her, and is happy that his tail is inside the suit as it wags from her crazed grin returning.
“Cos I’m gonna help you out if you are, duh.” She looks down at her tablet. “We should stick together. If someone kills the other, we’ll be able to act as a witness.” She strategizes, and Jax finds himself nodding along.
The two of them wander around, completing little tasks to get the completion bar up. Pomni jokes about how Caine literally just ripped off the entire game, down to the map, but messed up the tasks in small ways. The wires are apparently supposed to be horizontal, not vertical. There shouldn’t be a task with getting the cameras to work - at least not on this map, she hasn’t played in several years so who knows what they’ve done now. They’re walking down a hallway to get to an oxygen measurement task for Jax when the first alarm goes off. Jax groans, but the two of them walk together to the meeting room.
They find Gangle and Zooble there, the pair of them looking at Jax and Pomni come in together curiously. A moment later, Ragatha comes in. Once she’s seated, Zooble speaks. “Me and Gangle found Kinger dead together on the east side of the map.”
“Me and Jax have been together on the west side of the map the entire time,” Pomni immediately pipes up, and Jax nods in agreement, before his eyes glide over to Ragatha.
“I-I was in the southern middle section. Around a lot of small buildings,” Ragatha stutters, the pupil of her good eye darting from face to face.
“Rags is acting skittish let’s vote her out,” Jax says, already casting his vote on his tablet.
“Jax! Hold on!” Pomni exclaims, smacking his arm lightly before turning to look at Zooble and Gangle. The hare can’t help but chuckle - Ragatha’s wide eye and tight lip is worth Pomni’s slight annoyance for a second. She amors him. She has to. That’s why it’s fine. He tunes into Pomni’s question, “Zooble, Gangle, were you guys together the entire time? Neither of you slipped away?”
“Well, we did separate at the start because I had something to do in the south central area, near where Ragatha is saying she was, but I didn’t see her. I found Gangle having issues up at the north eastern section. The task was a little confusing - we had to work together to understand it.”
Pomni hums, looking between Zooble and Gangle, “What was the task?”
“Sorting trash. There was one thing that we thought was plant when it was plastic, and the sign between trash and recycling is really confusing. Blue is plant, green is trash, and red is recycling, by the way.” Gangle responds, with Zooble nodding.
Pomni hums before sighing, “Alright, Jax might have been right,” she admits, casting her vote for Ragatha.
“I’m always right Pompom. You’d be smart to remember that,” Jax teases, resting his arm on the back of Pomni’s chair. His hand tugs at the bell on her hat as Ragatha pleads to Zooble and Gangle to vote for Jax or Pomni.
“Are-are you guys sure that Pomni and Jax were together the entire time?” Ragatha questions.
“They left here together, and came in together. Plus, the distance is too far for them to walk and they were too busy flirting like they’re doing now to pay attention to Caine talk about vents,” Zooble explains as they pull up their tablet, Gangle mimicking the action.
“Hey! I know about vents! Caine is ripping off a game that got popular 3 years ago!” Pomni protests, and Jax feels the tips of his ears heat up. She didn’t protest against them thinking we’re flirting? Wait why do they think we’re flirting.
“We weren’t-what?” Jax sputters out, watching Zooble and Gangle vote.
“Sure thing, rabbit man,” Zooble sarcastically drawls out, and Jax stomps his foot in anger.
“I’m not a rabbit! I’m a hare!”
Zooble rolls their eyes, “You’re a jackrabbit.”
“Jackrabbits are hares!” Jax almost yells out in exasperation.
“Wait, really?” Zooble asks in confusion, looking over to Gangle, who is slowly nodding.
“Yeah. They’re in the same family so like cousins, but not the same.”
Zooble sighs, “Well, fine then. Sorry I called you a rabbit if it offends you so much,” Zooble’s voice isn’t as sarcastic as Jax would expect it to be. His eyebrows furrow in confusion as he looks at them. Before he can comment on their odd behavior, the timer rings out. A massive hologram has the results of the votes come in at 4 for Ragatha, and 1 for Jax.
Ragatha gets launched into the depths of space, before a colorful victory screen comes up. Jax is still in shock as they all respawn in the same original position.
The next couple of rounds go by fast. Zooble kills Kinger, Ragatha, and Gangle before Pomni and Jax catch them. Gangle kills Zooble, but gets caught killing Kinger by Pomni and Jax. Kinger is the imposter for a round that’s just a little long from requiring everyone to complete their tasks. The fifth round is where things get a little interesting again.
Jax has to shoot at balloons with a water gun to ensure that there’s enough water supply for the station, apparently. They walk to the south eastern section of the map, opening a door just to watch Ragatha kill Kinger. Pomni’s hitting the the button to close the doors before Jax can react, and she pulls him by the arm as she turns around.
“The one thing that Caine couldn’t keep is the report button,” Pomni curses out as they run to the meeting room. Jax slams the button to call a meeting hard, only a couple of feet in front due to his leg’s length. He moves to sit in his chair, picking up Pomni to place her in her own chair at the same time. She lets out a little squeak and her blush marks darken in color again. Adorable. He sets her down gently before slumping into his own chair,
“That felt like the longest run ever,” Jax remarks as he looks over to Pomni. She’s looking at him, wide pinwheel eyes rotating slowly in thought. She doesn’t respond before Gangle walks in, followed by Zooble a moment later. Finally, Ragatha enters the room.
Jax straightens up and turns as the timer starts, “Pomni and me just walked into Ragatha killing Kinger.” He declares, pointing an accusing finger at her. Pomni seems to have snapped out of her thoughts, and she nods alongside him.
“Wow, Ragatha again? Either Caine is punishing you guys for the gunfight or it really is random,” Zooble says, looking over at Jax and Pomni for a moment.
“Th-that’s right!” Ragatha pipes up, “It’s not me, it’s Jax! He’s just-he’s just getting Pomni to lie for him since they’re such good friends now.” Ragatha’s tone betrays the bitterness that she feels, and Jax rolls his eyes.
“No, it’s just RNG,” Pomni says, shrugging, “I’m sure it’ll be me or Jax soon, we still have a few more rounds left. You guys just need to get the hang of this game before hard mode,” she shoots them her razor sharp grin and Zooble chuckles.
“Sure thing, Pomni,” they say, almost disbelieving.
Pomni pouts a little and looks at Jax, who pats her on the head. “Aw, don’t worry Pompom. I’m sure you’ll show them just how deadly you really are before too much longer.”
The votes go through, Ragatha still stubbornly voting for Jax. She gets sent out and no one is really surprised by the victory screen. The next round is a slow victory - Kinger being the imposter, but spending the entire time looking at a variety insects in a large specimen vat that have caught his attention for the entire game so far.
The next one, Pomni grins up at Jax when they start. She shows him her screen - the red text saying ALIEN. Jax smirks down at her and they quickly scurry off to the camera. Thankfully Jax has a task there, so it’s not too odd to see them go over or for the cameras to be on.
Jax flicks through a few, and Pomni mutters something before patting his back, “Do the task so the bar goes up if they're paying attention to that. I’ll be right back.” She’s gone before he can respond, but he quickly complies with her request. She’s not back by the time he’s done, so he flicks through the cameras. He’s unable to see any differences, but decides that’s probably a good thing.
A moment later, Pomni is back. “Let’s voice the northeastern section,” Pomni whispers to him. Jax nods, and the two go south. There’s no one in the southern section of the building, so they exit and come to the southern central area.
Jax’s ear twitches and he presses a finger to his mouth to tell her to be quiet before pointing at one of the buildings. Pomni nods and darts over to the building. A moment later, the doors shut and she pops out of a vent next to it. “Alright, it’s just Kinger now,” Pomni says with a grin, looking up at Jax. He raises his eyebrows.
“Oh? Aren’t you forgetting something?” He asks, and Pomni chuckles.
“No, I know I still have to kill you. It’s just...different. Even without Caine demanding it, we make a good team.” Jax wonders if Ragatha’s ghost is nearby to hear this. He tilts his head and looks down at Pomni.
“Yeah, we do. That’s what friends are for, right?” The reminder of his claim on her is sure to piss off Ragatha’s ghost. Especially when it’s followed by Pomni’s sweet bright smile and cheerful agreement. The pair of them find Kinger staring closely at a a pair of dragonflies that are joined together in a weird shape.
“Oh, hello Pomni, Jax,” Kinger says as the door closes behind them, leaving the room in a blanket of darkness. “Say, do either of you know anything about dragonfly reproduction?”
Pomni looks up at Jax, as if asking if she should just kill him or not. Jax shrugs, sometimes the chess piece can be some form of entertainment. “Not a lick, what’s going on with this weird shape?” Jax takes a bite, nodding at the dragonflies in the enclosure.
“Oh, well, I’m so glad you asked Jax. You see, a male dragonfly will go and preform a dazzling display of acrobatics to woo a female after ensuring that there are no other males in the area. They will then interlock together in this wheel formation you see here - though I’ve always thought it looked more like a heart. It’s almost romantic,” he sighs wistfully.
“Huh, cool,” Pomni says, actually impressed for a moment. Then her evil grin returns, “Hey Kinger, wanna know something cooler?” The chess piece turns around, tilting his head and Pomni grins as she moved her helmet, opening her mouth. A weird black tentacle comes out and consumes Kinger, leaving Jax to blink at where the other man just stood. His gaze slowly slides over to Pomni, who stand there with her helmet off looking at him. “There’s a cooldown so I’ll get you in just a second, Jax,” Pomni grins sharply.
Jax grins and walks over, ruffling her hair. “It’s a little weird seeing you without the hat on.” Jax observes. He almost purrs from how she just tilts her head back to look up at him instead of flinching away.
“Good weird or bad weird?” Pomni asks, blinking up at him. Jax thinks for a moment.
“Good weird,” he decides. Pomni chuckles and nods She opens her mouth, Jax thinks it’s to respond, but a second later a black tentacle is reaching for him. He can’t help the full body flinch that comes from the sight - too familiar. Even if it lacks the brightly colored pods, it’s too close to the limbs reaching out to hurt him.
A sad thundercloud comes in, creating a defeat screen for Jax. A second alter, he’s bac kin his seat in the meeting room. Pomni is looking over at him - but he can’t see her. He can’t see anything but the memories in his mind.
Ribbit’s been acting odd the last couple of weeks. Usually they’re the ones that drag Jax out of his room, showing him various places in the tent or commanding him to help play the perfect prank on Ragatha. This time, its Jax pulling a key out of a pocket. He feels weird about entering a space that isn’t his. But no one has seen the frog in a few days now. Despite Caine having already healed the broken jaw, Jax’s face still hurt from where a green fist had slammed into it multiple times. The door slides open, Jax peeking in to see-
“I don’t care what you think, he’s my best friend!” Pomni’s angry yell drags Jax out of his mind. His eyes dart up to find her standing in front of him - wait when did he end up on the floor? He’s sitting, his arms wrapped around his knees pulled up against his chest. Pomni is standing with her hands in fists at her side, facing Ragatha. The doll is looking between Pomni and Jax - a conflicted emotion on her face before she sighs and lets out a tearful, “O-Okay. I-I understand.” before turning around to walk away.
Jax stays silent, watching Pomni take a deep breath before she turns around to face him. She blinks, almost in surprise, before her face turns into one of concern. Oh, he enjoys having that expression turned to him. “Hey Jax, you back with me?” she asks, stepping close. Jax nods slowly and Pomni gives him a soft smile. “Cool, you weren’t out of it for too long.” She watches him for a moment, and he doesn’t feel rushed. To get up. He feels like he can take a moment to breathe.
Pomni scoots a little closer before she opens her arms, standing close enough that he just needs to lean to be in her embrace. “Do you need - I mean if you want,” she stutters out before Jax gives in, letting his head fall to rest on her stomach. He needs this. This close to her he can smell something uniquely Pomni - it’s similar to banana bread in some odd way. It’s nice - her arms around his shoulders make him feel safe. It’s odd. She’s a fraction of his size, but he feels protected like this. He needs to return the feeling somehow. He needs to make her feel as safe as he feels now. His arms slowly wrap around her in return. Jax is shocked at how much Pomni relaxes once he returns the hug. A tension that he hadn’t noticed releases, and she leans into him. Where had that tension come from? Whatever argument with Ragatha that he had missed all but the end of?
“What-what made you scream at Rags?” Jax asks after a moment, hating how his voice cracks on the first word. But he doesn’t understand. One moment he was complimenting her hair, the next she’s screaming about him being her best friend.
Pomni squeezes him tight for a second before responding, “You were a little out of it when we spawned in. I told the others to go have fun and I’d stay with you so the imposter couldn’t get you. Everyone but Ragatha left pretty easily. She just kept on arguing about it though. Trying to convince me to go play so that she could watch you instead. I...might have gotten a little upset.”
Jax chuckles, “I mean, there’s been a tension with her since this morning. She just needs to back off a little bit,” He can’t help nuzzling into her embrace. Her words play back in his head and his smile comes to him, true and easy. “So I’m your beeeest friend?” Jax teases lightly, singing the word out.
Pomni rolls her eyes, he can’t see it but he can hear it in her voice, “It’s not like there’s a lot of competition. Kinger’s the only other one, but most of the time he’s....”
“Insane?” Jax offers,
“I was going to say not fully aware,” Pomni says after a moment. She pats his back lightly. “Alright, C’mon. We’re holding up the game - either by not doing tasks or not killing people. Check if it’s your turn yet.
It’s not. The two of them quickly get started on their tasks, lightly bantering between each other about the weirdness of the tasks that Caine has created. Kinger’s the imposter again, so they just need to complete the tasks and they end up winning. Somehow, Ragatha ended up dead. Jax feels a great deal of appreciation for Kinger after that round.
There’s three more rounds left. Jax needs one of them to be his. He checks the tablet, and has to hide his excitement. He pulls Pomni over to the area of his plan, the southern central area. He pulls her into one of the rooms and shows her his tablets with excitement, and then explains his plan to her in a quiet glee.
Gangle is the first victim. Jax watches from a little bit away as she goes into one of the small buildings. He grins as he closes the door, and jumps into a vent, jumping up in the same room. Gangle isn’t paying attention - focused on her task. He grins gleefully as he pulls a knife out of his pocket and stabs her in the back - black blood coating his hands before absorbing into the suit. Jax shrugs - makes things easier for him. He pushes Gangle into the vent, and waits for the doors to open. There had been no banging on the walls - Zooble hasn’t come looking then. Good. Jax moves to sit in the vent - unable to move with Gangle’s body in it, but able to hide away.
A few moments pass before Zooble walks in. “Gangle? You in here?” they call out. Jax hits the doors as they take a step further in, making the abstract art given life turn around. “F[!@#]k” they mutter out as Jax jumps out of the vent. He hands on their body, stabbing once, twice, thrice. They’re dead. He drags their body to the vent, shoving them in. He won’t be able to sit in there with both bodies. Not that he needs to, now. He grins as he leaves the building, and Pomni looks at him, tilting her head. “Ready to go hunting?” she offers. Before he can respond, the alarm for a meeting goes off.
Jax’s brow furrows, and he turns to look at Pomni in confusion. She shrugs at him and the pair walk to the meeting room, caution present in their bodies.
Ragatha and Kinger are both already there - and Ragatha points at them accusingly. “One of them is the killer!”
“Woah, Rags, calm down. Did you even find a body?” Jax asks, sitting in his seat casually.
“Well, no, but Gangle and Zooble are both dead! It’s got to be one of you two!”
“That’s rather accusatory. What about Kinger?” Pomni prompts, looking over at the eldest member of the cast. He nods in response, and Jax hides his snort.
“It’s obviously not Kinger.”
“That’s rude, Ragatha. What if he’s got a grip of the game now? He did kill you once,” Jax smirks, and he watches as Ragatha stomps her foot in frustration, his grin widening. “Unless you know he’s not because you’re the imposter!”
Kinger gasps and screams while pointing at Ragatha. Jax looks over, slightly confused. What? Did...he have a ally in Kinger? He shakes his head slightly, that’s not something he needs to think about right now. Jax votes for Ragatha with only a few seconds to spare. Pomni and Kinger also place their votes - and Ragatha gets thrown out into the void of space.
Pomni and Jax look at each other, then at Kinger when no victory screen appears. Kinger blinks, laughs, then screams and runs in a direction at random. Pomni and Jax stand and stare at where he was for just a second before Pomni is moving, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him, “Quick! We can’t lose him!”
Jax spots Kinger in the snow outside, and he grins wide. He takes a second to aim and then throws the knife - running after it so that he can collect the blade from Kinger’s body. The man is still screaming until it gets cut off when the knife lands. Jax stops above the body a moment later, and pulls the knife out. He grins down, laughing out loud for a moment. Pomni runs over, cackling maniacally as well.
“Evil duo strikes again!” Pomni screams in the air, jumping up and down, celebrating.
“You know it!” Jax cheers, offering his hand out for a high five. Pomni slaps it enthusiastically before grinning up at him.
“Alright, seal the deal,” Pomni prompts, spreading her arms wide and grinning at him.
Jax hesitates. He doesn’t want to hurt Pomni. He knows this isn’t real. It still feels wrong. He bites his lip for a moment before asking, “Actually, you know what would be really funny?”
“What?” Pomni asks, tilter her head.
“Fucking around in the snow until Caine checks in or something else happens. You haven’t done a single task - lets break the game!” Jax hasn’t been able to play in the snow for a while - Caine hasn’t had it in any of his latest adventures. Plus, doing it now would mean that they don’t have to deal with anyone else. It can just be them. Together. Only Jax and Pomni. Just like how it’s meant to be.
“Oh. Yeah, that sounds fun! Though, I do kinda feel bad about killing Kinger now. He probably would have enjoyed that,” Pomni giggles as she turns to point in a direction, “There’s a pretty clear area over there. I say we both make a fort in a couple of minutes and then go at a good old snow ball fight, yeah?” She grins wide at him, and Jax melts in the spot. He would do anything for her. He would kill for her. He would live for her. He would move heaven and hell. He would move the Earth itself. He would move their digital hell. She could demand for an exit once more and he knows that he would find a way to tear the code apart at their binary sequences if only to try and fulfill her task.
“Yeah, sure thing, sounds great,” is what he responds with instead, following behind her happily. He isn’t sure how long it is until Caine checks. At least an hour - though maybe longer. What was that old saying his dad would tell him? 15 minutes spent doing work feels like an hour, an hour spent talking to a pretty girl feels like 15 minutes. Pretty doesn’t come a fraction close to describing the exquisite beauty that makes up Pomni, but he figures that still applies all the same.
Jax can feel the stares of the rest of the circus when he and Pomni leave the scene of the adventure. His claim has been made. Now, he just needs to deepen it.
Notes:
i haven't played Among Us since 2021 so if there's anything weird about them playing it (other than Caine's weirdness) that's why. also i don't proofread so if you notice a typo please tell meeeee
so i've mentioned in a comment before that this was probably gonna be 8 chapters. that was a lie. it's gonna be way more. not sure the exact number yet, but chapter 8 is going to be having what chapter 4 originally had occur so it might be closer to 16 or 20? this little creep has been taking over my life.
i also have a question for all of y'all for something that might happen in chapter 6. Would you guys like to see someone else's perspective on their relationship at that point in the fic? would be the last portion of the chapter after some key moments, i dont want to put an estimated word count on it because i'll either be just short or way over.
thank you all so much for all the love that this fic has been getting i thrive off of the attention my fics receive. i'm debating on making a tumblr or something to scream about things because i have been nonstop in this for days now. also make sure to peep the tags b/c some things changed with the next chapter
Chapter 4: Goals Redefined
Notes:
so after reading a lot of the comments here, i'd decided i'd like to share what might make me insecure about my writing in the notes. this is mostly as therapy for myself so feel free to just skip to the chapter if you don't care about my mental health, understandable have fun.
so, back in the days of Wattpad I was a massive fan of a lot of original works. I went and threw my two cents in. I'd posted online before on ff.net even further back in the day (why do i feel old i'm only 24 and the earliest i'm talking about is when i was 12) i got a lot of really good writing advice. best advice ever helps me space out my paragraphs now. if any of y'all think my paragraphs are long now, y'all aint seen shit. that being said, any advice i got i really took to heart. i'm sure y'all can see where this goes. the specific criticism that wasn't constructive but was just hate was "you put in too many details lol". They had a FNAF profile picture. looking back now, I'm unsure if they just never read a real book before or not. i recently went to go reread one of my favorite authors Brent Weeks and his Lightbringer Series is so much more detailed (great start, final book feels kinda rushed but i still enjoyed reading it. like 9.3/10 but it gets 1 nostalgia point for me because of the time of my life i was in when i first read the first 3 books. after that gets real heavy with the Christianity symbolism so if you have religious trauma be careful in the last book especially for that) so. i'm gonna try to ignore that little voice in the back of my head now. here's me fully embracing that for the first time really.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jax has a pretty decent understanding of the relationships that Pomni has with the other members of the cast. Zooble respects Pomni a great deal, but sometimes lets Pomni’s childish avatar dictate how they react to things. Gangle’s respect for her was always present. It seemed to greaten a great deal after the fast food hellscape adventure. Before, the ribbon woman’s eyes would worriedly follow Pomni when the jester would separate from the group. After, Gangle would just send a small smile - no matter which mask she had on - before refocusing on her task at hand. Ragatha wanted to have Pomni fit a mold that’s been empty for years. The fabric woman infantilized her, crossed boundaries, and burnt bridges all without Jax’s interference. When she noticed Pomni being slowly dragged into Jax’s orbit, she got more persistent. That only pushed Pomni further away from her.
Jax can’t help but snort at the similarities between his initial relationship with the rag doll. For some reason, Jax’s age when he was dragged in was announced to the entire circus. Apparently it took less than 10 minutes for someone to be dragged in, because he was still 17. Ragatha had latched onto his age, and it seemed to dictate his entire relationship with her. The infantilization wasn’t quite as bad with him, he didn’t even notice until it was later pointed out. She had put herself next to him so often that, after a while, he was the one seeking her out. She made herself be familiar to him. Once he started to wander from her away the tension between them started to grow. Just like her relationship with Pomni.
He looks down at the page in his notebook. Pomni’s face stares back at him - the image of her staring up at him from inside the helmet of the space suit. Her hair is perfect. He knew it would be. It suits the shape of her head. Part of him wants to pet her hair. He wasn’t able to yesterday. She had only taken off her helmet once. Right before she had accidentally triggered his panic attack.
He doesn’t think she realizes exactly why her choice of murder weapon freaked him out so bad. The image of the tentacle that came from her mouth going for him was too much. He had been able to identify it as part of the game before that moment. But when it came for him he forgot that for a moment.
The memory of blackness coming for him from her body burns in his mind. His imagination doesn’t do him any favors as it places multi-colored eyes flashing through colors quickly as they lock onto him. In his mind’s eye, the blackness continues down Pomni’s body. It consumes her body, overtaking snow white skin and the bright red of her astronaut suit. Her limbs elongate, new eyes blinking their way into existence as the glitching material takes over her form. Jax is frozen in place as he watches - his mind screaming at him to run, but his heart shattering and rooting him to the spot at the image of Pomni - his Pomni, the Pomni that just screamed that he’s her best friend - be lost to him forever.
The blaring of an alarm clock snaps Jax out of...whatever that was. He blinks hard a few times, and closes his journal. He listens, and doesn’t hear the thunk of an alarm clock hitting a wall. Good. Pomni slept well. Jax stands up and stretches, rubbing a hand over his face. He needs a dose of Pomni. He grabs the journal on his desk reverently, delicately placing it high on the top of his bookshelf.
Jax makes sure that he can slap the carefree smile on his face before stepping out of his room. He turns to lock his door, and his smile comes a little easier when he can hear Pomni leave her room behind him.
“Oh, good morning Jax!” Pomni’s voice is a little tired, but there’s a little cheer to her tone as she notices him. And, did her voice go a little soft at his name? He knows his amor is returned. He just has to ease her into it gently.
Jax turns around and steps to look over her, “Good morning, Pompom,” his eyes quickly scan over her body. There's no blackness. She’s not going to abstract. Nothing’s happened to make her do so. His mind is just stupid. “Ready for another day of The Amazing Digital Circus?” he asks as she locks her door, tilting her head to look up at him. He’s standing close enough that the top of her hat brushes his chest, and he can smell the sweet banana and vanilla that’s the focus of most of his thoughts.
She giggles at his question, and Jax’s grin widens slightly. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Pomni says back, turning to walk down the hall. Jax falls into step with her - as much as he can with their difference in limb lengths. She looks over at him for a moment before asking, “Do you think Caine is gonna have another action packed adventure today?”
Jax stretches his arms behind his head as he considers her question. “Maybe. He worked himself up for that weird award show, and some of yesterday’s adventure was a little complex for him to do. He might just have something chill for us to do today. He sometimes does weird board games - if there’s one you want we can probably find a copy and that will encourage him to make it today’s theme.” Jax thinks back on how he’s done similar tricks to manipulate Caine’s ideas in the past. For someone so opposed to explicit suggestions, the AI sure does give into subtle ones pretty easily.
Pomni hums and thinks for a moment as they exit the dorm hallway. Jax takes the moment above the main floor of the tent to check the situation at the table. Kinger’s fort has been moved right next to the buffet of food, a disembodied hand coming out to grab food and bring it back in as Jax looks over. Zooble is staring at the hand as they hold a pot of coffee, blinking once the hand is back within the confines of the pillows Gangle is sitting next to them, comedy mask grinning as she doodles in her sketchbook. There’s no sign of Ragatha. He doesn’t think he heard her earlier. Is she staying in her room today? Jax smirks at the idea.
He follows Pomni down the ramp to the main floor and she speaks up, “I used to love playing monopoly - I kinda wanna see what Caine’s version is.”
Jax thinks back on previous board game adventures and hums, “Yeah, he can do that. Just...choose the car. Don’t want a you to get squished into a Pomcake,” he advises, thinking back to a long abstracted member squeaking as he ran them over.
Pomni chuckles, “Yeah - you might eat me or something,” she teases back, grinning up at him with large eyes and her blush marks darker than normal. His mind is immediately filled with the idea of what she would taste like. Her scent makes him think maybe one of those old vanilla cookies dipped in banana pudding? A flash of a long lost memory comes to mind, gone as fast as it had come.
Jax needs to make a joke or he’s going to saw something too forward. Pomni is anxious. He doesn’t want to push her away before she’s fully within his grasp. “Please - you’re too small to make a good meal. Maybe a snack,” You are the tastiest looking snack I’ve ever laid my eyes on. “But then you would just be inside me, we can’t die.” That would keep her away from everyone. “Wonder if I would get all of your money and properties if I did that...” Jax grins down at her, not letting his face betray his thoughts.
Pomni bursts out laughing, and Jax could soar from the sound. His smile is genuine and true and stupid as he looks down at her, but he just wants to memorize everything about this. She snorts, her face scrunching up in a way he has yet to see - and he can feel the blood rushing to his face as he’s entranced by her.
They reach the table, and Jax pulls out Pomni’s chair without thinking about it before moving to sit in his own seat. He frowns at the powdered sugar, back in it’s normal position. Guess Caine can only remember things every once in a while.
“Morning guys,” Pomni greets the rest of the table as she sits down. Jax’s eyes land on the other side of the table as he moves to grab some juice. Gangle’s eyes are fixed on them, her mouth in a small grin - maybe it’s open? hard to tell - and the ribbon holding her pencil is limp. Zooble is watching Pomni with curious eyes.
“Hey Pomni,” the collection of shapes greets before their gaze moves to the hare, “Jax.” That’s...odd. Usually, Zooble just ignores him. Unless there’s a joke involved. Jax’s eyes narrow and he looks at Zooble, taking stock of the parts they’ve selected today. Most of them are useful, so he can’t really put any of them in association with a prank. They’re not hiding anything. They're relaxed, even. Sitting with a cup of coffee, listening to Gangle blab about whatever the loser likes.
“What, did Caine put stupid sauce in your cheerios?” Jax asks as he starts to stack up some French Toast. Pomni chuckles into her coffee beside him, squinting her eyes at him in some emotion he’s still yet to name on her face as she swats his arm playfully. He’s seen it every once in a while, growing more common the last few days, but he’s not quite sure what it is.
“What-why does me greeting you mean I have to be drugged?” Zooble asks, raising a long thin arm in confusion. The action draws his attention away from his thoughts as Zooble continues, gesturing between Pomni and Jax, “You’re like having character development or some s[@#$]t because of Pomni. I’m not trying to discourage it.”
Jax bristles at the words character development. Was that just Zooble’s choice of words? Or are they gaining the ability to see you reader? Will they know what you know? Will they learn of his obsession? He can’t let that happen.
“Character development? What’s that mean?” Jax slips his mask on, resting his elbow on the table. Pomni makes a small noise beside him and he turns to look at her, the mask dropping for a split second in concern. He quickly adjusts himself so that he’s in the way of her getting anything, before looking back at Zooble with the mask back on.
“You’re just-you know what,” Zooble gestures at Pomni, “Acting friendly with Pomni. It’s clear that Ragatha is being weird about it for some reason. So, we’re trying to say that we don’t care about the s[@#$]t she’s spewing. You’re the one going off about some random audience all the time, I thought you would appreciate the joke.” For once, Jax doesn’t know what to make of Zooble’s bluntness. Did they throw that last bit in just to throw him off?
He shrugs, deciding not to think about it. They’re showing support in a way that he needs - that’s important. Especially if they can break the 4th wall too. “Sorry, Zoobs, I’m a little exhausted. Someone chased me down with more snowballs than should have been possible and I’m still a little worn out.” He directs the conversation to talk about Pomni, remembering how they had spent the end of their adventure the day before.
Pomni cackles as she grins up at him, “I found a cache of them in a wall when I was building my fort,” She confesses, “After that it was just stuffing them all in my pockets as fast as possible.” Jax beams down at her as she laughs. Her eyes are shut as she breaks into a fit of giggles, her body curling in on herself as she shakes from the snickers.
Its the same sound from earlier. He got it again. He knows its amor growing in him as she falls into a fit of snorts from his teasing. He did this. He’s able to do this to her. She’s never laughed like this for anyone else here. He’s the only one that can bring this sound from her. He’s going to do everything he can to hear that sound until the end of time. He needs to do so.
There’s a gasp from Gangle that makes Jax look over at her, suddenly remembering that she and Zooble are also right there. Right. How did he forget that? Gangle is staring at him, her eyes wide as her mouth opens and closes like a fish. She quickly squeaks once she makes eye contact with him, her ribbons coming up to her mouth before she turns to Zooble. They’re also staring at him, an almost amused look on their face.
“Ah, I see,” they say as they look between Jax and Pomni. “That’s why Ragatha is so p[@#$]sed off.” If they had a mouth, it would be smirking, he can hear it.
Jax looks at them in confusion, “What?” Ragatha is pissed off because she wanted to pull Pomni away from him and lost. Were they talking about how he can make Pomni laugh?
Zooble shakes their head, “I have a feeling you wouldn’t want me saying it out loud,” Zooble deflects. Sure, that’s not weird at all.
Jax gets interrupted by Caine appearing above them all. “Hello hello! Oh, one is missing. That won’t do, we have an announcement!” He snaps, and then Ragatha is standing in front of the table. She looks like she had been laying down, barely bale to catch her self from falling. Jax snickers to himself quietly at her flailing.
“Good, good. Now that all of you are here!” he pulls Kinger out of the pillow fort, the man screaming for a moment. The screaming stops as Caine summons six floating blue eyeballs, one in front of each member.
Jax leans back a little bit from his, and he can see everyone but Kinger doing the same. The old man mutters, “Ohhh such beautiful coloring on an Eastern Eyed Click Beetle,” his eyes coming up to hover near the eyeball.
Caine ignores Kinger, “It seems like some data I have might be...outdated. So! We are going to have a quick few questions, and then we may or may not have an update. Please tell the truth! The eyes can tell if you lie, and I haven’t thought of a punishment up yet if you do!”
Jax cocks an eyebrow, glancing at Pomni. She shrugs before turning to face her eyeball. Jax turns to face his own, eyes daring across the large pupil, blue iris, and bloodshot sclera.
What is your circus name?
The voice burns in his brain much like Caine’s explanation of the original gun game that he had a couple days ago. Jax almost screams from the pain of it - this hurts more than it did last time, he knows it does. What is this? He looks out of the corner of his eye - Pomni isn’t having the same reaction, he thinks. She looks bored almost as she verbally responds to questions charged in her mind.
“Jax” he rasps out, focusing his eyes back on the floating eyeball. There’s nothing to share emotion in it’s gaze - no eyebrow to convey emotion, no eyelid to squint or close in avoidance - yet he still knows that it stares at him with hatred.
What is your age?
“22,” now that he’s bracing himself for the pain - worse pain, if he’s honest with himself, it doesn’t hurt as bad. It’s still the same as what he felt the first time - the words searing into his brain, the fire lingering for a good fifteen or so seconds before fading to a throb.
How long have you been here?
“Four years,” He can get through this. The others have stopped answering. His answers are going to be the only ones ringing out. Fuck. Well, time to speed through them,
What was your age upon arrival?
“10 minutes shy of 18.”
Do you wish to have the ability to participate in activities including adult content?
What? “Yes,” his mind is filled with lewd images of Pomni for just a moment before the next question burns the images away.
Would you like the ability to change your clothes?
Images of Pomni in cute outfits flash in his mind as he answers, “Yes.”
Do you agree to having lewd merch made of you?
What? The question makes his mind fully go into the gutter. One of those calendars that had models in micro-bikinis that’s just Pomni. He wants to have it. But he wants to be the only one to have it. “..No.” Hopefully this is for all of them and not just a character by character basis. Though, he doesn’t think he would want to participate in that anyways.
Would you like consequences for adult activities? Including but not limited to pregnancy, hangovers, bodily harm, or altered mental states.
Despite there being other words that follow it, pregnancy burns the most in Jax’s mind. “Yes,” he immediately snaps, suddenly upset he hadn’t been able to hear anyone else’s answers. Fuck. And now they’re all listening to him. What if they know? What if Pomni knows? What will she think? Does she know that he wants to make her swell with his claim in a way that shows everyone that she is his. Connects her to him forever and always. He decides that he doesn’t care what she thinks now. Eventually, she’ll love it. Eventually, she’ll be begging for him to breed her.
He swears to himself in this moment, if he’s teased with this and it doesn’t go through, he’s going to murder everyone in this circus until it does. He’ll rip Caine’s teeth from his gums if needed.
What senses would you like to enhance out of taste, smell, hearing, sight, and/or touch? Select as many as you please.
Would that mean he could experience Pomni in an enhanced way? See even more of her, every single detail of her skin, down to the pores? Would he be able to feel her skin and tell a difference other than an odd sense that he’s supposed to be furry? Could he hear her from further away, and always know where she might me? Would he be able to act like some animals do, and taste her scent on the air. The sweet banana pudding scent almost teases him in his memory as he answers, “All. All of them.”
Jax blinks as his eyeball disappears. Suddenly, the pain hits him all at once - like the image of the eyeball had been keeping it from hitting him. He can’t help but collapse face first into his French Toast, groaning in pain as Pomni is quickly reaching over, her hands hovering over Jax hesitantly.
“Jax? Jax, what’s wrong? Why did you take so long to answer the questions, it looked...” Pomni’s voice sounds worried - he amors that she cares, but hates that she has to see him like this. He takes a deep breath and sits up.
“Ah, I’m fine Pompom,” Jax tries to sound easy, but the strain in his voice and fruit stuck to the fur on his face from his faceplant beg to differ. His smile is strained, and he reaches to grab a fruit off his face, popping it in his mouth.
Pomni frowns at him, “Jax...” He pinwheels start to twirl and she sighs, “Alright, fine. Later.” She insists after a moment of staring him down. Jax sighs, nodding. He has a feeling she’s going to have questions. Maybe he’ll answer them. He doesn’t know - he just wants Caine to talk so he can know if he should be reworking his plans now or not.
He looks up to see that Caine is spinning in mid-air, T-posing with his mouth wide open and eyes staring in two different directions. “Uh...what?” Jax asks, looking up at the weird image.
“We really don’t know. He started doing that the same time you did that,” Zooble offers as an explanation.
“That's...weird. It looks like when I got under the map with Gummigoo but spinning,” Pomni remarks.
“Who,” Jax asks, his voice a tad harsher than it maybe should have been.
“Oh, uh, that one NPC I tried to bring back?” Pomni offers.
Jax winces slightly at that, “Oh. Yeah. That.” He blinks down at her, “I’m sorry you went under the map from that.” Jax offers. It’s something that he’s going to be analyzing later. Is that why she’s able to understand the circus so well? She had seen the adventures down to their bare bones during her first one out of the tent. She mentioned the NPC being down there - is that why she treats them differently? Because that NPC had an existential experience that she was a witness to? What was her motivation to bringing him back after that? Was she trying to help? That’s...better than others. Better than himself.
Pomni shrugs, “I don’t think it’s done anything to bite me in the ass so no-“ she cuts herself off the same moment that everyone turns to stare at her.
“Ass,” she repeats, the word not censored.
“Bitch,” Jax tests, and the grin on his face isn’t fake one bit.
“Shit,” Gangle offers from her seat.
“Fuck!” Zooble cheers. “Oh fuck yes! We can fucking cuss! Please tell me you all agreed to the adult content,” They demand.
Jax nods, his eyes unconsciously darting to Pomni to check her response, and he quickly looks away once he catches himself. His answer comes from her voice, “Yeah, I said yes to pretty much everything but the merch. I don’t want to think about what that would be. Knowing Caine, it would be fucking creepy,” Pomni grins as she cusses without the censor, and Jax can’t really blame her.
“It’s Kinger I’m concerned about. Anyone listen to his answers?” Jax asks, leaning back in his seat with his arm resting on the back of Pomni’s.
No one responds, so Jax sighs, “Guess we’ll have to wait for that to finish up,” he points up at Caine’s spinning body. There’s a small progress bar at the bottom, a tiny sliver of it green. The group slowly starts to eat, watching the progress bar. Ragatha disappears sometimes between Jax’s comment about Kinger’s answers and Bubble coming to clear the table, not speaking a word to anyone.
“Hey, Bubble, how long will this shit with Caine take?” Zooble asks before the soapy imp can open their mouth.
“I don’t fucking know. Probably a day? Updates will be happening throughout the day. Everyone is going to have their avatar reset tonight so sleep! That includes you, Jax!” Bubble seems pleased to have the ability to curse now. Good for them. They start eating the leftovers, and Jax walks off with Pomni.
“Well, we can play just normal monopoly?” Jax offers, thinking back to their earlier conversation. But, the others would join in with that. No, he needs to find something else. Something better. Wait. He knows exactly what, “Hey, you haven’t been to the carnival outside yet, have you?” he asks before she can answer. “We could go now - maybe some of them will have thrills that you can enjoy.”
Pomni looks up at him, and he can see stars actually come up in her eyes, “Oh, I remember that! Yes! Lets go!” She cheers, jumping in place. Jax chuckles, and takes off at a pace that she’ll be able to keep up with easily.
They chatter about plans of what they’re going to do on the trek to the carnival. It’s not too long of a walk - maybe about 20 minutes of comfortable conversations. Its easy - it’s something he hasn’t really experienced before. The 20 minutes feel like two seconds and they’re walking in, stalls of games with prizes framing a dirt pathway.
“So, how do you wanna do this, Pomski?” Jax asks as he looks down at her, “Games or rides first?”
“Rides!” Pomni declares, grabbing his gloved paw with her own gloved hand and pulling him in the direction of the biggest roller coaster. Jax chuckles and follows her, feeling that soaring feeling come back from the touch.
His plan seems to be working. But. His plan has to change now. There’s a new goal. A better goal. He needs to see Pomni swollen with his child. He needs to convince her. He needs to make her amor him enough to have his child. That’s the only way he will allow himself to do it. It’s the best way to ensure longevity, which he needs to prioritize with their immortal status in the circus.
As they get in line for the front car of the roller coaster he wonders if their child will age. Probably. He wonders once more what they will look like. Maybe a white hare like himself? That would be cute, maybe. If it had eyes like Pomni instead of his. Yeah. That would be cute. Or maybe something more humanoid? Maybe a purple skinned little jester, with yellow eyes. Or maybe the child would look like something else entirely. Will she have a girl? A boy? Something else? What names should they think of? Jax Jr doesn't have a ring. Jaxson is probably a better way to name a son after himself. Especially if they’re a rabbit. That’s a pun being passed onto the next generation. What about his future daughter? Pomni’s name isn’t as easy. Maybe she should be allowed to name the child whatever she wants, actually. She didn’t choose her name. He should let her choose their child’s. Though, he should probably have opinions if she ever asks. He’ll make sure to write some down later.
They reach the front of the line, and Jax looks to the side to see that Pomni is hyping herself up. Jax smiles and gets down to her level. “Hey, Pom. I promise that I’ll stop you from flying from the car if something happens. It won’t, but I’ll catch you if it does,” he reassures her as the car pulls into the station “Think of it as a proper apology for the truck thing.” He stands up straight, putting a hand on her back and gently pushing her to the front car as the gate opens. Jax leads Pomni over, helping make sure that she straps in correctly before strapping himself in and pulling the bar down.
“You ready, Poms?” Jax asks, reaching over to pull on one of the bells at the tips of her hat. She chuckles as she swats his paw away.
“As I’ll ever be,” she cheers. Jax takes in her nervous yet confident bravado. It’s adorable how she throws a first in the air.
“That’s the spirit,” Jax raises his hands as the operator checks the bar - mostly to ensure that Pomni won’t fly out. He promised it wouldn’t happen, he kind of has to ensure that it doesn’t. Otherwise all of the trust in him is gone, Pomni will hate him forever, and he’s better off abstracting as Pomni goes and tells everyone that they were right about him after all.
“Alright guys, I got a question for you. What letter comes before B?” The ride operator’s voice cracks through Jax’s slight panic.
Jax grins wide, already knowing what's happening as he throws his hands up in the air, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” He and Pomni respond in unison as the ride takes off. It climbs to a height only allowed due to the digital nature of the world they reside in. 900 feet is the last update that Caine had mention, Jax thinks. It was a few months before Pomni came in. He hasn’t been here since before then.
They shoot up in the air, screaming the entire time. Cold clouds hit their faces before they break the clouds and come face to face with the sun.
“Hello there dears!” The sun cheers down at them, “Do you know if I can get any more lines in this fic? I won’t share your secrets if I caaaan,” She grins wide and full of manipulative pride.
Jax’s eyes widen. Fuck. Zooble wasn’t the one he should be worried about. “Wait, what?” Pomni screams out in a question. Fuck. Right. Roller Coaster. He only has-
“Yes, yes!” Jax screams, and his voices carries the next words as he drops, “Fuuuucckkkinnnnggg ccuuuuuuunnnnnttttttt.”
“I get what I want, darling. Oh, see, it worked just like that.” The Sun winks at the Author. The Author winks back.
Jax and Pomni drop 750 of the 900 feet, before the track veers up to 400 feet and throws them in three loop-de-loops. Pomni’s blue glove - the one closer to Jax - grips the bar tightly as she screams so loudly that her sharp teeth come out. Huh. Hot. The track spirals tightly as it goes up back to about 600 feet before shooting down in a near 90 degree angle. Pomni’s hand moves closer to Jax, and he automatically moves his paw to the bar next to hers. She can do whatever she needs to.
Pomni wraps her arm around his, pulling herself as close to him as possible. Jax feels a flush come to his face, and he quickly scoots closer, his arm tightening around hers in response. They go into an underground tunnel, still dropping at the same angle. It almost feels like they’re floating.
Suddenly, the scenery changes. It’s like the night sky of the star watching adventure is surrounding them in one still panoramic image. The drop of the coaster makes Jax feel like they’re floating, with the only thing holding them away from floating into space each other and the bar of the coaster.
“WOAHAHAAHHAHAAHHA,” Pomni’s sound of awe turns into laughter as she looks around them. Jax’s eyes have only one focus. The stars around them in this moment could never compare to the way Pomni shines as she laughs in exhilaration. The black holes in space are bested by only one in the contest of gravitational pull. Pomni’s pull on Jax could save him from a singularity. He needs to reach that unavoidable type of pull on her too. He needs them to be an inevitability in the circus. He knows it’s unlikely that she will ever reach the same level as him. He’s always loved more than he’s gotten. That’s why he can’t scare her away. He needs their amor to be invincible.
The sharp change to going back up would kill anyone in the real life. For Jax and Pomni, it just makes them laugh and scream in exhilaration and terror respectively The tunnel around them changes, the night sky transforming into predawn, and slowly dawn. By the time that they reach outside once more, the transition is only noticeable due to the scenery change.
The ride goes up a small distance - only 50 feet - before one last drop, going through a small pond that soaks Pomni and Jax.
Jax has to pry Pomni out of the car, her grip on his arm too tight to do anything about. He manages to get her off with just one arm, carrying her in an awkward position off the ride. “You still with me, Pom?” Jax asks as he walks away.
“That was...so cool....” Pomni whimpers in a hoarse voice. Jax cackles as he exits the roller coaster’s area and looks around.
“How about something chill now, yeah?” he wanders over to the tilt-a-whirls. “Or well, we can manage how fast it goes,” he puts on a mischievous grin, “Heh, you’ll have to stop me from going too crazy,” Jax taunts.
Pomni squirms in his arms and he blushes a little as he puts her down. He snatches his hands away, “Oh-uh-sorry,” he stutters out, but stops when Pomni’s hand grabs one of his paws.
“You’re fine, I just wanted to stretch my legs after the ride,” Pomni tells him with a certain cheer in her voice that Jax can’t quite place. She squeezes his paw before interlacing their fingers. “Is...this okay?” she asks, her blush marks darkening.
“Yeah, yeah. This is fine,” Jax admits, and that emotion flickers across Pomni’s face again before she chuckles.
“Lets go. I’m gonna totally spin it faster than you,” Pomni teases back as she drags him to the tilt-a-whirl. Jax’s heart pounds in his chest as he follows her.
“I’d like to see you try,” he quips back automatically, his funny archetype slipping into place as his mind goes blank at her fingers intertwined with his. He keeps on glancing at their gloves meshed together like that as she tugs him into line.
They go around twice to compare. Pomni wins, and only Jax knows that it’s because he couldn’t stop thinking about holding her hand again, pulling her in close, pressing his mouth to hers as he takes a glove off and slides it under her hat to feel her hair brushing his fingertips. It seems under threat of it being a possibility now, Jax’s mind can’t help but crave the thoughts he had refused to think about Pomni so far. But now, he can’t help himself. He just hopes to keep things PG for the moment. He doesn’t want to get too dirty with the sun so close. She might hear him or something.
“Alright, breakfast is going to come back up if I don’t stop. What games do we have?” Pomni asks as she jumps away from her victory.
Jax is a little dizzy as he follows her, stumbling after her for a second. He stops to gather himself while Pomni rushes ahead, in the direction of the stalls with games and prizes. Jax watches for a moment before something in him tells him to chase her.
His legs stretch out to their full length, something about the action making him laugh. Pomni turns to face the sound, and shrieks before laughing and jumping up, turning to face him where he skids to a stop.
“Jax?’ She asks in confusion, but before she can continue, he’s running to her again. She jumps once more, somehow springing up directly above him. Jax can’t control himself as this happens a few more times, until Pomni is laughing hard enough that she can’t jump in time. Jax reacts fact enough, picking her up in his arms and taking off. He’s not sure exactly where he’s running off to, so he makes a decision and skids to a stop once he spots his target.
“Apple bobbing?” Pomni asks as he puts her down gently.
“Yeah, we both got the sharp teeth so it should be easier,” Jax says, looking up at the prizes. He grins as he spots a headband that looks like his ears. Perfect. Jax immediately walks up and looks at the wooden attendant, “What’re the rules?” he prompts, starting the required dialogue to properly get the prize.
“Hello and welcome to apple bobbing! This is a game that is traditionally played during Halloween, but here at the Digital Circus Carnival you can play any day, anytime! Where? Here!”
Pomni leans in to whisper, to Jax, “Is this...normal?”
Jax looks down at her, “Yeah, to get the prize without them yelling you have to prompt them and then they go on a stupid rant for like 10 minutes. Half of it sounds like a really crappy summery of Wikipedia.”
Pomni stares at the NPC as it talks about the buoyancy of apples for a moment before asking, “So why don’t we just...play the game and steal a prize once we win?”
Jax looks down at her for a moment appraisingly, “Oh? I thought you were an NPC sympathizer,” he teases, a tiny bitterness in his voice.
Pomni chuckles, “These guys hardly count as NPCs. They’re just regurgitated AI slop. Fuck ‘em.” Jax could marry her. He will one day. He will make a suggestion to Caine, he’ll use one of his prizes to choose an adventure, something. He’s going to marry Pomni, and then he’s going to impregnate her.
Notes:
so. a lot of fun stuff happened when writing this. accidental random mention of vore really threw me off i fully didn't know what was happening and then i go and read what i've written and i'm like "WAIT WHAT THE HELL THAT'S VORE" so if you also had that reaction, you're not alone. truly. i think i should...maybe...add an evil caine tag. what do you guys think? and then i flirted with the sun. idk man, she's hot (ba-dum tsssss)
i have so many evil plans for ribbit guys they're a diva and they're an abusive pos. i love writing characters like these. it lets me channel the voice that sounds like my dad in the back of my head. usually i just ignore him, but he works out well for ribbit. that's not a good thing.
also i went back and checked and realized the first chapter actually had a name so i'm doing that again lol. they're probably gonna be important in the future. i have an idea. this fic is slowly becoming my masterpiece. You guys thought Jax was bad before? boy is gonna be so much worse now
anyways, please give me comments, if you give me a long comment i'll give you one back. check the comments already here, it happens. those who leave me long comments, i see you, i love you, you get a muffin, your choice of flavor. leave your ideas of whats happening, i respond to theories sometimes, occasionally i'll point out things from canon that have influenced this fic, or i've even recommended one of my favorite fics in comments too so yeah come chat...speaking of chatting i'm debating on making a discord channel to scream about this fic in, so, if you want to scream with me let me know what you would like to see in that.
I actually have to go to work tomorrow so IDK how long it will be until my next chapter. unless the AO3 curse hits me and i lose my job. In that case....IDK man I might go to workforce solutions for that and hope something works out cos the job market is fucked. but my job makes me want to kill myself. so. i kinda want the curse to hit me
alright peace.
Chapter 5: Self Discovery
Notes:
If you haven't peeped the updated tags. This chapter is bad. I love it.
So. I've extended this fic again. Probably gonna be closer to 25 now? Maybe? I have.....ideas. Bad bad bad ideas about fictional characters. This chapter is a taste of some of them. It's one of Jax's worst moments in this fic.
I expected this to take longer than it did lol. Future chapters will actually take longer probably.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jax wakes up, feeling very different. The blankets of his bed are softer, almost, but it’s not as present of a feeling as it was when he closed his eyes. Opening his eyes, he’s surprised to see that he can see a little better. It’s not nearly night vision, but he can see the shapes of the room and can tell what colors things are. His ears twitch, and he realizes what woke him. He can hear someone snore like an old cartoon - probably Kinger. He can hear everyone as they breathe. It’s a little odd being able to hear it being this far away - usually he’s able to see them and connect it and not really pay attention. But now he’s able to pin each different breath and snore to each member of the circus.
Jax slowly sits up as he takes stock of himself. He can actually feel the difference between his body and his overalls now. Before, his overalls almost felt like an extra layer of skin - somehow attached at the shoulders and unable to be removed. Any outfit change from Caine was very similar. Now, he can feel his body underneath. He slowly starts to take stock as he gets up. He has a stomach, and legs, and a back and-
Jax’s dick feels weird. He sits up and looks down at his lap. He removes the blanket gathered there and stares at his crotch. Well. Time to see about taking off his overalls. First, he removes his gloves. It just feels wrong to take off the overalls without that first. He messes with the buttons on his chest, and blinks when a little hook attached to the strap going over his shoulder comes loose. Jax quickly does it to the other sides, and stands up. He has to sit back down to pull the overalls over his big hare feet. Once the overalls that have been attached to his body for years are off, Jax takes a deep breath before looking down at his lap, blinking at what he sees.
It’s very small. And Fuzzy. What the fuck, Caine? Jax needs to impregnate Pomni, he’s not going to be able to do so with something that can’t even fit in his palm, balls and all. He’s never going to be able to please her with this. He’s going to take off his overalls and she’s going to laugh and point before kicking him in the balls and punching him in the face for even daring to think that he’s ever good enough for her. He needs to fix this. “CAINE!” Jax screams, anger overtaking logic at the moment.
The dentures pops into existence, “Ah, Jax! The first member to call me after the update-“
“Yeah yeah yeah, what the fuck is my dick? I-I can’t have this!” Jax is too deep in his spiral of imagining Pomni’s fists landing blow after blow on his body for daring to try and fuck her with a dick like this to care about his voice cracking.
Caine glitches out for a moment, before blinking at Jax, “What do you mean? It-It matches your avatar! It’s got the sheathe and the knot - you haven’t even had it for five minutes and you’re already upset?”
Jax groans, “Just-what would you have made if Pomni had a dick?” Jax asks, and Caine thinks for a moment before offering up an image of a normal human looking dick, just bright white with a primary shade red tip, one primary shade blue ball, while the other is primary shade yellow. “Okay, cool, recolor that to me and replace this fucking weird fuzzy shit!” Jax snaps, embarrassment now fueling his rage more than anything else.
Caine snaps, and the small fuzzy apparently hare accurate penis has disappeared. Now, fur that Jax hasn’t realized until now is fluffier than he expected surrounds the base of a rather impressive violet cock, with a bluish tip and balls. It’s a good enough size to please Pomni for sure - long enough that with her small body he might reach her lungs. The thought makes his newly formed cock twitch in interest.
“Better, thank you,” Jax says, feeling a load of stress and anxiety leave his form. Caine hovers in the air for a moment longer, and Jax is about to snap at him to leave before the dentures speaks up.
“You wanted the same model I would have given a male Pomni. Is there a reason for the request in compatibility?” The AI’s tone is just curious, but Jax feels all of his fur stand on end. This...could be something that works out in his favor. He just. Has to do this correctly.
“There is, but it is a secret that cannot be told to anyone. Don’t even mention it to Pomni, if she knew I told you she would freak out,” Jax starts. It catches Caine’s attention for sure, the AI leaning in closer.
“Oh? What is it?”
Jax hesitates. Caine’s been acting weird. He hasn’t wanted to have Pomni’s mind get caught up in the mess that he’s been experiencing lately. But this isn’t her mind. This is her body - her body that Caine is already messing with. With her permission. He’s just making sure that Caine doesn’t have to go back in later.
“Me and Pomni are interested in exploring the new features together,” Jax starts off, making sure to phrase things properly to the perfect results, “So, I just want to make sure that her body and mine are compatible. I don’t want to hurt her, or have her think I look weird. She enjoys my company with my face being a hare’s - I don’t need my cock to be the thing that pushes the line.”
Caine nods, snapping his fingers, “Well, Pomni’s body is the next to update. I’ll ensure that your models are compatible. I’ll have to start thinking of children models. Perhaps I’ll look into human genetics so I can get a good result.”
“Sounds great, Caine. Remember - no one can know you did this. Not even Pomni herself. It’s a gift from us to her - it would be rude to spoil a gift before she can unwrap it.” Jax has to make sure that Pomni doesn’t know that this happened. He doesn’t want to rip Caine’s teeth out of his dentures - the AI would probably do something much worse in retaliation.
“Consider my non-existent lips sealed!” Caine makes a zipping motions and does close his dentures with a zipper before snapping out of existence.
Jax sighs, and decides to put on some clothes. He’s curious though. He said he’d like the ability to change outfits. Does that mean he put some in here already? Jax looks around and spots a door he hadn’t seen before. Is that a closet?
Jax slowly approaches, opening the purple door. There room is small, with a blue platform and a mirror for a wall. There’s a bright light that turns on as Jax walks in, and he feels his ears flatten against his head as he squints. After a moment, he can make himself out in the mirror. His body hasn’t changed much - there’s some extra fluff covering his body. In some parts, it’s the same lighter blue shade that makes up parts of his genitals, around his ears, all paws, elbows, knees, and a small area on his lower chest and upper stomach.
Jax hesitantly steps on the platform, and blinks when a menu appears, covering part of the mirror. There’s 6 small circular icons on one side. The top one had a generic shape of a body, similar to the image one might see on an exit sign, posing dramatically with small stars. Under that is a shirt, the next circle is a dress, followed by a pair of pants, then a pair of glasses with a watch, and finally a shoe. Jax curiously taps the tops button, and the rest of the screen fills with a menu that has several outfits already made. There’s his default, followed by the safari outfit, then the Australian outfit he had made to impress Pomni.
Jax quickly taps the next button when he spots the maid dress, going away from styled outfits to shirts. There's a wide selection of t-shirts with weird patters, sweaters, with things similar but not quite licensed content, various styles, patterns, shapes. Jax taps a hoodie, and watches as another screen appears on the other side of the mirror. There’s a color wheel, something that he’s becomes somewhat familiar with after years in the digital world. He selects a dark blue - very close to the shade that takes up half of Pomni’s jester outfit, and most of the hoodie changes color. There’s a few parts that he has to go in and change to a shade similar so that it doesn’t look weird, but soon he has a nice dark blue hoodie. He grins and moves on to put on a pair of black ripped jeans. He pauses at the accessory button, tapping it after a moment of deliberation. It would be interesting to see what Caine has put in.
There’s some glasses, necklaces, make up, wigs, and then it gets interesting. Jax grins as he sees his own ears on the menu,, showing off some piercing styles. there’s a few that are minimalistic, just a stud or a single bar. Then, he sees it. A selection where one of his ears will have piercings all down the outer side. The bottom five are studs before reaching about 1/8th of the way up his ear. There’s five rings that are the same distance apart. There’s a section blank, then about 1/3 of the way down from the tips of his ear the rings come back. there’s eight that go up to near the tip, where there’s two studs.
He quickly selects it, and starts to color the studs. The two at the top and two at the bottom are quickly made into the red and blue of Pomni’s jester outfit. On the bottom, he makes the remaining studs dark purple, orange, and white after a moment. Zooble’s words about character development ring in his ears. Maybe if he convinces them he did change, then he can get closer to Pomni.
Jax thinks about that for a moment. Has he changed? People say that what he feels for Pomni - amor - will change you. He hasn’t exactly been attacking the others much, has he? Ragatha doesn’t count. Ragatha was being a really crappy person. At one point she had tried to replace his mama - now she’s trying to stop him from being in amor? That’s just wrong.
Back to the matter at hand. Jax hasn’t broken Gangle’s mask. He’s not being as rude as he used to be. He’s too focused on Pomni for that shit anymore. Sure, he’s still fucking around with people, but he’s focused in on making sure that Pomni is focused on him now.
Maybe he has changed.
Jax scrolls through the rest of the accessories and finds a beanie that has holes for his ears. He smirks and selects it, putting it in Pomni’s red. He takes a moment to look at himself. It’s a good look. Jax smirks at himself, giving himself finger guns.
“There’s the look of someone who’s changing because of a jester,” he tells himself. “Still the funny guy - just. In amor now.” He takes one last look over himself before stepping out of the closet. He pokes his head out of his room, just in time to see an out of service sigh get removed from Pomni’s door and appear down the hall on Ragatha’s.
Jax needs to see her. She’s updated now - what little details have been added to her? Will her hat fall off her head as she sleeps? Can he run his fingers through his hair without her waking? He’s across the hallway before he’s fully aware of what he’s doing. He reaches into his pocket - and somehow his keys are in there. Love the cartoon logic of inventory. Jax feels one that’s shaped to look like three small poof balls, very similar to the poms on Pomni’s outfit. He pulls it out and slides it into the lock, opening the door and quickly sliding inside.
He can smell Pomni so much more. Now. Her door had been blocking it. Or maybe it was the fact that she just finished updating. She smells like freshly baked banana bread, and Jax just wants to sink his teeth in for a bite. He can almost feel the texture of crumbs and moist bread falling apart in his mouth as he takes in a deep breath through it. It’s lacking the nuts his mama would put in - but he’ll fix that in enough time.
He just has eyes for the shape under the covers in the bed. The steps he takes are slow, long, and halting as each one gets him closer to the source of that sweet aroma in the air. His newly formed cock is twitching in interest at the proximity to Pomni, and a bed, and the fact that he can smell her so much more now.
He stops at the edge of her bed, his eyes wide, panting like a dog as he looks down at her. His eyes are able to pick out small details now - like freckles in blue and red scattered lightly across her cheeks, under her blush marks. Her hair is more detailed now, individual strands that fall more organically across her forehead and pillow. Her hat isn’t even on her head - it’s off on a bedside table.
Mate smells good.
Jax’s paw is in his pants before he’s aware of what he’s doing. The warmth and velvet feel of his cock shocks him out of what he’s doing for a moment. Is he really going to jerk off while watching Pomni sleep?
Need to breed Mate.
The girl in question makes a smell noise as her body shifts, the blanket adjusting on her body. Jax’s eyes automatically latch onto the movement, and he’s squeezing his cock instantly. There, under the blanket, he can make out the shape of breasts. They’re the perfect size to fit in his large paws.
Perfect to fill with milk to feed our kits.
He has to bite his lip as he pulls his hand out of his pants, before slowly unzipping his jeans, afraid the sound might wake Pomni. He pulls his cock out, and starts to stroke the full length slowly, looking at Pomni. She’s perfection. She looks like an angel. His unoccupied hand slowly reaches out and pulls the blanket down, curious. If Caine removed her hat, did he do anything else to her default outfit? The idea if Caine having anything to do with it wars with the possessive nature in his mind. Remembering how Caine literally molded Pomni to be compatible with Jax shakes that away. Caine is an AI - he’s probably asexual or something.
Need to see Mate.
The blanket moving down reveals that her outfit has changed only slightly. It’s obviously two pieces now, a blouse with bloomers. The blouse flares out at the bottom, and the bloomers almost look like beach balls. Jax would chuckle if he wasn’t trying to focus on not making any noises of pleasure. His paw on his manhood - harehood? - is slow and steady, his palm gathering the precum practically drooling out of his tip to make the strokes smoother. Pomni cannot catch him doing this.
Mate is sleeping. Mate won’t know.
Jax’s paw hesitates before he’s slowly reaching for the buttons on Pomni’s blouse. He checks her face - relaxed as she sleeps away, unaware of what Jax is doing. His ears train in on her breathing as he slowly unlatches the button resting between her breasts. There’s no bra underneath. Good. He doesn’t know what the fuck to do with one of those. He checks her face again, then undoes another button. This process continues until Pomni’s blouse lays open, a sliver of white skin exposed.
Mate is perfection.
Jax’s hand on his cock squeezes the base to prevent anything from happening as he slowly peels off one side of her blouse. When it’s fully in the air, Pomni makes a small sound. Jax freezes, scared that he’s about to be caught with his cock in his hands, stripping her down as she sleeps. She’s about to beat him up - not because of his tiny fuzzy dick, but because he’s stroking a normal dick over her sleeping body without her knowing anything about it.
After a moment, Pomni settles back down. Jax stays frozen for a few more seconds before he slowly finishes with his task, looking down at his prize.
It’s adorable. Her nipple is a red heart. It’s the one that rests over her digital heart. Jax’s cock throbs at the sight, and he’s pumping it quickly, his free paw quickly covering his mouth as he has to bite back a groan at the sight.
Need to breed Mate. Mate is empty. Mate needs seed.
He’s panicking when he feels a burning feeling in his lower gut, quickly traveling to his cock, and releasing with his cum as it lands on the floor next to Pomni’s bed.
Jax milks his orgasm out, biting his hand to muffle out a cry of Pomni’s name. Fuck, he just came to the sight of Pomni’s left tit. He has to clean that up. His paw moves from his mouth as he pants shallowly, catching his breath.
Seed wasted.
He can smell a slightly more nostalgic banana bread now, the nutty scent of his release mixing with Pomni’s scent. Something about it is still wrong about it, though. The nuttiness of him is overpowering the sweetness of her. He needs more of her to balance it out. He has an idea of what exactly it is that he’ll need to get what he wants, but he's not doing that. He’s crossed too many boundaries tonight. Now that his mind is cleared of lust for the first time in years, he can’t help but hate himself for what he’s done.
This is fucked up. He can recognize that, as he stands with his cock handing out over Pomni with her tit out and cum drying on her hardwood floor. Jax quietly puts his cock away, before gingerly redoing Pomni’s shirt. He’s focused on her the entire time - trying to be as quick as possible. Fuck fuck fuck. He pulls the blanket back up and looks down at the puddle of cum.
The edges of it are starting to dry - fuck, it’s going to stain. Shit. He quickly looks around and spots a box of tissues on Pomni’s desk. That’ll have to to. He grabs a few before quickly getting on his knees and wiping it away. There’s an outline of the stain on the floor, but it’s faint. Hopefully she won’t notice. Jax stuffs the soiled tissues in his pocket, not wanting to have her find it.
Now that the crisis has been adverted, Jax takes a deep breath. He doesn’t feel the same uncontrollable lust that had drawn him into coming here in the first place any more. It’s not fully gone, just down to a simmer from a rolling boil of emotions. He feels something deeper than before as he looks down at her. More primal, almost.
Mate
The voice in his mind is new. It sounds very similar to his own, but it’s deeper. Almost growling. He tilts his head as he looks down at Pomni.
Mine. Mate. Mate is sleeping still. Nest is wrong. Fix mate’s nest.
What? No - that’s weird. He’s not going to-
Nest not same. Fix mate’s nest.
Jax’s brow furrows and he looks closer. The voice is right. He hadn’t noticed in his frenzied state that the blanket he pulled back was actually two. He had only pulled up one. He quickly fixes his mistake. He can’t fix all of the ones he made tonight, but he can fix this.
Claiming mate’s territory no mistake. Rag doll go away.
Jax blinks at that before shaking his head, too weird to deal with right now. He looks around Pomni’s room, spotting the infamous alarm clock next to the jester hat. It’s digital, glowing red in the shape of 2:45 AM. He still has about five house until she’s supposed to wake up.
He looks around the room, taking it all in. There’s a pile of childish toys in the corner, making Jax quietly chuckle. Of course she would want to get rid of anything that is remotely kid-like. He debates on taking them away so that she doesn’t have to deal with them, but decides against it. That might make her look closely around her room. He can’t risk that with the stain.
There’s a desk in a corner near a vanity that’s next to her closet door. Jax walks over to the desk, looking over it. There’s a set of pencils to one side, similar to Gangle’s. On the other side is the headband he had won her yesterday, matching his own ears. He smirks, glad to see that she didn’t just throw them away. He’s guessing the pencils was a gift for the small jester at some point - he can’t see anything that Pomni might use them on. He rolls his eyes. Maybe he could take her to some of the rooms that look like warehouse stores so that she can decorate her room more. It would be a way to keep her away from the others for a while. It would take several days to get through all of them. Then, Pomni would have a better room.
Plus, Jax can look for things for their child. A crib will be needed for sure. What room will they put the baby in? Will they share a room?
Mate and kit need to be safe. Need to make space safe. Soft for kit. Warm for kit. Away from Rag Doll. King okay. King has pillows. Pillows for kit?
Okay, what the fuck? What is this random voice in his head? Where did it come from? Did something happen with his update that gave him a weird demon growling animal in his head? Why would it do that? And why is it calling Kinger safe? Kinger is insane. Sure, Pomni seems to have some weird relationship with him, but Pomni is weird. She calls him her best friend. The guy who jerks off over her while she sleeps, apparently.
Jax distracts himself by looking in Pomni’s desk drawers. He needs to not think about weird animal things right now. The top drawer has a few puzzle books. The crossword one is mostly done, even with Caine’s weird hints. The sudokus are also pretty much completed. When does she do this? Before bed? Probably - that’s the only time he can think that she would be alone enough to do this.
The next drawer is filled with kids books. Ah. Hiding things from the original room layout. He’s going to have to offer to take these things out. Or, actually. Maybe the baby would like them? But, maybe Pomni would want to buy everything for their child. Jax almost wants to buy everything so that he can have a decision in things. He wants to be able to dictate everything about their child. He’ll need to at first to be a good parent. Until they’re able to have an opinion about things like what food they like, or what they want to do. Jax can’t wait. He needs to breed Pomni as soon as possible.
Jax closes the drawer and looks back over at Pomni. She’s on her back, her head tilted to one side. Her mouth is open slightly, a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth. Some of her hair sticks to her head from where it had been smushed into her face against her pillow. She looks almost ethereal. She is everything to him. He will kill for her, he knows it. Who he’ll kill - a member of the cast, an NPC, an AI, he’s not sure. But he will kill for her. It’s just a matter of time.
Jax checks the clock, and blinks at the sight of 5:15 AM blinking at him. He’s been in here for two and a half hours and it hasn’t felt like time has passed at all. He needs to leave before someone wakes up and sees him leaving Pomni’s room. He walks over to the door, hesitating as he reaches for the handle.
The smell of banana bread is able to soothe him right now. But something tells him that if he leaves Pomni’s room, he’s going to crave this scent. He closes his eyes, muttering a curse under his breath, and turns around. He goes to Pomni’s bed, and looks around it. Please let there be something be can grab.
Jax looks around, his eyes landing on her hat still on her bedside table. It...should work. She might think that it just despawned if it’s not on her head, or something. Yeah. It totally won’t be weird. He just has to hide it.
Before he can talk himself out of it, his paw is grabbing her hat and he’s walking out the door. He locks it behind him before quickly slipping back into his own room across the hall. He flicks on his lights, and walks over to his desk. Every step away from his door feels like he’s dragging a ton of weights on his ankles. He holds the hat up to his face, and it does make the task of getting to his bed easier. But he still can’t help but feel like something in him is missing. He thought he needed Pomni before - this update is making that so much more. He doesn’t know if he could survive a day without her attention, now.
Jax spends the next two and a half hours detailing the same amount of time spent in Pomni’s room in his journal. A sketch of her is completed with him pulling out colored pencils he stole from Gangle at one point to get the details just right. The shape of her hair as her shirt laid half open for him is almost completed when he hears her alarm go off. He slams the notebook shut like he’s been caught red handed and quickly slides the notebook into its proper place.
He smooths himself out, ensuring that nothing looks odd on his new outfit in his mirror closet. Pomni didn’t slam her alarm against the wall, so she shouldn’t be too long. Though, Jax feels like she might be a while with the new updates to her body.
Jax knows that he’s going to have to make it up to Pomni for what he did. Even if she doesn’t know it, he’s going to hate himself for all of time for even daring to do something like that without asking her. He fully blames that weird voice. It had been talking the entire time he had been violating her. He needs to control that, before he does something before Pomni is ready.
Mate is ready.
Jax groans before whispering aloud, “No, she’s not. Trust me, I want it too, but we need to wait. It’ll happen. Just...chill out.”
Why not ready?
Jax groans, “She...she won’t be able to handle how much I love her. She won’t be able to handle you. So, we’re getting her into a place where she can be, and then we’ll breed her, fill her with kits, make sure everyone else knows that she is mine and only mine.” He’s sure to whisper the words to himself, keeping an ear out. He’s sure that Pomni and him are the only ones left in the hall now - it sounds like she might be in her closet? Good. He hopes she chooses something cute.
He leaves his room, leaning against the wall next to his door, staring at Pomni’s door. He needs to see her outfit first. Plus, he wants her to see him first thing too. He also needs to know if she noticed the stain. If she tries to kill him, well, that’ll answer the last question. Maybe he can get her a rug or something to cover it. That might work. He’ll have to take her to one of the store rooms today. The decor warehouse has a bunch of rugs - there should be one she likes. Plus, a soft plush surface like a rug would be good for the baby.
Pomni steps out of the room, and Jax feels like his breath has been taken away. She has a violet minidress on with 2 inch wide straps over her shoulders. Under her top is a pale pink t-shirt with sleeves that go a little bit further than her normal blouse. She has yellow leg warmers up to her knees with small black heels that give her a few inches height. And the piece de resistance of it all. A headband of his ears resting in her hair. These headbands match his new character design, while the ones he won her yesterday are the old plain design.
Jax’s grin is genuine and true as he takes in her outfit - it’s totally inspired by him. It has to be. Those colors together is his combination. He doesn’t even have to be overly affectionate with his claim of her today - she’s doing it for him. That’s not going to stop him, of course.
“Well, a very good morning to my number one fan,” Jax teases as Pomni turns to face him after locking her door.
Pomni giggles as she walks over, looking him up and down. “I could say the same about you. I didn’t expect that vibe from you, thought.” She eyes his jeans for a second before looking up at his ears. “Huh, you’ve got like...blue bits now. And more fur.”
Jax shrugs, “Yeah, I noticed that,” He takes a moment to look closely at her, before commenting, “You have like red and blue freckles.” He doesn’t want her to realize he knew that beforehand.
Pomni’s eyes widen - and now that they’re open Jax blinks. One is red and ne is blue instead of the alternating irises. He doesn’t know how to feel about that. There’s still a pattern of shades of red and blue, but it’s not the same. “Your eyes changed,” Jax remarks with a pout.
Pomni giggles, her blush marks turning dark and almost glowing. That’s new. Jax chuckles, figuring that the eyes are fine, as long as it’s still his Pomni.
“I like it. Let’s go see what the others look like now,” Jax wraps an arm around her as he walks out of the dorms, his paw resting n her arm. Pomni leans into him as they leave the dorm hallway, heading to the breakfast table.
Gangle’s change is perhaps the most obvious. She’s been given longer lengths of ribbons, and it looks more like they’re wrapped around a chubby woman, about the same height as Zooble. The new form allows her to wear outfits, and she’s gladly doing so. A pale yellow dress covers her form, her comedy mask intact with a bright grin. The mask is the same porcelain of her old masks, but this one is new. Her eyes actually have a pink pupil in the black scleras, and instead of the plain curved lines making up the sides of her face, she has circular cheeks that seem to be larger at the moment with her present grin as she draws in her sketchbook, fingers for once present on her hand. Black ribbons surround her mask, almost like hair, long with curtain bangs.
It’s hard to tell the difference with Zooble. They’re wearing a leather jacket with one purple hand and one white hand out of either sleeve, and the same black ripped jeans that Jax has on, but it’s hard to tell what legs they have on with it. A black t-shirt with a drum set on it covers their torso, and they have a mohawk going sidewise across the top of their head.
Kinger’s chess piece has been given a more defined wood texture, almost akin to ash wood. There’s a definite shine to his figure, as if he’s been lovingly polished by the expert artisan that carved him out. There’s whorls covering his body, some large and long that create weird shapes with the curvature of his body, some small and creating circles that almost resemble something that makes the fur on the back of Jax’s neck stand up. He’s sporting an actual crown to go along with his normal royal purple cape.
Jax hazards a glance at Ragatha, just so that he wouldn’t be surprised later. The fibers of her yarn hair have been separated, the material tight curls that create a hairstyle that’s a similar shape to the one that Ragatha had before, just less sectioned out. It’s almost bouncier as the woman turns to look at Jax and Pomni, a bitter hurt expression crossing her face. Her expressions are now actually stitched into her face, giving her expression the texture of embroidery. The fabric of her skin is a slightly darker shade, and while still a cloth doll, she’s been given more shape to her body as well. Legs and arms that were just tubes are actually distinguishable as separate limbs now. Her dress has been switched out for one that’s a very similar style, a dark red with white accents.
“Good morning guys! Wow Gangle, you look great!” Pomni says as they get within earshot.
Gangle looks up, her pink pupils latching onto the pair, widening slightly. “Oh, thank you Pomni! Wow, your outfit is really cute!”
“Hey Pomni, Jax,” Zooble greets as the pair approaches. Their eyes narrow after a moment, “Wait, are you wearing the same jeans as me?” they ask Jax as Gangle and Pomni start to compliment each other’s dresses.
Jax pulls out Pomni’s chair for her as he answers, “Uh...maybe? I don’t want pants that are solid, but shorts and hoodie ain’t the look either.”
Zooble looks at Jax for a moment before nodding, “Yeah, your hare legs look weird in shorts anyways.”
“Hey! My body is the perfect example of peak masculinity!” Jax protests playfully, and Pomni snickers next to him.
“Yeah, from the tip of his fluffy ears to his even fuzzier tail!” she teases, looking over at him between giggles.
He rolls his eyes playfully, “Hey, not my fault Caine randomly deleted my tail. It’s back now - my masculinity is intact.”
“Sure it is,” Zooble drawls out, causing Gangle and Pomni to laugh.
The entire time, Ragatha’s growing more and more tense. Her grip on her fork is getting tighter and tighter. Her body is slowly hunching in over her plate. She seems like she’s about to speak up when Caine pops into existence in front of the table.
“Hello my bodacious bodies! How is everyone feeling after the update? Good?”
For once, there’s positive affirmations. Gangle and Pomni are nodding, and due to Pomni being pleased Jax decides to give Caine a thumbs up.
“Give me time to fuck and ask me again later,” Zooble responds, making Jax snort.
“Now, now, there’s going to be plenty of time for that later. For now, we have an adventure to remind some of you the responsibilities of your new permissions!”
“We like just got here,” Pomni whispers to Jax. He looks down at her.
“Do you need food?” he whispers. She shrugs.
“I mean, no, but I would like it,” she mumbles, her voice acting like she was being scolded.
Jax blinks. He didn’t mean that. He responds by reaching over to grab some cinnamon rolls, hoping that he still has a plastic bag in his inventory for a few adventures before Pomni game around. He grins in success at the last of the bags coming out, and puts a few cinnamon rolls in bags as Caine explains the adventure.
“Now, a surprising amount of you decided to agree to possibly having children-“
“You put it in the same thing that gave me the effects of drugs!” Zooble shouts at Caine. Huh. Jax hadn’t noticed that detail. He thought that having drugs in the first place would give the high. It must fall under a consequence in Caine’s AI mind.
“So, I wanted to ensure that we won’t have any parent with no knowledge,” Caine grins as the adventure's title appears behind him as he announces it, “Today’s adventure is Parent Practice at Digital Daycare!” There’s silence as Caine pauses. He coughs for a second before continuing, “You’ll be placed into pairs and given a child to help raise for the day. You’ll help feed, change, play, and teach the infant, encouraging them to grow into a happy and healthy digital person!”
He has a board appear behind him, “Now, I’ve selected the pairs that you will be placed in to raise children. These cannot change - your child will respond to you. Be good parents!” On the board, three boxes come up. In the first box an image of Jax and Pomni appear next to each other with a small teddy bear between them. The next box is Ragatha and Gangle with a marionette doll. The final box has Kinger and Zooble with a small red circle.
Caine opens the portal, “Now, go, learn how to be parents!” Caine declares. Zooble gets up, clearly trying to walk away from the portal. Before they can take a step, Caine opens a hole under them, “Oh no you don't,” he teases as he does so.
Jax gets up, looking down at Pomni, “Ready to go raise a kid?” he asks, eager for her response.
Pomni looks up at him with a bright smile, “Yeah, lets go!”
Mate wants kits
Jax doesn’t even think about pushing the voice down as he follows Pomni into the portal.
Notes:
Hey hey if you're above the age of 18 come join this server (nothing weird I'm just 24 and dont want to talk to minors) the link will expire after a week so if it doesn't work and this fic is still being updated there might be a better link in a future chapter! https://discord.gg/xq7SMTn2
ANYWAYS
How we feeling about Jax now? Anyone notice the Sims reference? I was combing both 3 and 4 in my mind.
Chapter 6: Family Dynamics
Notes:
holy crap this chapter is longer than i expected it to be. sorry about typos. i've been going insane over this fic
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The stuffed bear fills Pomni’s arms much like a real newborn would. It’s swaddled in a baby blue blanket, only a small fuzzy face poking out of the top. There’s a small matching cloth hat over the baby’s head, with small holes cut out for the baby’s small ears - slightly elongated compared to a normal bear’s. They’re very similar to a Panda in color - mostly white fur, with dark blue on their ears and around their eyes.
Mate with Kit. Our Kit. Protect Mate, protect Kit.
Jax squats to Pomni’s level behind her, looking over her shoulder at the babe in her arms. He glances at her face. Her eyes are wide as she looks down at the child in her arms, a soft gentle smile on her face. The odd expression he hasn’t been able to name yet is looking down at the child in full force. It’s not a bad emotion, he knows that. It’s got the wide eyes of joy, a grin that screams glee, a slight darkening to her cheeks that suggests she’s flustered or exhilarated.
Jax figures that she doesn’t hate the experience so far then. Good. He looks back down, whispering “Does the blue mean boy? Do...we name him?”
Pomni glances over at him from the corner of her eyes before her gaze focuses back on the baby, “Maybe? Caine said we’re given a child to raise for the day,” She whispers back, before cooing, “Oh, look, he’s opening his eyes,” her voice is filled with something that Jax can’t quite place. Jax’s eyes are already on the small panda’s face - their yellow eyes opening wide to stare up at both of them. “Oh, hello there sweetness,” Pomni coos, her grin widening as she leans down to press a kiss to the child’s head.
Mate good mother.
Jax can’t help but agree with the voice. Pomni’s easy affection of the infant is sweet, and the way that her tone automatically shifts to something soft and gentle makes something flip in Jax’s chest. He looks down at the two smaller beings, and feels something akin to the amor that he’s grown familiar with since having his realization about Pomni. It’s warmer, almost like he’s sitting next to fireplace after spending hours out in the snow. It starts in his chest, slowly expanding as the baby’s eyes lock up onto his own, the child making little noises of content.
Familia.
“Hi there buddy,” Jax’s tone somehow has the same gentle soothing tone that Pomni’s had used. The baby smiles with no teeth, and Jax feels the warmth grow to consume more of his body. It’s something he’s felt before, and it floods him, the affection filling his body using avenues that have been dried up for four years. It’s the end of a drought, affection bubbling and flowing through him as he rests his head on Pomni’s shoulder and wraps his arms around her to provide more support to the baby in her arms.
The sound of another baby crying makes Jax’s arms tighten around Pomni and the panda, pulling Pomni into his chest as he looks over to the sound.
What dangers? Protect Mate, protect Kit. Mate protect Kit. Protect Mate.
Ragatha is holding a pink blanket swaddled around something that appears a little more human. It has a smooth wooden face as the only body part exposed, the matching cloth cap on the ground between Ragatha and Gangle. There’s painted black ringlets covering their baby’s head, and the child’s expression is scrunched up in distress as it lets out another wail. Gangle’s new body reaches for the child, the ribbons around an invisible arm coming just shy as Ragatha turns away, bouncing the baby in her arms.
Rag doll stupid. Mother bad. Kit cries. Danger to kits. Damage kits. No allowed kits.
“Ragatha! She only started crying when you snatched her from me! Give her back!” Gangle protests as she reaches for their child once more.
“She’s fine, Gangle, she’s just cranky from waking up, the rest of the babies will be crying once they wake up too,” Ragatha says as she plays a game of keep-away with a screaming infant.
“J.J isn’t crying,” Pomni pipes up, apparently already having named their child. Jax turns his head with a tilted eyebrow at her, and she blushes a little, whispering to him, “J.J...you know, short for Jax Junior?” He hadn’t wanted to name his child that before, it felt a little weird. But, with her looking at him, the question in his eyes, he immediately agrees.
“Sounds good to me,” he confirms, giving her a soft smile before looking back down at the newly dubbed J.J.
“See, Ragatha! Just, pass her over before she starts making the others cry,” Gangle tries again as the wooden doll lets out another cry, but Ragatha is jogging away as she holds the baby. Gangle gasps in fear as she stops, “Don’t run with the baby! What if you trip and fall!” Gangle almost screams, her comedy mask turning into an expression of terror.
Loud bad. Get away. Mate and Kit away.
Jax’s ears flatten at the volume, and he can see that J.J’s ears do something similar. Fuck, his son is uncomfortable. He can’t have that. J.J might start crying too. He’s sure that Pomni’s heart would break at the sound, and he needs to make sure she’s comfortable after what he did in the wee hours of the morning.
His eyes dart away from the group for the first time since being placed into this adventure. There’s a pale green building in front of them, birch trees lining the front of the building. There’s a few big windows with curtains blocking the sights inside.
Jax whispers a quiet, “Hold on to him,” into Pomni’s ear as his quickly adjusts to pick her up in a princess carry, ensuring she’s secure, before using his long legs to power walk to the doors. Kinger - who somehow has a bucket on his head - meets them at the door, the chess piece pressing an automatic door button with his body. His disembodies hands cradle a pale yellow blanket that’s somehow wrapped around a red checker piece with no discernable face, body, or details.
“Zooble is going to try and help Gangle,” Kinger explains from under his bucket as they all enter the lobby. Jax places Pomni down near a front desk, ensuring she’s steady with J.J still in her arms.
“What’s...wrong with Ragatha?” Pomni questions, tilting her head back slightly to look between Jax and Kinger, hoping to get an answer.
Jax hesitates, looking at Kinger for a moment. The man was there, but it’s a 50/50 chance if he would even remember, “I think she really wants to be a mom. She really tried to be one with me,” Jax looks over his shoulder to see Ragatha being cornered against a tree, the fabric doll’s arms wrapped around the pink bundle, face enraged as she screams in Zooble’s face. He wonders to himself if the rag woman is dealing with something similar to him with the growling voice in his head. He immediately banished the thought, not wanting anything possible that can be used as a comparison between them.
I no hurt kits. She hurt kits.
Jax agrees with the voice. He’s protecting Pomni and J.J. Ragatha is terrorizing hers and Gangle’s child. She’s not even five minutes into being a mother, and she’s already terrorizing her child. Jax ignores the commotion outside, instead turning to focus in on J.J still in Pomni’s arms.
J.J is the perfect image of a calm, happy baby. His eyes are the same as Jax’s, with large pupils taking up most of their area. He’s slowly blinking, eyes going between Pomni and Jax, even darting over to Kinger every once in a while. He’s wiggled a little bit - enough that one blue paw is able to come out of the paler blue folds of his blanket. He’s sucking on the pads of his fingers. Jax knows that this image will be going into the journal later. The image of their perfect son, being absolutely adorable.
J.J makes eye contact with Jax, blinking before pulling his paw out of his mouth, reaching up with a little closed fist at him. Jax chuckles, reaching down and pressing a finger to the closed fist. Jax looks down at Pomni, and remembers what he shoved in his pocket before coming into the adventure.
“Hey, think if you pass him over to me he’ll be calm enough for you to eat these?” Jax asks as he pulls the cinnamon rolls he had pocketed away for Pomni from the table from his pocket, still in a bag. Thankfully cartoon physics means that they’re still perfect, ready for consumption.
Pomni looks over, blinking owlishly at the bag before looking down at J.J. “Uh...as long as we’re slow, it should be fine?” she suggests, and Jax nods. He puts the bag on the front desk next to them before leaning down. They slowly transfer the baby over, J.J looking up with wide eyes as he’s carefully transferred. Pomni ensures that Jax is supporting J.J’s head one last time before stepping away, both of them holding their breath.
J.J blinks at Pomni, before his large eyes turn to Jax’s. They have a very long staring contest as Pomni walks over to the cinnamon roll, and pulls it out to eat. “Do you want any?” She asks him as she tugs it apart with her fingers.
Mate food.
“No, that’s for you,” Jax responds immediately. He’s not even looking up at her, J.J’s eyes still unblinking staring into his own. “When we get back to the circus, I’ll make you something else.” He wants to show off his skills in the kitchen for her. He can be a good father. He can prove it to her.
Give Mate food, Mate stays.
The voice in his head gets it! It’s a shame their digital bodies don’t change shape like a human body with metabolism does. Otherwise Jax might have been able to fill her up with sweets and treats until she’s too big to walk away and leave him ever again. He could stuff her full of delicacies as delicious as her, filling her up until she’s loaded full of food and happy.
His mind gets interrupted by the front door opening. Gangle’s walking in first, her arms cradling the wooden marionette doll to her chest. Zooble walks in directly behind Gangle, walking with their arms positioned in a way to try and hide Ragatha’s view of Gangle with their leather jacket. Ragatha is walking in last, glaring at the back of Zooble’s head.
Jax moves to ensure he’s next to Pomni as the group files in. Kinger moves over to Zooble, the two of them standing between Ragatha and Gangle. Zooble makes sure that Kinger’s standing on the same side as Gangle, allowing the marionette baby to stare at the checker piece.
Protect Mate. Protect Kit. Rag doll crazy.
Jax makes sure that he and Pomni are on the far side of the group from Ragatha. The cloth made woman is acting too erratic for him to deal with as he’s holding his son. Luckily, an NPC comes up to the front desk before Ragatha can look over at them. The NPC enters the lobby through a door behind the front desk, looking up at the group.
“Ah, yes, the new parents here for parenting classes! My name is Nanny McFire, and I’ll be helping you all navigate parenthood! Have you all decided on names for your bundled of joy?” The NPC is one of the wooden mannequins, discernable from the others due to a few mole-like knobs on their face. Nanny McFire is covered in a very modest dark blue dress that drags on the floor. It has tight hemlines on the high almost-turtle neck and long sleeves, giving Jax the impression that it would be rather stifling to be in. Especially considering this NPC seems more filled out than others, with extra padding around the chest, stomach and hips. There’s a long white apron that covers the front Nanny McFire’s dress, with two large pockets on either side of the middle of the torso.
“Our son is Jax Junior, or J.J for short,” Jax says after a moment. He has a feeling that they’re the only ones that have anything planned.
“Wonderful, such a lovely name. Hello there, little J.J!” Nanny McFire’s voice gets soft when they address J.J, who looks over at them for a moment before staring at the other babies. The NPC’s body turns to face the rest of the group, “Everyone else?”
Zooble and Kinger are quietly talking, and after a moment Kinger says, “We have a lovely little Randa here,” his disembodied hands surprisingly steady and careful as he holds the checker piece that, as far as Jax has been able to tell, has yet to do anything.
“Amazing, welcome in little Randa!” Nanny McFire’s knobby wooden face with no mouth or eyes is doing more than Randa.
Gangle looks over to Ragatha, about to speak up before the doll interrupts her, “My daughter is Charlotte.” The doll’s voice is hard, cold, a refusal to any protest before it can be made. The NPC doesn’t seem to be aware of the tension.
“I am so pleased to meet you, young Charlotte!” Nanny McFire leans in the direction of Gangle holding the doll before straightening out, “Now, I do believe it is getting close to the time where our lovely bundles of joy are getting a little hungry, so let’s go get their bottles ready!” The NPC leads them through the door they had originally come in from, which leads into a hallway lines with doors. Nanny McFire enters the first one to the side, and the cast files in behind her.
The room has three rocking chairs equally spaced apart on one side of the room, about five feet apart. Each chair has a banner with a child’s face on it - J.J’s on the far left, then Randa in the middle with Charlotte on the right. The chairs are facing a large kitchen, with a massive island counter that stretched across a majority of the room. There’s stations aligned with the chairs on the island, some white cubes with holes in the top of them at each one.
“Alright everyone! If you’re not currently holding your child, please sit in the chair so that we can make sure everyone can do a proper pass off!” Nanny McFire says as they move to the kitchen, pulling baby bottles out of the fridge as everyone moves to the chairs. Jax can see Ragatha practically run to her chair, slamming into the seat and looking over at Gangle holding Charlotte with an almost feral glint in her good eye.
Danger keep away
Whatever that glint in her eye is, it unsettles him greatly. He turns his body so that Ragatha can’t see J.J in his arms as Pomni sits down in the chair next to him. Zooble and Kinger walk with Gangle, one of Zooble’s hands on Gangle’s shoulder. Their face is turned to the masked woman, offering quiet words of comfort that Jax tunes out.
Once Pomni has gotten comfortable, she looks up at Jax expectantly, eyes darting down to J.J as a soft smile graces her face. Jax is going to spend days detailing every expression that she’s making today. Jax wordlessly moves closer, leaning down and resting J.J in his mother’s arms with adoration. He assures that his son is comfortable, adjusting the blanket slightly so it’s not as tight. The baby’s wiggling stops once his arms are freed, and Jax chuckles lightly.
“Yeah, I don’t like being constricted like that either,” he mutters softly to the child, smiling softly for a moment before leaning back. Looking down at Pomni and J.J in the chair, he feels the wave of affection hit him once more. It almost throws him off his feet with its intensity.
Mate safe. Kit safe. Feed kit?
Jax turns around to see Nanny McFire has placed some large full bottles of milk at each station, a few smaller bottles next to them. There’s a couple of jars of baby good next to the bottles, making Jax tilt his head slightly. He doesn’t think J.J is old enough. He has to remind himself that this is an adventure. J.J isn’t a normal baby, he’ll probably be growing at an increase rate or something. Jax looks over with that in mind, and notices that J.J is actually a little bit bigger than when they had spawned in. He’s also more active, reacting to Pomni as the woman gently whispers and coos down to him.
Jax catches a glimpse of Zooble awkwardly looking down at Randa, the red checker piece has a few divots lining its edge now instead of being a smooth disk. Their arms awkwardly hold the “baby” close to their chest, as their eyes dart between Randa and Gangle. The ribbon woman has already deposited Charlotte with Ragatha, and is nervously watching the rag doll from a few paces away.
Ragatha has curled her upper body cover Charlotte, her feet resting on a part of the chair. Her body is creating a small enclosing, her wild red hair fanning out to create an uneven curtain. She’s muttering into the space she’s made, Jax able to pick up words like “My sweet girl, you’re not leaving me. My darling Charlotte. Sweet little Lottie,” in an almost demented tone, with a softened edge as she rocks the chair gently.
Unsafe for her kit. Keep away from Mate and Kit.
Jax feels his ears twitch downwards before he catches them and pulls them back up. He turns back to the counter, looking at the bottles and the white cube. There’s a few buttons on the front of it that he can see now, being closer to the device. A gently commanding voice speaks up, “Alright, now, it is going to be the job of the parents holding their children to keep the babies calm as your partners prepare a bottle. Once the bottle is completed, your baby is going to age up, and will be craving some more solid food. You’ll have to get them into their highchairs and fed before we can move on,” Nanny McFire’s words are clearly from Caine, but their inflection of it is not at all similar to the AI’s normal cadence. Instead of screaming out half the words with extra movements, Nanny McFire is calm and almost nurturing. He can tell that she cares deeply for the babies that are being held across the room.
“How much milk should we prepare, Nanny?” Kinger asks as he lifts the bucket over his head slightly to see the bottles in front of him.
“Fill the bottle up to 6 ounces, and that should be just about enough for each child,” The NPC responds kindly.
Jax nods, and looks down at the station. He grabs the full bottle and an empty one, setting them next to each other before hesitating. “Nanny McFire, are there any funnels we may use?” He questions, looking up just in time to catch a funnel that will be the perfect size.
“Excellent question, 10 points to J.J’s parents!” Nanny McFire whisper-shouts as to not disturb the children. Behind him, Jax can hear an oddly muffled crying. He turns his head to check what it is, and sees Zooble holding Randa out and away from their body. The checker piece seems to be the source of the add sound, almost like when Ragatha had her stuffing falling out of her throat and couldn’t speak. Nanny McFire also seems to notice and tuts out before responding, “For shame! 20 points removed from Randa’s parents - for not knowing how much to feed your own child, and being unable to hold them!”
Zooble seems a little put off, “What? Where the fuck did points come into the equation? And I don’t even want to be here! I don’t like brats - can’t me and Kinger sit this one out?”
Gangle makes an odd sound to the words that’s quickly overtaken by the sudden and alarming response from Nanny McFire as the mannequin launches themselves over the counter and Kinger’s head, landing a few paces away from Zooble in a superhero pose, causing a small crater to appear in the floor.
Too close to Mate. Too close to Kit. Danger. Danger.
Jax’s fur bristles slightly, but he manages to calm down when he sees that the NPC is stalking forward to Zooble and Randa, “You ungrateful mish-mash of clashing colors and shapes,” how the NPC knows that when Zooble is covering most of those with their black outfit, Jax is unaware. Maybe it’s the mohawk across the top of their head that the nanny-based NPC distastes? Or is this something else? Nanny McFire grabs Randa out of Zooble’s outstretched hands, gently bringing the red circle into their arms near their chest. “That’s it - your custody has been revoked, and your ability to have children is denied.”
“Thank fuck,” Zooble says, getting up and walking over to Gangle, immediately offering to help the ribbon woman. Nany McFire humphs to herself, gently cradling the child as they approach Kinger. “I’m sorry your partner has been so uncooperative as to get custody revoked. If you would like to separate and file for custody as a single parent, I will allow it. Though, I will also give you the option to act as a supporting role and learn alongside the other parents if you would like.” Nanny McFire’s voice is gentler once more when talking to Kinger.
The chess piece turns to look at the two left in the chairs, tilting the bucket up a little bit. Jax can see him looks between Ragatha and Pomni for a moment before he lowers the bucket, “I’d like to help them out,” Kinger says with a finality in his tone. Nanny McFire nods.
“Alright, I’ll go give Randa to my associate to put her into the foster care system. I’ll be just a moment.” Nanny McFire leaves, and Kinger sighs.
The chess piece looks at Jax for a moment, before a using voice that is much more present that Jax is used to hearing, “Did you tell Ragatha that Pomni is evil, or did she take something out of context during the gun adventure?” Well, that’s completely out of nowhere. Did Ragatha say something to him when he wasn’t looking?
Jax blinks for a moment, thinking back to that fond day. He had got to shoot and kill everyone but Pomni, and she had cemented her place by his side. Of course, he had to get Ragatha away for that to occur. Jax thinks back on his words before responding to Kinger, “Pomni had told me she wanted to act evil for a day, and Ragatha was upset thinking I had pushed her to it. The thing is, I had asked Pomni what she wanted and that’s what she decided.” He explains carefully. He doesn’t want to lie about the day - but something about Kinger’s demeanor right now tells him to be cautious.
Kinger nods slowly, “I see,” he says, turning to look at Pomni for a moment before looking at Ragatha, “I think that whatever conflict that came from you and Ragatha after your...old friend...left us has been brewing in her for a while. You shouldn’t have to deal with it, so I would suggest that you do your best to stay away,” the older man advises. His disembodied hand rests on Jax’s shoulder, “Don’t worry about her, just focus on your relationship with Pomni right now.” He pats Jax on the shoulder before walking away, leaving the hare to stare at him in confusion.
Familia?
“When did he get so insightful?” Jax mumbles to himself before shaking his head, turning back to the bottles. He has a funnel now, he doesn’t have to worry about spillage. He gets to measuring out 6 ounces of milk, figuring out the bottle warmer after tapping a few buttons. Soon enough, he’s walking back over to Pomni with a warm bottle of milk.
J.J sees the bottle and makes grabby hands for it, making both of his parents chuckle. Pomni takes the bottle and helps guide it into the baby’s mouth, smiling softly down at J.J as he latches on and starts to consume. “There you go buddy, consume the milk,” Jax cheers on quietly, squatting in front of the chair so that he can be closer to J.J.
Good Kit. Strong Kit. Mate fed, Kit fed. We good mate.
Jax feels pride growing in him. He’s able to provide for his son. He’s able to be a good father. He glances up at Pomni, who is staring down at J.J with that weird expression again. He can’t help but wonder what’s going through her mind. Does she think he’s a good father? If he proves that he’s a good enough father today, will she be willing to have a child with him in the future? Can he make this his future?
Nanny McFire walks back in when J.J is mostly finished with his bottle, still chugging along like a champ. The NPC walks over, humming happily, “Ahh, it seems as if you both have excellent instincts for your childcare skills. Wonderful, I have high hopes that J.J is in capable hands,” the NPC nods at them and Jax watches as one of the knobs on their face falls off, rolling away on the floor.
Jax’s eyes follow the Nanny over to the Chair where Ragatha is seated, Gangle awkwardly standing to the side holding the bottle. Kinger is seemingly trying to talk to both of them, his bucket covered head turning between both of them. Zooble stands silently behind Gangle, one of their hands rubbing Gangle’s back.
“Oh, that won’t do,” Nanny McFire grabs the bottle from Gangle’s hand and is walking over to Ragatha, “Dear, we have the bottle for Charlotte here,” Nanny McFire’s voice is soft as they address Ragatha, using the same tone that they've been using when talking to the babies. “We have to feed her so that she can grow big and strong,” The NPC continues. Ragatha, who has been mostly still save for the occasional tremor, slowly starts to nod.
The doll woman slowly uncurls a little bit, revealing that Charlotte has grabbed a fistful of her hair. The baby lets go when they catch sight of the bottle, and reaches out to grab at it. “There we go, dear,” Nanny McFire helps Ragatha get the bottle situated in Charlotte’s hands.
Bad mother. Can’t feed kit.
Jax rolls his eyes, Ragatha really isn’t all that capable of the whole parenting thing, is she? Whatever, as long as she keeps her crazy away from Pomni and J.J, Jax doesn’t give a flying fuck. Ragatha can get her hair pulled out as her child starves to death in her arms for all he cares. Just as long as the child’s cries don’t disturb J.J. He’ll have to take his son away in that case.
Jax ignores that situation and looks up at Pomni, “How’s he been doing?” He asks, voice low as to not disturb the eating child.
“Pretty good, he’s behaving so well so far,” Pomni looks back down at J.J, “Isn’t that right, my sweet boy? You’re so good for mommy.” She caresses his face, taking any attention away from Jax. Which is a very good thing in this moment, because he can feel a blush coming up across his face as the words she said to J.J ring in his his head over and over “You’re so good for mommy” repeating in his head, until his imagination has twisted her tone. Instead of the gentle coo she had used while talking to J.J the words repeat with something more sultry in his mind, and Jax suddenly feels a need to ensure that Pomni will never leave him, that she will have his child, that she will one day repeat the words in the tone that will bounce around in his head until he hears the real thing.
Be good for Mate. Be best for Mate.
Jax is pulled out out of his mind by a flash of light, looking up to see that suddenly J.J is bigger, sitting upright in Pomni’s lap. He’s wearing a blue onesie now, little bamboo shoots scattered across the fabric in a rather adorable design. Jax looks at J.J with a look of shock, before grinning wide.
“Hey there buddy,” He coos, and J.J smiles showing off three little teeth in his mouth.
“Dada!” J.J shrieks in joy, wiggling to scoot closer to Jax. The hare is quickly reaching up to grab J.J and stand to his full height for stability.
“Woah buddy, don’t go taking a nose dive off your mama’s lap there,” Jax says playfully as he gently bounces J.J for a second before holding the child in his arms, looking down at Pomni still in the chair. “They grow up so fast,” he says, half joking. The sudden jump in age reminds him of something important - this isn’t real. It’s one of Caine adventures, to test out new features.
Pomni seems to be coming to the same realization as she gazes at J.J with a look that makes Jax’s breath catch in his throat. Her pupils are starting to shrink and become distorted at the edges, her mouth slowly turning into a small thing line. He taps Pomni’s forehead, and she startles at him, looking up with wide pupils. He has to do something to make her feel better. A joke? Maybe he can...”If you miss him too much after all of this is done, we can see about getting him to spawn again,” Jax teases lightly, wiggling his eyebrows. It’s a big part of his plan - flirtatious jokes are always a good way to tell if someone is into you.
Pomni snorts, standing up and looking him up and down for a moment before replying, “Hmm...the dad look is nice on you. Maybe prove you can be a half decent father,” she jests with a wink before turning to the approaching Nanny McFire.
Can do. Be best father.
Jax immediately turns to Nanny McFire, determined to pass whatever tests they may throw at him. He’s going to be the best student that any NPC Caine has ever created has ever seen. He latches onto their words, “Congratulations you guys! Jax Junior is officially a year old! 100 points for being the first parents to accomplish this! Now, it’s time for him to be fed in a high chair,” she waves her hand and a blue high chair appears, and the jars of baby food from their station float over. “He’s going to get a little messy, but don’t worry, we’ll be dealing with that quite soon.” They pull out a small baby spoon, and Pomni grabs the supplies as she gets up from the rocking chair.
“Alright, is there any advice you might be willing to give?” Pomni asks, taking her time to word the question. Jax appreciates the effort she’s taking to not lose the points they just got. Most adventures don’t mean much, but this one will prove that he can be a good father. If he can prove that he’s a good father, Pomni will be willing to carry his child and wear his claim proudly. No one will questions who she belongs to once there’s a little reminder of their affections toddling around.
“If there’s an issue with J.J refusing one of the foods, try showing him you guys eating it to tell him that it’s good for eating,” The NPC offers before looking over at Ragatha with Charlotte. Kinger is standing between Gangle and Ragatha, the chess piece clearly trying to get them to talk as the bucket on his head spins from his moments between the two. Gangle is holding a bottle in her ribbons, gesturing with it to Ragatha. The doll doesn’t seem to be reacting at all, still curled around Charlotte in the chair.
Nanny McFire sighs, “I’ll be dealing with that, if J.J finishes the food before I’m finished, there’s more food in the kitchen.” The NPC briskly walks over to the other group, sending Kinger away after a moment. Kinger makes his over to J.J’s newly spawned in high chair, and starts to help out by pulling the tray out, pulling the safety straps out of the seat of the chair.
“Thanks, King,” Jax mumbles as he sets J.J down, strapping the child in as the panda wiggles a little bit. “Hey buddy, don’t you want something tastier?” Jax questions, trying to veer the kid into calming down a little, “Mama’s got some good food for ya, hijo, just hold on a second.”
Jax doesn’t even recognize the little Spanish word has left his mouth until Pomni lets out a soft hum, “Oh, I didn’t know you speak Spanish.”
Jax freezes for a moment as he grabs the tray from Kinger, taking a second to look over at the rest of the cast. Ragatha has actually lifted her face a little bit to respond, the image Ragatha and Gangle are in a discussion with Nanny McFire, with Zooble staring the two women down, arms crossed. Yeah, they’re occupied with that. He can talk to Pomni without them over listening. Jax glances at the chess piece.
Familia, yes. This? no.
“I’m going to go find some more snacks in the kitchen. If J.J needs a snack once we’re out of here, you come find me.” With that, he slides across the floor to the other half of the room and starts looking for something to take with them. Does the bucket grant super powers or something? Why is Kinger suddenly so empathetic instead of insane?
“I grew up bilingual,” Jax responds to Pomni after a moment of fiddling with getting the tray to slide in correctly. “Spanish at home and English everywhere else. My Mama didn’t know too much English, so it was on me and my siblings to help translate for a lot.” Jax looks down at J.J, strapped in and sat in in the high chair. The panda’s blue paws are sliding across the tray as the infant babbles to himself.
Pomni moves to stand next to Jax, humming, “That’s cool. I took a couple years of French in high school to graduate. Could never get the hang of the grammar though. I wish I grew up with it, maybe then it would have stuck.” She looks down at the jars that she had snatched out of the air, two in each hand, a spoon hold in her grasp by a single finger. Jax grabs the spoon from her so it won’t fall as they look over the jars. “Carrot, blueberry pie, turkey dinner and Pear with Spinach,” Pomni reads off.
Jax’s face turns into a grimace, “Turkey dinner baby food? That...doesn’t sound very good. Lets hope they finish up over there before we have to try and get him to eat it.” He grabs the carrot jar out of her hand and pops it open, looking at the orange puree. He sniffs it curiously, shrugging, “Smells like carrots,” He offers the jar to Pomni and she looks in, sniffing as well before nodding in agreement. She places the remaining jars on the highchair tray, and J.J grabs the blueberry pie one in his little paws.
“You want that one next, hijo?” Jax asks as he uses the spoon to stir the carrot baby food. He leans down a little bit to be closer, catching the panda’s attention. The baby looks at him with wide eyes, and when he sees the spoon of food coming for his mouth he opens up wide, accepting the food into his mouth. Jax pulls the spoon out and watches curiously as J.J sits with it in his mouth for a second before swallowing and eagerly opening his mouth for more. Jax is quick to comply.
See, Mate? Feed Kit, good father.
J.J opens his mouth as it’s still full of the carrot puree, and a little bit comes out onto his face. Pomni chuckles lightly, “Man, cleaning fur is going to be a little more difficult than skin. Especially since his is so thick,” Pomni reaches over to J.J, petting his head, fingers running through the two inches of fur.
“Yeah, hopefully there’s a gentle enough brush for him,” Jax continues to feed J.J for a few minutes with nothing of note happening until they get to the end of the jar. Jax is scraping the las bits of food of the sides when a flash of light occurs from the other side of the room.
He glances up to see that Ragatha is now holding a slightly older Charlotte with Nanny McFire standing next to the chair, the rag doll looking up at the NPC and nodding along to whatever they’re saying. Gangle stands a little bit to the side from them next to Zooble. Despite wearing her new comedy mask, there’s a pained expression across the ribbon woman’s face.
“Wonderful, now, Charlotte has to eat a jar of puree and we’ll be able to move onto the next lesson!” The NPC declares, summoning the required materials for Ragatha.
“Looks like you’ll be able to get that blueberry pie in then, bud.” Jax comments as he looks down to J.J, who is still holding the exact same jar. The panda baby lifts the jar in the air, and Jax chuckles, “Yeah, you’ll eat that one next,” he grabs the jar out of J.J’s paws, opening it up and sniffing it. “Huh. I...actually want to try this one,” Jax mutters as he lets Pomni smell it too. Sweet berry scent with an undertone of a lightly spiced pie crust.
Pomni takes a finger and swipes a little bit of the food on the lid, popping it into her mouth. “Huh, not too bad. Pretty sweet. You’d probably like it,” she remarks. Jax swipes his finger through the remaining spots on the lid and pops it in his own mouth, pleased by the berry sweetness.
“Yeah, that is pretty tasty. Good choice, junior,” Jax looks at J.J, who smiles wide.
“Dada!” The baby babbles a few words, clapping his paws and wiggling. Jax chuckles and cleans off the spoon with a little cloth hanging off the high chair. He stirs the dessert flavored baby food, and J.J cheers in excitement, opening his mouth wide the moment the spoon leaves the jar.
“Someone knows what he wants,” Pomni almost sings the words as she looks at J.J then at Jax, a slight smirk to her lips. “We’ll just have to ensure he gets it.” There’s something about her words that makes Jax’s digital heart beat a little faster, the tips of his ears burning slightly as he starts to feed J.J.
“I’m on it,” he chuckles out, thankful that his voice doesn’t crack from the random nervousness he’s feeling.
“That you are,” Pomni says, something that Jax can’t quite name in her tone. He feels his cheeks burn as he focuses on feeding J.J the sweet puree, the panda happily eating the food and not getting nearly as much on his face. He still reaches for the spoon, knocking it around near his face and getting a glop on his cheek.
Kinger walks back over, both of his hands filled with boxes. One holds a box of squeezable apple sauce pouches with a few additional fruit mix in flavor options. The other shows bags of a few different chips and crackers for babies, including teething biscuits, crunchy cheese snacks, and little popped rice puffs. “These are the only snacks I was able to find. There is a lot of baby bottles in here.” He comments, looking down at the boxes from under the bucket.
“Sounds good, J.J is acting like a vacuum cleaner with the food, we’ll probably need something t feed him later,” Pomni remarks, taking a closer look at the crackers. “I’d like to get him something that’s a different texture - he has a few teeth now, so the teething biscuits might be helpful.” Pomni picks up the box from Kinger’s hand.
Nanny McFire walks over, Ragatha holding Charlotte in her arms close behind with Zooble and Gangle trailing behind. The NPC looks at the three cast members, nodding with approval, “Ah, you’ve taken the initiative to locate snacks for later, amazing. Another 20 points for J.J’s parents. Now, it’s time for us to move onto the next room. I’ll take the empty jars and you two get J.J ready to go.” The jars hover into the air and zoom off.
Jax and Pomni work together to get the tray off and J.J out. Pomni takes him into her arms, the baby’s torso about 2/3rd the size of her own. “Are you sure you don’t want me to carry him?” Jax asks, looking down at the pair.
“No, I wanna hold my baby,” Pomni says easily, snuggling into J.J with a joyful smile across her face. J.J coos and hugs her back with an iron tight grip. Jax feels his smile twitch a little bit in jealousy. Why can’t he be small enough to be held like that by Pomni? He wants to shrink down in side and be held close to her chest. Maybe he can shrink down small enough to the point where her body is like a grand landscape that he must navigate. He would memorize the valleys and mountains of her chest and hips, the plains of her cartoon torso. Would the hillside surrounding the cave the longs for the most be moors or forest? He longs to find out, and longs even more for there to be a present, warm subterranean river for him to bathe in with a sweet banana scent.
The group heads back to the hallway. Jax follows along, trying to stop his mind from picturing Pomni’s body from the perspective of someone 1/100ths of his current size, and his helped by the sudden assault on his nostrils. “Oh no,” Pomni whispers, turning to look at Jax. He can see the brown stain that’s coming from near J.J’s upper thighs and immediately jumps into action, grabbing J.J from Pomni’s arms.
Soiled Kit! Fix!
“Shoot, did it get on your dress?” Jax asks, carefully holding J.J. He has sleeves at least, so he can just take off his sweatshirt. He wonders if Caine programmed in an undershirt or not. Guess it’ll be time to find out once they get this situation sorted.
“No, I was able to smell it,” Pomni says, double checking her violet dress for any brown stains. There don’t appear to be any, thankfully. They walk into the next room behind Nanny McFire, and Jax can’t help the sigh of relief as he takes it in. Smaller than before, with two changing tables. One has outfits in shades of blues, greens, and reds on a clothes rack next to it, the other changing station’s graced with shades of pinks, purples, and yellow. Next to both of them is a small tub that’s resting on a low table with two stools next to it. Before Nanny McFire can start talking, Jax is already getting J.J on the table with blue outfits, looking for the fasteners on the onesie.
Clean kit, need to clean kit. No one can smell kit.
“Ah, it seems as if J.J is giving his parents a head-start on this room,” Nanny McFire says playfully, moving to stand in between the tables. Ragatha moves to stand in front of the other table, but refuses to put the marionette doll down. Even when a slightly less repugnant smell comes forth from the child’s diaper. It’s somehow oddly reminiscent of a sausage breakfast sandwich. Nanny McFire continues, “Here, we will be getting all clean form eating! Be sure to clean any mess form the soiled diapers as best as possible so the water doesn’t get too dirty too fast!”
Jax is pulling off the stained onesie, gagging at the smell that comes wafting up. “Jeez, what are you, a radioactive waste disposal unit?” He jokes lightly as he quickly throws the onesie into a hamper in the corner of the room. Pomni is looking at a small shelf under the table, pulling out a few wet wipes. She finds a can of air freshener and quickly comes up, spraying it in the air. Jax feels himself relax a little bit at that, and he hums in thanks at her action. He undoes the adhesive of the diaper, and physically recoils as he’s hit with another wave of the worst smell he’s encountered in the circus. Pomni is quickly spraying the air freshener again as Jax lifts J.J’s legs and slides the soiled diaper from underneath the panda’s brown-stained behind. He shudders at the sight of fur, glancing at Pomni in misery.
“Oh jeez this isn’t gonna be fun,” Pomni says as she carefully picks the diaper up and throws it in a nearby trashcan, that thankfully has a step-lever lid.
Mate smart. Mate good.
Jax catches a glimpse of Ragatha over the changing table for Charlotte, the cloth doll almost hunched over the wooden doll as she growls and spits at Gangle, “No, you’re not taking my daughter from me!” Gangle’s face turns determined for a moment as she steps closer, before Ragatha screams, “God, I finally understand why Jax destroys your mask every day! You’re so fucking annoying. Leave me and my daughter alone, I don’t need you!” The words are spat out with venom that’s only worsened by Ragatha throwing a fist up in anger, knocking into Gangle’s mask and shattering it on the floor.
Zooble, who had been standing near the door, is by Gangle’s side in an instant. “Ragatha, what the fuck is your issue? This is a team adventure - usually you’re the best one to get paired with,” Zooble is immediately blowing up on the rag doll, stepping between her and Gangle, “Ever since Pomni and Jax started hanging out, you’ve turned into a real bitch. You were always calling Jax a villain, and maybe he was at one point. But it’s more villainous to not see and accept when someone is changing for the better.” They’re not afraid to call out the issue, it seems. Jax’s eyes widen and he glances over at Pomni, who is staring at the argument, her hands in fists.
Ragatha goes to speak, but Zooble is not finished, “You are not acting like yourself at all. The Ragatha I know would be jumping for joy that Jax has stopped abusing us. In case you haven’t noticed, the only one he’s hurting anymore is you, and that’s when you’re insulting Pomni!” Jax feels a little weird being talked about like he’s not in the same room. Zooble doesn’t exactly seem to be aware of where they are right now, though, “Right now? I see old Jax wearing Ragatha’s skin. Learn to better yourself, or we’re gonna have to warn the next newbies about you like we did with him.” Alright, that last comment hurts. Did they really warn people about him?
Jax rolls his eyes and goes back to cleaning J.J, using several wet wipes and slowly getting the defecation out of his son’s fur. He can hear the others still going at it between each other, Ragatha’s voice piping up before Gangle’s. He chooses not to focus on the words, instead he focuses on getting brown out of white and blue. He can hear Pomni moving to the bathtub, and water starts to run after a moment.
The argument on the other side of the room calms down, and after a moment Pomni speaks up, “Should we use lavender or vanilla soap?” She asks, holding up a pale yellow and a pale purple bottle. She shakes them both, tilting her head.
“Uh...vanilla,” Jax decides after a moment. That’s closer to Pomni’s scent.
Pack scent.
Jax blinks at that. He didn’t think hares were social creatures. Did Caine fuck up and mix them up with something else? Rabbits were more social - did he mix those two up? Jax internally groans, but can’t be too upset when the scent of vanilla mixes pleasantly with Pomni’s banana bread sweetness in a pleasant way.
When there’s just a light tinge of brown to the fur of J.J’s bottom and a pile of wet wipes to the side, Jax carefully picks the baby up and goes over to the bathtub, which Pomni has filled up halfway. Jax sits at one of the stools by the tub before putting J.J inside the slightly warm water. Pomni had placed a few bath toys inside including a boat and some fish that quickly catch J.J’s attention.
“Alright, situation dealt with,” Jax sighs as he slumps in his seat. He looks down at the sleeves of his dark blue hoodie and groans when he notices a brown stain. “Well, time to see if Caine programmed in something underneath the sweatshirts,” Jax comments. He thinks he can feel something else as he lifts the fabric up and off his body. When he looks down, he blinks and feels his face heat up a little bit. There’s a shirt underneath his sweatshirt alright. It’s black with an artistic rendering of Pomni falling through space, something that Jax thinks he remembers from the weird random “merch adventures” that Caine will take them on sometimes in the middle of the night.
“Is...that the design from the weird merch dreams but just me?” Pomni asks, looking at the shirt for a moment.
“Oh, those aren’t dreams. Caine lies about that because he doesn’t want anyone else to know about the audience. He would probably hate that me and The Sun talk to our readers all the time and he can’t, but the readers want to flirt with The Sun and the author simps for me.” Jax winks at Pomni, and the author cries from not being the object of his affections. At least we have The Sun, dear readers.
Pomni blinks at Jax, the information not processing in her mind. Jax redirects the conversation away from his shirt, “Alright, time to get this baby boy clean,” he notices that Pomni has gathered some supplies off of a shelf on the table the tub is resting on. There’s a glove that has soft bristles covering the palm and fingers. Jax quickly pulls it on and dips it in water to get it wet before taking the soap she had pulled out and squeezing some onto his hand. As he does that, Pomni plays with J.J in the tub. She takes one of the fish toys and makes it swim across the tub, making the child laugh in joy. Pomni’s face brightens up at the sound, and Jax can feel the affection rushing through him again, washing away everything but this moment with his small family.
Kit clean. Mate happy. Family safe.
Kinger wanders over, and to Jax’s surprise he’s not intruding in this moment. It’s almost natural for the chess piece to be in the same space as them. “Oh, it seems like you guys have a real grasp on this parenting thing,” Kinger remarks, looking at the scene as he tilts the bucket up for a second. He pulls a polaroid camera out of who knows where and snaps a picture. Pomni, looking over with her hands still in the tub as she prepares another fish to swim across the tub. Jax is focused on the panda child, his soapy gloved hand lathering suds into J.J’s back as the child looks at the camera with a bright grin, his arms in the air.
“Wha-where did you get a camera?” Pomni asks, watching as Kinger pulls the photo under the bucket to get a better look.
“Oh, I always have this around,” Kinger says, waving it off. “This sure is a good one. Do either of you want a copy? I think this will go in my scrapbook.” The disembodied hand offers the photo for them to look at carefully, keeping it away from the tub and any wet grabby fingers.
Family!
“Sure,” Jax replies casually. Pomni wanted him to be a good dad, right? Dads keep photos of their kids. Bath time ones are like, required of parents. Plus, this can be something he puts in his journal. It will have a picture of Pomni in the absolutely adorable outfit that she’s got on, and it will include their first son. Jax is able to remind himself that J.J will not be coming back with them, but he knows that he’s going to treasure the memory of his panda son.
“I’d like a picture too, please.” Pomni politely asks, letting the fish go and dart across the tub, much to the delight of J.J.
“Wonderful!” He waves his hand over the photo and suddenly has two additional copies in his hand. He places them on a clean corner of the changing table before looking down at the mess. “Oh my, I’ll get this cleaned so you two can focus on getting him cleaned.” Kinger remarks, offering his help once more. Jax really appreciates it.
“Thanks, King.” he says, grabbing a small cup to pour water over the sudsy fur on J.J’s back. It takes a few rinses for the water to rinse clean, and then Jax is looking over at Pomni. “Do you want to try a hand at scrubbing him?” Jax offers, and Pomni nods. She takes the soapy glove from him, and Jax stands up, stretching for a moment, J.J stretched up as well, and Jax chuckles as he sits back down.
He catches a glimpse of the situation across the room, Nanny McFire having taken to helping Ragatha as Zooble and Gangle sit together in a corner, quietly talking to each other. Gangle has her sketchbook out, and is drawing away, occasionally wiping away tears. The doll seems to be latched onto every single word that the NPC is uttering, leaning into their space. Jax swears he almost sees a heart appear in the stitching of her button eye and the pupil of her good eye. That’s...kind of pathetic.
J.J starts to stand, but Jax quickly picks him up and sits him back down in the tub, “You’re not even close to being clean, hijo,” Jax grabs one of the first out of the water and flies it over J.J’s head, making the child reach up and try to grab it as a distraction. Pomni takes the opportunity to start gently lathering the fur on his stomach and sides. The two work in tandem to get J.J clean, eventually draining some water before having him stand in the shallow bit left and scrubbing his legs, making sure that there’s no remnants of his blowout on his fur. He suddenly flashes in a bright light, and is suddenly taller and lacking in some of the baby fat that had made his arms, legs, and face pudgy.
Nanny McFire comes over, having separated themselves from Ragatha. They look over J.J as the remaining water drains and Jax grabs some towels from a shelf near the hampers. He returns to the tub as the NPC says, “Wonderful job, both of you! another 100 points for you. Dry off and dress up J.J, and we’ll be moving onto our final lesson,” As they speak, another one of the knobs falls off of their face. Jax looks at it for a moment before nodding slowly.
“Right, we’ll get right on that,” he wraps a towel around J.J and starts to rub at the wet fur, trying to at soak up as much as possible. The NPC takes his words as the dismissal they are and zooms back over to Ragatha, almost eager. Did something happen there after Jax stopped paying attention? Whatever, if Ragatha is focused on the NPCs then maybe she’ll stop bothering him and Pomni.
J.J gets to be just lightly damp with his fur after a few minutes of Jax and Pomni drying him. Kinger has cleaned off the changing table, so they move him there and Pomni gets a diaper on him, telling Jax, “Choose something cute to put him in, maybe they have overalls?” she smirks up at him, and Jax can feel himself flushing.
Shit. That’s flirting. He has to flirt back, she’s showing interest. “I’ll see if I can find a jester hat. Those tend to be adorable.” He considers the darkening of her blush marks a personal victory. He grins to himself as he moves over to the clothes rack. Kinger is looking through the clothes already, pulling out a few outfits. He has a half blue and half red pair of overalls that Jax considers to be quite promising. It seems that Kinger had the same idea, as once he hears Jax he holds it up.
“Look at this, Jax! I overheard Pomni mention overalls, do you like these ones? I also found a few more sets, one that looks more like yours if you want to go for the whole mini you theme that some people do. There’s also a purple one that I’m a rather big fan of, it almost matches my cape!” Jax watches with amusement as Kinger shows off the outfits.
“Wow Kinger you’re really helping us out.” he comments as he grabs the half red half blue and pink overalls, turning to look at J.J and then down at the overalls. “It’s...a little weird. Usually you’re not...here.” Jax tries to word himself carefully. Kinger is important to Pomni. She just started to flirt with him - he can’t drive her away by being too big of a jerk to someone she’s friendly with.
“Ah, yeah. The bucket helps. As for helping you guys....I don’t think I could have done a good job on my own with Randa. You two are willing to accept help unlike Ragatha, so I’m trying my best.” Kinger nods, and Jax takes a moment to digest the words, eventually selecting the half red half blue overalls. Kinger produces a jester hat before he speaks once more, “I can tell that you have a great admiration for Pomni, Jax. We all can. Just, please don’t hurt her. I wouldn’t want to see what would happen if something happened to her.” Wait, is this a shovel talk now? Oh, that explains the relationship between them so much better now. Kinger’s treating Pomni like she was his daughter. Wait - Kinger has been giving him pats on the back, and is now not threatening him outwardly. Does...he have Pomni’s father’s approval?
Pack? Pack leader??“I would rather abstract myself than let anything happen to Pomni,” Jax says with all the seriousness of a judge declaring the death penalty on a convicted serial killer. Kinger takes a moment before nodding, and patting Jax on the back.
“I had a feeling, but something was just nagging at me to say something. Now, I think Pomni is going to love the outfit you’ve got for J.J, lets go show her!”
Pomni laughs when she sees the outfit, and helps get a freshly diapered J.J into the outfit. As they secure the hat to his head, J.J starts to babble, “Dada wanna go ou’si, ca we?”
Jax raises his eyebrows, “Oh, you wanna go outside hijo? Well, we’ll have to see what Nanny McFire says about that. I have a feeling we might go that way, but you gotta be chill until then. Okay?”
“Okay dada,” J.J agrees with a very aggressive nod of his head. He turns to Pomni, “Mama, hugs?”
Pomni coos slightly and immediately wraps her arms around J.J, who throws himself into her as he wraps his entire body around the short woman. He’s now the same size as her torso, so she’s set a little off balance by it. Jax quickly reaches out to steady her, “Woah, J.J, don’t go knocking over your mama. I know she’s great but we don’t want her falling when we’re showing her that.” Jax’s voice is gentle, and J.J nods slowly.
“So’y Mama,” J.J says, more gentle as he snuggles into her.
“Oh, it’s okay baby. Just be a little more gentle with Mama. You cam jump into Dad all you want, he can take it.” She grins mischievously at Jax, and he could melt on the spot from the image. It’s perfect - Pomni, holding their child, joking around with him. It’s exactly what he wants - he just needs to make this permanent. J.J will leave, but soon they’ll spawn in another.
Pomni’s eyes are still on him, and when she lets out a little gasp as her blush marks darken more than he’s ever seen, he’s snapped out of the train of thought. He blinks before quipping back, “Yeah, hijo, if you’re jumping people, you jump me. It’ll take a lot more than you to take me down, unlike your Mama.”
Jax walks over and J.J raises his arms up. Jax leans down and sweeps him up out of Pomni’s arms, turning to look at the situation on the other side of the room with J.J in his arms to the side. Ragatha and Nanny McFire are dressing Charlotte in a soft pink dress, while Gangle and Zooble are still in the corner. It seems like Zooble is just watching Gangle draw now, their pointed end resting on the ribbon woman’s shoulder as they watch pencil scratch across paper.
“Should we put shoes on him? just to be safe?” Pomni asks, looking up at the bottom of J.J’s feet. Jax looks down and shrugs, “I mean, if you want to? I don’t know how much he needs them - animal paws and stuff. There might be some over there, I didn’t really look. Kinger had everything prepared like some overexcited grandparent.”
Pomni snorts, looking over to the chess piece who is still by the clothes rack, holding up various baby clothes in little outfits. “I’ll go ask him if he’s seen anything.” she says, walking away. Jax watches her for a moment before turning to look at J.J.
“Hey hijo, wanna fly?” Jax asks with a wide grin. J.J nods, and soon Jax is lightly jogging around with his arms outstretched over his head, J.J screaming in laughter. He continues around for a minute, until Pomni calls him over with shoes. He holds J.J for Pomni to slide the shoes on, and a moment later Nanny McFire is walking over with Ragatha behind them. Charlotte is in her arms, her face turned to quietly whisper to the child. The wooden doll is whispering back excitedly, apparently attached to Ragatha. Jax notices that Charlotte is dressed now, and quickly grabs his and Pomni’s photos so they won’t be forgotten.
“Alright, everyone is dressed and ready to go outside? Amazing! Let’s head out!” The NPC leads them out of the room, and down the hall to a door that leads outside. “In this lesson, you are going to play with your child and keep them safe. Please make sure that no harm comes to the child. Once your child is tuckered out and ready for bed, you will have finished your parenting lessons for today!” With that, Nanny McFire actually grabs Ragatha themselves and drags the doll over to a young child’s playground.
Jax feels a little bittersweet at the words. This is the last section of his adventure with his son. After this, J.J is going to become a memory. Maybe a reused asset in a future adventure. The thought makes something twist in his gut, and he tightens his hold on the child for a moment before looking down at Pomni. The woman is gripping the skirt of her dress tight, and Jax frowns slightly. He rests a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, what do you wanna do first? I was always a fan of swings, myself.”
Pomni looks up at him, blinking for a moment. “Oh, uh, swings sound good. I always liked them too.” Pomni smiles up at Jax, but he can tell that it’s a little strained. He frowns slightly and leans down, picking her up in the arm that’s not holding onto J.J. “Wha-Jax what are you doing?” She’s laughing slightly as she asks, so that’s a win.
Jax walks over to the swings, “I’m making sure that we get swings!” He plots Pomni down in a plain swing before going to one of the baby ones and plopping J.J in it. Pomni chuckles as she starts to swing lightly, her feet dangling off the ground. Zooble and Gangle follow after a few seconds, plopping in a couple of other swings a few seats down.
Why here? Don’t let near kit.
Jax looks between the pair on the swings and the pair on the playground. Kinger is sitting under a tree, laying on the ground. Jax wonders if he’s found an interesting bug. Pomni speaks up after a moment, “So she freaks out when it’s one of us that she’s paired with, but an NPC is fine?”
Gangle and Zooble look at each other for a moment, before Zooble looks up at Jax then Pomni as Gangle looks down in her sketchbook. “She would have freaked out at anyone but you probably, Pomni.” Zooble says after a moment. “Even then, it’s a 50/50 chance. I don’t know she’s acting....” Zooble trails off, and Jax can tell what they want to say.
Jax can’t help but feel a thrill at what they’re suggesting. He can see it plain as day, too. Those who abstract act odd before doing so. Almost like their worst traits get worsened. He’s quite familiar with that. The way that Ragatha is acting...his tail can’t help but wag as he thinks about what they might mean.
“Well, she can learn how to manage her emotions herself,” Pomni decides as she kicks off the swing to go just a tad higher. “She just treated me like a child all the time. Maybe if she stays same enough to somehow get a child of her own she’ll calm down and leave me alone.”
Yes. Rag doll bad. Leave Mate alone.
Jax pushes J.J along and immediately declares, “I’m not doing it. Convince Caine to let NPCs do it or something. He gestures to Ragatha going down a slide with Charlotte in her arms, the NPC having pushed them down, “She’s getting friendly enough with this one. Convince Caine to let NPCs participate in adult activities and send her away on the next adventure. She’s always flirting with them, it won’t be too long before she’s out of our hair,” Jax thinks up the plan quickly, already coming up with details as he focuses on J.J, “Hell, we could work it as feedback into this adventure so he’s likely to listen. Something about how the trials of parenthood were so joyous that some members would love the ability to have a child with some of the NPCs he’s made. Maybe flatter the NPCs? Hey Pomni what exactly was it about that gummy guy that was so cool you tried to bring him back?” Jax doesn’t actually want the answer, “Whatever the answer is, try and describe all of Caine’s NPCs like that. If you compliment him enough he’ll do whatever you want.”
“That’s...not a bad idea and also insightful,” Zooble says after a moment. “How did you figure that out about Caine?”
“Oh, you Zoobs. You make him glitch out so often that I kinda wanted to see what would happen if I complimented him. You have to be careful for big things but I think this should be simple enough. Maybe bring in some of the NPCs that Rags likes. I can’t help there, other than saying that we should ask Caine to let anyone impregnate, regardless of gender.”
Pomni hums for a moment, and nods, “That might work. Good idea, Jax.” She praises him casually, and Jax can feel his entire being soar again. He looks down at the baby panda, and hopes that his job so far today has been enough to get her to agree to their little family in the future.
Will be best for Mate.
The conversation continues on, to Zooble asking about how the adventure has gone so far. Pomni starts to describe everything that’s happened, always praising Jax for everything he did. With every comment, Jax can feel his amor for her grow. She sees his efforts - she sees how much he adores her. And she must feel the same way. Why else would she be praising him so much? Why else would she gush about him so openly? She’s putting his claim on herself, now. He doesn’t even have to do anything but make sure their kid stays in a swing.
Nanny McFire walks over, and the group stops talking as Ragatha follows behind them. The las knob has fallen off of Nanny McFire’s face, revealing a plain faced mannequin under all of the random deformities. Charlotte is standing next to Ragatha, holding the doll’s hand. “Congratulations to the mother of Charlotte, and both parents of J.J. You have all passed the parenting class and will be granted the ability to have children! The rest of you are too unstable or unsuitable for children!”
Jax raises an eyebrow at unstable. The only unstable one today has been Ragatha, and she’s apparently passed. He rolls his eyes as a portal opens. His hands go to J.J for a moment before stopping. He remembers the confetti that came from the gummy guy that Pomni had brought back. He drops his hands from J.J, instead offering a hand to Pomni. “Let’s...let’s go,” he says quietly, feeling something inside him shift as Pomni grabs his hand.
Mate is ready.
Gangle watches the two most curious cast members as Jax and Pomni talk to Caine, almost certainly enacting the plan that had been established during the adventure. They’re holding hands, something odd for the shorter, and too gentle for the taller. It’s a large enough change in a short enough amount of time to drive anyone insane. For a shipper like Gangle, however, it just made her giggle, watching her ship get that closer to sailing.
She’s known it’s been close to sailing for about two days now. That morning, Jax and Pomni had come to breakfast together. Pomni had been laughing, and Jax had been a gentleman. It was a very weird start to the morning. Jax kept on joking, which wasn’t too odd for him. Only this time, he had a giggling audience in the room When Jax had looked down at Pomni as she curled up in a laughing fit his avatar changed. Within the pupil of left eye was red heart. His right eye had the same shape, in blue. The shades match Pomni's jester outfit perfectly. It's an expression that's so unlike his sadistic glee, that Gangle has to blink a few times to convince herself that she wasn't experiencing some digital hallucination. Gangle gasped when she had realized what it was. Jax had looked over, the expression gone from his face too fast for Pomni to see as she stopped laughing.
After that, Gangle started to piece things together. Jax was obviously in love, head over heels downright obsessed with Pomni. Ever since the lightning round, honestly. He was on her like a leech for almost the entire time. From leaning in close to her sitting at her presidential desk, to the two of them being separate for star gazing, siting with each other at the bar, joking during the softball game? Yeah, Jax has a crush. The way he’s reacting to this crush is interesting.
Gangle remembers Ragatha walking in, silenced by the stuffing coming forth from holes on either side of her neck. Jax's explanation had shocked her. Already startled by the sight of the cloth doll's innards on the floor, the uncharacteristic protectiveness in his voice and the weight of his words was enough of a shock to cause her mask to shatter from the barest brush of a ribbon across the surface.
For Jax, that level of violence is expected. He does it because that's who he is. Not because someone is insulting another person. Jax is supposed to join in on the insults - create a cruel punchline in the name of some unseen audience he claims to do everything for. The way that he's acting has been weird, and it's started with Pomni. He's been staring at her like a cat stares at a toy moments before tearing it apart, eyes wide and unblinking with obsessive pupils that latch onto the small jester woman with laser focus. It’s predatory.
With the addition of the hearts in his eyes, the puzzle pieces snap together. Each detail that Gangle notices expands on the jigsaw in her mind, until the image is clear. Pomni hasn't been allowed to be with anyone else - Jax has dragged her away or been partnered with her since the lightning round. He hasn't kept his eyes off her. He's turned his torment to be solely focused on the rag doll that's been trying to befriend Pomni since the woman joined the digital realm. Jax is acting like a yandere, and Pomni is the object of his desires.
If she was in the real world, Gangle would probably feel different about it all. Pomni's always been kind to Gangle. The woman has offered to be an ear for Gangle when things have gotten rough, has shown an interest in the sketchbooks constantly clutched by ribbons, and has offered a helping hand when her mask has broken before.
But, this isn't the real world. This is The Amazing Digital Circus. Jax has been tormenting everyone else in the circus for longer than Gangle has been around. His torment has been a horrid constant that each member was wary of. Now, it's just Ragatha that he's upsetting. And Pomni seems to lavish in the attention, at least from what Gangle can see. Not only is she publicly taking Jax's side in everything, or sticking with him when he drags her away, or literally dressing up in an outfit that's reminiscent of the hare himself. She jokes back at him, sometimes even to the point of flirting. She raised a child with him happily.
But it’s not Jax that originally raised her curiosity. No, before Pomni and Jax had started to come to breakfast together every morning, something had been happening. Pomni would usually come in before Jax, gather her food, and move the powdered sugar to be between her and Jax’s usual places. The only person in the circus currently to use powdered sugar is Jax. Gangle’s not sure exactly what it means. Pomni’s always been kind, maybe she’s just trying to be helpful? But why would she be wanting to help Jax? Before they were ever paired together for the gun adventure.
There’s only one explanation in Gangle’s mind. Pomni has feelings for the hare man. Maybe she’s one of those people who likes to fix broken things? That must be it. There’s no other reason why sweet, kind, gentle Pomni would have feelings for the bratty, rebellious asshole that is Jax. Gangle had been able to smell Pomni’s crush on Jax for weeks. Jax’s obvious affection back was creating the best romance anime that Gangle has ever watched. She just hopes that Ragatha stops trying to meddle soon. Otherwise, there might be another rampaging abstraction crashing through the circus soon.
Notes:
so, quick thing. I had J.J calling Jax "Dada" because he was made by Caine. Jax's actual child would call him Papa.
ANYWAYS if you want to come scream about this chapter at me in my 18+ discord server it's great https://discord.gg/e7DqtS2q
As always, comments and kudos are appreciated! And if you flirt with the sun in my comments it might flirt back in the fic at some point.
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