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“Mh- Wait-!” Ragatha calls out to Pomni.
She turns to the Ragdoll with a questioning stare.
Ragatha hesitates for a moment; unsure, anxious, and flinching. Her mitten hands are curled protectively close to her chest, like she’s scared her heart will leap out if they were any further away. She looks away, unable to meet the Jester’s eyes.
Pomni frowns, before putting on a good-natured smile. “Like you said-”
Ragatha jumps in, reaching towards Pomni with a panicked expression. “I can go with Jax! You go with Kinger.” Her expression is apprehensive, and her hands fidget nervously. Eyes wide, she suddenly looks flustered.
“I-If that’s alright with you…” She speaks meekly and gives Pomni a nervous smile, searching her expression for discontent.
Pomni squints at Ragatha. Her eyes narrowed with a confused tilt.
“Are- Are you sure? It’s really no issue if I go with Jax. I can handle him… and he did just…”
There’s an uneasy silence after Pomni trails off, but Ragatha quickly looks to reassure the small courtly entertainer. “I’ve known Jax for years! I’m sure it’ll be alright.” But her trepidation remains obvious, making her words not-at-all convincing. She knows this. Thus, she cringes under Pomni’s gaze.
Pomni’s eyes remain on her for a while as she waits for Ragatha to back away, to switch up her choice, but Ragatha doesn’t. With a sigh, she decides to let go of the situation. “Alright. If you say so… Just… Good luck.”
Ragatha gives her two thumbs up and a shaky smile as the Jester walks past her.
“Hey Kinger!” Pomni calls from behind Ragatha. Ragatha watches her join the Kingpiece before she closes her eyes, and takes a quivering breath, setting her sights on one purple bunny.
She walks up to him where he stands by the stage, as he seems to be having the time of his life, playing pretend-shooty-bang-bang with the rifle in his hands.
“Jax.” Ragatha addresses him in a measured tone, putting on a smile that belies her anxiety. She rests her hands together, threading her mitts in front of her waist, and waits patiently for his response.
“Ragatha.” Jax replies in a similarly measured tone, straightening up to face her. His grip on the rifle becoming tighter as it rests against his chest. He peers around, his hand shadowing his brow. “Where’s Pomni? I thought I saw her coming over.”
For a moment, her eyes twitch for a second, and her smile seems forced. Ragatha’s hand finds her arm, and she rocks on her feet a bit. “Pomni… is… in a team with Kinger!”
She bumps her cotton fist weakly into his bicep. “Partner…!” Ragatha searches his gaze, her singular pupil small and smile almost a grimace.
Jax says nothing for a moment. His mouth is curved in a disinterested frown as he regards her expression, before it turns upwards. “Us? A team? That’s rich. You’re not usually one for jokes, Rags. They don’t suit you.”
His smile widens, and his eyelids square, creases drawn at the inner corners. He leans closer. “If you really wanted to be in a team, shouldn’t you be with Pomni?”
He leans back, expression relaxing as he rolls his eyes. “Or what? Pomni wanted to be in a team with me and you didn’t like that?” His eyes settle back on her with a disquieting lack of bother.
Ragatha grimaces this time, and looks away. Her hands find purchase in her dress and bunch the fabric up into loose balls.
Jax scoffs with a wry smile. “Ah, right. Now there’s something that makes sense. There’s no way Miss Goody-Two-Shoes would want to partner up with me.”
Ragatha looks back up at him expeditiously, fretful and tumultuous. “That’s not true!” She takes a breath, trying not to be too emotional. “I’m… not joking Jax. I want to be in a team with you.”
Jax’s smile has morphed into a frown again. He then turns on his feet, wielding a new smile, and starts striding away. “What if I don’t wanna be on a team with you?”
His voice has a petulant edge, like a child who’s been excluded from something and then says, actually, they really didn’t wanna do it in the first place, so everyone else is the one who looks foolish for thinking this was at all important to them to begin with.
Ragatha jogs after him. “But it’s a team game, Jax!”
“Then we can win separately. Think you can beat me Rags?” He says challengingly.
He turns to face her. Her expression is full of hurt and frustration. Jax just rolls his eyes. “Just don’t get in my way.”
He walks past her towards the gunpile and she drags herself along behind him.
Jax watches the countdown intently; Ragatha now by his side. They stand opposing to Kinger and Pomni.
When the countdown hits 9, he looks down to Ragatha with a smile. She smiles back, but seems nervous still. His eyes rest on hers for several long seconds, before he shoots threatening glances to the others in the troupe at 4. He gets down low to the ground, ready to sprint as the countdown hits 2.
Ragatha readies herself into a running position, trying to at least partially match Jax’s energy.
When the countdown reaches 0 and the entire gunpile vanishes in an instant, along with Jax’s new rifle. He’s foxed.
Hearts pop up over the circus members heads.
Ragatha gawks at her life points for a moment before shaking her head and blustering. “Huh? W-Wait, what? That counted!?”
“Don’t worry, dollface. I’ll protect you.” Jax says laxly as he stands up.
Ragatha glares at Jax, and clenches her plush fist as he smiles at her, completely at ease. She shakes her head, and sighs. She takes a breath, and looks around. Jax’s gaze hardens when her eyes are off him.
“Uh, Caine?” Zooble growls, glaring up at the Ringmaster, who’s lounging high-and-far away from them in a lawnchair, hanging untethered, in the air, on the other side of the stagefront.
“What?” Caine pipes up, looking down hopefully for a second, before quickly losing interest in the situation and looking away. “Oh, y-yeah. The guns have been teleported to random spots in the Circus.”
“Go find them champs!” He says halfheartedly, giving them a thumbs up. Zooble glowers at him.
Gangle shakes Zooble urgently, screeching. “WE NEED TO FIND THE TOMMY GUN.”
“Uh… Wait! Caine! I-I’m missing a life-” Ragatha panicks. Jax grabs Ragatha by the arm and drags her along, leaving her flapping about behind him like a bedsheet in the wind. “No time to lose, dollface! We’ve got guns to find!”
He cranes his head around as he’s sprinting away, and calls out. “It’ll be my pleasure murdering all of you!”
“Have fun guys!” Pomni shouts, making a break for it with Kinger.
“Hah! You’re so lame!” Jax replies boisterously.
“Jax!” Ragatha scolds. He groans in response.
Jax pulls back one of the curtains to the player hall and walks through. He lets it slip out of his hand just in time to hit Ragatha in the face. She lets out a disapproving grunt and his grin widens at the sound.
“Okay, let’s split up and looks for guns.” Jax directs.
Ragatha looks startled as she enters the hall, brushing the curtain behind her. “What?”
Jax looks at her with an unamused frown and gestures around. “You go search the blocks, and I’ll look in the mannequin rooms.”
“O-Oh!” Ragatha exclaims. She looks bashful. “That’s what you meant.”
“Thought I was trying to get rid of you already, huh?” Jax says, making one of those smiles where you swear he was uncomfortable or upset in some way. Ragatha lets out a nervous sound and tucks some hair away from her face before she starts to look around the blocks.
They have little luck until Jax spots one behind the blocks across from Ragatha’s room. He equips the newly-found revolver with flourish, and leans back on the blocks contently.
He aims the gun towards the metal cans, and looks back to Ragatha. “So, you planning on killing anyone Rags?”
Ragatha looks up and over her shoulder, away from the blocks she’s looking behind. “Oh, uh. I’d rather not.” Jax rolls his eyes, seeming unimpressed.
Ragatha straightens up to face Jax, and fiddles with her hands, continuing. “I can just find the guns, and the ammo, and all that shebang, and you can do your thing!”
She finger guns at him with a wink, before holding her arm nervously.
“Besides,” She shrugs. “I don’t even really know how to fire a gun. I wouldn’t even know where to start!"
“How to hold it- uh,” She brings her hands up, gesturing and hovering around an imaginary floating pistol. “I’d be… um… useless.” She lets out a small humourless laugh, gripping her arm tightly. A strained wavery smile is directed towards Jax.
Jax has a small frown on his face before it widens again into that easy smile. He leans onto the blocks more. “Really? Farm girl like you doesn’t know how to shoot a gun?”
“Uh… Well… No…” Ragatha rubs her arm. “My mother didn’t like me near all that… ‘boy’s stuff.’”
Jax quirks an eyebrow and his frown returns. He turns more towards Ragatha and settles on the blocks, gun loose in his hand as he hangs his arms between his legs. He regards her disbelievingly. “How did you get into softball then? Isn’t that too close to being ‘boy’s stuff’?”
“My mother wasn’t the… happiest about it, but at least it wasn’t baseball! Baseball is definitely for boys. Softball is like… baseball for girls…! So… she let me do it…. Not without some arguments, but you know how mothers can be!” Ragatha pumps her fist, looking uncomfortable.
Jax smiles, but lines form creases beneath his eyes. “Your mother sounds like a real piece of work. Who cares about things like that?”
“She did!” Ragatha shouts. A look of regret finds its way onto her face immediately. She looks away, frowning at the floor and rubbing her arm. “Does… Still. Probably…”
Jax pushes off the blocks and walks over to her. His hand finds her shoulder as he leans down to talk to her. “Listen Raggy. You don’t need to care about what she thinks here?” He waits until he has her full attention. “Okay?”
He looks away, as if searching for the right words to say. “We’re in this… Circus. This place where anything can happen. We explore entirely new worlds near-on-the-daily! We’ve been cowboys... Space explorers! We’ve travelled the depths of some unknown ocean." He glances to and fro. "There’s nothing we can’t be here.”
At some point, he’s straightened up again and his hand has left her shoulder.
His eyes land firmly on her again. “You can do softball. Heck, you can do baseball. You can do whatever you want here…” He leans down again, hand on her shoulder. “None of that shit your mother says matters. At all.”
He glances to the revolver in his hand for a moment, with raised brows, downturned lips, and then back to her. “You can fire a gun.”
He spins it around as he straightens up, so the grip faces her. “I can show you how.” He looks away, shaking his head, smile wide, eyes narrowed in a look of concealed discomfort. “It doesn’t have to be a ‘boy’s thing.’”
Ragatha regards the gun, and Jax, with a reticent expression. His gaze lands back on her with a much more relaxed and wide smile. His posture is loose again. “So what do you say?” He proffers the gun to her again.
“I-” She glances down to the gun, and back to Jax, with obvious uncertainty… But she pumps her arm with a hesitant smile. “I can give it a go!”
Jax’s smile widens more, and he straightens up fully. His hand finds his hip and he nods smugly, waving the revolver about. “Exactly what I wanted to hear!”
Once again, he pushes the gun into Ragatha’s space and this time she takes it. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion as she looks at it, before looking up at Jax with a timid smile. “So what do I do now?”
He smiles widely again and walks over to stand a distance away from the cans. “Come ‘ere and I’ll show you what you need to do.” Ragatha does as she’s told, and finds herself standing beside him, staring up at him inquiringly.
“Okay, first things first. Aim at those cans, and show me how you hold a gun, and then we can go from there.”
Ragatha gawps at him momentarily, perhaps about to question why he isn’t telling her how she should hold it first, but decides against it, and tries her best to aim the gun. It shakes in her hands, and she keeps glancing towards Jax, seeming nervous and maybe a little embarrassed.
“H-how? How am I doing?” She stammers out. Jax poses his finger against his chin with an appraising look. “Could use a little work, but it’s a good start.”
He comes up behind her and puts his hands over hers. Ragatha looks extremely conscious of how close they are as he gently pulls at her left hand. “Loosen up your grip with your non-dominant hand. We’ve got to do this one hand at a time to make sure you have a proper grasp.”
She lets her grip loosen and Jax pulls her hand away and leaves it by her side.
He looks at her finger on the trigger with an amused expression. “It’s good you’re so ready to shoot, but if you’re just holding the gun…” He taps her finger with his. “Just scooch that guy out of there a bit.”
Ragatha moves her trigger finger out of the trigger guard, and the gun shakes a bit as she squeezes on the grip to compensate the movement.
“We’ll fix that later.” Jax comments.
He holds his left hand over her right as he uses his right to delicately straighten her pointer to rest beneath the cylinder.
“You don’t want to have your finger rest on the trigger, because you might accidentally fire the gun if you get too spooked. Revolvers don’t have safety switches, and I don’t think the trigger’ll be as heavy as real life."
"Wouldn’t want you to accidentally shoot me.” He jokes.
When Jax notices he has Ragatha’s rapt attention, he looks away quickly and focuses back on her hand. “Okay,” He lets go of her grip and uses his right hand to tap the back of hers.
“I want you to shimmy your mitt up the grip until it almost hits the trigger guard- that’s the metal loop that protects the trigger, and the web of your hand should hike up the back of the grip as much as you can without going over the shoulder, where the hammer is.”
He points towards the general area of the hammer while looking straight at Ragatha.
“That’s the little doohickey between the back and top, in the uh, little crevice. It’s what actually gets the bullet going.”
He manipulates her thumb to point downwards onto her mitt. “You don’t actually have to do this, since it’s a game and all, but if this was real, you could hurt your thumb having it so close to the cylinder.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.” Ragatha replies as he pulls his hands away.
“Yeah.” He’s been sounding a bit more mellow than usual. “Uh, more applicable to the current sitch, is that, it can mess with the cylinder or the hammer so the gun doesn’t fire right or at all, and it can get in the way of your trigger finger.” He looks at her hand again. “Okay, give the grip a squeeze.”
The gun shakes in her hand.
“Okay, so what you’re doing right now, is holding it way way way too tight. Ease up on it. You wanna hold it tightly, but not so tightly that your hands start getting all twitchy.”
She takes a breath, and eases up. Jax smiles. “Annnd, there we go.”
He takes her non-dominant hand and places it over her dominant hand. Ragatha has become more focused on holding the gun correctly than how close Jax is to her by now.
“Finger and mitt over your other mitt, and thumb curling around your other one, and the heels of your hands should press together or be as close as they can.” Jax lets go and Ragatha shows him her new grip.
“Yeeeah, that’s the way!” He smiles, pointing his finger approvingly. One might mistake it for genuine emotion.
He steps away finally, and points at the cans. “Okay, aim again!”
He looks back to her as she aims, and lets out a chuckle at her stance. She glances to him, looking flustered. “W-what?”
Jax snickers, looking very amused.
He shakes his head and puts his hands up in a shrug. “The gun isn’t going to bite you, Raggy.”
He leans towards her with his hands on his hips. “You don’t have to hold it away from you like it’s a rabid dog that’s gonna gnash your face.” He bites at her with a little growl, and she jolts back slightly before relaxing again. Jax lets out an entertained chuff.
Ragatha blushes and her face scrunches into a pout.
“Pfft.” Jax comes over and places a hand on her back, and lightly pushes until she takes the motion to lean forward. “There we go! Easy fix.” He adjusts her non-dominant arm to have her elbow bent and steps away again. “Now there’s a shooter’s stance!”
He looks to the cans, pointing his finger at them again, before copying Ragatha’s stance and hand positions.
Jax raises his pretend gun.
“Okay, now you’re going to wanna focus on the thing coming up at the end of the barrel. That’s the front sight, annnd that’s how you’re going to aim. You want to line up the front and rear sights- uh, the rear sight is the thing coming up past the hammer, on the top, annnd your target should line up with those.”
Jax checks to see if Ragatha is following what he’s saying, and he sees she’s set her sights on the cans. He grins so hard.
“Right, so when you shoot the gun.” He mocks the motion. “There’s gonna be a little kickback from the combustion force.”
“You want to counteract that so don’t have to do so much readjusting, annd well, so you actually hit the target, and it’s not great to be doing that if someone is coming for you. Sooo, when you shoot, you want tooo slightly push your firing arm, annd, then, pull with your elbow arm to stabilise the shot.”
Ragatha stares at the sights aimed at the can sitting at the middle of the block. Her breathing is a bit hard like she’s exerting herself.
Jax watches her, not too worried. “Now put your finger on the trigger and give it a shot.”
Ragatha does this slowly, and takes a few uneasy breaths before making the shot.
The air is momentarily alive with sparks! The bullet casing clinks along the floor and the can clatters down noisily. Ragatha’s hair begins to stand on end before she inhales sharply. Her wide eye on the spot the can had been.
“Congratulations, Ragatha. You just shot a gun.” Ragatha looks over to Jax giving her an approving tilt of his head, and she lets out a relieved laugh.
She looks at him gratefully, and tucks some of her yarn away from her face, as she relaxes. “You sure know a lot about guns.”
He looks surprised but plays it for nonchalance. “Oh, yeah, uh, I played a lot of Call of Duty.” He says looking off to the side. “The FPS community likes to go on about how realistic the guns shoot in games a lot.”
“Call of Duty…” Ragatha says, as if sounding out a foreign word.
Jax shakes his head, head tilted down, eyebrows tilted up, absolutely entertained. “You don’t know video games, do you? Like, at all.”
Ragatha squints at him. “Uh… no…” But she suddenly looks considerate. “Well?”
She ponders for a second. “I played… Nancy Drew on… one of my friend’s home computers when we were over for dinner as a kid. But, my-”
“Your mother… didn’t let you play video games.” Jax guesses, rolling his eyes, seemingly less-than-enthused by the woman’s inclusion into their conversation again. “Right...”
He mutters as he starts to look for a gun himself.“No wonder you’re no fun. She never let you do anything cool.”
Ragatha grimaces and holds her arm. She seems to think about something for a moment, before noticing what Jax is doing. “Oh, uh, what’re you doing?”
“Gun.” He replies, crawling along the ground, looking under things.
Ragatha goes towards him and offers the gun to his back. “Oh! You can take this one-”
“Nope. That one’s yours.”
Ragatha looks at the one in her hand and then at his back. “A-Are you sure?”
“Trying to focus, Ragatha.” He says, still searching around on the ground.
She nods stiffly before walking away. She looks at the gun again, and then looks around. She decides to search alongside Jax for his own gun.
Before long, she finds a revolver, with a much longer barrel, and smiles widely. “Found one!”
“Nice!” She hears Jax reply as she picks it up. She turns and holds it out to him as he approaches and takes it. “Sweet! Another revolver.”
Ragatha smiles at his childlike excitement.
He twirls it around before aiming it straight for the remaining can and shooting. It flies off the block and clatters onto the floor. “We’re all set.~”
She admires the razzmatazz in which he handles it. Jax takes notice.
Suddenly in the distance, muffled by walls and obstacles, gunshots and screaming abound.
Jax walks up beside Ragatha. “Ah, you hear that? Sounds like The King and his Fool are in trouble.”
Jax’s eyes are fixed on the end of the hallway.
“Do you really have to talk about them like that?” Ragatha asks timidly.
Jax sighs heavily and then sneers at her. “Ragatha, would you lighten up?”
He looks back to the hallend. “Now let’s go kill them.”
“I…” Ragatha rubs her arm. “Alright...”
Pomni looks at the gun in her hands, standing several paces away from the wall of assorted strange rooms. “Kinger, should I shoot at Zooble, or- … God, how many rounds does this thing hold…” Her eyes narrow as she pushes the cylinder.
“This’ll only hurt for a second…~!” A familiar rabbit-y voice calls.
Pomni turns her head just in time for Jax to plant a bullet squarely between her eyes. She cries out in pain.
“Pomni!” Ragatha yells with palpable distress.
Jax grunts at this and turns his attention to Ragatha. Frankly, he’s looking aggravated. “Whose team are you on?”
“Pomni, take cover!” Kinger calls from behind the corner of the giant blocks.
Jax is about to say something else to Ragatha, but instead he has to grab her by the arm, and drag her behind the monkey barrels, as Kinger sprays bullets in their direction.
Pomni scrambles up, groaning, and dives around the corner.
Jax looks out from their cover to make sure that the others aren’t advancing on them, before looking back to Ragatha. He is not done with what he was saying. “Seriously. Whose team are you on?”
“Oh- Uh… yours.” Ragatha replies timorously.
“Really!” Jax presses. His voice dripping with venom. “Because I’m not feeling the team-spirit!”
He glances between the barrels before looking back to Ragatha. “And whose team is Pomni on?”
“Kinger’s…”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Mine...”
He looks past the barrels again. “We’re going to go go after Pomni now. Before she gets away-” He looks back to Ragatha with a glare. “And we’re going to talk about this later.”
He grabs her by the arm and pulls her along with him, as he moves to chase Pomni. Ragatha has the distinct appearance of a kicked puppy.
Pomni quickly runs out of bullets to send her pursuers with her tiny gun. “Ah, gun, gun- WHERE’S A DIFFERENT GUN!?”
She dives for that realistic-looking toy gun, and aims it at Jax and shoots. She stares at the BANG! flag pointing towards Jax, mocking her in white, yellow, and red. “What? You’ve gotta be kidding me…”
“Unlucky pull, Pom-Pom.” Jax quips before shooting her in the face again. Pomni spawns a distance away and hurriedly dashes into the inflatable funhouse maze, feet slipping along the floor.
Jax is hot on pursuit, Ragatha dragging along behind him, and being dragged along as she tries to keep pace.
Pomni manages to find some ammo for her tiny little gun as she scampers around the tent maze, watching for her curiously absent followers.
Jax peeks around a corner and spots Pomni down one of the halls. He looks to Ragatha and drags her in front of him, pushing her out into the hall as he says. “Now be a team player, and go shoot Pomni!”
“But I don’t wanna shoot Pomni!” Ragatha cries at Jax.
“I taught your how to shoot a gun!” He fires back irritated.
“But you didn’t say I had to shoot anyone!” Ragatha argues in return.
“If you have a gun, you shoot it!” Jax yells back, slicing the air down with his hand as he makes his point.
He glances at her again, and throws his hand onto his face, dragging it down. “UGH, Ragatha! The game is literally to shoot each other! Are you trying to make everyone else feel like a bad person for playing the game? Zooble already shot Kinger.”
“I- no- it’s just-”
Pomni glances back and forth between Ragatha down the hall, and where she knows Jax must be, around the corner. Ragatha hasn’t taken her eyes off him this entire argument. She lifts her gun, unsure of when the right time to step in and shoot is, but finally, she decides to end their misery and put Ragatha down. The relief is less than temporary.
“This is why you should’ve shot Pomni!” Jax yells as he drags Ragatha’s static avatar around the corner. “They’re all playing the game, Rags.”
Pomni squints at the corner the discordant duo are hiding around, and calls out to the Ragdoll. “Uh, Ragatha…? It’s okay to shoot people! It’s just a game...”
She shrugs, continuing. “I know it’s not exactly great to shoot your friends, but, that’s, just the game for today. It’s shoot or be shot. That’s what Kinger said…”
“Huh, never thought I’d see the day when I’d hear about Kinger talking sense!” Jax calls.
“Better be ready, Pom-Pom! I’m coming to get you!” He says looking out from around the corner, before ducking away quickly as a bullet flies past him.
“Not if I get you first!” taunts Pomni.
“Hah! Fun!” Jax guffaws.
Ragatha frowns to herself, slumped against the balloon wall, staring at the checkered floor. Jax takes no notice as he scopes out Pomni’s location with glee.
He starts shooting at the Jester peeking around the corner, and she scurries away.
Jax grabs Ragatha’s wrist and yanks her along. “Come on, Rags! She’s getting away! We gotta go!”
Ragatha is still frowning, looking at the floor.
They dash through the colourful striped halls, exchanging bullet-fire and witty banter, until Pomni runs into a deadend with Jax and Ragatha hot on her trail.
“Shit.” Pomni swears. Jax slides around the corner with Ragatha right behind him. The Jester fires at him, but all that comes out are empty clicks.
“Oof, tough luck. Out of ammo.” Jax comments triumphantly.
Ragatha peeks out at Pomni from behind Jax like a little kid.
“Guess this is the end of the road.” says Pomni.
“Any last words?” Jax offers.
“Uh… Try to have some fun, Ragatha. It’s okay to play the game.” She offers a smile to Ragatha and Ragatha smiles back with her brows drawn together.
Jax frowns at the interaction, and then grins snidely.
“Shouldn’t you be saving your well wishes for Hoo-haa?”
Pomni smirks. “Nah, Kinger’ll be fine. He’s not going to go down easy. I’ve seen him shoot a gun before. Other than today.”
Jax scrunches his face. “When was that?”
“The uh, ghost adventure.”
“There was a gun!?” He chops the air with both his hands.
"Yeah, like a shotgun." Pomni supplies.
“I was tied up that entire adventure-! I could’ve shot-” He glances at Ragatha with a frown and then looks back at Pomni with a grimace. He raises his gun and shoots her.
Ragatha rapidly glances between Jax, and Pomni’s motionless avatar, with wide eyes and a pert frown.
Zooble and Gangle have a very meaningful conversation about loving yourself even when it doesn’t feel natural and even though it’s hard to, and Gangle speaks again after Zooble pulls her up.
“Do you think Ragatha will be okay?”
Zooble frowns. “I don’t know... It was so random when Jax shot her this morning. Why did he do that? I thought for sure he would shoot me.”
“I thought so too! I’m worried... Do you think he’ll shoot her again? Even though they’re on the same team?”
“With Jax? You never know.”
“Ragatha’s too sweet to go through that again...”
Jax and Ragatha walk in a stiff silence as they search for Kinger along the wall of assorted doors. Jax still looks irritable. Ragatha doesn’t feel like she can breach the silence, and rubs her left hand along her right’s grip.
It was no secret that Jax had hated that adventure. Ragatha had tied him up, not long after he caused Pomni and Kinger to go down the scary route. He had been pissed off the entire time, and made furious muffled complaints, near constantly, yet politely. He had waited for lulls in the other two’s conversations to voice his absolute distaste for the situation, unless he was really not having it with what they were saying, and then he’d interrupt them. When the pacifist route ended, he just completely gave up.
But Ragatha really can’t take the still air much longer. Her lips quiver as she stares hard at her grip.
“So…” She begins casually, but trails off and realises she doesn’t know what else to say. She seems a bit disappointed in herself. Jax glances at her. A small frown and tired eyes play on his face. Ragatha slightly lifts the gun in her hands and stares awkwardly at the ground past it.
Jax looks away. The air is heavy and quiet again, but only for a short time longer.
“Do you- um… Uh… What other video games do you like?” She peeks at him.
Jax glances at her again, raising an eyebrow, and she quickly looks back to the ground. He stares at her before sighing and beginning to talk again.
“Um…” He looks away for a moment to think.
… “Halo… Battlefield… Uh… Far Cry… Duke Nukem… I played some Overwatch from time-to-time… Wolfenstein. Resi…” He trails off, still thinking of more.
“Wow, there sure is a lot.” Ragatha says to him with wide eyes.
Jax glances at her with a laugh.
“That’s like, not even the half of it. Nowhere close.”
“Oh wow.”
Jax starts chuckling. “You really don’t know video games.”
“What? How many are there?”
Jax starts cackling.
“How many adventures have you been on? Caine’s been getting his ideas from somewhere.”
“I thought they were based on… movies or books-!” She says, eye distant in thought as she looks at the ground and shrugs with her words.
“A lot of them are, obviously, but like, this is a video game. A lot of them are inspired by other video games.” Jax explains, looking towards where the floor meets the wall of doors.
“Oh wow.” She says staring at him again.
“Anything we’ve done in here, someone’s probably made something similar.” He stares at the doors they pass by.
“That’s… That’s a lot.”
Jax lets out another sound of amusement and looks back to her before his expression grows troubled.
… “How long have you been here?”
“Oh, well, when I got here, Kinger was the only one- and Caine, of course.” She explains, looking forwards.
“Only Kinger? That must’ve been rough.” Jax smirks.
“It took some time to adjust to but, it was… it was alright.” She says staring forwards, thinking back on the past, then looking at the ground again.
“But, oh gosh, how long have I been here?” She pushes up her bangs, and they pile over her hand as it presses into her forehead.
“I think it just got so long that I stopped counting…” Her hand drifts down to her cheek, stressed creases under her eyes.
Her hand comes around her mouth. “When was that…?”
She holds her cheek again. “I don’t know…”
Her hand comes back to the gun grip. “I’ve been here for… years…! Definitely. Maybe… twice as long as you, or more…? I’ve seen more adventures than I can count!”
“Seen-” Ragatha’s expression becomes fearfully reminiscent and creases grow deeper under her eyes.
Jax immediately changes the subject. “Jeez, where even is Kinger?”
Ragatha looks at him with a smile, grateful for the distraction. “Right?”
She looks around. “He must be around here somewhere-” Her expression becomes taut as she looks past Jax to the wide open doorway. His pupils grow wide.
“I’m right behind you, aren’t I?”
Jax whips around and starts shooting. Kinger warbles in panic, receding haphazardly into the darkness.
Jax shares a glance with Ragatha and she gives him an encouraging smile as they head inside the room.
It’s a lightshow of action as pitch-blackness closes around them. Jax manoeuvres around Ragatha as he tries to shoot Kinger and she tries to stay out of his way.
Kinger hides behind one of the small pillars displaying vases, pulling out his lighter to reload his gun.
“He’s over there!” Ragatha calls, pointing in the darkness.
Jax starts shooting again, and Kinger returns it in kind. Shots ring out in the dark, and the hammer sparks intermittent moments of flash photography.
Ragatha shoulders into Jax while trying to avoid a bullet. “Sorry!”
He shoves her out of the way as a bullet whirls towards her. It hits him dead in the chest. “Ack-!”
Ragatha yelps, hands drawing towards her face in horror, and then quickly pulls him to cover while he respawns.
He tugs her along with him, as he continues to shoot at Kinger. Pushing and pulling her around, to dodge bullets and take aim. It unfolds, a strange and volatile dance caught between fear and frenzy.
Ragatha being the fear, and Jax, the frenzy, most of the time.
But the bullets rush by Ragatha too closely in some moments, and his eyes regard them with increasing anxiety.
“I hope you guys are ready for my ricochet super-move!”
A single bullet blasts out of Kinger’s revolver. It bounces erratically off walls, floor, vases, pictures, and pillars. Miraculously, it misses everyone except Kinger.
“OH! Here’s the light.”
The room becomes bright, and clear as Jax yanks the pull-chain. Its purple-y striped walls are marred with numerous ashen lines.
“Oh!” Ragatha blurts in shock when the lamp illuminates Kinger.
Jax stares at Kinger’s body before he looks to Ragatha with a smile and puts his hand up. “High five partner!”
“Yeah-!” Ragatha exclaims uncertainly, high-fiving Jax. She doesn’t know what she contributed to the situation.
Ragatha trails behind Jax as they chase Gangle and Zooble through the pipes, dashing and winding around intricacies of technicolour tubeway.
“Are they still following us?” Zooble asks Gangle.
“Are you still following us?” Gangle calls back.
“Yeah, we’re still following you!” Jax and Ragatha reply, slightly out-of-sync.
“They’re still following us!” Gangle snivels.
Jax told her to stick behind him and not be anywhere she could get hit so, as they come to a long pipe where Team Unmasked lay in wait, opposing them, she shrinks backwards around the bend and hands Jax ammo at his request.
Her eyes dart about the scene, troubled by watching Jax shooting by himself. Suddenly, the rain of bullets stop.
“Why’d you stop shooting? You out of ammo?” Jax calls obnoxiously.
“Why’d you stop? You out of ammo?” Zooble scorns.
Jax whispers to Ragatha. “Dollface, we outta ammo?”
Ragatha shakes her head, and pulls out some more.
“Perfect!” Jax remarks, but his excitement is short-lived as Gangle rears around opposite bend, prancing about, laughing maniacally, gun a-blazing.
Jax yelps in surprise and dodges her wild fire like an inflatable man dancing in the wind.
“Oh! Woah! I guess she found the Tommy Gun!” Ragatha exclaims, eyes wide, awestruck.
“Real astute observation, Rags!” Jax bites out, struggling against the wave of projectiles.
Ragatha ducks back behind the bend, like a turtle retreating into their shell, when a bullet nearly finds itself in conversation with her head.
“Be careful!” Jax grits at her.
Gangle shoots roundly, perfectly painting a line of bullets along the middle of the pipe. The digital plastic creaks and snaps raggedly apart along the structural weakening. The two halves begin collapsing downwards.
“O-oh no!” Ragatha exclaims, peering around the bend again.
Her hand reaches out desperately for Jax’s as he begins to slide away. He looks to her and her hand and grabs it tightly. She has him firmly in her grasp, until the entire pipe jolts to a halt and flings them out violently, like water droplets off a wet dog’s dewlap.
Ragatha lands roughly atop Jax, straddling his chest and knocking some air out of him. She recovers faster than he does, and sets her sights on Gangle, at the sound of the Drama Mask’s gasp of pleasant surprise, but she hesitates terribly upon seeing her.
A yellow-gloved hand unsnakes from her own and reaches up. Its finger squeezes into the trigger guard with hers, and presses down, making her take the shot, just before Gangle can take Ragatha out of the game.
“Shit!” Zooble swears.
His finger leaves the trigger guard, and he reaches around the grip to grab onto her unsupported firing hand. He pushes her off him and stands, dragging her arm up by the gun with him. He frowns the entire time. Jax swings his own gun out from his inventory and fires a few shots by Zooble’s feet and watches as ze dash for the halls before he unequips it. He doesn’t immediately give chase, gaze returning to Ragatha.
“You almost went where the losers go!!!” He takes his free right hand and rubs between his twisted brows. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” His arm flies out to his side as he makes his point.
Ragatha watches, legs sprawled beneath her on the ground, with Jax towering above her, with a look of pure, fragile vulnerability.
He pulls her up and along by their shared gunhold, glaring at her despite her tenuous expression, before sighing, and letting it go, and her go, as they give chase to Zooble.
Zooble slams his door close and locks himself in his room.
“You’re seriously going to hide in your room right now, Zoobie?” Jax jeers.
“Fuck off!” shouts Zooble.
Ragatha taps her foot before nudging Jax with her shoulder. “Um, Jax… Didn’t you say you had a key to everyone’s rooms?”
“Oh yeah, you’re right!” Jax pulls out Zooble’s room key. “Thanks for reminding me Raggy.”
He shoos her away. “Now, you go hide in that NPC room while I deal with Zooble.”
“I-I can stay.” Ragatha says hopefully.
Jax is stony. “You’ll be dead in one shot. Go.”
She reluctantly drags herself to the unoccupied room.
Jax unlocks the door and catches Zooble off-guard, but immediately gets flashbanged and shot before Zooble takes off down the hall.
Ragatha rushes out of the other room and frets over Jax.
“Oh… Uh… Oh no…” Her hands hover over Jax. She looks to where Zooble ran off and resolves herself. “Don’t worry Jax! I’ll go get Zooble! You sit tight!” She smiles firmly at him, eye bright and determined. Ragatha gives him a thumbs up as she dashes off.
“W-wait!” Jax says panicky as he recovers.
“I can definitely do this for you!” Ragatha calls, disappearing down the hall.
Jax sighs, and reorients himself, scooting to the other wall. He finds himself looking at Kaufmo’s door. He grits his teeth and grimaces. His eyes find Ribbit’s door and they grow wide and unsettled. He pushes off the wall and runs after Ragatha.
Ragatha watches Zooble run across the floor a few stories below, and takes a breath, steeling herself. She has just enough rounds left to disarm Zooble and have one bullet to spare. She just needs to make the shots.
“It’s all hand-eye coordination. Like softball, like tennis. I’ve got this. I’m good at this. I won awards! Jax is counting on me.”
She takes aim and successfully shoots a gun out of Zooble’s hands from the balcony.
“Woah!” exclaims Zooble.
Feeling encouraged by her first victory, she quickly takes aim again and shoots the remaining guns out of Zooble’s hands.
“Holyshit Ragatha that was awesome!” Zooble calls from down below, looking amazed. A small warm smile finds Ragatha’s face.
Jax puts a hand on her shoulder, and she jolts, before beaming at him with a look so bright and sincere.
“So you do know how to shoot a gun.” He comments. “I taught you well.~” He says in a jokey, sort-of-smug, self-centred way.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher.” Ragatha says genuinely. Jax regards her momentarily, before pushing away from her with a snarky grin. “Let’s go finish off the Zoob-meister.”
Ragatha nods. “Mm!”
Now with Zooble gone, it was just the two of them.
Ragatha looks exhilarated. Overwhelmed with emotion, she hugs Jax. “We did it!”
Jax gently pushes her off. “Woah, way to be clingy.”
“Sorry, Jax.” Ragatha says, mood only dampening slightly.
She watches him expectantly with a smile, and he just stares at her, a small frown playing on his face.
He turns away from her and the atmosphere darkens.
“Now it’s time for the Final Act.”
Ragatha stares at his back, growing uneasy. She clenches her hands around her empty revolver.
“What do you mean? The game’s over… isn’t it?”
“You remember what Caine said at the start, right?”
His gun clicks.
“What’re you doing Jax?” Ragatha asks, hesitation plaguing her voice. Her eyes fix on the small movements of his arms.
The gun rattles as rounds fall out onto the porcelain floor with tinkling clinks.
“I hope you haven’t been counting my rounds this whole time. That’d ruin the surprise.” She stares at the way he tilts his head towards her in the smallest way as he addresses her.
“O-Oh.” Ragatha says, realisation dawning on her. “Caine’s trust exercise.”
“Bingo.” says Jax, as he turns around and presents his revolver to Ragatha. “You haven’t done any real shooting this whole game.”
“I… I did shoot Zooble… with you.” She half-smiles.
“Take it.” He insists, shoving the gun towards her.
“We don’t have to do this…” Ragatha says, holding her hands up in surrender.
Jax shakes the gun at her. “Come on, Raggy, humour me. For old time’s sake.”
She pauses, and looks at his smiling face, and then at the gun she found for him. Ragatha brings her hands down, drawing one up to hold her arm, pursing her lips and frowning.
She slowly reaches for the gun, and Jax shakes it again. She takes it softly into her free hand. Her eyebrows scrunch together as she examines it like it’s a foreign object.
She looks up to him with a weepy smile.
“I… I thought things were going well… We were having fun…?”
She looks off-to-the-side, holding her arm again, questioning. “At least at the end…?”
“So, are you going to shoot me, or shoot yourself? Choice is yours.”
Ragatha hesitates, and once again studies the gun like she’s never seen it before, twisting it around, seeing the way the light shines off it, and how she looks in the dull reflection. She doesn’t like what she sees.
“Tick tock, dollface. Time’s running out. There’s an award’s show to go to.”
He barely waits an instant before speaking again. “Y’know, you’d think you'd want to shoot me.”
“Just give me a second!” Ragatha snaps at him lightly.
“Jeez, no need to be so rude, Raggy.” Jax shrugs.
“I-” She shuts her mouth. Her hand shakes as she holds the gun. She comes to properly grasp it with her other hand to stop the shaking.
Jax frowns for a second. “It’s just a game, Rags.”
“No need to hold the gun so realistically. Ease up. Have fun. It’s the last shot of the game, if there’s any rounds left.”
She stares at the gun with a torn look.
“If you shoot me, I won’t mind! Just think of it as payback for me shooting you.” Jax says, hands up in an inoffensive gesture.
The silence stretches onwards.
Jax starts to get impatient and grimaces. He taps his foot.
“You’re taking a really long time to decide. Listen, if you want to shoot me-” Jax purses his brows as Ragatha turns away.
“I- J-Jeez.” Jax laughs. “You’re not seriously thinking of shooting yourself, are you?” His eyes crease nervously.
“You’re taking this way too seriously, Raga-”
BANG!
The loud crack of gunfire rings out into the open air of the Circus. Cotton fluff explodes upwards into the air, drifting down slowly as Ragatha’s headless avatar sags to the ground, the gun clattering out of her limp hands.
Jax’s pupils blow out at the sight before him. Cotton continues falling before disappearing instantly. The scene before him is empty, as if Ragatha had never been there to begin with. His breath becomes laboured and sharp.
She spawns in the Loser's Room to the sight of everyone in cat ears.
“Oh, are we being cats?” says Ragatha, as if nothing is wrong. “Can I join?”
The others gape at her presence.
Zooble stares at her hard before exclaiming in disbelief.
“Did he shoot you???”
“Oh… No… Jax was just…uh… showing me how to do a trick with the gun! I did it wrong and it accidentally went off. Haha!”
Zooble doesn’t seem convinced at all. “If you’re covering for him-”
“I’m not!” Ragatha quickly denies.
“Ragatha what happened?” Pomni questions. “You and Jax have been arguing all day. If he shot you-”
“Have they really been arguing all day? They seemed… alright…? When I saw them.” Zooble inquires to Pomni.
“Yeah, they like, had a whole argument in front of me. It was like, extensive.”
“They were getting along when I saw them.” Kinger says.
Ragatha awkwardly watches them all discuss her. “I’m… I’m right here… guys.”
“Oh… sorry.” says Zooble. “Did he shoot you…?”
“He didn’t!” Ragatha denies again.
“Then how are you here?” Pomni asks.
“I already told you! It was a gun trick! I messed it up haha!”
Gangle pipes up. “Ragatha, it’s okay to admit if he did.”
Ragatha pulls her hair. “He didn’t!”
Her hands rest in front of her waist again. She glances anxiously around the room. “Why don’t you guys believe me? I-I know Jax can be like… Jax, and he did shoot me before the game, but I’m really telling you guys he didn’t shoot me this time!”
“Everyone, let’s just calm down. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this.” Kinger speaks up. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. We can ask Jax about it when we get to the awards’ show. I’m sure if Jax shot her, he won’t deny it.”
Zooble grunts, and the others exchange looks.
Pomni speaks up. “Kinger’s right. We can just ask Jax for his side.”
“Do you we really have to ask Jax?” Ragatha questions, smiling nervously. “We could all just choose to believe me.”
“You’re acting really fucking weird.” Zooble glares.
When Jax enters the awards' show building, everyone is waiting for him. His eyes fall on Ragatha, who’s standing closest to the wall, a small distance away from everyone else, exuding anxiety, and Zooble, at the centre, who’s glaring daggers at him.
Ragatha hurriedly speaks. “I swear I told them it wasn’t your fault!” She looks off to the side. “They just won’t believe me!” Her voice is shaky and highstrung.
Jax rubs between where his brows should be. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
He snaps at Zooble. “I am not in the mood for this!” Zooble glares at him harder.
Pomni steps forward beside Zooble, speaking in a measured way. “We just wanna know if you shot Ragatha.”
“Oh yeah! At the start!” He beams. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?” His expression is edgy and strained as he shoots glances at Pomni, Zooble, and Gangle. “At the end? No.”
“Happy?” The corners of his grin crease.
“Then what the fuck happened?” Zooble shouts. “Ragatha says it was the result of a gun trick accident.-”
Jax lets out a derisive laugh.
“And I sure as shit know that’s not true!”
“Well whatever happened-” Jax comes up and pushes Zooble in the chest with his finger, actively scowling. “It’s none of your god damn business!”
“Don’t push me!” Zooble barks.
“Don’t get into something that has nothing to do with you!” He snarls, and gestures to Ragatha. “Just believe whatever Rags is saying and learn to leave well-enough alone!”
“You did do something, didn’t you?” Zooble accuses.
Jax looks furious.
“Guys-” Pomni tries to step in.
“I bet you do think that, don’t you?” Jax smiles bitterly.
“I don’t see why I would have any reason not to.” Zooble shoots back, eyes narrowed, stepping forwards.
“Guys-” Pomni repeats.
“Um, Zooble…” Gangle broaches.
Ragatha has been watching, eyes darting back and forth. Tears begin to well in her eyes. She grits her teeth, and starts yelling. “I SAID HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!!!” She gasps, huffing and puffing, grabbing at her hair. Her head droops as she glares up at them, eyebrows drawn upwards, mouth trembling, hands scrunching her yarn.
“Why won’t you believe me…?” She whimpers, and her eyes drop to the floor. “What’d I do wrong…?”
Zooble immediately looks regretful and Jax frowns, looking sympathetic for a moment. His attention immediately returns back to Zooble, and he shoves xem. “Oh great, Zooble, look what you did!”
“I-” Zooble looks apologetic for a moment before keying back in on Jax. “What I did? This is your fault!”
“My fault? All I did was win a game! I came here to do my victory lap, and instead, all I get greeted with is a witch-hunt, because of an accident!”
“Oh yeah, what sort of accident?”
“A gun trick! Like Rags was saying! She’s been interested in how I twirl it the entire game, so I gave her a demonstration, and she gave it a shot, and it backfired!”
“That’s the story you’re sticking to, huh?”
Jax pulls Ragatha to be plush against his side. “Yeah. That’s our story. Now butt out.” Jax holds Ragatha to him as he pushes past the group and heads towards the theatrehall.
Zooble’s eyes twitch in aggravation and her antennae flutter.
Ragatha has her head down, tears overflowing, holding so close to herself. She looks so small and pitiful, like she’d sink into the ground if he wasn’t holding her. Her hands keep brushing away seemingly endless tears as Jax guides her along.
Gangle approaches, looking to apologise to Ragatha, but Jax sends her a truly ferocious glare, and she backs away. Zooble glares at Jax as ze come to stand by Gangle. He glowers, shaking his head, rolling his eyes, before focusing his attention back to where he’s walking Ragatha.
He has Ragatha stand with him at the back, until everyone else takes their seats, and then he sits with Ragatha around the back on the other side of the hall. Him on the end to the left, and Ragatha to his right. He leans back in his chair, crossing his arms, left leg propped over his right.
Ragatha sniffles. “I-I’m sorry Jax. If I hadn’t of...-”
Jax looks at her, befuddled. “I- What’re you even saying…”
“If I just didn’t do that… then you wouldn’t have been put in this mess-! And I-” More tears well up and she wipes them away again. “Nobody believes me… I kept trying to tell them that you didn’t do it!” She looks at him, tears in her eye, hands shaking in front of her, giving him a look as if pleading for absolution. “I really tried!”
She hits herself in the head. “Ugh, why did I do that-”
Jax grabs her hand quickly and puts it her lap. “Stop- Don’t do that.”
He looks at her, unsure, tired; more vulnerable than he could ever stand to see himself. “Listen, Ragatha, I’m…” He looks away. “This…” He takes the hand he used to grab hers, and props it up under his chin, leaning on the armrest away from her, too ashamed to show his face. “This is my fault.”
“I put that gun in your hand, and I gave you the choice…”
“I-” His voices breaks and he swallows thickly, leaning more heavily into his hand. “I thought you would shoot me.”
“I-” Her eyes grows wide, looking at the hand in her lap before looking to his turned head.
“Jax… why would I shoot you?”
“Because you hate me.” His voice comes out roughly, but the tone in which he says it, declares it as such, that the truth of that statement is self-evident.
Ragatha’s hands hover over him. “What? Hate you?” Her hands twitch, but still refuse to touch him.
“Jax I don’t hate you…”
“You said so yourself.” It almost sounds like he wants to laugh.
“What?” Her hands retreat a little, before coming to her dress. “When did I say that…?”
She holds her forehead with one hand, while her mitt digs into her dress. “I- I don’t remember saying that at all!”
“It was um-” His voice is thick. He takes a breath. “At Spudsy’s.”
Realisation dawns on her. “The… stupid sauce…”
She quickly becomes apologetic, reaching for him, but hands hesitating above his form. “Jax- I- I really would never have said that if wasn’t for that- that stupid sauce.” She almost hits her head again, but stops short of it, and just leans her fist into her forehead. She looks to him again. “I really didn’t mean it… I’m so so sorry.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” Jax says humourlessly.
Ragatha’s hands settle in her lap. “What is that supposed to mean…?”
Again, he sounds like he’s about to laugh. “Ragatha… you think I’m a bad person. I know you do. That’s why you didn’t want Pomni to be in a team with me, isn’t it?” His head tilts towards her slightly at the last question.
“I-I-…” Ragatha stutters, unable to prove him wrong.
“Told ya.” Jax laughs, slightly humoured, looking fully away again.
She changes the topic. “Don’t you hate me…? Why did you bring me over here…”
Jax tilts his head towards her slightly again. “I… don’t hate you… not really.” He looks away again. “I... get really pissed at you sometimes.” His voice shakes. “You really make me mad Raggy. There’s so many things that you do that just get on my nerves.”
Her eyes grow wide as she digs into the fabric of her dress, staring at her trembling fists.
“I- um- I- the choice that I made… it was… um, it was…. because I thought… you… um… you, uh, you hated me…”
Jax rises from his hand a little bit. “You did that because...-”
“I- um-” Ragatha’s voice starts to get thick. “I thought you didn’t want me around so, I, um, I figured I would just… get out of your hair so-” Her voice is tottering and wobbly as she stutters, fragile and easily broken.
Jax’s hand slides over his mouth. They both don’t say another word. Shaking and trembling beside eachother, silent, refusing to even glance the other’s way, to acknowledge the pain they share, but it’s there, they feel it.
“I don’t want you gone, Raggy.” His voice is muffled through his fingers. Ragatha sniffles. It seems like the tears really won’t stop now.
“I’m sorry Jax.” Ragatha cries. “This is all my fault.”
Jax finally turns to her, tears in the corner of his eyes. “What’re you saying? This is my fault. Like really actually this is my fault.”
“I don’t know.” Ragatha bawls, eyes shut, head craned back, wailing. Jax laughs.
“Why are you laughing at me?” Ragatha sobs, wiping her eyes on her arms. He laughs more.
“Jaaaax. Stooop.”
He giggles more. He starts laughing loudly and the others look over.
Ragatha starts to break out into giggles too.
“What the fuck is going on with them?” mutters Zooble loudly.
Kinger smiles. “I think it’s going well.”
“I- um… I hope so...” says Pomni.
Jax starts shaking Ragatha by her shoulders.
“Ah-AH-ah-AH-ah-AH-ah-AH”
Jax snickers more. Ragatha starts hitting him. “Stooop!!!!”
“AH! Oh no! It’s like being hit with a pillow!” Jax exclaims.
“At least it seems like they’re having a good time.” says Gangle.
“Something’s up with this...” says Zooble leerily.
He laughs, but sniffles a bit. Jax sits back up in his chair, and pins her arm under his, on the armrest between them, looking forwards to the stage.
“Jaaaaax, I can’t move my arm.” Ragatha whines and pouts.
“I know.” He replies.
Caine’s award show begins.