Chapter Text
The door closed behind Ragatha, and Pomni was alone again in her room, sitting on the edge of her bed. They had talked for a while, and while it hadn't been easy for her, Pomni had opened up, managing to tell Ragatha about her fear of failure. She tiptoed around some of the specifics, making sure to never bring up her guilt about Jax. This fear was not news to Ragatha, but the fact that it was affecting Pomni like this again was. She even told Ragatha about the nightmares in detail. She did omit the hallucinations and almost abstracting, though. Letting Ragatha know that would surely terrify the doll, and even if she was talking about her issues again, Pomni didn't want to put that amount of worry on her friend.
She had struggled to quiet her thoughts about her near-abstraction experience the entire time they had chatted, but she had managed to focus on patching up her and Ragatha's friendship, keeping the unpleasant thoughts at bay. Now, she was alone and could finally try to grapple with what had happened earlier. Her gaze shifted toward the floor as she became lost in thought.
'I'm lucky to even be here right now,' she thought. 'I wish I could have told Ragatha that she saved me, but... I think this needs to stay with me. For now, anyway.'
She couldn't even imagine how panicked everyone would be if she told them. No, she didn't need that amount of attention and concern.
She got onto the bed and lay on her back. Pomni's eyes stared at the canopy, lost in thought once more.
'If she had just been a few minutes late, I would have been gone... And then when she came to see me, she would have found me...' She didn't finish that thought. 'She would think it was her fault. She would blame herself for the rest of her life.'
The thought had occurred to her earlier, but now she had time to ruminate on it, and it sent a bolt of anxiety through her body, threatening to bring tears to her eyes. She pushed them back.
'I almost hurt her again. Almost failed her. I almost failed everyone.' She let out a sigh, closing her eyes. Her mind then went back to her abstraction experience. The colors, the soothing feelings, how she had actually wanted to abstract at one point. The whole thing was frightening, but... It felt comforting in ways she couldn't quite articulate.
She thought of Jax. 'I wonder if that's how it was for him, too...' she thought. 'If that had happened... If I hadn't woken up... I wonder if I would have seen him again.' Quickly, she shook her head at that. It was crazy talk. That wasn't how life worked, digital or not, right? If she had abstracted, that would have been it, with no happy reunion. Abstracting was not the answer to her problems. This was the life she had, and she needed to cherish it, not throw it away because of guilt and grief. She had people who cared for, even loved, her, like Ragatha. All of them would be willing to help if she just opened up to them.
"I don't want to abstract." It was said quietly, like she was afraid someone nearby might hear her. During her abstraction experience, she had wanted it by the end. But now, her mind no longer clouded by psychedelic imagery or the warmth of the experience, it was once again something she feared.
But opening up about all of this to Ragatha... It felt good. She let out a sigh. Maybe it was time to let everyone help. Time to stop worrying about worrying them. Time to stop hiding everything. She wanted to feel better. And while certain topics would remain off-limits, it certainly couldn't hurt her mental state at this point to let her friends help her.
She yawned, her eyes beginning to close. Sleep sounded nice. She would face tomorrow with a different outlook. She wasn't going to hide all of her feelings or force herself to go on adventures when her mood said 'no.' And maybe, with some help from her friends, she could finally get to a better place again.
Happy. The Pomni people used to know.
**********
A week had passed. Pomni had been trying to keep her promise, and she thought she had been getting better, until...
She jolted up in bed, a panicked expression on her face as she stared into the darkness. Shaking, she took deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down enough to think. 'Nightmare. It's ok. It wasn't real. You've dealt with this before. You're fine, Pomni.' It was that old nightmare from a week prior, the one where she lost Ragatha. Easily her most hated of them all. "It's ok..." she uttered. She didn't want to go back to sleep and she doubted she even could sleep at this point, being far too worked up. Her head fell back onto the pillow, and she looked up at the canopy above her. 'I don't want to be alone...' she thought. Her body shivered as she thought back on the nightmare. It had been just as terrifying as the first time she had it. The horror and fear upon discovering her friend had abstracted. And the horrible feeling of guilt, like it had been her fault. 'I almost did that to her,' the thought ran across her mind, reminding her of her abstraction experience from last week. She still thought about it every day. How couldn't she? It wasn't the sort of thing you just moved on from.
She scanned the room, eyes on the lookout for any hallucinations. She hadn't experienced one since the abstraction, but that sure didn't keep her from staying vigilant, always on the lookout for some apparition of him, some oddity in reality that could tell her that she wasn't any better than a week ago.
Pomni looked up at the clock on her wall. 2:30 AM. She didn't want to disturb her friend in the middle of the night, but she hoped Ragatha wouldn't mind if she did.
She rolled out of bed and walked to the door. Opening it, she walked into the hallway. Her eyes avoided looking at Jax's door, though she still felt a tinge of anxiety, knowing it was there.
The door closed behind her, quickly Pomni walked over to Ragatha's door, standing there for a few silent moments, just staring at the doll's portrait on the door. 'It's fine. I can talk to her about this... She'll help, I'm sure.' She took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Pomni stood there in the silence of the hallway. Everyone was certainly asleep right now...
She looked back at her door. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she shouldn't be bothering Ragatha at this hour.
A creaking noise resonated through the hall as her friend's door opened, causing Pomni's attention to snap forward. Ragatha stood in the doorway, her room dark. She looked like she had just been awoken from a deep slumber. "Pomni?" she said through a yawn. "Mmm... Is everything alright?" the doll asked. Once she focused her eye on Pomni, Ragatha could see how startled the younger woman was. Immediately, a concerned look crossed the doll's face.
The jester sheepishly lowered her gaze to the floor as she spoke. "Um, yeah, I uh... I had a nightmare, and well... I didn't want to be alone after that. It was, uh, well, it was pretty bad. Could I maybe stay here with you?"
Ragatha's eye seemed to light up just slightly. "Oh! Of course. I don't mind staying up and chatting until everyone else gets up, if you want. Come in, you can take a seat on the bed."
Pomni obliged, stepping into the woman's room. It was nice to be able to do this again. To talk to a friend in her time of need. To get help when she needed it. No more isolating herself over every little thing.
They would stay up for some time, chatting until it was nearly sunrise in the circus.
***********
Pomni lay in bed, staring up at the canopy covering it. Her hands were clasped together and resting on her stomach, while her head rested on the soft pillow. It had been two weeks now since that fateful night. She thought back on the past week, thinking about how she hadn't had any nightmares during that time. Perhaps spending more time with Ragatha had helped. She had been hanging out with the doll more and more since last week, and she had probably spent more time with her in the past few days than she had in the past two months. 'I guess it has made things feel a little easier,' she thought. Laying there, staring up at the canopy.
'I haven't talked to Zooble in a long time...' It was true. The two of them had never been too close, but she had barely acknowledged them recently. Same thing with Gangle.
She rolled out of bed. She felt like making herself attempt to socialize today, and with someone besides just Ragatha. Maybe Zooble would be at their bar? They often liked to hang out there.
The jester made her way to her door, opening it to step into the hall. She looked at the crossed-out portrait of Jax across from her. For just a moment, a bolt of anxiety struck her body. But it was short-lived. Letting out a sigh, she recomposed herself, heading toward where she hoped Zooble, and maybe even Gangle, would be.
'I hope I won't be interrupting them,' she thought, idly walking toward her destination.
She passed through the hallway, and made her way through the circus, until she found the bar. Zooble had put it together shortly after Caine had returned from the void. It wasn't much: a long, straight counter, some colorful red, blue, and yellow stools, an 'Open' sign, and whatever alcohol they needed.
Pomni stood some distance away, watching Zooble clean a glass, while Gangle sat on a stool at the far end of the bar, drawing something that Pomni certainly couldn't make out from this distance. Should she go over and start up a conversation? She wasn't sure. She was never that close with the two of them, and it had been a while since she had so much as spoken to them. She didn't want to intrude, but...
'Come on, you can manage to make conversation with someone besides Ragatha. You've got this, Pomni.' She told herself. She did want to hang out with them. It was the first time she really felt up to it in a while. A week ago, she wouldn't have even considered coming here.
She steeled herself, taking a deep breath and then slowly exhaling, while trying to put on a casually friendly face. It came across as more nervous than anything else.
The jester approached the bar, waving at the abstract character and their ribbon companion. "Hey, you guys." Her tone sounded forced and lacking confidence. Like she was afraid of embarrassing herself in some way she wasn't even sure of. Walking to a stool, she sat next to Gangle, giving the Ribbon woman a little wave.
"Oh, hey, Pomni. How's it going?" Zooble said in a dry tone.
Gangle waved happily toward Pomni. "Hi, Pomni." She said as she looked up from her sketchbook.
Pomni stared at Gangle for a moment, noting her mask. She never seemed to wear her comedy mask anymore, always keeping her tragedy mask regardless of the situation. 'Seems like she has been working on her own issues,' Pomni thought. She admired that.
She leaned forward, placing her elbows on the bar counter. "Oh, um, I mean... Alright? Yeah, alright seems like the proper word."
Zooble chuckled. "Well, hey, it's better than 'I feel like shit,' right?"
Pomni laughed, half forced and half natural. "Ain't that the truth..." If only Zooble knew the half of it. Knew just how 'shit' Pomni had felt for months now.
"Can I get you something, or did you just come by to hang out?" the toybox character pressed.
"Oh, I mostly just wanted to say hi, but uh... I'll take an Old Fashioned." She hadn't intended to drink and was caught off guard when asked, so she ended up picking the first drink that came to her mind.
Zooble nodded. "Comin' right up." they said, turning around to face the alcohol stored behind them. Picking out the proper bottles and grabbing a glass to prepare their friend's drink.
Gangle had returned to drawing after the initial greetings, sketching something Pomni couldn't quite see. The jester leaned over, trying to get a better look at what the ribbon woman was working on. She got a brief glimpse of one of the figures on the page, which looked like her. "What are you drawing?" Pomni casually asked.
Gangle, almost startled, held the sketchbook close to her body so that Pomni couldn't get a better look at it. "Um, it's n-nothing. I was just drawing everyone's characters from our roleplaying campaign. But it's, um, it's not finished yet," she said, a little bit embarrassed.
Pomni didn't press the issue at all. She understood some artists were like that, never wanting to reveal anything until it was totally finished. So, she didn't take it personally.
Zooble, in the meantime, had whipped up the drink. "Here's you go," they said, sliding the glass over to Pomni, who stopped it with a gloved hand.
"Thanks," she replied, smiling at them, and then took the drink, raising the glass to her lips.
Zooble took another glass from behind the bar and began to idly clean it. "Can't say I've seen you around much, besides the adventures, I mean." they said.
Pomni took a drink from her glass and then put it back down. "Yeah, I, uh... Well, I hadn't been feeling too well the past couple of weeks. But, I think I'm starting to get a bit better."
The ribbon character looked up from her sketchbook. "Do you think you can make it to my game tonight?" she said, referring to the ongoing roleplaying game the group had. "You, um... missed the last one. Ragatha said you weren't feeling too well. I understand if you can't."
The jester took another sip of her drink before responding. "Yeah, I'll make it tonight. Really, it's probably best I don't stay cooped up in my room anyway. And I missed hanging out with you two, anyway," she said, wearing a warm smile as she looked from one friend to the other.
"Well, whatever has been going on, I'm glad to hear you're feeling better," Zooble replied.
Pomni finished the rest of her drink, setting it down on the counter.
She remained there for some time, just idly chatting with her two friends for the first time in months, forgetting the problems that had dominated her life for months.
********
Another week had passed. It hadn't been too bad, even if she still had her bad moments here and there. She thought back over the past couple of days. There had been a roleplaying game with the group, in which she had far more fun than she had expected. She couldn't help but smile, thinking of when Gangle's wizard character had charmed Caine's character so he couldn't talk, which had frustrated the AI to an amusing degree. Aside from that, there had been some adventures, and she actually felt like going on them. She finally enjoyed getting out of her room again.
Today was a relaxed day in the circus. No adventure or group activity was planned, leaving everyone to just laze about or work on their own things.
Pomni was with Kinger next to his fort, made up with an assortment of colorful pillows. She hadn't had anything better to do today, and the chess piece had asked for her help with his insect collection. Though, she hadn't been aware that he meant helping find a bug that had gotten loose. She'd never been a fan of bugs, but she could handle being around most of them, and she didn't have to touch it when she found it. She could just leave that to Kinger.
For his part, it seemed like Kinger had become distracted from the task of searching and had instead become interested in building a house of cards off to the side. The jester sighed. 'I guess it's just up to me,' she thought.
'Where is it... I really could be doing something better with my time,' she thought.
She continued walking across the tiled floor closely searching the ground, the walls, and anything else, until finally her eyes spotted it. Some sort of green insect, maybe an inch and a half or so in length, with a long body and green wings. 'Maybe it's a grasshopper or cricket or something?' she thought.
"Hey, Kinger!" She gave a loud holler toward the chess piece, startling him and causing his nearly completed house of cards to crumble into a pile. He gave a long stare at the pile of cards before finally saying, "Oh... Someone must have dropped a deck of cards here."
"Kinger!" Pomni hollered yet again, trying to grab his attention. 'Can he get the hell over here?' she thought, an irritated feeling rising.
The chess piece closed the distance between them. "Oh, hi, Pomni. When did you get here?" he questioned.
She let out an exasperated sigh. "I found an insect here. I think it's yours." There wasn't much point in reminding him that he had asked her to help find an escaped bug. It would only confuse him and complicate something that she wanted to be done with.
"Ohhh, let me see!" he said, turning to look at the bug in front of them, his eyes widening as he marveled at it.
"Um, do... you know what it even is? I'm not really a bug person, you know?" Her eyes stayed fixated on the unnamed insect.
The chess piece moved himself slowly toward the green bug, careful not to startle it.
'Where does he even get these bugs... Does he conjure them or just find them outside?' she idly thought to herself. She would ask him, if she thought he'd even recall.
Kinger moved swiftly, swiping the cricket into his hands. "It's a bush-cricket! A great green bush cricket, to be specific," he said, now walking to Pomni with the inch-and-a-half-long bug in his hands. "Here, do you want to take a look at it?" Kinger lowered his hand down to Pomni.
She nearly backed up, not wanting to be so close to the thing. "N-no, that's really fine, you don't have to do t—AHHHHH!" Her sentence was cut off suddenly as it turned into a horrified scream. The green cricket had hopped out of Kinger's hand and onto her face, right where her nose would be if she had one. She looked cross-eyed at it, her expression changing to one of panic.
"KINGER! GET IT OFF OF ME!" she screamed.
"Did you know the green bush cricket actually has a painful bite?" he chimed in, seemingly oblivious to the woman's sudden distress over the insect.
Pomni stumbled and fell onto her back as she swatted at her face. "I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL THIS THING, KINGER! GET IT OFF!" she screamed out. Finally, the cricket hopped off of her face, and Pomni lay there on the floor, looking utterly stunned.
Kinger walked up beside her. "Oh! A cricket!" His voice filled with excitement, as if it had been the first time he had seen this insect that day.
"Ughh..." Pomni sighed, staring up at the roof of the circus tent. Maybe helping Kinger with his insects hadn't been the best choice of her time today...
********
Another week had passed without much issue. Pomni stepped out of the red and white striped changing tent. She was wearing her blue beach shorts and a blue and white striped top, and of course her jester's cap she was rarely without. She looked over to Zooble and Gangle in the distance. And she made her way toward the pair. The ribbon woman in the blue pleated skirt was carrying a beach towel and a cooler, while Zooble was carrying a beach umbrella and ball.
"Hey, guys," Pomni said, a smile on her face. "Do you need any help?" she questioned, looking at the two with their arms full of beach supplies.
"Yeah, if you don't mind carrying this for me?" Gangle responded, lifting the cooler up a bit as if to emphasize it to their friend.
"Sure!" The jester said, taking it. She had to suddenly grab it with two hands, as its weight threatened to cause the thing to drop out of her hand.
Zooble looked between the two of them, and then motioned further down the beach with their hand. "C'mon. That seems like a good spot over there. Follow me."
Pomni walked over the beach, following her two friends until they reached a shaded spot with two palm trees. She placed the cooler down, while Gangle and Zooble set up their various things they had brought. "This seems like a good spot," she chirped up.
The beach towel was laid out by Gangle, who nodded in agreement with Pomni.
"Where is everyone else, anyway?" asked Pomni as her eyes scanned the beach for any sign of the others.
"I'm not sure where Kinger and Caine went off to, but I think I saw Ragatha heading out to the water." Zooble responded while they were bent over, looking into the open cooler. "You two want anything?" they asked.
"Oh, one of those canned iced teas would be nice," answered Gangle with a smile.
Pomni had turned her attention toward the water, where she could see Ragatha in a two-piece blue swimsuit, idly floating in the water. "Nah, I'm fine," she answered Zooble. "I think I'm going to join Ragatha in the water, actually. The Sun is unbearable today," she said.
"I HATE YOU TOO!" Pomni heard the voice of the smiling cartoonish sun above them. She rolled her eyes. It was best to just ignore the Sun.
"Well, have a good time. Thanks for the help." Zooble responded while Gangle sat down and sipped on her canned drink.
The short jester turned around, heading toward where she could see Ragatha. She looked up at the blue sky as she walked. 'It's a beautiful day,' she thought, smiling wide. Pomni stopped at the edge of the shore, before slowly wading in, hissing in surprise as the cold water touched her bare skin. "Hey, Ragatha." The jester waded further in until half her body was submerged into the water. She swam toward the red headed doll who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
Hearing her friend's voice snapped her out of whatever thoughts the ragdoll happened to be focused on. "Oh, hey, Pomni!" Ragatha called out, a smile on her face. She waved happily at the girl.
"The water is nice," Pomni observed, floating next to Ragatha in the water.
Ragatha nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's pretty nice on such a hot d--!"
*SPLASH!*
She was interrupted by Pomni's sudden splashing of water into her face. "Gah! Pomni!" Ragatha laughed, covering her face while her friend splashed her a second time. The doll splashed back at Pomni repeatedly in quick succession.
The jester put her hands over her face, giving up the water fight right away. "Ok, ok, stop!" Pomni said, laughing out loud. Ragatha continued to splash at her anyway. "I said stop!" Pomni exclaimed, still laughing.
"You started it," Ragatha replied, a cheeky grin upon her face. She moved back further into the water, until half her body was submerged. Pomni followed after her, maneuvering herself in front of the doll.
They floated there for a few moments, neither of them speaking a word as they both just soaked up the sun while floating in the cool water. Pomni was the one to break the silence. "Honestly, I wasn't sure I would even want to come to a beach today. Or at the very least, I didn't think I'd want to get into the water after yesterday." She didn't take her eyes away from gazing at the beautiful sky above, clear of clouds.
"You mean the Mermaid kingdom adventure?" Ragatha said, swimming in a circle around Pomni.
"Yeah. I figured I would have had enough water for the week after that. I wish Caine wouldn't pick water themes. I've never been a fan of them ever since that first one way back." She floated still, her eyes watching Ragatha as the doll circled her.
"Well, you can always tell him you would prefer he not do those. I'm sure he would cut them out if he knew. I thought it was pretty fun, though." Ragatha said. She was right, of course. Caine no longer forced his adventures on others, and he was always open to suggestions and limits now. Everyone still did the adventures, of course. Caine was their friend now, and creating adventures was to him what drawing was to Gangle. So, everyone obliged. They usually weren't too bad.
"Eh, I wouldn't want to offend him, or anything. It's not like it's a big deal," Pomni said, and then chuckled. "I'm not surprised that you liked it. You did seem to get along with that Mer-queen." she added.
Ragatha stopped swimming in circles, and then looked away, blushing deeply at Pomni's statement. "Um, well, she was, uh... nice!"
"Heh, you say that about all of the royalty AIs," Pomni teased her friend, grinning at her mischievously. "You know, it makes me think you have a 'type.'"
Ragatha stared at the water, blushing even more and looking quite flustered. "W-well, even if I did, it's not for queens and princesses!" She put her hands up in front of her, as if it helped somehow fend off her friend's accusation.
*BONK*
"Gah-!!!" Pomni exclaimed out loudly as an inflatable beach ball struck her head, bouncing off and landing in the water beside her.
"Oh shit, sorry, Pomni!" the jester heard the voice of Zooble from the shore a short distance away. "I didn't mean to smack you in the head like that!"
It hadn't hurt, of course. It was just a beach ball. Pomni grabbed the ball next to her and then looked to Ragatha. "I'm just going to give this back to them. I'll be right back." Pomni said.
"Actually, I think I'll go find a chair to sun tan in," replied the doll.
"You... don't tan," Pomni said, raising an eyebrow at that.
Ragatha blushed for a moment in embarrassment. "Well... I can still enjoy the experience of trying to get a tan."
Pomni tried not to laugh at that. "Right. Well, maybe I'll join you a bit later, or something," the jester said, already moving through the water and to the shore where Zooble and Gangle were waiting.
Feet finally touched the sand, and she walked to the couple. "Here you go." She held out the large beach ball to Gangle.
"Sorry that we hit you..." Gangle sounded genuinely apologetic about the entire thing. Even if it was just a beach ball, and it hadn't even been her who had hit Pomni with it.
Zooble nodded, looking at Gangle and then to Pomni. "Yeah, sorry to split you and Ragatha up," they said.
"It's totally fine," Pomni responded, shaking her head. "But, I was wondering if you guys have seen Kinger?" Pomni's eyes scanned the area for a sign of the chess piece, but didn't see him.
Gangle raised a ribbon and gestured behind Pomni. "I think I saw him making sand castles that way."
Pomni looked in the direction the ribbon woman gestured toward. She could see the chess piece in the distance, wearing purple shorts and working on an impressively complex sand castle. "Oh, right. Thanks, Gangle, Zooble. I'm gonna go say hi to him. You two have fun," she said, waving at the two as she turned to walk away and Zooble and Gangle waved back at her.
She began making her way across the beach, walking by various palm trees as well as Ragatha sun tanning in a chair. Finally, she reached the large sand castle, though Kinger was nowhere to be found. The castle was at least 7 feet tall, with six towers, an actual draw bridge, and a moat filled with water. 'Wow. That is... an impressive castle,' she thought, looking up at it.
"POMNI!" Kinger hollered at her from behind, causing the small jester to jump two feet into the air, absolutely shocked. He had apparently snuck up on her when she hadn't been looking.
"HOLY CRAP, KINGER, WHAT?!?" Pomni screamed back, seriously startled, eyes wide, her body in a defensive stance as if someone was about to attack her and needed to be countered.
"You almost stepped in the moat..." he said calmly to her, motioning toward it.
Pomni sighed, slumping forward, quite annoyed by Kinger's antics. "Right... Sorry," she said, looking back up at the castle, deciding to just let that entire interaction go. "It's pretty impressive. Is it done?"
Kinger closed his eyes and shook his 'head'. "Nope! I still need to put in the swimming pool, insect observatory, and a bowling alley!"
Pomni looked surprised, attention now on Kinger. "Uh, do you think you can finish all of that before the end of the day?"
"Probably not! Say, do you think you could help, Pomni?" he said, looking hopefully at her.
Pomni shrugged her shoulders. "As long as this isn't going to result in another bug on my face, or something," she said.
Kinger handed her a small plastic shovel and bucket, which she took. "I'll show you where we're putting the bowling alley." He motioned toward her, and began moving.
Pomni, for her part, followed him behind the castle, keeping close by with him.
-------
Pomni wiped some sweat off her brow. She had spent the last hour helping Kinger build his monstrous sand castle. Putting the final touches on the small-scale bowling alley on the backside of the castle. 'I guess this was kind of fun,' she thought. 'Better than the last time I helped him...' She shook her head, thinking back to the cricket situation a week ago.
The chess piece walked up behind her, completely unnoticed to the small jester, who was currently lost in her thought. "POMNI!" he shouted suddenly.
She had to stop herself from jumping forward and demolishing the piece of the castle she had only just finished. She turned around, staring at the man, eyes wide. "STOP! DOING! THAT!" Pomni huffed out, letting out a little anxiety from that sudden jump scare. She never had been good with them, and at this point she was getting tired of it.
Kinger seemed unfazed by the girl's response, instead staring straight at the large castle, seemingly amazed by it. "Wow... What a castle! Is it yours?" he inquired.
Pomni sighed, shaking her head. 'Sometimes I wonder if he's just messing with me,' she thought. "Um... No? It's, uh, it's yours."
For his part, Kinger looked elated. "You built it for me?! Why, thank you Pomni. I will cherish it forever!" he said, as if holding back tears.
She smiled back at him. Much like the other day, she knew it was pointless to try and clarify the situation with him. 'Well... As long as he's happy with it, I guess.' The two stood there, just enjoying the completed work in front of them. At least, until...
Suddenly, Caine poofed in, seemingly from nowhere, immediately destroying half of the sand castle on accident as he appeared, sending sand flying, a decent amount landing on the jester's head. "DINNER IS READY!" he hollered out with a jovial tone, gesturing toward a long table that had been set up further up the beach, far away from the water.
"B- WHA- I- CAINE! WHAT THE HELL!?" She couldn't help but holler at him, having been jump scared for the third time in an hour, and having just lost all of the work that had gone into that. She shook sand off her hat, irritated, looking up at Caine with narrowed eyes.
"Oh... Someone left a half-finished sand castle here!" Kinger chimed in, further annoying the jester.
'God... Caine might be a lot more well-meaning these days, but in a lot of ways he hasn't changed much,' she thought, an annoyed look upon her face as she stared at him, frowning. "WE JUST FINISHED THAT!" she shouted.
The floating ringmaster couldn't help but shrink back in response to the girl's annoyance. "Oh, sorry, Pomni. I, uh, didn't see that there." He looked down at the pile of collapsed sand now under him. "But, uh, I did cook you all a fantastic feast! I thought you could all use some digital nutrients after all of that time out in the water and sun!"
It took her a moment, but Pomni let her annoyance fade away. She exhaled sharply. "...Thanks. I'm, uh, sorry for getting annoyed." It wasn't like the act had been intentional. And it was pretty sweet of him to have skipped on a fun day just to make them a meal.
"Think nothing of it!" Caine replied, immediately returning to his usual circus-barker tone. "Feel free to head on over and take a seat! I'll just have to go get the others." And with that, he poofed off again, apparently off to gather the other three.
"I guess we should get going, huh, Kinger?" The jester looked to her left, now realizing the Chess Piece was gone. In the distance, she could see him already over at the table down the way. 'Y'know... He can be pretty stealthy when he wants to,' she thought, before breaking off into a sprint toward the table.
It took her only a short few moments to close the distance. It was the same one they were used to inside the tent: a long table covered in a white tablecloth. 5 wooden chairs lined one side of the table, with Kinger already sitting in one of them on the far end of the table. Pomni took a seat in the middle, and looked at the food set up on the table. It was primarily seafood and fruits. 'I guess it's a good pick for a beach day.' Shrimp, lobster, clams, pineapples, bananas, mangoes, and a plate of blue fish were atop the table. 'Caine went all out,' she leaned back in her chair, waiting until the others came along.
It was a few minutes later when Caine floated up to the table, with Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble close in tow.
"Wow! You really set all of this up for us?" Ragatha said, as she took a seat next to the jester.
Zooble and Gangle both took a seat next to each other. "Yeah, pretty nice of you, Caine," Zooble said, with Gangle shyly nodding in agreement with them.
"Of course! We're all one big family here, right? Consider me the family chef!" Caine responded.
Pomni looked to her left, then to her right, getting a look at all of her friends. She couldn't help but smile.
'I kind of forgot what it feels like to just... live my life.'
She hadn't thought of her past problems the entire day, with them being pushed to the back of her mind. But now, it finally dawned on her.
For the first time in months, she truly felt happy.