Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everyone has their off days, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Today just so happened to be Ragatha’s turn of suffering at the hands of the circus. Today it was an adventure with Jax, Zooble, and Pomni. Something related to the lake outside, which was already a stretch for the doll due to an unfortunate accident. It didn’t help that Jax had purposefully pushed her in, not knowing of her history with the location. Everything felt gray as she fell in, the water surrounding her being slowly absorbed into her cloth skin. It felt draining to fight against the water, yet she still tried. Eventually, her eyes started to close as she sank further and further, only seeing a fading light and, a red and blue spot?

‘Oh, Pomni…’

She reached out as the jester swam closer to her. They met and she pulled, slowly sinking with her as she tried to rescue Ragatha. Meanwhile, said doll was starting to lose feeling in her arms, giving into a digital hypothermia that was slowly enveloping her. Her fading eyesight distracted her from every other signal that was being sent to her brain.
Suddenly, she felt a grip on her waist, then water moving all around her. She looked over to her right. Pomni was trying to swim her to the surface. Her eyes started to scramble, yet she kept on swimming. The light of the sun getting brighter and brighter, until they broke the water surface. They both coughed as Pomni brought her to the shore, the others gathering around to make sure they were ok.
After that, her memory became fuzzy. She knows that they continued with the adventure, but she couldn’t remember what she did. All she knew was that one second she was at the beach, the next she was alone in her room, darkness surrounding her as she fell to the floor. She grabbed at her hair, tugging at it as she started to cry, if you could even call it that. Her eye sight become hazy, blending the colors in the room into each other. Everything was a mess and she was joining it.

~

Pomni was worried to say the least. It’s been a few hours since she brought Ragatha back to her room after she almost…drowned? Death and dying still isn’t really clear but that’s beside the point. Ragatha hasn’t left her room since Pomni took her there and the adventure ended long ago. Heck, dinner has been going on for an hour and she hasn’t left. Pomni got up from her chair, having finished her small portion, and started walking to the doll’s room.

Passing by the X’d out doors always unnerved her. The possibility of becoming whatever they became was a terrifying thought, one she tried not to give too much of her time. She turned to the doll’s door, though something was off. There was a small red streak across Ragatha’s sign. She tried to wipe it off, though it only smudged the line. She knocked on the door, ignoring the similarity between the smudged streak and the lines on the other doors.
There was no reply. She knocked again, nothing. She tried to open the door, locked. She swore under her breath, then she had an idea. She rushed to Jax’s room, only a few steps away but who can blame her. She opened his door, scaring the rabbit who was throwing a ball against a wall.

“Jax I need the key to Ragatha’s room.”

“Why, so you two can go make out it something?” Pomni groaned, of course he would still be an $?@. She took a deep breath,

“Jax, I just need the key, please.” Her voice broke slightly at the end. Luckily, Jax took pity, or maybe just wanted her out of his room, and threw her the key. She caught it, though not without juggling it for a few seconds, and ran back out to Ragatha’s room. She fumbled with the key, but unlocked the door. She pushed it open to darkness. She stepped in and called out into the room,

“Raggy? Are you still here-“

Suddenly, an eye opened in front of her, then another and another. They looked all around the room at first, then all centered on Pomni. The jester froze, wanting to run but also not wanting to leave her girlfriend in this state. She turned to the door, the light of the hallway leaking into the room slightly, then to the creature of eyes, staring at her directly. She held her breath, and walked towards what was left of Ragatha.
Her eyes followed Pomni’s movement precisely, unlike Kaufmo. Her body didn’t glitch as much as his did either, as if she was calm despite being abstracted. Pomni slowly exhaled as she gathered her nerves.

“H-Hey Ragatha, it’s um… i-it’s gonna be ok, I’m not gonna go get Caine or anything. I-I’m gonna be right here w-with you.”

Her voice was scratchy as she stuttered and hesitated while she spoke. She didn’t fully have an idea on what to do, but she also knew that if she told Caine, she would never see her again. While she tried to process everything going on, she didn’t notice Ragatha getting closer to her, her eyes still focusing on Pomni. She moved around her, circling her as she delved deeper into thought. She reached for Pomni’s hand, but hesitated right before she touched her. Finally breaking free from her thoughts, she noticed how Ragatha looked compared to Kaufmo.
She was more, her in a way. Instead of a glitchy mess of darkness, she still held bits and pieces of her doll form, but was mostly made of splotches of darkness with very few eyes. She wasn’t as glitchy as compared to everything else in the circus, only having small parts of her reach out on random directions but not enough to affect anything. She looked at her hand, still stuck in place as she debated on taking Pomni’s hand. It was mostly normal up until the wrist where the darkness started. Taking in another breath, Pomni took her hand.
It felt, wrong to say the least. The texture of Ragatha’s hand were completely different compared to how it felt before. It was rough and slightly dry, so unlike the oddly smooth and soft textures of before. Despite that, she held on, rubbing small circles into her hand while looking away, red slowly spreading across her face.

Ragatha looked at Pomni, she was surprised that she was the one to grab her hand, considering the last time that there was an abstraction. She moved closer to the jester, grabbing her other hand now. They both looked at each other, staring into the other’s eyes as they watched for any reactions.

“Hey Pomni it’s been a bit- WHAT THE !@/$ ?!”

The two girls turned towards the door, now facing a very confused and slightly terrified rabbit.

Chapter Text

The trio stood there at first. Pomni and Jax looked at each other in fear while some of Ragatha’s eyes shifted towards the rabbit. An unpleasant growl could be heard from her as she started to walk towards Jax. Pomni tried to grab onto her arm, but it shocked her as she touched it. Her hand started to glitch out just like it did when Kaufmo abstracted. Too distracted by the staticky feeling in her hand, she didn’t see Jax running away from the scene, Ragatha following behind him. Pomni gave chase, running after the two.
The trio ran through the tent, luckily it was vacant as it was still “night”. The concept of time was strange but that isn’t the focus right now. Jax took a left, leading the three to the outside of the tent. He kept running, eventually going towards the lake. Ragatha’s glitches grew more sporadic, reaching towards Jax.
He turned to face the two, smiling as they caught up to him. Ragatha lunged at him, every part of her body reaching towards him. He stepped to the right, causing her to miss entirely. As she passed him, he gave her a smirk as he pushed her into the water for the second time today. She fell back into the water, bubbles rising as she sank. Pomni caught up to the scene, horrified at the sight. She turned to the rabbit, laughing at the thought of tricking the poor doll twice with the same trick. He turned towards the jester, a stupid grin still on his face as he spoke.

“So, wanna give me the key back and go sleep?”

She was astonished. This lack of concern was just, baffling.

“T-That’s it? You just pushed Ragatha into the water, and all you care about is your @&”$%!?key?!”

“Well what else do you want? She’s long gone now that she’s abstracted.”

Pomni couldn’t even face him. She pulled the key from her pockets and shoved it into his chest. He grabbed it and walked away, whistling while leaving the girl to the water without a care. Meanwhile, said girl fell to her knees at the edge of the water. She felt her tears fall and watched as they mixed into the lake, the “grave” of her partner.
She screamed as she started to pull at her $@%¥& digital hat. She pulled and tugged at every part of herself, wishing she could feel something that told her she was real and this was just a bad dream. She wanted to wake up from this &@$! and return to the beginning of the day at least. Maybe then she could make sure that Ragatha didn’t get pushed into insanity, maybe then they could be safe inside her room only with each other, talking about whatever came to their minds as they held onto each other. But it was too late for that. She was gone, drowning at the bottom of this cursed lake.

Or at least, that’s what Pomni thought. Through all of her crying, she didn’t notice the bubbles rising once again. A shadow slowly came closer to the surface. It quietly rose above the water, eyes searching for a certain rabbit, though instead they found a crying jester. The shadow moved towards the girl, watching as her anguish spilled. It was as silent as the stars as it crept onto the land, sneaking behind the jester. It thought for a moment about attacking the poor thing, perhaps drowning it like it just had minutes before. But suddenly, through the whimpers of the girl, the shadow heard something familiar, a name.

“Ragatha… I-I’m so so sorry, please…”

Her voice, it felt like home. And that name, did it belong to them? The shadow shook its head, it doesn’t remember anything before waking up in the water. But this girl, it felt wrong, painful even to hear her cries. The shadow thought for a moment, deciding against the original plan. Instead, it decided to hug the sobbing jester. There was a yelp, obviously the poor thing would be scared by suddenly getting hugged from behind. She looked behind herself.
She met Ragatha’s glitchy yet wonderfully colorful eyes watching her reactions. Her body, now mostly void, didn’t hurt Pomni when she was hugged. Taking this chance, she turned herself to fully embrace her lover. Her sobs were wiped away as her love slowly recovered her sense of self again. She started to remember how she had done this before. The nights that they spent, holding on one another as they slept, keeping the terrors of the night and their past away. Ragatha felt something fall down her check, a strange sensation, yet so familiar to her. It continued as she held onto the jester, falling towards the ground as they looked at each other.
Pomni wiped away her tear just as she did to hers. The two slowly gathered themselves together, holding hands as they stood up. They looked towards the tent, hesitant to move. Pomni was the first to speak,

“Do you want to go inside? You don’t have to but…”

Her voice faded. She didn’t have any ideas on what to do. She didn’t want Ragatha to be sent to the cellar, but she couldn’t stay outside forever, especially while… half abstracted? Her current condition was strange to say the least, even more reasoning for her to not stay outside for who even knows how long.

“$T@¥ w-wi/h MƐ,.. p|£$E?”

Her voice was ragged and scratchy, yet Pomni loved every word. How could she ever say no to the sweet doll?

“I will, but we’re going to my room before the sun rises. I… I love you too much to let you stay out here forever.”

She looked away as she spoke, her face burning with blush. She heard a rough yet graceful laugh from her side. It truly was impossible to say no to such a beautiful woman.

Chapter Text

The two girls laid on Pomni’s bed, resting together after a very long day collecting and disposing of yet another random creature Caine had summoned. Though Ragatha could no longer participate in the adventures due to her… condition, Pomni wasn’t as fortunate.
Exhausted from today’s events, all she wanted was to lay down with her lover as she got some very needed rest. She was curled up against the doll, almost like a cat. Meanwhile, Ragatha held her close, petting her stomach as she read a book that was in Pomni’s room. As the two relaxed, there was a faint noise coming from somewhere. Ragatha looked around the room. It was mostly dark with the exception of a small lamp to her side so she could read. Considering she couldn’t see the cause of the sound, she growled at whatever the source could be, trying to scare it away from Pomni. Suddenly, the noise turned into whimpers. She looked over at the jester. She was curling further into herself. Sobs could be heard as she unconsciously moved her hands over her ears, trying to ignore the threatening noise of Ragatha’s growl.
She stopped, regretting her decision as she hugged Pomni again. Her crying slowly calmed down as Ragatha started to rub her stomach again. Eventually, it was just silence in the room as the two laid against one another. Not wanting to wake the jester, she turned off the light and placed the book down before fully turning towards her. The two were comfortable in the silence, each cuddling into the other. As the doll started to fall asleep, she heard the noise again. She looked around the room, now in complete darkness. There wasn’t anything that stood. She listened closer for the source of the noise. It was coming from… Pomni? The more Ragatha thought about it, it was similar to a cat purring. The purr became soothing as she continued to listen. It lulled her thoughts as she slowly started to close her eyes, falling asleep at the jester’s side.