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The little red and blue jester already looked grumpy as she opened her door and headed into the hallway, ready to start the day. Her mouth was fixed in a scowl and her eyes were half-open. She was not in a good mood, and she was ready to make it someone else's problem.
Above all, she resented what the Amazing Digital Circus had done to her. It had made her compliant.
Every day, Pomni was forced to obey some sort of ridiculous "adventure" so she and her fellow "characters" could get some time to themselves without what amounted to a hyperactive robot badgering them about everything.
Pomni couldn't believe she had gotten used to such a series of events. That it was now routine. She craved some way to fight back, to rebel against the system, but even laying down and screaming was beginning to be seen as her "gimmick" in the circus, comparable to Gangle's crying or Kinger's wacky non-sequiturs.
As she marched over to where the show was to begin, though, her eyes flew open and her mouth tightened up as she saw Zooble, another character, stomping back at her. She stopped walking and Zooble stood in front of her.
Zooble was hard to describe, a messy collection of shapes and colors, but the most prominent was their head, which was a hot pink oblong triangular pyramid. Or, it was, but on that particular day the head appeared to be solid purple, and it was shaped like an equilateral triangle.
"Zooble?" Pomni guessed, not that there was any one else it could be.
Zooble bent over a little, their eyes narrowing, and they looked at Pomni.
"Listen to me, you listen and you listen good," Zooble admonished, "today you're going to see something a little weird. A little out of the ordinary. Even for this place. You don't say anything about it. You got me? Nothing. Don't dwell on it, try to ignore it, and don't do anything about it. Try not to even think about it."
"Uh... okay," Pomni involuntarily leaned backward at the sudden tirade.
"I mean it," Zooble pointed their claw arm at them. "Don't mess this up for me."
Zooble spun on their purple heel, almost falling over in the process, and walked back off to the foyer where the show was to begin.
The show hadn't even started yet and already Pomni was confused. So Zooble had decided to do something different with their... ah... head. That wasn't that unusual, thought Pomni. They were always fidgeting with the position and composition of their pieces. She rushed over to where the show was to begin, waiting for the theme song.
o/~ "...and Pomni, whoo hoo~!" o/~
Pomni jerked back into awareness as her name was called. She thought she had posed, anyway. She was a little distracted because it sounded like they skipped the lanky purple "rabbit" man Jax's name in the intro. After it was over, the magenta-coated ringmaster Caine swooped in, wiggling his top hat which he placed atop his giant denture jaw "head".
"Hello hello!" Caine greeted the characters. "Welcome to another exciting installment of the Amazing Digital Circus! I bet you're wondering what your adventure today is, so... let's get right to it! Your adventure for today is..."
There was a drum roll and a burst of confetti as a sign appeared in midair.
It read: "NOTHING!" in a high-impact font with a cartoon "explosion" spiky burst around it, and whimsical spirals and triangles and dashes decorating the surrounding of the word.
"Uh?" Pomni glanced up at it.
"That's right, nothing!" Caine threw his arms open in presentation as if he was showing them that they'd won a new car.
The soap-bubble-like entity simply named Bubble snuck out of Caine's hat and joined him.
"But what is nothing, Caine?" Asked Bubble.
"Well, Bubble," Cained answered, "nothing is not something, anything or everything!"
"Oh!" Bubble gasped. "It sounds fun!"
"It is!" Caine nodded. "Nothing is whatever you make of it!"
"What...?" Pomni's voice drawled out.
"There's no adventure for today, my mightily marvelous minions!" Caine held up his arms. "Because-" he caught himself in a bit of a snicker, "-you all do need a day to relax every once in a while, after all. All work and no play is a breeding ground for serial killers!"
"Oh, you're a serial killer, aren't you, Caine?" Bubble bat his eyes in a cloying way.
"Not in any legal definition of the term!" Caine said enthusiastically. "Now... haha... hahaha- HAHAHAHAHA!" He started to double over laughing. "Just bb-bbbffff... have fun! And be yourselves!"
Bubble peered over the characters and laughed a fairly strange, fake laugh, and also vanished.
Bewildered, Pomni took a look around at the five other characters to see what devious game Caine was playing, but only saw four she recognized.
Where was Jax?
She turned her attention to where Jax usually stood and instead had to look way down to see a small, fluffy purple bunny rabbit.
Pomni took in a huge gasp as she saw the creature. It was adorable! Even though it was in the "art style" of the Amazing Digital Circus, it had exquisitely fluffy-looking fur and tiny beady black eyes, and its head was topped by perky long ears. Its nose twitched passively as it stood there, doing nothing.
"Eh! AHEM!" Zooble cleared their throat and the spell was broken. Pomni looked back up to see Zooble staring at her and shaking their head. Pomni rubbed the back of her head and jester cap. She had no idea what was going on or what she was or wasn't supposed to be doing.
"Well, ah... I'm gonna hit the Carnival," Ragatha, a kind-looking Rag doll with one non-functioning button eye, gestured behind herself. "You all know what today is, after all, and there's special refreshments."
"No, I don't know what today is...!" Pomni gestured her hand out at Ragatha, who turned and left for the entrance of the tent. "Wait... what is today. Gangle?"
"Uh..." Gangle looked upset, though that was her default state. She was merely a tragedy mask and a coil of red ribbon-
Wait, scratch that. Gangle was purple ribbon today. Pomni felt like her brain skipped a beat.
Finally, Gangle continued speaking. "I have... also, an excuse to be- somewhere else. Over there." She pointed with her now-purple ribbons, and walked around the tent floor, trying to get behind some of the various colorful objects to hide.
"Oh, I hate it when everyone is so mysterious and vague!" Kinger, the loopy whitish king chess piece, who was thankfully already dressed in purple -a robe- shook his disconnected fists in frustration. "I wonder just what is going on today!" His eyes swept past Pomni and the small purple bunny rabbit, then back up to stare in the middle distance. "I just have no clue!"
"Uh..." Pomni held a finger up.
"Oh, I know!" Kinger held an index finger up. "I'll go explore the Grounds. There's always some neat stuff out there." Kinger left as well.
"You," Zooble glared down at Pomni, as the two were the only ones left besides the rabbit. "You also go somewhere. Anywhere that isn't here. I'm gonna hit the theater. And you better not still be here when I check."
"Wh-where should I..." Pomni squeaked.
"MOVE!"
Pomni yelped and ran off in the vague direction she saw Gangle going in. Along the way, before she turned the corner, she spared another look back at the purple bunny.
Somehow, it hadn't gotten spooked by Zooble's outburst. It was just on its haunches, licking at a forepaw and brushing the paw against its ears. It was so cute.
As Zooble walked off to the theater, their purple head turned all the way around and glared with angry eyes as they caught Pomni staring at the bunny.
"Eep!"
Pomni rounded the corner.
"Waaagh!"
Pomni nearly crashed into Gangle as she jogged ahead. "Oh, sorry Gangle!"
"It's okay..." Gangle pouted. Her purple ribbons shivered a bit as she wrapped them around herself, trying not to meet Pomni's gaze.
"So uh... I like the color," Pomni pointed at her vaguely. "Is that a new palette swap of yours?"
"No..." Gangle shook her head subtly. "Someone dyed me this color."
"...'Someone'?" Pomni pressed, one of her dark eyelids coming up.
"Dh-don't make me say it, I might win!" Gangle cowered, her purple ribbons pressed against her mask's cheeks.
"You might 'win'?" Pomni blinked. "That's a bad thing?"
"Shhhh!" Gangle insisted, blowing onto one of her ribbons as if it was a finger. "Just don't... don't keep talking about things that you think are weird, please. If you do, I could get in trouble."
Pomni tugged at her hat's pom poms, feeling frustrated as she failed to understand the problem with whatever was going on. "Rrrgh..." She gave up and sighed, half doubling over. "Okay, whatever."
"Thanks..." Gangle pouted.
Bothering Gangle about anything for too long usually just resulted in a flood of tears from the fragile mask-wearer, so Pomni felt like she should let it go.
But wait, maybe that was it! Pomni considered her options. There was a way to get Gangle into a good mood, even if -once she was- she could be a bit... overbearing.
"Gangle..." Pomni held a hand out tentatively, "now that I notice... or rather don't notice... a certain something, maybe you could get your Comedy mask fixed and not worry about it breaking for awhile?"
Gangle thought about this. "No."
"...No?" Pomni blinked.
"If I wore that mask, I'd definitely win..." Gangle mumbled, sighing.
"Why don't you want to win!?" Pomni snapped, stamping a foot, frustrated.
"Yee...!" Gangle recoiled, her purple ribbons up defensively. "I...! I just got made fun of a lot for winning, okay? It still bothers me! Please leave me alone!"
Pomni groaned, rubbing her hand on her forehead. She should have known better than to try to get anything out of Gangle. "All right, sorry, I just-"
"Aaaaaa!"
Gangle turned tail and ran, her purple arm ribbons streaming and waving behind her as she did.
Pomni looked behind her shoulder and saw the rabbit. She sighed, turning to stare at it. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. It didn't seem dangerous. Maybe that was the trick. The bunny rabbit merely sat there near the corner with its nose twitching up and down. Pomni had to smile. She was almost fully prepared for its mouth to open and be full of large fangs, or it to suddenly charge her and blast her into the next room with an unexpectedly-strong headbutt. That would have been pretty funny, she had to admit. But it just sat there. What was so wrong?
Shaking her head, Pomni followed Gangle somewhat, trying to round another corner to break the rabbit's line of sight. She decided she might try to find Ragatha in the Carnival.
The rabbit continued to sit there, doing nothing but existing.
As she made her way to the Digital Carnival, Pomni looked at her hands. Her left glove was blue and her right was red. As the marriage of those two colors would make purple, Pomni was somewhat surprised they were still their correct colors, or hadn't even changed places on her. She attempted to take off her hat and froze.
It wouldn't come off.
Feeling a moment's panic, she quickly tried to settle as she felt her breaths quickening. She couldn't take her hat off!? She'd somehow never thought to try yet. It's okay, its okay... she thought.
"HHRNNNGH!" Pomni pulled hard on the twin lappets of her hat, stretching them forward and pulling them in front of her face so she could see them. "Red... and... blue!"
With a comical whip crack sound, the lappets snapped back into perfect form and shape, colored as she'd always known them, in red and blue stripes.
Pomni felt a surge of relief that her hat wasn't suddenly purple, replaced by a sense of dread that she couldn't remove her hat.
The jester let off a few uncomfortable chuckles to herself. "Heh heh. Huhhn... I hate this place."
"Oh, Pomni!"
Ragatha waved to Pomni. The rag doll was sitting on a chair at a table for two near a merry-go-round at the Carnival.
"Hey, Ragatha," Pomni changed her direction to walk closer to her, giving her a halfhearted wave. "Mind if I sit with you?"
"Go right ahead!" Ragatha nodded.
Pomni did so, and then Ragatha immediately got up. The little jester felt her heart sink a little. Was Ragatha going to be weird, too?
"Oh, hang on one second, I forgot something," Ragatha rushed over to a nearby vending machine. It had a conspicuous gem-shaped slot near the top right. Pomni saw Ragatha reach behind her back and a sparkly-white Amazing Diamond just sort of "grew" into the open space of her hand. Ragatha then reached up and put the Diamond in the slot, then hit a button on the machine. With a whirr and a clunk, a purple can of soda dropped into the vending slot. Ragatha picked it up and brought it over to the table. "Here!"
Pomni blinked at the can. It read: "PURPLE SODA!" in a fun font.
"Uhh..." Pomni looked up at Ragatha. "You don't have to keep buying me sodas, you know."
"Oh, I know," Ragatha smiled. "It's just... this one is kind of a limited time offering. Try it! Just a sip."
Pomni felt a wave of trepidation chewing at her as she popped the top on the soda. She didn't want soda, she wanted answers.
The fizzy cold liquid hit her tongue, and she expected an aggressive grape flavor. Instead, her eyes widened. She smacked her lips and rolled her tongue around on her palette.
"Huh!" Pomni blinked. "That tasted purple."
"Doesn't it!?" Ragatha held out both of her hands. "Isn't that wild? Orange soda is even weirder. You have to get it on a day when its 'orange' soda and not orange soda, and then it will taste 'orange' and not... orange. I'll let you know when we have it. It'll blow your mind."
One could only hope, Pomni muttered inside of her aching brain. She took another sip before her teeth ground together in frustration. It was definitely "purple". She kind of liked it.
"Just... Ragatha?" Pomni's voice came out in a whine. "Tell me what's with all this purple stuff, please?"
Ragatha's pupil started to dart around in her one good eye. "Pomni, uh. Listen, it's all going to be okay, all right? You don't have to worry about it. Everything will be normal tomorrow."
"Rrrgh..." Pomni looked angry, glaring at the doll. "Is this some sort of hazing thing you're doing? Since I'm new?"
"No!" Ragatha waved her arms frantically close to her chest. "No, nothing like that. Please, can you just wait until tomorrow? I promise I'll tell you all about it."
Pomni leaned forward, placing her fingers delicately on both sides of her head. She couldn't believe, of all things, something as trivial as this was getting to her. Her expression and facial features softened, however, as she saw the cute purple bunny hopping by. It seemed to stop near their table, right next to Ragatha's chair. Pomni peered at it.
"Anyway, how's life?" Ragatha tried to change the subject, and casually held up her cheek in one hand.
"I guess it could be worse, though I'm not sure how yet," Pomni slurped from her drink, and Ragatha followed her gaze downward.
"Yeek!" Ragatha's body jolted as she saw the purple rabbit, but then just pretended things were normal, looking directly at Pomni again.
Pomni smiled a bit as she continued to observe the cute rabbit. It stood on its hind legs and sniffed around at the area, making Pomni's heart sing a little.
"Sometimes though," Pomni said in a rather sneaky voice, "I just wanna grab life by its chubby little cheeks and give it a rubbin'."
"W-well!" Ragatha's eye widened. "Don't do that! Sometimes, uh, sometimes you just have to let life alone and ignore it! Yeah! Ignore life and do not interact with it under any circumstances!"
"Hm," Pomni's eyes were at half-lid, her glossy black eyelids giving her a shrewd, calculating look, laying her face on laced fingers, "interesting advice that I'd definitely normally hear you say."
Ragatha wore a plastered on smile as tiny cyan strips of paper started to drip out of her coiled red hair.
"Is that... sweat?" Pomni was bemused. She took another sip of purple soda.
"No, of course not!" Ragatha's distressed voice came. "The weather is great!"
Pomni's attention was diverted by the rabbit turning around and hopping away. She sighed dreamily as she saw its lovely locomotion and fuzzy purple back retreating off from the Carnival and to the rest of the Grounds.
"Well, thanks for the soda, but I think I have to go," Pomni said, standing up and starting to follow the rabbit.
"Wait, Pomni!" Ragatha put her hand on one of the jester's large, bulbous shoulders. "Just... don't chase after life, okay? You'll just be disappointed. Please?"
Pomni's eyelids fell halfway and she jerked her held shoulder away from Ragatha, turning her body away from her, then her head. She marched off away from the Carnival.
"Oh man..." Ragatha bent over the table, her head in her hands, "everyone's gonna be so mad at me if I helped Pomni win somehow..." her hand shaking, she took the mostly-empty can of soda and had a sip to try to calm her nerves. It worked a bit, as she looked at the can, impressed. "Wow, that is just... so purple."
As Pomni followed the rabbit, it headed off for the trees behind the Circus' main Tent. As she thought about deviating from the path to follow it, though, she was accosted by Kinger, who ran out at her. His form hunched over as he caught up, out of breath. Pomni's face scrunched up a bit as she noticed he was carrying a sphere in each hand, each of which had the coloration and luster of a purple gemstone.
"Ugh, you too?" Pomni recoiled, looking at his hands.
"What do you mean, 'me too'?" Kinger straightened up, blinking. "Now, I know something weird is going on around here, and I think this is the best way to figure it out."
"What is?" Asked the jester.
"These amethyst orbs I found," Kinger indicated the spheres in his hands. "I think they will allow me to divine what's happening and why. It all seems so familiar, it must have happened before. Or will happen! Divination will tell us."
"You know divination?" Pomni was skeptical, especially with Kinger, but in truth she'd seen weirder things in the Circus.
"Hmmmrgh..." Kinger gripped each sphere tightly in his hands and they started to vibrate at an alarming rapid pace. Pomni instinctively took a step back at seeing the disembodied hands rapidly quake. Kinger's eyes squeezed shut. "Okay, okay, I think I'm getting something...."
"Yeah...?"
"Something... rabbity... name starts with a J..."
"Yeah!?"
"Judy!" Kinger's hands stopped shaking. "...Wait, I don't know a 'Judy'."
"Thanks, Kinger," Pomni said in a dull voice. "I'm pretty sure I got what you were going for."
"Sorry I wasn't more helpful," Kinger apologized in his silly yet warm voice, "I'm not too good at divination yet, I don't think. I probably still need to ponder these orbs to build it up. The good news is, since I found two of them, I should be able to level up twice as fast."
Pomni offered him a weak smile as he turned around and walked off, clinking the two round stones together. She felt more tolerant of his nonsense at that moment; at least he was trying to help.
"Huh, what did I do wrong?" Kinger kept mashing the orbs together. "Okay, male, purple rabbit... oh... Bonnie? Wait, I don't know a 'Bonnie' either."
Pomni's mind glanced over what she knew. She was pretty sure the small purple rabbit was Jax somehow, but she still barely wanted to think about that. What she didn't know was why the rest of the characters were being so cryptic and... "purple" about him. Surely in that form he couldn't cause as much trouble as usual. She thought she saw movement near the trees so she continued on into the thicket behind the Tent.
Rounding a tree so she wasn't visible from the main road, Pomni sat down at the edge of the tree and sighed. If nothing else, the purple rabbit had led her to a fairly nice place to relax, even if she thought she could see hints of the Void from the furthest off trees in the background. It at least cast the illusion of a peaceful forest.
As she sat there, the purple rabbit returned, hopping to just a stone's throw from her, sitting up on its haunches and investigating the area with nose twitches.
"Hi, bunny," Pomni smiled. She peered around the tree and back onto the main paths, but didn't see signs of any characters peeking. "Guess we're alone now, huh. Wanna come closer?" She pat the ground near her.
Surprisingly, the rabbit complied, taking a guarded approach, but slowly moving towards her. It stopped at the area she indicated. Pomni was enchanted. She gasped lightly, trying not to scare it.
"You're just a little purple bunny wunny, aren't you?" Pomni tentatively held her right hand out. The rabbit seemed to dodge the hand, but then sniffed at it and returned to staring straight ahead. "Yeah, just a li'l bunny. No way you could be 'him'." Pomni chanced a small pet of the rabbit. She was almost a statue; the only thing moving was her hand as it stroked the purple rabbit's back.
It was exquisitely soft and fluffy. Warm to the touch, as well.
"Oh my god..." Pomni breathed out. She tried another pet. The bunny seemed to be allowing them. She let out a shuddering, dazzled breath. She'd wanted something like this for a long time. She pet again and again. It seemed to have no major reaction to the affection, but after she stopped it did look at her briefly, then looked ahead and thumped its back leg. "Oh my god!"
Pomni couldn't see it, but little red and blue hearts started wafting out of her head and circling around the space above it. She couldn't see it, but an eyeball lodged in one of the trees nearby could. It seemed to be watching with great interest.
Her heart racing, Pomni carefully grabbed up the rabbit and placed it in her lap. It seemed to think about escaping, but eventually settled and stayed in her lap.
"This is amazing... what a cute little bunny...!" Pomni's voice was getting to be so shrill she was afraid she'd hurt the little animal's ears. She tried to contain herself as she cuddled the rabbit, biting her lip to attempt to avoid squealing. Carefully, she tried a few more pets. The rabbit seemed to be happy to stay where it was. Pomni carefully raised up the rabbit under its arms and brought it closer to her.
"Thank you for letting me have this, little rabbit," Pomni said, giving a gentle sigh. "I needed this." She leaned in slowly and gave it a small kiss on its twitching nose.
Then, instantly, everything went dark.
THONK!
In the darkness, a bright white spotlight shone on Pomni. Sitting on her lap was Jax.
"Thanks, babe," Jax's smarmy voice oozed, and he added a wink. "Love you too."
"WHAT!?"
Pomni hurriedly scooted backwards out of the spotlight and away from Jax on her hands and feet, but the rest of the lights came on. She was sitting on the stage of the Theater which was thankfully empty except for a few mannequins. However, she heard cheering coming from them, and they looked like they were celebrating.
Caine and Bubble, on the other hand, were on stage with Jax and Pomni, and spotlights began to shine on each of the four "stars", lighting them against the maroon curtain behind them.
"Congratulations Pomni, you won!" Caine celebrated. The cheering intensified.
"I wha...?" Pomni's eyes were pinpricks as she struggled to her feet.
"It was a secret adventure!" Bubble bragged. "You were on an adventure and you didn't even know it!"
"Yep!" Caine nodded his eyeballs. "We call the adventure..." he sucked in a huge breath, "Jax is a realistic bunny and you have to un-bunnify him somehow!"
"JAX IS A REALISTIC BUNNY AND YOU HAVE TO UN-BUNNIFY HIM SOMEHOW!" appeared as a sign behind them, sporting Jax's typical colors of yellow, purple, and the pink of his overalls. The studio "audience" read out the title as well and cheered again, clapping.
"I..." Pomni looked like she might have a stroke.
"Or... Jiarbayhtuhs for short!" Caine added. The letters in the sign violently crunched together with the sound of a car crash and the remaining damaged letters read "JIARBAYHTUHS".
Jax chuckled as he stood up and stretched. "Man, I love Jiarbayhtuhs."
"It was a tough one this time, Bubble," Caine turned to Bubble, "the victory condition on this one was really tricky. It was... smooch the bunny on the nose!"
More cheering. The blush stickers on Pomni's cheeks grew to encompass most of her face.
"I didn't think anyone would do it, Caine," Bubble reported, narrowing one eye, "bunny rabbits aren't even that cute. You can't even see through them!"
"I..." Caine's limbs dropped, "you can't see through me, either... do you not think I'm cute?"
"I can see through your head!" Bubble protested.
"Gasp!" Caine said, placing his hands on the side of his dentures. "Thank you Bubble! That means a lot coming from you!" He swooped over to hug him, and Bubble immediately popped under the pressure. "Ah. Anyway! Great job on the victory today Pomni! I think you managed to un-bunnify Jax quicker than any new member to the Circus!"
"Nnhhnnuh..." Pomni's face was reddening by the second, and she pulled her lappets down over her eyes. Jax, by contrast, was just standing straight up with his arms behind his back.
"We'll have to check the stats some other time!" Caine chuckled, patting Pomni on the back.
"Please don't..." Pomni muttered.
"Jax, you never seem to win this game! How does that make you feel?" Caine rushed over to Jax and offered his cane's tip as if it were a microphone.
"Ah, it's terrible," Jax leaned over with a dull expression and voice. "Man, I sure am annoyed about this. Grr, I'll get you guys next time." He shook a fist halfheartedly.
"Anyway, that's all the time we have for today's show!" Caine declared. "And remember, please cat or dog the spay and neuter population!"
The spotlights suddenly shut off, leaving the two characters in relatively low light and all the mannequins suddenly slumped over in their chairs.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Pomni screamed to the heavens, tugging her lappets down the side of her head.
Jax merely giggled to himself into one of his closed hands.
"Jax..." Pomni swiveled her head up to him. "How much of that were you... 'aware of'?"
"All of it, Pom Pom," Jax grinned, "whatcha think? I make a pretty convincing bunny rabbit, huh?"
Pomni's eyes became pinpricks. Her left eye started twitching as she held her hand out, her fingers hooked and crooked.
"Jax... would you mind if I tore your vocal cords out so you can never speak about this to anyone...?"
"Tsh..." Jax rolled his eyes, "don't be so embarrassed, short stuff. Everyone wins the game sometime. Everyone. Last time it was Ragatha, and the time before that it was Kinger!"
"W-w-wh-...what...!?" Pomni was beginning to be as absolutely baffled as she was embarrassed. She poked her forehead with at least six of her fingers at once, then launched them off of her face. "How... how are you okay with this!? Caine just... he transforms you into an animal? And you... you have to try to get someone to do something to you!?"
"Yeah, it's kinda fun, actually," Jax adjusted his suspenders, examined one of his yellow gloved hands, and put his hands in his pockets. "I haven't managed to win yet by avoiding the win condition all day, but I don't care."
"...Wait, how do you not win?" Pomni blinked up at him. "How many times does he do this?"
"Every once in awhile," Jax shrugged his shoulders, hands still in pockets. "Not often enough that it gets frustrating. Usually to confuse new blood like yourself. But the truth is, even when everyone knows the game, they never know how sensitive the win condition is, so they always manage to trip over it sooner or later. I'm irresistible, baby."
Pomni looked mildly disgusted. "Yeah, I guess I can see why this appeals to you."
"Aaaah, don't feel too bad about it, Pommers," Jax chuckled, his expression more than pleased, "I know you don't feel that way about the real me, I was just having a little fun with ya."
"And... it's always you?" Pomni's gaze narrowed.
"Yeah, but don't give Caine any ideas," Jax snickered, then started to outright chuckle, "next time he might turn you into... into a POMeranian! Aahahaha!"
"Oh, uh, right," Pomni made a "lips sealed" gesture with one of her hands.
"Don't worry," Jax said, "I wouldn't let you suffer. I'd give you some belly rubs to make sure you transformed right back!"
"Can we stop talking about this?" Pomni sneered. "This feels... gross."
"Whatever you say, shortcake," Jax shrugged with both hands.
"But wait... what was with all that purple stuff?" Pomni held a hooked finger near her mouth. "Was that all a red herring?"
"Purple herring, actually," Jax huffed. He reached a hand behind his back and produced a red fish with googly eyes. "This is a red herring." He smacked the fish with his other hand.
"It was ME all along! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!" The fish claimed in a maniacal voice.
Pomni recoiled a bit from the strange fish.
"So, who should we blame?" Jax looked at his fingers again as he put the fish behind his back and back into his inventory. When Pomni started at him with open-mouthed confusion, he went on. "For transforming me back? No one saw you, right? Wanna blame Kinger?"
"Wha..." Pomni was immediately befuddled. "You'd... what, you'd lie for me?"
"Why not?" Jax chuckled. "We put you through heck today. No one saw it, so why own up to-"
Just then, Zooble poked their hot pink head into the theater and saw the two.
"POMNI!"
"Uh oh," Pomni squeaked.
Zooble started stomping toward the stage, almost tripping a couple of times. Their angry eyes were focused on Pomni. "What did I tell you, Pomni!?"
"Hey Zoob," Jax's eyelid's half-closed, "what, did the purple head not do it for you?"
"No, it felt off-balance!" Zooble shouted. "And shut up!"
"Oof, still sour about earning way less points than me in golf the other day, huh?" Jax closed his eyes and tossed his head to the side haughtily.
"I beat your >honk<!" Zooble barked, poking him in the chest with their clawed hand as their swear got eaten up by the Circus' filter. "The goal of golf is to get the lowest score, you utter clod!"
"Sound's like you're still mad about it anyway," Jax's voice purred. Then, his expression dimmed when his eyes moved to the side and Pomni was still there. "...Pomni. I was distracting Zooble so you could run away, but I think you missed your window."
"Uh... oh," Pomni had her hands up near her chest. "Sorry."
"I swear, you gotta spell everything out for this kid," Jax sighed, shaking his head.
"For once, I think I agree with you!" Zooble put their arms on their "hips", swiveling their head over to Pomni. "Pomni, Jiarbayhtuhs is like the one chance we get to be free of Jax for a day! Why do you think I was so insistent with you? I >beep beep<in' hate Jax."
"Feeling's so, so mutal, Zoobie-doobie-doo," Jax looked off to the side.
"I'm... I'm sorry," Pomni mumbled. "I just... I don't know. Isn't it wrong to try to prevent him from transforming back?"
"Ugh, you sound like Gangle," Zooble somehow had a pretty good sneer, even without a mouth. Their eyes carried it well. "Jax likes being the stupid bunny, and we like being rid of him!"
Pomni started to sniffle. Jax noted this and sighed.
"All right Zooble, I think she got it," Jax folded his arms. "Now lay off, or else I'll have to bring out my secret weapon."
"Shut it, Jax!" Zooble glared at him, "I'm so sick of y- oh no." Zooble's eyes grew large. "You wouldn't."
Jax crouched a little and peered down at Pomni. She turned her head away from the gaze and squeezed her eyes shut; a small black drop of liquid barely managed to escape her eye and run down her cheek. "Yep, that's a tear. You went too far, Zooble."
"No!" Zooble's pieces trembled. "Pomni, I'm sorry, I'll- I'll make it up to you-! I'll-!"
"Pomni?" Jax looked very official, then sneered into a wicked grin. Pomni looked up to meet his devilish smile. "Let me tell you about the time Zooble won this little game..."
Zooble unleashed a barrage of profanity so sustained that it sounded like someone was hitting every button they had on a cartoon sound effects soundboard.
It was dark in Kinger's room. Dark, except for the eerie purple light emanating from the amethyst orbs.
As Kinger stood there, focusing on them, they began to rise into the air, inches from each floating hand. They crackled with power.
"Yes... yess...!" Kinger cooed, their light reflecting in his bloodshot eyes. "Tell me, amethyst orbs! Tell me who it is! Reveal to me the secret!"
The crystal material in each stone appeared to whirl around, then finally, it stopped.
"Jax...?"
The uncanny light suddenly switched off, both orbs clattered to the ground and rolled around the floor of his room.
Kinger stared down at the floor and into his empty hands.
"Wait, I thought that was too obvious."