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The day started out just like any other at the Digital Circus. The six characters that made up the performing cast of the circus. Zooble was out first like always. They adjusted their antenna with a glare as they moved about their limbs making extra sure they were to their liking for the day. The next was Jax with his perpetual grin on his face.
He walked over to Zooble who was just walking around with a smirk. “Why do you always wake up so early, Zoobs? Don’t ya sleep in ever?”
Zooble just huffed and rolled their eyes. “Why would I tell you? You’d just try and pull some stupid prank.” They pointed with their left arm which was similar to a toy robot’s arm today before they put it back to their side walking off.
Jax just pulled back with an annoyed sound of his own crossing his arms as he spoke. “Hpmh fine ruin the fun. Your loss, Mix-N-Match.”
The next one up was Kinger who simply crawled out of his pillow fort and stood up looking around. His eyes eventually fell on Jax and he let out a predictable, “AHHH JAX! Oh sorry you scared me!”
“Sure Kinger.” Jax just shrugged as he walked to the side.
Next out was Gangle with a smile on her porcelain mask of a face slightly bouncing with each step. Seeing everyone who was awake so fair she gave a wave. “Good morning Zooble and you too Kinger! And you too Jax!” She happily chirped as she walked on soon grabbing onto Zooble’s torso giving them a big hug much to their annoyance but they didn’t say anything about it.
Soon Ragatha walked out from the hallway slightly tapping her arm a little as she spoke. “Pomni will be out in a little bit. She just needs a minute.”
“Understandable. Still adjusting and everything.” Zooble slightly shrugged before they patted on Gangle who blinked and slid back from the hug.
“Sorry, Zooble! I just love giving hugs.” She let out an embarrassed laugh as she cheerfully hugged herself.
“Yeah no one cares, Gangle.” Jax just butted in pushing her back causing the ribbon girl to fall back followed by a shattering sound and a small ‘ooooh’ as he walked over to Ragatha. “Pinwheel still struggling? Ha I thought she would have gotten better by now.”
“Come on Jax she’s just having some trouble adjusting. We all had an adjustment period.”
“Not me. I was juuuust fine.” The rabbit placed a gloved hand to his chest with a smug grin.
Kinger just quickly moved his hands out a bit pointing to Jax. “No you didn’t. You screamed a lot.”
“KINGER!” Jax quickly exclaimed looking back
“Yes?”
“Gah never mind.” He just waved his hand which Kinger just watched before he shuffled off to the side.
“The point is leave her alone Jax.” Zooble grumbled out after helping Gangle up from the ground. “From what I heard you made Gangle’s first week hell. Pomni doesn’t need that #!{+ ok?”
Jax just rolled his eyes with a groan. “Fiiiiine. I’ll lay off a little for now but after a week it’s free gaaaame”
“If that’s the most we can ask for.” Ragatha shook her head before she heard a door open causing her to look over with a smile as she saw Pomni walking down the hall anxiously. “Oh there she is! Have a good sleep Pomni?” Ragatha walked over to Pomni waiting for her answer.
“Yeah it was. Fine. Out of the sleeps I’ve had here so far I. Guess it was the best?” The jester shrugged.
“That’s good! I’m sure they’ll only get better from here. You’re doing great!” Ragatha just pointed down at Pomni who just looked up confused before she shook her head. “Well. uh. Caine should be here any minute! Just give him a minute.” Ragatha walked away from Pomni to give her some space.
And sure enough as if on cue Caine popped up with a shout “GOOOOOOD MORNING MY PERFECT PLUMP POMEGRANATES! I HOPE YOU'RE ALL READY FOR TODAY'S ADVENTURE! BECAUSE IIIIIITS” a drum roll began to play before the usual 3D letters came down to spell out “JUNGLE GYM JUNGLE! YOU WILL BE ON A QUEST TO REACH THE HEART OF THE JUNGLE TO RETRIEVE THE CROWN FROM THE CROOKED KING! BUT WATCH OUT HE SENT OUT HIS MINIONS TO HELP SLOW YOUR PROGRESS! GOOD LUCK!” Caine said with a snap opening the portal to their adventure.
Jax just smiled as he leaned back a little. “A jungle ey? Well we better get going. Gangle come here” Gangle somewhat begrudgingly walked over. “Ladies first!” He said as he shoved Gangle through the portal as he snickered quickly following after.
“JAX!” Ragatha shouted as she quickly stormed after him. Zooble quickly followed after with Kinger shaking a bit before he slid after leaving Pomni to go in last.
On the other side was a large expanse of multicolored ‘trees’ that were more akin to an upscaled metal poles with textures to make them vaguely look like trees. Some appeared to have leaves at the top but most of them just fused into a large mess up there making most of the canopy. Birds that looked like paper airplanes while some taht were closer to the ground looked like the bird that ‘drank’ from a cup that you’d have on your desk. The bugs were wind up toys while the single snake nearby slithered with its body made up of multiple plastic parts. Oh but it couldn’t just be like a jungle. It felt like one too. As in it was humid to all get out.
Ragatha just took a deep breath and smiled trying not to feel too uncomfortable with the moisture in the air. “Ah take it in! Nature is amazing isn’t it.” To which the only response she got was a confused stare from Pomni.
Gangle picked the dirt off herself as Zooble spoke up. “Who cares about ‘nature’ the quicker we find this stupid crown the quicker we leave this @$/!hole. Come on.” They grumbled as they started walking, stumbling over themselves every few steps.
Gangle was about to speak but stopped before she actually did, leaving Pomni to ask, “How do we find where we’re supposed to be going?” She said as she quickly looked around. “There isn’t really any signs or anything.”
“Don’t worry Pomni, I'm sure we’ll get on the right path sooner than later. For now let’s just get going! No time like the present!” Ragatha smiled as she walked on following Zooble. Kinger quickly followed with Gangle and Jax not too far behind. Without much of a choice Pomni followed the group.
All things considered it was a pretty peaceful walk so far. Sure there was a few bumps with a spider web and Jax hitting Zooble with one of the branches from the ‘trees’ if you could even call them that to which they quickly retaliated with a smack to the smug rabbit.
Soon enough the gang came across a river. Zooble let out a grumble. “Really? A river? That’s our first ‘obstacle’. This adventure is stupid.” Their antenna twitched as they looked around.”
“There’s a-“
“Shut up Gangle there’s a log over there let’s just push it.” Jax said as he pointed to the large log and basically commanded. “Go get it crybaby.”
Gangle just let out a defeated sigh as she walked over, beginning to drag the metal log along as well as she could though as she did that the water began to bubble.
“Hm? Something in there?” Jax peered down into the river. The bubbling only got worse as the water began to darken. And soon something lunged up out of the water and looked over the group.
“GRAAAAAAWR I AM THE CROCODILE KEEPER!” The toy crocodile roared. It snapped its jaws which sort of looked like that one toy where you push down on a crocodile’s teeth until it bit you. Except. Sharper. Way sharper. It basically had daggers for teeth as it looked at the group. “YOU ALL SHALL FACE THE FURY OF MY JAWS!” It snarled out before it lunged its way towards the group causing them to scatter as it tore into the ground spitting out the dirt it had gotten before it lunged again.
Jax quickly looked around and grabbed one of Zooble’s limbs and threw it at the thing “Here catch!” And to no one’s surprise the crocodile toy chomped right down on it causing Zooble to let out a scream of pain
“JAX WHAT THE *{%$!!”
“Hmm I thought your limbs were stronger than that Zooble.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS!”
Though clearly not satisfied it quickly lunged at the others. Pomni quickly ran while Ragatha grabbed Kinger who was too busy looking at a bug and started running. Luckily the chess piece didn’t object in the slightest.
“WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?” Pomni quickly shouted as she turned to dodge a snap of the croc’s jaws looking at Ragatha.
“IT'S AN OBSTACLE POMNI WE HAVE TO BEAT IT!” Ragatha shouted back
“AND HOW DO WE DO THAT!”
“I say we throw stuff at it!” Jax shouted grabbing one of Zooble’s legs and throwing it at the crocodile causing them to fall over and as expected Zooble screamed in pain when it bit down.
“WOULD YOU STOP THAT YOU €|*HOLE!”
“I thought it would work that time”
Ragatha came to a stop to think before pointing to the log. “Maybe that's big enough to stop it! Come on Pomni, let's help Gangle!” The doll quickly ran over to help the tangle of ribbons push the log along
Pomni just blinked before she ran over to help the two. Gangle looked over with a weak smile upon seeing the two help her and let out a meek “Thank you.”
“Uh. Sure.” Pomni said somewhat dismissively. She didn’t mean for it to come out like that but that’s how it did.
Gangle just looked down and continued pushing silently as Ragatha spoke up. “Anytime Gangle! It’s always nice to see you smile!”
“Right.” Gangle just nodded somewhat uncomfortably.
Jax just looked over and ran shouting out. “HEEEY CROCODILE OVER HEEEERRRE!” He waved his gloved hands around with a big grin. Predictably the oversized toy snarled and lunged. Ragatha and Gangle quickly ran but Pomni just stared in horror as the croc charged. She covered her face as it snapped down.
“KRAAGAAAAAAH!” It let out after it chomped down on the metal log nearly springing up to its comically small legs stumbling around. Noticeably it seemed its teeth shattered when it bit down. It stumbled clumsily for a while before it dramatically fell down in just the right way that it would make a bridge across the river. Its eyes now just two big Xs.
Pomni just watched all of it in terror and confusion. She finally blinked a few seconds after it was over and looked at the others. “What. The heck was that?”
“An alligator.” Was all Gangle mustered up which she fiddled with her ribbon hands.
“It said it was a crocodile Crybaby.” Jax retorted with his arms crossed already walking over to cross the river with their new bridge.
“But it had a large round jaw? Oh Zooble!” Gangle quickly dropped the topic to rush over to Zooble blinking a few times to let her tears drop before she asked “Do you need any help? I’m
sure I can-“
“It’s fine, Gangle. Just give me that stick over there” They just grumbled on the ground as Gangle grabbed the metal stick and offered it to them. Zooble grabbed it and jammed it into their arm socket and like magic it bent naturally. They moved it a bit before they nodded then grabbed another stick nearby and stuck it into the leg hole moving it to be sure before they pushed themselves up glaring at Jax walking over with the other four quickly following them across their new bridge. “You’re lucky I didn’t get a chance to feed you to that thing.”
“Oh come on Zooble. It was all in good fun wasn’t it?”
“No.” They huffed out crossing their arms as their antenna twitched.
“You’re no fun.” Jax just rolled his eyes and shrugged, hopping off the overgrown toy.
Ragatha quickly sped up and walked alongside Jax beginning to scold him “Now Jax. You know better than to take Zooble apart like that! Why did you do it anyways!”
“Heh. It was funny. You should know that by now dolly.” Jax’s smug grin just widened before he shrugged. “They got new ones so it’s fiiiine.”
Ragatha’s eye just rolled as she shook her head disapprovingly.
Meanwhile Pomni just looked at Zooble’s new arm taping her hands together she looked up and asked “You. Can do that?”
Zooble just shrugged. “Yeah. Helps when stupid $/?- like this happens.”
“Ok. Yeah ok. I’m just. Gonna go with that.” Pomni nodded defeated.
“It’s for the best.”
The group walked on for a good while the jungle was pretty nice if you got over the heat and humidity. Ragatha was fanning herself to keep cool but kept her smile. Jax had snagged a ‘leaf’ which was just a thin sheet of metal colored green in the vague shape of a clump of leaves and held it over his head to at least help block the sun. Gangle was. Doing her best slogging behind. Kinger was seemingly unphased while Zooble powered through it.
Pomni was doing her best to keep cool herself before she stopped her eye catching a brightly colored wind up bug. Gently she picked it up with a small smile as she looked over it. “You know I guess this place isn’t so bad. I mean only one thing tried to kill us so far!”
Kinger looked over and quickly shuffled towards the bug Pomni held leaning in closer his eyes slightly sparkling before he spoke “oooh that’s a good one Pomni.”
“Ha. Oh thanks Kinger. You know what kind this guy is?”
Kinger just stared at it for a good moment. “I can’t tell exactly. Oh but did you know that one is venomous?”
Pomni nearly sprung up her jester’s hat straightened up as she dropped the bug which scurried off as she shouted “IT’S WHAT!”
“Yeah. You can tell it’s very brightly colored.”
“WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE?” Pomni quickly started to look over her hands to make sure it didn’t bite her.
Kinger just blinked looking over his own hands. “Tell you what?”
Pomni just looked up to him looking back at her hands just to be sure she wasn’t bit before she shook her head walking on. “Nothing.”
“Ok!” He just followed.
It took about an hour to reach the center of the jungle. A loud rumbling snoring was heard as they drew closer which clearly worried Gangle who coiled her arms around Zooble’s leg who quickly shook to get her to loosen up.
“Hey it’s ok Gangle it’s just something sleeping is all. Maybe it’s nothing. Come on!” Ragatha said encouragingly as she gestured for the rest of the group to follow her. Pushing past the rubber bushes the gang got a look at what was snoring.
A lion. Well, a lion plush toy that was massive. It’s eyes were shut and it was curled up on a rock in a clearing in the jungle. On top of its head sat a large crown that sparkled in the sun.
“Lions don’t live in the jungle?” Gangle whispered out, tapping her ribbons together as she shed a few tears.
Jax just leaned forwards with a big grin “looks like we found our prize. Let’s go snag it!”
But much to everyone's surprise, Gangle quickly shushed him. She looked at the lion plush as she whispered “Lions have extraordinarily good hearing. They can hear pretty that’s a mile away. If he hasn’t heard us yet he’ll hear us now.”
“Ew. Nerd. Why do you even know that?”
“I. I just really like lions.” Gangle said as she lightly rubbed her ribbon hands together.
“Weirdo.” Jax just waved it off as he walked towards the slumbering plushie. “Now come on let’s get this stupid thing and blow this joint.”
“Finally something we can agree on, let's just get this over with.” Zooble said as they followed the rabbit.
Gangle just let out a whimper as they approached. Jax snuck up decently well and was waiting for Zooble to catch up. Unfortunately for all of them Zooble’s new leg seemed to decide to let out a pained hiss noise. They looked down, raising their leg to see why it did that.
“Oh it’s a snake.”
“IT'S A SNAKE?”
With that shout the lion plush began to move and rise. its eyes slowly opening revealing a set of piercing red eyes which locked onto Zooble and Jax. It pushed itself up and glared letting out a roar, its stitch mouth opening to reveal a very realistic set of sharp teeth.
“Look what you did Pomni, now it’s up!” Jax said as he looked back at the group gesturing to the large plush toy.
Gangle let out a whimper before she quickly said. “W-We should go.”
“Way ahead of you crybaby.” Jax said before a cartoony puff of smoke appeared where he was and before long the rest of the group was up and running.
The large lion plush was barreling towards the group, its mouth open, chomping down every so often to try and snag any of them if they were lagging behind.
Ragatha was looking around in a panic trying to figure out what to do as she ran. Soon she pointed towards a split in the path. “There! Come on, we might be able to lose it!”
The group quickly scurried down one side of the path and the plush skid to a stop. The lion sniffed the ground looking around.
The group ran on for a while before they stopped to catch their digital breath however something caught one of their attention.
“Where’s Gangle?” Zooble said as they stood up straight looking around.
Ragatha’s eye widened as she looked around for the ribbon girl. “I- I don’t know! Did anyone see her?”
“Oh noooo Gangle’s dead. Oh well.” Jax shrugged as he leaned on a metal tree with his nasty smirk.
“No she. Couldn’t have.” The doll put a hand to her mouth.
“Oh come on she’ll be fiiiine Caine will just bring her back. Now let’s go get that crown.” Jax pushed himself forwards looking back. Pomni was clearly unnerved at how causally death was discussed and how easy it would be for Caine to bring Gangle back. It made sense. If they could die none of them would be here. But still.
Noticing how uncomfortable Pomni was, Ragatha placed her hand on her shoulder. “Jax is right if. Gangle did get into some trouble. Caine will bring her back! She’ll be good as new!”
Pomni sort of shuffled away from the touch. “I… guess so.” She shrugged looking away from the ragdoll. “Sooo. Uhm. What now? How are we supposed to. Get that. Crown or whatever it was?”
“We could just grab it!” Kinger chimed in chipper as ever.
“How the !@-& are we supposed to do that Kinger.” Zooble huffed out looking at the chess piece.
“Do what?”
“Guys guys come on. I got a plaaaan, we just need to get its attention. Since Crybaby isn’t here Pomni your the bait.” The rabbit man pointed to the jester sort of leaning towards her.
“WHAT! WHY AM I THE BAIT?”
“Eh you run fast.” He then leaned back up straight and shrugged. “So you gonna do it or what.”
Pomni shook her head as she angrily retorted. “OF COURSE I'M NOT DOING IT!”
“Then who’s gonna be the bai-“ though Jax was cut off by the thumping of plush and plastic beads heading towards them and grumbled. “Great you took so long it caught up.”
“HOW IS THIS MY FAULT!” The jester shouted before she looked towards the sound as it grew closer and closer.
Only for the large lion king to stumble out of the jungle and to be pounced on by a lioness plush who was followed by a good few more. The big cat plushies tore at the larger king's fabric and let the stuffing inside fly out.
The group just watched on as this scene played out as slowly Gangle poked her head over and waved. “Hello.”
“G-Gangle! You’re ok! What’s going on?” Ragatha looked over and gestured to the ‘carnage’ in front of them.
Gangle walked over fidgeting. “Well. At first I accidentally went the wrong way when you all went down this way and I didn’t realize until it was too late. And then I was in a clearing with a bunch of lionesses and a few cubs. One even had a cute little crown. I think he was the prince. I feel bad for him; he'll probably be thrown out soon like real male lion cubs.”
“Just get to the point nerd!” Jax shouted, already annoyed at the info dumping.
“R-right sorry. They were all pretty angry but then I realized it’s probably because they don’t have a lot of food if the king is really as bad as Caine said so. I asked them why they haven’t killed him yet.”
“You what?” The jester quickly looked over confused.
“Well in real life if the leader or leaders of a lion pride aren’t treating the rest of the pride right the lionesses will attack them. And if he was really as bad as it seemed it made sense to just. Kill him?” Gangle gave a weak shrug as she held her hands close to her chest.
“Why do you even know all of this?” Pomni reached her arms out, clearly confused.
“I. I just like lions.” Was all Gangle could respond with.
“Your autism is showing again Gangle.” Zooble said, crossing their arms and rolling their eyes looking at the scene of stuffing flying everywhere.
Gangle’s eyes went wide as she quickly looked down looking all over her ribbony body “I-it is? Where?”
Ragatha let out a small laugh at that while Kinger just watched on with an “oh hey look.” And pointed.
The group looked over to see the crown fall off the torn up head of the lion plush. One of the lionesses spat out some stuffing and with that the group walked away leaving a torn mess of fabric and cotton in a vague shape of a lion behind.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again.” Pomni shook her head unblinkingly, looking at the aftermath.
Meanwhile Gangle just walked over and grabbed the crown looking at it. “It’s made of paper.” She said as she bent it a little.
Before any of them could say much else the portal back to the Circus opened.
“&:$!-ing finally.” Zooble grumbled as they walked over and into the portal without a second glance.
“Bout time! I was getting hot in here.” Jax said as he quickly followed Zooble in. Kinger grabbed a wind up bug and followed as well.
Ragatha just gently put a hand onto Pomni’s shoulders which shook her awake from her trance. “Lets go Pomni.” The jester just nodded and the two went in leaving Gangle.
The tangle of ribbons looked back then down to the crown. “If all the trees are made of metal how did they get paper?” After that she just shook her head and walked through the portal.