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Ragatha hastily excused herself back to her room after the recent quickfire adventures, and hadn't come out since. She tried to get herself to 'sleep', but found herself unable to free herself from the memories that had been emerging ever since. The echoes of her mothers scorn and of the mocking derision she had received from... other sources were unrelenting, so she had decided to have a little walk to try and clear her head. She emerged from her room and had glanced over to Kaufmo's door, when a surge of pain had shot through her whole body.
"Aauuugghh!" She cried, hunching over as the pain rippled through her, knocking the wind out of her and sending her crashing to the floor. After a few moments, she was slowly able to pull herself out of her tightened form and up onto her knees. She stared down at her hands in disbelief.
"Nonono, not now, not here!" she whispered, panic in her tone. Dark shadows twitched and flickered over her previously peach coloured fabric 'skin', and beyond, the edges of her dress were twitching and flickering wildly. She was glitching.
"Not again, not again!" she hissed, as she scrambled onto her feet, only for her foot to glitch, dropping her to the floor again with a cute squeak that she found exceptionally annoying. with gritted teeth and yet more pain, she managed to pull herself back to her room, pulling the door closed with a slam.
"Ragatha...?"
Inside her room, the doll was able to give in to the pain coursing through her and she let out a wail of agony as her body convulsed and twitched.
Useless girl! Get out from under my feet already! Uuugh, you are as pointless as your ragamuffin father! the voice of her mother echoed around her mind. Ragatha pulled herself forward and up using her bed frame as support.
Oh look, Raggy's coming apart at the seams. That's appropriate! Jax's voice followed quickly after, he was so much like her mother it scared her at times. She looked down at her glitching hands and dread began to sink in. Where they had simply been glitching graphically, there was now a definitive dark edge around them.
Oh lookie! She couldn't even keep away from me after I abstracted! Woooow, so obsessed, so needy, so starved for attention! Ribbit's singsong voice caused tears to roll down her cheeks. She reached up to brush them away, only to be greeted by inky blackness as her arm had begun to corrupt even more, the jagged, harsh movements of abstraction beginning to overtake the glitchiness of digital corruption.
She's not even worth saving from Abstraction. Pomni's voice next, and it stung just as much as the rest. Ragatha didn't mean to be so overbearing, she just couldn't help it. She was so scared that she'd turn out like her mother that she just pushed everything negative down, pushed it all deep down.
Ragatha? Pomni again, this time a little bit more concerned, but Ragatha knew it was fake, no-one cared for her, not really. She was useless in life and she was useless in this digital hellhole. She might as well just... not even be here.
"Ragatha!!" a scream rang out snapping her from her despair for a moment. She looked up expecting to see her closed door, to see it had been flung open, and Pomni stood framed by the light of the hallway, fear and panic on her face.
"P-Pom-mn-niii-i?" She stammered out, electronic distortion heavily present in her voice. Pomni's expression shifted to one of almost complete terror, and she looked down at her body, seeing that it too had begun to darken under the corruption of her glitch. "R-ruuu-nn-n! I-I-I th-in-nk-k I-I'm Ab-str-trac-t-tin-g-g!" she managed to get out, despite the pain.
"I..." Pomni mumbled, eyes wide, tears welling up within them. Despite everything, Ragatha allowed herself a gentle smile.
"I-I-It-s-s O-oo-kay. I wa-aa-a-an-t-t you t-t-to be sa-a-aa-afe," she said, looking across at the jester, before closing her eye. "Ple-e-eea-se. G-ge-eet away." she whispered.
"No! Not this time!" Pomni snapped suddenly, running across the gap between the door and Ragatha. She knocked into the woman and wrapped her arms tightly around her. "Owoowwwww!!" she hissed, as the glitchiness began to press into her, like a bout of static electricity constantly tingling over her body. "I am NOT going to leave you again!" Ragatha let out a gasp as the tiny girl hit into her, utterly unsure of herself.
"Po-o-om-ni! Pl-e-ea-se!" she managed, trying weakly to push her away.
"Caine! Kinger! Zooble! Anyone!!! We need help!!" Pomni cried out loudly, still not letting go of the thread-haired woman she had latched onto. "C'mon Ragatha, this isn't you! You can fight this, come back to us!" she said, pulling back from the hug to look the woman in the eye. Ragatha couldn't help but let out a snort of almost indignant laughter.
"Y-y-you do-on't kn-ow the r-r-ea-l me. No-o-o one here d-d-does," she replied, before hanging her head against Pomni's shoulder. "I ne-e-ever let them." Pomni's grip got tighter as she pulled Ragatha into an even firmer hug.
"Then please... fight this... and stay here. I want to know you. I just... want to know the real you. Not the you you think you need to be," she whispered, through gritted teeth, a hand moving up into the doll's hair. Ragatha couldn't help but let out a breathe at the action. She hated to admit it to herself, but she had missed being in physical contact with someone. Just a shame it had come in such circumstances.
"Po-omi... I... I don't kno-ow..." she muttered, looking down at the hands that still hung by her companion's side. They were still dark, but the jaggedness of abstraction had smoothed out somewhat. "I've ne-ever even be-e-en... real with myse-e-elf... I do-o-on't know who I am..."
"Then let's find that out together?" Pomni replied warmly, catching Ragatha's gaze and giving her a gentle, soothing smile.
"I... I'd l-l-like that," she answered, hands slowly moving to touch against Pomni's sides, allowing herself to hug the girl back. The two women remained against each other in embrace for a few moments.
"Ragatha... as much as I'm enjoying this... could you maybe let go now... this really hurts," Pomni hissed softly, regret heavily present in her voice.
"OH! Oh my go-osh, I'm so sorry Po-omni, I didn't even realise!" Ragatha exclaimed, throwing her hands away from the jester, almost literally throwing her friend as she did so. Pomni let out a squeak and flailed for a few moments, toppling backwards onto the floor, right as a shadow fell over the doorway.
"What's going on here my Telematic Terraformers? Ragatha! You seem different to how you usually look!" Caine exclaimed, floating through the open door fram, quite literally, his body stretching out like a broken polygon before snapping back into place.
"She's glitching you @#$%! Fix her!" Pomni snapped angrily from the floor, as Caine looked Ragatha over.
"Hmmm... Aha! I see now, you're glitching again! I guess I didn't properly fix you from the Kaufmo incident, hmm? There, how does this feel?" he said, snapping his fingers. Ragatha's glitching instantly vanished, but her facial features, arms and legs had all been rearranged.
"Not... quite right..." she managed, her mouth now located somewhere under one of her elbows.
"I see..." Caine said, rubbing the underside of his jaw-face as if in deep thought. "Oh, I see it now!" he said, snapping his fingers again. Everything remained where it was, but her dress changed into Evil Ragatha's dress.
"Caine! Quit screwing around and get her back to normal!" Pomni barked, pulling herself onto her feet. Another quick snap from the AI sent Ragatha's parts back to their original position, and her dress was returned to its usual shades of blue.
"There we go! Now get some rest you two, BIG adventure planned for tomorrow!" the floating set of teeth said with glee, before vanishing the way he had come in, his body again stretching like a deformed graphic before snapping away.
"O...K. That was... actually not all that weird for him. Ragatha? Are you... are you OK now?" Pomni asked softly, looking across at the woman as Ragatha began inspecting her own body, turning her arms this way and that, seeing no sign of glitch or abstraction.
"I... I think I'm... not," Ragatha said quietly, sitting back down on the edge of her bed. "I think I need to do a lot of work... but... I don't think I'm going to abstract any time soon, if that's what you're worried about," she said, with a gentle smile.
"Well, I'm glad about that. But I did mean the first thing," Pomni answered, sitting beside the raggy doll, leaning against her shoulder gently, "I'm here for you, if you ever want to... talk. Or... hang out. Whenever you want to."
"Oh, Pomni! Thank you. I really appreciate that, but, I wouldn't want to impose on your..." Ragatha began, glancing down at Pomin to see that she was glaring back at her with a derisive look.
"Or, I'm here for you. If you ever want to talk. Or hang out," Pomni reiterated, a comforting stern-ness in her voice. "Like, right now for example," she added, and Ragatha had to force herself to look away from the puppy-dog eyes that gazed up at her.
"O-oh! I, um... I think that would be very nice!" she replied with a little bit of a giggle. She pulled herself up fully onto her bed, crossing her legs and leaning back against the headboard. She gestured for Pomni to sit up onto the bed as well.
"Well, where would you like to begin?" Pomni asked, scooting into a seating position opposite to Ragatha.
"I suppose... we should start at the beginning. Hi there. I'm Ragatha, and... I think I might be a kinda bad person..." Ragatha answered, her expression somber. She flicked her gaze up when she felt a gloved hand touch against her knee, as Pomni flashed her a sympathetic smile.
"Hi Ragatha. I'm Pomni. I like getting to know kinda bad people," she answered with a little smirk.