Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jax was going to kill Gangle when they got out of here.

He had vague memories of his life before entering the Circus, though most were faded by this point. Only the faintest outlines of memories remained, blurry shapes and washed out colours. He'd made his peace with it long ago, and he wasn't about to start talking about it and making everyone think he was open to "talking about his feelings". Or having feelings, for that matter. But while he'd never admit it out loud, there were some things he wished he could remember.

Working fast food wasn't [f$cking] one of them.

Things at Spudsy's had started off semi-okay, before Gangle started power-tripping. He'd been sent to work the grill, and had got some entertainment from rocketing raw patties at the ceiling, but the novelty wore off quickly and boredom started to set in. The others, inexplicably, tried to be productive. There were no actual stakes to this adventure. They weren't getting paid, they couldn't get fired, and Caine's "performance reviews" were always complete [bull&%^&]. There was literally no incentive to care about this "adventure".

It turned out they didn't even need to get the orders right, because the NPCs would eat whatever you gave them. Jax discovered this when he saw Ragatha slap two chicken nuggets, half an onion, and at least half a bottle of mayo onto a single bun, shove it into a bag, and set it on the counter. When the mannequin NPC came up to collect their order, they looked inside, and left without a single complaint. He's pretty sure they tipped.

That was also around when things started to go to [s%£t]. He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed sooner, but Ragatha looked wasted. She was giggling, barely holding herself up as she haphazardly threw food into bags, before eventually giving up altogether.

"Jeez Rags, what are you on?" Jax asked. And where could he get some? Last he checked, they didn't even have alcohol in here.

Ragatha hiccuped. "I'm on asssssembly, ya big DUMMY." She burst into another fit of giggles.

It didn't take Gangle long to notice the commotion, and when she came over to politely check in on Ragatha, it looked like she was going to pop a digital blood vessel. She lectured Rags, which somehow meant she had to lecture Jax too (because why the [f^ck] not, he supposed.) She went on for what felt like an hour, talking about productivity, how much money every second cost them, and training. It was freaky the way she talked about training. Real serial killer [s&%t].  

Jax couldn't believe it, but for the first time, he actually envied Zooble and Pomni.

Zooble was stuck cleaning, but at least they got a break whenever it was slow, and it looked like they were completely avoiding their shift manager's wrath. Meanwhile, Pomni had been assigned register duty. She seemed to be perfectly okay with it. Jax couldn't understand how she was so calm- between the weird customers, the stench of grease, and Gangle making thinly veiled threats to anyone not "living up to their TRUE potential," he felt like he was going to abstract before lunch. If lunch ever came at all.

Time passed at an agonisingly slow pace. Jax was pretty sure the clock was broken, or that Caine had messed with the time dilation in Spudsy's, because every second felt like an eternity. It wouldn't even be that bad if he had something to do, but the orders had slowed to a crawl, and eventually stopped altogether. 

"Hey gang!" Gangle singsonged as she came over. Not this again. "Things are gonna be picking up soon, and I just wanted to see how we were doing over... here....." She trailed off.

Jax was standing at the grill, not a burger in sight. He'd been waiting for an opportunity to sneak off and dump some ice into the friers. Ragatha was still completely out of it, leaning against the counter. She had sauce splattered all over her apron, and had even got lettuce in her hair. "Allllllll... all good, boss. We did eeeeevery order....." She slurred.

Jax couldn't tell if Gangle looked more nervous or pissed. "What do you mean, "every order"?" 

"There's... there's no more! We did ALL of 'em. Didn'we, Jax?" She slipped, landing face down on the counter. Jesus.

"But it's only eleven!" Gangle cried. It's only eleven? "We haven't even stopped serving breakfast! Where are all the-" Gangle stopped speaking as she looked over at the register.

Jax looked over too, expecting to see Pomni still there, peering over the counter on her step stool. (Sometimes he forgot that she really is that goddamn short.) But when he did, she was nowhere to be seen. There was only a line of NPCs waiting to have their orders taken. 

"Jax." The cheerful tone in Gangle's voice was fading fast. "Where did Pomni go?"

Before he could speak, Ragatha cut in. 

"Oh, she was flirting with the gummy guy," she said, rolling her eyes. "I guess 'cause she- she'd rather hang out with him than with us..." She slumped down to the floor, looking over at the register... longingly? He'd unpack that later.

"I wish someone would flirt with me like that." She grumbled.

Gangle was saying something back, but Jax wasn't really listening. Flirting with the gummy guy?

He caught on quick. She must've meant that NPC Pomni brought back the other week. Caine must have reused his model- it was pretty common, but Jax didn't think it would be so soon. Why would Pomni be flirting with him? Rags was out of her mind right now, and she was probably exaggerating. Sure, she seemed pretty attached to him (he heard her crying across the hall) but he wasn't real and she didn't like him. Not like him like him, anyway. Probably.

That'd be stupid.

"Jax!" He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Gangle yelling at him. 

"Yeah?" 

"I said," she spoke, voice wavering, "to go take over the register." 

God damn it. "Sure. Whatever." 

Gangle, seemingly at the end of her ribbon, walked towards the break room. Jax trudged over to the front counter, leaving Ragatha to lay on the floor, mumbling to herself.

If the food didn't matter, Jax was willing to bet incorrect order inputs didn't matter either. He pretended to listen to the NPCs rattle off their requests, hitting random buttons on the register and shoving whatever change he was handed into it. (Most of the change. Gangle wouldn't know.) He didn't even bother to look at what he was doing, staring out into the dining area instead, watching the NPCs meander around. He spotted a few gloinks running around the main floor, leaving a tacky trail of... something, behind them, but for the most part all he saw were wooden mannequins, sitting in booths and smushing their food into their faces as they "ate". 

Just as he was thinking he would rather watch paint dry than spend another second at the register, something caught Jax's eye. In a booth close to the door, he could see the three bandits from their candy land adventure. "Gummy guy" really was there. More interestingly though, Pomni was standing by their table, chatting to him.

She had her back towards the counter, and Jax couldn't see her face, but he could see the NPC's. He was smiling warmly, leaned towards Pomni. Her shoulders shook as she laughed at something he'd said, and then he was tipping his hat and winking at her. What the hell was he doing? What was Pomni doing?

Jax turned back towards the kitchen, incredulous, looking to see if Rags was getting any of this. She was already out cold on the floor. Zooble would have to sweep her up later. 

He turned back to see Pomni still talking to gummy guy, her hands fidgeting behind her back. The NPC looked to be in the middle of some kind of story, his eyes lighting up as he spoke. Pomni nodded along, the bells on her hat bouncing every once in a while. Then, she must have asked something dumb, because gummy guy stopped, his snout crinkling with laughter as he leaned in even further and flicked one of Pomni's bells.

Flicked it. Who does that?

Well, Jax did. But it was different when he did it. He did it just to get under her skin, not to do whatever it is crocs-his-face was doing. Getting under other things, probably. But Pomni hated when Jax messed with her like that, so it hardly mattered. At least, he thought she did.

But Pomni turned her head to the side, finally giving Jax a glimpse of her face, and she was bright pink. Blushing all the way down to her neck. Jax felt his whole body tense, his blood turning to ice.

What the [f£ck]?

She never reacted to Jax like that. And the last time he checked, Pomni hated to be touched. She always looked viscerally uncomfortable, even when it was just Ragatha brushing her arm. Gummy guy shouldn't be any different. Maybe she was just blushing from embarrassment? 

A wooden arm started waving in front of his face. Oh, yeah. Customers. Right. He turned back towards the mannequin in front of him to listen to its order, but he found himself not registering a single word it said. Agitation hummed in the back of his mind, drowning out everything else. His eyes slowly drifted back towards the booth by the door.

The mannequin slammed its hand down on the counter, asking if Jax heard it.

"Not at all." [F&ck] this. He was taking his ten.

Jax turned back towards the kitchen, stepping over Ragatha and heading to the back door.

He stepped out into the space behind the restaurant and closed the door. It was overwhelmingly grey, a stark contrast to the obnoxiously bright atmosphere of the circus. He found it equal parts refreshing and depressing. There were a couple of dumpsters against the wall, with loose cans and food scraps littered on the ground. He leaned against the wall, stretching his arms out and rubbing his eyes.

He'd kill for a smoke right now. You could hand him the saddest, dampest cig ever found on the ground of the Spudsy's back alley, and he'd take it. Savour it like it was his last meal. 

He heard a soft thudding sound on the ground beneath him, and looked down, expecting to see a rat or some other Caine-ine abomination rolling around the alleyway. But to his horror, he saw his own foot, thumping rhythmically against the concrete. How long had he been doing that?

It had to be Spudsy's. This place was driving him insane. He was seriously contemplating hiding out back here until the day was over, and they could all go back to the Circus, where he would throttle Gangle for putting him through this. But there was a high chance she'd already noticed he was missing, and was on her way to find him and put him through training. As if it was his fault nobody's at the register, and not Pomni's. 

The thumping got louder. Jax groaned. "Can I- you- will you cut that out?"

It didn't stop. He slowly slid down the wall, coming to sit on the back doorstep. He stared out at the skybox above him.

He hated this adventure. He hated Spudsy's, he hated the sounds and the smells and the demands. But what had started as frustration and boredom was snowballing into something worse. It wasn't even that bad until he'd been sent to deal with the NPCs-

His foot was thumping so hard now that it was starting to hurt. He grabbed at it, holding it in place. "Jesus [f%cking] Christ, what do you want!"

There was silence for a moment. One blissful moment, before his other foot started to move.

Thud, thud, thud. Jax yelled.

He didn't know what was wrong with him. He got angry sometimes, he pranked someone about it, it went away. But he never thumped, he never lost it, and anger never felt like this. It was always tense, hot, simmering under his skin. It didn't feel cold, it didn't feel... embarrassing. Where did that come from?

He needed to get this over with. Whatever he was feeling wasn't going away anytime soon, and thinking about it was only messing with his head. He'd go back in, pretend to work for the rest of his shift, get out, and never think about this place again. Maybe if he was smooth about it, he could pretend he'd never left.

Jax got to his feet, dusting himself off and shaking his head. He peeked in through the back door, looking for Gangle, but she was nowhere to be seen. He lifted an ear, listening for her. It was faint, and the usual restaurant noise made it hard to hear, but he could just make out the distinct sound of a crybaby having a meltdown in the break room. Perfect.

Jax slunk back into Spudsy's, heading back towards the front. Ragatha was gone, but Zooble was standing by the work stations, staring dejectedly at the mess of sauce and fillings on the floor. It looked like dollface had put up quite the fight. Jax winked at them as he strolled past. "Gonna get on that, Zoobie?"

Zooble continued staring at the floor, barely reacting. "...Later." They walked over to the drinks machine, grabbing a large soda cup, before filling it to the brim with straight black coffee. Maybe he didn't envy them so much after all.

Jax turned towards the dining area, and found himself instantly looking for the booth by the door. When he spotted it, he froze. The cold feeling returned, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice over him.

It seemed like the other two crocodiles had left, and Pomni was now sitting in the booth with gummy guy, alone. They were talking and picking at a basket of fries between them. Jax saw the NPC steal a fry out of Pomni's hand, and he could feel his chest tightening when he saw her playfully swat at the thief, puffing out her cheeks as she tried to scowl at him. The NPC only laughed, and so did she.

Jax's fists clenched at his sides as he stared at the two. Whatever he felt earlier was back in full force. He knew he wasn't as close with Pomni as the others- they didn't have the kind of friendship she shared with Ragatha or Kinger. Hell, he wasn't sure they were really friends at all. Frienemies at best. But since she'd showed up at the Circus, he'd been the only one who ever messed with her that way. Gummy guy, or whatever his [dumb%ss] name was, had no right to mess with what was his.

His?

Jax's heart sank to the floor.

Oh.

Oh, fuck.