Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The smell of the zombies somehow followed the players back to the tent as they walked in. Ragatha had lost her left arm and right leg to an overzealous zombie, thanks to Jax tossing her back down the hall to distract the hoard. Kinger had been given the task of carrying her back to the tent, and he kindly sat her back down on the floor the moment they were back in the tent.

Pomni was practically vibrating from fear still. “How…how can I still smell them? How can we smell, period ?”

“Beats me.” Jax replied. “I actually didn’t hate that one.”

Ragatha narrowed her one eye at him, tempted to point out that Jax kept throwing others at the zombies to watch them get torn up. She had gotten thrown at zombies almost a dozen times, Gangle had gotten thrown four times, and Pomni just the once. 

Zooble sat cross legged on one of the nearby couches, and looked up as the group began heading their way. Gangle got there first, hurrying to take the spot beside Zooble. “My comedy mask broke again.” Gangle muttered, showing Zooble the two pieces. 

“That sucks.” Zooble said in their characteristic monotone. “How’d the zombie hunting go?”

“It started off normal.” Ragatha reported, hopping on her one foot to get to the seat beside Kinger on the second couch. “But then Kinger accidentally knocked into some kind of siren, and it kinda spiraled from there.”

“I could’ve sworn it was a scarlet lily beetle.” Kinger’s voice took on that dreamy quality it did whenever he spoke about bugs. “Not a doomsday button that would summon every zombie towards us.”

“It was a sea of zombies surrounding the tower.” Pomni added, her voice shaking. “Then they broke in and were coming down the hallway-”

“It was fine.” Jax finished, throwing himself onto the second couch and laying down before Pomni could sit anywhere. She blinked and stared at him for a moment before finally sitting cross legged on the floor. 

“Sounds like I made the right call by staying.” Zooble said, stretching and resting their arms on the back of the sofa. 

Jax raised an eyebrow at them as his smile grew wider. “Is it really a choice if you never go on adventures?”

Ragatha glanced around the wide space of the tent. “Isn’t Caine usually-?”

“Welcome back, my special little meow-meows!” Caine arrived with a burst of confetti. “I hope you all had fun fighting those flesh eating zombies! Yikes, Ragatha!” Caine snapped his fingers and Ragatha’s torn limbs began to quickly stitch themselves back on. 

“It would’ve been a fairer fight if we had…I don't know,” Pomni started. “Weapons?”

“It’s a nuclear zombie apocalypse, Pomni.” Caine said. “There’s no such thing as fair.”

“Next time we do zombies,” Jax asked. “Can we get guns? It’d be more enjoyable if I got to shoot something.” As he said so, his yellow stare slowly shifted towards Ragatha, who got the sense she’d end up full of bullets if Jax somehow got his hands on a gun.

Caine shook his head so hard it spun twice. “I’m afraid we won’t do a zombie apocalypse again for at least-” His voice was cut off with the sound of a computer dial tone, his eyes slowly drifting out of the barrier of teeth that was his head.

While everyone waited for him to reboot and catch up, Pomni shifted uncomfortably as the dial tone continued. She got off the floor and pushed Jax’s legs out of the way to take a seat on the couch. Jax watched her for a moment before trying to rest one of his feet on top of her hat, but Pomni was able to swat him away right as Caine finally fixed himself.

Caine’s eyes snapped back between the rows of teeth and the dial tone cut off abruptly. “Anywhoozles! I’m so glad to hear you all enjoyed today’s adventure!”

“I don’t think anyone said that.” Gangle mumbled. 

Speaking up had been a mistake. Caine dove towards Gangle and stopped just short of his teeth snapping her mask in two. “Then what did you think of the adventure, Gangle?”

Gangle sputtered like a dying truck engine. “Oh, I-I don’t…” She squeezed her eyes shut and frantically waved her ribbon hands in front of her face to try and get some space from Caine.

“Would you leave her alone?” Zooble snapped, leaning over to shoo Caine away like he was a pesky bee. “It sounds like this was another adventure where no one really enjoyed it.”

Caine seemed to twitch before turning to where Kinger and Ragatha sat. “Did either of you enjoy it?”

“Oh!” Ragatha turned a faint shade of pink. “I liked the, uh, quest side of it. There was a very clear goal to meet and we definitely tried to…get that goal.”

Kinger blinked. “I didn’t get why the zombies were coming after us. Zombies eat meat and no one here is meat. At least, I don’t think we are.” He gave Ragatha a soft poke in the side for emphasis.

“Zombies eat brains,” Jax corrected. “Which means it still doesn’t make sense they were coming after everyone, considering the lack of brains in this group.”

Caine’s large eyes locked in on whoever was speaking at the time. He tossed his hands up into the air, “Well, I just don’t know what you all want! You’re all so overdramatic about the things you dislike in my adventures. I work hard on making them fun for you all.”

“All the things in the adventures seem to be things you’d enjoy instead, Caine.” Zooble said. “Whenever we try to suggest things, you don’t listen. You got rid of the suggestion box, remember?”

“The adventures aren’t things I’d enjoy.” Caine insisted. “They’re things I figured that you all would like. I’m just guessing.”

There was a pause that Pomni finally broke. “Wait. Caine, have you actually been on an adventure? Any of them?”

“Well, gee, no.” Caine admitted. “I guess I haven’t.”

For a moment this information seemed to sink in as the six players mulled this over. And then Zooble was on their feet.

“Wait a $#€%*¥& minute!” Zooble started. “You’re telling me that you’ve been forcing us to go on these traumatic and $£!&&^ adventures for years, and you’ve never been on one?”

Jax hurried to his feet, nearly knocking Pomni off the couch as he did. “Excuse me, Zooble. But you haven’t gone on a proper adventure in months.”

“W-why haven’t you gone on any adventures, Caine?” Ragatha asked.

This explosion of emotion was surprising to Caine, to say the least. He twirled his fingers together. “Well, the adventures aren’t for me; they’re for you all! I only get to make them.”

Pomni scratched her temple. “Have you ever tried, I don’t know, a player mode or something?”

“Maybe if you actually went on the adventures, you’d see how terrible most of them are.” Zooble said dryly.

Caine’s eye twitched. “It’s never come up, Zooble!”

“I bet you can’t.” Jax quipped. 

Caine’s molars ground together. “I totally could if I wanted to! I just don’t want to!”

Jax rolled his eyes and nudged Pomni’s shoulder. “I bet he’d quit the second he saw that zombie hoard.”

“I mean, I would if I could.” Pomni said with a shrug. Caine’s eye twitched again.

Kinger got onto his feet as well. “I would’ve thought you’d want to come on an adventure with us, Caine.”

“Yeah,” Ragatha got up. “With how much you want us to like the adventures, you’d probably get some good experience seeing what they’re like.”

Zooble caught Ragatha’s eye from across the living space and nodded once. “Right, with how obsessed you are with them, I’d think you would’ve gone on hundreds of them.”

“Surely you can go into some kind of player mode,” Kinger said, joining the growing crowd. Pomni and Gangle exchanged a worried glance before joining them, and soon Caine found himself with a growing pile of players beneath him.

Caine waved his hands and floated an extra couple of feet into the air. “It doesn’t matter whether or not I’ve been on an adventure or not! The adventures are meant for you guys, not for me.”

After a brief moment of silence, Jax let out a loud, sharp laugh. “Ha! I told you; he wouldn’t be able to do it. He’d pop out of there the second things got hard.”

“I would not!” Caine exclaimed.

“Then why don’t you prove it?” Zooble countered. “You make it to the end of an adventure, and admit that your adventures aren’t as amazing as you think they are.”

Jax clapped his hands. “Yes! Betting!”

The wave of interest (and excitement?) made Caine pause. “Okay. Okay! If I make it to the end of the adventure,” Caine said, swooping down towards Zooble. “Zooble will have to start going on every adventure I create from now on!”

“Sounds fair to me.” Jax said.

“Wait a minute-” Zooble started, but Caine had already swooped away.

“And what about if you can’t make it to the end of the adventure?” Gangle asked softly. At first, it seemed like no one had heard her, but Zooble had stood close enough and stepped forward.

“If you cannot finish this adventure for any reason,” Zooble started, pointing a plastic finger at Caine. “Then you open the suggestion box again. And those are the only adventures we go on from now on!”

The stakes had never been higher.

Caine floated back and forth about ten feet above them for a minute or two, muttering to himself at such a high speed that no one could understand him. When he finally stopped, Caine floated slowly down so that his feet touched the ground.

“I accept these terms!” Caine declared, removing his top hat with a grand flourish and taking a deep bow as if this was a noble sacrifice.

Everyone stared silently, before Kinger broke the group first and disappeared back into his fortress. As everyone started to wander off, Caine continued talking. “I’ll of course need about a week to properly get everything ready, make sure Bubble is up to the task of being in charge, oh, I’m getting excited for this!”

Zooble paused at the stairway that led back up to the bedrooms and looked over their shoulder to where Caine was still yammering on. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” They grumbled, and left the tent’s central room.

Chapter Text

When Caine didn’t appear at all the next day with a new adventure to throw the circus’s residents into, everyone edged around the tent rather cautiously. It wasn’t like Caine to leave them alone for a whole day. Bubble would pop in every now and then, but he refused to tell anyone anything if they tried asking what had happened to Caine.

At some point Jax wandered over to where Pomni sat with Gangle. Pieces of paper and art supplies lay scattered around them and it appeared that Gangle was teaching Pomni how to draw anime characters. 

“So is Caine, like, gone forever now?” Jax asked, trying his best to sound nonchalant. 

“I doubt it.” Pomni said, not taking her eyes from her drawing. She couldn’t figure out how to draw the character’s second eye. “I don’t think the circus would still be standing if Caine left for good.”

Gangle looked up. “Do you think he’s building an adventure that he can go on?”

Jax scoffed. “I doubt it. He probably got his feelings hurt and he’s hiding until he gets over it.”

The girls didn’t dignify that with a response, and the silence stretched between the three of them for a minute longer than what was comfortable. “Uh, do you want to draw with us, Jax?” Gangle asked awkwardly, holding up a spare sheet of paper. Jax scoffed again and waved a dismissive hand at the paper.

“Draw anime with you weebs?” Jax asked. “I’d rather throw myself into traffic.” And with that, he sauntered off. Pomni and Gangle shrugged at each other and went back to their drawings.

Gangle paused in her shading to really take in the drawing of a magical girl that she’d been working on. “I think Jax is right.”

“You what?” Pomni paused, erasing the second anime eye for the fifth time. 

“What if we hurt Caine’s feelings yesterday?” Gangle asked, a quiver of nerves entering her voice. “If he does come on an adventure with us, what’s stopping him from taking revenge and leaving us in a bad place?”

“Uhhh,” Pomni mulled it over. “I don’t think Caine would do that. At least, I hope he wouldn’t. He does like us.” 

Gangle didn’t seem convinced, and she averted her wide black eyes to Pomni’s drawing. “Do you want help with the other eye?”

“Yes please!” Pomni squeaked. She handed Gangle the drawing and watched happily as Gangle began fixing where she had gone wrong. 

Meanwhile, Zooble and Ragatha were walking the perimeter of the circus tent. Kinger was technically walking along with them, trailing behind and often getting distracted. 

A few years ago, Ragatha had convinced Caine to give her and the others some chalk. Ragatha had used her share of the chalk drawing a massive track along the edge of the circus tent to stay out of the way of everything else. The actual tent didn’t have a true entrance, with Caine often just snapping his fingers and blipping the players to various adventures or to the pond or carnival outside. So Caine being gone today was sort of like being on house arrest. Ragatha had built the track to give her something to do when there weren’t adventures. Running the massive track was enough to make her plush legs sore and her breath ragged.

It made her feel alive.

But today wasn’t a day for running. Zooble had quickly joined her on the track, Kinger coming after them, wanting to discuss the only topic that was on anyone's mind today.

“I doubt he’s making a real adventure,” Zooble said firmly. “I don’t think going from–what did Pomni call it? Creator mode? Whatever; going from that to whatever we are probably isn’t possible for him.”

Ragatha hummed slightly. “Maybe. He’s definitely doing something though. If it wasn’t working then he’d be here to send us somewhere else, don’t you think?”

“I guess. Do you think the bet still stands if he can’t get the adventure going?”

Ragatha let out an accidental chuckle. “For the sake of the suggestion box, I hope so. I actually liked the fast food one. Or at least, I liked what I remember of it.”

“What would you suggest again?” Zooble asked. “If this works out and we get the box back?”

“I’d want to try and redo softball.” Ragatha said immediately. “Play a full game instead of half an inning. Maybe we could do horseback riding!”

“That could be nice.” Zooble replied. “I’ve never been.”

Kinger caught up to the two of them. “Imagine riding giant butterflies!” 

Once the initial shock of that suggestion wore off, both Ragatha and Zooble admitted that riding giant butterflies could be a nice suggestion once the box was open. That is, if Caine actually came through with this upcoming adventure.

The next day, Caine was still missing in action. A long table was loaded with a random assortment of breakfast food. Bubble floated lazily close to it, and Pomni hurried over to him. 

“Hey Bubble!” Pomni said. “What’s with the food?”

“Distraction!” Bubble exclaimed. Before anyone else could ask any other questions, Bubble floated to the ceiling with a massive sharp toothed smile and popped against the ceiling.

“Okay,” Ragatha squinted at the ceiling where Bubble disappeared. “This is the second day without Caine. I’m starting to get concerned.”

“If Bubble’s in charge of the adventure with Caine, how %*#^ed do you think we are during it?” Jax asked with a chuckle. 

“You’re not helping, Jax.” Pomni said.

“Wasn’t trying to.”

“Guys!” Kinger shrieked. The moment everyone looked over at him, Kinger gestured to the breakfast table. “There’s waffles over here!”

Everyone took a spot at the table. The circus was normally pretty scentless, Caine once complaining that it would be too much to constantly be flooding everyone’s senses with different scents, so the breakfast table was a nice change of pace. 

“Caine was ranting to himself when we were all leaving.” Zooble explained to the group. “He said it might be a week to get everything ready.”

“A week without Caine?” Gangle echoed. 

“I didn’t expect him to actually take this seriously.” Pomni said. “I wonder if we’ll just be seeing Bubble while he’s busy.”

As if summoned by the confusion, Caine burst from the ground. “Good morning, my technicolor dearies!”

“Caine!” Kinger exclaimed, tossing the bacon in his floating hands over his shoulders.

“Oh, you’re back!” Ragatha said. 

Caine floated above the table and heaved a sigh. “I apologize for ghosting you all yesterday. I was filled with so many ideas for our upcoming adventure together that I lost track of time. I think it’ll be my best adventure yet; so great and amazing that you’ll never ever ever think of wanting a suggestion box again, Zooble .”

“I didn’t say anything.” Zooble muttered. Gangle gently patted Zooble’s shoulder. 

“Do we get a hint of what the adventure is?” Pomni asked, her mind racing through all of the other “great and amazing” adventures, ranging from getting eaten by zombies to helping Gummigoo the NPC through an existential crisis to going to literal hell.

“Nope!” Caine said. The fact that they were all asking questions about his adventure at all was making his tummy feel all fluttery. Caine clapped his hands. “I’m still in the early stages, so it’ll be a few more days of down time for you all. But don’t worry! Bubble is hovering around to help you with whatever you may need.”

Bubble rose through the table, stealing several stacks of waffles as he did so.

“I’ve got to get back to work!” Caine declared. “Don’t worry too much about me, everyone!”

The space that Caine blipped back into was an inky black void, the way all of his adventures had started. Creating the terrain and world itself wasn’t so hard; he’d had loads of practice doing this part. The roadblock he kept hitting was trying to interact with it as a player himself. This wasn’t a part of his original design. Caine had always been meant to be in charge of creating, not actually play testing things. That responsibility had fallen to someone else. 

Caine’s entire head twitched, his exposed eyeballs getting caught in his premolars. The pain was dull, as it always was. Caine gently rubbed his eyes until the pain subsided and looked back to his progress. 

“Back to it.” Caine said to himself. And he dove to the blue lined grid that was being shaped into thick trees and vines, exotic fruits and different monsters for his friends to fight. 

They would love this one, he just knew it.

The digital circus crew spent the next several days entertaining themselves. Ragatha managed to convince everyone to play softball again. It was hard, considering each team had three players, and Jax (who hadn’t wanted to play in the first place) was a detriment to his team of Kinger and Pomni. That was until Zooble brought up the maid dress again, and suddenly Jax was the most motivated one, simply to beat the other team. 

Caine would show up once a day, announce to everyone that building was going well, that he hoped everyone wasn’t too bored without him, and then disappear again. On one of the days, he blipped everyone outside so that they could do whatever they wanted, and he didn’t blip them back inside until it was dark.

Everyone had just gotten used to this new normal when Caine exploded onto the scene six days after the bet had been made.

“It's finished!” Caine screamed, his jaw separating at least five feet before snapping back in place. “The adventure I can join you on is finally finished!”

Jax had been beating Gangle and Kinger at poker. “Oh. I forgot about that.”

Caine snapped his fingers and the remaining members of the circus were dragged from their activities to the front of the stage. Bubble buzzed around Caine, zipping around in excitement.

“So!” Caine began. “As we know, our deal details that I make it to the end of the adventure, so I made sure this is a plot based adventure where there is a definitive ending! However long it takes for us to get there is another matter.”

He didn’t give anyone else the opportunity to ask questions before steam rolling on. “While we are on our adventure, Bubble is going to be in charge of running things while I’m away. I’ve taken the liberty of properly updating Bubble with all the needed programs so that he can do this efficiently.”

“Blaaaaah!” Bubble wagged his tongue at the players below him. 

“Secondly!” Caine continued. “If something does go awry and we need me to take back control of the adventure, you all will get the ability to vote to put me back into creator mode. But, it must be a unanimous vote!”

“Would that count as you forfeiting?” Pomni asked.

Caine sighed, his rhythm thrown off. “Yes, Pomni. That would mean that I would lose the bet. And we open the dang suggestion box again.” Caine kicked the air dejectedly.

“What exactly are we doing?” Jax asked.

“I’m glad you asked!” All of the dejectedness was gone and Caine zoomed up to the top of the stage.

Bright golden letters made of shiny bricks formed as Caine soared across the stage. As Caine announced, “I give you: The Jaunty Jungle Temple Journey!” the letters formed behind him, dark green vines growing along the edges of the golden bricks.

“This adventure will take us deep into the jungle as we hunt for the Lost Empress’s Treasure Trove!” Caine exclaimed, his voice sounding so gosh darn giddy. “There’s dangerous fauna, dangerous flora, and a temple to explore!”

A wide golden portal opened above the stage, and a strong wind began tugging at the players. There was a shout of alarm as everyone was lifted from the floor. Zooble instinctually reached out and grabbed onto Gangle’s ribbons and Kinger’s floating hand as they were dragged in first. Pomni lost her footing fast, and as she was knocked into the air, she grabbed onto the only thing within reach being whipped around by the wind: Jax’s tall rabbit ears. Ragatha knocked into Pomni and sent the three of them into the portal with a shriek. 

“Have fun, Caine!” Bubble called as Caine dove to the stage. Caine pushed himself off with his feet and launched himself into his first ever adventure with absolute manic glee.

Chapter Text

Branches whipped and snapped as the players crashed through the thick foliage and landed in a heap on the hard packed earth below. Several of Zooble’s detachable limbs popped off of their body and scattered into the underbrush. But the moment Zooble lifted their head to try and spot any of their pieces, Ragatha, Pomni, and Jax slammed into the tangle of Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger and sent Zooble’s detachable head soaring into the underbrush as well.

“$&^%!” Zooble cried out as their head sailed away. Kinger groaned at the bottom of the pile, Gangle’s ribbon hands coiled around his long head. 

“Pom,” Jax groaned. “You are ripping my ears off.”

Pomni finally registered that she still had an iron grip on his ears and she let go in a hurry. “Sorry.”

Jax rubbed the base of his ears and shoved both Pomni and Ragatha off of him. Ragatha tumbled to the ground, landing on her face. “Is everyone okay?” She asked, her voice muffled by the earth pressing against her nose.

Gangle managed to unwrap her ribbons from Kinger and shakily got to her feet. She felt her mask and a small smile crossed her face. “My mask is okay!”

Jax narrowed his eyes at Gangle. “Not for long it’s not.” Gangle side stepped so that Jax was on the other side of the clearing from her. 

Kinger got to his feet and immediately bent down to help Pomni and Ragatha. “Happy to break everyone’s fall.” He looked around the clearing, taking in the dark green foliage, the bright sunlit space, and the scattered Zooble parts. “Hey, where’s-”

Kinger was cut off by Caine landing on him in a hard crash that sent Kinger back to the ground.

“Woah!” Caine exclaimed the moment he was back on his feet. “I might’ve been a bit too overzealous there with the landing.”

Caine walked the length of the clearing, staring at the jungle’s foliage as if he hadn’t been to one to make it. Pomni stared at him, uneasy now that Caine was on the ground and now able to make direct eye contact. “Why aren’t you floating, Caine?”

“Oh, that ability got turned off once I was put into player mode.” Caine explained. “I’m land locked for this adventure!” 

“Oh dear,” Pomni whispered. 

“Can someone help me?” Zooble’s voice came from the bushes. Gangle gasped softly and hurried towards where Zooble’s head was laying. 

She picked up Zooble’s head and brushed a few leaves out of their bent and twisty antennas. “Are you okay, Zooble?” Gangle asked.

Zooble cleared their throat. “Um, yeah. I’ll be better once I’m back together.”

Ragatha dusted her dress off. “Okay; everyone start collecting Zooble pieces please.” She looked over to Jax, who had already picked up Zooble’s wing. He promptly chucked it farther into the jungle the moment eye contact was made. Ragatha pinched the bridge of her nose and figured they’d go hunting for that piece once Zooble could walk again. 

Caine watched as the players began slowly collecting Zooble pieces. This clearing had been built as a landing pad of sorts. The real adventure would begin the moment anyone stepped outside of the clearing.

“So we’re hunting for some treasure?” Gangle asked, holding Zooble’s head so that Zooble could see everyone. 

“Precisely, Gangle!” Caine exclaimed. “The Lost Empress’s Treasure Trove is located deep inside the Temple of Doom!”

“Temple of Doom?” Pomni echoed, thoughts of floating worms invading her body again flooding her mind.

“Where’s this temple then?” Zooble asked. Gangle helped attach their head to their body. Kinger picked up one of the leg extensions and held it out, waiting for Zooble’s nonexistent hand to take it back.

Caine spun around in a tight circle three times before stumbling, his wide eyes rolling. “Oof!”

“Oof?” Kinger echoed, still holding out the leg extension. 

“It’s harder to move on the ground.” Caine said, shaking his head so that his eyes could stop rolling. “Everything feels heavier down here. How on earth do you all manage it?”

The six players all glanced at each other, not sure how to explain cartoon and video game physics to an AI. Once Caine had gotten his bearings, he peered past Ragatha. “The temple is to the west! Which is that-a-way!” He pointed with both hands.

By this point, Zooble had gotten their limbs back, minus the wing. Ragatha started towards the place where Jax had thrown the spare limb. “Ooh, treasure should be exciting! Is it just gold, or are there jewels and-AHHHHHH!”

Ragatha’s questions about the particulars of the treasure hoard was cut off the second she stepped out of the clearing. Right when her plush foot touched the ground covered by fallen leaves and vines and ferns, one of the vines snapped into action. It coiled around her foot and began to pull, knocking Ragatha off of her feet and dragging her away.

“Jax, you jerk!” She screamed as she went.

“How is this my fault?” Jax asked no one in particular. Zooble ran first to go after Ragatha, Gangle, Pomni, and Kinger immediately after them. Jax rolled his eyes before following suit. Caine chuckled, excitement flooding every nerve in his body. This was it! The beginning of the adventure!

Caine ran after them and almost immediately tripped over a thick tree root. Before he could make it back to his feet, vines quickly coiled around his arm and snatched him, dragging him into the same direction everyone was running in.

While everyone else was pelting after where Ragatha was being taken, Jax was taking a leisurely jog. He could hear everyone yelling their heads off, and he’d catch up to them soon enough. Movement caught his eye by his feet, and he stopped long enough to see the vines skidding past him.

“Huh?” Jax muttered. He looked up in time to see Caine barreling towards him.

“Help!” Caine said, barely keeping a giggle from his voice. “I’ve been captured!”

“That sounds like a you probl-” Jax started, but he was cut off as Caine passed him. Caine’s free hand whipped out and he grabbed onto Jax’s leg with surprising strength. Jax immediately lost his footing and found himself being dragged along with Caine.

“We’ve been captured!” Caine shouted in delight as Jax screamed in annoyance. 

Back at the front of the group, the vine that held onto Ragatha broke into a new clearing. Twigs and small leaves were stuck in Ragatha’s red yarn hair, and the vine suddenly lifted, flinging her high into the air.

The others burst into the clearing just in time to see Ragatha being thrown into the maw of a massive yellow flower. Thick petals formed jaws, and the moment Ragatha fell into the petals, they shut and sealed tight enough to where the others could see the silhouette of Ragatha’s body on the inside. 

“What is that thing?” Gangle shrieked. 

“What a pretty flower.” Kinger said cheerily.

Screaming came from the jungle and the group turned in time to see more vine dragging Caine who was in turn dragging Jax.

“Get your hands off me!” Jax screeched. Caine held on tight as the plant whipped the vines in the air. The petal mouth opened again as the two were tossed inside.

Ragatha looked up as the petals widened only to get knocked back down by Caine and Jax. The petals closed again, creating a vacuum like seal.

“Well, this is a doozy!” Caine exclaimed. “Can’t say I’ve ever been eaten by a carnivorous flower before.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jax snapped, throwing his body into the petals to try and open them again. But the petals remained unmoved.

“Caine, how do we get out?” Ragatha asked, her voice climbing to a high octave. “You made this thing!”

Caine narrowed his eyes at Ragatha. “That wouldn’t be in the adventurous spirit.”

“Why are my feet wet?” Jax asked sharply. “What’s happening?” He lifted his foot and found orange liquid dripping from his heel.

“Oh!” Caine exclaimed with a clap of his hands. “I based this flowering plant off of the pitcher plant. Though it’s obviously much bigger and therefore going after much bigger prey. So it’s going to use the fluid that’s pooling by our feet to slowly digest us.”

Jax and Ragatha locked eyes before they both started screaming for their companions outside to get them the *#&& out of this plant.

The vines outside were whipping around, and the other players were doing their best to avoid getting grabbed. Despite missing Caine’s lore dump, the others had gathered what the plant was probably capable of. 

Pomni got closest to the plant and managed to find a space where its vines couldn’t reach her. She pounded her fists on the petals. “Can you hear me?” She cried out.

“Pomni!” Ragatha’s voice was so muffled, but Pomni could hear her. “Would you mind helping us get out of here? Please!” Pomni nodded and grabbed onto a singular petal, using all the strength she had in her arms to try and pry it open.

Zooble got to the edge of the clearing and took in the rest of the area. They weren’t going to be able to help anyone by running around or trying to pry apart the petals. More flowers were nearby, but they were nowhere near as big as the yellow one. And on top of that, they had thick, long thorns. 

“Keep the thing distracted!” Zooble shouted to Kinger and Gangle, who were still running and avoiding the vines. “Pomni, help me with these!” 

Pomni darted over and met Zooble by the smaller flowers with the thorns. Zooble started using one of their plastic hands to rip off some of the thorns. “Try getting through with these.”

“Right!” Pomni said with a nod, taking three thorns and placing them between her knuckles. She charged the squash yellow flower and, with a roar of effort, punched the petals as hard as she possibly could. 

The flower made an unnatural sounding screech that only got louder when Zooble came charging in with two fistfuls of thorns. Both Zooble and Pomni tore at the plant, and, once the vines stopped waving around, Gangle grabbed her own thorn and began helping. Kinger didn’t seem to get the memo but he slapped his hands against the plant as well.

A hole tore through the strong petal and Jax’s hand shot out the gap. After a few long moments of ripping, the hole was finally big enough to get the others out. The flower let out a dying squawk before the petal went limp and fell open the moment Ragatha escaped. 

Caine looked around at the group. “That was exhilarating! I was really nervous for a moment. The acid started stinging my feet.”

Jax was kicking his feet a few feet away, getting the last of the droplets off. “Stupid,” He grumbled. “Dragging me across the floor…” His grumblings faded off.

“Do you finally see what we mean?” Zooble asked Caine, keeping a tight grip on the long thorns in their hands. “Did the acid not hurt you?”

Caine waved a hand. “That wasn’t so bad, Zooble! And the flower was killed off before any real damage happened.”

Zooble groaned in frustration and Ragatha cleared her throat. “We should probably keep moving to find this stupid temple.”

“Follow me!” Caine exclaimed, and he dashed into the jungle, nearly tripping over his feet as he did.

“He’s very clumsy when he’s stuck on the ground.” Kinger observed. 

Once they were actively looking for it, the temple was fairly easy to find. It was enormous; a few hundred feet across and just as tall as it was wide. Caine began hurrying around the edge, leaving the others no real choice but to follow after him as he looked for whatever. 

By the time Caine found the entrance, he was nearly out of breath. In the excitement of his adventure kicking off, he’d forgotten about this design flaw that humans carried over to the circus. As he waited for them to catch up, he pondered about his player mode.

Between the acid actually stinging his feet, and now feeling out of breath, what other surprises did this player mode have in store for him?

“I found the entrance, everyone!” Caine announced.

“Great.” Jax said. “Now let’s get this over with.”

“Now so fast, you eager jack rabbit!” Caine said. “The entrance to the temple is locked! To get in, we must first find the Three Keys!”

Indeed, the massive doors to the temple were sealed shut. Three small keyholes were in the center of the dark stone, seemingly mocking the players.

Pomni stared out at the dense jungle. “This place is huge though! Where are we supposed to find keys?”

“There are three different locations to explore!” Caine explained. “There’s a village just west of us, a mysterious lake to the north, and a rickety bridge overhanging the gorge to the south! There is a key hidden at each location! We can take our time going to each location and solving puzzles to get them.”

“Okay,” Zooble said slowly. “Or, we could split up and each tackle getting a key.”

Caine sputtered. “Well, the keys were meant to get picked up by everybody…”

“Caine, how long do you want this adventure to last?” Zooble asked sharply. Caine didn’t have the heart to say that he had wanted it to last a few day cycles at least. When he didn’t respond right away, Zooble looked at everyone else. “Does anyone disagree?”

Everyone shook their heads, and Zooble nodded. “Right then. Gangle, you can come with me to the bridge to get that key.”

Pomni went to ask Ragatha if she wanted to grab one of the keys together, but Jax grabbed onto her hat and started walking north towards the lake. Pomni waved once and caught her footing, yanking her hat back from Jax.

Ragatha realized this meant she would be paired with Kinger and Caine. She swallowed and took a deep breath. “We all meet up here in front of the temple once we get the keys?”

Zooble watched Jax and Pomni leave. “Yeah. If one group isn’t back after a few hours, we’ll go after whoever’s not back.”

“Go team!” Caine shouted, recovering from everyone splitting up. 

“Where?” Kinger shouted right back. 

Ragatha took another very deep breath and figured getting this key with these two would be like herding cats. She started towards the village, making sure Kinger and Caine were following her. Zooble and Gangle looked at each other once before turning and starting south to the bridge. 

Chapter Text

The path to the rickety bridge was wide, as if generations of carts and mules had gone down this dirt path. Or at least, that’s what it seemed to Zooble and Gangle as they strolled down the path and noticed the track and hoof prints. 

“I hope getting this key isn’t too hard.” Gangle muttered after a moment of silence. 

“If it is, we can swing back to the temple and wait for everyone to help get it.” Zooble said. Their voice was pretty clipped, and Gangle noticed the change immediately.

“Are,” Gangle started, not sure how to best approach this question. “Are you okay, Zooble?”

Zooble blinked, taken aback. “Um, yeah. I guess. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Gangle cleared her throat. “You just seem…I don’t know. Shorter.”

“I’m sorry, Gangle.” Zooble said. “It’s just this entire bet. Caine isn’t reacting the way I thought he would.”

“How did you think he’d react?”

“He said the inside of that plant hurt him.” Zooble reminded Gangle. “I would’ve thought he’d be terrified to feel anything . I guess I figured that the idea of anything being able to hurt him would freak him out a bit more.”

Gangle thought about that and nodded slowly. “I understand that. He seems like he’s having fun so far.”

“I just don’t wanna see how much more crazy he’ll get if he wins this bet.” Zooble said gruffly, and Gangle understood. If Caine won the bet, Zooble would have to go on every single adventure Caine made from them on. Who knew what kind of chaos would happen when Caine’s inflated ego was in charge of the adventures?

“The adventure is still just getting started.” Gangle said, trying to cheer Zooble up. “Maybe he’ll have a terrible ti-”

The ground beneath Gangle and Zooble’s feet suddenly cut off, and Gangle toppled forward. She screamed at the top of her unseen lungs as the gorge revealed itself, only stopping from tumbling down into it by Zooble’s hand shooting out and grabbing onto the thin ribbons. Zooble backed up fast, pulling Gangle’s almost liquidy form with them until they were both on solid ground again. 

“Where did the gorge come from?” Zooble asked, Gangle wrapped around them as she caught her breath again.

The path, which had previously gone on until disappearing into the thick jungle foliage, now abruptly cut off. It was as if a giant hand had come from the sky and sliced into the earth. Zooble and Gangle leaned over the edge.

At the bottom of the gorge was a bright blue river. It looked to be about the length of a football field away, but even from this height, Zooble and Gangle could see dark green alligators swimming in the river below. They slowly leaned back up, and Gangle glanced to her right as movement caught her eye.

Materializing out of nothing, a long and thin rope bridge came to life on either side of the gorge. The two ends met in the middle, and the bridge swayed slightly and a small sprinkle of dust fell from the bridge and drifted to the river below. 

Gangle realized she was still wrapped all around Zooble and she scrambled to let them go. “I guess the key would be over there.” She said in a higher voice. Gangle wanted to talk about anything at all, and hoped her white mask wasn’t turning red. 

Zooble saw the redness on Gangle’s mask and didn’t bring it up. “Let’s check it out.”

They trampled through the jungle, trying to make it to the bridge. All the while, they kept their eyes firmly on the ground to keep an eye out for vines like the ones that dragged Ragatha and Caine. The thick jungle ended and they wound up on another path leading them straight to the bridge. 

“So Caine just said the key was at the bridge?” Zooble asked. They didn’t like the uneasy silence that had grown between them and Gangle. “We probably have to cross.”

Zooble placed their foot on the first plank of the bridge, feeling the way it gave under their weight. The plank bent slightly in a way that made Zooble’s heart thump, but they needed to cross to get the key. Zooble wiggled their plastic fingers and grabbed the ropes that acted as a handrail, and took a tentative step forward.

The bridge swayed uncomfortably and Zooble froze as the bridge got used to the weight. Once it stopped swaying, Zooble took another step forward, and then another. 

“Zooble, be careful.” Gangle whispered from solid ground. 

Zooble took a few more steps and looked over their shoulder. Their eyes squinted in a way that looked like Zooble was smiling without a mouth. Gangle swallowed, the feeling of butterflies erupting where a stomach would be. 

“C’mon, Gangle.” Zooble said, their voice sounding brighter than it had all day. 

They took another step forward, and the wooden plank bent hard before snapping. Zooble shrieked as they plunged forward. Their leg, a thin bit of plastic that Zooble hadn’t taken a lot of care to choose, went right through the gap and for a terrifying moment it felt like Zooble was going to keep falling and go straight through the gap. But two things stopped them. The first was their hands, holding onto the ropes like life depending on it.

The second was Gangle’s ribbon hands wrapping around Zooble’s body for the second time in twenty minutes. 

“Are you okay?” Gangle asked, pulling with all of her strength to pull Zooble back up. Zooble nodded, feeling all words fall flat. There was a thump as Zooble sat heavily on the bridge, Gangle falling into a sitting position behind Zooble. Her ribbons were still wrapped tightly around Zooble, but this time there didn’t seem to be a rush to let go. 

The bridge swayed slightly as the two recovered. Above them, a bird flew by, letting out a singsongy call. 

Zooble finally let go of the ropes and gently patted Gangle’s ribbon hands. “I’m okay.” Zooble whispered. Gangle immediately let go of them and they both stood up. Zooble turned to look at Gangle. “Thank you, Gangle.”

Gangle met Zooble’s eyes and fought to keep that eye contact. “You’re welcome, Zooble.”

This time when they started forward on the rickety bridge, they each kept one hand on the rope and the other on each other’s hand. Every time a board bent underneath Zooble’s foot, they’d step over that one and make sure that Gangle did the same. The moment they were both on the other side of the gorge, they both let out a massive sigh of relief. 

“I guess the key is on this side of the bridge.” Gangle thought aloud. 

The jungle was thicker on this side of the gorge, looking like a wall of greenery. Vines hung from tall trees with small white and yellow flowers blooming on them. Several of the trees themselves were so wide that neither Zooble or Gangle would’ve been able to wrap their arms around the trunks. The walkway did continue through this thick jungle, but it was much thinner, only wide enough for one person to walk along the path at a time. 

It was painfully quiet as Zooble and Gangle crept down the path. If the key was close by, then surely there’d be some kind of obstacle to try and stop them from grabbing it.

A sharp laugh echoed from somewhere in the jungle, and both Zooble and Gangle flinched at the sound. They exchanged a glance before hesitantly stepping off the path and towards the laughter.

“Don’t laugh at me!” A second voice with a distinct Australian accent whined. “Max, why would you do this?”

“I didn’t do anything.” The laughing voice said. Zooble and Gangle hid behind a tree and peeked around the corner.  

The Australian voices belonged to two familiar faces. The two gummy crocodile bandits sat around a fire, both holding long sticks to roast marshmallows. Gangle frowned. The two gummy crocodiles both had their wide brimmed hats, one wore a bandana and the other a vest. And while they were definitely familiar, the one that was Pomni’s favorite wasn’t here. Surely Caine wouldn’t bring back two NPCs that always showed up in a trio.

The yellow and green gummy crawled out of the only tent and adjusted his hat, as if summoned by Gangle’s thoughts. His white eyes squinted out into the jungle, and both Gangle and Zooble ducked back behind the tree to avoid being spotted. 

Twigs snapped as Gummigoo came towards their hiding spot. “Hm,” He nearly growled in thought. Gangle covered her mouth with her ribbons to avoid making any sort of terrified squeaks. 

“What’re you looking for, boss?” One of the crocodile bandits asked from the campfire.

“Thought I saw something this way.” Gummigoo’s voice was painfully close now. Gangle looked out of the corner of her eye and froze when she saw the end of his snout appearing from around the tree trunk.

A loud scuffle came from the campfire and the other gummy crocodiles shouted in surprise. Gummigoo’s snout disappeared as he hurried back to deal with whatever was going on. Gangle and Zooble glanced back around the tree trunk in time to see Gummigoo stamping out some loose flames that had started spreading.

“No more s’mores!” Gummigoo exclaimed. “Not if you lot are gonna start flinging melted mallows at each other.”

“Sorry, boss.” The two said in unison. 

“There’s the key!” Zooble hissed. Gangle blinked and scanned the campsite, feeling her breath catch when she saw a very long, old timey looking red key. The bow of the key was angled and shaped to look like a bright red ruby glinting in the sunlight. 

The only problem was that the key was that the key was currently hanging from around Gummigoo’s neck. 

“How do we get it from them?” Gangle whispered. “Do we get him to take off the key somehow?”

“I’m guessing he won’t take it off so easily.” Zooble whispered back. “Stay here and keep an eye out. I’m gonna try to get to the other side.” They nodded at Gangle once before stepping back into the shadows and moving as quietly as possible to the other side of the camp.

The gummy bandits were still talking to each other. Gummigoo was smiling at his buddies, who were chattering excitedly.

“Once we get the treasure,” The bandit with very long arms said. “Your mum will be able to build that community center. Any idea what it’ll be for?”

Gummigoo straightened with pride. “Last I heard, she was gonna use it for teaching classes to the unhoused population. Help ‘em get back on their feet, you know?”

What a nice goal, Gangle thought. For a moment, she felt terrible about needing to take the key from them. Maybe they should go back and come back with the rest of the group…

A twig snapped somewhere on the other side of the clearing and all three bandits snapped to attention. 

“Who goes there?” Gummigoo barked.

There was a moment of hesitation, but Zooble slowly crept out of the foliage with their hands raised above their head. “Um, hi?” They said, and it came out as a question.

Realization of what she had to do dawned on Gangle and she felt her jaw tighten terribly. The bandits were putting all of their attention on Zooble, and didn’t even notice Gangle creeping out of the woods and towards Gummigoo. How she was going to get the key off of him, Gangle wasn’t even entirely sure.

Zooble caught sight of Gangle and felt their breath freeze. They quickly looked back to the bandits; they needed to keep their attention to keep Gangle from being caught.

Gangle was practically vibrating from terror as she got closer to the gummy crocodile. She and Pomni had once had a long talk about Gummigoo after the fast food adventure, when Gangle had felt better enough to talk about it. And Pomni had insisted that Gummigoo was nice, that he was a friend.

But Gangle also knew that NPCs lost their memories with every new adventure. This Gummigoo wasn’t the same from Spudsy’s, or from the Candy Canyon Kingdom. This Gummigoo could be an evil villain…who wanted to get money to open a community center and help the homeless.

“Who are you?” One of the bandits asked, trying too hard to sound menacing. 

“What do you want?” The other bandit sounded off. 

“Uh,” Zooble hesitated, not sure what to do. “I heard you say something about a treasure?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, triangle head?” One of the bandits said, pointing his tiny arm at Zooble. 

“I would like to know,” Zooble deadpanned. “That’s why I asked.”

Gangle was almost right behind Gummigoo, and she still hadn’t figured out she was going to get the key off from around his neck. She reached out tentatively, thinking that if she got the string keeping the key around him, she might be able to snatch it off fast. 

Gummigoo whipped around and came face to face with Gangle.

Gangle yelped, but whipped her ribbon hands out and grabbed onto the key and pulled. 

The key was torn from the string with a hard snap and Gangle turned on her heel and pelted away.

“I’m right behind you, Gangle!” Zooble shouted, breaking into a hard run.

Zooble caught up to Gangle almost immediately. “Take the key!” Gangle screamed, tossing the key to Zooble. The metal clinked against Zooble as the key bounced from hand to hand before they finally caught it.

“This way!” Gummigoo’s voice came from the jungle right as Zooble and Gangle made it back to the bridge. 

Zooble grabbed Gangle’s hand and forced the key into it. “Get across the bridge!” They ordered. Gangle hesitated but rushed onto the rickety bridge, taking extra care to tie the key into her ribbon arm to keep it secure. Zooble dashed onto the robes just as the gummy bandits crashed through the foliage.

“Get ‘em, lads!” Gummigoo shouted, even though he led the charge to the bridge. His buddies were at his heels, and none of them hesitated to dash onto the bridge.

Zooble was halfway across and looked over their shoulder, seeing how fast the bandits were gaining on them. Even if they got to the other side, the bandits would still be after them.

Zooble skidded to a stop and turned to stand sideways on the bridge. Gangle, feeling the bridge stop shaking beneath her feet, stopped in a hurry and turned around to see Zooble standing a few feet away, a look of pure determination on their face. 

“Gangle!” Zooble called out. “Grab onto the ropes!” And they withdrew the flower thorns from their back pocket.

Gangle let out a shriek and grasped onto the ropes for the bridge, holding on tight as she possibly could. Immediately, Zooble drove the long thorns into the ropes.

A series of snapping pierced the air as the thorns shredded the ropes. Zooble had enough time to throw themself to the ground and grab onto the wooden planks before the rope fully snapped.

The bridge completely let go on one side, throwing everything sideways. The gummy bandits screamed in fright as they fought to grab onto the ropes that remained on the other side of the bridge. Zooble glanced at them, and realized with a jolt that Gummigoo was trying to climb his way to them like he was swinging on monkey bars. 

Zooble slashed upwards with the thorns, barely fraying the rope. “C’mon!” Zooble snarled, reaching up farther and swiping at the ropes again.

Snap !

The ropes that were barely holding the bridge together gave way and Zooble fought to hold on as the bridge suddenly dropped. 

Wind roared as the bridge was split in two, the five people on the bridge all screaming their heads off as their stomach rose into their throats with gravity forcing against them. Then the remaining ropes snapped tight and the two sides of the bridge swung and slammed against the rock face of the gorge. 

Gangle had coiled her ribbons around the ropes about a dozen times, the key stuck in the tangled mess. Tears stung Gangle’s eyes as she slowly opened them. She looked down and heaved a sigh when she spotted Zooble a few feet below her, hanging onto the planks so hard that their hands ached in pain.

Wordlessly, Gangle and Zooble climbed up the bridge until they were back on the solid ground of the cliff. When they looked across the gorge, they saw the gummy bandits doing the same, just moving more slowly to help out the bandit with shorter arms. 

Gangle looked down at her arm, where the key was still tied into. She held it up, not failing to notice the way her arm shook intensely. 

“We got the key.” She said weakly.

Zooble looked away from the broken bridge to the shiny red key to Gangle’s tear stained face. A weak laugh bubbled to the surface, and then it became all Zooble could do. Gangle stared for a moment before the overwhelming adrenaline caught up with her, and she let out a loud shrieking laugh to go along with Zooble’s.

Once the laughter had died and the adrenaline wore off slightly, Gangle and Zooble started back towards the temple. Gangle kept the key firmly grasped in her ribbons, refusing to let it go for anything.

“We should tell Pomni that we saw Gummigoo.” Gangle said once they were on their way back. “He’s her favorite NPC, I think.”

Pomni was currently trying not to drown, but Gangle was unaware of that right now. 

The temple was within sight when Gangle looked at Zooble again. “Can I say something, Zooble?”

“Yeah,” Zooble said. Their voice sounded way more tired now that their task of getting the key was done. “What is it?”

“If Caine ends up winning the bet,” Gangle started, wishing she had thought up her words better. “I think you’ll be okay going on his adventures. You’re super strong and brave, and I’ll always be on the adventures too to help you.”

Zooble stopped walking and stared at Gangle, their eyes wider. Gangle froze and immediately regretted saying anything. But before she could let out a stream of words taking that back–she really didn’t know what she was talking about and really who was Gangle to say whether Zooble would be okay going on the adventures–Zooble reached out and grabbed her free hand.

“Thank you Gangle.” They said, their voice sounding stronger than it had just moments ago. “I really mean that.”

Gangle felt her white mask go dark pink and she looked away back towards the temple. “It’s no problem!” Her voice came out as a high pitched squeak. 

Zooble and Gangle continued down the path to the temple, still holding each other’s hands.