Work Text:
"I apologize my beautiful, colored balls of bustling attitude, I'm afraid there will be no adventure today..." Caine sighs as he lays draped dramatically over one of the couches of the crews usual hang out spot.
Jax rolls his eyes, sitting back in his seat with crossed arms. "Stop calling us weird names."
It was safe to say that everyone in the circus could agree; Caine was acting strange.
Zooble sat at the other end of the couch Jax was on. Ragatha on the other with Gangle sketching and Pomni swinging her feet, looking very confused. He wasn't acting like he usually was, it was concerning to say the least. Snapping his fingers and popping them into some weird dimension to solve puzzles or missions was always the norm, and always every day. Today though, oh no, today was different.
It was simple mistakes Caine never really made; from fixing Gangles comedy mask to materializing up another one of Zoobles parts they would lose on the adventures they did participate in. Instead, Gangle received a flimsy paper plate in return, and Zooble got some weird miniature version of bubble for the replacement of an eye.
Nobody bothered to ask what was wrong, because frankly, they didn't care. The only words that rang through all of their heads was 'no adventure today'.
Kinger comes along though, and is suddenly curious. "Wow Caine, I've never seen you so sluggish, could it be something with the weather?" He pops one finger in his "mouth" and sticks it in the air to feel which direction the wind was going. "Hmm, no breeze..."
"Alas! I fear I've fallen ill!" Caine shouts.
"B-but how...? Aren't you in charge of this whole place? Couldn't you just....I don't know, unsick yourself...?" Pomni speaks up from the middle of the two other girls, Ragatha shrugs her shoulders, "Yeah, Pomni's right, I mean-- how do you even get sick in this place? It's not like anythings....real."
"There might be a ghastly bug in my beautiful circus, and I need to find it before it's too late." Caine snaps and is suddenly in bed with a damp towel placed over his gums, Bubble taking his temperature. "I feel I'm going weak."
"And what does that have to do with us?" Jax replies.
"No more adventures!"
Everyone immediately walks away, he could figure that out on his own. As they retreated to their rooms (and Kinger back to his comforting pillow fort), they had no idea the chaos about to pursue them. Typical Caine, always ruining the moment.
-
-
-
It'd been about an hour since Caine's feud, and everyone had already forgotten about it, wandering about and not really knowing what to do. By this time they'd usually be on an adventure right about now, so it was weird just to be....here. I guess, as much as they all hated those dumb adventures, without them, everyone in the circus would've already abstracted by now. They really did keep the brain stimulated.
Pomni sat in her room on the edge of her bed. Thinking. She observed things around her little space, the blocks, the colors, the bed, all of it so bright, maybe she should lay down and close her eyes and hopes she dreams instead.
"HEY!"
A loud shout was heard in the main area of the circus, and Pomni's eyes shot open. She had nothing else to do but check it out, so she followed the source of the yelling.
_
_
"I need those! Give em' back you piece of %#$*!"
"What's going on out here?" Ragatha says, everyone else following to see the commotion. There he was, Jax in all his glory.
...with no ears.
They were just-- gone. Jax frantically rubs at his smooth purple head, and Zooble loses it. Nearly falling over. "Yeah, hilarious." He says in a flat tone.
"Jax, why do you not have ears." Pomni sighs. They look to see the source of the problem, Caine. His eyes were slightly puffy, and his gums looked inflamed, assuming it resembled that of a feverish face. His signature top hat and cane no where to be found. His clothes very unorganized and out of place. He tugged at the collar of his shirt, sweating.
"I dunno, jester, ask him!" Jax points to the pair of teeth, snatching the pillow Kinger had brought with him when he heard the noise, and smushing it against the top of his head, trying to hide the embarrassment of suddenly becoming earless.
Caine looks rough, he lazily floats over to the rest of the group and makes eye contact with Gangle.
"Ooooh, the ribboned one, I've always liked you better than the rest...! Why can't they be more like you and listen obediently..." Caine goes over and slumps all of his body weight onto her, leaning over. Poor Gangle, she's panicking.
Zooble pushes Caine aside, "Get off of her!" Gangle scurries to hide behind them. "What's wrong with you?!"
"Uh oh, maybe Caine being "sick" really does have something to do with us..." Ragatha presses her palm against her cheek, worried. Kinger goes up to Gangle and places a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Gangle, look on the bright side, you're Caine's favorite!"
Gangles comedy mask not really putting a smile on her face anymore, cried: "That's a weird thing!"
Ragatha joins the conversation, "Okay, calm down everyone, let's not make any more noise to trigger Caine..."
But too late, he'd already snapped Kingers color palette inside out. Now he had a purple body and peach coat. It was.....ugly. Everyone flinched and gasped, this was worse than Jax not having any ears! The king chess piece didn't seem to notice and wondered why everyone was looking at him funny.
"Okay, what is happening?!" Pomni shook.
"It's Caine!" Zooble screamed, "he's--messed up!" Everyone turned to face the strange wobbly man, then scattered into different directions of the circus as soon as they saw him lift his fingers to snap again.
Run.
"F-find the bug! Maybe it's around here somewhere!" Ragatha shouted, barely tripping over her own dress while running from the mob of gloinks Caine summoned to chase only her.
They accidentally split into pairs, Pomni and Zooble, Gangle and kinger, and Jax and Ragatha.
Pomni stopped to catch her breath behind a big red block after getting far enough away. Bending over to rest her hands on her knees. "We've gotta figure out how to find that bug and get rid of it...." She mumbled to herself.
Another sudden voice, low and monotone. Answering her question. "Yeah, but how? This place is huge."
"Eek!" Pomni jolts out of her skin, she thought she was alone! She swore she almost abstracted out of fear right then and there! Zooble apologized, then spoke. "Where do you think a bug might be in here?"
"Hm, I don't know, but-- it has to be running around here somewhere."
They both agreed to start searching the darker parts of the circus, maybe it's hiding somewhere in there.
-
-
Kinger and Gangle, both frightened, and frankly, uncomfortable. Looking at Kinger for too long scared Gangle, his color palette was just way too out of wack for her. Kinger just walking along like everything was fine.
"Does it.....hurt?" She questions, walking along the walls of the circus with him. "Hm, oh, this? Hmmm no, it doesn't hurt, but I do feel naked...." He exclaims casually. Gangle tosses him a worried look.
Kinger closes his eyes and puts a finger up in the air, "So.....Ragatha said we had to find......uhh.....find....-" "The bug." Gangle finishes for him. "Right! The bug, now if I were a bug, where would I be...?" He looked around for any clue, until spotting some weird looking circuit thingys on the ground, it was a path, and led to the rooms in the hallway, maybe they should follow that?
"Perfect!" He shouted, following the path carefully. "Hey, don't you like to draw Gangle? Maybe you could sketch what the bug looks like so we can find it! Here, I've got some supplies for you." He sneaks his floating hand into his peach robe, pulling out a huge leaf and pencil. "I don't have paper, but I know you can make it work!"
Gangle looked at the things handed to her and sighed with a grin. The nubby pencil being almost impossible to use, and there's no way she could use a leaf. But, it was nice of him to try. Where did he even get the leaf anyway?
As they wandered into the hall lined up with their rooms, the circuit bits scattered, leaving no more trail. "Agh! There goes our lead Gangle, what do you think we should do?"
Gangle freezes at the question, then squeaks out, "uh.....maybe we should....keep looking?"
"Good idea! Maybe we'll find some more clues." He walked back out, Gangle lazily following, wondering when this'll end.
-
-
Jax and Ragatha pranced along, wondering how out of everyone in the circus, they had to get accidentally teamed up with each other. Whatever, Jax was still earless, and that's all she needed to feel like she had the upper hand against him.
"If you so much as smirk I will rip your twizzler gummy hair strands off of your head one. by. one." Jax still held the pillow over his head as they walked. A poisonous venom dripping on every word of his sentence.
Ragatha rolled her eyes, just continuing to walk near somewhere. They both ran pretty far to lose the gloinks. Who knows what part of the circus they were in. They needed to start looking for something, but what? Neither of them knew. Some little bug?
Just then, a tiny little bug scurried across Ragathas peripheral, catching her attention and commanding Jax to run after it with her.
The chase began, and it was pretty easy to follow the weird things path. It kept leaving a trail of circuit bits wherever it crawled. It hopped on the floor, walls, and blocks, trying to lose the two. "C'mere you--!" Ragatha gets close, and tries to stomp on it.
Bad idea.
She glitches, but only for a moment before her legs starts to utterly spazz. Weird lines of green '101' code taking over her leg. It was way more painful than it looked.
"Sh-$*@+!!" She bleeps out, and immediately falls to the floor. Jax looks between her and the weird bug, deciding on what to do. Would he leave her there, or pursue the nasty thing?
-
-
Pomni and Zooble weren't having the best luck so far.
They'd searched almost every dark crevice of the circus, nothing. They'd reached a dead end, and decided to take a break.
Zooble dragged one of the tiny building blocks nearby and used it as a stool, plopping down on it. "As long as we're nowhere near that lunatic, I'm good to just take a break right now."
Pomni took her spot on the floor, a criss cross legged position, she found it more comfortable this way. "Yeah, but it sucks that we haven't found anything."
"Maybe the others are lucking out better than we are right now."
Pomni smiles at the reassurance. "Mhm, but I'm still trying to figure out why Caine's being....weirder than usual."
Zooble fidgeted with one of their stretchable arms and sighed, lost in thought at Pomnis question. They wondered how Gangle was doing. "Well, he did say he had a bug in his system. Maybe like-- a stomach bug? You know, ones that humans get but in this case the ones Caine gets. Like his version of being sick."
Pomni nodded, that did make a lot of sense. "So he's just....running some weird digital fever?" She shrugs at Zooble, and they seem to nod in confirmation. "Maybe we should start heading back to the--" Zooble freezes, noticing a weird, scurrying thing in the distance. "Wait-- there it is!" They point.
Pomni starts running, and Zooble follows, time to chase this weird thing that's making Caine go kooky!
-
-
This was definitely not the ideal situation Jax and Ragatha wanted to find themselves in.
Jax was walking along ahead with Ragatha, only this time, he had her scooped up in his arms bridal style. They were both undoubtedly seething at the forced contact, but how else would they progress? Ragatha wore a nasty scowl with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, huffing in anger at this stupid predicament.
But not to worry! Jax had found some duct tape and made the pillow one with his head. So it still covered his ears. He also wore the flatest expression you could imagine on an earless, cartoon purple bunny. He could also hear her leg make strange circuit noises, and the little soft, pained groan she would let out when it glitched.
"Listen, the only reason I'm carrying you like this is because it gets us to the main area faster. Otherwise, I probably would've just left you there." He wor an irritated grin with an eye twitch.
She scoffed, "Thanks."
Jax would've probably spewed some more annoying complaints by now about how she was heavy, but she really wasn't. Plus, he was still ticked about not having any ears. So even he wasn't in the mood.
"We lost its trail, who knows where it could be? And who knows how long it'll take my leg to get fixed!" She feels like all of the weird, glitchy, messed up limb situations were associated with her every single time.
"Relax, I'll get you to you main area and throw you on the floor and wait until this all gets over and done with. I need my ears back." Jax sighed, his posture slumping. Very clearly done with the world.
Ragatha mocked him, "What's the big deal?"
"The 'big deal' is that I look totally stupid! And what did I say about laughing? I'll drop you right now."
She flinched at her leg again, and also focused on the feeling to keep her from letting out another laugh, knowing Jax, he would really drop her and leave her for the gloinks.
-
-
Gangle and Kinger seemed to have gone in a circle.
She'd been mindlessly following him for who knows how long now. "Maybe we should retrace our steps, lets go back to the main area...." Gangle pointed towards their usual couch spot.
"Hmmm, I guess that makes sense...." Kinger stroked his purple face while thinking. "Okay! Lets go." He immediately starts marching, Gangle cringes, she forgot he was still purple.
They make it to the main area with no issues, Gangle suggest they just wait there until the others come back with some more information. She left her notepad there anyway, and Kinger passed the time by tracing patterns into the checkered floor.
-
-
"Grab it, Pomni!" Zooble watches as the jester struggles to snatch the thing up, it was too good at dodging! It scurried along the walls, leading them back to the main area.
As they both scrambled to catch the speedy thing, little did they know how lucky they were to be unsuccessful in touching it at all. This stupid thing was giving them a run for their money, Pomni could barely keep up, Zooble was surprisingly trailing it pretty well.
Zooble noticed Pomni hunching over on her knees and swiped her up, carrying her like a rolled up blanket tucked under Zoobles arm. She felt like she could puke, getting bounced around while they chased.
Zooble was getting tired themselves, seeing the assortment of couches up ahead of them, telling them they were close. They see a tiny bunch of ribbons curled up on the couch, and a purple king chess piece kneeling on the floor.
"Kinger! Grab it!" They scream. Kinger jumps at the call of his name and turns to whatever is lunging towards him, "Okay!" He gives a weary thumbs up towards Zooble. Just as he's halfway through blinking, the thing zooms passed him in a flash. Gangle yelps and hides behind her note pad.
As soon as Zooble and Pomni think all hope is lost, a pillow headed hero is seen carrying an injured Ragatha in one arm, and suddenly swiping the thing clean in half with a steel metal bat in the other! A good swing and that thing was knocked out of the park and in two! It slowly materializes into disintegrating pixels.
"How-....How did you do that." Pomni stumbles over her sentence, everyone is in shock. "Oh, this? All I did was call Caine and ask him to give me a 'bug killing bat' and that sucker actually did! So there, crisis averted, feel free to thank me later." Jax finally dropped Ragatha without a care in the world of where she'd land. "Man....killing weird virus bugs with one arm sure isn't easy...." He mumbled.
Ragatha hit the ground with a small 'oof', hissing in pain as her leg continued to lag out. "Oh my goodness! Ragatha, what happened to you?!" Kinger inspected her leg very closely, trying to find the problem.
Everyone stared in worry, but all she could do was smile up at them. "Don't worry about me! I'll be fine, we just need to call Caine!"
"Diiiiiid somebody say gumballs?!" A mystery man appears out of nowhere and summons a heavy shower of them, leaving everyone tripping. Oh, and Jax was green now.
"Oh come on, what the f-&$#!"
"No! Nobody said gumballs, Caine!" Zooble shouts, noticing something. He didn't look back to normal just yet, his gums were still red and his clothes were still put together in a big mess. Pomni rolled her ankle on about two random pieces and fell right on her rear. "Are you serious? We got rid of the bug!"
"Which one?" Kinger says. Everyone cracks their necks towards him as it's still raining colorful gumballs. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"Kinger! Why didn't you tell us about the other bug!" Zooble watches as they swat the gum balls out of the air. "We thought you knew...." Gangle chimes in, flinching at all of the gumballs that came dangerously close to cracking her comedy mask. She tried to shield herself, but she couldn't do much when she had mere ribbons for arms.
Jax gripped the bat, wanting to swing at something else. "Great, theres two. Now how do we find this thing so I can look normal again."
"Caine!" Zooble screams. It caught his attention and stopped the gum balls almost instantly. "Wheres the other bug?!"
It's not like asking Caine would be any use right now, he looked like he was on the verge of imploding. "Silly Zooble, you know, I'll never really understand why you don't enjoy my adventures." He snaps his fingers with a drunken giggle and watches as he disassembles Zooble right in front of the casts very eyes, sorting their body parts in a neat order on the ground.
"Ah! Dont worry Zooble, I'll put you back together!" Kinger tries to sloppily build them in a panic. Caine's eyes are nearly bloodshot, he looked absolutely zooted. "You're a riot, Kinger! I do really consider yous a good buddies you know, dont you?" Caine rambles and side hugs him tight, catching Kinger off guard.
"Why thank you Caine, but I'm a little busy right now." He points at Zooble. Caines pupils dialate a dangerous size before he turns around and calls Pomni over.
Hearing the call of her name leave the ringmasters teeth, she nervously tiptoes her way towards the floating pair of dentures. "Hazaa!" He chants, and now, Pomni was changing color and felt an uncomfortable buzz float through her body.
She felt gross, the buzzing reminded her of a beehive, except, she felt like she was the beehive. It made her shiver violently. "Come on Caine, snap out of it!" Ragatha shouted up at him from the floor. Not like it was working, he was still trying to bother Kinger to distract him from putting Zooble back together.
"We need to find the dumb thing before we all get snapped into frogs." Jax hisses through his teeth, very clearly pissed. He was green, had no ears, and it was starting to get on his nerves. He felt like nothing could make this situation worse.
Until Caine did!
Again, for the millionth time, Caine snaps his fingers, and now the room was distorted and warping like something out of a trippy hip 2020 melting smiley face Tik Tok wallpaper.
"I just love a little wackiness, dont you, Bubble?" Caine slurs. Meanwhile, Bubble is constantly popping a thermometer in his mouth and checking his temperature every so often.
Jax narrows his eyes at him, trying to focus and look around the circus before all of this madness robbed him of his sanity. Then, he sees that all too familiar critter. "You! You're the only one left with a functioning body that's not crazy! Keep up and follow me!" He points at Gangle, forcing her to follow him on his chase.
They don't need to make it far, the bug was slowing down a bit. Was it starting to get hot in here, or was it just Jax? He swore he felt like he's been breaking a sweat or two. The bug is almost within home running distance of Jaxs' bat. He just needed something to get it's attention.
He rips Gangles comedy mask from her face. "You don't mind if I borrow this, right?" The smug look on his face tells her she doesn't really have a choice, he throws it and Gangle whimpers as she watches it shatter on the floor near the thing.
It indeed does, catch it's attention. While it stood still, he needed something else. He needed it fast, now, no time for thinking.
"Be my bait!" Jax shoves Gangle towards the bug and she lands next to it on the ground. "W-wait! Jax-" She screams, it lunges for her and lags her out like crazy. Gangle cries in pain, her entire body was infected with the virus.
Jax wastes no time, splatting the bug into the floor. It was over.
Much like Ragathas leg, Gangle looked and sounded buggy. Her voice kept skipping and stuttering words. Jax stood over her and found himself flinching a little bit at her state. A weird pang in his chest.
"Jax! Go-g0 get Ca1ne!-! Th-is, Th|s hur-ts$s!"
Ouch.
He laughed, sweating vigorously. "Relax. Caine can just snap you back to normal. G-God......you're so dramatic." He thinks of just leaving her here. It wasn't like Ragatha where it was just her leg that was contaminated. He sighs and thinks for a long while before he violently rubs the irritation from his face, groaning loudly.
"Grab onto the bat, don't let go."
"B-bu+-"
"Take it or leave it, ya' bunch of ribbons."
She musters up any strength she can to wrap her glitching ribbon arm around the bat as securely as she can get it, letting Jax drag her back to the main area.
-
-
They get there, and nothings changed. Ragatha is still hissing in pain and trying to get Pomni to calm down from her meltdown. She leaned against the couch her eyes completely white and slumped over on the floor, still rapidly changing colors, the buzzing only getting louder and surely enough frying her brain.
Zooble is trying to direct Kinger into a step by step on how to put them back together, of course, Kinger getting it wrong every single time. The gum balls that remained on the floor from the previous rainfall still making Jax stumble here and there. Now Ragatha was noticing Gangles body doing things it wasn't supposed too. And it was getting increasingly hotter in here, everyone was everywhere, doing too much all at once.
"I got rid of your stupid bugs, now fix all this!" Jax chucked the bat straight into the floor, the heat making him dizzy, and gave up as he let the darkness swarm his vision.
Soon enough, everyone found themselves succumbing to the nice, hot peace as well.
-
-
-
"Ugh...."
A bright light. The circuses usual beam. Normally, she'd be waking up in her room, not the circuses main area. She sits up and looks at everyone else around her, back to normal.
Wait.....back to normal?
Pomni turns the gears in her brain to finally remember the events before she passed out. Oh God, that was pretty bad, was everyone alright?
Ragatha was the second to wake up on the ground next to Pomni, also remembering everything and freaking out. "Oh my goodness! Pomni! Are you alright? How are you and-- everyone else?"
She looks around to her own questions being answered. A sigh of relief as she feels her leg not spazzing every 2 seconds. She looks over at Zooble and Kinger waking up at the same time. "I'm fine Ragatha, thanks." She says with a smile.
"Kinger! You're not.....weird!" Pomni points out that his regular color palette has been organized back to its proper order. He pats his robe and face in a daze. "Hey.....I guess I am!" He jumps for joy.
"Ugh...god.....I feel like I just woke up from a bad trip.." Zooble groaned, they adjusted their head in proper place. Their limbs were back intact with no issues at all! It took a bit for them to fully be able to stand up right, but when they noticed Gangle passed out on the ground, their legs were suddenly as good as new.
They scooped her up and placed her on the couch, completely stepping over the lump of a purple rabbit face down on the floor. Zooble looks worried, Pomni goes to stand next to them as they both watch Gangles ribbons breathe. "She'll be fine...." Pomni tried to crack a smile for them. "Gangles really strong."
Ragatha joins the duo. "I'll say, man did my leg really hurt, I can't even imagine how Gangle must've felt."
Zooble sighs and asks, "What happened to her? I was too busy trying to be put back together by Kinger to pay attention."
Pomni freezes, she was sorta going through her own thing when all of that happened, but she can try to gather up the little memories she has of it. "I can only remember little bits and pieces, but when Jax and Gangle came back, she was glitching like crazy.."
"I bet that a$$hole had something to do with it," Zooble glares at Jax on the floor, still unconscious. "I swear when he wakes up, I'll kill him."
Pomni laughs softly, locking eyes with Zooble. "I'll be cheering you on."
"I'm just happy that its not so hot in here anymore!" Says Kinger, humming a soft tune to himself. A couple minutes go by before Jax and Gangle finally get up. They take a couple hours to discuss what just happened. Ragatha and Gangle, having to relive the trauma, were sort of quieter when speaking. It was safe to say Zooble didn't look very happy with a certain someone when Gangle was telling her story, and somewhere off to the side, Jax looked regretful for that of a split second.
They couldn't forget how terrifying it felt, how painful it was. Zooble soothed Gangle by stroking her back, and Kinger tried to make Ragatha laugh by trying to make funny faces at her. Of course, it wasn't working, Kinger was only a king chess piece and a pair of eye balls after all.
The group was actually getting along pretty smoothly for once, the conversations seemed to flow naturally, and Jax wasn't starting with his assholeshness as much. He was exhausted, but at least he wasn't green and earless anymore.
"Well hello again my lovely cheery leaking loofas!"
A sudden voice booms throughout the circus, catching everyone's attention. Great, just who they needed right now. Caine, looking brand new, his clothes smooth and straight, his tie and hat adjusted fittingly.
Nobody looked amused, considering the situation he had just put them through, he should apologize.
He floats above the couches and speaks in that enthusiastic tone of his. "I guess I do owe you all an apology. Aren't bugs just the darnedest things? Get one of those in my system and you'll get me looking like Bubble on a late night!" He gives his own joke a chuckle before focusing on the topic at hand.
Pomni spoke up, "Do you.....remember anything?"
"Sorry Pomni, but I don't have a darn clue!" He grins with his whole face. "Guess you guys will have to catch me up later!"
When no one responds, he coughs into his fist to shift the awkward atmosphere. "Ahem, anyway, again, apologies about the whole conundrum. Caine out!" He flashes a peace sign before disappearing. Everyone exhales a sigh of relief, like they'd all been holding their breath.
Ragatha scratched the back of her neck. "I don't know why I expected something more than just a 'sorry I went crazy and almost burned down the circus'. That man sure is a mystery."
Pomni and Zooble both shrug their shoulders, and Gangle has got some not so nice words for him. "Yeah, what a jerk."
Shes irritated, all that pain, all that anger, just for the person responsible not to bat an eye. How upsetting.
Pomni had another question, "why was it so hot in here before, you know, everything going black?"
Jax rolled his eyes, scoffing dismissively, "If I had to take a wild guess, it was probably because his 'system' was over heating. If only it just boiled him alive."
Silence broke out, all of the fatigue crashing over them like digital waves. Something still felt out of place, but what? Whatever, they were all insane. All they knew, was that they'd definitely need a break as a whole from an adventure or two.
-
-
-
Somewhere deep within the circus walls, sits a totally exhausted Caine.
"Oh, Bubble, how do I get over this insane embarrassment! I made quite the big mess across my entire circus!"
"What kind of mess?" Bubble perks.
"The bad one! Those pesky bugs, always making me so hot and bothered!"
"Sounds kinky." He growls out.
".........Nevermind. You're never any help at all."