Chapter Text
the screen glows with a brilliant blue as kinger presses his hand on the button. except from the heavy, erratic breaths of a restrained jax, nobody makes a sound. they all stare upwards, waiting for the world to change.
but nothing happens.
“d-did we do something wrong?” ragatha whispers, but in the silence, her words boom against the walls. “nothing happened…”
zooble storms up to the panel. kinger’s hand laid firmly on the blue button, and despite being taller, his body is craned so low that he looks up to them. neither say a word, but their hand joins his, and they press the button a little harder. despite their efforts, nothing happens.
after a minute of added silence, everyone takes a step back (except for jax who is carried back). the screen is blue. they were supposed to be free.
…
…
the screen changes.
ARE YOU SURE.
If you press the blue button, the answer is yes.
If you press the red button, the answer is no.
zooble groans audibly, trudging forward to press the blue button again.
ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY 100% SURE.
If you press the blue button, the answer is yes.
If you press the red button, the answer is no.
zooble presses the blue button over and over, the tension in the room deflating in an instant. ragatha looks towards pomni, then jax (who was curled up in a ball for now). “haha, that… was anticlimactic, right pomni?”
pomni has a spaced-out expression on her face, almost missing her words at first. “huh? oh, yeah. anticlimactic.”
a couple minutes pass, and then some more. it must have been an hour of questions, not even one being any different from “do you want to reconsider?”. zooble was growing visually irritated, but their irritation at being stuck here must have been greater, because they keep going anyway.
the thought of abel crosses each of their minds at least once. maybe he was holding caine off? he never mentioned how long the process was. this was an old computer after all.
“should we… press the other button?” gangle pipes up, who had already nuzzled up to zooble’s side after the first five minutes.
“NO.” zooble shouts, which snaps the room into attention. “i mean… no. that’s what caine wants, right? if we press it, then it’s his victory. even if he never finds out about this, i don’t want to give him the satisfaction of that.”
there was no arguments after that, and the room quickly returns to zooble’s rhythmic tapping on the button.
…
“are you okay?” pomni looks down to jax, still curled up. he looks almost pathetic, rocking slightly in place as a child would. there is no response, but his breaths are more spaced out. and he isn’t sniffling anymore.
ragatha quietly joins him. she doesn’t say a word, but neither does jax. they sit together as one.
zooble and gangle. ragatha and jax. pomni searches out for the last person here.
by now, the screen doesn’t even turn blue for the next question, leaving the room in a pitch black. pomni keeps giving occasional glances towards kinger, who had long since retreated away. she waits, hoping his eyes contract. hoping he has something to tell the rest of them.
but nothing happens for now.
and it happens
“it’s over, zooble.” kinger says at last. when zooble pauses the button smashing, the room returns to its signature blue. but kinger isn’t affected. “it’s no use pressing that button. it isn’t working.”
zooble doesn’t sound on the verge of hopelessness. “so what. we just give up? throw our hands up and go ‘we tried?’. im NOT done here…”
kinger waits patiently, letting them rant to their heart’s desire. listening is what he does best, and it’s difficult for pomni and ragatha not to recover some semblance of a smile. quietly, he reaches a hand out, joining zooble’s hand. the pair start pressing the button together, and the room returns to darkness.
“i… don’t know who abel is.” he says calmly. “frankly, i don’t even know what these administrator passes are supposed to be!”
“so are you saying this is all some game, like how--…” gangle trails off, turning her head to jax who was staring idly at the ceiling now. ragatha and pomni sat beside him, but they give kinger their undivided attention.
zooble’s demeanour is calmer now, but an air of distrust undoubtedly lingers around her, “why would you know what caine’s passes look like? we didn’t clue you into anything here, but it sounded real. abel sounded real.”
kinger sighs a deep sigh, and gives zooble the most honest look he can. “you just… have to trust me here.”
they were so close, merely a button away from freedom. now they were forced to walk from it. despite the torment and hurt hanging on their souls, they had equally come to accept it a long time ago. with every passing minute, reality grew clearer and clearer. everyone had lost hope a long time ago. despite it all though, this seemed like a far kinder conclusion than caine popping up himself to reveal the truth..
“oh, right! we still have the administrator passes. doesn’t that mean we’ll be okay? whatever happens now, we have some authority here.” pomni starts.
“…and each other.”
ragatha says it with conviction, making sure jax knows she included him in there as well.
zooble looks as though they would burst, but they also look so very tired, and so very broken about it all. they were all broken.
their voice breaks. “…o-okay”
kinger has an uncertain look in his eyes, especially at the mention of the passes. despite that, he continues. “but that doesn’t mean we should press the other button. you’re right. we should… leave this place. head back to the circus.”
neither escape, nor give the victory to caine. it sounds far from ideal, but it was the only choice that sounded right. it wasn’t hope, nor despair, simply a refusal to vote.
kinger quietly leaves zooble to the button pressing, and walks up to pomni and ragatha. they see the gentle, reassuring smile in his eyes, before he reaches a hand out to jax. “come on, let’s get out of here.”
a big, silly grin forms on ragatha’s face. she quickly takes kinger’s other hand, joining with pomni.
kinger looks towards zooble and gangle, who had been holding hands the entire time. “it’s okay zooble. you can let go now. i’ll be okay.”
the pair give each other a nervous look. gangle is the one who nods first however, and with that, the room returns to a blinding blue. they quickly join hands with pomni, leaving only jax who stared intensely at kinger’s hand.
“it’s going to be okay, jax.”
jax lets out a strangled note, and after a couple moments of piecing himself together, he takes kinger’s hand anyway.
they walk out together. their hands make a messy, disjointed chain, heads full of misery and nothingness as pillars pass by one by one.
but despite all the misery and nothingness, they had each other. they will find their own way out, on their own terms, no matter how many trials and tribulations they face. no matter how vicious the grip of their fate rests upon, they will keep their head up high.
because no matter what, they will persevere.