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"Hey pomni, do you wanna see the thing in the hall I told you about?"
"Yeah, sure."
They seemed to be getting closer after that weird combination of adventures that Caine tried to convince them to hate. It didn't work, and instead made everyone mentally consider what could be the next requested adventure, but for now, they needed to rest, leaving the jokester and the clown with their own path to the old rooms.
Pomni walked carefully, spaced steps to match the difference in their legs length. Jax seemed to walk in a slower pace when noticing she was getting behind, it was a nice balance. She looked around the rooms of that abandoned corridor, some rooms had the typical NPC doll image, while others had crossed faces of characters she never seen before, and she never would…
"This place is pretty big..."
"Meh, more like we are really small and these things are pre-rendered. Don't be too impressed by this." Jax common smile widen with his usual pride, glancing at the doors ahead.
"Oh, okay..."
"Oh, there it is. Check this out!"Jax stopped to open the door, and Pomni could glance…at a red box glove growing closer.
Of course, if Jax could bring her to any room in the circus, it would definitely be a room that punches people. She stiffened, waiting for the cartoon sound of being knocked out.
Too fast for her to process, two yellow gloves held her by the waist, spinning her in the air and dodging the giant red box hand with ease. She remained static in the air where she was being held.
"Yeah, my bad, the punch is like a senior introduction." Jax slipped the weight to one hand, lowering her by the collar while he dramatically cleaned his untouched clothes. The clown girl recovered enough to answer, still pretty surprised by his reaction. He actually…protected her? She decided not to think much else about it for now.
"I just wanna know why Caine thought anyone would like this…"
"Uh? Who said I don't like it? It's hilarious. You should've seen the chainsaw room."
"Pff- yeah, I'll pass it for now. But uh, would be nice to know where it is, just to be safe."
"You'll find it eventually."
His ominous grin shined as he now entered that dark room. Dark was a short description to the black void she was seeing when compared to the vibrant lights of the circus. Despite that, she trusted her ability not to die and stepped in.
The darkness in the room wasn't really the problem (she would prefer darker places to explore in the real world, it had a quiet atmosphere and would give her a more adventurous feeling… that turned into regret nowadays) but the fact she was being guided by the same dude that made her disarm a bomb for his entertainment… and saved her from being punched some minutes ago. He could be unpredictable, and she knew that very well already.
“So… you wanted to show me a dark room…” She smirked, even if unnoticeable. “That's not suspicious at all.”
“Gasp-! When have I ever earn that suspicion??”
“heh, f[%$!#] off. So, what's all this?”
“Just wait until the room loads, attention spam.”
“Load…?”
As she said it, a loud thump revealed a huge hall. Many NPCs were scattered around talking nonsense. The floor where she stepped now made metal noises in some sort of ramp. She looked at Jax, a little startled by the abruptness of it all.
“Huh… I- haha- I still don't get it…?”
“Just look around and take a guess, is really not that hard.” His eyes followed her on every awkward move – which were all very noticeable, really. Considering she felt like walking on a bridge.
Oddly thrilling.
She laughed, feeling the floor shaking as the bunny walked to the “recepcionist” of the place. Another one of those mannequin NPCs.
Jax leaned on the balcony, calling her closer with a finger. She hesitantly moved closer and, of course, he rested his other arm on her head. Still an Asshole **anywhere.
“Two tickets for me and the lucky lady over here, please and thank you.”
“for what seats, Sir Jax_cheat?”
He cringed at the name. At least Pomni didn't seem to notice that at all. He focused himself on the pop-up screen of the chair selection.
Now, he couldn't pick one too close or one too far, but also not too in the middle because of the NPC crowd…
He glanced at pomni again. She looked around with an curious gaze, moving her hair behind her nonexistent ear.
He wanted to get her to choose to see what she'd pick, but that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it? He couldn't help but being a little disappointed.
“Sir Jax_cheat, what seats?”
“oh-Y-yeah, uh…57 and 58, whatever.”
The NPC didn't say anything else, only delivering two tickets with drawings of buff arms. Pomni checked a poster of two identical wooden dolls facing eachother with dramatical lighting. That was distracting her even as the bunny waved the tickets in front of her face, so he just grabbed her wrist to make her faintly slap herself.
“WHa- uh, you finished?? So, when will-” She stopped, feeling his hand holding her wrist as he guided her to the entry. He didn't pull her, didn't hold her too tight… just guided her through another dark room, illuminated only by the faint light of something very obscure in the background.
It was kind of weird coming from him, wasn't it?
Eventually, he sat on a seat that shined with a faint purple color. The seat on it's side glowed with a changing gradient of blue and red. Pomni got her cue to sit.
"So... it's a cinema?"
"Does it look like a cinema to you?"
"...Yes…? What else could it be?"
"Heh- I dunno… the wait makes it more exciting."
He leaned dramatically on the chair, resting his face on his crossed hands. She smiled awkwardly, inspecting the ambience. "Maybe…" she pushed his face away slightly "but I was expecting something more... exciting, from you."
His smile trembled with a subtle giggle, his voice playful "Your lack of patience disgust me.”
RINGGGGGG!!!
“Oh, cool, there it is!” Jax entire demeanor changed and he grabbed his chair. Before she could ask what changed, their chairs were lifted into the air, making the jester jolt back.
Innumerable NPCS seemed to appear on the seats, that were now aligned from top to bottom. She was scared of highs, but knowing she was safe on a chair made her giggle in relief.
She scanned for his reaction, noticing he just pointed ahead. Pomni's eyes followed his finger, aimed at the faint light from before, now showing a… boxring??
“ARE. YOU. READY. TO. SEE. PAIN?” A voice reminiscent of Bubble screamed from nowhere. The crowd screamed in unison, and Pomni immediately covered her non-existent ears.
“A fighting ring?!??” She screamed.
“HAHAHAAH, yEAH!? What, too much??” He tried to sound sarcastic while screaming, and to emphasize the noise, pointed at his ears.
“YEA!… uh, let's see how it goes???”
A pop-up screen appeared, two wooden doll NPCS appeared: a red and a blue one.
“Make your bets, Pompus.”
“Don't call me pompous??”
She clicked on the red one.
The NPCs from before were now buff, and the fight started after another bell ring.
Although they were distant, the sound of the clashing woods resonated dramatically as the dolls struggled to pin eachother on the ground. Pomni admittedly had no idea what was going on, but… it was surprisingly fun to watch. She changed small glances to the bunny on her side, catching him already looking at her at some moments.
At one moment, when he clearly wasn't caught staring, she could see his hand fidgeting in the chair, seemingly… Anxious?? Excited??? Unusual, for sure. He seemed to really want her to enjoy this… or to be hiding something. She was starting to understand the difference, slowly…
They kept watching the combat, seeing the blue doll ripping the head of the red one. He nudged her arm while doing a stupid face, she flipped him off.
☆°▪︎.•°▪︎.☆
After the manequins gently embraced eachother, the bell rang, and the intense light that evolved the NPCS was lowered to a fade similar to the one before the room loaded. A pause.
“HAH!! THAT… was… pretty fun?”
“Okay, how fun, 1 out of 10? Without a corny answer like 12, be honest.”
“I- heh- I guess a 6?? I really don't get much of what's happening there, so…”
"Me neither. But seeing NPCS beating eachother up does take some of the boredom."
Pomni nodded, her smile more gentle. "Yeah... I guess it does."
She looked around again, noticing how some NPCs were static while others only moved like they were talking. The sudden deafening silence made her uncomfortable even as someone that didn't like small talk.
She nagged his shoulder without any good plan on what to say.
“So… the “tickle wicke” is not a legit boxing move, right?”
“Maybe not.” He shrugged.
“Heh… not yet.” She grabbed popcorn from the hands of the npc on the front roll and offered a bit to him. He looked… puzzled, but accepted anyway.
“… I never had interest in anything like that before, to be honest. As time passed by, I just became even more avoidant of anything… sporty, y'know? I'd never expect… you to like it, though…”
“Why not? I'm so full of energy and whimsy~” He said, grabbing the knockoff soda SPite from someone in his front roll. He never knew he could do that.
She rolled her eyes. “I guess you are??? Whatever…Thanks for being kinda cool today, Jax.”
His eyes widened; he was deeply aware of how abruptly he stopped smiling. It was her voice, something about the way she said it felt too soft, too soft for his liking. He hated it. He hated how it repeated on his mind like a echo, how he kind of wished he could hear it again once more.
“No problem, pom.” Was all he managed to say.
She grabbed the entire bow of the person npc in front of her this time, placing it in the middle of them.
“How did you find this place?”
“mm, y'know… you mess around and find out–”
“–Any fun stories?” She grabbed the soda from his hand, taking a sip. He couldn't really complain since it was stolen anyway. Or he could… he was confused.
"Okay Um… one time I entered a room that had a shower in it. A bathroom. Hella ominous."
"I saw this one."
"So I tried making… someone else explore it, y'know? Cause it gave me the creeps. Turns out the room falls apart when someone steps on the white tiles so we had to get Caine.”
“Let me guess, you made gangle go?” Pomni said with a knowing smile, to which he flinched.
She was wrong.
"It- it doesn't matter who it was. I don't remember, really." She stopped smiling immediately, watching the ice cubes that never melted in her drink.
She released a dry laugh, "…And you shown this room to anyone else?"
He hesitated. 'Yes' would open new questions, 'no' would make this moment more special then he had planed. Well played. She was probably the smart one in her friend group.
"I mean… yeah?? Some people. Not that most of them passed through the door~"
"Thanks for helping me on that, too."
"..." oh yeah he did that. “W…why are you going Ragatha on me?”
“Does Ragatha know about this room?”
He flinched at the question, she somehow knew how to avoid all his banter really easily. He didn't know her enough to predict her, and that made lying and deceiving way more complex than his usual. Perhaps he shouldn't have called her. Can't reveal too much and regret it later, right?
Pomni continued, “Does… anyone in the circus–”
“You are being so annoying. Can you not? Geez, I'm regretting calling you already.”
He wasn't supposed to say that.
“…” she frowned, pushing the soda back to him. “Just so you know: you also ask a lot of questions.”
“Yeah, but I do it because I'm insufferable~” he said, doing a cat-like expression.
She groaned, “Sure, jax.” She got up.
“…Where u goin?”
“Look, that was…fun, but if there's nothing else to see, I'm going back to my room…”
“Oh, pff- the fight didn't end, it's just a chunk problem. This room lag is terrible.”
“okay. I'm leaving anyways, k? Have fun.”
“Hey. Cmon.” he held her arm lightly, noticing how she flinched almost instantly. It made his smile drop. It actually kind of hurt him, as stupid as it was acknowledging it.
“…s…sorry.” She muttered.
“…Sorry.” He replied.
He released her, and she didn't walk away. Instead, she slowly sat again, looking at the faint light of the boxring again.
none of them knew what to say to break that stupid silence. Why were they still waiting and not on their rooms?
They knew why.
They wanted to know eachother.
“It was my friend,” Jax stared at his drink –the ice that never melted was a little reminder of the lack of realism of everything, everyday– before throwing it in some random npc head. He glanced at pomni, who looked at him with the same look from that stargaze adventure: understanding, not pitiful. Quiet. Human. Real.
“… She was cool…so much cooler than me.” He fidget with his gloves. “Ribbit would always find a room like this and be like: ‘hey, fella, wanna see what I found?’ And we would get anywhere they wanted.” He was shaking from that. From something as simple as that. He swallowed, looking far away.
“You two are… really cool. I think she would like you.”
It's not that he didn't mean what he said, but he regretted every word, none of that should have been said. He looked at her, stomping his feet as he watched her slowly processing what to answer. As she finally opened her mouth to speak, the damn room finally loaded. NPCs came back to scream and make noises, and the character selection screen appeared once again.
Jax forcibly laughed it's way back into the ambience. Trying to forget what he just said.
“THANK FINALLY!!!” he screamed, avoiding looking at her.
“JAX! There isn't even that much noise right now!!!”
“WHAT??? I can't HEAR you with this competitive screams!!!”
“I JUST- I WANTED- I SAID THANK YOU.”
“YADA YADA, TELL ME TOMORROW. CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER!”
She groaned, checking the character selection and noticing an interesting option.
The NPC character was a changeable option.
She changed her npc with herself, stretching her arm to change the screen of her adversary, changing jax npc for him aswell.
“Wait What.”
They popped in the ring.
“… Now why the hell would you do that?”
“The room was too loud and we needed space.” Pomni said, adjusting her knuckles to the new gloves. “Let's talk.”
Jax didn't move from his position, only tilting his head. “I call you cool so you beat me to the ground?”
“Yeah. Besides… I was getting bored of just watching npcs…”
“Ooooohhh, yeah, I can understand that. Good point.”
A dummy dressed as a judge stopped in front of them, explaining the rules, combos and other things they weren't paying attention to. As he blew the whistle, Pomni moved forward.
She punched with no pattern, not landing one single hit while Jax dodget effortlessly with cartoon expertise, covering his mouth to giggle. He extended his arm to push her head away as she punched the air.
“Oh my god-”
“I'm just testing it out!!”
“In game???”
“Yeah!! I- didn't think it would work anyway.”
She landed a soft punch in his arm that, for some unexplainable reason, knocked him to the ring net.
“Oh [%$!#]!!! I'm-”
“ough… hoooow???”
“D-do you want to leave?? Did it actually hurt you?? I don't know what I was thinking, let's just quit it-”
“chill oouuut. I’m fine…”
He grinned, knocking his gloves.
“my turn.”
He slided forward, turning all his body in anticipation for a punch. Pomni trembled, covering her head and walking backwards. As she saw a blurry purple and yellow close to her face she closed her eyes, unable to move. What the hell was she doing???
Tonk-!!
…
Pomni felt a flicker in her forehead, and as she opened her eyes, she found his stupid smile staring back. He just flicked her forehead. The audience was going wild.
“Are you serious.”
“That was super embarrassing, I'm gonna cry.” he whispered.
She kicked his feet. He let out a dry “ow” as he pretended to fall on the ground. The judge immediately rushed over and started the countdown.
“10
4
5
6
11
8
9
3
2-”
He pushed her on the ground with him.
“No- no that's not how it works-”
“DRAW.” The judge said.
“What”
“this AI is dumb.”
She sighed, facepalming. “of course.”
“Wanna keep going or just play dead?”
“… I really need to sleep right now.”
“yeah, you'll be screwed up tomorrow. You guys really should learn to stop sleeping, such a waste of time…”
“But I thought you… ugh, nevermind, why do I even bother questioning you.” she raised herself, offering him a hand. He didn't grab it, but messed with her hat in the first instant he got up.
“Okay now we gotta hurry because this room explodes and Caine doesn't know it exists. Do you have something that stretches?” He said as he inspected the things in the background.
“Did you just say explode?”
“Yeah we're gonna die we need to leave now.”
“Are you just messing with me ooor…? Jax???”
“Better to be safe than dead!! Cmon.”
He walked to the bands that limited the ring, testing their elasticity. Pomni didn't know what she should do in that situation, so she just held it aswell, noticing how he reacted positively to it; It should be either unnerving or relieving, and she believed in the latter for now.
An actual countdown appeared as a title over them like arcade games when waiting for you to continue. Pomni looked at Jax, that muttered something similar to a cuss word, holding her arm.
“Text might ruin our move, pompous. We gotta wait for it to go to zero. It's truly risky. We might not make it alive.”
“Does it actually explodes or not? Seriously. I'm following you, I just want to know because I really–”
“3… 2…”
“[%$!#].”
The band threw them in the air. both screamed as they flew in the direction of the door they once entered – still open, shining white like a savior. Pomni made the disservice to herself of looking down, noticing that things weren't exploding. Much the opposite!! NPCs were imploding in themselves and a blackhole grew exponentially as it swallowed the remaining npcs!! That was terrifying!!!
She knew that Jax was already holding her, but she was not risking it, so she rolled her arms on his waist as tight as she possibly could, considering she still had box gloves.
As the door looked so close, so close they could see the incandescent blinding saturation of the circus, Jax jumped outside, and they both rolled out like a ball until they collided with a wall. Pomni inhaled, checking if she was okay and looking under herself, where a bunny man smiled non affected by that cataclysm.
“So… you good?” She raised an eyebrow, sounding way too blunt for someone that was freaking out seconds ago.
“Never been better. By the way you're on top of me ms. President.”
“I know. I'm just… really considering strangling you to death right now. And don't call me president.” She said, getting up. “I'm never following you anywhere else again.”
“Really?? But it was all so fun~ besides, Caine could still teleport us back if we took too long to get back. Relax pompi.”
“Mhm, sure. Good point. Still traumatizing for no reason-”
“It just happens if you leave a fight in the middle. Don't worry about it.”
“Whh- why you- WHY Would You JUST SAY IT NOW!?? It REALLY was traumatizing for NO REASON!!!”
“I forgot. Sorry.”
She groaned in her box gloves as he laughed.
“No really, I forgot. I will try to remember any funny gimmick like that next time… if it ever happen again.”
“… you're serious?”
“Sure. This room is just one of the things this circus keeps hidden. The Easter eggs are the best things to do so you won't bore yourself to abstraction!”
“… and you'd call me to… see more of them? For fun?”
“Yeah. You're welcome." He rested his hand on his hip, his smile unreadable, but based on his tone, at least a bit genuine.
“… huh. I'll… consider it. Yeah. It can happen again if you don't screw this up.”
“Ohhh I'm soo lucky~” he crossed his fingers.
She rolled her eyes, just walking to her room, and he followed her while talking about whatever.
☆°▪︎.•°▪︎.☆
They got in front of their rooms, noticing how close their doors were of eachother. They were kind of neighbors in a sense.
Pomni looked back at him, trying to hold his wrist, that reminded her she still had box gloves and couldn't do anything normally.
He noticed. “Uhh, this disappears by the morning. You can ask Caine if it doesn't.”
“Can you unlock my room for me?”
“Me?? Oh, what a pleasure~” he said, already searching for a key in her inventory.
As he tested it out, Pomni could get a look at him. He was kind of cool when he let himself be. She wanted to know more of him.
And apparently, he found her cool, too.
“Jax?”
“Say.”
“… despite everything, I liked to hang out with you.”
He faintly stopped moving, quickly recomposing himself.
“That wasn't exactly a ‘hang out’, just a… kind of a hunt-”
“Not a hunt.”
“A hunt for Secrets–”
“Secrets you already knew about and were willing to show me, what else would I call it? A date or a kidnapping??”
“… Kidnapping…Okay fine it was a hangout. It just… sounds weird to say it.”
“everything is weird here, you'll get used to it.” again, her voice made him dizzy, unbalanced. It was different from what he was used to already. It didn't have that overly dramatic tone, it was confident but not bold. It was different. He liked it.
Click-’,
“Your door, pompom.”
“Thanks, Jax. See you tomorrow?”
… “Yeah,uh– seeya.” He walked backwards to his door, laying on the wall of the corridor. Pomni assumed that he was going to his room after her entered her own for some reason. She just entered her room, calling it a day.
Jax kept looking at pomni's door for a while, fidgeting with the key of her room that she forgot to take back. He was not planning to enter it anyways, but better to be safe than sorry. Another key would spaw in her room anyways.
He gave slow steps to the front of her door, checking her stupid, SpongeBob face and smiling to himself. He felt something weird, a kind of wave and involuntary movement he didn't know he missed. He looked at his back.
“… my tail is back!!!” He petted it to see if he wasn't seeing things. “My- my tail is- how is it back?? I didn't…”
He stayed in silence, recollecting the steps of his day. The random ‘untitled’ adventures, the boxring… he hadn't found his tail anywhere. So how…? It stopped wagging, bringing him a sense of weariness.
Maybe Caine noticed that it was missing… or he heard it. He could just hear them every time, couldn't him…?
“… ugh, whatever, I'm too tired for this…” he entered his room, locking the door.
The next morning, they would be talking again, wanting to explore a room that was over the floating tubes connected to random blocks in the circus, a little before finding Zooble in a flower jar. Apparently, they would have a team adventure.