Chapter Text
Zooble and gangle have been looking for the other all around the abandoned office building with no avail until suddenly they hear their friends voices shouting followed by a small explosion, they quickly rush to computer which they got out of and they saw 3 people, 2 women and a man, sitting on the floor where gangle and zooble fall earlier they all looked awful, traumatized and injured before zooble and gangle could have said anything or even react, one of them started to freak out
?????: "no no no no NO, KINGER, NO"
Zooble and gangle instantly recognize pomni's voice
Pomni quickly turns around and picks up the headset and tried to put it on when it was snatched out of her hand by the boy which was most likely jax at this point and he throws it away
???: "WHAT THE HACK ARE YOU DOING"
Zooble (in her mind): "definitely jax"
Pomni: "he didn't deserve this, h-he"
She starts sobbing which quickly turns into tears and starts trying to get back the headset, so jax holds her and pomni just gives up trying to put on the headset quickly and starts crying loudly and the other woman turns her head away and starts sobbing quietly which at this point ,she's definitely ragatha
zooble and gangle understand that something really bad happened to kinger and gangle starts crying, zooble looks shocked and she tries to stay strong for gangle and the other and she starts comforting gangle
This goes on for a while and everyone was grieving the lose of this amazing man who was like a father figure for them and everyone sits in silence until zooble breaks it
Zooble: "you,guys looked like this when you put on the headset?"
They were all injured, pomni's arm was bleeding and poorly bandaged with a piece of cloth that looked like it came from some jeans, ragatha's forehead was bleeding but it wasn't as serious of an injury as pomni and it looked freshly new and jax looked like a mess like pomni and ragatha but at least he wasn't injured or at least he seemed not to be
Pomni: "no.... ,those are.. new"
Ragatha: "we got injured while we were looking for..... kinger"
Gangle: "but how is that possible? We don't get injured in the circus..... at least not like this"
Pomni: "I think the code was too corrupt to do anything"
Zooble: "we need to get you to the hospital"
Jax: "we can't do that right away"
Zooble: "and why is that?"
Jax: "the hospital will ask us how we got injured or when they find out we were missing for years, what are we gonna say?"yeah, we were trapped in a game after we put on a strange headset in an abandoned office building" as far as I am concerned that's the recipe for going to a mental asylum"
Zooble: "hmmm, I didn't know you actually had a brain"
Jax: "HEY-"
ragatha: "jax, I don't think it's time for fighting rn"
Jax: "she insulted me and I don't even got a chance to defend myself,how is that even fair?"
Zooble: "well,let's see what we are gonna tell the police"
He notices that everyone just causally ignored him ,he did not like that one bit but he couldn't exactly do anything for now, so he just rolled his eyes but he was gonna get his revenge later
Gangle: "maybe, we could say that we got lost in the forest?"
Jax: "I didn't know about that, maybe if we were children not adults, like I can see this happening to one person but 5 adults all can't find their way around the forest and this forest isn't even that big"
Zooble: "do you have any other ideas then,mr."I know everything""
Jax: "nah,I am here for moral support and to give honest opinions about your stupid ideas"
Zooble: "then, shut up"
Jax starts grinning his stupid grin, even when they're in the real world, it still feels as annoying as it was in the circus
Ragatha: "maybe, we can say that we were kidnapped and we ran away the moment we found an exit"
Jax: "who kidnapped us?what do they look like?where were we kept?how did we-"
Ragatha: "ok, OK,I get it it's a bad idea"
Pomni: "not entirely, we can say that someone trapped us in here and provided us food and very basic necessities without letting us see them,that way we technically don't even know if they are a boy or a girl"
Jax: "but how did we even get trapped then?"
For first time jax actually seemed curious and not trying to make fun of every word that comes out of their mouths
Pomni takes a few minutes to think about jax's question
Pomni: "we could say that the door only opens from the outside and and it's a metal door which makes it very difficult to break"
Zooble: "how do they provide us food without there being any type exit"
Pomni: ".... I have an idea but I need to make sure there isn't any windows on the lower floors "
Gangle: "well, at first, me and zooble looked around the building looking for you guys and from what we have seen,there isn't any windows on the lower floors, only on this one, right zooble?
Zooble: "yeah.."
Pomni: "alright we can say that they provide us food from this floor's windows using a ladder when we were asleep and since there's only windows in this floor, it would make it reasonable for us to not try break a window and jump out from the third floor"
Jax: "and how did we get out?"
Pomni: "we all worked together to break the door "
Jax: "and why now, why didn't we try to do that before now?"
Ragatha: "maybe we could say that because the building is old ,it's starting to clasp and that can also explain how we got injured"
Zooble: "I think that's best idea, we can get"
Gangle: "I think so too"
Jax: "alright, let's go break down that door"
Everyone gets up and zooble notices that jax is struggling to get up ,he,pomni and ragatha haven't moved since they came out of the circus and zooble was about make fun jax for struggling to get up,until she noticed that his leg was injured and the idiot has been sitting on it the entire time and his jeans were torn and she realized that's where the cloth that was bandaged on pomni's wound came from, his wound was bandaged too but by a weird white cloth, they must have found it in the circus and used for jax
They all aheaded to the first floor but on their way jax suddenly stopped at the second floor and walked in there
Zooble: "where are you going?"
He ignored her and continued walking and that pissed off zooble
Zooble: "HELLO?"
Other have stopped, waiting for jax to say something or at least come back
Zooble: "JAX"
Jax: "I am back, I am back I, was just getting something"
He now has a black backbag on his back and a baseball bat, both look like there's some dust on them, the bat has a lot signatures on it each one is a different colour but one of them stands out because it's far bigger than the others ,it says "felix" in purple marker and the rest of the bat has random doodles on
Zooble: "oh,I see, you were stealing shit"
Jax: "stealing! me! Oh, no I would never do that, I was just getting my stuff, the bat even has my name on it"
He grins while pointing at the "felix" signature on the bat
Ragatha: "your name is felix?"
Felix(jax): "well,obviously, I am pointing at it"
Zooble: "what are the chances that both your real name and your name in the circus ends with x"
Felix(jax): "I don't know, maybe I didn't forget my name all along "
Zooble rolls her eyes and everyone continues going down stairs and finally they reach first floor and they start picking up stuff and using it to break down the door
Ragatha: "I feel bad for doing this, this is vandalism"
Felix(jax): "well, you have 2 choices either commit vandalism or be sent to a mental asylum, choose which you prefer"
They break down the door and as they see the moonlight, despite everything they have just been though, a smile spread across their faces, it's the real world ,they're finally out of the circus and it's feels weird and strange
Gangle: "the moon.. it's so beautiful tonight"
Pomni: "it's real...,it's not just some AI Caine made,IT'S REAL "
The excitement on face from just seeing the moon is really shown as she has a very big smile on her face and she starts running out of the door into the forest ignoring that her arm is injured to enjoy the real life and the fact that injuries are something to be taken seriously hasn't exactly sinked in yet for her because of how long she has been in the circus
She starts admiring the trees, touching them, kicking around fallen leaves all while running, ragatha gets worried about pomni and runs up next to her as pomni stands on kinda of a high rock while balancing on one foot
Ragatha: "CAREFUL POMNI, YOU ARE ALREADY HURT AND YOU COULD HURT YOURSELF AGAIN"
Zooble and gangle look for a second at what's happening, then ignore it to keep looking at the moon
Gangle: "I need to draw this, pls tell I have my sketchbook in my backbag"
She looks in her bag and is very pleased to see her sketchbook and colours, she was having an artist's block right before the circus and she used to carry her art supplies everywhere hoping to get inspiration and start drawing and that why she started running through this forest to possibly get inspiration from nature while running but nothing seemed to peak her interest except of course this cursed abandoned office building with the headset inside
Gangle starts happily drawing the moon and zooble just looks at her, happy for her best friend already enjoying herself
Jax appears from behind holding a chair to use to break the door, not noticing that the others has finished the rest of the job while he was away
Felix(jax): "hey losers, why did you stop-"
He sees what's happening outside, a worried ragatha trying to get pomni to get down as she had climbed up even higher than before still balancing on foot doing all of that while smiling and not even caring about how childish she looks as she only wants enjoy this moment and gangle is sitting on the floor while she drawing and zooble is standing next to her
Jax smiles and he runs up to where pomni is and on his way he bumps into zooble
Zooble: "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, ASSHOLE"
And then a moment of realisation hit her as she finally notices that she can curse again, with no stupid filter interpreting, how did she not notice that she said "shit" earlier and a smile appears across her face as she starts shouting every curse she can think of very quickly
Zooble: "FUCK, SHIT, DICK, ASSHOLE, ASS, FUCKING, CUNT,......"
Jax reaches pomni and ragatha
Ragatha: "pomni,pls reconsider this"
Felix(jax): "hey,pomni!"
Both the jester and the rag doll turn their attention towards him
Felix(jax): "you don't look like the respectable accountant I expected you to be"
Pomni looks at him with an evil smile that if she was in the circus she would have turned her teeth sharp
Pomni: "YOU CAN'T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB"
She quickly climbs down and starts chasing after him and he starts running and both are smiling
Ragatha: "g-guys I am sure we can settle this more calmly but you 2 need to sit down you're both injured"
They both ignored her, having nothing in the world that can stop them from doing this, they start running everywhere while poor ragatha is trying to stop them,they eventually start running in circles around ragatha making dizzy and she slowly goes towards zooble and gangle to ask them what she should do and to take a moment to rest because she was dizzy and zooble is still cursing but now in a much lower tone as she tries to think of more curses
Zooble: "fuck ,motherfucker, shithead, dick, shit"
Ragatha: "i am sorry to interpret you zooble"
Zooble stops and looks at ragatha and smiles
Zooble: "it's ok, what do you want?"
Ragatha: "w-well pomni and jax are running after each other as you see and I was hoping you or gangle would possibly help me make them stop because they're injured?"
Gangle doesn't even lift her face up, she didn't mean to ignore ragatha, she's just so hyper fixated on her drawing like it's the only important thing in the world right now, admiring and studying reality and it's beauty and zooble still smiling says
Zooble: "and why are so worried about them?"
Ragatha: "because I don't want them to get hurt?"
Zooble: "ragatha, I understand how you feel but they're fucking idiots who wants to run around like children"
Felix(jax): "HEY,I heard them that"
Pomni takes the opportunity and jumps on top of the bunny's back, making him lose his balance and making them both fall on the ground and they both start laughing and quickly get up to continue what they're doing
Zooble: "see,they're ignoring everyone and everything to do what they want and they will stop when they get exhausted, now you should ignore them too and do what you want as well "
Ragatha: "but that feels wrong"
Zooble: "yeah, but they're 2 fucking adults, it's not your responsibility to take care of them, that's their responsibility"
Ragatha: "I suppose, you're right..."
Zooble: "well?"
Ragatha: "well, what?"
Zooble: "what do you wanna do now that you're out"
Ragatha: "........."
Ragatha starts smiling softly
Ragatha: "I think I wanna rest for a little bit"
Zooble: "then, do just that"
Ragatha slowly sit down on the floor next to zooble and zooble decides to sit too and she goes back to cursing and ragatha is smiling as she admires the moon and her happy friends