Chapter Text
The first thing Jax noticed was the faceplate on her door.
Rather than the wide-eyed portrait of the jester he had grown accustomed to seeing as soon as he stepped out of his room, it was a blank mannequin face.
It took a moment for his brain to catch up to what he was seeing. He rubbed his eyes, blinking a few times, before pausing to stare at it for several seconds.
Did she move rooms? Did she hate living right across from him that much?
Was switching rooms even allowed?
Jax could barely even focus on these musings as he strolled down the hall, staring at his feet. He hadn’t slept much that night.
“You dirty liar!”
After what happened yesterday, they all left the office in silence. As soon as he could get away, Jax had dashed back to his room, locked the door, and crumpled to the floor in defeat.
“What did you just do?”
If he was in his right mind in that moment, he wouldn’t have pressed that button. Or would he have? Every little detail about the adventure wormed its way into his brain, making him doubt that it was fake at the very end. In that moment, he truly feared going back to his old life. So much so that it overruled any loathing he had for his life here.
It doesn’t matter now. Everyone knows. Knows how profoundly miserable he is and always was. Knows that when faced with reality, he would rather keep running away from it, even if it meant never being real again.
He wasn’t excited to head to the main stage this morning. Everyone had probably had enough time to think about what happened yesterday and he knows that at least some of their anger will be directed at him. He can only hope that Caine reads the room and decides to not have an adventure today.
Lingering behind the wall, he peeked in to see if anyone had shown up yet. He spotted Ragatha, Gangle, Zooble, and Kinger, who was crawling out of his pillow fort. But no Pomni.
He didn’t know if he could face her.
He’d pushed her away on purpose. He shouldn’t care about what she thought about his… actions yesterday. And he could definitely handle whatever way she reacted to seeing him this morning. Whether it be anger, pity, or ignoring him entirely. It wouldn’t completely crush his soul. Definitely not.
Though, he also fully expected Zooble to beat the shit out of him the moment he stepped into that room. He didn’t know which confrontation would be worse.
Maybe he can waltz up quietly without anybody noticing him.
As he tiptoed in, he finally got a proper look at everyone.
They seemed… normal. Scarily so.
Zooble was calm. Or at least, they seemed to be a normal level of irritated.
Gangle was wearing her comedy mask, waiting patiently. Strange, he hadn’t seen her wear that in at least a week.
Ragatha noticed him and waved awkwardly, flashing him a wary smile. What the hell?
Kinger was… well, Kinger.
“Hey, Jax!” Ragatha called out, “We’re just waiting on Caine!” She seemed chipper.
What?
“LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE HAS ARRIVED!” Caine’s voice boomed throughout the circus as he popped in, waving around his cane.
“GOOD MORNING MY HIGHFALUTIN HONEYBEES! THE ADVENTURE I HAVE PLANNED FOR TODAY WILL REQUIRE TEAMWORK, SKILL, AND NO SMALL AMOUNT OF DILIGENCE!”
Jax was snapped out of his confused daze.
“Wait, what about Pomni?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
Caine floated down, scratching his head.
“UH…… who?”
Jax stood there, speechless. What had gotten into everyone? Where they all in denial?
Ragatha spoke up, “Um… Jax? You okay?”
“Wh-” Jax swiveled around to face her, staring wide-eyed.
“No, I’m not okay!” It came out louder than he had meant for it to.
He wished Pomni was here. He knows he had completely ruined any sort of goodwill he had with her. But, at the very least, he could count on her to be real. Not like… whatever this was.
“I just completely screwed us all over and you’re asking me if I’m okay!” He laughed bitterly, eyes growing wide in disbelief.
“Nothing yesterday ended up mattering at all! But now you know, okay!”
Zooble spoke up, “Uh, what the #&*% are you even talking abo-”
“You know that I’m a piece of #@*$ who doesn’t care about any of you!”
They all looked genuinely stunned. Jax included. He took a step back, clutching his arms to try to soothe himself and stop the shaking that had suddenly overtaken his body.
“I- I mean- I’m just-”
He spoke softer, unable to meet any of their gazes.
“Why are you all acting like everything is okay?”
He could feel Caine looming over them. He didn’t have the strength to yell at him again.
There was a long beat of silence.
“I don’t know what’s going on, Jax…” Ragatha said after a moment, “But… you know you can talk to me if you have a problem you need to work through.”
Something was very wrong.
“Okay…” he sighed, “This is a weird way to try to get back at me for yesterday. I was expecting to be yelled at, but I wasn’t expecting… this.”
He wearily glanced around, still not seeing Pomni.
“Where’s Pomni?” he demanded.
They were all silent again for a moment before one of them spoke up.
“Who?”
“ALRIGHT, THAT’S ENOUGH CHIT-CHAT, ON TO TODAY’S ADVENTURE!” Caine declared, clearly sick of all the shouting that was going on.
Jax was sucked into the portal before he could protest.
The entire adventure was gruelingly long. They had been shrunken down to the size of bugs and were told to gather food and resources for “the queen.” Jax had wandered off, not in the mood to even try to mess with any of the other worker bugs.
This whole thing was freaking him out horribly. It must be some sort of cruel prank, devised by the others during the night, where they pretend that everything is fine and dandy to get back at Jax for everything he’s done. He doesn’t know why they included Caine in it, though. He figured they’d be even more pissed at him, and completely unwilling to cooperate with him. Either that, or this was all a coping mechanism, and they’re desperately trying to just go back to the way things were.
He wondered if he should just go along with it.
But where was Pomni?
He was torn from his contemplation when he spotted Gangle, who was busy studying seeds and shoving any she deemed acceptable into a large leaf pouch.
Gangle! If anyone would spill what’s going on here, it would be her.
Sneaking up, he popped out from behind a large leaf. She covered her mask and yelped.
“Okay. Be straight with me. What’s going on here?”
She peeked out from behind her ribbons slowly. “What… what do you mean?” She looked genuinely confused.
“This thing where everyone is pretending that yesterday didn’t happen and Pomni doesn’t exist just to spite me,” he crossed his arms, “And how did you get Caine in on it? Thought you would be really mad at him.”
“I… really don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s a Pomni?” her mask tilted to the side.
Jax was getting pissed again. This was too far.
“There’s no way you guys can keep this up forever!” he jabbed his finger into her face. She stumbled back, covering her mask again and cowering.
“Just admit to it and we can all go back to being miserable about Caine tricking us yesterday!”
“I…I don’t…” and with that, she bolted, clutching her comedy mask and bag filled with seeds.
“Great…”
He tried Zooble next.
“Okay, you and I both know that something weird is going on here.” He leaned against a tree, trying to look nonchalant. In reality, he was getting more and more nervous, dread welling up in his stomach. He hoped he wasn’t visibly shaking.
Zooble glared at him and then turned away.
“Can you buzz off? I just wanna get through this adventure as painlessly as possible.” They tossed a rotted nut behind them, whacking him right in the face.
“Okay…” he breathed out, nearly seething, and then went to block their path.
“You guys are messing. With. Me.” he hissed, “I might deserve this, but…” he trailed off.
“…Where’s Pomni?” He pried.
“I don’t-”
“Is she in on this too? Is she hiding?... Did she abstract and none of you even bothered to acknowledge it?” He started to get more frenzied, stomping towards Zooble.
I’d move on. And probably forget about you.
Zooble looked rattled. Jax stopped and tried to calm himself. Surely none of the others would go that far. He hoped they wouldn’t, at least.
“Nah… no way. She must just be hiding somewhere waiting to pop out as soon as I start to fall for this.” He chuckled.
“But that isn’t. Going. To happen. I can wait it out so you guys might as well just admit to it now.”
Zooble studied him for a moment.
“Yeah… this is a… weird prank, even for you.” They narrowed their eyes at him.
“I’m not the one pulling a prank here, you-”
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” they interrupted, “If you’re finally losing it, could you at least leave me out of it?”
And with that, the conversation was over.
Ragatha had already proven herself to be unresponsive to his questioning. He saw her out in a field of flowers, covered in pollen, and seemed to be trying to decide if dandelions were important enough to take back.
Ragatha wouldn’t ignore Pomni going missing, or abstracting, or… whatever was happening here. He knows that she always tries to look on the bright side of things, often to a fault, but she had seemed genuinely broken by Caine’s betrayal yesterday. Getting out of this place was something they had both given up on, but given a glimmer of hope, she had forgotten all of her previous doubts and trusted Abel entirely.
Something deeper had to be going on here.
He just didn’t know what.
Before his mind could wander further, his ears picked up on a muttering sound.
Upon inspection, it was coming from a hole in the base of the giant tree that was towering over him. Ducking his head, he peeked inside. Kinger was hunched over in the dirt, whispering something to himself.
Welp, no point in not trying.
Now that the others were displaying amnesia on par with Kinger’s, the man almost seemed normal for once. He knocked on the side of the tree.
“Hey.”
“Whuh-” Kinger flinched, before he peered up and saw Jax.
“Can we, uh, talk?” Jax glanced around awkwardly.
“Of course! Come in, Jax!”
Jax took a seat on the dirt floor. A few stray beams of light leaked in through the trunk, shining weakly onto their faces.
He wasn’t really sure what to say to Kinger. If this was an elaborate prank, Kinger couldn’t possibly be in on it.
“Do you… have any idea what’s going on with the others?”
“Hm? What’s going on with them?” Kinger tilted his head in confusion.
Jax sighed. Maybe this was pointless. He should go.
He moved to stand up.
“Pomni…”
Jax stopped in his tracks.
“What?”
“Earlier, you mentioned… Pomni.” Kinger mused.
“I …Yeah.”
“Pomni… the name rings a bell.” He looked contemplative.
Jax stared at him, dumbfounded. Did he remember?
“She’s… missing.” Jax mumbled.
“I’m missing someone too…” Kinger trailed off.
He was silent for a moment before speaking up again.
“This… Pomni, she… She’s supposed to be…” Kinger looked frustrated, wracking his brain, before sighing in defeat, “I lost it…”
“If you can… remember her, please… tell me.” Jax curled in on himself, holding himself close.
He was starting to feel the weight of everything closing in on him. No one remembered yesterday, no one knew who Pomni was. It was getting harder and harder to excuse this all as a trick. It was real, and she was gone.
He had never dashed back through the portal at the end of an adventure quicker.
What the hell… what the hell??????
His feet carried him up to the dorm hallway. One by one, he passed by each door, searching for Pomni’s faceplate. Nothing.
He ended up back in front of where her room should be. Staring, he slowly approached and lifted his hand to ring the doorbell.
“…Pomni?” he called out, after a moment of silence.
No answer.
His hands shook as he pulled out the key to her door. Hearing the lock click, he opened it slowly, peering into the darkness.
Empty.
He needed to find Caine.