Work Text:
Pomni:
Pomni knew getting close to Jax was a bad idea, she told herself not to and yet.
“There's nothing more to me”
That's such bulls[###]she knew there was more. She had known since the suggestion box adventure.
Jax wasn't hard to understand, he was just hard to predict. Conversations with him were a push and pull, like walking a tightrope. She had to be careful with how much she pried, otherwise the rope would snap and he'd shove her away.
The hard part is there's no clear way to tell where the line was drawn.
She didn't know what time it was or how long she'd been inside her room, then again it's not like time mattered much here. As she laid on her back staring at the bicolored canopy hung above her bed she let her mind wander.
Usually she'd bury her face into her pillow to drown out the ever present technicolored nightmare that was the circus, but right now she couldn't be bothered to care. Cold apathy washed over her, she knew this was coming. Whenever she was upset she didn't scream or cry, instead she felt nothing, an empty cavern where emotions should be. It'd pass after some time like a boat over troubled waters; she'd just have to sail through the feeling.
After some time she heard a soft knock on her door.
“Hey Pomni, I don't know if your awake yet but Caine said he has an announcement and asked me to come get you”
Ragatha, she was clearly nervous. Pomni had promised they'd talk, but after the awards show she wanted nothing more than to sleep.
She yanked herself out of bed, already wishing for the day to be over with. Whatever announcement Caine had couldn't be anything but stressful.
Pulling the door open she was met with Ragatha smiling at her, she could see the concern in her face even though she tried to hide it beneath her smile.
“Hey Ragatha”
She gave the ragdoll a small smile.
“Any idea what the announcement is?”
She tried to sound genuinely interested, but honestly thinking about Caine's plans just gave her anxiety.
“No idea, but he seemed pretty eager so hopefully nothing too bad!”
Pomni wished she shared the optimistic sentiment, but she knew better by now, adventures rarely ended well.
The two made their way to the center of the circus where the rest of the colorful cast was waiting, well almost everyone.
“Where's Jax?”
Zooble turned their head in her direction, their parts had been switched yet again. One of the few things in the circus that they could control.
“Probably off sulking somewhere”
Gangle stood nearby, anxiously twirling her ribbons in her hands.
“You don't think he's mad at me for not partnering with him for the adventure right?”
Zooble places a hand on the ribbon girl's shoulder, their voice softens.
“even if he is that's his problem, you're not responsible for his emotions”
Gange smiles up at them,
“Thanks Zooble.”
Pomni was pretty observant, she could easily tell there was something going on between her fellow circus members, she thought it was sweet. She couldn't remember if she had anyone like that before the circus, but it was probably unlikely.
She wasn't very good at socializing unless she was comfortable with someone, she was usually far too awkward and anxious to build many connections.
“Soo do you guys know anything about this announce-?”
Before she could even finish her sentence,
“HELLO MY CANDY HEARTS AND PAPER FLOWERS!”
She damn near jumped out of her skin.
“Oh my God Caine can't you just show up without a scaring us s[###]less?”
Zooble was clearly already fed up with Caine.
“OH ZOOBLE, MY DEAR ABSTRACT AMALGAMATION! WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT?”
“Nothing here is-”
Before they could finish taking caine zipped up their non-existent mouth.
“NOPE I’VE GOT EXCITING NEWS AND YOUR NEGATIVE FEEDBACK WILL NOT RUIN MY ANNOUNCEMENT!”
“NOW IS EVERYONE HERE?”
Caine glanced around the colorful cast,
“Uhm…Jax isn't here”
---------------------
Jax:
Sleep was one of the few escapes from this purgatory of a circus, yet it's eluded him all night. Every time he tried to close his eyes his mind wandered back to her…
Stupid Pomni, why did he have to open up to her? Pomni with her mosaic eyes that he could feel looking straight through his mask. Everyone else had given up on understanding him, so why was she different?
“There's nothing more to me…So please stop looking”
The words echoed in his mind. Way to go, idiot pushing away the last person who might have actually cared about you.
Jax knew he wasn't a good person, hell everybody knew it! So why did she have to push so hard?
He'd never admit it to himself, but deep down he truly did enjoy his time with her. Up until he looked at their rooms, Jax avoided looking at the doors of the abstracted, they were a reminder of the inevitable.
Looking over at Kaufmo and her… Only showed him what would eventually happen to all of them, including Pomni. He knew that getting close to her would only speed up the process. Jax breaks people, that's all he's good for and he didn't think he could handle getting close just to lose someone all over again.
Suddenly Jax felt himself be summoned by Caine into the center of the circus, no matter how long he spent here he'd never truly adjusted to that feeling.
“Thanks for interrupting my nap, being snap summoned first thing in the morning was just what I needed”
His voice dripped with sarcasm, an expression the AI didn't quite understand.
“YOU'RE WELCOME JAX!
NOW TIME FOR MY ANNOUNCEMENT!
Whenever the AI talked Jax tended to just tune him out and mess with his fellow circus members when the adventure started.
“WITHOUT FURTHER ADO HERE ARE THE PAIRINGS! RAGATHA AND KINGER
GANGLE AND ZOOBLE AND JAX AND POMNI!”
…Crap, just what he needed. With a snap the group was teleported into the adventure.
Notably his outfit had changed, his salmon overalls switched for a white button up with a loose tie the same color as his overalls. A pair of baggy jeans and a leather bomber jacket. Huh, Caine didn't change their clothes often so this adventure must be special.
“Oww, I'm never going to get used to the teleporting thing”
Oh right Pomni, he looked over in her direction as she stood up and brushed herself off.
Her usual jester uniform had been switched out for a red and blue pleated skirt, a white polo and a red sweater vest. She had red and blue legwarmers, and a yellow crossbody purse. Her usual jester hat had been switched out for a yellow headband, her hair hung just above her shoulders.
She looked…really pretty.
Wait…What?
No, Jax didn't think things like that, especially about other people, he felt his face begin to warm. He shook his head and put his mask back on.
“Soo Pom-Pom, any idea what today's adventure is?”
She glanced in his direction and began to fidget with her hands…weird, what could be making her anxious?
“Uhm… Caine said he's been researching human emotions, and he said he didn't like the tension between all of us so…”
“So?”
Her ever present blush marks seemed to darken slightly.
“He sent us on solo adventures, ours is ‘A first date at the carnival' I guess”
He winced through his teeth and forced a smile. This is not going to end well.
----------------
Pomni:
Her initial reaction to being paired with Jax was panic, they hadn't spoken since their fight and she was almost certain he wouldn't even speak to her.
Quite the opposite was true, Jax seems to be pretending everything is fine. Pomni wasn't an idiot though, she could tell his casual attitude was to avoid any real conversation about what happened.
Despite this she decided maybe if she played along she could potentially get him to open up more, maybe even discuss their fight.
“Soo I’ve never seen the carnival grounds before, is there anything worthwhile?”
Jax looked completely zoned out, his ever present grin still stuck to his face but his eyes were unfocused, staring off into space, as if she wasn't even there.
“Hmm? Oh, it's fine I guess, the NPCs are annoying though”
He seemed completely uninterested in the conversation, okay maybe getting him to open up again would be harder than she thought.
He stretched his arms above his head and cracked his neck.
“Welp let's go get this ‘date’ over with”
He strolled ahead of her entering the carnival grounds.
The carnival was exactly what she expected, bright obnoxious colors, rides that looked like deathtraps, and food booths run on OSHA violations.
She practically had to jog to keep up with Jax, clearly he had no interest in talking, nevertheless she was nothing if but stubborn.
She walked a few paces behind Jax, not wanting to invade his space.
As she slowly took in her new environment Jax suddenly spoke up.
“No way! I thought Caine ditched this thing!”
He dashed ahead of Pomni towards a go-kart track.
“Go-karts?”
She watched amused as he cut in line, pushing NPCs out of his way carelessly.
“Not just any go karts! They're insane, Caine literally got rid of them because they used ‘too many assets’”
Suddenly he whipped around and in one smooth motion picked Pomni up and threw her over his shoulder.
“JAX WHAT THE F[###]??”
She could practically hear the smirk in his voice.
“Sorry pom-pom but you're too short to ride so I'm carrying you to the karts to juke out the system.”
She flailed helplessly, trying and failing to escape his grasp.
“Ah, perfect!”
Without warning he dropped her into a cherry red go-kart.
“This one is very you Pomeranian.”
Pomni's eyes had become cartoonish spirals, she did NOT enjoy being thrown around like a ragdoll.
She shook her head to regain her senses.
“Isn't that a dog breed?”
Jax looked down at her,
“Well you're tiny and yap a lot so it fits pretty well if you ask me!”
She gave him an unamused look as he sauntered to a lavender kart nearby.
“Oh Pomni! No pressure to win by the way I'm pretty much a pro so you don't really stand a chance”
He gave her a smug smile.
Oh she was going to kick his ass.
----------------------
Jax:
Jax situated himself in the cart, he was elated at the idea of Pomni's pouty face when he won the race.
An NPC sauntered its way to the center of the track and began droning through the rules.
God, he forgot how boring the instructions were. He snuck a glance at Pomni who was listening intently, her face scrunched in focus.
Damn she really was cute…
What the hell is up with his brain today?!?
He felt his face warm as he snapped his attention back to the NPC who was about to begin the countdown.
3…2…1!
He slammed down on the accelerator. He fully expected this to be a cakewalk until he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye.
Pomni was flying down the racetrack laughing. They made eye contact as she flew by, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
She hit every curve with precision, only increasing her lead further after each one.
He'd never admit it aloud, but she was pretty impressive.
After regaining his senses he attempted to regain his lead. Much to his dismay the finish line was just in sight, and it had her name on it.
She flew past the line Jax close behind,
WINNER, glowed above her head.
She hopped out of her kart and bounced her way over to him, still giggling.
“Sorry what was that you said about being a pro?”
She had this smug little smile on her face, her hair was blown in all different directions and her eyes were bright with amusement.
His heart did a somersault, she looked gorgeous…
Oh, s[###].