Chapter Text
Ragatha had an axe. It was a big battle axe, double sided, a little heart shaped cutout in the middle of the metal- though, maybe it was some other kind of weapon, technically? But she was most familiar with axes, and would be using it like an axe, so for most intents and purposes… it was an axe.
The dungeon crawling adventure had gone well. Caine had decided he wanted a sequel, and suited everybody up as their classes again- but this time, based on the surroundings, they were no longer underground. The trees and bushes may have had a hard time if they were.
“Ugh, does he ever listen...” And there was Zooble! They hadn’t wanted to come along, but apparently Caine said it would mess with the continuity of their characters if someone sat out. They sat on the ground a moment longer, considering their outstretched claw hand, before standing up.
“Does this count as revisiting an adventure? I don’t think he’s done that before…” Gangle moves to stand next to Zooble, ribbons bent pensively.
“Relaaax, what, you’ve never drawn the same picture twice? Maybe he’s tired of retail suggestions.” Jax stretches, one eye closed. “I, for one, am ecstatic to get the opportunity to be a stab-happy murder hobo again, given how you all interrupted me before. Pomni, you going to join me on the dark side this time?”
“Didn’t I say last time that I was going to stick with the team for these kind of adventures?”
“Really? And here I thought you liked me! Oh well, guess I’ll just run this mission solo and tell every NPC I’m with you.”
“Don’t make me cast charm person again, Jax.” Gangle speaks up, frowning and positioning Zooble between herself and Jax preemptively.
“You’re all so lame. Can’t even have my realistic dungeons and dragons larping session, S-M-H. Where’s my creative freedom.” Jax responds, mostly monotone.
“Let’s get started on the adventure, guys! I’m sure we’ll be out of here in no time, after we figure out the goal.”
“Oh look, a bee.” Kinger rushed forward, following the insect.
Ragatha looked at the others, expression pensive. “Well, we don’t want to split the party up, right?”
Zooble makes a sound between a laugh and a scoff. “Yeah, that might not go over so well. C’mon everyone, let’s follow Kinger.”
And so the adventure commences.
Buzzing, bumbling, the bee leads them to a small village market. Booths and tables are set up, some somewhat anachronistically with awnings and signs, selling a variety of wares. Evil Gangle has made a reappearance, but uncharacteristically seems to remember their last encounter- she scowls upon seeing Gangle, squinting menacingly. Gangle eeps and moves so Zooble is between her and her evil counterpart. The group starts walking through the market.
“Aww, someone’s afraid of looking in the mirror?” Jax comments, grinning.
“Shut up, Jax.” Zooble comments. Gangle doesn’t even look at Jax. He frowns, evidently disappointed by the lack of a response. “Besides, when’s the last time you looked in a mirror? Got a little reflective?”
One of the stands they pass appears to be selling only unflavored snowcones.
Jax scoffs, crossing his arms and looking away. “I’ll have you know I’m the most self-aware one here. How else could I be so confident?”
Zooble rolls their eyes. “Sure, let’s call it that.” Gangle stifles a laugh.
Pomni makes a small surprised oh! before dashing off to one of the stalls. She picks up a shiny golden object- a bugle.
Ragatha gasps. “Pomni, you got the bugle in the last adventure! Can’t we at least share it this time?”
Pomni laughs, holding the trumpet above her head like a video game character with a new item. “No chance! My last bugle got filled with milk, so I need a new one!”
Ragatha sighs, frowning slightly. Under her breath, she mutters a quiet and whose fault was that?. Jax leans forward, resting an arm on her shoulder. “Got a bit more bite today, huh, Rags? Finally letting your true colors show?”
Before she can respond, the omnipresent voice of Caine sounds. “Pomni, roll for Charisma to convince the shopkeep you should have the bugle!”
Pomni frowns up at the sky, lowering the bugle. “What? Can’t I just buy it?”
“Nope! New adventure, no money! Can’t have you all with too much of an advantage!”
Zooble sighs. “Of course he’d mess with the continuity…”
Ragatha shrugs Jax’s arm off, moving off into the market crowd. Pomni would surely get the bugle, just like last time. Jax would be an issue, Kinger would be there, Zooble and Gangle seem to have more of a handle on Jax now, and the others would need to haggle with Caine. But she needed a moment. Maybe it was the simulated heat of the sun, the bright lighting, the business of many individualized NPC models, but whatever it was, she just needed a moment and then she could get back to the others.
She ducked into a building, not really aware of the details. Inside was darkened lighting with splashes of color and rows and rows of wooden pews.
Of course it would be a church…
Ragatha took a deep breath and moved to the side walkway near the windows, not quite looking at what was depicted. It’d probably be some saint, or maybe Caine if he was feeling adventurous. From the corner of her eye, she noticed one had an axe.
She sat down underneath a window, sliding down to the cool stone floor. Her dress intersected weirdly with the floor, clipping through one of the bricks for a moment before fixing itself. She ran one of her hands over the floor, expecting a rough texture, but-
-it was smooth, like a glass marble. No sharp edges, no actual dimensions. A closer glance revealed that the brick pattern was a texture over a flat floor.
Just like the rest of the circus. Smooth, polished. No criticisms allowed, no swears allowed, no imperfections allowed. Just like her.
She pursed her lips. If she had a tongue in this moment, she would have bitten it just to feel the edges of her teeth.
“Ah… Miss? Are you alright?”
Ragatha looked up, spotting the NPC. This one wasn’t very important, by the model chosen for it- another generic art doll, though this one had a priest’s collar. Figures Caine would double down on the Christian imagery. “Oh-I’m fine, I’m fine. Just needed a moment!”
As she stands up, hands on knees, she hears a gasp from the NPC. “Oh! Miss! You’re one of the prophesized dragon slayers!”
This gets her to pause, and remember the axe currently hooked onto her belt. It seems she had stumbled onto the main point of the adventure- hopefully the others would be glad if she got more information, and maybe it would excuse her momentary absence. “Prophesized dragon slayers? Could I hear more?”
“Of course! Up on the mountain, there’s this fearsome dragon that’s been terrorizing our wonderful homegrown community for days! We’ve prayed and prayed, but thought help might never come until we received the prophecy. It was given to us by GOD, in all his many eyes and teeth, and we were told to prepare for your arrival! The stained glass windows finished setting just this morning!”
Ragatha wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she smiled. “They look nice! You said the dragon is up on the mountain, right?”
The NPC nods. “Yes, it’s right up there! Oh, but the mountain roads are treacherous. You need to bring a guide! There’s one in the market just outside, one of the stalls at the end, you can’t miss them! They’ve been going up into the mountains since they were just a kit, with their younger sibling in tow and bringing back berries of all kinds for their aging parents… Sigh, if the dragon keeps up like this, there’s no telling when that nice family will be able to make a blue raspberry pie again…”
Caine really did like to add a lot of detail to these NPC speeches sometimes, didn’t he? Ragatha nodded and thanked the NPC before heading out to find the others.
She rejoins the group at the instrument stand. Pomni is kicking at the dirt, arms crossed. Zooble is standing next to her, patting her shoulder comfortingly. Jax is looking at another nearby booth, and Kinger is staring at a patch of grass.
Ragatha leans over to Gangle and asks, “What happened while I was gone?”
“Oh, uhm, Pomni rolled really badly and the bugle exploded into confetti. She tried to convince Caine to add another to the shop, but he said it would be poor game design and lower the realism by removing consequences.” Gangle wipes away a tear from her mask, watching Zooble for a moment later before turning to Ragatha. “If, uh, this is too much, tell me, but uhm… Are you, okay? I noticed you left a bit quickly and I wasn’t sure… why.”
Ragatha wasn’t expecting this. She smiles, gesturing with one hand in the air. “I’m fine! Just saw an NPC that looked important and thought I could help everyone out by finding something out about the adventure! Today we’re prophesized dragon slayers, haha…”
Gangle perks up. “Dragon slayers? And a prophecy? That sounds really-” she seems to catch herself from her excitement, “ah, sorry, but that sounds exciting! So long as it isn’t too dangerous or one of us gets eaten, one of my favorite anime gets a bit dark after that happens…”
“Ugh, you’re such a w-loser. But hey, at least we get to do some violence today. I was starting to think these weapons were just to sit and look pretty!” Jax butts in, as he does, while tossing some kind of trinket in the air. It’s shiny, but otherwise difficult to distinguish with the weird physics and motion blurring going on in the world.
Ragatha frowns. “Did you really manage to convince an NPC to give you that?”
Jax places a hand on his chest, eyes closed as he forms the scout’s salute with his other hand. “Of course! What do you take me for Rags, a complete menace on society?”
There’s a shout in the background. Ragatha can finally see what the object is in his saluting hand- some fancy golden key with a skull etched into the handle. A transparent red eye pops up over Jax’s head, looking very much like video game UI.
Jax looks up and spots the eye, mouth disappearing for a moment. In the next second, he’s already started sprinting, just a poof of cartoon shaped air left behind.
Ten seconds later, a NPC guard rushes past Ragatha and Gangle; Ragatha barely manages to jump out of the way. She sighs, frowning and taking a deep breath before looking back to Gangle. “Wow, that was a close one-”
And another guard bulldozes by, sending Gangle spinning and careening into the ground. She lets out a high-pitched eep, the physics of her mask as heavy a weight as ever.
Ragatha gasps and leans forward, hands hesitating, hovering over Gangle’s arm. “Oh no- are you okay? That was quite a doozy! It’s a good thing you don’t have your comedy mask, or it’d’ve broken again-” and her mouth has moved faster than her mind. As always. “-not that it’s a good thing that you lost your mask already, just that you definitely would have there, and- well, that would also be bad! To have happened.” In the end, she decides to keep her hands to herself, straightening up. She rubs her left arm with her right hand. Gangle probably wouldn’t want her help now, would interpret it as an insult after that sorry excuse for comfort.
Gangle stays in place for a moment, then lifts up her mask. Tears are there, as expected. But she isn’t sobbing, so that’s something? Gangle raises a ribbon hand to wipe some dirt off her face, before getting up enough to be kneeling. “It’s… Fine… I expect it at this point.” Her ribbons move in a way that Ragatha recognizes as a facsimile of breathing. Then she looks up at Ragatha. It’s difficult to tell her expression with the big black pools that make up her eyes, obscuring any true pupils. They’re a bit like bug eyes, she realizes, pseudopupils where the light reflects a certain way, but otherwise looking hollow, even as animated as Gangle is.
She needs to stop thinking about this. About how none of them look like living things anymore.
Gangle frowns a tiny frown, and stands up on her own. “Well, uhm, if you’re sure you’re alright… We should probably start on the adventure, so we can get back to the circus sooner? I’ll go, uh, tell the others.” She looks back at Pomni and Zooble. When Ragatha follows Gangle’s gaze, she’s starkly reminded of the connections the others have made in the circus.
Pomni is standing up and chatting with Zooble, grinning. Zooble is actually talking back, seeming not-miserable. And Gangle walks over to them and joins in, standing close to Zooble. Of course she does; they’re practically a couple, if they haven’t confirmed it yet. It seems so easy for them.
Ragatha wonders how it happened. How they all just decided they like each other, trust each other to be comfortable, trust themselves enough not to slip up and say something wrong and destroy everything. They have it all figured out, she thinks- and maybe Ragatha can learn their confidence. Maybe. She just needs to work harder and focus.
So distracted in her thoughts is she that she almost misses Pomni looking over at her and waving her over. Ragatha doesn’t react for a moment, but the confusion starting to show on Pomni’s face tells her that yes, she did mean Ragatha- so she jumps a bit, feeling late to a social cue, and walks quickly over. Pomni’s confusion mostly disappears, but she can still see some of it in the turn of her mouth.
“So, do we have a game plan for this adventure? Gangle said you knew something about it?”