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Gangle seriously regretted what she was doing the moment that she stopped knocking on the ragdoll’s door.
It was stupid, she was stupid, and it was better to run away now and let Ragatha think that it was just Jax playing ding-dong ditch.
Just as she had taken the first step away, however, Ragatha opened the door.
“Oh! Gangle!” Ragatha, a digital bag under her non-buttoned eye, smiled at her and gave a small wave. “How’re you?”
“Uh, good.” Gangle responded, not that convincingly.
“That’s good.”
A silence stretched between the two women.
“Soooooooooooo, what did you need?” Ragatha asked with a smile, looking down at the mask softly.
“Uhhhhh, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m sure it’s actually nothing.” Gangle, nervous again, took a few steps back.
“Oh, uh, ok.” Ragatha replied, surprised. “Well…………..are you sure?”
“…….yeah, I’m sure.” Gangle nodded quickly, her tears bobbing up and down with the motion.
Ragatha frowned, feeling as if Gangle was lying, but ultimately decided not to pry.
“Well, ok then.” Ragatha responded slowly. “You know that, if there is anything you need to talk about, I’m here, right?”
Gangle smiled a bit, a rare sight to see while she was wearing her Tragedy Mask.
“Yeah, I know.”
Despite the exchange seemingly being over, neither of them moved from where they stood.
“………….you, uh, mind if I…….” Ragatha pointed to her room as she trailed off.
“No! No, you can go.”
“Ok then.” Ragatha gave a strained smile and slowly stepped away, closing the door as she did so.
Gangle stood there, frowning, not making any movements, for five minutes.
She then sighed and stepped forward before knocking on the door again.
Ragatha opened it almost immediately, as if she were waiting for it.
She probably had been, actually.
“No. It’s not nothing, actually. I want to talk to you about something.”
Ragatha smiled understandingly and nodded, opening the door wider to let her in.
Gangle slowly made her way into the room. It was a simple bedroom, similar to what you might see in a country house, with pale pink and red walls, some bookshelves and a piano off to the sides, some other furniture around the room, and a large bed whose comforter matched the pattern on the walls.
The room was exactly the same as it always had been when Gangle had visited.
Gangle thought about it for a moment before moving to sit on the foot of the bed, Ragatha moved to stand a short distance in front of her as she did so.
“What did you need to talk about?” Ragatha asked a few moments after Gangle had made herself comfortable, her voice soft.
Gangle looked down bashfully for a moment, seemed to steel herself for the conversation ahead, sighed out, and looked to the rag doll with an uncomfortable expression.
“I wanted to talk about yesterday, about something you said.”
Ragatha’s mouth fell open for a moment before she let out a quiet groan and pinched at her eyes tiredly.
“Right, yeah, ok, should’ve known this was coming.” Ragatha let her hand fall down and looked down at Gangle with a mixture of pain and shame. “Look, Gangle, I am SO sorry! So very very sorry! I shouldn’t have said any of that stuff and I wouldn’t have if-“
“Ragatha.”
The mask’s voice was feather-soft, but it still snapped Ragatha out of her rant before it could really begin. She blinked at the mask, surprised.
Because it didn’t matter how quiet it was, Gangle almost never interrupted anyone.
If she did, it meant that she REALLY needed to make a point.
“Ragatha, it’s not……..that.” Gangle tried not to dwell on what the other woman had thought was the topic of their discussion, instead moving on almost immediately. “It’s not about anything you said about me yesterday, it’s about something you said about someone else.”
“Oh, God, what did I say?” Ragatha immediately asked with a wince. “No, better yet, who did I say it about? Kinger? Zooble?” She gave a little gasp. “Please don’t tell me it was about Pomni!”
“Ragatha, calm down.” Gangle muttered, expression growing more concerned.
The quiet request managed to make Ragatha stop again and look at Gangle blankly.
The mask herself sighed and stood up.
She didn’t like doing this, but she recognized that the two of them were talking in circles, and she needed to just say what needed to be said right now or else they may be at this all night.
“Ragatha, it was near the beginning of the day, soon after you had gotten………..well, you know.” Gangle gestured awkwardly and Ragatha nodded uneasily.
“I had noticed that Pomni wasn’t on the register, and I had asked you if you had seen her. You said that she was, and I’m quoting you here, ‘flirting with the gummy-guy.’”
Ragatha’s face did an odd, very uncomfortable expression.
“Yeah, and you had muttered something else, something about her preferring to spend time with NPCs instead of us, and then I had gone to go tell her to get back to work.” Gangle sighed out a little, because now came the hard part. “But as I was walking away, you said something strange, something that made me pause.”
Ragatha was a bit confused, honestly not remembering that second part of the interaction.
“You said………….you said ‘I wish she would flirt with me instead.’”
Suddenly, almost every stitch on Ragatha’s face turned crimson as her face went completely blank.
She didn’t say a word for what, even in the circus, felt like an eternity.
“……………oh.” She finally peeped, quieter than Gangle had ever been.
Gangle herself gave a small nod.
“Yeah.”
Ragatha didn’t react, for at least another minute, but she finally sighed out a breath and moved to sit on the foot of the bed.
“……………………..cat’s out of the bag then, I guess.” Ragatha admitted slowly, with a small, self-deprecating chuckle.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think anyone else heard.” Gangle offered in a nearly-successful attempt at being reassuring. “You were pretty quiet, and I was the only one nearby. Pomni was definitely too far away, and I asked Zooble, covertly, and they didn’t seem to know anything.” Gangle suddenly frowned. “And Jax hasn’t teased you about it, so obviously he’s in the dark too.”
Ragatha made a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a laugh.
“Small victories, then, I guess.” She murmured.
After another bout of silence, Gangle walked over and sat next to Ragatha on the bed.
“…………how long?”
Ragatha huffed a small laugh.
“The whole time, since she first appeared on the stage a week or so ago.” Ragatha smiled a bit. “C’mon Gangle, you have eyes, you can see how cute she is.”
Gangle frowned for a minute and seemed to think it over before slowly nodding.
“Yeah, I guess I can see it.” The mask conceded. “The eyes especially, they’re like kaleidoscopes.”
“Exactly.” Ragatha smiled at her friend. “And her rosy cheeks, and her hair, and her complexion, and………..god, she just seems so nice, so understanding.”
“Yeah, I get that too.” Gangle muttered, thinking of how the jester had tried to talk to her behind the restaurant, and how she had offered to stay behind and clock out for Gangle.
Ragatha smiled and sighed out, happily. But then the smile fell a bit.
“…………too bad it’s just a fantasy.” Ragatha muttered with more than a hint of despondency. “She’d never feel the same way.”
Gangle blinked and tried to put a ribbon on Ragatha’s arm.
“Ragatha-“
“Don’t, Gangle, don’t try to make me feel better.” The doll shifted away just enough to be out of the mask’s reach. “I’ve known her for a week or so, SHE’S known me for a week or so, and even then, I felt like she was avoiding me the first few days, until after the Mildenhall Manor. It’s just a stupid crush.”
Gangle didn’t respond, not sure what she could say in response.
“I mean, c’mon!” Ragatha laughed, a little hysterical. “Me?! Her?! Nope! Can’t happen! Won’t happen!”
As suddenly as she started, Ragatha stopped and turned back to look at the floor, her non-button eye beginning to water.
“Oh, Rags.” Gangle muttered before leaning over to pull her into a side-hug.
After a few moments, the doll slipped out of the mask’s flimsy grip, however.
“No, I’m fine.” Ragatha sniffled for a second but actually managed to blink back her tears and regain her composure. “I don’t know why I’m getting so choked up over this, anyway. Maybe I’m just stressed over what happened yesterday and that’s just piling onto this or something similar? I don’t know, but what I do know is that this isn’t as big of a deal as I’m making it out to be. I’m fine.”
Gangle tried to stay quiet, scared that her suspicion would be evident in any involuntary noises she made. She succeeded, but then the silence stretched on until it became quite uncomfortable.
“………………..why wouldn’t she like you?”
Ragatha looked to Gangle, surprised, mouth slightly open.
“I mean……….you’re nice, and pretty, and………….nice, and…………….dang it.” Gamgle’s mask drooped. “I’m not any good at this, am I?”
Ragatha stifled a small laugh, actually quite well, to the point where it was barely audible, but then sighed out heavily and went back to staring into space. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes before she finally responded.
“You’re good at it, Gangle.” She muttered encouragingly. “It’s just that…………you know, she’s new, romance is probably the farthest thing from her mind right now. Plus, there’s the elephant in the room; the chances of her being into girls is nonexistent.”
Ragatha stopped talking and began to tap her fingers tunelessly on the edge of the comforter that they were sitting on, one of her small tics that Gangle immediately recognized.
After what felt like another eternity, even in the circus, Ragatha sighed out again.
“……..and she probably doesn’t like me that much, given how she seemed to avoid me the first few days.”
Gangle’s frown twisted even deeper down and they tried to reach out to Ragatha again.
“Rags-“
“She also told me the other day that she hated to be touched.” Ragatha added in a rush.
Gangle’s ribbon fell slightly.
“What?” The mask asked quietly.
“Yeah.” Ragatha nodded, resigned. “Anyone getting in her bubble or touching her without permission, she told me she hated it. Said it made her anxious.”
“……………..oh.” Gangle muttered, looking away and down at the floor.
“….yeah.” Ragatha confirmed as she joined the artist in staring down at the suddenly-fascinating floorboards.
Gangle’s mouth twisted again, knowing that out of all the issues that Ragatha listed, THAT was the biggest.
Because Ragatha was definitely a touch-feely person. She was always ready to hold someone’s hand, put a hand on someone’s shoulder, or even hug them if it looked like they needed it. She had always been that way, or at least as long as Gangle had been in the circus, and while she tried not to overstep physically with newer characters, she usually fell into the habit with them once they had adjusted a bit more.
Until then, she liked to overcompensate with verbal affirmations and soothing words every day, which could end up being overwhelming on its own.
But the point was that Ragatha loved to freely and literally offer herself up as a shoulder to cry on, someone that you could hug, someone to hold your hand. It was one of the main ways that she showed that she cared.
…………………and she had what sounded like a serious crush on the person who had told her that she hated physical touch.
No wonder she now believed it to be impossible.
“……..I’m sorry.” Gangle finally muttered weakly, not knowing what else to say.
“…it’s fine.” Ragatha muttered to herself before she shifted her body to fully face Gangle with a weak smile. “It’s fine.” She told Gangle with a nod.
Gangle sighed out heavily and slowly placed a ribbon on Ragatha’s shoulder.
“Still, I’m sorry.” The mask offered, shifting her own body around so that she could fully face Ragatha.
“………nothing to be done about it.” The doll muttered. “Just a stupid dream.”
“It’s not stupid to like someone like that.” Gangle offered a little too quickly.
“……..no, but it’s stupid to think it could ever happen.” Ragatha argued quietly. “It’s stupid to think that I could really have something special like that here, with her.”
“It’s not stupid to have feelings that don’t make sense.” Gangle replied after a beat. “I think you told me that once.”
Ragatha blinked and then smiled a bit.
“Did I now? I’m surprised you remember that.”
Gangle gave a small smile of her own at that.
“Of course I do, Rags.” Gangle muttered softly. “It……it actually really helped me a lot, a few times.”
Ragatha smiled, the knot of anxiety in her chest starting to lessen into something looser, and shifted so that she was a bit closer to the other human.
“I’m really glad it did, I’m glad that I could help.” Ragatha admitted, her smile growing slightly.
The doll didn’t say anything else, just sitting there with the warm feeling that she got when she had managed to help someone else out. Sometimes………..sometimes that was the one thing that could keep her going in this place, knowing that even if she wasn’t doing well, she at least helped someone else feel better.
Considering everything she had said yesterday, and how she had stressed so much over what her apologies should be like today, she had needed that feeling now more than ever.
“Thanks, Gangle.” Ragatha said emphatically, leaning closer to the mask while one of her hands moved to cover the ribbon still on her shoulder. “Thank you, I really needed to hear that.”
Gangle blushed slightly at the contact, and seemed to shy away from Ragatha a little, but gave a shaky smile.
“…….glad I could help, Rags.” Gangle muttered quickly. “But, Y’know, it was your words, I’m just repeating them.”
Ragatha tilted her head slightly, her non-button eye half-lidded.
“Doesn’t mean I still can’t appreciate it, Gangle.” Ragatha whispered and despite the fact that the mask had put more distance between them, Gangle still felt the hot breath on her porcelain face and almost shivered. “You still came in here to check on me, to make sure I was ok and get me to talk about how I felt. That still deserves a thank-you.”
The mask slowly nodded and tried to keep her mind blank.
It was times like this that she wasn’t so fond of having a creative mind.
Especially with Ragatha still too close and her soft hand still over Gangle’s ribbon.
The doll suddenly seemed to read her expression and her face went blank before she jerked backwards to her former position of sitting on the foot of the bed.
Oh god, that DEFINITELY had come across wrong!
So very very VERY wrong!
“………..sorry, Gangle.” She muttered to the floor.
For once, she had kept the apology short, because Gangle had already known what she was sorry for.
Speaking of Gangle, her ribbon arm closed and opened faintly in the air, having slipped away from Ragatha’s body when the doll had moved away. The mask slowly brought it back to her side, trying to dispel the small, lingering desire that she had to put her hand back on Ragatha’s shoulder and never let go.
Holding Ragatha, any part of her, was soft and warm and felt safe.
“…………..it’s okay, Rags.” Gangle replied in a barely audible voice. “………I know how hard this is.”
Gangle, having voiced what they were DEFINITELY both trying to avoid thinking about, looked down to the floor and tried to work up the nerve to just stand up and walk away.
She should just walk away now
She needed to walk away now.
It would be better for the both of them if she just walked away now.
And yet she didn’t get up.
After a few minutes, Gangle slowly turned her head back to the doll, and spent a few moments just taking her in.
Feeling eyes on her, Ragatha did the same.
The two women just spent a while sitting there, looking at each other, taking in the details of the other person.
“It’s so hard, so very hard.” Gangle murmured, her body unconsciously moving towards Ragatha.
“Too hard.” Ragatha finished, her eye beginning to well up again as she watched Gangle get within a few inches of her face.
“And I’m so stupid.” Gangle muttered tearily, a few drops falling down to the comforter, her face twisted in pain.
Ragatha stiffened at Gangle’s breath on her face.
“And so am I.” Ragatha admitted before she closed the final inch and kissed Gangle.
It started slowly, as it always did, almost cautiously.
But then they fell into a rhythm and the temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket.
They began to make out, passionately, with each face pushing against the other as their tongues got involved. Ragatha’s hand went to the back of Gangle’s mask, pushing her closer to her, while the other grabbed onto one of loops of the ribbon that made up Gangle’s torso, the latter action making Gangle tense and then moan a little into Ragatha’s mouth.
One of Gangle’s arms grabbed Ragatha’s waist, pulling her closer to her, while the other started near the neck but began to snake into the doll’s neckline, barely fitting in between the tiny gab between Ragatha’s body and her dress.
The action made Ragatha herself moan into Gangle’s mouth.
Their lips still connected, only seperating suddenly for maybe two seconds at a time in order to get air, the two awkwardly began to shuffle to the main part of the bed, slipping and sliding on the comforter until they got to the middle.
Things began to blur into images and actions: Gangle grabbed a massive fistful of Ragatha’s hair and pulled hard, Ragatha tangled one of her hands inside Gangle and caressing the inner sections that the doll knew were sensitive, and most of all, the feeling of warm felt clashing against the cold porcelain.
After that……….well………….they moved their activities much further.
Or at least as far as they were able to, given the…………….lack of traditional parts.
(———————————————)
After the……..unique, but no less satisfying intimacy, Ragatha just softly caressed Gangle’s arm as they laid in bed, trying to bottle up this feeling, this nice, quiet warm feeling, until the bottle was almost overflowing.
Then she sighed out, finally having to think instead of just feel.
“………….what’s wrong with me?” She muttered sadly to the mask.
Gangle frowned, a few tears slipping away and wetting the pillow she was lying on.
“…………..I don’t know, Ragatha. I just don’t know.” Gangle gave a little sigh. “But whatever it is? It’s the same thing that’s wrong with me.”
They didn’t speak for quite a while, just facing each other without looking at each other.
“……you know I wanted it too, right?” Gangle suddenly asked nervously. “You didn’t force me into anything. I wanted it too.”
Ragatha nodded slightly.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
It was something that she occasionally worried about after these episodes, that she was pushing the mask into doing something that she didn’t want to just because she needed a release.
Fortunately, this time, Gangle had managed to tell her that before the thought had crossed the doll’s mind again.
Sometimes the artist just seemed to GET her. Not all of her, but enough of her so that they were in-sync for a lot of the time.
It was one of Ragatha’s favorite things about the mask.
“………….you’re nice too, you know.”
“Huh?”
“Earlier, you told me that I was nice, several times.” Ragatha clarified with a small smile, staring into the mask’s soulful eyes. “Well, you’re nice too. Some days I feel like you can just read my mind.”
Ragatha’s smile became a bit more sappy.
“It’s one of the things I love about you.”
Gangle tried not to cringe.
She really did.
But she only succeeded a little.
Ragatha’s expression became a little hurt, but then it turned into a look of understanding.
Because she had just remembered what came next.
“……………I should go.” Gangle muttered, slipping her arm away from Ragatha’s as she got out of the doll’s bed.
Ragatha slowly sat up as she watched Gangle get up and begin walking away.
Halfway between the door and the bed, Gangle turned back around and looked at the doll with an apologetic look. She tried to talk, but the words didn’t come out, then she tried again with no success, then again.
She finally succeeded on the sixth time.
“……………………….how much longer can we do this, Rags?” Gangle asked, voice tight. “This whole thing?” She gestured vaguely to the room. “It isn’t healthy, and we both know it.”
Ragatha looked down at the sheets, silently agreeing but not wanting to agree.
She waited to hear the slow closing of the door that meant that Gangle had left, but it never came.
Gangle kept going.
“We……….we tried to do things properly.” Gangle stuttered but continued. “We even made it work for almost two months, but it didn’t work. We’re both too………we………………”
Gangle cried for a second before she finally forced it out like she was choking on it.
“We both have so much that we just don’t deal with, and we’re stretched so thin just trying to hold ourselves together enough to function that we can’t take on each other’s weight. We can’t lean on each other.”
There were pauses between a dozen of the words, but it was still clear.
Ragatha REALLY wished that it wasn’t clear.
“I love you, Ragatha, but not really in that way, and what we had only worked when we masked what was wrong, and trust me on this, masks can break easily.”
Ragatha gave a very weak chuckle, tears beginning to drip down from her normal eye, leaving small marks on the comforter.
“And this? It doesn’t work either but it keeps happening! One of us checks on the other alone, we get to talking, we get to venting, and it all becomes………it becomes too much! So we hook up, and for a little while, everything is ok, and simple, and we can deal with it, and then we feel terrible and guilty and it just adds onto what was wrong in the first place!”
Gangle breathed heavily after her tirade, her body expanding and compressing over and over as more tears fell down to the wooden floor.
But eventually, she finally caught her breath enough to keep going.
“We. Don’t. Work. We. Don’t. Fit. And yet this keeps happening to us! Even when we’re into other people, nothing ever comes of it!”
Gangle’s frown became determined and she straightened up.
“We say it a lot, but this time, I mean it; this was the last time.”
Gangle saw Ragatha wince and her face crumple, and she almost took it back, but she stayed strong and turned around to leave. Just as she was about to open the door, Ragatha finally spoke up.
“It keeps happening because I know where things stand.”
Gangle’s posture stiffened at the broken admission, and she didn’t turn around, but she was obviously listening closely.
“I know who you are, I know that you care about me, I know that you’re into girls too, and I know that………….it, will be good.” A faint pink dust was apparent on Ragatha’s face, but after a beat, she continued. “I don’t know what will happen with Pomni, I’m still getting to know her, I don’t know what she feels, I don’t know how she feels. What we have, or had, I guess, it’s simple, I get it.”
Ragatha looked away before she finished.
“Even though it’s not healthy.”
Gangle still didn’t turn around, knowing that seeing Ragatha looking vulnerable and sad would make her want to comfort her and then they would rince and repeat, but a few tears fell from her mask.
“I get it.” She finally admitted. “There’s not a lot of us to begin with and you’re only into women, and…….it helps, to do that. I……….I like the familiarity of it too, Rags, but it doesn’t mean that we should keep doing this.”
Gangle didn’t see it, but Ragatha nodded.
“Yeah, I know.”
Gangle sighed out and opened the door, leaving the doll alone with her thoughts.
(———————————————)
Gangle frowned nervously as she walked down the hall, fiddling with a folded piece of paper. She paused and looked up at Pomni’s door, where she knew the jester was after she had told everyone that she wanted an early night.
Gangle looked down at the note she had written out as soon as she had gotten to her own room last night.
She knew that she had to do this, she knew that no matter what she had said to Ragatha yesterday, that there was always going to be a chance that they were going to fall into the same old pattern again the next time they needed some form of comfort.
Something had to happen to break the cycle.
This was it.
So why was she so hesitant?
“Gangle?”
The mask got startled and jumped a little before turning around, relaxing minutely when she saw that it was just a concerned Zooble.
“Whoa, hey, it’s just me.” The toy, who looked like they had been headed to their room for the night, said calmingly.
“Yeah, I know, sorry.” Gangle straightened up, holding the piece of paper at her side with one arm while she faced Zooble. “You just startled me a little.”
Zooble slowly crossed their arms, uneasy.
“You ok, Gangle?” They asked, a note of worry in their voice.
Gangle didn’t respond, just looking at the toy for a few seconds, taking in how one of their antennae looked like a spring today, how one of their legs was rectangular like the leg of a chair, and how one of their arms was striped like a candy cane except that every stripe was a different color.
As always, the only things that were constant were the body, the head, and……………and the fact that they looked incredible.
“Gangle?”
“Huh?” Gangle shook herself out of it, looking at the approaching toy with an open mouth.
“Are. You. Ok?” Zooble asked slowly, now a short distance from the mask.
Gangle swallowed and paused before answering.
“Yeah, I’m ok.” She said blankly before glancing again to Pomni’s image on the door. “It’s just…………………….I just realized something.”
“Oh?” Zooble looked curious.
“Yeah, I just realized that……..I’ve been drawing Pomni all wrong. Her eyes, I mean.”
Despite the lie twisting her stomach, the mask managed to keep her voice level.
“I guess I was just staring at it to be sure and……….I was right. I’m doing it wrong. Really wrong.”
Zooble looked at her oddly, maybe they were just confused, maybe they were concerned, and maybe they were debating whether they should call her out on the lie.
Whatever they were thinking, they soon gave a small nod.
“Uh, ok.” The striped arm went to their thin neck to rub it. “Well, don’t be too hard on yourself, she hasn’t been here for long.”
“……yeah…….yeah, ok.” Gangle nodded, stared at Zooble for a moment, and then began to walk away to her own room. “Good night, Zooble.”
“….good night, Gangle.” Zooble returned, pausing slightly as they saw and briefly wondered about the paper in Gangle’s hand.
The mask opened her door and walked into her room without much fanfare.
Once the door was shut, she sighed for almost a full minute, then slowly unfolded the note that she had written.
Pomni
Talk to Ragatha, she needs to tell you about something important and isn’t going
to bring it up herself. Please.
-Gangle
P.S.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell how genuine she’s being, I told you that once.
She wants to and should be genuine with you, no matter what
Gangle’s lips trembled at the note, she cried a little, and then she walked over to her desk.
Instead of acknowledging all the pens and paper and half-finished drawings sprawled all over the desk, she opened a drawer under it and took out a lighter that she had taken from an adventure.
Usually she used it to burn her drawings that were REALLY terrible.
Now she was going to use it to burn her stupid, half-baked, selfish plan.
What right did she have to do this?
Why was she trying to meddle in other people’s private business?
What did she think was going to happen? That alone and together, sparks would just fly between the two? That Ragatha wouldn’t just clam up and shut the door while politely claiming that there was nothing to talk about? That Ragatha wouldn’t be mad at her for this in that mad-but-trying-not-to-show-it-or-even-be-dismissive-or-disappointed way that she always did?
God, she was such an idiot, wasn’t she?
And she was selfish, too, trying to make this happen so that Ragatha and Gangle could stop this cycle.
But most of all…………………most of all she was hypocritical.
She was trying to make Ragatha tell Pomni how she felt, and she couldn’t even tell Zooble how she felt.
Everything about the toy was amazing! Their strength, their honesty, their compassion, especially their endlessly fascinating body, and yet she could never get out the three simple words.
‘I like you.’
Because there was no way that they would ever feel the same way about such a……………………………………..failure.
Failed as an artist.
Failed as a manager.
Failed in every relationship.
Failed to even keep her composure everyday.
And failed to think things through too, because she was going to force Ragatha into a situation where she had to confess? When Gangle herself knew the impossibility of that task?
No.
No, she couldn’t do that.
She SHOULDN’T do that.
Gangle flicked open the lighter and held it and the page out from her body to set it ablaze.
As the fire engulfed it she let the page go, and after a minute there was nothing but a page-shaped pile of ash hanging in midair.
Then it crumpled to the floor.
Destroying evidence was so much simpler with cartoon logic.
Gangle sighed out, set the lighter on her desk, and wandered over to her bed, collapsing onto it.
All night she laid awake and thought about how stupid her plan had been, interspaced with frustration at being in this predicament with Ragatha and frustration that she couldn’t bring herself to resent the kind, infuriatingly pretty doll, because she understood why it was so difficult for her to confess.
God.
Gangle had been so wrong yesterday.
They did fit, too perfectly in fact.
They both understood each other too well…………………………and they were both completely %#$*ed up.