Chapter Text
Caine sat alone in his office. He couldn't believe what Zooble had told him. Was it true? Did they really not like his adventures? No, he reasoned with himself; they couldn't dislike his adventures. They went on every single one of them, except Zooble. Yes, this must be a Zooble thing, he thought. But then he took into consideration the other things Zooble had said: that Jax only liked to mess with everyone, that Ragatha was too nice to say anything, that Gangle was too shy to speak up, and that Kinger was insane. And Pomni? She looked traumatized every time she came back from one. He thought about it for a moment, and another moment, and another moment, and another moment, and he realized Zooble was right. No one liked his (not) stupid adventures.
What was he supposed to do? He couldn't just live with himself knowing that none of his beautiful humans liked the thing he spent his entire life doing. I mean, could he? Could he really just let Zooble's harsh words go like they were nothing? No, no, he couldn't. He had to find some way to get them to like his adventures. “Why don't you do something with Polly?” said Bubble. “What are you talking about?” responded Caine. “I mean, why don't you do something with Polly since, you know, you plan to keep her in a box for the rest of eternity?” Caine didn't like to think about Polly, mainly because she didn't make sense to him. Mainly because she was no fun; she never wanted him to make adventures that would be “too dangerous” for the humans to go on. She wanted them all to be in-house, with instructions, maps and walkie-talkies everywhere you turned, with pink glitter, sparkles, and rainbows. And weirdest of all, she always insisted on having some sort of celebration after completing the adventure; it made no sense to him.
“Haha, oh Bubble, you always know how to make me say this exact sentence. What am I supposed to do with Polly? Have her make the adventures? I mean, if Polly made the adventures, they would be so terrible I bet that the humans would never want her to make adventures again… which would mean they would like my adventures! Bubble, you're a genius.”
Caine snapped his fingers and in an instant summoned the box that contained his long locked up sister/playmate and opened it.....
The circus crew wandered over to the stage, expecting Caine to say today's adventure is so and so and go on about something they didn't care about just so they could have something to do to keep their minds intact before they, you know, abstracted, possibly or inevitably. What they didn't expect was to find a gigantic pink box on the stage; odd, but it was probably for the adventure, some of them reasoned. "Oh no, is this going to be a Barbie-themed adventure?" mumbled Jax under his breath. "What's wrong with Barbie?" said Pomni, responding to his question that obviously wasn't meant for her. Before Jax could answer her sarcastically he was interpreted by a pair of dentures everyone in the circus knew all too well.
"Hello, my wacky wackazoos," Caine said as he entered the room from nowhere. "As you know, I'd usually assign you an adventure for today, but I have decided to go on vacation. But don't worry your pretty little human hamburger heads; there's going to be someone else in charge of making the adventures and its none other than my precious old playmate and sister, Polly Darling." Caine turned to the side to draw attention to the ominous pink box. The pink box in question opened up to reveal a strange puppet-like woman whose wooden body coated in plastic resembled the NPCs, wearing a big top hat that was just like Caine's but sparkly and pink with a yellow ribbon, and it covered her face; a cropped pink sleeveless suit with a cream white undershirt; along with a shimmery pink skirt and yellow knee-high socks ; pink sparkly Mary Jane shoes, and she was carrying a pink and yellow glitter baton/wand(?) with a ribbon on the bottom, because of course it did.
The woman stepped toward the edge of the stage with her hat still covering her face. It was only when she was near the edge of it that she stopped and lifted her head to reveal... "Wow, Pomni, congratulations, you have a twin now," Jax joked, even though no one laughed. While it was true that Pomni's and the strange AI's faces bore a resemblance to one another (the only real differences being the fact her eyes were brown, her eyelashes were symmetrical, and she didn't have blush stickers), but that was about where their similarities ended. The new female AI had a strange expression on her face that was certainly an... expression. The gang couldn't tell if it meant she was judging them or if it meant she knew how to kill them in 57 different ways.
"Well, Polly Darling, my dear, don't you have anything to say to your new tentmates?" Caine asked with his usual enthusiasm. The Stranger turned to Caine and smiled like an anime character would, and then she turned back to the circus gang with a much more serious expression on her face, "There is something really wrong with all of you," she growled in the deep voice that was obviously fake, her words sent a mild wave of dread though the circus gang. "Really, what?" Ragatha asked, genuinely hoping to get clarification. "You're all way too cute to be real!" the new AI squealed at the top of her lungs. “Phew, I thought there was really something wrong with us,” Ragatha sighed, knowing that her self-esteem wasn't going to be bruised.
“Well, Polly darling, do you think you could take it from here?” Caine yelled, overly enthusiastic as always. “Oh, Caine, I don't think I can take it from here; I know I can take it from here,” the AI woman yelled, just as enthusiastically as he did. She stepped off the stage (almost floating as she did so), waving to her old playmate/brother while he put on a cartoonish Hawaiian shirt and poofed away in a cloud of smoke, leaving the humans of the circus with many questions.
"All right, now that my brother/old playmate is gone, do you cute little humans have any questions? Just for Polly Darling," their new temporary ringmaster asked in the same sing-songy tone Caine would use. "Yeah, like, who the f[boing]k are you?" Zooble asked from the back of the crowd with only six people in it.
Their new female ringmaster looked taken aback and kind of hurt by Zooble's question/comment. Regardless, she answered, "I was pretty sure my brother/playmate told you about me, but I suppose a proper introduction is in order." She raised her baton/wand in the air and began writing her name with it like she was in a Disney Channel bumper. "My name is Polly Darling," she exclaimed, as if she were going to end that sentence with "and you're watching Disney Channel."
“I'm Caine’s sister/playmate, and I'm here to keep you little cutie pies happy, healthy, and safe.” “Yeah, I figured as much, but how come we haven’t heard of you until literally just now?” Zooble growled with frustration. "Yeah, why haven't we heard of you until now?" Pomni added.
"Well, did you ever ask about me?" their female ringmaster said, almost sarcastically, although she probably didn't know the meaning of the word. "Well, no, but that's because we didn't know you existed," Pomni responded. "Well, then... that's actually a really good reason not to ask a question about me." The ringmaster in pink actually looked a little heartbroken that her brother/playmate hadn't, you know, brought her up before or, at the very least, alluded to her existence in the past. I mean, why else wouldn't they have asked? "So, does anyone else have any questions?" she exclaimed as she scanned the crowd of six people. "You, Purple bunny on the left," she said as she pointed toward Jax.
"Yeah, you're not going to make the whole circus pink, are you?" he said with concern, a rare emotion for him. "Unfortunately, no. You see, due to only being your temporary ringmaster, I can't mess with the tent, lake, or carnival, so I can't make the circus pink, although I would love to."
A brief silence waved throughout the circus tent until finally, the woman in pink spoke up. "Well, since you cuties don't have any more questions, I guess it's my turn. So, you, small smile, what's your favorite thing to do when you're not going on adventures?" She announced as she pointed toward Gangle, who had been completely silent up until this point.
Gangle thought for a moment because she hadn't expected to be the center of attention today. Regardless, she took a breath and spoke up weakly, "I-I like to draw." "Ha, nerd!" Jax exclaimed, even though it wasn't needed.
The woman in pink, surprisingly, or at least to Jax, began marching over to him with a very angry look on her face. "Listen here, r-r-rabbit," she spat out with venom that he never expected to ever hear from an AI. "That kind of behavior will not be tolerated as long as I am around. Do you hear me?" His pupils shrank for a second and then they reset quickly with a blink. "What behavior?" he asked sarcastically. "The kind that gets you sent to your room," she stated with a smug expression, still full of spite. That being said, she pointed her baton/wand at Jax, with the end that had the ribbon on it facing him, and waved it around in a circle as if she were casting a spell.
"Wait wha-," Suddenly, Jax was swallowed by a pink glittery flash of light and he was gone. "Did you just kill him?" Zooble quietly uttered in surprised shock. "Of course not, I just sent him to his room," explained Polly. "Now, back to the real star of the show." She turned around and pointed towards Gangle. "You said you like to draw." Gangle nodded her head in agreement.
"Well, I don't like to draw," the female ringmaster said, which made Gangle hang her head low. "I love it!" Polly exclaimed. "You know, you really shouldn't mislead us like that," said Zooble with concern. Polly turned toward Zooble with a way less spiteful expression than the one she gave Jax, but still having an aura of spite around it. She only stopped when she was 1 ft. away from being in Zooble's face. "What was your name again?" she said in a way different tone than she had used previously. Zooble froze, a bit nervous. "Uh, Zooble," they said, hoping she wasn't mad at them (which was weird because they never usually cared whether authority figures were mad at them). In an instant, she pulled out a notepad that looked like it came straight out of a Lisa Frank collection and began mumbling to herself, "Zooble does not like to be misled, okay." When she was finished writing, she looked Zooble in the eye with a happy expression on her face and gave them a smile.
She turned around and walked back toward Gangle. "So what's your favorite thing to draw, buddy?" Polly asked with wide eyes. "Uh, anime," Gangle stated, slightly embarrassed to admit it. "What was your name again?" Polly said, tilting her head. "Uh, Gangle." "Well, Gangle, can I tell you something about me?" "Um, yeah." "I don't know what anime is. Could you please explain it to me?" Gangle froze; it had been a long time since she had explained what anime was to someone (who probably wouldn't judge her). Nevertheless, she still opened her mouth and did her best to explain her hyperfixations. "It's Japanese cartoons, although they come in all shapes and sizes: magical girl, slice of life (which is my favorite), isekai, and Shonen.. and that's all I can think of for right now."
Gangle stopped, embarrassed about how long she had gone on for, but she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of herself for talking about her interests so passionately. "That's amazing," Polly exclaimed. "Now that you've shared what you like, I'm sure your friends will want to share..." She abruptly cut herself off when she realized there was no one else around. "Where did everyone go?" Polly wondered to herself as she looked around. "Gangle, where does everyone normally go when they're done with their adventures?" "The lobby," Gangle answered. "And where is the lobby?" "Over there." Gangle pointed to an area with a bunch of couches (that Polly wasn't familiar with), and they wandered over together.
Gangle and Polly rejoined the group of everyone except Jax. "There you littles guys are! Gangle was just in the middle of explaining anime to me." "Well, it was kind of awkward to just be standing there when you and Gangle were just kind of having a conversation," Pomni explained. "No offense," Ragatha excused herself, even though it wasn't needed. "So, what do you guys think?" Polly questioned. "Think of what?" Pomni questioned back. "Of me."
Zooble's eye rolled and twitched almost out of instinct. Zooble's eye rolled and twitched almost out of instinct. "Great, now I have another egocentric AI to deal with," Zooble thought to themselves."Oh, I mean, I guess you're all right," Pomni said, a little confused. "Well, you did just get here and you already seem to have made friends with Gangle, so I guess you're fine," Ragatha added, and Kinger stared off into space. A brief wave of silence washed over the circus gang (sans Jax).
A brief wave of awkward silence washed over the circus gang (sans Jax), at least until Polly broke it. "So did you guys go on an adventure yet?" "No," answered Pomni. "All right," answered back Polly. "You know, you guys are a lot less fun than I thought you'd be," Polly said to the confusion, (and anger for Zooble) of everyone in the room. "I'm Sorry, but what the actual F[pot shatter]K do you mean by that?" Zooble spat with anger as they sat up from their chair. "I'm sorry?" Polly said, confused (and a little bit saddened). "D—Did I hurt your feelings?" She clutched her baton/wand the same way someone would clutch their pearls.
Zooble felt quite puzzled by Polly’s mild shift in tone. "You know what? Never mind, it's okay," they said as they sat back down, cutting the conversation short. To say that Polly was confused and frustrated would be an understatement; it felt like Zooble had just stood up at her wedding during the vows to object to her marriage and then sat back down as if they hadn't just stood up. Fortunately for Polly and unfortunately for Zooble, she's just as stubborn as she is pink. Polly walked over to Zooble. “Huh, what are you—” “Sorry cuties, but Zooble and I have to go talk in private, love you, bye-bye!” And with that, Polly twirled her baton/wand, and she and Zooble poofed away in a cloud of pink smoke.
By the time Zooble was able to finish blinking, the scenery had changed from the lobby to their bedroom, which was quite a big shock to them and took a few more blinks to get used to.
"So," Polly said, breaking the silence, "Are you going to answer my question from earlier?" "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F[firework]K IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!" Zooble exclaimed suddenly, confusing Polly further. "Well, What The FLIPPER-FLIP-FLIPPER-FLOP Is Wrong With YOU?!" Polly screamed back to try and combat Zooble's accusatory question. "THE F[donk-donk]K YOU MEAN, 'What's Wrong With Me?' YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SAID, 'You're Not As Fun As I Thought You'd Be.' What THE F[brople]K does that even mean?" Zooble spat back. "What it means is that talking to you humans is like talking to a goddamn brick wall," Polly explained angrily.
Polly covered her mouth as a wave of speechlessness washed over both of them. Polly walked over to Zooble's bed and sat down, rubbing her temples. "Zooble, do you not like me?" Polly said, worried. "No, not really," Zooble said, confirming Polly’s suspicions. "Oh," Polly said sadly. "Is it because I hurt your feelings?" Polly asked, trying to find the source of Zooble's discontent. "No, it's not because you hurt my feelings. It's just—get out of my room."
"Okay," Polly said, defeated, as she got up and walked to the door. "Okay," Polly said, defeated, as she got up and walked to the door. "Zooble," Polly said, turning back. "What is it now?" Zooble said, still a bit frustrated.
"I love you," Polly said wholeheartedly.
To say that Zooble was surprised would be correct because they were; they never expected to hear the words "I love you," especially not from somebody that wasn't even real, but they were still in a bad mood, so they responded coldly, "Whatever, just get out."
Polly blew Zooble a kiss and walked out the door.
Polly walked down the hallway until she came to the room of a certain troublemaking rabbit. She knocked on his door, and when he didn't answer, she just started singing, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do." "I'm half crazy—" "Wow, room service. This was totally worth interrupting my nap," Jax stated sarcastically. "Hi..." she trailed off, scanning his appearance for anything that could possibly be a name. "Purple bunny," she said finally, deciding on something about him.
"Are you ready to be a nice bunny and not interrupt peo—" "Are you ready to stop being a complete bimbo b[spronk]h?" Polly zoned out, and then she took Jax's wrist and started dragging him over to Gangle's room. "Wait, you're not going to make me—" Jax's worries were cut off when Gangle answered the door. "Jax has something he'd like to say to you, sweetie." Polly gestured over to the rabbit and stepped out of the as to make so all the attention was on him.
After a brief period of silence he spoke... "Your face is stupid."
There are no words to describe how frustrated was Polly with Jax at that moment; Gangle, however, felt indifferent. "Jax," Polly said in the same spiteful tone she'd used earlier, "do you like dresses?" she asked with a manic smile that you'd see in a horror movie." N-” “That’s great! Because you're gonna wear one on the next adventure,” Polly said with the gusto her brother/playmate would say it with.
Polly pulled Gangle aside and put a newspaper up between the two so Jax couldn't hear them. “Gangle, sweetie, I'm so sorry about Jax’s rudeness. Do you want me to burn him?” “Tempting,” Gangle said with a smirk, “but no, it wouldn't really solve anything.” “Okay, your loss, sweetheart.” Polly discarded the newspaper, walked back over to Jax, and began to push him. “All right, now I'm going to walk our little Jaxy-waxy back to his room now. Okay, love you, bye.”
"Bye." Gangle said softly as she waved them goodbye and went back into her room. It was nice to be told that she was loved, even if the person telling her wasn't really a person at all.
When Polly and Jax arrived at his room, Polly slapped Jax’s hand away just before it could reach for the door. “What was that for?” Polly stared at him with spite. “Guess.” Jax gulped as he felt an emotion he would never admit to feeling. Polly, noticing the expression on Jax's face, softened her own. "Look, Jax, I only want to make sure you stay on good terms with all your friends, because if you don't stay on good terms with your friends, you'll end up sad and alone."
There was a brief pause that was broken when Jax started laughing. "Hahaha, you're good, you're good. You really want me to believe that you care about me?" It was at that moment that Polly's heart ripped in half.
"So can I go to my room now, or what?" Jax asked in his usual nonchalant fashion. "Yes, you can," Polly said. She looked to the floor and covered her face with her hat to hide her tears.
“Jax,” said Polly, “what is it now?” “I love you.” Jax's face scrunched up. “Sure you do.”
And with that Jax slammed the door.
Polly made her way to Ragatha's bedroom and knocked on the door. She wasn't exactly in the mood to sing again. She had just started walking away when Ragatha opened the door.
"Ragatha," Polly said as she whipped around. "How are you doing?" "Oh hi, Polly, I'm doing just fine. I just wasn't expecting you to visit. That's great; can I come in?" "Absolutely," she said cheerfully, gesturing as she moved out of the way so Polly could get in.
Polly walked into Ragatha's room. "Oh my gosh, Ragatha," she squealed, "your room is so cute!" “Aww, thank you,” Ragatha said, tucking her hair behind her nonexistent ear. Polly walked over to her bed and sat down. "So you like—" Polly's eyes scanned the room for anything that might possibly be of interest to Ragatha. "Piano?"
"Oh yeah," Ragatha responded, "I guess I like the piano, although I really only started taking lessons because my mom forced me to. I actually prefer the cello, if I do say so myself." "Oh, that's—" Polly cut herself off. "Wait, why did your mommy force you to do it?" "Well, I—" Ragatha was at a loss for words. She couldn't just tell her AI God that she had an abusive mother, could she?"
“Oh, don’t worry about it; my mom forced me to do a lot of things as a kid. I mean, I was just a kid; I didn’t know any better, so it was all fine and dandy,” Ragatha said in an attempt to regain control over the situation. Polly glared at her. “Hmm, okay,” Polly exclaimed, believing Ragatha's lies. Polly looked at her nonexistent wristwatch. “Oh gee whiz, is that the time? I’d better go check on our little jester friend, shouldn’t I?”
"Well, in that case, tell Pomni I said hi," Ragatha said, being able to switch back into her normal, (fake) happy demeanor. "I will! Bye, I love you!" Polly said as she rushed out the door.
"Yeah, I love you too," Ragatha said wholeheartedly under her breath.
Polly rushed to get to Pomni's door, nearly missing it. She knocked on it rapidly until Pomni answered. "Why are you knocking so much?" "Pomni, there you are, you little cutie pie," Polly said, pinching her cheeks. When she was done, Pomni rubbed her face. "Okay, first of all, don't do that. Second of all, how come you know my name?"
“Because my little brother/old playmate gave me all your mind files, of course.”
Pomni looked at her weirdly, like she didn't know what she was talking about. "Okay, quick question: why did you ask Gangle and Zooble their names when you would have known them via the mind files?" Holly zoned out for a hot second and then came back down to Earth, or rather the digital realm. "Because I wanted to be polite, of course."
Pomni gave her that funny look again. "Okay, did you have anything else to tell me?" "Yes, actually. You know Ragatha?" "Yeah." "Well, she says hi."
There was a brief pause between the two of them. "Welp, I've got to go check on Kinger. Bye, I love you."
"Okay, bye," Pomni yelled back at Polly. "That was weird."
Polly walked up to Kinger's pillow fort, removing one of the pillows to see Kinger. Kinger greeted her by jumping back in shock. “Oh, hi.” Kinger came to his senses, realizing who it was. “Polly?” “Yeah, can I come in?” Polly asked. “Of course, sweetheart,” Kinger said softly.
Polly sat crisscross applesauce in the pillow fort once she was inside. “So, how have you been?” Polly and Kinger talked for hours, catching up on all the things that they had missed about each other while Polly had been locked away by her younger brother/old playmate.
It only stopped when Polly checked her imaginary wristwatch again. "Oh golly, gee-willikers, is that the time? I'd better get to making my office." "Wait, Polly, before you go," Kinger grabbed her wrist, "I just want you to know that I love you." Polly smiled at Kinger. "Yeah, I love you too."
And with that, Polly walked out of Kinger's pillow fort, smiling wider than ever.
Polly conjured up a blank office space with her baton/wand and then immediately got to decorating it with pink, baby dolls, and glitter.
(AN: Basically anything you'd see on a girly Nostalgia Pinterest board)
When she had finished decorating her very, very decorated space, she sat down at her desk, pulled out another Lisa Frank-style notebook, and began writing down adventure ideas.
“ Man, wait till those little sweetiehearts see this. ..”