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When Pomni returns to the register, she sees Ragatha and the Gloink Queen conversing. The Gloink Queen seems to be talking about the names of her babies while Ragatha stares with wide eyes.
“Hey Ragatha,” The doll quirks up at being called. “I can take it from here,” Pomni says.
Pomni was in an okay mood, though she wasn’t able to talk to Gumigoo much more; they were at least able to bid farewell to each other. It helped her with closure, somewhat, since she wasn’t able to say goodbye the last time.
From staring at the Gloink Queen, Ragatha turns to Pomni with a wide smile that only continues to grow wider. Something seems off about her. Physically, she seems to be struggling, clinging to the counter to not slide down the floor, and her eye looked heavy lidded.
“Hey, Pomni,” She says, slurring her words. Pomni’s brows furrow, concern growing.
“Are you… okay?”
Ragatha giggles to herself, opening her mouth like she’s planning on saying something. A few beats pass. Pomni takes that as her cue to speak again, but Ragatha, with perfect timing, cuts her off. “Of course! Es… specifically, heh, specially… Since you’re here.”
Pomni and the Gloink Queen exchange eye contact.
“Um, right… I can take it from here.” Pomni repeats. She approaches closer to the register, gently nudging Ragatha.
Ragatha smiles. “You can relax your… pretty face on one of the seats there… but first… what do you want to order?”
“Um.”
Ragatha blankly stares at her with a smile.
It’s been kind of clear from the start that Ragatha wants to befriend Pomni, but this seemed more… Forward? Her cheeks warmed up a little at being called pretty, but Pomni didn’t want to think about that.
“I… think you should go back to assembling the burgers.”
“One burger, coming right up!” She jumps from leaning on the counter. Then she drops to the floor. Then she slowly crawls back up to go to her original spot.
Pomni watches, confused, as Ragatha begins to grab a bun.
-
“You know, a team works much better when we're all giving it 110% instead of, uh… 5?”
Ragatha was obviously acting weird. Gangle decides to herself that she has to be the one to fix whatever’s going on with her. Maybe with some more motivational quotes that she’s oh-so familiar with, back when she went through this in the real world.
“You know… you’re kind of adorable when you have your happy mask.” Ragatha blurts out.
What. (A slight crack can be heard)
Zooble can be heard letting out an amused huff, and Gangle stares at Ragatha with a slightly blushing face. Ragatha returns to face planting at the counter.
“Wait… is that weird to say?” She mutters to herself.
Admittedly… Gangle is a little flustered that Ragatha called her cute, but… she has to focus. Gangle has to run this shift perfectly. Now isn’t the time to mess around. She is a person in power right now!
… Why isn’t Ragatha taking her seriously?
Is she really not assertive enough to be the manager?
Is she truly destined to be incompetent her whole life?
Is she meant to suffer knowing she is unable to become something she is not?
…
Gangle returns to her senses. And briefly remembers hearing her mask crack a few seconds ago. Right.
She looks at Ragatha, then looks at Zooble. Her heart sinks as she realizes that it’s clear she couldn’t do it. She can’t help Ragatha.
“Zooble, help Ragatha with the assembly. I’m… gonna go over here now.” She says to herself out loud as she walks away.
Zooble sighs, looking concerned as Gangle begins to walk to a corner. Once Gangle was out of sight, Zooble returned to look at Ragatha, who was already staring at them with a focused gaze.
“You’re a grunch… but you…” She trails off for a beat, “… you can be soft.”
“Okay.” Zooble replies dismissively, turning back at the situation at hand. Although they weren’t entirely pleased with how Ragatha was acting, it’s probably out of her control, and the most Zooble can do is just finish the task. They prepare to help assemble the burgers.
“Can you be… soft with me too? Heh…” She chuckles at herself.
Zooble huffs again. They know Ragatha must’ve huffed paint or something, but it was a little bit amusing. It was kind of cute, honestly. Zooble softens their gaze a little.
Surely Gangle can handle herself for the time being, but Zooble will check on her later. And maybe lighten her burden of being the manager. They may not like doing adventures, but they want to help Gangle.
“Maybe,” Ragatha visibly brightens up at Zooble’s words, “If you assemble 200 more burgers.”
“You’re on!” Ragatha exclaims. She grabs the ketchup and puts some in the bun until she slides to the floor, the ketchup going with her, leaving a trail from the counter to the floor.
Though Zooble always had kind of wanted Ragatha to take a break and not always have to bend herself over just to please anyone, her not being in the right state of mind isn’t exactly what Zooble expected for it to finally happen.
Zooble sighs.
They have an inkling that they would have to be the one to take Ragatha home, or wherever home is for today’s adventure. But it’s fine, this certainly isn’t the first time.
-
This adventure has been too weird. Weird enough that Jax just doesn’t have the energy to mess around anymore. He just wants this shift to be over. As he walks, he notices a certain someone lying on the ground.
Great.
“Can you move?” He doesn’t even try with his tone anymore.
“Yo… Jax. I… don’t… know how to feel about you? But I want you to love me.”
…
“Is that weird?”
He doesn’t have the time to unpack that.
“You’re… drunk, or something.”
Maybe if he were in a better mood, he would’ve teased her a bit. Maybe make her admit to things that she would regret once she becomes sober again. To poke fun at her later on for being fake and hiding her true feelings. (Totally not ironic of Jax to think of.)
…
But he was exhausted.
And her vacant, seemingly genuine (but also inebriated) smile that’s nowhere near the forced ones she has to put up when having to deal with Jax causing trouble is definitely not making him feel weird.
He finally looks away and walks over her, seemingly heading to the register just to get out of the situation. Exhausted enough that he might even make small talk with Pomni
“Oh yeah, heh,” Ragatha mutters to herself. He can still feel her eyes on him.
He can’t wait for this shift to be over.
-
Ragatha wakes up with a terrible headache, which is something that happens sometimes when Caine forgets to reset her after an adventure. That must’ve happened with yesterday’s adventure, too.
She groans as she sits up in her bed, seeing the culprit of her headache at the foot of her bed.
The stupid sauce.
As she remembers the stupid sauce, she remembers the Spudsy’s adventure. As she remembers the Spudsy’s adventure, she remembers the things that she said to her friends.
Why in the world did she do that?
Is she that desperate to be wanted? To be loved?
Seeing Pomni trying so hard to talk to the gummy guy compared to her may have made her even more desperate. Especially under the influence of the stupid sauce. But it was embarrassing to think about. It felt awful to remember how easily she spiraled. Whether Pomni really was into that NPC or not is none of her business. Especially not after the way she acted towards her. She must’ve been so weirded out.
Gangle must really hate her now. She remembers how strained she looked when Ragatha didn’t take her seriously. No matter how much she tries to get Gangle to be more open and comfortable with her, she only seems to close herself off more. It’s like no matter what she does, she is just always set to do wrong. Like she’s the one set to break her comedy mask if Jax doesn’t. She can already see Gangle distance herself from her. It hurts her heart.
Zooble was so nice, but it definitely made Ragatha guilty. She was supposed to be the capable one, but she let Zooble handle her stupid sauced state and even drove her home. So maybe she felt her heart race at the memory of Zooble being so gentle with her, but she didn’t deserve that. Not after how she treated Gangle. They should’ve just let her lie on the dirty floor of Spudsy’s and take Gangle instead. She should have stayed on the cold floor to repent for her actions.
And it was so embarrassing to remember the things she said to Jax. He wasn’t supposed to know that she’s confused about how she feels about him. She hates him… but she also… doesn’t. A part of her wishes things could go back to the way they were, but it’s clear that ever since Ribbit, things will never be the same.
She doesn’t want to leave the room at all. Her pupil turns squiggly as she blames herself for every stupid thing she's done. The way her friends had to hear her say things she never would have said in the right state of mind is the worst one yet. Is she a bad person for saying those kinds of things? Is her stupid sauced state her true self?
If she was really a good person, she wouldn’t have been so desperate to be loved that she started flirting with everyone, not considering their feelings at all.
Before she spirals even more, she gets teleported by Caine to the main area.
“Now that everyone’s here, are my sweet little seahorses ready to go underwater?!”
“You already know I’m not coming,” Zooble responds.
“Well, if you hate FUN, then BOO!” Caine screams, then turns to the rest of the group in a comical manner with a sweet smile, contrasting how crazy he looked a second ago. “Well, off you go!”
A portal appears out of nowhere, and the group (except Zooble) all head towards it.
No comment (yet) about what Ragatha has done. She was even able to exchange a (strained) smile towards Gangle, and Gangle returned a smile of her own, too (which was also strained). At least it isn’t bad enough that Gangle won’t acknowledge her.
The sense of normalcy returns enough that Ragatha can suppress her emotions until she comes back to the safety of her room later.
For now, no thoughts about complicated feelings with her friends.