Chapter Text
Caine hadn't been seen all day, much to Zooble's delight. They had finally gotten some peace and quiet around this bleak combination of color coded shapes, and they were spending it with the best friends that they finally had time for, Gangle and Ragatha. It had been a few hours since they were awake, but they hadn't seen any of the other members yet.
Ragatha had offered for Kinger to sit with them, but he wished to look through his insect collection instead, and she wouldn't want to get in the way of that.
Zooble admittedly didn't know what to do while Caine wasn't around. They had wished for him to leave them alone for so long, but now that he had, they felt it was a little too quiet in the circus. Though, they weren't complaining, as this was the first time they could enjoy their friends company for more than an hour without being interrupted.
"So where do you think Caine went?" Ragatha asked.
"I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. Last time he did this, he shattered everyone's reality and betrayed any trust we could have had in him. Not that there was much to begin with," Zooble grumbled, glaring at the floor.
Ragatha nodded, glancing off to the side. She didn't really want to insult Caine, even if she admittedly held some malicious opinions on him, especially after what he did with the 'escape the circus' adventure. "Well, I'll say we certainly underestimated what he was capable of. He's never made an adventure realistic enough to fool us like that," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Do you think he might be planning on doing another adventure like that? I'm a little worried. I don't want to be manipulated like that again," said Gangle.
"No, I doubt he would do that again, especially not after the earful he got from Jax, of all people," responded Zooble, "even so, I don't think we can trust anything Caine says at this point. He lied about being able to affect our minds, he might be lying about our ability to remember our names, as Pomni mentioned, he might as well have never told them truth once since we got here."
Ragatha looked down, contemplating their words. It terrified her, not knowing the truth this whole time. Her whole life being a lie more than it already was. "It's scary to think about. We all came to terms with our time here already, but now we know Caine has been keeping things from us. Parts of us," she said.
Gangle put her pencil down and placed her sketchbook on the bed beside the other two, allowing them both to see the art. It was a drawing of Ragatha at the beach in her swimsuit.
Ragatha blushed and shook her head. "No way I look that good," she said.
"No, really, you looked great," Gangle insisted.
"Well, your outfit was cooler. Mine was just a swimsuit, but you got such a pretty dress and a lovely sun hat. You should draw that next. Oh, or maybe I should draw it! Unless you want to, of course," Ragatha said excitedly, pulling out her own sketchbook, which was half the size of Gangle's, who nodded and let Ragatha do the drawing. "Yeah, better not to dwell on Caine. Not anything we can do about it now," said Zooble.
"Good job being positive, Zooble!" Ragatha cheered.
"Oh god, your positivity has began to rub off on me. I have to fix this immediately," Zooble joked sarcastically with an eye roll, earning a laugh from the two girls.
Ragatha picked up her sketchbook and started drawing while Gangle began to look around Ragatha's room. She observed many peices of artwork, from small sketches to crochet animals, lined up on a small shelf beside her bed. A wide array of animals sit in a line atop the shelf (a Tiger, Spotted Hyena, Scarlet Makaw, Clouded Leopard, Electric Eel, Moray Eel, Orca, Leopard Seal, etc), but the one that caught Gangle's eye the most was the one hidden behind the shelf, not obvious enough to be spotted by prying eyes. A little boy with a little blue bird on his shoulder, a few realistic blue feathers behind his ear, and a necklace with a blue jewel on it. The jewel reflected the light from the room to give the boy a beautiful blue hue.
"You have really nice plushies, Ragatha. Do you make them yourself?" Asked Gangle. Zooble averted their gaze from Ragatha's drawing to the crochet animals Gangle was speaking about.
"Oh, those? Yeah, I do. I had a lot of free time after adventures for most of my time here, since no one really spoke to me until i started hanging out with you guys," said Ragatha, "I started crocheting my favorite animals, since it gave me something to do and made me feel like I wasn't alone. I have more under my bed if you want to see."
Gangle nodded and that's what the girls (+Zooble) ended up doing for the rest of the time. Gangle found a Lioness, Harpy Eagle, Osprey, Razorbill, Cheetah, Leopard, Jaguar, Saltwater Crocodile, Komodo Dragon, Crocodile Monitor Lizard, Asian Water Monitor, and many other animals under her bed. Ragatha had ended up trying to teach her how to crochet, since Gangle wanted to try making something. Zooble joined in because they figured "why not?"
Ragatha was teaching them how to hold the hooks before they were all suddenly interrupted by Caine yelling something in the hallway.
"So much for enjoying a free day off," Zooble commented with an eye roll, "He better not be planning another stunt."
"Well, if he does, at least this time we know not to fall for it," said Ragatha as she stood up to approach the door.
"Do we have to answer him?" Gangle asked meekly.
"Do we have a choice? He'll just snap us back out there when he loses his patience," said Zooble.
Ragatha opened the door and peeked out at Caine, who was floating around the hallway. Now that the door was open, they could make out what he was yelling about.
"-NEW ADVENTURE IS BEING DELAYED FOR NOW, MY LOST PARADE MUNCHKINS! BUT I HAVE PLENTY OF SURPRISES IN STORE! HOLD ON TIGHT FOR THE MOST HEALING ADVENTURE YOU'VE EVER SEEN!! RIGHT, THE RAGATHA?" Caine shouted before teleporting right in Ragatha's face. She startled and swung her arms out in front of her as she stumbled backwards before regaining her composure.
"Um... what adventure are you planning?" She asked. Better to know in advance so they could prepare. She felt Zooble and Gangle walk up behind her to listed to what Caine had to say.
"IT'S A SECRET SURPRISE! ALTHOUGH IT COULD BE CLASSIFIED AS WHAT YOU HUMANS WOULD CLASSIFY AS 'HEALING' OR 'THERAPUTIC' EVEN! HOPE YOU'RE READY!" He vanished in a poof of smoke shortly afterwards.
"What was that... all about? I was trying to nap," said Jax, groggely peeking out of his room. He looked around at everyone else before Gangle peeked out of Ragatha's room to answer him, "I think he's just telling us about a new adventure."
Jax rolled his eyes and yelled into the empty hallway, "Then I'm not going to be participating! 'Healing Adventure' sounds exhausting," before shutting his door loudly.
Ragatha and Gangle turned back to Zooble in the room, who was holding up a peice of yarn that had been knotted at least 10 times in one spot and shredded in 57 others. "Umm? Any... help?" They asked bashfully.
Ragatha and Gangle got a kick out of that.
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Caine floated around his office, picking put books and files on Psychology, Therapy, and any other related topics and piling them up on his desk. He turned to Bubble as he prepared to read and said "THEY'LL LIKE THIS ONE FOR SURE, I JUST HAVE TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. NOW," Caine flipped to the first page of the top book, "LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!"