Chapter Text
“WHO KILLED JAX!!!!!” Caine yells, as the letters behind him spell out the name of the adventure.
“Jesus- Caine-?! Don’t pop out at us like that!!” Zooble yells.
Jax couldn’t hold back a laugh “well that’s ominous” everyone’s looking at him now.
“This adventure will start out in a very normal dinner party between people who don’t really get along! But tragedy strikes! As Jax is…. MURDERED!!! You all will have to figure out who did it!”
“So… it’s Clue.” Jax says.
“EVERY MURDER MYSTRY PLAYS OUT LIKE THIS. ALSO I DONT KNOW WHAT CLUE IS.” Caine screams…. But like-… if he knows Clue is a thing… he has to know what Clue is-???
“I’m sitting out of this one.” Zooble says.
“W-wait! This adventure is everything you ever wanted!!!” Caine says “it’ll be calm, Jax will be not there for most of it, Zooble please-!!! I made it just for you!”
“I didn’t ask you to make me anything. None of us even wanted to be here.” Zooble rolls their eyes.
“That’s not true!” Caine says “gangle, tell them!”
“what-?! Tell them what-???” Gangle seems confused.
Caine snaps, making a portal “to give it a try! Zooble will love it!” Before forcing them all in.
.
.
.
In the hall in a mansion six people stand.
One, a very rich and successful woman, her father owned a financing agency. She dressed in a feminine style black suite, with a white under shirt.
“Oh!” She spoke “I got a paper! It says I’m the financial worker” She looked down to read it “hmm… it gave us last names? For whatever reason? It says I’m Ragatha Dizzenscooter… it looks like I was childhood friends with…”
The next. A wealthy man, who had too, been born into a lucky family. He went to a school filled with others who was as fortunate as he, and quickly became the head of a tech company. “Pomni Bagelgrooven. I’m the husband… apparently?” She speaks. “I don’t really know that much about tech but uh… I guess I’ll try my best to get in character?” She shrugs.
Pomni is dressed in a suite jacket as well, a lighter blue, a little more casual, but with a very expensive looking watch on her wrist.
“It’s nice we get to be childhood friends though!” Ragatha says.
“Oh! I’m next!!!!” Screamed the next person, a man who wears a butler outfit “what are we doing?”
“You’re card, we’re reading them” pomni explains.
“Oh this card!!! Kinger Pillowtoes! The butler!!!” He reads outloud. A trustworthy man, who knows the house inside and out.
Behind him there’s a groan, from the forth person. “Oh [$%!#]. Caine that name is the worst.” They complain.
They work at a movie studio, managing the rights to the works they hire people to create, trying to negotiate deals with others. They dress extreme, with multicolored pants, and a jacket with harsh colors and patterns, they even wear strangely shaped glasses, most likely custom made, or from a high end designer.
“What about you Zooble?” Ragatha then asks.
“Zooble Fluffenfussen.” They sigh “why do we even need last names??? It’s not like we’re going to remember them????” They roll their eyes “whatever, I’m like… a movie studio person? I don’t know. I’m also rich too or some [$%!#]”
Behind them there is a woman. “Fluffy-fluffen…fuss- huh. That’s really hard to say” she says.
Zoobles demeanor immediately softens “hey gangle what did you get?”
“Oh! I’m Gangle Poppenquack! It says I’m a famous author!” She giggles. She wears a casual brown outfit, with a long skirt, it looks like something a librarian may wear, very comfortable.
“Oh that’s cool.” They say.
“Wait what about-“
And the last is the most important of course…
.
“Don’t look at me.” This was stupid. Jax didn’t look at his card. It was just stupid. But of course everyone was already looking at him-
Caine just wanted to torment him. Making an adventure where he’s going to die wasn’t torture enough apparently!!
Jax wears a dress. Of course, yellow and pink, in a floral pattern, riddled with fancy ruffles, as well as a big earring near the bottom of his rabbit ears, and a golden necklace, and atop his head is black hair.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Pomni then asks.
Jax didn’t even need to read it to know.
But he did anyways “I’m Jax Bagelgrooven… I guess. I’m ‘wife’ apparently.” Which was dumb! If there’s a husband and wife role why in the world did Jax get the wife one?! (What did Caine know-? It made Jax very, very uncomfortable.)
Everyone seems to ‘ohh’ silently to themselves.
That, of course, is not all the note card says. And Jax takes a minute to read it over, while everyone else reads theirs silently to themselves. Jax assumes, if this is anything like Clue. One of these notecards probably says who the killer is.
If Jax is going to die anyways… is there a harm in snooping?
He goes to pomnis side, she’s very short so it’s not a too big effort for Jax to lean over and try to look at her card. But it’s… blank.
“Jax-?!!!!”
“Why is it blank?”
“Huh?” She says “no it’s not.” She looks down at her card, it’s still blank.
“Can I see yours?” She then asks.
Sure… what’s the harm in that.
“Oh. Yours is blank too.”
Wait that makes sense, Caine probably programmed that in, so they wouldn’t know who the killer is by checking the cards.
“Boring.” Jax says.
Whatever.
“Okay!” He speaks up “if everyone’s done reading their cards I guess we should start this. I apparently, own this house, and my husband, pomni is also here” he gestures at pomni “and you’re all people I know. And I planned this dinner for uh…. Work reasons-? I think? Can’t wait to have this dinner and totally not get murdered.” Whatever. Jax was normally a better actor but all this was so stupid.
“Yeah!” Pomni says “thanks for coming over!”
“Of course!!” Ragatha smiles “anything for an old friend!”
“Let’s get dinner or something” Jax says, starting to walk to the dining room.
The table was just as grand as the rest of the house. And Jax takes the head seat at the table.
There’s intricate glasses, with red wine poured into them, a table mat, as well as a plate in front of each chair. Jax has a golden fork and spoon. Zooble has a cartoonish red and blue knife, while everyone else has sliver forks, spoons, and duller knives.
“I’ll get the food!”
“Thanks kinger!” Pomni calls out.
Then an idea hits Jax smiles, looking at the glasses. “I’m going to make a toast!” He then grins, holding up the drink (just like his note card said to do.) “to you gangle! Anything you want to say about that.” He puts the pressure on her, the notecard didn’t say to do that part, but what fun is there in having a toast without making someone do an impromptu speech!
She jumps, before pulling out her card again and scanning through it (he wonders how much information she even had. Does she even know why.) “y-yes- uhm… I’m honored! Without your uh… publishing… thing, my book would never had gotten so successful which is… the reason why we’re here… I think? So thanks Jax!” Eh yeah, she got it.
“Of course ribbons.” Jax sits down, before taking a swig of the pink drink.
Zooble rolls their eyes “when is Jax going to die already”
“Wow! We already have a suspect don’t we?” Jax grins. “Remember they said that after I died!”
“Jax-! And- ugh” ragatha sighs “let’s just enjoy dinner.”
Suddenly lighting strikes. Turning off every light in the room except for one, above gangles chair. For a moment she is the only person anyone can see.
Lighting strikes, and it doesn’t stop, gangle jumps. And there’s sounds of shuffling, but it’s impossible to tell if it’s from the outside or inside the room. It’s so incredibly loud, and the lights flash. They do this for a while.
Then a burning pain. All around Jax, he can’t feel anything, except for hurt.
The lights turn on but Jax can’t move. he can see, but he’s in a state of paralysis.
Kinger gasps.
“Oh my-“ ragatha says “I didn’t think it’d happen so soon! I didn’t see anyone move-?! How did that happen so fast!”
“Aw man, my wife” pomni kinda chuckles to herself.
“I mean… we all kinda knew it was going to happen. Can whoever killed Jax just speak up so we can be done with this adventure” Zooble says.
“Wasn’t me” pomni says immediately.
“W-well it wasn’t me either!!!” Ragatha says quickly. “And I doubt it could’ve been kinger… he probably doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
“I know!!” Kinger says “we’re trying to slay the dragon!”
“It was dark.” Pomni mumbles “but you were the first one to try to get attention off yourself Zooble.” Pomni points out. “And we ALL saw gangle, the whole time. So it couldn’t have been her.
“Y-yeah!!” Ragatha says.
“So what? You think I did it? If I did I’d just say it.” They shrug.
Pomni hums.
“Well uh-… since everyone saw me, I think it would make the most since for me to be the detective” gangle then says “plus I do write murder mystery’s, I think that’s what my book was about.” She then adds on “so it should be my job to interrogate you guys!!!”
And suddenly Jax could move again.
“Thank god” he sighs.
Gangles eyes snap over to him. And he stretches, standing up from his chair and… oh. He’s still sitting in the chair. Not now, but physically? His body is.
He’s not in his body.
The only one looking at him is gangle.
“What?” He says. And no one reacts.
He looks down at his body, still in that stupid dress, but now slightly transparent.
Oh. He’s a ghost, basically in some sort of spectator mode.
“Uhm gangle?” Ragatha says “who do you want to investigate first?”
“Right- uh sorry.” Gangle shakes her head (does she… see him?) “l’ll talk to you all first! One on one.” She looks at him again.
“Sounds good.”
“Let’s do Zooble.” Gangle says. “Everyone else out of the room.”
Jax doesn’t follow them, gangle can clearly see Jax, but she doesn’t seem like she expects him to leave.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I mean… you were there?” Zooble shrugs “I was sitting down, the lights went out, I saw you, I could basically only see you, it was loud, and then Jax was dead.” They sigh “if I killed him I would’ve said that, i mean it too. I kinda was hoping I would be the killer so I could just say it was me honestly.”
Jax doesn’t know if he believes that.
Gangle seems just as skeptical.
“And what was your relation to Mrs. Bagelgrooven?”
Zooble laughs “you actually remembered the name- alright I guess if you want to play along I can too” they sigh “I knew Mr. Bagel- uh pomni in high school, we weren’t close friends like ragatha and her, but we kinda knew each other. I didn’t have a big personal relationship to either of them, but your books are very popular gangle, and the studio I work for still would be interested in making them into movies.” Zooble says “and for whatever plot reason Jax kept saying no to it, apparently my studios movies are [$%!#] and known to take away creative control from creators. Because Caine decided to make my character an [$%!#]hole.”
Gangle giggles. “So I guess if Jax’s company isn’t there to protect my books it would be easier to get the rights to them?”
“Is that how that works-?” Zooble asks.
“Anything else you want to share.”
“Nah.” They say. “Oh [$%!#].” They look at their spot on the dinner table
“What is it?”
“I think I lost pomnis knife-… eh whatever.” They roll their eyes.
“Alright, get ragatha for me.” Gangle says.
The door closes and gangle looks at Jax.
“Hey.” Gangle says.
“Hi!!” Jax sings out, because clearly gangle can see him, and hear him, even if she was trying to pretend not too “You’re getting ready to avenge me?” Jax smirks. “Right?”
She nods, giving a light unsteady smile, and Jax wonders if even in ghost mode he could break the comedy mask on her face, the moment may already be over.
“Well it’s the least Mrs. Bagelgrooven deserves, after she protected my books for so long.”
Geez… gangles getting really into it… Jax opens his mouth to say something, but- nothing falls out. Luckily for him the door opens, and ragatha walks in.
“Gangle please! I really don’t know what happened!”
“She sounds suspicious” Jax smiles (but that’s also always how ragatha sounds.)
“Don’t worry ragatha!” Gangle says “I just want to know what happened from your point of view”
“I was sitting having a lovely dinner, and BANG! Everything got so loud! And bright and dark at the same time! Then Jax was dead!” She says.
Gangle nods “and what is your relation to Jax?” At least she’s actually using her name now (wait- his-… his name.)
“Well Jax is my best friends wife!” Ragatha says “I knew pomni since… probably before high school, and we’re inseparable!! I don’t know much about Jax, I never met her until she was already married to pomni, so I really don’t have too much to say!” Huh… ragathas really getting in character too. He knows she likes to play along but that’s ridiculous!
Gangle nods “alright. Anything else I should know?”
Ragatha shakes her head.
“Bring in kinger.”
“You got it!” Ragatha smiles.
The door closes.
“She was acting weird.” Gangle then says “but it’s hard to tell if that’s normal ragatha weird, or nervous weird.”
“I say we call it now, it’s ragatha.”
Gangle frowns “I wouldn’t do that, not before seeing all the evidence”
“Come on!” Jax really wants to hear ragatha stumble over her words, trying to defend herself. “It’ll be funny!”
“you have no say in this, you’re dead.” Gangle says.
“I’m what?” Kinger speaks. Both gangle and Jax freeze.
“Hello kinger! Can you explain what Happened this dinner?”
“Oh!!!” Kinger says “of course! I was taking a bath in the lake when I heard a strange noise, then out of nowhere ten million firefly’s started singing! Now I didn’t know what to do, but I knew the soup I was making needed to be brought no matter what! So I rushed through the door and ran to uh… what was it. The table. And I delivered the soup, then I hugged the firefly’s! And everything was okay!”
“Yeah. What did we really expect.”
Gangle tapped the table “oh. Huh.” She says looking in front of Jax’s body. The body still sitting in the chair.
“You did deliver the food to Jax.”
The plate is no longer empty. Jax is the only ones with food on it.
“I did what now?”
That’s weird.
“So uh… what’s your relation with Jax… in the adventure, as the wife… your uh boss!!”
“Yes! The notecard!” Kinger pulls it out, and looks at it “oh she’s great!! Sad to hear that she died, I loved her like my own daughter. It’s never easy to lose a wife, I hope I can be there for the husband… hmm It reminds me of… something…” kinger gets quiet. “What is this paper?”
“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere.” Jax says, kingers crazy, even if the notecard said to kill Jax, obviously he wouldn’t even be able too.
“Yeah” gangle sighs too “kinger you can go out, can you tell pomni to come in here.”
“Of course!!!” Kinger walks out.
The door shuts.
“The food is weird.” Gangle says “did you eat any of it.”
“Nope!” Jax pops the p. He didn’t even know it was there.
“Probably not poison then.” She sighs again “but it’s still weird. Kinger had to be the one to do it.”
What? “The… murder?” He’s missing something.
“No- the food. He was the one giving out the food! That doesn’t mean he killed you per say… but that DOES means he was close to you during the time of the murder.”
Huh. That IS true.
The door opens.
“I’m next right-?” Pomni asks “I assume so, but kinger didn’t really uh… make sense.” Pomni says.
“Oh sorry yeah.” Gangle then says “come in!”
Pomni does, and sits down.
“What happened at the time of the murder.”
“Well I was sitting at the table, and then a loud noise happened and I could only see you.” Pomni said. “Then when everything was back to normal my wife was… dead.”
Gangle nods “and your wife, can you tell me more about your relationship.”
“I love her” pomni says simply. “She came from a less fortunate family. But she built herself from the ground up with that publishing company, and she helped you get your books out there. She was a good woman.”
This is weird, ragatha always tries to play along with plots (and make them play along too… unless it’s jax. If jax is playing along then it’s ’not a game’ apparently, and he should ‘take it more seriously’) and kinger is crazy… but pomni… she’s still new, so it’s hard to get a read on her, he guesses the others told her to get in character.
Jax doesn’t look at her. Jax doesn’t look at gangle either. Because that’s what it is. It’s a character. They’re talking about the character Mrs. Bagelgrooven. But still in the back of her (his-) mind, there’s only one thought ‘they’re talking about you.’
Strange.
“Can you tell me how you two met?”
“She was going to collage while I was starting to lead my tech company, she wanted an internship there… and I wanted more. I guess? That’s all the card says, so whatever that’s mean. My family liked her a lot, so it was easy to get married.”
Jax doesn’t know what to think. Jax’s brain is halfway to shutting down.
Weirdly enough gangle seems like she picked up on something “what did your family like about her?”
“They… liked her ideas. For the publishing company. They thought it could make a lot of money.”
“Interesting.” She says. “And can you tell me more about your butler.”
“Uhhhh” pomni started “he’s uh… it doesn’t really say much on my card. It just says he knows the house perfectly?? Like he has every room and hallway memorized” Pomni shrugs.
(Gangle is suspicious of kinger.) gangle nods.
“Alright” it sounds finale.
But did she not hear pomni earlier?
“Wait!” Jax says “she said something about the dark, with kinger. What was that about?” He feels stupid for feeling so clever, for getting so invested for a moment.
But gangle seems just as ecstatic about that information, her eyes light up. “O-oh! Wait! you mentioned something about the dark. With kinger.”
“Oh yeah!” Pomni smiles “kingers a little more sane in the dark. I mean it was flashing a bit but… maybe he could’ve been lucid enough to do it? I don’t want to accuse him or anything though” she says.
What?? Jax didn’t know what? That’s not a thing, is it a thing? Maybe it’s very subtle. Just lucid enough to follow a script… yeah that was probably it.
“Thanks pomni.” Gangle smiles. “I’m going to look for clues. I’ll come back if I have more questions. Or if I know who did it”
And with that pomni leaves.
And the door shuts behind her.
“So you really think kinger did it?” Jax asks.
“I wouldn’t say that yet, but I do want to interview you as well, if that’s alright”
Jax shrugs “feels like cheating, but okay.”
“So what happened when you were murdered.” Gangle taps the table.
“Well I was putting on an AMAZING dinner party for my closest friends, when suddenly there was a stab in my back! And a whisper in my ear, wanna know what I heard?” Jax smiles
“What?!”
“‘I’m ragatha. And I’m murdering you.’”
“Jax-!!” Gangle sighs “can you take this seriously.”
“Hey it could’ve happened!” Jax says “how would YOU know what happened anyways, you weren’t the one getting murdered.”
“Could you at least try to play along, everyone else is” gangle says “it could be fun!… plus the sooner we solve this the sooner you’re out of that outfit.”
Right… that’s a thing Jax wants (should want.)
“You’ve heard this a thousand times. The lights went out. There was lightening, your light stayed on. I saw you the whole time. Everything was too loud to hear.” Jax says, That’s the normal part. But… “Then there was pain everywhere. I kinda blacked out. Then everything came back to normal and it was like I was paralyzed”
Gangle nods. “And did you feel how they killed you?”
Jax shakes his head. He tries to remember, he really does. “It felt like… just hurt. I didn’t know if anything was touching me, it was all a blur. Caine probably made it that way, so I couldn’t give away what killed me.” Jax then says, clearly Caine wants them to work together, this isn’t an oversight, Jax is also meant to be as clueless as the others.
(It still kinda hurts.)
But that doesn’t matter. What matters most is that gangle thinks jax wants to be done with this adventure as soon as possible! And that Jax can make fun of whoever ‘killed’ him for the rest of their lives in the circus. He can imagine it now ‘wow ragatha you’d do that? After you killed me?’ ‘God pomni you’re so mean’ ‘can’t believe you’d kill a poor innocent thing Zooble!’ ‘Wow kinger-…’ he can’t think of one for kinger, but he has time to come up with it. He has all the time in the world.
“Yeah that makes sense.” Gangle says “and the others. What’s your relationship to them.”
“Well I got a bit of gossip on my card” Jax smiles “Zooble hates me because of the book thing, and pomni told kinger he wasn’t going to be getting that raise soon.” Jax says. “Thats the important bits.” There was a little more, most of which didn’t give very useful information.
“What…? What does the raise thing have to do with you?”
“Apparently I got into a fight with pomni about it. It’s pretty vague on what happened.” Jax shrugs, the notecards are written short, and too the point most of the time. Or at least Jax’s one is. “but it’s boring to talk it out, let’s get evidence.”
Gangle nods. “Yes! Of course” she seems happy.
“Wow. A woman just died and you’re grinning” [$%!#] wait why did he say it like that-
“Yeah you’re right sorry- probably shouldn’t be so happy about my ‘best friend’ dying”
Oh yeah. It says they’re best friends on Jax’s card too.
Gangle walks around. “No knife anywhere.”
Yeah…? There is? Jax points to one.
“Not sharp enough to kill.” Gangle says. Then why would she bring that up????
“You know.” Jax starts “it’d be pretty funny if you ended up being the one who killed me.”
“How would that work? Everyone saw me?” Gangle then says.
Jax shrugs “always the person you least suspect.”
“Normally when people point out stuff like that it ends up being a red herring.” Gangle then says “if we’re going on tropes.”
Yeah. Jax was just messing around anyways. Gangle really seems to be the detective role, and in those classic whodunnits it’s never the detective. So it wouldn’t make sense for Caine to switch up on it now.
“Hey that’s weird.” Gangle picks up a long… stick? Thing.
They walk around. Oh.
“It’s one side of a picture frame.” She then said.
And yeah.. it seemed like the long side of a wooden frame, broken off. And in front of her is the full portrait, a picture of pomni, the frame is broken, and the piece perfectly matches.
There’s a hole. In the wall, behind the frame. The only reason they could see it was because it was broken.
“Secret hallway?” Jax asks.
Gangle would be grinning ear to ear, but she doesn’t have ears. She looks happy. “Let’s go in! I mean obviously someone used it!!!”
Obviously.
She moves the frame to open the door. And there are tunnels throughout the house. It’s a classic murder mystery house. Do rich people really have stuff like this?
Gangle walks around the halls.
Jax felt… useless mostly. Just standing in the doorframe to the hidden area. He can still see his body on the chair, hunched forward face covered by long locks. He can still see the dress when he looks down. (It’s pretty. It makes him look pretty.)
His hand raises to touch the hair now on his head, despite being a ghost he can touch it. Probably because it’s his own body.
It’s strange to have hair again. The texture is cartoonish, it moves in chunks rather than individual strands. It’s soft.
Apart of him is glad he’s dead. So he can just… stand here quietly. Brushing a hand through his hair. And no one can question why. But he knows what he should hope. That the Adventures ends soon… why doesn’t he hope that? It’s for the better.
A scream rang out! High pitch and panicked “JAX! COME HERE!” it’s gangle.
Jax moves his hand down at a lightening quick pace. Snapping out of the trace, and turns to where gangle is, he guesses he can go there.
“What. What is it?”
“It’s uh- sorry it’s just-“ she swallows (nothing, it’s not like they have spit.) “something MOVED.” She points down the dark creepy hall.
Sure. Okay. “And… what do you want me to do about that?”
She whines “Jax- it might be a clue!!”
Oh. Fair enough.
He walks forward with no warning. Hopefully he pressures gangle to follow him. Looking up ahead he doesn’t see anything.
A bit of the wall is a different color. He wonders if that leads somewhere else.
He looks back to see gangle is a few cautious steps behind him. “There’s nothing here?”
She shakes her head with wide eyes, pointing behind him (god damnit. He should’ve guessed that trope would happen.)
He looks behind him to find… a robot arm, just like the one from spudsys (it’s probably the same model.) oh- he really doesn’t want to think about that.
It’s heading right to them.
Without thinking he goes to the off colored wall, but he’s trapped, he’s a ‘ghost’.
“GANGLE! Open the door-“ he gestures at it.
She jumps before running over and opening it. Waiting for him to run inside before she slams the secret door.
‘Room lock down.’ A robotic voice was heard over the… whatever??? He doesn’t see anything speakers in this room. ‘All doors will unlock in 10 minutes.’
Great.
They’re stuck now. In a bathroom.
It’s small, but far from cheap. And it’s probably bigger than most people’s bathrooms (there’s two sinks, and a shower, and a bath.) it’s all pastel pinks and greens. The bathtub is in the middle, slightly elevated. All the tiles look intricate, having patterns of flowers on them. There are three towels hanging up, one big one, and on top of it a smaller one. Then another big one. Jax wonders if the second smaller one is missing, or if Caine just wanted there to be an odd number. The lights are off.
Gangles looking around as well.
She opens a drawer, something Jax doesn’t have the ability to. Then shuts it. She opens another. Jax doesn’t care to look until she speaks “Half a key.” She says… huh?
“Wait what half?”
“It’s uh… vertically” gangle turns around and shows the key to Jax. And yeah, it looks like a key cut in half vertically… weird-
Gangle shuts the door.
“I guess we just have to wait now.” Gangle then says. “Until the doors unlock…” she walks around. Before looking in the shower, then the bath.
She goes in the bath, and Jax heads over to see the reason why. But it doesn’t seem important. She just sits on the ledge.
So Jax joins her. Glad the ghost abilities just limit his interaction with items, and not things like sitting.
“So.” He says. “Why don’t we just blame crazy and end this adventure… I mean ‘the butler did it’ is a trope”
She hums “yeah I guess. I feel like the butlers always the red herring though.”
“What happens if we get it wrong?” Jax asks “Caine will just end the adventure anyways.”
“Yeah…” she sighs “you’re right.” She seems sad. Even with her comedy mask “I just I don’t know” she chuckles a little to herself “I like murder mystery’s”
Really? “Thought you were into more boring stuff? Like ‘slice of life.’” He remembers the adventure she chose.
Gangle shrugs “it’s really not that different when you think about it.”
Jax doubts that watching high schoolers play basketball is the same as solving a murder.
“It has a focus on characters. Seeing everyone’s dynamics with each other play out, how people react to things.” Gangle says “I like story’s with strong characters, and I like ones you can rewatch or read over and over and pick up on new things, especially when you learn more about a person.”
Whatever. He guesses that kinda makes sense
“Plus nothing else too scary is going to happen, or at least it probably shouldn’t” gangle then says “it’s just solving a mystery. I love angst too” she laughs.
Jax hums “and this scratches the same itch?” Like c’mon? “We’ve barely had any ‘character’ development from anyone, and I don’t think anyone’s ‘angsting’ about my death.”
Gangle looks at him. Then frowns “I could be.”
Really?
She sees his doubt “yeah!!!” She then says, I’m very sad about your death.”
“You say, while smiling”
“I smile through the pain” she shakes her head, and he can’t help but laugh (but it’s not supposed to be like this. She’s the sad one. He’s the funny one- it’s not-… whatever.)
“Sure you do. Crybaby”
A click. The door opens.
They go back in the hall. The hand is gone.
“I wonder what that was about.”
“It was probably kingers replacement” if Jax had to guess “that was the fight I had, didn’t think the new butler would be a robot though”
“Makes me wonder what year it was, you’re dressed kinda… 70s? Maybe? I can’t tell” gangle then says. “I guess my clothes are more modern.”
“I don’t think Caine really thought about that.”
They continue to walk down the hall. She rushes off to the side, and Jax lets her do her thing.
“Ah ha!!!” Gangle says “I know what happened!”
She’s looking at a small white towel, it’s wet, with specks of grey in it, it’s thrown to the side.
“I know who the killer is!” She grins at him.
Yes.
The adventure will end. And everything will go back to normal.
Mrs. Bagelgrooven is dead.
And she will remain that way.
.
Jax follows gangle to the outside doors of the dining room. Everyone is sitting on a couch.
“Gangle! Hey!” Ragatha says “what’s going on.”
“I know who did it!”
Everyone’s eyes widen.
“The killer is… KINGER!” She points dramatically to him.
“Oh no!!” Kinger says
“Is- is that true??” Pomni looks at him.
“Well uh… maybe? But I don’t know what shoes have to do with anything?”
“Uhm…” ragatha tries not to frown, and fails. “Why do you think that?”
“1. MOTIVE!” Gangle says “kinger is upset at Jax and pomni for not giving him a raise. Also pomni wanted to replace him as a butler with a robot!” She starts “because of this he decides to get revenge! And murder Jax! But how? Well pomni said it best, kinger knows this house perfectly! He knows there’s a secret tunnel right behind Jax’s seat, he uses it and bumps into it too hard, casing it to break. Leaving a bit of the frame on the floor, and we know kinger was beside Jax when he died because Jax had food on his plate. Something only kinger had access too. He used a wet towel to suffocate Jax, then threw it in the secret passageway. I found the towel.”
“That is a compelling argument!” Kinger says “I say we lock him up!” He nods.
“So uhm-… yeah.” Gangle finishes.
Is that really it…
“Is Caine going to uh-“
Then it all goes to black.
.
And Jax opens his eyes.
In the hall in a mansion six people stand.
One, a very rich and successful woman.
“Oh!” She spoke “I got a paper! It says I’m the financial worker. hmm… it gave us last names? For whatever reason? It says I’m Ragatha Dizzenscooter… it looks like I was childhood friends with…”
The next. A wealthy man, “Pomni Bagelgrooven. I’m the husband… apparently? I don’t really know that much about tech but uh… I guess I’ll try my best to get in character?” She shrugs.
“It’s nice we get to be childhood friends though!”
“Oh! I’m next!!!! what are we doing?”
“You’re card, we’re reading them”
Jax blinks.
What?
This…. Already happened?
Jax has already seen this?
“Oh this card!!! Kinger Pillowtoes! The butler!!!” He reads outloud.
Everyone moves like they normally do. Like they did.
“Oh [$%!#]. Caine that name is the worst.”
“What about you Zooble?”
“Zooble Fluffenfussen. why do we even need last names??? It’s not like we’re going to remember them???? whatever, I’m like… a movie studio person? I don’t know. I’m also rich too or some [$%!#]”
Behind them there is a woman. “Huh?” she says.
Zoobles demeanor immediately softens “hey gangle what did you get?”
“Oh! I’m Gangle Poppenquack! It says I’m a famous author!”
“Oh that’s cool.” They say.
“Wait what about-“
“Uhhh” why was Jax here again…? Was this a prank? They had already said this. All of this. (Even if it was a prank that’d be a lot of effort. To say the exact same thing over again.)
Jax is still dressed up, as so are the others.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Pomni then asks.
Jax didn’t even need to read it to know.
“I’m Jax Bagelgrooven. I’m the wife.”
Everyone seems to ‘ohh’ silently to themselves.
Did their notecards say to redo it? Jax looks down at hers. But it hasn’t changed at all. Did the others change. No that’s dumb. There’s no way Zooble would play along with saying everything the same again.
That means this is a design choice. Something Caine did.
That means It wasn’t kinger.
That had to be it. They were wrong.
That’s why it sent Jax back, so they could redo it. And find who actually killed him. Caine hadn’t told them it would be a Groundhog Day murder mystery!!!! But when did Caine ever tell them anything useful.
And for a moment Jax felt… strange. But okay. (Maybe she could be Mrs. Bagelgrooven… just for a little longer… plus if he plays along then the adventure is done soon. Yes. That’s what he wants.)
“Okay!” He speaks up, that’s what he did last time “welcome to my workplace dinner party! Im pleased to have you all here…. Or something.” he adds on at the end (though Mrs Bagelgrooven wouldn’t have said that. She likes these people. Jax on the other hand…)
“Yeah!” Pomni says “thanks for coming over!”
“Of course!!” Ragatha smiles “anything for an old friend!”
“Let’s get dinner” Jax says, starting to walk to the dining room.
The table was just as grand as the rest of the house. And Jax takes the seat head at the table.
Jax has a golden fork and spoon. Zooble has a cartoonish red and blue knife, while everyone else has sliver forks, spoons, and duller knives.
Gangle mentioned knives before. Hadn’t she? Zooble had too.
“I’ll get the food!”
“Thanks kinger!” Pomni calls out.
It’s not kinger. Jax can rule out kinger for sure.
Now it’s time for the toast. The notecard says Jax had to make it. Maybe he can still mess with gangle. “A toast! To gangle!” He lifts up the drink “got any words for us.”
She jumps, but calms down immediately “yes! Thank you Mrs. Bagelgrooven! For your wonderful publishing company saved my books, I wouldn’t be here without you. You’re my best friend!”
“Of course gangle.” Jax sits down, before taking a swig of the pink drink.
Zooble rolls their eyes “when is Jax going to die already”
Oh! Jax remembers this!!
“Wow! We already have a suspect don’t we?” Jax grins. “Remember they said that after I died!” Jax remembers saying that last time.
And maybe this time they should?
“Jax-! And- ugh” ragatha sighs “let’s just enjoy dinner.”
suddenly lighting strikes. It’s a blur. Except for Gangle.
Kinger gasps.
Jax can’t move.
“Oh my-“ ragatha says “I didn’t think it’d happen so soon! I didn’t see anyone move-?! How did that happen so fast!”
“Aw man, my wife” pomni chuckles.
“I mean… we all kinda knew it was going to happen. Can whoever killed Jax just speak up so we can be done with this adventure”
“Wasn’t me” pomni says immediately.
“W-well it wasn’t me either!!!” Ragatha says. “And I doubt it could’ve been kinger… he probably doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
“I know!!” Kinger says “we’re trying to slay the dragon!”
“It was dark. but you were the first one to try to get attention off yourself Zooble.” Pomni points out. “And we ALL saw gangle, the whole time. So it couldn’t have been her.”
“Y-yeah!!” Ragatha says.
“So what? You think I did it? If I did I’d just say it.” They shrug.
Would they?
“since everyone saw me, I think it would make the most since for me to be the detective” gangle then says “I’ll interrogate all of you”
And jax can move. Of course.
“Hey gangle!” he says.
Gangles eyes snap over to him. He stands up. But waits for gangle to talk to the others.
“Right” Gangle shakes her head “l’ll talk to you all first! One on one.”
“Sounds good.”
“Let’s do Zooble.” Gangle says. “Everyone else out of the room.”
Zooble… time to listen very closely.
“Tell me what happened.”
‘Lights went out. Saw you’ it’s the same. ‘I would’ve said if I killed him’ (it’s interesting. Zoobles the only one who used ‘him’ for Jax in this adventure. well gangle has… sometimes, But in everyone else’s they all use ‘her.’ It kinda… nevermind.)
“And what was your relation to Mrs. Bagelgrooven?”
It’s the same. ‘Movie studio’, ‘Wants the books’. It’s all the same.
Gangle giggles. “So I guess if Jax’s company isn’t there to protect my books it would be easier to get the rights to them?”
“Is that how that works-?” Zooble asks.
A motive? Maybe?
“Anything else you want to share.”
“Nah.” They say. “Oh [$%!#].” They look at their spot on the dinner table
“What is it?”
“I think I lost pomnis knife-… eh whatever.” They roll their eyes.
Oh. The red and blue knife. It’s gone.
“Alright, get ragatha for me.” Gangle says.
The door closes and gangle looks at Jax.
“Hey.” Gangle then says.
“It’s not kinger.” Jax smirks. “I know that”
Gangle shakes her head “I didn’t think it was.”
Ragathas goes the same.
.
“Bring in kinger.”
“You got it!” Ragatha smiles.
The door closes.
“I still don’t know about ragatha.” Gangle then says “it’s hard to tell what’s normal ragatha weird, or nervous weird.”
“Yeah I wouldn’t write her off just yet” but right now Jax has his eyes set on Zooble.
“Write what?” Kinger speaks. Both gangle and Jax freeze.
“We don’t need to hear this” Jax groans. “It’s boring going through the same thing twice.”
“Uhm… sorry I guess could you get pomni?”
“Can do!”
The door shuts.
“There’s a plate food next to your body. I didn’t realize it, I just… knew” Gangle says “if he was near you at the time of the murder why are you so sure it’s not him?”
“Why would kinger incriminate himself by bringing me food? He’s probably just trying to be an extra good butler to get that raise”
“Ohhh” she says “that makes more sense. Plus why would he hate you, and not pomni?” She stops “wait how do I-“
“I’m next right-?” Pomni asks “I assume so, but kinger didn’t really uh… make sense.” Pomni says.
“Oh sorry yeah.” Gangle then says “come in!”
Most of pomnis thing is the same… but did gangle not hear Zooble earlier?
“Wait!” Jax says “Zooble said something about pomnis knife.”
Gangles eyes light up. “O-oh! Wait! Zooble said something about a knife”
“Oh yeah!” Pomni smiles “i gave them a knife I had, they said they hate using the dull ones on the meat during dinner. It was just in one of the drawers so I thought… why not?” she says.
So Zooble had a knife.
“Thanks pomni.” Gangle smiles. “I’m going to look for clues. I’ll come back if I have more questions. Or if I know who did it”
And with that pomni leaves.
And the door shuts behind her.
“Jax.” Gangle then says “what is happening?”
“I’ve been through this before, time loop situation” Jax likes this feeling. This control “we thought it was kinger, cause of the food and the secret passageway.”
“I see.” Gangle says “I feel like I remember it… maybe… a little. It’s foggy.” Jax doubts that. Why would gangle get a foggy memory of it but Jax get a clear one, gangles just trying to also be in control, that’s probably it.
“We should investigate another room.” Jax says “we already looked through this one.”
Gangle nods “you’re being… really helpful” (SEE! She doesn’t remember!)
“I want this adventure done with” Jax shrugs. “I want out of this outfit.” He needs to remind gangle that.
“Okay I guess that makes sense” Gangle says “but where else do we go?”
“The living room, the one they’re in. It’s the room right next to this one. Maybe there’s a clue in there.”
“Okay. I’ll tell them to come back into this room.”
And so they do. Now Jax and gangle are in the room over.
Jax. Once again feels useless. Standing off in the corner while gangle looks around for clues.
“Any ideas yet?” Gangle asks.
“The knife. It’s not Zoobles plate.”
“Did it feel like you got stabbed.” Did gangle really not remember?
Jax shrugs “I told you in the other time. It didn’t feel like anything. Just hurt. So I’m no help.”
Gangle nods.
She really didn’t remember?
Jax wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
(Good. It felt good. Jax could say anything. And gangle wouldn’t remember.)
What would Jax say though? He should say something. It’s not everyday he has this chance.
“Why wouldn’t Zooble just say it’s them?” Gangle then asks.
“They keep saying they would” Jax says “to throw us off or something?”
“Hmm maybe” gangle considers it.
There’s something shinning. “What’s that?” It’s under a dresser.
“What?” Gangle heads over “oh. It’s half a key”
It’s cut in half. Vertically. “The other side is in the bathroom.”
“The bathroom” her eyes widen, and She picks it up. “I think I remember that now, guess we’ll save that for later.”
She looks under the couch, in the cushions. Anywhere.
“You haven’t spoken a lot about your card.” Jax then says “I still can’t rule out that it’s you” it’s a joke. Jax had been viewing gangle when he had died, that was the only thing he could view. Gangle would have to be innocent.
“Okay well uh… I write murder mystery novels.” Gangle says “I started from the ground up, much like you. And I met you during an internship.”
“Huh.” Wait a minute “that’s how I met pomni too right?”
Gangle nods “yeah I guess it’s like… a parallel” she says “I wanted to work for your publishing company, and you enjoyed my books so much you did everything in your power to protect my creative vision.” Gangle then says. (Jax has a little bit of that, in his notecard as well) “I’m apparently really distraught by your death”
“Wait it tells you how to react???”
“Mine did! But mine also points out I’m the only one that couldn’t have killed you, so I think it’s just trying to give me a reason to want to avenge you” she giggles “I mean Mrs. Bagelgrooven sounds very nice, so I don’t mind solving her murder.”
Not the same (but they are. Even if gangles talking about the characters. Jax is playing her.)
“Jax…? Sorry. I didn’t mean to make it weird.” Gangle then says. “I was just trying to talk about the character but I guess that’s still you so it’s probably not very uh…“ gangle starts to mumble, clearly not wanting to say what she’s apologizing for, but wanting to apologize nonetheless. Jax has a feeling he knows that gangles trying to apologize about “Sorry” she then says.
“It’s whatever.” Jax shrugs, because it is. It’s whatever “Mrs. Bagelgrooven was, whatever your last name was, bestest friend. So I don’t think she’d care about whatever you call her.” Laying it on too thick- wait. No. It doesn’t matter. Gangle won’t remember this. Yeah. Gangle won’t remember this. So who cares.
“Oh yeah?” Gangle says “so I can call her… that, but uh like- not you, but-“ She then says “I mean we’re still calling pomni ‘her’?” She then mumbles. “Sorry I’m confused.”
Jax doesn’t want to hear this “Gangle, I just said I don’t care.” (Definitely laying it on too thick.)
“Oh.” [$%!#]. [$%!#]. She had said that too knowing. Too… Jax definitely shouldn’t have said that. “Thanks for telling me.”
Wait- [$%!#]. Whatever. Gangle won’t remember it.
“I just mean you’re not on some moral high ground by asking if you can call a girl character a girl” Jax tries to correct, though it feels like every word said makes gangle believe Jax less. “It’s not like it’s MY character either, Caine made her so like… why would I care, that’s all I meant. You’re apologizing is just annoying!“
Gangle nods. But it’s still… [$%!#].
Gangle won’t remember.
It’s fine.
It’s fine.
“It’s cold isn’t it” gangle says. Thank god.
It… was, actually. Just slightly.
“I guess.”
“Doesn’t feel like a clue. It would be more noticeable if it was” gangle then says. “Maybe I should light the fireplace though, wouldn’t want a beautiful woman catching a cold.”
Oh [$%!#] her. “You’re not funny.”
“I’m not joking” gangle frowns, before grabbing a match.
“Well then you’re just an idiot. Because your ‘beautiful woman’ is dead, and cannot get a cold.” (Not to mention none of them can get sick in this digital world. But she’s taking about Mrs. Bagelgrooven… or she should be at least.)
Gangle frowns more “I’m just trying to be nice.” Is she really not making fun of her? Whatever. Jax won’t have to think about this soon.
“Wait.” Gangle says “I found something!”
“What?”
“Look! The knife!” Gangle quickly blows out the fire before it can spread, grabbing the red and blue knife. “It’s the same one Zooble has.”
Wait no.
When gangle grabs the knife it shifts into itself. Just slightly. Jax has seen this before. It’s fake. One of those theater knives.
Meaning it can’t be the murder weapon.
Jax was going to point it out before biting her tongue (that means it’s probably not Zooble. Which is a good thing for her. Because that means if they guess Zooble it will reset again, and gangle will forget.)
“I mean. That’s kinda obvious then isn’t it?” Jax shrugs.
“Well yeah…. We might know we the killer is then.” She says. “Let’s go back into the dining room.”
.
“Gangle! Hey!” Ragatha says “what’s going on.”
“I know who did it!”
Everyone’s eyes widen.
“The killer is… ZOOBLE!” She points dramatically to them.
“Uh…. What?”
“Zooble?! What do you mean?!” Pomni looks at them.
Zooble shrugs. “Weren’t you just blaming me a few minutes ago? Why are you so surprised.”
“So you did it?!” Ragatha asks.
“No.”
“1. MOTIVE!” Gangle interrupts “Zooble knows me and Jax are best friends, and they want the rights to my books. Jax always protects my work, with her out of the picture, and me distraught I may agree to a movie.” She starts “But how? Well pomni said she had given you a knife! A knife that you just so happen to ‘lose’ and make a big deal about not knowing where it is. THIS KNIFE” she lifts it up “that I found in a fireplace in the room next to us. Almost like someone wanted to get rid of evidence.”
“The light was on in that room. How would I have opened that door without everyone knowing” Zooble says.
“How would you know that unless you were in the room” good point.
“Ragatha said so. She said it was only this room that lost power. And the secret tunnels.” (They hadn’t heard that?)
“No I didn’t!” Ragatha says.
“I don’t remember that either.” Gangle says.
“Yeah you weren’t in the [$%!#]ing room, it was just a moment ago”
“How convenient” gangle smiles. “Anyone want to back that up?”
“What’s happening?” Kinger says.
“I don’t remember that” pomni says. “Sorry Zooble. But maybe she did? I wasn’t paying attention.”
“So uhm-… yeah.” Gangle finishes.
No way it’s Zooble.
“Is Caine going to uh-“
Then it all goes to black.
.
And Jax opens her eyes.
