Work Text:
“No, we aren’t baking a three tired fully-iced cake from scratch within two hours.” Ragatha argued. “And don’t you dare tell me that ‘we can just conjure it’, it takes the fun away!”
“I didn’t know you were this passionate about baking.” Caine noted.
“Oh, yeah? Well you tried to eat eggs with the shells still on.” The rag doll put her head in her hands.
“What about Scratch?” Kinger asked.
“Wha? Nothing?” She lifted her head slightly and peered at him in confusion.
“You said to bake the cake from scratch,” Zooble explained. They turned to the chess piece. “She wasn’t talking about him.”
“Oh, I thought not.” Kinger looked genuinely disappointed (or just completely zoned out, sometimes it was hard to tell with him), but before Ragatha could say anything she smelled burning.
“Oh my gosh! My cookies!”
“Wait, did you bake them with browned butter?” Pomni asked.
“Yes, of course!”
“Why, then they’re too oily.”
“Pomni, you clearly know nothing about baking. It’s all about the flavor—the crisp. If they were bad when you used too much browned butter, then that’s because of you.” Kinger said.
“I’m not even offended, it’s true.” Pomni sighed. “I can make a lot of good dishes, but not bake. And I know you didn’t mean that in a rude way.”
“Mean what?” Kinger stared at her blankly.
“I bet you’d make grilled cheese without mayo.” Ragatha teased. “But you’ll get there.”
“Are you kiddi–of course I use mayo!” Pomni fired back.
“Who puts mayo in grilled cheese?” Zooble grimaced. “That’s disgusting!”
“You don’t put it in the sandwich," Gangle clarified. “You put it on the outside so the edges crisp but don’t burn. You can’t taste it.”
“I’m never going to do that.” Zooble stated bluntly. “I love you all but the idea is so gross in my head that I just… ugh.”
“You can also use Mashed potatoes on the outside,” Ragatha said. “then it tastes kind of like French fries.”
“That, I can see working.” Zooble nodded. “It sounds good.”
“I bet my mom thought caramelized onions are caramel on onions.” Ragatha joked. She’d gotten better at talking about stuff like that. The jokes… apparently came with the territory.
“Did she cook or bake?” Gangle asked.
“Nah.” Ragatha shook her head. “We had chefs for that. I learned on my own after watching them.”
“Is it not putting caramel on onions?” Caine asked.
“No it’s—oh my gosh.” Pomni proceeded to explain caramelized onions to the thoroughly invested AI.
“We shouldn’t eat this, it’ll make us sick.” Ragatha held out her ruined cookies. “After all that work, too.”
“We can get food poisoning here?” Pomni was surprised.
“If you eat something when it’s code says you shouldn’t, it’ll infect you until you throw it all up!” Caine explained cheerfully.
“And not in the way that you did when you got here at first.” Ragatha muteered. “It feels like… normal, even if it’s still the black stuff. It’s horrible.”
“TMI,” Pomni said with a grimace. “But I get the idea.”
“Grilled cheese has to be served with tomato soup.” Zooble distracted the trio from their side conversation, apparently still debating with Gangle about grilled cheese.
“Not only tomato, though! There are other kinds it works with, too.” Gangle argued. Normally timid, Gangle held no anxious tension when talking to her partner. “Like creamy chicken, squash, mushroom, or normal chicken. Italian wedding soup, too.”
“Okay, fine, soup in general. I draw the line at Italian wedding, though.”
“Miso soup would also suck with grilled cheese in my opinion." Pomni joined in.
“I agree with that one.” Gangle nodded. “But I promise, if you make grilled cheese right, then it works with Italian wedding! You’re just making it wrong.”
“Why are we grilling the bees!?” Kinger asked. “That’s horrible!”
“Wait, ‘bees’?!” Caine had been in a one-on-one conversation with Kinger, and now his mouth was open in shock, and a disturbed and betrayed look fell upon his face. “That’s horrible!”
“Like father, like son.” Zooble muttered as Pomni tried to rectify the situation.
“No, not ‘bees’, ‘cheese’!” She assured.
“We would never hurt bees.” Ragatha seconded.
“I didn’t know you really liked bees.” Gangle said, timid yet again. They were all still a little nervous around Caine, but her most of all.
“I love bees!” Caine spun around. “I love, love, love them!” The others were reminded that this was him without Abel. Able had kind of… corrupted his mind. Now, he just seemed so… young.
Apparently, half of his information came from Abel’s training, and without it he lost a lot of chunks in his memory—not all, but a lot. It was like he regressed and came back acting more like a little kid than the all powerful AI he used too.
(Though, looking back, he kind of always did act like a kid when he wasn’t torturing them).
Abel’s anger towards Caine twisted Caine’s view of everything. While he was still arrogant at times, there were some… shifts in how they saw that. For example, in the past, his obsession with his adventures seemed to be fully ego-related to all but Zooble (who apparently had given him therapy? They still hadn’t quite wrapped their heads around that yet), but now they had come to understand that the AI felt that if he couldn’t complete his purpose, he didn’t deserve to exist.
“When you drew those bees in the therapy sessions I didn’t know it was because you were obsessed with them.”
“I adore them!” Caine exclaimed. “Queenie showed them to me.”
“Who what?” Kinger asked, a mix of confusion and abruptness. A million different thoughts seemingly swirled behind his now blank, frozen eyes.
“She liked a lot of insects and showed them to me, but I always loved bees the most.”
“Wait, that’s why you seemed the most crushed after that bee adventure that we all openly disliked! It was before any of your time.” Ragatha addressed the newer group members without looking back at them, simply jerking her head lightly in their direction.
“Well, yes.”
“Jax got drugged.” Kinger said solemnly. They were making great progress on Kinger’s memory, but this was not something that they expected him to remember. Usually it was just about his wife. And the way he said it…
The group (sans him and Caine), burst into various amounts of laughter.
“Wait, I need to know what happened.” Zooble turned to Ragatha. “I need to.” The others nodded. Jax had been a hard subject for the past few weeks, but a month had gone by, and they felt that if they talked about him now it would make it better.
(Only Pomni knew that “he” was actually “her”, but she was holding onto the hope that Jax was coming back and didn’t want to out her.)
“I don’t know… it’s kind of embarrassing for Jax.”
“Yeah, yeah, he hurt us enough for us to get this about him.” Zooble dismissed.
“I want to know, too.” Gangle backed her up. Ragatha glanced at Pomni’s excited face and sighed.
“The adventure was to get a pot of golden honey from the wasps to the bees—the wasps stole it.”
“Nasty things.” Caine shook his head.
“When you get stung by wasps you get paralized—or so we thought. In reality, it was different for different people. Kaufmo got paralyzed, Jax, meanwhile?”
“Wait, what about bees?” Pomni asked. “What happens if they sting you?”
“I’d never make bees hurt people on their side!” Caine explained “I made a lot of horrible adventures, but I would never ever let myself do injustice to bees! At least, I hope not.” He glanced anxiously at them. “Right?”
“The bees were great.” Ragatha affirmed warmly, before moving on with her story. “Jax got stung, right in the head, but instead of freezing he went absolutely loopy.”
“Did he say anything stupid?” Zooble asked.
“Um…” the doll hesitated. “I don’t know if I should…”
“He kept pushing everyone away when they tried to help.” Kinger said softly.
“Well, that’s Jax for you.” Zooble shrugged. Pomni looked away, unwelcome memories swirling around her head—both her and Jax’s.
“Physically.” Ragatha expanded. “He kept saying that after all we said… we couldn’t hug him. How dare we… even try.”
“Her mom.” Pomni said under her breath.
“What about my mom?” Ragatha asked.
“Uhhh, nothing!” Zooble gave her a look.
“We weren’t even hugging him! We were just—it was just—” She sighed, before a smile grew on her face as she tried to change the vibe “He also said that unicorns were underrated and he wanted one covered in flowers—Ribbit was laughing about that all the way back. Also that Ribbit was really pretty and that he…” She looked away.
“What did he say?” Pomni put her hand on Ragatha’s shoulder. “You don’t have to tell us if you don't want to, of course.”
“He said he loved us.” Ragatha nearly whispered. “And then he looked at me and said… ‘even you, Raggy, pain in the ass as you are’.”
“Oh, that sucks.” Pomni frowned. “Not the love part, the losing that afterwards part.”
“Back then he was kind of like my little brother.” Ragatha admitted. “He changed, after Ribbit. A bit before her, actually.” She looked up at them, tears in her eyes. “He’s never… he’s never coming back, is he?”
“Yes!” Pomni exclaimed over Gangle and Zooble’s ‘no’ and ‘probably not’. “I will get him back.”
“You can’t.” Kinger said softly. “It’s impossible. Abstraction is forever.”
“I hate him.” Ragatha wiped her tears. “I hate him so damn much.”
“Kinger’s wrong.” Pomni turned to face them after a few steps back, giving them all a hard look. “I’m getting Jax back.”
“You can’t—”
“I can!”
“No, Pomni.”
“I promised her!” Pomni put her first down on the counter, facing away from them. There was complete silence. “I… I didn’t mean to say that.” She slowly turned to them all, speaking in a whisper, realizing too late that she would be drawing attention to her slip in the rare case that no one registered it.
“It’s okay.” The toybox character put a hand on Pomni’s shoulder. “She would want to be remembered as ‘her’, wouldn’t she?” They turned to the others.
“Yes, it’s better that we remember Jax the way she’d want to be remembered.” Ragatha spoke with the slowness of someone who had made a major discovery and was trying to weave it into their mental tapestry.
“She should’ve told you herself.” Pomni muttered, sliding down to the floor.
“But she can’t.” Caine said. “And she didn’t need to tell me, her mind files said she was, but didn’t want to say anything about it or have it affect her avatar.”
“Wait, you knew?” Pomni looked up at the dentures.
“Why, yes!”
“I also did.” Kinger nodded. “Yes, yes. I did. At night I think…” Kinger tilted his head, thinking very hard. “Come back to me later, I’m trying to remember.”
“It… was something I considered.” Zooble admitted. “I more thought it was some level of femboy.” Pomni snorted.
“She was so… mean about women.” Gangle said softly. “I don’t think I would’ve guessed.”
“Everything makes sense.” Ragatha’s mouth fell open. “She was always so obsessed with her masculinity, but her room was…”
“Pink and fluffy!” Caine said happily. “Your rooms reflect things you dislike about yourself, so you can grow and learn with them, accepting them as part of who you are! Jax was scared of being a girl.”
“Wait, the rooms were meant to be helping us mentally?” Pomni asked.
“I thought it was some messed up torture thing.” Zooble said.
“I wanted everyone to love who they were…” Caine looked away for a second. “I didn’t know it was making it worse. I’m sorry.” That was another thing they were getting used to, Caine saying “sorry” on a normal basis.
“I don’t mind the mirrors as much anymore.” Zooble shrugged. “But I still took down most of them.”
“And I changed my room to be less childish.” Pomni shuddered. “I hate being seen or treated as childish.”
“I was so surprised when I went in her room after her abstraction.” Gangle admitted—not for the first time. “Like I said; She was always so misogynistic."
“Agreed.” Zooble nodded.
“I can’t say I was surprised.” Pomni chuckled and shrugged.
“Oh, yeah!” Kinger said. “I talk to Queenie at night! I referred to her as my youngest daughter.” Total silence yet again.
“How long have you done that?” The jester broke it. “Call her your daughter?”
“Do you still call her that? Do you still talk to Queenie, too?” Ragatha asked softly.
“I know she’s not up in the stars.” Kinger said softley. “But I still look at up like she is. I’m sane in the dark. I’m getting better in the light now, but—is that a caterpillar?"
“No, it’s a…” Ragatha looked over at the counter across from her. “Oh, it is.” She picked it up with ease and conjured a little tank for it. “Here.” She handed it over. She was only afraid of centipedes, any other insect or arachnid didn’t bother her. (when anyone asked why, she would get a haunted look in her eyes and say some variation of “I’ve seen some things”). Kinger was thoroughly enthralled by the insect, all thoughts about Jax and Queenie forgotten.
“I say—” Caine said, but Kinger interrupted him.
“I called Jax my daughter since she came, and I still do, when talking to… to… what are we talking about again?”
“I say we remember Jax as who she was.” Caine continued. “A jerk, but a loved jerk nonetheless.” Zooble let out an “eh”. Pomni sent them a glare.
“I loved her.” Ragatha whispered. “Still do, even after everything that happened. I still can’t help but feel that I failed her.”
“How so?” Zooble asked.
“She didn’t secretly have a heart of gold.” Ragatha hugged herself. “But she used to be sweet at times. Caring. She said she loved us when she was drugged… and she did. Thought she was just coo-coo, but there are unicorns painted on her dresser, so it must have had some truth to it.”
“It’s not your fault.” Pomni said softly.
“How can you say that!” Ragatha’s voice raised. “You don’t know—you didn’t know her back then.” Pomni stepped back, surprised by Ragatha’s outburst. “I’m sorry I… that wasn’t very cool of me.”
“I did see her memories, remember?” Pomni looked defensive and a little hurt. “Not all, but some and…” Her face crumbled. “She’s never coming back, is she?” The jester choked out. Ragatha wrapped her arms around her.
“No, I’m afraid not.” Caine said, and Pomni started to actually cry. They all did (even Caine which looked… strange, to say the least. They found themselves in a group hug.
“Sh-she came ou-out and told Ribbit abo-about her mo-mom.” Pomni buried her head into Ragatha’s dress as they all mourned their lost friend. Or daughter. Or sister. Whatever term fit for them.
“She was awful." Zooble said. They didn’t sound like they were crying, but the sniff gave them away.
“She got sca-scared and pushed ev-everyone awa-way. She sucks but she-she went through so much.”
“I don’t know how to feel.” Gangle admitted as they pulled away. “Jax was so mean to me, and it sounds bad but… I can’t say that I… well…”
“Miss her?” Zooble supplied.
“Yeah…”
“I understand.” Ragatha said just before Pomni could say anything in the rabbit’s defense.
“What! How?”
“Because it’s completely understandable, and I think I would find it hard to miss her if all she ever did to me from the moment I got here was make my life hell.”
“That… yeah, I think Gangle’s right.”
“I honestly never really hated her.” Zooble said. “She was fun to banter with sometimes. It’s the way she treated you all that made me not care less.”
“Why are we crying?” Kinger asked out of nowhere. “And why am I holding a caterpillar? Ooh, a caterpillar!" He went back to observing the creature.
“You know, Ribbit used to tell the funniest stories.” Ragatha said. “And I didn’t spend that much time with her, Jax tended to pull people away from me—nevermi—I’m sorry.”
“You can say that she was a piece of shit, you know. It’s okay.”
“She wasn’t.” Ragatha stated with the calmness of someone who knew what they were talking about and wasn’t about to let anyone else think differently. “Not always.”
“What kind of stories?” Pomni asked.
“Well, there was one time that she tried to climb up a street lamp and nearly died because a cat tried to get her and she kept almost falling while trying to get away. She ended up adopting the cat and naming her ‘street lamp, but better’, ‘light’ was her nickname. The cat died before she came.”
“She would randomly break into dance.” Caine recollected.
“Kaufmo was closer to me.” Ragatha said. “We talked sometimes.”
“Did they ever… mean anything to you, Caine?”
“Of course!” Caine said, offended. “I love my humans! I just cry in private because you guys aren’t supposed to see that. It’s not what I’m for.”
“And you’re telling us this now?” Zooble asked skeptically.
“I haven’t had a recharge, and I should probably do that soon.” Was Caine’s response.
“Wait, Caine, are you… sleep deprived?” Zooble was incredulous. “I—what—how is that possible—”
“You mourned all of them?” Pomni whispered over Zooble’s crisis.
“Of course.” Caine drooped and he let his feet fall to the floor, voice filled with emotions that none of them knew he was capable of. “I love all my humans.”
“Queenie?” Gangle spoke up. “She was Kinger’s wife, do you remember anything about her.”
“She was one of the first to come.” Caine said. “And one of the last of them to abstract.” He curled in on himself, small right now (his stature often changed based on emotions). “She cared about me. Called me her kid.”
“Oh.” Gangle said. “She was your mom?”
“You could… you could say that, I suppose.”
“Is Kinger your dad, then?” Pomni put her hand on the AI’s shoulder, feeling that strange feeling she often got with the AI now. A mix of a grudge, slight fear, and slowly (SLOWLY) growing affection.
“Am I WHAT?” Kinger looked up abruptly before nearly falling over. “What who what? Oh, caterpillar."
“He made me.” Caine shrugged. “I suppose you could say that.”
“What are some stories you have about the first group? The originals?” Ragatha sat down, and the others followed.
“I don’t like talking about it.” Caine admitted. “But not all of them were nice. Scratch went first, and the others were so fast afterwards. Scratch was… nice, I suppose. Thought of me as a thing more than a person, I guess. Queenie held on the longest besides Kinger. Three years, about. They were the only truly nice ones. The only ones who cared about me as a person.”
“Kinger is the universal dad.” Ragatha looked at him fondly.
“I am the universal fad.” Kinger looked up proudly.
“Everyone loves your cloaks.” Gangle agreed, smiling just as fondly as she played along. “They’re the big thing now.”
“We should all conjure cloaks.” Pomni said. “To match him.” She sniffed. “What’s that smell?” Ragatha looked horrified.
“Oh, no—my cake!”