Chapter Text
Joanne Ackerman (1954-2019)
Joanne Ackerman, 65, of New Greenshire, Massachusetts, died of a sudden heart attack in her home on December 28th, 2019.
She was born in Boston in 1954 to Charlotte and Anselm Ackerman, and inherited her parents' farm and property. She will be remembered for her strong personality that has left the community with many memories.
Joanne was preceded in death by her husband, Franklin Sutton, and their son, Neil Sutton.
She is survived by their daughters, Charlotte Ackerman and Suzanne Ackerman.
No mention was made of any hypothetical third living Ackerman children, branched off from one of the originals and currently living in a two-decade-old computer in a forgotten office building. Not that it would have.
Ragatha's eye scanned slowly over the words on the page, stonefacedly reading them for the thousandth time today.
It had been the better part of two, almost three years since things had reached their boiling point.
Since Caine had tortured them with the sort of temper tantrum only a god with a bruised ego could muster.
Since Kinger had deleted him, in an act of desperation derailed into an accidental key press.
Since the most wonderful person Ragatha had ever met had gone tumbling into the Void, only to be rescued by a literal thread.
Since Caine had come back, hat in hand, and asked forgiveness.
Since he'd brought along something tangible: stories and pictures from their other selves, outside of the computer.
Ever since then, what had become referred to as Macroverse check-ins had become a monthly event, everyone cramming in on one of the couches as Caine projected a montage onto a screen, showing them the latest news for their doubles.
Today, however, Caine had come to Ragatha in the early morning, with a manila folder, stopping Ragatha on her way out to the stables for her morning check-in on the horses.
Caine had simply stated that this wasn't something he'd feel comfortable airing for everyone without telling her first, so he'd printed the post in question out for Ragatha to view privately. It had just been posted the previous afternoon.
Ragatha had sat here, on this bench in the cold air out in front of the Circus, reading and rereading Momma's scanned obituary over and over and over.
The accompanying photo filled the blank where her mother’s face had been, in her memories, for the past ten years. Horn-rimmed glasses, gunmetal gray hair in tight, short curls. A pursed mouth that surely hadn’t so much as touched a smile in decades.
...survived by their daughters, Charlotte Ackerman and Suzanne Ackerman.
Ragatha ran one plush fingertip over the names of Joanne's two living children, sighed disappointedly through her nose as she reread the first one. Michael had never been able to get their mother to call him by his name. Ragatha (or Suzie, she supposed) had sworn she'd tasted blood in her mouth every time she'd been forced to get it wrong.
Ragatha allowed herself to smile gently, thinking to the many photos of Suzie and Michael Ackerman that Suzie had posted to her Facebook page. The two siblings were clearly very close, years and their mother having failed to drive a wedge between them.
She will be remembered for her strong personality that has left the community with many memories.
Now, that was a laugh. That was peak say-nothing obituary politeness right there. Although no one could ever accuse her of not having a strong personality, Joanne Ackerman's personality had been what someone better-spoken than Ragatha might have referred to as "devotedly misanthropic." She had been hateful of her community and her fellow man, seeming to despise one and all for the crime of merely existing in the first place. She'd never had a kind word for anyone, but had no shortage of snide, cruel comments about their character when their back was turned.
Suzie J. Ackerman, Ragatha's macroverse...version (We really need to come up with a better way to say that, she thought to herself), had posted the obituary to her Facebook page, just that morning. No caption, no thoughts, no eloquent eulogy or even a condemnation of the woman. Not even a funeral date.
Not for the first time, Ragatha's hand rose to her face, one thumb sliding over the unseeing decorative button that had replaced her right eye.
It had just been a shiner, when Suzie went to C&A. Momma had told her to just keep it closed and cover the bruise with some makeup, and she'd be right as rain in just a few days.
Ragatha remembered, when she was Suzie, sliding the headset she and Raymond had found over her head, just as a goof, keeping her hurt eye closed behind the bulky plastic.
Ragatha had never asked Caine, but...the implication, that the brain scanner or Caine's Mind Files program or whatever it was called, had only read one eye and assumed the other was simply not present, and thus automatically removed it in her avatar, was not lost on her.
And true, in the time since, maybe Ragatha had grown to love that little button, to navigate and be comfortable with half the eyes she used to...
...but that didn't change how it had happened. It was a fact that sat there forever, like a brown ring from a coffee mug left on a page of an open book.
Perhaps that was why Ragatha couldn't muster up the old shame that used to sit so heavily in her heart, at the idea of thinking ill of the dead.
Ten years ago, she might have. Maybe Suzie was, right now, cursing herself for thinking so cruelly of another person, especially her own mother.
But for Ragatha, here and now, ten years removed from her mother's voice?
The thing that had surprised Ragatha the most was how little she found herself feeling about the news.
There had been a sharp spike of familiar fear in her heart, at her mother's name at the top of the page.
Then, as she read the rest...not hatred. Not sorrow. Relief, perhaps just a little.
But outside of that...just a blank acknowledgement of the event.
Did that make her a bad person?
She hummed, softly, turning the question over and over in her head.
Maybe it did.
But…if Suzie didn’t seem too terribly torn up about it…maybe it was okay, that Ragatha wasn’t either.
Ragatha shut the folder once more, the obituary disappearing behind the manila cover, before squeezing it gently between fingers and thumb.
With a barely-audible crackle of static, the folder was un-conjured, disappearing from her hand as she dismissed it to the strange little invisible pocket Caine had gifted all of them, what he referred to as “hammerspace.”
A thin dusting of white, powdery snow crunched under two bucket-shaped shoes as Ragatha stood from the bench, wrapping a corduroy jacket tighter around her torso, against the chilly breeze.
She headed back up the path, away from the bench, towards where the path turned right to go to her pasture, straight to go around the Digital Carnival, or left to go back up the hill to the tent. Snow crunched underfoot with each step.
One delightful advent of the Post-Caine-Ruling-Everything era was the return of seasons. Caine, despite his more limited powers, had been able to program a seasonal timer, which lasted approximately 90 days each before cycling to the next season. Spring would have cooler mornings as the world slowly grew more colorful; summer would be warm, with the occasional short heat wave for flavor; autumn would fill the island the Circus sat on with orange colors as the leaves changed, before falling to litter the path with a layer of deafening crunch.
With winter, the world was silent, peaceful, with varying levels of snow from beginning to end. If no one pressed the big SNOW button, it would melt away within somewhere between three and seven days. The first time it had snowed, Caine had initially insisted on trying to shovel the entire path down the hill with his own gloved hands and a snow shovel. He’d even kept at it for a solid hour, making…not great progress, but it was progress. Eventually, Caine had finally given up the ghost and snapped his fingers to clear the rest of it.
As Ragatha reached the top of the path, just outside of the tent entrance, she glanced back down the path, across the snow-covered open area in front of the tent. At the base of the path was the stables she had created with Caine, a group of various horses spread throughout the fenced-in pasture.
With a smile, Ragatha stepped just a couple of steps off the path, towards the decidedly whacky-looking contraption that stood on three legs like a tripod, about the size of a small car.
The front was covered in various easy-to-understand buttons and dials, each of which had been labeled with simple pictures like a sunny sky, or a stormcloud with a lightning bolt. Although the settings had been locked to winter weather for now, a dial with a simple snowflake on it was glowing green.
Ensuring it was set to level one, for a dusting, Ragatha pressed the snowflake button with a crisp cl-click. The device made several cartoony noises and sound effects for several seconds, before a large, white ball was shot from the top with a FTHOOOM, vanishing into the sky.
Seconds later, a light patter of snow began to gently fall from the digital heavens, with a sound like light chimes.
With a smile, Ragatha stepped back onto the path and in through the tent’s entrance. She shucked her jacket off at the door, before hanging it on a nearby coat rack.
It was getting towards late morning, which meant Ragatha had another, very important stop to make.
The thick, dark blue comforter over the top of Ragatha’s bed rose and fell gently, as the soft and gentle sound of sleeping breaths came from within. Underneath, something was curled into a tight, comfy ball. A single fluffy, floppy ear was draped over the pillow, having freed itself from the pink sleeping bonnet its twin was still trapped within.
Ragatha paused, as always, standing over the bed she shared with her favorite person in the world, before leaning over. She gently pulled away a patch of comforter, revealing Lily’s face, snoozing soundly. The extra fur she’d grown as a result of Caine’s modifier, just a couple of years ago, were just a little thicker than they were during the warmer months. Her cheek floof was patched with the white, snowy sprinkling of a winter coat. The fur around her neck was threatening to become a dewlap.
Something about Lily’s bunny-ness encoded into her made her sleepier whenever it was winter, prone to sleeping longer, trying to be comfier. She didn’t take well to the cold at all.
Her eyeliner was a permanently immaculate as always, even as she drooled gently onto her pillow.
Ragatha sighed fondly. She was still the most beautiful anything Ragatha had ever seen.
Ragatha nestled to the side of the blanket lump, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
Feeling the mattress press down, Lily smiled lazily without opening her eyes. “Mornin’, pumpkin,” She murmured sleepily, before smiling with a happy hum as she felt two familiar lips press against the side of her head.
“Morning, Lily.” Ragatha whispered. “I’m back from checking in on the horses.”
“Mmmm…tha’s good…” Lily turned onto her side, snuggling further into the blankets.
“Lily, it’s time to get up.”
“Nooooo…” Lily sleepily recoiled into the blankets. “Too comfy…”
Ragatha chuckled, trailing a hand under the covers, softly running her fingertips over Lily’s shoulders and back. “I know, bunny wants to stay in bed and hibernate, but you made me promise I’d get you out of bed at a decent time this year.”
Lily smiled, still trying to fall back asleep even as she relished the feeling of Ragatha’s hands on her fur. “Nooooo…too cold…gimme five more minutes…”
“I already gave you five more minutes.”
“…Four more minutes?”
With a chuckle, Ragatha grasped the tops of the covers, and began to slowly peel them away from Lily’s huddled form. Lily groped half-heartedly at the sheets as they slid off her, allowing the cold to seep in. “Noooooooo… you’re so meeeaaaaaan…”
Ragatha dropped the warm blankets to the floor as Lily shuddered dramatically in the center of the mattress. Lily’s palms thumped heavily on the bed around her. “Frostbite…setting in…light fading…tell Ragatha…I love her…” With a final dramatic convulsion, Lily allowed her mouth to open in a smile, her tongue sticking out. “Bleh.”
Grinning, Ragatha eased herself onto the bed, hugging Lily from behind, their bodies fitting together Just So in that way Lily still adored. Lily sighed happily, pressing backward into her warm partner. Behind her, Ragatha craned her head downward, pressing a soft kiss against the back of Lily’s neck.
“Mmmmm…” Lily smiled, blissfully content, as she snuggled up closer. “I love you…”
“I love you too. Now, my lil’ cold-blooded lizard partner needs to come out of hibernation.”
A mock-offended scoff from Lily. “I’ll show you cold blooded!”
Ragatha jumped backward with a loud “EEP!” as Lily swept her bare footpaws up under Ragatha’s dress, before pressing the cold pawpads against her legs. Ragatha flinched backwards, tumbling out of bed to land roughly on her butt as Lily finally sat up, laughing loudly.
Ragatha was grinning wickedly, mock-glaring back at Lily as she slowly stood up. “That’s it…you’ve asked for it now…”
Eyes widening, Lily scrambled backward across the bed, still grinning. “Not that! Anything but that!!!”
Smiling wickedly, Ragatha lunged for Lily. “TICKLE ATTACK!”
Lily’s shrieks of laughter echoed out into the hall outside of the closed bedroom door.
Ragatha couldn’t help the endeared smile on her face, even as Lily yawned enormously. The bunny had put on one of her fluffier skirts and a comfy turtleneck sweater, to keep out the tiniest bit of cold.
As the two descended the stairs to the main area, her long ears bobbed gently, draping down on either side of her jaw. Lily yawned once more, letting her cheek press against Ragatha’s shoulder. “Mmmm…can’t promise I won’t go take a nap, later.”
“That’s just fine.” Ragatha kissed the side of Lily’s head. “Honestly, I might join you. That does sound comfy.”
With a smirk, Lily began to pull back on Ragatha’s hand. “The bed’s right up these stairs, we could go snuggle up right now…”
Ragatha giggled. “Later on. Right now, we’re doing the thing and we’re socializing for a while and having breakfast.”
“Mmm, yeah, breakfast. Think I might go down to the aquarium, for a little while, afterward.”
Lily glanced over at the currently-deserted sitting area, as the two of them passed between it and the couch. “Come on, no one’s even down here yet. One of the couches.”
Meeting Lily’s smirk with her own, Ragatha kissed her gently on the lips, the kind of kiss that made Lily sigh happily, deflating against Ragatha, her puff of a tail wagging gently beneath her skirt.
“Mmmm…” Lily sighed. “You’re too good at that.”
Ragatha leaned forward with a grin, Lily shuddering as she felt Ragatha’s hot breath against her sensitive ear, the doll whispering “Be good for me and stay awake until this afternoon, and I’ll show you what else I’m good at.”
Eyes widening, Lily grinned ear-to-ear, something equally salacious and flirtatious rising to her lips.
Doi-oi-oing.
Lily and Ragatha froze.
Lily’s wide eyes met Ragatha’s, the two sharing a long, silent look at what that sound meant.
“Wh…I…uh…wha…”
A new voice. Quiet, breathy, just a little bit nasal.
Slowly, in unison, Lily and Ragatha turned their heads with an audible creaking sound to look up at the stage.
On the stage was a cartoon possum, just about the same height as Pomni.
Two tiny, uncomprehending dot eyes stared back at the two of them from behind a pair of thick, round, shiny glasses, sat on the end of her pointy snout. Two ears, curved to a point, stuck out atop her head.
Two small claws poked out of the sleeves of another turtleneck, cream-colored, this one oversized enough that it threatened to swallow its wearer whole. A fat, pink tail like a rat’s hung low behind her, just barely grazing the stage.
She looked almost like a talking animal librarian from a children’s cartoon, the kind that would glare at you and make a loud “SHHHHHH!” if she caught you making noise.
The possum blinked, looking back and forth between Lily and Ragatha, before her gaze shifted, staring up at the massive circus before her. “What…what just…”
Ragatha and Lily’s eyes met once more.
“Code blue,” Lily nodded, all traces of sleep gone from her eyes.
With a nod, Ragatha turned back to the stage. “Hi there!”
The possum flinched at Ragatha’s voice, staring at her unblinkingly for several long seconds.
Then, Lily winced as the possum’s paws shot to the sides of her head. “Yeah…go ahead, but…I don’t think you’re gonna find it.”
The possum began to breathe, quicker and quicker, as she looked herself over. Panic was inching into her voice and eyes. "What is- what is- what is..."
Lily quickly broke into a jog, and with a Hup! she hauled herself up onto the stage, before skidding to crouch on the floor next to the diminutive cartoon marsupial. “Hey, hey, easy, easy.”
The possum’s scribble-filled eyes looked up at her, adrift in a sea of confusion. “I…I don’t understand. Why can’t I take it back off? What’s happening?”
Behind Lily, she could hear Ragatha’s gentle footsteps, approaching to sit next to Lily. “Hey, New Stuff…welcome aboard, I suppose.” Ragatha smiled, her face both sad and sympathetic.
Lily gave the newcomer an encouraging smile. “Hey. I’m Lily, this is Ragatha.” Ragatha gave a simple wave hello. “This is…well, it’s hard to explain, but…this is the Circus.”
The possum looked up past Lily, wide-eyed, as her eyes flicked around, nervously taking in her surroundings.
“Ah…well…can I…leave the Circus, please? Or, log out, or whatever it is? I-I was just-“
“In an old office building?” Lily finished.
The possum blinked, surprised, her attention turning back to Lily.
Ragatha leaned in, her voice just as calming. “And then you put on an old headset, and then…” Ragatha motioned her hands in front of her. “Poof?”
Realization began to dawn behind the possum’s eyes. “Y…you, too?”
“Yeah.” Lily nodded. “Us and a bunch of others. We’ve been here for years.”
The possum’s face grew pale. “Years?”
Before Lily could answer, however, a voice rang out from behind her.
“GUYS!” Pomni’s voice, her shout echoing across the high-ceilinged main area.
“EEP!” The possum squeaked in startled fright, before stiffly falling onto her back. X’s had replaced her pupils, and a white flower was clutched to her chest. Somewhere in the distance, there was a single, mournful chime of a church bell.
“GUYS! CODE BLUE!” Pomni came into view at the top of the spiral stairs, her hands on the railing as she shouted. “There’s a new door plate! It’s got, I think maybe it’s a mouse on it, and-“ Her eyes finally alighted on Lily, Ragatha, and the prone newcomer on the stage. “Ah.”
Ragatha stared blankly at the possum. Lily, blinking in confusion, called over her shoulder. “Pom, you scared her so bad she died.”
Pomni’s eyes widened. “Oh god.”
“Guh!” With a sudden gasp, the possum sat back upright. Her eyes were back to normal, and the funeral flower she’d been clutching to her chest had vanished. “What just happened?! Did I just faint?!”
As Pomni began to trot down the stairs, Lily raised a consoling hand. “Okay, listen, newbie. I get it, okay? I do.”
The watery-eyed possum looked back at her. She was clearly listening to Lily, her small claws squeezing in each other in front of her.
Lily, unaware that the events of the next few minutes would surely place in the Top 5 in Worst Circus Welcomes In History, gave another encouraging smile to the newcomer. “Look, if you wanna just sit down for a bit, we’ll give you the full story. And…it’s gonna hurt. I’m sorry.” She offered one purple-furred paw, allowing the possum to ease her small claw into it. “But, it’s gonna be okay.”
The possum sniffled. “R…really?”
Lily nodded. “I promise.”
A deafening CRASH of shattering glass thundered through the air, making everyone present flinch, hands clapping instinctively over ears.
With a frightened squeak, the possum flopped onto her back again, the chime of the bell barely audible over the low roar that had rushed to fill the air.
“What the hell was that?!” Lily shouted, rising to her feet.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Pomni paused, before glancing around the tent pole to the second spiral staircase, leading down to the aquarium. She quickly ran around the column, and down a few steps, before running back up, eyes wide. “We’ve got flooding! In the aquarium!”
“What?!” Ragatha rose to her feet, wide-eyed.
“Shit!” Lily shook the newcomer’s shoulder, pulling the possum back to consciousness.
“I’ll go get Caine!” Pomni quickly began to charge back up the stairs, two by two, back towards the second story, where the ringmaster had moved access to his office to one of the doors in the bedroom hallway.
Why is it always like this, Ragatha thought to herself. Just once, just once I wanna welcome someone without it turning into a huge Thing. Oh god, wait- the Abstractions! What if they get out- what could have even caused- how could-
“Wh-what’s happening?!!?” The possum’s eyes were wide, frantic, a frightened anxiety creeping in.
Ragatha quickly hopped off the stage, dashing over to the top of the aquarium stairs, before craning her head to gaze around the corner.
Below, the observation tunnel was flooding, as hundreds of gallons of water poured mercilessly in through a shattered window.
“Hey, hey!” Despite the low roar from below, Lily was still doing her best to keep the possum calm. “I said it was gonna be okay, didn’t I?”
“I-I…”
“I promise you, nothing here is going to hurt you without going through me first.”
The possum’s eyes glanced over Lily’s shoulder, widening in fear at what she saw.
Caine, in all his glory, hovered over the railing and down to the ground floor below. Pomni, with Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger all following behind, came charging back down the stairs.
Caine, who wasn’t quite as omnipresent as he used to be these days, did his best to ignore his embarrassment at one of the others having to run and come physically get him, as opposed to just being able to call his name and he hear them anywhere in the Circus.
Caine hardly glanced at the stage or the newcomer on it, laser-focused on the sounds coming from the aquarium. He settled onto his two feet at the top of the aquarium stairs, his eyes wide. “Gadzooks! What caused this?!”
Lily eased herself off of the stage, the possum following behind her as everyone gathered around Caine, at the top of the stairs.
“Are the Abstractions okay?” Gangle’s voice, worried as she glanced down the stairs.
“Scanning for them now…” Caine murmured, his eyes flicking in a dozen directions at calculations and computations only he could see. “Everyone seems present and accounted for...”
Caine paused, just briefly. “Hello…” He flicked his hand rapidly, as if enlarging a window on a screen.
“Caine?” Zooble’s voice, a little of their old, firmer edge leaking back in. “What’s going on?”
Caine didn’t respond, only looking back down the stairs.
Then, he took two striding steps downward, his fists clenched at his sides. “I’m gonna take care of this water. I’m gonna need someone ready to get in there as soon as you can and re-conjure the glass while I hold the water back.”
Pomni nodded. “On it.”
At her side, Gangle nodded as well. “I’ll help you.”
Caine quickly glanced over the group. “There might be a frame rate drop, so everyone, brace yourselves!”
With a grand sweep of Caine’s arms, like a sorcerer, the water flowing in seemed to butt against an invisible barrier, before it began to flow backwards, surging back up through the shattered window.
It might have looked very majestic and epic, if not for the sudden dip in frame rate as Caine’s reduced processing power worked harder to account for the physics of moving a great deal of water. Droplets froze in midair, only to jump another foot or two back, hovering for another second before disappearing back into the torrent.
Lily grimaced. She always hated frame rate drops, they made her feel like her whole body was hiccupping.
The possum, for her part, had seemed to come out of the other side of her anxious first few minutes in a state of accepting confusion, looking jerkily at her own hands as they moved jitteringly in front of her.
As the water levels reduced, leaving only a bare couple of inches still on the observation tunnel’s floor, Pomni and Gangle quickly slid past either side of Caine, who was still standing with his arms raised like a conductor, holding the water back.
As Pomni stepped onto the floor, sending ripples in the remaining water, she froze, as what had been hiding under the waterfall was finally made visible. At her side, Gangle gasped.
An Abstraction, drenched to its lack of bones, was trembling on the floor, its dozens of twitching technicolor eyes looking in every direction.
“Caine!” Pomni called. “We’ve got a loose Abstraction!”
“I know!” Caine growled in exertion, still holding the water back. “Leave it! Get that window conjured, please!”
Pomni looked back over her shoulder in confusion. “But-“
“NOW!” Caine shouted.
This was nothing like his bombastic showmanship, or even his shouting Mad God temper tantrum, during his God Complex period. This was a genuine, desperate shout of a command.
Pomni blinked in surprise, before nodding, turning her attention back to the shattered window. At the top of the stairs, the others gently stepped downward, giving Caine space while they collectively watched.
Pomni and Gangle carefully stepped around the Abstraction on the floor, their hands raising before them. With a familiar crackle of static electricity, two flat squares, glowing white, began to manifest in midair before them.
As the two concentrated, the two squares began to grow, melding into each other, until it carefully slotted into the bracket where the old window had been. The white glow dimmed, resolving itself to thick, clear glass.
With a gasp of breath he didn’t strictly need, Caine let his focus drop, releasing his grip on the water.
Zooble pat-patted Caine on the back. “Good job, buddy.”
There was a low chittering sound from the Abstraction on the floor, writhing in an inch of water.
Ragatha took another few steps down, until she too touched down on the bottom. “What’s wrong with it?”
Caine’s polished shoes clicked gently as he stepped down, raising a cautionary hand. “Give it space. If I’m right…”
The Abstraction keened softly, a low, pitiful sound.
“…If you’re right about what, Caine?” Kinger, his voice low and worried.
Caine was silent for several seconds before he spoke again, his voice halting, but collected, as if he were still trying to calmly figure it out himself.
“Kinger, you’re aware that I am, at my core, a machine, and thus essentially divorced from any meanings of religion or the divine that humans worship, right?”
“Riiiight…” Kinger nodded, sharing an uncertain glance with Zooble.
Caine nodded. “Good. With that in mind, please note that I am fully aware of the irony of this statement. If I’m right…if the data I just read was accurate…we may be about to witness a miracle.”
Lily stepped down, the water soaking into the fur of her footpaws. At her side, her hand slid into Ragatha’s grasp, squeezing each other gently as they, as everyone stared at the twitching Abstraction.
With one last moan, the Abstraction tilted the blob that served as its head back, all of its eyes closing.
Then, it seemed to convulse forward, as if trying to vomit something up.
A smooth green hand emerged from the tip of the Abstraction, its three fingers hanging limp.
Lily’s eyes widened.
Wh-
With another violent retch, the bare green arm attached to the hand slithered outward, in an act that seemed painful to the Abstraction, and yet unable to stop it.
Another retch, and the arm gave way to a shoulder, and then…a head, flopping out, still attached to the rest of her body.
For the first time in years, Lily found herself looking at Ribbit’s face.
Ragatha’s free hand shot to her face, covering her mouth in shock.
Ribbit’s eyes were lidded, and a dull groan could be heard as more of the frog was sloughed out of the Abstraction, like a baby animal being shoved messily out of its mother’s birth canal.
She was coated, toe to tip, in a foul-smelling black substance that resembled motor oil. The skin of her chest, one shoulder, and a good part of her arm had been stained an inky black splotch. The edges were jagged, with asymmetrical blobs of color throughout. If you looked at them right, they almost resembled eyes, painted on and then smeared while the paint was still wet.
Blinking slowly, unevenly, she stared at the frozen group, not really seeing any of them. One eye still shimmered with searing colors that glowed and danced on the water, though they seemed more muted, more dull.
As she emerged, the Abstraction was…shrinking.
Every inch of Ribbit that was expelled seemed to subtract from the oily black mass, until at last, with one final, violent shudder, it vanished completely, receding back into the half-alive frog.
Everything hurt.
Her head, her arms, her stomach, every muscle she had. Everything, everything was flaring with agony.
“Uhhhg…” Slowly, Ribbit tried to push herself on her elbows, only for her throat to swell with a deep CROAK.
Brain in a tired, painful haze, Ribbit barely noticed the blur of movement dashing towards them as they pitched forward.
She barely felt two familiar hands clutching her shoulders, supporting her the best she could as it was Ribbit’s turn to retch violently, loosing a torrent of inky black digital vomit directly into the person’s lap.
Whoever it was didn’t even seem to notice the sludge and water soaking into her clothes, as she simply pulled Ribbit into her arms.
“Ribbit…” A voice, miles away. “Ribbit…oh my god, oh my god, Ribbit…” Their voice was choked with tears.
With a pained groan, Ribbit did her best to roll onto her back, feeling whoever was hugging her so tight begin to rock, back and forth, back and forth. It honestly felt kind of nice.
“I’m so sorry…” The voice again, sobbing, hugging Ribbit as if she’d dry up and blow away if they let go. “I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…” The voice whispered those words, hitched with tears, over and over again, rocking back and forth with Ribbit in their arms.
Something in that voiced plucked at Ribbit’s heart, despite how dead she felt.
She wanted to tell them it was okay, that they didn’t need to cry, not for her.
“I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…”
Her eyelids fluttered, trying to stave off passing out for just a little longer as she tried to look up at whoever was embracing her.
Through bleary eyes, Ribbit could barely see a purple face looking back down at her through two golden eyes overflowing with tears. Two long ears hung down from her face.
“…J…Jax?”
Before they could hear an answer, Ribbit’s eyes slid closed, and she fell into the kindly embrace of sleep.
The room was as silent as the grave.
Eight sets of eyes stared at the unconscious frog in Lily's arms.
Eventually, Lily managed to pull her gaze away, looking at Caine with wide, haunted eyes.
"H...how?"
Caine was silent for a long, long time as he stared back, before he finally spoke.
"I...I don't know."