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It was an ordinary day in the circus.Ragatha was frantically trying to put Zooble’s pieces back together after a run-in with Jax, who was cackling at everything unfolding, and especially cackling at how Zooble was so enraged by this that they kept falling apart again even as they were put back together. Gangle wept as she limply tried to reach for her mask, her ribbons bogged down by the weight of the ranch dressing that stained her. The mask was unbroken.Until Kinger picked it up and took it away, mistaking it for a pillow and stuffing it in his pillow fort, shattering it in the process. This made Gangle cry even harder, which in turn made Jax almost double over in laughter.That is to say, yes, it was another ordinary day in the circus.Pomni sat down and tapped her finger against the table, just observing. Unlike Jax, she had very little external amusement about the situation- she also didn’t really have any internal amusement about it, either. The same comedic or tragic situation loses its sting after a while. Was boredom worse than any of the extreme emotions she saw unfolding in front of her?Caine hadn’t appeared with an adventure yet. It wasn’t unusually late, and sometimes he was busy putting finishing touches on something and would delay an adventure by a day, but it did not help to stave off the boredom. If only something would happen. Jax found himself getting strangled by Zooble as they had successfully held their anger in enough for Ragatha to finish up. Another day, another dollar. Well, she wasn’t getting paid. Maybe she should be. “You think Caine will spawn me another salad if I ask?” Zooble dusted themself off and all traces of prior anger washed away.“I haven’t seen him all day…” Ragatha rubbed the side of her neck as she scanned the room around her.Jax coughed and sputtered on the ground as he regained his ability to breathe. But this wasn’t about him, so Pomni ignored it.“Looks like we’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way, eh?” Ragatha punctuated her statement with a thrust of her arm and a tilt of her head. Zooble seemed less enthused, rolling their eyes as they stumbled over towards the room that everyone knew to be the kitchen.As Ragatha followed to help, Pomni was left with nothing better to do than to just tap her finger on the table. Oh, and watch Jax choke, she supposed. She turned slightly in her chair.Ah, nothing better to do than to just tap her finger on the table and watch Jax choke.As he continued to do so. The choking.She narrowed her eyes at him. …That was a little much.He suddenly sprang up, taking a bow that if Pomni had replicated would surely end in her tumbling over herself. “And… scene.” He grabbed the chair directly in front of Pomni and sat down on it, turning it backwards and pressing his chest against the would-be back as he leaned forward towards her. “Well, five stars?”“It was a little long,” she let her eyes wander from where he stared at her, focusing on the wall far away. “The sounds were okay.”“Well, I had a captive audience!” He rested his chin in his hands as he encroached the side of her vision. “I can’t disappoint my people!”“I’m not people,” she noticed a door opening and Zooble and Ragatha emerged from it.“Hey, I gave a better performance than Ribbons- stand up! No one buys that shit and you know it!” He turned to yell at the ranched ribbons that refused to rise. She wailed. “Fuckin’ drama queen,” he sneered as he turned back towards Pomni.Who had realized something and acted appropriately.“What, what’s that dumb look on your face for?” He pushed himself into her vision and she pushed him aside.“Move! I can’t-” she squinted as they drew closer. “Oh my god.”“What? Oh my god what?” Jax turned around to see what might have garnered such a reaction. “The salad?”“Jax,” She grabbed him by his cheeks, turning his head back towards hers. “We can’t let them eat that salad.”He snickered, clearly not picking up on the gravity of the situation. “What, you wanna smack it out of their hands or something? I’m down for that-”“Listen to me.”“Or we could trip them-”“Jax, I used that cucumber as a dildo for three hours last night.”His eyes grew wide at this and he had no witty retort.“We can’t let them eat that salad-”“Why the fuck did you put it back!” He grabbed her cheeks in turn. “That’s gross, Pomni.”“I wanted to use it again!” She pulled back from his grasp and hid her face in her hands. “I-I didn’t think anyone ate those, I thought it was for show-”“You didn’t think to put it in your room, or I don’t know- throw it out?” He crossed his arms. “Or, hell, maybe I would’ve even ea-”“It’s already done! Stop dwelling on it!” She exasperatedly waved her arms around. “What’s important now is that we can’t let them eat it!”“Eh, I dunno,” Jax looked down to the floor again. “I don’t think I care- would you please fucking get up?”Gangle gargled. But this wasn’t about her, so Jax rolled his eyes with a “sheesh” and turned back to Pomni. “Go do something about it, then,” he waved his hand with a bored look. “It can’t take that long to eat a salad, time’s a wastin’.”She inhaled deeply and slammed her fists on the table. “You’re right. It’s time to do something.”With an exhale, she shut her eyes tightly.Jax blinked.He swore he could hear a faint hum in front of him. He checked his wrist. He forgot, he didn’t wear a watch.“What are you doing?” She did not respond, and instead squeezed her fists so hard her hands shook as her face started to turn red.“Don’t hurt yourself.”“Ragatha!” Kinger suddenly screamed.Jax turned his head away from the still-doing-whatever-that-was Pomni and watched the scene unfolding down by where Ragatha and Zooble sat. The salad still sat untouched on the table as the pair stood up to run over to the source of the yelling.“Kinger! Oh, honey, you can’t just try to mix all the sodas from the fountain at once!”
“Not again!” Zooble called after, but still followed the doll towards the beast rising out of the soda cup discarded on the floor.“I did that.”Jax turned his head back towards Pomni, who looked quite pleased with herself.“You did what?”She pointed to the monster, which was now trying to chew on Kinger’s head. “I manifested that.”Jax was going to tell her that she didn’t, because this was just one of the various ‘easter eggs’ that Caine had littered the tent with. And he had purposefully summoned the soda monster himself multiple times over the course of her stay here. But he kept his mouth shut because she had already scampered over to the salad bowl while everyone was distracted.He groaned and stood up himself, sauntering over. “Great, now pick it up and throw it out.”She looked at the bowl and frowned. “I don’t wanna touch that!”“What do you mean you don’t wanna touch it?” He put his hands on his hips and leaned forward. “That’s your pussy pickle.”“Not so loud, they’ll hear you!” she scolded, despite the overwhelming sound of screaming and snarling from the other end of the tent. “Fine, since you wanna be such a little wuss about it,” he scooped up the bowl in one motion, to Pomni’s horror.“Jax! Put that down!”“Sheesh, woman,” he put his hands on his hips, “do you wanna get rid of this thing or not?”“I do! I just-” Pomni stuttered and fluttered her hands around as she tried to enunciate her hesitation.Zooble appeared directly behind Jax and cleared their throat. “Alright,” Zooble outstretched a claw, “salad. Now.”Both of them jumped, one much more than the other. “B-but,” Pomni felt a cold sweat wash over her, “the monster! Ragatha and Kinger need help!”“Nah,” Zooble shrugged, “they’re fine. Salad time now.”Jax looked down at the bowl in his hand, out towards Zooble’s claw, and then back at the salad. And then he looked over at Pomni. Pomni looked over at him. Then she looked over at Zooble.Zooble raised their eyebrows and leaned in slightly. Jax looked down at the salad again. He picked up the spoon from the table.He almost stuck it into the salad. He put the spoon back down and felt around blindly for the fork. He picked the fork up from the table, but not before knocking the knife down onto the floor first.He then dropped the fork onto the table, and uttered a “Shit,” out as he scurried to catch it, almost dropping the bowl in his haste.He stood back up again. Bowl in one hand, fork in the other. “Jax.”Zooble lunged forward and Jax dodged, stepping aside and almost falling backwards onto the table. He stayed upright, now facing Pomni directly. “Jax!”He stuck the fork into a stack of leaves, one of the cucumber slices skewered by the tines of the fork squarely on top of his selection.He shoved the entire bite into his mouth at once and his eyes met Pomni’s. Zooble reached for the bowl again and he easily held it out of their reach. He chewed slowly at first, almost as if it were an afterthought. Then his eyes went wide. He took a much greedier helping as he sat on the table, pushing Zooble back with his foot.Pomni pressed her hand to her mouth and blushed furiously.Oh my god.He’s eating it.The cucumber that she masturbated with for hours last night, that Zooble cut up, that Jax was now eating.And making eye contact with her while he did so. “Jax, you asshole!”As he shoveled another forkful into his mouth, Pomni saw his tongue practically caress the cucumber slice before his lips closed around it. Through his full mouth, he mumbled out, “shut up, I’m eating.”Zooble growled and aimed a claw around his ankle, but he retracted his foot in time to kick them in the chest. They recoiled but held their ground before heading back towards him. “You don’t even like salad!”He made quick work of the food, but Zooble eventually knocked the fork out of his hands and reached their hands for the almost-empty salad. As they took it from him, his free hand dove into the bowl and retrieved the extra cucumber slices.“What’s your fucking problem?” Zooble inspected the bowl for any remaining leaves, of which there were none. “Why do you act like this?”Jax crunched the rest of the cucumber slices and finally broke eye contact with Pomni, who felt like steam was about to come out of her ears if this were to continue for a second longer. “I wanted it.” He licked his lips and savored the taste on his tongue.Zooble hadn’t gotten around to putting any dressing on it yet.Now that both problems had fixed themselves, Ragatha came over with Kinger on her shoulder, who she threw onto the table with a grunt.“Ugh, am I stuck in digital hell with a bunch of children, what was all that?” She stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips. “You,” she pointed to Kinger, “have lived here long enough to know better, you,” up towards Zooble, who was taken aback at the scolding, “need to get your priorities in check, and you,” she pointed at Jax, who had to turn around to look at her, still perched on the table, “...I’m not even surprised by you, anymore.”“Wow, Clusterfuck,” Jax chuckled, “she came for your whole ass, huh-”“Keep your mouth shut! And you,” she pointed to Pomni, face still beet-red, “thanks for staying out of it! Keep it up, slugger! I’m going to bed.”As Ragatha left, Pomni felt guilt settle in her stomach. She had done absolutely everything except ‘stay out of it’. Zooble screamed in frustration and stomped away, likely back to the kitchen to grab another salad.Jax laughed and ran away but slipped on Gangle’s ribbons and started choking on the floor after the wind was knocked out of him again. The two of them continued to make sounds as Pomni covered her face in embarrassment and started to retreat to her room.She almost wished she had another cucumber to help her work off the frustration. She shook her head and amended her thought. No, an eggplant. That’s it. If she had grabbed the eggplant, she wouldn’t be in this mess.At the knocking at her door, Pomni stuck her head out into the hallway. Despite the slightly-dimmed lights, she could very easily make out the figure standing in front of her.“Jax,” she pinched the space between her eyes, “it’s late. I had a rough day.”“Oh, yeah, I know,” he nodded, “that’s why I thought you might want this?”He brought his hand out from behind his back and revealed another cucumber that he had snagged from the kitchen, wrapped in a purple ribbon.“Oh, uh,” despite her earlier convictions, she decided she might make one more encore performance this time. She sheepishly accepted his gift. “Th-thanks…”He continued to stand at the door and silence blanketed the two.She cleared her throat. “Did you… want to watch?”“Watch?” He scoffed, “I wanted to eat that thing right out of you.”She narrowed her eyes in thought. “Well, that would be convenient for cleanup… sure, why not.”“Yippee!”“Say that again and I’ll kick you out.”“Fair enough.”