Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Welcome back my candy hearts and paper flowers!”

Caine's chirpy greeting falls on deaf ears however- either waterlogged or exhausted- the line of soaked characters plodging from their wet adventure, littered with dripping seaweed and gnawing starfishes gracefully gained from various undersea trials. Gangle sorrowfully clutches her broken mask before Caine snaps it back together without a trick, uplifting her spirits as Gangle happily waves after putting it back on. The marionette behind her holds back a rude eyeroll, hands tightened to her stomach in pain, the swirling entrails of seawater remaining to violently pulse at her insides. She gags and falls over- almost. Cali catches her, instantaneously snapping out of her surprisingly stoic stance, smoothly rubbing her paw over her back to encourage her hacking. And that she does. 

“Th-thanks, Cali,” Mary chokes before regaining her posture with her friend's supporting help. Cali gives her a half smile and moves to dry the excess water from her face, mouth moving in near reply- no question a fitting reassurance. Right?

“I-”

“OOF!” 

“Maybe I should call you legs instead of floats,” Jax snorts with a snicker, stepping over Phantom's fallen body. Stars swirl above her head. 

“Phantom, f[SPLAT!]k, are you okay?” Mary rushes to her side, hastily brushing Cali away alongside the seaweed that proved to obstacle her path. Roughly reaching her side, she exhales fondly. “What did you even trip over this time?” 

“My…legs…?” 

Mary facepalms.

“C'mon clumsy,” Cali ushers, having trailed Mary over to the bustle. She holds out a paw to her. 

“I'm not that clumsy-” she starts, grabbing her hand. Before Cali slips and splats on top of her, smushing them both into a helpless, wet heap. “Oh? Did Cali lose her cool?” 

Her face burns yet her lips lock with no reply. 

“You guys are hopeless!” Mary dramatically exclaims. 

“You do seem quite hot to me,” Phantom continues, breezily ignoring Mary and keeping her teasing smirk at Cali. 

“Phantom!” Cali finally groans, whipping her head up and away from the ghost's sight. She pulls herself off her and crosses her arms away from them with feigned frustration as Mary helps Phantom up with a giggle. Phantom doesn't join her mirth however, her grin fading as she shoots a slightly curious glance at the cat. Mary copies this and she nudges her.

“Tired?” 

“Probably. Cats don't like water, remember?” 

“Oh yeah.” Mary stifles a laugh and walks forward. Ragatha, busy with sifting seaweed from her hair, acknowledges her presence with a forced smile. Mary appreciates her attempt of optimism, if not anything else.

“How'd you like that one, Mary?”

“Uh, it was… wet,” Mary struggles to answer. She catches Ragatha's expectant gaze and scrambles for more words. “It…” 

“Could’ve gone better?” 

Relieved slightly, Mary nods and they both share a smile. 

“Yeah, I can share that with you on that note. But I’m sure the next adventure will be less… wet.” 

“I see I've shared my esteemed way with words with you too.” 

“Haha, you got me there, Mary,” Ragatha lightly laughs. They laugh together for a moment, the feeling bitter down Mary's throat rather than the lightness it sung out. 

Being friends with Ragatha feels so… natural. Normal, even. So why did she have to say that?

“Hey Ragatha, could you help me count my eggs before they hatch?” Kinger asks, interjecting their conversation.

“Oh- sure!” Ragatha replies without hesitation. “Wait what?” she stops as she realises what Kinger just asked of her.

“Looks like that ‘oh-so-friendly’ Ragatha charm is starting to wear off, huh?” Jax instigates, fully dried off already. “Can't even help an old man count his eggs.” 

“Jax!” Mary reprimands, shooting him a glare in defence of her friend. 

‘Friend.’

She's about to snark a remark back until she sees Phantom dash to the distance with random vigour. The ghost's running after something she saw, only caught a glimpse: a mannequin of some sort watching them.

“Phantom?” both Mary and Cali chorus, both snapped out of their previous headspace. They side eye each other with the same thought and follow her in suit to try make sure she doesn't get herself wound up in some danger like the last ten times she'd randomly gone ‘exploring’ in the circus.

“Hmmm.” Caine wonders aloud next to Zooble.

“This one was a home run, eh?”

“Oh Zooble you mismatched cash piano I’LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES- constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.”

“But never acknowledged,” she states with a sigh.

“Eh-alright- that’s it! Everyone besides Zooble, get over here!” he commands. 

With a snap of his fingers, the group instantly teleports from what they were doing to the exact location he and Zooble were currently at. Ragatha and Kinger hold a basket of eggs each, while Cali, Mary and Phantom all crash into Jax, the latter of which groaning on the ground in pain.

“Godammit Caine, did you really have to do that again?” He asks.

“Do what?” Caine asks, absentmindedly looking elsewhere not noticing the situation, attention glitched. “Oh right, everyone, I’m going to pitch to you some future adventure ideas, and I want your honest opinion on them.” 

Jax, Mary, Cali and Phantom right themselves and the trio settle down on the nearby couches to listen, with two of the three's hopes disgustingly high.

“I was gonna sleep,’ Jax deadpans.

Phantom makes a face at him. “Well, I was about to catch-”

“Alrighty! So I've got an adventure where you all explore my amazing chocolate factory, then get killed one-by-one from OSHA violations! And one where a sentient cardiovascular system goes to war against the United States military, and one where you have to survive a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland with a telepathic talking dog that's mean to you!” He pauses. “So whaddya think?”

Gangle’s mask breaks.

“Uhh, I don’t know, they all sound a little…” Ragatha grimaces. “Dark?”

“Dark is putting it lightly.” Cali bluntly adds.

“I can’t tell a compelling story where nothing bad happens!” Caine exclaims. “Wheres the intrigue? The stakes?”

“Not to mention the ssssssex appeal.” Bubble unnecessarily adds.

“What are you talking about?” Caine asks.

“You know, you could always try using the suggestion box again. I honestly didn’t hate the last one we did with it,” Zooble suggests.

“Youuuuuu didn’t hate it?” Caine asks.

“Well, yeah. It was kinda grounded doing something in reality.” Zooble replies.

“Oh yeah, that one was good… the only good one if I can be honest.” Mary agrees, her knees to her chest. “Right, guys?” 

Phantom pulls at her face dramatically and shakes her head. Mary rolls her eyes and nudges Cali to agree with her.

“Huh, what? Oh yeah, it was fine.”

“Cali, you're meant to agree with me!” Phantom says through gritted teeth. 

“Uh, I mean, it was…” Cali looks behind Mary to see Phantom avidly acting out what she should say. “Teeth pullingly, breath takingly- wait, I mean suffocatingly, back achingly, eye watering- no, eye gougingly bad…?”

“Well, there you have it folks!” Caine exlcaims excitedly, opening a new portal and setting the stage to the title of their next adventure. “Time for The Birth-to-Death-of-a-science-experiement-turned-rogue-and-murderous-and-then-gets-hunted-by-the-FBI-and-turns-into-a-mutant-and-takes-over-the-galaxy Adventure!

“No! She meant that in a good way!” Mary quickly corrects and elbows her. “Silly Cali!” 

“Uh, you've confused me,” Caine pauses, reversing all the set up he had just conjured. “What do the rest of you actually want?” he asks, motioning to the rest of the cast. They all input different opinions but share the same murmured disapproval of the adventure.

“... and I’m going to kill Ragatha,” Jax says, halting the conversation and earning him looks from everyone else.

“Well, how am I going to please all of you when you all like different things?” Caine exclaims.

“You could always leave your adventures open at all times and let us choose where we wanna go,” Zooble suggests.

“Are you hearing this bubble? The toybox character wants us to leave the other intelligent AI’s running for a prolonged period of time!” Caine tries to whisper to Bubble.

“Disgusting.” He spits.

“Am I not supposed to be hearing you?” 

“Zippy!” Caine says before zipping up Zobble's mouth.

“What’d you even zip up? I don’t have a mouth” .... I retract my previous statement.

“Ok, well how about this, we’ll do a lightning round, going through all the suggestion box ideas in rapid succession! And if you don’t like one you can vote to skip it!” Caine decides.

“Wait, like now?” Mary asks, jolting up to her feet.

“That's right, so grab your bones and pop your pansies ‘cause here we go!” Caine shouts, opening a portal.

“We just did an adventure!” 

“I was gonna sleep.”

“WOOOOO so glad I snuck one in!”

Complaints to excited compliments resound from the group as they’re sucked into the next montage of adventures!

Trees maps the biome in a jungle layout, wildlife buzzing, drums drumming-

“Oh wait, hey! I know what this is!” 

Jax rubs his hands together in recognition, gripping a rifle spawned by his character. Large, tiger striped letters crash into the opening screen. 

POACHERS PARADISE 

“Oh please don't tell me this is one of your adventures,” Zooble grumbles from her beak. Phantom titters and they glare at her. 

“Whaaaat, it's not everyday I get to see you as a pretty, pink flamingo, Zooble!” Phantom giggles. “It's pretty cute, I promise!” 

“You're one to talk- hey, hang on, why do you get to be a poacher too!? Jax!?” They angrily swivel their head to Jax, who remains too busy monologuing to even cast them a glance back. She groans.

“It's just because you guys are new members. He probably wrote this stupid adventure ages ago and since you weren't here for him to assign you characters, you were given default.” 

“Awh, I want to be a desert animal! Did you that 90% of desert animals repr-,” Phantom starts before getting interrupted by an obtrusive chirp. 

“No, you don't.” 

“Huh, who said that?” 

“Me- CHIRP!” chirps Mary from a tree. She ruffles her feathers and clasps them around her beak. “F[SPLAT!], I can't stop chirping!” 

“...or not,” murmurs Zooble under their breath.

“Mary, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Phantom teases. “Or is that you, Cali?” 

“It's Mary, CHIR-” 

A paw clamps over her beak, effectively shutting her up. The owner looks into Mary's eyes, mildly frustrated and deadpans, “You're giving me a headache. Did you know you’re squawking right next to my ear?’

The parrot shakes her head. 

The pressure on her beak releases, a sigh then drawing out from the animal, who swings off their shared branch onto the grassy floor below.

“I swear there's not meant to be grass in a desert,” she mutters, treading against the tufts of protruding grass. 

“That's why it's called a grassy desert! Gosh, Cali, Mr Karl would be so disappointed in you!” the ghost jabs, twirling the rifle she too had. “Bet you can't even name what animal you are.” 

“A weird f[TWANG!] cat, of course,” she answers with a grimace, before ruefully re-examining herself. Phantom cheeses as she awaits for her signature, Cali-esque overreaction to her new body or even the mention of her least favourite teacher, ready for a good laugh. Yet the air remains empty of what would be ordinarily full of her boisterous shouts and groans of unaltered vexation. The only expression she gauges is a slight hmph of recognition. “Hmph. A red panda.” 

Phantom blinks as Cali looks up from her paws to her expectantly, as if to confirm she was right or not. As if she wasn't sure of herself. As if Phantom herself dictated what everything is and is not. She clears her throat. 

“Ahem- bingo! You are in fact a red panda, indigenous in the temperate forests of the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China!” She quickly darts her eyes away from their eye contact, beginning to float higher than she already was off the ground, and word vomits an address to Mary's animal, still perched on the tree branch. “And you must be a sort of bird- well, duh, no kidding!- but to answer what type of bird is a multitudal request for many species have a geographical and historical overlap in these encompassing biomes of temperance, tropical-”

Her words die out on her tongue when Mary flaps over to her and headbutts her harshly with her beak, before settling on Cali's head to face her. “Dummy, we do NOT need a re-run of Mr Karl's class, as much as we do love your ever-so-informant mouth.”

Phantom turns red and scratches the back of her head. “Got it.” 

“What even is the point of this adventure? What do we do?” Mary questions, looking around for an objective. She ducks her head to face the panda she was perched upon directly. “Cali, thoughts?” 

The red panda shrugs plainly.

“Well, this is Jax’s adventure,” Zooble interjects. They jab their beak in the direction of his antics with an eyeroll. “Just doing a bunch of Jax nonsense.” 

The trio follow Zooble's line of sight to see Jax shoot the ‘red-ribboned rhino’ into a pathetic billow of string and ravage the remnants with his bare teeth. As flamingo-Zooble intervenes, Cali and Mary exchange a worried glance. 

“Welp, game is game.” 

Phantom directs her gun at the pair. 

“Phantom, no- CHIRP!” 

President Cali

“Wait, me? Why me?” Cali asks in confusion. She looks around at the setting she had just been abruptly sucked into, taking in the suit she had gained and the title she suddenly bore. “I'm President…?” 

“I wanted to see how a position of power would suit an aspiring dictator,” Jax grins. 

“Oh my god, are all of these going to be Jax’s ideas?” Zooble groans.

Cali takes a deep breath, not even bothering to reply to that, sinking into her new chair of apparent power. Centre of the white house, she sits with a grim expression, fried with the adrenaline of Phantom's bullet racing to her temple. Her eye twitches as she analyses the room, the other members given abundantly easier roles to play, arguably useless roles at that. Jax really knows how to piss her off. Zooble and Mary maintained a standpoint in front of her as ‘bodyguards’ (code for useless wallflowers), staring impressively into the distance. Mary feels her agitated glare against her back and turns around to gently smile at her, pressing her hands into a small thumbs up. Unable to configure a sincere smile back, she gulped down her racing heart and glanced away on her voyage of examination. She notices Phantom pristinely standing next to her, so stature she hadn't recognised her, suit and tie and all, as if not a moment ago she had been mercilessly blasting bullets at her. Her eyebrows knit with a place to channel her nerves. “You! Traitor! You gunned at me- I mean, us!” 

Phantom merely side eyed her, unmoving, and then continued staring blankly into the distance. 

“Hey, don't ignore me! Are you even on our side?” 

Her question meets no answer as her robotic silence prevails. Cali slumps back bored into her chair. 

“Ugh, you can't be this dedicated to this sh[SPROING!]y adventure. Whatever man.” 

“Sore loser,” Phantom whispers from the corner of her mouth. 

“What was that?” 

“Nothing.” 

She rests her head back against the chair, kicking back in the seat with her knees drawn to her chest. She lolls her head to the side.

“Not that I particularly care but, losing would mean actually getting shot as that was the objective. And neither I, or Mary, had the bullet even breathe on us. But once again, just my thoughts aloud.” 

“Sore loser.”

Cali sighs. 

The doors creak open and Kinger steps into the room.

“Well, Miss President, I have collected all the further details you requested. It looks like there are some new developments in the war between Australia and New Zealand.” 

“Whuppee.” 

“WHAT!?” Phantom screeches, her official facade completely shattered. 

Kinger shuffles his paper again and repeats himself without perturbation. 

“...ah yes, the raging war has stipulated many political and ethical issues between the two rivalling countries, a bloody rivalry said here to be dated back to a… thousand years it says here.” 

Upon hearing this, Phantom doubles back in laughter and trips on herself… then continues laughing.

“AUSTRALIA VERSUS NEW ZEALAND!? HAHAHAHAH!” she hoots, slapping the ground. “YOU'VE GOT TO BE PULLING MY LEG!” 

Slapping the ground again, she accidentally pushes herself off it, levitating higher into the air from the lack of in her lungs, her mirth thief of all. She dissolves into the stage of silent laughter, airborne and airless. 

Cali side eyes her and decides to ignore her everpresent laughter and presses Kinger for some clarity. 

“I… how do you know what to do?” 

“Didn’t you get the brief?” he whispers, comically crouching down towards her.

“Uhhh, no…?” Cali responds confusedly.

“You’re doing great, Cali!” encourages Ragatha, ducking her capped head into the scene. 

Cali squints at her attire. “Who are you even meant to be?”

“What my brief said! I'd… rather not repeat it.” 

“Huh…?” 

“Cali, down here!” Kinger calls. He yanks her under the table and clicks on a light. “We all got briefs on our characters, I’m your assistant, see?” 

“Is that a baby headlamp?” 

“Didn’t you get one too?” Kinger continues, ignoring Cali’s question, “I figured we were all on the same page here, though if you’re not, you’ll have to tap into those golden improv skills, if you get what I'm saying.” 

“Is that a baby headlamp?”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t give you one ‘cause I reckoned you'd planned this day out since you were born,” Jax supplies casually, cutting Cali off.

“For f[SPLAT!]s sake, Jax, I am not-”

“I'm not Jax.”

Cali squints her eyes at Kinger as he stares blankly. 

“I'm…”

CRASH! 

The door bursts open, knocking Zooble apart like a stack of cards and smushing Mary into one, Jax standing positively at the threshold in his same poaching attire. He strides in with a suitcase swinging heavily in his hand. 

“OI MATE, I’m an Australian Extremist, and I’ve come to detonate this bomb that’ll lead all the world's most deadliest spiders into…” His words crumble upon his new Australian tongue. He turns to an imaginary camera and raises his eyebrow at their given position with a comedic smile- Cali panicked in her seat and Kinger ducking just above the table. “Did I pick a bad time?”

Caine watches intently at the screen, impressed, next to Bubble. “His acting truly is phenomenal. It's hard to believe he's vegan.” Bubble nods in agreement. 

The bomb stays placed wide open on the president's table with Cali holding a pair of wire cutters over it. “Why wouldn't the president have a f[BOING]ing bomb squad!” she yells, extremely stressed. “Phantom!”

“Oh yeah, apparently according to the ith law of the US government, the president must stand for their independence by forgoing any and all help in matters of explosives.” Phantom recites, giggling to herself.

“WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!” Cali screams.

“Basically it means I, nor anyone else here, can help you with this,” Phantom helpfully summarises, smirking at Cali. “I can get you coffee though. Ice or no ice?”

Cali blanches. 

“You don't know my order by heart!?” she exclaims, turning her head to tut disappointedly at her. “Well, can you at least tell me which wire to cut?” 

“I'm assuming that's no ice.” 

“PHANTOM!” 

“I mean, in your official brief, it should say how to disarm a bomb- like how it specifically entails in mine.” 

Cali grits her teeth and glares at her. “Well, I don't exactly HAVE a brief so why don't you help your beloved president out, o dear assistant?” 

“Advisor and assistant technically. And as your esteemed advisor, my advice is to locate the earth wire which should be located closest to the inner fuse and disconnect it without exposing any clash with the neutral wire for the alternating current could activate the bomb or create an explosion of itself due to the pass of electron charge from negative to positive to positive to negative terminals- ahem,” Phantom coughs, before grinning and loudly reiterating, “But that's all I can tell you as that is the true limit of my job!” 

“But what does that even mean!?” 

“I would tell you but that is the true limit of my job!” 

“EVERYONE'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE, I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR JOB!” Cali shouts, more panic instilling as she fiddles with wires, wire cutters in one hand, another hand sifting through the amass. “WHY IS THE BOMB EVEN THIS BIG?!” 

“I would tell you but that is the true limit of my job!” Phantom repeats. 

“SAYS WHO!?” 

“Says me, of course,” Jax interjects, calmly lounging against the wall. He examines his fingers as if bored. “You might wanna hurry up, by the way. That bomb has like 3 minutes left on it and when it explodes so does the whole country with a rash so itchy they'd wish they were dead. The fate of the nation hangs in the balance and yada yada- but that's cool ‘cause you definitely know how to disarm it, right?” 

“NO, I DON'T, JAX, NOW CAN YOU PLEASE LET ME CONCENTRATE!”

“It's not that difficult- I'm sure even a kitten like you could do it. Just pick the right colour,” Jax directs calmly. “Or pattern. See, there's not that many variants- green and red, blue and then pink and blue. 3 wires Cali. Did I mention cutting any of the two wrong ones will unleash poisonous frogs, toads and newts as well?”

“I'm not listening to you- also SOMEONE ARREST THIS GUY! WHERE ARE MY BODYGUARDS!?” she demands in a panic. Jax remains unmoving, examining the bookshelf calmly. 

“Whaaaaat, the fate of your nation is hanging precariously off a cliff and your focus is arresting the foreigner? Man, get your priorities in order, President.”

“STOP TWISTING MY F[TWANG!]G WORDS, PRINCESS INDIGO! GET OUT OF MY FACE!” 

“What are you so stressed about? I put it right here in your brief on how to disarm a bomb, you should naturally have years of knowledge and skill of how to do it,” he says, whipping out a sheet of paper from out of nowhere. Cali squints at it and truth he told, because the title is Cali and description is her directions and most importantly, a heading reading ‘How to Disarm a Bomb for Babies’. She gawks at it, dropping the wirecutters. 

“You had it THIS WHOLE TIME!?” 

“Well, duh, I made the adventure. You think Zoobs could make such a masterpiece?” 

“You liar! You said I didn't have one!” 

“Oh, did I…?” Jax asks, pretending to think to himself comedically. He shrugs with a smirk. “I must have forgotten- you know, rabbits do have quite a bad memory.” 

“Uh, actually, that's wrong! Rabbits have excellent long-term memory-,” 

Cali pounces on Jax for the paper, the rabbit easily dodging and jumping onto a chair. 

“-particularly for associative learning, survival-related events-,”

The chair crashes down as Cali slams the bookshelf on top of him before grabbing the fire stoker and chasing him wildly with it.

“-and emotional experiences thus becoming dependent on-,” 

Jax dances around the table with the bomb on it, creating a stand off. Impatient, Cali leaps over the bomb to the other side, where Jax flees again grinning and tugs the curtain down completely, which smothers Cali in one fell swoop. 

“-associative memory rather than episodic memory, meaning they remember the connection between a sound-,”

The cat claws the curtain apart to reveal Jax holding the paper to the fire. She screams and he drops it into the flames with a small ‘oops’. Diving towards the fireplace, he smoothly moves to the side as she watches her instructions curl up into ash. 

“-smell, or event and the resulting feeling,” Phantom finishes.

“Advisor…” Cali starts, her eyes wide. She raises a finger at Jax. “Advise me on the most painful ways to butcher a bunny.”

“I would tell you, but that is the true limit of my job!” 

“You're dead to me.”

“Why so mad, President Pinkie? You do know how to do this, right? It'd be pretty irresponsible as leader of this great country to not be able to save it. But you do know how to do this, right?” Jax continues to probe. 

Cali forces herself to take a deep breath and refocus herself onto the task at hand. And completely ignore the existence of any purple bunnies and floating ghosts. 

“Which wire… which wire should I cut…?!” she mutters to herself. 

“I’d go with blue, seeing as it’s closest to black and all,” Kinger advises absentmindedly. Cali initially turns to him with rage, before seeing the aloof chess piece and softening her tone.

“Kinger, that’s not gonna help. I think,” she affirms, quelling her fury for his sake. Turning back to the device, she forces her brain to decide on which wire, sweat dripping down her face. “I do like pink and blue but I… can't see that going well so maybe, green and red?” 

“Blue?” Mary interjects, having readjusted herself. Dizzily, she wobbles next to Cali, leaning against her. “That's my favourite colour.” 

“Hi!” Gangle nervously greets from the door, drawing everyone's confused attention. Minus Jax, whose grin only widened. “I'm a New Zealand extremist and… and, I don’t know what New Zealanders threaten people with…”

Tick tock tick

Jax’s grin grows as they all realise too late that Gangle is in fact the true threat. In anticipation, they freeze as Phantom excitedly floats to the ceiling. 

Tick tock

BOOOOM!

We’ll be back after an intermission. 

“░░░░░░░░░░░░░”

アメイジング デジタル サーカス 高校

The cast sit in a picturesque classroom, the sky outside bright, the setting surprisingly serene. Smiles paint prettily upon Gangle, Mary's, Ragatha and Zooble's expressions; each of them placed comfortably in seats beside their friends in a soft, light artstyle of a slice-of-life. As cherry blossoms blew through the air, the first episode of the anime began! 

He taps his foot. He looks around. He taps his foot. He sees Phantom at the front buzzing excitedly in her seat. He taps his foot. Phantom squeals and turns around to take in everyone's new artstyle. He groans. 

“What is this?” Jax complains. “I don't like this.”

“Ugh, can it, Jax. At least now we have one that’s by someone else,” Zooble rebuts, glancing softly at Gangle.

“Yeah! Because there’s nothing more fun than being back at school!” Jax sarcastically agrees, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. He mumbles under his breath, “I can't surely be the only one who calls this all as bull[BONK!].” Automatically, he glances behind to Cali, who was sitting back relaxed in her chair in recovery. 

“So, the angry cat has a soft spot for anime?” 

Her head shot up in a panic as her eyes widened at what he said. Frantically, she spat out a denial, “Whu- no!?? That sh[SPLAT!]t is for… f-freaks, yeah, freaks.” 

Jax deadpans at her and doesn't even bother a response to that, moving his eyes back boredly to the window. 

“Uh, don't ignore me! I meant what I said, this adventure is just… lame and weird!” she continues to blurt, bursting out of her seat in a fluster to prove a point. Her outburst drew attention yet no reaction, everyone else breezily ignoring her loud insults with replacement of their own activities, relaxed chatterings resuming unbothered. She stood there, huffing slightly, the shot of adrenaline tazing through her limbs before reigniting into lone embarrassment, her words ignored, her voice unheard, her eyes buzzing with inner panic. Her senses washed into one- a large whirlpool of nauseous fleeting and fluctuating feelings, words and scolds and reprimands drumming into the court she had to call her mind. And she was guilty of yet another offense. 

You did it again, Cali.

The jury, her. The plaintiff, her. The defendant, her. The judge-

“Cali?” Mary softly says, interjecting her tsunami of senses, snapping her out her hammering headspace. Upon her lack of response, or even acknowledgement she spoke, the marionette sighs and gently guides her wrist to sit her back in her seat. 

Cali freezes up, every muscle inside of her victim to paralysis as soon as she meets the chair, Mary's sigh seeping to her soul. 

You did it again, Cali.

“Hey, are you ok?” Mary asks. “You know, it's okay if you like this stuff, it's not that big of a deal. I promise.” She looks worriedly at Cali before meeting her eyes with a reassuring smile. The distance between their chairs remains a chasm.

Stiffly, Cali turns her head to face her too. Only to quickly snap it back and chide her sight to her lap. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, Mary, I'm fine,” she hurriedly mutters. “I… promise.” 

Mary looks at her for a moment, almost helplessly. “Well, if you promise. I trust you.” She turns reluctantly back in her seat to the blackboard, her words a mask to the wrenching feeling she had in her gut, the chills she felt to her very spine, the chainsaws of certainty drilling against her heart. Something was very wrong. 

You did it again, Cali.

Her eyes stare forward, hyperaware of Mary's concern, burdened with yet another layer of guilt for the trust she had given her in return for her deceit. Hunched, her eyes continue to burn forward unblinking. If her outside body is a statue, her insides are aflame, lighting with the prodigious pyro of her panic. Air fights and battles to push oxygen through her iron lungs, the fumes of her fury and the smoke of her sadness a metal vice around her throat. Tightening and tightening and tightening. Her silence was meant to be her sanctuary, for if she hadn't a voice surely another couldn't speak? Couldn't harm, couldn't exist, couldn't control. The measured distance she had ploughed between her and her friends was meant to act like a safety zone for any error- because there was always error when it came to her, always, always always- yet her body continued to betray her. Fists furiously grasp at her insides. Tightening and tightening and tightening. 

Her body chokes forward, unable to maintain its medusa, heaving and huffing against the table. She curls into herself, her mouth gaping open for air, her hands desperately clawing at herself for something, anything, to clutch onto. The claws cut through to her arms, knees, legs, head until it was lifted into a gentle gloved hand. Her paws grasped onto it like a lifeline. 

Tightening and tightening and tightening. 

“Copy me, Cali. In, one, two, three, four.

 Out, one, two, three, four.

Her words entwined the chain around her neck. 

Tightening and tightening and tightening. 

“In, one, two, three, four. Out, one, two, three, four.” 

Tightening and tightening and tightening. Her chest hammers harder as her thoughts buzz so loudly she could feel the very pincers stinging her struggling breaths. Typical chatter and conservations begin to die down as her gargled attempts at breathing begin to distort into hacks of coughs. Eyes envelop her body. Tightening and tightening and tightening.

“O-okay! Ha, ha, Cali, we get you think anime is absolutely disgusting and school even worse! Let's go out and uh, skip- yeah!- like you always do!” Mary quickly and very loudly acts out, standing up abruptly, before taking her wrist lightly again. 

Click!

“Cali, breathe.” 

The cat instantly collapses against the wall, crouching and hugging her knees to her chest. She presses the cold of the wall against her face, each heave of her breath slapping her back further into disreality. 

“Cali, it's okay. No else can see you,” Mary reassures, joining her on the floor. “You're safe.” 

Her eyes darted up for a second to her- facing the beast of her burdens. The beast daring to tell her she was safe. The beast that held the only eyes she didn't want on her in her vulnerability. The distance between them remains a chasm. 

Until the beast draws closer to her, lacing their fingers, and placing her hand on top of her chest. Her lips itter no explanation, only slow, controlled breaths. Her eyes urge her to replicate. 

“I-I c-can't-!” Cali splutters out between huffs, the weight of her stare suffocating her further, rather than comforting her like she had tried to achieve. She whips her hand out of her grasp and presses it against her own chest, pressing all her efforts back into breathing. Her mind begins to become cloudy, her vision foggy with water, dotting with large black spots that threaten to consume her sight completely. She's drowning. 

Mary startles immediately at the sound of her voice and her erratic movements. Breaking her calm facade she had conjured to calm Cali, she cracks panickedly, “Why? What's wrong? How can I help you? What else can I do? Do you wanna move further from the classroom? They can't see you here, its fine-,” 

“You!” Cali coughs out, straining her eyes to the ground. 

“...me? Me, what?” Mary repeats confusedly, desperately looking at herself as if to find the culprit of her friend's struggle hidden in her hands. Her gloved hands stare back at her- in accusation. “It's…me.” 

She looks back at Cali, who's nodding rapidly in guilty admission, and instead of directing a look of hurt, her expression hardens into one of fixed determination.

“Cali. Don't feel bad,” she affirms. Mary takes her paw again, much gentler this time so that her touch is as light as a goosewebbers, and brushes her thumb over her hand. And then she guides her paw to her own eyes, clasping it over tightly, all whilst her thumb calmly caresses it. “You can make sure I can't see you like this. Trust yourself if you can't trust me.” 

Trust yourself.

…how could I trust myself after everything?

Cali nods her head and tightens her hand over Mary's eyes. 

“Okay,” she breathes.

“I can't see you.” 

“You… can't see me.” 

“What are five things you can see?” Mary gently probes. 

“Five… things I can… see?” Cali presses her vision to fish something out of the pool that had become her sight. Amongst the collage of black that had cluttered her left eye was a fire extinguisher. To the right, a blue wall panel. Next to that was a radiator and then a large cupboard which she assumed students kept their stuff in by the jumper sleeve she spied hanging out of one of the drawers. She slowly relays this all to Mary, who hums in response to her readings. 

“That's fantastic, Cal, how about four things you can feel?” 

“Well…” She takes a moment to hammer away the layers of numb her skin had warped into to enable her to tune into anything she could feel. Surprisingly, there were many. “I can feel… I can feel the floor. The w-wind. My annoying fur. Oh and… y-your hand against mine.” 

She sees Mary smile and her heart suddenly feels light, her breaths sliding through her lips much more smoother now. Obliging to the rest of Mary's prompts with a higher amount of enthusiasm, she feels her airway relax and her diaphragm return to its natural cycle of contraction. The quicker her words danced out of her mouth, the more she felt afloat. Afresh. Anew. She could breathe. 

“And lastly, can you name one thing you can taste?” 

Cali's answer was quick this time: no delving was required to find out what taste consisted in her mouth. 

“Vomit.” 

“Oh, do you want some water then?” Mary asks concerned, her soft smile quickly smothering into a slight frown. 

Cali shrugs. “Sure.” 

“I'll get you some, don't worry. Are you feeling better now?” 

“Feeling… better than before,” she weakly replies, opting for the truth this time. Which proved to be the greater option this time, given how Mary's face lit up. Maybe there was some room for more honesty then. She threads together some confidence and quietly murmurs,“...thanks for this, Mary.” Looking up to her eyes, she falters slightly with a giggle, realising she still has her hand covering it. Quickly removing it and sliding it instead to the side of her face, Mary's eyes return to her view, sparkling with care. And instead of causing her to buzz uncomfortably, her stomach flutters. Bashfully, she apologises and continues. “I… do really appreciate you helping me. I'll try to repay you, I promise.” 

Flustering slightly, Mary stares back at her spelled, “It's no problem. Really. And you don't need to repay me- this is what friends are for.” 

Cali's palm falls from her face as she slowly nods. But she then coughs and Mary's quick to catch her. 

“I'll go get your water now then. I'm sure there's a vending machine somewhere. And then we'll rejoin the others. You cool with that?” 

“...yeah, it's whatever.” 

“Alright, I'll just be a second,” Mary says, before disappearing up the corridor. Shockingly, she's right- just at the end of the corridor was a vending which coincidentally offered all spring water. Ignoring how rough and draftlike the rest of the school looked from her view, she instinctively dips her hand into her pockets for any spare pieces of change- which, again shockingly, she finds successfully. She taps a coin in and selects a bottle. Only for three to roll out of the bottom. She shrugs and takes the one, leaving the two extra there, and quickly makes her way back to the classroom, to where Cali and her had been sitting just a few moments ago. 

“Cali?”

Nobody's there. 

Mary paces further up the corridor because maybe, she was in the wrong part of it? 

But it is to no avail. 

She returns to their original spot and then glances into the classroom, the friendly bustle of chatter a contrast to the silence that sang in the hallway. There she instantly spots Cali, lounging on the top of Phantom's desk, listening to the ghost yammer excitedly. The bottle drops to the floor. 

“...and that's why slice of life with supernatural or sci-fi is undeniably superior to any other anime genre!” Phantom finishes, with a flap of her hands. She looks to her listener and cocks her head to the side. “Did you… er, get all of that, Cali?” 

“Yep, you geek-a-zoid.” She leans forward and flicks her head lightly. “I'm guessing you're enjoying the adventure.” 

“Mhm! Kinger wasn't able to begin his lesson on learning English but still! The last twenty minutes have been so fun!” 

“Learning English? Wait, it's only been twenty minutes…? I coulda sworn it was longer…” she mumbles to herself, frowning slightly. She looks away from Phantom to the window, trying to gauge how it was anything less than an hour. Outside the window, she accidentally sees Mary. She's leaning against the windowsill, the gust billowing through her hair with a trickle of cherry blossoms.

You did it again, Cali. 

“Cali? Cali, are you listening?” 

“Yeah,” she gulps. “Yeah, I am listening.” 

“Ugh! Why have we still not skipped this stupid adventure- I've held 4 votes in the past 20 minutes! C'mon, people, what's stopping you from pressing that beautiful, big green button!” Jax groans, standing up abruptly and gesturely wildly. 

“Uh, maybe because there's people who actually like this adventure, Jax, no need to get so jealous,” Zooble spits immediately. They turn their attention to Gangle with a smile. “See? There’s nothing wrong with your suggestion, Gangle. We all like it.”

“Hello?” Jax dramatically waves, flopping back into his chair. 

“You don't count as a person Jax.” 

“Oh wow.” 

“THIS WAS YOUR ADVENTURE?!” Phantom squeals with delight, bursting out of her seat and making Cali's hair stand on end. She skips to Gangle's seat, practically vibrating, and slams her see-through hands on the desk. “YOU WATCH ANIME!?” 

Gangle shyly giggles. “Yeah, I've watched anime since I was little… do you want to see any of my drawings?” 

“DO I?!!” Phantom practically screams.

“Pfft, you’re into this stuff? Lamee. You've just been demoted,” Jax comments from the side.

“Not talking to the no-taste bunny over here. And I thought you knew ball.” 

“Ball is so not a slice of life anime, literally what are you talking about?” he argues, crossing his arms with a look of disgust.

“Gangle, ignore the critic. He probably wouldn't know good taste if it slapped him round the face,” Phantom calmly tells her, breezily opting to ignore him with her back turned. 

“Hey, don't ignore me!” 

“Your drawings?” 

Gangle's smile widens as Phantom pulls up a chair, eagerly spreading out the papers she has with her. They both begin to fangirl over the discovery of their shared fandoms, making Jax groans even louder.

Zooble laughs, “Pfft, for someone who argues with Cali so much, you sure sound like her.” 

“He/I what?” the two say in sync before glaring at each other. 

“Actually… nevermind, I can't be bothered to deal with the two of you at once,” Zooble surrenders, going back to watching Gangle happily share her interest with Phantom. It's something that's important to her- so it's important to them too.

Both Jax and Cali roll their eyes at Zooble's obvious affection with disgust before Cali's own eyes soften at Phantom's laughter. Her body felt so soothed to her voice after being on such high alert, everything she talked about was a welcome distraction, and now it sang out sirenically to her, luring her back into the comfort it beheld. She taps her feet forward and rests her chin on atop Phantom's shoulder, kissing their cheeks. 

“Oh hello there, Cali.” 

“Yo.” 

“That's it! This is so boring that it's embarrassing!” Jax interrupts before slyly thinking. “Well, not as embarrassing as that time that Gangle took an anime figure and-”

“Uhh, actually yeah, we've been here long enough, let's skip it!" Gangle cuts off, grabbing the camera and forcing skip. 

“Hey, wait-! 

“-NEVERMIND, OH MY GOSH, IT'S MY ADVENTURE!” 

Phantom, Mary and Cali all stand atop a castle, clothed head to toe in shining armour. Whilst Cali's armour swamped her and Mary's borderline strangled her, Phantom's fitted her perfectly and pristinely for she was the chief ranger for the esteemed

KINGDOM OF VAGABONDIA 

“Vagabondia? As in vagabondia chronicles?” Mary blinks, brushing the dust off her armour from the title drop. “Isn't that a game you play, Phantom?” 

“A game I play!? No, Mary, it's not just that- it's the greatest JRPG of all time!” 

“Got it, greatest J-R-whatnot in existence,” Mary quickly acknowledges, aware how quick this could have become a 5 hour lecture. “So… what do we do in this one?” 

“Wait, Phantom, how did you make an adventure?” Cali asks, breaking her silence with a solid frown. “You already knew about the suggestion box?” 

“Ah, yeah… I discovered it when I was exploring the circus and whatnot, haha…” she awkwardly answers. Cali doesn't shake her frown but nods all the same.

“Good question, Cali,” Mary awkwardly compliments, noting down Phantom's odd behavior for later as well and glad Cali is alert enough to even notice that. Despite her being fully aware enough to ditch her. “Did you have an adventure in mind yourself?”  

“Hm.” 

With a response so little, Mary looks at her, not sure whether to be hurt, not sure whether to be concerned. Cali suddenly decides to clamp the head of her helmet over her face in idle protest. Mary, in turn, holds back a huff, her eye twitching, and turns away. Her stomach knots uncomfortably.

Sensing the tension, Phantom awkwardly laughs again, “I get it- it's totally my bad I didn't tell you about the suggestion box! I did try to but you did say you were too busy with not dying that in that one particular adventure but, you're right I should have persisted! Duly noted! Hahaha…” 

The two simply remain heads turned from each other, body tense.

“Also! You might additionally want to know that a cannon is plummeting in our direction right now!” 

“HUH!?” 

CRASH! 

The floor explodes beneath them, bricks flying upwards, their bodies flying downwards until their bones crack from impact. Suddenly, both Cali and Mary reappear at the bridge of the castle. 

“W-what…?” Mary stammers out, looking at her hands. “Didn't I just die?” 

“Respawn!” Phantom calls out. She swings from a grapple that she had pulled out from her quantum space a second before impact and saved herself with, and lands next to them. “As thrilling as it is to die though, you only have two lives!”

“...two? Isn't it normally three?” Cali croaks out. 

“Nah, it's normally one but I felt bad for you two since you're such noobs so I gave you an extra one!” she cheerfully explains. 

“...thanks?” 

“No problemo, pinkie, now let's move! There'll be more cannons any second now!” 

Phantom grabs Cali's hand and leads them both back to where their own defenses lay. Ducking behind a line of shields, more cannons pillage their castle into smithereens. 

“No, the honour of the vagabondian bloodline!” Phantom cries out. She sniffles, “For the 100 years I served chief ranger, I have never seen such devastation dirty our name. This will not remain unpunished! Justice will prevail!”

“Uh, Phantom, we've been in the adventure for two minutes. And, er, are you actually crying?” Cali pokes her confusedly. 

“No matter!” she bravely declares. Climbing on top of a barrel, she shouts. “The tears of the Knight are the surrender of their weakness so I am of no weakness anymore! The King and Princess of Vagabondia would not wish us to surrender! So we shall go into this battle without weakness and with only the acceptance of victory! For Vagabondia!” 

“For Vagabondia!” Cali half-heartedly repeats. They both wait expectantly for Mary to join in, the marionette busy with her eye locked onto a telescope. 

“Mary,” encourages Phantom. 

“Oh, uh, for Vagabondia! Or whatever…” she stutters out, snapping her head from the telescope. “Anyway, you might want to check this out, Chief Ranger!” 

“What is it?” 

“You're gonna want to see this for yourself…”

She steps aside for Phantom, who eagerly takes the telescope and observes what could be seen on the horizon. Just before the lines of their territory, are the enemy. Great horses of war follow them by the million with cannons and knights of the best, led by three fearful leaders. One is mercilessly lighting cannon after cannon, another is preparing her horse for the brutal battle and the last is guarding the… 

“Princess of Vagabondia! They've captured her and her father, the King!” 

“Who's captured who and who's who?” Mary blinks. 

“Get your battle gear- this is war!” Phantom instructs, throwing Mary and Cali a sword. She runs to the front and mounts a horse. “Hurry up, you two! Our objective is to save the royal family!” She gallops off, promptly leaving Cali and Mary in the dust. 

“Ok… did you get any of that, Cali?” 

“None,” she shrugs without making eye contact. Walking up to the other horse, she unties it and mounts it. “Just… follow the leader, I guess.” 

She's about to kick the horse to gallop before Mary shouts, pausing her and startling both her and the horse. Tightening her eyes, she tiredly asks her, “What?”

“...you're going to have to budge up,” Mary says, almost shyly. 

“Huh? Why?” 

“That's the only horse there is.” 

Stiffly, Cali shuffles up. She wordlessly holds out her right hand, looking everywhere but Mary, who hesitatively takes it. The same hand she had just been caressing in her own. She adjusts herself behind the cat and wraps her hands awkwardly round her waist.

“Is this okay?” 

“Hm.” 

The horse gallops forward, hurtling straight into the battlefield, Mary clutching onto Cali tighter, Cali holding her breath even tighter. 

Tightening and tightening and tightening. 

“...for if you do not hand us the fortune of Vagabondia, you will feel our complete wrath and there will be no more of as we will be of destruction as says our motto…” Zooble dully reads out. Ragatha, too busy with her horse, stands nearby while Jax searches with his head dipped into a barrel for more matches. Phantom squeals as Cali and Mary arrive at the scene and urges to dismount and stand next to her. 

“You're just in time! They're saying the iconic speech of the deadly!” she eagerly whispers. “I've had it memorised since the day it came out in the second game!” 

“Hooray,” Mary mutters.

“...the Princess will be hung, drawn and quartered in such a brutal fashion you'll wish to die by our blade instead. The King will be subjected to…” 

“You gotta say this stuff with more energy, Zooble! C'mon, lemme show you,” Jax cuts off, snapping the paper from their hold, earning them a glare. He clears his throat as his eyes skim the paper, his eyes widening further and ears drooping in mild horror the further he runs down the page. “Nevermind, I'm not saying this cringey bull[SPLAT!].” He scrunches up the papers and throws it into a cannon which he lights immediately exploding the paper all over the trio. “Surrender or else, losers.” 

“That… that is a declaration of war!” Phantom stammers out, ridden with mass fury of the disrespect of her honoured speech. “We will never surrender!” 

She charges forward with her sword screaming ‘For the Honor of Vagabondia!’. Before her helmet slams down through her vision and she trips over a rock and impales herself. Gangle, from her cage, gasps politely while Kinger clutches his princess pearls as they all blink at her flopped dead body.

POOF! 

She disappears and then reappears in a box in the sky. 

“God dammit!” 

Cali immediately opens the poll to skip. 

Stargazing

“So we’re just. Chilling.”

Eyes captivated by the stars above, Phantom relaxes onto the ground below beside Jax, who holds a feigned look of disinterest. He shrugs, “Yeah, I guess so. I personally prefer to have a bit more of a bite to my adventures, though.” 

“Ditto, but this is cool,” Phantom breathes back, eyes still glued to the twinkling above.

From a small panic blanket, Kinger waves at them and holds up a sandwich. “Then why don’t you help yourself to a sangwidge, Jax, I'm sure there's enough to share!” he calls out. 

Zooble offers the same to Gangle, who unlike Jax, takes with a polite thank you and indulgent bite. The said bunny snorts at the sight, ignoring Kinger's offer entirely, and leans his head back against the grass. He squints in thought for a few moments, before nudging the gentle silence that had washed between him and the ghost.

“Do you… think Gangle is capable of being happy?” asks Jax.

“I… what?” Phantom blinks, snapping out of her spell. “Reframe the question.”

“Well, I mean, her comedy mask still breaks every day, does she think hanging out with Zooble is gonna magically fix that?” he asks again, almost incredulously. 

Ragatha passes the two and pauses with disapproval, hands on her hips. “Well, maybe she doesn’t wanna hang out with someone who’s mean to her all the time.”  

“She likes when I'm mean to her!” he protests, shooting up. “Back me up here, floats.” 

Phantom raises an eyebrow and doesn't even bother sitting up too.

“Oh, c'mon,” he groans. “She does- that's like, the whole thing that happens.” 

“I mean, no. That much is obvious to everyone,” Phantom voices. She places her hands on her stomach and stares at the stars. “Besides, if you really care about her, you wouldn’t do that. I know I’m screwing around with Cali and all but like, she gets that. That's different because we're close enough to understand that. C'mon, you aren’t that dense as to not understand that much, Jax,” she finishes lightly, sitting up to bash his shoulder teasingly. 

“Whatever.” 

“You sure do think about a lot of feelings for someone who doesn't care about anyone. Especially Gangle. Are you sure you don't care about her?” 

Tense, he frustratedly struggles, “That-ugh-I just.” He sighs. “No, I don’t.”

Phantom sits up and pauses. “Well, if Gangle isn’t your friend, do you really have anyone here?”

“Not anymore.”

The air stills between them. 

“O-oh wait no, I’m sorry-I wasn’t talking about. That wasn’t meant to be- uhhh,” Ragatha hurriedly stammers, eyes darting in panic. She bounces her eyes from Jax to Phantom to then Mary, in concealed relief. “Heyy, Mary, have you had a sandwich yet? I'll go get you one!” she asks, abruptly dashing to the picnic basket, paired with stiff limbs and an awkward laugh. 

“Uh, I'm actually okay…” Mary says from her spot on the ground. “Not hungry.” 

Ragatha still approaches her with a sandwich, face plastered with a smile. “Silly, we don't get hungry anyways! Have a taste- or don't, that's totally fine if you don't want to. Or if you do. They really are lovely!” she nervously offers, her voice fading into Mary's silent response. She impulsively bites the sandwich, causing Mary to wince, as if to prove how lovely it is. “See, really- nice!” she sounds whilst chewing. 

“Ragatha!” Cali suddenly calls out from an isolated area of the circus grounds where they lay. She's huddled next to a hill, eyes traversed forwards instead of above, now on their little scene. “Uh, I think Kinger needs your help… counting fireflies or something like that.” 

“Oh? He does?” she asks, relieved. Mary holds back an eye roll. Ragatha skips away without even a wave, running to Kinger. “Hey, where are these fireflies you need help counting?” 

“I need to count these guys?” 

“Yep, you did just say!” she cheerfully reminds, leaving abandoning another conversation. “I'll help- one, two, three, four, five…” 

With Ragatha successfully distracted, Mary sighs the sudden tension out of her body. Her body had coated in glue, her friendly expression only a result of a shaped fist of her fury. Cultivating her strangled emotions into friendliness didn't mean her and Ragatha could be how they were before- not when she knew how she truly was. She couldn't take any of Ragatha's kindness, anything of her actually, at face value anymore- not after what she had said at Spudsie’s. All she revealed there- drunken or not drunken- was how she truly saw her: a child. As if she hadn't been the one who misguided her. Lied to her. If she had learned one thing from her time under Cali's toe, it was that brutal honesty was better than any soft lies. Because all that had led to her was suffocation. 

Gummigoo's death. 

She shook her head, her skin biting at herself. How her smile could remain so burningly bright only caused blisters upon her. Time and time again. She was just so sick of not being able to rely on anybody. Not anybody within this hellscape she had to call home. 

Trust yourself.

Her own advice rang back in her mind as if to haunt her. 

Trust yourself, if you can't trust me. 

She shuffled uncomfortably, a weight being pressed further into her stomach. Maybe it was good she declined that sandwich. As the heaviness continued to crush around her, she struggles a breath out, swatting away her own words that rang inside her head as if it were a wasp. Because they stung. As her mind wandered further, she dared a glance at the cat.

Only to find her already gazing at her.

Cali turns to the other side, back facing her once again.

Look at me.

Mary lays back down flat on the ground. 

The stars glare at her. The bright sparkle burns. A mockery of the eyes avoidant on her.

Why won't you look at me!?

I can't look at her. 

Cali sinks deeper into herself. Her limbs pulse with exhaustion, her eyelids playing curtain fall over her consciousness. Her sight swims a calming current around her mind; her skin washing with relaying relaxation. Yet her stomach fights with familiar sensation. 

You did it again, Cali.

The wind uncomfortably bites at her skin, bitter against the dissipating warmth of her body, tittering at the turmoil of her soul.  Her eyes give in once again to traverse forward blankly to the open chasm of the valley of where they all lay, littered with other circus members. She catches Phantom leisurely laid out on the grass, a smile pulling at her face, until she sights the body chatting next to her. Her blood turns to ice. 

“...what was that about?” Phantom asks quietly. She looks at him, curious of what hid in his expression. 

“It’s… nothing.” Jax replies. He sighs and falls back to the ground. “Who cares.”

Moments pass in silence: too light to decode, too heavy to ignore. 

Phantom opens her mouth to say something, before Jax interrupts the sheath that had held the bladed atmosphere. 

“Does Ragatha ever get on your nerves?”

She blinks. “Come again?”

“I dunno- I just, I think she tries too hard. Like we’re stuck in... why are you always so happy? Like, if you tell someone that they're loved and appreciated all the time it sorta just. Loses all meaning,” he explains exasperatedly, gesturing widely to match his widely broken lexis. He sighs, “It just feels like she’s tryna take advantage of you- I-I mean, not me, but your friends ya know…? I don’t know…” 

Phantom sits there, slowly processing what he’s trying to get at before he sits back up, adorned with his signature smirk.

“Also she’s dumb and she looks weird.”

“Pfft, she got lucky with her avatar honestly. It's boring but not bad,” she chuckles, almost relieved he returned to his normal self. She could deal with that, at least, and it was easier. 

Wʎ ɥǝɐp ıs ɟnןן ǝuonƃɥ ɐןɹǝɐpʎ.

“Now you're just lying to defend her name. Admit it, floats, she looks as lame as the rest of them.” 

“If that includes you then yes,” she smartly remarks. 

Jax tuts playfully, “See, now I know you’re lying- my ears and tail are kind of the peak of masculinity.” 

Phantom snickers at his claim and pauses.

“Tail? You've never had a tail…?” 

“What are you talking about, it's right…” Jax stands up, realising the disappearance of his tail. “What? I- uh seriously, where is it?” he confusedly asks it particularly to anyone, chasing himself around like a cat chasing its tail.

“Heh, maybe if you keep chasing it, you'll catch it,” Phantom smirks, stifling a laugh. “You know how ironic this is?” 

“Oh shut up, half legs. You know how ironic it is for you to laugh at this!?” he spits back, pausing his pursuit to glare at her.

She freezes, darting her eyes down to her bottom half as if only now realising her abundant lack of legs. And oddly enough, she finds that she doesn't mind it- infact, she prefers it. 

“When would that have even…” Jax trails off with a stammer. 

The moon floats down to Caine with a quiet smile. “They look happy,” she purrs. 

The ringmaster watches them almost as a loss. “They do, don't they?”

“You think after this, maybe we could-,”

“WAIT A MINUTE! That's a bad thing!” Caine blurts, snapping out of his fixture. 

Bubble floats towards him grinning. “Explain to daddy Bubble how bad- thing!”

“I-I think that…” He stops and shakes his head at Bubble uncomfortably. "...don't say that. But, er, I-I think they're enjoying the suggestion box adventures more than the ME adventures! What should I do?!”

“You should die- You should throw a [BEEPING] beach party!” 

“Why do you swear now?! Ugh, forget it…let's go to an intermission.” He frantically snaps his fingers, collapsing the peaceful adventure into a contrastingly chaotic

INTERMISSION TIME.

“And now, back to the show!” Bubble sing-songs with a wink. 

Jazz thrums through the evening air- a picture of a monotone dusk only ignited by the spices of background saxophone. Crowded in by the lofty atmosphere of a bar and the beating of bass instruments, Gangle and the trio sit together, slouched over the long bar table side by side, opposing Zooble, who made work by mindlessly shaking up drinks. They slide three mocktails to the three wordlessly: Mary nods her head in thanks, Phantom blinks at it unenthusiastically and Cali can't even find it in herself to acknowledge it, leaning forward with her chin against her paw.

“Man, it sure is nice to have all three of us together without anything terrifying happening, isn’t it?” Mary says softly, swirling her drink. “It's been awhile.” 

A refusal fights at Phantom's tongue before she swallows it down, sensing the atmosphere. “Well, you enjoyed the stargazing one, right? That was fun for you, right? Nothing terrifying as you prefer…right?” she asks insistently.

“Well, uh, yeah.” Phantom instantly smiles triumphantly and returns to examining her glass before Mary scrambles to correct herself. “B-but I just meant, we're actually together here. Which, hasn't really happened a lot without any impending pressure. You know? Phantom?” 

“Oh, huh? Oh, yeah, I get it, riri. Adventures together are a blast but every adventurer needs their cool down. If we were always doing exciting things, those things wouldn't be exciting!” Phantom explains animatedly with a grin. She finishes, giggling, “Well, as my all time favourite shounen character says.”

“...riri?” Mary mutters back in disbelief. She inhales slowly and then exhales, pushing her insights to the back of her brain. “It's good you're having fun here, Phantom, in this… place,” she carefully comments, forging a smile. Phantom beams back at her. Caine beams too from above.

At least one of us is. 

She shoots a wary glance at the cat next to her, seemingly having turned invisible as the barrier between her and the ghost. Her body itches at her to say something- anything. 

Look at me.

“You having fun here then, huh Cal?” she suddenly blurts overanimously. Gangle cringes at her volume from next to her, the bar stilling awkwardly from her unbefitting euthanism. Cali doesn't even bother to lift her head, instead sliding her eyes to glare at her. 

“Just fine, Mary,” she mutters bitterly against her paw. 

“F[SPLAT!]uh- I didn't mean to-,” 

Cali sighs. “It's whatever,” she mumbles, sitting back up and stretching lazily. “I didn't mean it like that either… I guess. I agree with you, it’s good to be away from things…” she trails off, turning her head to the ceiling tiredly.

Mary, still rigid, agrees with a tense scratch at her head. 

Look at me.

“Right…” 

“Eh, two boring adventures one after another in my opinion…” Phantom comments boredly. She nudges Cali with a twinkle in her eye. “You should be looking forward to another one of my adventures. That'll take you plenty away from everything, if you get what I mean.” 

Cali lolls her head to face her with an unimpressed face. Phantom slides her a wink. 

“Hahah, that sounds fun, Phantom! Right, C-cali?” Mary chirps, hitting a voice crack. 

The two girls freeze, all three of them internally wincing. 

“Right, Mary,” the ghost awkwardly agrees. She bites her lip into a tentative smile. “Uhm, are you, uh, feeling okay?” 

The bell chimes as the door thrusts open, a greyscale Jax sauntering inside. He solemnly collapses upon the seat next to Phantom at the end with huff- the ghost herself concealing a sigh of relief. 

“Gimme a whiskey sour, but hold the egg white, since I’m a vegan- Wha- I hate this!” Jax blurts, stoic at first before breaking character when noticing the words that weren't his own. Phantom snorts at his sudden loss of composure. “How is this even possible? I thought Caine couldn’t-”

He stops himself mid-thought.

“I could’ve made it way worse for you,”  Zooble bluntly monotones from behind the counter, shaking his drink together. He rolls his eyes as Phantom makes a mental note of the incident, her other two friends obviously agitated his appearance. 

“Not this again,” Cali mutters fiercely, only quiet enough for her ears to hear. And the pair next to her. 

Jax taps his head forward onto his chin in an exaggerated manner. “Well, I’m calling a vote to turn Zooble into a slug.” His confidence falters as his annoyance hits crescendo; each other circus members promptly declines his request.

X X X X X X X

“Everyone voted against that, Jax!” Caine informs from outta nowhere. 

“HUuuuurgh!” Jax whines, flopping his face onto the table. “No hate it.” His drink flicks to his face dismissively.

The bell chimes again, Kinger and Ragatha entering positively soaked. 

“Phew, it’s raining like the dickens out there!” Kinger exclaims, holding the door for the dripping ragdoll to walk through. 

“Hey guys,” she greets, settling herself next to Gangle whilst Kinger plops at the opposite end by Jax. 

He clears his throat and gestures to Zooble. “I’ll have a cosmopolitan.”

“Gimme a corncob blitz.” 

Zooble pauses thoughtfully. “I’ll… throw something together.” 

“You sure know your way around alcohol.” Mary comments, tapping at her own glass nervously. She glances at Cali again- habit, she tells herself- only to find herself staring blankly into the distance. The knot in her stomach tightens. “Very, hah… impressive!” 

“Uh, thanks. It's a bit natural for me- this was one of my suggestions. I worked at a bar briefly before. I actually like making drinks,” Zooble replies with something of a soft smile. 

Jax scoffs without missing a beat. “That sounds fitting for you.”

“.. I know there's an implication there but I can’t be f[BONK!]ed to figure it out,” they glare.

“I think he just means you’re like a, sorta punkish, gender nonconforming person who's chill n’ all,” Phantom perks, distractedly tracing her fingers over the formats of her glass. “Not necessarily a diss.”

“Ugh, take a hint, floats,” Jax grins tightly before raising his head to smirk at Zooble. “I totally meant it as a diss.”

“Oh really,” deadpans Zooble. “Shocker there.”

“...am I missing something? What’s wrong with serving drinks?”

Zooble sighs while Jax groans. “Nothing. Ignore him- he has no clue what he’s on about.”

“You can say that again,” mutters Cali.

The bunny flings his glass to his mouth and clanks it back down with a content release of breath. “Don’t tell me you served drinks too?” he snickers while glancing to Phantom. “And here I thought you were sound enough to sit with.”

“I didn’t serve s[BONK!]t so shut up. I wouldn’t survive a day in customer service as you might remember if you knew what you were on about,” she quips. She slides a glance at Zooble, who dips a supportive nod. 

Mary giggles. “You’re so dramatic, Phantom. You’ve survived at least a couple rare days.”

“We’re not starting this conversation up again,” Phantom halts, handing her hand up theatrically for Mary to theatrically shake her head in turn. “You and Cali carried- I was a different story.”

“So I take it you three worked in customer service for a while together?” Gangle timidly asks, slightly amused. “I can see why… my suggestion did what it did then.”

“Anything for a bit of money, I guess. I did my own amount of short side gigs for a bit of extra cash myself,” shrugs Zooble, shaking up Ragatha’s drink. “Some… less peaceful than this specific one.”

“No and yes. God forbid I ever work in customer service! But me and Cali definitely indulged a bit on a few side gigs ourselves- but you know age-restricting employers can be!?” She jerked her head forward, overcome with former frustration, and rants, “There’s only so many ages we could manage to pass off as before getting booted on word of the ‘Fair Labor Standards Act’. Some bull about our ‘innocence’ and ‘education’- nonsense after nonsense, really.” The ghost huffs. “Remember Ca- Mary?”

“Fair Labor Standards Act…” Kinger repeats in a murmur, Ragatha and the rest furrowed into their memories with a frown. Even Jax sits back up as Zooble reaches a pause in their preparation.

“Uh, no? When did you guys try to get a job? At our age?” Mary asks, confused. “I’m sure I would have remembered…”

Cali suddenly clears her throat as if uncomfortable. “Don’t sweat it, Mary, you weren’t even there. It was during your third term remedial classes.”

“Oh yeah, I totally forgot it was just me and Cali! You were there in spirit, don’t worry Mary,” smiles Phantom cheerfully. “Assuming that from how much you zone out during Principal Murphy’s lessons, haha.”

“...thanks, Phantom.”

“Wait, guys! Can we uh, just backpedal a second?” Ragatha hurriedly interrupts. She hastily takes her drink from Zooble’s stilled hands, giving them a quick nod of thanks, to then cast concerned glances at the trio, her fingers fidgeting upon the glass. “Did you say the Fair Labor Standards Act stopped you from working?”

“Okay, I know that sounds bad but…” Phantom begins to protest, her voice suddenly failing from the weight of Ragatha’s fixed gaze, which seemed to surrender any playfulness from her and convey a care only rivalling a mother’s. Stern yet… scared. A direct contrast from how Ragatha normally was. She spotted Mary shift uncomfortably next to her as she guiltily cleared her throat. “...yeah.”

Ragatha uncharacteristically presses on with firm tongue, placing her drink firmer against the counter. “What did you mean by age-restricting? Surely you’re old enough to be employed-?”

“Agh, just cut to the chase, Rags!” Jax blurts. “Just how old are you three?!”

The three cast uneasy glances between each other before Phantom cracks an awkward smile. “Oh, is that all it is? You had me thinking you were about to arrest us for fraud! I always told Cali it’d happen at some point if she kept being so reckless but I think she trusted my thousands of backup plans more than my words, which is pretty fair since they have saved our skins way too many times to be proud of! You know this one time-”

“Phantom!” interrupts Jax with an imploring stare. 

“Ah…sorry,” she shyly apologises, suddenly self-conscious of her ramblings by Jax's uncharacteristic seriousness. And usage of her actual name. 

“Why is everyone acting so… weird?” the three think to themselves.

Phantom clears her throat again, representative of her wary friends. “Ahem, to answer your question… me and Cali are fifteen. Mary is fourt- actually, nevermind that, she’s fifteen too. It was her birthday recently… heh, forgot about that for a moment, sorry Mary. So, uh- yeah! All fifteen…!”

The soft piano and saxophone emanate what would be the deafening silence that forms. A sigh follows.

“I had my suspicions… but it’s still… rough, to hear it out loud at least,” Zooble voices slowly to break up the brick wall silence. They quietly fill a drink for themself before glancing back up to the mute marionette. “...how’d you end up here then? Bad birthday surprise?” Mary visibly winces and Zooble hurries to an awkward apology. “Sorry. Ignore my bad attempt to lighten the mood- I just felt a bit of tension. I’m just curious how someone so young managed to find their way… here.”

Mary sighs, bringing her hands to clutch at her wobbling glass. Cali watches her hands with an indecipherable look upon her face as her friend stammers out a soft response. “You don’t… need to apologise, it’s just that you were right on the money, haha… if I can even laugh about that. It’s a bit of a silly story for something so serious- is that what I should call this?- so there’s not much to be curious about. Not much to tell… so no point telling.”

“Still a story!” Phantom chirps, hitting a similar voice crack as Mary had had before. “I had found this random building perfect for a birthday adventure and decided ‘Hey, Mary would totally adore this!’ since she always happens to be the butt tail of our shenanigans normally and this would be a chance where she could really lead! So we grabbed boba and went and Mary led us to this room she seemed to take interest in. And then she found, you know, the headset, and boom, that brings us to the present! Didn’t exactly go perfectly to plan… but, I mean, I don’t think it’s completely terrible.” She laughs awkwardly after, her voice trailing off at the end; the mood remaining as stiff as before.

“So much for not telling… learn to take a hint, Phantom,” Mary mumbles half to herself, half to the ghost she was bitterly glaring at.

“Did you say my name, Mary?” Phantom obliviously asks.

Mary smacks her teeth in annoyance. “Just who are you to decide it’s not completely terrible? That it’s just a story okay to tell like another f[TWANG!]ing adventure!? Ugh, that I’m even the butt tail of all our ‘shenanigans- ugh, actually.” She pauses to inhale and then exhale slowly. “Nevermind. This present is the perfect birthday present, you’re so right,” she grumbles, her words laden with sarcasm.

“Well… I said it wasn’t completely terrible ‘cause it’s not? And it is a story now- I don’t see much of a point of hiding it now. And for your last question, I was only trying to help you, Mary, not put you down. I’m sorry if it felt that way but still, everything I said was… truthful…” Phantom explains, slightly confused and slightly desperate. “Are… you okay?” she asks for the second time now.

“Didn’t I just say to drop it?”

“You said nevermind, not-”

“Hey Phantom, did you know that we’d end up here?” Cali abruptly asks, breaking out of her quiet. 

“What?” the ghost snaps, her eyes darting to Cali’s drifting ones in a heartbeat.

“Well, not like that… it’s just that you normally do tons of research and um, stuff so I just. Had a thought.” 

“Not this time, Cal-I, uh, wanted Mary to really like feel in charge, you know? So, no, I didn’t know we’d end up here.” Clearly upset by the direction the conservation is heading, her mind pinpoints on Cali’s muted character- another mental note to her piling concerns for her. “Are you feeling okay?”

Wɑλpԍ ᴉϝ ʍɑƨ ɑ wᴉƨϝɑĸԍ.

“Ask her, not me,” Cali replies, nudging her head in Mary's direction. Eyes following the motion, they slightly cringe at the prospect, her tongue nervously rimming the inside of her mouth. The feeling that had crept inside of her felt oddly familiar, a familiar line of thinking falling in footsteps. 

“Speaking of, how’d the rest of you get here?” she very loudly and very quickly asks. 

Zooble looks at her for a moment before deciding to assist her- for whatever reason, Phantom remains grateful. “Hey, Gangle, you mind telling us what you did before the circus?”

Gangle freezes for a second as if put on a spotlight until she catches Zooble’s encouraging gaze. She clears her throat as her smile sinks at the memory. “...I worked in fast food," she answers glumfully.

“Hey, I know you’ve done more than that. How about your art?” Zooble questions encouragingly. 

“I did go to community college for graphic design. I dropped out though. I didn't pursue art much after that…” 

“Hey, I’m always down to make art together if you want,” offers Zooble, returning Gangle’s smile. 

Cali lets out a scoff at them. Zooble looks at her pointedly and she shifts away.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were an artist too, Zooble!” Ragtha exclaims.

Zooble chuckles, “Uh, yeah, I was a tattoo artist for a couple years.”

“A bartender and a tattoo artist? Pheh, you’re killing me here Zoobie,” Jax giggles, sounding lightheaded. His glass glimmers an empty bottom as he swirls it around at them. “Refill, pleeeeeease.”

“What do you even mean when you say that? Do you have an actual point, or are you just talking to talk at this point,” they spit, begrudgingly tipping him another fill.

“I’m just havin’ fun, I forgot you hate fun.”

“Fun isn’t the thing I hate.” 

Phantom perks up at this, recalling that she’d said something similar to Cali during the Ghost hunting adventure. She snickers to herself, earning her strange looks from her two friends.

“I guess I’ll go now.” Ragatha announces, jumping to fight off a recovery of their suffocating silence. “Oh, jeez, where to start? Hah. Um, I was born from a fairly wealthy family. We had a large property with horses and chickens. And my mother... uh, well... my mother was... a lot,” she trails off, her hands subconsciously creeping up to embrace herself. “Uh, I worked in real estate for a bit until I ended up... here. I'm sure she doesn't miss me. I certainly don't miss the yelling... and the berating... and guilt-tripping. And the…” her words slip into solitude as she notices the staring and uncharacteristic silence rearing its head again and downs her cosmo in one go. “Yeah, just, kind of a farm girl, nothing too out of the ordinary.” 

Jax looks away, rediscovering the chesspiece next to him. “Aaaand no point in asking Kinger ‘cause there's no way he remembers anything!”

“Never better!” Kinger adds.

Cali glances between them precariously before hesitantly asking, “Do you know about his wife?”

“Huh?”

“MY WHAT!?” Kinger screams. Zooble quickly hands him his drink.

“Oh,” he acknowledges, retreating from his panicked state. Jax moves away slightly, furrowing his eyebrows, seemingly disturbed by something about the drink and Zooble notices with a raise of an eyebrow.

A mannequin with a hat walks into the bar.

“He-” they say, disappearing immediately. Jax relaxes back into a grin at the sight.

“I-uh-what?” Phantom squawks.

“That’s just disappearing guy, it’s what he does.” Zooble casually explains.

“Oh, from a previous adventure?” she asks curiously.

“Yeah, God Phantom, you didn’t know that?” Jax says obnoxiously, turning his head to Zooble with a catlike grin on his face.

“I’m ignoring you.”

“Oh whatever, I don’t need fake friends like you when I have floats!” he drunkenly says, turning to flick her forehead.

“Ow!”

“Right, floats?”

“Are you implying we’re friends???” 

“Wow! The first steps of a budding friendship!” he exaggerates teasingly. He swivels his head to face the ragdoll nosily watching them. “Ain't that right Ragatha?” he slyly asks,

Ragatha glares at him, grinding her fist together with contempt, before shifting back to her normal self to attempt her own chatter with Phantom. “Uh, hey Phantom, remember when Kaufmo smashed me up on the walls and jumbled me all up? That sure was funny in retrospect, wasn’t it?” she stiffly laughs, prompting her audience to as well.

Her attempt is futile as Phantom stares at her blankly. “I.. I mean that seems sorta self-detrimental to joke about Ragatha.” 

“I-uh- no you’re right sorry, that was probably really traumatic for you too,” she hurriedly backpedals.

“Oo! Remember when you got high at Mc Donalds and told Gangle to kill herself! Hah, now that was funny. Oh man, you were on a roll! I distinctly remember you also making Mary cry or something funny like that,” Jax exclaims insensitively with a wide grin, as if it were the most funny thing he had ever seen, Kinger nodding along aloofly unaware of the situation.

Ragatha takes a short intake of breath with horror. “I- I did not say that. Well, I think. No, of course I didn’t, and Gangle and Mary, I am so, so sorry about saying those things to you, I would never say that to you if I didn't get that stupid, sauce in my eye!” Ragatha profusely apologises, grabbing at her hair up as she gets more and more frustrated at herself. Gangle smiles softly at her apology, but Mary looks away in discomfort, shifting uncomfortably.

“Jeez, just let yourself be mean, sometimes. It's funny!” Jax grins. 

“It's not Jax! And Mary, Gangle, I want you both to know that I am sorry and do not find this funny like this lunatic over here!” 

Cali releases her own huff, unable to maintain her silence. “Do you really think a small little ‘sorry’ makes up for that? Even I'm not that f[BONK!]ing oblivious. Maybe you wouldn’t have said that but that doesn’t mean you don’t believe that.” 

“Oh, of course I don’t believe it!” she desperately protests. “Yes, those words might have come out of my mouth but a lot of other nonsense did! I am truly, really, really, really-”

The aggravated cat’s eye twitches. “What’s the phrase? Drunken words, sober thoughts. I don’t care how sorry you feel about it- the damage is done. You meant what you said to Mary- don’t even try to deny it- so there is no world you can just get away with it with a simple, phony sorry. You say it so many times that it loses all meaning like the rest of your overappreciation act you got going on,” she hisses, her eyes slimming with irritation, running up and down the frantic ragdoll’s face.

“I- wait no I- I didn’t mean it I swear-” Ragatha stumbles

“Save it ragdoll, you’re not really sorry if this is all that's coming out of you,” Cali remarks bitterly, leaning closer to glare at her. Mary grabs her arm in protest however and her touch instantly evaporates her confidence, the blood turning to ice in realisation. Her body shrinks back into her chair. 

You did it again, Cali.

“Well I just-... Caine’s AI’s aren’t like that,” Ragatha continues to try to reason. “They're like cartoon characters without a personality. I’m sorry that I said to you Mary, I didn’t realise that you were so attached to him..”

“Thats not the point though,” Mary starts, Ragatha’s eyes widening in panic. She cuts her off before another onslaught of apologies could assault the air, anger powering each of her points. “Gummigoo wasn’t some cartoon villain that I got attached to, he was a real person. Or at least felt like one, I don’t understand how none of you have acknowledged this at all! I’m not mad or insane for grieving a REAL FRIEND! And definitely not childish!”

“But that isn’t… no, he wouldn’t…” Ragatha stammers, trying to understand the situation.

“Wait Gummy- wasn’t that the candy one that I skipped?” Zooble asks.

“Yeah, why?” Mary responds.

“I think that one had more ‘immersive’ AI’s or something, I remember Caine going on about something about that…”

“Oh! Yeah, he said quote ‘ZOOBLE, WAIT, I’ve been testing a new AI and it's been proven to be 57 times more immersive!’ end quote… it's uh, the first time I heard the number 57 mentioned,” Phantom adds. Cali and Mary look at her, horrified, but Ragatha takes over their blurt about to bullet out with her own.

“So that means… oh my god Mary I am, so sorry for even thinking that you were like that, my god it’s like me equating someone dying in front of you to taking a kids toy away for a bit… oh god, it’s making me sick that I was thinking that I just-” Ragatha spirals, before Mary snaps her back to reality with a clearing of her throat.

“Hey,” she says, her voice abundantly softer. “Look, what you said did hurt, and I don’t think I can accept your apology right now.” Ragatha pales. “... but I can see why you acted the way that you did, and I think it won’t be hard for me to find an excuse to put this behind me and be your friend. I just need… time.” Mary gives her light smile, which Ragatha fights to reciprocate with a recovery of her composure. 

“Thank you,” she sincerely pronounces. “And I mean it.” She drives her determined look to Cali, who still looks at her unimpressed, and then returns it back to the marionette.

“Hey, no problem dude.”

“Pfft, you guys all take this place waaay too seriously.” Jax drolls. “Is that like the third argument that’s happened now? We’re at a bar not a tea party, gosh, you guys.” Zooble looks at him and pushes the corn from Kinger's drink toward Jax. He tenses from his slouching stance and looks down at it disgustedly. “What is this? Why’d you do this?” Zooble squints at him. “Can you get that away from me?”

“Are you afraid of… corn?” they ask. 

“Pfft, no, who’s afraid of corn?” he bluffs. Zooble pushes the corn closer to him and he proves Zooble’s theory with a frantic leap away.

“I’m bored, let's go to the next one!” Caine suddenly snaps, inserting himself into the scene.

“What?! You’re not even a part of-!”

Crowds shake the atmosphere with cheer, buzz rattle from each enclave of the dazzling stadium, a softball court central plays an epic theme to introduce 

GOOD OL FASHIONED SOFTBALL

“It's Softball, ladies and gentlemen!” Caine proclaims from a loud speaker, seated beside Bubble in an announcement seat, heaven to the field standing circus members.

Ragatha startles with a smile and exclaims, “O-Oh! We're doing this now? I didn't expect my one to appear today!” 

Mary looks at Ragatha, head different with an obnoxious softball cap. “This was your suggestion, Ragatha?”

The ragdoll nods excited before a familiar voice comes from the speakers.

“Beautiful day for a game today, right Bubble?”

A strange “blah” sound blurts from Bubble before Caine introduces the next line of announcements. 

“Today's line up is the Big Tops vs the Eviill Tops!"

Opposite the slumped main crew, a crowd of cackling, contrasting characters stood, each one a direct opposite of the person they opposed.

Mary gazed up uneasily to the one at the front; the NPC resembling Mary's puppet avatar. Instead however, brighter colours encompassed her long limbs, breaking the solitudinal monotone of her own body, with strange mushrooms embracing her head to toe paired with an indigo glow. Glaring at her cockily, matching indigo eyes gleamed with terror, as if almost high off the insane colourwheel of her composure. It giggled into a hand, before introducing itself to the group with a yell and censored middle finger “‘Sup, f[SLURP!]ers I’m Evil Mary!” 

The NPC's mouth fell into an uncanny smirk, drag lines and grazes following the structure around it as if someone had brutally carved the mouth out of the place where she herself should have one. Her blood turns to ice- that's exactly what it was. 

Did the NPC actually do that or did Caine really design her to have one but not me?

Unable to keep eye contact with the horrific sight, overridden with the even more horrific implications, Mary allows herself to be carried away by the next line of intrusive introductions.

“I'm EVIL RAGATHA!” a colour reversed ragdoll haughtily cackles. 

A step on the boss fight music carries on to introduce a stern Coach Dictatorer, the purple chess piece saluting with determination. 

“And I'm…” a massive cobalt tiger begins to introduce, jaw opening even more massively to release something akin to a fear striking roar. Towering the BigTops, impressive scars and spikes chain around her muscled body finished off by a war stricken eyepatch upon her left eye. Terrifying teeth crash down into a squeak as the NPC nervously squeals, “H-hey! I'm E-evil Cali! Uh, p-please don't get mad at me if I strike you out…”

Cali cringes.

A menacing cackle resounds straight from the strangely shadowy section of the playing field, despite there being nothing to shadow over it. “Pfft- and I'm Evil Phantom, hehe,” an fire coloured ghost giggles sinisterly. Her body flickers a multitude of oranges and reds, which Phantom guesses the red is simply a reverse of her own green but halted upon the sight of orange. 

Is this meant to mean something? 

“Ah, uh- hi guys! I-I'm Evil Jax!” stammers out a pink rabbit after Evil Phantom's turn. 

A similar red NPC bleeps a distorted introduction, no question Evil Orbsman, from it's bubbling body and robust stance. 

“And I'm Bazooble! Yibabadababyib-” geeks an inverted Zooble in a contrasting carefree voice, limbs taunting all over everywhere. 

“...well, that wasn't in my suggestions,” Ragatha apprehensively states. 

Beside her, Gangle whines frailly, “Why don't I have an evil clone…” 

A creak taps from the above microphone. “But first, let's welcome our special guest, here to sing the American national anthem!”

The same mannequin from the bar enters the stadium's field and approaches the microphone.

“Oh, sa-”

Moments of silence pass until the crowd erupts into applause. Source a single centipede clapping all pairs of their legs. Ragatha shrieks and flops to the ground, Evil Mary snickering from her side of her pitch. She then ushers her team to their bleachers, lobbing water bottles at those who didn't follow her with a lopsided grin, almost skipping as Evil Phantom angrily threw one back. Phantom watches, an uncomfortable throb aching inside of her. 

“Alright, team! I may not know what's going on, or who is going on, or when is going on, or why is going on-!” Kinger starts, gathering his own team's attention with an attempt of a pep talk. “But I do know where is going on, and it's out on that field! So let's go break some tailbones, team!” 

Mary helps Ragatha up, the ragdoll nodding to her in thanks and then pumping her fist up to Kinger's encouragement while the rest hold back their own groans. They begin to walk to their own offside before Evil Jax waves at the straying three circus members. 

“H-hey, guys. I-I hope we all have a fun game, no matter who ends up winning…!” 

Evil Phantom quickly grabs him, though being a good distance away, and twists his arm. “Wrong team,” she spits to him. 

“Ah, sorry…” he apologises, ducking his head in shame and floating away with her.

Jax squints his eyes and tightens his fists. “I wanna kill that guy.” 

“Forget that- did you see how fast the other me was!? Is that Caine trying to say I'm slow?” Phantom exclaims.

“Agh, using that logic then, what the [TWANG!] is Caine trying to say about me?!” questions Zooble offensively, dishing a dirty look at her own evil, completely crackers doppelganger. “Where does he get the nerve!?” 

Phantom simply shrugs, guiding her eyes back to the odd dynamic of her alternate self interact relatively smoothly with her team, given their astound differences. Before her mind allows a coherent thought on the matter though, Zooble duffs her head forward. 

“Oof!” 

“Oh, wow, uh- I kinda thought my hand would have gone through you,” they blink, tapping Phantom head a few more times as if to prove her tangibility. “Anyway, don't give whatever Caine does too much thought- there's never much thought there in the first place. And that you can trust me on.” 

Phantom nervously laughs, subconsciously tucking her arms into herself. “How'd you guess what I was thinking?” 

“Just had a feeling.” 

“Gosh, is that ‘cause she's see-through, Zoobs? Didn't peg ya to be the perceptive type, bartender,” Jax teases, stepping out from his glare to his own counterpart with a huff and slick transition into a smirk.

“Classic Jax,” thinks Phantom with a fond expression while watching Zooble's eyebrows knit another frown. 

“Once again, what exactly are you trying to imply with that?” 

“Uh, exactly what greenie over there said before, duh. Now who doesn't know what they're on about?” 

“Greenie?” pauses the ghost in confusion. She sticks an uncertain finger to herself, casting a glance to her ghoullish shade. “Me?” 

“Well, unless Kinger's painted himself green again,” Zooble deadpans to her, nodding their head sarcastically to the chess piece enthusiastically huffing into a broken whistle. 

She falters, as if considering the possibility of that even happening. “Has… that happened before? ‘Cause I get this weird feeling it has…” 

“Don't ask me, man. Something about bugs, something about a piece of leek- typical Kinger stuff.” 

The ghost snorts, the image completing inside her head: Kinger donned in a fully vegetable esque bodysuit with a massive hat of stems to match. Suddenly, she catches sight of Jax dully strolling to their bleachers and resigning to a seat in the back. “Guess we should join the others. Softball… isn't the worse sport ever.” 

“Pfft, only because soccer exists,” Zooble agrees. 

“Glad to be on the same wavelength.” 

Mary shuffles up on her seat, the distance between her and Cali a cuff to her comfortability. The cat had been slumped against the wall since they had seated, not even a spark of excitement at the ongoing game in front of her echoing a reaction within her, which would normally ignite an explosion of exhilaration. Disinterest radiated off her- and an even larger lack of care for the marionette only inches beside her exerted into the atmosphere. The contrast conflicted in dancing mockery inside Mary's head; a connection so warm and full of life only two adventures ago to frost over within a step afterwards felt like a joke at every and any of her efforts. She casts another glance at Cali and sighs, resorting to watching the game in matching disinterest. 

“Good luck, Ragatha!” Kinger shouts, eagerly cheering her on. She nods tightly at him and clutches in her bat to position herself to hit the ball being pitched by Bazooble. 

“This shouldn't be too hard,” she murmurs under her breath, brow fixed in concentration. Until somebody snaps it with an overzealous laugh. 

“Well, hello, Stupidgatha! I hope you're ready to get completely annihilated!” cackles Evil Ragatha dramatically. “Nobody loves you, and you're going to die someday!”

Ragatha tightens her hand around her bat uncomfortably. “We can't exactly die. That's like... the whole thing here.”

SWOOSH! THWACK! 

She slams the ball successfully through the air and races around the field. 

“What the frick?!” warbles Orbsman. 

“That's mine, get out my way tango!” Evil Mary shouts, stepping through the ghost to gouge the distance the ball is flying. Evil Phantom groans and then grins suddenly. She darts up from her lounging spot on the ground, knocking Evil Mary to the ground, and catches the ball with a firm left hand. 

“Yours, did you say?” she sneered at the growling marionette. She redirects her attention to the running ragdoll. “You're out, dumb[SPOING]t!” 

Throwing her hat to the dusty ground, Ragatha curses and storms off the pitch. 

“HA! Get owned!” Jax jeers from the stands. 

“F[BOING!] yeah, that's what I'm sayin'!”

“See, there's someone who can actually take a joke,” Jax murmurs half to himself half to the ghost perched spectator next to him. “Tell your friends to take notes- we do need more of you multipliers for lighten up, it's so boring otherwise.” 

“Tell me about it,” Phantom agrees lightly, tossing a glance to her two subdued friends. “They're normally more fun.” 

Jax makes a face. “Who said I wasn't talking about you too?” 

Giggling is heard from behind him, to which he suspiciously darts his head to. A poll presents beneath him, the menu broadcasting a vote which was largely positive. Jax hesitantly votes red to no avail- a maid outfit cloaking his character. 

“WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!? WHO DID THIS?!” Jax shouts furiously, his face turning into a tomato. His eyes zoom at a giggling Gangle and he stomps angrily to her with a pointing, accusing finger. “YOU!” 

Gangle screams in terror and ducks behind Zooble, desperately racing away from a chasing Jax, feral in rage in his flouncy dress. Phantom betrays a large, obnoxious cackle as one of the voters for his punishment and hoots at his behaviour. She had no beforehand idea of what the vote was for; only that it was probably Jax centered by Zooble and Gangle's giggling and a bunch of fun. Her own idea for her own shenanigan forms in her mischievous mind as her mind drifts back to the forever residents in her mind: Cali and Mary. 

Kinger calls out, pausing their chase, “Jax, you're up to bat!”

“I can't, don't wanna... I-I-I— I look like THIS, though!!” he freaks, his face flustered in an undignified blush.

Zooble scoffs. “Seems fitting for you, though. I figured you'd be into this.”

“What does that mean? What's that supposed to mean?!”

‘I'm just having fun. I forgot you hate fun,” they repeat with a teasing lilt. 

Huffing, his eyes buzz uncomfortably with his fists clutched in a ball of rage. “I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THIS!”

“...I have never seen you this upset about something.”

“JAX! BAT!”

“I'm gonna kill you when this is over.” 

He snatches the softball bat and storms onto the field, glaring furiously at everybody. 

“Pfft- good idea, Gangle. Somebody really got their knickers in a twist,” snickers Zooble, watching him freak out on the field humorously. “Phantom, did you get a load of that drama our resident drama queen just pulled?” 

“Huh?” the ghost replies, stepping out of her mumbling a distance away from the scene that had just occurred. “Oh yeah- Jax in a maid costume? The guy told me earlier that his avatar was the ‘height of masculinity’ or whatever, way to throw that in his face,” she mocks comedically. “Also, good on you Gangle for giving something back, I've noticed he's… not the nicest to you at times.” 

“Yeah… thanks, I did feel good,” she timidly admits, blushing slightly at her praise. “He did chase me afterwards which I didn't really like… but I did get him good, didn't I, huh?” 

“He chased you?” 

Zooble tuts. “Where exactly did you space off to within the last few minutes? He threw a whole scene chasing her while freaking out- seriously I've never seen him freak out so much before. You're telling me you missed that?” 

“Aha, I guess so,” she awkwardly responds. “I guess I got caught up in my own idea- inspired by your genius, of course, Gangle- and didn't really care for any other weirdness from him. He went off in a bit of a weird, emotional tangent earlier… until he returned back to normal. I prefer that honestly.” 

“I'm surprised you can even handle any version of Jax. He isn't the nicest person to be around,” Gangle voices. 

To that Phantom only shrugs uncommittedly. “He's fun.” 

“Fun!? What are you guys on about- we need a BALL, get your eye on the game!” Kinger exclaims, in a panic. He gestures wildly at the three as the three stare back at him dumbfounded, before he shrieks eureka and pops Zooble's eye into his hand. 

“What- HEY!” 

“EYE! BALL! We can use your EYEBALL!” Kinger explains as if it were the most magnificent discovery he had ever experienced. “Good idea Zooble.” 

He throws Zooble's eye to Bazooble, who then sticks it on the side of their face.

“I'm not doing this anymore,” Jax grunts, slumping and discarding his bat in disinterest. 

“Wait, Jax! What about where is going on?!”

Ragatha slumps down in the space between Mary and Cali with a sigh of frustration. “I can't believe I hit it right to her, I'm supposed to be better than that.” She sighs again, realising her audience. “Sorry. I should be a better sport.” 

“Yeah, maybe you should be,” Cali bitterly mutters. 

“Cali!” Mary apprehends, trying to recover her rudeness with a smile to the ragdoll. The action of excusing Cali's attitude fell habitual to her, almost nostalgic. “Ignore her Ragatha- you weren't doing anything bad necessarily.” 

Cali held back an eyeroll and grunts exasperatedly. “Actually, don't ignore Cali because what do you mean she did nothing bad? She did the ball straight at her- embarrassing really. But even if she's aware of that, we shouldn't have to hear her moan about it.” 

Ragatha's smile weakens at Cali's criticism yet nods to it all the same. “Yeah, you're right, I should really be a better sport in general-,” 

“No, Ragatha! That's not what I meant, obviously you didn't play well but what I meant is that it's okay to show a little negative emotion when you do! It's only natural, you shouldn't feel binded to a script that dictates only happy emotion. It's what keeps the little humanity we have in here real. And a little bit of brutal honesty could really save lives, you know?” Mary argues, raising her voice slightly and toning it back down to a snipe when referencing Gummigoo. She didn't really know she had become so riled up nor why she brought Gummigoo back up, but she decides to stay firm with her anger with her arms crossed. Until she catches a glimpse of Ragatha's crestfallen face. 

“So Jax was right about me earlier." 

“No! I am NOT siding with him-” 

“Well, maybe you should!” Cali spits, her own anger reigniting. She didn't know what suddenly made her care so much about the ragdoll’s hopeless personality: all she is aware of is Mary's steel glare and the same familiar attempt of surrender she is pushing onto her for Ragatha. “Don't spoil a mood with your own pathetic self-deprecation just because you yourself have failed something. A fake merry go attitude is stupid but I think everybody would prefer improvement rather than empty self insults! Even if you have to be mean about it or just entirely shut up and step back to do so,” she finishes, leaning back in her seat. 

“I-I-I don't know... I don't want to be a jerk or anything.”

“Too late for that one.” 

Mary grounds her fist, launching herself up. “Cali, it's not your place to be fighting my fights!”

“I'm on your side here! You started this and I'm just carrying it out for you. Would you rather I lie to her and tell her that she's not a jerk for what she did to you?” she asks sarcastically. 

“I would rather the choice to say what I want from my side!” 

“What does that even mean, Mary!? I was agreeing with you, why are you so mad?” Cali asks her in a baffled tone. 

“Yeah, but you didn't need to be so mean about it!” Mary disputes. “She's already apologised and given a very valid explanation- at this point, I'm more on her side than my own!” 

“HER SIDE!? You're joking right, I'm giving her advice she very well was open to!” Cali explodes. 

“I don't know, Cali, it doesn't even sound like advice to me but frail self-projection!” 

.

..

…

“What did you just say to me?” 

Mary pales, her blood turning to ice. 

“No, no, no, I didn't mean to say-” 

Cali leaves. Walking onto the pitch, she snatches the discarded bat from the ground and stalks herself into position.

“Oh, is Cali taking Jax’s place? Go Cali!” Kinger cheers from their spot, breaking the eerie silence that she had left in her wake. 

“So. I'm just gonna go get a ball for her. For them. Be right back, Mary,” Ragatha nervously bids, escaping the situation as quickly as she can. Mary takes a deep sigh and shrinks into her seat. Calling out to Caine with her palms cupped around her mouth, she shouts, “Caine! We need a ball here!”

Abruptly woken up, Caine startles from next to his commentator microphone and registers her request. With a snap of his gloved fingers, a ball falls from thin air to Zooble's deft hands. They nod to Ragatha in thanks and tap the ball up and down in preparation to return to the game. 

“Jax, we have a ball now! What are you doing?”

“Ditching. Pinkie's taking my turn,” he waves from further down the field. 

“Oh- she is?” Zooble turns to face Cali, who readies herself accordingly. “Oh, cool, just get out the way then.” 

“Whatever you say, Zoobs,” he replies, not bothering to make a scene by largely getting in the way. Not while in a maid dress. He takes a final dunk on his counterparts head, which Evil Mary cackles at, and resigns back to their side of the bleachers. Another poll pings his attention to which he instantly declines, untrusting to whatever else they wanted to do. Once again, majority vote in favour for it and he expectantly cases his eyes over himself. With a small sigh of relief, he washes onto a seat, glad to not have another alter in his character. He registers the person next to him.

“Oi, stripes, where'd floats go? Wait, actually, I don't care.” 

Mary hardly acknowledges his presence, beside the uncomfortable prickle of her skin at his mention of her friend. Her body felt cold to the bone with a chill she couldn't describe- a contrast to the fiery anger she had just been possessed by. 

“What's wrong with you?” Jax prods. 

“Ugh, none of your business. Go bother somebody else,” Mary snipes miserably. 

He shrugs to himself, a facade of uncare. “Don't tell me I don't try,” he mutters, more to himself to anybody else. 

“Dude, we don't even know each other. I genuinely think this is like the first conversation we've ever had. If you can even call this one.” 

“Uh, I'm pretty sure I threw you off a bus or something like that,” he reminds her thoughtfully. “Ah, now that was funny.”

“Great. So that means I'm not even neutral to you- I have a reason to dislike you. So go bother someone else!” she repeats frustratedly. When he doesn't move, she sighs. “I think I saw Phantom talking to Ragatha. On the other side of the bleachers.” 

“Didn't I say I didn't care?” 

“I don't know, Ragatha said she'll be right back, yet there I saw her talking to Phantom instead of me after she started yet another s[SPLAT]show with me and Cali!” she vents, glaring at the ragdoll’s back. “She just keeps making it harder and harder for me to keep liking her.” 

Jax nods as if it were all making sense then. “Ah, so girlfriend problems.” 

Mary frowns, physically recoiling from his stupidity and yells defensively at Jax as if he were the dumbest creature she'd ever encountered. “I'm not on about Cali! And as if you would get it! I bet you you were so single in real life that your mom would mail you valentines chocolates! Also, she's not my girlfriend! I don't even know if we're still friends after all that’s happened between us!” 

“The age old problem: more than friends, less than lovers. Pfft, sounds like one of Gangle's weird comics,” mocks the bunny.

“Agh! That's not what I meant and you know it!” she screams, her face red and hot with embarrassment. “That's the only and last time I'm telling you anything, no wonder everyone here hates you.” 

“Last time you tell him what?” perks Phantom, skipping over to them with Ragatha at her side. She buzzes with an unplaceable excitement, practically jittering with her massive grin. She juts out her arm to elbow Ragatha, who waves a hello with a stiff smile. 

“Nothing, he was just being annoying,” she sighs, throwing another glare at him, which he breezily ignores. 

“So, his usual?” jabs Phantom, taking a seat next to him and Ragatha a seat next to Mary.  

“I'm not annoying- you guys just don't know how to appreciate real comedy. Though, stripes, your doomed love story could begin to rival it.” 

“IT WASN'T A LOVE STORY!” Mary explodes. “And… it's not doomed.” 

“What love story?” Phantom asks Mary curiously. 

“Her and C-,” 

“Nothing! There's no love story, nothing,” Mary quickly interrupts, stopping Jax from running his mouth with a tight glare. She feels her face heat and fans her face, slightly averting herself from Phantom's curious eyes. “So what were you and Ragatha talking about? I didn't know you guys were friends.” 

“We are! Aren't we, Big R?” 

“Right we are!” Ragatha chuckles. They both exchange a giggling glance to which Mary squints her eyes at. 

When did that happen?

“Phantom… when we're back- uh, what can I call it?-,” 

“Home?” the ghost suggests. 

Mary cringes and corrects her. “The circus. Yeah, the circus- not… that. Once we're back, can I talk to you? Privately. I think we're overdue a talk about a lot of things. 

“Like your situationship?” 

“What- no!” 

Jax smirks at her insufferably and then opts a sarcastic, mocking persona. “If you struggle to confide in someone so… transparent, my door is always open.” 

“As if that'd ever happen. I'd go knock on Caine's door before yours.” 

“Do you think Caine even has a door? I always pictured he just existed in this phantom space of script, waiting to be called upon with a chain of commands at his service.” 

“And why are you picturing what Caine does in his free time?” Jax says, wrinkling his nose. “Isn't it enough to know what his all-seeing eyes are always watching your every move and that shabang?” 

Phantom shrugs. “Just a thought.” 

“Oh, look, Gangle's up to bat,” he points out, his grin returning. “How do you think this is gonna go?”

Ragatha huffs and crosses her arms, sideline to his insufferableness for too longer. “Agh, would you stop trying to force them both to act like you?” 

Zooble, who had left the pitch awhile ago, slips a corncob on the bench next to Jax. 

“Oh yeah, I should force her to be happy all the time instead, right.”

Scrunching her face in protest, she quarrels, “Well, it's better than turning them into some insensitive jerk who deflects everything!”

“Uh, I can swear by everything now that that is NOT happening,” Mary affirms.

“Phantom then!” 

Jax turns to the ghost. “Hey, I ain't forcing anything on ya,” he acts out innocently.

“And then you just act like you never do anything wrong and everybody loves you, when in reality, you just f[SPLAT]k everything up for everyone else!”

“Okay, let's, like, calm down a bit… Big R, this is not part of the plan… haha…” Phantom tries to quell, indiscreetly shaking her head rapidly. 

“WHAT?! Mary told me a bit of honesty can save lives so that's what I'm doing!” She huffs again, the weight of the words she had repeated falling upon her heavily. She covers her face with a massive groan and then scratches at her neck bashfully. “UGHH! I'm sorry, Mary. That wasn't very cool of me to bring up again. And sorry Phantom, for yelling at you.

“No, i-it's fine.” 

“Yeah, don't worry about it,” Phantom echoes.

“No apologies for me?” Jax tuts mockingly. “This is so sad.”

Drawing out a long sigh, Ragatha turns to face Jax with her brows still crossed. “I'm sorry, Jax. For...for bringing up that thing earlier.”

Jax loses his smile and his eyes widen from Ragatha's remark as she leaves. Decidedly, Phantom jumps up to follow her, leaving Mary with a quick wave of goodbye. This leaves the marionette awkwardly next to the wide eyed Jax. She knocks her legs back and forth, tapping her fingers on her seat for a moment before addressing the elephant in the room.

“So what you mentioned about confiding…” 

“I'm in a maid outfit. What do you think?” he cuts off, his eyes going back to normal with a slouch. His eyes then noticed the yellow from the corner of his eye and abruptly leaps away in fear. 

Sighing, Ragatha addresses Kinger. “So, how's the game going?”

“Great! Gangle hit a home run!” he enthuses. 

“Really?” she asks, a smile lighting up her face.

“Yeah,” Gangle confirms shyly, walking down from the pitch. She fiddles with her ribbons. “Your instructions helped me a lot.”

“Ah, it's no problem,” she chuckles, scratching the back of her head. 

“Great job, Gangle!” Phantom compliments, high fiving her. “And you, Ragatha, for helping her too!” 

“Oh- ah, alright!” she stutters, accepting her high five. “I'm glad it could help you, Gangle,” the ragdoll smiles. 

“Thanks, you guys…” her voice trails off as Zooble passes her and gives her an encouraging nudge. She gulps looking at Phantom and turns back to them to bid them good luck to which they blush at. 

“Goodluck Zooble!” Phantom calls out, noticing the bat in their hand.

“Thanks Phantom. And thank you, Gangle.” They specially tip their head to Gangle and head out to the field. Once they're gone, Phantom and Ragatha exchange a knowing look. 

“So what was that about, Gangle?” Phantom asks teasingly. 

“Uh.” Gangle pauses to look down as if to summon her confidence from the earth beneath them. “It was actually about you.” 

“Huh?” Phantom looks from her to Ragatha and her again in befuddlement. “Did I just entirely misread that entire interaction?” 

“I, er- it's just that… I've been wanting to talk to you about something since the incidents about the last adventure was brought up eariler… if that's okay with you?” Gangle timidly asks. 

“Last adventure? I'm assuming you mean the fast food one not the bar one?”

Ragatha nudges Phantom lightly with a laugh. “Go on, Phantom, talk to her. I'll cheer Zooble on enough for the both of you,” she encourages, sneaking Gangle a small thumbs up. The ragdoll didn't know what she wanted to talk about but she did know she needed confidence, so that was something she was happy to encourage tenfold. 

“Roger that, Big R. Just remember what I told you earlier!" Phantom reminds her and walks over to a more isolated section of their seats. Gangle follows her anxiously. “So what did you want to talk about?” She looks up expectantly at her, causing Gangle to falter and freeze up. “Gangle, come sit next to me.” 

“Alright…” 

“Whenever you're ready. No pressure.” 

“I- uh.” She takes a deep breath and then exhales slowly. “I'm making this such a big deal when it's really not… it just, offended me. A little.” She takes another breath, gaining confidence. “And I wanted to clear it up, well, Zooble told me I should try to, so that it wouldn't get in the way of our friendship. Because I do want to be friends with you, Phantom.” Risking a glance to her face, she registers Phantom's soft smile. 

“Me too, Gangle. You're really fun and we have alot of common interests! That's quite special to me since in the past, not alot of people have really appreciated my interests like you have. I love Cali and Mary with all my heart but all three of us, naturally, are three very different people. But I feel like, with you and me, the gap isn't so big.” 

“I… I agree. I'm so glad you've said that because I was having doubts you even liked me- it was because of something I overheard during the my manager shift.” 

Phantom instantly froze up, thinking back to her sour attitude, attacker to anyone, during that entire adventure. Particularly Gangle. 

“I didn't meant to eavesdrop but… I accidentally overheard your conversation with Jax. About me.” 

A beat of silence passed. 

“I'm so sorry- I shouldn't have brought it! I was a massive pain that day and got totally over my head and it makes sense it said that about me and I should be glad you don't still-,” 

“Gangle, Gangle, calm down. You shouldn't be the one apologising,” Phantom interrupts, pausing her frantic trail of thoughts. She sighs, preparing her own apology. “It should be me.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes, Gangle, the fact it stayed with you proves it. I didn't mean for it to hurt you or offend you in the moment- honestly, I don't think I meant anything much by it in the first place. But I still shouldn't have said it. I meant my apology with all my heart and I do hold that bonding moment precious to me. I think I just got too caught up talking to Jax and… twisted it into an exaggerated joke to laugh with him. That… seems to have happened a lot now I think about it…” she trails off, her shoulders tensing into herself as she thinks back to her most recent jokes at the expense of her friends. She clears her throat, remembering Gangle patiently next to her. “I'm sorry. I really don't have a good enough excuse but I still want to be friends with you. Do you forgive me?” 

Gangle smiles warmly. “Of course. I know how Jax can get to you, trust me… but I know now you didn't mean any harm by it. And, although I don't think I can actively help you with any apologies to your friends in case you've done the same with them, I can advise you to be as honest as you have been with me. It worked with me and I'm sure it'll work with them!” 

“Be honest…?” 

An entity prickles inside of her, thorny in refusal, poisoning her proposal. 

“Remember what I mentioned about us all being three very different people?”

“Can you give me my eye back?” Zooble asks in annoyance, positioning themself into a batting stance.

“Joke's on you! I've already forgotten what you're talking about!”

Bazooble pitches the ball, Zooble instantly thwacking it back and knocking her snobby counterpart into a pile of spotty limbs. 

Caine exclaims from his announcement box. “Wowie! Another home run!”

“GODD[TWANG]T!!!” curses Coach Dictatorer. He furiously turns to his team, wildly blowing at his whistle for them to line up. Which nobody but Evil Cali and Evil Jax do. 

“Where's your teammates!?” he screams at the blue tiger. 

“Ah, I-I-I lost track of them, s-sir!” 

“Well, what are you waiting for them? Find them!” 

She darts away and races frantically to the end of the fielding pitch, where Evil Mary and Evil Phantom were trading punches and playful jokes. Huffing, she barges past a slouched pink cat and trips them both up into the dusty ground. 

OOF! 

“OH MY GOSH- I am so so so sorry!” she hurriedly apologises, leaping off her and hauling her up with her surprisingly strong arm. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you want me to take you to first aid?” 

“I don't need anything,” Cali shuts down with gritted teeth. “Just what the f[SPLAT] are you doing running here as if its f[BONK]ing cross country, huh?” 

“O-oh, I-I was just going to get my f-frien- I mean, teammates! The coach wants them…” she stammers out, fiddling with her fingertips anxiously. As Cali's critical eyes hone down on her, she shrinks into herself, brushing at her elbows. “I should probably go do that now…” 

Cali scoffs. “No you shouldn't. You're clearly incompetent.” She stares at her counterpart, fixating on her covered left eye, and the way she curled into herself, ridden with unconfidence and self-doubt. They stood opposite each other, two sides of the same coin. A reflection Cali fought the urge to shatter. “I'll do it.” 

“H-huh?” 

“C'mon, you're coming with me. But somebody has to make sure you don't fall on your face again. Jeez, you're disrespecting our namesake by even existing,” she says indefinitely, flicking her shaded eyes up and down her. “Let's go.” 

“Are you sure? I-I mean, they both are pretty… extreme. I… wouldn't blame you for not being able to handle them, haha…” 

“If I weren't sure, I wouldn't be actively walking to them, huh!? And you wouldn’t be actively following me. Get it together, you doormat.” 

The second the word left her throat she regrets it, the taste leaving an unsavoury taste upon her tongue. Evil Cali was everything she needed to be. The complete opposite of herself. Yet she couldn't find any part of herself which wasn't completely disgusted by her. 

As if there's any part of me that isn't disgusted by myself too. 

A mushroom absorbed marionette shifted into a view, a teasing orange ghost floating around her. They both threw their heads back in sync with a cackle at no doubt some absurd joke about the BigTops, uncaring of the actual match in front of them. Their conversation too, shifting into hearing distance. 

“Ah, softball's so lame anyway. Now if this was dodgeball, it'd be an entire different story,” Evil Mary laments, grinning as if in memory. 

“You'd still be in my dust, mushrooms,” Evil Phantom teases. “I'm literally a ghost yet you still manage to stay in my shadow.” 

“Best things hide in the dark, tango. Thought you ought to know what after your nighttime enlightenment, if that's even what we can call it. I could floor you day and night though, if that's what you're asking for.” 

Evil Phantom rolls her eyes. “All bark no bite. Show me something new.” 

“Oh, I can show you something new,” she challenges, baring her sharp teeth. 

“Bring it, indigo.” 

“Oi, crazy #1 and crazy #2! Just what are you doing?” Cali calls out loudly, breaking their about to be brawl. The two exchange a glance with matching mischievous glints before moving towards her. Cali notes their manner and smirks, “I found your stray.” 

Evil Mary pauses. “You mean baby blue over here? Nah, we didn't lose her- she ditched us.” 

“She what?” Cali repeats, swivelling round to the timid tiger and then back to the conniving pair. “You're joking, right?” 

“Not that we need to explain s[SPLAT!]t to you, but yeah, to put it plainly she ditched us. Didn't wanna play dunk Evil Jax and said she had ‘team duties’ or some bull like that,” Evil Mary explains beside before creeping her eyes back to her, sliding her a slick wink. “Yet she managed to crawl her way back to me, huh?” 

Evil Cali gulps, an apology upon her tongue. A profuse, predictable apology that all of them hear even before she says it. So Cali bursts in before it can even waste her breath. 

“So you just let her hang back while you guys left her out? Why didn't you just drag her along?” 

“Dude, it's so obvious when she doesn't wanna be doing something so why would we make her? We're evil, not monsters,” Evil Phantom states as if it were the most obvious thing ever. 

“Speak for yourself, tango. Once I'm batting, it's game over for you LoserTops,” Evil Mary cockily declares. 

Cali finds herself grinning at her attitude, a familiar rile of competition invoking from within her. Finally, something she knows how to manage- she isn't even going to think about what Evil Phantom said and what it meant from Caine. “Can't call yourself a winner if you only haul half,” she bites back innocently. 

“Trying to call me a loser then? What, ‘cause you're f[SPLAT]s team hasn't hit any balls past Bazooble for me to catch?” 

“I am calling you a loser for losing the game, yeah,” she states with a tease. Dramatically, she cuffs a paw around her ear. “Oh, did I just hear we scored another home run?” 

“You wanna die, pinky? ‘Cause I can arrange that for you, right now, this second.” 

“I don't know, are you just gonna hit half of me and call it a win?” 

Jolting to the side, she misses Evil Mary's raging left-hook. Snickering, she continues to taunt, “Awh, did the marionette not find that one funny?” 

“Ooh, I like her,” Evil Phantom commends, watching eagerly from the sidelines. “Compared to your lame teammates, you're not half bad.” 

“Hmph. I can agree with half,” Evil Mary nods with a smirk. She thumps her on the back with a cackle. “You've found worse, baby blue.” 

Evil Cali perks up at this, her face lighting into a smile. “I didn't… exactly find her. I just bumped into her, which I'm still sorry for by the way Cali, and she wanted to come with me to get you guys.” 

“So you found her?” Evil Phantom deadpans. 

“I-I mean, I g-guess…”

“So there you go,” Evil Mary dismisses, flopping down lazily to the ground. “Cali, join us. We're opting out of this bull[SPLAT] game until we're batting- it's totally been thrown.” 

“I will never decline a chance to sunbathe.”

She leans onto the ground with the other three, Evil Cali happily forgetting her instructions from Coach Dictatorer in favour of their company. Breezily, playful banter fills the air as her worries ease to the back of her brain, nostalgia filling her instead from when all her life was just about ditching classes and joking around with her friends. Jabs and jeers flow naturally between them, instantly implementing an instinctual dynamic between them, one where Cali sighs in relief to. 

“Ugh, I can't imagine how unbearable it'd be having to spend all your time with your brainless teammates. I could never,” Evil Phantom says, wincing her face with disgust at the thought. 

Cali rolls her eyes in a tell-me-about-it way. “I try to keep as minimal contact with them. For my own sanity.” 

“Care to explain why my loser counterpart is drilling holes into my skull then? Getting the impression she's not the happiest if this minimal contact thing you got going on.” 

“...I don't even know, man,” Cali admits, staying laid out on her back, not bothering to even fact check Evil Mary's claim because too many times today she had found Mary's unwelcome eyes on her. They were probably trained on her even now. “Let's stop talking about the LoserTops.” 

“I second that.” 

Kinger slams his hands excitedly together in cheer, cupping his hands to shout Ragatha's name encouragingly. Catching Mary's curiosity, she sidelines him. “Oh, it's Ragatha's turn again? Has everybody really already had a turn?” 

“No, but Phantom gave Ragatha her turn! I overheard her saying something about a second chance to show ‘em who's boss and I think that's a great way to think about it!” 

“She did?” Mary asks, slightly surprised. She thinks back to when Ragatha had complained to her about her bad play and how quickly it had been abandoned by her and Cali by their own issues. Pressing her nails into her palms, she rocks back and forth on her heels slightly. “Guess she musta told Phantom about it when she left me with Jax. That's… good, Phantom has always been a fixer. 

“Is that how is going on?” Kinger asks obliviously to her thoughts. 

She smiles gently at him and chuckles. “Let's just watch Ragatha show ‘em who's boss, huh?” 

Taking a deep breath, the ragdoll stills her body into her perfectly practised stance. To only look up at an abundant lack of ball flying towards her and instead, a pile of Bazooble.

“Uh…” 

Caine explodes with sudden exhilaration. “BAZOWIE-ZOWIWA! ANOTHER HOME RUN!”

The scoreboard pings from 2-57 for Home and Guest teams to 3-00. 

“And that makes three home runs in a row, the Big Tops win!” 

“Uh, that's… not how softball works,” Ragatha tries to argue before getting cut off carelessly by Caine in an aggravated tone.

“Well, that's how my softball works. We're done, hooray!” He claps his hands together, the EvilTops melting from existence. 

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” shrieks Evil Ragatha. 

Evil Mary lays back, her face fixed in a frustrated frown. “Ugh, f[SLURP]k, man! We didn't even get to bat!”

Ragatha looks confusedly, unsure of what is happening, until Kinger springs from the stands to pick her up into a spin. “You did it, Ragatha! We won!!”

“Uh… I mean, I guess,” she giggles. 

“You did it, Ragatha! You showed everyone how good a sport you can be!” Mary cheers along, causing Ragatha to chuckle at her attempt to reimburse their former disagreement. 

Gangle joins them, Zooble and Phantom beside her. “Good job... whatever you did.”

“Huh? Uh, oh yeah. Good job, team.”

“I told you- you totally had it in you, Big R!” 

“Thanks guys, I'm not sure what I really did but at least we won!” 

AURGHHHH!

Between Jax's teeth, Evil Jax rattles and screams, his now non-vegan counterpart savagely mauling him from afar the cheery, victorious party of circus members.

Kinger shrieks at the sight, clutching his face. “WHY IS GOING ON?!”

Ragatha and Mary watch speechlessly as he continues, sliding a shared nerved glance upon Phantom stifling a giggle at the sight. The ragdoll's face hardens with concern, matching with Mary's, and at this realisation, determinedly drags the marionette to the side to talk. Zooble waddles up beside Phantom and shrugs with a look of indifference. 

“I guess he's no longer vegan. Or a maid. Does this mean the adventure's over?” 

Giggling, Phantom holds up a button, summoned by her quantum space. “Not until I do this…” 

“You're thinking the same thing as me. Right?” Ragatha directly asks, holding Mary's shoulders firmly. 

“If you're thinking Phantom's hella weird, then yes. Why did this need a private detoured discussion?” 

The ragdoll sighs, remembering to take her newly discovered age into account. Relaxing herself off her shoulders, she corrects her, “No, I'm on about Phantom and Jax. I'm worried he's gonna corrupt her and make her as deranged as he is. You've seen how close they suddenly are. She's even laughing at his weird, unfunny jokes.” 

“I… you do have a point,” Mary admits. “It's one of the things I wanted to talk to her about later. But I don't think her laughing at him doing that is a solid point that she's ‘turning into him’.” 

“You don't think they're beginning to act similar? I mean, I guess you do know her miles better than me. I just, can't help but worry, ya know?” 

Mary smiles at her kind-hearted and places a hand on her arm in reassurance. She suddenly remembers that it was the same arm she had taken on her first day, when her legs had moved before her mind in order to save her. Perhaps there never has been a question about their friendship. “I get your concern, totally, but I wouldn't worry too much. She isn't going to be playing any weird, Jax-level pranks anytime soon- she doesn't get influenced that easily.”

Her hand on Ragatha's arm suddenly turns to green and she plops to the ground. As a frog. Blinking slowly, she registers that everybody and the NPCs but Phantom had turned into burping frogs. 

“HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!” she cackles, falling to the ground in mirth. Wiping her eyes, she chokes out, “You- should see all your faces!” The ghost floats up in a bobbing dance over to Frog-Mary and grins at her as if she were the most marvellous thing she'd ever laid her eyes on. “Do you reckon I gotta kiss you to turn you back to normal?” she giggles. 

BUUUUURRRRRRRRRRP!

With each croak of the amphibian crew, a glowing portal spits out each and individual circus member, forcing a relatively seamless transition from amphibian into their normal character. Lurched onto the ground, Mary rises her head from her pile of gangly limbs and chokes a croak. 

“WHAT THE F[BONK!] WAS THAT!?” 

“What was what?” Phantom giggles, playing faux obliviousness. She skips to her with glee and grins at her. “Can you still taste the fly you ate earlier?"

“I ate a… a FLY!?” explodes Mary in disgust, rubbing at the place on her face that her mouth is meant to be. She withdraws her hand uncomfortably, suddenly enforced with the notion of her abundant lack of mouth. Shaking her head abruptly, she returns her glare to the ghost. “What the hell is this, Phantom!?” 

The latter sighs and pulls her up, causing her to slightly stumble forward at the imbalance of her long body. Stabilising her at the waist, she allows her face to reveal a fond smile. “I'm just pulling your leg, Mary! It was uh, someone else who swallowed a fly but I'm sure Caine removed it when he reversed my request!” 

“Oh- right.” Caine pops into existence and snaps his fingers. A poof is heard from Cali's stomach, the cat instinctively clutching at her stomach at the sensation and widening her eyes. “Anyways! I hope we all learned that suggestion box ideas are actually not fun at all, and Caine's ideas are much better!”

Mary bites back a refusal, begrudgingly relaxing in Phantom's hold as she considers the AI's wish. “It wasn't… the worst.” 

“Oh yeah?” the ghost smiles, her eyes gleaming with greed. She runs her gaze up and down the marionette in her arms while Mary registers their position with wide eyes. 

“Ack, Phantom! Ah- I- I said it wasn't the worst, that wasn't a compliment to you!” she flusters, jumping back and stabilising herself a step away from the grinning ghost. Looking at her right hand, which remains to tingle with an invisible electricity from her touch, she huffs slightly, her brows crossing again as her mind loses the perfume of their proximity. “Why did you even- ugh, nevermind. It doesn't matter.” 

Mentally, Jax's former comment about taking things too seriously stabs inside her stitching mindscape. Suddenly its embroidery clogs her throat and pins thread her tongue. 

Pfft, you guys all take this place waaay too seriously. Is that like the third argument that’s happened now? We’re at a bar not a tea party, gosh, you guys.

Clearing her throat, she blinks her face into a faux smile. “How'd you find that, Zooble? You got what you wanted- a more relaxing adventure. Well, mostly.” 

They shrug with indifference. “Well, some of them were pretty okay. I'd include the softball one too, if somebody didn't decide to turn us all into f[BOING]ing frogs.” 

“It was funny, I promise!” giggles Phantom.

Zooble deadpans at her and she relents. 

“Oh blah blah- it's not like it did any harm. Big R knew about it and even agreed it'd be fine! I initially went to check if she was for real scared of frogs like Jax implied in the president adventure but then it turned out she wanted to raise the team's mood and thought my plan was the perfect way to do so!” 

“Ah- just hang on, Phantom,” Ragatha scrambles, snapping from recovering to being non-slime coated with a nervous laugh. “I only approved of it ‘cause you said it'd be one person, not everybody and their horses! A quick, harmless transformation to get a laugh out of your friends and your friends alone. I even thought it was kind you were thinking about them-.” 

“I am thinking about them! And so what if it was everyone? I found it hilarious and if you were in my place, you'd think the exact same,” she states matter-of-factly, her former slight indignation dissipating. 

Ragatha's hand twitches, before she takes a deep breath. Mary fails to do the same. 

“You took it too far, Phantom! It wasn't funny- I felt like vomiting! I'd prefer to keep my humanity than have my mood ‘raised’ by you, if that's what's going to happen!” she shouts in frustration. Phantom cowers slightly at her volume, her form floating lower to the ground. The needle digs deeper into Mary. She sighs. “I appreciate the effort, I really do. But seriously, stop going the extra mile because you don't have to for us. We've got you- I've got you, Phantom, I've always have. This circus won't stop me from doing the same.” 

A cold, ghostly hand floats over Mary's clenched fist. Almost magnetically, they interlock. A soft chuckle follows. “I know, Mary. I know. Forgive me?” 

Mary grumbles, leaning her face away from the wide smiling ghost. Phantom leans forward ever further.

“Ugh, whatever- as long as you don't do anything like that again, alright?” 

“I can manage that much,” grins Phantom, stepping back to bob up and down on her translucent heels. Mary finds her heart warming at the familiar sight: that had been a habit of Phantom's since they had met. 

“What am I going to do with you,” murmurs Mary, staring fondly at her ghostly form. Another mirage layers it in her mind- an illusion of the Phantom she knew before the circus. Any embers of the anger she had instantly is stomped out by her adoration for their middle school friendship and her need to protect her. The switch within her feels instinctual- right. 

Aren't I mad at her? 

“You could let my hand go? Haha, tight grip you got there!” Phantom chuckles. Mary snatches her hand away, face blaringly red. Phantom chuckles again, too withdrawing herself stiffly. “Anyways, Jax mentioned he'd show me something in the hall earlier if I don't keep him waiting. Wanna come?” 

Mary blinks. “When did he say that?”

Eyes widening slightly, Phantom laughs awkwardly, rubbing at her head. “Oh- just you know. Last adventure, sometimes.” 

The marionette raises an eyebrow. 

“Whileyouguyswereallleapingaroundas frogs- ah, I assume you don't wanna come? That's alright- another time, hm Mary? I'll be going then or else I'll miss it- bye stripey!” 

She zips away with a wave, leaving Mary, Gangle, Ragatha and Zooble in the dust. Everyone else had floated away on their own accord- from boredom or something else is anyone's guess. 

The marionette slowly turns to the remaining people opposite her, who had stood witness to that entire interaction. “So. That was weird. Right?” 

Kneeling slightly, Phantom bends down for a moment to catch her breath. 

“Man, that was awkward,” she mutters to herself.” 

Recollecting herself, she adjusts herself to her surroundings. 

“Not exactly my destination. Jax said the hallway- he better still be there.” 

She gets up to dash round the corner but the second she pumps her legs again, a crash collides with her cursingly solid head. 

OOF! 

Cali knocks into her, frailly falling back to the ground. She looks back to what she had just bashed into with a ditzy glaze over her eyes. Phantom does the same. 

“Cali?” she croaks before properly focusing her eyes on her pink avatar. “Cali!” 

In a second, she's back on her feet and helping her friend up. Haphazardly, Cali looks over her before removing their contact with a stumble backwards. 

“Cali…?” 

Finally, the cat makes direct eye contact with her. 

“Cali?” she repeats, softer this time. 

Cali observes her for a second more with a blank look. “You've got your legs back.”

Phantom’s blood turns into ice. 

“Okay, now that Mary's- wait, where did Mary go again?” Zooble asks Gangle. The two were laid in their open lounge together, a fidgeting Ragatha rested upon the coach beside. 

“Kinger,” Gangle asks, not looking up from her drawing. 

“Kinger…? And just how does that make sense?” 

Ragatha exhales deeply. “It makes sense, just trust me.”

Zooble shrugs. “Alright. Now back to what I was saying, now that Mary's gone, can I address the elephant in the room?” 

Ragatha sits up and Gangle puts down her drawing. 

“...we all noticed Mary's totally weird switch up, right?” 

“Yup.” 

“Ah, yeah…” 

“And it's not really my business whatever they have going on and I definitely don't know whatever dynamic they had going on in real life. That being said, I have a massive feeling it's gonna become my business. And by that, I mean all of our businesses.” 

Ragatha nods solemnly, rubbing anxiously at her arm. “I'm just worried about the both of them honestly. They're so young- their minds are so…” She trails off, biting at her lip nervously. 

“Yeah, same,” Zooble sighs. “Phantom's quickly made herself Caine's favourite and Mary keeps finding herself pinned against her. I just hope that doesn't mean anything… and that her ‘switch up’ was hers the whole time.” 

Gangle shrinks into herself, clutching her notepad closer. “They do seem to care about each other alot.” 

The ragdoll sighs again to lean her head back against the cushions, memories of her own through her mind. “They do.” 

They don't.

Cali finally reaches her door. She stands in front of it, not even being able to face the cheery pink cat emblazoned on it. She just stands. And then turns the knob. 

They don't. Never did, never will. 

Discarding the instinct to brace herself, she steps inside her room. And flies. 

A carousel cart swoops her off her seat at a wild speed, her room instantaneously distorting itself in a swinging marathon of calamity, bright and blinding colours glitching atop each other as her body pelts through the air. Adrenaline burns her body into life, the sting of the air and the prickle of the circus lights of her room assaulting her consciousness in a repeating swing of madness. The halt and clicks of the exit door repeats and repeats and repeats and her stomach lurches each and every time. Yet she doesn't move a muscle. 

You did it again, Cali. 

Forcefully seated upon the carousel cart she had to call her bed, her arm frantically presses down on a lever. ‘Turbo’ it read. Her vision bucks as her body spins faster and faster and faster and faster and faster. Her mind stills. Her mind screams.

You did it again, Cali. 

Her breathing is lost, her body is buzzing, her mind is reeling. Wild, mad, feral: she grabs at her head, a voice, a hammer, anvil pounding and pounding and pounding against it. Suddenly she can see again- a disorientating loop of blinding reality crashing and curving all around her. Round and round and round and round. Tears stream down her face as her chest tightens in a crazed panic, water logged out of her stoic state from before. Huffing, she scrambles for a solace. Her arm clutches the lever and presses it further. Her insides scream and tear at her as she goes faster and faster and faster. 

Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up- 

CALI, STOP!

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! 

If you just had listened to me, you wouldn't be here again. It's your own ABSTRACTION to tell me to shut up, Cali. 

I SAID SHUT UP, I DON'T NEED YOU TO SOLVE MY PROBLEMS!

Cali, you're doing it AGAIN.

She thrusts the lever forward again, with so much force her body bolts itself forward out of the cart. Her body collapses like a house of cards onto itself as it splurges acids out of her mouth, her vision going white as her mouth gags and stomach screws and stings and stabs at her again and again and again. Choking on her black vomit, she claws at herself, scratching words she had drowned out into the abyss that held her emotion. Panting, she huffs into the stream of Tartarus before her. Her left eye blares a contrasting reflection. Weakly, she slams a paw in the liquid, swatting and shattering her multicoloured destiny. It leaks back into its same spot. 

CLICK! WHIRRRRRL! 

Cali, see what happens when I leave you to solve your own problems? 

Her ears burn with the scalding whip of the wind against her shaking body. 

CALI, LISTEN TO ME.

SPLEUGH! 

Magnetically, she finds herself back to her carousel seat. Limping with a shiver of a giggle, she clicks the lever back into place.

Her body is on fire.

She laughs.

Bursts of breathy, weak yet wild cackles break out of her like a surging tsunami of insanity inside of the still water of poison that continues to swallow her whole. Her ribs ache, her throat cracks, her grins widens as her body is thrown round and round and round and round and round and round. Forever and forever more.

SPLEUGH! 

CLICK! WHIRRRRRL! 

Cali…

SHUT UP, I TOLD YOU I DON'T NEED YOU! I'M DEALING WITH THINGS MYSELF!

How, Cali? By HIDING?

It's no good, no good- I TRIED that, all I've BEEN DOING IS TRYING! 

She leans back to cackle again. 

They need distance- SHE needs distance from me. They never should need to deal with me anymore. Live with me anymore. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY- this is my choice that I WANT! 

Her body clams as her skin pins with goosebumps with a familiar sensation of disgust. 

ITS ALL MY FAULT, ITS ALL ME, ITS ALL BEEN ME- ME, ME ME.

Round and round and round and round and round and round and- 

SPLEUGH! 

DOESN'T IT FEEL GREAT? 

Are you… talking to me? 

Admit it- this is what we needed! Cleansing, improvement, awareness- call it what you want, I don't f[BOING]ing care. 

Self-harm. 

CLICK! WHIRRRRRRL! 

Cali, this doesn't feel great.

SHUT UP- STOP MAKING ME FEEL! 

Cali-

I SAID SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP-

CALI!

STOP SAYING MY NAME, WE'RE THE SAME PERSON, REMEMBER? 

…

Doesn't it feel great, me? 

Her grip tightens around the lever as her echoing mind quivers with the vibration of her silent voice. Adrenaline thrums an unspeakable energy within her- alongside something else she couldn't quite place but was eerily familiar all the same. Blinded by the blur of reality, she binds herself to the feel of unfathomable craze. 

We need distance. We need silence. We need change. 

I need distance. I need silence. I need change. 

The carousel continues to twirl erratically in all directions, a dance of digital death. An inkling of another three beats of advice she was given awhile ago embraces into the back of her mind. Her lips move unknowingly to the kind words.

Notice more. Prevent- 

WE FAILED. I FAILED. YOU FAILED. 

She trapezes forwards, ducking a mocking bow with a violent hacking of her gut, and then returns to her seat, limbs limp as a puppet on a string. 

I failed them.