"We should have a brand new adventure for our new members, Y/n and Pomni!" Caine flourished his baton excitedly.
"I said that like five minutes ago," Jax grouched.
"Please no - I'm too overwhelmed for an adventure, can we not??" I asked. I still felt like shit from Caine's stupid warping.
"Uh, I don't - really -" Pomni stammered, but Caine interrupted her.
"Since you and Y/n are new around here, we'll make it a simple, in-house adventure to warm you up for how things work around here." Caine smiled unsettlingly.
"What? No, god! I don't want an in-house adventure," Zooble grumbled, crossing their arms.
"Don't worry, I'll make it something unobtrusive that you can still choose to not get involved with." Caine patted Zooble's shoulder before zooming off. "Today's adventure is... gather the gloinks!" Caine started laughing manically.
"Sorry to bother your rant but what the f*bleep* are gloinks??" I asked.
"Glad you asked, Y/n, they're-"
"And what do they do?" Bubble barged in. "And how do they-" Caine casually exploded Bubble and went on.
"Gloinks are small mischievous critters that steal anything and everything they run into. Why do they do this? How do you stop them? Well, that's for you to find out."
Caine popped out of existence after finishing his rant. The gloinks tumbled and picked up everything that wasn't nailed down in the distance.
I buried my face in my hands. How was I supposed to try and find an exit if Caine kept bringing up quests and adventures like these? Was he purposefully stopping me from my newly attained goal? How would I get out of this mess now? I certainly didn't want to be stuck in this hellhole with an unhinged AI and the king of annoying sass, Jax.
I snapped out of my troubling reverie when Pomni spoke up.
"Uh so, what did any of that mean?"
"Ohh, that's just one of Caine's little adventures." Ragatha answered. "They're just something to do to, you know, prevent us from going insane." She spread her hands helplessly.
"Speak for yourself," Zooble sighed. "If anyone needs me, then f*bleep* off." They turned to walk away but then got kidnapped by the rampaging gloinks. "JEEZ NO - SOMEBODY HELP, YOU B*BLEEP*S!"
"Oh, no, they killed Zooble." Jax said matter-of-factly. "Anyway ya guys wanna get something to eat??"
"Uhm - shouldn't we help them?" I said uneasily, holding my hand out halfheartedly, straining my neck to keep Zooble's body parts in sight as they tumbled into the distance.
"Nah, they'll be fine. Zooble won't go insane; they're one of the people who recently joined apart from Pomni and you now, hot stuff."
"Still sticking to this nickname? You could have chosen ANY OTHER god damn name but you chose this?"
Jax posed sassily.
"Yuh. It's not like you're fighting to stop me saying it."
"No. I'm just too tired to deal with your bullsh*bleep*-"
"Woahhhh okay guys, let's stop here. Jax, stop being an idiot. Y/n, take a breather." Ragatha stepped in between us, hands raised in a placating gesture. "Oh, I know what we should do! Come on, we should check on Kaufmo. I'm pretty sure he would like to meet Pomni and Y/n."
Kinger shrieked when the gloinks stole all of his pillows.
"MY IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS!"
"Hey! You wanna come with us to check on Kaufmo?" Ragatha called to him.
"No, not really. Last time I spoke to him he was rambling about some exit."
"But - but wouldn't that mean the exit is more likely to exist, if this Kaufmo is talking about it?" Pomni asked excitedly.
"It could also mean you have a jumpstart on losing your mind," Jax suggested.
"what about Zooble??" Gangle called timidly from behind them.
"Pomni, you should ask him about about it - well - if this was real, because it's definitely a dream," I firmly told her. And maybe lying to myself.
"Aww cute, she still thinks this is a dream," Jax smirked at me. "I assure you it's not, hot stuff."
"Why you looking at me like that?" Ragatha demanded. Jax raised an eyebrow at her. Ragatha looked behind her and saw me. She moved out of the way. "Okay. Sooo, wanna check on Kaufmo or what?"
"I'm fine with doing whatever, as long as I get to see funny things happen to people." Jax threw his arms behind his head but the facade broke when a gloink smacked him in the face.
"All right, I've had enough of these things." He turned to survey everyone, then pointed at Ragatha first. "You, me, Pomni and Y/n will go check on Kaufmo, which leaves crybaby and hoo-ha to go handle the Zooble situation."
Ragatha laughed nervously,
"Are you sure pairing them up together is a good idea??"
"Of course I do." Jax nonchalantly said with a confident grin. "They're the two most mentally stable" Kinger started having a mental breakdown. "And capable characters to be paired together." He continued without noticing a thing.
"I dooon't think they're gonna be okay-" Jax interrupted me by slinging an arm around my shoulders.
"Lighten up, hot stuff. Pay no attention to it. Come on ladies, let's go harass the clown."
———
"So, this is where we all live." Ragatha gestured to the corridor we were walking into. "And where we sleep, even though we don't really need to. But it's nice to take a break from everything and have a routine. Oh, here's yours, Pomni, and here's yours, Y/n."
We stopped at two doors that were on the same side of the corridor. One had my portrait on it whereas the one next to mine had Pomni's.
And to my dismay, Jax's room was right across mine. I had rotten luck. As we kept walking, Ragatha started ranting to Pomni about ominous existence goals and breaking points and I wasn't sure if I wanted to join a conversation that would plant doubts in my already fragile mind.
Jax put an elbow on my shoulder, using me as a stool.
"Well, guess you're stuck with me all the time. I don't know why, though."
"Hey.. mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure, hot stuff."
"The doors we walked past... some of them had crosses on them. What does that mean?"
"Well, after a long time - if some inhabitants don't find coping mechanisms to the existence crisis, they um, reach a certain breaking point like Dollface over there is explaining to Jester. And something really terrible happens."
"Like what exactly?-"
".... Above all the adventures give us something to do while keeping our minds healthy and stimulated." Ragatha finished her conversation and clicked on what I presumed to be Kaufmo's doorbell.
"Will he open the door?" Pomni stressed.
"Thank goodness this is all a dream, right Y/n?" Jax smirked, then realized I had been zoning out the entire time.
I was dragged out of my turbulent thoughts by a gentle nudge on the side of my cheek.
"Eh? What's happening?" Jax helpfully pointed to the door.
"We're getting one of our friends." Ragatha clicked it again. It echoed into nothingness. "Mayyyybe he's not in his room? Hope he's alright."
"Don't worry bout that Dollface, I've got a key to his room." Jax spun a key out of nowhere and proceeded to jam it into the lock.
"Huh, wh- what? You - you shouldn't have keys to anyone's room!" Ragatha spluttered, disturbed.
"Nahhh, I've got keys everywhere! And you've all been fine." Ragatha yelled a few mixed cuss words at Jax after he mentioned he might have put something in her room.
That was when I came to the conclusion that this wasn't a normal circus game and nobody was safe. But it was obvious from the start, so why did I just come to this now? I definitely have a jumpstart on losing my mind.
The door opened and I clutched onto Pomni, terrified.
'EXIT' and 'NO WAY OUT' were crudely carved into the colorful walls. And a black, beast shaped thing was in the room, with multicolored eyes on its body. Static thunderously hummed and crackled.
"This is the breaking point I was talking about earlier! He's already abstracted!!" Ragatha shrieked. Pomni's eyes stretched bigger than plates, and the black scribbles in the pupils were back.
Jax reached into the destroyed room and took out a bowling ball.
"Ah, I've been looking for this. Thanks for keeping an eye on it, Kaufy." He chuckled nervously before turning to us. "Run, idiots." Even though Jax kept a calm voice throughout, I could clearly see that his pupils were small squares of fear.
He grabbed my wrist and we ran like hell.
"Wait, wait! They aren't following us!" I panicked. "We left Pomni and Ragatha back there!"
"Too late," Jax panted. "They'll survive. Come on."
We only stopped when we met Kinger and Gangle peering into a black hole of some kind. I hunched over, panting. You don't need sleep in this game and but you could still get tired? Serious design flaw.
"Sup..." Jax doubled over, still clutching my wrist. "Fellas."
"Oi. Let go." I shook my arm until Jax let go of it.
"Sureeee, hot stuff."
"We found the Zooble hole," Kinger pointed at said hole.
"How is Kaufmo doing?" Gangle asked.
"He's-"
Jax interrupted me.
"He's doing greattttt." Jax gave me a warning look. "In fact, I've never seen him this happy before." Jax paused when both I and he heard a distant growl.
"Heheh... in fact, he asked me to give you this." Jax tossed the bowling ball at Kinger, who yelped and dragged Gangle along with him into the dark hole.
"Come on, hot stuff." Jax beckoned me over.
"Why you so certain? We don't even know what's down there." I said.
"It's gloinks or the scary abstracted clown. Take your pick."
I growled.
"Ugh - fine!"
Grabbing his hand, we leapt into the darkness.
—————
Published 19/8/2023.
Boom
This is quite a long chapter - hope you enjoyed reading.
And THANK YOU THANK YOUUUU TO EVERYONE WHO COMMENTED POSITIVE THINGS FROM THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS - it means the world to me.
Keep being awesome you guys!
~opalico