Chapter Text
“Do you…uh, wanna talk about what happened?” No, that’s not quite right, too forward and blunt, he’ll just ignore or insult her.
“Yo yo yo, what’s….. nevermind” that one was dead on arrival
“Pomni is gunna abstract without you, hurry come with me!” That one is just panic inducing honestly…and also it was just a lie.
Ragatha was simply sitting on her bed and talking to herself but all this stress might make HER abstract at this point. The stress of knowing that Jax and Pomni’s friendship may be falling apart (no doubt Jax’s fault but c'est la vie) and that she had no idea what to do…or if she should even do anything to begin with. She had no idea how to even bring the issue up to Jax!
She flops back into the bed and yanks at her hair, she knows it really isn’t any of her business, hell Pomni hadn’t even asked for any help but her wanting to hang out more with Ragatha and casting forlorn looks at the direction of Jax’s room told her everything she needed to know and she was sure when Pomni wanted to talk about it she would…but Jax…god only knows if Jax was even capable of opening up or apologising.
During the ‘gun adventure’ neither of them went into the loser room, so it probably wasn’t anything physically violent which means he definitely just went overboard with his insults or something, god if only someone could put him in his place.
As she keeps yanking her hair, potentially just hoping that the pain will jumpstart her braincells and she’ll uncover the answer to this conundrum, she hears a knock at her door. She sits up and straightens out her dress before patting her hair into a normal shape again too, as the yanking caused it to ‘comedically’ get squished. As she reaches the door she honestly expects Pomni to be there but is surprised to see Gangle there instead.
“Oh, Hi Gangle, you alright?”
“Oh, um, Caine wants us to gather near the stage”
“Alright…but why didn’t he just teleport us or something then?”
“Well Zooble wanted to talk to him in private and I got sent to gather everyone” Gangle said, twiddling her ribbons and staring towards Jax’s door
Zooble was probably just reprimanding Caine about giving everyone guns so they were fine, and Gangle’s relationship with Zooble seemed to have greatly improved their confidence after that adventure as well, but they were definitely still worried about dealing with Jax when alone (despite having had the confidence to shoot at him).
“Well if you want I can alert Pomni and Jax and you can go back to Zooble?”
“That would…would be a lot of help yeah, i’ll go find Kinger and make sure he won’t wander off as well” she definitely seemed to perk up at that news. Lately it’s been harder to differentiate between her sad and happy masks too (ignoring the teardrops) which seemed like another great improvement.
“That sounds like a plan, see you in a bit” Ragatha says, lamely shooting finger guns as Gangle waves and wanders away.
Once Gangle finally turns the corner and out of view, Ragatha immediately sighs. She was practicing what to finally say to Jax but she didn’t think she’d have to actually confront him so soon, maybe she could just tell him to get to the stage and save the actual confrontation for later? Hell, maybe he’s not even in his room and off gallivanting somewhere else she thinks to herself when reaching his door.
She sighs once more and marches over to his door, regardless of the outcome it’s probably better to alert Pomni second, once Jax is under control…or more likely out of view and with the others just.
THUNK THUNK THUNK
When was the last time she ever even knocked on his door?
THUNK THUNK
Man, when’s the last time she’s seen anyone knock on his door, he’s really pushed everyone away huh?
THUNK THUNK THUNK
How much of his asshole persona is even a persona? But he doesn’t actually deserve to be alone right? He was happy once before right?
THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK “OW?!”
Lost in her thoughts she didn’t realise Jax had angrily swung open his door and she had smacked him in the chin, he seems more surprised then actually hurt at least and after a second of silence from both of them (Ragatha’s fist still raised) he finally speaks.
“Did…did you just interrupt my nap just to hit me?!” His face contorting into a strange grimace as he looks over her shoulder at Pomni’s door. That’s a bit worrying, does he think Pomni sent her?
“No no no, not at all, I was just here to get you, like for Caine, Caine wants us yeah! You just took a while to open your door and I got distracted” she was panicking, how couldn’t she. She had wanted to help out her friends and here she was smacking Jax and him assuming it’s some sort of revenge.
“Uh huh” he says, staring at her like she has some fluff loose as he steps out his room and quickly shuts the door behind him.
“And uh-“
She is quickly interrupted by Jax loudly yawning in her face and walking away chuckling to himself, granted she couldn’t be too annoyed as she didn’t even know what she was planning to say really. The question of ‘what happened between you and Pomni’ however was like a frog stuck to her throat and every time she opens her mouth it attempts to jump out. She can’t just sit on her ass and wait for things to fix themselves after all, god only knows Jax is stubborn and childish enough to never let things go.
“Wait!” She yells, grabbing his shoulder, a lot harder then she probably intended to as he quickly spins around to face her while swatting her hand away, taking a couple more steps back for good measure.
“Do that again and I’ll toss you in the nearest deep fryer I can find” he says, glaring at her
Picking up and tossing her seemed far more extreme then grabbing shoulders, and he always invaded everyone’s personal space yet suddenly he was touch-averse? Granted he did seem quite bothered by the whole contact thing so best not to push it, “yeah ok, i’m sorry”
“Everyone always is huh? Sorry sorry sorry, tch” he begins walking away again
“Jax!” Ragatha says, reaching up her arm again, just to tap him or something but he quickly spins around and glares at her hand
“What?!”
“…what happened to you?”
“What you want some sort of sob origin story, unlike you losers my life has been just peachy”
Don’t let him get under your skin Ragatha, it’s just a coping mechanism, a wall he puts up…right?
“No, I mean like with Pomni, what happened with you two, you seemed…”
“What? Happier with the runt or something?”
It’s her turn to glare at him, “yeah, and calmer too”
“Yeah well we had our fun and now she bores me, so she’s all yours dollface. Ciao”
“But-“
“Don’t care”
He had put on his signature “Jax smile” again with his big blocky pupils (where they pupils, what’s the biology here?) as he turned away, hands raised behind his head as he struts off and his ears seemingly on high alert to check if she’d go after him.
After he leaves her line of site she let’s out the hundredth sigh of the day. That went…terribly and not even in an expected terrible way. He seemed quite freaked out simply being touched and way too desperate to walk away, usually he’d have taunted her a bit more, or berated her for sticking her nose in his business…which she was doing but still! She just wanted to help and she hoped she didn’t make things worse.
If she ruminates on the encounter too much she’ll be here all day, and she’d rather Caine not get impatient and drag or teleport them over…or have bubbles eat and float them over…or….nevermind, enough about that.
She walks over to Pomni’s door and gives it a single solitary THUNK before it opens, fortunately Pomni is a bit shorter then her or else she would have been smacked too.
“Oh hi Ragatha, what brings you all the way here” she gives a sort of awkward smile at Ragatha that doesn’t quite reach her tired eyes
She clearly heard everything, damnit
“Well, Caine wants us by the stage for an adventure presumably”
“Ah, alright” she steps out of the room “what’cha think it’ll be this time?”
She’s clearly trying to avoid having Ragatha bring up the Jax topic
Pomni continues “You never really know with Caine tho huh?”
“No, no you can never predict what his mind comes up with…or his programming I guess”
Try as she might she loses her original plan of questioning Pomni about what happened and loses herself in conversation as they make their way over to the rest of the group. She missed this honestly, in a guilty way, as she knows having Pomni back at her side is only due to her and Jax falling out.
Once they make it over to the group she notices Zooble giving Gangle a pep talk. Zooble seems shockingly fired up to the point that Jax seems a bit concerned and Gangle seems a bit scared. Kinger is just standing a bit away waving at her and Pomni approaching as Pomni waves back and runs over to him.
She notices that Jax immediately grimaces once he finally notices them and just stares up. She follows his gaze and spots Caine standing upside down on the circus top and whispering things to Bubble while pointing down at all of them.
Whatever this next adventure will be will certainly be a unique one she feels…and hopefully one where she might be able to corner Jax or Pomni and well…she’ll figure out where to go from there.