Chapter Text
Zooble woke up that morning with a sense of dread.
Why wouldn’t they, after all, today was another one of Caine’s personalized adventures, and he was probably not going to let them skip out on it.
They decided to get up and begin picking out their parts for the day. As they started to sift through their parts box, they heard a knock on the door. They figured it was probably Ragatha, reminding them that there was an adventure today, even though they already knew because there was one everyday.
“Coming!” They walked over to the door and opened it.
“Hi Zooble!” It was Gangle. Zooble hadn’t expected that.
Her comedy mask was on this morning, so she was smiling sweetly at Zooble in a way that made their nonexistent heart skip a beat.
“Hi Gangle.” Zooble said, their tone forcefully relaxed. “What’s up?”
“Well I just woke up and I didn’t want to be in my room anymore so I was walking to the tent. And then I heard you moving around and nobody else was awake so I wondered if you wanted to hang out for a bit before the adventure? If not I understand.” Gangle looked a little sad at the end of her rushed question, as if she was anticipating Zooble saying no.
“Of course.” Zooble said. They couldn’t let Gangle look sad, and they wanted the company.
“Okay!” Gangle smiled again. “Can I come in?”
“Oh yeah.” Zooble moved to the side to let Gangle in. “I have to pick out my parts for the day, do you want to help?”
“Help?” Gangle said looking confused. “I mean I’d love to but how could I help you with something like that?”
“Just help me look through the box and if you see something you think I would like, then I’ll try it.” Zooble said.
“Really? Well I’ll do my best!” Gangle walked with Zooble over to the box of parts.
They both kneeled down and sifted through the box of parts. It took a while, but Zooble was able to find the limbs they wanted for today. Gangle had picked out a three fingered claw hand and a purple antenna with a star. Normally they hated this part of their morning, but Gangle’s presence made it a lot better.
After they were done, they both just sat around and talked. They talked about Caine’s shenanigans, Bubbles rampage yesterday, and anything else they could think of.
It was the most relaxing morning Zooble had had in a long time, and she wanted to something like it more often.
But then they heard the others moving out of their rooms for the morning and they knew it was time to go.
“We should probably get going now, huh?” Zooble said, standing up.
“Oh yeah, right.” Gangle said, standing up as well. She looked at the ground before saying. “We should do this more often, I really had a nice time.”
“Of course. I did too.” If Zooble had a mouth they would definitely be smiling ridiculously right now.
“Well let’s go!” Gangle seemed quite excited about Zooble’s response, which only made them feel even better.
They both walked into the hallway, unfortunately seeing Jax right in front of them, walking towards the tent.
He stopped when he saw them, a large grin creeping its way across his face.
“What were you two doing in there hmm? Anything you’d like to share with the group?” He snickered. “I bet y-“
“Can it a&%hole, nobody asked your opinion.” Zooble said, trying not to show any of their embarrassment at being taunted by him.
“Ohh someone is feisty today! I guess I’ll let you two lovebirds be!” He shouted while running off.
“F$%¥ YOU!” Zooble shouted after him. So much for a great morning.
They thought they heard Gangle squeak when Jax had referred to them as ‘lovebirds.’ What an asshole.
“Don’t let him get to you okay.” Zooble said, taking note of the fact that her mask was pointed towards the ground.
“Y-yeah of course.” Gangle said. “Let’s go.”
Zooble guessed that Gangle wasn’t fine, but they didn’t want to push her to share if she didn’t want to. Especially considering it wasn’t something they would appreciate if someone did that to them.
The two walked together out of the hallway and into the tent. As they stood in front of the stage, Caine, the giant spinner wheel with all the cast’s faces on it from yesterday, and Bubble floating in a small iron cage, all appeared.
“HELLO MY MAJESTIC MARIGOLDS!” He shouted giving them all a small startle. He thankfully restrained himself from causing any explosions though. “I KNOW AFTER YESTERDAY YOU MIGHT NOT BE COMPLETELY EXCITED ABOUT YOUR PERSONALIZED ADVENTURES, BUT NO WORRY! BECAUSE I HAVE LOCKED UP OUR LITTLE TROUBLEMAKER SO THAT TODAY’S ADVENTURE CAN GO OFF WITHOUT A HITCH!” He gestured to the cage containing Bubble.
“I’ve been a bad boy~” he said in a very flirtatious tone.
Zooble was beginning to think Bubble did that on purpose to irritate Caine, because boy, did it work.
Caine’s eyes developed a gentle red tint, and steam blew out of the sides of his hat, indicating he was not in a good mood.
“BUBBLE I AM ALREADY QUITE UPSET WITH YOU SO I SUGGEST YOU QUIET YOURSELF BEFORE YOU MAKE IT WORSE.” Caine snapped his fingers and a zipper appeared over Bubble’s mouth, getting rid of his ability to speak.
“ANYWAY LETS SPIN THE WHEEL AND SEE WHO’S ADVENTURE WE PARTICIPATE IN TODAY!” Caine spun the wheel quickly, and Zooble watched in horror as the arrow landed on their picture.
“LOOKS LIKE IT’S ZOOBLES TURN!” He snapped, causing the Bubble cage and the spinner to disappear. In front of the cast was a rainbow colored swirling portal.
Zooble felt the dread from this morning increase exponentially. They didn’t want to deal with whatever strangeness Caine had schemed up with them in mind, especially considering that the last adventure Caine made with them in mind involved possession, ghosts, and biblically accurate angels.
“THIS ADVENTURE IS GOING TO INVOLVE OUR DEAR ZOOBLE IN THEIR PREFERRED HABITAT, WORKING AT A BAR! BUT SINCE YOU ALL KNOW THAT I DON’T LIKE TO REPEAT ADVENTURES, THIS ONE HAS A TWIST! IT TAKES PLACE AT A GRAND PARTY WITH A MURDER MYSTERY! YOU ALL WILL TAKE TURNS WORKING AT THE BAR AND MINGLING AT THE PARTY TO DETERMINE THE KILLER, WITHOUT GETTING KILLED YOURSELVES OF COURSE!” He announced the last part proudly, like he was excited that he had dreamed up a murder scheme. “THE SHIFTS WILL BE DESIGNATED BY ME, AND YOU WILL BE WORKING IN PAIRS! ZOOBLE YOU WILL BE WORKING THE MOST, AS YOU HAVE THE MOST EXPERIENCE! GOOD LUCK MY LITTLE DETECTIVES!”
Zooble wasn’t sure if they would love or hate this adventure. The idea of working at a bar again after their last time was cut short sounded nice, but they didn’t want to deal with some big party. Or a murder mystery.
They reluctantly began to walk toward the portal, not even bothering to argue with Caine anymore.
“ZOOBLE WAIT!” Caine said, before Zooble could walk through. All the others had already gone through, so what did Caine want?
“What?” Zooble asked, putting a deliberate edge into their voice, hoping to dissuade him from saying anything stupid.
“AS I MENTIONED, YOU ALL GET TO WORK IN PAIRS AND I KNOW YOU ARE NOT A FAN OF MY ADVENTURES SO I WANTED TO OFFER A CONSOLATION OF SORTS.” Zooble didn’t anticipate the kind tone in his voice. “I WAS GOING TO PICK THE PARTNERS MYSELF, BUT YOU MAY CHOSE YOUR PARTNER, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T TELL ANYONE ELSE!” He winked at them.
“Uhh.” Zooble took a second to think even though they knew who they wanted. “Can I work with Gangle?”
“OF COURSE! AN EXCELLENT CHOICE! GANGLE’S EXPERIENCE IN FOOD SERVICE MAKES HER AN IDEAL CANDIDATE!” He shouted. “NOW GO ALONG AND HAVE FUN!” He waved his hand, gesturing them into the portal.
They walked into the portal, considering this silver lining to their situation. Even though they had to deal with a ridiculous adventure, at least they had Gangle helping them.
As they walked through, they noticed something. They were now wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a pink tie. They didn’t hate the outfit, but they weren’t sure about the pink tie, but Caine likely put it because it matched the color of their head.
They looked up to see the cast in similarly fancy attire. Kinger had a deep purple suit with a gold tie, Jax had a red suit with a yellow tie, which in Zooble’s opinion could have looked nice but looked ridiculous on him. Ragatha had a sleeveless dress in the same color as her original dress, thankfully minus the patches. Pomni had a red suit jacket and blue pants, accompanied by a gold bow tie. But then there was Gangle.
Zooble was probably biased, but she looked the most beautiful out of everyone. She had a black dress on that was simple in all the right ways. And her mask had a cute little red bow on the corner of it.
Zooble couldn’t help but stare for a second.
Then Jax’s voice snapped her back to reality.
“Hurry up and go work at the bar Zooble! I need a drink.” Jax said.
“F$%¥ you Jax.” They went to do it anyway, knowing they probably should. “Gangle, Caine said you can work with me.”
Gangle nodded and followed after, looking at the floor and not speaking. This made Zooble worried about her for a moment wondering if she didn’t want to work with them. But the two walked through the party to get to the bar at the back, ready to get to work.