Chapter Text
Caine had popped the crew into a stargazing adventure as the next option for the lightning round. Finally, they could all relax. Kinger ate a sandwich on the picnic blanket, Zooble offered half of one to Gangle, which she happily accepted, and Ragatha spoke to Pomni while she lazed in the grass next to Jax.
"Do you think Gangle is capable of being happy?"
Jax spoke.
"What?"
Pomni questioned, confused by the random topic upbringing.
"I mean, her comedy mask still breaks everyday. Does she think hanging out with Zooble is just gonna magically fix that?"
"Maybe she just doesn't wanna hang out with someone who's mean to her all the time."
Ragatha jumped in.
"She likes when I'm mean to her though."
"I didn't think you cared about what other people liked."
Pomni spoke again.
"Well, I just- No, no, you're right, I-I don't..."
Jax said, turning his head away.
"Do you have any actual friends?"
Pomni asked.
"Not anymore."
Ragatha chimed in. Jax angrily gripped the grass as he slowly turned his head to look at Ragatha, his pupils dilating. Ragatha immediately regretted her words and began stumbling on her new spoken words.
"Uh, hey, Kinger, did you see those fireflies way over there?"
She said as she walked away, changing the topic and getting away from Jax before he lost it on her.
"Where?!"
Kinger asked, looking around.
"What was that about?"
Pomni asked Jax.
"It's.. nothing. Who cares?"
Jax said, plopping backwards in the grass. He wanted to confide in Pomni, but he didn't know how to. She was one of the only circus members he really liked, but he'd never admit that. Suddenly he felt something heavy on top of him. He opened his eyes to see it was Pomni on top of him.
"Uhh, what're ya doin?"
He asked, a little weirded out. Pomni looked down at him with a frown.
"Tell me what Ragatha was talking about. I won't say anything."
Pomni pleaded. Jax just rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"Why do you care?"
"Because, I wanna be there for you, Jax. But, I'll understand if you really don't want to talk about it right now."
"Well, I don't."
Jax said as he rolled over and knocked the Jester off of him.
"Look, I'll tell you when I feel ready, okay?"
"Okay."
-Softball adventure-
Now the gang was playing softball against their evil alter ego, except Gangle. Jax already wanted to kill his because he was too nice, and he liked evil Pomni. Pomni liked Evil Jax because he was nice, but of course, she prefers the real Jax, even though he's rude as hell. Pomni noticed that Jax, wearing the maid dress, was talking to Evil Pomni. Deep down, Pomni felt jealous. Did she like Jax?
"Jax, we have a ball now, what're you doing?!"
Zooble called out, interrupting their conversation.
"Ugh, see ya."
He said, turning and walking away to go fail to hit the ball.
"Whoops, I missed."
The ball was tossed again.
"Oh darn, I'm out."
He said, not actually caring. He went back to the dug out and sat next to Pomni.
"Having fun?"
Pomni asked, trying to start a conversation.
"Oh, you know it."
Jax retorted, then noticed Gangle was going to bat.
"Hey, look, Gangle is up to bat. How do you think this is going to go?"
"Would you stop trying to force her to act like you?"
Ragatha chimed in.
"Oh yeah, I should force her to be happy all the time instead, right."
Jax snapped back.
"I can think for myself, guys."
Pomni said.
"Hey, I ain't forcin anything on ya."
Jax said.
"And then you just act like you never do anything wrong and everybody loves you, when in reality, you just f**k everything up for everyone else!"
Ragatha said angrily while Jax sat there with his smug grin on his face, watching her go off.
"Okay, let's, like, calm down a bit..."
"What, you were the one that said it's okay to be a jerk sometimes!"
The doll yelled at the Jester. She immediately calmed down and spoke in a normal tone.
"I'm sorry, Pomni. That wasn't very cool of me."
"It's fine, really."
"No apologies for me? This is so sad."
Jax chimed in.
"I'm sorry, Jax, for... for bringing up that thing earlier..."
Raggy said as she walked away. Jax said nothing, in shock that Ragatha apologized for that. Pomni looked at him.
"Sooo... You wanna talk about that?"
"I'm in a maid outfit, what do you think?"
Jax said. A moment later he looked next to him and saw a whole corn cob sitting there, making him jump back like a cat, making him accidentally land on Pomni. She caught him before he could fall on the ground.
"Well, hello there."
Pomni said, fake flirting with him.
"Hello. Come here often?"
Jax fake flirted back.
"Can't say that I do."
Pomni said as she helped Jax up. Jax sat on the other side of Pomni, holding her as he shook in fear of the corn.
"Jax, it's not gonna hurt ya."
Pomni tried to calm him down, but she had a more fun idea.
"I don't care!"
Pomni went and grabbed the corn and started chasing Jax with it around the dug out.
"Ahh!! Stop it, Pomni!!"
"Just touch it, you'll be fine!"