Chapter Text
Whatever dream Zooble had been having at this point in time was quickly fading with the sound of their doorbell ringing. The last whispers of casual touches and domestic living slipped away from their steadily waking mind. Bleerily, Zooble’s eyes blinked open, the familiar uncomfortable plastic feeling becoming more and more aware at the front of their mind.
Goddamn it. That was a good dream too. Whatever it was.
Yawning, Zooble sat up. Or, oops, their body sat up. Looks like they fell apart in their sleep again. Whatever, that was routine enough at this point. With practiced movements, Zooble’s arms and legs shimmied their way back into each of the joints that they had slipped out of during the night. Functionally reassembled, they finally reached back to grab their head, swinging it over and plopping it unceremoniously on the small peg that made up their neck. The faster they did this the better, the less dread creeped in and less itchy they felt.
Zooble didn’t even bother to reattach their wing and accessories, simply gathering them all into their fist before making their way over to their parts box. They roughly tossed the pile into the upper left corner of the box, they knew their parts box went through some kind of “recycling” every night and would reset, so putting the pieces here would guarantee they were gone by tomorrow. They hesitated for a moment, deciding to pick out the black teardrop shaped chest piece they had worn yesterday and placing it on the floor outside the box. There it wouldn’t despawn, and it wasn’t the worst piece they’d worn, so they’d be able to reuse it in the future if they wanted to.
First thing’s first, Zooble gave a quick once-over of the box. They did their best to ignore the obnoxiously large and bright green triangle head that was visible in the box. Zooble had finally settled enough with the hot pink head they spawned in the circus with, and they were too scared of a Ship of Theseus situation to really try out new head and torso pieces.
They directed their attention to the arms, scanning over the options. The first one that stood out was a solid orange stick arm, yellow glove at the end of it. A classic, simple and functional, one they fell back on a lot in the past. Recently though, Zooble had been feeling more and more comfortable and interested in the segmented arms, something about having an actual elbow joint really improved their perception.
Zooble knew the second they saw it. There’s one. The arm was simple but striking, a black and white alternating pattern started at the shoulder connection and continued until the elbow. Past the vibrant purple ball joint was a thicker yellow forearm, starting large and tapering down towards the wrist. On the end was a simple white cartoon glove, 3 fingers.
Zooble popped their current right arm out of their socket, placing it back into that left corner of the box. Picking up today's new arm, they firmly attached it to the socket. Taking a moment to adjust and shake feeling into the new arm. They also took the moment to let go of the sensations of the old one, letting it drift into the back of their mind along with literally every other piece in existence that currently sat in their room. That was also something Zooble was afraid to explore, just the sheer amount of limbs and parts that they could feel and control at once. In theory they supposed it was infinite, if they took out every piece that spawned in the box before it reset at night, then they could have as many controllable limbs as they wanted. But God did the thought make them shudder.
I would’ve taken looking like Jax over something like this…
The rest of their limb selection was a mind numbing process; Their left left arm started in a red spiraling pattern before turning into a white cube at the elbow. Their forearm was a teal blue, seamlessly ending in the shape of… well Zooble could compare it to salad tongs? A stiff hinge that opened and closed but didn’t offer much sideways movement. For their legs, they chose a-
“Zooble? Are you alright?” Gangle’s concerned voice came through the door. “Caine’s asked us all to gather for a “super important announcement” and I told him I’d come get you.”
Zooble cursed under their breath, throwing together the last of their accessories. White wing? Sure, why not. Striped Y piece on their head along with a teal spiral. And for their chest piece? Uhh sure this purple square will do.
They raised their voice to call back through the door, “Where is he at now? Do you think I have enough time to hide somewhere if we leave now?” If they were able to dodge this adventure like they did yesterday, Zooble might get a chance to work on that illogical logic puzzle they started in one of Caine’s AI generated coffee table books.
“NO-CAN-DO my conniving coyote!”
Oh good lord. Zooble didn’t close their eyes fast enough to miss Caine popping his head out of who knows where to greet them.
“I need everyone at the stage today so I can announce my ULTRA SPECIAL, ALL-INCLUSIVE upcoming adventure!” Zooble opened their eyes to see Caine adjusting his bowtie, staring at them expectantly, “This adventure has been cooking up in my files for a long time, it’s CRUCIAL that you are also in attendance!” Caine’s eyes widened cartoonishly as he snapped his fingers.
The world warped around Zooble, and with a stumble, they found themselves alongside Gangle in front of the stage. Ragatha, Jax, Kinger, and Pomni already stood together closer to the stage, watching as they had teleported in.
Caine hovered before them all, clearing his throat and suavely waving his cane in the air, “Now that I have you all here, it’s very important that you…” He trailed off for dramatic effect, which was then negated when he stuttered and looked around nervously, “Give me 5 more minutes to prepare!!!” Like a small wormhole, Caine vanished into thin air with a POP.
Stunned, the others looked around at each other. Pomni spoke up first, “So is this actually going to be a different kind of adventure, or is he just really excited about this one he worked on?”
Ragatha hummed thoughtfully, “I don’t know! It does seem weird that he left while we’re all here, but there’s been stranger starts to adventures.” She shrugged with a shake of her head.
Zooble turned to Gangle for a moment, speaking softly only to her, “Sorry about leaving you waiting at my door so long, morning routine, you know?” They tried to lighten the mood.
Gangle smiled and chuckled softly, “That’s ok! I think you look amazing today!” Her eyes closed after the compliment, smile small and cat-like.
Zooble, looked away bashfully and waved her off, “Thanks Gangle.” Then with a gruffer tone, “This adventure better be good with how pushy he’s being about us being here.” They had started walking alongside Gangle to merge themselves into the larger group.
Jax did a loud exaggerated gasp, “You don’t think-! No it couldn’t be…” Still smirking, he placed his gloved hand over his mouth and looked away in obvious thought.
“What’s he doing?” Pomni fell for the bait, genuinely curious.
“Why, I think our ringmaster has planned another month-long adventure!” He declared delightfully.
The reaction was instant, Ragatha’s face screwed like she had just eaten a sour lemon, and Gangle cringed into her hunched pose, pushing her ribbon hands together nervously.
Although Zooble had no context for any of the previous “month-long adventures” that the rest of the cast (minus Pomni) were clearly reminiscing on, the idea of an adventure lasting a month was more than enough to have their metaphorical stomach falling out of their metaphorical ass.
“Nope, I’m out.” They turned, doing their best speed-walk away from the stage. After reaching about 10 paces away however, they were startled by the same teleporting sensation from earlier placing them back into their position in the group. Looking at the others, Zooble quickly walked away again, making it 10 paces before winding up in the same spot.
Guess they really weren’t getting out of this one. “Ok, I’ll bite, month-long adventures? And why is it my first time hearing about this?” Their tone was sour and gravelly. This sounds like hell-on-earth. Well, hell-on-circus.
Jax smiled widely, looking at the reader, “For exposition purposes of course!”
He turned back towards the group, rubbing his chin with his glove, “I’m actually surprised! It’s been a good while since our last one. I think there’s been… five total? Since I’ve been here at least.”
“Six.” Ragatha’s tone was bitter and hoarse as she corrected him, clearly remembering something she didn’t like.
It seemed to click in Jax’s head and he cackled loudly, doubling over and holding his stomach, “Oh my god! I can’t believe I forgot! You two will never guess what our last month-venture turned out to be.” He directed the question at Pomni and Zooble, still laughing.
The two exchanged a glance. “Nothing good from the sound of it.” Pomni noted.
“Ok ok, here’s the premise-” Jax was breathing heavy from laughter, trying to hold himself together, “So Caine proposed an in-house month-long adventure right? Doesn’t sound too bad! But then, w-what the adventure ended up being- he- he” Jax was stumbling over his words as the giggles escaped him again. “H-he gave everyone in the circus a unique scent, like a crazy smell, a-and Rags-”
“And I’m the only one here with a nose!” Ragatha finally interjected, holding her hair pieces in her fists as she despaired over the retelling. “Seriously! Not one other person!! Even adding you two, still only one nose in the circus!” Jax laughed loudly in the background.
Now that was a unique form of torture. Zooble had known Caine had some sort of human-torturing complex, but unintentionally targeting Ragatha felt cruel in a new way. They gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
“Oh god it was awful!” Ragatha lamented further, leaning back towards Zooble, “The others ended up having a normal relaxing month while I was basically isolated in my room.” Zooble patted her again reassuringly.
“Oh! Well I thought you smelled wonderful Ragatha.” Kinger butted in for the first time, a far-away look on his face. Ragatha gave him a strained smile in response.
Pomni glanced between the rest of the cast, “So uh, what's a normal month-long adventure look like?”
“They’re usually a bit hit or miss.” Gangle pushed her ribbons together nervously. “I've only done 2, well 3 I guess, and they're all a bit different. During my first one we all swapped avatars for a month and were sent on regular adventures. Oh, except the avatars continued swapping every morning. Wouldn't have been too bad, except I barely knew anyone at that point. It was a lot to get used to.”
“Ah sweet memories,” Jax pressed a hand to his chest dramatically, “Remember when I was able to convince you I was actually Ragatha for a day?” He sighed wistfully.
“Yeah, and then you pushed me down the stairs.” Gangle's voice was quiet and a little sour.
“I think of it fondly, the betrayal in your face.” He wiped a fake tear from his eyes.
“The second one wasn't too bad actually,” Gangle started, “Caine put all of us in a zombie apocalypse kind of setting. The enemies were difficult, but there was so much supplies and ammo in every building. Plus, we lost Jax on like the 4th day so the rest of the month was the rest of us hunkering down in a bunker and hanging out.”
“Oh yeah, you ever gonna tell us what you were doing for all that time?” Ragatha questioned Jax, recovering from the talk of her earlier adventure.
“Nope!” Jax’s tone was light and mocking, “These lips are sealed shut! If you wanted to know what I was doing then you should've come with Ragdoll.”
“Trust me, the last thing anyone wants is to be stuck alone with you for three weeks.” Zooble scowled at him. They took a moment to direct their focus back at Gangle, “Any other useful info we might need before going into this?”
Gangle hummed in thought, “Well, I guess Caine likes to throw us into it most of the time? He didn't exactly give us a synopsis before swapping our bodies or throwing us into the new world. It's a lot of adapting on the fly.”
Ragatha nodded in agreement, “Yeah, and they can get kind of intense as well. If he's sending us on a specific adventure like the Apocalypse one then we might be at risk of some avatar changes or adjustments. He gave us some more realistic bodies for that one, but that also meant dealing with hunger and injuries and fatigue and all that. But we won't know until we actually-”
“Did somebody say ADVENTURE?” Caine reappeared with a pop, voice cutting Ragatha off. “Not to fear my participle packmates! Today's Adventure is something big, spectacular- and might I add, probably my best work yet” He made a show of shyly adjusting his bowtie, fluttering his eyelashes at the rest of the cast.
Zooble’s antennae rattled, instantly feeling a little more ticked off, but they held their tongue. Observing the others; Jax had the same shallow smile on his face that made up his default expression, Kinger had a similar unreadable expression, Ragatha’s mouth curled into that familiar polite smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, Pomni looked casual but slightly tense, waiting in anticipation for whatever was going to be thrown at them, and Gangle watched quietly with a neutral expression. Though, her upright pose and unhunched shoulders told that she was excited and a little hopeful for what's to come.
Zooble admired Gangle’s ability to adapt and immerse herself in the different adventures. Whereas Ragatha put on a similar demeanor, Zooble thought Gangle often had a much more genuine and open minded interest in participating in adventures. They were almost jealous.
“Today, I am SO EXCITED to announce to all of you–” Caine leaned over, waving his hands in front of the stage curtains that were being pulled back slowly, “The long-awaited return of the Month-Long Adventure!”
And there it was. Revealed onstage in all its glory was 3D bubble text of the phrase: “Month-Long Adventure”. Multicolored confetti rained around it, and Zooble could've sworn a silent firework or two also flew by. All in all the text was pretty boring and unexciting, a light gray color centered nicely onstage. No hint whatsoever of what was to come during the actual ordeal.
The others waited a good five seconds as the confetti trailed off. Caine had frozen in place, watching their reactions expectantly.
Pomni was the first one to speak up, “So uh, are you going to, like, explain any of it before we go in or-?”
“Explain!? Why, explaining ruins the fun of it! You've got a month to figure it out, good luck my little ludicrous lupuses!” Cain was quick to cut Pomni off, raising his hand to snap his fingers.
“Wait!! Caine what are we–”
SNAP
In an instant, it was dark. And the world slipped away.