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In the middle of a discussion about the last adventure, Pomni noticed Kinger was no longer beside her.
"Uh... Did anyone notice where Kinger went?"
"Who knows, who cares? He's off being crazy somewhere else." Jax said with apathy and a shrug of his shoulders. His ever-present grin on his face.
"He's probably in his pillow fort as usual..." Zooble replied, also with a shrug.
"As long as he's there he's less likely to get into trouble, right?" Gangle asked, looking up from the broken mask in her hands.
"I think we should go check on him, that adventure was pretty rough for him." Ragatha suggested.
"We'll split up and look for him, I guess. You two can check his fort and Gangle and I will look around the main stage and meet up with you."
Jax, feigned being hurt by not being mentioned in the plan. "What about me? What should I be doing?" He batted his eyes, blatantly pretending to be concerned.
"Just stay out of our way. You wouldn't follow actual directions even if I gave you any." Zooble scowled, eyes narrowing at the purple rabbit.
Jax turned around and began to walk away leisurely, his hands placed behind his neck. "When you're right, you're right, Zoobs. See ya."
Everyone stared as he walked away without a care after that.
"%$@!#head..." Zooble grumbled, still staring daggers at the rabbit.
~~~~~~
Pomni and Ragatha reached the pillow fort, hoping Kinger didn't abstract when he wandered away from the group.
"Hey, Kinger? Are... you alright in there?" Pomni called out.
There was no response. Nothing indicating Kinger could hear her.
Ragatha pulled open the pillow door for both of them to see absolutely no one was inside. "Wha- maybe he went to his room? I can go check?" She motioned her plush thumb towards the hallway with all of the circus members' bedrooms.
"Would you, please? I'll keep searching around. This place is huge and none of us really want to ask Caine for help.
Just like that, Caine and Bubble appeared out of thin air. "You rang, my Goofy Gumdrop Buttons?"
"Hi, Caine... Er... We can't... Seem to find Kinger. Do you know where he is?" Pomni asked hesitantly. She didn't quite expect the wacky ringmaster to show up at his name being dropped in casual conversation. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear, I guess..." Pomni thought to herself.
Before Caine could answer, Bubble opened his mouth. "He's behind that wall staring into the fridge." He swayed in the direction of the wall.
"A fridge?" Pomni was sure she'd never seen a refrigerator anywhere in the circus, they don't even need to eat, so why was it there? "I wonder what Caine is planning to do with it... I really hope it's not another adventure... I know none of us are ready for that right now."
Caine and Bubble floated near Ragatha and Pomni as they approached where Kinger was. Sure enough the chess piece was staring into an open refrigerator.
"Kinger? What are you doing?" The jester questioned her... Friend? She really didn't know what to call him, considering he usually has no clue what's happening most of the time.
Kinger jumped with a yelp, dropping the bologna sandwich to the floor. "Timothy, no!" He put his hands to his head in shock. He got to the floor and, to the best of his ability, knelt down and started performing CPR on the sandwich, a pickle stuck to his face and mustard squishing onto the floor out from between the bread with every compression.
Nobody knew what to say or do in that moment, not even Caine.
"WE'RE LOSING HIM! WE NEED TO PERFORM DEFIBRILLATION!"
Caine summoned up a defibrillator in his hands. He now was wearing a doctor's coat, stethoscope and blue rubber gloves, and floated towards the sandwich. With all seriousness, he rubbed the paddles together and yelled "CLEAR!"
Ragatha and Pomni couldn't help but just stand there and watch Kinger and Caine, occasionally glancing to one another. As far as absurdity goes, this was pretty normal for the circus.
"STILL NO PULSE! DO IT AGAIN DOCTOR!"
Caine repeated the process as before. "CLEAR!"
Everyone stared at Kinger, who has now fallen silent, tears running down his face. "TIMOTHY! WHY MUST THE GOOD DIE YOUNG?!" He continued sobbing and wailing over the sandwich on the floor.
Caine looked genuinely upset, then again nobody knows how he thinks or if he even feels, he was an AI after all. "Time of death, Nurse Bubble?"
"I dunno, but he's perfectly golden brown and crispy." Bubble poofed a white napkin to cover 'Timothy' and a plate appeared underneath.
Caine made a table with flowers in a vase appear with a card reading 'In memory of Timothy. His condiments were zesty and his bread was soft. He will be dearly missed."
Kinger placed the plate gingerly upon the table, eyes still wet with tears. "Goodbye, Timothy. You truly were a beautiful person. You might not have been biologically mine, but I considered you my child."
At that moment Jax walked over to the table. "Oh, hey you made lunch. Thanks, Kinger." He grabbed up the sandwich and took a large bite. "Not too bad. The cheese is perfectly melty."
Kinger, watching Jax eat the 'deceased' sandwich, looked at him in pure, abject horror. He then ran off, wailing like he had witnessed a murder.
Zooble and Gangle strolled over after hearing all of the commotion.
"What... Happened? We saw Jax walk over here and then saw Kinger screaming past us." Zooble was very concerned despite her casual tone. Anything happening when Jax is involved almost always ends in chaos and Kinger was an unpredictable wildcard. Both of them being involved in an incident was probably not entirely awful, but Caine was right there with the group.
"Why was he crying?" Gangle's timid voice trembling as she spoke. Nobody knows much about Kinger for the most part as Kinger certainly doesn't know either.
"Jax ate Timothy!" Bubble shouted cheerfully.
"Welp... I think our job is done here, Nurse Bubble. Let's leave them to grieve."
"Um..." Zooble tried to process what they had been told. "What the %$@!# did we walk into?"
Not really wanting to explain the odd event, she replied, "Kinger had a moment, Caine joined in and Jax ate a sandwich Kinger named 'Timothy.'"
Jax rummaged through the still present refrigerator and grabbed out a gallon of orange juice, drinking straight from the bottle. He swallowed a few mouthfuls and stated, "Kinger did Kinger things and Kinger is insane. It was just a sandwich, not even all that good. It was just confusing. I mean, who puts marshmallows on a bologna and cheese sandwich?"
"Yup... Just a regular day." Pomni mused with a deadpan look.