Work Text:
Taking what’s not yours
“I’ll drive today,” Ragatha spoke softly to the other members who’d woken up.
“Where should we go for breakfast?”
Pomni groaned. “That cheap place.”
“Noooo… I got sick last time we ate there.”
Gangle wrapped her arms around her stomach. It was freezing in that car they’d all slept in. All she had to comfort her was Zooble’s touch. Zooble, being plastic, only made her colder.
“That’s because Jax was driving!” Pomni spoke angrily. “Zooble! Wake him up!”
“Hush, all of you.” Jax waved his hand, he was sleeping in the front seat with his chair fully reclined, squeezing Zooble.
“Oh good, you’re awake… You’ve been squeezing me all night! Get up!” They kicked his chair.
Ragatha intervened. “Okay everyone, we’ll go to the diner, then we’ll go somewhere else for Gangle? How’s that sound?”
“Heyyy?! Why does she get special treatment?!” Jax spoke angrily. “She doesn’t even do anything around here!”
“Ragatha, let’s just skip breakfast today. We don’t have any money for it anyway.” Pomni crossed her arms.
“Pomni, are you okay?-“ She reached out, Pomni moved away, silently telling Ragatha she didn’t want to be touched.
“Sorry. We- ugh… I miss the circus! A lot!” She paused, burying her face in her hands. “At least in the circus we had stability! No one even trusts us here! They don’t even believe that we’re human!”
“Can you blame them?” Jax muttered. “Look at Zooble. I want to puke just at the sight of them.”
“Mother fucker!” They kick his seat again. “Move your chair up!”
“Stop kicking our car! We’re lucky we even have this much!” Pomni yelled, catching the attention of someone walking on the sidewalk. She flipped them off, and they ran away.
“Why don’t we get out of the car and take a nice walk together? Hm?” Ragatha undid her seatbelt.
“Can we trade sweaters first? I feel like I’m gonna puke from how cold it is.” Gangle spoke softly and nervously.
“Of course! Yeah!” Ragatha took off her sweater and tossed it to her.
She held it to her face for a moment before putting it on, snuggling into it. “Thank you, Ragatha.”
“That means you too, Jax. You had it all night and all day yesterday.”
“You’re so obnoxious, Zoobie.” He moved his seat further back, One of Zooble’s antlers snapped off.
“You fucking asshole!” They punched the seat.
Pomni grabbed the keys from Ragatha’s hand and unlocked the car, stepping outside and going to Jax’s side.
“Huh? Pomni?” Before Ragatha could ask any questions, Pomni opened Jax’s door and forcibly reclined his seat forward.
“Aww, can’t a rabbit have some fun, Pom Pom?” Jax grinned, but it immediately fell when he realized Pomni wasn’t having any of it. “Yeesh. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the… Car seat.”
“Haha, you’re so funny.” Pomni slammed the door and opened Ragatha’s. “Can we start walking? They’ll catch up.”
She got out of her seat and closed the door, taking the keys back from Pomni. “I don’t want to lose them… You know they’re not the best people to leave alone.” She whispered.
“I’m well aware.” She shivered as the wind hit her. “It’s colder than normal today, I wish I could just have some coffee.”
A mother was walking peacefully on the sidewalk where Pomni and Ragatha were standing. Her eyes widened when she finally looked up and saw them, she was only about 10 feet away from the jester and doll freaks.
“Oh, sorry!” Ragatha spoke up, walking closer to the car, where Jax and Zooble were fighting for the last sweater.
The mother looked at Ragatha and Pomni, then her stroller, then back at them.
“You can pass, ma’am,” Ragatha spoke softly, trying to convince the lady that she wasn’t in any harm.
The mother slowly walked past them, stopping in front of them.
“Do you two know the frog?” She asked curiously.
“Nooooo?” Pomni spoke, unsure.
“Her name is Ribbit, she lives in the same apartment complex as my husband, she’s from the circus too!” She had a smile on her face, clearly less afraid to talk to the circus members than any other people were.
“No, she’s not from the circus,” Ragatha spoke, her voice harsher than normal. “We never had a frog person, everyone who got out is here, in front of you.”
“And in the car, fighting over a cheap piece of fabric.” Pomni mumbled.
“Oh? Maybe she’s from another circus? I’m sure she’d love to meet you guys.” The woman pointed to where she came from. “Walk straight and take a left, you’ll see her. She’s out on her balcony right now, if you want to meet her.”
“Thanks.” Pomni mumbled, clearly uninterested. The woman walked away without another word.
“Got it.” Zooble walked out of the car wearing the sweater, Jax walked out with a bruise forming on his cheek, Gangle walked out shaky with wide eyes.
“Umm… Let’s go this way.” Ragatha walked where the woman before had pointed at, Pomni quickly walked next to her.
“Ragatha? Are you seriously walking this way to see that faker?”
“Pomni, please. What if she’s real? She has an apartment, Pomni, she makes good money.” Ragatha stroked her arm, the wind hitting her hard.
“So what? Why does that- oh.” Pomni fell silent as she realized.
“Yeah, ‘oh.’ If she makes real money it means she found a company who’d hire people like us.”
“Good thinking… Sorry I’ve been upset this morning, Ragatha. I just-“ she cuts herself off, before even starting again, Ragatha interrupted.
“It’s okay, Pomni, you already apologized, I get it. I’m upset too, we all are.”
After going around the corner, Pomni and Ragatha looked up at the apartment complex and sure enough, there she was. Another circus member, wearing a black robe and knitting on her balcony.
“Ohmygod-“ Pomni whispered in pure shock. “Hey! Frog person! Down here.”
Ribbit rolled their eyes. “Aw great, another human.” They mumbled to themselves. “What do you want?!” She spoke loud and harshly, not even looking down to see them.
“Can we talk to you?!” Pomni spoke louder, the strange ask made Ribbit look down at them, their jaw dropping at the sight of them.
“Y-yeah! Oh my god? Yes! Come to apartment B57!” They got their knitting needles, yarn, and coffee and ran inside. Putting it away, they started speedrunning making hot cocoa for everyone. “Were there five or six of them?” She whispered to herself. “I think five. I’ll make six just to be safe.”
Jax was the first to open their unlocked door, his mouth dropping at the sight of her.
“Oh.” Now was not the time to be discovering things about himself.
“Hi! Sit down on the couches, I’m making hot cocoa! You all like hot cocoa right?” Her hands were shaking as she moved.
“Oh, please, that’s not necessary!” Ragatha waved her hands, goddamn she wanted a burning cup of hot cocoa, but she didn’t want to be a burden.
“Don’t even worry about it! I’m just glad to finally meet others like me!” Her eyes widened in joy, to the point of looking creepy, her moves became shakier. A shiver ran down Pomni’s spine.
“Ragatha, I don’t have a good feeling about this.” She whispered.
“Mmm… she doesn’t seem like a bad person, she’s probably just in shock.” Ragatha smiled, trying to convince Pomni, and herself.
Jax was smitten.
He didn’t see any red flags.
Zooble might’ve hit him in the head too hard.
Ribbit gave everyone a cup and sat next to Jax. “Oh god- where do I even start?! It’s so good to meet you all!” She smiled, a genuine, happy smile. Yet it still looked unnerving, and she was still shaking.
“Why are you shaking so much?” Pomni muttered without thinking, Ribbit’s eyes widened as she looked down at her hands, she was seconds away from spilling her cup of hot cocoa all over herself.
“Oh! Shit-“ They put their cup on the table infront of them. “I ju-“
Jax cut her off. “Are you okay?” He placed his left hand on her arm. Her muscles tensed harder under his touch. She looked even more insane now. Their hands gripping their knees, resisting the urge to push him away. His ears pinned down and he took his hand away, looking down at it with confusion and uncertainty.
“Yeah, fine.” They smiled. “I’ve never met anyone who’s had a similar experience as me! How was your circus?”
Zooble rolled their eyes. They just wanted to ask them how they got all of what they had. But she’d given them hot chocolate. So they were okay with being quiet for now.
Ragatha smiled, sipping her hot cocoa. “It was colorful, and wacky, but it was comfortable. Well… mostly comfortable, our ringleader was a little unstable at times, but nothing too bad. What about your circus?”
Ribbit’s eyes widened. “Your circus sounded nice… Mine was hell. My ringmaster practically tortured me.” They looked down at their hot cocoa.
“Where are the other people from your circus?” Jax asked cautiously.
“I was the only one.” Ribbit admitted.
“Only one member?” Jax whispered. “How did you avoid… Y’know.”
Ribbit looked at him, confused. “Avoid what?”
“Abstracting.” He whispered.
“I… don’t know what that is.” She looked away. “But that doesn’t matter! Uh…” She desperately tried to find another conversation topic.
“How often do you interact with others?” Jax asked. That made her perk up.
“Not often. Not at all, actually. I don’t remember the last time I had a real conversation with someone.”
“What do you do for work?” Zooble spoke up. It was barely even a question. This felt like an interrogation.
“W-work? Uh I- right- work- uh-“ their eyes darted around the apartment. “I um- I’m an uh-“ they desperately tried to think of jobs that wouldn’t require conversation with others, but they were on the spot. And they were scared. “Uhhh…”
“We won’t judge you.” Jax spoke quietly, wanting her to feel comfortable around them, but mostly him.
“Umm, self exploitation?” They said as if it was a question, Zooble squinted.
“Liar. Who’d pay to see a frog with no genitals.”
Ribbit’s eyes widened. “I- I have genitalia! You don’t?!”
Ragatha and Pomni awkwardly looked away, Jax grinned, Gangle looked confused.
“Wait. You mean to tell me you all got it after we left and I didn’t?! I was the only one who asked for it!” Zooble looked at Jax, who was grinning. “I’m gonna cut it off.”
His grin fell.
“Anyways, we’ve been struggling to find work for a long time. We just wanted to ask how you found it. I’m sorry if we made you uncomfortable.” Ragatha spoke, setting her cup of hot cocoa down.
“No, it’s okay…” Ribbit looked away.
“I’m guessing we’re not doing that?” Pomni looked down.
“No. We don’t even have phones.” Ragatha sighed. “We’ll be on our way. Thank you.”
No… Ribbit looked up at them. “Wait!” They spoke loud. Jax was the first to look back, not wanting to leave in the first place, then the rest. “I- I don’t sell my body for money as my main source of income.”
Jax sat back down next to her. “What do you do then?”
Ribbit bit her bottom lip, her expression guilty. “I rob people…”