Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Well, Crikey, welcome to the real world,” Jax said irritably. “Or at least as close to it as your NPC eyes are ever going to get. Look at all of the wonder you’re missing out on!”

 If this was a representation of the real world, Gummigoo had to silently agree. It felt it wasn’t that great of a first impression. Granted, his past surviving experience had been a world made of different candies, but this place felt… off. Sure, seeing new textures that were the materials that the others always referenced, like metal and paper, was neat. It was a far cry from the licorice and marshmallow he had once touched, and the chunky plastic the circus was made of, and there was nothing in this place that was either overly saturated, but Spudsy’s felt…somehow underwhelming. The wood veneer chairs and Formica surfaces did little to inspire, and the hum and click of the kitchen appliances felt alien and soulless as Gangle switched them on.  

If this is what the real world looked like, no wonder Pomni and the others… Pomni had put on that thing, and now she was, well gone. The guilt was rising in him, and he could feel his throat constrict. Jax was not much of a tour guide to begin with, and his lack of enthusiasm was quite clear. He was certain Jax was also trying to sabotage him, too, and Gummigoo was going to get a second opinion from Zooble.  Ragatha was still recovering from her dunking in the fryer.

If Pomni had been here, he might’ve been more curious about this world, maybe even enthusiastic. But he had gotten her deleted…

He had seen the looks on their faces later that night, and while some of them had tried to be friendly (like Ragatha), they mostly held back, uncertain about what was going to happen now. He couldn’t blame them. Despite the general acceptance he had, he wondered how begrudging it was. He didn’t have the same quirks their avatars did, the same hanging sword of Abstraction hovering over their heads, really, anything. They didn’t have much a choice – they were stuck with the NPC that got Pomni killed. The jester may have been only there two days, but she was one of them after all…

He shook his head, trying to clear it from circling about in distress and remorse again. He already kept reliving the sensation of the confetti cloud that had floated around him whenever things went quiet. Gummigoo didn’t need to have these thoughts now when he needed to focus. Maybe he could show them that he was going to be a valuable member of the team, to make up for his existence.

But if this was his first real attempt at that idea, (Mildenhall Manor didn’t count, in his eyes), he felt a twinge of apprehension. He had no clue what he was getting into, but from the others’ reactions (save Gangle), it wasn’t going to be a terribly pleasant experience.

Well, gritty streusel crumbs make the cookie tougher, or so his non-existent mother had said.

And, well, he had to tough it out for Pomni’s sake.

“Hey Crikey, you listening?” Jax said, cutting into his thoughts. “I’m only saying this once.”

Gummigoo snapped to attention. “I am.”

“This is the meat freezer,” Jax said, gesturing at a silver, shiny expanse behind him. “It’s where we store the NPCs after we cut them up. We then use those knives and meat tenderizers on that drawer to pound them into the patties. You got it?”

“So, ya tellin’ me I just pick a random bloke and take ‘im back here to be turned into food?” Gummigoo flatly asked. “Y’know, I ain’t that stupid, mate.”

“Eh, worth a shot. NPCs are quite gullible at times. You did decide to follow Pomni back, after all.”

Gummigoo winced, and he tried to find the words he really wanted to say, but the little bit of sugary wetness in his eyes stalled him.

Jax walked past him. “Oh, and don’t forget to not cry in front of the customers. They either get weirded out and start pitying you, or they smell blood and go in for the kill. Usually the latter.”

With Jax out of the way, Gummigoo could get a clear look at his own reflection in the meat freezer door. He frowned slightly.

This uniform wasn’t exactly flattering on him, with its ugly brown fabric and chunky nonslip shoes.  Caine had even forced a visor around the hatband of his akubra, somehow. It didn’t even stick out over his hat brim, an even more pointless redundancy, and he had already tried to yank it off.

Gangle had cheerily told him that its removal was a violation of the uniform code, and he wanted to have a good score at his employee evaluation, right?

He wasn’t exactly that close to the ribbon lass, so he couldn’t guess the severity of the threat coming from her. But with Caine handling the punishments – well, Gummigoo had already seen what happened when the rules of the Circus weren’t followed. Caine might think the ex-bandit was human, but that ruse could only be maintained for so long, and if the evaluation wasn’t great… well, he’d be deleted in an instant.

Regardless of the rules and judgements Caine had in place, the damn visor couldn’t come off no matter how hard he tried.

The other sticking sore spot was his nametag – its cheap shiny plastic casing holding a paper placard bearing his name. The ‘Gummigoo’ was slightly sloping down to the right, its semi-cursive characters mimicking his own handwriting, but he certainly didn’t write it.

It bothered him in a way that he really couldn’t quite pin down.

“Hey, Gummi!” Gangle sidled up to him, clapping a ribbon limb on his shoulder in an overly chummy manner that was trying so hard to not be passive-aggressive, but still was. “I know it’s your morning routine that you go gussy up for our customers, but they’re here for food, not eye-candy!”

Gummigoo stared at her, wondering where in the hell this had come from.  “We just got here this mornin’, Gangle… what routine?”

“We’ve already got ourselves an early bird crowd,” Gangle continued, pushing him effortlessly towards the register. Those nonslip shoes clearly did nothing from keeping him from gliding across the floor. “I’ve already set the till, so all you got to do is take their orders.”

“Uh, sure…” He found himself staring at a line of a dozen or so mannequins – eerily familiar to the ones back in Candy Canyon, though they were all plain wood. Their nonexistent eyes stared at him expectantly.

“You got this, big guy!” Gangle exclaimed, walking off peppily. “Do me proud!”

“Uh…I’ve never handled this…”

Gangle was gone.

“…At all?” Gummigoo finished. He turned back to the mannequins, still staring at him.

“Excuse me, for just a second. Technical difficulties.”

Gummigoo glanced down at the register, his eyes frantically trying to take in all of the buttons and screens and everything else that came with it. It wasn’t like he knew how these things worked.

“Uh… can you take my order now?” the first mannequin said, its arms crossed.

“Sure,” Gummigoo said slowly. There was only one way to find out how this all worked. “Let me see…”

He touched one button, and the cash drawer flew open with a clang. Gummigoo sheepishly pushed it back in, and tried another button, and nothing happened.

The mannequin gazed at him, disgruntlement radiating off its expressionless head.

“I’ll just take a number seven, hold the sausage,” it said curtly.

“Got it...” He pressed the seven button after a moment of searching, and tried to make a note somewhere on the screen to leave off the sausage that whatever a number seven had. The typing was just as slow, and he was certain he had misspelled every word in that message. The order processing reticule was slow and painful, and when the drawer finally opened to receive the money (twenty dollars seemed rather excessive for whatever it was, Caine clearly didn’t understand pricing), Gummigoo sighed, relieved that his first order was over.

Only a few hundred more to do today, at least. He could feel himself weeping internally.

At least the food orders themselves were the kitchen’s problem, and when that first bag made its way to the pickup stand, Gummigoo seized it, calling out the number as he tried to take a fourth mannequin’s breakfast order.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he peered inside the bag to see what it was.

Apparently, a number seven, without the sausage, was just a plain English muffin bun with some processed cheese on it.

“Looks like it’s in good order,” Gummigoo said, as that ornery mannequin approached. “It’s just a plain bun. With cheese.”

His tone must have come off wrong, as the mannequin huffed. “Of course it is. You got a problem with that, mister?”

“No…” One of Gummigoo’s eyebrow nubs rose. “Don’t think I e’er said that.”

“You’re the one working a grease-trap till,” the mannequin said, snatching the bag out of Gummigoo’s hand. “You’re in no position to judge me for my lifestyle choices.”

“Well, ya the one eatin’ at this grease-trap!” Gummigoo yelled back, his snout inches from the wooden blank face. “Ya can righ’ shove that number seven up your –”

“Gummigoo!” Gangle had materialized out of thin air and pulled him aside. She was hovering about him, her smile affixed to her mask. “Don’t antagonize the customers, no matter how terrible they are. They’ll leave bad reviews, and that means bad reviews from upper management for me, and probably a bad review for you. We can’t have unruly employees at Spudsy’s.”

He blinked. “I guess… still, I oughta…”

“We settle our personal disputes with the customers afterhours,” Gangle said. “They can’t complain to upper management about broken ribs and missing limbs when it’s off our clock. Understand?” Her smile widened, stretching across the plastic surface of her mask while somehow not meeting her eyes.

Gummigoo nodded, his eyes thinning into rings.

“Good. Now, back to the grind, Gummi!” Gangle exclaimed, yanking him towards the register. “We’ve got people to feed!”

----

The breakfast rush had continued without mercy, and although Gummigoo had gotten somewhat better at the register, every transaction was still painfully slow to his liking. He was certain Gangle was timing him somewhere, and if it wasn’t her, the ringmaster was.

It didn’t help his stress levels that the soft serve ice cream machine had died, and he was struggling to unclog it in between orders and try to calm the angry customers that thought that 9am was the right time to eat it.

Ragatha was currently floundering, off in a dimension of her own creation that he couldn’t quite follow. He had been so preoccupied with orders that he had missed…whatever had caused her to break, but she was slurring and stumbling about, and the orders were falling behind.

Jax was trapped at the drive thru, and couldn’t pitch in, even if he wanted to (he didn’t) and Zooble was working themselves ragged. Gummigoo had tried to ease the strain by running the coffee machines and drink dispensers, and stuffing completed orders into their respective bags, but it was hard to keep up multiple stations at times –

And of course, Gangle had gone somewhere, nowhere to be seen or of use.

For just a moment, the line was empty, and Gummigoo sagged onto the counter in relief, surveying the dining room. The mannequins had mostly mellowed out after that first one had come through, and there were a few other strange characters that had been part of previous adventures, well before his time; more unique, bizarre models.  Other NPCs, just like him, yet completely unaware that they didn’t fit together at all in this strange environment.

He wondered if that meant that Loolilalu would come in, and if she’d recognize him. When Candy Canyon went away, did her memories go too? He didn’t want to hear about how she thought minimum wage labor was an appropriate punishment for maple syrup theft. He might just ignore Gangle’s reprimands about fighting the customers before afterhours.

If the lads stopped in, would they remember him too? He tried to not get choked up, but he could feel the lump in his throat. He debated on telling them about what happened. They might not get distressed at all, seeing that the Orbsman didn’t seem fazed by Ragatha openly saying he was from an adventure, but then again…

He glanced at the Orbsman, walking in place against a trashcan, still clutching its tray, eyes wide and head empty.

The NPC was some sort of flaming galah, he was sure.

The lads weren’t much brighter at times, as much as he loved them. Perhaps he shouldn’t tell Chad and Max, if they came in. A part of him hoped that they wouldn’t show up, and he’d be spared the pain of interacting with them at all.  The NPCs so far weren’t from recent adventures – that ghastly angel creature nor the little ghost had turned up, and they weren’t the most unusual characters that had ordered at his register today – the lads wouldn’t be out of place that much.

The doorbell chimed as it swung open. Looks like his reprieve was over. Pinching his snout in exasperation, Gummigoo rose up to greet the new customers, and –

There was an awful crash, and Gummigoo turned about, peering back into the kitchen. Ragatha had sent a pile of steel bins that held burger components tumbling across the central counter and onto the floor.

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” Gummigoo said over his shoulder, stepping past the threshold into the kitchen.

“My…bad…” Ragatha groaned, laughing slightly. Gummigoo frowned – he wondered if Spudsy’s served alcohol, and Ragatha had gotten into it – it didn’t seem like something she’d do. Perhaps it was some sort of poisoning – the food here seemed dodgy at times. He was certain the ice cream was alive – he doubted that the machine had been properly cleaned in years, based on how much that bugger jammed.

“She’s still outta it?”  Gummigoo peered at her. “It’s been nearly three hours.”

“Hi Gummi,” Ragatha groaned, “Say… are you an alligator, or a crocodile…maybe both.” She waved an arm. “Both works for me.”

“Seems so,” Zooble said, shuffling over and hoisting the ragdoll upright. “I don’t know what she got into, but it’s some really strong stuff…”

Zooble trailed off, staring at something beyond the kitchen threshold, their expression unreadable.

“I’m guesin’ Gangle’s there?” Gummigoo muttered, backing up out of the kitchen, “I’ll go righ’ back and deal with her and the customers. They’ve only been there a minute, they won’t die from hunger.”

He spun about to face Gangle, or the customer, or whoever. “Honest the food’ll get ‘em – ”

His vision was taken up by two large red-blue pinwheel eyes.

“Good morning, mister!”

Spluttering, Gummigoo jumped back, almost colliding into the drinks machine behind him. He tipped his askew hat to get a better look.

There was Pomni, just standing there, waiting patiently. She looked exactly the same as the last time he saw her, - the same wide eyes, the blush stickers, the oversized blue and red jester hat. Same voice. She’d gotten taller though – he was sure she wouldn’t have even cleared the counter.

“Uh… h-hi.” Gummigoo straightened his hat and crept towards the counter, his heart pounding wildly.

“Uh, hi?” Pomni responded, tilting her head slightly.

“She’d like to order for us.” Another painfully familiar voice said, and Max peered out around her, his derby slightly askew. “Sorry, but she’s just a bit too short.”

“Right…” Gummigoo propped an elbow on the counter, trying to steady himself as blind numbness tried to overtake his head. “H- how many of ya are here?”

“Oi, Chad!” Max called out. “Ya still here?”

The lanky orange and yellow gator appeared from around a corner and scurried to the counter. He looked every bit like the last time Gummigoo saw him.

“I think so,” Chad said, before turning to Gummigoo. “Your dunny’s locked up by the way, mate. The door might as well be welded shut.”

“I’ll let, uh, Boss know.” Gummigoo said dully, barely comprehending what he was saying. He could barely string his own thoughts together, and awkwardly drummed his fingers on the till, trying to form words that actually made sense.  

He wondered if the stupid, unremovable uniform kept them from recognizing him, but if they couldn’t get him by voice, sight probably wouldn’t work.

Even using ‘Boss’ wasn’t getting their memories to trip, and his mind raced to find another strategy –“

“So, uh, hi.” Well, such an improvement there. He could feel himself trembling, and he pressed his weight on the till, staring at Pomni, just waiting for her to suddenly recognize him. Or explode into confetti again. “Hi, there, miss.”

“Yes. Uh, hi. Again.” Pomni was looking more perturbed by the second, her eyes glancing all over him, but there was sign of recognition in it.  “You okay there? You’re a bit…twitchy.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Gummigoo tried to laugh, but it came off as a forced bark. Pomni’s face looked more and more uncomfortable. “Lovely mornin’ and all, righ’?”

“How ‘bout the sheila in back? Is she okay?” Chad asked, gesturing into the kitchen.

Slowly turning his head, Gummigoo looked inside. Ragatha was faceplanted onto the rubber mat on the floor, slowly sweeping her limbs in all directions, laughing softly to something that only she could comprehend.

“Oh, she’s fine.” Gummigoo waved his hand. “She’s always like that.” He hoped that maybe Pomni would recognize the ragdoll, but still, there was no sign of recognition.

“Can we order soon, luv?” Max groaned. “My arms are fallin’ asleep.”

Gummigoo’s nubs slightly contracted at the luv there. It didn’t mean anything, surely.

“Sorry! On it!” Despite Max’s support, Pomni still had to tip her head up to look at Gummigoo. “We’ll have the pancake tower combo with egg and bacon jaffles as a side, and just the black coffee pot too, and if we can switch the maple syrup for raspberry syrup that’d be great –“

“I’m allergic to anything maple,” Chad interjected.

“And if it’s not possible, we’ll just have the pancakes plain. And the boys want six hashbrowns between them.”

Gummigoo’s eyes were still quite wide, and he tried to force himself to smile. Didn’t want to make it any more uncomfortable for her than it already was.

“You got all that, mister?”

Gummigoo nodded, his face scrunched up in what he hoped was a friendly grin, though it was trying to hold back tears.

“Anything to drink, Pom – er…Pomegranate juice, coffee, tea, OJ, ice water, anything like that?” He was blinking rapidly, and he could feel the start of a flop sweat coming on. He had completely forgotten what she already said…

“No thanks…” Pomni said slowly, the line of her mouth thinning. “The combo came with the coffee already. Unless that changed?”

“No, it didn’t change,” Gummigoo said hastily, perhaps a bit too forcefully. “I’m… it’s my first day here, miss. I’m a bit of a wreck righ’ now.”

He winced as he heard the ice cream machine shriek, and there was a horrible dribbling sound. He didn’t dare look back.

“Ya see?”

“I’m sure it’s a bit of a handful.” Pomni gave him a nervous smile. “Take your time, mister. Do you want me to repeat it?”

Gummigoo nodded slowly, and Pomni walked him through the order again. Even when she was in this weird state, she had to help him pull himself together.

“I… think I got it all now…” He slowly punched the final numbers into the keypad, barely noticing what he was hitting. “H… How are you feeling today, m-miss? I was just wonderin’, since ya know, the whole thing at the Tent…”

With a jolt, he realized he had run his mouth too much, and the effects were immediate. Her eyebrows had risen to heights he didn’t know where possible, before crashing back down.

“Uh, fine? I think you might have your wires crossed…” Her attempt at being friendly had gone out like a blown bulb. Pomni frowned at him but had to grip the counter as Max’s arms started to give. “If that’s all, I think we’re going to sit now.”

“Of course!” Gummigoo jumped up, trying to force another smile. “I’ll call ya order when the name’s ready. I mean, I’ll… have a nice day, miss.” He touched the brim of his hat, more out of instinct than any attempt to be charming.

She nodded, or rather her hat and part of her forehead visible did, and the three shuffled off towards the back of the dining room. Pomni looked briefly over her shoulder at Gummigoo. He awkwardly held up his hand in a frozen wave, but she jolted and turned back to the lads.

Gummigoo heard the faint ding of the order being received in the kitchen – he realized he didn’t take any payment and decided that Gangle could dock the meal cost of it out of his imaginary paycheck. It wouldn’t matter after today, anyway.

He had to talk to them. Talk to her. He might be able to jog something in her memory. She wasn’t an NPC, so something had to give.

But he had to wait for the right moment to do it. At least the breakfast rush had quieted to nothing, as the lunch menus were to be set soon. The ice cream machine had melted its contents, but it had mostly gone into the catch at the bottom. He glanced back into the kitchen. Zooble and Jax were busy at their stations, and Ragatha was… well, smearing butter pats onto a piece of lettuce.

Gangle was nowhere in sight, thank God.

Gummigoo couldn’t just walk up to their table. It’d be too obvious. His mind raced with ideas, and he glanced up at the foam tile ceiling.

That could work.

He turned to his left, scaling up the blank wall– surprisingly, his gummi texture managed to stick to the drywall, and Caine’s supposed nonslip shoes seemed to do better sticking to non-floor surfaces than anything else. He crawled up onto the drop ceiling, the room now inverted, and yet no one had really noticed.

“The gummi gators are on the ceilin’ now,” Ragatha groaned from the order pickup rack. “Or am I on the ceiling? I think I am… oh, man, the headrush is gonna kill me…”

Well, no one that was sober, anyway.

His hat somehow remained on as he scurried across the ceiling towards the distant table where Pomni, Max, and Chad were seating themselves, currently engrossed in conversation. He positioned himself almost directly over their table.

So, now that he was here, he wasn’t sure what the next step of this ‘plan’ of his was going to be. For now, he had to struggle to view his mates from upside down.

“What did I tell you about those online reviews. The employees are high as kites here,” Pomni was saying to Max. “Though I didn’t expect it to be so blatant.”

“That means the food might be good, right?” Max replied. “If they’re off their rockers, maybe we’ll get something more interestin’ than standard Spudsy’s slop. Or at least bigger portions.”

“Fair point, there, I guess.” Pomni leaned back in her chair. “We’ll see. If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you, babe.”

If shock could cause Gummigoo to fall off the ceiling, he would’ve done so now.

“I forgot, Pomni!” Chad exclaimed. “The kitchen worker distracted me, but I wanted to ask for a kid’s meal toy.”

“But you’re not a kid,” Pomni said. “Can’t you just go up and ask…” She leaned over to see the empty counter. “Huh. Where’d he go?” She turned back to Chad.  “Anyways, talk to whoever takes his spot, assuming they aren’t spending the rest of the day in back inhaling the aerosol from the whipped cream cans.”

Gummigoo was still frozen in place above them, slightly worried now. If he was gone too long, someone was bound to notice. Probably Gangle. He could feel his hat loosening from the top of his head. Why did physics have to kick in now? It had to be the weight of that damn visor.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Chad said. “That’s why Max propped ya up for the order.”

“Ya are short enough to fake being an ankle-biter,” Max said.

“Y’know, if it’s that much of a hassle, I should ask for an adult toy, then,” Chad pondered.

“I… don’t know about that one. Might want to rethink the phrasing a bit there.” Pomni drummed her fingers on the table.

Gummigoo’s hat finally slipped off. He frantically tried to grab it, his fingers brushing its brim just briefly, before escaping his grasp. It floated down onto their table with a soft plop, a middle finger to his efforts to remain hidden.

“Oh, look!” Chad said, beaming and picking it up. “Ask and ya shall receive.”

Gummigoo was struggling to get his arm to stick back to the drop ceiling, flailing it about and failing to catch hold. He could feel his other limbs slowly becoming unstuck.

“What kind of toy even is that?” Max muttered to Pomni.

One of the nonslip shoes decided to slip free from the ceiling tile, and Gummigoo tried to push himself back into it. His movements were probably making things worse, but it was inevitable now.

Pomni squinted slightly. “A Spudsy’s hat, I suppose. I thought they usually cheaped out with paper ones for the kids.”

“Must be a promo for the new management,” Chad replied. “I’m sure if we ask, we’ll fig – ”

A blur of green, yellow and brown crashed against the end of their table and sprawled out across the floor.

The jester and the gators yelped, sliding back from the table as fast as they could, and as bits of drop ceiling foam floated about him, Gummigoo pushed himself up on his elbows, groaning lowly.

“Are you…alright, mister?” Pomni asked, staring at him, wide eyed. She glanced at the ceiling. “What were you doin’ up there?”

“Cleanin’ the ceilin’.” Gummigoo answered, sitting upright now and rubbing the back of his head.

“That’s a thing now?” Chad asked Max.

“Can I…like help you or something?” Pomni said. “Or either of my mates here?”

“I just…wanted to say hi again. Apologize for the…uh, er, awkwardness from earlier.” Gummigoo blinked rapidly, partially from nervousness and partially from the dust stuck into his eye. He tried to give a smile that wasn’t a grimace through the dull pain of his impact, and his stubby tail wagged slightly. Hopefully he looked friendly enough.

She stared at him. “Have we met before?”

His heart sank. “I…maybe once.”

“’Cause, I don’t recall meeting you. Sorry.”

“Well, I met you once before, honest.” His already slipping grin was fading fast, and he wondered how he could even begin to explain, well, anything. “I mean, before today, I mean, um…,” he chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh, great, another one,” Pomni muttered. “Uh, just so we’re clear, I got a boyfriend,” she reached over and grabbed Max’s hand, “so if that’s what you’re after, you can stop now.”

The tone in her voice had turned hostile, and he knew he was losing whatever opportunity he had to talk to Pomni by the second.

Gummigoo jolted, panicking slightly. “I’m sorry, no, no, no, I’m not askin’ ‘bout that! But uh, good onya both.” He turned slightly to Max. “Didn’t know ya had it in ya, mate.”

“Uh, cool, thanks.” Max said, eyes narrowing in confusion. “I’ve never met him either, Pomni. Who even are ya?”

That stung just as much as Pomni’s inability to recognize him.

“I…don’t know anymore,” Gummigoo said slowly.

“GUMMIGOO!” Gangle clambered over several tables to approach the gummi crocodile, her ribbons wrapping and vaulting over the chairs to land in front of his face. “Stop scaring our customers!” She turned to the table. “I am so, so sorry for our employee’s behavior today. I can give you a voucher for anything you want today, good to use at any Spudsy’s location!”  

She seized Gummigoo’s hat out of Chad’s hands and planted it on his head with a few pats. He could feel the restrained force behind them, and he just knew Gangle was trying to contain her anger. “Come along now, let’s get back to work.”

“Can I get a toy out of that?” Chad asked.

“Sure thing, buddy!” Gangle laughed, before snapping back to Gummigoo, pulling him upright and spinning him about. “Can you come with me, now, Gummigoo. You’re needed on the register – there are customers waiting to be served!

It was a command, not a question. Gummigoo glanced behind Gangle towards the counter. It was a veritable ghost town there.

“Uh, no.”

Gangle’s eye twitched, but she still maintained that wide smile. “Pardon?”

“Ya heard me.”

“I did, but it wasn’t ‘Sure thing, Gangle. I’m on it!’, or ‘Yes ma’am!’ or anything close to that.” She laughed. “It sounded like insubordination to me.”

“Gangle, it’s Pomni, and my mates.” He gestured in their direction. “I need to talk to them, for at least another minute. No one’s even over there! It’s not like any of this is real, anyways.”

He realized he had said too much in front of his mates, but before he could try to correct himself, Gangle raised herself to her full height, staring him right in the face, hovering an inch from his snout.

“So, none of this is real? Are you saying my authority isn’t real?” One of her eyes was twitching.

“I didn’t say that,” Gummigoo said, nervously sweating.

“But you implied that,” Gangle said, her voice a gentle tone. He could just feel something stirring below it. “If nothing here’s real, then my position isn’t real, and neither is my authority. I’ll let you know, it very much is.”

 He blinked, and Gummigoo found himself standing back at the register. He hadn’t even registered moving through the restaurant. He was shaking though, and he wasn’t sure exactly what Gangle had done, but he felt relieved his mind had blocked it out.

“You can have plenty of time to talk to them later, off the clock,” Gangle said sweetly.

“But… but I need to speak with her. She doesn’t remem-” Gangle stuck a ribbon up.

“Pomni knows how things work around here, Gummi. She might not be at the circus anymore, but she’ll stick around to chat.”

“You haven’t handled what happened to Pomni very well, have ya?” he said quietly.

For a moment, Gangle faltered but went right back to her energetic expression. “I’ve taken it all just fine. Sounds like your hangup with Pomni is a problem that you need to handle off the clock! I mean, look at my hangups and how I deal with them!”

“Like what?”

“Oh… like how I hate that ice cream machine there, but I still cleaned its latest temper tantrum without question. I just take my anger out on it afterhours.” Gangle laughed wildly. “Now, it’s time to switch the POS system to its lunch settings!”

She pumped a ribbon fist in the air.

Gummigoo groaned, as he tried to find the commands to change the settings. “I can find a POS, for sure,” he muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, Gangle.”

“Gumgoo,” Ragatha mumbled, coming around the corner with a tray that had to be the mates’ order. “I just saw Pomni. She’s datin’ the short gummi gator now. When did that happen?”

“I don’t know…” He stared over at their table, where Max and Pomni were currently rubbing their noses together. Or at least the gator-jester equivalent of that.

“I oughta say hi to her. I wanna know why she just goes off with the NPCs now. First you, and your friend – she’s got a type, righ’?”

Gummigoo didn’t feel that warranted an answer, but he had to stop the ragdoll from making it worse. “Rags, ya just got to get back to the grill, or somethin’. I got the tray –”

“Uh, no,” Gangle swooped in, taking the tray from his hands. “You need to man the register, bucko. The rush is going to be here any minute, and I can’t afford to have you chitchat with customers that aren’t ordering food. And I have to give them a voucher on top of it. Upper management’s going to be very testy with me in next week’s meeting, Gummi.”

“Some girls just get all the luck, don’t they?” Ragatha sniffed, once Gangle was out of earshot. “No one fawns over me like that…”

When Gummigoo didn’t answer, Ragatha sulked back off to the kitchen, but his eyes were elsewhere. Gangle was walking the food over, chatting all friendly to the mates, and she was now presenting them with a giant paper voucher and some brightly colored trinket for Chad. Gummigoo hoped that he’d catch any of their eyes.

Pomni’s head turned in his direction, and his heart jumped into his throat, his stubby tail wagged, but before their eyes could meet, the vestibule doors swung open with their opening chimes. The closing door tone never came.

The lunch rush was on.

“It’ll be over soon,” he muttered through a clenched jaw.

---

Lunch was every bit as busy as breakfast, possibly more so. Gummigoo kept trying to keep his eye on Pomni and the lads, but his gaze would be torn away by another demanding order, another request for more napkins or sauce or a forgotten item. Or the ice cream machine deciding to fail once again and needed tweaking.

He tried to catch Pomni’s eye again, but he was certain she wasn’t looking in his direction purposefully. He didn’t blame her in the slightest.

He was a right drongo, that was for sure. Probably throw in creep, too.

The line was being held up currently by a mannequin eating cereal, rather than ordering, and after a moment of questioning, Gummigoo stopped trying to get the blighter to do anything. Instead, he took the opportunity to observe – it was a nice loophole. Technically he was working, the customer was just taking their time, and he didn’t wanna rush him, right?

“Ya can leave the queue any time ya want, mate.”

The mannequin responded by chomping loudly on another bite of cereal, sending flakes onto the counter and the floor.

He exhausted all his options. Gangle couldn’t complain.

Sighing, Gummigoo draped himself over the register, sullenly watching his mates and Pomni talk and eat. They had used their voucher somehow, probably through Gangle, and were halfway through lunch now – of course, they had taken quite a lot off the menu, and from the occasional pointed look from a passing Gangle, she was going to dock him points for that. Certainly his paycheck was in the cards.

Not that it mattered. Whatever punishment Caine had in mind for poor performance could never match this.

A massive red blur suddenly blocked his view of their table, and the mannequins in line shrieked in terror as they were devoured. Gummigoo jolted upright, pushing himself off the counter to run. A monster attack in another adventure certainly wasn’t in his mind – he’d briefly thought of hurtling over the counter to grab his friends and Pomni. It’d be easier to convince them to go with him if there was a monster pursuing everyone –

“Three hundred cheeseburgers for my precious spawn!” the creature bellowed.

Gummigoo felt a twinge of disappointment. The adventure wasn’t going to go off in a new direction after all. One of the creature’s spawn, a bright purple moon with a blank, gormless expression, hopped up onto the counter, and he could see more of them, 3-d blocky shapes with rounded edges and cartoony faces, scattered throughout the restaurant. There had to be more of them floating around somewhere, and from how some of them were trashing corners of the dining room, he’d have to clean up after them too at some point.

“Oh, uh, crikey.” He wondered how long that was actually going to take. It would probably take the kitchen crew the rest of the afternoon. “Sure, any special requests –”

A cluster of colorful movement behind the creature caught his eye, and his heart leapt into his throat. Chad, Max and Pomni were making their way to the exit door, still talking and laughing about whatever conversation they were still on. The monster hadn’t even disturbed them.

He started to panic again, and he spun about peering between gaps in the machinery. No sign of Zooble – they must be in back getting more supplies, Jax was still trapped at drive-thru, and Gangle was still absent, but observing somewhere, as always.

He spied Ragatha, currently loading more fries one by one into the deep fryer.

She’d have to do, he thought guiltily.

“Uh, hey, Rags, can ya watch the register for a tick?” Gummigoo called out. “I’ll be right back!”

“Oh, sure, I’m on my way now.” Ragatha slurred, stumbling into every piece of equipment on the way to the counter.

He didn’t wait for her to arrive, excusing himself quickly from the creature and hurrying towards the doors.

“W-Wait!” He had almost shouted that word, and it even caught him by surprise.

Pomni and the lads turned to look at Gummigoo as he approached them, their faces becoming tense again.

Gummigoo could feel his nonexistent stomach knot, and he gripped his hands together tightly.

“Yes?” Pomni asked. Max and Chad were hovering fairly close, and he could see Chad brandishing a Spudsy’s branded ball in a cup – the bright blue plastic failing to look menacing to Gummigoo.

It seemed he got his toy after all, at the very least.

“Hey, I…I just wanted to say sorry for earlier,” he said slowly. “Givin’ ya lot a fright an’ all that. I thought you all were…somebody else. Just looked like people I haven’t seen in a while.”

The three relaxed somewhat, but there was an awkward silence that hovered for several agonizing seconds.

“Apology accepted, I guess,” Pomni said finally, “What do you think, boys?”

“Eh, good enough for me,” Chad replied. “Hey, Pomni, I’m gonna go fire up the truck and move it closer, ya wanna hand over the keys?”

“Sure,” she tossed them over, fishing them out from somewhere, “but remember, I’m driving.”

Chad nodded. “Just shout if ya need help.”

“You can go too, Max,” Pomni said. “I can handle myself.”

The purple gator was still eyeing Gummigoo warily. “Sure… but I’ll be right outside.”

Slipping his hand from Pomni’s, Max stepped outside of the vestibule, followed by a thunk on the glass, as he pressed his face against the glass of one of the plate glass windows.

Pomni and Gummigoo stared at each other for several seconds, and she scuffed her shoe against the tile, clearly uncertain about what the next step was.

To be fair, neither did he.  

“Hey…” Gummigoo said slowly, leaning forward to try to close the gap as much as he could, “I…I  just wanted to…”

She looked up at him, her face completely puzzled. She still couldn’t even recognize him, and for a moment, he thought of spilling everything that had ever happened between them. But it wasn’t like she’d believe him. It sounded absolutely mad, even in his head. Out loud, it would be even worse.

And on the slim chance she did buy it, she’d be yanked out of whatever dream she currently was living and brought back into the madcap world of the Circus. And what if Caine sent her back again? Even worse, she’d finally crack from the realization of what had happened to her, and she’d –

No. He couldn’t force it.

He glanced back at the counter. Ragatha was currently trying to maintain a conversation with the Gloink Queen, but flopping aimlessly across the counter. Gangle would notice soon, and he didn’t want the ragdoll to get in trouble for deserting her station.

There would be other chances to speak to Pomni, perhaps on a better footing. He could only hope.

“I…I hope you have a nice rest of your day,” Gummigoo said, forcing his maw into a pleasant model-customer-service smile. “Thank you for choosing Spudsy’s. Come again soon.”

Pomni’s face was full of some sort of pity, sadness, and confusion, and he was certain there was something, a ghost of a memory, just trying to connect behind those pinwheel eyes. But she blinked, and the assumed moment was gone.  But the last of her previous apprehension had broken, and she gave the smallest smile.

“Well, have a good day mister.” She had wrapped her hand on the door’s handle. He expected her to say nothing else now. He squeezed his eyes shut for a just a moment, trying to capture the last image of her face, something more positive than a burst of confetti –

“Gummigoo.”

The door chimes tinkled as it swung shut, and she was gone, back out into the parking lot and her fake outside world.  His brain had gone numb to try to stifle his emotions and he was not going to start tearing up in front of the customers –

Wait…. she remembered his name?

Eyes snapping back open, Gummigoo craned his neck, watching as she and the lads walked back to the truck, resuming their previous conversation, linked arm in arm. He hoped that she’d turn about to glance back at his sorry self just staring out the window, but she never looked back, instead watching Chad fail at playing with his cup in a ball toy.

His brain finally connected to his legs, and he started for the vestibule doors, his head already pounding with the idea of him tearing across the parking lot and asking how she’d remembered him and if she’d remember everything, and oh my God, there’s so much he wanted to say to her –

Gangle and Caine’s employee evaluation be damned, he was going out there.

He reached for the handle and yanked the door open. A glinting flash reflecting off the glass of the exterior vestibule door just beyond made him pause for a second, hand frozen on the handle.

The small shiny plastic name tag, with ‘Gummigoo’ still at its slightly crooked angle, had caught the light.

Oh. That was it.

Idiot.

Pomni didn’t remember him at all.

Dazedly, he stepped back, letting the door swing shut. Just a couple dozen feet away, Max had scooped up Pomni and was twirling her about the parking lot, and it would’ve touched him if he hadn’t known how artificial it was. In fact, how did he even feel about that?

There was a weird feeling in his chest, some sense of loss for all of his mates that he couldn’t just place. They were, after all, the three people that he had known best, and now they were absolute strangers to him.

He kept watch as Pomni hopped into the cab of the syrup tanker – looking absolutely out of place with the rest of the environment with its candy materials, its green spikes still sticking out of its body. Every moment, he hoped that maybe they turn back, and come rushing in and they’d all embrace and probably group weep, and of course Gangle would tell them off, and he’d just tell her exactly what he felt, censor bars or not.

With a muffled roar, the tanker accelerated, rolling towards the entrance of the Spudsy’s lot. Every second was agony – and he internally begged for the tanker to stop. Instead, it turned left, and he watched it speed away, never once showing any hesitation. It eventually vanished from sight – whether it hit the draw distance and vanished or just despawned, he didn’t know, and he didn’t want to think about it anymore.

He didn’t really want to think about anything. Them, this stupid job, the inane customers, the other circus people, just nothing. It was like he had let go of a safety line, just watching it drift away from him. As much as he wanted them back, he was going to have to let them go.

And that filled him with a hollow emptiness.

He turned around, slowly walking back to the front counter, where Ragatha was still deep in conversation with the creature.

“So how many Gloinks are there, altogether? Is there a Gloink King too?” she mumbled, her arms propping her head up, her knees sliding slowly across the floor, shoving the nonslip mat under the machinery counter.

“Well – ” the Gloink Queen began to say (so that’s who the others had mentioned before, Gummigoo realized), but upon seeing Gummigoo, leaned towards him fixedly. “That was a bit more than a tick, young man. This poor woman here’s on her last legs – she shouldn’t be working in front!”

“Rags, I’m back,” Gummigoo shook her shoulder gently. “Ya can head on back and get started on the order.”

“Of course, when things get interessin, I gotta go,” Ragatha said, shuffling back to the kitchen, though she weakly finger-gunned the Gloink Queen. “But yes, I’ll take a look at that blog you run. Being mom to a lotta kids got to have some interestin’ stories, for shure…”

Gummigoo punched in the last few special requests on the cheeseburgers. Ragatha had tried, but her handwriting had gone all over the notepad, and it took longer than expected.

The Gloink Queen was alternating between lecturing Gummigoo on proper break times for employees and uncomfortable facts about the biology of Gloinks, but he let wash over him, barely nodding his head and a few yes ma’ams here and there. All he could think about was how his mates didn’t remember him at all, and how worthless he truly was, even here in the Circus. He was just another NPC, easily replaced in their memories, and a rogue one at that. He shouldn’t even be here.

And thinking about how interchangeable their memories and base relationships were was setting him on edge.  Were the people he interacted with even the same Max and Chad he had ran with? Was that even the same Pomni? Who knew what happened when a human was removed from the Circus?

“Hey Gummigoo,” Gangle’s cheery voice came from behind him.

He groaned. “Yes, Gangle?”

“A little Gloink told me you left your station to flirt with the customers again, and left Ragatha to fend for herself. We can’t have that kind of low standard at Spudsy’s. Teamwork means sacrificing your own happiness sometimes!”

“What’cha goin’ to do about it?” Gummigoo muttered. “Ya can’t punish me until after the adventure’s over, remember?”

“I have my ways.” She sidled around him. “Unfortunately, Jax is back in training, and it’s a one person program, but I think I found a role for you.”

Gummigoo’s eyebrows climbed upwards at Jax’s name. Whatever this training program was, it sounded ominous, and he quietly expressed gratefulness that Jax was unlucky to fall into Gangle’s crosshairs first.

“You’re off register today – I’ll handle the dinner crowd and split the tasks with Zooble and Ragatha!” She beamed at him. “Isn’t that great!?”

“Uh, sure,” Gummigoo said. “What am I supposed to do now?”

Gangle escorted him to a side corner of the kitchen, near the back exit, and yanked open a small metal hatch in the floor. The horrid smell of oil and old grease made him retch.

“You get to scrub out the backup grease trap! Isn’t that fun!?”

“No, not really.”

“Well, you should’ve seen it yesterday before it was pumped out! You got off easy, Gummi. You can think about why you’re cleaning this and apply that lesson the next time you hit on a customer!”

He sighed. “I wasn’t hitting on anyone, and it wasn’t just a customer, Gangle. It was Pomni. You know that.”

“Who it was doesn’t matter, Gummi.” Gangle’s face was scrunched up from the giant smile on it. “A customer is still a customer.”

For just a second, Gummigoo could see nothing but red, and he wanted to snatch that stupid mask off and throw it into the grease trap, but he exhaled, knowing quite well that it wasn’t the solution there.

“It must be nice, Gangle, to just turn off your other emotions like that. I’d love to just not think about what happened to Pomni, but unlike you, I can’t just put on a piece of plastic and act like my life’s wonderful when things get rough. This fake happy all the time rubbish is drainin’, and you’re suffocatin’ me. D’ya even have feelings other than self-wallowin’ and this?”

Gangle flinched, but didn’t say another word and turned away. For just a moment, he wanted to go over and apologize. He wondered if he had managed to upset her. Well good, he thought, pulling on some gloves from a nearby cupboard. She needed something like that all day.

It still hurt him that he had said that, but the grease scrubbing was keeping that sympathy down.

---

At long last, his break arrived, and Gummigoo staggered out the back door into the cool evening air. He could still smell the grease on him, and he hoped that it wouldn’t follow him back to the Circus.

“You holding up okay?”

He turned around to see Zooble sitting on the curb, holding what looked to be a cigarette.

“Want a drag? It’s bubbles, by the way,” they said. “Caine wanted us to go to murderous cannibal butcher land, but smoking’s a no go here. I had to smuggle these out of the manager’s desk. Contraband, apparently.”

He shrugged. “Why not?” He sat down next to them on the pavement, mumbling a thanks as he took it and blew a few small bubbles out.

“It’s odd, how the motions and sensations feel the same, but it really does nothing,” Zooble murmured. “Used to go through a lot of these, back in the real world. But I don’t get anything from them anymore.”

“Perhaps we should ask Rags what she got,” Gummigoo replied, handing the cigarette back to Zooble. “Seems to be still kicking her just as hard as it did this mornin’.”

“Yeah, I guess.” They sighed, taking another drag off the cigarette. “She went off on Gangle too while you were in that trap, so she’s got some cognitive awareness.”

At hearing the word awareness, Gummigoo frowned, slumping forward. “You saw the whole thing, didn’t you?”

“Bits and pieces – Gangle was riding me most of the day, and with Ragatha and Jax not being terribly useful, it was hard to keep track of what was happening in the front.”

“Are we gonna talk about it?”

“About Pomni?” Zooble turned their head to him. “I dunno. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I…” Gummigoo hesitated for a moment, and then the words started pouring out. “I was so close, Zooble, I just know it. But I then I mucked it all up and pushed her away. Same with the lads too, they didn’t even recognize me in the slightest! And I was with them in our fake memories for years. I had hoped that somewhere, they still had them – after all, they’re still joined at the hip.”

“And they didn’t. I never existed to them – any of them.  All I can think about is how easily replaced I am, how forgettable, and yet, she rescued me. Brought me to a place where I might actually get to be somebody, and for that,” his voice hitched, “I just traded places with her. And every time I looked at her in there, I just saw what was supposed to be me, my position in this whatever it is. I harmed her, Zooble, and there’s not going to be another chance like before to pull her back.”

“I sort of get the feeling,” Zooble said quietly. “The putting someone in harm’s way part, not the eternal NPC digital damnation part.”

“Thanks for that, Zooble,” Gummigoo said, taking the bubble cigarette back.

“It’s my fault for giving Gangle that mask – I thought I was doing some good there, but, uh yeah, you can see what today’s been. Maybe if we didn’t have that mask, you might’ve gotten through to them.”

“Like you could’ve known how, uh, extra, Gangle was going to be,” Gummigoo said. “I don’t blame ya in the slightest, for what little it’s worth.”

Zooble couldn’t smile, but he could see the thankful expression in their eyes.

“And neither you nor Pomni knew what was going to happen when she invited you back to live with us.” Zooble leaned back. “I don’t blame you for what happened. And I’m sure Pomni feels the same way, under all of the brainwashing or whatever it is.”

“I s’pose that’s what it is.” Gummigoo took another drag. “Thanks, Zooble. It’s nice to know that ya lot don’t hate me.”

They were quiet for a minute, the distant ambient sounds of invisible road traffic and crickets filling the void.

“You know, speaking along that line… when Gangle does come snap back to reality, it’s going to be a bit messy,” Zooble said. “And I’m gonna be there to pick up the pieces. She’s going to need all the help she can get.”

“D’ya want help with that?” He scratched the back of his head, handing Zooble the cigarette back. “I don’t know if she’d like that. I wasn’t exactly gentle with my words back there.”

“Why not? The more people that can reassure her that we don’t hate her, the smoother that aftermath’s going to go. Gangle’s going to feel pretty isolated for a while.”

“You’ve been down this route before?”

“Not to this degree, but yes.” Zooble straightened one of the pieces of their head. “It’s a cycle with her. But at this point, we’ve gotten her to accept that the past things, uh, happened and try to make amends. It’ll be the same with this one too.”

“Sounds like somethin’ I should do too,” Gummigoo said. “And honestly, maybe I should try handlin’ one situation at a time.”

Zooble glanced at them. “Are you referring to…?”

Gummigoo nodded. “If Pomni managed to come back to her senses today, I don’t know how well it would go. It’d be a bit too much goin’ on, too soon and I don’t think I could help her recover as much as I could, with the state of my own mind righ’ now.  Feels awful saying it, but maybe for now she’s just happy being unaware.”

“And if you got to see her this soon, perhaps you’ll run into her soon enough. Seems to be a limited library of NPCs that Caine has if he’s trotting out your buddies and… whatever Pomni’s classified as.”

He glanced at the twilight sky – the few greyish-white clouds turning a dull pink. The electric lamps in the parking lot sprung to life, bathing the cement in pools of LED white.

He hoped that somewhere out there, that Pomni was doing okay. She had to be. She was with his mates, and if they were all together, it couldn’t be that bad. He did wonder again where they were going off to after visiting the restaurant – he had missed any conversation like that. Just imagining them driving off to somewhere that wasn’t here, the image of the tiny jester handling that rig made him snort slightly.

“What’s so funny?” Zooble asked.

“The next time I get to see Pomni, I’ll have to ask how she drives that rig, if it comes back with her,” he said. “Nothing inside that cab was adjustable.”

“Didn’t you take that truck out from under the map?”

“Yep, but we glitched it out. Pomni only turned over the ignition - ”

The back door banged open, and Gangle’s head poked out. “Oh, Zooble, Gummi! Your breaks have been over for several minutes already – Jax and Ragatha are on their last legs! Let’s get those legs moving and crush that contraband!”

She smiled just as brilliantly as she had done earlier, but Gummigoo could see large lines forming under her eyes, and her voice wavered just slightly.

“I’ll have you both inventory the meat freezer if you don’t move it!” she exclaimed. “And there’s a lot of small sausages that need to be individually counted!”

Her head vanished again; the door clanging shut.

“Every time I start feelin’ bad for her, she does somethin’ like this,” Gummigoo said, mildly exasperated. “I know it’s not her fault, but…”

“…I get it.” Zooble crushed the cigarette under their shoe. “What time do you get off?”

It was an odd, random question, and Gummigoo cocked his head.

“Just asking, I’m off at 9. Same as Jax.”

“I’m technically closin’,” Gummigoo sighed. “But Gangle’s the last one out.”

“Do you want to swap timecards?” Zooble asked. “Like I’ll clock out for you, and you clock out for me? I doubt the system will know the difference. I’ll stick around to make sure Gangle gets out okay.”

“Sounds like a fair dinkum trade to me.”

Zooble blinked. “I’m gonna need a glossary or something, Gummigoo, if I’m ever going to understand you.”

---

Gummigoo was slumped on the register again, burned out from cleaning up the dining room. So much trash in random corners and hidey holes, weird stains on every surface, and furniture scattered about that needed to be organized and stacked. The tiles and windows had to be washed clean of every fingerprint and grease splat, and all he knew was that the kitchen had it worse. 

How did people do this every day, he didn’t know. He never wanted to do it again.

The ice cream machine whirred suddenly, letting out a ghastly noise like water backing up a drain.

“Don’t ya dare, ya blighter,” Gummigoo muttered aloud.

The machine quieted down, the empty dining room falling into silence again.

“Um, thanks?”

Gummigoo had to ponder if his NPC status gave him some connection to electronic/mechanical devices, even the simulated fake ones. He’d rather not have that ability, thank you.

“Oh, hey Gummi.” Jax flopped onto the counter, his voice drained of nearly all emotion. ‘Who’re you talking to?”

“No one,” Gummigoo mumbled. “My people, probably,” He gave a derisive snort, waiting for his response.

Jax remained silent, staring straight ahead to the outside world. The only sounds came from the kitchen machinery and the clock ticking away above Gangle's office.

“How’s your day goin’?” the rabbit asked dully.

“It’s been a weird one, mate,” he answered, before blinking in realization. “Why d’ya care, anyways? Thought I was just a mindless NPC to ya.”

“I don’t know. It’s been a weird day all around.”

Gummigoo followed his gaze to the reflection of the kitchen clock in the plate glass.

“I’ve got a few minutes left, thank God.” The irritability in Jax's voice was appearing again. “And the sooner this adventure ends, the sooner things will return to normal.”

“We’ll see ‘bout that for me,” Gummigoo dragged a finger along the Formica. “Caine’s probably goin’ to turn me into confetti.”

“Eh, doubt Caine’ll do much to ya. He’s not exactly a threat, if you’re worried about the evaluation. Caine's not exactly all there, if you've noticed. What happened to Pomni was a fluke..." Jax stood back upright, still leaning on the counter. "...Anyways, he needs us more than we need him. His little appointed dictator’s a bigger problem – but she’s at least sad again. Shame that it didn’t happen earlier. Might’ve made life easier.”

“Sure could’ve. What was that trainin’ that she put ya through?”

“You don’t want to know.” Pushing off the counter, Jax began shuffling back towards the timecard machine.

Gummigoo settled on the countertop, watching as Jax stormed out a few minutes later. “Sure has been a weird day.”

He didn’t feel like leaving yet, and turned back into the kitchen, stepping over Ragatha. The ragdoll was sprawled on the floor, gazing at the ceiling tiles in awe.

“Oh, Gummi, you got to see this,” Ragatha giggled, “The ceiling tiles are like…stars or something.”

“Maybe later,” Gummigoo said, and he approached the back of the kitchen.

“Hey, Gangle, Zooble, d’ya want any help?” he said. “I’ll still clock ya out if that’s what you want.”

Gangle nodded, still standing in the office doorframe. “Go ahead…”

“Yeah, clock me out too, Gummi,” Zooble replied. “I wouldn’t care, but y’know, Caine’s evaluation and all.”

“Sure thing.”

The cleanup assist in the kitchen took a bit longer than expected, especially since Ragatha needed some assistance with just existing. Everything that had been used needed to be washed, dried, and replaced with new similar racks and bins for tomorrow. Gummigoo had to wonder why they did this – after all, they weren’t coming back, but every so often he glanced at Gangle, staring with a dull sadness into nothing in particular.

For a moment, he felt like saying something, but decided to save it for later. He had been hasty earlier today, and he didn’t need to rush this conversation either. There wouldn’t be any chances to restart that relationship.

Ragatha was still out of it, though she was somewhat more lucid than before, and able to do smaller tasks like wiping counters.

“When does she get off?” he asked Zooble.

“Like, in an hour,” Zooble replied.

“Maybe I should take her,” Gummigoo said, watching the ragdoll slowly wipe a stainless steel counter with a sponge. “You’ve already got yourself handlin’ Gangle.”

“I’ll just clock out her timecard with yours, then,” Zooble said. “Caine won’t be any the wiser.”

 “Is that okay, Gangle!?” Gummigoo yelled out.

“Sure…why not?” Gangle muttered, from the doorframe of the office. “It doesn’t really matter…”

An alarm beeped softly, and Gummigoo tossed the rag he was holding into a nearby bin.

“Alrigh’, I’m heading out.” He tipped his akubra at Zooble as he walked by them, and he tried to wave at Gangle, but she still stared out over the kitchen, unresponsive.

He sidled up to Ragatha, still circling the same spot with her sponge. “C’mon lass, it’s time to get outta here.”

“Why? I’m havin’ sooo much fun.” She gave a laugh. “Oh, it squeaked again. It’s adorable, isn’t it?”

Gummigoo sighed. “Sorry about this, Rags.”

Grunting, he had to pick her up, and turn her sideways to carry her, tucking the ragdoll under his arm. Ragatha was mumbling to herself, wiping the air with the sponge. He paused at the door, glancing back into Spudsy’s.

The remaining main lights flicked out, save for one near the register. It wouldn’t be too long, he hoped.

“See ya back at the Tent!”

He pushed open the door and stepped from the dimmed Spudsy’s to the patchy darkness of the parking lot, the cool night air an absolute relief compared to the stuffiness of the kitchen.

“Gummi,” Ragatha groaned. “Look at the ceiling tiles. They’re like stars…”

“They sure are…” he tried to look up, and while he could see something of a great, brilliant expanse, the streetlamp glare kept blinding him, dimming the stars from view. Typical.

He crossed over to the little line of slightly scrappy cars, their license plates marked out with their names. Placing Ragatha in the backseat of his worn sedan, Gummigoo slid into the driver’s seat. It was rather unfortunate that the car smelled like deep frier grease, but he was certain that he smelled like it too, and he hoped it would go away as soon as he got out of here.

He turned the ignition, and suddenly –

He was in Caine’s office, a bright space with slightly plain, cheap furniture and filing cabinets, not at all like the Circus tent. Odd, he thought that it would be more…colorful. He perched on his chair. At least the uniform was gone, and that stupid unremovable visor, but he could still smell the ghost of the grease in his nostrils.

Great.

“So, Gummigoo,” Caine said, slapping a file on the desk. “It was your first day ever at a fast-food place, right?”

Gummigoo nodded.

“It’s funny how some humans have never set foot in one. You people just fascinate me.” He snorted. “But enough about that, let’s get down to business here. You were a quick learner despite some hangups at the very beginning, and you handled most transactions well. A few complaints here and there – arguing with a customer, forgetting to process payments, deserting your station several times to stalk and chat up the NPCs (Gummigoo flinched) – it was getting to a point that I was going to bring in Spudsy’s police battalion to handle you.” He flipped to another sheet. “Let’s see, inappropriate use of nonslip shoes, arguing with your shift lead several times, not changing the receipt tape when it got low at day’s end, and then trading timecards with other workers so they could leave with their favorites. There’s some major points to be docked here.”

Gummigoo braced himself for the announcement of a punishment, and wondered if he would get blown into confetti, he’d somehow be reunited with Pomni and the lads. He’d probably not ever really realize that he was back with them, but it would be better to not live like this – 

“But you did take an ill co-worker home, despite it being her own clumsiness that put her in that situation to begin with, and you did apologize to those customers you stalked, avoiding an investigation from upper management.” Caine rustled the papers against his desk.

“Aren’t ya upper management?”

“I’m not the end all, be all of Spudsy’s, my dear!” He leaned in close to Gummigoo. “I’m just a little HR cog in a great machine. I don’t even know how high the chain of command goes!”

Well, that was a little disconcerting, but ringmaster never seemed to have a simple grasp of basic human emotions, so corporate structures were most likely also out of his abilities.

 Gummigoo decided that he needed to rip the band-aid off now. No point in waiting.

 “So, uh, what’s the punishment?”

Caine laughed, dragging it out a little too long for Gummigoo’s liking. “Punishment? For what? Ya got a B , my down-undah supernova!”

“Wait, how?”

“It’s just how I graded it. I just followed the rubric.”  On the corkboard, Caine slapped up a slightly blurry polaroid of Gummigoo, as it had caught him mid-fall from the ceiling, scribbling a B in pen at the bottom. The other pictures up so far, of Jax and Ragatha, were also the same grade, and their pictures just as unflattering.

Kinger had an A though, riding a digital bull in some bizarro landscape. Good for him, Gummigoo thought. At least he seemed to have more fun than them today.

He still worried about Gangle and Zooble though. They must still be closing Spudsy’s.

“Well, what are still doin’ here?” Caine asked. “I need the space to do the final evaluations. It’s a confidential environment, sorry, Gummigoo.”

He still blinked, still trying to process all that had happened today.

 “You can go hang out with your friends while we wait. Bubble’s going to prepare a feast for you all – do burgers sound good?”

Gummigoo’s mouth twitched, but he hopped up out of the swivel chair and pushed through the door, ending back up in the bright main space of the Tent. He blinked, this door had once led to a giant ball pit. He cautiously reopened it, and there it was, the ball pit. Caine’s office might as well have never existed.

This place was weird, to be put simply.

He shuffled over to the sitting area. Ragatha was blacked out, dangling off the end of one sofa, though she seemed somewhat better, and Jax grunted an acknowledgement as Gummigoo collapsed on the nearest sofa. Kinger was humming to himself, lost in his own world.

“What did you get?” Jax leaned back on the couch.

“B . So did Rags.”

“See I told ya there was nothin’ to worry about.”

Soon enough, Zooble and Gangle appeared from different doors than from what Gummigoo pushed through.

“B ?” Gummigoo asked Zooble.

“Gee, how’d you guess?” they muttered. “Gangle got it too, probably.”

In the distance, Gummigoo could see the ribbon woman hunched overly, shuffling off to hide behind a wall near the sitting area.

“I’m…I’m going to go talk to Gangle,” Zooble said quietly. “I’ll be right back.”

“So, if we all got the same grade, did the grade matter at all?” Gummigoo asked.

“Not in the slightest,” Jax grumbled, “Kinger won by not even going on the adventure. Typical Caine. Can’t even bring himself to bring Dollface down a peg even though she was a burden the whole time…”

Eventually, Zooble brought Gangle back, clutching her sketchbook, and with all four couches occupied, Gangle plopped down on Gummigoo’s, though she sat at the far end.

She was quietly sketching while the group sat there, slowly dozing off one by one. Soon it was only them left awake, and the silence was becoming overbearing.

“So…” Gummigoo said, tapping a foot on floor. “I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier today. I…shouldn’t have gone off on ya like that. Sayin’ ya can’t feel like the rest of us and all that. I’m sure ya were hurtin’ from witnessin’ that… whole fiasco when I first arrived, never mind from what came before.”

“I shouldn’t have kept pushing you to be happy all the time, and focused on that fake job,” Gangle sniffed slightly. “You were right to be angry at me, and I made you lose Pomni again.”

“It might’ve been for the best,” he said, idly waving a hand. “I was actin’ quite the galah back in there. Ya might have had to deal with Spudsy’s police force barging in during breakfast.”

Gangle blinked. “Wait, that place had that on speed dial?! If I’d known, well, Jax would’ve been in cuffs before we opened.”

“My eyes may be closed, Ribbons,” Jax mumbled, “but my ears aren’t.”

Gangle glanced downwards at her sketchbook, slightly mortified. “Well, [%!$#] me,” she muttered softly.

Gummigoo snorted. “I think that’s the first time I heard ya swear, Gangle.”

“Yeah, you might hear it more often.”

“Don’t really mind, mate.” Gummigoo took off his hat, turning it over in his hand. He slid slightly closer to her, now about halfway down the length of the sofa. “If ya need to express those emotions through it, so be it. I ain’t ‘bout to judge.”

“Er, thanks, I guess. But I’m still sorry, Gummi. I still made things worse.”

“Eh, ya might’ve kept it from goin’ worse, though it probably wasn’t always the best course of action.” He sighed. “At least I know Pomni’s alive, sort of. There’s always another chance to run into her now. And maybe,” he looked towards Gangle, “havin’ more people about than just me will break her back open.”

Gangle smiled slightly, and for a moment, he was briefly pulled back to Pomni’s similar expression. But he shook his head mentally, and he could put it aside for now. Lingering wasn’t going to do her any favors.

“I forgot, with all of the things happening, I made this.” Gangle flipped through the sketchbook. “I also wasn’t sure if it would be too soon, and it’s not fully done, but, uh.” She landed on one page.

“I was working on this.”

Gummigoo slid closer now, peering over at the sketchbook. It was a pencil sketch of Pomni, leaning up against the windowsill of the war rig, looking out at the Candy Canyon landscape.

“I had to draw it from memory, but I think I got the basic idea of it,” she rambled.  “And there’s no color, and I had you off to the left there, if you see those sketch marks there. But I wasn’t sure to keep you in, or finish it, especially with… what happened.”

Gummigoo was already sniffling, blinking back sugar tears.

Gangle deflated. “Sorry, Gummi, I shouldn’t have shown you this. I’ve gotten you all upset again.”

He wiped an eye. “It’s fine, Gangle – there’s some nice memories in these tears too. And may I ask ya somethin’?”

“Yes?” she leaned forward slightly.

He smiled at her. “I want to see the finished work when it’s done, ya hear? And I’m certain someone else would like to see it too.”

“Even if she doesn’t remember?”

“Exactly. But we won’t know unless we try every method, will we?”