currently obsessed with TADC agere stuff

Jax is many things; someone who thinks before he acts is not one of them. Even in the wake of discovering that everything in the circus is real and that it’s not all a bad dream, he struggles to take anything seriously. Pomni says it’s a coping mechanism. Zooble says it’s because he has an inferiority complex. He thinks they’re both looking too far into it. Is it so crazy to pretend that nothing is wrong in a cartoonish world that he can’t escape from? Is it so bad to push and push until he gets the explosive reaction he’s looking for in an effort to distract himself from his harrowing reality? He certainly doesn’t think so!

Unfortunately for Jax, no one else seems to agree with him, save maybe for Pomni, but even she gets tired of his antics after long enough. All this to say, it’s not uncommon for Jax to be punished for his behavior, whether that be getting scolded by Zooble or Ragatha for his behavior, or something… less ignorable. Usually those punishments are laughed off pretty easily, but this particular one… he’s pretty sure this takes the cake, save maybe for what Caine did to him after the Spudsy’s affair.

He shivers at the memory; Jax never thought Caine would turn to corporal punishment of all things, but he learned the hard way that yes, the AI is willing to spank him if he causes enough trouble. He should probably consider himself lucky that Caine hasn’t caught wind of this particular incident yet, but if it means avoiding what’s to come… actually no, f**k that, he never wants anything to do with that d*mn cane ever again. That doesn’t make this any easier to deal with, though.

“You can’t be serious!” Jax all but begs, his pupils shrinking when glaring at the others. “I thought Ragatha wanted to be his mommy or whatever, why do I gotta bathe him!?”

“Because I want to make sure the kitchen gets cleaned up the way I like it.” Ragatha explains, her smile deceivingly sweet while holding the source of Jax’s impending misery out to him.

“Then just poof it all away, we can make more dishes once baby grandpa over here gets better!” Jax insists, not so subtly refusing to look directly at the toddler.

“We have no idea how long that will take, Jax, and besides, you’re still in deep sh*t for scaring the f**k out of him earlier. We almost lost him again because of you!” Zooble snaps, not nearly as gentle as Ragatha.

Jax tries to laugh it off. “Oh, come on, it was funny!”

No one but Pomni seems to agree, the clown openly giggling at the memory. “It was pretty funny… until Kinger ran away.”

“You think it’s funny too? Then cool, you can help him with the baby.” Not missing a beat, Zooble takes Kinger from Ragatha and more or less drops him on Pomni, forcing her to wrap her arms around him so he won’t fall.

“Wait, why am I getting punished!? I didn’t even do anything!” Pomni insists, but she doesn’t try to put Kinger down or dump him on someone else, already resigned to her fate.

“You did kinda enable him to be mean.” Gangle points out, her eyes remaining on her sketchbook while she draws. It’s hard to tell from this angle, but Jax is pretty sure she’s drawing something involving Kinger, the mass amounts of purple and tan colored pencils in varying shades scattered on the table fueling this theory.

Pomni pouts, but doesn’t try arguing. Jax most certainly does.

He crosses his arms and glares at everyone but her. “I’m not doing this, end of story. You can’t make me do anything if I don’t want to!”

Zooble raises little more than an eyebrow- or at least they would if they had them- so unimpressed that it itself is nearly impressive. “…Alright.” They say, shrugging and turning their back on him.

Wait, that’s it? Zooble isn’t going to fight him on this? “Uh… yeah, you bet it’s alright! Can’t believe you’d even try to make me do it.” Jax puffs out his chest with false bravado, but on the inside he’s growing more and more uneasy, something about this not feeling right to him.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Zooble agrees, and although they lack a mouth, Jax swears he can see them smirking when they look back over their shoulder at him. “I should have known you’d do what you always do and let Pomni take the fall for you.”

Jax freezes in place, his face heating up at the underhanded accusation. He considers running away as he intended, his… friendship with Pomni be damned, but one glance at the clown, particularly her nervous expression- right, she hates being touched without initiating it- has him reluctantly sighing and taking Kinger from her, holding the toddler under his arm so he doesn’t have to look directly at him. This time Zooble’s definitely smirking, much to his chagrin. He swears, the next time he sees an in, it’s on sight.

“There we go, there’s a good bunny!” Zooble praises him like they did with Kinger when he finally tried using a spoon earlier.

“I swear to god, Zooble-” Jax growls out the warning, daring the toy to try something, anything really, so long as it gives him an excuse to make their life a living hell.

“-Well, you two have fun. Me ‘n Gangle will be in my room if you need us; only get us if there’s an emergency, capiche?” Zooble circles the table to collect Gangle while they speak, their girlfriend unable to hide a light blush.

There we go, something to poke at! Jax smirks, and even before he says anything, he can tell from the look in Zooble’s eyes that they know they’re about to regret what they just implied. “D**n Zoobs, don’t you know it’s kinda inappropriate to f**k your girlfriend while a baby’s-”

“-Oh my god, Jax!” Despite having almost no involvement in this, it’s Ragatha who’s the most offended. “Don’t say that in front of Kinger!”

Jax laughs, and continues to do so for what’s probably an uncomfortable amount of time. It’s only when he and Pomni are on their way to the communal bathroom that he stops joking around, although the alternative isn’t much better for anyone’s ears.

“I’m gonna kill Zooble when this is over,” He tells her, feeling more confident doing so once everyone else is out of earshot. Well, everyone except the little shit, but he doesn’t really count right now. “I swear to god, it’s gonna make the crap the cartel does look like an episode of Sesame Street!”

Kinger perks up at the mention of the show, but he loses interest almost immediately, too busy playing with his rubber ducky to care about much else.

Even with the toddler back in her arms- her decision, not his- Pomni still offers him a pitying wince. “You did almost scare Kinger away from everyone again.”

Jax huffs and rolls his eyes. “So? Caine said he’s done this crap before, I don’t see what the big deal is with letting him run wild. I’m sure he’ll screw around until he loses steam and passes out, then he’ll wake up and we can go back to dealing with king dementia!”

Pomni stares at him for a few silent seconds, her gaze sorrowful. Jax shivers under her scrutiny.

“It sounds like he was masking how much he was really suffering,” Pomni says, all while giving the clingy pawn in her arms a fond smile. “People can only pretend for so long before it becomes too much for them, and then all it takes is a straw to break the camel’s back.”

“She’s talking about me.” Jax averts his gaze from her, not trusting himself to maintain his composure.

It’s been a few weeks since the incident with Caine was sorted out, but that wasn’t the only near-death that Pomni had to witness. It happened just a day or so after Caine “died” and everyone was working with Kinger to go down into the void to find him, save for Jax, who caught in the midst of what he thought to be a hopeless situation, did what he thought was right and got some distance from the others, much like a sick animal when it knows death is swiftly approaching. To be fair, that’s exactly what he thought was waiting for him, even if abstractions still persist after the deed is done. He knows they aren’t really conscious, though. That wasn’t enough to stop him.

The beginning of the incident is still hazy for him, so he can’t even remember if he wanted to abstract, but he thinks it was more like a desire to run away and hide his shame and misery from the rest of the circus members, especially Pomni. Of course, that’s exactly who went looking for him just as he started to abstract in his room. She proceeded to do the most stupid and reckless thing Jax has ever heard of; rather than run or hide, or even call for help, she charged him and got caught in the building abstraction, seemingly abstracting alongside him.

Jax feels ill when remembering the incident, wishing more than anything that he didn’t have to remember it, but he does, and most frustratingly, so does Pomni. She remembers crawling around in his head in an effort to find the real him, witnessing all his darkest nightmares for if the others abstracted before him (all of them being his fault, of course). She remembers seeing the poor imitation of his fucked up family via the different versions of himself playing poker, even if she didn’t know that’s what they were, including the closest one to the real him in the corner, playing piano until Mom and Dad stop fighting. She remembers seeing every treasured and haunting memory in regards to Ribbit, every moment that built up their friendship and tore it back down.

She knows Jax isn’t a boy.

Jax still doesn’t understand why the hell she still came for him after finding out what a monster he is, but she did, and still early enough in the abstraction to fight back and with Pomni physically holding him through it, she managed to talk Jax down before it could take his sanity.

Things have been awkward since then, at least behind closed doors and away from the rest of the circus. Jax has kept his distance for the most part, much to Pomni’s concern, but he isn’t scared of abstracting again anytime soon; that one quick taste of it was enough to scare him away from ever doing something like that again. He’s let her visit him a few times since then, sure, but he hasn’t wandered out of his room too often, both to avoid Caine while he’s still getting settled back in and to better hide his secret. No one but Pomni knows he almost killed himself, and Jax would like to keep it that way, thank you very much.

He slips out of his reminiscing- more like reliving trauma; he’s pretty sure the only pleasant thing he experienced during that shit show was Pomni’s hug and compassion- when they reach the bathroom. Jax takes it upon himself to push the door open for Pomni since she’s got an armful of crazy baby or whatever the hell Kinger is at this point, letting her go in first. She flashes him a smile, that one expression enough to fluster Jax, even if it’s a silent slip-up. Right, that’s the other embarrassing thing he’s been having to grapple with, except this one is something he’s pretty sure- hoping, praying with all his might- Pomni hasn’t figured out yet.

“It’s been awhile since I babysat, much less had to wash a toddler, but it’s not that hard. The worst part is going to be all the splashing.” Pomni assures her partner in crime. She holds Kinger up to him, her gaze expectant, and as disgusted as he is by the messy pawn, Jax reluctantly takes him from her.

While she starts filling up the bathtub with water and tries to conjure up some bath toys, Jax grimaces at the brat she’s doing this for. Kinger just stares blankly back at him, still apparently not recognizing the rabbit while regressed. Annoyed as he is by the situation, Jax is human enough to pity the chess piece, knowing from experience how trapping dissociation can be. He never thought it could lead to something like this, though. Sh*t, wait, is it possible for this to happen to him too!? Kinger’s already crazy, even if he’s been mostly lucid since Caine’s death and revival, so Jax hopes he’s safe, but…

“So, uh,” Stuck with the toddler and unhappy with where his mind is, Jax tries talking to the brat, if only to pass the time and maybe even save himself from this impending hell. “This is your last chance to, ya know, grow up before me ‘n Poms have to wash you. That would be pretty humiliating, right? So… go on, do whatcha have to. I’ll even look away if that helps.”

Kinger keeps staring at him, and while the pawn doesn’t grow any larger, Jax swears he sees a hint of shame in his eyes, but that might just be him looking for the sun on a stormy day.

“He’s not going to snap out of it anytime soon, Jax,” Pomni tells him, not even looking up from the bath she’s preparing. “If he could, he would have by now. Like I said, he’s probably been masking all this time, and now that it’s been broken, he needs help putting it back together, or at least patience until he can do it himself.”

Broken masks…. Jax knows all too much about those. Not only his own, but of the many he’s broken countless times, dragging everyone else down with him. Gangle’s is more physical, easier to notice and even easier to shatter, although Jax hasn’t been able to even dent it since the incident with Caine. Zooble’s a tougher nut to crack, but a few lost limbs can send them into a rage in seconds, and if for some reason that doesn’t work, tormenting their girlfriend will. Ragatha is… Jax feels his stomach twist in discomfort at the memory of her outburst earlier. He honestly didn’t mean to push her quite that far, he was just playing with the kid, but somehow he went too far. Again.

“Why am I even upset about this?” Jax asks himself, his eyes on anything but Pomni or Kinger. “It’s not like I haven’t made her and everyone else cry before, so why the fuck do I feel so-?”

Jax is interrupted by something grabbing his jaw and yanking on it, the unknown object forcing his mouth open. He flinches away from the touch, but not enough to dislodge it entirely. He realizes why once he looks its way, finding Kinger attempting to explore his mouth with his tiny, gloved hands. Jax gags outright, quick to untangle the brat and hold him as far away as possible while he coughs at the floor. Kinger didn’t manage to put anything in there, thank god, but the thought is more than enough to disgust his reluctant babysitter.

Pomni looks up at the commotion, Jax unable to see the expression she’s making from his current angle. God, he hopes she isn’t laughing at him. “What happened?” She asks, thankfully not chuckling or anything like that. Yet. Jax won’t hold his breath… unless it’s to keep Kinger out of his mouth.

“Miniature kindling here tried to grab my f**king tongue!” He snaps, unabashedly glaring at the errant toddler.

“He’s a baby; they tend to do that,” Pomni is unbothered by it, likely as a result of her experience with taking care of kids. “Don’t worry, I’m almost done here. At least once he’s clean it shouldn’t be as bad.”

Jax is tempted to argue that Kinger isn’t a baby, he’s a forty-eight year old man, but one glance at the chess piece is enough to make him choke on it. If it were over a month ago, back before that stupid escape room adventure sent them all spiraling, it would have been easy to believe that the old man had finally lost it enough to regress into an infant, but now that Jax knows what Kinger’s really like when the lights aren’t too bright… he isn’t sure what to make of this. He wants to believe this is all an elaborate prank, but nothing has ever been “just a prank” with Kinger, has it?

By some miracle, the tub is ready when Jax nears his breaking point, Pomni giving him a thumbs up to signal as much. The rabbit makes quick work of stripping Kinger, the task made easy by the little pawn only wearing a cape and diaper wrap. Jax grimaces at the latter, relieved to find it clean, but he’s not looking forward to re-wrapping the kid after this, much less dealing with a dirty diaper. It’s… not like he hasn’t dealt with it before, but he’d much rather forget about him altogether. He’s already forgotten his name and what he looked like, it should be easy to let go of everything else, too.

If Pomni notices how upset he is, she doesn’t comment on it, simply taking off her gloves once Jax brings Kinger over and sits him in the bath. The two adults are as tense as guitar strings for a solid minute or so, waiting for the inevitable meltdown or runaway naked toddler, only to be dumbfounded when neither happens. If anything, Kinger looks relaxed, hardly paying any mind to his rubber ducky or the foam shapes Pomni managed to make, instead letting out a content sigh as he sinks into the water.

“…You know what? I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth,” Pomni says, offering the pawn a pat on the head. He doesn’t even glance at her, his eyes half-lidded and somehow more unfocused than they were before. “Let’s just get you cleaned up, alright? You look about ready to pass out.”

Jax is only half paying attention until he sees something being held out to him. He blinks a few times, realizing after an embarrassingly long time that it’s a wet washcloth. He gives his partner in crime a raised eyebrow.

“You’re the one who got us into this mess, big guy; you’re the one who’s gonna wash him.” Pomni explains, going as far as to lean away from the tub while getting comfortable on the floor beside him.

“What!? Come on, Pomni, throw me a bone here; I’ve never done anything like this before!” Jax lies, desperate to escape his fate.

Pomni raises an eyebrow at him in return, hers much more effective. “Really now? You don’t have any younger siblings?”

Jax huffs. “Do you?” He counters.

Pomni shrugs, at most sitting a little straighter, but that might just be her readjusting. “No, but I have a lot of younger cousins I was close with growing up. I have an older sister too, but she was nearly eighteen when I was born, so we didn’t really grow up together.” She explains, her expression remaining expectant.

F*ck, he’s trapped, isn’t he? Jax curses at himself for falling for this a second time at the hands of a crush, but at least this time the information they’re digging for isn’t quite so… exposing. It’s still not pleasant, though.

“I don’t really… have a younger sibling, at least not on paper,” Jax finds himself admitting, the words just sort of falling out of his mouth like droplets from a leaky faucet. “I have an older one, though. I think he’s… five years older than me? I can’t remember.”

“What do you mean ‘not on paper’?” That certainly has Pomni’s attention, and who can blame her? Jax knows he said it in a far too intriguing way, something he’s quickly coming to regret among many things, not the least of which is getting out of bed this morning.

“It’s… complicated,” Jax doesn’t look at her when explaining it, his eyes on Kinger as he begins to mindlessly clean off the pawn, desperate for a distraction that he knows in his heart isn’t effective, but at least it gives his hands something to do. “My older brother was always pretty sick growing up, I don’t remember why, I think it had something to do with his birth. He couldn’t walk and he could barely say anything. On top of that, he wasn’t… he didn’t act his age, mostly ‘cause he couldn’t, but his mental stuff sure as f**k didn’t do him any favors. I never really got to have an older brother, so I guess I kind of had a little one, even if he’s at least half a decade older than me.”

“I’m sorry you both had to go through that,” Pomni is careful with her wording, just like Jax is. “I can’t imagine it was easy for either of you.”

Jax wants to say that no, his brother never had it as bad as him, but he knows it’s a lie, a lie he isn’t willing to tell. “At least our mom liked him,” He adds after a moment despite not needing to, but again, it flows out of him, a dam that is desperate to let out just enough water that it won’t completely shatter again. “She was always so… patient with him. Even when he was loud and lashing out, she never yelled at or smacked him for it, she’d just deal with it until he wore himself out and… and then smile, like everything was fine, like he didn’t just hit me or break my sh*t, and if I got mad, Christ she’d… she’d go nuclear.”

Pomni doesn’t stare straight at him for too long, thank god, but he can still feel the weight of her gaze on him. “…I’m so sorry, Jax,” She says after a minute or so of taking it in. “It wasn’t fair of her to treat you like that. I get that she had a kid that needed special care, but… she shouldn’t have neglected you.”

Neglected. That’s an uncomfortably good word for it. In fact, Jax is pretty sure that one word can perfectly define his entire childhood.

He stares down at Kinger, the pawn practically asleep now and having to lean into the rabbit’s touch to stay upright. He looks so… helpless, like the entire world could swallow him whole. Jax remembers that a long time ago, before his father left and everything went to sh*t, he saw his brother like this; someone who needed to be taken care of and protected. It didn’t help that their parents reinforced this on a daily basis, tasking Jax with babysitting and tending to his older brother whenever they grew too tired of it, not caring one bit if Jax was tired too, he wasn’t a working adult like them, he didn’t need a break.

Jax still vaguely remembers a time before it became that overwhelming, back when he was a little kid and couldn’t be expected to pull his weight or “man up” for the family. All he had to do was tolerate his brother constantly being around, always either glued to his side on the couch or watching him from the porch while he played. It’s blurry, and none of the faces look right, but Jax remembers one of those very occasions when he was playing outside with a few other kids.

He looked back at his house for a reason he can’t recall, only to spot his brother in his wheelchair on the porch, tears running down his face. He froze in place, too young to understand everything that was happening with his brother, but not jaded enough to pretend he didn’t know he was hurting.

Jax left the other kids behind when trekking back to the house, a cheap, plastic ball with Power Rangers printed on it in his hands. He climbed the porch cautiously, having already been on the receiving end of his brother’s outbursts, but this time the older boy was quiet, his eyes locked on the child half his size just a few feet away. Jax stared right back at him, his stomach churning with anxiety.

“Uh… you wanna play?” Jax asked, his voice tiny and struggling to form words.

“Can’t.” Was all his brother could say, the movement of his mouth enough to get a few more tears rolling down his face.

Jax looked the preteen up and down, assessing him and his capabilities. His legs had never been of much use, but he knew for a fact that he could swing fairly well. Still being cautious about it, he came right up to his brother and offered him the ball.

“Throw it ‘n I’ll catch it.” Jax ordered more than asked, too deadset on making this work to allow his brother a chance to back out.

Luckily for him, his brother was all too eager to participate. Of all the moments and things Jax remembers from that day, he remembers his brother’s smile, blurry and distorted but happy enough to be clearer than anything else.

Jax ended up being right; his brother could d*mn well throw a ball, resulting in a shockingly fun hour or so spent tossing said ball back and forth, the younger of the two adding obstacles for himself and more distance to keep it interesting throughout their game. For a long time after that, Jax thought that moment was just something between him and his brother- at least for as long as his brother could remember it; he never had a very good memory- but years later, when he was looking through the attic for something he can’t remember, he found a framed photo of him and his brother while the ball was still airborne, twin grins on their faces.

He doesn’t remember seeing his mom at all that day, save for when it was dinnertime, so how did she take the picture? With the angle of it, it would have had to have been taken from the driveway, right where Dad parked his-

Oh. Dad took that picture, didn’t he?

That shouldn’t mean anything to Jax. His father made his opinion of his children very clear after the divorce, if not through his words, then by his abandonment of them, so why… why does this hit him so hard? Why should he care if his dad’s love ran out for him? Why should he care that there might have been a chance to convince him to stay, or at least to bring his youngest with him? Why should he care that his dad didn’t even take such a supposedly treasured picture with him when he left?

Jax is conscious of it when Pomni takes the washcloth from him, her hands gentle and slow, but he flinches all the same.

“Easy,” Pomni urges, gentle but firm, accepting exactly zero of his bullsh*t if he decides to go that route. “I’m sorry for talking about him, Jax… I didn’t realize what a sore subject he was.”

Jax wants to hate her for it, to blow his top and tell her to never talk to him again. He stays here instead, unwilling to be separated so soon. “You’re… fine.” He tells her after far too long a pause.

“Am I?” Pomni asks, not believing him for even one minute. She hardly pays much mind to Kinger while washing him, the job mostly done anyways; although it’s been years, Jax still remembers how to give someone a bath.

“Sure.” Jax is noncommittal, continually glancing at her just to look away before she can properly meet his gaze.

“Jax,” Pomni doesn’t leave it this time, doubling down on the intrusion, and why would he expect anything less? She knows what happened the last time she left Jax to his own devices while in such a state. “If there’s something bothering you, I’d rather discuss it than pretend you’re fine.”

“What is there to discuss?” Jax’s tone grows frustrated, his arms unconsciously crossing.

Pomni looks him up and down. “…This is gonna be a guess, but did you have to take care of your brother a lot as a kid?”

Jax is caught off-guard by the question, but he answers quickly enough. “I mean… yeah, I guess. Folks weren’t exactly rich enough to hire a nanny.”

Pomni grimaces. “What kinds of things did you have to do for him?”

“Not… I had to bathe and change him a lot, and feed him when he couldn’t do it himself, but… look, it’s not a big deal.” Jax does his own version of doubling down, or at least he thinks he does, more information escaping his mouth despite his best efforts to keep it closed.

“You’re downplaying how much you had to do, aren’t you? You shouldn’t have been forced to do so much for your brother, especially considering your age gap. I wouldn’t have wanted my mom to make my sister help raise me,” Pomni explains, the frustration in her tone palpable, although Jax knows it’s not him she’s frustrated with. “I’m… I’m sorry for making you do this.”

One of Jax’s ears twitches. “What?” He asks, pressing her for a more definitive answer.

“Taking care of Kinger,” Pomni elaborates, looking truly apologetic, unable to even meet his gaze. She uses draining the bath as an excuse to keep doing so, but she still continues the apology. “If I’d known it was a point of trauma for you, I wouldn’t have-”

“-Trauma? Come on, it wasn’t that bad.” Jax insists, rolling his eyes at the notion. Is she being serious? Plenty of people have to take care of disabled relatives, it’s just a fact of life. Sure, most weren’t as young as he was when they had to start doing so, and most had other relatives around to help, but it’s not a big deal. It’s not.

Pomni’s unconvinced. “How old were you when you had to start taking care of him?”

Jax feels his tail twitch next, the movement so quick that he barely feels it, or that might be him dissociating again. “I dunno, like, seven? I remember having to juggle doing my math homework while spoonfeeding him, but he kept smacking the spoon outta my hand and getting Jell-o all over my paper.” He can practically smell it, that specific scent of artificial lime still making his stomach churn, although he can’t recall the exact reason why.

The look of horror on Pomni’s face does nothing to ease his stomach ache. “Seven!? I thought you were gonna say twelve or something, not… Jesus Jax, you were still a little kid! Where were your… where was your mom?” She catches herself before she can mention him. A good thing too, or Jax would’ve been out the door as soon as it left her mouth.

That still gets a growl out of him, but his ire isn’t entirely with Pomni. “Probably at work or something, I dunno… why are you asking about this? Like I said, it’s not a big deal.”

“I just… Jax, I want you to know that it wasn’t right for her to put that much responsibility on you when you were still so young. That isn’t normal,” Pomni says, all while using a towel to dry Kinger off, but the pawn squirms like mad in an effort to escape. “Ah! Kinger, it’s alright, I’m just-”

“-I’ve got him,” Jax says, taking over in an instant. He takes the towel from her and catches Kinger around the waist, hoisting him out and onto the bathmat, where he quickly pats him dry with the least damp parts of the towel. “He probably hates how it feels getting rubbed with it… it’s slower, but this can work too.”

Kinger goes still when Jax grabs him, only to relax as soon as the rabbit switches strategies, no longer struggling against it. He squirms again when he’s laid down, knowing by now what’s about to happen, but Jax distracts him with one of the foam shapes in record time, as quick as his avatar would suggest when getting a new diaper wrap on the little pawn. He picks Kinger up once he’s done, standing up with him in tow. It’s faint, a phantom sensation, but when Jax stands up, he feels as if someone is supposed to be leaning on him. He never could pick him up. He had to wait for Mom or Dad to bring his wheelchair, or in the worst cases resort to dragging him.

Pomni watches on, her expression unreadable, or is Jax just unwilling to put in the effort to? He isn’t sure, the fatigue of dealing with this weird not-even-a-nightmare getting to him. He opens his mouth to call her on it, only for a long, loud yawn to come out. Jax blushes, his tail twitching anxiously while Kinger copies him, the pawn leaning his head against his chest after, his slowed breaths easing him to sleep. About f**king time.

Pomni has the nerve to giggle, the sound both grating and music to Jax’s ears. “You know… you look nice like this.” She tells him.

If Jax was flustered before, it’s nothing compared to the heat that immediately washes over him, his skin so overheated that he wonders if he’s as pink as his evil clone. “I, um, you-” He can’t get anything coherent out, his tongue heavy and of little help.

“-Easy,” Pomni says, that one word calming him in an instant. “I think it’s about time somebody took a nap.” She stands up and grabs him by the wrist as she says it, not even hesitating to touch him.

Jax glances down at Kinger, still out cold, one of his gloved hands clutching his overalls. It’s… oddly endearing. “Yeah, the tyke looks about as wiped as he’ll get.” He agrees, eager to be done with this before he starts feeling anything else that he doesn’t care to address.

“Well, yeah, but you probably could too,” Pomni explains, the smirk she gives him full of amusement. “How about we set him up with Ragatha and get some rest? I’m pretty wiped myself.”

A lot of things go through Jax’s head at once. The implication that Pomni might be suggesting they nap together. How nice it feels to be around her again. The lack of desire in him to push her away. He takes a breath, shallow but as good as he can manage. “Sure… sounds great.” He offers, proud of himself for not tripping over his words this time.

He follows her out of the bathroom, like a dog on a leash, and yet he goes willingly, unable to imagine being anything but as loyal as one, at least to her.

(Everyone and their mother has made a post like this for different circus members being regressors, but while working on my Little!Kinger fics (there’s two more in the works!) I got the idea of the rest of the circus eventually having their own regressive episodes, culminating into this, a list of headcanons I have for each one of them. I’m excluding Kinger since I already wrote out his, but I’ll link it *here* to make it easy to find if you wanna see it after reading this. Anyways, rant over, here’s some regression headcanons for our favorite band of misfits!)

(Quick note: Jax is referred to as Lilly throughout this and uses she/her pronouns. Please use those pronouns if you decide to write about her in the tags/replies!)

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Ragatha

🧸~ Her regression age ranges from around five to nine; it all depends on what triggered it/if it was an intentional regression. She’s usually older when it’s a trauma response out of a subconscious need to still have some autonomy (the chance to run and hide more effectively) while still being regressed, whereas regressing lower is the ultimate showing of trust on her part.

🧸~ Her primary caregiver is obviously Kinger, but Pomni has also filled that role quite a few times. Kinger’s her favorite by far, their history of being alone in the circus together for awhile and the bond they’ve forged feeding into this newfound dynamic, but Pomni is by no means a bad caregiver. She’s arguably better at it than Kinger- when he’s delirious, that is- but Ragatha can’t help but want her dad more 99% of the time.

🧸~ She refers to Kinger as Daddy, Pomni as Mommy, Jax/Lilly as Sissy or just her name, Zooble as Zoob/Zoobie, Gangle as Gangy/Sissy, and Caine as Bubby.

🧸~ If it’s an involuntary regression, she becomes very defensive and closed off out of fear for how other people will react, as well as to avoid any potential danger. The first time she dropped was a few weeks after finding out about Kinger’s regressive tendencies; it scared the heck out of her and she immediately went into hiding, but Kinger found her within the day and coaxed her through it, afterwards promising to look after her whenever she regresses, just as she’s done for him.

🧸~ Like Kinger, she also has the potential to unconsciously physically regress, but it’s very rare, mainly because such an extreme change would be because of a younger, more voluntary regression, which she would be more alert for, making it easier to repress. It does happen though, and every time it startles her, but luckily Kinger and Pomni have gotten good at handling her no matter the circumstances.

🧸~ Flip-flops between being a very anxious and very clingy regressor, it depends on how it started. When she’s clingy she tends to get underfoot, her desire to still help out despite her mental state making it difficult to get her to relax and just accept what’s happening. Kinger usually solves this by being firm about not letting her do any chores or tasks, instead redirecting her to play, whereas Pomni lets Ragatha help out until she’s tuckered out, after which she’ll convince her to go play or take a nap.

🧸~ Her version of “acting out” is either endearing or deeply worrying, there’s no in-between. She’s either swapping people’s pillows or refusing to eat despite not having eaten all day. No one is all that comfortable with the thought of disciplining her, especially since they know she’s often neglecting herself as a form of self-harm, so the only “punishments” she gets are a time-out with Kinger, who will try to talk her through her feelings.

🧸~ On a cuter note, she loves messing around in little ways with whoever is watching her. If they’re distracted or working on something else, she’ll do something like stare dead at them until they look her way, at which point she’ll quickly turn her head and act like nothing happened. It amuses the heck out of Kinger and never fails to make him chuckle.

🧸~ Do not leave her unattended with ingredients for a meal or art supplies; she’s clumsy as can be while regressed and is pretty much guaranteed to make a mess at some point, which always leads to the poor dear crying her eyes out in shame and fear since she believes she’ll be hurt by her mom/caregiver for it. It takes a lot of verbal comforting and reassurance to calm her down, after which she’ll only accept physical comfort from Kinger.

🧸~ She prefers regressing alongside a few other people, primarily Pomni, Lilly, and/or Gangle. With Pomni she gets to play as a big sister for her, something she takes comfort in out of a repressed longing to have had a sibling while growing up. With Lilly she gets to indulge in the friendship and playfulness that Lilly had with her before Ribbit abstracted, plus she just finds her cute as a button and much more pleasant to be around while she’s little. With Gangle her feelings are similar to what they are for Pomni, but she actually has a much easier time playing with her.

🧸~ Her favorite activities are playing simple/easy sports, playing on the beach, and really anything that’s more active and involved. She hates sitting still while regressed; she feels like she needs to be doing something at all times, at least once her anxiety lessens and she accepts that she’s regressing for the day.

Pomni

🃏~ Her regression age ranges from around three to ten, but it’s usually on the older side of that spectrum. Her regressions are most often triggered by getting a little too into playing along with an adventure, becoming overwhelmed, or even just by choice. While she’s still getting used to it, being exposed to Kinger’s regression has eased her embarrassment around it a lot.

🃏~ Her primary caregivers are Ragatha, Kinger, and Lilly, her favorite secretly being Kinger, who provides stability while still being silly and fun. Ragatha’s great in a big sister sort of way, although she can sometimes get under Pomni’s skin if she’s too pushy (usually via making sure Pomni eats and naps when she needs to). Lilly is a bit of a mixed bag; in all honesty she prefers just having her as a playmate.

🃏~ She refers to Kinger as Dad, Ragatha as Mom/Big Sis, Lilly by her name or a silly nickname, Zooble by their name or Zoobs, Gangle by her name or Sis, and Caine as Lil’ Bro.

🃏~ Regressions are almost always a somewhat conscious choice; if she feels it coming, and the situation isn’t too dire or inopportune, she won’t fight too hard to repress it. If she does try to repress it, either because she’s trying to take care of someone else or she’s in a predicament, it tends to be a very unpleasant drop once it finally happens.

🃏~ Physically regressing isn’t something she deals with too often outside of Caine enforcing it for an adventure/group regression. Sure, she can theoretically do it, but she feels plenty small already; she just doesn’t see a point in it.

🃏~ Very playful and mischievous regressor no matter the circumstances. Oh, she’s not allowed to run in the tent? Sorry, you’ll have to catch her if you want her to stop! Lilly wants a cookie but dinner is in less than an hour? What are these rules you speak of? Those are just suggestions, suggestions that she won’t abide by anytime soon. As a result she usually gets in trouble at least once per regression, leading her to be punished with time outs and chores, much to her frustration.

🃏~ If she can, she wants to regress alongside Lilly, who at that point becomes her partner in crime despite Lilly usually being a surprisingly chill regressor (more on that later). Pomni and her bounce off each other all too easily, and if they aren’t kept in check and heavily monitored, they’re bound to stir the pot and cause trouble, or at least make a mess.

🃏~ Her favorite activities are rough-housing/play fighting, tag, NERF/paintball wars, and anything else that can be described as competitive, and boy howdy is she competitive! She’s in it to win, and no one is gonna get in the way of that! …Unless whoever she’s playing with starts crying or gets upset, then Pomni “accidentally” misses or slows down enough that the other person wins. Even while small and playful, she’s still empathetic at heart.

Zooble

🎨~ Their regression age ranges from seven to thirteen, but on rare occasions they’ll regress to be a toddler. They honestly thought they didn’t have it in them to be a regressor for the longest time, but after an adventure went unexpectedly haywire in a way that was triggering for them, they came home shaky and dissociative, later learning that they regressed for a few hours after the adventure, but they don’t remember much of it.

🎨~ Their primary caregiver is Gangle; while Ragatha can sometimes talk them into letting her help, they don’t feel comfortable around anyone but Gangle while they’re regressed, making it difficult for them to trust anyone but her to look after them, although Gangle mostly just hangs out with them and enforces the rules when it’s necessary.

🎨~ They don’t talk to the others much while regressed if they can help it, but when they do, they call everyone by their names or silly nicknames if they’re feeling particularly playful.

🎨~ Physically regressing just isn’t a thing for them, like at all, save for the times Caine has implemented it on an adventure or for a group regression, which usually results in them being especially fussy and uncooperative for the duration of the experience (they’re mostly bitter about it because the first time Caine did it for an adventure was the first time they regressed into a toddler headspace, which genuinely unsettled them… even if it was kinda fun to be a little kid with Gangle).

🎨~ Teenage rebellion is pretty much the cornerstone of their regressive episodes. I headcanon that they grew up as the oldest sibling by a decent margin, and that they were forced to babysit/borderline raise their younger half-siblings while being neglected by their mom and stepdad. This culminates in their regression being an outlet for the neglected, angry teenager in them to feel like they have a childhood again, even if it’s just to play video games and act reckless.

🎨~ Regressing alongside others isn’t something they consciously seek out, it just sort of happens, and quite often in fact. Usually it’s alongside Gangle and/or Ragatha, but they do decently well with the others too, save for Kinger, whose regression has the potential to snap them out of theirs in an effort to take charge of the situation and help look after him (someone’s gotta be in charge around here, and they’re not about to leave it to Caine).

🎨~ While they’re regressing they’re still very level-headed, but with an added layer of “I don’t give a f*ck” attitude that has them mostly just watching chaos unfold instead of trying to stop it, which is quite the juxtaposition since they’re usually the quickest to intervene when shit goes south during someone else’s regressive episode. They certainly add commentary though, actively encouraging whatever is happening to continue while teasing those involved.

🎨~ Their protectiveness over Gangle is tenfold while they’re regressed, much to her amusement. If they’re not actively doing something together, Zooble will trail Gangle and try to keep her out of harm’s way, even when there’s no harm to be found, resulting in them being pretty hostile with everyone else, especially Caine and Lilly.

🎨~ Due to their poor attitude and tendency to get into actual physical fights if pushed hard enough, it’s not uncommon for them to get in trouble while regressed. Usually they’re punished with taking a nap, if only because being forced to do nothing but chores was basically their entire childhood. Gangle has joked a few times about sp*nking them since it works so well when they’re big- cue Ragatha spitting out her tea and Zooble’s whole head turning red with embarrassment- but she’s never actually punished them like that while they’re regressed.

🎨~ They have a lot of body parts that are specifically for when they’re regressed, their favorites being a big teddy bear arm and skates they can add to whatever they’re using as feet (cool skater kid vibes).

🎨~ Their favorite activities are working on art projects and playing video games, preferably with Gangle at their side. They’re open to playing with the others too, but only if they’re not too whiny or little for it, at which point they get almost as competitive as Pomni!

Gangle

🎭~ Their regression age ranges in much the same way as Zooble’s, but leaning more on the younger side, so about five to thirteen. Her regression is very much a self-care/comfort for her, and is more often than not voluntary, but every so often she has a hard enough time to drop without meaning to, which usually lands her on the older side of her regression age-slide (it’s her mind trying to still have autonomy but still make herself seem smaller and less like a target, much like Ragatha does).

🎭~ Her primary caregivers are Zooble and Ragatha, although she’s fine with pretty much anyone filling that role, save for Lilly, but she learns to trust her more once Lilly proves that she’s changing for the better.

🎭~ Like Zooble, she doesn’t change people’s names too much, other than calling Kinger Daddy/Papa and Ragatha Mom/Mommy; it depends on if she’s feeling younger or older. Everyone else is a sibling or friend.

🎭~ Troublemaking/mischievous regressor. Can and will try to pull pranks on people while she’s regressed; she grew up as an only child to very strict and reclusive parents, so it was difficult for her to ever goof around with and make friends among her peers. Her pranks are mostly harmless, but every so often she accidentally sets something in motion and loses control of it, resulting in either a huge mess or some very hurt feelings.

🎭~ Physically regressing is something that occurs more often than not, although she has much more control over it and doesn’t (usually) do it unconsciously. When she’s like this, she tends to wear magical girl-inspired clothes and anything else she finds cute!

🎭~ She really doesn’t like being alone while regressed, so she’ll either have a caregiver or trail after someone else in the circus (usually Zooble or Ragatha). She makes it a game, though; she’ll try and hide any time the person she’s following turns around, leading to a game of cat and mouse that often ends with her trying to jump out and scare whoever she’s following.

🎭~ While she’s on the younger side of a regression, she loves nothing more than to put on dress up shows and/or act out little plays with whoever she can convince to join, those usually being her caregiver(s) and whoever is in a younger headspace than her. She can be a bit fussy about how the games are supposed to be played though, so be prepared for her to be bossy as hell if things don’t go her way.

🎭~ Regressing alongside others is something she loves, especially when she’s the oldest of the regressors since it means she’ll be in charge (other than the caregiver, of course). She especially likes playing with Zooble and Pomni, but honestly she loves everyone, even Lilly (over time she starts liking Lilly the most for shared regressions; she loves getting to be a big sister to her for awhile… and also getting to boss her around)!

🎭~ Her favorite activities are (predictably) drawing, painting, sculpting, and playing pretend games. Anything that involves being creative and artistic is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with her!

Lilly

🐰~ Her regression is pretty much always on the much younger side, anywhere from a baby to a toddler, and it’s difficult to predict which she’ll be. Her regressions are never voluntary, and are either a result of her guilt overwhelming her or the stress of life becoming too much to handle anymore (or because of a PTSD trigger involving her childhood).

🐰~ Her primary caregiver is Pomni. She’s been babysat by a few of the other circus members, but she’s still struggling to recover from her abstraction, not to mention her guilt over what she did and said to everyone beforehand. Once she’s gotten more comfortable, she’s willing to let Ragatha be her caregiver for short periods of time, but she’ll always come running back to Mama 💜

🐰~ When she’s writing/signing to the others, she refers to Pomni as Mama, Ragatha as Auntie, Gangle as Gangy, Zooble as Zoob, Kinger as Dada, and Caine as Bubby.

🐰~ Shy/Mild-mannered regressor. She’s pretty much completely non-verbal while regressed, making it rather difficult to communicate with her, especially since her sign language is very limited early on. She communicates mostly through vague gestures and just pointing at things she wants/needs. She’s also very easy to frighten and make cry, her worst triggers being any mention of her past (whether it’s in regards to Ribbit, Kaufmo, her parents, or her awful behavior before her abstraction) and loud noises.

🐰~ Continuing off that last one; I headcanon that a lot of Lilly’s childhood is blocked out by her subconscious due to her father being a lot more abusive than she remembers while big, but when she’s regressed those memories resurface in various ways. The worst incident was during a race-car themed adventure; she was already upset and jumpy because of all the noise and an argument she had with Zooble, only for the sound of a garage door opening to send her into a blind panic. Lilly took off out of the adventure and back to her room to hide, forcing Caine to pause the adventure while he tracked her down and found out what triggered her. She was unbelievably embarrassed once she aged up, but luckily for her no one gave her any grief for it.

🐰~ On a somewhat lighter note, she’s the most like Kinger when it comes to unconscious physical regression, which is to say it’s almost guaranteed to happen, at which point she’s even smaller than regressed Kinger and her ears are a little droopier/floppier ((I need to draw her ASAP!))

🐰~ For the most part she’s okay with regressing alongside other circus members, but her personality/mannerisms vary person by person. With Pomni she’s her partner in crime, roughhousing with her and causing all kinds of mischief. With Zooble, Gangle, and Caine she’s a loyal but oblivious follower, going along with whatever they say/do since they’re the “big kids” and she wants to fit in with them. With Ragatha she’s quiet and affectionate, eager to hug her and be given as much positive attention as she can get. With Kinger she tries to act bigger in an effort to take care of the “other baby”, but if someone else takes charge she just chills with him.

🐰~ Her favorite activities are drawing and napping; whatever is quiet and not too exhausting. She’s usually open to the idea of playing with the others when she’s more alert, just don’t expect her to be very coordinated for it (except for that time they all played a fighting game and she button-mashed her way to victory, much to Pomni and Zooble’s frustration).

Caine

🎩~ His regression age ranges from around three to eleven; it’s difficult to predict and looks the same from most angles, but a keen eye can spot the differences. He didn’t understand that he was having regressive episodes until awhile after everyone else had been experiencing them, believing up until then that he was just underdeveloped/a failure.

🎩~ His primary caregivers are Kinger and Pomni, it’s just a matter of who’s big and who finds him first, although they’re happy to watch him together. He tries not to regress in front of or around the others, but it happens a lot more than he realizes; everyone else is aware and either plays along or gets Kinger and Pomni to come help.

🎩~ He refers to Kinger as Daddy, Pomni as Mommy, Ragatha as Big Sis/Dolly, Lilly as Sis/Bun-Bun, Gangle as Sissy/Ribbon, and Zooble as Sib-Sib/Puzzle. He also uses a lot of more generalized silly nicknames for everyone like he usually does, but with an emphasis on more kidsy stuff like; “my babbling peanuts”, “my playdough-stealing graham crackers”, and “my cranky-wanky turnips”!

🎩~ Playful regressor. Somehow he manages to be even more chaotic and rambunctious than usual while regressed, leading him to be bouncing off the walls and begging people to play with him. It’s difficult for him to reign himself in while he’s like this, so patience is key to communicating with him, especially while he’s in “play mode”.

🎩~ Bitey as all hell. He never bites down very hard, but he’s one-hundred percent willing to bite someone or something with almost no provocation, it just feels right to him. He’s been scolded for it countless times, but he just can’t seem to shake the habit; the best deterrent is giving him a chew toy/pacifier, at which point he’ll calm down significantly, it’s almost like a mute button. It amused the heck out of Zooble when they discovered it!

🎩~ Good luck trying to get him to nap or clean up, he wants exactly no part in either activity, although Kinger has come up with a good workaround by making it seem like an adventure/game. For example; “Caine, you need to help me put all these toys in the toy chest before a dragon comes and takes them all for their hoard!” “You don’t wanna take a nap? Alright, how about we play princesses? I’ll be Cinderella and you’ll be Sleeping Beauty!”

🎩~ As mentioned before, he struggles with knowingly regressing around anyone but Kinger and Pomni, his desire to be the ringleader/take care of “his humans” often getting in the way, but once he’s more comfortable with it, he likes regressing with everyone, especially Gangle, who becomes a mix of his best friend and biggest op, it depends on whether or not they’re arguing over what/how to play together.

🎩~ His favorite activities are going on adventures, playing pretend games, and reading with a caregiver! He loves being around his family, even before he’s ready to tell them that he’s also a regressor, but once he does, boy howdy does he go all in on playing with them!

(Bonus) Group Regression

🎪~ (Warning: mentions of padded/diaper regression) The only circus regressors who always have to use padding while regressed are Kinger and Lilly, although it’s not unheard of for the others to occasionally need padding if they regress young enough. Gangle isn’t too bothered by it, but she’s still not a huge fan and will make an effort to hide it under a skirt/dress. Pomni absolutely hates it and will raise hell if she’s forced to wear one. Ragatha thinks they’re cute on other people, but she’s conflicted when she’s the one wearing one; she becomes perfectly fine with it over time, though. Zooble outright refuses to wear one, even when they’re in a toddler headspace, leading them to run away like Kinger so often does in an effort to avoid it. Caine doesn’t understand why everyone is so fussy about it, so once he gets comfortable openly regressing around the others, he has exactly no reservations against wearing them; he doesn’t even try to hide it really, much to Zooble and Ragatha’s secondhand embarrassment.

🎪~ If they’re all regressed at once, it basically goes like this; Kinger is climbing the fridge to reach the cookie jar while Ragatha pleads with him to get down before they get in trouble, Pomni is waiting in the shadows with a NERF gun ready to open fire on them when they least expect it, Lilly is crawling behind her until she’s intercepted by Gangle, who carries her off to come play dress-up with her and Caine, all while Zooble watches from the couch, reading a magazine and offering little more than commentary. Needless to say, the NPCs have their work cut out for them!

🎪~ If there are multiple people regressing at once (which is usually the case) Kinger is pretty much always the caregiver, unless he’s one of the people that’s regressed, at which point it falls on Caine, but if he’s also regressed… well, the first time it happened it was pure, explosive chaos and mayhem, so much so that they had to have a family meeting afterwards to discuss how to handle such a thing moving forward. Now when they end up in that situation they call on some NPCs to help look after the group, those being some handmade caregiver mannequins (inspired by “this fic”; go read it, it’s delightful!), the Gloink Queen, or Gummigoo + his gang! ((Edit: I forgor the link to the fic I mentioned, sorry about that 🥺))

🎪~ Following many minor disasters and adventures gone awry, Caine (with input from the others) has put together a schedule for planned regression hangouts, which usually involves either going on a kid friendly adventure (stuff like a school field trip to the zoo or an afternoon at the park) or putting together some kind of group activity like a big sleepover, birthday party, or game tournament, it all depends on how old everyone is mentally!

🎪~ Actually deciding what to play/do together is always a hassle, especially if Caine and Gangle aren’t in agreement, at which point it becomes an argument. This is the point that Zooble will (reluctantly) get involved and help them sort it out, but then they’re right back to chilling.

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Kinger doesn’t know how, why, or when, but he’s pretty sure he’s been abducted by aliens. They’re familiar looking aliens, even if he isn’t sure why they look familiar to him, but either way, they can’t possibly be of this world. None of them even look like animated stuff like him and Daddy! Kinger watches them all from the terrible evil no-good playpen his daddy conjured up, that has since been moved into a kitchen of some kind, where he studies them for any signs of weakness or ill intent.

So far his favorite is the doll lady. She always seems to be smiling, especially when she’s looking at him, and she’s so soft, too! Right now he’s pretty sure she’s cooking something on a stove; whatever it is, it smells… unwanted. He really hopes she’s just brewing a potion or something. Hopefully something that can give him superpowers… other than his conjuring, of course!

Kinger glances at the table next, observing the two strangers sitting next to each other. One of them has a weird, fragile looking face and red noodles making up the rest of her body, but despite having such wily, thin limbs, she appears adept at using them, her coloring seemingly unaffected. The other one looks like one of his art projects or a wonky toy made up of all kinds of silly, colorful parts, and even though they don’t have a mouth, he can sort of tell what they’re expressing through their eyes and body language, but it’s still really hard for him to do. They keep their eyes mostly on the noodle girl, but they glance at him every so often to check on him. For what purpose, he’s still trying to figure out.

The door to the kitchen swings open, prompting Kinger to look that way. He watches as the other two strangers step inside. One is a crazy tall purple bunny-rabbit with overalls; Kinger thought he might be a kid too at first, but he seems a little too tall… he sure acts like one, though! The other is a very short clown of some sort, her mannerisms surprisingly mellow and reserved; Kinger isn’t about to tell her for fear of how she’d react, but so far he doesn’t think she’s very good at being a clown. She doesn’t even tell any jokes!

The clown leaves the bunny’s side to visit with Kinger, the pawn instinctively backing away to the other side of the playpen. No one here has hurt him yet, but he’s not about to take any chances.

“Hey there, buddy,” The clown is friendly when greeting him. “How ya doing in there?”

Kinger glares at her, if only because he’s pretty sure he knows what she’s going to try and do again; he doesn’t care how tiny he is, he is not gonna wear a weird, crinkly diaper thing! The clown and toy have tried twice now to wrap him in one, and each time he’s managed to wiggle free and run away for long enough that they’ve given up, but he’s worried that they’ll take another crack at it sooner rather than later. He hopes it’ll be later, his grumbling stomach and fatigue making him worry he won’t be able to outmaneuver them a third time.

“Yeah, I figured you were still mad at me,” The clown keeps talking despite his refusal to. “But that’s alright. I’ve actually got a surprise for you!” She pulls a bag off of her shoulder, Kinger having not noticed it until she’s moving it; it immediately has his full, undivided attention.

Kinger scuttles as close to the clown as he can get, only the wall of the inescapable playpen keeping them separated. “‘Ag?” He asks, pointing at it.

He catches the bunny wincing out of the corner of his eye. “You might wanna work on your pronunciation with that one, big guy. Thought you said something way different for a second there!”

The toy rolls their eyes and scoffs. “Oh, grow up, Jax.”

The bunny turns to them and shrugs, his smile never waning. It looks kind of weird on him. “I think if anyone needs to do that, it’s prince pull-up over here.”

“Stop giving Kinger such awful nicknames!” The doll scolds the bunny from across the room, refusing to actually walk over and leave the stove alone. Kinger hopes she does so whatever icky thing she’s cooking explodes and can’t be fed to him.

“They’re terms of endearment!” The bunny insists, his gaze shifting back over to the clown. “Hey Pomni, weren’t you gonna distra-show the little woodchip something really cool?”

Kinger’s eyes widen. Something cool? For him? …Wait, what was that about distracting? That’s the word for running away from stuff, isn’t it, or was that something else? Why’s the bunny trying to hide that he said it?

The pawn loses track of that thought when the clown nods and opens her bag. “Uh, yeah, I do! Come ‘ere, Kinger, I think you’ll really like this!”

Kinger tilts his head, something about this feeling… off. In his defense, everything has felt off since he woke up in that pillow fort, but this feels especially off-putting to him for a reason he hasn’t determined yet. Choosing to dismiss his fears for the time being, he tries to stretch himself taller to take a peek into the bag, but the clown shifts it to hide its contents from him.

Off to the side, Kinger spots the bunny pacing around the playpen. He turns his head to watch him, only to hear a loud, sudden squeak directly in his unseeable ear. He yelps and jumps away from the sound, opening his eyes to discover the source of the noise is a rubber ducky being held by the clown. His eyes widen at the sight of it, the pawn all too eager to get his hands on a proper toy.

“Pretty awesome, right?” The clown asks, the question throwing Kinger off. What’s wrong with her? Why wouldn’t she already know a toy like this is outstanding? She squeaks it again, throwing him off his train of thought. “You wanna hold it?”

Kinger nods in earnest. “Auh,” He says, but to his frustration it’s not immediately given to him. What the heck? She just offered it to him, so why won’t she hand it over!? “Auh.” He repeats it more insistently this time, giving her the benefit of the doubt by believing she just didn’t hear him.

“Alright, alright. Here ya go, buddy,” The clown promises to hand the toy over, but still has the audacity to keep stringing him along, holding it over his head and just out of his grasp. “That’s right, just keep looking at the duckie.” He catches her whispering to herself, her pupils constantly flickering to something behind him.

Okay, what the heck is going on here!? Kinger turns around to follow her gaze, discovering that not only is the bunny in the playpen with him, but he’s literally centimeters away from grabbing him. “Um,” The bunny freezes when he’s spotted, his pupils shrinking for a moment, but then they get big again and a silly looking smile spreads across his face. “Hey there, termite magnet. How ya doin’?”

What kind of question is that? It takes a second for it to click, but then Kinger glances just a little lower, and finally spots it sticking out of the pocket on the bunny’s overalls.

Oh. Another diaper wrap… wait a minute!

Before Kinger can make a break for it, the clown picks him up from behind, lifting him out of the playpen with ease. “Got ‘im!” She shouts, turning with him in tow toward the table. “Zooble, did you-?”

“-Yeah, all ready,” The toy confirms, gesturing to a plain purple towel that’s been laid on the tabletop. “It’s not much, but weirdly enough Caine didn’t include a changing mat in that bag he gave us.”

Oh, he knows what those words are referring to! As if being picked up with a diaper wrap in his general vicinity wasn’t enough of a hint, but in Kinger’s defense, that rubber duck was very enticing! “Nuh uh!” Kinger makes his opinion on the matter very clear for what must be the millionth time, beginning to flail around like a madman.

“Da**it,” He catches the bunny muttering under his breath, his pupils small again with a far more natural looking grimace to accompany it. “Told ya he’d catch on quick.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who went too slow! That’s on you,” The clown argues, struggling to keep her hold on Kinger. “You gotta calm down, kiddo! I promise it’ll be okay. It won’t even hurt!”

“No no no!” Kinger screams and wails at the top of his lungs, wishing now more than ever that he had proper legs to kick these awful strangers with.

“Stop trying to reason with him, it’s not gonna get you anywhere,” The toy says, taking Kinger from the clown and laying him on the table, but they have to use both hands to hold him down, much to their apparent frustration. “D**n, not even my baby brother was this fussy about being changed!”

The bunny laughs at them, earning him glares from both the toy and clown. “What? It’s not my fault that the kid’s entertaining! I’m betting right now that he’s gonna get away again.”

The toy’s glare intensifies. “Don’t you dare jinx it! Just hand me the freaking diaper and I’ll-”

Kinger catches them off guard with a gator roll, managing to rip himself from their grasp and roll right off the table. He hits the ground pretty hard, but he doesn’t care, he needs to get out of here! Now!

“F*ck!” The clown shouts. She lunges at him, but Kinger hops out of the way just in time, leaving her to hit the floor face first.

Kinger hears a growl from nearby, the bunny clenching his fists out of the corner of his eye. “Alright, that’s enough horsing around, half pint! Come ‘ere!” Strangely enough the bunny goes from giggly to angry at the drop of a hat and takes off after him, the sudden shift frightening the little pawn like nothing else.

He yelps and runs between the bunny’s legs to outmaneuver him- if it worked once, surely it’ll work a second time!- only to run right into the clown again, but in another replay of past events, he tries to bite her, except… wait, what?

Kinger blinks a few times, confused. One minute he was wrestling with the clown and bunny, the next he’s… wrapped up? Not in a diaper, thank god, but in what feel like thin, glossy ropes. He looks up, coming face to face with the masked noodly girl. She’s thus far mostly looked really sad, but now she’s smiling at him, that matched with her sorrowful eyes making her look rather gentle and… safe.

“Salut, Kingy,” The mask girl whispers, her voice just as soft as her ribbons. “Everyone’s been really mean to you today, haven’t they?”

Finally, someone who understands! Kinger nods in earnest, relieved to finally find an empathetic soul in this den of snakes and liars.

“That must have been so scary! Poor little baby,” She continues to talk gently to him, at some point returning to the table and laying him down on it. When he starts to sit up she gently pushes him back down, one of her hands reappearing to offer him something. “Aw, are you bored? Do you wanna play with this for awhile? I won’t let anyone take it away from you, I promise.”

The mask girl holds up the rubber ducky, only she actually keeps it within his reach, unlike that lying clown! After Kinger nods, she hands it to him, allowing him to fiddle with and squeak it to his heart’s content. Okay, the squeaking is actually way too loud for him, so he settles for just pretending it’s flying, even if its wings are stuck to its sides. Maybe it’s a magical or psychic duck? That would certainly make for a fun story!

Kinger begins babbling at some point, narrating the adventures of this psychic duck that’s learning how to use magic, and all the while, he feels the mask girl doing something to him, he isn’t sure what, only that it doesn’t hurt or- whoa! He jumps at the sudden cold sensation on his lower half, but then the mask girl tickles him with one of her ribbons and sends him into a giggle fit, making him forget all about whatever startled him.

It’s only a minute or two more before Kinger’s picked back up and placed on the floor between everyone but the doll, his gaze never straying from his rubber duck. It’s only when he sits down and hears a loud crinkling sound and feels something weird on him that he looks down, just to discover that he’s wearing a diaper. Wait, when did that get there!?

“Holy sh*t,” The toy mutters just loud enough that Kinger can hear them. They turn to the mask girl, their eyes staying wide. “I thought you said you were an only child; how’d you know how to do that?”

The mask girl giggles and shrugs. “I dunno. Nothing you guys were doing was working, so… I just kinda winged it,” She smiles fondly at Kinger, even patting him on the head. He leans into her touch, not at all registering that she’s responsible for the diaper now tied around his lower half. “It seems like you do really well with distractions, Kingy!”

“Lunch is ready!” From across the kitchen, the doll raises her voice to be heard.

“Thank f**king god,” The bunny mutters, supposedly famished. Kinger isn’t sure why he would be, considering the smell. “Whatcha make this time, Rags?”

“I was already planning on making it, and I know he likes it when he’s big, so I made Philly cheese-steak pasta!” The doll explains. She brings over the pot and sets it in the middle of the table, before quickly crouching down to grab Kinger. “Alrighty buddy, let’s get you fed!”

He tries to back up a step, but all this leads to is him bumping into the bunny again. The bunny looks down to meet his gaze, his smile anything but innocent. “Sorry tyke, but you’re not going anywhere.” He tells him, not a hint of mercy in his tone when scooping him up.

Kinger glares at the bunny, tempted to punch him for being so mean, but he restrains himself, a voice in the back of his head that doesn’t sound like his warning him that hitting others isn’t okay… outside of unwanted changes, of course. At that point it’s just self-defense!

Before Kinger can come up with a proper response to being so impolitely picked up- again- the bunny hands him over to the doll. She starts to carry him back toward the table, but then she hesitates for a moment, her only real eye searching the room for something. “Oh, um,” She struggles to find the words; Kinger can relate. “I guess we don’t have a highchair, do we?”

“Aw sh*t. No, we don’t, and I don’t think any of us are able to conjure one just yet,” The toy says, sounding just as concerned as the doll. “I guess we’ll just have to have someone hold him on their lap.”

“Not it.” The bunny and clown say in sync, sharing an amused smirk after.

“It’s alright, guys, I’m happy to do it,” The doll assures, taking a seat at the table and doing as she promised by sitting Kinger on her lap. “How’s this, little buddy? Are you comfortable?”

Kinger thinks it over, glancing at all the different strangers to assess who would be the best to sit on. He’d prefer being with the mask girl since she’s proven herself to be quite nice, but she doesn’t really have much of a lap, so he resigns himself to staying with the doll. He simply nods at her, unconsciously leaning against her chest; wait a minute, he forgot how soft she is! Nevermind, this is actually the best option ever. She smiles and says something to the clown, but Kinger doesn’t actually catch it, too busy grabbing handfuls of the doll’s dress and fiddling with it, shocked by just how nice the fabric feels.

His fun is interrupted, however, when he’s turned to face the table and, much to his disgust, a forkful of whatever the cursed thing the doll cooked is held up to his face. Kinger just stares at it at first, then glances back up at the doll, confused as to how she expects him to eat this.

“Aren’t you hungry?” The doll asks, looking rather concerned now.

Kinger doesn’t think to lie, simply nodding because yes, he is quite famished, but he’s not starving, which is what it would take to make him even consider eating this yucky slop! Well, he doesn’t actually know if it’s yucky, but it smells like it is, so it has to be!

“It tastes good, you know,” The toy says from across the table and between bites of their own serving of slop. “You’ll like it when you’re older, so why not at least try it?”

Kinger huffs and shakes his head, keeping it turned away from the offending fork.

“Oh, Kinger,” He hears the doll mutter, something about her disappointed tone actually making him feel a bit guilty. “Please at least have a few bites! I promise it’s better than you think.”

Kinger shakes his head more intensely. “No!” He snaps, making his stance crystal clear to the strangers holding him hostage. “No no no!”

“F**k, he’s nearing a meltdown.” The toy mutters, failing to hide the observation from Kinger, not that it’ll make a difference to him.

“Geez, it’s just freaking pasta. You don’t gotta cry about it, half-pint,” The bunny insists, unimpressed by the pawn’s fit enough to roll his eyes at him. He takes a big bite and makes a few exaggerated noises of disgust. “Wait, ah, it’s… it’s poisoned! Oh, the agony!” He flops onto the ground and clutches his stomach, letting out a few pained groans for good measure. “I don’t… think I’m… gonna make it!”

Kinger stares down at the bunny in complete horror, so shocked that he can’t even move.

“Jax!” The doll snaps at her dying companion. “I can’t believe you! Don’t scare him like that!”

The bunny bursts into uproarious laughter, clutching his stomach even tighter. Oh God, is he becoming delirious from the pain!? “You should see the look on his face!” The bunny shouts between gasps for air. “Li-Little guy looks like he’s gonna faint!”

“That’s not a good thing, Jax.” The clown says, but she’s struggling to hide her own smile. What is she, a sad… sad… that kinda person who likes to see other people get hurt!?

The toy outright rolls their eyes, thoroughly unimpressed. “You’re so f**king annoying.”

“Oh dear…” The mask girl grimaces and glances from Kinger to the doll over and over, seemingly studying them.

“Kinger, don’t listen to Jax; he’s making it up to scare you!” The doll insists, bringing the fork close to Kinger’s face again. “Please try at least one-”

Yeah, screw this, Kinger’s heard enough. These people are insane if they expect him to eat poison when it’s literally killing one of their own! With a shout of indignation, he curls in on himself and squeezes his eyes shut, the world around him changing in an instant. He opens his eyes to find himself… oh, this isn’t his bedroom; he’s only just outside the dining room! Kinger figures out the reason why as soon as tries to stand up; his vision becomes blurry for a few seconds, but a shake of his head dismisses the feeling quickly enough. He whimpers, one hand holding his head while the other holds his stomach; he really needs to eat something!

“Kinger!?” That’s definitely the doll shouting. “Oh no, not again!”

“We have gotta get a baby-leash on that kid or something.” The bunny mutters, still audible through the closed door. He sounds really good for a guy that’s dying a slow and painful death!

“It’s your fault he took off again, a**hole!” The toy snaps, much more openly angry now that they don’t think Kinger is in hearing range. That, or they’re genuinely just fed up with the bunny’s antics.

The bunny laughs again, unbothered by the scolding. “Aw come on, I was just-”

“-Shut up, Jax!” The doll is truly furious now, sounding just on the cusp of tears. “You always have to ruin everything and scare everyone! You can’t even control yourself for a f**king toddler!”

“Ragatha, take it easy. I’m sure Kinger didn’t go far!” The clown assures, stepping in on the bunny’s behalf.

“That’s not the point!” The doll’s not having it, only growing angrier by the second. “Kinger’s a little kid that doesn’t even remember us or what this place is, and you guys aren’t… you can’t imagine how scared he must be!” She pauses to take a few breaths, her voice wet and quiet when she speaks again. “You don’t understand… Caine said Kinger stopped regressing after I showed up. He’s been… all this time he’s…”

“Been masking?” The mask girl finishes.

“…Yeah, I think so,” The doll agrees with her input, but she sure doesn’t sound happy about it. “That’s eight years of repressing this, other than him apparently regressing while we were all at Spudsy’s. It’s not like he hasn’t stayed behind before, so why did he regress then?”

“I think I might know,” The clown says, sounding surprisingly sombre. “The adventure before was… pretty dang traumatizing, and he was lucid for most of it. I wonder if the stress from that pushed him over the edge and made him drop.”

“We’ll have to ask him when he’s big again,” The toy decides, the screech of a chair being pushed against the hardwood making Kinger’s ears ache. “Alright, let’s go find the tyke. He couldn’t have gone far.”

“How would you know? He could be in the fairgrounds by now!” The bunny insists, and Kinger’s pretty sure at this point that he’s either a very chatty ghost or not as poisoned as he implied… what a mean thing to lie about!

The toy chuckles, more amused than expected. “I could hear his stomach growling from across the room; he’s probably trying to wait until we go to come and scrounge something up from the kitchen.”

“Oh…” The doll sighs, seemingly heartbroken. “I… I was really hoping he’d like the pasta. He loves it when he’s older, so I thought it would… make him more comfortable, I dunno.”

“Ragatha, I don’t think Kinger regressing is your fault.” The mask girl assures, quiet but kind.

“Him repressing it might be.” The doll mutters, so quiet that Kinger can barely hear her.

While everything about this whole situation is overwhelming and strange, Kinger at least knows that he should know these people; they obviously know him, but for some reason, he can’t really remember them. The longer he listens to them though, the more he feels… well, he doesn’t remember anything about who they are still, but he feels like he can trust them, or at least most of them. The bunny is a bit too tricky for his liking. While the mask girl has been the most successful at working with him, for some inexplicable reason, Kinger feels himself becoming more and more drawn to the doll. Maybe it’s the guilt from hearing her cry, or maybe it’s a memory he can’t visualize, but he knows he wants to see her happy again.

Rather shyly, on account of how spontaneously he took off on the strangers, Kinger pushes the door open and pokes his head inside the dining room. Everyone immediately has their eyes on him, the toy’s and bunny’s eyes widening in surprise whereas the clown and mask girl look relieved, and the doll… goodness, she really is crying. She stares at him, trying and failing to smile as tears run down her plush face. Kinger freezes at the sight, his gut churning for a reason that isn’t hunger. I did this. I promised I would never make her cry, but I did it anyway. How could I be so awful? No wonder Quee-Quee never came back.

Kinger doesn’t realize he’s crying until his vision is blurred by it, but that doesn’t stop him from running to the doll and hugging her legs, burying his face in her dress as he sobs. The doll goes still for a moment, Kinger unable to actually see her reaction from his current position, but then she kneels down and scoops him up, standing back up with him hugged to her chest. One of his hands clings to her shoulder while the other tightens around a fistful of her dress, his high-pitched sobs eventually petering out into weak little hiccups. She holds him through it all, patting his back and rocking him slightly.

“S-Sowwy,” Kinger tries to tell her, frustrated that he’s struggling so much with saying the words that he needs to tell her. “S-So sowwy… no mean to.”

“Shh, you’re alright, baby boy,” The doll is gentle and patient, proving to be far more merciful to him than most. “I know, I know… it’s all so overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Kinger nods in earnest, never agreeing more with a statement.

“Huh,” The toy hums, at some point having sat back down at the table, apparently trusting their peers to handle this on their own. “I guess that even as a little kid with no memories, he’s still got a soft spot for you, Rags.”

“Maybe…” The doll doesn’t seem sure yet, but she nonetheless sits back down at the table with her charge, and while she hesitates at first, she soon offers him another forkful of pasta. “Do you… want a bite of it, honey? I promise it’s not poisoned.”

He can hear the bunny start to say something, a light chuckle Kinger’s only warning.

The mask girl cuts him off before he can even exhale. “Jax, shut your d**n mouth.”

For whatever reason, that startles the bunny enough to preemptively silence him, keeping the room as a whole quiet for when Kinger turns to face the dreaded meal. He really is hungry, and while it still doesn’t smell great, upon closer inspection it does look somewhat less repulsive than he initially thought. Would it kill him to at least try it? It certainly didn’t kill the bunny, despite the bunny acting like it could. Nervously, the little pawn leans forward and closes his non-existent mouth around it, his eyes widening comically at the taste. It’s… it’s really good! Kinda cold by now, but good!

“Do you like it?” The doll asks, unable to tell from just his widening eyes what he’s thinking.

As if to answer her, Kinger slams his face into the rest of the plate of pasta, so ravenous in his appetite that he doesn’t even consider using silverware.

This earns him a chorus of laughter, especially so from the mask girl. “I think that’s a resounding ‘yes’.”

Kinger tries to nod, but it just makes the mess even worse, not that he cares about that right now, too busy gorging himself.

“Christ, I’m really glad he doesn’t have a mouth and nose right now. This would be way grosser otherwise.” The bunny admits, sounding both relieved and disappointed, which is quite the achievement if Kinger does say so himself.

“No kidding,” The clown agrees, but her smile is nowhere near as uncomfortable as the bunny’s is. “So, uh… I’m guessing it’s bath time after this?”

“Probably, yeah,” The doll giggles, gentle when she pulls Kinger off of the plate and sits him back down on her lap. She cleans his face with a wash cloth, giggling again when he squirms. “I know I know, it’s no fun getting your face washed, but you’re a very messy eater, aren’t you?” She pauses, what she says next little more than a whisper just for him. “Thank you for coming back and trying it, Kinger… I know this is a lot for you- it is for us, too- but we love you and just want you to be alright, especially when you’re struggling to take care of yourself. I know it’s a tall order, but can you be brave for me and let us look after you?”

Things are, unsurprisingly, very tense after they revive Caine; the AI is grateful for it, he really is, but he’s also reasonably upset that he died at all, so he hasn’t exactly been the most social with everyone since then, especially not Kinger. That’s fine, though. They all have a lot to work through right now.

Everyone else is fighting their own personal battles, the fact that they can never leave the circus- that all they are is the mental copy of the people they were before they became a part of this place- difficult to cope with. Pomni, despite being the newest addition, is probably coping with it the best, the knowledge that she’s not dead in the real world enough to comfort her through the worst of her trauma. At least now she doesn’t have to worry about her family going mad trying to find her, even if it hurts her to know she’ll never see them again.

Considering her somewhat more stable mental state, Pomni’s taken it upon herself to keep an eye on everyone else over the course of the next two weeks, making a full-blown routine out of it. She starts the morning by eating breakfast with Ragatha and… oh, Kinger’s not here yet. How odd. Although his absence troubles her, she doesn’t deviate from her schedule just yet, helping Ragatha tidy up before continuing to her next stop of the day.

After breakfast she brings a plate of it to Jax’s door, and is pleasantly surprised when he opens it while she’s still there, even chatting with her for a few minutes. He promises to meet up with her later to do something, he isn’t sure what yet, just that he wants to be around her again. Pomni eagerly agrees, relieved to see him fighting back against his urge to isolate himself.

Zooble and Gangle are next, the couple- Pomni’s pretty sure not a single person was surprised when those two announced that they were going to start dating- snuggled together in Zooble’s bed while watching a movie. Pomni doesn’t overstay her welcome, offering the couple a wave and a reminder that breakfast is available when they get hungry. Gangle returns the gesture, but then she’s right back to curling herself around a dozing Zooble.

Usually Pomni checks in on Caine next, his reluctance to talk to her or anyone else for that matter not nearly enough to scare her away from making sure he’s remaining stable, but she chooses to find Kinger first and see if he’s alright. She honestly thought that he was just late to breakfast and that she’d run into him during her rounds, but he’s been nowhere to be seen, sparking a very reasonable sense of worry in her.

She doesn’t doubt that Kinger still has a resilient mind, but… she knows finding out that Queenie can’t be brought back has reopened that wound, causing him untold amounts of grief. If that weren’t enough, he’s still wrought with guilt over Caine’s death; it ended up being fixable in the end, but they all spent several days believing it was permanent, and that grief and remorse hit no one harder than Kinger, his unintentional murderer.

Shaking her head, Pomni focuses on the here and now. She obviously checks the fort first, the pile of expertly positioned pillows still sitting in its usual spot in the center of the tent. She makes an effort to walk more quietly as she draws near, wanting to believe that Kinger’s only overslept, but she still feels that itch of anxiety at the back of her mind warning her to expect the worst.

“Kinger?” Pomni calls out his name once she’s just outside of the fort, her arms folding behind her back out of awkward habit. Upon hearing nothing after a solid minute, she starts to shift uncomfortably in place and bounce from foot to foot. “Kinger, are you in there?” She tries calling out to him again, louder this time. “It’s me, Pomni. Is everything alright? I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning.”

Nothing. Pomni swallows, her anxiety only worsening the longer this goes on. Could he have… no, if he had she would have found him the moment after it happened, this can’t be… she shakes her head again in an effort to silence such horrific thoughts. No, Kinger wouldn’t abstract, not after coming so far and finally finding some level of peace with Caine. He must be out somewhere, maybe in the fairgrounds? It’s not uncommon for any of them to spend the day there, but it’s odd that he went alone and didn’t tell anyone before leaving.

Pomni starts to walk around and past the pillow fort, intending on getting Ragatha and maybe a few others to widen the scope of her search, but before she can get more than a foot away she hears it, some kind of shifting noise from the pillow fort. She startles, swinging around to stare bug-eyed at the structure. Is Kinger really in there? How did he not wake up sooner!? Maybe he went to bed later than intended and is feeling sluggish? It’s not a good habit to fall into, but at least he hasn’t run off somewhere on his own.

“Kinger?” Pomni repeats, her voice shakier than she would ever like it to be. “Kinger, is that you? Are you alright in there?”

There’s more shifting sounds from inside, but strangely enough whoever is in there still won’t say anything or respond to her calls. Is it really Kinger in there, or something- someone- else? Maybe a really small NPC, like a gloink? Then why hasn’t it made off with all the-?

Whatever was on Pomni’s mind is lost when, with little more than a whimper of warning, the pillow fort collapses in on itself, the intelligent mind inside letting out a squeak. Pomni startles again when she hears it, something about it sounding so… diminutive. She’s careful when walking closer to the ruined structure, her body tense in preparation to run if things get dicey. Just as she’s grabbing one of the pillows to start digging, several more of them shake and fall just out of her reach, and out pops…

“What the f*ck?” Pomni exclaims, unsure what to make of what has revealed itself to her.

She’s never seen an NPC quite like this before; during one of their late night conversations after his revival, Caine admitted to her that he makes an effort to not create any NPCs that too closely resemble the current circus members so he won’t risk confusing himself, and while this thing certainly isn’t Kinger, it looks uncomfortably similar to him. The NPC is an animated pawn that’s half Pomni’s height, a true achievement considering the fact that she’s three foot nothing. It wears little more than a purple blanket tied around its neck like a cape and what looks like a papermatched crown on its head. It’s… actually kind of adorable.

“Um… hello?” Pomni tilts her head at the NPC, studying it in search of an explanation for its existence.

The pawn startles so hard that it falls back into the pile of pillows. It quickly proves to be rather bendy around the middle like Kinger is when it scuttles out the opposite end of the mess like a caterpillar, but then it’s on its feet- foot?- and hopping away as fast as it can, which is actually pretty fast for such a puny thing.

“Wait!” Pomni takes off after it without any hesitation, intent on getting to the bottom of this. “Come back, I promise I won’t hurt you! I just wanna know why you’re here!”

To her surprise, the pawn responds with a loud “Nuh uh!” before continuing on its less than merry way, quickly giving up on hopping in favor of scuttling away without actually stepping off the floor.

Pomni does her best to keep up with it, but to her dismay, once it turns a corner into the living quarters it seemingly disappears. That, or it’s hidden itself somewhere nearby. Seeing as everyone’s doors are closed by default, Pomni finds it odd that the pawn made such a clean getaway. Did it hide in someone’s room? Whose? Jax’s is locked tighter than fort knox, so definitely not in there. Maybe her own room? Pomni doesn’t remember locking it ever, so it’s not the worst place to start, but she keeps the door open so she can hear if someone goes down the hall while she’s performing her search.

Her room seems safe, everything exactly where she left it this morning, as far as she can tell. Pomni’s searching the toy chest when she hears the telltale squeak of a door opening down the hall; she bolts out to investigate, running face first into Jax, but he catches her by the shoulders before they can collide.

“Whoa there, kid. What the heck are you running around all crazy for?” Jax asks, his smile waning slightly upon seeing the state she’s in.

“Kinger- a pawn- running-” Pomni has to stop and breathe, otherwise she doubts she’ll be able to get everything out in a coherent fashion. Jax is kind enough to wait it out, his smile more comforting than he probably realizes. “Kinger wasn’t at breakfast, so I went to check on him and… I have no idea where he is, but some weird little NPC was in his fort and took off before I could figure out how it got here and who made it,” She grimaces when looking Jax in the eyes, all too privy to how mischievous he can be. “Jax, did you conjure an NPC that looks like a baby Kinger?”

“What the heck are you talking about?” Jax is downright befuddled now, his pupils shrinking in an instant. “No, I haven’t gotten that good… but that does sound like a fun prank once I get this conjuring crap figured out. Thanks for the idea, Pom!” He starts to turn around, content to leave it there.

“Wait!” Pomni catches him by the wrist, the rabbit freezing the moment she touches him. “Jax, I’m being serious! If you didn’t make that NPC, then I have no clue who did; I don’t even think Caine would make that! Whatever it is, we need to catch it before this gets any weirder.”

“Oh come on, don’t be so dramatic. I’m sure it’s just-” Jax pauses mid-sentence, his right ear twitching. He turns his head to look that way, his eyes widening at whatever he sees. “What the f*ck!? Get outta my room, half-pint!”

Pomni follows Jax when he goes after whatever seemingly intruded into his room, turning the corner to find the pawn taking off like a bat out of hell from behind Jax’s door. Just like that, the duo are chasing after the NPC, the taller of the two much more capable of keeping up with his target. The pawn looks behind itself mid-run, letting out a terrified squeak when it sees how close Jax has gotten, and in a wild rush it bolts between the rabbit’s legs in an effort to outmaneuver him. Pomni almost catches it on its way past her, but when her hand gets near its head, she feels a burning pain overtake her fingers.

“Ow!” She jumps away to avoid any further injury, giving the pawn enough time to escape again.

“Pomni!?” Jax is kneeling by her side in a heartbeat and grabbing her hand to inspect it, his grimace deepening. “Well, you aren’t bleeding… what happened? Did it bite you?”

“I think so,” Pomni says, wrestling her hand free to shake it off, the digits slightly damp. “This is so weird… like, weirder than usual.”

“Think we should get Caine?” Jax asks, not sounding very enthused despite being the one to suggest it. “I sure as heck didn’t make that woodchip, and neither did you, so… yeah, I have no clue who’d make that thing, either. Maybe Ragatha? She’s the closest with that kooky old man.”

Pomni nods along. “Maybe… it wouldn’t hurt to ask her. Let’s wait to ask Caine until we’ve asked everyone else. I’m worried if he sees that pawn, he’ll… he’s not exactly on good terms with Kinger right now.”

Jax winces at the thought. “Yeah, fair. Guess we’ll go round up the freak-” He freezes, a full-body shiver making his body spasm.

“Jax?” Pomni asks, unsure at first what’s got him so freaked out, but a glance at the floor has her eyes widening to be as big as dinner plates, her pupils nearly matching them. “Oh… I guess it can-”

“-Yeah,” Jax growls, looking about one word away from losing it. “Okay, new plan; you go round up the ladies and Zooble while I scrub my foot until the skin comes off.”

Pomni can’t keep from chuckling, undeterred by the fearsome glare this earns her. “Aw, come on, Jax, it’s not that bad!”

Jax’s glare intensifies, if that’s possible. “I just stepped in f*cking woodchip piss; if you don’t grab that thing first, I’m chucking it in the fireplace.”

“Jax, we don’t even have a fireplace.” Pomni’s fully laughing by now, even holding her stomach to ease the pain from how severe the fit is.

She swears she sees the corner of Jax’s mouth twitch with the urge to join her, but his frustration has him in a chokehold. “Yeah, well I’m gonna conjure one, then. With the stone walls and everything. All other fireplaces will look like complete sh*t in comparison.”

Pomni almost falls over with the force of her laughter. “Jax!” It’s shouted in a pleading note, the jester half convinced she’ll die if he makes her laugh any harder.

For some reason that’s what lightens Jax’s mood enough to at least make him smirk. He obeys her unspoken command and leaves it at that, not so subtly speed walking away to clean himself up. Pomni in turn does as he more directly asked of her, running off in search of the rest of the circus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ragatha, unsurprisingly, did not make the pawn, nor did Zooble or Gangle. All three are thankfully onboard with joining in on the search though, so at least now they have more hands on deck for this impromptu investigation. They spread out into three groups; Zooble and Gangle search the fairgrounds, Jax and Ragatha check the lake, and Pomni… well, she can only poke around the tent for so long before she has to admit defeat and call on someone with far more eyes than her for assistance.

Following his revival, Caine has been spending a lot of time in his office. He says he’s working on more adventures, but Pomni isn’t sure if she believes him. She’s pretty sure he’s isolating himself as a form of self harm, or because he doesn’t trust them anymore, but it’s likely a mix of the two. She can’t say she blames him for the latter; she’d be mad too if the people she loved the most murdered her, even if it was an accident.

Pomni knocks on the doors leading to Caine’s office a few times, giving it a minute before she tries saying anything. “Hey, um… Caine? Can we get some help with something? It’s, uh… pretty serious, I think.”

The doors to the office swing open before her; Caine is lounging in his desk chair with his feet propped up on the tabletop, his head formed into a grin. “Ah, Pomni, my persistent avocado!” He greets her enthusiastically, but then she sees it, a slight twitch in one of his eyes. “To what do I owe the pleasure? You’re rather late to check on me today, you know. I was beginning to wonder where you’d pranced off to!”

Pomni struggles not to squirm in place, feeling every bit like a schoolgirl that’s been sent to the principal’s office. “Hey, Caine,” She greets him a second time, somehow sounding even less convincing than she did before. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, I just… look, I know you probably want nothing to do with him, but Kinger’s missing. On top of that, we’ve got a weird looking NPC running loose in the circus.”

Caine glitches for a split second when Kinger is mentioned, but otherwise he does a decently good job of masking his discomfort. “…Is that so?” He asks after far too long of a pause. “Well, that’s… what does the NPC look like? What does he have to do with this?”

“I found it in Kinger’s fort when I went to check on him; he didn’t come to breakfast, so I was pretty worried about him,” Pomni explains, relieved that Caine is at least willing to hear her out. “The NPC looks… it looks like Kinger, but if he was a little kid. It’s a living pawn and is wearing similar clothes to him.”

If Caine had eyebrows, she’s pretty sure they’d be hitting the roof. “Really now?” He asks, something in his tone sounding off to Pomni, but she can’t place why. The AI gets up and starts pacing in the air, at which point it hits her; he’s anxious, but about what, she’s still piecing together. “Interesting… I thought he’d outgrown this, but… there was that incident while you were all at Spudsy’s… yes, I can see how that might… but why now? Why again? Isn’t he satisfied? Is this not enough!?” Caine rambles like a madman and gestures wildly as if he’s arguing with someone face to face, but he doesn’t once acknowledge Pomni throughout his tirade.

Pomni watches on with a mix of confusion, concern, and genuine fear, and rightfully so, considering what happened the last time she saw him reach his breaking point. Not even conscious of it, she backs up a step, that one movement and accompanying sound enough to break Caine from his trance. He flinches, turning his head so fast that it has enough momentum to keep spinning, but doesn’t. Pomni half expects him to grow huge and start strangling her, her heartbeat speeding up at the thought of reliving such a nightmare, but then he floats down to be at her level, his eyes wide and brimming with tears.

“Pomni, I… I’m sorry,” Caine says, never sounding more sincere than he does now… other than when he was brought back and sobbed about how much he still loves them. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, I just… look, I can help you with this, I promise! It’s… difficult to explain, but it’ll make sense once we catch our miscreant little pawn.”

Pomni relaxes significantly once he’s changed the subject, her fear traded out for concern over the whole situation. “So how do we catch it? It’s faster than it looks; not even Jax could grab it!”

Caine chuckles, remaining true to his nature with how amused he is by the antics of humans. “Oh my dear, sweet Pomni, this is nothing that I, your beloved ringmaster, can’t solve! With just a flick of my wrist, I can… I can…” He gestures a few times, only for nothing to happen. He glares at his hand, giving it another shake before huffing- not growling, thank god- and summoning up his cane to wave it around, but still nothing comes of it. “Oh, come on!” He snaps, well and truly furious again, but thankfully it’s not directed at Pomni. “Just come here already! You know as well as I do that there’s nowhere to hide in my circus!”

“What are you… doing exactly?” Pomni asks, not as scared now that she knows that Caine isn’t going to lash out at her.

Caine huffs again, his tone more defeated this time. “I’m trying to summon that uppity little knickknack, but someone’s being difficult about it! No matter-!” He tosses his cane over his shoulder, the mobility aid disappearing before it can hit the ground. “-I have more than one method of capturing such an elusive troublemaker!”

Okay, so he’s definitely talking about the pawn; Pomni honestly thought he was talking about Kinger for a second there. “So how are you gonna catch it?”

Caine’s grin could outshine the morning sun; Pomni can admit that it makes her feel a thousand times better than she did before entering his office. “Why, it’s actually quite easy, my dear… so long as we have the necessary materials. I can make them myself, but I know you want me to be more- what was the word?- cooperative? Yes, something about asking for input, even when I don’t need it, so I shall ask this out of obligation… have you or anyone else conjured up a baby bottle?”

Pomni smiles, not processing the question right away. “Aw Caine, I’m glad to see you… wait, what?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is stupid.” Zooble insists, although they don’t make a move to disrupt the plan by coming out of hiding.

“No it isn’t; it’s brilliant!” Caine is just as stubborn as them, if not more so, his glare more than enough to convey how offended he is by Zooble’s commentary.

“I, um… how exactly is it… brilliant?” Gangle gathers the courage to ask; Pomni can’t tell if she’s doing it to help Zooble be more informed or because she’s actually curious. She’s leaning very heavily on the former.

“Because, my flip-flopping rose petal-!” Caine doesn’t miss a beat, back to being jovial at the thought of successfully fulfilling a request for one of his humans. “-This isn’t my first time wrangling a dissociative scratching post, and if what Pomni is suggesting is accurate, it probably won’t be the last!”

Pomni’s tempted to ask him what he means by that, but while she’s stuck under the current circumstances, she opts to maintain her patience and chooses to hold her tongue as much as possible. Besides, if Caine’s plan is as foolproof as he’s implying- with his track record, she doesn’t risk getting her hopes up- then it won’t be long until she gets the answers she needs. At least if she waits, the plan should have a much better chance at succeeding.

What the plan actually is exactly is something Pomni’s still piecing together. After she informed Caine that no, none of them have even considered trying to conjure something only an infant would have a use for, the AI grabbed her and teleported them back to the common room, a wave of his hand summoning up the rest of the circus- save for Kinger still- to join them. After that he stopped trying to clarify anything, instead creating the bottle himself, already full of warm milk. He set it as well as a few other strange trinkets- namely a stuffed bumblebee and a bowl of pretzels- in the middle of the room before ordering them all to find a hiding spot. Because Pomni’s head was still spinning after the sudden transportation, Caine chose to drag her to hide with him behind a stack of giant blocks.

Unsurprisingly, Zooble hid with Gangle at their side, the two of them hiding behind a bouncy castle just a few feet away. That’s left Ragatha to hide on top of one of the smaller structures, and Jax… well, Pomni doesn’t actually know where he went, but she knows he’s nearby.

The six of them wait for what feels like hours- but realistically is just half of one at most- before the pawn finally reappears. It’s slow when stepping into the atrium, looking to have come from the bedrooms again. Where the heck was it hiding this whole time!? Pomni has no clue, and she certainly isn’t going to jeopardize the plan by asking it before it’s been captured. The pawn is as cautious as a mouse, its head on a swivel in search of any threats, but that all goes out the window when it spots the bait.

With an audible chirp of excitement, the pawn hops its way onto the bumblebee themed quilt the offerings have been left on. For now it ignores the stuffed toy and snack, its attention entirely on the bottle once it has it in its hands, and with its treat at the ready, it plops itself down on the quilt and starts drinking without a care in the world; the nub of the bottle disappears against its face, proving once again that it indeed has a hidden mouth like Kinger does.

“Gotcha!” Caine shouts, flying into the air quicker than a cheetah so he can have better elevation- or just to look more important- before snapping his fingers.

That’s all the warning that the little pawn gets before a plastic playpen is surrounding it, its sudden appearance making it drop its bottle. In a frenzy it tries to climb out, but Caine must have some invisible wall in place, keeping it trapped no matter how hard it fights to escape. After throwing itself at the wall several times and trying to lift it doesn’t work, it plops back down and starts sobbing, and while Pomni can see that it’s frustrated, it sounds more scared than angry, especially when the rest of the circus comes out of hiding- wait, how the heck did Jax fit in that flower pot!? …Oh yeah, his weird cartoon logic- and surrounds the playpen.

“I know it’s caused a lot of trouble, but I can’t help but feel bad for the little guy.” Ragatha admits, her maternal empathy even extending to such a troublesome AI.

“Yeah,” Gangle agrees, one ribbon hand wrapped around one of Zooble’s, the other just sort of hovering, as if she intends to try and pet the pawn, but she’s wise enough to restrain herself for the time being. “Poor thing… it doesn’t help that it looks like a mini Kinger.”

“Oh, that’s because it is a mini Kinger,” Caine says without missing a beat. Unlike Gangle, he has no reservations against reaching in and patting the pawn on the head, the poor thing too scared to do anything but flinch and whine. “My, you’re even jumpier than you usually are, my misbehaving frosted cake! I wonder what set you off this time.”

There’s a beat of silence, then-

“WHAT!?” Everyone but Caine and the pawn scream.

“What the f*ck, how did he even do that!? Zooble asks, Pomni unable to keep from thinking that they might be jealous. “I thought you said it’s impossible to edit our avatars!” Yep, they’re definitely jealous.

“Next to impossible. Not entirely so,” Caine corrects, never taking his eyes off the little pawn… or rather Kinger if the AI is to be believed.

“Jesus Christ,” Jax mutters, but there’s a slight smile beginning to spread across his face. “So what’s the deal here? Is the old man pulling a prank on us? Well played, Gramps, well played, but uh, I’m definitely throwing you in a woodchipper for making me step in your piss.”

“Wait, what!?” Zooble doesn’t miss that last bit, giving Jax the most baffled look they can manage.

Much like Caine, Ragatha can’t take her eyes off Kinger, her own slightly squinted while inspecting him. “Caine… he’s not conscious of this, is he?” It sounds more like an observation than a question.

Caine nods and gives Ragatha a proud smile. “Right you are, my dear! The little thing doesn’t even recognize us!”

“Oh my god,” Pomni joins in on Ragatha’s pity for him, but with an added layer of guilt. “No wonder he was running from us…”

With Caine having proven it’s not guaranteed to be dangerous, and no one paying enough attention to what she’s doing to stop her, Gangle goes through with putting her hand near the pawn, only she doesn’t outright touch him, just leaves it in his space and waits for a reaction. Kinger’s still crying a fair amount, and he flinches away upon seeing her hand so close, just like he did when Caine touched him, but after a few seconds of not being grabbed, he gathers the courage to approach the offered hand. Another few seconds pass, and then with little more than a whimper he presses his head against what’s probably her palm, desperate for comfort after such a stressful morning.

“Aww. Poor thing.” Gangle coos, utterly endeared by the little chess piece. She untangles her other hand from Zooble’s to better pick Kinger up; he squirms around at first, but then he’s right back to trying to lean on her, the ribbons making it difficult.

“I can take him,” Ragatha offers a little too eagerly, her smile suggesting she’s just as enamored as Gangle. That smile widens when Kinger is passed to her, and unlike with Gangle he doesn’t hesitate to cling to her, his little hands grabbing both sides of her waist in what might be an attempt to hug her. “Aww, you are too cute like this!” Ragatha tells him, all too happy to reciprocate with a much more successful embrace.

“Geez, didn’t take you girls long to start playing house, huh?” Jax asks, still laughing at the absurdity of the situation. “Don’t expect me to be the daddy anytime soon, or I’mma make like mine and split!”

Kinger looks up when he hears the word “daddy”, but rather than stare at the person who said it, his eyes lock onto Caine instead.

Caine squirms nervously under his scrutiny, now refusing to even look at the little pawn.

With everyone else going quiet, or at most murmuring to each other or the toddler, Pomni takes it upon herself to ask the question she’s pretty sure everyone is thinking. “So… what do we do now? Is this permanent?”

Caine’s quick to shake his head, his excitement to be helpful far outweighing whatever had him so tongue-tied a moment ago. “Oh no no no, he should turn back to his big, oblivious self in no time at all… probably!” He assures, back to floating just over the heads of his circus. He scratches his non-existent chin when looking down at them, before he grins outright. Pomni shivers, knowing even before he opens his mouth that he’s about to turn this into a game of some sort. “Well now, it seems our little chess piece is regressed for the time being, so why not make an in-house adventure out of it? Your goal is simple; keep that little miscreant in good condition and out of trouble! Think you can handle it?”

Despite their disdain for adventures, Zooble doesn’t try to argue against it. “Not like I didn’t do this enough times for my little siblings… sure, whatever, so long as this one-” They point at Jax with the closest thing they have to a thumb. “-Doesn’t start sh*t!”

“Aw Zooble, I’m hurt. Wounded even. I think you’ll find that I’m an amazing influence on such a young mind,” In a matter of seconds and without warning, Jax manages to outmaneuver Ragatha and grab Kinger from her. He gives the pawn a grin while holding him over his head. “What do you think, king craps himself? You feel like helping uncle Jax scare the socks off these suckers?”

“Jax!” Ragatha snatches Kinger back in record time, keeping him sat on her hip and away from the mischievous rabbit. “Don’t call Kinger that! He obviously can’t control this.”

“What? Am I wrong? If the guy can’t hold a number one, I doubt he can hold a number two!” At first Jax is laughing about it, but then he sobers up upon thinking it over more. “So, uh… what do we do about that?”

“It’s simple, really!” Caine chirps, waving his hand to summon up what Pomni’s pretty sure is one of those massive diaper bags she’s seen so many moms carry around. “Inside this bag you’ll find everything you’ll need to keep our diminutive eggplant in tip top shape!”

Pomni grabs the bag first and rifles through its contents, and while it’s pretty much all the kinds of things she was expecting to find, she winces when seeing and pulling out what looks to be a gauze-like wrap that’s undoubtedly meant to be a diaper for the toddler.

Jax’s pupils shrink at the sight of it. “Oh, f*ck that! No way, I am not changing no freaking diapers!”

“Aw, what’s wrong, Jax? I thought you were excited to hang out with king craps himself?” Once they spot an in, Zooble has no reservations against teasing him for it.

Ragatha glares at them for repeating the nickname, but she doesn’t get the chance to respond before Jax does.

Jax sputters like a leaky faucet, blushing nearly as much as he did when Gangle put him in that maid’s dress awhile back. “I- you- this is different! I don’t want him crapping on me, and I sure as f*ck don’t wanna see it!”

“Then don’t. I used to babysit on the weekends back when I was in high school, so I’m pretty sure I can handle it.” Pomni explains, admittedly not anymore enthused than Jax at the thought of this specific part of taking care of such a young child, but she’s not about to let the little one be neglected.

“Well, he’s all yours then!” Jax tries to grab Kinger again and hand him over, but Ragatha holds her ground, freeing a hand to swat him away. “Hey, I’m just trying to help!” He whines.

Ragatha glares daggers at him. “I’m not going to let you hold him again until you can prove you’re not going to be rough with him. He’s just a baby!”

“So? He’s usually a big guy, he can handle it,” Jax insists, the smile he gives her full of mischief. He glances down for a moment, his smile widening even further. “Hey Momma, I think you dropped a passenger. You know, they’ve got bumper stickers for that if it becomes a habit!”

“What!?” Ragatha looks down in a panic to discover that Jax is telling the truth; Kinger’s disappeared again.

“Take it easy, I’ve got him. This isn’t my first rodeo.” Zooble is quick to intervene, and indeed, they have Kinger held under one of their arms, this one looking like the arm of a teddy bear. Rather fitting, considering the trials ahead of them.

“Oh thank god,” Ragatha lets out an exhausted sigh, the scowl she gives Kinger barely even enough to be called one. “You need to stay with us until you’re big again, okay Kinger? No more running off!”

The little pawn has the gall- more like lack of social awareness- to giggle in response.

Luckily for him, Ragatha finds that far too endearing for her to hold a grudge against him, her smile proving as much.

“So other than getting him… wrapped, what else do you think he’ll need?” Pomni takes it upon herself to ask the big questions again, glancing back and forth between Kinger and everyone else in attendance.

Caine shrugs. “Gotta be real, I usually just keep him distracted with an adventure when he’s like this.”

“How many times has this happened to him?” Gangle asks, her tone full of concern.

“Um… he did it while you were all at Spudsy’s, but other than that, he hasn’t regressed since before Ragatha arrived,” Caine explains, hovering down low enough to pat Kinger indulgently on the head. “But I’m sure you lackadaisical pomegranates will-”

With Caine this close for the first time since he broke out of his panic attack, Kinger takes the chance to grab the AI’s jacket and tug on it, his eyes squinted in a smile. “Daddy!” He chirps, pulling on the fabric a few more times to prove who he’s talking about.

The whole circus goes dead quiet, save for Caine, who’s been left as a sputtering mess. “Uh… yeahokaylookslikehe’sfineI’llseeyouguyslaterBYE!” And just like that, he disappears in a puff of glitter and confetti.

Everyone stares wide-eyed at the space Caine occupied just moments ago, some of their jaws slack in shock.

“So, um… anyone else hungry?” Jax asks.

(small reminder that in my original Regressor!Kinger post I mentioned that he physically regresses as well via conjuring, so if you're confused about the others being able to easily pick him up/carry him and anything related to that, that's why)

Ragatha

🧸~ Is most often referred to as Momma by Kinger, but occasionally is called Ra-Ra instead. At first she disliked being called Momma because that's what she had to call her mother her whole life, but she's grown to like it when it's coming from a regressed Kinger and uses it as a means of healing her trauma around motherhood.

🧸~ She usually calls Kinger by his name, baby, baby boy, honey, or sweetheart. Just lots of very affectionate nicknames for her little one 💜

🧸~ Does best with Kinger when he's in a newborn or baby headspace, but she can still handle him when he's a bit bigger. Struggles with being his caregiver when Kinger's especially ornery or mischievous.

🧸~ Once she's overcome the worst of her trauma around being called Momma, she starts referring to herself in the third person a lot while interacting with Kinger/everyone else while Kinger's regressed. "Can you please hold Momma's hand while we cross the road?" "Oooh, such a nice drawing! Momma's so proud of you!" "Listen up everyone, Momma needs your attention for a minute!" The others are varying degrees of endeared by it, especially Kinger.

🧸~ Lots of positive affirmations and physical affection; likes to carry Kinger on her hip or in a baby sling while she does chores while he's regressed. Luckily for her Kinger adores that kind of attention and usually goes along with it, save for when he's feeling fussy or overstimulated.

🧸~ Despite struggling so much emotionally with Kinger's outbursts and behavior when he's having a trauma-induced or just in general negative regression, she's easily the best at giving him comfort throughout the episode and is the most understanding of his needs.

🧸~ The only circus member other than Gangle who can make Kinger cooperate with a padding change. He still wants no part in it, but she's figured out how to effectively distract him with a conversation/story until she's finished. Sometimes when he realizes what happened he fusses about it, but it's not long before he goes right back to clinging to her.

🧸~ As was kinda hinted at in episode 4 while she was high on stupid sauce (even though it was just a Raggedy Anne reference), she was forced to do a lot more feminine activities as a child such as tea parties and dancing lessons; as a result, she doesn't really like playing any overly feminine games with Kinger.

🧸~ Likes playing easy sports (soccer, baseball with some rule adjustments, tossing a ball back and forth, etc) and cooking with Kinger the most. This usually means she has to get someone else involved though, but don't be fooled, it's Momma who's in charge when she's the one who suggested an activity!

Pomni

🃏~ Is most often referred to as Mommy (spelled Mommi when it's written on a drawing) or Sissy by Kinger. While it took her some time to really "get" what was happening with him, she's come around the fastest (yes, even faster than Ragatha) to his regressive episodes and the role she wants to fill during them.

🃏~ She usually calls Kinger by his name, Kingy, baby, or kiddo. She keeps it simple, leaving it mostly to a few of the other circus members to give him sillier nicknames, some of which she'll borrow to make him giggle.

🃏~ Does best with Kinger entirely based on his mood; if he's fussy, she avoids him like the plague, but if he's dour or otherwise just sad, she's the best at cheering him up with a distraction.

🃏~ She'll never tell him as much because she doesn't want him to blame himself for it, but she hates having anything to do with padding changes. She'll do it if Jax is the one who needs a helping hand with it, but otherwise she outright refuses to change him if it's not the first change of a regression (unless it's an emergency).

🃏~ Doesn't do well with physical affection, so a lot of her attention is verbal or done through playing. Kinger was put off by the fact that he can't just up and hug her at first, but he's learned to respect her boundaries while regressed and reciprocate in the same ways that she does.

🃏~ Likes watching TV and playing board games with Kinger the most. She's also pretty good at playing pretend games, especially if she has Jax by her side for them ((Funnybunny rights)).

Zooble

((It took me way too long to find an emoji for them that I liked; even this isn't perfect but whatever))

🎨~ Is most often referred to as Zoo-Zoo or Renny by little Kinger, it all depends on who else is involved with caretaking at the time.

🎨~ They usually call Kinger anything but his name (at least when speaking directly to him)! Their favorite nicknames are pawn, kiddo, kidlet, and junior, but sometimes they give him especially weird ones to make him laugh.

🎨~ Does best with Kinger when he's anywhere from 3 to 4, but that doesn't mean they can't look after him when he's younger than that, they just prefer being able to have a conversation with him that isn't entirely one-sided (and it's easier in their mind to keep track of him since he makes way more noise the bigger he is).

🎨~ They were the oldest child in their family while growing up, so they have the most experience of everyone with dealing with small children/toddlers and what it takes to look after them. They secretly like that they can sort of relive those memories with Kinger while he's regressed, but it would be hard for them to admit as much.

🎨~ Continuing off that last one, they put up with exactly zero bull. Kinger can whine and fuss all he likes, but nothing he can do has the potential to make them give up and let him have his way. As a result, they're the best at enforcing time-outs and naps.

🎨~ Prefers sharing caretaking time with Gangle when she's available for it; sure, they can totally handle him on their own, but it's easier with another set of hands (especially if those hands can single-handedly- no pun intended- handle a padding change).

🎨~ Their caregiving pattern is honestly very lax and uninvolved compared to everyone else, but if Gangle's helping they'll be more playful. Don't be fooled, though; the millisecond they realize he's about to do something dangerous or forbidden, they're on their feet and catching him just in the nick of time (this almost always sends Kinger into a giggle fit since he thinks it's all just a silly game).

🎨~ Likes baking and playing video games with Kinger the most. They also like joining in on coloring sessions with Gangle and doing chores/housework with him by their side.

Gangle

🎭~ Is often referred to as Sissy, Gangy, or Ganma (that last one is Jax's fault). She's honestly kind of relieved that he doesn't really see her as his mother/parent during regression episodes since it puts less pressure on her.

🎭~ She usually calls Kinger by his name, Kingy, King-chan, King-kun, and any nicknames in Japanese that she thinks sound cute for him.

🎭~ Does best with Kinger based (almost) entirely on his mood and behavior; they prefer it when he's happy-go-lucky and willing to be more still/patient, but they actually do decently well when he's in a foul mood, some part of her used to antagonizing behavior after having worked fast food for so long in the real world (and from dealing with Jax).

🎭~ She prefers caretaking when she can do it alongside Zooble, because without them she really struggles to maintain authority over him. Don't get it twisted, she loves being a babysitter/caregiver, but she was an only child growing up and doesn't think she can be anywhere near stern with him.

🎭~ The only circus member other than Ragatha who can make Kinger cooperate for a padding change. Her method is to give him a toy or screen while she changes him; the reason this seems to only work with her is because she's gotten good at reading his body language, making it so she can guarantee that the distraction is the best one for that moment.

🎭~ While she's still getting used to conjuring and anything else involving administrative control, she's quickly learned how to use her ribbons more effectively, especially when it involves handling a regressed Kinger. Sometimes if she wants to do something the baby shouldn't be involved in, she'll use her ribbons to make him a little swing and keep him busy until she's done, much to his delight.

🎭~ Likes drawing and coloring with Kinger the most. She also enjoys putting him down for a nap when it's needed and giving him baths. Quiet playing is best playing.

Jax

🐇~ Is often referred to as Papa or Bubby, but once she comes out as transfemme Kinger starts calling her Momma-Mommy (yes, all together like that). Jax pretended that she hated it at first, but behind closed doors she revels in getting to play a more feminine role, even if she's still getting used to accepting that she's transgender. Like Ragatha she struggles with coming to terms with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her own mother.

🐇~ She usually calls Kinger silly nicknames like mini Kinger, pawn prince, king craps himself (Ragatha gave her heck for that one), and anything else that fits the moment. Kinger absolutely loves it!

🐇~ Can handle Kinger at pretty much any stage of regression, but admittedly she's not as into it when he's a newborn or baby. Look, if she's gonna be a mom for a day, at least let her have some fun during it! Babies aren't exactly known for their ability to keep up with games.

🐇~ She's easily the most directly involved of the humans in playing with him while he's regressed and feeling up to it. She's a master of getting him hyped up for pretty much anything she can think of, even including things he'd otherwise hate like naptime and cleaning up.

🐇~ Both because it's effective when he's regressed and it cracks her up, she often spells out any words that she doesn't want him to hear when communicating with the others. "Hey Pomni, I think the tyke needs a c-h-a-n-g-e!" "Hey Rags, can I give him a c-o-o-k-i-e?" It's a bit ridiculous, but so is everything in this little circus! (Bonus silly thing - Zooble: "Hey munchkin, what does n-a-p spell?" Kinger: "Party! 🥳🎉")

🐇~ Really doesn't like doing anything bath or padding change related, but she'll do what she has to if it needs doing. As was mentioned earlier, she'll call on Pomni for backup if things start getting out of hand (or if she needs help keeping the baby in one place for a change).

🐇~ Likes roughhousing and doing anything that involves more action with Kinger the most. She can't help but get hyped up once she starts in on a game with him, and hey, at least if they need to tucker the kiddo out for a nap or some downtime, she's the best at it! This has backfired a few times though, leading the others to sometimes find her out cold with a hyper Kinger running circles around her.

(Bonus) Caine

🎩~ Is often referred to as Daddy or Mister. He initially struggled a lot with that first one, especially since he sees Kinger as his own creator/parent when he's not in a regressive episode, but he's learned to accept and even enjoy it!

🎩~ He usually calls Kinger by the usual silly nicknames he gives the other circus members, but one on one they're more personalized, such as things like my quirky little macaroon and my mischievous little pancake. If things get serious or he needs Kinger's more direct attention, he'll call him by his name or something like little one.

🎩~ Can handle Kinger the best when he's slightly bigger and in a good/playful mood; anything other than that is a serious struggle for him. He's still trying to understand how his own emotions work, much less those of a mentally regressed human! At least he's learned to compose himself a little better when he starts getting frustrated.

🎩~ Is the one who learned the hard way that sp*nking Kinger while he's regressed is a bad idea. It happened early on in the process of everyone getting adjusted to the concept as a whole, so it was just Caine left to watch him for a few hours; Kinger was getting uppity and resistant, and Caine reached his breaking point while trying to change his padding on his own. It wasn't a particularly severe sp*nking, just a few swats, but it was enough to send Kinger into a panic attack/full-on meltdown. Caine still feels awful about the whole thing, and has since then vowed to call for help if he's ever getting close to that point again.

🎩~ On a more light-hearted note, he's very good at distracting Kinger when the others need a break to get something done on their own that shouldn't involve a baby. He's tailor made a number of mini adventures for the little one, Kinger's favorite being a massive garden that he can go bug collecting in.

🎩~ He genuinely has no idea how sarcasm works- autism king 👑- so he's very direct with everyone, even Kinger while he's little. He also can't lie to save his life, because despite being in a younger headspace, Kinger can always tell when he's bluffing or hiding something.

🎩~ Although it sometimes frustrates him, he'll begrudgingly let Bubble hang out while he's caregiving on his own, but he's ready to pop him at a moment's notice. Unfortunately that backfired severely the time he did it in front of Kinger since the poor baby thought that Caine killed Bubble for good. Now when Bubble gets out of hand, Caine's learned to get him away from Kinger before popping him, leading to some pretty funny interactions. Bubble: *@ Kinger* What's up, sh*t master!" Caine: "...Bubble, step outside with me real quick :)"

🎩~ Likes going on adventures and playing pretend with Kinger the most. Since Ragatha and the others aren't all that interested in tea parties and dress up games, Caine's had the freedom to go all in on them when looking after Kinger on his own. The others do need to check on him every so often though, if only to avoid anymore incidents if Caine gets too excited and starts glitching or overstimulating Kinger.