[TADC] 📜🎪 M A K I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C ! - Act 15

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M A K I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !

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CHAPTERS 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

⊹˚₊·‧Chapter 15: Confrontation

“Why… does it feel… as if I have done something wrong…?” Pomni asked the next morning, when they all sat in the lounge for their dedicated meeting, looking at the others. Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble were staring at Ragatha and Pomni as if they were in an interrogation. Jax hadn’t shown up, not much to Pomni’s surprise. 

Zooble, who stared at Pomni with squinted eyes and crossed arms, conveyed this sentiment especially.

Instead of answering, Zooble squinted their eyes even more.

Ragatha cleared her throat and observed something far away that suddenly seemed to have gained importance. 

Pomni dangled her feet.

Nobody talked for a while.

It was such an awkward silence that they could even hear Kinger blink. Offset.

After a while, Zooble said, “Well, what do you think?”

“I haven’t provoked anything!” Pomni quickly disclosed, nervously. Even though it was obvious that the facts absolved her of any guilt, for some reason it seemed as though she was lying.

“You were having a secret affair with the—hihi—mother of your baby!” Gangle blurted out, but instead of an accusation, it sounded like a secret fantasy. She was drawing something on her notepad. Oh lord…

“Exactly,” Zooble agreed, though from their mouth it clearly was an allegation.

“I---- y-yes, maybe, but---- like… only, for----” Pomni began, and even while she was talking, she was wondering how this meeting had taken this kind of direction, instead of focusing on more pressing matters. And why Zooble’s anger seemed to be pointed at Pomni alone, not Ragatha.

“Cut her some slack,” Ragatha chimed in as if she had nothing to do with any of this, “It took her actually a really long time to figure out she was into me in the first place.”

Pomni slowly turned her head to face Ragatha next to her, with a—probably cartoonish—look of confused disbelief on her face. Why now was she also dogpiling against her?

Ragatha nervously looked in another direction, her expression making it clear that she felt guilty.
Good. She should.

“You!” Zooble then blurted out, pointing their new spiral-shaped hand at Ragatha, “Don’t act all innocent! How long did you know about your-... your child NPC thing??”

“Yeah, Ragatha,” Pomni now added snarkily, ready to give her a dig for her betrayal, “since when did you know, huh?”

“P-Pomni!” Ragatha gave back, “I mean… t-that’s not important now, is it…? Haha….”

“Stop that!” Zooble barked, “Stop acting like this is just a cute little joke! Are you guys seriously not grasping the severity of all this?”

Ragatha and Pomni dropped their quarrel, looking at Zooble, hearing the distress in their voice clearly.

“F██k, man! I really would love to be as supportive as Gangle, noninvolved as Jax or mentally absent as Kinger right now, but all I can think about is how disturbing all of this is! Don’t any of you see that? I’m sorry to break this to you, but both of you must know that --- that it’s nothing but an NPC! Nothing but code! How in f███g God’s a█s are you able to play make-believe like that? Roleplay as mommy and daddy as if everything was just peachy??”

Ragatha didn’t say anything, but Pomni saw how her hands were drifting to her middle.

“Have both of you lost your minds!? I know you are a bit delusional about NPCs, Pomni,” Zooble now pointed at Pomni, then Ragatha again, “but you, too, Ragatha!? I know you were even angry at Pomni for having any kind of feelings for AI, and now you’re treating this whole situation like… like this!?” Now they pointed to Ragatha’s hands, which were covering her belly protectively.

“So, yes, excuse me for being f███g distraught as hell! You realize it’s just a game, right? You realize it’s just an adventure! A script! A way for Caine to pull you in closer! No matter what you guys think you are, this is NOT a real baby, and you are NOT really its—”

Gangle had dropped her pad and wrapped one arm around Zooble’s face, as if they were trying both to comfort them and to metaphorically cover their mouth. Even though there was no actual mouth to cover up, Zooble understood the gesture and went silent; Or maybe the shock made them pause.

Kinger put a hand on Zooble's shoulder.

“Fantasy is reality,” he said, calmly, but with compassion in his voice. “ideas just as physical as our bodies. No atoms, just code. We don’t even have the privilege to become stardust again when we stop working. All we can do is live.”

Nobody replied to that, making Kinger’s words hang heavily in the room; And even though Pomni didn’t fully understand what he was saying, maybe because he was just rambling baloney, she could somehow feel the truth of it.

“F██K!” Zooble eventually exclaimed after a short pause of staring onto the ground, and to Pomni’s surprise, actual tears were forming in their eyes, dripping down on the couch they were sitting on, “F██k… I know. I’m sorry. This shouldn’t be any of my business… It’s just scaring me so much. I mean… What are we becoming? How much of us is still human? At which point do we turn into nothing but NPCs ourselves? We aren’t even physical anymore, so where’s the threshold? And what if we actually find an exit one day…” Zooble cried, then looked at Ragatha and Pomni again, “would any of you be able to leave? Knowing you’d leave your so-called baby in here?”

Ragatha got up before Pomni, who was still processing Zooble’s outburst. She kneeled down in front of Zooble, to look them in the eyes, carefully touching one of their knees. 

“I hear you. Everything you say… it’s … it’s very valid.” She said, conflicted, empathetic.

Pomni finally found her usual motoric functions again and got down from the couch to get closer to where Zooble and the others were sitting. “I had very similar thoughts…”

Ragatha nodded, adding, “We both had. We don’t seem like it anymore, because we had time to process things.”

“I couldn’t find a clear path. Or solution. Or any kind of resolve, really. But ultimately… what can we do besides embarking? Not just with… the make-believe things. But with anything in here.”

Zooble stared at the ground again, looking disturbed and broken. As if they knew Pomni’s words to be true, but didn’t want them to.

Nobody talked for a while. Gangle, who had detached herself just slightly, was wrapped around Zooble’s neck, her mask snuggled close. From the way Kinger looked around in the room, it was clear that he was mostly gone again—but yet he still left his hand on Zooble’s shoulder.

“And.. you’re happy, you said…?” Zooble asked, directed at Ragatha.

“Oh God, yes. Very much so. I stopped feeling useless. I-I know, I know. I was never useless,” she quickly added, when the others looked at her, “but I couldn’t help but feel this way. But now… … I mean… yes. Yes, I am happy. I am fulfilled.”

Zooble seemed to think long about these words. Fighting an inner struggle the others couldn’t see.

After a while, Pomni suggested, “Hey…. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but if we’re…. similar in that regard… I think I could show you something that might settle things in a way that… words can’t.”

Zooble looked up again, at Pomni, helplessness and worry reflecting in their eyes. 

Pomni quietly offered her hand. Zooble accepted, lying their own—the more human-like, 5-fingered one—in Pomni’s. 

Then she looked at Ragatha.

Ragatha understood the unspoken request. After nodding, she stood up once more, her by now impressive curve easily accessible.

Then, Pomni gently guided Zooble’s hand onto Ragatha’s belly, putting it on top of it.

As expected, the little one was shifting around, as usual. It slightly pushed against the newfound pressure, as if it were eager to discover what was happening. Pomni noticed Zooble inhaling sharply, as if they were surprised. That was her sign to pull her own hand back and let her disoriented friend explore these new sensations and feelings it caused on their own terms.

Zooble just stared at first, their hand frozen in place. But then, finally, they started to stroke over the curve. Feeling the tiny kicks and bumps. The unique way Ragatha’s body felt in this area. The entity inside communicating and answering to the attention in its own way.

Pomni witnessed Gangle searching for eye contact with Ragatha, who also noticed. She recognized the silent request and nodded again, smiling encouragingly. Gangle detached one of her arms from Zooble, putting her little silken hand on the curve, too. Gasping in joy shortly after.

“F██k me…” Zooble eventually said, “It feels so… real. It’s uncanny, but… one can’t help but be curious.”

Pomni sat back on the couch table, watching the scene before her, in which Gangle and Zooble appreciated Ragatha’s curve in wonder; And with Ragatha looking a bit nervous due to all of the attention, but managing to crack a little encouraging smile for Pomni. It looked cute and funny. But most of all, touching.

“I don’t know if it really helps me to understand, but… I calmed down, at least, I think. Thanks for that, guys.”

With that, Zooble disconnected their hand from Ragatha. They really seemed more relaxed now.

“You’re very welcome. If it helps you, you can always touch it, as much as you want.” Ragatha replied kindly, while gently taking Gangle's hand, giving it a little squeeze, then sitting down on the sofa again.

“Maybe I will do that,” Zooble answered after thinking about it.

“So… can I…” Ragatha began, then looked at Pomni and corrected herself, “...can we count on your support…?”

Gangle, Kinger and Zooble gave agreeing words, and Pomni could see how Ragatha’s shoulders finally relaxed. She, too, felt a huge relief. 

“But no more secrets from now on. Even though it’s your thing, it’s affecting all of us eventually.” Zooble added, warningly, “And… and I really can’t handle more surprises in that matter.”

“Then I better tell you about my top secret side hustle!” Kinger announced, then added in a whisper, “It’s about math.”

Zooble looked at him. “No… no, thank you,” they replied.

“Aw…” Kinger said.

Ragatha and Pomni spent the rest of the meeting explaining what they knew—that Ragatha had known from the very beginning, how it felt, about the code that Ragatha could sense, and her unbending wish to be there for the baby, even though it would be nothing but an NPC. Gangle also asked some suspicious questions about Pomni’s and Ragatha’s connection, which they both dismissed with spare words and blushing cheeks.

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