Work Text:
*slit*
Stuffing poured out of her plush neck.
Nothing she hasn't felt before. But she'd never wanted it the other times.
*slit*
Stuffing puffed out of her wrist. She shook her hand around, and more stuffing blew out, falling gently to the ground.
Ragatha made eye contact with herself in the mirror, her vision blurry and unfocused, not from tears, just dizziness.
And maybe tears.
She laughed.
And glanced at her piano. She could use it to write a note, probably.
...
Nope.
Nobody wants a note to read. It'd just be a burden on them. Like everything else she does.
She took a deep breath, and plunged the knife into her chest. Her decision is already made.
"Ragatha...?" She heard Pomni's uncertain voice call out.
"Oh... sh!#..." Ragatha muttered under her breath, looking around for something to cover herself up with so Pomni wouldn't see the injuries in case she walked in.
She shouldn't have left her door cracked open, but she wanted it to be easy to get to her abstraction, so she wouldn't inconvenience them all more than necessary.
Now that backfired...
"Ragatha, are you okay? You've been really quiet lately, and-" Hesitation.
But the door creaked open, light of the hallway falling on Ragatha's bright red face.
"THIS-! This isn't what it looks like!" She extended a hand to gaslight Pomni with. "I- JAX!! Jax threw... knives at me!"
What is she doing, throwing Jax under the bus like that for no reason? Terrible thing to do, but so is everything else she does.
Pomni's permanent blush disappeared and got replaced by a blue tone drawing from her forehead to halfway down her eyes, like an anime. She held out her hands like someone trying to approach a rabid animal. "Ragatha... please." Her voice shook. Why? She shouldn't care this much. Or at all.
Ragatha looked down at her hand, already glitching black.
"Just- Just. Take my hand. I'll bring you to Kinger, or... Gangle. Whoever's nearest by, just- Someone. Someone can help. I can help too but not enough, and you could use more than one person-"
Her legs gave out beneath her, but Pomni rushed over and scooped her up, placing her head on her lap and cradling her.
Why?
Digital tears fell from Pomni's eyes, and soaked through Ragatha's plush face.
"RAGATHA! Please!!! You can't just-!" she laughed. And laughed again. Short and puffy. "You can't just give up and leave me like this! We all care about you, we all want you here! Why do you-?! Why do you just assume we don't?!"
The tears kept coming, stronger and stronger, and even in her exhausted, near-gone state, Ragatha instinctively reached up to brush the tears away. She hates seeing people cry.
Pomni started glitching from contact with Ragatha's abstracting hand.
Of course.... She shouldn't have done anything. She just made it worse like every other time she tried to help.
"RAGATHA!!" Pomni screamed again, voice crack dampening her intended anger. "Stop it!! PLeeEase..."
The flow of tears grew and grew, until it reached a cartoonish level of pouring down her face in two rectangular streams.
It took the last of her energy, but... "Why do you care?"
Pomni didn't answer right away, dropping her own forehead onto Ragatha's, locking hands with her abstracting hand, ignoring the glitches it caused. "I just don't want you to disappear...
I don't want you to go out thinking we all hate you, I don't want you to feel like a burden, I don't want to not have you when I need you, I don't want... any of this."
The abstraction didn't bother responding...
Too tired.
They closed their eyes, letting the blackness overtake their body, as Pomni's arms shook under them, muttering pleas before screaming at the top of their scratchy digital lungs every possible name, Caine being the last listed, but the only one to arrive, and immediately yell "WOWZERS, RAGATHA'S ABSTRACTING?! DON'T WORRY, I'LL GET HER!"
"NO!!!"
"And into the cellar you go!"