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Murder on the Candy Cane Express

Summary:

After Pomni makes the mistake of liking a murder mystery adventure, the next adventure sees her cast as the detective... with Gummigoo as her assistant.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: The Trip Begins

Chapter Text

It was Pomni's fault.

It started with an adventure based around CLUE, or at least the circus’s knock-off version of CLUE. Each circus member had a role to play, with Jax being the victim, lying in a puddle of strawberry jam- 

("Good riddance."

"Zooble!"

"WHAT?!")

-to Ragatha being the detective.

Unfortunately, the issues started there.

Pomni had been a private investigator back when she was a human, one of the few facts she remembered about herself. She hadn't been sure how to bring that fact up to the rest of the group, since she had been hired to investigate at least the last two of C&A's string of disappearances. (It could have been worse. At least the company wasn't murdering people like she suspected when she saw the list of names.) She had a long string of successes under her belt, with people trusting her more than they did the police.

And her pride as a private investigator screamed at her when Ragatha did not follow procedure.

("RAGATHA, YOU CAN'T JUST BLOW INTO THE EVIDENCE BAG, IT'LL GET YOUR DNA ALL OVER IT!"

"Pomni, this is... the most impassioned I've ever seen you get for an adventure."

"What, you might as well LICK it if you want your own germs all over it!"

"...this is personal- and I don't like seeing you like this. It scares me.")

Pomni had ignored the sting of that comment and took over the detective role, ignoring her role as a knock-off Ms. Peacock. Some part of her had relaxed as old muscles flexed. Sure, the chaos of the circus made her have a weekly breakdown, but this chaos? The chaos of investigating, of putting the pieces together, of being able to point out the butler NPC as the killer?

"That was actually kinda fun," she admitted as they walked into the circus.

The next second, Caine was in her space, vibrating- literally vibrating , she could hear his teeth chattering against each other- in his spot. His fingers dug into her hands from where he was holding them, but he didn’t seem to notice. "My dear, did you say you enjoyed that?!"

"Uh..." Pomni wasn't sure why, but she decided it was best to be honest, even as she leaned away from him. "Yeah, I did."

If he had an actual mouth, she was sure Caine would have the biggest grin with how his eyes sparkled. "Nobody has ever said that they've enjoyed the adventure! This is the best day of my life!" Wow...that was actually kind of sad. She glanced around to see that everyone was looking away, looking a touch awkward, even Jax. "I have so many ideas!"

And with that, Caine disappeared.

The next few days felt normal, with an adventure a day and activities that Ragatha and Jax would set up together, except Caine would occasionally pop up to ask Pomni questions about police procedures and old cases and the pros and cons of true crime books, taking notes. He even took Zooble aside to ask about what kind of maturity they wanted

"He looks more focused than he did whenever we do a therapy session," Zooble complained once to her and Gangle when they were hanging out in their room, gently running a marker over the exposed part of Pomni’s arm, making a tattoo of a constellation. (Pomni stored that to maybe talk to them about later.)

And it all led up to today.

"The Murder on the Candy Cane Express!" Caine announced, the title popping up around him in pastel pink and blue. "That's right, folks! You are all on a train, trapped together, when suddenly, someone is horribly murdered! It's up to our master detective to solve the case!" The lights flashed, and Pomni looked down as her outfit shifted and changed, and a bundle of papers landed in her hands, like the CLUE adventure.

Instead of her jester outfit, she wore dark pants and heeled boots with a pastel pink shirt and a pastel blue vest that matched the title. Over that, she wore a dark Inverness cape, lined with pink and blue fur. She reached up and patted her head. Even the hat was gone, replaced instead by twin pigtails that were tied back with what felt like ribbon to her still-gloved hands. Next to her was a dark brown leather satchel that she tucked over her shoulder, feeling a familiar weight from her old bag. It all looked and felt so mature .

Despite herself, she loved it.

“Wait, you can change our outfits in here-”

“Ugh,” Jax groaned. “I’m not gonna be the victim again.”

“Of course not! That would be boring!” Caine said, snapping his fingers. A red wig plopped down on Jax’s head. “You’re playing the femme fatale!”

Silence dawned on the group. Between strands of hair, Jax’s eyes went wide. Then they got even bigger, with sparkles and everything. “Oh squeak yeah,” he said. “I’m gonna seduce everyone on that train!”

“Jax no!” Ragatha called, her eyes getting wide.

“JAX YES!”

“Anyway,” Caine said, pressing a hand to Pomni’s back. “Get through your portal and catch your train!” And with a push, she stumbled through the portal, right into a bustling train station.

Caine always put a lot of work into his worldbuilding, and he hadn’t skimped here. The floor resembled marble, with gold sprinkles shot through solid white sugar, and the trend continued to the ceiling, held up by huge lollipops. The ceiling was decorated with hard candy and icing, creating a fresco of Caine and Bubble doing various things. Various NPCs, both candy and otherwise, rushed about to get on gingerbread trains. Pomni’s script, however, told her to head to the biggest train.

It was beautiful. It looked delicate, made of candy glass and spun sugar and gingerbread and a bunch of other things she couldn’t recognize off the bat, but it looked luxurious, the type of train with sleeping cars and dining cars fancy enough to be five star. Despite herself, despite the stress of her situation, Pomni felt a grin form. Sure, the nice train ride would be ruined by a murder, but she was going to enjoy the ride to the best of her abilities.

Then a hand landed on her shoulder.

“There you are, Poms!”

Wait. No, it couldn’t be.

She turned.

Gummigoo smiled at her as a screen, one of the ways to introduce the characters in these murder mystery adventures, popped up.

Your best friend and sidekick!