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Moonrise! This part of the story was getting too long, so have this so far. The second half of this adventure is coming soon. Hopefully. Been busy on and off, but you know how it is. Last we saw out horrible little rabbit, she was having an existential crisis with the ones she refuses to call her girlfriends. Time is passing, tempers are shortening, and tension is rising. Inspired by one of my favorite movie franchises, this adventure is brought to you by my insatiable need to torture these cartoon toy people. That being said. CW: Generational trauma, identity repression, some suicidal ideation, Caine's villain arc, vomiting, Zooble and the girls get weapons, improper use of a 1992 Ford Explorer XLT, poor explanation of computer stuff because I'm a biology major not tech, dinosaur attacks.
Finally finished Chapter 7 of the fic! Took a bit longer than expected(Life kinda got in the way) but I am proud of what i've got a I hope everyone enjoys!!
This is somewhat inspired by a convo I had on a Ragapom post. Someone asked about why we thought Ragapom worked better than Funnybunny but didn't like my explanation. Now, I don't want to put anyone on blast, but I did want to get my thoughts out.
Long rambly Rant under the cut.
Now, I'm a Ragapom shipper myself, but I don't really think there's anything particularly WRONG with either Funnybunny or Bunnydoll. This is not meant as hate. In fact, I personally enjoy them both platonically even if I don't think they'd work well as seen in canon due to Jax and her past actions. Girl can barely hold down a friendship. I don't think the Jax we've known is ready for a romantic relationship yet. Particularly with 2 girls she's harmed in the past, even if I think both girls would be willing to give her a chance. Maybe in a world where Jax had transitioned instead of being the POS we've seen. But canon Jax seems to work better as the chaotic somewhat annoying but they love her anyway type of friend.
For the most part while I wouldn't say any of these 3 ships suck, I think which one is better depends on what you're looking for. Each ship fills a different niche:
Ragapom is the sweet loving relatively stable fluffy comfort ship who can help eachother in the horrors of the Circus.
Funnybunny is the chaotic messy gremlins doomed by the narrative and Jax's mistakes who help eachother cut loose and have fun.
And Bunnydoll is the messy Exes that clash because they still care for eachother and know best who eavhother is behind their mask.
Of course the 3 of them also work well as a group as something of the Digital Circus Fun Gang. Ragatha's the kindhearted pascifist, Jax is the fun-loving ball of violent chaos, and Pomni's the chill goodhearted yet somewhat feral gremlin who loves both of them. Whether you view that as a friend group or poly or whatever.
I know alot of people say that Ragatha was "the second choice" to Jax or that their development happened offscreen. They claim Pomni clearly liked Jax more. Personally, while I do think they coukd have used more casual friends time or the ability to see the talk after the show, it's pretty obvious Ragapom's relationship is important even if it didn't get the focus or flash that Funnybunny got. Yes, Pomni and Jax get along well and Jax helped Pomni relax and let off steam during the gun adventure. But Ragatha helped Pomni too. Ragatha may not be able to provide the thrills Jax did and could be unintentionally clingy, but she was a much needed stable safe place in the storm of the Circus. No matter what happened: Gummigoo dying and forgetting about her, her and Jax's fight, Caine's antics, Jax abstracting, even Pomni leaving her for the exit or pulling her off Jax's abstracted body before she abstracted too; Ragatha was there.
Remember that scene of Pomni realizing if she was at risk of abstraction, the others (aside from Jax) would pull her back? Yes, Pomni enjoys thrills and is adventurous. Yes, she doesn't like being infantilized, But she also values someone being there for her when she needs them and genuinely caring about her. Something Jax...wasn't really able to do, unfortunately.
Pomni clearly liked Jax, and the two got along well. He helped her relax and have fun, and she was able to get him to open up and act like an actual PERSON again. They have a fun chaotic dynamic and they do make a good team together. And true, he didn't mean any of what he said to Pomni, and she knew that. But push came to shove while he was fun and made her laugh, she clearly couldn't TRUST him since he betrayed her both at the end of Ep 6 and Ep 7. Even before that while she clearly was willing to give him a chance, his tendency to touch or infantilize her for a joke kinda annoyed her even more than Ragatha's accidental clinginess or condescension. She thought he might be more genuine than Ragatha's overpositivity and be someone she could commiserate about the issues of the Circus with, and it turned out he masked harder than anyone else there because he was scared to be vulnerable. Pomni is trustworthy, but Jax won't let himself do it even if he WANTS to.
You also have Pomni largely avoiding Jax prior to Ep 5 while even though things were awkward between her and Ragatha, they still hung out quite a bit with the two of them choosing to stand together alot. She offers Gangle Ragatha's help, Ragatha's the first one Pomni goes to after Kinger's speech about not making someone feel unwanted or loved. She offered advice to Ragatha and offered her chance at bat to cheer her up even if it kinda backfired. And if Ragatha hadn't turned her down and suggested she didn't want Kinger to get stuck with Jax, Jax getting Pomni to loosen up wouldn't have happened. She's even the one who suggested they talk after the show. True, she was curious about Jax, and I think she would have been happy to befriend him if Jax hadn't pushed her away. But Pomni is right in that HE reached out to HER. Pomni seemed largely fine with Ragatha even if she could be accidentally overbearing and condecending or her coming off as less than genuine or annoying at times. Gangle and Jax did kinda get in her head about her but she clearly did LIKE Ragatha even if Ragatha worried she was failing Pomni or losing her to Jax due to her own insecurity and self sabotaging. The foundation was already THERE even before the after show talk.
Now, personally I think Pomni would have been happy with both friends if Ragatha and Jax didn't drag her into the middle of their beef. BOTH Rags AND Jax kinda treated her as a child, arguing over who was the better influence and fighting over "custody" of her so to speak. Which is a big reason why Pomni kinda ended up going one way or another, along with their own insecurities and self sabotaging. Bunnydoll have a tendency to bring out the worst in eachother after all. And particularly with Ragatha and Jax being both opposite sides of the same abuse trauma Coin, really where Pomni went is obviously because Ragatha was willing to communicate with Pomni, to be vulnerable and try and let her do things her own way. whereas Jax not only ultimately forced her to try and commit to his way of doing things, but doubled down and pushed Pomni away when he realized she was getting too close.
This lead of course to Pomni and Ragatha's talk after the show, leading the two of them to bond more and more over the course of the ensuing plot craziness (Abel, Pomni taking Ragatha's hand, Pomni comforting Ragatha and showing she listened to her words, lugging Ragatha in after the adventure, finally culminating in that hug and long gaze) while Jax self isolated and spiraled despite Pomni still trying to reach him, only really getting closure after he abstracted.
Had Jax gotten it together or Ragatha had doubled down I think things could have gone differently. Either way, I feel like the "plan B" wasn't Ragatha because she couldn't have Jax. I feel like it was going to be Ragatha OR Jax because their issues abd fighting made it hard for Pomni to have both. Ragatha being the dependable friend willing to openly care and do better for Pomni ultimately won out while Jax self isolated and pretty much dug his own grave.
The 3 are somewhat intertwined. Funnybunny would have never happened if it weren't for the Ragapom tension and Bunnydoll fighting with eachother. Ragapom kinda helped Ragatha heal from Bunnydoll and Pomni heal from Funnybunny, even if it kinda came at Bunnydoll's expense in Ragatha learning to step back. And Funnybunny kinda helped Ragapom bond and both Ragapom and Funnybunny kinda helped fuel the Bunnydoll beef. It's no wonder the 3 are the most popular ship triangle and poly ship in the fandom.
Ragapom works because there's mutual care and trust. Ragatha can help keep Pomni optimistic, help her in social situations, and be a safe place for her while Pomni can be the person in Ragatha's corner that she needs to help with her insecurities and help when Ragatha can't speak up for herself. They're both anxious pathetic girl-failure beans who fear either being hated or forgotten. Both have multiple time survivor's guilt. And both sides have shown willingness to talk and be better for eachother. This, in my opinion, tends to give them a much more stable foundation than we see in Funnybunny or Bunnydoll. Whether you interpret them as a deep friendship or romantic.
Funnybunny has the thrills and fun where Jax can make Pomni relax, laugh and have fun while Pom can help him act more like a person and give him a moral compass. They bring out both the best AND the worst in eavhother. Both are funloving chaos gremlins who love thrills. And both have lost people in the Circus and have strong emotions. But there's not the trust, stability OR comfort there. Jax is stubborn and avoidant and can't even admit he cares, plus he however unknowingly threw her worse fear in her face and sabotaged their escape attempt. By Ep 8, Pomni can't even trust him not to go off and kill himself whereas she's willing to let Ragatha go look for Gangle, Zooble and Kinger despite Rags saying she wishes she'd Abstracted instead. And Pomni is far better at comfort than Jax is, creating a bit of an imbalance. Not to mention the infamous "I can fix him"/"I can make her worse" issues and Pomni's stubborness also clashing with Jax.
And Bunnydoll, Ragatha doesn't even trust Jax around POMNI or even to not hit Gangle in the face on purpose. And Jax clearly doesn't exactly trust Rags either since he kinda describes her as trying to take advantage of people. The two do clearly care for eachother in their own little fucked up way and I feel if both of them ever actually TALKED, they'd relate to eachother ALOT. Both of them are two sides of the same abuse trauma Coin and both mask like hell pretending to be happy to cope with their trauma. But neither of them trust eachother as far as they could throw them. You also have the same issue Funnybunny does of Ragatha being the comforter while Jax takes, even worse since Ragatha already has issues giving too much without recieving. As well as also having the "I can fix him/I can make her worse" issue.
This is going off canon, of course. If Jax transitioned I could see a better argument for Funnybunny or Bunnydoll since she'd be alot happier and less toxic that way. Particularly in the AU where Jax wasn't as much of a POS since she wouldn't have hurt them as profoundly. But going off what we see in canon, I definitely think Ragapom works the best out of the 3 since there's more trust and care there than with the others. This also doesn't count bias from the fandom as well, which Funnybunny as a ship has quite the reputation for toxicity, inescapability and kinda hypocrisy that can make it the most annoying of the 3 ships. Although I'vd also heard rumors about Bunnydoll and Ragapom too to a lesser extent, I do admit my feelings about Funnybunny as a ship are complicated by that.
I feel like this kinda got away from me, but those are kinda my thoughts. Of course, Poly also works great. Why fight over which is better when they all have 2 hands? XD But yeah, unfortunately Jax kinda canonically botched his chances to be anything other than platonic with the girls for me. RIP Jax, you dumbass rabbit. You could have had 2 BFFs or even a polycule if you just locked in and got your shit together instead of being a class act fumbler, but at least you helped my girl Pom appreciate what kind of friend and possible partner she did have in Ragatha.
