Chapter Text
A day has passed since The Circus lost it's jester resident to abstraction. Since then, the whole circus has been filled with sadness. The long halls are quieter than usual, the moon was singing sad ballads all night and even a hint of sadness could be seen in their tooth ringmaster.
Now, even more, as the Ragdoll's finishing the last touches for Pomni's funeral.
"Ragatha," Zooble puts their hand or the ragdolls arm: "everyone's here." They inform her. Ragatha completes fixing the (digital) roses in front of Pomni's photo.
"Is Jax part of everyone?" She asks.
Silence.
Zooble doesn't answer. They don't need to, Ragatha already knows the answer. Their silence is enough.
"Come on-" Ragatha stands up, turning to look at Zooble. "I'll get him." She says, starting to head towards the bedrooms.
"Ragatha it's no use." She stops in her steps. "He never goes to the funerals." They add, trying to talk her out of it. "But this is Pomni . . . They were friends, Zooble." Her body turns around, she's on the verge of tears. "He knows when the funeral is starting. If he wanted to attend, he'd already be here." They remind her, starting to walk towards her.
"Maybe he forgot."
Zooble knows that's not true, and they have this feeling that Ragatha also does. But she'll take any exuse to check on him.
"Ragatha-"
"I'll just go to remind him. It won't take long, I promise." And with those words she leaves, leaving Zooble all alone in the room.
Why would she even go there? He already made up his mind. There's no way that she'll be able to convince him to even come here, not to mention attend. So why bother? This can't possibly end well. Should they go after her?
"Zooble?" They get taken out of their thoughts, turning around to look at the ribbon resident of the circus. If they had a mouth, they would give her a light smile.
"Where's Ragatha?" She looks behind them, adding concern to her sadness. "She went to get Jax." Gangle's gaze returns back to Zoobles eyes. "Oh." Looks like even she knows that it's not a good idea. "Should we . . ." Gangle doesn't need to finish her question for them to know, and honestly, they have no idea.
Should they go after her?
Who knows what could happen?
Jax prefers being alone. Zooble likes to think that, that is own way of grief. He'll probably get angry once Ragatha disturbs him. But, perhaps, that's what he needs. Perhaps, it's what they both need.
"She said that she'll just remind him and then come back right away. It shouldn't take long." That doesn't seem to reassure Gangle. Zooble's also not so sure about it. But hey, what's really the worst that could possibly happen?
"Come on, let's call Kinger in. I'm sure that he's anxiously waiting for us."
* * *
"Well, some time has passed by now and Ragatha still hasn't returned. The whole room is silent, her missing presence can be clearly felt. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to leave the two of them alone. They'll give it a few more minutes, if she won't make her return by then, they'll go after her.
They can feel Gangle shifting in her seat. She seems pretty queasy. Their triangle head turns to Kinger, his while body is twitching. Which, is normal actually. Suddenly, he also turns to them, staring into their eyes. . . Okay! That's it! Zooble swiftly stands up, grabbing Gangle's attention.
"I'm going to get her." They answer her, before she even had the chance to ask. "Who?!" Kinger shouts, scaring Gangle a little.
Zooble hears Gangle explaining something to Kinger as they exit the room. They'll leave them to it. As they make their way through the circus walls, two voices can be heard from the distance.
Oh God, they knew there was no way this could have ended well. Zooble quickens their pace. They must be yelling their lungs out at each other, if it can be heard from all the way they are.
"She was your friend Jax!" They hear the Ragdoll yelling. "It's the least that you can do for her!"
They finally get to Jax's room, witnessing the scene before them on their own eyes. Ragatha's right across Jax, tears streaming down her plush cheeks. Then, they turn their gaze to Jax. He's mad, no scratch that, he's furious. His pupils are fully shrunk. Zooble could have sworn, that they could see a hint of sadness in him.
"The least I can do for her?! I don't owe her anything." Jax yells back at her right away.
"How can you say that?!-"
"Oh, how can you say that Jax," he mocks her in a high pitched voice: "It's your fault, that she abstracted in the first place!" What? Zooble's eyes widen at his words. "Well guess what Ragatha! It's all actually your fault!" Ragatha's breath stops. "W-what?" The shock can be clearly seen on her face. “You heard me right. Pomni’s abstraction is your fault.
Silence takes over the hall. This is going too far. Should they step in? Even if they want to they can’t. They’re just frozen in the place, stuck, watching all of this unfold right in front of their eyes.
“If you didn’t have the constant need to butt into people’s life’s, she’d still be here! Have you ever thought about staying out of people’s business?!” Ragatha’s standing there, also frozen in place. “No, . . . you haven’t. Cause if you did, we wouldn’t have that talk on the gun adventure”
Zooble doesn’t seem to know what he’s referring to, but Ragatha does. Her breathing quickens and sobbing becomes louder. “I didn’t . . .” She starts fully crying, hurt by Jax’s words. “I didn’t mean to-“
“Oh, you didn’t mean to. Well guess what?! You did! Pomni’s dead now! . . . And it’s all because if you!” He screams into her face, going wild at this point.
“Jax that’s enough!” They finally step in. This has gone too far. Can’t he hear himself? How can he say something like this?
His eyes glare at them, noticing their presence at last.
What was he even on about? No one has ever blamed him for her abstraction. Is he actually that evil, that he just has to torment Ragatha, even at a time like this?
The Raggdoll’s standing, although her legs are visibly shaking. It’s only once Jax shuts the door of his bedroom behind him, she lets herself fall on the knees. Zooble comes closer to her. “Ragatha?” She looks up at them, only to look back down.
They knew this wasn’t a good idea. They should have stopped her. But it’s too late to do that now. The only thing that’s left for them, is to comfort her.
* * *
The funeral, went as well as it could. It was beautiful, Pomni would have been proud. Jax, to no one’s surprise, hasn’t left his room, since the argument with Ragatha. (If you can even call it that.) Everyone has gone to their respective rooms by now. The nighttime has already come. Zooble’s also laying in their bed, with their eyes wide open.
They can’t fall asleep, not after witnessing the fight earlier today. Ragatha hasn’t seemed okay since then. Of course, no one is really okay since Pomni’s abstraction, but it’s much worse for Ragatha. The things that Jax told her, clearly stuck with her. They know how vulnerable Ragatha is, that’s why they’re so concerned. One abstraction is already too many, but two . . .
They abruptly jump out of their bed, swiftly walking out of their room. Soft sobs can be heard, as Zooble makes their way through the hall, getting louder with each step they take. The walls in the circus are quite thin, which can get on the nerves pretty quickly. But at least now it’s useful, making them able to figure out where the sobs are coming from. And, oh god, it’s-it’s coming from Ragatha’s room. Their pace becomes faster, almost kicking her door down.
“Ragatha!” Zooble shouts, terror obvious in their voice. The Raggdoll’s sitting on floor, crying her hearth out. She looks up at them, her eye puffy from the long crying.
“It’s-it’s all-“ A loud sob stops her mid-sentence. “It’s all my fault Zooble!” She finally manages to get out of her. “Pomni abstracted because of me.” Zooble’s eyes widen as soon as their sight lands on their Ragatha’s hair. It’s starting to glitch out.
“No! Ragatha!” Running towards her, they drop on their knees. They aren’t much of a hugger, but this is a special occasion. If it can help to prevent the abstraction, they’ll gladly do it.
:Jax was right Zooble! If-“ She takes a deep breath, then continues: “If I haven’t been too much for her she’d be here with us, if-if I haven’t accused Jax of . . . of trying to corrupt her, she-she . . .” The sobs keep escaping from Ragatha her breathing getting quicker and more uneven with each passing second.
How can she even listen to that [@#$%]? He has gone too far this time. ‘If she abstracts then . . .’ Their thought gets cut short, when they notice someone standing in the open door.
The person in the question is none other than the purple rabbit himself. He’s standing there, his pupils shrunk to the size they’ve never seen before.
They glare at him.
Why is he here? T
To apologize?
Pffff, of course not, it’s Jax. That thought wouldn’t even cross his mind.
Or would it?
He does seem shocked, scared even.
They stare into each other’s eyes, Zooble waiting for his next move. Prehabs hoping, that he’ll come in.
But he doesn’t.
He just looks away, running off with his hands on mouth. All that’s left for them is to watch in disbelief. Normally they would run after him, but now it’s not time for that.
Ragatha’s more important right now.
They’ll deal with him later. Now they need to take care of her.
* * *
“Did she abstract?” Amari asks, giving Bernie a confused look, since they’ve left her on cliffhanger to take another drag from their cigarette.
They turn their face to Amari’s: “No, . . . not yet.”
“Gangle came in later and we managed to stop her from abstracting. But it just all went down after that. Looking back at it now, your abstraction was the start of everything.” Bernie concludes, taking another drag.
“Well, what happened next?” Amari asks again.
“The next day Cain made us go on a new adventure . . .”
* * *
“Welcome back my ferocious pirates!”
Our beloved cast has just returned from their latest adventure, ‘The life threatening pirates masquerade’, as Caine named it. Their goal was simple, find the emerald parrot and beware of the other evil pirates.
Well, it would be simple if the emerald parrot wasn’t an actual living, breathing one.
By the end of the adventure, no one really even mind the ‘other evil pirates’, cause the parrot was an absolute pain in the [@#$%]! He just took the first place for the worst NPC, Caine has created so far. Even managed to beat the Gloink queen to it, much to Zooble’s surprised and annoyance. Although they do have to admit that today’s adventure was a little more calmer than usual.
And why is that? You may ask yourself.
Well, the answer is quite simple.
The purple resident of the circus decided to take a leave from this adventure. They haven’t even seen him today. None of the cast had. All they know is that Caine mentioned to Ragatha, that Jax wanted to skip today. It didn’t really surprise Zooble, plus it’s probably the best for everyone, considering his scene yesterday. Everyone needs a day alone away from the hectic adventures, once in a while. So it doesn’t it doesn’t concern them in the slightest.
But just cause it doesn't concern them, doesn’t meant that it’s not concerning anyone.
“The food is already waiting for you,” with a snap of his fingers, he makes a table with the said food appear: “so lose no time and dig right in."
“Caine?”
Ragatha. She may have been on the adventure physically, but not mentally. Everyone could tell what was going through her mind the whole time.
“Is Jax here?” She asks, looking around the big hall, for any sign of the said rabbit.
“I’m afraid he’s not, my sweet little Raggdoll. As far as my all-knowing eyes know, he hasn’t left his room since this morning.” Caine answers her quickly, almost as if he was brushing her question off as pointless. “Well that aside, chef Bubble has prepared some brand new dishes from the critically acclaimed cookbook ‘Cooking with disappearing g-“
“That’s all really nice Caine, but I think I should go check on Jax first.” Ragatha cuts him off once again, much to Caine’s annoyance.
“Oh, I think that won’t be necessary. He’ll come sooner or later. After all, who could resist chef’s Bubble’s food?” Caine flights right in front of Ragatha, blocking her way out as she slowly starts walking out of the room.
“I still think I should check on him.” Ragatha smiles awkwardly, probably starting to feel impatient by now. She really wants to go check on him.
Even at the adventure, she mentioned that she wants to make up with him as soon as they get back. They could have sworn, that she even tried to fast forward through the adventure. It’s undeniably, extremely important to her.
“Are you sure it can’t wait till you finish your delicious dinner?” He asks, looking at her with puppy eyes. It’s obvious that he’s proud of the dinner and perhaps scared, scared that Ragatha is just using this as an excuse to skip his dinner.
“I’ll be back in a minute, I promise.” She gives him a sweet smile, before walking forward to the hall with their rooms. Should they let her go alone?
“Ragatha!” The Raggdoll stops in her steps as soon as she hears her name. Zooble’s legs make their way towards her. “I’ll go with you.”
Ragatha looks at them, about to say something but Caine beath her to it: “I think our dolly can manage on her own. Now, you wouldn’t want to miss chef’s Bubble’s dinner, would you Zooble?” Caine now flies towards them, undoubtedly frighten, thinking that another circus member wants to leave his grand dinner.
“I don’t think-“
“Nonsense! Bubble will be sad if you leave.” Caine doesn’t let them finish their sentence.
“Wounded even.” The anthropomorphic bubble appears behind them, startling everyone.
“Oh, come on C-“ They are about to say something to Caine, but something stops them. Someone puta hand on their arm. It’s Ragatha.
“It’s okay. I can manage on my own.” She reassures them, silently, so that only they can hear it. “plus, it would be a pity if you missed chef Bubble’s dinner.” She adds more loudly, giving Caine and Bubble a huge smile. “Right Caine?”
“Exactly like you said Ragatha! Just wait until you taste all the brand new meals.” Caine grabs their hand, drawing them towards the table where the others are sitting down at this time.
Their triangle head turns back to Ragatha as she starts leaving: “If anything happens again, just call me.” They vocalize to her. Ragatha says something, that they can’t quite make up, but it’s probably something along the lines of: “Don’t worry.” And with that she exits the room, leaving everyone behind.
Caine let’s go of their hand as soon as she leaves, flying towards the table. But their legs don’t move. They stay there, almost frozen in place, staring at the door which Ragatha left thought. Even with all the reassurance she gave them, they still don’t feel at ease. Ragatha might be positive about it, but what is she not positive about.
All the things that could go wrong are playing out in their head. The abstraction wasn’t far from taking over her yesterday.
Who knows how stable she is. Maybe, even the smallest could possibly throw her off.
"Zooble? Are you coming?" Gangle's voice breaks them out of their thoughts. Their head turns to the table, to see everyone, mainly the ringmaster anxiously waiting for them to take their seat. Their eyes find their way back to those door Ragatha left thought, before ultimately deciding to join the others. Prehabs this is just what Ragatha and Jax need, to talk those things out between four eyes.
As soon as they dig into their food a scream can be heard from the hall. Everyone freezes. A loud cry.
There isn't a person in the room who wouldn't know, who it belongs to. Zooble doesn't waste any time, they jump out of their seat without even thinking first, and before they know it, they've already ran through the door.
The voices of the others can be heard far behind them. They aren't slowing down thought, there's no time for that.
What could have possibly happened?
Didn't Jax have enough satisfaction from yesterday?
She almost abstracted, he saw it on his own eyes. So how can he push her furthermore?
They shouldn't have listened to Ragathas treasures. They should have gone with her.
But it's no use to regretting it now. All that's left is to hope that they aren't coming too late. That there's still time to save her.
Their whole body becomes paralyzed, eyes widening at the sight of horror before them.
The Ragdoll's unharmed, thankfully. But the purple rabbit . . . He's not there anymore. Now, instead of him, there's a black blob of eyes standing there.
Oh God. Ragatha isn't the one who got replaced by shifting, oily spikes, . . . it was Jax.
Their eyes shift away from Jax for a second. Ragatha's laying right across him, sobbing her eyes out. Her body glitches slightly every other second. She must have gotten hit by him.
"Jax! Please!" Suddenly Ragatha stands up, running head first forward him. This seem to wake Zooble up, grabbing Ragatha by her arm, rather harshly.
Is she crazy?
"Let's me go! Zooble!" A scream paired with tears leaves her mouth. It's clear that she's more than heartbroken.
Gosh, as much as of a [@#$%] he was, even they are starting to get a little heavyhearted. But, she's also really obviously in pain. They can't possibly let her get near him.
"Raga-!" Gangle's voice can be heard from behind, stopping mid-sentence, shocked from the sight of the abstracted rabbit, they assume. They don't need to look behind them to know, that Gangle's motionless, standing in her place.
Jax, if you can still call him that, wad a few meters away from them. Not too close, but also not too far. He was standing there, looking them up and down like a predator analyzing his newest pray.
Not moving, waiting, for the right moment to strike. The others also standing still, scared that even the slightest move could set him off. The mere seconds they're staring at each other feels like an eternity to them. They aren't sure how much time has passed, but the eye monster they used to call their friend an unbearable [@#$%] swiftly starts making his way towards them.
Their legs aren't moving, they can't. No matter how much they want to, they just don't move. He's sprinting towards them at full speed by now. Getting closer with every second. They finally manage to get their legs to move, but they can't get very fat . . . because of Ragatha.
She's standing there, her body stiff, rebelling against the force trying to slide it away from the monster full of eyes.
He's closer. Their head's turning between Ragatha and Jax, almost as if they we're watching an intense tennis mach. They try to pull harder, finally managing to slide her away just a little, but their still too slow. They're getting further and yet he's getting closer. He's getting closer, and closer, and closer, and-
"What kind of mischief are are you getting up to, my sweet little- OH GOD! TO THE CELLAR WITH YOU!" And just like that, with only just a simple snap of fingers, the circus ringmaster makes Jax the fruit of abstraction fall into the darkness.
The portal closes, with the Ragdoll's eyes following it, as the last possibly of seeing their rabbit disappear into the void. Watching the light of hope go out, exactly like their hope of leaving someday.
This is it, they'll never see him again.
Ragatha's heavy breathing can be heard, she jumps from her knees, running towards the exact place where Jax had disappeared only few seconds ago.
"NOO! JAX!" Her knees tremble as she falls back on knees, hands clutching her dress. "Noo~" The tears are soaking her cheeks, she's screaming from the top of her lungs. Caine's also saying something they can't really make up, nor do they care about hearing.
Zooble and Gangle run towards her, grabbing her as she's about to fall again. She leans out a piercing cry: "He abstracted! . . . He's dead!" They slowly help her get back on her knees, seeing that she unmistakably doesn't have the energy to stand.
Zooble's eyes steal a quick glance of Gangle. Her comedy mask that hasn't broke on the adventure (surprisingly), has now been set down on the ground right next to her, letting her tears go free.
"Jax's accually dead . . . We'll-we'll never see him again." Ragatha puts her head in her hands. Gangle's ribbon hands wrap around her body: "It's okay Ragatha."
"No, . . . no it's not, it's all my fault . . . everything is-" She doesn't even finish the sentence, getting cut off by her own cries. Gangle tightens her ribbon hand around her, soothing her even more. Zoobles legs also make their way closer to both them, when they suddenly get jumpscared by the ringmaster.
"I have this funny feeling, that you weren't listening to me at all. Heh-heh." He flies too close to their face, for their own liking. Disturbing their personal space.
Of course no one was listening to him!
Who would be, after what went down barely minutes ago.
"Well, that aside! Let's return to your very palatable dinner." He exclaims with a cheerful tone as if nothing life changing hasn't happened just now. This earns Caine a side eye from Zooble.
"Caine, I don't-"
"Oh come on Gangle. The chef took such a long time to prepare the dinner. You wouldn't want to leave his hard work to nothing, would you?" Now, he changes to disturbing Gangle's personal space instead of Zooble's.
"Uhhh, I guess not-"
"Wonderful then! Let's make our way back to your friend Kinger, shall we?"
If he continues talking, Zooble swears that they'll lose it. Even now, the only thing that's keeping them from going absolutely ballistic, is the condition Ragatha's currently in.
Although, they're not sure for how long will they be able to keep it this way. Taking into the consideration that he's currently flying towards Ragatha.
"And how about you? My precious dolly. Do you want to leave Chef Bubble all alone and sad?" Ragatha brings herself to look up at him, her eye puffy and teary. She doesn't say anything, not having it in her. Caine probably takes this as some kind of answer, grabbing her raggy hands and making her stand up.
"Well, let's make our way then, shall we?" He falls of, Ragatha starting to fall back on ground as soon as he turns to the other direction. Luckily Gangle and Zooble manage to catch her just before she hits the ground. It is now that Zooble's nerves fully boil over. 'That's it!' They think as they carefully sit Ragatha down, back on the ground.
"Do you really think that now it's the time for that?!" Their voice echoes thought the hall, stunning everyone, including Caine.
"I'm afraid that I don't understand what you're referring to Zooble." His body turns back to look at them, scratching his upper teeth row, to show his confusion.
Zooble's pupils shrink. Is he serious? The audacity this AI has.
"Are you stupid?!"
"Now, now there Zooble. There's no reason to use such a foul language."
"You want us to return back to dinner as if nothing has just happened!" They spell it out for him, even more angered. "Oh, but I-"
"Ragatha's obviously not in the state for that, none of us really are! It's more than clearly noticeable. And yet, the only thing you can think about, are your idiotic games!" They continue to yell straight into his face.
"But Bubble-"
"Bubble doesn't care, he's an AI! So stop pestering us and just let us go into our rooms!" After these words left their mouth, the silence flooded the whole hall. Caine, more than obviously shaken by their outburst stares at them.
"Um, okay then, I'll-I'll just leave you be. I'm sure that chef Bubble will understand." With these words, and the snap of his fingers, he teleports himself away, leaving them be exactly like he said.
"It's all my fault."
* * *
"I can still hear her whispering these words." Bernie confesses to Amari. "It haunts me to this day. Ragatha was signing it up to being her fault since then." They turn to Amari, concluding what they thought all this time.
"So Jax abstracted soon after me." Pomni says, her gaze shifting towards them.
Their head nods: "Yeah. If I didn't know him better, I would have thought it was cause of his guilt from your abstraction. You know, with all that 'It's your fault Pomni abstracted' talk." It's at this point something clicks in Pomni's head.
"Maybe he was feeling guilty." She whispers to herself, but not so silently since Bernie ends up hearing her.
"Why? Did he have a reason for it?" They look at her, seeming pretty interested to hear what Amari has to say next.
"*sight* The day before I abstracted, on the gun adventure, we . . . ended up getting into a fight, and . . . the fight ended up ended with him saying that he wouldn't care if I abstracted tomorrow." Amari confesses, now her taking a drag from the cigarette.
"Really? I remember Ragatha mentioning something about it, but I thought it was all just Jax's guilttriping."
"Well, he wasn't lying . . . But enough of that, I wanna hear more about the circus." Amari says, trying to change the subject. It's pretty obvious that talking about this makes her uncomfortable.
Bernie seem to get the clues right away, changing the subject just like Amari wanted: "What else would you like to know?"
"You still haven't told me how Ragatha abstracted." The wind breezes thought them, already showing signs of the slow shift to autumn and prehabs also the new shift in story.
"To fully understand it, I can't fast-forward that far yet."
* * *
More or less two months had passed since the last unfortunate event. The atmosphere in the circus has slowly, but surely returned back to the frightening cheerful and yet mysterious atmosphere. There might be only four residents only four residents occupying the circus currently, but that doesn't mean that their adventures are any less fun.
Or so does the ringmaster say.
The adventures do seem a little lacking thought. It must have been a long time, since the last time Caine had to make adventures for less than five people.
Kinger hasn't really been affected by it. He's too thrown out of reality to understand most of it. Gangle and them have managed to move on as well as they could. Thinking about their abstracted friends at least once in a while.
And, then there's Ragatha.
Oh the sweet, always smiling Ragatha.
How is she doing? Well, she's doing what she does the best, hiding her true emotions behind a huge smile.
A complete stranger might look at her and assume that she's exactly like before all the abstractions. But the truth couldn't be further from that.
What might look like a jolly, positive Raggdoll to an unsuspecting eye us in really a melancholic, distressed, and still deep in mourning, woman. Whenever she's confronted about this by her circus friends, she's quick to change the subject, doing it faster than the lighting.
All of the circus members are just returning from their latest adventure, (which was totally not affiliated with the Ninja warrior© whatsoever, any similarities to the show are just mere coincidence), each more tired than the other. (Or at least feel that way, since they don't really need to sleep.)
After all, who wouldn't be tired from hours of running, jumping and dodging huge plastic balls. The only thing that everyone's hoping for as they cross the portal is that Caine has forgotten about the dinner today.
"Welcome back, my brave warriors!" The mentioned ringmaster appears out of thin air, startling the ribbon girl. "How was the adventure?" He flies towards Ragatha. She gives him a soft, tired and prehabs even forced smile.
"It was great Caine."
"You really think so?" A blush appears on his lower teeth, visibly found of Ragatha's compliment. "Well, I'm glad you-"
"Aghhhgghh!" Just as he's about to finish his sentence, two screams interrupt him. Two screams that none of them have heard before. Everyone's heads turn up to see where the screams are coming from.
There are two objects that they can't quite make up, falling down the sky. Soon, the two objects hit the ground, letting Zooble and the others get a better view of them.
Before them are laying two almost identical hedgehog figures, the only thing setting them apart being their clothes, that look like their came straight out of the 50's period movie.
The hedgehog with flowery print dress sit's up first, holding their head and slowly adjusting their eyes to the brand new scenery.
Both of the hedgehogs remind them of a toy line their older sister used to collect, that they can't quite make up the name of right now. Probably the circus's work.
"Ughh! What did you do this time-" The second hedgehog wearing yellow overalls yells at the hedgehog with dress, or at least Zooble assumes, before getting hit with the new surroundings. 'They must know each other in real world.' Zooble thinks, considering their matching avatars.
"Wwwwwwelcome to The Amazing Digital Circus!" Caine flies towards the brand new residents, making Gangle fall in the process, breaking her comedy mask. His eyes are light up like every time a new member finds their way to the hell circus. Both of their eyes turn to the 'strange flying teeth with tuxedo' as they must think of him.
Each of their hands start running through their brand new body, only now registering that they aren't inhabiting their old one anymore.
"What is going on?!" His head is turning around at the speed of light: "Where the [@#$%] am I?!" The woman hedgehog looks at him, taken aback by the never before heard censor.
"No, no my dear. We can't afford to have such a foul language here." Ragatha's hand finds it's place on Caine's arm as soon as these words leave his mouth. "Caine," she looks into his eyes: "leave it to me." Both of the hedgehogs eyes look up at Ragatha as she makes her way closer to them.
"Hello, I'm Ragatha, and as wild as it might sound, you got sucked into a game." She talks to them, carefully as if she was explaining something to a scared child. Both of them look at her shocked at first, but then the male hedgehog starts laughing.
"That's so funny Angel," he's in denial, like all of them were once, "but, if I got sucked into a game, like you said, I'm sure you wouldn't mind telling me how to get back."
And here it comes, the obligatory "getting your whole reality shattered, learning that there's no escape." Ragatha smiles, taking a deep breath. Every human in here knows how it feels learning the truth, so the last thing Ragatha wants to, is be insensitive as she tells them the forever life-changing news.
"You can't, there is no way to leave." Both of them stare at her with their Boba eyes.
"What?!"
* * *
"So the circus has two new residents now?"
"It had at that time. Fixing and Brix, as the name generator named them." Bernie informs Amari.
"Xixi and Brix." Amari repeats for herself. "How were they?"
They look at her: "Xixi and Brix?" Amari nods, answering their question.
"Well, as I mentioned before, they both looked like hedgehog dolls from the Calico Critters toy line {Sylvanian families for my fellow Europeans}. When it comes to their personalities, Xixi rarely talked." They inhale from their cigarette again.
"I'm more than positive that she had a social anxiety. And then Brix . . ." They aggressively breath in trough their nose, their expression changing from a neutral one to much more angry one. Amari catches on that right away.
"He was an asshole. No one really got along with him, except for Ragatha. She was the only person he was nice to." Amari continues listening to them, being completely absorbed by Bernie's talking.
"They were friends, but soon it became evident that Brix wanted more than friendship.
* * *
A month in, and the hedgehog twins had slowly got used to their new home. Xixi rarely talks, mostly choosing to avoid them. But aside from that, she seems to be nice. And when it comes to Brix, we'll, they dispose him. He's a [@#$%]. If you’re not Ragatha, he's just straight up mean to you, unpleasant.
Sometimes he just ignores them twithought a constraint, which is, frankly the better case.
Other times, he insulted them straight to their face, or, if some of them even dare to ask him the most basic question, or God forbid, simply ask him to co-operate, they're instantly meet with a sarcastic answer, in the nastiest tone possible. And That's not even the worst thing he has done.
Brix has developed a close friendship with Ragatha, which isn't bad by itself, but it's obvious that he's making Ragatha drift away from them, with guilttriping and manipulation.
Even now, it can be more then clearly seen as they walk down the forest, with the male hedgehog and Raggdoll walking in front of them in a pair.
Ragatha's forced laughter can be heard throughout the forest, as she attentively pushes his hand away from her hip.
That's another thing they observed in the recent days. Brix's meddlesome touches. It's visible that Ragatha's not conformable with them. But that doesn’t stop Brix, from trying to go more further each new day.
"Don't you think we should check on Xixi?" Zooble gets takes away from her though about Ragatha and Brix as soon as they feel a ribbon wrapping around their left hand. "She seems lonely."
Gangle has become interested in Xixi, on the other hand, mainly after learning that she's an Art major in college. Although, from what Zooble heard, she's more into realism than anime.
"Maybe she just wants to be alone." Zooble tells her.
They know how much Gangle wants to make friends with her, but does Xixi want to same?
"Come on." A soft smile appears on the comedy mask, and it's owner pulls Zooble's hand, bringing both of them closer to the female hedgehog.
"Hi Xi-"
"After all I done for you, you still say no?!" A thundering shout stops Gangle from finishing her sentence. Without even looking at the direction where it came from, everyone can, without a single doubt tell, to whom it belongs to.
"I'm . . . I'm so sorry, but I'm just not interested in you that way. You are a really good friend-"
"Friend?! Just a friend?!!" He laughs: "Of course, I should have expected that. [@#$%] like you only go after the strong [@#$%]heads, and only lead on nice guys like me for fun!" Brix yells at her. This is the first time Gangle and Zooble had seen him like this.
"Brix, I just-"
"NO! Shut the [@#$%] up!" He doesn't let her say anything. The tears are streaming down her cheeks, reminding Zooble of Ragatha's last fight with Jax.
"You know, I thought you were different Ragatha. I was so surprised when you told me that you caused two abstractions. I thought : there's no way that she'll could do this. She's the kindest person alive I know. Well, now it's safe to understand how."
Zooble's eyes widen, as soon as this leaves their mouth.
How can he say this?
It's none of their business what Ragatha tells to him. If we're them, they would just show him the middle finger as soon as he would even dare to think about starting a conversation with them.
But this is Ragatha, and it was her decision to share these culpable details with him.
She chose to tell him few of her worst memories, believing him, and yet, he chooses to hurt her with it now. They can't watch this: "Stop you-"
"You caused their abstraction most probably with full intention!" He continues to yell at her, not letting Zooble stop him.
"It's all your fault. They were okay till you came along and decide to ruin their life's! You're a murdered Ragatha!" A smile appears on his face as these hurtful words leave his mouth, letting all the anger out.
For a while, only the noises of the forest can be heard paired with Ragatha's cries.
It's all of a sudden, Ragatha runs into the thick forest. Despite the fact that her legs are shaking, she rapidly leaves their sight, getting lost between all those trees.
They don't think twice, running after her headlong. Their steps can be heard well, running around to each side, far from the lane where it all went down, by now.
After some time, they finally manage to hear her cries more sonorous. Their legs start mood even faster, breathing getting more uneven.
With each step the cries become more powerful until they can hear it the closest. As soon as they register her, their breathing stops.
"Ragatha!"