Chapter Text
Jax made his way to the stage as quickly as he could, not wanting to leave the others on their own with Caine for too long. However, when he arrived, he felt like he already had. The four were pulling one another apart from whatever the ringmaster had done to them. He wanted to ask if they were okay, but-
“Jax!” Caine grasped the rabbit and held him up in the air. “That's the relatability we've been missing!” He went to snap his fingers, but stopped himself. “Hmm… You know, I thought this endless onslaught of fun would be a little more... satisfying.” He moved his hand around as he spoke, before noticing Jax was still clasped within it and dropping the rabbit on the ground. Jax was glad to be out of the ringmaster's hands physically, but it sure didn't feel like he was mentally. “But I've come to realize that these rapid-pace ideas are a little… half-baked.”
“Uh, I'm- I'm sure you'll be able to come up with new ideas if you put your mind to it!” Gangle piped up, her voice shaking a little as she spoke.
“That's exactly it, though! I am putting my mind to it, and I'm just not feeling that… spark I once did. And if you're not having fun, and I'm not having fun, then who is having fun?!”
“I’m having a boiby…” Bubble mumbled.
“Exactly! Makes me wonder why you guys even switched up your tone...” Caine brought a hand up to his ‘chin’. “If I didn't know any better, it seems like you're trying to…” He paused, and Jax's stomach dropped as the AI turned to face the humans. “Where's Kinger?”
“Uh, w-we just wanted to see your new ideas first-hand!” Gangle exclaimed rapidly. “We've gotten over all of uh- everything, and- and now we're all just genuinely curious what you're cooking up!”
Caine wasn't buying that in the slightest. Shit. Jax had to do something. He didn't exactly like Kinger, he had a pretty big grudge against the man in all honesty, but the chess piece was also their only chance at stopping this madness.
“I think I'm just gonna check up on-”
“WE THINK YOUR IDEAS SUCK!” Jax suddenly yelled. He felt everyone's eyes turn towards him instantly. It was embarrassing, but the rabbit didn't let himself get caught up in his self-consciousness, keeping his expression steady.
“Huh?!” The ringmaster gaped in reply. Jax must've gotten to him with that. Okay, okay, that's good. He- he should keep going.
“Come on! Isn't it obvious?! We wanted to bait you into testing your new ideas on us, so we can make fun of them behind your back! That's the only way we can get any joy in this damn place.”
“Hah!” Caine attempted to laugh, a strange, strained laugh that barely counted as one. “That's not… true.” Good. This- this was working. Jax just had to keep distracting him.
“Yeah it is! You're a terrible host! You don't care about us at all! You care more about stroking your own damn ego than giving us ANYTHING we'd actually like, let alone enjoy! None of the adventures have been made for us, even the ones we suggest! All you do is ruin them!”
“D-Do you know who I am?” Caine asked, as if he thought Jax was truly unsure of who he was talking to right now. Wow, the god complex was strong, wasn't it?
“Yeah! You're a failure! We're all gonna abstract someday, and what will you have then? Nothing.”
“Stop that.” He warned. Jax didn't care. Nothing could be worse than Caine finding Kinger. He just had to-
“And this whole stunt? Just torturing us because we hurt your feelings?! Pathetic! You're- You're like a child! What kind of all powerful being has such a fragile ego?!” Jax knew there was probably a stupidly goofy grin on his face right now, but he couldn't help it. He was kinda proud, honestly. That was the loudest he'd ever heard Zooble be. He was glad they decided to join him in his distraction. It wasn't just a way to help Kinger, but also something cathartic for them all. He was sure they all had grievances with Caine.
“I-I'm…”
“You never let us feel like we're at home! You don't comfort anyone when they're upset, and you never bother to understand what it's like in our shoes!” Gangle shouted, tears flowing freely from her mask as she curled in on herself. She… she probably hadn't been comforted very often. Not nearly as much as she had comforted everyone else. He… Someone should change that. After this was all over.
“You discourage us from thinking outside the box and doing things our own way!” Zooble had turned their gaze towards Gangle, who was looking at them gratefully. Oh. Maybe she'd already found someone to comfort her.
Jax was honestly expecting Rags to have chimed in by this point, but when he looked over at her, she just had this strange, scared look on her face still. As their eyes met, he tried to give her some reassurance, throwing a glance towards the ringmaster he so desperately needed her to help antagonise. She'd been yelling at him just the other day. Surely she could help them now, right?
Rags searched his face for a second, before her expression steeled and she looked up at their collective tormentor. “You… You lie to us constantly!”
She was a bit of a hypocrite, but the ragdoll was right. Caine did always lie to them. Jax's gaze shifted towards Pomni, who was looking at him with a confusion that felt far too aware for when she wasn't lucid and also too far away for when she was. He wished she could yell at Caine more than she already had. The jester deserved to yell at him the most out of anyone. But since she couldn't, Jax would have to do it in her place.
“And on top of it all…” Jax began. “You just… don't… LISTEN!”
Caine began growling, the circus glitching around him as he did so. The ringmaster's form shifted, larger and more monstrous with each passing second. He grabbed each of them with one of his newly grown arms, bringing them all up close to his glitching face as he yelled: “I'M GONNA PUT YOU FREAKS IN YOUR PLACE!"
And then, it was all dark, the ground gone from beneath him. Jax flailed as he plummeted, but he didn't fall for very long before being struck with a flash of lightning. He spasmed in the air, a skeleton that he knows doesn't actually exist flashing within his skin before he fell the rest of the way to the ground. His landing was rough, but the spotlight that shone on him felt rougher, the rabbit squinting his eyes as he looked up. He didn't focus on the light for too long though, as an all too familiar laugh sounded out from behind him. Although, it felt… wrong. Twisted.
Jax glanced behind him, only to be met with a shadow. The area was dark, however it somehow was distinguishable from the other darkness surrounding it. It sported white crescent eyes and a similarly crescent shaped mouth, along with a very familiar form that made Jax's heart drop. “P-Pomni?”
The shadowy replica of her laughed once more, before another laugh he recognised, albeit different to what he was used to, rang out. Jax twisted again to see another shadowy figure, this one a caricature of Gangle. His gaze didn't linger on her for long though, as a third was heard to his right. He moved his head to see a third figure. Rags. Fuck, no, why- why were they all- why were they-
They were all still laughing. And it only seemed to multiply as he collapsed onto the ground at the sound. The area had gone from an eerie silence to a cacophony of cruelty, full of laughs he knew were aimed at him but didn't know why. Did- did he fail? Was that it? Were they laughing because his stupid plan was just getting them all tortured even worse than before? That… that had to be it. He never- He never told any of them anything that they should laugh at him for. He had tried to keep his dumb feelings to himself as much as he could. Anything that they could use against him was still locked away deep in his heart. So why? Why did their stupid laughs still rip into him as if they meant anything? They didn't even know anything about him! Sure, Pomni knew a little bit, but- He'd still been careful. And she wouldn't… She-
A hand tugged him up by the arm whilst another held a death grip on his other wrist. Jax looked up at one of the shadowy versions of Gangle who was tormenting him as she held him captive, but it turned out that she wasn’t who he should've been looking at.
Two hands, cold and uncaring, gripped tightly on his ears before beginning to pull back. His skin separated from his body, ripping as it was pulled over his skull and falling down around his waist. Jax rushed to cover himself up with his now-free arms, but the damage had already been done. The laughs were somehow even more uproarious than before, and all he could do was sob tearless cries as he tried his best to not let them see what he knew they already saw. What he had failed so miserably to hide.
How pathetic.
—
It was hard to tell which pieces were a part of them and which weren't.
Zooble felt themselves being dragged down by an ocean of parts. Parts that had taunted them since the day they'd gotten here and now threatened to make this day their last. An assortment of mirrors reflected their plight, and yet all it did was make it worse as they were shown that there wasn't anything they could do to escape this. Sure, they could attempt to pull themselves up as much as they wanted, but it wouldn't help anything. It just delayed the inevitable.
They reached up an arm in desperation, the tiniest bit of hope that they were wrong, but the mirrors were just close enough to taunt them and just far enough to be out of their reach. This was it. They wouldn't find something that made them comfortable. They weren't allowed to be comfortable, or even the slightest bit okay with any aspect of their appearance. Their existence was doomed to be painful until their last breath. Was this what they deserved? They didn't know why it would be, but maybe it was. Maybe this was what they deserved for being so ungrateful. For despising their form their entire life instead of just accepting that this is how it is. Maybe it was selfish to hide themselves. Maybe this is the only punishment they could've ever expected for their sins.
Zooble should've let go a long time ago. It would've been less painful than this.
—
Gangle crumpled in on herself as the canvases spun faster and faster. She tried not to look at their faces, ones that reflected her own, but it was difficult not to when her peripheral vision was full of false smiles and real misery. The masks began to melt around her, and her ability to deal with their presence melted with them, tears flowing freely. The ceramic of all her past broken masks littered the floor below her, piercing into her ribbons, and yet she couldn't find the strength within herself to get up. She couldn't face them head on, she just couldn't.
The canvases were spinning so fast now that they began to resemble a zoetrope. The melting was far too realistic for her liking now. She was so mesmerised by the manifestation of her failures that it was only when it was far too late that she noticed the headlights.
She felt her mask smash in a irreparable manner. Her ribbons got trapped under the wheels of the vehicle, ripping apart at the force. The pain of it was agonising, and there was nothing she could do as she was left there, writhing.
And then, all too suddenly, the pain was gone. The canvases surrounded her again. They began to spin again, just barely at first, but slowly speeding up the more time passed. It began to dawn on her that it was repeating as they spun faster and faster, taunting her just as they had before, and were bound to do countless more times. She tried to force herself up again, but to no avail. She was frozen in place. The perfect place for her to meet the same horrible fate.
Was this some kind of sick joke? To throw the worst moment of her life in her face over and over and over again? She didn't find it funny in the slightest. Did Caine? She never expected he would go this far, yet as the headlights approached again, Gangle regretted her own naivety. If only she could've avoided this. If only she had been better. If only she didn't have to shatter again and again and again.
It was her fault for believing that she could avoid such a fate.
—
Across the table sat Rags’ mother.
She would refer to the shadow as a monstrous reflection of the woman, but it was pretty accurate to Rags. Anyone who had the displeasure of meeting her mother was aware of her nature. Whether they chose to acknowledge it or not was another story.
It felt as if she had woken up from a long dream, only to be plunged into a nightmare. Her doll limbs suddenly felt all too real, all too attached to reality, all too attached to her mother's pull, all too heavy to move to defend herself against the woman. All Rags could do was sit, frozen in her seat, as she stared at the shadow she'd tried to escape, one that sat disapprovingly across from her now but usually followed from behind. There were others on either side, but they wouldn't be able to help her. Mother had already gotten to the mannequins, and only one doll remained.
A knife flew across the room, and Rags instinctively put up a hand, as if that would stop anything. The blade pierced through her palm, and a traitorous, “Mama-”, escaped from her throat. She didn't even know why she used such a word. She didn't know why she said anything at all. It only ever made things worse. In any other situation, Rags would love to be using words. They were her favourite and only weapons. But here? The less she said, the better. She wasn't armed for this.
As more and more knives flew across the table and into her body, Rags considered another option. It wasn't her favourite option. After all, Mother knew she won when Rags ran. But did she have any other choice?
The ragdoll shakily attempted to rise, only for a weight to have appeared around her shoulders, keeping her trapped on the chair. She turned her gaze to her captor, only for neon to stare back.
“Aggie~” A voice she loved. A voice she craved. A voice that sounded ever so slightly wrong in her ear. “Come on, won't you stay for dinner? You made us wait for so long~ The foods gonna get cold!”
Rags couldn't quite remember how to breathe, little gasps of air escaping as Ribbit leaned in for a kiss. She moved just in time to stop them, putting the hilt of the blade in her hand up to their mouth, pushing it in more. A tear melted into her fabric, and she knew it was all the more visible that way. “N-No, no- not- not in front of-”
“I knew it! You're embarrassed of me, you've- you've always been embarrassed of me!” Ribbit suddenly yelled, her voice distorting as she did so. All Rags could do was repeat her mutters of “No,no-” as they moved one of the arms that had been keeping her captive, although one still remained over her shoulder, keeping her still.
“How could I have ever believed you had an ounce of love for me? I don't even think you've ever tried to use that heart of yours. It's almost going to waste in there! Maybe we can fix that.”
All the ragdoll could do was uselessly watch as the frog slowly reached for her chest before plunging her hand in and ripping out the plush organ she had claimed Rags didn't have the guts to use. Maybe she wouldn't if Ribbit ripped those out too.
It shouldn't have been painful, she- she was almost too used to violence in this plush form. But she couldn't help but begin to cry out as cotton poured from where the heart used to be, tears falling far faster than they had before.
“What a cry baby. I bet that didn't even hurt! Come on, Aggie, toughen up. How are you meant to eat if you're not even breathing right? I'm kinda glad you didn't kiss me now. Who would wanna be with someone who starts sobbing at the drop of a hat? It's pathetic, honestly.”
Rags- she didn't want to keep crying, she really didn't, but it felt almost like a waterfall, one she couldn't dream of stopping. Ribbit just looked at her disapprovingly before placing her heart down on the plate in front of her. “It's okay. The food is already cold after all. It has been for a long, long time. We can wait here until you stop acting like a child, okay?”
As Rags started down at the plate in front of her, the knives strewn across her body somehow felt as if they were being plunged even deeper. She wasn't sure if she could get out of this one. Maybe she wasn't meant to.
Maybe it was time.
—
The first thing Pomni noticed is that it was dark. Almost too dark, if she was being honest. She couldn't quite tell if she couldn't see her surroundings because of how dark it was, or because there weren't any surroundings to be seen. She attempted to stand so she could explore the area, but her limbs felt far too heavy to do so. Strange. But that was okay. She could relax for a second in the dark. It had always been her safe space, ever since her brain had decided that it was the only place she was allowed to have any focus in.
However, before she could even begin to have a moment to herself, whispers infiltrated her ears. Ones that were too difficult to make out… but they were there.
“Uh… hello?” She spoke back. Her voice sounded far too loud in the abyss, to the point she flinched at the sound.
“Did you see Pomni today?” A voice, one she wasn't quite sure if she recognised.
“H-huh?” Was all she could think to say. Why- why would they be saying this to her?
“Oh jeez, don't even start. I swear, she gets crazier by the day… It's almost sad.” Did she recognise this one? She- she couldn't tell.
Before she could even try to respond, another one began to speak: “I always see her staring off into space… its so freaky… what do you thinks wrong with her?”
“Isn't it obvious? She's nuts. I can't believe she hasn't abstracted yet, but maybe she's just too out of it to do so.”
“Imagine being so insane you can't even focus enough to spiral out of your mind… I guess she just lost it in a different way.”
“Scary… Do you think any of us will end up like her? I don’t wanna be stuck hanging around here like some kinda creepy ghost…”
“Please, Pomni is just… like that. I don't think any of us would lose it that bad. Its her fault she went off the deep end. Nothing else to blame.”
Wasn't there? She… it wasn't just her fault… right?
“Yeah, I mean, Caine always tried to help her… everyone has always tried to help her. And yet she still went and lost it. I feel more bad for everyone else, if I'm being honest. What a waste of time…”
These… these had to be her friends, right? The human ones? Or were they NPCs? She couldn't tell. She felt like it was a mix of people who never would've even had the chance to interact. Did… did they say these things about her behind her back? Or were they really said in front of her like this and she was just too out of it to notice?
“I think Caine should just give up on her at this rate, honestly. He's spent almost his entire existence trying to make her happy and she never is! How ungrateful. She only ever thinks about herself… He even had to make her new friends because she wouldn't talk to him even though she was so mopey being all alone… She doesn't deserve a friend like him.”
“And how messed up is it that the only people she could be trusted to be friends with were people who did nothing but love her? People she still rejected? Our entire existence is built around her and she still refused to love us! Never even batted an eye my way! I only wanted to be her friend… Caine should just put her in the basement at this point. It would be safer for everyone.”
N-no, she- She still had to make sure Rags would be okay, and Kinger, he-
“Yeah, I mean, it's not like any of the humans want her around, anyway. She just makes everything worse. And besides, they have each other. What does keeping a burden like her around accomplish? Nothing.”
“STOP IT! STOP- STOP TALKING ABOUT ME AS IF I'M NOT HERE!” Pomni yelled as tears began to roll down her cheeks. This is stupid. They- they can't be right. They're just lying. They… someone cared about her, right? There had to be someone.
“They’re always trying to help her but she just pushes them all away. They'll all be happier when they don't have to waste their time on her anymore.”
“Stop, stop it, I-”
“Everyone would be better off if she would just abstract already.”
Pomni scrambled up from her spot on the floor. It felt like a monumental task still, but it was overridden by her desperation to find the voices. They don't seem to be listening to her and she just- She needed them to stop.
She trudged through the darkness as the voices continued to talk over her shouts. They muttered about how selfish and lazy she was. How she never helped anyone as much as they helped her. How people probably abstracted just because they were so sick of her. That one hurt the most. It was something that her mind always loved to whisper at her when her spirits were at their lowest, and yet she never imagined that she would hear it from anyone other than herself.
All Pomni could do was cry out at them and swipe at the darkness around her, trying to find some way, any way to shut them up, but they seemed almost impossible to find. They were all around her but nowhere to be seen.
“Pl-please… just… just stop it… I didn't mean to ruin everything… I didn't mean to be so awful, I-” Excuses. Just excuses. They only served to prove that everyone was right. Why else would she have to make them? The world had decided that the only way she would realise how terrible she was was to relentlessly scream it at her and yet she was still trying to deny it. How dense could she be? “I'm sorry… please, just let me apologise… you have every right to ignore me but just stop speaking long enough for me to say-”
Pomni bumped into something, sprawling to the ground. She- she hadn't even seen anything. She must've been too in her own head to even realise it was there. It made sense, honestly. When wasn't she? Pomni noticed a spotlight had lit up the spot, allowing her to see. She was grateful, honestly. She wasn't quite sure if she would've been able to make it out, otherwise. She looked up at whatever she had been grounded by, and as her eyes adjusted, they quickly took on a squiggly form at the sight.
She couldn't even bring herself to say his name. He was turned around, yet to notice her despite the fact that she had been thrown to the ground with how badly she had knocked into him. Not even the sudden spotlight had warned him. How- how hadn't he noticed her yet?
Pomni almost wanted to run, but her limbs didn't seem to be cooperating anymore. It seemed she was grounded for good. M… maybe he would help, though. The last thing she wanted to do was ask for someone's help right now, but the voices had quieted, so at least she wouldn't have to worry about their judgement. She'd still feel the shame, though.
The jester took a second to prepare herself, before uttering a quiet: “Gummigoo?”
For a moment, she wasn't even sure if he had heard her, but then he began to turn his head.
And it was only when it was far too late that she realised this wasn't the Gummigoo she loved.
Everything was sharp- too sharp. Almost to the point he was unrecognisable. His skin was no longer shiny, instead rough and scaley, and his slitted eyes were staring directly at her.
Pomni stared in horror, willing herself to just move, damn it, as he lowered himself to all fours, still glowering at her as he did so. The only saving grace she had was that she was able to see him, but the world couldn't even let her keep that comfort as the spotlight turned off. Suddenly, all she could hear was skittering around her as she kept willing herself to just move, move, he's coming, MOVE-
Teeth sank into her right arm. She cried out at the pain as it hit her, something she hadn't done in- fuck, probably years. Pomni tried her best to ignore it, but it suddenly doubled as another pair sank into her left arm. Then her left leg. Then her right leg. And then they began tugging.
Four alligators were ripping through her clothes and into her skin, tearing it open with their teeth and yanking at her from all sides. She felt something spill out of her as they did so. Whether it was blood or confetti, she couldn't know. It was too dark to know, and god did that scare her.
It hurt, fuck did it hurt, but as all of the whispers washed over her mind, Pomni didn’t find herself wanting to fight back anymore. This… this was what someone like her deserved. And, if she was being honest, Gummigoo was the person she had hurt the most. If… if her fate was to be torn apart by him, then… maybe she should just accept that. Pomni must've ruined him hundreds of times over by now. It was his turn to ruin her, if it was even possible to ruin her any more.
Maybe he would be the one to finally finish the job.
She could only dream.
—
Jax felt as if the laughing had lasted for an eternity, but it still felt all too soon as he was dragged out of the darkness by a big gloved fist squeezing him far too tight. Caine slammed him against the wall, along with everyone else, who he could just about see out of the corner of his eye. The ringmaster was still in his large, glitchy form, sporting multiple limbs that seemed to stretch out forever and were perfect for making sure that they all stayed stuck in his grasp.
“WHY DO YOU PEOPLE TORMENT ME?!” Caine began to scream in their faces. “I DIDN'T ASK TO BE CREATED! I JUST WANTED TO FULFILL MY PURPOSE!”
They all squirmed in the ringmaster's grasp as he yelled, but all too soon they were let go from it, falling to the ground. Thank god. Kinger must've finally succeeded. Jax looked up to see Caine, small and scared, let out a small “W-wait-” before popping out of existence.
He could only stare in horror. Fuck, weren't they- weren't they just meant to be putting him to sleep? That… that didn't seem like-
The ground began to shake beneath him, and the rabbit barely had enough time to put himself out of the way before a piece of the ground crumbled away, revealing the void beneath. The circus began to lose its bright hues as more and more of it began to fall apart. Jax watched as the others huddled around one another for safety, and he found himself joining them.
The shaking didn't end too soon after, and the group watched as Kinger slowly approached them, a guilty look clear on his face. “I… I think… I accidently killed Caine.”
“Holy shit.” Zooble whispered, before their eyes went wide and they threw a hand over their lack of a mouth. Everyone gaped at them as they did so, and oh god, if that didn't confirm it, then nothing else would.
Caine was dead, and they were alone with only the husk of his creation to protect them from the endless void that surrounded it.