Chapter Text
Inside the tent is dark theres a tint of blue every where light seeps through the tent,it's ... Quite , nobody's awake . Ribbit and kaufmo lay on the ground inside the tent each of them with some pillows and blankets, they both look a little different then before they abstracted , kaufmos makeup is smeared and a dark scar is on his neck crawling up his face , ribbit has a huge scar on her right side across her torso from their hip to her armpit and their left hand has a scar covering the entirety of it and part of her arm .
Suddenly ribbit starts to move a little moving her arm they slowly starts to blink not realizing she had un abstracted, they look over at kaufmo and she suddenly realizes where she is , they start to freak out "KAUFY KAUFY WAKE UP " she shakes him vigorously trying to wake him up , they shake him for minutes desperate for him to wake up, just then he opens his eyes "RIBBIT " he jolts up "KAUFMO GOD IM SO GLAD YOUR OKAY " she jumps up to hug him "God man you look different" they say "you to " he looks at her new appearance "we should go find someone right?" He says " let's scream as loud as possible and see who gets over here faster " they say "sure dude "
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everyone gets woken up by their screaming and runs to the tent, Jax stands at the back of the crowd cuz he was slow as fuck "ribbit ... Kaufmo!" Ragatha says running to the tent sliding down to her knees and sliding towards them "hey ragatha" ribbit says with a small smile, tears drip down ragathas cheeks "i-i ... I missed you guys so much " she sniffles "come here ragatha" ribbit says opening her arms to ragatha, she falls into their arms , ribbit grabs kaufmos shirt to make him join their hug , as they embrace Jax slowly walks to infont of the others standing in the doorway of the tent , he stares at them for a moment he hasn't seen them since.... you know . Ribbit opens her eyes still hugging ragatha , and they see Jax standing there she pulls away from the hug ragatha less of a sniffling mess than before, ribbit stands up "Jax " they say , she stands there for a minute then they start running towards him reaching for a hug but realizes he probably wouldnt want that "ribbit ...." He pauses "your back" he says with a odd look on his face relief fear ...joy "so are you , how um long have you been back " she asks " I don't know like a day or two ... I've been waiting for you " he grabs his arm and looks down a little " oh have you?" She says jokingly " ribbit I um I missed you " he looks up at them he has a sense of warmth in his eyes they shimmer in the light of the sun rising "I missed you to Jax "
"I'm here to you know " Kaufmo says from behind ribbit
"Yeah yeah kaufy I know " he jokes
"Wait dude is your eye okay???" He says looking over to ribbit "what?" Ribbit has failed to realize through all of this situation she can't see out of her right eye , from the outside it their iris is white -ish gray "WAIT DAMN I can't see out of it " she pauses "WAIT I SAID DAMN "
"I assume since you were abstracted for so long it permanently impacted your body more dramatically than jax's " kinger pops in surprisingly intelligent but I guess it makes sense cause its dark-ish "oh uh yeah I guess that makes sense" ribbit says trying to forget about the fact she can't see out of one eye
"Do you guys want to have some alone time in here for a bit ? " Ragatha asks
"Yeah " Jax says looking at kaufmo and ribbit for their opinions, they nod in agreement " okay we'll leave you alone then " she says jestures to everyone to walk out , Jax ribbit and kaufmo walk over to the back wall of the tent where they woke up and sit down
"So Jax how's the circus been without me , pretty lame I assume " ribbit jokes "yeah yeah pretty lame "he replies
There's an awkward silence between the three of them , understandable with their history
"So,Jax who are the new guys , what's their jist? " Ribbit asks "Oh yeah I forgot you kinda ... Weren't around when they arrived, so the one who looks like a toys r us exploded is zooble kinda just your typical edgy type who likes tattoos and shit like that , the clown is pomni she's pretty new like past kaufmos time she's pretty cool kinda reminds me of you , and the ribbon one that's gangle she's just a- " he cuts himself off before he can say anything rude , but why? He's never held back at making fun of people it's his thing you know? And everyone loves it, right?
"She's one of those anime nerds , like she's REALLY into it " he says
"Hmm okay interesting" she says "so how's raggy doing?" Jax is a little hesitant to answer, ragatha and him aren't preticulary close anymore, I mean they weren't to close before ribbit .... But they're definitely not as close as before
"Eh she's fine " he's trying to play it cool as if he wasn't just mildly dying on the inside
"Woah Jax I kinda just realized your wearing different clothes?" Ribbit looks down at his fresh new drip "OH yeah caine sent us on an adventure to the mall the other day and he made us able to change clothes" ribbit looks back at him "we could probably ask caine to send us back so you guys can get stuff if you want" he suggests "hmm yeah maybe" she replies, kaufmo shrugs God this guy is quite
Time feels excruciatingly slow especially with these long pauses of silence trying to figure out what to say I mean can these losers just learn how to talk?(Or maybe their writing should be better at writing who knows )
They're sitting there awkwardly except for kaufmo he's kinda just chilling it feels like he popped into this circus stoned at this point
"We should probably head out there ,I'm sure ragatha would wanna see you " it feels like he's making excuses so he doesn't have to talk anymore he's not very good at talking to people if you couldn't tell
"Oh okay sure " she says " I can't be around you two much longer" kaufmo jokes "wowwww kaufy if you don't like us just say so " ribbit stands up and pulls up kaufmo with them , they start walking towards the entrance of the tent ,
Jax stands up and stays there for a moment he stares at the backs of their heads , he doesn't know why he doesn't understand why they.. want to be around him still?
He's standing there for probably 5 seconds before he starts walking
He walks out of the tent the light of the sun rising hitting his eyes. he looks around, ragatha and ribbit are chatting,so are kaufmo and kinger.
Which doesn't make sense because they aren't even friends but maybe the writer of this doesn't know what to do with kaufmo okay?
Jax turns to face forward and sees pomni, shes not doing anything in particular just kinda standing there taking it in, he walks up to her
"Oh hey Jax!" She gets a little startled but not noticably "hey pom pom" he off sets his balance to one side nonchalantly "so uh how are you feeling?" She looks like she actually wants to know how he feels .... Weird "what on earth are you talking about pomni" he rolls his eyes
"Well you know " she pauses " ribbit and kaufmo are back, that must have some effect on you" she tilts her head slightly "don't worry about me pom pom I really couldn't care " he leans down and puts his thumbs in his ... Belt loops??? I guess he just has 'em whenever he needs them
"Well um if you ever need to talk about anything you know I'm here " she looks genuine, but it's probably just to good to be true right.... Right?
Uhhhhh small perspective shift (as if I really have perspectives but uhhhh pretend if this was the show it cuts to whatever ribbit is doing rn)
Ribbit and ragatha are talking about stuff idk
"Yeah so that's how it's been without you" ragatha seems to have already been talking and we highkey just jumped in halfway through
"Oh okay cool " ribbit replies "so what's up with the new people, Jax gave me a breif on them but he was pretty vague" they ask "oh yeah I totally forgot you haven't met them yet" she looks over at zooble and gangle chatting "zooble,gangle come'ere! " She shouts but not really a shout cuz they're pretty close "oh hey I'm zooble and this is gangle" they say nonchalantly, gangle waves, she's holding her notebook and zooble has their arm around her (im pretty sure they're trying to hide that they're in love but it's highkey obvious)
"Hey!" Ribbit says looking at their avatars " hey what'cha drawing?" She asks looking down towards gangles notebook as she's scribbling away "Oh uh just uh-" gangle pauses "I was kinda drawing you but uh-I'm sorry " she's says embarrassed "nah its totally fine, d'ya mind if I take a look? " They ask "Oh yeah "she says quietly, she turns it around, it's an anime esk drawing of her "damn I knew I was hot but not that hot " she jokes , gangle turns from embarrassment to joy it's not to noticeable but she's super happy they like it
"So what's your deal " she looks back over at zooble after staring at the drawing for a minute "well what do you wanna know?" They ask "what do ya like ,interests ,green grapes or purple, deepest darkest secrets" she says "well let's see, mixology & tattoos, green, and I fucked your mom" they reply "interesting interesting, I guess you guys are allowed to be in my presence 🙄" they joke
"Well thanks guys!" Ragatha thanks them for introducing themselves, which is kinda a weird thing to thank someone for "yeah no problem" zooble replys and nods their head as they walk away with gangle
"OH ribbit you should meet pomni!" Ragatha suggests looking over to her, ribbits eyes follow, Jax and pomni are still chatting about some random stuff "come on! " Ragatha grabs their hand to lead her to them.
"Oh pomni im gonna go talk to kaufmo, Kay?" Just as Jax see them walking up, almost like he's avoiding ribbit "okay have fun " she's a little confused by the abruptness of his words
"Hey pomni! " Ragatha waves pomni turns " oh hey guys!" She responds "I wanted you to meet ribbit" pomni looks at them "hey I'm ribbit" she says "hi im pomni " she replies "so you're friends with Jax?" They ask "oh yeah kinda I mean as much as you can be friends with him " she looks behind her and sees Jax and kaufmo talking
"Yeah he can be a stubborn little bitch" they say, pomni looks back at her "heh yeah" she giggles "so how long have you been here I know the other guys joined a little after I died" they joke touchy subject but okay " oh uh I joined maybe like 4 months ago now? " It's hard to remember, time definitely flys in the circus " aw your just a baby " ribbit pats pomni on the head
Caine pops in "caine where have you been????" Zooble asks "oh you know just rubbing elbows with the wealthy"
Cut away gag of caine rubbing elbows with blank NPCs in suits
"Woahhhhhh ribbit and kaufmo welcome back!" He zooms down in ribbits face then dashs over to kaufmo
"Now I have to plan you guys a super amazing and awesome welcome back adventure for tomorrow!" He looks up as if he's thing and itching his head thing? Top jaw I guess and snaps his fingers to head back to his office
They're all left staring at nothing
Ragatha turns back to ribbit "I guess you would probably want some alone time, sorry about having you meet everyone that must be draining" you can tell she's likely over thinking about this "it's fine rags , but I might head to my room for the day " they reply " fair fair, have fun" she says
Ribbit looks over to where Jax and kaufmo are, Jax is looking at her as soon as Jax notices them looking he turns away "yeah kaufy I'm gonna go " he says "okay by dude " Jax starts walking away as fast as possible without looking like somethings up
Ribbit starts to walk to her room as she walks down the hall she stares at everyones doors so many X's, she reaches their door the glaring red X across her face .....
She opens the door and walks in God this place is just the same as when she left , nothings been moved everything is perfectly in place, she looks around, their bed , her shelf, pictures of them Jax and kaufmo, its a little chilly in here she can't remember if it was like that before but regardless they sit down on the bed hands in her lap
They stare at her hands fidgeting their thumbs, time feels to slow in this moment, what is she supposed to do with themself, she died they're back what's supposed to happen every thing is gonna be different nothing will ever be the same, Jax clearly hates her, ragatha doesn't know how to act around them, and it's not like she's even talked to kaufmo since they came back, God this is stupid she has people to talk to and they're choosing to hide in her room, god man
They lean backwards to lay down spreading her arms and sighing
They lay there for a while staring at the sealing, which is actually kinda helping? The stars moving across her sealing feels suthing, watching the light curve over things in their room, she sticks their hand out and watches the bright green stars move around it. She sits there for a solid 3 minutes before they sit back up again, hands by her side, looking forward.
They spot a picture on her wall, it's them kaufmo and Jax at the cafe, they're sitting at the counter on the stools holding up their cocoa, they all look so.. happy, fuck ribbit needs to talk to Jax she needs to make things normal again they need to have her .. best friend back
They get up and leave the room she walks up to jaxs door and just stands there for a minute before knocking "hey uh Jax ya busy?" They ask
"OH fuck - uh no it's a bad time uh come back later" she can hear Jax scrambling behind the door " oh well um just let me know when you can talk I guess " she turn back to their door "fuck wait give me a minute ' Jax shouts from behind the door stopping ribbit in her tracks they turn back , she can hear shuffling behind the door, items moving, Jax breathing far to loud to be healthy
Jax cracks the door and sticks his face through"uh come in " his breathing is slowing down but it's still fast. Ribbit keeps the door farely closed as she walks in and closes it behind them, she looks around it's the first time they've seen his room it looks colorful it's kinda hard to tell because it's quite dark, it seems like things aren't where they're supposed to be , shadows on the wall of where pictures used to be, marker scribbles on the walls the cover colorful designs, and a tall mirror with large cracks on it
"What'd ya want " he asks breaking the silence "oh uh I kinda wanted to apologize for what I did" she looks over at him "what are you talking about" his voice cracks he knows what they mean "you know the night in my room" she pauses "look Jax I'm sorry for prying to much, Im sorry if I made you feel like you had to share that and I'm sorry for trying to talk to you about it when you didn't want me to I was just trying to make things..."
"normal again" they're looking at her hands the whole time their speaking twiddling her thumbs
They're awaiting a terrible response a'i don't want to talk to you again ' an ' why are you over stepping again ' she can't go through that again
"Ribbit..." They look up at him "I um - you shouldn't be apologizing okay, it's fine, I don't care about it, just uh pretend that didn't happen okay " he truly can't talk about this he can't open up to her again, not like last time "oh um okay I- I'm glad you don't like hate me or anything " she chuckles it's not really a joke though just trying to lighten the mood "yeah " he replies with a forced laugh.
They sit there looking at their hands and making small glances around the room , after a few minutes they look at eachother and they can't look away, jax's pupils dialate she can see their reflection in his eyes,they sit there for about 8 seconds "well uh I should be going" ribbit turns away quickly "oh yeah uh good talk " he responds
" bye "
"Bye "
She exits the room and stands there thinking about that conversation, it's not like he doesn't care thats obvious they hate how he just lies about how he feels but she can't be to mad because they'd be a hypocrite God the bunny is confusing. She snaps out of it and goes to their room , dude how is the sun down I guess she'll never get used to circus time, they're kinda eepy sleepy
She gets in bed and turns on their side in the fetal position, she lies there pondering about everything the can, their eyes feel heavy they start to shut