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Another day, another wacky adventure in The Amazing Digital Circus™
For most, the idea of waking up in the morning to go on chaos-fueled adventures seemed daunting, but for Jax? He couldn't be more excited. Awakening with his classic cheshire grin, the rabbit bounces out of bed just as his avatar would entail. Stretching his limbs he is all but ready to start the new day.
Strolling out of his room and into the main area, the rabbit could see that the others were already awake. Pomni and Ragatha were having a casual conversation, Kinger was well... being Kinger, Zooble was off in their own area, and Gangle was busy drawing something, comedy mask and all. Feeling his grin widen, the rabbit approaches the ribbon girl, making sure to be quiet as to not alert her to his presence.
"Heya ribbons!" He shouts before shoving Gangle over, causing her to fall to the ground, comedy mask breaking in two, the surprise also causing her to accidentally rip her drawing into two pieces. The ribbon girl began to sob as she stared at the now very much ruined drawing, Jax just laughed.
"Jax! Must you always be so cruel to Gangle?!" He heard Ragatha speak up. Glancing in her direction, he could see the ragdoll in question approaching him, hands on her hips with an especially peeved expression. Pomni stood next to her, eyes lidded as she stared dejected at the bunny rabbit. That tended to be how the jester looked most days after entering the circus, not that he could really blame her.
"What? I'm just having a little fun before the adventure begins. Ain't that right ribbons?" He says casually, kicking Gangle over.
"Surely you can understand wanting to get some free entertainment in the morning?" He added, crossing his arms and eyeing the ragdoll with a smug expression.
"There's other ways to entertain yourself that don't involve being an [BOINK!]hole." Pomni interjected, annoyance laced in her tone as she gave the rabbit an unimpressed look, Jax just brushed her off.
"You don't know what you're talking about kid." Pomni glared at him.
"I'm not a child I'm literally older than you!"
"And shorter too." Jax quipped, Pomni grumbled. Unfortunately, before the rabbit could have too much fun, he felt a harsh punch hit him directly in the back, causing him to stumble over. Glaring behind him, he saw none other than Zooble approaching, antenna twitching as their arm reconnected with their body.
"Now what was that for Zoobie?!" Jax exclaimed, standing up and continuing to glare at the assortment of shapes.
"Saw you being an [BOINK!]hole so I decided to punch you" Zooble stated bluntly, Jax rolled his eyes. A familar scream caught everyone's attention. Looking over, Jax could see Kinger, shaking violently as he stared at... nothing.
"Everything okay Kinger?" Ragatha called out. The chess piece abruptly stopped shaking as he directed his gaze over to the ragdoll.
"Oh yeah I'm fine, I just thought I saw a beetle." He responded, tone completely casual as if what he said was completely and utterly normal in relation to his reaction, which to be fair, it kind of was.
"That was probably one of my centipedes, I remember leaving one out last night so it could explore." Jax said. Ragatha's eyes (or eye to be more accurate) darted over to him, horror painting her features.
"You what?!" She screeched, panic filling her voice, Jax laughed.
"What? Am I not allowed to let my pets go out for a stroll? Geez Rags you really don't care about the animals do you?" He asked, tone smug as ever.
"That's not what I-"
"OKAY EVERYONE!" A sudden voice boomed from above, cutting Ragatha off. Turning their attention to the noise, Caine stood, hovered above them, hand raised into the air as his missmatched eyes met that of the other circus residents.
"I SEE THAT ALL OF YOU ARE AWAKE! WHICH MEANS THAT WE CAN FINALLY START OUR NEXT ADVENTURE!" The ringmaster said enthusiastically. Jax crossed his arms as he and the rest of the circus listened to Caine's babbles about their latest adventure.
Set inside of a large, broken clock tower, their goal was simple. Go inside and climb your way to the top. Once there? Fix the clock and the adventure was over. Sounded simple enough, but actually getting up there was easier said than done, as the circus members would be forced to work their way up a vertical platforming level in order to reach the top. Once they managed to accomplish that, the crew would then have to defeat "THE JAWBREAKER" as Caine put it in order to access the controls and get the clock working again. Jax has to admit, it was a pretty creative idea for an adventure, one ripe with opportunities for sabotage.
And so their adventure began and Jax did what Jax did best, make things infinitely harder for everyone else. He didn't really care about completing the adventure. He was just there for the thrill of making everyone else miserable. His tricks were simple enough. Whether it was using someone as a ladder involuntarily, shoving one them off of the platforms, Pomni and Gangle receiving the worst of it. By the end the jester looked about ready to snap him in two and Gangle was in an even more miserable state than she already was.
Perfect.
THE JAWBREAKER was easy enough to defeat. Its weapon of choice was a giant hammer that could squash anything it touches into a puddle. It would've been threatening had it not been so damn slow.
Using Pomni as a projectile, he managed to hit THE JAWBREAKER right in its weak spot, causing the thing to melt into a puddle of its own material.
In the end, Jax came out of that adventure feeling thoroughly satisfied and proud of himself. Everyone else just looked tired and ready to strangle him, but Jax didn't care.
Wishing his fellow prisoners a good night, Jax went to bed, closing his eyes as he thought about what horrible and unforgivable things he could do to everyone the next day.
Another day, another wacky adventure in The Amazing Digital Circus™
For most, the idea of waking up in the morning to go on chaos-fueled adventures seemed daunting, but for Jax? He couldn't be more excited. Awakening with his classic cheshire grin, the rabbit bounces out of bed just as his avatar would entail. Stretching his limbs he is all but ready to start the new day.
Strolling out of his room and into the main area, the rabbit could see that the others were already awake. Pomni and Ragatha were having a casual conversation, Kinger was well... being Kinger, Zooble was off in their own area, and Gangle was busy drawing something, comedy mask and all. Feeling his grin widen, the rabbit approaches the ribbon girl, making sure to be quiet as to not alert her to his presence.
"Heya ribbons!" He shouts before shoving Gangle over, causing her to fall to the ground, comedy mask breaking in two, the surprise also causing her to accidentally rip her drawing into two pieces. The ribbon girl began to sob as she stared at the now very much ruined drawing, Jax just laughed.
"Jax! Must you always be so cruel to Gangle?!" He heard Ragatha speak up. Glancing in her direction, he could see the ragdoll in question approaching him, hands on her hips with an especially peeved expression. Pomni stood next to her, eyes lidded as she stared dejected at the bunny rabbit. That tended to be how the jester looked most days after entering the circus, not that he could really blame her.
"What? I'm just having a little fun before the adventure begins. Ain't that right..." The rabbit trailed off. His grin faltered as his arms went slack as he came to a sudden realization.
This all felt... strangely familiar. Ragatha was saying the exact same things she had said yesterday, Jax did too. Now obviously, the rabbit had been reprimanded by the ragdoll a multitude on a multitude of occasions, it was a favorite past time of his. But this felt... different.
"There's other ways to entertain yourself that don't involve being an [BOINK!]hole" He heard Pomni say. His eyes traced over the jester's, who was giving him the same unimpressed look that she had been giving him yesterday.
A punch to the back caused him to stumble over. It was Zooble. He didn't retort this time, he just gave them an odd look.
He then heard a scream, it was Kinger again.
"Everything okay Kinger?" Ragatha called out. Jax furrowed his brows.
"Oh yeah I'm fine, I just thought I saw a beetle" Kinger responded, looking over at Ragatha. Okay this is getting weird. These are literally the exact same things that were happening yesterday. Had everyone seriously run out of new things to say that they've started to repeat themselves?
"OKAY EVERYONE!" He heard Caine's voice boom yet again.
"I SEE THAT ALL OF YOU ARE AWAKE! WHICH MEANS THAT WE CAN FINALLY START OUR NEXT ADVENTURE!" The ringmaster said with the exact amount of enthusiasm as the previous day. Granted, that was pretty normal for him.
What wasn't normal was the fact that he decided to reuse the clock tower adventure. Now sure, Caine wasn't a stranger to sending everyone on an adventure they had already gone on, but those were usually spaced out and done whenever the ringmaster ran out of ideas. Twice in a row though? Never happened before.
That wasn't even the weirdest part. The weirdest part was that nobody seemed to bat an eye, they were all acting as if this was the first time they had gone on this adventure.
The adventure itself was identical too. Climbing up the clock tower, purposefully making things harder for everyone else, taking out THE JAWBREAKER by throwing Pomni at his weak spot, it was all the same.
By the end of the day, while Jax still had his fun messing with the other members, his enjoyment was hindered by it literally being the exact same thing that happened the previous day.
Crawling into bed, Jax closed his eyes, questions still very much on his mind as he drifted off, preparing himself for the next day.
Another day, another wacky adventure in The Amazing Digital Circus.
For most, the idea of waking up in the morning to go on chaos-fueled adventures seemed daunting, but for Ja-
The door to Jax's room suddenly burst open, Jax walking out, still just as confused as yesterday. Walking to the main area, everyone was in the exact same spots that they were the day before, as well as the day before that. Approaching Gangle once more, he didn't even announce his presence before shoving her over.
It was the same drawing too.
"Jax! Must you always be so cruel to Gangle?!" He heard Ragatha say. Jax frowned as he looked to the ragdoll.
"Seriously Doll Face? We've already been through why I do this. Is your brain working right?" The rabbit asked, Ragatha gave him a quizzical expression.
"We have?"
Okay, what the [BOINK!] was happening?! This wasn't normal was it? Granted nothing in the circus was normal, but this was on a whole other level.
They went on the same adventure too. Same area, same goal, same end boss.
By the end of the day, Jax simply walked into his room, sitting on his bed as he stared blankly at the wall. The exact same thing had now happened three days in a row. Surely it wouldn't happen again would it? Jax was used to the wacky and absurd. But this wasn't just absurd, this was nonsensical.
Another day, another wacky adventure in The Amazing Digital-
Jax wasted little time running out into the main area. Yet again everyone was in the same spot. Pushing Gangle over, it elicited all the same reactions.
Caine appeared once more and once again sent them all on the clock tower mission.
"Isn't this getting a little repetitive?" The rabbit asked the ringmaster with a raised brow.
"WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN MY DEAR?" Caine responded, giving Jax a curious expression.
"We've been on the same adventure three times already. Ain't it time to shake things up a bit?"
"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT JAX! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE SENT YOU ON THIS EXACT ADVENTURE! I ONLY JUST FINISHED THE PLANNING YESTERDAY AFTER ALL!" The ringmaster said.
"But you did the same thing-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence before shoving everyone into the portal so that they could yet again, climb up the inside of the clock tower.
Another day, another-
"Can you stop that?! We've heard this narration like fifty times!" Jax interrupted as he sprung out of bed. At this point, the same thing had been happening every single day and only he seemed to realize it. Whenever he brought it up to anyone else they just gave him a weird look, saying that this was the first time they'd even gone on this type of adventure.
There was only one explanation that Jax could think of that made any sort of sense. Somehow some way, he had found himself trapped in a time loop where the same day repeated over and over again, him being the only one to remember it. Now of course, that was a bold statement to make, a statement that would need cold hard evidence before he jumped to any sort of conclusions.
And so, he did all the same things he had done the first time, before he even realized he was in a loop. And indeed, everything went the exact same way as they had previously.
So he really was in a time loop.
And only he could remember.
He felt his grin widen as he laid in bed. This was gonna be interesting.
Jax had decided to go for something slightly different today. Instead of using Pomni as a projectile to take out THE JAWBREAKER, he used Gangle as a makeshift ball and chain, swinging her by the ribbons and crashing her mask into the beast's weak spot. It yielded mostly the same results, but it was still just as fun. And the best part is? No one would even remember it.
He was starting to think he had hit the jackpot. Just imagine all the things he could do now that he was stuck in a time loop? He could change small little things each repeated day and then see what would happen. And here Jax was thinking that things were getting boring around here. No siree bob things just got a lot more exciting.
The next repeated day, Jax decided to actually let one of his centipedes roam the circus. Yeah he was bluffing the first time, but this time? Not so much.
Ragatha screamed like a baby the moment she saw it, Kinger did too though he wasn't sure if it was out of fear or if it was just Kinger being Kinger. He leaned towards the latter. Aside from that, not much changed when it came to the loop, they still went on the same adventure, still defeated THE JAWBREAKER at the end, blah blah blah, you know the rest.
This time around, Jax had started the day a similar way to the first time. That is until the point where Zooble was supposed to punch him from behind. Seeing it coming, he ducked, the flying fist whizzing right past her and colliding directly with Ragatha, causing her to go flying back, landing directly on top of Pomni who just happened to be standing in her range.
"Oh my god! Pomni I'm so sorry!" The ragdoll said, frantically getting off the jester. Pomni let out a groan, attempting to get up. Muttering a censored cuss word, the jester gave up, flopping back onto the ground and staring at the ceiling.
Zooble meanwhile looked both confused and guilty at the same time.
"Geez Zoobie, punching Ragatha? And here I thought I was your only victim." The rabbit said with a smirk. The shapes glared at him.
"That was aimed at you [BOINK!]hole!" They exclaimed, Jax just shrugged.
"Tell that to the judge."
The next repeat was probably his favorite yet. Thanks to knowing exactly what everyone was going to say, when Ragatha approached him angrily, ready to reprimand him for being mean to Gangle, he started to repeat what she said with exact accuracy.
"Jax! Must you always be so cruel to Gangle?!" They both said at the same time, Jax's tone considerably more smug than the ragdoll's. Ragatha gave him a bewildered look.
"How did you-"
"Dunno Doll Face. guess you've become predictable." He interrupted, crossing his arms, smile reaching the sides of his face. Ragatha didn't say anything after that. She just stared at the floor, clearly trying to process the perfect prediction Jax had just made.
"Am I really that predictable...?" She mumbled lowly, Jax laughed. This was just priceless.
Messing with people's heads became Jax's favorite thing to do in the loops. This time around the rabbit predicted every move the other members made, announcing them just before they did. And each time they all gave him a confused look, to which the rabbit just shrugged off before continuing his adventure.
He began to wonder if any of the members thought he was a prophet thanks to his actions. It made him smile even more.
He decided to use Zooble's head to defeat THE JAWBREAKER this time around. They were screaming profanities at him the entire time. Ragatha tried to intervene but it wasn't much use.
He received a Grade A punch in the face from Zooble after they regained control of thmselves, only serving to make this entire thing even more worth it.
He used Pomni as a meat shield against THE JAWBREAKER this time around. Smacking the jester right in the face with its hammer, Pomni went flying into a nearby wall, the impact being so hard that it actually made a dent. Ragatha chewed him out the rest of the day while Pomni looked just about ready to bite his head off.
Not that he was scared or anything. It's not like anybody would remember.
So, as it would turn out, this time loop wasn't actually as fun as he thought. Sure it was amusing to see the many different ways he could torment his fellow prisoners, but it didn't take long for that to get boring. He'd pretty much exhausted every option at this point, or at least, any of the options that he found funny.
And so he was left doing the same thing again, and again, and again. He began to yearn for something new. A new adventure, a new interaction, a new... something.
He never thought he'd say this but he was actually getting tired of using his fellow members as weapons against THE JAWBREAKER. He was actually getting tired of their reactions.
Chaos was only as fun as its unpredictability, this wasn't unpredictable, this was stale, this was old.
He began to try ways to break the loop. Whether it was telling the others about it, trying to convince Caine to set them on a different adventure. Nothing was working. it was all just the same.
Again.
And again.
And again.
He was going mad, Jax was actually going mad. He didn't think it was possible for him to be brought to this point but he was actually on the verge of losing it.
These stupid loops just won't stop. Over and over and over and over. It's gotten so bad that he was able to memorize the individual tears on Gangle's sheet of paper whenever he caused her to rip her drawing half. It had gotten so bad that he was able to memorize the milliseconds it took for Ragatha to walk up to him after he pushed Gangle over.
It was all the same, it was all the damn same and nobody but himself even realized it. No one even remembered it.
He was starting to give up hope. This was his fate now, wasn't it?
Perhaps this was punishment for all of his actions. Perhaps this is god (the actual god, not Caine), teaching him a lesson to stop being such a prick. Perhaps this was the universe telling him that chaos wasn't truly enough to distract Jax from his inevitable fate.
That was when he started to see it. See something he never thought he would.
Eyeballs, different colored eyeballs had started to fill his vision. He knew what this was.
Abstraction.
So this was how he went out huh? Being trapped in a time loop where the same thing happened over and over again. Strangely enough, he didn't feel too bad about it.
Perhaps this was his escape. Everyone knew abstraction wasn't reversable. This was it. He could finally be free. No more of this circus nonsense. No more of these loops, no more nothing.
Just sweet, endless, tranquility.
He awoke with a gasp. His body was back to normal. His vision wasn't clouded or messy. He had control over himself again. Staring at his, hands Jax felt his heart sink.
"No..."
The loop. It had reversed his abstraction. The one thing that was thought impossible, and he was just... back. He was laughing now. So, not even reaching your breaking point was enough to escape this hell. He was trapped in this loop, forever. No way out. No exit. No nothing.
He walked out that day with a tired and dejected expression. Everyone was in the same position as they always were. Walking over to Gangle, he stared down at her as she doodled. He never actually looked to see what the ribbon girl was drawing. It seemed to be some sort of anime character, big surprise on that one.
"Nice drawing. Who is it?" Jax asked, causing Gangle to jump, almost falling over.
"O-Oh, Jax, I-I didn't realize you were there."
"Yeah, I can tell." The rabbit stated bluntly. This was normally the point where he shoved her over. But honestly? What was even the point anymore? He'd already seen her reaction. So instead he just stared at the ribbon girl awkwardly.
"Jax... what are you doing?" He heard Ragatha call as she approached him. Jax gave her a bored glance.
"Just admiring Gangle's drawing. She's a pretty good artist ya know." This seemed to take both Ragatha and Gangle by surprise. Jax was honestly kind of surprised himself. He rarely if ever gave out compliments. This loop has really done a number on him huh? He was actually starting to be nice to people.
Zooble didn't even punch him this time.
It wasn't long before Caine showed up to send them on their adventure yet again. He didn't bother to sabotage anyone this time, instead he just focused on getting up the tower himself.
"Watch out for the wrecking ball." He said to Pomni as he noticed her standing directly in the range of said object. The jester quickly jumped out of the way.
"That was... weirdly helpful of you Jax." Ragatha noted as she got up onto the same platform as him, the rabbit just shrugged.
"Guess I'm feelin' nice today." In all honesty he only warned Pomni about the wrecking ball because he'd seen her be hit by it so many times that it wasn't even funny anymore. It was just kind of pathetic really.
They eventually reached the top of the clock tower where THE JAWBREAKER waited for them.
"It's weak spot is on top of its head." The rabbit stated bluntly. The others gave him an incredulous look, Jax leveled them with a glare of his own. Soon enough, the beast was defeated and they got the clock tower working.
Upon leaving the adventure, Jax was prepared to head to bed once more, yet found himself being stopped by none other than Ragatha.
"Hey Jax?" She asked in a tone that sounded almost warm.
Almost.
"What?" He questioned bluntly.
"I just uh, wanted to thank you for not being a total menace today. You actually helped us out quite a lot"
The rabbit paused. Ragatha was thanking him.
Thanking, him.
He honestly didn't know how to respond to that. Jax had never been a fan of positive affirmations, they always caught him off guard. Several moments of silence later, the rabbit scoffed.
"Don't get used to it, I've just had a rough couple of days." A half truth. Technically only one day has passed, but boy oh boy was that day rough. Heading off to his dorm, Jax flopped onto his bed, burying his face into his pillow.
He wasn't looking forward to tomorrow.
Or today.
Whatever you call it, point is he was not looking forward to it.
Another day, another wacky adventure in The Amazing Digital Circus™
For most, the idea of waking up in the morning to go on chaos-fueled adventures seemed daunting, but for Jax? Yeah no it was about the same. Lazily getting up off his bed, the rabbit dragged himself out the hall where all the other circus members were waiting for him.
Interestingly enough, they were in different positions. Gangle was actually talking to Kinger this time around instead of drawing anime characters. It was perplexing, but he didn't get his hopes up.
"OKAY EVERYONE!" He heard Caine's voice shout as he appeared out of thin air. Everyone looked at him.
"I SEE THAT ALL OF YOU ARE AWAKE! WHICH MEANS THAT WE CAN FINALLY START OUR NEXT ADVENTURE!" The ringmaster cheered, Jax let out a groan.
"Does this adventure have something to do with a clock tower?" He asked in a disinterested tone. Caine looked at him for a moment.
"WHY OF COURSE NOT! WE DID THAT ADVENTURE YESTERDAY! WHY ON EARTH WOULD I SEND YOU ALL ON THE SAME ADVENTURE TWICE IN A ROW?!"
Jax's eyes widened. Wait, they had that adventure yesterday?
"Wait, yesterday?" He asked audibly, he had to make sure.
"YES INDEED! THE CLOCK TOWER ADVENTURE WAS YESTERDAY! YOU DIDN'T FORGET IT DUDE YOU? IT WAS ONE OF MY BEST ADVENTURES IF YOU ASK ME." The ringmaster responded. Jax was silent.
Holy [BOINK!]
He was free.
The loop was gone.
And all it took...
Was him being nice.
For the first time in awhile, Jax was left well and truly speechless.
"Jax? Are you... okay?" He heard Ragatha ask as she moved to stand next to him. Jax stared at her for a moment, analyzing her face. She looked genuinely concerned for him, it was strange.
Feeling his grin return, Jax raised a brow at the ragdoll.
"What, Doll Face concerned about me or something? If I didn't know better I'd think you actually cared about me." He said in a smug tone. Ragatha's look of concern quickly faded into one of annoyance.
"I was just worried! You were acting weirdly nice yesterday and I wanted to see what was up!" She exclaimed, Jax laughed.
"You flatter me Doll Face, you really do, but I can assure you that I am completely fine." The rabbit continued, patting the ragdoll's head twice. Ignoring her groan of annoyance, Jax looked back up at Caine with a curious expression.
"So, what's the adventure this time huh?"
"I'M GLAD YOU ASKED JAX! FOR THIS ADVENTURE, YOU WILL ALL BE EXPLORING THE CENTIPEDE KINGDOM!" Caine announced with his usual enthusiasm, Ragatha's face dropped.
"C-Centipede Kingdom?" She mumbled.
"THAT'S RIGHT RAGATHA! YOU WILL ALL BE EXPLORING THE CENTIPEDE KINGDOM IN ORDER TO FIND THE GOLDEN ROACH!" The ringmaster continued, snapping his finger to cause a portal to open up. Inside was what looked to be hundreds of centipedes, all crawling around, all making creepy little noises, Ragatha looked just about ready to faint. Jax though? He was through the roof.
"Now this is what I call an adventure!" The rabbit cheered, eyes wide with excitement.
It seemed as though Jax's time troubles, were finally over.