Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Why did Gangle think this kind of adventure would be fun? A stupid fast food adventure was the worst kind of adventure! First having to work as an adventure was a bad idea! Then there was Ragatha basically being drunk. And why was Zooble actually working? That didn’t seem normal about her. Why would Gangle even-.

”Oh Ja-ax!” The theatre masked avatar sang as she walked up to him. “The bathroom looks like a biohazard and needs a good scrubbing!”

”I dunno,” Jax huffed as he avoided eye contact with the too happy shift manager; her new mask made him uncomfortable for some reason. “Shouldn’t like, a biohazard crew take care of that?”

Gangle gave a fake chuckle, “Oh, Jaxy-boy! Don’t you wanna be a model employee?”

”No, I don’t care about any of this.” Jax said simply, staring at the counter behind the shift manager. Gods, just take off the mask or something Gangle. That new smile only made the purple rabbitoid get creeped out by the second.

”Well, that doesn’t really sound like a can-do attitude to me!” Gangle chirped, sounding a little bit annoyed under her happy voice.

”It’s not.” Jax stated dryly.

”Ah ha… bad.” Gangle replied, still smiling.

Jax gave an annoyed stare. “I like you better when you’re sad.” Maybe that would get things back to his normal. The normal he knew.

He heard something crack as Gangle froze with a blank stare. She slowly stood up straighter and adjusted her mask before looking at him. “Well, maybe YOU just need some more…”

Jax waited for the other to reply. “More-?”

”TRAINING!” Gangle exclaimed a bit too loudly, cutting off the purple rabbitoid.

Jax looked a bit unsure at first before feeling a pair of squishy floating hands grab him. He gave a small stifled yelp as he was suddenly warped into a dark room. “Wha… uh, huh??”

He was soon greeted to an old-looking TV that started playing, illuminating the dark room. On the screen was the outside of the Spudsy’s with Gangle speaking in front of it. “Hi! Welcome to Spudsy’s. In this video, you’re going to learn the ins and outs of what makes YOU a good crew member and a valuable asset to the Spudsy’s Corporation.”

Jax stared at the TV in pure baffled confusion. “When did you make this?”

”Now I know what you’re thinking.” Gangle on the TV wagged a ribbon finger around. “‘I don’t want a career in fast food. I wanna be a comic artist and eventually launch my own manga-inspired webcomic!’ And it’s cool to have dreams! But you also need to remember that they’re completely unrealistic, and you need to stop trying!”

Jax definitely did not like this side of Gangle anymore. Was she always like this when she was happy? Was this what his normal would’ve been like if he wasn’t so mean to her? Maybe it was a good thing he was constantly mean to her at this point because happy and passive-aggressive Gangle was not his favorite look on her. The moment the Gangle on the TV screen pointed to Jax, he felt rather called out. Why did she point that out at him? It wasn’t like that was his dream.

Jax glanced back at the TV as Gangle continued to speak. ”But before we get into all that, first things first! Are you smiling?”

The purple rabbitoid hesitated before answering to the TV. “Uh… no?”

The music then stopped as Gangle stood straight up, her pupils growing large. “Why not?” she asked in a monotone voice.

In that split second, Jax felt a whoosh of cold air behind him as he was suddenly forced into a leather chair. Giant robotic arms grew out from the sides as they grabbed him by the limbs and shoved his face up to the screen. Jax stuttered out multiple ‘waits’ and ‘uhs’ before collecting his thoughts together, his face pressed to the buzzing screen. “No-Nobody can see this, right?”

“It’s time for your employee reevaluation.” Gangle said in a steady voice. Her face looked happy but her words remained hollow.

Jax stared at the screen as a comedy mask and a tragedy mask flashed on the screen in a repeating pattern. The beeping playing with each flash continued to rise in pitch, almost in a panic-inducing way.

Let me go. Let me go. Please just let me go. I’ll do anything to get out of this insanity. I can’t do this. I CAN’T DO THIS.

That was the only thought running in Jax’s head. His ears dropped down and pinned to his head as he continued to stare at the faces flashing on the screen.

The faces slowly started to distort. The comedy mask’s smile continued to grow bigger and bigger, slowly stretching the mask and eyes to unnatural length. The tragedy mask’s frown continued to go downward, distorting the mask to stretch down even weirder. Small, glowing, white pupils started to grow into the masks’s eyes, staring straight into Jax’s own eyes. Jax’s own pupils had shrunken down in fear, hating this weird situation he was trapped in.

”YOU’RE NOT SMILING.” The masks growled, odd human-like teeth growing inside the awfully wide frown and smile.

Jax cringed as he could feel the masks’s breath on his face.

”I-I’M SMILING!” Jax yelled, his arms and legs flailing in the grasps of squishy gloved hands.

His eyes widened even more as he saw another pair of hands reach for each side of his mouth and stretch it wide to form a smile on the purple rabbitoid’s face. Jax gave a tiny whimper as he was hanging up in the air with his face yanked into a smile. The masks soon reverted back to normal after the longest minute in his life.

”Congratulations! Your employee reevaluation has been recorded and submitted! You will be sent back to the Spudsy’s chain shortly.” The robotic Gangle voice echoed in the room.

Jax was set back on the leather chair, the robotic arms retracting back into the chair. The arms had to peel Jax off the seat once they brought him back to the restaurant. His ears were still pinned on his head and his eyes wide in horror. Usually this would’ve been the time where Ragatha came up to ask what happened, or Zooble’s dry remarks, or even Pomni’s hesitant worry for him. But no, nothing was normal in this ‘normal’ adventure.

But who cares. His normal was that he had to smile.

Smile

Smile

Smile

Chapter Text

”Come on boys, Aunt Mara is waiting for us!” Jack could hear his mom call from downstairs.

”I don’t wanna go.” Jack huffed, crossing his arms. “What are you packing Amos?”

His older brother gave a sigh as he turned to his younger brother. “Remember what we were talking about last night?”

”About you leaving?” Jack replied. He then gasped. “N-No! You can’t leave! Mom needs you, I need you!”

Amos gave a tired chuckle as he ruffled Jack’s hair. “I’ll come visit you, no worries!”

”You’re not seriously going to leave me and Andy with Mom right?! Mom will figure out anyways!” Jack exclaimed, trying to find any and every excuse to keep his brother from leaving. “P-Please!”

Amos dug something out from his bag. “Take this. You can keep it and all the save files on it to.”

Jack stared at the GameBoy given to him. “B-But… what about me and Andy?”

Amos froze. “I wish I could bring you two with me, but that would be even worse when Mom finds us. If one of us leaves first, she wouldn’t try that hard to find us.”

The younger brother shook his head. “But I will! I’ll hunt you down forever for you to come back home!”

The older brother chuckled as he opened the window. “Keep smiling for Andy will ya?”

///

Thirteen years. Amos still hasn’t paid a visit.

Jack was sitting on the poor results to be a bed, playing away on the GameBoy. He had been careful in keeping it as perfect as it could be. He looked up to hear his room door open up to a crying Andy.

”What did you do this time?” Jack sighed as he watched his brother sink to the dusty floor.

Andy didn’t reply as he suddenly got up and grabbed random things. “I’m going to find Amos.”

Jack’s attention was immediately caught. He sat up straighter and set his GameBoy to the side. “No, wait, no. You’re not planning on leaving are you?”

Andy gave a small chuckle. “It’ll be fine. It’s not like Mom is gonna care or anything.”

Jack got off his bed and put his hands on his younger brother’s shoulders. “Y-You can’t leave! I’m going to be stuck with Mom! You’re only eleven!”

”Yea but Amos left when he was sixteen right?” The younger brother shrugged.

”That’s a five year difference!” Jack stated. He shook his head. He couldn’t let his other brother leave him. He didn’t want to be left alone. “Heck, I’m eighteen and I still haven’t left yet!”

”That’s because Mom likes you.” Andy pouted.

”No. She only likes me because I stay quiet.” Jack grumbled.

Andy handed Jack a a floppy purple rabbit. “You keep this! I’ll come back once I find Amos I promise!”

Jack watched as his younger brother slipped out of the window with his bag. His mind told him to do anything to pull his brother back. Grab him, pull him by the arm, slam the window shut before he could leave. But his body refused to listen to him.

All he could do now was smile.

///

Jax stared at the group when they had returned back to the circus.

”How was the adventure?” Kinger asked. “I got to ride on a bull!”

Pomni gave a chuckle. “It was alright. Not the most eventful adventure which I think was pretty neat.”

Ragatha still seemed to be under the effects of whatever she huffed as she was sitting with her head upside down and dangling over the couch. “Pomni kept flirting with that gummy guy.” Her voice wavered in volume.

Jax rolled his eyes as he sunk on his seat. “Gods doll-face, you really are drunk.”

Zooble rolled their eyes as they sat down; Gangle down next to them. “I think it was alright.” Gangle piped up.

Jax gave the theatre mask avatar a scowl. “Of course you did. You were the manager who could control all of us!”

Kinger chuckled. “Man. That would’ve been funny if I were there too huh?”

Jax’s ears dropped down. Why was the nut-job being so chill? Why wasn’t Pomni the worried mess she was? Why was Zooble actually nice? Why was Ragatha high? Why was Gangle not being a crybaby?

Why was nothing his normal

Jax was quick to suddenly pull out a ball and chuck it at Ragatha. Maybe if she flipped out at him it would be fine. But no, the ball bounced right off Ragatha’s head. Doll-face didn’t even react!

”That’s IT! I’m outta here.” Jax snapped as he stormed off to his room.

”Wow… I haven’t heard that side of Jax in a long while.” Kinger pointed out.

Pomni shifted in her seat as she looked over to the chess piece. “What do you mean?”

Ragatha, who seemed to have snapped out of her trance, gave a long sigh. “Well… when he first joined, he certainly was a handful.”

”Kept repeating about needing to smile.” Kinger chuckled. “Wait, was that Gangle or Jax?”

Chapter Text

Jax grumbled as he threw a ball against the wall of his room. He often did then when he was particularly pissed or annoyed. This has resulted to having a small dent in the wall. He turned around as he heard the door to his room open.

”Hey Jax? How ya doing?” Ragatha asked as she poked her head in.

”Are ya here to ask for more paint to huff? Cuz the answer is no.” Jax snapped. “Now scat.”

Ragatha raised an eyebrow. “No… I don’t want any paint to huff. I just wanna check in n how you are.”

Jax eyed the red head up and down for a good long while. “Before you come caring for me, go apologise to Gangle or something.”

At this, Ragatha looked terribly worried. “Oh no! What did I do?”

”While you were drunk, you started blabbing off about stuff and ended up spilling your brains out, bad things and all.” Jax shrugged as he tossed the ball in between his hands. “You ain’t that slick with your ‘mom friend’ attitude ya know?”

Ragatha seemed to have froze at that statement. “I-I’m not trying to hide that! I really do c-care for all of them!”

Jax raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms together. “When you got bashed up by abstracted Kaufmo, you literally said about how you were sorry about fake laughing at his not-funny jokes.”

”I didn’t say that!” Ragatha said defensively.

Jax shrugged. “Whatever. Just go apologise to everyone before even thinking about talking to me.”

With that, he slammed the door on the red-head’s face. He then turned back to the wall with the dent. He felt kinda bad about making the dent. Then he remembered that he could always get Caine to fix it so why should he bother feeling sad for it. He gave a long sigh before sinking face first on his bed, or more like his messy nest.

”I can’t believe I said that.” Jax grumbled under his breath. He gave a loud groan as he pulled his ears down and yanked them as hard as he could.

”Come on, needa keep a smile.”

///

“Come on Jack, we don’t want to keep Aunt Mara waiting now do we?” Mom called from downstairs.

Jack stared out of the window in his bedroom. He left. He actually left him. Now he was stuck here all by himself. His grip on the window sill tightened to the point his knuckles turned white.

”What’s taking so long-.” Mom barged into the cramped bedroom. “Jack? Where’s Andy?”

The boy hesitated to answer. He threw the plush purple rabbit on his messy bed and pushed past his mom. Mom didn’t say anything as the two made their way to Aunt Mara’s.

“I’m sorry dear, I would try to find them if I could but a part of me is rather happy that they left.” Mom said in a very poor attempt to comfort her son. “Now I get you all to myself without needing the hassle of two other boys.”

Jack stared at his mom, a face of disgust plastered on. “Why would you even think to say that?!”

Mom waved a hand. “I’m not saying I never cared for them! No no no, it’s just that sending out for a search team is so expensive and we don’t have the money.”

Jack  glared at his mom as the two walked up to the aunt’s front door. The odd lady clad in black gave a gasp and a bone crushing hug to her nephew and sister. “Oh it is lovely to see you again! Where’s the smaller one? Alex? Aron?”

”It’s Andy.” Jack snapped. “He… He ran off.”

Aunt Mara gave a small ‘aww’ before allowing the two in. “Pity. He had such good potential too. No worries, I’m sure he’ll return eventually. He’s only eleven.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Whatever…”

Mom gave Jack a sharp slap on the back of his head. “Come on now. No need to be so rude. It’s not like Andy was going to graduate anytime soon. Now put on that nice smile for Aunt alright?”

Jack huffed as he sat down on the couch. It was an awful shade of purple that perpetually looked like it was stained or covered in some sort of crust. He never understood his aunt’s liking for this couch. Now all he had to do was wait for his mom and aunt to finish up with the tarot reading and whatever voodoo crap that they did in them smelly incense room. He pulled out his GameBoy that was in the pocket of his sweater and started up the game.

”Psst.”

Jack looked up. What was that? He heard someone. He glanced out of the window to see no one outside. All he saw was a terrible shade of ‘jade green’ that Aunt Mara liked for her wallpaper. He dismissed it as some random sound and turned his attention back to the GameBoy.

”Psst, Jack.”

Jack looked up from his GameBoy to see someone at the window. He didn’t recognise the face at first until he smiled.

”Amos?!” Jack hissed as he suddenly scrambled towards the window, pulling it open. “W-What are you doing here?”

”I told you I’d come visit.” The older brother said with a crooked grin.

For some reason, that only got Jack even more upset. “Why only now?!”

”I didn’t have any time.” Amos sighed. “That’s on me, I’m really sorry about that. Hang on. Where’s Andy?”

This got Jack angry. “He left as well. You both left me with Mom!”

Amos now looked terribly guilty. “I…”

The two stood in a stuffy silence for a long while before Amos spoke up. “Well, the main reason why I came over was to hand you this.”

Jack raised an eyebrow as he took the gift. It was rather heavy for being the size of two bricks stacked together. “Is this two bricks stuck together?”

Amos gave a chuckle. “I’m not that mean. But I gotta go.”

’W-Wait! You’re not coming back?” The younger brother asked, biting his bottom lip. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.

Amos turned to his brother. He ruffled up Jack’s hair before looking up to hear the two ladies in the house talking, their voices growing louder. He was quick to dash off, leaving Jack in the house.

”Thank you so much Mara, come on now Jack.” Mom waved to her sister as the two walked out of the house.

”I’m not a baby anymore Mom…”

Jack grumbled under his breath as he hid the box in his sweater.

He had a knack for hiding things.

Chapter Text

Jack sighed as he came back from another long day of monotonous fast food cashier work. It was the same schedule he had everyday: wake up, work, eat, sleep. He didn’t know which was worse, living with Mom or living here by himself. He sighed as he stared at his calendar on his phone as it buzzed a notification.

Birthdays.

Huh. When was the last time Jack spoke with his brothers?

The man sighed. He turned to his desk and pulled out a box wrapped in newspaper. He had never dared to open the gift since that time Amos gave it to him. He had the stupid idea to wait until Andy or Amos came back so that he could at least show it off to them; they never came back.

Not like he cared. If they did care for him, they wouldn’t have left him in the first place.

Welp, at the ripe age of 22, he deserved to open his gift. He waited four hopeless years and had let this thing rot away. No, he wasn’t going to lose this chance. He gave a determined huff as he slowly peeled away at the newspaper wrapping. He didn’t have to be too careful anyways since it was practically disintegrating in his hands. He immediately gasped as he saw the label of the box.

”Circus Circuit Tech..?” The man whispered in a child-like wonder, almost too scared to even say the words. The most advanced gaming system four years ago and younger Jack thought it was a good idea to wait to open it. He immediately felt stupid for not opening it sooner. Such a steal! But how did Amos even afford to buy this? These were hella expensive at the time right?

He turned the box over to see the large red PAID stamped over it, only to find it had none.

Ah, he stole it.

Jack chuckled as he opened the box to reveal a headset with two remotes for the user to hold. Inside the box was a free copy of some game called ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’. Man, younger Jack would’ve gone wild for this game. The man glanced at his watch.

He had an hour to spare, why not play?

///

Jax was rudely woken up to the voice of an annoying ringmaster suddenly warping into his room.

“Jaxy-boy! The greatest purple rabbitoid in the CIRCUS!” Caine exclaimed in his usual eccentric attitude.

Jax groaned as he smothered his pillow into his face. “What now Caine?”

The ringmaster gave a small chuckle as he floated by the purple rabbitoid. “I’ve noticed your behaviour had been… off since the last adventure.”

Jax raised an eyebrow. “Since when did you care?”

”Since Pomni asked me too.” Caine said simply.

”Wha..?” Jax questioned as he sat up. He watched the giant mouth and pair of eyes float back up, staring down at him with a look he couldn’t name. “So you’re checking in on me because that jester told you to?”

Caine gave a nod before continuing. “I would like to interview you… or even give you a therapy session if you don’t mind!”

At this Jax gave a skeptical stare. “This sounds something that you and Zooble should do. Hell, maybe this would be better on everyone but me.”

Caine ignored the purple rabbitoid as he snapped his fingers. This warped the two in some sort of therapy office, with Jax even on those lounge chairs of sorts. Jax gave a sharp yelp as he was dropped onto the seat without warning. The ringmaster suddenly whipped out a notepad and a pen. “Oh look, a bee someone drew!”

“Yea… no. You’re not giving me a therapy session.” Jax said with a chuckle. He was about to get off the chair when that stupidly huge hand of Caine’s slammed him right back on.

”My dear purple potato. I simply do NOT want any of my guests here to feel like they do not belong! I just want to know you better!” Caine said in the most convincing voice he could.

He knew Jax was a stubborn one, he just didn’t know why. He wasn’t like the others, at least from the data he had gathered. Unlike the others when they first panicked after they had joined, Jax seemed to have accepted his fate until he truly did want to leave. Caine also noticed how Jax usually seemed to have a facade like Ragatha; unlike the red-head, he chose to be the mean one. In fact, he noted that everyone that had joined seemed to be the complete opposite of their former self. At least that’s what Bubble told him when she came back with the reports.

”Purple potato? Could you really get any worse than that?” Jax scoffed as he crossed his arms.

Caine shook his head as he clicked his pen. “Please, do tell me how you are feeling and how I can improve my adventures and services!”

Jax gave Caine a look that the AI couldn’t place. Was it skepticism, anger, suspicion, nervousness? Caine couldn’t tell. Jax rolled his eyes as he leaned over to Caine. “You know why I hate it here? Because the people in here suck. In fact, you all suck. The only reason why I’m putting up with you folks is because I rather be around people who I hate rather than being alone at all.”

Caine blinked, a bit stunned at the response. “So what you’re saying is that I need to get the others to change their personality for you to feel better?’

Jax stuttered at the idea Caine brought up. “Wha- n-no no no. I didn’t say that!”

Caine tapped where his chin would be before scribbling something down on his notepad. Jax stared at the ringmaster for a good long while, wondering what he was writing. After a while it got a bit too long for the ringmaster to just be writing and the purple rabbitoid poked the ringmaster. “Caine, whatcha doing?”

”Sorry. Something got jammed there!” Caine exclaimed loudly, suddenly snapping up to stare Jax right in the eyes. “Time to send you off! I’m planning on making you lot have a digital feast! Whaddaya say?”

Jax seemed to consider something. “Mind if I give a suggestion?”

Caine gasped and twirled in the air. He then pointed the handle of his cane to Jax as if it were a microphone. “Amazing for you to give a suggestion! Hopefully it isn’t bad, but answer away!”

///

“Ooo, I wonder what the feast is!” Ragatha said in her usual up-beat voice.

”I hope it isn’t slugs like last time.” Gangle whimpered, a literal wiggly going up her ribbon body.

”Hey, where’s Jax?” Pomni pointed out. “Usually he’d hate missing out on the feasts.”

”I bet he’s still sulking in his room.” Zooble huffed, rolling their eyes.

”I hope he’s alright.” Kinger spoke up with a shaky voice. “Haven’t seen him that quiet since.” The chess piece seemed to have frozen mid-sentence. “Hey, where’s my butterfly?”

Pomni rolled her eyes before the five arrived at the main area of the circus. All it said was ‘to the top’ and an arrow pointing upward. Immediately the five looked up to see a long rope ladder. They assumed that they were supposed to climb up and did so, though they were quite wary as to where this led to.

”I swear if this is another prank I-.” Ragatha stopped as she got on top of the circus’s tent. The sky had been changed to nighttime and the sky looked realistic, almost as if they were back in the real world.

”Holy guacamole…” Pomni whispered to herself as the rest gazed up in the stars, completely infatuated by the surprise.

”My beloved Gloinks!” Caine announced loudly behind the five. They all whipped around to see Jax and Caine standing in front of what appeared to be a picnic. “Jax- I mean I made a lovely picnic for today’s feast! Dig in!”

The crew gasped as they approached the picnic. Oddly enough, the food looked quite realistic with the textures and even the taste. Ragatha looked up to the purple rabbitoid eating out of a bowl with rice and shrimps with all sorts of spices. “What’s that?”

”Uhh jambalaya.” Jax said, almost judging Ragatha for not knowing what it was.

”Can I… try some?” She asked as she sat by the rabbitoid’s side.

“No. You probably won’t like it anyway.” He huffed in a ‘too goof for you’ sort of voice. Ragatha gave a small ‘hmph’. Jax groaned as he silently handed the bowl to Ragatha. “Take it. Seeing you sad has ruined my appetite.”

“Aw, you’re too sweet!” Ragatha snickered.

Jax rolled his eyes before walking over tot eh rest who were chowing down on the other foods that were in the infinity picnic basket.

Should this be his new normal?