Chapter Text
Jax tapped his foot, sneaking glances toward the rest of the circus members.
Zooble and Gangle were sitting together. That was a fairly new development, he thought bitterly. Pomni sat next to Ragatha, an empty seat left between her and Kinger.
It was stupid. He didn’t need nor want to be included in their little dysfunctional group. He was the funny, charming one who captured the show. He knew that. They were there just to play off of him.
It was hard to imagine they were once normal people. It was easier to assign them one main emotion and go off of that: cheerful, sad, grumpy, crazy, and… His stomach lurched as he thought about her. Undefined.
His gaze slipped from the floor up to Pomni. Why did he do that? He could’ve told her what needed to be said in a different way, instead of acting like the main villain in one of those shitty animes Gangle watched.
He felt restless—the kind of anxiety where you can hear your blood roaring in your ears and your eyes sting. Wringing his hands together, he got up, keeping a relaxed demeanor until he reached the bathroom.
He faced the mirror.
He didn’t recognize who looked back at him. He looked ridiculous, just like everyone else: a weird, purple, anthropomorphic rabbit. His fingers grazed his cheek. After all this time, he still hadn’t gotten used to that rubbery texture of his skin. It made his—well, his skin—crawl. He could easily imagine himself being sold as some sort of children’s toy if anyone from the real world saw him.
That set him off more than he’d ever admit. Today sucked. It sucked more than usual because he had pushed away one of the only people he had genuinely come to like in this godforsaken digital hellhole. He stared up at his reflection in the mirror.
Oh shit. Was this how Ribbit felt when they…?
His mind was going at 100 miles per hour, his breathing heavy and pupils turning into cartoonish scribbles. A faint sense of very human self-preservation crawled its way up from where he had buried it.
He needed to calm down. He needed to survive, if only to stick it to an imaginary force. Stick it to Gangle. Zooble. Gangle. Ragatha. Caine. Bug eyes and a downturned mouth stared back at him from the mirror.
“God, you look stupid,” he muttered aloud.
He heard the toilet flush. Out of the corner of his eye, Disappearing Guy left a stall.
“So—” was all he managed to say before, predictably, he disappeared.
Jax was so done with this place.
He wasn’t sure how much time he spent in that bathroom, but by the time he returned everyone was gone. He didn't worry though. Caine would teleport him back to the circus when it was time to go—not like he really wanted to see any of their faces right now anyways.
After a few minutes of dragging his feet across the empty theater, he heard the distinct squirting of a bottle, followed by a giggle.
Tracking the source of the noise, he found Zooble sprawled out on the theater seats the cast had sat on previously, eyelid covered in a familiar pink substance. They lifted their head, staring at him like he was a wild creature, blinking slowly.
“Geez, Zoobie, you’re [BOINK] out of your mind, aren’t you?” A familiar grin spread across Jax’s face as he stared down at them.
“Veeery predictable of you. Setting a bad example for the kids in the audience too.” He tsked, shaking his head.
Instead of responding with their usual snark, Zooble reached under their seat, pulled out the stupid sauce bottle, and chucked it at Jax with surprising force for their inebriated state. The bottle smacked into him, sending him screaming across the room with pure cartoon logic.
He landed with an “oof,” clutching his head as he stumbled up. “WHAT THE [BOINK]?!”
“Oops. You should try getting high too. It’ll help you loosen up a bit, princess. See what you’re made of.” Their words oozed smugness.
“How original, a maid joke.” Jax scoffed before actually thinking about what they said. He glanced at the bottle in his hand, then back at Zooble. They looked so relaxed, so unlike themselves in the moment. Like they weren’t having any thoughts at all.
“…Ah, what the heck,” he muttered. Squeezing a healthy dose of stupid sauce in his eye, he plopped down into one of the seats.
The sauce took immediate effect. His pupils shrank before dilating even wider than usual. His sarcastic grin melted into a relaxed, loopy smile.
“Mmm…” The world suddenly felt a lot more manageable. He gazed at Zooble, who was muttering to themselves and staring up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing in existence.
“Hey, Zooble?”
“Yeah?”
“You look really, really stupid right now.” He snickered.
“And you look like William Afton.”
“Who?”
“From Fnaf. Purple Guy?” They drawled out, way too shocked about Jax's ignorance on the subject.
“Dunno who that is,” Jax mumbled incoherently, fidgeting with his glove.
“You’ve been here for a while, huh?”
Jax’s head shot up at the same time Zooble’s did, and their gazes locked. They both burst into uncontrollable fits of giggles like they’d just heard the funniest joke ever told.
Jax slowly slid off the chair, his body crumpling into the small space between the seats like a sad piece of paper. He let out a happy sigh.
A few minutes of silence went by as they passed the bottle back and forth, squirting more and more sauce wherever it worked. Jax clumsily leaned closer to Zooble, a woozy grin on his face as he propped his head up with his hand.
“Soo… who did’ja wanna boink?” he slurred, narrowing his eyes mischievously.
“I… hmm… I forgot. What’s a boing??” They giggled at their own words.
“Was it me?” He waggled his eyebrows at them, grinning from ear to ear.
“Heh, no. I’d rather boing a dead seagull than do anything with you.” They gave a thumbs-up.
“Mmyeah, me too.” Jax nodded solemnly.
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.” They beckoned him closer.
“You wanna know who?” They asked. Jax nodded eagerly.
Zooble leaned in and whispered in his ear: “Your mom.”
Jax's pupils shrunk, before dilating to the point his sclera was barely visible. He shook his head, leaning back into his seat. “Gangle isn’t my mom.”
Zooble stared at him, dead serious. “She is.”
“Wait, she is?”