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It was a gradual decline,
Ribbit was always one to help Jax take his jokes down a notch to keep him from going cruel. Then he started stacking,
“Ragatha hates us any way so why not!”
“Nah Gangle doesn’t care about us ethier way”
“Why not! Not like Kinger will care in 2 minutes”
“They Don’t Care! They’re like our playthings!!”
At first it was fun seeing his closest friend finally let loose a little, then it got scary. Ribbit would just do….anything with Jax. No opinion or comment or any sort of disagreement…he just went with it, and when they talked it wasn’t like how it used to be, not the stupid jokes or what would they do when they got out of the circus.
No he just started talking about dark shit,
“Wanna try a noose swing?”
“You think my arm would grow back it I cut it off?”
“That dents from when I banged my head in the wall to see if I felt anything…I didn’t!”
“Lets see who can fall the fastest!”
“You think Caine would kill us if we asked?”
His joyful attitude came back a lot stronger with a new sense of carelessness for everything not excluding Jax’s friendship.
“Jax could you be any louder?”
“We’re a cartoon duo, I’m the competent one, and you’re the dumb, funny one for shits and giggles!”
“Hey Rag!! Jax has daddy issues too!”
Any thing on Ribbits's mind he would say it; anything from how you looked, how people acted, the state of the circus all with a huge grin.
One night they got in a huge fight and Ribbit just snapped,
“WE ARE NOTHING JAX! No one is coming to save us! No one is going to get us out of here WE’RE TRAPPED! We are ALONE! and there is no turning back! WE AREN’T HUMAN ANYMORE just these stupid AVATARS!!!”
Ribbit looked at Jax with a hatred he didn’t know he had,
“GET OUT YOU SHALLOW WEIRDO, I JUST FELT BAD FOR YOU! WE ALL DID! I WAS JUST DUMB ENOUGH TO ACT ON IT NOW ALL I HAVE IS YOU!”
he spoke You like a slur; a name filled with regret and pain,
“Everyone here Hates us, T-There’s no point! there's no… just..Just Get Out!”
Jax was pushed out of the room, he quickly stormed off, too focused on being called a shallow weirdo to note the worrying tone of Ribbit's other words.
A few hours later he came back with a planned out half meaning sorry hoping to get the emotional part over with, just in time to prank Gangle like they used too…
He heard a hurt type of moaning from Ribbit's room.
“Jesus Ribs, did Caine finally let us get off?”
The noise continued.
“Could you stop for a second? Geez I thought that was on your bucket list of things to try, does it turn out your natural?”
…
“... It wasn’t a secret you were a huge loser before this but could you find it in you to repress your incel urges and let me in?”
...
The noise stopped.
“.....Ribbit?”
Quiet.
He jiggled the handle, it was locked.
“Frogs come on, this isn’t funny.”
…
“You don’t just JOKE like this, $&!%, Open the door!”
…
“RIBBIT! I SWEAR I’m gonna get Caine!”
He was pounding his fist on the door, his voice had lost it’s edge.
“RIBBIT?!"
...
"Please, I’m sorry! You got me I’m a shallow weirdo! OPEN the #@&*! DOOR!”
As if he didn’t already know, Jax fell to his kneels and put his face right up against the door,
...
“Ribbit…? Please..please no…”