The Feigned Remorse of the Purple Rabbit

Jax was alone, leaning against a tree as he felt the blood dripping from his chest. He could feel the warm, summer wind blow across his face as he waited for his inevitable demise. He thought about how the hell he even got into this insane "Hunger Games" scenario in the first place. Fighting alongside a satanist was weird enough, sure, but the fact he saw an entire elephant behind some green screen, a walking talking steak, hell even Dolly the over-sexualized, wannabe comedian was enough to make Jax raise an eyebrow. Not even the Circus was this borderline insane.

...The Circus.

Shit, he almost forgot about his time in that hellhole. All of the adventures he went on with his "friends" for some crappy prize or a lesson at the end. The time he was a fry cook, being forced to capture some creature in a candy kingdom, heck, he even found himself as a maid at a baseball game at one point; all of them were enough to drive anyone with a functioning brain borderline mad. Yet, somehow, some inconceivable way, he managed to just barely get through unscathed. And at the center of all of it was that walking, talking pair of dentures. Caine.

Jax, if he wasn't already at death's door, could talk at length about how much he loathed that... thing. That pile of mish-mashed code claiming to be some grand mastermind behind the whole Circus; the loudmouthed, almost barker-like personality they have gives Jax an aneurysm every time he thinks back to that godforsaken place. But with all of the terrible memories of Caine swirling around his mind, there were always the memories Jax had about everyone else giving him shit or just finding him an annoying pest. Maybe deserved, Jax thought. He wasnot exactly the nicest person in the Circus, considering how closed-off he was or a "blatant asshole" to everyone else (in Zooble's wording, of course).

Zooble's words to Jax made him chuckle a little. What were the odds that even the grumpiest, most miserable person in the Circus could read him like a book? He smiled as Zooble's angry, yet goofy expression as Jax pulled yet another practical joke at her flashed by. Then, one he didn't recognize popped in his head. Them giving the smuggest look on their face as... as they...

Jax's eyes widened. If he wasn't currently critically injured, he would've sat up at the revelation. He remembered an event in the Circus, one of the recent "suggestions" for an adventure Caine was going to put them through. He looked to Caine's mouth-face as they seemed to narrow at a paper drawn from the box. Jax rolled his eyes, turning to Gangle to make a joke about Caine "still processing" the prompt, only to be cut short by a sudden, audibly confused voice rang out.

A... 'Hunger-games-styled battle royale'?

Jax very quickly snapped his head toward Caine, confused on who the hell would even suggest something like that. Jax's was cruel, Gangle's was mundane, but at least they sort of fit within the Circus' general wacky theme. Or, at least, what Jax could justify as being such. This was about as far from anything they experienced before, let alone suggested. Jax would soon get his answer as to who decided the theme with a simple voice.

I think Jax should be the first volunteer.

The voice of Zooble behind him caused Jax to turn to them with a glare. Despite not having much of a face, Jax could tell that Zooble was giving him a smug, shit-eating look. This suggestion, no, this mere prompt was simply a large ploy by Zooble as retaliation for everything Jax had put them through. Jax knew it, and the absolute sly way they added onto it confirmed it in his mind. Before Jax could even respond with really anything, the self-proclaimed ringmaster decided that Zooble's suggestion was a "great idea". Jax could hear the snapping of fingers.

...

Jax felt the grass shift beneath his skin as it was swaying as the wind blew. He forgot about the sensation of the outside world; never thinking that he would ever would, or want to, return back. He was so used to the Circus and the life he lived there for so long that he forgot what it meant to be human. To be normal.

He didn't expect to die like one as well. And the way he was going to die was embarrassing as well. Dolly had as much control over a shotgun as they did their pathetic attempts at "comedy". Which was to say -- none at all. Someone from another District stealing his supplies as well was an icing on this disaster cake. Botched metaphors aside, he sighed as he came to accept his newfound mortality. Maybe... it was for the best.

Jax's vision faded into a empty, colorless void as the last piece of consciousness faded from his mind. His corpse slumped further down the tree as Jax finally succumbed to his injuries. Yet the chaos unfolded around him.

With no one else left to mourn.