Chapter Text
"WELCOME... TO THE AMAAZING DIGITAL CIRC-"
"Is that all you ever say?" Jax retorts, "It's almost starting to get worn out."
"NONSENSE, JACKRABBIT! You KNOW we need to leave a good first impression for THE AUDIENCE!"
Jax snickers at Caine in confusement. "Pshh, what audience? 8 year old iPad kids with Cheeto dust fingers? As far as I'm concerned, this place is just a wacky fever dream that I can't wake up from."
Caine just stares back at the rabbit. "What's an...'eyepad'?" One of his eyeballs zooms closer and closer to Jax, making him shrivel his face in disgust at the slowly approaching ocular orb.
"Um, Jax... I dont think this is going to solve anything..." The small jester chimes in, fidgeting with her hands. "All we can do is to go along with his antics until we can get out of here."
"Ughh WHATEVERR Pompom you're SOO boring. I'm leaving. If you have any more wise advice, feel free to leave it in the suggestion bin." Jax smirks as he points to his rear end, cackles, and slaps his knee before walking off to the direction of the dormitory.
"Well it seems Jax won't be joining our next adventure!" Caine proclaims. Zooble perks their head into view with a strained expression in his eyes.
"What!? So he can just decide to skip out on an adventure but I cant!??" Their eyes squint judgingly.
"Oh Zooble, you mishmatched cash piano!"
"Why do you keep calling me that!?"
"Uh oh, looks like someone needs to be dealt with!"
"Wait, wha-"
and with a snap of Caine's fingers, Zooble vanishes.
"What did you do to her??" Gangle asks worryingly, while trying to keep her comedy mask in one piece.
"Don't you WORRY about that, GANGATHA! They're just getting to BETA TEST today's BRAND NEW ADVENTURE!" His arms extends outwards. "ALL of you (except for jax) will have THE PLEASURE of a COMPLETELY BUG-RIDDEN adventure (courtesy of Zooble's help!)"
"Caine!? Don't you think it's a little harsh to send him to the adventure early when it could be full of bugs?" Pomni contests, "I mean, if it's any worse than the adventures we go on already, I worry she could-"
"DON'T QUESTION MY AUTHORITY!!!!" Caine exclaimed, then quickly faces away from the circus members, hands on hips.
Bubble floats in. "We have an issue, Caine!"
Caine's head snaps towards the view of Bubble
"What."
"The adventure isn't stable. Triangle head is stuck in The Void!" Bubble says, maintaining his sharp grin.
"RUH ROH! I'll be back you cattywampus cadavers!"
and with that, Caine raises his staff and poofs away.
"Oh dear, I hope Zooble's ok!" Ragatha comments. The camera pans over to show Kinger in view beside Ragatha.
"AHHH!—
Oh! it's just you, Pomni." Kinger says to Ragatha.
Pomni processes what just happened, before making up her mind on what to do. "Uhh, I'm going to check on Jax. It's weird that Caine excluded him from the adventure so quickly..."
Ragatha looks at Pomni with a concerned look, almost as if she's worried for her well-being around Jax. "Be safe, Pomni! Don't let him get to you too hard."
Pomni stares back a little confused. "Um... Will do, Ragatha!" She gives a weak thumbs up, before heading off to Jax's room.
"When did Ragatha start wearing Pomni's clothing?" Kinger inquires.
Ragatha looks at him in bafflement.
The scene switches to Jax in his room. He's asleep in his bed, buried in his blanket. His dreams have always been bizarre, but this one in particular was causing him to toss and turn.
"Where am I?... and WHAT am I wearing???" he looks down at his avatar to see the maid dress he was forced into wearing on a past adventure. He looks up to see Zooble and Gangle snickering at him.
"Haha, look how stupid he looks, Gangle!" Zooble exclaims.
"Hehe, yeah... He looks horrible in that dress!" Gangle responds.
Jax whips his head back and forth, then back to the two blatantly making fun of him.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME," Jax starts to panic, his pupils shrink. "GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!!"
Ragatha joins in and chuckles. "Oh Jax, don't worry. The maid dress looks pretty on you..."
"Yeah. Pretty STUPID..." Gangle replies and they all start giggling maliciously.
"T-This isn't real. GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT GET—"
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
"ACK!—"
He wakes up, heart beating and eyes spiraling.
"Jaaax, you awake?" Pomni calls through the door.
He opens the door slightly to look at Pomni. This feels oddly familiar.
"What. What do you want?"
"You really need to stop dozing off in the middle of the day, Jax. I was getting worried for you." Pomni notices his eyes, still shaken from his dream. "Are you... um...."
Jax realizes his eyes haven't updated yet, and immediately switches back to his wide-eyed snarky persona.
"What? Did you MIISSSS meee?" He says with a sarcastic grin.
"I was just, um, checking up on you..."
The rabbit's expression stiffens. "There's nothing to worry about, Pompom." His eyes trail off. "Where's Caine? I thought he would do his little POOF thing to force me to participate in some lame adventure as usual."
"Ah, right— about that..." she squints and rubs her head nervously. "Caine wasn't even going to make you do today's adventure. He actually sent Zooble first, without warning, to 'beta test' it for bugs. It ended up not being stable enough for us ^^;"
"Did Zooby get stuck in the void?" Jax grins to the thought of that.
"How did you know??"
"I didn't, I just thought it would've been funny!" He chuckles.
"Trust me, being stuck in the void is NOT funny... I should know..." Pomni blanks for a second, remembering her traumatic first day in the circus.
"Now if you don't mind me, I'm going back to my room."
"WAIT!"
Before Jax could even close the door, the jester forces it wide open and tackles him into the floor.
"OW! YOU SLIMY BASTARD!! YOU—"
They both go deadly silent. The rabbit's eyes go back to dots when he realizes the calamity of the situation he got himself in.
"Jax..."
"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH."
"Y-your room... It's..."
Jax buries his head into his hands out of embarrassment. He could barely muster up a response.
"Girly.
I know........ THIS........ THIS NEVER HAPPENED..."
"No WAIT—"
"TELL ANYONE AND YOU'RE DEAD"
"Jax..."
"I-I'VE MADE OTHERS ABSTRACT TOO, Y-YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT!"
"JAX JUST LISTEN TO ME. It's OK!!" Pomni tries to reassure him, but the words just fly over his head.
He grabs hold of her collar and chucks her out of his room, before loudly slamming and locking the door behind him.
"Jeez..." she thought. "I wonder what that was about..."
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END OF CHAPTER 1
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