Chapter Text
– Jax’s POV –
Jax closed the door behind him, entirely drained from the events of the day.
He turned to his bed, pausing.
The quiet of the room turned deafening. He almost wanted to believe it was a weird dream. That the whole day was never real and someone was going to wake him up and tell him he’s late for Caine’s adventure.
It wasn’t that nearly abstracting felt bad- quite the opposite.
But that was the problem. It felt nice. Good.
Too good.
He walked towards his bed, then reached over, to the photos on the wall. Without thinking - or maybe with too much thought - he ripped all the photos from their cords.
Slamming them onto the desk, he stared into the photos.
At their faces.
He knew he should’ve felt sad - felt something, at least - but he didn’t. As if there was a hole where his emotions should have been.
Caine had lied to them.
And Jax didn’t feel upset about it.
He didn’t feel upset about anything.
The shadows in the corner of the room flickered.
He turned around, met only by stillness. He could have sworn he saw something move.
A different shadow started to move, only to return to normal once he turned.
He chuckled, mostly just to hear his own voice. “Calm down, you’re fine. You’re not…”
Abstracting?
Was that such a bad thing anymore?
Was it ever a bad thing?
Jax shook his head, trying to shift his focus back to the photos.
The flickering shadows corrupted the corners of his vision, making focus harder and harder to accomplish.
What was he trying to get out of the photos anyway? He’d seen them a million times before. There was nothing new to see anymore.
Even if there was, it wasn’t like he could change anything.
Ribbit had already made their choice.
They were gone.
Jax sighed, sitting down before burying his face in his hands. His mind kept circling back to Caine, to Kaufmo and Ribbit, to abstraction, to his own muted emotions.
“What the f[&#$].” His voice wasn’t too far above a whisper, the words spoken just to remind himself he was still there.
His chest tightened as fear crept through. At least there was emotion at all.
There was something else there, too. Not quite joy, more like some twisted version of it.
The feeling didn’t sit right with him, but he didn’t care. It felt good.
Slowly, carefully, Jax stood up, grabbed the photos, and hung them back up.
He didn’t sleep that night.
– Pomni’s POV –
“Alright everyone, listen up!” Pomni stopped her conversation with Ragatha and turned to look at Caine. She hadn’t seen Caine since the adventure the day before, and she doubted anyone else had seen him until now either.
Caine paused momentarily as his eyes skimmed over the room, then continued. “I…do apologize for the whole - uh, mishap - yesterday?” His eyes darted around before returning his gaze to Pomni and the others. “So I thought today we’d keep things simple, with a trip to the Digital Carnival! How’s that sound?”
He seemed frazzled.
Pomni still felt uneasy from the events of the day before. How much was Caine really keeping from them?
Caine waited, before realizing there wouldn’t be a response. “Alright, off you go, my stargazing strudels!”
Pomni threw another ring towards the stand, watching it bounce off the pegs, landing between two in the back.
She felt a twinge of annoyance, much to her dissatisfaction. Carnival games were always a scam, she knew that.
She turned around, handing her last two rings to Ragatha. “You wanna have a go?”
“Sure. Thank you, Pomni.” Ragatha smiled, but something about it felt off.
Pomni stepped aside and watched her throw a ring. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Ragatha watched the ring bounce off into the stand. “Just…letting yesterday get to me, I guess.”
“I think we all are.” Pomni leaned on the stand, trying not to feel upset as the memory resurfaced.
As the Paranoia resurfaced.
Ragatha continued. “It’s just- god, I- why would Caine make an adventure like that? It’s like he’s mocking us or something.”
Pomni nodded, wondering what was really going through Caine’s mind. “Or something.”
A voice behind them laughed. The girls turned around.
The purple rabbit leaned casually against a food truck, grinning wider than ever. “Jeez, still worked up over the whole ‘fake exit’ thing, huh?”
Pomni looked at Jax. He held himself a little taller than he did the day prior, his head tilted in satisfaction.
“Did…did you follow us over here?”
Jax shrugged. “I got bored. What of it?”
Pomni looked over at Ragatha, who tensed up. “Can’t you just, oh, I don’t know, not terrorize us for once? Or is it too hard to leave people alone once in a while?”
“What’s the matter, dollface?” His eyes narrowed and his pupils thinned. “Don’t want me around?”
Their argument was interrupted by a snap, and they were all brought to Caine in the center of the Carnival.
Zooble glanced up at Caine. “Wait, weren’t we given the day at the Carnival? Why are you here?”
Caine rubbed his hands together before regrabbing his staff. “Well, I’ve been watching you all, and I’ve decided you’re not having enough fun!”
“Oh god.”
“So there’s been a change of plans.” Caine snapped, and they all fell.
Pomni found herself at some sort of…desk? No, there was a microphone. A podium then, probably.
There were stage lights on the newfound ceiling, which were hard on her eyes at first. She waited for her eyes to adjust, before looking for the others.
They weren’t hard to find, standing at podiums of their own, most of them looking just as confused as she was.
She started to get a pretty good idea of what was about to happen.
Caine appeared, a spotlight shining on him. “Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, and Zooble-”
“Kill me.”
“- to the one second anniversary of The Amazing Digital Game Show!” Caine spun around glamorously while the crowd of mannequins cheered.
“Allow me to explain the rules.”