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In a secluded corner of the Digital Circus, Gangle and Zooble sat down side by side against the wall. After today’s particularly stressful adventure, Zooble noticed Gangle looked especially shaken, and they pulled her aside and asked if she needed to talk. Gangle had nodded, so Zooble took her to a distant, dead-end hallway where hopefully, no one would think to come bother them.
“Every day I’m here I feel a little crazier,” Gangle confessed. “I hated my old life. Being forced to give up my dreams and work a miserable job…failing out of college because I could barely get up and go to class…it felt like torture.”
Once Gangle started venting to Zooble, the words wouldn’t stop coming through her tears. It was hard to find real understanding in the unpredictable, artificial world of the Digital Circus, but with Zooble, she felt safe enough to let everything out. “But this place is torture. All these stupid ‘adventures’ every single day…the more scared we get, the crazier we feel, the more Caine takes pleasure in it. I wish one day he’d just understand that we’re people and need a break. But he’s not even human, so he never will. And then there’s Jax…he thinks it’s so fun to hurt me, to yell at me, to mock everything I do. He knows I’m miserable, but he just doesn’t care. He thinks it’s funny…and I can’t escape him. I could find some escape in the real world, but we can’t escape anything here.”
Gangle buried her face in her ribbon-hands and sobbed, unable to choke out more words. Zooble finally understood the phrase “heartbroken”: seeing their friend in this miserable state made them feel like their heart was split into two. “Gangle…” Zooble spoke slowly, searching for the right words to comfort the ribbon-girl. “It will be okay. Everything here is weird and confusing, and we don’t know what’s up ahead, but we have to have hope. If we got in, we can get out. If this world was created, maybe it can be destroyed. I know it’s miserable in here, but until we can leave, I promise I’ll be by your side.”
Gangle turned to face Zooble, and Zooble tried not to wince as they saw their own reflection in Gangle’s wide, solid black eyes. “Thank you,” Gangle whispered. “That means so much to me.”
An awkward quietness hung in the air between the two, the silence only broken by Gangle’s soft sobs. Zooble hurt more and more the longer they listened to Gangle cry. They knew they couldn’t do anything about most of Gangle’s problems, no matter how much they wished they could make Jax and Caine disappear. But over their time in the Circus, they had grown to love Gangle, and they just wanted to ease her pain somehow, if only for a moment…
“So, Gangle,” Zooble began tentatively. “I know your old life was hard, but was there anything that made you happy back then? What did you like to do?”
Gangle looked up again, her eyes growing a bit wider as she paused to think. “Well, you know I love drawing,” she began, her mouth lifting into an almost-smile. “I drew a lot. I didn’t go out that much. After a hard day at work, I just liked to curl up in my bed and draw…or read,”
Zooble had noticed Gangle carrying a sketchbook around, and they had always been curious about what the ribbon-girl was drawing, but she was so shy when others tried to look that they respectfully never asked. Gangle’s interest in reading, however, was new to Zooble. “What did you like to read?” they asked.
"My favorite thing to read was yuri,” Gangle answered, a slight blush appearing on her face. Gangle felt a stab of anxiety as soon as the words left her mouth. God, I sound so weird, Gangle thought, frustrated with herself. Now Zooble’s gonna think I’m some loser, like everyone else does!
“What’s yuri?” Zooble asked, nothing but sincerity in their voice.
“Never mind…it’s nothing,” Gangle muttered, looking away from Zooble again.
“I…I want to know,” Zooble said, leaning barely an inch closer to Gangle. “If you’re…comfortable telling me, of course. I won’t judge you,”
I won’t judge you. Those four words felt like soft sunlight against the harshness and darkness of Gangle’s anxiety. “It’s like…two girls in love,” Gangle explained, still quiet and a bit sheepish. “I read manga about it…and sometimes fanfiction too,”
Gangle looked at Zooble, searching their expression for amusement or disgust, but to her surprise, she only saw kindness in their eyes. “I’ve never really read that kind of thing,” Zooble admitted. “But two girls in love…I can definitely get behind that. I’ve been in love with a girl once or twice, actually,” they admitted, trying to match Gangle’s vulnerability.
“Really?” Gangle asked, her once-white face turning redder. She always suspected Zooble ‘swung that way’, but she’d been too nervous to ask outright.
“Yeah,” Zooble replied. “I had a girlfriend for a while. But it didn’t work out, and I had to move on. I still hope I’ll find the woman for me, who loves me for who I am,” And I hope, with all my heart, it will be you, Zooble thought, though they didn’t dare say it out loud.
“You definitely will,” Gangle responded adoringly, unable to hide her admiration for the person beside her. “You know, I think I’ve been in love too.”