Archive of Our Own

“What would you do if I abstracted tomorrow?”
“I’d move on, and probably forget about you.”
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“Jax”
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“Jax.”
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“Jax!”

“What?” Jax answered as soon as he gathered his wits. He subtly shook his head and looked around him.

They were standing at a flower field, or rather, a field of daisy. Soft brushes of air hits their avatars while the hundreds of daisies sway along with it. The beautiful blue sky filled with floating white clouds complimented the view as the fluttering, dancing petals of daisies decorated the landscape that they were in, the sun lighted the whole place with just the right amount of brightness.

It was breathtaking.

“The vote! Are you gonna vote or what?” Ribbit asked again with a bit of irritation in their voice. Jax looked back at Ribbit, who was beside him at the moment. That’s when he realized all eyes were on him, he looked up and saw Caine pointing his cane towards him.

A blue, almost transparent, floating voting panel was right infront of him and half of the circus members, besides him, already voted ‘No’, which made his answer the tie breaker. He looked at the seemingly annoyed Ragatha right across him.

Jax immediately put on his coy smile to the glaring Ragatha. “Relax, Rags. I wouldn’t want to anger you more by voting yes, you know? That’d be sooo mean of me.” He dramatically said, putting his hand on his chest for an added effect.

The typical Jax didn’t answer right away though, he paused momentarily to create some kind of suspense. Ragatha, getting more annoyed, asked of him “Please stop being an a###ole for onc-”

“I vote yes.” he interrupted with his hand raised and eyes closed, innocent smile flashed on his face.

“UGHH, JAX! I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA SAY THAT.” Ragatha immediately fired. Jax was too much of an asshole so she kinda predicted that the stupid rabbit would vote against her.

He just responded with a smile, lined like a cat’s mouth paired with his, somehow, squinted eyes to tease the poor doll.

With a snap of a finger, Caine raised both of his hands as party poppers exploded beside him. “Democracy wins again! All of you will now enjoy the rest of your time basking under the beautiful sunlight as you wander around this magnificently designed daisy field by yours truly!” he cheerfully announced to the group.

“You could frolic around, lie on these soft, beautiful daisies, make flower crowns, and do flower tosses together! You all deserve these for having a perfect attendance at one of my adventures! HOORAY!” Caine continued as he enacted every single activity he mentioned.

“Now, go and enjoy yourselves! I’ll be back as soon as I am finished with my pasta break.” he snapped his fingers again, and pop away he goes.

Queenie, standing between Kinger and Ragatha, looked at the quite solemn ragdoll. “Do you know how to make flower crowns, sweetie?” she softly smiled at her as she puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, an attempt to briefly distract the girl from whatever was bothering her the whole day

Ragatha looked up to her and let out a small smile “Yeah, there was a flower field near us back home. I.. used to make one for myself, and my mother.” her voice gradually fading. Queenie sensed that the mood shifted even heavier.

The worried Queenie struggled to find words for comfort “I’m sorry, my dear. I didn’t know these would remind you back home. I should’ve voted the same as you.”

“Oh no no no no, hahaha, it’s fine. Really. That’s not really the reason I voted against this.” Ragatha waved her hands infront of her. “I really am just not in the mood for today.”

Queenie just looked at her, curious but couldn’t bring herself to ask more. Ragatha noticed that, she sighed before looking down, rubbing her own left arm with her free hand

“It’s just that, I feel like I forgot something, very important and everytime I try to remember. My heart just, I don’t know, squeezes?” she tried explaining.

What was bothering her? What was this uneasy feeling that something’s amiss? She couldn’t put a finger on it and it keeps on eating her inside. She opens her mouth, attempting to explain more but she couldn’t. No words could properly explain this unsettling void in her heart.

She tried to remember, anything that could explain what’s wrong with her. As a result, her heart squeezes. Her breath slowly became unsteady and her mind raced. She tried to steel her almost shaking body.

‘This is not normal.’ she thought. Why does something she can’t remember have this much effect on her? How can she let it out of her body? Why is this happening? Wha-

She was then disturbed by a flower crown put right atop of her head, she looked up and saw a giddy Kinger. “I also know how to make a flower crown.” he told them both as he raised another flower, daisy rather, crown atop of Queenie’s head.

“It suits you both.” Kinger complimented them with smiling eyes.

Ragatha touched the crown. Her breathing slowly reverting back to normal, her hand releasing the tight grip it had on her arm and her mind focused on the gesture given to her.

A small gesture that subtly washed her worries away, for now. A very unexpected gesture that she thought could never receive, it had been a very long time since she received one after all.

“You know, it’s not everyday we get to enjoy a beautiful and peaceful adventure.” Kinger continued as he fixed the daisy crown atop of Queenie’s head “It’s been a lot for all of us so, how about we enjoy this moment making flower crowns just like Caine said?” he cooed.

Queenie nodded “You’re right, dear. Let’s steer away from bad thoughts for now, shall we?” she added before bending down to grab some of the Daisies on the ground and handing some towards Ragatha.

She looked at both of them and she could understand from their worried gazes that they were willing to wait, that she didn’t have to say anything. This comforted the distraught ragdoll.

‘Yeah, I should just enjoy this moment. I probably couldn’t remember because it wasn’t that important.’ she told herself before joining the couple to make more daisy crowns together.

At a not so far distance, Zooble caught the ball, made with the somehow realistic, plastic daisies around them, that Ribbit was going to throw at Ragatha “Don’t you dare.”

“What? I didn’t do anything.” Ribbit cutely feigned ignorance

“She is just starting to cheer up, don’t ruin it.” Zooble warned the troublemaker

“Huh, didn’t know you also became Rag’s knight in shining armor. How honorable.” Jax teased.

“Ugh, this is also why I voted no. Spending time with you makes my head ache!” Zooble complained but Ribbit and Jax just bumped their fists together.

“Come on, Ribbit. Do you really have to be an a###ole for this one? I thought you liked calm adventures, why would you waste it doing stupid antics with this jacka##?”

“When did I ever say that?” Ribbit asked, filled with confusion. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone my type of adventures.”

Zooble, clearly thrown off by Ribbit’s question, raised a brow. “It’s what you always asked Caine and are very vocal about it…?” they defended, staying firm on what they knew but Ribbit just glanced at Jax, as if asking him if any of Zooble just said make sense

“Oh come on. Remember what you said after that fast food adventure? Or how you liked the low staked adventures?”

“Ok, I was NOT in any of those adventure. What are you talking about?” Ribbit also stood her ground, knowing fully that they were wrong which thoroughly confused Zooble more.

Sitting down, Gangle raised her head from her notepad, a pad filled with doodles and erasures. “Ribbit’s right, Zooble. She… abstracted before those adventure.”

“Shut up, Gangle. No one asked you.” Jax shuts her down and, at the same time, received an indignant look from Ribbit which made her shrink behind her sketchpad.

“Then who-” they grimaced, eyes blinking rapidly “Wha-” Zooble stopped and touched their head when they felt a pang of pain hit them, making them groan.

They clearly remembered talking about some calm adventures with someone, someone with big eyes and pink, circle blush on their cheeks. Who was it? If not Ribbit, then who?

“F###, when will this adventure end? I hate this.” Finding no answers, they just blamed the adventure their ringmaster suggested while their headpieces calmed down from shaking.

Meanwhile, Gangle felt guilty for voting yes so she clutched her notepad when she looked up at her

“I’m sorry, Zooble. I just really liked the view on this one and I thought you’d like this adventure too.” she apologized and looked back at her sketches.

Unsatisfied with it, she ripped the page, crumpled it, before adding it to the increasing stack of crumpled papers beside her.

“Don’t apologize, I knew you’d like this one.” they assured Gangle. They turned to look back at the two. “It’s these two who needs to apologize.”

“Hey! In my defense, I stayed neutral.” Ribbit replied, trying to ignore whatever confusion Zooble caused just now.

“Why would I apologize? Don’t you think that maybe I LIKE this adventure, too?” Jax retorted too as he waved his hand around, pointing to himself and their surrounding. A typical drama king.

“Well, do you?” Gangle asked in place of Zooble.

Jax just crossed his arms “Ehhh, nope.” he casually replied.

Ribbit let out a chuckle and lightly elbowed Jax while Zooble sighed.

Fed up with their antics, they just turned to Gangle. “Let’s just leave them alone. Nothing great comes from interacting with stupid people.” they reached out a hand to her, wanting to walk away from the two.

Ribbit loudly gasped as she feigned her shock. “They called you stupid, Jax.” she loudly whispered at him, enough for the retreating duo to hear.

“No way, they love me. They’d never call me stupid. The adventure must’ve been pretty hard on them, don’t you think?” he loudly whispered back and with his shit-eating grin, he called out to Zooble

“Hey! Would a little song cheer you up, Zoobie?”

“Shut the f### up.” they warned, not acknowledging them with a look as they helped Gangle pick up her pencil that fell when she stood up.

“Oh, come on. You’ll love it” Jax ignored them. He took a step nearer to them and took one of their arm.

He cleared his throat and positioned the other end of that arm to his mouth, using it as some sort of microphone.

"Daisy, daisy- UGHK!” but before he could even properly start the song, the arm straightened and grabbed him by the neck to choke him.

This made Gangle smile a bit and Ribbit let out a huge laugh, pointing at the miserable rabbit.

“I never want to hear that song from you, again.” Zooble remarked as they looked down at the struggling Jax. “Why would you even think using my arm would be a good idea?” they asked but Jax could only answer with choked gargles.

After a few short seconds of suffering, he finally got himself released by pulling and throwing the arm back to its owner, who easily caught it and attached it to where it belonged.

Coughing up and still on the ground, he didn’t stop teasing them. “I thought you liked it when we sang that song. You were very enthusiastic when you heard it.”

Zooble just looked at him with indifference and chose to ignore whatever he just said. Gangle, on the other hand, got curious. “I didn’t know you duetted with Jax.” she asked them.

“Ew. I would never. He meant with her, not me.” they disgustingly replied as they pointed at the laughing frog.

Hearing that, Ribbit slowly stopped laughing. Zooble kept on confusing her with another person, she tried letting it go earlier but it just kept on happening and it’s starting to piss her off.

Jax finally got back up after catching his breath but his expression was also confused.

Still rubbing his neck, he said “You must be missing a headpiece, Zooble. I never sang that with her, she was not even there.”

Zooble tilted their head then thought ‘Crap.’ as they realized that they must’ve confused Ribbit with someone else again, someone whose identity hurts to remember.

“Then with who?” Ribbit asked with both of their hands on her hips, slightly annoyed as they were constantly mistaken by someone else.

“You said ‘we’ and they said you duetted with someone. Someone that was, apparently, a lot like me since you-” she turned to look at Zooble. “-kept mistaking that person as me.”

Zooble and Jax could only look at each other. Sure, they remember the song get sung by two people but the question of with who? They’re not sure they can answer it.

They tried to rack their brains as to who could it possibly be but no one comes up. It was surely not Zooble, nor Gangle, nor Ragatha, and definitely not Kinger, so who?

Both of them tried answering, attempting to let out an explanation but nothing, they could only furrow their eyebrows as their expressions let out confusion. Zooble, not handling the headache well, chose to give up thinking.

“I don’t know, ask him. I honestly don’t remember.” they answered boorishly, passing the burden on the distraught rabbit.

“Uhh no.” the frog immediately fired back. “I let you off the first time but I don’t think this would be the last time this could happen so: try hard. and remember. who. is-”

“ACHOO!”

Shower of tiny droplets hits the side of Ribbit’s face. The silent Gangle who was clutching her notebook, formed a shock face with her sad mask. Zooble’s headache slightly lessened at the sudden interruption. Jax’s expression, on the other hand, stayed troubled as he was still lost from the previous question.

Ribbit, whose face was filled with a mix of irritation and disbelief, slowly turned to the source of the interruption.

He sniffled. It’s Kaufmo. He rubbed his non existent nose, his eyes clearly puffy and red. His face slightly swollen and red. “I am sorry to interrupt you but when do you think Caine would let us out of here?” he said clumsily as he struggled to speak.

“What.. happened to you?” Gangle worriedly asked. Ribbit was still making sense to what just happened and was also curious as to what the fuck happened to the stupid clown.

“I told you: I’m allergic to flowers” he sniffled “I told you guys to vote no but no one listened to me.” he replied, although a bit distorted due to his swollen face but it was still understandable.

Ribbit wiped her face and asked “Allergy? This is the digital world, how cou-”
“ACHOO!”

She couldn’t finish her words as he, once again, sneezed right at her face. “I also don’t know, digital allergies perhaps?” he answered as he sniffled.

Ribbit clutched her fist, her face started to redden at the audacity of the clown to not even try and direct his sneeze somewhere else. Meanwhile, the distraught Jax gained his senses and took witness at the scene unfolding.

Ribbit, once again, wiped her face with her hands “Kaufmo, I swear to god if you do-”
“ACHOO!”

You guessed that right. Kaufmo sneezes again right at her face but this time, with her mouth open. The other three watched this with horror and disgust.

Jax puts his fist infront of his mouth to stop the incoming gag “Yuck.” he disgustingly said at the filthy event that he witnessed infront of him.

Ribbit couldn’t hold it anymore. Her anger and disgust boiled over inside her. She needed to kill the clown. She raised her fist and punched Kaufmo right at his face, his head turned and his whole body followed as he fell hard to the ground due to the power Ribbit’s punch inflicted.

Ribbit huffed, her face still red. Her fists still clutched tightly. “You, disgusting piece of-” she couldn’t finish her sentence as the wave of nausea hits her, making her grip her stomach and bend down to vomit a sort of black goo.

Gangle and Zooble couldn’t watch any longer and decided to join the couple up ahead. Jax stepped back a bit to avoid the black goo from touching him. ‘What a turn of events’ he thought.

Ribbit, breathing heavily, stood back up. “I’m gonna kill you, clown.” she huffed, her eyes full of murderous intent. “even if THAT”S THE LAST THING I DO!” she roared then charged straight to the poor clown, attempting to punt his face.

“Wait, WAIT! I didn’t mean- EHHHK!” he tried to calm her down by explaining but immediately realized it would be of no use and barely dodged in time.

Horror covered Kaufmo’s face, it was like in slow motion as he watched this frog kick the spot he was just in, her foot scraping the ground when she, unintentionally, kicked the dirt and daisies high up into the air. Her face was unrecognizable as darkness have covered it entirely. He sniffled.

He rushed to stand up, nervous and scared. He opened his mouth to explain but she was fast. Within seconds, her fist closed on to his face, inches away from impact. He couldn’t dodge, he couldn’t stop his sneeze either.

“ACHOO!” that was the last of his words when she successfully punched his face again with a very powerful force fueled with disgust.

Jax’s face was still the same. “Yuck.” he remarked again as he watched the stupidly fast action sequence. Ribbit’s arms sloppily fell to her sides. Her whole body shook. She raised her spit-showered face to look for Kaufmo who flew a few meters away from her.

‘He’s gonna die.’ all of the onlooking circus members thought before they continued whatever they were doing. Ribbit chased after the clown who was desperately trying to calm her down while he ran away from her and dodged her attacks.

Jax, with a deadpan expression, watched as they comically run and bicker with each other “Really? A cliche action scene? Is that really all you could think of? Kinda cringe, to be honest.”
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Shut up.

Jax sighed. He puts his hands on his pockets and looked around again. The group up ahead was busy making crowns and tossing flowers at each other

‘Cringe.’

He strolled for a bit while kicking some daisies on his path before he sat down and picked a daisy off the ground. It has a soft plastic feel to its body while the petals itself are thinner and softer. He plucked a petal. ‘This is boring.’

He regretted agreeing to this adventure. He took another daisy and this time tried admiring it, he was no fond of flowers and stuff but this one has a particular place on his mind.

Not because he liked the flower, it just that it reminded him of something funny. Unintentionally, he started humming. ‘Daisy, daisy. Give me your answer do.’

He continued plucking the petals off the flower then a crisp wave of wind rushed past him, kicking the petals up into the air. He closed his eyes as he lets it pass, not letting the wind irritate his eyes.

Once he opened his eyes again, his sight landed up on a petal swaying on the air while it fell. ‘I’m half crazy, all for the love of you..’ he continued humming, still following the falling petal with his eyes.

Then his eyes stopped when the petal passed through a familiar sight, a figure. A figure standing far from where he was, it was blurry but it was there. Especially since its bright red and blue colors stood prominent among the view. His eyes widened. It was a person.

He, then, heard humming. ‘It won’t be a stylish marriage…’ it was from that person and they’re continuing the song. The figure was slightly swaying their body while their hands were clasped together right at their chest, as if they’re dancing to the song.

‘How can I hear someone so far?’ he thought.

It was weird but his mind still told him to get up. His heartbeat hastening. His body, instinctively, wanted to rush over to that someone. ‘Is it an NPC?’ he asked himself, which doesn’t make sense because why would Caine put an NPC on this type of adventure?

It was unusual. It didn’t make sense. He told himself to ignore it, he’s probably just tired but every nerve on his body said otherwise. He walked towards the figure, eyes glued to it, afraid that once he glanced away even for a second, they’ll disappear. With a few more steps, what he’s seeing starts to take form.

‘I can’t afford a carriage..’ he continued humming. While her face was still blurry, he could note a smile on her face when he resumed humming with her. ‘But you’ll look sweet, upon the seat..’ this time, both of them hummed the song.

Jax may not know it but a small line of smile slowly appeared on his face, his pupils almost filled up his eyes. ‘of a bicycle built for twooo.’ then they stopped. When Jax realized that the song ended, slight panic and fear started building up in his heart. Afraid that she will fade away now that the song has ended.

But contrary to what he thinks, the person dressed in red and blue started again. “Daisy, daisy!” this time, she sang as she danced with the song. A distorted yet soft, sweet voice came from her. The smile returned to his face, he started singing with her “Give me your answer do!”

It was unlike him. To willingly join in to an old, cringe-ass love song when it is not targeted to annoy anyone. It was blasphemous, he would regret doing this.

However, glee was somehow blooming inside him when he sang with this person. He couldn’t help but be curious, be swayed along its antics.

His black pupils dilated so much, it covered most of his yellow eyes. He closed on her, started swaying to the song too. Repeating what the impromptu choreo they did back then when they first sang this song together, albeit, farther from each other.

“I’m half crazy all for the love of youuuu!
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage..”

Flashes of memory of what happened back then resurfaced, of them holding guns and of them annoying their assorted shapes and pieces of a friend.

He also remembered them spinning around as they held hands at this part of the song, he thought they could do it again but no matter how many steps he took, it seemed like he couldn’t get any closer to her.

They continued singing, playfully and with joy. Their voices rhyming perfectly together.

“But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.” the two of them ended together.

Catching his breath, he studied the girl in front of him. He started to realize that he knew this girl, he now knows the answer to Ribbit’s question. He opened his mouth to call out to her.

But no word comes to mind. With this realization, his smile slowly faded as he jogged his memory for her name. What was it? He knew her name, it’s just on the tip of his tongue but everytime he thought he’s close to uttering it, his mind started to derail and hurt him.

He flinched. A sharp pain strikes his mind. His breathing started to get erratic because of the sudden tightness of a non existent heart inside him. His vision blurring. The girl was slowly fading.

‘Wait!’ he tried to ask of her but even that was hard to say. The light started to get painful for his eyes, he badly wanted to shut his eyes but if he did, he knew that she’ll be out of sight.

His left hand clawed at his head, he slouched due to the piercing pain, and through tear-filled eyes, the rabbit didn’t let her out of his sight.

He needed answers. He can’t let her go with her being this much of a problem to him, he has to have his answer. Maybe, if he could just grab her tight, he could bring her to Caine and ask him to fix whatever she did to him.

‘That’s right. She’s the problem. She has to stay to fix this. I, I can’t let her go like this.’ he convinced himself as he settled on this reason of why the fuck he wanted her to stay. A practical reason he thought.

But the distance wasn’t closing, the pain was increasing. It was as if his very own code was rejecting her existence. He tried with his might to reach her, to take her back, to endure the pain.

However, even with all of that effort, Jax was still a coward. A rabbit with no guts for this kind of mental turmoil. Hence, he stops.

‘This was weird in the first place.’ he thought. If remembering her hurts this much then maybe forgetting her would stop the pain. ‘Yeah, why am I even trying so hard?’ he said to himself. Being this serious inside this digital world does not suit him.

He stopped on his tracks. his tears flowing uncontrollably. He’s not sobbing, just crying with his eyes narrowed and slightly burrowed brows. He isn’t sure if its due to his current headache or due to the fact that he’s losing her again.

‘Probably the former.’ he convinced himself. Yet, this action created an emptier space within him. He hated it because, even after a lot of convincing from himself, he could still feel his hand reaching out to her, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

The girl just stood there, her expression unreadable. Another soft gust of wind hits them, bells ringing could be heard from her. A very nostalgic sound. Jax’s breathing was still erratic.

He pathetically wanted to run away from this, to not deal with this anymore. ‘When does this adventure ends?’ and with that thought, he suddenly popped right back into the circus.

Along with all of the other members, he floated for less than a second before he got dropped with his face first on the ground as Caine released them from his ‘magic’.

He groaned when he tried steadying himself up with his elbows. His vision was coming back to clarity. His heart was still racing but he could manage. He, first, regained control of his breathing whilst he puts on his usual shit-eating grin. He wiped the remaining tears on his face, swearing that he’d never do such a pathetic thing again.

“Welcome back, my frolicking grasshoppers! I’m glad you enjoyed our pollinated adventure after enjoying my beautiful Carnival Zombie Massacre!” Caine scanned through each member, most of them regaining their balance since Caine decided to pull them out, unexpectedly, of the adventure instead of letting them walk through a portal like usual.

“Looks like some of you enjoyed it a bit too much!” Caine eyed on Kaufmo whose face was swollen due to the punches he received and his ‘digital allergy’, then to Ragatha, who had too many Daisy crowns atop of her head.

Caine snapped his fingers and everything went back to normal: no more daisies, fixed Kaufmo, and Gangle’s comedy mask was back. He didn’t say much after that before leaving them alone.

Ragatha, sad at the sudden disappearance of her daisy crowns, decided to bid farewell to the couple as she wanted to go rest at her room. Gangle was still busy drawing something so she slowly walked toward the main lounge with her head full of that one character. Zooble followed her, to plop onto a comfortable seat on one of those colorful couches, Kaufmo was nowhere to be seen though, while Ribbit noticed Jax trying to stand up from his fall.

‘What happened to you?’ she wanted to ask him but stopped herself, maybe he was just too tired from today’s adventures. She cleared her throat “Have you seen Kaufmo? He suddenly disappeared in thin air.”

With no enthusiasm on his face, Jax just raised his brow. “You still aren’t done with him?”

“Nope! I need to teach that clown a thing or two. That was the most disgusting thing that ever happened to me after abstracting. I swear I’ll make him wish he remained abstracted by…” Ribbit continued on with her ranting, listing ways on how to torture the clown and how disgusted they were by his actions.

Jax just looked at her with half lidded eyes, his mouth curved down in slight annoyance.

“You know what? You should do that, and I’ll go back to my room.” he interrupted them, slowly backing away and pointing to the direction of their rooms with his thumbs. He glanced at her before fully turning his back on them “Have fun or whatever.” he lazily waved goodbye before walking away.

Jax badly wanted to reach his room, he retreated with his hands on his pockets and body slouching a bit, his tiredness was apparent. He sighed, he couldn’t wait to sleep this day away but then, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing. His ears perked up at the sound as he stopped on his track to try and discern if he heard it right.

A bell rung. There it was again. Jax wanted to look around, find the source of this but before he could even move, he stopped himself.

Another ring. ‘I’m tired, I’m probably hearing things again.’ he thought to himself. He doesn’t want to deal with this again, he swore to never repeat the pathetic actions he did earlier so he decided to ignore it and continue walking towards his room. Hopefully, the sound doesn’t follow him there.

Not wanting the pain to start attacking him again when that same familiarity was reaching out to him once more, the rabbit hastened his footsteps.

He was so ready to knock himself out in his bed and forget that today ever happened. His irritation was now mixed with the feeling of listlessness. Nothing has been going quite to his liking.

When he rounded a corner, his pace slowed down when he heard sobs at a distance, it was near his room.

It was a straight passage so it was easy to see who it belonged to. It was from Ragatha. The ragdoll was sniffing, sobbing, and rubbing her tears away from her face.

He rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, and began thumping his right foot on the ground: all in annoyance. He argued in his mind if he should just stop and go back or deal with this bullshit OR just go straight to his room and ignore whatever this was.

….which would’ve been so much easier if she wasn’t standing near his door with her back facing his room. Jax glanced at the door she was facing, it was the unique door with no character in it: No wooden npc, no character with a red X on it, nothing. It was just a door with a white circle.

Ragatha suddenly clutched her chest, the part where a heart should be. Her sobs were slowly intensifying. Jax stopped thumping his foot, worry slowly creeping on his face. He doesn’t know how to handle this kind of situation.

Still confused as to why she was doing this, he decided to leave her alone. The situation seemed serious; he was not the type of person who knew how to diffuse these kinds of stuff.

He slowly walked away as quietly as possible, making sure she doesn’t notice him being there or leaving. His irritation was now tinged with worry. It was not rare but it was still nerving to see her cry that badly without centipedes or him involved. It was to the point, he couldn’t make fun of her for it.

‘What’s up with this week, anyway?’ Ragatha was no longer smiling and not being positive like she used to, Zooble going to Caine’s adventure, Gangle is always distracted with her doodles that she doesn’t even care much about her comedy mask, Kinger was somehow lucid and there was the other three… how were they here?

Jax tried reasoning for their ‘unabstracting’ because, now that he thinks about it, why were they so casual about this? Shouldn’t they be making a big deal out of this? Especially Zooble. Why did they just accepted this fact without question? What were their reaction when their friends ‘unabstracted’? What prompted it? What happe-

Then suddenly and unconsciously, Jax stopped on his track. His eyes still fixed on the ground. His mind blanked, clearing away all of the thoughts that were occupying it, and his mouth lined straight.

After some time, Jax blinked and saw that he was still standing in the middle of the hall. He raised his hands out of his pockets to feel himself. He was sweating and he didn’t know what warranted it.

He looked around and just saw paintings lined up on the wall, within it were the usual all-seeing eyes of Caine. Confusion struck him hard. He tried processing what happened but nothing definite came to mind. What was he doing here? What was he standing there for like an idiot?

He shook his head and let out a tired groan. ‘I need some air.’

Jax didn’t have enough energy to mask away his frustrations nor his confusion when he came back to the main hall. He scanned the area, expecting a beaten up clown but he only saw a Gangle slouching on a chair, drawing intently. Zooble talking with Queenie at the sofa, Kinger was nowhere to be seen, probably in his fort. And, in front of Gangle, stood Ribbit holding up a bell, flicking it every now and then.

‘So that’s where that sound came from.’

Fortunately, none of them noticed the rabbit. He made sure it stayed that way before continuing his path leading him out of the circus. Unintentionally, he listened on their conversation.

“What’s this for anyways?” Ribbit asked Gangle as she held the bell up for her drawing.

“I- It’s, I think, it’s the one thing missing from my drawing.”

She held up her drawing, looking at it and then the bell. She squinted her black eyes as it darted back and forth between the two before letting out a dissatisfied grunt. She ripped the page, crumpled it and tossed it, unknowingly, to Jax’s path.

Jax lifted his right foot, attempting to ignore the paper and walk over it but stopped halfway. He took a glance at it, curious as to what made the masked character draw a small, round bell so he hesitantly picked it up, he doesn’t really know what got to his mind for doing whatever he was doing right now but the day was already making him act weird so, what harm could another ‘uncharacteristic’ action of his could do to him , right?

“Still feels wrong?” Jax heard the frog ask the ribbons with sympathy and saw them lowering their arm.

Gangle nodded, pulling her ribbon legs tighter into her chest, feeling conflicted. She looked at her drawing book, tracing the slight dents on the paper that came from the previous sketch she drew on her ripped pages.

Something was just not right. She felt uneasy. An image wouldn’t leave her mind for the past few days, making her yearn for it. Which also made her lean to what she knows best: drawing.

To atleast ease the longing she felt and decided that maybe, by drawing it, she could come up with an answer to what the image really meant to her. But none of her outputs felt right, none of them captured the image rotting in her brain.

With a sigh, Gangle continued drawing. Hoping she could get it right this time, her spirit not seemingly ready to admit defeat.

Ribbit noticed this, smile forming on her face, admiring her unyielding friend. They, then, looked up when their peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a purple bunny walking at a not so far away distance, leaving the circus.

She blinked, opened her mouth to ask him where he was going but he, quickly, got out of sight. She looked at the bell in her hand then to Gangle, who was already absorbed to what she was doing.

After a few moments of thinking, she understood that her help was no longer needed so they decided to follow their friend out of the tent after excusing herself from them.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ she couldn’t help but worry. He didn’t look okay when they got back from their adventure. ‘He was okay when I chased Kaufmo.’ she backtracked. She opened and closed her hand, trying to oust the nervousness slowly creeping within her.

After abstracting, Ribbit couldn’t help but be wary of various of things, wary that her friends could go down the path she came from.

Sure, she may have come back from it but even that was a mystery, not even Caine could answer the cause of it. Besides, only three of them came back so there was no certainty that future abstractions could be reversed like theirs. So, with a sigh, she decided to be nosy; she needed to make sure he was okay.

After getting out of the circus tent, their eyes wandered to scan for a purple character wearing pink overalls, they walked out more to take in more of the outside’s view. Nervousness was starting to settle in when they couldn’t see him.

They opened their mouth to call out his name, hoping that he would answer but their words immediately died down their throat. The need for it was gone when they spotted Jax lying on the grass, stargazing.

Relief washed over them. Their worried heart quieted down, their nerves started to calm. Ribbit smiled a sad one, the stars always calmed the rabbit.

It, mostly, brought out the tenderness within him; shredded some of his defenses away. It’s what he always looked at when situations started to get a bit too difficult for him. She remembered him, sounding genuine, commenting on how this was one of his favorite part of this digital world.

‘So he is not fine.’

Ribbit decided to not destroy the peaceful quiet he was basking in as they walked towards him, by being gentle with their approach. Then suddenly, he took out a crumpled paper from the pocket of his overalls and raised it against the sky.

They recognized the paper, it was Gangle’s recent failure of a drawing. She sat down quietly besides him, observing him when he opened it. Ribbit didn’t say a word. His focus was solely on the paper which convinced her that he didn’t notice her sitting beside him.

After a few moments of silence, she decided to announce her presence but Jax spoke ahead of them.

“This is wrong.” he muttered, his hands tracing the blue and red character drawing on the paper. “Lots of these are wrong.”

Ribbit paused for a moment, slightly taken aback before replying. “Why do you say that?”

Jax didn’t reply, letting Ribbit suffer another minutes of silence. It was starting to frustrate them, what was it that made him so engrossed to the drawing?

They wanted to ask a thousand question, to prod into what was weighing on his mind but they know better than to do that. Ribbit clutched the artificial grass they were sitting on, forcing her frustrations to die down. She had to settle on not poking too much of his business.

They distracted their thoughts by observing the dark sky above them, sparkling because of the most beautiful artificial stars splayed on it. The moon was the brightest among them, humming and slightly rocking its body as it shone upon the field.

Wind combed through the grassy field, making a crisp sound when the grass’s blades brushed against one another. Cold immediately spread through their avatars when the wind reached them. It was so peaceful.

“It..” Ribbit turned to him when he started talking again “It just feels like it.”

She scoffed “That doesn’t sound so helpful.”

She hugged her knees, thinking of what question could elicit a serious answer from him without sounding too interrogating. “Come on, be more specific.”

“I-I don’t know. It just feels weird to look at.” he observed the paper more before scoffing “Or maybe Gangle’s drawings are inherently weird.” he limply let his arm fall down to his side.

“Hmmm… nah. Pretty sure, that’s just you.”

Jax finally turned to look at them “You need your brain checked if you’re ‘pretty sure’.”

They rolled their eyes, smiling “I don’t need to ask others to know that you’re weird, Jax.”

They waited for another witty comeback from their friend but he only stared at them. That caught them off guard. Another question was bubbling up inside them but it wouldn’t come out when his gaze started to bore into them, it was like he was absorbing every inch and detail of their face.

Everything was amiss for her at this point. Actions taking into a turn they never expected. Their smile slowly transformed to a more neutral one, they opted on returning the same gaze they received.

They propped their chin on their hand that was resting on their knees. Ribbit could see how his eyes travelled all over their face.

The grin on his face slowly disappeared too when he continued studying her, and she just lets him. In return, she drowned herself with his features. Noticing his agape mouth, showing some of his teeth.

His short, purple fur swaying with the wind, she suddenly had this urge to feel its softness by running her fingers through it. His pupils blown out, gliding on his wide, golden eyes: evidence of him taking more of their face.

“Ribbit would’ve dropped dead by now if looks could kill.” Kaufmo grunted when he sat on the other side of Jax.

Ribbit was the first one to break away from their staring contest. She must’ve been so focused on Jax for not even noticing him approach them. She acknowledged his presence with a smile.

“We can’t die in this digital world, Kaufmo.” Ribbit with her as-a-matter-of-factually tone when she responded back.

“Which is why I said: If looks could kill.”
“Not as witty as you think it sounds, Kaufmo.”
“Right, right. I’m sorry, fun police.”

Ribbit scoffed.

“Why are you so infuriating today?” Kaufmo asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Maybe because you’ve been nothing but annoying to me this day?”

He just shrugged his shoulders “I think I know what would make you less..” he pointed to all of her while squinting “..of that”

She rolled her eyes at him “God, don’t tell me it’s another one of your jokes.”

“Wanna hear one?”
“No.”
“Knock knock.”
“D### it.”
“What did the frog order at McDonald’s??”

“Wow, a frog joke IN a knock knock joke. How unexpected.” Ribbit lazily looked at their friend, sighing when curiosity took over them. “What?”

Kaufmo showed a smug smile “French flies and a diet croak..” he sounded out before laughing out loud by himself.

Ribbit let out a disbelief “That wasn’t even funny!” when he suddenly keeled over to laugh even louder at his own joke.

“Oh, here’s another one: What does a bankrupt frog say?” he added in between giggles. Ribbit didn’t bother answering so he just continued it. “Baroke, baroke, baroke.”

Ribbit groaned “Do you hear that, Kaufmo? The only thing that could be heard from here are your laugh and the actual croaking of frogs! It was not funny!”

But it was left ignored when Kuafmo just continued hollering. She couldn’t stop the small smile on her face as she watched him. She knew it was his own way to lighten the mood and it was working. She shook her head away, turning to face the scenery in front of them “You’re so unbelievable.”

Kaufmo started to ride down his high, his laughter was calming down as his hands wiped away the tears from his eyes. He let out a few giggles before looking down at Jax. “He’s still staring at you by the way.”

Ribbit turned to him and looked back at the purple idiot. Weird was the only thing they could describe him right now. Because, how come he was never deterred by the lame jokes thrown in the air and the loud, stupid laughter that echoed from Kaufmo? Weird, just weird.

She scoffed “You aren’t beating the weird allegations if you’re staring that long, Jax.”

“That was an allegation?” their other friend added.

These snapped Jax out of whatever trance he got on. He blinked a few times before speaking up again, ignoring whatever they just said. His eyes were still on her.

“I think I know what’s missing with Gangle’s drawing.”

Ribbit raised a brow “You were still thinking about that?”

He ignored her again. “It was her blushes.”

Kaufmo looked at the paper on Jax’s hand which was near him. “You mean this?”

He ignored him too “She had pink, circular blushes on her cheeks.”

Ribbit reached for her right cheek when he pointed it out. She glanced at Kaufmo who also, instinctively, looked at her cheeks before she returned her gaze to their mumbling friend.

“Just like you did.” He slightly tilted his head “She… reminded me of you.”

The two of them just let him talk. Curious as to what was going on his mind. This was too much of a new territory that they were stepping in with his personality. The Jax they knew could never last this long without sassing or something. It was so unlike him, was this the result of their absence?

It shouldn’t be surprising for him to change from what they knew of him due to the length of their absence, but it was still shocking, what happened to elicit this change from Jax? Was it because of Ragatha? Kinger? Zooble? Heck, maybe Gangle? Or was it one of the adventures Caine made them go through?

“With her big, strange eyes..”
“I remember seeing you in her..”

Kaufmo couldn’t help but look at Ribbit from time to time, gauging their reaction since this was clearly targeted for them. And he’d look at Jax, who seemed like he was in a daze, spouting whatever coming to his mind at the moment.

Like he was reminiscing somethings from a long time ago. Ribbit didn’t know what to feel with this information but they dared not break the staring between them.

“But why… can’t I see her in you?”

Suddenly, his tone shifted. The ambiance suddenly dropping.

“Why don’t I remember her when I look at you?” His voice faltered. “In every expression you make….. why do I only see you?”

“It is only right that you remind me of her in return so why..” His face was starting to contort. “Why can’t your eyes let me see her?”

Kaufmo’s forehead creased. He was confused, baffled. He looked at Ribbit and noticed how their grip tightened on their leg. Their expression was also confused, filled with disbelief. Jax’s eyes squinted, still looking at her, searching something on her face.

“I just… wanna see her again.”

Then suddenly, grimace replaced his expression. He hissed as he sat up; he clutched the side of his forehead. He looked like he was suddenly hit with a great deal of pain.

Kaufmo and Ribbit were still reeling from what Jax just said, still dumb founded and unsure if their friend even knew what he was saying because the friend they knew would never say those words out loud.

However, their shock didn’t last that long when they heard another pained grunt from Jax as he curled into himself. They tried comforting him but he flinched away from the hands reaching him.

They looked closer at him and that’s when they noticed his eyes going all prickly. He let out another sound of pain. His pupils were replaced by these swirling, tangled up lines.

“Jax! Hey!” Kaufmo immediately knelt besides him, attempting to grab his attention. Worried for his well being, sweat beads down his temple. He doesn’t know what to do.

“It’s okay, Jax. We’re here” Ribbit nervously assured him, kneeling in front of Jax. She doesn’t know what made him this way, everything was happening too fast. She closed and opened her hands, trying to calm herself down to properly help Jax.

“You’re okay, just breathe. Breathe. In and out.” was the only thing she could let out, she knew it was a shitty way to comfort someone in this state but knowing that doesn’t mean she was smart enough to know what other things to say.

Babbles of ‘uhh’, ‘you’re okay.’ and ‘breathe, Jax’ were let out and they knew it was painfully unhelpful. They were supposed to know better than this for going through the same thing, but Caine be damned cause even those experiences didn’t make them any wiser.

Jax’s whole body was shaking, his hands sandwiched between his legs and chest when he felt another wave of pain rushed through him. It’s happening again, but this time, rapidly.

He shuts his eyes, trying to concentrate on his breathing but it was to no avail. Suddenly, he felt hands on his shoulder and back. He opened his eyes as he immediately recoiled from their touch again, slapping them both from him which made him stumble down to his back.

With his hands now planted on the grass to support his weight, he looked at their worried eyes, he couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was clear they were calling out his name.

He shuts his eyes once more to finally fend off his incoming panic attack, triggered from the sudden pain that kept on intensifying.

“Don’t.” he sternly stated when their hands started reaching out to him, again. “I said, don’t!” he repeated when they didn’t stop the first time.

He curled his hand on the artificial grass beneath him. He needed to find a way out. Not in a million years would he let them see him break apart like that, he steeled himself by pushing his panic down, not letting it take over him at this point.

Shame was weighing heavier than his panic, fueling his need for strength to push against his emotions. He inhaled sharply, taking less than a second for him to regain his momentum; when he did open his eyes again: his pupils swallowed most of the golden spaces in his eyes as he let his usual wide smile spread across his face.

The two of them loomed over him, glancing at one another as their worry kept their heart racing. They badly wanted to comfort him but every assuring approach they knew of was thwarted by Jax, who constantly whisked their hands away. They were at lost and even more so when the instant shift on his face happened.

Looking at Jax now, they finally recognized that this was their friend, the Jax they all knew of, different from the blabbering mess from earlier. But it did not wash their worries away, not even a little bit. It was another turn of events that they didn’t like nor expected.

Ribbit and Kaufmo was still processing things when Jax stood up, his back facing them, not letting them see him fix his trembling hands more properly, and stretched his body before letting out an exaggerated exhale

“Well, that was awkward.” he giggled before turning to face them, hands crossed at his chest. “So, who’s hungry?” he said with a flick of a tongue, acting like nothing ever happened.

This left the two dumb founded, like a deer staring at headlights. Everything was happening so fast. One moment he was quiet, then he was rambling strange nonsense, then he was reeling, groaning in pain, AND THEN suddenly, he was smiling? Asking if they were hungry? Ribbit scoffed. Kaufmo’s worried expression never left his face.

“Dude, what happened? Are you okay?” he asked again, making sure that everything that happened was not something he came up with in his brain. Ribbit besides him was trembling, letting out small laughs.

“Nahh, ‘m fineee. ‘Twas nothing.” he glossed over it, rolling his eyes with a smug grin. “You were just seeing things.”

Kaufmo wanted to respond but Ribbit’s laugh began to sound hysterical. “Nothing, yes, it was just nothing. Right.” she remarked with a smile, her words were dripping with sarcasm.

“You just..” she opened her hands, lifted it in the air, gesturing at their situation “..shift from doing one strange thing to another then you start flinching away from us but yeah, let’s ignore all of that because what did you say? Hungry? Nothing?” she plopped her arms back harshly to her sides.

Jax just raised a brow at her, still masking the unsettling feeling within. His right hand was gripping his arm harshly while it was still crossed at his chest, his left foot was doing little thumps, so little it almost goes unnoticeable. “What got into you?”

Both of their eyes turned sharp, scrutinizing his reaction, his words. “What the ####, dude?” Kaufmo reponded. Ribbit’s eye twitched. This level of feigning ignorance was not new to them, not when this was something they did in the past.

Before they abstracted which made them know: they can’t push him more than this. He’d never give in to them, they knew that, at this point, pushing more would just make things deteriorate at a rapid pace.

Kaufmo noticed Ribbit was still shaking, hands clenched tightly at her side. He even noticed the small thumps from the rabbit’s foot. He needed to stay calm, levelheaded for their sake.

He relaxed his fist, breathing in the cold air to soothe his nerves. Forcing Jax right now for an answer would amount to nothing and Ribbit was already too emotional from the events to even have a civil talk with the rabbit. It was best for them to talk about this in another time.

He puts a reassuring grip on the frog’s shoulder “Let’s.. calm down. We’re not gonna get anywhere like this.” The frog just scowled at him, refusing to back down.

She looked back at Jax, who averted his eyes, still donning that stupid smile. Ribbit knew what the clown meant, heck she understood why the purple rabbit was acting that way.

She knew nothing could be resolved right now. But seeing him like that up close, seeing him deteriorate right in front of them was so.. scary. She didn’t like any of that and she knew she was not only the one.

“This is getting stupid. Are we gonna go eat or..?” This time, his smile faded. The thumping of his foot getting louder on the grass.

It took a second more before Ribbit let out an exasperated sigh and muttering “..fine.”

A glint of bitterness passed through Jax’s expression as he looked back at the circus tent, showing only the side of his face towards the two, before shaking his head and clasping his hands at the back of his head. He didn’t say anything when he started trudging back to the tent.

Ribbit wouldn’t look at them, her head was still down. Her feet planted on the ground. She was still mad and scared. Kaufmo could only look at them both before also retreating back to the circus. Letting her process her own emotions to diffuse.

Jax didn’t look back. His heart was still thumping hard in his chest. ‘Run run run run run!’ His brain shouted at him, he could feel himself breaking apart any second now but he had to hold it in. He can still hold it in.

Everyone was already situated on their chosen seats around the table when Jax arrived. Four chairs at each long side of the rectangular table filled with colorful, digital food. On the right side: Kinger was in between Queenie and Gangle. Only the seat at Gangle’s right side was unoccupied. Across Kinger and Gangle were Ragatha and Zooble, respectively.

“Jax!? What are you doing here!? Don’t you see the time! You should’ve been eating there with the othe- wait, where’s Kaufmo? Ribbit?” Caine suddenly popped up beside Jax, all frantic with his actions exaggerated as he motioned this and that.

He wasn’t as shaken as he should be at his sudden appearances since he was already used to it. He pointed at the opposite direction he was facing with his left thumb.

“They’re just outside, they said they didn’t feel like eating today.” he quipped with a hint of mischief.

Caine pushed his eyes against one another, shock plastered on his…mouth or whatever you would call it. “That won’t do! Bubble put a lot of thought on those foods! They’re gonna hurt Bubble’s feelings!” he grabbed his lower jaw as he rambled on.

“You’re absolutely right. How about you.. uhhh.. give them a a talk or somethin, y’know? They’ll surely appreciate that.”
“Not a bad idea! Not a bad idea indeed. Oh! There they are.”

‘And there he goes’ he watched as Caine floated towards them, exclaiming and flailing around the air while the two just looked at him confused.

Seeing that he was successful at making Caine turn his attention towards them, he whistled in satisfaction before continuing his way towards the table.

As badly as he wanted to just forgo eating and go straight to bed, he knew Caine would just bother him the entire time he was not at the dinner table to eat. He doesn’t want that, so he planned to eat a little and rush to his room after.

Hopefully, fast enough for Ribbit and Kaufmo not to have enough time to catch up to him and interrogate him more about what happened earlier.

Which made him think: What happened earlier? What happened to him? He looked at his trembling left hand as he sat besides Zooble. He remembered himself muttering nonsense towards Ribbit.

Even he couldn’t believe he actually said those out loud. It was bizarre. It was just like earlier, when he was impulsive because of a certain blue and red character. He scowled at the realization and immediately blamed the entity for his rashness.

That entity was a pain and he wanted nothing but to pour boiling hot oil on that person’s head, bully it like how it is bullying him right now.

A certain frog caught his attention when they harshly pulled the chair across him to sit. He lowered his left arm at the side of his empty plate before he heard another seat getting pulled from a farther side of him.

The tension, the three of them brought, was dangerously heavy which was so obvious, the others felt it right away except Kinger, who was staring at the drawing Gangle was finishing on her lap. The tension was so heavy, it felt like it could snap at any moment from its weight.

Thankfully, Jax chose the seat besides Zooble. Zooble may hate his guts but they were pretty chill and not as nosy as the people surrounding the other empty seats. They’d probably start probing around to satiate their curiosity and he didn’t want that.

Not long after, his premonition was proven correct when he heard Queenie ask Kaufmo what happened. Jax just picked up a spoon, opting on not listening to whatever conversation that may ensue at the table. He was barely keeping his panic attack at bay, at the moment, so interacting with them was out of the question.

Jax took bits and pieces of the food served to them, he made sure his serving was small so he could gobble it all up in a short amount of time but not so little, just enough serving that could satisfy their ringmaster, which could allow him to retreat to his room without any complaints.

Jax continued ignoring the ongoing conversation that occurred after Queenie’s question. He even heard his name mentioned but he wasn’t sure, he didn’t care. He just wanted this to be done with before he spirals.

He was at his last bite when Kinger said a word that stopped everyone at the table. It was like lightning struck everyone into shock, everyone except the three recently unabstracted individuals.

“Pomni.” he exclaimed like he just remembered, then his eyes softened “Pomni, huh.” his eyes were still directed at the picture Gangle was drawing.

Gangle’s mouth was agape when she looked up at Kinger, her eyes consuming more than half of her comedy mask. It was like a trigger word, like a ten ton boat was thrown into the ocean, sweeping everyone with the intensity of the wave it caused.

She looked down, back at her sketches. She moved her pen, sliding it across the paper like a robot gaining sentience. Image getting clearer in her head and she had no plans of letting it over her without capturing it on her book.

It wasn’t easy though. Especially when the clear image was accompanied by a throbbing, jolting ache that coursed throughout her ribbons. She winced but didn’t stop, she was breathing heavily, her comedy mask was slowly cracking under the pain.

“You mean the Russian word?” Queenie asked her husband, trying to stir the group away from their shock. She has no idea why their reaction were like that and she could only ask what she already know to atleast have context on what was making them so stumped out like this.

“It means remember.” she looked at the others “Pomni means remember, right? In Russian?” she reiterated to them as if they couldn’t hear her the first time.

Ragatha, who was mellowed out and contributing small phrases to their conversation, looked down at her plate. It seemed like all she does this day was cry but she couldn’t help it. Tears poured down from her eyes and she didn’t know why.

Oh wait, she knew why: she was mourning, mourning a loss that she just couldn’t pinpoint. But one thing was for sure: Pomni. Pomni was part of her grieving. Because why else would the word cause the void in her heart to return and unsettle her even further?

Zooble blinked away their confusion and shock when Ragatha burst into tears, they patted her back while the two antenna or headpiece they have, started quivering. They couldn’t help it, even the trembling in their removable, plastic hands was unstoppable. Ragatha felt it though and cried even harder as she let their hands pulled her into a comforting embrace.

Seeing this, Queenie started to panic. Her little way of trying to put things into place seemed to disorient the members even more. She stood up from her seat to try and calm the cotton filled character but the sound of shattering mask took her attention.

It was Gangle. Her comedy mask broke and her ribbons were shaking. She couldn’t hold her pencil properly. “No no no no no..” she whispered repeatedly, holding her hands together. Coaxing them to calm down and endure the pain that was shooting up through her entire body of ribbons.

The pain was not scaring her, it was a lot and it was very uncomfortable but she wanted to endure it. She didn’t want to give up because of it. She was more afraid of her forgetting the character that was living inside her head. She didn’t want to give up on Pomni.

Ribbit immediately held her clasped hands, muttering her confusion “Hey, hey. What’s wrong?” as she consoled her shaky hands. Queenie could only flicker her eyes between the circus members.

She was baffled, what was going on? Isn’t this reaction too much for a single word? ‘No, there must be something more to this.’ she reasoned. ‘Caine. Caine should know something about this’

Her thoughts were interrupted when Kaufmo started shouting, calling for Caine. It seemed like he had the same thoughts as her. Nothing gets past Caine’s eyes, he should have knowledge about this. If not, then, he may have a hand on this.

“You called?” he said in a sing song tone, eyes looking at different directions when he glided besides Kaufmo.

“Help them!”
“Pomni.”

Queenie and Kaumo simultaneously asked. Queenie looked at Kaufmo, his expression was serious and worried. “Do you know anything about Pomni?”

“Kaufmo, we can ask that later. We have to prioritize the others first.”

“No. Queenie. We have to ask now. This happened after your husband mentioned Pomni. Caine could ‘fix’ them now but what about after?” he pointed out, still glaring at Caine like he carried all of the blame for their friends’ pain.

“I know I’m not the only one who noticed, something’s been weird ever since we came back and this is the first ever clue we got.” he pointed at Caine “You know something about this, don’t you?”

Caine tilted his mouth “Of course I know! Nothing gets past me! I know everything that happened here!” he started floating higher, gesturing dramatically to the entirety of the circus while also dramatizing the way he said his sentences, trying to add some eerie effect on it.

The entirety of the cast listened on the entirety of the conversation and not long after, series of questions started to get thrown at Caine.

However some of them were quiet, like Jax who decided he was done. Pushing himself away from the table, away from the chaos. He slipped out, not stealthily. He didn’t need to, no one was paying attention to him at that point and he didn’t care if they did.

He quickly slipped out of the main hall to get to his room, something he had been wanting to do ever since they came back from their adventures. Now, no one was going to disturb him and he was determined to make it stay that way.

He locked the door behind him before dropping himself to his bed. A small creaking sound escaped from it as it welcomed Jax’s full weight.

Hand on his chest, he stared at the glowing plastic stars glued on his ceiling. The room was dark and quiet, two of the things he had been craving the whole day.

Finally, he was alone.

Today was a lot and it made him not want to think, not want to move anymore. He felt the tension which he was not even aware of, leave his body. He breathed out a sigh of relief. If only his mind could simmer down from all of the questions popping into his head, then maybe, he could finally sleep. He was too tired to entertain his thoughts.

But of course, why would his day end that properly? The panic attack that he fought for so long, started to rise from him again. He clutched the fabric under his hand, beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. Why can’t he just relax?

Exhausted, he was so exhausted.

Just as he started quivering from his attack, he heard a familiar tune. A very calming tune that deafened his thoughts, enough to soothe his fried nerves. It was that same sound he heard in a very relaxing dream of eye straining colors. It was calling out to him, lulling him to sleep and he was not, even a little bit, hesitant from accepting its call. If it could drag him away from this mess, from his own mind then by all means, take him.

The tune was very helpful for him to forget that ongoing panic attack, so effective he started to doze off. His grip was loosening when he heard a door opening, its hinges creaking as it slowly flings open.

Afraid that someone was entering his room without permission, he snapped back from his sleep to look at the direction of his door to see who was it but was, instead, greeted by a red door that spawned near his bed.

It was an exit door.

He wanted to think about how unusual it was but he really wanted to sleep. The bed was soft and the music was soothing him. He really didn’t want to explore more of the unknown, which could just add on to the many unanswered question in his brain.

But it was unusual. He never saw an exit door before. He suddenly remembered the day when Kaufmo abstracted. The word exit was etched unto every inch of his wall, it was not a very pleasant sight so it wasn’t hard to remember. The tune started to mellow down when he deliberated between sleeping and inspecting the door, it was as if it read his mind when it stopped cause he chose to go through the exit door.

He sighed. Even he was baffled by his own actions sometimes, so ironic at everything he did and thought. He propped himself up and sat at the edge of the bed. He let a few moments pass as he stared down at his feet, to test the reality of the door. Still unconvinced that it was not from his own imagination or something. He looked up at it again and it was still there. ‘Guess I have to go through it now.’

Curiosity winning over, he stood up and clutched its handle, widening the gap to see what was on the other side. His eye twitched when he saw the void. It was filled with floating, almost transparent white cubes which were the only things that greeted him as he inspected more.

He looked at the platform right after the door. The platform was big. The cubes were all aligned together to make a wide space of ground for anyone who goes through the door. Perplexed, he decided to enter. Stepping into it and trying to feel the ground beneath his paws. The exit door didn’t take long to dust away right after he entered. He turned to look back at it and just watched it happen, the view of his room slowly disappearing along with it.

He didn’t know what to do. ‘I should’ve just stayed in bed’ he listlessly thought. He looked at his left hand to see that it was no longer trembling nor did that prickling sensation was still bothering it. He guessed it was the tune he was hearing earlier. ‘I should’ve gone along with it.’

His thought was then disturbed when he heard a very loud heaving from his back. He slowly turned around, a bit startled by the sudden unknown presence behind him but, before he could properly face the source. A loud ringing voice replaced the heavy breathing.

“JAAAAAXXXX!!”

His fur prickled up and he waved his hands in front of him as he stumbled back when he was startled by the loud noise. He let out a high pitched screech when he backed away from her.

“Oh. Wow. I didn’t think that would work.” Pomni uttered when he finally noticed her call. He just looked at her strange, he was now the one heaving. The shock did not bode well for him. Pomni quickly realized that too. “I- I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” he said between his breaths, hand fisted against his chest as he rested his other hand on his knees for balance when the scream made him keel.

“I’ve been calling you and you couldn’t hear me,” she fiddled with the yellow pompom on her chest “I thought you were ignoring me.”

“Couldn’t you have just poke at me or something? What’s with the surprise?” he retorted with an eyebrow raise, he turned his head to look at the white floor instead, to focus on calming himself.

“I literally did that earlier.” she raised her hand and plopped it to her side as she responded “You wouldn’t budge.” and when she heard no reply from her startled friend, she let out a playful scoff. “Come on, I wanna show you something.” she motioned with her hands to urge him to come with her.

He raised a hand, still panting. “Wait, just- just give me a minute.”

After what felt like a minute, he felt her coming closer now, bells ringing with every stride she took towards him. Red and blue shoes peeked into his line of sight, waiting for him to regain his senses. He gasped in a huge amount of air before letting out an exaggerated exhale. He straightened himself up when he finally warded off the nausea he felt.

He looked down at his suspect. Big round, red and blue pinwheel eyes right above pink, circular blushes stared right back at him and a small smile plastered on that smooth pale face. Tucks of black hair spilling out of her jester hat that held two small bells on each end. He didn’t know if it was the void reflecting on her face, but she was gleaming.

“Got something on my face, Pomni?”
“I didn’t know you hated jumpscare.”
“Who said I hated it?”
“Right after that stunt you pulled? I think anybody could tell.”

“Careful now, we don’t want to make an ass out of you..” he pointed at her forehead, pushing it with a bit of strength before continuing. “..and ming.”

She squinted her eyes. “I still don’t know how a## don’t get censored when you say that line.”

“Eh, does it really matter?” he shrugged off, still not breaking off the eye contact they held. None of them wanted to.

After a few short seconds, Pomni shook her head before letting out a small laugh. “We’re taking too much time. Come here, I want to show you something.” she started walking away, to lead them somewhere in front of them.

“This better be cool, Pomni. Or else we’ll have to roll you into a ball and throw you to one of those cubes and see how many cubes you will hit when you bounce off of them.” he complained as he started following her.

She just rolled her eyes at the ridiculous statement. “It’ll be good, I promise.” she peered up at him from her side. “Trust me.”

He just stared back “Yeah nope, those eyes are full of lies.”

She shrugged him off “Eh, your loss.”

He was the one rolling his eyes now, lowering himself to her height. “Finee, but only because I’m curious. My consequence still stands though.”

“Whatever, Jax.”

He decided to peel away his eyes from her for a moment to follow her line of sight and what he saw was not what he expected at all: right infront of them were a bunch of portals and… trinkets?

Small and big items splattered across the white ground. Each one seemed familiar, it belonged from a previous adventure they partook in the past. Portals lined up on one side, each showing a different adventure that they were previously in. Things he never saw when he first opened the exit door.

Pomni didn’t give him enough time to comment about it before she rushed over to one of the items, specifically a picnic basket to pick a sandwich and offer it up to him. “You want some?”

He eyed the sandwich and he suddenly felt that phantom digital hunger, he barely ate at the dinner table and he couldn’t even enjoy the food because of the chaos. He held out a hand, motioning her to throw it at him which she did. He could’ve caught it if only Pomni gave a little bit of strength into her throw.

With horror, Pomni watched the triangular bread roll on the ground. He sighed as he eyed the poorly thrown sandwich roll on the floor, it made the sandwich look unappetizing.

"W-wait! There are more in here.” she stammered, pulling out another sandwich to rectify the mistake.

“Nevermind. I lost m-” he was cut off when a flying sandwich hit him square on the face, his head tilting back a little from the sudden impact. Pomni winced, as if she was the one hit with a sandwich.

She watched as the sandwich slowly glided down from his face, he caught it in time and his face stared at her with an expression filled with indifference.

“I- I’m sorry.” she looked down at the picnic basket to retrieve another one. “Let me get you another one..” she decided to just hand it over to him, got close and stretched her arm to offer it up to him.

His expression never changed even after he slammed the sandwich to her face causing her head to lean back. Dumbfounded, she only registered what was happening when he scrubbed the sandwich on her face, the contents of the sandwich coating it.

Maybe she deserved that after what she did but that was a mistake, and that didn’t stop her irritation to flare up.

He let go of the food and watched it slide off of her, revealing her knitted brows and frowning mouth. Before she could bring down her arm, Jax decided that the sandwich she was holding would be more useful as a wiper on her face when he took it wiped it on her face again. Doubling down on his actions.

This made him smile a little bit, a glint of mischief and joy sparkled in his eyes. Pomni didn’t wait for him to finish though when she reached out for another sandwich, throwing it straight to his face, making him pull his hand back when he dodged the strike.

Feeling playful and mischievous, the two of them took a step back and posed like they were in a stand off. Narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, they stood ready. Pomni was the first one to strike with her sandwiches, Jax was elusive though. Successfully, evading the sandwiches that came flying towards him at an increasing rate of speed.

He crouched, dodged the attacks and slipped on the smooth surface to reach the several items displayed on his left. He looked around them: a red cart, a nametag, softball, a tie, cool sunglasses.

None of them were appropriate nor plenty enough to use as weapon for their fight right now. There were more items but Pomni wouldn’t let him time to slack nor inspect more when she continued her sandwich assault.

One sandwich successfully hit him on the thigh. “Ow!” he let out. He noticed how it got bigger and harder than from what it usually was. He was going to question it, call it foul play but another one was coming right at his face. He dove once more and frantically looked for anything that he could use.

Then finally, a rocket. His devious smile stretched on his face when he saw it. He pulled his back slightly to dodge another sandwich before rushing and rolling on the ground to reach it. He stood up quickly after grabbing it and effectively avoided another incoming attack, he then pointed it at her.

“Oh, s###.”

She quickly retracted her arm, which was ready for another throw and dove to the floor, successfully eluding a large boot shooting from the said rocket. She noticed it was attached to a crisscrossed metal that stretched from the rocket. Jax pressed a button and the boot quickly returned to its original place, pulled by the said metal.

They made eye contact when Jax pointed it in her direction again, his grin spreading wider. Pomni braced herself, not moving till he shoot so he couldn’t predict where she would turn if she avoided the large boot. After what felt like a minute, Jax pressed a button and Pomni swiftly rolled to her right.

She stood up and thought about how reloading can take a second or more so she took that opening to throw a sandwich at him but what she didn’t predict was Jax swinging his own weapon to hit Pomni right at her side. He didn’t reload his rocket, he just let the boot stay at Pomni’s previous location before swinging it to the direction she rolled at.

Unprepared, she could only let out a yelp before she got pushed hard because Jax didn’t control his strength when he swung it to her so the impact was enough to send her straight inside the portal that was standing far at her other side.

Pomni let out a few grunts when she rolled and bounced on the ground inside the portal, making her let go of the basket she was holding. After a few turns in the air and bumps on the ground, she finally landed on her back.

She let out a pained moan as she opened her eyes. She lifted her head to look around and saw her environment change, then let out another pathetic sound when she saw the Mildenhall Manor standing proudly before her, she harshly put her head back to the ground.

Not long after, Jax came into view after following her inside. He bent his lanky stature to grin down at her with his stupidly crescented eyes. “What ya dreamin about, loser?” he dragged out the r on his last word, to really hammer down that nail on her coffin.

The jester blinked a few times as she stared back at him. The irritation and playful rivalry slowly dying down when it started to sink in at how unprompted and childish that stand off of theirs.

She smiled when she also realized that Jax was really here, that she was not alone anymore. He was not an imagination nor an illusion she hesitantly created due to her loneliness. It was him, in the digital flesh.

This made her giggle then laugh, wholeheartedly. She doesn’t remember when was the last time she laughed like this. ‘He is here, really here.’ then she laughed more.

Jax’s grin turned into a wide but non-degrading smile. His eyes softened a bit “Is this the new method of coping when you lose?” he asked before mimicking her laughter, it was contagious.

Her laughter carried that light, positive feeling that spreads to anyone who heard her. The rabbit felt the same feeling he felt whenever he looked at stars radiating across the sky. He crouched down to her side as he continued laughing with her, she turned her head right and left when she mouthed the words 'no' repeatedly to respond to his question.

This made him snicker and Pomni’s laughter echoed it a bit louder, which also made him laugh more too.

It was a good picture of happiness in contrast to their surroundings. A jester lying on the ground like a starfish, with a purple rabbit crouching down while he looked at her, his elbows resting on his knees. Both of them letting out a joyful of laughter, giggling to themselves, not minding the eerie wind and sky while the Mildenhall Manor stood menacingly just near them.

Their laughter died down instantly when a sudden thunder boomed loudly in the sky, making Pomni sat down instantly. Wide eyed, the two looked at each other before nodding in agreement. After Jax pulled her up, she insisted on going back to the void before something bad happened.

But Jax was curious, insistent and with his persuasive skills, he convinced her to go along the adventure with him. He missed on the ‘fun’ parts of the adventure so he wanted try it out. They started walking side by side as they entered the opened gates of the manor.

“C’mon, it’ll be fine. We have you as guide so everything will go smoothly.” he subtly comforted, knowing that she already have gone through it once. “Besides, you and Kinger made it out just fine. I don’t think it’ll be that bad.”

“Me and Kinger?”
“Yeah, you were all smiles and friendly when you got out.”

She thought about it while walking beside him. “Huh, that happened?”

Jax only lifted a brow in response which made her clear her throat “I- I mean, I don’t know.” she fidgeted with the pompom on her outfit. “I actually don’t remember what happened here anymore.”

“What? Got your brain all mixed up from being alone in the void?”

“No, it’s-” she averted her gaze, contemplated if she should explain everything to him right now. She sighed as she decided to tell him right after the adventure, when the time and place were right. “Nevermind, let’s just get over this quick.”

They had plenty of time anyways so she could let this one go.
.
.
.
Except they didn’t go through just one. Despite getting uncomfortably stuck for quite some time inside the horror adventure, because they couldn’t figure out the way to solve it and of the constant screaming and blaming they exchanged, that didn’t stop Jax from convincing her to go through another one.

Of course she didn’t agree, afraid that they’d go through something similar but he practically shoved her into their next one, particularly the Candy Chaos adventure. This time though, they had fun. Catching the bandits, bringing them to justice, and causing mayhem throughout the kingdom. This made it easier for the rabbit to drag her into another adventure.

They bickered, laughed, screamed, and caused chaos to every portal they have gone through, especially in the adventures which was suggested by Jax but was discontinued after a vote. They checked every detail they couldn’t indulge themselves before because of their ringmaster’s and the other circus members’ impatience.

They got out of the portal soaked and panting as they finished another adventure that occurred on the sea. Pomni let her body get slammed to the ground when the exhaustion took her.

“Ugh, that was a lot.” he huffed out, plopping down besides her. She hummed in response as she nodded in agreement. They thought they could take on the rather physically taxing adventure of sea and pirates with the adrenaline coursing all over their avatar. But they overestimated themselves and now, their whole body is trembling like a leaf from the strain, a repercussion from overexerting themselves.

Solving it was easy, acting upon the solution midst the roaring winds, and harsh waves of water was clearly not.

Only the sound of their heavy panting could be heard from the mundane atmosphere of the void. Jax subtly looked at Pomni, her face was flushed, mouth agape to breath through it and her eyes was closed shut. She looked mesmerizing even in this state.

Jax quickly took his eyes off her when she gently opened hers. He let a few minutes pass before standing up. “C’mon, we still haven’t gone through that one.” he pointed to a portal showcasing the noir bar adventure.

Pomni groaned. “Aren’t you tired? We’ve gone through like, 4 or more adventures already.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t ruin the fun here, Pompom. 4 adventures are nothing.” he lightly nudged her left leg with his foot. “Besides we do nothing on this one so stand up.”

“Say those again and I’ll conjure a corn to throw at you.” she threatened before sitting up. Her head was still ringing.

“Pfft, you wouldn’t do that.” he dismissed her with his hand, the other on his hip before he suddenly look at her confused. “Wait, conjure?”

“Yeah, I can conjure things up.” she noticed the odd look on his face when she said that like it was nothing as she stood up. She remembered that she didn’t explain it to him earlier.

‘Shit. I got distracted.’

“Oh yeah, I was supposed to explain that to you earlier.” she continued. She had a lot of explaining to do but she was so caught up from having fun, she totally forgot about it. She got reminded by how much time have passed and cursed herself for forgetting.

“Basically, if I concentrated hard enough I could conjure things out of thin air.” she raised her hands infront of her and made her palms face each other to show an example. Not more than 3 seconds after, a sandwich popped into existence in between them. “See?”

“Wait, is that why they’re suddenly hard and bigger all of a sudden? You weren’t pulling them out of the basket?” he pointed out with his finger.

She scratched her neck with her available hand. “The basket was for added effect.” she shyly admitted, feeling like she was caught on an embarrassing act.

“Kinger taught me how to do it, the conjuring.” she played with her bottom pompom, she doesn’t know how to continue her explanation. They were having so much fun and she knew this would break it.

But she needed to do it. She had to, she has no time to think about her own feelings. She gathered her strength in one shuddering inhale before puffing it out.

“Okay, that’s cool.” he smirked before eyeing the noir bar adventure. “Ready to get wasted on the next one, though?” he teasingly asked when he pointed at it with his thumb.

Pomni blinked rapidly. “Uhhh.. no?”

He grimaced before rolling his head in dissatisfaction. “C’mon now, it’s gonna be fun!” he exhaled when he grabbed her hand to pull her with him.

“Wait, wait. No!” she firmly rejected and scoffed before eyeing him weirdly. “Are you not curious how I am doing this? On why Kinger taught it to me?”

He averted his eyes to the left and shrugged his shoulders. “Nope, you told me enough so come on.” he pulled her arm again but she resisted.

“We can’t, okay? We have no time!” she glared at him before she forcefully and successfully took her arm back. “Don’t you wanna know why I was suddenly gone? Why Ribbit, Kaufmo and Queenie came back?”

She was looking up at him with curiosity, baffled by his nonchalance at the new found information. His eyes narrowed, still averting his gaze from her. He looked at her once and decided to give in to her.

“Fine. Why?” he begrudgingly asked her.

She pursed her lips and continued what she was going to say before Jax interrupted her. Letting the previously gathered strength to push her through.

“I… was abstracting.” she started and was the one averting her eyes now, not noticing the subtle change of expression Jax made. She rubbed her left arm as comfort. “Although, it goes away from time to time but everytime it happened, it gets worse.”

She breathed in again. “The scary part was, I didn’t mind it. It felt… nice.” she looked down at her feet. She felt so fidgety, her eyes couldn’t exactly stay on the same spot.

“When I realized that, I thought of you, of everyone and I couldn’t let you go through that again. Ribbit and Kaufmo. Queenie. Scratch. I didn’t want to be a painful memory for all of you, so I tried to fight it. And when I started feeling like I couldn’t anymore, I snooped around and then, long story short, I found a way to convert my..” she trailed, contemplating if she should utter the word ‘code’. Afraid to break the reality on him, of them just a collection of code inside a computer.

She looked up at him and he was looking up to the side to hide his expression from her. “..memories. My uncorrupted memories that made me hopeful and sane enough to not fully abstract. I took in some of Ribbit, Kaufmo and Queenie’s memories to convert them with mine. I didn’t know if it would work at that time but Kinger assured me.”

She was trembling at this point, his lack of reaction was starting to affect her. “Kinger wanted to do it, he advised me against it but, I decided against him. I knew he didn’t do it sooner himself because he wanted to see Queenie. He tried telling me that we should look for another way but there was no time. Besides, he was barely hanging on with his sanity and I was abstracting anyway so why not make myself useful, right?” she scoffed, trying to lift up the heavy tension between them.

“So I did it. My existence and my memories, in exchange for Kaufmo, Ribbit and Queenie. I wasn’t enough for the others though so I couldn’t include them. My memories was like ink on a clean water, one drop then a lot of their memories came back.” she smiled to herself. “It was only because they had an ounce of care to return back to their original state that made my method much more effective, that made it possible.”

A long silence stretched on after that. She was looking at him still, to get a read on his expression but he wouldn’t let her. He was still unresponsive throughout her explanation “Jax?”

“What? You done?” she couldn’t form a response to that so she only nodded. “Good, now let’s go.”

Dumbfounded, she tilted her head. “..that’s it? Did you hear anything I said?”

“Yeah, yeah. It was this and that, memory and that. Very cool of you, Pomni.” he clicked his tongue. “Sheesh, didn’t know you had it on ya.” he made gun fingers and playfully pointed at her. “Now, let’s go drink. You must be thirsty after all that yapping.”

He turned his back to go ahead of her but Pomni already sensed his bullshit facade and he wouldn’t let him have an easy escape.

“Jax.” not angry, not loud, no malice. Yet, it was startling, prickly on his skin by how simple and final her call was.

There was a reason why he didn’t try questioning everything that he was introduced to after entering the exit door, why he didn’t try to get more out of her when she started explaining how she could come up with things like Caine did, and why he tried so damn hard to distract her from thinking by going on an onslaught of adventure clearing spree.

He was afraid of this.

It was not like he didn’t listen. In fact, he heard her, understood every single word she uttered very well. And he hated every single thing about it. She was right, Jax was curious but he was still afraid of the truth surrounding her disappearance and the recently unabstracted circus members. Many questions swam inside his head. Yet he decided against voicing it out, fearing that he wouldn’t like the answers she would give him.

And he was right, damn right when she shot down every standing question in his mind with the most painful answer that she could come up with. He couldn’t accept it, he didn’t want it. Why couldn’t they just stay in their own little bubble? Having fun and getting messy?

“You explained everything perfectly, Pomni. I get it.” he pursed his lips, his ears flopping down to cover his face. “If you don’t want to come with me, fine. You can stay here.” he gave up with a sigh, back slumping down as he started walking towards the portal. He wished Pomni won’t follow him nor be more insistent than she already was.

But who was Pomni, if not blockheaded. “No, don’t do this right now.” she walked with a quickened pace to catch up to him, hand reaching out to his arm. “I already told you we have no time! Talk to me, ask me, anything.”

When he felt the tip of her fingers almost touch his arm, he quickly yanked it away from her reach. “What do you even want me to say? I already asked and you gave me an answer. That’s it. I’m done!” he exclaimed through gritted teeth

He turned to look at her and immediately saw the dissatisfaction tinged with sadness on her face. He couldn’t help but snicker. “I mean, what more do you want from me?”

He finally received that inquisitive, wobbly stare of hers, staring directly at his soul to get a read at whatever was going through his mind and he hated it. God, he hated everything that was happening right now. “You made your point, Pomni. So shut it, and leave me alone.”

He turned his back on her again, started walking away. Distancing himself from her and the truth she carried. She balled her hands into a fist, readying herself to throw words that could strike a point to Jax. Most of which were just brought out due to the heat of the moment but that was to be expected. They were too emotionally charged and riled up, they’d probably say anything to get into each other’s skin.

Her brows knitted together, she stepped forward to follow him “Is it because I broke our promise? Is it because you’re scared to face the truth right now that you’re running away?”

“Ha! In your dreams.” he quickened his pace, trying to outrun the jester in this limited space.

“Admit it. You’re scared cause you do care about me. You can’t face me because you’re mad that I didn’t keep my promise.”

He sharply turned towards her, face contorted with anger and disbelief “You sound so certain with your romantic fantasies. It makes me wanna shrivel up.”

“It’s not- Ugh! I am certain because it’s true! And that’s what you always do when things don’t go your way, you always ran because you’re-”

“Oh go on now, say it. What am I supposed to be right now, oh great Pomni?”

“-scared!”

He snorted, a smirk made its way on his face as he palmed his forehead “Oooof course. You couldn’t get the reaction nor hear the words you wanted to hear so now, I am a coward. Wooh! What a great conclusion our president has come up to, clap it for the president!” he clapped his hands together when he called out to an invincible crowd.

Meanwhile, Pomni just let all of the mockery happen as she firmly questioned his actions “Then why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep turning your back from me if you are not afraid!”

“God! I am not, okay? I just don’t care! Can’t you get that? That maybe it’s because I don’t care about how your savior complex got triggered all of a sudden and how sad your act of sacrifice is.”

He leaned down to her level, glaring back at her “What? Did you want me to praise you? For being the oh, so selfless hero of ours? To thank you for carrying all of our heavy burdens? Well, glory to you and thank you very much. Happy now?”

He grabbed one of her bells to pull at it and she, quickly, yanked it out of his hand, making her step back. “That’s not what I meant.”

He squinted his eyes on her “It sure doesn’t sound like it.”

She gritted her teeth and took a step forward, chest raised high against his intimidating look “Then why did you reach out your hand? Why were you trying to reach me in that daisy field? You showed me you care when you ran and cried to me in that field!”

“That’s your imagination acting up.”

“I know what I saw, Jax”

Jax’s toothy grin twitched, irritation coursing in his body “Ok. You think you see through me? Well Pomni, two can play in this game.” he took a step forward as he stabbed his finger on her shoulder, pushing her back a little. “You think you are some saint, important person that does good for the others when you say you don’t want to be a painful memory so you chose to be forgotten?”

He stood up with that demeaning look and smirk of his. “Ha! Why show yourself then, Pomni? Why are you still here? Why do you keep reminding us even though you know it’s painful? You really think you’re so clever when you’re just another selfish, goody two shoes who badly wants to be mourned for.” he poked her, gestured around as he continued on invading her space. “But guess what? We’re forgetting about you and we will forget about you. No funerals. No speeches. Nothing.” he concluded with his hands gesturing all around them to make a point, breathing heavily as he let all of his thoughts out in the open.

He lowered himself again with his eyes blown up and wide smile on his face “And you, deserve that.”

Pomni couldn’t respond. Speechless when every word of his took a home run on getting under her skin, he was so damn good at riling her up. Even so, she still didn’t let go of the glare they held at the start of their shouting. She remained strong, not letting his indoctrination nor intimidation make her falter even a bit.

It took a moment before Jax could process all of the words he said to her. He feels himself choking up, he said a lot of things. The weight of his words sinking into him. Was he supposed to say sorry now? He didn’t know and if he was supposed to, he wouldn’t. So he flicked his eyes to every side except Pomni’s as he stood up to his full length, the jester never gave into his words.

Suddenly, a sandwich appeared in Pomni’s hand and Jax couldn’t help but scoff at it. “What? Gonna throw me that and beat me up to go for a round 2 of episode 6?”

Well, he called it but not exactly cause the very next thing that the jester did was punch him on the gut, sandwich still in hand, making Jax took a few step back to groan at the impact, he glared at her and saw how she threw away the sandwich before she walked towards him.

With an eye twitch, he tried widening their distance by walking away, trusting his longer limbs to carry him further away from her but, unexpectedly, she leaped and grabbed his arm before showing her set of pointy teeth to bite into his arm. He shrieked and pulled at her hat, trying to remove her hold on him. Pomni resisted though, biting harder into his arm as he pulled at her hat. When he successfully detached her from him, he slammed her body on the ground harshly and she made a pained sound at the impact.

She rolled to her stomach and watched as he turned around to rush to the portal for the noir adventure. Pomni grimaced before pushing herself up and quickly worked with her tiny legs to catch up to him. She conjured a wall that reached only half his height in front of him, making him stop on his track and she used that opportunity to climb up his back.

She slung her legs on top of both of his shoulders and crossed it over his neck to secure her place. She raised her clutched fist before punching his head repeatedly. Jax immediately and almost lost his balance, he tried shaking her off of him but her legs tightened around his neck, choking him as he struggled.

Teary eyed, he clutched and pulled her off of him but her limbs only stretched as she remained attached on the back of his head. He punched her back with his other hand in retort, repeatedly.

“You!” he said when her legs started to loosen on his neck, letting go of her secured spot. “are so!” he successfully pulled her away from him and he looked at her angry face as she dangled in the air, before he threw her in the ground again. “annoying!”

Pomni slid on the floor, coming to a stop after a few feet from him. She hissed as she turned and push herself up on her elbows. She could hear them both panting, gasping in large amounts of air to their overexerted body. Still crouching on the floor, she looked back at his defensive posture with his balled up hands on his sides, and he looked back at her, continuing their look of disdain and anger that they were throwing to one another.

“There’s something genuinely wrong with-”

He was interrupted when the jester slammed her fist on the ground with a harsh grunt, looking away from him. She continued breathing heavily as she spoke softly “This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

She tightly shuts her eyes and focused on her breathing. “I was just supposed to explain these to you then catch up and then joke around or something. We weren’t supposed to fight. I didn’t- I didn’t want us to part like this. You think I wanted this?” Her voice slowly softened as she lets out her thoughts.

The almost quiet revelation caught him a bit off guard. His knitted brows started softening and his look turned inquisitive, filled with unease.

She was still catching her breath “Do you think I want to leave you guys? That I wanna do this at all?” she let out a shaky exhale “I was scared. The abstraction… it was getting worse and I didn’t know what to do”

She pressed her forehead on the floor, it wasn’t cold like what she expected nor was it warm. It was just hard and there, to catch her weight, making her realize once more of how they’re trapped in this digital space.

“I didn’t want to forget you guys, I badly wanted to stay by your side.” she paused for a moment, thinking about her next words and concluded to not double guess herself any longer “I don’t want to leave you, Jax.” her voice cracked.

She pulled her limbs to herself, curling into herself tighter. She felt so cold and alone, her anger was subsiding by the passing minute. Sadness seeped from every word she was muttering. “I thought if I was completely gone, and with your friends back, it won’t be hard for you, all of you.”

She clutched on the fabric of her chest as she felt her tears threaten to fall over “I just.. wanted to help.” her mind was reeling, remembering his words.

“You are right.” she sniffled against the floor, the aching in her heart starting to become unbearable. “I wanted to feel like I’m someone important. I don’t want to be forgotten.”

She couldn’t hide it any longer, she couldn’t be ‘brave’ any longer. She couldn’t keep up with the strong facade anymore as she sobbed against the floor. Her cries slowly getting louder. “And you almost abstracted again because of that.”

Jax just watched her crumble, watch her walls break down in front of him. He could only stand there as her cries echo loudly against the endless space of the void. And it hurts so bad. He wanted to step forward, say something or anything at all but he was frozen in place and what was he even supposed to say? Sorry? That everything is going to be fine? Joke about it? That he didn’t mean everything he just said to her and he just said those because she was right, he was afraid?

Goddamn it.

He had so many things he thinks he should do and at the same time, nothing. His thoughts were suddenly cut off when she continued in a breathless, almost a whisper voice. Like she was in a haze and in front of everyone.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry”

She let in a shaky inhale as she choked on her tears. She, then, slightly lifted her head from the ground and turned to look at him, tears falling from her face when she let out a choked out sob as she continued “I’m so sorry.”

Pomni was selfish. She wanted this. Jax was right because if she truly loved them then why would she still insist herself on them, knowing that it’ll only hurt them? She should’ve been content here, content on holding onto what little of herself and memories she had left.

Everything she conjured in the void was connected to them, from the portals to the smallest trinkets around them held memories of their times together. Futile attempts of clinging into them as she started forgetting her time from the circus.

Going inside those portals, alone as she reminisced but barely anything coming up in her mind so she just collects tidbits of what felt like a remainder of their friendship. She should’ve continued doing those as she slowly gets deleted. And now, she even dared drag him into this. Selfish, selfish, selfish prick.

“I-” his mind blanked, his heart heavy with anguish. The seriousness and heaviness of their situation starting to dawn on him. His eyes shrunk and wobbled, he still didn’t know what to do even with her crying.

She understood this. She always knew he didn’t do well in confrontational situations like this so she pushed herself up, making a hic sound, to sit and calm herself down. She wiped away her never ending tears and cursing herself when they just won’t stop. She was freaking miserable and cringe.

Jax watched her throughout, he looked at his left hand before clutching it tight. He breathed in to steel himself and decided he was going to do something, anything. He took a step forward, then another and another. His movements were stiff and he still didn’t know what to do to comfort her but the first thing he needed was to reach her right now so he didn’t let himself overthink it anymore.

“Huh?” he let out when even his simple goal was interrupted as he started slowly floating in the air. His paws no longer touching the ground. Pomni looked up at him when she heard the confused sound.

His body started getting pulled, slowly, at the opposite horizon from Pomni’s direction “What’s going on?” he could feel the pull getting stronger by the second and when he passed through the medium sized wall, Pomni created to block his path, he held unto it to stop himself from getting dragged into nowhere any further.

But the pull was unrelenting and powerful. He shouted when he could feel himself stretch from the pull and him resisting it. He grabbed on the wall tightly with all the strength he could muster but quickly realized it wasn’t enough when he felt his hand slipping off of it.

‘No no no no no’

This is not how it’s supposed to end. He needed to say something. He was going to walk up to her. And then, then. Fuck, who cares what then if he couldn’t escape from this stupid, unwanted pull from the void!?

He loudly grunted when he felt one of his fingers slip off the slab. The void proved to be stronger as it won over the game of pull and push, his fingers sliding off of their hold. But then there was the blockhead who, in the perfect time, caught his arm to pull him back.

She groaned in protest as she leaned her whole body back, pulling her lanky buddy back. Her feet was planted against the block of wall Jax was holding unto to use it as support. Jax looked at her in surprise, he looked at her swollen eyes as she continued crying despite the disrupting, agonizing situation. He narrowed his eyes at the newfound courage and grabbed her hand to pull himself up, joining her in their fight against fate or whatever that caused this pull on him.

But the force just increased its power, clearly impatient and annoyed at the delayed deliverance of its objective. The two screamed at the pain, their limbs stretching painfully when that happened.

And in that moment, Jax realized that they were losing. He knew all too well the feeling when encountering the impossible, knew that there were forces they couldn’t challenge, circumstances that they could never escape, and realities that they could never run away from. Which was what he could feel in this moment.

He looked back down to where he was getting pulled into and then to her, his eyes searched for her face. Her eyes was closed shut and her teeth was gritted against each other as she focused on pulling him back to her. He gulped nervously and tightened his hold on her.

Then, in his mind, he begged. Pleaded for that one chance to make it right. He was ready to throw everything away, accept whatever hit him in the future if only he could apologize to Pomni. To have that one last decent conversation with her before everything fully collapsed. He pleaded with all of his heart because, for the first time in this world, he wanted to hang on. To live within the reality thinly knitted into this digital space.

But Jax, oh poor Jax. If only you deserved it. If only you weren’t such an insufferable jerk. And if only Pomni deserved it. If only she wasn’t such a selfish, pretentious prick then maybe, just maybe, whoever you were pleading to would’ve listened.

The two of you have one very sad fate, indeed.

Pomni didn’t account the fact that she was slowly getting deleted so when she glitched out in that millisecond, the only thing stopping Jax from getting swallowed entirely was suddenly gone. Quickly, pulling him successfully back into the circus.
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Jax suddenly sat upright on his bed, startling the shouting duo of Kaufmo and Ribbit standing beside his bed. His breathing was rapid and heavy, he looked around to see the worried faces of his intruders. His door was opened widely to reveal a worried Ragatha who seemed like she just arrived, effectively blocking the door, with a picture of a mannequin, that stood across his room.

He observed the situation, he can feel himself shaking. He felt himself up and thought that if they could sweat in here then he’d be damp from sweating. He didn’t know what would be the cause though. ‘Was I abstracting again?’

He eyed the two and was going to scold them for invading his space, question their ridiculous state and add in some quips but, before he could even open his mouth to speak, a sob made its way out of his mouth first.

He was crying, very hard. He blinked rapidly as his mind registered the tears streaming down his face. He continued feeling himself up with his hands, there was no piercing pain nor ache running throughout his body so what the fuck?

He looked around again and saw them saying something to him, talking to each other and to him, but he couldn’t hear them. The room and their faces were blurry, blocked by his tears. He could only feel his heartbeat thumping loudly against his chest and mind. It was not rapid like how it usually was when he was crying. His non existent heart beats normally but it felt unnaturally heavy.

He put a palm on his chest and keeled over as his eyes shrunk and turned wobbly. His mouth agape and drool slipping out of it. Jax felt so sad, maddeningly sad but he didn’t know why. He breathed in slowly but it felt like no air was going inside him, his heart felt like it was wrapped in melancholy and devoid of life.

What was happening? Why was he so sad? He tried chuckling, to regain his smirk and pull of that usual dismissive facade to throw his audience off guard. To drive them away from seeing his vulnerable state, but even shame and pride couldn’t overthrow whatever he was feeling right now. He could feel his attempt for a smirk twitch on its side and fail miserably.

He couldn’t do anything except wallow in his own confusing, miserable state. He moaned and groaned as he tried making a sound, to let some of the overbearing sadness in his heart to spill out and not suffocate him thoroughly right now. But that proved ineffective when another beat reminded him of his despondence, which made him sob even more.

Why?

What was happening to him? What caused this? Why was he feeling like this?

He jogged his memories for some clue but nothing, he felt like he knew it was just tucked somewhere in his memories but he couldn’t find it.

‘I’m feeling a lot of things today, huh?’ he would’ve scoffed at himself if he could but nothing was making him feel better.

‘Remember’ he convinced himself. ‘Remember!’ he wanted to know the reason for his melancholy, the cause of this weight inside him. To not wallow in despair while not knowing anything. He just wanted answers, then he could scold Caine for it because this was more likely his fault anyways.

If only he could remember.

‘Remember, goddammit.’ he thought to himself as if the memory would miraculously present itself after calling it three times.

“F###.” he exhaled in between sobs, feeling defeated at his situation

His fingers digged into his palms as it shakes. The overwhelming emotion made him bang his hand unto the mattress below him.

“F###!”

(: