Chapter Text
The stargazing was beautiful.
Caine decided to give the Circus a new adventure, less violent and completely boring.
That's all because of yesterday, when dear miss princess Ragatha had a full-blown identity crisis and began to apologize even to the dumb NPCs.
She was more unstable than usual, that’s a fact. Just another crazy person to add to the list.
How could she be like that? What a waste of time.
Crisis and panic attacks were normal here. Jax remembers entering that hellhole for the first time. Ragatha surrounded him like he was a fish out of water, someone who needed to be saved.
The thing is, he didn’t. His old and former life was just a hutch. Here, everything is fake, so we can just let it loose.
Why, instead of taking care of her own problems, did she have to keep talking and talking about stupid and meaningless things? As we need more of this [@#$!] in this place.
‘Cause what was the point of all this anyway? We are already dead. We don't belong here. She didn’t have to pretend we did.
In the end, after we lost an incredible adventure due to dollface, lil ol’ Kauf asked for a adventure specially for her, and coincidentally Caine accepted.
Jax could never understand that guy. An AI with a gigantic mouth and a toothy blob trapped in this space of endless torture. What could be more fulfilling than this? What a job.
“STARGIZING IT IS!” Caine screamed, and a portal sucked everyone into a parallel world.
Now we’re here.
Jax looked up. The sky was pretty; he couldn’t deny it. Apart from the obvious sensation of fakeness, the tiny stars floated in the green sky, falling into the air. Their colour matched Ribbit's glowy skin.
He was laying on the floor, with his hands comfortably placed behind his head. He felt some contact glitches, but he remained still, with the long bunny ears stretched out on the ground.
Jax turned his face to Ribbit. It’s been a while since they talked about it, but damn, they looked so good. And the worst thing is, he’s mad about it.
Their round, gentle face, contrasting that red ribbon fastened at their chest. The digital aspect made it seem like she was a long-distant dream, as if it weren't there, with the pixels and glitches that blended together thoroughly.
Her round and peached eyes each had a light, as if she were pondering all the time. He was fuming.
A million thoughts crossed his mind, and the sensation of his gigantic pupils shrinking more and more was nerve-racking.
It was yet another thing he hated about this place, hated about his life, where he didn't even have control over his own body.
“Whatcha thinking ‘bout, Tails?” Ribbit said, smiling and turning their head. Instinctively, Jax could feel his eyes getting bigger.
“Tails? This again?” Jax laughed and sat down.
“You’re the worst at making nicknames. I'll give this one a point for because it refers to ME, the best person ya know” he blinked his left eye and waved his hand, patting Ribbit’s back “but leave this to the professionals, Hopscotch.”
“Hopscotch? Really?” Ribbit smiled in an almost malicious way “I don’t think that’s fair, I’m not the one that jumps from topic to topic.”
“Touché.”
Face-to-face to Jax, Ribbit teases:
“Well, Mr. Denomination, you might fool Ragdoll and Kinger, but I ain’t no dumb[@#$!].”
Crossing her legs, Ribbit picks his ear, raising the tone.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Oh.
Silence echoed, more than the Void could ever do. He frowned.
“What?”
Ribbit didn’t seem surprised, and Jax layed down again, closing his eyes.
“I don’t understand what you’re talkin’ about—” He stuttered, [@#$!].
“W-what you wanna know? There’s nothing new to this life. To this place...” his hand moved in circular motions as he talked “...only the same stuff. The same people. The same thoughts. I wish i could just—” Jax stopped.
As his eyes opened, Ribbit wasn’t looking at him. Thank god (or any digital omnipresent being of that kind)
They were looking at the sky, like she didn’t even hear a word that he said.
“Ribbit?”
No response.
“Ribs?”
They sighed. A long and heavy breath.
“Have you...”
Jax straightened up.
“Have you ever done something that you regret?”
“Done...what?” his eyes twitched “What’s this about?”
“You know, have you ever pushed things way too far, just to see if there’s a breaking point?” she blinked, and tiny pointed stars jumped from her eyelashes “Only for everything to fall apart in the end?”
Jax felt his heart — if he ever had one — skip a beat. She was one of the people he talked to most at the circus, someone he truly considered a friend. However, this time, he didn’t know what to answer.
“I...”
A blinding light appeared in front of their eyes.
“OH MY MY!!”
A pair of blue and green eyes invaded the sky. Right behind them, a flying set of dentures with a humanoid body swallowed both eyeballs. Creepy.
Jax and Ribbit turned only to see Caine in the center of the starry field, near the dearest couple, Hoo-Ha and Button-eyes. Kaufmo was also there, as a poor third wheel. Jax couldn’t see the newbie.
“We can talk about this later if y—”
“HA! I SEE YOU BONKERS HAVE RE—RESTED ENOUGH!” Caine swung his body in the air, as Bubble tried to eat his cane.
Ragatha lifted her finger “But, Caine, we didn’t even—”
Snap!
Caine moved his finger and a pink portal composed of bright lights appeared. Ragatha was violently dragged into it.
It didn’t take long for everyone to be back at the Circus.