Chapter Text
Things were…different after the adventure. Pomni couldn’t quite describe it, but things had just…changed.
First Jax pressed the red button- The one that supposedly trapped them here forever- and while everyone’s mind was still reeling from that, Caine just appeared like it was nothing! Smiling like he always did, like he had no idea how much damage he’d just done- And that was the thing wasn’t it? He didn’t. He was a computer program. He couldn’t possibly understand the impact of him giving them fake hope like that, only for it to be ripped away and- and-
Pomni took a deep breath, and at that moment, it was all that could be heard. Because here they were, sitting in the main area of the circus like any other day- like any other morning before Caine popped up with the adventure of the day. He was taking a while, though.
Unlike every other day, no one was talking. Everyone was still just…processing. Sure, they all went their separate ways after Caine teleported them back to the main tent and they got plenty of time to think things through during the night, but it was… It was just a lot. And when Pomni noticed the distant stare on Ragatha’s face, she couldn’t help but break the tense atmosphere once more.
“Ragatha?”
“Huh?” she asked as she snapped out of her daze.
“You doing okay?”
She let out a weak laugh, and yeah, Pomni supposed it was a rather dumb question. Silly and stupid and- Wait, where was Jax?
“That’s a good question,” Ragatha ended up saying. It was quiet again after that, and Pomni couldn’t help but wonder how she hadn’t noticed Jax’ absence- Well, it’s not like she hadn’t noticed he wasn’t there when she got here, but she’d expected him to be there by now. Hiding away in his room was unlike him, even after something like yesterday. No, if anything, he’d be the first to rub it in their faces- The first to say I told you so.
“I can’t believe it was all just…fake,” Zooble muttered, before their eyes turned angry. “I can’t believe Jax tried to [BEEP]ing trap us here forever!”
Pomni couldn’t exactly argue with that… None of them knew why Jax did it, but it was a fact that he did press that red button.
“That’s not entirely fair,” Gangle spoke up, making Zooble stare at her with wide eyes. Pomni was shocked, too. She didn’t expect Gangle, of all people, to stand up for the purple rabbit.
“Fair? Fair?! What are you talking about?!” Zooble snapped, immediately lowering their tone when they noticed it freaked out Gangle. “Gangle, you don’t have to-”
“No, it’s just… Jax was right, wasn’t he?” she said, making Zooble still again. Oh, Pomni had not been expecting her to be the one to bring it up- She’d been scared to mention it, honestly. “He knew it was an adventure the whole time. That it… That it never even mattered…”
“It still didn’t give him the right to do that,” Ragatha frowned, fidgeting with her mitten hands, restlessly rubbing them over each other. A nervous tick Pomni had noticed a couple of times before.
“It didn’t,” Pomni agreed. “But Gangle is right- There’s no point in dwelling on it now. Not when… When it was never real.”
“But what if-” Zooble started.
“All we can do now…is to just be there for each other,” Gangle spoke, trying to give Zooble a small smile even through her tragedy mask. Zooble sighed, placing a claw on her ribbon. Gangle was quick to wrap her hand over theirs, and the sight brought a small smile to Pomni’s face as well. Maybe… Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.
“She’s right,” Pomni repeated. “I think… I think we should abandon the idea of leaving.”
“Wait what-” Zooble said, their head snapping in her direction in an instant. Pomni suppressed the urge to flinch.
“We got our hopes up, and we were let down. I don’t know what exactly happened with Kaufmo... But we can’t let that despair consume us. We should focus on what we have,” she explained, looking aside to Ragatha. “Like you said... Constantly chasing an unobtainable goal will drive us crazy. Maybe what we have to do now is to just... Live.”
Zooble let out a choked out noise, and tears welled up in their eyes as Gangle hugged her. Ragatha placed a hand on top of Pomni’s at the sight, giving her a forced smile. It would probably take some getting used to, but Pomni was sure that it was the best solution.
“We’re all in this together,” the ragdoll confirmed.
“And we’ll always be in this together, no matter what,” Pomni nodded, pulling her hand away before standing up. “Which is why I’m going to check up on Jax- I’m worried about him.”
Nobody tried to stop her, but she could see the hesitant looks. After what the purple rabbit had pulled… Even if it wasn’t real… Pomni couldn’t say she blamed any of them, but that didn’t mean she was just going to give up on him. The worst thing someone could do in this place was make someone feel unloved or unwanted, after all. And so she made her way over to his door, knocked, and waited.
Knocked again. Waited.
Knocked once more.
Pomni frowned, pressing her head up against the door to listen for any noise. Their rooms were pretty soundproof, though, so even if he was moving around in there, Pomni doubted she’d hear anything. So she rang the doorbell, kept pressing it repeatedly just to annoy him out into the hall
“Come on Jax,” she muttered. “Open the door…”
Then Pomni tugged at the doorknob- an act of frustration, more than anything. She yelped, stumbling back when it actually opened. The… The door wasn’t locked… Why wasn’t it locked? Jax always locked his door-
Pomni pulled it open before she could start to hesitate, her eyes flitting across the pink princess room. Oh god, no wonder Jax never let anybody in here- He was probably so embarrassed by this, even if he didn’t choose the room he was given. But the rabbit himself wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Not at the desk or the tiny tea table or on the quilts that covered the bed- No purple ears or yellow smiles.
Yet no bulbous colourful eyes, either. No jagged black edges, no sounds of distortion.
She closed the door again, frowning a little. If Jax wasn’t in his room, then where could he be..? The grounds weren’t too big, but big enough to get lost in. To hide and not be found. And Jax knew this place like the back of his hand with how much he’d explored the circus. He could easily avoid any one of them, if he wished to.
The tension had eased up a bit by the time she rejoined the rest of the cast, light conversation about this and that.
“Oh, hey Pomni,” Ragatha called out when she spotted the jester, her smile faltering when she saw she was alone. “You, uh, you didn’t manage to convince Jax to join us?”
“He wasn’t in his room,” Pomni sighed as she sat down on the couch again.
“He didn’t open up? How typical-” Zooble huffed, arms crossed.
“No, no, he… He wasn’t in his room. I checked,” Pomni reiterated. “The door… He left his door unlocked.”
“He… But Jax never leaves his room unlocked,” Ragatha frowned, and Pomni could tell that was the moment everyone else started to worry, too. Before anyone had the chance to actually voice their concern, Caine popped up, happy as always.
“Hello, my little fortuitous fruitcakes! Today's adventure is-”
“No. Caine, hold up-” Zooble started, only for Caine to cut them off.
“Nope! Don’t wanna hear any complaints this time!” he yelled, getting all up in their faces before his eyes glitched red and blue and he let out a weird maniacal laugh. The whole circus glitched for a moment, making them tense up. That was…concerning
“No complaints!” Pomni quickly exclaimed, forcing a wide smile. She didn’t know what was up with Caine, but she knew better than to agitate him. “Just, uhm- Jax! Jax isn’t here, and we’d just hate for him to miss out on the adventure of the day!”
“...oh,” Caine breathed, twirling his stick in contemplation. “So… You’re not mad at me?”
“Why- Why would we be mad at you?” Ragatha forced out.
“You all hated the adventure yesterday,” Caine pointed out, and Pomni cringed a little. Yeah, there was no denying that.
“Well…” Ragatha started, looking around to the others for guidance on what to do, what to say.
“Yesterday sucked,” Pomni nodded, opting to open with honesty. “Nobody liked the adventure.”
“I knew it!” Caine snapped. “You-”
“But today is a new day!” she quickly added. “A new adventure! A chance to do better!”
“Do…better?” Caine echoed.
“Everyone has bad days,” Gangle offered. “We know you…didn’t mean to hurt us like that… Right?”
“Hurt- When did I hurt you?” Caine asked, seemingly genuinely confused, and that just confirmed Pomni’s theories on the matter: Caine had no idea how human minds worked. “There weren’t any monsters or traps or weapons or-”
“Look, we don’t…hate you or whatever, but what you did was pretty messed up,” Zooble stated. “And we definitely have to talk about it-”
Pomni shot them a look, and she was glad they caught the meaning behind it.
“-but that doesn’t have to be today,” they sighed. “I’m sure you’ll get better at this stuff. I mean, some of the more recent adventures are actually decent. One dud isn’t going to change the progress you’ve made.”
“Do you… Do you really mean that Zooble?” Caine asked, his eyes growing big and watery as he floated up close to them, making them step back to try and create some distance between them.
“Sure,” they drawled out. “Just never give us a fake escape adventure ever again.”
“Your protest is duly noted!” Caine nodded. “Now, for today’s adventure-!”
“Wait! We’re still missing Jax!” Pomni yelled, and Caine stilled for a moment.
“While I do not appreciate being interrupted again,” Caine started, sounding angry for a moment. “You are right! I’ll just-”
He snapped his fingers. Nothing happened.
Caine frowned, snapping them again. Again, nothing happened. Pomni felt her body grow cold with dread.
“Huh, that’s weird.”
“What is?” Ragatha asked, rubbing her hands over one another again.
“I can’t seem to locate Jax,” he frowned, pulling up a screen of some sort- a map of the circus grounds, Pomni realised. “He’s not on the grounds, but I’m not detecting anomalies in the void either… He must be in the liminal zone between!”
“The…what?” Pomni asked.
“The tiny space between the void and the grounds,” Caine said, enlarging the screen and zooming in on the edge of the circus island. “My sensors always get a little wacky when someone goes there! I’m sure he must be wandering around at the edge of the world- Ah, always exploring, that one!”
Wandering at the edge of the world..? Oh that couldn’t be good.
“And you can’t just…snap him back here when he’s there?” she asked.
“Nope!” Caine yelled, giving them a dopey face, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his eyes turned outwards.
“Wished I’d known that sooner,” Zooble mumbled as Caine twirled around.
“Alright, change of plans! New adventure!” he stated. “Today you’ll all be tasked to find Jax! But be careful not to fall into the void as you explore the edge of digital reality!”
Nobody had time to argue as they were all teleported across the grounds at once. Pomni stumbled, dizzy from the sudden disorientation, yelping as she came face to face with… Well, nothing. The void. She quickly took a few steps back and averted her gaze, opting to look at her other surroundings instead.
She was in a forest of sorts, except the trees were obviously fake and there were only like four different ones that had been copy pasted throughout the entire forest. There was no one else in sight, which meant Caine probably just spread them out at random. Great. Well, she supposed she should be grateful that they had the chance to find Jax and make sure he was okay instead of Caine forcing them on an adventure without him.
“Jax?” she called out as she started walking, because what else was she supposed to do? “Jax?! Are you out there?!”
And even if he was, would he answer her? Maybe he’d simply try to run away- but the moment he stepped out of this weird dead zone, Caine would be able to track and follow him. And if Caine found him, then the adventure would end, right? Jax would be found and they’d all be fine and…and things would go on. Just another day in the circus, like many more yet to come…
“Jax! Answer if you can hear me!” Pomni yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth as she looked around. “You’re only dragging out the inevitable!”
She frowned when all she could see were more trees and a part of the void- something she pointedly avoided looking at. Pomni vividly remembered her first day here, when she’d been ejected into the void. It had only been a couple of seconds, but it was enough to drive her to the brink of madness.
“Jax, come on!” she yelled, continuing her pace, just a little bit faster. “Please- I’m worried about you!”
She cringed a little as she said that. Jax would definitely not want to hear something like that. What was something that would motivate him..?
“Come on, the quicker you tell me where you are, the quicker I’ll get out of-!” she started, only to spot a sliver of purple behind one of the trees. An ear, to be exact, and a part of pink fabric with padded purple feet. Her body instantly relaxed as relief washed over her. “Oh thank god, Jax, you’re-”
She cut herself off when she rounded the tree and saw what state the rabbit was in. He was sitting against a tree, one of his legs pulled up to his chest, an arm wrapped around it, as the other leg bended at his side. His head was leaning back against the tree, but his eyes… His normally yellow and black eyes had fully whitened out, a slight hint of static buzzing in his pupils as his gaze was fixed on the void.
“Jax!” Pomni gasped, immediately placing herself between him and the void, placing her hands on his shoulders and shaking him, trying to pull him out of his trance. He didn’t react to any of it, and Pomni felt panic start to take over as she shook harder. “Jax! Jax, wake up!”
After that she slapped him across the cheek, and his head swerved to the side, staying in that position while his expression remained unchanged.
“No. No, no, no-” Pomni breathed, knowing she was panicking- Knowing she was on the verge of hyperventilating as she felt her vision getting blurry with the spirals of her eyes. She couldn’t lose it. She couldn't afford to lose it until Jax was okay- She needed to get him out of here, away from the void and…and to Caine! Caine would fix him!
Yes, Pomni just needed to get him out of this weird buffer space so Caine could teleport them back to the circus and he could fix Jax! Problem solved! And so she adjusted Jax’ position, got his arm slung over her shoulder as she tried to pull him up. Something she couldn't quite manage, what with their height difference and everything.
But despite being so tall, he weighed pretty much nothing at all- None of them did. And so she opted to pull his arms around her neck from behind, placing his head on her shoulder as she dragged him away from the edge of the world.
“It’s okay, everything's gonna be okay,” she mumbled to herself as she walked. “One step at a time. Jax is gonna be okay- Caine will fix him. Yes! Caine will… Caine will fix this and everything is gonna be okay.”
She let out a shaky laugh as the realization of it all was slowly hitting her. Jax had walked to the edge of the grounds. Jax had been staring off into the void for who knew how long- Hours? The whole night? Oh god, it could’ve been the whole night- He could’ve been there since the end of the adventure and-
“Congratulations Pomni!” Caine yelled as he popped into existence with a confetti explosion. Pomni screamed. “You’re the one who found- Oh, what an enthusiasm! I LIKE it! Now, Jax, you know the edge of the world is off limits for-”
He picked up Jax like it was nothing before making him float up beside him. His eyes were still blank, his body not reacting to being thrown about.
“No, no, no- Caine, careful, Jax is-” Pomni tried.
“Huh… This is…weird,” Caine frowned as he took a closer look at the purple rabbit, flying around him as Pomni continued.
“I found him staring off into the void and-”
Caine turned around in an instant.
“You found him WHAT?!”
Oh. Oh, this was bad, wasn’t it?
“He was just…sitting there, staring into the void,” Pomni explained, gesturing at everything and nothing at once. “But you can fix him, right? You can just-”
She snapped her fingers, getting increasingly worried that Caine wasn’t doing anything.
“-like you always do?”
“While I do control everything in this AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS and some could consider me A GOD,” Caine stated, holding up a finger before pointing at Jax, who was still floating motionlessly beside him. “I do not control matters of the VOID. It is beyond me- LITERALLY! Ha!”
“Wait, wait, wait- So… So that means you can’t fix him?!” Pomni yelled. And oh, there was that panic again. That utterly terrifying feeling of absolutely helplessness. Her eyes trailed to Jax, to that blank stare, and she started laughing.
“Now, now,” Caine tried, looking uncomfortable and- and was that panic? Oh god, if even Caine was panicking then- “Let’s just stay calm! I’m sure this…situation…will resolve itself naturally!”
With that he snapped his fingers, and Pomni felt her body get ripped through space as she warped back into the tent. There was a thud somewhere to her left, and suddenly a purple arm invaded her vision. When she turned to look, Jax was splayed out on the ground. Caine had just dropped him-
“Ugh, a warning next time?” Zooble groaned, rubbing their head.
“I’ll note it down on the list of things to do better!” Caine told them.
“Oh, you found Jax!” Ragatha called out, her smile faltering when she saw Pomni’s face. Pomni wasn’t looking at her, though. Instead, she watched Kinger gently nudge Jax’ limp body. “Uhm, Pomni? Is…everything alright?”
“Hey [BEEP]hole, get up,” Zooble said, giving Jax a light kick to the side, frowning when he didn’t respond.
“Oh, I’m afraid our friend Jax is incapacitated at the moment!” Caine explained, his tone way too happy for the situation. Ragatha frowned, glancing from Pomni to Jax to Caine and back to Pomni.
“What… What does he mean by that?”
“Jax… He…”
“Jax has been looking at the void for just a little too long!” Caine exclaimed, snapping his fingers. Jax zipped up from the ground, suddenly rigidly upright in the air, before he was gently lowered to the floor. Pomni could hear someone gasping, and plasticky porcelain shattered on the ground.
“That’s… His eyes,” Ragatha breathed, her hand reaching out to his face, only to stop short. She hovered for a second before lowering her arm, but didn’t let up on her worrying. “What happened? Why… Why haven’t you reset his body? You- You have to fix this, Caine.”
“Have, have, have- I don’t have to do diddly squat!” Caine grinned, twirling his stick around.
“He can’t,” Pomni choked out. “Caine can’t fix this.”
“What? Of course he can- It’s Caine,” Ragatha said with a forced smile, one that was breaking rather quickly while Kinger waved a hand in front of Jax’ face. “...right?”
“Pomni is correct! I can’t FIX Jax’ little…predicament!” Caine told them. “But I’m sure he’ll be just fine! Just, uh, don’t let him get close to the void again, okay?”
With that, Caine disappeared.