Chapter Text
It’s been a couple months since some of the abstractions made it back, everyone has been trying to get used to the changes in the dynamic. Ribbit has been the one causing the biggest changes, she has been slowly closing the gap between Jax and the other circus members, life has been peaceful, truly peaceful. To celebrate the start of another new year in the circus, Caine made something special, a large, vaguely japanese themed festival. The group has been each enjoying it in their own ways, Kinger, Queenie, and Kaufmo being the oldest mentally decided to kick back and enjoy some sake. The three are sitting on a small wooden picnic table at the top of the hill, idly discussing various logistics on how the circus is still running. Kaufmo brings up the theory that “Grant” may be running it, Kinger proposes that they are being kept running by C&A executives, Queenie on the other hand throws out that it may be “Mike”, as they don’t know if he survived his tumor. The three continue to ramble fueled by alcohol induced vigor, eventually managing to devolve into terrible computer puns.
“Okay, okay okay okay, howww about vis one, W-why did the computer show up late to work? L-lemme tell ya, IT HAD A HARD DRIVE!” Kaufmo begins to cackle at his own terrible pun, as both chess pieces begin to laugh along with him. At the bottom of the hill the three older members are sitting on, Pomni and Ragatha are quietly messing around with some sparklers. Pomni quickly points one at Ragatha pretending to cast a wicked spell, Ragatha dramatically swishes side to side, falling into the jester's free arm. The two erupt into a fit of giggles, as they quickly resteady themselves, before sitting down. As they begin to gently lean on each other the two look up toward the starry sky, as Pomni gently sighs before looking at the doll next to her. A single thought like a sinks into her mind like a barbed hook, as with a tinge of worry Pomni asks,
“Do you think everything will stay like this, w-with us I mean, cause I know I totally like you, and I know you like me, but.. With how we are, it's hard to be certain..” Ragatha looks down at Pomni a bit caught of guard by the sudden nervousness,
“Pom… where is this coming from?” Pomni looks down her face a bit red with embarrassment,
“I don’t know, with the circus, and I.. I don’t want to wake up and have you not be there..” Ragatha looks down, her gaze softening, as she pulls the jester's head down into her lap, gently playing with her hair.
“Nothing is forever, not out there, and not in here, and I won't say I’m not worried, but I think we will be okay, I’ve said before you are the best thing that's happened to me, that's not going to change overnight.” After a slight pause trying to gage the jesters reactions she adds,
“I love you silly, now let's enjoy the fireworks.” Pomni lets out a small laugh, wiping the bit of tears that were forming in her eyes away as she looks to the sky saying softly,
“So long as I’m with you I will enjoy anything.”
Over the next hill, on a small wooden platform Zooble and Gangle mess with possible designs for the fireworks. Caine rests on a small chair next to them, messing with the design for the launch button. Around him pages begin to fly up into the air as Gangle rummages through dozens of possible variations on each design,
“Sh-should Jax be more smug, ahhhh I don’t know, I-I wish they were all here to give me more notes, I can’t-” The bundle of ribbons promptly freezes, as a gentle hand is placed on her shoulder. Looking up she sees a gentle expression looking down at her, as Zooble matter of factly insists,
“You got this, don’t start giving yourself a hard time again, you have already been planning these for weeks.” Gangle sighs, seeming slightly drained and defeated,
“I know.. I just want this to be perfect for everyone.” Zooble pulls Gangle closer, squeezing her shoulder gently,
“Breathe, I’m sure they will love it.” As Gangle continues to steady herself, Zooble grabs a page from the many scattered about, and holds it up to Gangles face,
“What about this one for the fuckhead, it matches his energy.” Gangle takes half a second to study the design, before shouting
“It’s perfect!!” Startling Caine as he falls back in his seat, Gangle quickly kisses Zooble on the cheek before running over to Caine and helping him up. As he thanks the twisted ribbon in front of him, he is hit with an onslaught of specifications for the firework, which he now frantically has to keep up with. Eventually the trio finishes each of the designs preparing to launch them, as Caine goes to give Zooble the remote. Zooble pushes the remote back into Caine's hands. They give the ringmaster a slight smile through their eyes, saying softly
“Caine, you should do it, you had to keep up with my lovely girl's vision, you deserve it.” Caine lights up with excitement, giving Zooble a pat on the head as he zips toward Pomni, and Ragatha.
Over in the main area of the carnival tweedle dumb and dumber are messing with one of the Carnival NPCs, Jax acting as the instigator and Ribbit joining in on the pranking by messing with the score board. After a little while of messing around the two begin to play the games normally enjoying each other's company. The current game the two are stuck on is some form of water balloon fishing game, as Ribbit fails to get anything for the 8th time, Jax takes a small jab at her,
“What’s wrong? I thought frogs are supposed to be good with water.” Ribbit dips her hand into the bucket holding the balloons, and splashes the cocky rabbit across their face.
“Oh you asshole! Let me see you do better!” They both laugh as Jax sarcastically puts his hands up, and takes an attempt, failing miserably. Ribbit holds her stomach laughing, finding the rabbits quickly evaporating confidence, the funniest thing in the world. Jax, now mildly annoyed, splashes her back, causing a play fight between the two. As they wrestle in front of the stand, Ribbit pushes Jax a bit too hard causing him to crash into one of the supports behind him.
“Ahg! FUCK! What was that for?!” Ribbit immediately jumps to apologize, being promptly cut off by the rabbit,
“I’m sure that's real funny, right? Still trying to get a bit back at me for all the shit I did?” Ribbit now a bit peeved at the assumption,
“Of course not! Do you really think I would spend all this time with you if I was still on that??” Jax lets out a chilling laugh, causing Ribbit to step back a bit on instinct.
“Well I don’t know! Maybe you wanna make a fool outta me, get me all close with everyone just to rip it away so I know what it was like!” Jax’s voice sounds callous and vile, like he is trying to convince himself to believe his words by throwing out his emotions. Ribbit taken aback, and increasingly more offended,
“DO YOU REALLY THINK SO LITTLE OF ME?! Jax I have tried my hardest to be friends with you again, don’t you get that? I thought you regretted last time..” As she continues to speak her voice trails off, sounding a bit hurt and concerned. Jax now on the defensive, responds on instinct,
“Oh hear we go, now I have to feel allll bad after YOU pushed me, oh weh weh weh, I cry for the fro-” His voice cuts off now replaced with a pained groan, his form glitching violently. Ribbit losing all of the anger she had drops to her knees and crawls toward him,
“No, no no, no no no, JAX! Stay with me alright, I-I’m sorry, I pushed you a bit too hard, it’s okay.” Jax continues to curl in on himself, the glitching getting worse. His body begins to wildly shake, and convulse his eyes flashing violently between different shades of yellow, purple, and green. Between pained noises and violent shakes, Jax chokes out,
“Y-ya know.. Fuck, I’m sorry.. I fell back into- DAMMIT.” Ribbit's voice calms slightly, touching Jax with her left hand as she speaks,
“Hey.. it’s okay, just try to calm down..” Jax continues to shake as his form, quickly shoots outward damaging a nearby npc, causing them to be erased. As Jax continues to convulse, Ribbit screams out for Caine or Kinger, anyone who can help. Caine who was currently idling near Pomni vaguely hears the calls of Ribbit in the distance, popping next to her and taking in the situation. After taking a moment to realize the issue, Caine snaps his fingers as Jax is suddenly stable again. The rabbit shoots up from the floor hyperventilating, looking up at the AI, seeing the same fear he feels spread across Caine’s face. After giving Jax time to catch his breath, the three plan to meet up after watching the fireworks to see what's wrong. Heading over to the rest of the group, Jax’s arm around Ribbit for support. Caine finally presses the big red button, fireworks shoot up into the sky. First showing a lovely design of Kinger and Queenie, then a design of Ragatha, and so forth in the order everyone arrived. Kinger and Queenie find themselves shocked at all the lovely designs, pulling into a tight hug. As Gangle and Zooble stare high above them looking at their handy work, giving each other a high five. As the last of the fireworks begins to peeter out, Caine hangs his head a bit disappointed knowing he wasn’t part of the show, as one final firework launches up, much to his surprise as a cluster of beautiful colors fills the sky, Pomni and Ragatha take the moment to steal a long, loving kiss. As Caine begins to cheer, his face plastered in the center of the display. As the night settles, Pomni and Ragatha help the old folks back into the portal, trying to prevent them from tumbling down the hill. Being mildly amused and relatively content, Jax looks over at Ribbit a tired smile plastered on his face,
“I’m glad I got to share that with you..” Ribbit trying to figure out how to respond is cut off, as the rabbit promptly passes out, coming to terms with what she would've said, she decides to keep her comment to herself for now, blush spreading from her cheeks.