Chapter Text
"Well that was a waste of time." Zooble said with a roll of their eyes.
"I was really hoping it would work." Pomni moped, slumping down in her seat.
"I thought it was a good idea." Ragatha shared, giving the jester a smile in hopes of raising her spirits.
"I-I'm sorry." Gangle muttered, tapping her hands together nervously, "I tried to keep the secret, but he was just, uh... intimidating."
"Oh, It's alright, Gangle." Kinger comforted, "I'm sure Jax isn't mad at you for anything."
"That's not-" Pomni began, only to cut herself off with a sigh as she let her face fall into her hands, "I'm sorry, everyone."
"What for?" Zooble asked, "It's not your fault he's a @^#%."
"I know." The jester groaned, "It's just... Maybe if I went about this a different way it would have worked. Now he's upset with everyone and is probably gonna isolate himself even more, and it's all my fault."
"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself." Ragatha defended, leaning over and draping an arm over the jester's shoulder, only for her to flinch and scoot away awkwardly, "O-oh, sorry!"
"I-it's alright." She mumbled in response, though it was clear she was still focusing on the issue with Jax.
"Why don't we go and ask how Jax is feeling?" Kinger suggested, "I'm sure he'd be more receptive to that."
"That's... not a terrible idea, Kinger." Gangle replied with a soft smile.
"What is?" The man asked in confusion.
"I'm not sure about this." Zooble interjected, "This is still Jax we're talking about. I'm pretty sure he only interacts with us because he likes making us miserable."
"No, there's more to him than that!" Pomni defended, "He's just... different. He needs support just like the rest of us." The rest of the group, apart from Kinger, looked away awkwardly, clearly unconvinced of this supposed depth to the known mischief maker of the group. "I know you all don't believe me," She continued, looking at them with desperation in her eyes, "but can you at least trust me enough to help?"
"I trust you, Pomni." Ragatha began, giving her friend a weak smile, "Jax has had a... rough time in the circus. If we can help him in some way, I think we should try."
"Even if he is a bully," Gangle added with an awkward expression, "I don't think he should be alone." The group looked towards Zooble, who held an unimpressed expression as they crossed their arms.
"If you're waiting for me to add something, it's not happening." They said, "He's made it pretty clear what kind of person he is."
"Will you still come with us to check on him?" Pomni asked hopefully.
They shrugged as they stood up straight, stretching their arms in front of them. "Only to make sure he doesn't try anything."
"That's... better than nothing." Ragatha said, glancing at Pomni as she stood up from her seat.
"Oh, are we going somewhere?" Kinger asked happily as he jumped to his feet, "Do I need to pack my extra robes?"
"We're just going to check on Jax." Pomni explained with a soft smile, "Would you like to come with us?"
"Well, I'd love to." The chess piece answered with a smile in his eyes, before leaning down towards Gangle and narrowing his eyes, "Which one is Jax again?" He asked in a hushed tone.
"C-could I stay at the back of the group?" Gangle asked nervously as she joined the others in preparing to leave, "I'm worried he's going to be mad and take it out on me... again."
"I'll keep you safe." Zooble replied as they stood at her side, earning a relaxed sigh from the ribbon character, "Now let's get this over with. I already had to pretend to be nice to him once, I'm not looking forward to doing it again."
"I'm sure it'll be fine." Ragatha said optimistically as the group left the lounge area, slowly making their way down the hall of rooms as Pomni tried to figure out what she wanted to say. Even with the message Gangle relayed, which was oddly reminiscent of his previous rant to her the other day, she didn't want to just give up on the rabbit. There had to be some amount of good buried in him, even if he didn't want to believe it himself. The group soon found themselves approaching Jax's door, finding it left wide open.
"That doesn't seem good." Gangle muttered as the group peaked into the room, finding it completely trashed.
"Uh... Jax?" Pomni called out, a sense of dread washing over her, "Are you ok?" An eerie silence hung in the air as they waited for a response, only growing more concerned the longer the silence lingered. "I-if this is about me telling the others, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to upset you or anything. I was just worried and wanted to try and help."
"Do you think this is our fault?" Ragatha asked, pulling at her hair anxiously as she looked around the destroyed room, "I've never seen him do something like this before."
"Well, we don't know for sure what happened." Kinger comforted, "Maybe he got attacked by wolves, or a tornado ran through his room."
"Could we be so lucky?" Zooble said to themselves. They glanced at his door curiously, peaking around it and coming face to face with a bright red X painted across his picture. Their eyes widened at the discovery, a chill running down their spine. "Oh %$!&."
The sudden censor caught Gangle's attention, who joined the abstract character's side, only for panic to course through her body. "Oh no..." She whispered, taking a step back as her voice grew in volume, "Oh no, oh no, oh no." The sudden panic caught the attention of the rest of the group, with Pomni closing his door to let everyone get a clear view of the crossed out emblem.
It didn't take long for the situation to dawn on the group, a wide range of emotions washing over them all. Pomni grabbed at her hat as her breathing grew heavy and uneven, falling to her knees as she hyperventilated. Kinger simply stared at the door in disbelief, a mixture of horror and sadness in his eyes. Gangle sobbed quietly as she mumbled apologies to the rabbit for not being nicer, with Zooble doing their best to comfort her despite their own mixed emotions in their mind. Ragatha wiped away the tears that welled in her eyes as she tried to keep from breaking down, kneeling next to Pomni and hesitantly placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It's... It's my fault." Pomni muttered, tears falling from her eyes, "Oh god, it's all my fault."
"H-hey, come on." Ragatha began as she forced a smile, "It's not your fault. We just, uh..." She fell silent as she failed to find the right words to say, unable to focus on anything other than the ways she wished she had done better for the rabbit.
"I didn't want this to happen." Gangle whimpered as she wrapped her arms around Zooble, "I never meant it when I said it. I was just angry and-and scared."
"W-wait, where is he?" Pomni asked, looking up and down the hall wildly, "If he's just running around, th-then we need to find him and-"
"Caine!" Zooble yelled out, with the cheerful AI appearing moments later.
"Hello, my rambunctious rapscallions!" He said, his cheerful expression falling as he looked down at the miserable looking characters, "Jeez, why the long faces, huh?"
"Jax has..." Gangle began, only to so let out another choked sob and cut herself off.
"Has what?" He asked obliviously, only for his eyes to widen in horror, "He didn't say he hated my adventures, did he?!"
"He abstracted, Caine!" Pomni yelled, taking the AI by surprise, "I-I messed up and we came to try and make things right, but now he's gone and we don't know where in the circus he could be."
Caine stared down at the group in confusion, pulling out a tablet of some kind and tapping it a few times. "Well, that's strange..." He began, "It says here that Jax is fine."
"Really?" Kinger asked hopefully, with the rest of the group looking up at the ringleader in confusion.
"Sure seems that way." Caine said, his happy expression returning after quelling everyone's fears, "I'll just summon him here and we can get this all cleared up." With a snap of his fingers, the purple rabbit appeared on the ground in front of the group, laughing uproariously as the others stared at him in confusion. "Ah, there you are! Well, now that that little issue has been solved, I've got to get back to work. You all have fun now!" With that, the ringleader zipped away, leaving the players alone once more as Jax finally managed to climb back to his feet, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Oh man, that couldn't have gone any better!" Jax said through his laughter, "You all must be more gullible than I thought!"
"But... you were-" Ragatha stuttered out, looking between him and the red X on his door.
"It's paint, you idiot!" He revealed, walking over to his door and pulling a cloth from his pocket, using to to scrub some of the paint away, "And here I thought it was too obviously fake to work."
"So..." Pomni began, looking at him with a mixture of disbelief and betrayal, "You faked it?"
"What, I figured this is what you all wanted." He replied, his grin only growing wider, "You were all so keen on believing I was some sad, misunderstood bunny for you to fix, that I decided to rush to the end to see what would happen." The group stayed silent, simply staring at him as the looks of sadness morphed into ones of anger and hurt, "Ooohh, did I ruin your little plan?" He sneered as he looked at their expressions, "Guess I really am that much of a jac-"
His sentence was cut off as a fist slammed into his jaw, sending him back into the wall as Zooble glared daggers at him. "Are you @^#$ing insane?!" They roared as he rubbed his face in pain.
"That's up for debate I think." He chuckled, wincing as pain radiated through his head.
"What is wrong with you!?" Ragatha yelled, an uncharacteristic anger in her voice, "Did you ever think, for even a moment, that this was too far?!"
"Jeez, what's up with you two?" He asked, an unimpressed frown on his face, "Since when did you care about my pranks this much."
"Jax, this wasn't funny." Kinger said, a look of disappointment in his eyes, "Abstraction isn't something we want to happen to anyone."
"Oh like you'll even remember this in fifteen minutes." He snapped back.
"...I thought you were gone." Gangle whimpered, looking at him sadly.
"Seriously, even you?" He asked with a sharp laugh, "I figured you'd be throwing a party at the thought of me being gone."
"I knew it was a waste of time to do this." Zooble spat as they turned and began to walk away, with Kinger and Ragatha following soon after.
"Oh brother, can't you all take a joke?" He asked with a roll of his eyes, turning his attention towards the remaining two people, "Can you believe them?"
"I'm sorry I tried to be your friend." Pomni said coldly, looking at him with a mix of anger and betrayal before she turned and began to follow after the group, "I won't make that mistake again."
Jax was taken aback by her response, a quick look of surprise crossing his face before he pulled his usual grin back on. "Well, looks like you finally figured out what I was telling you." He chuckled, "About time." He turned his attention to Gangle, who looked at him with a hurt expression, "Oh please, don't tell me you're gonna storm off too."
She averted her gaze and rubbed her arm awkwardly, tears still in her eyes. "...I thought you knew what lines not to cross." She muttered before she followed after Pomni, leaving Jax alone in front of his room.
"Oh give me a break!" He yelled after them all, "You all need to learn how to have fun!" He turned and made his way into his room in a huff, kicking the door closed behind him. "What a bunch of babies." He mumbled to himself, before letting a satisfied smile spread across his face "At least they know not to bother me again. It'll all go back to normal by tomorrow." He looked around his mess of a room, the silence seeming to become deafening as he realized how alone he now was. "Right..." He groaned as he trudged forward, "Maybe I should have planned this better." He silently began to clean up the mess he had made, his smile falling more and more as he undid everything he did to sell his prank. He knew some of the damage would need Caine's help to fully fix, especially the post he had broken off his bed, and the thought only soured his mood further. Eventually, he had finished tidying his room, though it still looked worse than it had before he did the prank. His wardrobe was cracked and lopsided, the clock he had pulled off the wall no longer worked, his nightstand wobbled unsteadily from his haphazard repair to it's broken leg.
By the time he was finished, any enjoyment he had gotten from the prank had vanished, leaving him with an odd numbness as he pulled another cloth from his pocket. Opening his door, he began to scrub the red paint from his door, growing more and more frustrated the longer it took. "Who cares what they think." He said aloud, vocalizing his internal dialogue, "They'll get over it by tomorrow and things will be back to how they're supposed to be. Everyone falls back into their roles and I can get them off my back." He sighed as he stopped scrubbing his door, finding it still stained with flecks of red paint that he couldn't be bothered to remove. He closed the door once more and tossed the rag into a trashcan before collapsing onto his bed and staring up at the ceiling. A mix of emotions swirled in his mind, which he quickly pushed down in an attempt to not have to think about them. He decided to call it a day, suddenly finding himself incredibly drained after the unexpected reaction from the group. Sure, he wasn't surprised they were mad about the joke, but he'd never had a reaction like that before. Usually he'll get a few censored remarks from Zooble, maybe a lecture from Ragatha if he made Gangle cry more than usual. He'd never have everyone upset with him, though, especially not to this extent. Heck, even Kinger was upset. Jax didn't even know that was possible.
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he pulled a blanket over himself as he closed his eyes, figuring things would feel less weird in the morning. Everyone would probably be over it by then and go back to treating him like usual.
They always had before.