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jax wants to commit homicide.
he wants to bite everyone's faces and rip them off from their digital bodies as a way to cope.
as previously stated on what happened last time. it's been a month since pomni's first arrival inside the circus. and it's also been a month since jax had gone completely cuckoo because of that certain girl.
he doesn't even know why he's thinking about her.
the fact that it stayed that way for a long time was not something that he liked.
he wanted to smash his head to the wall just from the realization that he was indeed thinking about the jester and possibly scramble the parts of his brain all over the place before putting it back inside the confinements of his skull.
because honestly... was he going bananas? why couldn't he get her out of his head? was she a witch? did she put something in his food while he wasn't looking? was this caine's doing? he didn't know, and it's making him lose his mind.
it's not even her fault that he was thinking about her, but he likes to blame it on her because she was the only thing in his mind. he's not going to admit that he's purposely thinking about her, no way. he'd rather eat a centipede than do that.
he was living in what could possibly be the most stressful time of his life ever since he got transported inside the digital circus. he hasn't felt like this since he was still living back in the real world, and it sucked.
he couldn't even focus on the adventure that caine had out for them for pete's sake. and it's all because of his mind getting clouded with the thought of pomni. of how adorable her entire face was, how cute she sounds like, and how she looks when she gripped onto the water balloon and threw it towards him–
wait wha–
jax didn't even have enough time to react when his face got hit with the water balloon that pomni threw directly to him. he swears he's hallucinating, because there's no way that he got knocked over out of the pillar he was standing on because of freaking pomni. he's literally a tree and pomni's a pipsqueak!
"whoa! nice shot, pomni!"
some excited shouts could be heard from the others while jax toppled over the pillar, sending him down to the ground face first after pomni threw the water balloon at him. it was a good thing that the pillar wasn't that tall, or else jax would've seen the pearly gates.
groaning in pain, jax sits up from where he fell, holding his head steady and tries to come back to reality. the others gathered around to check on him with zooble snickering at how pathetic he looked and pomni apologizing profusely for hurting him yet again.
"well, looks like all of you won except for jax. well done!"
"what?!"
exclaimed jax angrily while looking up at caine floating in the air. out of all the circus members, he was the only one who lost? that's outrageous!
while the others got to have the reward for the adventure that they did—which was having a lovely spot of tea—jax had to sit out, his ears were down and he stomps his foot in annoyance occasionally, acting like a true rabbit.
"so... what do you have in store for me, caine?"
the rabbit asks in a passive tone, his arms crossed over his chest as a sarcastic grin appears on his face. the ringmaster looks at him, his heterochromatic eyes blinking before he floats down to jax's level with bubbles behind him.
"oh, right!"
and with a snap of a finger, a puff of smoke surrounds jax and he glitches a bit, making him cough and groan in pain before he goes back to normal.
he looks at his gloved hands, not really noticing any changes in the outside and inside of him. he was about to question caine about it, but he already left with a poof, leaving jax with no explanation as to what his supposed punishment was.
"so, what's the catch?"
jax looked up at ragatha who approached him, a curious expression on her face as she stared at the confused purple rabbit. he shrugs in response, looking at himself once again.
"i dunno. don't really feel differently than before."
as the duo try to find out whatever caine has done to jax, pomni passes by. her eyes blinked up at the two, all wide and curious as her feet takes her to them.
"uhm.. so what did caine do to you, jax?"
she asks him, clutching her hands together nervously. she didn't know why she was still nervous around jax, even if she acted perfectly fine around the others. or maybe it's because she violated his entire being for two times now, she overthinks to herself.
rolling his eyes at pomni's density, jax looks down at her, eyebrow raised and a frown on his face.
"can't you see we're trying to figure it out, pomni? try to use your brain for once, and maybe then you'll get a clue on what's actually happening."
a whimper comes out of pomni, clutching one of the yellow puffball buttons on her outfit. she then looks down to the floor after jax called her out.
"jax, don't be mean."
"what? i'm just saying stuff, dollface. or maybe the void sucked the brains out of her."
a mean laugh comes out from jax, his usual grin appearing on his face as he continues to mock pomni.
yeah. this was definitely the jax that he knew all these years, not the one who he was a month prior. he knew that he was hallucinating when he thought that pomni was cute. he could never fall for pomni, never ever.
feeling that another insult was coming, pomni shuts her eyes close, ready for whatever harsh words were to come out of jax's mouth.
"i mean, who's stupid enough to find a non-existent exit, anyways? we already told you that there's no exit here, pompom. so why don't you give up on that and find a way to my heart instead?"
a moment of silence surrounds the entire circus. jax freezes in his spot while ragatha and pomni looks at him like they'd seen a ghost.
what the hell did he just say?
"what..? that's n-not what i meant to say. hah.. w-what i meant to say was that, you're just so stupid that you don't even notice my feelings for you!"
a distraught screech from jax could be heard after what he said. he hides the lower half of his face with his hands, a slight blush on his cheeks as he looked back and forth between ragatha and pomni.
what the fuck is happening?!
"dollface, you haven't.. you haven't heard that, right? that wasn't m-me, was it? it's just a glitch in the matrix–"
"uhh.. i don't know jax.. i can't really tell.. it sounded like you meant it.."
ragatha laughs nervously, looking at jax with an awkward smile on her face before she looks down at pomni, who seems to be flustered at the whole situation. the jester certainly wasn't expecting that from jax, especially from out of all the humans trapped in the circus.
he sound like he meant it?? what does that even mean?
jax's eyes wandered over to pomni after ragatha looks at her, the blush coating his cheeks darkens when he sees pomni's flushed cheeks as he starts to try and explain himself.
"look, clownface. you've got it all wrong—i don't even like you at all. i'm actually madly in love with–GAHH!"
jax wanted to throw himself off a cliff, or maybe dive into a whirlpool of piranhas, and eat him alive in the process. because why the heck was he saying that kind of stuff?! it's like the forces beyond his comprehension puppeteering him went into a malfunction!
"what's going on?"
gangle asks, approaching from ragatha's other side as she looks in between the three, trying to figure out what was happening. this only added fuel to the fire, because now there were three girls near jax's presence.
that's too many girls!!
he wanted to die right at that moment.
"stay out of it, ribbons. and before any of you jump into weird conclusions, it's not what it looks like! i swear i.."
pointing an accusatory finger at all the girls as jax tries to explain himself to them, his eyes wander to look at pomni. his breathing hitches in his throat, his mind melting like a puddle, unable to find the right words to say while he stares at the jester, his cheeks flaring up with the embarrassment residing in him.
shit. there was that strange filter in his field of vision again that made the jester a hundred times cuter than before. it seems like it's playing with him, because he swears it only appears whenever pomni does something to him that makes him react strongly. just what about her makes him feel this way?
without saying another word, jax hides his blushing face using his ears, refusing to look back at any of the girls shouting at him to come back. he doesn't want to face any of them right now, not when he was suddenly glitching and spewing nonesense that was against his own will.
wait.
glitching?
jax halts in his footsteps, looking over at the mirror that was conveniently placed for someone to have an existential crisis over the fact that they couldn't escape the circus whenever they passed by the mirror. he looks at his reflection, and there it was. his mouth was glitching as soon as he touched it with his hands.
he just got a headcannon.
he tries calming himself down, breathing in and out before he looks around for bubbles. and there he was, following kinger for... who knows what.
stomping over to him, jax grabs bubbles swiftly but not hard enough for him to pop. he looks at him with a smile, but not one with happiness as he tries to control his anger to not pop a vein in his head.
"where's caine?"
__________________________
"caine!"
calling out to the teeth-structured ai, jax groans in frustration when the tall wet grass near the lake clings onto his fur. he hates it when his fur gets wet, it makes his body feel heavier for some reason. and also, it's gross.
"ugh.. i swear this #$?%ing bastard is ignoring me on purpose."
he tells himself, pushing the wet grass away from his way as he looks for the ringmaster.
while jax struggles to find caine, a silhouette of what seems to be a head of dentures suddenly hovers over him and scaring the daylights out of him. he almost screamed but then the glitch on his mouth prevented him from doing it as caine floats down to him.
"jax! what are you doing out here late in the night? you should be back inside the tent and get some rest for tomorrow's adventure, my boy!"
"caine.."
a sarcastic smile appears on jax's mouth while he looks at caine, crossing his arms over his chest. he motions towards his glitching mouth, demanding an explanation from the ai.
"care to explain what my punishment from today's adventure was? i don't seem to ever recall agreeing with my mouth glitching and spewing nonsense all of a sudden."
"oh? did i not explain why it is like that?"
jax rolled his eyes. if he could only he could throw caine across the stratosphere and send him to orbit. but he floats, the "sky" isn't even real, and he can literally control everything jax does, so that's unfortunately a no-no.
"well, i will provide a brief explanation for you then! the punishment is simple: anything that triggers your deepest and truest desires will make you say it out loud! so, if you see anything that you like or hate, you say it out of your own free will! for example, you like ice cream, and if you see it, you will say that you like ice cream, but you will not say it on purpose! kind of like a tmi machine without anyone asking about it."
with his jaw dropped and his sharp teeth out for anyone to see, jax looks up at caine like he'd gone mental.
what is wrong with him? why would he do that? not that he has any reason for it, because he's a literal bot. and how the hell did he come up with that kind of punishment anyways? he's a goddman ai. jax was used to the more brutal punishments, but this was on another level, and he hated it with every fiber of his being.
"also, it won't wear off for who knows how long, so good luck with that!!"
"caine, i swear to god. if this is some kind of prank–"
"nope! i'm not kidding! you know that ai are terrible at making jokes. farewell!"
"caine? caine! CAINE YOU MOTHER–"
_________________
and with that, caine wasn't found for the next few days, which left the rest of the circus members having mixed reactions to as why their ringmaster suddenly disappeared.
some were confused as to why their ringmaster vanished into thin air and never popped up again like usual. and some were ecstatic that they wouldn't have to go on any suicidal adventures that he usually makes for them.
the purple rabbit didn't say anything else about it, finding their reactions funny. but also, he needed to figure out how the hell he was going to fix this stupid glitch of his without caine's help. he tried asking bubble about it, but that stupid soap film filled with air wasn't spilling the beans that easily.
he did everything in his power and knowledge to get something out of him. he first tried to negotiate with him, bringing up that one time where bubble asked him for a kiss, which was quite odd.
he even tried convincing him that he wouldn't be picky about his food anymore, especially if it involved corn. and even that took jax a lot of courage and consideration to ask of him.
but still, nothing! absolutely nothing! jax was roughly one vein away from popping him, but that darn thing was always so fast avoiding his attacks. he was so close to giving up and even considered it. he thought about how he should probably embrace this "new life" of his, just like zooble jokingly told him the other day.
god, he's such a loser, isn't he?
with bunny ears drooped and head hanging down, jax sighs while sitting out on the "adventure" that bubble made for them since caine wasn't around.
he watches everyone else from a safe distance on top of a large building block. they were currently doing a bake-off in favor of bubble and also ragatha's request of making it a bake-off instead of a cooking competition.
they all looked like they were having fun for once.
gangle had her comedy mask on for the whole time, zooble had less complaints and was more chill about it. kinger was still... kinger. he's one of the judges of the bake-off along with bubble, so he didn't get to goof around all that much. and ragatha seems so happy while she was baking.
his eyes wandered over to the jester girl, who was trying to help ragatha with anything she was asked to do by the older woman. she was currently mixing some cookie dough inside a bowl, a determined look on her face despite her struggling with it.
she looked like a mess. she was covered in a lot of dough and flour from how she was always wiping the ingredients on her outfit. her hat was set aside next to kinger, her hair tied up in a ponytail.
she looked... cute.
that's all jax could think of, but at least he wasn't lying to himself this time, even with the blush coating his cheeks.
for the first time ever since they got trapped inside the digital circus, he could see genuine happiness from everyone. but it would've been nicer if jax could join in on the fun. he would've played pranks on everyone right about now if it wasn't for caine's stupid punishment on him.
but he couldn't because every time he opened his mouth, it harasses him and pomni as well because of how bad the flirty comments and pick-up lines were coming out of his mouth.
he swears he's better at flirting than that - or maybe it was because caine was the one who made him say those words? shit. he didn't know, and he doesn't want to think about it anymore because of how upset he gets just thinking about it.
oh geez. what if pomni thinks that he really was bad at flirting because of all the stupid shit he was saying? would her perspective of him change? would it be good or bad? was he going to have to stay away from her from the rest of their lives inside that circus?
fuck. he doesn't want that, he doesn't want that at all.
even if he denies his own feelings, he still wanted to get close to pomni somehow.
wait. why the hell was he even thinking? him getting close to pomni? no way. maybe this was part of caine's punishment on him. or is it?
while jax was contemplating about his life decisions, a crescendo of what seemed to be squeaky shoes could be heard. jax's bunny ears twitched with the high-pitched sound getting louder, indicating that it was getting near him. he looks up to see pomni holding out a bunch of cookies to him.
"hey. uhm.. i noticed you weren't joining us on the bake-off, so i got you these. t-to make you feel included, you know? i know that's not related o-or anything but.. oh god."
watching the girl ramble on about how she wanted jax to feel like they weren't intentionally leaving him out and that he's welcome to join them, his signature grin appeared on his face again. geez, this girl was too much for him.
just what was she doing to him?
"..it's not a problem, clownface. besides, who's to say i won't be joining you guys any time soon?"
"i guess you're right.."
jax smirks, looking at the cookies that was still in pomni's hands that was still being offered to him. patting the spot beside him, jax motions his head to pomni to offer her the seat.
"in the mean time, why don't you join me instead?"
he decided to be a bit bold for once since they both knew that he was just saying that because of caine's punishment.
blinking at jax, a bright blush coats pomni's cheeks when jax offered her the spot next to her. she just nods, slowly making her way and sitting down beside jax. his grin grew even more, opening his mouth for pomni to feed him the cookies.
snickering, pomni rolls her eyes at the bunny, feeding him the cookies she and ragatha made. she sees jax's eyes lit up from the cookie, his foot stomping on the ground and demanding for more.
with a laugh coming out of pomni, jax's entire world stopped, his heart pounding loudly from pomni's pretty smile.
okay. maybe jax would spare pomni in that killing spree of his.
she was just too cute.
but he won't admit that to anyone.
------------------------
"so, when are you going to tell jax that his glitch lasts for only twenty four hours?"
"hm.. probably never. i would love to see this ship sail! or whatever the humans call it."