Chapter Text
Jax always thought boredom was the worst thing that could happen to someone in the Digital Circus. He learned, eventually, that he was wrong. There were worse things than boredom - like attention. Especially when it came from Caine.
He couldn’t pinpoint when that unwelcome fixation began, maybe it started long before he noticed it, but today was one of those days.
They were all scattered across the neon couches in the ,,main,, hall, if he could even call it that. It was their place to sit around and wait for Caine to show up.
Kinger sat next to his wife, hands fidgeting in his lap while she spoke animatedly about insects again - her voice lilting like poetry as she described their “delicate legs,” their “wondrous wings,” and “the lovely look of their antennae.” Kinger wasn’t listening to the words; he was staring at her like she was the living definition of a miracle. Ragatha, meanwhile, sat beside them, kinda third-wheeling if you asked him. She was half-present, distracted by her detached arm as she threaded a needle through it, sewing herself back together. A tear from the previous adventure. Caine hadn’t fixed it - Jax wasn’t sure why, but oh well. Guess they can’t rely on him with everything. And it’s not like he cares anyways.
And then there was Jax, sprawled on the opposite couch - legs crossed, expression carved into his lazy, razor-sharp smirk. He laughed - that particular kind of laugh that would make any other person uncomfortable. But not Kaufmo and Ribbit. Never them.
The clown was attempting a trick again. Today’s disaster-in-progress involved juggling three oversized circus balls with faces of the trio on them, while balancing on a comically tiny unicycle that squeaked with every wobble.
His hands fumbled, plastic balls smacking the ground one by one in a dull series of disappointments. Tricks weren’t his talent - that much was obvious - but he seemed determined to prove both Jax and Ribbit otherwise.
Ribbit watched with an expression suspended between pity and contained laughter, her lips pursed tight. Jax, however, was openly entertained - eyes gleaming at every failure, delight tinged in his eyes.
“You must’ve been earning pennies back home,” Jax drawled, “if your performances were even half as bad as they are here.”
Kaufmo shot him a glare as he left the props on the floor and flopped down next to them. He flicked Jax’s forehead with a quick snap of his fingers, the gesture stinging just enough to make Jax blink.
“Keep talking and I’ll juggle you,” Kaufmo muttered.
Jax only smirked wider.
The calmness was quickly interrupted by confetti exploding above them, showering them in a sparkly, sticky rain. A loud pop cracked overhead, and in the same instant, Caine appeared - floating and spinning his body, as if he popped out from a can. His presence instantly bringed their conversations to a halt.
“Why hello, my wobbly jelly noodles!” Caine boomed, clapping his hands as he scooped confetti into his mouth with a snap of the jaw. “How are we doing today?”
No one answered, but Caine never seemed to care by the lack of response.
He hummed in appreciation of the silence. “Today I’ve prepared oh-ho-ho quite the extravaganza!” He gestured wildly, arms flailing like a marionette tangled in its own strings.
Jax rested his chin in his gloved hand, eyes tracing Caine’s floating form. The AI’s left eye twitched slightly - a tiny, almost imperceptible tick - like it wanted to stare into Jax’s direction. Jax snorted quietly. Weird.
“Well, what will today’s adventure be about?” Ragatha asked optimistically, still threading the last few stitches into her arm.
“Ah-ha, you’ll find out when we’re there, my silly bees.” Caine snapped his fingers, opening a portal in the ground. “Well, rise and shine! Let’s see how you will do on today’s adventur-ue!” he said, placing weird accent on the last letters, watching as they were one by one sucked up into the hole.
“Enjoy, enjoy! Oh-Don’t touch the edges! They bite! They BITE!” Caine’s voice echoed from all directions, as Kinger drew back his hand, almost losing it. At once, they disappeared with the portal into thin air.
—
Jax used to be more engaged with the adventures than he is lately. Back then, they were his only outlet - colorful, ridiculous little stages where he could tear things apart, mock the system, and remind the universe that he was impossible to predict. It was the closest thing to “freedom” the Circus ever offered.
But now? Now he had friends who filled the void and with whom he could wait out the adventures while they joked around together.
But he noticed that the adventures got slowly more… extreme? They used to be tooth-rotting sweet: cotton-candy fields, rivers of sherbet, ice-cream mountains dripping syrup. Places meant to distract a child, not challenge a person.
Jax liked them more than most - not because he actually enjoyed them, but because he enjoyed ruining them.
If there was a balloon, he’d pop it. If there was a puzzle, he’d snap it in two before anyone touched it.
Every time, Caine reacted - glitched and scrambled to improvise. The AI seemed to be conflicted on what to do, on one side not happy that Jax was putting chaos into the adventures and going off script, on the other happy that he interacted more than all the others put together. It made things… entertaining.
But lately the worlds had been more brutal. Which was more to his liking, but he had no reasons to play around in them since he rather spending time with his friends. Which he was doing now.
The adventure spat them out into a humid, tropical jungle. Thick vines dangled like ropes, leaves dripping with neon dew that hissed when it touched exposed fabric. Their task - according to Caine’s theatrically vague announcement - was to recover a set of “ancient digital monuments,” relics scattered in the depths of the simulated ruins.
What he didn’t mention was that everything in this jungle wanted to eat them.
Jax didn’t know how long it passed, but they were swinging around on the vines with Kaufmo and Ribbit, the bunny and the frog almost passing out from laughter when the vine snapped under Kaufmo’s weight.
The clown dropped straight into a patch of churning sand that began swallowing him up to the knees.
“What- why is it always me! Help me you guys, don’t just howl at me!” he sputtered, sinking faster the more he talked.
Ribbit released her vine and landed beside him in a crouch, immediately reaching out to drag him up - her foot inches from a large plant with a mouth-shaped blossom. Its petals trembled, teeth forming where stamens should be.
“Ribbit-” Jax called lazily, but before she could step wrong, he hooked two fingers into the back of her shirt (they were given funny-looking explorer costumes) and yanked her out of reach.
“Watch where you hop,” he said with a mocking drawl, pushing her head playfully.
Suddenly Caine’s way too thrilled laughter rang above them.
“Nice one, Jax!! You’re paying attention! Splendid! Marvelous!! EXCELLENT PARTICIPATION!”
Leaves rattled, as though the world itself shivered with his excitement.
Jax felt something sour twist in his stomach.
That’s what he was talking about earlier. About the unwanted attention.
Every time Jax would interact with the adventure even a tiny bit, Caine would go nuts, overjoyed and reacting immediately as if he was watching them all along. Which he probably is, but anyway.
Jax didn’t reply. He merely exhaled, shook his head, and climbed up a nearby tree, watching as Ribbit was pulling out Kaufmo with all her strength.
After a long moment, Kaufmo finally escaped the sand, gasping, and Caine said nothing.
Ribbit laughed at a carnivorous fern snapping its teeth - silence.
The one thing he noticed too was that Caine never cheered when either of his friends survived or laughed at something he created.
But whenever it was coming from Jax - Caine reacted like a kid who’d finally gotten the toy he wanted.
Jax didn’t know where it came from. Didn’t know why the “mastermind” - as he mockingly liked to call him - responded to him that way.
And honestly, he didn’t know if he wanted to find out. It couldn’t be anything good.