Archive of Our Own

Not being the newest in the circus anymore was a strange feeling Gangle was still having trouble grasping. Like most things that tended to slip so easily through her ribbons, so too had her standing in the circus—precarious as it had been from the start—fallen away from her with a singular pop followed by a colorful cacophony of plastic pieces clattering atop the stage. And just like that, the fragile identity she'd fostered for herself was shattered.

Though she really should've known better than to expect anything else when her only link to happiness—and being a somewhat remotely functional person—shattered daily. Everything about her was fragile, easily breakable and in a constant state of unraveling. Of course she wouldn't be able to keep the makeshift identity she tried to inhabit in place of whoever she'd been outside.

Being "the newest" wasn't exactly a badge she'd worn proudly or with any honor. It was more like a weighted blanket draped across her entire being, pressing down on her pressure points in a way that was both comforting and suffocating at the same time. A label she could hide beneath and pretend like it was okay that she still followed everyone's lead like a baby duckling imprinting on the first people they see, except exponentially more pathetic. That it was okay that she still flinched at every loud, sudden sound. Okay that she still never took the lead on the adventures. Okay to pretend like it was normal to feel like she was still standing on the outside of the three distinct, well-established rings in this circus; Jax's, Ragatha's, and Kinger's.

Gangle clocked Jax, Ribbit, and Kaufmo's clique almost instantly. She'd been familiar enough with their type in the real world. Always inseparable and projecting an invisible, impenetrable aura that dared you to look—wanted you to look, in fact—but repelled you like a like-poled magnet the moment you dared to get too close. Whenever they made a point to look over their shoulders at her, she couldn't help but flinch and curl away from their too-wide grins and half-lidded leers; like she was the punchline to an unspoken joke between the three of them.

However, if she ever managed to be with any of them one-on-one, sometimes it wasn't so bad. Sometimes they'd take pity on her. Kaufmo would tell her actual jokes instead of making her feel like one, even if they weren't really to her taste. Despite clinging to her comedy mask like a security blanket, Gangle didn't really gravitate towards stand-up or improv. If she was in the mood for something funny, she was inevitably drawn to her favorite episodes of an anime like Azumanga Daioh or fan-made edit compilations online. She wasn't very good at being put on the spot to play along with a joke, and wasn't very funny herself, so it wasn't surprising that she also wasn't Kaufmo's prime choice for company, despite them being right across the hall from each other.

If Ribbit was the one to get stuck with her, she would fill the awkward space between them with circus gossip. Though lately it ended up more like venting sessions to air out her frustrations concerning Jax, Kaufmo, and Ragatha. As much time as Ribbit spent with the first two and as close as they seemed, apparently even she had her limits. But it wasn't like she specifically sought out Gangle in these situations. She just seemed to like having the freedom to say whatever she wanted to someone who wouldn't interrupt her or sass her or insult her or try to get her to look on the bright side of things. It didn't matter that it was Gangle who was listening, only that someone else wasn't.

Until something like a switch in her flipped and she decided she didn't want to talk to anyone anymore and locked herself away in her room for hours on end. Sometimes Jax was able to coax her out. Most times he couldn't.

But when it came to Jax… with Jax it was…

Well, let's just say Jax wasn't Gangle's first choice to spend time with either. Or second. Or third. If she didn't feel like she'd be intruding and unwanted company, heck, she'd rather hide with Kinger in his pillow fortress than be forced to spend one-on-one time with Jax. Which happened… way more often than she'd have liked it to. Where there was no one else to temper his tendency to tug on her ribbons too hard. Like he was always testing her limits. Her breakability. How much of her could he unravel before there was nothing left?

She was a game to him; her reactions spurring on either a delightfully cruel grin or the most disappointed, lifeless expression she'd ever seen. Like even when he expected nothing from her, she still managed to fail to meet that. Sometimes Ribbit would smack him if he was being too mean and sometimes Kaufmo would tell him that maybe he was taking things a little too far. After all, it wasn't a joke anymore if Jax was the only one laughing, right?

But no one actually stopped him. She wasn't worth more than the bare minimum of effort. Not when she couldn't be relied on to stay in one piece for longer than an hour. Less than that whenever Jax wanted to play with her.

Anyway, as ruthless as Jax could be, Gangle still didn't want to bother Kinger by hiding with him. If he wanted the company, then surely he would ask for it. Or he would notice the way she was left out and extend an invitation to her. But he didn't. 

Of course, it wasn't out of malice that he didn't do these things, Gangle could tell that much. It was more like he just wasn't… all there. Unless it was Ragatha or Caine speaking to him, Kinger didn't really notice what anyone else was up to at any given point.

Which, speaking of Ragatha… she was maybe the closest person Gangle had to calling a friend. At least that was what she thought at first, when she called her "new stuff" and went out of her way to make sure Gangle felt included and wasn't left behind on adventures. To save her a seat at the table and check on her in the middle of the night and ask Caine to make sure to fix her comedy mask whenever it broke. To always look on the bright side of things and cheer her on even when Gangle was an absolute failure. Offering kind words that often felt more like they belonged in greeting cards than a person's mouth. They never quite reached Ragatha's eye.

And from the way that eye sometimes bored into Jax, Ribbit, and Kaufmo with years of pent up… disdain… Gangle couldn't help but wonder if she was always one misstep away from being on the receiving end of that look, too.

But despite all that… despite all of that she'd still settled somewhere between these three rings as the newcomer. The interloper. The one who didn't belong. The one that needed to be looked after, because she was still getting used to everything and her emotions were so delicate, after all, no one could expect her to take care of herself. To take care of anything—of anyone.

It wasn't ideal, but… Gangle wasn't ready to remove that blanket of familiarity, clinging to her role like a child because there was nothing else for her to hold onto…

Until the new new person popped into this digital plane of existence, and in the same exact instant, Gangle's purpose simultaneously ceased to exist.

They wound up with the name Zooble; an amalgamation of all the names everyone in the circus started shouting out as suggestions when they completely rejected Caine's name slot machine-thing.

"Kazoo," Ribbit started off.

"What about Polly? You know, for 'polygon?'" Ragatha tried.

"Bobble," Kaufmo called out, when the newcomer stumbled over their own assortment of pieces.

"More like 'Wobble,'" Jax sneered, grin broadening as he glanced Gangle's way. "Hey, maybe they can form some sort of freakshow duo with Gangle."

"Hey, what's wrong with Kazoo?" Ribbit demanded, snatching his attention back with a sharp tug on the strap of his overalls.

"Besides being stupid?" Jax rolled his eyes. "They look nothing like a kazoo. They're more like… just a zoo. Of really ugly puzzle pieces."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Oho! What about 'Puzoole?'" Kaufmo snickered.

"I like 'Bubble!'" said Bubble.

"Heh… hey, did anyone hear my suggestion of 'Polly?' Anyone?"

The collection of voices layered on top of one another like a lopsided cake with no supports and muddied flavors as they all competed for individual attention. All except Gangle, that is. She stayed silent, bunching up her ribbons to keep from taking up too much space in the vacuous hall while she quietly observed the newcomer sway unsteadily on their squiggly, crooked, mismatched limbs. Their wide, equally mismatched eyes scanned each exaggerated cartoonish figure in front of them in rapid succession, only to catch a glimpse of their own arm in the process.

In an instant it was like the rest of the circus didn't matter. Their arm all they could focus on. Their plastic body couldn't move with their breaths, but Gangle imagined it would've been heaving in an attempt to fill their nonexistent lungs with air as they opened their mouth to gasp for…

They didn't have a mouth.

It shouldn't have been so surprising to her; Kinger didn't have a mouth either after all, and Caine was nothing but mouth, yet Gangle couldn't help but fixate on the exclusion here. Not the one bulging eye or the triangle shaped head or the two, zig-zagging and Y-shaped antennae protruding at uneven angles from the top of said head, no. It was the missing mouth.

Orange gloved fingers traced the sharp cut of their… jawline? The lower side of their triangle that connected to their neck. Trembling, they brushed over the smooth space just above it, repeating the motion over and over as their mind made the same connection.

It was all overwhelming; Gangle understood. Gangle remembered. But where Gangle had collapsed in a pool of her own helpless tears—folding under her new fate just as she'd folded at every other wrong turn her life had taken with little resistance—this newcomer did not. Their own shock sparked something inside them. Something unreadable. Unrecognizable. Instead of falling to pieces, their parts clicked together as they rose up to their full height and screamed.

Even without a mouth, they didn't let its lack mute their fury as their one voice cut through all the others, calling for them all to shut up before they gave them a fucking migraine—at least, Gangle assumed the censor had blocked out the word "fucking" since no other "-ing" curse seemed to really fit. Which sparked a whole new issue and whole new string of swears.

Gangle winced, her thin arms rising to shield her face instinctively, like the rough, boisterous voice was capable of shattering her mask from the sheer force behind it. Like her own spindly, flimsy arms would be able to offer any amount of protection.

This new new person's—Zooble's—arrival wasn't anything like Gangle's at all.

And Gangle didn't know the first thing to do about that. 

It was only Zooble's sixth adventure, but they already seemed so over it. Over everything.

Where Gangle had tried to ingratiate herself to the others immediately, Zooble had no interest in playing along or letting themself get roped into any of Jax and Kaufmo's pranks. They shrugged off Ragatha's positivity at every turn and ignored Kinger's unrelated observations and occasional screaming episodes.

They only wanted one thing out of each adventure. To leave.

Unfortunately for Zooble, this adventure was one of Caine's longer ones. Clearly having been inspired by the Lord of the Rings, their task was to take a cursed object—in this case, an amulet instead of a ring—from a fairy kingdom in the forest and travel all the way to the very top of the evil volcano where it was forged. It was the only power in this digital fantasy world that could destroy it, its lava practically a gateway to Hell itself!

Or so Caine said.

It was especially unfortunate for Zooble because it was the kind of adventure that involved a lot of walking and they were still getting used to their collection of random plastic parts. They only had one proper "foot," encased in a cartoonish shoe attached to a rubberhose leg, while the other leg was made up of two separate pieces that connected at what was maybe supposed to be a knee. The foot part on that leg was just a stick that curled at the end and not exactly built for balance. Because of that, Zooble tended to favor that leg and hobbled around with a half-limp that they powered through on pure stubbornness and pride.

They didn't ask anyone for help. They didn't ask for a cane or for any breaks on the journey. They had their sights set on the finish line so they could get the heck out of this place and barricade themselves in their room until the next adventure inevitably beckoned.

It was… admirable. 

Gangle envied Zooble's tenacity and ability to speak their mind freely. They were refreshingly frank and open, in ways no one else in the circus seemed to be. Gangle herself certainly wasn't; too afraid to share any true part of herself lest it be turned against her. Jax was allergic to sincerity, Ragatha bottled up all her negativity in a way that felt disingenuous, Kaufmo couldn't have a serious conversation if he tried, Ribbit wasn't open with her feelings around her so-called friends, and Kinger was… well, Kinger went without saying.

But Zooble didn't feel the need to spare anyone's feelings about who they were. Zooble was just so… unapologetically Zooble.

Of course, it had only been a week. Things could change, but for the time being, Gangle found Zooble's inclusion to their group refreshing. Inspiring, even.

It also gave her some space to herself for the first time since entering the circus. It kept Ragatha from hovering around her too much, fully committed to making sure Zooble had a good time—or at least a lukewarm time. Not a bad time. And Jax and Kaufmo were distracted by Zooble, too, poking fun at the newbie the way they'd done to Gangle, pushing all their buttons and seeing how far a joke could go. Gangle would've worried about them if they'd been anyone else, but Zooble took their teasing in stride, rarely acknowledging anything they did or said with something other than an exasperated eye roll. They'd only snapped a few times, but quickly realized that was Jax's whole goal, thus attempting to temper their clapbacks to something that was still forceful, yet mild in tone.

Jax wasn't going to push them around, but he wasn't going to get a rise out of them either.

Gangle never thought someone had looked cooler. She wanted to draw them.

Her mouth turned into an embarrassed squiggle as her mask grew hot and she patted her tear-free cheeks to try and calm herself. No need to get flustered, Gangle. It's not a big deal, you've drawn everyone in the circus multiple times by now, it's fine to want to draw them. Do not get worked up about this. Keep it together—

"Keep up, Ribbons, or we're gonna leave you behind to get eaten by the dragons," Jax hollered back at her, the others somehow gaining a big lead ahead of her.

"O-oh! Uh, sorry! Sorry, I'm-I’m coming!" she squeaked, rushing to catch up with everyone and very pointedly avoiding checking to see what Zooble's reaction to her slowness was. Like Zooble was keeping up with a limp, what was Gangle's excuse for lagging behind?

"Already? But you haven't even made it to the peak yet," Kaufmo gestured to the top of the volcano with a pleased grin.

"Well, whaddya expect from someone who’s oh-so sensitive?" Jax sneered, his grin just as broad.

"What?" Gangle blinked, then slapped her ribbons over her cheeks again as the innuendo registered. "No, wait—you know that's not what I—! Oh…"

Jax and Kaufmo both burst out in raucous guffaws at her belated reaction, the former turning to high-five Ribbit, but she left him hanging with an annoyed tch. "You're a child," she accused, walking away from the group. "Both of you." 

"Buzzkill," Jax fired back. 

"Yeah, come on. We're just ribbing her, Ribbit." Kaufmo elbowed Jax in the side. "Get it? Ribbing. It's like a two for one special since Gangle's made of ribbons and Ribbit's name is—"

"You do realize having to explain the joke kinda defeats the whole purpose, right?" Jax scoffed, effectively distracted from toying with Gangle further for the time being as they kept walking and left her be.

Ragatha gravitated away from Zooble's side for a moment to fall into step beside her. "Hey, don't listen to them. You know they're just trying to get under your skin… er… ribbons."

Gangle nodded meekly, more embarrassed than upset thanks to her comedy mask still being intact. "No, yeah, I-I know. It wasn't even a good joke."

"Low-hanging fruit," Zooble hummed in agreement from further ahead.

Gangle buried her face in her hands as the mortification grew. No, no, no. This couldn't possibly be the first time she exchanged words with Zooble. She'd rather die.

Ragatha's hands hovered awkwardly around her before giving her back a gentle pat. "It'll be okay. You know they can't go into too much detail about stuff like that. And they'll move onto poking fun at something else soon enough," Ragatha chuckled weakly, some of her positivity deflating. "They always do."

That was the worst part of it. They'd always come back with something more. And lately it felt like Jax was getting bolder, really trying to wring a reaction not only out of her, but out of everyone. Ribbit, especially. He was constantly looking to her for her approval, but it seemed like the wilder he went, the less she reacted. And the less she reacted, the wilder he got…

Fortunately, he didn't do anything too crazy on the rest of the way up to the volcano. There was a path carved into the side of it that made it relatively easy to climb, and thankfully no all-seeing evil eye at the top—though perhaps Caine counted as the ever-watching eye of Sauron. In any case, they made it to the edge of the crater in one piece, all present and accounted for.

"Hey, Zooble. Gimme one of your arms so I can use it as a bat." Jax tried to grab at one of Zooble's limbs, but they leaned out of the way just in time.

"No way. Just throw that thing into the volcano so we can go already," they huffed, crossing their arms firmly, so they wouldn't be as easy to grab.

Jax clicked his tongue. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Jax, seriously, stop fucking around for once and just throw it!" Ribbit snapped, their outburst drawing everyone's gaze to them. "What. Don't look at me like that, you're all thinking it, too."

"Fine, whatever," Jax muttered, gritting his teeth as he pointedly looked away and schooled his expression into something unaffected, like if he didn't keep himself in check, he'd start pouting or something.

For a sliver of a second, Gangle almost felt bad for him. She knew what the pain of feeling rejected was like. And he and Ribbit were close… being snapped at like that, when Ribbit wasn't usually the type to snap, must've hurt. 

Without any fanfare, Jax wound up his arm and flung the cursed amulet into the center of the crater. It sailed through the air, deep down into the magma chamber and landed within the lava where it melted down into nothingness; never to be used to corrupt anyone ever again. Hooray.

"So is that it? Can we go now?" Zooble asked.

"We have to make it back down the volcano and tell the fairy kingdom that we destroyed the amulet first," Ragatha explained, clasping her hands together as she tried to look on the bright side of having to walk all the way back to the kingdom. "But hey! Maybe there'll be a knighting ceremony or a banquet waiting for us!"

"Will there be insects there?" Kinger asked, eyes bright and hopeful.

"Maybe…?" Ragatha shrugged, her smile waning as she muttered to herself, "As long as they're not centipedes…"

The group turned away from the crater and started to head back for the mountain path.

"Wait. There's one more cursed object we forgot to throw in," Jax pointed out, immediately sidling over and popping Zooble's head right off their neck.

"What the fuck, Jax!" Zooble's eyes were wild as their body lunged to try and grab themself back, but their balance was off and Jax was too quick.

Before anyone could stop him, he hurled Zooble's head right over the edge of the volcano. "Annnnd there we go!"

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" Zooble's censored threat faded away as their head disappeared from sight, falling so far, none of them heard the crack of plastic wherever they might've landed.

Gangle stared in horror, her hands covering her mouth, which had warped into a worried frown that didn't quite fit the shape of her comedy mask. Along with the rest of their group, she scrambled to the edge and peered down the volcano's vent. None of them could see Zooble's head from their vantage point.

"Jax, what is wrong with you?" Ragatha demanded, pulling on her own hair as she whirled on him. "Why would you do that to poor Zooble!"

Unlike everyone else, he sported a broad grin once again as he looked down at his handiwork with pride. "What? You can't tell me their face wasn't a cursed object, too. Plus, I wanted to see what the rest of 'em would do."

He gestured to Zooble's body, whose arms were outstretched as they frantically felt through the air for any obstacles or people in their way. They swerved about unsteadily, veering too far one way until they overcorrected and nearly fell over in the opposite direction, getting caught on their own mismatched feet. Ragatha, Kinger, and Kaufmo backed away on instinct when Zooble nearly smacked them with their flailing limbs, while Jax just looked on with utter delight.

"Woah-ho-ho! That's even freakier than I imagined it being," Jax laughed in disbelief, then stuck out his leg to trip the stumbling body.

Zooble's legs wobbled as their torso nearly toppled over the edge of the volcano. Gangle squeaked and lurched forward, winding her ribbons around Zooble's middle to catch them. The plastic body stiffened at the unexpected touch, reeling at being reeled back away from a danger they couldn't perceive. Gangle immediately released them once they were safe, arms fluttering in silent apology.

Until Jax popped up beside her, grinning from ear to ear. "Good idea, Gangle! Hey everyone, let's use Ribbons here like a leash to drag this thing along with us."

"No!" Gangle wailed, already stumbling back from the edge to seek shelter behind Zooble's torso, inevitably orbiting them in a panic when Jax gave chase.

"Jax," Ragatha groaned, smacking her palm to her face as the two ran several rounds of ring around the Zooble. "No, we're not going to do that!"

Zooble's body could clearly feel the motion around them, one of their arms swatting at the air to try and stop whatever was occasionally brushing against them and wrecking their sense of balance. They flailed when Ragatha grabbed hold of their arm and tugged them away from the center of Jax and Gangle's squabble, intending to protect the now blind and deaf amalgamation from further harm, only to end up punched in the eye. And not the button one.

"Ow! Ow, ow… hey, stop, it's okay. I'm just trying to help you!" Ragatha held up her hands, murmuring soothing sounds like she was trying to calm a startled horse. Except in this case, Zooble couldn't see or hear her, so it didn't really work. "Gangle, could you, maybe, uh… restrain them for just a moment?" Ragatha asked when her methods failed her. "You know, just until they calm down?"

Gangle's eyes widened, hunching in on herself as she weakly shook her head. "I don't… I don't know if that would calm them down…"

"I dunno. I think Zooble would be into it," Jax remarked casually.

"Oh…" Gangle curled in on herself even more.

Without being asked, Kinger stepped up beside Ragatha and placed his hand on Zooble's shoulder—the one without a wing attached to it. Zooble stiffened again, but hesitated against lashing out when the hand just stayed there. It didn't grip or grab or pull. Just a grounding weight to let them know they weren't alone, even if it felt like they were.

"Easy now," Kinger murmured. "We've got you."

Zooble's body didn't exactly relax, but they allowed themselves to be turned towards the pathway, as long as Kinger's hand stayed on their shoulder. Ragatha came up on their other side, lightly touching their arm to warn them before she took a hold of their elbow, to take over when Kinger inevitably became distracted by something on the long walk back.

"I think as long as we have their body, Caine should count that as all of us completing the adventure once we make it back," Ragatha guessed.

"He better. 'Cuz there's no way I'm going down there when they've probably already melted in a pool of lava." Jax turned his gaze to the sky thoughtfully. "I wonder if they exploded like that can of soup in that one video. Man, wish I could've seen it."

"I don't think they made it into the lava. Your throw didn't have the same arc as before," Kaufmo told him. "They probably landed on a rock somewhere. If only they were capable of rolling."

"Eh, Caine'll zap 'em back once the adventure's over. It'll be fine." Jax waved off, then flashed his smile at Ribbit, only to be completely ignored as she brushed past all of them to take the lead. "Geez, what's got your bow tie in a bunch?" he grumbled, following in her footsteps down the path, though not before shoving Zooble to the ground first.

Only Gangle lingered behind.

It must've been frightening, she thought, watching as Ragatha and Kinger tried to help Zooble back to their feet. Having to trust these people with their body and all its removable parts without a say in anything that happened. Unable to see or hear or speak their pretty opinionated mind, all the while feeling unfamiliar hands pull and tug and guide them to supposed safety. If they even could still feel a connection to their body once they were detached. Though Zooble didn't really seem like the type to let fear get the better of them, Gangle herself knew that if she was in Zooble's shoes, she'd be absolutely terrified.

If Gangle was in Zooble's shoes… She wouldn't have wanted to be left behind. It would've mattered to her, that someone saw her as something worth going back for.

Gangle tapped her ribbon hands together as her gaze darted from the lip of the volcano to the rest of her group heading back down without her. They hadn't even noticed yet that she wasn't with them. That wasn't exactly new though… Gangle had never been especially memorable, even before the circus.

With her comedy mask still in place, Gangle felt a surge of determination and hope spark within her ribbons as she found a ledge to slip down onto. There wasn't exactly a clear path down into the inside of the volcano, but Gangle's lithe, slinky-like body was able to cling to the narrow, rocky outcrops in the vent as she eased her way down. Wrapping one ribbon arm around a rock, she leaned forward and looked down, searching for any sign of Zooble's head. Chances were they were closer to the bottom, if Kaufmo's hunch was right and they hadn't fallen into the lava completely.

Oh… Gangle really hoped they hadn't fallen into the lava.

The molten mass at the volcano's base might've been digital, but it would still hurt. Pain was a sensation that their minds had trouble managing. At least, in Gangle's experience. If she expected something to hurt, it often did. She needed a bit of time to prepare herself for the pain and wasn't always given that chance in the heat of the moment.

With Zooble being so new, she was sure they hadn't gotten the hang of mitigating that particular sensation either. Burning alive in a pool of lava didn't sound like the ideal place to start.

But the fact that their body was still moving on its own, Gangle had to imagine that meant their head was still intact. Hopefully a few bumps and bruises were all that Zooble had to endure.

"Zooble?" Gangle called out, at first with a voice too soft and hesitant to be heard at any great distance, so coughed a bit to clear it and tried again. "Zooble?"

No answer.

Taking a shaky breath, Gangle continued her descent into the belly of the volcano. She tread carefully, mindful of slipping or tripping on stray rocks as her hands kept coming up to protect her comedy mask. It was rare it ever stayed in one piece for so long. It felt like tempting fate every time she navigated down a steep slope or had to slide past a sharp rock jutting out from the volcano's inner wall.

But, eventually, whatever luck she'd had that day ran out.

She'd made it about halfway down when she spied a familiar flash of color. A plastic, turquoise zig-zag shape was caught on the ledge just beneath her. It wasn't attached to anything, but Gangle recognized it as one of Zooble's headpieces. Maybe the rest of their head was close.

Gangle's arms fluttered with hope as she leaned forward and tried to lasso it. It was a little out of reach, so she stretched a bit further, uncoiling her middle bit by bit. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as the tips of her ribbons brushed the jagged edge of plastic. Almost…

"Got it!" Gangle cheered breathlessly, holding the piece in her hand triumphantly. 

But the added weight and uneven balance of her uncoiled body messed with her center of gravity. With a panicked squeak, she toppled over the ledge. The gangly limbs she was named for gracelessly pinwheeling through the air in an attempt to stop herself from falling, but no matter how wispy and light her digital body was, she still couldn't fight the physics of this world. Gangle sprang back into her usual, coiled shape, tucking her ribbons around her face and Zooble's piece as she rolled down along the cliffside until she landed with an all-too-familiar porcelain crack.

A sob bubbled up almost immediately.

Lying face down on the hard, unforgiving ground, Gangle pushed herself up onto her elbows and knees, lifting her teary-eyed tragedy mask from the useless protection of her own arms. Shattered. Her comedy mask once again lay in pieces, beyond repair until Caine felt charitable enough to fix it for her. Which wouldn't be until they were out of the adventure.

Which meant she was stuck like this. Pathetic, crybaby Gangle. All alone at the bottom of a volcano, where she was being suffocated by a now oppressive, stifling heat that rippled through the air and pressed in all around her. Where she had completely failed her own self-imposed rescue mission.

"Oh, what was I thinking?" she moaned, burying her face in her hands as she sat back on her knees. "Why did I think I could do this? I'm the last person anyone could count on to save them. I can't even save myself…"

Over the sound of her own weeping, a distant beep echoed off the rocks. Gangle lifted her face, sniffling as she messily wiped away her tears. She recognized that sound. Especially since she'd been hearing it more often over the past few days.

It was Caine's swear censor.

With another pathetic sniffle, Gangle picked up Zooble's zig-zag and clutched it tightly as she stood on wobbly legs. She quietly padded down the path, perking up when a familiar voice echoed amidst the beeping. She followed the sound of it until she came across a bright pink triangle propped up by the rock they'd landed against, resting at a lopsided angle.

"Is anyone there? Hey! I swear if that's you, Jax, I'm going to rip your fucking ears off your goddamn head and see how you like it!" 

"Zooble?"

"Huh?" The string of curses and threats snapped as Zooble's gaze darted to Gangle, mismatched eyes brightening with the relief of actually being found. "Oh, it's you. Uh…"

"Gangle," she sniffled, well-aware that she'd made no attempt to introduce herself in all the days Zooble had been in the circus so far. It wasn't a surprise they didn't know her name.

"Gangle, right. You have that whole two different faces gimmick."

"My comedy and tragedy masks," Gangle mumbled, fresh tears springing to her eyes as she wrung her ribbon hands around the plastic piece in her grip. "Except one's not exactly a mask…"

"Right… so were you like, a theatre kid or something?"

"No… not really," Gangle sniffled again.

"Oh."

There was an awkward beat of silence before Zooble tried to tip their head a bit to see past Gangle. 

"So where's the rest of them? You beat 'em down here or…?"

"Oh. Well, uh…" Gangle's shoulders hunched up, the ribbons of her torso coiling tighter in an attempt to make herself smaller. "They're still up at the top with your body. It's just… me who came down."

Their bland stare bored into her, saw right through her wispy body and the nothingness that made her who she was. "Got it," they sighed heavily. "So you drew the short stick and they all sent you down to get me? Bunch of assholes…"

Gangle winced. "N-no. They probably haven't even noticed that I'm gone…" She twisted the plastic piece in her hands round and round in lieu of wringing her ribbons together, until she suddenly realized that she was basically fondling one of Zooble's body parts right in front of them and froze immediately. "No, I just… wanted to make sure you were… okay?"

Their eyes went half-lidded. "My disembodied head is at the bottom of a fucking volcano. What do you think?"

"W-well, maybe not 'okay,' I just meant…" Familiar tears had already welled up before she'd even started talking to Zooble, but more suddenly flooded the emptiness of her eyes, forcing a few to slide down her mask. "Sorry. That wasn't… I just didn't want… any part of you to be left behind."

Zooble stared at her for a beat, gaze unreadable as they watched her quietly. Searching for something, maybe? Or maybe just resigning themself to having to rely on Gangle of all people to get them out.

But then they looked away again, their eyelids lowering in a way that didn't necessarily look like anger. Disappointment, maybe? Gangle could understand that. If she was all she had to save herself, she'd be disappointed, too.

Especially since she was already failing at this not-very-well-thought-out rescue mission. Zooble's head was still on the ground.

"Oh, um. Here. I found this." She offered up the piece of them that she'd found like a lame peace offering, or some sort of apology for being the only one out of everyone to show up. "Thought you might… want it back…"

Gangle stumbled forward and crouched down in front of Zooble's head. Her hands shook as she gently slotted the turquoise piece into the empty hole next to the black and white striped Y-shaped piece they'd managed to hold onto. It clicked into place without much effort, but Gangle couldn't help wondering if it hurt when Zooble's wide eyes were suddenly on her again.

They almost looked… vulnerable. Which Gangle supposed they were. They were just a head on the ground right now, miles away from the rest of their body with no way to stop anyone from touching them or messing with their parts or any sort of autonomy whatsoever. Not that any of them had much autonomy in the circus, but… what little they did have mattered.

"Is it… is it okay if I—um…" Gangle's mouth wobbled unsteadily as her ribbon arms wibbled in a vague attempt to mime like she was holding something. "Pick you up? I—I promise I won't drop you or throw you in the lava or… or anything like that."

Zooble blinked at her, coming back to themself from wherever they'd gone, then their eyes slowly narrowed as they processed her request. "Uh… well, I don't really see any other way I'm getting out of here, so…"

"R-right, I just—wanted to make sure…" Gangle trailed off, coiling up tighter with embarrassment. "I don't want to… do anything to make you more uncomfortable than you already are. And I'm sorry you don't have any other options except… me."

"Oh." Zooble blinked again. "Hey, I don't mind that it's you."

One tear slid down the side of Gangle's mask as she looked down at them. "…Really?"

"Yeah. It's not like you were the one who threw me down here." Zooble's eyes narrowed again, but the way they looked up the vent of the volcano reassured Gangle their ire was directed at someone else entirely. "I don't have a problem with you. If it was the asshole who threw me down here in the first place, it'd be a different story. I think I'd rather roll myself into the lava than put any of my parts in his hands."

"But I didn't do anything to…" Gangle twisted her hands together tightly, nearly tying herself in a knot. "…help. I haven't tried to help you at all the whole time you've been here."

"Yeah, well… you're helping me now, aren't you?" Zooble's gaze drifted back to her. "That's not nothing."

Gangle sniffled, eyes widening at how simple Zooble made it sound. She dabbed at one of her too-big tears with her ribbons, nodding to let Zooble know she'd heard them loud and clear, even if she didn't have an answer to that. That's not nothing.

Leaning closer to Zooble, Gangle placed the tip of her ribbon hand against the back of their head. With a squeak, she flinched back almost instantly, their plastic hot to the touch from being down here for so long. Like playground equipment left out in the heat of the summer sun. Quickly waving her hands apologetically, she fought not to crumple up into a sobbing ball of wet newspaper right then and there. Way to go, Gangle. Bet they really don't mind that you're all they've got now.

After a steadying breath to compose herself, she tried again, expecting the heat radiating off of Zooble this time. Gangle carefully slipped her arms around the sharp angles of their head, mindful of the bigger eye and protruding headpieces. Their plastic was smooth beneath her ribbons, no purchase to be found when she was too silky to have much of a grip. She had to practically wrap herself around them, grasping the bottom corners of their triangle head to keep a hold of them. Turning them so they were facing outwards instead of into Gangle's chest, she hoped having a sense of where they were going would feel better than going backwards.

Rising to stand, her arms swayed with the added weight of Zooble's head. The ribbons of her core tightened and she hoisted Zooble up a bit higher, so it didn't feel like she was about to drop them.

"Is this okay…?" Gangle asked.

"Little weird," Zooble answered honestly, "but I think this is as okay as we're going to get."

Gangle nodded meekly, the motion enough to draw Zooble's gaze up to her. "Okay. Um. Let me know if it's too tight or anything."

"Will do."

She adjusted her grip again, just in case, then looked around. "I guess… I should try going back the way I came?"

"Is there a way back up from there?" Zooble asked.

"I think so…" Gangle mumbled, retracing her steps back to where she had fallen, just to see if there was a pathway or a ledge she could climb up easily, now that she didn't have the use of her arms.

Sure enough, there was a sloped path heading upward. Both Gangle and Zooble tipped their heads back as they looked up. The top of the volcano almost a pinprick from way down here. Zooble released another deep, resigned sigh, eyes going half-lidded as they mentally prepared for the long trek back up. Gangle gulped audibly, then let out her own shaky breath before she headed up the slope.

She went carefully, not wanting to trip while holding Zooble, especially when the swaying of her arms and the weight of their head was an adjustment. Though she was surprised at how comforting their shape and warmth became where they were held against her chest. Her ribbons tightened their grip around them—to keep them secured, of course—determined not to drop them.

Zooble hummed thoughtfully. "You held onto me up there for a second, didn't you?"

"W-w-what?" Gangle stammered, eyes rounding in panic.

"This feels familiar."

Gangle's mouth wibbled, feeling guilty even though it had been to save Zooble's body from meeting the same fate as their head. "The rest of you was going to fall into the volcano, too, so I grabbed you. I'm sorry."

"You're… apologizing for stopping me from falling?" Zooble squinted up at her.

"Um… yes?"

"What happened to you saying you didn't do anything to help me before then, huh?" One of Zooble's headpieces twitched, the motion startling Gangle as it brushed against her ribbons.

"Well, it—it was too late by then," she stammered, mask heating up. "You didn't have a head anymore and it… just felt like the least anyone could do was keep the rest of you in one piece."

Zooble blinked, then focused their gaze ahead of them again. "The way you think is… interesting."

"Interesting… bad?" Gangle asked, hunching her shoulders as best as she could with her arms weighed down.

"Interesting interesting." That wasn't much of an answer still, but at least it wasn't interesting bad, so Gangle would take it.

"So! Um… y-you can still feel what your body's doing right now?" she asked, desperately trying to steer the conversation away from her and how she was being perceived.

Luckily Zooble rolled with it. "Yeah. It's kinda disorienting to be honest. Like, it wasn't so bad when I was stuck in one place, but now that two different parts of me are moving in two completely different ways, it feels… I don't know how to describe it. Kinda like getting carsick except without the nausea. Just kind of… unsettled."

"Oh…" Gangle slowed her pace a little, self-conscious about the way she was holding them now, but their mind was still focused on their body.

"I can feel the uneven dirt on the mountain path I’m walking on and I keep tripping over something I can't see. And I can feel hands on me? They're obviously guiding me, so I'm guessing one of them's Ragatha, but I keep tensing up, half-expecting some other touch to come out of nowhere. Or like, what if on my next step there's nothing there? It feels like any second, the ground could just be gone. And there's… there's nothing I can fucking do about it. All I can do is just take it."

Gangle looked down at their head, cradling them as gently as possible to try and ease the feeling of being touched by too many hands. "It is Ragatha guiding you," she piped up, hoping shedding some light on their body's situation might alleviate some of the stress about the unknown. "And Kinger… he put his hand on your shoulder. I don't know if you can still feel it there, it's hard to tell how focused Kinger can be on any one task, after all, but… When I left, they were on either side of you. I'm sure they'll do their best to keep anything else from happening to you. But I'm sorry it's still… out of your control."

"Yeah, well… so's everything else in this place," they muttered.

Gangle nodded, one of her tears slipping down her cheeks only for another to replace it almost immediately. "It's not the same, but… my masks control how I feel. I don't really have a say in that either, no matter how much I might want to feel something else."

"Yeah, that sounds like it'd be pretty tough to deal with… But hey, didn't you have the other mask on earlier? The uh… the comedy one?" Zooble asked, eyes narrowing even as they strained upwards to peer at Gangle's face and visible despair. "Don't tell me that asshole rabbit broke it again."

"I won't," she replied meekly, but it didn't sound as light as she wanted it too with her voice choked by her own tears. She adjusted her hold on Zooble as she stepped up onto a different ledge that would take them up to a higher path, then continued when she realized they were still looking at her expectantly. "But no, it was just… me this time. I fell on my way down here and broke it… Sorry."

Zooble's eyes narrowed impossibly further. "Okay. Wait, now why are you apologizing to me for something that happened to you?"

Gangle visibly winced at the incredulity in their voice, her mouth pressed together in a wobbly line as she focused her gaze on the path ahead of her instead of the pink triangle head in her arms. "Because it affects others, too? I'm… not exactly at my best without my comedy mask… I'm not very fun to talk to and I just… kill the mood, I guess…"

"Did Jax tell you that?" Zooble asked blandly.

She couldn't say that he hadn't, but it wasn't like it was news to her. It felt like she'd always carried these feelings with her, even before the mask gimmick. It was hard not to feel swallowed by her own sadness. By her own ineptitude.

"It's just kinda obvious," Gangle mumbled.

"Well, I don't see what's so obvious about it."

Despite the abject misery coursing through her ribbons, the matter-of-fact tone couldn't help but send a little tendril of warmth up into her chest. "You just haven't been here long enough to get sick of it yet…" she told them.

"I think I'll be the judge of that." Zooble huffed. "And if I do get sick of it, well, then that's a me problem. You can't help it if you're being forced to feel sad. And making you feel bad about that isn't going to make anything better either."

Gangle just barely resisted squeezing Zooble's head, that warmth inside her blossoming into full on butterflies. "Nobody's ever put it like that before."

"Can't say I'm surprised. You've kind of kept to yourself this whole time. I thought you just weren't much of a people person. Either that or…"

"'Or…?'" Gangle tilted her head, glancing down only to find Zooble looking elsewhere.

"Forget it." Zooble's voice was a little raspy, like for once they didn't want to give voice to what was going on in their head, but under Gangle's expectant and curious stare, it didn't take long for their voice to crack again as they added, "It was just… I dunno. I thought maybe I'd done or said something to make you not want to talk to me."

Gangle's mouth dropped open in a perfect "O" of shock. "You… you noticed?"

"Yeah, of course I noticed. There's only so many of us here, right?" Zooble answered quickly, like they wanted to skip over this conversation entirely. "So when everyone's introduced themselves to you except one person, it kinda gets you thinking, that's all. Maybe it was nothing, but… you know, what if it wasn't?"

"I didn't know…" This time Gangle did give their head the lightest squeeze. "It wasn't anything you did at all. It was all me. I just didn't know what to say to you, so I… I thought it would be better if I didn't say anything at all… B-but if I'd known it was bothering you, I would've tried something sooner, I swear—!"

"Hey, it's okay. I believe you," Zooble assured them, their voice a little lighter now.

"You do?" Gangle hefted them up a little higher and they couldn't help but glance up at the motion.

"Yeah."

Gangle blinked down at them. "Why?"

Zooble blinked back, then softened into something a little self-reflective as they spoke as candidly as they always did. "You haven't given me a reason not to take you at your word, so why wouldn't I?"

A foreign feeling tugged at the bottom of Gangle's tragedy mask. A small, nearly invisible curve of a smile that didn't belong with her sad eyes. It was involuntary. Like it was… normal.

"Okay…" Gangle mumbled shyly. "I believe you, too, Zooble."

Zooble's eyes widened, like they weren't expecting the sentiment to be returned or that it seemed impossible when they'd hardly exchanged more than a couple of sentences. But it was a truth that Gangle didn't feel like hiding. Not right now, anyway.

Maybe because she was still riding the high that someone as interesting—interesting in a good way—as Zooble had noticed Gangle's existence from the start, with no intention of trying to get something out of her because if they had then they would've made the first move. They wouldn't care about whether or not Gangle felt uncomfortable around them. They wouldn't have placed the ball in Gangle's court and waited to see what she'd do. Curious enough to wonder about her.

Gangle yelped when she tripped over the uneven ground, nearly faceplanting if not for the frantic way she tried to stay upright for Zooble's sake. Their head slid through her ribbons, their own startled shout escaping them as they felt her grip go lax. Gangle quickly wrapped them back up to secure them in her arms.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Ugh. Just try to be a little more careful, huh?" Zooble told her.

"Okay…" Gangle sniffled, wanting to lift her arms to hide her tear-streaked face, except her arms were full of Zooble, so instead she just stood there for a good minute willing the tears to stop on their own.

They didn't.

"Hey, come on, don't just—are you seriously just going to stand here crying? Gangle? Gangle, it's fine. We're fine. Nothing bad happened." Zooble tipped their head, trying to nudge the ribbons into moving forward again, helpless to try anything else other than just endure the flood of her tears.

"But I almost dropped you," she blubbered, mouth a pathetic little wobble as fresh tears spilled down the sides of her mask. "And I promised I wouldn't."

It wasn't funny. It wasn't funny that she was crying, not at all. And it wasn't funny that they were a disembodied head miles from the weird body they didn't even like but at least had more autonomy than being entirely reliant on the red ribbons wrapped around them. 

But despite the fact that the situation was decidedly not funny… a choked noise that sort of sounded like a laugh being half-strangled escaped Zooble.

"You didn't drop me," they tried to her reassure her again, unable to hide the smile threatening to creep into their voice. "Gangle, you didn't. It's okay. You kept your promise."

With a wet hiccup, Gangle blinked past her tears to look down at Zooble. They were looking back, watching this whole scene with a slight crinkle to their eyes. Gangle sniffled. She'd never seen Zooble smile before. This couldn't even really be called that since they didn't have a mouth, but… Gangle couldn't think of another word more fitting for the amused glint in their eyes. Not mean-spirited, not because Gangle was a crybaby, but just because…

She didn't really know.

Maybe if she had her comedy mask, she'd be able to understand why.

Gangle inhaled deeply, relaxing the tightly wound up ribbons of her middle on a long, measured exhale. "Thank you, Zooble."

"No problem. You ready to keep going?" They tilted their head to the side, the triangle point on the side of it tugging gently on her ribbons.

Gangle nodded, resuming their trek with renewed determination to not let herself get distracted from each careful step. There were a few times where she had to reach up and set Zooble down on a ledge that was too high to step up onto, clambering up after them quickly so they didn't have to wait on her any more than they already had. It took a lot longer going up than it had going down, and neither wanted to think about the fact that they still had to make their way back to the kingdom where the portal to take them back to the circus would be waiting. Instead, Gangle just focused on one obstacle at a time.

Get Zooble out of the volcano. That was the mission. That was the goal. They could figure out the rest later.

"Maybe… giant eagles will be waiting for us at the top." Gangle hoped through her tears, breathless as she pulled herself up onto a new ledge.

"As long as the Shire's not burning when we get back," Zooble muttered, then glanced at Gangle as she gasped for breath and fanned herself weakly with her flimsy ribbon hand. "For now, let's just take a break. You've made pretty good progress already."

Gangle shook her head. "Mm-mm. I'm okay to keep going," she panted. "I don't want to keep you and everyone waiting. Jax gets really mad when the exciting part of the adventure's over and we have to wait."

Zooble's eyes narrowed. "Well, he should've thought about that before he threw me into a fucking volcano. I don't give a shit if he's mad."

"Well, you're braver than me," Gangle told them, pushing herself up to her feet and bent down to pick up Zooble again.

"What are you talking about?" Zooble's voice was incredulous as they were lifted up and carefully wrapped in ribbons again. "You willingly walked into an active volcano by yourself. How is that not brave?"

Gangle shrugged, avoiding their gaze. "That's… different."

"Yeah, it is. And I'd say it's a thousand times scarier than Jax could ever be."

Gangle's grip tightened minutely as she considered that; a reflexive pain of fear cutting through her core. "Not to me," she whispered.

"Huh?" Zooble blinked, trying to look up at Gangle, but this time her hold on them prevented them from seeing more than the ash-coated sky.

"If he'd caught me sneaking down here to get you and told me not to…" Gangle's mouth pressed itself into a thin, fragile line. "I wouldn't have come."

Zooble's eyebrows furrowed. "Gangle…"

Whatever else they might have had to say was interrupted by a loud rumbling all around them. The ground beneath Gangle's feet started shaking, tremors rippling through the entire volcano. Gangle and Zooble peered down into the lava chamber, both their eyes snapping wide open. The lava was rising.

"What the actual fuck?" Zooble shouted.

"Guess Caine's starting to get tired of waiting!" Gangle squeaked, scrambling away from the ledge and started running as fast as her ribbon legs could carry her.

Zooble got a little dizzy as they were jostled a bit before Gangle held them closer to her chest. "Then why doesn't he just teleport us out of here now?"

"Uh—that's not really how he likes to do things!" Gangle panted, turning sharply to follow the curve of the slope upwards.

"I don't care! He can't just change the rules on us like this!"

With the lava rising, the stifling heat surrounding them became even more oppressive. Dense and suffocating, pressing in on them from all sides. If they had bodies with sweat glands, they'd both have been thoroughly drenched by this point. One small benefit to these bodies when Gangle's silken grip on Zooble was already as slippery as it was.

"Wait, there!" Zooble nudged their head in the direction of the wall next to them. "I think it'll be faster to climb up here than run all the way around."

"Oh, um…" Gangle glanced up the long, winding slope, then back to the several ledges stacked nearly one after another, within relatively easy reach even if she didn't stand on the tips of her feet. "Okay… we can give it a try."

She reached up and set Zooble down on the ledge immediately in front of them, then hoisted herself up with a squeaky grunt. Drawing her legs up, she quickly got to her feet and lifted Zooble again, setting them on the next ledge. Then the next. Then the next.

As Zooble watched her climb up for the eighth time, their eyebrows knitted together in concern. "You've got this. It's just a little further."

"I don't know…" Gangle wheezed, winded not only from the frantic pace she was trying to keep of lift, climb, crouch, lift, rinse and repeat, but from the entire day of walking, climbing down a volcano, climbing back up while carrying a plastic head… and she didn't even have her comedy mask. It was all just starting to take its toll. "I don't think I can," she whined.

"Sure you can. There's only one more ledge to go before we're back on the path. You can do this, Gangle," Zooble urged, their gaze flicking to the ledge they currently sat on; unable to see over it to tell just how close the lava was now, but the orange-tinged light it was emitting flickered faster off the grooves in the rock and off their faces.

Gangle shook her head, only her top half sprawled on the rocky surface, the rest of her still dangling over the edge. "No, no I can't—!" she wailed. "I'm tired, Zooble!"

"Hey…" Their own voice was thick with anxiety as they watched all the fight drain out of Gangle right before their eyes, her ribbons going limp and lax even as she sobbed. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay, catch your breath."

"I-I can't—"

"I know you can. I've seen you do it before. I've felt it. Come on, with me. Breathe in…" Though Zooble didn't have their torso, where their imaginary lungs would've been, nor a mouth, they still replicated the sound of inhaling deeply, their voice enough to guide a hiccuping Gangle into her own shaky breathing. "Okay, good. Now let it out. Just like that. One more time. Breathe in…"

Though every fiber of her was trembling, aching down to the individual threads of her ribbons, Gangle breathed through the pain until she had the strength to pull up one leg, then the other. Fully on the ledge, Gangle collapsed against the stone ledge and wept. Her tears evaporated instantly, the heat of the lava too much for even the tragedy mask, but her shoulders still shook with aborted sobs until the wave passed over her and finally let her up for air.

Gangle lifted her head, wiping at her mask reflexively, even if there were no damp trails to smear across porcelain. With a cough, she pushed herself up into a crouch, then reached for Zooble's worried head and wrapped them in her arms. She lifted up, stretching her limbs as far as they could go. She uncoiled a bit around the middle, gaining a little extra height in order to nudge Zooble to safety. Or, at least, onto a safer perch. For now.

Once Zooble was settled, Gangle braced herself to pull herself up the rest of the way. Taking a few steadying breaths, she stretched her arms up and gripped the ledge. Just one more time. One, two, thre—

A searing pain scalded her foot and she screamed. In a panicked frenzy, Gangle clawed her way up as molten fire engulfed non-existent nerves. She flung herself up and over the edge, deaf to Zooble's own frantic shouting as she fumbled for something—anything—to make the pain stop. Her hand closed around a loose rock and she smashed it onto the tip of her ribbon. Over and over to put it out. To keep the flames from eating away at the rest of her leg.

A blackened char replaced the shiny red satin of her left foot. Chest heaving for breath, Gangle tossed the rock aside and slumped against the rock wall. Her empty eyes simply stared at it for a second, half-imagining the char creeping up the rest of her ribbons and staining them black before she turned brittle and crumbled away into dust…

"—angle! Gangle, holy shit—look at me. Gangle, goddamnit. Come on, look at me!"

She did. Her mask lilted to one side as she looked over at Zooble, who was looking at her. Their horrified expression clicked something in place for her. Zooble didn't really seem like the type to let fear get the better of them… and yet…

"I'm okay," she told them weakly.

"Wha—? Like hell you are! You—your—your foot." Zooble's gaze honed in on the burnt scrap of fabric. "Oh god. I shouldn't have suggested this—what the fuck was I thinking making you climb all that? What the fuck—!"

"Zooble, it's really okay," Gangle continued, pushing herself up to stand, avoiding putting too much weight on her injured foot. "Caine will… fix it back at the circus… and then I'll be as good as new. So don't worry, okay?"

"But it—you—" For the first time since Gangle had seen them materialize in the circus, Zooble was at a loss for words. "Fuck," was all they could say, and even then they really couldn't, since the censor still bleeped them out, but the crack in their voice could still be heard as they squeezed their eyes shut. "You're still hurt."

"Yeah…" Gangle acknowledged, unable to deny it when her foot still burned—now with the addition of a throbbing ache from being smashed by a rock—and because of the chilling, blood-curdling scream she'd let out that they clearly heard loud and clear. "It was my fault though. I wasn't prepared… it didn't have to hurt that much if I didn't let it…"

Zooble made a quiet sound, squeezing their eyes shut tighter. Gangle hobbled over to them, then braced herself against the volcano's wall as she bent down to pick them up again. Her arms looped around them again, pulling them close as she reminded herself of the reason she came down here.

Get Zooble out of the volcano.

…god, she was so pathetic.

There was already a surefire way to get Zooble out safely. There had been this whole time. A way that would've spared them from the guilt and worry and fear that seized them in an unrelenting grip. As long as they didn't know… didn't see it happen. 

It wasn't an easy thing, watching someone else die. Even if it was just a game.

But Ragatha and the others were, without a doubt, already waiting at the exit portal for them. If there was no Gangle to wait for, then everyone still eligible to complete the adventure would've made it to the end. The second they all stepped through, Zooble would be zapped back to the circus and reunited with their body, whole and free. Everyone would be.

It wouldn't be the heroic and triumphant ascent out of the vent of the volcano that Gangle had wanted, but… what did it matter what Gangle wanted in all this? What she wanted wasn't part of the mission. What she wanted didn't matter. It never did.

She wasn't a hero. Heroes didn't put their silly fantasies over the well-being of the people they were trying to save. It was stupid. It was childish.

It was selfish.

What Gangle needed to do was put Zooble down and throw herself into the lava. It would be quick. Painless, if she properly prepared for it. And within seconds she'd rematerialize back at the circus like it never happened.

It was the right thing to do.

But Gangle turned away from the bubbling pit and limped along the path. Still trying. Still trying to go up. To get out. To be free, too. With Zooble.

She wanted them to get out of here together.

And she had a feeling, maybe, that was what Zooble wanted, too.

Gangle glanced back down at the lava level, ribbons bristling with a keening sort of sound at how close it was now. She broke into a jog, running as fast as she could with her injured foot, half-hobbling as she clutched Zooble's head like they were some kind of lifeline. They let out their own grunt when she squeezed too tight, eyes snapping open at the pressure, but they didn't tell her to ease up.

No, they had much more pressing matters to deal with.

They could see fragments of the sky more clearly through the smoke. They were almost to the top. They could make it—

Gangle followed the path around a sharp bend and almost cracked her porcelain face against a wall. "Wha—?"

It was a dead end.

"No, no, no, no, no," she whispered, frantically scanning their surroundings for another path or a step up—anything!

But there was nothing. Just a wall.

Mouth clamped shut, her whimpers were still audible as she sized up the cliffside. There was a landing at the top of it, but it was too high up for her to reach. Tucking Zooble's head into the crook of one arm, Gangle made a pretty pathetic attempt to scale the wall one-handed, barely even able to get both feet off the ground, especially when the charred one gave out beneath her the second she put any weight on it.

"It's no use," she blubbered, wiping at her face reflexively, feeling the volcanic heat creeping up behind her. "I can't do it."

"You could if you have both your arms free," Zooble murmured, their gaze on her instead of the wall.

"What?" she cried out, her voice hoarse from all the crying and smoke and toll this adventure had taken on her. "No, no, no! Zooble, I can't do that!"

"Pretty sure it's your only option at this point." They tried to sound gruff, unaffected, but their eyes narrowed when Gangle started shaking her head wildly. "Gangle—"

"Mm-mm!" Her mouth clamped shut, trembling beneath the wave of dread that crashed into her at the thought of leaving them behind.

"There's no point in us both burning alive if one of us can make it out!" Zooble snapped, their eyes full of the same intense fury and frustration they'd shone with from the moment they arrived at the circus.

That wrenched a full-on wail out of her as she dropped to her knees and curled in on herself. One hand pressed against her mask as she cried, but the other stayed around Zooble, keeping them propped up against her lap. Like if she let go of them for a second, they'd vanish.

Even if they were mad at her—even if they hated her now—she didn't want that. Gangle could feel their angry stare burning into her, stinging worse than the pain in her foot at the thought of letting them down. Of finally being too much.

As her pathetic keening finally quieted, Gangle felt Zooble's weight against her shift, like they were slumping back into her hold, resigning themself to it with a long, tired sigh.

"Why are you even trying so hard?" Zooble murmured, looking anywhere but her. "You don't even know me."

Gangle's lip quivered as she kept her own face hidden in her hand. "You don't know me either," she mumbled.

Zooble huffed, but didn't exactly have an argument for that. "I'm just… I'm trying to think logically here. One of us can move freely. The other can't." They flicked their gaze back to her, but when Gangle still didn't lift her head to look at them, they closed their eyes on another sigh. "You got me farther than I would've gotten on my own. I wouldn't have gone anywhere. That's not nothing, Gangle."

"It's not good enough," she whined.

"No, but… sometimes that's all we get." Zooble nudged her gently with their zig-zag headpiece. "Put me down. Climb the wall, Gangle."

A breathless sob escaped her, finally lifting her head, but only so both arms could wrap around Zooble's head yet again, even though she was sure they could feel the way her ribbons were trembling. She wasn't good at saying no. She never had been. She was always submissive and agreeable.

She felt like she was going to be sick.

Desperately, Gangle scanned the wall again—one more time, just in case—and that was when she saw it.

Protruding from just above the edge of the cliff was some kind of rock formation. It stuck straight out, like a possible support if someone wanted to hang something off of it. Like a rope or a chain or…

Or a ribbon.

Gangle hurriedly scanned the ground for something she could use as a weight. "Woah—! What are you doing?" Zooble demanded as they were whisked along for the ride in dizzying circles, then glared at the rock Gangle held in her grasp. "A rock?"

"I think I've got an idea," she told them, but with the way her voice was shaking, she didn't sound all that confident. And maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was just desperate. "I'm going to try and make a pulley."

"What? How are you going to—?" Zooble's gaze flicked from the rock to Gangle's ribbon body to the top of the wall and then back to Gangle's face. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Um, no," she admitted, finally setting Zooble down only so she could tie herself in a knot around the rock using her middle ribbon. "But I… I still want to try."

"Guess it's worth a shot…" Zooble eyed the rest of the crater with a dubious expression, keeping watch for any sign of the rising lava. "Okay, go for it."

Taking a deep breath, Gangle stretched out her center until she had enough slack to loop around both Zooble and the protruding rock. Once the knot around Zooble was secure, Gangle tossed the rock up with a little huff. Her throw was too timid, too weak, and the ribbon just fell right back down, the rock clattering loudly at her feet. With a frantic whine, she tried again. She got a little closer the second time, but her throw still didn't have enough oomph behind it to clear the rock formation.

"Almost," Zooble encouraged nonetheless. "You've got this."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Gangle reared back and heaved the rock over her head. Her ribbon flickered through the air as it sailed over the rock protrusion. The counterweight pulled it back down just enough for Gangle to reach. It was tight though, her ribbons fully stretched out of their usual coils. She tugged a little on the ribbon, she and Zooble gauging the way the knot tightened around them before meeting one another's eyes with equally uncertain nods.

Gangle firmed up her grip on the part of the ribbon she was going to use to pull Zooble up, then let go of them so they were suspended in the air by only the ribbon cradling them. They swung back and forth as they started to rise with each tug on the pulley, their gaze facing downwards, watching Gangle shakily pull on the slack of her own body as they inched higher and higher.

She watched them back, matching worry lines practically carved into her mask while she wondered if the knot would hold. A wince rippled through her as she started to run out of ribbon, her body stretched beyond anything she'd ever tried before.

Zooble's head knocked into the side of the wall, but only the bottom corner. They were almost clear of it. Tongue poking out, Gangle tried swaying back and forth, trying to build up enough momentum to fling Zooble onto the landing.

The ribbons strained as Zooble swung back and forth. It was dizzying as they went from looking down at Gangle to looking up at the stars, then back down to Gangle. On the next downward swing, their eyes suddenly widened as the lava finally bubbled up to their level, threatening to spill over and spread to where Gangle was still standing, practically unraveled by this point.

"Gangle!" Zooble called to her, gesturing with their eyes to look behind her.

She glanced back over her shoulder, a shrill wail bursting out of her. Her grip on her own ribbons slipped and she lost control of the pendulum she'd sort of turned Zooble into. The knot came loose and Zooble's head went flying—

Right on top of the wall. Right where they'd both been aiming.

Though they'd landed at an upside down angle, that was a small price to pay considering the alternative.

"Oh my god," Zooble groaned, shaking some of the motion sickness away before their gaze honed in on the edge of the landing. "Hey, hurry! Get up here!"

"I'm trying!" Gangle called back, reeling her aching ribbons back into her usual coiled shape. "Ow…"

The lava had leaked onto the path and was hastily rising to meet her. Gangle stumbled over to the wall and grabbed the first handhold she could find. Her ribbons were still strained though, fraying at the edges from the friction of scraping against the rocks, and her left foot was still pretty much useless. She couldn't put her weight on it, even when she barely weighed a thing with this body that was mostly made up of empty spaces. Of nothingness.

"That's not nothing."

Panting, Gangle climbed as fast as she could. The end of the adventure was almost within her grasp. She could hear Zooble still calling for her, shouting out a cocktail of encouragement and vague threats like, "seriously, if you don't make it up here, I swear—!"

But they weren't the kind of threats that scared her, she realized. They didn't make her want to cower and cry in a corner. Because it wasn't really what Zooble was saying, it was what was in their voice.

And their voice… sounded like they cared. Even as they shouted and swore and bargained with something beyond their control… It was because they cared. About her.

The piece of the wall she held onto broke away and Gangle's grip slipped.

The smile that had somehow painted over her porcelain frown faded as the world dropped out from under her with a weightless swoop. Even as a bundle of ribbons, there was still something for gravity to tug on. To drag down, down, down… Gangle gazed up at the top of the wall as it rose further away from her; a place she just couldn't reach.

She tried, but it wasn't enough.

I'm sorry, Zooble. I couldn't do it after all.

She fell.

But as she fell back, her ribbons still stretched forward, like there was a chance she could still grasp freedom in her silken hands if she just reached a little farther. It couldn't be lost to her yet, no. She wasn't ready.

Or maybe someone would reach back. Meet her where she was at and pull her out of the pit threatening to devour her. Someone who thought it was worth it to have her there. Tears and all.

The heat was searing her back now. Too close to escape. Porcelain finally breaking into a sweat as her mask began to soften and warp from the heat…

Through the haze of smoke above her, Gangle could finally see the smattering of stars painting the sky. They were pretty. Red ribbons danced through the air, reaching desperately for them before a black char fed on the fabric until it consumed her, leaving nothing for the lava except misshapen porcelain—

Gangle lay sprawled against too-familiar black and white checkered floor tiles, staring blankly up at the swirling colors high above her instead of stars. She was back in the circus.

She died.

Gangle sat up slowly, her hands slowly tracing the ribbons of her torso as the sound of buzzing static burned behind her mask. A disgruntled groan softened the white noise to a whisper, her attention quickly captured by the owner of said voice. Zooble's head was laying face up, their eyes squinting against the too-bright, contrasting colors of the circus.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Zooble!" Gangle pulled herself over to them, sitting up on her knees as she looked them over. "Are you okay?"

"Once the room stops spinning, maybe." They tried to focus their gaze on her, an anchor to hold them in place. "What about you?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Because she was now, that was a fact. 

But the swooping feeling of falling still filled the spaces between her ribbons and a searing heat scalded the back of her mask. She gingerly felt the back of it, tracing the smooth edges. Perfectly reset. Like it never happened.

So it never happened.

"How'd we end up back here?" Zooble asked.

"I guess the adventure ended…" Gangle tapped the tips of her hands together, keeping one key factor of the how to herself as she glanced around the empty room. "Caine must've called it and pulled us back," she lied.

"Huh… thought you said that wasn't his style—" Zooble started, but was instantly interrupted by the ringmaster himself.

"Welcome back, my beautiful Blue Danubes!" Caine's booming voice greeted as a portal warped into existence and the others filed back into the big top, but ultimately went ignored by everyone who passed the threshold.

Starting with Ribbit and Jax.

"Ribbit, would you just wait a goddamn second? Let's talk this through—!"

"Just let it go, Jax! For fuck's sake, for once can you just take a hint? Leave me alone!" Ribbit stormed towards the stairs, making a beeline for the bedrooms without another word to anyone.

Jax watched them go, fists clenched at his sides as his expression turned blank, eyes pinpricks while his piercing stare trailed after them. On the heels of the two of them came Kaufmo, then Ragatha and Kinger with Zooble's body nestled between them, with all their other parts still intact. Kaufmo rubbed his neck as he shot an awkward glance back at Ragatha, but she merely shrugged before scanning the room for…

"Oh, thank goodness! Gangle, Zooble, you're both okay!" Linking elbows with Zooble's body, Ragatha hurriedly guided the headless body over to the pair of them. "It's so good to see you. We were all so worried!"

"Yeah, I can see that…" Zooble eyed the way literally no one else approached them; Kinger already distracted by the sight of his pillow fortress while Kaufmo tried approaching Jax and Caine simply floated above them all like he couldn't be more pleased by the outcome.

"Well, er… I was worried," Ragatha amended with a weak laugh, patting one of Zooble's hands before letting them go so they could walk the rest of the way to their own head. "Kinger and I did our best to keep you in one piece! I don't think there's anything missing. But it still probably wouldn't hurt to double check. And Caine can recreate anything for you that might not have made it."

"Fantastic," Zooble muttered, watching as said body promptly tripped over their own foot.

"And Gangle," Ragatha turned her attention on her next, startling her out of her vacant, teary-eyed stare with a little jump, "I'm so, so sorry we didn't notice that we left you behind. I could've sworn you were right there behind us, but with all the commotion and looking after Zooble, it was a bit overwhelming—but that's no excuse, so I'm sorry. I hope you weren't too scared all on your own."

"Oh, well, I… I wasn't alone," Gangle quietly corrected. "Zooble was with me."

That simple statement was enough to jerk Jax out of whatever spiral he was in, his glare snapping to their little group. "What?"

Ragatha's eye rounded, equally surprised. "Oh! Wow, you—you actually found them? By yourself?"

"Gangle can be pretty resourceful when it comes down to it," Zooble added, when all the ribbon girl did was nod. "Don't underestimate her."

"What?" Jax repeated, voice more like a wheeze. 

"Well, as admirable as that is," Caine flew in to interrupt, "finding Zooble was not the point of the adventure, so Gangle technically did not finish it and gets no points this round. Sorry, Gangle."

"Since when have there been points—?" Zooble asked, squinting as they focused on getting their body back on their feet and over to them, only to lose it completely when they were steamrolled by Caine once again.

"I'm glad we got this all sorted out in the end though! After all, I knew this adventure would be a doozy, but I have to say, I didn't expect it to take nearly this long for you humans to figure out."

"Yeah, all thanks to Gangle!" Jax pointed at her from across the room and she instinctively flinched. Zooble's body wobbled to a sudden stop, hesitating to encroach on her space when she coiled up and covered her face with both arms. "If she'd just made herself useful and thrown herself into the lava pit instead of trying to be a hero, we could've been out of there hours ago!"

"Ah, so you were still at the volcano! Good to know my little incentive to speed things up worked!"

"What?" Zooble finally clicked their head back into place on their body, rolling their neck like there was stiffness to work out of it. "What are you talking about? Weren't you the one who—?"

"Did you really think you were going to save the day?" Jax interrupted, glare driving right into Gangle. "Be some kind of bigshot and pretend like you're not the most pathetic person here? The newbie's gonna figure that out sooner or later, just like the rest of us, so why bother? Come on, answer me, crybaby. Why?"

Gangle only whimpered, muffled by her own arms as she continued to hide.

Jax clicked his tongue, like he hadn't expected anything else from her, but was still disappointed. "Yeah. Right, so I'm gonna kill you."

Like a spring, Gangle uncoiled herself with a terrified squeak and bolted for the stairs. She had the tiniest advantage of being closer to them than Jax was, but it was by a razor thin margin that she was in the lead, so she couldn't give up a second to him. Because he absolutely gave chase, all the while ignoring Ragatha's attempt to get him to back down and leave her alone. But he didn't pay her any mind; his focus zeroed in solely on Gangle, like a predator hunting their prey.

Yeah… Zooble was definitely wrong on this one. Jax was still a thousand times more terrifying than walking into a volcano.

From out in the main hall, Zooble's gaze narrowed to slits as they watched Gangle flee to her room with Jax hot on her tail and Ragatha trailing behind them both. "What's he taking it out on Gangle for? Caine's the one who waited until the last possible second to zap us out of there. Be mad at him."

Kaufmo's eyebrows lifted as he turned to Zooble. "What—? You think Caine got you out?"

"Well, yeah. Since we were taking too long with the adventure?" they drawled, already annoyed by Kaufmo's tone.

"Caine doesn't interfere like that," Kinger suddenly chimed in from behind them, poking his head out of his pillow fortress. "He'll put in failsafes or alternative routes to help us, but ultimately the only way we get to leave the adventure is if everyone makes it to the end or… if we die."

Zooble's scowl deepened. "'Die?'"

"Well, it's more like losing a life in a video game, except they're unlimited," Kaufmo clarified. "But it sure can feel like the real deal in the moment."

"That's right!" Kinger tacked on. "We can't actually die here, so it really only happens as a last resort if our digital bodies are rendered completely unsalvageable by Caine's programming."

"'Unsalvageable…'" Zooble echoed uneasily.

"Yeah, sometimes it's easier to just reset us." Kaufmo snapped his fingers, like it was simple as that, then shoved his hands in the pockets of his clown suit with a shrug. "Since your body technically made it back, we were just waiting on Gangle to meet up with us or, you know, die."

"Yeah, but Gangle didn't die. I was right there with her the whole time," Zooble argued. "So Caine must've bent his own stupid rules for once and pulled us out."

Kinger blinked and tilted his head. "Are you sure?"

It would've been insulting, Zooble ready to argue in the defense of their own experiences, except…

Except they weren't sure. In those last moments, Zooble's head had been upside-down on the ledge, unable to see over the edge of it where Gangle had supposedly been climbing up after them. They couldn't see her. Couldn't hear her too-soft voice over the volcano's rumbling. All they knew was that the lava was rising faster, but they'd had faith that Gangle would pull herself up onto the rocks with them, that she was entirely capable of it. No doubt in their mind.

But they reset before Zooble had proof that was what happened.

Her foot had been burned. Her arms had been tired from carrying them all that way and being stretched out. Gangle could have slipped. Gangle could have fallen…

Red ribbons danced through the air, reaching desperately for them before a black char fed on the fabric until it consumed her, leaving nothing for the lava except misshapen porcelain—

"I've never seen Caine interrupt one of his own adventures before," Kaufmo continued, bringing Zooble back out of that moment. "And we've all died plenty of times before. Especially Gangle. She was the newest before you showed up, but I think she's already beaten Ragatha's record for the most in-adventure deaths. Honestly kinda surprised she lasted as long as she did today," he muttered as a bit of an aside. "She's not exactly good at these kinds of things. Kinda has the tendency to crack under the pressure, if you know what I mean." Kaufmo pulled a too-cheery grin as he swung his arm back and forth, to emphasize the play on words, but he quickly withered under Zooble's glare. "Yeah, Gangle's not really a fan of that one either…"

"Gee, I wonder why," Zooble gritted out.

Kaufmo held up his hands to signify his surrender. "Done poking fun. Promise. Guess I didn't realize you guys were all that close. I didn't think you'd ever even talked to each other."

"We hadn't. Not before today." Zooble crossed their arms, gaze turning thoughtful as they eyed the hallway to their rooms. "But she was the only one who came back for me."

"Hey, the rest of us were keeping an eye on your body, and let me tell you that was no easy task," Kaufmo defended. "Between it nearly walking off cliffs and Jax trying to swipe more of your parts, it's a miracle we got you down in one piece! Well… nearly one piece. Minus the, uh, head."

"Kinda the most important piece, I'd say," Zooble replied with a half-lidded stare.

"If she'd said something, I'm sure one of us would've gone with her. But she didn't say anything! She just left on her own."

Zooble's gaze remained impassive. "I think that says more about you than it does about her."

With that, they limped their way up the stairs and into the hallway full of doors. It was quiet now. Jax having retreated to his own room to lick his metaphorical wounds, while Ragatha sought out a fleeting moment of peace for herself. Zooble walked past their respective doors, then glanced at the ones stricken with red Xs in passing.

Can't actually die here, huh…

Their mind was still reeling with the realization that something horrible had happened to Gangle in her attempt to keep them from being stuck in a volcano alone. All because their body could be so easily disassembled with a flick of a wrist. As a joke. Because it was a joke. This body they'd been forced into was such a fucking joke—

Zooble stopped outside their room, staring at the image of their own face looking back at them. Unfamiliar and ugly; the most sickening thing Zooble had ever laid their eyes on. It wasn't them. It wasn't what they looked like. It wasn't what they wanted to look like.

And it wasn't worth fucking falling into a volcano and dying for…!

Zooble rammed their fist into the image of their face, the sting rippling through their goofy, rubberhose arm like they were just a stupid cartoon character. Instead of a person. They were a person. Not this. They weren't this. This wasn't them. They weren't worth—

They tipped their head forward, slumping against the door while the phantom sensation of ribbons lightly twined around the angles of their face, cradling them with a gentleness they'd never…

A soft shuffling broke them out of their rumination. Zooble lurched back suddenly, headpieces twitching when they heard a small 'eep' from the next door over. Gangle had poked her head out into the hallway, likely startled by the loud bang right beside her bedroom.

"Sorry," Zooble croaked out, clenching their throbbing fist and hiding it behind their bean-shaped torso. "I tripped and fell into the door like an idiot."

"Oh… are you okay?" Gangle asked meekly, but Zooble was already waving it off.

"I'm fine. Just need some sleep after all that bullshit we had to put up with today. I'm sure you do, too."

Gangle's hands flexed along the edge of her door; the sad, weepy face watching them a stark contrast to the ever-smiling facade painted as Gangle's own portrait. "Yeah. It was… a lot."

Zooble dropped their gaze, unable to face her without picturing how she might have fallen. How much it must've hurt. "You can say that again."

"But I… I liked spending time with you," Gangle admitted shyly, snapping their attention back up from the floor. "I mean, I guess I just… I didn't mind everything else so much with you... there…"

Zooble stared at her, at the small, hesitant smile that curved the mouth of the tragedy mask. So far removed from the beaming one painted on Gangle's door, but still just incomprehensible to them. Was that smile all because… of them?

Zooble canted their head to the side, silently comparing the two images side by side. Silently comparing what their expectations of the freely smiling masked girl who hadn't ever said a word to them had been with the reality of the weepy one they'd just spent hours talking with and trusting…

The one who could still ask if they were okay, after being the one who very likely burned to death in a pool of lava.

"Hey, Gangle?"

"Yes?" she squeaked out, embarrassment catching up to her as she half-hid behind her door.

"I don't think I said it earlier, but… thanks. For coming back for me."

"Oh…" Gangle lifted her head a little, knotted up shoulders relaxing as their words washed over her, and the teary smile was back. "You're welcome, Zooble…"

They jerked their head towards their rooms. "Go on and get some rest. You worked hard today."

"Yeah… you too! Goodnight!"

With a wispy little wave, Gangle disappeared into her room, the door clicking shut behind her. Zooble stood there in the hall, glancing between the pictures of the happy mask and the pink abomination on the neighboring doors. Finally releasing a heavy sigh, they opened their door and went inside.

Not knowing that right on the other side of their shared wall, their neighbor was hugging one of her pillows to her chest and already daydreaming about the adventures to come, any fears of a rabbit's retribution and revenge far, far away from her mind for what felt like the first time…

Zooble skipped the next forty-seven adventures after that.