Chapter Text
Jax has always known there was no escape. Not in the real world, or the circus. He’s known that for a while, but as he stands in the bright multicolored hallway of the circus with his best friend Ribbit, he finds himself at some sort of.. peace..? ‘I can’t believe this is my life now…’ He thinks to himself, face in a serious expression. As the world warps around him, his thoughts start to become to loud, but he’s pulled out of his thoughts by a small frog shaking him lightly.
“Jax? Are you alright?” Ribbit says worryingly. “Of course I’m alright Ribs.’ Jax says as he puts on a show stopping grin ‘you worry to much” Jax finishes.
Ribbit’s shoulders seem to tense up as he speaks and slowly relax as he continues, reassuring her he’s alright.
“Alright… whatever you say… but just know, you can talk to me, you know that right?” Ribbit says gently. Ribbit has always been a caring person. From the moment Jax got here, to now. It always throws him off to actually have a person care about him, but he doesn’t take it for granted, appreciating Ribbit’s constant reassuring smile.
“Relax Ribs, I know.” I say to her, hoping she’ll drop it. She sighs, starting to turn around and start walking. “Come on’ she says quickly, ‘I’m hungry I want food” I let out a small laugh, “we can’t even get hungry Ribbit. Calm down let’s go.” I start to stroll past her towards the kitchen
_____________
I grab my plate of digital food, ready to start eating when the food disappears from the table and Caine teleports a few feet away from the table. I groan in annoyance as I glance up at Caine “are you [#%!?]ing serious Caine I was about to eat.” I yell at the ai. “Now, now Jax! We don’t use any of that foul language here!” He says loudly, starting to float closer to me. “Yeah well I don’t give a [#%!?] Caine we can do whatever we want in here.” I hear Ribbit argue back. Me and Ribbit make eye contact across the table. I give her a slight smile to show my appreciation. She gently smiles back, Seemingly showing that she understood. Caine seems a bit taken aback from the backtalk but backtracks and says loudly “A-anyways! Time for an adventure!” He snaps his gloved fingers, sending the 6 of us through the portal to the adventure.
As we go through the portal I hear Zooble sigh. I laugh at their annoyance, knowing they will hate whatever adventure Caine is sending us on.
__________
I fall onto a concrete floor, groaning as I get up. I take a moment to take in my surroundings, confused as it looks like a grocery store? I lock eyes with Ribbit, not knowing what else to do
“This is so stupid Caine what even is this?” I hear Zooble yell. Caine suddenly appears, scaring the daylights out of me. “Well Zooble, I’m glad you asked!” Caine starts “This is a ‘Survive 24 hours in CaineMart!’ Simulator! A survival game where you find resources during the day, and at night… well… you can find out for yourself!” He says cheerfully.
I look at Ribbit again to see her already walking towards me, grabbing my hand. “Well you guys have fun without us, let’s just get this adventure over with!” Ribbit says as we both start to walk away. “W-wait! Where are you two going?!” I hear Ragatha yell. Ribbits about to respond when I squeeze her hand, giving her the sign to ignore Ragatha.
____________________
The two of us walk next to eachother in silence, I take a breathe before starting “this adventures really weird…” Ribbit smiles, “yeah… but at least the graphics are good.” She turns into a random isle, grabbing random items and putting them in a cart she somehow found. “Alright… so Caine said to grab resources before night, so I’m assuming that something bad will happen during the night, so let’s prepare!” She says happily. I chuckle, grabbing some blankets and pillows and putting them in the cart.
My ears twitch as the intercom in the store screeches to life, announcing that the store closes in 45 minutes. “Okay… so we have 45 minutes to get ready, let’s hurry it up, I don’t want to found out what happens if we’re out in the open when it turns dark.” Ribbit grabs the cart and starts to walk “definitely not.” I snort quietly, matching her pace.
_____________
As we walk, I spot a tall shelf ‘that’s perfect’ I think to myself. “Hey Ribs does this shelf look stable for us?” I ask, pointing up at the tall metal shelf. She looks up, examining it. “Looks like it! Let’s get up there and set everything up!” She hands me the pillows and blankets. I grab them and start to climb up the shelf when I hear the intercom crackle to life again “Attention shoppers, the store closes in 5 minutes.” I look at Ribbit after the announcement, knowing me need to be fast. “Let’s hurry this up, we have no time to mess around.” I say quickly.
Ribbit starts to grab and throw things on top of the shelf. “Yep. Help me up?” She asks, I snort, “To tall for you?” I tease. “Just help me up you [$&%]hole.” She laughs. I kneel to the ground giving her a hand to step on. She gets on top of the shelf, looking down at me. “Hurry up Jax, we don’t have time.” I start to climb up when the lights go off. My body freezes, but I continue my climb to the top.
As I make it to the top, I take a moment to breathe, tired from the tall climb. “Jesus’ I start, still heaving, ‘why are shelves so difficult to climb?” Ribbit snorts at that, covering her mouth trying not to laugh. I look at her in disbelief, “you think this is funny?” I say as a smirk grows on my face. “Because it is-“ as she speaks, she gets interrupted by a loud thud near us. “What was that…” she whispers.
I was about to speak when I get interrupted by a scream right next to me. My head snaps towards Ribbit to see her being grabbed by a long, bloodied hand from the ground. “HELP ME JAX” she screams. I don’t even think, I grab her and pull her out of the grasp of the monster.
We sit there for a moment and breathe heavily.
Once she had calmed I finally speak, “holy [%!?¥] Caine is actually insane…” I quietly mutter to myself. “He is evil…” Ribbit mutters back.
__________
Me and Ribbit continue to sit there in silence until Caine teleports us back to the circus.
I start to walk away, arms crossed, until I feel myself being brought back to where everyone else is standing. “Now, now, let’s all stay here and introduce ourselves to our newest member!” I suddenly hear a ‘pop!’ Noise. I look over Caine’s shoulder to see a small, scared jester standing on the stage.