A Glitch In The Circus

Desperately Zeeking Zooble

Zooble tried to open their eyes, but nothing happened. Confused, Zooble felt for their face, but no arms and hands responded to their wishes. A sense of dread would have washed over their midsection, but this too seemed to be missing. There was nothing. Not even the Void. It was just nothingness, total absolute nothingness.

Zooble: 'Well, this is it.... I Abstracted.'

They hadn't thought this would happen to them. In their thoughts, they had convinced themselves that they would be the last one to ever abstract. It just didn't seem like them to do so. I mean, they could deal with being a pile of assorted shapes, there was nothing that could faze them.

Perhaps it was some sort of lie Zooble told themselves. The thought stung. Zooble was quite judgy of everyone they knew, but of all people they thought they were aware of their own flaws. Perhaps not, though. It appeared like they might have eternity to figure things out about themselves. But... why? Was this really how abstraction was? What were all those floating neon eyes about if they couldn't see anything?

They hadn't expected introspection to be a big part of abstraction. Or even death, if that's what this was. Perhaps the whole Circus had crashed and their consciousness was floating in an ether. But, "consciousness" from where and for what reason? Curiously, Zooble had always managed to keep a sense of realism about themselves, despite everything that had happened. They believed consciousness stemmed from a source; it was like a flame, and a flame needed fuel and a medium to exist in.

Zooble: 'So... THIS is oblivion... Gotta say, it's not exactly what I expected. Unless, this is something else...'

Zooble's mind braced itself in irritation. Here, their very being might be slowly melting away into a mysterious background, and all they were considered about was "what", rather than "why" or "how". It was just like Zooble, constantly searching for "whats" that they never had an answer for. Their pieces, their gender, their sense of relation to the others. All of those seemed like questions they just couldn't come out and answer. And now, perhaps, at the end of everything, all they were doing was asking more questions.

Zooble: 'Gotta admit... This isn't as satisfying as I thought it'd be.'

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Meanwhile, Jax is seen walking down the hall as he then enters Zooble's room while turning on the light.

Jax: Hey, Zooby~. You in here?

Getting no answer, he enters the room and shuts the door behind him. Zooble's room resembled the set of a 90's game show for children. Colorful, blocky, over the top aesthetic with a nauseatingly bright neon lining. The standard bed, dresser, TV, and wardrobe were in the room like the others, but Zooble also had a desk with several pictures of themself with different combos of parts, an arcade machine of all things, and the very thing Jax was looking for.

The so-called "Zooble Box"; a wide multicolored chest (also known as a trunk if you're not an idiot). As was typical, it was hard to classify anything in Zooble's room that contained various pieces, body parts, heads, legs, bodies, arms, miscellaneous knickknacks and doodads.

Huh... Wonder if it had any tchotchkes...

Jax opened the chest, grimacing as he looked down at some of the parts. He was pretty sure he'd seen them wearing a blue and green leg he saw in there before. A hopefully-plastic praying mantis forelimb also existed in the box, disquieting Jax further.

Jax: Okay, Jax, you've seen Zooble before. Shouldn't be SO hard...

The rabbit took a deep breath and started digging through the box, finding various things. An orange cylindrical body with plenty of holes that he places on a stand nearby, which Zooble must use often due to a part or 2 hanging off it.