"It starts with Sorry" (A Jax X Ragatha story)

Chapter 3: The Cracks

After having arrived in the main hall, Jax and Ragatha decided to sit down on the checkerboard floor while awaiting the others.

"It sure is quiet this morning" Ragatha replied, her eyes darting around the area.

Jax only grinned before responding "It's actually kind of nice since you don't have to hear everyone's yammering~"

"Jax!" Ragatha yelled which caused the purple bunny to chuckle lightly.

"Ok ok, I guess hearing you talk isn't so bad...I mean you're definitely the least annoying person here~"

Ragatha's eyebrows lowered into a slightly annoyed expression before responding "Is that meant as a compliment or an insult?"

"Both~" Jax replied, flashing that ever-well-known grin of his.

Ragatha let out a small huff and rolled her eyes but she couldn't help but find it kind of endearing that Jax thought even slightly highly of her to call her the "Least annoying person" in the circus even if she didn't like the fact that he was essentially making fun of everyone else. " Sure, anyways what do you think Caine's adventure gonna be all about?"

"I don't know but I've been craving some violence lately~" Jax replied with a devilish grin.

Ragatha only laughed as she heard his claim and desire for something violent in the adventure "I should have known you would crave something like that"

"What? It's part of who I am, you know I can't resist a bit of cartoony violence every once in a while~" Jax replied as he shrugged lightly.

"I mean, it definitely does suit your "Bad boy" persona," Ragatha said softly.

Jax felt a tiny bit insulted by Ragatha calling his persona similar to that of a "Bad boy" but he couldn't help but notice the similarities "F@$k you~" he replied with his swearing being replaced by a boat horn sound effect and his profanity lacking any real anger or aggression.

Ragatha laughed softly having noticed Jax wasn't really being serious with his profanity and was simply screwing around. Eventually, everyone else joined up with Pomni and Ragatha striking up a conversation while Kinger stood idly staring off into space, all the while Zooble was thinking of how they would get out of this adventure and Gangle stood clinging to her comedy mask in secret, fearing Jax was gonna try to break it anytime soon.

Jax was now seated with Ragatha to his left and Kinger to his right but he mostly paid attention to Ragatha and her conversations with Pomni yet for some reason, he ended up feeling a knot tying in his stomach, he just remembered Ragatha was prone to having random anxiety and panic attacks which...coupled with last night's episode of her having a mental breakdown, worried Jax to his core.

"What if she has an anxiety attack later today and goes back to crying in her room? What if she starts abstracting and then gets an anxiety attack? What if she's having another mental breakdown and I can't be there to help her?" These were all worries Jax had internally but they were immediately interrupted by Caine's entrance as he popped into existence.

"Ah, there you are my little superstars!" He replied in his usual upbeat and over-the-top tone which was the total opposite of what Jax was currently feeling even if his smirking face said otherwise.

"Today's adventure will be...Fabled Ferns' Frontier!" He exclaimed as green text with those same words appeared above him with confetti flying from above." in this adventure, you'll have to traverse a forgotten forest that has been rumored to-"

Was all Jax was able to hear as he quickly ended up losing sight of Caine and started to stare off into space, with his ear ringing loudly he wasn't able to remember much of what the backstory of this adventure was or what they were meant to do outside of just going into a forest and...something about having to find a mummy in a temple? Either way, Jax wasn't one for giving much of a damn about explanation since he only had one thing in his mind at the moment...Pranking.

After  Caine's explanation, Zooble immediately got up and tried to leave. "Yeah...No count me out"

Caine flew over to them before responding "Now Zooble, I know you don't exactly have the best...track record of actually joining the adventures, BUT! I assure you this adventure will be much better suited for you"

Zooble shook their head, still not being convinced. "Nope, not gonna happen"

"Zooble come on!" Caine pleaded "I've increased the resolution for this adventure! The backgrounds are now higher quality and have better graphics...Surely that has to pique your interest right?"

Everyone else then proceeded to watch Caine try (and fail) to convince Zooble to join the adventure since they all knew Zooble did not enjoy going on the adventures and would usually sit them out. Eventually, Caine gave up and just returned to where he was previously.

"I..do have to apologize for the delay, I've been trying very hard lately to get Zooble to join any of the adventures but I can't exactly put my finger on why they just don't want to join" He replied, doing a contemplative gesture midair with his finger before standing there idly and later snapping out of it.

"Anyways! Good luck on this adventure and remember...be careful with the Mummy man" he replied before snapping his fingers and transporting the entire cast (Except Zooble) to the forest.

Once in the forest, the gang had to traverse several miles of boobytraps, Lakes and other such things before eventually finding an abandoned temple where they had to find a mummy and retrieve a gold coin. While he did try to help at times, Jax's main concern was still pranking the others as he would proceed to pull the occasional prank here and there like kicking Pomni into a downward lake or purposely dropping a coconut on Gangle's comedy mask as it shattered completely from the impact Yet...he strangely felt...nothing from doing so, he felt completely hollow as he watched their reactions to his schemes..but this wasn't normal..he was known for his pranks and this kind of thing would have had him rolling over in laughter yet...It didn't.

That sense of Unease lingered throughout the entire adventure even during the climax when the gang had to escape a giant Boulder. (Very much like Indiana Jones) Even after all that, Jax still felt a pang of emptiness as he realized he no longer found Joy in THE ONE thing that kept him sane in this Digital Hellhole, the one thing that actually made him happy in this Circus and now, it wasn't even doing that. After returning to the circus via a portal, the gang were rewarded with yet another feast from Bubble yet even during the feast, Jax still remained uncharacteristically quiet as he barely even poked at his food feeling a mix of both sadness and frustration. Afterwards, Everyone headed off to their bedrooms for the night including Jax, who immediately slammed the door behind him and collapsed into his bed and let out a tired groan of frustration.

"What's wrong with me?" He asked to himself as he then proceeded to grab a bucket next to his bed full of butcher knives and began hurling them at a target he set on the back of his door, trying to desperately shake off Today's thoughts...or at least that's what he tried to do as then out of nowhere, He heard a knock on the door as he was about to throw another knife.

"Who the hell could that be this late at night? He grumbled, annoyed by the sudden interruption as he then got up and opened the door to find Ragatha on the other side, looking at him with a soft and sympathetic face almost as if, she knew what he was going through.

"Dollface? What are you doing here?" He asked confused By Ragatha's sudden appearance.

"Jax, can we talk?"