Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jax sat there, staring at his arm. It had been an hour or so, and he had been hiding in his room. His arm was glitching around and it hurt . 

He didn't look scared, or confused, he just…stared blankly at it. Almost accepting it. 

He let his arm rest at his side as he stared up at his ceiling, debating his next moves. 

He knew how bad it would be if he abstracted. He didn't particularly care if he did, and to be honest he’d rather just hide out here until he finally died. 

He finally stood up, his head going a little dizzy when he did so. He leaned on the wall for a few moments before heading to his bed and lying down. 

He couldn't bring himself to feel sad about it. He wasn't suicidal, and he didn't want to die, but at the same time, he wouldn't care much if he did. 

~~~

Zoomble sat in silence. 

Well, not exactly silence, Kinger was still screaming every 3 seconds, ragatha and Gangle were chatting, and Caine would be talking loudly to…well, himself because no one else was truly listening.

Pomni was um…she's just over there. Quietly having a crisis as she stares off into nothingness. 

Yet something was missing. Zooble didn't know what, but it was something. There was an itching feeling just under their skin and- 

“Oh,” Zooble mumbled out loud to themselves. “The f@#$ker left me here alone. How lovely.” 

they sighed, wanting to just leave it alone but… jax wasn't here for the theme song either. 

It was too quiet. Something the others seemed to appreciate, but Zooble still found this place as much of a hell as always. 

So they walked all the way to the rooms, and stared at the door that had the purple bunny that was famously known for being a ‘ prankster.’  

They stared at the door, heavily debating the pros and cons of checking on him. 

Pros? Peace of mind to know he's not abstracted or whatever. Cons? He’ll probably start a fight with Zooble again, more pranks, if he is abstracted he’ll try and kill them all, ect ect. 

But Zooble was bored, and Jax was never in one spot for this long. 

~~~

“Pomni! How are you doing…?” ragatha asked with a small awkward laugh. Pomni seemed to snap out of her zoned-out-like state and looked up at her. 

“Oh! Um…” she stood up, contemplating how to answer that. 

“Yeah…” ragatha nodded understandingly, “it's hard at first huh? Getting used to… all of this?” 

pomni nodded quietly. “...yeah….i…I guess I would say it's-” “Ragatha!” Pomni was cut off by Zooble practically speedwalking towards the both of them. 

“Zooble?” ragatha started, a hint of worry in her voice, “Is something wrong?” 

“I need your help breaking down Jax's door,” Zooble said blankly, before grabbing hold of Ragatha’s arm.

“W-wha- say what now?” she looked taken aback, before glancing back at Pomni. 

“No- no we can't just break down his door!” she tried to pull away from Zooble, but Zooble didn't let go. 

“Just shut up already,” Zooble sighed, the two finally ending up in front of Jax’s door. 

“I know you don't like him, and neither do I.” Zooble started, “But if he abstracts then we need to know sooner rather than later so that we can have Caine deal with it, kay?” 

Ragatha leaned back slightly. “He's still in his room at this hour?” 

Zooble deadpaned. “Yep.” Zooble wasn't really in the mood to explain further. 

Ragatha looked between Zooble and Jax’s door. “Did you at least try knocking?” 

“I knocked, kicked, and called him a wh#re, but he still didn't come out,” Zooble stated bluntly. “So you gonna help or not?” 

“...only because it would be bad for all of us if he abstracted.” she sighed, before walking away from the door, getting ready to charge towards it. 

~~~

*BAM* 

Jax practically jumped up from his sleep, and immediately threw the closest thing near him. 

“ACK JAX!” he could hear ragatha yep as she dodged the object. “Why on EARTH do you have a knife next to your bed???” she yelled as she stomped over to him. 

“Oh is that what that was? My bad dollface” he said half-heartedly, the tiredness evident in his voice. To Zooble and Ragatha he looked mostly normal, just a bit…tired? 

His room looked mostly neat, and besides the small box in the corner of the room that had fake bugs and other such prankster-esk items, it looked as if it wasn't used often. 

except for the blankets and pillows the purple rabbit was covered in. They didn't look like they were meant for comfort, yet he seemed to be trying to use them as such. 

It was almost like a poorly designed room for TV… meant for show rather than necessity. 

“Now if you don't mind,” he mumbled, before laying back down, “I feel like a million bees crawled into my ears and now I'm a maraca. A maraca with bees.” 

“Ew,” Zooble said, before walking towards Jax and ripping the blanket off of him. “What is wrong with you today? You’ve never skipped the theme song before, nonetheless slept in till nearly 4pm. " Those words seemed to snap Jax out of his slumber. 

“It's 4 already?” he asked as he finally sat up.

Ragatha couldn't help but notice how he seemed to grab hold of the bedside table, as if unbalanced just from sitting up. 

For a small while, Jax had forgotten why he had locked himself in his room. Until he noticed the strange pain-like sensation that had been in his arm yesterday was just…

Gone. 

No glitching either, it was just his arm. Sure he was a bit dizzy but… maybe whatever it was had gone away by now. 

“...hello? Earth to dumb@#s?” Zooble knocked on Jax’s head. “Are you gonna come out and join the rest of us or not?” 

“Not unless you drag me.” he grabbed something from the bedside table and laid back down. 

~~~

“And this one is Meredith,” Gangle said as she pointed at her drawing. Her drawing had several characters on it in an almost anime-like art style. 

The character she was pointing at had pink hair, and blue and green eyes, and wore an all-pink outfit with a cute heart purse. 

“She’s pretty,” Pomni replied, before pointing at one of the drawn-on scars. “How’d she get that one?” 

Gangle seemed to sit up straighter with a grin. “Oh! It's a whole thing actually which ties into my other characters! So what happened was….” gangle starts rambling about her characters once more. 

It had been an hour since Ragatha had left, and since then Gangle and Pomni had been keeping each other company. It was… honestly really nice.

Pomni wondered if she could draw like Gangle. Maybe not in an anime style, but more… detailed. 

Like that place at the exit maybe. Every crack, every box, had such small minuscule details. 

Unlike this place. 

“You can't be a hermit crab forever!” Ragatha huffed as she dragged Jax, with no help from Zooble of course. 

“You’re alive?” Kinger asked from his pillow fort. “I thought you abs…,” he shutters at the thought. 

“Jeeze, I decided to stay in my room for one day and everyone thinks I died.” he rolled his eyes, still refusing to get up. 

Ragatha sighs, getting tired of dragging Jax. “I'll kick you if you don't stand up.” 

“I'll second that.” Zooble joins in. 

“Oh shut it, you both would do that for fun,” Jax says as he looks up at them. 

The two of them glare down at him, seemingly getting ready to kick him, and he practically jumps up. “I'm up! I'm up, god.” 

‘ He's leaning again…’ ragathat notices, and this time Zooble seems to pick up on it. The two glance at each other with a look that Jax doesn't bother to understand. 

After a few seconds, his dizziness goes away. “Common, I'm starving,” he says as he walks towards the dining room. 

As he walks past Pomni and Gangle, he steps on her drawing, making Gangle start crying. 

“Whoopsies,” he says with a cat-like grin as he continues to walk past. 

Then he feels something stab his head. Of course, it doesn't hurt him, as it's a digital world, but…it definitely leaves a familiar numbing sensation. 

He turns to look behind him and he sees Pomni staring at him wide-eyed. Her hands are over her mouth and she seems regretful and horrified. 

He has to hide his smile as he dramatically falls to the ground. 

“Of f#%$ did I kill him!?” Pomni looks like she’s gonna start dying. “I didn't mean to i'm so sorry I was just trying to hit him with the pencil and it had- “No! No, you- you didn't kill him, he's just….” Ragatha looks over at Jax. “....being dramatic.” she says, walking up to him and pulling the pencil out of his head. 

“Nope, I'm dead.” Jax laughs, “Oh pom-pom you should have seen the look on your face!” 

Ragatha hands the pencil back to Pomni and pats her shoulder. “Not much can cause physical pain in this world.” 

Pomni just looks baffled. “Why…why would you make a joke like that?” she whispered to herself, but Jax didn't seem to hear it. 

“Anyways we should get some sort of food, I'm starving.”

~~~

Despite Jax being the one to suggest eating, he didn't have an appetite. Well, no one did really, digital world and all that but…more specifically he seemed to be staring off into space most of the time. 

He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, it was more like he was… too tired to think. Usually, he was chatting up a storm, teasing, bullying but as of right now, it was like every second of socializing was physically draining him, taking a toll on his body. 

Even something as simple as moving around felt like it took everything from him. 

he was just…barely there. 

Until he started feeling the pain in his arm again. 

It started off small, barely noticeable, almost like a numbing sensation. When it started to get worse he switched the hand he held his fork with and rested his arm at his side. 

He watched as everyone else talked to each other, but the words weren’t registering in his mind. In one ear and out the other. 

The pain started to spread to his shoulder, and he noticed that his arm once again started to glitch slightly. He looked around quietly, wondering whether he could sneak away or if he’d have to make a distraction of some sort. 

…until he noticed Kinger staring him directly in the eyes, unblinking. He froze for a moment, staring back at kinger. 

After a long moment of silence, kinger finally asked, “Could you politely pass the salt?” 

“...I can pass the salt,'' Jax said, before throwing the salt bottle at Kinger’s face. “I didn't promise to be polite about it though.” 

“Jax!” Ragatha glared at Jax, and he put his hands up defensively, before quickly putting his glitching arm down. 

“Hold your horse's dollface, a little teasing never does anyone harm,” Jax replied curtly, hoping no one noticed his arm. 

Especially Kinger. Oh, kinger would absolutely freak. 

Ragatha rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I'm not even gonna bother to look at you. you’re too much and I've only seen you for less than an hour today.” 

“Awe, how sweet.” he chuckled, keeping his one arm hidden from view. His heart started beating faster, he had essentially screwed himself over. All he had to do was pass the salt quietly and then sneak off.

Why did he have to be so difficult? 

He put his hands into his pocket, before feeling something. A badly made plush centipede he had grabbed before leaving. 

He looked over at ragatha, before quietly and silently…

“Eep! Centipede!” ragatha squeaked, as she jumped from her chair. 

‘ Yes!’ he thought to himself as the others also stood up. 

And just like that, he snuck away. 

Once back in his room, he locked the door and put a desk in front of it. It was only 6pm by now but… by god was he tired. His arm and shoulder started to hurt, the pain was spreading, and it started to affect his ribs and neck. 

He flopped onto his bed, annoyed with himself for not having a better mattress.

‘ Maybe then I’d feel better’ he thought to himself. ‘ If I just had a better mattress then I’d feel better.’