#fluff tadc

Shoulders may carry mountains, but they are left unseen by the people around them, burdened by the invisibility that hides them from people who may want to help, just in fear of those who might hurt them, they cower behind the shadows and latch onto the back of the person they're attached to, engraving their inner thoughts onto the first thing they could find, since emotions can't be actually worn on the sleeve, they crawl up, and into the bag where thoughts are translated into items, ones that can be memories, hopes, dreams, or even fears, latching onto them and creating a world of their own, anything outside, in the light, is alien to the comfortable darkness, but maybe, just maybe, with every blink, the sun can slowly shine withoit blinding.

And to pull out those items can be hard, it's not easy to take away something from its comfort zone, especially when the items start to gain a soul, reflecting what the person sees in it, but with a little bit of courage, Gangle can realize they're all part of the same person.

Her.

"Are you ready, Gangle?" Pomni's soft voice rang the doorbell of the masked lady's mind, she looked up from the folded paper in her ribbon hands to the jester's gaze, almost lost in the colors that surrounded them in a daze of rainbows, but somehow, Pomni managed to be a constant, and Gangle found herself nodding slowly, "yeah, im ready" she handed Pomni the paper, but she held her hands up, smiling,

"It's yours, you should put it", Gangle felt her hollowed chest grow a heart and pound fast.

"What's wrong?" Pomni asked, eyebrows furrowed, "you dont- i have more papers here, you could add anything or-"

"No no, its- I.." Gangle stuttered, one hand going to her happy mask on instinct, clutching the paper in her other hand, "it's a stupid idea, Pomni,..maybe Caine wouldn't even read it, he doesn't read them.." Gangle shook her head, Pomni's eyes instantly widened, and she resisted the urge to reach out to the paper that her friend held back.

"Gangle, he would, he does sometimes, there's a chance you could get your adventure" Pomni coaxed gently, her voice too real to be artifical breeze, and it got Gangle looking back up at her again, if she had cheeks to bite, she would've been doing just that, and Pomni sensing that her silence wasn't of thought, but from overthinking, she continued to speak, encouraged by her own need to help her friend, she placed her hand over Gangle's wrist, "you'll never know what could happen unless you try" she said softly.

"We didn try before, and he got angry, and he-" Gangle rambled, Pomni already knew what she wanted to say, and she forced herself to listen to Gangle just to have her let off a little bit of her anxiety out, "he didn't accept anything and thought we dont enjoy his adventures- he could get you all in trouble because of me"

"Woah woah- what does this have to do with us? It's your adventure- no i mean! I mean like-" Pomni sighed, her words not placed well into a sentence and she regretted not taking more time to think, one look at Gangle's confused face had her knowing that maybe this is how her friend feels at the moment, she inhaled and gripped her wrist gently aain, "you dont have to be scared for us, if he gets angry? The worst he could do is give a cocktail of adventures we suggest" she pointed out, before smiling, "which wouldn't be bad, we would get to try everything you wrote one by one" Pomni continued, watching Gangle's face slowly shift into a steady smile.

She walked to the box in the middle of the circular colorful room and placed the paper inside it, watching it get swooped by the air.

"Oh- there you are!" Zooble called, watching Gangle walk from a distance, followed by Pomni.

If Gangle could have a mask that showed a greater feeling than happiness, she would've worn it at the moment, but all she could do was a big smile and brushing past Pomni as she rushed to Zooble.

"I did it! I put the suggestion in the box!" Gangle giggled, Zooble's eyes squinted in a sign they were smiling, holding their hands out for Gangle to take, "you did!?" They said excitedly, clutching Gangle's ribbon hands tighter, watching her nod.

"Just now! And now we wait i guess" Gangle shrugged, though the small ministration with her shoulders didn't dim her excited happiness, "atleast that's what Pomni told me, you know I haven't suggested in a long while" she added, Zooble hummed and nodded, "yeah, we should wait..but how long exactly, Pomn-" Zooble looked over Gangle's shoulder to see no one there, the jester just vanished into thin air, but that was a mechanism that can only be achieved in two ways, either Caine teleported her somewhere, or she walked way, and in Pomni's case, she would never walk away without atleast saying bye, and who had that lack of social manners?

"WOW WOW WOW! A NEW ADVENTURE SUGGESTION!? AND HERE I THOUGHT GANGLE WOULD STOP SENDING THEM!" Caine exclaimed loudly from behind his desk, too fast for the dazed jester to understand what could be the reason for his excitement now. "AND I SHOULD BE PROUD! I thought I hid the suggestion box in a deeper place this time.."

"Wha?.." Pomni mumbled, rubbing her forehead.

"THIS ADVENTURE IS QUITE THE SPECTACLE! I must admit..I've never thought you might like something this..boring!" Caine hummed, reading the paper that seemed to just appear out of thin air, leaning back in his chair, one leg over the other, tapping the gum of his lower jaw in thought before snapping his fingers, "tell Gangle that I will be working on IT IMMEDIATELY!"

Pomni, yet again, blinked and found herself falling face down onto the black and white floors of the circus tent, groaning, her body refused to get up, just in frustrated stubbornness at how she's been treated in the last minute.

Until a foot nudged her leg, rudely interrupting her annoyed timezone.

"Geez, didn't think I'd see the day you needed therapy in"

His voice had her gathering her will to turn over on her back and glare up at the purple rabbit in pure unamusement.

"But i see it in you every day" she groaned, standing up and brushing her shoulders uselessly, but it was just an act that they all enjoyed doing every chance they would get.

"You never fail to give me reasons to" Jax shot back, smirking, folding his arms and nudging his shoulder against hers, "but if this is your way of asking me out then you could've been sweeter, Pom"

"Huh?"

"HELLO MY COOL CUCUMBERS!" Caine popped into thin air at the stage, floating like a starfish next to bubble, bringing attention to him in a split second from genuine surprise at the sudden noise.

"I HOPE YOU'RE VERY READY FOR WHAT I HAVE FOR YOU TODAY BECAUSE BOY OH BOY!- ITS GOING TO BE FANTASTIC!" He laughed, throwing his cane from hand to the other over his head without looking up, in a failed attempt to bring more attention to what he persumed was catchy of his announced words.

Pomni looked over at Gangle from the side, who was sitting on the green couch with Zooble, her sketchbook abandoned now that she waited in hopeful anticipation, the jester wanted to spoil the surprise, but it would be better to watch her friend find out on her own than ruin it for her, so she returned her gaze back to Caine.

Who didn't seem to be in the mood for stalling the adventure with labels and titles, "now NOW! EVERYONE IS HERE, HMM!?" He clapped his hands, looking around, he counted the six residents of the digital circus before snapping his fingers, "HAVE FUN!"

everything went dark in a split second, it was silent, still, and eerily cold for a place that never granted them nerves unless to toy with them.

Pomni scrambled in the room she was in until she found the door and snapped it open, greeted with light of the hall she quickly worked her legs to run down, past the other doors she didn't bother to stop reading what's written on them, knowing Caine, this could be another one of his horror adventures, a part in the back of her brain was grateful that she didn't tell Gangle about the conversation she had with the ai ringmaster, she would've broken her heart and happy mask.

Pomni kicked open another door, leading her into a dark room, lit by something that Pomni couldn't focus on, her eyes landing on the first person she saw.

"Ra- Ragatha! Oh good!- what kind of- what is this adventure!?" Pomni panted, her hand coming to the doll's shoulder, her eyes widened in frantic panic that didn't match the look on Ragatha's.

"CUT!" a normally squealed voice, now shouted, making Pomni's neck snap towards where Gangle was perched on a chair, with papers in her hand and a speaker with the other, looking insanely displeased at both girls standing infront what Pomni now realized was a stage that resembled a bar, she looked back at her hand, she was holding onto Ragatha's black dress, not her usual blue doll one.

"Oh, great, we gotta do this again now!?" Jax groaned loudly from a seat at the bar, bringing Pomni's disoriented gaze to the rabbit, whose own pink overalls were changed for a white shirt, black tie and pants, and while that wasn't one of Pomni's concerns, it surely was one thing to pay attention to closely when she got her mind unscrambled.

"Yes! We will! But only after your line, Jax" Gangle called through the speaker, the item whistling and had everyone covering their ears at the ringing sound, except for Jax who was busy scowling, "and Pomni!?"

"Y-yea??" Something about Gangle's authoritive tone, the one that last time they heard it was at Spudsy's adventure, had Pomni standing up in a straight line with her arms frozen by her sides.

And an understanding flooded her brain like light in a room, this has got to be Gangle's suggestion.

"Take your script and into the changing room! You have a couple of scenes to rehears! Come on!" Pomni headed to Gangle's chair, grabbing the papers from her hands, reading over at the first page, before looking back up, "eh- where's the changing room?"

"Behind those curtains" Gangle spoke normally, gesturing with her hand to the left, Pomni nodded and walked there, not sure how exactly she was going to change out of her jester costume, mandatory to her avatar base, only one who could mess around with it was Caine, changing their clothes to match the adventure, but nevertheless, she opened the curtain and walked inside, closing the black fabric behind her.

The room had red painted walls, lit by triangle lights falling from the ceiling and reaching the top edge of the long mirror, the only item next to the white vanity in the room.

"Dont be late!" Came Gangle's voice from outside.

"Oh- yeah I wont!" Pomni called back, she placed the script on the vanity, opening he first few pages and letting her eyes sweep over what she can read and remember of them, it didn't seem that Gangle was aiming for long sentences but rather short and deep ones that held meaning that Pomni was sure she would find easy to memorise, her mind already wrapped around the idea of what this adventure is, quick adaptation something that one would have to learn after spending a while in the digital circus.

The synopsis of the movie was that a bunch of friends had found their way back to one another after all of them lost their memories in a bad accident, and despite that, they still got along, but slowly, they started to remember pieces about their past, and the memories can either end what they were growing, or start a new beginning all over again for what they could have.

Pomni knew that Gangle was a great artist but to find out that her friend had an imagination that worked in the writing field was just phenomenal, it was like watching her art come to life, and she knew that she was in for something interesting.

"Amnesia..huh.." Pomni hummed, reading the name of the movie Gangle was directing, and reading a bit more down, she caught how Caine's name made its way to the VFX editor and special effects manager, pretty much into every space that Gangle had her name in, Caine's would be there too, which wasn't surprising in the least.

What was shocking though, was how in a split second, Pomni had changed from her red and blue jester suit, to a beautiful, long iridescent dress with the same color palette of what she wore earlier, a cut thay stretched from her mid thigh to her feet where she wore white heels, and for once she felt at her head and the big hat wasn't there, replaced by a silver tiara with lavender jewels.

Pomni sure did look beautiful, but she's never seen herself in a dress, maybe she did, but her memory hasn't been her best aid since she woke up in this digital world, and if it did, she wasn't sure if her real self would like or hate the dress she's wearing.

Did Gangle write this? Or is this Caine's doing?

"Uh- Gangle?" Pomni called, opening the curtain just a bit, standing behind it to stay hidden.

"Pomni you're almost up!" Gangle replied.

"No its just-"

"Come here and rehears your lines, woman!"

Oh wow, that was..interesting.

Pomni grabbed the script, sighing as she walked out, heels clicking on the studio floor, she looked up to see that another room opened, this one stretching to mimic a raining street at dawn, while Kinger and Zooble had already shot their scenes in the baseball field studio, Jax and Ragatha were still in the bar.

"Are you gonna show up in it?" Pomni asked, looking back at Gangle and failing to notice the eyes that couldn't help but be hypnotized by her.

"At the end, yes, we all will" Gangle nodded, going through the script in her lap, the black coat she wore and the hat on her head managing to add more to her intimidating aura, though melting just one person in the room from where they sat on the bench.

"You've got an hour to memorise your lines, dont worry, they're not too long, and i can tolerate improvising" Gangle smiled at the jester before holding her speaker up and speaking without a warning.

"RAGATHA! KINGER! YOU'RE NEXT ON THE BEACH!"

The rain plattered soundlessly on the pavement, leaving trails of slow water running through the cracks of the road and effectively giving a chance for the determined flowers and grass to grow despite all odds, to see the rising sun over the horizon, the shadows of the two people walking depriving them momentarily of the pleasure of seeing life how it's supposed to be lived, but giving them hushed whispers, and a chance to see and hear how some of those people live it.

"I dont think my skin is used to the sun again yet" Pomni chuckled, her eyes lidded as she hugged the black jacket to her shoulders, thankful for the wide heels she wore that allowed her to walk confidently without fear of tripping.

"Give it some time, and then you will be bored all over again from it" Jax shrugged with a smirk, hands in his pockets as he walked to the jester's pace.

"Didn't take you for a night lover" Pomni raised an eyebrow, earning her a side look from the rabbit, "i never said I was"

She hummed and tilted her head to the side, "i dunno...I thought you could be" she hummed, the tone in her voice holding more than a reply, a continuesy that had Jax intrigued, and he hoped the look on his face would match the way Gangle described it in the script.

"Oh? Your assumptions are gonna be the end of you, Pom" he huffed a chuckle, taking a few more seconds than he should've before replying again, straight from his own mind, "say..why do you think I'd like the night"

Pomni's surprise at the sway from the script was swallowed with the trained response to what he should've said, she clenched the jacket in her hands and parted her lips to find an accurate reply that wont be far from what they rehearsed for.

"Maybe..your mysterious nature?"

That earned a laugh from Jax, his shoulders shaking, good, that was scripted, what wasn't on paper though, was Pomni smiling softly.

"Me? Mysterious, oh im telling you, Pom, im nothing but an open book"

"Yeah but without headline, or a synopsis, or a writer with a sane mind" she replied, and with every word, Jax's laughter would raise, his rabbit ears folded back, chest heaving with every breath, and as if to proof her own improvised words, at this moment, she can't even tell if he's being genuine or eccentric, her fingers toyed with the jacket over her shoulders, biting her tongue with a smile that couldn't quite reache her eyes with with her lower lids trying to fold.

"You're crazy, Pom, im telling you, you already know a lot about me" he hummed, back on script, his eyes closed before he opened to side eye the jester playfully, "too much if im being truthful" he strayed from the words again, toying with them and Pomni's fast reaction abilities like a yoyo.

"So there are things I dont know about you" she snapped back, smiling and raising an eyebrow.

"Of course" he nodded obviously, "we all have secrets, dont we?" He kicked a pebble into a small pond created by the soft spring rain, his eyes fixed on the circular ripples it created as it drowned, something itching at his insides when he couldn't know how deep it could go before reaching the bottom.

"We do.." she whispered, too quiet she feared it wont be caught by the microphone following over their heads.

"But i dont hide anything important from you" Pomni looked up at him, catching him off guard with the way his shoulders tensed slightly.

"Pfft, me neither" he scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"And what do i know about you?" Pomni asked, the words rolling through her mouth before she could think about them, and it seemed from the way that Jax is looking around subtly thay he was waiting for Gangle to shout at them to cut the scene, but the yell never came, and he swallowed thickly.

"What a dumb question, Pom, you- you know a lot about me, more than anyone else" he looked down at her, awaiting her reaction, blinking twice in a row to signal for her to get back on script, but Pomni ignored it the same way he brushed over her own winks when he strayed the first time.

"And that's supposed to make me feel trusty of you?"

"Dont you trust me?"

"I do..but do you trust me?"

"Stop asking questions"

He snapped, stopping in his tracks and turning to face Pomni fully, whose eyes were widened and eyebrows furrowed, she didn't look at the cameras as the director told them not to, keeping her wavering pupils fixed on Jax's small, black squared ones.

"Jax?-" she whispered.

"No, no you listen to me" he cut her off, one hand held up, "if I didn't trust you enough I wouldn't have had those drinks at the bar, I wouldn't have let you laugh at me without getting pushed over the stool-" he stopped himself with a humourless chuckle, one hand on his forehead, "f%*k, if i didn't trust you enough, i wouldn't be having this stupid conversation in the first place!" He continued to shout, his shoulders tensed, eyes narrowed but wide at the same time that couldn't give Pomni an emotion to work with.

"We were..we were just..talking..having fun" she whispered, resisting the urge to call for Gangle to cut the cameras and lights, but it seemed that everyone sat silently to watch the now fully improvised scene unfold infront of them.

And for the first time since she got to the circus, she's never felt more watched in her life than she does now.

"Oh, yeah, of course, fun, its fun to ask a fr- someone youve known for so long if they trust you enough" Jax said sarcastically, slapping his own forehead as if an idea just struck him, "yeah, You're totally right, Pom!"

Pomni narrowed her eyes, biting her inner cheeks, "You're still not saying my real name" she switched back to the script, hoping to corner him and return to the lines they were supposed to stick to in the first place.

"You will always, always be that stupid, dumb, naive and overly trusting jester to me" but by the looks of it, Jax didn't want to stick to anything other than the moment that didn't match the softness of the rain or the sun that seemed to be stuck at the edge of the horizon, mirroring a hint of emotion that Pomni couldn't reach and grab through the heat that Jax wanted to convey on his face right now.

"And that's the only thing you see me as?" Pomni whispered dangerously, "thats the only way you see everyone! Just your playthings to toy and mess around with for your own twisted amusement- but let me tell you something, I would rather be someone naive than someone manipulative enough to know they have a-"

"Manipulative!?"

"Yeah manipulative!" Pomni yelled back, raising her voice over his shocked one, hands dropping from the jacket she didnt care if fell now to wave around for emphasis around her, "making fun of everyone! Bullying any person who is not strong enough to defend themselves-"

"And when was the LAST time I did THAT!?" Jax yelled, his whole body just a few minutes away from collapsing or doing something stupid, "HUH!? WHEN!?"

Pomni actually had to purse her lips in a thin line, grinding her jaw as she tried to recall the last time Jax threw a centipede at Ragatha, pushed Gangle, made fun of Kinger or done anything remotely annoying to Zooble.

Nothing resurfaced to her brain in the last few days..or weeks..or even-

"Months, Pomni" he whispered almost in a hiss, "six hundred and thirty two days withoit a single, annoying thing, that it became ridiculous to me to think about hurting anyone"

Pomni's lips parted silently, her eyebrows raising slightly.

"Six hundred and thirty two days without pranks, bullying, yelling, useless sarcasm or any of the random b%$$&*!t I usually do" he continued, making Pomni's heart beat far too fast for an organ that doesn't exist in her digital avatar.

"Jax.." she breathed quietly, not sure if calling for him or asking, or anything really, and he seemed to be just as lost as she was, the script colliding with the reality they lived every single digital day in.

"And you're not calling my real name either.." he whispered back, all the fight melting from him as he begrudgingly returned to the script, his voice sounding monotone, even his eyes darted away with a slowness that betrayed how poetically the action was described on the script.

"Because you'll always be Jax to me.."

Though the way his pupils dilated and returned fast to the jester's face made up to how he messed up a few seconds ago, remaining silent in a way that Pomni could only translate as pleading.

"And you will always be that loud, obnoxiously annoying, sarcastic and eccentric purple dumb bunny to me.." she continued, a smile making its way to her wavering lips despite everything, "i..I dont know how you do it but...you will always be the same..but in the way that I could recognize you even when you're a better person.." Pomni whispered, looking down at a random daisy that was blooming and eyeing the sun like its only savior.

"I like the night because its the only time when..I sit down and remember everything I did through the day.." he started, bringing her attention back to the softness that didn't match his earlier outbursts, though that was something she connected to Jax in the most comforting of ways, "and in every single one of them..you're the last thing on my mind even when I dont want to sleep" he breathed out shakily, trying his best not to stutter over his words and match one of the adjectives Pomni described him with, "i like the quiet because it's- quiet..it's lonely it's..it.." he trailed off, hoping that his silence wont have her breaking it any time soon, so he forced himself to speak again.

"It's makes me get used to loneliness..to not having you beside me.."

"You know I wouldn't leave" Pomni was fast to whisper.

"You can't promise me that, Pom" he shook his head in disbelief more than fear, or maybe it was both mixed together to make an emotion Jax thought he could only feel in his room.

"I want to promise you, Jax.." she affirmed, one of her hands shooting out to hold Jax's before she had the process of thinking about her action, and it had them both freezing, looking at each other and waiting for the other to speak, but his body had counted down the minutes and weighed its options, choosing the stupid one.

His arms wrapped fast around her body, looping around her slim waist and pulling her to his own skinny chest, and despite the lack of curves, the whole world folded in his arms at the moment, he's never gravitate towards anyone like this in his lives and he doubted he would ever find that feeling again, but he was sure he would never let it loose, he would never-

"I can't forget you.." he whispered against her hair, the lavender jewels of her tiara biting into his lilac fur but that was something that could never overpower the pain of the thought of letting go.

"We could remember each other.." she whispered again, the script was fully wiped from her mind at this point, and she wouldn't call it back even if Gangle yelled at them to stop, "over and over again.." her promise trailed off into what Jax hoped he could keep as a vow.

"Even when it takes time.." he choked into her hair, eyes closing, it wasn't a question, more of a promise of his own, echoing in every strand of her hair where he read it kept memories.

A line of three words hung in the air, the ink of it would fade off from the script before it would be whispered, but that isn't needed now, no words were needed, not when his arms encircled her waist like if he let go, they would lose everything they could have, like if their arms loosened just even a little bit, the lines they abandoned for improvising would come to haunt them, but through it all, through every word they lost along the way, every laughter that replaced something harmful, the words that were left whispered in their hearts would find the right moment to be shared through mingled breaths, and nights spent awake, because no dream could match the reality they would build together, one day in the future they would forget everything to make memories to remember in.

"Shouldn't yo-"

"No" Gangle whispered shakily, cutting off her partner, one ribbon hands over her mouth, eyes glued to the heartfelt scene that played infront of them, "this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" she continued quietly, over the sound of papers flipping next to her and the sound of Caine scratching the back of his jaw, "but they got way off the script-"