Chapter Text
JAX:
Jax missed Pomni.
He missed her smile.
He missed how she laughed at his jokes.
Of course, anything that goes by Jax gets destroyed.
So she did too.
He had ruined everything, like he always did.
Now he is in the real world, regretting pushing everyone away. Especially her.
They escaped the circus three months ago. She was the one who had found the exit, connecting all the pieces together in a way no one else ever tried to do. When he got out, he knew he didn’t have any family to file a missing persons report, so it wasn’t like he had anyone to question where he was - other than the police, at least. When they had asked him any questions, it was the regular procedure.
“Where were you and what happened?’
“I was captured when I was in an abandoned building, and I didn’t see the face of my captor. I don’t have any memory of what happened.”
He remembered the last moments before they had escaped. He was abstracting, and Pomni was trying to help him while the others were escaping.
He winced at the thought. He had said all those cruel things to her and she still had helped him.
He just wanted to thank her.
But Jax destroys everything that comes his way.
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POMNI:
“Christine!”
Pomni jolted awake, mind foggy and still sleepy. Uh oh. She was sleeping at work again, wasn’t she?
“Sorry!” She yelled, still a little out of it.
She felt a buzz and checked her phone.
From MOM: Are you going to your doctor's appointment today?
She sighed. Ever since she had gotten out of the circus, her Mom had pestered her about going to the doctor to get a checkup.
Response from CHRISTINE: Yes, mom, I will. I'll tell you what they say.
She put her phone down and looked back at the spread sheets.
‘Uhg…’
This was going to be a long day.
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“I’d move on.”
“And probably forget about you.”
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JAX:
Once Jax was done with his moping session, he realized it was late.
He was too scared -as surprising as it seemed- to try to sleep.
He didn’t want to have the nightmares after thinking about the circus all day, but he was mentally and physically exhausted.
He decided he would try.
After he brushed his teeth, he laid in bed for a few hours.
He thought about the circus.
What really happened to Ribbit?
To all those who had the unfortunate fate of abstracting?
Pomni. He missed her.
How long had he really been in the circus?
Was it all really a dream?
Mostly, he thought about the last moments.
Pomni was in front of him, whispering quiet reassurances.
She held on to him when he was scared.
And he pushed her away.
He needed to thank her for that.
He would.
Eventually.
He then drifted into his first dreamless sleep in a long time.
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“I get joy out of making you suffer.”
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POMNI:
When she went to the doctor, she was fine, as expected.
She texted her Mom, got home, and collapsed on the couch, exhausted from running around all day.
She wanted dinner before she went to bed, due to the lack of a lunch break at her job, so she got up and sluggishly walked to the fridge, only to discover she barely had any food. She scanned the morsels, and decided on leftover chinese food from her mom coming over a few days ago.
She made a mental note to go to the grocery store tomorrow.
After she heated her food up and ate it, she walked to the bathroom and got ready for bed, dreading the next day. She wanted to stay in bed forever.
Another day of work, another day doing nothing to feel alive. She felt like one of Caine’s NPC’s, in a way, running around, trained to do one thing over and over till’ the world decides you're not enough and discards you.
She felt alive at one point. Before this mess. Before she got stuck in that digital grave.
It had been ok there, with him, before he turned on her.
She saw him at his lowest.
She wanted to see him now.
She turned to the side of her wall. Her bed was comfortable, and she was getting drowsy.
‘I’ll think about this tomorrow.’
‘Tommorow.’
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JAX:
Felix woke up to light coming out of his curtains.
He didn’t have nightmares.
That's a step.
He got up, groggy from last night’s sleep. That was the best sleep he had since the circus.
When he got to the kitchen, he took a spoon, bowl, and milk. Where was the cereal? He looked through all the cabinets and the fridge, realizing that he was out of a lot of other things too.
Time to go to the grocery store.
He groaned. He didn’t want to go out right now, but he basically had no choice because he didn’t want to eat prehistoric fish sticks for breakfast.
He got up and changed into the semi-decent clothes he wore everyday, and grabbed his keys off of the coffee table.
He basically memorized the way to almost everything in this crappy neighborhood.
When he got to the store, he took the last cart and slowly walked through all the cheaper aisles.
Knockoff cereal. Bingo.
He reached for his favorite and turned around-
Only to bump into someone.
Then he heard the voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I’ll get out of your way.”
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POMNI:
The next day, Christine took it a little slower because she didn’t have work until later. She also needed to clean a bit, but she ignored that for now.
She remembered she needed to go to the grocery store, so she got her stuff and left for her little side adventure.
She grabbed a basket, because all the carts were gone, and walked straight to the seafood.
‘Salmon, salmon, salmon…
Ah, there we go.’
Now she needed to get some vegetables, due to her new habit of making salads to go with everything. Not the worst hobby you could have, but with this economy and her already ‘fancy’ taste, she needed to get the cheapest she could find.
After running a few more errands, she wanted some cereal for breakfast tomorrow, so she decided to treat herself.
She walked down the aisle, turned and backed up a little too far.
She accidentally bumped into someone. Great.
She turned and faced the guy she had bumped into.
He looked like someone she knew.
He looked like him.
“It’s fine.”
She was frozen for a bit, then decided that sounded too much like him.
“...Jax?”
His eyes widened.
“Pomni.”
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