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Everyone is startled by the loud sound of a punch and a flat thud on the ground. Not being able to even process everything that was just revealed to them, most of the circus members didn’t react much to this. Except for Pomni, who lifted her head to see Ragatha with her fist shaking as she looks down on Jax covering part of his jaw, both tearing up until Jax starts to chuckle.
- Oh WOW, you really have no positivity left inside now do y-?
- SHUT UP!!! JUST SHUT UP!!! - Ragatha stomps towards him, raising her fist once again but shaking too much to give another hit - WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???
Desperately, Pomni rushes and tries to stay between them
- G-Guys please, let's not-
- NO!! NO!! - the ragdoll, lightly but firmly, pushes Pomni away with her still trembling hands - NO, NOT THIS TIME, IM DONE!! I'M TIRED!!!
- Ragatha, please! - Pomni starts to tear up, trying in pure despair to not let things escalate - We already have a lot in our minds lets just-!
- OOOOOOHOHOHOHO NO NO NO, LET HER SPEAK! - Jax gets up, a weird mocking grin on his face as he crosses his arms – Oh, I've been DYING to see her say what she really thinks ever since I got here! Come on, doll face! SPIT IT OUT!
- STOP TALKING LIKE I'M THE JERK HERE!! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE SUFFERING RIGHT NOW??? DO YOU REALLY THINK ANY ONE HERE NEEDS TO FEEL WORSE THAN THEY ALREADY ARE??? YOU JUST WANT TO MAKE EVERYONE SUFFER SO YOU CAN FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, BECAUSE YOU ARE A SELFISH PIECE OF SHIT!!
- OH, NOW I WANT TO ACT BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE?? - Jax snaps back and moves towards Ragatha, getting as close as Pomni's arms allow him to - DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FOOLING ANYONE BY ACTING SO CHEERFUL AND NICE TO EVERYONE?? WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD IS FALLING APART, DO YOU REALLY THINK SOMEONE SMILING AND SAYING “Everything is ok~” WILL CHANGE ANYTHING?? WE ALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! YOU ARE A FAKE LITTLE PRINCESS TRYING TO MANIPULATE EVERYONE SO YOU CAN MAKE YOURSELF BETTER BY PRETENDING TO TAKE CARE OF THEM WHEN YOU’RE ACTUALLY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEM!!
- WHEN HAVE I EVER TOOK ADVANTAGE ON ANY OF YOU?? Even better!! When did I ever take advantage on YOU?? - Ragatha gets closer, making Pomni even more nervous as she tries her best to keep them both apart - EVEN AS YOU WERE OUT THERE MAKING EVERYONE SUFFER, ALL I EVER DID WAS MAKING SURE I WASN’T GOING TO HURT YOU AS WELL! I KEPT EVERY SECRET YOU ASKED ME TO, I TRIED MY BEST NOT TO MENTION ANYTHING YOU ASKED ME TO, I APOLOGIZED WHENEVER I DID SOMETHING THAT HURTED YOU AND NOW I WISH I DIDN’T!!! BECAUSE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO USES EVERYONE’S WEAKNESS AGAINST THEM JUST LIKE YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW!!
- AND WHO GUARANTEES YOU WOULDN’T HAVE DONE THE SAME IF I DIDN’T KEEP YOU IN CHECK, HUH?? YOU’VE ONLY SHOWN YOUR TRUE COLORS ONCE AND THAT’S WHEN THAT STUPID SAUCE FELL ON YOUR EYE-!
- ARE YOU STILL THINKING ABOUT THAT??? I HAD NO IDEA OF WHAT I WAS SAYING!!! I WAS LITERALLY DRUGGED, FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!! - as she was ready to throw another fist on him, Ragatha felt a soft hand on her shoulder.
- Ragatha… - she turned her head to see Kinger, gently pressing his hand on her - Let’s not feed into this… I know how you’re feeling and I don’t blame you for acting on it - gently, he holds her hand and rubs his finger on it’s back - But as you said… We’re all suffering right now… Let’s try to calm ourselves down, ok?
Ragatha stays silent. After all this time, she couldn’t just let Jax get away with doing whatever he wants without consequences like he always does. Out of all moments for him to be a jerk, that was the worst of them. Pomni said it was ok for her to be a jerk sometimes, why does every time she acts on it she gets held down? This isn’t fair. It was not fair!
- Heh, yeah Raggy listen to the old nutzo who ruined everything for us~ After all he is sooooo good and wise am I right!? I bet your mommy used to be just like this!
Now he had it. She didn’t care anymore. Ragatha lets go of Kinger’s hand, pushed Pomni away with way less care than before and tackled Jax on the ground throwing fist after fist on his face, almost as if every cotton inside her body had turned into sand out of pure spite. He tried to shield his face, but she easily pushed his arms away. She could feel more people trying to stop her, but she was not having any of that.
- WHY?? WHY DO YOU ACT LIKE THIS?? WE ALL DO EVERYTHING TO SHOW WE’RE HERE FOR YOU, WHY DO YOU KEEP TREATING EVERYONE LIKE THIS??? - someone managed to hold one of her arms for a few seconds, but she quickly freed it and kept beating on him - WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?? I USED TO BE YOUR FRIEND!!! WE USED TO BE FRIENDS!!! WHY???? WHY???… Why?...
Ragatha panted, tired of yelling, tired of punching, just… tired. Now that she burned all of her anger out, all that was left was sadness. Her hands trembled as she felt her tears roll stronger down her face. As much as she wanted to be “mean”, in the end she was a good person who never did anything like that before and all these feelings at the same time proved to be too overwhelming.
- I… I don’t know, Jax… I really don’t know… Why do you hate everyone like this? Why do you hate me?
At this point, Jax wasn’t looking at her anymore, just defeated with many punching marks around his face. After a few seconds of silence, the rabbit slowly freed himself away from the ragdoll, who didn’t really have much strength inside to stop him and as he got up everyone else rushed around her in a group embrace, trying to comfort Ragatha as much as they could.
He didn’t comment on it. He had nothing left to say at this point. This time, he just walked away in silence, feeling every single part of his face stinging in pain.
Ragatha cried harder, she didn’t regret punching Jax but all the sudden care she received made her feel guilty.
- I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to worry you, I’m so sorry…
- It’s not your fault… - she heard Gangle’s voice saying as her ribbons wiped away her tears - We all care about you too…
- There’s nothing to be sorry for - Zooble said, placing their hand on her head - As much as we care about Jax, he needs to reciprocate it… And after everything that just happened… This is far from the worst thing that we had to handle
Pomni stayed silent but was the closest to her. The jester placed her face on the doll’s chest squeezing her arms around Ragatha as she ignores the feeling of everyone else’s touch around them.
- We know this was difficult for you too… - Kinger caressed his hand on her back - For you to act like this, you were probably holding it for too long… But you don’t have to do this anymore, ok? We’re all here for you… Just like you’ve been here for everyone.
Ragatha lifted her head up and watched as Jax furthered himself away from everyone. Small part of her wanted to feel guilty and sad for punching him, still holding on to the idea she failed him somehow, but most of her was just sad and frustrated at him for making everything end up like this. She wanted to believe there was some way to make it all go back to how it was before Ribbit abstracted, before he began to change into someone who hates her and everyone around him. But at that point, there was nothing any of them could do.
She embraced everyone back as best as she could.
- Thank you, guys… Thank you so much…