Work Text:
✩̣̣̣̣̣ͯ┄•͙✧⃝•͙┄✩ͯ•͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩ͯ┄•͙✧⃝•͙┄✩̣̣̣̣̣ͯ
Ribbon was in her room, alone.
She made a mistake in the recent adventure, she prided herself on being good at everything.
She had gotten second place in a spelling bee contest, which, to her standaards, was unacceptable.
She laid in her bed. The bed was devoid of pillows, blankets, and sheets. It was only a tear-stained matress now.
Her room was covered top to bottom in sticky notes with reminders of how to be perfect.
She tossed and turned, causing the balls of paper on her bed to shuffle around her.
Her eyes were stinging from the fat sobs that had consumed her earlier, she felt so exhausted.
Sleep would be truly amazing.
So, she eventually fell prey to the enchanting lullaby of sleep, or what their version was.
When she opened her eyes again, she found her porcelain body to be barren of it's usual acrobat attire.
If her mother and father making her memorize Bible verses taught her anything, she was in her purest form.
Well, not exactly, since she's in a digital world.
Everything was colorful and mosaic, like the inside of a kaleidoscope.
What one would call an acid trip, she believed to be peace.
She smiled, a tear or two slipping from her large, puppy-like eyes.
Her body felt devoid of the constant feeling of wanting to vomit and collapse crying.
Her usually tense muscles(?), relaxed.
After so long, she felt warm, cozy almost.
She never felt more safe.
Finally, she could rest.
Her mind could be at ease.
She wouldn't have to burden the world any longer.
As much as she didn't want to leave her friends, she didn't want to leave this pure bliss, call it selfish, but, she felt deserving of it.
It was all beautiful.
Oh so beautiful.
...
Jax felt something was off.
Ribbon had gone to her room early instead of playing the knock-off scrabble game, elbbarcs, with everyone else.
And just when he came up with a good fake word to piss her off with it.
He walked up to her clean and pristine door. Her picture seemed to stare him down.
He knocked once, once turned to twice, twice turned to thrice, and so on.
She wasn't answering.
Odd.
She always answered, even if she was busy doing nerd stuff.
"Hey Ribbons, you in there?"
He inquired though the door.
No response.
He huffed.
As much as he loved invading people's privacy, he drew a line when it came to people who actually cared about him despite his jerky-ness.
But he had to check on her, just this once.
God, this was really killing his tough guy personality.
He dug through his main pocket, fishing out a key to her room, smooth, refined, just like her.
He placed it in the keyhole, then gently turned it.
Before he opened the door, he spoke.
"Yo dollface! I'm coming in!"
He gently opened the door (hahaha silly ddlc ref, surely nothing bad will happen.)
...
As much as he hated it, his heart shattered.
All that was inside was a mess of a room, and a mess of a girl.
If she even was a girl anymore.
"Hey..! Ribbon, nice to see ya."
He said akwardly, his posture stiffening.
The crackled mess of code that stood before him just blinked, though, just the smallest spark of humanity lied behind those various eyes.
She didn't run at him, she didn't try to hurt him, she just stood there.
She was harmless, she always was.
She wouldn't hurt a fly if she could.
"Ahah.. You're fine, everythings fine, this is probably some messed up adventure about stress responses and Caine is gonna show up and say; "Congrats! You are insert stress response here!" like some personality quiz or something."
He rambled on.
She just stared, head gently tilting to the side like some innocent fawn about to be hit by a car without knowing what was about to happen.
His ears tucked back behind his head.
"This.. This isn't an adventure, is it?"
He murmured.
"God, look at me. The jerk of the group suddenly being sympathetic."
...
"I never got around to apologizing for breaking your arm when I first got here, did I?"
Jax reminisced, rubbing his left arm.
He looked into her eyes.
They looked calm, peaceful.
"I look like a dude picking his prom date up from their parents house."
He joked, chuckling.
Ribbon leaned forward, eyes set on him.
"Heya toots, gettin' a little close there are we?"
She just got closer.
He hesitated, then placed a hand on her new muzzle.
She still felt like porcelain.
Her eyes closed, like a battered dog accepting human touch after so long.
"Yer' like a dog now, cute."
Jax chuckled.
...
"I'll miss you."