THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS(TADC)

The lobby was a noisy canvas of polite chaos, everyone engaged in their usual, fragmented small talk. But the mood curdled around Gangle, who was a picture of nervous energy—fidgeting, looking over her shoulder, on the verge of unraveling. She was completely unstable. The air crackled, not with static, but with Jax's imminent mischief. He emerged silently from behind a pillar, his shadow stretching long and thin, his smile a predator's curve. With a swift, cruel motion, Jax clapped his hands right next to her ear. The sharp crack of the scare was immediately followed by the smash of a fall. Gangle collapsed in a heap. Her beloved Happy Mask—the one she always wore—slid off her face and shattered on the floor. What spilled out wasn't just sadness, but a horrifying, wrenching reality. She wasn't just crying; she was wailing, tears soaking the floor, a sound that carried the raw despair of imminent Abstraction. Pomni and Ragatha rushed forward as one, trying to shield her, whispering reassurances to stop the spiral. Zooble, however, had a different reaction. Seeing Gangle's genuine pain, they let out a furious, inarticulate roar and tackled Jax, instantly escalating the scene into a furious scuffle. Kinger observed the whole thing from the safety of his enormous pillow fort, mildly curious. Caine, flustered, zipped back and forth, trying to impose order with increasingly futile gusto. Finally, his patience broke, and his voice cut through the pandemonium like a whip "{{user}}! GET OVER HERE! NOW!"