Everyone sat down for lunch, Y/n just stared off into the distance, almost like the 1000 yard stare. Jax sat loudly into the chair across from her.

"You're quieter than usual."

Y/n shot him a look.

"Oh right." Jax's cheshire grin gotten bigger.

Ragatha sat down beside of her, whispering, "Are you okay? Kinger told me you asked him a lot of questions about abstracting."

Y/n quickly dismissed it by giving Ragatha a thumbs up.

"Abstracting? Why the h€|| are you asking about that?" His eyebrows furrowed.

Y/n's eyes widened then quickly relaxed them, then shrugging.

"I think she's just curious and wants to learn about it. I think everyone should know about it to prevent them from going crazy!" She exclaimed.

Zooble chimed in with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "Are you going to be a 988 call now?"

"Well..no but that does give me an idea!"

Caine floated to the table, "Enough of this 988 call and abstraction, let's just eat!" His voice was enthusiastic.

Pomni started freaking out again, holding onto her hat.

"Uh oh! Do you need to go to the padded room again!" Caine floated to her, the girl shook her head slowly and looked down.

"Since everyone keeps talking about abstracting, you guys have to perform your own acts tonight before dinner! So between now and then, go practice! It'll keep you sane!" Caine winked before disappearing.

"How is Y/n gonna perform?" Kinger asked.

"Mime." Jax replied, looking over at her. Y/n rolled her eyes.

"That's all you do huh?" He chuckled.

"That's the only thing she can do, Jax." Zooble hissed.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I'm going to practice my act." Jax put quotation marks around "act", meaning he's not going to practice it and just wing it on stage.

Minutes later everyone started coming up with ideas for their acts. Kinger was thinking about singing opera, Ragatha was going to dance, Gangle was going to say that Hamlet monologue, "To be or not to be," and Zooble and Pomni didn't know what they were going to do. Zooble flat out didn't want to do it, Pomni was too stressed out to do anything. Jax was just staring at everyone making a fool of themselves (his exact words).

However his eyes gazed at Y/n. She was sitting alone in a dark corner (shocker to find because everything is so bright). Y/n brought her knees to her chest, although her eyes was open she didn't look like she was staring at anything. She gotten some form of flashback to where pre-digital circus she was sitting in a corner, and hearing people yelling and screaming at each other. At that moment, she was thankful that she escaped her old environment, but she will never escape her mind, unless she abstracts.

That's when it hit her, she can succeed if she knows that no one will be looking for her. She'll volunteer to be the first act, and so after she can *attempt* to abstract while everyone is too busy watching the show.

Jax kept watching her, he thought it was strange that she's the only human that didn't freak out within the first 5 minutes of them arriving. He never saw a person be so quiet and act "normal." Sure, she can't talk, or make noise, but even him noticing that she is acting fine about this whole thing so fast is unusual. To his knowledge, she accepted it so fast, and it's true, but he doesn't know why.

"It's not a big deal." He mumbled quietly to himself, but he couldn't get his mind off of it. He shook that feeling off and walked over to her. "Is this your act?" He looked down at her since she's sitting.

She slowly looked up at him and nodded her head with a sorrow look on her face. Jax ended up snickering, not at her this time, but genuinely laughed.

His laughter was different than the laughter he gives off whenever he's degrading, or flat out being a nuisance. The way he laughed with her his eyes squinted and his grin wasn't sadistic-like.

"I got to admit, you actually made me laugh a little."

Y/n looked up at him again, a touched of a smile. Jax had to take a double look, he never saw her smile since the moment she got here (he never saw Pomni smile but he doesn't give that much of a f^€| about her). Jax didn't want  her and the others to think he gone soft, so he teased her.

"First time I saw you smile, am I that dreamy?" He flattered himself.

Y/n's mouth turned into a downturn smile, she didn't want to admit that he actually made her smile. Next on Jax's list is to make her laugh.

But Jax shook that thought away, he didn't want to go soft, especially towards her, or even anyone. He wants to keep his superiority, his ego, and his controlling attitude to simply prevent him from going insane. He's secretly afraid if he goes soft, he might end up going crazy.

Caine interrupted this sweet moment, "Alright ladies and gents and possibly they/thems! Looking at you Bubble, It's time for our performance!" He did a flip in the air. "Who wants to go next!"

Y/n eagerly stood up and practically pushed Jax out the way and raised her hand.

"Okay! Y/n is up!"

Y/n swiftly made her way to the stage and examine everyone. She didn't know what to do for her act and everyone was staring at her. She looked over at Jax and saw his face relaxed and his arms crossed.

She came up with the idea on the spot and pretend to fake cry, then she put on a broad smile and pointed her finger in the air, as in she had an idea.

She sat on the floor and rocked herself back and forth, practically tweaking at this point to indicate she gone crazy in her act. The back and forth abruptly came to a stop and she laid flat on her back.

Jax was the only one clapping, the others was horrified. Y/n got up and bowed, then quickly ran off stage so she can have time to abstract with no interruptions, if it only works that way, but unbeknownst to her, it doesn't work like that.

She stopped dead in her tracts once she's out of eye sight.

How the f^€| do I even abstract? Am I even crazy enough to even do so?

She groaned, doesn't even think she can do it, but decides to try anyway because she doesn't even want to be alive.

Jax on the other hand, was watching Kinger do his act, opera. The rabbit wasn't too thrilled, and was quite bored, so he got the bright idea to follow Y/n. He doesn't care what Caine will do to him if he doesn't perform, he knows it's going to be a weak punishment.

Jax walked down the long hallway, glancing at the others room with their faces marked out.

"Hate, hate, hate," He mumbled to himself, he saw Gangles face, "Absolutely loathed." He snickered to himself.

His eyes finally reached the mime's face. He put his ear to the door and didn't hear anything, "Oh right, forgot."

Jax flipped through the keys and found Y/n's, then opened her door. Y/n flinched because she wasn't expecting a visitor, let alone Jax.

Jax saw her sitting on the ground, knees to her chest rocking back and forth. His eyebrow raised because this looked exactly like her act.

Y/n stood up and pointed to the door, eyebrows furrowed.

"Relax, I'm not here to bother you." He put his hands up in defense.

Then what do you want? She cocked her head.

"Just coming here to tell you that was a great performance." He slowly clapped. Y/n couldn't tell if he was being genuine. She gave him an awkward smile and did a thumbs up.

Jax was actually annoyed that she can't speak. He's always wondering how things would be different if she can talk. Would they be friends? Is she mean? Does she have a pretty voice? Manly? He wants to ask her complex questions because he's genuinely interested in her. But he knew he can only get a smile, frown, raised eyebrows, and flipping him off from her.

Y/n saw the keys dangling out from his overall pocket. She lit up and pointed to them.

Jax was puzzled and looked down, seeing that she was pointing at them.

"So what I have keys, you already knew this."

She shook her head and moved past him, grabbing his hand so he can follow her.

"Whoa whoa hey! I don't hold hands." He got out of her grip.

Y/n deadpanned and did a "come follow me" hand motion and started walking again. Jax raised an eyebrow and started to follow the mime.

He saw that her walk was strong, determined, and eager. What is going on little mime. Y/n stopped in front of Kaufmo's door, and she looked at Jax with pleaded eyes.

"You want to go in his room? Why?" But he knew she can't give him an answer, so he hesitated and then complied, fumbling with his keys until he found the right one.

He put the key in Kaufmo's door and opened it, his jaw tightened as he sees his old friends room.

Y/n on the other hand, her jaw dropped, seeing scribbles of exit and escape. His room looked like a tornado been through it. This is what it looks like? To her right, she saw a writing that says "I give up."

She stepped a foot in the room but was quickly jerked back by Jax. She threw her arms up in the air out of annoyance.

Jax quickly locked the door and he turned to her, crossed arms and gritted his teeth.

"Why did you want to see his room?"

She couldn't possibly tell him that it's because she wants to "kill herself" by abstracting. How the h3|| can she explain that? And if she can, everyone is going to try to stop her.

She didn't "say" anything, just stared at him with glossy eyes.

Jax put his hands in his pockets and walked off without giving a sly remark, just silence. He wasn't mad at her completely, she didn't know that him and Kaufmo was friends and how much it actually affected him. H3||, nobody knew that it affected him this much.

The bunny wanted to turn around, asking her over and over again about why she wanted to see his room out of nowhere. But it p!$$3d him off that she can't speak. Eventually he got an idea to ask Caine if there's some way Y/n can talk, but knowing Caine, he's not going to do anything.

Y/n slowly went back to her room and closed the door, still hearing them clapping about the others performance.

Once she laid down on her weird, comfortable bed, she started to think about the things that happened to her, the memories that she remembers. She figured if she ruminates on the memories, then it will slowly make her give up. I already given up years ago, why am I not already abstracting? The moment I learned about this whole thing I was already giving up. But her mind quickly switched into her thinking about Jax.

For some reason he couldn't leave her mind. She tried thinking of other things, like trying to remember her past, or trying again to make herself break and give up so she can abstract, but something is stopping her from giving up.