The adventures you guys went on never sat right with you — like they were trying too hard to be interesting and engaging.

Nobody really enjoyed the adventures besides Jax, if it meant he could hurt people during them.

He didn’t enjoy the adventures themselves, but it was fun torturing everyone else during each one. At least to him.

That always seemed to be his thing. Jax got a good laugh out of making everyone else’s lives in the circus miserable. He thrived off of their reactions like a leech — taking pleasure in their suffering.

Caine seemed so on edge lately. He was getting faster and faster with his adventures lately, and that plus having to plan an entire award show was exactly a good combination.

It was like he started to realize people weren’t liking the adventures, and he had to go along with whatever the players wanted from him.

Today, the circus seemed quieter than usual — probably because everyone could sense that Caine was slowly losing whatever sanity he had left. No one had come out of their rooms for a while now, almost as if they were scared of what he might do if he found them. Even Zooble was hiding in a flower pot, and they were the least scared of him.

Zooble was talking about overhearing him talking to Bubble about an in-house adventure, and they were expressing their disdain for the idea and not wanting anything to do with it.

Somehow, Caine managed to get everyone together by the stage of the circus.

He noticed the tension going on between everyone in the circus, so he came up with 'trust exercises' you’ve all grown to dread.

Caine looked out of it when he summoned all of you, clearly antsy because of the upcoming awards ceremony.

But you guys didn’t understand. Nobody wanted to do this, and Jax shooting Ragatha square with a pistol seemed to be Caine's breaking point. One of many to come, at least.

After Ragatha fell, he added that everyone had to take care of themselves for a while, materializing a bunch of guns and firearms and allowing you to run crazy with them.

Caine gave you all a 5-minute timer to get your teams in order — after that, it would be a free-for-all.

The guns were all dropped to the floor, and Jax looked like he was having the time of his life playing with them.

Everyone got assembled fairly quickly, already knowing what teams they wanted to be on before the timer began, congregating in teams of two.

Everyone except you and Jax.

Out of everyone, he was probably the last person you wanted to paired with. He was so unpredictable and outrageously unfunny. He could probably shoot you on accident and laugh about it.

But what choice did you have?

Each team was already decided, and three was a crowd for each one. It was infuriating, even having to fathom working with that absolute prick.

He was the only one without a teammate.

The timer ended with a ding of finality, and the guns were hidden astray in random places around the circus.

If you wanted to be on his team, you had to hurry. He could and would leave you.

Jax wasn’t paying you any mind, too busy reveling in the guns he was able to grab and toy with. He looked like he could have been a one-man team, but everyone had to pair up.

He didn’t even think anyone would want to join him. After everything he’s done, he expected to be the last person anyone would want to partner up with. He paid no one any mind.

Jax liked it that way. He didn’t want anyone to get too close. The whole circus would think he was going soft. And he’d never be able to live that down. He was perfectly fine being in a team by himself — it gave him the freedom of being a jerk with no consequences. But, of course, you appeared.

When you approached him, reluctantly so, he was too absorbed in his own world, opening fire on random blocks and slides in the circus for target practice.

He turned to you lazily, a look of smugness and slight annoyance in his eyes, as if you were the one inconveniencing him.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is," he remarked, swirling the revolver in his hand.

"You sure you can handle me in all my glory?"