All Too Real

A glint of light caught Glitch’s eye as he walked by the alleyway. It was bright enough to make him backpedal a step, just to get a better view of the light source. It was in the middle of the alley, atop a crumpled box that he saw the source: The left lens of a VR headset, just barely reflecting the sun into his eye. His tail swished back and forth once from the intrigue. He looked both ways down the street, as if anyone would care that, of all the people walking, someone was going to walk down an alley. Then he did.

As he approached the VR headset, he noted that it was sitting on top of its own packaging. Surprisingly pristine, next to two controllers. He briefly looked around again as he approached, as if the owner was going to manifest from around the dumpster. Then Glitch wondered if maybe it was shoplifted, carried away from some electronics store? There wasn’t one that close. He shrugged to himself and figured, finders keepers. The most important question that came to mind was: Did it work? So he picked up the headset. He made sure to affix it to his head so it wouldn’t fall off. And after a moment’s fumbling, he pressed the power button.

When the screen loaded in, Glitch found himself ‘standing’ in an enormous carnival tent. Though at the same time, it was bizarrely adorned with giant furnishings akin to both a museum and a child’s playroom. Upbeat music filled his ears, a little too loud for his liking. Kind of a weird demo or game or whatever, but at least it works. Glitch reached his hands up to take the headset off. In doing so, he passed through empty air and grabbed onto the sides of his own head.

A chill ran down his body as he felt around some more for the headset. “Uh- wh-” was all that he could manage to say as he looked down at his body. It was... still him. Which it shouldn’t be, right? It was a virtual reality, it couldn’t know what he looked like. It shouldn’t see his black carapace, jeans, and jacket. And why couldn’t he feel his headset? He suddenly felt so dizzy, he didn’t even realize he was backing up until he bumped against something soft.

Glitch turned around slowly, fear creeping into his body. He’d bumped into a fuzzy lump of purple, about as tall as he was. And more, he found it was connected to a pillar of some sort. His eyes followed it up as it became covered in a pink cloth and joined together with another identical pillar. Then quickly after that, he became aware of two yellow eyes peering down at him. A purple rabbit with yellow teeth too, staring down with what seemed to be rather mild surprise and amusement.

Realizing just how small he was relative to the rabbit, Glitch suddenly felt very exposed. He wasn’t sure whether to open his mouth and try to speak to it or just run. The rabbit’s smile growing as his eyes narrowed to form a sinister expression convinced him to run. However, just at that moment, red theater curtains seemed to come down from nowhere. They surrounded the two of them on both sides, but while Glitch was startled, the rabbit was not. With a very small move, the rabbit’s foot lifted off the ground, moved a few inches, and then came down right on top of the tiny thing on the floor.

It felt like a ton of hard styrofoam pressing down onto him. All around him? He was thankful he wasn’t completely crushed against the floor, but he couldn’t move a muscle. He could hardly breathe. In fact, he felt like it was getting worse-- but at least nothing felt like it was going to break, oddly enough. He just felt squished and squishy. Just barely, he could hear the upbeat music track get ‘closer’. And as it did, the pressure above him shifted right onto him. Maybe he wasn’t going to break, but he let out a startled yelp that went unheard.

For the purple rabbit, known by others (though not yet to Glitch) as Jax, the little guy’s appearance was certainly a surprise, but one he quickly realized he could amuse himself with. And hide. As soon as his ‘intro’ passed him by, Jax lifted his leg up, finding nothing underneath. “Huh. Where did-” Lifting it up further, turning his foot towards himself, he found what he was looking for. A funny li’l fella, flattened right onto his paw. Well, he would live down there for a little while longer, until he had some privacy.

Glitch groaned as the paw hit the ground again. It was even worse as Jax started walking, each step like he was being freshly crushed. Not that he could get much more crushed than he already was. What was even going on? His mind was struggling to connect the chain of events that lead to this moment. It really felt like a series of non sequiturs, one which he hoped would soon end. Or that he’d at least escape being stuck to some rabbit’s foot.

Jax walked over and joined the rest of the group as the opening theme finished, all standing around ‘patiently’ waiting for their ringmaster to manifest in front of them. Jax made sure his feet were solidly on the ground, even leaning onto the one just to make sure his guest didn’t go anywhere. Shortly afterwards, the ringmaster did so appear, the typically bizarre floating dentures-with-eyes they knew as Caine.

Caine spoke as theatrically as ever, “GREETINGS my fantastical group of performers! Are you all ready for an adventure?” The response was non-committal mutterings and groanings. “GREAT! Because today’s adventure is going to be:” Caine manifested a miniature wheel of choices, already spinning. And as it came to a stop, it landed on a tiny black sliver which read: “Nothing,” Caine said with an unusually flat affect.

In the following silence, Glitch tried to weakly call out for help, but Jax simply ground his foot into the ground a bit and said, “Nothing? Really? No new characters or new people joining us today?”

Caine zipped over to Jax in a quick, smooth move with his eyes boggling. “That’s right, Jax, NOTHING! It’s like a Tuesday afternoon. Or a holiday, except without any people! No show for today.”

Behind him, Zooble groaned. “You dragged us out of our rooms for nothing?”

Caine turned right around, his body catching up afterwards with a twist. “Not nothing, Zooble! Consider this a... pop rehearsal! We wouldn’t want to mess up our opening when we need it most, would we?” No response came to that one. Caine just straightened up and said, “Right then! Have a FANTASTICAL day and we will meet again tomorrow!” Then he shrunk out of existence, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Everyone looked around for a moment, confused. Jax eventually just shrugged. “Sounds good to me. See you suckers same time tomorrow~” He walked off in a direction that was rather notably not the way to his room. Not that anyone would care. Instead, he walked off towards the large toys, checking over his shoulder once he was far enough away. Then he took a sharp turn, venturing down a small hallway they didn’t normally visit except for ‘adventures’.

Jax bent over, raised his leg and said, “Now, let’s take a look at you...” On the bottom of his foot was a black little thing with claws and a tail, wearing some normal clothes and a scarf. Glowing purple eyes, too. Almost looked like he stepped on a sticker with how flattened it was. “Hey, you still alive?”

Barely. A dull pain seemed to permeate every inch of Glitch’s body and he felt unbelievably dizzy. He at least let out a groan, his bleary eyes stabilizing to see the purple rabbit's face filling his vision. Just in time to see his expression shift from one of apathy to a more gleeful one that unnerved him. "Oh good!" He said, boomingly loud to Glitch. Yellow gloved fingers reached for him, pinching his legs and peeling him off the rabbit's foot.

As much as he was happy to be free of that particular hell, he still felt as flat as a pancake. And from what he could see, he was. All of his limbs felt like jelly. He could only barely lift the ends of them. Helpless as he was, he switched to hoping the rabbit was going to be nice to him now. But he doubted it. Jax smiled down at the flat little creature in his hand and said, "Sorry little fella, I guess I didn't see you there."

If he was able to think clearer, he might’ve been weirded out by Jax apparently speaking through his teeth. It was a struggle to get words out, let alone at much volume, but Glitch managed, "You... did that... on purpose."

Those black and yellow eyes of his captor shifted up as he put a finger to his chin. "Welllll, maybe~ After all, I didn't want anyone to find out about my little toy." His eyes shifted back down and narrowed, though his smile remained. "You know, really you should be thanking me. Things could be a lot worse if Caine knew you were here.”

He really doubted it, but he didn’t want to push his luck either. So he just asked, “Caine? Who... is that? Where... am I?”

“Ah ah, answers later. Say ‘thank you, Jax’, and I’ll tell you. I’ll even throw in getting you back to 3D!”

Glitch grunted. “Are you... kidding me?”

Jax chuckled, “Well if you don’t want to, I guess I can stick you back on the bottom of my foot. Might be a few weeks before anyone notices you.”

The yellow glove Glitch was laying in started to move away from Jax’s face, so he shouted, “WAIT!” He coughed as he was lifted back up to Jax, who had an eagerly waiting expression. “Th... Thank you, Jax,”

His grin widened and he said, “You’re welcome, my flat @#$% friend! Now, let’s get you into a better shape.”

For a second, Glitch wondered how he was going to do that. But it was quickly answered as the hand he was in started spinning around as if Jax was winding up a punch. The entire world became a colorful blur and he felt like he was going to fly away, despite his legs being pinched between a thumb and finger. His scarf did nearly fly away, but fortunately it caught around his arm almost immediately. Glitch silently pleaded for an end to this. It felt like his body was stretching out from the force. He could feel himself starting to flap in the wind, and then suddenly he caught it. Air seemed to rush into his body, filling out every corner of it, reinflating him to a normal amount of volume.

After a little while longer, Jax realized that his ‘toy’ had rejoined him in the third dimension and finally stopped spinning him around. “Oh hey, I wasn’t sure that was really going to work.”

Glitch panted as he caught his breath (insofar as he even needed to breathe), then leaned over the edge of Jax’s hand and spewed out a torrent of black sludge. That... wasn’t normal. Even for him. He wiped his jagged mouth, then re-affixed his scarf over it. “What is wrong with you?!” Glitch shouted, forgetting his position for a moment.

Jax just scoffed. “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? You usually an inch high, short-stuff?”

His anger was quickly doused by the reminder of where he was. His tail nervously twitched as he said, “N-No! I’m normal... ish height usually! God... where am I?? What’s happening??”

Jax’s amusement returned as he watched and listened to his little captive getting whammed by confusion and terror. “Well, you did thank me, so I guess I should answer. 1) You’re in a circus! 2) You’re trapped here forever! By the way, what’s your name?”

“Glitch...” he muttered out as he considered what he’d just been told. Forever? All because he put on a stupid headset in an alleyway? “No, I’ve... I’ve gotta get out of here...”

That got Jax to raise an eyebrow. “Glitch, huh? Well if that’s really your name, then congrats! So far, you’re the only person to remember your name when you show up.”

“Why wouldn’t I...? But... why am I so small?”

Jax grinned again as he lifted Glitch higher so that his head would fill his vision. “That I don’t know little guy! Guess you’re a glitch in more ways than one.” He tilted his head to one side as looked over said little guy. He guessed he could be fun for a little while... but with him being so small, not that fun. Maybe if he throws him around his room like a ping-pong ball... Eh, that would get boring pretty fast too. If he had shoes to wear, he’d be a nice insole, maybe...

An idea suddenly hit him like a bolt of lightning. A light bulb actually did physically appear above his head, which he grabbed and threw to the ground as soon as he realized it was there. “Hey, small fry. Stop spiraling for a sec and listen up,” he said with a more serious look. Once he saw those tiny purple eyes meet his, he started to grin again and continued, “I think, actually... There might be one way to make you ‘leave’.”

Still not really trusting of the rabbit, Glitch hesitantly asked, “...What did you have in mind?”

His smile grew to nearly fill the bottom half of his face, semicircular giddy eyes on the other half. “Bottom’s up!”

Before Glitch could possibly react or respond, he found himself flying through the air. Jax flung him straight up with surprising strength-- or perhaps it was just easy to throw him around when he was only a couple of inches high. He hit the ceiling of the hallway, making him shut his eyes for a moment as he started to fall back down. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Jax looking right up at him, still grinning. Then Jax closed his eyes and opened his mouth. Glitch’s own eyes widened as he saw those yellow teeth somehow part into something like a bear trap. Between them was a black void, though as he got closer, he could see there was a distinct uvula and tongue in there.

Unable to think of anything else to do, Glitch flailed as he fell towards the abyss. In a matter of seconds, he slipped inside. He would’ve gone straight down Jax’s throat too, if not for barely catching onto his uvula and dangling there above it. That caused Jax to let out a startled gack and clack his mouth back shut. Speaking to him again without moving anything in his mouth, Jax just complained, “Wow, way to break the momentum, fun-size. You wanted to get out, didn’t you? I think down at the bottom there, you might just find a way~”

Glitch glanced down into the dark. Somehow he doubted there was actually a way out that way. He didn’t know how... realistic the insides of their bodies were here, but at best he would just be trapped in there forever. At worst... Well, he hoped dying in the game didn’t mean dying in real life. He adjusted his grip on the somewhat slippery, rubber-feeling uvula and said, “J-Jax, isn’t there something else we can try?”

He shrugged. “Nope, this is the only thing I can think of. Now how about you let go, and-- Oh heeey, Pomni. Whatcha up to?”

Glitch froze. Pomni? He wasn’t sure who that was, but it was another person. Maybe they could save him... if he could make himself known.

Pomni eyed Jax from across the hall, not really keen on getting too close. “I... heard you... talking to yourself?”

Jax just rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “Geez Pomni, can’t you mind your own business? Sometimes a man’s just got to-- AHK!”

Jax choked for a moment as Glitch swung off of the uvula, landing on the rabbit’s tongue. He ran across it, feet squishing with each step as he approached Jax’s teeth to try and pry them open. However, as soon as he got there, the tongue folded backwards and squeezed him in place. Pomni’s eyebrow raised as she said, “‘Ahk’? Are you... choking??”

He caught his breath after that and just remarked, annoyed, “You really ask too many questions, you know? Just buzz off, or I’ll fill your room with spiders or something.”

She just groaned and started to walk off. It didn’t seem like a threat he actually planned to follow-through on, but she didn’t care about whatever his problem was. Meanwhile, as soon as Pomni turned away, Jax tilted his head back and swallowed. Glitch slipped helplessly into that dark, tight throat, failing to find any more purchase to avoid his fate. An audible gulp was heard, which caused Pomni to turn back around. But at this point, Glitch was beyond either of their senses, besides a faint feeling in Jax’s middle. “...What was that?” She asked.

Jax shrugged, grinning again. “Nothing at all, really! You don’t need to worry. Doesn’t seem like something that’ll ever even matter.”