Ribbons
A/N: My first fanfic for something other than squid game! Woah!! I’m currently on holiday right now so I kept this in my drafts before I got on the plane so I could work on it at the hotel! Yipeee!
I really love the bully/bullied trope in tickle content so I thought Jax and Gangle would be perfect for my style of writing. I wasn’t sure at first how tickling Gangle would work so I had to get creative!
This also isn’t really as intense or as long as my other fics because I’m not used to writing these characters and really did just want to get it out there and test the waters! But it does explore some character development I guess? ANYWAY Enjoy!
Summary: Jax is curious about how Gangle’s ribbons work- but just asking isn’t quite enough. He needs to get close and personal.
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‘so, how do your ribbons work, anyway?’
Gangle, from where she was curled up on one of the open-space sofas, jumped with a squeak. She only just managed to grab her sketchpad before it fell to the floor.
‘Jax!’ She exclaimed, hugging the pad to her chest protectively. ‘Y-you scared me…’
Jax scoffed and leant over the back of the sofa, cocking his head. ‘Everythin’ scares you, Gangers, nothin’ new there’
Gangle shifted away and tried to glare, although it fell pitifully flat, what with her sad mask plastered on her face. If anything, she just came across…pathetic. ‘Don’t…don’t call me that’ she inched back even further, trying to create distance.
She knew, really, that the best course of action would be to get up and simply walk away; but her meek and down-trodden demeanour held her back. Not to mention she was terrified of what monstrosities Jax could be capable of if provoked.
The most she could manage was yet another awkward shuffle. Her ribbons curved around the armrest of the sofa and suddenly, there was nowhere else to go.
The claustrophobic feeling was exacerbated by the fact that with every flinch or attempt to curl back, that purple menace would hover juuuust a little more. His smirk grew and his eyes narrowed as he got closer…
And closer.
And closer.
And-
‘What do you want?!’ Gangle couldn’t take the tension a second more, already an anxious personality as is, never mind with Jax in the mix. It wasn’t a secret that he got some kind of…rush? Thrill? From tormenting her any chance he got. Zooble, bless her, would usually step in, but- Zooble wasn’t here right now.
Nobody was. They’d been called to one of Caine’s wacky adventures, and usually Gangle would join, but after hearing some fast-paced nonsense revolving around ‘man-eating puppies’ and ‘cavernous lairs’, she very quickly opted out.
She hadn’t expected her tormentor to opt out too. He probably only did it to get her alone. Bastard.
‘What, I can’t just wanna hang out? Why do I gotta want something?’ Jax’s shit eating grin expanded cartoonishly wide and he rested his cheek in his hand. ‘Gosh, Gangle. You’re soooo paranoid’
‘I have ev-every right to be’ A small attempt at assertiveness that held no weight behind it with how Gangle drew up her knees and hugged her sketchpad tighter.
Jax suddenly vaulted over the backrest and landed surprisingly gracefully on the cushions next to her, practically looming over her shaking frame. ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever’ He sighed and dismissed her statement with a wave of a hand.
‘Look- I know what you’re thinkin’’ His other arm, draped over his knee, raised slightly and he waved both hands whilst putting on a (rather grating) falsetto. ‘Oh nooo, here’s Jax, coming to use me as a kite again’. He dropped the mocking act to point at her with a smile, ‘which, by the way, was very funny’, before jumping right back into the mimicry. He used one hand to form a ‘sock puppet’ shape and spoke through it- ‘And may I add just how good-looking he is!’.
He let out an obnoxious ‘HA!’ at his own joke, slapping a knee. ‘Wow! Thanks, Gangle! I had no idea you felt like that!’
Gangle had been watching the display with sheer bafflement. ‘…I…I don’t sound like that’.
What else was she supposed to say? This was probably the longest she’d been in such close vicinity with the rabbit without being tied into knots, or threaded down a drain, or being forced to chase after him to get her comedy mask back.
‘Uh, yeah, you totally do’
‘I do not!’
‘’I do not!’’ He mimicked again, flapping his hand. ‘That’s you’.
‘Anyway! As I- or, rather, you- were sayin’’ he put both hands under his chin, crossed his legs and hunched forward. ‘I’m not here to fuck with you this time. I just wanna chat, y’know?’.
Gangle blinked and squinted at him suspiciously. She tilted her head like she couldn’t quite understand. For a moment her and Jax just stared at each other. She hated how relaxed he looked. How smug. Resentment needled under her skin that her bully got to walk around so at ease whilst she lived in the fear he put her in.
So, excuse the fuck out of her if she didn’t quite believe he’d just popped over for ‘a chat’.
‘…A chat about what?’
‘Well, more a question than anythin’ else’
‘Okay, fine, a-a question about what?’
Jax rolled his eyes, laughing in disbelief as if she had said something wildly socially unacceptable. ‘Oh my god, Gangers! I literally said before!’ He leant impossibly closer. Hunched so dramatically that Gangle could see the very top curve of his spine. His hands under his chin interlocked fingers and he gave a look that was anything but friendly. ‘How do your ribbons work?’
The theatre character took a few beats to remember that Jax had, in fact, asked that at the very start. It wasn’t her fault it slipped her mind; being in fight or flight mode tends to loosen the ol’ short term memory.
‘O-oh, yeah. Right’ she unhooked one slender ribbon-arm from around her sketchpad and held it in front of her. She waved it and the two circus members watched as the dainty-looking material flowed and snaked in the air. Gangle pulled her eyes away from it and instead to Jax, who’s intense stare made her more than a little self conscious.
Wrapping the arm back around her sketchpad, she cleared her throat softly and looked away.
‘So, uh- what is it you wanted to know? Exactly?’
Jax blinked out of the trance the ribbon had put him in. Quickly adorned his face with that same cocky expression, just in case Gangle had thought him a bit too interested.
‘Well, y’know- how they work’ He gestured at Gangle’s frame with both hands, like his bizarre question should’ve been answered ten minutes ago and this was all a very strenuous waste of his time. ‘Like, how do you even move? Circus logic, or ya think there’s gross cartilage in there? Real flat? Oh- D’ya feel when the breeze lifts under them? Can you even feel at all, or do you just guess and act accordingly? Would ya want even more so you could be some kind of f<BOING>d-up ribbon octopus? If I cut you in two, would you become two Gangles? Like a worm?’
Gangle tried to keep up but the questions kept coming, ridiculous and honestly kind of uncomfortable in their abnormal nature. She wanted to ask what the fuck went through Jax’s head for him to even think about cutting her up and seeing if she ‘multiplies’, but something told her that would be the worst thing to do right now. Instead she looked around like assistance would spawn out of nowhere, (not an usual event with the cartoonish Circus logic, honestly), but nothing did.
God, how long was this adventure?! There wasn’t necessarily a concept of time in the Circus, excluding some strange clock-like structure Caine set up in one of the long hallways to ‘appease the humans and their weird fascination with getting old’- completely obsolete, given the whole point of the Circus was that there was no permanent pain, aging or death.
But regardless! This definitely felt a lot longer than usual adventures. Surely the gang should be back by now?!
‘Jax, I-’
‘Wait, hell, I can’t believe I never tried this!’ Without any warning, Jax shot a hand forward.
Into the nests of Gangle’s ribbons.
It was a feeling like no other. Gangle shrieked with surprise and the sketchpad went flying. Her legs reflexively kicked out at the intrusion, and looking down, she saw with horror- Jax’s gloved hand inside her middle.
It made sense that it could happen- she didn’t exactly have a solid body. Her ribbons simply spooled downwards. No organs or insides or even skin. It was almost akin to the trope of putting an arm or leg through a ghost.
But that didn’t mean it should happen!
Especially not when it felt like…like…
‘Jahahax!!’ An alarmed giggle left her mask before she had chance to stop it. Jax was grabbing at the ribbon on the other side, scrunching in handfuls, far too close for comfort when his ears momentarily stood stiff and he shot his head upright to stare Gangle right in the face. Gangle had one hand over her mouth like she was shocked such a noise came from her.
They were practically nose to nose.
‘The f<SQUEAK>k was that noise?’
Gangle just shook her head.
Jax slowly looked down at his hand, still grabbing a fistful of ribbon, and gave it a light squeeze.
Gangle jolted and muffled a panicked laugh into her hand. ‘Mmmph! No! Nohoho!’
Her other arm came to push at Jax’s chest.
The rabbit stared down at his fist in disbelief. His eyes slowly made their way back up to Gangle’s, and the Theatre-esque character felt her heart drop when a wonky smile grew on Jax’s face. His eyebrows rose and he snorted.
‘Ha- haha! No way! Nooo WAY!’ He fell into giddy tittering, little ‘heehee!’’s spilling out between words. ‘You’re f<BOING>in’ ticklish?!’
Gangle pushed with renewed vigour, using her other hand now for more leverage. This was bad. This was the worst.
This was possibly the bad-worst-awful’est thing that had ever happened to her in all her years of being prisoner in the Circus. All she knew is she had to get away right the hell now, or she’d be in for a very unpleasant time.
‘No! I-I’m not!’ A few cartoonish sweat beads appeared on her forehead when Jax gave a ‘mmhmm’ with half-lidded eyes. His cocky grin said it all. ‘It hurts! That’s all! You’re literally grabbing my- my skin! Of course it hurts!’
The fist grabbing the ribbons didn’t move. Jax positioned himself slowly, using his free hand on Gangle’s shoulder to stabilise himself so that his knees were caging her between himself and the armrest. ‘Yeahhh, I bet it hurts. That why you giggled like an embarrassed schoolkid? Because it hurt? Gangle got an ouchie?’
Ugh, he was insufferable.
Gangle breathed hard and gave a nervous smile. She could feel Jax’s hand pull at the ribbons again and again, too light to induce laughter, but enough that each time triggered a horrible ticklish tremor.
This was just her luck. Of course Jax would find this out. Heck, this was her first time finding out too! She hadn’t even been tickled much back in her human body, never-mind this warped digital hellscape.
‘I-I’m serious, Jax! You’ve had your fun, okay?’ Her voice wobbled, the anxious smile having become an involuntary real one from the tiny ticklish shocks that Jax kept pulling from her. Literally and figuratively.
Jax chuckled lowly, the hand on Gangle’s shoulder snaking in-between the coils and taking the egde of a ribbon between thumb and finger. He rubbed it in light pinching motions and Gangle fell into high pitched giggling. The fist holding a handful of ribbon let go, only to join the other and pinch along the length of a coil where a human body’s waist would be.
The pinching tickles were awful. Sharp and tingly, impossible to ignore or tune out. She couldn’t even pretend it hurt now, arms flailing uselessly and helpless to stop her laughter.
‘EEK!’ She kicked out and tried to roll away but Jax’s knees were braced on either side, and the armrest behind her wasn’t about to flicker out of existence. She was well and truly trapped. ‘St-stohohoHOHOHOP! STOPPIT! AHahahHEHEHE!’
‘So, on with the questions’ Jax continued casually, tapping the fingers of one hand up and down a length of ribbon that coiled from her middle to her neck. His other hand came down to where her ‘hips’ would be, alternating cruel little pinches between each sides, maddening in the way that was impossible to adjust to.
‘NOHOHohoHOHO! NohOHOHO MOHOHohore Que-QUESTIOHOHONS!’
‘Ohhh, c’mon, weepy. If ya answer ‘em, I’ll stop. Scout’s honour’
Gangle could hardly think straight, but the promise of this torment stopping was enough. ‘FINE! FIHIhihIHINE!’
‘Didja know y’were so, stupidly ticklish?’
Gangle could feel her face get even hotter. It’s like Jax knew the exact question to ask to get her melting from fluster. Why her?! What did she do to deserve this?!
‘STOHOHOHOP! PLEAHAHAHASE!’
‘Didn’t answer my question, pal!’
‘HihihIHIHIHI!’
Her ribbons fluttered and flailed with no direction before trying to wrap around Jax’s upper arms, pushing as hard as she could. Jax couldn’t help but think the ribbons were somewhat captivating. The way the light bounced off them, the different hues of red that flashed with each desperate movement. He’d never been a particularly huge fan of art or ‘the finer things’ whilst in the Circus- instead, focusing on deluding himself into believing none of this was real and taking to mischief and violence- but this was new.
He’d never tickled a Circus resident before, so he never really ‘took them in’, as nonsensical as it sounded. A punch, a shove, a push into a hole or equally unappealing crevice- none of the physical contact he made with the other members required a specific focus. It was simply a matter of ‘see victim’, ‘assault victim’, ‘walk off’.
This was different. From this angle, and spending such a duration up close, he really could appreciate how fascinating those ribbons were. They felt soft but firm, and surprisingly strong for what they were.
Gangle, meanwhile, was laughing harder than she had in…probably her entire time at the Circus. She could hardly wrap her head (her mask?) around the fact she was being tickled. By Jax.
Although, what with the rabbit’s love for making her suffer, she supposed it was bound to happen at some point. Even Jax would run out of violent, painful ideas.
'C'mon! Just answer the question and I'll stop! Did you ever think you'd be so ticklish?'
Gangle tried to hold out, tried not to give him the satisfaction, but he was craning his neck in a way that very much looked like he was about to take a bite into a ribbon. And she could only imagine how much more awful that would’ve felt.
‘OKAY! OKAHAHAHAHAY! NOHOhohoho! I dihihidn’t! No-nohohow stohoHOHOP!’
Jax felt a vague sense of disappointment that she’d cracked so easily, but he wasn’t surprised. She’d folded for less.
It didn’t mean he had to stop, though. When had he ever held a promise in this place?
‘Okayyyy, next up-’
Gangle, through the ticklish agony, felt her heart drop. No way! No way was he still going?!
She didn’t know why she was surprised, honestly.
‘WHA- NOHOHOho!’
Jax briefly held up a finger. ‘Don’t interrupt!’ Before burying it right back within the ribbons. ‘Does it feel worse if I do this?’ He scratched at a particularly sensitive bundle, fingers skimming over the fabric. ‘Or this?’ His other hand used two fingers to drill into where her armpit would be, vibrating into the ‘flesh’.
Gangle honestly couldn’t tell her right from her left at that moment, but she could tell that the drilling was so much worse. The scratches felt like a soothing massage in comparison.
‘AHHGHHHAHAHAHAHA!’ She squashed her arms to her sides, which…didn’t do a whole lot, seeing as she was made of spindly ribbons and Jax’s arm was the width of about 5 of them.
‘Ohoho! It’s unanimous! The rougher one tickles like a b<QUACK>h, huh?’ He crowed with delight. ‘Better even it out- I know you like symmetry, right?’
Jax’s other hand stopped with the scratching and dove under her other arm, copying the drilling motion. Gangle was squealing with laughter now, head thrown back over the armrest, uselessly pawing and slapping at whatever part of the rabbit she could reach. Her laughter went silent briefly as he continued this down the length of her ‘sides’.
‘Okay, one more question- who do you prefer? Me, or…Kinger?’
It was an obvious choice. Kinger was mad, but he was kind. He’d always have a conversation with her if she needed one, even if he forgot the topic every five seconds.
But of course, she knew what Jax wanted to hear. He was such an asshole.
‘C’moooon! I’ll stop this time! Promise!’
Gangle should’ve held out, the chances of him actually following up very slim if going off the previous time, but fuck it. What did she have to lose?
‘YOU! I- I PREHEHEHEHEeheheFER you!’
And, to Jax’s credit…he actually did stop.
He gave her ribbons another quick scrunch and withdrew, sitting back on his heels with an arm draped over the backrest. ‘Well- I had a few more questions, but I think they can wait til next time’
Gangle didn’t think she’d be able to feel so breathless what with not having lungs, but the Circus members didn’t really need to breathe anyway. Nevertheless she found herself with a hand on her chest, splayed halfway over the edge of the cushion, panting.
If she’d been wearing her comedy mask, it’d probably have broken about 5 times over. Her sketchpad lay abandoned on the floor in the chaos.
‘W-why’d you-huff- do that?!’ She exclaimed.
Jax lolled his head back and gestured to her with a loose hand.
‘Ahhh, you’re fine. Besides! You’re always so sad, whinging about somethin’ or other. Did ya a favour. Not sad right now, right?’
‘I-I wasn’t sad in the first place!’
‘Well consider this an investment then. Stockin’ up on the ol’ serotonin’ he then pushed himself up and gave her a lazy wave. ‘You’re welcome!’
Gangle was about to say something but he was already walking off. She hated how pleased with himself he seemed.
However- despite the tickling being objectively awful, it wasn’t as though it had hurt, or caused any lasting damages. It…hadn’t been entirely unpleasant to laugh like that, either. She felt the warm afterglow that reminded her vaguely of when she’d laugh with her friends back in the real world. Or, at a particularly comedic panel of her favourite webcomic.
She took a shaky breath and stretched to grab her sketchpad. The last thing she drew before being tickled to pieces was a bust of an anime character. It didn’t have a face yet.
Giving a quick look over her shoulder, she took her pencil and scribbled away. She found herself giggling quietly.
The bust, once featureless, was laughing brightly. Gangle had made sure to prioritise her focus on the features she didn’t have- the scrunched nose, the showing teeth, the creases of the eyebrows.
She giggled once more at her masterpiece. Usually she’d show Zooble, and really she was going to, but now it had turned into something private and personal, just for herself.
She wondered, shyly, how long it would take for Jax to get curious again.
