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“What did any of that mean?”
Jax couldn’t help but snicker, the ai’s whirlwind tour followed by quickly plopping an adventure into their laps without much warning obviously didn’t have the effect on the newbie he was hoping it would. Pomni, that’s the name she’d been assigned, had already decided to go with the ‘this is all a dream’ coping mechanism. Jax looked to her left, sharing a look with Ribbit, the frog having a look on her face that clearly stated “this girl needs a friend and it’s gonna be me”. Knowing there was no talking them out of this, Jax grinned to herself. Who knows, this could be fun, this girl could be cool once she calms the hell down. In fact… she was kinda cute.
Jax smirked at the thought. "Oh that could be fun…"
“Don’t worry about it,” Ribbit said, trying to comfort her, “Caine’s kinda just like that…”
“Yeah, trying to understand Caine is a waste of time,” Jax said with a laugh. “The fun part about in house adventures is you can just ignore them.”
“Easy for you to say,” Zooble snapped. Rude, they weren’t invited to this conversation. “If anyone needs me, [BOING] off”.
Karma hits quick though, as they were then quickly and viciously ripped apart by gloinks. Heh.
‘Wait actually this is perfect’ she thought. “Alrighty gang! Time to split up!”
“What?” Ribbit turned to her incredulously. “What kind of Scooby Doo nonsense are you cooking up??”
“Well, we already established the new girl ain’t ready for an adventure, and yet poor, poor Zooble is in need of rescue!" she said dramatically, "What else would you suggest?”
The look of skepticism on Ribbit’s face almost caused Jax to break character, but she couldn’t let that happen, she had a plan to stick to. One she hoped Ribbit would go along with once she knew what Jax had set up for them.
“ANYWAY! Here’s the plan! Kinger, Gangle and Rags will go handle the Zooble situation, while me and Ribbit keep the newbie safe from the infestation!”
“Wha-” Pomni sputtered, surprised. “I don’t think I need protection-”
“Don’t worry sweetheart,” Jax cut her off, “We’ll take good care of ya~” She punctuated the statement with a wink.
The effect was even better than she had hoped, Pomni immediately short circuited and turned bright red, continuing to sputter incoherently. Excellent.
“Oh my god Jax”
She turned to Ribbit, who was obviously trying her hardest not to smile. She ABSOLUTELY knew what Jax was doing now, hopefully she could convince her to play along when they were alone with Pomni.
“I don’t think it’s such a bad idea,” Ragatha chimed in, “You guys could take the time to check on Kaufmo while you’re at it!”
Oh yeah, Kaufy hadn’t been feeling up to much of anything today… they were gonna check on him after the adventure today, wouldn’t be too bad an idea to multitask being a flirty bitch and a good friend at the same time.
“See? Rags is on board! Let's split up gang!” Jax said with a flourish.
Thankfully the peanut gallery went off without complaint, leaving her and Ribbit alone with Pomni.
“You are so lucky this worked out for you.” Ribbit whispered, smirking, clearly not upset about the outcome. Lovely.
“Don’t act like you weren’t thinking about it when you saw her,” Jax teased.
“What are you talking about?” Pomni asked, capable of speech again. That won’t do.
“Don’t worry about it sweet thing~”
Jax had to try so hard to keep a straight face as Pomni was stunned into a silent tomato again, god this was way too easy. She shared a look with Ribbit, who was clearly having a similar problem. Yeah, this girl was cute.
“Alright ladies, let’s go harass the clown”
___
The walk to Kaufmo’s room was a bit too serious for Jax’s tastes. Talks about ways to leave, or lack thereof in their case, assertions that Pomni will be ok and that she can talk to any of them. Ribbit was good at this kinda thing, they were the one to help Jax out when she first got here after all, it’s just not the kind of thing she likes to dwell on. She’d rather just have some fun.
But if she kept the flirting up constantly without breaks, Pomni would get too used to it too quickly, and that’s no fun!
“So yeah, maybe we can go get something from the cafe after this? I think you’d like it.” Ribbit tried. Hmm…
“I guess… that sounds nice.” Pomni seemed a bit calmer now thankfully. Good, now’s her chance.
“Asking the newbie on a date already Ribbs? Scandalous~” she snickered.
Pomni’s head whipped around so fast she’d have gotten whiplash if they weren’t cartoon characters.
“Jax, come on, give her a second to breathe before doing this to her, can’t ya?” Ribbit said a little exasperated, but her smile betrayed her. She loved this as much as Jax did and she knew it.
“Come on Froggy, you can’t tell me you weren’t thinking it~” She looked down at the jester, whose eyes were as wide as dinner plates. “She’s adorable! Why do you think I snuck her away from everyone else? Had to stop Rags or Gangle from swooping in before us!”
“What”
“Jax for [BONK]’s sake…”
Jax grinned, Ribbit was trying so hard to give her shit for this, but they just couldn’t help the smile creeping on their face. They thought this was fun.
“Whaaaaaaat? You can’t tell me you don’t think she’s cute~” Jax said, going in for the kill. She leaned from behind, her head on top of Pomni’s head and wrapped her arms around Pomni’s shoulders. “Had to make sure we had her all to ourselves~”
As expected, Pomni turned a wonderful shade of red again, but her reaction seemed a bit more… subdued? What gives, that should have caused her to explode on the spot!
Instead, she just muttered “Heh, yeah this has to be a dream alright…”
Huh… interesting… but she could still work with this.
“Ooooooooh, what’s that mean? Am I the girl of your dreams?” She teased, moving her head to Pomni’s shoulder to make eye contact, fluttering her lashes dramatically.
Instead of any fun reaction, she looked down to the floor and said “Let’s just say I don’t tend to get this kind of attention in the real world.”
Oh. Well. That took an unexpectedly depressing turn. Jax and Ribbit looked at each other, a wordless conversation going on between them.
Ok yeah, fine, they could switch this from recreational flirting to constructive flirting. She could tease for fun later.
“I’m not too sure” Jax whispered in Pomni’s ear. “You’re telling me a cutie like you wasn’t positively drowning in girls? You expect me to believe that?”
Pomni still looked unconvinced, but the pink flush was encouraging.
“Yeah, I’m sure you had troves of secret admirers,” Ribbit started, before leaning down to look Pomni in the eye. “After all, there’s a lot to admire here~”
Jax couldn’t help her grin from practically taking over her face.
“Good thing I’m so forward, you’ve probably been flirted with so many times, and it all went over your poor, sweet little head~”
The effect was immediate and perfect.
“I- wha- n-no I-”
She was so red, so insanely flustered, it’s like they broke her.
“Maybe after the cafe we can hang out together, just the three of us,” Ribbit said smoothly.
“Oh, maybe in your room Froggy~” Jax chimed in, “She has this beautiful little star lamp, and her bed’s reeeeeeeeal comfy. What do ya say, Pompom?”
Complete blue screen. Pomni.exe has stopped working, please reboot. Excellent. Very Excellent.
Ribbit’s grin was almost as large as Jax’s. “Yeah, maybe-”
Suddenly, the door behind them swung open, starling the three of them.
“You know, it’s REEEEEEEEEEAL difficult to take a nap with you two loudly flirting just outside my room” Kaufmo said, clearly annoyed.
Oh. Guess they did stop right in front of his door huh?
“OH! UH! Sorry man,” Ribbit started, clearly embarrassed. “We were just coming to get you, introduce you to Pomni and maybe get some hot chocolate or something?”
Kaufy looked down at the little jester, sighing. “Hey, nice to meet ya, sorry it had to be under these circumstances.”
It took a minute for Pomni to recover enough to respond. “O-oh! Y-yeah, I- uh, it’s nice to meet you.” She was still fighting the blush, god that was cute.
“Sorry if we made you feel like a third wheel Kaufy” Jax said, without any apologetic tone in her voice whatsoever.
Kaufmo just stared at them for a minute before huffing out a laugh. “I’ve already been your third wheel for a while. Now I can be your fourth wheel!”
There was a beat where he waited for a laugh that didn’t come. “Yeah alright, let’s get some food.” he said, before strolling past them, the girls quickly following.
They were quiet for a while, before Jax caught Pomni’s eye.
“Offer still stands ya know, their bed is real comfy” she said, wiggling her eyebrows comically.
Oh, she was never gonna get tired of turning this woman bright red. Hopefully when Pomni eventually figured out this wasn’t a dream, the promise of two girlfriends would soften the blow of being trapped in digital purgatory for all eternity.