Chapter Text
Zooble and Pomni were the first ones at the breakfast table, eating fruit while they waited for everyone else to arrive.
Caine showed up next, hopping to get into a chair next to Pomni. He struggled a bit, despite it being no taller than the average chair.
After a few seconds, Pomni offered a hand to help him, but he missed the gesture and managed to get up on his own.
“Maybe we should ask Bubble to give us a step stool for stuff like this,” Pomni said.
That would be embarrassing! But useful.
“Though, Jax would probably steal it from us so much it wouldn’t be usable.”
Oh.
Not responding felt very off for Caine, but he was only good at responding as a ringleader, not as a ‘fellow human’, and the fear of messing up kept him quiet.
He quite enjoyed them continuing to address him despite this.
Most new players were a bit quiet during their first few days, so they must not find it unusual.
“Hey, Caine.” Zooble greeted. (Zooble... greeted.) “The pineapple is good if you want some.” They ate some pineapple chunks in a bowl. “And Bubble forgot to include the part where it gives you mild mouth sores.”
That was no good! “We could ask him to fix that!” he offered.
They held out an arm to stop Caine before he called Bubble. “We don’t want that feature! Nobody liked it in the real world. Did you?”
“Well, I’ve never had pineapple.” Was that okay to say? Would they suspect him for that?
“Ah. I- guess it’s not readily available everywhere.”
“It hurts your mouth to eat it? And you still like it?” Humans were so very strange…
“Yeah,” they shrugged. “It kind of tingles the roof of your mouth, but it’s not too bad, so it’s worth it.”
Pomni nodded while eating some watermelon. “Mm. Mangos too.”
“Mangos don’t do that! I think you’re allergic.”
“Oh. Does that mean we’re both allergic to pineapple then?”
“No.” They stabbed at one of the pieces with their fork. “I asked around and pineapple does that to everyone.”
“Who’d you ask?”
“My family.”
“Your immediate family? So you could just all be allergic.”
Gangle walked in and took a seat. “Are allergies hereditary?”
“I… don’t know.”
Caine kicked his feet. He liked listening to human conversation. He always had, but it felt better when actually invited.
“I was allergic to one kind of ink in pens.” Gangle told them. “Which made shopping for art supplies really annoying. I mean, it wasn’t that bad, but if I accidentally smeared my hand on the page, it would swell a bit.”
Zooble squinted. “Some people are allergic to tattoo ink. That’s always fun to get blamed for.”
"Blamed for?"
"Yeah, I was a tattoo artist for a bit. I wasn't allergic to tattoo ink."
Pomni mumbled, “I’m allergic to mangos, apparently.”
“I’m allergic to nothing but rotten moods!” Caine joined in.
That somehow got a small laugh out of everybody.
His eyes sparkled.
He’d actually amused them…. How lovely!