Chapter Text
She was used to Caine reusing NPCs that he had added to their adventures. At first, she visibly winced whenever she noticed Gummigoo being used at Spudsy or other adventures.
Not fun.
It took her some time to adjust to the fact that it wouldn’t be the last time she had seen him. It also wouldn’t be the last time that he wouldn’t be able to remember their past encounters. The thought of that tugged heavily on her heart.
The others didn’t seem to be bothered by seeing the same NPCs. This also included their evil versions.
Pomni didn’t like hers.
“Caine, why are we even doing this?” Zooble said, annoyed. It was clear the others weren’t too thrilled by this, except Jax. He laughs like it was a joke they had said.
“What? Can’t handle the smart you?”
“Shut the (BEEP) up.” Their finger flips him off.
Caine, not clearly caring, snaps his fingers as an idea had popped in his mind— Pomni wasn’t too sure on where he formed ideas, but it was somewhere behind those dentures.
“Well, Zooble! We need entertainment for the players!” He gestures to where their evil counterparents were, across from them. Evil Jax waves hesitantly at… Pomni?
Huh. Did he remember or…?
“So… what’s the adventure?” Ragatha piped up.
“Ugh, speak (BEEP)ing louder! Nobody can hear you losers.”
“Exactly!” Jax grins widely, ignoring the glares he received from Zooble and Ragatha. He waves them off before heading towards Evil Pomni, not caring about what the adventure would be about.
Pomni was used to his behavior. She was used to his dismissal of a lot of things despite her wishing that he would at least try to show his vulnerable side, but that’s like asking a stubborn person to open their mind to an open perspective.
It wasn’t too long ago since they had their fight when that gun adventure happened. She didn’t like how it ended, but the next day, he acted normal and resumed their conversations like nothing had happened. The only different things that Pomni had noticed were that Jax started to keep the conversations short, was quick to dismiss things if they were close to a sensitive topic that he didn’t want to dive into, or immediately joked.
It was his coping method, Pomni knew this. At first, she thought he was a heartless, sadistic, manipulative jerk. It was a carefully crafted layer that he had obviously built, yet for some reason, she felt connected with him. He seemed not to…
…treat her like she was some fragile piece.
“H–hey… Pomni?”
Evil Jax?
She hadn’t noticed the tall pink bunny figure standing in front of her with a worried expression. His fingers fidgetted, he looked unsure as if he didn’t know it was a good idea to approach her.
“...Hello?” She said slowly.
“Oh! I didn’t mean to… uh… disturb you?”
“You didn’t.” She reassures, and he starts to smile hesitantly, “Did you need something?”
“No!” Evil Jax said too quickly, then widened his eyes when he realized how loud he let out, “Sorry… I meant— did you hear what um..” He points at Caine, “he said uh, about the adventure?”
She hadn’t honestly. “What was it?”
“There’s a team-up! I was… wondering if…” He falters and looks away nervously.
Pomni stares at him for a while.
Why did Evil Jax seemed so nice but Jax wasn’t? Was Jax truly a bad person? It was obvious that their clones were completely the opposite of them. Jax’s… was completely the opposite.
Before she could answer his response, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jax walking up to them at a quick, hasty pace with an irritated expression.
“Move it, pipsqueak. She doesn’t want your pathetic (BEEP).”
Pomni widens her eyes in shock at his response, and she barely notices Evil Jax flinching harshly at his words.
“Oh!” He let out nervously, “I didn’t mean to—”
Jax rolls his eyes, “Oh shut up. Go away before I do something.”
Pomni furrows her eyebrows together.
Why did he have to be so cruel to his counterpart anyway? It was so unnecessary!
His counterpart took the hint and left immediately to go to what she assumed was her evil counterpart. The accuracy seemed to match since she tends to stick around Jax. Was that the same for his counterpart?
She wondered if Evil Pomni was more cruel towards Evil Jax like how her and Jax’s dyamnic were.
“It… wasn’t…” She sighs and didn’t finish her sentence. Jax, however, knew what she was talking about and, for once, didn’t stray away from the topic like he normally did.
He leans back slightly with his grin, “What? You rather be partners with him?”
“I didn’t say that.” Pomni sighs before carefully choosing her words, “I just think… You could be a little nicer. That’s it.”
He huffs, clearly not agreeing with her words.
Jax crosses his arms, “So what? You want me to be like Ragatha all day? Boring.”
“No,” she said, voice flat, “I meant you didn’t need to be so… cruel.”
She stares at his reaction.
He looked unamused before his reaction twisted to disgust.
Then he scoffs. A harsh sound that made her want to flinch, but somehow didn’t.
“Is this seriously over him? Pomni, he’s not even real!”
Pomni sensed this was going to be another argument… if this was reality, she was sure the amount of headaches would’ve made her stop and dismiss it.
But this wasn’t reality.
“It doesn’t matter, Jax. If he’s not real, then why be such a jerk anyway!”
“Oh please,” Jax's mouth doesn’t stop his next words, in mumbling, “First gummigoo and now my—”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Jax looks away. He knew he had automatically messed up.
“Jax, what the actual—”
A cleared throat caught both their attention.
Ragatha stood there nervously, as if she wanted to leave instead of witnessing an argument that wasn’t supposed to be public. Pomni didn’t blame her, “The portal opened up a while ago…”
“Oh.”
“Ah.”
Pomni didn’t wait for him. She paced herself quickly to the portal, not waiting for Jax or Ragatha. She would rather do this adventure herself!
It’s not like she was required to wait for her teammate.
She declared to herself quietly that Jax didn’t care about anyone else anyway.
Including herself.