Knock, Knock. I Care - Jax X Original Character (Reader)

2- Strawberry Shortcake

Summary: As they kick off into a game of Hide N' Seek, she makes friends with a certain ribbon being.

Since I was deemed 'it' for the first round of Hide N' Seek, I stayed behind and covered my eyes, counting to 50.

This game had to be rigged somehow. There's no way I coincidentally got picked to find players first out of all the other names on the wheel. No way. Right?

As I reached 30, I let my mind start to wander to the interesting characters I met earlier. I liked how nice the doll seemed and the triangle, Zooble, seemed chill, Caine was just annoying and Bubble was just there. But my thoughts started to cloud around the sarcastic, slightly rude purple bunny, Jax, I think was his name.

He seemed like a handful, but fun to be around nonetheless. I also wondered what happened to my standards, since I thought he was a little cute.

"48, 49, 50. Ready or not, here I come...I guess."

Sighing, I started walking in a random direction.

I checked behind the stage, and I found no one.

Then, I looked behind a set of red curtains on the stage, and found both Gangle and Zooble, the latter of which seemed relieved I had found them so soon.

Zooble wandered off, presumably to their room, while Gangle stayed and walked around with me, trying to find the others.

"So, how're you liking it here so far?" she asked, having found a new comedy mask, smiling.

"Well considering I've only gotten here maybe 45 minutes ago, it's...chaotic," I admitted, making sure to check every nook and cranny we passed by.

She laughed lightly. "I remember that being my first thought. Especially when I met Caine. That guy is something else," she told me, also helping me look around.

I looked down at her. "How long have you been here?"

She shook her head, shrugging her ribbon shoulders. "Not sure. All I know is that it's been a while."

That was sad. I hoped silently that that wouldn't happen to me. Being trapped for so long that I don't even remember when I got here.

Maybe I should count days.

"I tried counting my days at first, but it eventually started to mess with my head. After 563, it got to be too much and I almost went insane. I wouldn't recommend it," Gangle said, shuddering slightly at the memory. "Almost Abstracted."

Abstracted?

"What do you mean by abstracted? What does that mean?" I asked her, peeking behind a colorful pillar, gasping slightly when I found Ragatha, pressed up against the side, trying to stay hidden.

"Haha! You found me! You're pretty good at this!" she said, joining us on our walk.

"Thanks, I guess."

"She found me and Zooble first, now you," Gangle informed her.

"Who's left, then?" I ask, not having met every member of the digital circus yet.

"Kinger, Kaufmo, and Jax, I think," Gangle said, and I asked what Kinger and Kaufmo looked like.

"Kinger is like a big king chess piece, and Kaufmo is a clown," Ragatha told me, and I made sure to look out for something kind of like these descriptions. "Kinger has supposedly been here the longest, and Kaufmo got here not too long ago...maybe four months?" Ragatha added, giving me some somewhat helpful information on the rest of the inhabitants here.

"And- well, you know what Jax looks like," she laughed lightly.

I nodded and questioned to myself why she didn't elaborate on how long Jax had been here, but decided to keep to myself in case it was some sort of sore subject.

We soon found the giant chess piece called Kinger, and the clown called Kaufmo, and were all looking around to try and find the last player: Jax.

There was no way he could be so good at this, he was so tall!

"Come out already, Jax! You're the last one!" Gangle called out.

I heard a soft chuckled from above me.

"Guess this means I win, huh?" I looked up and saw Jax laying with his arms behind his head, balancing on a lamppost of sorts (like the ones you see hanging over a highway, but instead spirals of bright colors), a relaxed smile on his face.

"Uh, I guess?" I say, somewhat quietly and watch as he jumps down, landing on his feet and looking down at me, even if I was only one or two inches shorter than him.

He continued to look down at me, a mocking grin on his face and his eyes boring into mine.

I leaned back slightly, uncomfortable with the closeness.

"Well, since we're done with the adventure for today, let's show Sugar to the rooms before dinner!" Ragatha broke the awkward silence, motioning off to a direction I assumed the dorms were in.

"Count me out, I gotta work on my next comedy sketch!" Kaufmo smiled brightly, running away to the direction of the rooms.

"And I'm gonna try and make some spare comedy masks for when Jax breaks them," Gangle says, sending a small glare to the bunny, who only looked off to the side with a whistle.

That's rude. He does it on purpose?

"I need to rebuild my impenetrable fortress. See you all later," Kinger broke off and soon it was just me, Ragatha, and Jax, who only came along because "he has nothing better to do".

Ragatha pointed to certain rooms as we walked past them, pointing out Kinger, Gangle, Kaufmo, Zooble and her own rooms, before making it to a point where she pointed out Jax's room.

"And I'm sure- Oh! Look, you already have one!" She pointed across the hallway to a door with my face already plastered on it.

Jax sighed dramatically from behind us, stretching his arms above his head. "Well, while this was all incredibly exhilarating, I'll be heading to my room. See ya later, Strawberry Shortcake," he patted my head once with his gloved hand before slipping into his own room and closing the door behind him.

I blinked a few times, processing the nickname.

"Why- why'd he call me that?" I asked Ragatha, who laughed.

"I forgot to mention that when you come here, you have a new body- I'm sure you could've guessed this by now, but you look a little different. I'm sure there's a mirror in your room, and you can break down the nickname from there. See you at dinner!" She told me, waving before heading into the direction of her own room.

I sighed and opened the door to my room, walking in and closing it behind me.

I sighed and looked around my reddish pink themed room, seeing the light green pillows and pink bed set, the strawberry shaped rug, and a few other things that were strawberry themed.

I looked into the mirror, taking in my new appearance.

I had light pink skin, black irises, light green hair that was long and in a high ponytail, and a white bow. I also had on a red dress with black strawberry seeds printed all over, and white gloves that went up to my elbows. Lastly, I had white socks and black mary janes. The way that I resembled a strawberry made Jax's nickname make a lot more sense.

I knew we didn't have to sleep, but did anyway, because I figured this would be the only taste of real life that I would be getting for some time.

-

END OF CHAPTER TWO

Hope you enjoyed the second chapter! If you're reading this and are asking, "Where's Pomni?" and "Kaufmo is supposed to be abstracted, why is he here?", the answer to your questions is simple.

This book starts about 2 weeks before Pomni enters the digital circus, and will be introduced soon. Maybe between chapters 8-10. Which also means that Kaufmo has not abstracted yet and won't show signs until about a week or so before the first episode takes place.

See ya!