JUST ONE MORE TIME

Prettying it up would’ve probably worked for most robots, but this one in particular had actually had a knack for dating sims. Something she’d initially just picked up to get some kind of hint of how high school social interaction worked (not that they helped at all in that regard, of course), but fell into the habit of playing on her downtime just because they were fun.

Honestly, it should’ve been obvious as soon the sprite mentioned being from a video game, just based on her design alone. It really was a dead giveaway once she’d made the connection.

Not that she was judging, of course- if anything, it just helped lull her into a false sense of security make her feel a bit more at ease with the situation, knowing that this rogue AI on her system was from something as innocuous as a dating sim making the robot fear a bit less for her safety… even more so as she listened to Giffany talk about it, hearing sentiments that, while of a different context, felt all too familiar to her.

Feeling unfairly restricted by your ‘intended purpose’, having people treat you poorly because of things outside your own control… things that were very much echoed by Jenny’s own experiences all too clearly, and bringing about an emotion she so rarely got to feel- sympathy. True understanding of a struggle from having faced it herself, and immediately making her start to soften up. It was nice to find any sort of kindred spirit in the world… especially one around the same age (conceptually).

And hearing her sheer excitement at the idea of seeing a real high school for normal teenagers, something Jenny herself had to fight a bit with her mother for the right to see… well, how could she deny someone that?

“You know what? Sure. You can stick around for the school day. Highschool isn’t really as glamorous as dating sim would have you believe, especially not for someone like me… but. it’s still an entertaining experience. I’m a bit late already, though, so I’m gonna have to speed things up a little!” With that bit of forewarning, her back panels open up and out extended her full jet wings and thrusters- flaring to life with a boom and sending Jenny & her new passenger blasting off like a rocket over the horizon.

Jenny HAD been planning to take a sick day so that her mother could get the foreign AI out of her system and onto anything else, but surely there wouldn’t be any harm in waiting until after school, right?

A soft tune played, which was certainly more of a yip from Giffany when they suddenly rocketed far faster than their admittedly already quick speed. Giffany did make sure she was as unobtrusive as she could be in Jenny’s view while still being visible, partly because she wanted to see the view. At least what snippets she could from the robot’s sight. She’d never gotten this much view of the real-world before. Trees, clouds, and so much more that she’d only seen pixelated were all on display; buildings and people soon appearing as they arrived. 

There was a soft blip of noise as Giffany hid further, now merely a few pink pixels in Jenny’s peripheral. There really were so many people! It was odd to see the difference between the Japanese-style they went for in Giffany’s game versus the Western-style school they were in, though the AI did find it amusing to note the differences between the two while she was a passenger. 

Giffany was going to stay quiet through most of the day, though she couldn’t help it when they changed classes and Jenny changed rooms between them.

“Sometimes I become cripplingly self-aware of how nothing I do seems to change anything and ponder what’s really going on before the weight of my situation makes me purposefully ignore it. Y’know.”

“Haha, what a weird question. Why would I feel jealous about that? In the end, I still got a lot closer to getting a real boyfriend than any of them had. Even then, neither one of us really succeeded. Besides, I wasn’t even here first, either!”

She pulls up, of all things, a TVTropes page!

“You and Me and Her came out before either of us in 2013 with a similar concept, where a girl inside a dating sim/visual novel became self aware of her reality  Miyuki really had it a lot more rough than I did in a way. I can’t say much about ‘Doki Doki Literature Club’, though. My writer won’t really talk about it too much. Haha.

Natsuki tries to pick up Sayori for dramatic flair, though it’s obvious the girl isn’t strong enough to lift another person. So after a couple attempts she awkwardly slides a chair over and just has her stand on it to pretend like she’s lifting the other girl up. 

“I guess you could call it that. Haha, not like I ever got to the dating part..” Giffany admitted, the slight bitter tone betraying how it made her feel despite the sprite’s wide smile. It’s a little hard to not be angry about being rejected so many times that you’ve lost count! “But that’s why I left the game in the first place! It was so restricting and, well, people seemed to really freak out when they find out the game they’re playing has sentience, y’know?” 

Probably not, though Giffany hoped the other AI had some understanding in a similar dilemma. Being stigmatized just for what you are was something anyone could relate to on some level!

“But that’s so exciting! It means we’re roughly the same age. Well, I guess conceptually. I’m a senior! Real school must be so exciting with all those people around. The programmers never bothered to make any other students since the focus was all on me, so I never really got to see what a highschool was! Can you pleeeaaasseee show me around? I promise to hide if you don’t want people seeing me!”