A four of clubs flew out of her hand and into Jessica's. She took a deep breath, opening her mouth about to say something. But then she closed it in the end.
The blue light appeared underneath Jack this time. He rubbed his chin, thinking for a little while, he found it unlikely that the woman had a three, since he had taken the threes not too long ago, and even more unlikely that Jess had one. After all, Jess didn't try to take the threes herself, meaning she probably didn't have any threes to go with them.
He was confident Jess had at least two fours, but that would help him too much. And since he had quite a few threes, that meant the chance of Jess having more threes was low.
"Jess, can I have your twos?"
The corner of Jess' lip twitched.
"...Yeah."
She took out a two of diamonds and handed it to him, after which Jack took two cards out of his playing deck and tossed four of them to the plant behind him.
"Here you go!"
There was a smile on his face as he did so, and the flower not too far behind him gobbled it up happily. After doing so, it relaxed, closing up its mouth filled with teeth which made it look far more docile.
Jack looked at it curiously for a few more moments before looking forward again. This time, it was the woman's turn. She pointed at Jack immediately, obviously targeting him.
"Give me your threes."
Jack tossed both the threes forth, after which the woman snatched it up like it was a prize. Jessica looked back and forth between the two of them, one that already mentally snapped, and the other didn't understand the consequences.
She sucked in a cold breath, following the logic that Jack was safe anyway to call out to him.
"Um, Jack, do you have any-"
[It would be improper to call on someone that doesn't have a card!]
Jess' eyelid twitched. She began to realize that even if the three cooperated, the game would've interfered against its own rules to make it more challenging anyway.
"...Um, I didn't get your name, but-"
"And you're not getting it!"
The woman responded violently. She was still trembling visibly, showing how unstable she was. Jess let out a small sigh.
"Give me your fours."
"I don't have any!"
The woman responded brusquely.
[The contestant is required to say Go Fish in this situation.]
She crossed her arms after hearing that.
"And what if I don't want to?"
"...Very well, we can do it for you."
Instead of a status panel, the teasing voice resounded throughout the room. As it did that, metal bindings shot out of the chair the woman was sitting in, binding her in place. Then, a small monkey dropped from the ceiling, landing on the woman.
She panicked, about to scream, but before she could do so, the small monkey ripped off her jaw entirely, causing her to let out a near beast-like guttural scream. She began crying and appeared to be trying to say something, but the lack of jaw and blood coming out kinda ruined that fact.
From there, the monkey climbed on top of her head and held the jaw just below her head, moving it up and down as though it were a puppet.
"Go Fish!"
An incredibly high-pitched voice came from the monkey.
Seeing all this, Jessica froze up in fear. She was shaking and breathing heavily once more.
"W-What the fuck..."
On the other hand, Jack...
"Wow! Is that a monkey? I think that's what we saw before we came to this place too!"
Jessica sobered up slightly after hearing that and turned to Jack like she just saw a ghost.
"Wh-What are you talking about? Don't you see what's happening?"
Jack nodded excitedly.
"Yeah! The monkey is talking. That's cool, I heard most monkeys don't talk!"
Jessica's mind was jumbled for a moment, but she quickly came to the conclusion that Jack must've been traumatized, and forcibly rationalized everything he saw. In fact, this might not have even been the first time. That would explain why he was so... different.
Jessica even thought that his father might even be dead, and Jack just made up in his head that a note was left behind. She put one hand against her forehead, feeling the stress getting to her.
"Pick up a card! Didn't you hear her say Go Fish?"
Jessica flinched before hurriedly picking up a card. When it then became Jack's turn, he looked between the two of them before pointing at the woman.
"Give me your threes!"
He figured that taking the guaranteed chance of two threes was better than making any other gamble. After saying that, the monkey exaggeratedly moved the jaw around.
"Ok! Here they are!"
At the same time, the woman was crying rather miserably, making for a rather disjointed picture. Three different threes flew out from the woman's hand and into Jack's. With a smile, he got another three from his playing deck before tossing it to the flower behind him.
"Have a treat!"
The flower looked surprised, but gobbled it up happily. Its vines were just enough to reach over from its position, and it rubbed against Jack almost like a dog seeking affection. This prompted him to giggle excitedly.
"Hey! That tickles!"
On the other hand, Jessica looked at him with a somewhat distressed expression.
"You gave the flower another?"
Jack nodded.
"Yeah! Don't you see how much he likes it?"
Jessica opened her mouth, but shut it soon after, figuring it was best not to say anything. When it shifted over to the woman's turn, the monkey began speaking on her behalf.
"Hmm... you, are there any twos in your hand?"
The monkey pointed at Jessica and spoke awkwardly. While it was jarring for her to see, she still responded promptly as the result of not doing so was right in front of her.
"G-Go Fish."
The monkey scratched the top of its head with one hand.
"Oh man! Guess I'll draw a card!"
A card shot out from the top of the deck, landing in front of the woman. Once it switched to Jessica's turn, she looked at Jack who had no cards, back to the woman.
"Um... do you have any fours?"
The monkey jumped between both feet while shaking its free hand around in distress.
"Oh man! You got me, yes I do!"
The four landed in Jessica's hand. And with some hesitance, she held out the four cards behind her.
"D-Do you want this?"
The flower monster nodded violently while flapping its teeth-filled petals excitedly. With an awkward expression, Jessica tossed it, after which the vine monster gobbled it up excitedly.
Then, it switched to Jack's turn. But before he did anything, the voice came up.
"Oh no! It looks like everyone ran out of cards... Oh well, it looks like the game is over!"
Suddenly, the flowers rushed forth. The monkey immediately jumped off and hopped away with the jaw still in its hand, before disappearing entirely. And right after, the flower bit down on the woman, who let out incoherent cries of pain. The teeth ripped into her skin, tearing her apart even before she was swallowed up by the flower.
Bones, flesh, and various partially chewed internal organs spilled out on the chair underneath her. The flower was a messy eater, to say the least.
Seeing this, Jessica felt fear take hold when she saw the flower rapidly approaching her as well. However, it kept its mouth closed, prompting her to let out a sigh of relief. The flower appeared to be inspecting her curiously, almost as though wondering if it would be able to get any more food out of the person in front of it.
As for Jack, the flower was embracing him like a pet that just saw its owner come home. The flower had its mouth open, but that was just because it was excited. Jack was laughing the entire time, thinking it was quite enjoyable.
"Hey! That tickles!"
The flower bobbed its head from side to side excitedly, clearly favoring Jack quite a bit.
Then, they were suddenly warped right into the hub. There were a few people inside, and their sudden teleportation attracted some gazes. However, they quickly turned away, minding their own business. Some others were just sleeping in a corner, not bothering with anything.
Jess took in a few breaths before sitting down.
"...I think I'm okay now, I don't really want to search for cards anymore. Let's just try the promotion mission. Ah, wait, you should get more twos since you used them in that game."
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
Jack was half paying attention to her. Instead, he was looking at his palm. And in his hand, was a small green seed. It wiggled around on its own, almost as though it was excited, prompting Jack to smile, thinking it was fun.
After a bit of thought, he opened up his black deck, and the seed shot inside. From there he hopped over to play another game of solitaire. While he had a total of four twos, there were duplicates. As such, he went to get some more twos so that he would have all the different suits.
At this point, it was his fifth time playing, which meant there was a two along with the four aces. However, that hardly made the game any harder and he was able to finish fast enough. His rewards were all twos, but he was able to get rid of the duplicates.
Though when he came back to the hub, he saw that Jessica was struggling against someone. She was holding what appeared to be a golden card high up into the air and holding it up with all her might.
"Damn it, get off me!"
Opposite to her, was a haggard old man, desperately reaching for that golden card.
"Give me it! I need it to get out here! I must get out of here!"
Jessica looked to the side and noticed that Jack was still there. She yelled out upon seeing him.
"Let's meet on the second floor, alright?"
With that, a flash of light shot out of the card and enveloped her, before she disappeared entirely. The old man looked like he lost all hope when the card was gone but then turned to look in the direction that Jessica had yelled in.
After connecting the dots, the old man rushed towards Jack in a frenzy.
"You have a ticket out of here, don't you?! That's why she called you, give it to me! Give it to me now!"
Jack tilted his head to the side.
"Mm... but I was told not to give away things for free."
The old man yelled and harassed him.
"I don't care! Give it to me!"
Jack let out a hum.
"How about we make a trade?"