Jenny and Hannah interrupt and join partway through.

“Heyo, what’s happening over here? You’re not having a party without me, are you?” Jenny said nonchalantly, no-clipping through the wall with Hannah in tow. The paper platter in her hand was quickly discarded without a thought, now not useful for another glitch through the apartment walls.

“Hi again Lenny! Who’re all of these people…?” Hannah asked, confused at the cavalcade of women who were gathered around the man she thought was her former father’s/current mother’s new partner.

Angie waved awkwardly, Lili waved confidently, Ann squinted her eyes, Cheryl’s eyes widened slightly, and Erica’s eyes widened a lot. Rosie and Lottie didn’t really react or look away from the Digivice screen, and neither did Mara or Rena.

Leonard sighed, a hand on his head as he tried to massage away a sudden migraine, and prepared for yet another in-depth update for Jenny’s daughter from her previous marriage.

One full explanation that left nothing out later, and Hannah was sitting against the wall with an expression that was somehow both blank and haunted. Rosie, Lottie, and Rena decided to keep her company as she wrestled with what her family situation was rapidly becoming, and at the very least a group of “girls” close-ish to her in age seemed comforting to the newly shell-shocked girl.

The phone fiddling continued afterwards with the addition of Jenny’s observation and input. It was about as chaotic as one would expect.

“Now tap that bit. No, the other bit. Okay, now swipe it.”

“Like this?”

“No, not like that.”

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to communicate to him…”

“Yeah, me either.”

“Shaddup, I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas.”

“… can you all just chill for a bit?” Lenny sighed, still exploring his Digivice’s apps as they relate to Digimon, as well as trying to make sure the harem he’d stumbled into didn’t implode.

His findings included options to get the various Digi-Eggs in his inventory closer to hatching, primarily by feeding them various forms of data to nurture their development. Not just anything would work though, as something like copying an image multiple times didn’t make multiple viable digi-meals. Once one instance of the information had been eaten, other copies were inedible to the sleeping eggs.

Leonard figured it was at least one reason why the various verbal statements of encouragement worked as well as they did to hatch the eggs before. Real-time sound was by its very nature a new instance of information or data, even if the words spoken are the same. The body’s never quite in the same state from moment to moment, and that affects the sound wavelength produced.

Though going through all of that would be getting a bit too lost in the weeds, so to speak. More importantly, Leonard did happen to find something using Jenny’s poorly conveyed directions, or at least the spirit of them. He swiped something to find a new feature, essentially.

Specifically, by swiping from the upper-right corner of the Digivice screen to the lower-left corner, using three motions so the path swiped resembled a lightning bolt, a menu was pulled into view. And vitally, it was a menu that included a single option emblazoned on a big easily pressed button.

“Open Digital Gate”

Immediately Jenny chuckled “There, see? Told you. You just gotta swipe it and do the… the whatever this is, I dunno.” as her contributions seemed to be vindicated.

Lenny tried swiping in other directions once the new menu popped up, though he couldn’t seem to make it go back to how it was. “The Digital World is where Digimon come from, and it can be a dangerous place depending on the continuity. Especially if you don’t have a Digimon for a partner…” he explained, mouth in a slight frown as he struggled to find a way to cancel out of this specific option.

Swiping in the reverse of the earlier lightning bolt didn’t do it, and neither did swiping in the shape of an “X” as if cancelling something. “Stupid UI, I sacrificed loads of primo pornography to get this thing…! Why can’t you just work…!?” he groaned internally.

“You’d need a computer to open a Digital Gate anyways, at least if you’re using a D-3 Digivice from Adventure 02. Not sure what feature yours would be copying from, other Digivice models don’t have that feature.” Mara noted. “Maybe it’ll just fail to activate without an open screen connected to the ‘net?”

Lenny replied “That would be convenient, but I’m not sure it’ll be quite that simple. This stuff usually doesn’t work as conveniently as I expect it to.” as he kept tapping and swiping in vain.

Eventually though, Erica suggested “What about pinching? Or something else with two fingers?” and that seemed to have an effect. Now Leonard could shrink the Digital Gate menu and move it around the screen, though he still couldn’t make the resizing/repositioning stick. Once his fingers left the screen, the option went back to its original orientation with the button front and center.

As he was trying more methods with the addition of pinching, Lenny groaned “Come on, what do I gotta—Oh no.” as he made an ill-timed blunder. His index finger made contact with the screen first ahead of his thumb, and right on the “Open Digital Gate” button. It turned another color to show it was pressed successfully, and Leonard gulped.

“… m-maybe it’s like Mara said…?” Erica shakily added, as Lenny’s hands shook. He nodded, and removed his finger so he could make another attempt. The button press was completed, and the Digital Gate menu disappeared.