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Raphaella has been regressed for the better part of a week for no real reason, she just didn't feel like being an adult right now! But being regressed for almost a whole week meant she had done almost all the activities meant for littles on the ship so she was super super bored.
Right now she laid on the floor of her Little Lab by herself as she wanted some alone time and she was enough of a big girl to be alone, clipboard laying in front of her with a pack of crayons next to her, she wrote down on the paper things she could do with her caregivers. Eventually she wrote down ‘hugs???’ in bright purple when she had an idea!
Raphaella ripped off the paper with a list and started to write down all the names of her caregivers, leaving a gap between each name. She was going to surprise hug each of her caregivers and see how they reacted! It was going to be the best experiment she's ever performed.
Grabbing the black crayon and the clipboard, she put the crayon into her onesie's pocket and attached the clipboard onto the belt she had stolen from Jonny earlier in the week. Raphaella looked at the clock in her Little Lab and figured out it was almost lunch time meaning that it would be super easy to find all her caregivers! Perfect, this experiment was going to go super well!
Walking out of her lab, Raphaella skipped down the corridors of the Aurora, but it wasn't long before she came across her first test subject.
Ashes was walking with their back to Raphaella so she knew it was the perfect time to do her first secret hug. Raphaella silently ran up to Ashes before launching herself at them, wrapping herself around Ashes like a koala.
“What the-” Ashes screeched, attempting to turn around to see their attacker, only stopping when they heard Raphaella's giggling, “What are you doing little minx?” Ashes asked the giggling little.
“Hugging!” Raphaella grinned into the back of Ashes neck as she kept a strong grip on them.
“Well how about you let go so I can turn you around and give you a proper hug?” Ashes suggested.
Raphaella rapidly let herself drop to the floor and run around to the front of Ashes to hug them. As Ashes wrapped their arms around them, Raphaella could feel Ashes almost constant warm melt into her, the fact that Ashes always ran warm made their hugs better.
“You going to get lunch, little minx?” Ashes asked as Raphaella broke apart the hug.
“Yep!” Raphaella nodded as she unclipped her clipboard from her belt and grabbed her crayon.
Ashes attempted to peer at the clipboard but Raphaella quickly held it to her chest, “No! Secret!” Raphaella stuck her tongue out at Ashes who only laughed.
“Are you testing all our hugs?” Ashes raised an eyebrow, crossing their arms.
Raphaella shifted from foot to foot, trying to figure out Ashes knew about her super secret experiment. “Maybe.” She mumbled, “Meant to be secret.” She whispered.
Ashes gave her a playful sigh, “Well, when you find your next test subject, make sure you don't jump scare them like you did me, okay?”
Tilting her head in confusion, Raphaella asked why.
“Well, a lot of our crew are very, very, trigger happy. And I don't want you to get hurt darling,” Ashes brushed a loose piece of hair out of Raphaella's face, “So be careful when you do your secret hugs, alright?”
With that, Raphella bid Ashes goodbye and skipped off. Once she made it to a quiet place without Ashes, she wrote down her findings.
Ashs
Warm!!! Nice hug. Told me to be carfull with every1 else. 8/10. Points of not long time hug
Clipping her clipboard back onto her belt, Ashes made her way to the kitchen. In there was The Toy Soldier and Marius who was trying to stop an octokitten from getting his lunch whilst The Toy Soldier was making some cucumber sandwiches.
“Oh Hello There, Miss La Cognizi. Would You Like Some Sandwiches?” The Toy Soldier asked.
“Nope! Can I have cut apples please? Thank you!” Raphaella asked, remembering her ‘please’ and ‘thank you's like Nastya taught her.
“Of Course!” With that, The Toy Soldier moved to the cabinets where they stored the fruits to prepare the meal for Raphaella– as a little, she didn't have much of an appetite so all she ate was small amounts of “easy” foods as she called it.
Looking at the two people in the kitchen, Raphaella thought for a moment on who she should make her second test subject before deciding on Marius as he shoved the octokitten into one of the ceiling vents, meaning he now had both his hands free. So Raphaella walked over to him and threw her arms around the not-doctor.
“Oh- is it hugging time birdie?” Marius chuckled, at Raphaella's nod he grinned and wrapped his arms around her. Marius was very small and a lot colder than Ashes, and the coldness of his metal arm could be felt through her onesie.
Unfortunately he stopped hugging her when the octokitten broke through the vent and landed on top of Marius’ food.
Now that Marius was done, it was time to use The Toy Soldier as her third test subject.
“Can I’s have hug?” Raphaella asked, remembering from her big-self that The Toy Soldier didn't like being touched without warning, like how she didn’t like people touching her wings, and she didn’t want to be mean!
“Well Of Course You Can!” The Toy Soldier then pulled Raphaella into a tight hug. Hugging The Toy Soldier was weird, it was very stiff and didn't have skin to lightly cushion Raphaella, but it tried it's best to be comfortable!
The Toy Soldier then broke away from the hug to give Raphaella her bowl of cut apples and a drink of orange juice also in her sippy cup, “Your Lunch Little One. Don't Let The Octokitten Take It From You!” Thanking The Toy Soldier, Raphaella bid it and Marius goodbye so she could write her findings.
Finding an empty part of the hallway, Raphaella sat on the floor, placing her bowl of apples and sippy cup beside her as she took out her clipboard.
Mauris
Points off arm cold and small, tiny even. Good hug! Silly with octokitty! 6/10
TS
Points off odd stiff. Tried best hug! Gave me food!!! 8/10
Happy with the presentation of her findings, Raphaella clipped the clipboard back to her belt and started to eat her apple slices that started to go a bit brown so she had to eat them quickly!
Making sure to eat them quickly, though not enough to choke or hurt herself, Raphaella left the empty bowl on the floor and grabbed her still full sippy cup, taking small sips of it as she wandered the corridors trying to find the rest of the crew.
It took several minutes– by then Raphaella had finished her drink and was now just chewing on the straw, until she found Nastya.
“Nas!” Raphaella called out. Nastya jumped slightly, turning around from the open panel she was looking at, she looked sad, that wasn't good! Maybe she really needed a hug.
So Raphaella ran up to her and practically jumped onto her, wrapping her arms and wings around her, hoping to make her happy again, even if she shivered at how cold Nastya was.
“Well hello to you too.” Nastya laughed, not wrapping her arms around Raphaella, “Sadly I can't hug you as my hands and arms are very dirty, but I definitely would if I could.”
Raphaella pouted at that, but she understood, she didn’t want to get her onesie dirty so she simply hugged Nastya tighter to make up for it, “You happy now?” Raphaella asked, looking up at her.
“What do you mean?” Nastya asked.
“Well,” Raphaella stepped away from Nastya, fiddling with the zip on her onesie, “You look sad, and hugs always make me happy! Are you happy now?”
Nastya gave Raphaella a little smile, “Yep, don't worry I'm happier now you've given me a hug. I was just sad because the Aurora has been quieter lately.” Nastya looked sadly as she patted the metal walls.
“Well, what if I hug her then! Make her happier!” Before Nastya could say anything, Raphaella practically squished herself after the wall of the Aurora, giving the giant ship the best hug she could.
After several moments, a braided series of wires exited a panel in the wall and patted Raphaella on the head before retracting and being replaced with a screen that showed a happy face.
“Now you both happy!” Raphaella grinned, wings fluttering behind her in pride.
“Yes we are, sweetie.” Nastya smiled, even if she still had a sad look in her eyes.
“Do you know where Jonny is?” Raphaella then asked, and when Nastya answered that he could possibly be with Tim in the common room, Raphaella bid Nastya a goodbye, finding no point in bidding Aurora a goodbye as Raphaella was always with her!
Nasta
Look sad so hug made her happy! Point off didnt hug back. 7/10
Arora
Big, super duper big! was happy after also! Wir atempt hug back, not proper, point off. 7/10
Raphaella squeezed Aurora right under Nastya's findings as those two were always together so it just felt right.
Now all Raphaella had left was Jonny, Tim, Ivy and Brian! And she could get two of them if Jonny and Tim were together.
Tiptoeing towards the main common room, Raphaella peeked her head around the corner of the doorway and saw Jonny and Tim on the sofa, Tim was facing away from Jonny whilst he did xe's hair, Jonny's hair was already braided and put into a bun. Raphaella wanted her hair to be done pretty like that!
So, Raphaella quickly made herself known to the two, running over and slotting herself between the two.
“What are you doing, fledgling?” Tim laughed as Jonny fell backwards from Raphaella's launch. Raphaella looked between the two before deciding that Tim was technically closer and hugged him first. “Oooh, is it hug time? My watch must have broken.” Tim said as he hugged Raphaella back, placing a calloused hand on the back of her head and another just between her wings.
“Oi, do I not get a hug then?” Jonny joked, but Raphaella gasped offended at the implication she would dare leave someone out of hugging. At her loud offense, Jonny scooted closer to Raphaella and hugged her from behind and sandwiched her.
Raphaella smiled with glee as she let herself relax between the two, she could hear both their mechanisms tick just slightly– the gears shifting in Tim's eyes and the jittering ticks and gears from Jonny's heart, and it was comforting. Raphaella let herself sit there in the sandwich hug until she remembered the reason she ran into the common room so quickly.
“Can I have pretty hair please?” Raphaella looked up at Tim with big, begging eyes.
With a soft smile, Tim nodded and the hug ended as Tim got her to turn around.
As Tim did her hair, Jonny got her to play patty-cat and the singing game– a simple game where one person would sing a random line and the second person had to sing something else plus that first line, and it would continue until someone forgot.
It took almost an hour for Tim to braid Raphaella's hair into three different sections before tying them together into one big braid, but once he finished, Raphaella jumped off the sofa, spinning around a few times to show off her new hair style before running out of the common room, yelling a goodbye.
Once Raphaella was out of sight of the common room she took her clipboard and wrote down her findings.
Tim
Good hug! Braded hair!! Made prety 8/10
Jony
Nice huging!!! Heart tick nice sownd! Play paty cake and sing song game!! keep winning :( 6/10
Deciding that was good enough, Raphaella clipped it back onto her belt and tried to decide who she could hug next. She then figured out that the bridge was closer. So, nodding to herself, Raphaella ran towards the bridge thankfully the doors were open and Brian was standing up at the console table, looking through important looking maps, but Raphaella had much more important things to do with Brian.
“Bri bri!” Raphaella called out, the pilot spinning around just before Raphaella launched herself at him.
“Oh hello, Ella.” Brian grinned as he wrapped his arms around her, “What can I do for you?” He asked.
“Hugs!” Raphaella grinned up at him before burying her head back into his collarbone.
“Well, I can easily do that for you, little fly.” Brian simply wrapped his arms tighter around Raphaella and rested his head on hers.
Hugging Brian was definitely an odd experience– his stiffness and metal body felt similar to hugging The Toy Soldier, and the coldness of the metal was just as cold as Nastya’s body. But his loudly beating heart was comforting, the beating could be heard throughout his metal body, and it sounded nice.
“Sadly I have to cut this hug short, Ella, as I have some very important adult work to do.” Brian broke away from the hug, feeling his organic heart break at the sad whine and look from Raphaella, “But at dinner time I promise I will give you the biggest hug ever, alright?” At Raphaella’s nod, he kissed her forehead and shoo-ed her out of the bridge, turning back to the map hologram.
Raphaella walked a few steps out of the bridge before pulling out her clipboard.
Brian
Weird hug, stiff like TS and cold. Heart sound nice!!! Stop hug :( points off 7/10
Now there was only one last person left to hug. Ivy.
Ivy's part of the ship was right on the opposite side, so Raphaella ran across the ship, having to stop a few times to catch her breath, but eventually she got to the library. But just as she was about to slam open the library doors she stopped. Raphaella remembered Ivy telling everyone that she didn’t like it when people stormed into the library so they had to knock first and be let in. So Raphaella knocked as loudly as she could so Ivy could hear her.
After a few, very impatient, moments, the doors to the library opened. And before Ivy could even open her mouth, Raphaella hugged her with a grin.
“Oh, hello Raphaella. What do you need, little one?” Ivy asked as the quick shock wore off and she hugged Raphaella back.
Raphaella didn’t answer for a few short moments, just letting her bask herself in the hug with her favourite caregiver– no one else knew that, not that all, before she broke away from the hug to answer, “Can I’s have story please?” Raphaella asked, making sure to be polite.
And of course her politeness worked brilliantly as Ivy smiled with a nod, “Of course you can, come in, let's choose a book shall we, my little scientist.”
Raphaella squealed with glee as Ivy took her hand and let her to the children section of her library, an area of the library that was created so very long ago when the crew first found out about each others regression, so by the time Marius and Raphaella joined it was already completely built and created for story times for the different littles of the ship.
Raphaella shooed Ivy away to the bean bags and scoured the bookshelves for the perfect books before picking three of her favourites.
Placing them onto Ivy's lap, her caregiver praised Raphaella's suggestion before patting the bean bag next to her. Raphaella flopped down onto it and snuggled up as closely as she could get to her caregiver who wrapped an arm around her and started to read aloud.
Raphaella sat peacefully next to Ivy as she read the three books she had given her, it took almost an hour as Raphaella, as a little, needed books to be read at a much slower pace in order to understand them, but Ivy didn't mind as that meant more time to cuddle with her little scientist.
Eventually though, the last story was finished and Raphaella remembered her experiment and how she now had to stick her results into the lab.
“I'm going now! Bye bye!” Raphaella called out as she gave Ivy one last hug before running out of the library. Ivy gave Raphaella a little kiss on her cheek before bidding her goodbye. Once Raphaella got outside the library she pulled out her clipboard and crayon
Ivy
favrite CG ever!! super super super long hug, read me story!!! 10/10
With everyone finished, Raphaella ran back to her Little Lab, and she made sure to be quick as dinner was soon!
Getting back to her lab, Raphaella very very carefully ripped off the paper on the clipboard and went to find her supply of bluetack but before she went to stick her results on the wall of complete experiments, she looked at the others that littered the wall.
All the other experiments had photos accompanying them, and she didn’t want her hug experiment to be the only one without a picture!
So grabbing her camera with several perfect ideas in mind, Raphaella ran out of her lab, still holding the paper containing her results and her camera, and she headed towards the common room.
Annoyingly, Jonny and Tim weren’t in there, so that meant she had to get all eight people into it instead of just six, that was so many more people!
“‘Rora.” Raphaella called out, continuing once she saw a screen pop out of the wall, “Can you call everyone here! But- don’t tell them why, it’s secret.” Raphaella giggled as she put her finger over her lip. The screen showed a thumbs up and retracted back into the wall, it was definitely odd that she wasn’t using words but Raphaella didn’t really think about that as she very carefully placed her camera onto the table in the middle of the common room before gathering her papers with the results, reading through the results carefully to make sure she remembered what they were.
Eventually, each eight members of the crew entered the common room, Raphaella refusing to say why she had called them in, giggling at their faux annoyance. But once the last person had made it in, Raphaella began her presentation.
“So!” Raphaella fully caught their attention, “I have been con-tu-c…conducting an experiment today! I see who has the best hugs!”
“Ahhh that explains it.” Marius laughed as he leaned into Brian’s side.
Raphaella nodded with a hum. “So, lowest with six out of ten were ‘Onny and Mari.”
“What?” Both Jonny and Marius exclaimed, making everyone laugh.
“I gave you the best hug, excuse you.” Jonny dramatically placed a hand over his heart.
“Nuh-uh,” Raphaella retorted, “You keep beating me at sing-song game! So points off for you! And Mari has less points because his arm is weird and he’s tiny so there’s not lot to hug.” Marius shrugged and muttered something about that being fair.
“Next with seven are Nas and Rora, they both together because they’re together.” Raphaella reasoned, “But low because they’re cold and didn’t hug back.” Raphaella huffed.
“I had oily hands, I didn’t want to dirty your onesie.” Nastya attempted to defend herself.
“And at same point of seven was Bri bri! He’s also cold and weird to hug, but his heart sounds nice.” Brian looked pleased with Raphaella’s rating.
“Next eight are a lot of people! Ashes, Toy, Tim and- oh no, only them.” Raphaella giggled to herself, “Ashes nice and warm, but ended hug quickly, Toy gave me food! But it feels weird to hug and Tim made my hair pretty!” Raphaella did a brief twirl to show off her hair and her caregivers complimented her.
“And and and, last is Ivy! Ten out of ten! Cause she gave me a super duper long hug, read me three whole stories and is secretly my favourite.” Raphaella hid her grin with her clipboard at Ivy’s blush and the crew playfully protesting Ivy being Raphaella’s favorite caregiver.
“Now that done, I want a picture of everyone!” Raphaella announced putting down her papers.
“Do you need help setting up the camera, Ella?” Brian asked, at Raphaella’s nod and holding the camera out to him, he got up from his seat– causing Marius to fall onto Tim’s lap, and started to sort out the camera settings. As he did so, Raphaella ran to the sofa and leapt across multiple of her caregivers laps, knocking the air out of most of them, causing the ones safe from her to laugh. Eventually Brian ran back to the sofa and shoved Marius off Tim’s lap and sat back in his stop. Everyone quickly huddled together, holding hands, arms thrown over shoulders and cheeks pressed the other as the camera light flickered before the shutter sounded and just a few seconds later, the picture was printed.
“Thank you thank you thank you.” Raphaella happily chirped, rushing over to where her camera sat, gently picking it up and removing the printed off photo from the tray, it looked amazing! “Thank you!” She grinned towards her caregivers.
“Of course, little scientist.” Ivy beamed, “Now, do you want some dinner?” She asked.
“In a bit, gotta stick these up.” Raphaella didn’t give any time for anyone to say anything as she grabbed her results from the table and started the run back to her lab. She vaguely heard one of her caregivers yell after her to “make sure you actually leave your lab” and Raphaella yelled back a promise that she would.
Entering her lab again, she tore off a reasonable amount of bluetack and stuck the two sheets of paper onto the wall and on the grab on the second piece– below Ivy’s name, Raphaella stuck the photo of everyone together.
In Raphaella’s opinion, this was a successful experiment!