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The circus crew decided They were having a beach day again. They hadn’t been here for a while. At first, all of them were in the water swimming together. Now, Ragatha and Zooble were now lounging on some chairs while Pomni, Kinger, Gangle, and Caine still played. Ragatha had put sunglasses on so that it looked less obvious of what she’s been actively staring at since she laid down.
Pomni’s been sticking closer to Ragatha more than ever before. And Ragatha had been ecstatic about that! This is what she’s always wanted, and all it took was… Well, what’s important that Ragatha’s gotten what she wanted, and it felt amazing.
But just very recently, she’s felt different. How could she put it? Recently she’s felt, even more amazing? It wasn’t a change in perspective or anything. It felt like a change in her body almost. It was feeling things. And that change was affecting her actions. Ragatha kept wanting to stare at Pomni. Kept wanting to go to new worlds to see how Pomni’s outfit would change in the new worlds. She had never cared that much before. And she’s been getting more flustered when they’ve been hanging out alone. And that was saying something because she’s usually (at least internally) very flustered any time they talked.
It almost felt like she was getting turned on… No. wishful thinking again. But actually, last time she tried feeling that way was pre-open world. The rules could have changed. And you know what? Yeah. She has been thinking about Pomni touching her. Just In general. That never happened before. Could it actually be… No. wait. They’ve been in the open world for a while.
“Hey Ragatha.”
Ragatha yelped and crossed her legs and arms. “Zooble! What’s up?”
Zooble took in Ragatha’s reaction and said, “I was gunna ask if you were looking at Pomni.”
“No! I, I, I was watching everyone!”
“Oh. Well I know you were watching Pomni for long while before suggesting this beach trip today.”
Ragatha rapidly turned many shades redder.
Zooble smiled. “Theres no need to be embarrassed. I haven’t been hiding how I look at Gangle.”
That was the truth. When Ragatha saw Gangle with Zooble, she was blushing half the time.
“I’m just asking because I’ve been noticing you looking very recently.”
Wait. Ragatha looked at them. “Yes. Recently.”
“I knew it. Because it’s been feeling different for me too.”
“Different how?”
“I think you know. We’re not just thinking about it now.”
Yes. Now it felt like they were actually feeling it.
Zooble slowly lifted up their hand.
Ragatha brought her hands to her mouth and muffled a gasp.
Zooble looked like they were stifling a laugh.
“Hey Ragatha!”
Both toys went wide-eyed and look towards the lake to see Pomni’s floating in water close by them. She waved quickly and continued. “Ragatha. You should be my parter in chicken. Gangle can’t lift anyone on her shoulders and she can’t loose if she’s on top because she always just winds back up before anyone can push her off.”
Zooble stared out at Gangle talking with Kinger and Caine.
“So you should come be on my team. I wanna win in a fair fight.”
Ragatha smiled. “I would love to. Just give me a second. Go tell the others I’ll meet you there.”
“Awesome!” Pomni dove back down and swam away.
The moment Pomni disappeared, she looked at Zooble wild-eyed.
“I hope you don’t think I did that. I can’t just magically make gay shit happen.”
That broke Ragatha’s seriousness for a second. “Of course not. I just, I don’t know. What should I do?”
“About the woman about to be sitting on your shoulders?”
Ragatha blushed deeply while trying to keep her serious face.
Zooble smiled sincerely, knowing just how much longer Ragatha has spent in this kid friendly circus. They sat up and said, “I don’t know if this is some glitch or something from everything changing, so I also don’t know how long this thing is going to last. Personally, I plan to ride this horse as far as it will go. I suggest you do the same.”
Ragatha nodded, looking very embarrassed.
Zooble stood up.”Let’s go.”
Ragatha stood up as well. “You’re coming to watch?”
They both walked into the water and started to swim to the others. “Am I coming to watch two women in bikinis sit on each other? That’s the question?”
“Zooble!”
“Sorry. You’re right. Too far. I’ve just had so many new thoughts recently and I haven’t talked to anyone else about this. I’ll tone it down.”
No way. They really came to her first? The two hardly ever talk. This was amazing! “Don’t tone anything down. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
“No. I can be too much sometimes. I need to tone it down.”
Ragatha really did want Zooble to back off a bit, but then Zooble might stop talking to her. But voicing that reasoning sounded extremely pathetic and manipulative, so she held back. The two finished swimming to the others.
“You’re here! Alright, let’s beat these losers.” Pomni said.
Zooble gave Ragatha a knowing look and then swam over to Gangle. “Hey.” They said as they reached the swimming mass of red.
“You decided to come back in!” Gangle said excitedly.
“Couldn’t miss this. Also, I hear you’re really good at chicken.”
Gangle blushed. “Only technically.”
Zooble took Gangle’s body ribbon and started messing with it between their fingers. “Not only technically. Takes a lot of leg strength to stay on long enough to wind yourself back up.”
Gangle gasped and quickly slid herself out of Zooble’s grasp.
“What’s wrong?” They asked innocently.
“What’s wrong?” Gangle asked genuinely as she rubbed the spot that had just been held.
“You just always said it doesn’t bother you if I play with your ribbon before.”
“Yeah. It’s usually no problem. that was just uh, sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.”
Gangle shook her mask and then held her arm towards Zooble and said nonchalantly, “Just forget about that. That was weird. You can mess with my ribbon.”
Zooble smiled and accepted the arm. They lightly felt the fabric between their finger and thumb. The spot underneath shivered. Their eyes widened. They slowly started twisting the ribbon between their fingers once again, slower than normal. Gangle’s mask turned pink and her mouth turned into a thin line as she attempted not to react.
They couldn’t hold back. “So who do you think is the hottest person in the circus?”
Gangles eyes went massive. Shrinking down to their original size again. She tried her darndest to hold a conversation while Zooble fondled her arm.
Ragatha was with the others, getting in position to start the game. Caine was already on top of Kinger’s shoulders, waiting for his next competition. “What is Kinger standing on?” She asked.
“All you humans and your pesky details! It’s hard water! What’s so confusing about that?” Caine said crossing his arms.
She smiled the confusion away. “Got it. I’ll just conjure some, hard water, and then get you up.” Ragatha turned to look behind her.
Pomni looked ready to win. “Let’s do this…”
Ragtatha looked over to see what Pomni got distracted by. She was watching Zooble who was playing with Gangle’s arm ribbon while Gangle tried to hide her reaction. But she couldn’t hide her the bright red mask or the steam that was raising off of it. Zooble winked at her when they made eye contact.
“What’s happening over there?” Pomni asked.
Ragatha stared back at Pomni with a somewhat panicked expression. “Who could say?” She said before turned back forward plunging into the water. She’s never had friends who really talked to her about this type of stuff. She wanted to talk to her old friends about it. But she was just so embarrassed at the time. And she didn’t really have much to talk about at that point either. Then she ended up here, where talking about that stuff really didn’t matter. And she could barely say anything when Zooble broached the topic. And now Pomni? The person she actually wanted to-
Before she could finish her thought, Pomni swam up and sat on Ragatha’s shoulders.
!!! Ok! It’s happening! They were touching! Calm down. Ragatha took a mindful breath and then reached up and grabbed Pomni’s tube-like legs. They were so tiny her hands could reach all the way around them. Ragatha’s grip tightened as she prepared to stand up. She could feel Pomni shiver beneath her grip. Oh. She increased her grip the tiniest amount and stood up, lifting Pomni out of the water. Pomni had trouble staying balanced and curled in and clung to Ragatha’s head for support.
Ragatha’s felt every single spot Pomni touched her explode. The places where Pomni wasn’t touching her were getting riled up too. When Pomni regained her balance and sat back up, Ragatha looked up at her. Pomni looked back down at her, pupils dilated.
For a moment, they were the only two there.
Then Caine snapped Ragatha out of it and proceeded with the chicken fight. Caine kept successfully shoving Pomni off Ragatha’s shoulders, winning the first few rounds. That meant she had to keep dunking underwater and let Pomni straddle her shoulders again and again. She must be in heaven.
The more frustrated Pomni got with losing, the more aggressively she got on Ragatha. Caring less how much her of her body pressed onto the back Ragatha’s neck. More willing to squeeze her legs in to stay up. Ragatha could play this game forever.
Eventually, Zooble called Caine out for cheating using his all-seeing eyes. Once he stopped that, Pomni and Ragatha actually started winning. That made Pomni extremely happy. She stopped getting on Ragatha so aggressively, but at the same time, Ragatha swore Pomni was pressing up on her the same amount. It felt like she was getting on Ragatha less respectfully when they started the game.
Ragatha’s face went bright red when she had that thought. Could Pomni? Zooble started feeling thing, and Gangle can clearly feel things, so Pomni very much could have too. That could mean…
Ragatha felt extremely warm. She was being far too optimistic. Pomni’s just playing a game that Ragatha was overthinking like she always does.
They played chicken for a little while longer. Ragatha desperately trying to commit every touch between her and Pomni to memory. After they stopped playing, the stayed in the water for a little while longer, then decided they were done for the day.
They all changed into their normal clothes and started walking towards the Circus. Pomni was at the front talking with Caine about something. Zooble branched away from Gangle and Kinger to go talk to Ragatha, making the doll blush.
“Have fun today?” They asked suggestively.
Ragatha looked down and desperately tried to convince herself that it was normal to talk to other people about this kind of stuff. “Well you saw.” She looked back up. “What about you and Gangle. What did two do?”
“Just watched you all play mostly.”
Ragatha smiled. “But I’m pretty sure I saw a little more than that.”
Zooble smiled back. “ Well you saw. I was just talking like I normally talk to Gangle. I had us rank who’s the hottest actually.”
“Really? Who’d you two rank number one? Each other?”
“Aw. You’re so wholesome. But we were actually thinking objectively. Who’s the one that looks literally kinda like a human?”
Huh? Oh. “Me??”
“Yes you! Like it or not, you are the hottest person in the circus. Objectively. From a design standpoint.”
Ragatha nodded. “I understand. Who was second hottest objectively? Pomni? She’s the second most human.”
“Yep.”
“That’s not a good system.”
“Why not?”
“Do you want my honest answer?”
“Desperately.”
“I think all three of your character designs look equally unattractive.”
“That is honestly such a compliment for me you don’t even know.”
Ragatha blushed.
“Well what system would you use to rank hotness?”
Her system? She stared at Pomni and thought.
“Alright everyone!” Caine said turning around as everyone entered the tent. “Today was an excellent day! Before you all separate though, there is something that has been brought to my attention that I need to bring to your attention.”
Huh? Ragatha looked to Pomni who was avoiding eye contact and mumbling to herself.
“I just need to tell you all, that Pomni asked me about sex.”
“Wait what?” Pomni said.
The circus remained quiet.
“No no no no no! Caine! That’s what I said not to tell everyone! You’re supposed to tell them the rest of it!”
“Nu uh uh! You’re not fooling me with one of your classic human pranks! If I say the other part, your gunna tell me I broke our promise. You can’t trick me!”
“Caine! I’m not tricking you! You gotta tell them the other part because that part affects them!”
“Hahahahahaha. Good try. But I know you humans better than you think. I’m getting out of here before you pull off your trick. Good night my metabolic coworkers!” Caine swirled into a central part of his body until he fully disappeared into it.
… Everyone stared at Pomni.
Pomni looked around a moment before sighing. “God. Whatever. This is ridiculous. I asked Caine why it suddenly felt different recently and he said he turned sex on and forgot to tell us.”
Gangle’s pink shaded happy mask broke off her face to reveal a dark red crying mask underneath.
“…He turned sex on?” Ragatha asked.
“I asked what it meant! He said he didn’t know either. That’s why he was so terrified to turn it on in the first place. He said he suddenly realized this is our shared world now and everyone always asks him to make it possible, so he turned it on for us. He just forgot to tell us. Didn’t think it was a big deal apparently. I can’t believe I had to explain all that.”
…
Zooble and Gangle made eye contact. Ragatha and Pomni made eye contact. Ragatha felt extremely embarrassed and didn’t want to look away, yet she did so. It was like she wanted herself to fail. When she broke off the eye contact, her gaze met Zooble’s for half a second.
Eventually, with Kinger taking the initiative, everyone headed to their own rooms. Ragatha stayed there for a little while, but all of today was too much to stay here all night. She needed to move. She walked out of her room and was going to go outside when she noticed strange things coming out of Zooble’s room. They were, wait! Those were definitely little hearts! That must mean those two were!
Ragatha stated walking towards the door and quickly noticed someone was already standing in front of it.
Ragatha blushed, hating that the response was ever programmed in. she walked over to Pomni and stood beside her. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Pomni said back.
“Thanks for talking to Caine today. I don’t know how everyone would have handled being in the dark for much longer haha.”
Pomni, looking a little embarrassed, smiled up at Ragatha. “Yeah. Would have been pretty confusing.”
Ragatha smiled back.
“So when we were playing Chicken today, did you…” Pomni couldn’t finish her question.
Ragatha still felt pretty confused herself. She just nodded yes, not knowing what to say either.
“Cool. Cool. And did you… like it?”
!! Ragatha’s pulse greatly increased. She meekly nodded her head again.
“Cool. Cool. Me too.”
!! Ragatha just stood there in amazement. Was this really happening?
Pomni went back to staring at Zooble’s door. Ragatha did the same.
After a moment, Pomni asked, “Do you think the hearts are inside the room or just out here?”
“...Do you wanna find out?”
Pomni turned to Ragatha surprised.
Ragatha looked back equally as surprised.
Pomni smiled. “Yes. I do.”
When Ragatha just stood there, Pomni look her hand and said, “Let’s go.” She started leading them down the hallway.
Ragatha tried to let go of all inhibition and have the time of her life.