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It had indeed been a rough couple of days here at The Amazing Digital Circus. Try as Caine might deny it, there was in fact a reason why nobody really wanted to go on the adventures he created for the players on the daily — as Zooble had once stated to him, a certain jester “looks traumatized every time she comes back from one.”
The jester in question wasn’t in the mood to give the program in charge a piece of her own mind after her harrowing experience at Mildenhall Manor, though. What she needed right now was a long and peaceful night’s rest, but then again, that was apparently true no matter what adventure she was dragged into. At least all was well that had ended well with this one, courtesy of Kinger’s insight and support when she most needed it. If anything, her newfound appreciation of him and the others was almost worth getting temporarily possessed.
Still… there was just no replacing poor Gummigoo in her virtual heart. Everyone, even Jax, knew that all too well.
There wasn’t much for Pomni to do right now except lie down in her bed and stare at the fabric canopy, as was traditional for her in the evenings by now. Already, her eyelids felt increasingly heavy, notwithstanding that sleep technically wasn’t necessary in this strange world. At least she could still dream, though she hoped she wouldn’t have to rewatch that one especially weird dream from a few nights back, wherein Caine had popped up out of nowhere right above her, before proceeding to drag her out of bed and then tell her about some great news (which she wouldn’t remember upon waking up).
With that being said, though…
“Your little crying face left a little crying mark on the Internet — something I don’t canonically have any knowledge of!” Caine had said blithely, before waving his hand at a screen showing what Pomni could only describe as man-made horrors beyond her comprehension. “Take a look!”
“What. The. F[BOINK!]K. Am I LOOKING at?!” was all Pomni could ask in shock and revulsion.
Caine had then taken his hat off and pressed it against his chest, as if saluting someone who’d just died. “The consequences of our actions!” he replied. “And it’s only going to get worse from here.”
Even now, she couldn’t help but turn that last sentence over and over in her head. Was that statement really applicable despite it only coming from a very weird dream? After what had happened to Gummigoo, she could certainly believe that.
The newbie was just about to drift off to another fitful, nonsensical trip to dreamland when she heard a knock on the door to her room, jolting her awake. Sitting up with a groan of annoyance, she made sure not to set foot on the wooden block that had catapulted her onto the ceiling when she’d landed on top of it a few days back, instead placing her feet firmly on the floor. “Okay, um, who is it?” she asked tentatively.
“Hey, New Stuff,” came a familiar, gentle-sounding voice from the other side of the door. “Mind if I stay at your place for a little while?”
Pomni blinked in surprise, but allowed herself a small smile as she went and answered the door, making sure to carefully step around every bit of clutter lying around the floor on the way there. “Not at all, Ragatha. Though, uh… What brought you here, anyway?”
“Oh, well, I… um, I really dunno where to start.” The redheaded ragdoll rubbed the back of her neck, her stitched-on facial features bearing a smile combining cheerfulness, awkwardness, and mild anxiety all in one. “Y’see, Kinger, he… he told me about what he and you had to go through earlier.” She glanced to either side as if checking to see if anyone else was listening, before turning back to Pomni and quietly asking, “Can I come in?”
“Uh… sure, I guess?” The jester stepped aside to allow Ragatha into the (terribly messy) room before closing the door behind her. “I’m not sure if Caine would allow us to stay in each others’ rooms for too long, though—”
“Psh, naw, the only way to get his goat would be to try to bail on the adventures he wants to send us on, and neither of us has done that last I checked.”
Pomni’s eyes widened, her pupils shrinking. The mention of Caine’s adventures had just caused her to flash back to the one she’d had to endure earlier that day, and the sheer horror of what she’d just had to go through hadn’t sunk in until now. If Kinger hadn’t been there…
“Ragatha, could you, um… do you mind going back to your own room?” the jester said with a haunted tone. “I kinda need to be alone for a while—”
“In that state? Not a chance.” The ragdoll shook her head with a frown. “Kinger told me about how you weren’t exactly mindful of how we were trying to help you until the end of today. You need the company of people who care, you know.” She smiled ruefully before adding, “Why do you think I came here in the first place?”
Pomni stifled a sniffle. “He told you that, too?”
“Well, to be fair, I didn’t intend to ask ‘bout you. I just wanted to see what puttin’ a bucket over his head would do, since I noticed he wasn’t acting quite like ‘imself when that happened to him while we were at the Candy Canyon Kingdom.” Ragatha was continuing to talk at a slightly faster pace than usual, sounding somewhat embarrassed as she stepped aside to allow Pomni to walk over to her bed. “All I asked was how his day had gone. It was he who brought up his and your trip to Hell, and it… kinda snowballed from there. Not in a bad way, no!” she added as Pomni gave her a shocked, somewhat hurt look. “It’s just… Our talk about you made me wanna check on ya, so here I am!”
“You… didn’t have to,” Pomni replied in a somewhat listless tone, her expression making that come off as less of a “Thank you” and more akin to “What you’re doing is completely unnecessary”, something that wasn’t lost on Ragatha herself.
“I want to, though. I can’t not try to help when I see one of my friends in such a downer mood—”
“I wouldn’t call us friends, honestly.” Pomni climbed back onto her bed before proceeding to lie down on top of it in the exact same way she’d done before Ragatha had arrived. “We both know what Kinger said to me, but I’m not sure if getting to know each other is a good idea, not after what happened to Kaufmo, or Gummigoo…” She sniffled in earnest this time, remembering how easily Caine had disposed of him almost as soon as she’d brought him to the Tent. “If I grow close to you or the others, what if I lose you, too?! And that’s not getting into how I treated you on my first day. I… I don’t think I’m cut out for life here in this Circus, Ragatha. I’m so sorry…”
She covered her face with both hands, struggling not to break down crying. Ragatha flinched at the sight of it, remembering just how easily Pomni had abandoned her to her fate in her crazed pursuit of a nonexistent exit; it was lucky that the damage Kaufmo’s abstracted form had done to them both was fixable, but even though Ragatha had said she wasn’t hurt by Pomni’s selfish act, a small part of her still faulted the jester regardless. But for the most part, the ragdoll felt only second-hand despair for the new player — it seemed there was nothing that could get her to realize that she wasn’t alone in this strange realm like she’d apparently thought. Was she trying to make herself alone here? Ragatha didn’t know, but she had the sense she didn’t want to find out.
She wasn’t sure what to say at this point. Perhaps it might be best not to say anything at all, she decided. It was while she was giving Pomni a pitying look, however, when she noticed something that made her impulsively blurt out the oddest possible question to ask in this situation:
“Um, are you sleepin’ with your shoes on?”
Pomni stopped mid-sob, her malaise replaced by dismayed confusion. She took her hands off her face, pausing only to wipe the tears from her eyes, before lifting her head to look at her mismatched footwear. “Y-yeah, what about it?”
“It’s just… I don’t think I’ve known anyone who does that. Granted, we don’t actually have shoes around here, but then again, that’s ‘cuz we don’t have the kind of feet that need them. Not sure what you’ve gotta say t’ that, though—”
“I do, actually.” Pomni wasn’t sure why she was engaging in this discussion, but she suspected that it could be due to there being literally nothing else to talk about, or at least nothing that wouldn’t make her feel more hurt and saddened than she already was. “Sleep with my shoes on, I mean. And I could take ‘em off, but, uh… do I really want to? Do you really wanna see me without them on?”
Ragatha had moved over to sit on the foot of the bed by this point, and was now giving her companion an intrigued look. “What’s wrong with that, exactly?”
Pomni sat up, scooching back so her back was against the headrest to prop herself up as she wondered how she could possibly explain it. But ultimately…
“I’d tell you, but you wouldn’t believe me. So I think it’s best to show you.” Before Ragatha could respond, she reached over to grab onto the toes of her shoes and then started tugging.
The doll’s expression was becoming increasingly intrigued by now. But then her eyes widened in complete shock when the instant the shoes came off, what was underneath them briefly fizzled in the same way that she herself had upon being attacked by the abstracted Kaufmo.
And what happened, then? Well, in the Circus they say — that Pomni’s bare feet grew three sizes that day.
It was only a second before Ragatha was beholding an absolutely enormous pair of feet as white as snow, slender and surprisingly elegant in shape despite their great size, their skin appearing as smooth and soft as silk. The five long, shapely toes per foot sported oval-shaped pads, and the deep, curved arches formed a sort of tunnel with her feet put together, one that the doll could peer through to see Pomni’s face, now a shade of pale red rather than white like the rest of her skin.
“Uh…” Ragatha was at a complete loss for words.
“Y-yeah… N-now you know why the shoes stay on w-when I’m in bed.” Having set her shoes aside, Pomni was now covering her face in her hands again, this time to try and hide her blush. “I, uh, I-I think it m-might’ve been due to the glitch I got from you a-affecting more than just my arm, e-even after Caine fixed us up. M-maybe I could… uh… get him to fix this, too, but I… I’m not sure what he’d think if he saw me like this…” She squeaked a bit, hiding her face even more as she all but felt Ragatha’s gaze upon her enormous soles. She wished she could wiggle her feet to block her view of the ragdoll, but just her luck, their sheer size and weight meant she couldn’t get them to budge by even an inch.
“Well, I’m sure he’d be quite fascinated by this effect,” Ragatha replied as unbeknownst to Pomni, she reached forward to place the palm of her hand against the arch of the jester’s foot, before idly running it down the length of the arch in an examination of its shape. “I know I am, but maybe—?!”
The squeak that Pomni had uttered upon feeling Ragatha’s hand brushing against her foot was almost deafening. Without taking her palm off the huge sole, she glanced through the arch tunnel again to see that the newbie’s blush had become even more intense, but her eyes were also as wide as they could possibly be, her pupils shrunken almost to mere pinholes as both of her hands covered her mouth, failing to hide the wide, goofy, wiggly smile behind them.
“Hey, Pomni? You okay?” Ragatha asked, a bit confused.
“I-I’m fine!” the jester stammered, now more flustered than ever. Apparently, the mere glancing touch of her temporary roomie’s hand was triggering some kind of subroutine in the programming of her virtual avatar that was comparable to the nervous discharge induced by light touch on a particularly sensitive stretch of skin, but she didn’t want Ragatha to know that. “N-nothing’s wrong, I swear—”
Ragatha’s eyes narrowed, a smirk gracing her glued-on mouth. “Was that a smile I just saw~?”
Still smiling, Pomni swallowed audibly. Oh, she was busted. “N-nooooo, what are you talking about—HYEEEEK!”
Ragatha had started dragging her hands down both arches at once. “Seems like you could use a massage after the day you’ve had. Lemme see if I can help with that…~”
“W-wait! WAIT! N-NO NO NONONO NOOOOOHHHOHOHOHHAHAHAH—!” Pomni shook her head frantically as her voice shot up by several octaves, already feeling overloaded by her bedmate’s woolen palms lightly stroking up and down both of her oversized soles at once. “KYEEEEHEHEHEHEEEE! NAHAHAHAT THEHEHEHEERRRE!”
“Ooh, I think I’ve found a weak spot,” Ragatha said teasingly. “And my my, so much space to tickle~! I’m glad you showed me what your feet look like with your shoes off!”
“AEEEEIIIHIHIHIHEHHEHHEHAHAHAHH!!” The hapless jester grabbed the extensions of her hat and tugged at them as if they were additional locks of her hair, tears leaking from her eyes as she tried in vain to pull her feet away. “RAGATHA, STOOAAAHAHAHAHHPP! TH-THEY’RE TOO HEAVY! I C-CAHAHAHA— HAAA— CAN’T EVEN MOVE THEHEHEMMM! PFFFFF— GHHSSSSSHHHXDDCC— HYIIEEEEEEE-YYYAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHH!!!”
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you — I think your supersized stompies are muffling the noise!” Snickering to herself, Ragatha continued giving her companion a foot rub the latter was unlikely to forget, moving downward towards the jester’s heels and drawing slow, deliberate circles around and around them.
Poor Pomni was in a personal tickle-hell — she hadn’t even realized that the clown-car effect which her footwear had apparently acquired thanks to that [HONK!]ing glitch had also resulted in her feet becoming infinitely more sensitive than they otherwise would’ve been. Even though her heels weren’t quite as sensitive as her arches, that was like saying that getting stretched like a piece of taffy between two speeding syrup tankers was better than being possessed by evil spirits. The woolen texture of Ragatha’s palms felt like two hairbrushes dragging their brushy business ends slowly, almost gently, along the hyper-ticklish skin of her foot bottoms, and all she could do was watch and laugh.
And was it just her, or were her arms shaking so much that they’d just blurred for a split second…?
“Awww, lookit you~!” Ragatha teased, scooching back a bit further until she was fully on the bed, while at the same time moving her hands back up along the outside arches of Pomni’s feet and up to the cushioned balls of the two giant tickle spots. “Seems like you’re havin’ a lot of fun now, at least with me. Right, my big-footed tickle-toy~?”
“NYUOOOHHHOHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHAH!” came the squealing reply. “THIS ISN’T — I-I’M NOHOHAHAHAHAHHHT— HYEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEEE! EEEEEK! HHHH — KYYYAAAAHAHAHAHAHEEEEHEHEE!”
“And your laugh is soooo precious, too~! Kinda like a puppy toy!”
“THE TEASING MAKES IT WOHOHOHORSE!” Pomni shrieked, squirming and thrashing. “AIIIEEEEHEEHEHEHEHHEEHEEEK!! NONONONO WAAAAIIIIIT! NAHAHAHAHAHAHT THEEEHEHEHEHEEERRRRE—!”
“But I’m barely touchin’ ya! And I haven’t even gotten to your toes yet…”
“WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAT?!”
“I’m gonna tickle your toesies now~”
“EEEEEEEEEEEK! NONONONO WAAAIIIEEEEEEHEHEHHEHEHEHAHAHAHHHHH—!” The jester couldn’t see what was going on, but she could very much feel it within a few seconds. Ragatha was apparently now kneeling in front of her massive feet and rubbing her hands along the stems of her toes, which were unable to curl or even wiggle due to their massive size. “AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHHH! P-PLEASE, STAHAHAHAHHH— HYEEEEHHEHEHEHEHEEEEEK!”
“Why should I stop, though? I’m havin’ so much fun tickling you~” Ragatha leaned forward and to the side, before proceeding to nuzzle her face against the ball of Pomni’s right foot as her woolen hands began brushing against the pads of her toes. Her yarn strands for hair brushing against the bases of the jester’s toes made the poor giant-footed girl scream at such a high pitch and volume that she was thankful that there wasn’t any glass in the room.
Her whole body was vibrating at an alarming rate now, bouncing a bit on the bed as she flailed her arms forth like strands of rope in a bid to put a stop to the torment her companion was dishing out. “KYAAHAHAHAHIIEEE! *SQUEAL* I’M BEGGING YOU, PLEEHEHEHEHEASE! RAGATHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! IHIHI — I’M GONNA—!!”
Now Pomni’s feet themselves were shaking and quivering. Next thing Ragatha knew, she had suddenly been pushed backward, and then right before her eyes, the jester shimmered in place, becoming a blur of red and blue and white — and then with a blip, she was gone.
“P-Pomni?!” Ragatha shrieked, tugging at her hair strands in horror. “Oh nonono… I-I went too far! Pomni, I’m so sorry—!”
“Uh, R-Ragatha? Up here…” came a still-giggly reply from somewhere above her. The doll looked around for a few moments, and then she turned her head up towards the ceiling. There was Pomni, dangling upside-down, her toes embedded partway into the ceiling of the room.
“…ah.” Ragatha covered her mouth with both hands as she realized what she’d done. “Again, Pomni, I’m sorry… I think I got carried away.”
“You think?” The jester gave her a deadpan look, even while she was still blushing hard from the embarrassment as well as the tickling.
“Should I get Caine?” Ragatha glanced towards the door. “That looks like it’d be a bit hard for ya to get out of—”
“W-wait! You’re just gonna leave me stuck here?!” Pomni gave Ragatha a frantic look. “You can’t just do that without even thinking about how I feel—”
“Like the way ya did the same to me on your first day, ya mean?” the doll asked in disbelief.
Pomni felt her stomach drop. She’d thought Ragatha was willing to look past that time when she’d for all intents and purposes left her for dead. How wrong she was… There was only one way to avoid being stuck in the ceiling all night long, and they both knew it.
“Actually, I’m the one who should be saying sorry,” the jester said quietly. “I… I was scared, and overwhelmed, and it made me act so selfish a-and unreasonable and just… just plain awful. I-I should’ve gone back for you, or gotten C-Caine like you asked, but I was so o-obsessed with finding an exit that d-didn’t turn out to even exist…” She sniffled, wiping her eyes with her arm. “I w-was so stupid, Ragatha! You shouldn’t have had to suffer because of my horrible mistakes, but you did, and it was all my fault… I-I don’t even know what to say anymore! I told you, I’m not cut out to be a part of this Circus, and I don’t deserve to be anything close to a friend to you.” She buried her face in her hands and started sobbing in earnest. “I am so, so sorry… I know you probably won’t forgive me for what I did, and that’s c-completely fine…”
For a long moment, there was silence. Ragatha looked away, feeling like she too might as well be wearing a paper bag over her head in light of those words. Finally, though, she sighed. “In fairness, it was… kinda my fault, too. If anything, I should’ve had a proper chat with you about that sooner. It’d at least help if you knew what you did wrong and how not to do it again in the future, but it’s admittedly not so easy for me to tell that to folks I talk ta, either, because I don’t want ‘em to feel bad.”
Pomni stifled another sob. “S-so, you’re not mad at me for that, right? You’re not… hurt?”
“Admittedly, I’m pretty sure we were hurt by whatcha did. And I feel like we still are.” The ragdoll gave her a sad smile. “But we learned. Both of us. And as long as we remember the lessons we took from it, I’m sure there’ll be nothing to worry about in the end. Who knows? Perhaps someday we might even be able t’ look back at that time and share a laugh or two over it, wouldn’t we?”
“Well, it’s possible,” Pomni said with a sigh, allowing herself to smile as well. An instant later, however, her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp. “Share a laugh… W-wait… That’s it!”
“Huh?” Ragatha asked in confusion.
“Ragatha, is there any way you can reach my feet from down there?” Pomni had to stifle a giggle at the thought, but she knew what needed to be done. “I think the glitch that got me stuck up here happened because I was getting overwhelmed by the way you were rubbing my foot bottoms. What would happen if you tried tickling them again?”
“Hmmm…” Ragatha rubbed her chin, but then she smiled. “Oh, I know! Only one way t’ find out, right?”
As Pomni watched from her elevated position, the ragdoll got to work, picking through the clutter around the room for various items to make use of. It was a minute or so before Ragatha came back with a long stick, like the kind one would use for balance while tightrope walking, with a very large, long, candy-pink feather tied to the end of it.
The jester couldn’t help but gulp at very sight of that oh-so-fluffy feather, a nervous grin on her face once again. “J-just try to be more gentle this time, okay?”
“Heard ya loud and clear, New Stuff!” Ragatha cooed, raising the feather high enough that it was in clear view of her friend. “Ready or not, here I coooome~”
The new player squeaked, putting her hands together and mouthing a prayer as the feather drew nearer and nearer. Finally, though, its soft tip came into contact with the arch of her left foot, before Ragatha started shaking the stick a little, causing the feather to flutter and swish haphazardly across the hyper-ticklish surface.
Pomni was so glad she’d shut the door before all of this had started, because she was quite sure her scream would’ve been audible from clear across the Tent otherwise. Somehow, the tip of the feather was even worse than Ragatha’s hands as it glided and swirled around her taut sole, sending her into new heights of helpless hysterics. On top of this, she had told Ragatha to be a little more gentle with the tickling, not knowing that the soft tickles with the feather were even more overwhelming than the brushing sensations that had triggered the teleporting glitch in the first place.
“AAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEEEYYYAAAHAHHAHEEHHHHH!!!!” Spasming and swinging in place, guffawing and wheezing so hard that she was finding it hard to breathe, Pomni’s entire body from the neck down (or up as the case may be) was flailing madly about, her arms whipping and coiling like strands of rope as her tears of laughter rained down upon the floor below.
“Seems like this thing’s havin’ quite the effect on ya!” Ragatha said with a smile. “Now, what about if I used it on the other foot…?”
“NOOOOOOHHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHH!” Pomni shrieked and trembled as she felt the feather’s gentle caress upon her tender right arch, its tip tracing a small, agonizing spiral outward from the exact center of her sole before doubling back from whence it had come. “IT TICKLES, IT TICKLES, IT TICKLHLHLHLLES! HYEEEEHEHEHEHEE-AIIIIEEEEEEEP! KYAAAIIIEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHHH!”
“C’mon, Pomni, lessee what you can do while bein’ tickled to your breaking point! Kitchy kitchy coo, New Stuff~”
“GYYYAAAAAHAHAHAHAEEEEEEEHHEHEHEHEE! *SQUEAK* KYYYEEEEHEHEHEEEE!! NAHAHAHAHAHAT THE TEASIIHIHIHIHIHING!”
“Oh yes, the teasing~ Tickle tickle tiiiiickle~ Now, how ‘bout both feet at once, since the other one seems to be missin’ out?”
“NYAAAAOOOOOOHHHHHHOHOHOHOHAHAHAHHAHAHH!!!” Pomni was quivering in place with increasing intensity, laughing uncontrollably and drenching the floor with her tears as the feather swished like a metronome from one arch to the other and back. “KYAAAAHAHAHHAEEEEIIIIIHIHIHIHHEHHH! *WHEEZE* NAAHAHAHAHT THAHAHAHAHAT— YIIIIHIHIHIHIIAAAHAHAHAHHHH!”
As Ragatha moved the feather upward to tease at the bases of Pomni’s toes and in the spaces between, the jester wasn’t oblivious to how well their plan to free her was working. Her whole body was blurring out now, her every polygon shaking so violently that her tormentor could barely make her out by now. The vibrations were slowly drawing her further and further downward, as if wiggling her toes free from the ceiling. Until, finally…
“EEEYYYAAAAHAHAHAHAAHHH— OHHHH, F[DOINK!]— HYEEEEEEK!” THUD!
…she finally glitched her way free altogether and hit the carpeted floor, face-first. “Owwww…”
Ragatha flinched a bit, but finally, she set the stick and feather aside before heading over to pick Pomni’s shoes up. “You alright?”
“Y-yeah…” Pomni remained motionless, her voice somewhat muffled by her undignified position with her spine arched backward, her arms limp and noodly like the sleeves of a dropped sweater, and her giant feet hanging over her head, still twitching from the hellish tickling they’d had to endure. “I-I’m okay…”
Ragatha remained silent for a moment as she brought the jester’s shoes over and, without stopping to think, started slipping them over Pomni’s big toes as best she could, the feet they belonged to obviously being too big to put them back on entirely. Mercifully, this was followed by a fizzling effect upon the jester’s oversized feet as a whole, just like when she’d taken her foot wear off, and the next thing they knew, they had vanished altogether, her shoes back on and fitting snugly as could be.
Pomni flopped onto the carpet and remained listless for a few long moments before she pushed herself up to a sitting position. “Wha… uh…”
“Hey now,” Ragatha said softly, kneeling next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “You aren’t hurt, are ya?”
Pomni paused in thought, wondering what to make of the whole experience. But finally, she smiled, more warmly than she ever had before. “Actually… I feel much better now. I’m not gonna deny that the tickling drove me crazy, but… it also felt a lot better than I expected, especially after today’s adventure. So, uh… Th-thank you, Ragatha. Thank you so much. And I’m sorry again for not appreciating you enough. A-at least, until now, anyway…”
Ragatha thought about this for a moment, but finally, she smiled ruefully. Next moment, she’d drawn Pomni into a hug as she stood up, the jester being pulled up to her feet as well.
“And I’m sorry, too, for not bein’ as open with you as I should’ve,” said the ragdoll, her voice tinged with a mix of sadness and relief. “For what it’s worth, though, I’d be happy to spend more time with ya, if you’ll have me.”
Pomni wiped a tear from her eye once more. “Y-you would? Even if I…?”
Ragatha beamed at her, more genuinely than before, as she released her hold of her. “Mmhmm, so long as you always remember to be there for us the way we have for you.” The doll moved away, but then she paused for a moment before adding, “That and, well, if you’d be down t’ do this again sometime?”
“Oh, the room visit, right?”
Ragatha just retrieved the stick she’d used previously, and was fiddling around with it with her back to Pomni when she caught those words. She turned to give Pomni a sheepish smile, chuckling in slight embarrassment and rubbing the back of her neck. “Y-yeah, the room visit! Definitely the room visit.”
“Okay, sure. I’d be happy to have you over, then.” Pomni gave a small smile of her own in response. “And once again, Ragatha… Thank you. For being my friend, I mean.”
“Always happy to help, New Stuff!” The ragdoll gave a hearty salute. Then she paused, rubbing her chin in thought, before brandishing the feather she’d just untied from the balancing rod in a teasing fashion. “Though come t’ think of it, I wonder if anywhere else on ya is ticklish, too…~”
“Eep!” Pomni would swear her entire head had turned a brilliant scarlet, grinning and giggling nervously as she wrapped her arms around herself like a pair of ropes. “N-not telling~!”
To her credit, Ragatha was smart enough not to press the topic for the time being. So instead, she offered to help her new friend finally tidy up her room, which Pomni appreciated very much; once they were finished with that an hour later, they found that they still had enough time to play a few sleepover games together. All in all, it was perhaps the new player’s happiest evening yet, and it wasn’t long before they both were contemplating the possibility of inviting Gangle and Zooble to also pay the jester’s room a visit tomorrow…
There was still quite a way to go before Pomni would feel truly at home in the Tent, and chances were that she never would be for as long as she existed. Still, it was a much-needed comfort to know that she was close enough to at least one fellow player to let them guide her through her new life — and to entrust her most sensitive secret to them, for that matter. Whatever the Digital Circus was undoubtedly planning to throw at her next, she was quite certain that her stay here would become much more laughter-filled in the days ahead.