You consider your answer, the question bringing up all kinds of feelings you don’t know how to deal with or unpack…

But for the sake of your new friend, you’re going to try.

Willow’s quiet at that, thinking over her own words.

You offer a hand, and to your surprise Willow takes it.

Even though there’s nothing about her that’s giving off heat, it’s warm.

The character on her face smiles, and her fingers tighten around yours.

Far earlier than you expected, your laundry beeps.

Willow does not let go of your wing.

You sit there with the virtual pet, your hands still interlaced. A quick glance in the reflection of the washer in front of you confirms it- there’s a few speckles of painted blush on your cheeks, matching the extra pixels on Willow’s screen.

You aren’t sure how long you sit there in silence, the occasional finger movement and squeeze grounding you in the warmth. You feel like you’re heating up pretty bad, honestly, but you don’t dare move. 

Willow occasionally beeps, but cuts herself off short every time you look over. The character on her screen is wiggling all over the place, as if flailing around for something to say. 

The other dryer goes off, Willow letting go of your hand and immediately standing up.

Before you can stop her, she’s hauling her clothes out and speeding out of the room.

You are left in the laundry room with a hurricane of mixed emotions, some of which you aren’t even sure how to place. A mix of disappointment, confusion, and, uh. Warmth? Weird warmth? 

Hm.

You sigh and get up to get your clothes, realizing with a bit of panic that you left your key fob and pamphlet in your pocket- but to your relief, both seem unharmed. You’re going to have to be more careful…

As you get your clothes back on, you’re instantly hit by the feeling of warmth- you suddenly get why plushes throw themselves into dryers. It’s cozy, and the confusion you just felt with Willow is soothed away, at least for the time being. 

You check the clock on the wall- it’s a bit past midnight. You were up until…2 AM last night, you think, so you still have some time to do things, maybe.

Off the top of your head, you could go read the rest of your pamphlet(an idea that feels a bit more thrilling right now for some reason),get some early rest(an idea that doesn’t seem too bad considering you got the shit knocked out of you earlier), or something else entirely.

Either way, you should probably keep it chill considering you’re going out tomorrow.

You decide to go back to the cafe, see if it’s open- you could ideally get some more books, considering that that pamphlet isn’t gonna last forever.

Sure enough, you make your way over and it is open- or at the very least, the library portion. The lights are dimmer, and all but one chair are stacked up on the tables. A toy made out of a coiled spring and donning a staff pin is sitting on a chair by the counter, waving as you enter. 

Hmm…maybe…another romance novel. Maybe even a steamy one, considering you’re figuring out the sexuality thing.

You kneel by one of the bookshelves, sifting through- sure enough, there’s a sizable romance section with a ton of books missing- must be popular. Let’s see…

”Spectral Delights” catches your eye. Ghosts are…cool…right…

You realize you know one (1) sort-of-ghost and kind of die inside. It’s just a cool book, though! Just a cool, risque novel with a blanket ghost caressing a plush on the cover, swept up in the throes of some kind of passion…

You tuck it under your arm and sigh, deciding that for the next one you’re just…going to close your eyes and let the narrative decide. You fumble around the shelves, making sure to avoid the romance section this time, and grab the nearest book- it’s pretty big and heavy, with a proper hardcover…

You open your eyes.

“The Complete Guide To Electronic Pets!”
”Everything you need to know about digital life!

Oh, come on. Really? Really, narrative? You suppose you should be grateful for the tips in the right direction...

You kind of feel evil taking these, but…

Temptation.

…you can’t resist, and after all, you do need to learn more about the world around you…time to stop being a coward.

You look for more encyclopedia-style books, finding one about paper toys, and another on…

”Wind-up Toys and Everything About Them.”

Something about it draws you in. It’s slimmer than the others, but still worth checking out.

Books in hand, you give a wave to the library attendant, heading straight back to your room.

The walk seems thankfully shorter than usual, thanking the narrative for sparing you a long trek when your arms were full of encyclopedias. You set them down for a moment to unlock your door, and head inside- it’s just as welcoming as before, thankfully.

You set your stuff down on the nightstand, looking over your spoils and back over to the clock on the wall. You’ve got an hour before bed. Time to decide what to dig into first.

Pamphlet time. You’ve got one section left that you haven’t touched at all- Techniques, and then the Anatomy section that you skimmed. You still feel a bit nervous about the latter, but the former…

You get another weird warm feeling at the thought of figuring this out. 

You open up the pamphlet, and flick over to the Techniques section.

Uhh…let’s see…okay, talking about generalized toy anatomy. No toy comes with any kind of genitalia, but it’s not uncommon for bodies to have sensitivity of some sort, especially in certain areas…where that is and how much varies based on the toy in particular. You close your eyes for a moment and consider for a second whether what you’re about to do is stupid or not. 

You pat your cheek, and pause, waiting to see if anything happens. Nothing. You just…patted your face.

You try your wings next, patting them down. Nothing. 

Getting a little nervous now- what if I can’t feel anything?- you try your legs, and get something- but it’s not much. Just a weird nice feeling when your hands linger a bit. 

You glance over at one of the diagrams and your nerves heighten again, trying the most common areas next.

Chest? Yeah, a little.

Hips and abdomen? There’s something there.

Tail…

…you’re going to have to make extra note of the tail.

Okay, okay, back to the pamphlet.

Apparently what you just did is actually recommended- you could have really used that factoid before you felt silly over it. People can apparently do this kind of stuff by themselves, the whole…touching thing. Sounds like something to experiment with, but you’re still a little self conscious about even preliminary poking at yourself. 

The next paragraph talks about stuff with a partner, and ohh god, there are diagrams. You try to take in as much of it as you can- a lot of the words are foreign to you, but you think you get the gist. It’s all about finding what makes a partner feel good, whether physically or mentally, whether they have modded genitals or just their original body, etc. You think that even with your inexperience and a lot of this stuff flying over your head…you could probably figure that part out in the moment. It’s just listening to people and talking things over, right? 

The next section mentions that touching isn’t even inherently necessary to have a good time with it. You could just…talk, or write, or text on a phone or computer, and potentially even get sensation from that. Weird, but kind of cool. 

…you should probably get a phone at some point.

The last little bit talks about consent and safewords again, and makes sure to emphasize that if something doesn’t feel right- say something, even if it seems innocuous.

Huh. This stuff isn’t so bad.

I…could probably do this?

I’d want to go slow, and figure stuff out, because I don’t really know much about what I like yet, but…

Yeah. Maybe this is okay.

You dare to turn back to the Anatomy section before your nerves get you- and now, it’s a lot less scary. You actually know what a lot of stuff does now, and while none of it really interests you now (and god knows you don’t have the money for any of it), it’s still kinda interesting to look through.

Plus, some of the designs are pretty cool.

You set the pamphlet down, looking over at the clock. 2 AM.

Time for bed.

You drift off to sleep, curled up in your blankets with a genuine smile on your face. It was a wild second day, but…

You’re getting the hang of things already.

What do you dream?

…you’re flying. You never knew you could fly, but here you are, soaring through the air. Flapping your wings feels natural, and-

You hear a voice from down below you, and you turn to fly towards their direction- you recognize them! It’s your friend! And-

The closer you get, the worse it starts to feel. Why are you flying to them? It feels…wrong, and you don’t like the look in their eyes once you get close enough to see it.

They raise their hand and something hurts in your chest, more painful than anything you’ve ever experienced- you’re falling, you’re drowning, it hur-

You land before you can process it, your rubber body impaling itself on a massive, sharp sword- directly where the pain was. You’re completely pierced through, and a panicked look around reveals you’re surrounded by swords, your face reflecting off of them like mirrors. 

The sound of footsteps retreating away from the forest of swords is a relief, but it doesn’t last long- someone’s coming from the other direction, and you’re filled with panic, fear-

A now-familiar hand touches yours, painted, ridged plastic.

You can’t see her from your current position, but you feel her move her screen face to your chest wound, pressing it against it with a tiny beep.

In your pained haze, all you can remember is that the pamphlet called that “a kiss.”

You wake up with tear-like paint markings running down your cheeks.

There’s someone knocking at the door.

You try to shake off the dream, kicking off the blankets and…

Oh god, Willow was in your dream.

Oh god.

Was the narrative trying to tell you something?

Were you just…

Clingy? 

It’d only been a few days, barely that, and you’re…

God, you’re smitten with her.

Fuck.

There’s another polite knock at your door, and you shake your head, getting out of bed for real now. 

You’re stumbling over to the door, suddenly aware of a horrible phantom sensation in your chest- like something still piercing you.

You open the door, just a crack- only to see a familiar scottie dog plush standing there.

He notices the look on your face.

You wipe the paint tears off of your face with the most determined expression you can muster.

You consider bailing, but then you remember the point of the trip.

Outfit.

Party.

Willow.

Horny party with Willow.

Your face heats up, Timothy tilting his head in confusion.

He raises a paw to his face.

You nod and very quietly close the door, nearly sliding down it after.

Okay, this is a problem. You are losing your shit now.

A…crush? It couldn’t be a crush- oh god I dreamed of her kissing me while i was impaled by a giant sword what if it gets worse I’m going to- I AM GOING TO TAKE A SHOWER

You storm into the bathroom, throw your clothes off and step in, keeping the water as cold as fucking possible. No more Willow thoughts. Not until you get to that party. You are going to keep things under control, god damnit.

The water helps, thank god. You get your shit together and take a look at yourself in the mirror as you towel off- yeah, you got this. No more blush paint or teardrop paint, just your face with a determined expression.

Okay.

Time to face Timothy.

You open the door, the dog having been pacing around the hallway. 

The two of you walk down the winding halls, doors passing over and over.

The gears turn in Tim’s head and his ears perk up, tail wagging.

You are suddenly aware that the hallway has been going on longer than usual.

You are going to strangle the narrative.

The two of you go quiet, walking along.

Hallway isn’t stopping.

You may have to handle this if you want to proceed.

Se-

That pretty much breaks your brain to even begin thinking about, Tim noticing your face paling immediately.

You gesture around to the hallway, and he nods. 

You nod, and he goes quiet, leaving you room to continue.

You start to get self conscious, but one look at Tim’s face reassures you that he’s listening. He nods for you to keep going.

Tim gasps, and you feel the blush come back to your face.

The two of you get quiet, continuing to walk in silence for a bit. 

His tone is warm, hopeful.

After what seems like ages, you’ve reached the end of the hallway, now in the open bar area- Vine and a cluster of other toys waiting in a group. Marlowe appears to be at the front of it, doing a headcount. Your mentor picks you out and waves you over, the two of you hustling to meet her.

She points to Tim, who has now shrunk behind you and is clearly trying to hide.

You follow the way his paw is pointing and see Roulette and Devo at the back of the group, the bean bear talking to his robot companion with a comforting tone- but you can’t make out the words at all, in part due to the crowd and in part due to his hushed volume. Devo’s decked out in simple black casualwear, a choker, and glasses, and Roulette somehow still looks somewhat formal on its off day, wearing dress pants, a khaki jacket and a dress shirt.