#indoor rubber flooring

[zelmiraalhassan]

Find trusted rubber flooring suppliers in UAE - TradersFind

Discover trusted rubber flooring suppliers in UAE with TradersFind and discover leading service providers offering sports rubber flooring for your business needs. Connect with trusted rubber flooring manufacturers effortlessly and find durable and versatile flooring solutions. Visit TradersFind and post your request today!

[usrubberrecycling]

Eco-Friendly Recycled Rubber Flooring - Sustainable and Durable

Our eco-friendly recycled rubber flooring is the perfect solution for those who want to be kind to the environment without sacrificing durability or quality. Made from high-quality recycled rubber, this flooring is not only sustainable but also slip-resistant and shock-absorbent, making it ideal for high-traffic areas such as gyms, playgrounds, and schools. Its non-porous surface makes it easy to clean and resistant to mold and mildew, ensuring that it lasts for years to come. Choose our recycled rubber flooring to create a sustainable and long-lasting flooring solution that you can feel good about. Learn more: https://www.usrubber.com/survivor-sportfloor/

[alat-alatolahraga]

Harga Rubber Flooring KFI Sport di Bogor

Apakah Anda sedang mencari solusi lantai yang aman, tahan lama, dan nyaman untuk area bermain atau lapangan olahraga? Rubber Flooring dari KFI Sport di Bogor bisa menjadi pilihan terbaik untuk Anda. Rubber flooring kini menjadi tren di banyak kota, termasuk Bogor, karena fleksibilitas dan keamanannya.

KFI Sport menyediakan berbagai pilihan rubber flooring dengan harga bersaing dan kualitas terbaik. Mulai dari lantai untuk gym, taman bermain anak, hingga lapangan futsal, semua bisa Anda dapatkan langsung dari pabrik. Tidak perlu khawatir soal ketahanan, karena rubber flooring dari KFI Sport terkenal akan keawetannya!

Keuntungan Menggunakan Rubber Flooring Keamanan dan Kenyamanan Rubber flooring menawarkan tingkat keamanan yang tinggi, terutama untuk area bermain anak-anak. Bahannya yang lentur mampu meredam benturan, sehingga mengurangi risiko cedera.

Daya Tahan dan Kualitas Selain nyaman, rubber flooring juga tahan lama dan cocok untuk berbagai kondisi cuaca. Ini menjadikannya pilihan ideal untuk penggunaan baik di dalam maupun luar ruangan.

Jenis-Jenis Rubber Flooring yang Ditawarkan KFI Sport Rubber Flooring 5mm Rubber flooring dengan ketebalan 5mm cocok untuk area yang membutuhkan lantai tipis namun tetap tahan lama. Misalnya, lantai gym atau area indoor lainnya.

Rubber Flooring 10mm Pilihan ini sangat populer untuk lapangan olahraga, seperti futsal dan basket, karena ketebalannya memberikan daya tahan lebih baik terhadap aktivitas fisik yang intens.

Rubber Flooring 15mm Dengan ketebalan yang lebih besar, rubber flooring 15mm sangat ideal untuk area yang membutuhkan perlindungan ekstra, seperti ruang angkat beban atau arena bermain anak.

Harga Rubber Flooring dari KFI Sport Rubber Mat SRB

Berikut adalah daftar harga rubber mat SRB yang ditawarkan oleh KFI Sport:

Tebal 1.5 cm: Rp 495.000/m2 Tebal 2 cm: Rp 520.000/m2 Tebal 2.5 cm: Rp 540.000/m2 Tebal 3 cm: Rp 565.000/m2 Tebal 5 cm: Rp 720.000/m2 Rubber Mat EPDM Jika Anda menginginkan motif warna-warni, rubber mat EPDM adalah pilihan yang tepat dengan harga sebagai berikut:

Tebal 1.5 cm: Rp 620.000/m2 Tebal 2 cm: Rp 640.000/m2 Tebal 2.5 cm: Rp 660.000/m2 Tebal 3 cm: Rp 710.000/m2 Tebal 5 cm: Rp 940.000/m2 Aplikasi Rubber Flooring di Berbagai Lokasi Sekolah dan Taman Bermain Rubber flooring sangat populer di sekolah dan taman bermain karena keamanannya. Permukaannya yang lembut membuat anak-anak bisa bermain tanpa khawatir terjatuh dan terluka.

Lapangan Olahraga Outdoor

Rubber flooring juga sangat cocok digunakan di lapangan futsal, basket, dan olahraga outdoor lainnya. Bahannya yang elastis membantu menyerap guncangan sehingga mengurangi risiko cedera pada atlet.

Perbandingan Ketebalan Rubber Flooring Rubber Flooring Tipis (5mm) Untuk area dengan aktivitas ringan, ketebalan 5mm sudah cukup. Misalnya, untuk gym ringan atau area bermain indoor kecil.

Rubber Flooring Tebal (10-15mm) Untuk aktivitas berat, seperti lapangan olahraga atau ruang angkat beban, disarankan menggunakan rubber flooring yang lebih tebal agar tahan lama dan kuat.

Rubber Tiles: Alternatif Hemat dan Praktis Rubber tiles menawarkan kemudahan dalam pemasangan dan bisa menjadi solusi hemat untuk Anda yang ingin memasang sendiri. Harga mulai dari Rp 470.000/m2.

Pemasangan dan Perawatan Rubber Flooring

Anda bisa memasang rubber flooring sendiri dengan panduan yang diberikan oleh KFI Sport. Pastikan untuk membersihkannya secara rutin agar tetap awet.

Rubber Flooring di Kota-Kota Besar di Indonesia Kota-kota seperti Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, dan Yogyakarta sudah menggunakan rubber flooring di berbagai fasilitas olahraga, seperti lapangan basket di GBK Jakarta dan GOR UNY di Yogyakarta.

Kesimpulan dan FAQ Rubber flooring dari KFI Sport adalah solusi tepat untuk Anda yang membutuhkan lantai tahan lama, aman, dan nyaman. Hubungi kami di WhatsApp untuk info lebih lanjut!

Ingin mendapatkan lantai karet berkualitas terbaik untuk ruang Anda? Kunjungi hargarubberflooring.blogspot.com untuk pilihan produk dan informasi lebih lanjut. Jika ada pertanyaan, jangan ragu untuk menghubungi kami di https://wa.me/6281320008163 Pesan sekarang dan ciptakan suasana yang sempurna untuk ruang Anda!

[teddy-bear-naps-and-random-snaps]

[lifestyleblogeruk]

Elevate Your Game with Elite Floors LTD: The Ultimate Sports Flooring Solution

When it comes to excelling in sports, having the right playing surface is paramount. Elite athletes know the significance of a top-notch sports flooring system that not only enhances performance but also minimizes the risk of injuries. Enter Elite Floors LTD, a leading provider of sports flooring solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and sports facilities alike. In this blog, we will explore the array of high-quality sports flooring options offered by Elite Floors LTD and why they are the go-to choice for gymnasiums, athletic facilities, and indoor sports surfaces.

Elevating Performance with Sports Flooring

At Elite Floors LTD, we understand that an exceptional sports flooring system can make all the difference in elevating your game. Whether it's basketball, volleyball, soccer, or tennis, each sport demands specific attributes from the surface beneath your feet. Our sports flooring solutions are carefully designed to cater to the unique demands of each game, ensuring optimal performance and player safety.

The Versatility of Gymnasium Flooring

Gymnasiums serve as multipurpose spaces, hosting various sports and events. Elite Floors LTD offers versatile gymnasium flooring options that can withstand the rigors of multiple activities without compromising performance. Our multi-purpose sports floors are engineered to provide a perfect balance of shock absorption and energy return, reducing the strain on athletes and maximizing their potential.

Performance-Driven Athletic Flooring

Athletes push their bodies to the limit, and our athletic flooring systems do the same for your game. The specially crafted surfaces not only enhance athletic performance but also mitigate the risk of common sports-related injuries. With Elite Floors LTD's sports performance surfaces, you can focus on honing your skills, confident in the support provided by our cutting-edge flooring technology.

Safeguarding with Indoor Sports Surfaces

Indoor sports surfaces require a unique set of features to ensure the safety of players and durability of the flooring. Our indoor sports surfaces are designed to resist wear and tear, withstand heavy foot traffic, and deliver consistent ball bounce, making them ideal for intense indoor sports like basketball and volleyball.

Court Flooring: Paving the Way to Victory

The foundation of any successful court is the quality of its flooring. Elite Floors LTD provides top-of-the-line court flooring solutions that cater to various sports, including basketball court flooring and volleyball court surfaces. Our innovative designs contribute to better grip, quick movements, and reduced impact on joints, giving you the edge you need to secure victory on the court.

Synthetic Sports Flooring: A Sustainable Choice

Sustainability is a key consideration in today's world. At Elite Floors LTD, we offer synthetic sports flooring options that not only deliver on performance but also align with environmental values. Our synthetic floors are made from eco-friendly materials, offering a durable, low-maintenance, and sustainable alternative for your sports facility.

Rubber Sports Flooring: Impact-Resistant and Resilient

The shock-absorbent nature of rubber sports flooring makes it an excellent choice for high-impact sports. Our rubber sports flooring provides the right balance of cushioning and stability, reducing the strain on joints and muscles during rigorous workouts or competitive matches.

Setting the Standard for Sports Facility Flooring

Elite Floors LTD sets the standard for sports facility flooring, providing unmatched quality, durability, and performance. Whether you operate a community sports center, university gymnasium, or professional training facility, our sports flooring solutions are designed to withstand heavy usage while delivering consistent results.

Fitness Center Flooring: Supporting Your Workout Regime

Fitness centers require flooring that can endure the demands of various exercise routines. Our fitness center flooring solutions offer slip-resistance, shock absorption, and noise reduction, creating a comfortable and safe workout environment for fitness enthusiasts of all levels.

Sports Hall Flooring: Creating the Perfect Arena

A well-designed sports hall deserves equally impressive sports hall flooring. Elite Floors LTD offers customizable options to suit your specific requirements, making the arena not only visually appealing but also high-performing and safe for athletes and spectators alike.

Tennis Court Surfaces: Enhancing Your Aces

For tennis enthusiasts, having the right court surface is essential for consistent play. Elite Floors LTD's tennis court surfaces offer excellent ball response, consistent bounce, and optimal grip, ensuring your game reaches its full potential.

Conclusion

Elite Floors LTD stands at the forefront of the sports flooring industry, providing an extensive range of solutions for diverse sporting needs. From basketball court flooring to fitness center flooring, our dedication to quality, performance, and safety is unwavering. Elevate your game and experience the difference that Elite Floors LTD can make in your sports facility or gymnasium today.

Contact us now for top-notch sports flooring installation and take your sports endeavors to new heights!

[terrainfloorings123]

“Terrain Floorings – Indoor & Outdoor Sports Rubber Flooring in UAE”

Indoor and Outdoor sports flooring solutions are one of our largest divisions, the Terrain® Sport range is known for its versatility, comfort, and durability. Every Terrain® product in this range is made using the finest materials and processes to meet exact requirements.

Elevate your game with Terrain® Sports Pro. All products in this sports flooring range are optimized to deliver world-class performance and comfort for both athletes and amateurs alike. They are great for a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports courts and multi-sport arenas.

[fruitless-vain]

hi! do you have any ideas on how to reward a dog who doesn't have any strong motivators? Treats are the only thing that work but he doesn't really care if there is something else he wants, doesnt care for toys, pets are ignored. I just have no idea what other rewards could be used

Id take a good look at Why the dogs motivation seems to be lacking, what environment it tanks in, and ensure to keep an eye out for things like stressors, overstimulation, fear, met needs, and other variables that may impact a dog’s comfort taking treats or exhibiting play behaviour. Things like illness or pain should also be considered as a factor for a lack of motivation (schedule their annual and take a good look at their behaviour and their movement- do they sit sloppy, pop hip often, hunch back, etc. these can all be more overlooked signs of pain!). Breed can also be a factor as some are more self motivated than people pleasing so their motivation tends to just look a bit different!

I'd also be curious to know if this dog has always been disinterested or if this has cropped up over time. A common factor for decreasing motivation is the fact that training itself has become unfun. Usually as a result of asking too much of the dog too fast, not paying them adequately for the work they're doing, working in far too complicated settings, too many competing reinforcers, getting frustrated during the session, using rewards to lure a dog towards feared things or simply having training sessions run on for too long where the dog then ends sessions feeling bored or tired. This can cause even the most active dog to become averse to training as a whole which can present itself as an aversion or lack of interest in many common rewards.

Additionally see what sorts of environments the dog is comfortable being rewarded in, perhaps they take treats okay in a certain room of the home but not outside. This can give us a lot of info and allow us to start in an environment they can succeed in and gradually shift to other environments with more complex challenges (like the competing reinforcers you mentioned)

Reinforcers can be Anything the dog actually wants. The sky is really the limit here. I can stick a treat in every dogs mouth and it’s not going to help anything if the dog itself doesn’t find that treat rewarding. Some options might be:

Treats- experiment with different types and textures. Smelly cheeses, hotdog, and sausage are common high value snacks that can help increase motivation in difficult situations but all dogs are different and some might find a satisfying crunch of a crispy biscuit more rewarding. Try new things and see what they gravitate towards. Additionally watch the way you deliver the reward, a common mistake is to push the treat in towards the dog's nose- this can be off-putting as you add spatial pressure which over time can cause a dog to refuse to take treats altogether. Instead try to offer the treat a distance away from their nose so they step towards it to take it (also watch for things like the way you hold your hand, some dogs may find a hand looming down with the treat threatening while a hand held below nose level with the palm up to be nicer to take treats from). You can also deliver treats in more engaging ways instead of just handing it to them. Toss it in the air for them to catch, roll it along the floor to chase, scatter a few pieces in grass, have them chase and follow the hand for a bit prior to releasing the treat. Make getting the treats a whole Experience!

Toys- rubber toys, canvas, biting, chasing, squeakers, tug. There's a ton of options. Not all dogs like playing in the middle of training as it breaks their focus but others live for it. While not for every dog I will say that playing is a good measure for a dog's comfort. If, for example, you can play tug indoors and have a fun time but the dog is unable to play tug at all outdoors that tells us the dog doesn't feel comfortable enough to exhibit that behaviour. That's information we can use!

Petting- Not my favourite thing to use, affection isn't really something you want to be bargaining off in exchange for favours but it has its uses. A fearful dog may love some pets to help comfort them and reduce that fear response, some affection can also go a long way in just grounding your dog and keeping a training session light and fun. A bit of a social fun break. There's definitely some dogs that can appreciate a pet as a reinforcer and they can work in a pinch if other reinforcers aren't available.

Sniffs- Not something you want to overuse as sniffing is a fundamental part of how dogs explore the world but an excellent way to shift to self reinforcing fundamentals like loose leash walking. Most dogs love a good sniff, your hound types especially, and you can use that to your advantage as you ask for a behaviour and then release them to go snuffle away. Sniffing is also a calming behaviour that can reduce heart rate and build confidence in their environment which can reduce issues like not taking treats outdoors in the first place.

Speed- A lot of dogs find human walking paces slow and frustrating (a common cause for leash pulling) so you may find that in outdoor environments you can reward your dog by simply jogging for a short burst. The speed is fun and enticing and as such can often become quite the powerful reward.

Personal play + Volume - Whether this be the opportunity to howl and bark or you getting loud and excited with them. Sometimes a dog may not be interested in toys but they may be interested in your engagement. This might be baby talking to them in a happy tone or fully getting down on their level to wrestle and bop around or perhaps running away and having them chase you. A different way to initiate play for those disinterested in toys.

Premack's Principle - When you are dealing with competing reinforcers most people will find they lose this battle where whatever you have is not as valuable as what the dog actually wants (chasing a squirrel perhaps). In many cases you cannot fight instinct and genetics with a piece of cheese. At least not without prepwork. This is where Premack's Principle comes in to play, where a dog is able to do a less desirable behaviour (ignoring the squirrel) in exchange for a more desirable behaviour (getting to go chase the squirrel). You can use the thing you're struggling with to reinforce what you'd rather see. Another example may be having your dog a distance away from other dogs, waiting for eye contact and then releasing them to go greet the dog. Over time this could cause an exciteable greeter to offer frequent eye contact to you whenever they spot a dog in anticipation of getting to go greet the other dog which is a nice alternative to barking or pulling. Practically everything your dog would Rather Be Doing you can use as a reward for what You would rather they be doing.

I'd also take a look in to "engagement games" online, there should be a load of force free resources out there for ways to make yourself more engaging and fun which can really help in encouraging a dog to be more excited to train. Strong foundations in how they view interacting with you and training as a whole can really go a long way in impacting motivators and training results.

There's a whole lot more to consider and a ton of more complex things that could be at play but without knowing your dog personally I'll leave this here for you to ponder and play with!

[the-purity-pen]

Lights Out

Santiago Garcia x AFAB!Reader (no y/n)

rating: EXPLICIT (NO MINORS)

warnings: oral (afab receiving), fluff and feels (be warned)

words: 2.9k

a/n: this comes from a request from my lovely bestie @flightlessangelwings. it uh... well it got away from me a bit and therefore is a full fic. talk about coming back to tumblr fanfic writing with a vengence. sorry not sorry.

The storm outside was loud. So loud that every boom of thunder felt like it was shaking your entire house. You held your cat on your lap while on the couch, curled up with your favorite blanket, and the television turned on to the romance movie you had started earlier in the week. The plus side to working for the small town bar was that your boss, your best friend, didn’t force you to come in during storms.

The unexpected night off meant you got comfy in a large oversized t-shirt and soft cotton sleep shorts. Which was the call for the blanket as the temperature outside cooled down more than you were expecting. Your calico Ellie also helped keep you warm as she purred on your lap.

The lights flickered, but nothing else seemed affected, so you ignored it and returned to watching the movie. After months of built-up flirting, the male protagonist had just gotten the nerve to kiss the female protagonist. His hand on her chin made goosebumps rise along your skin. You were hopelessly romantic and loved all those movies and seeing the characters kiss for the first time. It was electric, and you always dreamed of having that for yourself.

The lights flickered three more times in rapid succession before everything went dark. Even though your heart rate elevated with anxiety, you managed a breath before muttering, “Damn it,” and getting up from your comfortable spot. Ellie gave a soft chirping meow to let you know that she didn’t like being moved, but she managed to get to the other end of the couch and curl back up to sleep. You shook your head at her before heading to the kitchen. In one of the drawers, you dug through the piles of receipts and take-out menus, rubber bands, and scotch tape until you found the little purple sparkly flashlight.

Just as you pull it out to turn it on, a loud knock at your door makes you jump—your heart races as you try to steady your breathing. You get the flashlight turned on just before you reach your front door. You peeked out the top window from your tiptoes just enough to see the top of a head covered in onyx-colored curls. You opened the door to find Santiago, your neighbor, soaked to the bone and panting.

“Santi,” you sighed as you lowered the flashlight and stepped back to allow him inside. His head is lowered as he steps in but remains on the indoor welcome mat, seemingly trying not to drip water all over your hardwood floor. You closed the door, rushed to the oven to grab the hand towel, and handed it to him. He offered a soft “thanks” while drying his face and arms.

“Well, I see you’re out of power too,” Santi mentions as he stands up straighter and looks around your living room with a soft chuckle, then back to you.

“Just lost it. Interrupted my movie too,” you offer with a soft laugh; turning off the flashlight as the moon glows from outside is enough to see Santi as you converse.

After an awkward silence, Santi hands the now-damp towel back to you, and you put it on the counter beside you.

“Didn’t know if you and Ellie needed anything,” he finally spoke after clearing his throat. His brows lifted as he looked at you. Even in the dark, there was no denying how handsome Santi was. Add in how wonderful of a neighbor he had been over the last year since you moved in, and he was pretty accurately the perfect man.

He had helped change the spark plugs in your car, repaired the front gutter, helped build your back deck, and replaced the upstairs bath’s faucet. All for free. He never asked for anything in return except for some free pastries when he’d stop by your bakery. You couldn’t say no. His sweet tooth was like no other, and for the rugged man he appeared to be, knowing he had a soft spot for your cupcakes and brownies made you just that little bit mushier.

“It’s fine. We’ve survived worse,” you commented, a wry laugh being pulled from you. The words and meanings were heavier than you intended them to be. Santi seemed to catch on as he stared after you, watching you move further into the kitchen.

“Did you want some water?” you offered as you reached into the cupboard for two glasses. The fridge, thankfully, still worked for a few minutes after a power outage. You knew it would eventually run out of the reserved energy to keep things cold, but at least you had the water jug in there.

“Sure,” Santi answered, wiping his feet before venturing toward you over at the sink. But as he waited, he did so very close to the side of the fridge. You turned after filling the first glass and bumped into him with your elbow, causing the cold water to splash onto you, eliciting a shriek.

“Oh! Shit, I’m so sorry,” Santi started apologizing and immediately grabbed the towel from the counter you had let him use. He started patting you down with it, but the dampness of the towel from his usage and the cold water already absorbing into your shirt caused you to shiver and shake your head. You set the glass on the counter by the fridge and mumbled to him that you were okay. He handed you the towel but stood dumbfounded as he watched you.

“Are you sure? Can I get you something else? Where are your other towels?” he asked rapidly before hurrying around the kitchen, opening drawers and cabinets to find something else to dry you off.

“Santi,” you said with a laugh. “I’m good. Let me get changed. Help yourself to the water, though. I’ll be right back.”

You disappeared around the corner and down the hall. Stripping off the T-shirt once in your bedroom, you opened your wardrobe to find... nothing else in the comfort level to be worn. Your dirty laundry was still in the washer in the basement, and you hadn’t switched it over to the dryer before the storm. You mentally and physically facepalmed. “Great,” you muttered before closing the drawer and moving to your closet. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but it would have to do.

Walking back out toward the kitchen, fiddling with the buttons on your ex’s dress shirt, you didn’t notice Santi had moved, and you ran head-first into his solid chest. “Whoa,” he laughed, his arms coming out to steady your shoulders. His hands were warm on your cold skin, even through the shirt's material.

You swallowed thickly as you looked up at him. The moment was fleeting, but it was there, and you swore you saw the sparkle in his deep brown eyes. But perhaps that was just the lights flickering back on. You heard all the machines in your kitchen turn on, and it must have cleared Santi’s mind because he, too, backed away and cleared his throat.

“Well, look at that,” he said and nodded slowly, looking around to see everything turn back on - including the television. The movie must have paused when the power went out because it picked right back up where it had left off. The two main characters were getting into their kissing, and the music was swelling, indicating which direction things were going in.

“Oh!” you shouted as the moans from the actors started to fill the room and romantic close-ups of their bodies began to show on the screen. You practically fumbled and ran from Santi to find the remote. The moaning and panting got louder, and you swore the remote was on the couch. You bent in strange ways, trying to see it, lifting the blanket from where it had crumpled, and felt your heart racing faster and faster with each passing moment.

Santi looked on, bemused, a smirk on his lips, taking a mental note of what kind of movies you enjoyed. Was it because he wanted to know you a bit better? Yes. Was it also because the noises from the tv sounded erotic and affected him? Also yes. And how you bent over at one certain angle, perhaps giving him the slightest hint of the bottom of your backside? Absolutely yes.

He walked over after you seemed to be failing at locating the remote. “Can I help?” he asked, standing closer to the tv, the actors getting into the steamy sex scene now. You could barely hear him over the thumping in your ears from your heart. Where the fuck did that little remote go, and why was there so much moaning on the television now?

You turned and saw Santi watching the tv as the sex scene played. It was rather raunchy for being a romance film, but it was steamy and sexy, and you swallowed thickly. You cleared your throat, staring at how Santi watched the scene play out.

“What movie is this?” he asked before facing you and noticing you staring at him.

Caught off guard, you stumbled through an answer. “Oh, uh, it’s just some romance movie based on a book series.” Vague, yes. Keep it vague.

Santi’s smirk took over, and your knees would buckle if it were a romance movie like the one on your screen. He was so ruggedly handsome, and you were brought back to just a few minutes before when his hands were on you. The feeling had this moment of staring at each other, turning you into a puddle. Especially as Santi moved away from the tv and toward you, his head cocked to one side, seemingly studying you.

“Do you like romance novels? And movies?”

There was no judgment, no mocking in his tone. He was genuinely asking. You quickly ran through the scenarios of what a yes answer and a denying no answer could look like. You opted for honesty. After all, other than your crush on him, your neighborly friendship with him had always been honest and straightforward.

You nodded as he moved closer and now stood directly before you. His nod was much slower than yours, thoughtful, and you noticed all of the stubble along his jaw. That hadn’t been there the last time you had seen him. But it suited him. His hand gently came up in front of your chest but paused, his eyes searching yours. Your gaze flicked from his eyes to his lips and back as your head gently nodded.

His rough, calloused hand ghosted in front of your chest and to your jawline. The contrast of the feel of his hand against your jaw and your skin caused both of you to take shuddering breaths in. “So you enjoy the idea of being kissed… softly?” Santi asked, his soft, graveling tone sending a shiver down your body.

Your heart felt like it had jumped into your throat, making words hard to come out. Instead, you nodded and breathed in, holding it. Your gaze on Santi was soft but begging him to move even closer. You had wanted to feel his kiss for so long, but you didn’t know that he even had an inkling of romantic feelings toward you.

“May I?”

The question surprised you. Santi didn’t seem the type to ask. You had seen him with women at the neighborhood picnics and gatherings. He always seemed so in control and cocky. The first time you officially introduced yourself to him, his smirk nearly made you hate him because he looked so full of himself.

But it was becoming more apparent that that was a facade, and with that, you nodded and mumbled a soft “please” in answer. His look was pure contentment as he leaned in, his hand sliding over to hold your chin and lifting it ever so slightly. He leaned in, his lips nearly at yours before he spoke, causing you to whimper.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you for six months.”

You blinked and looked up at him. Your face did a slight double take, blinking harder.

“What?”

“I came over to help you fix more stuff because I had this ridiculous fantasy of coming over sometime and finding you half-dressed. I’d take you on the couch and devour you, tasting all of you. Like some romance movie,” he admitted, and your entire body became alight with lust. You couldn’t even stop your hands as they lifted to his fitted t-shirt and gripped the front of it, pulling him to you so that his lips had no choice but to land on yours.

The groans he let out let you know that you had done something right in taking the first move. His free hand slid down the side of your body to your hip, where his rough fingertips dug into your flesh, crumpling the shirt. You took a step back, tugging him with you until your knees buckled at the couch, and you both landed, Santi’s knee on the left side of you on the sofa.

Your hands moved up to his face, cupping his scruffed jaw. His lips chased yours, but you had other plans as you held his face and moved your lips along his cheek and to the soft spot behind his ear. Your tongue played against it, licking him before moving to his jugular. His hand on your chin slid down to cup your breast through the shirt, and you moaned, arching your back into his touch.

“Oh, that’s what you like, hm?” he breathed out, moving his face down to echo the licking and nibbling at your neck that you had just done to him. His smirk could be felt against your skin as you mewled in pleasure.

Hands moved all over; mouths continued to explore the upper parts of your bodies until they were reunited again in a heavier, hotter, more passionate kiss. Santi’s hand trailed down your body to between your legs, where he found your moist center. He groaned, his thumb pressing gently against the sensitive button that had your hips wildly thrusting toward him. His hand continued to move but in such a teasing manner that it was starting to frustrate you. Just having his body on yours was better than anything, but having his hand at your most needed part was already better than all your nights with your toys.

His mouth ventured down, suckling at your breast through the shirt, moistening it before moving down until he was on his knees on the floor in front of the couch and you. His hands slid up your thighs, pushing the oversized shirt out of his way. He leaned in, kissing up one thigh, then, when he barely reached your apex, his mouth moved to the other, starting the trail north.

“God, Santi, please,” you murmured, a mumble. Your brain was working on overdrive that this man would do this to live out the fantasy he had admitted to you.

His hands worked down your shorts and panties in one fell swoop. A master at undressing you already. Either that, or you were just that needy and desperate. He leaned in the moment he saw the glistening of your sex. His tongue swiping along your slit, bottom to top, your hands nestled into his curls.

“Santi.” You breathed out his name in pants and moans, and he was done for. His mouth closed over your warm cunt, lapping at you before stiffening his tongue and pressing into you. The curl of the muscle of his tongue pushing into you had your breath catching in your throat. His mouth was magic, and you were sure to come undone quickly.

But just as your peak nearly hit, your hips pressing up against his face, he pulled back, his hands pushing your hips back down. “Oh, baby. Not yet. I want to see you crumble and hear you scream, but I want to keep tastin’ you. I want to know that I’m making you shudder and shiver from pleasure. Okay?”

You whine, but if the last few minutes were any indication, Santi had no plans to leave the space between your legs soon. His tongue gently licked at you, to which you shuddered from sensitivity. His hands worked in slow circles on your thighs, and when his mouth wasn’t against you, his eyes were studying his fingers played gently against your clit, watching the way you would tense and clench around nothing.

And you were right. Three orgasms from his lips and mouth alone later, Santi finally comes up for air, his scruff glistening with your wetness. You reach out for him and pull his head up to you so that you can lean forward and capture his lips against yours. You moan at the taste of yourself on his tongue and in his mouth as you deepen the kiss.

When you broke the kiss, Santi leaned his forehead against yours to catch his breath. “I.. am not done with you,” he grinned as he kissed you chastely and pulled back. Showing you the wicked grin on his lips and the devilish glint in his dark eyes. You laughed and shook your head.

“You really shouldn’t wait six months to kiss me next time,” you quipped. His chuckle seemed to rumble deep into his chest.

“Oh, so you’re sassy too, huh?” he laughed as his hands gently tickled your sides before sliding one up to hold your chin again to you could look directly into his eyes.

“I’m never waiting to kiss you ever again. Ever,” he told you sternly, the laughter dying off as his lips retook yours in a soft, gentle, but firm kiss.

[twst-drabbles]

Ignihyde 6

Summary: Idia’s not quite better but he refuses to stay in his room, so you wrapped him in a fireproof blanket and took him to see little Ortho.

If there was one trick you’ve learned to have feral pets become comfortable around your presence, it’s to wrap said critter up in a blanket and take them everywhere you can. Though, honestly, having Idia snug against your chest as you walked up the stairs was more the result of Idia wandering in places he shouldn’t. His panicky nature makes you a bit paranoid that he’ll start a house fire.

The will o’ the wisp shrieked when your hand reached out to the doorknob, though it wasn’t as loud as it was when he came to consciousness. Nor was his flame as sparking. He burned you but that was your fault for thinking he’d be knocked out for longer.

You bobbed his blanket-covered head. “It’s just my hand. Calm down.”

He didn’t struggle to get your hand off. You looked down to see him staring up at you with his little jewel eyes. Honestly, you didn’t think they’d show any sort of emotion, precious stones as they are, but you can tell he’s not maddened with paranoia and panic. Just, mild discomfort as most. Kinda like when Jade and Floyd gave into their fate of being held by you.

“Hey,” you inclined your head through the doorway, “take a look. It’s Ortho.”

Ortho, on the other hand, took to you very quickly. And as such, you trust him to wander about without making accidents happen. His tank was open just a crack in case he couldn’t take the indoor air and the entirety of the floor was covered in various pillows and blankets so the little flame doesn’t hurt himself.

Off to the side, you heard a weak squeak before a light ghostly cough trailed after it. Somehow or another, Ortho managed to construct a mini fortress right next to the tank using the blankets. One hand was gripping it, like he was trying to drag it inside his tank.

Idia, upon seeing his sickly little brother, started to shuffle and squirm. You patted him back down when he tried to squeeze out of your grip.

“Nope, not yet. He’s still sick.” You’ve watched Idia care for the Ortho to the point of stressing both himself and his brother. The smaller wisp was still in a delicate period and you don’t want to set his recovery back. “But see? He’s doing alright. I didn’t do anything bad to him.”

As though to placate him, Ortho did a small wave before crawling right back into the tank, apparently giving up on trying to get his fortress in there. He closed the glass lid before collapsing on his various sheets and toys you’ve found buried in your closet. He kicked up a rubber ball before just collapsing on a nearby wrinkle.

“Well,” you smoothed Idia’s head when he retreated deeper into your grip, “he tuckered himself out. What about you?”

All you heard was a wispy sigh. Seems his nerves were all tied up until now. You should put him back to bed.

[macadam]

i understand your plight with transformers wearing fabrics. whenever i read about ‘berths’ and their blankets i can’t help but think abt how those fuckers are definitely tearing up their sheets & blankets all the time.. it takes me hours to get into a sleeping position that’s comfortable there’s no way those guys aren’t destroying their beds. the only other options is metal beds (and metal blankets i guess) but the screeching sounds of metal on metal… and then the only blankets i can imagine for tfs that aren’t cloth are aluminum and then i think abt the sounds aluminum make… if you’re a tf the only thing you can do to go to bed is just lay down and never move!!!! nightmarish

I have lost the battle against rubber cloth but with that knowledge I can now create a new head canon that transformers sleep in a pile of cut up rubber. Like the upcycled chopped up tires that are used to line the floor at indoor rock climbing places. It's soft (relatively) and you don't have to worry about tearing it to shreds because it comes pre torn-to-shreds.

Added bonus: they look like little guys sitting in packing peanuts

[ebongawk]

40! 🫡

40. “One of us is clearly smarter than the other.”

"What are you doing?"

Eddie was crouched down next to the cabinet under the kitchen sink. The Walkman in his ears was blasting delicious guitar licks – thank you so much Kirk Hammett for being a fucking god on the strings – and it was loud enough that he hadn't heard the front door open.

But Chrissy's cheerleader screech was enough to interrupt the beautiful guitar solo in Battery.

Chrissy was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, her eyes wide and terrified as she looked down at the bottles in his hands.

Fuck. She wasn't supposed to be home yet! She ruined her own fucking surprise!

Like, okay. So he and Chrissy had been dating for all of, like, two months when her mother found out. And living in the Cunningham home post-major freakout had been a soul-sucking ordeal for his tiny, badass little girlfriend. When it became clear that, no matter what that walking hemorrhoid of a woman had to say, Laura Cunningham could not convince Chrissy to break up with Eddie, she'd kicked her out.

She'd literally kicked her own daughter out for her dating life.

What an absolute cunt. (And Eddie did not use that term lightly.)

Of course she was gonna move into the trailer. Neither Eddie nor Wayne would have allowed her to get put up somewhere that wasn't gonna take care of her. They weren't insane.

The only problem being that their beautiful Forest Hills home had been housing two half-feral bachelors for the past twelve years. It wasn't, as realtors might say, move-in ready.

Too fucking bad that Eddie didn't realize the actual state of their unintentional and overlooked squalor until beautiful, squeaky clean and shiny Chrissy was sitting in the '70s-style bungalow living room.

Okay. Okay. Benefit of the doubt, he and Wayne were tidy. Like, whatever, there were a few stray food wrappers littering the floor and the trash was about three days overdue for a haul to the dumpster and maybe his bedroom was more beer cans and cigarette butts than it was fresh linens. But, whatever. It looked clean.

And then Eddie really looked. He really saw the rust and mildew stains in the tub and stains on the carpet that gave it kind of a grimy feel and the walls he and Wayne had kind of dyed yellow due to indoor cigarette smoke.

So, after waiting three weeks for Chrissy to actually make all-day plans with someone that wasn't him, Eddie decided to take advantage of the empty house and fucking clean.

Based purely on hazy memories of what to use from when his mother was alive, of course.

However, Chrissy's abject terror and screamed exclamation at his actions had him second-guessing his existence for a second there.

"Uh," he said, using one rubber glove-clad hand to yank the headphones from his ears. "Cleaning?"

Chrissy blinked. "Cleaning?" The pure disbelief in her tone stung a little. Like. Okay. So he wasn't the most kempt boy in town. No need to be fucking rude about it, sunshine.

"Yeah?" He looked down at the plastic bucket he'd unearthed from under a pile of Wayne's Nam blues. Who fucking knew how long it'd been hiding back there. "That alright with you?"

"You're gonna clean with that?" she verified, pointing at the open bottle in his hand. The one he was about to dump intoaforementioned bucket.

"Yeah?"

"Eddie. Is there something already in the bucket?"

Clear liquid winked up at him, little specs of dust floating around in it. Because he'd rinsed the bucket, of-fucking-course, but, like, not all that well.

"I don't see what that has to do with the conversation," he replied after a second, feeling somehow like a kid who'd been caught about to stick a fork in a live socket.

"Eddie."

"Chrissy."

"Is there bleach in that bucket?"

She looked pointedly down at the already opened gallon of bleach next to the bucket.

"Mmmmaybe?" he squeaked, looking down beneath his knees. "I was going to clean the floors. I thought it'd be okay to put bleach on the tile since, y'know, I have no idea what color they're supposed to be, anyway."

Chrissy hummed. "And, um, were you going to mix that in with the bleach?" She gestured again to the bottle in his hand. Eddie looked down at it, still taken aback.

"I mean." He shrugged. "I, uh, remember my mom using vinegar a lot when she cleaned."

At that, her eyes softened. She let out a little huff of laughter before crouching down next to him, gently easing the vinegar from his grasp. He let it go willingly, still so, so confused.

"Eddie," she sighed, tangling their fingers together and bringing his knuckles up to brush her lips against. "What do you get when you mix bleach and vinegar?"

"A very powerful cleaning ingredient." Though his confidence was definitely waning at this point.

She let out an adorable little giggle.

"Chlorine, Eddie. You get chlorine."

Oh.

Well. That would've been objectively hilarious, actually.

"So I'm right," he verified, eyebrows raised. "It's a very powerful cleaning ingredient."

"Oh my God."

"Y'know," he continued, gesturing between them with his occupied hand. “One of us is clearly smarter than the other.” He winked, pointing at himself and mouthing 'me' at her.

She laughed, rolling her eyes and standing. Pulling him to his feet by their clasped hands, she took in his ratty old t-shirt and sweatpants with interest.

"What's with the sudden cleaning bug, anyway?"

Bashful, Eddie gave another little shrug, half-turning away under the guise of surveying the trailer around them.

"I just, uh. Just–– y'know, wanted you to, like, want to be here and shit. And if getting my hands a little dirty to make you feel more comfortable is what it takes, then––"

"Did I do something that made you think I don't want to be here?" she asked, her voice soft and timid all of the sudden. Taking on that expression that meant she was about three-point-seven seconds away from a thought spiral.

"No, sweetness, no," Eddie assured her, taking her free hand in his and pulling her close. "I just wanted to, like, do something nice. Make this place feel more like a home and not, uh. A tobacco-infused pig sty."

Chrissy relaxed against him, her ear at the perfect height to hear the gentle thumping of his heart in his chest.

The one that beat just for her.

"You don't have to do that for me."

"I want to," he stressed, maneuvering her until he could press his lips to her forehead. "And I was waiting for you to be gone to do it."

"Nancy and Robin are outside. I just forgot my wallet."

"Skedaddle then!" He let go of her hands, grabbing her wallet off the counter and shoving it into her arms. She let out a bewildered squeak as he shuffled her toward the door. "Out with ye! I've got a witch's brew to make! A solvent to make the walls shine!"

"Don't––" She gasped in delight when he swooped down for another goodbye kiss. Then another. And a third as he struggled to unlatch the door. "Don't mix bleach and vinegar!"

Door opened, a quick wave to Robin and Nancy as he said, "No promises!"

"Eddie!"

"Love you, sweetness! Have fun!"

"If I come home and you're dead I'm gonna kill you!"

ask meme

[trivialbob]

Pardon my dirty old slippers.

It's time to retire these. I'm sad to see them go. Haflingers are the most comfortable footwear I've ever owned. I wore these around the house so much that after a while walking on hardwood floors in socks didn't feel right.

When I bought my first pair I returned them after a day. The fit didn't feel right after I got home. The salesman brought out an identical set, in the exact same size. He explained that there could be small differences between pairs. I brought this second pair home and they were perfect.

Minor differences or just the placebo effect?

At first I only wore them inside. Then I left them on when walking out to the mailbox. Eventually I wore them for quick trips to the grocery store. By that point I probably should have stopped wearing them indoors. But they were so comfortable they had to work double shifts.

Now they're falling apart. The wool upper is separating from the cork bed. The rubber bottom layer has worn down to different layers. I have gotten my money's worth out of these for sure.

I'm wearing the replacement pair now.

[ticklish-touch]

Trapped in the Backrooms - Ch 7: Lunacy

(Group tickling, chasing, rubber/latex, mild furry tickling, macro, hypnosis)

You're thrown into an environment exuding with a different type of madness. All the bright colors, intricate places to explore, goofy music and reminders of childhood nostalgia are quite a stark contrast from all the dreary, foreboding Levels you've been experiencing. And it appears there are plenty of others who want to play along with you. Why not stay here and indulge in your silly side? Why not forget about your fear and your worries? You could have fun forever!!

(Chapter themes:

“A Friend Like Me” (Electroswing Remix): https://youtu.be/xqW-Hfk0FN0?t=8

"The title is TOO LONG to write here" - t+pazolite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmRjc9VscGs

Toon World (Metal Cover) - Maxine Solemn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEJn_SXeqlM )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          “AAAAAAA-"

          To put it bluntly, you ended up with a faceful of balls. More specifically, you crash-landed into a ballpit. 

          Scrambling back up to the surface, you rubbed your head. "UGH- You JERK!!" You shouted back at the slide exit. You then turned to see that the pit stretched on and on into a pitch-black expanse. "Whoa..." You were hit with a sense of nostalgia, and wary caution. After all, anything could be lurking around under here. But for now, you pushed forward, sometimes 'swimming' your way through. Thankfully the plastic balls were so brightly-colored that you could see a few yards ahead.

          "Hey Rag-a-doodle!!" You called out after a few minutes. "Where the hell am I supposed to go?! You said this Level's supposed to be fun!!" 

          You were soon answered by the sound of plastic rustling just ahead. You jumped a little, but narrowed your gaze. "I hear you, you brat..." You tried to side-step away from the noise. But the rustling grew louder and you saw a huge lump making its way toward you.

          You backpedaled. Maybe you could catch him - or whatever this thing was - off-guard. You ducked down to hide under the plastic balls, trying to 'swim' in circles around the source of the rustling; Occasionally peeking up to see if you could spot anything.

          The next time you peeked, a massive hand suddenly shot up out of the ballpit, releasing a loud comical squeal, like a squeaky toy. It wasn't Rags' hand, or a Duller, or a Clump. It looked straight out of a rubberhose cartoon, a bright white three-fingered glove wiggling its digits at you.

          “OH jesus–!" You paddled and flailed your way through, trying to get a foothold on some of the balls below you to try and 'run'.

          But it was faster. With a long arm, it grabbed around your waist and torso, and yanked you downward. "WAAAH SHIIIT-!!" It pulled you down and down and down. How freaking deep was this pit?!

          Finally, you fell out through the bottom, landing with a soft thud on a padded blue mat. You took an exasperated breath, peering up at a colorful ceiling ten feet above - with zero sign of a hole or an entry. And no sign of the giant hand.

          "Looks like ya got pretty balls-deep into trouble down there, hehehehe~!" Ragaeli's voice laughed from some kind of overhead intercom system.

          "PFfff- Oh shut up!!" You shouted back. Rolling over to stand upright, you were met with an even more nostalgic sight: You now stood in a massive indoor play park, atop a jungle gym structure. The building was full of these structures, creating a labyrinth that stretched on seemingly endlessly, with blue padded mats on the floors below. Overhead, there was a soft, upbeat jingle, like one would hear in a daycare.

          You felt a big smile come to your face. Might as well have fun here while you could, right? 

          You climbed your way down rope ladders, you crossed wobbly plastic rainbow bridges, you monkey-crawled your way up spiraling steps. Partially to look for exits or portals, but moreso out of the need to explore.

          While you were monkeying around, the intercom system above rang out with a little feedback, before the music changed to the... Willy Wonka theme??

🎶 Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

The amazing chocolatier

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

Everybody give a cheer!🎶

          "Pffff–!” You practically tripped over one of the plush wedges in front of you, laughing. “I know that's you, Rags!!"

          The volume increased.

🎶 He's modest, clever, and so smart

He barely can restrain it,

With so much generosity

There is no way to contain it,

To contain it

To contain, to contain, to contain! 🎶

          You were soon doubled over wheezing like an idiot. When the song stopped, Ragdoll gave a giddy laugh before the intercom cut out.

          Needing a bit of a break after a little while, you slid your way down one of the rainbow slides close to a nearby wall.

          And promptly got shocked by a couple of the round screws. "OUCH- Son of a-!!" That was pretty nostalgic too, for better or for worse.

          Exiting onto the plush, spongy floor, you started walking up to take a look at the walls. They were all painted with murals of cartoon characters. Some of them were old-timey black-and-white characters, others were colorful. A three-headed dragon, a mermaid, a knight, a pirate, a candy princess, a giant smiling flower, personified insects, animals, fruits and veggies, and more. All of them painted in rubberhose style. A couple of them had a sun and moon motif, with lanky characters clad in jester-like attire; orange and blue, respectively. Red and yellow striped pants on the sun figure, starry pants and a night cap on the moon-man.

          You headed over toward the center of the floor, where a ton of tiny tables and chairs were set up. Arts and crafts supplies were strewn about, along with stacks of jumbo-sized building blocks and knockoff legos. A good amount of small, colorful, paper-crafted snakes with googly eyes were draped over chairs and scattered across the floor. How cute! You went up to one to pick it up.

          Its big black pupils moved, looking right at you. "Oh-! Hey, little guy!" You slowly held out your hand. It flicked out its paper tongue at your fingers before slithering into your palm and curling up.

          Little by little, the other snakes came to life, turning their heads and googly eyes towards you, slithering up to the edge of the table and along the floor.

          The snake in your hand started biting your finger gently. Either it thought you were food, or it was just curious. Either way, it was adorable. You patted it on the head with a couple fingers, and it started flicking its tongue and nibbling against your palm. You flinched a little. "Hehey now!"

          The snakes on the floor started following suit, curiously nibbling and 'biting' at your ankles, wrapping up around your leg to start climbing you. It didn't tickle too much, but it was still enough to make you flinch. Some of the snakes on the table tried stretching out towards you, looking at you expectantly. You felt like you were going to get dogpiled by these things…

          And, sure enough, they started leaping onto you. Some of them slithered down your shirt collar, the one in your hands crept up your sleeve, the ones by your ankles nibbled with even more determination. You squealed and stumbled onto one of the tiny chairs, squirming and giggling and trying - carefully - to pick them off of you. Eventually they relented and slithered off.

          A cheery, light voice started giggling from behind you. "Well someone's having fun~!" 

          You spun around to see... A jester of some kind? She appeared to be animated. She had light pink skin, heart-shaped pink hair buns, poofy pants, a heart-shaped gem on her chest, and big pink cartoon gloves and shoes. You could’ve sworn she was one of the murals you’d seen earlier…           She bounced up and down idly on her bendy legs. "Playing by yourself isn't any fun!!" She pouted, folding her hands together and rocking back and forth on her heels shyly. “Don’t ya want a little company?” She had a noticeable accent; either New York or Trans-Atlantic.           You couldn't help but smile. Okay, she was pretty cute. Even despite her uncanny movements. "Awww, of course! What do you want to play?"

          She perked up and immediately ran out of sight for a minute, behind one of the nearby jungle gym cubicles. With a light bap, a large beach ball flew across the floor. The little jester came back out to bump it toward you.

          You humored her by kicking the ball back in her direction; she promptly bounded and frolicked to hit it back, giving excited giggles and claps. You kicked it back and forth for a few minutes, a big smile on your face as the girl pirouetted and pranced across the padded floor. She fascinated you. She was a living cartoon, a 2D-3D blend, not unlike something out of those movies where animated characters meshed with live-action. Her arms and legs could bend and stretch and carry her halfway across the floor if she wanted.

          But soon… The girl’s voice started to become drowned out by a much more sinister voice.

          "Plaaayyyy!!!"           “Awww geez, not now!!” She ran over to hide behind you. Out leapt a huge beast that was a stark contrast from the rest of the colorful environment. It stood over seven feet tall, with a pitch-black body that had a very prominent, latex-like sheen. It had long, spindly claws, a featureless face, visible hip-bones, and pawed feet. It whacked the ball toward you with excessive force, hitting you hard in the shins. "OW-" You stumbled forward on top of it.           “Hehhehehehe, fetch is fun... But time to throw YOU!" It started stalking toward you.

          You did the first thing you could think of: You picked up the ball and chucked it at the entity. It just barely blocked the ball in time with its arm, making impact with a BWAP.           The girl gasped, then burst into giggles. “Pfff-hahahaha!! POW, right in the kisser!” She gave you a high-five.           "Rude!!" it barked, and took the cue to start running at you.           "WaaAAH!!" You darted into the nearest playplace to hide.           The pink jester soon wormed her way into the structure with you. “Pssst, if ya wanna throw it off your trail, look for the bouncy-house!!” She patted your head. “And don’t worry, it won’t actually hurt ya! It can just, uhh… play a little rough,” she giggled nervously. “Now hurry before it catches ya!”           “Wait, are you going to come too?”           She shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll bump into each other again! I’m your new best friend after all!!” Her giggle became a little impish and she vanished out of sight.           You didn’t have time to look for her. You could hear the entity gaining on you, so you hurried through the jungle gym. It kept gaining fast, snaking through the tunnels and over the rope-stairs effortlessly. It managed to grab your shirt and yank your ankles a few times.

          After a few more hasty twists and turns and clambering up and down padded ramps, you finally spotted an entrance to the bounce-house. You weren’t sure if getting into an enclosed space with that thing was any safer, but it was either that, or chance a very complex-looking obstacle course of pylons, rope-swings and slanted walls.

          As soon as your feet hit the bouncy floor, you nearly stumbled forward. “Whoa–!!” It had been quite a while since you’d seen the inside of one of these; the sight immediately filled you with nostalgic, childlike joy. It was huge, with different directions and tunnels you could choose to take. You started to bounce your way forward.

          But the creature quickly followed suit. You heard the thud of its feet bounce up behind you. It effortlessly hoisted you up, and chucked you a good five feet clear into one of the nearby vertical pylons. "OOF-" It was springy enough to break the impact as you plopped face-down onto the bouncy floor. You couldn't help but snort back snickering.

          The entity broke into a wheezy laugh, clapping its hands. And then ran at you, presumably to do it again.           "Wha- HEY!!" You tried and failed to get your footing on the bouncy surface. "I'm not a toy to toss aroOOOUND-!!" 

          "Weeee!!" it cackled as it spun you and tossed you into the nearest wall. You bounced and collapsed like a dead weight. "Staaahahap already!!" At the very least, this thing wasn't trying to hurt you. It really wasn't even throwing you that hard; just enough to make contact with the bouncy interior. Your talisman wasn't even reacting, indicating that it wasn't trying to be malicious. But you weren't going to make it easy for them.           You were able to roll and spring to your feet before it grabbed you again. You saw the beast's claws puncture through the nylon walls to get a better grip and fling itself at you, but the holes closed themselves right up. Before it caught you again, you made a dive for one of the tunnels.

          The next time it caught you, it didn't try to chuck you. It wrapped its lanky arms around you, which shifted to become stretchy, able to wrap around you twice over. It pressed its rubbery body close...And snuck its long spindly fingers up your shirt to scribble its claws against you.

          “YEEE-HEHEHE!!” You immediately blushed and tried to wriggle free from its slippery grip. Those long claws were killer. “S-Staahahap-hahaha!!” You kicked your legs. It let out some kind of low purring sound by your ear.           “Giggly gigglyyy…happyyyy!!” It cooed.

          It wasn't long before the Nightmare finally joined the fray. “COWABUNGAAA!!” He exclaimed before emerging out of one of the nearby walls, back to wearing his signature black-and-red jester's outfit. He even had a Jester hat on!!           ...For all of about five seconds before he did a double-frontflip and took it to jam down on the creature's head.           "AH-!!" It exclaimed, uncoiling its arms from around you and flailing to take it off, with you and Rags laughing at the sight. …For just a moment, before Rags honed his gaze on you and bounced at you.           You yelped and started bouncing away again, with the brat giggling and following after you. “How ‘bout some more mood music?” He snapped his fingers, causing the intercoms to crackle before playing… The Hampster Dance??           You nearly fell over the next bump, wheezing again. “REALLY?!”           The chase became less of a chase and more of a dance party. Rags continued showing off with flips, cartwheels, springing off the walls, crawling up on the ceilings, the both of you bouncing along to the beat of the music. The beast even joined along, spinning in circles like a dog with the zoomies. Both of them would occasionally crash into you, sending you tumbling back against the wall, snorting and bursting into laughter. At one point the Nightmare grabbed the very confused entity to do a square-dance with it along to the music, making you break into hysterics all the more. When the beast caught up, the two of them tussled with each other while also trying to catch up to you. Rags ended up shoving the monster against the squishy bounce-house walls, tickling up and down its sides to make it screech and let out wheezy laughter, writhing back and forth; it turned the attention right back onto the Nightmare, long needly claws tickling up and down his sides and pushing him against the walls to tickle his belly, releasing his hyena screeches. Using their tickle-fight as a chance to escape, you managed to lose them by taking a tunnel off to the side that shot you down a plush, nylon slide.

          The bottom of the slide led down another bounce-house corridor with a series of archways that you would have to duck and crawl under. Hearing Rags and the monster on your tail, you carefully started sneaking your way underneath them…

          But without warning, one of the archways rapidly started to inflate itself and close over you from the shoulders down, causing you to fall onto your back. “WAH- WaitwaitNONO-!” You tried scrambling back, but soon it was too late; you were effectively trapped in place, head and feet exposed, the plush vinyl squeezing against you tightly - not too tight, but certainly leaving no space for wiggle room. Just in time for the Nightmare and the entity to come bouncing into view.           “Uh-ohhh, in a bit of a pinch there, aren’t ya~?” Rags giggled, bouncing over to yank your shoes off, before hopping over you to squat behind your head. The entity crawled forward on all fours, low, devious chuckles rumbling from its chest, making grabby-claws at your feet.           You gulped and tried curling your toes. “H-heyyy now, fellas, two against one isn’t fair, y’know!!”           Rags planted his big hands on the squishy vinyl, his glow becoming brighter… and sending a tickly wave resonating through the material, making the entire arch vibrate over you. You shrieked and your laughter just increased, barely able to squirm from the tickly sensations. “YEE-HEHEHEHE!!”           The entity clasped its hands. “Hehehe, so gigglyyy!! It raked its spindly claws up your soles, which just released another bout of higher-pitched yelps and whines from you, instinctively trying to tug your legs away. Those claws started to scribble faster, underneath the balls of your feet, experimentally tracing your toes and the sides of your heels, rendering you into a complete giggling, whining mess. “Tiiicklesss~ Tickle-toesiesss!!” It playfully taunted.           “Hehehe, your new buddy here was so excited to tickle you to pieces that it didn't even need my persuasion~” Rags snickered. “Let’s show ‘em just how loud you can really scream~” He cracked his knuckles, bringing his hands back down on the squishy nylon, ignoring your protesting and sending another ticklish shock through the material, vibrating and traveling through your belly, ribs, armpits, even wrapping around to create tickly buzzes against your back and hips. You laughed all the more hysterically, face burning brightly, smiling wide and trying - but failing - to escape.           “Hehehehe, coochiecoochiecoochieee~” The creature taunted, which just made you let out a flustered bark, shaking your head and squeezing your eyes shut so that you wouldn’t have to see the Nightmare looming overhead. Didn’t stop the asshole from continuing to toy with you. He skittered his claws over your ears and scalp, making you shiver and blush and glare up at him. He took a comically deep breath before blowing a raspberry onto your air-filled prison, which transferred right down through to your belly. “PPBBFRRRTTT!!”           Your shriek and foiled attempts to flail around were answered by the two of them cackling wildly. You knew they could tell how much you enjoyed this predicament; it felt like you were caught in a nice, tight hug, your mind buzzing with excitement and anticipation from being tickled and teased back and forth by your captors.

          Their team-attack lasted a few more minutes before Rags finally decided to let you go. He plunged his claws into the archway, puncturing it to release enough air to let you worm your way out. After it did, he pulled his fingers away and the holes closed themselves right up, as if the nylon had repaired itself.           The creature scooped you up and hugged you. A deep ‘purring’ rising from its chest again. “Byeeee new friend~ Have fuuun!”           You hugged back, but glanced up at it curiously. “Bye? What do you meeEEEAN-” It pushed you down another tube slide.

          After a brief fall, you plopped down onto a squishy beanbag chair, in the center floor of another jungle gym structure. Faint music was playing from the speakers overhead: Again, something that sounded straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, with strings and brass and goofy sound effects. You hopped back up to your feet to stretch for a moment, before heading off to explore, curiosity throwing all caution out the window.

          You made some good headway on the current jungle gym, climbing up ramped paths… Then you thought you heard hurried scuttling footsteps in one of the cross-sections up ahead. It sounded four-legged. Impish snickering sounds soon followed.           "Hello?" You called out.

          When you didn’t get an answer, you cautiously snuck down the nearby slide, back at ground level to try and squint up into the clear windows of the tubing.           You were soon alerted by the sound of thuds and spring coils making its way around the corner of the play structure behind you, letting out a hearty cackle - sounding a bit like a stereotypical witch cackle.

          You rolled your eyes. "Okay Rags, very funn- Whaaat are you?!" You glanced back to see what you could only describe as a living jack-in-the-box: A huge, rotund jester with a hooked bird-beak and oversized yellow hands. It looked semi-animated, semi-realistic, in a similar manner to the pink jester. It hopped forward in its box, preparing to spring forward at you.

          "NOOO THANK YOU!!" You ran down to the other end and quickly climbed up a series of platforms inside of a large cylinder - too small for the creature to tail you.

          Not a few moments later, you heard more playful, exaggerated giggling, sending you hurrying over to the nearest transparent tube before you had the chance to scout out the different sections of the playplace. Making your way through it, you peered over at the wall in the near distance. It also had painted murals... And even from this distance you could see that they were almost identical to the ones from the first play area. The same rubberhose cartoon characters, just in different poses. All of them seemingly had their gaze locked on you.

          You swallowed, hurrying to the other end; not before turning yourself around to keep your gaze on the murals until they were out of sight.           You came across a set of doors, entering a large room with a ton of big, climbable sculptures. A pirate ship, some bright-colored dinosaurs, a mini fake merry-go-round, a green three-headed dragon, a spooky-looking town emerging from a large green book. There were more murals around the walls of cartoon animals, clowns, monsters and machines. They were similar in appearance to the jack-in-the-box: they all had very cutesy faces, yet they all looked sinister at the same time. Like before, you felt very strongly like they were watching you.

          And one of them was Ragman, striking a stereotypical Egyptian pose, tongue sticking out.           “Wha–” You snorted and walked over to him. “Having fun up there?”           He grinned wider and leapt out of the wall to land on top of one of the buildings in the Halloween town sculpture. “Heheh, it ain’t half bad here! Not like we can teleport anywhere until you find an exit anyways.”           “Wait, really?”           He nodded, pulling up a handful of portals. All of them still showed the same images as before: The jungle gyms with bouncehouses and ballpits. A couple of them even seemed to glitch with static.           “Ah damn…”           Rags shrugged. “We’ve found our way outta worse pickles. B’sides, I bet the other zany little fellas here might be willing to help us out if we play along with ‘em for a while~”           “What do you mean? There’s more creatures like that Bird-in-the-Box?”           He simply poofed away, his giggling echoing in the air. “Better keep your guard up~!”

          Okay, now you were even more suspicious of those paintings. Just as you started to leave, you could swear from the corner of your eye you saw one of them wave at you. Nothing happened when you did a double-take, so you snuck back out... Not seeing one of the characters climb out of the wall and start stalking down the hallway behind you.

          Something about the air of this place made you feel bouncy and energetic; you felt giggles bubbling up in your chest for no real reason. The moment you recalled a funny memory, you sputtered and barely held back laughter. You kind of wanted to go back to the sculpture room and climb around a bit. You wanted to run laps around the jungle gyms like you had the zoomies. Was there laughing gas or something in here?? Or maybe you'd just had such a blast back in the bounce house that you were riding through a spell of mania.

          Your giggling was echoed by another goofy, clownish cackle just ahead. Out peeked a very tall animated rabbit, with very dark purple fur. It had comically oversized hands and feet and a wide buck-toothed smile that made your neck hair stand on end. It tilted its head way over to the side, ears flopping over, giving you an enthusiastic wave, its piercing, crazed orange eyes locked on you.           You nervously waved back. In an instant, it bounded forward on spring-loaded legs - complete with an audible springy sound-effect - arms outstretched to grab at you. You squeaked and promptly ran the other direction. "NOOOHOHO!!" You laughed, to which the rabbit let out its own snickering. "Gonna getchaaa!!" It shouted after you in a deep, playful voice.

          You gasped and ducked into one of the cross-sections, navigating your way through hanging fabric cylinders. The rabbit barreled its way through the obstacles, still letting out that goofy, mischievous laugh. Jesus this thing was fast!! You eventually had no choice but to cross a precarious floor of black lattice strips. The gaps were just big enough that you could get your foot caught if you weren’t careful… Unfortunately you didn’t really have time to be cautious. You tried your best to quickly hop across - but one of your feet snagged inside the edge of a strap just as you’d landed on the platform ahead, making you fall face-forward. “OOF-”

          The dark rabbit took its chance to pounce, grabbing your free ankle and pressing its wiggling fingers into your toes and ball of your foot. A high-pitched tinkytinkytinkytinky sound effect could be heard, which just made you yelp and protest more. Its big, blunt fingers didn’t tickle that badly… Then it leaned in and blew a big, loud raspberry against your sole. “WAAAH-HAHAHA NNOO-HAHAHA!!” You buried your face into your arms. It answered your startled laughter with another silly chuckle. “Hyeehuehehe, gotchyaaaa~!”

          And then, you felt claws target your other foot. “YIEEEK-!” You yelled and instantly started trying to kick your legs and pull yourself forward. And heard the Nightmare’s shitty hyena giggles along with the rabbit’s. “RAAAHAHAHAGS STAAAHAHAHA–!” You turned yourself around to get a view of both of them; the dark rabbit’s legs were jutting out to its sides as it squatted down, and Rags was reaching down from below. “Man, you’re getting tripped up already~? You’re gonna get caught SO many times, methinks there’s a buncha these guys around~”           The rabbit was tall enough that it could lean right over the lattice and grab at your sides and belly with its large hands. “NooOOO-HEHEHE!!” The more you yelped and laughed and tried to push its hands off, the more it let out that stupid goofy laugh. Its face was crazed, unsettling to look at for too long; but still had a spark of playfulness that made you feel like you didn’t need to be afraid of it.                   After a few more moments of both of them playfully tickling and taunting you, the rabbit seemed to start taking interest in Rags. Without warning, it effortlessly ripped the latticework open, bounding downward to piledrive the nightmare, squeezing enthusiastically at his sides, belly and underarms.  “WHAAGH-!! YEEE-HEEHEHEHE WHY YOHOHOU!!” He smacked the padded floors below him, kicking his legs like he was riding a bike. The rabbit giggled mischievously, spinning around to grab and tickle his huge feet. To which the Nightmare responded with even louder shrieking laughter. "GYAAAH-AHAHAHA!!" He flailed for a moment, before retaliating and skittering his claws up and down the rabbit's own feet. It yowled and nearly jumped right off of him.           You watched their tickle fight for a moment before using the chance to escape again, monkeying your way down rainbow steps, and climbing into the caged entrance of another play structure. You probably should have used the chance to get out of the jungle gym and keep scanning the ground-level, but… That wouldn’t be any fun.

          Barely a minute passed after you’d caught your breath when you heard more unhinged giggling echoing up from inside one of the cylinder slides. You froze in your tracks when you saw a huge pair of eyes - almost resembling googly eyes - and another wide toothy smile peek into view, with the silhouetted form of a massive cartoon cat. It outstretched its noodly arms and used its huge paws to pull itself forward - only to reveal that its body kept going, like one huge stretchy tube.

          Before you had the chance to turn around, its elastic arms lunged forward with a rubber-band sound and wrapped around you, pulling you down into the slide. “WAAAH-” Again, you crashed into a ballpit, face-up this time, seeing the tube-cat slip itself into the pit just as you’d begun trying to swim through to get to the edge. It emerged with another SPROING, wrapping you up in its arms and tossing you straight up into the air, nearly touching the ceiling of the caged area, giving a loud “WHEEE~!” Just before you crashed back into the ballpit, it caught you in its arms, which bowed like the surface of a trampoline. It bounced you in the air a few more times before catching you… Occasionally tickling over your torso with its claws when it did, ears perking up at the sound of your yelps and giggling. It also poked at your talisman curiously a couple times, flinching its paw back when it let out a slight red spark.           After a few more tosses, its arms stretched out to place you at the top of a nearby platform. It hunched down, arms planted on either side of the bottom ledge, a long noodly tail popping up from behind it. It narrowed its gaze, body wiggling like it was about to pounce.

          You sat up to crouch down, a big smile on your own face. Instead of scooting back to run, you were tempted to pounce at the cat first. But then.. It started chucking plastic balls at you. One after another, in rapid succession, barely giving you time to block them. “AGH- Hey!! Cut it out!!” You laughed and fell back, hearing its shitty little giggle. “That does it-!!” You dove back into the ballpit and made a grab for the noodle-cat’s midsection, making it yowl in surprise and do a prat-fall backwards, laughing wildly when your hands went to work squeezing, poking and skittering your fingers. It felt so bizarre; furry and rubbery at the same time. It was as wiggly as a beached fish - and eventually pushed you away, with enough force to send you sliding through the plastic balls to the other side of the pit. It then made a motion like it was rolling up its sleeves, cracking its knuckles and wiggling its large paws, impossibly huge smile just growing wider.

          You gasped. “Nooo, bad kitty, don’t you dare-!!”           It pounced forward, those claws going right to work skittering quickly over your belly. They were blunt enough to not cause any harm, pointy enough that they sent tickly jolts through you. Again, that googly-eyed face and huge smile looming over you were unnerving, but not malicious. It traced your navel with one paw and jumped between each side of your torso with the other. A low rumbling could be heard emanating from it - it was purring.           The more it tickled you, the more you sank into the ballpit. You saw a flash of red below you, and in an instant, you were teleported from the bottom of the ballpit through the ceiling of a different section of the play structure, some of the plastic balls teleporting with you. “WHA–!!” You landed on a padded floor, looking onto a very narrow bridge, held up on either side by rope nets attaching it to the ceiling, forming a wedge for you to walk through.           And Rags waiting for you on the other end, hands gripping either side of the rope, smiling playfully. “Hehehe, those guys are a riot, aren’t they~?”

          “H-heh, yeah, they’re right up your alley... And they can get the jump on you pretty easily, I think you’re losing your touch,” you grinned up at him, starting to walk onto the bridge.

          Bad move. The Nightmare narrowed his gaze playfully and planted his foot on his end of the bridge, sending ticklish shockwaves down the plank, shooting directly into your feet. “AAH-!!” You yelped with laughter and nearly stumbled forward, grabbing the ropes for stability.           He giggled. “And you’re just as gullible as ever!” He leapt up onto the ceiling above the bridge, hands and toes gripping the netting like a spider monkey. The hand on his tail snapped its fingers. The rest of the bridge lit up red, and small slithery tendrils of his magic emerged from the plank’s surface. He snapped again, and in an instant, your shoes disappeared off your feet. “C’mon, better hurry across~! Either ya get caught by Grape-flavored Bugs Bunny or you get to play a game with me, what’ll it be~?”

          As if on cue, more loud cartoony commotion was heard off in the distance. You gave an exasperated sigh. “Fine, you’re on,” you stuck your tongue out at him, tentatively starting to cross… immediately feeling the tickly zaps all along your soles and toes. “G-GHhhh-hehehe!!” You stumbled forward again; causing your other foot to land on the plank, making the slithery tendrils send more ticklish jolts through you. You tried supporting yourself with the net, a blush rising to your cheeks.

          “Why’re ya so giggly~? It’s not that ticklish, is it?” Rags teased from above. You made an attempt to flip him off, which just made you stumble over onto the net. “AH-!!” The magic quickly jumped into the ropes, sending tickly buzzes up through your side, hip and ribs. “AAH-HEHEHEY!!” You tried getting your footing again, which just sent ticklish shocks through your feet again, which made you stumble again. Rinse and repeat. All while the bastard was giggling impishly above you, enjoying the show. “Whoa, you almost had it that time! Gonna hafta to do better than that if ya wanna be a Ninja Warrior!”

          “Sh-shuhuhut up, asshohohohole!!” You growled and jumped up to grab his tail… To which he promptly used its hand to shove you down onto your back. Your spine was immediately met with a ticklish shockwave; you gasped and yelped out in laughter from the feeling. “AAH-HAHAHAHA!!” You squirmed and tried to grab at the netting to stand upright… But the ropes suddenly jumped to life, entangling your wrists, and slipping over your ankles, trapping you in place. The entire bridge was alight with the Nightmare’s magic by this point, flooding your arms, legs, spine, neck and feet with maddening tickly pulses.           Rags jumped down to land in front of you - shaking the entire bridge in the process - grinning evilly and scribbling his fingers over your kneecaps, behind your knees and calves, making his way back up to tickle your hips. “Hehehehe; If you beg me enough, I might let you outta here before the Tune Squad catches up~”

          “NAAHAHEHEHEVEHEHER!!” You managed to retort even while your whole body was being bombarded by tickly vibrations.           He shrugged. “Weeelp, suit yourself then~!” He lunged his big hands forward to start squeezing in circles around your belly. “Tickletickletickletickletickletickle-!” Every ‘tickle’ was faster and higher-pitched than the last; the goofiness made you laugh more but every time the word was uttered it just made you shiver and blush more, soon yelling at him in protest. “SH-SHAHAHA!! SHUT UHUHUHAHAHAP!!” You whined, shaking your head back and forth, squeezing your eyes shut and causing the bridge to rattle under you. You were laughing and screeching and yelping nonstop - which only spiked louder when his hair tendrils slipped through the netting to slither and saw between your toes. “EEEE-HEHEHEHE!!” His tickling wasn’t as intense as it had been back in the lab; he kept it light and playful, but the full-body tickles were still maddening.

          The sounds of cartoon SFX were fast-approaching from further back in the play structures, followed by the unhinged giggles of some of the Toons. Rags smirked wide and scribbled his fingers up and down your sides. “Laaaast chance~!”           Glancing down between the ropes, you saw the strange jack-in-the-box from before, springing itself up higher and waving its big hand playfully at you. You heard the rabbit’s off-kilter laugh nearby. From behind Rags, there was a… Devil?? A fuzzy cartoon demon of some sort with a spaded tail and pitchfork. He rubbed his hands together like a Saturday morning villain. As tempted as you were to let them all catch up and team up on you, you didn’t want to make it that easy. “OKAAHAHAY!! P-PLEHEHEHEASE!! LEMME GOHOHOHO!!”           He grinned smugly and gave a wink, snapping his fingers to poof you away from the bridge into a different jungle gym.           You laid on the padded floors for a few moments to catch your breath, a dopey smile on your face and tingles swimming through your body. “Nnnhh…” You sat up and rubbed your head. Just how long were these shenanigans going to last?           Turning another corner, a little animated pearlescent dragon with a shiny, segmented body, silver claws and huge baby-blue eyes was sitting on a crossbeam overhead, scratching its neck like a dog. It perked up when it saw you, tilting its head and watching you closely.           "Awww!" You waved to it. "Hi, cutie!"

          It gave you a wide, happy smile full of razor-sharp teeth and waved back, before hopping down and scampering up to you. It chattered and let out baby-alligator sounds, wagging its tail. You couldn't resist petting its head. It didn't have regular scales; it was smooth and rubbery, a bit like a dolphin. For just a few moments, it had a perfectly innocent expression, enjoying the headpats.

          Until it didn't. In an instant, its gaze turned aggressive and it gave you an evil smile.           "Oh shit–"           "NOM–" It barked before trying to bite you on the leg.           "WAH–!" you jumped back in time. Hey!!”           It snickered wickedly, lunging out to try and bite you again.           "Agh-!! Quit it, you little shit!!" You backpedaled. You were sure it was just playing, so you humored it and got ready to run again. "Alright, you wanna play like that? Then come get me!!" You blew a raspberry at it, causing it to trill and chatter at you. You heard the rushing of air, as if it was taking a huge breath. You saw the vinyl walls light up with a blue light… And barely dodged the little dragon’s lightning-ball projectile in time. “WHOA-!!” You managed to make it lose your trail, hearing it cackling gleefully.

          Exploring a little further, you started to hear what sounded like muffled singing from above. Letting curiosity get the better of you, you were able to find platforms to climb up to the next level, finding the source of the voice: The jester girl from before…? Kind of? Her buns had become spiked pigtails, her overall color theme shifted to darker pinks, and her heart gem was upside-down. She was doing a little swing dance to herself. But she gasped when she saw you, smiling wide and stretching her arms out to scoop you up and twirl you. “FRIIIEND!! I told ya we’d meet again!!” She ruffled your hair.

          “H-Hehey!!” You laughed and playfully pushed her back.           “Why ya trying to run from us, chum? You’re havin’ fun, aren’t ya?” She pouted playfully. “I’m just here to be your friend, remember?” She formed a heart over her head with her stretchy arms. “It’s swell to meet that other friend of yours!! He’s a riot! You sure he’s not from here?? Don’t think I ever seen him in one of our wall paintings!” She bounced up and down excitedly again.           You snorted. “Nahhh, he’s not from here. He’s not from my world either, though, but …Since you’re the only one here who seems to have any sanity, maybe you could tell me where we are?”           She gave an exaggerated shrug. “Beats me!! I couldn’t tell ya how or when we got here. All I know is that we’re here to have fun!” She did a cartwheel around the small room, ducking and weaving through large hanging plastic hoops, landing back in front of you. “Whenever someone new comes along, we’re finally able to come out and play!! You Wanderin’ lot are always gettin’ lost in here, always so sad, afraid, and alone…” She frowned, for once looking genuinely concerned. “I… I know what it’s like to be alone.” She folded her hands. “Sometimes, waitin’ in those walls for new people to pass through feels like it takes weeks. Months. Years.” Her pigtails drooped. “No-one deserves to feel that way….”           You frowned and patted her on the shoulder, to which she perked up again and patted you on the head. “WELL no matter, that’s why Mistah Shiro looks out for us!! Like he tells us, if we help you folks feel happy, then he’ll make sure none of us will ever hafta be sad or alone ever again!” he took your hands and spun you. “Isn’t that swell?!”

          You exclaimed when you were spun around. “AAH- I guess??”           She giggled and set you down. And suddenly, her big toothy smile looked a bit more mischievous. “But you didn’t tell me you were so ticklish! That’s a sure-fire way of gettin’ a big smile outta you~!!” She wiggled her digits, that damn sound-effect playing again.           “O-Ohh come on, not you too-!!” You felt a smile creep back onto your face. Instead of running, though, you decided to get the upper hand first, quickly squeezing the jester’s sides.           “YIEEK-HEEHEE!!” She squealed in surprise, stumbling back, her arms becoming squiggly before wrapping around herself. “Ooohoho, that’s how we’re gonna play~!!” she glared and smirked, swiftly wrapping one of her elastic arms around you a couple times over, and sitting back on one of the hanging hoops.  “You really think you can get the upper hand on us, do ya?” She instantly started squeezing up and down your sides, burying her hands into your armpits. “Hehehehe!! Awww you look so sweet gigglin’ like this! See, this is what makes it all worth it~ Laughter makes the worlds go round! Your friend sure gets it!!”           You did your best to try and wriggle out of the pink jester’s rubbery grip, unable to hold back your squeaks and yelps from her ticklish squeezes. “Y-Yeehehehe-!! I-I agreeheehee!! B-But we cahahaha-!! We cahahant s-stahahay here!!”           Her face dropped into a grumpy pout. “And why not? You’re happy, aren’tcha??” She doubled her efforts, sneaking a hand down to tickle over your knees, using her other hand to play piano over your ribs and give rapid pokes along your belly.           You exclaimed and wiggled all the more. “AH-Hehehehe w-well yehehehes, right nohohow!! But I gotta get back hohohohome!!”

          She perked up in realization. “Ohhhh, I see… You haven’t talked to Mistah Shiro yet!” She released her hold on you and steadied you to your feet. “Why didn’t ya say so?? Well keep lookin’ around for him then, I’m sure you’ll find him! Ya just gotta keep an eye out for the two big stars on the walls. You’ll find the doorway under the second star to the right!”           You caught your breath for a moment. “Will… Will he be able to help us?”           She nodded fast. “Of course, of course!! He’ll set ya straight for sure!” Something seemed… off about her big, wide smile this time. But you didn’t press further, and took her advice to keep looking.           A few other rubberhose rascals made their presence known before long. The mural of the giant orange flower emerged out of the floor as you were crossing over to another play structure, flashing a dastardly sharp-toothed smile before attempting to grab you up with its leafy hands. You found a small open area with bumper-cars, watching a red-and-blue clown riding around wildly, cackling as it crashed into other empty cars. Unable to resist the urge to play along, you hopped into one of the cars and started charging after them, much to their delight. A couple rounds of smashing into them, a huge figure peeked around one of the nearby tube slides: A red genie with a turquoise turban and vest. As you scrambled out of the cart, he reached down to try and grab you... before Ragman came flying out of a plastic wall to tackle and grip onto him like a monkey, allowing you the chance to escape while the genie yowled with laughter from the nightmare's attack.           Soon, you nearly ran right into the devil from before. He smirked cheekily down at you and gave a wiggly-finger wave. "Helloooo~" He greeted in a flamboyant voice. "You're quite the slippery little salmon, aren't you? There's no reason to run, I promise I won't bite... Yet," he chuckled slyly, jolting his pitchfork like he was going to poke you with it. "Why not just give me your soul now and save yourself the trouble of running about like a headless chicken?"           "Wha- NO, I'm not gonna do that!!"           "Ohh, you won't?" He tsk-ed. "Well then, I'll just have to take it for myself~" He whipped out his tail and wrapped it around your ankle, causing you to stumble back onto one of the foam cylinders behind you. He then started scribbling his claws over your sole and toes. "See? Handing over your sole is simple enough, isn't it??" He chuckled.           "NNhh-HAHAHA!! Oh vehehery funnyyhehehe!!" You grabbed your talisman, willing it to light up with magic and zip right down the devil's arm to 'zap' his body.           "YYYEEAHAHAHA!!" He howled and stumbled back. "Y-You sneaky little!!" he growled, trying to leap at you. You quickly ducked through rolling cylinders to try and lose him.

          You were soon ducking cutesy and creepy cartoon critters left and right. More of the murals started hopping out of the walls at any given turn, laughing and taunting and wiggling their fingers, making swift work of following you through the jungle gyms. A couple times, your pursuers tried to yank at your talisman's chain, which promptly let off warning ticklish bursts and made them recoil with laughter. You stumbled over rainbow steps, large padded cubes, rope mazes, occasionally slipping and falling face or ass-first. The other toons - as well as Rags - started doing the same when they were thrown off by your quick maneuvering. Crashing head-first into each other, prat-falling down steps, occasionally ripping off fabric decor or breaking off entire chunks of the play structures. In his haste to try and lunge at you, Rags did a backflip over a slide… promptly smacking his head on it with a loud BONK, tumbling down unceremoniously into the ballpit below. You were so busy wheezing your lungs out at the sight that you ended up getting scooped up by the purple rabbit again and had to escape his tickly grasp.

          All the while, Ragman continued to remotely mess with the intercoms to cycle through other goofy songs. Cotton-Eye Joe, Pink Elephants, Entry of the Gladiators, "Having A Wonderful Time," And a certain melody of mocking laughter. The silliness took away any anxiousness you had despite the monsters chasing you. It was pure unbridled fun. You couldn't tell if the loopiness was from the Level’s effects, or the building pandemonium that had begun back when Rags shoved you down that first slide, but you couldn’t stop giggling and laughing. You had all but forgotten your quest to try and escape the Level.

          Escape? Why would you want to escape?? There was no harm in hamming it up with all these guys to your heart’s content. This was the happiest and most carefree you’d felt since ending up here.

          At some point, the entities weren’t even chasing you, but instead got into it with each other: you watched their antics with each other from across another jungle gym like you were watching a cartoon in real-time. They seemed inspired by their games with you and started getting into tickle-fights with each other. They occasionally targeted Rags, who would very quickly remind them how easily his merciless methods could overpower them. But they would bounce right back, undeterred, their energy reserves seemingly infinite. A swarm of them even tried to pounce Rags and pull his tail, resulting in it coming clean off with a POP, and snaking around to try and smack, shove and tickle them of its own volition. The same happened to one of his arms. Once he’d pulled himself back together, he had them howling in laughter within moments.           The Tom-and-Jerry slapstick eventually came to a head when you saw two huge stars painted on a nearby wall. Under the left star was a steel-bolted door; under the right star was a huge, inflated slide, leading into the mouth of another bounce-house disappearing under the wall. This must be it!           Sliding down, you were met with the interior of a huge bounce-house, with high walls and no ceiling.           …And every single toony entity that you’d encountered was here. After initially feeling your heart jump into your throat, you saw that they weren’t trying to come after you. They were all just bouncing around wildly, off the walls, doing flips and midair tricks, having a dance party to Electroswing. You joined in the pandemonium, letting go of your inhibitions to dance, play-fight, chase some of them around and play tag.

          “GERONIMOOOOO!” The Nightmare eventually hollered from above, plummeting down into the middle of the bounce-house floor, creating such a shockwave that it rippled and distorted the flooring and sent the entities, along with yourself, exclaiming and flying backwards. You burst into laughter, unable to stop. Especially when Rags straddled either side of you to attack your tummy with tickles. “Hehehe, glad you’ve had fun here~! Guess it wasn’t such a bad trap after all~”

          “AH-Hahahaha, yeheheheah!!” You beamed up at him, laughing wildly even after the Nightmare had stopped tickling you.

          “Better wrap up this party though,” he gestured to the only visible exit: A big wooden door at the far end of the bouncehouse. “Methinks they’re fixing you to make yourself laugh to death. Or keep you around to use as target practice next time they shoot themselves outta cannons,” He snickered and ruffled your hair.

          Your giggling eventually started to die down, taking deep gasping breaths, attempting to calm yourself down. “Ahh-hahaha…Y-Yeheheah, maybe you’re rihihight…”

          But it was as if those words flipped a switch. All the entities snapped their attention toward both of you. And started menacingly stalking closer.

          “Leeeeave? Why would you wanna leave??”           “Stay with us, friend!!”          “You’re the ONLY wanderer we’ve had that’s lasted this long!!”          “We know juuuust how to make you wanna stay~”                     They started rolling up their - often invisible - sleeves, punching their fists in their palms, giving big wide menacing smiles as they wiggled fingers and claws in your direction. You swallowed hard. “O-Ohh fuck…”

          A pair of clawed hands gripped onto the sides of the bounce house. Out emerged an enormous, winged skeletal figure, not unlike a Lich or a Draug, with a crazed, sinister gaze and long tongue, letting out a manic, raspy laugh and pointing in your direction. The others seemed to take this as a command, charging after you.           “Aaaand that’s our cue!!” Rags scooped you up in his arms, growing himself to his full height, essentially carrying you like a football tucked under his arm as he charged and bounded forward. He ducked swinging arms, dragon-fire, rubber mallets, TNT, bursts of magic projectiles, and more. He yelped and jumped and let out ticklish giggles from every jab of a weapon or chomping of teeth. When the toons saw that their attacks were only tickling him, they doubled down and tried to take him down faster with more tickles. The Nightmare was soon swarmed by stretchy limbs and countless tickling fingers, nearly stumbling forward a few times. “GYEEE-HEHEHEEHEHE!! AHH-HAHAHA!!”           You felt him start to charge up his energy, his aura crackling. You gasped. Don’t you DARE let off a blast again!! You shouted at him in your thoughts. Remember the science lab?!           FINE!! he growled back. Suckin’ up the laughter of an army of lunatics might actually make me go off the deep end anyways!           The huge deity was eventually taken down by a bunch of the creatures working to trip him up with ropes. He fell into the bouncy floor with a resounding THUD, taking you in his hand and outstretching you toward the door. For a moment, you watched him get totally dogpiled, bursting into excited hysterics, tickled from head to toe by the only thing that could really contend with his mania: Raw nonsensical cartoon logic.           But soon, some of them turned their attention to you. “GEHEHEHET GOING!!” Rags barked. “I’LL CAHAHAHATCH UP!!”           Hastily swinging the door open, you were met with one final plastic slide. After jumping down, the wooden door slammed shut behind you.

          You landed flat on your back, on a plush, spongy floor. “Ugh..”

          Sitting up, you saw that you were in an environment almost identical to the labyrinth of jungle gyms. Except this time, the lights were very dim, and the music had totally stopped. There wasn't any sign of the creatures or Nightmare tailing after you.

          Your manic spell and brain-fog began to dissipate, but you still felt playful and giggle-drunk, nerves standing on end; ready for another silly little guy to cause mayhem with or get into a tickle-fight with. But you knew now you had to keep your senses about you. Rags had been right; Something was trying to trap you here.

          “Hellooo??” You tiptoed around the place, occasionally peeking into gaps in the jungle gyms. “Marco??” Interestingly, there were tall standing mirrors hanging from some of the play structures. As you passed them, you could've sworn you saw a dark figure move inside one of them. Doing a double-take, it had gone away.

          But soon, dead ahead of you, one of the mirrors wasn't showing your reflection. Instead, you were looking at a very tall, lanky silhouette of a man in a tailcoat and a top hat. He was completely greyscale, with the exception of the bowtie on his neck that shimmered with bright, colorful patterns. He hopped out of the mirror, his legs stretching like rubber. "Hello hel-lo my dear!!" He took a dramatic bow, tilting his hat to you with one of his noodly rubberhose arms. "It's so excellent to see you having such a good time!! I've not heard such joy, such laughter, such frivolity in ages!!" He spoke loudly and hurriedly, like some kind of hammy showman or salesman. Before you could reply, he bounded forward and wrapped an arm around your shoulder. Much like the previous entities, he felt as if he was made of latex. "T'would be wonderful if you could stay here and play forever and ever and ever, don't you thiiink~?" he gave you a boop on the nose.

          "Well I–"          He chuckled and playfully shoved you away. "Don't worry, I kid!! There's no need to stay here just to experience happiness. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you can feel unending joy! If, of course, you get rid of all those other pesky emotions. Sadness? Anger? Fear? Who NEEDS 'em?!" He gave a thumbs-down. "Wanderers always try and try to make sense of our world, they bemoan all the "scary" and "dangerous" and "deadly". As if that even matters!! EVERY world has its dangers, do they not?? If you confront them with a smile and a laugh and a head full of bliss, nothing can stand in your way."

         I mean... he had a point. But you squinted suspiciously. “What’re you saying? That you can take away emotions?”         “Yeeees indeedy!!” He puffed his chest out proudly. “I can cure the mortal mind of those terrible, hindering blemishes. ‘Tis a skill that even the Court Jester envies~! He’s the one who sent you here, you know!”

        “The… Court Jester?” The one from the painting back at the tavern? “Really?”         He nodded fast and took your hand, starting to swing you around as if performing an exaggerated formal dance. “He sent you to me and my dearest friends because of your positive outlook! You and your zappy-go-lucky Nightmare friend laugh in the face of death and you make Death laugh right back. What a couple o’ cards, I don’t meet nearly enough wanderers like you!!” He barked out a laugh.

          So the trap wasn’t this man’s doing. This so-called Jester had lured you here… “...Wait-” You blinked up at him. “You know he’s a Nightmare?”

         The man giggled into his hand. “The Jester knows many, many things, my friend~!” he gave you a playful shove. “He knows you have only the slightest sliver of a chance of leaving here, he knows your friend is doomed here. How unfortunate,” he tsk-ed and shook his head. “BUT he also knows you will forget all about misfortune in my hands~!” He placed a hand to his chest. “You showed quite some nerve, resisting the offer to spend the rest of your days playing away, returning to a time of innocence, but you really ought to reconsider throwing away such jubilation..” He gripped his bowtie, creating a strange sort of glowing static that emanated sounds of faint laughter, squeals, whooping and hollering.         …And what faintly sounded like agonized wails amongst the cacophony.         “You need only to make a pact with good ol' Mr. Shiro!" He then held his hand out to you, still ‘glowing’ with static, indicating a handshake. "Whaddya say?"

         You gulped and took a small step back. "Uhh... Listen, I appreciate you wanting to make me feel better, but I'm actually pretty happy already, all things considering," you shrugged. "I'm in good hands with my friend here."

         Instead of responding with disappointment, the empty void on his grey face slowly revealed a wide, Cheshire-like smile full of sharp teeth, taking a step closer to you. "Are you now? Ohh but ‘pretty' happy is simply not the same!" He waggled his finger. “Journeying onward will only risk throwing you into more danger!! That pesky fear will come back, again and again, no matter how much Mr. Monster Mash tries to make you laugh!!” He took another step forward, his legs stretching a bit to make him even taller. “I want to make sure that you laugh forever and ever!! That beautiful smile etched onto your lovely face, another fine addition to those who ever so willingly gave up their sorrows and worries to me!” He gestured a finger to his bowtie, then cracked his knuckles, wiggling his fingers at you, his smile growing wicked. “Now juuuust hold still~”

        You felt a blush light up your cheeks at the gesture. You swallowed and turned tail to make a break for it, eyeing one of the play structures to try and hide in.

         He cackled in amusement at your attempts to flee. "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING, FRIEND?? YOU'RE HAVING FUN HERE, AREN'T YOU?!" His voice sounded more manic than ever. Downright giddy at the chance to play with you. He whipped his arms forward attempting to grab at you again, but you managed to duck down and slide under the cage of one of the play structures like you were sliding into home-base, and crawled up the tubing.

         It wasn’t difficult to get a read on his location. His wild, way-too-jovial laughter never stopped. “Ohh how I LOVE a good game of hide-and-seek!! I NEVER lose~!!” He cackled. Just as he was getting too close for you to keep camping out, one of his rubbery arms shot right through the caging and grabbed at the floor near your legs. You gasped and barely stifled a scream, quickly climbing higher into the structure.         You found some clear tunnels to climb through, trying to peek out in the dark building below you. His laugh sounded like it was more distant… But when your eyes came back into focus on the plastic tubing, you saw his face in the reflective surface. You felt your heart jump into your throat and you started to back up… Just in time for his reflection to phase right out of the plastic and start crawling after you on his noodly limbs, cackling like a lunatic again.         “SHIT-!!” You hurried backwards and dove into one of the slides. You staggered to your feet, having to catch your breath. You barely had time to take a few more steps forward before you saw him again, hanging upside-down from nearby monkey-bars, waving one of his hands frantically at you. You laughed at the sight. This crazy bastard was giving you as much of a run for your money as the Nightmare. It didn’t help that you were pretty worn out from all your previous fun.         And Mr. Shiro used that to his advantage. He swung himself over from the monkey bars, flinging his rubbery arms forward and wrapping them around you.. And promptly burying his digits against your belly. “Heeheeheee, laugh for meeee~” His fingertips were soft and squishy, and very skilled.

        “YEEK-!” You whined, barely having the energy to fight back anymore, falling back against him and letting him tickle you.

        “Tiiickletickletickle! Ohh that’s the happiest laugh ever!! You really do enjoy this~!!” He let out a jolly laugh of his own. He unwrapped his arms, only to pull your arms above your head and hold your hands together. His other hand made quick work of tickling over your torso in unpredictable patterns. Pinching your sides, playing your ribs like a piano. Closely following each of your arching, bucking movements, never letting you escape contact with his hand for a moment. “Coochiecoochieeeheeheee!! Oh I could simply do this all day~! Such a shame you mortals need silly things like food, or water, or oxygen, I could tickle you into the next decade and never let you frown again~!”

        His hands buzzed with that strange static again. It wasn’t like Rags’ tickle magic. It filled your belly with butterflies, the light, airy feeling travelling through the rest of your body. Despite his manic personality, his hands were surprisingly gentle. The delicate fluttering drew out your gasps and squeaks; His arms wrapped around you felt like a secure hug. It made you feel…Comforted. You practically melted against him. “Awwww, so cuuuute!!” He teased. “No wonder all my silly little friends couldn’t resist having a go at you~!”

        You felt your body start to relax more in his grasp, and he took advantage of this to sling you over onto one of the nearby rope bridges a few feet off the ground, laying you out flat on your back. He stretched his body up through the bottom of the ropes, promptly yanking your shoes off, poking and tickling your toes and underneath them. “Tickletickle, little tootsies!!”         “NNnaah-hahahaha!! Stahahahap-hahaha!!” Your system was already on adrenaline and dopamine overload. You barely had the strength to fight back anymore, even if you wanted to. You wanted to let this entity tickle you, and play with you, and make you laugh with his army of cartoon friends as long as they wanted. You felt happy. So happy. As if there could never be a sad or angry thought in your mind ever again…

         The sound of the Nightmare’s voice hollering from above started to snap you out of it. "GERONIMOOOO!" He shouted yet again. He plummeted down from the ceiling, phasing right through the bridge and landing directly onto Mr. Shiro, pulling him off of you, tumbling with him onto the floor below and straddling his waist.

        "WAUFF–!!" The entity bounced off of the spongy floor, then instantly wheezed and burst into laughter. "BAHAHA!! Goodness, you sure caught me unawares!! You really are unpredictable!!"         “Hehehe, glad you’re a good sport about it, Mr. Giggles! Noww, whaddya say you laugh for us for a while~?” He smirked and wiggled his fingers at the entity's face.           You found the strength to roll over onto your stomach to watch the commotion below you.

          Mr. Shiro gasped loudly and instantly started squirming. "O-Oh heavehehens, now let's not get too hastyyhehehe!!" He burst into nervous giggles before the Nightmare had even made contact with him, attempting to shield himself by bending his noodly arms all over his torso.

          But Rags faked him out, instead sneaking his stretchy hair tendrils behind him to start tugging at his shoes.           The entity instantly yelped and burst into wild giggling and gasps. “GYEEE-HEHEHE!!”           “Ohh? You can feel that, huh? Or are ya being dramatic again~?” Rags snickered. But the more he tried to tug and find the lip of his boot, the more he realized something… “Ohhh, I see now. You don’t actually have shoes. You can feel this juuust fine~!” One of his tendrils morphed into a brush, scrubbing against the spongy, rubbery sole of his “shoe”.

          Mr. Shiro practically squawked and bucked under the Nightmare, pounding his fists and feet into the floor, smiling wider than ever. “WAAAIEEEE-HEEHEEE NAAHAHAHAT THE FEEHEEHEET!!” His elastic body flailed and snaked and warped under Rags. You smiled wide at the sight. Mind if I get a closer look? You asked Rags in your thoughts.           He smirked up at you and nodded, snapping his fingers, poofing you down to lay out on the floor close to them.           “HEEHEHEHELP!!” Mr. Shiro sprung one of his arms over to you, holding out a hand like someone needing rescued. You almost took it just to humor him, pausing when you saw it buzzing with that same strange fuzzy static as before. Rags noticed too, diving in to blow an enormous raspberry against his thin torso, at the same time burying his claws against his underarms. The entity shrieked and was forced to retract his arms to clamp them down over his sides, filling the high, empty building with his squawking, hysterical laughter.           “Nice try, Rubber-Band-Man~! But don’t you think you can go making soul-binding pacts when I’m around~” He chuckled meanly, sending a ticklish burst through him, practically turning him into a wacky-waving-tube-man.           You scooted yourself closer, not able to resist the urge to tickle one of his rubbery sides. He screeched and whined loudly. “NAAAH-HAHAHA NOT YOU TOOHOOHOO!!” He didn’t try to shove you or the Nightmare off of him, though; he simply hid his huge laughing smile under his hands.           You grinned. “I dunno, Rags, I think he likes this~”           Rags took notice too, smirking and raising an eyebrow. “You’re riiiight~ A shame I can’t keep you as my happy, laughing little ticklish pet forever and ever~!”          

           The entity whined and hid his face more. “B-But I muhuhust stay hehehere!! Spread my- AAH-HAHAHA JoyyeeEEHEHE to every lost sohohoul !!” He finally managed to worm his way out from under the Nightmare by stretching his body as thin as it could go, promptly springing up and doing a cartwheel backward, tidying off his bowtie and hat, catching his breath.           Rags slowly stood up, menacingly starting to stalk toward him, cracking his knuckles; the sight giving you secondhand chest-flutters.           “D-Don’t you want the same??” Mr. Shiro held his arms out, trying to bargain. “You take away sadness, you dampen fear, you drown out the bloodlust of our denizens, your entire being craves ceaselessly for laughter and jubilation!!"

          Rags chuckled, shrugging. The more he stepped forward, the more the other entity stepped back. “You’re not wrong~ But see, that’s where you and I are different. I know that other emotions are important.” He finally stood still.  “I’m not just made of laughter… I’m also made of…” He promptly grew himself a couple feet taller than the entity, looming in close. “FEEEAARRR~”

          The man gasped and balked and nearly stumbled back over his own feet.

          Rags giggled playfully. “See? That was exciting, wasn’t it? Fear ain’t so bad~! Not if you don’t let it put you in a bad mindset! Plenty of people enjoy a healthy dose of fear.”

          The entity quickly adjusted his hat. “I-I wasn’t afraid!! Simply startled, that’s all!!” He huffed. “Well fine then, what of sadness? What of anger? HOW are negative emotions anything but poison?!”

          “Because that’s what makes us human!!” You decided to speak up, slowly standing to your feet. “No-one likes being sad. No-one likes grief, or guilt, or being terrified for their life. But just because something causes us pain doesn’t mean we can’t work through it. People like venting their emotions through intense music, sad movies, therapeutic hobbies.” You tried offering a reassuring smile. “You can always remind people that there are reasons to still feel happy and hopeful even if they’re dealing with some really bad shit. But you can’t force people to be happy forever.”           "There ya have it," Rags gestured to you. "Took the words right outta my mouth."

          Mr. Shiro scoffed and stretched out the top half of his body to lean in close to you. “Well I disagree~” For once, his smile seemed…strained. Of course, pulling his eyes away from Rags was a mistake. He was a crumpled pile on the floor within moments when Rags started squeezing rapidly along his hips. “YEEE-HEE-HEHEHE!!”           “Heheheh, forget it, buddy. You’re not winning this one~” His tail-hand clamped down onto the man’s ankles and sent a tickly burst through him, making him flail and howl again. “I wanna meet this Jester of yours. Sounds to me like he’s been keepin’ an eye on us, is that right? He’s the one who trapped us here?”           “YYEE-HEEhhHESS!!” Mr. Shiro wailed into his arms.           Rags scoffed. “Betcha he stuck us here cause he's too piss-scared to take me on himself~ Well if he’s so smart, then he’ll know how to get my buddy outta here. If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll give me that answer willingly~!" his smile curled into an irritated sneer, voice lowering into a growl.           The entity rolled onto his back when Rags stopped his attack, catching his breath again, laying a hand on his stomach. “H-Heheh… Y-You’re… really proposing challenging him?”           “Damn right!! I’ve been chompin’ at the bit to go head-to-head with someone on par with me, if you even got anyone that strong here,” he gave a cocky smirk, lifting Mr. Shiro to his feet. “Not sayin’ that you and your Saturday Morning Gang here are weak, of course, a toon’s only weakness is paint thinner, heh~"           "Wha-" The man balked. "How do you know that?!"           Rags giggled. "I know many, many things~" he tapped a finger to his temple. "And I KNOW that Jester won't stand half of a chance against me while I have an overcharged battery to burn off!” He held out a bright glowing hand, letting off a burst of magic.. Which gave off a loud BANG and promptly jumped around to all the nearby jungle gym structures like lightning rods sucking up a thunderstorm. The entity squawked and ducked down, covering his ears.           Rags cackled at the entity's reaction, re-absorbing his magic again. “Heheheh, aren’t you curious to see what would happen if a god of laughter goes toe-to-toe with an expert entertainer~?”

          The man scratched his chin. “Hmmm…Y’knowww, you’ve piqued my interest! Whose joy is stronger? The stark-raving antics of a megalomaniac who defies his world of terror, or the refined performances of an entertainer who stands above Time and Space itself? I’ve a feeling he’ll have something to say about this sorry excuse of a Jester’s getup, in any case!” he gestured to Rags’ outfit.           Rags just giggled, holding out a massive hand, indicating a handshake. “So it’s a deal, then? You tell us how to get to him, I’ll make sure you get to peek in on the show~”           “Heh…” Mr. Shiro bowed his head. “Fiiine fine, very well~” He shook the Nightmare deity’s hand. “If you somehow manage to win, then by all means, flaunt your victory over all of us as much as you want! Not like it's going to last.” His wide smile returned. “But if you lose… Then I keep your silly, misguided little Wanderer with me. Forever~”

          “Deal!”           “Wha– RAGS!!” You glared up at him.

        He just grinned smugly. “You really think I’m gonna lose~?”           Mr. Shiro led you both to a red velvet curtain on one of the far walls, pulling it back dramatically to reveal a portal doorway leading out to a spooky-looking nighttime circus, the dim lights of various rides and attractions giving off a somewhat eerie, but inviting atmosphere. Your eyes lit up in excitement. “Oooh!! I haven’t been to a circus in forever!” You beamed up at Rags.           Mr. Shiro chuckled. “Well let’s get this show on the road then!!” He tied back the curtain with a golden cord on the wall. “Tell the Jester I did my part, but your sheer stubbornness was far too much even for my companions’ limitless stamina,” he chuckled.

          Before you headed through, he walked up to you. “You’re still making a mistaaa~aaaake!” He commented in a singsong voice,  waggling a finger in front of your face. “But… from one Connoisseur of Laughter to another, I say you both have plenty of reasons to keep smiling~!”           He took a dramatic bow, stepping back into the darkness and disappearing.

          Rags then took your hand. “A circus, huh? Seems pretty fitting~ Ready to go on some rides and kick ass?”           “Do you even need to ask??”

          You both hopped into the portal together, another step closer to finding someone who could help. Assuming he even wanted to. But you had no doubts that you and your Nightmare buddy had full power to "persuade" your way to victory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five  Chapter Six Chapter Seven (current) Chapter Eight

Footnotes:

Abandoned play park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwi5OokwlU

Bounce house: https://sta.sh/01lapch2wbr

Ballpit: https://backrooms.fandom.com/wiki/Level_60 ( https://sta.sh/02e0h3zkgyq9 )

Playplace: https://sta.sh/01dl3xnsbp8n

Childhood nostalgia: https://sta.sh/0fwbqgx1rbx

Paper Snakes: https://sta.sh/0112pvtuai7n

Nightstalkers: https://sta.sh/0uir2qjx28 (Specifically used this one because of how they're described to have latex bodies. I wanted to include at least one entity that wasn't directly cartoon-related)

Mr. Shiro: https://sta.sh/01rrmb7z78vo

We’re officially at the halfway mark now!! And it's my longest chapter yet, holy shit

Sooo, I'm starting to notice a running theme of Levels and entities that are meant to be integral parts of my chapters getting yeeted from the Wiki. Half of the shit I intended to use from this chapter was deleted. Thankfully I was able to relocate them with the Wayback Machine. I just really don't want to take any credit for concepts that weren't mine in the first place.

In any case, I did take some creative liberties with the rest of this chapter. I wanted it to be a big homage to classic cartoons. The Toon monsters from Yu-Gi-Oh used to unsettle the hell out of me as a young teen - and kinda still give me the heebie-jeebies. And yet, they became a big influence for Rags' personality (along with Genie and Beetlejuice), and over time, I came to realize their potential as unhinged Lers. If I was a furry I’d probably be as weak for them as I am for clowns, lmao. And if any cartoony creatures belong in the Backrooms, it's those fuckers and the Cuphead bosses

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