Moar Circus!Bran
I put the blame for this firmly on @elacular-kink's shoulders.
I just can't quit this damn digital world!
CW:
fast hiccups
inconvenient hiccups
a speedo
body horror
gore??? is glitter gore? he's fine though
self-reflection
the cute queer couple that flirts
K!nger dad
R@gatha mom
P0mni sister
friendship
Sooooft body
Vulnerability
trouble speaking through hiccups
"Bran! I am so sorry!" R@gatha was saying as P0mni pulled on his left hand with a grunt.
Bran's dripping deflated rubbery body squidged on the floor behind the tiny jester as they all emerged from the portal. A slug-trail of glitter sparkled in Bran and P0mni's wake.
"Whaaat? Noooo, Raggy, I'm fiiine. That was fuuun!" he drawled as he lazily flopped his right arm around him, it gaining very little purchase into an actual gesticulated direction.
"New rule!" Caine called as he floated behind the trio from the game, "No shooting Bran out of a canon!!"
The rest of the C!rcus looked up from a couple of books and a sketch book on the couches.
"Weeeee," Bran burbled. His eyes went crescent and his painted beard parted in a loopy grin.
K!nger took off a pair of readers he'd manifested that he didn't really need (but made him feel a bit more like himself) and affected a thoughtful frown (as much as his face would allow).
"I feel like perhaps that rule should extend to all of us?" he proffered.
Caine tilted his head before snapping his fingers to reconstitute the squishy bear-ball Bran was to its correct form.
"GOOD POINT!" he projected enthusiastically. "Canons, in hindsight, are not an efficient form of transportation!"
"Thank you for that public service announcement," Z0oble droned with sarcasm as they folded the book on their torso. "You good, sparkles?"
Bran looked up at the warmly delivered nickname and nodded. It was very odd being reconstituted. It was a little disorienting, to be honest. But he didn't ultimately hate it enough not to chance it when agreeing to a game. He was never a gamer, per se, in life in a human body. But, for some reason, it was way more entertaining to do as a character who couldn't actually become irreparably injured.
"Yep!" he exclaimed. He flexed his form a couple of times, bouncing a little without leaving the floor. "That was fun!"
"Heh...really?" the rag doll said as she sat down heavily on the couch next to K!nger.
"Yeah! I mean, I think I always kind of wanted to fly? I felt weightless until...well..."
"Splat?" P0mni offered.
"Mmm, harsh but accurate. But a guy like me doesn't get to feel weightless too much. I liked that part!" He patted his roundness jovially.
"Hmm," K!nger made a motion to scratch a chin that wasn't there in thought. "I suppose we could create some sort of outer space environment without gravity."
"Or we could just go to the beach..." Pomni offered with a smile.
Bran's eyes enlarged dramatically.
"Huh, we actually haven't done that in a while," Z0oble said.
"I could definitely use some relaxation after that game," said R@gatha.
Caine gasped, "Oh wow! I DON'T THINK I HAVE A BATHING SUIT! What to wear..."
With that it was decided that it was time for a beach day. But before they left G@ngle showed Bran her drawing.
"What do you think?" she said with poorly hidden mischeif.
Bran looked down at a very well-drawn picture of himself on the floor, deflated, with his sparkling innards in a puddle around him, and a goofy face with a hand raised in a thumbs up.
"Aww," he said with a smile. "You really caught my best side, sweetie!" He booped her mask gently.
The ribbon girl giggled with a blush.
---
Bran could float! That was only the second most amusing thing that had occurred so far. The swimsuit he was given was a speedo and no top. In life, Bran would've never worn a speedo. In this digital life, it was so amusing a concept that he fully enjoyed the ridiculousness of it.
As he floated wearing a pair of sunglasses in the middle of the water like a large pool inflatable, light refracting from his glittery insides to sparkle in the water around him, P0mni swam up.
"Hey," she said. "Can I hold on to your arm?"
"Mmhm," he replied lazily as he smiled at her beneath the dark purple lenses of his glasses.
"Cool. Uh. Thanks for being such a trooper in the game today! It didn't exactly go as planned." She chuckled nervously.
Bran shrugged, "I think it went pretty well, actually! There is some...hm...allure in knowing you can't really be hurt to see how far you can push it, y'know?"
"Hm. Yeah. I guess I never thought of it that way." She squinted toward above his shoulder then. "What's that?"
There was a raised concentration of glitter embedded in his rubber skin in curved lines on each side of the upper section of his body.
"Oh! Yeah, those are where my top surgery scars were in my human body. Weird they transferred over, huh?" he said conversationally.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean...of course they are..."
"P0mni, it's okay! I'm totally comfortable with my body and the story it tells. I'm not upset. Kinda glad they followed me, honestly. The glitter is a little excessive, but I guess my...'mind file' was just as extra as my personality, huh?" he said.
The jester giggled. "Seems we're all a little extra."
"Interesting people are," he confirmed.
"Canon ball!" A set of teeth in a striped swimsuit from the 1920's yelled.
"Triggered?" Bran exclaimed before a huge wave of water was created by the enthusiastic AI dispersing way more water than his digital form should physical be able to cause.
Bran and P0mni were violently swept to the beach shore. The purple bear felt his innards sloshing violently amongst the wave before landing roughly and the jester was flown deeply into his cushy form, agitating his innards all the more.
"Oof!" he called out but held the small woman on so she didn't rebound onto the beach.
"Woah! Oh!" P0mni looked at him sheepishly. "Thanks!"
"No proble-HU'UP!" Bran covered his mouth with a sparkling hand. "Oop! HUGGULP!"
P0mni made a noise of surprise as she was jostled dramatically on his bouncing body until he let go of her so she could disembark.
"You okay?" she asked.
"HYULGK! Yeah sorry!" he replied quickly. Each hiccup bounced him a little on the sand before he rolled himself up.
The ringmaster seemed oblivious to the cacophony he'd caused as he did a backstroke in a lazy circle.
"No big deal," P0mni was saying as Bran continued to hiccup. "It was a soft landing at least!"
Bran meant about the hiccups, but he found himself uncharacteristically bashful regarding them. Usually, Bran enjoyed having hiccups around others, but he preferred strangers. It was a lot more intimidating to repeatedly have hiccups with people who he'd been forming real meaningful friendships with.
"I'm HYULP! at least g-HUGGUP! good for that!" he tried to say quickly between the bounding of his body.
"You got them but good this time, sparkles!" he heard Z0oble say.
The mishmash of shapes and colors was under an umbrella next to their red ribbon girlfriend.
"Aww," said the red ribbon girlfriend.
"Heh-HUGGULP! part of m-HYEEGULP! my charm!" Bran suppressed a hiccup and his body rebounded with such drama he thought he would fall over. The glitter snapped into a swirl and bubbles tornadoed.
"HIGurp! Oh! Scuse m-IGGUP! me!" he said as he patted bellow his neck, his body jiggling in another round hiccup.
"Very charming," G@ngle said. She was picking up on her partner's sarcasm, though it was delivered much sweeter.
Bran found himself chuckling.
"Hey! What's this!" Caine was holding up a small string of yellow in examination.
"Isn't that your swimsuit?" R@gatha asked Bran.
Bran's head shot down to his body, it completely naked of any clothing, and back up to the AI holding his speedo in deep curiosity and he started laughing. This set his poor spasming body in overdrive.
"Is it a hat?" the teeth wondered and Z0oble suddenly ripped off their sunglasses and ran for the water.
"Do not put that on your head!" they demanded as if reprimanding a child.
Bran meanwhile was hiccuping like mad still next to P0mni, stretched out on a beach recliner, it jolting with every movement. The jester was catching her breath from laughing and sighed before turning toward him.
"HIGGULP!-GULP!-ULP!-HYUP!-HUGGAH!-HYULP!-HULP!" Bran performed like a large squishy clock with a soggy second hand. His body crested roundly with every hiccup. The area below his neck and over his scars suctioned it simultaneously.
Pops of rubber stretching and snapping back along with the slaps of water in his body buckling and sloshing coincided as well. It was all very dramatic, but Bran was anything but concerned or uncomfortable despite the visual appearance of it.
"Ooh. Is there anything I can do to help?" the pale girl asked him with sympathy and concern.
"I-HIGGULGK!-don't th-HIGG'P!-so, b-HUGGUP!-ut thanks," he struggled to respond.
The hiccups felt amazing, but he wasn't in any desperation to satiate himself. With the soda machine in his room, he'd been able to get his needs met enough to not feel too aroused with these unexpected cases.
"Oh," P0mni said, a bit disappointed.
Bran knew how important it was to the woman to be able to offer some service to everyone. It wasn't necessarily a desire to fix people, though a less balanced version of the tendency might manifest that way, including overextending herself into harm or being taken advantage of, eaten alive by a self-driven expectation to fix people resentful or ungrateful for her compassion.
"May-HEEGUP!-be you HU'ULGK! could di-HIGGURGK!-stract HYULP! me?" he offered.
P0mni brightened a little at that.
And so, she spoke to Bran, aware he wasn't able to really answer except to nod. Her soft voice shared more not only about the life in the C!rcus but also little glimpses into her life before becoming a digital character. The artist turned water-filled rubber bear was honored by the frankness and trust she put in him.
He was also appreciative of how everyone else was still doing their own thing around the pool. After Z0oble grappled Bran's speedo away from Caine and offered it up to Bran (which he shook his head to), they threw it in the deceptively deep waters of the beach pool where it belonged. They were now relaxing back with G@ngle.
R@gatha was having a lively conversation with K!nger and the aforementioned gummy toothman in where the chess piece was doing a lot of good-natured chuckling and the other seemed constantly lost as he'd manifested a crescent moon shaped floaty to sit on.
Bran admired how the two were patient with Caine in explaining the cultural significance of their jokes leading to an uproaring burst of laughter sporadically from his toothy face.
"He's grown a lot," P0mni suddenly said, distracted too by the loud guffaws.
"Wh-HUGGUP!-uh, who has?" Bran asked. He was finally getting to a limit with his hiccups and was ready to be free of the constant jiggling and inability to speak.
"Caine," she said, nodding to the AI.
"Ah-HYULP!"
"He got...well...he was always a little scary. But when K!nger thought he deleted him for good, right before, he was terrifying!" she said.
"What cha-HNG'UH!-changed?" he asked.
"I dunno. He was in the void." Bran had a loose understanding of the void. She continued, "I don't think he ever wanted to hurt us. He just didn't understand what to do. No one ever told him, y'know? He was just...doing what he thought he should do without any care to actually ask the people it was affecting."
"Sound li-IGGULP!-like a lot HYUGGUP! of politici--URGK!-ugh, politicians honest-ULNGK!-honestly." His hiccups were finally slowing, but the snapping of his body from the partially suppressed one was enough to be uncomfortable.
"Heh." She hummed. "Repressed man-child?"
"Hm, I've me-HYEEULP!-met too man-HEEP!"
"That sounds like a story!" P0mni seemed excited to hear the tea.
"Maybe H'YULP! after the-HMP'UP!-these go aw-HALP!-away!"
"Deal," P0mni said.
"Ugh!" Bran said as he dramatically threw his head back hiccuping twice in a row, plap plap of his body. "I th-HYULP! think I'll go rest th-HIGGUP! these away. Thanks fo-HER'GUP! the conv-HERG'L-sation, P0mn-HEEG!"
"Sure, Bran. If you need anything..." She smiled sweetly.
"I wi-ILP!-will."
---
Bran laid in his bed as his hiccups continued to slow. He meditated on his situation with a seriousness to his proclivities he hadn't allowed himself to consider before.
Would anyone ever find out about why he got the hiccups so frequently? Surely Caine was privy to at least a fraction of the reason judging by some of the knowing looks he'd received. But did he know the full story? Did he know that Bran was aroused by his hiccups? By all hiccups?
Would there be a time when someone would have to know? Or would find out? Or was he overthinking the importance?
The hiccups finally stopped. Even though he didn't need to breathe, he did it anyway and watched the reflection of glitter from inside his body on the ceiling above him, like his own planetarium.
He went over to work on his manifestations; sculptures made from his mind on pedestals. Large-bellied forms without limbs. Mugs and vessels. A face he once was.
