@Background Pony #D79F
I got stuck on reading this part for a loooong time; loving it deeply. The very very dreamlike otherworldly Jiggle Ball taunting was just… good, and I want to savor it so much. Good job with the growth; and Lexi’s last statement and the wonderful way it doesn’t make sense is my favorite kind of narrative teasing. <3

I’m not sure if I’m hoping more that every part makes my brain lock up as much as this or not. If it means they’re all this well written, maybe taking a full year to read it all isn’t so bad.

@Background Pony #D79F
[ METAGAMING REMOVED ]

Part 4
Spoilered: Suggestive, growth stuff. Very mild vulgarity.

Lexi returned from Lost and Found to the humming, flickering retina torture of white, magenta, and blue light that emanated across the 80s retro-themed toy store. She couldn’t quite remember why she’d gone there in the first place. Whatever it had been, Creepy Boss looked her up and down and nodded approvingly for once. “Good job ditchin the froofy dress, lass. No risk o’ that snug li’l getup catchin’ on the merchandise,” he declared. Had Lexi come in with a dress this morning? That sounded vaguely familiar, but… she looked herself over, peering past the rainbow-speckled shirt that stretched over her round chest so that she could see her legs. Her shapely thighs were mostly bare, short pants fitted tightly around her hips and narrow waist, her feet clad in platform shoes. That seemed about right; she was working in a toy store, after all. Why would she bother with a fancy dress? Was the slippery reality of this weird store messing with her head, or was it Creepy Boss having a laugh at her expense?

Lexi worried about that, but there was a shift to finish so she took up her position behind the counter. Thankfully, Creepy Boss disappeared somewhere into the amorphous ‘back of the store,’ leaving her to tend the shop in peace. It proved to be another slow morning, just Lexi and a store full of nightmare toys in neon colors that seemed to move when you weren’t looking. She took the down time to review her shopping list. A grand total of one browser and zero paying customers graced this horror-strewn den with their presence before it was time for lunch break. Lexi gathered up her purse, closed the shop, and strutted on her freshly-reshaped legs to the food court. There wasn’t much that seemed appealing to her, other than a parfait from the ice cream parlor (triple-extra oats, she specified). She supplemented that with her bag lunch. Taking a seat at an unoccupied table, she devoured the yogurt and oat dessert first, then started on her burgeoning sandwich baggie of apple slices and carrot sticks.
After the meal, Lexi tracked down a beauty care store to check off her shopping list. She got the special shampoo and conditioner she’d seen on the horse breeder series streamed last night, used by both beauticians on people and grooms on horses. She also got a cheap hair dryer so she wouldn’t have a damp mane and tail all night after her next shower. Odd how she’d never thought to try these things before. She even managed to get back to the store with a few minutes to spare, glad that she wouldn’t spark a confrontation with Creepy Boss over absenteeism.
The afternoon was a stress parade of spoiled brats after school, as usual. Lexi dutifully worked the register, cleaned up the messes, did a head count to make sure all the children who came in eventually went out, and clocked out for the night. Creepy Boss appeared as she was leaving and congratulated her gruffly for a lack of any spectacular failures or betrayals today. She rolled her eyes and walked to the parking lot where her mom had the car waiting. She’d survived another day, and resolved to quit this job tomorrow.

Tomorrow arrived. It was a Thursday. Lexi never could get the hang of Thursdays.

Lexi churned through her morning routine. The weather called for chilly winds, but the toy shop where she worked always ran hot. So she picked a tank top to go with her usual shorts, added a jacket, and went with close-toed high heel boots instead of her usual open, strappy platforms. Her closet was full of such close-fitting casual attire. She recalled what Creepy Boss said about a dress yesterday, and couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right about that. Moving on, she guzzled her coffee with the lousy-tasting protein bar and wolfed down the apple-flavored toaster pastry that constituted her morning meal, grabbed her purse, then jaunted down the steps to her mom’s waiting car for the ride to work.
“So, how’s it going?” her mom asked.
“I hate this job, I hate my boss, I hate my life,” Lexi replied instantly. “I think I’m going to quit today.”
The car nearly swerved off the road. Lexi got her big, pointy ears full of lecturing about how the only alternative to working for the store was to go to prison for shoplifting. As if she didn’t already know. But her mother was absolutely unmoved, vowing that no child of hers was going to spend time behind bars for knocking off a toy store (of all things). So the ride went on in studied silence.

When Lexi got to the store and clocked in, Creepy Boss was there with something in his ape-like meat mitt. “Inventory ta-day, lassie,” he announced with the untraceable dialect puffing out of his large, wiry white beard. “Nothin’ leaves the shop ‘til it’s all counted, and ‘cept fer break that includes ya too.” He lifted up the object, dangling it before Lexi’s face. It was a black leather strap with a buckle, and bore the words ‘DO NOT REMOVE FROM STORE’ in embossed silver letters. Bold font.
“Seriously?” she asked as he waved the strap around, leaving static image trails in the shop’s slightly stroboscopic lighting. “What’s that, a GPS bracelet?”
“Yer a thief, ain’cha?” he countered, and Lexi couldn’t argue. “This’ll keep ya honest. Normal days I’d just invoke the ancient rule of S̵̘̝͎̒͘͝i̸̙͇͕̓̚̕m̸͎͎̀̾͝ö̵͙͙̻́͑̽n̵̞̘̙̾̒̾ Ś̴͓͖̐͝a̵̡͔̼͌̈́y̴̞̝͚͊̔͝ș̴̠̈́͘̕.-” and here Lexi blinked as she somehow missed whatever rule he just named, yet he continued. “But ye’ll need yer wits, thick as they be, ta make it in this here establ’shment. So ta-day, this’ll do ya. Won’t come off ya fer permanent ‘til inventory’s done.”
Reluctantly, the purple-haired unicorn girl took the strap and held up her wrist to fix it like a watch. Creepy Boss interjected with “Nah, lass. It don’t go thar.” She looked at him quizzically, then with mild annoyance. Lifting her right foot up onto a nearby box, she started to hunch over with the strap to fix it around her ankle. “Nope! Wrong again, girlie!” he chuckled.
“You have GOT to be kidding!” she insisted indignantly. “No way!”
“Wear it or I’ll have ya fer insubord’nation and it’s back in front o’ the judge ya go, missy!” he gloated.
Grimacing at her options, Lexi gave in. She faced away from Creepy Boss, slipping the collar around her neck. She took care to not tighten it and felt for just the first hole on the strap, but must have made a mistake because it sure felt tight and secure when she buckled it. “There, are you satis-” Lexi spun around and the words died on her lips, for Creepy Boss wasn’t there.

Since procrastination wouldn’t help, Lexi focused her anger on finishing this Sisyphean task as fast as possible. She pulled a fully-loaded clipboard marked ‘Inventory’ out from under the register and wandered over to the furthest pile on the furthest shelf. In a normal toy store there would be a floor map, dedicated zones, and some kind of organizing principle. This place embodied the exact opposite of that concept, right down to its size and how many aisles there were at a given moment. Oddly, Lexi found that made her job easier since she didn’t have to be orderly. She’d pick up one of the strange, misshapen playthings, checked some random box on the list that just felt right (somehow), and tossed them back into piles on the shelves without slowing down to do any sorting. Until one of them flew back into her face, accompanied by a loud yelp from where she’d aimed.

“Okay okay! I’m awake!” came a pre-recorded, kid-friendly voice from the shelves. Before Lexi’s eyes, something grew larger under a pile of other toys. A round shape was inflating loudly. Within seconds, a green and purple basketball-sized … well, it was a ball … grew so large that it rolled out of the shelf and landed on the floor with a thin, rubbery bounce. And it bounced straight up, higher than the shelf it fell from. Then it fell straight down, hit the same spot, and went up in a straight line again to the exact same height as before. It kept going as the staticky voice introduced itself. “Giggle Jiggle Ball activated! One player spotted!” It kept talking as it bounced in place. “Single player mode! First to three wins! Try and dodge me! Get ready, game starts in three… two… one!”
Lexi wasn’t fast enough to turn and run. A green and purple blur rebounded on a new trajectory up from the floor. Before she could react, it nailed her in the chest.
“What the-” BONK! “-fffaHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! H-H-AHAHAHAHAAHAHA” Lexi blurted out as a cry of surprise instantly turned into a firehose of raucous laughter. She felt like someone started tickling her sides, except it was right in front of her chest where the ball had impacted and bounced off. As the ball flew in a graceful arc down the length of the aisle, Lexi clamped her mouth shut vainly against the involuntary hysterics. She found herself chortling helplessly through her nose until the tickling faded away and her laughter eased with it. The ball hit a corner and knocked a shelf of toys free to spill onto the floor before soaring off in another direction. “That’s one for me!” it cheered on its way. Lexi heard a new spill happening in the distance. Then another a few aisle over. That ball was making a huge mess!
“Difficulty increased! Try and dodge me!” the canned voice said, giving away its position. It was bouncing up an aisle towards the front of the store. The tone its rubbery membrane struck grew deeper with the next impact, and as Lexi jogged to the front of her aisle she saw why. Bouncing in the open floorspace in front, the ball looked bigger than last time. The size of a typical beach ball one might find floating in a swimming pool. It bounced off the window glass and made an improbably fast, straight path directly towards her. Instinctively took over and she covered her face with her arms with a squeak of alarm.
But it nailed her in the same spot again. “Two!” the ball pronounced like it was speaking to a kindergartner.
“Hey w-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Laughter exploded again as Lexi fell backwards, balance lost. The ball sailed towards the front again as she landed on a mound of indecipherable plushie creatures, her body convulsing in a wracking giggle fit as the tickling sensation out-voted being able to get to her feet.
“Difficulty increased! Try and dodge me!” the ball announced as it ricocheted heavily around the front of the store. Seeing it inflating to the size of a very large beach ball (or a very small yoga ball?) Lexi struggled to regain her composure. She watched through a muffled chuckle as the ball banked off the front corner and flew at her again. This time, she was able to roll out of the way as the last shakes of giggling died down. The ball bounced off the stuffed whatevers and ping-ponged down one of the aisles, knocking more junk free as it went. “You dodged! Good job!” it said encouragingly, its recorded voice growing fainter in the distance and cloaked by the sound of falling merchandise.

“Screw this, I’m out,” Lexi gasped through heavy breathing from the forced laughter fits. She turned to the front and started walking before she felt a very light squeeze on her throat. A lock of her purple hair fell over her eyes, blinding her for a moment. Lexi brushed it out of her face and… was looking at a wall of toys. Spinning around, she took a moment to realize that she was in the back corner of the store that had started all this. The sound of the bouncing menace was still a few aisles over, but it seemed to be heading in her direction. Lexi broke into a run to the front of the store again, hurtled the pile of stuffed things that had broken her fall, and reached out to push the button that opened the door shutters when she she felt another squeeze around her neck. Suddenly, she tripped over something that wasn’t there and landed face-first on the floor. Her head darted up… to be faced with the back corner of the shop again.
“No fair!” she cried, connecting the sensation of squeezing to the collar that read ‘DO NOT REMOVE FROM STORE’ around her neck and recalling what Creepy Boss said. Her plea was answered by something else.
“Try and dodge me!” teased the digital play-along voice from somewhere up above.
Lexi flipped over onto her back just in time to see the enormous bouncing ball plunge from the ceiling onto her chest a third time.
One again her lungs rioted instantly and her body pulled into a shaking fetal position as the tickling sensation assumed center stage with her nervous system. The cackling unicorn girl turned on her side and tried in vain to get a hold on herself, locking arms around her spasming torso. The ball landed with a rubbery quake in her field of vision a few feet away, no longer propelling itself through the air on impact.

“I win! Thanks for playing!” it said in the same tinny voice. “I scored three hits! You scored no hits! I hit you three times! You got hit three times!” it tallied while Lexi continued laughing uncontrollably on the floor. “That’s a lot of giggles! You know what that means!” A recording of a catchy tune started playing from whatever speaker was embedded in the ball, something that sounded like a parade or marching band. The ball’s tinny voice turned into a tinny chorus as it sang in harmony with itself, oblivious to the plight of poor, laughing Lexi. “Every blow… scores a grooo-ow! Every huff… earns a puuuh-uff! Every hit grows a bit, oh what fun! For everyone!”

“That was fun!” the ball chirped, jarring Lexi back to her surroundings. “Do you want to play again? First to five-”
“NO!” she shouted raggedly, glaring at the rubbery monster sphere.
“Okay!” it cheerfully replied, followed with a pre-recorded yawn. “I’m tired. Night night!” With no hiss, but with the sound of deflating rubber shrinking into itself, the ball’s diameter shrank. Normal beach ball size, then basketball, then smaller and smaller until it reached about the size of a softball.

There it lay, silent and unmoving, for the five minutes Lexi took to recover and regret all her life choices. Her abs ached from overwork. Finally, she got to her knees and stood up. This sparked a lot of motion within her top. She picked up the ball and stomped angrily (which caused her to jiggle even more, but she didn’t care) past the stock room. A narrow hallway greeted her, and she followed its dark and winding passage until she came to the seemingly impossible ‘old wing’ of the store that now went by Lost and Found. No time to waste. She picked up a long forgotten shopping bag, gently placed the ball in it, roughly crammed in some extra clutter to keep it still, then buried the bag under an overturned rack of clothing.

“That. Wasn’t. Funny!” she shouted at the burial mound of the Giggle Jiggle Ball. Turning with unfamiliar momentum, she left in a hurry. There was a vague feeling that she didn’t want to linger here, or something else might happen to her.

Lexi made a bee-line for the front counter and gathered up her things. Pulling the jacket over her shoulders, she was frustrated to find it wouldn’t drape over her chest. That now jutted out as if on display beneath the taut fabric of the tank top.
“At least it didn’t hit me in the face,” she grumbled in resignation. Grabbing her purse, she rounded the counter and headed for the door. A sudden squeeze around her throat jerked her head forward, letting a lock of purple hair fall in front of her eyes again. She brushed it aside and was once again facing a huge pile of spilled toys.
“Oh, right,” she groaned. “Inventory.” Lexi looked around, and groaned more loudly. That ball’s bouncing had knocked over toys everywhere. She scanned all the aisles and they were at least as bad. The whole store was a mess. Lexi sat on a nearby toy chest and something generally floral fell from the top shelf to catch on her ear. She gave her ear a flick but otherwise igored it, pulling the phone out of her purse.

“Uh-huh… yeah. Working through lunch, too. So could you stop by my apartment and bring me some apples, a couple of carrots, a canister of steel-cut… yeah, they have it printed on the label… right. And a spoon and my jar of peanut butter too? Yeah, you can just wrap them and the pillow all up in the blanket. I’ll let you in to drop them off. Alright. Sorry mom, thanks. Bye.” As she hung up, Lexi decided against trying to explain her new figure should she even be asked. Nothing else caused her mom to bat an eye.

As she couldn’t quite square that momentary mental conflict, she put the problem aside and got to work. Picking up the dropped clipboard, hoping nothing else decided to play with her, she set about inventorying these evil pastel plastic abominations. Ugh, this one was squirming. She hated when they did that.