Cassy:

Right. Here it comes. Any moment now...

"Say, Cassy, since we're not in a tearing hurry right now, how about we..."

She rolled her eyes. "We have sex? Out here in the open? With the universe on one side and the Ringworld on the other?"

"Yes!"

Got him!

"Sure, sure, why not? But only if this time I get to be on top."

This slightly took Drayden aback.

"But, aren't you satisfied with me being on top?"

"Of course, I'm satisfied. But, you know, having a bit of variety is nice."

Amazing, a beautiful girl is offering to have sex with him, and he's quibbling about the position. I thought men ignored everything else if sex was in the offering.

"But, it's the man's prerogative to be on top!"

Oh, the stupid alpha male stuff. But, not to worry, it will never withstand the full might of my body.

She took off her clothes.

He he, he's already forgetting his objections.

"But, surely, an alpha male would be big enough to allow the woman to show off her own moves once in a while?" she said.

Yep, he's totally lost it.

After a little while.

Yep, that was fun. I wonder if he'll suggest other positions in future or if it will be up to me.

Ding! [Sexual Technique] increased to 10, mainly due to your previous emotional sharing.

"Cassy, what will it take to convince System-san to give us full points for our physical techniques?"

"Well, let's think about that at a slightly later date, shall we?"

Cassy and Drayden:

After a while, "You do realise that it must be magic that is stopping the air around us from escaping out into space?" said Drayden, "I mean, standing here looking out into space, it should be a hard vacuum."

"Of course. I'm still not stupid! So, does that mean we can't escape to space, either?"

Drayden was bold enough to lean on the rail and stretch his arm outwards.

"Yep, it feels like a wall."

Cassy did the same, "You're right, an invisible wall. So, even without the handrail, there's no danger of falling off the outside edge."

"And, also, notice that the galaxy has rotated slightly?"

"So it has," said Drayden.

After much discussion and comparing of where they remembered the galaxy's position was when they first arrived as against where it was now, and taking an estimation of the amount of time that had elapsed, they eventually concluded that the Ringworld must rotate about once every two hours. Drayden attempted to calculate, using his knowledge of physics, how that fitted in with the Ringworld sizes given to them. But Cassy got impatient with his mumbling of numbers and merely said-

"[Inspect] Ringworld rotation times."

Ding! The Ringworld rotates exactly twelve times per day-night period.

"Oh." said Drayden, "That makes it easy. In which case, System-san, is that our home galaxy?"

Ding! It sure is. And this is where your home solar system is.

A graticule appeared overlaid on their visual fields. It outlined a small galaxy area, with nothing much visible but a faint smear of white.

Both Drayden and Cassy were a tiny bit gloomy about that. It appeared that that faint smear of white was not one star but many stars. They were so far away their own sun wasn't visible.

They were a long, loooooong way from home.

Turning, they walked to the other side, leant on the handrails and looked out onto the Ringworld land surface. They could feel the breeze as the air flowed past them.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"This must mean that nothing is preventing us from jumping over this rail and getting back to the ground the fast way," said Drayden.

"Please don't," said Cassy as she wrapped her tail around his waist.

They were silent as they contemplated the view. After a while, Cassy commented.

"If the original Felixians made this whole world and put in staircases and handrails, then why couldn't they also put in an automatic elevator system?"

Ding! They did put in an elevator system. The internal 'ballroom' is a part of it. What’s more, there is an entire Ringworld-spanning transport system. But it is all inactive at the moment.

"I see. Or maybe I don't. Anyway, why is it currently inactive?"

Ding! Reasons.

"Oh, right. OK."

At this, Drayden must have decided to change the topic. He pointed out: "That's where we came from."

They could see the green of the forest and then the blue of the sea. Looking further, they could now see the shore on the other side.

"[Inspect]"

Ding! The Jaserra Ocean is 600km wide and 2200km long, and its deepest part is 1.2km.

They looked anticlockwise and could see the ocean extending up the inside of the ring before being obscured by clouds. In the other direction, they noted the water coming up to the wall for maybe a hundred kilometres. Fading into the distance and atmospheric haze, they could barely see that the shore on the far side was mountainous. The ocean itself stretched out further and upwards and also disappeared under clouds. As ever, looking out and up, the floor of the Ringworld was visible, green forests and fields and clouds, climbing up and over their heads before coming down on the other side.

But, this time, they were more interested in the fact that it appeared to be winter weather in the clockwise direction.

"It's difficult to see because of the perspective, but that certainly looks like it could be snow fields reflecting the light. And there's plenty of clouds and not much green," said Drayden.

"In other words, it is the best bet for finding Bronsen and Alice," said Cassy.

"Hey, System-san, where are they?" said Drayden.

But, as usual, there was no reply to this question.

Cassy muttered a few swear words under her breath, which Drayden decided to ignore.

"So, if we have to go in that direction, how do we get past the ocean where it reaches right to the wall?" said Cassy.

"I suppose we will just have to carry water and food enough to climb up and run a hundred kilometres along the top. Remember, we are now capable of it."

"But we don't know for sure that they are over there. And even if we do, we don't know how to find them. And System-san ain't telling us."

"Yeah, I get the message. For now, we might as well remain in this general area."

They decided to get moving. They made good time by jumping down each flight of steps in a single bound and emerged from the bottom doorway the following day.

"I think we should make some semi-permanent tree houses." said Drayden, "We can rotate around them as we cover the ground when hunting."

Cassy couldn't think of anything better to do.

Alice and Bronsen:

Alice checked their shared status and started gigging.

"He, Bronsen, those two have managed to increase [Sexual Technique] by two more points!"

"My, I wonder what they have been up to?"

They both concentrated on the ability and got back a vague idea of what might have been going on.

"So, we need to have some more deep and meaningfuls, and then I need to be on top of you?" said Alice.

"Well, now, I don't seem to have any objection to that."

They were in their cave, with the doors fully closed, so they didn't have to be on the watch for any dangers.

"So, Bronsen, you have implied that your parents aren't the best when looking after your little brother?"

"Yeah, they're a bit slack. Especially in the last few years. They seem to have gotten distracted by their work and foisted all of the childcare onto me."

"What do they work at?"

"Oh, I'm a bit vague about the details, but it's some sort of Import/Export business. Apparently, the paperwork for such a thing gets extremely complicated. So, in the last few years, I've been so busy studying and babysitting that I ended up without any social friends."

"Hmm, so that's why you ended up being a loner. Well, in my case, I have parents that are perfectly fine. I can't complain. Well, apart from the fact that they are extremely religious. I have learnt not to argue about such things at all since my religious beliefs sort of just fizzled out by the time I got to be a teenager. Unfortunately, my parents always disapproved of the students at school since they didn't believe in the same stuff as they did, so I was always discouraged from making friends."

"We noticed."

"And, ahh, that fact that I'm almost black did play a part. Yeah, as soon as the class bullies worked out that I didn't have any support groups, they got stuck into the racial insults. Like, well, like, err, calling me - shit coloured..."

She screwed up her hands, looked down, and started to withdraw into herself, only to be brought back by being hugged by Bronsen. He kissed her.

"Well, I think you have a beautiful skin colour. After all, my skin is slightly brown."

"Thanks."

Alice sighed. "It was painful while it was happening. And, in this world, I'm nervous about what will happen when we meet with the natives. Will they be all white and treat my colour with contempt and revulsion?"

"Rubbish! I'm sure they will be much more tolerant. Shit, how would I know?"

Bronsen, in turn, looked despondent.

"We will just have to take it as it comes. And this is very embarrassing, but I actually fancied one of the bullies before he started bullying me. Indeed, I was thinking that I wouldn't mind losing my virginity to him."

"And?" said Bronsen, his tail raising and twitching a little.

"While I was trying to work out how to say hello to him, he made a crude pass at me and tried to peer down the front of my shirt. Bloody hell, what a letdown, the stupid git. After that, I just retreated fully into my shell and didn't come out until I met with you three by chance."

Bronsen laughed out loud. His tail relaxed back down to the floor.

"You mean, if he had just acted a bit nicely to you, he could have gotten a whole lot more than just a glimpse of your breasts?"

"That's right! That stupid macho shit missed out there. Not that he was anywhere near as good as you, of course."

They were silent for a while, then Alice said.

"Do you think that's enough emotional sharing for now?"

"Yes?"

"Well, how about you lie down on your back, and I lie down on top of you?"

"Ahh, sure..."

After some time:

Ding! [Sexual Technique] increased by 1 point. There is still a way to go, kids!

"Is System-san laughing at us?" said Bronsen.

"I think it is."

"And, with all of these points added to [Sexual Technique], shouldn't they result in us getting better at sex?"

"Maybe we have? After all, it is fantastic as it is, even if System-san isn't giving us many points," said Cassy.

"Also, perhaps we need to try - ahh - some more different positions in the future?"

"Oooh, I see no reason not to..."

Drayden:

A few days later:

"Hello, they have managed to raise [Sexual Technique] by three more points, as well as that one point from before!" said Drayden.

He concentrated on the ability.

"Oh, right..."

Cassy was laughing her head off.

"Right, Drayden, we're also going to try those positions. And don't complain."

What's wrong with the basics? But, I suppose if Cassy gets all excited about them, then, well, that's nice in its own way.

By dint of their efforts, they managed to raise that ability by another point.