Very sweet stuff. I was heavily invested for 90% of it despite being very sleep deprived and staying up all night. My only complaints are that the individual confession scenes dragged a bit by the end, though not a great amount (especially Caramel's, which I believe led to me not getting a great grasp of him because I was kind of skimming through his) and that I couldn't get as strong a grasp of Mania (or Caramel, as already mentioned) as the others. Or, I suppose, if "Mania's the reserved one who wishes she were needed and not just wanted" and "Caramel's the chill joker who acts the most normal" are accurate and I wasn't just missing things, then that complaint might become that they aren't as memorable as the rest to me.
Trybien and Sponge both shared the opinion that this story dragged towards the end, and I thought about it and realized I was ultimately okay with that being a flaw in it (I realized I could spend some time trimming a bit of it, but realized it didn't sit right with me to cut stuff out and was okay with leaving it as a flaw for the sake of my own tastes). I guess I am just another victim of indie game pacing where I am content to go on and on since I want to. But yeah, while I realize that people might feel like it dragged towards the end (unless they share the same interest/tolerance in slow pace that I happen to have) I've basically accepted that as a flaw. All I can hope for is that the rest of it more than makes up for it. Sounds like it did in your case which makes me happy.
About Mania: I guess I could have gone harder on what her deal is, though it might simply be a case of her tackling something that I find completely fascinating that others might not. Which is perfectly fine by me, I wrote this story realizing that people would definitely connect with some of the character's issues more than others, and likely not relate too much with a few at all. I found Mania a very interesting character to write since she's meant to be this character who deeply cares about her loved ones, but also has very very messy conflicted feelings about wanting to be the most important person in the lives of the people that she considers most important, while kind of grappling with that hypocrisy and how incompatible and unhealthy that is in any kind of relationship (but particularly a polyamorous one). I suppose in hindsight I could have gone harder on hinting at this aspect of her sooner, since the biggest hints about it before her big scene are the way that she critiques others while wanting them to be their best selves, while also trying to balance that with not wanting to come across as a harsh person (this is a very tricky balance for me as a writer so no surprise to me if something got lost in the shuffle there). But yeah, essentially Mania's character is meant to be about someone who's trying her best to get over and acknowledge some extremely toxic feelings about wanting to be the most important person in other people's lives, while realizing that it's fine to be herself. She's Mania, and that means that she's important to the others as an equal partner who isn't interchangeable with the others. Mania is probably in the running as the character in this who expresses her feelings in a more muted way (though still genuine) so again, no surprise if something got lost in the shuffle there.
You are of course free to not find any of that as interesting as I do, or to think that I could have improved it, but if you want to know what I was going for. Well, there you go.
About Caramel: So I very intentionally put the Vanilla/Caramel scene last in that little relay for a very specific reason. Caramel is basically my idea of what a genuinely cool dude is like who looks after other people (especially people trying to figure out gender identity stuff) while seeming to have very little emotional baggage on his own. I kind of picture Caramel as essentially someone who's already gone through most of his character development in the past, and his scene with Vanilla is meant to show that sometimes being vulnerable and being in perfect sync isn't just about sharing emotional baggage or flaws. Sometimes it's simply about being more honest with each other and Vibing. Sometimes it's about going "hey, so remember this thing you did in the past? It meant a lot more to me than I think you realize and I want to be genuine about that for a moment". My goal was to portray that as equally valid in terms of love and communication, if that makes sense. I suppose I could have put a bit more attention on how difficult being the "reliable trans mentor type" can be, I definitely have Caramel hint at it in a few lines but never dive deep into it. But yeah, that's basically what I was going for with him. Again, perhaps might not work for you or for other people, but that's what I was going for with him and while he might seem a bit more simple on the surface, I did think very deeply and carefully about the entire cast here.
Other than that, I loved absolutely everything. Eros and Agape are my favorites and I cackled at their jokes. (Honorable mention to "But what if my jokes are Funny and Make People Feel Better?" because that sounds EXACTLY like something my best friend and I would say to each other, and "Cat got your tongue? Don't worry, I'll use mine to go look for it," especially because of the ambiguity of whether "my tongue" or "my cat" was intended. I hope it's the former for policy reasons LMFAO.
Eros is an extremely self-indulgent character who I wrote realizing that a lot of people would probably write her off as sort of a joke character so I took great lengths to hint even early on that she's got more going on than it initially looks like. Even with that in mind, I realized some people would probably just not like her, so it makes me happy to see that you loved her (and Agape too since she's actually the first character I came up with, though I'm mainly addressing Eros since she's the one whose lines you quoted). Person who immediately tries to deflect everything with a joke even when it's very inappropriate is something I'm fascinated by, probably because I find it's more common than people think and I've also been that person before (though I wanted it to be clear that it's not an issue that she tells jokes or has a weird sense of humor, just that deflecting serious topics with a joke is her first and only response). As for your question, Eros is basically saying she's going to use her tongue to look for Ludus' tongue, which is a bit risque but still within the guidelines since it's just a more colorful version of her earlier "want to make out" line. Trust me I know what site I'm on.