Triple Tickle · Part 2 (2/2)
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Another silence fell. Kimiko brooded. She had an idea, but she disliked it so much that she was going to let one of the others suggest it first. Time passed, and then Taletha said: “We could – Master Amanda might let us help fix the Device. Work out the flaws so that it doesn’t keep stopping.” Kimiko felt her lips twitch. Good old Taletha! Count on her to come up with the crazy ideas. But this idea… She drew in a breath to protest, and Heather beat her to it.
“Taletha,” the blonde halfling said. “That’s just not right. I admit, I had the same idea myself, but… Help build a tickle-device and then let it be used on us? That’s… just wrong.”
“All right, we’ll think of something else,” Taletha said. The three halflings fell silent, then dozed off.
They woke up at the sound of a key opening the door. “Time to go back to work,” Will announced. Kimiko watched as he knelt down by the padlock and undid it with a key hanging from around his neck. He gathered the chain, setting it out of the way, and held out his hand. “Lockpicks, please.”
“What lockpicks?” Kimiko asked innocently. Will just smiled. He looked a lot brighter and less thuggish when he smiled, Kimiko though. But he was still a male, and human, and one of the ones keeping her and her oath-sisters captive. She glanced at the other two. Heather nodded; Taletha shrugged. With a sigh, Kimiko pulled the lockpicks from their hiding place. “How?” she asked as she handed them over.
“Thank you,” Will said. “You scratched the faceplate. Let’s go, now.”
When they reached the workroom, Master Amanda pulled them directly into the Device, stripping them nude and strapping them in place. Kimiko clenched her teeth to keep from whimpering at the sight of the various tickle-implements hovering one and two handspans away from her now-vulnerable skin. She looked over at her oath-sisters, where similar implements hovered over Taletha’s dark body and Heather’s fair skin. And before their helpless soles. They wore tight expressions, and Kimiko knew they feared the same thing she did: Not the tickling, but the sudden, repeated, agonizing stop of the tickling when Master Amanda’s machine broke down.
Kimiko heard Master Amanda say something to Will, heard the apprentice leave the room. She glimpsed him, through the machinery, carrying a sub-assembly as he walked out the door. Then Master Amanda pulled a lever, and the tickle implements began to move.
Kimiko heard the gears creak, and felt stiff-bristled brushes start to scrub her soles, sending irresistible tickle-sensations into them. She started to giggle, and heard Taletha and Heather laughing as well. More tickle-implements, softer ones, moved in, touching her here and there and there – across her belly, down her legs, up her sides and arms. She tried to squirm away from the light, insistent touch, knowing it was impossible to do so, but unable to help herself any more than she could help laughing from the machine’s implacable tickle tickle tickle.
Soft fur slid slowly between her breasts and down her belly, and a knobby roller ran rapidly up and down her soles before withdrawing and then moving back in. It all tickled horribly. Wonderfully. Kimiko found herself wishing that it would keep going on. Madness. But she dreaded the lurching, agonizing stop.
The stop came. Kimiko started to moan, then bit it short. She saw Heather shivering, and heard Taletha drawing in deep, shuddering breaths in an attempt to regain control. The tickle-implements withdrew, and Master Amanda came into the Device once more, carrying her basket of tools. The human woman knelt and began to apply a wrench.
Heather spoke up: “Master Amanda, if, if we asked to help with the repairs, would you agree to let us? I’m not saying we would; I just want to know your answer so we can think about it.”
Kimiko held her peace. Like Taletha, she had heard Heather wheedle out some amazing agreements. All three halfling females knew how to wheedle, of course, but Heather was much better at it than the other two, just as Taletha was better at stealth and climbing, while Kimiko herself was better at dealing with locks and mechanical traps.
Master Amanda didn’t look up. “Of course,” she said. “It only makes sense for you to help work on the Device, in between tests. I know how it bothers you when the machinery suddenly stops, so you three, and I, all have a good reason to want it to keep going.”
Kimiko pressed her lips together, holding her words back. Taletha spoke up. “It’s not right. It’s just wrong to help improve a tickle-machine that will then be used against us.” Heather made a face at the other two halflings, pleading for them to keep silent, but Kimiko found she had to speak as well: “How do you know what it’s like to be in a Device, when it lurches to a stop like this?” she asked. Master Amanda looked up at last, raising an eyebrow at her.
“You’re right, and I beg your pardon. I don’t know what it’s like when a Device suddenly stops; I’m just guessing.” She returned to adjusting the gearwork and pulleys.
The rest of the test session went in silence, other than for the creak and whir of the Device, the hysterical laughter as tickle-implements applied themselves to helpless halfling bodies, and the moans and whimpers when the machinery grunched to an agonizing stop. Which happened seven more times in the four-hour session. At the end, Will the Apprentice returned and escorted the exhausted halfling females back to their locked storeroom.
Heather Merryhill had to force herself, by an act of will, not to break down into useless hysterics when Will the Apprentice came for them on the morning of the third day. The second day had been like the first: A four hour session in the morning, with not-so-bad tickling episodes coming to an abrupt, agonizing halt, and Master Amanda working on the device before starting it up again. Then a four hour rest, followed by a second test session. Then stumbling back to the storeroom under Will’s watchful eye to recover for the next day. Today.
Once again, Heather found herself strapped into place on a leather bench, tickle-implements hovering one and two handspans from her naked skin. And from the soles of her helpless feet. Taletha and Kimiko were helpless on their own benches, and Master Amanda pulled the lever, starting the Device once again. As before, stiff brushes sent implacable tickle-sensations into Heather’s soles, and she found impossible to keep from laughing. Softer implements moved into touch and stroke legs, belly, sides, and arms, inflicting a further tickling that was impossible to avoid. It felt awful, and Heather wished that it would keep going for as long as possible.
The Device grunched to a halt, maybe, hopefully after running a little longer than it had the previous day. The machinery pulled the tickle-implements back, and Master Amanda entered once more to make repairs and adjustments. Heather considered, once again, making an offer to help, and once again held her tongue. Her oath-sisters were right: It was just wrong to help work on improving a tickle-device and then letting it be used on oneself.
Will the Apprentice had left again, Heather noticed. She wondered why he wasn’t here, helping Master Amanda with the Device. Then the human woman finished, gathered her tools, and left to set the Device in motion once again. Heather laughed helplessly as a wooly puffball spun and ran in circles around her belly-button, and as wooden nubs scrapped and rolled over the soles of her feet. More implements deployed to tickle the rest of her, and the pattern repeated. It was just different enough to keep her from becoming desensitized. Just different enough for the Device to grunch to a stop in the middle of the fourth cycle. Heather moaned at that sudden stop, and the implements withdrew to hover a short distance away. Master Amanda entered the machinery again for another round of adjustments before starting up the Device once more…
The four-hour rest was just enough to recover from the morning’s ordeal, and just enough to sharpen the dread of the second testing session. But Heather put on her mask of wide-eyed innocence when Will the Apprentice returned to lead them back to the Device.
“Sir,” Heather said. “I’ve noticed that you always leave before the tickle sessions start. Why is that?” She blinked her lashes at him.
“Master Amanda doesn’t want me to just sit there and ogle,” Will answered. “She always has something for me to do, and if I have to do work I’d rather not be distracted.”
“Oh.” A calculated pause. “But isn’t it, well, mean to ogle while the Device does – what it does?” Heather was aware of Taletha and Kimiko watching intently. Don’t mess me up, oath-sisters.
“I don’t think so,” Will said. “Neither do the female apprentices. There are three of them now, and they always show up to ogle when a new apprentice goes through his Ordeal.”
Heather put on her best begging smile, and Will went on to explain: “It’s the Guild Rule now: To be accepted as an apprentice one has to be within two years of one’s Score, and go through a tickle-ordeal in the Guild’s old Device. That was put into place a couple of years before I became an apprentice. Before then, they only used the Device on the applicants they wanted to discourage. In fact,” he grinned, “The story is that Master Amanda was the first one, back when she became an apprentice.”
“You mean Master Amanda was once put through tickling in a tickle device?” Taletha blurted out. Heather held her breath. She had wanted to ask that herself, but hadn’t quite dared.
“Yep,” Will grinned. “Not the one we’re working on, of course. The old Guild Device, one person, full sized. The old old Device, actually, if you understand what I mean. She helped Master Steven build the new old Device, about the time she became a journeyman. And then she had to test it. The Guildmasters wanted one male and one female for test subjects, and since she was the only female in the Guild at the time, well… But now we have to get going now.” He made shooing motions, herding them out of the storeroom and toward their next session.
In the workroom, Heather found herself once again strapped nude to the leather bench, with her two oath-sisters strapped down along with her. Once again she eyed warily the mechanical tickle-implements hovering about her. Once again, she heard the whir of machinery as Master Amanda pulled the lever and they went into motion. They descended, inflicting tickles on her, forcing laughter from her, and at the same time she heard Taletha and Kimiko giggling as their own tickle-implements went to work.
Stiff brushes and wooden devices pressed against tough halfling soles, proving once more that halfling soles could be tickled most effectively given the right touch. Softer brushes, feathers, and bits of fur moved in to tickle halfling bodies in other places, as well. Heather heard Taletha laugh as the Device tickled the dark halfling’s body. She heard Kimiko giggle as the golden-skinned halfling received various tickling touches. And she heard her own laughter as she endured what the Device did to her fair hide.
This tickling lasted longer than the previous ones, but still ended the same way: With the Device coming to a sudden halt. Heather shivered, once again, at the agony of it. She watched the implements pull back, heard Master Amanda bringing her basket of tools into the machine once again.
Master Amanda, who had had her own session in a Device, if not this one. According to the apprentice Will. Will was male, and human, and therefor not to be trusted, but Heather believed he had spoken truly, in this case. She exchanged glances with Taletha and Kimiko. The dark halfling nodded, and after a moment the almond-eyed halfling nodded as well. “Master Amanda,” Heather said. “We– we would like to help with your work on this Device. If you’ll let us.”
Amanda looked up, raising her eyebrows. “All three of you?”
“Yes, Master Amanda,” Taletha said.
“Yes, Master Amanda,” Kimiko echoed her after a moment.
“Good! And it’s about time.” Master Amanda stood and began to unbuckle the straps holding Taletha down. “You do realize, of course, that I’m going to keep you leg-shackled while you do your work.” Her glance sharpened, behind her glasses. “After all, you did only say you’d help with the work, not that you wouldn’t attempt to run away, afterwards.”
“I can’t complain about that, Master Amanda,” Taletha said.
“I can,” Heather said. “But it would be silly.” Master Amanda snorted softly.
A few minutes later, the three halflings, freed from their straps, but leg-shackled, were working to repair and modify the Device under Master Amanda’s directions. They oiled and adjusted, added a spring here, removed a pulley there, and adjusted tension elsewhere. It took over an hour, but at last the time came for another trial run. Reluctantly Heather stripped and allowed herself to be strapped back down. She waited, eyeing the tickle-implements in a new light as Taletha and Kimiko were strapped down on their own benches.
“And now,” Master Amanda said, “we will see how clever your fingers are when you’re doing honest work.”
“Is this honest work?” Heather asked.
“It would be if we were paid for it,” Taletha said.
“You are getting paid,” Master Amanda called from the control panel. “You’re getting room and board, and having your fines paid off by this.” Then she pulled the lever, and the tickle implements of the Device began to move around, and to move in.
Heather had wondered if working on the Device would make its actions seem like an attempt to tickle herself. When the stiff brushes began to scrub her feet, she learned that this wasn’t a problem. She giggled uncontrollably; the tickling this time was just as effective as it had been in previous sessions. Taletha and Kimiko were learning this as well, to judge by their own laughter as tickle-implements began touching them here and there on the legs and body, as well as combing the soles of their feet. Heather squirmed, unable to keep from making the futile attempt to avoid the tickling, even though she knew now, even better than before, just how futile that attempt was. She laughed as the tickle-sensations poured into her belly and her sides, up her arms and down her legs, and especially into the soles of her feet. And then they stopped.
This time however, the stop was not a grunching, agonizing halt, but a winding down. Heather sighed in relief. This wasn’t as good as a crafty burglary, but it was better than being tickled in the stocks – and much better than when the Device had grunched to an agonizing, mind-shattering halt. “Time for some more honest work,” Master Amanda said cheerfully as she brought her basket of tools down into the machinery.
It was the sixth day, and Taletha waited to be strapped down in the Device for what was likely to be the last time. Yesterday, the tickling machinery had slowed down only twice, and had not come to a stop at all before Master Amanda ended the session. Today, the final improvements they had made should let the machinery work without any hitches at all. And tomorrow would be the seventh day of their indenture, a day traditionally allowed off for good behavior. Taletha though Master Amanda would allow that. She was female after all, even if she was also a human.
But for now, Taletha stripped to her nut-brown skin and lay down on the now-familiar bench. Heather and Kimiko were already bound helplessly in place, and it took only a minute for Master Amanda to make Taletha helpless as well. The familiar tickle-implements hovered one and two handspans away. Through the machinery, Taletha saw Master Amanda reach the control panel and pull the lever that started those implements in motion.
Gears and pulleys whirred, and furred and feathered wheels began to spin. Brushes of both the stiff- and soft-bristled variety moved into play. Taletha laughed – couldn’t keep from laughing – as knobby wooden rollers ran up and down the soles of her feet. She heard Heather and Kimiko giggling as well as their own feet had stiff brushes and blunt-toothed combs applied. Softer devices swung down on levered arms to tease naked skin on belly, legs, arms. Between the breasts. In the bellybutton itself.
Sometimes the tickles were slow and meandering. Sometimes they were sharp and quick. Sometimes the Device would ignore her feet to concentrate on her sides, or around her knees, or on her belly or up and down her arms. Or all over the rest of her. Other times it would ignore the rest of her to focus on her soles, administering tickle sensations that seemed to penetrate and run up almost to her waist. But none of the Device’s implacable tickles could be avoided, no matter how much they provoked Taletha into squirming attempts to do so.
Taletha could count as the Device ran through its cycles, with just enough randomness to prevent her from becoming desensitized, and just enough predictability to heighten suspense. From the laughing, giggling, whimpering, and shrieking sounds they made, Taletha could also tell how the Device was tickle-teasing Heather and Kimiko. Taletha, after all, was making those very same noises herself.
An hour went past. Then another. The Device continued to function smoothly. Taletha, Heather, and Kimiko had done their work well, under Master Amanda’s directions. And now they were experiencing the results as the Device continued to touch and tease and tickle them. Stroking their sides. Brushing their soles. Wiggling between and around their breasts and across their bellies. Sawing softly the spaces between their toes. It wasn’t quite right to say that they were suffering from their good work, but it wasn’t quite right to say that they were enjoying it, either. Or maybe they were. Taletha couldn’t tell herself, if she was enjoying it, so how could anyone else say?
Taletha sensed the Device click into yet another cycle. She tried weakly, desperately, to avoid the tickling to come, and of course she failed. The straps holding her in place were as strong as ever, and the tickle implements just as effective as at the beginning of the session. She giggled and giggled and giggled as those implements moved in to tickle her all over. Then they withdrew, and the Device clicked as it came to its proper, and intended, halt.
That evening, the three halflings sat with Master Amanda in The Orange House, drinking hot chocolate. “I won’t hold you to the seventh day of your indenture,” the human said. “But I’d like you to consider. I have a full-size version to build yet for Baron von Federkeil, and he is not the only noble to commission a Device. Workers who know them inside and out are going to be in demand. Even if they are female, or halflings.” Her eyes narrowed in amusement, behind her round glasses. “It’s amazing how that can become irrelevant, when a patron really wants something. In any case, go off and enjoy yourselves tomorrow, and if you manage to keep out of trouble, I’d like you to come back the day after. For some honest work on the full-size Device.”
“But not as ‘test subjects,’ please, Master Amanda,” Heather said.
Master Amanda smiled again. “No, you’re a little too small for a human-scale Device.”
“And if you decide you need ‘more tests’ in the half-scale Device?” Kimiko asked.
The human took a sip of chocolate. “I might – but if I do, I’ll let you decide if they’re really necessary. Fair enough?”
Taletha took a sip of her own chocolate. It was good; she could get used to having enough money to regularly buy it. She glanced at her oath-sisters; noted their subtle assent. “We’ll think about it,” she said, but she knew that she would agree in the end.
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Triple Tickle · Part 2 (2/2)
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