oneortheother
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Star Wars TK: Lessons in Laughter
(This takes place during the episode “The Academy” during the Clone Wars.)
O-O-O
The Royal Academy of Government was a New Mandalorian leadership academy that was located in the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari on the planet Mandalore. It was where the young leaders of tomorrow were single-mindedly focused on improving themselves so they could best serve their government. At least that was what they said in the commercials.
In truth, the young adults who made up the student population of the Royal Academy of Government were just like youngsters everywhere. Some were motivated, some were less so. Some were serious, some were less so. Soniee and Lagos were two students who at this particular moment, as Jedi representative Ahsoka Tano entered the lecture hall, in full Jedi raiment, were not feeling especially inclined to focus on academic pursuits.
“Ahsoka Tano… she seems awfully serious, doesn’t she?” Lagos said, playing with her blonde ponytail as she watched the Togruta pontificate passionately on the stage.
“She’s a Jedi – what do you expect?” her friend Soniee replied, as she half-listened to Ahsoka’s lecture, playing with her datapad on her lap.
“I mean, she’s talking about tradition, and integrity, and holding onto your ideals…” Lagos said, selectively pulling out words from Ahsoka’s speech. “That’s a sign, isn’t it? Remember our little tradition here at the academy? How we greet all our new tutors?”
“She’s a Jedi. I’d rather not have my head cut off with a lightsaber, thank you,” Soniee said dryly.
“She handed in her lightsaber, remember? No weapons!” Lagos insisted, her blue eyes sparklingly with enthusiasm.
Soniee tapped her chin for a moment, as she pondered her friend’s offer. She stealthily turned on her personal display visor, and set the scanner to detect the density of nerve clusters. Soniee had always been a tinkerer, and she loved inventing her own algorithms and finding new functionality out of her devices. This particular display visor had been installed with software that allowed its user to detect where nerves were most clumped together… also known as sensitivity. Soniee fixed her eyes on Ahsoka, still orating on stage, and was delighted to see a stream of sensitivity hot-spots being recognized on her visor. The visor recognized hot-spots by high-lighting them in red, moderate spots in yellow, and unreceptive spots in blue, and Soniee was surprised by how much red there was on this ‘dignified Jedi representative’. The underarms were definitely going to be a fun spot to play with. The sides and ribs were yellow, but the redness of the navel made up for it.
“What have we got? Are her feet any fun?” Lagos whispered. Soniee mentally rolled her eyes – Lagos always had a fixation on feet. Many a sleepover with her that had started amiably with pedicures (Soniee invariably chose more conservative colours, like red and white, while Lagos always chose bolder ones, like emerald-green and gold) but ended in desperate tickle fights.
“Hold on…” Soniee hissed, as she waited to get a clear shot; the thick Jedi boots Ahsoka wore were preventing her from getting an accurate reading.
After waiting patiently, the opportunity came, as Ahsoka sat down in her seat at the front of the class and crossed her legs. It was a little thing, as her shoe came loose and slipped off her foot. It only lasted a brief second as Ahsoka quickly slipped her nylon-clad foot back into the shoe, but Soniee’s sensors were afforded an invaluable, unobstructed view of her new tutor’s sole.
The visor hummed as it quickly analyzed the data. There was a wide grin on Soniee’s face, as she saw the entire foot light up like a shimmering Sundari sunset. Almost the entire sole blazed like a ruby, with white-red nodes that glowed brightest around the base of the toes and in between them. The crimson lines that trailed all over the arches, especially the white fault lines along the centre of the arch were breathtaking too. Soniee would never have imagined a Jedi would have such ticklish feet, or indeed, that a Jedi could even be ticklish. She passed the visor over to Lagos and saw her friend’s jaw drop.
“We have to get her. It’s practically a civic duty!” Lagos exclaimed.
“We do. But we need to discuss this first. Meet you in the engineering labs after class…”
O-O-O
The long-standing tradition at The Royal Academy of Government, was of course, a thorough tickling of any new tutors by their students. Mandalorian culture dictates that strength and dedication were the most important traits for any warrior to have, and legend has it, the noble tradition of testing the perseverance of new additions via ordeal by tickle-torment was instigated by Mandalore the Preserver himself. Of course, Soniee was doubtful that it hadn’t been a handful of tickle-loving students who had simply invented the story and perhaps the entire legend was a mere fable, but she was happy to go along with it.
The various devices around the Engineering hall had gotten a lot of mileage out of the years, as the turnover was high in such a prestigious faculty. Usually, there were up to a dozen eager volunteers willing to participate in the trial, depending on the attractiveness of the new tutor. Soniee fondly remembered a comely, purple-skinned Zeltron tutor, with deep crimson skin and dark blue hair, which had summoned a crowd of almost thirty students.
The best part was, she had been quite enthusiastic to the idea, though perhaps she may have misunderstood what they meant by “making her laugh”. The Zeltrons were famed for their gullibility, after all. They had really given her a proper Mandalorian welcome, strapping her eagle-spread to an examination table and gang-tickling her for a full night.
There wasn’t a spot on her svelte, flexible body that was not astonishingly ticklish, and they had all had an absolute ball playing with her throughout the night. Soniee fondly remembered having a foot to herself, which was one of the perks of being the one to design the bondage table (the others fought over the remaining ticklish spots, and neck, armpits, ribs, sides, stomach, thighs, knees and feet saw little rest over the entire evening). She could still remember watching the red-skinned foot with its painted blue toes, painted the same bold blue as her hair, splay and curl agilely as they fought frantically to escape Soniee’s tickling touch. She had been so much fun to play with, as they teased her entire body with feathers, brushes, and a whole host of other devious devices.
They had even convinced her that she would have to do it again once a month – Zeltrons really would buy anything!
Soniee was sorry to say that the poor Zeltron tutor had resigned after half a year, due to her students constantly tickling her in class. Soniee remembered a particular memorable lesson on anatomy where a handful of males decided to demonstrate the Babinski reflex on their lovely tutor’s soles repeatedly, to the amusement and merriment of the rest of the class.
“Thinking about all the good times we had in this room?” Lagos asked, recognizing the nostalgic look in Soniee’s green eyes.
“Yeah. Remember the Zeltron tutor we had a few years back?”
“Oh yeah. Super-ticklish feet. Good times,” Lagos nodded, with a chuckle.
“Is that all you remember?” Soniee said, with a laugh. “Where’s the rest of the guys?”
“I think they’ve chickened out. Jedi are scary, remember?”
“More for us, then.”
“That’s the spirit, though I’m calling dibs on the tootsies. Did you see those black nylons she was wearing today?”
“Oh, Lagos. I’m trying to think about how we’re going to get her in the first place.”
“Tickle her so much she can’t focus? If her feet are as ticklish as your sensors say…” Lagos said, wiggling her fingers enthusiastically. “Oooh, we could use the phony exercise machine! Remember that time we got that arrogant fitness tutor into that?”
Soniee smiled at the memory. The fitness instructor had been a tough-nosed Chiss woman, with the fierce red eyes and blue-skin of her people. She evidently took a lot of pride in her toned physique, and as such, it was easy to goad her into a ‘demonstration’ of her physical prowess on a press-up bench that had been subtly altered by Soniee’s own hand. Instead of honing the muscles around the shoulders and arms, this bench would hone its user’s abs – namely by having them laugh hysterically. The headstrong instructor quickly lay down on the bench, oblivious to the impending danger, and as soon as she lifted her hands to push the bar, metal clamps sprang from the framework to snare her ankles and wrists. The scariest of the instructor had summoned a smaller crowd, but a few hours into the tickling, Soniee, Lagos, and two other students had turned the snarling Chiss into a blubbering housecat. Lagos had taken a special delight in stripping off the tutor’s sports shoes and tickling those blue soles with her sharp nails till they were nice and red, while Soniee had enjoyed taunting and teasing the muscular instructor at her impotence. The look of despair in the Chiss’s red eyes was worth a million creds as she realized despite her muscles and strength, she would not be able to pull down her arms to ward off Soniee’s fingernails from creeping into her armpits.
Soniee sighed, as she knew such a machine would not work on a Jedi like Ahsoka Tano. “It wouldn’t work, Lagos. Jedi.”
“Killjoy,” Lagos said, sticking out her tongue. “What about those robo-stocks? Remember Miss High-and-mighty from last year?”
Soniee should have guessed Lagos would have brought up those stocks. Miss High-and-Mighty was a derogative nickname the class had given to a Tholothian tutor who was nigh-universally despised because of her condescending attitude. The Tholothian woman was breathtakingly beautiful with her dark skin and indigo eyes, seemingly ageless, and always immaculately dressed, but her fashion sense was interpreted as vanity by the many female students of the class (Soniee privately wondered how big a factor jealousy was in the equation). And the girls had delighted in taking her down a peg. They had tricked her into the robo-stocks chair, on the pretence of it being some kind of massage table, but as soon as she settled in, little robotic claws pulled back each of her brown toes as larger claws pulled her arms behind her head.
At that point, the vengeful women of the class tore into her ticklish body with a righteous fury that can only be seen when women are tickling other women. The gang-tickling had been merciless, with several of the girls even high-fiving when they successfully tickled the haughty instructor to tears. The tutor had always worn expensive designer high-heels and synthetic nylons of the highest quality, so the female students (especially Lagos) took a special delight in stroking and teasing the soft tootsies which clearly received regular pedicures. Soniee had even been devious enough to install some automated ticklers so their haggard instructor would not get a moment of peace while the girls went to bed. The way the tutor begged as Soniee calibrated four small mechanical arms tipped with narrow, drill-like plastic points probed all over her immobile soles had been a beautiful sight to behold. It was only narrowly overshone by the way she swore and shouted after Soniee finished setting the automated ticklers in place: The first one was slotted into place under the ball of her foot, the second one set just above the heel, the third just below her big toe on the opposite foot and then the fourth zeroed in around the very centre.
As Soniee finished putting them all in place and turning them on, she was pleased to see that although the stroking area was limited, it still seemed extremely effective as the instructor turned into a howling wreck.
Sadly, it had the same problems as the first.
“She’s a Jedi. It just wouldn’t work,” Soniee said, shaking her head.
“Kill. Joy. So what do you propose then?” Lagos asked, crossing her arms.
“I don’t know… don’t we have Ysalamiri down by the wildlife preserve?”
“Those force-repelling lizards? I’ve always thought the idea that they can somehow block the force was a myth. They’re just lizards… how would they even know how to do such a thing?”
“When you put it that way, maybe we should put more faith in good ol’ machines,” Soniee said, rubbing her hands together. “I’ll look into some force cage designs and see what I can do.”
O-O-O
“Wow, thanks for coming! You got our holonet message?” A pair of grinning students said as they greeted Ahsoka outside the engineering labs. “I’m Lagos by the way,” said the blonde with the brilliant blue eyes. “And this is Soniee,” she gestured to the green-eyed brunette.
“The Jedi council always appreciates a bit of mingling with the locals. When you mentioned this traditional ritual, I just had to come along and check it out,” Ahsoka said, with a friendly smile. The message she had received had been rather vague, and initially the Togruta had been wary, but now that she was here and face-to-face with these two girls, she felt reassured. She sensed playfulness, mixed with a bit of nervousness as if they had something planned, but Ahsoka sensed these two were trustworthy and would not attempt to do her serious harm.
“We were really curious about how a Jedi would fare against one of the most ancient Mandalorian traditions – the ordeal,” Lagos gushed, as she clapped her hands together excitedly.
“Well, the Jedi always like to be a part of the communities they join,” Ahsoka said, hoping the students wouldn’t notice she wasn’t quite sure what an ordeal was. Was it like a deal?
Ahsoka followed the students who lead her into a lit room, where she was greeted by a mechanized stockade waiting for her. There were tools laid out on trays alongside it – there was a toothbrush, paintbrushes, q-tips, yarn, massage vibrators, and all kinds of stuff. Ahsoka still didn't put the pieces together until she saw the feathers, long firm ones and short fluffy ones.
“Such a distinguished Jedi like yourself wouldn’t be afraid of a little tickling, right?” Lagos grinned. Just looking at all the tickly tools was enough to made Ahsoka’s toes curl in her boots, as Ahsoka remembered her ticklish encounter at the hands of her competitive roommate.
“So this is the Mandalorian ordeal, eh?” Ahsoka said, as she picked up a feather with the Force and spun it in the air. “Doesn’t seem very manly.”
“I understand it used to be done with spikes and blasters and things, but this is much less messy,” Soniee shrugged.
“And you didn’t answer us – are you ticklish?” Lagos added, grinning cheekily.
“Not especially,” Ahsoka answered. That wasn’t technically a lie… From a certain point of view, it was definitely true – Ahsoka probably wasn’t especially ticklish compared to the most ticklish beings in the entire universe.
“Then you should be able to beat our challenge with ease! Have a seat, Ahsoka!”
Ahsoka crossed her arms, unsure if she wanted to voluntarily sign up for tickle torture. “Hold on, why should I?”
Lagos and Soniee looked at each other, clearly having not expected the question. “Ummm, because traditions and stuff? Respect for culture?”
Ahsoka smirked. “Tell you what, I’ll accept your little challenge. But if I can take…” she paused, looking at the clock in the corner of the room. “Thirty standard minutes, then I get to tickle you two for as long as I want.” Tickling Barriss and her Mirialan soles had been very fun, and Ahsoka was eager to experience that again.
The girls discussed with each other briefly before nodding, and they all shook hands on it.
Ahsoka was quickly seated in the metal stockade, hoping she had not bit off more than she could chew. The girls hadn’t mentioned what would happen if she gave up within thirty minutes… but then again, she could always use the Force to get her out of trouble, right?
Apparently not; as Ahsoka’s high Jedi boots were pulled off and she was strapped into the stockade, she felt her connection to the force nullify as she realized too late that the stockade seemed to have the same Force-suppressing signature as Force Cages. The girls finished tying Ahsoka’s arms high above her head and stepped back to admire their handiwork.
Ahsoka Tano had her pretty, black nylon-clad soles sticking out of two holes at the foot of the stockade, with a fair distance between the two feet so they could not reach each other – Ahsoka wouldn’t even be able to hide one ticklish foot behind the other. The way her legs were spread, Ahsoka’s thighs would also be easily tormented, as well as the entire mid-section. The armpits would be bad too, with the way her taut arms were tired.
As Ahsoka tested her bonds, it became clear that although the students had done a good job with the Force-nullifying shackles, they had been remiss in binding Ahsoka’s body tightly enough. The agile and slender Togruta knew that if she really wanted to, she would be able to wiggle her way out of her constraints in seconds, but did she really want to? Ahsoka remembered the ticklish ministrations she had received at the hands of Barriss, and she chided herself for her lack of endurance. Perhaps this would be exactly the training she needed. Peering at her tormentresses through the Force, Ahsoka sensed no malice or ill will, though perhaps the blonde girl was enjoying herself a bit too much. Ahsoka knew she had the power to break free at any point anyway, so why not go along with things?
“Thirty minutes, girls,” Ahsoka challenged. “And then you’re all mine. Better make your time count! Jedi don’t break easily!”
“Yeah, it should be easy for you, not like you’re ticklish or anything, right?” Lagos said with an air of sarcasm as she picked up a pair of feathers, one fluffy and one stiff, and strolled towards Ahsoka’s feet. Ahsoka’s first instinct was curiosity. She had never been tickled by feathers before. Would she even be feather ticklish?
Ahsoka got her answer sharply as the two feathers quickly made their impact felt on her stocked feet. There was a shocked gasp at the lightness of the sensations as the feathers chose their mark, and giggles quickly burst from the Togruta’s mouth unbidden as the feathers danced over her soles.
“Remind me, what did you say about not being ticklish?” Lagos giggled, as she twirled the feathers along the pair of soles with the air of an expert featherer. She had driven many a tutor to hysterics with these feathers, and none of them had scored as highly as Ahsoka on Soniee’s sensitivity monitor either. Lagos already found herself captivated by the desperate dance of Ahsoka’s flailing feet as they twisted right and left to try to avoid the feathers, the ankles exploring its entire limit of movement as they writhed about in reaction to feathering. This was too fun, and they were just getting started.
Soniee has started on Ahsoka’s torso too, and she was brandishing a devilish tool of her own design – to a casual observer, they might have merely looked like gloves, but Soniee’s gloves were the ultimate tickling tool in her capable hands. The gloves had plastic fingertips with plastic segment which vibrated with terribly ticklish intent when they were activated. The vibrations intensified tickling sensations, and were absolutely unbearable when used around the armpits or belly-button, at least according to Lagos’s post-experiment testimony (Soniee and Lagos had an unspoken agreement that all tickling devices would be tested on both of them in turn, with Soniee tickling the upperbody while Lagos covered the feet – that way they could ensure their tools would be useful on all body parts). The buzzing fingertips were definitely effective too, as they scampered all over Ahsoka’s sides, ribs and stomach. Soniee sometimes wouldn’t even need to wiggle her fingers, she would merely place her hands on a ticklish spot and let the machine do the work for her, allowing her to focus on watching the way Ahsoka would writhe and snort with laughter and frantically try to pull away from the vibrating sensations.
Ahsoka was having a hard time deciding which tickled more, as the buzzing fingertips pillaged into her stomach as the feathers danced all over her soles. Her sangfroid was leaving her, as bubbly laugher began spilling from her mouth despite her vaunted Jedi discipline – it just tickled too much. These girls were a lot better at this than Ahsoka would have assumed, definitely much more proficient than Barriss had even been.
Lagos was using the fluffy feather to likely dust all over the entire length of the sole, while she devoted the stiff feather to more precise exploration as she teased one spot intensively at a time, alternating which foot got which feather as she went along. The high, structured arches of the nylon-wearing Jedi proved to be especially sensitive to strokes from the stiff feather, so after discovering this, Lagos spent several minutes stroking the sharp tip of the stiff feather up and down Ahsoka’s arches slowly and methodically, randomly throwing in quick strokes every so often to throw her off even more. She feathered with laser-like precision, following Ahsoka’s feet whenever they tried to move away from the feathers. It was bad, but at least she hadn’t discovered how vulnerable Ahsoka’s toes were…
Soniee on the other hand, had definitely discovered Ahsoka’s armpits being a goldmine of ticklish reactions, as she buzzed one finger in each armpit, then two, then five, and then ten fingers wiggling inside one underarm. It kept changing, never letting her get used to the sensations, and Ahsoka’s predicative powers were paltry in the confines of this Force Cage.
She shuddered for a second as Soniee and her vibrating fingertips began grabbing at her ribcage, making the Togruta guffaw and twist her head from side-to-side. Lagos was beginning to probe Ahsoka’s toes with her feathers too – the fluffy feather teased the tips of Ahsoka’s toes, while the stiff one swept along the bases of the toes. The Togruta’s laughter was a steady stream of girlish giggles now, and it had only been about ten minutes, but Ahsoka wasn’t about to give up. She really wanted to push her limits.
“Is that all you got? The fi-hi-inest young minds on the planet, and you cahahant do better than this?” Ahsoka said, playfully taunting them. It actually tickled very much, but she wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction.
She knew how ticklish she was around her toes, especially in between them, so she decided she had to try to build up some stamina there. Ahsoka grit her teeth and voluntarily spread her red toes as wide as they could go, giving her captors unfettered access to those horrendously ticklish undersides. Ahsoka’s toes began to twitch furiously as she quickly felt a pair of feathers, one on each foot, twirling and running in between her toes. It was unspeakably difficult to resist the urge to curl her toes as such a ticklish spot was feathered like this, and it took all her focus to keep those toes open. Lagos also began targeting one foot at a time, holding the foot steady with one hand while she wielded the feather masterfully with the other, hitting all the hot spots on the heel, arch, ball of the foot, and especially the toes. Every time Lagos worked on a foot, the other one would clench and unclench its toes as it strained to try to reach its feathered twin. They were held too far apart to reach, but every once in a while, Lagos would giggle at Ahsoka’s attempts to protect her ticklish foot and she would brush the tips of the toes as they reached over to desperately try to stop her tickling. The toes would flinch and the foot would recoil back each time she teased them with a strike from the feather, but soon enough, the tickling Lagos was inflicting on the ticklish foot would always prompt the foot to try again.
“I think she’s daring us, Soniee,” Lagos giggled, as she stood up and moved to the side, manning Ahsoka’s right foot. “Let’s both give these toosies a tickling she’ll never forget!”
“Both?” Ahsoka’s heart pounded excitedly in her chest as she felt Soniee give a last buzzing tickle on her ticklish tummy before walking down to sit in front of her left foot. Ahsoka keenly remembered how devastatingly effective those vibrating gloves had been on her upperbody. She looked down at the gloves with their humming plastic fingernails on each finger, and imagined them being raked down her soles… it sent chills down her spine.
Ahsoka only had a moment to brace herself as she felt a ten-fingered explosion of sensation on her helpless left, nylon-clad foot. The nails were sharp, and they buzzed horribly, sending shockwaves of ticklish sensations swarming through her body. The fingertips were a sharp, stampede of sensations and the ten fingers covered so much of her soles with their onslaught; because Soniee was using all ten of her fingers on just the one foot, it was easy to cover all of Ahsoka’s sweet spots at once – the arches, the toes, to the fleshy area of the foot just beneath the balls of my feet, were never left unharassed by those buzzing fingernails.
“She’s so ticklish! Cootchie cootchie coo, ticklish Jedi! Ahsoka Tano? More like Tickle Toes Tano!” They teased, the mockery embarrassing Ahsoka further as she tore away from the sight of her ticklish soles to look up at the clock. Three more minutes, she could make it!
The girls, noticing that time was not on their side, ramped up on the intensity. Feathers and fingers invaded the undersides of Ahsoka’s toes, Lagos having quickly divulged information to Soniee of Ahsoka’s sensitivity in that region. Ahsoka’s orange toes were grazed and tormented by twenty fingers and feathers as they tried to get her to give up, but Ahsoka dug deep into her Jedi discipline and held on. It was close, and she threw her head and howled louder than she had ever laughed before when Lagos discarded her feathers and they both tore into Ahsoka’s soft soles with fingernails. They would attack one foot at a time, with one hand pulling the toes back while the other three would scribble wildly over the sole so Ahsoka had to contend with no less than thirty fingers (of which there were usually twenty of those vibrating fingertips).
Ahsoka didn’t know how she lasted the final three minutes, without begging for them to stop and without freeing herself, but she felt the girls stop.
The girls unstrapped her, shaking their heads in disbelief.
“You’re the most ticklish girl we’ve ever had in one of these chairs… how did you hold out?”
“The only true answers come from yourself,” Ahsoka said with a smile.
“Oh, don’t give us one of those vague platitudes!” Lagos moaned, rolling her eyes.
“I’m serious. You guys will have all night to think about it…” Ahsoka said, as she wiggled her fingers and all the ticklish utensils flew in the air, hovering over the girls like a swarm of bees. She made a pulling motion and claimed Soniee’s vibrating fingertips and slipped them on.
“Go easy on us!” the girls squeaked, as they were suddenly pulled into the air, their boots flying off, and revealing their nylon-clad soles.
“Just remember… there is no emotion, there is peace,” Ahsoka said, as like the orchestra of a grandiose concert, she began directing tickling tools to ticklish areas.
“Whahahahat does thahahaht even mehehehan!”
“A few hours and you’ll work it out,” Ahsoka giggled, as she gave an experimental stroke with the buzzing fingertips on Lagos’s feet, and then Soniee’s, as she delighted in how effective it was. “Cootchie cootchie coo…”
(This takes place during the episode “The Academy” during the Clone Wars.)
O-O-O
The Royal Academy of Government was a New Mandalorian leadership academy that was located in the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari on the planet Mandalore. It was where the young leaders of tomorrow were single-mindedly focused on improving themselves so they could best serve their government. At least that was what they said in the commercials.
In truth, the young adults who made up the student population of the Royal Academy of Government were just like youngsters everywhere. Some were motivated, some were less so. Some were serious, some were less so. Soniee and Lagos were two students who at this particular moment, as Jedi representative Ahsoka Tano entered the lecture hall, in full Jedi raiment, were not feeling especially inclined to focus on academic pursuits.
“Ahsoka Tano… she seems awfully serious, doesn’t she?” Lagos said, playing with her blonde ponytail as she watched the Togruta pontificate passionately on the stage.
“She’s a Jedi – what do you expect?” her friend Soniee replied, as she half-listened to Ahsoka’s lecture, playing with her datapad on her lap.
“I mean, she’s talking about tradition, and integrity, and holding onto your ideals…” Lagos said, selectively pulling out words from Ahsoka’s speech. “That’s a sign, isn’t it? Remember our little tradition here at the academy? How we greet all our new tutors?”
“She’s a Jedi. I’d rather not have my head cut off with a lightsaber, thank you,” Soniee said dryly.
“She handed in her lightsaber, remember? No weapons!” Lagos insisted, her blue eyes sparklingly with enthusiasm.
Soniee tapped her chin for a moment, as she pondered her friend’s offer. She stealthily turned on her personal display visor, and set the scanner to detect the density of nerve clusters. Soniee had always been a tinkerer, and she loved inventing her own algorithms and finding new functionality out of her devices. This particular display visor had been installed with software that allowed its user to detect where nerves were most clumped together… also known as sensitivity. Soniee fixed her eyes on Ahsoka, still orating on stage, and was delighted to see a stream of sensitivity hot-spots being recognized on her visor. The visor recognized hot-spots by high-lighting them in red, moderate spots in yellow, and unreceptive spots in blue, and Soniee was surprised by how much red there was on this ‘dignified Jedi representative’. The underarms were definitely going to be a fun spot to play with. The sides and ribs were yellow, but the redness of the navel made up for it.
“What have we got? Are her feet any fun?” Lagos whispered. Soniee mentally rolled her eyes – Lagos always had a fixation on feet. Many a sleepover with her that had started amiably with pedicures (Soniee invariably chose more conservative colours, like red and white, while Lagos always chose bolder ones, like emerald-green and gold) but ended in desperate tickle fights.
“Hold on…” Soniee hissed, as she waited to get a clear shot; the thick Jedi boots Ahsoka wore were preventing her from getting an accurate reading.
After waiting patiently, the opportunity came, as Ahsoka sat down in her seat at the front of the class and crossed her legs. It was a little thing, as her shoe came loose and slipped off her foot. It only lasted a brief second as Ahsoka quickly slipped her nylon-clad foot back into the shoe, but Soniee’s sensors were afforded an invaluable, unobstructed view of her new tutor’s sole.
The visor hummed as it quickly analyzed the data. There was a wide grin on Soniee’s face, as she saw the entire foot light up like a shimmering Sundari sunset. Almost the entire sole blazed like a ruby, with white-red nodes that glowed brightest around the base of the toes and in between them. The crimson lines that trailed all over the arches, especially the white fault lines along the centre of the arch were breathtaking too. Soniee would never have imagined a Jedi would have such ticklish feet, or indeed, that a Jedi could even be ticklish. She passed the visor over to Lagos and saw her friend’s jaw drop.
“We have to get her. It’s practically a civic duty!” Lagos exclaimed.
“We do. But we need to discuss this first. Meet you in the engineering labs after class…”
O-O-O
The long-standing tradition at The Royal Academy of Government, was of course, a thorough tickling of any new tutors by their students. Mandalorian culture dictates that strength and dedication were the most important traits for any warrior to have, and legend has it, the noble tradition of testing the perseverance of new additions via ordeal by tickle-torment was instigated by Mandalore the Preserver himself. Of course, Soniee was doubtful that it hadn’t been a handful of tickle-loving students who had simply invented the story and perhaps the entire legend was a mere fable, but she was happy to go along with it.
The various devices around the Engineering hall had gotten a lot of mileage out of the years, as the turnover was high in such a prestigious faculty. Usually, there were up to a dozen eager volunteers willing to participate in the trial, depending on the attractiveness of the new tutor. Soniee fondly remembered a comely, purple-skinned Zeltron tutor, with deep crimson skin and dark blue hair, which had summoned a crowd of almost thirty students.
The best part was, she had been quite enthusiastic to the idea, though perhaps she may have misunderstood what they meant by “making her laugh”. The Zeltrons were famed for their gullibility, after all. They had really given her a proper Mandalorian welcome, strapping her eagle-spread to an examination table and gang-tickling her for a full night.
There wasn’t a spot on her svelte, flexible body that was not astonishingly ticklish, and they had all had an absolute ball playing with her throughout the night. Soniee fondly remembered having a foot to herself, which was one of the perks of being the one to design the bondage table (the others fought over the remaining ticklish spots, and neck, armpits, ribs, sides, stomach, thighs, knees and feet saw little rest over the entire evening). She could still remember watching the red-skinned foot with its painted blue toes, painted the same bold blue as her hair, splay and curl agilely as they fought frantically to escape Soniee’s tickling touch. She had been so much fun to play with, as they teased her entire body with feathers, brushes, and a whole host of other devious devices.
They had even convinced her that she would have to do it again once a month – Zeltrons really would buy anything!
Soniee was sorry to say that the poor Zeltron tutor had resigned after half a year, due to her students constantly tickling her in class. Soniee remembered a particular memorable lesson on anatomy where a handful of males decided to demonstrate the Babinski reflex on their lovely tutor’s soles repeatedly, to the amusement and merriment of the rest of the class.
“Thinking about all the good times we had in this room?” Lagos asked, recognizing the nostalgic look in Soniee’s green eyes.
“Yeah. Remember the Zeltron tutor we had a few years back?”
“Oh yeah. Super-ticklish feet. Good times,” Lagos nodded, with a chuckle.
“Is that all you remember?” Soniee said, with a laugh. “Where’s the rest of the guys?”
“I think they’ve chickened out. Jedi are scary, remember?”
“More for us, then.”
“That’s the spirit, though I’m calling dibs on the tootsies. Did you see those black nylons she was wearing today?”
“Oh, Lagos. I’m trying to think about how we’re going to get her in the first place.”
“Tickle her so much she can’t focus? If her feet are as ticklish as your sensors say…” Lagos said, wiggling her fingers enthusiastically. “Oooh, we could use the phony exercise machine! Remember that time we got that arrogant fitness tutor into that?”
Soniee smiled at the memory. The fitness instructor had been a tough-nosed Chiss woman, with the fierce red eyes and blue-skin of her people. She evidently took a lot of pride in her toned physique, and as such, it was easy to goad her into a ‘demonstration’ of her physical prowess on a press-up bench that had been subtly altered by Soniee’s own hand. Instead of honing the muscles around the shoulders and arms, this bench would hone its user’s abs – namely by having them laugh hysterically. The headstrong instructor quickly lay down on the bench, oblivious to the impending danger, and as soon as she lifted her hands to push the bar, metal clamps sprang from the framework to snare her ankles and wrists. The scariest of the instructor had summoned a smaller crowd, but a few hours into the tickling, Soniee, Lagos, and two other students had turned the snarling Chiss into a blubbering housecat. Lagos had taken a special delight in stripping off the tutor’s sports shoes and tickling those blue soles with her sharp nails till they were nice and red, while Soniee had enjoyed taunting and teasing the muscular instructor at her impotence. The look of despair in the Chiss’s red eyes was worth a million creds as she realized despite her muscles and strength, she would not be able to pull down her arms to ward off Soniee’s fingernails from creeping into her armpits.
Soniee sighed, as she knew such a machine would not work on a Jedi like Ahsoka Tano. “It wouldn’t work, Lagos. Jedi.”
“Killjoy,” Lagos said, sticking out her tongue. “What about those robo-stocks? Remember Miss High-and-mighty from last year?”
Soniee should have guessed Lagos would have brought up those stocks. Miss High-and-Mighty was a derogative nickname the class had given to a Tholothian tutor who was nigh-universally despised because of her condescending attitude. The Tholothian woman was breathtakingly beautiful with her dark skin and indigo eyes, seemingly ageless, and always immaculately dressed, but her fashion sense was interpreted as vanity by the many female students of the class (Soniee privately wondered how big a factor jealousy was in the equation). And the girls had delighted in taking her down a peg. They had tricked her into the robo-stocks chair, on the pretence of it being some kind of massage table, but as soon as she settled in, little robotic claws pulled back each of her brown toes as larger claws pulled her arms behind her head.
At that point, the vengeful women of the class tore into her ticklish body with a righteous fury that can only be seen when women are tickling other women. The gang-tickling had been merciless, with several of the girls even high-fiving when they successfully tickled the haughty instructor to tears. The tutor had always worn expensive designer high-heels and synthetic nylons of the highest quality, so the female students (especially Lagos) took a special delight in stroking and teasing the soft tootsies which clearly received regular pedicures. Soniee had even been devious enough to install some automated ticklers so their haggard instructor would not get a moment of peace while the girls went to bed. The way the tutor begged as Soniee calibrated four small mechanical arms tipped with narrow, drill-like plastic points probed all over her immobile soles had been a beautiful sight to behold. It was only narrowly overshone by the way she swore and shouted after Soniee finished setting the automated ticklers in place: The first one was slotted into place under the ball of her foot, the second one set just above the heel, the third just below her big toe on the opposite foot and then the fourth zeroed in around the very centre.
As Soniee finished putting them all in place and turning them on, she was pleased to see that although the stroking area was limited, it still seemed extremely effective as the instructor turned into a howling wreck.
Sadly, it had the same problems as the first.
“She’s a Jedi. It just wouldn’t work,” Soniee said, shaking her head.
“Kill. Joy. So what do you propose then?” Lagos asked, crossing her arms.
“I don’t know… don’t we have Ysalamiri down by the wildlife preserve?”
“Those force-repelling lizards? I’ve always thought the idea that they can somehow block the force was a myth. They’re just lizards… how would they even know how to do such a thing?”
“When you put it that way, maybe we should put more faith in good ol’ machines,” Soniee said, rubbing her hands together. “I’ll look into some force cage designs and see what I can do.”
O-O-O
“Wow, thanks for coming! You got our holonet message?” A pair of grinning students said as they greeted Ahsoka outside the engineering labs. “I’m Lagos by the way,” said the blonde with the brilliant blue eyes. “And this is Soniee,” she gestured to the green-eyed brunette.
“The Jedi council always appreciates a bit of mingling with the locals. When you mentioned this traditional ritual, I just had to come along and check it out,” Ahsoka said, with a friendly smile. The message she had received had been rather vague, and initially the Togruta had been wary, but now that she was here and face-to-face with these two girls, she felt reassured. She sensed playfulness, mixed with a bit of nervousness as if they had something planned, but Ahsoka sensed these two were trustworthy and would not attempt to do her serious harm.
“We were really curious about how a Jedi would fare against one of the most ancient Mandalorian traditions – the ordeal,” Lagos gushed, as she clapped her hands together excitedly.
“Well, the Jedi always like to be a part of the communities they join,” Ahsoka said, hoping the students wouldn’t notice she wasn’t quite sure what an ordeal was. Was it like a deal?
Ahsoka followed the students who lead her into a lit room, where she was greeted by a mechanized stockade waiting for her. There were tools laid out on trays alongside it – there was a toothbrush, paintbrushes, q-tips, yarn, massage vibrators, and all kinds of stuff. Ahsoka still didn't put the pieces together until she saw the feathers, long firm ones and short fluffy ones.
“Such a distinguished Jedi like yourself wouldn’t be afraid of a little tickling, right?” Lagos grinned. Just looking at all the tickly tools was enough to made Ahsoka’s toes curl in her boots, as Ahsoka remembered her ticklish encounter at the hands of her competitive roommate.
“So this is the Mandalorian ordeal, eh?” Ahsoka said, as she picked up a feather with the Force and spun it in the air. “Doesn’t seem very manly.”
“I understand it used to be done with spikes and blasters and things, but this is much less messy,” Soniee shrugged.
“And you didn’t answer us – are you ticklish?” Lagos added, grinning cheekily.
“Not especially,” Ahsoka answered. That wasn’t technically a lie… From a certain point of view, it was definitely true – Ahsoka probably wasn’t especially ticklish compared to the most ticklish beings in the entire universe.
“Then you should be able to beat our challenge with ease! Have a seat, Ahsoka!”
Ahsoka crossed her arms, unsure if she wanted to voluntarily sign up for tickle torture. “Hold on, why should I?”
Lagos and Soniee looked at each other, clearly having not expected the question. “Ummm, because traditions and stuff? Respect for culture?”
Ahsoka smirked. “Tell you what, I’ll accept your little challenge. But if I can take…” she paused, looking at the clock in the corner of the room. “Thirty standard minutes, then I get to tickle you two for as long as I want.” Tickling Barriss and her Mirialan soles had been very fun, and Ahsoka was eager to experience that again.
The girls discussed with each other briefly before nodding, and they all shook hands on it.
Ahsoka was quickly seated in the metal stockade, hoping she had not bit off more than she could chew. The girls hadn’t mentioned what would happen if she gave up within thirty minutes… but then again, she could always use the Force to get her out of trouble, right?
Apparently not; as Ahsoka’s high Jedi boots were pulled off and she was strapped into the stockade, she felt her connection to the force nullify as she realized too late that the stockade seemed to have the same Force-suppressing signature as Force Cages. The girls finished tying Ahsoka’s arms high above her head and stepped back to admire their handiwork.
Ahsoka Tano had her pretty, black nylon-clad soles sticking out of two holes at the foot of the stockade, with a fair distance between the two feet so they could not reach each other – Ahsoka wouldn’t even be able to hide one ticklish foot behind the other. The way her legs were spread, Ahsoka’s thighs would also be easily tormented, as well as the entire mid-section. The armpits would be bad too, with the way her taut arms were tired.
As Ahsoka tested her bonds, it became clear that although the students had done a good job with the Force-nullifying shackles, they had been remiss in binding Ahsoka’s body tightly enough. The agile and slender Togruta knew that if she really wanted to, she would be able to wiggle her way out of her constraints in seconds, but did she really want to? Ahsoka remembered the ticklish ministrations she had received at the hands of Barriss, and she chided herself for her lack of endurance. Perhaps this would be exactly the training she needed. Peering at her tormentresses through the Force, Ahsoka sensed no malice or ill will, though perhaps the blonde girl was enjoying herself a bit too much. Ahsoka knew she had the power to break free at any point anyway, so why not go along with things?
“Thirty minutes, girls,” Ahsoka challenged. “And then you’re all mine. Better make your time count! Jedi don’t break easily!”
“Yeah, it should be easy for you, not like you’re ticklish or anything, right?” Lagos said with an air of sarcasm as she picked up a pair of feathers, one fluffy and one stiff, and strolled towards Ahsoka’s feet. Ahsoka’s first instinct was curiosity. She had never been tickled by feathers before. Would she even be feather ticklish?
Ahsoka got her answer sharply as the two feathers quickly made their impact felt on her stocked feet. There was a shocked gasp at the lightness of the sensations as the feathers chose their mark, and giggles quickly burst from the Togruta’s mouth unbidden as the feathers danced over her soles.
“Remind me, what did you say about not being ticklish?” Lagos giggled, as she twirled the feathers along the pair of soles with the air of an expert featherer. She had driven many a tutor to hysterics with these feathers, and none of them had scored as highly as Ahsoka on Soniee’s sensitivity monitor either. Lagos already found herself captivated by the desperate dance of Ahsoka’s flailing feet as they twisted right and left to try to avoid the feathers, the ankles exploring its entire limit of movement as they writhed about in reaction to feathering. This was too fun, and they were just getting started.
Soniee has started on Ahsoka’s torso too, and she was brandishing a devilish tool of her own design – to a casual observer, they might have merely looked like gloves, but Soniee’s gloves were the ultimate tickling tool in her capable hands. The gloves had plastic fingertips with plastic segment which vibrated with terribly ticklish intent when they were activated. The vibrations intensified tickling sensations, and were absolutely unbearable when used around the armpits or belly-button, at least according to Lagos’s post-experiment testimony (Soniee and Lagos had an unspoken agreement that all tickling devices would be tested on both of them in turn, with Soniee tickling the upperbody while Lagos covered the feet – that way they could ensure their tools would be useful on all body parts). The buzzing fingertips were definitely effective too, as they scampered all over Ahsoka’s sides, ribs and stomach. Soniee sometimes wouldn’t even need to wiggle her fingers, she would merely place her hands on a ticklish spot and let the machine do the work for her, allowing her to focus on watching the way Ahsoka would writhe and snort with laughter and frantically try to pull away from the vibrating sensations.
Ahsoka was having a hard time deciding which tickled more, as the buzzing fingertips pillaged into her stomach as the feathers danced all over her soles. Her sangfroid was leaving her, as bubbly laugher began spilling from her mouth despite her vaunted Jedi discipline – it just tickled too much. These girls were a lot better at this than Ahsoka would have assumed, definitely much more proficient than Barriss had even been.
Lagos was using the fluffy feather to likely dust all over the entire length of the sole, while she devoted the stiff feather to more precise exploration as she teased one spot intensively at a time, alternating which foot got which feather as she went along. The high, structured arches of the nylon-wearing Jedi proved to be especially sensitive to strokes from the stiff feather, so after discovering this, Lagos spent several minutes stroking the sharp tip of the stiff feather up and down Ahsoka’s arches slowly and methodically, randomly throwing in quick strokes every so often to throw her off even more. She feathered with laser-like precision, following Ahsoka’s feet whenever they tried to move away from the feathers. It was bad, but at least she hadn’t discovered how vulnerable Ahsoka’s toes were…
Soniee on the other hand, had definitely discovered Ahsoka’s armpits being a goldmine of ticklish reactions, as she buzzed one finger in each armpit, then two, then five, and then ten fingers wiggling inside one underarm. It kept changing, never letting her get used to the sensations, and Ahsoka’s predicative powers were paltry in the confines of this Force Cage.
She shuddered for a second as Soniee and her vibrating fingertips began grabbing at her ribcage, making the Togruta guffaw and twist her head from side-to-side. Lagos was beginning to probe Ahsoka’s toes with her feathers too – the fluffy feather teased the tips of Ahsoka’s toes, while the stiff one swept along the bases of the toes. The Togruta’s laughter was a steady stream of girlish giggles now, and it had only been about ten minutes, but Ahsoka wasn’t about to give up. She really wanted to push her limits.
“Is that all you got? The fi-hi-inest young minds on the planet, and you cahahant do better than this?” Ahsoka said, playfully taunting them. It actually tickled very much, but she wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction.
She knew how ticklish she was around her toes, especially in between them, so she decided she had to try to build up some stamina there. Ahsoka grit her teeth and voluntarily spread her red toes as wide as they could go, giving her captors unfettered access to those horrendously ticklish undersides. Ahsoka’s toes began to twitch furiously as she quickly felt a pair of feathers, one on each foot, twirling and running in between her toes. It was unspeakably difficult to resist the urge to curl her toes as such a ticklish spot was feathered like this, and it took all her focus to keep those toes open. Lagos also began targeting one foot at a time, holding the foot steady with one hand while she wielded the feather masterfully with the other, hitting all the hot spots on the heel, arch, ball of the foot, and especially the toes. Every time Lagos worked on a foot, the other one would clench and unclench its toes as it strained to try to reach its feathered twin. They were held too far apart to reach, but every once in a while, Lagos would giggle at Ahsoka’s attempts to protect her ticklish foot and she would brush the tips of the toes as they reached over to desperately try to stop her tickling. The toes would flinch and the foot would recoil back each time she teased them with a strike from the feather, but soon enough, the tickling Lagos was inflicting on the ticklish foot would always prompt the foot to try again.
“I think she’s daring us, Soniee,” Lagos giggled, as she stood up and moved to the side, manning Ahsoka’s right foot. “Let’s both give these toosies a tickling she’ll never forget!”
“Both?” Ahsoka’s heart pounded excitedly in her chest as she felt Soniee give a last buzzing tickle on her ticklish tummy before walking down to sit in front of her left foot. Ahsoka keenly remembered how devastatingly effective those vibrating gloves had been on her upperbody. She looked down at the gloves with their humming plastic fingernails on each finger, and imagined them being raked down her soles… it sent chills down her spine.
Ahsoka only had a moment to brace herself as she felt a ten-fingered explosion of sensation on her helpless left, nylon-clad foot. The nails were sharp, and they buzzed horribly, sending shockwaves of ticklish sensations swarming through her body. The fingertips were a sharp, stampede of sensations and the ten fingers covered so much of her soles with their onslaught; because Soniee was using all ten of her fingers on just the one foot, it was easy to cover all of Ahsoka’s sweet spots at once – the arches, the toes, to the fleshy area of the foot just beneath the balls of my feet, were never left unharassed by those buzzing fingernails.
“She’s so ticklish! Cootchie cootchie coo, ticklish Jedi! Ahsoka Tano? More like Tickle Toes Tano!” They teased, the mockery embarrassing Ahsoka further as she tore away from the sight of her ticklish soles to look up at the clock. Three more minutes, she could make it!
The girls, noticing that time was not on their side, ramped up on the intensity. Feathers and fingers invaded the undersides of Ahsoka’s toes, Lagos having quickly divulged information to Soniee of Ahsoka’s sensitivity in that region. Ahsoka’s orange toes were grazed and tormented by twenty fingers and feathers as they tried to get her to give up, but Ahsoka dug deep into her Jedi discipline and held on. It was close, and she threw her head and howled louder than she had ever laughed before when Lagos discarded her feathers and they both tore into Ahsoka’s soft soles with fingernails. They would attack one foot at a time, with one hand pulling the toes back while the other three would scribble wildly over the sole so Ahsoka had to contend with no less than thirty fingers (of which there were usually twenty of those vibrating fingertips).
Ahsoka didn’t know how she lasted the final three minutes, without begging for them to stop and without freeing herself, but she felt the girls stop.
The girls unstrapped her, shaking their heads in disbelief.
“You’re the most ticklish girl we’ve ever had in one of these chairs… how did you hold out?”
“The only true answers come from yourself,” Ahsoka said with a smile.
“Oh, don’t give us one of those vague platitudes!” Lagos moaned, rolling her eyes.
“I’m serious. You guys will have all night to think about it…” Ahsoka said, as she wiggled her fingers and all the ticklish utensils flew in the air, hovering over the girls like a swarm of bees. She made a pulling motion and claimed Soniee’s vibrating fingertips and slipped them on.
“Go easy on us!” the girls squeaked, as they were suddenly pulled into the air, their boots flying off, and revealing their nylon-clad soles.
“Just remember… there is no emotion, there is peace,” Ahsoka said, as like the orchestra of a grandiose concert, she began directing tickling tools to ticklish areas.
“Whahahahat does thahahaht even mehehehan!”
“A few hours and you’ll work it out,” Ahsoka giggled, as she gave an experimental stroke with the buzzing fingertips on Lagos’s feet, and then Soniee’s, as she delighted in how effective it was. “Cootchie cootchie coo…”
