YouNeverKnow175
TMF Master
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2002
- Messages
- 810
- Points
- 18
Read Part One here
Read Part 2 Here
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“I figured out the way around you participating,” Kurt said.
Sandra looked unsettled. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll do you first. I won’t tell you anything about the methods or the model until afterward. That way the outcome won’t be affected.”
“Oh…um….well….that’s…smart…”
“I know. That’s why I thought of it. I’ve asked Blaine to administer the study. I’ve briefed her on everything.”
“Oh….um…..great….”
“How’s this afternoon?” “This afternoon??”
“Yes, we have to get rolling!”
“Oh…well…I….I don’t think I…”
“You said you’d make this study a priority, Sandra….”
She sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it…”
* * *
“What is this thing?” Sandra said, eyeing with anxious anticipation the table with ankle and wrist straps.
“I got it off the internet. People into tickling and S&M use them to keep their victims immobilized.” He emphasized the words “victims immobilized” with an evil-sounding, drawn-out tone.
“Okay, Sweet Stuff,” said Blaine cheerfully. “Hop on!”
Sandra reluctantly climbed onto the table.
“Uh-uh!” said Blaine. “Shoes off!”
“Um, Blaine,” said Kurt. “Let’s get some practice in. Talk to her like you would any participant off the street.”
“But she’s my sweet Sandy-Wandy!” Blaine said playfully.
Kurt rolled his eyes.
Sandra kicked off her brown flats and climbed back onto the table, flashing her soft, pink soles in Blaine’s direction. Blaine smiled wickedly.
“Lie down on your back, flat, and and I’m going to fasten these leather straps around your ankles and wrists,” she told her friend.
Sandra took a deep breath. The straps being fastened around her ankles made her feel momentarily panicked. She tried to relax.
“So….” said Sandra nervously. “How is this going to work…?”
“Okay,” Blaine began to explain. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to tickle you for one minute in a certain spot. If you make it through the minute without saying the word “science,” you’re done. If you say the word at any point, I’ll stop. But then we’ll flip a coin. And you have 50/50 odds of having a minute of time added on to your tickling, during which you can’t use the word “science” as your out. And it goes on like that.”
“WHAT?!” Sandra said.
“What?” asked Blaine innocently.
“That sounds like fucking torture!”
“Well, you’re going to be inflicting it on people, so get used to it…” Blaine replied.
“So if I make it through a minute, or I say “science” and get the right side of the coin, I’m done?”
“Tails. Yes. And then we move on to the next spot.”
Sandra shuddered. “How many spots are there?”
“Just three.”
“Which three?”
“You won’t know until we get to them.”
“Jesus. Kurt, maybe this study isn’t such a good idea….you’re right…we’re never going to get any participants…”
“Well, we have a handful already and we’ve barely started recruiting. It’ll be all good! Let’s go!” He sounded eager.
“Ready, Sandra?”
Chills ran down Sandra’s spine as she glanced at Blane’s long, red fingernails. “Fucking NO…”
“What the fuck, girl, we have to start!” Blaine laughed.
“Ugh….FINE. Go ahead…”
“The first spot,” Blaine said. “Will be your feet.”
“FUCK,” Sandra said under her breath. She instinctively tried to pull her feet out of the stirrups. They were very secure.
Blaine smiled. She wasn’t particularly into feet, or tickling for that matter, but there was something undeniably sensual about it to her. Kurt had given her free reign to choose the order of the three spots, and she simply couldn’t resist Sandra’s perfect, soft, bright pink soles staring her in the face. It was like they were just begging to be tickled. She realized she didn’t think she’d ever seen the bottoms of Sandra’s feet before. At least, not straight-on, like this. It was actually incredibly alluring.
As Blaine’s hand began reaching for her left foot, Sandra quickly tried to consider if there was an effective strategy worth taking. But Blaine’s fingernails began lightly dancing along the bottom of her foot and her mind went blank. She winced and squirmed against her restraints. Blaine quickly accelerated her dancing nails, wasting no time reducing Sandra into complete hysteria. Sandra’s mouth opened wide as if in astonishment and she simultaneously unleashed a torrent of laughter. It almost took Blaine aback, but in the same way that she took great delight in torturing Mally in the student lounge, there was something about rendering Sandra utterly helpless that she just loved.
Sandra threw her head back, cackling. Her dark brown hair got quickly tousled. She was pretty sure she was going to have to say it. It seemed like a huge risk…maybe she could endure. How much time had gone by? Maybe it was already halfway through and she could wait it out? “Howmuchtimehowmuchtime?” she asked desperately through her laughter.
They hadn’t discussed whether that question could be answered. Blaine looked at Kurt. He thought for a second, and nodded. Blaine looked at the running timer on the table to her side and said, “45 seconds left…”
“WHAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA OH GOD!!!!” How had only fifteen seconds past? She’d try to endure a little longer.
Blaine switched to her right foot. The change was welcome but the torture quickly became equally as agonizing. “THIS IS CRRRRAAAAZZZYYYYYYYHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!” Sandra exclaimed. Her reaction to being tickled, not surprisingly, fit right in with her personality. She was generally loud, flashy, dramatic, playful, flirtatious—a “big” personality, many had commented. So it came as no surprise to Kurt that being tickled made his student make the scene that she was making.
Suddenly Sandra felt Blaine’s fingers stroking lightly up and down both feet. She had changed techniques and was now stroking from the heel up to the base of the toes and then back down, on both feet at the same time. It was equally as ticklish—just different—and now it was happening on both feet.
“You biiittcchhahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaaaaahahaahaaa” Sandra cursed her friend through her hysterics. Blaine noticed that Sandra’s toes scrunched up tightly every time her fingernails neared the base and decided to focus on that spot. Sandra’s face turned beet red and her laughter went silent and then the word “SCIEEEENNCCEHHEEHEHEHEHEHEAAAAAAAA” burst out of her mouth like a rocket. The clock read 22 seconds left.
“Okay, we flip a coin now,” said Blaine. “Heads, we’re done with the feet and move on. Tales, the timer goes to 1:22 and you can’t say ‘science’ until there are 22 seconds left.”
Sandra rolled her eyes at the absurdity. “Please please please please…” she whispered under her breath. The coin turned up heads.
“Lucky girl,” said Blaine. “Okay, tummy time.”
Sandra’s sigh of relief was short-lived, as Blaine gave her very little time to rest before lifting up her shirt—Sandra’s stomach flinched as she did it—exposing her flat, perfect tummy.
Sandra seemed to be less ticklish on her tummy than on her feet, but Blaine was proving to be a very, very good tickler. Her nails were a huge asset, and the way she used them drove Sandra mad. She giggled lightly throughout the belly tickling but didn’t cackle uncontrollably in the way she had. She endured the minute and took a deep breath.
“Onto the armpits now,” Blaine said evilly. Sandra’s wrists were strapped into the wide table so that her arms were spread out almost horizontally, leaving her armpits completely exposed.
Blaine’s fingernails lightly stroking her right armpit caused Sandra to immediately begin laughing. Blaine ramped it up quickly, and quickly Sandra returned to hysterics. Kurt had glanced back down at his papers for a few moments and jumped at the loud sound, which turned out to be Sandra’s powerful thrashing, pulling on the restraints.
“These things are really built just for this purpose, aren’t they…?” he mused.
“For people just…like…her…” Blaine replied, not missing a beat.
Sandra knew she couldn’t endure this. Probably less than fifteen seconds had passed and she felt like she was about to lose her mind. Her only hope was to win the coin toss again. The first time she tried she was laughing too hard to get the word out. She waited until she could grab a breath and then screamed with everything she had, “SCCIIEEENNNCCEE!!!!!”
She wasn’t sure what she would do if the coin turned up tails. She’d probably explain that she just couldn’t take it anymore. She had no qualms about being direct and admitting her weakness. She was confidently like that, and clearly didn’t feel that her ticklishness took away from her swagger in the least.
The coin turned up heads. “Thank. God.” Sandra breathed deeply and then began laughing, almost like a release. It was over.
“Damn,” Blaine said. “I was having fun.” She began unbuckling the straps.
“Well,” said Kurt. “You’re hired. I realized we’re going to need consistency with our tickling, so you’ll need to continue to be our go-to tickler. Okay?”
“Hey!” exclaimed Sandra jealously. “What about me? I thought that was my job!”
“You’ll still be here administering all of it. But we can’t have different ticklers. It’s too much of a variable.”
She was disappointed she wouldn’t be able to touch all of her friends’ feet, until she realized that she would be able to pretend to be using her phone and take all kinds of great photos of them. In a way, she liked that much, much better.
“Well, you’re free, girl. How does it feel?” Blaine asked.
“Fuck!!” Sandra exclaimed. “That tickled SO MUCH. You’re CRAZY!” She shoved Blaine playfully, though fairly hard.
“I had no idea you were sooooo-ooo-ooooooo ticklish,” Blaine teased.
“No comment,” Sandra said. “Ohmygosh that was fucking legitimate torture!”
“You’re very, very lucky you didn’t get a tails…”
“No kidding! How are people supposed to take this? We’re just bringing people into this room and torturing them out of their minds!!?”
“All for the good of science,” Kurt reassured her.
“Remember,” said Blaine. “Prolly not everyone is as ticklish as you and Mally…”
“Mally’s gonna FLIP,” said Sandra, remembering her friend’s reactions in the lounge. “Don’t tip her off to what’s going to happen, there’s no way she’ll follow through with it.”
A shiver ran down Blaine’s spine and she felt oddly excited. “So who’s the next victim?” she asked.
Kurt looked at his list. “See if you can get Liss in here tomorrow afternoon,” he said to Sandra.
Sandra nodded dutifully. “Yes, sir.”
“Oh,” he said. “We have to let you in on part of the experiment. One of the things we’re measuring is ticklishness and anticipation. So half of our subjects we’re trying to find a way to get them in here relatively abruptly, with little time to think about it. Just like you. The other half we’re going to give them two days leading up. We’re trying to see if anticipation increases or decreases ticklishness.”
“Ohhh wow….interesting!” Sandra smiled. “Yeah! That is so fascinating! Some people like totally freak out if they know they’re going to be tickled. They can’t bear the anticipation. But then other people, it’s like, if they know it’s coming, it doesn’t even tickle them.”
“Right,” Kurt said. “But keep in mind, this is a little different. It’s more of a grand scale anticipation. It’s not that we’re experimenting with teasing them or air tickling them in the moment, things like that. It’s whether having 48 hours to think about it helps them to prepare, or works them into a ticklish tizzy.”
“A ticklish tizzy!” Blaine exclaimed. “That’s what Sandra was in!!!”
“Shut up,” Sandra rolled her eyes. “Okay, Kurt. So which group is Liss in?” “Well, since we want her in here asap, let’s make her a surprise one,” he replied. “But you could also book Mally and Vanessa for a couple days from now.”
“Consider it done, Professor. See you tomorrow, with a ticklish classmate by my side.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Kurt said with a smile.
* * *
Knowing Liss was free for the afternoon, Sandra approached her. “Liss! Can you come in for the study this afternoon?” she said with urgency in her voice. “We’re starting to get people lined up and we really need to move things along!”
“This…afternoon…?” Liss paused, nervously. She twirled her dirty blonde curls with her finger, trying to think of an excuse.
“Yes, we really need you…”
“Um…well, I was going to do some work, but…I guess I can make it…”
“Awesome! You’re the best. Come to the lab at 3:00, okay?”
“That’s in fifteen minutes!” she looked panicked.
“Do you need more time to….prepare?” Sandra asked.
All sorts of thoughts raced through Liss’s mind. No, she didn’t particularly need time to prepare…or did she? What would she do if she could prepare? She had never really meditated but they’d learned some mindfulness exercises in class and she thought maybe those would help her get into a relaxed zone. Yes! She would meditate! But…she didn’t have time. Well, gosh, what was the big deal, anyway. It was just a little tickling. She probably wasn’t even that ticklish anymore. Had anyone even tickled her since she was a kid? Sure, sometimes friends would grab her sides—that was definitely startling, but not that bad. Other than that…well, sure, pedicures, but a pumice stone on the bottoms of your feet? Nothing could be more ticklish than that…and if she was able to handle that, she could surely handle this. Although….those WERE pretty hard to take…
“Liss?” Sandra snapped her finger in front of her friend’s face to bring her back from her daydream.
“Oh…um…3:00. I’ll be there…” She seemed dazed. She wandered off, not sure what to do with the next fifteen minutes.
* * *
It was a spring day and the weather had been unpredictable—one day warm, cool the next. Liss had worn tight jeans, black boots, and a long sleeved white shirt, thinking it would be a cool day. The temperature had ended up soaring into the upper 70s. The air conditioning in the psychology building hadn’t kicked in yet, and the building was sweltering hot. Without thinking much about the implications at first, for a second Liss was delighted to be asked to take off her shoes. Her feet had been almost unbearably hot in her boots and she’d been tempted to take them off in class earlier, but thought it would look silly. Sandra took her first stab at explaining the process while Blaine awaited eagerly, trying to hide her long nails behind her back so as not to cause too much fear.
“Any questions?” Sandra asked, after giving Liss the spiel as she unzipped her boots.
“Um….do I have to do this?” Liss replied cheekily.
“Lie down, girl,” Sandra commanded playfully.
Liss peeled off her white socks to reveal unfathomably soft, warm, smooth size seven feet. Her big toe was the biggest and the others followed suit, none seeming much smaller or larger than the others until a very tiny pinky toe. She climbed up onto the table and lay down on her back. Blaine fastened the straps.
* * *
“I couldn’t STAND it on my feet,” Liss said. “I literally thought I was going to die.”
“Ohmygod, you guys should have seen her,” Blaine said, loudly and enthusiastically. “She was FLIPPING OUT. Even I felt a little bad. But only a little!!”
"When I got my second heads on the coin-toss," Liss said, "I seriously wanted to kill you all. I probably would have if I could have. How long did I have my feet tickled for?? An hour??"
"Aw cmon kid," said Sandra. "It was just a couple minutes."
"It felt like an eternity. I seriously felt like I was a kid and my uncle was pinning me down like he used to do."
“I was having those same flashbacks," said Vanessa. "For me it was really bad on my stomach. I didn't think I was going to laugh that hard.”
“Yeah, you lost your shit, girl,” said Blaine coolly, taking a bite of her lunch.
Vanessa blushed. "Thank goodness I won my coin tosses. I probably would have peed my pants."
"Peed your pants!!!" Blaine exclaimed gleefully.
“Everyone’s soooo ticklishhhh….” Sandra said playfully, exuding some sense of trying to avert the topic when it was her turn to share.
“And youuuu, Sandra?” Liss looked at her expectantly, with a sense of playfulness. “You went first, before you joined the dark side, the evil empire.”
“Muahahahaha,” Sandra played along. “The evil tickling empire!”
“Oh don’t worry guys,” said Blaine. “She’s one of us…er…you. She’s very ticklish.”
“Shhhhh!” said Sandra, putting her finger to her mouth. “I’m on team tickle now. No one has to know anything about my past.”
“She was going fucking crazy,” Blaine said, not missing a beat. “The girl is out-of-her-mind ticklish.”
“Well, jeez, Blaine, it would be hard not to go crazy the way you tickled us! Sheesh! Anyone who’s ticklish would lose their mind!”
“I just do my job,” Blaine said with an innocent, aloof half-smile. “It’s not my fault if you guys are as ticklish as little school girls.”
“Oh come on!” Liss said, sounding genuinely defensive. “Look at your nails! Those are torture devices! My little feetsies didn’t stand a chance!”
Sandra cringed and buried her head in her hands. “Oh God, I’m having flashbacks! I’m having flaasssshhbaacccckkkkssss!!!” She shook her head back and forth, her hands still covering her face, seemingly legitimately distraught.
“Ooooohh-hooo-hoo Sandra was soooo tick-a-wissshhh” Blaine said mockingly, saying The Word in a baby voice.
“I hadn’t been tickled like that in so long,” said Sandra.
“Me neither!” said Liss. “I didn’t think it would be that bad!”
Just then, Mallory approached their lunch table.
“Oh hey Mally!” Sandra said, nudging Blaine and winking at Liss as if to say, “No more talk about how ticklish the study is…..we can’t have her back out and she’s already terrified!”
“Hey everyone,” said Mallory. “How’s it going?”
Vanessa, Mallory’s closest friend and possible ally in the group, replied, “Pretty good…just talking about how ticklish- “
“Pedicures are!” Sandra interrupted swiftly. “I got one the other day and I was dyyyyiiinnggg.”
Vanessa looked at her funny.
Liss decided to play along. “Do you laugh?”
“YES!!! Of course I laugh!” said Sandra. “Don't you?”
Liss got genuinely shy. “Um…yeah…” she said, looking down at her food.
“How about you, Mally?” Blaine couldn’t resist asking.
“Oh..um..yeah…it tickles…a lot…” she replied shyly.
“Anyway,” said Sandra. “We’re looking forward to seeing you today at 2:00 for the study, Mally.”
Mally wiggled her toes uncomfortably inside her Mary Jane’s. “Oh…right….that’s today…”
“It’ll be great. It’s sooooo fun, right girls?” Sandra said, winking.
“It’s a hoot,” said Liss. “A non-stop hoot.”
Vanessa felt empathy welling up inside her. “You know, Mally, you don’t have to….I know you’re really t-“
Sandra reached under the table and squeezed right above Vanessa’s knee. Vanessa’s whole body convulsed spastically and she almost fell out of her chair.
“What the hell???” Blaine looked at Vanessa like she had three heads.
“Whooaaa,” said Sandra. “Looks like someone has a ticklish spot we didn’t find.”
Vanessa turned beet red. “That’s my worst spot.”
“Good to know, good to know…” Sandra said, getting up to leave. “See you in a few, Mally!”
Mally shivered. She looked at her watch. It was 1:15.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Read Part 2 Here
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“I figured out the way around you participating,” Kurt said.
Sandra looked unsettled. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll do you first. I won’t tell you anything about the methods or the model until afterward. That way the outcome won’t be affected.”
“Oh…um….well….that’s…smart…”
“I know. That’s why I thought of it. I’ve asked Blaine to administer the study. I’ve briefed her on everything.”
“Oh….um…..great….”
“How’s this afternoon?” “This afternoon??”
“Yes, we have to get rolling!”
“Oh…well…I….I don’t think I…”
“You said you’d make this study a priority, Sandra….”
She sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it…”
* * *
“What is this thing?” Sandra said, eyeing with anxious anticipation the table with ankle and wrist straps.
“I got it off the internet. People into tickling and S&M use them to keep their victims immobilized.” He emphasized the words “victims immobilized” with an evil-sounding, drawn-out tone.
“Okay, Sweet Stuff,” said Blaine cheerfully. “Hop on!”
Sandra reluctantly climbed onto the table.
“Uh-uh!” said Blaine. “Shoes off!”
“Um, Blaine,” said Kurt. “Let’s get some practice in. Talk to her like you would any participant off the street.”
“But she’s my sweet Sandy-Wandy!” Blaine said playfully.
Kurt rolled his eyes.
Sandra kicked off her brown flats and climbed back onto the table, flashing her soft, pink soles in Blaine’s direction. Blaine smiled wickedly.
“Lie down on your back, flat, and and I’m going to fasten these leather straps around your ankles and wrists,” she told her friend.
Sandra took a deep breath. The straps being fastened around her ankles made her feel momentarily panicked. She tried to relax.
“So….” said Sandra nervously. “How is this going to work…?”
“Okay,” Blaine began to explain. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to tickle you for one minute in a certain spot. If you make it through the minute without saying the word “science,” you’re done. If you say the word at any point, I’ll stop. But then we’ll flip a coin. And you have 50/50 odds of having a minute of time added on to your tickling, during which you can’t use the word “science” as your out. And it goes on like that.”
“WHAT?!” Sandra said.
“What?” asked Blaine innocently.
“That sounds like fucking torture!”
“Well, you’re going to be inflicting it on people, so get used to it…” Blaine replied.
“So if I make it through a minute, or I say “science” and get the right side of the coin, I’m done?”
“Tails. Yes. And then we move on to the next spot.”
Sandra shuddered. “How many spots are there?”
“Just three.”
“Which three?”
“You won’t know until we get to them.”
“Jesus. Kurt, maybe this study isn’t such a good idea….you’re right…we’re never going to get any participants…”
“Well, we have a handful already and we’ve barely started recruiting. It’ll be all good! Let’s go!” He sounded eager.
“Ready, Sandra?”
Chills ran down Sandra’s spine as she glanced at Blane’s long, red fingernails. “Fucking NO…”
“What the fuck, girl, we have to start!” Blaine laughed.
“Ugh….FINE. Go ahead…”
“The first spot,” Blaine said. “Will be your feet.”
“FUCK,” Sandra said under her breath. She instinctively tried to pull her feet out of the stirrups. They were very secure.
Blaine smiled. She wasn’t particularly into feet, or tickling for that matter, but there was something undeniably sensual about it to her. Kurt had given her free reign to choose the order of the three spots, and she simply couldn’t resist Sandra’s perfect, soft, bright pink soles staring her in the face. It was like they were just begging to be tickled. She realized she didn’t think she’d ever seen the bottoms of Sandra’s feet before. At least, not straight-on, like this. It was actually incredibly alluring.
As Blaine’s hand began reaching for her left foot, Sandra quickly tried to consider if there was an effective strategy worth taking. But Blaine’s fingernails began lightly dancing along the bottom of her foot and her mind went blank. She winced and squirmed against her restraints. Blaine quickly accelerated her dancing nails, wasting no time reducing Sandra into complete hysteria. Sandra’s mouth opened wide as if in astonishment and she simultaneously unleashed a torrent of laughter. It almost took Blaine aback, but in the same way that she took great delight in torturing Mally in the student lounge, there was something about rendering Sandra utterly helpless that she just loved.
Sandra threw her head back, cackling. Her dark brown hair got quickly tousled. She was pretty sure she was going to have to say it. It seemed like a huge risk…maybe she could endure. How much time had gone by? Maybe it was already halfway through and she could wait it out? “Howmuchtimehowmuchtime?” she asked desperately through her laughter.
They hadn’t discussed whether that question could be answered. Blaine looked at Kurt. He thought for a second, and nodded. Blaine looked at the running timer on the table to her side and said, “45 seconds left…”
“WHAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA OH GOD!!!!” How had only fifteen seconds past? She’d try to endure a little longer.
Blaine switched to her right foot. The change was welcome but the torture quickly became equally as agonizing. “THIS IS CRRRRAAAAZZZYYYYYYYHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!” Sandra exclaimed. Her reaction to being tickled, not surprisingly, fit right in with her personality. She was generally loud, flashy, dramatic, playful, flirtatious—a “big” personality, many had commented. So it came as no surprise to Kurt that being tickled made his student make the scene that she was making.
Suddenly Sandra felt Blaine’s fingers stroking lightly up and down both feet. She had changed techniques and was now stroking from the heel up to the base of the toes and then back down, on both feet at the same time. It was equally as ticklish—just different—and now it was happening on both feet.
“You biiittcchhahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaaaaahahaahaaa” Sandra cursed her friend through her hysterics. Blaine noticed that Sandra’s toes scrunched up tightly every time her fingernails neared the base and decided to focus on that spot. Sandra’s face turned beet red and her laughter went silent and then the word “SCIEEEENNCCEHHEEHEHEHEHEHEAAAAAAAA” burst out of her mouth like a rocket. The clock read 22 seconds left.
“Okay, we flip a coin now,” said Blaine. “Heads, we’re done with the feet and move on. Tales, the timer goes to 1:22 and you can’t say ‘science’ until there are 22 seconds left.”
Sandra rolled her eyes at the absurdity. “Please please please please…” she whispered under her breath. The coin turned up heads.
“Lucky girl,” said Blaine. “Okay, tummy time.”
Sandra’s sigh of relief was short-lived, as Blaine gave her very little time to rest before lifting up her shirt—Sandra’s stomach flinched as she did it—exposing her flat, perfect tummy.
Sandra seemed to be less ticklish on her tummy than on her feet, but Blaine was proving to be a very, very good tickler. Her nails were a huge asset, and the way she used them drove Sandra mad. She giggled lightly throughout the belly tickling but didn’t cackle uncontrollably in the way she had. She endured the minute and took a deep breath.
“Onto the armpits now,” Blaine said evilly. Sandra’s wrists were strapped into the wide table so that her arms were spread out almost horizontally, leaving her armpits completely exposed.
Blaine’s fingernails lightly stroking her right armpit caused Sandra to immediately begin laughing. Blaine ramped it up quickly, and quickly Sandra returned to hysterics. Kurt had glanced back down at his papers for a few moments and jumped at the loud sound, which turned out to be Sandra’s powerful thrashing, pulling on the restraints.
“These things are really built just for this purpose, aren’t they…?” he mused.
“For people just…like…her…” Blaine replied, not missing a beat.
Sandra knew she couldn’t endure this. Probably less than fifteen seconds had passed and she felt like she was about to lose her mind. Her only hope was to win the coin toss again. The first time she tried she was laughing too hard to get the word out. She waited until she could grab a breath and then screamed with everything she had, “SCCIIEEENNNCCEE!!!!!”
She wasn’t sure what she would do if the coin turned up tails. She’d probably explain that she just couldn’t take it anymore. She had no qualms about being direct and admitting her weakness. She was confidently like that, and clearly didn’t feel that her ticklishness took away from her swagger in the least.
The coin turned up heads. “Thank. God.” Sandra breathed deeply and then began laughing, almost like a release. It was over.
“Damn,” Blaine said. “I was having fun.” She began unbuckling the straps.
“Well,” said Kurt. “You’re hired. I realized we’re going to need consistency with our tickling, so you’ll need to continue to be our go-to tickler. Okay?”
“Hey!” exclaimed Sandra jealously. “What about me? I thought that was my job!”
“You’ll still be here administering all of it. But we can’t have different ticklers. It’s too much of a variable.”
She was disappointed she wouldn’t be able to touch all of her friends’ feet, until she realized that she would be able to pretend to be using her phone and take all kinds of great photos of them. In a way, she liked that much, much better.
“Well, you’re free, girl. How does it feel?” Blaine asked.
“Fuck!!” Sandra exclaimed. “That tickled SO MUCH. You’re CRAZY!” She shoved Blaine playfully, though fairly hard.
“I had no idea you were sooooo-ooo-ooooooo ticklish,” Blaine teased.
“No comment,” Sandra said. “Ohmygosh that was fucking legitimate torture!”
“You’re very, very lucky you didn’t get a tails…”
“No kidding! How are people supposed to take this? We’re just bringing people into this room and torturing them out of their minds!!?”
“All for the good of science,” Kurt reassured her.
“Remember,” said Blaine. “Prolly not everyone is as ticklish as you and Mally…”
“Mally’s gonna FLIP,” said Sandra, remembering her friend’s reactions in the lounge. “Don’t tip her off to what’s going to happen, there’s no way she’ll follow through with it.”
A shiver ran down Blaine’s spine and she felt oddly excited. “So who’s the next victim?” she asked.
Kurt looked at his list. “See if you can get Liss in here tomorrow afternoon,” he said to Sandra.
Sandra nodded dutifully. “Yes, sir.”
“Oh,” he said. “We have to let you in on part of the experiment. One of the things we’re measuring is ticklishness and anticipation. So half of our subjects we’re trying to find a way to get them in here relatively abruptly, with little time to think about it. Just like you. The other half we’re going to give them two days leading up. We’re trying to see if anticipation increases or decreases ticklishness.”
“Ohhh wow….interesting!” Sandra smiled. “Yeah! That is so fascinating! Some people like totally freak out if they know they’re going to be tickled. They can’t bear the anticipation. But then other people, it’s like, if they know it’s coming, it doesn’t even tickle them.”
“Right,” Kurt said. “But keep in mind, this is a little different. It’s more of a grand scale anticipation. It’s not that we’re experimenting with teasing them or air tickling them in the moment, things like that. It’s whether having 48 hours to think about it helps them to prepare, or works them into a ticklish tizzy.”
“A ticklish tizzy!” Blaine exclaimed. “That’s what Sandra was in!!!”
“Shut up,” Sandra rolled her eyes. “Okay, Kurt. So which group is Liss in?” “Well, since we want her in here asap, let’s make her a surprise one,” he replied. “But you could also book Mally and Vanessa for a couple days from now.”
“Consider it done, Professor. See you tomorrow, with a ticklish classmate by my side.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Kurt said with a smile.
* * *
Knowing Liss was free for the afternoon, Sandra approached her. “Liss! Can you come in for the study this afternoon?” she said with urgency in her voice. “We’re starting to get people lined up and we really need to move things along!”
“This…afternoon…?” Liss paused, nervously. She twirled her dirty blonde curls with her finger, trying to think of an excuse.
“Yes, we really need you…”
“Um…well, I was going to do some work, but…I guess I can make it…”
“Awesome! You’re the best. Come to the lab at 3:00, okay?”
“That’s in fifteen minutes!” she looked panicked.
“Do you need more time to….prepare?” Sandra asked.
All sorts of thoughts raced through Liss’s mind. No, she didn’t particularly need time to prepare…or did she? What would she do if she could prepare? She had never really meditated but they’d learned some mindfulness exercises in class and she thought maybe those would help her get into a relaxed zone. Yes! She would meditate! But…she didn’t have time. Well, gosh, what was the big deal, anyway. It was just a little tickling. She probably wasn’t even that ticklish anymore. Had anyone even tickled her since she was a kid? Sure, sometimes friends would grab her sides—that was definitely startling, but not that bad. Other than that…well, sure, pedicures, but a pumice stone on the bottoms of your feet? Nothing could be more ticklish than that…and if she was able to handle that, she could surely handle this. Although….those WERE pretty hard to take…
“Liss?” Sandra snapped her finger in front of her friend’s face to bring her back from her daydream.
“Oh…um…3:00. I’ll be there…” She seemed dazed. She wandered off, not sure what to do with the next fifteen minutes.
* * *
It was a spring day and the weather had been unpredictable—one day warm, cool the next. Liss had worn tight jeans, black boots, and a long sleeved white shirt, thinking it would be a cool day. The temperature had ended up soaring into the upper 70s. The air conditioning in the psychology building hadn’t kicked in yet, and the building was sweltering hot. Without thinking much about the implications at first, for a second Liss was delighted to be asked to take off her shoes. Her feet had been almost unbearably hot in her boots and she’d been tempted to take them off in class earlier, but thought it would look silly. Sandra took her first stab at explaining the process while Blaine awaited eagerly, trying to hide her long nails behind her back so as not to cause too much fear.
“Any questions?” Sandra asked, after giving Liss the spiel as she unzipped her boots.
“Um….do I have to do this?” Liss replied cheekily.
“Lie down, girl,” Sandra commanded playfully.
Liss peeled off her white socks to reveal unfathomably soft, warm, smooth size seven feet. Her big toe was the biggest and the others followed suit, none seeming much smaller or larger than the others until a very tiny pinky toe. She climbed up onto the table and lay down on her back. Blaine fastened the straps.
* * *
“I couldn’t STAND it on my feet,” Liss said. “I literally thought I was going to die.”
“Ohmygod, you guys should have seen her,” Blaine said, loudly and enthusiastically. “She was FLIPPING OUT. Even I felt a little bad. But only a little!!”
"When I got my second heads on the coin-toss," Liss said, "I seriously wanted to kill you all. I probably would have if I could have. How long did I have my feet tickled for?? An hour??"
"Aw cmon kid," said Sandra. "It was just a couple minutes."
"It felt like an eternity. I seriously felt like I was a kid and my uncle was pinning me down like he used to do."
“I was having those same flashbacks," said Vanessa. "For me it was really bad on my stomach. I didn't think I was going to laugh that hard.”
“Yeah, you lost your shit, girl,” said Blaine coolly, taking a bite of her lunch.
Vanessa blushed. "Thank goodness I won my coin tosses. I probably would have peed my pants."
"Peed your pants!!!" Blaine exclaimed gleefully.
“Everyone’s soooo ticklishhhh….” Sandra said playfully, exuding some sense of trying to avert the topic when it was her turn to share.
“And youuuu, Sandra?” Liss looked at her expectantly, with a sense of playfulness. “You went first, before you joined the dark side, the evil empire.”
“Muahahahaha,” Sandra played along. “The evil tickling empire!”
“Oh don’t worry guys,” said Blaine. “She’s one of us…er…you. She’s very ticklish.”
“Shhhhh!” said Sandra, putting her finger to her mouth. “I’m on team tickle now. No one has to know anything about my past.”
“She was going fucking crazy,” Blaine said, not missing a beat. “The girl is out-of-her-mind ticklish.”
“Well, jeez, Blaine, it would be hard not to go crazy the way you tickled us! Sheesh! Anyone who’s ticklish would lose their mind!”
“I just do my job,” Blaine said with an innocent, aloof half-smile. “It’s not my fault if you guys are as ticklish as little school girls.”
“Oh come on!” Liss said, sounding genuinely defensive. “Look at your nails! Those are torture devices! My little feetsies didn’t stand a chance!”
Sandra cringed and buried her head in her hands. “Oh God, I’m having flashbacks! I’m having flaasssshhbaacccckkkkssss!!!” She shook her head back and forth, her hands still covering her face, seemingly legitimately distraught.
“Ooooohh-hooo-hoo Sandra was soooo tick-a-wissshhh” Blaine said mockingly, saying The Word in a baby voice.
“I hadn’t been tickled like that in so long,” said Sandra.
“Me neither!” said Liss. “I didn’t think it would be that bad!”
Just then, Mallory approached their lunch table.
“Oh hey Mally!” Sandra said, nudging Blaine and winking at Liss as if to say, “No more talk about how ticklish the study is…..we can’t have her back out and she’s already terrified!”
“Hey everyone,” said Mallory. “How’s it going?”
Vanessa, Mallory’s closest friend and possible ally in the group, replied, “Pretty good…just talking about how ticklish- “
“Pedicures are!” Sandra interrupted swiftly. “I got one the other day and I was dyyyyiiinnggg.”
Vanessa looked at her funny.
Liss decided to play along. “Do you laugh?”
“YES!!! Of course I laugh!” said Sandra. “Don't you?”
Liss got genuinely shy. “Um…yeah…” she said, looking down at her food.
“How about you, Mally?” Blaine couldn’t resist asking.
“Oh..um..yeah…it tickles…a lot…” she replied shyly.
“Anyway,” said Sandra. “We’re looking forward to seeing you today at 2:00 for the study, Mally.”
Mally wiggled her toes uncomfortably inside her Mary Jane’s. “Oh…right….that’s today…”
“It’ll be great. It’s sooooo fun, right girls?” Sandra said, winking.
“It’s a hoot,” said Liss. “A non-stop hoot.”
Vanessa felt empathy welling up inside her. “You know, Mally, you don’t have to….I know you’re really t-“
Sandra reached under the table and squeezed right above Vanessa’s knee. Vanessa’s whole body convulsed spastically and she almost fell out of her chair.
“What the hell???” Blaine looked at Vanessa like she had three heads.
“Whooaaa,” said Sandra. “Looks like someone has a ticklish spot we didn’t find.”
Vanessa turned beet red. “That’s my worst spot.”
“Good to know, good to know…” Sandra said, getting up to leave. “See you in a few, Mally!”
Mally shivered. She looked at her watch. It was 1:15.
TO BE CONTINUED…
