midrifftickler
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Here is Part 3 of Chapter 11 of The Tickle Cartel. There's no actual tickling in this part, but I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!
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Chapter 11: Prep Week, Day 1, Part 2
Immediately after opening the door, Jen was greeted by an older woman, probably in her forties or fifties, dressed similarly as her, “Hello! What is your name?”
“I’m Jen,” Jen informed the crop-topped Asian woman.
“Jen, Jen, Ah, there you are!” the woman marked something on the clipboard she was carrying. “Welcome to Transporter Training! I’m Miss Akari, your teacher. Please go in the room to your left and pick a seat. Class will start in around twenty minutes. The restroom is to your right, if you need to go there, and there’s a water fountain behind me.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Akari,” Jen returned the formality before heading into the main room. She was surprised to see only one other person in the room, a young woman probably Jen’s age or a year or two older. As Jen entered, the other woman turned around and looked over to her, then got up. Jen gave her a smile and walked over to her. “Hi, I’m Jen.”
“I’m Gabriella,” the other student, who Jen saw was wearing a bikini, introduced herself. “I’m twenty-two, and sorry, but you look really young. How old are you?”
“Nineteen,” Jen informed her, a bit unsure of how young she looked to the other woman. “Nice to meet you, Gabriella.”
“And you too, Jen,” Gabriella declared. “Sorry that I asked your age; I just heard that a lot of transporters would probably be older than me, so I was surprised to see someone around my age.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know what the age range would be, but I’m glad to have someone near mine,” Jen announced. “I’m also really glad that I’m not the only one exposing all my ticklish spots.”
“Well, I was told that I’d have to do it by my apartment super,” Gabriella replied. “She’s a transporter and took this class a while back. She said there was a punishment for anyone who did not expose their tickle spots, and I thought I should try to avoid that.”
“Probably a wise choice, and one I’m glad I unintentionally made,” Jen answered with a smile. “Do you have any idea what we’ll be doing? I didn’t get much information.”
“Based on our outfits, I figure we’ll be doing some tickling and getting tickled, but no clue other than that,” Gabriella announced. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.” This began a pleasant conversation as other people began to trickle in and introduce themselves. In between that time and when class started, Jen saw six more students come in: Zoe, Aurora, Sienna, Catalina, Camille, and Theresa.
“Everyone, take a seat!” Miss Akari entered the room with an order as she made her way to the front. “Looks like the entire class showed up today, something that I’m very happy about. Since I’m sure we don’t all know each other, let’s go ahead and introduce ourselves. My name is Miss Akari, and I’m originally from Japan before joining the Tickle Cartel. Everyone, please say your name and your country of origin, starting on the right side of the room.”
“Hello, everyone,” Zoe proclaimed. “I’m Zoe, and I’m from Germany.”
“Hello; I am Catalina, and I am from Argentina,” Catalina spoke in broken English.
“Hi; I’m Aurora, and I come from Norway,” Aurora introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Jen, and I’m from the United States,” Jen took her turn.
“Hello, everyone,” Gabriella spoke up. “My name is Gabriella, and I am from Italy.”
“Hi, my name is Sienna, and I’m from Australia,” Sienna had a noticeable and nice accent in her voice.
“Hello; I’m Theresa from the Netherlands,” Theresa broadcasted.
“Hello; I’m Camille, and I’m from France,” Camille closed out the introductions.
“Thank you all,” Miss Akari addressed the room. “You will get to know each other better throughout this seven-day class, and each of you will get to know one person in great detail. We will be practicing techniques on each other during the week, so you will end up with a partner later today. Because of this, most of you will need to come in with different clothes for the remainder of Transporter Training. All attendees, aside from the first day, are required to expose all their ticklish spots, and we currently have only two students doing so: Jen and Gabriella, am I right?” Jen and her friend both affirmed their names, and Miss Akari continued, “Good. As you can see, Jen and Gabriella have taken different styles to expose ticklish spots, but they can be tickled anywhere. One thing I should note: you are free to come in with these spots covered up, but before class, they need to be exposed. All your extra clothes will go in the lockers at the back of the room. This primarily happens with shoes and, in the wintertime, other clothes so that people don’t get cold on the way over. Should you come in with extra clothes, just let me know, and I will open up a locker for you. Does everyone understand?” After everyone nodded yes to the question, Akari went on to another topic, “As I mentioned earlier, we will be practicing techniques on each other throughout the week, since we like to do things hands-on here. This means that you will each be getting tickled a fair amount, and you are expected to participate as both a tickler and ticklee, meaning you will both tickle others and get tickled yourself. Failure to participate willingly is one of the few decisions that can lead to failing the course. Since this class is primarily informational and participation-based, there are no tests or anything like that. We will be watching videos from time to time of transporters, and I expect you to pay full attention to them. All that to say that this class is supposed to be fun for everyone involved, and I hope you have a great time here. Are there any questions?”
With no questions, Akari moved on, “With that out of the way, I’d like to introduce you to what you’ll be learning today. Today, I will introduce you to different types of transporters, and we will be doing some basic tickle tests. I will perform them to show you how it is done, and then we’ll have some free time to work over some people’s ticklish spots. Now that we’ve got all the introductions and base stuff out of the way, take a fifteen-minute break, and then we’ll get settled in and I’ll start the lecture. Water and restrooms are across the hall, and there is a clock out there. Be back in here by 8:30.”
The eight students dispersed from their seats, either heading to the back or talking to each other. While some of the others were away, Jen got the chance to talk to several of her fellow students, and although no one gave out tickle spots, she got to learn interesting facts about most all of them. Jen did take some time to get water and use the restroom, and everyone was back on time.
“Okay, it’s 8:30; time to get started,” Miss Akari brought everyone back to their seats. As everyone sat down, the teacher brought up a computer and presentation screen. “We’ll begin by introducing the different types of transporters that you can end up being, along with an explanation of some of their roles.” Since it is clearly everyone’s favorite presentation software, PowerPoint slides began to come up on the presentation screen. The first slide just repeated what Miss Akari had said, so she swiftly skipped to the next one.
The new picture on the screen showed two people who looked like they were about to grab someone, and the slide had ‘Seizer’ on the top. “The first type of transporter is a Seizer,” Miss Akari lectured. “These are the transporters responsible for actually capturing the tickle slaves for the Tickle Cartel. They go onto the beaches and other venues and restrain future tickle slaves, then bring them back to the ships to be transported back. And if the tickle slaves resist, the Seizers tickle them to get them to cooperate.”
Jen’s mind flashed back to her own capture upon seeing the picture, ‘That’s exactly what happened to me. I heard laughter somewhere else on the beach, and when I looked over, two people snuck behind me and pushed me to the ground. Of course, I tried to get out and even freed an arm, but then that woman, I guess the Seizer, tickled my side. From there, it was just cuffs, a blindfold, and being forced to walk into tickle slavery.’ As her mind returned to the classroom, Jen shivered, but luckily, her mental departure from the lecture was not noticed.
“Seizers are trained to sprint in, grab tickle slaves that match a general criterion, and then bring them back,” Miss Akari informed the class. “No one younger than eighteen has been captured as a tickle slave by the Tickle Cartel, in line with our philosophy. Seizers are trained to spot people younger than adult age and avoid them. Most, but not all, of the time, the criterion for capture is females of a specific age, usually in their twenties or thirties. The Seizers are not to divert from the given criterion except for a few specific cases, the most frequent one being if someone tries to help a tickle slave. In that case, the helper is also to be taken as a tickle slave, provided he or she is adult age. Should the future tickle slave try to resist, the Seizer has full permission to tickle them to lower their defenses and allow them to be handcuffed. One of the more notable things that Seizers are trained to do is to avoid hurting the tickle slaves. We do not like tickle slaves being injured, and any Seizer who hurts someone will be punished. To avoid this, Seizers are extensively trained in non-painful capture techniques, primarily centering around tickling the tickle slaves. Upon acquiring a tickle slave, the Seizer handcuffs the tickle slave and brings them back to the Tickle Cartel transportation, usually a ship. After that, their job is done.”
Miss Akari paused for a moment before going on, “And now for some general information about Seizers. All Seizers are required to be female due to the abundance of female tickle slaves in the Tickle Cartel. This is due to the fact that the Tickle Cartel wants our tickle slaves to be afraid of the tickling, not of their ticklers. In addition to being female, Seizers need to be very athletic. The goal of the Tickle Cartel is to grab as many tickle slaves as possible without giving anyone sufficient time to respond. Both of these criteria make the Seizer branch the least populated of the Transporters. Are there any questions about Seizers?”
“How can they know about the person’s age before capturing them?” Theresa questioned. “It would not seem to be apparent in a rushed situation like you are describing.”
“I am not aware of the specific training, but Seizer Training would teach you that,” Miss Akari responded. “I do know that the training includes a message that when in doubt about a person’s age, do not take them. That’s because the Tickle Cartel would rather lose a slave than violate that one principle. You would have to ask a professional Seizer if you wanted to know a better answer to that question. Sorry that I can’t give you any more information.”
Following around thirty seconds, no more questions came up, and Miss Akari moved on, “The next group of transporters are the Testers. As you probably already figured out, upon obtaining tickle slaves, we need to find out where they are most ticklish. We have machines that analyze a person’s sensitivity and make a fairly accurate prediction as to where they will be most ticklish. They do this without actually tickling the tickle slave, however, so in rare instances, they are inaccurate. We will experiment with these machines on another day. Since the machines can be inaccurate, Testers ask the tickle slaves where they are most ticklish, with a punishment for trying to deceive the Tester. To make it fair for the tickle slave, if they say a spot that the machine does not agree with, both spots are tickled, and the tickle slave only gets a further punishment if they lied. In any case, Testers will tickle the most ticklish spot on the tickle slave to make sure they are fairly ticklish. This serves as the official introductory tickle to the tickle slave, despite the fact that they may already have been tickled during capture to allow them to be handcuffed.”
Miss Akari took a drink of water before continuing, “After this group of Testers has finished obtaining the most ticklish spot of all tickle slaves on board, the tickle slaves are passed to another group of Testers. They are sent to different vehicles, again usually ships, in small groups, sorted out by their most ticklish spots. Once they are on these ships, a new set of Testers supervises their tickling for the remainder of the trip to the Tickle Cartel’s island. Typically, there are only one or two of these Testers on board, and the tickling is done by machines. The tickling is constant except for breaks for sleep and short breaks for food and breathing. Only these breaks are allowed because we want to break down the tickle slave’s resistance as much as possible before training. In accordance with this, the machines used to tickle the slaves are programmed to analyze the reactions and report to the Testers. The majority of Testers work in the second group, due to the fact that there are several more opportunities in that area. Now, are there any questions regarding Testers?”
“How can the machines tell the ticklishness of a certain spot without actually tickling it?” Camille wondered.
“That is a good question,” Miss Akari stated. “The machine measures how many nerves are in the area of ticklishness, and, based on historical ticklishness ratings for the tickle slave’s species, it estimates the sensitivity of each nerve cluster. Of course, that is just a simplified explanation; the engineers who design the machines know more about how it measures nerves and evaluates them. However, that is all I am aware of regarding the measurement.”
“The tickle slave’s species?” Everyone perked up when Miss Akari mentioned this, and Aurora was the one who asked what was on everyone’s mind.
“Yes, we have more than just humans in our tickle slave ranks,” Miss Akari shocked all students with the news. “And the Tickle Cartel also employs more than just humans. A good twenty to thirty percent of our employees, the vast majority transporters, are aliens. I doubt you will encounter them, since they are almost exclusively working on alien worlds gathering and selling tickle slaves. And yes, different aliens have different sensitivity areas. I’m not going to elaborate much more on that, since your job will almost certainly be on Earth with humans only. You’ll have to ask around if you want to find out more about that; I don’t have any more information that I can give you.”
The excited mood in the room began to die down after everyone learned they would not be getting more information on ticklish aliens, but the general energy remained as Miss Akari moved on to the next subject following a couple of minutes of silence, “The final group of transporters are the Shippers. Shippers are responsible for the actual transportation of tickle slaves, both to the Tickle Cartel and to their new owners. The latter job can be avoided if the owners prefer, but it is available. To take a position as a Shipper, you must go through further training to learn the ship or spaceship that you will be using. And before you all get any ideas, it would overwhelmingly likely be a ship for you, not a spaceship. Shippers are the most common branch of Transporters due to the need to have several available on each trip. They do not often tickle the tickle slaves, but they can help out with tickling if requested. However, before the tickle slaves are captured, there are usually several extra Shippers on board. These extra Shippers are sometimes used for practice for the Seizers, who will go grab and tickle the Shippers into submission. Typically, the tickling will continue for another ten minutes at maximum before the Seizer lets the Shipper go, and during the capture and tickling, the Seizer is expected to follow the rules as if the Shipper was a real tickle slave. All the practicing stops at least a day before the Seizers are to grab real tickle slaves so they can prepare effectively. When I was a full-time Shipper, the ticklish practices happened quite often, and they were a great way to ease the boredom of the trip.”
Looking at the room, Akari noticed that most of her students looked confused, and she realized what she had done, “Whew, I got a lot off topic right there, but those were some fun memories. Back to the overview of Shippers: since they do not typically interact with tickle slaves, Shippers can be either men or women. Like the others, the branch is mostly made up of females, over ninety-nine percent. This is only to say that you will not likely see any in your time as a Transporter. The male Shippers are not allowed to interact at all with the tickle slaves due to the reasons stated before. Overall, Shippers are responsible for all aspects of keeping the ship up, and there are several different specializations that you can choose to go into. The most common ones are the actual helm and technical support, but there are more. When I was a full-time Shipper, I worked at the helm, although I only worked in four-hour shifts, which are standard to make sure the people there are at their most alert and productive. Are there any questions about Shippers?”
“How often would a Shipper be subject to being tickled?” Catalina wondered.
“Back when I was a Shipper, it was probably five minutes per day on average during a trip,” Miss Akari responded. “The Shippers ranking higher than you have the option to tickle you if you have no pressing matters to attend to, but they usually use that power sparingly. The ones you really have to watch out for are Seizers practicing their captures who will tickle you after you get captured. They’ll roam around different parts of the ship on different days so that you can’t guess when they will come after you, and when they catch you, it’s ten minutes maximum of submission tickles. Overall, though, it’s not that much tickling if you just show up for your shift and work hard. The Seizers will never try to capture you while you’re working, and if they manage to capture you sometime else, well, it’s just a little bit of laughs.”
“You’ve been talking a lot about extra training for each branch of the transporters, and I’m just curious: when will we be able to expect to actually get our first jobs as transporters?” Sienna inquired.
“It will probably be six or seven months before you get your first real assignments,” Miss Akari proclaimed. “We want each transporter thoroughly trained, and that does mean that it takes a while to get to your actual job. Until then, you will have a base pay for transporters, even though you are not yet physically getting tickle slaves to the Tickle Cartel. The training we’re doing here, in case you’re wondering, is just a basic introduction to everything, and more specialized training and practice is required before you get sent off on a real job.” When no one had any further questions, Miss Akari announced, “It’s been another hour and a half, so let’s take another break, and then we’ll get some hands-on experience. Be back here at 10:20.”
‘Hands-on experience?’ Jen asked inside her head as she got up to get some water. ‘I wonder what that means. Oh, well, guess I’ll find out in twenty minutes.’
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Chapter 11: Prep Week, Day 1, Part 4
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Chapter 11: Prep Week, Day 1, Part 2
Immediately after opening the door, Jen was greeted by an older woman, probably in her forties or fifties, dressed similarly as her, “Hello! What is your name?”
“I’m Jen,” Jen informed the crop-topped Asian woman.
“Jen, Jen, Ah, there you are!” the woman marked something on the clipboard she was carrying. “Welcome to Transporter Training! I’m Miss Akari, your teacher. Please go in the room to your left and pick a seat. Class will start in around twenty minutes. The restroom is to your right, if you need to go there, and there’s a water fountain behind me.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Akari,” Jen returned the formality before heading into the main room. She was surprised to see only one other person in the room, a young woman probably Jen’s age or a year or two older. As Jen entered, the other woman turned around and looked over to her, then got up. Jen gave her a smile and walked over to her. “Hi, I’m Jen.”
“I’m Gabriella,” the other student, who Jen saw was wearing a bikini, introduced herself. “I’m twenty-two, and sorry, but you look really young. How old are you?”
“Nineteen,” Jen informed her, a bit unsure of how young she looked to the other woman. “Nice to meet you, Gabriella.”
“And you too, Jen,” Gabriella declared. “Sorry that I asked your age; I just heard that a lot of transporters would probably be older than me, so I was surprised to see someone around my age.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know what the age range would be, but I’m glad to have someone near mine,” Jen announced. “I’m also really glad that I’m not the only one exposing all my ticklish spots.”
“Well, I was told that I’d have to do it by my apartment super,” Gabriella replied. “She’s a transporter and took this class a while back. She said there was a punishment for anyone who did not expose their tickle spots, and I thought I should try to avoid that.”
“Probably a wise choice, and one I’m glad I unintentionally made,” Jen answered with a smile. “Do you have any idea what we’ll be doing? I didn’t get much information.”
“Based on our outfits, I figure we’ll be doing some tickling and getting tickled, but no clue other than that,” Gabriella announced. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.” This began a pleasant conversation as other people began to trickle in and introduce themselves. In between that time and when class started, Jen saw six more students come in: Zoe, Aurora, Sienna, Catalina, Camille, and Theresa.
“Everyone, take a seat!” Miss Akari entered the room with an order as she made her way to the front. “Looks like the entire class showed up today, something that I’m very happy about. Since I’m sure we don’t all know each other, let’s go ahead and introduce ourselves. My name is Miss Akari, and I’m originally from Japan before joining the Tickle Cartel. Everyone, please say your name and your country of origin, starting on the right side of the room.”
“Hello, everyone,” Zoe proclaimed. “I’m Zoe, and I’m from Germany.”
“Hello; I am Catalina, and I am from Argentina,” Catalina spoke in broken English.
“Hi; I’m Aurora, and I come from Norway,” Aurora introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Jen, and I’m from the United States,” Jen took her turn.
“Hello, everyone,” Gabriella spoke up. “My name is Gabriella, and I am from Italy.”
“Hi, my name is Sienna, and I’m from Australia,” Sienna had a noticeable and nice accent in her voice.
“Hello; I’m Theresa from the Netherlands,” Theresa broadcasted.
“Hello; I’m Camille, and I’m from France,” Camille closed out the introductions.
“Thank you all,” Miss Akari addressed the room. “You will get to know each other better throughout this seven-day class, and each of you will get to know one person in great detail. We will be practicing techniques on each other during the week, so you will end up with a partner later today. Because of this, most of you will need to come in with different clothes for the remainder of Transporter Training. All attendees, aside from the first day, are required to expose all their ticklish spots, and we currently have only two students doing so: Jen and Gabriella, am I right?” Jen and her friend both affirmed their names, and Miss Akari continued, “Good. As you can see, Jen and Gabriella have taken different styles to expose ticklish spots, but they can be tickled anywhere. One thing I should note: you are free to come in with these spots covered up, but before class, they need to be exposed. All your extra clothes will go in the lockers at the back of the room. This primarily happens with shoes and, in the wintertime, other clothes so that people don’t get cold on the way over. Should you come in with extra clothes, just let me know, and I will open up a locker for you. Does everyone understand?” After everyone nodded yes to the question, Akari went on to another topic, “As I mentioned earlier, we will be practicing techniques on each other throughout the week, since we like to do things hands-on here. This means that you will each be getting tickled a fair amount, and you are expected to participate as both a tickler and ticklee, meaning you will both tickle others and get tickled yourself. Failure to participate willingly is one of the few decisions that can lead to failing the course. Since this class is primarily informational and participation-based, there are no tests or anything like that. We will be watching videos from time to time of transporters, and I expect you to pay full attention to them. All that to say that this class is supposed to be fun for everyone involved, and I hope you have a great time here. Are there any questions?”
With no questions, Akari moved on, “With that out of the way, I’d like to introduce you to what you’ll be learning today. Today, I will introduce you to different types of transporters, and we will be doing some basic tickle tests. I will perform them to show you how it is done, and then we’ll have some free time to work over some people’s ticklish spots. Now that we’ve got all the introductions and base stuff out of the way, take a fifteen-minute break, and then we’ll get settled in and I’ll start the lecture. Water and restrooms are across the hall, and there is a clock out there. Be back in here by 8:30.”
The eight students dispersed from their seats, either heading to the back or talking to each other. While some of the others were away, Jen got the chance to talk to several of her fellow students, and although no one gave out tickle spots, she got to learn interesting facts about most all of them. Jen did take some time to get water and use the restroom, and everyone was back on time.
“Okay, it’s 8:30; time to get started,” Miss Akari brought everyone back to their seats. As everyone sat down, the teacher brought up a computer and presentation screen. “We’ll begin by introducing the different types of transporters that you can end up being, along with an explanation of some of their roles.” Since it is clearly everyone’s favorite presentation software, PowerPoint slides began to come up on the presentation screen. The first slide just repeated what Miss Akari had said, so she swiftly skipped to the next one.
The new picture on the screen showed two people who looked like they were about to grab someone, and the slide had ‘Seizer’ on the top. “The first type of transporter is a Seizer,” Miss Akari lectured. “These are the transporters responsible for actually capturing the tickle slaves for the Tickle Cartel. They go onto the beaches and other venues and restrain future tickle slaves, then bring them back to the ships to be transported back. And if the tickle slaves resist, the Seizers tickle them to get them to cooperate.”
Jen’s mind flashed back to her own capture upon seeing the picture, ‘That’s exactly what happened to me. I heard laughter somewhere else on the beach, and when I looked over, two people snuck behind me and pushed me to the ground. Of course, I tried to get out and even freed an arm, but then that woman, I guess the Seizer, tickled my side. From there, it was just cuffs, a blindfold, and being forced to walk into tickle slavery.’ As her mind returned to the classroom, Jen shivered, but luckily, her mental departure from the lecture was not noticed.
“Seizers are trained to sprint in, grab tickle slaves that match a general criterion, and then bring them back,” Miss Akari informed the class. “No one younger than eighteen has been captured as a tickle slave by the Tickle Cartel, in line with our philosophy. Seizers are trained to spot people younger than adult age and avoid them. Most, but not all, of the time, the criterion for capture is females of a specific age, usually in their twenties or thirties. The Seizers are not to divert from the given criterion except for a few specific cases, the most frequent one being if someone tries to help a tickle slave. In that case, the helper is also to be taken as a tickle slave, provided he or she is adult age. Should the future tickle slave try to resist, the Seizer has full permission to tickle them to lower their defenses and allow them to be handcuffed. One of the more notable things that Seizers are trained to do is to avoid hurting the tickle slaves. We do not like tickle slaves being injured, and any Seizer who hurts someone will be punished. To avoid this, Seizers are extensively trained in non-painful capture techniques, primarily centering around tickling the tickle slaves. Upon acquiring a tickle slave, the Seizer handcuffs the tickle slave and brings them back to the Tickle Cartel transportation, usually a ship. After that, their job is done.”
Miss Akari paused for a moment before going on, “And now for some general information about Seizers. All Seizers are required to be female due to the abundance of female tickle slaves in the Tickle Cartel. This is due to the fact that the Tickle Cartel wants our tickle slaves to be afraid of the tickling, not of their ticklers. In addition to being female, Seizers need to be very athletic. The goal of the Tickle Cartel is to grab as many tickle slaves as possible without giving anyone sufficient time to respond. Both of these criteria make the Seizer branch the least populated of the Transporters. Are there any questions about Seizers?”
“How can they know about the person’s age before capturing them?” Theresa questioned. “It would not seem to be apparent in a rushed situation like you are describing.”
“I am not aware of the specific training, but Seizer Training would teach you that,” Miss Akari responded. “I do know that the training includes a message that when in doubt about a person’s age, do not take them. That’s because the Tickle Cartel would rather lose a slave than violate that one principle. You would have to ask a professional Seizer if you wanted to know a better answer to that question. Sorry that I can’t give you any more information.”
Following around thirty seconds, no more questions came up, and Miss Akari moved on, “The next group of transporters are the Testers. As you probably already figured out, upon obtaining tickle slaves, we need to find out where they are most ticklish. We have machines that analyze a person’s sensitivity and make a fairly accurate prediction as to where they will be most ticklish. They do this without actually tickling the tickle slave, however, so in rare instances, they are inaccurate. We will experiment with these machines on another day. Since the machines can be inaccurate, Testers ask the tickle slaves where they are most ticklish, with a punishment for trying to deceive the Tester. To make it fair for the tickle slave, if they say a spot that the machine does not agree with, both spots are tickled, and the tickle slave only gets a further punishment if they lied. In any case, Testers will tickle the most ticklish spot on the tickle slave to make sure they are fairly ticklish. This serves as the official introductory tickle to the tickle slave, despite the fact that they may already have been tickled during capture to allow them to be handcuffed.”
Miss Akari took a drink of water before continuing, “After this group of Testers has finished obtaining the most ticklish spot of all tickle slaves on board, the tickle slaves are passed to another group of Testers. They are sent to different vehicles, again usually ships, in small groups, sorted out by their most ticklish spots. Once they are on these ships, a new set of Testers supervises their tickling for the remainder of the trip to the Tickle Cartel’s island. Typically, there are only one or two of these Testers on board, and the tickling is done by machines. The tickling is constant except for breaks for sleep and short breaks for food and breathing. Only these breaks are allowed because we want to break down the tickle slave’s resistance as much as possible before training. In accordance with this, the machines used to tickle the slaves are programmed to analyze the reactions and report to the Testers. The majority of Testers work in the second group, due to the fact that there are several more opportunities in that area. Now, are there any questions regarding Testers?”
“How can the machines tell the ticklishness of a certain spot without actually tickling it?” Camille wondered.
“That is a good question,” Miss Akari stated. “The machine measures how many nerves are in the area of ticklishness, and, based on historical ticklishness ratings for the tickle slave’s species, it estimates the sensitivity of each nerve cluster. Of course, that is just a simplified explanation; the engineers who design the machines know more about how it measures nerves and evaluates them. However, that is all I am aware of regarding the measurement.”
“The tickle slave’s species?” Everyone perked up when Miss Akari mentioned this, and Aurora was the one who asked what was on everyone’s mind.
“Yes, we have more than just humans in our tickle slave ranks,” Miss Akari shocked all students with the news. “And the Tickle Cartel also employs more than just humans. A good twenty to thirty percent of our employees, the vast majority transporters, are aliens. I doubt you will encounter them, since they are almost exclusively working on alien worlds gathering and selling tickle slaves. And yes, different aliens have different sensitivity areas. I’m not going to elaborate much more on that, since your job will almost certainly be on Earth with humans only. You’ll have to ask around if you want to find out more about that; I don’t have any more information that I can give you.”
The excited mood in the room began to die down after everyone learned they would not be getting more information on ticklish aliens, but the general energy remained as Miss Akari moved on to the next subject following a couple of minutes of silence, “The final group of transporters are the Shippers. Shippers are responsible for the actual transportation of tickle slaves, both to the Tickle Cartel and to their new owners. The latter job can be avoided if the owners prefer, but it is available. To take a position as a Shipper, you must go through further training to learn the ship or spaceship that you will be using. And before you all get any ideas, it would overwhelmingly likely be a ship for you, not a spaceship. Shippers are the most common branch of Transporters due to the need to have several available on each trip. They do not often tickle the tickle slaves, but they can help out with tickling if requested. However, before the tickle slaves are captured, there are usually several extra Shippers on board. These extra Shippers are sometimes used for practice for the Seizers, who will go grab and tickle the Shippers into submission. Typically, the tickling will continue for another ten minutes at maximum before the Seizer lets the Shipper go, and during the capture and tickling, the Seizer is expected to follow the rules as if the Shipper was a real tickle slave. All the practicing stops at least a day before the Seizers are to grab real tickle slaves so they can prepare effectively. When I was a full-time Shipper, the ticklish practices happened quite often, and they were a great way to ease the boredom of the trip.”
Looking at the room, Akari noticed that most of her students looked confused, and she realized what she had done, “Whew, I got a lot off topic right there, but those were some fun memories. Back to the overview of Shippers: since they do not typically interact with tickle slaves, Shippers can be either men or women. Like the others, the branch is mostly made up of females, over ninety-nine percent. This is only to say that you will not likely see any in your time as a Transporter. The male Shippers are not allowed to interact at all with the tickle slaves due to the reasons stated before. Overall, Shippers are responsible for all aspects of keeping the ship up, and there are several different specializations that you can choose to go into. The most common ones are the actual helm and technical support, but there are more. When I was a full-time Shipper, I worked at the helm, although I only worked in four-hour shifts, which are standard to make sure the people there are at their most alert and productive. Are there any questions about Shippers?”
“How often would a Shipper be subject to being tickled?” Catalina wondered.
“Back when I was a Shipper, it was probably five minutes per day on average during a trip,” Miss Akari responded. “The Shippers ranking higher than you have the option to tickle you if you have no pressing matters to attend to, but they usually use that power sparingly. The ones you really have to watch out for are Seizers practicing their captures who will tickle you after you get captured. They’ll roam around different parts of the ship on different days so that you can’t guess when they will come after you, and when they catch you, it’s ten minutes maximum of submission tickles. Overall, though, it’s not that much tickling if you just show up for your shift and work hard. The Seizers will never try to capture you while you’re working, and if they manage to capture you sometime else, well, it’s just a little bit of laughs.”
“You’ve been talking a lot about extra training for each branch of the transporters, and I’m just curious: when will we be able to expect to actually get our first jobs as transporters?” Sienna inquired.
“It will probably be six or seven months before you get your first real assignments,” Miss Akari proclaimed. “We want each transporter thoroughly trained, and that does mean that it takes a while to get to your actual job. Until then, you will have a base pay for transporters, even though you are not yet physically getting tickle slaves to the Tickle Cartel. The training we’re doing here, in case you’re wondering, is just a basic introduction to everything, and more specialized training and practice is required before you get sent off on a real job.” When no one had any further questions, Miss Akari announced, “It’s been another hour and a half, so let’s take another break, and then we’ll get some hands-on experience. Be back here at 10:20.”
‘Hands-on experience?’ Jen asked inside her head as she got up to get some water. ‘I wonder what that means. Oh, well, guess I’ll find out in twenty minutes.’
Next Chapter
Chapter 11: Prep Week, Day 1, Part 4
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