midrifftickler
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Here is the first part of Chapter 21 of The Tickle Cartel.
Starting in a few days (December 1), I will be doing a writing challenge for 12 Days of Teasemas on DeviantArt. Here is an introduction post with the prompts and some general information about the setting and characters. This writing challenge should not initially interrupt my posting schedule for the main story, since I have some more parts written already. However, I may end up posting less frequently near the end of the challenge, depending on how much time I have to write on the main story.
I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!
All Tickle Cartel Chapters
Previous Chapter
Chapter 20: Wendy's Guests, Day 1, Part 6
“AHAHAHAHAHA!” Jen screamed as she jolted awake, shocked by something new invading her bellybutton. “HEHEHEHEHEY!”
“Hi, Miss Jen,” Ava greeted the laughing guest. Then, before Jen could even ask, she denied the request to have the tickles stop. “And no, you’re not getting away from the mandatory morning tickles.”
“GEHEHEHET THAHAHAT FLOHOHOSSEHEHER OHOHOHOUT!” Jen tried to command the two servants verbally while her arms were attempting to use force. Like all other times she had attempted to free herself of spread-eagle bondage, Jen pulled her arms in as hard as she could, but also like all those times, the ropes tying her to the bedframe did not budge. “STAHAHAHAHAP THIHIHIHIHIS NOHOHOHOHOW!” she demanded as she continued to try and escape from Wendy’s servants.
“It does happen every time,” Fiona declared as she twisted the flosser to tickle the walls of Jen’s navel. “Every single time Mistress has someone over for the night, they demand that the morning tickles end right away. Doesn’t matter if they usually like being tickled or not; this always happens.”
“Yeah, it’s like they think that just because they’re in the room with us, Mistress’ orders suddenly have less power than theirs,” Ava replied. “That’s not how this works. We know that if Mistress gives us an order that we don’t follow to the fullest, we’ll be punished. No guest is going to make us stop just because she doesn’t want to be tickled at the moment.”
“URRRGH! STAHAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIHIT!” Jen continued to make demands of her ticklers as she struggled to escape the bed bondage. “GEHEHEHEHET IHIHIHIHIT OHOHOHOUT!”
“I don’t know whether you’re just not listening or if you think you can convince us to disobey orders, but it’s not happening,” Ava spoke directly into Jen’s ear as her fingernails made their way to the guest’s armpits. “We are not letting you go until the morning tickles are done.”
“STAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIT!” Jen continued to command the servants. “LEHEHEHET MEHEHEHE OHOHOHOHOUT THIHIHIHIS IHIHIHINSTAHAHAHANT!” Despite this and her desperate attempts to free herself, the ticklee was unable to stop Ava and Fiona from tickling all over her upper body for fifteen minutes. She was eventually forced to calm down her squirming as she began to run out of energy, but she kept up her verbal demands until the tickling ceased.
After being freed, Jen was fairly cross with the two servants. She was well aware that they were just following orders from Tickle Mistress Wendy, but that did not mean she had to like it. With Ava and Fiona tailing her, Jen made her way down to the breakfast room, again meeting an exhausted Maddie as she walked. Maddie also seemed to be disappointed with the early morning tickles, but they had taken enough out of her that she needed the support of two servants to reach the dining room.
When her two guests and four servants arrived in the dining room, Tickle Mistress Wendy immediately noticed that something was wrong. She quickly ordered the servants, “Fiona, Elaine, get pancakes ready now.” The two servants scurried off to obey their mistress’ orders while Wendy turned her attention to her guests, “Jen, Maddie, I can tell that something isn’t right.”
“I don’t like being tickled so long right when I wake up,” Jen spoke up first.
“They tortured me,” Maddie stated her main issue with the tickling.
“Okay,” Wendy took the comments in stride. “Jen, I have everyone who stays here get tickled when they wake up, but I could make some adjustments for you. Maddie, what did they use to tickle you?”
“Toothbrushes; it was way too much way too early,” Maddie glumly responded.
“Layla, you and Elaine are to use Q-tips tomorrow for tickling Maddie,” the Tickle Mistress offered a compromise to Maddie, who nodded in reluctant agreement. “And Ava, have Fiona stop tickling Jen after she wakes up. Then let her stretch and give her an energy bar before you restart the tickling. Give her ten minutes maximum to wake up, and then proceed with the morning tickles.”
“Okay, that works,” Jen accepted the conditions, more willing to endure early morning tickles after getting time to move around.
“Can I get the energy bar and the little break, too?” Maddie requested.
“Of course; Layla, you’ll give Maddie the same treatment, and still with Q-tips,” Wendy commanded, and everyone’s mood seemed to brighten somewhat. “Now, you two, sit down; breakfast will be out soon.” Jen and Maddie sat down next to each other, and then the Tickle Mistress further addressed the tickling, “I do want to apologize again for having you both go through those types of ticklings. Yesterday, when you came here for breakfast, I mentioned the breaks before the real tickling started. I knew you two were tired, but I should have asked you about it again so we could avoid… well, what you ended up going through.”
“It wasn’t fun, but it’s in the past now,” Jen dismissed the concern from her mentor as Fiona and Elaine returned with pancakes.
“Yeah, we can get over that, since we’re all on the same page now,” Maddie agreed before she started digging into her food.
“Good, and I’ll make sure that my servants do what I promised,” Wendy dictated, pleased that her two guests were not still extremely disappointed with her. “Also, to show how much I’m sorry, either today or tomorrow, I will let you two tickle torture my feet for a bit. You should know that this normally never happens, but I really want you to know how sorry I am. Now, onto today’s activities. I know that I told you yesterday that we had somewhat of an open schedule, but while I was waiting for you at Tummy Paradise and the bank, I started thinking about how to maximize the weekend. Then I made some calls and set up some appointments for the three of us for today. Don’t worry; I think you’ll love what I’ve got planned. We are going to start by looking for an apartment for you two. Queen Mistress Heather provided me with a list of apartments near Lori’s Tickle Dungeon that we can start with, and we’ll look until we find a suitable one or until we need a break. Understand?” Jen and Maddie quickly nodded their heads, and Wendy continued, “After we find you an apartment, I’ve got the rest of the day planned out with fun stuff for us to do, but the specific activities are a surprise.”
“Well, o-kay!” Jen excitedly declared.
“Yeah, let’s get to finding an apartment; after yesterday, I’m pretty excited for what you’ve got planned,” Maddie agreed, already starting to enjoy what the Tickle Cartel considered to be fun.
“Patience, Maddie; you need to finish your breakfast first,” Wendy stated, a large smile on her face.
After breakfast, Jen and Maddie hurriedly got ready to go out, changing into matching crop tops and shorts before heading down to join Wendy. Unlike the previous day, the Tickle Mistress was also wearing a crop top, showing off a decent amount of her ticklish upper body. Wendy had them get a few documents from the bank before they left, and she collected them when Jen and Maddie returned. “Are you both ready to go?” she questioned, getting eager nods in response. “Then let’s find you an apartment!”
The three got in Wendy’s T cart and headed over to another area of the Tickle Cartel half of the island. Before actually visiting an apartment complex, Wendy took the two future Dungeon Ticklers to a large building with ‘Tickle Dungeon 16’ written on top of it. “I thought that since we’re in the area, I should take you by this,” the Tickle Mistress declared as she parked her T cart in a half-full lot. “This is Lori’s Tickle Dungeon, officially known as Tickle Dungeon 16. After you pass Dungeon Tickler Training, you’ll start working here. I just wanted to get you a quick glimpse of this place while we were near it, and now, on to finding an apartment.”
Just like that, Wendy drove away from the Tickle Dungeon for a few blocks. “This is the closest apartment complex to the tickle dungeon, and it was first on the recommendations from the Queen Mistress,” the Tickle Mistress announced.
“Okay, let’s see what… Sixteen Swirls… looks like,” Jen was clearly confused at the name of the apartment complex, but she was still curious to check out the place.
“Yeah, odd name for an apartment complex, but that’s been most of the Tickle Cartel places for me,” Maddie allowed before adding, “At least the names have been weird so far.”
“I’ll admit, some names are still weird to me, and I’ve been here for… a while,” Wendy declined to admit how long she had been working for the Tickle Cartel. “But names typically don’t reflect very well on what the place is actually like, especially for apartment complexes and the like. My guess is that the owner wanted to be associated with Tickle Dungeon 16, since it’s so close, and they just picked a random tickling-related word that started with ‘S’ to match it better.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Jen agreed with the logic before turning to Maddie. “So, shall we?”
“We shall,” Maddie responded as the three began walking towards the office building.
“Hello!” an employee of the apartment complex greeted the three right when they entered the front door. “Are you interested in renting an apartment here?”
“We are,” Maddie indicated that she and Jen were in the market for an apartment.
“Wonderful!” Clearly wanting to make a good impression on her potential clients, the employee was exceptionally cheerful. “Well, my name is Vera, and I’ll go ahead and give you a tour of one of our model apartments. How many beds and baths were you wanting?”
“Two bed, two bath,” Wendy provided the recommendation from the Queen Mistress’ office.
“Great, follow me!” Vera waved, and the three other Tickle Cartel employees walked behind her. “Here at Sixteen Swirls, we like to create a peaceful, yet ticklish, atmosphere. You’ll see that in each courtyard, there are stocks and racks, which are often occupied by residents. We also occasionally rent tickle slaves to put in the courtyards for the enjoyment of our residents. However, if you are inside your apartment, you will have no idea that this is happening unless you see it. As we are part of the Tickle Cartel, we encourage ticklish interactions between residents. We have extra thick walls so that you can tickle within your apartment without worrying about disturbing your neighbors. Also, as you can see…” Vera finally stopped talking to open up a door, and then she went right back to her pitch, “we have some bondage that comes with the apartment. You may already know this, but each apartment is required to have restraints that expose each resident’s most ticklish spot. So, if your feet are really ticklish, we’ll put a pair of stocks inside your apartment. If your belly is your best spot, we’ll put a small rack in there. Since this apartment is for showing potential new residents, it does not have any of that right now. But I know that you must be eager to look around the apartment, so I’ll stop talking and let you do just that. Let me know if you have any questions.”
Somewhat relieved that Vera’s lengthy pitch was over, at least for now, Jen and Maddie walked through the apartment together, starting with the two bedrooms. They noted that the layout was similar to the apartments they looked at for college, although there would definitely be differences. For school, it was expected that two people would share a room, but these rooms were clearly made for a single occupant each. They were both slightly smaller than the college apartments, but with half the occupants, there would be plenty of space for whatever Jen or Maddie purchased. In addition, each bedroom connected to its own bathroom, which was much different than a single bathroom shared between four students at college.
After planning out potential spots for beds and other necessities, Jen and Maddie moved out to the living room. They looked around each corner to physically feel how large the space was, and after quietly discussing where they would put to-be-bought furniture, the two moved on to the remainder of the apartment. Throughout their self-guided tour, Jen and Maddie noted the layout of the kitchen, dining room, small laundry room, and hallways in the apartment.
Once they were satisfied with the initial look around the apartment, the two returned to Vera and Wendy just in time for the latter to ask the former a question, “How easy is transportation to access around here?”
“There’s a transportation hub about two blocks south of the south end of the complex, roughly five blocks from this apartment,” Vera announced. “They have all the standard forms of transportation: trolleys, buses, subways, and trains, and everything is contained within a block’s distance of the entrance. From that hub, you can get pretty much anywhere in the Tickle Cartel or Tickle Island.”
“Thanks; now, I was also wondering how the walking traffic is around here?” Wendy was clearly tailoring her questions to get Jen and Maddie more information about potentially living at Sixteen Swirls.
“We’ve got a few other apartment complexes around us, so during the normal pre- and post-business hours, it gets decently busy heading to and from the transportation hub,” Vera responded. “There’s less, but still a significant amount, of traffic around noon, but in general, it’s still pretty easy to get around. In mid-morning and mid-afternoon, though, there’s not very many people walking around.” Gesturing to Jen and Maddie, Vera continued, “I’m not sure what type of job the two of you will have, but if you’re free during the day, those might be good times to shop and go around to places. All that said, it still doesn’t take too long to get wherever you want to go, but you might have a slight delay if you go during rush hours.”
“Of course, that’s typical pretty much everywhere,” Wendy signaled to her guests that this was not a red flag. “How about shopping? Groceries, clothes, just general items?”
“There’s a shopping hub about a mile east of the transportation hub,” Vera replied. “It’s got pretty much everything you can ask for, and prices are generally reasonable. Most of the stores offer cart service to bring items back to an apartment, which is a really nice service that I use a lot.”
“Yep, that’s about what I expected,” the Tickle Mistress dictated. “That’s been my general experience with apartments. Now, on to a different subject. Since this is the Tickle Cartel, I know that there are mandatory ticklings for residents. How often are the ticklings, and how often are they public?”
“Residents do not get tickled in public at all unless they choose to,” the employee surprised the Tickle Mistress with her answer. “We do the typical ticklings of residents once or twice a year, but we don’t force it to be outside. While we encourage and even offer small rewards for public tickling, if a resident is not comfortable with it, we just tickle them inside their apartment.”
“Interesting,” Wendy considered this. “What’s your general perception of the area around the complex, in terms of safety?”
“Well, it’s a pretty safe area,” Vera claimed. “There’s a Jolly Jester station a block south of Tickle Dungeon 16, and since this is a large residential area, they take extra steps to make sure it’s safe. The mere presence of both the tickle dungeon and the Jolly Jester station deters a lot of potential crime, so we haven’t run into very many issues around here. I know that a couple of illegal tickle slaving gangs tried to set up shop around here, but the Jolly Jesters shut them down within hours of the gangs arriving. Since this area has such a large population of Tickle Cartel employees, the Tickle Cartel pays extra attention to make sure everything is done legally.”
“Good,” Wendy approved. “One last question: what’s there for entertainment around here?”
“We’ve got a few movie theaters scattered around, and some of the shops in the shopping hub focus on entertainment,” Vera responded. “We also have a few gyms around here. And of course, there’s some more general businesses to visit during your free time, but it would take a while to talk about all of them. I should note that although it’s not entertainment, there are also restaurants scattered in the general area, and I’ll be sure to give out my personal recommendations if you choose to live here.”
“Thanks, and that’s all the questions I have,” Wendy proclaimed. “Jen, Maddie, do you have any questions for Vera?”
“None that I can think of, but I really like the apartment,” Maddie answered first.
“Same,” Jen echoed her friend.
“Wonderful!” Vera was excited. “Would you like to apply to live here?”
“Not yet,” Wendy stepped in before Jen or Maddie could respond. “We’d like to look around some more, but we may come back here.”
“Of course, I hope to see you soon!” Vera stated, still upbeat. “Thanks for coming and looking around!”
With that, the Tickle Mistress led her two guests back to her T cart, and Vera closed up the sample apartment. When they got in the T cart, Jen declared, “Wendy, I really liked that apartment.”
“I also liked it,” Maddie affirmed. “Why did you immediately shut Vera down when she asked about applying there? Was there something wrong?”
“Not at all,” Wendy announced as she started up the T cart. “I think it would be a great place for you two to live, and I meant it when I said we may come back. I just want you to have a look around at a few other apartments before you decide for sure where you want to live.”
“Oh, okay,” Jen confirmed that both she and Maddie understood their mentor’s logic.
As it turned out, none of the four other apartment complexes that the three looked at caught Jen’s and Maddie’s eyes quite like Sixteen Swirls had. They were not necessarily terrible, but both future Dungeon Ticklers decided that they liked the first place that they visited the best. About an hour after they left the original apartment complex, the three returned to the office to apply to live at Sixteen Swirls.
Next Chapter
Chapter 21: Wendy's Guests, Day 2, Part 2
Starting in a few days (December 1), I will be doing a writing challenge for 12 Days of Teasemas on DeviantArt. Here is an introduction post with the prompts and some general information about the setting and characters. This writing challenge should not initially interrupt my posting schedule for the main story, since I have some more parts written already. However, I may end up posting less frequently near the end of the challenge, depending on how much time I have to write on the main story.
I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!
All Tickle Cartel Chapters
Previous Chapter
Chapter 20: Wendy's Guests, Day 1, Part 6
“AHAHAHAHAHA!” Jen screamed as she jolted awake, shocked by something new invading her bellybutton. “HEHEHEHEHEY!”
“Hi, Miss Jen,” Ava greeted the laughing guest. Then, before Jen could even ask, she denied the request to have the tickles stop. “And no, you’re not getting away from the mandatory morning tickles.”
“GEHEHEHET THAHAHAT FLOHOHOSSEHEHER OHOHOHOUT!” Jen tried to command the two servants verbally while her arms were attempting to use force. Like all other times she had attempted to free herself of spread-eagle bondage, Jen pulled her arms in as hard as she could, but also like all those times, the ropes tying her to the bedframe did not budge. “STAHAHAHAHAP THIHIHIHIHIS NOHOHOHOHOW!” she demanded as she continued to try and escape from Wendy’s servants.
“It does happen every time,” Fiona declared as she twisted the flosser to tickle the walls of Jen’s navel. “Every single time Mistress has someone over for the night, they demand that the morning tickles end right away. Doesn’t matter if they usually like being tickled or not; this always happens.”
“Yeah, it’s like they think that just because they’re in the room with us, Mistress’ orders suddenly have less power than theirs,” Ava replied. “That’s not how this works. We know that if Mistress gives us an order that we don’t follow to the fullest, we’ll be punished. No guest is going to make us stop just because she doesn’t want to be tickled at the moment.”
“URRRGH! STAHAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIHIT!” Jen continued to make demands of her ticklers as she struggled to escape the bed bondage. “GEHEHEHEHET IHIHIHIHIT OHOHOHOUT!”
“I don’t know whether you’re just not listening or if you think you can convince us to disobey orders, but it’s not happening,” Ava spoke directly into Jen’s ear as her fingernails made their way to the guest’s armpits. “We are not letting you go until the morning tickles are done.”
“STAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIT!” Jen continued to command the servants. “LEHEHEHET MEHEHEHE OHOHOHOHOUT THIHIHIHIS IHIHIHINSTAHAHAHANT!” Despite this and her desperate attempts to free herself, the ticklee was unable to stop Ava and Fiona from tickling all over her upper body for fifteen minutes. She was eventually forced to calm down her squirming as she began to run out of energy, but she kept up her verbal demands until the tickling ceased.
After being freed, Jen was fairly cross with the two servants. She was well aware that they were just following orders from Tickle Mistress Wendy, but that did not mean she had to like it. With Ava and Fiona tailing her, Jen made her way down to the breakfast room, again meeting an exhausted Maddie as she walked. Maddie also seemed to be disappointed with the early morning tickles, but they had taken enough out of her that she needed the support of two servants to reach the dining room.
When her two guests and four servants arrived in the dining room, Tickle Mistress Wendy immediately noticed that something was wrong. She quickly ordered the servants, “Fiona, Elaine, get pancakes ready now.” The two servants scurried off to obey their mistress’ orders while Wendy turned her attention to her guests, “Jen, Maddie, I can tell that something isn’t right.”
“I don’t like being tickled so long right when I wake up,” Jen spoke up first.
“They tortured me,” Maddie stated her main issue with the tickling.
“Okay,” Wendy took the comments in stride. “Jen, I have everyone who stays here get tickled when they wake up, but I could make some adjustments for you. Maddie, what did they use to tickle you?”
“Toothbrushes; it was way too much way too early,” Maddie glumly responded.
“Layla, you and Elaine are to use Q-tips tomorrow for tickling Maddie,” the Tickle Mistress offered a compromise to Maddie, who nodded in reluctant agreement. “And Ava, have Fiona stop tickling Jen after she wakes up. Then let her stretch and give her an energy bar before you restart the tickling. Give her ten minutes maximum to wake up, and then proceed with the morning tickles.”
“Okay, that works,” Jen accepted the conditions, more willing to endure early morning tickles after getting time to move around.
“Can I get the energy bar and the little break, too?” Maddie requested.
“Of course; Layla, you’ll give Maddie the same treatment, and still with Q-tips,” Wendy commanded, and everyone’s mood seemed to brighten somewhat. “Now, you two, sit down; breakfast will be out soon.” Jen and Maddie sat down next to each other, and then the Tickle Mistress further addressed the tickling, “I do want to apologize again for having you both go through those types of ticklings. Yesterday, when you came here for breakfast, I mentioned the breaks before the real tickling started. I knew you two were tired, but I should have asked you about it again so we could avoid… well, what you ended up going through.”
“It wasn’t fun, but it’s in the past now,” Jen dismissed the concern from her mentor as Fiona and Elaine returned with pancakes.
“Yeah, we can get over that, since we’re all on the same page now,” Maddie agreed before she started digging into her food.
“Good, and I’ll make sure that my servants do what I promised,” Wendy dictated, pleased that her two guests were not still extremely disappointed with her. “Also, to show how much I’m sorry, either today or tomorrow, I will let you two tickle torture my feet for a bit. You should know that this normally never happens, but I really want you to know how sorry I am. Now, onto today’s activities. I know that I told you yesterday that we had somewhat of an open schedule, but while I was waiting for you at Tummy Paradise and the bank, I started thinking about how to maximize the weekend. Then I made some calls and set up some appointments for the three of us for today. Don’t worry; I think you’ll love what I’ve got planned. We are going to start by looking for an apartment for you two. Queen Mistress Heather provided me with a list of apartments near Lori’s Tickle Dungeon that we can start with, and we’ll look until we find a suitable one or until we need a break. Understand?” Jen and Maddie quickly nodded their heads, and Wendy continued, “After we find you an apartment, I’ve got the rest of the day planned out with fun stuff for us to do, but the specific activities are a surprise.”
“Well, o-kay!” Jen excitedly declared.
“Yeah, let’s get to finding an apartment; after yesterday, I’m pretty excited for what you’ve got planned,” Maddie agreed, already starting to enjoy what the Tickle Cartel considered to be fun.
“Patience, Maddie; you need to finish your breakfast first,” Wendy stated, a large smile on her face.
After breakfast, Jen and Maddie hurriedly got ready to go out, changing into matching crop tops and shorts before heading down to join Wendy. Unlike the previous day, the Tickle Mistress was also wearing a crop top, showing off a decent amount of her ticklish upper body. Wendy had them get a few documents from the bank before they left, and she collected them when Jen and Maddie returned. “Are you both ready to go?” she questioned, getting eager nods in response. “Then let’s find you an apartment!”
The three got in Wendy’s T cart and headed over to another area of the Tickle Cartel half of the island. Before actually visiting an apartment complex, Wendy took the two future Dungeon Ticklers to a large building with ‘Tickle Dungeon 16’ written on top of it. “I thought that since we’re in the area, I should take you by this,” the Tickle Mistress declared as she parked her T cart in a half-full lot. “This is Lori’s Tickle Dungeon, officially known as Tickle Dungeon 16. After you pass Dungeon Tickler Training, you’ll start working here. I just wanted to get you a quick glimpse of this place while we were near it, and now, on to finding an apartment.”
Just like that, Wendy drove away from the Tickle Dungeon for a few blocks. “This is the closest apartment complex to the tickle dungeon, and it was first on the recommendations from the Queen Mistress,” the Tickle Mistress announced.
“Okay, let’s see what… Sixteen Swirls… looks like,” Jen was clearly confused at the name of the apartment complex, but she was still curious to check out the place.
“Yeah, odd name for an apartment complex, but that’s been most of the Tickle Cartel places for me,” Maddie allowed before adding, “At least the names have been weird so far.”
“I’ll admit, some names are still weird to me, and I’ve been here for… a while,” Wendy declined to admit how long she had been working for the Tickle Cartel. “But names typically don’t reflect very well on what the place is actually like, especially for apartment complexes and the like. My guess is that the owner wanted to be associated with Tickle Dungeon 16, since it’s so close, and they just picked a random tickling-related word that started with ‘S’ to match it better.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Jen agreed with the logic before turning to Maddie. “So, shall we?”
“We shall,” Maddie responded as the three began walking towards the office building.
“Hello!” an employee of the apartment complex greeted the three right when they entered the front door. “Are you interested in renting an apartment here?”
“We are,” Maddie indicated that she and Jen were in the market for an apartment.
“Wonderful!” Clearly wanting to make a good impression on her potential clients, the employee was exceptionally cheerful. “Well, my name is Vera, and I’ll go ahead and give you a tour of one of our model apartments. How many beds and baths were you wanting?”
“Two bed, two bath,” Wendy provided the recommendation from the Queen Mistress’ office.
“Great, follow me!” Vera waved, and the three other Tickle Cartel employees walked behind her. “Here at Sixteen Swirls, we like to create a peaceful, yet ticklish, atmosphere. You’ll see that in each courtyard, there are stocks and racks, which are often occupied by residents. We also occasionally rent tickle slaves to put in the courtyards for the enjoyment of our residents. However, if you are inside your apartment, you will have no idea that this is happening unless you see it. As we are part of the Tickle Cartel, we encourage ticklish interactions between residents. We have extra thick walls so that you can tickle within your apartment without worrying about disturbing your neighbors. Also, as you can see…” Vera finally stopped talking to open up a door, and then she went right back to her pitch, “we have some bondage that comes with the apartment. You may already know this, but each apartment is required to have restraints that expose each resident’s most ticklish spot. So, if your feet are really ticklish, we’ll put a pair of stocks inside your apartment. If your belly is your best spot, we’ll put a small rack in there. Since this apartment is for showing potential new residents, it does not have any of that right now. But I know that you must be eager to look around the apartment, so I’ll stop talking and let you do just that. Let me know if you have any questions.”
Somewhat relieved that Vera’s lengthy pitch was over, at least for now, Jen and Maddie walked through the apartment together, starting with the two bedrooms. They noted that the layout was similar to the apartments they looked at for college, although there would definitely be differences. For school, it was expected that two people would share a room, but these rooms were clearly made for a single occupant each. They were both slightly smaller than the college apartments, but with half the occupants, there would be plenty of space for whatever Jen or Maddie purchased. In addition, each bedroom connected to its own bathroom, which was much different than a single bathroom shared between four students at college.
After planning out potential spots for beds and other necessities, Jen and Maddie moved out to the living room. They looked around each corner to physically feel how large the space was, and after quietly discussing where they would put to-be-bought furniture, the two moved on to the remainder of the apartment. Throughout their self-guided tour, Jen and Maddie noted the layout of the kitchen, dining room, small laundry room, and hallways in the apartment.
Once they were satisfied with the initial look around the apartment, the two returned to Vera and Wendy just in time for the latter to ask the former a question, “How easy is transportation to access around here?”
“There’s a transportation hub about two blocks south of the south end of the complex, roughly five blocks from this apartment,” Vera announced. “They have all the standard forms of transportation: trolleys, buses, subways, and trains, and everything is contained within a block’s distance of the entrance. From that hub, you can get pretty much anywhere in the Tickle Cartel or Tickle Island.”
“Thanks; now, I was also wondering how the walking traffic is around here?” Wendy was clearly tailoring her questions to get Jen and Maddie more information about potentially living at Sixteen Swirls.
“We’ve got a few other apartment complexes around us, so during the normal pre- and post-business hours, it gets decently busy heading to and from the transportation hub,” Vera responded. “There’s less, but still a significant amount, of traffic around noon, but in general, it’s still pretty easy to get around. In mid-morning and mid-afternoon, though, there’s not very many people walking around.” Gesturing to Jen and Maddie, Vera continued, “I’m not sure what type of job the two of you will have, but if you’re free during the day, those might be good times to shop and go around to places. All that said, it still doesn’t take too long to get wherever you want to go, but you might have a slight delay if you go during rush hours.”
“Of course, that’s typical pretty much everywhere,” Wendy signaled to her guests that this was not a red flag. “How about shopping? Groceries, clothes, just general items?”
“There’s a shopping hub about a mile east of the transportation hub,” Vera replied. “It’s got pretty much everything you can ask for, and prices are generally reasonable. Most of the stores offer cart service to bring items back to an apartment, which is a really nice service that I use a lot.”
“Yep, that’s about what I expected,” the Tickle Mistress dictated. “That’s been my general experience with apartments. Now, on to a different subject. Since this is the Tickle Cartel, I know that there are mandatory ticklings for residents. How often are the ticklings, and how often are they public?”
“Residents do not get tickled in public at all unless they choose to,” the employee surprised the Tickle Mistress with her answer. “We do the typical ticklings of residents once or twice a year, but we don’t force it to be outside. While we encourage and even offer small rewards for public tickling, if a resident is not comfortable with it, we just tickle them inside their apartment.”
“Interesting,” Wendy considered this. “What’s your general perception of the area around the complex, in terms of safety?”
“Well, it’s a pretty safe area,” Vera claimed. “There’s a Jolly Jester station a block south of Tickle Dungeon 16, and since this is a large residential area, they take extra steps to make sure it’s safe. The mere presence of both the tickle dungeon and the Jolly Jester station deters a lot of potential crime, so we haven’t run into very many issues around here. I know that a couple of illegal tickle slaving gangs tried to set up shop around here, but the Jolly Jesters shut them down within hours of the gangs arriving. Since this area has such a large population of Tickle Cartel employees, the Tickle Cartel pays extra attention to make sure everything is done legally.”
“Good,” Wendy approved. “One last question: what’s there for entertainment around here?”
“We’ve got a few movie theaters scattered around, and some of the shops in the shopping hub focus on entertainment,” Vera responded. “We also have a few gyms around here. And of course, there’s some more general businesses to visit during your free time, but it would take a while to talk about all of them. I should note that although it’s not entertainment, there are also restaurants scattered in the general area, and I’ll be sure to give out my personal recommendations if you choose to live here.”
“Thanks, and that’s all the questions I have,” Wendy proclaimed. “Jen, Maddie, do you have any questions for Vera?”
“None that I can think of, but I really like the apartment,” Maddie answered first.
“Same,” Jen echoed her friend.
“Wonderful!” Vera was excited. “Would you like to apply to live here?”
“Not yet,” Wendy stepped in before Jen or Maddie could respond. “We’d like to look around some more, but we may come back here.”
“Of course, I hope to see you soon!” Vera stated, still upbeat. “Thanks for coming and looking around!”
With that, the Tickle Mistress led her two guests back to her T cart, and Vera closed up the sample apartment. When they got in the T cart, Jen declared, “Wendy, I really liked that apartment.”
“I also liked it,” Maddie affirmed. “Why did you immediately shut Vera down when she asked about applying there? Was there something wrong?”
“Not at all,” Wendy announced as she started up the T cart. “I think it would be a great place for you two to live, and I meant it when I said we may come back. I just want you to have a look around at a few other apartments before you decide for sure where you want to live.”
“Oh, okay,” Jen confirmed that both she and Maddie understood their mentor’s logic.
As it turned out, none of the four other apartment complexes that the three looked at caught Jen’s and Maddie’s eyes quite like Sixteen Swirls had. They were not necessarily terrible, but both future Dungeon Ticklers decided that they liked the first place that they visited the best. About an hour after they left the original apartment complex, the three returned to the office to apply to live at Sixteen Swirls.
Next Chapter
Chapter 21: Wendy's Guests, Day 2, Part 2
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