Castle
Saga: Missing Manga part 4
Of course, Felin was an expert at ‘making’ someone do something they otherwise would not have… did that make her powerful? Felin grinned. The standard sociological definition of “power” was the ability to make someone do something they otherwise would not, left up to their own devices. Then again, Felin’s power was hardly derived from a legal basis, but what would have been the fun in that? She grinned, watching Xei scurry off, still rubbing her sides. It was just another display of Xei’s impressive library of human body-language functions.
With a deep breath that was let out slowly, Felin forced herself down from the power trip. She realized, much to her chagrin, that when she did allow her head to swell and lead her on a trip, her thinking tended very much toward the megalomaniacal. It would not do for the planning and execution phase of any operation. However, once the subject of the operation was securely within her control, a little megalomania of the evil scientist type was not out of the question… Not only was it unsettling to the subject, it was just plain fun, Felin admitted to herself.
First things first, however. It wouldn’t do at all for Xei to return from her errand successfully to find Rei and the others already gone from the tub. So, keeping that in mind, Felin prowled her way towards the hot tub room again, giggling slightly to herself as she moved with fluid, graceful stalking movements. She forced herself to remain quiet, ears twitching occasionally as she eased the door to the steamy, hot room open, allowing a bit of steam to escape before she shut the door again. Now, just to make sure…
Felin came to a halt at the edge of the tub as she rounded the corner, the changing rooms behind her. The hot tub was empty, its waters still and free of the agitation caused by massaging bubbles. The towels and brushes were all neatly put away. This was what first caused Felin’s eyes to narrow with suspicion. Ami, definitely, would have been so neat in putting everything back, but not Minako or Rei, and it was doubtful they’d had her put their things away as well, which meant they were trying to make it look empty – Felin’s rapid pivoting came just a second too late, and she felt hands push her towards the tub.
Since she had been pushed on the shoulder instead of her back, she stumbled into the tub, taking a few unbalanced steps before losing her balance and coming to a stop, falling on her rear end, only her knees and upper torso above the water. It was sufficient enough to make her blink with surprise and she simply sat there dumbly, dripping, as Rei, Minako and Ami stepped back into the tub, giggling and bobbing towards her, forming a semicircle.
Rei’s grin told Felin something bad was about to happen, but it wasn’t until she saw what Ami was wearing that her eyes bugged. Rubber mittens, with short plastic teeth on the palm and finger area. The sort of rubber mittens one would use to bathe a recalcitrant pet. The sort of rubber mittens that were used to scrub. With an entirely undignified yowl, Felin tried to scramble out of the tub and away, but her sodden fur clung to her body, its wet weight making her movements clumsy and exaggerated, and it was no trouble at all for Minako and Rei to grab her around the waist and under her shoulders, leaving her feet to kick and thrash helplessly as Ami waded in.
“AMIIIIIIHEEHEHEHEHEEHEHEEE!!!” Felin shrieked, violently twisting and thrashing in the water, giggling madly as the plastic combs raked through her wet fur, against the grain no less. Minako grabbed a bottle of shampoo and poured some over Felin’s belly, which Ami lathered up and began spreading over Felin’s body, as though actually bathing her.
The part of Felin’s mind which could still think coherently realized that they had made a tactical error. Well, yes, the lathered slickness did tickle like hell, but it made Felin’s body a lot harder to hold on to. Abandoning her dignity – whatever was left of it now – Felin squirmed and shrieked with laughter, trying to evade her ‘bath’ almost as a real cat would, except sans claws. This became obvious as Felin managed to twist all the way around despite Minako and Rei’s grip.
While Minako and Rei squealed with surprise and tried to get a better grip without actually hurting Felin, which was pretty hard given how slick she was now, Ami’s hands basically went for whatever part of Felin’s body they could reach, and in this condition she was basically ticklish everywhere… Everyone save Rei was surprised when Rei suddenly let go, causing Felin’s twisting squirm to toss up a huge splash that got Ami and Minako wetter, and as Felin rolled into Ami, the blue-haired girl toppled over and landed across Felin, pinning her abdominal area under the water. It was a sign of how tired the struggle was making everyone that for the next several seconds they all just panted to catch their breath.
“Just stay right there, Ami,” Rei said, bobbing her way over to where Felin’s feet were floating and, holding Felin’s ankles in the crook of her arm, went at her feet with a wooden scrubbing brush. Felin, predictably, went ballistic, even though her feet weren’t her worst spot… nonetheless, her body bucked and wriggled in the water, causing Ami to hold on for dear life as Minako giggled, wrapping her arms tighter under Felin’s. This precluded an attack on Felin’s true weakness, but what they had was enough.
“Stahhahahahahahaa STHAHAHHAHA AHAH STOP PLEHEHHEHE HEHEEH EHEHE REIH HAHAA HAHA AHAHAH HAHAH GHAHAHAHAAAAD!!!” Felin squealed, her energy to thrash slowly fading, giving the advantage to Ami and Minako who simply had to hold her down with their weight. Even Rei, however, was feeling the strain of holding Felin down in the water, and so her frantic scrubbing became nothing more than tired, jerky strokes before they ceased completely.
Felin couldn’t help a giggle, despite her predicament and the fact she hated getting wet. That broke the ice and the others giggled as well, releasing her and bobbing back to the edge of the tub, which was rather soaked, given the frantic splashing. They all wore swimsuits – as always in their respective colors, with Ami wearing a rather demure and reserved one-piece aqua swimsuit, while Minako’s gold-yellow suit had only a strap over the left shoulder, and some oval-shaped cutouts along her sides. Rei wore a two-piece red swimsuit, nothing overly revealing. Felin’s instinctive evaluation of their current clothing allowed her to file away potential angles of attack, but first came the business of getting dry…
Felin, giggling madly, cursed herself for not foreseeing this, her wrists and biceps tied behind her head with towels, Rei straddling her hips as the three of them attacked her upper body with towels. They were a bit rough, but… it was really how they needed to be to get her fur dried, and while they did a rather good job of it, they also didn’t try at all not to tickle. It had probably been their plan anyway, but Felin needed to get dry, so she tried not to squirm as much as possible, made easier by the binds on her arms… “Kyehehehheehehe!! Not so rough – heheheheh nahahahahahha CAREFUL THEHEHEHHERE!!!
“Sorry!” Minako said with a giggle, probably enjoying this like a game, Felin thought darkly, as her towel-covered hands scrubbed beneath her arms. “Man, you go through tons of towels, Felin!” Minako exclaimed, tossing the damp towel onto a growing pile of damp towels and snatching up a fresh warm one. Felin admitted that the warm towels didn’t feel all bad, and once someplace was dry, they did move on… Rei turned around, now that Felin’s upper body was mostly dry…
Giggling madly, Felin forced herself to uncurl her toes and feet so they could be dried… kept giggling, and giggling, before she realized that none of the three had started yet, but she still couldn’t stop giggling… Vaguely she became aware of the fact that all three girls were looking at her, trying to hide smiles… “Sh-sh-shut uhuhuhuuup!!!” Felin demanded, giggling. Rei prodded a fingernail into Felin’s furry navel, the fur poofed out with drying, causing her to giggle harder.
“Well, she wants her feet tickled,” Rei said with a sly smirk. “Don’t disappoint her…” And so, the towels closed in on Felin’s feet, at this point merely a sheath for the fingers she could feel poking and prodding at her feet, getting in between her toes especially, driving her wild with giggling, and yet still drying… At least Rei was just drying her legs, which wasn’t so bad, because Rei could be absolutely sadistic when it came to foot tickling…
The last part was the worst. With her fur dried, but sticking up and goofy angles and making it look like Felin had been tumbled through some huge dryer, there was nothing for it but to brush Felin’s fur. Even Felin agreed, reluctantly eyeing the hairbrush in Rei’s hand, that she looked totally ridiculous as she was. And so she had to suffer the worst torment of them all, having her fur brushed…
Felin tried not to think about it. Tried to take her mind elsewhere, away from the devilish sensations of the gently scraping brushes bringing order back to the chaos that was her fur. But it was no use. The mere knowledge that hairbrushes were her weakness brought her to tears giggling… Fortunately, it seemed like even Rei knew when to show a little mercy, and the brushing was done as quickly as possible before Rei let her off the changing room’s floor, feeling loopy and still giggling, leaning against the wall for support as she hobbled out of the room on jelly legs…
Meanwhile, Xei had been off running the errand she had been sent on by Felin, seeking out Jelex once again, this time with a proposal from Felin. “Jelex,” Xei began when she entered Jelex’s room, hands upturned and empty, held in front of her, in what Xei knew as a human gesture of no ill intent. “I have a proposal for you from Felin.”
“Felin eh?” Jelex had already tickled Xei silly, so she figured that she owed her at least the courtesy to listen to the plan. “All right, shoot. What’s she want?”
“Felin wishes for your help in a seizure operation.” Xei almost smiled, finding herself using a dry euphemism for capturing and tickling someone. “She wants you to help her extricate Rei from the bath, because…”
“’Cause Felin doesn’t like water, I know. So what’s in it for me? Y’know a proposal usually involves both sides gettin’ something, so… what do I get?” Jelex grinned, sitting up on the edge of her bed with her legs crossed and setting her magazine aside while she waited for Xei’s answer.
“Felin offers…” Here, Xei’s voice trailed off, and the soft whirring that announced the fact she was thinking hard became audible. Felin, while still tickling Xei’s silly, had told her to offer herself to Jelex as a trade, but Felin hadn’t known – and Xei hadn’t dared interrupt to say – that Jelex had just tickled Xei some time before and was unlikely to want the same reward twice… so now, Xei had to try and think of her own reward, but she wasn’t having much luck…
“Felin’ll give you a little time with me,” said a voice, softly, from behind Xei, who had been so caught up in her thinking that she hadn’t heard the other’s approach. The voice, moreover, was right in Xei’s ear, and she felt something warm and soft press into her back as a pair of arms wrapped around her body to let a pair of delicately sculpted hands rest on her sides. Scritching softly, Kiri continued; “Of course we’ll have Xei as a bonus, but your real prize will be me, Jelex. Isn’t that right, Xei?” Kiri asked the giggling android, who was on her toes and dancing slightly.
Kiri somehow had the ability to mesmerize Xei, or so it felt anyway. Xei found it very difficult to move away when this happened… “Damn if you two don’t do the best forbidden fruit act I’ve ever seen,” Jelex muttered in admiration, sitting up straighter on her bed. “Hell, why not? You’re a tougher catch than Gigglebot here, so that sounds pretty good to me.” Jelex slid off the bed after putting her boots back on.
“Forbidden fruit?” Kiri asked, looking a little confused. It was Xei’s turn to smirk; her sister never researched humans very thoroughly and was often at a loss when the more complex references arose. Xei explained, as Kiri’s confusion had halted her tickling fingers.
“Forbidden fruit is a reference to a human tendency to want that which is denied to them. In this case, the implicit association of us as sisters presents an er –“
“Oh, okay. I get it.” Kiri looked up at Jelex and smirked. “So, who’re we gonna target?”
“We’ll have
more fun taking the indirect route,” Jelex said. “So instead of going
for Rei
directly, we’ll do this…” Jelex knelt and huddled with the two
androids, and
only Xei noticed Felin hobble by, looking rather the worse for wear… it
was all
up to her, now.