#switch!blathers

Pocket was hanging out at the cafe, talking with Blathers. Well…more like Blathers was doing the talking while Pocket listened. But she didn’t mind. She liked hearing Blathers ramble on and on about the dinosaur era and the different types of dinosaurs. 

“The Brachiosaurus, whose name means 'arm lizard'—eh, wot—was one of the largest herbivorous dinosaurs. Due to its long front legs and elongated neck, it seems to have specialized in eating plants up high. Isn’t that interesting?” Blathered told her. 

Pocket nodded. “It’s really interesting. I wish I could find the pelvis for that fossil. I almost have it completed.” Pocket told him. 

“Well, if you do find it, then by all means let me know!” Blathers said. 

Pocket nodded. “Will do.” 

“What else is there…Oh! The saber tooth tiger! Where do I even start?!” Blathers reacted. 

Pocket nodded and listened to his facts on Saber tooth tigers. 

“Chief actor in my most terrifying nightmares, the Saber Tooth Tiger was a mighty predator of long ago. Its most famous feature, obviously, is its razor-sharp, eight-inch-long, t-t-te-tee-te-tee... FANGS!” Blathers told her. 

Pocket tilted her head. “It sounds like you’re scared of it.” She mentioned. 

“Sc-Scared? Now…what-what brought on that idea? Heheh…” Blathers stuttered. 

Pocket shrugged her shoulders. “Just a hunch, I guess.” She took a sip of her coffee. 

“Well, I will assure you, I am NOT scared of it. I’m merely…interested in its anatomy. Teeth didn’t sound like the right word. Fangs sounded better.” Blathers tried to explain himself. 

But Pocket wasn’t buying it. “Uh huh…” 

“Now what’s another one…Hmmm…” Blathers thought. “Hoot HOOT! I know! The megacerops!” Blathers declared. “Now let me see…” 

Pocket smiled as she remembered the look of the fossil in completion. She felt proud of herself for finding all the pieces for that dinosaur, and that it’s now displayed in the museum. 

“This large fellow was a bit like our modern rhinoceros, but with two horns on its nose! Sadly, their small teeth restricted them to a diet of rather soft plants, and eventually they died out.” Blathers explained. 

“Oh…That’s unfortunate.” Pocket reacted sadly. 

“Oh well. Now we can bring it back to life!” Blathers declared. Then he coughed and cleared his throat. “By showing off its bones, of course…” Blathers explained. 

“I think I would be terrified if dinosaurs suddenly came back to life.” Pocket admitted. 

“Oh…Yes, me too.” Blathers replied. “On one hand, I would be very fascinated to know what they look like as more than just bones. But on the other hand…” Blathers shuttered. “I would be t-t-terrified.” Blathers admitted. 

“Me too…” Pocket admitted before taking another gulp of coffee. 

“I must say, this coffee really tickles my feathers. It tastes wonderful!” Blathers said, taking a break from his info dumping sessions. 

Pocket giggled as she took another gulp of her coffee. She was a little more than half done with her coffee now. 

“Hehehe…Tickles my feathers…Reminds me of when Celeste was a little chick in the nest.” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket widened her eyes. She’s never heard Blathers talk about Celeste as a chick before. She wanted to know more. 

“Tell me more!” Pocket spoke up. 

“Hoo? About Celeste? Well…She got her degree in-” 

“No no, when Celeste was a chick.” Pocket interrupted. 

“Ooooh. Very well.” Blathers adjusted himself on the chair. “When Celeste was a little chick, she had the cutest little chirp. And I heard it so often! I never got bored of it.” Blathers explained. 

Pocket listened as she drank more of her coffee. 

“And she loved to be tickled on the neck. I would always use one of my feathers to tickle her before her feathers started to grow. It’s often recommended that you tickle them in that time frame…They say it encourages them to grow their feathers faster to stop the tickles, hehehe.” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket giggled in response. “That’s so cute!” She reacted. 

“It was plenty adorable. But it’s hard to tickle Celeste these says…especially now as she’s grown up. I miss it…” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket then tilted her head as she wondered something. “And who tickled you as a chick?” Pocket asked. 

Blathers hooed and looked at you. “Oh! Me?!” Blathers asked, the sides of her beak going red. “Hoo hoo…Well, my momma did.” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket smiled. “And I’m guessing your feathers stop you from being ticklish now?” Pocket asked. 

“They stop the soft tickles, like feathers and grass. Feathers on feathers just does not work.” Blathers explained. 

“And…what about rough tickles? Like…brushes? Claws?” Pocket asked. 

Blathers grew more and more scarlet red with every question. “Hoooooo…This is becoming a little embarrassing.” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket giggled and poked Blathers’ foot with the front of her shoe. Blathers let out a loud HOO and covered his beak with his wings. “Hoo my goodness! I apologize for that.” Blathers admitted. 

Pocket widened her eyes and smiled brightly. It sounded like there was one area blathers COULD be tickled…

The feet. 

Pocket took off her shoe and her sock. She grabbed a red feather from her inventory that she collected earlier, and put the stem end into the space between her big toe and her second toe. Then…she started flicking the feather against Blathers’ foot. 

Blathers yelped and hooed loudly as a big smile grew on his beak. He quickly threw his head back and laughed with glee. “HAhahahaha! Hohohohoho! Ihihi shohould’ve known you would dohohoho thihihihis!” Blathers reacted. 

Pocket smiled brightly as she switched from one foot to the other foot. “Kitchy kitchy koo~” Pocket teased. 

Blathers hid his face in his wings as he continued to laugh. “Yohohohou’re mehehehehean!” Blathers whined. 

Pocket giggled at those words. 

Pocket looked around at the cafe to see if anyone noticed. And then her eyes widened as they fell on someone familiar…and very convenient…

Celeste was here too! She happened to be talking to some other villager who was visiting the island. 

But her focus went right back to Blathers as soon as she felt the feather slip out from her toes. 

Wait, what- 

“Ihihi gohohot ihihihihit! Ihi got ihit!” Blathers cheered. “Nohow come here:” Blathers opened up his wings and fluttered them rapidly before diving towards Pocket’s side of the table. 

Pocket screeched and gasped as she felt ticklish feathers fluttering under her armpits. 

OH NO! 

“PFFFTAAAAHAHAHAHahaha! BLAHAHATHEHEHERS!” Pocket laughed. 

“Thahat’s what you get for tickling me.” Blathers said back. “Only one unfortunate thing for you:” Blathers smirked as she lowered her voice down to a little whisper. “You can’t grow feathers.” 

Pocket curled her neck in as she snorted and laughed from the ticklish words against her neck. 

Then, Blathers laid Pocket down on the booth like it was a couch and wrapped his feet around Pocket’s upper arms to steady them. With her arms steadied, Blathers started tickling Pocket’s poor, vulnerable neck.

Pocket immediately curled her neck left and right. Blathers was being so mean to her! Though, Pocket knew she kinda deserved it. Pocket struggled in Blathers’ grip as she tried to move her arms to get out, covering up one side of her own neck at a time to lessen the tickles. But her efforts were completely fruitless. Blathers just kept tickling the side of the neck that became vulnerable whenever Pocket hid the one side. 

“Coochy coochy coochy coochy coo!” Blathers teased. 

“Well, look who’s fallen victim to my brother's tickles…” Someone said behind Blathers. 

Blathers let out a surprised ‘HOOT!’ sound and turned around. “Celeste! Hi! I- Uh…” Blathers tried to say, pausing his tickle attack. 

Pocket’s laughter lessened to little giggle fits as she curled her neck left and right to try and stop the phantom tickles that were still leaving her breathless. 

Celeste was crossing her pink wings all sassy as she shook her head with a smirk. “Is this your way of teaching Pocket about the different bones in the body?” Celeste asked. 

“No no no. Pocket started it with this.” Blathers pointed to the red feather that was sitting under the table a few feet away from them. 

Celeste widened her eyes and looked at her own wings to make sure the feather wasn’t hers. 

Blathers laughed as he watched Celeste check her own wings for any feathers out of place. “No need to worry, Celeste. This feather has orange on it as well. So there is a high chance this feather does not belong to you.” Blathers told Celeste. 

Celeste let out a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted was to leave little feathers all over the island…

“Ihi don’t know who the feather belongs to…All I know is that I found the feather under the table…” Pocket admitted. 

“And Ms. Pocket over here, decided to try tickling my foot with the feather! The nerve!” Blathers reacted. 

Celeste just laughed. “Come on, Blathers…Is it really that bad?” Celeste asked. 

Blathers narrowed his eyes at Celeste. “Just because you like tickling, doesn’t mean everyone does.” Blathers warned, silently letting go of one of Pocket’s arms to point at his sister. 

“Now I didn’t say that…” Celeste reminded him. 

“Well, you did sa- HooOOOHOHOHOHOOT!” Blathers quickly looked towards Pocket as he doubled over and bursted out laughing all over again. 

Pocket was smirking widely as she tickled the tops of Blathers’ feet with a purple feather this time. 

Celeste tilted herself sideways to look at Pocket, and threw her head back with a laugh when she saw what was going on. “How many feathers do you have?!” Celeste asked. 

Pocket giggled in response as she moved the purple feather tip into the open area between Blathers toes. “Too many.” Pocket replied. 

“Ihi can see that!” Celeste reacted with a giggle. 

Tickling Blathers in between the toes was enough to make Blathers let go of Pocket’s arms completely. With her arms now fully free, Pocket could pull out a second feather (a rainbow feather this time,) and tickle his other foot at the same time. 

“OHOHOKAHAY, THAHAT’S EHEHENOHOHOUGH!” Blathers ordered. 

Pocket didn’t want to go overboard. So, she immediately stopped the moment Blathers gave the first order. 

She put the feathers back into her pockets before Blathers could steal them from her. Blathers giggling filled the room for a few minutes more, while Celeste and Pocket smiled as they listened to his giggles. 

But then his giggles began to continue for a little longer than they should’ve…

And then they started getting louder and more evil-sounding. 

“You really thought you could tickle the tickle monster and get away with it?” Blathers said with an evil smirk on his face. 

Pocket widened her eyes as she realized the predicament she was now in. 

Uh oh…

“Can I join in?” Celeste asked. 

Blathers guffawed. “Well, of course! How can I say no to you?” Blathers reacted. 

OH NO–

Pocket ended up getting tickled for another 10-20 minutes. She also ended up catching the attention of the rest of the villagers at The Brewster. By the time Blathers and Celeste had stopped tickling her, there was a crowd of villagers watching the scene play out. It was quite funny for Blathers and Celeste. 

For Pocket…It was still fun, though a little embarrassing. 

And for months afterwards, Pocket would occasionally get poked by wings, fingers and paws by the different villagers. The villagers that watched Pocket at the Brewster must’ve started spreading the rumors of where Pocket was ticklish…because even villagers who weren’t originally there for the scene had started tickling Pocket a small bit too. It was quite the fiesco for the human, female villager.