Corvid

I wiped my face with the back of my arm drearily as I approached the front door to my home, sniffing sadly. I had a horrible day at work, and on top of that, a million small things went wrong every chance that they could: I forgot my earbuds, I tripped and fell down a couple of steps, my lunch was cold, etcetera. I let out a shaky breath and brushed off my clothes as the door loomed before me. Reaching into my pocket, I checked the time on my phone; my roommate would surely be home by now. I didn’t want him seeing me like this… I didn’t want him to worry. Taking a moment to compose myself, I reached for the handle.

Peering past the entrance, there he was, watching TV in the living room. Shit. Maybe he would be so focused on his show that I could sneak past? Upon putting a single foot forward, his head turned towards me. Double shit.

“Oh good, you’re home!” Mr. Puzzles beamed, hands clasping together as he smiled widely. “I know we talked about watching that movie tonight, did you still want to…?” He trailed off as he read my poorly hidden expression, giving me a once over before a look of concern flashed across his screen. “Are you… okay?” His eyes widened a bit as I choked back a sob. “Oh dear.” He stood and came to me, escorting me gently to the couch and sitting down to my left.

“Do you want to talk about it?” His hand gripped slightly tighter on my shoulder as I shook my head, and he pulled me closer to him. “That’s alright… we can just sit here.” I felt him hesitate before slowly running a hand up and down my back, head resting on mine. Puzzles was new to having close relationships with others, so I was surprised and proud that he took the initiative to comfort me so quickly and fluidly. Not at all expecting to be getting any in the first place today, I sighed and rested against him, the last of the tears rolling down my face.

After a minute or so, I gently pushed myself off of him and he quickly withdrew, watching as I stared down at the carpet. I was worried this might be too much for him to try and help with – I didn’t want to overwhelm him. If anyone needed help, it was definitely him.

“Did… did I not do good enough?” His question had me glancing at him awkwardly, stuttering as I tried to reassure him.

“No, no, that was really nice, it’s just…” I cleared my throat, sitting up straight. “You don’t gotta worry about me, okay? You’re still learning how to be close with people, and I don’t want you to have to do this part of it so soon. So, you did a good job, but I’ll probably go to my room now to uhh, give you some space…” I slowly stood up, but before I could even take a step, I felt him gently grab my wrist. I was surprised to look back and see a determined (yet still slightly nervous) expression.

“Please…if you want me to, then I would love nothing more than to help my dear friend. Please let me try?” I could almost start crying again right then and there. He had come so far; of course I couldn’t say no. I curtly nodded before returning to my seat, his hand smoothing down to mine to hold it loosely. He smiled sheepishly.

“Thank you. Also…” He grew more confident as he continued. “I know you think me uneducated in terms of having close relationships, but…” He straightened his bowtie, chest puffing out. “I can confidently say I have seen every major motion picture that depicts moments of true, heart-warming closeness between two individuals, from the best of friends, to family, and even romantic partners!” He cleared his throat and averted his gaze suddenly, rubbing the back of his neck as a red streak ran across his screen, quietly adding, “And umm, may have also rewatched some recently for the purpose of… study… in lieu of recent events…” His absolutely-not-subtle-at-all glance to me made me giggle. The sound redirected his attention immediately, and I would be lying to say that his smile wasn’t infectious.

“See? I know my stuff! I’ve just… never gotten to experience it myself. And so…” He shifted to sit a little closer, facing towards me. “That brings me to my first methodology. May I?” I held back another laugh; his formality was always so silly, yet so sweet (and definitely backhanded if he didn’t like you.)

“Alright, let’s see it.” He stretched his fingers, and then…

“EEP!” My noise startled both of us as he suddenly poked me in the side, making me jump in place. His eyes went wide as he quickly withdrew his hand.

“Oh! That wasn’t supposed to… are you alright?” Confusion crossed his screen as I started giggling again – his decision to poke me was as puzzling as it was a very Puzzles-coded thing to do. I missed the way his eyes narrowed at me as I questioned what that was even for.

“Hmm… a delayed reaction… that’s odd…” He muttered. I squeaked through my laughter as he poked me again, this time on the other side.

“What are you doing?” My question barely made it out as he then looked at me with exasperation.

“Tickling you!” He blurted out in frustration, but he quickly folded his arms with a huff, trying his best to calm down. “Or at least… trying to.”

I felt a little bad as he looked so disappointed. I got myself to stop laughing, ready to comfort him.

“In all those shows and movies you watched, was tickling always done by poking?”

“Well, no, of course not! I’m just… nervous I’m not going to do it right…”

“You got me to laugh.”

“At my ridiculous attempt! That much was obvious!” He turned away, evidently sulking now. I sighed and rolled my eyes; this was oddly cute, seeing a grown man throw a fit over not knowing how to tickle someone. I gently set a hand on his shoulder.

“Let me show you, then?” His head whipped around so fast that one of the edges nearly sliced the side of my face. A solid red bar adorned the pixels beneath his eyes. “R-Really?!” Carefully and slowly, I turned him around to face me, scooting closer again. He fiddled with his hands, gaze anywhere but me. I got a bit of an evil idea. Puzzles had probably never been tickled before… I wondered if this would have some sort of effect? I raised my hands on either side of my head, which got his attention, and wiggled my fingers at him. I was delighted as nervous giggles began pouring from his speakers – the fact that he was already laughing seemed to confuse him.

Deciding to stop teasing him, my hands finally descended to his sides, spidering in random patterns. He shrieked, immediately throwing himself onto his back, slapping at my hands as he began laughing uncontrollably. The sweet sound egged me on as I hovered over him, moving to his stomach, then his ribs. His eyes were squeezed shut tight, only to occasionally flash open with pin-prick pupils, not making an effort to get away but thrashing nonetheless. After a few moments more, I granted him mercy, sitting back and watching him transition into gasping giggles, clutching his sides as he nearly curled into a ball. Once his breathing was steady, he propped himself up with his arms, staring at me accusatorily.

“That’s HORRIBLE! Why would anyone want that to be done to them?!”

I giggled at his outburst, trying my best to explain the concept. “Most people do it as a way to tease someone close to them.”

He raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. “Tease? You mean torture?”

I rolled my eyes. “Some might do it a little rougher if the other person is annoying them, or did something to upset them… like a harmless way to enact punishment.” Again, a look of disbelief. “But sometimes it’s also done to cheer someone up, like you were trying to do. I mean, even just making someone smile and laugh can help them if they’re feeling down, depending on what it is.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling sheepish as I attempted to explain further. “Some people like it because… well, it’s affection. It can be nice to have someone put all their focus on you, especially with the sole purpose of trying to make you feel better. You can be sweet about it, or take on a more playful tone… sort of just whatever the situation calls for.” I hoped my explanation was sufficient as I dragged my gaze back to him.

Mr. Puzzles was staring at me with intrigue, having been listening intently. “Oh.” As he sat up, he didn’t seem so skeptical anymore, at the very least… in fact, he had an air of unreadable confidence to him that made me suspicious as he came to tower over me yet again. “Thank you for informing me. I think I… understand now.” In an instant, his expression melted into a soft and overly sweet smile, arms outstretched invitingly. “Come here.”

I found myself blushing at this sudden development – it was not unwelcome in the slightest, but I certainly wasn’t used to this. I crawled into his arms, letting him cradle me close, pulling me flush to him. His arms wrapped around my torso rather tightly; it was extremely comfortable. I found my eyes fluttering shut as his hand slowly rubbed my back. I relaxed enough that I hardly noticed as his fingers traced down to my sides.

I squeaked as he suddenly swiped his fingers across my sides, squirming as a few pokes followed, muffling giggles with my hand.

“D’aww, what’s wrong?” The faux concern in his voice was completely unexpected – he had flipped on a dime.

“N-Nothihing!” I managed to say as he started squeezing, now giggling uncontrollably, gripping onto his suspenders to keep my hands from grabbing at his.

“Oh really? Nothing you say?” His hands climbed higher, squeezing my ribs, and I let out an unexpected shriek; whether I struggled or not now was not an option. “So you’re just overreacting?” I felt red creep onto my face as he let out an evil chuckle at my reaction, yelping when his arms darted to wrap around me, keeping me flush against him – no escape. This was growing especially flustering considering how that villainous side of him was starting to show through, albeit playfully… a side of himself he had been suppressing ever since I began helping him down the path to redemption. Seems like he’d found an outlet for it.

I burst out laughing as he scratched along my sides, his thumbs jamming into the spaces between my ribs, struggling harder as he held onto me tightly.

“There it is! There’s that laugh! What ever were you thinking trying to hide it from me?”

“P-Puzzles!” I whined, falling back into giggles as he lightened his attack, fingers crawling under my arms, which still had me twisting and turning in his grasp.

“Don’t tell me you’re too ticklish? Oh well, it’s your fault for convincing me to go through with this…”

“I dihidn’t know you were gonna EEP!-” I cut myself off as he suddenly decided to spider his fingers across my stomach with one hand, retaliating to me trying to curl in on myself by wrapping his other arm securely around my chest, rendering me defenseless. “WAIHAIT! That’s ehevil!”

“Didn’t know I would what? Be good at it?” He clicked his tongue – oh god, here comes the monologue… “Darling, do you know how many romantic movies I’ve seen? And do you know how often there’s at least some sort of tickle fight featured?” He was now switching spots too fast for me to even form words, just laughing myself silly. “Fine, I’ll answer for you: too many to count! All I needed was a dear friend to help me work up the courage.” He pulled me slightly closer, the static buzz from his screen tingling against my neck. “Congratulations: you’ve made a monster.”

“And with that…” He suddenly stopped, letting me catch my breath as I rested against him. “I believe my job here is done.” He paused before starting to nervously twiddle his fingers, gaze averted. “I… I did do that right, didn’t I? And you’re alright, too?” He leaned forward slightly to check on me… only for his pupils to expand rapidly. I was surprised as he practically picked me up, squeezing me.

“God, you look so cute right now! You’re telling me you do this every single time someone tickles you?! I’ll have to do this way more often!” I let out a few more giggles as cuteness aggression overtook him, definitely borderline embarrassed by the way he was fawning over me.

“Yeah, I’m alright…” I sighed and practically melted into his touch as he showered me with affection. I wondered if this would become the new normal… “...thank you.”

My main problem with chapter 4 was the gameplay, but I actually really liked watching my partner play chapter 5 ^w^ I also found the cast of characters a lot more compelling — maybe because there were more main characters this time? My memory is really bad tho, I could be wrong :’ ) I LOVE LOVE THE FLOWERS! And also never hated Flowery lol, which I know is also an unpopular opinion.

I see the difficulty spike as necessary tbh. It definitely makes progression feel more worth it — we don’t wanna get to the final, FINAL boss of the series and have it be lackluster, after all… an easy final boss would be a big let down.

I’m the hero of my village, and today, I’m going to save everyone! For the longest time, an evil wizard has lived in the tower overlooking my village, terrorizing us with his magic. I’ve been training for years, growing strong enough to eventually take him down. I’ve had some doubts, but just an hour ago, a magic, talking map flew down from the sky right into my hands! He said his name is Mr. Map, and that he’s here to guide me on my journey. He reassured me that I’m ready for anything — my master has told me, too, that the first step to being prepared is believing that you are. So I took him up on his offer to help me; we’re going to save my village!

But that brings me to just a few hours ago. We were walking through the dense forest, sunlight barely breaking the green canopy to light the way forward. Even then, it was difficult to see where I was going… and harder, still, to see Map. He was verbally speaking instructions to me to combat this, and yet I found myself tripping over tree roots and rocks that littered the winding dirt path. He was definitely growing frustrated with me — I could hear it in his voice. Not one to take punches, I started arguing with him about which way we should go. I had taken this path dozens of times before, scouting out the tower, of course I knew where we were going!

And then we realized we were both lost.

“Great! Just great! How did you even manage this?!” He shouted, which was pretty loud for just a piece of paper, honestly. “You have a freaking map!”

“Yeah, a map that clearly doesn’t know where he’s going”, I fired back, actively exploring different pathways. “You’re lucky there are no enemies until we reach the base of the tower, otherwise they might’ve eaten you!”

“That sounds preferable to hearing you talk”, he muttered under his breath.

I sighed, stopping in my tracks to glare down at him. “You know what? You’re right. Stop talking to me. I’m gonna take my own notes, since you’ll only get us lost.” I flipped him over and took out a pencil, beginning to hurriedly scribble a landmark on the back.

He protested as I did so, confused and a little worried. “Hey! What are y- EEP!” He squawked loudly as the pencil made its marks, the entire map rustling and messing up my drawing of a particularly massive rock.

“Could you hold still?” I asked in exasperation, struggling to straighten him out as he fidgeted. I huffed as I saw the arching line shooting out from the rock from how fast he had jerked.

“You’re really messing things up for me right now…” I began gently erasing the long mark, not bothering to stop as the paper began shaking again. What was he doing? Had he never been written on before? Suddenly, the entire paper folded in on itself and snapped shut by where I was holding him at the bottom, panicked giggles streaming out from somewhere inside.

I held him awkwardly for a moment, pencil poised to keep erasing. We fell into silence.

“Are you ticklish?”

The question made the paper rustle again. He stuttered, struggling to force out his words.

“Wh-WHAT? What kind of question even is that?!” He shrieked as I jabbed him with the sharp end. “I’M NOT!”

“Riiight. Then hold still.” Even while he was partially folded over, I attempted to draw the rock again. He gasped and began practically vibrating, muffled giggles barely audible. After a few more seconds, he gave out, snapping violently inwards into a tiny square of paper, giggles erupting.

“Come on, just one rock!” I was getting frustrated, but even then, I had to admit this was oddly cute. A piece of paper too sensitive to be written on? He was pretty bad at his job. Every time the pencil would hit the surface, he’d giggle and fold in on himself further.

“You can’t keep this up forever”, I mumbled, the pencil following him each and every time. He eventually started laughing, then begging.

“No, wait! EEP! WAIHAIT! QUIT IT!” The tiny piece of paper in my hands was eventually no more than 2 inches on each side. Surely he couldn’t fold further than that? As my pencil hit the surface one last time, and he attempted to fold, I was proven right, the paper instead jerking violently in my hands. It was enough that I completely let go of him, and he began unfolding. And unfolding. And unfolding… holy shit, how tall was he?!

“THAT’S IT!” He shouted, now in the shape of a humanoid origami figure. He started approaching me, clawed fingers poised, pissed off and brimming with intent. “Let’s see how YOU LIKE IT!” My eyes widened and I dropped my pencil as he darted forward, taking a step back before turning and booking it back down the path. This definitely wasn’t just a map. What even was he?

I squeaked as I tripped over a tree root in the near-darkness… and grunted as I heard him do the exact same, falling on top of me. I couldn’t believe the map I was holding before had grown to be so heavy. I attempted to crawl out from under him, but he pinned me down by sitting on my legs, immediately shoving his claws under my arms. I shrieked and burst out laughing, fingers raking through the dirt as I reached for another tree root — this guy was clearly not holding back. I guess I did kind of deserve it…

“HA! See?! Not so fun, is it?!” He crowed loudly, testing different spots and honing in on the ones that got a big reaction out of me.

“Map!” I whined between giggles, twisting and turning beneath him what little I could. “This is soho not faihair!”

“Not fair? I think you’re right!” He echoed. The weight across my legs was lifted before a set of claws wrapped around my waist, turning me over onto my back. “There! Now I can reach HERE” – He quickly spidered across my stomach – “and HERE” – his hands darted to my ribs, and so on. I shrieked and protested, uselessly batting at his hands, which were extremely difficult to grab given their lack of dimension. I was a blushing mess from his teasing, and it only got worse.

“Th-that’s nahat what I meaheant!” I barely managed to say.

“Hmm… I think I see your point. I’m not using the same technique!” He began drawing random patterns with a single finger on each side, giggling evilly at my increasingly flustered reactions. “Hold still! Don’t tell me you can’t handle me drawing on you?”

“You’re gohonna kill meheheee!” I wailed, tossing back and forth, losing all composure as I laughed uncontrollably.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic.” He finally let up, and I gasped for breath, covering my heated face as he stood. Once I finally recovered, I peeked from between my hands to see him awkwardly offering his. After he helped me to my feet, he threw me a defensive scowl as I refused to let him go.

“What?”

“Where did you come from?” His singular eye widened – he didn’t respond, and I decided I should clarify as I fixed him with a more serious expression. “You can’t be from here… I’ve never seen anyone like you around before. Who are you?”

“Doesn’t matter!” He tore his arm from my grip, and it shockingly didn’t shred. He dusted himself off and crossed his arms, glaring down at me. “I’m here to help; that’s all you need to know.”

My eyes narrowed. We stood in silence for a moment longer before he broke it by jabbing me in the side. “Come on, get going! We gotta find our wait out of-” He screeched as I raked my fingers down his back once he turned away.

“I’m not going anywhere until I get my answer.” We mirrored each other’s stances, the air growing thicker with tension by the second. Clearly we weren’t leaving here until someone admitted defeat through their laughter. As I darted forward, he dodged by zipping to the side, and I swore to myself I wouldn’t lose.

Lee:

•You’ve gotta be SO careful with this guy, since he crumples so easily. Realistically speaking, squeezing and rough tickles would no doubt hurt, big no’s.

•That being said, A HUNDRED percent susceptible to light tickles. Lightly scribbling fingers along his sides will have him leaping into the air and shrieking (and very slowly gliding back down).

•CANNOT handle being teased — either gets super annoyed and defensive or super flustered (or both)! Compliments will have him blushing (I headcanon his face turns a dark blue hue because ink :3) and meaner teases are what reallyyy get him riled up. I think the worst thing you could do is use a single finger, going to be a giggling blushing mess as he half-heartedly pushes at you.

•Feathers are an ABSOLUTE weakness, and also a great way to be extra careful and make it certain he won’t somehow get hurt from, you know, thrashing around — just be careful not to get any paper cuts.

•Totally most sensitive where his body folds (no pun intended), and going to go into hardcore denial if you point it out. God forbid you swipe that aforementioned feather UNDERNEATH, he’ll be screaming with laughter near immediately.

•Also a side note, given how his body is almost completely flat, there’s practically no way for him to cover himself or defend himself besides folding himself over and over again, or making himself smaller (or fighting you, but if he likes you he won’t). You’ll know he’s feeling particularly touch starved when he makes no effort to fold into anything.

Ler:

•Despite how fragile his body is, he definitely has a way to win a tickle fight.

•All he really has to do is fold himself multiple arms. Four arms? Maybe six… maybe more. Maybe just enough to intimidate and distract you while he tries to figure out the fastest escape route (boy is ticklish as HELL).

•When it comes down to fighting back or surrendering, he’s actually pretty strong physically, despite his thin frame… it’s almost entirely dependent on the structure of his body at that moment. Could probably pin down your arms if he really put his back into it — at least long enough to tickle you into a weakened state, then finish the job while you’re down.

•Teases like his life depends on it. Going to be showy about discovering every weak spot; even with only one eye, nothing goes unnoticed.

“Aww, you extra sensitive right here? No, no, don’t turn away! I’m not done with this spot just yet!”

•Claws. Can be gentle if he’s just looking to affectionately tease…

“What about here? And here? And here? Geeze, you’re too easy!”

•…or rough if you either pissed him off, or got really close to beating him and he had to resort to desperate measures. You are going to feel the difference.

“Alright, THAT’S IT! COME HERE! Got some INSTRUCTIONS for you: LAUGH.”

“Yeah, yeah, scream your little head off! This’ll teach you not to mess with me!”

•Impossible to get away from. Most terrifying paper airplane in existence. Will fold his arms into lassos and drag you back if he has to. If you cross him and he figures out your weakness, beg for mercy or fight back — you have no other option.

•On top of everything else, can fold the ends of his hands into feathers. Has to be careful not to accidentally papercut you, so he normally saves it for light, affectionate tickles.