soft tickles for the win

Jace had just clocked off his shift at 4 and was walking along the top floor of the mall when he heard the sound of reverberating laughter. It must have been multiple laughs, different pitches, different forms of laughter, some even audibly begging for mercy. He flushed realising what was happening. The newly elected mayor in this little corner of Massachusetts was a bit of an odd and old-fashioned man, not old-fashioned as in early 1900s or even Victorian era but, in the medieval sense. He was a believer in witches, but he had an odd style of punishment. Instead of drowning or burning at the stake, which for some reason he reviled as punishment - he believed death to be too harsh and quick a punishment - he believed it best to make women recant their "unsavoury behaviour" (whatever *that* meant) by tickle torture.

He had set up a section of the wing of an older mall with these rather odd cutouts. One was obviously for the head, though it would certainly be kept still with the padding within its section, but the other was longer, wider, almost curving inwards at the middle before curving out again before it stopped. These sections were also padded, but had custom-made machinery behind them to fit the shape of whoever was unlucky (or perhaps lucky depending on the feeling of the victim) to be stuck in them.

Jace had an idea of what they were for, but it wasn't until he walked to the glass fencing at the top level of the mall to look down that his idea was exactly right.

They were cutouts specifically for the midriff. From lower breast to hipbones.

Jace felt his face flush upon the sight of his realisation. A mixture of women, no younger than college students, no older than some of his own college professors, were laughing uncontrollably, some squealing, cackling, full on belly laughing, one even sounded as if she was moaning with laughter and enjoying herself. A mixture of men, women, queer folk, goths, other college students, a whole smorgasbord of different people, were all tickling each of the women's protruding but helpless midriffs. Sides were squeezed, hips were kneaded, bellies were spidered on and raspberried, ribs were counted, bellybuttons were teased and wiggled in, lower breasts were scuttled under by all manner of sadistic nails. The laughter was prominently echoing throughout this section of the mall now.

One of those held in their helpless containment must have just had their punishments started, Jace could make out her face: eyes closed, black hair draped across one side of her face, teeth clenched but turned into a smile through her black lipstick, parts of her eyeliner nearly running from the brimming tears she was trying to hold back, soft but slightly toned abdomen tightened from the business woman's surprisingly pointed fingernails gliding along this goth woman's exposed belly from hip to hip, back along her lower belly, over and over. Jace recognised her from his architecture class, Kim, a stern goth who had a penchant for getting herself into trouble outside college class hours, but she'd been absent from class for a couple of days now... With this new law for punishment having come into effect only over the past week, Jace realised it probably wasn't going to be a night spent in a cell anymore. Perhaps a fate much, much worse for the stoic woman...

But as the business woman methodically circled her pointer finger around Kim's bellybutton, he had a good idea what was coming, and how doomed she was.

The business woman had a rather tame but still ever so slightly sadistic smile beneath her professional veneer. Her lone pointer finger circling her victim's oval shaped bellybutton, causing slight cracks of giggles maintained through what must have been incredible self-control.

"Come on now, such a tough-looking young woman, but all it takes to get a reaction out of you is just a little tickling~?" The business woman playfully mocked.

"Gck! Sh-Shut UHUP!!!" Kim said through clenched teeth. Her head slightly twisting and turning in some sort of vain effort to free herself from her constraints. Her abdomen and hips trying to twist and wriggle themselves free similarly so.

"Oh dear... You poor thing, and to think you're locked up here for a week. Well, I'd better get my fun in before the mall closes, so let's see what we've got riiiiight... here~" As her pointer fingernail dipped in and wiggled against the taut bare flesh inside Kim's bellybutton, the reaction was like a dam wall failing to hold back what was inevitable to burst.

"PffftTAAAAHAHAHAHA WAAHAHAHAHAIT!!! STOHAHAHAHAHOP! NOT THEREHEHEHEAHAHAHAHA!!!!! PLEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE!!! NOT THE BEHEHEHEHEHELLYBUHUHUTON!!! WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!"

Kim's midriff was twisting more violently and spasmodically - for all the good it would do in such tight constraints - trying to wiggle the torturous pointer finger out and away from anywhere but her weak point. But it was no use. Her howls of laughter echoed perhaps louder than any of the others trapped in the wall with her. Her hair draped almost entirely over her face from her head thrashing about, eyeliner running down her cheeks from tears of laughter, abdomen rising and falling from every breath of wild uncontrollable cackling that left her black-lined lips.

Jace had an inkling of something stirring in his brain as he'd first left his work and approached the glass railings, but this... It awoke something in him.

And he was on his way down to find out just how much of a sleeping dragon had just awoken from its slumber.

~~~~~~~~