Jaynin
4th Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2003
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Chapter 3: Light and Dark
Jaynin yawned, finally closing the dusty tome that had been occupying his attention for the last few hours, and stretched his sore arms and back, admitting that, for now, all that time spent researching the matter hadn't done him very much good. He knew, or at least suspected, that there was more to this whole angels versus devils standoff than simply wanting to be allowed to live in his castle. No, they wouldn't bother with such extreme measures as violating the boundaries that usually kept them in their respective domains if the matter were as simple as that. Those boundaries had, as a result of being violated, temporarily stripped both angel and demon alike of their otherworldly power, meaning that though they appeared intimidating at times, their actual power was considerably less than what it seemed to be. At the moment, Jaynin wasn't worried at all about being overpowered by one or even a gang from either side. That didn't mean, however, that he was totally disregarding them.
No, they were both up to something, both trying to pull the wool over his eyes and obscure the larger picture from him until it was too late for him to do anything about it. But what that thing they were hiding from him might be, he didn't have a clue. A quick inventory of the magical artifacts he had on hand failed to turn up something that might be attractive to them. Perhaps the large magical circle inlaid with orihalcon had drawn them, but he was sure that they had their own magical circles, and probably drawn much grander with more powerful spells. Unless they were somehow planning to use his as a kind of booster unit, to reinforce the power of their own spells from far away, like a relay station to boost a weak signal that had traveled a long distance. But in that case, why not just build their own here, as well? Surely they were resourceful enough to find ways to travel to the physical plane without violating the boundary - after all, the boundary merely prevented unauthorized entry. That was to say, entry into the physical plane without being invited. Were they to be invited, they could exist within the physical plane in full control of all their powers. It shouldn't have been that hard for the angels to find some religious zealot to call them down, or for devils to whisper to the mind of a practicioner of black magic. So why bother with this silly contest?
And for that matter, why bother with him? It was obvious, based on Arishna's behavior and what Syia had told him of Lamelle, that they were angling for his favor in the matter. Of course, he had to be the one to grant an official summons to one side or the other and hence restore their powers, after which they would presumably banish the losing side back to their respective plane, but if they thought that befuddling him with women was going to work, well... they'd obviously done their homework in that case. Jaynin sighed, finally rising from the desk and taking the book he'd been reading, an analysis of interplanar travel, back to the bookshelf and putting it back in its proper location. He would be the first to admit that the wiles of a woman could easily twist him up so badly that he couldn't tell back from front.
"I guess I'll just have to be careful," he said to no one in particular as he exited the secret passage, waiting for the bookshelf to slide back into place. He knew that if they were trying so hard to keep him from learning about whatever it was they wanted, then there was likely to be a pretty significant catch, a hook they didn't want him seeing until it was too late. Churning it over in his mind for a few hours had produced no useful results, and now all he wanted was some sleep.
Ascending the stairwell to the fifth and final floor, he passed through the dark and silent antechamber to his bedroom, which was really just a waste of space that he hadn't thought of a use for yet, just a large square chamber carpeted all in red. On the far end of the room there was a set of double doors that led to his bedroom, and he groped for the handle in the darkness before finding it and pulling the door open, making his way finally into the slightly less dark bedroom beyond; through the windows, he could see the moon, which gave enough faint light to enable him to see so that he didn't trip over chairs, tables, or clothes on the floor.
Undressing quickly down to his boxers, Jaynin tossed his shirt and pants and socks into a clothes hamper, and then gratefully pulled back the sheets on his bed and climbed in, closing his eyes and relaxing... and then just as soon as he'd closed them, they snapped open, as his weary senses told him something he'd missed in the dim light.
Someone else was in his bed.
The implications of such burst into his mind all too clearly. For perhaps five full seconds he simply laid there, unmoving and unbreathing, body numbed by the shock, before his sense returned to him... whoever was there wasn't moving. Likely, they had come back to wait for him, but his late-night research had kept whoever it was bored and frustrated, until they just had dropped off to sleep in the comfortable bed. If he could just get out of bed and make it to the couch without waking her...
"I was starting to wonder if you'd come to bed." The sound of the voice sent a tingling shock straight through Jaynin's heart, making him freeze up all over again, but in that instant he knew it was too late, and he'd been found out. The figure shifted towards him. The voice had betrayed a slight amusement, and he'd heard it enough before to recognize the undertone of teasing it held, as well. Before he could reply, warm arms circled his body and the figure pulled closer, close enough that her breasts were a hairsbreadth away from touching his chest. It held him in place as solidly as cast-iron chains, and he was afraid to breathe, much less move, a prisoner of his own anxiety. In a way, it befuddled him, how coming face-to-face with something he'd secretly harbored a desire for could instead paralyze him with indecision...
"The least you could have done was ask first, Arishna." Jaynin found his voice, but to his own ears the retort sounded incredibly weak, yet he knew he had to do something. Fighting down a wave of anxious panic, he instead moved his hand, if hesitantly, to rest on her hip, and found himself smiling when she gave a slight shudder. He could almost see the devil's garnet eyes twinkling in the moonlight. Growing a little bolder, he let his finger stroke around her hip a little bit, following the line of her pelvic muscle for a little distance, then jerking his finger back as if it had been burned, once he realized what he was doing and where his finger had been going. He wasn't sure if she'd take too well to him doing something that she didn't have in mind, but even with that one stray stroke, he'd learned something that made him seize up with nervousness all over again.
Arishna was naked.
She purred a giggle. "Oh, but come now, that wouldn't have been any fun..." To his vast relief, she slid back a little so that her breasts were no longer in danger of touching him. It wasn't that he didn't like the idea; on the contrary, maybe he liked it a little too much, but he also didn't want to be held prisoner by paralyzing awkwardness, as he suspected she'd be able to do with expert teasing. But rather than a more aggressive move next, one that might have put him permanently on the defensive, she just rested her hands on his chest gently. He found himself relaxing somewhat. "And besides, if you really were of a mind to keep people out, you'd lock the door." Her fingers contracted slightly, making all ten fingernails give a short, gentle scritch to his pectoral muscles. He jolted slightly, and then almost immediately regretted doing so. Jaynin didn't need light to read the grin on her lips. "Oooh, what is - yeeeek!"
In desperation, to prevent himself from totally losing control of this battle of wills, Jaynin's fingers had come up stealthily, to stroke a quick circle around the devil's navel, and then let his fingers wander up to her sides and scratch gently, while his other hand went to her leg and traced a little line up and down her thigh. It seemed to work, and she rolled onto her back, giggling, and trying to swat playfully at his hands, but the material of the bedsheets got in her way, and she couldn't stop him. Jaynin knew that if he let her start teasing him, especially on his chest, then he'd never recover, and at best he'd be teased about being so ticklish and jumpy. At worst, she might tickle him into submission, but having temporarily gained the upper hand, he wasn't going to give it up just yet. Growing bolder, his fingers traced up to her ribs, tickling along each one of them that he could reach, and he was rewarded with a louder burst of laughter followed by a muffled sound; Arishna had put a pillow over her face to keep from laughing too loud, but this just encouraged Jaynin's attack in earnest, and he sat up, leaning over her as he moved his other hand up to join the first, tickling high up on her ribs, near her underarms.
"I'd be quiet if I were you, Arishna," Jaynin teased, "if you're too loud you'll wake up the angels, and you know what they'd do if they found you naked in my bed." He didn't say that he suspected they'd do something just about as intrusive to him, like post a guard outside of his door. Or maybe inside the door. But it seemed as if she understood that predicament; the pillow didn't move away from her mouth even as he started tickling under her arms, eliciting a strong reaction from her, but not quite as strong as he'd gotten from her ribs... it was hard to tell, though, as she was giggling up a storm that was muffled by the pillowcase, and her body was constantly twisting this way and that, trying to cover her sides and underarms against the mattress by turning onto her side, but that just fully exposed the side she didn't cover. It didn't help her very much; the sides of her ribs were just as ticklish as the front, and when he gently took her elbow in one hand and raised it so he could get under her arm without interference, she didn't fight him, but let him hold her arm so that he could tease her. Despite the fact that she was apparently quite ticklish there, she let him do as he would - he found this appealing, somehow, and found his touch growing softer, but enjoying every one of the giggles he elicited from the devil and her sensitive skin.
A few minutes of this, satisfied that his point had been made, Jaynin stopped tickling her and rolled back onto his side of the bed, noticing that it took Arishna a few seconds to stop giggling and return her pillow to where it belonged. She seemed rather ticklish, but there had been too many things in the way; the bedsheets, the darkness, even the fact that she was naked and had large breasts, which covered more of her ribs than he'd anticipated, and while he was fairly sure that her showing up naked in his bed was an invitation to do that which he'd been avoiding, he didn't want to fall into a trap so easily as that. It had been an exercise in self-control, not to let his fingers wander up onto her breasts or down below her navel, and he felt proud of himself at least for not succumbing to that particular urge.
Laying on his back, the back of one hand pressed to his forehead and the other simply stretched out to the side, Jaynin didn't realize he'd given Arishna the perfect opening until he felt her sidle up against his side and put her arm on his chest, giggling slightly in triumph as she rested her front against his side. "Just relax. You're so tense," Arishna chided, letting her fingernails glide across his chest, enjoying the smiles that he had to struggle to keep back. "No, seriously. You're way too tense for this. Lighten up; doesn't it feel nice? And I'm not just talking about the fact that I've got my tits mashed against you. I mean just lay back and relax and enjoy the fact that you've got someone to go to sleep with, a warm body curled up next to you that you can put your arm around." Without realizing it, Jaynin had reflexively put his arm around her and rested his hand on her side, though now that he knew it was there, he traced a small circle on her lower back, making her giggle.
As much as he was wary of traps or attempts to tangle him in some kind of seductress' web, Jaynin had to admit that she had a point. She'd spoken more like... like a friend, he realized, a friend that cared about him, rather than a girl trying to sleep with him. Relaxing his muscles and just letting it go instead of worrying so much about what was touching where felt... a lot better, really, and it did help that she wasn't pressing the issue, just teasing him a little with her fingertip, especially when it got under his arm. She had to realize that, because of how his arm was around her, he couldn't protect his underarm, which is where her finger went, just tickling slightly with a single finger. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing from the explorations of that single finger, but Arishna seemed content to just tease him a little before moving it back to circle on his chest. And for that matter, the release had chased away the tension, and he yawned again, reminded of how long he'd been working. As he closed his eyes, her voice drifted into his ears;
"Just relax. We'll take care of everything, don't worry."
---
Awakening with a start to the gray, soft light of the pre-dawn sky, what had been shrouded in darkness the night before became visible; the opulent bed in which she lay in, the lush pink carpet that covered the floor and felt almost sinfully soft to the touch, the silken white sheets of the bed, fluffy pillows for guaranteed comfort. The sun was shining through the window cut into the stone wall, a ray of weak sunlight falling square on its drowsy occupant, making her shield her eyes from it and glance around. Scratching one of her horns, Rati took in the room in its entirety.
After fleeing the angels, she'd come to the castle's third floor and looked for a place to hide. What she'd seen upon first entering had pleased her greatly; it was a fully functional dungeon, filled with restraints and bondage devices of all kinds, from X-frames to stocks to pillars and racks and just about every kind of variation or creative twist that she could imagine, and despite the vastness of the room, there had been doors to two others. Rati had judged the room to take up approximately a fourth of the available floor space, and wondered what could be behind the other two doors...
Her search of the third floor had revealed that it was, more or less, a dungeon, though themed in different ways for different rooms; tranditional dungeon-style and laboratory style, one room which seemed overgrown with tall grasses and trees with vines and other things that looked interesting, and this last one, which had a massive luxurious bed as well as less strict versions of many of the devices found in the first room, as if it were made for lovers that liked to play. Rati, however, had just seen the bed, and deciding that it was kind of late and she wanted to sleep, had flopped down on it and promptly dozed off. Now, though, she was awake, and at the crack of dawn, from what it looked like. This made her grumpy as she flung the sheets off of herself and sat up on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes. Not only had she slept straight through the night, she was now going to be awake for the entirety of the day, instead of getting to sleep off the first five hours of it or so. Why she had awakened she didn't know, though she suspected the light had been shining in her eyes and caused her to wake up.
Still a little sleepy, Rati rose, and idly stood examining one of the bondage devices that was in the room. It seemed simple enough, looking like it was a set of stocks bolted onto the end of a comfortable recliner, with a pair of leather handcuffs on the end of a long elastic rope, like a bungie cord. The cord ran around the back of the chair, and upon further examination, was attached to a crank set in the back. Apparently, the one in control could crank the tension up high, which would pull the victim's arms high over their head and leave them exposed, or have it loose, just enough to keep their hands out of the way while their feet got worked upon. The stocks themselves were padded, and looked like they could be lowered out of the way, if the tickler wanted the upper body to be the focus. Experimentally, Rati sat in the chair, and set her feet in the stocks, pressing down as if she were trying to lower the footrest on a recliner. It worked; the pressure caused the section with the stocks to slide down and back into the base of the chair, and Rati was sitting upright. A fairly simple device, but one that seemed effective enough.
Without warning her vision went white. Startled, Rati let out a yell, realizing after a moment that somehow the bedsheet had gotten thrown over her eyes, cutting off her vision and wrapping around her head to keep it from moving. Rati's hands went instinctively up to her head to pull the obstruction off, and was promptly caught by a quick pair of hands manuevering her wrists into the leather cuffs she'd seen before, and then the clicking of the crank as it slowly tightened, pulling her hands above her head and back, until they were stretched out and she could barely move them at all; the way they were pulled up and back had the effect of arching her back somewhat, making her chest stand out and putting even more strain on that one button holding her top together. Whoever had attacked her, they now knew they had her, and she felt the hands again around her face, fixing the bedsheet, raising it from her mouth so she could breathe properly, and then tie the sheet more firmly around her eyes, making it an effective, if oversized, blindfold. Rati started yelling, and kicking her feet:
"Hey! Who in Hell is doing this? You'd better untie me right now or I swear there's gonna be trouble as soon as I get loose! You can't keep me here forever and each second you don't untie me makes your punishment that much worse, so you'd better - YEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!" Rati, kicking her feet to prevent the ambusher from locking them in the stocks as she knew they'd try, suddenly tensed up and squealed as a finger teasingly poked her under the arm. That moment's hesitation was all that was needed to keep her feet in the stocks long enough for the arm to be swung shut and locked, and now her feet were securely in place. Granted, they were facing the floor and her boots were still on, but it was the fact that her upper body was exposed from neck to hips and a little below that concerned her... as well it might.
Without a word, and no longer bothering to make their footsteps silent, Rati heard her tormentor circle around behind her, and felt the touch of a finger under each arm, in the very center. Her struggles ceased the moment she felt a touch there, tensing and drawing in a breath, but the fingers didn't move. She could feel that they were soft fingers, with only very short fingernails; it seemed that they must be a female's fingers, but she couldn't tell who, and it was hard to think with the impending threat of those fingers circling around in her underarms... yet she dared not squirm, lest she tickle herself against the motionless digits. That was probably exactly what her captor wanted, for her to wriggle out of her skin like a little girl and so further her own plight by tickling herself due to her own movements. Were the positions reversed, it was something Rati would've considered... but she wasn't willing to wait forever, it seemed, and soon enough the fingers were teasing around Rati's underarms, causing the devil to burst forth into laughter. There was no point in resistance right now; she'd just waste valuable energy if she tried to resist laughing, and though she hated to let herself titter like a silly schoolgirl, it was better in this case that she did. Her laughter rang out pleasantly into the room as the fingers kept up a light touch circling around her underarms, just enough to keep her giggling.
Without warning all five fingers of both hands came down onto her skin and tickled madly for a few brief seconds before the slight circling resumed, but those few seconds of shock were enough to make the devil's back arch. "HYEEEEEEEEEEhahahahaha don't do that! Grrr! I'm gonna - hey! HEY! Watch where your fingers a-are-are..." While her back had been arched, those questing fingers had decided to slip under the spare fabric of Rati's top and, slowly making their way to cup Rati's breasts, suddenly decided to start tickling again, and this time the redheaded devil really lost it, bursting into a discordant squeal of laughter punctuated by gasping breaths that was not at all like the pleasant little giggling spree of before. Under the pressure of Rati's sudden twisting and the fact that someone's hands were adding to the strain, the button on her top suddenly popped off with a sharp crack, and the top hung loosely open, allowing her tormentor's fingers free reign to squeeze and tickle as they would.
"I sweaahhaahHAHAHAHAHAH swear you're going to pay for this!" she yelled, as soon as she'd gotten her breath back after the brief tickle assault on her breasts had ended. It didn't do her much good nor did it deter her attacker, whose fingers simply moved down a little ways to her ribs, and slowly teased back and forth against the firm ridges, causing yet another burst of laughter to be expelled from the squirming devil. The pace was moderate, now; spidering fingers teased the length of each and every rib, not speeding up or slowing down or breaking into sudden bursts of torment, just tickling the sides of each rib until Rati's chest shook with laughter, her loose breasts bouncing with the effort of sucking in enough air between bouts of laughing. She was not at all self-conscious of this fact, just concerned with the vulnerability it displayed.
Rati got a brief break to recover her wits when the tickling fingers moved back from her skin, not touching her anywhere, completely withdrawn... Rati knew that this was the best time to get herself back together, because her tormentor was surely going to let the tension build before - "HEEEEEEEEEE haahahaahaahhah I wasn't ready you heheheahaha jerk!!!" Rati squealed as the tickling suddenly came in full-bore on her sides. Rati's tender midsection did not bear up well against the tickling and the fingers were fast and tickling hard, showing no mercy or any signs of slowing... Gradually, Rati's laughter hitched up, getting harder and louder, her struggles becoming more and more desperate, until within just a minute or two she was howling and screeching with such volume that it was a wonder no one else had heard and come to investigate. In between gales of helpless laughter, Rati's body sagged back into the chair as much as it could, but the tight restraints kept her body relatively taut. Whenever she got the breath to briefly speak, it was either used to hurl threats and insults at her attacker, or to beg for mercy, the latter becoming more common as the tickling went on and on without any indication of a break.
Rati's sides were aching with her nonstop laughter and the persistent tickles which had her skin tingling and red, and when she finally felt their presence lift from her sensitive skin, she wasted no time in taking deep breaths - which was apparently what her captor was waiting for, because on the third such deep breath, just as she was filling her lungs, fingers drilled into her underarms, causing the whole thing to explode from the devil as a shriek of unthinking laughter. "STHAAAAAAA stop stop ohhahahaAHAHAH STOP IT STOOOOOP!!!" Rati squealed, and to her surprise, the hysterical begging was heeded, and the fingers stopped... this time, she took rapid, panting breaths to avoid being taken by surprise, but suddenly she realized that there was another sound she hadn't picked up on yet; footsteps.
The door was flung open without heed for the hinges, so it sounded like, and the crisp sound of marching boots was muffled by the room's carpet as they entered. "Hey - lemme go!" cried another voice that was familiar to Rati; Jelex's voice. That elf from yesterday. Rati grinned. Arishna must have heard her hysteria and come to save her, and her hopes soared when the blindfold came off of her eyes. "Well, well. We come searching for a runaway, and here she is, with a bonus." Rati didn't recognize the angel with the short-cropped blonde hair who stood before her wearing an imperious glare, nor did she recognize the angel's partner, an imposingly tall blonde woman with a piercing look in her bright blue eyes... but her breath caught in her throat as she recognized the form. The Guardians were selected for their physical and mental prowess, and they always had about them an aura that left no question as to who they were. She held the struggling elf by the arms, lifting her off the ground with ease, while the smaller angel spoke: "We heard what you did to Lamelle last night, elf. For that, you'll join this wicked devil in serving penance."
The Guardian Angel grinned ominously.
---
Felin awoke suddenly, sitting up in a rush, and then wishing she hadn't done so. She still felt a little lightheaded after yesterday evening... Arishna's knowledge of how to elicit responses had been very extensive, and she'd spent a fair bit of time schooling Felin in its... more practical applications before the feline scientist had not been able to focus anymore and... well, she actually couldn't remember what had happened. That was unlike her. Had she been drugged? Felin scratched her head as she slowly swung her legs out over the side of the bed and stood up. No, Arishna didn't seem the type to use drugs... more than likely she'd found some kind of nerve and made Felin drift off, and in the whirl of sensation she'd not even noticed.
Fortunately, there were no issues with the automatic door today, but even as she left her room she noticed that something else wasn't quite right... Frowning and tapping her chin in thought, Felin realized that what she was seeing was dim outlines of movement amongst her laboratory equipment. More devils, she realized, her impression confirmed by the fact that one of them seemed to materialize from the shadows right before her and curtsy. Her appearance left Felin quite taken aback; long silvery hair cascaded down her back, and her horns jutted out horizontally from her temples, almost as long as Arishna's but colored white instead of yellow. What that might mean Felin had no idea... Soft gray eyes stared up at her, and gathered at her neck was the white lace which appeared at her sleeves and on the skirt of her black maid's outfit, little white stockings sheathing her legs and feet, and small black shoes with a buckle completing the ensemble. She was the very picture of a Gothic lolita, Felin realized, but instantly got the sense that there was more to this little girl than met the eye.
"Good morning," she said pleasantly. "My name is Sheliss. I arrived here last night, but I was told that you were sleeping, so I did not disturb you until now." Felin nodded dumbly, extending a hand towards the little girl, who took it in her hands, and started to examine Felin's arm with her fingers, brushing them through her fur in a way that made Felin shiver and nearly drop to her knees. "I apologize that we couldn't do it before," she said softly, making her way closer to Felin and letting her fingers fall upon the neko-jin's hips, "but I will be your liason while we are here, to prevent any misunderstandings." Felin just nodded. The way Sheliss' fingers combed through her fur so gently was driving her to the edge of giggling...
"Forgive my curiosity," she said in that innocent voice of hers, fingers stroking gently up Felin's side, "but I do so find the beings of your world to be endlessly fascinating." Felin looked down to nod at her, and gasped; the innocent-little-girl expression on her face had turned into a grin of mischief, and more importantly, an expression of someone who knew they were in control. "And please do not be deceived by my appearance," she said, stroking fingers down along Felin's rear and gently probing the slight crease where her thigh met her buttocks, bringing Felin to one knee with a gasp of surprise, allowing the short girl to stroke her fingers along Felin's ribs and ever so gently curl one finger to scritch. "I am actually one thousand three hundred and thirty-seven years of age, but my body does not make it seem so. There is nothing you could do that would shock or surprise me," her innocent voice went on, somehow also carrying with it the weight of authority. As if to prove her point, she let her fingers tease into Felin's cleavage, tickling the sides of her breasts, which seemed to break the spell; Felin giggled and lurched backwards, crashing against the door that was still behind her, ending up in a sitting position against the wall.
Sheliss promptly deposited herself into Felin's lap and smiled, wiggling fingers against the feline's hips, resulting in a yowl of laughter. Instantly Felin tried to push the little girl away from her and cover up, but she was surprisingly strong and didn't budge, just laughing and tickling away at Felin's sides and stomach, making Felin giggle helplessly and cover her eyes in a powerless gesture. It was becoming clear that her little deceit had worked on Felin; she hadn't expected this kind of devious behavior or strength from a girl that looked so small and fragile. In a disarmingly cute gesture, Sheliss put her arms around Felin's neck and kissed her cheek, then smoothly climbed down off her lap and stood next to the dazed feline. Felin, slowly gathering her wits together again, vowed not to be taken by surprise like that again... Sheliss was talking, and a devil with curled horns more like a ram's, short blue hair, and wearing little but purple leather thong and top along with long boots that came up to her thighs. She was introduced and promptly forgotten by Felin, who was still trying to get herself back together, and Sheliss tilted her head and smiled up at the tottering feline.
"Please show me where you work? I'm curious to see it," Sheliss announced, and Felin nodded, wandering off in that direction feeling as if she were in a slightly surreal situation. There were more devils wandering about her lab now, she could see, curiously checking her machines and her experiments, though careful not to touch anything. At least they were properly respectful of things, Felin noted idly, making her way to her central workstation and not much thinking before she flopped down in her chair and noticing too late that there were warm, bare thighs beneath her rear end instead of the synthetic material of her chair. A pair of arms circled around her waist and held her, firmly but loosely, in place.
A tan-skinned, white-haired devil with odd feathery wings sprouting from her temples instead of horns, dressed in a top that actually covered her, if tightly, from neck to ribs and also all along her arms, ending in fingerless gloves, sat in Felin's seat, her bare midriff and thighs separated only by an extremely brief thong, and short ankle-height boots on her feet. Idly, without any word of greeting or warning, those fingers started to stroke through Felin's fur, making the feline squeal again with giggles and try to break out of the grasp, which she managed with surprising ease, dancing away from the chair. "Oh, this is Neilza," Sheliss commented offhandedly as the devil vacated Felin's seat with a wink and wandered off, allowing Felin to sit back down again. Sheliss promptly sat in her lap, and Felin found herself stroking the girl's long hair idly with one hand. "So what is it that you do here?"
"A lot of things," Felin said with a shrug, giggling a bit but not raising any objection to how Sheliss' soft hand tickled into her top and played around beneath it. "Mostly, I monitor experiments that I'm running, like trying to create breeds of plants that seek out and tickle victims, or new ways I can combine and splice genes to create tailored medicines or drugs, a lot of seeing what I can get away with... Machines, too, figuring out new and better AI routines, how to have the main AI security program better recognize the vulnerable spots on victims it catches..." Sheliss seemed to be listening rather intently, and Felin found herself enjoying the little devil's company as she idly skimmed through the computer readouts, keying up the security summary. Since she'd managed to run the devil's cellular composition and feed it into the bio-sensors on the security cameras, it was able to identify how many there were and where they were... "Eighteen?" Felin asked in surprise.
Sheliss nodded. "Eighteen. Those who came through, and some who are adept with your machines and also magic energies, have been working to strengthen the gate since last night, and so now our numbers grow. They must, if we are not to be overtaken." Before Felin could ask what that meant, a scritching claw teased her foot, and she shifted her legs with a sudden yelp. A red-haired devil, deeply tanned skin and cat ears instead of horns, wearing so very very little besides a few straps and buttons to cover her lithe body, emerged from just beneath Felin's chair and gave the startled neko-jin a kiss, fingers teasing Felin's waist as she spoke suddenly.
"Guardians," she said to Sheliss. "I saw three of them, and I managed to identify fifteen angels in total. As far as I know they got ahold of Rati and they're tickling the crap out of her and the elf girl, I mean like Rati's near to screaming herself hoarse and the elf girl's gonna wet herself if she keeps laughing so hard." Though the cat-devil's way of expressing herself lent her words to slang and somewhat crude expressions, that particular one made Felin quirk a grin that had nothing to do with being teased. "Feathers, too. Oh, and that nurse is getting some heat from the boss angel and her lackey cow with the big tits." The cat-girl made a gesture with her hands to indicate large breasts, which Felin interpreted as Eury and Lamelle. "Was kinda funny, though. That nurse is playing the big one like a fiddle, and the little angel suspects it, but even when staring at her she can't see it. It goes right under her nose."
"Are the Guardians ticklish also?" Sheliss asked matter-of-factly, and the cat-devil nodded. "All right. Give me the full report. What did you see?"
---
Lamelle stood quivering at the far end of the Infirmary, a determined expression on her face and a slightly awkward cast to the way she stood. She was dressed in a sleeveless tight sweater top of light blue and a beige pleated skirt, along with calf-height soft tan leather boots, all specially ordered for her by Syia. On her face was a smile, though it was uncertain and quivery, and she glanced at the short, pink-haired High Angel in the one corner of the room, glowering at Syia and giving Lamelle a brief glance, nodding once as if to encourage her. "All right, Miss Syia," Lamelle said, taking a step forward, and fighting down the urge to burst into giggles right then and there. They curled everywhere... the feathers, they were all over her body, tickling her, teasing around her sensitive soft breasts, licking at her bellybutton, even shifting between her legs, an invasion she'd had a hard time learning how to tolerate. Feathers buried themselves in her boots and curled around her toes... and she took another step forward.
The urge to laugh was so strong. But she kept herself together and gingerly took another step forward, towards Syia on the other end of the room, dressed in her nurse's outfit, white cap tilted just so atop her blue hair, looking so pretty and almost angelic herself in her outfit and leggings of pure white. But the smile on her face was slightly wicked. It was a smile Lamelle had learned to recognize, one that she saw right before her teacher tested her concentration. It was so hard to focus; the feathers were placed throughout her clothing so that they always touched sensitive areas. So very hard... It seemed like the very motions of walking brushed feathers against the sensitive creases where her hips met her thighs, caused her breasts to rub together against the feathers lovingly slid in between them, made the tips wiggle on her nipples, caused the ones caught in her waistband to shift their tips across her navel, back and forth... her feet always shifting them just slightly enough to slip between her toes a little bit more, until she wanted to walk on her tiptoes to block the sensation...
But that was forbidden. Syia had been explicit... Lamelle recalled her directions as she took another step. Do nothing that you would normally not do. Walk normally across the room as if nothing were wrong. Do not laugh. Smile, but do not appear as if you're going to explode. Do not grab at your clothing. Do not walk awkwardly to avoid the feathers' touch... so much to remember, Lamelle thought, taking another step. So much to keep in mind. She felt so sensitive following the elf girl Jelex's rubdown in the tub last night, where the wily girl had lathered her up and then thoroughly scrubbed her down until Lamelle had been finally rescued by the timely intervention of Triel coming through to show newly arrived angels around... Another step. Another burst of laughter that she caught in her chest and forced down, controlling her laughter. The feathers seemed to tease her, mocking her by tickling the sensitive points with the barest whisper of softness. Slowly they shifted as she walked, making her ticklish skin tingle with new sensations as the feathers traveled.
Just focus on walking. Don't think about how Jelex tickled you. Don't think about how much it tickles to have feathers in all those places they shouldn't be... Just the reminder of that brought a helpless blush to Lamelle's cheeks, and she tried to think of something to focus on while she walked. Her eyes locked onto Syia's, and stayed there, held by the mesmerizing gaze. Lose yourself in my gaze, her eyes seemed to say. Lose yourself into me and focus. Let me be the strength. Nodding imperceptibly, Lamelle kept her eyes locked on Syia's. Syia must know every ticklish jolt, every brush of sensation, that raced through her body. Lamelle knew that she somehow must know it all. It made no sense, but Syia very rarely did... the urge to giggle was overwhelming. The feathers had drifted, sliding against her thighs, making her steps tremble just so slightly...
And then she was across, fairly leaping into Syia's waiting arms, giggling helplessly against the shoulder of her teacher. "I wanted to laugh so hard," she confessed. "I couldn't make it stop tickling. I thought I was going to explode... I'm sorry. I did the best I could..." Then Syia was shushing her gently, stroking her hair, one hand reaching for the hem of her sweater, finding a feather and slowly drawing it out, the white fluffy down teasing Lamelle's body one last time as it exited.
"Lamelle, you did wonderfully," Syia commended her. "It's not that you can make it stop tickling or make yourself not ticklish. I can't do that. What you can do is control your response to it... and even if you felt like you were at the end of your rope this time, you still managed to do it. That means you can do it the next time, and the time after that." Teasingly her fingers scratched against Lamelle's side before diving down again to withdraw another feather.
"You-he-e-eehhe- you mean that... I passed?" Lamelle asked, her features suddenly brightening with an earnest cuteness that Syia found irresistable. Syia nodded, and Lamelle collapsed against Syia in relief, quivering slightly with giggles as Syia chased down each errant feather and drew it out, often teasing Lamelle slightly before she did so. But Lamelle didn't mind so much this way... they came out of her bra, out of her skirt and finally Syia had sat her down on the edge of a bed, drawn off her boots, and given both feet a nice thorough teasing with her fingernails before pulling the feathers from the inside of the shoes and giving them back. Lamelle giggled pleasantly through it all, and when she was dressed her smile was bright and confident as she stood up. "What next?"
"Next is that you go back to your room and change," Eury cut in, finally emerging from the corner where she had been casting disapproving glances at the pair of them and gesturing dismissively. "That's enough of that for one day, Lamelle. You can have your time to yourself until I return." Lamelle, suddenly shocked back into her shy, reserved self, nodded and hurried from the room, leaving the icy Eury glaring at the voluptuous nurse. "Now then, you. You are... tricky, human. I see it in your eyes, and I know that you're up to no good even as you carry out the task I assigned to you." Syia bit her tongue at the word 'assigned' but let it pass as the angel continued. "I cannot be here every day to watch over Lamelle, but I need to make sure that you are not wavering or creatively interpreting your duties. Therefore..."
Syia looked up suddenly as a pair of angels came in through the door. These angels were tall, with piercing blue eyes framed by a head of jet-black hair for one and brown for the other, ivory white skin that appeared free of imperfections showing on their impassive faces, the only part of their flesh she could see. But there was no mistaking the pitiless look in their eyes. They were coming for her, and if she didn't act now, they would be on her. Bringing her mind into focus, she gathered her thoughts for a brief second, fully forming the idea of what it was that she was going to do, and in a visible rippling of air, the psychic force rippled out, borne by the strength of Syia's idea, sweeping past the two tall angels and disappearing behind them. Only a momentary pause had shown in their stride as the ripple passed them, but they continued onward, confident the assault had done nothing.
Suddenly, the one with brown hair cried out and leapt backwards, swatting at her arm and then shaking it. Her partner, turning to look, suddenly fell to her knees clutching her stomach, and in an instant both of them were frantically patting at their robes, pulling at them and squirming, trying to squash or stop the invisible feathers of thought that drifted against their skin, all the more devastating than any normal feather because the idea of feathers was just Syia's vehicle; her actual wish, buried in the seed of the vision, was simply to stimulate their ticklish nerves to drive them back. Grimly, Syia grinned, and with the two angels whom Syia guessed were Heaven's version of muscled thugs writhing about giggling themselves silly, she turned to Eury, about to haughtily demand who she was trying to fool, when she realized the tiny angel was not to the side anymore but right in front of her - having literally slipped right under her nose!
Before she could stop Eury, the High Angel had reached up and wiggled her fingers against Syia's sides, a grin of triumph on her face. She wasn't even that effective at it, Syia thought in dismay, but the squeak and surprised giggle were enough to make her concentration fade somewhat, and even as she sought to re-establish control and get Eury wrapped up in the sensation, the two taller angels broke free, and then they were upon her...
---
"Hm... so she used her power," Sheliss said thoughtfully, nodding as her fingers stroked Felin's side softly, curled up against the feline and giggling softly as Felin's own claws stroked along her arm. "But would that actually indicate ticklishness? Perhaps she just made them believe they were being tickled..."
"It doesn't work that way," Felin interjected. "For Syia to be able to do what she did, they have to be ticklish in the first place. She wasn't creating ticklish, but using her mind to probe for ticklishness already there. The only thing that makes a difference is how she chose to convey the ticklish feeling. It could have been anything from bugs to claws to fingers or tentacles or whatever she chooses, so long as it's concieveable enough for the person to believe it could be ticklish. Trying to tickle someone with dead hamsters wouldn't work, obviously." Felin's lips were pursed in thought, and she glanced over to the side, seeing the lab door open automatically to admit someone...
"Well, what happened then?" Sheliss asked.
---
Eury smirked. The haughty, brazen nurse Syia was now bound securely to one of her own beds, hands tied behind her back just to keep them out of the way, while the real work was even now going on with her feet, propped up on the foot of the bed and tied very firmly in place, so that the Guardians could work on them without her moving too much. The Guardians had been more than a little skeptical, and Eury herself had wondered if they would be able to adapt to this kind of operation. Explaining to them why it needed to be done was easy enough; they never questioned the odd set of rules that bound them all now. Explaining how to do it had been another matter entirely, but once Triel and Yuli had finished briefing the Guardians along with the other reinforcements, it seemed to have gone well enough. Even now, Eury was starting to hear of ticklish clashes against newly arrived devils. Neither side had the advantage, for the moment, but the boundaries were being drawn up quickly enough.
Eury was lost in thought, not listening to the shrieking laughter of the nurse as a pair of backscratchers wandered over each foot. Already they were wearing the nylon on the soles of her feet thin with their insistent worrying, the wooden teeth of the backscratchers teasing those deathly sensitive feet of hers to ensure her future cooperation. After all, Eury didn't intend to lose this encounter, and Syia had been just a little too smug for her tastes. Despite that, Lamelle was coming along well... maybe, too well. A fresh outburst of laughter, caused by the Guardians suddenly focusing all four backscratchers on a single point at the center of her left sole, temporarily drew Eury's attention away from her musings and earned them a nod of approval. A flash of creativity, and well rewarded. Maybe this would turn out better than she'd thought...
Almost idly, as if it were becoming second nature even to herself, Eury's hand sought out Syia's waist, unbuttoning the button just above her navel and working her hand underneath Syia's clothes to circle at her bellybutton casually, as she thought. Eury happened to like this particular spot, and so chose it whenever she could, with the added bonus that it was a particular weak point of Syia's. Syia would help them - she had no real choice. The angels, who had started to arrive in greater numbers through the portal on the fourth floor, in the library, controlled the fourth floor, where Syia was, as well as the dungeons on the third floor, and the second floor as well, though more tentatively. The devils were regularly attacking anyone who ventured below that to the first floor or the ground floor and the anteroom, and were undoubtedly in control of the basement Lab.
Eury's soft little hand circled around Syia's navel and scratched lightly at the surrounding skin. Meanwhile, the rasping of the backscratchers against nylon leggings was getting softer, most likely due to the scratchers wearing through the material and tickling the bare flesh directly now. Syia exploded into laughter so loud that it distracted Eury again, and she turned her attention temporarily to Syia, working her fingers into Syia's underarms while leaning in close. Syia's eyes were closed, hysterical laughter shaking her body - and making her lewd breasts bounce. She deserved as much, Eury thought with a smirk, being so inclined to tempting others... "So we have your promise not to deviate a whit from the goal of teaching Lamelle to bring Jaynin under her spell, correct?" Her only answer was a blizzard of laughter, and Eury concluded she must not be ready to answer yet, lapsing back into thought while her fingers unbuttoned down the front of Syia's uniform, spreading it to either side so she might explore the ribs and sides at leisure.
Jaynin. The vexatious man who was at the center of the whole issue. He had not been seen since last night, and no one had yet figured out where he might be. Perhaps he was still in that place where he had hidden away to study - the angels knew exactly where he went, Eury thought with a smirk, thinking his silly security measures little more than child's play. He was, after all, only mortal. But then the smirk faded. Maybe he'd allowed them to easily track that hidden space, letting angels congratulate themselves for being clever, and then dropped out of sight while they had stopped looking. Worse yet, the devil Arishna had not been seen for some time either. Who knew what damage that demon could do if left alone with him for so long? But Eury knew that was unlikely. As unlikely as Syia was to stop laughing with Eury's fingers stroking her ribs like this. It seemed to drive her especially mad when Eury focused on the outermost part of the ribs, where they curved, and scratched at the hard ridge of the rib, pulled taut against the skin by her position. Well, it probably didn't help that the angels were tormenting her feet with backscratchers as well... it was that she begged them to stop, Eury realized. She had been begging for the Guardians to stop for a few minutes, while Eury had been lost in thought, but they had of course ignored such calls, having been instructed not to stop until Eury had said to.
A smile curled Eury's lips. She'd show this lewd, smug nurse who was boss... hopping off the bed, she spoke to the Guardians. "I'm going to take a quick walk to see to something. I'll be back later. Remember, you don't stop until I tell you to." They would of course not forget; that line was for Syia's benefit, who would now know exactly who was responsible for her release. Syia shrieked to her, but Eury closed off the hysterical laughter behind the door she closed behind her, and then grinned, leaning against the wall, letting Syia stew in the fact that she thought Eury was now gone for a while...
Eury shook her head with a frown. She was making this a little too personal, and she'd lose herself in vengeance if she wasn't careful... Changing her mind suddenly, she whirled around and went back into the room, marching up to Syia and tilting the nurse's head towards her, looking dispassionately into her tear-filled eyes. The Guardians didn't question her rapid return, just keeping the scratchers working on Syia's helpless feet, occasionally working on her toes or heels in concert, or just scratching at random everywhere they could reach. Syia's lips moved, soft words being formed in between the howls of laughter:
"I prhahAHAHahahah heehehehahahah pro-promise thaa..hahaha..HAHAHAH I'll do with lahahaHAHAHAHEHHEHEHEH Lamelle what you want... just... neheh... aha... hahaha... HAAAAAAAAA no more of this!!!" Syia begged. "Plehee... haha... no more..." As galling as it was to see Eury grin in triumph, it was worth the cessation of this horrible, awful tickling torture...
---
Felin grinned as the cat-devil finished her report. Just before the end of it, moreover, Arishna had returned, smiling at Felin and waiting for the report to finish before speaking to the little group. "Well, I think we're going to need some more... expert information on these angels," she said with a wicked little grin. "We can't just be guessing and running on assumptions as to whether or not they are vulnerable. These things should be tested, don't you agree?" And it was then that the three devils looked to Felin, and Felin smiled.
"I think everything should be tested," Felin said with a smile, drilling a nail into Sheliss' side to accentuate her point. "Bring me a specimen, and I'll be sure to do a thorough exam for you. If they're as powerless as you, then I should be able to hold them easily." If it hadn't already been, Felin thought, her lot was now irrevocably cast with the devils, just as Syia's choice had been made for her. But it wasn't like it was a bad choice. Having one of those angels on her table could be great fun, and unless Felin's knowledge of anatomy's general principles was faulty, there should be a few weak points common to many angels. But to test that, they'd need more than one... right?
Arishna grinned, as if reading Felin's mind, and then she turned to the cat-devil. "You heard her. Get yourself a team together, and find us an angel." The cat devil, her grin like quicksilver, seemed to vanish, and Arishna walked off to consult with one of her devils, leaving Felin alone with Sheliss, stroking the smaller girl's hair affectionately while she thought.
She was with the devils. Syia was with the angels. Jaynin was nowhere to be found, and what had happened to Jelex...? The plot was thickening, the mystery deepening... and Felin reveled at being in the center of it all.
Jaynin yawned, finally closing the dusty tome that had been occupying his attention for the last few hours, and stretched his sore arms and back, admitting that, for now, all that time spent researching the matter hadn't done him very much good. He knew, or at least suspected, that there was more to this whole angels versus devils standoff than simply wanting to be allowed to live in his castle. No, they wouldn't bother with such extreme measures as violating the boundaries that usually kept them in their respective domains if the matter were as simple as that. Those boundaries had, as a result of being violated, temporarily stripped both angel and demon alike of their otherworldly power, meaning that though they appeared intimidating at times, their actual power was considerably less than what it seemed to be. At the moment, Jaynin wasn't worried at all about being overpowered by one or even a gang from either side. That didn't mean, however, that he was totally disregarding them.
No, they were both up to something, both trying to pull the wool over his eyes and obscure the larger picture from him until it was too late for him to do anything about it. But what that thing they were hiding from him might be, he didn't have a clue. A quick inventory of the magical artifacts he had on hand failed to turn up something that might be attractive to them. Perhaps the large magical circle inlaid with orihalcon had drawn them, but he was sure that they had their own magical circles, and probably drawn much grander with more powerful spells. Unless they were somehow planning to use his as a kind of booster unit, to reinforce the power of their own spells from far away, like a relay station to boost a weak signal that had traveled a long distance. But in that case, why not just build their own here, as well? Surely they were resourceful enough to find ways to travel to the physical plane without violating the boundary - after all, the boundary merely prevented unauthorized entry. That was to say, entry into the physical plane without being invited. Were they to be invited, they could exist within the physical plane in full control of all their powers. It shouldn't have been that hard for the angels to find some religious zealot to call them down, or for devils to whisper to the mind of a practicioner of black magic. So why bother with this silly contest?
And for that matter, why bother with him? It was obvious, based on Arishna's behavior and what Syia had told him of Lamelle, that they were angling for his favor in the matter. Of course, he had to be the one to grant an official summons to one side or the other and hence restore their powers, after which they would presumably banish the losing side back to their respective plane, but if they thought that befuddling him with women was going to work, well... they'd obviously done their homework in that case. Jaynin sighed, finally rising from the desk and taking the book he'd been reading, an analysis of interplanar travel, back to the bookshelf and putting it back in its proper location. He would be the first to admit that the wiles of a woman could easily twist him up so badly that he couldn't tell back from front.
"I guess I'll just have to be careful," he said to no one in particular as he exited the secret passage, waiting for the bookshelf to slide back into place. He knew that if they were trying so hard to keep him from learning about whatever it was they wanted, then there was likely to be a pretty significant catch, a hook they didn't want him seeing until it was too late. Churning it over in his mind for a few hours had produced no useful results, and now all he wanted was some sleep.
Ascending the stairwell to the fifth and final floor, he passed through the dark and silent antechamber to his bedroom, which was really just a waste of space that he hadn't thought of a use for yet, just a large square chamber carpeted all in red. On the far end of the room there was a set of double doors that led to his bedroom, and he groped for the handle in the darkness before finding it and pulling the door open, making his way finally into the slightly less dark bedroom beyond; through the windows, he could see the moon, which gave enough faint light to enable him to see so that he didn't trip over chairs, tables, or clothes on the floor.
Undressing quickly down to his boxers, Jaynin tossed his shirt and pants and socks into a clothes hamper, and then gratefully pulled back the sheets on his bed and climbed in, closing his eyes and relaxing... and then just as soon as he'd closed them, they snapped open, as his weary senses told him something he'd missed in the dim light.
Someone else was in his bed.
The implications of such burst into his mind all too clearly. For perhaps five full seconds he simply laid there, unmoving and unbreathing, body numbed by the shock, before his sense returned to him... whoever was there wasn't moving. Likely, they had come back to wait for him, but his late-night research had kept whoever it was bored and frustrated, until they just had dropped off to sleep in the comfortable bed. If he could just get out of bed and make it to the couch without waking her...
"I was starting to wonder if you'd come to bed." The sound of the voice sent a tingling shock straight through Jaynin's heart, making him freeze up all over again, but in that instant he knew it was too late, and he'd been found out. The figure shifted towards him. The voice had betrayed a slight amusement, and he'd heard it enough before to recognize the undertone of teasing it held, as well. Before he could reply, warm arms circled his body and the figure pulled closer, close enough that her breasts were a hairsbreadth away from touching his chest. It held him in place as solidly as cast-iron chains, and he was afraid to breathe, much less move, a prisoner of his own anxiety. In a way, it befuddled him, how coming face-to-face with something he'd secretly harbored a desire for could instead paralyze him with indecision...
"The least you could have done was ask first, Arishna." Jaynin found his voice, but to his own ears the retort sounded incredibly weak, yet he knew he had to do something. Fighting down a wave of anxious panic, he instead moved his hand, if hesitantly, to rest on her hip, and found himself smiling when she gave a slight shudder. He could almost see the devil's garnet eyes twinkling in the moonlight. Growing a little bolder, he let his finger stroke around her hip a little bit, following the line of her pelvic muscle for a little distance, then jerking his finger back as if it had been burned, once he realized what he was doing and where his finger had been going. He wasn't sure if she'd take too well to him doing something that she didn't have in mind, but even with that one stray stroke, he'd learned something that made him seize up with nervousness all over again.
Arishna was naked.
She purred a giggle. "Oh, but come now, that wouldn't have been any fun..." To his vast relief, she slid back a little so that her breasts were no longer in danger of touching him. It wasn't that he didn't like the idea; on the contrary, maybe he liked it a little too much, but he also didn't want to be held prisoner by paralyzing awkwardness, as he suspected she'd be able to do with expert teasing. But rather than a more aggressive move next, one that might have put him permanently on the defensive, she just rested her hands on his chest gently. He found himself relaxing somewhat. "And besides, if you really were of a mind to keep people out, you'd lock the door." Her fingers contracted slightly, making all ten fingernails give a short, gentle scritch to his pectoral muscles. He jolted slightly, and then almost immediately regretted doing so. Jaynin didn't need light to read the grin on her lips. "Oooh, what is - yeeeek!"
In desperation, to prevent himself from totally losing control of this battle of wills, Jaynin's fingers had come up stealthily, to stroke a quick circle around the devil's navel, and then let his fingers wander up to her sides and scratch gently, while his other hand went to her leg and traced a little line up and down her thigh. It seemed to work, and she rolled onto her back, giggling, and trying to swat playfully at his hands, but the material of the bedsheets got in her way, and she couldn't stop him. Jaynin knew that if he let her start teasing him, especially on his chest, then he'd never recover, and at best he'd be teased about being so ticklish and jumpy. At worst, she might tickle him into submission, but having temporarily gained the upper hand, he wasn't going to give it up just yet. Growing bolder, his fingers traced up to her ribs, tickling along each one of them that he could reach, and he was rewarded with a louder burst of laughter followed by a muffled sound; Arishna had put a pillow over her face to keep from laughing too loud, but this just encouraged Jaynin's attack in earnest, and he sat up, leaning over her as he moved his other hand up to join the first, tickling high up on her ribs, near her underarms.
"I'd be quiet if I were you, Arishna," Jaynin teased, "if you're too loud you'll wake up the angels, and you know what they'd do if they found you naked in my bed." He didn't say that he suspected they'd do something just about as intrusive to him, like post a guard outside of his door. Or maybe inside the door. But it seemed as if she understood that predicament; the pillow didn't move away from her mouth even as he started tickling under her arms, eliciting a strong reaction from her, but not quite as strong as he'd gotten from her ribs... it was hard to tell, though, as she was giggling up a storm that was muffled by the pillowcase, and her body was constantly twisting this way and that, trying to cover her sides and underarms against the mattress by turning onto her side, but that just fully exposed the side she didn't cover. It didn't help her very much; the sides of her ribs were just as ticklish as the front, and when he gently took her elbow in one hand and raised it so he could get under her arm without interference, she didn't fight him, but let him hold her arm so that he could tease her. Despite the fact that she was apparently quite ticklish there, she let him do as he would - he found this appealing, somehow, and found his touch growing softer, but enjoying every one of the giggles he elicited from the devil and her sensitive skin.
A few minutes of this, satisfied that his point had been made, Jaynin stopped tickling her and rolled back onto his side of the bed, noticing that it took Arishna a few seconds to stop giggling and return her pillow to where it belonged. She seemed rather ticklish, but there had been too many things in the way; the bedsheets, the darkness, even the fact that she was naked and had large breasts, which covered more of her ribs than he'd anticipated, and while he was fairly sure that her showing up naked in his bed was an invitation to do that which he'd been avoiding, he didn't want to fall into a trap so easily as that. It had been an exercise in self-control, not to let his fingers wander up onto her breasts or down below her navel, and he felt proud of himself at least for not succumbing to that particular urge.
Laying on his back, the back of one hand pressed to his forehead and the other simply stretched out to the side, Jaynin didn't realize he'd given Arishna the perfect opening until he felt her sidle up against his side and put her arm on his chest, giggling slightly in triumph as she rested her front against his side. "Just relax. You're so tense," Arishna chided, letting her fingernails glide across his chest, enjoying the smiles that he had to struggle to keep back. "No, seriously. You're way too tense for this. Lighten up; doesn't it feel nice? And I'm not just talking about the fact that I've got my tits mashed against you. I mean just lay back and relax and enjoy the fact that you've got someone to go to sleep with, a warm body curled up next to you that you can put your arm around." Without realizing it, Jaynin had reflexively put his arm around her and rested his hand on her side, though now that he knew it was there, he traced a small circle on her lower back, making her giggle.
As much as he was wary of traps or attempts to tangle him in some kind of seductress' web, Jaynin had to admit that she had a point. She'd spoken more like... like a friend, he realized, a friend that cared about him, rather than a girl trying to sleep with him. Relaxing his muscles and just letting it go instead of worrying so much about what was touching where felt... a lot better, really, and it did help that she wasn't pressing the issue, just teasing him a little with her fingertip, especially when it got under his arm. She had to realize that, because of how his arm was around her, he couldn't protect his underarm, which is where her finger went, just tickling slightly with a single finger. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing from the explorations of that single finger, but Arishna seemed content to just tease him a little before moving it back to circle on his chest. And for that matter, the release had chased away the tension, and he yawned again, reminded of how long he'd been working. As he closed his eyes, her voice drifted into his ears;
"Just relax. We'll take care of everything, don't worry."
---
Awakening with a start to the gray, soft light of the pre-dawn sky, what had been shrouded in darkness the night before became visible; the opulent bed in which she lay in, the lush pink carpet that covered the floor and felt almost sinfully soft to the touch, the silken white sheets of the bed, fluffy pillows for guaranteed comfort. The sun was shining through the window cut into the stone wall, a ray of weak sunlight falling square on its drowsy occupant, making her shield her eyes from it and glance around. Scratching one of her horns, Rati took in the room in its entirety.
After fleeing the angels, she'd come to the castle's third floor and looked for a place to hide. What she'd seen upon first entering had pleased her greatly; it was a fully functional dungeon, filled with restraints and bondage devices of all kinds, from X-frames to stocks to pillars and racks and just about every kind of variation or creative twist that she could imagine, and despite the vastness of the room, there had been doors to two others. Rati had judged the room to take up approximately a fourth of the available floor space, and wondered what could be behind the other two doors...
Her search of the third floor had revealed that it was, more or less, a dungeon, though themed in different ways for different rooms; tranditional dungeon-style and laboratory style, one room which seemed overgrown with tall grasses and trees with vines and other things that looked interesting, and this last one, which had a massive luxurious bed as well as less strict versions of many of the devices found in the first room, as if it were made for lovers that liked to play. Rati, however, had just seen the bed, and deciding that it was kind of late and she wanted to sleep, had flopped down on it and promptly dozed off. Now, though, she was awake, and at the crack of dawn, from what it looked like. This made her grumpy as she flung the sheets off of herself and sat up on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes. Not only had she slept straight through the night, she was now going to be awake for the entirety of the day, instead of getting to sleep off the first five hours of it or so. Why she had awakened she didn't know, though she suspected the light had been shining in her eyes and caused her to wake up.
Still a little sleepy, Rati rose, and idly stood examining one of the bondage devices that was in the room. It seemed simple enough, looking like it was a set of stocks bolted onto the end of a comfortable recliner, with a pair of leather handcuffs on the end of a long elastic rope, like a bungie cord. The cord ran around the back of the chair, and upon further examination, was attached to a crank set in the back. Apparently, the one in control could crank the tension up high, which would pull the victim's arms high over their head and leave them exposed, or have it loose, just enough to keep their hands out of the way while their feet got worked upon. The stocks themselves were padded, and looked like they could be lowered out of the way, if the tickler wanted the upper body to be the focus. Experimentally, Rati sat in the chair, and set her feet in the stocks, pressing down as if she were trying to lower the footrest on a recliner. It worked; the pressure caused the section with the stocks to slide down and back into the base of the chair, and Rati was sitting upright. A fairly simple device, but one that seemed effective enough.
Without warning her vision went white. Startled, Rati let out a yell, realizing after a moment that somehow the bedsheet had gotten thrown over her eyes, cutting off her vision and wrapping around her head to keep it from moving. Rati's hands went instinctively up to her head to pull the obstruction off, and was promptly caught by a quick pair of hands manuevering her wrists into the leather cuffs she'd seen before, and then the clicking of the crank as it slowly tightened, pulling her hands above her head and back, until they were stretched out and she could barely move them at all; the way they were pulled up and back had the effect of arching her back somewhat, making her chest stand out and putting even more strain on that one button holding her top together. Whoever had attacked her, they now knew they had her, and she felt the hands again around her face, fixing the bedsheet, raising it from her mouth so she could breathe properly, and then tie the sheet more firmly around her eyes, making it an effective, if oversized, blindfold. Rati started yelling, and kicking her feet:
"Hey! Who in Hell is doing this? You'd better untie me right now or I swear there's gonna be trouble as soon as I get loose! You can't keep me here forever and each second you don't untie me makes your punishment that much worse, so you'd better - YEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!" Rati, kicking her feet to prevent the ambusher from locking them in the stocks as she knew they'd try, suddenly tensed up and squealed as a finger teasingly poked her under the arm. That moment's hesitation was all that was needed to keep her feet in the stocks long enough for the arm to be swung shut and locked, and now her feet were securely in place. Granted, they were facing the floor and her boots were still on, but it was the fact that her upper body was exposed from neck to hips and a little below that concerned her... as well it might.
Without a word, and no longer bothering to make their footsteps silent, Rati heard her tormentor circle around behind her, and felt the touch of a finger under each arm, in the very center. Her struggles ceased the moment she felt a touch there, tensing and drawing in a breath, but the fingers didn't move. She could feel that they were soft fingers, with only very short fingernails; it seemed that they must be a female's fingers, but she couldn't tell who, and it was hard to think with the impending threat of those fingers circling around in her underarms... yet she dared not squirm, lest she tickle herself against the motionless digits. That was probably exactly what her captor wanted, for her to wriggle out of her skin like a little girl and so further her own plight by tickling herself due to her own movements. Were the positions reversed, it was something Rati would've considered... but she wasn't willing to wait forever, it seemed, and soon enough the fingers were teasing around Rati's underarms, causing the devil to burst forth into laughter. There was no point in resistance right now; she'd just waste valuable energy if she tried to resist laughing, and though she hated to let herself titter like a silly schoolgirl, it was better in this case that she did. Her laughter rang out pleasantly into the room as the fingers kept up a light touch circling around her underarms, just enough to keep her giggling.
Without warning all five fingers of both hands came down onto her skin and tickled madly for a few brief seconds before the slight circling resumed, but those few seconds of shock were enough to make the devil's back arch. "HYEEEEEEEEEEhahahahaha don't do that! Grrr! I'm gonna - hey! HEY! Watch where your fingers a-are-are..." While her back had been arched, those questing fingers had decided to slip under the spare fabric of Rati's top and, slowly making their way to cup Rati's breasts, suddenly decided to start tickling again, and this time the redheaded devil really lost it, bursting into a discordant squeal of laughter punctuated by gasping breaths that was not at all like the pleasant little giggling spree of before. Under the pressure of Rati's sudden twisting and the fact that someone's hands were adding to the strain, the button on her top suddenly popped off with a sharp crack, and the top hung loosely open, allowing her tormentor's fingers free reign to squeeze and tickle as they would.
"I sweaahhaahHAHAHAHAHAH swear you're going to pay for this!" she yelled, as soon as she'd gotten her breath back after the brief tickle assault on her breasts had ended. It didn't do her much good nor did it deter her attacker, whose fingers simply moved down a little ways to her ribs, and slowly teased back and forth against the firm ridges, causing yet another burst of laughter to be expelled from the squirming devil. The pace was moderate, now; spidering fingers teased the length of each and every rib, not speeding up or slowing down or breaking into sudden bursts of torment, just tickling the sides of each rib until Rati's chest shook with laughter, her loose breasts bouncing with the effort of sucking in enough air between bouts of laughing. She was not at all self-conscious of this fact, just concerned with the vulnerability it displayed.
Rati got a brief break to recover her wits when the tickling fingers moved back from her skin, not touching her anywhere, completely withdrawn... Rati knew that this was the best time to get herself back together, because her tormentor was surely going to let the tension build before - "HEEEEEEEEEE haahahaahaahhah I wasn't ready you heheheahaha jerk!!!" Rati squealed as the tickling suddenly came in full-bore on her sides. Rati's tender midsection did not bear up well against the tickling and the fingers were fast and tickling hard, showing no mercy or any signs of slowing... Gradually, Rati's laughter hitched up, getting harder and louder, her struggles becoming more and more desperate, until within just a minute or two she was howling and screeching with such volume that it was a wonder no one else had heard and come to investigate. In between gales of helpless laughter, Rati's body sagged back into the chair as much as it could, but the tight restraints kept her body relatively taut. Whenever she got the breath to briefly speak, it was either used to hurl threats and insults at her attacker, or to beg for mercy, the latter becoming more common as the tickling went on and on without any indication of a break.
Rati's sides were aching with her nonstop laughter and the persistent tickles which had her skin tingling and red, and when she finally felt their presence lift from her sensitive skin, she wasted no time in taking deep breaths - which was apparently what her captor was waiting for, because on the third such deep breath, just as she was filling her lungs, fingers drilled into her underarms, causing the whole thing to explode from the devil as a shriek of unthinking laughter. "STHAAAAAAA stop stop ohhahahaAHAHAH STOP IT STOOOOOP!!!" Rati squealed, and to her surprise, the hysterical begging was heeded, and the fingers stopped... this time, she took rapid, panting breaths to avoid being taken by surprise, but suddenly she realized that there was another sound she hadn't picked up on yet; footsteps.
The door was flung open without heed for the hinges, so it sounded like, and the crisp sound of marching boots was muffled by the room's carpet as they entered. "Hey - lemme go!" cried another voice that was familiar to Rati; Jelex's voice. That elf from yesterday. Rati grinned. Arishna must have heard her hysteria and come to save her, and her hopes soared when the blindfold came off of her eyes. "Well, well. We come searching for a runaway, and here she is, with a bonus." Rati didn't recognize the angel with the short-cropped blonde hair who stood before her wearing an imperious glare, nor did she recognize the angel's partner, an imposingly tall blonde woman with a piercing look in her bright blue eyes... but her breath caught in her throat as she recognized the form. The Guardians were selected for their physical and mental prowess, and they always had about them an aura that left no question as to who they were. She held the struggling elf by the arms, lifting her off the ground with ease, while the smaller angel spoke: "We heard what you did to Lamelle last night, elf. For that, you'll join this wicked devil in serving penance."
The Guardian Angel grinned ominously.
---
Felin awoke suddenly, sitting up in a rush, and then wishing she hadn't done so. She still felt a little lightheaded after yesterday evening... Arishna's knowledge of how to elicit responses had been very extensive, and she'd spent a fair bit of time schooling Felin in its... more practical applications before the feline scientist had not been able to focus anymore and... well, she actually couldn't remember what had happened. That was unlike her. Had she been drugged? Felin scratched her head as she slowly swung her legs out over the side of the bed and stood up. No, Arishna didn't seem the type to use drugs... more than likely she'd found some kind of nerve and made Felin drift off, and in the whirl of sensation she'd not even noticed.
Fortunately, there were no issues with the automatic door today, but even as she left her room she noticed that something else wasn't quite right... Frowning and tapping her chin in thought, Felin realized that what she was seeing was dim outlines of movement amongst her laboratory equipment. More devils, she realized, her impression confirmed by the fact that one of them seemed to materialize from the shadows right before her and curtsy. Her appearance left Felin quite taken aback; long silvery hair cascaded down her back, and her horns jutted out horizontally from her temples, almost as long as Arishna's but colored white instead of yellow. What that might mean Felin had no idea... Soft gray eyes stared up at her, and gathered at her neck was the white lace which appeared at her sleeves and on the skirt of her black maid's outfit, little white stockings sheathing her legs and feet, and small black shoes with a buckle completing the ensemble. She was the very picture of a Gothic lolita, Felin realized, but instantly got the sense that there was more to this little girl than met the eye.
"Good morning," she said pleasantly. "My name is Sheliss. I arrived here last night, but I was told that you were sleeping, so I did not disturb you until now." Felin nodded dumbly, extending a hand towards the little girl, who took it in her hands, and started to examine Felin's arm with her fingers, brushing them through her fur in a way that made Felin shiver and nearly drop to her knees. "I apologize that we couldn't do it before," she said softly, making her way closer to Felin and letting her fingers fall upon the neko-jin's hips, "but I will be your liason while we are here, to prevent any misunderstandings." Felin just nodded. The way Sheliss' fingers combed through her fur so gently was driving her to the edge of giggling...
"Forgive my curiosity," she said in that innocent voice of hers, fingers stroking gently up Felin's side, "but I do so find the beings of your world to be endlessly fascinating." Felin looked down to nod at her, and gasped; the innocent-little-girl expression on her face had turned into a grin of mischief, and more importantly, an expression of someone who knew they were in control. "And please do not be deceived by my appearance," she said, stroking fingers down along Felin's rear and gently probing the slight crease where her thigh met her buttocks, bringing Felin to one knee with a gasp of surprise, allowing the short girl to stroke her fingers along Felin's ribs and ever so gently curl one finger to scritch. "I am actually one thousand three hundred and thirty-seven years of age, but my body does not make it seem so. There is nothing you could do that would shock or surprise me," her innocent voice went on, somehow also carrying with it the weight of authority. As if to prove her point, she let her fingers tease into Felin's cleavage, tickling the sides of her breasts, which seemed to break the spell; Felin giggled and lurched backwards, crashing against the door that was still behind her, ending up in a sitting position against the wall.
Sheliss promptly deposited herself into Felin's lap and smiled, wiggling fingers against the feline's hips, resulting in a yowl of laughter. Instantly Felin tried to push the little girl away from her and cover up, but she was surprisingly strong and didn't budge, just laughing and tickling away at Felin's sides and stomach, making Felin giggle helplessly and cover her eyes in a powerless gesture. It was becoming clear that her little deceit had worked on Felin; she hadn't expected this kind of devious behavior or strength from a girl that looked so small and fragile. In a disarmingly cute gesture, Sheliss put her arms around Felin's neck and kissed her cheek, then smoothly climbed down off her lap and stood next to the dazed feline. Felin, slowly gathering her wits together again, vowed not to be taken by surprise like that again... Sheliss was talking, and a devil with curled horns more like a ram's, short blue hair, and wearing little but purple leather thong and top along with long boots that came up to her thighs. She was introduced and promptly forgotten by Felin, who was still trying to get herself back together, and Sheliss tilted her head and smiled up at the tottering feline.
"Please show me where you work? I'm curious to see it," Sheliss announced, and Felin nodded, wandering off in that direction feeling as if she were in a slightly surreal situation. There were more devils wandering about her lab now, she could see, curiously checking her machines and her experiments, though careful not to touch anything. At least they were properly respectful of things, Felin noted idly, making her way to her central workstation and not much thinking before she flopped down in her chair and noticing too late that there were warm, bare thighs beneath her rear end instead of the synthetic material of her chair. A pair of arms circled around her waist and held her, firmly but loosely, in place.
A tan-skinned, white-haired devil with odd feathery wings sprouting from her temples instead of horns, dressed in a top that actually covered her, if tightly, from neck to ribs and also all along her arms, ending in fingerless gloves, sat in Felin's seat, her bare midriff and thighs separated only by an extremely brief thong, and short ankle-height boots on her feet. Idly, without any word of greeting or warning, those fingers started to stroke through Felin's fur, making the feline squeal again with giggles and try to break out of the grasp, which she managed with surprising ease, dancing away from the chair. "Oh, this is Neilza," Sheliss commented offhandedly as the devil vacated Felin's seat with a wink and wandered off, allowing Felin to sit back down again. Sheliss promptly sat in her lap, and Felin found herself stroking the girl's long hair idly with one hand. "So what is it that you do here?"
"A lot of things," Felin said with a shrug, giggling a bit but not raising any objection to how Sheliss' soft hand tickled into her top and played around beneath it. "Mostly, I monitor experiments that I'm running, like trying to create breeds of plants that seek out and tickle victims, or new ways I can combine and splice genes to create tailored medicines or drugs, a lot of seeing what I can get away with... Machines, too, figuring out new and better AI routines, how to have the main AI security program better recognize the vulnerable spots on victims it catches..." Sheliss seemed to be listening rather intently, and Felin found herself enjoying the little devil's company as she idly skimmed through the computer readouts, keying up the security summary. Since she'd managed to run the devil's cellular composition and feed it into the bio-sensors on the security cameras, it was able to identify how many there were and where they were... "Eighteen?" Felin asked in surprise.
Sheliss nodded. "Eighteen. Those who came through, and some who are adept with your machines and also magic energies, have been working to strengthen the gate since last night, and so now our numbers grow. They must, if we are not to be overtaken." Before Felin could ask what that meant, a scritching claw teased her foot, and she shifted her legs with a sudden yelp. A red-haired devil, deeply tanned skin and cat ears instead of horns, wearing so very very little besides a few straps and buttons to cover her lithe body, emerged from just beneath Felin's chair and gave the startled neko-jin a kiss, fingers teasing Felin's waist as she spoke suddenly.
"Guardians," she said to Sheliss. "I saw three of them, and I managed to identify fifteen angels in total. As far as I know they got ahold of Rati and they're tickling the crap out of her and the elf girl, I mean like Rati's near to screaming herself hoarse and the elf girl's gonna wet herself if she keeps laughing so hard." Though the cat-devil's way of expressing herself lent her words to slang and somewhat crude expressions, that particular one made Felin quirk a grin that had nothing to do with being teased. "Feathers, too. Oh, and that nurse is getting some heat from the boss angel and her lackey cow with the big tits." The cat-girl made a gesture with her hands to indicate large breasts, which Felin interpreted as Eury and Lamelle. "Was kinda funny, though. That nurse is playing the big one like a fiddle, and the little angel suspects it, but even when staring at her she can't see it. It goes right under her nose."
"Are the Guardians ticklish also?" Sheliss asked matter-of-factly, and the cat-devil nodded. "All right. Give me the full report. What did you see?"
---
Lamelle stood quivering at the far end of the Infirmary, a determined expression on her face and a slightly awkward cast to the way she stood. She was dressed in a sleeveless tight sweater top of light blue and a beige pleated skirt, along with calf-height soft tan leather boots, all specially ordered for her by Syia. On her face was a smile, though it was uncertain and quivery, and she glanced at the short, pink-haired High Angel in the one corner of the room, glowering at Syia and giving Lamelle a brief glance, nodding once as if to encourage her. "All right, Miss Syia," Lamelle said, taking a step forward, and fighting down the urge to burst into giggles right then and there. They curled everywhere... the feathers, they were all over her body, tickling her, teasing around her sensitive soft breasts, licking at her bellybutton, even shifting between her legs, an invasion she'd had a hard time learning how to tolerate. Feathers buried themselves in her boots and curled around her toes... and she took another step forward.
The urge to laugh was so strong. But she kept herself together and gingerly took another step forward, towards Syia on the other end of the room, dressed in her nurse's outfit, white cap tilted just so atop her blue hair, looking so pretty and almost angelic herself in her outfit and leggings of pure white. But the smile on her face was slightly wicked. It was a smile Lamelle had learned to recognize, one that she saw right before her teacher tested her concentration. It was so hard to focus; the feathers were placed throughout her clothing so that they always touched sensitive areas. So very hard... It seemed like the very motions of walking brushed feathers against the sensitive creases where her hips met her thighs, caused her breasts to rub together against the feathers lovingly slid in between them, made the tips wiggle on her nipples, caused the ones caught in her waistband to shift their tips across her navel, back and forth... her feet always shifting them just slightly enough to slip between her toes a little bit more, until she wanted to walk on her tiptoes to block the sensation...
But that was forbidden. Syia had been explicit... Lamelle recalled her directions as she took another step. Do nothing that you would normally not do. Walk normally across the room as if nothing were wrong. Do not laugh. Smile, but do not appear as if you're going to explode. Do not grab at your clothing. Do not walk awkwardly to avoid the feathers' touch... so much to remember, Lamelle thought, taking another step. So much to keep in mind. She felt so sensitive following the elf girl Jelex's rubdown in the tub last night, where the wily girl had lathered her up and then thoroughly scrubbed her down until Lamelle had been finally rescued by the timely intervention of Triel coming through to show newly arrived angels around... Another step. Another burst of laughter that she caught in her chest and forced down, controlling her laughter. The feathers seemed to tease her, mocking her by tickling the sensitive points with the barest whisper of softness. Slowly they shifted as she walked, making her ticklish skin tingle with new sensations as the feathers traveled.
Just focus on walking. Don't think about how Jelex tickled you. Don't think about how much it tickles to have feathers in all those places they shouldn't be... Just the reminder of that brought a helpless blush to Lamelle's cheeks, and she tried to think of something to focus on while she walked. Her eyes locked onto Syia's, and stayed there, held by the mesmerizing gaze. Lose yourself in my gaze, her eyes seemed to say. Lose yourself into me and focus. Let me be the strength. Nodding imperceptibly, Lamelle kept her eyes locked on Syia's. Syia must know every ticklish jolt, every brush of sensation, that raced through her body. Lamelle knew that she somehow must know it all. It made no sense, but Syia very rarely did... the urge to giggle was overwhelming. The feathers had drifted, sliding against her thighs, making her steps tremble just so slightly...
And then she was across, fairly leaping into Syia's waiting arms, giggling helplessly against the shoulder of her teacher. "I wanted to laugh so hard," she confessed. "I couldn't make it stop tickling. I thought I was going to explode... I'm sorry. I did the best I could..." Then Syia was shushing her gently, stroking her hair, one hand reaching for the hem of her sweater, finding a feather and slowly drawing it out, the white fluffy down teasing Lamelle's body one last time as it exited.
"Lamelle, you did wonderfully," Syia commended her. "It's not that you can make it stop tickling or make yourself not ticklish. I can't do that. What you can do is control your response to it... and even if you felt like you were at the end of your rope this time, you still managed to do it. That means you can do it the next time, and the time after that." Teasingly her fingers scratched against Lamelle's side before diving down again to withdraw another feather.
"You-he-e-eehhe- you mean that... I passed?" Lamelle asked, her features suddenly brightening with an earnest cuteness that Syia found irresistable. Syia nodded, and Lamelle collapsed against Syia in relief, quivering slightly with giggles as Syia chased down each errant feather and drew it out, often teasing Lamelle slightly before she did so. But Lamelle didn't mind so much this way... they came out of her bra, out of her skirt and finally Syia had sat her down on the edge of a bed, drawn off her boots, and given both feet a nice thorough teasing with her fingernails before pulling the feathers from the inside of the shoes and giving them back. Lamelle giggled pleasantly through it all, and when she was dressed her smile was bright and confident as she stood up. "What next?"
"Next is that you go back to your room and change," Eury cut in, finally emerging from the corner where she had been casting disapproving glances at the pair of them and gesturing dismissively. "That's enough of that for one day, Lamelle. You can have your time to yourself until I return." Lamelle, suddenly shocked back into her shy, reserved self, nodded and hurried from the room, leaving the icy Eury glaring at the voluptuous nurse. "Now then, you. You are... tricky, human. I see it in your eyes, and I know that you're up to no good even as you carry out the task I assigned to you." Syia bit her tongue at the word 'assigned' but let it pass as the angel continued. "I cannot be here every day to watch over Lamelle, but I need to make sure that you are not wavering or creatively interpreting your duties. Therefore..."
Syia looked up suddenly as a pair of angels came in through the door. These angels were tall, with piercing blue eyes framed by a head of jet-black hair for one and brown for the other, ivory white skin that appeared free of imperfections showing on their impassive faces, the only part of their flesh she could see. But there was no mistaking the pitiless look in their eyes. They were coming for her, and if she didn't act now, they would be on her. Bringing her mind into focus, she gathered her thoughts for a brief second, fully forming the idea of what it was that she was going to do, and in a visible rippling of air, the psychic force rippled out, borne by the strength of Syia's idea, sweeping past the two tall angels and disappearing behind them. Only a momentary pause had shown in their stride as the ripple passed them, but they continued onward, confident the assault had done nothing.
Suddenly, the one with brown hair cried out and leapt backwards, swatting at her arm and then shaking it. Her partner, turning to look, suddenly fell to her knees clutching her stomach, and in an instant both of them were frantically patting at their robes, pulling at them and squirming, trying to squash or stop the invisible feathers of thought that drifted against their skin, all the more devastating than any normal feather because the idea of feathers was just Syia's vehicle; her actual wish, buried in the seed of the vision, was simply to stimulate their ticklish nerves to drive them back. Grimly, Syia grinned, and with the two angels whom Syia guessed were Heaven's version of muscled thugs writhing about giggling themselves silly, she turned to Eury, about to haughtily demand who she was trying to fool, when she realized the tiny angel was not to the side anymore but right in front of her - having literally slipped right under her nose!
Before she could stop Eury, the High Angel had reached up and wiggled her fingers against Syia's sides, a grin of triumph on her face. She wasn't even that effective at it, Syia thought in dismay, but the squeak and surprised giggle were enough to make her concentration fade somewhat, and even as she sought to re-establish control and get Eury wrapped up in the sensation, the two taller angels broke free, and then they were upon her...
---
"Hm... so she used her power," Sheliss said thoughtfully, nodding as her fingers stroked Felin's side softly, curled up against the feline and giggling softly as Felin's own claws stroked along her arm. "But would that actually indicate ticklishness? Perhaps she just made them believe they were being tickled..."
"It doesn't work that way," Felin interjected. "For Syia to be able to do what she did, they have to be ticklish in the first place. She wasn't creating ticklish, but using her mind to probe for ticklishness already there. The only thing that makes a difference is how she chose to convey the ticklish feeling. It could have been anything from bugs to claws to fingers or tentacles or whatever she chooses, so long as it's concieveable enough for the person to believe it could be ticklish. Trying to tickle someone with dead hamsters wouldn't work, obviously." Felin's lips were pursed in thought, and she glanced over to the side, seeing the lab door open automatically to admit someone...
"Well, what happened then?" Sheliss asked.
---
Eury smirked. The haughty, brazen nurse Syia was now bound securely to one of her own beds, hands tied behind her back just to keep them out of the way, while the real work was even now going on with her feet, propped up on the foot of the bed and tied very firmly in place, so that the Guardians could work on them without her moving too much. The Guardians had been more than a little skeptical, and Eury herself had wondered if they would be able to adapt to this kind of operation. Explaining to them why it needed to be done was easy enough; they never questioned the odd set of rules that bound them all now. Explaining how to do it had been another matter entirely, but once Triel and Yuli had finished briefing the Guardians along with the other reinforcements, it seemed to have gone well enough. Even now, Eury was starting to hear of ticklish clashes against newly arrived devils. Neither side had the advantage, for the moment, but the boundaries were being drawn up quickly enough.
Eury was lost in thought, not listening to the shrieking laughter of the nurse as a pair of backscratchers wandered over each foot. Already they were wearing the nylon on the soles of her feet thin with their insistent worrying, the wooden teeth of the backscratchers teasing those deathly sensitive feet of hers to ensure her future cooperation. After all, Eury didn't intend to lose this encounter, and Syia had been just a little too smug for her tastes. Despite that, Lamelle was coming along well... maybe, too well. A fresh outburst of laughter, caused by the Guardians suddenly focusing all four backscratchers on a single point at the center of her left sole, temporarily drew Eury's attention away from her musings and earned them a nod of approval. A flash of creativity, and well rewarded. Maybe this would turn out better than she'd thought...
Almost idly, as if it were becoming second nature even to herself, Eury's hand sought out Syia's waist, unbuttoning the button just above her navel and working her hand underneath Syia's clothes to circle at her bellybutton casually, as she thought. Eury happened to like this particular spot, and so chose it whenever she could, with the added bonus that it was a particular weak point of Syia's. Syia would help them - she had no real choice. The angels, who had started to arrive in greater numbers through the portal on the fourth floor, in the library, controlled the fourth floor, where Syia was, as well as the dungeons on the third floor, and the second floor as well, though more tentatively. The devils were regularly attacking anyone who ventured below that to the first floor or the ground floor and the anteroom, and were undoubtedly in control of the basement Lab.
Eury's soft little hand circled around Syia's navel and scratched lightly at the surrounding skin. Meanwhile, the rasping of the backscratchers against nylon leggings was getting softer, most likely due to the scratchers wearing through the material and tickling the bare flesh directly now. Syia exploded into laughter so loud that it distracted Eury again, and she turned her attention temporarily to Syia, working her fingers into Syia's underarms while leaning in close. Syia's eyes were closed, hysterical laughter shaking her body - and making her lewd breasts bounce. She deserved as much, Eury thought with a smirk, being so inclined to tempting others... "So we have your promise not to deviate a whit from the goal of teaching Lamelle to bring Jaynin under her spell, correct?" Her only answer was a blizzard of laughter, and Eury concluded she must not be ready to answer yet, lapsing back into thought while her fingers unbuttoned down the front of Syia's uniform, spreading it to either side so she might explore the ribs and sides at leisure.
Jaynin. The vexatious man who was at the center of the whole issue. He had not been seen since last night, and no one had yet figured out where he might be. Perhaps he was still in that place where he had hidden away to study - the angels knew exactly where he went, Eury thought with a smirk, thinking his silly security measures little more than child's play. He was, after all, only mortal. But then the smirk faded. Maybe he'd allowed them to easily track that hidden space, letting angels congratulate themselves for being clever, and then dropped out of sight while they had stopped looking. Worse yet, the devil Arishna had not been seen for some time either. Who knew what damage that demon could do if left alone with him for so long? But Eury knew that was unlikely. As unlikely as Syia was to stop laughing with Eury's fingers stroking her ribs like this. It seemed to drive her especially mad when Eury focused on the outermost part of the ribs, where they curved, and scratched at the hard ridge of the rib, pulled taut against the skin by her position. Well, it probably didn't help that the angels were tormenting her feet with backscratchers as well... it was that she begged them to stop, Eury realized. She had been begging for the Guardians to stop for a few minutes, while Eury had been lost in thought, but they had of course ignored such calls, having been instructed not to stop until Eury had said to.
A smile curled Eury's lips. She'd show this lewd, smug nurse who was boss... hopping off the bed, she spoke to the Guardians. "I'm going to take a quick walk to see to something. I'll be back later. Remember, you don't stop until I tell you to." They would of course not forget; that line was for Syia's benefit, who would now know exactly who was responsible for her release. Syia shrieked to her, but Eury closed off the hysterical laughter behind the door she closed behind her, and then grinned, leaning against the wall, letting Syia stew in the fact that she thought Eury was now gone for a while...
Eury shook her head with a frown. She was making this a little too personal, and she'd lose herself in vengeance if she wasn't careful... Changing her mind suddenly, she whirled around and went back into the room, marching up to Syia and tilting the nurse's head towards her, looking dispassionately into her tear-filled eyes. The Guardians didn't question her rapid return, just keeping the scratchers working on Syia's helpless feet, occasionally working on her toes or heels in concert, or just scratching at random everywhere they could reach. Syia's lips moved, soft words being formed in between the howls of laughter:
"I prhahAHAHahahah heehehehahahah pro-promise thaa..hahaha..HAHAHAH I'll do with lahahaHAHAHAHEHHEHEHEH Lamelle what you want... just... neheh... aha... hahaha... HAAAAAAAAA no more of this!!!" Syia begged. "Plehee... haha... no more..." As galling as it was to see Eury grin in triumph, it was worth the cessation of this horrible, awful tickling torture...
---
Felin grinned as the cat-devil finished her report. Just before the end of it, moreover, Arishna had returned, smiling at Felin and waiting for the report to finish before speaking to the little group. "Well, I think we're going to need some more... expert information on these angels," she said with a wicked little grin. "We can't just be guessing and running on assumptions as to whether or not they are vulnerable. These things should be tested, don't you agree?" And it was then that the three devils looked to Felin, and Felin smiled.
"I think everything should be tested," Felin said with a smile, drilling a nail into Sheliss' side to accentuate her point. "Bring me a specimen, and I'll be sure to do a thorough exam for you. If they're as powerless as you, then I should be able to hold them easily." If it hadn't already been, Felin thought, her lot was now irrevocably cast with the devils, just as Syia's choice had been made for her. But it wasn't like it was a bad choice. Having one of those angels on her table could be great fun, and unless Felin's knowledge of anatomy's general principles was faulty, there should be a few weak points common to many angels. But to test that, they'd need more than one... right?
Arishna grinned, as if reading Felin's mind, and then she turned to the cat-devil. "You heard her. Get yourself a team together, and find us an angel." The cat devil, her grin like quicksilver, seemed to vanish, and Arishna walked off to consult with one of her devils, leaving Felin alone with Sheliss, stroking the smaller girl's hair affectionately while she thought.
She was with the devils. Syia was with the angels. Jaynin was nowhere to be found, and what had happened to Jelex...? The plot was thickening, the mystery deepening... and Felin reveled at being in the center of it all.
