Part 2B - Ticklish Science
"Let's work up her body, systematically."
After some conspiratorial whispering, Mia was surprised to find her ankles being disconnected from her handcuffs. It soon made sense again when her sisters tied the loose ends of the rope to her headboard.
Renata wrote down Legs. Mia groaned and muttered something.
"Speak up, Mia," Renata commanded.
Mia obeyed. "I was regretting not wearing jeans. These leggings are going to offer no protection at all."
Catalina said, "We'll be the judge of that, missy. You're just our guinea pig. If you bias our observations, we might have to repeat the experiment!"
The two 'scientists' began stimulating their subject's nerves. Their fingers danced up and down her legs, quickly reducing her to fits of giggles and useless wiggles. They quickly found that digging in behind her knees made her squirm around a lot, and that light but persistent tickling in the middle of the back of her thigh reliably produced a continuous laugh, which soon forced her to pant for breath. "Nooo, please, mercy," Mia begged, but since there was no mention of a certain squishy, sweet snack item, her sisters were unrelenting.
After several minutes, they gradually slowed to a stop. "Okay, you're way more ticklish than Cat," Renata said, "Out of five isn't gonna cut it. I'll change feet to 8/10, because legs has got to be 10/10."
"I don't know," said Catalina, "Her feet were very ticklish too."
"Fine, 9 for the feet. Now, this position isn't good enough for upper body..." Renata uncuffed Mia's hands, moved them to over her head, and re-cuffed. With Catalina, they rolled the subject onto her back. Then Renata moved towards and past Mia's head, knelt near the foot of it facing along Mia's body, and sat back, pinning Mia's arms beneath her bottom and thighs. Catalina knelt straddling Mia and sat back onto Mia's own thighs, also facing Mia's upper body. Between the handcuffed wrists, headboard-tied ankles, and two curvy sisters sitting on her arms and legs, Mia could barely move.
"Uh oh," she said, "Feeling pretty vulnerable down here."
"Good," said Ren.
Catalina pulled up Mia's t-shirt, exposing her belly, and Renata wrote Belly. Then they began the next test. Catalina did more of the tickling this time, but Renata still could reach well enough to join in. The sisters tried gentle wiggling and gliding, as well as firmer digging in and shaking. For this spot, the latter seemed more effective. Even so, the laughter was not as strong and there was little breathlessness or panic.
"I'm thinking 4," said Renata.
"Hold on," said Catalina, "One more thing I want to try." She shuffled back a bit, brought her face down close to Mia's stomach, and blew a big raspberry right on her belly button. A shriek of laughter burst from Mia. Catalina raspberried her belly again in two more spots. The reaction was delightfully reliable. Catalina lowered her top again.
"Alright, I guess that pushes it up to 5."
"6?"
"Nah, it's a pretty high-effort form of tickling for a brief effect."
"Fair enough."
Next was ribs. Catalina and Renata tickled aggressively all over the front and sides of Mia's rib cage, drawing plenty of laughter, panting and pleas to stop. Especially powerful was the rib-counting game: "Oooonnneee," said Cat, tickling slowly but firmly outwards along both sides of her lowest rib, then she said, "Ttttwwwooo," as she repeated with the next, and after several torturous rib explorations she claimed, "Oh dear, your laughter distracted me, I lost count, I'll have to start over!"
"Nooooooooo!" cried Mia, the dramatic effect undermined by her residual laughter vibrating the Os.
Eventually, the sisters were done with that spot. "I reckon that's a solid 8," said Renata, "So far, the order is legs, feet, ribs, all close together, then belly trailing behind."
Finally, the sisters attacked her armpits. Renata did most of the tickling for this spot, but Catalina got a few tickles in too. There was some decent laughter but they didn't tickle there for very long. Mia's face looked like it hurt a little to tickle vigorously there. Plus, Mia had gotten a bit sweaty from the prolonged tickle torture.
Renata said, "Okay, let's call armpits a 4. So, feet-and-legs and ribbies for the win. We'll be sure to remember, Mia, ha."
"And I'm sure the scientific community would be grateful for our thorough research," Catalina said, "We are now world experts on the tickle response of the Mia subspecies."
"I'm a subspecies? That better be an upgrade from guinea pig, at least."
"You had fun though, right?" said Renata, grinning down at her.
Mia sighed, and reluctantly admitted, "Yeah, I had fun... Thanks."
