"No, no, no, no!" Ethan mumbled, clicking away at his keyboard. The screen was blue, with white text explaining that the computer had "encountered a problem".
He couldn't imagine what the boss would say if he knew that one of his top hackers had lost one of the computers. The things weren't cheap. It was literally his job to deal with the computers and now he had gone and screwed it up.
"Something wrong, Ethan?" his coworker, Kathryn, piped up next to him.
"The computer...I think...I think I killed it!"
"You did what?" Kathryn leaned over to see his computer and was met with the error message. She lowered her voice to a terrified whisper. "Ethan- the boss is going to kill you! You're a hacker, it's practically your job to make sure this doesn't happen!"
"I know!" Ethan exclaimed, putting his head in his hands in frustration. "I know, I know!"
"Ethan...we're going to have to report this," Kathryn sighed.
"I know." Ethan gimaced.
To say he was terrified was an understatement. He knew what happened to employees who made mistakes. It was the one thing that really kept order in their organization. If someone messed up bad enough, they got sent to the T-Room. No one knew what it was like except the people who had already gone, and those employees never talked about it. Ethan could only imagine how horrific the torture had to be to keep everyone silent.
That was probably what was going to happen to Ethan now.
Kathryn pursed her lips before whispering, "I can...not tell the boss?"
"No," Ethan said, shaking his head. "If he finds out you withheld that from him, you'll probably go too. It's best if we tell him...and I..." Ethan trailed off, fear pooling in his gut.
"It's okay," Kathryn assured, patting his back. "Do you want me to tell him?"
He nodded.
She stood up and walked down the aisles of computers, leaving the hacking room and making her way down the dim hallways towards the main office; she didn't want to turn in her friend, but it had to be done. In an underground community like this one, efficiency was everything.
When she arrived at the office, she rang the bell outside of the door to announce her presence. Once she was allowed to enter, she was met with the Boss and his right hand man, the latter standing in the corner, stone-faced.
The Boss glanced up at her with a genial, but formal, smile. "Good morning. Kathryn is it? Come in."
She stepped forward nervously. "S-sir?"
"You can call me Mr. Fischbach, if you'd like. How can I help you?"
"I...need to report something."
"Oh?"
"My coworker, Ethan. He, uh, tried to fix a virus on one of the computers, but...it didn't go so well. The computer isn't working anymore." Kathryn breathed deeply when she finished, nervous for her friend.
The Boss sighed and paused, turning to the man in the corner. "Tyler, ready the T-Room."
The curly-haired man nodded and left the office.
Kathryn winced at the sound of the office door clicking closed.
"Thank you, Kathryn, for bringing this to my attention. You may return to your work. We'll take care of the rest." Mr. Fischbach gestured for her to leave; he stood, no doubt about to make an announcement over the intercom.
Kathryn left the office and headed straight for her workspace. Ethan's head popped up when he saw her.
"W-what'd he say?"
"I'm sorry, Ethan." Kathryn felt helpless and unable to comfort him as she saw fear fill his eyes.
"Ethan Nestor of Sector H. Please report to the T-Room." The Boss' voice rang out over the intercom. "Ethan Nestor of Sector H."
All of their coworker's heads whipped around to see their terrified friend as he stood and made his way to the dreaded T-Room. Whispers followed him as he took the walk of shame.
"Ethan, what'd you do?"
"Is he going to be alright?"
"I don't think the kid can handle it."
Ethan ignored all the passing remarks as he put up a strong facade and continued down the halls, past the other workers and sections and factions, the other offices and departments. He led himself down the stairs, through dimly-lit hallways, right and then left and then right again, to the back corner of the bottom floor.
He ended up in front of the door much quicker than he had hoped for. Taking a deep breath, he opened it, stepping into the darkened room with butterflies in his stomach. He closed the door behind him as he took in the sights.
There was a table with cuffs attatched to the top and bottom corners in the center of the room. Beside the table were Mr. Fischbach and his right hand man Tyler talking quietly between themselves.
Tyler looked up at the employee and nodded in his direction, directing the Boss to acknowledge him.
The Boss followed Tyler's line of vision and sighed before walking towards the young man. "Ethan. Let's cut right to the chase. You've made a serious mistake that will cost this company hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars."
"I-I'm sorry-"
"Apologies will not free you from your punishment. See, we must punish our employees to make sure they do not make carefree and silly mistakes." Mr. Fischbach put his hand on Ethan's shoulder and guided him to the table.
"Now, we'll need for you to take off your shirt, pants and shoes."
"W-what?"
"Take them off. It makes it easier for us," the Boss commanded. Ethan did as he was told, not wanting to make the torture harder on himself. Aside from his boxers, he was completely exposed.
"Good. Now lay down on the table."
Ethan obliged, laying his bare back on the table and letting the Boss fasten the cuffs around his ankles before pulling his arms above his head and restraining his wrists, as well.
Ethan was terrified. He could only imagine the amount of pain he was going to go through. Everyone he'd ever seen come out was embarrassed, somewhat changed, and never wanting to mess up ever again. They always warned against being sent to the fully-equipped, sound-proofed T-Room, which was hidden far away from the rest of the offices.
He bit his lip, scared out of his mind. What were they going to do, exactly? Waterboarding? Burning? Maybe-
"Wha- Hey! Hehehey! Stahahap!" Ethan giggled as he felt the soft pads of quick fingers skittering up his soles. "I'm tihihicklihihish!"
"That's exactly what we were hoping for," the Boss smirked at him. Ethan paled. He couldn't mean...
Just then, there was a metallic sound. Ethan turned his head to the left to find Tyler pulling out a table. He craned his head as much as he could through his giggles to get a glance of everything on it; when he did, his eyes went wide.
On the table lay feathers of all sizes and stiffness; there were makeup brushes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and paintbrushes. There was even a bottle of baby oil.
This wasn't normal torture.
This was tickle torture.
Ethan tried to remember last time he had been tickled. It had been a long time, when he was a kid, but he did know one thing: He was very ticklish, so much so that he could tickle himself.
This truly was going to be torture.
"The best thing about using tickling to discipline is that no permanent damage comes to our employees, and they're all too embarrassed to tell everyone exactly what's been done, thus keeping everyone under control due to fear of the unknown," The Boss explained as the pads of his fingers skittered up and down his soles, so light they almost weren't touching them.
Ethan was already lost in his giggles. "M-Mihihihister Fihihischbahahach-"
The Boss smirked. "You may call me Mark for the time being. It'll help save some breath." He tilted his head to the right, gesturing to his right-hand man. "And you may refer to him as Tyler."
Mark glanced over to his assistant. "Tyler? Care to join?"
The curly-haired man plucked a paintbrush off the table before he stepped up and proceeded to flick it across Ethan's neck, causing his giggles to kick up a notch. The blue-haired man tossed his head back and forth at the soft and tingly feeling.
"My, my, you are quite the ticklish one," Mark chuckled. "That's going to make things so much more fun. For us, that is. For you, not so much."
Still smirking, he switched from skittering to scratching at Ethan's soles with his blunt nails; he raked his fingers up and down the thrashing feet quickly and ruthlessly, over and over.
"AHAHAHAHA! NOOOHOHOHAHAHAAA!" Ethan shrieked in laughter, trying his hardest to thrash away, but was obviously unable to do so.
"Looks like someone has very ticklish feet," Mark said. "Good. They're always the most fun to tickle."
Tyler at last offered up a few sentences as he put the brush aside. "Speak for yourself. Upper body is the most fun."
He directed his words to their victim, now. "Let's see if you're just as ticklish up here." Tyler began scratching at the hollows of Ethan's armpits, using expert technique to get the best possible reaction.
Ethan's laughter didn't change much- however, his thrashing became more frantic. Tyler was clearly displeased with the lack of a reaction, so his hands travelled downwards, testing each inch of skin. As soon as he began tickling at his ribs, it was all over for Ethan.
"AHAHAA! WAIHAIHAIHAI! AHAHAHAHA!" the hacker screamed in laughter.
"I think I found a tickle spot. Cootchie cootchie coo~" Tyler teased, grinning madly when Ethan's face turned a brilliant pink. Ethan had no idea why, but the teasing suddenly made his nerves feel hightened, making it tickle more at his sudden embarrassment.
"I bet his feet are worse," Mark said as he explored the man's foot, his fingers scratching at every bit it could reach. When his fingers reached his toes, Ethan's back arched as he screamed.
"NOHOHO! NAHAHAHA THEHEHERE! PLEHEHEHEHAHAHA!"
"Oh? Why not here?" Mark began to pull his toes back with one hand and poised the other hand right over the exposed skin. Tyler had stepped back to watch, smirking with new intrigue.
"I'm wahahay...way tohohoo ticklish thehehere! Plehehease!"
Mark tsked and shook his head. "This is why you're here. You shouldn't have been so careless earlier, Ethan." With that, he dug in, his fingernails mercilessly scratching underneath his toes.
Ethan went ballistic, his cackling reaching new hieghts as he sputtered out incoherent nonsense. It had been less than fifteen minutes and they had already zeroed in on his worst spot.
Tyler joined his fingers in at his ribs again, and in just a minute or two, Ethan's laughter went silent. The two sensations, as well as the feeling of being so vulnerable and exposed, unable to struggle, had him over the moon with laughter, gasping and struggling, his mouth in a wide-open grin.
Luckily for him, it soon stopped.
Mark was rubbing the tingly feelings from his feet as Ethan regained his breath. "Goodness, you're one of the most ticklish people I've ever seen! But we're not nearly done. Can't have you passing out before we're finished, can we? Although I'm sure you'd probably rather be unconscious and miss it."
Ethan was gasping for air, his head buzzing with elation. He pondered Mark's words. He didn't feel like he wanted to miss any of it. He felt...happy. It felt good to laugh like this, to laugh so hard he couldn't process anything else. If he were to be completely honest, he loved it. He didn't want it to end.
"How about we try and find every single tickle spot, shall we? We don't want any place to feel left out," Mark chuckled darkly.
Ethan felt butterflies in his tummy at the knowledge that it wasn't over. He still had a lot more to look forward to. At this thought, he bit his lip to try and hide a grin, feeling incredibly joyous.
Mark's brows furrowed, obviously confused by this expression. "By now, most people are crying and begging for mercy. You must be very strong-willed to have gotten through all that without even struggling all that much." He leaned forward, eyes darkening, though his tone never turned threatening. "But rest assured you will break, and learn to be more careful with the company's equipment."
At these words, it suddenly occured to Ethan that liking this...wasn't normal. It was probably weird. He was probably an anomaly...he was probably a freak.
He was torn from his thoughts when he felt fingers at his sides.
The ones on his left, Tyler's, were gently carressing the skin, sliding up and down ever so softly, while on the other side, Mark's fingernails were scratching ruthlessly, his eyes gleaming as he wrung cackle after cackle out of the young employee. The two conflicting sensations drove Ethan into deep laughter.
"Nahahahaha! Gohohohoddahahahammit!"
Tyler gazed down at Ethan with confusion, tilting his head to the side slightly. He wasn't... begging? Mark looked up at his right-hand man with the same confusion. In all their time of tickle torture, every employee had been begging for them to stop by now, even people less ticklish than this one.
It was time to kick it up a notch.
"Get the electric toothbrushes. That should get him desperate," Mark demanded.
Tyler moved quickly to the table and grabbed two brushes while Ethan recovered; his face once again stoic, he handed one to Mark. Without warning, and without hesitation, the two turned on their brushes and descended the rapidly spinning bristles onto Ethan's ribs.
The hacker shrieked and began thrashing, his cackling filling the room. "FAHAHAHAHAHAAA! AHAHAHAAAHAHAAA!"
The two let the brushes buzz cruelly over and in between the bones, never stopping in the midst of the high-pitched hysterics. But...Ethan didn't beg or scream for it to end. He wasn't crying. He wasn't even pleading for mercy. He was just lying there, taking it.
Tyler huffed and smirked as he targeted his lower ribs. "You sure seem eager. What, do you like this or something?" he joked.
Ethan's reaction was a dead giveaway. His face grew insanely red and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "N-NOHOHOHOHAHAHA!" He couldn't let it be known that he liked it. It was weird...and wrong. God, and it was just embarrassing.
Knowing grins met Mark and Tyler's faces, and they locked eyes before turning back to their victim. "You do like this, don't you?" Mark exclaimed. "I've never met any employee who enjoyed being tortured before."
"SHUHUHAHAHAHA- SHUHUHUT UHUHUHUP!" Ethan screeched, trying to bury his blushing face in his shoulder to hide; he was beyond mortified, so much so that he didn't care what it was exactly that he had just said to his boss.
"Well if you like this so much, I guess we shouldn't stop," Mark suggested, realizing with relish that their torture session had just became a whole new kind of fun.
"NOHOHOHOHO!" Ethan cackled, arching his back, humiliated at the turn of events.
Tyler cooed, "Aw, look at him, he's pushing his ribs up towards us! I think he loves this."
Ethan squealed in embarrassment, but none of the emotions he was feeling were negative. The teasing gave him butterflies and seemed to heighten the tickling sensation, which he enjoyed in the first place; he felt absolutely giddy at their playful words.
The intense tickling sensations left him suddenly; Ethan felt only the leftover buzz as the toothbrushes left his skin. He breathed heavily, the smile never leaving his face as he calmed himself.
"Tell me, Ethan," Mark asked, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. "Do you like raspberries?" Tyler grinned at their victim with the same look.
He looked up at them with a puzzled look through his giggles. "Wh-whahat?" Ethan asked, watching as Tyler leaned his head down towards his ribs. "I dohon't- AAAHAHAHA- FUHUHUHUHUHUCK!" He screamed in laughter as Tyler pressed his lips to his ribs and blew into them, making the skin vibrate in a maddening way. His entire body jolted before thrashing as much as he could in his bonds, so unused to such a strange sensation that he couldn't even remember how to speak.
When Tyler at last stopped his assault, Ethan attempted to recover, panting and gulping in air.
"Whahat...wahas thahat?"
"That was a raspberry," Mark chuckled. "You don't know what a raspberry is?"
"Nohohoho!"
"Well, I guess you need another demonstration!" Tyler declared. Before Ethan could protest, he was leaning down and blowing a multitude of shorter raspberries all over his ribs, eliciting countless hysterical squeals and squawks.
"TYHY-TYHYHYLEHEHEHER! TYHYLEHEHER! PLEAHEAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
Tyler paused his assault, giving Ethan room to breathe so that he could ask, "Please...what?" When Ethan looked away and didn't answer, Tyler prompted, "Please stop?"
He recieved no response, but a deep blush formed clearly over Ethan's ears.
"Do you want us to keep going?" Mark asked.
"I- I...um...n-nohoho..." Ethan stuttered and stumbled over his giggly words. His answer was rather unconvincing.
Tyler glanced at Mark with a shit-eating grin; his boss looked back with a matching expression. The kid really did want more. Both would be lying if they said it wasn't adorable.
With a grin, Tyler teased, "Oh, I know what you were going to ask. You were going to say 'please let Mark tickle me, too', weren't you?" They watched as Ethan blushed further, enjoying himself too much to argue.
"Well, since he obviously wants you to participate too, Mark, why don't you choose the next spot?"
"I choose this adorable tummy right here!" Mark slid his fingers lightly over Ethan's belly, making it quiver at the tingly feeling.
Ethan didn't speak or struggle- he just laid back, hysteric giggles pouring out of him as Mark spidered his fingers up the soft flesh. Tyler snuck a finger into his belly button and wiggled it around, eliciting a few loud squeals and lots of laughter.
"Raspberries tend to work very well on this little cutie! I wonder how it'll feel on his tum-tum?" Mark teased before leaning over and blowing a big fat raspberry right over Ethan's navel. The victim bucked and shrieked, laughing and pulling desperately at the cuffs as Mark added his hands in, letting them spider over the rest of his quaking tummy.
"I guess it must tickle!" Tyler chuckled, his finger kneading at his sides and making everything more intense. The intensity, however, wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it was a great thing. Ethan was loving every second, no matter how much his body screamed at him to escape the torturous sensations.
The Boss slowly worked his hands down over the sensitive flesh as he let the raspberry end, until his fingers began grazing Ethan's hip bones. Now there was a spot they hadn't tested out. With a grin, Mark dug into the victim's hips; he drilled his thumbs into the hollows while his other fingers scratched and kneaded the surrounding area.
Ethan's entire frame jolted as he let out a scream. "AHAHAHAHA! FAHAHAHACK!"
"Is that another tickle spot? You're just ticklish everywhere, aren't you, cutie?" Tyler laughed before bending over to blow another affectionate raspberry on his tummy.
"Tyler, I have a suggestion!" Mark had to raise his voice to even have a hope of being heard over the volume of Ethan's laughter.
"I'm listening."
"He's gone this whole time without even asking us to stop. Let's see how much it takes to get him to beg!"
"Ooo, good idea," Tyler said with a grin. "I'm sure we can have him pleading for mercy, no matter how much he loves it!"
Mark winked at Tyler and began softly poking and prodding Ethan's ribs, gliding his fingers over and in between the bones. The victim's laughter died down a bit at the shift in intensity; he took the opportunity to breathe.
Just as he took a deep breath, he heard a loud buzzing sound, and had no time to prepare himself as Tyler jumped in with two electric toothbrushes spinning on his ribs. Ethan snorted loudly and descended into wild cackling.
The two torturers laughed along as they drove him insane with the conflicting sensations. Ethan jerked one way to escape the maddeningly soft touches of Mark's fingers, then the other way to escape the scrubbing of Tyler's toothbrushes. It was an endless cycle of laughter and thrashing.
"Cootchie cootchie coo, Ethan~ What's the matter? Too ticklish for your own good?"
"Aren't you just adorable? All helpless to the tickling all over your tickle spots!"
"Tickle tickle tickle! Kitchy kitchy kitchy kitchy coo! You've got such cute, ticklish ribs!"
These guys know how to torture. The teasing somehow made every nerve feel heightened, in turn making him absolutely helpless to his own laughter from the overwhelming sensations.
When he thought it couldn't get any worse, Tyler leaned down and began brushing his stubble against the exposed ribs, which proved to be effective as evident by the sudden rise in pitch of Ethan's shrieks and screams.
"GNAHAHAHAHAHA! C-CAHAHAHAHAN'T! AHAHAHA!"
The poor hacker was laughing like a madman. All he could do was laugh and laugh and laugh. Mark and Tyler almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
He still hadn't asked them to stop. Tyler and Mark were determined to get him desperate.
"Still not begging? Do you just love being tickled that much?" Tyler cooed, not letting up on the torture one bit. Ethan opted to simply laugh, rather than deny or protest any longer; he didn't want to wear himself out, or risk them actually stopping.
The tormentors, clearly displeased at the lack of protests, each moved a hand to his hips. Mark's touch continued as maddeningly soft touches. Skimming his fingers, poking and prodding, or just softly kneading at the skin, all his touches were so quick and gentle that they seemed to light up every nerve.
Tyler, on the other hand, stuck with the toothbrushes: One remained on his ribs, while the other ventured towards the hollow of his hip bone where the bristles began to buzz and scrub across the ever-sensitive skin.
Ethan shrieked as his hips were made a target once again. He bucked and cackled, sure that even if he did want it to stop, he wasn't exactly capable of doing so. Two of his worst tickle spots were being tormented. He had conflicting touches driving him insane. All this combined with the teasing words from his superiors made him feel all the more sensitive.
"Aren't you a ticklish little cutie pie!"
"To think a grown man could be taken down by the big bad tickle monster? How adorable!"
"You're so red! Are you embarrassed about how ticklish you are? Or by how much you enjoy it?"
Tyler and Mark continued while thinking up other options, never letting up on their torture. A good five minutes passed, filled with deafening hysterics and the occasional teasing remark...until Mark's face brightened with another idea.
He stopped his tickling in favor of moving away from the employee and grabbing the baby oil off of the table of tickle tools. Tyler halted as well, allowing Ethan to gasp for much-needed air.
All Mark had to do was show the bottle to Tyler for him to understand what was going to happen next.
The Boss walked down to Ethan's bare feet and opened the bottle, slathering a generous amount of the slick stuff across his soles, paying special attention to his toes; all the while, the victim giggled and squirmed, knowing what he was in for.
Though they were itching to get the poor thing begging, one thing was true: No matter how much of it they heard, there was no denying that Ethan's laughter could brighten up a room. Niether of them felt they could ever tire of hearing it.
"Tyler. You take hips. I've got his toes. He'll be screaming for mercy in no time."
Mark didn't hesitate. He pulled back Ethan's toes and began scratching mercilessly at the sensitive skin right away. Tyler let his toothbrushes buzz at each of Ethan's hipbones.
The reaction was priceless. Ethan was bucking and thrashing as if he had been electrocuted. His screams of laughter were louder than before; for a second, Mark wondered if maybe his laughter could be heard outside the room, despite the sound proofing.
"NAHAHA- NAAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAAAHAAA!"
"Aw, I think this might be it for you, Ethan~"
"Your toes are so tickle-tickle-ticklish! Maybe too ticklish for you to last!"
"Kitchy kitchy kitchy coo!"
Ethan arched his back at the near-overwhelming stimulations; he didn't know where to struggle, since each side was being tickled, and there was no way to escape. Below him was a sturdy table, above him were his superiors. His wrists and ankles were secured with cuffs too thick to even hope to break.
He felt Mark drag his fingernails down his soles, forcing a screech and more high-pitched cackling from him; when Ethan took this opportunity to curl his toes, the Boss tsked, "Ah, ah, ah!" before pulling the poor digits back and tickling ruthlessly underneath them once again.
"PLEHEHEHAHAHAHA! STAHAHAHA!" Ethan screamed.
The tickling halted.
"I think I heard a certain tickle addict ask for us to stop."
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Did that really count?"
"It's enough for me. Most employees usually can't take more than 30 minutes of this. This one lasted twice as long."
"Fine. We wouldn't wanna break him, anyway."
"Th-thahahahank yohohou." Ethan giggled and wheezed, trying to recover.
Never before had Mark and Tyler ever been thanked after a torture session before. The Boss gestured at the panting man, and Tyler walked over to release him from the cuffs.
Ethan immediately curled up into a giggling ball on the table. The two tormentors smiled at him before helping him stand and giving him his clothes.
"I still can't believe you liked that," Tyler chuckled, grinning as Ethan's blush returned. "I have never seen someone enjoy that, and we've tortured too many people in this fashion to count over the years."
Ethan cringed and bit his lip as he slid on his shirt, feeling worse by the minute. Tyler saw his distress and cocked his head to the side.
"You feel weird about it...don't you?"
"...Yeah."
"Don't," Mark chimed in. "That was really cute, and fun for all of us."
Ethan perked up at those words.
"Now get your shit together and look upset for the people out there. No one can know what kind of torture we do unless they've been here. So don't go blabbing."
Ethan nodded as he put on his final piece of clothing and started towards the door. The other two followed. Before he could grab the door handle, Tyler put a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks for a good time, blueberry." The curly-haired man ruffled Ethan's hair and smirked at him.
Mark chuckled. "I'll have to remember the name Ethan Nestor."
"Thanks, Boss. Thanks, uh, Mr. Scheid."
"Mark and Tyler, to you." All three were smiling as the black-haired man corrected him. "But out there, yeah, stick to Mr. Scheid and Mr. Fishbach."
Mark threw open the door and pushed Ethan out, causing him to stumble and fall to his knees. "And don't go screwing up again!" Mark slammed the door shut and began walking down the hall to his office, Tyler in tow, but not before winking at Ethan with a simper.
Ethan rose to his feet, still weak from his torture (if he could even call it that). It was a punishment to everyone else, however, which was made apparent by a couple of nearby employees coming over to help him up once Mark and Tyler were out of sight.
"What was it like?"
"You look exhausted!"
"What happened in there?"
Ethan did his best to look upset when, in reality, he couldn't have been happier. The other employees were kind enough to help him back out to his cubicle, where Kathryn flocked to his aid as he sat down.
"Oh my god, Ethan! Are you okay? What did they do?"
"I'd rather not talk about it," Ethan muttered before turning to his computer. He stared at the equipment, which had been replaced in the time he had been gone for.
He had gotten to that room by making a stupid mistake. That room where he had had the time of his life and had made two new friends.
What was to stop him from making another "mistake"?
