By aJonymous
This is an account of my noble mission to draw my awesome but shy college room mate Jake out of his shell. I guess it doesn’t hurt either to mention that there was copious amounts of tickling involved. I’ll start at the moment where my plan began to take shape.
There was a summer pool party happening with a bunch of our class mates. Jake seemed not very enthused about attending, but was ultimately dragged along. We knew he’d been a state champion short distance swimmer in high school, but do you think we could even get him to take a dip? He just hung around and chatted with whoever was parked as far away from the pool as possible.
I had lately been trying to interest Jake in joining our college swim team, but he claimed to be too busy with study and his social life. Well one thing led to another at the party and people began to be chucked in the pool by a few conspirators. It was aimed at the girls on the whole, but Jake’s reluctance to take a swim had also been noticed, and eventually a bunch of dudes came for him.
After a little futile struggling, four guys carried Jake and dumped him in the deep end, fully clothed (though his cell phone was given a reprieve). He turned out to have brought no other clothes along, so I told him I had some stuff he could change into and walked with him to the bathroom with my bag of gear. Though I waited outside I caught a glimpse of Jake changing. “Aha!” I said to myself. “He’s self conscious about his skin.”
It appeared that Jake had possibly abandoned his competitive swimming for the same reason he was not keen on the pool party. He’d obviously developed chronic acne on his body in the closing stages of his teens. The condition seemed to leave his cute boyish face alone, but there were breakouts on much of his torso.
I decided that if this was indeed what was putting a downer on the prime of my room mate’s young adulthood, then I would do my best to provide a remedy.
One night in our room we got drunk and I steered the conversation around to the topic of insecurities. I told Jake how I was kind of embarrassed about a couple of scars on my face from my teenage bout of chicken pox.
“Hey Simon, you shouldn’t worry about it. I can hardly notice them. But I know what ya mean.
I have some stuff going on with my skin that gets to me a little.”
“What’s up with your skin dude? Looks fine from here.”
“Well..you promise not to give me any crap about this in public?”
“When have I ever….. oh yeah the stained bedsheet joke – I apologized for that like a dozen times! Anyway of course I won’t say a word.”
“OK, it’s just I’ve got mega acne on my body and it won’t go away.”
“Oh that’s too bad. But hey come to think of it, maybe it needn’t be such a worry. Did you know that the research centre I work at part time on campus is trialing this new treatment regime that’s like a fucking silver bullet for acne.”
He seemed interested in this, but still cautious. “Problem is I’d hate dealing with all those people. I did a paid experiment with the psych department just after we enrolled last semester and there was a solid eight pages of paperwork.”
“But I could check out how it’s operated, and then we could go in when no one else is around and you wouldn’t even be on the books.”
“Really? But could you do it safely? You’ve said your work has stuff like lasers.”
“Oh sure I already help out on that kind of stuff. The only hazards are the bright flashes, so they give us safety glasses. But it’s not just the laser they’re using. It’s a….holistic treatment that deals with both the physical symptoms and some of the environmental stresses that can lead to a breakout.”
Some of my spiel I gave Jake was made up, but it was true we had the blue laser for rapidly clearing up acne, along with new follow up treatment that more than doubled its effectiveness. And by coincidence it would provide me the perfect setting and excuse to tickle Jake like I’d sorely wanted to since I’d met him.
In fact I had seriously wondered if the researchers working on this weren’t total kinky-assed Mo-Fos themselves, because it involved enclosing the body between two layers of this synthetic kind of silicon membrane, with a cocktail of topical skin rejuvenation peptides and compounds applied to the skin. The membrane clings tight around the skin by some kind of vacuum device, setup in a frame which the transparent sheets attached to. I was one of their volunteers prior to setting up the study on people with bad acne. I got painted with the skin products wearing just my underwear, laid down with the sheets under and over me save for an opening for my neck, and once zipped in with the vacuum activated I noticed I was effectively held frozen in the one position inside the envelope of silicon. I literally had all the mobility of a statue. But in spite of keeping me held there, it was so thin and transparent that I still kind of felt undressed. When Karl, one of the assistants, had manually rubbed in some of the lotions through my enclosing layer for a second or so I’d had to bite my tongue since it tickled just as if his hands were on my skin. If he’d really used his fingers I would have been in hysterics.
This was going to be amazing – not only getting Jake in a situation where he’d be at my mercy, but having a scientific excuse to let me tickle him. Oh yeah that’s the bit I still haven’t explained. My ‘holistic approach’ would involve treating the acne, plus any stress that Jake was under, using the principles of laughter therapy. I was sure he’d never read anything about such treatment and since we were using the equipment on the sly, he probably would never be any the wiser.
Six days later the lab access conditions were perfect. Senior staff were off at a conference and I was the only assistant on duty. The lab was remote enough for noise not to carry. I phoned Jake to confirm that it was our best chance and he said he’d be over straight away.
On his arrival I made sure I sounded like I knew exactly what to do. “Hey man” I said. “We need about an hour to do this right and I’ve got it all down pat. First off, we should treat more of your skin than just where the current break outs are. That closes off the possibility of symptom migration from treated to other areas. So I’ll need you to just wear these safety glasses and this disposable G string.”
Jake looked at the G string bashfully. “Jeez!. Well if you’re sure there’s no one else around.”
“Just us dude.”
He found himself a semi private corner of the lab and moments later emerged wearing the G string. Jake had lost almost none of his swimmer’s frame in the time he’d been away from his training. Broad shoulders and a fan of compact muscle surrounding his ribs. He was every bit as cute undressed as I’d always imagined.
I put on my own safety glasses and we did the laser work, which was a matter of shooting him with an intense blue light all over his skin. It was relatively painless, though I was aware it would make his skin more sensitive than normal for a while afterward. A good side effect.
“OK dude, this is where we move from your standard acne treatment into the new methods. I’m going to paint on our skin repair cream, and once again we’ll do your whole skin not just the affected bits.”
It was a lot of fun covering my room mate’s body with the skin remodeling cream and I could tell Jake was a ticklish guy by some of his squirming and facial expressions.
“Hey when can I rub this in Simon”, he asked.
“You don’t. Wait and see. In fact wait no longer. I need you to come over here and lay face up on this table.”
He did as asked. “Hey it’s weird this coating I’m laying on.”
“You’ll be laying in it actually”, I replied. “Yeah I know it’s bizarre but it like triples the effectiveness of what we’ve done already. Now we need your skin to be as stretched as possible for this part, so I want you to lay for me with your arms and legs extended toward each corner of the table. Yeah that’s perfect.”
I draped the upper sheet of silicon over him, affixing the special portal around his head and neck by a series of air tight zips.
“OK are you fully outstretched man? Cool I’m going to turn on the deflation mechanism so just stay still.”
The air between the layers of transparent silicon was drawn out in a matter of a couple of seconds and Jake was laying there vacuum sealed in a spread-eagle position, suddenly aware that he couldn’t move an inch.
“Fucking hell Simon, this is freaky! How long is it for? And what’s it doing?”
“The pressure and tautness is needed to maximize the absorption by your skin of the ingredients in the cream I put on you. Now Jake, we have about half an hour like this and the final phase of treatment is the in some ways the most potent. That’s because we combine treatment of the physical symptoms with some indirect causes of acne breakouts. Would you say your last year of high school and this year at college have been higher stress than the prior years?”
“Um yeah definitely. But what’s that got to do with this?”
“Stress and anxiety is a major cause of acne breakouts dude. It’s like a vicious cycle – you get symptoms, then they make you more self conscious, and so more prone to getting more of the same symptoms as your stress levels go up. What you need is like a circuit breaker, to make it impossible to be self conscious for long enough to reset your ‘stress meters’. This is what we’re going to deal with as I rub in the creams.”
He looked a little surprised “You said they don’t get rubbed in. I don’t know if I want….”
“No I said you don’t rub them in, and I can see where your hesitance is coming from. That’s why this treatment is perfect for you. We’re going to use our own variety of what’s been termed ‘laughter therapy’. Because when I rub in that stuff, it’s going to really tickle dude.”
“Oh no way, Simon….”
“Yes way, and since there’s only the two of us here you need to feel free to just let go and give in to me all your laughter. The stress release you’ll get will be like nothing else you could imagine.”
“Simon you can’t do this, I’m not….ahaha shit stay away!!!”
“Too late dude – tickle tickle tickle.”
I set to work on those muscled sides and Jake’s protests melted into sweet cries of helpless laughter. It was just like I was tickling his skin, since his imprisoning vacuum coating had much the same feel for me, and transmitted all the tickling sensation through to him.
“HAHAAHAAAAA LET ME UP HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA”
“See, this is the Jake I’ve always known was in there somewhere. No inhibitions, a total live wire. Life of the party. You have a great laugh dude and right now that’s exactly what we need to hear from you.”
In spite of his ticklish torment, Jake was trapped in the exact same position as when I’d activated his vacuum seal. I could see his arm muscles strain, but he was going absolutely nowhere and he knew it.
“PLEHEHEHEHEEEEZE SIMON STOP HAHAHAHAAAAAAA”
I let up for long enough to change my position. “OK I’ll stop to allow you to focus. Think of a stressful time of semester. Are you thinking of it?”
“I don’t have to think of one – it’s fucking happening to me now in this freaky experiment!”
I could tell from that facetious response that Jake wasn’t actually completely hostile to being tickled, as much as it had driven him crazy only moments before. I knew we would come out of this episode as even closer friends, and that was all the reassurance I needed.
“Well I can totally relate to your predicament there Jake, and so I’ll help you out of your stressful state with a good dose of armpit tickling.” Down came my fingers into the muscled recesses of his pits. He totally lost every shred of control from first contact of my fingers.
“HAHAHAHA STOPHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA,” he bellowed.
“We’re gonna keep you laughing flat out another minute dude then I’ll give ya a rest.”
“NOOOO HAHAHAHAAAA I CAN’T HAHAHA STAND IT HAHAHAHAAA”
“Only 45 seconds to go now, just let me have your unrelenting laughter. No thoughts of shyness or holding it in.” I knew he hardly had any choice there, but it felt cool taunting him about it with my fingers oscillating across his defenseless pits. When we’d reached the full minute I doubted he could have formed syllables, let alone said anything in protest.
As Jake lay there panting and intoxicated by his minute of intense pit tickling I said “So has anyone tickled you this much before dude?”
He panted in reply “my ex boyfr…um I mean this swimming buddy of mine from high school used to…..” He looked up at me, and he knew that I knew that he’d almost said ‘boyfriend’ in his delirious state. Then he swore under his breath. I grinned back.
“Jake, relax dude. What’s said in the lab stays in the lab. I never would have guessed, by the way.”
“I still can’t believe I let that slip. Though I have wanted to tell you, since we’re room mates, and I think a lot of you….when you’re not tickling the crap out of me that is.”
“The perfect cue” I responded and lunged forward with my fingers making the dreaded tickling motion. Jake burst into laughter just from the approach of my hands and descended into hysterics as my fingers reached his abs and chest. HAHAHAAAAA STOP HAHAHA SIMON HAHAHAAA…”
“Sorry dude but we have even more environmental stresses to counteract since you just accidentally came out to your room mate. Tickle tickle… So what was his name?..”
“HAHAHAHAHA MahAhahahahaha Marcus HAHAHAHA”
“And he liked tickling you huh?”
“HAHAHAHA YES AHAHAH STOP YOU AHAHA FUHAHAHUCKER!!!…”
“You guys still on good terms?” I eased off a little and just rubbed my hands gently over the areas I had been actively tickling.
“Hehehe ahh yeah, we catch up by phone and on the web. Why?”
“OK lets phone him now so he can enjoy your ticklish laughter like the old days!” I picked up Jake’s cell phone as though I was finding Marcus’s number to dial.”
“NO Fucking WAY! Put it down Simon or I swear I’ll break out of this…”
“Too late it’s ringing. Hi it’s Jake’s room mate Simon calling. Jake hasn’t got his hands free just at present, but I’ll help out so he can express himself to you Marcus.”
I put the phone beside Jake’s frantic face and launched a vigorous tickle attack up and down his torso.
“NO hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa STOP!!! hahahaha.”
“Tell Marcus what’s happening Jake”
“My haahahaa room mate is hahahahahah tickling hahahahaha me!! hahahahaha shihit stop…”
A few minutes later I gave him a break. “Hey, I never dialed the number man. Was just testing how stressful a situation I could neutralize with tickling.”
“Damn you Simon, I totally believed you’d called him! My god I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. They don’t actually do this to people here do they – it’s another of your tricks right?”
“Well…they don’t deliberately tickle anyone, though everything else is the same, including this very kinky vacuum sealing rig. I swear the inventor must be a fetish head!”
“So you mean I’m being tickled just for your benefit?”
“Think of it as we’re finding and releasing the inner Jake, though I might be enjoying it just a tiny bit.”
“Well how about releasing the outer Jake, since it’s not actually needed to rid me of the zits.”
“We’re nearly through man. Besides you’re having too much fun for me to stop right?”
“Oh no – where are you going? Damn it stay away from my feheheheheheeet”
Once again he was my ticklish play thing as I worked over his soles and up between the toes with my fingers racing.
“HAHAHAHAHA FUHAHAHAHCK STOP HAHAHAHA”
“I’ll think about letting you up if you tell me which guys on campus you’ve had crushes on.”
“no way! hahahahahahahaaaaaaaa”
“Jake, the lab is unattended the rest of the day you know. How long do you think you can hold out without telling me?”
“HAHAHAHA SHIT HAHAHAHA IT’S NOT HAHAHAHA FAIR!!!!”
“Good point. Now tell me.”
Poor Jake writhed in helpless ticklishness for another minute, protesting as he went. Then I sat myself up on the treatment table between his legs planted my bare feet into each of his pits, tickling them with my toes as I continued the foot tickling with my fingers. This sent him over the edge.
“HAHAHAHAH OK HAHAHAHAH STOP AHAHAHAHA IT’S YOU HAHAHAHAHA I LUST OVER YOU HAHAHAHAAA SIMON PLEEHEHEHEHEEEEEZE HAHAHAHA”
This was quite startling. I never would have known Jake had a thing for me. I let up on the tickling.
As his breathing normalized Jake spoke: “That must be about the most humiliating way anyone has ever had to confess their feelings for someone.”
“Jake, are you really saying you’ve had a crush on me?”
“Like ever since we met dude.”
“Jeez….. How do I know you’re not just using this a ploy to get free of the tickling?”
“Let’s see: You have a tiny mole on your right triceps that I see when you’re sleeping. Your favorite jocks are the blue hipster briefs with the navy trim. You liked it when your last girlfriend Sara kneaded between your shoulders after swim training. The other day at the pool party you asked Pete to apply sun screen to your back even though I was standing just as close. I could go on. But anyway I guess we’ll need to change dorm rooms since you’ll be like paranoid all the time that there’s this pimple-ridden closet case lusting over you.” His face turned sad at that final comment.
“Hey – you’re wrecking the experiment. We need you to be in high spirits. Don’t even think about changing dorm rooms. I’m not going to pass up on the affections of someone I think the world of. Especially when they’re like the cutest thing around and they don’t even realize it. I mean it man – you’re unbelievably hot.” Then we kissed for I’m not sure how long, but you could have rolled the entire end credits to a Spielberg movie over it.
“Are you gonna let me out of this freaky vacuum seal any time soon?”
“When I’ve tickled your feet some more.”
“How about we change places instead?”
“Mmmm – me at the mercy of Jake. If you’ll join the swim team I’ll do it.”
“Deal.”
Ten minutes later, Jake was looking down at me in my helpless position on the very same table.
In my remaining moments of sanity, as I felt the storm of ticklishness approaching with his fingers hovering above my body, I thought to myself “hmm – success at removing my shy room mate’s inhibitions? Yep – ten out of ten.”
Then I was distracted by the onset of an intense sensation in my armpits and felt uncontrolled laughter burst through my whole body. Agony and ecstasy all at once, with my adoring room mate lapping up my wails of laughter and pleas for mercy.
That was 3 months ago. Jake’s skin was looking (and tasting) superb in no time. I swear we’re going to bust this researcher’s equipment one of these weeks if we don’t find a new tickle torture venue.