Story Notes
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A nice detail in a yet-to-be-released episode from Matt snuck back out of my subconscious, and I swear it was unintentional. But it adds a great turn-of-the-screw sentiment to one scene. More specific attibution will follow at the appropriate time.
I'll tip my hat, as I should - this episode was started after 'Storytella3000' made me aware of a discussion in the Y! FI Group, concerning a recently released movie, and the exchange of further comments.
It's (um) funny how some things work out. This episode started arriving as if it was just another account of an overly delighted TM. Somewhere past the halfway point it occurred to me that the victim was not... all that he seemed.
Another unusual thing is that the whole episode, from start to finish, was written the same day. (Maybe one in twenty just keeps pouring out until it's done. I don't know if this is a particularly good thing or not.)
Tom is a career victim. He knows what's up and how unavoidable it is, so there's no need for wasted words. The tickler is utterly capable, totally relaxed... and, as it turns out, just a little too intent on having its fun.
The mood of a story on ASSM got to me and helped inspire this ordeal. I'm a sucker for mood.
The central idea was suggested by another ASSM tale. Being securely caught, very close to others, would add another level of craziness for me. The cities I know are depersonalized enough to protect any smart TM from excessive curiosity, which complicates an attempt to search for a missing acquaintance.
The last scene was written first - a long, long time ago. I knew the TM would have accumulated some experience, and was out to recreate some aspects of what it had done earlier. This is not the first time that I've wondered if a TM could start out with the best of motives... and end up working a dude over (and over, etc.) with that solemnly cheerful assurance long after the original justification had fallen by the wayside.
I'm fascinated by the idea of what it would be like, for the little brother... hauled back up those stairs the second time - and even more daunting, the third time.
Some slash fiction with tickling in it caught my eye, because it was so exuberant. (Goofy-happy-enthused.) These ticklers are a bit less subtle with their contempt, even though they chose their victim because he enjoys what they enjoy. There's probably another episode rattling around about an TM who's impressed enough with a tickler to mentor him...
Did Cool set up his brother? Does his own reaction to tickling imply past events that make Dash's ordeal even more fitting? (Ever worn tight silk after being bulldozed for a few hours...?)
A variant of Xhi - I can admit it. There are several episodes here which feature roommates, but this one turned into a look at how one guy might make the gradual adjustment to an exquisitely bizarre lifestyle.
I had a lot of fun writing the "Q-and-A".
Shit, I have more ideas than I know what to do with... and then I start exploring new stuff such as the anthro world or slash fiction. The original "seed" for this episode came from a long story, discovered a few years back. No good ending came to mind - until a correspondent mentioned events he'd like to see, and I remembered again the ol' from-bad-to-worse TM mantra. I like contemplating that later scene in the old warehouse. Five mattresses, five tickled men, teased for the rest of the day, maybe the next day too, and so on. Absolutely no clocks allowed.
This one rattled around my head for a couple years. The moral of the episode is how slippery a relativistic ethical code can be. And ultimately a TM can (and will?) resort to "might makes right", anyway...
Those of you who speak Japanese, please forgive me. The idea was to ridicule the misuse of poorly understood "exotic" terms and concepts, but not disparage the source itself.
Another "bondage arriving in the mail" episode. I know, I know. The goal here was to take another shot at the primary argument opposed to the existence of TMs.
We'd expect to hear about real-life incidents, right? And if something so incredible happened to us, we would seriously want to be believed. But the more thought given to sneakiness and "the more likely explanation," the safer those funloving TMs would be...
"Oh, no way I'd ever go back for more. Hell, no."
A popular gay sex-advice columnist has respectfully suggested that straight guys can be talked into just about anything when they're drunk. (I'm not writing this to vouch for that theory, now, just reporting it.)
If there are TMs who can control thoughts, it seems reasonable that some would enjoy seeing what they could do using more common methods of persuasion first, since they have that irresistible command ability to fall back on.
As I was plugging away at Trucker-Bear I came across yet another story with an absolutely manic tone, in which the glee of the tickler kept ramping up along with the hysteria of the victim. The result here is yet another offshoot, maybe.
Just think of those slow hands, endlessly wandering up and down your sides, hour after hour...
Definitely not for everyone, huh?
Another old tickling story got me thinking about a subject that seems logical enough for TMs, but it makes this here Dad uneasy. My sons will be safe, I hope - but hey, the future could be a whole 'nuther kettle of fish.
Another experiment. The juvenile-style babbling is not for everyone, I guess. But I really like the action.
Once again, another story gave me a jump-start. The opening scene there has a burglar getting interrupted - and tickled - by a magician's spell, and that narrator doesn't know or care how long the thief will be laughing. "What if," I thought. Heh.
With my luck, I'd be the buddy who tries to come over and help... only to feel that attention shift from my delirious friend, and turn in my direction.
Later on, is there any real chance of coming to the rescue (again), or would that simply be volunteering myself for more gleeful torture?
This idea... ripened for a few years. Two other variations (not posted - yet) look at other possibilities available to TMs who can travel through time. No, wait, that's just not possible. Ancient TMs, then.
In this episode, I was intrigued by what a young, hardy barbarian would make of an absolutely novel experience. A well-known science fiction writer's work inspired the style of the spoken dialogue, and if he should ever find out I can only hope he wouldn't feel insulted.
The newest TMZ author, D_J, has written a hell of a good MM-TM story. In it you'll find a taunt that gave me a goooood dream. Heh. Imagine if a TM had to recruit others' hands...
When some dude is little more than a ticklish pet - for years! - it gives me the distinct impression that the TM responsible is really on top of its game, and all but incapable of making mistakes.
The ending was not what I expected, either, but it felt right.
One morning I woke up from a dream - and I could still see Race. He was standing barely inside the door of his tickle-dungeon, having just walked in. Kicking out smoke, and squinting into the gloom... a second or two before the door closed, ensuring he'd have many months of solid hysteria, right there.
And for a couple weeks I tried to figure out where the hell I'd seen him, in real life - his face is too familiar for me to have "invented" all by my lonesome. I still haven't figured that one out, but if I ever do maybe I'll update this note...
The whole relationship with Croc gave me a chance to work out my disgust with overzealous "self-improvement," or religious people who prey on (uh) "captive audiences" in particular. I could see that Holder's attention was going to shift from the dangerous, buffed-out animals it usually tormented, to li'l old Race... just this once. A long "once", of course. And planning a full-blown jailbreak - which inevitably led him directly to a much more grueling sentence - was cheerfully sadistic.
Another weird dream I had. As "unlikely" as this TM shit is, I still get annoyed when people dismiss it (uh) out-of-hand. C'mon, now... would it really be that difficult for an invisible tickler to kidnap a guy out of a crowded bar?
What would you be yelling to the somewhat inebriated people around you - and how likely do you think it is that your fate could be forestalled? Even so, you still have to leave the building sometime. If it wasn't the first kidnapping for you, contemplate the dread you'd have... and the fear that was just paralyzing enough.
Probably far more character development than you wanted, but hey.
More dream hangover material. Being forced to write an essay, by a TM, would suck... and having a different TM make sure the essay would piss off the first TM - whoooo.
I hadn't really done an "enchanted controller" episode in awhile. A ring would be the perfect enslavement device, but there's not much point when magical rings has Already Been Done to perfection.
This was done as a voluntary "art trade." (Don't take that to be an offer, exactly. It's hard for me to write within fixed limits, in my spare time anyway, but I gave it the old reform-school try.)
If you don't realize there's more than one... character being manipulated in this episode, I might suggest that you give it another read.
At first, this TM seemed to be "male", then "female"... Draw your own conclusion. (That's a big benefit of written stories, I think. You get to revise and amplify to your heart's content. Recast the victim as often as you want - he won't even care, 'cause he's preoccupied. Feverish.)
Maybe I was getting nervous writing about TMs that seem to have good intentions. So here's one that totally casts aside all that do-gooder shit. Down 'n dirty fun, all day, every day.
As I was connecting the "plot dots" I saw this terrific scene take shape... where the captor discovers the baby gangster caught in its hands is suddenly very concerned about whether or not the hand which accidentially brushed against his side will return. Very much on purpose. Heh. It's one of those classic moments that keep me plugging along, here.
Strapped to a chair, long after the only possible rescuer has gone away... realizing, more and more clearly, that a trip into an S&M playroom is imminent. Oh yeah.
To those who found this episode too "gross," I apologize - anal play seemed kinda inevitable, somewhere during the first week or two in the dungeon. And for those who found the episode not intense enough... well, I'm a straight married guy, stretching my imagination just about as far as it'll go.
An e-mail exchange got me thinking about this subject, so 'Storytella3000' gets the props. This three-part episode was only the beginning... since the idea fit in nicely with a longer project that was underway.
While the first 'kidnap' scene was (uh) tapped out first... it was probably the taunting that really kept me motivated on this one. I don't write a lot of baby-talk, from tickler to victim, mostly because others have done it so much better already. But this unbelievably perfect dungeon, hidden under the backyard of the new homeowner, seemed to fit with that kind of teasing that inflames the bound dude's hysteria. Oh, such naughty fingers. They're really going to put it to you now.
I'll also admit to a great fondness for the idea of being tied to a chair, cigarette in mouth, watching satin gloves tumbling around in a clothes dryer - the only time they're "flying" by means which can be understood, and a nice contrast to a few minutes later - when the tickler just pulls 'em on again over its mysterious, energetic hands.
Let's examine Cor's uneasiness with motels, shall we?
Not long after I posted Swap (which was inspired by somebody else's art - see below), Ximon did a straightforward illustration... and while looking at it I wondered what permutations of the motel-room-as-dungeon idea were still waiting to be explored.
I'm sure the idea for the first episode came to me when I was actually in a motel room, all alone. Maybe Americans (or Californians) are more cautious about bothering a complete stranger - particularly when he seems to be having a hilariously good time - but I also liked looking at the growing realization of what must be occurring in the victim's room... along with the fear of the same thing happening to me! Ponder the rush of emotions if you'd been worked over for a few hours and finally noticed the door opening - at last! - but another victim is hauled in, and then that damn door is magically padlocked again. No, hell no, you're not going anywhere. One pebble, in the wrong place, can change your life.
The second episode gives us another example of "needless" altruism on the part of the TMs. If they can feel something like gratitude, maybe sympathy or pity aren't all that far behind. A lot of the details here (such as the son returning, and promptly disappearing into one of the customized rooms) are maybe too elaborate, but I really wanted a solid foundation for the original image - that one victim who is accidentially seen by the embarrassed proprietor, but the poor slob sleeps through the event. And then, of course, the only man who could possibly help them leaves the place for good... pausing in front of a window as he goes, which only frustrates the prisoner chuckling inside.
Finally, behold the skill of Froth. It's probably very annoying to read about extremely long confinements, unless you accept the idea that at least some TM's are sufficiently different from us that they'd lack the lust for novelty that some humans have. You don't see concert violinists selling their instruments every couple months because they need a change...
Maybe a better analogy is rock-polishing (by hand). If you enjoyed that sort of thing, the time it took to get the finished results you wanted would be satisfying. Gabe, unfortunately, doesn't reach a point where his ticklishness cannot be "polished" any more. I figure that superhuman beings who live for tickling would have techniques that put us all to shame.
There's something... humble and straightforward about Froth's cruelty that really got to me.
I guess I was pissed off at some guys who were going to Sturgis, and were gloating about it...
Despite all of the highly unlikely events that are described, this episode is a bridge between the series revealing information about MATI, that most excellent and widespread collective of TMs, and some loosely affiliated training academies like the one "Taos" got to know. A couple of memorable TMs and a victim from other episodes turn up again here.
Amp has a mix of quiet composure and youthful exuberance that really makes me nervous... but in a "good" way.
A conversation about another episode-in-progress gave me an idea. This one pretty much flew out. Real dark shit. I love it.
I think I've posted something about the frustration of having the method of escape placed just out of reach. (Ximon understands it perfectly, as you'll see here.) In this episode I got to take that ball and run with it. Plus the happy accidents which keep verifying, over and over, that the party must go on. Oh - and perhaps you know somebody like that human collaborator, having no idea that his dishonesty is so crucial, protecting the way things are... ensuring a screamingly good time that just won't end.
Disturbing? I kinda hope so.
Yes, I'm aware of all the Freudian undertones. They're deliberate. (We straight guys have enough trouble with deep affection for another dude as it is...) Let me point out that I wrote this thinking that all tortoiseshell cats are female. A search engine just set me, uh, straight on that (male T-shells are rare and usually sterile. Cheerful stuff, huh?).
But that's not the juicy thing I wanted to say about this episode. A correspondent told me about a real-life experience where they were staring at the person tickling them - and just behind, at a TV screen where a previously recorded bout was playing, with the current tickler starring as the victim! Man, I wish I'd thought of that. What a twisty thing to live through. And as it turned out, I didn't end up cribbing that particular scene, but it did take a wide detour and brought us to this big house out in the country.
We never read about places like the Kittery being discovered - and that's proof enough, for most, that they don't. But I have to wonder if we're assuming a normal (human?) level of caution and xenophobia.
See? I do try to respond to suggestions. The first female victim I've written about, hauled off to the same prolonged ordeal as her ex-boyfriend... because of her decision not to rescue him.
(I really wanted to see Kyroan captured again - the ghostly hand over his mouth, his bulging eyes, as he's dragged away. But maybe he's already got enough experience to spice up his dreams for a good long while...)
This episode's setting must be pretty damn close to the Kitday world. How different things would be, huh?
One of Hooder's stories, uh, reminded me of the prolonged joys of being oiled up slowly. The first plot-twist occurs not long after the victim finds his opinion changing about the whole ordeal. Actions speak louder than words, but he rediscovers that some opportunities are not repeated. There's another man he meets who seems more determined to avoid making a similar mistake...
One line in this episode, and the circumstances under which it was uttered, made me want to find it a context. Naturally, we adults will all tell each other that houses with a rotating cast of delirious "roommates" are nonexistent. We know this because the TV never reports about such places... so we pretend that proves that they can't (or don't) exist.
A salute goes out to another story. The right sentence, there, made me want to see how the desperate urge to keep from lifting your foot would work out... if the stakes were much higher than a few minutes of tickling.
Tyc (a personal favorite)
Shit, that Cor guy's got an ego that won't quit. I could protest, at this point...
But hey. The point wasn't to carp about how unappreciated I am "in my own time" (damn near any writer will say that about their work).
Ordinary people, extraordinary events - that's the ticket.
I'll confess I was poking at one of my recuring anxieties about TMZ. And that would be "the law of unintended consequences". If TMs announce their existence, I'll surely be looking over my shoulder more than most guys. But I've been thinking for a while about how much it would suck to inspire their creation...
Posterity will not judge us too harshly on this point, I hope. We didn't know. I swear it.
The only other admission I'll make about this episode (and next comes "they'll have to tickle it out of me") is this - I wondered how guys might turn out if they were the products of Huxley's "Brave New World", run by TMs.
My favorite image - the 'key' from which the rest of the episode grew - is the twisted, impossible, heart-stopping realization that those dark floating shapes are the mutherfuckin' gloves! And they're coming over, all by themselves.
Oh, by the way - never trust a TM.
This episode just "came out of nowhere" - sorta. I've been thinking for a while about what it would be like if my id wised up and took control of things. Instinct and appetite, with a magic wand firmly in hand...
I saw a drawing by the incomparable Ximon, and had a dream that night - about a tickle-machine, and the controls being forced to the highest setting on the scale, because '7' or '8' just wasn't good enough for the TM.
The next morning, I woke up with the thought of a little object hovering around, shuffling reality for some poor slob, all in the name of "fun". Almost anything goes, in this episode. I hope that makes the final act seem less absurd by comparison.
Along the way, I got to write about the lesser-known dangers of unsolicited e-mail, amusement becoming so routine that it could end up being boring, and the annoyance of bystanders who get sucked into the action... and still toy with the idea of volunteering to be a "full-time" victim of a manipulative TM.
Okay. Yeah. It's not like I haven't covered this ground before... I just liked the idea of the only form of protest left being so fuckin' futile - and enjoyed so much by the TM. The most experienced ticklers enjoy other things in addition to uncontrollable laughter.
I can only think of one excuse for virtually repeating myself, with this one... and it's the nighttime image of a large construction site. Deserted, and so quiet. Maybe there's a little wind, stirring up the dust. Not a soul around who could possibly hear the hysterical noises which are barely leaking out of the locked tool trailer. And it's uncharacteristically lonely all the next day, too - other than the rare walk-through by the morning security guard - because of a national holiday. I love it.
Don't fall asleep on the job.
Another "vacation gone horribly wrong" episode. I was fascinated with the idea of a guy being caught in a room, with the window wide open... and a loudspeaker just outside, making sure no one can hear him howl. The unlikely appearance of Mexican bands in an Italian tourist town seems typical of the seriously bad luck that TM victims tend to have - soon recognized by the captor as just another way to cheerfully yank his chain a little harder.
No, I don't have a big brother. Or a little brother. Drey's predicament brings up an old debate - is it worse to get power-tickled as a punishment, or merely because you were easy to capture?
Deeny is a willing accomplice to his own future. He is the first victim I can think of who caused a TM to postpone tickling for purely altruistic reasons (so maybe there's hope for the rest of us, after all...)
And Kicker, of course, is always a few steps ahead. By being nice to a "slow" kid who was headed for trouble, it gains a pliable captive (and a f-f-friend ?!). Getting his brother on board - even as it hopes Drey will fuck up, so it'll have an excuse to lock him up for awhile - yields great results, because the extra involvement in Deeny's life (of both ticklers, human and TM) reveals the kid can learn enough to get by just fine. The tickler gets to "tailor" a victim to its liking, and Deeny - willingly enough? - ends up with that rarest of things... a future filled with tickling that doesn't disrupt his shot at a "normal" life. Go figure.
The Palace series
Ah, yes. The gentle sound of the wind playing in the exotic trees, endlessly, where time almost does stand still...
Is nothing too ambitious for these TMs? Apparently not. They seem to have redefined the concept of "long-term" tickling and become legendary among their own kind. All kinds of relationships and coping mechanisms are put to the test. Victims are caught again, futures are hijacked - and it all wraps up with the perspective of a reluctant young veteran who enjoys the tickling but gets off on the fantasy of escaping it.
Damn. There is so much I wanna say about the events and themes, here - but I'm sure you can find your own way through. This is the nearest I'll come to a "grand unification theory". It rests on an assumption I've stated many times - that no TM would waste time on planning, preparation, or seeking a victim's trust (!) unless the results made it worthwhile. One ambitious tickler can inspire a whole mess of... innovation.
For what it's worth, I'm mesmerized by Shon's "long weekend" (as told to Deck in the Bunker) and Bodie's desert fever-dream of the rescue that didn't quite happen. If neither of those ordeals move you at all, I should just throw in the towel now and be done with it.
Some of my dreams are a lot of fun. I get a serious charge out of the idea of an invisible hand stopping me - as I'm about to sit down and write a grueling episode for some "other" badass mutherfucker - and taking my scribbled notes out of my hand... Sooooo, what do we have here, Cor? Huh?
Alert readers will probably be able to recognize "Fingerman". I hope he would be flattered. (Later, I 'fessed up to him and sent him the link - and he seemed to be amused by the tribute.) The "sub-story" about the hands which rescue the mugging victim (those invisible hands) only to nurse him back to ferocious health in a padded room - well, that's another one of my twisted little paranoid fantasies whenever I'm in the big city.
And I can't help but feel sorry for Rude. Seriously sorry. I mean, it's so fuckin' unfair... Imagine being hunted down because some captured buddy remembered your psychotic-sounding laugh. Eeeeyikes.
I don't often frighten myself - but this episode did it.
A good deed gets punished in the most extended way. E-mail and online bill paying make it possible. And the captor gets every cosmically ridiculous break it needs to keep setting its sights, uh, lower and lower.
And notice that all that dialogue is not surrounded by quotation marks. Is that fuckin' TM actually talking - or is it babbling to itself?
The first TM who jumped ship and began stirring up shit elsewhere, ol' Vik has been having fun at an extended party in one of the Yahoo! Groups. That's a result of Storytella3000 getting too curious, and reporting an encounter of his own... and now he has a seriously mischevious fan. 'Subreality', a mysterious junction of fictional / actual / human / nonhuman types, is another place "she" hangs out. And I'm pretty "she" and Amuseur are tight, but they seem to be curious about me already and I'm not gonna get too inquisitive about those hellcats. (I was one of those guys who didn't call the next day - but I'm reformed now... I am. Fuck, yeah. I mean it.)
As I said above, I had to get a better grip on writing dialogue before tackling the adventures of... uh... such a dynamic feminine presence. As if women aren't alien enough, huh? But one day I woke up and decided the hell with it, I'll start writing and see what happens. It came out in present tense, first-person (gulp!) - and the complex relationships were quite a surprise, too.
12mar2005