Star Wars TK: Ahsoka I

Star Wars TK: Ticklish Trials – The Padawan Games

(This takes place at an indeterminate time before Ahsoka joins Anakin)

O-O-O

Throughout the galaxy, the Jedi had the reputation for being just, but more often than not such words of praise were accompanied by comments decreeing the Jedi as prudish, sanctimonious, stick-in-the-muds whose holier-than-thou attitudes could become grating quickly.

Much of this stereotype held true in the illustrious Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and there were many who were fully dedicated to meditation and other spiritual or scholarly pursuits. There were many inveterate Jedi who singularly focused on such disciplines… that was not to say the Jedi Temple never found time for lighter, recreational activities…

Some of these recreational activities were frowned upon by more traditional Jedi, but one activity which had the near unanimous approval of the Jedi was the annual Padawan Games.

The Padawan Games were didactic in nature, as they were designed to instruct Jedi how to hone their senses and skills in a friendly-yet-competitive setting. Through the competition, which included both academic and physical elements, students would work together in small groups to improve their teamwork and interpersonal skills. It was worth a considerable amount of prestige to be declared victor, as the winners would be held up as exemplars for the rest of the group to emulate.

The idea was a good one – what better way to motivate youngsters than with a competition against their peers? Yet as a famous Jedi Master once noted: “The path to the dark side is paved with good intentions.”  

Padawan Barriss Offee was a talented, young Jedi, but perhaps one whose desires to win the Padawan Games were a bit more than would be considered healthy. The young Mirialan was pretty, with her olive skin, blue eyes and sleek dark hair, as well as elegant traditional Mirialan tattoos across the bridge of her nose and face.

However, Padawan could also be a bit impulsive at times, which was a trait frowned upon by some Jedi Masters. It was on one of these impulses that led Barriss, noticing that her roommate Ahsoka Tano’s team was neck-a-neck with hers for first in the competition standing, to decide that she knew the perfect way to tire out her foe and secure victory for her team.

Barriss knew just the way to do it. Violence would definitely be too extreme – she didn’t really want to hurt her roommate, after all. She just wanted to increase her odds of victory using the terrain and her knowledge of her foe to her advantage, just the way Masters Fisto and Shaak-Ti instructed during their lectures on fighting strategy.

She already had the perfect compromise in hand. A few weeks ago, she had stumbled upon a rather embarrassing weakness of the tomboyish Togruta.  They had an early morning training exercise, and Ahsoka, exhausted from the training the night before, stubbornly refuse to rouse from her slumber no matter how Barriss (who had been assigned her partner for this exercise) shook her or shouted at her. Barriss had tried almost anything she could think of, but Ahsoka still lay there, snoozing in her bed and wound around her covers as she refused to wake up till she was good and ready.

Barriss noticed that one of Ahsoka’s legs was poking out of the bed, and an idea popped into her head as she stared at that small, white-stockinged foot. Barriss reached out a hand and experimentally traced a finger down the sole. She was delighted to see the way Ahsoka squealed, and immediately pulled her leg into the safety of the covers. It sure seemed like maybe someone was ticklish...

Ahsoka was still pretending to be asleep and refusing to get up, so it was easy for Barriss to get into position. The Mirialan pulled back the covers to reveal Ahsoka’s slender, small feet, and sat on Ahsoka’s ankles so that the Togruta would not be able to tug her feet free easily.

With Ahsoka’s feet trapped firmly between Barriss’s legs, she began wiggling all ten of her fingernails on the soles, and the Togruta suddenly jolted upright as if she had been electrified.

“Dohohohohont tihihihickle!” Ahsoka squeaked, twisting and turning to try and free her ankles as Barriss gleefully played with her flapping, wiggling feet.

“Are you done sleeping yet, Ahsoka?” Barriss said, amused by the way Ahsoka’s feet would dance and splay at every scrape and tease from her own slender fingers.

“Yehehehehes! Yehehehes! Gohohohosh nahahahat there! Bahahaha Bahahaharriss!” Ahsoka howled, shaking her head back and forth.

"What's that?" Barriss asked, faux-innocently, as she continued to wiggle her index finger right on that spot under the big toe on the right foot she had just discovered was super-ticklish.  "I think I found a soft spot!"

"Yehehehes! Yesshihihihi! Nowhohohoho stahahap!" Ahsoka said, her face turned redder and redder by the moment.

“Are you feeling awake now?” Barriss asked, buying for time as she continued tunnelling under the toes to see if they were hiding secret super-ticklish spots too.

“Gahahaha, yehehehes!” Ahsoka shrieked, as she felt Barriss continue playing with every one of her frantically wiggling toes.

“These toes of yours are just so ticklish, Ahsoka.  They should call you 'Tickle Toes Tano'!” Barriss giggled, as Ahsoka avidly argued against this nickname, but that only lead to Barriss tickling her even harder.

It was right when Barriss tried to slip her fingers between Ahsoka’s scrunching toes that the Togruta suddenly found a secret reserve of energy and somehow slipped her feet free. Immediately, the red-faced Padawan flew out of bed, grabbed Barriss around the waist and started tickling under her ribs with a ticklish vengeance.

Ahsoka had lifted up Barriss’s Jedi robes and blown several raspberries on the Mirialan’s ticklish tummy before Barriss was able to muster the energy to tickle back, by slipping her agile fingers under Ahsoka’s arm to assault the Togruta’s armpits. Any thoughts of using the Force was dashed to pieces by tingly tickling which sapped all concentration.

Then there was a frantic tickle fight, which climaxed with both Padawans simultaneously making a grasp for their opponent's ankles, and tickling savagely at their foe’s ticklish soles. Barriss’s olive feet were nearly as ticklish as Ahsoka’s, but neither refused to back down as they giggled hysterically and tried to out-tickle each other. Ahsoka discovered how sensitive Barriss’s long, deep arches were, which evened the playing ground as Barriss was already acutely aware of just how ticklish the Togruta’s big toes were. It was unfortunate that they were unable to see who would have been able to hold out longer, as their little duel was broken up by a Jedi Master who had to check on why they were late for the morning training - the soundproofed chambers had prevented their raucous laughter from waking up the others.

It was a fond memory of Barriss’s, and the Mirialan looked forward to tickling her roommate silly again – she even had a proper justification for it! She was going to win that competition!

Besides, it wasn’t really cheating… Jedi were encouraged to think outside the box, and the way Barriss figured it, all she was doing was hanging out with her roommate a bit. Surely that wasn’t against the rules! Besides, if she was really bothering Ahsoka, the red-skinned Togruta could surely just ignore her, right?

That went without saying. What this was, was an example of excellent tactics, Barriss thought gleefully, as she prepared her trap.

O-O-O

Ahsoka Tano yawned widely, as she opened the door to the room she and Barriss shared. The young Padawan was exhausted from her practices today. Some of the instructors had been especially hard on her due to her obstreperous personality, but Ahsoka knew she had impressed them with her tenacity as well as her skills. All she needed was a good night’s sleep and she was sure she would perform excellently in the finale of the Padawan Games tomorrow. She closed her eyes, and collapsed on her bed, sighing contently.

“Had a long day, Ahsoka?”

Ahsoka’s eyes snapped open, as she suddenly became aware of her roommate Barriss, leaning along the wall and watching her with a mischievous smirk on her face.

“Woah, I didn’t sense you at all! Have you been practicing your Force Stealthing?” Ahsoka said, sitting up. It was true – Barriss definitely had a talent for masking her presence. Ahsoka had never even noticed she had been in the room!

“A little bit, been practicing some other things too,” Barriss said as she stepped closer to Ahsoka, who was half-lying down on her bed. “Want me to show you?”

“Ehhhh, maybe tomorrow,” Ahsoka said, stifling a yawn. “I’m really bushwhacked,” she said, as she settled back into a sleeping position. “Gotta get some sleep for the games tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking about how my team can beat yours tomorrow.”

“Oh? And how are you going to do that?” Ahsoka asked sleepily, as she plumped her pillow.

“Observe,” Barriss said, as she closed her eyes and motioned with her hands. Ahsoka yelped in surprise as she felt herself levitate in the air momentarily, as her bedsheets spun and wrapped around the shocked Togruta’s body, winding around her several times till she was cocooned by her own blankets. Barriss had taken care to focus her Force manipulations to ensure that Ahsoka’s feet remained un-coocooned, and she immediately plopped herself on top of those squirming and kicking feet.

“Tickle Toes Tano might not get much sleep tonight,” Barriss chuckled, as Ahsoka shouted indignantly as her feet were introduced to Barriss’s fingernails, which she had been growing long just for this occasion. It was the exact same position Barriss had used last time she had tickled Ahsoka, so she knew just how effective it was – only this time with Ahsoka’s arms trapped in the blanket-cocoon, escape was all but impossible. Ahsoka could have extricated herself with the Force, but Barriss’s tickling of her tender, stockinged soles was highly disruptive and the young Togruta found concentration difficult.

Barriss knew just how ticklish Ahsoka was on her feet, so she knew that as long as she even teased the feet a little bit, Ahsoka would be unable to muster up the power to knock Barriss loose. She knew that she had all the time in the world, so Barriss decided she would take the time to play with every inch of Ahsoka’s slender red soles.  

Barriss started with the tops of the foot, also known as the insteps. It was a spot she hadn’t gotten to tickle much last time, and she was delighted to find Ahsoka was highly sensitive there. She lightly scratched her nails in circles around the insteps, drifting low to tease along the ankles and up towards the toes. She took care to avoid teasing the toes directly though – she was saving those for later, as she knew she would spend a lot of time there. Ahsoka’s reactions to the instep tickling was adorable, she scrunched up her face and wiggled about like an Lthorian Arrak snake. The Togruta would point her toes forward as if doing so would help her best avoid being tickled, but Barriss found the gesture cuter than anything else. After a few minutes tantalizing the tops of the feet, Barriss could notice Ahsoka’s laughter audibly decreasing and her reserve of Force strength increasing, so she had to change tactics.

Looking at the defiance in Ahsoka’s bright blue eyes, as the Togruta was biting the corner of her mouth as she tried to hold her laughter in, Barriss altered her approach, and lightly skittered her nails along the sides of her feet.  

The sudden stimulation of a different spot on Ahsoka’s sensitive feet sent her feet flapping and wiggling again, as Barriss giggled whilst scratching the outer sides of her smooth Togruta feet. The white stockings Ahsoka always wore just made it even easier for Barriss’s long fingernails to dance and sweep along the sensitive appendages. Barriss watched Ahsoka’s feet twist right and left, hiding behind one another, but Ahsoka’s agile, monkey-like feet could only delay the inevitable tickling assault. Through the Force, Barriss could sense Ahsoka’s resistance crumbling once more as Barriss’s fingernails snuck in-between Ahsoka’s feet to probe the inner sides of the scrunching, panicking feet.

Ahsoka’s response to her incredibly ticklish inner sides being scratched was to pound her head back against her bed as a stream of incoherent syllables burbled from her mouth.

“You’re laughing so much already, Ahsoka! And we’ve barely even started! Hope this isn’t tiring you out or anything, hehe,” Barriss said, much to Ahsoka’s chagrin. Ahsoka had to admit, her roommate’s ploy was working, as the forced laughter from her chest was hurting her stomach like an intense abdomen workout. She was spending a lot of energy in her fruitless bids at freedom too.

“Stahahahahap Bahahaharriss!” Ahsoka said, trying to appeal to her roommate’s sense of fair play and competition, but her words were interposed with frantic giggles that made them imcomprehensible. Barriss just giggled at Ahsoka’s spiel, as she gave the sides of Ahsoka’s slender feet one last tickle.

“We’re just getting started, Ahsoka! Now let’s start working on your soles and go from there…”

The rest of the night rolled by in the blink of eye, and Ahsoka could not have said if it had been thirty minutes or thirty hours, as Barriss and her razor-sharp fingernails meticulously tickled every inch of Ahsoka’s sensitive, stockinged soles. Barriss systematically worked her way up the sole, starting with the heel, especially the base of the heel where Ahsoka discovered was quite a soft spot for her. Next up was the arches, which Barriss scratched and dug into manically with her nails like she digging for buried treasure. The ball of the foot, especially the soft, fleshy centre just beneath the balls was next, as Ahsoka wept tears of forced laughter.  For the grand finale, Barriss systematically worked every cubic centimetre from the base of the toes to the tips of toes, taking the time to search the toe webbing, pads, sides, and undersides of the toes for every spot that could make Ahsoka convulse with extreme laughter. She found many such spots peppered around the toes, as Tickle Toes Tano lived up to her moniker.

“Gosh, isn’t this fun?” Barriss said, as she pulled back the toes of one foot at a time so she could hold the foot steady while she tormented the poor, ticklish toes. “Thanks for letting me play with your feet like this, Ahsoka!” Ahsoka somehow mustered up the energy to groan despite the tantalizing of her toes to express her discontent, but Barriss simply giggled and focused her tickle attacks on Ahsoka’s big toes, making the Togruta splutter with more boyish laughter.

“It’s so much fun, I just have to do it again!” Barriss exclaimed delightedly, and to Ahsoka’s horror, the whole process begun itself again, with the slow teasing on the tops of her feet. The sheer dread of her toes being tickled again made even these light tinkling tickles much more effective than they should have been, as Ahsoka laughed and laughed and laughed.

As several hours passed, Barriss finally relented her tickling attack. “Well, this has been fun, but it’s time for bed. Big day tomorrow!” Ahsoka was relieved, as she panted and gasped for air. This had been more intensive than any workout she had ever experienced, and she was grateful for a break.

“I know you don’t want me to stop, so I brought some friends for you to play with!” Barriss grinned, as she reached into her bag and pulled out several electric toothbrushes. The Jedi generally eschewed technology, but they still understood the importance of dental hygiene, and handed out such toothbrushes freely to all Padawans. Ahsoka had the revelation that perhaps a restful night would not be on the agenda, as Barriss forcibly stuffed a rag into her mouth as a makeshift gag. “Don’t want your laughter keeping me up,” Barriss winked.

The toothbrushes were swiftly tied to strategic tickle-spots – feet, stomach, underarms, sides, all the fun spots. Then Barriss settled into her own comfortable bed, and she fell asleep to the backdrop of Tickle Toes Tano’s muffled mirth.       

“Sleep tight, Ahsoka…” Barriss said with a chuckle, as she dreamed of laughter and victory. 

O-O-O

Barriss Offee felt herself swelling up with pride as she took in the sights from the front of the spacious assembly hall in the Jedi Temple. The assembly hall was reserved for big events, and today, the members of the winning team would take turns giving speeches of their experiences. Barriss’s team had pulled off quite the upset, defeating the Tano Team due to unexpected fumbles from the young Togruta. Barriss hoped her friend would have no hard feelings… Barriss was plenty ticklish herself, and if Ahsoka had shown more initiative Ahsoka should have been the one tickling her! She only had herself to blame! Thinking of her roommate, Barriss scoured the seated audience as she waited for her turn to speak – it seemed Ahsoka was not present. Probably upset about losing, Barriss thought. Ahsoka had always been a bit of a sore loser, Barriss reflected,

Barriss heard the announcer say her name and she stood up, patted her best pair of Jedi robes for any stray particles of dust that may have clung to it, and made her way to the raised podium in front of the hall. She made her way to the podium, taking in at the room’s tiered seats and amphitheatre layout, as who knows when she would be looking from this angle again. She kneeled in the customary, respectful Jedi Padawan position, and prepared to recite her speech.

“Masters, Knights, fellow Padawans, and friends, thank you for your support,” Barriss said with a exuberant smile, as she was greeted by gentle applause. She sensed some movement going on under the podium, but dismissed it as nerve.

“Our victory was hard-fought, but we… really have so many… people to thank,” Barriss stuttered as she felt a shiver down her spine as she felt her soft-soled slippers suddenly plop off her feet. She turned back her head a fraction, and brazen as anything, there was Tickle Toes Tano, lurking just where Barriss’s de-shod feet lie, grinning. It seemed the Togruta had ticklish comeuppance on her mind, and she definitely had picked the right place to do it. Barriss tried to contain the jolt as she felt Ahsoka’s fingers, just two, lightly stroke their way down Barriss’s sensitive arches, where she had always been horrendously ticklish.

She imagined bursting into laughter with all these Jedi Masters watching – she would be a Padawan forever! She could already imagine on the lectures on composure and the importance on decorum she would receive. No, she had to grind it out! Her speech was short!

“I couldn’t do it without my wonderful teammates, who all shouldered our b-burdens together,” Barriss said, desperately wishing her teammates could share her burdens right now – Ahsoka was drawing figure eights on her arches, taking her time to loop around and around as she drove Barriss’s toes into a wiggling frenzy. Barriss had to push it from her mind, and focus on her speech…

“Our ma-ha-masters who taught us so much,” Barriss only just caught herself, as Ahsoka continued to tease Barriss’s stockinged soles with light attacks, and unexpectedly brushing the sides of the foot had almost resulted in giggling. Barriss wondered if they was a way to tickle someone through the Force. She definitely needed to ask a Master about it at some point – perhaps Shaak Ti or Aayla Secura might know about it?

Her lapse in focus almost cost her, as Ahsoka suddenly dug her nails under Barriss’s twitching toes, but thankfully Barriss was able to cover up the snort of laughter with a cough.

“And we definitely need to thank the Padawan Games organizers for letting us have so much fun with training!” Barriss smiled genially, wanting to do so much more, as Ahsoka continued her assault on Barriss’s scrunching toes. Ahsoka would focus her attack one foot at a time, ambushing toes and arches in a two-pronged attack that was intense enough that Barriss simply couldn't stop her face from temporarily tightening in a ticklish grin every time Ahsoka switched feet.

The fingers continued their slow probing slower now. Barriss turned her head back slightly and saw the blasé confidence on Ahsoka’s face, as if she had nothing to be afraid of and could take her time sliding her fingers up and down Barriss stocking-clad soles as the tickled Jedi tried to keep up her façade of composure. There was nothing Barriss could do but choke down the laughter. She considered calling Ahsoka out, but she feared if she did so, Ahsoka would come forth with her story about her own tickle torment the night before.

“We learned about the i-importance of fair play, and honesty,” Barriss recited, and immediately gulped as she felt the fingers suddenly intensified their assault, making quick, random movements in an attempt to catch her off guard. It seemed Ahsoka had taken more than a little offence to that last line, and Barriss very nearly let out an audible laugh as the fingers slid down her soles from toe to heel rapidly. It seemed Ahsoka had only been teasing at first, but now she was trying to break Tarriss’s resolve as she dug into Barriss’s smooth, ticklish soles wildly.

“We learned… that you must be strong, dedicated…  and c-calm!” Barriss said, desperately wishing she could be the exact attributes she had just described. Barriss’s frightfully ticklish feet  were twitching as if they were dancing. She kept trying to reflexively cover weaknesses by curling and flexing her stockinged soles, but all that seemed to do was encourage Ahsoka to tickle ever harder and seek out other areas.

“But the most important thihing is to be wihihilling to learn!” Barriss said, barely surppresing the laughter as she felt Ahsoka dig into Barriss’s slender arches with two fingers on each sole, right in the base of the arches. Ahsoka had definitely learned from her lesson. Barriss could hear some hushed whispers in the room, but she knew she had to keep going. Final stretch now!

“This challenge will definitely prepare us to be better Jedi in the future, and we will not let any of you down,” Barriss said quickly, embarrassingly aware that she had just said her entire sentence in a single rush of breath, speaking faster so as to try and get this speech over.

Barriss tried to call upon her Jedi mediation to try to focus, but Ahsoka had become very well acquainted with her own ticklish spots these past few weeks, and the devious Togruta knew every ticklish spot on her feet, hopping from one to another without mercy, sometimes soft and teasing, other times harder and more intense, but always in a way that pushed every button and stoked her ticklishness higher and higher.

She didn’t know how much she could take, but right when Barriss was finishing thanking all the individual masters, she heard a barely-audible humming sound, a familiar buzzing sound that reminded her of last night.

The toothbrushes, Barriss thought, in horror, as she suddenly felt the stimulating bristles brush against the arches of both feet at once, and dash her composure to pieces. Silent laughter, then a squeak, then heavy, hysterical laugher came billowing from her lips as she desperatedly yanked her feet back, chuckling like a madwoman.

Hearing mocking snickers and whispers from the audience, Barriss turned her head back to stare angrily at her tormentor with the intention of bringing her to the stage for all to see, but the podium was empty.

O-O-O

“You knew about it the whole time, didn’t you, Master Ti?” Aayla Secura asked, as Shaak Ti sat in the in the room of a thousand fountains, eyes closed as she meditating in a lotus position.

“Knew about what, Aayla? That Padawan Barriss only won the Games because of her little trick?” Shaak Ti said, opening an eye.

“Yes, and that Padawan Ahsoka would plot to get even.”

“Every Master in that hall could sense what was happening there. And no one chose to act. Sometimes it is better to let seeds grow on their own.”

“Revenge… is not something we should encourage, Master Ti. That’s what that was?”

“Is that how you saw it? I saw two young minds being pitted against each other… testing each other’s will and making them both stronger for it… some would say that is the true spirit of the Padawan Games.”

“But tickling?”

“Nowhere in the Jedi Code does it say a Jedi cannot be cunning, or Jedi cannot use guile, or trickery to achieve their goals. Such open-minded thinking should be encouraged.”

“Are you sure about this?” Aayla asked, crossing her arms.

Shaak Ti stood up, and made a finger-wiggling gesture towards the blue-skinned Twilek. Aayla gasped, as she suddenly felt like a hundred feathers were dancing all over her flesh, her stomach, her underarms, her neck, her nose, ears, even her lekku. She immediately burst into giggles, and clapped her hand over her mouth to silence her involuntary laughter.

“Padawan Barriss did a remarkable job holding out as long as she did, wouldn’t you say?” Shaak Ti said, gesturing towards Aayla’s booted feet this time, and the Twilek began hopping from foot to foot, giggling as she felt like feathers was twirling all over her soles and toes.

“I think we should keep a close eye on those two for a while… they may have potential…”