Mitdas and artwork by  Mimitdas

Juno belongs to  bwahbwah

Nerev belongs to  Nerevenar

Maverick belongs to Horchata

Jake belongs to  cadianrat

Link belongs to  linkstone

Crisp belongs to  crispywuff

Roy and story by me


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“THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT OF ALL TIME

YOU HAVE BEEN FORMALLY INVITED TO JOIN MY ANUAL CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVEAWAY

THIS YEAR IS THE BEST ONE YET YOU DON'T WANNA MISS IT

MEET AT THESE COORDINATES ON CHRISTMAS MORNING

YOUR POLAR FRIEND, ROY”


That was all the letter said. Seven people had received it the day before Christmas Eve: the wolves Crisp and Link, the red panda Juno, the otter Mitdas, the rat Jake, the tiger Nerev and the anthropomorphic mooshroom Maverick. At first, such an eclectic group might seem like a simply random choice of participants by the letter's sender, but the truth is, they had all been selectively chosen by the polar bear. In fact, they all actually knew Roy. And because of that, they knew better than to not do what he asked.

At the coordinates, the group found nothing but a seemingly abandoned building. It looked like an office of sorts, though it had been stripped of everything, from furniture to the carpet, to even the copper wiring. The whole thing was so obviously a trap half of the men were already almost leaving. That was, until Crisp discovered something weird on the floor: a string of Christmas lights taped to it, and leading into a room whose door was mostly intact. The group carefully follow the lights, and upon opening the door, are greeted with another empty room, but with the lights on.

In the tiled wall opposite to the door, the outline of a Christmas tree has been crudely drawn with black paint. As if that wasn’t unnerving enough, there were 7 pairs of holes inside of the outline. They were organized around the decreasing size of the layers: 3 pairs in the lowest one, 2 in the middle, 1 in the highest, and another inside the star.

To most people it would look like someone had just punched holes in the wall. But not this group, they knew exactly what those shapes were and they would be used for. Immediately they turned to leave the room, only to discover the door behind had just… vanished. As if it had never been there. The lights inside go out, and the men start to panic, banging on the walls to try to find some way out. That is, until they smell something sweetly sick, which immediately slows their movements. And soon enough, they all black out.

The cacophony of laughter coming out of the room would’ve frightened anyone coming close to it, and surely made them investigate. Good thing that Roy had used his portal tech to teleport the whole room into his lab, far away from any kind of life or civilization (some rumored in the North Pole itself, fitting to his character). The giggling, cackling and begging from the 7 men was music to the bear's ears.

He was currently tending to Maverick’s feet: the mooshroom's paws were easily the biggest of the bunch, and Roy had actually had to make adjustments to the wall holes so they would fit. The smooth, padless soles and white toes were almost hypnotic to tickle, and the bear delighted in running his claws all over them, either gently wiggling, or harshly raking his claws up and down as if the soles were his scratch toy, which would invariably make the bovine scream with laughter.

Next to them, were Nerev and Juno's feet. For Nerev, as Maverick was his neighbor, Roy had found fitting to bring in his genetically modified cows to lickle the tiger's cream colored soles and pink paw pads. The cow's tongues were actually as rough as felines, not enough to hurt, but enough to tickle like hell. Of course, Roy had generously applied brine to Nerev's soles before setting the cows on them. As for Juno, his feet were the smallest of the 7, a cute pair of white soles and brown paw pads. So Roy obviously set his infamous Brush™️ to work on them, a deck brush large enough to tickle 4 Junos, but whose attention was solely on one, as it scrubbed side to side.

Above them, Jake and Link had been put in the middle layer, side to side. The wolf's big feet, beige colored soles with dark brown pads, contrasted with the rat's smaller, padless light grey soles. Both were being put through different torments as well: Link's paws were being harshly scrubbed by a pair of hairbrushes, while Jake's soles had a couple of scarlet feathers swiping them. Roy knew it wasn’t an unfair situation for the wolf, as the feathers were actually phoenix feathers, whose magical properties made them as effective of a tickle tool as any brush. He could tell by Jake's laughter he was suffering as much as his neighbor.

Above them, on the top layer, was Crisp, with his white soles and cherry red pads. The size of his feet warranted a layer just for him, befitting for a paladin warrior like himself. As he was the one that found the Christmas lights on the floor, Roy had the brilliant idea to wrap them around his toes. Of course, they weren’t just simple lights, they were actually tickle tools by themselves; Roy had modified the cable to emit a low voltage that directly stimulated the nerves of the skin and made them think they were being tickled. It wasn’t the only tool on Crisp's paws though, as a roller was spinning at high speed on his heels too. Occasionally it would rise a bit and target the small pads on the center of the soles, which would make the red wolf's laughter go silent and make his feet paddle around like crazy.

Finally, the star of the show, Mitdas. The otter's feet were padless like Jake’s and Maverick’s, with a light pink sole. Roy had put him up there as a thanks for having secretly helped the bear draw the tree on the wall. But if the otter though he'd be spared, he was wrong; his big toes were tied with a holly string (that the polar had erroneously mistaken as mistletoe, which was shameful considering how he portrayed himself) and his soles were being scratched by a pair of mechanical hands. Roy was thinking how he would eventually reach Mitdas when he wanted to personally tickle his paws, but that was a matter for later.

Throughout all the laughter and suffering and pleading, Roy thought to himself he hadn’t actually lied on the letter. By how much he knew this group, it was actually fair to say this was a better Christmas gift than any material object could be. After all, everyone here was actually into being tickled, in the end. What a jollier way to spend Christmas than being treated to your deep desire?