"Darling," said Fingers disapprovingly. "You are [i]so [/i]tense. Do you have any idea how bad that is for your complexion? Not to mention I am invested in you putting in an indecent performance tomorrow - what [i]have [/i]you been doing to her, Titanomachia?"

"Structural repairs," said Machia.

"Structural repairs," mocked Fingers. "[i]Ridiculous[/i]. You still don't know how to treat a girl properly. Watch. Closely."

The hands lifted off Fingers body. Over twenty of them, lifting up around her as her eyes gleamed with amythest light. Half of them landed on Madeleine's back, half of them soared over to Machia, grabbing her in a dozen places. In a swirl of motion they dragged Machia up and held her head close to Madeline's back.

"If a girl is visibly stressed and tense -" said Fingers. "In general, and [i]especially [/i]if she's tied down to your table - you [i]massage [/i]her. Like [i]this[/i]."

The hands started to move. Ten sets of hands with uncanny synchronization, together working to deliver the most spine-melting massage possible. They worked muscles singly and together, focusing attention in specific places and then distributing it along every limb and crevasse. Just as the synthesizer opened the possibilities of piano music by breaking its dependence on the physical range of human fingers so Fingers' fingers open a new frontier in the possibilities of massage. 

"Focus on these hands," Fingers was saying to Machia. "These are the ones you're going to learn from. You see how they apply pressure, this pattern? That's what you're going to need to learn."

"T-there are more efficient -"

"Efficient," scoffed Fingers. "[i]Idiot[/i]. Two problems with that. One is that the Rope Champions scenario is back in rotation, and you're going to have to learn at least [i]one [/i]move. Hmm, no, this isn't working. You've never been a visual learner."

She took Machia by the wrists and slid two robotic hands over her hands like gloves. Then they pulled her hands down and pressed them into Madeleine's back, forcing them to learn the sequence by pulling them through it. The flush on her cheeks was bright enough to trigger a photosynthetic response in her window plant.

"The other, of course, is that [i]I[/i] am an active competitor," said Fingers. "And I am frankly getting sick of sand-blasting unprepared gutter trash. Miss Madeline?" Fingers leaned down. "I do not like the sound of you only talking to [i]this [/i]dolt. You will get a skewed understanding of how people act if you are this socially isolated. I intend to claim some of your training days for the next three weeks. Do you," all her fingers squeezed at once. "agree?"