Crushertitan
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Well, don't know who might remember these, but I finally got the third installment done! Hope you enjoy.
***
"Ooh, you look like you've been through a lot of research out there!"
Kate found herself fantasizing about inflicting violence upon someone besides her father for once. The inexplicable, eccentric cheeriness of the shopkeep was almost tolerable most days but the ordeals of the past few hours had the girl from Vault 101 a little weary of cheer. Still, prudence won over as Moira was the owner of the only decent supply shop in Kate's small new home town of Megaton... not to mention the rather taciturn mercenary guard who looked like he learned to kill as an infant and never quite caught on how to smile.
Even so, Kate wondered if it was even possible to get on Moira's bad side. No matter how much the world was a radiation-ridden wasteland, no matter how uncomfortable or spartan the town of Megaton proved to be, the red-haired inventor was always friendly, smiling with lips that always appeared to be in a little, pursed smile and wiping sweat off of a forehead that was a trifle on the large side. Below that was a pair of wild, shiny eyes that were large and expressive enough to counter-balance her forehead. It was almost unnerving the mix of childlike curiosity and mad scientist that dwelled within them. Kate guessed she was in her thirties but acted like a mixture between a giddy child half the time and an over-zealous nurturer the other half.
"Look..." Kate finally said, planting her hand on the counter-top after shaking out of her reverie, "We can talk about researching wasteland survival later... in the meantime, do you have a functioning laser pistol in decent repair?"
"Last one finally quit on you, huh?" Moira cheerily asked, digging through disorganized shelves, "It was always trouble, huh? I guess I should put that in the book! Keep your weapons in decent repair."
Weary, irritable and deciding that actually taking the pistol by the grip and trigger would be a bad idea, Kate kept quiet.
"Here you are, dear!" Moira bubbled, setting the pistol down on the counter, "I just love the really complex stuff that survived the wastes, you know? It all gave me a great idea for something you'll need to research when you're ready!"
"Yeah, we can talk about that after I get some slee-"
"It's a big factory where the protectron robots were built! Isn't that fascinating? I want you to go down there, power the place up and fiddle with their programming a bit if you can."
Moira had asked Kate to wade through a minefield--one that turned out to have a crazed man with a sniper rifle at the other end--for the research. Another time she was expected to go gather supplies from the local remains of a supermarket only to find herself boxed in by raiders who made the place their home base of operations. Another time Moira studied the effects of taking in far too much radiation upon Kate and, in fixing the job, created a minor mutation...
Asking Kate to wake up a factory full of robots after what happened at the Nuka Cola bottling plant finally made something in the younger girl snap.
"There's something we can research here in town..." Kate noted, finally putting a smile on her face that would have been considered a little unnerving to anyone but Moira, "I found out something about the Super-Mutants in my travels... problem is, since I'm the one who got the first glimpse, someone else is going to have to be the guinea pi--er... research assistant for this one."
The thought that entered the girl's head was on a whim and ultimately driven by frustration and revenge for all the things Moira's schemes got her into. In a moment, the desire had already passed in favor of just getting some rest and continuing to search for her father. She sighed and looked to Moira, intent on telling her to forget about it.
The sheer, gleeful sparkle in the other woman's big eyes mixed with a childlike sense of wonder that came from asking a little girl if she wanted to ride a pony stared Kate back in the face.
"I can take part in a field test right here in town?" Moira gasped, clasping her hands in front of her and practically jumping up and down, "Absolutely!"
Kate chewed on her lip. That little petty spark of vengeance began to rekindle and she glanced sidelong at Moira's hired help. The man seemed utterly disinterested in the conversation, simply keeping a hard steel glare toward the general direction of the counter. Surmising that his task was simply to ensure Moira was not harmed in her shop and nothing was taken, Kate relented to the little devil on her shoulder.
"Okay, grab up as much surgical tubing as you have at the shop that you're willing to use." Kate said, gritting her teeth in a forced pleasant smile in hopes of hiding a devilish chuckle that threatened to well up, "Just stop by in the evening and you can deliver my laser to me then, okay?"
"Ooh, I have more than I know what to do with!" said Moira in return, already tossing various items around to scoop up big coils of the slender plastic tubes, "I'll be there!"
Giving a nervous nod to the hired help, Kate shuffled out the door and made her way to her house as quickly as she could manage on her exhausted legs. Grudgingly pulling her boots off of feet that still had physical memory of what they'd been through, Kate collapsed into bed and closed her eyes, half-hoping that when she awoke she'd be back in the vault with her father and friends...
***
"Helloo!"
The eccentric call followed by a rhythmic rapping on the tin doorway shook Kate awake. She immediately jerked bolt upright and looked around to be sure she wasn't restrained in any way or had anything mysteriously creeping toward her. A sigh of relief left her lips as she realized she was finally safe at her Megaton home, fueled by a handful of hours rest. She pushed herself to her feet and almost collapsed all the same, swearing under her breath at how sensitive her soles remained as one had landed on the harsh lace of one of her boots. Rubbing the sensation away, she hurried down the stairs and opened the door.
She almost passed out again when she saw a laser pistol pointed at her, her face going stark white.
"Oh! I'm so, so sorry, dear..." Moira chuckled, awkwardly repositioning her grip on the pistol, her arms laced with coil upon coil of surgical tubing, "I wasn't sure how else to hold it without risking dropping it! I've got my arms a little full, you know."
"It's fine..." Kate managed to reply, shakily snatching up the weapon and quickly securing it in one of the lockers before unloading some of the tubes from Moira. She swallowed hard in amazement at the bundles, suspecting she could cocoon a super mutant behemoth in the stuff if she ever had to. She glanced back up to Moira, who had begun to untie her boots at the door--the soles of them caked with something that Kate hoped wouldn't eat through her floor.
"Oh, don't you fret." Moira cooed, waving a hand before tugging off the first boot, "I'll leave these dirty things just outside. I've been trying to figure out a new sort of rubber that'll keep a good grip but won't get stuck in mud and stuff... haven't quite perfected it yet."
Unlike many of the denizens of the wasteland, it seemed that Moira could afford stockings. The thin, tan cloth hugged her slender feet and seemed surprisingly clean given the state of most of the rest of the shop-keep's wardrobe. It seemed Moira took notice as well, looking at her own feet and wiggling her toes against the floor with a satisfied nod.
"No matter what you're able to salvage to wear in the wastes, make sure your underclothes are comfy and clean!" Moira told herself, "An important tip from the wasteland survival guide to be!"
After having to trudge largely naked through an expanse of the wastes not long ago, hearing Moira say that helped Kate push aside any reservations about her plans with ease.
"O-okay..." Kate started, gesturing to the middle of her room as she peeled loose the first considerable length of hefty, flexible surgical tubing, "Come in, stand there... I'll get things ready for the experiment."
Practically dancing on her toes and giggling like a child, Moira complied without hesitation. Surprisingly, the shop-keep was malleable as a doll as Kate drew her hands behind her and began to coil them in the firm, flexible tubes. Kate had to pause in her work, in fact, baffled by how easily fascination and curiosity seemed to overwhelm Moira's sense of foreboding--the woman was peeking over her shoulder with her eyes wide and lips in a small circle of wonder. The first knots were already secure before she spoke.
"If you don't mind, could you go ahead and start explaining the premise to me?" she excitedly begged of Kate, "I want to think about how to properly write the tone of your special chapter!"
Realizing she was past the point of no return already and still amazed that Moira's wrists had been inescapably secured without the woman so much as tensing to test her bonds, Kate decided it would be easier to finish securing the woman with the ruse intact, "...Well, I've seen super mutants take live captives before. Usually they're left pretty much half-forgotten and all tied up."
That much was the chilling truth--Kate had indeed seen the yellowish, nine-foot monstrosities take live captives. Generally they were bound in twine and only at the wrists and too exhausted and cowed to try and escape. That detail was ignored as Kate thoroughly hitched more of the tubes around Moira's arms and body, just beneath her breasts. The red-headed shop-keep's hands and arms were secure enough, Kate decided, that even if she hid some kind of escape artist history she wasn't getting loose without help.
"Ooh, that's very important!" the eccentric shop-keep chirped as Kate threaded another length of tubing to connect her bound wrists to a harness around her shoulders, "Even if super mutants were rare there are always the slavers and raiders! I can only imagine what happens to the poor dears caught up by the raid--yipe! That's tight!"
Kate half wanted to hitch the bonds that much tighter as Moira's musings reminded her of Ronald Laren and the questionably pleasant sensations of torture he inflicted upon her. Reminding herself to think clearly and that truly harming Moira wasn't in the cards, the wanderer eased Moira down and began to secure the other woman's legs just above and below the knee.
"So this is escape artistry?" Moira mused, no less enthusiastic for the sudden hitching of her bonds, "Ooh, should I get started? This is looking pretty thorough..."
"No!" Kate blurted, taking a deep breath to steady herself as she drew Moira's stockings down just enough to bind her above her bare ankles, "No, we have to do this right. Imagine what a super mutant would do to someone struggling like that..."
"Ooh, good point." the shop-keep replied, seeming to completely miss Kate's initial outburst, shifting her shoulders, "Oh ho... silly me! Can't take notes with my hands tied. Could you be a dear and remind me to make a note of that?"
Kate practically ground her teeth, then, and settled Moira on her back, "...so can you get loose? Show me what you can do."
A few bucking, squirming moments later, Moira was making exactly zero progress save for scooting one of her socks down off of her heel. Her odd but pleasant features were pursed in absolute concentration as she pulled uselessly with her arms and kicked her legs. Kate swallowed hard, at once nervous and exhilarated. Still, even then she was torn. It wasn't so much that she regretted taking things that far or felt that Moira didn't deserve every minute.
Rather, Moira helplessly writhing on her floor was strangely starting to turn her on.
Using the strange feeling as fuel for her vindictive fire, Kate crouched beside Moira and proceeded to tug open the front of her jumpsuit. The shop-keep's large eyes widened a moment, then brightened in seeming realization as her torso was bared to the waistband of her underwear.
"Oh! Loose clothes!" she proclaimed, thinking she was on the right track, "Offers more wiggle room... right?"
Without a word, barely caring that she had no idea if it would work, Kate threaded her hands into the garment and dug her fingertips into Moira's ribs. There was a satisfying shriek and squealing before the laughter set in, the shop-keep trying to curl up her bound body in the initial shock. Her body finally began to thrash under Kate's initial assault but the bonds were far too effective. Kate's irritation fueled the torment, her deft hands probing up and down Moira's sides without mercy.
The petty satisfaction of tormenting the eccentric woman helped Kate ignore the thrill up her spine at being the one finally tickling rather than the one being tickled.
"Ahhhahhaha, K-Kate wai-eee! Waihahahait!" Moira pleaded, tears already welling in her large eyes, her body bucking and swiping from side to side with every stroke, "Ihihis this n-ormahahal?!"
Moira's explosive reaction was too satisfying for Kate to ruin by responding. Rather, the wanderer wondered if there was a spot on the woman's body that would finally completely steal away her ability to speak. Diving upon Moira's bucking thighs to pin them to the ground, Kate let her hands wander lower to tease Moira's belly and thighs. The whooping laughter it wrung from the woman was all the louder and finally any attempts to speak were stolen by the noise. Satisfaction began to well in Kate all the more but she had no intentions of stopping anytime soon.
However, as her father's daughter, she couldn't help but realize some problems with her plan. Though it was night and her shack was afforded some distance and privacy in the little settlement, most everything in the town was metal. Moira's screaming laughter was likely to be heard if one of the guards was paying just enough attention and drawing close. Biting her lip, still too frustrated--and admittedly intrigued--to force herself to leave it at that, she halted and shuffled off of Moira as her mind worked furiously on the next step.
"O-oh... those super mutants must be ruthless..." groaned Moira, drawing up her legs and shifting them as though to rub the sensations from her belly, "I suppose this is when I'm half-forgo-EEE! H-hey!"
Moira's bared toes curled in protest, her feet crossing as Kate balled up one of the clean stockings. Poking a fingertip into Moira's bellybutton and letting it wiggle, Kate took advantage of the sudden shriek and stuffed the ball of cloth into the woman's mouth. The other sock tied it into place rather neatly. Giving a nod to her handiwork, Kate straddled Moira's thighs once again.
Her scowl returned when she realized Moira was still talking into the gag and the curiosity in her eyes hadn't even begun to turn to fear or nerves.
"You're a real piece of work..." Kate grumbled, cracking her knuckles. She set upon Moira's sides again, this time right down to the hips. The chatter behind the gag devolved into new peals of laughter and Moira's big eyes began to bulge--the woman finally fighting her bonds out of desperation rather than the lesson. Kate finally gave a little laugh of triumph, redoubling her efforts and digging her hands lower to slide her thumbs across the crease of flesh where her thighs met her body.
"Is this the spot?" she crowed, "This is it, isn't it? Oh, I'm going to have fun with this."
With all that had happened to her in the past day, Kate was beginning to really let the opportunity to dish it out go to her head. Moira's eyes flooded over with tears and her face began to turn pink with her laughter and struggles. Kate huffed, wishing she had more hands to really stick it to the woman responsible for so much of her peril before the fateful day at the Nuka Cola factory.
Half crazed by her ordeals, desperate to make someone suffer like she'd suffered, Kate threw herself forward and began to blow raspberries above Moira's navel, her fingers still attacking Moira's hips. The woman's scream almost cut through the gag, her body arching, bucking several times before slumping into weak wriggling, her head tossing this way and that. Sobs had begun to accompany her strained, frantic laughter and shrieks. Throughout, Kate was starting to add her own chuckles, warm puffs of breath, against Moira's midsection. In the heat of the moment, she wasn't thinking about how the situation was making her feel. She wasn't realizing the warmth building in her abdomen or the way she appreciated the way Moira helplessly ground her thighs between Kate's legs.
It won't be any fun if she passes out. she had to remind herself, looking up to the bright red that Moira's face had become, dial it down... make it last. Make sure she knows not to turn this on you.
"Okay, short break." Kate grudgingly muttered, easing up and rolling off of the other woman, "Geez, how long was I at it?"
Moira's sobs eventually tapered down to deep breaths and residual giggles. She couldn't even lift her legs to try and ease away the sensations as she'd previously tried. The woman turned her head weakly over to Kate and blinked tears out of her eyes. Those eyes shone once again expressively...
Not with betrayal or fear or malice... but beckoning an answer for the next step in the experiment.
Kate fumed, pulling at her own hair a moment before getting up and straddling Moira's shins instead. Moira chirped a few curious sounds into her gag, then gasped. Her toes curled futilely and Kate finally gave another gleeful chuckle, working her fingers.
It didn't take her long to start teasing Moira's soles with her fingernails--miraculously still long and firm despite her trials in the wastes. Just as the socks had disgusted her, Kate found that Moira's feet were near-on immaculate. For that matter, the skin of her ribs and midsection had been soft and supple. Kate wondered, briefly, if Moira had some kind of concoction that kept her skin from suffering the ravages of the harsh lands.
As Moira squealed and thrashed, batting uselessly at Kate's fingertips with her tormented feet, Kate suspected that if she did, its down-side was an increased sensitivity.
Refusing to be distracted any further from her task, Kate leaned down and used her chin to force Moira's big toes back, taking advantage of the way it smoothed her arches. Muffled, trilling laughter babbled forth from the shop-keep, her legs helplessly shifting in their bonds to try and reduce the torment even just by the merest fraction.
Most of the subtle reactions were lost on Kate over the thrill of the whole situation. For the wanderer was starting to become too absorbed in the torment, so close to Moira's feet, remembering her own savage torment. Her own feet ached with the memory, the realization that they were perhaps the most ticklish spot on her whole, exhausted body. Giving a shiver, she shifted and turned to once again straddle Moira's thighs. She was satisfied to see the woman weeping openly again, though her face had become a pale pink.
"Break's over." Kate panted, and forced her hands into the opened jumpsuit once again. Moira screamed and shifted, eyes bulging once again at the prospect of her hips being attacked again. Kate's fingers were relentless, though, her determination fueled by a mixture of her own torment, petty vengeance...
...and something else...
Moira all but fully sat up, brushing her cheek on Kate's hair, so ravaged by the torment that all the resistance she had remaining were unspoken pleas. Her heaving midsection finally began to quiver, her face growing far more deeply red than before as those cruel, deft fingernails Kate boasted plucked at the flesh that folded lightly between torso and thigh. Weak coughing, wheezing, could be heard through Moira's gag as she wept, altogether limp in her bonds.
Panting, herself, Kate had to force herself to stop in a moment of realization and horror. Moira slowly collapsed fully to the ground, all but convulsing to try and chase the sensations. The girl from Vault 101 hadn't meant to take it quite so far, hadn't intended for it to potentially cause real harm. Nor, for that matter, had she intended to enjoy it the way she had.
~What the hell is wrong with me?!~ she demanded of herself, for all she forced a more stern visage on her face. She pushed Moira onto her back, the helplessly bound woman tensing with the fear that the torment was about to begin anew. Instead, Kate laid her hand on the gag, letting Moira catch her breath and succumb to the soft shaking of her shoulders with the residual sobbing of her exertions.
"You know why that happened?" Kate demanded of her, hoping that feigning a continued malice might help ensure Moira didn't seek the sheriff after such an ordeal, "Do you know why you went through that?"
"Oh, oh dear..." Moira croaked after the gag was finally plucked loose and gave a little whimpering giggle, "E-exhausting the victim before they're tied up? Is that what this part is? I-I've been trying to catalogue everything but it got a little blurry... c-can we start from the top?"
Kate had to bite into the balled up socks herself to stifle a scream of disbelief.
"Are you SERIOUS?!" Kate demanded, "You still think this is about an experiment?!"
"Isn't that what you want right now, dear?"
Moira's voice, for as slightly raspy and exhausted as it had become, sounded entirely earnest. Kate sputtered and slumped back, still resting on Moira's thighs. She worked her jaw a few times but couldn't quite find the words. Moira put on a disarming smile--interrupted only once to shoot a stream of air at her forehead to toss aside a lock of hair that had popped from her ponytail.
"I may seem a little scatterbrained, dear, but believe it or not I understand!" Moira giggled, shifting, "Oh, could you scoot just a little that way? Honestly the tubes aren't so bad but I think I might have squirmed the legs a little high and tight... anyway, you seemed like you needed a chance to unwind."
"B-but... you knew?!" Kate blurted, not sure just how she should be feeling given the nature of what she'd done, herself, "And you still let yourself-?"
"Dear... I DO know the danger you put yourself in for my experiments." Moira countered almost primly, "Often worse than expected and I figure you don't take enough time to really appreciate what you do! This was a chance to let you."
Kate tugged at the tubes binding Moira's body, drawing another faint giggle from the exausted woman, "You let me do THIS to you, knowing how close to the brink I was?!"
Moira merely grinned, "Oh come on now. I knew you wouldn't really hurt me. You're one of the good ones! You came to our town and made sure the bomb in the center would never go off--well without any promise of reward, I might add! Then you decided to help me with my book... and while rewarded, you really haven't gotten what you really deserve for all your hard work yet! Not to mention--...dear? Are you okay?"
Kate was overwhelmed. Tortured, run ragged all over the wastes, chased from her childhood home, she had focused only on finding her father. What deeds she did, those Moira noted, were done without a second thought... to have them suddenly brought up by the one woman Kate had visited an admittedly selfish act upon was almost too much. She slumped against Moira and began to cry.
"O-oh dear..." the shopkeep murmured, easing her head to one side to pat at Kate with her cheek, "There there... I think there's more to this, isn't there?"
***
Kate had spilled everything, seated back to back with Moira--the other woman still all bound up without complaint. Kate told her about her father's disappearance and the Overseer of her vault sending armed security to hunt her down as a result. She told Moira that her only lead was a man in Megaton named "Moriarty", the owner of what served as the town pub. Moriarty refused to tell Kate anything about her father without a steep payment--one that despite all her efforts and scavenging in the wastes, Kate couldn't quite cobble together. She told Moira about her first helpless torment at the Nuka Cola factory, about the mysterious man who'd saved her without any explanation... and about the immediate torment to follow. By the time she was done, she was curled up, leaning against the shopkeep's back, again feeling the weight of her journey.
"...so Moriarty is squeezing you for three-hundred caps to let you know the direction your father went." Moira finally surmised, shifting in her plastic bonds but still not quite struggling as she gave a low whistle, "Of course, no matter how much you can get with your wandering, you always seem to have to spend as much as you get."
Kate let slip a little laugh, curling her toes and scrubbing a hand through her hair, "...that's about the size of it. I don't know how much longer I can wait before something else catches up to him--or he gets where he wants to go and the trail disappears. How am I going to come up with three-hundred caps in the next few days, Moira?"
"Oh, it'll be closer to six-hundred since you didn't just cough up the first day, dear." Moira mused in reply, seeming to pay no mind that it had Kate putting her head in her hands, "But just to be safe, let's go with nine-hundred."
Kate spread her fingers to reveal wide eyes as she looked over her shoulder, "...What?"
"What, nine-hundred for my favorite research assistant?" Moira scoffed, "Petty change, dear! Just don't let Moriarty bully you. He'll give you what you need if you stick to your guns--businessman and all that."
"I-I don't..." Kate breathed, half-laughing in disbelief, "Are you serious? How can I repay you?"
"Well, for starters, can you scratch my nose, dear?" giggled Moira, "Then if you don't mind, just a little bit more, please."
Kate turned to oblige the request gingerly with one of her long fingernails--having long since ceased to question Moira and too stunned and exhausted to feel annoyed with the silliness of the request. Her small smile faded to a look of confusion as she digested the rest of what was said. She almost let the other woman drop back onto her back at that.
"A little bit more-?"
"Tickling, dear!" Moira replied, "Mercy me, I haven't felt so young and carefree in ages. It's hard enough to find reasons to laugh in the wastes!"
Kate stammered a moment, "Are you kidding?! It's torture!"
"Have you ever TRUSTED anyone enough to really give it to you like this?"
Kate scratched her cheek idly, chewing on her lip.
"Look, if you don't want to, I'll understand."
Kate did want to. In truth, that was what was bothering her the most. Thoughts of what crept into the corners of her mind when Ronald was teasing her and the sensations of tormenting Moira were confusing and exhilarating. The pleasure of it all was undeniable, no matter how much she tried to sublimate it. Goosebumps raised on her arms as she made herself look at the bound shopkeep.
"Okay, dear... I understand that it's late and you've beEEEEEHAHAHAA!"
Moira's body fitfully tried to curl, completely out of her control, as Kate thrust her slender hands back into the sides of her jumpsuit and worked her nails up and down the pink lines already etched in the skin atop her ribs. Smiling devilishly, Kate straddled Moira's hips once again to stop her wiggling. Legs tight--at once to make Moira that much more helpless and to try and deny the sensations building between them--Kate leaned in and worked furiously atop the red-head. Moira's face already had begun to pinken anew as she tried not to make too much noise, succeeding only in bursts of half-gulped laughter and strangled shrieks between the more fitful streams. Her toes curled, her fingers scratched desperately at the floor to try and find something to grip, her body trying to find any way to escape the sensation regardless of what she wanted. The smile on her face was far from desperate, however, between her reddening cheeks.
Her eyes only snapped open and she offered a trilling cry when Kate leaned in and trailed her tongue up her belly all the way to her sternum. Moira began to babble wordlessly, caught enough by surprise to lose whatever little resistance she had left. Her legs bucked and quivered, her body thrashing this way and that--enough to raise small scratches on her sides where the fingernails continued to play. She squealed, crying out, unable to so much as plead as she worked beneath Kate.
Finally, the wanderer withdrew her hands and shivered, shifting off of Moira. The shopkeep was gasping for breath, eyes fluttering, on the verge of passing out. Kate was almost relieved to have the excuse to stop herself, reeling with confusion and frustration. She shifted her top to ensure her raised nipples weren't showing and began to grudgingly untie Moira.
If she hadn't been in such a state, she might have been annoyed to discover that the other woman had fallen contentedly asleep in her bonds, a smile on her face.
***
Kate could still scarcely believe it, walking east from Megaton with a fair number of caps still to her name. Moira had been good on her word, fronting the caps to Kate, and was right about Moriarty. For as crooked as the man was, he took double what he had originally asked and gave Kate detailed directions and photographic proof. She was told that her father had been out to find a man named "Three Dog"--a radio personality and information broker of sorts. It was likely he'd know more about James' plans if she could get him to talk to her.
"Almost found him..." she told herself, patting her new laser pistol, "Just got to find dad and everything will be fine..."
Focusing on that helped her try to ignore the memories of tormenting Moira the night before and the confusing throb it brought about in certain places that made her shift uncomfortably in her stride.
"No more. I'll get to the bottom of this when I find dad, and that's the last I'll see of tickling. Had enough for a lifetime."
In the distance, a man watched her trek deeper into the ruins of DC and he couldn't help but let a half-grin spread on his face...
***
"Ooh, you look like you've been through a lot of research out there!"
Kate found herself fantasizing about inflicting violence upon someone besides her father for once. The inexplicable, eccentric cheeriness of the shopkeep was almost tolerable most days but the ordeals of the past few hours had the girl from Vault 101 a little weary of cheer. Still, prudence won over as Moira was the owner of the only decent supply shop in Kate's small new home town of Megaton... not to mention the rather taciturn mercenary guard who looked like he learned to kill as an infant and never quite caught on how to smile.
Even so, Kate wondered if it was even possible to get on Moira's bad side. No matter how much the world was a radiation-ridden wasteland, no matter how uncomfortable or spartan the town of Megaton proved to be, the red-haired inventor was always friendly, smiling with lips that always appeared to be in a little, pursed smile and wiping sweat off of a forehead that was a trifle on the large side. Below that was a pair of wild, shiny eyes that were large and expressive enough to counter-balance her forehead. It was almost unnerving the mix of childlike curiosity and mad scientist that dwelled within them. Kate guessed she was in her thirties but acted like a mixture between a giddy child half the time and an over-zealous nurturer the other half.
"Look..." Kate finally said, planting her hand on the counter-top after shaking out of her reverie, "We can talk about researching wasteland survival later... in the meantime, do you have a functioning laser pistol in decent repair?"
"Last one finally quit on you, huh?" Moira cheerily asked, digging through disorganized shelves, "It was always trouble, huh? I guess I should put that in the book! Keep your weapons in decent repair."
Weary, irritable and deciding that actually taking the pistol by the grip and trigger would be a bad idea, Kate kept quiet.
"Here you are, dear!" Moira bubbled, setting the pistol down on the counter, "I just love the really complex stuff that survived the wastes, you know? It all gave me a great idea for something you'll need to research when you're ready!"
"Yeah, we can talk about that after I get some slee-"
"It's a big factory where the protectron robots were built! Isn't that fascinating? I want you to go down there, power the place up and fiddle with their programming a bit if you can."
Moira had asked Kate to wade through a minefield--one that turned out to have a crazed man with a sniper rifle at the other end--for the research. Another time she was expected to go gather supplies from the local remains of a supermarket only to find herself boxed in by raiders who made the place their home base of operations. Another time Moira studied the effects of taking in far too much radiation upon Kate and, in fixing the job, created a minor mutation...
Asking Kate to wake up a factory full of robots after what happened at the Nuka Cola bottling plant finally made something in the younger girl snap.
"There's something we can research here in town..." Kate noted, finally putting a smile on her face that would have been considered a little unnerving to anyone but Moira, "I found out something about the Super-Mutants in my travels... problem is, since I'm the one who got the first glimpse, someone else is going to have to be the guinea pi--er... research assistant for this one."
The thought that entered the girl's head was on a whim and ultimately driven by frustration and revenge for all the things Moira's schemes got her into. In a moment, the desire had already passed in favor of just getting some rest and continuing to search for her father. She sighed and looked to Moira, intent on telling her to forget about it.
The sheer, gleeful sparkle in the other woman's big eyes mixed with a childlike sense of wonder that came from asking a little girl if she wanted to ride a pony stared Kate back in the face.
"I can take part in a field test right here in town?" Moira gasped, clasping her hands in front of her and practically jumping up and down, "Absolutely!"
Kate chewed on her lip. That little petty spark of vengeance began to rekindle and she glanced sidelong at Moira's hired help. The man seemed utterly disinterested in the conversation, simply keeping a hard steel glare toward the general direction of the counter. Surmising that his task was simply to ensure Moira was not harmed in her shop and nothing was taken, Kate relented to the little devil on her shoulder.
"Okay, grab up as much surgical tubing as you have at the shop that you're willing to use." Kate said, gritting her teeth in a forced pleasant smile in hopes of hiding a devilish chuckle that threatened to well up, "Just stop by in the evening and you can deliver my laser to me then, okay?"
"Ooh, I have more than I know what to do with!" said Moira in return, already tossing various items around to scoop up big coils of the slender plastic tubes, "I'll be there!"
Giving a nervous nod to the hired help, Kate shuffled out the door and made her way to her house as quickly as she could manage on her exhausted legs. Grudgingly pulling her boots off of feet that still had physical memory of what they'd been through, Kate collapsed into bed and closed her eyes, half-hoping that when she awoke she'd be back in the vault with her father and friends...
***
"Helloo!"
The eccentric call followed by a rhythmic rapping on the tin doorway shook Kate awake. She immediately jerked bolt upright and looked around to be sure she wasn't restrained in any way or had anything mysteriously creeping toward her. A sigh of relief left her lips as she realized she was finally safe at her Megaton home, fueled by a handful of hours rest. She pushed herself to her feet and almost collapsed all the same, swearing under her breath at how sensitive her soles remained as one had landed on the harsh lace of one of her boots. Rubbing the sensation away, she hurried down the stairs and opened the door.
She almost passed out again when she saw a laser pistol pointed at her, her face going stark white.
"Oh! I'm so, so sorry, dear..." Moira chuckled, awkwardly repositioning her grip on the pistol, her arms laced with coil upon coil of surgical tubing, "I wasn't sure how else to hold it without risking dropping it! I've got my arms a little full, you know."
"It's fine..." Kate managed to reply, shakily snatching up the weapon and quickly securing it in one of the lockers before unloading some of the tubes from Moira. She swallowed hard in amazement at the bundles, suspecting she could cocoon a super mutant behemoth in the stuff if she ever had to. She glanced back up to Moira, who had begun to untie her boots at the door--the soles of them caked with something that Kate hoped wouldn't eat through her floor.
"Oh, don't you fret." Moira cooed, waving a hand before tugging off the first boot, "I'll leave these dirty things just outside. I've been trying to figure out a new sort of rubber that'll keep a good grip but won't get stuck in mud and stuff... haven't quite perfected it yet."
Unlike many of the denizens of the wasteland, it seemed that Moira could afford stockings. The thin, tan cloth hugged her slender feet and seemed surprisingly clean given the state of most of the rest of the shop-keep's wardrobe. It seemed Moira took notice as well, looking at her own feet and wiggling her toes against the floor with a satisfied nod.
"No matter what you're able to salvage to wear in the wastes, make sure your underclothes are comfy and clean!" Moira told herself, "An important tip from the wasteland survival guide to be!"
After having to trudge largely naked through an expanse of the wastes not long ago, hearing Moira say that helped Kate push aside any reservations about her plans with ease.
"O-okay..." Kate started, gesturing to the middle of her room as she peeled loose the first considerable length of hefty, flexible surgical tubing, "Come in, stand there... I'll get things ready for the experiment."
Practically dancing on her toes and giggling like a child, Moira complied without hesitation. Surprisingly, the shop-keep was malleable as a doll as Kate drew her hands behind her and began to coil them in the firm, flexible tubes. Kate had to pause in her work, in fact, baffled by how easily fascination and curiosity seemed to overwhelm Moira's sense of foreboding--the woman was peeking over her shoulder with her eyes wide and lips in a small circle of wonder. The first knots were already secure before she spoke.
"If you don't mind, could you go ahead and start explaining the premise to me?" she excitedly begged of Kate, "I want to think about how to properly write the tone of your special chapter!"
Realizing she was past the point of no return already and still amazed that Moira's wrists had been inescapably secured without the woman so much as tensing to test her bonds, Kate decided it would be easier to finish securing the woman with the ruse intact, "...Well, I've seen super mutants take live captives before. Usually they're left pretty much half-forgotten and all tied up."
That much was the chilling truth--Kate had indeed seen the yellowish, nine-foot monstrosities take live captives. Generally they were bound in twine and only at the wrists and too exhausted and cowed to try and escape. That detail was ignored as Kate thoroughly hitched more of the tubes around Moira's arms and body, just beneath her breasts. The red-headed shop-keep's hands and arms were secure enough, Kate decided, that even if she hid some kind of escape artist history she wasn't getting loose without help.
"Ooh, that's very important!" the eccentric shop-keep chirped as Kate threaded another length of tubing to connect her bound wrists to a harness around her shoulders, "Even if super mutants were rare there are always the slavers and raiders! I can only imagine what happens to the poor dears caught up by the raid--yipe! That's tight!"
Kate half wanted to hitch the bonds that much tighter as Moira's musings reminded her of Ronald Laren and the questionably pleasant sensations of torture he inflicted upon her. Reminding herself to think clearly and that truly harming Moira wasn't in the cards, the wanderer eased Moira down and began to secure the other woman's legs just above and below the knee.
"So this is escape artistry?" Moira mused, no less enthusiastic for the sudden hitching of her bonds, "Ooh, should I get started? This is looking pretty thorough..."
"No!" Kate blurted, taking a deep breath to steady herself as she drew Moira's stockings down just enough to bind her above her bare ankles, "No, we have to do this right. Imagine what a super mutant would do to someone struggling like that..."
"Ooh, good point." the shop-keep replied, seeming to completely miss Kate's initial outburst, shifting her shoulders, "Oh ho... silly me! Can't take notes with my hands tied. Could you be a dear and remind me to make a note of that?"
Kate practically ground her teeth, then, and settled Moira on her back, "...so can you get loose? Show me what you can do."
A few bucking, squirming moments later, Moira was making exactly zero progress save for scooting one of her socks down off of her heel. Her odd but pleasant features were pursed in absolute concentration as she pulled uselessly with her arms and kicked her legs. Kate swallowed hard, at once nervous and exhilarated. Still, even then she was torn. It wasn't so much that she regretted taking things that far or felt that Moira didn't deserve every minute.
Rather, Moira helplessly writhing on her floor was strangely starting to turn her on.
Using the strange feeling as fuel for her vindictive fire, Kate crouched beside Moira and proceeded to tug open the front of her jumpsuit. The shop-keep's large eyes widened a moment, then brightened in seeming realization as her torso was bared to the waistband of her underwear.
"Oh! Loose clothes!" she proclaimed, thinking she was on the right track, "Offers more wiggle room... right?"
Without a word, barely caring that she had no idea if it would work, Kate threaded her hands into the garment and dug her fingertips into Moira's ribs. There was a satisfying shriek and squealing before the laughter set in, the shop-keep trying to curl up her bound body in the initial shock. Her body finally began to thrash under Kate's initial assault but the bonds were far too effective. Kate's irritation fueled the torment, her deft hands probing up and down Moira's sides without mercy.
The petty satisfaction of tormenting the eccentric woman helped Kate ignore the thrill up her spine at being the one finally tickling rather than the one being tickled.
"Ahhhahhaha, K-Kate wai-eee! Waihahahait!" Moira pleaded, tears already welling in her large eyes, her body bucking and swiping from side to side with every stroke, "Ihihis this n-ormahahal?!"
Moira's explosive reaction was too satisfying for Kate to ruin by responding. Rather, the wanderer wondered if there was a spot on the woman's body that would finally completely steal away her ability to speak. Diving upon Moira's bucking thighs to pin them to the ground, Kate let her hands wander lower to tease Moira's belly and thighs. The whooping laughter it wrung from the woman was all the louder and finally any attempts to speak were stolen by the noise. Satisfaction began to well in Kate all the more but she had no intentions of stopping anytime soon.
However, as her father's daughter, she couldn't help but realize some problems with her plan. Though it was night and her shack was afforded some distance and privacy in the little settlement, most everything in the town was metal. Moira's screaming laughter was likely to be heard if one of the guards was paying just enough attention and drawing close. Biting her lip, still too frustrated--and admittedly intrigued--to force herself to leave it at that, she halted and shuffled off of Moira as her mind worked furiously on the next step.
"O-oh... those super mutants must be ruthless..." groaned Moira, drawing up her legs and shifting them as though to rub the sensations from her belly, "I suppose this is when I'm half-forgo-EEE! H-hey!"
Moira's bared toes curled in protest, her feet crossing as Kate balled up one of the clean stockings. Poking a fingertip into Moira's bellybutton and letting it wiggle, Kate took advantage of the sudden shriek and stuffed the ball of cloth into the woman's mouth. The other sock tied it into place rather neatly. Giving a nod to her handiwork, Kate straddled Moira's thighs once again.
Her scowl returned when she realized Moira was still talking into the gag and the curiosity in her eyes hadn't even begun to turn to fear or nerves.
"You're a real piece of work..." Kate grumbled, cracking her knuckles. She set upon Moira's sides again, this time right down to the hips. The chatter behind the gag devolved into new peals of laughter and Moira's big eyes began to bulge--the woman finally fighting her bonds out of desperation rather than the lesson. Kate finally gave a little laugh of triumph, redoubling her efforts and digging her hands lower to slide her thumbs across the crease of flesh where her thighs met her body.
"Is this the spot?" she crowed, "This is it, isn't it? Oh, I'm going to have fun with this."
With all that had happened to her in the past day, Kate was beginning to really let the opportunity to dish it out go to her head. Moira's eyes flooded over with tears and her face began to turn pink with her laughter and struggles. Kate huffed, wishing she had more hands to really stick it to the woman responsible for so much of her peril before the fateful day at the Nuka Cola factory.
Half crazed by her ordeals, desperate to make someone suffer like she'd suffered, Kate threw herself forward and began to blow raspberries above Moira's navel, her fingers still attacking Moira's hips. The woman's scream almost cut through the gag, her body arching, bucking several times before slumping into weak wriggling, her head tossing this way and that. Sobs had begun to accompany her strained, frantic laughter and shrieks. Throughout, Kate was starting to add her own chuckles, warm puffs of breath, against Moira's midsection. In the heat of the moment, she wasn't thinking about how the situation was making her feel. She wasn't realizing the warmth building in her abdomen or the way she appreciated the way Moira helplessly ground her thighs between Kate's legs.
It won't be any fun if she passes out. she had to remind herself, looking up to the bright red that Moira's face had become, dial it down... make it last. Make sure she knows not to turn this on you.
"Okay, short break." Kate grudgingly muttered, easing up and rolling off of the other woman, "Geez, how long was I at it?"
Moira's sobs eventually tapered down to deep breaths and residual giggles. She couldn't even lift her legs to try and ease away the sensations as she'd previously tried. The woman turned her head weakly over to Kate and blinked tears out of her eyes. Those eyes shone once again expressively...
Not with betrayal or fear or malice... but beckoning an answer for the next step in the experiment.
Kate fumed, pulling at her own hair a moment before getting up and straddling Moira's shins instead. Moira chirped a few curious sounds into her gag, then gasped. Her toes curled futilely and Kate finally gave another gleeful chuckle, working her fingers.
It didn't take her long to start teasing Moira's soles with her fingernails--miraculously still long and firm despite her trials in the wastes. Just as the socks had disgusted her, Kate found that Moira's feet were near-on immaculate. For that matter, the skin of her ribs and midsection had been soft and supple. Kate wondered, briefly, if Moira had some kind of concoction that kept her skin from suffering the ravages of the harsh lands.
As Moira squealed and thrashed, batting uselessly at Kate's fingertips with her tormented feet, Kate suspected that if she did, its down-side was an increased sensitivity.
Refusing to be distracted any further from her task, Kate leaned down and used her chin to force Moira's big toes back, taking advantage of the way it smoothed her arches. Muffled, trilling laughter babbled forth from the shop-keep, her legs helplessly shifting in their bonds to try and reduce the torment even just by the merest fraction.
Most of the subtle reactions were lost on Kate over the thrill of the whole situation. For the wanderer was starting to become too absorbed in the torment, so close to Moira's feet, remembering her own savage torment. Her own feet ached with the memory, the realization that they were perhaps the most ticklish spot on her whole, exhausted body. Giving a shiver, she shifted and turned to once again straddle Moira's thighs. She was satisfied to see the woman weeping openly again, though her face had become a pale pink.
"Break's over." Kate panted, and forced her hands into the opened jumpsuit once again. Moira screamed and shifted, eyes bulging once again at the prospect of her hips being attacked again. Kate's fingers were relentless, though, her determination fueled by a mixture of her own torment, petty vengeance...
...and something else...
Moira all but fully sat up, brushing her cheek on Kate's hair, so ravaged by the torment that all the resistance she had remaining were unspoken pleas. Her heaving midsection finally began to quiver, her face growing far more deeply red than before as those cruel, deft fingernails Kate boasted plucked at the flesh that folded lightly between torso and thigh. Weak coughing, wheezing, could be heard through Moira's gag as she wept, altogether limp in her bonds.
Panting, herself, Kate had to force herself to stop in a moment of realization and horror. Moira slowly collapsed fully to the ground, all but convulsing to try and chase the sensations. The girl from Vault 101 hadn't meant to take it quite so far, hadn't intended for it to potentially cause real harm. Nor, for that matter, had she intended to enjoy it the way she had.
~What the hell is wrong with me?!~ she demanded of herself, for all she forced a more stern visage on her face. She pushed Moira onto her back, the helplessly bound woman tensing with the fear that the torment was about to begin anew. Instead, Kate laid her hand on the gag, letting Moira catch her breath and succumb to the soft shaking of her shoulders with the residual sobbing of her exertions.
"You know why that happened?" Kate demanded of her, hoping that feigning a continued malice might help ensure Moira didn't seek the sheriff after such an ordeal, "Do you know why you went through that?"
"Oh, oh dear..." Moira croaked after the gag was finally plucked loose and gave a little whimpering giggle, "E-exhausting the victim before they're tied up? Is that what this part is? I-I've been trying to catalogue everything but it got a little blurry... c-can we start from the top?"
Kate had to bite into the balled up socks herself to stifle a scream of disbelief.
"Are you SERIOUS?!" Kate demanded, "You still think this is about an experiment?!"
"Isn't that what you want right now, dear?"
Moira's voice, for as slightly raspy and exhausted as it had become, sounded entirely earnest. Kate sputtered and slumped back, still resting on Moira's thighs. She worked her jaw a few times but couldn't quite find the words. Moira put on a disarming smile--interrupted only once to shoot a stream of air at her forehead to toss aside a lock of hair that had popped from her ponytail.
"I may seem a little scatterbrained, dear, but believe it or not I understand!" Moira giggled, shifting, "Oh, could you scoot just a little that way? Honestly the tubes aren't so bad but I think I might have squirmed the legs a little high and tight... anyway, you seemed like you needed a chance to unwind."
"B-but... you knew?!" Kate blurted, not sure just how she should be feeling given the nature of what she'd done, herself, "And you still let yourself-?"
"Dear... I DO know the danger you put yourself in for my experiments." Moira countered almost primly, "Often worse than expected and I figure you don't take enough time to really appreciate what you do! This was a chance to let you."
Kate tugged at the tubes binding Moira's body, drawing another faint giggle from the exausted woman, "You let me do THIS to you, knowing how close to the brink I was?!"
Moira merely grinned, "Oh come on now. I knew you wouldn't really hurt me. You're one of the good ones! You came to our town and made sure the bomb in the center would never go off--well without any promise of reward, I might add! Then you decided to help me with my book... and while rewarded, you really haven't gotten what you really deserve for all your hard work yet! Not to mention--...dear? Are you okay?"
Kate was overwhelmed. Tortured, run ragged all over the wastes, chased from her childhood home, she had focused only on finding her father. What deeds she did, those Moira noted, were done without a second thought... to have them suddenly brought up by the one woman Kate had visited an admittedly selfish act upon was almost too much. She slumped against Moira and began to cry.
"O-oh dear..." the shopkeep murmured, easing her head to one side to pat at Kate with her cheek, "There there... I think there's more to this, isn't there?"
***
Kate had spilled everything, seated back to back with Moira--the other woman still all bound up without complaint. Kate told her about her father's disappearance and the Overseer of her vault sending armed security to hunt her down as a result. She told Moira that her only lead was a man in Megaton named "Moriarty", the owner of what served as the town pub. Moriarty refused to tell Kate anything about her father without a steep payment--one that despite all her efforts and scavenging in the wastes, Kate couldn't quite cobble together. She told Moira about her first helpless torment at the Nuka Cola factory, about the mysterious man who'd saved her without any explanation... and about the immediate torment to follow. By the time she was done, she was curled up, leaning against the shopkeep's back, again feeling the weight of her journey.
"...so Moriarty is squeezing you for three-hundred caps to let you know the direction your father went." Moira finally surmised, shifting in her plastic bonds but still not quite struggling as she gave a low whistle, "Of course, no matter how much you can get with your wandering, you always seem to have to spend as much as you get."
Kate let slip a little laugh, curling her toes and scrubbing a hand through her hair, "...that's about the size of it. I don't know how much longer I can wait before something else catches up to him--or he gets where he wants to go and the trail disappears. How am I going to come up with three-hundred caps in the next few days, Moira?"
"Oh, it'll be closer to six-hundred since you didn't just cough up the first day, dear." Moira mused in reply, seeming to pay no mind that it had Kate putting her head in her hands, "But just to be safe, let's go with nine-hundred."
Kate spread her fingers to reveal wide eyes as she looked over her shoulder, "...What?"
"What, nine-hundred for my favorite research assistant?" Moira scoffed, "Petty change, dear! Just don't let Moriarty bully you. He'll give you what you need if you stick to your guns--businessman and all that."
"I-I don't..." Kate breathed, half-laughing in disbelief, "Are you serious? How can I repay you?"
"Well, for starters, can you scratch my nose, dear?" giggled Moira, "Then if you don't mind, just a little bit more, please."
Kate turned to oblige the request gingerly with one of her long fingernails--having long since ceased to question Moira and too stunned and exhausted to feel annoyed with the silliness of the request. Her small smile faded to a look of confusion as she digested the rest of what was said. She almost let the other woman drop back onto her back at that.
"A little bit more-?"
"Tickling, dear!" Moira replied, "Mercy me, I haven't felt so young and carefree in ages. It's hard enough to find reasons to laugh in the wastes!"
Kate stammered a moment, "Are you kidding?! It's torture!"
"Have you ever TRUSTED anyone enough to really give it to you like this?"
Kate scratched her cheek idly, chewing on her lip.
"Look, if you don't want to, I'll understand."
Kate did want to. In truth, that was what was bothering her the most. Thoughts of what crept into the corners of her mind when Ronald was teasing her and the sensations of tormenting Moira were confusing and exhilarating. The pleasure of it all was undeniable, no matter how much she tried to sublimate it. Goosebumps raised on her arms as she made herself look at the bound shopkeep.
"Okay, dear... I understand that it's late and you've beEEEEEHAHAHAA!"
Moira's body fitfully tried to curl, completely out of her control, as Kate thrust her slender hands back into the sides of her jumpsuit and worked her nails up and down the pink lines already etched in the skin atop her ribs. Smiling devilishly, Kate straddled Moira's hips once again to stop her wiggling. Legs tight--at once to make Moira that much more helpless and to try and deny the sensations building between them--Kate leaned in and worked furiously atop the red-head. Moira's face already had begun to pinken anew as she tried not to make too much noise, succeeding only in bursts of half-gulped laughter and strangled shrieks between the more fitful streams. Her toes curled, her fingers scratched desperately at the floor to try and find something to grip, her body trying to find any way to escape the sensation regardless of what she wanted. The smile on her face was far from desperate, however, between her reddening cheeks.
Her eyes only snapped open and she offered a trilling cry when Kate leaned in and trailed her tongue up her belly all the way to her sternum. Moira began to babble wordlessly, caught enough by surprise to lose whatever little resistance she had left. Her legs bucked and quivered, her body thrashing this way and that--enough to raise small scratches on her sides where the fingernails continued to play. She squealed, crying out, unable to so much as plead as she worked beneath Kate.
Finally, the wanderer withdrew her hands and shivered, shifting off of Moira. The shopkeep was gasping for breath, eyes fluttering, on the verge of passing out. Kate was almost relieved to have the excuse to stop herself, reeling with confusion and frustration. She shifted her top to ensure her raised nipples weren't showing and began to grudgingly untie Moira.
If she hadn't been in such a state, she might have been annoyed to discover that the other woman had fallen contentedly asleep in her bonds, a smile on her face.
***
Kate could still scarcely believe it, walking east from Megaton with a fair number of caps still to her name. Moira had been good on her word, fronting the caps to Kate, and was right about Moriarty. For as crooked as the man was, he took double what he had originally asked and gave Kate detailed directions and photographic proof. She was told that her father had been out to find a man named "Three Dog"--a radio personality and information broker of sorts. It was likely he'd know more about James' plans if she could get him to talk to her.
"Almost found him..." she told herself, patting her new laser pistol, "Just got to find dad and everything will be fine..."
Focusing on that helped her try to ignore the memories of tormenting Moira the night before and the confusing throb it brought about in certain places that made her shift uncomfortably in her stride.
"No more. I'll get to the bottom of this when I find dad, and that's the last I'll see of tickling. Had enough for a lifetime."
In the distance, a man watched her trek deeper into the ruins of DC and he couldn't help but let a half-grin spread on his face...
