Being a news reporter had it's fair share of cons. Long irregular hours, traveling through dangerous areas, angry readers who didn't like what you had wrote and even angrier readers who didn't like what you had wrote and wanted to kill you for it. Piper Wright had encountered all of that and more in the time she had been writing her paper Publick Occurrences.

That's not to say that her job didn't have it's perks however. Finding the truth and exposing people's lies had gotten her into and and then kept her in the newspaper business. But Piper's guilty pleasure was meeting new and unusual characters of all sorts. The Commonwealth certainly had no shortage of those from the tommy gun toting gangsters dressed in three piece suits of Goodneighbor to religious fanatics who worshipped any piece of radioactive material they could find.

One of the things she had gained as a reporter was the ability to size someone up at first glance. There was an old saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' but she had found it to be a half truth at best. The clothes a person wore, the way they carried themselves and how they groomed themselves all painted a picture of who that person really was. It was something she had developed quickly in her early days because the alternative was getting buried in a shallow grave if you misjudged the wrong person. This skill had served her well over the years and had mostly helped her to avoid trouble but there was one person who she had struggled to read with any sort of accuracy.

Nora. She had never given a last name, she was just Nora. The first time they had met when was Piper had been locked out of Diamond City by the synth masquerading as Mayor McDonough. Her initial impression had been accurate but it was maybe the only time she got something right about this particular person. Nora had the look of a Vault Dweller who was clearly unfamiliar with the surface world. She had shared her story, some of it at least, and Piper had decided to travel with her for a time. Nora had seemed every bit the classic fairy tale damsel in distress. Someone lost in this world she had discovered after two centuries of hibernation and in need of someone who could keep her out of a super mutant's cooking pot or a raider's slave collar. How wrong Piper had been. How very, very wrong.

This Vault Dweller, this anachronism, had started upsetting Piper's impressions of her the day they met. She had met people who were good shots but Nora's accuracy with that laser pistol was something else. If anything, Piper was the hapless sidekick and that pistol was the thing keeping Piper alive during their travels together as they searched for her son. The most troubling thing was that her new companion had a queer penchant for attracting explosions. Robots, abandoned vehicles, turrets, mines lying in wait, vertibirds. Wherever Nora went explosions inevitably followed her. It was an alarming trend and even worse, something she became accustomed to but by then she was far too caught up in Nora's tale to abandon the quest. But there were two that stood out far above the rest.

The end of Nora's world and the beginning of Piper's had been signaled by atomic fire raining down from the sky in a storm unlike any the world had ever seen. In a way it was only fitting that Nora's rise to power climaxed with yet another atomic detonation, perhaps the last that would ever be. This eruption had shook the land and the pillar of smoke and flame could be seen for miles in every direction. In one decisive stroke Nora had proclaimed to everyone watching that the Old World yet had life and wasn't willing to fade away into the pages of history just yet.

It was a challenge that the Brotherhood of Steel eventually couldn't ignore. The destruction of the Institute had swung public opinion towards the Minutemen once again. Their numbers swelled and settlements were clamoring to join the organization Nora had resurrected. Who fired the first shot was a question Piper had never been able to answer but the war was short. The Brotherhood was better trained and had more advanced technology but the Minutemen knew every inch of the Commonwealth and had far superior numbers. The second explosion above the rest was the destruction of their flagship, the Prydwen. The Minutemen's most powerful weapons were the mortar cannons built at many of their larger settlements. Maybe it was a coincidence but somehow Piper didn't think that Nora waiting until the early hours of the morning to strike to strike was an accident. The sun had yet to rise and the airship was silhouetted against a dark sky when the shells landed. As the garish explosions illuminated the night Piper swore she could hear Nora singing. Most of it was too low to make out but Piper was certain she heard the words 'red glare' and 'in air.'

Then it all came to an abrupt halt. Nora had rocked the Commonwealth to its core in her crusade to find the son Kellogg had absconded with. She had rebuilt the Minutemen, annihilated the Institute and crushed the Brotherhood of Steel. And just like that she was done. No more quests, no more searching and certainly not any fighting. Nora had called it quits and returned to Sanctuary to oversee the Minutemen from behind a desk.

Except from time to time Nora would disappear on the weekends. Sometimes she was alone, but on more than one occasion Curie had gone with her. At first Piper thought nothing of it, that Nora deserved some privacy after everything she had gone through but inevitably her ever lurking sense of curiosity started to get the better of her. Discretion was key since Piper didn't want word of this investigation getting back to Nora. The woman had been seen at settlements further to the south during these trips of hers but Nora had never given any indication of what she was doing but her path had inevitably made its way south but along differing routes every time. Whatever she was doing she wanted to throw people off the trail but Piper wasn't so easily dissuaded.

"Can ye not just leave it alone?" asked Cait. "It ain't none of our business what she's doin'." The fiery Irish redhead didn't look none too pleased at being dragged into this by Piper. "So what if she disappears from time to time? Don't mean we gotta follow her or nothin'."

Piper ignored the other woman's protests. "This is Nora we're talking about Cait. You've seen the kind of trouble she attracts. For all we know she's off trying to stop an invasion of Super Mutants or something even worse. Do you still have their trail?"

Cait rolled her eyes and gestured with her shotgun at a spot on the ground. "It's right there. Are ye blind or somethin'?"

She tried to see what the other woman was talking about but there was nothing there except for dirt and rocks. Whatever Cait was looking at was beyond Piper's ability to spot but that was why Cait was here, to follow Nora's tracks. "Okay okay let's go."

Neither of them knew where they were going but the trail had stopped meandering and was now headed south in a straight line towards a particular location. The Glowing Sea. The entire Commonwealth was rife with dangers but the Glowing Sea was worse than anywhere else. Popular theory was that the area was the result of a bomb that had fallen during the Great War and to this day was still highly radioactive. Only the toughest and most ill-tempered monsters could survive there and it was an area that everyone sane stayed far away from. And Nora was headed straight for it.

The closer they got the more Cait started to resemble an owl with the way her head kept spinning to one side or the other at every sound from the wilds around them. It would have been funny if they had been anywhere else but Piper couldn't help but squeeze the grip of her pistol just that extra little bit tighter. Eventually the two of them stopped at the edge of a break in the trees. Cait looked around for a moment then pointed at a small hill ahead of them. "It looks like that's where she's headed but I ain't got a reason why she'd go there." said Cait.

Piper instinctively checked to make sure her pistol was loaded before stepping out into the clearing. It wasn't far to to the hill but she still moved faster than before now that she was out in the open where anyone or anything could see her and Cait. The hill wasn't too steep but it took them about a minute to climb all the way up to the top to where Nora was. Piper hadn't known exactly what she was going to find when she had decided to follow Nora but the scene she had just stumbled into was not one she had ever could have imagined.

Nora was being held up in the air by a small army of green tentacles wrapped all around her naked body. Her head was dropped back towards the ground as she panted in ecstasy while these green tendrils played with every part of her body. Piper's arms fell slack to her side and her mouth fell open as she took in what was happening here. Cait's reaction was rather different. "What the fuckin' hell is this shite!?" she yelled.

The tentacles abruptly came to a halt and Nora turned her head to see the two of them standing there. She smiled nonchalantly or as nonchalantly as one could when two of your companions stumbled upon you while you were getting fucked by tentacles. "Hey there ladies..."

It wasn't much but Piper was glad that the other woman had the good sense to bring a towel with her. She could still see some cleavage and there was a sheen of sweet on Nora's forehead from what she had been doing. The tentacles had let her down quickly and Nora had sat down on a blanket once she had covered up. She had looked chagrined that they had found her at first but now she was acting as if it nothing was out of the ordinary.

"So all issues with you doing this aside... when did this start?" asked Piper. She was still inwardly reeling from what she had just seen but her instincts as a reporter were ever-present.

Nora glanced at Cait for a moment but the redhead had been quiet ever since her initial outburst. "I found this hill after my meeting with Virgil. I was trying to make camp and my friend here decided to say hello. One thing led to another and we ended up having sex."

"So all those times you've disappeared, this is what you've been doing? Coming here and having sex with... those things?" asked Piper, still on auto pilot.

"That's right."

Piper turned her head to look at the only tentacle still remaining above ground. The others had all disappeared down those holes but this one was still there pointing at each of them in turn as they spoke. "How did you figure out what it wanted? Hell, how do you even communicate with a creature like this?"

Nora's eyes flicked towards the holes as she recalled how their first encounter had gone. "That was kinda tricky. I just asked him yes and no questions until I knew he wanted to have sex with me. Since that he hasn't had much to say. Nowadays I just tell him what I want him to do to me and he makes it happen."

"But why? What you get out of it is obvious but what's in it for him? What does he get out of having sex with you?" Piper asked.

Nora shrugged dismissively, the action almost enough to make the towel slip off of her shoulder. "I don't know. Curie thinks it nourishes him somehow but that doesn't really matter to me. What keeps me coming back is how good it feels."

Cait finally had something to add to this conversation. "Wait. Curie? What are ye sayin'? That you brought her here? That you had her do this?"

"Yes and no. I did bring her here but I didn't make Curie do anything. You know how curious she is and she asked me a bunch of questions about it. Curie did decide to try it but that decision was hers not mine. Curie's come back a few times since then but she didn't feel up for it this time so it's just me today." Nora pulled the towel back onto her shoulder as she eyed the two of them. "So now what?"

"What do you mean?" asked Piper.

"You've uncovered my dirty little secret Piper. I regularly have sex with tentacles and I enjoy every second of it. The question is what are you going to do?" Nora inquired. "Are you going to expose me? Tell everyone in the Minutemen about what I'm doing out here? Or are you going to walk away? To pretend you never found me, that you never saw anything. Or maybe you're a little fascinated by what you did see. You're wondering what it would feel like aren't you Piper? Letting them have their way with your body. You can-"

"What!? Are you out of your mind Blue!?" Piper yelled. "You can't seriously believe that I'm thinking about having sex with those things! I'd never do that to Cait!"

Silence descended abruptly as what Piper had just said settled in. Piper's cheeks warmed with embarrassment while Nora looked between her and the redhead next to Piper. "Did you just..."

Cait grabbed Piper's hand, their fingers interlacing as she glared defiantly at Nora as if to challenge her to question it. Nora's surprise changed to a broad smile and she leaped to her feet embracing them with an arm around their shoulders. "That's wonderful! I had no idea the two of you were together!" She abruptly pulled back realizing she may have reacted a little too enthusiastically. "Sorry. You two make a lovely couple. I'm happy for you both, really." Nora glanced over her shoulder at the ever silent tentacle who had been sitting there listening to this conversation. "If I had known you ladies were together then I wouldn't suggested you sleep with him Piper. I'm not one to condone cheating in any form."

Cait leaned to the side looking at the tentacle behind Nora before turning her head towards Piper. "Actually I want to try it."

Nora and Piper's heads swiveled in cue to look at the Irish woman but Piper was the first to speak up. "What!?"

"Can you excuse us for a minute Nora?" Cait asked. Once Nora had moved away Cait leaned in and started whispering to Piper. "I know what you're thinkin', the thing ain't human, havin' sex with it is weird as shit, Nora's a freak, all of it. But that's what makes it interestin' beautiful. We've had talks about spicin' things up, you and me, and what's naughtier than somethin' like this? Think about it love, holdin' me in your arms while that thing does whatever we ask it. But I don't wanna pressure you. If you say no then no it is."

Once Cait had finished speaking Piper cast an apprehensive glance at the tentacle still above ground. Her eyes followed its length down to the hole it had come out of then to the area around it. One tentacle, one hole and there were at least a hundred more holes of various sizes around it. Enough for the both of them, possibly all three.

Nora said she had been doing this since her trip to find Virgil a few months ago. Curie had taken part as well and Piper hadn't seen any noticeable side-effects from either of them so this appeared to be safe at the very least. Cait had already made her position on the matter clear so the question though was whether or not Piper was willing to do this.

The reporter moved over to that tentacle and gingerly reached out to touch it with her bare fingers. Its skin was smooth to the touch and there was a surprising amount of warmth radiating from it. The tentacle let her examine it for a minute before sliding away and bending forwards as it started brushing itself against her wrist. Piper's instinct was to pull away but these touches were markedly gentle and then it hit her. It knew she was uneasy and was trying to reassure her. Piper looked back over her shoulder to see Cait watching and waiting for her decision. If it had been just her then Piper would have said no but she wasn't the only person involved. The thing tipping her over the edge was the fact that Cait wanted to do this. Piper didn't consider herself a pushover by any means but she had never been able to say no to Cait. She had tried of course but all Cait had to do was look at her with those beautiful green eyes and Piper's resistance would crumble in an instant. She closed her eyes as she exhaled before undoing the scarf around her neck. "All right Cait, get over here and help me take my clothes off."

Cait was at Piper's side in a flash, her hands pulling that red jacket off. A minute later and Piper was standing there in nothing but her birthday suit as she returned the favor. Cait's body was mostly wiry muscles and scars but somehow her breasts were almost as large as Piper's despite a seeming lack of fat everywhere else. Piper wrapped her arms around Cait pulling their bodies together and kissed her once before looking down at the tentacle. "Okay, we're ready."

One tentacle above ground turned into a crowd of green vines as it reached for the pair of them. They

hesitated at the last second, almost within touching distance, as if to appraise the situation first before beginning to wrap themselves around the naked women. Piper stiffened as the tentacles wound around each of her limbs and snaked their way all around parts of her torso. There were some noticeable gaps however, they had stayed away from everything above the shoulders and not a single tentacle was touching her breasts or groin. Piper looked down at the tentacles encasing her then over at Cait to find the redhead had been encased in an identical manner.

The obvious question was why but the tentacles answered that before Piper had time to open her mouth and ask. All at once, every tentacle enveloping her squeezed, nowhere near hard enough to hurt, but enough to knead human muscle. Cait giggled, she actually giggled, at the sensation as it repeated itself. "Feels like a massage don't it Piper?" asked Cait, a teasing smile on her lips.

They squeezed again after a few seconds as the creature settled into a rhythm. Squeeze and wait, squeeze and wait. It wasn't just a massage, it was a burst of sensation happening nearly everywhere on her body all at once over and over. Piper's eyelids slowly sank lower as the tentacles continued pressing into her until her eyes were fully closed and a soft sigh escaped the reporter's parted lips. The creature must have been waiting for a sign like that because the aberrant massage came to a halt as Piper's murmur drifted through the air. Piper's eyes opened at once, her brow scrunching in confusion. "Why did you stop? That was nice."

One of the tentacles still floating in the air drew closer to her and pointed its tip at her bare breast, the meaning behind the gesture perfectly clear. Piper briefly locked eyes with Cait before answering the question. "Yes."

The tendrils that had stayed at a distance now moved inwards as they wrapped themselves around Piper and Cait's chests. Piper murmured as the vines played with her breasts, pushing them one way then another before stilling themselves. The questioning wasn't done however as one of the last two tentacles remaining approached. This one was bigger than all of the others she had seen and it was pointing in the same fashion but at her crotch this time. Piper almost rolled her eyes even though she still felt grateful at how methodical this thing was when it came to asking permission. "Yes. You can touch me there. Go on."

It turned to Cait only to get a much cruder response that amounted to the same thing. The tentacle descended through the air until it was between her legs and pointing upwards. Piper spread her legs a bit wider to give easier access but the vine didn't move upwards like she was expecting. Instead its tip opened up like a blooming flower and a myriad of what looked like wispy white feathers uncurled from within. Then it rose towards Piper, latching itself onto her most sensitive parts.

Piper gasped as her folds vanished behind those triangular shaped petals at the end of the tentacle and the first feather brushed against her. Each and every one of those feathers had dozens of fine but sturdy strands branching off to either side. First it was just one but more and more kept coming until a hundreds of those strands were spreading Piper's lips or ever so lightly brushing against her in the most exquisite of tortures. The thing that made it truly sublime was being able to watch the face mere inches away as the woman in her arms received the same treatment. Piper could see it all, how Cait's cheeks flushed red, the curves of her lips as she gasped and moaned, the beads of sweat on her brow and the way her eyes hungrily stared back at Piper as the two of them watched each other.

Cait was the first to succumb to the touches down below. She gripped Piper even tighter and pressed her head into Piper's shoulder as the orgasm made cry out. Seconds later Piper joined her, the sound of Cait's pleasure being all she needed to slip over the edge as well. Piper buried her fingers in Cait's hair pulling the woman's lips to hers in a fierce kiss that saw their tongues grinding against each other. After a long moment Piper pulled away to catch her breath. As her chest heaved, a small sound caught her attention and she looked off to the side to see its source.

She had forgotten that Nora was there but the third woman hadn't gone anywhere. Nora's towel had fallen to the ground and every part of her was on display. The hands buried between Nora's legs as she played with herself while watching the show was especially obvious. An hour ago Piper would have been aghast at the sight but not after what she had just done. Letting tentacles play with you had a way of making masturbation seem trivial in comparison. Cait turned her head to see what Piper was looking at and she gave Piper a devilish grin. "Ready for more darlin'?" asked Cait.

Piper laughed and she started to let herself fall backwards but the tentacles holding her kept Piper from hitting the ground leaving the two of them at an angle. Piper peeked downwards to see their feet dangling a short distance above the ground before turning her gaze to those holes in the ground. "Come on you, we're waiting."

All of those tentacles wrapped around her squeezed once in acknowledgment and the tentacle on her crotch let go. Those damp feathers disappeared back inside as the tip reformed itself and pushed forward without any delay. Piper cried out in ecstasy, her fingernails digging into Cait's back as the tentacle pushed all the way inside of her in one smooth motion. She had been with men before but none of them had ever filled her the way she was at this moment. Above her Cait was murmuring to herself and Piper as much as to the tentacles. "Oh god, right there. That's the spot. Harder... harder!" Piper couldn't see the tentacle tending to Cait but each thrust was making her rock forward and downwards against the woman beneath her.

Piper pulled Cait flat against her while crossing her ankles as she wrapped her legs around the redhead, wanting their bodies to be as close together as possible. Cait shuddered again but she didn't let her climaxing stop her from leaving a red bite mark on Piper's neck. Cait's tentacle slowed almost to a crawl but the one between Piper's legs sped up at the same time. As the tentacle thrust away Cait placed her palms on Piper's cheeks holding her head in place so she could devour every bit of the wanton delirium written on her lovers face with greedy eyes.

The edge was there, she could see it but Piper had stopped drawing closer. Seeing Cait's facial expressions there above her and the tentacle hammering away below felt so sweet but it wasn't enough this time. She dug her fingers even tighter into Cait's back than before and her voice grew from a quiet whisper to a shout as she pleaded with the creature pleasuring her. "More. More! MORE!"

A second tentacle, one of the thinnest this creature had, emerged and headed straight to her thighs. It rubbed itself against the clear liquid that had seeped out until it was thoroughly coated all over in it. Seconds later Piper's back arched upwards as it pressed itself into her other, much tighter hole. She wordlessly cried out but Piper didn't protest or ask it to stop lightly thrusting into her rear. A few scant moments later and her body was shaking violently as the second tentacle drove her to and then over the edge she had been seeking.

Minutes passed or maybe they were hours, Piper wasn't sure, before she could muster the strength to speak. Her voice was still a croak however but understandable. "When were you planning to go back to Sanctuary Nora?" asked Piper.

"I usually leave around noon on Sundays, that gives me enough time to get back to Sanctuary before night falls." said Nora. She turned to grab her pipboy, slicked fingers and all, to check the time. "Right now it's six-thirty in the evening so about forty-two hours from now. Why?"

Forty-two hours, just under two days minus time to sleep and rest... "Well, I figure that's plenty of time for me and Cait to get to know our new friend here." Piper turned her head to look back up at Cait. "If you're up for that..."

Cait gave Piper a quick peck on the cheek. "Absolutely darlin'. Long as you keep spreadin' your legs for me too." She gave that roguish grin of hers before sagging down against Piper's body, her cheek finding its way to the reporter's chest. "Give me a few minutes then I'll be up for round two with... whatever the hell your name is."

The tentacle wrapped around her chest squeezed one breast and settled down to wait before it could oblige what was going to be far from the last request Nora and her companions would ask of it.