For a Halloween party at a fetish club, many of the patrons were surprisingly shy.  The large majority of people who queued up for the 'Ohhh'-ctapus just paid their $20 for a set of 5 digital photos, and even then, there was a lot of nervous giggling as Jacqueline and Dee were lowered over them, arranging their "tentacles" appropriately.  The girls mostly relied on the photographer for that, blind as they were under the opaque hoods of their costume when the eye-holes were zipped closed. 

There were still occasional tantalizing brushes of contact here and there, and it was impossible to tell if they were accidental or contrived, but it kept the pair rolling along at a low hum of arousal even without the occasional wriggles where they were joined by the harness.

But the club wasn't completely without adventurous souls, and there were occasional takers for the "two full minutes o' fierce bat'l or sens'al embrace" as the pirate-barker had put it.  When someone requested the extra session, for safety, Jackie and Dee's eye-zips were opened, so they didn't inadvertently throttle a guest or poke them in the eye with the tip of a foam-rubber tentacle.  Their mouth zips were opened as well...partially so they could use a verbal safeword if a guest in physical contact somehow prevented them from doing the 'supergirl' arms-and-legs-together pose, but also so they could, if appropriate, use their mouths in the "performance".

Jackie felt the rigger opening her eye zips and blinked a few times...even the club lighting was bright at first after over an hour of enforced darkness.  Below her, the club guest was maneuvering herself from a wheelchair onto the futon.  From watching the process, her legs appeared functional, but their movement was obviously restricted.  The woman was wearing a head-to-toe mermaid costume, apparently all of one piece, and spandex rather than latex by the way it moved.  The tail was finely patterned in black and gold scales, while the torso and hood were flesh-toned, but decorated with mottled patterns of green that ran up her sides, over her breasts and spiraled around her face.  The hood itself had open eye and mouth holes, but she'd done her eyes and lips in green makeup that matched the patterns on the hood, and her red hair spilled out a hole near the top back.  It was larger and more oblong than the one accommodating Jacqueline's own hair, making more a spreading fall of red waves than a pony-tail.

Jackie was immediately smitten, and smiled involuntarily.  Here was a girl after her own heart...the wheelchair was probably a pain, but she adored the idea of a zentai mermaid costume...if she'd given it more thought she might've been able to make something similar for herself.  Not that the evening had been bad at all, quite the opposite...and who knew if she'd have had the courage to actually interact with anyone without the 'forced' situation she'd volunteered for?

As the rigger slowly lowered them down, the guest must've caught Jackie's smile, because she flashed one of her own.

"You've got pretty eyes, octopus-girl...like a cup of cocoa I could drown in," she said, just loud enough for Jacqueline to make out over the music and bustling sounds of the club, her own deep blue eyes twinkling.  Jackie felt her cheeks begin to burn.  She'd had numerous compliments over the course of the evening, but they'd all been about the costume, so she didn't really take them to heart.  But the mermaid's words immediately set her heart to thumping in a way the others hadn't.

"No fair," said Dee, above and to her right as always.  "She can't even see my eyes..."  The mermaid laughed lightly and reached up, tugging on a tentacle and rotating Jacqueline and Dee so the latter's head was above her own.  Jackie felt disappointed, almost affronted, before she checked herself.  This was just play, it's not as if anything could come of this, after all.  Still, it had been nice to imagine.

"Oooh, they are a nice green, but I still like your other half's better."  She reversed the girls' earlier rotation until Jacqueline was facing her again.  Dee made a mock-insulted noise, but Jackie blushed even harder at the renewed attention.  "What's your name?"

"J-...ah, Sidney," Jackie said, remembering almost too late that she was using an alias here, for anonymity.  Part of her wanted to toss that aside, be herself, stop hiding...but she knew that, as herself, she wasn't really desirable.  The mermaid's eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm going by Rusalka tonight," she said, the subtle emphasis suggesting she'd noticed Jackie's false start.  "I'd reassure you by saying I don't bite, but that would be fibbing..."  If it wasn't hidden by opaque latex, Jackie was sure her face would have been raising the light level in the club by at least ten percent.  She tried to distract herself by trying to figure out where the name came from...it wasn't familiar, but maybe something classical.  Though there was something familiar, she was sure she'd have thought of it by now, if there wasn't so much going on.

"You get all the fun ones," Dee muttered.  She twisted her hips in a way that sent Jackie's hormones and thoughts spinning into further disarray.  Rusalka must've heard, because she chuckled.  Or maybe it was Jacqueline's expression.

The latex-clad girls bobbed slightly as the rigger brought them to a halt, Jackie's body about six inches above the mermaid's.  It was far enough that the guest could remain out of contact if they wanted, but there was enough play in the rigging that they could be pulled down that last half-foot with mild effort.

"Safeword is 'Parlay', ladies," said the rigger quietly.  "Repeat it for me?"  The three women repeated the word and the rigger nodded, then retreated again to his observation area.

"Maarmaid varsus Ohhh-ctapus, kink-lubbers!  Are ye ready f'r this epic encount'r?" asked the barker theatrically.  There was an enthusiastic response, as a small crowd had gathered.  Jackie took it as a cue to remind herself that she was a performer here, with responsibilities, and pushed her emotional confusion aside.  "The tim'r starts now!"

Dee and Jackie started immediately, bending their arms and legs to maneuver the tentacles.  Rusalka, for her part, had started out in a surprisingly submissive posture given her earlier comment, stretching her arms out above her head and letting the girls do the work, her eyes half-closed.  They were so close that it was hard to touch her directly, particularly for Dee, but the motors that let the tentacles curl meant they could loop them around in surprising ways if they were creative.  Jackie managed to get a tentacle in position to trace it up the mermaid's side, starting from the 'knee' of her tail, and was rewarded with an appealing wiggle.

Dee was doing her best with her cross-wise position.  She'd managed to wiggle one of her leg tentacles under the mermaid's tail, though the tip still curled and uncurled on automatic.  But this gave her room to position an arm tentacle likewise, and she used the control to curl the end around her 'ankles'.  The motors weren't strong enough to provide much compression, but it was sufficient to keep her 'grip' even as the mermaid began to flop her tail.

Meanwhile Jackie continued drawing her own tentacle upward, giving it occasional twitches with the sliding switch under her fingers.  It became abundantly clear that the woman's costume wasn't padded and she wasn't wearing a bra underneath, as small bumps in the soft fabric betrayed her hardened nipples.  Jacqueline bent her arm and adjusted the slider very carefully, and curled one tentacle around the mermaid's breast, then slooooowly pulled it off in a way that let every sucker catch slightly on the nipple.

The woman's lips parted in a soft gasp, her eyes locked on Jackie's in obvious hunger.  She placed her hands on Jackie's chest, just below her breasts.  It was mock resistance...she didn't actually push, nor did she attempt to dislodge the teasing tentacle.  She wanted to be taken, Jacqueline realized...she needed something to struggle against.  She curled one tentacle around the mermaid's upper arm, and the other underneath the futon and pulled, trying to bring their bodies together.

Now Rusalka put pressure behind her arms, but only slightly.  She turned her head from side to side in 'distress', though at least one eye always stayed on Jackie.  Jacqueline continued pulling, and Dee, recognizing the game, added her own efforts, and they lowered slowly but surely, despite increasing resistance from the mermaid's arms.

Her face was almost too close to Jackie's to focus on, and partially shaded from the club lights by Jackie's seaweed-styled hair, which hung in front of both their heads now.  Her eyes were full of desire, but she had some of her lower lip between her teeth.  Was this too much, or not what she wanted?  Was she thinking of giving the safeword?  Jacqueline began to loosen her 'grip', but the mermaid's eyes widened and she swiftly slid her hands over Jackie's breasts.  It seemed like she was trying to grab them, but especially under tight latex, there wasn't much to grab, and the spandex gloves had almost no friction over the smooth rubber.

Still, that seemed to be an answer, so Jackie changed her intent in mid-motion, only releasing one tentacle, then forcing it under the woman's lower back, curling back around the front of her waist from the other side.  There was an instant of relief on the woman's face, then her eyes closed and her mouth opened in a soft sound of pleasure.  Jacqueline pushed her other arm under her, curling the tentacle similarly, and her legs as well, wrapping the woman securely and pulling their bodies together.  If only the rigger would increase the tension, she might lift her, but there was no way they'd risk Jackie dropping a guest, maybe hurting her.

Impulsively, Jacqueline half-thrust downward with her forearms and shins, but still retaining her grip.  It was enough that the rigging contracted a bit and the trio lifted a few inches off the futon.  She was dimly aware of a cheer from the spectators, but was mostly focused on the mermaid in her clutches, warm and soft and eager, back arching beneath her, her eyes huge as she realized she was airborne.

Giving in to impulse again, Jackie covered the mermaid's green lips with her own clownfish-striped mouth, and the tip of her tongue danced an eager circle, joined immediately by another in nearly perfect counterpoint.  An endless moment later, their brief rebellion against gravity ended and Jackie's limbs were once again pinned between Rusalka and the futon.  But the mermaid was no longer hesitant...one hand slid behind Jackie's, prolonging the kiss, while the other slid between them, fumbling past tentacles for the zipper between Jackie's legs...

"Uh...oh, uh, Time!" shouted the lady pirate, who'd been distracted and let the session run a bit long.  The women were pulled apart as the rigging was raised again, their grip loosened at the distraction of the nearby yell.  "Let's raise a cheer f'r our brave maarmaid!" she continued, and there was an answering cheer from the spectators.  Jacqueline suddenly realized how far they'd been about to go, and from the mermaid's mortified expression, she was thinking the same thing.

The woman below her bent her knees to her chest and fumbled at her tail for a moment until she found a hidden zipper in the front, pulling it up to her knees to expose her bare legs.  She swung off of the futon and pushed her way out through the crowd, ignoring the photographer's protests that she hadn't taken her thumb drive yet for her pictures.

Jacqueline just hung there numbly as the barker closed their installation for the last time, and the rigger lowered them back down so he could release them from the harness.

"I need to find someone even taller than me willing to help, so I can be on the bottom sometime," Dee said in only half-jest.

"Good luck, beanpole," joked the Rigger, and grunted as his remark earned him a sharp jab in the ribs.

"'Sidney', a word in my office, please?"  Jackie looked up and saw that the club owner had come inside the curtain and was standing there.  She had sharp features, a 40's up-do, and was wearing what would otherwise be an ordinary stylish business suit, only it was entirely latex, down to the seamed stockings.  She did not look pleased, and Jackie's stomach began to churn.  She turned to the rigger, who wordlessly pulled the tentacle extensions off of her arms...he and Dee were avoiding looking at her.

The owner began to walk away, the clicks of her heels eerily absent due to the rubberized material, and Jacqueline followed, barely aware of the occasional compliment from guests they passed.  Once they'd passed through the back-stage hallway and were in the owner's office with the door closed, she immediately laid into Jacqueline with a fierce dressing-down.

"What is the first rule you were given, for an interactive performance?"

"S..safety first," Jackie mumbled.

"Safety first!" the owner yelled.  "And the second?"  Jacqueline swallowed heavily a couple times before she could speak.

"Only the guest can...escalate."  It was a near whisper.

"So you can read and remember!  I had wondered!" the owner shouted, even louder than before, as if to make up for Jackie's lack of volume.  "Do you realize how precarious a business like this is?  I'm ensured, but if a guest was injured, I couldn't afford jacked up premiums.  Nor the loss of business from the hit to reputation, to say nothing of the fallout from non-consensual contact!"  Tears began to pool around the lower edges of the eye-holes in Jackie's suit, some rolling over the edge, some slipping to the side to moisten her cheek.

"I...I thought she..."

"No!  You didn't think!  You went too far and treated my business like your personal harem chamber!  No one even knows if she's okay, she ran off so fast no one could calm her down to check!"  Jackie's tears only increased as she was overwhelmed with shame and guilt.  The owner just stared off to the side for a minute, not looking at her, clearly trying to calm herself down.  "Lucky for you, the night is done, or I'd toss you out on your ass without a check, but get out all the same.  Keep the suit - it's custom anyway, and you'll need to sell it for lawyers fees if I end up screwed by this.  You won't work here again, or in any other clubs...I'll spread the word, Jacqueline," she finished, spitting her real name at her like a curse.  Jacqueline wanted to try to defend herself...that it was only after that the woman had seemed regretful, she had escalated herself, after the kiss, but there was no proof and it hardly seemed like it mattered if she had upset the woman so badly.

She fled.  There was no one else in the dressing room, which was a small blessing.  She pulled off the suit as fast as she could, pulled her bag and her street clothes out of her locker and threw them on without using the shower, despite how gross she felt after six hours in latex, on top of everything else.

She still hadn't really stopped crying by the time she'd made it home.  Jackie could see a sliver of light under her roommates's door, so she rushed through the living room as quickly as she could to her private bedroom and locked the door behind her, dropped the gym bag she'd brought by the door, then kicked off her shoes and curled up on the bed in a dripping ball of misery.  Everything had been so perfect and wonderful and it really seemed okay, but that must've just been her own messed up desires tying her head in knots.

After a few minutes, there was a soft knock at her door.

"Jackie?  Are...are you okay?" asked Deb's muffled voice.

"I'm j...just tired...I'm sorry if I woke you," Jacqueline said, even knowing from the light that her roommate hadn't been sleeping...maybe she'd just take the hint and go.

"Can we talk about it?  I have tea."  Jackie closed her eyes and wished she lived alone.  Deb was super-nice, but she had a way of not taking no for an answer when she thought she could help.  Resigned, Jackie pulled herself off the bed, unlocked the door and opened it.

Deb's hair was wet and she was wearing a bathrobe, she must've gotten home late too and had just showered.  She held a cup of tea in both hands, and looked concerned.  Though her eyes widened a little, and Jackie realized belatedly she'd done nothing at all about her hair or the makeup over her eyes and mouth.  Her chest tightened in panic, but it was Halloween, it didn't matter...the latex costume was safely inside the closed gym bag.  She took the cup from Deb and immediately sipped, knowing her roommate was unlikely to leave before she'd finished it, so she might as well get started.

"What happened?" Deb asked, quietly.  Jackie sat heavily on the bed, feeling drained and awful.  She didn't have the mental strength to make up some story that would make any sense, and she felt like punishing herself even further.

"I'm a freak and I like fetish clothes and bondage and I kind of molested someone tonight and really upset her...oh yeah, her...I guess I'm a lesbian, too, and I got banned from a club, maybe all clubs..."  Deb just stared for a moment, then another moment, then sat on the bed next to Jacqueline and stared ahead some more.  It took a lot to rattle Deb, but Jackie decided if anything might do it, her string of humiliating admissions would.  After a couple minutes of silence broken only by Jacqueline sipping at her tea, Deb finally looked at her again.

"This woman you say you...molested.  Are you sure?  I really can't see you being a...I don't know what the female equivalent of 'lothario' is."  She paused for a moment.  "Did you like her?"

"I did...it was...God, for a moment, it was magical...I thought somehow everything in my life that I'm scared and ashamed of was suddenly blooming into this amazing new future.  I thought she liked me too, she was power-flirting with me, and she responded when we..."  Jacqueline stopped short, and shook her head.  "But she almost literally grew legs to run away from me, so I guess it was all in my head.  I don't know her real name, I can't even apologize..."  She set the tea cup down on her bedside table roughly and lay down, pushing her face into her pillow.

Jackie felt Deb's hand on her shoulder, but shook it off.  She didn't feel like she deserved comfort.

"Jackie?  Jacqueline.  I don't think you need to apologize, I don't think it was your fault."  Jackie lifted her head, glaring at her roommate.

"Of course it was, I'm the broken one, I screw up even screwed-up things!"

"What if..." Deb began, then hesitated, turned away, and spoke at the wall instead.  "What if this girl really did like you, but was just...afraid of her own feelings, and new to the whole...whatever it was you were doing tonight.  Wouldn't that be her fault?  Would you...forgive her for bolting like a coward?"  Jacqueline started to protest again, but stopped.  Could it be possible?  That seemed like a self-serving fantasy, but Deb was always so sensible.  If she wasn't just making up hypotheticals to comfort her, if she really thought that might be the case...  Jackie sat up and leaned forward a little, to catch Deb's eyes, to try to...

Deb's deep blue eyes...looking afraid and uncertain and somehow hopeful all at the same time.  Her hands were shaking.