Unlocking Tally Ch. 01

"Tally, you okay out here?"

It was an understandable question for Claire to ask. She and the rest of my friends were inside the hotel room, talking and laughing up a storm, while I was standing outside on the balcony. It's not even like I had a decent excuse for doing so. The barren landscape of my tiny desert town didn't make for much of a few. Besides, I was the maid of honor. The whole party was supposed to be my responsibility. Yet, here I was, feeling uncomfortable as usual.

"Yeah, I'm good," I told Claire. "Just getting some air. It's getting kinda warm in there. I'll be in here in a bit."

"Cool," she said, and headed back inside through the sliding glass door. I could still hear giggles and laughter coming from inside. It was an excuse, sure, but based in truth. There were about seven women all crammed into what was assuredly the best room the Day's Inn had to offer. But the heat itself wasn't what drove me outside.

Rei's presents. That's what did it.

It was a bachelorette party, I get that. And I also get that I probably wasn't the best person to ask when it came to putting one together. My general shyness combined with a Mormon upbringing meant that my "wild side" usually involved having a single drink, at home, by myself. I was nervous when Marie made me her maid of honor. People were going to be bored with my inevitably lame-ass party!

Luckily, Rei showed up.

She'd always been the more...open of our group, let's say. Never one to let society's labels or standards get her down, Rei was always out and proud, whether it be about her weight or her sexual orientation or anything else for that matter. There didn't seem to be a single aspect of Rei that was kept on the "down low."

I couldn't believe I'd just used the phrase "down low."

Regardless, if any one of our group was going to bring the wild side to this particular get-together, it was going to be her, and when she'd arrived at the hotel room holding a veritable goodie-bag full of suspiciously-shaped packages, that supposition was confirmed.

According to her, she had caught a "fantastic sale" at the adult bookstore just outside of town, and decided to celebrate Marie's upcoming nuptials by making a run on the place. While the rest of the girls giggled as she brought out each mysterious present, I scrunched up in my seat, getting more and more uncomfortable. Sex wasn't something I had, well, any experience with, and the whole thing was rather new to me. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad, I'd thought. Maybe there would just be a few funny little penis-shaped novelty cakes or something. I'd seen that in movies, right? Maybe?

"Wow, that is a HUGE butt plug!" Marie said as she unwrapped her first gift.

That's when I left.

But I was feeling guilty. If Claire had come out to check on me, that must have meant that my absence was noted. And, after all, today wasn't about me. Today was about Marie and her happiness and blah blah blah stupid friend stuff.

Fine, I thought as I opened the door to the hotel room again and stepped inside. Unfortunately, the festivities weren't quite over. The group appeared to be scrutinizing one item in particular. It looked like a belt of some kind, with a heart shaped plastic piece on front and various other accoutrements that were completely foreign to me.

"Okay, so that I actually have used before," Rei pointed out.

"I don't even know what it is, much less how to use it."

"It's a chastity belt," she stated as though this fact should have been readily apparent to us. "Really? Nobody?"

"You're kinda on your own there, Rei," Marie said with a shrug.

"There's actually a funny story with that," Rei began, taking another swig of her drink. "This was when I was still living with my girlfriend in New York. I was staying with her at her parent's house while I looked for a place, and one day I was all by myself and I thought: 'Hey, I should wash the chastity belt.'"

"As you do," Ariel interjected.

"Exactly! It's about good hygiene, really," Rei continued. "So, anyway, I'm standing over the sink, scrubbing this thing down, when, all of a sudden, her dad comes through the door!"

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I just sorta stood there," she said, imitating a frozen expression. "And he looked at me, then looked down at what I was holding, then looked back at me, and just left the room. It was great."

"Did he know what it even was?" Ariel asked.

"I don't know, but I mean, it's a belt, shaped like a heart, with little heart shaped locks on it. I'm sure it didn't look good."

And so the bachelorette party went on, with each new toy brought out eliciting more gasps and laughter. There were all manner of strange and foreign devices, each a bit more risqué than the last. The last present was a particularly huge specimen. Everyone in the room looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and intrigue.

"Tell me that's a whole bunch of gifts in one big box," Marie said to Rei as she was handed the gift.

"Nope," Rei replied cheerfully. "This one's special." She glanced over in my direction. "Hey, Tally, you're big into the Avengers, right?"

I blushed and look down. It was true, although the sudden refocusing of the group's attention didn't thrill me. "Um...yeah. Yes. I am."

Rei began tearing the wrapping paper off the gift. "Well, feast your eyes on..." Her voice deepened to an almost comical level. "The Incredible Hulk"

The room filled with gasps and laughter as the gift was produced. I don't know what else I'd be expecting with that name, but there it was. A huge green penis. It had to be a foot long, two inches across, and covered in realistically rendered veins. Maybe someone would be aroused by that. My first reaction was a fear response.

Possibly sensing my hesitation, Marie decided to be an excellent best friend and command the attention of the group. She took the large plastic dong in hand, and held it out in front of her.

"That's my secret, Captain," she began, doing a fairly terrible yet charming Mark Ruffalo impersonation. She then raised the hand holding the end of the floppy green toy, making it look more...erect. "I'm always horny." The room burst out in laughter, and I tried desperately to find new depths of my chair to sink into.

Clearly, I was out of my element here.

Fortunately, that was the final gift, and the rest of the night passed mostly without incident. There was some rum involved, as well as pretty much every episode of Supernatural where Jared Padalecki took his shirt off, but, eventually, people began drifting off to sleep. It ended up being a fun night, even if my involvement in that fun was minimal.

The next morning, everyone began filing out of the hotel room. Normal lives to return to and all that. Unfortunately, Marie was blocking the exit, the large stack of gifts from Rei next to her.

"Nope. Sorry. I am not taking all of these home with me. Thank you, Rei, but this is just too many sex toys."

"Eh, I figured as much," Rei said with a shrug and a smile.

"So you all are taking some of these home with you. Grab whichever ones you want on your way out."

I sort of clenched up in fear at this. Intellectually, I knew it was silly. To start with, there was nothing intrinsically scary about them. They were just plastic, after all. Plastic in a very specific shape, but plastic nonetheless. Plus, I could just throw whatever one I got away as soon as I was out of sight. That would be pretty dang easy. Easy peasy lemon-squeezy, even. My thoughts seemed to get goofier as I got closer to the front of the line of people heading out the door and the nerves started to take over.

My plan was to simply pass by unnoticed. "Thanks, Marie. Had fun! Bye!" I tried to scoot out the door, but found Marie's arm there, blocking me.

"You're not getting away that easy, Tal. Come one, everyone has to take something." My face scrunched up with discomfort, and Marie lowered her voice to a whisper. "I know you're not into this whole thing, Tal, but I really do need to get rid of some of these. Just, you know, grab you one. Might do you some good."

I looked up at her, skeptically.

"Please, for me. It would be a really good maid-of-honor-y thing to do."

I let out a large, exasperated sigh. "Fine."

"Thanks," she said chipperly.

I took a quick glance at the now-smaller yet still intimidating pile of adult toys. Try as I might to fight it, my religious upbringing was still triggering an instinct to look away whenever I saw anything remotely sexual, so focusing on choosing one from the bunch was difficult. Eventually, I settled on the least intimidating one I could find: a small purple vibrator. Smooth, plastic shape. No realistic veins popping out, no strange, indecipherable attachments. Just something basic. I stuffed the thing as far down into my purse as I could.

"Call me if you need any help with the flowers tomorrow!" I blurted out, and rushed out the door, my head lowered in embarrassment.

"See ya, Tal!" Marie called after me, chuckling. I must have looked like an idiot. Right now, though, I didn't care. Right now, I just wanted to rush out of that building. It felt like I was smuggling a loaded gun in my purse as I speed-walked out the front door and into the parking lot. Like I was carrying an armed bomb. I had to get rid of it.

But I didn't get rid of it. I don't know why. Maybe I was just too embarrassed to stop anywhere. As though someone would see me in the brief window of time where I was throwing the toy away, and word would spread. I mean, it was a small town. Rumors were common. But I didn't have a good reason why anyone would care about what I did, or how they would see me in such a brief instant. Still, I just kept the thing in the bottom of my bag, and headed home.

When I got there, I gave a brief greeting to my mom. I was worried she would somehow...I don't know, suspect something if I stuck around too long. As though there were plastic penis rays emitting from my bag that she could somehow detect. That's what being sheltered does, I suppose. She asked me how the party went, I told her it went fine, then quickly ducked into my room. If anything, she probably thought I was drunk or stoned or something. That would be easier to deal with, sadly.

It's not as though it was her business, though. I mean, sure, I was still living at my parents' house, but I was twenty-four years old. I was an adult. Been one for a while now. It's just, you know, times were tough. It's not so easy to get a job in today's economy. It was a perfectly valid lifestyle choice, even if it meant not really having any independence.

Truth be told, it was tough getting out at all these days. I wasn't very social, because, well, I couldn't be. Somehow I'd ended up with the night shift at work, and, as such, wasn't really available during the times when most people would go and hang out and get together. My friends kept telling me I needed to get a boyfriend, but I wasn't sure how I was supposed to do that, given that most dates didn't happen in the middle of the day.

But I still managed to have my fun, and I was reminded of such as I walked into my room, which was decorated with various geeky paraphernalia. There were plenty of decorations strewn about, from action figures of comic book heroes to Doctor Who props to various little bits and bobs from all the games I liked. I probably had enough Kingdom Hearts merch to open my own store at this point.

Before I could get to any of the fun times, however, I had to dispense of my Hazardous Material. I went over to my dresser, and, checking to make sure the door was closed, the blinds were down, and no surveillance equipment had suddenly appeared, I took the purple vibrator out of my bag, gave it a quick glance, and hid it away.

Turns out, it wasn't that simple.

I'd taken the whole day after the bachelor party off work, mostly because I figured there'd be some sort of recovery involved. But, truth be told, none of us had ended up that drunk. I was a lightweight by any standards, but none of the other girls were really heavy drinkers either. As such, it ended up being a hangover-free evening. What that meant was that I'd ended up with a day off work and a lot of time to kill. I started off by catching up on my comics, checking Tumblr, and playing a bit of Minecraft, but none of it could solve the problem I was having. None of it sufficiently distracted me from the events of last night.

Goddamn it, I couldn't stop thinking about sex toys.

It was annoying. Most of the thoughts were purely intellectual in nature. A lot of the toys Rei brought were things I had never even seen before, much less considered using on myself or others. There was some sort of ring that Marie was supposed to use on her husband. I didn't know what that was for. There were clamps that were supposed to go...somewhere. I didn't know where. It was almost a purely intellectual curiosity. Almost an anthropology study.

Almost.

As much as I hated to admit it to myself, some of the items on display did intrigue me in...non-intellectual ways. I might never have had a boyfriend but that didn't mean I was completely...dry down there. I'd touched myself a few times. The first time scared the hell out of me, or, rather, scared the hell in to me, as I thought that my late night indiscretion would damn me forever. But, eventually, I became more and more comfortable with it, probably thanks to all of the erotic fanfics and fanart I'd seen on Tumblr. I didn't do it that often, but there was a part of me that enjoyed some self-inflicted fun every once and a while. And, try as I might, I couldn't stop the thoughts of those toys from eliciting that familiar downstairs tingly feeling.

Damn it, Tally. Have some self-control.

I looked over at the clock. It was one in the morning now. I'd managed to lounge around for an entire day. Not my proudest moment. Still, I was a night owl by nature, so being up this late wasn't a big deal to me. I just had to last a few more hours until my regular bedtime, and then I could start a fresh day with stuff to do to keep my mind of sex, toys, and the intersection of the two. I could get rid of the dull ache in my crotch if I just held out for a little while longer.

And then I came across that goddamn fan art.

It came across my Tumblr dash innocently enough. Well, as innocent as a sexy drawing of Loki and Tony Stark could be. But it wasn't intended for me. I just happen to follow the Frostiron shipping tag, and, well, sometimes we fans could get a bit...creative.

Still, I couldn't deny the effect it was having on me. The picture was of a roughed-up looking Tony Stark, shirt long since discarded, with a look of passion on his face. Behind him, an equally shirtless Loki, a look of almost malevolent glee on his face. The drawing wasn't completely explicit, but, given both men's expressions, nudity, and pose, it wasn't hard to figure out the idea here. Clearly, there was some thrusting happening, and it probably wasn't aimless.

I bit my lip, letting out a sigh as my heart began beating rather quickly. It's true that this particular pairing did do a lot for me. Maybe it was the characters themselves, maybe because the actor who played Loki in the movies was just incredibly hot. Either way, I started to feel a flush emanating from between my legs. Now was probably not the time. It's not like I was alone in the house or anything.

On the other hand...that picture was really hot.

Screw it. A few clicks later, I was at my favorite Frostiron blog, browsing the NC-17 section. There was a new fanfic I hadn't read yet. What better place to start?

It was a fairly simple story, all things considered. The two of them stranded somewhere, having to huddle in a cave, a "well, body heat will keep us warm" scenario. But it was doing the trick. What the author lacked in originality they made up for in storytelling granularity. Lots of excellent descriptions of heaving chests, rippling muscles, and sweaty bodies.

Almost absentmindedly, my hand drifted down the crotch of the sweatpants I was currently wearing. The thin fabric gave little resistance as I began gently running my fingers up and down my increasingly moist mound. I could feel the fabric getting more and more damp the further I scrolled down in the story. Once I reached the point where both characters were naked, their bodies pressed up against each other, I knew that outside stimulation wasn't going to cut it anymore.

Slowly, I untied the drawstring on my pajama pants. I could feel the rough texture of my pubic hair as I ran my hand down my front, until, with a tingle, I felt my fingers reach their destination.

The story had done its job. I was fairly wet already. I continued reading, lightly tracing the outline of my lips as I did so. My fingers pressed harder and harder against my slick pussy, until, finally, at the moment of penetration in the story, I slid one tentative finger inside myself.

"Ah!" I let out a small sigh at the initial intrusion. I extracted my digit, rubbed my outer lips a bit more to get them slick with my wetness, then slipped both it and a second finger back into my hole. Normally, I would go in for more clitoral stimulation, but something about tonight was making me yearn for more. I needed to be filled. I slipped a third finger in as well, feeling my inner walls gripping me tight.

But it wasn't working.

The story was hot, and the pleasure of my busy fingers was certainly there. But it wasn't enough. I knew I wasn't going to be able to take myself the rest of the way like this.

My eyes shifted over to the dresser drawer.

No. It was a joke. A gag gift. Not something to actually be used. But...why not use it? It was just sitting in there.

With a sigh and a wet "squeak" sound, I pulled my fingers out of myself. That aching need was still there, made all the worse by my stopping halfway through. I wiped my arousal off on the side of my sweatpants, and walked over to the dresser, opening the drawer with some trepidation. In my rush to get it out of sight when I got home, my first idea was to put it at the bottom of my "random junk" drawer and cover it with stuff. The idea was good, in my opinion, for two reasons. First, I didn't want to put the toy in my underwear drawer, because that's the first place someone would check. Second, putting a fake penis in a "junk" drawer was kinda funny.

Before too long (and after grabbing a set of batteries that I figured would be handy), the box was uncovered, and, sitting inside the clear plastic case, was my new purple friend. I picked up the box, removed the top cover, and took out the small vibrator.

It felt strange in my hand. I'd expected a hard plastic, but this was more soft. Porous, almost? The exact specifications of manufactured plastic weren't my area of expertise. Still, it was more inviting than I had been expecting. Less of a hard, plastic instrument and more of an...accessory. Still, this was kind of a turning point, and my nerves were going off appropriately. While a few teenage years spent doing Taekwondo had removed the physical barrier, this was going to be the first time I'd actually be...penetrated. I felt my excitement build as I removed the batteries from their flimsy cardboard case, and unscrewed the bottom of the toy.

After fumbling around for a bit, I managed to get the batteries into the vibrator. My hands are shaking with anticipation, but I was able to screw the cap back on. Wanting to give the sensation a quick test before its trip southward, I hit the button on the vibrator's base.

"Ooh!" the force of the buzzing is surprising. I was expecting something a little more subtle, but this...well, this certainly had some verve to it. I debated my options; would it be better to start the vibrations before I actually put it inside myself, or after? I supposed that it didn't matter. It's not as though this vagina was a rental that I would have to turn in the next day. If one way wasn't satisfactory, I could try both.