8PHE0031
word count 12619
********
Day 31, Thursday
Joi woke Kinny with a kiss. When he was awake, she said, "That's not
my porn."
"Huh?"
"I don't have porn." She smiled. "Except for 3Ds that you and I
starred in."
"Oh. Okay."
"Thanks for finding my mom's wedding dress."
Kinny nodded. "Mom thought that...."
Joi put a finger on Kinny's lip. "I heard what Mom thought. She's
right. You're both right. But I don't care. Permission granted.
Rummage at will, okay? Don't throw anything else out for bulky item
pickup. Put nothing in the recycler without permission."
"Not even rotten clothes?"
"Not even rotten clothes."
"Okay."
"Tropic. Can you rub liniment on my back? I pulled a muscle tonight."
********
Linda showed up in gym clothes at six a.m. She knocked on the door
instead of ringing the doorbell.
Joi let her in. She had Drake, was holding him on one hip.
"I didn't want to wake the baby," Linda said. "But I see he's awake."
Drake said, "Puridads!"
Linda nodded. "Hi, baby." She looked at Joi. "What time does Fit-n-
Pretty open?"
"They're open now. Twenty-four, seven, I think."
"I need the workout routine you put Kinny through when he started with
you."
Joi nodded. "Can you babysit for Bo when it's her turn to work out?"
"If I'm not working. They call me in sometimes."
"Drop the baby off with us if you need to."
"At the gym?"
Joi nodded. "Bo hates the windsprints home, anyway. Any excuse to
walk. You want to start now?"
"Um, sure."
Joi smiled. "Let me pass the football to our head cheerleader." Joi
gestured to the baby as she mentioned the word, 'football.' "Bo! Get
your wiggly butt down here!"
When Kinny arrived, Joi gave him the baby. She nodded toward Linda.
"I'm taking this lass to the gym and working her until she cries.
Don't think that gives you a pass because you're next. Today is
chest."
Kinny smiled. He bounced the baby. "Good luck, Ma. She's a
ballbreaker."
********
(some time later)
Linda said, "I did twenty-nine minutes before I quit. Joi says that's
two minutes better than her last trainee."
"Proud of you, Ma. Did you drink your fitness shake?"
Linda made a face. "Squirmy."
"It is, innit."
Joi barked, "Next!"
Kinny grinned. "She's a beast but I love her."
"Um, which one's the privacy shower? Joi said I could clean up here."
Kinny pointed to the downstairs bedroom. "Watch the monster. He climbs
steps now when he thinks you're not looking."
********
When Kinny dragged himself back into Joi's house, he noticed an
addition. There was a baby gate at the bottom of the stairwell. And a
very frustrated baby pulling on it, singing "Ya, ya, ya, ya."
Drake turned around. "Aba! Umpa." He made a sign, 'Open.' He looked
around Kinny. "Doi! Umpa." He pointed to the gate. He teetered on his
feet and fell on his diapered rump.
Joi laughed.
Linda came out of the kitchen, wearing Kinny's Debbie outfit. She
said, "I used all your maker stock for that baby gate. New stock is
being delivered at four. Hope you don't mind."
"You're taking my shift today?" Kinny asked.
Linda nodded. "They promised they wouldn't call me in again. I'm
taking a comp day."
"What do I do?"
"Whatever you want," Joi said, kissing him. "Alone. I'm taking the
baby for an oil change."
"I'll go with."
"No. I signed an NDA. I can't show up at Body Rental with a friend,
now can I?"
"Are they going to...."
"I don't know what they're going to do. It's a six-week contract, but
they can void it at any time. Say, 'Bye-bye,' Baby Drake. We're going
for a car ride."
When the door clicked shut and Kinny heard the car drive off, he sat
on the couch. He burst into tears.
His mom sat next to him. She put a hand on his shoulder. She said,
"Kinny, you're the sitter, not the mom."
He said, "I know. I don't know why I'm crying." He cried even harder.
Then, suddenly, the crying jag was spent. Kinny dried his eyes with a
nursing pad.
"That's a lot of tears over a doll." Linda dabbed tears from the
corner of her eye. "Now you've got me crying, too."
Kinny said, "I'm going to miss him."
"He's coming back, Kinny."
"Probably."
"Yuh."
They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Kinny got up. He threw
that nursing pad into the recycle, along with it's partner. He found
his bike helmet and handed it to his mom. "You sure you want to do
this?"
"How can your job be more stressful than mine?"
He smiled. "The combo is 58008."
Linda looked at him mildly.
"I've had the same bike combo for, like, ten years?"
She chuckled. "Not likely to forget that one."
He handed her his specs. And his purse.
"Will you need any of this stuff?" She peered into his purse.
"Nah. I'm going to stay home and catch up on my hours."
"You're going to play video games on your time off?"
"I get paid to do that. I need eleven more hours to finish my week."
"When I get back, I better find you hard at work, son."
Kinny snickered.
Linda glanced down at Kinny's lap. "Not what I meant. You know what I
meant." She fanned herself. "Children." She rolled her eyes.
Kinny laughed. "Knock 'em in, Debbie." He walked his mom to the door.
He accepted a kiss on the cheek before she left.
********
Kinny felt naked without his specs. He grabbed Joi's spare set and
went upstairs. He logged on to PASsport.
The site was down for 'maintenance.'
He leaned back in his chair. Looked over at the boxes still stacked by
the closet.
Kinny smiled. He started unpacking boxes. After the first landslide of
dust, Kinny fetched the vacuum cleaner. He vacuumed all the boxes.
Then he vacuumed the mess on his floor.
It was time to open boxes. In the first box, he found photo albums,
three generations of yearbooks - high school and college. A wedding
dress and white shoes. A coppery gold ring. A set of tarnished silver
earrings with turquoise inlays.
Kinny put the dress on Joi's working bed. He stacked the books on her
desk and put the jewelry beside the books.
One box down.
He pulled the Octapod from its box and sorted all the cords. He dusted
it off and cleaned the contacts. Kinny set that aside.
He opened the little box next. It held more porn mags and a charger
for them. Kinny leafed through some of the magazines. They seemed to
have the same general plot arc as the magazines downstairs. Some of
them added horror elements. A tentacle monster. Starfish. A fake-
looking werewolf with a pot belly. A small mottled ape or possibly a
mini-version of Bigfoot. It wore a red Phrygian cap.
Kinny took these downstairs. He checked the e-zine he'd left on the
charger. One more magazine held a full charge.
Kinny had two chargers now. He plugged the magazine which had blanked
into the original-equipment charger. It lit up. Kinny smiled. He
connected one of the horror mags to the charger he made in Joi's fab.
Kinny returned to Anabelle's bedroom. He checked his viewership. He
had four paying viewers, thirty-six lurkers. He paged through the
comments. Besides the obligatory 'Show us your tits,' comments, one
viewer wanted to know what was in the boxes.
Kinny smiled and spoke to the camera. "I don't know what's in the
boxes. That's why I'm opening them."
Box number four held a locked lockbox and a small camouflage suitcase,
also locked. Neither seemed empty.
Box five held a dollhouse. It was a representation of this house, in
miniature.
With small pose-able dolls in every room, including the attics and
also in the yard.
The action figures were all having sex. Every sex act that Kinny could
think of was represented somewhere in the house, and a few sex acts
that Kinny would have never considered.
A tentacle monster held court with two women in the safe room. The
movie set in the basement was filming three separate scenes. One of
the cameramen was human, the others were mechanical or biomechanical.
Kinny shivered. He put the dollhouse back in its box.
He went to the basement and charged up the last of the magazines.
********
Cookie said, "That one. Play that one first."
"The Monster Pit? Okay."
Kinny sat on the bed downstairs. He put the gloves on, and the
booties. For safety's sake, he shackled one ankle to the equipment
post by the bed. Kinny knew from the forums that some of the old
sensies physically ran you around. He had no desire to run face-first
into a wall. Kinny fit the old VR goggles over his eyes. The octapod
console was in plain view.
Oh, good. AR, not VR. Kinny probably didn't need the chain. He hit
play. After the credits and a few adverts for products that Kinny had
never heard of, the menu came up. Special Effects, User Preferences,
Debug, Editor's Comments, Bloopers, and Play. Kinny hit Play. Another
menu came up. Kinny selected Start a New Adventure.
From the text that Kinny had read in the magazine, he knew that the
heroine started out with the name Cheryl and would later be known as
Cherry. The adventure began with a chase scene. The actress was
running. Tits were flopping. She was winded, almost spent. Sharp pains
in her side could be from running but might simply be underwire poking
through her bra. She was in heels. Her knee and arms hurt. Kinny
paused the game. He selected Universal View and examined the actress.
He'd met this woman. She'd babysat him a few times. He didn't remember
her name but was certain it hadn't been Cheryl. Or Cherry.
Cambridge? His father had called her College Girl. Carlyle. Okay.
Kinny remembered. Her name was Carlyle. First name or last? Probably
her first name. But he had been taught to call her Miz Carlyle.
Cheryl, as she was known in this porn mag, was wearing office-wear, a
torn white button-up blouse with most of its buttons unfastened, some
of them missing. A lacy white bra was in plain view. She also wore a
dark cottoneen skirt, hose, and shoes that Kinny now knew were called
mules. Her mascara was running - she'd been crying. Her lipstick was
smeared, some of it on her teeth. Her hose was torn in several places.
Scratches. Some of the scratches on her legs and arms were bleeding.
Bruises on one arm were in the shape of fingers and a thumb. Her knee
was bloody from a scrape. There were blood stains on her blouse. Grass
stains. Other stains.
Kinny swiveled the view. He checked the upskirt. Cheryl was wearing
pantyhose. It looked like she wore lacy white underwear inside the
pantyhose.
He examined the scene around her. It was a graveyard at night. Lao Fan
Cemetery, from the looks of it. Kinny recognized the wall, a chaotic
jumble of burned and melted bricks. Some of the graves were fresh.
Some gravestones were in English, others in a variety of Asian
scripts. Kinny saw a few jokes CGI'd into the epitaphs. For instance:
'Won Hung Lo,'
'Look behind you!'
and,
'Got XY?'
The mist looked fake. It was probably CGI. Or else it was cheap
Halloween special-effects fog.
Kinny saw a lurker in a tree there. Its eyes were looking at Kinny,
erm, looking at the girl.
There was a white panel van speeding down the cemetery road here.
Ming's Flowers. The van looked new in this magazine. Bright paint,
holographic logo.
Kinny shuddered.
He unpaused the game. Our heroine, Cheryl, ran for a gate made from
iron bars that was padlocked with a huge iron lock. She lost a shoe in
the soft grass. Cheryl fell. She got up again, and ran for the gate.
A mass of tentacles reached for her through the iron bars. Cheryl
screamed. Her throat felt raw. She changed directions, losing the
other shoe in the process.
She ran into a man much bigger than her. He clotheslined her. Cheryl
landed flat on her back, gasping for air. Another man appeared. He had
a black velvet sack for her head. Cheryl tried to scream. She couldn't
breathe. The men hauled her to her feet. One of them grabbed her boob.
The other slapped her arse. "You didn't get far," he said.
The first choice appeared.
'Fight? Go limp? Cooperate?'
Kinny chose Fight.
Cheryl tried to kick one of the men and bite the other.
They pulled her toward the white van. The big guy held her arms. His
hand fit exactly over the bruises on Cheryl's arm.
On the way there, they hooded her.
The men handled her roughly. They fastened her to - something in the
van. Spread-eagle. She felt them cut away her clothes. She shivered in
the cold air and struggled against rough touches.
Then the first of several rape scenes began. And, just like the combat
rape in PASsport, they fucked her until she orgasmed. Repeatedly.
Kinny played through the intro. Eventually they pulled her out of the
van, still hooded. They walked her up a short set of stairs and
through a door. There were voices and music. It sounded like a party.
They marched her through another door and down a long set of steps.
More voices, different music. They maneuvered Cheryl through a few
more doors. They chained her to a wall. The big man raped her again.
She wrapped her legs around his waist. It took pressure off the chains
that held her wrists above her head.
All the fight had gone out of Cheryl by this time. She apparently knew
they would fuck her until she came, so, when she did, she announced
it.
"I'm cumming! I'm cumming! Oh, oh, oh fuck."
The man pinched her nipple. "Thank me for making you cum."
Cheryl sobbed. "Th-thank you."
"We can do this all night." He grabbed her arse with both hands and
thrust again. "Want to fuck until you have another multiple? Want me
to invite a house full of people to have at you?"
Cheryl shook her head.
"Then thank me properly." He rutted her savagely.
"What do you want me to say?"
"Oh, baby. I think you want another ass fuck." His hands pulled her
butt cheeks apart. He lifted her, nearly pulled out of her pussy. Then
he slammed in again. Pulled out. Slammed in. His fingers smeared
fluids on her arsehole.
"No, no." Cheryl pulled on the chains. "Thank you for making me cum.
Thank you for your big dick. Thank you for the - oh, fuck. I'm cumming
again." She went rigid. Her back arched. Her legs extended and her
toes curled. "Oh, oh. I'm cumming." Cheryl shuddered in pleasure and
went slack. "Oh, fuck, I'm cumming. What is wrong with me?" She
anticipated his thrusts now and wiggled her bottom to get more contact
with his fingers. Her nipples tingled with anticipation. She shook
with pleasure.
She heard him grunt. He changed rhythms, thrusting erratically now.
Cheryl asked, "Are you cumming inside?" She moaned. She came again,
the beginning of another multiple orgasm.
"Sure am, honey bucket. Say you love it."
"I love it. Thank you." Her knees buckled when the man pulled out and
dropped her almost kneeling to the floor. It jerked her arms
painfully. This ruined that last orgasm. Cheryl shook with need. She
rubbed her knees together. "Why did you stop?"
The man twisted her nipple painfully. "There's a girl in the harness
next door." He pulled her knees apart with his foot. Cheryl let him.
She heard the sound of a metal pot sliding on concrete. She felt it
slide between her ankles. "Don't void on the floor," he said. "Get it
all in the pot."
"I can't see."
"Be a good girl and we'll feed you breakfast."
Cheryl shrugged. Her head hung, chin resting on her chest.
He laughed. "If you're friendly, we'll let you wash up. Maybe even let
you earn your first patch of clothing." He wiped his erection on her
breasts. Then he unhooded her and walked away.
Cheryl found herself staring at a stained mattress on the floor. She
couldn't reach it. No hope of actually lying in it. Kinny recognized
that mattress. He'd recently thrown it away. Cheryl looked up just in
time to see door click shut. Kinny knew from experience with that room
that there was also an ear-popping pressure change. The feelie didn't
pass that sensation along, although the actress did twist her head and
grimace. Tears ran down her nose and dripped into the pot at her feet.
She sobbed quietly.
Kinny paused the game again. He used Universal View to check on Cheryl
and also to examine the room from her perspective.
Cheryl was naked and bruised. She had new abrasions on her wrists and
ankles from struggling against her bonds. She had a fat lip. Semen
dripped from her pussy and from her arsehole. Some of it was already
puddling in the pot. Her inner thighs were slick with fluids. Shit,
blood, and semen were smeared on her tits.
The room looked exactly as Kinny remembered. Panties, bras, a
negligee. Not the same clothes that Kinny had recovered, but similar.
Sex toys on the floor. He could almost smell the mattress.
So. No smells or taste in this game. Head sensations were low-
fidelity. Kinny had barely felt the forced oral sex or the fist that
caused a fat lip.
But the body sensations from the neck down were vivid. The gloves and
booties added physical sensations on top of AR sensations to produce a
good illusion of walking, running, and handling objects - such as a
penis. In that respect, this rig was superior to the one that Kinny
had been playing in.
However, he felt a flutter in some sensations. The frames-per-second
were too low. It gave the tactile equivalent to the flicker of old
movie reels.
Not bad for its day. Kinny unpaused it.
The lights went out. The room went completely dark. Kinny paused the
game again. He pulled the goggles off.
Cookie said, "Skip forward to the tentacle monster."
"There's one that molests her in the dark." He checked the magazine.
"Not a lot of details, though."
"Skip forward to the to the two-day fuck."
Kinny smiled. "If this was in your world, I would put you on
autoplay."
"You can do that here. Take a nap. I'll play your body."
"Um, no?"
"Don't like having an overmind? As your dom, I can goose you along
like you do me in my world."
"I only did that once."
"Eleven times you outright played me against my will. Many, many times
you guided my actions without telling me what you intended. Those were
mostly consensual. The anticipation, the mystery? Kinda fun,
actually."
"Not sure what to say, Cookie."
Cookie smiled, using Kinny's face. "Be happy I'm not an evil cunt."
"Hey, Cooks, I have a question. Did you take my body for a walk a few
weeks ago and drop me by Club 69? In girl clothes?"
"No, but that sounds fun."
"Six hours of blackout. At least you get dreams and little snippets of
memory. I have no clue. Who did what and how. I had a motel key. What
did that mean?"
"I didn't find your Mem2 until a few days ago."
"Do you know who hijacked me?"
Cookie shook her head. Kinny's head. It was a bit disconcerting.
But usual. This was how he moved in her world.
On a whim - his or her whim, Kinny didn't know - he checked the
magazine. The printed story had updated, reflecting Kinny's choices up
to now. He paged ahead, and saw the default story that the story
engine now chose for Cheryl. He could change this story line, if he
worked at it. The monster scene that Cookie wanted ... four pages
ahead. "Cookie, it'll take hours of play to get to that. Let's go
upstairs. See if we can log onto PASsport. I need the hours."
"You can't skip forward?"
"I can, but I have to start over, putting the game in Debug mode."
"Meh. It was just getting interesting."
Kinny tapped his specs on his way upstairs. He asked Joi's secretary
to see if there was a way to play the magazine games from the game
console in his room. His real room. At his mom's house.
He could download it to his Mem2.
"Yeah, except that Mem2 is full," Kinny told the secretary. "Is there
a way to download it to a Samsara AMT? That was top-of-the-line four
years ago. These sensies are older than that."
'Processing.'
'App is available. $150. You can slot the Octapod memory chips
directly into your chip port. The magazines connect to your data
ports.'
"Dbest."
Cookie said, "Why don't you load it to your work console? Or Joi's
public console? That way I can play it in autoplay."
"You can autoplay on my other console."
"It lags."
"It'll do."
"Mind if I ask Grandmother for permission?"
"Ask away. But I'm pretty sure I can't load random porn onto company
equipment."
"Bandersnatch records all your sex, anyways. They use it to validate
their models. What's the difference?"
Kinny knew that there were problems with Cookie's logic, but couldn't
voice them.
********
Kinny loaded all the porn into the canvas tote, Anvil Books.
'Not for light reading.' Welp, today the book bag was quite massy.
Kinny struggled with it as he passed Mrs. Mac, out for her toddle to
the market.
"Good morning, Princess."
"Morning, Mrs. Mac. You know my name isn't Princess, right?"
"It's what everyone calls you."
Kinny considered informing the old woman what the neighbors called
her. He smiled at the thought.
Mrs. Mac said, "I checked with Vitals. Anabelle Violage died. A friend
of yours?"
"It occurs to me that there is more than one A. Lee Violage. Ten
billion of us in this system. Might be a few Eveline Macs, too."
"Was Violage your birth name?"
"No. Was McCarthy your birth name?"
Mrs. Mac looked smug. "What's in the tote, Princess?"
Kinny sighed.
"When you tell me your real name, I'll use it." Mrs. Mac tried to look
into the canvas bag.
Kinny shouldered the bag. "Old magazines. I'm going to load them onto
the equally old computer that's ... in my aunt's house. Before you
ask, I have full consent to use the house and the computer."
Mrs. Mac nodded. "I missed you at the coffee cart. They have some new
girl there. Snooty. Can't make coffee or change."
Kinny smiled.
"She's not as polite as you, Princess."
"The name my parents chose for me? Chastity Barzjan. Anabelle Lee was
my christening name."
"You read Poe?"
"I read." Kinny shifted the bag to the other shoulder.
"Where did they move you to, Chastity?"
"Huh?"
"Where's your coffee cart? Serious, the new girl sucks."
"Magpie Alley."
"Are you working tomorrow?"
"Ten to two."
Mrs. Mac nodded. "Have a Debbie day."
"Have one, yourself." Kinny watched her walk away.
Cookie messaged him on the borrowed specs. "That's the terror of your
neighborhood? We have werewolves and zombies."
"Any witches?" Kinny asked as he walked the flagstones to his mom's
house.
Cookie messaged, "LOL."
"Cute. You're mastering irony. Good job, Cooks."
********
As Kinny loaded magazines and sensie chips onto his old computer, he
felt warm breath on the back of his neck. Kinny stiffened as arms
encircled him in a warm hug. He could smell coffee and Roy's cologne.
He felt a jolt of pleasure as Roy squeezed both of Kinny's breasts.
Roy said, "Your first day off in a month and you spend it loading porn
onto your son's computer?" He gave Kinny's boob another squeeze. "Best
mom, ever."
Kinny shook his head. "Wrong boob, Roy."
Roy nuzzled Kinny's neck.
Cookie spoke in private mode. Kinny heard it as clearly as if she'd
been standing in this room. She said, "You should just fuck him and
get it over with."
Did Kinny have internal audio now? Or was he hearing voices?
"Mem2," Cookie said. "But, yes, you hear voices now. The beginnings of
visual overlays, too. Also VNO enhancements. Whatever those are."
Kinny abandoned the internal conversation and focused on the problems
'at hand.' Namely, the hands molesting his boobs. He said, "Serious,
Roy. Wrong boobs. Let go."
Roy disengaged. He sat on Kinny's bed. "Nah," he said, pointing a
finger. "Linda?"
Kinny shook his head. "Chance nada." He adjusted his bra.
"Princess?"
"You got it in two."
"I just bought coffee from you. Wait, if you're not at the Debbie
cart, then who is?" He picked up a cup that he'd put on Kinny's
dresser and considered it. A slow smile spread across his face. Then a
moment of alarm. "Linda? Is a Debbie?"
Kinny sighed. "What day is it?" he asked, stalling for time.
"Thursday."
"That's either Chastity's day or Star's. I can't keep track. They keep
swapping."
"How many of you are there?" Roy looked annoyed.
"This valley is full of Barzjan women."
"Medical clones? Animes?"
Kinny laughed. "Do you know anyone who can afford a medical clone?"
"Linda. Keisha. Myself."
"Do you have one?"
"No. Kinda creepy."
Kinny resisted the urge to say, "Like you?"
Roy asked, "Does Linda have a medical clone?"
"Never heard mention of one. If you're curious, ask her. Excuse me,
but I have 'best mom ever' to load into my cousin's computer." Kinny
coughed. "What kind of fucked up childhood did you have?"
"The usual," Roy said. He picked up a magazine and paged through it.
"This could be you." He handed the magazine to Kinny.
"Dubious." Kinny looked at the e-zine. It was one of the newer ones
from the second box. "She'd be about twice my age now."
"That's not Linda, is it?"
"No. She never wore braces." The woman looked like Cookie - one of the
iterations of Cookie the machine produced as Kinny dialed down
Cookie's charisma. "Could be an aunt I've never met."
"I'd like to meet her. Look at the gazongas on that gitchi-gitchi."
Kinny looked at Roy mildly.
"What? I thought you batted for the other team."
Kinny smiled. He looked at the magazine again. "She does have nice
gazongas."
"How does that work, exactly?"
"How does what work, Roy? Boobs? Sex? Or gitchi-gitchi?"
"All of it."
"I'm not an expert. I was a born-again virgin until a few weeks ago."
"Throw me a bone. Share a moment."
"There are mixed reviews on period sex."
Roy looked alarmed.
"Apparently it's equal parts rude, disgusting, and fun. Difficult to
get pregnant. Lubrication is instant. It tests one's resolve. Few men
will go down during the massacre. Fewer women, still."
"Not the bone I was looking for."
Kinny smiled. He continued loading porn.
Roy sat on the bed and watched Kinny methodically load magazines onto
his computer. Eventually Roy grew bored and left.
"Still say you should have fucked him," Cookie said.
"Some difficulties noted. Tab A and Slot B mismatch."
"Won't be a problem next week."
"The terrors of the day, Cookie." Kinny loaded the last of the e-
zines. Whoa. That had filled his computer's memory. Wait. No it
hadn't. "Cookie? Did you do this?"
Cookie said, "I loaded a version of me onto that mastodon. I won't
notice the lag if I'm immersed in it. In theory."
Kinny laughed. "You're going to reclass as malware if you keep doing
that."
"Boot up the game and log on, okay?"
"I serve to live." Kinny leaned over and looked out his window. He saw
Roy get into his truck and drive off. Kinny pulled up Boi Toy on Joi's
specs. He called her.
"Debbie, here. I have customers. Is it important?"
"Yuh. Roy was here. We met."
"Does he know who he met?"
"He thinks he met Princess. He isn't sure who you are - thinks you
might be Linda. I told him that today was either Star or Chastity's
turn. Mrs. McCarthy is calling me Chastity now."
"So I'm Star."
"If you're not Debbie."
"Thanks for the jingle. Did he feel you up?"
"In expert mode. Got the milk flowing hard. I'm bowstrung."
"You should fuck him if you're ever inclined. When you've girled out?
He's completely unconcerned about the female orgasm, but he still
manages to get 'er done."
Kinny grunted. "Have a Debbie day."
"Right back at 'cha."
********
Kinny pumped milk for the baby - and for his own relief. He logged on
to his workstation at Joi's house. After an hour of play, he noted
that he'd earned almost four hundred hours of game time. In one day.
Kinny used his borrowed specs to call Bandersnatch Games.
"Good morning. My name is...."
A woman appeared in AR on Kinny's borrowed specs. She said, "You're
Anabelle."
"Right. Hey, um. There's a discrepancy with my hours. I've only been
on an hour but I have three-hundred and eighty-seven hours of credit
for today. Three hundred and eighty-eight. Three hundred eighty-
nine...."
"We show you on ... three feeds?"
"My avatar is in three places. She's multitasking." Kinny hesitated.
"Reviewing old porn games, of all things."
"We have her requests to load them to your workstation. Oh. This is
unusual. Approved? Thousands of hours of real-life sensory data.
Edited for effect. Legal bought the rights to it an hour ago. We're
loading it to your workstation. Your Mem2 is full?"
"Yes."
"We'll schedule you for an upgrade."
"No, I.... Okay, thanks. Wait, you're loading the porn to my Mem2?"
"That's what your supervisor requested."
"Joi? Um, Carob?"
"Cookie."
"Cookie's not my supervisor. She's my avatar. In theory, I'm her
overmind. Not the other way around."
The Bandersnatch rep made a non-committal grunt. "We'll let you thrash
that out locally. The data is available if you wish to load it."
Kinny felt his Z-guns fire again. He shut his eyes. Headache. A bad
one. He stammered, "Ah, about the billing?"
"Thank you for reporting it. We'll credit you twelve hours today. Take
the day off if you like. Paid holiday. And ... wowsers. A thousand-
dollar bonus for the find ... and a thousand nuyen for your avatar."
"It's actually not my porn."
"Who's porn is it?"
"My supervisor. I found it in an old box. She said I could plunder it.
But, you know, I, ah...."
The woman smiled. "I'll credit Carob's account, too.
"Tropic. Thank you."
The woman nodded. "Bandersnatch out."
Kinny cradled his head in his hands. "Cookie!"
"Yes, dear."
"Why do I have a headache?"
"Clue nada. Are you stressed?"
Kinny huffed. "A bit. Did you represent yourself as my supervisor to
Bandersnatch?"
"One time."
"Don't do that."
"You told me to talk with Grandmother. She doesn't chat with avatars.
She does, however, take input and recommendations from riders and
residents. Technically, because I'm in your Mem2, I'm both."
"Spankings, Cookie. There will be spankings. Can you do something
about this migraine?"
"You know I like spankings, right? That's not punishment for me."
Kinny groaned.
"Try sex. That helped the last time." Cookie slid into Kinny's body
grabbed his 'prop' purse from the bed behind his workstation. She
loaded it with essentials. "C'mon. I have an idea."
********
Cookie urged Kinny to check out Lao Fan cemetery. She told him, "Eight
of the magazines - and all the monster flicks - feature a chase scene
in that cemetery. I want to see it. I want to smell it. I want to see
which gates are locked."
"I would just climb over the wall," Kinny said. He still had the
headache, but it wasn't blinding anymore. "It can't be that hard."
Kinny watched a POS panel van with sunblasted white paint drive by.
"Cooks, how many of those meet-n-fucks feature the an abduction in the
Ming's Flowers van?"
"All but two. In those, the guy in the flower van is a good guy. He
rescues the girl." Cookie equivocated. "Mmn, if you make the right
choices."
"I'm afraid to ask, but what's your Dominance/Submissive score now?"
"Nineteen."
Kinny groaned. "Cookie!"
"I know. Don't nag. I'll start working the rescue and escape trees on
your meet-n-fucks. Even I don't like my score this low. Anyway, it's
more challenging to try to save the girl. The mama-san pathways should
help us dom up, too. It's insanely difficult to take over the
Syndicate in these worlds but I managed it twice."
"Difficult? How is that? Just cycle through all the choices."
"Easy to do on smart paper. Wabi Sabi, do you know how many choices
there are in the cyber version?"
"There's, what, fifty pages?"
"Sixty-four."
"One or two decision trees on each page?"
"There are four thousand and ninety six scenes in each of these
magazines. Many of the scenes repeat, with CGI'd variations."
"How is that possible?"
"To open every pathway, I have to simulate different reactions,
personalities, prejudices.... Sometimes I have to guess what will
work." She fanned herself using Kinny's body. "That doesn't always
work out the way I'd planned."
Kinny goggled at the math. "Sixty-four pages ... forty-one hundred sex
scenes.... Hang a moment. How many fuck scenes did each actress
shoot?"
"Four thousand ninety six. Not all the scenes are hardcore sex, but
all of them have some sexual content - even if its just a wardrobe
malfunction."
"Whoa."
"Each e-zine has its own custom resident, specialized to remake the
main girl into a new and improved version of herself. Which is weird,
because the game is watching you as you page through the story. But
it's set up as if it was targeting the girl on the screen. Or girls.
Some of these games target sisters. One of them targets four
generations of one family. There are millions of possible story-lines.
Some of the residents are kind of cool. I've made friends."
"Any enemies?"
"Well, yeah. A few. I don't respect the residents who break their
girls to remake them. The gentle way makes a better yield. Hey, I have
a favor to ask."
Kinny waited.
"When I get my Dominance back up to thirty, can I, ah.... I'd like to
sell myself to Ugmad, volunteer for a lost weekend."
"The tentacle pit?"
"Yeah."
"Cookie, that's human sacrifice. If you get cursed, it may ring back
through all your save points."
Cookie smiled. Kinny could feel it. She played with her hair. Well,
rather, she used Kinny's hands to play with his hair.
Cookie used Kinny's eyes to look around. She said, "We're here."
Kinny let her walk him around. It seemed like she had an agenda. After
a few minutes of reading tombstones and wandering around, he asked,
"Why the sudden interest in tentacle monsters?"
"I met one in the magazines. Ugmad's monster looks like a derivative.
I want to check it out, see if it's the same source code."
"Check the forums?"
"My way is more fun." Cookie hopped up on the wall. She climbed to the
top of it. It was easy. It was also easy to tear Kinny's clothes up
here. Cuts and scrapes and bruises came to play, also.
Cookie studied the wall from her perch. It was a jumble of burned and
melted bricks, equally burned and melted ironworks, slapped together
in nightmares and whimsy. There were columns and watchtowers, benches,
cubbies and grottos along the wall. It followed the property line in a
general way, separating the cemetery from a strip of rewilded
woodland, sidewalk and street. She asked, "Why did they build such an
ugly wall?"
A voice spoke from behind Kinny's ear. He startled at the voice but
then calmed down, because he recognized it. Jorry said, "A fire in
1908."
Kinny heard the sounds of someone else climbing the wall. Colin.
"You can hear my internal dialog?" Kinny asked Jorry.
Jorry nodded. "When your hag speaks, I hear."
"Hey!" Cookie said. "I am not a hag."
Jorry smiled.
Colin sat on the other side of Kinny. He said, "The whole town burned.
Lao Fan monks took the ruins and made something pretty with it. This
wall. The temple is made in the same style."
"What style is that?" Kinny asked. "Abandon all hope?"
Jorry said, "Human spirit is indomitable, even in ashes and ruin."
Colin said, "I admire the Lao Fan. They got paid in gold to break down
the rubble and haul it off. They sold useable bricks and ironwork back
to the townies. This wall is history but it's also a massive fuck-you
to the world. The nuns give guided tours and rent this cemetery for
social events. Besides, you know, planting deaders in the daisies." He
leaned in for a kiss.
Kinny sighed. He accepted a kiss on the cheek. He shuddered at the
thrill this gave him.
Headache? Gone. Kinny sighed again. The nausea was gone, too.
Jorry said, "Your scent confuses me."
Kinny said, "My life confuses me." He pat Jorry's knee. Hair tufted
out of a hole in the jeans that Jorry wore. Kinny pulled at the hair.
Then, realizing what he was doing, he stopped. He looked up to Jorry.
"Oh. Sorry."
"Your hag wants to breed. Do you?"
Kinny looked away, out to the prayer wall and the hedge maze. "I'm not
ready for that."
"My nose tells me otherwise."
Colin said, "His nose is never wrong. A talent of the two-natured." He
nuzzled Kinny's ear.
Kinny closed his eyes. "Colin. Our ... fun. That was a oncer."
Colin groped Kinny's breast. "Twice is nice."
Kinny moaned. "Jorry? Help?"
Jorry smiled. He shrugged.
"Colin," Kinny said as his bra clasp came undone. "You test positive
for motility."
"Whatever that means." Colin slipped a hand under Kinny's bra.
"You're fertile. I'm fertile. Can you afford child support?"
"You have condoms. I've seen them in your purse."
"I'm...." It was getting hard to think. "I'm still a virgin."
"The fuck you are."
"I'm still a virgin - vaginally."
Colin pulled Kinny's face around for a kiss. Between kisses, he said,
"Let's get off this wall."
Kinny nodded.
What did he just agree to?
Colin hopped down into the cemetery. Jorry followed him.
Kinny rolled back, intending to fall off on the street side of the
wall.
Jorry caught him by the knee. "Bad plan. Cactus."
Kinny looked. Prickly pear. Plus, instead of a two-meter drop to the
ground, it was more like four meters. He allowed Jorry to pull him
down from the wall. Kinny landed on the ground between the two men.
His blouse was undone, one breast exposed.
Kinny sighed. "Um, guys, can it wait a week?"
Protesting made the headache come back. Kinny groaned.
His shirt came off. His bra fell to the ground. Kinny shivered at many
touches. He was dismayed but unsurprised to find his hands in the
trousers of both men. He shuddered when Jorry lifted his chin for a
kiss. At the same time, Colin's mouth found Kinny's nipple.
The milk started to flow. That surprised Colin. He smiled for a moment
and then sucked some more. This drew Kinny's hand out of Colin's
trousers.
Kinny's other hand, however, was busy pulling the drawstring on
Jorry's pants.
Kinny panicked when he felt Colin tug at his skirt.
"Um, no. No, I mean it. No! The skirt stays on. The panties stay on!"
The headache intensified.
Colin unzipped his own pants. He said, "Don't panic. You have
condoms."
Kinny moaned. He stopped Colin from lifting his skirt. Felt a spike of
pain. And heat. Horny. Kinny knew this feeling. It was similar to the
lost feeling and the rush he got while in bed with Joi. Or Jazz. He
selected Detumesce so that he wouldn't pop out of his panties. "No
sex," Kinny said breathlessly.
Colin looked impatient. "What are the condoms for, Debbie?"
Cookie suggested it and Kinny echoed without thinking, "Anal sex."
Both men looked speculative.
Kinny dropped to his knees. "But not this week. Please? Not this
week."
Kinny examined both men. Colin's dick, he knew. But Jorry,
surprisingly, was smaller. His trouser snake was oddly-shaped.
Mottled, red and gray. Uncircumcised.
Kinny pulled test strips from his purse. He tested both men. While he
waited, he jacked them off.
Colin tested positive for venereal moles, but those were benign and
hardly even counted as a disease. Jorry tested positive only for
motility. On second glance, Colin was fully fertile, too.
Kinny took one penis in his mouth and then tried the other. His
headache disappeared. He felt a rush of ... peace?
Kinny cursed under his breath. "Son of a.... Fuck." He decided, in
that moment, to just go with it. Let Cookie do her thing.
Cookie said, 'At least they both washed.'
Kinny nodded in agreement.
It didn't take long for Jorry. His dick swelled noticeably just before
he erupted. It got longer. Wider, too, especially at the base. Much
larger than Colin now. Kinny coughed.
Cookie said, 'Have to teach you to deep-throat, unnee.'
Kinny grunted. He swallowed what he could. The rest of it dribbled
onto his hands and boobs. Each time he swallowed, Kinny felt a jolt of
pleasure. He was fully aroused now, but the skirt hid it.
Kinny kept his hand on Jorry's dick and turned his attentions to
Colin.
Colin took a while. Eventually, Kinny let go of Jorry and used both
hands on Colin.
His arms started to tire. It occurred to him that he should be having
a PTSD attack. Because this was an activity he'd been coerced into at
'summer camp.'
But he was okay with it. More than okay. He was aroused and in serious
need of relief.
Huh. Maybe all the rape scenes in that stupid game? Therapeutic?
He continued to pump Colin with his hands and his mouth. Kinny saw a
message flash on his glasses.
'Ass fuck.'
He read it aloud and smiled at Colin. Compliance felt nice. Kinny felt
several reward jolts in different circuits. Apparently, his residents
had more than one reward circuit they could chime.
When Colin blew his load, Kinny did, too. It didn't surprise him to be
rewarded again for swallowing. Or for playing with his boobs.
There wasn't much to swallow. Cookie commented on that. She said,
"Miko had sex recently."
Kinny ignored her. He was involved with his own pleasure. Aftershocks
and twinges.
When Kinny could focus again, he selected Detumesce. He pulled make-up
wipes from his bag and cleaned his face and boobs. Making a show of it
produced yet another series of reward spikes. Kinny hit Detumesce a
few more times to hide his arousal. He had a wet spot on the front of
his skirt. Several wet spots.
Semen.
And milk.
The waistband of his skirt was soaked.
Kinny used the internal circuit to say, "Thanks, Cooks."
Cookie said, "That wasn't me. Eighty-six percent compliance -
voluntary compliance. The rest was passive control from riders and
rewards from your residents."
Voluntary compliance? Kinny started to protest.
Cookie said, "You're a girl now. Nearly. Don't dog yourself over
natural urges."
Kinny stifled the protest, resigned to his fate. He noted that Jorry
was rigid again. Apparently the man didn't have a prostate spider and
couldn't select Detumesce. Kinny smiled at that thought. It annoyed
him when he received a reward jolt for smiling.
The trainers read body language well. But sometimes they missed the
intent. Kinny patted Jorry's leg and said, "Next week. Okay?
Raincheck?"
Colin asked, "What is up about next week?"
"I finish my changes. Is there a chance that either of you gentlemen
could go on the pill between now and then? I really don't want to get
pregnant."
Colin shook his head. "I've seen what those pills do."
Jorry said, "Doesn't work."
"Changes?" Colin asked. "Next week?" He watched as Kinny picked up
clothes and put them on. "You don't look the type."
"What type is that?" Kinny bent to fit the bra. He was getting the
hang of this.
"Werewolf." Colin grinned.
"Werewolf? Are you fucking...." Then Kinny glanced over to Jorry.
Jorry shrugged. "Wolf bride. The human twits me. One time I will break
his crank. I will reach through his gullet to do this."
Colin said, "Easy, uncle. I say werewolf because 'wolf bride' doesn't
seem respectful. I've seen what you can do."
Jorry grunted. "Project Werewolf failed. They dialed it back, made us
more human. Bride of Werewolf - wolf bride." He bared his teeth. They
looked like baboon's teeth. "Boo."
Cookie spoke in private mode, 'Makes your changes look
inconsequential.'
"Ignore the hag," Jorry said. He tightened his drawstrings. "I would
not trade places. I am strong and scary." He kissed Kinny on the
forehead. "You are cute and available."
"How do you do that?" Kinny asked. "How do you hear what she says?"
Jorry shrugged. "I hear small voices. You suck cock. We all have
purpose."
Kinny's specs buzzed. "Pardon," he said. "I have a call."
Jorry said, "Hi, Mom."
Kinny took the call. It was from his mom. "Hi," he said. "What's up?"
"I got a call from your boyfriend."
Kinny looked at Jorry. He said, "Didn't know I had one."
"That boy is smitten. They moved your appointment up at Girls College.
Today. BioPsych Lab. Soonest."
"Who, Mom, who?"
"Clyde."
"Oh. He's not my boyfriend; he's my...."
Linda interrupted. "Gotta go. Roy's here." She hung up.
Jorry looked amused.
Kinny said, "I don't have a boyfriend. You two don't count. Friends,
okay?"
Jorry asked, "Need a ride to the college?"
"Yee-ah. Yes, please. I have a problem with my brain bugs. They're
going to fix 'em."
"Exorcizing that hag will take more than a visit to the mad scientist.
You need smoke and sings. Or a shaman from Lao Fan."
"Hey," Cookie said. "I am here by invitation."
Jorry nodded. "The words of a demon."
They walked to Jorry's bike. On the way there, they passed by the
alley behind Green-Eyed Frogs. Kinny asked Jorry to walk on the other
side of the street. As they passed that alley, Kinny looked in.
It looked like any other alley. Dumpsters, a lane for traffic, a
parking lot behind the building. Two women outside the back door of
the Yellow Dragon leaned against the wall, smoking. A mattress stood
against the brick wall of Green-Eyed Frogs.
It looked like the mattress that Kinny had thrown away. The hairs rose
on his neck. Kinny felt a rush of shiver bumps raise on his body.
Jorry looked at Kinny. "Trouble?"
Kinny shook his head.
Jorry nodded.
When they got to his bike, Jorry handed Kinny a half helmet. It was
matte black and smelled of perfume.
Kinny looked at Jorry. "Girlfriend?" he asked.
"Not recently."
"I don't wish to cause trouble." Kinny started to hand the helmet back
to Jorry.
He laughed. "Human, she would have already ripped your throat out." He
put the helmet on Kinny's head.
"A wolf bride?" Kinny asked. He fastened the helmet.
"Clan. When others can hear, we are clan. You are named but
unaffined." Jorry took off his leather jacket. He draped it over
Kinny's shoulders.
"What does that mean?" The jacket smelled like Jorry. Woodsmoke.
Women's perfume. Whiskey. Kinny put it on. It was many sizes too large
for him.
"I have spoken for you. No clan has spoken against you. You helped a
friend of the clan and helped me indirectly."
"Did the clan visit my supervisor's house?"
"Yes."
"Thank you. What kind of meat was that?"
Jorry smiled. "Slow meat."
"It was tasty."
Jorry nodded. He mounted his bike and waited for Kinny to do the same.
They rode to Riverside. It was a cool but not chilly October day.
Nevertheless, Kinny huddled closely to Jorry for warmth. His skirt
rode up around his hips. He felt the heaters in his boots fire up and
was grateful for the heat.
Jorry stopped the bike in a college parking lot. "Here." He waited for
Kinny to dismount. "Apologies. I cannot wait. I must work."
"No huhu," Kinny said. He handed back the helmet and the jacket.
"Thanks for the ride."
Jorry nodded. He saluted. "Next week."
"Um. Yeah. Okay."
********
Clyde met Kinny at the door and escorted him to the BioPsych lab. He
made introductions. "Kinny, this Professor Tudlo. He's the top hole of
Cybernetics research in the Western States. This is Ms. Alila, TA,
intern, undergrad, tutor, equally brilliant."
Professor Tudlo said, "Nothing would get ever done without her." He
brushed back his comb-over and smiled.
Ms. Alila said, "He never finishes anything." She shook Kinny's hand.
The woman had large breasts and an easy smile. Hair down to there. Her
name tag said, Lateritia, TA.
"And you know me," Clyde said. "A stunner, if I feel the need to
brag."
Lateritia led Kinny back to a chair. It looked like a cross between a
dentist's chair and full-immersion VR suite at the arcade. On the way,
she quizzed Kinny about his symptoms.
"And what is your goal?" she asked.
"I dunno. Live a good life?"
"How do you define that?"
"Actually, life is good now. I have jobs. I have friends. I have...."
he smiled. "A semi-serious relationship."
"Two girlfriends," Clyde said. "She won't let me watch."
Kinny continued. "The PTSD ... not as bad now. I have absences,
though. Blackouts. I woke up outside of town. In girl clothes. You
might not understand." Kinny gestured to the clothes he wore, which
were quite femme. "At the time, I hadn't ... I wasn't comfortable....
I didn't relate as a girl."
"Do you now?"
Kinny hesitated. "Somewhat. I still have troubles when ... men touch
me. I ... freeze. I don't know what to do."
Ms. Alila smiled. "All men or just the assholes?"
Kinny laughed. "The ones who touch without permission. Pretty much all
of them at this moment." He looked over to Clyde.
The TA followed Kinny's gaze. She smiled. "He is rather certain of his
place in this world. Reasonably competent, though."
"Hey," Clyde said. "Should I feel insulted?"
"Yes." Kinny smiled. "Oh, my Mem2 is completely filled with stuff that
I didn't put there."
Ms. Alila said, "Not a problem. The new biochip has massive memory.
Military cybernetics."
"Okay. Um. I may be infected with a virus called Sara 113."
"Oh. Thanks for the warning. Clyde, why didn't you tell me this?"
"It's in the project notes."
Ms. Alila rolled her eyes. She sighed. "Is there anything you want to
save in your Mem2?"
"My secretary."
Cookie said, "Me, me!" She raised his hand.
Kinny rolled his eyes. "Also my videogame avatar. She notices things
that I don't."
"You have a videogame on Mem2?"
"Hours and hours of rape porn. It replays randomly, sometimes when I
sleep. I didn't put it there. The only thing I saved on Mem2 was a
lock combination. I think my secretary did that, to be honest."
She looked over to Clyde. "And what do you want? The perfect
girlfriend?"
Perfect girlfriend?
Kinny understood immediately that he didn't want to be here. He
started to get out of the chair. Lateritia held him in place. She
tapped a screen. Kinny felt his Z-guns fire. His panic deepened. His
Z-guns fired again.
Clyde smiled briefly and shook his head. "I already have a perfect
girlfriend."
"She's a little old for you."
Clyde grinned. "She's young enough."
"Only because she's a rejuve."
"Stay on track, Ms. Alila. Stick to the approved changes."
"You like rejuves? This one's a rejuve, too." Lateritia pushed Kinny
back into the chair.
"Ms. Giles, here, complains that she can feel the psychonormalizing
guns when they fire. They drug her out. I don't thinks she's actually
infected with App Sara. Forensics tells me I got hit when I opened
files from PLOS. Mmn, the employer wants more Mem2. He wants us to
optimize her residents. They spend half their cycles at cross-
purposes."
"You don't need me for that. Give me something challenging."
Clyde spread his hands. "It's a mess in there. The small look I got.
I'm sure we'll need your talents along the way. And all the toys. Her
employer is bankrolling this. Unlimited budget, carte blanche. Oh, I
didn't get a chance to do a baseline on her."
They set Kinny up with a halo helmet, VR goggles, and a variety of
sensors. Then they started an association game. They told him to pair
like pictures. Kinny fell back on old reflexes - playing the
association game on autopilot. He listened to the world around him.
His sense of self twisted.
An out of body experience.
Except that he was still in the chair. Playing ... video games?
They were discussing Kluver Bucy syndrome - without pica or agnosia.
Technical details. Kinny almost tuned out again.
A woman - Cookie? - said, "The resident can keep track of names and
faces and keep her from eating harmful things."
Grizzlil seemed upset. "Hyperoral? Hypersexual? Docile? A fixation
with stuffing things in her holes? Don't take shortcuts. I hired on to
fix people, not fuck them up."
Shortcuts.
Shortcuts fix people.
Fuck. Cock it up.
Joi said, "Fucking is fixing." Was this a dream?
Fucking is fixing.
Fucking is fixing.
Brennan said, "You think showing your tits will sway me? Help me find
a solution. A real solution."
Show me your tits. Kinny smiled. He unbuttoned buttons.
The argument slid back into jargon and medical-speak.
Hyperoral.
Hypersexual.
Docile.
Stuffing things. Holes. Everything in its place. A place for
everything.
Kinny giggled.
Brennan used to say that. Beatings were savage if one thing was a
millimeter out of place.
Jenni's Teacup. He broke Jenni's teacup.
He broke more than that.
Summer camp for girls. Boys not allowed. But the staff were all men.
Rapes every day. Three summers. Four Christmas breaks.
Turning tricks for ... what was his name? He died. Somebody died.
Prison.
Kinny remembered the sodomy. The forced oral sex. Money changing
hands. Bets. Dares.
Ugmad said, "Absolutely not. One phone call. All it takes."
Go, Ugmad, go. When did you become a paladin?
Marion sounded unafraid. "Brennan will girl you...." Yuh, a dream.
Brennan. But yeah, that's what Marion's voice sounded like. Kinny
remembered.
Braces. Expensive. Her parents used to fight. Braces. College.
Boys.
The safe room. Spreader bar. Was that Marion? In the porno?
"...I used to be a mindwipe tech. Now? When I'm not here, I'm at
Jenni's Teacup. They let me have a brain when I'm here."
Clyde said, "Blow me. New plan. Use that pretty little brain to fix
the problem, not make it worse."
New plan. Blow him. Blow Clyde?
"Sure you don't want the perfect girlfriend? She's here. She's
willing. She signed a contract."
Perfect girlfriend. What is a perfect girlfriend?
Here. Willing. Assigned.
"Ms. Alila, are you volunteering? Do you want Kluver Bucy?"
I want Kluver Bucy. Was that his own voice? It sounded like Anabelle.
It repeated, getting louder.
I want Kluver Bucy.
I WANT KLUVER BUCY!!!
"I want Kluver Bucy. Minimal pica and agnosia, please."
"What?"
"She spoke. You heard her."
Grandmother spoke.
Respect.
********
Kinny didn't remember anything after that. He found himself in the
parking lot. Confused.
A woman on a motorcycle showed up. "On," she said. "Keep your hands to
yourself."
"Do I know you?"
She shook her head. "I'm Rafe. You are an unnamed human. I know that
Jorry takes in strays but really? Please tell me that you don't shriek
and have a man hunt spiders for you."
"Jorry. Clan?"
"Are you damaged?"
"Maybe?" Kinny looked around. "Um. It's okay. I can take the bus. Or
run home, if I need."
"You can run from Riverside to Fairview?"
"Yuh, actually I can."
"That might be fun. Mind if I chase you?"
"What will you want if you catch me?"
She smiled. Her teeth were almost as scary as Jorry's. "Hop on,
unnamed human. Seems you're not as helpless as you look."
"I have a name."
"You do not."
"Jorry says I do."
She checked her specs. "Apologies. Princess? Fa, what kind of...."
Kinny got on the back of the bike. "That name is an insult. Is that
the name the clan has for me?"
"Remove your hands from my person if you want to keep your lady
parts."
"I'll fall."
"Hold to the sissy bar. Where to, Princess?"
"Home. I suppose." Kinny gave her the address.
They hadn't even made it out of the parking lot when Rafe stopped. She
sighed heavily. "Hands on my waist. Or my hips. Do not get more
personal than that. I am affined. If you are challenged, I suggest
rolling over and exposing your belly."
Rafe smelled of woodsmoke and perfume. The same perfume that Jorry's
helmet smelled of. Rafe's hair whipped Kinny's face as they rode
across the bridge. Kinny's own hair whipped his neck as they rode on
the levee road through the Hells. Kinny shivered from the cold but
made no complaints. His boots fired up. He was grateful for the
warmth. He got home just before two p.m.
As he got off the bike, he said, "Thanks, Rafe. Smack Jorry for me
please. Give him double knocks."
"What is that?"
"Hit him twice. It's a human tradition - in my world."
"Interesting tradition. What did Jorry do to earn double knocks?"
"He had his ex pick me up and take me home."
"What makes you think I was affined to Jorry?"
"I have a nose."
"You can smell me on Jorry? You were intimate?"
Kinny smiled. He locked eyes with Rafe.
She laughed. "Are you two-natured?"
"Not in the way you are."
"I can see that." She looked puzzled. "I can smell that. What are
you?"
"Damaged. Thanks for the ride."
Rafe nodded and rode off. Kinny watched her go. Then he turned. Joi
wasn't home. He saw her bike but not her car. Kinny sighed. He didn't
want to face an empty house.
He did need to hit the milkers, though. He glanced over to his mom's
house, stalling. Because he really didn't want to do more laundry in
Joi's basement.
And that's what he would end up doing. That, or playing that damned IM
attachment again.
Kinny's eyes settled on the blue truck in his mom's carport.
"Oh, fuck." He'd left his computer on upstairs. With a copy of ...
um.... Um. Cookie. Porn games. Roy. Was probably sitting on Kinny's
bed, perving on.... No, probably upstairs with Linda, banging the
headboard through the wall again.
Kinny checked his purse, found the key. He let himself into his mom's
house.
Roy was in the kitchen, drinking coffee and working with stacks of
smart paper. Modern stuff. Not the magazines that Kinny had loaded
into his beast upstairs.
Roy smiled when he saw Kinny. Kinny returned the smile and went
upstairs. Roy followed him. It alarmed Kinny at how quietly the big
man moved. If he hadn't seen Roy get up from the table he wouldn't
have known he was being followed.
Roy grabbed Kinny just as he was about to step into ... somebody's
bedroom? His own. Roy's hands were warm. Hot. Kinny felt Roy fondle
his right boob. Roy's other hand held Kinny's belly, stopping all
forward motion.
"Roy!" Kinny said. "Fuck."
This felt good. Really nice. Friendly?
Fucking is fixing.
Kinny had shiver bumps. His knees felt weak. His milk let down. He
felt his gut twist. Heat, spreading from the touches. Half of an
erection, but only because he kept tamping it down with Detumesce.
Kinny bent, rubbing his bottom on Roy's erection. Roy was fully erect.
And....
Kinny shuddered.
Hyperoral. Hypersexual.
"Got you," Roy said. He kissed Kinny's neck.
The thrill Kinny got from this almost dropped him to his knees. He
reached into the room, tried to shut his computer. He couldn't reach
it. "Roy, no. I'm not...."
"Shush." Roy turned Kinny around. Kissed him. Walked him back to the
bed.
Docile.
"I'm not Linda." Oh, fuck. He had his hand in Roy's trousers. On his
dick. It was wet with pre-cum. Kinny shuddered. "Bad idea," Kinny
said. "Bad." He pulled his hand from Roy's pants. He licked the
wetness from his palm.
Kinny felt an amazing rush from that. He almost came. Kinny checked
his computer. One of the magazine scenes was playing. Bondage sex. The
woman that Roy thought looked like Kinny.
Or Kinny's mom.
Braces. Spreader bar. Nipple clamps.
On the mattress in the safe room.
Roy popped the clasp on Kinny's bra. "You seem willing. Let's fuck."
He smiled as he lifted Kinny's bra. "Want to do it on Linda's bed or
yours?"
"Huh?" Kinny popped the button on Roy's pants and dropped them to the
floor. "This.... No, Roy. This is.... Linda...."
"Okay. Linda's bed." He pulled Kinny towards the door.
"Wait," Kinny said.
Stuffing things in holes.
Linda had a vibrator.
Roy tugged again. Kinny tugged back. "Here," he said. He didn't resist
when Roy unbuttoned his blouse. He whined when Roy manhandled his
breasts.
"Spread 'em," Roy said. He glanced over to the computer. "I love this
part." Roy pushed Kinny against the bed. "When she realizes that she
wants it. That she'll do anything he asks."
Anything.
Kinny smiled. He felt a reward jolt for that.
Kinny twisted. He pushed Roy onto the bed. Roy fell on his back
willingly. Kinny pulled Roy's underwear off. He pulled a test strip
from his purse. And a condom.
"I'm clean," Roy said.
"We're checking anyway," Kinny said. He caught his breath, tried to
collect his thoughts. Why was he doing this? He pulled Roy towards
him. Ran the test strip up and down the shaft of Roy's penis. Let it
soak up some pre-cum. Kinny glanced at it, set it aside. "Linda says
you're completely unconcerned about the female orgasm. Can I count on
that?"
Roy looked surprised. Amused. He smiled.
Kinny grabbed Roy's dick. Took it in his mouth. Bobbed on it a few
times. He basked in the glow of neuro-electric rewards. Then he fit a
condom over Roy's dick. Kinny smeared Supersonic oil on the condom.
Roy looked intrigued. "We don't need the...."
"Yes we do." Kinny lifted his skirt. He turned around. Pulled his
panties down just enough. He eased himself down onto Roy's dick.
He hadn't done this in six years. Unless you counted what Joi and Jazz
had done to him with a dildo.
This felt much nicer than it had six years ago. Kinny moaned with
pleasure. His arse felt full. It burned in a familiar way. Kinny
almost squirted. He'd climaxed before during anal sex, but never at
the beginning like this. And never willingly.
Roy said, "Is that where I think it is?"
Kinny nodded. He bit his lip. He raised up. Fell down. He played with
his boobs.
"You are a nasty girl," Roy said. "I like it." He glanced over to the
action on Kinny's computer.
Kinny felt a twinge of annoyance. Roy had this but he was watching
that? "Watch the sensie, Roy. Let me do the work." Kinny bounced up
and down on Roy's dick. He had no idea why he was doing this but he no
longer cared. "Fuck me. You're right, Roy. I need this." Each time
Roy's dick touched the prostate spider, Kinny felt an enormous rush of
pleasure.
"You'll do anything I ask?"
"Shut up and fuck."
After a few strokes, Kinny came. He was afraid to touch himself,
afraid to reveal to Roy what he had up front. Kinny selected
Detumesce. He started to rise up.
"No, you don't." Roy held him in place.
"I'll finish you with my mouth."
"I'm going to nail. Your. Ass." Roy sat up. He stood, still inside
Kinny. He pushed Kinny against the chair. He grabbed Kinny's hips and
started thrusting.
"Oh, fuck," Kinny said. He was going to cum again. Damned prostate
spider.
Roy pushed him against the computer desk. He twisted Kinny around,
facing the bed and fucked him savagely. He grabbed Kinny's hair and
forced him to watch the sensie as he was getting reamed.
The girl looked like she was having fun. Distressed at the orgasms.
More distressed at the energetic sex. She was getting stuffed. Vaginal
and anal at the same time. Vibrating in place, tits bouncing and
slapping together. There were other men in the room, waiting. She
reached for them. As Kinny watched, the girl had another loud orgasm.
Kinny did, too.
Kinny cried out each time he orgasmed. "Oh, oh, oh, I'm cumming!" At
one point, he echoed the Cheryl's words in the other porn he had
watched. "What is wrong with me?" And he understood. Exactly.
Kinny's glasses came off. He couldn't select Detumesce. Being erect
seemed to slow down the cascade of orgasms. Kinny was almost grateful
for that.
Roy let go of Kinny's hair and grunted between strokes. Five, six
times more. Finally, he pulled out. Roy dropped the condom to the
floor. He walked around the bed and presented his dick to Kinny. "I
believe this is yours?"
Kinny put on his glasses and selected Detumesce. He sighed. He took
Roy's dick in his mouth and cleaned it.
It tasted bitter. Kinny knew he would be rewarded for swallowing, so
he did.
His residents did not disappoint.
Kinny pulled up his panties and dropped his skirt back into place. He
examined the bed. Soaked with milk. And semen.
"You're not going to clean up?" Roy said. "Princess is a nasty girl."
Kinny shrugged. He pulled the comforter from the bed and dropped it
into the laundry basket. He squatted to the floor. Lube squirted from
his arse into his panties. Kinny picked up his purse and the used
condom. He dropped the condom onto the soiled comforter. He fixed his
bra and tucked two nursing pads into it.
Roy said, "We can't tell Linda."
"Right. She wouldn't understand." Kinny smiled at that thought. He
buttoned up his blouse. Adjusted his skirt.
Roy kissed Kinny on the top of the head. He groped Kinny's boob. "I
like you. We're going to have lots of sex."
"You should go on the pill," Kinny said. He picked up the test strip,
dropped it next to the condom. "This says you're fertile."
"Yeah? So?"
"Can you afford child support?"
"You're not on birth control?" Roy asked.
"I have girlfriends. Not a boyfriend."
"I saw the dyke on a bike."
"She would rip your nuts off and garnish her vegetarian stew."
"How much is an IUD?"
"Four thousand. Six thousand with an implant."
Roy smiled. "I'll pay for it."
Kinny considered that. "Okay. Deal. What do you want in return?"
Roy pulled Kinny in for a kiss. "This." He groped Kinny's breasts.
"Those." He groped Kinny's arse. "This. And...."
Kinny pulled away. "Yuh. Got the idea."
"Everything that women did, you're going to do." He nodded towards the
sensie.
"Not sure I'm up for that." Kinny pinched the bridge of his nose.
Headache. "You know, Linda will figure it out. What we're doing." The
headache intensified.
"She can join in."
"Chance nada." Fuck. This really hurt.
"What about your girls? The booby one and the stripper?"
"You think you're God's gift, don't cha?" Kinny felt grateful for the
righteous anger. It almost canceled out the pain.
"I am."
"Look, I have no idea why I did this. It felt good. But we're done."
Kinny felt a twinge of nausea.
"You were willing to sell yourself for an IUD a minute ago."
"Bad idea."
Roy pulled Kinny close. "The world is filled with bad intentions." He
traced a finger down Kinny's cleavage.
Kinny sighed. "No." But he arched his back, pushing Roy's finger into
the slot between his breasts. It was slippery with sweat and other
fluids. Kinny's headache disappeared.
"Maybe?" Roy said. He unbuttoned two of Kinny's buttons. "Let's go to
Linda's room."
Kinny twisted away when he felt Roy fumble at his bra clasp. "No.
Okay? She's my ... aunt. I'm not fucking on her bed."
Roy smiled. "I'll bet you a lollipop."
"Roy? No. Not today." He heard Joi's car pull in to her driveway. "I
have to feed the baby." Kinny left the room. "Toss that shit in the
laundry, will ya?"
********
Joi greeted Kinny with a kiss. "You taste of sex," she said. "You have
milk on your shirt. Stains on your dress. Someone had fun on his day
off."
"Roy," Kinny said.
Joi raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"He's like a dog with a bone."
She smiled. "I hope you tested him."
"I did. We used a condom."
Joi nodded. She reached into Kinny's purse. She ran a test strip
inside Kinny's mouth. When it turned blue, she kissed him full on.
Tongue and everything.
Joi made a face. "Roy drinks too much coffee."
Kinny smiled. "Where's the baby?"
"In for an upgrade. He'll be back on Monday."
"He's going to walk and talk?"
Joi hesitated. "I ... I neglected to ask."
Kinny looked up to the ceiling. "Joi, how much sex is too much sex?"
"Why?"
"I can't seem to say no."
"And you're not even fully girled yet. Honey, you're in for a wild
ride."
"That's what Drake said."
"You fucked the bouncer?"
"When I first met him at the club. The dungeon. The game. I said I was
waiting for you. He said I was in for a wild ride. Why do they call
you the queen of glass?"
"Because I break it off. I'm not known for long-term fun." She touched
Kinny on the nose. "Let's go upstairs."
********
They had sex on camera in Joi's working bedroom. Kinny fucked Joi
vaginally and then anally. Then Joi pegged Kinny with the tentacle
dildo. Kinny squirted milk and semen at the same time.
He felt it pop. His dick. Pressure. Like a water rocket. Ready to fly.
It itched at the base of it. His scrotum felt pressurized, too.
Detumesce helped.
Afterwards, still sitting in the mess on the bed, they milked each
other. Into bottles. Joi said, "You really should get certified."
"I checked. I have to be fully XX."
They sixty-nined after that.
********
Kinny dressed and came downstairs for the doorbell.
His mom came in. She handed Kinny his work uniform. Folded and ironed.
She handed Kinny his specs. And purse. She examined Kinny. "You look
freshly fucked."
Kinny sighed. He flipped his hair back. He smiled.
"Roy says hi."
Kinny looked outside. He saw Roy's truck driving away. "Did you ...
and Roy...."
"We did. Did you leave me presents in the wash?" Linda asked. She shut
the door behind her.
"Oh. I need to wash the comforter."
"I saw."
"Roy didn't do laundry, did he?"
Linda laughed. "That man? Laundry?"
"I think my secret's out."
"Not much of a secret. I told you to fuck him. I didn't expect you to
do it before your dick fell off."
"He's not a patient man."
"No, he's not. In, out, and gone. Unless he's drunk. Then he wants it
strange."
"He wants to pay for an IUD."
"Did you let him?"
"No."
"Good, because you don't ever want to owe that man money."
"Why do you fuck him?"
"Why do you?" She kissed Kinny on the cheek. "I washed the comforter.
It's on your bed. No worries."
********
Joi got dressed for work. Kinny leaned on the door and watched her.
"Can I go with?" He was wearing the Bar and Gril tee shirt and little
else.
"No. I'm working the back room tonight."
"Working girl?"
"Yeah."
"I thought that was illegal, outside the city limits."
"It is."
"Why don't you work the brothels in town?"
"Management knows somebody in the DA's office. They're helping Marion.
I'm hooking. Lexi time is expensive. Also because ... I like it? Like
is too strong a word. It's ... acceptable. Thursdays are slow. I'm
going to try for an overnight at the Dewdrop. I may not be home
until...." She shrugged. "Lunch?" She kissed him and left.
********
Kinny played PASsport. Topless. Lune had asked to see Anabelle's tits
and Kinny decided to give him a view.
Viewership was up.
Cookie PVP'd with Grizzlil. She won some and lost some. Kinny marched
her to Ugmad, because that version of Cookie seemed undecided about
it. He accepted the quest and let Ugmad throw him - throw Cookie -
into the tentacle pit.
It was a little bit like the armor had been. More forceful, though.
Many, many dicks. Ovipositors. Kinny let it play him for about twenty
minutes then he put Cookie on autoplay and said good night to Lune.
Kinny felt Cookie slide into in his new Mem2. "Well?" he asked.
"It's the same source code. See? That's an image from the e-zine. Team
3. Probably a Rescue! 3D tentacle monster. Here's the same image from
Ugmad. You can see the scar where they pixeled out Team 3."
"Your other self is spending a weekend riding that beast just so you
could get this bit of trivia."
"I spent many weekends with the same beast. In the e-zine."
"How did you avoid a bad end? If your Dominance/Submission gets down
to zero...."
Cookie smiled, using Kinny's face. She said, "Worry about yourself,
unnee. My Dom is over eighty."
"When? How?"
Cookie said, "Any last requests?"
Kinny looked at the display. The IM attachment. All the porn mags and
sensie chips.
Cookie whispered in his ear. "I'm going to let you savor the moment."
"Cook, no. Please?"
"Bargain, Wabi Sabi. What will you give me?"
Kinny sighed.
"I dunno. Wh-what do you want?"
She smiled. She played with his boobs. On camera.
"Monday at the truck stop."
"What? I could get kidnapped. I could get dead."
"Decide."
"I'm not doing Monday at the truck stop. And I'm not ... oh, fuck, yes
I am." Kinny watched as his right hand opened the IM attachment and
his left hand dropped the full data dump of all those e-zines into his
Mem2.
It was a long night. Cookie figured out how to time-compress the human
brain. She ran several scenes concurrently. Like a dream, with
everything happening at once. Kinny would check his stats later. In
five hours he covered seventy-three hours of play. Most of them were
highlight reels. With commentary.
The game residents were all tuned to Kinny now. They quickly optimized
their methods. They quickly came to consensus. With twenty-eight
professors raising their hands. Saying, "Hey, try this."
Kinny understood the game arc now. New and improved.
Kluver Bucy syndrome - without pica or agnosia. Without much of it.
The perfect girlfriend. The perfect fuck doll. Cute and available.
Friendly.
'A new quest. Green-Eyed Frogs.'
'A new quest. Threesome with Roy.'
'A new quest. Hook Along With Cookie.'
'A new quest. You Promised Them Anal.'
'A new quest. Blow Clyde.'
'A new quest. Lateritia at Jenni's Tea Cup.'
'A new quest. Drake the Bouncer.'
'A new quest. Find That Dog.'
'A new quest. Monday at the Truck Stop.'
'A new quest. Honey Trap.'
'A new quest....
'A new quest....
'A new quest....
The list scrolled down faster than Kinny could read.