"Oh yes, I'm interested, but I'd like to have something explained
first."

"Certainly, sir.  If you'll hold the line, I'll transfer you to someone
who can answer you."

As the hold music started, I once again ran my eyes over the piece of
paper:

	Actors and actresses wanted.  Sexual scenes required.
	You will not be identifiable in the result.

That was all it said, save for the telephone number.  I mulled over the
puzzle of how one could have sex on camera but not be identifiable.
Before I'd come up with any ideas, the hold music cut off and another
voice came on, an oddly androgynous voice.

"Hello, sir.  I understand you have some questions?"

"That's right.  The ad I have says you're looking for actors for sex
scenes but they won't be identifiable in the product?  And I was
wondering how?"

"How we can film people without their being identifiable?"

"Exactly."

"Most briefly, because we're not really filming them.  We are actually
making a video game for the adult market and want the characters'
motions to look realistic.  The usual way of doing this is to film real
people while --"

"Oh!  This is to get the mo-cap data."

"Precisely.  Do you work in the gaming industry?"

"No, never.  Why?"

"Well, you know enough to call it mo-cap data."

"I know a few people who do, and have talked about it enough to have
picked up some of the language."

"I see.  Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it...actually, yes, it answers that question, and partially
answers some others."

"Others?"

"Yes.  I also had some questions about whom I would be expected to have
sex with, and what sort of sex.  For example, there are only three
people I'd be willing to have sex with without a condom - but it sounds
as though that wouldn't be a problem for your purposes."

"That's right; it's your body's motions we're interested in.  Anything
that doesn't affect those and doesn't impair our ability to capture the
data doesn't matter to us."

"Yeah, of course not."

"But yes, more people is good.  We need a wide variety; we are looking
for a much greater variety of body shapes than your typical adult movie
wants."

"Oh?"

"Yes.  Our lead designer wants the game to be relatively realistic in
that she doesn't want all the characters to look like porn stars.  But
this means we need data for a wide variety of body types and sexual
reactions.  From short to tall, from grossly fat to borderline
anorexic, etc, and also a wide variety of sexual styles, from the
couple that makes a languid afternoon of it to the very vigorous five
minute sort.  Straight, bi, gay, even some of the more popular kinks,
if they call for different motion data."

"If?"

"Yes; for example, if a game character likes being watched during sex,
we can animate that character using data from someone who doesn't.  Or
if a game character is, say, attracted to blacks, it doesn't matter if
the the person we capture the data from is aroused by, say, redheads
instead.  But not all; things that call for different motions from the
characters will require different data."

"Yes, I can see that.  Okay, I'm still interested.  What's the next
step?"

"We note down what you're willing and able to give us data for; then we
call you to arrange a time for you to come in to capture the data.  Are
you in the city?"

The phone number was a local one.  "Yes.  Well, based on your area
code, at least."

"Yes.  Very well, then, shall I start taking down your info?"

"Might as w-- um, actually, I may know another person or two who'd be
interested.  Should I have them contact you directly, or what?"

"Yes.  We prefer to keep separate data for each person.  Even in cases
where, for example, a man is not willing to perform except with his
wife, we still enter them in our system separately; we just set
restrictions on them so that they are always together."

"Wouldn't that be rather restrictive?"

"Actually, yes, but some of the more extreme things we need data for
are rare enough that we have to take what we can get.  For example, one
of the body types we want data for is tall women who are visibly
muscular but not fat; we have enough trouble finding them that we would
be willing to accomodate one who refuses to perform with anyone but her
husband."

"Makes sense."

"Is this a good time for me to take down your data?"

"As good as any."

"Okay."  I heard some vague noises.  "What name would you like us to
use for you?  We don't need your real name."

"Hmm."  I thought about that for a little.  "Lenny Fredricks."  I
really liked Lenny Kravitz's work, but wasn't quite gutsy enough to
call myself that; Fredricks was the name of a street near where I
lived.

I heard typing.  "We assign each person a unique ID number in our
system.  Are you ready to write yours down?"

"A moment..."  I dug around to find writing materials.  "Ready."

"Eight four three one nine zero four."

I repeated it back as I wrote it down.  "You mean to tell me you have
over eight million people in your system?"

"Oh, good heavens, no.  These numbers are not sequential.  I've never
been able to see any pattern in them."

"Odd.  Oh well."

"How can we reach you?"

"Probably best to leave a message at 779-5044."

"77-- What area-- No, you said you were in the city."  More typing.
"Leave a message?  You're sure?"

"Yes.  Anyone with any business listening to messages there is not
anyone I'd even try to keep this secret from."

"Okay.  From your voice and the name you gave, I assume you're male?"

"Right."

"Straight?  Gay?"

"Straight with bi tendencies."

"Any objection to exercising those tendencies for us?"

"No, or at least, none that don't apply equally to women."

"Okay."  More typing.  "So, what are those objections you just
mentioned?"

"Hm.  Let's see."  I thought about that.  "Actually, for your purposes,
very few, and those basically `no damage'.  I'm not going to risk
catching diseases, and I'm not interested in anything involving pain.
But, for example, while I'm not into dominance games, I believe I could
give you some useful data for a character who is."

"Thank you.  Most people don't think to draw that distinction."
Another brief rattle of typing.  "Any problem with solo scenes?"

"Masturbation?  No, no objections.  Do some people really mind?"

"A few.  A few more have trouble getting aroused that way.  What about
scenes with strangers?"

"It really depends on the stranger.  I'd hesitate to commit to doing a
scene with someone I haven't got to know at least a litle."

"Okay.  Any particular kinks you would especially enjoy, or want to
avoid?"

"Well, as I said, nothing involving pain.  Hm, I'm not really sure
beyond that.  About the only one I practice is multiple partners, but I
haven't tried most of the others."

"I can put you down as worth asking about anything, but don't expect
either answer."

"That sounds appropriate."

"Okay.  What about scheduling?  When is it easiest to fit sessions with
us into your schedule?"

I'd been expecting a question along those lines.  "Sunday anytime from
about noon until maybe nine in the evening, and after seven most
weekday evenings, except Wednesdays are just about never available."

"After seven until...?"

"Oh, I'm usually up until the small hours of the morning.  Let's say
midnight."

"Okay.  We'd like to get a first capture of your body shape and some
basic position data for your first session.  I see a slot from nine to
eleven tomorrow evening; are you available?"

"Let me check..."  I did so.  "Sure, no problem.  Where do I go?"

"Josephson Studios.  2249 Backton."

"Backton...I don't think I know that street."

"It's a small street just west of Kennedy.  2249 is between Greenfield
and Talbot."

"Oh, okay, I can find that."  I scribbled it down.  "Nine tomorrow.  Do
I need to ask for anyone in particular?"

"No; just tell them you're there for the nine o'clock session."

"Should I bring anything in particular?"

"No, not for this initial session."

"Okay.  See you then."

"Thank you, Mr. Fredricks."

I rang off and turned the conversation over in my mind, wondering what
the appointment tomorrow evening would be like.  While I was still
mulling it over, Betty pushed the door open, and, when she saw me off
the phone, came over behind me and started rubbing my shoulders.  "So,
how'd it go?"

"Well enough, I suppose.  I'm going over there tomorrow evening."

"So they explained?"

"Yes.  They're a game company and they just want mo-cap data."

"They're making a porno game?"

"They said `adult market', so I imagine so.  Given what they're looking
for."  I tipped my head backwards over the back of the chair until I
was looking up at her.  "You interested?  They'd probably love to get
data from you."

"Oh?"

Betty looks, well, not to put too fine a point on it, dumpy.  But she
also is a hell of a lot stronger than she looks, stronger than anyone
else I know, and it makes a lot of things possible that just aren't
with a weaker woman; it's one of the things that makes her such a hot
lover.  "They want variety, and you're unusual."

She thinks she's nothing special.  "Oh, don't start that again."

"Come on, love, you know you're a lot stronger than most."

She sighed.  "I suppose.  I don't _feel_ strong, though.  I just feel,
well, normal."

I let it drop, reaching my hands up to fondle her boobs.  None of us
wear clothes around the house when it's just us, so they were eminently
fondleable, and thinking about tomorrow evening had me in a sexual
frame of mind.  She responded predictably enough - I sometimes feel
she's never in a nonsexual frame of mind, though I actually suspect
she's just as nonsexual when not around the rest of us as I am in their
absence - and we spent the next hour very enjoyably.  I found the
thought of being filmed for motion capture during sex oddly arousing
and found myself eagerly anticipating tomorrow evening.

----------------

I found 2249 Backton easily enough.  It proved to be a large office
building I'd seen often enough but never had occasion to care about.
Josephson Studios was, according to the building directory board, one
of a half-dozen names on the fifth floor.  The elevator did what
elevators are supposed to do, and the fifth floor proved to consist of
a short piece of hallway with only some six or eight doorways off it;
it was the work of but a moment to find the one labeled "Josephson".  I
walked in and it looked like any office anywhere, with a receptionist
at a desk and hallways leading off.  I told him I was there for the
nine o'clock session and he invited me to wait, saying someone would be
with me in a few minutes.  Well, I _was_ a few minutes early.

As promised, someone showed up in a few minutes.  I glanced at my
watch; it was spot on nine, near as I could tell.  "Mr. Fredricks?"

I nodded, standing.

"I'm Sharon Madiron."  She offered her hand.  We shook.

"This way, please."  She led me down a hallway and through a door
labeled "8".  The room was a featureless off-white, with lights all
over (almost all of them off) and at least a dozen cameras, covering
the middle of the room from every angle.

"Do you know how motion capture works, Mr. Fredricks?"

"Lenny, please.  I know some of the principles, but I've never seen a
real system."

"Lenny, then.  The system we use is more detailed than many, because we
need data to a finer resolution than most.  Some systems, for example,
use markers on just the major joints - elbows, shoulders, hips, etc -
but we do it differently.  We paint small dots all over your skin, with
a spacing of a half-inch or so, and the computer reconstructs the shape
from the multiple pictures it takes."

"Paint?  So I'll have dots all over me?"

"Only while here.  This way."  She led me through another door into a
room with a shower in the ceiling at the far end and a shelf and chair
at the near end.  She had a device in her hand, looking a bit like a
short, squat fire extinguisher; I hadn't noticed her pick it up.  "This
sprays the dots on you; that shower there is to wash them off before
leaving."

She paused for maybe a second, and I suddenly felt a terrible
inevitability about what she would say next.  I was right.

"I'll need you naked in order to paint you."  She nodded toward the
shelf.  "That's for your stuff."  She paused, but only barely.  "This
is your first session, so you probably feel odd about it.  It's fairly
necessary, though."

She was right; I did feel a sudden reluctance to strip in front of her,
even though I had known all along I would have to.  I closed my eyes
and sighed.  "I know."  I turned and walked over to the shelf and hooks
and started to undress.  I glanced back and she wasn't looking; she had
the sprayer connected to something on the wall and was fiddling with
it.  It started to make a hissing noise while she watched.  Her not
looking made it easier, somehow.  When I was done, I padded back
towards her; she glanced at me and back to the sprayer, watching what I
assume was a pressure gauge.  After a few seconds she disconnected it
and pointed to two footprints painted on the floor near the shower.  As
near as I could tell, she treated me exactly as though I were still
dressed; I supposed it would make sense for her to have been
desensitized to nudity.  "Please stand there, arms straight out to your
sides."  She demonstrated briefly.  I did so.

"Here's how it works."  She pointed the thing's nozzle towards my wrist
and for just a moment I felt tiny little touches on my forearm and
hand.  She lowered the sprayer and I looked at my hand.  It had a
sprinkling of small black dots; there were perhaps two dozen of them
visible.  "Stand still and I'll finish the job."  It took perhaps a
minute; she covered almost everything below my neck, going over and
over each area of skin until the dots were, as promised, maybe half an
inch apart.  I was expecting an erotic feeling whe she sprayed my
crotch, but she skipped it almost completely - I got the feeling what
did land there was incidental to her spraying nearby areas.

"There.  That should do it."  She was entirely businesslike about it,
as if she'd done this hundreds of times before, which she probably had.
"The cameras should be able to do their job now."

Back in the other room, she directed me into the middle of the room,
the focus of both lights and cameras.  I was expecting the lights to
feel hot; they did not.  I'd have to remember to ask about that.  She
produced what looked like an AA battery and stuck it in the corner of
her mouth.  I decided it probably wasn't actually a battery.  "I'm
going to go through various poses.  I'd like you to mimic them as
closely as you can."  I nodded.  "Don't worry about your head position;
you can turn your head as you please.  You may have noticed I didn't
spray your head; we're not recording any data from it."  I nodded
again.

She stood in a position very much like the one she'd had me stand in
when spraying me.  I took a similar position and the lights flashed
bright, very briefly.  She lowered her arms to her sides; as soon as I
did likewise, the lights flashed again.

The next hour or so was a long string of more of the same.  She would
take a pose; I would imitate it and the lights would flash, presumably
taking a picture for the data capture.  We must have gone through
hundreds of poses before she finally stopped and said, "Okay, that's it
for this series."  She went over to a bank of controls and fiddled with
them briefly; the camera lights shut off, leaving the room probably
about as bright as the typical office, but after standing in the focus
of the camera lights, it looked almost pitch black.  I could, however,
see enough to see her wave me towards a pair of chairs in one corner.
She sat down in one; I took the other.

"Okay, Mr. Fre...sorry, Lenny.  That's all we really need to do this
session.  There's more we can do, if you like, or we can call it quits
for now and you can come back for more."

"Is there any reason not to carry on?  You've got me all dotted and
everything."

"Maybe, maybe not.  Some people are pretty weirded out at this point
and just want to get out of here."

"Well, I'm a bit weirded out, but not in a way that makes me want to
leave."

"Also, some people need some time to get themselves ready for the next
step."

"Oh?"

"Yes.  The next series is where things turn explicitly sexual."

I was not expecting that.  I blushed absolutely crimson and was unable
to meet her eyes.  Neither of us said anything for at least a minute,
until I managed to look her in the face again, at which point she said,
"Perhaps you'd be more comfortable coming back another time, after
you've had a little time to adjust to the idea."

I rubbed my chin reflectively.  "Do I need to decide right this
instant?"

"You have, umm..."  She looked at the watch on her wrist.  "...maybe
ten minutes.  Later than that and we won't be able to complete the next
series before this time-slot ends."

I thought about that.  "Could you maybe outline what the next series
covers?"

"Certainly.  You may have noticed I avoided your groin and genitals
when painting you?"

I nodded.

"Next series is basically the same thing as we just did, only, instead
of your whole body, it's close-ups of that area, in various states of
arousal."

I hmmed, digesting that.  "We're ahead of schedule, right?"

"You could put it that way."

"So if we start and I can't handle it, we haven't really lost
anything?"

"That's true.  I take it you'd like to at least try to carry on?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Very well, then.  First order of business is to wash off the dots you
have all over you now, to avoid conflicting data."  She briskly led me
to the shower.  "You'll need to be fairly thoroughly dry before I can
paint you again.  Get yourself showered off; towels are over...er,
towels are supposed to be there."  She pointed.  I saw empty shelf.
"I'll be back in a minute with towels."

I fiddled with the shower controls until I had a comfortable
temperature, then scrubbed myself down.  The dots washed off readily; I
wondered what they used for a dye.  I was done before Sharon returned
with what looked like at least half a dozen large towels.  She handed
me one and parked the rest on the shelf.  "Looks OK.  Let's get you all
dried off."

I took the towel and started drying myself off.  She picked up another
towel and started drying off my crotch.  "The only area that needs to
be really thoroughly dry is the area I'll be painting."  A brief pause.
"Oh, and try not to feel embarrassed if you start to get aroused by
what I'm doing.  It's common and it's not a problem."  I was indeed
starting to plump up.  By the time she was satisfied with how dry I
was, my cock was, while not really hard, definitely enlarged
substantially from soft.  She finally stood up and nodded, as if
satisfied.

"Okay.  We need to wait for this" - she tapped my cock with one finger
- "to go down before I can paint you suitably.  We also need to
rearrange things next door."  She led the way back to the camera room
and we moved the chairs to the middle of the room, placing them
carefully based on some markings on the floor which I hadn't noticed
until she pointed them out.  She did something with the controls and
the cameras started to move closer.  She sat down and waved for me to
sit in the other chair.  "So, Lenny.  Let's find something unrelated to
talk about for a few minutes.  Any suggestions?"

"Well, there's something I've been wondering about for a while.  I can
hear a slight accent in your voice, but I can't place it."

She smiled.  "Russian and German.  I was born to Russian parents and
Russian was my first language.  But they moved to East Germany, back
when there was an East Germany; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they
moved here."  She paused reflectively.  "I didn't start speaking
English until it was too late for me to speak it without an accent."
She raised an eyebrow.  "Are you interested in languages?"

"I am indeed.  I've actually studied only two, besides English, but I'm
curious about them and have a dilettante's grasp of a half-dozen more."

"Which ones?"

"Which ones what?"

Her eyes flickered to the cameras, which had drifted in from some eight
or nine feet away to more like three, all pointed unerringly towards my
crotch.  She watched them for a moment or two, until they stopped.  "I
meant which are the two you've studied, but, actually, what about the
others?"

"The ones I've studied are Italian and Hungarian."

"Odd pair."

"Well, historical accidents selected them for me, mostly: Italian
because two of my childhood friends were Italian kids who used to use
Italian as if it were a secret language, and I determined I wasn't
going to let that persist any longer than it had to."  I smiled a bit
ruefully.  "Unfortunately, about the time I started studying Italian,
their family moved away, so I never got the benefit I wanted from it."

"And Hungarian?"

"I wanted something different, and I'd heard Hungarian was very
different."  I smiled.  "At the time, I was completely unaware of the
_really_ different languages like Basque or Korean."

"Oh, speaking of languages, c'mere."  She got up and trotted off
towards the shower room.  Curious, I followed.

"Here.  This is one of the dyes we use - the one I used on you, in
fact."  She handed me a box, showing me the back.  It had a long list
of small flags, with a couple of lines of text for each.  The list was
impressively long.  I ran my eye over it and..."Hey, what's this?"  I
pointed.  "I don't know that flag, and I don't even have a guess based
on the text."  It was one of those languages that's all consonants and
diacritics.

She took the box and looked.  "Good question.  But I'm in that
situation with most of these."  She put the box back on the shelf she
got it from and beckoned me a bit further over.  "Just stay there for a
moment..."  She turned away and immediately back, holding the
dot-sprayer.  "Hold still."  She aimed it carefully and sprayed my
crotch with dots, from lower abdomen to upper thighs, remarking, "You'd
softened nicely and I thought I should grab the opportunity."

Done with that, she led me back to the cameras.  "Sit there?"  She
pointed to the chair all the cameras were poinetd at and I noticed her
putting that small cylinder in the corner of her mouth again.  I
complied and the lights flashed.  "Slouch down and spread your legs?"
Another flash.  "Stand up."  The cameras moved as I did so, tracking my
crotch.  Flash.  She removed the chair.  "Lie down on your back on the
floor.  Legs together."  She pointed.  Flash.  "Spread your legs a
little."  Flash.  "Wider."  Flash.  "As wide as you can."  Flash.
"Stand back up."  She replaced the chair.  "Now, we need to repeat this
another half-dozen times, with you a little more aroused each time.  I
also need to add more dots to your penis as you get more erect.  Can
you get aroused without touching yourself?"

"I can try."  I smiled.

"Good."

"Hmm, I'm not sure I need to try very hard right now."  I was beginning
to plump up.  She glanced at my crotch and beckoned me back towards the
shower room, spraying me briefly with more tiny dots.  Back to the
cameras and another series of shots.

This repeated another handful of times.  Finally, she frowed briefly,
contemplating my crotch.  "I'd really _like_ to get pictures with you
even harder.  Can you think of any way to get you harder without
touching your penis, which would disturb the markers?"

"Well..."  I looked around.  "At home, I'd get out some porn if I
wanted to get really hard and there were nobody else around to help.
But I don't see any here."

"Not per se.  But the notes I have say you're mostly straight."

"Right."

"Well, then..."  She put her hand on her breast and started toying with
the nipple, which immediately became prominent even through the
tee-shirt she was wearing.  "Does this help?"

Schwing!  I was surprised into speechlessness, but my cock had no
problem responding.  "I see it does.  Excellent."  We went through the
spraying-and-snapshots routine again, me still semi-dazed.

"Oof.  Good.  Just in time, too.  We've got only about five minutes
before the end of this timeslot.  Get showered and dressed and we can
free up the room."

I hurried; fortunately, by the time I had to get dressed, my erection
had gone down enough it wasn't a problem.  As I reemerged from the
shower room, she was fiddling with controls again.  After a few
seconds, she turned crisply back to me.  "This way."  She led me out
through the door we came in through.  I was expecting her to lead me
back to the entrance and send me on my way, but she turned the other
way.  A few more doors down, she led me into what looked like a
perfectly ordinary office.  "That completes the data capture for today.
You can leave now, if you like, but I have another half-hour or so
available, if you have any questions or comments, or would be
interested in seeing the resulting data."

"I have nowhere I need to be for..."  I checked my watch.  "...another
twelve and a half hours, unless you count getting some sleep.  And,
yes, I'm curious."

"Well..."  She settled herself into the chair behind the desk and waved
me to the one in front.  "Ask anything you like."  She flashed a smile.
"At worst I'll refuse to answer."

"Well, I do have two questions, and I would be interested in whatever
you can show me of the data you've collected."

She started typing on the computer on the desk, muttering, "Fourteen
sixty-two oh-eight.  Eff are ell ee oh four."  She stopped typing and
looked up.  "Ask away, then.  I've started crunching the data; it will
take a few minutes."

"Well, I noticed you were speaking like an anatomy text - you said
`penis', for example, rather than something like `dick' or `cock'."

"Yes.  There are two reasons for that.  The first is that, while many
people don't care what words are used, some do, and the, uh, `clinical'
terminology is the least likely to offend, in our experience."

I nodded.  "You'd have trouble offending me with mere word choice."

She nodded back.  "I'll note that.  The other is that, while what we
are doing here is fundamentally sexual, today, I was mostly being a
data-capture technician rather than an actress in scene with you, so my
choice of language reflected that..`distance', if you will."

"Ah, I understand.  But that leads to my other...um, actually, I should
have said three questions.  That leads to my second question.  At the
end there, when you started toying with yourself to get me hard."

After a moment of silence, she said, "Yes?  What's the question?"

"Um."  I realized I didn't know what I wanted to ask.  "I guess I don't
really have one.  I...it just...startled me."

She smiled, a cross between amused and sympathetic.  "I think your
question is what happened, and how, and why, and such."

"I guess."

"I've seen this happen often enough to have a fair idea what probably
went on.  It broke two expectations in your mind.  It broke the
expectation that I was just a part of the data-collection machinery, if
you will, albeit a human part, and it broke the expectation that
someone you've barely met would not be overtly sexual with you."

I made a vague noise and thought about that.  After a moment, she
added, "Oh, and it broke a third expectation, too: that minor sexual
behaviour does not occur, or at least everyone pretends it does not
occur, unless major sexual behaviour is imminent, or at least expected.
And, though I'm much less sure of this, you may well have blocked
yourself off from seeing me sexually, and what I did broke through that
block as well."

I nodded slowly.  "I suspect that last one was the biggest one for me."

She glanced at the computer's screen, then back to me.  "You said you
had a third question?"

"Third question?"  I was confused momentarily.  "Oh.  Yes.  What was
that small thing you stuck in your mouth?"

"Oh, this?"  She produced it from a pocket.  "It's the camera trigger.
Each of us data-collection techs has one.  After telling the equipment
which one I'm using, I just bite on it to trip the cameras.  We
developed it to give us a way to take pictures while holding poses that
involve both hands."

"Neat."

"I've got so used to it I tend to forget there's...hm...anything..."
Her attention had been drawn away by something on her computer's
screen.  "The data's ready."  She turned the screen so I could see it
too.  It was displaying a wireframe mesh of a partial human form,
presumably mine, in what looked like the first pose she'd had me take.
She handed me the mouse.  "Move the mouse to rotate. The wheel zooms in
and out.  Left and right click to switch datasets."

I fiddled with the mouse until I got the feel of it.  The human shape
was, not surprisingly, missing head and crotch; I spun it around to
look from various angles, then started flipping through the various
images.  After detailed looks at a few and progressively briefer and
briefer looks at maybe a dozen more, I pushed the mouse back towards
her.  "Neat."

She poked at the keyboard a bit and a popup window appeared and
vanished, too fast for me to read it.  The wireframe now showed the
second datasets, one of the ones of my groin and cock, though there was
a ring-shaped gap between the two.  I asked, "What happened here?  No
data?" and sketched out the gap, pointing.

"Oh, that.  Pubic hair complicates things enough that the
reconstruction software gives up.  The programs that stitch the meshes
together to generate character bodies synthesize hair for the gap.  We
also have data from a few people who have no pubic hair."

"There are people who don't?"

"I mean, shave, or depilate.  Or, I suppose, there might be a few who
naturally lack it, but we've never seen one, though we've seen a few
who come close."

"Ah."  I clicked through the data for a dozen meshes or so.  "Neat."

She reclaimed the keybaord and mouse, turning the screen back.
"Anything else?"

"I don't-- oh, yes.  Those dots.  What do you do when collecting data
from blacks?  Or do you not do that and instead fiddle skin colour of
the generated character?"

She smiled.  "You may have noticed we didn't ask if you were black
before we set up the first session."  I hadn't noticed, but it was a
good point.  "We have another dye which produces white dots."

I stood up.  "I think that about-- no, one last question."

She looked inquiringly at me.

"Sharon Mad...what was that name?  Madison?"

"Madiron."

"Sharon Madiron doesn't strike me as a particularly Russian name."

"It's not.  Like most of our subjects, most of our staff go by assumed
names here."

I stood up.  "I think that about covers it, then, for now."

She stood too, producing a card from her desk and handing it to me.
"We'll call you again to schedule another session as soon as we have
something matched up.  And feel free to call me if you have anything
you'd like to ask or say."

"Of course."

She let me out the door of her office and pointed down the hall.
"That's the way out."

I nodded.  "I'll see you again, sometime, maybe."

"Likely enough; there are only seven of us doing data collection."

"Ta!"  And with that, I departed.

----------------

Jeff was the only one there when I got back.  "Hey, Dan.  How'd it go?"

"I'm...not sure."  I dropped onto the couch next to him, in something
of a brown study.

He looked at me closely.  "You seem shook up."

"I suppose I am, a bit."

"What happened?"

"I just got a lesson in assumptions I make without realizing it."

"Care to be more specific?"

"Well."  I tried to marshal my thoughts.  "I told you what it's all
about, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

"Well.  The tech they had doing data collection was a woman.  And when
she wanted me to get hard for some shots, she started playing with her
nipple."

That seemed about as unexpected to him as it had been to me.  "Um."

"Then, when I mentioned it to her after we were done, she nailed my
reactions better than I ever could have.  All about assumptions I was
making and which she knocked me out of."

"Did it work?"

"Did what work?  She sure knocked me out of them."

"No, I mean, did it get you hard."

"Oh, that.  Yes, actually."

"Good."  He started kneading my crotch.  "Because that means you'll be
horny, and I've wanted you in my mouth all day."  He nudged my knees
apart.  "And you're wearing far too much."

It was true.  I hadn't even undressed since getting home.  I got up and
parked my clothes in their usual spot.  As soon as I was done, he was
standing behind me, hands toying with my rapidly-swelling cock, tongue
busy at the side of my neck.  I sighed.  "You always know just what I
need."

"I know what _I_ need; if you need it too, bonus."  He knows that sort
of attitude turns me on.  He drew me into one of the dens and pushed me
back onto the bed, licking slowly all along the underside of my cock.
I groaned deeply and arched back, turning myself over to lust.

A long time later (it probably was really only fifteen minutes or so,
but my time sense does funny things when I'm enjoying sex), he was
crouched next to me, sucking me tenderly, when I heard Betty and Joan
arriving home, talking.  I wasn't so far gone I couldn't make out what
they were saying.  The first voice I heard was Joan's.  "...wouldn't
take no for an answer.  So now *I'm* stuck managing it."

"Fucker.  That sucks."

"Yeah.  And...hey."

"Wasn't tonight the ni--"

"Exactly.  And you know what Jeff said."  I didn't know what they were
talking about, but I'd had to leave that morning before anyone else was
up, so that wasn't surprising.

"Yeah."

I heard rustlings from the hallway, then footsteps heading for the
living room, then back towards the dens.  Moments later, I heard Joan's
voice at the door.  "Ooh!"

Betty replied, "Lovely."

I didn't hear them say anything more, but I didn't hear them leave,
either.  After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and lifted my head
enough to look over to the door.  They were standing there watching
Jeff and me, Betty slowly rubbing her pussy, Joan pulling on her
nipple.  As I looked up, Joan met my eyes and walked slowly over,
swaying her hips a bit more than she really had to, climbed onto the
bed, and straddled my mouth.  I started licking her sweet juices.  Jeff
kept working on me, and I felt Betty climbing onto the bed next to me,
the side with Jeff on it.  A few minutes later I heard Betty let out a
deep moan and Jeff suddenly started sucking on me as if he'd been just
toying and had now decided to get serious.  Between that and Joan
starting to cum about the same time, I found myself cumming too,
spurting strongly into Jeff's warm mouth.  After Joan toppled off my
face and curled up next to me, I saw Betty lying sort of sideways on
the other side of me, Jeff's now-softening cock between her lovely
tits, which he had obviously cum all over.  He was collapsed across her
torso and my legs; she was tenderly milking the last drops out of his
cock.  I reached out and gently petted her head, announcing to nobody
in particular, "Love you, people."  Everybody made small happy noises
and we lay sprawled out together.

Next thing I knew, Betty was shaking my shoulder.  "Wake up, Dan.
Supper's ready."

Joan and Jeff were nowhere to be seen, and, the way my body felt, I'd
obviously been asleep for at least half an hour, maybe more.  "Urnk.
Supper."  I managed to sit up.  "What a good idea."  Following Betty
towards the dining room, I started to smell good smells.

I knew those smells.

Betty is a hopeless cook; we sometimes say she can burn the water
trying to make tea.  Joan is okay, competent but not great, as am I.
Jeff doesn't cook often, but when he does the result is nothing short
of spectacular.  This smell meant we were getting one of his best.  The
only word for it is "lasagna", but that's so inadequate a description
as to border on false.  I don't know what he puts into it, but eating
it is perhaps the best experience I've ever had that doesn't involve
anyone's genitalia.  If he ever wants to work as a cook he'll make a
killing at it.

A happy time later, my stomach was as delightedly content as my cock
had been after the sex in the den, a perfect finish to an unusual but
wonderful day.

----------------

We discussed my session at Josephson Studios on and off over the next
few days, reaching nothing that could be called a conclusion but all of
us curious what the next session would be like.

As it happened, the next session was not mine.  Before they called me
back, Joan called them and signed up; her initial data-capture session
turned out to be midafternoon Saturday.  She told us her name to them
was Erica Booth, though she didn't explain where she'd got it.  I
answered the phone something like half an hour after she called them.

"Hello."

"Good afternoon.  Lenny Fredricks, please?"  It didn't sound like any of
the voices I remembered, but of course the name told me it was them.

"Speaking."

"This is Josephson Studios.  We've had a signup from someone claiming
to know you, and wanted to verify it."

"That would be Erica Booth."  She'd told us she would tell them we were
`together'.

"Right.  I take it the claim is accurate?"

"It is.  We've been lovers for...almost three years now."

"Okay."  I heard typing.  "There.  Information noted.  Thank you very
much, Mr. Fredricks."

"You're most welcome.  Anything else?"

"No, not at the moment.  Have a good afternoon."

"You too."

We engaged in much fruitless speculation how Joan's first session would
compare to mine.  Saturday eventually rolled around, and Betty and I
were there when Joan got home afterwards.  Of course, we wanted to hear
the whole scoop.

"Well," she told us, "most of it was rather like Dan's experience,
except that in my case the data-capture tech was a little Oriental man,
one of those ones who perpetually look early-middle-aged.  Chinese,
Japanese, Korean - I can never tell the difference.  I had some idea
what to expect, after listening to Dan, but I had one surprise.  Once
he saw me nude, he produced a pair of semi-panties and asked me to wear
them; he used that dot-thingy on my crotch right from the beginning,
once I had them on.  I don't know what they were made of, but they were
stretchy and stuck to me like a second skin."  Joan's pussy hair is
sparse, but what there is of it is very wild and curly.

"What was--"  Betty began, only to collide with me asking,
"*Semi*-panties?"

Joan answered me.  "Well, sort of like panties, only more like spandex
boxer shorts, if that makes any sense.  Most panties fit into the
thigh-groin crease--"  She stretched out her right leg and drew an
illustrative finger along the thigh/groin join thus exposed.  "These
had legs that came down maybe to here", marking a point about three
inches down her thigh from where she'd marked before.  "And they clung
to me as if they were sprayed on, even across concavities like these."
She used the edge of her hand to illustrate, as if wedging something
into the thigh/groin junction.  "And they clung tight enough to exhibit
visible camel-toe...probably the first time I've considered camel-toe a
good thing."

I chuckled softly.  Joan turned to Betty.  "You were asking...?"

Betty blinked.  "Oh?  Er.  What was it like?"

"I'm not sure how to describe it.  I could almost forget I had them on,
but in some of the poses he wanted they felt like someone else's skin
against me.  That material could be turned into some very erotic play
clothing."

"I wonder if they'd be willing to sell us some." I interjected.

"Yeah, we should ask.  Also, like Dan, my tech went straight into the
second data set, but in my case it was mostly closeups of my tits from
various angles; I think they wanted to see how their shape changed when
gravity pulled them in various ways."

We nodded.

"He did some closeups of my crotch without those weird things on me,
with my legs in a wide assortment of positions, starting with something
like this" - she straightened her hips, legs together, until she was in
basically a standing-up position, just tipped back to rest on the back
and edge of the couch - "to things like this" - slouched on the edge of
the couch with her legs spread wide - "or this" - left leg straight,
right thigh drawn up tight against her torso.  "As compared to Dan, I
think he took more poses but without the whole spectrum of arousal,
wanting me as unaroused as feasible and then about as aroused as
possible."  She grinned.  "As he put it, for the second set he'd prefer
me so turned on I could barely follow his instructions for the poses; I
think the idea was for my cunt to be all puffy.  Oh, and the dots were
so thick I think they must have been trying for a one-millimetre mesh
unit or thereabouts."

There wasn't much to say; we speculated as to whom would get called
next, and for what.  When the call came, it turned out to be for both
of us.  Betty answered it.

"Hello."  She listened for a moment.  "Sure.  One moment."  She looked
around, her eye lighting on Joan, to whom she held out the phone.
"Erica?"

Joan took it.  We heard only her side of the conversation, of course.

"Erica."

"I am.  Let me check with him."  She held the phone away from her
mouth.  "Lenny?  They want the two of us from three to five Sunday
afternoon.  Are you free then?"

My Sunday was still wide open.  "Yes."

She spoke back into the phone.  "He's fine with that too."

"Same place?"

"I do, sometimes.  I don't think he does.  I can ask."

"I would, I do, and I shall."

"Oh, okay, I get it.  I'll do that."

"Sometimes."

"Occasionally.  Not particularly often."

"Oh yes.  It's not an uncommon way for us to start; we just don't
usually want to stay apart."

"No, no.  Not at all."

"Okay.  See you then."  She hung up and turned to me.  "They want us to
bring anything we use when masturbating.  I'll bring my dildo; Dan, do
you have anything of the sort?  I don't recall any, but then, I rarely
see you playing with yourself."

"You have a dildo?"  I couldn't recall ever seeing her with one.

"You didn't know?  Yes, I've had it almost since puberty.  I still use
it occasionally when I want something inside me and neither you nor
Jeff are here."

That would explain why I never saw her with it.  "Ah."

"How about you?"

I frowned.  "Before I met Kiki" - Kiki was my first lover - "I had a
few sex toys, a dildo or two and some fake cunts.  The cunts never
worked very well for me and I'm not sure I even still have them; now
that I have experience with the real thing, I can also say they weren't
very good imitations.  I might be able to find a dildo."

"And why would _you_ have a dildo?"  Her tone of voice said "now it's
_your_ turn to be asked this".

"I got curious what it felt like to have something up my ass.  Later, I
got one for Liz, when I was with her."  Liz was an ex-girlfriend of
mine from before I met Betty, and later Joan and Jeff.  "Turned out it
didn't do much for her and she gave it back.  I might be able to find a
dildo or maybe even one of the plastic pussies, but it sounds as though
they're interested in things we use these days."

"I think so."

"Then I don't think I should bring any.  I can't recall the last time I
even dug one out."

"Anything else you use?  Lube, maybe?"

"Oh, good point.  I should grab one of the bottles of lube."

So, on Sunday we traipsed off to the studio.  When Joan saw the man who
met us, she obviously recognized him.  "Lenny, this is the tech I
worked with before."

He offered me his hand.  I shook it.  "Good afternoon, Mr. Fredricks.
Stanley Shinwoo."  Or something that sounded like that.  "A pleasure to
meet you."

"Likewise.  But, please, just call me Lenny."

"Then I am Stanley, please."  He turned to Joan.  "As I recall, you
prefer to be addressed as Erica."

She nodded.

"Very well, then.  Erica, Lenny, we are in studio 3 today, since we are
doing motion capture rather than stills."  He led the way.  It looked
similar in general to but different in detailed layout from the studio
I had been in before; at the focus of the camera and lights was what
looked like a couch with a sheet over it.

"What we would like to capture today is you two masturbating, please,
but with one another - for example, you find it erotic to touch one
another non-genitally while masturbating, we would like to capture
that.  Or whatever you find arousing; the major constraint is that your
genitals should be touched by yourselves only."  He seemed to project
formality, reminding me of what Sharon had said about distance.

I thought of something.  "I have a question."

"Please, ask."

"Will we be capturing data from my cock?  If so, there is a potential
problem; I don't think the spray-on dots will stay in place."

"We have a solution for that problem.  We have condoms with the dot
colouration embedded in their material; provided you do not use any
opaque substance when masturbating, we can get good data."

"That will make it harder for me to cum."

"That is not uncommon.  If you do orgasm while doing this, it will be
useful data, but even if you do not, we can capture much useful data
anyway.  We often assemble data from multiple captures when creating
motion sequences for a character."

Joan had disappeared into the shower room.  At this point she emerged
naked.  "Da-- Lenny, get in here and stop wasting time."  She turned to
Stanley.  "I'm ready to be sprayed with dots."

I followed her back into the shower room and undressed while Stanley
started spraying dots onto Joan.  I was done before he was; once he was
finished, Joan left and he started spraying me.  When he was done, he
reached into a box on a shelf and produced one of the promised condoms.
He took my cock in his hand and stroked it gently until I was hard
enough for him to roll the condom on.

He led me out into the camera room and stepped over to the controls; I
joined Joan on the couch at the focus of the cameras and lights.  The
sheet felt oddly slick, almost oily; it appeared to be some kind of
plastic, not ordinary cloth.  Stanley said, still looking at the camera
controls, "Please, Lenny, Erica, enjoy yourselves, as I outlined.  We
want some 30 to 45 minutes of data."  He glanced over at us.  "If you
prefer, that can be unfolded into a bed."

I remembered the lube I brought, which was still in my pocket.  I
jumped up saying "Oh, I forgot" and fetched it.  As I returned with it,
Stanley said, "We would like a solid model of that too, if we may."

"Oh?  No problem."  I held it out to him.

He took it and inspected it.  "Good.  The bottle is painted plastic."

"What else?"

"Sometimes it has a paper label.  Those are more difficult."

"More difficult?  Why?"

He stopped in the doorway to the shower room.  "We usually cover the
whole bottle solid and then spray dots.  Paper labels tend to come off
when washing the dyes off."

"Ah!"  I turned back to the couch, only to find Joan already up and
heading past me.  She disappeared into the other room as I heard the
sprayer start hissing.  I watched the doorway for a long moment, then
heard voices from the other room, first Joan's.

"Do you want data for this too?"  The sprayer cut off as she started
speaking.

"Yes, please."  The sprayer started again, sounding in short bursts.

"Aren't those water-soluble?"

"Yes, but we had to develop a solution for that.  First, we spray it
normally."  I heard the sprayer again.  "There.  Now..."  I heard some
indistinct sounds, then Joan's voice.

"Ah!  And that _isn't_ water-soluble."

"Precisely.  We choose the second coat to avoid damaging the material."

"How do you get it off afterwards?"

"It is elastic enough to simply peel off.  It should not peel off in
use, because I covered past the widest part of the base."  I heard the
sprayers start up again and Joan emerged, carrying her dildo, confiming
my guess as to the subject of their discussion.

I was curious.  "What did he do with that?"

"Sprayed it, then painted on a transparent layer to keep the dots in
place.  Says it should peel off fine when we no longer want it.  Dunno
what solvent it used; I didn't recognize the smell."

I sniffed it.  "Me neither.  Oh well."  I rubbed a finger over the
thing; I couldn't really tell there was another layer there, except
that the dots were visibly, albeit barely, below the surface.  I handed
it back to her.  "Neat."

I curled up in one corner of the couch.  I don't recall what Joan did,
because that's when Stanley returned with the bottle of lube.  "Here."
He handed it back to me.  It was solid white with the now-familiar
black dots all over it.  While I was inspecting it he returned to
fiddling with the controls; after a moment he announced, "Rolling!"

My erection had faded.  I got comfortable and started to pet the head
of my cock gently.  It responded as it usually does, despite its
"second skin", and within a minute or so I was, while not really hard,
at least decently plumped up.  I carefully trickled a thin line of lube
along my thumb, the amount I had learnt was about right, and started
stroking my cock slowly.  As I brought myself to full hardness, I
glanced over at Joan.  She had her eyes closed and a look of
concentration on her face; her legs were splayed wide and she was
running the very tip of her dildo up and down her pussy.  My cock
jumped and I groaned, feasting my eyes on the erotic sight.  My hips
started to move, undulating slowly.  After a few minutes Joan shifted
and opened her eyes.  Her gaze fixed on my crotch and she whispered,
"...oh god, yes..." and shoved the dildo right into her cunt - all at
once; she must have been awfully gooey, because it usually takes me at
least three or four strokes before I can slide right in all the way.  I
tipped my head back, splayed my legs, and started rolling my nipple
with my free hand's middle finger.

We continued playing with ourselves for another ten or fifteen minutes
before Joan stopped playing with herself and looked up, addressing
Stanley.  "You said this can unfold?"

"Yes.  If you will get off of it, please...?"

We stood up and he unfolded it in an obviously very practiced manner.
Joan lay down.  "Lenny, lie there...?"  She waved, indicating, and I
lay down, parallel to her but turned the other way; she wriggled until
we were approximately chin-to-chin.  She stuck out her tongue and
started licking my nipple.  As she of course knows, having my nipple
licked is something I find intensely erotic, and my hand on my cock
sped up substantially.  After a few moments I started licking her
nipple in return and she groaned deeply.  A few minutes later she
whispered "...oh *fuck*..." and arched her back, forgetting entirely
about licking my nipple; I looked up and saw her hand stop plunging the
dildo into her pussy and flatten out, shoving the whole thing all the
way inside her.  Her panting turned into uncontrolled moaning as she
started to cum, the hand holding the dildo inside her rubbing
vigorously, the other twisting the nipple I hadn't been licking,
twisting it strongly enough I had to reassure myself that she knew what
she was doing.  I folded my lips over my teeth and bit down on the
nipple in my mouth about as strongly as I dared; her hand whipped off
her other breast and mashed my head tightly to her as she trembled, her
legs about as wide as they could go.  After a long moment she let go of
my head and fished the dildo out of her cunt with her other hand, going
back to slowly working it in and out.  She looked over at my crotch,
where my cock was actually pretty close to squirting despite the
deadening effect of the condom; a woman cumming next to me is about as
strong a turn-on as I have.  She shifted position, lying crossways to
me to give me an excellent view of her crotch, looking up her body past
that to her other hand playing with her breasts.  She went back to
fucking herself with the dildo, giving me running commentary.  She
knows what that does to me. "You like looking at me like this?  You
like watching me play with my cunt?  Nice juicy wet pussy?  Horny woman
fucking herself with a dildo?  Oh my god I'm so fucking soaking, you
like that, don't you, I bet you want to fuck me, but not now, oh god,
yes, stroke yourself, so fucking sexy like that..."  She got less and
less coherent and started fucking herself with the dildo faster and
faster; it took only a few minutes of this before I realized I was
going to cum.  I gasped, "You've...I'm...cum..."  She closed her eyes
to slits and started rubbing herself even faster, babbling, "oh yes you
fucker cum for me oh god oh my god so hot like that oh fuck oh oh..."
and that's all it took; I let out one last "oh _fuck_" and started to
cum, writhing as the fiery tingles built and exploded, gasping,
shuddering, finally calming down and realizing that Joan had cum again
while I was busy with my own orgasm.  I calmed down, jerking
intermittedly with delicious aftershocks, eventually just lying still
with my hand still wrapped around my now-softening cock.  Joan also
calmed down, eventually smiling at me and kissing me tenderly,
whispering "...lover..." as she broke the kiss, barely loud enough for
me to hear.

We had only a few minutes to calm down before Stanley, whom I at least
had forgotten all about, broke in.  "Erica, Lenny, we need to be out of
this studio in fifteen minutes; we can give you only about five more
minutes before we will have to end this scene."

Joan looked up at him.  "I'll be ready to go shower in a minute or
two."

I managed to contribute, "Me too."

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Joan slowly stood up, extracted
the dildo (which I hadn't noticed she still had inside her), and headed
off towards the shower.  About the time I heard the shower start, I
managed to lever myself up.  My cock had shrunk enough the condom
almost fell off, but I noticed in time and removed it.  "Where should I
put this?"

Stanley looked over to see what I was talking about.  "There."  He
pointed to a wastebasket I hadn't noticed; it had a plastic liner in
it.  I dropped the condom in it and started off towards the showers
myself.

As I arrived, Joan saw me and said, "Just a few more moments."  It was
indeed only another fifteen seconds or so before she stepped out and
said "All yours!"

I took a few moments of just luxuriating in the warm water, then
recalled what Stanley had said about being under time pressure and
started trying to scrub myself down expeditiously.  I turned off the
water just as he came in and said, "Good."

"Good?"

"Yes; I was going to say we were running short of time, but if you are
both done showering we are on schedule."

It was the work of only a few moments to dress.  Stanley led us out of
the studio and into an office, sitting behind the desk and waving us
towards chairs in front of it.  "A good session.  I never like to have
to cut sessions short; the timing worked out very well this time."

Joan remarked, "True.  We were done just about the time you would have
had to call time on us, I think."

"A little before, but only a little.  And, I'd like to say, a very nice
capture; it will need very little patchup."

"Thank you."

"Any questions?"  He looked back and forth between us.  "Either of
you?"

I spoke up.  "Well, I do have something I'm curious about, but it's
about you and rather personal."

"Whatever it is, I feel sure I have had more prying questions.  At
worst I will not answer."

"In that case...I noticed, as our session was ending, you did not
appear aroused at all.  Is familiarity really that deadening, or do you
not find what we did erotic, or what?"

"Much practice.  I have to constantly work at avoiding arousal when
doing data collection, unless the situation permits it, such as when I
am an actor in the scene."

"Why avoid it?"

"It bothers many people.  While I do not think they think so
consciously, I think they feel as though I were primarily a voyeur,
doing the data collection in order to get to watch the sex, rather than
being a technician with the arousal being a side effect.  Or perhaps
they are afraid I am unable to control myself and am liable to rape
them, or some such.  Those theories fit with the reactions we see, at
least."

I said slowly, "I would have thought the people who'd be here would be
people who wouldn't mind someone enjoying watching."

"You might think so, yes.  So did we, initially.  It does not seem to
work that way."

"Odd.  Well, speaking for myself, it doesn't bother me if the person
doing data collection gets turned on.  You're human too, nothing wrong
with enjoying your job."

Joan spoke up.  "Same here."

"Very well.  We have a term for this: say that you are watchable.  Even
with people such as me who know, it is good to remind us each session."

"You don't record that in your files?"

"No.  Too often, it changes from session to session, sometimes with the
subject's mood, sometimes with the acts being captured."

"Ah.  I see."

Before he sent us on our way he gave me his card - "Lenny, I think you
do not have my card yet" - and I found he spelled his name Shinwu.  I
wondered what it looked like in its original language, until I
remembered Sharon's remark about assumed names and realized there might
not be any "original language" behind it.

----------------

The next time they called, it was for `Erica'.  She did another
data-capture session a few days later.  I wasn't there when she got
back, but I asked her about it later.

"It was...interesting."

"Oh?"

"Yes.  They wanted me to ride a mechanical sex toy but not get aroused
by it."

"_Not_ get aroused?"

"Struck me as odd too.  Pat said something about characters in the game
going shopping, trying things out, and not liking them."

"I suppose.  So did you manage?"

"To avoid getting turned on?  Not entirely.  But he said I did well
enough."

"What was the device like?"

"Imagine one of those mechanical horse thingies you sometimes see set
up for kids in shopping malls, but with a dildo sticking up right where
it'll do the most good."

"That actually sounds dangerous to me; lose your balance and fall off
and you could get hurt badly.  Those are pretty soft tissues."

"Women have been using stone statues of the likes of Pan and Priapus
for sexual purposes for millennia, don't forget."

"We don't know but what they got injured occasionally, too; we don't
exactly have detailed records from such use."

"True.  But anyway, this was safe in that regard, for two reasons.
One, because the thing really was not raised very far off the floor;
two, because the dildo wasn't an ordinary dildo.  It was made of
something soft enough to bend readily.  If I'd fallen sideways I doubt
it would have even been uncomfortable, much less actually damage me.
But stiff enough to look plausible -"  She flashed a grin.  "And
actually feel pretty good."

I grinned back.  "So you did get off on it?"

"Well, I _was_ trying not to.  Not easy, but I mostly managed."  She
paused reflectively.  "It certainly could have been highly erotic if
I'd let it."

"I wonder if they'll want me to do something analogous."

She chuckled.  "Knowing you, you might have to turn it down."  Her hand
dropped to my cock, forcing me to realize that even talking about it
had got me pretty plumped up.  It doesn't take much to arouse me.  I
hoped they didn't ask me for that, because I suspected she might well
be right.

That wasn't what they called for next, as it happened.  Next time they
called me was a week or so later.  Jeff took the call and told me they
wanted to talk with Lenny.  I picked up the call.

"Lenny."

"Sharon, from Josephson Studios."

"Ah, hello.  What can I do you for?"

She chuckled slightly.  "Not me this time."  I hadn't thought of what
that reversed wording could be taken as in a sexual context.  "Our
notes say that you can be asked about anything but you may well not be
interested."

"Right."

"What would you say to a scene involving animals?"

"Um."  That took a little thought.  "I suppose it depends on how they
are involved.  I'm big on mutual consent, and it's difficult to be sure
a nonhuman really consents."

"If that's your only issue, I think you will be okay with this."

"Well, there are also various other hazards."

"Sometimes.  We have worked on this and we believe we have addressed
all the issues we can think of.  If you're willing to come by, we can
explain and demonstrate.  If you then want to cancel the session,
that's fine."

"I'm game, then.  When?"

"We have a time slot Friday at eight."

"My Friday is already committed."

"Monday, then?  Seven thirty?"

I couldn't remember anything scheduled.  I checked.  "Sold."

"See you then, then."

"Until Monday.  Bye."  We rang off.

Jeff had stayed within earshot.  "Nonhumans?"

"Yeah, they were asking how I felt about animals."

He looked curious.  "Did they go into any detail?"

"No.  They suggested I drop by, and said if I ended up not wanting to
go through with the scene, that was OK."

"I imagine they don't get very many people who are up for those
sessions."

"I daresay not.  I'm not entirely convinced I am."

"I'm not sure I would be either."

"Yeah, but you're not signed up at all."

"I'm not sure how much longer that'll be true."

"You're interested?"

"I've been interested from when you first found that ad and mentioned
it - you know me and sex.  I've just been holding off to see what kind
of place they seemed to be.  They're shaping up to be something I can
get into."

----------------

Monday eventually rolled around and I met with Sharon.  There was
another woman with her, a short, slightly plump, and smiling black
woman - one of the very few people I've ever seen whom I think really
deserve to be called "black", unlike the coffee-with-three-creams light
brown that so often has the name applied to it.  "Lenny, this is Emily.
She's one of our animal handlers."

I was tempted to make some comment about "handling" the animals, but
managed to refrain.  "Pleased to meet you."  I offered my hand.  She
shook it.

Sharon continued, "I outlined the issues you mentioned on the phone to
Emily.  She says she can address them."

I turned to Emily and raised an eyebrow inquiringly.  "Oh?"

When she spoke, her voice was very rough and breathy; I suspected she
had some pathology that kept her from speaking "normally".  "Sharon
said you were concerned about consent?"

"Yes.  I'm big on informed consent, and I have trouble imagining how
that would be possible with nonhumans."

"It's not totally possible, of course - even with people, consent,
never mind *informed* consent, can sometimes be dicey.  But we've come
up with procedures that convince us that we're coming about as close as
feasible.  We even brought in someone from PETA who got--"

"Peta?"

"Oh, sorry.  People for Ethical Treatment of Animals."

"Oh, them.  Right.  Carry on."

"Where was I?  Oh, right.  We brought in someone from PETA who had a
look and said that, while it would be politically difficult to give us
any kind of formal approval, PETA had no problem with our setup."

"I'm impressed."

"Well, it's important to us to err on the side of correctness.  We go
to significant trouble to make sure we are nowhere near the line."

"You must."

"Quite.  So, would you like to have a look?"

"Perhaps eventually, but maybe you could explain what you do, first?"

"Sure."  We had been strolling slowly through the building and had
stopped outside one of the offices.  She turned to Sharon, who had been
silently accompanying us.  "Is there one of the small meeting rooms we
could use?  I'd rather not stand more than necessary."

"Probably.  Let me check."  Sharon opened the door we had stopped
outside and used the computer on the desk within.  "Yes.  Take number
three."

"OK.  You'll reserve it?"

Sharon nodded.  "Already done."

Emily turned to me.  "Lenny?"  She led me through a couple of hallways,
into a small nondescript room.  It had three comfortable-looking
chairs, a small table with a lamp on it, and not much else.  She closed
the door and took one chair, waving me vaguely towards the others.

"So.  Any specific questions you'd like to ask, or would you rather I
outline things generally?"

"I suspect the latter is a better way to start."

She nodded, looked at a piece of paper I hadn't noticed her holding,
and tossed it aside into the table.  "Well, let's take dogs as an
example.  How can we be sure a dog consents to doing something?"

"Exactly."

"We can't be, initially.  But when we offer the dog the opportunity
repeatedly, with no reward beyond the experience itself, and the dog
repeatedly chooses to participate, it's hard to put any other
construction on it."  She paused briefly.  "Well, no reward as far as
we can tell; who's to say what a dog considers a reward."

"Mmm."  It sounded like about as good an approach as any.

"It gets better, though."

"Oh?"

"For example, one of our first animal handlers had a number of dogs,
and tried an experiment.  When one of his males stood in a particular
way - front paws up on a chair after breakfast, I think it was - this
man would masturbate the dog to orgasm.  Nothing more."

"And?"

"Well, not surprisingly, that dog learned fairly rapidly, and after a
week or so would practically jump into place."

"Basic conditioning, I'd say.  At least, assuming orgasm to be pleasant
to the dog, which seems likely."

"Yes.  But the interesting thing is, something like five or ten days
into this experiment, another male started taking the same pose at the
same time, which it had basically never done before.  And, it was not
seen to do so at other times."

"Hm!"

"It's difficult to see that as anything but a request for the same
treatment.  Including fairly unambiguous consent."

"There's clearly some rather complex thought going on there.  More
complex than I would have expected from a dog."

She grinned.  "You clearly have never lived closely with dogs."

"True.  Why?"

"Anyone who has would have no doubt dogs are capable of remarkably
complex thought.  But anyway, that got us thinking, and we've devised
procedures based on the same kind of thing that convince us we aren't
doing anything the animals don't consent to, even like."

"For example?"

"Well, let's suppose we wanted data from a man fucking a bitch."

"Is that even possible?  I mean, mechanically?  Aren't the sizes all
wrong?"

"It depends on the man and the bitch.  A man hung like John Holmes
isn't going to be fucking a little lapdog, no.  But if the man's dick
is on the small side and the bitch is one of the larger breeds, it is
not only possible but, from everything I have seen and heard,
thoroughly enjoyable to both parties."

"Okay, let's suppose."

"Okay.  Then, when we want to pick the bitch, what we'd do is go to the
kennels and ring a particular bell."

"Bell.  Heh."

"We're not Pavlov."  She flashed a brief grin.  "There's a particular
room which they all have access to, but which contains nothing else
notable.  A minute or two after ringing the bell, we go there and pick
one of the ones in that room.  If there are none there, we just go
quietly away again and try again a few hours later."

"Um, okay."

"The interesting thing is, it took only about three months of doing
this every few days before we found most of them making a beeline for
that room when we rang the bell.  A few of the bitches are interested
only when they're in heat, but most of them turn up frequently even
when they're not."

"Yeah, that is a pretty clear indication of consent.  Still sounds like
simple conditioning to me."

"Even if it is, what's wrong with that?  If we used sex as a reward to
get them to do other things they normally wouldn't, perhaps.  But we
are very careful to avoid making anything conditional on their
participating in sex.  After all, doesn't "conditioning" apply equally
to anything enjoyable?  If you like, say, doing jigsaw puzzles, and you
discover you have a friend who always has one going, wouldn't you visit
that friend more?  Yet to a disinterested third party, wouldn't it be
just as valid to look at it as you being conditioned, by the reward of
jigsaw puzzles, to visit that friend?"

"Yes, I suppose...but...hmm."  I turned it over a bit in my mind.  "It
still bothers me.  Feels manipulative, if nothing else."

"Perhaps.  But even if so, well, does training a dog to sit, or heel,
bother you too?  It's basically the same thing, only less enjoyable to
all parties."

That made sense.  "I suppose."  I rubbed my chin reflectively.  "It
still feels dubious to me."

"It did to me too, at first.  Let me mention just one more thing."

"Mmm?"

"Consider raising mice to sell as pet food to people who own snakes.
Consider raising cattle, pigs, chickens for slaughter.  Consider
raising horses for heavy labour duties on farms.  Nobody worries about
the animals' consent in such cases.  Why is it more of a concern when
it's sexual?"

That was a good question. "That's a good question.  I'd have to think
about that."

"To bring the two together, consider a stallion kept for stud duty."

"Hrm."

"You are very far from the first person who's reacted the way you are
now.  I've given this a good deal of thought, and I have some guesses
at why it's still bothering you."

"Shoot."

"Part of it, of course, is the discomfort practically everyone in
Western society has around sex."

"Seems likely."

"This is not totally unreasonable.  Sex is a very powerful force in our
psyches, so inhibitions against letting our sex drives push us into
antisocial actions make a whole lot of sense.  I've even heard people
argue our very genes contain them.  While we believe what we do is not
antisocial, that's a very complex judgement, more complex than a basic
instinct can handle.  This point of view holds that the reluctance you
feel arises from, if you will, erring on the side of caution."

"_Sounds_ reasonable."

"This is basically the attitude behind our going to such extremes: we
want to be very sure we aren't letting ourselves sophistrize ourselves
into abusive behaviours."

I pondered this, rubbing my chin.

After a few seconds, she added, "And, of course, there's the argument
that this is certainly no more abusive than factory-farming chickens,
or raising pigs for slaughter.  If we were inflicting pain on the
animals, maybe, but all the indications point the other way."

I reflected a bit more and found myself becoming convinced.  "What
about other hazards?  For exmaple, I would be very reluctant to let a
carnivore's teeth anywhere near my dick - but I imagine a large dog or
cat sucking a man off would be one of the things you'd want."

"Yes, that is an issue.  So far, we have come up with no good general
solutions.  All such data we have - and, yes, that is data we would
like to have - comes from cases where the animal is a longtime pet of
the human in the scene, to the point where the human already trusts the
animal that much.  We've even found two cases in which the things we
wanted data from were already going on."

She smiled.  "Honestly, the more I get to know the animals, the more I
think they like sex as much as humans do, perhaps more because it's not
all tied up with guilt and self-doubt, and that what we do is almost
the antithesis of abusive: that keeping these animals in ways that
prevent them from having happy sex lives is the abusive behaviour, or
at least borders on it."

I pondered a few moments longer.  "What is it you'd like to collect
data from me for today?"

She picked up the piece of paper she'd tossed aside and glanced over
it.  "A threesome.  You, a woman, and a male dog.  The scenario is, you
accidentally discover the other two parties enjoying sex and join them,
cuddling the woman, masturbating, and eventually cumming on one or both
of them."

"I'm game."

She stood.  "Let's go."  I stood too and she led me out and through
more hallways.  She stopped to open a door and say to the woman behind
the desk, "We're on.".  The woman in the room, a tall woman I did not
recognize with short red hair and freckles, joined us and a few moments
later Emily ushered us into another of the data-capture rooms.

"You two get ready.  I'm going to get Erik and Tanny."

The woman disappeared into the attached shower room and it was only a
moment or two before I heard the shower start.  I looked around a
moment longer before following her example.  I was still faintly
uncomfortable with undressing in front of this woman whose name I
didn't even know but would soon be sharing sex with, but managed to
overcome it enough to be ready to shower by the time she was done.

I had barely started showering when a man I didn't recognize bustled
in.  He looked Middle Eastern or North African, though when he spoke he
had no obvious accent to my ear.  "Oh, hi, Kate."  Kate, I noted to
myself.

"Erik!  You're back?"  Okay, so this Erik must be the data tech and the
Tanny Emily had mentioned must be the dog.

"Yes, I ended up returning early.  But we can get caught up later."  He
picked up the sprayer and started spraying Kate.

They finished about the time I was done showering.  I dried myself off
and Erik started spraying me too.  He was about half done when Emily
returned with a middling-largeish dog which appeared to be mostly
German Shepherd or some such breed.  When Erik was done with me he
switched sprayers and started spraying the dog; I noticed the dots were
larger and fewer, presumably to deal with the uncertainty fur
introduced.

Kate had disappeared into the other room.  I followed.  There was a
futon-couch or something like it there, covered with the ubiquitous
dots.  "Oh, hi, uh, Lenny.  Did Emily tell you what the scene is?"

Emily's voice answered from the next room.  "In general.  Not in
detail."

"Okay.  This one is to be a bit more scripted than some; what I want
here is that I'm getting it on with, um, Tanny I think that was, and
you happen upon us unexpectedly.  You then join us, cuddling me and/or
Tanny and masturbating, eventually cumming on us."  She was bustling
around, turning the couch into a bed, apparently accustomed enough to
nudity to give the impression of being unaware of both hers and mine.
She pointed to a small spot high on one wall.  "See that?"

I nodded.

"When we start, you wait over there."  She pointed to a space on the
opposite wall.  "When that light lights up, like this" - and, though
she did nothing I could see, it lit up briefly - "that's your cue to
enter.  Oh, I also want you to undress on camera here."  She raised her
voice a bit.  "Erik?"

"Yes?"  His voice answered from the next room.

"Could you bring in the clothes for Lenny with you when you're done
with Tanny?"

"Sure.  Actually..."  His voice trailed off, and a moment later he
appeared in the doorway with some fabric draped over one arm.  Tanny
was just behind him, with Emily following.  He handed me the clothes.
"These ought to fit."

I wondered momentarily how they'd know what fit, then felt stupid and
was glad I hadn't wondered aloud.  They had a far more accurate model
of my body shape than most tailors would need.  I put on the clothes,
noticing that they were plain white with different coloured dots on
each piece.  Then I retired to the corner Kate had indicated.  "Oh,
Emily, Erik - I'm watchable, in case it matters."

Erik nodded, going over to the controls.  "Thank you."

Emily spike up.  "Kate, are you?  I can't recall."  She had stopped
just inside the door; Tanny sat beside her.

Kate spoke up from where she was just finishing converting the futon
couch into a low bed.  "Most certainly."  She finished and sat on the
edge of the bed.  "Erik, you ready?"

"One moment..." he replied.

"Hang on," I broke in.

They all looked at me.  I continued, "Shouldn't I be wearing one of
those dotted condom things?"

Erik replied, "Oh, right, I forgot."  He ducked into the next room and
returned, handing me one.  I let down the pants I was wearing and, as I
started to roll it onto my half-hard cock, I realized it wasn't really
a condom; instead of a closed tip, it constricted to a noticeably less
stretchy ring around a hole perhaps three-eighths of an inch across.
"Erik?  Why does this have no tip?"

Erik glanced over at me.  "Oh, you haven't seen one before?  We use
those when we want to be able to record ejaculation."

I fiddled with it, eventually convincing it to unroll on my half-hard
cock.  I put the pants back on and said, "Okay, ready."

Erik tapped a button on the controls.  "There.  Rolling."

----------------

Emily said something that sounded like "kantriss".  As if it were a
signal (which it probably was), Tanny bounced up and trotted towards
me.  Emily said commandingly, "shantrof!"; Tanny promptly turned and
headed for Kate.  She put her hands on his head and scritched his ears,
neck, and shoulders fondly, saying, "Hello there, you lovely creature."

Tanny clearly knew what this was all about; he was sporting a
substantial erection already.  He poked his nose into her crotch and
started to lick.  She sighed delightedly and leaned back, spreading her
legs wider, her hands still caressing the dog's head.  Motion off to
the side caught my eye; I glanced over to see Erik turned towards us,
kenading the crotch of his pants.

Kate started raising her hips to meet Lenny's tongue, moaning in a way
I found very erotic.  Suddenly she gasped and her hands whipped down to
knot in the futon cover, apparently cumming.  Lenny continued licking
her pussy enthusiastically.  As her orgasm ended she put her hands
under his shoulders and urged him up towards her.  He jumped eagerly
forwards, his erection bouncing off Kate's belly.  She squirmed around
a bit until Tanny's thrusting slid his cock into her pussy instead of
into air.  She moaned breathily, "Oh, lover...".  I was getting almost
painfully hard watching them and was glad the undershorts I had on were
mostly keeping my erection under control, because it wouldn't fit the
scenario for me to be visibly hard when I entered.

After a half-dozen thrusts, the light Kate had pointed out on the far
wall lit up.  I walked in, aiming past the futon, then stopped halfway,
trying to look as though it were a surprise.  I started kneading my
crotch; after a few moments of that I figured I'd done enough to
justify being as hard as I was and started shedding the clothes,
tossing them aside on the way to the bed.  By the time I got there I
was naked and fully hard.  Kate lifted her head and looked at me,
patting the bed next to her.  I noticed some pillows there which I
hadn't noticed before; I wondered briefly how I'd missed them, but
didn't hesitate in joining Kate on the bed.  She half sat up
and murmured, "Lean against the pillws and let me lean on you, ok?".
That sounded good to me; I stacked the pillows into a rough pile and
leaned back against it.  She leaned back against me, lying over one leg
with the top of her head about even with my nipples, putting my cock
right about even with her breasts.  Tanny was still pumping away, his
haunches between her legs, his forepwas on either side of her torso.
She played with his ears with one hand, scratching my balls with the
other.  I wrapped my hand around my cock and started stroking it
gently.  She glanced down at it and shuddered again.  This made me
speed up my stroking, and I realized I'd completely forgotten
lubricant.  "Bother.  I forgot the lube."

Emily said, "Be right back!" and ducked into the next room, returning a
moment later with a small bottle in her hand.  She tossed it carefully
onto the bed next to me.  "We can edit that in so it was always there
in the final scene."

I replied, "Thank you."  I picked it up and dabbed a little onto my
cock, going back to stroking in earnest now.  Kate had one hand holding
Tanny to her now, the other grabbing my other leg.  I used my other
hand to play with her nipple; as I first touched it she whispered,
"...oh shit..." and starting writhing even faster, her legs wrapped
around Tanny as he pumped into her.

"Here, let me."  This came from Emily.  I'd been busy watching Kate;
Emily was standing next to Erik, who by now had his (fully stiff) cock
out and was pumping it slowly.  As I looked up, Emily took his wrist
and pulled his hand off his cock; she was holding the waist of her
pants out with her other hand and stuck his hand into her pants.  "I've
got lubricant for you."

Erik groaned and seemed unsure whether he'd rather look at Emily or us.
I could see his hand moving inside Emily's pants; she let out a soft
"ohhh..." and grabbed the edge of the control console.  Erik removed
his hand, smiling, and told her "Thank you." as he went back to
stroking his cock, presumably nicely lubricated now.

Kate rewrapped her legs around Tanny, pulling him tighter against her.
He was panting now, still fucking her vigorously.  I was getting pretty
close to cumming myself.

Erik began to moan softly and I looked up to see him looking close to
cumming too.  Emily removed her own hand from her pants and replaced
his hand on his cock with her own, saying, "Allow me...".  Erik's moans
got louder and his other hand started playing with Emily's tit thorugh
the tee-shirt she was wearing.  She speeded up her stroking of his cock
and he gasped, a cut-off sort of "unh!" sound, and his cock spurted,
jetting white cum onto Emily's hand and the floor in front of him.
About then, Tanny started to whine and I looked back to see Kate
watching Erik and Emily as fixedly as I was.  Her whole torso was
flushed and I suddenly found myself cumming too, squirting my cum all
over her tit and Tanny's muzzle.  He licked it off his muzzle and
turned his head to lick the head of my cock, my next spurts landing
directly on his tongue.  He gave a short bark and, I inferred, came
inside Kate; I kept pumping my cock, squeezing out a little more cum
onto Kate's tit.  Tanny stepped back from Kate and curled up on the
floor, licking his cock and balls as his erection faded.  Kate moaned
softly and rubbed her crotch herself, her moans building until she came
again.

Kate and I lay there with my gradually-shrinking cock lying on her tit.
I could feel my cum slowly oozing down where we touched.  I left my
hand resting on her other breast.  After some two or three minutes she
looked over and caught Erik's eye, saying, "Cut!"

Erik tapped a button on the controls.

Kate got up and headed for the shower room.  I heard the shower start.
I just lay there in a lazy post-cum glow.  Erik glanced at his watch.

After a aminute or two, Kate emerged from the shower room, still nude.
"Erik, how are we for time?"

"Twenty minutes until our timeslot ends."

She walked over to where I was lying.  "Lenny, much as I like looking
at you like that, I'm afraid I have to ask you to get off of there."

I groaned and managed to get off the bed and stand up.  She brushed a
hand over the sheet we'd been lying on, nodded, and with three sweeping
motions removed it from the futon, wadding it into a ball and tossing
it into the spot I'd been waiting in at the beginning of the scene.
"Erik?"

He was just finishing wadding up something that looked like a towel.
He threw it into the same corner.  Emily whistled sharply and said,
"timpropy".  Tanny looked up as she whistled and, in response to the
apparent command, stood up and followed her as she marched out the
door.

Kate emerged from the shower room, now dressed.  I hadn't noticed her
duck back into it.  "Lenny?  Might want to get yourself showered off."

I hadn't been thinking anything, really.  "Good point."  I found the
shower and started sluicing myself down.  I discovered I was still
wearing the not-quite-a-condom and removed it, dropping it in a
wastebasket which I found conveniently nearby.

From the next room I heard Erik's voice.  "What do you think?"

Kate's voice replied, "Promising.  Have to see how it meshes."

"Yeah."

A pause.  Kate's voice said, "We need to backpaste that."

"Yeah.  She threw it well; I think it'll be easy to do."

"Yeah."

Neither of them said anything more before I was done showering.  I
dressed and joined them.  They were poring over a display on the
control console and looked up as I came in.  Kate spoke.  "I think
we're done here.  You need to be anywhere?"

"No, not..."  I broke off as the door opened.  Emily reentered, without
Tanny this time.  I turned back to Erik and Kate.  "Not for the rest of
the evening."

"Back to my office, then?"

----------------

Nobody said anything, but everyone assented by following her as she led
the way back to the room Emily had picked her up from earlier.  We
entered and she immediately left again, saying, "Oh, one moment...",
returning a moment later with another chair.  I hadn't noticed, but
there had been one chair too few for us.  We all sat down, Kate behind
the desk, the other three of us on the other chairs.

Kate spoke first.  "A good session.  Should give us the data I want for
that sequence."

Erik smiled lazily.  "A pretty erotic session, too."  He turned to me.
"I don't think I've met you before...Lenny, isn't it?"  I nodded.  "I
rarely cum from watching."  He turned his smile on Emily.  "And thank
you too.  That was almost as erotic as the scene."

I'm not sure whether she blushed or not, with her skin.  But she acted
as though she had.  This struck me as odd; surely she was inured enough
to sex...?  She replied, though, apparently unflustered, "It was pretty
erotic for me too."

Kate looked at Emily reflectively.  "I was a bit busy, but I sure don't
_recall_ you cumming.  Did you?  Would you like to?"

This time _I_ blushed.  Even with all I knew and had experienced of
sex, with Joan, Jeff, and Betty, and now with the Josephson Studios
people, I was unprepared for these people to be propositioning one
another as casually as I might ask a friend to go for lunch.

Everyone politely ignored my blush.  Emily seemed to be in somewhat the
same boat I was in; she seemed a little flustered and had to swallow a
time or two before she replied - and her reply seemed forced out.
"...n-no...and..."  She swallowed again and her voice was barely a
whisper.  "...yes..."

I felt frozen, like a deer in headlights.  All I could do was watch, as
Kate stood up, came around the desk, and offered her hand to Emily.
Emily stood and Kate led her over to another door I hadn't noticed,
which she opened.  "Emily?  What about Erik and Lenny?"  Through the
doorway I could see a comfortable-looking couch and not much more.

Emily seemed to have trouble making her voice work.  When she did say
something, it was a husky whisper.  "I...they..."  She looked at the
floor and seemed to be collecting herself.  Kate gave every sign of
being willing to give her as much time as she needed.  I was still in a
sort of shock.  Erik, well, I don't know, but he remained seated and
didn't say anything.

Emily finally looked up, looking each of us full in the face in turn.
When she spoke, her voice sounded normal (well, what I had become used
to from her).  She said, "All of you, please.  But I have something to
say first."  She then marched into the room beyond the door.  Kate
followed her.  I got up and followed them, with Erik just a half-pace
behind me.

The room proved to have three couches set around the walls, each large
enough to accommodate at least three people, with an area in the middle
holding what appeared to be a large bed - it looked like at least
king-size to me - with no obvious orientation, no headboard or
footboard.  Emily was sitting on one edge of the bed.  Kate was just
sitting down on one of the couches.  I took a seat on the other end of
the couch Kate sat on.  Erik sat on another couch, the end close to me.

Emily spoke, and I decided it _was_ possible to see a black, even a
real dark sooty black, blush.  If she'd been white her face would have
been crimson.  "Lenny, you probably don't know even as much about me as
Kate and Erik do.  I've been with Josephson only a few months.  I was
an animal trainer and breeder.  I've got used to talking about sex.
But...I've never...well...that scene was...it got to me.  Kate, even
you might not know, Erik and I were together for a year or so once upon
a time."

"I thought it seemed a little odd, what you did with him and then
reacting like you did to my remark."

Emily nodded.  "I'm deliberately pushing myself past my comfort point
here.  I probably would not have said yes if it hadn't been for N..uh,
Erik."  She paused.  "So.  Yes.  I accept your offer...though I want to
make sure you all will stop if I feel pushed too far."

Erik said, "Emily.  No means no.  I will respect it."  He turned and
his eyes swept across Kate and me.  "And I'll make sure everyone else
does too."

Kate said, "You have nothing to fear from me on that score."

I nodded.  "Same here."

Kate stood and turned to a small table next to the couch.  She slowly
and deliberately removed each piece of clothing she was wearing,
stacking them neatly on the table.  She then approached Emily, still
moving..."gravely" is the word that comes to mind: slowly and
deliberately, as if a very serious matter were at hand.  Which I
suppose it was.

----------------

As Kate finished undressing and turned to Emily, Erik stood and
followed suit.  Kate took Emily's hand and kissed it gently, then
trailing little kisses up her arm.  About then Erik joined her and
started doing the same to Emily's other arm.  And I...I shook myself
out of my immobility and followed Erik's example, forming a third pile
of clothes on the table, then turning to join the others.

Emily was wearing soft brown sweatpants with a t-shirt that was
tie-dyed pastel green and blue.  By the time I got there, Emily was
lying back on the bed, eyes closed, with Erik and Kate each caressing
one of her arms with fingertips and mouth.  Emily was moaning softly,
contentedly, wriggling, reminding me of nothing so much as a drowsy
kitten in a patch of warm sun.

I knelt on the carpet (carpet? I hadn't noticed what was on the floor
before) and carefully slipped the sandal off her right foot.  I kneaded
the foot in my hands for a few moments, then did the same with her left
foot.  I slid closer, cuddling one calf to each side of me, my hands
caressing the ankles, working their way up, partially lifting the legs
of the sweatpants and partially sliding up inside the legs.  Emily
parted her legs wider, then started swinging them a little,
rhythmically, as I caressed her legs.

As I got up to about her knees, I looked up to see Erik and Kate
caressing Emily's belly, similarly working their way up her torso,
lifting her t-shirt; I could just see hints of a black lace bra, hard
to see against her skin.  As I lifted the legs of her sweatpants above
her knees, I slid my hands up inside them and drew my fingertips around
in little patterns on the outsides of her thighs.  Erik and Kate lifted
Emily's shirt up over her breasts and I saw she was indeed wearing a
black lace bra, one which did nothing, really, to conceal how hard her
nipples had gotten.  Kate lifted her gaze and met Erik's.  After a
moment, Kate leaned over and licked Emily's jawline; Erik leaned the
other way and started depositing little kisses all over Emily's belly.
I heard a soft gasp from Emily as Kate's tongue made contact and the
body under my hands started writhing slowly.  I moved my hands around
so I was drawing little patterns with my fingertips on the fronts of
her thighs, still inside the legs of her sweatpants, working ever so
slowly up towards her groin.

I carefully veered off to the sides before reaching the junction of
thigh and groin, drawing a frustrated-sounding moan from Emily, who
lifted her hips up, thrusting them towards nothing in particular.  I
reached up to hook the waistband from the inside and pull it towards
me, taking advantage of her raised hips to slide the sweatpants down
off her hips towards me.  Emily squirmed, keeping her hips raised; I
decided she was trying to help me, unless she was so far gone as to not
realize what I was doing.  I drew her pants down, leaning back to get
them down and off her feet.  I tossed them aside and sat back up.  She
was wearing black lace panties matching her bra and as I saw a sheen on
the crotch of them indicating that she was wet enough to have soaked
them I suddenly realized I had gotten thoroughly hard again.  I reached
out carefully and drew little patterns on her inner thighs, this time
with my fingertips lubricated with her escaped cunt-juices.  She made a
noise I can't really call anything but a whine, hunching her whole body
down on the bed towards me, opening her legs even wider, treating me to
a glorious view of her pussy, enticingly half-concealed by her panties.

Erik withdrew his hand from under Emily's back.  I hadn't noticed him
reaching under her, but as his hand emerged I saw it was carrying a
limp bra strap and realized he'd reached in to undo her bra; her shirt
was bunched up between her breasts and her underarms.  Kate extracted
the other strap and together they slowly, so slowly, lifted Emily's bra
up, revealing her beautiful breasts, so dark, so firm, so delicious to
the eye.  Erik exhaled heavily, his mouth not half an inch from her
breast but not quite touching, then his tongue emerged and licked all
around her nipple, carefully avoiding the nipple itself.  Emily
shivered and twisted, lifting that breast up towards his mouth, but he
was careful to back off as she lifted, continuing to tease her but no
more.  Kate was kneading the breast on her side with both hands, her
head busy at Emily's neck.  Emily's hands were writhing, clutching
fabric, Kate's and Erik's shoulders, anything within reach.  I'm not
sure what was causing what, but I don't think I've ever seen a woman so
turned on, not even the first time Betty took on Jeff and me together.

I was considering removing Emily's panties when Erik and Kate,
apparently getting the same idea at the same time or something, reached
down, one on either side, and started to slowly slide her panties down.
I continued to caress her slippery thighs until they had brought the
waistband of the panties down approximately even with the lowest part
of her mound.  Then I took over, sliding the panties down her legs and
off.  When I sat back up, I was slightly surprised to see that Erik and
Kate had gone back to what they were doing before, leaving Emily's
lovely pussy to me.  I drew my fingers lightly along the crease between
thigh and groin, eliciting a groan and a twisting of her hips.  I used
the sweet juices leaking from her delicious cunt to lubricate my hands
and slid them all over her upper thighs and crotch, slowly approaching
her slit, finally palming it fondly.  I leaned over and kissed it
lightly, just at the top of her slit, when she came out of her lustful
daze long enough to raise her head and murmur "hang on...".  We all
paused and looked at her.  She continued, "Kate?  Would you, um, I'd
like..."  She paused and finally continued, "Would you go down on me?
I'd like to play with the guys while you do."

Kate leaned back over and kissed Emily full on the mouth.  "Certainly,
dear heart.  I offered you a cum and I intend to give you a good one."
She sat up and I retreated as she took the place I had occupied between
Emily's legs.  I took her place beside Emily, who reached both hands
down to her crotch, shoving the fingers of first one hand, then the
other, deep into herself, getting them thoroughly soaked.  Then she
took my throbbing cock in one hand and Erik's in the other and started
stroking us.  Her pussy-juice proved to be a very pleasantly effective
lubricant; I chuckled softly when I realized how obvious that should
be.  Kate leaned in and started to lick Emily's slit, first very
lightly here and there, gradually more and more.

I found myself thrusting into Emily's fist and leaned back for balance,
finding myself looking right into Erik's face.  His eyes locked with
mine and he licked his lips, very slowly, and smiled.  I raised an
eyebrow and he held out his arms in an obvious invitation to a hug.  I
leaned into it and our mouths met, tongues playing with one another,
panting heavily as we both fucked our cocks eagerly into Emily's hands.
I brought one hand around and brushed my thumb over Erik's nipple and
he jumped and groaned, returning the favour.

Emily must have been getting a real licking from Kate, because her
hands were speeding up on our cocks (or at least mine), squeezing us
irregularly.  I hadn't been expecting to cum so soon after cumming in
the scene, but this was getting me awfully close.  Erik, too,
apparently; he panted, "Lover...gonna cum soon..." and Emily just sped
up her stroking more and babbled, "...yes...sweetheart...cum on
me...let me see you...s-squirt...I...oh fuck..." and her hand squeezed
me almost painfully as her legs locked around Kate and she humped her
crotch vigorously into her mouth.  The next moment she - Emily -
gasped, "oh fuck oh fuck oh oh oh god oh oh..." and her hands on us men
started moving again, even faster than before, and Erik squeezed me so
tight I wondered if I'd bruise as he shuddered and his cock squirted,
squirted onto Emily's hand on my cock with the rest splatting wetly
onto Emily's tits and belly.  His next spurt landed across her tits.  I
don't remember the rest, because the feel of his cum lubricating
Emily's hand on my cock, combined with the sight of his white cum on
her black black black skin, especially the curve of her tits for some
reason, pushed me over my own edge and I started to spurt too,
clutching Erik as tightly as he was clutching me as I thrust mindlessly
into Emily's fist, cumming all over I didn't care what.  As my orgasm
started to wind down, I realized Emily was getting off too, her face a
rictus I might have mistaken for pain if I didn't know better.
Watching her cumming squeezed a little additional jolt from my fading
orgasm, my muscles doing their best to push out a little more cum.
Finally we all wound down and I realized the only reason I hadn't
collapsed was that I was hanging onto Erik; he seemed to be hanging
onto me just as much.  Emily was still stroking us gently, her hands
sloppily slippery with our cum; she gradually stilled and just held us
as our erections faded.

I finally levered myself upright with my hands on Erik's shoulders.  He
collapsed to his right, onto the bed; I collapsed to my left, the same
direction.  I slowly straightened my legs out.  Emily's hand followed
my crotch, still holding my wilted cock fondly.

A few minutes later, I slowly sat up.  Emily's eyes drifted and focused
on me and she smiled an utterly relaxed and contented smile, the kind
I've seen only on people who've just had a really thorough cum.  Kate
was kneeling at the edge of the bed, her head on Emily's thigh, one
hand on Emily's pussy, the other hidden from sight by the edge of the
bed.  She looked asleep, but, as I sat up, her eyes opened too and she
smiled that same smile.  I looked over at Erik, who was still lying on
the bed where he'd collapsed, and realized there was no reason to want
to be sitting up, so I lay back down again, reaching my hand out
towards Erik, laying the other over Emily's hand on my cock.  As my
hand touched Erik's he held mine loosely and I let my eyes close,
probably smiling that smile myself.

----------------

Some indeterminate time later, Emily squeezed my hand and started to
move.  I opened my eyes and sat up, feeling as though all my joints
should be creaking.  By the time I made it upright, Erik was already
sitting up.  As Emily levered herself upright, Kate lifted her head and
stood up; it seems the hand which was out of sight had been in her own
cunt, because that's where she extracted it from, visibly shiny with
her juices, as she stood.

Emily was the first to speak.  "Thank you.  All of you.  That was..."
She shook her head.  "Perfect."

Kate looked slightly ruefully at the carpet where she'd been kneeling.
"I'm glad I set this room up with this kind of thing in mind."

Erik looked at Kate and said "Oh?"

She pointed to the carpet.  "When I came I made a bit of a mess of the
carpet."

The other three of us looked.  Sure enough, there was a damp-looking
spot on the carpet.  Kate continued, "I made sure the carpet wouldn't
stain, and you may note it's a throw rug rather than wall-to-wall."  I
hadn't noticed, but now that I looked I could see she was right.  "The
floor underneath is totally waterproofed, too."

A thought came to me and I looked back towards the bed under where Erik
and I had cum.  Much of it had landed on Emily, but surely not all, and
some had probably leaked afterwards.  Kate followed my gaze and
grinned.  "Oh, of course I took similar precautions with the bed.
That's even more obvious."

I blinked reflectively.  "You designed this place?  For sex?"

Erik beat Kate to replying.  "She's one of our founders, and our chief
game designer.  Did you notice she used `I' when describing how the
scene was supposed to go?"

Now that he mentioned it, I realized he was right.  Kate spoke up.
"And yes, I designed this room, and, yes, designed it as a suitable
place to share sex with people."

I spoke up.  "You were expecting this to happen?"

"Well, not this precise incident.  But I'm rather a sexpot when I find
the right people.  And another of our founders is definitely a right
person; we set this up for us, if nothing else.  Though I have come to
expect this sort of thing every once in a while."  She grinned, and
paused.  When nobody else spoke up, she continued.  "Erik, Emily,
you've been with us long enough to know this, but Lenny, you haven't
really.  Incidents such as this happen, yes...but only intermittently;
most of the data collection sessions collect data and that's it.
Though I can't tell how much external assignation we provoke."

I said, "I would assume as much, since this is the first time I've seen
any indication this way.  But, well, after this...as far as the three
of you are concerned, well, I'm mostly attached, but I'd welcome any or
all of you for the occasional romp, here or elsewhere."

Emily spoke up.  "Mostly attached?"

"I live with three others.  I love them dearly, but none of us is
exclusively bound to our group.  Notice I said `occasional'; they are
definitely my primary relationship."

Emily ran her fingers through the cum now drying on her torso and I
suddenly noticed she wasn't wearing the shirt.  I couldn't recall
noticing anyone remove it, but there it was, on the bed, probably
tossed carelessly aside.  "Kate?  I can't imagine you neglected to
attach a shower or some such to this room.  Where--"  She broke off
because Kate was pointing at a door I hadn't noticed before;
apparently, neither had Emily.  She went over and opened it and oohed
softly.  "Niiiiiice."  She went on in and I heard water start running.

Kate said, "C'mon, you probably both could use a rinse-off.  I sure
know I can."  She headed for the same door.  Erik and I followed.

I got to the door and looked in.  It was a moderately narrow room with
a floor drain in the middle and six showers, three on each side.  What
caught my eye most was the showers themselves.  Each one had three
shower heads: a conventional wall-mounted head with an angled spray, a
wide rain-straight-down head, and a hose-and-mobile-head "telephone"
style head.  There were also three sets of knobs, presumably one for
each shower head.  "Wow, you really spared no expense putting this in."

"It actually didn't cost all that much.  Almost all the interior walls
weren't here when we came in, and it's much cheaper to do this kind of
thing when you do it before the walls go up."

"Still, it can't..."  I had stepped up to one of the stations and was
about to turn the water on.  "Oh my.  Temperature-and-flow controls."

"You recognize them?"

"Well, sort of.  I saw this style of setup once.  Never really used
one, though."  Instead of one knob for hot and one for cold, it had one
knob for temperature and one for amount of water flow.

"It made so much sense to me."

"Me too."  I took the telephone shower off its hook and used it as a
guinea pig to find out what setting gave the temperature I wanted.
Then I turned on the wide head with the same setting and luxuriated.

Once we were all showered off, Kate found us towels; once dried, we
parked ourselves on the couches.  Nobody else made any move to put
clothes back on; neither did I, though, I realized later, because it
didn't occur to me rather than because of any specific decision -
living with Jeff and Joan and Betty had accustomed me to casual nudity
to the point where I didn't even notice it, once established.

----------------

I spoke up as we settled ourselves.  "So, Kate, this doesn't strike me
as your typical game dev company.  Nor your typical sex industry shop.
Nor even your typical mo-cap house.  I'm wondering what's behind it."

She smiled reflectively and replied, "I really don't know much about
what constitutes `typical' for any of those.  But we don't mind talking
about what got us started.  It was a couple of years back.  One of our
founders was playing a console game and was noticing the fanservice,
and the extent to which it wasn't really developed.  He mentioned this
to me and we decided to see if we could do something about that."

Emily spoke up.  "`Fanservice'?"

Kate blinked.  "A term from tvtropes.  It refers--"

Emily broke in again.  "TV tropes?"  She waved a hand.  "No, never
mind.  Explain everything and we'll be here all night."

Kate smiled amusedly.  "Fanservice refers to the way so many media,
especially fictional media, are unreasonably full of women - and men,
to a lesser extent - with improbably hot bodies."

"Not entirely surprising; I know I'd rather look at pictures of hot men
than ugly men."

Kate blinked.  "Never thought of it that way.  Good point."

I prompted, "You decided to do something about it?"

"Not about the fanservice.  More about its not being developed."

"So you decided to build a sex-themed game?"

"Basically."

"Hasn't that been done?  Often?"

"True.  Few-to-none of them are well done, though.  We decided we
wanted to build the game; we're still not sure whether we want to try
to sell it."  She shrugged as if it didn't matter.

I don't think my jaw actually moved, but I felt as though I should be
picking it up off the floor.  I had a vague idea what game dev cost,
especially for a well-built game; if she and her compatriots could
afford to underwrite this kind of development on a lark, this woman
could probably buy the apartment building I lived in the way I could
buy a paper at the newsstand.  No wonder she thought those showers
didn't really cost all that much.

Erik spoke up.  "Just curious - what was the game that started all this
off?"

She frowned thoughtfully.  "Something quest...seven? eight?  I recall
this character, Jessica..."

Erik smiled.  "Jessica?  Smacks of Dune to me.  The Lady Jessica, of
the Bene Gesserit."

"No, it wasn't Dune-themed, I remember that much."

"Dragon Quest VIII?" I offered.

"Possibly."

"It certainly had a Jessica with somewhat..improbable..endowments."

"And `sex appeal' as a character trait?"

"Yup."

"Sounds right.  I take it you've played it?"

"Played it through multiple times.  I remember thinking that if they
bothered to change the graphics for Jessica when she's wearing certain
costumes, they really should give a bonus to her sex-appeal powers too.
Though having sex appeal work on creatures which aren't even vaguely
mammalian, much less human, seems a bit wrong.  For that matter, only
her having sex appeal is a bit, um, blinkered, seems to me."

"Blinkered?"

"As in, designed for the mainstream `straight man', as if the rest of
the world didn't exist."

"Indeed.  And it's far from the only example of that.  Or of fanservice
being present but underdeveloped, for that matter."

"I daresay."

Emily broke in.  "So what do you do to make it in-game reasonable for
everyone to have the hots for everyone else?"

Kate smiled.  "Not quite that bad.  But yes.  Our basic counterfactual
is sex drive; the game world is pretty much our own world, but with the
sex-drive bell curve shifted over by about two standard deviations.
Plus a bunch of changes which we don't want per se but which are
necessitated by the constraints of the medium, such as models of human
behaviour and motivations which, while complex for a game, are still
far, far simpler than the real thing."

After a moment, I put in, "So, dating sim meets porn-flick levels of
sex drive."

Kate grinned.  "Inelegantly but not too inaccurately put."

Erik said, "I think I'm remembering that game.  Wasn't the main plot
love interest under a curse that turned her into a horse?"

"That's the one!" I replied.

"I remember seeing horses here and there in the world and wondering if
any of them were stallions and if perhaps she'd like to have a little
fun while stuck being a horse."

"Heehee!  Perhaps the hero wouldn't even mind if Jessica were keeping
the rest of the party well..serviced."

"Now who's being blinkered?"  This came from Kate.

"Hm?  Oh, true, I shouldn't assume Yangus and, what was that oily
cleric's name..."  I tried to remember and shook my head.  "Who knows
but what they might be gay, or go both ways."

Kate laughed softly.  "I'll get you people thinking like we want our
dev team yet!"

I winced slightly inside at the butchered English but smiled at the
sentiment.  "Though I'm not sure how what's-her-name would like taking
on a stallion with the rest of the party watching.  Perhaps if she got
to watch the rest of the part-- Angelo!"  I'd just remembered that
name.  "That was his name.  But yeah, maybe if she could watch the
others getting it on."

"One thing we've already decided on is that sex in our game world
carries approximately the same level of privacy desire, and
expectation, that...oh, say, eating, does in our world."

"So, you're walking down the street and you see some people on the
porch and they're snogging?"

"Or balling their mutual brains out.  Or perhaps just jerking one
another off.  Yes.  Though they also might not be; as horny as people
will average in this world, they're not *always* being sexual.  Though
probably something like ten to thirty precent of them are pretty close
to always thinking about sex, even when not doing it."

Emily interjected, "Even little kids?"

"Oh, right.  It would be legally difficult to include children in our
game world.  Besides, it's difficult to even speculate about how
pre-pubescent people would behave with their sex drive cranked up to
eleven.  And yes, kids have a sex drive, it's just very different from
an adult sex drive, almost unrecognizable except to child
psychologists."

"So you, what?  Left them out entirely?"

"Exactly.  No kids.  No pregnancies, either - though the game's
timeline as currently planned is short enough it wouldn't really matter
if anyone did get knocked up, unless it happened months before the game
starts."  She smiled.  "Besides, the focus of the game is sex.  We want
to keep the fun parts of sex and diminish or remove the annoyances.  No
need for birth control, that's one example."

"Isn't _that_ politically difficult?"

"Perhaps, if we cared about anyone's approval, beyond staying on the
right side of the law.  Politically difficult, we don't care about.
Legally difficult, we do."

"Oh, right, I forgot, this isn't about selling well."

Kate just nodded.

Nobody said anything for perhaps fifteen seconds.  Erik finally slapped
his hands on his knees, sitting up briskly.  "Well, I probably should
get going.  It must be getting late."

Kate was next to the table with our clothes on it.  She reached over
and picked up her watch.  "Ten-fifteen, almost."

Erik blinked.  "That late?  I must have been distracted."  He smiled.
"I definitely should be getting moving."  He went over and picked up
his clothes, starting to dress.

I stood and started for the table.  This meant passing in front of
Emily, who reached out an arm and drew me to her.

"What is it?", I enquired.

She moved from the couch to sitting on the arm of the couch.  She laid
my cock along the top of her right breast and petted it gently with a
finger.  It started to stiffen, not surprisingly.  "I...just wanted
your cock between my boobs."  It took only a few moments before I was,
while not really hard, mostly plumped up, and she shifted, squeezing
her breasts together, sandwiching my cock between them, the head
peeking out of the cleavage thus formed.

"That does feel good,", I said, "but, much as I'd like to play more
with you, I do need to be getting going."

She seemed almost mesmerized by what she was doing.  "I like this.  I'd
like to do it more someday, if you like."

I thrust gently, a few times, liking the feel of her breasts against my
groin.  There was nothing to lubricate our skin, so my cock didn't
slide, but her breasts were squishy enough to shift as I did so and it
felt pretty good anyway.  "I'd like that too."

She reluctantly let go of her breasts.  "My stuff is in the other
room."  She stood up and started collecting the clothes she'd been
wearing, pulling on the sweatpants and t-shirt, just carrying the
panties and bra.  "Wait for me at the front desk?  I won't be but a few
minutes."

"Well, sure, I can delay a little."  I started putting on my own
clothes.  Emily kissed Kate on the cheek, said, "You're the nicest boss
I've ever worked for", and departed.

It was only a few more moments before I was dressed.  Erik had finished
dressing and was standing by the door as if waiting for something.
Kate had made no move to dress or, indeed, even get up from where she
was sitting - though I noticed she had put her watch back on.

As I headed for the door, Erik preceded me, first into Kate's office,
then into the hallway.  I asked, "Where's the front desk?"

Erik nodded down the hallway.  "I'm done for the day myself; I can walk
you out."  A few moments and a turn of the hallway later, he said,
"Emily seems to have taken quite a shine to you."  He paused briefly; I
said nothing.  "Only, what, three hours since she first met you, and
she already wants..."  He broke off and started to laugh softly.

We turned another corner as I asked, "What's funny?"

"Oh, I just realized, I was about to use some euphemism like `get to
know you better', but it would be pretty silly to say that after what
we just did back there."  He tossed his head, indicating behind us.

I chuckled too.  "Indeed."  Just about then we emerged into the entry
area.  Nobody else was there and I sat down on a chair near the door.
Erik pushed the door open and waved.  "See ya!"  Then he was gone.

I mulled the evening over.  Yes, it was a bit odd how ready I'd been to
share sex with these people.  Perhaps it was the scene on camera acting
as an icebreaker, but that didn't explain it all.  I pondered,
considering.  The lack of pressure, I decided.  The daring Emily had
shown in trusting us, even with one of the other three of us being
someone she had history with; it made me extend a certain degree of
reciprocal trust.  Hmm.

----------------

I had only a few minutes of pondering time before Emily reappeared,
this time wearing fairly nondescript brown pants, off-white sneakers,
and a dark green top most of which I couldn't see because she had a
black and grey hound's-tooth jacket on over it.

She spoke first, as I stood.

"Would you really..like to..play?  Further?"

I held the door open and we emerged into an empty hallway.
"Tentatively, at least.  I am committed in some senses, as I said."

"Oh yes, you mentioned...?"  She made it a question, suddenly seeming
seemed almost afraid.

"I'm one of four people living together.  But it's not exclusive."  I
pushed the elevator call button.

"Yes...you said...I'm not sure..."

I waited a few moments, but she didn't continue.  "Not sure of what?"
She didn't reply.  After another few moments, I said, "If you're not
comfortable with the idea, that's fine; I'd like to carry through with
what you suggested -"  The elevator arrived and we got on as I
continued, "- but if you'd rather not, that's fine too."

"N-no, it's not...I just..."  She closed her eyes for a moment and I
began to suspect she was blushing again, but not enough to easily see.
The elevator arrived at the ground floor and we got off, heading for
the street.  She finally said, "I think I just need to get used to the
idea.  Could you maybe call me tomorrow and we can talk about it?"  She
produced a card from I didn't see where and scribbled a number on the
back.  "That's my cell.  Call tomorrow after, oh, from about six to
eleven or so."  We'd emerged into the street and she nodded one way.
"I'm headed this way."

I was tempted to go along, but decided she probably could do without my
presence while she sorted out how she felt.  And my normal route home
did take me the other way.  "My place is this way.  I'll give you a
call."  I pocketed the card and waved.

Betty was the only one immediately in evidence when I got home.  As I
was shedding my clothes, though, I heard moaning from one of the dens,
sounding like Jeff and Joan.  Betty noticed my glance that way and said
with a smile, "They're hard at it, the horny bunnies."

"I'm surprised you're not with them."

"I was tempted, but I wanted to hear how your session went."

"Late.  I'm famished."

"There's nothing left from supper, but the fridge has the usual
supplies."  We try to keep zero-preparation food in the fridge for
times like this, when someone gets home late without having eaten.  I
trotted to the fridge and started rummaging, saying over my shoulder,
"It was interesting.  As you can probably infer from how long I was
there, I was convinced I wanted to go through with it."

Turned out she had followed me, quietly enough I hadn't noticed; her
voice came from right behind me.  "Yes, I gathered that much.  What do
they do that convinced you?"

I started explaining while I assembled a plate of veggies, cheese, and
cold cuts, and dug out pitas and hummus.  By the time I'd got through
explaining Emily's arguments, I'd collected everything I wanted and
moved to the table, sitting down to assemble wraps.  Betty stood mehind
the chair I sat in and started caressing what she could reach: head,
neck, arms, upper torso.  I tried to not let it get in the way of my
assembling supper as I started describing the scene.

I finished assembling the food.  "Sorry, m'dear, I think my mouth will
be busy for a little."

"That's OK."  She crawled under the table, saying, "So'll mine."  I
wondered what she was up to, understanding when she fastened her mouth
over my cock, forcing me to notice it had got hard.  I slouched and
spread my legs to give her better access and started eating.

About ten minutes later, I was done eating and leant back, enjoying the
blowjob.  Another few minutes and she let go of me and crawled back
out, saying, "Well, I don't know much about the rest of your evening,
but I know you came; you'd never last this long otherwise."

That was true; if I haven't cum recently she can generally get me off
orally in no more than a few minutes.  "Indeed.  Twice."

"Twice?  C'mon over here and tell me the whole story."  She towed me to
one of the futons and pushed me back until I was lying on my back.  She
lay with her head on my stomach and said, "Now.  Tell." and drew my
cock back into her mouth.

I found a pillow for my head and started idly caressing her shoulders
and back as I launched into describing the scene we'd played out for
the cameras as she sucked me.  About the time I'd got to the point in
the scene where I came, I felt someone else's weight arrive on the
futon near me, and another pair of hands started caressing my torso and
arms.  I opened my eyes, noticing to my surprise they were closed, and
found it was Joan.  And there was Jeff with his cock standing at
attention and his hands reaching for Betty's hips.  I'd stopped talking
and Joan said, "Don't mind us.  Carry on."

At Jeff's touch, Betty squirmed around, making way for him to slip his
erection into her slit.  She loves having a cock in each end.  I closed
my eyes again and went back to my tale.  "Time pressure made us break
up a little sooner than I'd've liked.  Once we were all packed up, we
went back to Kate's office.  I forget how the conversation turned to
it, but Kate flat-out asked Emily if she'd cum and if not, if she'd
like to.  Kinda unexpected to me, and apparently to Emily too."

"How'd she react?"  Joan sounded curious.  She shifted around until my
head was pillowed on her thigh, still caressing me idly.

"She got a bit flustered.  Admitted she hadn't but she'd like to.  Kate
started to lead her into the next room, then asked, what about us, Erik
and me.  That flustered her even more and she needed to pause and
collect herself.  But then she said, yes, all of us."

"So you what, all grouped around her and got her off?"  This from Jeff.

"Well, yes.  The room Kate led us into, it turned out, was set up for
just this kind of thing: large comfy bed, nothing stainable, that kind
of thing."

"Cameras?"

I laughed softly.  "I didn't see any.  Given what Kate said later, I
doubt there were any."

He smiled.  "I was just thinking, pix or G T F O."

I laughed more.  "Actually, we didn't get out any fucks.  After we got
Emily undressed, with much pleasant touching, she asked Kate to go down
on her while she jerked us men off."

Joan contributed, "And, did she?"

"Did Kate go down on Emily?  Yes.  I didn't see much of it; Erik and I
were on our knees on either side of Emily, and while she jerked us off
we were kissing and fondling one another."

"Dry?"  Joan again.

"Dry??"  I didn't understand.

"Did she jerk you off dry, or was there lube around?"

"Oh, that.  She used her own pussy-juice.  She was runnin' like a
river; I'm not sure I've ever seen a woman so turned on.  So there was
no shortage of lube."

"So that's when you came the second time?"

"Yeah, Erik came first, all over Emily's hand on my cock.  The feel of
that and the sight of his cum against her skin pushed me over the
edge."

Jeff said, "Ooh, that does sound hot."  He pumped faster into Betty.

Betty took her mouth off my cock long enough to say, "I like the idea
too.  I wonder if she'd like to join us sometime."

I groaned and twisted, thrusting into Betty's mouth as she went back to
sucking me.  "Possibly.  There's more."

Joan asked, "More?"

"Well, as I was getting ready to leave, before I dressed, Emily snagged
me and told me she'd like me to tit-fuck her someday."

Joan's voice had a smile in it.  "Can I watch?"

"Not entirely..uh!..up to me, y'know."  Betty's ministrations, combined
with the erotic charge of remembering the evening, were having their
effect on me.

"I know.  But carry on."

"Not much on to carry.  As we left, I explained our situation a little.
She seemed to want some time to get used to the idea; for someone
working at Josephson, she seems remarkably...un-mind-stretched.  But
she did say she'd been there only a few months.  I'm to call her
tomorrow evening, at any rate."

"I hope she does want to join us."  Joan then leaned over and started
licking my nipple while feeding me her own.  I decided I was basically
done with the story, so my mouth could be put to better use, and
started licking and sucking eagerly.

I couldn't see any longer, but the pace of Betty's attentions to my
cock started speeding up, indicating she was getting close to her own
orgasm.  Then Joan switched to my other nipple and I surprised myself.
I hadn't been expecting to cum after cumming twice earlier, but I found
myself spurting a third time, into Betty's mouth, shuddering under the
attentions I was receiving.  I suspect I didn't actually have much to
spurt, but it sure felt good.

As my orgasm wound down, Betty was still sucking for oil, even though I
was rapidly softening in her mouth.  I reached for Joan's crotch and
started finger-fucking her gently as I used my other hand on the nipple
I wasn't sucking.  She stopped licking my tit and started humping her
cunt onto my hand; it took only a few minutes of this before she came
too.  Joan usually likes to keep going, saying that she's rarely
readier to be sexual than just after an orgasm, so I kept on, and,
indeed, she came again maybe a minute later.  Then she shakily rose
away from me and crossed over to cuddle Betty from behind, arms
reaching around to play with her boobs.  Betty started moaning and
panting enough that I had to remind myself that if she really wanted to
breathe through her mouth she could stop sucking me anytime, and it
took only a few more minutes before our combined ministrations got her
off.  She's so beautiful when cumming.  But then, so are Joan and Jeff.
And, for that matter, Emily too.  Come to think of it, I can't think of
anyone I've seen cum who hasn't looked gorgeous at the time.

Maybe I just like sex.

As Betty wound down, Jeff pulled out of her and curled up on the futon
in front of her, head pillowed on my thigh.  He kissed the base of my
cock as he lay down and cuddled Betty close.  I petted Joan's back and
shoulders fondly, relaxing in the afterglow sex with them always
induces in me.

----------------