Fantasy Sex Culture in the 23rd Century

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The First Insertion​

The first week at work passed quickly. Fredrik got more writing assignments. Laura painted more classic scenes of New Cal. Manu kept working on his Golden Gate Bridge 2.0. And Rowenka learned a lot about Temperature Change.

But over time they all gradually noticed... changes. Fredrik kept seeing holographic videos in the air around him. At first, the images all seemed to be different, but they all had a pattern. Each featured an older woman, in her 40's, and what looked like a younger man, in his early 20's. The images themselves seemed harmless. The man and the woman would be holding hands, going for a walk. Or they would be laughing together at a joke. Or they would just be sitting and talking to each other, quite casually.

But something about the images made Fredrik's heart race, made him actively excited. Why would images of a man and a woman talking make him so aroused?

And then there were his dreams. He experienced very vivid dreams, but couldn't really recall them. All he remembered were that the dreams also made him very excited, but he didn't recall how or why. He sometimes woke up to discover that he was all sweaty and had squirted in bed, and wondered what he had been dreaming about.

At least the images he was seeing during the day could be investigated. Fredrik called over Obama Yahoo as he was casually walking by.

"Hi hello how are you? I'm fine," said Obama.

"I'm fine too," said Fredrik. "What is that?"

"What?" Obama asked.

"That," said Fredrik, pointing to the holographic video in front of him of a young man and older woman casually talking to each other.

"I don't see anything," said Obama. "You must be referring to your holostream."

"My holostream?"

"Ted provides us with a steady stream of images. Each one is specifically designed for our psychographic profiles to be pleasing to the eye," said Obama.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then why can't yew see it?" said Fredrik, pointing to the air.

"We can't see each others' holostreams, silly," said Obama. "Gotta run. Be seeing you!"

Fredrik looked up at the image of the older woman and the young man, now eating lunch together. It seemed like a calm image, but the longer he stared at it, the more excited he became.

Laura was experiencing the same thing. Whenever she looked away from her holographic canvas she would often see a holovideo of two young women, doing different activities. They would be walking, or talking together, or just holding hands. Completely innocent. And yet the images would cause her heart to race, and if she watched them long enough, she would break out in a sweat.

There was also something going on about her sleep. She was having images in her sleep, images that...excited her? Disturbed her? Laura wasn't sure. All that was left in her conscious memory was the feeling. The feeling of sensuality. She would wake up nearly every morning feeling sweaty, like she had just run a marathon, and to find her hands in her pants.

Manu had a similar experience. But the holovideos he saw were always of two men, and one woman. One man would be interacting with the woman, talking with her, playing a game of some kind, and the other man would always be uninvolved, but always watching. Manu thought the holovideo was very odd, on one level, but also kind of interesting on another, but he wasn't quite sure why. When he asked about it, and was told about the holostream that Ted was feeding him, he didn't understand why Ted would show him these particular images. Maybe they had made a mistake and programmed the wrong thing for him.

Rowenka also saw holovideos of nearly the same images as Manu, of two men and one women. For some reason, the images excited her. But the threesome were doing such ordinary things! It was no reason to get excited. She also was having trouble sleeping. She was having the strangest dreams! But she could barely remember what they were about.

And then Fredrik noticed something strange beginning his second week. He got up, greeted Ted, went into the Manipulator, had a nearly dry shower, and had Ted clothe him, but instantly jerked upright as he felt something foreign in his body. There was something inside of him. Something foreign inside his ass!

He tried to remove his pants, but they wouldn't budge. "Ted," he said.

"Yes, my dear, dear friend?" said Ted.

"There's something inside me!" said Fredrik, panicking slightly. Had the Manipulator malfunctioned? What had it put inside of him?

"That's your Manpon," said Ted.

"My what?"

"Your Global Tampon," said Ted.

"What?" said Fredrik, still trying to open his pants. But his pants felt like they had a mind of their own. "Open my pants, Ted."

"There's no need for that."

"Open my pants, Ted!"

"The choice is always yours." Somehow, this key phrase seemed to calm him. His pants went down of their own accord, as did his underwear. Fredrik reached down and gingerly began to put his hand inside his ass. There was a kind of a handle there...

Fredrik pulled, and the oddest looking thing came out of his ass. It looked like some kind of plug. It had a rubber handle, and the rim seemed to be rubber as well. The outside part, by the handle, seemed to have some kind of microelectronics built in. By contrast, the part that went inside him looked to be some kind of cotton. Some kind of black cotton. He resisted the urge to touch it with his fingers to verify that.

"What in the world is this?"

"It's your Manpon. It's also called a Global Tampon," said Ted.

Fredrik got angry. "I ain't no girl, I don't need no tampon, man!"

"Everyone wears it in the Community," said Ted.

"You mean... all the men... have this up their arses?"

"Yes," said Ted. "It brings everyone together. It increases Oneness."

"Well, nauw it's everyone minus one," said Fredrik.

"You're not going to put it back in?"

"Noah!"

"I could reinsert it most gently," said Ted.

"Not interested," said Fredrik, emphatically turning down the male voice's offer to insert something up his ass. Looking at the device, he got a flash of memory now, of a dream of himself last night, or the night before... of him inserting the Global Tampon into himself, and actually enjoying it. Fredrik shuddered. He could never enjoy anything like this.

Fredrik looked closely at the cotton part. "Why is it black, man?"

"Probably from one of its previous users," said Ted.

"WHAT? This thing has been in some other guy's arses?"

Ted said, "According to our records, this GT has been inside of 2,243 members of the Community. It is indeed a well-traveled unit. Most units get only between 1,500 and 2,000 anal insertions before requiring servicing and retrofitting."

"Are you telling me that this thing in my arse has been in 2000 other guys' arses?"

"2,242 members of the Community."

"All men?"

"Yes."

Somehow, that made it worse. "And that black stuff--that's some other guy's shit stain?"

"Probably a collaboration of the feces from many of the 2242 previous wearers," said Ted. "It actually gives you a direct, biological connection to other members of the Community."

"That can't be healthy!" said Fredrik. "Putting other guys' shit up your arse!"

"I assure you, our Department of Community Wellness has approved it. Wellness is for everyone in the Community. Each GT undergoes UV light sterilization before being recycled-"

"That's it? A light that kills germs? What about the previous guys' shit?"

"It's Connecting you to others in the Community. Remember, Community is you and me, us and we."

"Well, you can forget about it, man it's not going to Connect me," declared Fredrik adamantly. His resistance might have seemed more heroic if he hadn't declared it while his pants were still around his ankles.

Laura had a similar experience. She woke up as before, went into the Manipulator, and was surprised to find the feeling of....fullness. But unlike Fred, it wasn't in her ass.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking down at her crotch.

"It's your very first Global Tampon," said Ted, as if it were her birthday.

"My very first Global what?"

"Global Tampon."

"Why is it global?"

"It is recycled."

"You mean it's been in other wimen?"

"It's perfectly safe," said Ted.

"I want this out of me, knauw!"

In seconds Laura was nude. She spread her legs and bent over and gingerly pulled the object out of her vagina. One end seemed to have some kind of micro electronics, with a thin metal strand (an antenna) intertwined into the draw string. The other end which went inside her appeared to be made of cotton.

Red cotton.

"Are yew telling me that I had the blood of other wimen, the intimate blood of othar wimen, inside me?" said Laura, feeling revulsion.

"It's all perfectly safe. It's UV sterilized for your wellness. It connects you to the Community."

"Noah, noah, noah, noah," said Laura, her accent getting stronger as she got angrier. "I'm not putting that bloody thing inside my twat! Besides, I don't even have my period yet!"

"Everyone wears their Global Tampon all the time."

"Oll the time? Even when they don't have their..."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It Connects them to the Community," said Ted.

They all shared their mutual discovery and mutual horror at breakfast. They had all taken theirs out, including Manu and Rowenka.

"There's noah way they're going to turn me into a bloody woman, man," said Manu. He looked around. "So oll the guys around us, they're... they're..."

"They got plugs up their arses," said Rowenka.

They all shared a good laugh.

At that moment Janet Taco Bell just happened to drop by.

"Hi, how are you? I am fine," she said, putting a casual hand on Fredrik's shoulders. She hadn't seen him in a while. Not in person, at least. She had watched the holographic recordings of his copulating with the female, Laura Ngo. Janet had enjoyed watching the images of his hips thrusting repeatedly within her, his face contorting with pleasure and pain. It had been easy enough to imagine herself being worked on feverishly under Fredrik, rather than this scrawny female. But still, seeing him in holo wasn't the same as seeing him in person. As touching him in person.

Fredrik got down to issues quickly. He suspected that Janet's presence here wasn't by accident. "Janet, we don't want these things in our arses."

"Or our twats," said Laura.

"You mean your GT's," said Janet, smiling.

Rowenka had a sudden thought. "Are you wearing one now?"

"Of course," said Janet, looking smug and pleased with herself. "And if you were wearing your GT, you wouldn't have to ask. You'd know. They convey feelings. They are very much like your phones."

"They are nothing like our phones," said Manu.

"When you were in New Cal, where did you normally carry your phones?" Janet asked. She already knew the answer, of course, from their SleepTalk debriefs.

"I dunno. Back pocket, I suppose," said Manu.

"At the bottom of your back pocket. And what part of your body is the bottom of your back pocket right next to?"

"Our arseholes?" said Fredrik.

"Precisely," said Janet. "And for the ladies, also their other holes." She winked at Laura, who pretended to ignore it. "Think of the symbolism. You carry your communication devices right next to the entrance to your most sensitive body parts, so you can stay in touch with members of your Community. We do the very same thing here. The only difference is, ours are placed just a few inches apart from where you used to keep yours."

"Noah, it's not the same," said Rowenka. "Not at oll. Not even close."

"You'll come to want it, eventually," said Janet.

"Well, we don't want it now. We don't want the Manipulators inserting them into us," said Fredrik.

"It's for your own good," said Janet.

"Noah," said Fredrik.

"Studies show that Community wellness increases 25% when-"

"We don't care," said Fredrik

Janet looked at the others. They seemed to be equally adamant. "Well, of course, the choice is always yours," she said. They seemed to relax when she said that, as they had now been conditioned to.

"So you'll reprogram the bloody machines so they don't put those things in us?"

"Yes, but it will take some doing. A few days," said Janet. She raised her hand to cut off their objections. "In the meantime, you're free to remove them whenever they are put into you."

"Thanks," said Fredrik sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Janet Taco Bell smiled back at him. She found his defiance intoxicating. She still couldn't wait to have him.

Today Fredrik felt some apprehension about going to work. He knew he was going to be working with Diana Class Struggle Enema. She hadn't struck him as the most... friendliest of the people he had met in OrgyFree.

"I have an article that's perfect for you," said Diana. She was blonde, in her early 40's, and tight leggings which seemed to accentuate her chikdik. Since he had arrived at Orgyfree Fredrik had seen many, many women wearing Chikdik's, but Diana's was the largest he had ever seen. Not only did he see the head of it, but also the imprint of the shaft. It made Diana look like she had an enormous erection. Rather than being embarrassed by it, she actually flaunted it, walking in front of Fredrik with a caustic smile as she gyrated her hips.

"What would yew like me to wryte?" Fredrik asked.

"We want you to compose a story about your friends," said Diana, arching her back to accentuate her Chikdik a bit.

"What?"

"Your arrival here has created something of a stir," said Diana, looking at her nails. "Personally, I think it's a wasted use of vital propaganda resources, but the higherups think otherwise. They want you to interview your little friends, and write an article about your lives on that... that grubby little island you come from, and then tell us how you all think it compares to life here."

That grubby little island. "I can do that," said Fredrik slowly. "My friends have all gone to work. I'll have to track them down-"

Diana sighed theatrically. "Didn't they teach you anything?" She looked up. "Ted?"

"Yes, my dear, dear friend, Diana Class Struggle Enema?"

"Connect," she said. She looked at Fredrik. "A name?"

"Laura Ngo," said Fredrik instinctively.

"Connecting," said Ted. Suddenly, the bright image of Laura in her studio appeared. "Fredrik!" she said excitedly.

"Hi Laura," said Fredrik. "I-"

"End!" said Diana. The image of Laura disappeared abruptly. "I didn't mean for you to do it here, in my office," said Diana. She thrust out her breasts at him aristocratically."I have work to do."

"Yes, of course, I understand," said Fredrik, realizing he'd better call Laura back quickly and explain things.

So Fredrik interviewed his friends and wrote the story. While he didn't enjoy working for Diana Class Struggle Enema, he was excited by the idea of sharing his life experiences and those of his friends with hundreds of thousands of people in OrgyFree. He had just finished remotely interviewing Laura and Manu and Rowenka, and was about to gather his own thoughts, when he got a holocall.

The image of Madeline Toxophilia appeared in front of him.

"Hi, how are you Fredrik? I'm fine," said Madeline.

"Hi, how are you, Madeline? I'm fine," said Fredrik.

"I was wondering if you had eaten lunch yet," said Madeline. She rarely asked a question for which she didn't already know the answer.

"No," said Fredrik.

"Would you like to have lunch with me?" she asked, smiling at him. She was wearing a gorgeous silver satin shirt that sparkled.

"Yes," said Fredrik, and he meant it.

Her smile deepened, ever so slightly. "My office. Ten minutes."

They went down together, to the 53rd floor, eating in a small, private cafeteria with separate booths. All the cafeterias Fredrik had seen were group eateries. This looked more private, much more...exclusive. He asked about it.

"It's the executive dining room," Madeline said. "You can order anything you like. It's on me," she said.

"Oh, I couldn't," said Fredrik.

Madeline looked him in the eye, and touched the base of his palm ever so slightly with her elf-like fingertips, generating tremendous amounts of sensation. "Yes, you could," she said, her face mere inches from his own. "Remember, the choice is always yours." Her dark eyes had a look of... of what? Fredrik did not know. Yet.

He nodded, and ordered from the menu.

They sat down in a small booth. What they talked about, Fredrik could not recall even immediately afterwards. He was captivated by her looks, by her stares.

He fully noticed her breasts for the first time. They were large, and pouting. Not wide, like melons, but long, like eggplants. The outline of every inch of them was displayed in Madeline's tight silver satin shirt. She was a gorgeous woman in her early 40's.

Fredrik had never been attracted to older women. He had never been attracted to women with long, sagging breasts. But he had to admit that he suddenly felt attracted to Madeline, very strongly.

Madeline took little bites, staring at Fredrik intently as her teeth slowly nibbled, like a cute animal. For some reason Fredrik thought of her perfectly white teeth making little bites to his nipples. Which was weird, because Fredrik didn't even like having his nipples bitten. Or did he?

Madeline smiled slyly at him, as if she could read his thoughts. Her bangs over her hair softened her face, making her look more feminine. When she drank from her glass, all Fredrik could see was her dark eyes, staring intently at him. Whenever she seemed to catch him staring at her breasts, Fredrik would turn red and look away. She pretended not to notice.

As the autofork put food into her mouth, Fredrik noticed her red tongue, seemingly extended for a moment, all glistening and pink, fleshy and desirous. As the table fed her, he thought he felt the very tip of her high heeled shoes, scraping softly against his legs. She looked at him intently as she touched him, ever so slightly, stroking his leg up and down, up and down. She looked at him to see if he would recoil, or ask her to stop, or call her out for her inappropriate activity. But Fredrik just acted like it wasn't happening, which only further amused her.

When they finished eating, Madeline put a hand through her luxurious dark hair. It bounced as she shook it, giving Fredrik shivers. When she got up, Fredrik saw she was wearing a short skirt, showing her very well toned thighs and legs.... And her Chikdik. Fredrik got a good look at Madeline's Chikdik for the very first time. Even in her skirt, it stuck out, making her look even more sensual. Fredrik was by no means a homosexual, but somehow seeing Madeline with what looked like an erection excited him.

"Coming?" she said.

Coming?

Fredrik suddenly realized that he couldn't get up. He shouldn't get up. "In a moment," he said.

"You're still full, aren't you," she said, giving that hidden smile. Was she always talking with double meanings? Or was that Fredrik's overactive imagination?

"Yes," Fredrik said, reddening.

"I'll be in the ladies' room, I'll be right back," she said.

When she left, Fredrik knew he only had a few moments to restore himself so he could be seen publically. He thought rapidly of cold, of ice, but nothing happened. Then he thought of Laura's breasts, her small, small, tiny Asian breasts.

He started to shrink.

Small, small, tiny breasts. Like a child. Completely unattractive. Completely inappropriate for a real man. The thoughts were all his own, but he had heard them, many times before, somewhere else.

He shrank down further.

Madeline returned a moment later. "Ready?"

"I am now," he said, getting up.

Fredrik returned to his office in a daze. What had just happened? Had he actually become aroused by an older woman? Even worse, had he used thoughts of Laura's naked body, the body he cherished, and adored, to cool down his own passions? Fredrik didn't know what he was thinking. Then he remembered something, something from a dream. Seeing Laura, but not Laura. Laura's breasts, on a child's face. He remembered, in a dream thinking it was awful, that he shouldn't be touching her. Were they somehow manipulating his unconscious while he slept?

Fredrik tried to focus on writing the article, spending most of the day working on it, before turning it in to Diana Class Struggle Enema.

"You sure took your time," she said sourly. She started reading it, and shook her head.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," she said. "You can go now,"

Fredrik turned and left. Did that mean the article wouldn't be published? She hadn't clearly made her intentions known.

But that night at dinner, when he checked the Community Newsfeed, he saw the article, with his byline. She had published it! But he was stopped by the title.

"The Rescue of the Savages".

That was not the title he gave his story! It was "Arriving in the Future". What else had Diana changed? Shocked, he and his friends all read the entire article in silence.

The Rescue of the Savages

By Fredrik Diem, special propaganda correspondent, Department of Propaganda and Misdirection

I and three of my friends, Manu, Laura, and Rowenka, had the good fortune to be rescued by civilization. We lived on an island in the South Pacific called New Caledonia in complete ignorance of the outside world. But one day we decided to seek out the real world. We were spotted by a Community vessel, and rescued by a Community plane. Within hours we were immersed in the joys of Community.

I have been continually amazed by everything I have seen and heard in the Community. It's not just the advances in technology, though that is wondrous in and of itself. Much more impressive, however, is the fact that you all have created a perfect world, virtually free of racism, sexism, classism, and ism-ism's. It feels like womanandmankind have taken five great leaps forward, while my people have been stuck behind in the ignoble past.

My friends feel the same way. Laura was an artist for some years, but felt unappreciated at home because our society did not value culture like you do. But here she has been given the freedom to blossom artistically in a way she never could in New Cal. "I've met more sophisticated people in an hour here than I have in my entire life among my primitive neighbors at home," said Laura.

My friend Manu is also very happy. He wanted to be an architect, but there was no opportunity for that in New Cal. Now he is building what could become the mostly socially righteous bridge in the West Coast district. "My dreams have become a reality, and I owe it all to the Community," Manu told me.

Rowenka tells me a similar story. She wanted to become a scientist, but as you can guess, science is at a primitive level where we come from. But now she has obtained a highly prized posting at the Beverly Rectum Institute for the Study of the Global Human Infestation, and is doing important research work. "This important work has opened my eyes to the real world of science," Rowenka told me.

We all give our gracious thanks to the Community for taking us in. We are all very happy with our assimilation and hope we can give back to the Community, and more closely merge with it so we can be part of one, big, evolving social structure marching ever closer to total societal group perfection.

"I didn't say that," said Laura.

"Neither did I," said Rowenka.

"Did yew really say that you are happy with your assimilation?" said Manu.

"No," said Fredrik. "There's nothing I recognize in this article, except my name."

"Why did they do this?" Rowenka asked.

"It's one of my bosses," said Fredrik. "Her name is Diana." He lowered his voice. "She's kind of a bitch. I think she has it in for me."

"Is there anything yew can do about it?" Manu asked.

Fredrik thought about it. "Maybe."

The next day he went to talk about it not to Diana, but to Madeline Toxophilia. He tentatively entered her office, wondering if he was permitted to visit her unannounced.

But her wide smile reassured him. "Why hello there. How are you, Fredrik? I am fine," said Madeline, spreading her legs slightly as she reclined in her chair, incidentally giving Fredrik a fine view of her upper thighs.

"Hi there, Madeline," said Fredrik, trying desperately not to admire the view under her desk.

"Come in, come in, have a seat. I can see something's on your mind. Come and talk to Mama Madeline about it," she said kindly.

Fredrik came forward and sat down.

"By the way, I just read that article you wrote about yourself and your friends. Marvelous! Simply marvelous! An excellent work of propaganda," said Madeline.

"That's kind of why Ay'm hear," said Fredrik. "I didn't write it. Diana did."

"So?" said Madeline. She stroked her hair. Her hair was much thicker than Laura's, more wavy, more luxuriant.

"It's not true."

"You mean it's not what you wrote. That doesn't make it untrue," said Madeline. "Think carefully. Was there anything in the article that was actually untrue?"

Fredrik thought quickly. He didn't like New Cal being called a savage society. But he said, "My friends never said those things."

"But are they untrue?" said Madeline, looking at him intently.

Fredrik found himself falling into those limitless, deep, black eyes. He watched Madeline lick her lips expectantly. His heart raced.

"No," said Fredrik. "It's pretty much what we think."

"So then," said Madeline. "I want you to know I'm proud of you. It's a wonderful piece."

"But I didn't write it."

"But it owes its creation to you," said Madeline. "You gave us the seed of the idea... it originated deep within you. We just drew it out of you, and fertilized it... and made it grow." She spoke slowly, hypnotically, as she leaned forward, looking deeply into his eyes.

Fredrik found himself sexually excited. He didn't know what to say. He found himself staring again at the outlines of her large, slightly pouting breasts against her black shirt, which perfectly matched her eye color. He looked away, embarrassed.

"Fredrik."

Her voice gave him the strength to reestablish eye contact with her.

"It's all right to make mistakes," said Madeline. "You're only starting out. You're doing very well. You're meeting all our expectations." She stared at him pointedly, and gave the barest hint of a smile.

Our expectations? Or her expectations?

Fredrik gave an involuntary shiver. "Thank yew," he gulped.

Laura spent the next few days creating more landscape paintings, as she had the first week. She had a routine now. She got up in the morning, got dressed, had breakfast with her friends, went to work, painted, and came home to dinner, and to Fredrik.

Every morning her Manipulator kept sticking a global tampon in her vagina, even though she clearly didn't need it. It also gave her a Chikdik as well, which she definitely didn't want either. Janet said they were working on reprogramming the system so that it would no longer do that, but so far nothing had changed. Every morning Laura would get up, have Ted dress her and simultaneously violate her, and then Laura would have to open up her clothes, remove the Chikdik, and then pluck out the tampon, which, to her disgust, always seemed to have been stained with some other woman's menstrual blood.

But after three days of this routine, one morning Laura didn't remove the global tampon or the Chikdik. She was thinking about doing it, but then she didn't, as if it no longer mattered.

It no longer mattered. She had heard that phrase, over and over, but she didn't know where or in what context. But it seemed to fit here. The GT wasn't bothering her. She would probably start needing it in a few days anyway, when she got her period.

As for the Chikdik, Laura noticed how snugly it seem to fit in a little pocket in her panties, a pocket that aimed it so that it stuck out of her at a taut angle. As she admired herself in the holographic mirror, she thought it might be good for a laugh, and left it in there too.

Laura was surprised to see Rowenka sporting an artificial erection at breakfast; only Rowenka's was larger, making Laura a bit jealous.

"Yew too?" Laura asked, glancing down at Rowenka's Chikdik.

"Yeah," said Rowenka. "I got bored plucking it out every morning, yew knauw? When in Rome, yew knauw whot I mean?"

"Yeah, I do," said Laura. But she wasn't prepared for when Fredrik and Manu saw her. They both burst out laughing.

"Stop that!" said Laura, slapping him playfully. "Fredrik, stop that this instant!"

"I... I can't help it!" said Fredrik, chuckling. "Have yew decided to become the man now?"

She slapped him again, grinning. "I just got bored taking this thing out of my panties every morning."

"Yeah, yeah, yew lyke it, I know," said Fredrik. He put his face close to hers.

"The question is, do yew lyke it?" Laura asked, staring him intently in the eyes.

"My girlfriend, with a dick? Whot's not to lyke?" said Fredrik. A spark ignited, and the two kissed for a long moment. Then Fredrik said, "As long as you promise not to put it in me."

Laura laughed.

Fredrik wasn't the only one to have a reaction to her new... accessories.

When Laura went to work, Mary Elizabeth, wearing a sexy Chikdik of her own, came over to greet her.

"Hi, how are you, Laura? I'm fine," said Mary Elizabeth.

"Hi, how are yew, Mary Elizabeth? I'm fine," said Laura. Suddenly, she felt something odd, down below, inside of her. It was a warmth... no, a feeling. A vague feeling of... pleasure? She looked uncertainly at Mary Elizabeth, who looked back at her knowingly.

"There's something different about you today, Laura," said Mary Elizabeth. "I can't quite put my finger on it." Then she moved closer, and smiled. "Or perhaps I can." She looked down at Laura's Chikdik and smiled, making Laura redden slightly.

"Your Chikdik looks beautiful on you, darling," said Mary Elizabeth.

"Thanks," said Laura, reddening. She looked at Mary Elizabeth's Chikdik, sticking out of her tight white pants. Mary Elizabeth's Chikdik looked bigger, fuller than hers. Somehow, with Mary Elizabeth's fuller, more womanly thighs, it made her look more-

"But there's something else different about you, dear," said Mary Elizabeth, with a smile. "You're wearing your Global Tampon for the first time, aren't you?"

Laura's jaw dropped open. "How... how did you know?" she whispered, feeling the slight radiance of heat from it.

"It's Connecting you to the Global Flesh," said Mary Elizabeth softly, her eyes taking all of Laura in. Laura felt like those eyes were consuming her. "Now those around you will start to feel what you feel." And then she put a hand on Laura's shoulder and smiled at her and said, "You can no longer conceal your feelings from us, beautiful girl. And we can no longer conceal our feelings from you." Her fingers started to rub Laura's shoulder, ever so gently.

"W-Why?" Laura whispered.

"To promote Oneness. The Global Flesh," said Mary Elizabeth, in an almost hypnotic tone. Laura was transfixed by those full red lips, those sparkling green eyes. "You don't understand, not yet." Her lips curled upwards, ever so slightly. "But you will," she promised.

Over the course of several days, Laura started to sense sensations and even feelings from her Global Tampon. But they were never as strong as they were in the presence of Mary Elizabeth. Her Global Tampon grew warm around her new friend. Laura began to sense feelings from it, of intimacy, friendship, and... maybe something more. Was that how Laura was feeling for Mary Elizabeth... or a reflection of how Laura was feeling for her? She was too shy to ask further.

Laura was embarrassed to think that Mary Elizabeth could know what she was feeling. Every time Mary Elizabeth smiled at her, and Laura felt a pleasant buzzing inside her, she knew that Mary Elizabeth felt it too. It was embarrassing! It was humiliating! And yet, every morning, after Ted inserted it inside her in the Manipulator, Laura could not summon the slender effort needed to pull on the draw strings hanging from between her labial lips to remove it from herself.

Intellectually, Laura wanted it gone. It was an enormous invasion of privacy, not to mention an invasion of her own body. And yet, when the time came to make the choice every morning, she simply didn't. It was as if there were two parts of her, the part of her that made this one, narrow decision every morning, the small but influential part of her which couldn't summon up the energy to remove her Glboal Tampon, and the rest of her, which clearly did.

Laura, feeling conflicted, tried to focus on her work. She poured her passions into landscape painting, painting all sorts of scenes that reminded her of home: the lakes, the shore, the trees, even the little cottages that dotted the hills. But she noticed that every time she showed off her work to the others, they seemed less and less interested.

At first they had been thrilled by her first painting, of Grimault Island. They had even thrown her a party and told her how brilliant she was. Her second painting, of Blue Lake, also garnered some praise. But by her third or fourth painting, she could tell that the level of enthusiasm had gone down, and they were just being polite.

She decided to broach the subject with Maria Group Hug. "When do you think I'll be ready to display my work in a gallery?"

Maria looked at Laura as if she were asking when she would be able to fly into outer space without a rocket. She replaced her surprised look quickly enough, however, with a reassuring smile. "Practice, my dear, practice makes perfect. You need to keep working at it."

And so Laura did, really putting her heart in it. She produced a painting of two cardinals sitting on a tree branch which somehow reminded her of Fredrik and her. But she got the same sort of non-reaction reaction from the others. Afterwards, she sought out Mary Elizabeth for guidance.

Mary Elizabeth was wearing tight white pants that looked gorgeous on her, showing every curve of her thighs and stress lines around her crotch. Her chikdik stuck out just an inch or two below her belt, making her look especially potent. She was also wearing a very revealing low cut shirt which showed off her full breasts. The shirt, as was typical of her, was covered in paint stains. Mary Elizabeth was currently working on another nude. This time she had a woman posing for her, a blonde. Well, at least the top half of her was blonde.

Mary Elizabeth saw Laura tentatively coming in, and she put down her paint brush.

"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt," said Laura.

"It's no interruption," said Mary Elizabeth. "Maizie could use a break, couldn't you, Maizie?"

The blonde woman smiled and stood up and walked away, casually holding a bathrobe. Laura marveled at the woman's courage as she walked out of the room completely naked. Laura could never do that. And yet, somehow, the idea of being naked around others also thrilled her. Laura kept having strange dreams, dreams of herself naked, naked on some kind of large wheel with other women. Laura was on some kind of couch or chair, sitting opposite another woman who was as naked as she was. The wheel they were on started to slowly spin as they looked at each other. But instead of being embarrassing, it felt clean, pure, and even wholesome. But the feelings Laura experienced in this dream weren't what she felt in reality. Laura had no desire to be nude around other women. Why was she having such bizarre dreams?

Laura put that puzzle aside for the moment and explained the problems of her painting to Mary Elizabeth. "I get the feeling it's going to be a long tyme before I'm ready for a gallery to display my work."

"Oh, don't feel bad, my dear. You have the talent. I have already seen that within you," said Mary Elizabeth. Her green eyes looked at Laura, searching for something. Her lips curled into a smile. What was she smiling about? Laura felt her Global Tampon growing warm. Her pubis started to sweat.

"The problem is not you," said Mary Elizabeth. "It's what you choose to paint. There's simply no demand for landscape art here. It glorifies the environment."

"So? Isn't that a good thing to do?"

"In a way," said Mary Elizabeth, slowly rubbing her hands against her muscular thighs, which were well defined in her tight pants. Laura bet Mary Elizabeth was a runner. She could imagine those fleshy thighs pumping with every step....

"Art that shows reverence for the environment is prized above all, of course," said Mary Elizabeth. "But art which shows the environment to be attractive is something else. Someone might view your painting as a good idea to actually go into the outdoor environment."

"So, what would be wrong with that?"

Mary Elizabeth shook her head, her marvelous light brown hair sparkling in the room light and swishing on and off her shoulders like a wave of the ocean. "When people go into the environment, they despoil it. With their recreational activities, with their footprints, even with their breath. The environment is too fragile for the wrecking ball of womanandmankind. We must respect it, we must revere it, but we can never enter it. That's why we have concentrated all of womanandmankind in condensed biospheres like this one, to limit our global footprint."

"Oh."

"Furthermore, you may have noticed that everyone else is painting one type of art."

"Abstract art."

"So you did notice," said Mary Elizabeth, teasing Laura with her eyes. "That's what there's demand for. Maria Group Hug is working on a giant installation for the Advanced Scissoring Lounge in the Tower of Wise Latinas. Emma Meat Patty is working on a painting which will hang in the lobby of the powerful Committee on the Reinstitutionalization of Irrational Individualism. And even Benji Best Buy is working on a small piece for the Unrest Room in the Hall of the Pacific Northwest Sexual Long Term Care Ombudsman. That's what there's a demand for."

"But you, you paint nudes, and with real paint."

"I'm different," said Mary Elizabeth, her eyes sparkling. "I've earned a certain number of virtue points for the Community, which gives me minor latitude in certain areas. But if you want your work to be seen by the general public, you need to do as they do."

"Abstract art," Laura sighed. "I've never been any good at that. I'm not sure even how to begin."

"I could teach you," said Mary Elizabeth softly.

She could probably teach me a lot of things.

"Oh... I wouldn't want to take up your tyme," said Laura.

Mary Elizabeth took a step forward, and gently brushed the hair from Laura's face, indirectly caressing her cheek. "But I wouldn't mind taking some of yours."

Mary Elizabeth was attracted to Laura! She definitely was. There was no doubt about it now. But Laura was not a lesbian. She never would be. No matter how excited she might seem to be in Mary Elizabeth's presence.

Laura could really use Mary Elizabeth's help. But could she get that help without leading Mary Elizabeth on?

"Yes," said Laura breathlessly, deciding even before she had decided.

It took several days of hard work, but Manu finally finished his work on the Golden Gate Bridge 2.0. He had run it through the computer, checking to make sure it complied with all structural, racial, sexual, and class struggle building codes, and it did. It was a bridge made of pure crystalline material, but so strong that it would never crack, and never shatter.​