This is a re-post of The Happy Hacking Wizards Guild part one, in case you missed it the first time. Enjoy! :)
The Happy Hacking Wizards Guild
first part
Robert Park wasn't your average net geek. He actually did have a life outside the virtual realm, the so called 'real world' where real people did real things and earned real money, so his dad would say.
Not that you couldn't make a living helping to create and maintain virtual communities, goodness knows. Entertainment and computer companies paid handsomely for anyone adept at programming and designing newer and more exciting virtual contsructs. You could get away with anything. It made amusement parks look like a Sunday picnic.
Not that Rob was any sort of programmer. He just had a good imagination. He learned three dimensional arts in college, as well as classic film production. That and his natural talent made him rather respected in the virtual entertainment industry, not to mention paid for all his toys.
But today he was bored, and he wasn't in the mood to design yet another simulator, or a game, or build another city. He felt like shooting pool with his friend Chris. He called him up on the phone. Instead of a live image he got a recorded video of his friend, smiling as always.
"Hi there kids! I can't come to the phone right now, obviously. But if you leave your name and address and a message I'll get back to you just as soon as I want to. Beep!"
Rob never did congregate with so called normal people.
"Chris! Get your butt down here so we can shoot some pool at the Space Bar! See ya."
Well, no telling when he'd get down here, so he figured he might as well kill the time in VR. After all trendy people never read books when they can live out the adventure, and he didn't want to be thought of as uncool, right? Right.
He went down into his basement. 'The dungeon' as he liked to call it. That's where he kept most of his computing and VR equipment, most notably the sensory deprivation chamber and neural interface. His was state of the art. The only way to fly. The proceedure for jacking yourself into any one of the nets was more complex than prepping up for ocean diving, or a space walk, and he would know, he'd done both. Here, you had to get into a special suit, which plugged every body cavity and felt like a torture device. Of course you didn't feel a thing once you climbed into the chamber and closed the hatch. You'd lose all sensation as the neural interface fell over your head, and you woke up suddenly in a brand new world.
It was all old hat for Rob, though. He'd done this millions of times. You have to when your job is making sure a new virtual building is aestetically pleasing, or making sure any simulator is running right. Here he was, twenty four years old and already sitting pretty making things that don't exist, except as huge data constructs in a mainframe somewhere. All he had to do was make sure his imagery was hip and now. Appeal to the masses and watch the dough come rolling in. He was set!
He woke up in his virtual home, as always. Everyone had a default place to be, especially when you were disconnected. For him, it was his bed. He got up, still fully clothed. Oh well, he didn't come for realism anyway. He decided to pull out his little teleporter and parouse the menu of destinations. One name cought his eye; 'The Grand Dragon's Tavern'. Sounded like a place to see. He pressed the button and instantly he was zapped there.
As virtual bars go, The Grand Dragon's Tavern was not exceptional. Most of them try to outdo the others by adding something different. This one was staffed by actual dragons. Not a very original concept, to say the least. Still, the drink there was good. Of course they could always cheat and hack the sensory code so that anyone who drank their swill would taste the best thing since sex. Such is life in the virtual city.
He sat there for a while, deciding to people watch. Well, to be more accurate, creature watch. In a place where you could literally be whatever you wanted, people wasted no time in creating new identites for themselves. Some were pleasant, some comical and others downright creepy. Though most were human or superhuman, those were usually the boring ones. You always got some Hollywood monster and mythical Greek critters were always a standby.
He had a thing for wolves.
People who played their alternate selves as wolves, be they werewolves, or just anthropomorphic, or even a cartoon wolf, were just downright cool. There was some inate elitism about them. As if they knew they were better than anyone around them. He never created his virtual persona as lupine though. Having to do your work in VR usually meant remaining strictly homo sapians. Quite a bummer. Still, it was the easiest thing. Some people would go so far as to emulate nervous and endocrine systems for their virtual bodies. You could actually feel what it was like; really like. The computer would be as accurate as you wanted it to be. That was out of his league however. To program things like that meant intimate knowledge of both computers and people. He wasn't about to go to school again, much less medical school.
Alas there were no wolves in this bar today. He was about to leave when a drop dead gorgeous dark haired coyote woman sauntered into the bar. Not a wolf, but by golly she'll do. He smiled at her and she smiled back. He offered her a drink and she sat by him.
"You're Rob Park aren't you? I read about you in Time."
Rob smiled. "Well all I do is help design simulators. What's your name?"
The coyote woman smiled as her tail swayed slowly back and forth. "Crystal."
"Well Crystal it's a pleasure to meet you!" he winked.
Now Rob never did take a virtual encounter seriously, unless he knew exactly who it was he was interacting with. Crystal was no exception. He had no idea who she really was. Still, what's the worse that could happen? After all there's no such thing as death in virtual reality, so nothing was really a threat, even a harmless flirtation with a coyote woman.
They talked for a while and got to know each other a little more. Rob found out Crystal was thirty-five years old, and had been known online as Crystal for fifteen years. That would put her ten years before the first fully interactive networks, back in the days of the old internet. She was definately an old fogie, or at least her player was. For thirty-five, Crystal looked more like his own age, more or less --she's a coyote after all--. Still, Rob got the feeling Crystal was hiding something. That was usually the case. The weirder someone was virtually, the more that usually indicated they were hiding. Not that they really had something to hide, but more often than not preferred to remain anonymous player wise. Crystal left the Grand Dragon's Tavern the same way she came in, a stranger. Such is life in the virtual city.
He decided to wander himself. The dragon bar was starting to bore him. Outside the bar he popped open a virtual window to call Chris again. He wasn't home so he left another message and closed the window. He checked his surroundings. It seemed to be a rather chaotic part of town, with lots of mismatched architecture and styles. What else was new? Glancing upward he saw someone skywriting in an old biplane. He couldn't make it out since it was upside down. Usually they're adverts though this one looked like just a bunch of letters. Curious, he thought. But not enough to sustain his interest.
He eventually found himself in an apparently abandoned old hotel. There weren't very many people in this part of town. He figured he must be in a European database, where it was nighttime, and so most everyone would be asleep. He decided to explore.
The hotel lobby was deserted. It didn't look like anyone had ever been there, though it looked old enough. The fountains in the lobby were still running though that didn't mean anything. Someone just left the program running. He wandered past the lobby into a hallway. There was nothing very special here, save for a row of elevators. Picking one, he pushed for 'up' and waited for a car. It was very quiet. In fact nothing in this building seemed to make much noise. Why was it here? He took the elevator to the top floor. Might as well explore from the top down while waiting for Chris to arrive. It didn't take very long for the elevator to reach its destination and drop him off onto yet another hallway.
He wandered down the dim hallway. It was very mysterious. Row after row of closed doors. The hallway seemed endless. Indeed in VR such a hallway could go on for miles and miles, perhaps even closing in on itself to become an infinitely long hallway. He tried a few of the doors but they were all locked. He listened for a while; the hallway was silent save for a very distant moaning. He couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. That was very strange. But, what did he have to lose?
He kept going forward, trying a door occasionally to see if one would open. He decided to conjur a light to illuminate each door as he passed it to read whatever was on it. He passed by this one door that was different from the rest. The name on the plaque on the door read 'Missy' but there was nothing else he could find that was special. He tried the door, and it opened.
"Hello? Anybody home?"
There was no answer. He opened the door all the way, and it creaked as he did so. There wasn't much light inside. It was a small art deco apartment, with the glaring exception of not having any windows. One small lamp was on. He wandered in farther to investigate further. This was really strange. Usually you could tell who built what in VR since everyone was so proud of what they constructed, but here it was as if the hotel and this room were made by no one, or made themselves. It's possible these rooms were built, never finished and then forgotten. As he looked around he saw that the doors to the other rooms were labeled. One was marked 'Missy's Kitchen', and the another was marked 'Balcony'. He decided to enter the door marked 'Bedroom'. Who knows? There might be a long forgotten character in there, or even a player, though they'd probably be as in the dark as he was right now, so to speak.
He opened the bedroom door and crept in. It was even darker than the living room, save for a single bright light cast over a very large bed with satin sheets. The light came from apparently nowhere, as over the bed was a large mirror. Peering at the bed he saw a note left right in the center. He couldn't read it from where he was so he crept closer and closer until he was at the bed's edge. He could see that it was folded in half, and had 'Read Me' written on its outside.
Well, curiousity got the best of him, and after all, no guts, no glory. He climbed onto the bed and to the center where the note was. He picked it up and unfolded it, and read what it said.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE LUCKY RECIPIANT OF OUR LATEST GREATEST CURSE! BY OPENING THIS NOTE LIKE YOU JUST DID, A NEAT SPELL WAS JUST CAST OVER YOU. WE THINK YOU'LL JUST LOVE IT! HAVE FUN AND BE HAPPY. WE -KNOW- YOU WILL BE. SIGNED: THE HAPPY HACKING WIZARDS GUILD.
He crumpled up the note and threw it accross the room. What kind of 'spell' were they talking about anyway? And who was the Happy Hacking Wizards Guild? They must be a new group since he didn't recall ever seeing them listed anywhere before on the nets. He wasn't one for that sword and sorcery stuff anyway so figured he might as well quit now. He willed his session to terminate and bring him back to an RL conscious state...
But nothing happened.
He panicked. He tried again, this time invoking the menu and selecting 'QUIT' manually...
But nothing happened.
"Oh shit," he muttered to himself. He got up to run for the door, and to search for someone who could help him. Maybe if he...
But he didn't get up. In fact he couldn't move his arms or legs! He was stuck in a sitting position on that bed! He was still able to look around, thankfully, but the rest of the room was pretty dark. He couldn't see much.
Suddenly he felt a tightness in his chest. It was exploding! No wait, it was growing out? This didn't make sense. Suddenly there was a magical 'poof!' accentuated by a puff of purple and pink smoke, that smelled very perfumy. She looked down at herself. That's what had happened. Something made her breasts grow larger. She tossed her long blonde hair back to get it out of her eyes. Who the heck was doing this to....
Her??? Wait a minute. He was a he, not a she. Someone was starting play with his mind as well as his body. Not only could she not move her arms and legs, but now she was turning into a drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bombshell. Or at least she always liked to think of herself that way.
She shook her head at that last thought. "Uuugh, stop that!" But that made it even worse. She could hear her sexy perky voice that went along with her sexy perky body. She felt brand new, and just a little playful. Ugh! Who was doing this to him, or her... whatever!
She looked up at the overhead mirror. Ghods! What a gorgeous babe she was! She smiled and winked to herself. That part of her mind that was still male was getting turned on. She wondered if...
She didn't wonder long. Her hands started moving on their own accord. She tried to stop herself but it was no use. It was like someone or something else had control of them. Her legs too, it seemed. She sat up, her legs partially spread apart. Her hands slowly ran accross her body, feeling every feminine curve. She was getting excited.
She panicked again though, as her hands wandered over her new body. Who the heck was doing this??? She tried to stop herself. She tried very hard to make her arms do what she wanted to, but all they did was start to take her clothes off. Clothes that didn't fit now because they weren't tailored for drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bombshells.
It was very seductive, the way her hands removed her clothing, a piece at a time. Her legs her very obliging. Whatever controlled her arms also controlled her legs too. Her hips seemed to be a grey area though. She could move her hips unless she was being overridden by her legs. What a silly thought. She can't move unless her legs say so!
Wait just a moment though! She tried to focus on what was happening to her. Someone locked her into VR and is playing with her! She had to find a way out.
Try as she might, she just couldn't move by her own will. Not much anyway. She could speak and turn her head and move her torso some but without her arms and legs she was going nowhere. She felt herself get up partially to remove what was left of her clothing. She sat there completely naked now. She was going to look up at the mirror to see her new naked self but that turned out to be unneccesary, her arms and legs moved to make her lie down on the soft bed.
She finnally was able to get a good look at herself. She was indeed a drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bombshell. If it wasn't herself that she was looking at she might be even more turned on.
It appeared though she was going to be more turned on, however. Her hands started wandering over her breasts. She couldn't help herself. The 'spell' that was cast over her wasn't going to let go of her until it was finished. Her legs relaxed in a spread out position, exposing her newly accquired anatomy. She willed for her legs to close and her hands to stop but to no avail. Inside her mind there was a struggle. A struggle to try and stop what she was doing to herself, or rather what someone was making her do to herself, or to just relax and let it happen. Her mind was wandering between he and she. Something the so called spell was doing she figured. She had to admit, she'd always been curious what it was like for a female to orgasm. He'd never tried it because of the stories he heard about how it changed some men, but now it seemed like she was going to know weather he wanted to or not. Someone was playing a game with him, or her, or whatever.
Her hands gently caressed her breasts, and eventually her fingers danced over her nipples. Her hands somehow knew exactly how to get her worked up and now that's exactly what she was doing to herself, and she had no control! Her fingers squeezed and caressed her hardening nipples. She let out a gasp and sat up, arching her back in the process. Well, at least she had a little control over her hips. They moved by her own reaction to such a deliciously pleasurable sensation. Never had she thought it would be like this. It felt so good, to feel her own hands on her own body, playing with her nipples as if her hands were not her own but that of lover; a lover who knew every intimate detail about what drove her to the edge of ecstacy. For a moment she did not fight it, but just allowed the wonderful sensations to ride through her, mind body and soul.
She could feel herself becomming more warm and wet between her legs. This was new to her too. Being a guy in real life didn't prepare her for any of this, and it was all she could do to look around her briefly to see who might be doing this to her, or even how. She glanced upward to see herself in the ceiling mirror. There was a drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bombshell, naked and sprawled out on a giant bed, with her hands fondling her breasts. Hearing herself moan and feeling herself contort with pleasure, it turned what was still male within her completely on. She gazed heavily at her own image for a long while, and in that moment forgot it was someone or something else that was making her play with herself, when she felt one of her hands creeping downward to between her legs.
"Ugh... oh, god! What..."
It was all she could utter between the moanings. Part of her came back to her senses, that someone had 'cast a spell' on her to make her masterbate, and she tried to pull her hand back. It was no use. Whatever had control of her new virtual body was calling the shots now, and was apparantly determined that she know what it's like to come as a female. As her fingers gently massaged her mound her hips started to sway and she moaned deeper. Slowly she started to finger herself; her fingers greeted by her warm and slick wet sex. She started to pant. Whatever this damn thing was that was making her do this made sure she had just enough control to be able to react naturally, damn whatever it was.
And reacting she was! Her right hand still playing with her nipples, her left hand's fingers pushed in and out of her sex. She started to spasm, and writhed completely out of control. That was the whole idea perhaps. She was out of control. Her arms and legs were out of her control, and were made to throw the rest of her out of control. Faster her hands went, and more intense came the waves of pleasure. Finnally she couldn't take anymore. Those waves of pleasure came crashing down now. Her fingers rubbed inside her so masterfully they kept her on a sexual high forever, or that's how it seemed to her. Her mind was focused on nothing but her own orgasm. She howled and screamed, writhing in her induced feelings. As her fingers pushed deeper and then out pulled out again, and again she kept screaming for more. She buckled and twisted, her own hands loving her into a climactic frenzy. Her legs finnally threw themselves upward and outward as all at once it reached a creshendo of intense pleasure, she wondered if she wouldn't pass out from such an overload. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. Her legs remained relaxed and open for a while after she came, as did her hands remained softly rubbing her breasts and her sex before she felt another sort of release. Whatever took control of her arms and legs was gone now. It had made her come, and made her come like she had never come before.
It took her a while to regain her composure. She stood back up and stumbled around. She was a mess alright, but what a wonderful mess it was! Part of her was savoring the episode she had just had. But wait a minute. How could she... no wait, how could -he- feel that way? Someone had made him turn into a she and then forced masterbation. And he was loving it? He felt his body. It was still female. He panicked, and tried to search the room for something. Anything that might help him, or her, or whatever! Suddenly there was knock on the door. He looked down. Damn, he was still a drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bombshell, and naked to boot! He didn't know what to do. Why can't they just go away?
"Ahem. Who is it??," he sang in his new girlish voice. It made him wince.
"It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink!"
It was his friend Chris' voice. Thank god!
"Oh it's you. Yeah, come in!"
He quickly grabbed a sheet from the bed to cover his female body, and then opened the door. Chris strolled in, smirking as he gazed at his friend's predicament.
"Hey you look cute, Rob."
"Hey shut up! Uh, hey wait a minute! How the hell do you know it's me anyway?"
Chris grinned. "'Cause you're a player, genius! I came down to see you and saw you already in your chamber. The polygraph was going crazy so I figured I might as well log in and see what the hell you were doing. Uh, honestly Rob, I didn't know you had these kinds of feelings."
Rob frowned at Chris. "It's not like that! Someone or something's making this happen. It's not me! Someone's trying to fuck with my mind," he sighed.
"Doesn't seem to be all they wanna fuck."
"Would you get serious for a minute?? I can't seem to log out either!"
"What? Oh now that -is- serious."
Rob nodded furiously. "Can you log out and pull me out of my chamber? I don't wanna end up in VR permanently... and as a girl as that!"
Chris nodded. "Ok, fine. I'll get you out. Uh, just one more thing though."
"What's that?"
Chris smirked. "Could I see that body naked before I leave?"
Rob snapped. "Would you just get me out of here you pervert?!?!?"
Chris just laughed as he faded into bits, reentering the real world.
second part
Chris pulled off the AVM (Aural-Visual-Movement) from his person. Not as fancy as a neural interface, but it always did in a pinch. It's what most people who couldn't afford anything fancy used nowadays.
He couldn't believe it. That was his friend there and someone made him into a her. What a drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired bomshell, too! Why if that wasn't Rob he might... Well, maybe not.
He sat down at Rob's terminal to see exactly what had happened. According to the polygraph record, it was some flurry of activity. He opened up a comm window to speak to Rob, who was still in the very dark bedroom pacing about and looking nervous.
"What, want me to dance for you now?"
Chris laughed. "Yeah right! Hey look uh, just -what- were you doing that made the polygraph light up like that?"
Rob stammered, and those little fingers of his figited. "Well, uh..."
"What?"
"I sort of... well, sort of played with myself."
"You what? Why'd you do that? I thought you said you didn't like it."
Rob snapped. "I don't! I mean well... right after it happened, something went screwy. Uh, it kinda made me do it."
Chris frowned and shook his head. "Huh. Well let me see what I can do ok? Just sit tight... and uh, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Rob flipped Chris off as the window closed.
Chris decided he should start on the logs the computer kept. Maybe he'd find what was going on there.
"Computer, login Chris-178639. Punch up brain wave charts for Robert Morgan Park and compare with the latest log."
There was a bit of a discrepancy in Rob's brain wave patterns. There were supposed to be safegaurds to prevent things like this from happening. There hadn't been any reports of brain damage occuring from jacking in for years now. It was supposed to be safe but here was his friend in danger of losing his mind most literally.
He rushed over to the chamber and pushed the release button, but there was absolutely no responce from the machine. In a panic, he kept pressing the button repeatedly until the thought occured to him that a manual override might help.
"Computer, initiate shutdown of the terminal chamber and disconnect power to it."
All he got was an annoying error beep. He sat back down at the terminal and looked for some other way to get his friend out. He tried overriding the chamber's locked out functions from the computer, again and again. Each time he was greeted by an annoying error beep. On the last try a rather funny looking message popped up.
MAYBE IF MISSY HAD SOME FUN IT WOULD ALL WORK OUT. -HHWG!
Huh? What the hell was this? Someone was trying to be cute.
"Computer, scan for viruses."
It took the computer a few minutes to respond.
"Neural interface control systems, neural emulation systems and local neural network have been comprimised. Cannot reboot."
Chris had no idea what to do now. He put on the AVM interface again and reappeared before Rob, who was sitting there in that body, with a bedsheet wrapped around it. He looked tense.
"Why are you back here? I told you get me out!"
"Uh, Rob uh... there's a problem."
"What kind of problem? You can't get me out?"
"It's worse than that. Uh, some kinda virus infected your system. I can't even get it to reboot."
Rob was so taken by this news he forgot the sheet wrapped around his drop dead gorgeous buxom blonde haired body was being held in place by his arm. Chris got a pretty good view of this body Rob now inhabited virtually. Whoever these people were who made this virus, they certainly were able and willing. She definately was gorgeous. Any real woman with a face like that could charm the pants off a guy. She was buxom, too. A chest like that most woman usually pay for. And blonde hair, lots of it! She looked... sexy, and beautiful, and Rob was right now trapped in that body. Rob grumbled as he wrapped his body back up.
"Fuck! Well what do I now? I can't stay in here forever! My body will atrophy! I'll go crazy! Chris, do something!"
"Ok! Ok! Just calm down! First thing we do is call emergency, ok?"
Rob nodded slowly, trying to calm down. "Ok. But they really can't do much. I'm gonna need someone who can get me the hell off of this thing!"
Chris sighed. He was at a loss. Rescue could force the door open and literally pull the plug on the chamber, but that might cause such a shock to Rob that he might not survive. All this technology around him and a damn little virus can do all this. A little program. A little program that disoeys all the rules. A program.
Chris snapped his fingers and beamed at Rob, who looked confused to say the least.
"I think I know the guy!"
Jenny knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked on it again, but to no avail. He was definately too wrapped up in whatever he was doing this time. She pressed the intercom button and shouted.
"Annnndeeeeee! Andy Summers open the goddamned door!"
Andrew Jeremiah Summers: world's biggest flake, she thought. They'd been friends since junior high school. Back then he was a bit of a geek, what with coming up with odd and unsual ways of doing ordinary things. It was her friend Chris who'd introduced her to him way back then. Apparently he had a crush on her but didn't have the brevity to come to her and admit it, and since Chris was his friend too, he had asked Chris to help. That was a long time ago now. After an on and off romance in high school, which desolved less than a year into college, now they're just friends. He was just too weird she thought. It's a good thing he was smart and finished engineering school or else he'd never be able to hold down any job.
After a few more minutes of waiting there at the front porch, Jenny was about to give up and leave when the intercom finnally sprang to life again.
"Oh! God I almost forgot! Hold on I'll open then door!"
Now that was strange. Who's voice was that? Did Andy finnally get a real life and got a real girlfriend? This was definately interesting. Andy never seemed to have time for many friends except for her and a few others, and he'd invited her over today to show her something new he'd gotten or something. So what, was he going to show her his new girlfriend? He did have a bit of maturing to do, didn't he?
"Andy is that you?"
She heard the double door's many latches unlock. He lived in a very well to do neighborhood --it's a wonder no one there ever complained about his eccentric behavior, go fig-- so why he felt the need to keep so much security around his house was a mystery. Finnally she heard the manual latches being pulled. The door was swinging open. She stood there ready to lecture her friend again on certain courteseys such as remembering when you've invited someone over. What she saw when the door opened however was enough to almost make her loose her balance in shock.
It certainly didn't look like Andy, and if it was his girlfriend, she must have been from another planet or something. Standing in the threshhold right in front of her was a rather voluptious fox lady, wearing not much more than a very skimpy bikini. She looked like something you'd expect to see in virtual reality, but there she was standing there real as life, her long blonde and bouncy hair flowing in the gentle breeze between the hot and humid outside and the cool air conditioned inside, her black tipped ears twitching and perked in the direction of Jenny, and her similarly tipped tail swishing back and forth. Jenny thought she'd finnally lost her sanity as she took too many steps back and stumbled on the step. She would have fallen on the pavement too if the fox lady hadn't reacted quickly and grabbed her.
Jenny stared into the fox lady's face in disbelief. "Uh, you're not Andy's girlfriend... are you?"
The fox lady smirked as she helped Jenny back up. She definately felt real enough. The fur felt geniune, and the body felt warm and fleshy, not hard like it was some plastic special effect. She knew there'd been some radical advances in genetic engineering in the last few years, but this was too much.
"Huh? Oh my god! I totally forgot I was still in this thing!"
The fox lady felt herself as she gasped in reaction. Apparently she was almost as surprised as Jenny was. She felt her ears and stroked her hair and tail and started chuckling.
"Heh. Gosh Jenny. I'm sorry. It's me," the fox lady grinned.
Jenny peered at the voluptious perky vulpinoid apparent in half doubt.
"Andy?"
The fox lady giggled and nodded.
"Yeah! Amazing, isn't it? It's like so totally different! Come on, I'll show you!"
The fox lady swiveled around, waving her arm to motion Jenny inside as she bounced back into the house. Jenny walked in cautiously. Maybe she was still at home asleep and this was all a dream. She said she was Andy, and she new Andy had a penchant for trying new and different things, but this? This was all just too much weird for one day.
The cute fox lady sauntered over towards the basement door, and as she opened it, beckoned Jenny to follow. As the fox lady made her way down the stairs, Jenny crept down them, looking around her as if someone was about to pop out of the woodwork and yell 'Surprise!' or maybe something worse. Her vulpinoid host wasted no time. By the time Jenny had made it down the stairs, the fox lady was sitting at Andy's terminal. The unit was on, and the polygraph showed someone was in his chamber. She turned around and sure enough, it was occupied; the unit was in operation. Still, she crossed her arms in a skeptical posture as she turned back towards the fox lady.
"So uh... where did you get that... thing?"
"Hold on, lemme get out of it first," the fox lady said.
The lady fox stood back up, and saunterd over to a corner of the room. As she stood there, she suddenly became motionless and lifeless. As if her soul had just left her body and now she was nothing but a hunk of flesh and fur. A few moments later Jenny swiveled around again towards the sensory deprivation chamber as she heard its door's latch unlock, and saw the door swing open.
Andy crawled out from the chamber, with some cables still connected to him, and completely disheveled. It looked like he was coming out of hibernation after a long winter. It took him a while to stand on his own real feet and proclaim, "Ta-da!"
Jenny frowned. "You scared the shit outta me! I thought I was having a bad trip or something you dickhead!"
Andy laughed at Jenny and in an apparent fit of anger, she went over to him and whapped him one on the shoulder. He winced and howled and made like she'd really hurt him though it didn't hurt him much at all. Their pretended aggression faded pretty quickly though when they gave each other a hug.
"Really I am sorry I scared ya. I'm glad you could make it!"
"Yeah well... what is that thing anyway," Jenny said as she motioned to indicate the now frozen fox lady.
"That, my darling, is the latest in bleeding edge cybernetic technology! They lent it to me to test. That thing could fool your friends, your grandma and your dog into believing it's a living breathing organism! Ain't it just great?!?"
Jenny nodded in complete agreement. It definately fooled her. There were a few things that stood out in her mind though.
"It's cute, Andy, but I gotta ask. Why a fox lady?"
Andy shrugged. "Why not? They said they could make it just about anything I asked for so that seemed like something that'd be really cool! Hey, you wanna try it?"
Jenny made a frown at Andy and shook her head. "Uh, no thanks."
She walked over to the lifeless body. It still felt warm, though not as warm as before. Its arm was limp in her grasp. It was downright spooky. It looked, felt, damn it even smelled like it was real.
"Cool, huh? It can emulate every biological function. Sweat, or panting here I guess, eye moisture, saliva. Hell, even its uh, well you get the idea!"
Jenny turned to give Andy a stare as he grinned back at her foolishly. She nodded to him, though she sighed and shook her head to herself. Andy was a weird one alright. Next thing you know he'll state that emulating her period would be cool.