Virtuality
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“I call her Pandora,” said Felix. “Get used to her. This is why I need you. This kind of interaction has to be a two-person thing.”

Jake was used to virtual reality. It was his thing after all. But here he was in their apartment. The only thing different was that he was in another body. When he held his hand up he could see that it was not his hand at all, it was a slender feminine hand, with manicured nails.

“The detail is great,” he said. Turning the hand over and looking at the soft lines on the palm. He brought the other hand into view, stroking one with the other. “And the sensitivity with these gloves is outstanding! I think you have cracked it buddy.”

“Well, you should see the view that I am getting,” said Felix.

“Am I pretty?” asked Jake, with a smile that Felix watched break across Pandora’s face.

“You bet,” said Felix. “Do you think I would make an ugly partner for an experiment in LDVI?”

LDVI. Long Distance Virtual Intimacy was the title they had dreamed up together. It was a way of using web-linked virtual reality tools to simulate physical contact to accompany the visuals. Love at a distance. The key was the gloves to give the sensation in the fingers, and then for virtual sex. They had worked on the complex programming together, but Felix was in charge of graphics. They both knew that good graphics were at the heart of this. Intimacy requires a full sense of reality – visual and sensory.

“Can I look in a mirror to see myself?” asked Jake.

“The only added reality is me, when I enter the room,” explained Felix. “A mirror will show you a dickhead wearing a VR headset. All background is your apartment. I have scanned that into my hard drive so I can see what you see, but for you everything apart from you and me, is real.”

“Got it,” said Jake. “So, if I want to look at myself you will need to display an image of me on a wall or something?”

“I could do that, sure”. Felix checked the image he was looking at. “I can throw up a 3D image of Pandora in front of you. I can even invert it, so it looks like a mirror image of yourself.”

“Do it,” said Jake. “Put me up.”

On the blank wall in front of him, the mirror image came into view instantaneously, without flicker or pixilation. A woman. Wearing only underwear. A black lace bra and panties.

“Shit. I’m gorgeous,” said Jake, the woman in front of his smiling back as the reader attached to the headset picked up his facial movements. He admired her for just a moment until he became aware of something. He said: “Just a minute, that’s me.”

“Pandora,” Felix corrected him.

“No, I mean, that’s my face. A female version of me,” said Jake. “Of all the models, actresses or porn-stars you could have used as a template, you used me?”

“Just to make it more real, Buddy,” said Felix.

“It’s weird,” Jake observed, turning his hips around to check the shape of his butt. Before him stood the reflection of a perfect female body with his head on it. Well, not quite his head. She had blonde hair that fell about his shoulders and she wore makeup. She looked pretty. She moved well. Her butt was the perfect shape.

“Feel yourself up, Jake,” said Felix. “This is what all the code you have been writing is all about. The image is easy. The key to this is the sense of touch. Feeling what is not there. Not just the shape, but the warmth and the texture of it.”

Jake raised his hands to her breasts. They were there, even though he knew they were not. He could feel the volume and the detail of the lace of the bra. He reached around with both hands to undo it, wondering how women could do this every day. There was the clip. He could feel it. It snapped open. He could see the breasts drop as the straps slackened, but he could not feel them on his chest. But when he returned with his hands he could feel them there. The skin was soft and warm, but the breasts themselves were heavy but perfectly formed.

“This is great,” said Jake. “Sensitivity is fantastic. I can even feel myself feeling myself.”

“That’s the sensors on your chest,” said Felix. “That is to give the woman the feeling of having a man run his hands over her…”. His voice seemed to be a little strange, so Jake looked up to see Felix staring.

“Are you watching me grope myself?” Jake asked.

“Why not?” Felix replied.

“So what about actual intercourse? How does that work?” Jake was pushing back his blonde hair. “Hey, I can even feel hair. It’s like I really do have hair.”

“The gloves are really sensitive,” explained Felix. “To build the tactile programs I used real hair and real skin as models to create the illusion of feeling. It’s good, right?”

“It’s unbelievable,” said Jake. He was winding his hair up and holding it on top of his head. “It feels so real.”

“Like all VR, the more you get into it, the more real it seems,” said Felix. “Now, you were asking about sex, and I have two more sensors for that, but we need to get naked for that.”

“Do I have to take this off?” asked Jake pointing at the headset.

“If you don’t I will have to undress you,” said Felix. “You don’t have any clothes on except panties in the world you are in, so you can keep in on, but I will need to get you down to your underpants.”

“Go on then,” said Jake. “I cant take my eyes off Pandora.”

He barely even felt what was going on. Felix was standing in front of him moving up and down. Then he stood back and started to take off his own clothes. Jake could not help but notice that Felix’s body did not look quite the same. A little more tanned, a little more buff perhaps.

“Hey man, have you adjusted your body too?”

“I wish it was for real,” said Felix. “But, yeah. I suppose everybody’s view of themselves is that they should look slightly better than they do. I have tried to be accurate, but it’s my version of me. Ok?”

“You look good, Man,” said Jake. “What’s next?”

“Ok, so we have a dildo sensor for women and a sleeve to go on the male parts. So, you can’t see it, but I am slipping on the sleeve, on myself.”

Jake watched as Felix’s hands moved around his groin area, and when he took them away he saw that Felix had a large flaccid penis resting there.

“I don’t think you are really that big,” Jake observed.

“As I said: It’s my own view of myself,” Felix grinned.

“You are not going to ask me to stick a dildo up my ass are you?”

“Don’t be stupid,” said Jake. “I have a sleeve for you too, but I have used the female program on it. I am not sure how it will respond, but this is an experiment, right?”

“Are you proposing to fuck Pandora?” asked Jake.

“Hey, we are just playing around. I will just get this sleeve on you and then I will put my headset back on, OK? Pull down your panties for me.”

“My panties,” Jake found himself giggling playfully. “Just don’t play with my dick.”

“This is for science, Buddy,” said Felix.

“Omigod,” said Jake. “It does feel like I have changed down there. Let me feel. Wow. Where’s my dick? You have made it disappear.”

“Just don’t go for a piss without getting out of this gear,” Felix warned. “You will sit down to pee and it will go everywhere. You still have a dick. You are just feeling it differently.”

“It’s fantastic,” said Jake. “So neat. And shaved too.”

“To be honest I could not be bothered to build a tactile program for pubes. It seems like a waste of effort.”

“No problem, Man,” said Jake. “I feel like Pandora is the kind of girl who would want to be clean in that area. I figure that she likes sex. What do you think?”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

“Hey Felix, are you getting erect?”

“Well, I have a naked woman standing in front of me saying that she likes sex, so I guess I am.”

“So, I see what your sensor picks up?” said Jake, trying to think objectively.

“Yep. So, I am seeing your nipples harden.”

“Wow, so they are. I see that too. And I feel it.”

“Are you Ok with me touching you?” Felix asked. “This is all about testing the ability to two people to feel one another.”

“Yes, I know that. For the sake of science, right? Go for it.” They still had a job to do, after all.

Jake felt the touch of Felix’s hand upon her breast. It was so sensitive he could almost feel the slight roughness of his fingerprints. He felt a wave of excitement.

“This is working,” he said. “This is working.”

“This may feel a little weird, but I am going to touch you down here.”

“Wow. That is weird. But nice too. Yeah, don’t stop on my account. Let’s put her through her paces,” said Jake.

“Let’s lie you down,” suggested Felix. “Can we go through to my bedroom?”

“Take my hand,” said Jake. It felt good to hold his hand. The virtual image of the room was accurate, except that it showed darkness outside in the middle of the day. But it felt good to hold his hand and be led through. Jake examined his colleague’s body. The detail was incredible.

“Relax,” said Felix. Jake lay back. His long blonde hair lay on the pillows around him. Felix’s hand gently brushed his face as if pushing a stray lock away. He looked down and Jake looked up. They smiled at one another.

“What are you going to do next?” Jake asked.

“Make love to you,” whispered Felix suggestively.

“How could a girl refuse,” said Jake with a cheeky smile. Could Felix see it?

“I just want to do a little more with my hands first,” said Felix.

“Yes. Do that. Don’t stop. I mean, let’s do this properly.”

“Right. We need to iron out any issues.”

“None I can see so far,” said Jake. “Is your cock really as hard as the virtual one I am looking at?”

“Well, I’m looking at the same thing you saw before, but lying on my bed, so maybe. I can tell you, Pandora is hot, so yes, I am getting excited.”

“Ok. I am too.”

“I am going to get between your thighs now. Are you Ok with this?”

“Sure. Everything is looking good so far,” said Jake. “Oh, wow. Is that you?”

“I am inside you,” said Felix.

“I know,” said Jake. “I can feel you.”

“Can you feel this, and this, and this?”

“Yes, I can feel every stroke. I can feel everything! Oh, wo … wow.”

“We need to take our time,” said Felix. “We need to make observ … obbserva … observations.”

“Just shut up and do what you are doing.”

“This is way better than …”

“Felix,” Jake whispered. “I am going to come.”

“Take off your headset,” instructed Felix.

Why would he? But he did. And there was Felix still thrusting, but looking down at him. Non headset on. Had he been wearing it at all? His dark eyes wide and full of desire.

And Felix saw only Pandora. The face he loved, and probably always had. And she was looking back at him. Looking at him the same way. But looking at Felix as if seeing him for the first time.

“Oh. Oh.” A feminine gasp escaped her lips as she felt a wave of pleasure come over her. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was all-consuming. As if body, real or contrived, no longer mattered. All that mattered was sensation.

“Oh my God!” said Felix. His body shuddered.

And she could feel everything. She could feel every pulse of his penis. Every little spurt of his fluid. Every little snake tailed cell swimming inside her.

“Oh Felix! Felix, Felix, Felix.”

And she was complete. Changed, and complete.

The End.

© Maryanne Peters 2019