Page 8 of Control

“So can I break my arm?” she asked, clutching her forearm with her hand.

“No,” I said to Clover as I browsed through to some bell bottom jeans I felt might work for the outfit I was coming up with for her. “If someone strikes you, you will feel some pain, but not a momentous amount. It’s there simply to let you know you were struck. The level of pain can vary, but there is a limit.”

“Then why even have pain at all?” Clover asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to just not have it?”

“There’s a little more to it than that,” I offered back to Clover. “You see…well…Do you know about BDSM?” Clover shook her head. “BDSM means Bondage, Discipline or Dominance, Sadism, and Masochism. It’s a type of erotic role play that’s very popular here.” Within seconds, Clover’s eyes began to glaze over as I could tell this was well beyond her experience. “You’ve really never heard of this?” She shook her head again, the confusion becoming clearer. “Oh, my sweet summer child. How did they ever let you in to this game?”

“I just bought the headband and….” Without hesitation, I moved closer to Clover and leaned right into her face which caused her to recoil slightly. I stared at her a moment and smiled, and without her noticing, lifted my hand up to her face, stuck out my index finger and lightly touched the tip of her nose.

“Boop,” I said in a playful tone which took her by surprise and instantly caused her to smile back. I stepped back to give her more room and continued. “No, my dear. That’s not what I mean. I mean usually those that are allowed access to this game are screened to make sure they fully understand what can happen in this world. People are much more free to do whatever they want here, Clover. Especially when it comes to their sex lives.” Clover’s eyes moved away from mine as if I’d said something that embarrassed her. “There is a lot of sex here, dear. A lot of sex!” As quickly as Clover had averted her gaze, she just as quickly looked back to me.

“So is that why everyone’s here?” she asked in a softer voice as if this were the first time she’d ever really discussed sex so casually. “Just to screw people?” I openly sighed and stared at her a few seconds. “Wait, is that why you’re here too?”

“Clover,” I said, moving my attention back to her and away from the clothing and colors I was looking at. “People are here for all sorts of reasons. Some are here for the social aspects, to live out fantasies of being something more than we are. And sometimes that involves sex. When you consider the fact that you can have sex here as much as you like and not have to worry about things like condoms, STDs, contraceptives, it makes a lot of sense why people do it. And remember, your mind perceives it as real so having an orgasm here gives you the exact same sensation as you’d have in real life. And there is virtually no recovery time which is why men come here mostly for this reason.”

“Is that why you were an escort?” she asked, genuinely curious. “Did you want to have sex with a bunch of men?”

“Umm,” I said, my mouth slightly open and holding a smile. “No. I can safely say that isn’t why I started playing. The whole escort thing was more a matter of trying to carve out a place for myself and make some money. A lot of things here have a cost and I wanted to enjoy as much as I could and quickly found that if you were cute enough, men would be willing to pay for it. So, after giving it some thought, I figured why not? I was getting propositioned for sex anyway so why not try and make some money for it. I applied for an escort license, got approved, and something like 5 minutes after I added myself to the approved escorts list, I was getting asked…for my time.” Clover took a moment to realize what I was implying.

“Oh!” she said, having come to the realization. “By time you mean….”

“Yes, dear. I had sex with them for money. And the money was pretty good, too.”

“Was pretty good,” she asked. “So you don’t do that anymore? Escorting?”

“I mean…I can. I still have my license. I just don’t really need the money anymore which is why I started doing it in the first place. Once money wasn’t an issue for me, I didn’t really have to do it.”

“So no more escorting then?”

“Escorting, no. Not to say I wouldn’t do it for the right person, but I just don’t need to do it anymore. I’m financially secure here.” Clover took a moment to digest all I’d explained to her. As she did, I went back to working on her outfit. I’d selected some playful bell bottoms for her and coordinated the colors to match the green I placed on her shirt. She sat mostly quiet as I worked, occasionally smiling at me as I looked her over as I placed clothing on her.

After settling on her outfit and getting her fully dressed, I worked on her hair which was another default. We went through the various styles and settled on a shorter cut than kept her hair just below her chin, similar to a standard Bob but longer in the back. We went with a classic auburn red that contrasted beautifully with her pale skin. She decided she wanted green eyes which were different from the blue eyes she has in real life.

“Oh my God,” she said as I walked her in front of my vanity mirror. “I look…oh my God.”

“You look wonderful,” I said, happy with the way I’d managed to significantly improve her look and outfit. “Now you will stand out.” Standing beside her, I took her chin by my fingers and turned her toward me. “Now people will notice you.”

“How are you so good at this?” Clover asked with a gracious look on her face.

“It’s just one of those things I like to do,” I said. “For a time, all I did was sit in here and design things. Some entire sessions it’s all I did! I’d just mess around with all the materials, checking all their textures and seeing how they looked in certain lights and which colors worked best with them. Over time, I started saving all my outfits in case I ever wanted to wear them again.”

“How many have you made so far?” she asked, offering me a smile as she realized this was something I truly enjoyed.

“Oh gosh,” I said, closing my eyes and thinking of a ballpark figure. “At least a few thousand. I don’t remember for sure.” I could see her eyes glazing over again. “What can I say? It’s something I like to do!” I laughed a bit which drove her to laugh as well. We both smiled and went on discussing various facets about the game and I fully encouraged her to read the book that came along with her headband. I made sure to tell her that she could read it in Aurora if she wanted and directed her to where she could secure a copy of it for free.

After more explaining to her about how her HUD worked and what she could do with it, I offered to take her to another room so she could walk around and explore. She jumped at the idea so I brought up the room listings to see where I could take her that wasn’t going to cause her to overload again. I definitely didn’t want to expose her to anything too extreme or sexual. Given how we were dressed, I figured a nice, smaller club with a calmer atmosphere would work well.

CHATPER 5 - EXPLORATION

SPAWNING INTO THE club I chose for Clover and I took only a second. I’d chosen The Lunar Club because of its’ laid back atmosphere and also because it was never really packed with many people. The room had a loyal following and a long list of regulars, but the capacity rarely got over 100 which would serve my purposes well. While the bar and dance floor are the main attractions, there is also a dedicated grill so if you wanted you could get something to eat, although sustenance was not required to exist in Aurora.

After spawning in, I looked around the room and saw that things hadn’t changed all that much since I was last here. The dance floor was still painted black and was near the overly intricate DJ booth which was adorned with black and blue lights that flashed rhythmically with the lower volume music I was hearing. The lighting was also kept low and rarely had any larger, oversized flashing lights even though they were installed. The walls were painted a matte black just like the dance floor which added to the overall darker aura. It’s sort of like walking into an oversized bedroom owned by your friend where they just wanted to keep things as dark as possible while also maintaining enough light to read if they wanted. There was no central stage like a venue might have and the bar was kept on one side of the room while the tables you could sit and eat at were on the opposite side. Not an optimal setup by any stretch, but the aesthetic worked.

The owner of Lunar Club is a man named Jimmy Two Toes, a play on an old Mafia-style name that I’m sure I’d heard before in a movie at some point. If he’d actually removed any of the toes on his avatar to better match the name, I’d never asked. I took Clover by the hand and led her to one of the smaller circular tables with salt and pepper shakers on them. The leather-padded bench we sat on looked worn out, but not unclean. Unlike some other “dirty” rooms that seem to have a strong following for some reason, this place was kept tidy as Jimmy preferred keeping his despawn settings high so things like old food and beer bottles never got a change to accumulate.

I’d managed to make it to the table before anyone noticed I was there, but within a minute a few people began took take notice. Thankfully most of the patrons of this particular room always kept a respectful distance and didn’t like to crowd me, although they’d occasionally stop me to ask for a picture which I was happy to provide them with. Once Clover and I got settled, a server dressed in full restaurant waitress garb came over and took our order. We didn’t actually have to wait for our food and drinks to be made as I could have easily spawned them in and had the gold taken from my account, but I did enjoy the role play element of certain locations such as this. All the staff in the Lunar Room were are also playing a role or “RPing” as they so wished. I didn’t fully understand why someone would want to RP as a waitress, but I never passed judgment on them doing so. For some of them, I was certain it was more about the structure and discipline of keeping a work schedule which could then transfer over into real life. Clover asked me why we ordered our food instead of having it spawn in and this was the reason I gave her.

“We all want to be different things in our lives,” I said as I adjusted myself in my seat. “Some of us become waiters while others become musicians or businessmen.”

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