The Future Utopia Ch. 04

Chapter 4: That Time I Explored the Erotic Pleasures Available to Me in the Future Utopia

I guess any sane person would leap at the chance to have all their erotic fantasies fulfilled, for free, with no catches or strings attached. As per my previous chapters, however, I am not just any sane person with straight-forward sexual desires. I am an "it's complicated" kind of person. So, despite my initial enthusiasm, it takes me a few days before I can work up the nerve to accept everything the city has to offer.

Instead, I start slow. During the day, the twins show me around and I try some of the other primal pleasures besides sex that the future has to offer, like bathing in hot springs and cool ponds. At night I stay in the research lab, away from the temptations of the city's "service." I deliberately hold off on trying anything sexual. While the twins respect my reserve, it's clear that they're puzzled by it. They can see how the invisible pleasure centres that pervade the city affect me. Over and over, I feel that luxurious, caressing stimulation, but I refuse to let it bring me release. Still, even I can only take so much teasing. So one day I bring up their offer again, as we're walking through one of the many city's shaded public squares.

"As much as I'd like to, uh, 'explore the experience of pleasure' with you, there are a few things I should explain first. Can we go somewhere a little more private?"

The twins look around at the crowd, then at each other. They shrug.

"If you think it will make a difference, then certainly. Let's go over here."

Raine leads the way toward another arcade, which ends in a glossy, green-painted wooden door. She opens it and ushers us into a cozy, warmly-lit room with various pillows, chairs, couches, and lounges arranged in a loose circle. It smells faintly of fresh-baked bread and lavender tea, which happen to be two of my favourite scents. I curl up in a big, shapeless, overstuffed chair that immediately feels like something I've owned all my life and have worn the perfect butt-groove into. The twins climb onto one of the couches, sprawling all over each other like nearly-identical cats.

I take a breath. No point in delaying the inevitable.

"I want to tell you that no matter what we do, I'm not interested in having sex with anyone. I'm asexual, and it's not a chemical disorder in my brain that needs to be fixed by the city. It's part of who I am. I'm happy being ace. I want to stay this way. So, can you please tell the city not to tweak me so that I start being attracted to people? Because I don't want that."

The twins nod in nearly-perfect unison.

"The city already knows. If there was anyone here you'd want to have sex with, it would be using its pheromones to let those people smell that you're here, so they can decide if they want to meet you and vice versa. We haven't noticed any signals like that, so we assumed you'd be...would you say 'flying solo'?"

"I've never said that before, but I guess it's as good as any other description. Yeah. I like it! I'll be flying solo."

The twins nod, then continue to look at me attentively. They're waiting for the other shoe. May as well drop it.

"Well, even though I'm ace, I do still have some kind of libido. I mean, I have my own way of finding sexual pleasure. It just doesn't involve other people. And when I 'fly solo'...when I play with myself...I like to mix a lot of different sensations."

The twins nod again. Raine says softly:

"Yes. You mix pleasure and pain, the soft and the sharp, resistance and surrender. That's how the city serviced you. We could feel it. Your range of sensation is exquisite."

I stammer, tripping over my planned monologue about how I process sensual and sexual sensations on a continuum.

"Y-you, you could feel that? How?!"

"We have...how can I explain this? We have an intimate empathy with each other, all of us. The city helps us to feel empathy with one another so we won't hurt each other unintentionally. It's not like mind-reading. We don't know the exact wording of your thoughts or the images in your mind. But when we're open to you, we can feel with you. The rise and fall of your emotions, your physical sensations, your intentions and desires and what disgusts you...we feel them layered in and over our own bodies. We can dial the connection up and down at will, from a mere whisper of the original sensation, your sensation, all the way up to a magnified or more intense version. You can feel us, too, if you open yourself to us. Would you like to?"

I'm still reeling in shock and embarrassment that they could feel what I was feeling in the shop. But on another level, it makes total sense. The way the crowd reacted to my unspoken nervousness in the arena and the way they twins soothed me with a touch...it all points toward the truth of what they're saying. I instinctively imagine what it might be like to open up, to feel empathy with the twins. As soon as I do, the sensation floods in on me: the weight of one long leg draped over the other, the nearness of their bodies, their mutual sensual enjoyment of touching and being touched each by the other, the hum of arousal between them like background heat ready to be kindled into flame at any moment--

I break the connection with a gasp. The twins stretch and sigh with satisfaction, winding their bodies closer together. They speak almost at once, slightly different words for the same sentiments tumbling together as they exclaim:

"Yes/yes, like that! We felt you reach out! That was excellent/awesome for someone who wasn't raised in the city. You're sensitive/empathic, aren't you?"

"Well, it's a survival skill for someone like me. It's important to know what people are feeling. When they're mad and you should keep quiet...when they want to fuck you so you can avoid them...believe me, I didn't learn to read people the way you did. I did it to stay alive and be safe, not to have fun." I say darkly.

"I understand. Your time was harsh. Tasting was a survival skill for early humans living in harsh times too. They used it to detect toxins and rot. But now that the food is safe to eat, we taste for fun. And now that you're here, you can use your sensitivity for enjoyment too." Sunni says, well, sunnily.

"Huh." I think about that for a moment, and it changes something in my mind, some buried belief about myself. "You know what, you're right. I can stay myself and do what I do, but for different reasons. In a new way."

"Yes!" Sunni cheers.

"And we would love to experience the exquisite new sensations you bring us, too," Raine adds, her voice a touch breathy. "We won't touch you, of course, and you don't have to touch us. The city can do it all. But we will share it. And anyone else who's curious can 'tune into' you, just as you can 'tune into' them."

"So no one will be in the same room with me or touch my body...but they'll still feel my pleasure?" I ask with dawning excitement.

"Yes."

"And you think other people will enjoy what I feel?"

"Oh, yes. They definitely will."

"That sounds amazing, actually. It sounds ideal. I could never do this at home."

"Are you ready to do it now?" Raine asks. There is definitely higher colour in her cheeks now, and her eyes are darker. Her generous pink nipples are looking perkier. Sunni's cock is starting to harden up too.

"Yes. I...is there anything I have to do to get things started?"

"Just lay back for now, and let the service/the city work on you," they say almost together.

"Maybe take off the clothes, too," Sunni adds with a wink.

"Now we'll leave you so you can enjoy your first solo flight alone." Raine breathes.

The word "alone" has never been sweeter to me. As soon as they're out of the room, I strip off the bra-like top and the panty-like bottoms. I consider placing the panties under me in case I drip on the chair, but I'm pretty sure the chair will clean itself. It seems like the kind of thing the city would do.

I stretch myself out over the broad, soft arms of the chair, leaning my head back and exposing my throat in a gesture of erotic surrender I've used in fantasies for years. Almost immediately, I feel it again: that stirring between my legs. Now that I'm paying attention to it, I can actually detect the stirring playing across my entire body. It's like the feeling you get when you fan your hands besides yourself underwater: those thrilling little currents of sensation, like tiny pressure-waves breaking on sensitive skin. The currents play along my belly and sides, up around my breasts, across my bared throat and cheeks. I shiver under their invisible, but incredibly tactile, ministrations. There is tingling between my legs, like a weak electric current now rather than a liquid one. Oh, yes, yes...it prickles lightly as it moves up between my labia to my clit, and I feel myself hovering on the threshold between pain and pleasure. It intensifies, almost like needles now. It's pricking me sweetly on my flanks and my nipples. My lips tingle with it and I lick them, then gasp at the electric sensation on my tongue. It seems to flow down my throat like sparkling wine, infusing me with its vibrancy from the inside out. I feel a pressure growing deep inside me now: the swelling of my lips, the wet heat making them slippery against each other. I'm touching myself with myself, my own labia caressing each other. I squeeze my legs together and feel my clit pulse at the pressure. I open my legs again and feel the juices leaking out, making me feel hot and cool at once as the air passes gently over my wet, exposed sex.

Exposure, yes: I've always abhorred being fucked by someone, but something in me still wants to be seen, wants to be known like this. I want to be recognized for what I am, at least, by people who are eager to know me. I'm deeply thrilled by the thought that the twins can feel my arousal. The twins, and maybe others, like some of the curious twentieth-century pop culture fans who talked to me at the party. "Your range of sensation is exquisite," Raine told me. I bring them something they haven't felt before, even in this city of constant carnality. I open myself to them and suddenly I can feel Raine, her lips just as wet, her arousal as keen and deep as mine, leaning against Sunni, and I can feel Sunni moving against her, the growing urgency of his desire driving him to thrust his hips against the curve of Raine's back. And beyond them, I can feel so many others, each reacting to my pleasure in their own ways, some through intense sexual arousal and some in purely sensual way, without any need for release. I feel one out there who experiences sexual appetite as a craving for certain flavours, and who is currently letting chili-spiced dark chocolate melt on their tongue, the bittersweet tingling pain of it echoing the electric prickle across my body. It's so delicious I start to spasm, orgasm almost overtaking me.

"No, no!" I gasp, holding it back. "No, please! Not yet, not yet."

My efforts to fight back climax only intensify the sensations I'm feeling. I struggle within myself, trying to deny desire its claim over me, but the struggle itself is just another kind of orgasmic build up. The city raises the pitch of its attack on my trembling flesh. The prickling against my flanks becomes a sharp sting, like the beesting strike of a whip. I whimper. It strikes me again between my breasts, all bite with no force. I hate it and I love it as it falls over me again and again. I'm coursing with the pain now, falling into subspace where everything seems to flow in an altered rhythm, and I crave each new bite on my flesh the way most lovers crave kisses.

As I revel in the pain, pleasure sneaks up on me like ghost-pepper infused in sweet wine. The sensation against my clit modulates into a strong but silken stroking. Even as the rest of my body shudders and bucks in pain, the heat rising between my legs becomes purest bliss, rich as hot honey. Ah, I can't hold back any longer! I throw back my head, arch my body, and cry out loud at the peak of climax. I swear I can hear my cry echoed by other voices, not literally but spiritually, through my connection with the twins, with the city. I've sent a shockwave across the intimately-empathic populace.

'There something pure and raw about her,' I think, as if I'm catching someone else's impression of their experience and putting it into my own words.

'Yes, untempered, untampered with. The city's barely balanced her. She's untouched. This is what wild honey must taste like. It's strong and rough, but unique!'

'Too strong for my taste, but I dialed it back and it was interesting. More, please!'

'Can't wait for more!'

I feel more impressions swirling around me, but I'm too spent to take them in. I fall into a doze, cradled in the chair. The last thing I think I feel are Raine and Sunni placing their hands on my shoulders, radiating pride and joy.

Then I fall fast asleep.

When I wake up, it's twilight. Through the room's one small window, I can see that the opalescent-white sky of daytime has turned a darkly luminous blue-green, shot through with slowly shifting streaks of green and white light like distant Northern Lights. There are no stars and no moon, leaving the city bathed in a dreamy underwater gloom. I feel like I've slept a long time. Is it almost dawn, then? Or is it just the end of the same day, with full night coming on? I put my clothes back on, finding them still fresh-smelling and uncrumpled on the floor, and then pace nervously in front of the door, not sure if I should go out alone or not. I have no idea where I am relative to the lab, or really, anything else. I've never had a great sense of direction.

In response to my growing unease, the door to the little room opens and the twins come in, looking as sleepy-eyed as I feel. I greet them with a relief. Sunni is carrying a tray with--of all things--an old-fashioned silver chef's cloche on it.

"Hey! You've been resting for a while." Sunni says. "It's almost morning. Here, we thought you might be hungry so we brought you breakfast."

I wasn't hungry until Sunni mentioned it, but the smell coming from under the cloche makes my stomach growl. I open it to find what looks like a steaming bowl of oatmeal, a piece of tropical fruit, and a thick, white ceramic mug full of black tea with cream.

"We tried to, uh, 'replicate' something you'd be used to this time, to comfort you. If you don't like it, you can request something else. It might not be exactly the way you remember."

I blow on a spoonful of oatmeal and taste it cautiously. It tastes like it has spices --cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and something else exotic that I can't identify-- infused into the milk. Just as the clothes and the chair suited my body, it matches my palette exactly: not too bland, but not too sweet either.

"It's just right," I say wonderingly. "You really have the Goldilocks formula down here."

I tuck in with enthusiasm. The twins don't eat anything, but lounge on the couch together in drowsy, comfortable silence. They seem to savour the scents of my food, but when I offer them some they say, "No thanks. We'll get something later."

I take my time sipping my tea and watch the sky lighten through the window. No sun comes up, but there is a kind of "sunrise" all around the horizon, as a watercolour riot of pastels shifts through the sky, fading from blue-green to yellow to peach to rosy pink and then to the milky white opal of day. I can't even describe the beauty of it in words. The twins doze, occasionally murmuring softly to each other as they rest on the couch.

Finally, I finish the tea and enough time passes that I start to feel like I should get on with my day. Now that I've explored the sensual and erotic pleasures of the city, as we set out to do on my first day here, I don't have anything to do, per se. But still, I feel like I should be doing something.

"What would you like to do today?" Raine says from behind me, so quietly I think maybe I imagined it.

"Sorry, did you ask me what I want to do?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't know. I mean, what do you two do here every day? Do you have jobs you do, like to help the city or something?"

"Right now, it's our pleasure to be your guide. You'll probably be here for a while yet. The Timesync research group isn't awake yet, but we'll get an update from them later."

I nod slowly, trying to think of what my next steps should be.

"So...since I'm going to be here for a while, should I find a place of my own to live in? Or is this it?" I gesture around the room.

"You can stay here as long as you like. If you want something bigger, we can go somewhere else."

"No, no. This is good. Cozy. Does it have a bathroom, though?"

"Through that door," Raine points. I had thought the arch was just a decorative pattern on the wall, but when I reach my hand through, I find it actually opens on a corridor. There is no toilet in the next room, not exactly, but there is a clearly identifiable place to squat. I take off my shorts--I guess the facilities here are designed for naked living--and go. There is also no toilet paper, as the twins mentioned earlier, but there is a bidet function that washes and dries me. Of course, it all feels very good.

"If that's the toilet, I can't wait to see the showers!" I joke as I come back out.

"Oh, there are nice outdoor groves for showering!" Sunni exclaims. "We're going to one later. You're welcome to join us. It's more fun together."

"Damn, it really is nice here! Like living in a resort or something. But is that all we're going to do today? Shower? Don't you ever want to, you know, do something productive?"

"What do we need to produce?" Raine wonders idly, stifling a yawn. "We help others, certainly. But no one needs help right now. Except you, I suppose."

I would feel insulted by that, but I can tell she doesn't mean it harshly. And I do still need help understanding this world.

"Well, then, I guess my job for now is to learn more about the city and how people live here. What can you show me?"

As it turned out, the twins would have very good things to show me. But more about that next time!