Pandora's Box 06: The Grand Tour (Part 2)
Sex. Sex sells. We all know it. So I wasn't the least bit surprised, once I'd found out this was a slavers' ring, that they trained sex slaves. In fact, I was a little bit excited. It turns out that they will force all of the sex slaves to receive training to act bisexual, whether they are or not. Other than that, there's hardly anything enforced by Pandora that is particularly deviant.
She requires us to understand the male and female anatomy so we can pleasure both with our hands, our tongue, our lips, and the basic, mainstream toys like dildos and vibrators. We're also taught how to kiss, and how to interpret what our partner wants. When I first walked into the sex room, I was nervous, yes, but also deeply thrilled and excited.
I hadn't said, yet, that I didn't like the idea of sex. I suppose a lot of people had preconceptions about slavery, though. Now, I was nervous as I noticed the stripe on the wall turn to a solid pink. "What does this color mean?"
"Pleasure," Innu said. "Sex may be a big portion of this, but it's not the only part. Massages are a pleasure skill, for example. Anything a salon or spa does is pleasure, and that includes the most basic haircut you can imagine. Conversation is a pleasure skill too. Talking and listening well is a very simple way to make people feel wonderful."
I nodded slowly. That did make sense. Also, I thought at the time that a job that helped people feel good might be a good fit for me. We kept walking a minute longer, until we reached a door with a single black bar across the pink stripe. "This bar indicates sex rooms," Innu said. "This one should be open, so go ahead and take a look."
I stepped towards the door, but it didn't open. "Um?"
"Oh, right!" Innu stepped up and the door opened. "There are four ways a door can respond to you. It can open, pretty obviously. It can stay closed because you aren't allowed to open it. It can stay closed because it's locked. It can also warn you with a beeping sound, which will happen whether it's open or closed."
"I assume there's a lesson in this?"
"If you hear a beeping, don't go through the door." She paused for a moment, staring me in the eyes. When my gaze broke, I noticed her rubbing her neck. "You will be automatically shocked if you step through a doorway that beeps at you. Those are forbidden. The other ones you can use as long as someone opens them. But if it beeps, stay back."
I nodded slowly. "I guess you learned that the hard way."
She nodded and gestured around the room. It looked a bit like a clinical study room, except that there were no medical charts or tools, unless a dildo or a fleshlight counts as a medical tool. There were quite a few of those toys on display. There was also a bed on one end of the room, and a hanging sex harness on the other end. Near the door were two leather harness outfits, one designed for a male body, the other for a female. I didn't check to see if they were designed for a furry, though I assumed they were.
"There's other stuff in the cabinets," Innu said. "If you want to look."
I shook my head and walked over to the dildos. "Um, Innu?" I felt like I might have a fever as I worked up the nerve to finish asking what I wanted.
"What is it?"
My nerve faltered briefly. "Can we own things?"
"Yes. I have a library of books in my private room. Would you like. . ."
I held up my hand. "Actually, I'd kind of like. . . this." I picked up a dildo shaped to match a canine furry's anatomy, and showed it to her. It may have been a bit shorter than average, but it was the size I wanted. And it had a knot, which I had been curious about since I was fifteen. "But, maybe as a vibrator?"
Innu grinned and looked the dildo over. "Very nice choice," she said. "Though, I could be biased. I'll check the sex toy store this evening if you really want one. Maybe you could join me?"
I blushed, I'm sure of it, as I turned around to put it back. "M-maybe," I said. "Can we move on now?"
We moved on rather quickly after that. I know we went up in the lift to reach what Innu called the Concourse, the central common area for the facility. The first area she showed me was a food court with restaurants in it. There were a few shops near the food court, too, though at the moment they all seemed to be unstaffed.
"Most of these open at three o'clock," she said, showing me her wrist. Apparently her bracelet had a watch on it, and it was 2:2T. "Oh, we have a different clock in here," she said. "Right now it's almost. . . ten thirty in the morning, by the surface clock. Three o'clock here is about noon out there. It's part of how they condition us to this life. We live on their clock, their calendar. . . It's a subtle but insidious way to do it, right?"
"I guess," I agreed. "Why don't these open until noon, though?"
"Morning studies and work," she said. "Free time starts. . ." she focused on her watch and held up a finger. "Now. Two thirzen. In about a dozen or so minutes, they'll be here to do their prep for the jobs they choose to work in here. It's all self-staffed, volunteer work. Well, barter and credit work. No penalties for switching a job between days, or taking a day off. But let's go somewhere else."
She led me down the hall a ways, and then through a cross hall. After a moment of walking through that hall, I saw some color that wasn't a uniform or a body. "Is that real grass?"
I was uncertain of what to expect. It could be artificial grass, after all, like the green fuzz that they used to lay down in a store to show off their yard furniture for the summer, or at a miniature golf course. It was that sort of green that made that seem reasonable. I know what I didn't expect, though:
"Yep. Completely real as you grew up with," Innu said, pulling me along as she picked up her speed. It was still about thirty seconds with us nearly running. "Welcome to the park!"
The park was big enough to play a soccer match, though not a regulation game. It also wasn't set up for sports, but for relaxation. It wasn't active while we were there, but there were a few benches set near the footpaths, and a few fenced off flowerbeds dotted about the park. Then I looked up.
Above us the space was wide open to a blue ceiling. It seemed to show a nice clear sky, and after watching it for a moment, I noticed it moving. And then I looked back down, and noticed the three rings of overhangs. Apparently this park was a central location, and there was an overhang on each of the three levels I could see between myself and the artificial sky. The overhangs looked like something from a hotel lobby, with fencing holding what looked like frosted glass panes. "This is. . . very impressive."
"Yeah. Everybody likes it here. Mistress figured it would be popular with everybody, so she designed it so everyone upstairs can see it and enjoy the sunlight."
"That isn't real sunlight, is it?"
"Sadly, no. But the lighting does change throughout the day just like it would outside."
I was about to sit down on the soft grass when Innu took my hand again. "Let's go get some food," she said. "We might still be able to get breakfast if we're quick."
"I thought the restaurants were closed?"
"Yeah, but the cafeteria isn't. It's always open," she said, dragging me towards the area beneath the overhangs. As we got close to it, a door opened, and she led me into a stairwell. She let go of my hand before she started going upstairs, and was waiting by the door when we had gone up a level. The park was actually more impressive from up here, where the artificial nature of it stood out more.
As we walked around the overhang, I noticed that there were some public facilities around the edge. We weren't really rushing, so I could read the doors, and some of them had windows in the front. We passed by a restroom, a shower, and a salon before we reached a half-egg-shaped area on our right. It was open like the park, with a dozen small tables scattered about, though there was a clear path from the fencing to the hallway on the other end of it.
"This is our caf," Innu said. "There is one more active right now, two floors down, and there will be two more once the Facility is finished. This is ours because it's the closest one to our apartment, but you can go to whatever is closest when you need to eat."
As she was talking, we walked across the area, and walked toward a food line on the left side from the hallway. We each picked up a tray, and walked through the line, presenting our chips to be scanned before we were served. "If you have any dietary needs or restrictions, it will be on file so the caf workers can make sure you get appropriate food." It seemed that today's food was a toasted ham sandwich with a small green salad, some peas, and applesauce. "Like having a vegetarian diet or food allergies, you know?" She led me from the end of the line to the other side of the hallway, where there was a tall cooler for drinks (and and a table with mustard, ketchup, other condiments, salad dressing, napkins and cutlery. "Could you grab me a juice?"
I nodded as she headed to a table. I put a light vinaigrette on my salad, then grabbed two bottles of apple juice from the cooler. They had a variety of juices, some milk, and water, but I noticed there was no soda. I headed towards the table after looking over the selection of drinks. "I hope this is alright," I said as I held out one of the bottles for Innu.
"Yep, that's great."