Caroline 05: Cleopatra
Copyright Oggbashan July 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.
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Now that Caroline was having her creations made for her, she and Angela could devote their time to designing and making prototypes of new ones.
I knew that I would be the victim of the prototypes. Caroline would design and make it; Angela would design the software. Either the artefact itself, or the software, could go wrong. They tried to think of safety devices but only a test would prove if there was any danger to users.
"Nick," Caroline said, "I will have a new design for us to test tomorrow.
"OK, Caroline," I said. "I think I can manage that. What's this one called?"
"She will be a giant Cleopatra, the last Egyptian Pharaoh."
"OK, and what does Cleopatra do?"
"She catches -- usually men -- as they wander around in the club..."
"Jerry's club?"
"Yes. Cleopatra is a commission from Jerry. She hugs them before they are gagged and wound tightly in silk strips to make them become a helpless mummy."
"A mummy?"
"Yes. Like those silly Japanese game shows. But first I want to try just a detail. Are you ready, Nick"!
"What for?" I started to ask.
Caroline slid something small between my lips. Before I knew what she had intended I heard a hiss of air. Whatever it was she had put in my mouth had expanded into a pear shaped gag behind my teeth. I couldn't say a word. I shook my head but I couldn't displace it. Even with free hands I couldn't pull it out yet it wasn't impeding my breathing at all. I grunted.
"Can you say anything, nick?" Caroline asked.
I tried. It was impossible. All I could do was grunt faintly.
"Great," Caroline said. "I thought it would work. I tried it on myself several times but it isn't the same as doing it to someone else. How do you escape from it? You can't. I could remove it but it is designed for Cleopatra to use. Come and meet her, Nick."
Caroline took me by the hand and led me into the next room where her experiments were conducted. Facing me was a giant statue of Cleopatra as an Egyptian Queen wearing the Pharaoh's double crown. Even without the crown she was nine feet tall. She was wearing a golden pleated dress that fell from her bust and had the traditional black hair. Around her bare right arm an asp was curled.
"I haven't activated her yet, Nick. She would just be standing in the club's bar area looking like a statue. That's all she would appear to be until a man, usually a man although it could be a woman, goes too close, especially if their back is turned to Cleopatra. Please come and stand with your back to her, about two feet away, Nick."
She led me into position.
"One of the features I and Angela are working on is how Cleopatra would gag her victim. We haven't got that mechanism right yet, so I've gagged you already. Assume that one of the first things Cleopatra would do it insert that self-inflating gag into your mouth. But before that? I'll turn her on and she'll show you."
I heard a click. Suddenly Cleopatra's arms whipped around me, trapping my arms by my sides. She lifted me bodily off my feet. With one arm still holding me and the other lower arm across me her hand moved towards my mouth but did nothing. I assumed that movement would be intended to end with me gagged. She turned me around so that my head was facing her cleavage before pulling me deep into it. As usual with Caroline's later constructions despite being apparently smothered between two massive breasts I could still breathe freely even if I couldn't say a word.
From under the folds of her long pleated skirt two arms appeared and started to wrap around my legs with bands of twelve inch wide silk strips. As each strip surrounded my legs it was pulled tight before fastening on itself, probably with Velcro. My legs were jammed together as the arms moved up to repeat the process around my hips and hands beside them. The strips rose further and Cleopatra's arms moved to allow access while still holding me immobile. Once I was wrapped from feet to shoulders the movement changed. My shoulders were covered and the strips just rested diagonally across my body until more strips were tightly bound across my chest.
Cleopatra's hands fitted a white balaclava on my head. It didn't restrict my neck but all my head except my nose and eyes were covered. Finally another two strips covered my lower face and forehead. Cleopatra turned me around to face outward. Her arms were holding me upright but unlike before they didn't need to hug me tight. I was helplessly mummified with strips of white cloth unable to move anything except my eyes. Cleopatra's mechanism appeared to stop at that point.
Caroline wheeled a floor length mirror in front of me so that I could see I was a mummy from head to toe resting in front of Cleopatra with my head leaning back into her cleavage.
"Are you OK, Nick?" Caroline asked. "Blink once for yes, twice for no."
I blinked once. Although I was gagged and helplessly bound, I wasn't hurting at all.
"OK,. Thank you. You haven't got a safety ring because we haven't programmed Cleopatra's response to that yet. It would complicate matters too much when she is being developed. You won't be able to blink for the next part but you should still be able to breathe. It won't last long. It would last much longer when Cleopatra is fully functional but not now. We just want to test the next action before we move on to setting her up for other things. OK?"
I blinked assent. Caroline moved out of my sight and behind Cleopatra. I felt Cleopatra's arms move slightly as she started the next action.
She put a torso with large breast forms on my chest before the other arms wrapped that tight to me. Looking in the mirror I now appeared to be a well-endowed mummified woman, not a man. Cleopatra pulled a hood over my head. Although it was flexible it covered my head completely yet I could see through the painted eyes. I now had Cleopatra's face and hair but not the crown. Because the mask didn't move I looked like a mummified Cleopatra. She added a dress to match hers, falling to the floor and splaying an inch or so beyond my feet. I was now an almost complete smaller replica of the giant Cleopatra behind me.
Caroline moved behind Cleopatra to switch her off. The arms relaxed their grip. I still needed them to hold me upright but they were not hugging me tight.
"That's it, Nick. We've tested every action we've programmed so far. What we haven't done is the systems to reverse what Cleopatra has down to you. Angela and I will have to do that."
Caroline reached up and pulled the Cleopatra mask off my head. She and Angela eased me out of Cleopatra's encircling arms and put me on a settee. Caroline removed the bands over my lower face and forehead before removing the white balaclava. She pushed a finger into my mouth. The gag deflated and she pulled it out.