Damian stepped through the newly appeared doorway within the Nevermore construct with Toby. After a disorienting flash of light, he found himself back in the white 'room' that he'd initially entered, this time standing next to the naked figure of his reluctant guide.
He turned to him, still angry.
"What the fuck is going on in this place?" he demanded. "Where are you taking me?"
Toby seemed calmer again now, although Damian could feel the pull against his mind as he tried to regenerate some clothes to cover himself. Damian staunchly resisted. After this betrayal, he deserved a bit of humiliation.
Toby shot him a sideways glance, understanding the control that Damian somehow had over him. He sighed.
"I'm taking you to the operating console." He explained. "That's where I can show you how Nevermore works".
Another subaudible click signalled a further shift in the construct, and Damian found them both standing in a non-descript office, with bare walls and devoid of furniture.
"This is where all the information is stored for the Nevermore platform." Toby explained. "From here you can access past encounters, preferences, avatars...This is the heart of the construct."
"Do you mean to tell me that anything that happens here is recorded?" Damian asked, aghast.
"That's right. We have to record it in case there are allegations of wrongdoing down the track. This is our protection." Toby explained it like it was the most normal thing in the world to have video of people's most secret encounters held for anyone to access."
"How do I know that people can't just come in and jerk off to my 'encounters' to their heart's content?" Damian was beginning to see the implications of this. Who knew who had access to his recent indiscretions?
"Well, generally no-one can access someone else's data in Nevermore. Privacy is the backbone of our organisation." He seemed to gloss over his recent voyeuristic breach of this backbone from earlier.
"Every now and then, though, someone is willing to sign over access to others in return for certain benefits. You and your friends, for example, seemed happy to sign a consent form giving ownership of all your recordings and data for Nevermore to do with as it pleased in return for a slightly longer appendage."
"What do you mean?" A heavy stone had suddenly lodged itself in the pit of Damian's gut. What exactly had he signed in that consent form?
"Well, the form you signed is an agreement that any data obtained during your time at Nevermore, and any avatars produced, is the property of the construct. It means that you've agreed to let others use your avatar for their own purposes."
Damian felt like he was going to vomit.
"So they can just come in here and pretend to be me?"
"Of course not!" Toby laughed. "No one else can inhabit your avatar. However the avatars can be run on autopilot by the construct. They act and respond based on the data collected from your visits here in Nevermore. That's why your own encounter with yourself was so realistic."
Toby went on explaining, oblivious to the roaring commotion going through Damian's mind.
"One of the problems we had at the beginning of Nevermore is that entirely synthetic avatars are never all that convincing. Even with all of our technology, it seems we can never quite mirror the exact combination of movements and responses that we need to make humans convincing.
"People enjoyed their time here, but it never seemed as real as it should. One of our biggest discoveries was that basing avatars on real people made the result so much more realistic. The data we collect from their original and follow up encounters only serves to increase that realism."
"So basically you just steal data from the people who come here?" Damian had turned from feeling sick to feeling angry now. He fought a desire to punch him in the face.
"It's not theft at all." Toby was defensive. "We give people all the information and ask them directly to confirm they've read and understood it. Frankly it surprises me that you wouldn't read such a thing more carefully.
"Also, we only harvest data from certain participants. We find that men who attend in groups, buck's parties, groups of mates, etc. tend to be much more willing to give up their data in exchange for looking good in front of their peers.
"We also find they're much more...flexible. This suits our purposes as well. That's why we offer such a discount for these groups."
"What do you mean more 'flexible'?" Damian asked.
"Well, the holy grail of avatars is to scan someone relatively innocent, and then collect data as they experience something for the first time. That means that all of the expressions, movements, sounds they make when they experience it for the 'first time' again with someone else will be all the more realistic.
"Your waiter, for example. Had he not been fucked for the first time here in Nevermore, we never would have been able to produce that look on his face as you entered him. That mix of apprehension, surrender, pleasure... These are the things that make Nevermore so unique."
Damian blushed as his cock jumped at the memory of that vulnerable look. It seemed he had no secrets from Nevermore now.
"But what does flexibility have to do with that? How does that help you get your first times?"
Toby nodded, as if expecting the question. He took a deep breath.
"Well, we find that people can be quite malleable while in Nevermore. People who never would have ventured down a particular road will often skip happily down it with the merest of pushes.
"Homosexual encounters, for example. Almost all men have had some level of fantasy or curiosity about sex with another man, but most would never even consider trying it in real life. Put them in a group where it becomes normalised, though, and they're guzzling cock like some cum-covered porn star.
"Take your group. All 'straight' blokes, none of you have ever held another cock in your hand. All it takes is some loss of inhibition to grease the wheels.
"When you enter Nevermore, our retinal scan is much more powerful than you realise. In that first 3-4 seconds as you enter the construct, the machine presents you with literally thousands of images of men, women, sex acts, toys and fetishes, and assesses your micro-responses. It happens so fast you don't even know. With that we can build a complete picture of your sexual history, what you like, what your preferences are, what you've suppressed deep in your subconscious.
"Then, it's just a matter of waltzing in a bare-footed, muscular, masculine looking waiter in a tight shirt and putting him in a compromising position. We give you the illusion that your mates are all crossing that same boundary with you to buy you some cover, and before you know it, your cock is buried deep in his arse and your lips around his cock."
"You mean the others weren't really getting off with other guys?" A sense of panic gripped him at the thought.
"Well, not initially. Like you, they all started in safe territory, and to their eyes everyone else crossed over the line before they did. One guy looks at his neighbour to find that he's getting head from a bearded man. He looks down at the woman sucking his own cock and wonders fleetingly if it would be different. In a flash, she's replaced by a man, and he figures 'Oh well, might as well give it a try.'
"And just like that, you're all gagging for cock. Better yet, Nevermore recorded your first time, so we have a bunch of convincing 'first time gay' avatars. You wouldn't believe how popular that is.
"As an added benefit of course, experiencing something for the first time in Nevermore, particularly something that you're afraid or ashamed of, almost guarantees you'll be back to try it again. All bar one of your group has already wandered back through these doors."
Damian shook his head. "So, you're telling me, that someone could walk in here and fuck my avatar whenever they want?"
"Well, until today, that wasn't possible." Toby explained. "The encounters with your avatar have so far all been bounded by your own level of experience. Up until today that didn't include getting anally penetrated."
Damian paled again. "The encounters so far?"
"Yes," Toby sounded exasperated. "As I've been saying, anyone can access your avatar for a fee. Our network covers the world, and to be honest, your avatar is quite aesthetically pleasing."
Damian blushed as Toby looked him up and down. Horrified, he noticed Toby's cock start to swell once again.
"How do I see these encounters?" he demanded.
"Well, it's quite simple. Each avatar is given a serial number, and encounters are searchable using that as an anchor. The search engine is neurally connected via the pod. You can literally just think the search terms and the results will appear."
Amazed at the technology despite himself, Damian focussed on his avatar and immediately a grid of small videos appeared before him, hanging in mid-air. As he looked at one of them, it sprang forward from the rest of the grid, enlarging to give him a better view.
The scene was already part-way through, as if giving him a preview of the file's contents. It was set in an office, the cheap office furniture suggesting a low paying job. He couldn't see his avatar's face, but it was clear that it was him, suited and crouched down behind the desk, sucking the cock of another suit-wearing employee.
He turned his attention to another scene that sprung out in front of him. Eucalypts blew in the breeze around the hiking trail where he stood with his 'co-star'. His cargo pants were pulled down enough to expose his taught buttocks, as he fucked the guy bent double before him.
The next was in a bedroom, candles lit beside the bed, sweat glistening on his naked body as he writhed, entwined in the arms of an unknown naked man, their lips locked in a passionate kiss.
