A World of Our Own

[Minh commissioned Tom and Hayley in

Click and Collect: Through A Mirror

to build a very special mirror for Zoe for her engagement party. In the sequel, she steps up her game.

This story contains themes of forniphilia, bondage, confinement, orgasm control and adversarial AI training nets. If artificial intelligences controlling human orgasms is not your thing, please check out my other stories for something more to your taste.

This story is also submitted to the

Geek Pride Story Event 2023

]

---

A WORLD OF OUR OWN

Minh pulled up outside the Kikster offices and turned off the engine to wait. Zoe wasn't long, emerging through the big glass doors into the daylight, a waifish, petite figure in army boots and a short blonde bob. She caught sight of Minh and headed over to her car.

"Outside in daylight," Minh observed wryly.

"For once," Zoe replied, getting into the passenger side.

"They got you on some long hours."

"My boss is working us pretty hard. There's an upgrade going in for the AI core. Oh, fuck, I shouldn't have said that. That's confidential."

"Just let me message the investors, should I go long or short on the stock?" Minh laughed.

"What?"

"Is your upgrade gonna succeed in bringing extra shareholder value to the business?"

Zoe regarded her friend for a moment, noting the way her brown eyes twinkled at her own hilarity, a delicate face framed by a bob of straight black hair.

"All I know is that Chloe's been breathing down my neck for two weeks," Zoe responded.

"That must be pretty crowded."

"What's crowded?"

Having both your boss and your brand-new husband breathing down you neck. Must be quite sticky."

"Fuck off, Minh," Zoe shot back, but she was smiling.

Minh started the engine, and they pulled out into traffic.

"Any news from the boy wonder anyway?" Minh enquired casually.

"Just that he got there okay."

"And then radio silence."

"Nothing yet, but they'll all be catching up. It's the first time since the wedding they've all got together."

"Shooting shit up in the woods."

"It's called wargaming, Minh. He even asked me along."

"And you jumped at the chance, obviously."

"Nup. It's his thing. Happy to lose him once a year and the boys all get together and mess themselves up with paintball pellets."

Minh nodded, navigating traffic, casting a sidelong glance at her friend.

"Plus, there's a lot of them, right? It's quite a crowd."

Zoe's face softened. "Yeah," she confessed.

"Just the two of us tonight, though, Zoe. No crowds. More your pace, right?"

"I guess."

"You did good at the wedding though. That could have been tough. Lots of people."

"Not that many. We kept it small, plus, I had Ben there, and you."

"Yeah, and me."

Zoe shifted in her seat, and the conversation lapsed. Presently, she turned to look in the back, noticing a large carryall sitting there.

"So... what we gonna do tonight?"

"While hubs is out with his crew? I thought a night in, just the two of us, back to your place."

"I saw the bag. You planning on staying over?"

"Dunno. Do you want me to? Like old times?"

Minh gave Zoe a little knowing smile, but it faded as soon as she saw the expression on Zoe's face.

"Not like old times, Minh. I'm married now. I have a husband."

"Whoa, back up. Shit. I mean hanging out, that kinda old times. I didn't mean... fuck."

Minh's mind raced. This wasn't how the conversation was supposed to go.

"Zoe, I just meant having fun, like we used to do. I didn't mean, uh, that sort of fun."

Minh's reached out and took her friend's hand, and was relieved when Zoe curled her fingers around hers.

"I meant what I said at the wedding, I'm happy for you that you found a guy. I know it's what you always wanted. I know you were just fucking around back in postgrad."

She squeezed Zoe's hand.

"I'm happy for you, really," she found herself saying again, "You're my bestest. I even found Ben for you, right? You're my bestest, Zoe. We're all good."

Minh caught a glimpse of Zoe's smile before she had to extricate her hand to make a turn into Zoe's street. That sweet, innocent little smile of hers, the blue eyes, the soft blonde hair.

"You're never going to cheat on Ben, are you?" she murmured.

"No," Zoe confessed in a little voice.

"That's good Zoe. That's really good. I'm proud of you."

Minh drove into the carpark under Zoe's apartment block, taking the space that Ben's car would normally have occupied, slotting straight in. She killed the engine and got out, opening up the back door to haul out her bag. She caught Zoe eyeing it carefully.

"Looks heavy," Zoe observed.

"Yeah, kinda."

"What's in there? Change of underwear and a toothbrush?"

Minh hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and locked the car.

"Few other things. I've been working on something," she said.

"Hardware or software?"

"Bit of both. Wanna see?"

Zoe shrugged, replying, "I guess you already brought it, whatever it is."

"I guess I did."

Minh didn't elaborate, heading towards the elevators. Zoe followed.

The bag was heavy. She shifted it from shoulder to shoulder in the elevator and was relieved when they got into Zoe's apartment and she could set it down on the table in the living area.

"So, what's in there? What's the plan?" Zoe asked cautiously.

"What makes you think I have a plan?"

"Last time you brought a bag that size, I ended up imprisoned inside a mirror for my own hen's night."

"That was fun, yeah?"

"I guess."

"C'mon Zoe. You had the time of your life."

"Trapped behind glass in that thing in the hallway while you all went out and partied without me."

"But you were there, right? You were there for every bit of it, and you were at home too. No crowds, but in the thick of it at the same time. How did it feel?"

Zoe crossed her hands over her crotch but didn't answer. It seemed like an unconscious act to Minh, but Zoe's cheeks began to colour a little. Zoe remembered everything, of being turned into a screensaver by the immersive hardware Minh had built, simultaneously bound helpless behind the mirror at the end of the hallway and also with her friends, looking out through the lens of Minh's camera, hearing everything through the microphone. Feeling everything as Minh and her friends brushed their fingers over the background picture of Zoe's helpless body on the phone screen, letting the hardware that Minh had attached to her translate those gestures into teasing, tormenting strokes until Zoe had surrendered completely, becoming her puppet, climaxing on command with a flick of Minh's thumb on a phone screen in a darkened nightclub across town.

"I got some good physiometric datapoints," Minh continued, "I mapped out your responses and analysed the patterns."

Zoe took a step closer to the holdall, her eyes fixed on it now.

"What did you do?" she murmured.

"You know the code I asked you for? The AI training set? I managed to combine it into an adversarial training system, one net simulating your responses, the other one trying to elicit those responses."

"Minh, that code's confidential. If Chloe found out I was lifting company property I'd be fired."

"It's private use. Just you and me. It's amazing, by the way. You did a good job."

Zoe's attention fixed on her friend's face, her misgivings showing.

"But what did you do, Minh? You built what?"

"I didn't build a what, I built a you. Or at least, your responses, all the way up to each climax from the hen's night when you were in the mirror."

"You built a me?"

Minh paused for a moment. She felt a delicious tingling deep in her core. She had to say it right, she had to make her friend understand.

"I built you, that was one AI network. It reacts like you do."

"Why?"

"Because I needed to build the other AI, the one that provides the stimulus. I put the two of them together."

Zoe's eyes were wide now, her posture stiffening, her face flushed. Minh began to grin, knowing that she had Zoe exactly where she wanted her. Zoe was snared.

"What happened?" Zoe rasped.

"I ran the system, Zoe. I simulated virtual you through about a hundred days of sex in twenty hours. I had to tune the factors a bit. A hundred days of endless bliss."

Minh reached out and stroked her friend's arm. Zoe was transfixed. She didn't pull away.

"By the end of the run, the control AI was tuned finely enough to keep virtual you just on the edge, perpetually."

"Just on the edge? Why?"

"It was the goal I chose. Not endless orgasms, that would be easy, just ramping up and down in cycles. No, the balance, the denial, teetering on the brink, that's the hard part."

Zoe laid a hand on the carryall, blinking rapidly. Beneath the soft cotton of her t-shirt, Minh noticed twin points poking out.

"What's in the bag? The harness?" Zoe asked.

"The harness was just a prototype, version one. I'll tell you what's in the bag, Zoe. It's version two-point-zero. Want to see?"

Zoe nodded. It was a simple, quick movement, but Minh felt it deep in her core, an exquisite thrill. She unzipped the bag carefully and reached inside.

The suit was black, made from slick latex material, with a set of wires emerging at intervals all along the surface. Minh pulled it out and let it unravel, watching Zoe's reaction as her eyes travelled over the shiny surface.

"I had to use latex because you can't wash the suit afterwards, it would destroy the electronics. Latex is wipeable though. I ordered it off a specialist clothing site and then made some adjustments of my own."

She handed it to Zoe, who took it carefully, holding it up.

"The prototype had a few pads for the crotch and the breasts, but this version has them all over. It's a full body experience this time. I also ran fibre-optics threads down the limbs, the fingers, the spine, so that if the suit is deformed, the system can detect it. Even movement of a few millimetres is detectable, so you don't have to make grand sweeping gestures, it can be subtle. The movements are relayed to the virtual model, giving you control of your limbs, to a certain extent."

"My limbs?"

"Yeah, Zoe, your limbs. When I put you in there."

That seemed to break the spell and Zoe's attention snapped back to her friend.

"Me? You want to put me in this?"

"Yeah, I do. Then I want to run the simulation on you, on the real Zoe."

"What?"

"It's the scientific method, babe. I've constructed the experiment, now I need to compare against real world data."

Minh could see the hesitation in her friend. She probed gently.

"Cn you imagine how it would feel, to be totally immersed in it?" she murmured.

Minh reached into the holdall again and pulled out a black motorcycle helmet.

"The piece de resistance," she breathed, "With the visual and aural displays fully integrated. The visor's been replaced by screens. It's fully padded. There's even a straw for drinking."

She passed it to Zoe, who turned it over in her hands.

"Why did you put a straw in?" Zoe asked.

"Rehydration."

"How long would I be in there for?"

"As long as we want."

"We?"

Heart pounding in her throat, Minh moved closer, taking the helmet from her friend, then running a hand tenderly through her blonde hair.

"Yeah, we. It's an adventure, just like back in postgrad. I wanted to show you something special. What do you think?"

Minh bit her lip, barely daring to breathe, her eyes locked on the delicate features of the woman in front of her.

"It's not cheating Zoe. It's a game, an escape. Ben's shooting paintballs with his friends, so why shouldn't you have some fun of your own. You'd be the world's first metanaut."

"I don't think I'd be the first, Minh. I'm not even sure that's a real word."

"You'd be the only one I've ever seen. A brave new frontier. C'mon."

Zoe hesitated, swallowing hard. Her eyes met Minh's and there was a spark there, glittering in the blue.

"I'll give it a try."

Minh felt herself shudder, but she supressed it ruthlessly, instead giving Zoe a curt nod, sounding businesslike now.

"Okay. Well, you'll need to strip, and maybe go to the toilet first. I'll need a few minutes with the mirror."

---

Minh worked diligently, ensuring everything would be perfect. The mirror stood at the end of the hallway, full length, framed in pine. Minh swung it open to reveal the cabinet hidden behind it with straps hanging down from the back wall. The mirrored front was two-way, and she pressed a hidden button on the side of the frame to turn on the strip lighting that illuminated the interior. Minh unscrewed the straps fixed to the back wall of the cabinet, fixing more minimal attachments in their place, enough to support Zoe's bodyweight almost entirely.

When she was done, Minh stepped back to appraise her handiwork. Once satisfied, she made her way into Zoe's bedroom, noticing little details, like the wedding picture on the wall: Ben and Zoe caught in a kiss on the grass. There were his clothes in the rack too, and a man's jacket over a chair, little things that had changed in the last few months. Minh tried to dismiss them: it made Zoe happy. She'd always wanted to be married, always wanted that happy-ever-after with a good man, even back when they were students together. The things that Minh and Zoe had done together sometimes, late at night, that was all just an experiment, a dalliance, a little understanding between best friends.

Minh turned her attention to the figure in the centre of the room, standing motionless. Minh had installed Zoe inside the suit easily, encountering little resistance from the petite blonde woman, even when she'd shown Zoe the inserts in the suit's crotch. Zoe had allowed herself to be positioned, bent over and lubricated, letting Minh slide the rigid lengths into her rear and her pussy. Minh shuddered again at the memory of how it had felt to part Zoe's entrance and push the second insert into her, how warm Zoe's pussy had felt.

Now, here she was, sealed inside the latex suit, the helmet secured over her head, standing as if to attention, double penetrated and cut off from the outside world. Minh raised her hand in front of the featureless helmet, seeing herself reflected back, and snapped her fingers. Zoe didn't react, her ears cocooned by the noise-cancelling headset built into the helmet, her hearing muted completely.

"You look so good, baby. Fuck, I wish I'd have done this to you back then. You would have let me do anything to you back then, hey? We could have had so much fun with this."

Minh walked around behind her friend, reaching out to run a fingertip down her spine, tracing along the zip. Zoe didn't react, insulated from Minh's delicate touch by the suit. Emboldened, Minh came up close behind her, letting the fingertip trail up and over her shoulder, then down her front, tracing over the modest curve of her breast to brush ever so lightly over the rigid bump of her nipple, erect under the black, glossy latex.

Zoe reached up, but Minh withdrew her hand quickly, leaving the other woman to wonder if she had really just been touched, or if she'd imagined it.

"Yes, baby, was that just in your head?" Minh taunted, stepping around her again.

"There's nothing, is there? Just a void. Don't worry, I'm gonna fill it up for you soon. I'm gonna fill you up more than you ever imagined. Just like old times, babe, but no more clunky attempts, no more half measures. Now, I have complete control."

She took Zoe's hand and felt a little thrill at the startled response of the shiny black figure in front of her reacting to Minh's unexpected touch.

"Yeah, I'm right here. Come and be my puppet. Time to play."

Minh led her friend out of the bedroom and into the hallway, relishing the way that Zoe followed without resistance. Minh pushed her carefully backwards into the open cabinet, and began to attach the fixtures on the back wall to the rings set into the back of Zoe's suit. The was a mount point for each wrist and each ankle, securing her limbs firmly in place, the mountings concealed behind her body so that from the front it appeared that the black shape was simply standing in the cabinet at attention. Minh trailed a hand over her friend's petite breasts and was rewarded with a shiver from the trapped woman.

Finally, Minh pushed the helmet back, locking it to a special mounting point, plugging in a set of cables that ran down to a unit by the immobile figure's feet. Minh crouched down to it, plugging it in and flicking the power switch. It began to hum, booting up and initialising its systems. Satisfied, Minh stepped back and closed the front, encasing the helpless form of her friend behind the two-way mirror glass.

"On display for me," Minh murmured to herself, "Such a perfect, beautiful doll."

Minh regarded the shiny, black, female shape through the glass, her hand sliding under her waistband to the heat between her own legs.

"My beautiful perfect doll," she gasped as her own fingers slid inside herself.

---

At first, it was dark and silent. Zoe tried to move, but she discovered quickly just how well her friend had anchored her body in position. She tested her arms, feeling free to wriggle her shoulders and flap her elbows, but her wrists were locked securely in position. She could open and close her fists, but that was it. There was something in her mouth too, filling it. Minh had said it had a tube to suck if she got thirsty, but it had another function also.

Her legs were the same, with enough freedom of moment at her knees to be able to press her thighs together, but her stance was fixed, her feet locked shoulder-width apart, her weight supported by the attachments that ran up her back, so that her feet rested only lightly on the ground. As the minutes passed and she became accustomed to the sensation, it began to feel like she was floating.

The inserts couldn't be ignored though. They hadn't been large, they weren't dildos. The one that Minh had pushed into her rear was slender and perhaps three inches long. The one in her pussy was an inch longer and more substantial, filling her but not stretching. Unable to do anything else, she clamped her thighs together experimentally, squeezing the invader with her pelvic floor muscles, getting used to how it occupied the space inside her.

Suddenly, there was a chime and the world flickered into existence: a featureless dark blue. Words appeared in white, scrolling up faster than she could read, and she recognised the boot-up sequence. Her body's boot-up sequence, she thought with a little tremor of excitement. Somewhere, out in the real world, Minh would be standing there watching her, with that little smile on her face, watching her friend booting up, activating and then....

The world opened up. Zoe gasped, though any sounds she made didn't reach her ears; the link between speaking and hearing was still severed. Stretching out to infinity on all directions, the universe was a roiling sea of turbulent rainbow colours, ebbing and flowing as if under the influence of titanic gravity patterns, spiralling in on themselves and then erupting in fountains of iridescence.

"What the fuck?" she gasped, and saw the words appear in front of her, hanging in space, even though she hadn't heard herself speak.

"What is this?"

Again the words flashed up in front of her.

~ Hey babe how does it feel?

"I don't know."

~ Give it a moment

"Minh, is that you?"

~ Yeah I'm here. You're safe

"How are you talking to me?"

~ I have a message window open on my phone. You aren't talking either, not really. The helmet's decoding jaw and throat movements and turning them into text. The insert stops you from actually speaking