Jack was a little nervous for much of the day on Friday as he waited for the opportunity to put his plans into action. They continued photography during the morning, and after lunch worked on instructional text for all of the photos taken over the last couple days. They finished around three, and then met with Ms. Cooper and Alice for a few minutes.
Jack gave a status report on the website, and then asked, "How has the order process been going on the new site? Everything ok?"
"Like clockwork, Jack," Alice beamed, "that is, once we got used to the new computer thingy. The guys back there tell me it's really 'cool'."
Jack grinned back. "That's good to hear Alice." He turned to Ms. Cooper. "Traffic on the new site has been growing slowly over the last few days. How have purchases been compared to the old site?"
"Well, not surprisingly, they dipped quite a bit on Monday due to the server problems. Tuesday and Wednesday were a little down, but yesterday was good. We'll know more after the weekend, which is usually our busiest time."
Jack replied, "I'll keep my fingers crossed."
Ms. Cooper looked around. "Anyone have anything else?"
Jack figured it was now or never, so said, "I have something to run by you, if you have a few minutes, Ms. Cooper. It doesn't need take up anyone else's time, though."
"Ok. Have a good weekend, everyone." She turned to Jack. "Do you guys want to talk here, or in my office?"
"Office might be better, and it's just me. Jennifer needs to run a quick errand."
Ms. Cooper shrugged. "Ok, come on."
"Actually, I need to run out to the car for a moment. I'll be right there."
Jack walked with Jennifer out to his small SUV, retrieved a large box, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Wish me luck!"
Jennifer snorted. "Luck? What do you need that for? You have me, remember? I'll be there, too." She kissed him back, and then got into the SUV to drive it around the building to appear as if she had left. She claimed she could drive perfectly well as part of her adaptation to his society, and it appeared to be true, but she hadn't been in any real traffic, yet, so Jack told her to just drive out of sight.
Jack lugged his box back inside and to Ms. Cooper's office. She raised her eyebrows when she saw it, and when he pushed her door closed. "Well, this is certainly a mystery."
"Think of it more as a surprise. Um..." Jack has been trying to figure out how to start this conversation, and hadn't come up with anything he had been really happy with, then inspiration struck. "Did Nick tell you about the first time he and I met?"
"Not much. Just that you reacted a bit oddly when he told you what we do. Or I guess I should say, oddly in a different way than most do when they learn what we do," she qualified with a rueful smile.
"That's true. I told him it was due to a very odd coincidence."
"Oh?"
"Yes. That coincidence stems from the fact that I had just spoken to an acquaintance of mine; a rather odd guy who, well, he's a bit of a loner, has lots of spare cash and time on his hands, and happens to be a fairly brilliant computer scientist and mechanical engineer, not to mention, as you will see in a moment, a pretty incredible artist. Similar to our discussion on the first day you and I met, he has also lamented in the past the sorry state of adult toys for men, and decided to do something about it. The result is this."
Jack pulled a smaller box out of the big one, and from that he removed a sleek, modernly-designed black oblong case about eight inches high by six inches wide by eighteen inches long. On one end of the box was what appeared to be a woman's mouth and lower face molded out of silver-colored rubber. It appeared to be a better version of the material used for the 'realistic' mouths, often molded from porn stars, that were meant to simulate oral sex, but were really only sheaths used to masturbate with. The lips were purple and pursed in an 'O'.
"Uh, what is it?" Ms. Cooper asked dubiously.
"It's an oral sex, or if you prefer, blow job, simulator."
Her eyebrows went up. "Really?"
"Yep. It works via a combination of mechanical servos and a small sealed hydraulic system to reproduce very lifelike motion. It is built from the same technologies that many movie special effects companies use to make their creations' movements so lifelike, although more refined."
Ms. Cooper's interest was definitely piqued. "So, how does it work?"
"It has a small computer inside that you control with this wired remote." Jack showed her the black flat rectangle hosting an array of buttons, then plugged its cord into the simulator. "The simulator has six pre-programmed 'oral scenarios', four of which are regular blow-job scenarios varying in intensity from mild to trailer hitch chrome removal, and two specialty scenarios, one teasing, and one tormenting."
"'Tormenting'?"
"Yeah, it's a bit on the rough side. Some use of the teeth, that sort of thing."
"
Teeth?
" Ms. Cooper asked incredulously.
"Yep. The inside of the mouth is anatomically accurate."
"So, isn't that kind of dangerous? Couldn't someone get hurt?"
"No, the device is designed so that it cannot exert enough pressure to break the skin. It can bite down hard enough to be uncomfortable, but not actually damaging. Its at-rest position is always with the jaws completely open so that the user can't get trapped. All they have to do is hit this red panic button, or cut the unit off, and it will instantly go to at-rest."
"Wow. So..." She obviously didn't know what to ask next. Jack took the initiative and pulled another simulator out of the box. This one had a clear plastic housing rather than the glossy black of the first one. "This is a demo model. I didn't show it to you first because, as you can see, all the inner workings are visible. That can look a bit intimidating, especially in operation. Would you like to see one in action?"
She started and looked at him questioningly, obviously wondering if he was implying what it sounded like. He smiled and blushed a bit. "It has a demo mode to show how realistically it can move."
"Oh." She sounded relieved, disappointed, curious and excited. "Absolutely!"
Jack lined up the black-cased model so that the mouth pointed at her, then bent to plug it into the power-strip by her desk. "Why the silver and purple?" she asked while he was plugging it up.
"Well, the inventor figured that some folks might be a little creeped-out by realistic flesh, like this one," he turned the clear demo model's mouth to face her, and she had to admit that the incredibly lifelike skin and lips could be a bit creepy, "so he also made this 'android' face."
"Ah. That makes sense," she replied, her tone of voice adding, 'as much as any of this surreal meeting makes sense.'
Jack just grinned and pressed the 'demo' button. Ms. Cooper jumped as the mouth came to life, the lips opening and closing, then puckering for a kiss. The tongue poked through them and licked them provocatively before extending further to show its flexibility by becoming wide and flat, then long and pointed. It even curled up into a little tube.
She jumped again when the mouth started to move toward her, revealing the outside case of the unit to be a sleeve around an inner case. The inside case, containing all the components and with the mouth attached to its end, could extend out of and retract back into the sleeve, allowing the mouth full forward and backward motion.
The unit extended to its furthest point, lips again in an 'O' as if seeking something on which to suck. Reaching its limit, it frowned in disappointment at not finding anything, then the unit slowly retracted again as the mouth went through the rest of its contortions, including baring and clicking together a bright, white set of teeth, before finally coming to rest.
When she was sure it was done, Ms. Cooper said, "That's incredible!... and a bit creepy."