Note
This is the first part in what I think will be a 3-4 part series. I also intend to build out more stories set in this world. Anyone who finds the this world interesting is welcome to use this idea in their own writing; I'd love to see more stories in this universe. This story starts off a bit slow in order to introduce the universe, but subsequent stories in this series will have much more action.
All characters are over 18.
For fans on my other series, Romance Under Control, I'm sorry it has been so long since the last chapter, and I plan to get back to it soon. I have lots more ideas planned for that series but haven't had much time to write recently.
To Be Ava
It's good to be Ava.
To constantly bask in the warm glow of perfect health, to move with the effortless grace of a dancer and the power of an athlete, to feel the sensuous touch of the finest fabrics over perfectly smooth skin, to eat a perfect diet of the freshest, ripest fruits: All of these things are every day life for Ava. In most ways Ava's life is a paradise. There is only one problem: Every hour of every day, Ava burns with desire for the one pleasure forbidden to her.
That might not sound like the worst thing in the world: most people enjoy feeling desire from time to time. For most people desire is temporary state, an excitement that soon yields to pleasure. For most people desire is a rare, enjoyable feeling, a change of pace to liven up their day to day lives.
For Ava desire is something very different. For Ava desire does not lead to pleasure, only to more desire. For Ava desire drowns out all other thoughts and feelings, an ever growing wave that never quite breaks.
Desire is Ava's greatest gift and her cruelest curse. If you said that desire is Ava's job, you would technically be right, but you'd be missing the bigger picture. Desire is Ava's calling.
And as Ava's fiancee, Ava's desire is my duty.
Full Sensory Xperience
Almost 4 years ago, in 2028, a tiny biotech firm that nobody had ever heard of announced a breakthrough that turned the world upside down. For the first time, it was possible to record sensory inputs to the brain in one person and replay them in another. Everything a person saw, heard, tasted, smelled and felt could be recorded and replayed. For the viewer, it felt like inhabiting someone else's body as a passive observer. They called this technology "Full Sensory Xperience", or FSX for short. The person who's sensorium had been recorded was commonly referred to as a "sensor". A recording of a sensor was called an "xperience".
Within a day of the announcement FSX had taken the world by storm. The stock market went crazy, traditional media companies crashing while anything remotely related to FSX soared. Everyone knew right away that FSX was the future of entertainment. Governments raced to try to regulate the new tech while innovators raced even faster to work around regulations. Companies tripped over themselves trying to develop content for this new media form. Fortunes were made and lost in days.
Despite all the hype, it took a couple years for FSX to really catch on. The first generations of the technology relied on brain implants which only a small percentage of the population was willing to get. Early recordings felt shallow and empty. Sensations didn't feel quite right, and the experience of a recording varied greatly from person to person.
FSX truly caught on after a few major improvements. First, scientists discovered how to record someone's emotional state in addition to their sensory inputs. This made an enormous difference to the quality of FSX recordings. Early recordings had felt empty because they lacked the emotions that went with each sight, sound and touch. It was quickly recognized that recording emotions accurately was much more important than recording high resolution video and audio.
Market interest in FSX had waned after the initial release, but as soon as FSX recordings including emotion hit the market there was an enormous resurgence in consumer appetite. FSX studios started focusing heavily on emotion, and started hiring sensors for their ability to feel. Acting wasn't enough anymore, a sensor had to truly emote in order for it to come across as authentic on the recording.
With the market's renewed interest in FSX, it didn't take long to develop new FSX interfaces that did not require implants at all. The new interfaces sat outside the head using similar technology to an EEG. This style of interface was commonly referred to as a "crown", and quickly fashion companies got involved in the space creating slim, elegant crowns that quickly became a status symbol.
And of course, the adult entertainment industry welcomed this innovation with open arms (and legs).
To Be A Sensor
It isn't easy to be a sensor.
In the age of television, actors had to look the part and say the right lines, but what was going on inside their heads didn't matter. An actor might feel a little silly saying a particular line but that didn't matter as long as they were able to hold the right facial expression. And most importantly, mistakes could be edited out after a scene was recorded.
For a sensor, it isn't enough just to act the part, everything they see, hear, tasted, smelled and felt has to be just right. Sensors have to be in perfect health, any aches or pains they feel would be felt by the viewer as well. The hardest challenge for sensors though, is to feel exactly the right emotions. A sensor who doubts their abilities might feel nervous when acting out a scene, and that nervousness will ruin the xperience for the viewer. A sensor playing a sad scene has to truly feel sad from the bottom of their heart, or the scene will come across as shallow.
To make matters worse, despite dozens of companies spending billions of dollars on research, nobody has found a way to edit FSX recordings convincingly. Crude edits are possible. A sense can be removed from a recording leaving only the other senses, and splicing multiple recordings together is possible, although great care is required to avoid disorienting the viewer. However, a stray noise can't be edited out, lighting can't be tweaked, and emotions can't be fine tuned, faked, or enhanced.
Needless to say, top tier sensors are very rare and very, very well paid.
