Abby finished carefully stacking the final stack of bowls and plates into the dishwasher and set it off with a sigh, staring out at the dark night through the window above the sink. She loved having her friends over, she really did, but they were so noisy. So noisy and so messy too. But, she reminded herself, it had been a good night though. A really good night. She just wished she didn’t have to tidy up the aftermath.
Abby rubbed her face tiredly. She couldn’t wait to jump in the shower and get into her pyjamas and…
DRRRRING
Abby looked up with a frown, then padded back out of the kitchen and along the hall to the front door. Chrissie was stood on the doorstep, looking a bit chagrined.
“Have you seen my car keys?” She asked. “I think they must have dropped out of my pocket somewhere.”
Abby stepped back to let the young woman in. Chrissie was a slender brunette with long crinkly waves of chestnut brown hair and a very slender, almost boyish figure with very little chest, a tiny waist and long legs. She had huge blue eyes and an enthralling enthusiasm that sucked you in like a really happy hurricane. Abby had had quite the crush on her for a while, but after a weekend away with the girls soon realised she could never live with Chrissie. Chrissie was the kind of girl that left half-drunk cups of tea in stupid places, just begging for them to get knocked over, and half eaten food on the sofa. Chrissie was also the reason they had lost their deposit on the place they’d rented because she had decided to eat a curry while watching TV in her bedroom, lying on the pristine white bedspread… with the outcome any sensible person would have anticipated.
With her complete lack of anticipation and awareness in any situation, it was truly terrifying to know she could drive. Abby paused as she watched Chrissie search the sofa haphazardly, then her eyes narrowed as she thought about it.
“Chris, didn’t you get a lift with Laura?” Abby asked after a moment.
Chrissie paused, hand buried between the two sofa cushions.
“Did I?”
“Yeah,” Abby said with a smile. “She made a point of going to get you because you kept forgetting which date it was.”
A light slowly dawned over Chrissie’s face.
“Oh yeaaaah…” Chrissie said slowly, then sat on Abby’s sofa with a thump. “I forgot about that. I wondered why she kept asking me if I was okay to get home.”
“Well, at least she’s not sat in her car waiting for you,” Abby said with a grin. “I’ll call a taxi for you.”
Abby reached for her phone book as Chrissie flopped happily on the sofa. She paused, looking at something in the corner of the room.
“Abs, what’s that?” She asked.
Abby looked up, and a slow smile dawned across her face.
“That’s my Belle Jar,” She said casually.
Chrissie looked at the jar thoughtfully.
“It’s not your normal style,” Chrissie remarked.
It wasn’t, Abby supposed. Abby’s whole house had an air of comfortable quality, a bit like an old country house, with soft thick carpet, plushy sofas, tastefully carved wooden furniture and a gold-framed mirror over the fireplace. You could put a cut-glass decanter with brandy balloons into her house and it would seem perfectly natural, which just made the Belle Jar stand out all that more.
It was about 3 foot tall and maybe 2 feet wide. It was a completely black opaque glass cylinder, tapering delicately to a rounded top. It was set into a thick shiny chrome base with stubby articulated legs poking out of the bottom. All in all, it looked like something out of a sci-fi, not something that should be sat in the corner of Abby’s living room.
Chrissie sprawled across the sofa to look at it better.
“What’s it for?” Chrissie asked.
“To make your tongue wag?” Abby suggested with a smile. “What if I just think it’s pretty?”
Chrissie snorted.
“It’s waaaay too close to Art Deco for you – you’re an art nouveau kind of girl,” Chrissie remarked. “So what’s it for?”
Abby paused and put the phone down.
“Can you keep a secret?” Abby asked.
Chrissie looked at her, big blue eyes flaring wide in the anticipation of something exciting. Abby smiled.
“You know I said that I went on a date a few weeks ago?” Abby asked.
“Sure,” Chrissie sat up. “How did it go?”
“Okay,” Abby admitted. “I quite liked the guy and we had drinks and then we came back and we had some really great sex and then…”
Abby trailed off and sighed. She looked at the skinny brunette.
“Chrissie, be honest, how would you describe me?” She asked after a moment.
Chrissie looked at Abby. She was short, not quite 5 foot, with ash-blonde dead-straight hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. It was an unusual colouring, but it worked really well on Abby. She was always neat and precise, and always wore styles and colours that complemented her. Even her socks always matched, which Chrissie found highly surprising and slightly suspicious.
“A cute blonde,” Chrissie replied.
“Chris,” Abby said reprovingly.
“Fine… you’re a short cute blonde.”
Abby rolled her eyes.
“I know what you guys call me,” She said with a smile. “It varies between control freak and neat freak when you’re feeling polite, and a killjoy, OCD and anally retentive when you’re not.”
Chrissie felt herself blush. She had no idea that Abby had heard that, and looking deep into those brown eyes there was absolutely no point in arguing.
“But we still love you!” Chrissie assured her.
“And I love you too, which is why I let you over here even though I know something will get spilt, another thing will get broken and I will be up until the early hours cleaning it up because I can’t handle the idea of sleeping knowing my house is a mess,” Abby replied ruefully. “I know you guys think I need to loosen up, but I’ve tried and I can’t. Trying to not notice mess is more stressful for me than just tidying it up.” Abby ran a hand over her hair. “So… this guy stayed the night and he just… made a mess everywhere. He made breakfast and left the pans in the sink in a pool of tepid water… he left his clothes strewn around the house and I just… I wanted him gone, you know? He just threw everything out of order. And it just brought home the fact that I am not right for a normal human partnership, you know?”
Chrissie bounced upright on the sofa.
“Sure you are, you’ve just got to find the right person!” She said brightly.
“I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing where I’m concerned, and more importantly, I don’t want one, even if they are perfect. I like living on my own. I like having things the way I want them and knowing exactly where I left things. I don’t think I could handle living with another person,” Abby said with a smile. “So that’s where the jar comes in.”
Chrissie looked at the jar, then at Abby, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s… hard to explain, but I’ve hired it from this company online, and well…” Abby smiled. “Double-rap on the glass Chris.”
Chrissie looked at her, then knocked twice on the black glass. Instantly, the glass became transparent, and you could see what was inside.
A human form was knelt inside the jar, straddling a hump in the centre of the floor of the jar. Straps held their legs tightly in place, keeping them bent in a kneeling position, and strapped to the side of the ridge, more holding their forearms strapped to each other behind their back. They were dressed from head to toe in some tight black material, the shiny surface carefully delineating every part of their body, from the well-defined pecs and abs, to the sizeable penis displayed ontop of the ridge in the floor. The bump seemed to be designed display the genitalia to it’s best effect, nestling underneath his balls to push them up.
The only part of him that wasn’t displayed was his face. This was also covered in black rubber-like material, but it was padded or inflated to wipe away any trace of personality. The only breaks in the smooth sphere was a pipe that jutted from where his mouth should be, and vanished over his shoulder and into the floor behind him, and another, thinner pipe that tucked into the back of his neck.
Chrissie stared through the glass, jaw slightly open. The whole thing was perfectly lifelike and yet eerily still, like a perfectly crated statue.
“Is he real?” Chrissie demanded in almost a whisper.
“No, but he can be,” Abby admitted. “This is their… tester model. They insist you have this one and trial it for a month before you can have a properly living model.” Abby looked at Chrissie, grinning. “Want me to call you that taxi now?”
Chrissie shook her head, still staring at the guy.
“So it’s some kind of… android?” She asked, still amazed.
“It’s a robot programmed with the responses of real humans, it’s pretty terrifyingly realistic,” Abby remarked. “Give me a hand to move the coffee table and I’ll show you.”
Abby and Chrissie moved the coffee table out of the way and Abby pulled a little remote from the drawer of the table. It was streamlined chrome like the legs of the Belle Jar, and she pointed at it before clicking a button. The legs gave a soft whirr, and then with a bizarre shambling gait, it marched over to the centre of the room and lowered itself down in front of the sofa. Abby pressed the power button at the top and the figure inside came alive.
The first obvious sign was his chest, which started to expand and contract like he was breathing. After a few seconds, Chrissie gave a shrill squeak as he sat up straight, giving a rolling motion with his neck like he was stretching out after a nap. Then he started to struggle. Chrissie’s jaw physically dropped as the form contorted and thrashed as much as he could within the confines of his suit and the straps.
“Sorry, I’ve got his resistance level set to high,” Abby tapped the remote. “You can choose to have him more pliant.”
As she did, the model stopped struggling and sat back, half-heartedly fidgeting and squirming every now and then.
“It’s so realistic,” Chrissie gasped. “I kind of want to touch it.”
“With the full models you can,” Abby explained. “The top of the jar comes off and you can just grope to your heart’s content. Like I said, it’s just a trial version.”
Chrissie looked at her.
“Me and Laura had you pegged for a bondage freak, but Lina reckoned you couldn’t be because you hated the Fifty Shades stuff.”
“I do hate the Fifty Shades stuff, but not because of the bondage aspect, but because the writing was so awful I couldn’t make it past chapter 1,” Abby stated cheerfully. “And why would I go watch that, when there’s plenty of better porn with a more believable story available on the internet?”
Chrissie froze for a moment, then looked at Abby in stunned amazement.
“I do not believe you watch porn.”
“Of course I watch porn,” Abby rolled her eyes.
“Nope. You’re too Vulcan for that kind of stuff.”
Abby blew her a raspberry.
“I’m OCD, not asexual,” Abby stated.
Abby handed Chrissie the remote and plopped down on the sofa casually.
“Have a play,” She commanded.
Chrissie looked at the remote, staring at it with reverence.
“How does it…”
Abby leant forwards, pulling Chrissie onto the sofa with her.
“The boy is on what’s known as a sybian,” Abby explained, pointing at the lump he was straddling. “So basically, the thing he’s sat on vibrates. It also has… appendages inserted in strategic places.”
Abby leant over Chrissie and pushed a button. The effect seemed electric on the doll. He started to squirm, even more, grinding his hips slightly, leaning back and rolling with the sensations. Chrissie started to dial up the vibrations, watching, open mouthed as the doll reacted to it, and not just in the struggling intensity.
“Oh my God, it’s got a boner?!”
“What did you expect would happen?” Abby demanded. She pointed to another button. “If you want to slow his fun down a bit, there’s a chastity button there.”
Chrissie pushed it and inside the suit something tightened and something inflated. You could almost hear the growl of frustration from the doll as he continued to receive the same stimulation, without any chance of release. Abby ran through the various toys on the remote.
“That button there is his nipples, depending on the model it’s either and electric shock, or a pinching sensation. That one releases an aphrodisiac gas, not real gas obviously as this is a model, but they recommend getting the gas-mask version if you want it for real life play, that one inflates the plug in his butt, that one swells up his gag, not that that’s important as the dome is sound-proof.”
“How the hell did I ever think you were innocent?”
“You clearly weren’t paying enough attention.”
Chrissie toyed with the model, clearly enjoying herself.
“You should have got this thing out before the other girls left,” She said with a grin.
Abby hesitated.
“I thought about it,” She admitted. “But I know Priss can be… very prudish about this kind of thing, and I didn’t trust Joy to keep it to herself.”
Chrissie looked at her.
“Where on earth did you find a company that makes this shit?” she demanded.
“Internet,” Abby said with a grin. “I’d heard of them before, a bondage vlogger bought one for herself. There are models where you buy them for self-use, so you lock yourself inside for a set amount of time, programme your kinks into it and go for a ride in it. It was fun to watch her, but my kinks don’t run that way. Anyway, then I found out that you can get occupied ones. You can buy one with a robot built in, like this one, or you can buy an empty one and… hire an occupant.”
Chrissie gaped at her.
“Hire an… People actually do this?” Chrissie asked. “As a job?”
“Yeah, it actually pays really well,” Abby nodded. “They’re always looking for occupants though. Some of them only do a few days, some of them are long term occupants. If you have a long term one, the jar automatically lets them out for a day every week. You can of course find your own occupant, and the company washes their hands of it. If it’s for personal use there are no restrictions.”
Abby grinned.
“Of course, you have to pay upkeep costs – they offer a really good deal that covers general maintenance as well as replacements for food canisters, waste disposal, gas tanks… the whole works, and if you hire a living occupant off them, you have to sign up for it,” Abby explained.
Chrissie looked at the jar.
“Seems like more hassle than having a boyfriend to me,” She remarked.
“I totally disagree,” Abby replied. “It’s probably cheaper as well.”
Chrissie pressed the button to release the chastity device and they watched as the doll simulated what looked like an explosive orgasm.
“Doesn’t it feel a bit one sided to you?” Chrissie asked. “They get their rocks off, but you can never touch them or actually have sex with them?”
Abby smiled.
“In the full versions, the dome can come off and you can let the out for sexy times if you so desire and have an occupant who’s down for that,” Abby explained.
Chrissie looked at Abby.
“You have got to invite me back when you get the full model,” she requested instantly.
Abby blinked at her in surprise.
“Really?” Abby said.
“Really really. In fact you should throw a dinner party and we should all have a play.”
Abby hesitated.
“Okay, you’re on.”
Chrissie held out a hand.
“Shake on it!”
“You’re such a child,” Abby took the hand with a grin.
Abby looked at Chrissie.
“Is there any point at all in me calling you a taxi now?” She asked with a sigh.
“Nope,” Chrissie said brightly, playing with the buttons.
“Thought not,” Abby said with a roll of her eyes. “I’ll go make some tea. Do NOT leave it in the middle of the floor.”
“Yeesh, you spill one cup of tea…”
“Five cups of tea.”
“…And you never live it down.”
Almost a month later, Chrissie’s phone buzzed. She looked at it. Abby. And outside of the normal group chat. There was no preamble, just one sentence.
He’s here.