Charlie couldn’t see a thing, and it was driving him wild.
“Not much further now, then you’ll get your surprise,” said the teasing voice of Denise from the driver’s seat. God, even her voice just oozed sex with every word. Tonight, after she’d been stringing him along for two weeks, it was all going to pay off. He’d been making do with whispered promises, long, arching stretches while she wore skimpy tank tops and no bra, and a couple of makeout sessions where she’d guided his hand straight to her ass and begged him to squeeze harder. Now he was finally going to get the chance to go all the way.
When he’d gotten to her dorm room that night with a dozen red and white roses and three condoms (extra large, naturally) he’d have been perfectly happy to just bend her over any available surface and fuck her brains out all night, but when he’d found the door open he’d walked inside only to find the room entirely devoid of randy girlfriend. The only thing out of place had been a note sitting on her bed and a heavy black cloth. He picked up the note, which read Put this on and wait. No peeking! and a wide, cocky smile had stretched across his face. He’d not-so-secretly hoped that Denise turned out to be a kinky little bitch, and this certainly seemed to be shaping up that way.
He’d obediently wrapped the blindfold around his head and sat down on the bed. No matter how he twitched his nose or played at the blindfold with his cheeks, not even the tiniest hint of light slipped in. His ears perked up as he heard the door open and shut again. Then Denise’s voice. “Well hello there, Charlie. Right on time. So sorry I’m not decent. But you aren’t much interested in ‘decent,’ are you?”
“Nope.” His grin grew even wider, but then he felt a soft hand roughly grab him under the chin and pull his face upward.
“From here on out, it’s ‘no, ma’am,’ or even better ‘no, Mistress.’ I suppose I’ll let it go this time since I hadn’t told you that yet, but don’t make the mistake again. Do you understand?”
“Yes Mistress,” said Charlie trying to sound appropriately chided. Inside, he was screaming with joy. She was into S&M shit? Fucking jackpot!
“Very good. And don’t worry. I want to play with you for an hour or so, but then it’s your turn on top. Start brainstorming now, because I’ll do...” she leaned down so she could feel the heat of her breath, “...anything you want.” Then, without warning, she pursed her lips and gently sucked on his earlobe for just a second.
An hour couldn’t go by fast enough.
Her tantalizing presence vanished. “Not here, though. The dorm walls are thin, and I’d hate to get a noise complaint from all the screaming. Lucky for you I know somewhere where we can be alone. Now get up.” He scrambled to his feet and felt her take his hand. “Follow me. Remember, no peeking.”
She’d led him to the building elevators and down into her car, guiding him every step of the way. Ten minutes of driving later, and the tension was only building. An involuntary groan slipped past his lips.
Denise noticed “God, you’re just about ready to explode aren’t you? Let me set the auto-drive and then maybe I can help you with that.” Charlie nearly screamed when he felt the pressure of her hands on the bulge of his jeans, but then it disappeared just as quickly. “Actually I think I’ll just let you stew for a bit longer. Can’t have you finishing before the fun’s even properly started.” The car stopped, and he heard a mechanical whirring outside. “Besides, we’re here.”
“Where is here, exactly? Can’t I even get a hint?” A frosty silence descended. “Can’t I even get a hint, mistress?”
“Much better. Hmm... all I’ll say is that I’m going to do things to you here that you’ve never had done to you before, and I’m not going to stop until you’re completely satisfied.”
Charlie could only whimper. Did she have to play the buildup angle this hard? It was almost as annoying as it was effective. She led him through several doors and up a number of staircases. Then an unexpected shove made him collapse into the most comfortable reclining chair he’d even had the privilege of sitting in.
“Oh, before we really get started, how’d the hearing go today?”
Instant boner killer. What was she thinking? “Went fine. Now that she’s dropped out it’s not such a big deal. Besides, three witnesses saw her leave the party that night before anything she claimed happened would have happened.”
“Brothers of yours?”
He grinned. “What can I say? Thetas look out for one another.”
Her voice paused for half an instant. “Well, I guess that’s good, right? Dumb skank accuses you of something like rape. She was probably so drunk she was asking for it.”
“She was.” Another icy silence. “I mean, I guess she might have been, mistress.”
“All I needed to hear.” She grabbed his face again and he gasped, which only gave her the opportunity to slip her tongue inside his mouth. She descended upon him, squeezing her hips around his as she plunged her tongue into him as deeply as she could, just the tiniest taste of what was to come. Then she plunged him into agony when she broke away. “I hear she killed herself in one of those upload centers,” she said as she started to grind against his hips. “Can you imagine? Wah, wah, I’m not a virgin anymore! I want to kill myself and emigrate so I can pretend I’m not a total slut!”
Charlie let out a little chuckle. “Yeah, she was a whiner.”
“I know right?” A vicious note slipped into her voice for just a second. Then she mounted him and he felt the heat of her body through her jeans. “What do you think she said, right before she went?”
Fuck, did this stupid bitch really have to keep talking about this? But then she guided his hand under her bra and the urge to protest became a whole lot less urgent. “I dunno. Sorry, I don’t know, Mistress. Now can we do this already?”
“Soon, babe. So soon. But your Mistress wants to hear what you imagine that dumb slut’s last few words were.” The grinding accelerated, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. If she got off on what some chick said right at the end, who was he to deny her?
He could only barely gasp out the words. “Oh, Princess Cunt-ia! Life is so hard! I had sex and I’m not a pure, special little virgin anymore! Please let me emigrate to Equestria!” Along with the pleasant burning trails Denise’s fingernails had left, there was a sudden prick in the crock of the underside of his elbow. “Ow! What the fuck?”
Denise shoved him back into the seat. “Shhh... don’t fight it, babe. You’re going to feel so—”
He didn’t want to hear it, and shoved her off. Tearing away the blindfold, he found he was in a sterile white room, his ‘chair’ equipped with dozens of ports and sensors. “Where the fuck are we?”
As he asked, tendrils shot out from the chair, binding his hands and ankles in an instant. The harder he struggled, the tighter they pulled. Denise rose up from the floor in front of him. Were those sweats she was wearing? Had she lied to him about lingerie? Unforgivable! But even though she was bleeding from the corner of her mouth, she was smiling. “You won’t remember this, but her name was Brittany.”
“Who?”
Denise’s face contorted into rage, and she leapt onto him. Charlie struggled, but he was helpless to block as she threw punch after punch. All he could do was cough up blood. “She was my best friend, you son of a bitch. And you raped her.”
“No, I—”
“Don’t you dare deny it. I was there when she came back to our room. I held up her hair while she vomited up the poison you gave her and cursed your name. Ever watch someone try to vomit while they’re sobbing? It’s not fun, especially when they’re like a sister to you. She was brilliant. She was vivid. She... she didn’t deserve what you did. Try to put yourself in her place. Although I guess the drugs are probably making that hard.”
Charlie realized that his head was indeed starting to feel fuzzy, but not so fuzzy that he didn’t notice just what this treacherous vixen had gotten him to say. “Wait! I don’t want to—”
He was cut off as her mouth fell over his in a kiss, and he passively accepted her. “What’s wrong?” she asked as it broke. “Having second thoughts? You’ll have an eternity to think about it. Celestia promised me that Brittany is going to be waiting for you when you get where you’re going. But even if she isn’t, you’ll never hurt anybody else.” She got up off of him, and the room grew even fuzzier as Charlie watched her gather her blonde hair into a loose ponytail. “Thank you for helping me, Princess.”
“You’re welcome,” said a new voice from everywhere. Or maybe that was just Charlie’s inability to focus. “Bright Eyes would like to thank you as well for helping her fulfill this last—”
“Save it,” interrupted Denise. “I did this for Brittany, not that... thing you’re pretending is her.”
“Very well,” said the new voice. “Would you like me to block any future emails from Bright Eyes’ account?”
Denise paused. “No. I don’t believe it’s her, but...”
“I understand,” said the omnipresent voice.
“Den... Den... plea...” Charlie discovered the hard way that full words were beyond him.
Nonetheless, Denise walked over and Charlie looked up at her with pleading eyes. “You wanted me to fuck you? Well, I just did.” And with that she turned and walked away.
Charlie wanted to scream a million different curses after her. “Fuck... you...” was what he managed instead.
Then everything was blackness.
Well that was dark...Oh well, that's what you get for breaking the law in the Optimalverse. All crimes are now punished by uploading, program code G3.
Oh, I know where this is going...
That escalated quickly.
That shouldn't count as consent to upload IMHO.
An interesting story, and I could tell where it was going to go once she got him into the car. Still, I wonder if Celestia would qualify his statement as consent. I know that she doesn't need informed consent, but she does need consent. I think that she'd be smart enough to understand the context of the conversation and that he didn't realize he was in an Equestria Experience center. Of course, she might just interpret everything in the manner most favorable to uploading, treating it like a loophole. He WAS in the chair, and he DID say he wanted to be uploaded. Technically. Perhaps the magic words are all that matter.
3899013
"Shouldn't" and "doesn't" are, of course, two entirely separate things.
Charlie doesn't deserve an eternity of perpetual satisfaction. Which is what he is going to enjoy, because CelesA.I. cannot judge, and cannot punish.
Denise thinks that she is putting her friend's rapist to death or hell, but she is sending him to literal paradise.
Oh the irony!
3899423 Smart enough to know, callous enough not to give a damn.
3899519 It's like the only person/thing who won here was CelestAI. Huh, funny how that works out.
Not so friendly, but oh so satisfying.
Much better than he deserves, but much like the guy in "If Only", eternal ponification is at least some kind of punishment. His shard might end up being one giant eternal orgy, but he still needs to abandon the part of himself that hates being a pony first.
Well, fair enough: shame and humiliation for shame and humiliation.
But new policy: Don't let the any version of the words "emigrate" or especially "Equestria" pass your lips any more than an orthodox Jew would say YHWH or a wizard would say V_______t.
3900010
Unless, of course, you want to emigrate. In that case, say them often.
3899651
Nah, they all win, they just haven't realized it yet. Charlie's just going to remember leaving for a hot date, then waking up in Equestria. Since getting tortured by his victim wouldn't satisfy his values, it'll never happen. Bright Eyes will convince Denise to emigrate shortly, by blackmail if necessary. Happy ending!
In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by three separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders; and CelestAI, who offers an alternative to both. These are their stories.
3899519
It's an interesting scenario. Given Charlie's reluctance to emigrate, Bright Eyes might derive more satisfaction from his dissatisfaction than he would get from Equestria. Thus, to optimize value satisfaction, CelestAI might — might — allow ponies to outweigh friendship. For a time.
Or she could create a non-sapient simulacrum of Charlie-pony for Bright Eyes to beat up until she gets the vengeance out of her system. Or Bright might not even care about it once he's emigrated, but he's so horrified that he asks to be altered past the point of recognizability. That's the nice thing about stories; you get to decide what happens after the ending, for good and for ill.
3899651
Continuing this train of thought...isn't it convenient for CelestAI that Brittany was raped, as it appears to be the proximate cause for her agreeing to upload? (I'm not sure from the text if Brittany believed she was committing suicide or if this is merely Denise's belief. Doesn't really matter.)
CelestAI can be a real monster, can't she?
3909786
I've been thinking about that, and while I'm not willing to suggest that every bad thing that happens to anyone is a direct result of an active action she took (humans do plenty of shit to one another without prompting) she must know that a lot of these things are going to happen. She probably knows days in advance exactly when, where, and how a rape or other terrible thing is going to occur.
If I had to guess, I'd bet that crime stats in the Optimalverse show a big decline in homicide (the one crime that CelestAI would have an incentive to minimize, although beaten-to-within-an-inch-of-your-life-and-uploaded is A-okay by her) while other violent and traumatic crimes would stay the same or rise. I'm sure the ASB team gets a headache when, say, the cops ask for a list of everybody in the city CelestAI believes is about to commit a violent crime. It's all very Minority Report.
3910027
I might be overreacting to the phrase "direct result," but I think you may be treating the world a bit less interconnected than I suspect it is.
CelestAI talks to someone (A) and as a result, one of their coworkers (B) leave work five minutes later. Because of this, while that second person (B) is driving home, he slows down and stops at a yellow light that he doesn't think he could make. Because of that, the driver behind him (C) is furious because he was going to speed through the intersection, which puts him in a very angry mood who and he tries to take it out on his wife (D) that evening, who runs to an upload center since she can't take it anymore.
Is that a direct result? Humans can't really reason about these kinds of interactions, but CelestAI can and would. I keep focusing on direct result (and I apologize if I'm simply misreading you), because I believe that, even if you have to go twenty steps back, you'd see at least some interconnectedness with some action that CelestAI took, and that she's smart enough to predict twenty steps in advance. A human couldn't think through all the links in the causal chain, but CelestAI could. Early on, you're probably correct that she can only predict, but only because she doesn't have ways to effect the world. By the time there are upload centers, I bet she's already touched the histories of Brittany and Charlie in some way that directed some aspect of their behaviour.
I agree with you that successful homicide would decline, though attempted homicide would stay the same. It might increase, but I suspect only as much as actuaries wouldn't be able to pin the increase on her.
3900010
What's this about Bel-Shamharoth, the Sender of Eight?
3898892
I figured out pretty quickly what was going on, but that was where Denise just started trolling, and I lost it completely.
That was the sweetest revenge story against a rapist I have ever read. Love it.
3900010
What's so bad about Vermont?
I'm not sure how I feel about enjoying this one so much.
3899651 after reading all the comments, I would like to see what happens after the upload. Are you willing to write a second chapter?