Chapter 1 - The Entrance

    In the not-too-distant future, a new tech startup tries to make your dreams come true... what could possibly go wrong?

Rick's heart pounded in his chest as he pulled into the parking spot. He'd never done anything like this before. So anxious! He could feel his hands shaking as he held the steering wheel. Out the window, he could clearly see the FantaSim storefront - about ten parking spots farther down the street, of course. He didn't dare park directly in front. What if someone recognized his car? Never mind that he had arrived in Vegas just a week ago, and didn't know a soul in town except a handful of other interns.

Honestly, though, what was so shameful about it? At least two of his dorm mates had already been to FantaSim. That's how Rick had heard about it in the first place. They wouldn't say much about their experiences, but that wasn't unusual. Personalized fantasies can be a little... personal, you know?

It wasn't that Rick's fantasies were out of the ordinary. Quite the contrary. Rick thought about girls his own age: attractive classmates, a few celebrities, the occasional imagined companion. Maybe two at once. If he was feeling particularly kinky, he might daydream about some light BDSM. However normal his fantasies might be, though, they were still very private to him.

So Rick just sat there in his car. He stared out the window while the engine idled. He held the steering wheel and stared at the LED clock as the minutes ticked past. 5:27... 5:28... 5:29... His appointment was at 5:30. It was now or never. Ultimately it wasn't some new found inner strength that pushed him out of that car, but just the simple fear of the shame he'd feel if he missed the appointment and lost the sizable deposit.

His nerves were still on high alert, and it felt like an out-of-body experience as he briskly walked down the sidewalk. He kept his head down and his hands in his pockets, ignoring the sights in the store windows he passed. He recognized purple FantaSim logo out of the corner of his eye as he steadfastly refused to look in that direction. Rick reached for the door, and nearly had a heart attack as someone opened it for him.

"Rick?" said the attractive young woman.

"Uh..." stammered Rick, momentarily panicking. He didn't recognize her, did he? No, of course not. He'd never forget a pretty face like that. He felt his face turn beet red as he struggled to get another word out, "...how?"

"Oh, sorry," she laughed, "you're our only 5:30, and we saw your car when you arrived a few minutes ago. The white Elantra, right?"

"Uh, yeah, that's mine," said Rick, stepping through the door.

He must have still looked confused, because the woman explained, "Big data and all that. If we can guess your fantasies, then you can bet we know what kind of car you drive."

Rick felt like an idiot. Of course they'd have access to that information. That was the whole point of FantaSim, wasn't it? You just tell them your phone number, and then their fancy AI, with access to god-knows-what kind of web tracking info and search histories, can craft a personal experience for you. The beauty of the system was that it provided a personally tailored experience which was also a complete surprise, since you hadn't really spelled out what you want. It was also totally creepy, but convenience has its price.

"I'm Jessica," she said as she held out her hand. She smiled as she continued, "I was beginning to think you weren't going to come in."

"Oh, I was just finishing up a podcast," replied Rick as he shook her hand.

"Was that the gaming podcast you like? Don't you usually listen to that on Tuesdays?" Jessica was dressed professionally in a knee-length skirt and blouse, but the mischievous smirk on her face was anything but professional. "We're not really supposed to dig into customer files, but I just can't help myself sometimes."

Her comment was innocent enough on the surface, but unsettling implication caused Rick to shift uncomfortably. There was an awkward gap in the conversation as Jessica turned and walked to the desk a few feet away. There wasn't much else in the room: a few chairs against the large windows facing the street, and an unmarked door leading to the back. Rick approached the desk.

"We're all ready for you," said Jessica, "I just need your signature before we get started." She handed Rick a digital tablet.

Rick pretended to read as he swiped through page after page of fine print. Did anybody really read this stuff? He recognized some boilerplate liability stuff, and a few generic warnings for people with medical conditions. One paragraph boiled down to "No refunds if you can't perform." Another basically said, "We won't do anything permanent." Good to know.

There was something about remembering the safe word, but Rick was sure he wouldn't need it. His fantasies weren't dangerous or anything. He signed the tablet and handed it back to Jessica.

"Looks like everything is in order," she said. Jessica set the tablet on the desk. As she did so, her cheerful expression melted away as if she was removing a mask. Behind that mask was the stern face of a woman who was in complete control and wasn't accustomed to being disobeyed, or made to wait. She stood completely straight and stared into Rick's eyes as she ordered, "Strip. Now."

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Several months ago in another city...

Jordan had a problem. He usually covered his tracks pretty well online, but his habits betrayed him one afternoon as he typed in a favorite web address without remembering to activate private browsing mode. He didn't even realize what he'd done until his ultra-conservative parents confronted him the next day... and by that time the browser had recorded plenty of damning entries. He'd had a pretty good evening, after all.

Oh, but the *price*. His parents had hit the roof! They really lowered the boom this time: he was grounded for a month, his phone had been confiscated, and his computer account had been locked. Worst of all was that they were considering some sort of therapy. No, wait, worst of all was that he was still a horny teenager who couldn't scratch his itch...

... or could he? His older brother, Rick, had just gone off to college, and Rick's old laptop was sitting in the closet somewhere. Jordan knew a few of Rick's old passwords (how else could Rick get his younger brother to grind XP for him?), so it was a simple matter of sneaking the laptop out one evening and trying a few combinations.

Bingo!

As Jordan once again pulled up his favorite sissy/diaper fetish sites - it was another *very* good evening - FantaSim's web crawler dutifully noted every fantasy and added it to Rick's profile.