theunderneath67

[theunderneath67]

~II~

Night, welcome art thou to my minde distrest,

Darke, heauy, sad, yet not more sad then I:

Neuer could’st thou find fitter company

For thine owne humour, then I thus opprest.

If thou beest darke, my wrongs still vnredrest

Saw neuer light, nor smallest blisse can spye:

If heauy ioy from me too fast doth hie,

And care out-goes my hope of quiet rest.

Then now in friendship ioyne with haplesse me,

Who am as sad and darke as thou canst be,

Hating all pleasure or delight of lyfe,

Silence, and griefe, with thee I best doe loue.

And from you three I know I can not moue,

Then let vs liue companions without strife.

-Lady Mary Wroth, Sonnet 37(2)

Dani Hillsbrough, the real world human behind the Elizabeth Forrester avatar, suddenly found herself back in the warm, expansive, antiquated and comfortably familiar library that served as the main menu and entry/exit point for users of the SimuLife console. Shelves, overflowing with books of popular and obscure titles by renowned and unknown authors filled the library reached colossally high to a ceiling out of view and impossibly wide to an unseen horizon. Avatars of other players and fill-in background characters dressed in the various costumes of eras near and far, fact and fiction mixed with the avatars of staff, easily marked with the familiar blue/grey cardigan adorned with the NetNeurality (the mother company of the SimuLife console) logo and assorted non-player characters to form a bustling community of citizens in this ersatz commonwealth that was the SimuLife populace.

A young woman, in her NetNeurality branded sweater, approached Dani, “Welcome back. I’m Annie, an assistant here at the library.  I hope you enjoyed your time at Castle Tarleton. It’s always one of our more popular communities. Would you like to start a new adventure in Reinvent:Yourself!, start a new replay in Destination:Anywhere, continue a previous adventure or sign off?”

“Sign off,” Dani replied simply.

“Very good, “said Annie, “This way.”

With a wave of Annie’s hand, a door opened streaming a ray of intensely bright light from floor to ceiling, again impossibly high to see to the top. Dani stepped through. That same familiar melody she heard as Elizabeth was turning played in her ear. The words, “REMOVE HEADSET”, flashed red slowly in front of her eyes and a small timer counted down from five to zero underneath. At zero, the melody stopped and the screen on her visor went dark.

Dani removed her SimuLife headset and sat for a moment, reminiscing her time in the world of the NetNeurality servers. While the characters that she used more frequently within the confines of Reinvent:Yourself!, itself, were more a means to an end, Dani found that she looked forward to playing Elizabeth more than any other. It was without question her favorite avatar in SimuLife. Elizabeth Forrester, the demure, naïve yet wanton medieval vampires-in-training, was, surely, not one of her more profitable characters in the world of virtual courtesans and, definitely, not quite as adventurous as some of the more wild experiences she had on the NetNeurality servers. Elizabeth, however, brought out the vulnerable, playful side in Dani’s personality that she was never seemingly able to naturally break out enough in ‘the real world”.

The bread and butter for Dani, financially anyway, were the straightforward sex kittens like Oola, the amazonian princess who relished public humiliation and haughtiness and then publicly and privately humiliated and totured countless alpha male businessmen on Catalonia, the SciFi adventure set on the titular far away fictional planet, or Tiffany, the unattainable cheerleader that gave sneaky blowjobs in the back of math class in exchange for an “A” to the creepy older guys. They weren’t interesting characters. They were simple cardboard cutout caricatures. They didn’t have depth or a sense beyond what they were, online hookers. Elizabeth Forrester, on the other hand, was a pleasant change of pace. Elizabeth had… depth. She had a soul.

So, for as much as she loved Elizabeth, Elizabeth was a rare treat. Elizabeth couldn’t offer the pragmatic, economic success that those other one-dimensional characters could. Those quick regular sessions provided the extras that her day job couldn’t. They provided the upgraded apartment. They provided the upscale lingerie and undergarments. They provided the lunches and the vacations and the trips home to check on the family. Her day job covered rent, and utilities and car payments, etc.; but, the extras came from the likes of the dominant princess and the naughty cheerleader.

Shaking her fully awake and aware, an alarm sounded 7AM from across the room. With a heavy sigh, Dani said out loud to no one in particular, “Welp, guess it’s time to pay the bills.”

Rising up from her console integrated SimuLife bench, Dani crossed her room, shut off the alarm, and began the morning ritual in getting ready for her day. Though she lamented having to set aside Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s next adventure, she knew it would have to wait until notification arrived in her Bitcoin account that payment had been received from her mysterious client. Real life had called and her employer had a strict logging in policy. NetNeurality, with whom she was not just an avid customer but also a long time employee, had just promoted her as the newest member of their systems testing team. She was acutely aware of her need to “go the extra mile” in terms of following the rules and setting a high standard. Besides, today was the day they let her start her own test cases and she had some clever ideas for Destination: Anywhere testing and wanted to spend her Friday having them solidly put together and approved before running them on Monday.

Dani was excited about this new position. It was, coincidentally, within a few days of a sidetracked conversation with the man she knew as The Shadow that had started with setting up this morning’s meeting and ended up diverting into commiserating about unfulfilling and underwhelming career tracks and the lack of opportunity for improvement that Dani had noticed the posting for a new tester in NetNeurality’s job listings. She hurriedly and eagerly updated her resume and applied that same day. It had taken an excruciating few weeks of no real response beyond the form letter acknowledging receipt of her application before she got a call from an assistant she knew in passing requesting a scheduled interview. She quickly scheduled the interview and waiting for what seemed way too long before the day arrived. She worried and fretted the entire time. She worried about her appearance and she worried about her experience. She fretted about her knowledge and she over thought questions to non-existent anticipated questions. She changed her interview outfit at least four times. At the end of the day, though, she needn’t have worried. She passed that interview and the subsequent follow-up meetings with ease. The charisma that made her online avocation so successful worked face-to-face as well. Charming and self-assured, she was offered the position, and the healthy raise that came with it, formally at the end of her last interview. The onboarding process that started her time on the team had been a tedious and overly complicated two week course in non-disclosure agreements, training manuals, mandatory online job training and hypothetical processes that seemed unlikely to ever happen. While understandably necessary, these activities were boring and seemed exceedingly gratuitous and lengthy. More importantly they added a healthy dose of confusion that did nothing to boost her confidence. She had begun to worry she wasn’t up to the task after the training. It wasn’t until she began to learn one-on-one from a senior co-worker that the previously daunting and overwhelming duties in Dani’s future had been given a renewed sense of clarity. After regaining her spirit, she began playing in disposable training environments. She, in no time was building test cases and scenarios all under the watchful eye of her soon-to-be peers.

Today, though, it was time to get down to business. She was on her own and she wanted to look good and feel good even if she was working from her home and only visible on video meetings. Stripping casually as she made her way back across the master bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom, she stopped to give final approval to the outfit she had picked out the night previous. She began humming that tune that had been stuck in her head since hearing it while lying in Elizabeth Forrester’s bed. It was easily recognizable as a melody, though something about it was off, thus leaving the name of it frustratingly just out of reach.

Entering the spacious shower, Dani turned the tap nearly fully toward the “hot” side. The water quickly reached a balmy appeasing temperature and Dani slipped in to let the warm steady stream flow over her. As the comfort of the water baptized her figure in soothing pacification, Dani ran her hands along her ample, voluptuous curves. She roamed that familiar path of her body replaying this morning’s encounter in her head. Starting with her full, substantial breasts that still stood relatively firm over her figure. Steam rose to envelope her fullness and she moved her hands further down to her soft round alabaster belly and moved further to her plentiful and much appreciated, even if silently, thighs, hips, and backside

Sudden thoughts of her mother’s words intruded the pleasant re-run of Elizabeth’s earlier adventure. ”You know, Dani you’ll never be a small girl, but you would be so beautiful, if you would… just have some discipline and lose the weight, “her mother used to say, “You’ve got such a pretty face that could have your pick of any boy in town to take care of you.”

The thought of any of the local hicks ‘taking care of her” repulsed her. Dani was not interested in some unsophisticated redneck taking care of her, especially given the candidates in her tiny rural town. She had bigger dreams than the boys of Fort Scott, Kansas. Fetching a beer and a sandwich while her ”man” talked the woes of  Jayhawk football on the porch to his equally as backwards friends held absolutely no appeal to her. She intended to make her own way. She wanted the pick of any man… in the world... on her terms. They were going to come to her, not the other way around.  She wasn’t potentially beautiful with some work and a diet; she was beautiful of her regard no matter what her mother said. More importantly she offered the strong intelligent mind that could had keep her strong in the face of the constant belittling. The words stung, sure, but she had heard them so many times as to be meaningless.

Shrugging to herself at her mother’s unkindness, Dani moved her cleaning down to her legs. The stocky full calves were still attractive and caught many an eye when the seam of a sexy set of nylons peeked from under a knee length dress. She ran across the slightest feeling of stubble. Time for a shave, she thought. Sitting on seat cushion that padded the molded shower ledge, Dani reached for the small-ish tin of Faena Tallow Shave Soap and the H.L. Thater shave brush sitting on the shower shelf. Dipping the badger bristled brush into the soap, she lathered up a goodly amount of cream and applied a fine layer of the cream, from ankle to knee, front to back to her right leg. Setting the tin and the brush back on the shelf she picked up a small teak box setting next to them on the shelf. Opening the box, she pulled the gleaming black and gold Kal Captain straight razor and folded it open. The sharpened blade shone under the fluorescent lights. The straight razor shave was a luxury and a ritual that Dani afforded herself as a concession to her own private vanity. It was something she learned in a previous relationship that ran white hot with elements of dom/sub play, but had burned out quickly. It was the one thing she kept from that time. Nevermore to return to the world of harsh chemical depilatories, plastic disposable blades or the electric monstrosities of shavers that didn’t seem to work anyway.

Humming the recurring tune that was perplexingly affixed to her subconscious, Dani took the keen edge to a practiced angle and slowly drew it up from the curve that was her ankle, across the breath of her shin to the dimpled knee, halfway up. She rinsed the excess cream from the razor and the front of her leg and inspected her work. Satisfied with the results, she repeated the process, on the sides and her firm round calves. With the same experienced rhythm, she disposed of any lingering leg hair there. After ensuring her right leg was entirely smooth, she moved to the left leg and restarted the very same process there with the same expert precision.

When the lower legs were completed, she applied a generous layer of foam to her inner thigh and ever so carefully ran ever so gently against the bikini line. Once again, feeling for any excess stubble she ran her fingers over the sensitive inner folds of her thigh and with a knowing smile, felt nothing extraneous.       

At once she felt a sting, Shit, she thought, I guess I did nick myself. Reaching back down, she found blood in, coincidentally, the same place as Elizabeth’s wound. This time, though, the blood flowed much more liberally. What are the chances of that? Hell I didn’t think I even got in that far with the blade, she wondered. She exited the shower to examine the cut. The blood streamed in a meandering rivulet down the inside of her thigh.

Covering the laceration with a dab of bacitracin and a small “dot” adhesive bandage, Dani continued her morning routine. After applying some scented oil to her freshly shaven legs and washed body, she styled her hair in a retro swept up style and applied some minimal accentuating makeup. Finally Dani slipped a delicate black lace demi cup bra around her ample bosom and a pair of black lace thigh high lace stockings that were attached to a satin garter belt she had picked up during a mall shopping splurge at Torrid the weekend previous. While pulling the entire under ensemble together with a pair of satin French cut bikini panties, she felt the Band-Aid already beginning to fail. She pulled it off to take a second look at the gash. It was larger and deeper than she initially had thought with blood pooling in the tender folds of skin. Upon inspecting further, the blood ran freely in a thin but widening stream down her thigh. She reapplied the antibiotic ointment and applied, this time, a somewhat larger dressing.

Picking out her work attire she went with a simple white collared blouse and grey sweater combination from Nordstrom Rack and slate gray skirt from Lane Bryant that betrayed the wicked temptation underneath. “Gotta stay business appropriate to the normies, “she said aloud, “They will never know what’s underneath.”

Slipping into a pair of shiny black leather heels, Dani headed to the kitchen for a French press of her favorite whole bean espresso roast coffee and one of the raspberry scones Mrs. Cannivale had made for her last evening. Noticing her supply of beans was low, she made a note to head down to the local coffee house for a fresh supply and to check with Mrs. Cannivale for anything she might need from the grocery that was on the way.

With a warm mug and pastry in hand, she went to her work desk in the converted office she had made of the second bedroom and logged in to the NetNeurality corporate servers with ten minutes to spare.

[theunderneath67]

Part 1 – Reinvent: Yourself!

~I~

A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness; A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction; An erring lace, which here and there Enthrals the crimson stomacher; A cuff neglectful, and therebe Ribands to flow confusedly; A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat; A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility: Do more bewitch me, than when art Is too precise in every part. —Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder

A full perigee moon provided the singular light on the otherwise cool, still blackness that hung over the grounds of Castle Tarleton. The stillness of the gloom outside belied the frenzy of activity inside the manor itself. Honora, the eldest princess of Lord Tarleton, was to be wedded the next day to a nobleman and business partner of the Lord. Thusly, last-minute preparations were alight in virtually every room of the palace.

The bride and her court stayed in the parlor going through chests of jewelry for the perfect bauble for each of them. The maidens poured over petite diamond pendants searching for their reflection in the pure, precious, crystal clear gems. Honora, herself, searched for the large sapphire brooch her mother had worn at her wedding to Lord Tarleton. The parents of the bride sat in the main dining hall going over the definitive guest lists and seating arrangements ensuring no family or representative was left out (or let in) inappropriately and that their place at the tables was appropriate for their social standing.

 In the kitchen, where the menu has been set for months, the final dishes were being prepared and counts were being checked and rechecked to ensure there would be more than enough to go around. Kegs of beer, mead, and wine imported from the inns, vineyards and breweries of the local towns were brought by the steward’s stout young servants through the back service entry two-by-two down to the vaulted undercroft of the great hall. The boys winding their way through the chairs, banquet tables and benches that were being set up and artfully arranged by the housekeepers and their attendants. The chaplain prepared his remarks and the order of events for the ceremony and his assistants prepared the chapel for the nuptials.

For all of the hustle and bustle of the planning festivities, one member of the wedding party was noticeably absent. The lady-in-waiting had begged off the festivities for the pains of her monthly courses. She had quickly and absently chosen a random amethyst bauble from the jewelry chest and politely excused herself to attend her malaise to the quiet concern of her family, friends, and employers. Truthfully though, Elizabeth Forrester didn’t feel particularly unwell or pained. Quite the contrary, excitement flushed her body. She nearly floated up the roughhewn stone stairs to the rooms on the upper level. Elizabeth was not in need of some cure to womanly ills; what she needed was a reason to get away, to be alone and unescorted.

Once Elizabeth reached her suite, she quickly slipped inside and locked the door behind her. She moved a small letter desk to block the door… just in case. She strode to her bed quietly and fully undressed. Running her hands along her fully exposed body Elizabeth couldn’t help but admire the femininity of her curves and imagined how it must feel for a man to have these curves for the first time. She wasn’t a particularly conceited girl by nature, but Elizabeth Forrester knew that… her gifts… well, these gifts anyway, were abundant and desired. She slid beneath the sheets of her bed and tried to sleep lightly to change her mood from the frenzy of the events going on downstairs. Unfortunately, her anxiety about the next day… and some lingering guilt about leaving her friends in a moment of such importance… left any sleep elusively just out of reach.

She rested nude in her bed in that hazy space between asleep and awake patiently hoping for the man to come. Though her mind was foggy and dreamy in the dim environment, her body’s excitement was apparent in its shallow, rapid breaths and its inability to still itself for more than a moment at a time. A light rain misted in through the open window of her castle bedroom until well past midnight; a gentle breeze blowing the lace curtains in with each gust casting dancing shadows on the walls. Her full voluptuous body was cool in the night breeze. Save for a row of lit devotional candles that lined the mantle of a small fireplace situated across the room, the glowing full moon, once again, provided the only light in the room.

Suddenly a large shadow passed through the window quickly. It wasn’t the drapes blown in from a strengthening wind. The shadow was tall. It moved with the fleetness of a whisper. The slowly worked his way across the wall. Skimming past the painted landscapes and sconces that lined the wall, the shadow floated across the floor to the side of the room where the bed was positioned. Stopping in front of the painting of some long dead duke, he studied her for the moment. She lay, mostly, exposed to him. A sheer cotton sheet was her only cover. The girl’s face was beautifully pale, her flowing red hair and pouting ruby red lips contrasting perfectly. Her large breasts hidden under the sheet with hard deep pink nipples prominent through the fabric. His gaze continued over her soft ample round belly to her luscious voluptuous hips that peeked from underneath the covers, luscious thick thighs that rose to a full patch of that same red hair. Her thick delicious legs splayed to either side of the bed. He loomed for the moment admiring his prey. This is the one, he said to himself and returned to his deliberate gliding gait toward Elizabeth.

Coming to the foot of the girl’s bed he emerged from the darkness. Her eyes fluttered and she could make out the shadow. Her eyes took in his full height as it towered over her. Elizabeth was still unsure if she was dreaming as she gazed upon his wide frame and broad shoulders. His entire countenance seemed impossibly overwhelming. The shadow’s bald head gleamed in the moon’s radiance lending light to a long face and a flowing full beard that hid a strong steel jawline. The form’s coal black eyes pierced straight through Elizabeth’s soul. Those same ebony eyes framing slits of deep crimson pupils.

The shadow clambered onto the bed and straddled the girl. Despite his immense size and weight, she still lay in that restless haze only partially aware that he was really there. His mouth went to her neck and Elizabeth moaned. The shadow began sucking at her soft neck, licking, kissing, and sucking the supple ivory skin. Slight sighs escaped Elizabeth’s lips as she gradually emerged from her fog to become fully aware of the presence.

“You came, “she purred and pulled his mouth firmly to her neck.

The shadow did not respond but continued to suckle at her neck while the pulsating of her carotid artery temptingly thumped faster and harder with every touch. I will quench in time, he thought, for now I will enjoy her. Moving his way across the front of her neck nipping with light teeth along the way, he began nuzzling the other side of her neck to the small soft spot behind her ear.

Elizabeth pulled his head even closer to her, as he began nibbling and biting, increasing the firmness with every clench. Moving back down to the front of her neck, he worked his way down her sternum, he could feel the blood pumping through her racing heart as it was almost beating through her chest. He took her breasts into his mouth and drew circles around the areola of her left breast sucking the plump tender nipple in quickly between his firm lips. Flicking at the nipple, he took it between his teeth and began to bite down. Elizabeth jumped at the sudden pleasure/pain of that, and the shadow released it. Kissing his way back to the right he did the same thing to the right nipple. Taking his time with the areola before taking the nipple into his mouth flicking with a sudden quick nip at the firm bud there.

Moving further down to her plump soft belly he lay soft kisses there admiring the alabaster skin and soft yielding warmth of it. Down further he went reaching the vulva. A soft patch of sparse red hair met his lips and he suckled on the down to taste the faint moistness that had formed there. He paused briefly to inhale the musky scent of Elizabeth’s center before swallowing each drop of her essence there. Kissing, suckling, and nipping she felt his beard tickle her thighs.

At once, a sharp stab came to that tender skin in the inner thigh. She winced slightly and thought he, perhaps, bit a little too hard. The bite was definitely not unwelcomed; it was even expected to happen at some point. Elizabeth would’ve been exceedingly disappointed if it didn’t. It did however, shake her from her haze momentarily and she quickly had to put herself back into her setting. Her arousal and his soothing, suckling, and lapping helped her to quickly plunge back into her fog of sensuality.

Elizabeth pushed the shadow’s head further down. The shadow continued and pushed on with pleasuring Elizabeth and exploring her womanhood. His mouth explored her. His hands explored her deep in her femininity. He pleasured her until she reached the crest that was the waterfall of complete ecstasy. Every nudge, every touch, every kiss brought her ever closer.

With a final flourish of his snakelike tongue, the shadow pushed Elizabeth Forrester over the edge. Waves of electricity flowed through her body one after the other. It came to her that the waves were not one after the other but one on top of the other never knowing where one started or ended. Her body bucked; her body shook. Her belly convulsed in seemingly endless pleasure.

The shadow mounted Elizabeth and took her… completely. He filled his lover completely, not just physically, but mentally as well. Her mind filled with his manhood. Elizabeth Forrester felt as full as she had ever been. She had never had this intense sort of pleasure, almost to the point of pain. She was, again, lost in his work, when at once his body stiffened and released. She went with him over the edge and began a second set of rhythmic waves of current engulfed her body.

Elizabeth lay spent. After a minute or two, having somewhat gathered her sense, the girl turned to her lover. Her lover was gone. The shadow had slipped back across the room to the window and was out before her mind and body could recover from the sweeping pleasure she had just experienced. She lay back in the damp mixture of her release and his. She felt a stream of moistness begin to flow down the inside of her thigh. Absently she touched her fingers to it wondering if it was him. It was not him. It was blood.

She could then feel the sting of the wound that was the source of the blood. The stream grew stronger, more blood flood in increasing volume. Elizabth succumbed to the vampire’s bite anticipating her turn. The vitality that was Elizabeth Forrester’s life began to rush down her leg in deep burgundy ribbons and then poured from the open, widening wound. Elizabeth began to feel weak. Her lower limbs went numb.

This is turning. I want to become. I’ve waited for this moment so long, she thought.

Consciousness began to elude her murky brain and the room began to spin. The girl could feel the blood gush from her thigh and pooling underneath her. Her surroundings began to fade from her view. Deep in the background, Elizabeth could faintly hear a harpsichord playing a familiar melody. In the last moment, she found the shadow watching from a darkened corner. Her vision went black. Elizabeth was gone.