Player Wasn't Ready

Nadya reached up to find that she couldn't remove her VR helmet.

It was the sort of thing she had nightmares about when Ovasis first caught on with people. She would walk by houses and see entire families all wired up to their own individual Virtual Reality headsets, complete with noise-cancelling earphones and those ever-present gloves.

With each release the gloves got smaller and more sleek just like how the Ovasis world became more detailed and addictive. "You really need the best gloves to experience this new game feature!" people would say, and spend all their money on video game peripheries and items from for the in-game world of Ovasis.

The gloves locked onto Nadya's slender wrists right now were really a marvel: Null had spared no expense in creating her rival's personal prison. The gloves were skintight and could register the smallest movement of her hands down to a nervous twitch. They contoured every surface of Nadya's digits, as though they were exactly measured to fit her long, slender fingers. The gloves, like the rest of her outfit could even transmit sensations to and from her body – usually, game devs used gloves as the controllers.

The prison knew she was trying to take off her helmet, and a warning flashed in her view.

"WARNING. Tampering with equipment results in enhanced security measures."

She was in total darkness otherwise.

She basically understood where she was: it was probably a debtors' prison; the kind that 101 used for its delinquent borrowers. 101 would put people in here and assign them menial duties, such as playing low-level monsters to make other players' games more interesting and challenging. They got paid as hourly employees, but their debt still accrued and it usually took outside help to save someone from years upon years of demeaning labor.

What a different experience of Ovasis that was! To play as an infinitely re-spawning baddie that was barely able to scratch the 'main characters' due to all the restrictions and weaknesses placed on the unfortunate prisoner. For Nadya it was especially humiliating to think that she would go up against players she could have easily dominated in her freedom, only to lose to them again and again. She hated losing – it was the one thing that everybody knew about her.

101 had constantly threatened her with this sort of thing in their collection letters. They knew her reputation and had built a psychological profile on her from all the means of surveillance they had in the virtual world of Ovasis. She hadn't made it easy.

Nadya, like most people in the game, had borrowed money from 101. Her full lips would smile when one of their collection notices managed to reach her through all the firewalls and layers of obfuscation she employed in the game world. Nadya loved thumbing it to authority and 'living off the grid,' seeing that ridiculous number jump higher, and laughing about how they would never collect on it.

She was a hopper; they couldn't ever track her long enough to make a capture. It was hard enough for 101 to even gather her data. Then Richard came along with his high-minded mission to save the world, and this is where she landed from all of it.

Reaching around, she discovered that her cell was large enough to allow her to fully extend both arms, but not much larger. In the process of doing that, she felt something like a toilet and probably a sink. Her bare feet were uncomfortable against the prickly material of the infinite treadmill. It felt similar to the hook side of Velcro; a bunch of pointy little plastic bits that pressed into her soles and really made her feel exposed.

Nadya knew people who had rigs like this, with the toilets and sink built in. It didn't bespeak great mental health.

With an infinite treadmill you still had full access to Ovasis. Even in these cramped conditions, she could fully enjoy every game (as though 101 would ever allow her that leisure). But something about putting everything in once place like this made her feel atomized and contained. There was no door out, obviously.

"Nadya Stretcher," came a familiar voice.

Her VR headset lit up and suddenly Nadya was in an police interrogation room before her sworn enemy Cici Adams. Nadya briefly examined her avatar: she was dressed in a tight-fitting white jumpsuit, her feet still bare even in the game world. Cici wore her typical corporate bitch attire: a short black skirt, fitted black jacket and high heeled boots. The blonde woman looked quite pleased with herself, to be sitting in judgment of Nadya. She carried a manila folder in her hands that was apparently hacker's dossier.

Nadya didn't say anything.

Cici pointed to the wall, where a screen displayed the number $145,982. In the few seconds Nadya was looking at it, it went to $146,000 and kept climbing higher.

"Do you want to hop out of here? Go ahead, Nadya! Just show us how you do your trick and we will forgive the debt. You'll be free and clear."

Nadya shook her head.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"That's fine," Cici replied, "you can keep it a secret! Totally cool with me. You want to know why?"

"Why's that, Cici?"

"Because I am your personal warden for your entire stay here – Null gave you to me as a reward for helping her screw your whole plan up and conquer Ovasis. Why don't you let that sink in?"

Nadya was a tough girl, but this was seriously frightening. Null got all 3 keys? Her heart rate increased, and she knew their monitors were picking it up. 'Hopping' was the unauthorized act of jumping between parts of the Ovasis – it defied all means of tracking and allowed an entire underground community to exist despite 101's attempts to ban the practice.

Technically, she could hop right now, perhaps even without Null or 101 understanding how she did it. But then what would she do? Hack her way out of a maximum security prison in the few seconds it would take for them to get to her tiny cell? She seized on the idea that she needed to wait, to put up with all of this temporarily, and think of a way out in the meantime.

"Well, I made you the offer... Let's get to the fun stuff!" Cici said, dramatically throwing the manilla envelope on the interrogation table.

With a wave of Cici's hand, the interrogation chamber was gone and they were somewhere else.

It was apparently a woman's bedroom: designed as though she wanted to show off her money. The furniture and decorations were well-designed but soulless and sterile, like someone had taken a duchess's bedroom and put it through a 101 filter.

Cici went to sit on the queen-sized bed, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back as she delivered the news:

"Okay, so Richard failed. Big time. Null got all the keys, and now we control Ovasis... I know I said that already, but I'm repeating it because it's HUGE. We are implementing small changes to start, but it's already a very different place from how you remember it. And we have some very big changes in mind, coming soon.

Nadya could imagine it: ads everywhere, tracking all users, cronyism for whatever brands best kow-towed to Null's demands and helped spread her propaganda. Cici looked thrilled at all of this. Nadya knew the woman got off on controlling people and consolidating her power; now she had an entire world to shape to her (and Null's) liking.

"But don't worry about what's going on out there," Cici said, "because you'll be in this little prison for about...five years? At the current state of things."

Cici was smiling as she delivered this news, saying it in her usual bratty tone as casually as if she were asking for a glass of wine. Nadya's mind recoiled at the thought. Five years of servitude to Cici Adams?

"I'm really busy, so I can only do part of your training. Let's start with how you walk. From now on, I only want you to walk on your tip toes. Give it a try!"

Nadya absolutely resented the idea of jumping through hoops for Cici. As much as the blonde woman loved barking orders, Nadya resented being told what to do. Before she could think of some witty comeback, she felt a zap on the heels of both feet!

"Ow!" Nadya cried out, as an elecric pulse ran up her calves and towards her waist. Instinctively, she stood up on her tiptoes.

Cici looked over to the wall. A screen displayed, "2.053s" in block red letters.

"Over two seconds? That's way, way too long," Cici scolded, looking down at Nadya's feet to confirm that the girl was being obedient.

Cici obviously had control of Nadya's appearance here in this pocket of Ovasis. Nadya's feet were re-created in perfect fidelity: their long thin toes, abnormally high arches, and narrow width done in resolution greater than the human eye bothers perceiving. Cici made Nadya's nail polish an orange rosegold color, reminding her of a blinged-out prison jumpsuit.

Nadya felt uncomfortable standing on her tip toes like this: absurd and vulnerable like some animal performing a trick. But she knew it would only get worse.

"You are going to help us design a game to help enslave people."

Nadya actually had to hold back a laugh at how absurd that just sounded – Cici was talking like some over-the-top villain right now! She always thought she was such a big deal...

Good thoughts went through Nadya's mind. She found her footing a little bit; reminding herself that these people weren't perfect. There would be some flaw in the code, some opportunity for her to exploit. Maybe she could message her friends...

But then what? Stage a fucking jailbreak from a maximum security prison owned by the wealthiest company in the world? What happened to Richard?

"No reply? Well, whatever. You are not going to do any design work, if that's what you were thinking."

The blonde woman reached down towards her knee-high boots and unzipped them, allowing them to fall to the floor. She had on little white ankle socks with pink trim around the welts, and she took them off slowly. Thin cotton, stuck to her beautiful feet.

"You will be more like a test subject for games like Pin Cushion Simulator and--"

"You're an evil bitch, Cici!" Nadya finally snapped.

She was immediately ashamed for letting the woman get to her like this, especially when she saw Cici's cruel smile. The corporate woman snapped her fingers and the screen containing Nadya's debt came up: $146,200.

"Add $5,000 onto Nadya's debt for using abusive language towards her mistress."

Nadya snorted when she heard Cici say the word 'mistress,' but Cici kept talking.

"Dock her wages for today, also."

"Please continue," Cici said, looking at Nadya with a frosty smile.

Nadya had no response. She looked at the white cotton socks that Cici now held in her hands.

"Come on, come take them! This is your first mission, after all."

The fallen heroine walked over to Cici (still walking on her tiptoes), and took her worn cotton socks. Through her skintight white gloves, she felt their warmth and feathery softness but it made her skin crawl. She disliked feet and anything to do with them.

An old-fashioned metallic bucket appeared out of nowhere, filled with soapy water. She couldn't be serious, could she?

"Again, I don't have much time today," the woman said in her bratty tone, "so I'm just going to train you on laundry duty to start. For the next eight hours, you are going to hand-wash my little white socks... The same pair, in fact. I'll go ahead and duplicate them to give you lots of practice."

Cici waved her hand and a massive pile of white cotton socks rose up from nowhere – identical to the ones Nadya now held in her hands. The scenery changed again, and Nadya was in a tiny and damp stone cell, like she had seen photos of from the Inquisition. It was windowless and bleak, with nothing present except for her, Cici's socks, and the wash basin which was joined by another bucket.

The evil woman wasn't even in this stone prison, but Nadya knew she was watching.

"This will help us develop a domestic servitude program. 101 is going to sell off some of its player debt so little delinquents like you can be put to work for more productive players. And as a bonus, it's kind of humbling, don't you think? I mean, I love the fact that you are going to hand-wash my dirty socks a thousand times over... That should mellow you out a bit."

Cici stopped talking, and apparently was done with this particular jape. Nadya was trapped playing Ovasis game where all she could do was dunk the little white socks into a basin of tepid water, rub them against the coarse washboard, and wring the soapy water out of them. She rinsed them in another bucket of water, then hanged them to dry on a clothesline that had manifested in the prison for this purpose.

The washbasin and the washboard both had rough surfaces that felt like they were shredding the skin from her hands, but Nadya knew she wouldn't receive any real-world damage. Only the sensation of pain would be transmitted through her tactile gloves. The worst part was that as Nadya did this, her avatar's hands began showing redness and scratches in an apparent desire for realism.

It was unbelievably stupid busywork. Nadya had serious ADHD – she couldn't imagine something more annoying or tedious than being made to do the same thing over and over and over again. There was no music to distract her, no web browsers to show her interesting information, just the seemingly endless pile of women's socks that required her attention. Socks belonging to her sworn enemy; the rich bitch of 101 who was probably cavorting about Ovasis acting like a princess while Nadya slaved away in this dungeon.

Soon, Nadya's calves got tired and she made the mistake of putting her heels back on the ground.

*ZAP

"Stay on your tip-toes, Nadya!" came Cici's voice – she could tell the woman was smiling.

It was going to be a long eight hours, and she wouldn't even get paid for it. With a defeated sigh, Nadya reached for another pair of socks. These ones were different. One had the word "STUPID" printed on it, and the other had the word "BITCH."

"I literally just thought of that!" Cici said.

"Actually, it was Null's idea. This is how we will determine how well you clean each pair. You'll need to really get your wrists in there to get that ink out."

Nadya clenched her jaw. The mocking words were seriously difficult to wash out of the socks – especially against the ancient laundry contraption. The forceful scouring motion hurt her forearms and her wrists, but she finally did it, rinsing them and hanging them to dry.

The next pair read "SLAVE" and "NADYA." Nadya spent a considerable time trying to wash out those awful words, but the task seemed impossible. She knew Cici was just teasing her, but still felt ashamed that she had failed in her task. The words were only faded when she finally called it quits and hung them up to dry. They stayed up there, mocking her. Her calves were on fire from standing on her toes for so long.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Cici luxuriated in her claw-footed bathtub watching Nadya's torments through a screen. She could hardly believe how much it pleased her, seeing this rebellious hopper brought so low. And Cici would make sure that she would fall so, so much lower. The blonde woman reached one hand towards her clit – this scene was turning her on.

She tentatively stroked her love button, and the ideas started flowing. So many ways to infuriate and embarrass the poor girl, who was securely locked up in a prison facility where she didn't have the slightest hope of escape.

"Oooh!" she moaned in delight, smiling at Nadya's discomfort and the petulant look on her pretty face.

That look! Oh, that really did it for Cici. And the hot water in her bath tub at a time when water rationing was so severe that 99% of the population would never experience something so decadent as a long bath.

"That's right, hand-wash my socks you little bitch... wait 'til you see what's next! Aah!"

Cici threw her head back, causing water to slosh over the sides of her hand-carved porcelain bathtub and onto her marble floors. She didn't care – some fucking maid would clean up the mess. Or Nadya would! With her tongue. And she would watch Cici pleasure herself through the tub, this one made of transparent lucite.

For now, she was cumming harder than she ever had before in her life. She drew it out for quite some time, as she imagined new ways to put Nadya in her place. Cici Adams was truly excited to recruit the poor girl into her own twisted love games. After all, playing with herself was fun enough, but what could possibly be better than having Nadya's fingers and tongue at her disposal, on-demand, whenever she wanted?

Her new suit would allow for this – sensations transmitted directly from Nadya's little jail cell to wherever Cici was. The thought sent her over the edge once again, and this time Cici screamed herself hoarse as she imagined Nadya's tongue flicking over her clit as she sat in on a board meeting. Or as the woman was carried throughout the Ovasis during a royal procession.

She would get Nadya there, soon enough.

For now though, she reminded herself to enjoy the process. And in the fallen hacker's eyes, Cici saw the look of defiance, and outrage. This thrilled the sadistic woman to no end. She would enjoy every step along their shared journey. A journey the rebellious girl would spend padding around in bare feet, doing distasteful things to avoid the sadistic punishments Cici loved to bestow upon her. All the while plotting her escape, and to keep some shred of privacy.

And all the while, 101 would be recording the data from these sessions. This data helped refine its own games; especially when relating to sadism and sexual agony. Her reactions always being studied, analyzed, recorded then run through a lens that would make her suffering all the worse.