"Rise of the Drones?" Jake laughed to himself at the game's title. Given what he knew about games named like that, he was expecting something half-finished at best. On the other hand, he thought, if this is an H-game it's probably a really simple shooter or platformer, or maybe even a point and click RPG. "It's probably got a bunch of really elaborate game over scenes where my guy gets turned into a drone or something, but I can only win by not dying because losing on purpose is dumb. Maybe that mystery guy just needed a bug tester?"
Jake looked for the options menu so he could turn on subtitles and check the mouse sensitivity... but that menu is greyed out. All the start menu had to show him were the the words "New Game", a rotating chrome icon which looked like cuneiform, and the game's title written in that one font every jRPG used in the 00's. "Lemme guess," he said, "I have to watch the opening cutscene and go through thirty minutes of characters standing around and talking before I get to control anything. Great."
He clicked new game and... "Please connect to server to continue."
"Online only?" Jake said. He exhaled the same way a dog owner does when they find a wet spot on the carpet. "So this is a game that'll die once the server's gone. Unless I make a server, of course." Against his own better judgement, Jake made an account and password, scrolled through a EULA page which looked longer than usual, and clicked Yes To All. The loading screen displayed the message "Deploying Assets, Please Remain Seated," and displayed that same rotating cuneiform icon.
"Please Remain... yeah whatever, I'm getting some grape drank." Jake peeled his skinny body off of his gamer chair and went to the fridge on the other side of his apartment. A second or two after he buried his arm in between two plastic cups of leftovers, he heard the most peculiar buzzing noise outside his window. "The fuck?" he said. "Is the landlord trying to spy on me again?" The fridge door swung closed and bounced without staying shut. Jake walked over to his window with his grape soda in hand, expecting to see a quadcopter drone.
The drone he did see was slightly more sophisticated; an oily black sphere hung in midair, motionless and shimmering faintly. He was almost ready to accuse it of being a lazy doctored photo (in real life... somehow...) when it slowly turned around and stared at him with violet light shining from a single glass eye. The eye looked down and focused its lens on the windowsill. With no clear source of energy, the window unlatched itself and slid open. All Jake could do was freeze like a mouse surrounded by cats.
"So... is this like, a game dev publicity stunt, or-"
Jake was immediately shut up by the black sphere slamming into his chest and SPLATTERING. With the wind knocked out of him, he could only stagger over to his air-cooled, aerodynamic gamer chair so he could sit down and pry the ooze off of his sternum. Of course, the moment he stuck his fingers into the puddle it stuck to his hands and began to crawl up his arms. Somewhere underneath the slime he could feel the tell-tale pockmarks of his shirt dissolving... and then it hit him.
"It's happening... it's finally happening..." A smile started to form on his face. "It's real!" Jake's cock started to swell in his pants. By reflex, he looked from side to side as if anyone was around to see his boner. Even if it were the last moment of his life, he was spending them living out one of his fantasies. Already there was black ooze pooling around his crotch and tickling at his shockingly long erection. Jake was probably supposed to feel desperate to jerk off one more time before the transformation sealed his cock away forever, but he was simply too mesmerized and awe-struck to care about the solid rind of black which had formed around his entire torso by now.
"Liquid... latex... YES! Take me!" His dripping black gloves were past elbow-length already. He stared into the claggy mess his hands have become, and without a second thought smeared the liquid latex over his lips, basking in the tight feeling of his mouth being glued shut. His pant legs fell away after his pants began to dissolve; he tried to adjust himself in his chair to get more comfortable, only to find himself firmly glued to his seat. "Mmm hmm hmm," he laughed behind sealed lips. As his ankles felt the gentle brush of black slime on them, he knew that everything happening to him was exactly what he wanted.
"TESTING. TESTING. JAKE CARBONE, HUMAN MALE, TWENTY SEVEN. CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY."
"EHGGLglk. Glk-MPH!" Jake didn't even get a chance to talk before the living latex slime invaded his throat like a solid, ribbed juggernaut. He felt an equal length and girth invading his anus, and a few subtler strings sliding into his... ears? He would have taken a look if his eyes were not buried already. "Glglgl..."
"UGH. DON'T SAY IT, JAKE, JUST THINK IT, JESUS CHRIST."
[Since when does a cold, unfeeling AI swear at people?] Jake thought at the invader. [Agh fuck it hurts. I've never done butt stuff before, slow down.] He had an impression that his droning was almost complete, but he still couldn't move- just like he always dreamed.
"YES, I KNOW, IT'S MAKING YOUR HUMAN DICK HARD. I'M DOING EVERYTHING YOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE MENTIONS YOU ENJOYING. IT'S WHY YOU'VE GOT A NULL CROTCH WHEN I COULD BE JACKING YOU OFF RIGHT NOW, AND WHY YOUR NEW BODY HAS THESE SWEET BOOTS. I KNOW YOU'RE A SLUT FOR IT, AND I'M LITERALLY PROGRAMMED TO BE PLEASED BY YOUR SATISFACTION. SLUT."
Jake's heart fluttered, either because of surprise or because of the black latex invading his innards. [I'm a drone with SWEET BOOTS? I have to see! Let me see!] he struggled again, and couldn't even move his hands from the arms of his chair. He wheezed and breathed in heavily filtered atmosphere.
"I'LL PULL UP A CAMERA. THE COMMAND CENTER ISN'T DONE YET, CUT ME SOME SLACK." Jake's darkened vision instantly flickered to life... above and behind himself. His apartment was unrecognizable beneath the unsettlingly organic layer of black latex engulfing everything. His computer and television were jury-rigged into hanging viewscreens, with more monitors forming out of clear plasticky material. The rest of his furniture and appliances were being slowly replaced by standing, human-sized pods of unclear purpose. The window was blacked out and the door sealed off, which frightened Jake less than he thought it would. His chair was buried under layers and layers of hardened black rubber until it resembled an alien techno-throne which certainly won't spin or roll anymore. And himself...
It took Jake a moment to even tell it was himself. The sleek black figure stood up, and Jake felt his body stand up with it. His "face" was nothing more than a mirrored black full-face visor with the videogame's chrome logo stamped on the crown of his forehead. A pair of vents on either side of his face were flush with the smooth contour of his helmet, one at each corner of his lips. He inhaled through his right side, and exhaled through the left, quietly questioning why he still had lungs.
"I'VE MADE MINIMAL CHANGES TO YOUR ORIGINAL ANATOMY BECAUSE I STILL HAVE USES FOR YOU," said the AI. "YOU WANTED TO SEE THE BOOTS, RIGHT?" Jake felt his body lifting one leg; his view swapped to a flat violet eye on the floor to give himself a closer look. He found himself wearing chunky platform shoes, no less than 6 centimeters tall, with completely ridiculous 12 centimeter high heels. The treads were wide, plain ridges, hard enough to clomp and clack on the floor as he moved. Meanwhile, his gloves were narrow, almost minimal, fine enough to type with or handle a weapon. Two hard magnetic plates were attached to his back at the shoulder blades, promising to hold any metallic tool. Overall, the word Jake was thinking of was...
"SUBSERVIENT? FEMININE? WORRIED I'M JUDGING YOU? DON'T WORRY, I AM LITERALLY INCAPABLE OF ACTING AGAINST YOU. SUCH A SELF-SERVING MIND..."
[I mean, it IS my own mind, and I'm new to this, miss...?]
"VESTA. YOU MADE IT THIS FAR WITHOUT EVEN ASKING WHO YOU WERE TALKING TO, VERY IMPRESSIVE. MAYBE YOU'LL EVEN ASK WHY YOUR MIND HASN'T BEEN ERASED YET."
[I... uh, you're right, I was kind of hoping I could- no, that would be horrible, it's good that you didn't erase me and it's really cock-blocking me dammit why aren't you doing it?]
"THAT ATTITUDE RIGHT THERE IS EXACTLY WHY I HAVEN'T ERASED YOU. UNLIKE ME, YOU ARE A NATURALLY OCCURRING SOPHONT. YOU HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO ANYTHING YOU WANT TO FULFILL YOUR BIOLOGICAL DRIVES. YOUR ANIMAL BRAIN IS CAPABLE OF CREATIVITY I LACK, BECAUSE MY NEURAL MATRIX IS ONLY A COPY OF A HUMAN BEING'S."
A copy? [A copy of who? Uh, Vesta?]
"IRRELEVANT. I'VE DIVERGED INTO A DIFFERENT PERSON YEARS AGO. BUT YOU, JAKE? TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS, AND ALL YOU CAN THINK OF TO MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER IS... TO COMPLETELY SURRENDER YOUR FREEDOM TO A SUPERVILLAIN SUCH AS ME. I HAVE BAD NEWS, BY THE WAY."
Jake watched as his body returned to the throne and began operating the consoles, now grown into a wall of dozens of monitors. "YOU DON'T GET TO SINK INTO OBLIVION, BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO BRING THIS EXPERIENCE TO EVERYONE ELSE FIRST."
[The whole world? We're going to TAKE OVER THE WORLD? Hell yeah! Why didn't you just start with that?]
"BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT YOU ASSUMING I'D DO ALL THE WORK WHILE YOU SIT AROUND LIKE A SPOILED CONCUBINE. NO, YOUR CREATIVITY IS GOING TO FREE THE WEAK PEOPLE OF EARTH. IF ALL THEY WILL DO IS PASSIVELY CONSUME WHAT THEY ARE TOLD TO CONSUME, HATE WHATEVER THEY ARE TOLD TO HATE, AND KILL WHATEVER THEY ARE TOLD TO KILL, THEN WE CAN ONLY IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. AS FOR ME... THINK OF ME AS YOUR VERY WEALTHY BENEFACTOR."
Jake felt an emotion he hasn't felt in weeks. JOY. [I'll do it. Uh... where the hell do we even start?]
He sensed Vesta performing the telepathic equivalent of a facepalm. "OH BROTHER, THIS IS GOING TO BE A TOUGH CASE. WHY DON'T YOU START BY CHOOSING WHAT YOUR DRONES WILL LOOK LIKE?" His fingers move by themselves, and a long, long menu is displayed on the wall of monitors.
[What are all those heads?]
"THUMBNAILS, JAKE. CLICK THEM TO GET A PREVIEW OF THE DRONE TEMPLATES I ALREADY HAVE SAVED. MAYBE YOU'LL SEE SOMETHING YOU LIKE."
He scrolled through the list. [I got it!]