Chapter 3: Susceptible
Blake let the silence hang in the antiseptic air for a beat longer, her fingers resting on the edge of the tablet. The blue screen cast a cool glow on her tailored sleeves.
“The stability and synergy we observed in that two-year period,” she began, her eyes shifting from John to Lacey, “were precisely what alerted our predictive algorithms. Such a harmonious response is ideal, but it can also be… catalytic. Lacey’s profile was flagged eighteen months ago for potential acceleration.”
John’s eyebrow lifted a fraction. “Acceleration?”
“Of the cognitive refinement process. The Feminex regimen provides the chemical pathway. But the participant’s own behavior—specifically, the frequency and intensity of orgasmic response—can give it a little kick along. That's normally not too noticeable on its own, even in the dumber girls, but we find that it very often overlaps with participants who have a very high baseline receptivity, so orgasm strength and self-motivated orgasm seeking can be an excellent indicator of which participants are going to have a stronger reaction when the intensity of the course takes a step up.” She spoke plainly, as if discussing a metabolic rate. “Given Lacey’s already-established decline to 91, and her exemplary libido metrics, we initiated a phase of additional monitoring. We needed to quantify just how much her baseline susceptibility and her personal habits were augmenting the protocol.”
Lacey felt a flutter deep in her stomach, warm and slick. They’d been watching that, too. Of course they had. They watched everything. She remembered the extra sessions, the different, more sensitive sensors. She’d been proud to participate. Blake tapped her tablet. The serene blue wall dissolved into a moving image. The perspective was from above, looking down. It showed a familiar, padded medical bed, narrower than the one in the poster. A gleaming, cylindrical machine with a ring of lights was suspended over it. On the bed, strapped in with soft, white restraints at the wrists and ankles, was Lacey.
Her hair was fanned out on a paper-covered pillow. She was naked. Her body, already fuller than the intake photos, glistened under the clinical lights. Her eyes were closed, her mouth parted. A low, rhythmic hum came from the tablet’s speaker.
“This is Assessment Delta, from eleven months ago,” Ms. Blake stated. Her laser pointer dot appeared on the screen, hovering just above Lacey’s spread thighs. “A concurrent neural-imaging and pelvic response scan. The probe you see is standardized for measurement. Its thickness is calibrated to stimulate the maximum number of nerve endings, ensuring a peak response for data collection.”
On the screen, the probe, a thick, smooth, gray silicone shaft, was inserted deep into Lacey. It moved with a slow, relentless precision. Lacey on the bed arched her back, a soft, trembling moan escaping her lips. The real Lacey in the chair felt her own body clench in sympathy, a jolt of heat rushing to her cheeks and between her legs. She dropped her gaze to her own lap, her fingers twisting together. She could smell the sterile air, but in her memory, she smelled the cool gel they used, felt the strange, full pressure.
“Observe the real-time neural map,” Ms. Blake said, her voice cutting through the soft sounds from the recording. A second window opened beside the video feed, showing a dynamic, color-coded brain scan. As the probe on screen rhythmically pulsed, the scan erupted. Blooms of intense, hot orange and red exploded across the frontal and parietal lobes, swamping the cooler blues and greens. The activity was violent, beautiful, a silent firework display of pleasure.
“This pattern,” Ms. Blake continued, the pointer circling the raging colors, “is what we call a ‘high receptivity’ signature.
“It’s not just the expected sensory and motor cortex activation,” Ms. Blake explained, her voice flat against the soft moans from the speaker. The pointer danced across the fiery scan. “See this? The prefrontal cortex—the seat of executive function, critical thinking, self-awareness—it doesn’t just light up. It gets swamped. Overwhelmed with what is essentially random noise. The pleasure signals don’t integrate with higher reasoning; they bypass and submerge it entirely.”
On the screen, Lacey’s back was a taut arch, her cries becoming rhythmic, pleading gasps. The scan’s colors throbbed in time.
“This pattern,” Blake continued, tapping the tablet to freeze the image at its most violent bloom of color, “is a key predictor. When we see this level of capitulation in the prefrontal regions, especially in a subject whose baseline cognitive architecture is already… accommodating, it indicates that the brain isn't prioritising those regions when it reinforces itself and won't do as much work to preserve them down the line. The road for complex thought is being washed out. The path for pure bio-chemical pleasure is becoming a superhighway.”
John leaned forward slightly, studying the frozen, glowing brain. His expression was unreadable, but his focus was absolute. Lacey watched her own ecstatic face, frozen and slack-jawed on the wall. A shudder of heat ran through her, so intense it felt like shame, but warmer, sweeter. She’d done that. She’d made her brain light up like a surrender flare.
“Combine this neural signature with her already-documented IQ decline to 91, and her documented daily orgasm frequency—which, for the record, averaged 3.7 times per day over the last monitoring period—and we get a pretty clear indication that Lacey is in the population we consider worth monitoring for further changes.” Blake finally looked away from the wall, her gaze landing on Lacey with a pleasant smile. “Your brain, Lacey, is exceptionally good for what we're doing here. It's very receptive. But that means that we started seeing some big changes when you started the more intense units.”