Chapter 22

John and Cindy dressed for dinner and then went up. Theresa was dressed, but more casual than usual for dinner, wearing Jeans and a sweatshirt. She nodded curtly to John and Cindy as they entered. She declined any assistance with the meal. The tension in the air seemed thick.

“Have a nice swim?” Theresa asked after a time.

“Very nice.” Cindy replied.

“I’ll bet.” Theresa murmured quietly.

“You mad at me about something?” Cindy inquired.

“No, what would I have to be mad at you about?” Theresa mocked.

“I don’t know. You tell me.” Cindy replied.

Theresa shrugged and poked about her rice and vegetables.

John could see a confrontation coming up. He reasoned that Theresa would feel crowded if it happened so soon after his attempt to draw her out. He caught Cindy’s eye and shook his head. She nodded. The meal lapsed into a long drawn out silence.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said about my machines, Cindy.” John said.

Theresa looked up puzzled. John briefly explained about Cindy’s observations about his experiments.

“So what about it?” Cindy queried.

“Oh, I thought it might be fun to try some fashions. That is, if you two are game?”

“Great!” said Cindy.

“I guess that could be fun.” Theresa replied, non- enthusiastically.

After dinner John led them off to the lab. He called up their images on the computer, one at a time, beginning with Cindy (on purpose). He showed them how he could rotate the image and look at it from any angle. The image was incredibly lifelike. Like a camera was viewing Cindy’s body, real time. She had him scan beneath her and zoom in. Her vulva presented itself in lifelike similarity. As often as the others had viewed this, she still blushed a bit. Theresa seemed even more uncomfortable. John quickly changed view.

He called in a series of different pictures and mapped them over the scanned image of Cindy’s body. This elicited an excited response from both women. Soon they were mapping landscapes, starscapes and even faces over parts of their anatomy. A fun one was when John mapped the visual scans of one woman’s images over the physical scans of the other. For some reason these images appealed to both women. Cindy appeared to have Theresa’s nipples. Theresa, Cindy’s darker pubic patch and shade of skin. However neither liked it when the facial images were mapped upon their features.

“So how do we make the clothes?” Theresa inquired.

“Well, if you think of the clothes like a negative image of the body, then first we have to make a positive image to map over. Kind of like how a photo is made. So first I have to make mannequins of you two.”

“Oh, I get it ... I think.” Theresa said.

“I get it.” Cindy said, “So how do we do that?”

“That is the easy part. I can even color them correctly. You two sure you won’t mind having doubles around?”

“As long as they don’t talk.” Cindy joked.

“Not yet...” John replied.

“I guess not.” Theresa said.

John moved to the tank table and made some preparations. Then back to the computer. He called in a program and started it up on Cindy’s image.

The women watched in fascination as the arms moved back and forth building layer upon layer of her body. Cindy noticed when it started to replicate the lower body cavities and wisely distracted Theresa to some other images on the computer. (At this point John had hooked up several computers in the work area.)

Slowly the machine replicated Cindy’s body. Starting on a foundation of cables John had strung between multiple points off where the fingers, feet, hips, shoulders, and head would be. The chemical smell’s drove the lot of them out to the solarium.

Cindy stopped by for a bottle of wine. John and Theresa were snuggled in the double chaise when she showed up with the bottle and some glasses. She pulled another chaise close and poured the wine. John had installed dim red utility lights to preserve his night vision for astronomy.

The conversation was quite a bit less tense. John and Cindy let it stay that way. They sipped their wine and enjoyed the Autumn sky. It was cool and Theresa snuggled closer to John. Cindy retrieved some knit afghans for them. John pointed out different stars and planets. Occasionally John and Cindy joined hands. Theresa didn’t seem to notice. When Cindy slid her hand over Theresa’s leg, Theresa sat up.

“Let’s go check on the machine.” she said.

She jumped up and moved off. Cindy looked after her and sighed. John took her hand and said: “Just give her time ... and a little space.”

“I know ... but it feels like I’m losing my best friend.”

“I know ... I hope not. Lets go see what I’ve created.” John finished in his best Peter Lorry impression.

Cindy rolled her eyes.

Theresa was bent over the image, studying it. When John and Cindy entered she swung around excited.

“It’s fantastic! It looks just like Cindy!” she gasped.

“But it’s having a bad hair day!” Cindy observed.

“Have to work on that. Probably a wig. Didn’t think that either of you would go for shaving your head though, so I kind of faked it.”

“Can I touch it?” Theresa asked.

“Uh ... sure. I think so. Try the bottom of the feet first. I’m not sure how fast the coloring dries on the foam.”

Theresa tentatively poked at the foot.

“My god, it feels like a foot!”

“It should, I scanned for softness and varied density of the mixture based upon the readings. Won’t be exact though as it doesn’t account for bones.”

Theresa checked her fingers. The coloring layer was dry. She probed at “Cindy’s” hip bone.

“Yah, not quite right ... but pretty close!”

Cindy traced her fingers down over her “breasts”. She shivered a bit.

“Kind of spooky. Like touching yourself without feeling it. Seems my nipples are going to be perpetually hard though.”

“Have to scan you while you’re asleep, huh?” John joked.

“Let me see.” Theresa suddenly said.

“What?”

“Your breasts. Let’s see if they look the same.”

Cindy looked hopefully at John as she smirked and opened her blouse.

Theresa began to look back and forth between the mannequin and Cindy. Without thinking she reached a hand out to each and ran her fingers over them. Cindy’s nipples changed instantly to match the mannequins. Theresa absently squeezed a breast in each hand. Cindy kind of closed her eyes in pleasure.

Theresa was distracted by her investigation. She didn’t seem to notice the effect she was having upon Cindy.

“So ... do they feel the same?” Cindy asked huskily.

Theresa seemed to realize what she was doing and dropped her hand from Cindy. She seemed a bit embarrassed but kept squeezing the mannequin.

“Almost ... Certainly more real than any mannequin in a store.” Theresa answered, self consciously. She pulled away from the breasts and looked sort of longingly at the rest of it. She ran her finger tips over the face and kind of shivered.

Cindy took Theresa’s hand and pulled it to her face.

Theresa didn’t seem to mind this. She smiled at her and continued her comparison.

“Remarkable.” she concluded, pulling her hands away from both. “So what about clothes?”

“You used to like me best like that.” Cindy smirked.

Theresa frowned a bit, but let it pass.

“Sure.” John jumped in.

He explained as he went about forming thin tissue paper over the mannequin and spraying it with a light oil: “This will keep the next layer from bonding, I just tell the computer how thick to make it and what materials to use. I can duplicate many of the synthetics. I have to work out spun fabrics and cottons. But I can simulate a light nylon spandex by inserting a crosshatch pattern with gaps between rows.”

He elevated the figure a bit to work on the back. The whole frame tilting up, lifting the figure with it. It was like Cindy was tethered in the frame from multiple points. She kind of shivered.

When he layered the pubic area he grinned back at Cindy. “Feels pretty real to me.”

She blushed a bit. So did Theresa.

He finished up the top layer and moved to the computer. Calling up a program.

“What pattern?” he asked.

“How about just a flesh colored suit to start with.” Cindy suggested.