There was no way that Claire was going to accomplish anything productive that afternoon, so she spent the next few hours wandering around the downtown shops.
The butterflies in her stomach wouldn't go away. She kept flipping back and forth emotionally between feeling so excited she was tingling from her jawbone to her toes, and feeling so appalled at herself for agreeing to do something so crass and demeaning that she wanted to call and cancel.
When it came down to it, she'd made a commitment, so she was there at 6pm with the other six V-pups, ready to be transformed into a playful puppy for the entertainment of the investors.
The first thing for Claire was the face-painting. Given the variety of different jobs that Ms. Perston's agency served, she needed to have a great makeup artist and Claire thought they did a really good job. Her slightly wavy brunette hair was long enough that she almost always wore it in a pony-tail, but the makeup artist chose to leave it loose and placed a headband with fuzzy ears over her head. She thought she looked cute, but not like she was about to attend a six-year-old's birthday party. The face-paint didn't obscure her face as well as a mask, but in the unlikely event that there was someone she knew at the event, she doubted they'd recognize her.
It's not as though anyone would be looking at her face.
With that done, it was only 20 minutes before the start of the reception, so she took off all her clothes. Claire opened up the box labelled "Bubbles", took out the collar and tail and once again set about lubing and inserting the butt plug.
This was really about to happen. The familiar combination of apprehension and excitement gripped her. Compared to her art class modelling, and even being a naked extra in a movie, this time the intensity was on a totally different level. She had to sit for a moment and get her breathing under control.
What the fuck am I doing? she asked herself.
With ten minutes to go, Claire had on the entire costume. They'd matched her skin colour fairly well for the stick on knee pads and the mittens.
She was on her hands and knees waiting, looking at the door that they'd be going through. They'd be going out into the garden which was currently bathed in the bright golden sunlight of a late-June evening, and they'd emerge into a reception of well-fed, slightly drunk, and no doubt wealthy investors.
Mark and Maggie had checked on all of them, connecting and testing the Veritail operating system. Claire felt the slight expansion of the plug and each of the different vibrations. She felt herself getting more and more turned on, just as feelings of terror were building.
She and Liana were the only ones who had opted to go completely naked. Liana looked so edgy with all her tattoos and piercings. She'd opted for black leather gloves, and black athletic kneepads and shoulder pads. Claire, with her cute face-paint, mostly invisible knee pads and pink mittens, couldn't help feeling really exposed.
She was looking over at Liana and then noticed that she had added a black thong. Claire couldn't see, but she must have put a hole in it for the Veritail to go through.
Liana wasn't completely naked!
Liana glanced at Claire and must have noticed the horrified look on her face. "Yeah, I covered up a bit," she said. "I'm hoping to make as much money on tips as possible. When Eliza said they can ask for anything they want, I figured the best tips will come from letting them have a bit of hands-on. I have no problem with that, I'll even let them give me a few swats on my ass if they want to call me a bad dog. But I'm not okay with some guy I can't even see having his hands on my ass, with my snatch bare and wide open. I know this is a safe event, but dudes will be dudes, you know?"
Holy fuck! Claire thought. I'm the only one completely naked!
She couldn't even run back to put more on because she hadn't worn underwear under her leggings today.
Her heart started pounding even harder. She felt like she might have a panic attack. She reminded herself that she was anonymous, and she could say no to any "interaction" that she didn't want. She was in control. This would be over in a couple of hours and she'd have a memory of having done something incredibly daring and sexy.
... and SO incredibly slutty, she thought.
She was horny, vulnerable and terrified. This is what she wanted, but she was definitely taking it further than she'd ever imagined. She was going to be the centre of so much attention. She pushed down another wave of panic. She tried to think of anything that could go wrong that would bring even more attention to her.
"Snap out of it!" Claire told herself. It was like riding a roller-coaster. She wanted to FEEL scared and out of control, but this was a completely controlled situation.
She gave her bum a little wag to test that the tail was working and immediately felt a bit better. It was like the tail wanted to be wagged and in return it would give her freedom from whatever might be troubling her. She wagged a little more and let herself be infected by a bit of happy playfulness. She slowly felt a grin spread across her face. She felt joyful and she channelled that joy back into more wagging. The tail created a happiness feedback loop.
She let that sensation displace her anxiety and pretty soon she was letting herself be taken over by the enthusiasm that she imagined her Bubbles persona would be feeling right then.
The excitement came over her so quickly she couldn't contain it. "Arf!" she said and wagged her tail even harder. "Arf!"
Her fellow V-pups all started wagging and barking, too.
Eliza walked up from behind them and up to the door. She looked incredibly stylish and confident.
"Alright, alright. Calm down!" she said, grinning down at them, and at Claire in particular who had got them all barking. "I'm going to walk out first, then I'm going to introduce each of you one at a time so everyone knows your name. There's a pillow for each of you along the wall with a name plate. I'd like you to come out when I call you and go and sit on your pillow while I explain everything to our guests. Do you all understand?"