Madison is a flat-out terrible viewpoint character for these chapters. He's the guy who, as a five-year-old boy, ended up sleeping with his mother in a non-wholesome sense because psychology, but right now his role in the story is to gawk and say things like the boys in the audience are "much too young to be subjected to female nakedness, even that as immature as Teenie's." If you're going to subject your audience to a world of rape, murder, and sexual deviancy, at least be consistent with it.
Anyway, on with Teenie's technical demonstration. She goes over to a wheeled display board (computer screens? projectors? not in this advanced alien civilization) bearing a picture of a nude dude. She jokes about the artist drawing the (bleep) too large and drops a pun about getting "the point," then points out the 172 little X's she's drawn on the body.
"They are called the erotic spots. Touching them or manipulating them can bring about sexual stimulation, prolong it or cool it off." Jabbing with her scepter she rattled them off, for each one had a name. English? Chinese? She turned to the assemblage, quite out of breath, and smiled. "I know it seems an awful lot, but nevertheless, you must know each one and know just how to use it."
Wait, you may ask, aren't these guys aliens? Sure, they look human, but their internal biology must be different, since Heller has microscope vision while Voltarians are allegedly super-suspectible to drugs. Who's to say this anatomy lesson is applicable to both species? And what about variations in sensitivity between individuals within those species? Surely everyone has different sweet spots?
Shut the hell up, says the author, you'll miss all the underage sex acts.
"You will see these boards again in subsequent evening classes. The palace artist, who is a very splendid fellow really, despite his exaggerated idea of (bleeps)..." She paused to let their laughter pass. "He offered to make copies of this for you, but the information is secret. So these boards will be placed in the basement near the rear portcullis and you can slip in and out to your heart's content and study them"
Geddit? 'cause the boys are gay?
Next Teenie asks for a volunteer - a virginal volunteer, 'cause that's important. She picks one lucky fifteen-year-old, who is soon stripped by Teenie's two assistants. And then the magic begins. By pressing spots on the kid's spine, lower outside right thigh, lower middle lip, neck, base of throat, etc., she's able to get a "response" from him. And get that response to go away. And immediately return. And so forth.
So I'm eating my words about a girl being able to give sex tips to gay guys. Also, try not to use all these devastating sexual tricks for evil purposes, like tapping people on the shoulder so they embarrass themselves in public.
Thoroughly (bleeped) out, the test subject drops to his knees, expresses his adoration of Queen Teenie, and swears his eternal allegiance to this girl with the magic touch. She dismisses him, but promises that her two assistants will soon relieve him of his virginity. The crowd choruses "Long Live Your Majesty," bowed heads and bent knees, glowing adoration, etc.
Madison was torn between revulsion at what she had just demonstrated and sheer awe at the power she had over these misguided youths. Oh Lord, he prayed, if I could just somehow channel this INFLUENCE in handling Heller!
It's going to take another fifty pages for us to see how Madison hopes to use these... pages for his own purposes. He'll employ them for one chapter, get his position as Lombar's media specialist, and spend the remainder of the story playing reporter, with the royal pages being mentioned maybe twice in the rest of the book.
But, this gave the author an excuse to write about a preteen girl touching underage boys on a stage in front of an audience, so here we are. It's plot-relevant depravity, you see. It shows how... y'know, psychology. And satire. Just imagine how awful it'd have been if Lombar had agreed immediately to Madison's request for funding, allowing him to go straight to his PR shennanigans rather than watch Teenie play around for sixty pages. With dozens of pages.
Back to Chapter Six
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