Forget breakfast, wtf is going on?

Eve's seamless return to normal jars you enough that you finally regain enough composure to move and talk again. Your body relaxes and your mind races. You have so many questions to ask that you don't know where to start. Before you know it, you blurt out the most recent thing brought to your attention, but probably the least important at the moment, "Breakfast!?!?"

Eve seems taken aback. "Ya. You know, the first meal of the day. Food. That you eat. Are you sure you're ok?"

"No, no, no. I know what breakfast is. I mean how can you just offer me breakfast like it's nothing after..." you gesture with your hands towards her and then your boner and then back and forth between the 2 a few times. "... whatEVER it is all that was. I mean I ain't gonna lie; I didn't read the rules and shit. But I just kind of assumed boners and sex stuff of any sort is a big no-no in these nudist living... arrangements or whatever." You've stopped gesturing with your hands and have now assumed a more defensive like stance. "I mean, this place is like my last shot and shit and I just don't want to mess things up like I have everywhere else...."

"Oh honey, you don't have to worry about that here. This house is a safe place." Her expression sours slightly, "Unfortunately, you are right about Haven as a whole. Other than a select few pockets of resistance, Haven is just like every other nudist community. It shuns and bans a fundamental part of our natural side. A basal part of who we are. Arousal. And sex. And intimacy of all kinds are simply part of our biology. And to deny it an open place in our lives is akin to burying a part of ourselves." It's extremely obvious that Eve is VERY passionate about the subject based on how eccentric and animated she's been while describing it.

You are stunned by what you're hearing. But you are also absolutely loving it at the same time. You still wonder exactly what all this means, but you're one hundred percent invested at this point. She has completely sold you, hook, line, and sinker. "Wow. That. Is." Fucking awesome! No, you don't want to sound too eager over it all... just yet at least. "So true. You have brilliantly put into words the way I have felt my whole life." When in Rome, right? "No one has ever understood that part of me like you have just now. Instead, I've been labeled a pervert and treated like a pariah simply for exploring my own natural urges and curiosities. I feel like I've finally found my home." Your eyes well up slightly with tears from your emotional monologue. Whether they are crocodile tears from your embellished acting or real tears of happiness, only God knows.

Eve's face is beaming and there are tears pooling around her eyes as well. "You have no idea how happy that makes me feel to hear. My life's work feels justified thanks to moments like this. Truly."

"Life's work?" you ask, sincerely curious what she means by it.

"Oh my. You're not familiar with my work?" Eve asks. You shake your head. "You mean your mom didn't tell you about it?" You shake your head again. "Did she tell you about," Eve gestures up and down her naked body, "ANY of it?"

You shake your head again and say, "Nope. She didn't tell me anything. She told me she didn't know anything herself. The only thing she said she knew was that Uncle Richard had agreed to let me come live with him."

Eve winces as you say this. "Sidenote. Little advice: Don't call him Richard. He hates it. Call him Rich or Dick."

"Got it," you rebutt. "I didn't even know he was married or living with anyone, let alone TWO someones."

Eve laughs. "There are more than two of us living here with Dick. There's four of us. Well, five now, counting you." Your eyes pop slightly in surprise and you wonder who the other two people might be. "Oh! If you knew there was someone else here. And you weren't told prior to getting here... than that means you've met someone else already!" Eve basks momentarily in her own pride over connecting the dots to that conclusion.

"Ya, Heidi let me in and showed me to my room. Then she dissappeared, and I haven't seen her since," you gesture back over your shoulder with your thumb as if to point out where this all happened at.

Eve seems to understand, "Ah, that makes sense. Ya, Heidi is kind of a recluse who does her own thing and keeps to herself most of the time."

"Ya she kinda gave off a nerdy, bookworm-y vibe." You're starting to feel more comfortable and you start to remember Eve's glorious diatribe and woud like to know more about it. "Speaking of smart-sy stuff, you mentioned your life's work? Are you like a scientist or something?"

Eve smiles from ear to ear, "Oh am I so glad that you asked! Haha and no, I'm not a scientist or anything like that. I am a clinical sex psychologist, and I am pioneering a new field within it that is based around embracing our primal instincts, rather than denying and hiding them, as is most common in today's world. Basically, I believe that one important step to true individual acceptance of one's self lies, not within oneself, but in society's views and acceptance or rejection of certain aspects of one's self."

She continues, "If one cannot freely express all aspects of one's self because of society's norms, values, and expectations, then that means a part of oneself is buried and hidden for fear of the shame or guilt that soceity imposes for such deviance. Meaning, whether the individual bears the weight of responsibility or not, the individual is the one that suffers because of it." She stops for a moment to breath. "Are you following me so far?"

"I think so." You definitely like where all this seems to be going. You ask, "But how do you change something like that?"

"Yes, so that is where the clinical aspect of my job comes in to play. See anyone can hypothesize and fabricate any ideas they want, ultimately. Where the science comes in is the application of said theories into practice in a way that can record quantifiable data to support, or debunk, said theories." Eve takes a deep breath finally, "and that's where my role as a psychologist comes in."

"So I established a model with which various data was collected in various ways. This allows me to record hard data before, during, and after my philosophy is put into practice that can be compared to provide evidence for, or against, my theories. And then, once I've collected sufficient data to support my theories, I can present it to the greater psychology community for peer review and possible publication. Which is the ultimate goal, because that gets the idea out there in a real, meaningful way."

You are thoroughly impressed. "Wow! That is so cool! It's kinda like I'm getting an inside look at the process. But, wait. How do you put your theory into practice?"

Eve appears to shift her body as she shifts her tone, "Ok, so my ideas imply a society where our natural urges are not suppressed, but encouraged. This presents a potential issue with the overlap of freedom and consent between the individual with the urges, and the individual, or individuals, that those urges are projected upon. It's a very difficult conundrum to overcome, but one I believe I have atleast partially circumvented."

Eve continues, "let me ask you this; have you ever heard of the sexual fetish called "free use?" It's a newer term that hasn't been around nearly as long as many of the others, but the ideas behind the fetish certainly predate the moniker applied to it more recently."

Ha, have you heard of it? It's only one of your favorite porn genres! "Ya, I've heard of it, but what does porn have to do with all of this?"

Eve laughs at your porn comparison, "Well, we apply that concept to real life. How we do that is we simply switch the role of consent. See, consent is still very important, otherwise you are essentially talking about slavery or sexual **** like ****. No, what we do is we flip consent from a thing you must receive to enact your impulses on another to an implied thing that can be revoked at any time."

You can't believe what you're hearing. This is amazing. "So let me get this straight; Under your philosophy, someone could walk up to someone else and just start doing things to them with no negative consequences unless the other person objects?"

Eve looks taken aback, "I mean that's a very vulgar way of looking at it and enacting it, but yes, I suppose so. It would honestly probably get that person rejected for their rude behavior. I mean basic manners are still assumed in this society."

"Right. Duh, that makes sense. I guess porn has kind of given me misconceptions about all of it." You decide to rein back in on the brashness, "but ya, that was stupid to say once I think about it more. So, all of Haven is in on this? How did you manage that feat?"

Eve audibly laughs at this. "Haha, no. I wish. No, at this time it's basically localized to my patients because I haven't publicized it in any real way for fear of attracting disingenuous perverts that have no real interest in the psychology behind it all. So basically, it is practiced in private within people's homes, and a select few businesses that are owned, or ran, by my patients."

Your inquiry continues, "so how do your patients know about each other if you're not allowed to talk about patients with each other cause of that confidentiality thing? I mean, I assume from the way you speak of it, that you want to grow a larger community rather than very limited individual pockets. Or am I wrong?"

"No, you're very much correct. So I have two major ways I combat this dilemma. The first method I came up with, in the early days of it's implementation, was to hold weekly meetings that all my patients are encouraged to attend, but obviously not something that I require of anyone. These are sort of like support meetings, think, uh," Eve seems to struggle a little, choosing her comparison wisely, "AA-like, crossed with mixers. They provide a safe place for support and important conversations, but also provide a place to meet others who share their philosophies to possibly interact with outside of the meetings, at their own discretion, of course."

"That's genius!" you interject.

"Heh, thanks, I guess, haha." Eve humbly laughs a little, but continues, "so, anyway, this worked out great in the early days, and is still effective to a degree. But, realistically, once membership size grows too large, and some of the more veteran members decide they no longer need the support or are no longer interested in regular meeting attendance, it becomes ineffective at bringing everyone together as a connected group within a larger community that we're fragmented throughout." Eve takes a deep breath, "whoo! Was that a mouthful, haha."

Eve holds up her arm and points to a green bracelet on her wrist. "So I came up with my more recent method; the bracelet. See, I provide, for free, and encourage all participants to wear, this bracelet." She uses her other hand to grab the bracelet and with a swift move of her fingers, she flips it inside out, changing the color from green to red. "It's two-sided so that one can non-verbally express their current stance on consent. See, just because someone follows my philosophy, it doesn't mean they are always willing, or even capable, of being free used. So when someone follows, but is not currently available, they can turn it to the red side. Then green means go, just like traffic signals to make it easier and more natural to remember."

She continues, "this failsafe protects all individuals within this, well it's ultimately an experiment when you break it down. By allowing non-verbal display of an individual's status, it protects both the individual and any possible users from being subjected to unnecessary awkward situations that could adversely affect the data collected for the experiment."

You try to wrap your head around it all. "So basically, anyone who wears one of your bracelets is part of the," you gesture with your hands, "experiment." She nods. "If the bracelet is red, it means stop, like do not approach basically."

Her face contorts a bit as she seems conflicted in how to respond to this statement. "Yes and no. It's not a clear cut "do not approach." They may simply be on their period and cramping and uninterested in anything sexual as a byproduct of all that." She holds up a finger as she says this, and then lifts a second as she continues. "Or it could be someone is too busy to be interrupted at the moment." A third finger goes up. "It could be someone is in a bad mood and just doesn't want to be bothered." Her hand opens up and she drops the count off of it. "It ultimately doesn't matter why someone has their bracelet to the red side, but what it means is that consent is not implied for this person at this moment. That's it. That's all it means. They can still be approached or talked to, unless they elicitly express otherwise to you."

"Ahhhh. Ok. And then green just means consent is implied, then."

"Correct. But, remember common courtesy, proper ettiquette, and normal usage of manners is still expected. Implied consent does not mean treat me like an animal or a ****. These people are still that, people. They have their own feelings, likes, dislikes, turn ons, turn offs. What they allow, expect, or request themselves is different for everyone, and nothing should be inferred by another except that implied consent means just that and is not a blanket statement that means one is free to do anything one wants to this individual. Individuals still place their own limits within the system. However, they are required, if they're going to follow the philosophy correctly, to not withdraw their consent based on anything about the other individuals and only based on themselves."

You think about this as thoroughly as you can with as quickly as all the information is coming at you, but it is very hard to fully wrap your head around such a foreign concept. "So basically, you're saying that someone can withdraw consent because they don't want to or feel like it, but not just because they don't like a person?"

"Exactly. Now, there are acceptable circumstances that one can withdraw consent based on the other individual. For instance, the biggest, most used reason is hygeine. If someone isn't clean, no one can reasonably be expected to put their own health or safety at risk. But it couldn't be because they are an amputee or something like that that would not affect their health or well-being because of it." Eve broke from her infomercial-like sales pitch. "Are you still following everything so far? Do you have any questions? Or is there a part you are confused on, or anything?"

You believe you have a pretty good basic understanding of it all. Getting used to the nuances of how it all works in practice will just take, well, practice. "I am just so impressed. This is all very well thought out. The one thing I'm still curious about though, is how did you get all this started in the first place? Like actually putting it into practice."

Eve's expression turns sour for the first time since getting on the topic. "Oh man, let me tell you, it was not easy. Very slow going at first. I started out by applying it within my own home. Fortunately, around this time, I had just met and started seeing your uncle in a serious relationship. I brought the ideas up with him and he supported me, though he was **** at first about it. He compared it to an open relationship, which made him uneasy initially."

"But, even with his hesitation, he still supported me one hundred percent from day one. He's truly been amazing." Eve seems sincere in her kind words about your uncle. "But anyway, once he was onboard, we implemented it within our home. I also started bringing the ideas up to my patients that I felt were fit to possibly join the experiment. I didn't want to subject someone who was not mentally stable enough to go through the possible psychological implications that the experiment may inadvertently produce."

"For those that I deemed fit and then seemed interested in applying the theories into practice, I offered my household to be used and suggested that they work towards implementing it within their own homes. I don't specify any specific instructions or restrictions for the application of my theories within a familial unit. I leave it up to the individual families to decide how it plays out under the privacy of their own roof."

"So basically you don't oppose ****, but you don't outright support it?" you ask.

"Well, yes and no. That's the official stance of the theory and it's structure. I wanted to limit the variables involved to prevent as much unnecessary influence from variables outside of the experiments scope as possible. So I leave out many things that could be argued as underneathe the theory's umbrella, including ****." Eve's tone shifts, "unofficially, my personal views completely support it as a personal choice of all parties involved. Again, consent is still extremely important in every aspect of my beliefs. I also leave **** out to try and prevent any more taboo being attached to the project than is absolutely necessary in order to ensure the greatest chance of widespread acceptance."

"So anyway, back to my stor---" Eve smiles earnestly, "I mean process. Once the seeds that were planted had a chance to flower, the rest just kinda blossomed and grew on it's own. Now we have, I believe, around a hundred official members. That number is not just my patients; it is all the people that don bracelets and live under the philosophy. Some are my patients, yes. But others are their family members who have joined. I can't give a precise number because there is no list anywhere that lays all the members out in some master list or something."

Eve notices the clock on the wall again and changes her tone, "Oh shoot. I have some clerical work I need to get done before some meetings I have later. Don't forget, sometime this week you need to go up to the school and enroll. Since you're eighteen, you have to do that all by yourself. I can tell you how to get there, or even take you there if you could wait and go another time. I just REALLY can't today, I'm sorry. Or, you know, you could take a few days and get yourself oriented here and in Haven before worrying about all that. It is only Monday after all."

"So, would you like me to give you directions there, or somewhere else you may want to go instead? Or you could stay here, in the house if you want. I mean you don't have to leave, this is your home after all. But, I do have some work to do. Is there anything I can help you with before I go?" Eve drops her gaze to your towel and pauses for a moment before returning her eyes to yours and saying, "Anything?"

Version 1.0 - Original Publication