Go deeper on remote control

As you lay still for some time, with Ela's hands running through your hair--Zoe's hair, you had to remember that--you tried to come up with something that wouldn't feel extremely strange to do while you wore the body of Ela's mother, essentially. That didn't leave much physical contact... but you looked down at your wrist. Embedded in your arm, due to Zoe's strange relationship with technology, was the smartwatch face, right under her skin. You tapped at your arm when you realized you could still manipulate the watch through Zoe's body, trying to figure out the settings, before you found the limiter's controls.

"Ela, let's try something. Are you ready to see how this works? Because if you are, then you and I are going to take a walk, but I'm going to be staying right here."

Ela nodded vigorously. "Staying physically close is nice, but if you are talking about remotely occupying my body, then... that will feel just as satisfying!" She slipped off the couch, as you stay laying down. You didn't really want to get up or move, which was a shame because Zoe's body was a real amazing shape, one that maybe in another lifetime you'd get to know far better, but for now she was just seemingly holding you together. You didn't much want to try the disorienting thought of being able to see from two different perspectives or anything anyway. So you turned up the limiter's threshold for the nanites, and then laid back down, eyes closed.

You didn't really know how to do what you were thinking about doing, so you thought about astral projection, and how people would will themselves out of their own body to traverse some sort of spirit plane as their bodies rested. Instead of projecting to a plane, though, you pushed your consciousness towards the shapeshifter not far from your position. When you opened your eyes next, you felt briefly disoriented, as you glanced around.

You were no longer lying down--well, that wasn't true, as you glanced over to see Zoe's figure laying on the couch with her eyes closed. That was your remote location, but you realized you were easily maneuvering Ela's form to look at you. "Whoa," you said, before the strange dissonance of seeing your original self caught up to you, and the connection broke. You glanced over at Ela, curious. "How did that feel?"

"How did what feel? Did you do something?"

Interesting, Ela hadn't even registered that your movements, your utterance, had been anything but herself. "Indeed, that 'whoa' was me."

Ela blinked, looking down. "Strange, I felt no different. I mean, I felt fine when you did all that, if you truly did! But it would be nice to know if I can also know you're in control, so we can converse occasionally. Although, I don't mind if you just move me like that too! I felt perfectly normal."

You nodded again, closing your eyes, your hands resting on your stomach, admittedly getting very comfortable in Zoe, but letting your thoughts drift elsewhere. This time, as you focused on Ela's body, you tried to mentally carve out a space inside her mind for her consciousness to exist, with some sort of sensory signal to indicate when you were taking charge. It was like ringing a doorbell before entering a house, you decided. You didn't need to let Ela know if you were overriding her agency all the time, but you liked the fact that you could essentially create an emotion or sensation that indicated your mental presence in her.

This time, when you tried, Ela could feel her own conscious identity be 'pushed aside' as you took control once more, looking down at yourself, and then your old self within Zoe. You spoke through her body again as you glanced around. "How about now, do you feel that more clearly now?"

"Indeed I do!" Ela replied, but not through her mouth. This time, you were hearing a purely internal voice, like your nanites were creating a private connection direct into Ela's mind. "It's really amazing, now that I know you're trying to move me, I can't really do much beyond sit and watch. But it feels so nice to have your presence here! It's a bit of a tingly sensation, I guess. Really cozy... like a brain snuggle!"

You snickered a little, through Ela's mouth. The cuteness of how Ela said it outweighed the morbid concept of a 'brain snuggle'. If she was okay with it...

Since Zoe and Chloe were both quiet as your main body rested, you were able to keep your eyes closed as you started walking Ela to the bathroom to briefly look in the mirror. You technically could still see and hear through your body, your eyes remained closed but you could hear the strange echo of your steps walking away. If your eyes were open, without more nanites, you would probably quickly grow ill from the extra sensory input. "I was thinking we could go do a little of that tour we talked about. Not a big one, but I'd like to gather things from my desk and lab station to bring upstairs so I can set up shop a little better."

"Okay!" Ela remained perpetually agreeable. Given how much of your brain was already driving her motivation, you assumed she almost had to be. With a quick thought, you squinted at the mirror, trying to '****' Ela's body to shapeshift. No luck. At least, without any nanites, you didn't have direct control over Ela's weird abilities. You'd probably need way more nanites to manage that, since you probably had to tap into Ela's abilities to manipulate things beyond three dimensions, and your brain was absolutely not prepared for that without the nanites bridging more connections.

Fortunately, you still had indirect control... sending thoughts into Ela for her to want to shapeshift, into a replica of your normal body in yesterday's work attire. She did so without hesitation, without even really acknowledging that anything was different or unusual at all--it just felt natural to her in that moment to look like you for the tasks you'd laid out. It was easy to do, but having to deliberately will Ela to do it was more mental effort than if you could just think it yourself later. Not a big deal at the moment, but it could get tedious in time if you had ideas of varying complexity later. You looked yourself over... and then thought toward Ela that it might be nice to have at least a little of the extra curves from before... Ela gave you a little boost in your chest and ass, and then you felt ready to go.

This wasn't too bad at all--a little extra nanite mix and you could remotely move Ela's body with direct control and sensory input, that's pretty incredible! You hurried to fish your keycard from the clothes you came in with, and then you stepped back out to look at the 'napping Zoe'. "I don't know if you're able to read our brains like that or if you were able to hear us earlier, but Ela and I will be right back. We'll go test a little walk." No response from either suit or slime, so you shrugged and headed out of the lab, toward the elevator.

"This is... further than I've gone before," Ela said as you stepped onto the elevator. "Are you sure the connection will be okay? This metal box doesn't look very safe... it could block signals..."

You chuckled a little. "We'll be fine, Ela! Can you do tech integration like Zoe? Maybe we could implant a device to check signal strengths for wifi and cell towers and such."

"I can do that, that sounds like a good idea. It would make me feel much safer knowing that I am not simply going to lose connection and stand around with no initiative to do anything. Maybe the nanites could be programmed to search for a signal if that happens? Or... or there's some other way to give me those directives to get to a safer spot?"

"Ela, don't worry, I promise we'll figure something out, but for now, anywhere in this building should be available to us with all the signal repeaters, except the shielded labs on the seventh and eighth floors." You stepped off the elevator, looking left and right. You tried to give Ela a good view of the whole area, with the hallways and labs and offices all around the area. Taking the long path, you strolled down hallways, walking past windows looking into the labs where samples of adaptive bandaging and smart-gel was being tested. You kept quiet, but you listened to Ela's commentary as you went along--rarely did she stay on one subject for long.

"Oh, these are like Zoe and Chloe! I wonder if Hideki will try to make pill-sized versions of me for things. Would they add flavoring? Hey, there are boys around here! I could turn into boy shapes later! Would that be fun? I don't know because I really like all the shapes we've been doing. Everyone looks so busy, is this what work is like all the time? We will need to make the lab way more fun, I think. Even if my creators say I'm a genius, I still want to have fun and stuff."

Trying to give a good walking tour and listen to Ela meant your attention was pretty heavily divided, so when you collided with Laura, the rude senior testing engineer whose phone rants to other departments are legendary for their volatility, you knew you were in for it. Laura dropped a few papers, nothing minor, nobody wiped out or anything, but you might as well have destroyed a priceless work of art she was carrying around with the wrath that you were about to incur.

"My god, Emily, what is wrong with you? You just have to do two things at one, walk and not run directly into people! How can you be such a space case, why does anyone even entrust you with any work around here?" Laura went on and on while she picked up the half-dozen papers on the floor, shooing you back so you didn't try to grab any and somehow screw them up further, you assumed.

"This one is unpleasant," Ela noted. You slowly nodded in agreement, pretending it was you agreeing with Laura's scathing review of your attentiveness, when actually you were acknowledging Ela. "Is she always like this? This is a normal way for humans to behave?" A light shrug, again pretending you were going along with whatever Laura was saying. "She is very pretty though. We could take her body over and continue the tour, maybe? I haven't tried entering a body yet and this one would be very fun to try with!"

That was an interesting proposition. You detested Laura's behavior and words, but admired her body--more like an auburn-haired forbidden fruit than anything, you had known there was no way you'd ever get to see what was under the business-casual attire she was so fond of. But with Ela's help...

That was risky though. Just entering another person? Making her behave differently in front of others? Would she remember it at all? There were a lot of unknowns if Ela hadn't done this before, you weren't sure how much of it was instinctual and how much of it was learned. Weighing the possibility of stealing Laura's body for the afternoon and minimizing the chances of some massive disaster wasn't easy.