Comment:

Quite a lot of sexuality is tied up with acceptance, desirability, and ego. If we're talking purely about physical sensations, well, you can get a lot of what you're looking for from porn, sex toys, and creativity. For many people, though, there's a lot of weight behind the statement - even if it's just an unspoken, implied statement - of "I like you, I love you, I trust you, I accept you, I want to do this thing with you"... more so (depending on who you ask) if that statement is monogamously exclusive.

To a nontrivial extent, this is also the service that Zoa provides. Fleshlights (and their assorted futuristic equivalents) certainly exist in the world of Forward. What makes Zoa attractive and what prompts people to pay credits for it is the fact that a human-shaped thing will look them in the eye and say "you're attractive and awesome and I want to do this for you". Much depends, I think, on whether you feel the associated financial transaction or the openness to multiple partners necessarily invalidates that statement.

It should be noted that Zoa typically charges 30 credits for its services. It's now worked its way down to 20, and then applied a 10% discount to that 20. Zoa may not have Doc's psych insight, but probably feels that sucking Lee's cock has a good chance of emotionally cementing what is already a pretty stable relationship. Of course, it also has the possibility of dynamiting that relationship and everything ending in catastrophe, but Zoa wouldn't be what Zoa is without taking a few risks.

Transcript:

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0087 - 2167/07/06/12:08 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
Zoa: I know what this is. It's an ego boost for you, isn't it? It makes you feel desirable, to have a perpetually willing partner, constantly begging for sex with you.
LC: Maybe a little bit. It's nice to feel attractive for a change, even if it's not real.
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Zoa: Also, you get to control me, always hold me at arm's length, tease me in perpetuity without having to feel bad about never giving me what I want. You wouldn't get that with a human partner.
LC: I don't have a whole lot of power or control in my life. It's kinda nice, having a kind of simulation of a person that I can boss around, to an extent.
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Zoa: And it doesn't bother you at all to know for a fact that I'd behave exactly the same way towards literally anyone with genitals like yours, or to know for a fact that I'd simply walk away the millisecond that I calculate I'm not likely to, in some way, make income from you.
LC: Those are facts that I am consciously ignoring, yes.
LC: ...you can start the cartoon if you want.
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Zoa: You sure you don't want an eighteen-cred blowjob first?
LC: Eighteen?
Zoa: Ten percent off, limited time offer, act now.
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