Look to this status for the picture in question
/WhoresofYore/status/964958247533727744
The familiar ping on Bernie's phone made her smile, knowing who it was likely to be. She looked at the WhatsApp message and frowned. She didn't get it. What was this emoji? It looked like a little red devil. With a long nose. That was the message. She passed it over to Dom who looked confused, he'd never seen it before. She held it out to Ric and questioned it. He studied it for a few seconds and chuckled.
'I've not seen one of those in a while.'
'What is it?'
'I visited Japan 15 years ago for a week long conference. Fascinating country. No tattoos and tipping allowed. That is a Tengu mask. It corresponds with the national religion which is Shinto. It's all about nature and the spirits. It can be a good force or bad force. I don't know why it's an icon.'
'Emoji.' Dom and Bernie corrected him. He looked perplexed.
'Ok whatever.' He couldn't get the hang of this new-fangled nonsense. Dom was delighted. He'd taught Bernie about emojis. He had no idea what this one meant though.
The answer waited at home when Bernie questioned Serena's sanity. Had she mistaken it for something else? What did it mean?
Serena laughed and showed her a retweet on Fleur's Twitter. Bernie blinked and stared for a while. She'd even had to enlarge it to confirm what she thought it was.
'Japanese erotica. Woodblock porn. All the rage for a couple of centuries. There are some very interesting examples.'
Bernie could have done without seeing the tentacle porn. She shuddered at the thought. Bringing it back to the mask, she mentioned that Ric had know what it was. What it was doing tied around the waist of a Japanese woman was another question. Wasn't that a violation of something sacred?
'Not at all. Shinto is about nature and sex and not in the hedonistic sense. It's not some Satanic orgy. Although the use of the mask is a bit unusual. I thought it would make you laugh.'
The mask did look vaguely sinister although Bernie could now see how useful that nose was, being used as a 19th century strap-on to pleasure another woman. She found herself thinking about the length of penetration and how much pleasure a woman could get from it. The woman in the picture looked like she was getting it good if that wet patch was anything to go by. She glanced at Serena and returned the smile, she had a feeling that she knew why she'd sent her the picture other than to brush up on historical porn. Jason's entrance made them decide to leave it for now but it hadn't strayed far from their minds.
Sure enough, when the emoiji popped up again a few days later with a smiley face, Bernie knew what Serena wanted and was already looking forward to giving it to her. She replied with a thumbs up emoji. She'd be getting that too. She would refrain from drawing a face on their own mask alternative though. Thank goodness Jason was going to be out this evening. They could play doctors and geishas in peace.